Bone Spikes and Silence? A Perfect Third Soul Ring!

Upon hearing those names, Gu Ling stopped in his tracks just as he was about to leave. His brows furrowed slightly. If it had only been one of those names, it might have been a coincidence.

But with all three names appearing together, their identities were already obvious.

"Members of the Imperial Dou Team?"

A trace of surprise flashed through Gu Ling's eyes. He had not expected to run into the Imperial Dou Team from Heaven Dou Royal Academy so soon after entering the Star Dou Great Forest.

Gu Ling did not reveal himself recklessly.

This was the Star Dou Great Forest, after all. He had no idea what was happening ahead, so he naturally would not swagger over just because he recognized a few people.

With that in mind, he swiftly restrained the fluctuations of his Soul Power, lightened his steps, and used the dense surrounding shrubs as cover as he quietly approached the source of the sounds.

The farther forward he went,

the clearer the sounds of battle became.

Boom!

A dull impact suddenly exploded through the forest.

Immediately afterward,

a shower of leaves and branches rustled down, and even the ground beneath Gu Ling's feet trembled faintly.

"That commotion..."

"Looks like that soul beast is quite large."

Gu Ling silently raised his guard.

A moment later, he passed through a thicket of dense bushes, and the view ahead suddenly opened up.

When Gu Ling finally saw the soul beast battling the soul masters clearly, his gaze tightened slightly as he said in a low voice,

"What a huge thing!"

In the center of the clearing ahead stood a ferocious soul beast four or five meters tall, constantly letting out earthshaking roars. Its appearance was extremely bizarre, looking somewhat like the result of a giant insect soul beast fused with a reptilian one.

Its body was low in front and high in the rear. Its thick torso was covered in layers of dark-purple carapace, with sharp black bone spikes growing along the edge of every plate. The plates overlapped one another like a set of naturally grown heavy armor.

It possessed six limbs. Its foremost pair of forelimbs was especially thick, and rather than ordinary beast claws, their ends were two enormous, sickle-like curved appendages.

Every time it stomped on the ground, it left behind a deep crater in the soil.

Even more terrifying was its head. Its entire skull formed a vicious triangle, with several curved horns extending backward from its forehead and both sides of its head.

Boom!

The giant beast suddenly turned, its thick tail sweeping out savagely and instantly blasting apart two trees in its path!

"This soul beast really is vicious!"

Gu Ling narrowed his eyes and spoke gravely.

In front of the giant soul beast, a figure was confronting it head-on. He was a young man in his thirties, tall and broad-shouldered, dressed in a fitted orange combat outfit.

At that moment, the young man's eyes glimmered faintly red. His hands had transformed into sharp wolf claws, while his arms and shoulders were covered in a layer of dark-red wolf fur.

Behind him, the phantom of a gigantic crimson wolf several meters tall howled toward the sky. Flames surged over its body, and the intense heat visibly distorted the surrounding air.

"Blazing Fire Wolf? Qin Ming?"

After seeing this Martial Soul, Gu Ling completely confirmed his suspicions. The young man before him was the current team instructor of the Imperial Dou Team—Qin Ming!

Qin Ming clearly had not noticed that an observer had appeared in the distance. All his attention was focused on the giant soul beast before him.

"Fourth Soul Skill, Blazing Wildfire!"

As Qin Ming let out a low shout, his fourth Soul Ring suddenly lit up, and blazing flames instantly surged madly along both his arms.

The next moment,

Qin Ming kicked off the ground.

He charged forward like a true flaming giant wolf pouncing upon its prey!

Boom!

The flaming wolf claws collided fiercely with the soul beast's massive sickle-like forelimbs. Flames erupted with a roar. The giant beast let out an angry howl, its enormous body forced half a step back, while Qin Ming used the force of the collision to swiftly retreat.

The two sides had clearly been fighting for some time.

Gu Ling did not continue watching Qin Ming. His gaze quickly passed over the battlefield and turned farther away.

Beside a large tree more than ten meters from the battlefield sat a young woman.

She wore a simple, elegant long dress, her long hair falling behind her back. A thin black veil covered her face, revealing only a pair of tranquil, clear eyes.

The girl sat cross-legged, her hands resting naturally upon her knees. Two yellow and one purple Soul Rings surrounded her body. The first two were completely stable, but the third purple Soul Ring continued flickering with light, clearly still undergoing the final stage of absorption.

"Ye Lingling, the Nine-Heart Begonia soul master?"

Gu Ling recognized her at a glance.

The wielder of the Nine-Heart Begonia Martial Soul, the Imperial Dou Team's most important support-system soul master.

To Ye Lingling's left and right stood a young man and a young woman.

The young man was not very old, yet he was slender and upright, with short golden hair and an aura markedly sharper than that of an ordinary youth. The young woman was tall, with an exceptionally rare head of short purple hair. Her eyes held a faint violet tint as she watched the distant battle with a wary expression.

Just as Gu Ling was about to continue observing,

Rustle, rustle, rustle!

A hurried scraping sound suddenly came from the dense surrounding undergrowth.

"Roar!"

Along with several low beastly growls, more than a dozen soul beasts nearly three meters long suddenly rushed out from the woods at the side!

These soul beasts resembled jackals and wolves, but their bodies were sturdier than those of ordinary wolf-type soul beasts. A row of gray-black fur ran down their backs, and their scarlet eyes were fixed firmly on Ye Lingling, who was absorbing her Soul Ring.

Clearly, the commotion caused by Qin Ming's battle with the giant soul beast, along with the lingering smell of blood in the air, had attracted other nearby soul beasts as well.

"There are more soul beasts?!"

"Tian Heng, deal with them quickly!"

Dugu Yan's expression changed as she called out sharply.

Yu Tianheng nodded at once. He had long been prepared.

Amid a series of crackling thunderclaps, his right arm suddenly swelled. Layers of blue-purple dragon scales rapidly covered his skin, and his hand directly transformed into a ferocious dragon claw!

"First Soul Skill, Thunder Dragon Claw!"

Boom!

Blue-purple lightning instantly erupted. Yu Tianheng lunged forward, and his lightning-covered dragon claw slammed directly into the head of the foremost soul beast, blasting it flying with overwhelming force.

The other two soul beasts took the opportunity to pounce from the left and right.

"Courting death!"

Seeing this, Dugu Yan let out a cold shout. Jade-green Soul Power rapidly surged from her body, and a massive jade-green serpent phantom immediately appeared behind her.

At the same time, two yellow and one purple Soul Rings slowly rose beneath her feet.

"First Soul Skill, Jade Phosphor Red Venom!"

A layer of pale-red poisonous mist instantly spread out, enveloping one of the soul beasts. With a miserable scream, it immediately melted into a puddle of pus and blood.

Boom! Boom!

Soul skills and soul beasts collided without pause. In only a few breaths, the two people originally guarding Ye Lingling had both been tied down by the suddenly appearing soul beasts.

However, Yu Tianheng and Dugu Yan were clearly not panicking. Though these soul beasts were troublesome, the strongest among them had only cultivated for around seven or eight hundred years.

With the strength of the two of them, they could completely deal with them as long as they spent a little time.

The real trouble was still the colossal creature battling Qin Ming in the distance.

However, Gu Ling, hidden in the shadows, suddenly frowned. His attention was not on Yu Tianheng and Dugu Yan. Instead, he slowly lowered his head and looked at the ground behind Ye Lingling.

"Something's wrong."

"Why does it seem like there's another soul beast beneath the ground?!"