Zhao Wuji and Dai Mubai

In the Star Dou Forest, Zhao Wuji and Dai Mubai surrounded Qian Renxue.

"Kid, are you alone?" Zhao Wuji asked in a gruff voice, as deep as muffled thunder. His gaze was appraising, with a trace of barely concealed wariness. His massive frame stood, seemingly by chance, in front of Dai Mubai.

Qian Renxue slowly rose to her feet. Her expression was calm and unreadable, as if her weakness just moments before had been an illusion.

Thoughts raced through her mind, but she gave nothing away. In a deliberately lowered, youthful voice, she replied coolly, "Just passing through. Taking a rest."

Her voice was cold, carrying a distant air that kept others at arm's length.

Her gaze swept over Zhao Wuji with a trace of barely perceptible gravity. When it passed Dai Mubai, it paused for an instant on his strange eyes, and she understood: the Star Luo Royal Family, the Evil-Eyed White Tiger.

"Passing through?" Zhao Wuji raised his thick brows, clearly unconvinced. "There was a powerful energy fluctuation here just now, along with the traces of a thousand-year Soul Beast's death. What did you see?"

He stepped forward, deliberately releasing the crushing pressure of a Soul Emperor to probe the mysterious youth's depths.

His purpose in coming here was to protect Dai Mubai while he safely obtained a Soul Ring. Any potential threat had to be eliminated.

The moment Zhao Wuji's aura bore down on her, the Emperor War Dragon Martial Soul within Qian Renxue, not yet fully settled, sensed the pressure and instinctively reacted with the supreme majesty of its bloodline!

Hum!

An indescribable imperial dragon might, as if towering above all creation, suddenly spilled from Qian Renxue. It was like a sleeping dragon roused by an ant!

It was only a trace, nowhere near as overwhelming as when she summoned her Martial Soul, but it was incomparably pure, carrying the cycle of the five elements and the supreme will to rule over light!

"Roar—!" The Evil-Eyed White Tiger Martial Soul within Dai Mubai seemed to face the most direct provocation and suppression. A low growl escaped it against his will!

His body jolted, and his expression shifted. Intense golden-purple light flared in his mismatched eyes, while the two yellow Soul Rings beneath his feet lit up uncontrollably. The phantom of the Evil-Eyed White Tiger flickered behind him as he fought desperately against the shudder rising from the depths of his soul.

He stared at Qian Renxue in shock and disbelief, hostility plain in his eyes. What was it about this youth that made his top-tier Beast Martial Soul instinctively feel fear and fury?

Zhao Wuji was even more shaken. As a Soul Saint, his senses were far sharper than Dai Mubai's.

That fleeting pressure had been domineering, noble, ancient... It was entirely beyond his understanding of a Soul Master's Martial Soul! No ordinary dragon-type Martial Soul could possess such power! What kind of monster was this youth?

"You!" Zhao Wuji's gaze turned razor-sharp. He knew that meant danger, especially when the other party seemed able to provoke such a violent reaction from Mubai's Martial Soul.

Qian Renxue's heart sank.

Troublesome! She hadn't expected the Emperor War Dragon's aura to provoke a top-tier Beast Martial Soul so intensely.

She immediately poured all her mental strength into forcibly drawing in and sealing away her Martial Soul's aura. At the same time, Soul Power quietly gathered beneath her feet.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Her tone remained calm, but she shifted slightly to the side, poised to burst into motion at any moment. "A pack of wolves just passed through. They made a lot of noise, so I kept out of their way."

She pointed toward the direction the wolves had fled, trying to distract them.

Zhao Wuji narrowed his eyes, plainly unconvinced by her explanation.

His massive body shifted like a mountain, subtly blocking the paths Qian Renxue might use to escape. His voice was low and oppressive. "Kid, show me your Martial Soul! Don't make me use force!"

Dai Mubai also forced down the stir in his Martial Soul. His fists clenched as his strange eyes fixed on Qian Renxue, brimming with fighting spirit. "That's right! There's something about your aura... It makes me sick! Show us your Martial Soul and fight me!"

The atmosphere turned taut in an instant!

Qian Renxue's expression turned completely cold.

She didn't want to invite trouble, much less clash with a Soul Emperor and a talented youth with a top-tier Martial Soul while she hadn't fully recovered and might still be under the notice of something lurking deep in the forest.

But the other party wouldn't let up...

Just as Qian Renxue was weighing whether to use part of her hidden strength to force her way out—or Zhao Wuji was on the verge of losing patience and attacking—

"Roar—!!!"

A roar filled with pain and fury, loud enough to shake the mountains and forests, burst from deep within the forest like a thunderclap! The terrible crash of trees breaking under brute force followed, drawing nearer as the ground began to tremble.

That sound... It was far more terrifying than the Nether Wolf King from before, carrying a ferocious menace that made the soul shudder!

Zhao Wuji's expression changed dramatically. "This is bad! A big one! At least ten thousand years old! Mubai, get ready to fight!"

He immediately shifted his attention away from Qian Renxue. His muscles tensed, and Soul Power surged through him. Seven optimally matched Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet, his wild aura shooting skyward as the phantom of the Immovable Wisdom King's true form flickered behind him.

His first priority was protecting Dai Mubai!

Dai Mubai immediately readied himself for battle, his strange eyes locked on the direction of the sound.

Qian Renxue sensed the terrifying aura racing toward them, far stronger than the Wolf King's. Without hesitation, she seized the instant Zhao Wuji and Dai Mubai were distracted—

Whoosh!

A flash of golden light flickered beneath her feet. She became a phantom blending into the wind and darted backward, moving so fast that only a faint golden streak remained where she had stood. In the blink of an eye, she vanished into the dense forest, heading for the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest!

"Damn it!" Zhao Wuji caught sight of Qian Renxue's disappearance and cursed, but he had no time to chase after her.

A giant beast, as large as a small hill, had already smashed through countless trees and appeared before them. Its body was covered in glossy black armor like metal, a vicious spiral horn jutted from its head, and its eyes were bloodred. Its fierce aura surged like a raging inferno!

"It's a ten-thousand-year Iron-Armored Demon Rhino! Mubai, be careful! Its defense and strength are terrifying!" Zhao Wuji roared. The purple light of his third Soul Ring blazed. "Gravity Enhancement!"

An invisible field instantly enveloped the charging rhino, making its movements falter.

Dai Mubai took a deep breath, suppressing his shock and fighting spirit over the mysterious youth, and focused all his attention on the life-or-death crisis before him. Purple-gold light blazed in his strange eyes. "Second Soul Skill, White Tiger Intense Light Wave!"

A golden beam blasted toward the rhino's head.

By then, Qian Renxue had already fled several miles away. She stopped and looked back at the violent fluctuations of Soul Power and the rhino's roars erupting deep in the forest, her gaze ice-cold.

"Shrek... Zhao Wuji..." she murmured, committing the names to memory.

She didn't linger. Her figure became a blurred golden streak once more, then vanished completely along the path leading out of the forest.