Xiao Mu had just finished his battle. The golden flames slowly faded around him.
The Third Soul Ring beneath his feet continued to glow faintly, and the future fifteen seconds away was reflected in his golden eyes.
"Tang Wulin and the others are here."
"Xiao Mu, how do you know?"
Wei Xiaofeng hadn't finished speaking when four sets of hurried footsteps reached their ears.
The bushes were roughly shoved aside, and four figures burst out of the woods. Tang Wulin ran at the front, with Xie Xie close behind him and Zhang Yangzi and Wang Jinxi trailing at the rear.
"Xiao Mu, run!" Tang Wulin shouted, his voice hoarse. "There's a pack of Flame Lions behind us."
Before the words had left his mouth, flames surged out from between the trees.
Everyone looked up. A pack of lions emerged from the shadows. Dark red flames danced across their manes, and their orange-yellow eyes glowed menacingly in the darkness, like lanterns lighting up one after another deep in the woods.
Xiao Mu glanced into the distance and asked as calmly as if he were asking what they were having for dinner, "How'd you get the Flame Lion pack after you?" He tilted his head. "Gu Yue, how many?"
Gu Yue swept her gaze over the pack, quickly counting.
"Twenty hundred-year Soul Beasts. The lion king leading them is a thousand-year Soul Beast."
"Relax. Everything's under control."
As Xiao Mu spoke, the First Soul Ring beneath his feet lit up. Its radiance spread from his feet, like a silent declaration.
"Everyone, engage them directly."
He lifted his eyes, his gaze passing over the pack and landing on the largest beast at its center.
Its mane resembled a mass of blazing flames, and it stood nearly three meters tall at the shoulder. Every step left charred pawprints in the ground.
It strode out from the pack, a low growl rumbling in its throat as a wave of heat washed over them.
The Thousand-Year Flame Lion King.
"Na'er, I'll take the lion king," Xiao Mu said, assigning their roles on the spot. "You deal with the hundred-year ones."
"Understood."
Na'er tightened her grip on the Silver Dragon Spear, her silver eyes flashing in the darkness.
Xiao Mu stepped forward. A force field spread around him like a transparent film, silently rippling toward the pack.
The gravity beneath the lion king's feet suddenly doubled. The giant lion's movements faltered, and its front paws gouged several deep furrows into the charred ground.
It roared, fire surging from its mouth and forming a wall of flames as it tried to break free from the invisible restraints.
But Xiao Mu's Third Soul Ring was still glowing.
The future unfolded in his golden eyes.
Everything was perfectly clear.
He raised a hand, and the force field swirled in his palm.
"Gravity Reversal."
The gravity beneath the lion king abruptly reversed.
Down became up.
The giant lion's massive body soared into the air, carried by its own momentum like a meteor flung skyward. Its four paws clawed wildly, but found nothing to grab.
The flames twisted into bizarre shapes in the weightlessness, spreading outward in rings.
"The Thousand-Year Flame Lion King isn't all that strong."
The force field burst beneath Xiao Mu's feet, launching him forward. He moved so fast that only an afterimage remained in the air. Dark-gold markings appeared beneath the skin of his right hand, and five sharp blades sprang from his knuckles—the Dark-Gold Dread-Claw.
Suspended in midair, the lion king had nowhere to brace itself. In its orange-yellow eyes, there was only one emotion.
Terror.
The claws struck.
"Pfft—"
The blades pierced the lion king's abdomen. Dark-gold blood gushed out and floated upward under the reversed gravity, like a rain of blood falling backward, each drop rising into the night sky.
Xiao Mu twisted his wrist, ripping apart its innards, then pulled out his claws. The recoil sent him gliding backward, and he landed steadily on the ground.
The lion king's corpse crashed down with a thunderous boom. Dust billowed everywhere. The flames on its mane went out inch by inch, and its orange-yellow eyes dimmed completely.
"Easy."
Xiao Mu landed as droplets of blood fell one by one from the Dark-Gold Dread-Claw in the sunlight.
Elsewhere, the battle ended at the very same moment.
Na'er's Silver Dragon Spear pierced the throat of a hundred-year-old lioness. The spearhead emerged from the back of its neck, trailing a spray of blood.
Gu Yue's Elemental Storm sent several hundred-year-old lions flying at once. Wind blades and ice spikes ripped a dense web of wounds across their bodies.
Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Claw tore open the chest of a fourth lion, while Xie Xie's Light Dragon Dagger stabbed into the back of a fifth.
Zhang Yangzi's Eagle Claw gouged out a lioness's eye, and the beast fell with a howl. Wang Jinxi's Bone Dragon Fist smashed the skull of a seventh. When his bone-armored fist came down, even the ground shuddered.
The pack was wiped out.
Spots of spiritual energy drifted up from the corpses, thick as a rising sea of fireflies.
The lights flowed into everyone's bodies. The glow of their Soul Rings deepened, and their ages climbed a little.
Xiao Mu looked around. Everyone was there. Some were catching their breath, others wiping away blood, but they were all standing. They seemed to be in full condition.
"Now that we're all here, let's keep moving."
Tang Wulin wiped the dirt from his face and asked between breaths, "Which way? Shouldn't we find somewhere to rest first and make sure we complete the trial safely?"
Xiao Mu glanced at him.
"Nowhere in the Spirit Ascension Platform is safe."
The eight of them crossed the woods, the warmth of ashes still lingering beneath their feet.
Xiao Mu, who was leading the way, suddenly stopped.
The air ahead rippled like water struck by a pebble. A pitch-black leopard stepped out of thin air, silver patterns shimmering across its fur as it fixed them with cold amber eyes.
It was a Void Spirit Leopard.
"A thousand-year Soul Beast," Gu Yue said.
The shadow leopard growled and sprang straight at them, appearing on the flank of the group as its claws slashed toward the back of Wei Xiaofeng's neck.
Wei Xiaofeng only had time to turn around. A rapidly enlarging leopard's paw was reflected in his pupils.
Xiao Mu's force field arrived.
Gravity slammed down on the shadow leopard, like an invisible palm dropping from the sky.
Its front paw stopped dead three inches from Wei Xiaofeng's neck. Its entire body was smashed into the ground with a muffled thud, and a web of cracks spread across the earth.
"Still trying to ambush us? Everything within fifty meters is inside my domain." Xiao Mu's voice remained calm. To anyone without a Soul Skill, a domain ability was an overwhelming, higher-dimensional attack.
Na'er's Silver Dragon Spear was already thrusting forward. Its tip pierced through the shadow leopard's back, pinning it to the ground.
The shadow leopard struggled twice. Its amber eyes gradually lost focus, and the silver patterns on its body faded away inch by inch.
Another cluster of spiritual energy lights rose and seeped into everyone.
Before the lights had finished fading, an Ice Wheel suddenly spun out from deep within the woods.
Cold spread along the ground, coating the grass with frost wherever it passed.
The Ice Wheel's edge was as thin as a blade, and it shrieked through the air as it flew straight toward Xie Xie at the edge of the group.
Xie Xie didn't have time to draw his dagger.
Xiao Mu raised his hand, and the force field opened. The Ice Wheel struck the invisible barrier and exploded into ice shards in midair, refracting the sunlight like shattered glass.
"Seriously, why are there so many familiar faces in this Spirit Ascension Platform?"
"And why do they all want to attack me!"