In the Sky Screen's footage, night had fully settled in.
Rich Benevolence Mall, a building that had once bustled with life.
Five pillars of light descended, randomly teleporting five people to different corners of the mall.
Snake Granny Chao Tianxiang felt her vision blur, then the hard tiles beneath her feet.
She snapped her eyes open. She had been teleported to the mall's third floor.
Clothing stores packed the surrounding area. Under the dim emergency lights, the plastic mannequins dressed in the latest fashions gave off an indescribably eerie air.
"Yiran!"
Chao Tianxiang called out instinctively. Her voice echoed through the empty mall, but no answer came.
Her brows knitted tightly. Her soul power, at over level sixty, instantly surged out of her body as she tried to sense her granddaughter's location.
Yet before her soul power could spread even three meters, it seemed to strike a barrier steeped in decay and was forcibly dispersed.
"Damn it, this place can actually suppress soul power perception!" Chao Tianxiang's heart sank.
Though arrogant, she was no fool.
Having witnessed Meng Shenji's terrible fate, she knew she could not linger here.
"I'll leave first, then find a way to locate Yiran."
Chao Tianxiang made her decision immediately, fixing her gaze on a huge window nearby.
Through it, she could see the desolate street outside.
For a Soul Emperor, this height was nothing more than a single leap.
She strode toward the window. Just as she was about to touch the glass, an extreme chill rose behind her without warning.
Chao Tianxiang was, after all, a veteran expert. Her combat instincts made her react instantly.
She twisted sharply at the waist, her snake-headed staff whipping up a fierce gust. Her soul rings flashed as she prepared to deal the attacker behind her a fatal blow.
Yet the moment she turned around...
Her perspective suddenly shifted in an utterly bizarre way.
She saw her own body.
That familiar body stood firmly in place, still poised to swing its staff.
Her vision, however, kept rising before it began to spin.
In midair, she saw her own neck.
The severed surface was smooth as a mirror. Not a drop of blood sprayed out; only a strange ring of ashen blue spread rapidly across it.
What... happened?
That was the final thought that flashed through Chao Tianxiang's mind.
Her consciousness grew hazy in an instant, as though plunging into a bottomless abyss.
A Soul Emperor of over level sixty, an expert powerful enough to establish her own sect on the Douluo Continent.
She had died without even understanding why, never so much as seeing her enemy clearly.
Everyone on the Douluo Continent was dumbstruck.
Through the Sky Screen's god's-eye view, everyone saw that spine-chilling scene clearly.
As Chao Tianxiang turned around, a pitch-black, headless shadow had somehow already pressed itself against her back.
The shadow extended a withered hand. With the deft ease of dismantling a toy, it lifted gently and plucked her head off.
There was no clash of soul power, no fierce struggle.
It was like taking apart a shoddily made toy.
"My wife!!!"
Dragon Duke Meng Shu let out an anguished scream and collapsed to the ground, his eyes bloodshot.
He clung desperately to his single chance to send a hint, his nails digging deep into his palms.
Before he could even send it, Chao Tianxiang was dead!
"Yiran... yes, Yiran is still alive!"
Meng Shu jerked his head up and looked at the bewildered Meng Yiran in another split-screen view.
He forced himself to calm down. He could not waste this one lifeline.
He had to see clearly what rules that head-taking horror followed!
Inside the Papal Hall, Bibi Dong's and Yu Yuanzhen's faces were thunderous.
They had thought that mastering the three ironclad rules would let them thrive in the other world.
Reality had delivered another resounding slap to their faces.
A Soul Emperor had not lasted even a second against that Head-Taking Specter!
Yu Xiaogang's face was pale, his lips trembling violently, yet he was still muttering under his breath.
"Could those three hints have been false? Why else would it attack for no reason?"
"That must be it. That horror needs no reason to kill. Those first three hints must have been lies!"
Tang Hao shot Yu Xiaogang a cold glance, his eyes filled with disdain.
Tang San kept his head lowered, both hands clenched tightly.
Watching Yu Xiaogang lose his composure, he felt an intense sense of shame for the first time.
Was this the teacher he had always revered?
Why was he acting like such a damn idiot???
Meanwhile, Bu Le's two disreputable friends, E Kao and Tianya, exchanged a glance and chuckled.
"Tianya, did you see clearly? That specter is on the third floor."
"Sure did. It takes heads, right? Just keep it from getting close."
The two swiftly focused their minds and sent that precious hint through the Sky Screen's linking function.
[Sky Screen notification: Bu Le has received guidance from his linked associates!]
On the mall's first floor, Bu Le was trembling behind a counter when E Kao's voice suddenly rang out in his mind.
"Bu Le! Listen up! Your opportunity is here! The horror is on the third floor. It takes heads, and its rule is that it has to get close to kill."
"Use your soul skills from a distance, and it's nothing but a sitting duck! Go control it! This is your chance to become a god!"
Bu Le froze for a moment, then wild delight spread across his sleazy face.
"Ranged attacks? Taking heads?"
Bu Le chuckled, a gleam of greed flashing in his eyes.
He rubbed his chin and summoned his Sky-Net Big Cover martial soul.
"So that's how it works. As long as I don't let it get close, that horror is nothing special."
"Watch me control this horror today and bring back my chance at godhood!"
On Rich Benevolence Mall's third floor, deathly silence continued to fester within the blue-black gloom.
The Headless Paranormal Shadow stood motionless beside Chao Tianxiang's lifeless corpse.
Its withered, ink-black hands held Chao Tianxiang's head, her face still filled with terror. As though calibrating a precision component, it slowly pressed the head onto the empty stump of its neck.
It fit perfectly.
The instant the head settled into place, something unexpected happened.
A soft white light suddenly shone from the center of Chao Tianxiang's brow.
Outside the Sky Screen, countless Soul Masters across the Douluo Continent held their breath.
"That's a Wisdom Soul Bone! A ten-thousand-year Wisdom Soul Bone!"
Within the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the widely knowledgeable Ning Fengzhi recognized the source of that light at a glance.
"The Meng Family certainly has some resources. To think Chao Tianxiang, a mere Soul Emperor, had fused with a soul bone like that."
In the footage, that white light lasted less than three seconds under the onslaught of the paranormal aura.
Cold, decaying, deathly power flooded into the skull like a tide.
The soul bone's once-lustrous glow rapidly dimmed, then turned charcoal-black as it was completely assimilated by paranormal power.
The Headless Paranormal Shadow-now more accurately called Chao Tianxiang-stiffly turned its neck, and the corners of its mouth curled into an utterly eerie smile.
That no longer seemed like a rigid rule of killing, but rather a hint of amusement after acquiring some piece of information.