The Ten-Thousand-Year Second Ring, Evil Eye?

White light swallowed everything.

In that instant, the calls of birds, beasts, and insects in the dense forest vanished, as if the entire world had been muted. Even with their eyes tightly shut, Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen could still feel the scorching white light piercing through their eyelids.

Jing Hongchen, hiding in the shadows, was also forced to squint. He instinctively raised a hand in front of his face. If even a Titled Douluo reacted like this, then the two wolf kings taking the Solar Fist head-on needed no further mention.

The Golden Wolf King's crimson wolf eyes burned with unbearable pain. The Silvermoon Wolf King let out an agonized howl. The two ten-thousand-year soul beasts simultaneously fell into a brief daze.

Taking advantage of the opening, Ye Chenxing swiftly retreated. Xiao Hongchen opened his eyes and saw Ye Chenxing signal to him from afar. He immediately understood.

Now!

"Blow the hell up!!"

Dense beams of light poured down like a torrential rain. Unlike the previous volley, however, he had used a Milk Bottle to restore his soul power this time, increasing the damage severalfold. Explosions joined into one continuous blast, flames illuminating half the mountainside. The shockwaves snapped the surrounding trees in half, sending shattered leaves flying everywhere.

The smoke and dust gradually dispersed. The wound on the Silvermoon Wolf King's flank, torn open by the Dark Gold Terror Claw, was still bleeding. After taking another direct barrage from the Soul Guidance Cannon, its entire body was mangled beyond recognition. Its silver fur was scorched black in patches, and it lay on the ground with only a final breath remaining.

Though the Golden Wolf King was thick-skinned and tough-fleshed, it had first been blinded by the Solar Fist, then struck head-on by the enhanced barrage. Its limbs desperately tried to push it upright, but it could only weakly claw several furrows into the ground.

Ye Chenxing stepped forward and condensed a fireball at his fingertips, cleanly finishing it off. A black soul ring slowly rose from the Silvermoon Wolf King's corpse, its glow dark and profound.

Jing Hongchen strolled out from the shadows and casually grabbed. The Golden Wolf King, which still had some strength left to struggle, was unable to resist at all. It was instantly knocked unconscious and stuffed into the living-creature storage soul tool ring he carried with him.

Shrek was not the only place that raised soul beasts. The Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy naturally possessed breeding methods more scientific and complete than Shrek's.

"Not bad." Jing Hongchen swept his gaze across the three of them before finally stopping on Ye Chenxing, his face filled with appreciation. "That white light just now, if I wasn't mistaken, was an application of Ultimate Light, wasn't it? Did you come up with it on the spot?"

"I'd wanted to try it before. There happened to be an opportunity."

"You haven't even reached three rings, yet you're already using your martial soul in so many ways. In all my years, this is the first time I've ever seen anything like it." He paused, then looked at his own grandson and granddaughter. "You two as well. I originally thought it would already be good enough if your first cooperation didn't result in you getting in each other's way. I didn't expect the three of you to fight with such coordination. Poison mist for battlefield control, concentrated firepower, close-range assassination—clear roles, and precise timing. Today's performance exceeded my expectations."

Xiao Hongchen stood there with a somewhat strange expression. Ever since Ye Chenxing had appeared, he had either been outdone or used as a negative example. He had been holding it in for who knew how many days.

"Ahem, it was mainly because my final wave of damage was so good."

"Oh, please," Meng Hongchen mercilessly exposed him, rolling her eyes. "If Chenxing's Solar Fist hadn't stunned the two wolf kings, when would you have had time to charge up? The Golden Wolf King would have swatted you away with one claw."

"I—I call that tactical coordination! Do you even understand tactical coordination?!"

"Fine, fine, tactical coordination. If you say so."

Watching the bickering siblings, Jing Hongchen shook his head, though the smile at the corner of his mouth deepened. The three children got along far better than he had imagined.

He turned to Ye Chenxing, only to find that the boy had already sat cross-legged before the ten-thousand-year soul ring. He extended a hand and slowly guided the pitch-black halo toward himself.

Jing Hongchen's hand, clasped behind his back, tightened slightly.

Theoretically, it could work. He had repeatedly tested Ye Chenxing's physical strength and spiritual power—physical strength equivalent to level forty-five, and 4,800 points of spiritual power. Either figure would be enough for any soul master to absorb a ten-thousand-year soul ring.

But this was his second soul ring. Among the recorded geniuses who had absorbed ten-thousand-year soul rings, the earliest had done so at their fourth ring. Attempting a ten-thousand-year ring as a second ring—let alone seeing such a thing, he had never even heard of it.

"Let me ask just one thing," Xiao Hongchen said stiffly. "How confident are you?"

Ye Chenxing raised his head and thought for a moment. "One hundred percent."

"...Did you hesitate just now? I saw it. You definitely hesitated."

Ye Chenxing smiled helplessly, closed his eyes, and guided the pitch-black soul ring down toward himself.

The instant the soul ring entered his body, a cold, viscous spiritual force surged through his meridians and rushed straight toward his head.

The soul shock that should have come from a ten-thousand-year soul ring did not arrive. The circumstances of his first soul ring absorption had been far too unusual, but his instincts still told him that something was wrong.

Something slipped into his Mind Star Sea along with the torrent of energy from the soul ring.

After drifting through the bodies of countless soul beasts for hundreds of thousands of years, this was the moment I had been waiting for.

I am an Evil Eye. More precisely, one half of a Twin Evil Eye. At the moment of our birth, my brother turned around and devoured my body whole. He used my flesh and blood to complete himself.

But he could not devour my soul.

My spiritual power was stronger than his. The moment my body perished, my consciousness broke free. From then on, I wandered and fled through the forest. Moving from one soul beast to another, parasitizing, absorbing, waiting. While they lived, I hid in the corners of their minds, quietly drawing upon their spiritual power. When they died, I devoured their souls and moved on to the next host. Hundreds of thousands of years. I had changed hosts through who knew how many generations of soul beasts, and my pure spiritual power had already surpassed the ten-thousand-year level, yet not a single body had satisfied me.

I had considered body possession before. But I held back. Possessing a body meant gaining a new body, but it also meant gaining new shackles. Once I entered that vessel, I would be bound by it as well. If I wanted revenge, I had to find a body worthy of me.

Then, through this Silvermoon Wolf King, I saw that boy.

Two rings. He only had two rings, yet he dared to absorb a ten-thousand-year soul ring. His spiritual power was vast beyond anything human, while his physical constitution far surpassed others of his level. After parasitizing soul beasts for so many years, I had never seen a living being with such talent. In that moment, I knew—this was the body I had been waiting for. Once I possessed him, with my accumulated power and his talent, given enough time, no existence on this continent would be able to stop me.

I will have my revenge.

With such anticipation, I slipped into his sea of consciousness.