Eliminating the Ice Staff Youth

A trace of disdain appeared at the corner of Xie Xie's lips. "Is that a humanoid soul beast? Humanoid soul beasts can talk now? Their evolution is pretty impressive."

A cold glint flashed through the ice staff youth's eyes as he pointed his ice staff at Xie Xie.

In an instant, a pale-blue ice wheel flew out, shooting straight toward Xie Xie.

Xiling instantly stepped in front of Xie Xie. He reached out with his right hand, grabbed, and squeezed. The ice wheel was crushed to pieces.

"I'm very curious. You were there just now, so you should have seen me wipe out that beast tide. Who gave you the courage to jump out at a time like this and say something like that?"

Seeing his attack blocked so easily, deep wariness flashed through the ice staff youth's eyes. However, as if he had thought of something, he regained his confidence.

"Of course I saw it. But precisely because I saw it, I dared to show myself."

"A large-scale soul skill capable of killing over a thousand soul beasts at once must have consumed a great deal of your soul power, right? Even if you're strong, how much soul power do you have left now, Xiling?"

The ice staff youth's baffling confidence left Xiling at a loss.

To be honest, that large-scale Spatial Strangulation had indeed consumed quite a bit of his soul power, but only around forty percent.

Seeing Xiling fall silent, the ice staff youth became even more certain that his guess was correct, and the last trace of doubt in his heart vanished.

However, the girl behind him did not think so. She tugged on the ice staff youth's sleeve and whispered, "Brother, how about we forget it? I feel like that person is really scary."

"Don't be afraid. He's just a paper tiger right now, strong on the outside but weak within." The ice staff youth comforted his younger sister.

Then, the purple soul ring on his body lit up. "Third Soul Skill, Ice Fury!"

At the tip of the ice staff, a dense mass of incomparably pure ice-element energy began to erupt wildly, and a spear slowly condensed into shape.

The ice spear was around two meters long, with a faint demonic pattern flickering across it. Just looking at it, the five members of Zero Class could feel the tremendous threat it contained.

They were completely certain that none of the five of them could withstand this attack.

"It's not too late for you to withdraw on your own," the ice staff youth issued his final warning.

"Ha..." Xiling sighed. "You don't understand the gap in our strength, yet you still dared attack me. I truly don't know where your confidence comes from."

His utter disregard made the ice staff youth's expression darken. He pointed his ice staff at Xiling.

The ice spear instantly turned into a streak of blue light and shot forward, so fast it was like lightning.

At the same time, the void behind Xiling trembled, and the Subspace Spear tore through space, meeting the incoming ice spear.

The two collided with a crisp crack. The two-meter ice spear held on for less than a moment before its tip began to shatter inch by inch, its ice-element energy scattering in every direction.

"How is this possible?!" The ice staff youth's pupils contracted sharply. He had never imagined that his strongest single-target soul skill would be so utterly powerless.

But it was already too late. The Subspace Spear shattered the ice spear without losing any momentum, piercing straight through his chest before he could press the rescue signal device in his hand.

At the critical moment, the ice staff youth fiercely shoved his younger sister behind him away, preventing her from being caught in the attack.

The searing pain wracked his body, making the ice staff youth stagger as his body turned transparent. Just as he was about to leave the Spirit Ascension Platform—

Xiling's calm voice sounded by his ear. "Next time, don't be so full of yourself."

The ice staff youth was so furious that he became even more furious. In the end, he turned into a flash of light and vanished without a trace.

"He was actually pretty good. He knew to protect the person beside him first," Tang Wulin murmured. The others all agreed.

As they spoke, the spiritual energy aura that had been on the ice staff youth flew toward them and swept over all six of them. Xiling refused it, though, since it was useless to him.

"Hurry up and absorb it." After saying that, Xiling looked toward the girl whom the ice staff youth had pushed away—or rather, Xu Xiaoyan.

In the monitoring room, everyone who had witnessed the entire scene remained speechless for a long while. Every one of them had the same thought in mind: Was Xiling really human?

Inside the Spirit Ascension Platform, Xiling walked over to Xu Xiaoyan and looked her over from head to toe. So this is Xu Xiaoyan? She looks pretty cute.

A girl this cute would probably cry for a long time after one punch, huh?

Of course, he was only thinking about it and did not actually make a move.

Seeing Xiling staring at her, Xu Xiaoyan shuddered in fright. Without the slightest hesitation, she pressed the rescue signal device in her hand, turned into a streak of light, and disappeared.

Xiling: ...

Was he really that scary? Just now, he had been considering whether to let Xu Xiaoyan absorb some as well. There was so much spiritual energy that they could not possibly absorb it all anyway.

Well, that was that. He had probably already left the impression of a great demon king on her.

"You like that type?" Gu Yue had finished absorbing the energy at some point and come to his side, a faint, barely noticeable jealousy in her tone.

Xiling answered instinctively, "I wouldn't say I like them, but pretty and cute girls are always pleasing to the eye."

Only after saying it did Xiling realize something was wrong. He turned around and met Gu Yue's face, which was forcing a smile.

"Looks like you really do like that type of girl."

Hearing the obvious oddness in Gu Yue's tone, Xiling shifted his feet and deliberately moved half a step closer. The distance between them instantly narrowed.

His gaze fell directly on Gu Yue's face, carrying a hint of teasing. He lowered his voice and said word by word, "Looking at you, could it be that you're jealous?"

Her thoughts having been struck right on the mark, Gu Yue's body stiffened almost imperceptibly.

The forced smile on her face could no longer hold. The tips of her ears quietly flushed a faint red.

She instinctively turned her face away, avoiding Xiling's gaze at such close range, and stubbornly said, "What nonsense are you talking about? I'm not."

Seeing Gu Yue like this, a faint smile appeared on Xiling's lips, and he gave up on teasing her further.

However, it was only then that he noticed the two yellow soul rings beneath Gu Yue's feet. "You broke through to Rank 20?"

That kind of progress would have been decent for an ordinary genius, but for Gu Yue, the Silver Dragon King undergoing cultivation anew, it seemed exceptionally slow.

I should find a chance to remind her.

Not long afterward, Tang Wulin and the others had also finished absorbing the spiritual energy. Every one of them had reached the limit that their spiritual power could bear.

Looking at how much spiritual energy remained unabsorbed, regret flashed through all of their eyes.

It was not only human soul masters who could absorb spiritual energy; soul beasts could refine it as well.

The remaining spiritual energy here would soon attract other soul beasts.

Xie Xie said, "What a pity. There's still so much spiritual energy left. It'll all go to waste."

The others nodded in agreement.

Xiling rolled his eyes at them. "Enough, let's go. There's still some time before the hour is up."

Xie Xie took the lead and walked at the front. The nearby soul beasts had all been killed by Xiling, so they would hardly encounter any danger. This was the most relaxed they had been since entering the Spirit Ascension Platform.

Not long after the six of them left the area, a dark golden flash suddenly flickered ahead and vanished.