First Hunt: Mo Qianye's Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast

Ling Shuang spread the beast-hide map over the gravelly ground.

Her fingertips dug tightly into the red dot at the eastern cliff.

"Ten-Thousand-Year Netherfire Crow, dual dark and fire attributes, with a wingspan exceeding forty zhang."

"Every late autumn, they migrate south along the rising air currents of this cliff."

"Tomorrow at dawn is when they will pass through."

Su Chen crouched down, his gaze sweeping over the complex contour lines.

"Flight altitude, and its instantaneous speed at full velocity."

"Fast as a bolt of black lightning."

Ling Shuang used a branch to draw a sharp diagonal line across the ground.

"The old man's notes said that when this thing flew at full speed, even a Ten-Thousand-Year Thunder Eagle could only eat its dust from behind."

"One flap carried it thirty zhang, and it had a darkfire cyclone shield around its body. Ordinary long-range attacks could not even touch its feathers."

Chu Yao stared at the line, her brows tightly furrowed.

"With that kind of maneuverability, we have no room for error."

"Then we'll drag it down from the sky."

Su Chen rose to his feet and turned his gaze toward the silent Mo Qianye.

"Qianye, can your Nether Phoenix Flame devour its darkfire?"

Mo Qianye leaned against the cold stone wall.

Half his face was hidden in shadow, with only his eyes glimmering with an eerie chill.

"Rank suppression."

"The Nether Phoenix Flame is the superior ruler of darkfire."

"But the Ten-Thousand-Year fire crow has already condensed a core. I have to get close, within ten zhang."

Jiang Tieyi crushed the berry pit in his mouth and shouted indistinctly.

"Ten zhang? You want to dance on the back of a bird flying hundreds of zhang in the air?"

No one paid attention to his yelling.

Su Chen traced a circle over the map with his finger.

"Ling Shuang, what is the maximum launching force of your Heavenly Net Immortal Vine?"

Ling Shuang froze for a second.

She looked at Su Chen, and a crazed curve suddenly lifted the corner of her lips.

"You want to fire a person like an arrow?"

"Can you do it?"

Ling Shuang crouched down and began calculating rapidly.

"If the vines are cross-woven into a launching net, sixty zhang is the limit. But I take no responsibility for the landing."

"You don't need to worry about the landing."

Su Chen marked four coordinates on the map.

"The entire plan has only one core—force the fire crow down from the clouds to within twenty zhang of the ground."

He raised his head, his tone cold as ice.

"Yan Wuji, take the western side of the cliff."

"When the fire crow's right wing passes over your head, use extreme cold to cover the airflow on its right side."

"You don't need to freeze it. Just create a momentary imbalance in temperature."

Yan Wuji nodded.

"The pressure difference will make it tilt right and force it to descend to stabilize itself."

"Smart."

Su Chen turned to Chu Yao.

"When the fire crow drops to forty zhang, release the hallucinogenic poison mist."

Chu Yao gave a number. "Thirty-five zhang. That's the limit of my poison mist's spread."

"That will be enough. A Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast has strong mental resistance, but the hallucination will make it misjudge for a fraction of a second."

Su Chen finally looked at Ling Shuang.

"Build the launchpad on the stone platform directly below the cliff."

"The moment Qianye steps onto it, you will have only one chance."

Ling Shuang swung her feet, excitement gleaming in her eyes.

"What if it doesn't fly over my head?"

"It will."

Su Chen looked into the northern night sky.

"My Thunder Eagle flock will dive from high altitude and herd it into this dead end like sheep."

His five fingers curled into a fist.

"Yan Wuji will break its balance, Chu Yao will disrupt its mind, and the Thunder Eagles will seal off its retreat."

"Ling Shuang, send Qianye into the sky."

"Qianye, you have only one chance to strike."

Mo Qianye stepped out of the shadows, his black robe snapping in the wind.

"One strike is enough."

The darkest hour before dawn.

The wind atop the cliff cut against their skin like knives.

Su Chen stood at the cliff's edge, with ten Purple Lightning Thunder Eagles concealed within the heavy clouds.

Arcs of electricity flickered discreetly between their wings.

At the base of the cliff, Ling Shuang plunged both hands into the soil.

Dozens of thick vines writhed wildly, weaving an impenetrable giant net across the stone platform.

She repeatedly adjusted the tension of the vines as though calibrating a massive crossbow capable of slaying gods.

"Too tight, and it will smash the person to pieces. Too loose, and they won't reach the target."

She muttered to herself, sweat sliding down from her temples.

Chu Yao stood behind her, three specially made bamboo tubes already unsealed.

They contained deadly poison mixed with third-grade Mind-Bewitching Flower pollen.

Mo Qianye sat cross-legged at the edge of the stone platform.

The phantom of the Nine Netherworld Phoenix flickered behind him.

He compressed all the soul power in his body, every inch of his meridians faintly aching from the overload.

A trace of lead-gray light appeared on the horizon.

Su Chen's spiritual power suddenly caught a violent surge of heat.

"It's here."

