Crisis Averted?

As the pouch neared its back, the Eclipse Moon Shadow Leopard noticed nothing unusual. It took the pouch for a falling leaf.

But when the pouch clung tight to its body, the leopard immediately sensed something was wrong.

What was that?

It tried to sweep the pouch off with its tail, but failed.

It had no time to worry about that now. Seeing that the thing posed no threat, it gathered strength in its legs and charged straight at Zhang Lexuan, who posed the greatest threat to it.

The others immediately took up formation, but Zhu Song suddenly rushed out and planted himself in the Shadow Leopard's path to Zhang Lexuan.

He knew he could no longer fight. Resolved to die, he sought only to take the blow for his teammates and give them the last thing he had to offer.

"Mother, forgive your unfilial son! Qianqian, I'm sorry I can't marry you and bring you home!"

In that drawn-out instant, an enviable life flashed before Zhu Song's eyes.

Ever since he had awakened with innate Soul Power at level seven, others had looked up to him as a genius.

At the junior academy, even students who had enrolled two or three years before him could not match his Soul Power Level.

Only after entering Shrek did he realize that geniuses were as plentiful as carp crossing a river. He, who had thought himself a genius, was just one fish among them.

He put aside his pride and swam with all his might. At last, he advanced to Soul King before turning eighteen and earned a place in the Inner Court.

But in the Inner Court, Sister Lexuan, Sister Ruoruo, Xiaotao, Dai Yueheng, and the others were all prodigies he could never catch even if he whipped his horse raw.

So he trained even harder, until today, when he finally became a Soul Emperor.

What a shame! I'll never get to represent the academy in the Soul Master Tournament! With that thought, Zhu Song closed his eyes and awaited his fate.

Then the unthinkable happened.

The pouch stuck fast to the Eclipse Moon Shadow Leopard's rump became a whirlpool, twisting the space around it.

The leopard felt a powerful pull that grew stronger and stronger. In an instant, it enveloped the leopard's entire body.

Its lower body and hind legs had already sunk into the pouch's opening, followed by its belly, its chest...

To the others, the leopard's entire body twisted and thinned like a length of dough being stretched.

But the leopard felt as though an abyss had opened its maw behind it. Apart from that irresistible pull, it felt no discomfort at all.

Within seconds, the leopard's enormous body had been sucked into the tiny pouch.

Plop!

With nothing left to hold it up, the pouch fell at Zhu Song's feet. When he opened his eyes, its gaping mouth stared back at him like an abyss.

Click.

The pouch closed, as if to announce that the danger had passed.

Still dazed by his narrow escape, Zhu Song remained frozen in the pose he had struck when he offered his life.

"Zhu Song!"

The pressure before him had vanished, but before Zhu Song could breathe a sigh of relief, the furious shout behind him made his heart clench.

He turned and met Zhang Lexuan's angry gaze. This was bad.

He immediately looked to Han Ruoruo for help, but she turned her head away and ignored him.

"Sister Lexuan, I—"

"Don't 'I' me! Did you think we needed you to sacrifice yourself to protect your senior sisters?"

Zhang Lexuan released her Martial Soul Avatar. Enduring the violent backlash wracking her body, she suppressed the urge to cough up blood and stepped forward.

First, she took several pills from the Storage Soul Tool she carried and handed them out. Then she said to Zhu Song, "Never forget this: Shrek has no tactic that sacrifices its juniors for victory. Even if the sky falls, those of us tall enough will hold it up. Understood?"

Zhu Song took the pills and nodded like a chick pecking grain before swallowing them.

When Zhang Lexuan turned her gaze to the wondrous little leather pouch, three figures emerged from the darkness: Lu Yi, Huo Yuhao, and Bei Bei.

"Was this your doing?" Zhang Lexuan's voice betrayed no emotion, and the night hid the weariness in her eyes.

Bei Bei and Huo Yuhao immediately turned to Lu Yi. Lu Yi stepped forward and picked up the pouch.

"Sister Lexuan, the danger threatened all of us. None of us could stay out of it, so we took a chance!"

In truth, while treating the wounded, Lu Yi had realized that they were only treating the symptoms, not the cause.

Only by dealing with the Soul Beast could they truly remove the threat.

He had found himself looking at the Storage Pouch in his hand.

