One, two, three...
They encountered more and more Soul Beasts.
But with the experience and coordination they had built up in the Spirit Ascension Platform, the three of them were still able to handle them without any real danger.
Meanwhile, Han Li watched everything from the treetops, his arms folded and his expression blank.
He noticed that although the three of them were fighting with some difficulty, they had not faced any genuine crisis.
So he had no intention of stepping in.
And as time passed...
Everything remained normal.
Until a certain moment...
A terrifying roar rang out.
The sound came from deep within the forest, carrying a piercing force that struck straight at the depths of the soul.
And everywhere the roar passed...
All the Soul Beasts collapsed to the ground, completely motionless.
Tang Wulin and the other two froze, stopping in unspoken agreement as they looked toward the source of the sound.
Then, they saw it.
A Soul Beast emanating a faint violet glow slowly drifted out from the forest.
Its body was not particularly huge, roughly the size of a cow. Its entire body was translucent, as though it had been carved from purple crystal.
It resembled an enormous butterfly. Its wings were as thin as cicada wings and covered in silvery-white patterns that flowed continuously beneath the forest's faint light.
With every flap of its wings, tiny purple motes scattered down. They vanished the moment they landed on grass or trees, but the air nearby became slightly distorted.
The instant it appeared, Tang Wulin and the other two felt a powerful spiritual fluctuation spread from it, surging toward their minds like a tide.
Xie Xie's pupils lost focus at once, and his body swayed involuntarily.
Tang Wulin suddenly gritted his teeth, feeling a sharp pain stab through his mind.
Gu Yue gave a muffled grunt, the light in his eyes blazing brightly.
Han Li's gaze instantly narrowed.
A spiritual-attribute Soul Beast.
And one at the ten-thousand-year level.
On Douluo Continent, spiritual-attribute Soul Beasts were already exceedingly rare, far scarcer than strength-type, agility-type, or defense-type Soul Beasts.
And the translucent butterfly-shaped Soul Beast before him emitted spiritual fluctuations that were dense and profound.
It was clearly a creature that had existed for over ten thousand years.
At the same time, alarms suddenly blared in the Spirit Pagoda's monitoring room.
A piercing buzzer sounded.
Red warning lights flashed frantically throughout the room.
A staff member abruptly shot to his feet, his face changing dramatically as he stared fixedly at the translucent purple butterfly on the screen and cried out in alarm.
"Not good!"
"For some reason, the guardian of the Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform has entered the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform!"
"It's a Phantom Crystal Butterfly!"
"A ten-thousand-year Phantom Crystal Butterfly!"
His voice echoed through the room, filled with obvious panic and shock.
As one of the most precious guardians in the Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform, the Phantom Crystal Butterfly rarely left its territory of its own accord.
Ye Yingluo and Wu Changkong's expressions changed instantly.
Although the Spirit Ascension Platform...
Was divided into primary, intermediate, and advanced levels, they actually all existed within the same space.
The Spirit Pagoda merely stationed Spirit Ascension Platform guardians at fixed locations to block Soul Masters from entering higher-level regions, preventing them from encountering excessively powerful Soul Beasts and being killed.
Thus, the guardians were like thresholds.
Cross one, and one could enter a higher-level region.
Fail to cross it, and one would be blocked outside.
But today, that threshold had collapsed on its own.
The guardian of the Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform, that ten-thousand-year Phantom Crystal Butterfly, had entered the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform's region and appeared directly before Tang Wulin and the other two.
Although the Spirit Ascension Platform was virtual.
Tang Wulin and the others would not truly die.
But the sensation of death was real.
At the instant of dying in the Spirit Ascension Platform...
The brain received signals simulating death. That fear, that pain, that utter despair were almost no different from actual death.
Moreover, the Phantom Crystal Butterfly's spiritual attacks were far deadlier than those of ordinary Soul Beasts.
It did not tear apart the body. Instead, it directly invaded the consciousness, causing its victims to collapse within endless illusions.
Ordinary people could not endure that kind of stimulation either.
As a result, after experiencing death once in the Spirit Ascension Platform, many Soul Masters did not dare set foot inside it again for months.
And for three children like Tang Wulin and the others, facing the spiritual pressure of a ten-thousand-year spiritual-attribute Soul Beast for the first time, the impact would likely be even harder to bear.
At that moment, on the screen...
The Phantom Crystal Butterfly slowly beat its wings.
A faint violet halo spread from its body, expanding outward in ring after ring.
It lowered its head, its gaze like silver whirlpools as it fell upon the three tiny figures before it.
Then, an invisible spiritual shockwave erupted from its body in an instant!
Just as fear appeared on Tang Wulin and the other two's faces, Han Li appeared in front of them.
He descended from midair, landing precisely between the three of them and the Phantom Crystal Butterfly, his body coming to a steady stop.
His back faced Tang Wulin and the other two while he confronted the ten-thousand-year Soul Beast glowing with faint violet light.
The spiritual shockwave struck Han Li and scattered apart like waves crashing against a reef.
At that moment, his gaze toward the Phantom Crystal Butterfly was filled with indifference.
Although he did not know why a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast had appeared in the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, since it had appeared, he would naturally honor his promise to protect Tang Wulin and the others.
If he accepted the benefits, he had to do the job.
That was a principle he had always believed in.
At the sight of Han Li, a faint ripple seemed to pass through the Phantom Crystal Butterfly's silver whirlpool-like eyes.
It slowly beat its translucent purple wings, and the silver patterns across them began flowing faster, radiating an even brighter light.
The spiritual energy in the air gathered once more.
It was even denser than before.
Another spiritual shockwave.
But then...
Three Soul Rings slowly rose beneath Han Li's feet.
Two purple and one black!
Purple, purple, black.
The three Soul Rings slowly revolved around Han Li, radiating dense, profound light.
A Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring.
Pure, heavy, carrying a suffocating pressure.
Tang Wulin and the other two, along with Ye Yingluo, Wu Changkong, and the staff members in the room, all stared in utter shock!
A Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring.
Ten years old, third Soul Ring, ten thousand years!
Put those three phrases together, and they had already surpassed anyone's understanding of the rules of Soul Master cultivation.
Normal Soul Masters at the age of ten...
Were mostly still struggling to obtain their first or second Soul Ring.
Even the most exceptional geniuses would only have a thousand-year Soul Ring as their third Soul Ring.
Yet Han Li had directly crossed the entire thousand-year stage and raised his third Soul Ring to the ten-thousand-year level!
At that moment, Han Li's Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring lit up.
A wondrous, profound fluctuation spread from Han Li's body, covering a radius of fifteen meters.
Soul Skill: Time Control.
At that moment, everything within fifteen meters was under his control.
And within that area...
The flow of time was determined by his will.
Before you continue