Suspicion Arises

Dai Chong suddenly dashed out, leading the six others toward Cheng Xiao's location, smashing through countless shrubs along the way.

When the seven arrived with grim expressions and saw that thin figure, they immediately stopped in their tracks.

"You're here? I'm done. Let's get going."

Cheng Xiao turned around calmly, without the slightest sign of anything unusual. The Tiger Demon Cat's corpse lay beside him, while its shadow had long since vanished.

"Huh? Where's the soul beast?" Sixth Brother was utterly baffled. They had clearly heard the roar of a soul beast coming from this direction just now.

"What soul beast?" Cheng Xiao showed a puzzled expression, his face revealing not the slightest flaw.

"We just heard a Tiger Demon Cat roar and thought you were in danger, so we rushed over. You didn't hear it?" Dai Chong narrowed his eyes and studied Cheng Xiao for a long while. For some reason, he felt that Cheng Xiao had changed compared to before.

He could not quite put his finger on it, but that small, thin figure seemed deeper somehow, giving him a faint, indescribable sense of pressure.

The feeling was strange. It was not the oppressive pressure of Soul Power emitted by powerful Soul Saints or Soul Douluos, but more like suppression in terms of presence. He looked frail and weak, yet gave off a sinister sensation that made one feel as though thorns were pricking one's back. It was faint, but it lingered in the heart and could not be shaken off.

But on second thought, it seemed impossible. This kid was only eleven years old. How could he make a Soul Ancestor like him feel this way?

"I heard it. It seemed to come from over there." Cheng Xiao pointed in the direction completely opposite to the one Dai Chong had come from.

Dai Chong raised his head and looked into the distance along the direction Cheng Xiao pointed, his gaze passing over Cheng Xiao's figure.

"Let's go. Maybe it was this Tiger Demon Cat's mate. We should leave quickly." Unable to figure out what had changed about Cheng Xiao, Dai Chong shook his head and spoke.

"Mm, let's go." Cheng Xiao nodded and stepped into the middle of the group.

Escorted by the seven, Cheng Xiao left the area, leaving behind only the Tiger Demon Cat's corpse. Above it, a purple soul ring pulsed dimly, as though it had lost all its radiance.

No one noticed that Cheng Xiao's shadow was darker than before.

Suddenly, a pair of vicious feline eyes slowly opened within the shadow beneath Cheng Xiao's feet.

"Behave yourself, little one..."

Sensing the change in the shadow beneath him, Cheng Xiao smiled faintly and soothed it in his mind. Only then did those feline eyes slowly close, and the shadow returned to stillness.

"Damn! ****..."

Looking at the Three-Eyed Giant Ape before him, Cheng Xiao could not help cursing inwardly.

This was the fifth soul beast they had hunted. Without exception, he had successfully summoned the shadows of the previous four and brought them under his command as members of the Shadow Legion.

Only this fifth one had resisted Cheng Xiao's summons three times, causing him to fail at the very end.

"Looks like I'm still too weak right now to summon stronger shadows." Cheng Xiao felt secretly regretful.

This Three-Eyed Giant Ape was already 3,200 years old and exceptionally gifted in spiritual abilities. If it could become his Shadow Soldier, it would certainly make up for the legion's shortcomings in control-type capabilities.

"Ah, I should have kept it below three thousand years." Cheng Xiao sighed. "A man's greed is never satisfied..."

After obtaining the first soul beast shadow, Cheng Xiao had kept raising the stakes out of greed. The second had been 2,700 years old, the third 2,900 years old, and the fourth had even reached 3,000 years!

Though the process had been somewhat rocky, under three commands, he had summoned the shadowy forms of all three soul beasts without mishap.

Thus, this time, he had set his sights on the 3,200-year-old Three-Eyed Giant Ape.

Yet this time, he had failed utterly.

Perhaps the Three-Eyed Giant Ape's age was too high. Or perhaps, as a spiritual-type soul beast, its Spiritual Power was stronger, naturally making its resistance stronger. Or perhaps it was both.

In any case, Cheng Xiao had failed to summon its shadow.

For a time, Cheng Xiao was in an awful mood and wished he could tear the Three-Eyed Giant Ape into pieces.

After sighing to himself for a while, Cheng Xiao turned and left, heading toward the Soul Ancestor team.

"Big Brother, do you think this kid is really collecting soul beast data? Why do I feel like something's off?" Sixth Brother moved close to Dai Chong and whispered.

Dai Chong glanced at Sixth Brother, then looked away and continued calmly scanning their surroundings. "How so?"

"Every time he finishes, I notice that the soul beast doesn't have any additional wounds on its body. It doesn't seem right. And..."

Sixth Brother paused for a moment, and a trace of suspicion appeared on his stiff face. "I feel like that kid... Hiss... I don't know how to describe it. It's like... he keeps getting stronger. The first time I met his eyes after the last one ended, I was nearly scared into taking two steps back."

Dai Chong's expression shifted slightly. He had felt the same way, but the sensation had come out of nowhere and left him unable to make sense of it, so he had assumed it was merely an illusion.

But now, Sixth Brother's words put him on alert. It seemed he was not the only one who had noticed something wrong. Then it definitely was not an illusion. Something they did not know must have happened to that kid.

"Just do your job properly. This contract pays well." Dai Chong pondered for a while, glanced at the other five, then shook his head. "Don't think too much about the employer's business. Don't mess up the job."

Dai Chong did not want to stir up unnecessary trouble. The reward for this job was considerable; among all their employers, this one was undoubtedly the most generous.

However, Sixth Brother was unwilling to let it go so easily. Instead, he lowered his voice further and spoke into Dai Chong's ear. "Boss, do you think this kid has mastered some Secret Technique for rapidly increasing his strength?"

Dai Chong abruptly turned his head, his gaze colliding with Sixth Brother's. Greedy, excited light flashed in Sixth Brother's eyes, making Dai Chong's heart give an involuntary, heavy thump.

Dai Chong swallowed, his throat dry, and his gaze flickered. "That seems unlikely... A Secret Technique like that isn't something a merchant from a small city could possess."

On this continent, anything bearing the name Secret Technique was priceless. Every great sect regarded such things as treasures and would not easily pass them on to outsiders. For example, the Clear Sky Sect's Ring Detonation and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Heart Separation Control.

If such Secret Techniques were thrown out into the open, the commoner soul masters across the continent would fight each other bloody over them.

No matter how one looked at it, they were not something an ordinary merchant family could possess.

"Boss, think about it. He's only collecting a soul beast specimen. What is there to hide? He won't even let us watch. That obviously means he has a secret!" Sixth Brother grew more excited as he spoke. "I'm one hundred percent certain that this kid has something good in his hands. Even if it can't increase Soul Power, anything that can scare me off is definitely extraordinary!"

Dai Chong's breathing became slightly restrained, and his eyes began to flicker, as though he was tempted.

"Big Brother, how about we..."

Sixth Brother drew his thumb across his throat. A ruthless expression appeared on his scar-covered, vicious face.