Tang San said nothing. He struck at once with a tendril of Blue Silver Grass.
The vine shot out like a serpent from its lair, whipping toward the little deer with a sharp whoosh.
There it was—Mother's Entanglement!
Faced with the vine coiling toward it, the little deer slowly raised its head. A faint, humanlike disdain appeared in its amber eyes.
It made no unnecessary movements, merely tapping the ground lightly with all four hooves.
Its entire body turned into a streak of green light and shot into the air.
The Blue Silver Grass missed its side, easily evaded.
"The ability to transform into other Soul Beasts really is the Mirror Shadow Beast's specialty. We have to hurry after it!"
Seeing this, Tang Wu immediately gave chase.
Dugu Bo didn't waste words. He grabbed Tang Wu and Tang San, one in each hand, and shot into the air as Soul Power surged through him, pursuing the streak of green light.
The wind howled past their ears.
The frigid currents of the Far North whipped the trio's robes, but the Mirror Shadow Beast ahead kept a distance from them that was neither close nor far.
Tang Wu stared at the streak of green light, growing more and more alarmed.
He recognized the bird of prey the Mirror Shadow Beast had transformed into. It was one of the fastest falcons on the Douluo Continent: the Wind Shadow Falcon.
With its wings spread, flying at full speed, it could reach a top speed of 270 meters per second.
What did that mean?
Even a high-speed maglev train reached a top speed of only 230 meters per second.
At that speed, the world before their eyes would compress into blurred lines, and time would seem to slow to a quarter of its normal pace.
So no matter how Dugu Bo urged his Soul Power, the trio couldn't catch up to the Wind Shadow Falcon ahead.
But there was something strange...
The Wind Shadow Falcon maintained a steady speed the entire time. It neither accelerated to leave them behind nor slowed down to let them catch up.
When Tang Wu and the others slowed down, it slowed too; when they sped up, it sped up as well.
Neither near nor far, neither hurried nor slow.
It was almost as if... it were deliberately keeping them on a leash, leading them somewhere.
About half an incense stick later, the Wind Shadow Falcon suddenly dived and landed in an open clearing.
In the heart of the Far North Snow Forest, there were no dense trees. Instead, there was only a broad stretch of open ground blanketed in snow, and the surroundings were eerily quiet.
Though the situation felt a little strange, Tang Wu and the other two had no choice but to descend after it.
"It finally stopped. I thought this thing would keep running forever."
As Dugu Bo spoke, he was still slightly out of breath, and his pride had taken a bit of a hit.
He was already slower than his opponent, and having to carry two Soul Elders made it even harder to catch up.
The opportunity was too good to pass up. Dugu Bo attacked without hesitation.
To avoid repeating the mistake he'd made with the Northern Plains Snow Pig, this time he went straight to his Martial Soul Avatar.
Green light shot into the sky.
A Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor dozens of meters tall appeared in the middle of the clearing. Its eyes were icy, its fangs menacing, and suffocating poisonous mist billowed around it.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
However, just a second before Dugu Bo struck,
the snowfield exploded. One figure after another burst from beneath the snow, surrounding the trio in an instant.
They formed a ring around Tang Wu, Tang San, and Dugu Bo, trapping the three of them in the middle.
One, two, three... more than a dozen Mirror Shadow Beasts.
They came in all shapes and sizes: some were giant dragons with spread wings, others crouching tigers, and still others towering eagles.
They formed a ring, their eyes gleaming with wary, icy light. They had clearly taken Tang Wu and the others for prey.
"Damn it, this is actually a whole Mirror Shadow Beast clan!"
Tang San cursed under his breath.
Information about Mirror Shadow Beasts was extremely scarce, so it had never occurred to him that they might live in clans.
The small blue hammer in Tang Wu's left hand flickered in and out of view, his Soul Power gathered but unreleased.
He glanced at the Mirror Shadow Beasts around them, his voice low.
"Looks like we've reached the point where we have no choice but to fight for our lives..."
The Soul Power fluctuations radiating from these Mirror Shadow Beasts showed that even the weakest had just entered the ten-thousand-year level, while the strongest had reached a cultivation of fifty or sixty thousand years.
If Dugu Bo couldn't take control of the situation right away, then with the strength of Tang Wu and Tang San, both Soul Elders, facing more than a dozen ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts would be a near-certain death sentence.
And yet...
The Mirror Shadow Beasts surrounded them without attacking, as though waiting for something to arrive.
"Wait. Don't attack just yet..."
But just as Tang Wu and the others prepared to risk their lives, a voice suddenly rang out:
"We have no intention of endangering your lives. We only lured you here because we want to make a deal."
As the voice fell, the Mirror Shadow Beasts forming the ring moved aside, opening a passage.
Tang Wu and the others looked down the passage, their pupils shrinking in unison.
A Mirror Shadow Beast of immense size stood there, three or four times larger than the others of its clan.
Its limbs were thick as pillars. Its body was covered in flawless, translucent white fur, and three long, thick tails swished behind it. Each sweep sent faint ripples of Soul Power through the air.
But what drew the most attention was its head.
Unlike ordinary Mirror Shadow Beasts, this giant had another four eyes beneath its usual pair.
Three tails and six eyes—the Mirror Shadow Beast's true form, and the most powerful state of its kind.
The giant, evidently the leader, smiled faintly as it looked at the wary Tang Wu and Tang San, and Dugu Bo, ready to strike at any moment.
"Don't be nervous..."
"Allow me to introduce myself. As you can see, I'm the leader of this clan. As for my cultivation, well... it's 100,000 years."
"You may also call me the Mirror Shadow Beast Emperor."
"What?!"
The three of them were all dumbfounded.
As soon as Dugu Bo heard the other party announce its identity, he decisively dispelled his Martial Soul Avatar and returned to human form.
You've got to be kidding!
If the other side had been at seventy or eighty thousand years, or even ninety thousand, he could've still put up a fight.
But if it was a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast, that was an entirely different level of existence.
What's more, it had an entire clan backing it up. What was the point of fighting? They might as well surrender.
With such a vast gap in strength, what difference would it make whether they resisted or not?
Tang Wu took a deep breath, pressing his fear deep inside, and mustered the courage to face the Mirror Shadow Beast Emperor.
"May I ask what you need from us, Elder?"
This time, he adopted the humblest possible attitude.
His usually carefree, impulsive nature, which he hadn't even reined in around Dugu Bo, was now buried in the deepest recesses of his heart.
After all, before figuring out the true intentions of a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast, acting as carefree and thoughtless as before wouldn't be impulsive. It would be stupid.
The Mirror Shadow Beast Emperor narrowed its six eyes slightly and gave Tang Wu an approving look.
Even faced with an overwhelming difference in strength, he could force down his fear and respond calmly.
As expected of the one it had chosen.
Then the Mirror Shadow Beast Emperor said something truly startling:
"It's nothing major. I just want to offer myself to you as a sacrifice..."
"What? A sacrifice?!" ×3