Version's Chosen Gather, but the Eras Are Misaligned

These Soul Beasts could only display their full strength in the sea. Once they reached land, they became helpless fish at the mercy of others.

That was true even on land, let alone in the air.

Bai Chen had wings, while it did not. That factor alone was enough to decide its fate.

The Evil God Hook shot out like lightning, instantly piercing through the Sea Soul Beast. Black mist rose from it and coiled around the creature, corroding it into scraps in an instant.

As it died, pure energy flowed through the Evil God Hook into Bai Chen's body. He could clearly feel his soul power rise by a noticeable amount, and even his spiritual power seemed to have increased somewhat.

Xue E was already dumbfounded beside him.

As a Soul Emperor, he could tell at a glance that the creature Bai Chen had instantly killed was a Century Soul Beast.

Under normal circumstances, even a Soul Elder would need to exchange a few moves with a Century Soul Beast before defeating it. Who could kill one in a single move like Bai Chen?

Bai Chen slowly landed on the ground and set Na'er down.

He looked at his palm, then suddenly clenched his right fist.

What terrifying power.

As a sacred attribute capable of rivaling the holy attribute, the evil attribute was inherently no weaker than ordinary ultimate attributes.

And Bai Chen's attribute was Ultimate Evil Power. As its name suggested, it was evil taken to the extreme.

The might of that ultimate among ultimates had just been displayed in full.

At his current strength, not only could he easily defeat Century Soul Beasts, but even Millennium Soul Beasts would be no trouble. Only Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts could probably let him taste defeat.

Time Freeze

And that Sea Soul Beast was merely the beginning.

Very soon, as the battle continued, the second, third, and more and more Sea Soul Beasts died at Bai Chen's hands.

Through this process, he finally understood why Evil Soul Masters advanced so quickly.

After only ten minutes of fighting, his soul power had directly risen by a level, reaching level twenty-three.

He was fully confident that if he let himself slaughter without restraint, then as long as he did not die young, becoming a Super Douluo before the age of twenty like the Dark Blood Demon would be effortless.

Power had come far too easily. Devouring truly was one of the simplest and most direct cultivation methods. It was practically addictive.

Therefore, when Bai Chen killed the twentieth Soul Beast, he suddenly stopped.

"Young master..."

Xue E looked at Bai Chen, who was covered in blood, not knowing what to say.

Not far away, Xu Xiaoyu and Xu Xiaoyan wore incredibly complicated expressions. They had clearly been frightened by Bai Chen's sudden frenzied slaughter.

Bai Chen took a deep breath and waved a hand at Xue E.

"Uncle Xue, I'll return to the ship first."

He could not keep killing. He needed to calm down first, or the urge to slaughter would truly take control of his mind.

Fortunately, after that bout of killing, Bai Chen felt that the agitation of his evil attribute had subsided. At least he would no longer feel physically uncomfortable if he did not kill.

He turned and walked toward the soul-hunting ship.

"Young master, watch out!"

At that moment, Bai Chen suddenly heard Xue E's panicked shout.

At the same time, the ice beneath his feet cracked layer by layer. A massive maw appeared beneath the fractured ice and lunged to bite him.

A Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

Bai Chen made the judgment almost instantly.

Perhaps because he stood at the brink of death, his mind operated faster than ever before, and one option after another appeared in his thoughts.

Block it? Impossible. He did not currently have the ability to confront a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast head-on.

Wait for help? That would not work. There was still some distance between Xue E and him. By the time Xue E arrived, he would already be inside the fish's belly.

Dodge? That would not work either. His opponent was simply too fast, and he could not escape the Sea Soul Beast's attack range.

Countless countermeasures flashed through Bai Chen's mind in an instant, and he quickly reached a conclusion—

Since the enemy was too fast for him to dodge, all he needed to do was stop it.

"Tick, tock..."

In a daze, Bai Chen seemed to hear the sound of a clock ticking.

Colorless energy surged forth, and the surrounding space twisted slightly. As yellow light flared, Bai Chen's first soul skill activated successfully.

The Sea Soul Beast's body immediately froze in midair, completely motionless, as though someone had pressed a pause button and stopped its time.

The pause lasted only a short moment—one second. After that second passed, the Sea Soul Beast regained its freedom and continued its previous movement through inertia.

But in such a situation, one second was enough to determine life and death.

During that second in which it was frozen, Bai Chen did not flee. Instead, he landed atop its head and drove the Evil God Hook deep into its eye socket. Black mist rose, instantly corroding and devouring its entire brain.

For the vast majority of creatures, the eyeballs that gathered information from the outside world were among their most vulnerable parts.

If he had attacked anywhere else, Bai Chen's Evil God Hook truly would not have been able to pierce this Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's defenses.

But even a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast did not have eyes tough enough to withstand the Evil God Hook's corrosion.

In terms of raw strength, Bai Chen was far inferior to a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. But if he used his strongest attack against its weakest point, then he would undoubtedly be the winner.

The outcome had already been decided.

"Roar—"

With its brain being corroded by the terrifying black mist, the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast immediately let out a mournful howl and violently thrashed its body.

Even at this point, it still had the strength to resist.

Countless waves surged toward Bai Chen and the creature, seemingly intending to smash Bai Chen to pieces along with it.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, several flashes of silver sword light swept past. In less than a breath, they cut the severely wounded Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast into several pieces.

Xue E arrived with a silver longsword in hand, killing the Sea Soul Beast and saving Bai Chen.

Having completely lost its life, the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast no longer had the strength to resist Bai Chen's Devouring Power. The part of its corpse still connected to the Evil God Hook rapidly decayed under the Devouring Power and turned to dust.

A massive amount of energy poured in. Bai Chen felt his soul power rise again, bringing him very close to level twenty-four.

