Time Freeze / The Resolve to Protect

These Soul Beasts could only unleash their full strength in seawater. Once they reached land, they became helpless fish waiting to be slaughtered.

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

Bai Chen had wings, while it did not. That factor alone was enough to determine 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 dregs in an instant.

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

Xue E stood nearby, utterly stunned.

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

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

Bai Chen slowly descended to the ground and set Na'er down.

He looked at his palm and suddenly clenched his right fist.

What terrifying power.

As a sacred attribute capable of rivaling the Holy Attribute, the Evil Attribute was already no weaker than an ordinary Ultimate Attribute.

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

The might of this ultimate among ultimates had just been displayed in all its glory.

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

Time Freeze

And that Sea Soul Beast had merely been the beginning.

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

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

After fighting for only ten minutes, his Soul Power had directly risen by an entire level, reaching level twenty-three.

He had every confidence that if he let himself slaughter freely, then so long as he did not die prematurely, becoming a Super Douluo before the age of twenty like the Dark Blood Demon would be easy.

Power had come far too easily. Devouring truly was one of the simplest and most direct methods of cultivation. 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, and did not know what to say.

Not far away, Xu Xiaoyu and Xu Xiaoyan wore equally complicated expressions. Bai Chen's sudden mad slaughter had clearly frightened them.

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

"Uncle Xue, I'm going back to the ship first."

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

Fortunately, after that round of slaughter, Bai Chen could feel that the agitation of the Evil Attribute had subsided. He would no longer feel physically uncomfortable just from refraining from killing.

He turned and walked toward the Soul-Hunting Ship.

"Young Master, watch out!"

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

At the same time, the ice beneath his feet cracked layer by layer. A gigantic mouth emerged from beneath the fractured ice and bit toward him.

A Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

Bai Chen made the judgment almost instantly.

Perhaps because he stood at the brink of life and death, Bai Chen's mind worked faster than ever before. One option after another appeared in his thoughts.

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

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

Dodge? That was impossible as well. The opponent was simply too fast for him to 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 evade, he only needed to 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 successfully activated his first Soul Skill.

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

The pause was extremely brief, lasting only one second. After that second passed, the Sea Soul Beast regained its freedom and continued its previous movement through inertia.

Unfortunately, in such a situation, one second was enough to decide life and death.

Rather than fleeing during that second when it was frozen, Bai Chen landed atop its head. The Evil God Hook plunged deeply into its eye socket, and black mist rose up, instantly corroding and devouring its entire brain.

For the vast majority of creatures, the eyes used to gather information from the outside world were among their weakest parts.

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

But even a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's eyeballs were not 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 victor.

The outcome had been decided.

"Roar—"

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

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

Countless waves surged toward Bai Chen and the Sea Soul Beast, as though it intended to smash Bai Chen to pieces along with itself.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, several silver sword flashes streaked through the air. In less than a breath, they severed the heavily wounded Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast into several pieces.

Xue E arrived with a silver longsword in hand. He killed the Sea Soul Beast and saved 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 portion of its corpse still attached to the Evil God Hook rapidly decayed under the Devouring Power and turned into dust.

A massive amount of energy poured into him. 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 bright smile.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Thank you, Uncle Xue. I would have died without you."

"..."

Xue E stared wordlessly at Bai Chen.

If he had not witnessed it himself, he would have found it difficult to imagine that Bai Chen, who had calmly launched a counterattack moments ago, was the same boy now wearing such a cheerful smile.

That expression, calm to the point of seeming cold-blooded, was rarely seen even among Soul Masters who had killed countless people.

Putting himself in Bai Chen's place, if he had faced that same desperate situation, he absolutely could not have completed a counterattack in an instant.

This had nothing to do with Martial Souls or Soul Skills. Reaction speed, analytical ability, courage, and judgment were all indispensable. Only a battle-hardened warrior could make such a response.

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

Xue E pondered this question in confusion.

Too many unexpected things had happened today. For the moment, his mind could barely process them all.

"Brother Bai Chen!"

From 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 after taking a closer look did he realize that Xu Xiaoyan had been frightened into tears. She hugged Bai Chen tightly, as though afraid he would vanish the next second.

Bai Chen gave a wry smile and patted her back.

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

"—!"

However, his words did not comfort Xu Xiaoyan at all. Instead, they made her cry even harder.

When she had seen Bai Chen coldly slaughter 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 anything like that? For a moment, she had even wondered whether the person standing before her was not the gentle, humorous boy next door, but a murderous demon.

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

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

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

Xu Xiaoyu also walked over with lingering fear and asked,

"What was that Soul Skill you used? Why did it freeze there without moving the moment you activated it?"

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

"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 Holy Power of the Seraphic Angel, but the Evil Attribute was not actually its only strongest attribute.

Among the six attributes it possessed, the Time Attribute was also capable of rivaling the Evil Attribute.

Unlike Ultimate Evil Power, which specialized in offense, the Time Attribute itself was not particularly strong in terms of attack.

Yet it was one of the strongest control attributes. In terms of mystery, 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 largely due to this incomparably powerful Time Attribute.

Time Freeze could freeze an individual's time for one second. It was an extremely simple, direct, and powerful Soul Skill.

Do not underestimate that one second of stillness. On the battlefield, that second could determine many things. Especially in a life-or-death situation like before, it was an ultimate lifesaving skill.

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

What people generally called battle was a two-sided exchange. Only when both sides fought back and forth could it be considered a battle. Few people would call one-sided slaughter a battle.

Yet abilities like Time Freeze could overturn that concept at its root. Freezing an enemy's time was equivalent to forcibly removing them from the battle, refusing all interaction with one's opponent and locking in victory through methods that were practically cheating.

Unfortunately, Bai Chen was still not strong enough. What he had learned was merely the ability to pause one individual for a second. If he someday awakened a domain skill that could freeze the time of every existence within its range, then he would truly have mastered it.

After hearing Bai Chen's explanation, Xu Xiaoyu could not help twitching his lips.

"You brat... Innate level twenty is one thing, but why are your Soul Skills so absurd too...?"

Xu Xiaoyu was also a Soul Grandmaster, and he was even a level twenty-eight Soul Grandmaster. In terms of total Soul Power, Bai Chen still could not match him even after killing so many Soul Beasts.

But in terms of combat strength, the two were not even on the same level.

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

His talent was considered quite good within his family, yet he had been left far behind by a child eight years younger than himself. He could not help feeling somewhat dejected.

Na'er also walked over at that 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 came with flight ability. No matter when, aerial units always held the high ground.

Those Sea Soul Beasts had not even been able to touch him, let alone injure him.

Although he looked utterly unconcerned, Na'er could not accept it so easily. 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, crouched before Na'er, and said 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 just wait obediently to be killed, so conflict between the two sides is difficult to avoid."