White light swallowed everything.
In that instant, the calls of birds, beasts, and insects throughout the dense forest vanished, as though 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, hidden in the shadows, was dazzled into squinting as well. He instinctively raised a hand before his face. If even a Titled Douluo like him reacted that way, the two wolf kings who had taken the Solar Fist head-on fared far worse.
The Golden Wolf King's crimson wolf eyes were stabbed by unbearable pain, while the Silvermoon Wolf King let out a shrill scream. Both Ten-Thousand-Year soul beasts fell into a brief state of dizziness.
Ye Chenxing took the opportunity to retreat. Xiao Hongchen opened his eyes and saw Ye Chenxing signaling to him from afar. He immediately understood.
Now!
"Blow them the fuck up!!"
Dense beams 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 attack's force severalfold. Explosions merged into one, flames illuminating half the mountainside. The shockwaves snapped the surrounding trees in half, scattering shattered leaves through the air.
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. Now that it had endured a direct bombardment from the Soul Guidance Cannons, not a patch of its skin remained intact. Its silver fur was scorched into mottled black, and it lay on the ground with only its final breath left.
Though the Golden Wolf King had thick hide and tough flesh, it had first been blinded by the Solar Fist and then struck head-on by the enhanced barrage. Its limbs desperately tried to push itself up, but it could only claw several weak furrows into the ground.
Ye Chenxing stepped forward and condensed a fireball at his fingertips, finishing it off cleanly. 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 reached out. The Golden Wolf King, which still had some strength left to struggle, was instantly knocked unconscious without any ability to resist and stuffed into the living-creature storage soul tool ring he carried.
Shrek was not the only place that raised soul beasts. Their Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy naturally possessed breeding methods more scientific and comprehensive than Shrek's.
"Not bad." Jing Hongchen's gaze swept over the three of them before settling on Ye Chenxing, his face full of admiration. "That white light just now—if I wasn't mistaken, it 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 just happened to be an opportunity."
"You haven't even reached three rings, yet you can already use your Martial Soul in so many different ways. In all my years, this is the first time I've ever seen anything like it." He paused, then looked toward his grandson and granddaughter. "You two were the same. I'd thought it would be good enough if your first time working together didn't end with you dragging each other down. I never expected the three of you to fight so convincingly—poison mist for battlefield control, overwhelming firepower, close-range assassination. Your roles were clear, and your timing was precise. Today, all of you exceeded my expectations."
Xiao Hongchen stood there with a slightly strange expression. Ever since Ye Chenxing appeared, he had either been outclassed or used as a negative example. He had been holding that frustration in for who knew how many days.
"Ahem. Mainly because my final burst of damage was so good."
"Give me a break." Meng Hongchen ruthlessly 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've swatted you flying with one claw ages ago."
"I—that was tactical coordination! Do you even understand tactical coordination?!"
"Sure, sure. Tactical coordination. Whatever you say."
Jing Hongchen watched the bickering siblings and shook his head, though the smile on his lips deepened. The three children got along far better than he had imagined.
He turned to Ye Chenxing, only to find him already sitting cross-legged before the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring. He extended a hand and slowly drew the inky-black halo toward himself.
Jing Hongchen's hand, hidden behind his back, clenched slightly.
In theory, 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, on any soul master, would be enough to absorb a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
But this was his second soul ring. The earliest recorded geniuses to absorb Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings had done so only for their fourth ring. Attempting a Ten-Thousand-Year ring as a second ring was something Jing Hongchen had not only never seen, but never even heard of.
"I'll ask just one thing," Xiao Hongchen said stiffly. "How confident are you?"
Ye Chenxing raised his head, thought for a moment, and said, "Completely."
"...Did you hesitate just now? I saw it. You definitely hesitated."
Ye Chenxing smiled helplessly, closed his eyes, and guided the inky-black soul ring slowly down.
The instant the soul ring entered his body, an icy, viscous spiritual force surged along his meridians and straight toward his mind.
The soul shock expected from a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring did not arrive. His first soul ring absorption had been far too unusual, but his instincts told him something was wrong.
Something had slipped into his Mind Star Sea on 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 waited for.
I was an Evil Eye. More precisely, I was one half of a Twin Evil Eye. At the moment of our birth, my brother turned his head and devoured my body whole, using my flesh and blood to complete himself.
But he could not devour my soul.
My spiritual power was stronger than his. At the moment my body perished, my consciousness broke free. From then on, I wandered through the forest. I moved from one soul beast to another—parasitizing, absorbing, waiting. While they lived, I hid in the corners of their minds and quietly drew 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 among who knew how many generations of soul beasts. My pure spiritual power had already surpassed ten thousand years, yet I had never found a body that satisfied me.
I had considered body snatching as well. But I endured. Body snatching meant a new body, but it also meant new shackles. Once I entered a body, I would be confined within it. 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 had only two rings, yet he dared to absorb a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring. His spiritual power was vast beyond anything human, and his physical qualities far surpassed those of his peers. 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 took his body, with my accumulated strength and his talent, given time, nothing on this continent would be able to stop me.
I would have my revenge.
With such anticipation, I slipped into his sea of consciousness.
Before you continue