At the same moment, inside the ruins.
Between the collapsed beams and scattered rubble lay two lifeless bodies.
They were a young couple.
Their blood had long since run dry, pooling beneath them in a dark lake.
In the pool of blood, a little girl who looked only seven or eight years old, with her hair tied into twin ponytails, was streaked with tears and dust. Her eyes were wide with terror.
Before her stood a young man with a sinister face, his body wreathed in dark purple Soul Power. Grinning, he advanced one step at a time.
"Go on, scream. Scream louder."
The young man watched the terror on the girl's face with greedy eyes, as though admiring a peerless work of art.
"The more afraid and desperate you are, the more delicious your soul will be..."
He reached out a long, pale finger. A wisp of eerie green flame gathered at its tip as he slowly brought it toward the girl's cheek.
The girl's cries grew sharper, but a trace of murderous intent flashed through her eyes.
If she weren't waiting in ambush for that kid named Luo Yang to come knocking, she could have crushed a hundred Evil Soul Masters of this caliber with a single finger.
"Maybe... you can still join your parents on the road." The sinister young man sneered. The ghostly green flame at his fingertip suddenly stretched into a venomous, snake-like whip and lashed toward the girl's neck!
Just then—
"Stop!"
A sharp shout rang out!
The sinister young man's movements froze. He whipped around!
Two small figures had appeared at the opening in the ruins without him noticing!
He furrowed his brow, a murderous glint flickering in his eyes.
But when he saw that the newcomers were only two little brats, he immediately sneered. "Tsk. I thought some reinforcements had shown up. Turns out it's just two clueless little rats."
The "girl" in the pool of blood saw the black-haired, black-eyed figure, and her cries abruptly stopped. Then she shrieked even more pitifully:
"Help me! Big brother, help me! Boo-hoo... I'm so scared..."
You're finally here!
I've nearly choked on the smell of blood in here. If you'd taken any longer, I'd have had to kill this idiot myself!
On the surface, Na Nali wept with heart-rending sorrow. Inside, she was ranting furiously.
The sinister young man failed to notice his "prey's" slightly over-the-top performance. Laughing, he turned to face Luo Yang and Yuanen Yehui, spread his arms, and struck a welcoming pose.
"Hahaha! The road to heaven was open, but you refused to take it. The gates of hell were shut, yet you two insisted on barging in!"
"What, is today my lucky day? I've just finished enjoying a batch of supplements, and now two fresh morsels have delivered themselves to my door?"
He eyed the two greedily and licked his lips.
"Mm, this little girl looks promising. Her soul must be delicious. And this little one... tsk, he's rather pretty, but his Soul Power is pitifully weak. No matter. Even the smallest mosquito is still meat."
But the two brats didn't tremble, flee, or cry for their parents as he'd expected.
Luo Yang didn't even look at him. His gaze swept over the man as if he were nothing more than a rock obstructing the roadside.
Yuanen Yehui's face was expressionless, her gaze cold as a blade. She showed no sign of backing down.
The sinister young man's sneer stiffened. A surge of Evil Fire rushed through him.
What the hell? Had Evil Soul Masters really become so unimpressive?
He was an Evil Soul Master at the Soul Ancestor level, after all. Since when had two wet-behind-the-ears brats dared to look at him like that?!
"Damn it! You refused the toast, so drink the forfeit! You'll both be my nourishment!" Humiliated and enraged, the young man unleashed his Soul Power in a sudden burst!
Two yellow and two purple Soul Rings appeared!
At the same time, a dark purple mist carrying the mixed stench of blood and corrosion surged out of him, pressing down on the two like a vast tide!
Yuanen Yehui remained calm and released her First Martial Soul, the Titan Giant Ape.
Her body abruptly swelled, her muscles hardening into powerful, well-defined lines.
Then—
She threw a punch!
The punch came with the weight of a mountain, carrying immense Soul Power as it blasted an opening through the oncoming poisonous mist!
The sinister young man's expression shifted.
That little girl had astonishing strength! His Black Corrosion Poison Mist wasn't an ultimate ability, but it still posed a serious threat to Soul Masters of the same level. Yet she'd met it head-on with nothing but brute force?!
"Not bad! But it's not enough!"
