All Members Receive Ten-Thousand-Year Black Rings!

The air in Mistveil Swamp carried a sickly sweet stench of decay.

Chu Yao stood atop a dead Ironbark Tree, looking down at the emerald-green bog below.

Her expression was calm, a calmness that stood out starkly within the deathly silent swamp.

"Emerald Nether Python, ten thousand years old, twenty-seven zhang long."

Chu Yao's fingertip traced the markings on the map, her voice utterly flat.

"Its venom glands are located beneath its jaw and at the tip of its tail. Its venom can melt thousand-year mystic iron instantly."

Jiang Tieyi stood behind her, fanning the air in disgust.

"This place smells worse than the latrine back home."

Chu Yao ignored him.

Su Chen stepped off the Shadow Leopard's back and landed soundlessly beside the dead tree.

He looked toward the faintly visible emerald back deep within the swamp.

"How long will your Poison Mist Formation take?"

"It's already set."

Chu Yao turned around, her face covered in a thin layer of frost.

"I came here last night while you were sleeping."

Ling Shuang muttered softly from the side, "No wonder her eye circles were so dark this morning..."

Chu Yao pretended not to hear.

She removed six black clay bottles from her waist and lined them up along the trunk.

"The Emerald Nether Python relies on absorption through its skin. My Myriad-Poison Gu Mother counters it."

She pulled the stopper from the first bottle, and a wisp of grayish-purple smoke slid down the tree trunk.

"But its hide is thick and tough. Toxins seep in too slowly from the outside. I need an opening."

"Drag it into the core of the formation and wear down thirty percent of its strength."

Su Chen nodded without another word.

Three bear roars exploded from the western side of the swamp.

Six Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears crushed through the mud and water, with Iron Wall in the lead, its golden claws cleaving the viscous surface apart.

The swamp erupted.

A massive emerald creature burst from the bog, flinging mud twenty zhang into the air.

The Emerald Nether Python's head was larger than a millstone, fury blazing in its vertical pupils.

It spat out a thick pillar of green venom. Iron Wall twisted aside and took it head-on, its left shoulder corroded into a charred wound the size of a palm.

The six bears did not retreat. They tightened their encirclement, herding the python east as though driving livestock.

To the east lay Chu Yao's killing ground.

The Emerald Nether Python sensed the danger and abruptly turned around.

Ten Purple Lightning Thunder Eagles dove from the clouds, lightning weaving into a massive net that sealed off the northern exit.

The Emerald Nether Python was forced into the formation.

Grayish-purple poison mist surged madly from the cracks in the ground.

Chu Yao stood above, forming seals with both hands as the Gu Mother phantom behind her spread its translucent wings.

A quarter-hour of frenzied struggling.

The Emerald Nether Python's movements grew increasingly sluggish, dark liquid seeping from the surface of its scales.

That was the sign of its defenses being stripped away layer by layer.

"Almost."

Chu Yao jumped down from the dead tree.

She walked into the poison mist. The fumes that could corrode mystic iron swirled around the hem of her skirt, obedient to an absurd degree.

The Emerald Nether Python sensed the threat and lunged desperately, its fangs aimed at Chu Yao's throat.

Chu Yao extended her right hand.

A golden gu insect flew from her palm, its wings vibrating.

The insect drilled into the snake's mouth and traveled down its throat.

Gu Mother Soul Devourer.

The Emerald Nether Python's body convulsed violently three times. Then its massive shell instantly went limp and crashed into the bog, never moving again.

A black Spirit Ring rose.

Chu Yao's absorption process was unusually quiet.

The Gu Mother phantom grew increasingly solid until it completely enveloped her.

Level forty-one. Soul Ancestor.

At the instant her fourth soul skill condensed, the air within two hundred zhang changed in nature.

"Myriad Poisons Domain—Corroding Heart, Eroding Bone."

A pale-purple membrane of light spread in every direction.

Wherever it passed, weeds withered within three seconds, rotted, and turned to black ash.

Jiang Tieyi shot three hundred zhang away in a single breath.

He stared at the expanding purple death zone, his scalp tingling.

"Is this woman planning to turn the whole swamp into a dead zone?"

Chu Yao withdrew her domain and walked out expressionlessly.

"Every second a living creature remains in this domain, another layer of poison accumulates in its body."

"After ten layers, flesh and blood turn to water."

She did not continue. The residue on the ground had already provided the answer.

The next day, it was the Frosthorn Rhino.

This Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast huddled at the bottom of a glacial crevasse, its entire body covered in ice armor three cun thick.

Su Chen's tactic had only four words: "Roast it first, then freeze it."

Mo Qianye struck first, Nether Phoenix Heavenly Flame pouring down from above the crevasse.

Black flames licked at the ice armor, sending great clouds of steam soaring upward.

The three-cun-thick ice armor melted until only a thin shell remained.

