Hunting a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast

The air smelled different.

Chu Yao's poison domain had been left behind, and that familiar sweet, fishy scent had completely faded.

The farther north they went, the older the forest became.

The canopies of massive trees formed an impenetrable black net, slicing the sky into countless shattered specks of light.

Even at noon, the woods were as dim as dusk.

Su Chen's gaze swept over a cluster of shrubs.

The breaks were clean, roughly four feet above the ground—signs that they had been gnawed by a large herbivorous soul beast.

But the broken surfaces had already dried and yellowed. They were old marks, at least three days old.

The herbivorous soul beasts here had all fled.

Within a thousand meters, there was only deathly silence.

No birds or beasts remained, and even the insects made no sound.

Only the heavy footsteps of ten Fearclaw Bears beat out a monotonous rhythm across the dead branches and fallen leaves.

Iron Wall's enormous nostrils flared, and a muffled growl of warning rolled from deep within its throat.

Su Chen waved a hand, signaling them to stop.

The ten mountain-like beasts froze instantly. Their diamond-shaped formation silently tightened, shielding the three of them at its absolute center.

"The Ten-Thousand-Year Beast Domain."

Su Chen slid down from Iron Wall's back and walked toward a massive tree.

On its rough bark, he found what he had been looking for.

Three claw marks.

They were extraordinarily thin and shallow, nearly blending into the tree bark's natural grain.

Su Chen pressed the pad of his finger against one of the claw marks.

It was unnervingly smooth.

It had been cut, not torn.

The spacing and depth of all three claw marks were completely identical, precise down to the millimeter, as though they had been carved by the most sophisticated instrument.

"A Nether Shadow Leopard."

Mo Qianye stepped closer, his brows tightly furrowed.

"The cut surfaces are evenly deep." Su Chen slowly traced the marks with his fingertip. "When ordinary soul beasts claw at something, they exert force in an arc. The marks are deepest where they strike and shallowest at the end."

"Only in the Shadow Escape state, when its claws are condensed into the pure law of cutting, can it achieve such precision."

He raised his fingertips to his nose and sniffed them.

"The sap has not fully oxidized. It has been less than two hours."

Chu Yao unconsciously stepped closer, staring at the three claw marks. A trace of focus flashed through her amber eyes.

The gourd at her waist swayed faintly, as if it had sensed something.

Su Chen closed his eyes.

Deep within his consciousness, the invisible Void Throne hummed softly.

An ancient perception that transcended the five senses awakened.

The life pulses of the entire forest transformed into a hazy, shifting thermal map in his mind.

Most of the points of light were mild and sluggish, the ordinary aura of hundred-year soul beasts.

But three hundred meters away, slightly east of due north—

There was one point.

Extremely faint, yet incomparably sharp—a scorching singularity of life.

Like the light at the heart of a black hole that devoured all things.

"Found it."

Su Chen opened his eyes, his gaze rapidly mapping out the surrounding terrain.

Massive trees grew in dense clusters, their canopies joined together beneath heavy shadows.

The terrain dipped to the southeast, forming a natural dead end enclosed on three sides.

A perfect pocket trap.

"First plan." He began issuing orders, his voice utterly calm.

"Iron Wall, take four bears and advance from the front."

Iron Wall tilted its mountain-like head.

"Yes, slow is exactly what I want." Su Chen saw through its confusion. "Make as much noise as possible. Every ten steps, slam the ground once. The goal is not to kill it, but to drive it away. Force it into the pocket to the southeast."

Iron Wall let out a muffled rumble from its throat, indicating that it understood.

"The other five will circle behind and lie in ambush along the mountain walls on both sides of the pocket. Once it enters, seal off the exit immediately."

The five dark-gold beasts moved at his command. Their enormous bodies slipped into the dense forest at the sides with eerie silence, making not a single unnecessary sound.

Su Chen turned to Mo Qianye.

"Take to the air. Use Nether Phoenix Flame to block every route it might take upward."

Mo Qianye nodded. "What if it does not run upward?"

"It will."

Su Chen's gaze finally settled on Chu Yao.

"Lay your slowing poison mist at the entrance of the pocket trap. You do not need to poison it to death. The moment it steps in, I only need its speed reduced by ten percent."

Chu Yao removed a dark green gourd from her waist and pulled out the stopper.

A stream of pungent green smoke poured out close to the ground, spreading soundlessly.

"This stuff does not distinguish friend from foe," she warned coldly.

A frontal drive, encirclement from the flanks, aerial blockade, and ground-level slowing.

A textbook three-dimensional hunting net took shape in an instant.

"Begin."

As Su Chen's words fell—

Boom!

Iron Wall and four Fearclaw Bears became a moving earthquake zone, crushing their way due north.

Each time their massive claws struck the ground, the earth shook violently, sending dirt and shattered stones flying into the air.

Three hundred meters away, that sharp singularity of life jolted violently.

Then it vanished.

