"Have a taste of this!"
An Chen spoke with an excited grin on his face, which glowed a ghostly green.
Then he shoved the Copper Ring in his hand, radiating ghostly green light, into the small pit on the Monster's back.
The moment he had done so, An Chen leaped off the Monster. His body melted and seeped into the ground.
A pained, muffled groan followed, then the hiss of flesh being seared.
A moment later, An Chen gradually emerged from the shadows behind a Great Tree in the distance.
At the sight a few meters ahead, his pupils contracted.
At the center of the area covered in black ash lay a pile of black flesh cut into several pieces. Red, pus-filled blood pooled beneath them.
Beyond the ring of black ash, every flower, blade of grass, and tree untouched by the flames had melted into a puddle of multicolored liquid.
Farther out, white, yellow, and purple Soul Rings floated above the bodies of Soul Beasts cut to pieces. They had all come to see what the commotion was about.
Unfortunately, the price of watching this spectacle had been far too high.
An Chen watched for a while. Once he was sure nothing was amiss, he walked toward the pile of blackened remains.
Whenever he passed a Soul Beast corpse, he absorbed its flesh to replenish what he had spent in the fight.
As he approached the blackened corpse, the red pus ignited his shoes and trousers. An Chen paid it no mind.
"Will there be a Soul Ring or not?"
He muttered to himself as he poked through the remains with a branch he had picked up.
Before long, he uncovered a Copper Bracelet buried deep within the pile. It lay quietly in the red pus, unburned.
Holding it