Midnight.
A crescent moon hung over Spirit City, its light falling on the ruins of Spirit Hall and coating the broken walls and rubble in cold silver.
The once-majestic main hall was now reduced to half a stone wall, crookedly jutting from the ground,
and the surrounding side halls, corridors, and training grounds had all suffered the same fate.
Those Soul Beasts had targeted Spirit Hall's buildings, leaving not even a single intact pillar behind.
The entire Spirit City was eerily quiet.
A few lights still shone in the residential district. Every so often, a bolder resident would peek out for a look, then quickly duck back inside.
They all knew that although the catastrophe during the day had been terrifying, the Soul Beasts that had swarmed over the city hadn't set foot in the residential district.
Once word got around, much of the fear in the hearts of Spirit City's residents faded, replaced by a subtle sense of relief.
Spirit Hall had always held itself above everyone else, never sparing anyone when collecting offerings. Now that it had been torn apart like this, to put it bluntly, what did that have to do with them?
But the people from Spirit Hall weren't feeling nearly so carefree.
At that moment, in the open space before the ruins, dozens of low-ranked Soul Masters in Spirit Hall uniforms were clearing rubble through the night.
Most of them were only a little over rank twenty. Their Martial Souls were either hammers or bricks, or some other kind of tool Martial Soul.
"Damn... I'm exhausted."
A dirt-covered man dropped the stone hammer in his hand and leaned against a broken wall, panting heavily.
His Martial Soul was a stone hammer nearly as tall as he was. It was fairly useful in a fight, but he'd never imagined it would come in handy for something like this one day.
"You can say that again." A tall, thin man slumped down beside him. His Martial Soul was a Blue Brick, now floating over his palm, its surface smeared with mortar.
"I've been at it since dusk, and I can barely lift my arm anymore. You think those Soul Beasts have a grudge against us? They tore everything down so thoroughly, they didn't even leave us one intact doorframe."
One after another, people nearby put down their tools and gathered around to catch their breath.
A middle-aged man who looked a little older pulled out a tobacco pouch and tapped it against the rubble. "Those Soul Beasts were vicious. Are they going to keep coming here to cause trouble from now on?"
At that, several people around him looked at the ruins before them.
If Spirit Hall kept getting torn apart, wouldn't they, the bunch of hammers and bricks, end up as a permanent construction crew?
Hauling bricks and tiles day after day—how was that any different from being laborers on a construction site?
"Hmph."
A young voice broke the silence.
Everyone turned to look. A man in his early twenties was leaning against a corner, a hint of disdain on his lips.
"Stop borrowing trouble."
"What did you say?" The middle-aged man frowned.
The young man glanced at him, his tone lazy. "I said you're overthinking it.
"Those Soul Beasts came once. What makes you think they can come a second time?
"For us, the greatest threat isn't the Star Dou Forest. It's that guy, Tang San.
"That guy is Tang Hao's son, the heir to the Clear Sky Douluo. And he can even make Tang Hao throw Hidden Weapons at people. He's a huge threat!"
"Didn't you see? His Holiness the Pope nearly got themself killed today!"
He paused, a look of longing flashing in his eyes. "Besides, so what if the Soul Beasts really do come back?"
"Fighting them would be a lucky break for us!"
The young man's voice brimmed with excitement. "Our squad leader was lucky yesterday. He came across a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and he landed the finishing blow. He got himself a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring!"
"What?!"
"A Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring?!"
"Seriously?"
Everyone crowded closer, their eyes full of envy.
For low-level Soul Masters like them, a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring was something they wouldn't even dare dream of.
Under normal circumstances, hunting a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast required at least rank fifty or sixty strength and a well-coordinated team.
For minor figures like them, only in their twenties or thirties, forget hunting a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. They'd be lucky to snag a Thousand-Year Soul Ring under the protection of a team.
"Of course it's true." The young man raised his chin smugly. "The squad leader even showed it off on the training ground this morning. His fourth Soul Ring was black as ink, and its power was on an entirely different level from before.
"Let me tell you, those Soul Beasts may be fierce, but their Soul Rings are the real deal. Fortune favors the bold, you know?"
His words stirred everyone's hearts.
Only one short, thin middle-aged man remained silent. He looked into the darkness around them, his brow furrowed.
"I still don't think something's right."
"What now?" the young man asked, his gaze turning impatient.
"Those Soul Beasts walked through spatial rifts during the day. What if... what if some Soul Beasts can control those spatial rifts?"
The air fell silent for a moment.
Then the young man scoffed and waved a hand.
"Impossible. If Soul Beasts could open spatial rifts whenever they wanted, Spirit Hall would've been gone ages ago. It wouldn't have lasted until now.
"Do you think the Title Douluos of Spirit Hall are useless?
"Those spatial rifts must be some kind of special forbidden technique, or a method that comes at a huge cost. They can only use it once."
The middle-aged man opened his mouth, as if he still wanted to say something.
The young man cut him off, raising his voice. "Even if they come back next time, they'll still—"
Halfway through his sentence, the young man's voice suddenly caught in his throat.
He had seen a flash of golden light, so fast it was almost beyond the eye's ability to follow. It was as if a strand of moonlight had suddenly solidified, tracing an arc through the darkness.
But no one else seemed to have noticed it at all!
"They'll still what?" someone prompted.
The young man stood with his mouth open, staring in the direction the golden light had vanished.
Just as he was about to tell them what he'd seen, his mind seemed to be violently stirred by an invisible hand.
The scene before his eyes suddenly changed.
The several companions who had just been talking with him had become ferocious Soul Beasts!
Their eyes glowed scarlet, saliva dripped from their mouths, and they grinned as they closed in on him.
"You little bastards!"
The young man leapt to his feet almost on instinct, snatched up the stone hammer beside him, and shouted, "You actually disguised yourselves as people from Spirit Hall? Good thing I saw through you! Take this!"
The instant the young man attacked, the others' vision changed too.
They saw him turn into a black-scaled Soul Beast, opening its enormous jaws at them.
They had no time to think. The Blue Bricks in their hands swelled several times over and came crashing down.
But when they killed one, even more Soul Beasts appeared!
"Kill!"
"Take these Soul Beasts down!"
"They've infiltrated us!"
The area before Spirit Hall's ruins erupted into chaos. Dozens of Soul Masters fell into hallucinations all at once.
In each of their eyes, the people around them had all turned into vicious Soul Beasts.
For a moment, shouts of slaughter rose and fell!
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