The Frosthorn Rhino went mad, frantically secreting cold energy in an attempt to repair it.

But Yan Wuji was already waiting at the exit.

He pressed his right palm against the rock wall of the crevasse.

Extreme cold traveled along the veins of rock, bypassed the gap in the ice armor, and penetrated straight into the flesh.

The Frosthorn Rhino froze in place.

It lowered its head and watched the exposed skin on its chest turn blue-white as its blood froze in an instant.

"Absolute Zero."

Yan Wuji withdrew his hand.

The Frosthorn Rhino remained frozen in its roaring posture, turning into a crystalline statue.

Cracking sounds rang out everywhere as the entire Soul Beast shattered into ice fragments across the ground.

Level forty-one. Soul Ancestor.

"Profound Ice Forbidden Domain—Frozen for Ten Thousand Miles."

The temperature within five hundred zhang of the crevasse instantly fell to zero.

The stream turned solid, while moisture in the air condensed into thin needles suspended in midair.

Mo Qianye watched the white vapor from his breath turn into ice grains and fall to the ground.

"When we work together from now on, stay farther away from me."

Yan Wuji smiled politely. "Certainly."

Jiang Tieyi's hunt was the simplest—and the most brutal.

The Ten-Thousand-Year Ironhide Earth Bear ranked among the top three in defense within its tier.

This time, Su Chen drew no map and made no positioning plans.

"Fight it head-on."

Jiang Tieyi grinned, baring his white teeth.

"That's how it should've been."

Ten Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears formed an arrowhead formation and rammed head-on into the Ironhide Earth Bear.

Fists smashed against iron armor, every collision shaking cracks into the earth.

Iron Wall was swatted away, then got up and charged again.

Little Gold was stomped into the dirt, crawled back out, and clamped down hard on its hind leg.

Half an hour later, the Ironhide Earth Bear's breastbone cracked.

Jiang Tieyi overlapped his fists, poured all his soul power into them, and rammed himself into the Earth Bear's chest.

The crack of breaking bones was sharp enough to make teeth ache.

Level forty-one. Soul Ancestor.

"Wild Gravity Field—A Thousand Jun Falls to Earth."

Jiang Tieyi stomped the ground.

Within three hundred zhang, gravity instantly doubled.

Chu Yao lost her footing and dropped to one knee, killing intent immediately flashing in her eyes.

"Turn it off!"

"Oh, sorry." Jiang Tieyi withdrew it with an awkward grin.

Ye Linglong's battle made no sound.

The Ten-Thousand-Year Phantom Moth released hypnotic scale powder beneath the moonlight.

Ten Shadow Leopards sealed off its retreat, yet did not move.

Ye Linglong stood directly beneath the Phantom Moth, looking straight up at it.

A tangible mental shock surged from her crimson pupils.

The Phantom Moth's wings began to tremble, and its scales fell away in large patches.

A thin line of blood ran from Ye Linglong's nostril.

She did not wipe it away. A ring of crimson light burst from her eyes.

The Phantom Moth dropped straight from the sky, its compound eyes shattering into gray-white powder.

Its mental core had completely collapsed.

Level forty-one. Soul Ancestor.

"Annihilation: Myriad Forms Return to Ruin!"

She stared at a tree in the distance.

The birds perched on it fell at the same time, struggling on the ground for a long while before flying away crookedly.

"Any target I lock onto loses all senses within three seconds."

"They can't see, can't hear, and can't even sense soul power."

Yan Wuji commented, "That move cuts off all hope of survival."

Deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, atop a huge boulder struck by lightning.

Six people stood in a row.

Four Spirit Rings glowed beneath each of their feet.

Two purple, two black.

That abnormal Spirit Ring configuration was so oppressive that no Soul Beast dared approach within a hundred zhang.

Su Chen looked at them.

Mo Qianye's burns, Chu Yao's dark eye circles, Yan Wuji's torn clothes, Jiang Tieyi's blood scabs, Ye Linglong's bloodstains.

Three days, five Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.

The corner of his mouth twitched.

"One person left."

Su Chen looked toward Ling Shuang.

Ling Shuang sat cross-legged at the edge of the boulder, her feet dangling and swinging in the air.

She held the worn-out beast-hide map, her fingertip resting on the deepest part of the forest.

The old man had marked that spot with three red circles.

"Where is your target?"

Ling Shuang turned the map over.

A faded line of writing covered the back.

—South of this realm, three beasts rule together. Intruders die.

Chu Yao's pupils contracted sharply.

"That is the boundary of the Three Great Guardian Beasts' territory."

Ling Shuang rolled up the map, jumped down from the boulder, and dusted off her skirt.

"My target is right on the boundary."

Her eyes curved into crescents as she smiled, looking utterly harmless.

But at that moment, no one could ignore the madness hidden beneath that smile.