Dull knocks echoed through the empty, silent classroom.
There was no urgency in the sound, nor any emotion. It was monotonous and rigid, like a machine following a preset program.
Li Fugui widened his eyes, trying to find whoever was knocking in the dim light.
The next second.
A horrifying sound rang out.
Without anything touching him, the whites of Li Fugui's eyes were instantly flooded with a murky blackness.
Then thick black blood, reeking of a powerful stench, gushed wildly from his eyes, nostrils, ears, and the corners of his mouth!
His skin visibly drained of color and turned ashen gray. Vast patches of dark purple lividity instantly spread across his entire body.
Thud.
Li Fugui hit the floor hard, like a heap of rotten flesh stripped of its supporting bones.
Black blood spread across the tiles. In the deathly silent classroom, only a freshly rotted corpse remained.
The entire process took less than three seconds.
Across the Douluo Continent, everyone fell deathly silent.
Before the sky screen, countless Soul Masters who prided themselves on their worldly knowledge gaped, their sharp intakes of breath rising one after another.
Spirit City, the Papal Hall.
Bibi Dong focused her immense spiritual power intently on the image in the sky screen.
"There was no trace of Soul Power at work, no sign of poison spreading."
A rare look of gravity appeared on Bibi Dong's stunning face. "What exactly killed him?"
Even as a Peak Douluo, she could not make sense of this method of killing!
The training grounds of Shrek Academy.
Purple light blazed in Tang San's eyes as he pushed his Purple Demon Eye to its limit.
He stared fixedly at the pool of black blood, his brows deeply furrowed.
Even the Tang Sect's finest poisons couldn't achieve such a silent, undetectable assassination! Tang San's mind reeled, but he quickly forced an explanation from what he knew. No, that's not right. If there were no energy fluctuations, it must have been some rare sonic spiritual attack!
Yes, that must be it! That villager was just an ordinary mortal without Soul Power. He couldn't withstand a high-level Soul Beast's sonic assault!
It was not just Tang San. The powerhouses of the major sects were also desperately searching for a reasonable explanation for this bizarre scene, relying on their ingrained understanding as Soul Masters.
Because without such an explanation, fear of the unknown would utterly destroy their confidence.
Just then.
The image on the sky screen flickered slightly, switching to a corridor in Dachang City's No. 7 Middle School.
Mad Rhino's perspective.
At the end of the dim corridor, several swaying figures had appeared at some point.
They wore high school uniforms, their heads bowed and their arms dangling limply at their sides.
Their exposed skin was the ashen gray of the dead, and a heavy stench of decay drifted down the corridor.
They were Ghost Slaves, assimilated by the Knocking Ghost's supernatural presence.
"Just in time!"
Mad Rhino had no idea what had happened in the other classroom. At the sight of these eerie figures, bloodlust flared in his eyes.
"Soul Beasts from the Otherworld, huh? Let's see what god-tier Soul Rings I can get out of you!"
Mad Rhino drove off with both legs, shattering the solid wooden floor beneath his feet.
His third Soul Ring suddenly blazed. Berserk!
His muscles bulged as he charged at the foremost Ghost Slave like a real rhinoceros, carrying the savage strength of a Soul Elder.
He did not bother testing it. He went straight for the kill!
His massive fist slammed into a Ghost Slave's head, carrying a fierce storm of Soul Power.
The head, covered in lividity, burst instantly like an overripe watermelon.
Black slime and scraps of rotten flesh splattered across the floor.
The headless Ghost Slave toppled stiffly to the ground and never moved again.
"Hahahaha! That's all you've got?"
Having landed his first blow, Mad Rhino grew even more arrogant.
He swung an elbow backward, pulverizing the breastbone of the Ghost Slave lunging at him from the right, then followed with a whipping kick that snapped the third Ghost Slave in half at the waist!
He tore through them effortlessly.
Before Mad Rhino's abundant Soul Power, these sluggish Ghost Slaves were as fragile as paper toys.
In barely a dozen seconds, the corridor was littered with mangled corpses.
At the sight of this.
The oppressive atmosphere across the Douluo Continent instantly lifted.
Tang San unclenched his fists, a confident smile curling his lips.
He turned to Dai Mubai and the others beside him. "Just as I expected. These monsters move extremely slowly and have no defensive instincts. Judging by the hardness of their bones, they're roughly equivalent to Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo on the Douluo Continent."
"As long as we keep our distance and kill them from afar with hidden weapons or Soul Power, they pose no threat."
Yu Xiaogang, who had already returned to Shrek, stood with his hands behind his back and nodded in satisfaction.
"Little San's analysis is very thorough," Yu Xiaogang said solemnly, with the Grandmaster's characteristic certainty.
"With Soul Power protecting our bodies, low-level creatures like these cannot penetrate our defenses at all. This truly is a low-level plane where we can harvest resources."
On the sky screen, Mad Rhino casually shook the black blood off his fist and spat disdainfully on the floor.
"What a lousy place. Nothing but worthless trash that can't take a single hit."
He even released the berserk state of his Martial Soul Possession, preparing to explore farther down the corridor.
Just as he took his second step.
A faint infant's cry suddenly echoed eerily through the empty corridor.
Mad Rhino stopped abruptly and looked down.
In the dim light, a blue-gray child had somehow latched onto his thigh.
The child was only a few months old. Its eyes had neither whites nor pupils, only a nauseating expanse of pitch black.
It clung tightly to Mad Rhino's leg, lifted its head, and spread its mouth in a grin, revealing a mouthful of uneven, pointed teeth.
It was a first-stage Ghost Baby that roamed the No. 7 Middle School Ghost Domain.
"Where did this little brat come from? Get off!"
Mad Rhino felt an icy chill where it clung to him, and an inexplicable irritation rose in his chest.
He snorted coldly, and his yellow first Soul Ring instantly lit up.
Soul Power surged out of his body, forming a hard shield over his skin.
On the Douluo Continent, even ordinary swords and blades could not so much as scratch a Soul Elder's protective Soul Power.
He intended to use his Soul Power to shatter this disgusting little monster outright.
"Break!" Mad Rhino roared.
Yet the Ghost Baby's pitch-black eyes showed no change.
It merely opened its mouth wide and bit into Mad Rhino's thigh, which was shrouded in dense Soul Power.
The next second.
Under the gaze of countless eyes across the Douluo Continent.
The protective Soul Power Mad Rhino took such pride in failed to delay the Ghost Baby's serrated teeth for even a tenth of a second.
Crunch.
The crisp sound of chewing carried clearly through the sky screen to every corner of the continent.
The Ghost Baby bit straight through the Soul Power shield, tearing away a huge chunk of muscle, blood vessels, and even bone from Mad Rhino's thigh!
Scarlet blood erupted like a fountain, splashing onto the Ghost Baby's blue-gray face.
The Ghost Baby chewed and let out a satisfied coo.
After a brief moment of frozen shock, an agonizing pain that pierced his heart and gouged his bones shot straight to the top of Mad Rhino's skull.
An utterly harrowing howl tore through the deathly silent corridor of No. 7 Middle School.
And utterly shredded the confidence the Douluo Continent had only just regained!