Chapter 30

At the same moment, inside the ruins.

Between collapsed beams and shattered rubble lay two lifeless corpses.

They were a young couple.

Their blood had long since drained away, pooling into a dark lake beneath them.

In the pool of blood, a little girl who looked only seven or eight years old, wearing twin tails, had a face streaked with tears and dust, her eyes filled with terror.

Before her, a sinister-looking youth wreathed in dark purple soul power grinned, closing in step by step.

"Scream. Scream louder."

The youth's eyes were greedy as he watched the girl's terrified expression, as if savoring a beautiful work of art.

"The more afraid you are, the more desperate you become, the more delicious... your soul will be."

He extended pale, slender fingers, a wisp of eerie, ghostly green flame coalescing at his fingertips, slowly approaching the girl's cheek.

The girl's wailing grew sharper, yet a flash of killing intent flickered in her eyes.

If not for the need to lie in wait for that boy named Luo Yang to deliver himself to her, she could have crushed an Evil Soul Master of this caliber a hundred times over with a single finger.

"Perhaps... you can still catch up to your parents on their journey." At this moment, the sinister youth sneered, the ghostly green flame at his fingertips suddenly elongating, transforming into a whip like a venomous snake, coiling toward the girl's neck!

Just then—

"Stop!"

A cold shout exploded!

The sinister youth's movements stalled, and he whipped his head around!

He saw two small figures who had appeared at the gap in the ruins at some unknown time!

He furrowed his brows, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.

But then, realizing the newcomers were merely two tiny brats, he scoffed aloud: "Tsk, I thought some reinforcements had arrived, but it's just two little mice who don't know when they're going to die."

The "girl" in the pool of blood, upon seeing the black-haired, black-eyed figure, abruptly cut off her wailing, then began to scream even more miserably:

"Save me! Big brother, save me! Wuwuwu... I'm so scared..."

Finally here!

I've been smelling the stench of blood here until I'm about to vomit; if they hadn't come, I would have slaughtered this idiot myself!

Nanali appeared to be crying like rain on pear blossoms, but she was frantically complaining internally.

The sinister youth did not notice the "prey's" slightly exaggerated performance. He laughed and turned around, facing Luo Yang and Yuanen Yehui directly, spreading his arms in a welcoming gesture.

"Hahaha! Truly, there is a path to heaven you refuse to take, yet you insist on barging into the gates of hell!"

"What, is today my lucky day? Just finished enjoying a batch of supplements, and two fresh goods deliver themselves to my door?"

He greedily sized them up, licking his lips.

"Hmm, this little girl looks good; her soul must be delicious. And this little one... tsk, he looks quite handsome, though his soul power fluctuations are pitifully weak. No matter, even a mosquito is meat."

However, the scene he anticipated—the two brats trembling in fear, running away, or even crying for their parents—did not occur.

Luo Yang did not even look at him, his gaze sweeping past him as if he were merely an obstructive rock on the side of the road.

Yuanen Yehui remained expressionless, her eyes cold as blades, showing not the slightest intention of retreating.

The sinister youth's sneer froze on his face, and a surge of evil fire flared in his heart.

No, are Evil Soul Masters so lacking in intimidation these days?

He was a Soul Ancestor-level Evil Soul Master, after all; since when did two wet-behind-the-ears brats dare to look at him with such eyes?!

"Damn it! If you won't drink the toast, you'll drink the forfeit! Then both of you can become my nourishment!" The youth was enraged by shame, his soul power erupting violently!

Two yellow and two purple rings appeared!

At the same time, a dark purple mist mixed with the scent of blood and corrosion surged from his body, pressing down upon the two like a suffocating shroud!

Yuanen Yehui remained calm, simultaneously releasing her first martial soul, Titan Giant Ape.

Instantly, her body surged in size, her muscle lines becoming hard and powerful.

Then.

She threw a punch!

This punch was heavy and forceful, carrying soul power as weighty as a mountain, directly blasting a gap through the incoming Black Corrosion Poison Mist!

The sinister youth's expression shifted slightly.

This little girl actually possessed such astonishing strength! His Black Corrosion Poison Mist, while not ultimate, posed a massive threat to soul masters of the same rank, yet this young girl had withstood it with brute force alone?!

"You've got some tricks! But it's not enough!"

