Earth-Splitting Strike Subdues the Demon Bear, Five Elements Circulation Breaks the Deadlock

The bushes were violently smashed apart, and the intruder's full form was revealed beneath the faint moonlight.

It was an Earth Demon Bear with two thousand years of cultivation.

Its entire body was covered in a thick, dark-yellow layer of keratin. Its limbs were stout, and every step it took made the ground sink slightly. There was an old, deep claw mark across its chest, long since healed into a savage scar.

This demon bear had fought humans before—and survived.

Chen Xuan did not rush to attack. He lowered his center of gravity, held his dark-gold Earth-Splitting Claws before him, and took half a step back.

He was not trying to flee. He was adjusting his position.

He quickly ran through the arrangement of the four Light-Shadow Stones—fire, water, wood, and earth—in his mind.

Water nourished wood, wood fueled fire, fire birthed earth, and earth produced metal.

In theory, if the transfer from wood to fire and then to earth worked, the Wood Shadow Stone's energy would not need to come into direct contact with the Earth Shadow Stone, avoiding a head-on conflict between their attributes. The problem was that he currently lacked the Fire Shadow Stone to activate that link, so the chain could not function.

He could only use the Wood Shadow Stone to directly nourish the Earth Shadow Stone.

He would have to endure the backlash risk of wood overcoming earth.

This was Chen Xuan's current situation. His path had to begin with a costly, hard-fought battle.

The Earth Demon Bear caught the scent of a living human and let out a furious roar. Its limbs pushed off the ground, and its enormous body lunged at him with a powerful gust carrying the pungent smell of earth.

Chen Xuan did not dodge.

His legs exploded with force as he charged straight at the demon bear.

The Earth-Splitting Claws collided head-on with the bear's paw.

A shrill metallic tearing sound erupted, and sparks flew everywhere. The muddy ground beneath Chen Xuan's feet was smashed into two deep pits. His knees bent, and he nearly dropped to one knee. Gritting his teeth, he held firm.

The muscles in his arms bulged, veins standing out beneath his skin.

The blades of the Earth-Splitting Claws embedded themselves in the keratin layer of the bear's paw, but were wedged tightly in place, unable to cut any deeper.

In a contest of strength, he was at a disadvantage.

That was normal. An eleventh-rank soul power master trying to contend head-on against a two-thousand-year power-type soul beast would leave anyone else without even bones left behind. But brute strength was never what Chen Xuan had intended to test.

He took a deep breath and guided a thread of energy from the Wood Shadow Stone in his dantian toward his right arm.

The cyan wood-element energy traveled through his meridians. The instant it was about to enter the Earth Shadow Stone, an intense tearing pain exploded from his dantian.

It was not the crack widening. It was the first tangible collision between the wood and earth attributes within his body.

Wood overcame earth. Chen Xuan's body became the battlefield, the two energies tearing at each other within his meridians until his temples throbbed in agony.

He almost let go.

But he did not.

Chen Xuan forcibly changed the way the energy flowed. Rather than letting the wood-element energy strike the Earth Shadow Stone directly, he slowed it down and layered it around the Earth Shadow Stone's surface.

It was not suppression. It was nourishment.

The pain eased.

The tearing sensation remained, but at least it was under control.

A thick, earth-yellow glow lit up over the Earth Shadow Stone's surface. The Earth-Splitting Claws changed along with it, their dark-gold blades suddenly extending by a full section as rock-like patterns surfaced across the metal.

The weight of his entire arm nearly doubled.

It was heavier, but Chen Xuan knew this enhancement did not come for free. The Wood Shadow Stone's energy was being steadily consumed. He could not drag this out for long.

The Earth Demon Bear sensed the change in its prey's strength and roared in rage. Its other paw swept toward Chen Xuan's head with a fierce gust of wind.

Chen Xuan yanked back his right hand and twisted aside to evade the blow.

The bear's paw passed by the tip of his nose, the wind it stirred slicing painfully across his face.

Using the momentum of his turn, Chen Xuan swung the Earth-Splitting Claws in one fluid motion. This strike was no longer a probe—it was an all-out attack.

The dark-gold blades tore through the demon bear's toughest chest armor.

The keratin layer shattered, and flesh split open.

The demon bear howled as it staggered back. Its old wound was covered by a fresh one, blood spraying out and splattering across the fallen leaves with a sharp corrosive hiss.

Chen Xuan's right arm also paused for a moment.

It was not a problem with stamina. The crack in the Wood Shadow Stone had sent a clear stab of pain after that strike.

The crack had not widened, but it was reminding Chen Xuan that this fighting style had its limits and could not be sustained for long.

The demon bear was not dead yet.

It panted heavily, blood streaming down its chest, but the ferocity in its eyes had not diminished in the slightest.

Chen Xuan did not give it a chance to catch its breath.

He drove off the ground, using the final boost from the Earth-Splitting Claws to slip into the demon bear's blind spot from the side.

The second claw strike pierced precisely into the split wound in its chest armor.

