The Mantis Stalks the Cicada, Unaware of the Oriole Behind

In less than a minute.

More than half of the thirty men Wang Laoba had brought were dead or wounded.

"Defend!"

Wang Laoba cursed the rabble in his heart.

If he hadn't needed them to deal with the eighty-thousand-year Glazed Vine, he never would have recruited so many useless fools at the last minute.

The next second.

Wang Laoba roared!

His Ice Bear Martial Soul possessed him in an instant.

Thick ice armor covered his body, and he shot up to more than two meters tall.

"Third Soul Skill—Ice Wall Bastion!"

He slammed both palms into the ground.

A wall of ice three meters thick surged up, shielding the few men left behind it.

Bang, bang, bang—

With his level-sixty-eight Soul Power, he kept every ice vine beyond the wall. The price was that the Glazed Vine's tendrils tore his newly raised defense to pieces.

At the sight, Wang Laoba advanced instead of retreating.

He abruptly dropped his defense!

The phantom Ice Bear behind him roared and soared into the sky.

"Fourth Soul Skill—Ice Bear Earth-Splitting Charge!"

His Soul Power swiftly drew inward.

He became an icy meteor and crashed into the densest tangle of vines.

"What the hell are you bastards waiting for?"

Riches were found amid danger.

Having escaped with his life, Wang Laoba still refused to flee.

Greed drove him to risk it all.

"First Soul Skill—Ice Spike Thrust!"

"Third Soul Skill—Frostguard Armor!"

"Fourth Soul Skill—Thousand-Blade Snow Dance!"

"Fifth Soul Skill—Dark-Ice Cage!"

"..."

The others thought just as Wang Laoba did.

They all wanted to kill the eighty-thousand-year Soul Beast before them and make a fortune.

"They're no match for it."

Those caught in the game were blind; those watching from outside saw clearly.

Shui Bing'er had only just advanced to Soul King, but she could read the situation.

"Don't rush."

"Let's wait a little longer!"

Wang Laoba and his men were no harmless lot.

If Lin Ye and Shui Bing'er rushed in now to join them against the Soul Beast.

Once it was over.

Wang Laoba's group would turn their murderous intent on them.

"Mm!"

Shui Bing'er nodded firmly.

She knew they couldn't rush this either.

Just then.

The ground throughout the valley seemed to boil.

Hundreds of Dark-Ice Vines burst from the earth at once, each as thick as a bucket, their leaves sharp as blades.

They no longer stabbed at random.

Instead, they wove themselves into a vast net without a single gap.

The next instant.

The giant net of vines closed in on Wang Laoba and the others from every direction.

A Soul Master failed to dodge and a vine caught his ankle. He had time for only one scream before it dragged him underground, and blood gushed from the fissure.

Only now.

Did everyone truly grasp how terrifying the Glazed Vine was.

This eighty-thousand-year Soul Beast was not only a treasure from head to toe; it was covered in damn thorns, and every leaf was a weapon that could take a life.

Even Wang Laoba and the others had yet to grasp the full extent of it.

If those men had stood above the valley, they would have seen Glazed Vine tendrils covering the whole place.

"Boss."

"Let's retreat!"

"If we keep this up, we'll all die here."

"Yeah!"

"We're no match for it."

"..."

The fear of death slowly took root in their hearts, making them want to retreat.

"Retreat!"

Wang Laoba hated to give up.

But he knew the few of them left could never succeed.

With no other choice.

He took a barrel of fuel he had prepared in advance from his Storage Soul Tool.

"Hmm..."

"He's pretty clever."

Plant-type Soul Beasts feared fire.

But...

Ordinary flames certainly couldn't deal a fatal blow to an eighty-thousand-year Soul Beast.

Wang Laoba meant to use the fire to buy himself time to escape.

"Bastards!"

"You dare burn it?"

Just then.

A deep voice rang out from the side, followed by the appearance of more than a dozen hulking men.

And hulking they truly were!

Each of these Soul Masters stood over two meters tall, and their weight could practically be measured in tons.

Boom—

Boom—

Boom—

Every step they took shook the valley.

"Why is the Elephant Armor Sect here?"

Lin Ye's first reaction was confusion.

After all, the Elephant Armor Sect's Soul Masters had nothing to do with the ice attribute.

Hadn't these fat, big-eared fellows worried that they might fall through the ice in the Frozen Forest and be too heavy to climb out?

There was probably only one explanation.

The Elephant Armor Sect had also learned of the eighty-thousand-year Glazed Vine. Otherwise, they had no reason to come here.

At that moment.

The situation in the valley changed again.

After joining the fight, the Elephant Armor Sect's first target wasn't the Glazed Vine. One of them knocked the fire striker from Wang Laoba's hand, then followed up with a massive slap across his face.

"Get lost!"

Wang Laoba knew better than to argue.

He knew he couldn't afford to offend one of the Seven Great Sects.

All he could do was clutch his face and leave in resentment.

"Ah..."

"What a bunch of fools."

Lin Ye shook his head again and again at the sight.

Did they think a single barrel of fuel could burn down the entire valley?

If that were true...

How could an eighty-thousand-year Plant-type Soul Beast ever show its face?

The Elephant Armor Sect's Soul Masters might have been simple-minded, but their limbs were exceptionally strong.

A human wall of Soul Saints had formed at the bottom of the valley, with an Eight-Ring Soul Douluo clearing the way out front.

Lin Ye recognized him.

That Eight-Ring Soul Douluo was an Elder of the Elephant Armor Sect.

Clearly.

The Elephant Armor Sect's force had come prepared.

Boom—

Boom—

Boom—

With every step the Elephant Armor Sect's Soul Masters took, cracks spread dozens of meters ahead of them.

Dark ice?

Vines?

The moment the Elephant Armor Sect's formation took shape, every attack the Glazed Vine launched became useless.

And so...

The Elephant Armor Sect pushed straight ahead.

Step by step, they closed in on the Glazed Vine's main stem.

"What do we do?"

Shui Bing'er grew anxious.

Even a fool could see that, fighting this way, the Elephant Armor Sect would flatten the entire valley in less than half an hour.

By then...

The Elephant Armor Sect would take the eighty-thousand-year Glazed Vine away.

"There's nothing to discuss."

"We gamble!"

At those words.

Shui Bing'er looked utterly baffled.

Gamble?

How?

There was a whole group of Soul Saints down there.

And their leader was a Soul Douluo.

If they rushed down now, they would probably be trampled into meat paste in an instant.

"I have a way. Just wait here," Lin Ye said. Seeing that Shui Bing'er was still worried, he added, "Even if I can't pull it off, I can get away in one piece."

While the two spoke.

The Elephant Armor Sect had already trampled its way across the entire valley.

They had even used brute force to uproot the Glazed Vine's main stem, which took several people to encircle.

The vines were bundled up, and the branches and leaves packed into boxes.

The Elephant Armor Sect's Elder carefully placed the most precious Glazed Vine Heart into his Storage Soul Tool.

Lin Ye saw it happen...

He knew that fleeting opportunity had arrived.

The next instant!

He spread the Dragon Wings on his back.

And plunged toward the valley below like a bolt of lightning.