The youth sneered, his figure flickering like a ghost, dodging Yuanen Yehui's successive heavy punches. A ghostly green scythe condensed from soul power appeared in his hand, the blade slicing through the air with a shrill, piercing whistle!

Every strike aimed for a vital point, vicious and ruthless!

Yuanen Yehui's combat experience was far inferior to his, and she quickly fell into a disadvantage.

Although the strength bolstered by Titan's Grasp was formidable, her speed and technique could not keep up. After several narrow escapes, the edge of a sickle slashed across her shoulder, drawing blood.

At this moment, an intangible aura of dead silence, one that seemed to freeze the very air, suddenly descended!

Calamity Domain, activate!

The sinister youth's entire body stiffened as an inexplicable terror surged from the depths of his soul!

W-what the hell is this?!

Yuanen Yehui seized this fleeting opening, took a deep breath, and her eyes suddenly turned profound!

She no longer held back; her first martial soul, Titan Giant Ape, fully descended!

"ROAR--!!!"

It was not a physical roar, but a heavy pressure originating from an ancient soul beast overlord that erupted from her body!

Her physique expanded once more, her muscles bulging like rock, and golden battle intent ignited in the depths of her eyes!

The sinister youth's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

"Damn it!"

He held nothing back, biting the tip of his tongue to spray essence blood, and quickly formed a strange, twisted hand seal!

"Blood Sacrifice! Dark Demon Descent!"

This was a life-saving secret technique bestowed by the Holy Spirit Cult, sacrificing cultivation to gain a massive, short-term surge in strength!

His soul power fluctuations instantly broke through the limit of a Soul Ancestor, approaching that of a Soul Emperor! The colors of his four soul rings began to shift toward a deeper, more profound purple!

"Die!!!"

Violent dark purple energy surged like a tsunami, blasting Yuanen Yehui—who had just unleashed her power—away like a ragdoll, sending her crashing through a broken wall.

The sinister youth wore a savage expression as he turned to lock onto Luo Yang: "Next, it's your turn!"

However, before the words could finish—

His voice stuck in his throat.

The scene reflected in his pupils made him forget how to breathe.

The youth, who had been exceptionally calm from start to finish and whom he had dismissed as a "weakling" to be crushed at will, was now slowly taking a step forward.

Behind him, the void rippled like water as a towering phantom, clad in pale bone armor with blood-red eyes like abysses and surrounded by endless dead silence, condensed into form.

The youth's originally black eyes now transformed into a deep, indifferent blood-red, devoid of any human emotion, as if a monarch had returned from an eternal battlefield to look down upon an ant that dared to offend him.

The sinister youth's face changed drastically; the terror in the depths of his soul screamed at him to run.

But he realized with horror that he could not move!

Under the gaze of those blood-red eyes, he felt like a specimen pinned to the void, unable to even lift a finger!

"F-first soul skill..." the youth spoke.

The bone phantom behind him slowly raised its armored arm, fingers forming a sword.

In the void, a gray-white sword light, condensed to the point of substance, formed silently.

There was no flashy radiance, no earth-shattering momentum.

"Calamity Evil-Breaking Slash."

The sword light fell.

Silence.

The sinister youth didn't even have time to scream before a straight, thin gray line split his body starting from the center of his brow.

The gray line spread rapidly, cleaving him in two, along with the dark purple soul power surging around him and his terrified, twisted expression.

No blood sprayed out.

His split body was like a sculpture weathered by a thousand years of time; it rapidly lost its color and turned into a pile of gray-white dust that fell to the ground with a soft rustle.

Within the dust, a few soul fragments that had not yet fully dissipated let out a silent wail before being completely annihilated by the lingering will of the gray-white sword light.

Soul scattered, gone from this world forever.

In the ruins, there was a deathly silence.

In the corner, Nanali, who had been watching coldly all along, finally dropped the perfunctory "terror" on her face and looked deeply at Luo Yang.

She watched him walk toward Yuanen Yehui, crouch down, and take a verdant pendant from his chest.

It was the Gold of Life.

Then, he gently placed it over the girl's wound.

She watched as he seemed to sense something, turning his head to glance toward this corner from afar.

That gaze was as calm as water, as if it could see through every disguise.

The corners of Nanali's mouth slowly curled upward.

Interesting.

This little guy named Luo Yang is much more intriguing than expected.