The next instant—

A black line too fast for the naked eye to catch tore through Su Chen's field of vision.

It had not fled toward the planned southeast direction at all!

Instead, it had chosen... above!

The Ten-Thousand-Year Nether Shadow Leopard!

Its body was not solid at all. It resembled a moving mass of pure darkness more than anything else. Its limbs skimmed the ground, flowing silently like a drop of ink through the void, and in an instant it appeared on the trunk of a thirty-meter-tall tree.

It did not climb!

It merely tapped the trunk lightly, and its body became a bolt of black lightning, beginning a series of silent ricocheting leaps between the layered canopy overhead!

"Qianye!"

Before Su Chen could remind him, Mo Qianye had already made his move.

Purple-black Nether Phoenix Flame exploded from his palm, transforming into a massive wall of fire that precisely blocked the Shadow Leopard's path.

The heat warped the light and scorched the air.

The Shadow Leopard did not slow down.

At the very instant before it struck the fire wall—it "melted."

Fur, flesh, bones—every three-dimensional physical structure instantly broke apart into a two-dimensional shadow. It flattened smoothly against the underside of a leaf and slipped through a gap in the flames.

Netherfire could not burn a shadow.

Mo Qianye's hand froze in midair.

The Shadow Leopard passed through the fire wall and re-formed, its speed not reduced in the slightest.

It did not flee.

It began to counterattack instead.

A pitch-black shadow peeled away from the shaded side of a massive tree and silently fell toward the ground.

Its target was the bear pack!

Iron Wall was the first to react. Its mountain-crushing claw, carrying a roar powerful enough to tear through steel, slammed toward the falling shadow.

The strike missed.

The Shadow Leopard's true body had already flashed out from the shadow of another tree. Three black claw blades slashed across the abdomen of a Fearclaw Bear at the edge of the formation.

A piercing screech of metal scraping against metal erupted!

Only three shallow white marks remained on its dark-gold hide.

It had not broken through its defense.

After one strike, the Shadow Leopard retreated, turning into a shadow once more and vanishing without a trace.

A second time, then a third, then a fourth.

Every attack came from an unimaginable angle, and every strike precisely targeted a different Fearclaw Bear.

It was not fleeing.

It was hunting!

It was using ten Ten-Thousand-Year Fearclaw Bears to test its claws and fangs!

"Roar—!"

Iron Wall was completely enraged, and its violent roar shook dead leaves from the sky.

It was useless.

The Shadow Leopard shot out from the shadow directly beneath Iron Wall, its claws slashing viciously across the bear's lower jaw.

This time, the white marks were deeper.

It had nearly pierced the skin of the dark-gold Fearclaw Bear, whose defense was said to be absolute.

It was probing the limits of their defense.

The first tactic had failed completely.

Mo Qianye landed beside Su Chen, his expression grim.

"Its Shadow Escape lets it teleport between any shadows. Anywhere there is a shadow, it is invincible."

Chu Yao also tightened the stopper on her gourd, her voice grave.

"My poison is ineffective against its shadow form. It does not breathe or touch physical matter. My preparations might as well not exist."

But Su Chen smiled.

He raised his head and glanced at the sky, completely obscured by the dense canopy.

Then he lowered his head and looked at the thick shadows that were everywhere beneath his feet.

"It chose a perfect battlefield."

Su Chen's voice was calm, even carrying a trace of admiration.

Mo Qianye and Chu Yao both looked at him, unable to understand why he could still smile at a time like this.

"You think the plan failed?"

Su Chen's smile became amused.

"No."

"This was only a test."

"I had to know just how many ways my prey... had to escape."

He had used ten Ten-Thousand-Year soul beasts to set up a battle he was bound to lose, all just to expose one hidden card.

"Now, I have seen it clearly."

Su Chen closed his eyes again. Deep within his consciousness, the Void Throne gave off a thunderous tremor.

"It says that wherever there are shadows, it is invincible."

Su Chen opened his eyes, a cold curve lifting at the corner of his mouth.

"But who told it there would be shadows here?"

At the same time.

At the northeastern edge of the Star Dou Great Forest.

A gaunt old man stood beside a massive crater filled with the remains of enormous uprooted trees.

Ten sets of gigantic claw prints were clearly imprinted in the dirt.

"They headed toward the core region." Another Soul Sage beside him spoke in a low voice. "Elder, the target appears to be actively hunting Ten-Thousand-Year soul beasts. Should we...?"

The gaunt old man ignored him.

He crouched down and pressed his withered palm into one of the claw prints, sensing the tyrannical soul power still lingering there.

"Ten Ten-Thousand-Year Fearclaw Bears, controlled as easily as limbs by a mere Second-Ring Soul Master..."

He slowly rose to his feet. The twisted smile on his face grew increasingly intense, carrying a morbid excitement.

"Lady Bibi Dong's order was to 'capture him alive.'"

He took a step forward, and his figure blurred into the dusk.

"But she never said he had to be captured alive 'intact.'"