Slaying the White Snake

Amon ignored Wei's accusation and said to Lei Yin, "Leave with them. Yan Jin and I are enough here."

"But... wouldn't that be too dangerous? If it's just the two of you..."

Before he could finish, Yan Jin cut him off. "Stop dawdling. If we tell you to leave, then leave. Can't you see that snake hasn't come out since the two of us got together?"

"Fine." Lei Yin shrugged.

With Lei Yin accompanying them, the remaining mercenaries secretly breathed a sigh of relief. His combat strength was obvious to all; he could temporarily contend with the Eyeless Snake on his own.

The Eyeless Snake's terrifying aspect was its elusive movements. If someone could block its sneak attacks and give the others time to react, the scales of victory would tilt in their favor.

Watching them vanish one after another into the undergrowth, Yan Jin could not help but worry. "Will this really be okay? Lei Yin won't get hurt, right?"

"He won't. I guarantee it. My Martial Soul split body is still inside Lei Yin's body, so we can perform Martial Soul Fusion at any time," Amon reassured her.

"That's good." Yan Jin nodded. "With only the two of us left here, what new trick are you planning to pull?"

Yan Jin did not like thinking too much, but she understood Amon well. She knew he always liked to keep things hidden and would not let others know his abilities unless necessary.

Even though she had spent five years with Amon, training together and hunting Soul Beasts for Spirit Rings, she had seen him use his soul skills only a handful of times.

Making Lei Yin leave as well meant that he was probably about to display an ability he did not want anyone besides himself to know about.

A rustling scrape came from the canopy above, the sound of scales brushing against branches.

Yan Jin and Amon looked up. A White-Scaled Great Snake was leaning down toward them, its forked tongue flickering. Beneath the horns on its head were two darker patches that resembled hollow eyes.

After separating from Lei Yin, it had judged the two of them to be weaker than the group on the other side and had changed targets.

"This is not a wise choice. Letting hatred affect one's judgment, leading one to do things detrimental to one's own safety, is undoubtedly foolish."

Amon spoke softly, as though conversing with the Eyeless Snake, or perhaps using it as a negative example to educate Yan Jin.

In truth, the Eyeless Snake did not want to fight Yan Jin head-on. If possible, it would rather have dealt with this nuisance through a sneak attack. But in its vision of the future, no matter how it attacked, it would always be stopped. Thus, it gave up on ambushing them and charged directly in.

"Heh... foolish."

Amon turned into a streak of light and fused with Yan Jin. Martial Soul Fusion!

This time, however, it was not a Worm of Time clone that fused with her, but Amon's Main Body.

Amid starlight-like radiance, twelve rings rose into the air as surging magma erupted from underground.

When the phenomenon faded, a man stood where they had been. He had fiery red hair, wore a Monocle, and possessed a somewhat feminine face. There was also a mouth on his left cheek.

"Ah... what is this?" Yan Jin's voice emerged from the mouth on his left cheek.

Amon smiled and explained, "This is the true Martial Soul Fusion Skill, the result of my Martial Soul's Main Body fusing with your Martial Soul. Hand control over to me, and this battle will be over soon."

The Soul Power surging around Amon had reached the level of a Soul Ancestor, giving the Eyeless Snake a far greater sense of danger than Yan Jin and Lei Yin had before.

However, it did not retreat in fear. In a one-on-one fight, it did not believe it could lose to a Soul Ancestor.

Magma continuously poured from Amon's hands, growing in greater and greater amounts.

The scorching magma ignited the surrounding grass and trees, and the flames roared fiercely.

The blaze spread rapidly, making the Eyeless Snake uneasy. It launched the first attack, shooting forward like an arrow with its jaws wide open to bite Amon—only for a thick wall of magma to block its path.

Even scales reinforced with Soul Power could not fully withstand the magma's intense heat. It felt a searing pain and abruptly recoiled.

Burning, burning—everything was burning!

The surroundings had become a sea of fire.

Lei Yin, Vidal, Vega, and the others had already gone far away, yet they could still feel the heat in the air. Looking back from afar, they saw a red glow within the forest behind them.

"That's too reckless..." Vidal muttered.

Vega nodded. "It's understandable. If burning down the trees could create a favorable battlefield, I would do the same."

He thought Yan Jin had deliberately set the forest ablaze: first, to leave the Eyeless Snake nowhere to hide and unable to launch sneak attacks; second, to increase the concentration of fire elements and strengthen herself.

In reality, Amon had not considered any of that. He was merely using magma normally, without deliberately avoiding the damage caused by the Magma Martial Soul.

A Lava Giant rose from the very center of the inferno, its massive body resembling a god or demon.

"Magma Colossus!"

The reason Amon dared to hunt an Eyeless Snake that was close to ten thousand years old and possessed the combat strength of a Soul King was precisely this.

Yan Jin's Martial Soul could continuously create magma through the input of Soul Power. The more Soul Power poured into it, the more magma it could produce.

As long as there was enough Soul Power, the destructive power of this Martial Soul could be said to have no upper limit.

Soul Power was what Amon lacked least. Even though he had scattered many Time Clones along the way as contingencies in case something happened to his Main Body, and had left some inside Lei Yin's body, he still had more than a hundred by his side!

The fifty-meter-tall giant looked down upon the Eyeless Snake. The enormous white shadow that had once filled the mercenaries with endless terror now appeared delicate and tiny.

The giant's right arm was exceptionally thick, nearly two-thirds the size of its entire body.

The Eyeless Snake raised its head and flicked its tongue, bewildered.

It could sense that enormous form, yet it could not feel any Soul Power fluctuations to match it.

To it, this giant seemed like nothing more than an empty shell and did not inspire much danger. This was the outward manifestation of Amon using his first Spirit Ring, Steal, on his own Soul Power, causing it to misjudge the situation.

But in the next moment, it panicked and turned to flee desperately into the distance.

In its vision of the future, it saw itself being punched into pulp!

The enormous fist was already crashing down like a meteor falling from the sky.

An orange-yellow halo wrapped around the fist, trailing a long tail behind the arm.

"God Fist Smash!"

A shadow engulfed the Eyeless Snake. Even though it had fled with all its strength, it still could not completely escape the magma fist's range.

Boom!

Amid an ear-splitting roar, the rear half of the Eyeless Snake's body vanished into the scorching magma.

Even with a Soul Beast's vitality, losing half its body was a fatal injury.

The shockwave from the impact flung its front half into the air. It landed limply on the charred ground, which had been scorched black by the flames.

Amon separated from the magma and walked toward the motionless Eyeless Snake.

He raised a hand. Soul Power gathered, the air compressed, and an enlarged Air Bullet condensed in his palm.

"Void Refining Bullet!"

The Eyeless Snake, with only its upper body remaining, suddenly moved. Taking the attack head-on, it lunged at Amon without regard for anything else.

"Heh... so you're done playing dead? You haven't even dropped a Spirit Ring. Did you really think I'd believe you were dead?" Amon sneered.

He extended his left hand and materialized Soul Power in front of himself, condensing it into a Barrier.

At the end of its strength, the Eyeless Snake slammed headfirst into the Barrier with a bang, cracking it all over.

With a gesture from Amon's right hand, a gray Soul Power sword appeared.

He dismissed the Barrier, stepped forward, and cut off the snake's head with one strike. Then, with another slash, he split the head in two.