Amid the northern clouds, a dark-red fireball tore through the air at terrifying speed.

It was darkfire compressed to the absolute limit.

The Ten-Thousand-Year Netherfire Crow.

Its wingspan stretched five zhang, and magma-like patterns flowed along the edges of its black feathers.

Every flap of its wings left behind a scorched trail in the air.

"Move."

Su Chen's voice exploded in the minds of every Thunder Eagle.

Ten streaks of purple lightning erupted above the clouds at once.

The Thunder Eagle flock formed an encirclement from three directions, their piercing cries tearing through the sky.

The fire crow sensed the threat. It let out a shrill screech and dove sharply downward.

Two hundred zhang.

One hundred and fifty zhang.

"Yan Wuji!"

On the western side of the cliff, Yan Wuji thrust both palms forward.

The soul power of the Profound Ice Dragon transformed into an invisible field of extreme cold, instantly cutting off the hot airflow beneath the fire crow's right wing.

The enormous black body swayed violently in the air.

Its lift vanished, and the fire crow fell to the right like a meteor.

One hundred zhang.

Eighty zhang.

The fire crow frantically beat its wings, trying to regain control.

But the Thunder Eagle flock above had already sealed off every route upward.

It could only keep descending.

Sixty zhang.

Fifty zhang.

"Chu Yao!"

At the base of the cliff, three streams of purplish-gray smoke shot into the sky.

The instant the fire crow plunged into the mist, its dark-red eyes went unfocused for a moment.

It mistook the hard cliff wall for the open mouth of a valley and rammed straight toward it.

Twenty-five zhang.

Twenty zhang.

"Now!"

Ling Shuang let out a sharp cry and slammed both hands downward.

The vine launching net, charged for so long, exploded with a thunderous boom.

Mo Qianye became a streak of black light, shooting straight into the sky.

The wind roared past his ears.

Fifteen zhang.

Ten zhang.

Mo Qianye and the fire crow faced each other head-on in midair.

He could even smell the sulfurous stench pouring from the beast's mouth.

"Nether Phoenix Sky-Splitting Slash!"

The phantom of the Nine Netherworld Phoenix fully solidified.

Pure black flames ignited in Mo Qianye's right palm, a light that devoured everything.

Boom!

The two forms of darkfire collided in midair.

The shield the fire crow took such pride in was as fragile as paper before the Nether Phoenix Flame.

His palm pierced through its breastbone.

Mo Qianye's fingers clamped tightly around the searing darkfire core.

The fire crow's screech stopped abruptly.

The two figures crashed heavily toward the ground.

Ling Shuang had already woven a second cushioning net.

Bang!

The fire crow's corpse smashed a deep crater into the ground.

Mo Qianye landed atop the vine net and used the rebound to flip onto the ground.

His right hand was smoking.

His flesh had been scorched black by the intense heat, yet he did not even furrow his brow.

A jet-black Spirit Ring slowly emerged above the fire crow's corpse.

Ten thousand years.

Su Chen leaped down from the cliff, and the Shadow Leopard caught him steadily.

"Absorb it."

Without wasting words, Mo Qianye dropped to one knee and pressed his right hand onto the Spirit Ring.

Black streams of light surged wildly into him along his arm.

It was the final frenzied backlash of the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

Mo Qianye's slender body trembled slightly, but the Nether Phoenix phantom behind him grew ever larger.

His soul power level surged wildly at that moment.

Thirty-eight.

Thirty-nine.

Forty.

Forty-one!

Soul Venerable breakthrough, advancing to Soul Ancestor!

The fourth Spirit Ring bloomed steadily beneath his feet.

Mo Qianye rose to his feet.

Black flames flowed silently around him, and the rock beneath his feet instantly turned to dust.

"Fourth Soul Skill—Nether Phoenix Heaven-Burning Array."

He lowered his palm.

With him at the center, black flames instantly covered the ground within three hundred zhang.

There was no explosion, only absolute dissolution.

Every weed, shattered stone, and remnant vanished into nothingness the instant it touched the black flames.

Ling Shuang hurriedly withdrew the vines underground in fright.

"Hey! We're on the same side!"

Mo Qianye withdrew his hand.

The black flames on the ground quietly faded, leaving behind only a stretch of scorched earth as smooth as a mirror.

He looked at his hands. The bottleneck that had plagued him for two years had completely shattered that night.

Su Chen stepped forward and tossed a roll of bandages into his arms.

"Wrap it up. Chu Yao will apply medicine for you."

Mo Qianye caught the bandages, his fingertips brushing over the rough cloth.

He looked at Su Chen, and the chill in his eyes finally faded a little.

"First hunt, done."

Su Chen looked at Ling Shuang.

"The next target."

Ling Shuang unfolded the map and pointed to a blood-red region in the southwest filled with deadly poison.

"Mistveil Swamp. The Ten-Thousand-Year Emerald Nether Python."

She looked at Chu Yao, smiling until her eyes curved into crescents.

"Sister Chu, it's your turn now."

Chu Yao's face remained cold.

"Don't call me sister."

"Okay, Sister Chu."