There was no resistance. The blades went straight through its heart.

The demon bear's huge body froze.

A few wheezing breaths leaked from its throat before its massive body crashed to the ground.

The earth trembled once, sending dust into the air.

Chen Xuan pulled out the Earth-Splitting Claws and shook the blood from them.

Energy began to disperse from the Earth Demon Bear's corpse. A dense mass of earth-element energy floated from its body, circling in midair as it waited to be absorbed.

Chen Xuan did not move.

He withdrew the Earth-Splitting Claws, sat cross-legged beside the bear's corpse, and closed his eyes.

He did not need to absorb that energy. At least, not now.

He needed to confirm something else.

Chen Xuan looked inward at his dantian.

The crack in the Wood Shadow Stone was still there.

That was expected.

But he discovered that when he slowly guided the trace of earth-element aura produced by activating the Earth Shadow Stone back around the Wood Shadow Stone, an extremely faint layer of yellow appeared amid the green glow surrounding the crack.

That yellow formed a fine membrane over the crack's surface.

The crack had not healed.

But the persistent tearing sensation had eased. It was as though the tearing had been forcibly plastered over, no longer spreading outward.

Chen Xuan opened his eyes.

He lowered his head and glanced at his right palm.

"That counts as the first step. The wound is still there, but at least it isn't splitting further."

That was the answer he wanted.

The circulation of the Five Elements could not cure the crack, but it could restrain it from spreading.

This path worked. It was simply slow, and the price was steep.

The pain caused by wood overcoming earth still lingered faintly in his meridians. If he had to endure this kind of meridian-tearing pain in every battle, the burden this power system placed on his body would be terrifying.

But Chen Xuan did not care.

As long as he was heading in the right direction, what did a little pain matter?

It was still far better than Yu Xiaogang's hollow theory of "only looking at martial soul types and not at development paths."

Chen Xuan rose to his feet and brushed the dirt from his knees.

The problem with the Wood Shadow Stone's crack had temporarily stabilized for one day. The aura within his organs, scorched by the collision between wood and earth, had also calmed by more than half.

His path could continue forward.

Just then, an incomparably shrill screech rang out from the forest not far away.

The sound was sharp and grating, with the texture of metal scraping together. It pierced through layers of canopy and echoed repeatedly through the night sky.

It did not sound like a beast's roar. It was clearly the scream of something struggling at death's door.

Chen Xuan paused and listened for two seconds.

"A Man-Faced Demon Spider?"

He glanced in the direction of the sound, then looked at his dantian, which had only just settled down.

That thin earth-element protective membrane had just formed. Forcing his soul power into action to enter another fight now would be like tearing open a wound that had only just scabbed over.

Chen Xuan fell silent for two seconds, then stepped forward anyway.

He was not heading there to save anyone. He simply wanted to know what was happening.

Sometimes, what saved lives was not the hot blood of charging into the front lines, but the clear-headed awareness of where to stand in order to see the whole situation.

After taking three steps, he stopped.

A faint line of text suddenly appeared on the system panel in the lower right corner of his vision.

It was not a red warning. It was more like a record notification concerning energy fluctuations.

[Detected high-frequency energy collision. An abnormal soul power fluctuation has appeared three kilometers away from the host.]

Chen Xuan did not respond immediately, but his pace slowed slightly.

That screeching continued. A fierce battle was clearly unfolding in those woods.

Chen Xuan stepped over the dead leaves and made his way toward the sound, his shadow stretched long by the moonlight.

Tonight was destined to be anything but peaceful.

As he walked, he reached into his pocket and touched the portable multi-purpose knife he had just drawn.

This thing should be pretty useful for cutting meat.

Chen Xuan grinned and quickened his pace slightly.

As he drew closer to where the screeching came from, the smell of blood in the air became increasingly mixed and chaotic.

Aside from the Man-Faced Demon Spider's distinctive sweet, fishy odor, there was also a faint scent of burning.

Chen Xuan slowed his breathing and silently approached the edge of the battlefield under the cover of the trees.

The clearing ahead was a wreck.

Several ancient trees thick enough to require multiple people to encircle had been snapped cleanly in half, their broken ends covered in corrosive marks from purple-black venom.

A huge Man-Faced Demon Spider lay sprawled on the ground. Three of its eight long legs had been severed, and its abdominal carapace had been crushed into a horrifying depression. Green fluid spilled all over the ground.

It was not quite dead. Its remaining legs still twitched unconsciously, producing a teeth-grating scraping sound.

And directly in front of the Man-Faced Demon Spider stood a person.

Tang San.

His back was to Chen Xuan. His clothes were tattered, and the transparent wings on his back had already disappeared.

He held a small dark-gold hammer in his right hand.

The Clear Sky Hammer.

Green fluid from the Man-Faced Demon Spider still clung to the hammerhead.

Tang San's breathing was incredibly ragged, and his entire body swayed as though he might collapse at any moment, but the hand gripping the hammer remained steady.

