The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

Facing the Azure Shadow Hawk's mantis-stalks-the-cicada move, the poor Earth Lord was undoubtedly doomed, and hiding underground was merely a lingering gasp to live a little longer.

We'll just wait right here, then ambush the Azure Shadow Hawk when it lets down its guard, reaping the fisherman's profit!

Lin Ye had already made his plan, waiting for the Azure Shadow Hawk and the Earth Lord to fight, ideally resulting in mutual heavy injuries.

After all, even if the Earth Lord was injured, as long as it could drag the Azure Shadow Hawk down to fight on the ground, it still had a chance to heavily wound it.

Speaking of this, Lin Ye pulled Tang Li back toward the tree trunk, blocking the Azure Shadow Hawk's visual blind spot, ready at any moment to stage an oriole-behind-the-mantis play after this scene concluded.

At the same time, he was also observing his surroundings, constantly watching whether any other soul masters and soul beasts were playing the same role nearby in the vicinity.

In this dense jungle, no one knew whether a covert hunter might be hiding in some dark place, treating themself as the prey.

Tang Li also concentrated, hiding the Demon-Sealing Pot's aura thoroughly for fear of leaking even a shred and frightening away all the soul beasts in this area.

As the surrounding temperature gradually rose, the fallen leaves around increased as well, and sunlight fell among the forest, reflecting mottled tree shadows.

Of course, this rising temperature also meant that the Earth Lord was getting closer and closer to the ground.

Such high temperature, it seems this Earth Lord has at least five to six thousand years of cultivation, otherwise it couldn't have survived in the Azure Shadow Hawk's hands for so long.

The Azure Shadow Hawk was a soul beast that, once it locked onto a target, would fight to the bitter end, just like that common saying—releasing the hawk only upon seeing the rabbit—once targeted by it, it would never let up willingly.

This Earth Lord possessed insufficient intelligence, and when facing pursuit, the first thing it found was to hide underground, but unfortunately the fellow it faced did not do as it wished.

Rumble—

Accompanied by a burst of roaring sound, the earth split open an opening, the high-temperature-roasted and cracked soil bursting apart violently, and a snow-white scorpion soul beast crawled out from underground, emitting dense killing intent from its body, truly a bloodthirsty and tyrannical soul beast.

Relying on the seven segments on its tail, plus its pure white color, Tang Li recognized that this was a six-thousand-three-hundred-year Earth Lord!

Yet just after the Earth Lord rushed out of the ground, the Azure Shadow Hawk did not make a move right away, acting like an experienced hunter waiting for the prey to expose a flaw so it could kill it in a single strike.

Sure enough, the Earth Lord circled the small dirt mound to confirm no other soul beasts were around before it began digging with its front pincers, extracting the corpses of some insect soul beasts from within to swallow in large gulps.

This fellow clearly regarded this dirt mound as a place to store food, emerging from the ground just to fill its stomach so it could use soul power to repair its injuries.

Just as Tang Li had deduced, this Earth Lord limped on a left leg, which was why its crawling produced a messy sound with an irregular rhythm.

The Azure Shadow Hawk's intelligence was clearly much sharper than this scorpion's; it knew that creatures were most relaxed when eating, and this was also its best moment to attack!

With a whoosh, the long-hidden Azure Shadow Hawk transformed into a cyan blade under the blessing of wind elements, shooting toward the Earth Lord. Wind elements gathered on its sharp claws to form iron-cutting dark cyan blades, attacking the Earth Lord with lightning speed.

The eating Earth Lord raised its front pincers by sheer luck, coincidentally blocking this fatal assault, but the Azure Shadow Hawk's well-prepared attack also severed one of the Earth Lord's front pincers in an instant!

Before the food-holding Earth Lord could even howl, the dark elements attached to the claw blades spread along the wound, eroding half its face in the blink of an eye.

Pain accompanied by fury, the Earth Lord directly unleashed its unique skill, Magma Earth-Riving Strike. Its seven-segmented scorpion tail lashed out fiercely, striking the Azure Shadow Hawk hard before it had time to change course. The blow, carrying shockwaves, sent the Azure Shadow Hawk's feathers scattering everywhere.

