Killing the Red Fire Monkey King, Encountering the Three-Eyed Golden Lion

As Xiao Hongchen's voice faded, the spherical metal barrier began to disintegrate from within.

Countless specks of metal powder peeled away from the inner wall until the barrier vanished entirely, reduced to a cloud of metallic dust.

Guided by his will, this metal powder converged into a terrifying torrent of metal.

He raised his right hand and swept it in a full circle.

The metal torrent surged in every direction, like a flood that had been dammed for too long finally finding an outlet.

The century-old Red Fire Monkeys had no time to escape; they were instantly engulfed by the metal torrent and ground into pulp.

The thousand-year-old Red Fire Monkeys were equally unable to flee, their bodies already eroded by Meng Hongchen's Ice Toad venom.

Liquid metal latched onto their ankles, climbing upward. They tore at the metal, but for every layer they ripped away, another surged up to replace it, endless and relentless, quickly binding their bodies tight.

Then, hardened metal spikes pierced precisely into their hearts, drawing out bursts of warm, bloody mist.

Seeing his kin being ruthlessly harvested, the Red Fire Monkey King flew into a rage. With a roar, blood-colored patterns erupted across its body—it was using Frenzy.

Its body expanded visibly, and its speed increased several times over. Instead of choosing to flee, it charged headlong through the metal torrent toward Xiao Hongchen.

Metal spikes shot out from the torrent, slicing through its skin and cutting deep to the bone. One, two, a dozen—the frenzied Red Fire Monkey King did not dodge, allowing the spikes to tear gruesome wounds into its flesh. It was fighting for its life.

Simultaneously, golden light flickered on Xiao Hongchen's right hand. The surrounding metal elements converged frantically toward his palm, the intense golden light condensing into a flame-like hue that continued to rise. Combined with the constant compression of metal powder, it finally formed a metal javelin, five centimeters in diameter and two and a half meters long.

Fourth Soul Skill: Sacrifice of Gold.

Sacrifice one's own soul power to significantly amplify the power of all soul skills and carried Soul Tools, or sacrifice external metal to trigger a golden flame explosion and reverse-restore one's own soul power.

Xiao Hongchen was utilizing the first function of Sacrifice of Gold, consuming thirty percent of his soul power to push this move to its absolute limit.

He stepped forward with his left foot, twisted his torso, raised his right hand holding the metal javelin behind his shoulder, and threw it with all his might.

A golden streak shot out instantly, locked onto the Red Fire Monkey King's heart by his mental power.

The Red Fire Monkey King sensed the threat of death. It did not dodge, instead crossing its palms to shield its chest.

The two crossed palms were instantly pierced by the golden streak. The javelin's momentum did not falter; its fur, muscle, and bone were pierced like paper before the tip finally burst out from its back.

After piercing through its body, the golden streak continued forward, carrying the beast hundreds of meters, shattering several giant trees before finally pinning it into a boulder, three feet deep.

Clearly, its life force was extinguished.

Silence reigned. It took a long while for Meng Hongchen to recover.

"Such... such a powerful strike. This has completely reached the level of a Soul Emperor."

"Just luck," Xiao Hongchen replied, his expression unchanged.

This was merely the result of his Martial Soul's innate ability.

If he had unleashed his full power with his Soul Tool cannon array, the Red Fire Monkey pack would have died even faster. Under a blanket bombardment, not a single one of these monkeys would have escaped.

As for the issue of soul power consumption, he carried a mountain of rare metals with him. He could restore his soul power at any time through the second function of his fourth soul skill, Sacrifice of Gold, by sacrificing external metal. His endurance could be considered maxed out.

"You two, stop standing there like idiots. Go collect the valuable parts from the corpses; I'm going to retrieve the metal."

He walked to the Monkey King's corpse and extended his hand. The golden javelin that had pierced its chest trembled slightly before decomposing into countless metal powder, flowing back into the storage Soul Tool at his waist.

The Monkey King's corpse slid off the boulder and hit the forest floor with a dull thud.

The fur of a Red Fire Monkey was extremely precious and often fetched a good price on the market.

Xiao Hongchen peeled the monkey hide while retrieving the scattered metal.

Just then, Ye Guyi's voice came from not far away.

"I found a soul bone here." Her voice was a pitch higher than usual, carrying a hint of irrepressible joy. Xiao Hongchen looked up to see her crouching beside a Red Fire Monkey corpse, holding a fiery-red soul bone and waving at him vigorously.

Xiao Hongchen set down the monkey hide and walked over.

Ye Guyi handed the soul bone to him, a rare light shining in her pale blue eyes.

It was a left-hand soul bone from a Red Fire Monkey of about three thousand years. It was fiery red, and the soul power fluctuation it contained was not particularly strong, likely carrying the Red Fire Monkey's signature soul skill, Fireball.

It was tasteless to eat, yet not a pity to discard.

"Neither of you is allowed to absorb this." Xiao Hongchen weighed the soul bone in his hand before tucking it into his storage Soul Tool. "The grade of this soul bone is too low. We'll auction it off when we get back."

No sooner had Xiao Hongchen finished speaking than a deafening beast roar suddenly erupted from the dense forest in the distance, followed immediately by a sharp horse neigh.

Two soul power fluctuations surged from several miles away—one holy as light, the other scorching as fire.

Birds in the forest took flight in alarm, and leaves fell in a rustle.

A figure descended silently from the canopy.

Jing Hongchen stood before the three of them, using a concealment Soul Tool to mask their presence.

Not long after, a pure white steed appeared in their line of sight.

Its body was that of a horse, but its head was dragon-like. White dragon scales extended from its forehead down to the back of its neck, covering its entire spine.

Most eye-catching was the diamond-shaped pale golden gem on its forehead, though its light was now very dim. Its body bore several deep, bone-reaching wounds, and golden flames still lingered on the gashes, continuously burning and widening them.

"It's a Sky Dragon Horse! Its age is likely around seven thousand years. It possesses the bloodline of a Holy Radiant Dragon. Grandfather, let's use this as Guyi's soul ring later. Guyi, what do you think?"

Xiao Hongchen looked toward Ye Guyi as he spoke.

Ye Guyi's martial soul was the Holy Angel. While it could already be considered ultimate in terms of its holy attribute, it fell far short of the ultimate level in both light and fire attributes. If she could elevate both her light and fire attributes to the ultimate level, her martial soul would very likely evolve into the god-level martial soul inherited by the Spirit Hall ten thousand years ago: the Six-Winged Seraph.

Ye Guyi naturally nodded in agreement.

Holy-attribute soul beasts were extremely rare, so absorbing a Sky Dragon Horse with a light attribute that matched her age requirements was certainly not a bad alternative.

Just as they were discussing this, the soul beast hunting the Sky Dragon Horse finally appeared.

A golden streak of light, resembling a small sun rushing through the jungle, quickly appeared at the spot where the Sky Dragon Horse had previously been.

This soul beast possessed sleek golden fur, and its entire body looked as if it were made of translucent crystal.

Its overall form resembled a lion, but it had dragon-like claws, with each dragon claw stepping upon a cluster of golden flames. In addition to its normal pair of eyes, it actually possessed a third eye.

Its two normal eyes shimmered with a golden hue, while the vertical pupil emitted a red light—a somewhat eerie red.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion.

Xiao Hongchen's pupils constricted slightly.

He had not expected to actually encounter it; could this also be fate?