Hidden behind a tree, Chen Xuan swept his gaze back and forth between Tang San and the Man-Faced Demon Spider.

Tang San had killed the Man-Faced Demon Spider across ranks.

According to Yu Xiaogang's theory, this was absolutely impossible.

A Grand Soul Master below rank thirty had killed a two-thousand-year Man-Faced Demon Spider alone.

If Yu Xiaogang saw this scene, he could tear up his Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls and use it as firewood.

Chen Xuan leaned against the tree trunk without making a sound.

He watched Tang San slowly put away the Clear Sky Hammer, then collapse onto the ground and gasp for breath.

The mechanism of the Silent Sleeve Arrow on Tang San's left wrist had been completely destroyed, clearly ruined during the battle just now.

He had used every trump card he had to kill that spider.

Chen Xuan raised a hand and rubbed his chin.

Tang San had charged into the forest like a madman to find Xiao Wu.

Yet he had not found Xiao Wu, only ended up fighting a Man-Faced Demon Spider here.

Was that luck good or bad?

Above the Man-Faced Demon Spider's corpse, a purple soul ring was slowly taking shape.

Tang San stared at the soul ring, his chest heaving violently.

He needed strength.

He needed greater strength to find Xiao Wu.

Tang San gritted his teeth, pushed himself up from the ground, and walked step by step toward the Man-Faced Demon Spider's corpse.

He was going to absorb that soul ring.

Chen Xuan raised an eyebrow.

A Man-Faced Demon Spider soul ring over two thousand years old had long exceeded the maximum absorption limit for a third soul ring.

The limit Yu Xiaogang had repeatedly emphasized was one thousand seven hundred and sixty years.

Tang San was gambling with his life.

Chen Xuan had no intention of stopping him.

He merely stood quietly in the shadows, watching Tang San sit cross-legged and draw the purple soul ring onto himself.

The instant the soul ring entered his body, Tang San's face turned deathly pale. His entire body began trembling violently.

Rampaging energy crashed through his body, and a fine layer of blood seeped out across his skin.

This was the price of absorbing a soul ring beyond one's rank.

Chen Xuan saw it clearly.

Tang San was gambling with his life, betting that the foundation of his twin martial souls could withstand the impact of such violent energy.

"Your path is paved with your life," Chen Xuan murmured. "Mine is forged through pain."

Everyone was struggling. They simply did it in different ways.

Just then, Chen Xuan's gaze fell upon the Man-Faced Demon Spider's corpse.

From the back of that mangled body came an extremely strange energy fluctuation.

It was not soul ring energy, but a more restrained, colder aura.

Chen Xuan narrowed his eyes.

He pulled out the portable multi-purpose knife he had just drawn from the system inventory and weighed it twice in his hand.

Tang San was fully focused on resisting the soul ring's backlash, with no time to notice the outside world.

Chen Xuan stepped out from behind the tree, his footsteps so light that he did not crush a single fallen leaf.

He circled around Tang San and walked straight to the Man-Faced Demon Spider's corpse.

With a flick of his wrist, the knife came down.

The portable knife easily sliced through the demon spider's carapace. From the disgusting pile of green bodily fluid, he picked out a chunk of purple-black bone.

External soul bone, Eight Spider Lances.

Chen Xuan looked at the faintly glowing bone on the tip of his knife and curled his lips.

Leaving this thing on the corpse would be a waste.

Without the slightest hesitation, he stored the external soul bone in the system inventory.

"Consider it tuition for teaching me how to smash spiders with a hammer."

Chen Xuan turned, preparing to leave.

He did not care whether Tang San lived or died, and he had no intention of using this bone himself. Taking it back to trade for some gold coins or keeping it as a bargaining chip for later would both be good options.

After taking only two steps, Chen Xuan suddenly stopped.

He whipped his head around and looked into the darkness deeper within the forest.

An extremely concealed yet immensely powerful presence was rapidly approaching.

Not a soul beast.

A person.

Chen Xuan swiftly retreated behind the tree where he had hidden earlier, suppressing his breathing to the lowest possible level.

A few seconds later, a black figure descended from the air and landed silently at the edge of the clearing.

The newcomer wore a tattered black robe and leaned on a cane, his entire face hidden in the shadow of his hood.

The black-robed man glanced at Tang San, who was absorbing the soul ring, then at the Man-Faced Demon Spider's corpse on the ground, its carapace sliced open.

"You moved pretty fast." The black-robed man's voice was extremely hoarse, carrying a bone-piercing chill.

He raised his cane and pointed it toward Tang San.

At the tip of the cane, a ball of dark green poisonous fire rapidly gathered.

Leaning against the tree trunk, Chen Xuan tightened his grip on the Earth-Splitting Claws once more.

He had not wanted to concern himself with whether Tang San lived or died.

But the aura emanating from the black-robed man carried a familiar earthy stench.

It was exactly the same as the scent on that Earth Demon Bear from earlier.

Chen Xuan slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, and dark golden claw blades gradually extended into the darkness.

"Steal my prey, then try to kill someone to silence them?"