Xuan Ziwen

Two years later, within the borders of the Sun Moon Empire.

The Rust Wasteland was a stretch of yellow sand and rocky flats spanning a hundred miles, where not a single blade of grass grew.

Although this region possessed extremely rich metal mineral deposits, it was also home to numerous soul beasts with metal, earth, and soil attributes.

Because of this, the Sun Moon Empire only dispatched powerful experts to guard the area and establish mining camps when they discovered sufficiently rare and high-grade metal resources.

Consequently, this place was less of a mining zone and more of a hunting ground for soul beasts.

Deep within a fifty-meter-long underground passage—a tunnel originally excavated by large soul beasts for foraging and other reasons—a three-person team from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy was advancing into the depths, accompanied by their teacher, Xuan Ziwen.

Xuan Ziwen reached out to touch the claw marks on the stone wall and instructed the three students behind him, "All of you, pay attention. We have now entered the territory of a Red Iron Earth Dragon. From this point on, you must be extremely cautious. Do not move without my permission."

"Yes."

Wang Shaojie, Ju Zi, and Ke Ke all straightened their backs and answered Xuan Ziwen's instructions with solemn expressions.

Xuan Ziwen offered no further comment, simply nodding in affirmation before leading the trio deeper into the tunnel.

Their mission was not to hunt soul beasts, but to investigate a type of metal ore that had suddenly appeared in this area.

Ordinarily, this mission would not have fallen to them. Although Xuan Ziwen was an eight-ring Douluo, he was not the type of soul master who excelled in combat.

However, with no one else available at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy and Xuan Ziwen being the most knowledgeable about this specific metal material, the task had landed on his shoulders.

Xuan Ziwen had already encountered this ore along the path of their exploration.

What puzzled him was why this ore, which should have been located in the underground magma zones, had recently begun appearing in large quantities on the surface.

Based on their current investigation, it was highly likely that some soul beast had brought the ore up.

Yet, there were no records of such soul beasts within the Sun Moon Empire. What kind of creature would bring ore up from the depths?

Xuan Ziwen shook his head; these were not questions he needed to solve.

He was not a scholar studying soul beasts; he only needed to investigate the mineral veins that might appear here.

"T-Teacher..." Ju Zi called out to Xuan Ziwen, her voice trembling.

The call snapped Xuan Ziwen out of his deep contemplation. He looked up to see a pair of vertical pupils as large as lanterns appearing before him.

Once he saw clearly, a five-meter-tall Red Iron Sub-Dragon stood right in front of him.

"Damn it." Xuan Ziwen immediately retrieved a shield and a soul cannon from his storage soul tool.

He had only just finished warning his disciples when his own deep thinking caused him to wander into the territory of a Red Iron Earth Dragon.

Although humans were not on the Red Iron Earth Dragon's menu, these soul beasts possessed an extremely strong sense of territory!

ROAR!

Dragon Might spread with the Red Iron Earth Dragon's roar, causing the faces of Ju Zi and the others to turn pale.

They knew how to use soul tools, but that was mostly against human opponents.

Moreover, as the "medicine jars" of the Sun Moon Empire, their overall strength was far inferior to that of standard human soul masters.

Xuan Ziwen was also rattled by the Red Iron Earth Dragon's display, nearly losing his footing and falling to the ground.

This Red Iron Earth Dragon clearly had a cultivation of around twenty thousand years. Although Xuan Ziwen was weak in combat, he could still handle it on his own.

After the initial disarray, Xuan Ziwen immediately organized a counterattack.

Soul cannon shells and soul rays exploded against the Red Iron Earth Dragon as if they cost nothing, leaving the beast—which hadn't organized an attack in time—completely overwhelmed.

"You all head back quickly! I'll follow shortly!" Xuan Ziwen continued to bombard the Earth Dragon without looking back.

This type of Red Iron Earth Dragon was the most troublesome. Xuan Ziwen's goal was to drive it away rather than kill it, as the cost of slaying it was far too high.

Even to drive it away, he had to suppress the beast for a short while, or it wouldn't feel the pain.

"Yes." After Ju Zi responded to Xuan Ziwen, the three of them turned and fled in the direction they had come.

"It's a good thing there was only one Red Iron Earth Dragon here. If another one showed up, we'd be finished," Wang Shaojie said, his heart still racing as they ran.

"Don't you dare jinx us! Save the celebrating for when we're out! I don't want to stay here and become fertilizer for the mushrooms underground!" Ke Ke retorted, trading barbs with Wang Shaojie.

Hearing Ke Ke's words, Wang Shaojie snapped back, "Do you want to bet on who can run faster?"

As the sound of cannon fire behind them grew more distant, they all felt fortunate to have escaped the danger.

But just as they rounded a corner, the color drained from their faces.

Another Red Iron Earth Dragon with twenty thousand years of cultivation stood right before them, looking at the three intruders with a look of surprise.

A sense of despair welled up in their hearts. It was over.

Ju Zi gritted her teeth in defiance, pulling a soul cannon from her storage soul tool and aiming it at the Earth Dragon.

"Fight it! If we fight, we still have a sliver of a chance. If we do nothing, we're dead for sure!"

At that moment, Ju Zi displayed a hint of the heroic bearing of a future Empress War God. She pulled the trigger of the soul tool, aiming at the Red Iron Earth Dragon that far exceeded her own strength.

BOOM!

A fixed-shell soul cannon round exploded against the face of the Earth Dragon, which was covered in red iron scales, the flash of fire instantly engulfing its armored visage.

Watching this scene, all three of them couldn't help but feel a surge of joy.

Could it be that it actually worked?

But as the smoke cleared, not even a scratch appeared on the Red Iron Earth Dragon's face.

It scratched its face in confusion, then swiped a claw toward the three of them.

"Ah!"

The dragon claw sent all three flying, but fortunately, their invincibility shields protected them, and none of them suffered much injury.

"Damn it..." Ju Zi struggled to push herself up.

"The gap is still too large. Fixed soul tool shells below level five have absolutely no effect."

Since they were only students, let alone having a stockpile, they hadn't even been granted access to the blueprints for soul tool shells.

The highest-grade fixed soul tool shells they possessed were merely the most basic level-three models; they couldn't inflict any damage on the Red Iron Earth Dragon at all.

ROAR!

As if it were a common trait among all dragon-kind, the Red Iron Earth Dragon didn't immediately move to finish them off, choosing instead to roar as a show of dominance.

Wang Shaojie and Ke Ke reached Ju Zi's side and helped her up.

Their eyes were different now; Ju Zi's heroic display moments ago had greatly bolstered their fighting spirit.

The predicament they faced now was that they could not survive without fighting; they had to bring out their true capabilities to deal with this sudden crisis.

They pulled all their soul cannons from their storage tools, forming a small arsenal at their feet.

The three of them looked on with firm gazes, standing ready for battle.

One minute later.

"Cough—" Wang Shaojie spat out blood after being slammed against the wall.

All three of them lay sprawled in different places, unable to even stand.

Their invincibility shields had been completely exhausted, and all their attacks hadn't managed to harm the Red Iron Earth Dragon in the slightest.

The gap was so vast it was despair-inducing; their desperate resistance was nothing but a joke in front of the Red Iron Earth Dragon.