In his life before the one before this, he had seen a suitcase enchanted with an Undetectable Extension Charm hold enormous Fantastic Beasts in a film. There was no reason his pouch could not do the same.

A bold plan had immediately taken shape.

To carry it out, Tang Ya fired a Signal Flare. It called for help and briefly drew the Soul Beast's attention, giving Lu Yi a chance to guide the pouch toward it through Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Link.

Lu Yi had been gambling that, with Zhang Lexuan and the others threatening it, the Soul Beast would not notice what they were doing.

More importantly, he had brought along Huo Yuhao, a child of destiny. With him there, they should, in theory, always find a way out of danger.

After Lu Yi explained the risks and showed off the pouch's remarkable abilities, the three men had agreed almost at once.

Only Tang Ya had firmly opposed the plan. But outvoted three to one, even she, the Sect Master, could only hold her nose and agree.

Fortunately, it had worked. Now all Lu Yi had to face was everyone else's curiosity about the magical pouch.

Zhang Lexuan smiled at the three of them, looking pleased. "You three... did well!"

Sure enough, she called Lu Yi aside and raised a soundproof barrier. Then her tone changed. "Lu Yi, are you from the Sun Moon Empire? As far as I know, no other power on the continent could make a storage pouch like this!"

As she spoke, she pointed at Lu Yi's pouch.

Lu Yi immediately denied it, but when Zhang Lexuan pressed him, he did not know how to answer.

Seeing the difficulty on Lu Yi's face, Zhang Lexuan understood.

She was not one to pry without end. But she had given Lu Yi a letter of recommendation, which meant she had vouched for him. It was best to be sure.

Still, he seemed a kindhearted child, and that put her at ease.

"Don't worry. Everyone here can be trusted. I swear on my Martial Soul that none of us will speak of what happened today. Even if the academy asks, we will never reveal your identity. But your Storage Pouch is far too rare. You must never show it to others so easily again. Do you understand?"

She worried that Lu Yi, new to these parts, did not understand the value of the Storage Pouch in his hands, much less how treacherous the world could be.

Storage Soul Tools were no longer rare on the continent, but that was true only of those with small spaces.

The larger a Storage Soul Tool's independent space, the more its price rose exponentially.

The Storage Bracelet on her wrist held a cubic space measuring eight cubic meters, yet it cost more than a hundred times as much as a one-cubic-meter model.

Calling the Storage Pouch in Lu Yi's hands a priceless treasure would be no exaggeration.

Zhang Lexuan knew what passed for morality among the continent's Soul Masters. Once anyone learned such a treasure existed, Lu Yi would almost certainly be in danger.

"I understand!" Lu Yi realized that Zhang Lexuan was cold on the outside but warm at heart. She had called him aside just to warn him, and he could not help feeling touched. "You're a good person!"

Zhang Lexuan had been called a good person out of the blue, but she merely smiled and ruffled Lu Yi's hair.

Just then, the pouch in Lu Yi's hand began to swell and shake violently, as though it might burst at any moment.

Lu Yi had made no preparations for this.

He had thought it would all be over once the pouch swallowed the Soul Beast. But Fantastic Beasts and a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast were in entirely different leagues when it came to destructive power.

Zhang Lexuan noticed the pouch's strange behavior too. Seeing Lu Yi at a loss, she reassured him softly, "It's all right. You've already done very well!"

She smiled, took the pouch from Lu Yi, and rose into the air as seven Soul Rings appeared once more beneath her feet.

Without a word of farewell, she flew swiftly toward the heart of the Star Dou Great Forest, leaving the others staring after her in confusion.

Lu Yi watched her red figure recede against the moonlit sky. He felt he had ruined everything.

Because of him, was Zhang Lexuan, who should have survived, going to die?

But after only a few breaths, the pouch could hold no longer and burst with a bang.

All manner of objects spilled out of it, along with that terrifying black figure.

"Roar—"

With a furious roar, the Eclipse Moon Shadow Leopard announced its return.

It looked again at Zhang Lexuan's pale face and the despair on everyone else's, a vicious, almost human grin curling its lips.

"Human, die!"

But the moment it finished speaking, an earthy-yellow speck of light appeared on the horizon and rapidly grew larger.

Air compressed with a thunderous boom, and a deep, furious shout rang through the forest.

"Wretched beast! Who did you say was going to die?"