"Young master, are you alright?"

Xue E's concerned call pulled Bai Chen back to reality. He froze for a moment, then broke into a brilliant smile.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Thank you, Uncle Xue. If not for you, I would've died."

"..."

Xue E stared speechlessly at Bai Chen.

If he had not seen it with his own eyes, he truly would have found it difficult to believe that the Bai Chen who had calmly counterattacked just now was the same boy now wearing such a cheerful smile.

That expression, so calm it was nearly cold-blooded, was rarely seen even on Soul Masters who had killed countless people.

If he put himself in Bai Chen's position, he absolutely would not have been able to launch a counterattack in an instant.

It had nothing to do with Martial Souls or soul skills. Reaction speed, analytical ability, courage, and judgment were all indispensable. Only warriors tempered through countless battles could make such a response.

His young master was clearly not a battle-hardened warrior. Could it be that he was a born combat genius?

Xue E pondered the question in confusion.

There had simply been too many unexpected events today, and his mind could not process them all at once.

"Brother Bai Chen!"

On the other side, Bai Chen heard an urgent cry from behind him. He instinctively turned around and caught Xu Xiaoyan as she rushed into his arms.

Only when he looked closely did he realize that Xu Xiaoyan had been frightened to tears. She clung tightly to Bai Chen, as if she feared he would disappear the next second.

Bai Chen smiled bitterly and patted her back.

"Alright, don't cry so hard. Aren't I fine?"

"—!"

However, his words did not comfort her in the slightest. Instead, Xu Xiaoyan cried even harder.

When she had seen Bai Chen coldly killing so many Sea Soul Beasts earlier, she had actually been a little afraid.

As a six-year-old girl, how could she have ever seen such a scene? For a moment, she had even wondered whether the person standing before her was not the gentle, humorous older brother next door, but a murderer.

But when she saw him hanging between life and death beneath the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's jaws, that fear was immediately replaced by an even greater terror.

It was the first time she had seen someone close to her fall into a life-and-death crisis. In that instant, she had thought she was going to lose Bai Chen forever.

Fortunately, it had lasted only an instant—not even half a second—before Bai Chen counterattacked and killed the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

Xu Xiaoyu also walked over with lingering fear and asked, "What was that soul skill you used? Why did it stop moving the moment you activated it?"

As Bai Chen gently patted Xu Xiaoyan's back, he chuckled.

"My first soul skill is called Time Freeze."

The Resolve to Protect

The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger possessed Evil Power capable of rivaling the sacred power of the Seraphic Angel, but evil was not actually its only strongest attribute.

Among its six attributes, its time attribute was also capable of rivaling its evil attribute.

Unlike Ultimate Evil Power, which specialized in offense, the time attribute itself did not possess particularly strong offensive capabilities.

Yet it was one of the strongest control attributes. In terms of profundity, perhaps only the Power of Destiny he had mastered in the Douluo I Era could compare to it.

The reason he had been able to preserve his life in that critical moment was precisely because of this incomparably powerful time attribute.

Time Freeze's effect was to freeze an individual's time for one second. It was an extremely simple, brutal, and powerful soul skill.

Do not underestimate that single second of stagnation. One second could decide many things on a battlefield, especially in a life-or-death situation like before. It was an ultimate life-saving skill.

In Bai Chen's view, abilities like Time Freeze or time stop were essentially a form of "refusing interaction."

Combat was generally mutual. Only when both sides exchanged attacks could it be called a battle, while few would call a one-sided massacre a battle.

But an ability like Time Freeze could fundamentally overturn that principle. Freezing an enemy's time was equivalent to forcibly removing them from battle, refusing every interaction with one's opponent and locking in victory through a nearly cheating method.

Unfortunately, Bai Chen was still not strong enough. What he had learned was ultimately only the ability to pause a single individual for one second. If he one day awakened a domain skill capable of freezing the time of everything within its range, then he would truly have reached mastery.

After hearing Bai Chen's explanation, Xu Xiaoyu could not help twitching the corner of his mouth.

"You brat... Having innate level twenty soul power was one thing, but why is your soul skill this absurd too..."

Xu Xiaoyu was also a Great Soul Master, and he was even a level twenty-eight Great Soul Master. In terms of total soul power, Bai Chen still could not compare to him even after killing so many Soul Beasts.

But in terms of combat power, the two were not on the same level at all.

Among the Soul Beasts Bai Chen had slaughtered like pigs and dogs earlier, quite a few were opponents Xu Xiaoyu would need a hard fight to defeat. This Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast that Bai Chen had severely injured was an existence he could not handle at all.

His talent was considered fairly good within the family, yet he had been left far behind by a child eight years younger than him. That truly made him feel somewhat dejected.

Na'er also walked over at this moment. Her emotions had not fluctuated as intensely as Xu Xiaoyan's, but traces of fear could still be seen on her face.

Her voice trembled slightly as she asked, "Brother, you weren't hurt, were you?"

"Don't worry. I wasn't."

Bai Chen smiled gently and shook his head at her.

The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was a Martial Soul that naturally possessed the ability to fly. No matter when, aerial units always held a superior position.

Those Sea Soul Beasts could not even touch him earlier, let alone injure him.

Although he looked completely unconcerned, Na'er clearly could not accept things so calmly. She lowered her head and softly asked, "Why do humans and Soul Beasts have to fight each other to the death?"

"That's normal."

Bai Chen sighed helplessly. He set down Xu Xiaoyan, who had calmed down somewhat, then crouched before Na'er and spoke softly.

"For Soul Masters, killing Soul Beasts and absorbing Soul Rings and Soul Bones is the simplest and most direct way to grow stronger. And Soul Beasts cannot possibly obediently offer themselves up to die, so conflict between the two sides is difficult to avoid."