The young man sneered and darted around like a ghost, dodging Yuanen Yehui's successive heavy punches. A ghostly green scythe, condensed from Soul Power, appeared in his hand. Its blade sliced through the air with a shrill whistle!
Every strike aimed for a vital spot, vicious and cruel!
Yuanen Yehui had far less combat experience than he did, and she soon fell behind.
Titan's Grasp lent her great strength, but her speed and technique couldn't keep up. She narrowly escaped danger several times, until the scythe's edge cut into her shoulder and blood welled from the wound.
At that moment, an intangible aura of deathly stillness descended, so oppressive that the air itself seemed to freeze!
Calamity Domain, activated!
The sinister young man stiffened all over. An inexplicable terror rose from the depths of his soul!
Wh-what the hell was this?!
Yuanen Yehui seized the fleeting opening. She took a deep breath, and her eyes suddenly turned profound!
She stopped holding back. Her First Martial Soul, the Titan Giant Ape, fully descended!
"Roar—!!!"
It wasn't a real roar, yet the crushing might of an ancient Soul Beast overlord burst from her with a thunderous force!
Her body swelled further, her muscles bulging like rock, and golden battle spirit blazed deep in her eyes!
The sinister young man's pupils contracted.
"Damn it!"
He held nothing back. Biting through the tip of his tongue, he spat out a mouthful of blood essence and rapidly formed a strange, twisted hand seal!
"Blood Sacrifice! Dark Demon Descent!"
This was a life-saving secret art bestowed by the Holy Spirit Cult. It traded cultivation for a short-lived surge in power!
His Soul Power instantly broke through the Soul Ancestor's limits, nearing the Soul Emperor level! The colors of his four Soul Rings began shifting toward a deeper purple!
"Die!!!"
A tide of violent dark purple energy surged back, blasting Yuanen Yehui away with a single strike just as she unleashed her power. She flew like a broken sack and crashed through a shattered wall.
The sinister young man's face twisted as he turned and locked onto Luo Yang. "Now it's your turn!"
But before he could finish—
His voice caught in his throat.
The scene reflected in his pupils made him forget to breathe.
The boy who had been eerily calm from beginning to end, the "weakling" he'd thought he could kill with a flick of his hand, now slowly stepped forward.
The air behind him rippled like water. A towering phantom clad in pallid bone armor, with blood-red eyes as deep as an abyss and endless deathly stillness swirling around him, took shape.
The boy's black eyes had turned a deep, cold red, devoid of all human emotion. He looked like a king returning from an ancient battlefield, gazing down at the ant that dared to offend him.
The sinister young man's expression changed drastically. Terror screamed from the depths of his soul, urging him to run.
But to his horror, he couldn't move!
Under that blood-red gaze, he was like a specimen nailed in midair. He couldn't even lift a finger!
"First Soul Skill..." the boy said.
The White Bone Phantom behind him slowly raised an arm covered in bone armor, fingers together like a sword.
A condensed gray-white sword ray, solid as matter, silently took shape in the air.
There was no flashy light, no earth-shaking spectacle.
"Calamity Evil-Breaking Slash."
The sword ray fell.
Silently.
The sinister young man didn't even have time to scream. Starting from the space between his brows, a thin, straight gray line split his body.
The gray line quickly spread, bisecting him along with the dark purple Soul Power surging around him and the terror-stricken expression twisted across his face.
No blood spurted out.
His split body lost its color like a sculpture weathered by a thousand years of time, then crumbled into a heap of gray-white dust that rustled to the ground.
Among the dust, a few fragments of his soul that hadn't yet faded let out silent wails. Then the lingering intent of the gray-white sword ray snuffed them out completely.
His soul was scattered, and he was erased from the world forever.
A deathly silence settled over the ruins.
In the corner, Na Nali, who had been watching coldly all along, finally dropped her half-hearted look of "terror" and gazed intently at Luo Yang.
She watched him walk over to Yuanen Yehui and crouch beside her, taking a jade-green pendant from his robes.
It was the Gold of Life.
Then he gently pressed it against the girl's wound.
He seemed to sense something and turned his head, looking toward the corner where she stood.
His gaze was calm as water, as if he could see through every disguise.
Na Nali's lips slowly curved into a smile.
Interesting.
This little fellow named Luo Yang was far more intriguing than she'd expected.