Immediately following, from the Earth Lord's scorpion tail—where the fire elements were densest—a scorching, magma-like pillar of fire erupted. The battered Azure Shadow Hawk, having landed awkwardly, looked as though it was about to be swallowed by the flames, but the dark elements on its body suddenly turned pitch-black!

The next moment, this dark power spread out, and extremely heavy black fog swallowed the Azure Shadow Hawk's body, also slowing down the speed of the flame blast.

Boom—

The pillar of fire landed, the earth turning charred amidst the blaze, and the trees along its path turning withered and yellow one after another, igniting raging fires in a short time.

The flames lasted mere moments before turning verdant once again under a burst of green light; this was clearly the anti-mountain-fire function specially set by the Spirit Pagoda for the Spirit Ascension Platform.

And when both the flames and black fog dissipated, the Azure Shadow Hawk was seen flapping its injured wings and hovering in midair. Clearly, the previous Magma Earth-Riving Strike had not completely hit it, and this predator of theirs remained superior.

The previously fallen feathers also dissipated along with the black fog at this moment. The spent Earth Lord let out a painful hiss, finally growing on the verge of death under the erosion of dark power with no strength left to resist. Its mouth stuffed with food, it collapsed onto the ground, chewing continuously even as it drew its last breath, seeming to want to become a well-fed ghost.

The Azure Shadow Hawk launched wind blades in the air a few more times, and after severing the Earth Lord's other front pincer, it landed to prepare to enjoy its prey.

Lin Ye seized this moment to grip the Heavenly Star Stove tightly, preparing to cooperate with Tang Li to repeat their old trick and annihilate this soul beast in one fell swoop, just like they did to the Wind Baboon pack.

Just as Lin Ye was about to greet Tang Li to attack together, his heart suddenly skipped half a beat as if it had stopped. This intuition made him slow his actions, choosing to continue observing the situation.

Sure enough, the situation shifted the moment he suddenly pulled back. A gust of wind rushed into their faces, and with it came an earth-shaking roar—

Roar!

Clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger. Tang Li and Lin Ye looked in the direction of the sound. The one emitting that tiger roar was a pitch-black fierce tiger with a pitch-black body, jet-black wings growing on its back, and blood-red eyes like crimson moons!

This fierce tiger was over ten meters long, extremely robust in build, carrying terrifying might capable of soaring through the skies and burrowing into the earth. A single King character on its forehead made it look supremely tyrannical.

A mere roar of its had stunned the Azure Shadow Hawk. If not for Lin Ye's Heavenly Star Stove protection, Tang Li feared his brain would have been impacted by this roar as well.

Fear Roar, the Dark Demon Tiger's innate soul skill. Judging by its length, it's already a ten-thousand-year Dark Demon Tiger. It ranks at the very top among all tiger-type soul beasts, a genuine top-tier soul beast standing at the apex of the pyramid.

Lin Ye used the Heavenly Star Stove to isolate himself and Tang Li, popularizing the situation of the Dark Demon Tiger to him.

At this moment, the Dark Demon Tiger walked slowly and gracefully toward the Azure Shadow Hawk and the Earth Lord. The oppressive aura of a top predator welled up naturally; the former hunter, the Azure Shadow Hawk, trembled before the Dark Demon Tiger, its wings too limp to lift.

With the Dark Demon Tiger here, it means there shouldn't be any other soul beasts around. Those two unlucky things, the Azure Shadow Hawk and the Earth Lord, are really out of luck. Chasing and fleeing all the way to someone else's doorstep to provide a late-night snack for the Dark Demon Tiger.

Seeing that Lin Ye still had the mind to joke, Tang Li figured he must be ready to make a move, and asked, "Should we still use the old method?"

"Can you control the Dark Demon Tiger? This thing cannot be compared to that Dark Star Demonic Insect of mine that was turned into a soul spirit. This is a top-tier soul beast on the same level as soul beasts like the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear."

"Whether I can or not, I'll know once I try. Just watch well, Uncle Lin!"

As his voice fell, Tang Li summoned the Demon-Sealing Pot. A cyan-gold radiance swept past, carrying divine might capable of making all beasts surrender and all demons kneel, sweeping across a radius of several miles—