The next day, Tang San boarded an Azure Eagle with the Golden Squad.
Azure Eagles were enormous avian soul beasts with tremendous speed and extremely vicious temperaments.
To tame these three soul beasts, each nearly a thousand years old, the Spirit Hall truly had remarkable means.
To avoid arousing suspicion, Tang San joined the other three team members in the cabin.
The Azure Eagles took flight, heading for the Hundred Flowers Mountains.
On the ground, the mercenary groups gathered in Geyin City by the generous bounty also set out, traveling swiftly to the Hundred Flowers Mountains.
They then entered the mountains and, following the original plan, surrounded the Evil Soul Master's stronghold.
Inside a cave enveloped in thick poison miasma in the Hundred Flowers Mountains, a fat, ugly man raised his brows.
"More intruders. These fools really don't know what's good for them, coming to bother me, Tom, again and again."
"Hmph, I never stopped them from freely mining these mountains, yet now those ungrateful wolves want to get rid of us instead."
The Evil Soul Master, Tom, called himself Virus.
His face was now filled with rage.
In the past, he had not been an Evil Soul Master, merely an ordinary soul master with an ugly face.
He had made a peaceful living in a small town through his ability to produce poisons and medicines.
Tom had no grand ambitions. He only wanted to cultivate diligently and enjoy a modest life with the wife he loved deeply.
She had not abandoned him because of his ugliness, and had even supported his pharmaceutical work.
His outstanding medicine-making abilities soon earned him recruitment by the local Spirit Hall.
But a deacon in that branch of the Spirit Hall harbored crooked intentions, ordering Tom to manufacture addictive drugs to sell to nobles for profit.
Tom had initially been unwilling to obey, but there was no helping it-the deacon offered far too much money, and he also wanted to give his wife a better life.
Besides, he had only been a Soul Elder then, while his wife was an ordinary person with no soul power. Neither could escape the grasp of a Spirit Hall deacon with Soul Emperor cultivation.
Before long, the deacon amassed a fortune with the help of Tom's New Five-Stone Powder.
Tom also began living a better life, but his wife was no longer as happy as before.
The couple began arguing frequently, eventually divorcing.
As the saying went, one wrong step led to another, and retribution for his sins began coming for Tom.
One day, missing his wife and regretting what he had said, he wanted to apologize, only to discover that she had become addicted to the Five-Stone Powder he had made and was beyond saving.
The deacon had broken their agreement, letting these drugs flow among the common people to reap greater profits, effectively draining the pond to catch every last fish.
When Tom saw his once gentle, loving wife become debased and vulgar under the drugs' influence, taking pleasure with other men...
Tom broke down.
By then, the Spirit Hall's higher authorities had finally traced their investigation to the deacon, and his deeds came to light.
During the resulting arrests, Tom pulled a vicious stunt.
Using the water supply and wind direction, he poisoned the entire town, then used his martial soul to devour those toxins, transforming it from an ordinary toad martial soul into an evil poison toad.
He killed countless people, and even the Spirit Hall enforcement team sent back then fell into his trap.
They were wiped out outright.
That battle turned Tom into Virus. He fell into becoming an Evil Soul Master, and his cultivation leaped straight to the Soul Emperor level.
Afterward, he selected a high-quality Calamity Flower Demon from the raw ingredients used to make the New Five-Stone Powder.
He took it away along with his wife's corpse and all his research materials, disappearing into the Hundred Flowers Mountains.
Through further research afterward, Virus caused his martial soul to mutate again, turning it into a high-grade martial soul like the Jade Phosphorous Toad.
However, since he had not repeated his earlier poisoning ritual, his cultivation was still only at the Soul Saint level.
During the subsequent investigation, because Virus had acted without anyone being the wiser, the Spirit Hall simply assumed that the deacon had chosen to tear the net even if the fish died.
Of course, some people noticed clues and wanted to investigate further, only to encounter obstacles at every turn.
Bibi Dong had always been dealing with these filthy affairs within the Spirit Hall, but the organization was so enormous, and nobles from both great empires were involved as well. To truly see everything through...
It was terribly difficult.
"Annie, don't worry. I'll soon kill every last one of those vermin disturbing us!"
"This time, it won't just be a warning!"
Virus sent the Wolf Bandits under his toxins' control to wipe out the mercenary groups.
The cave fell quiet again. Virus continued gazing tenderly at the woman with closed eyes on the stone wall, his resolve set.
The woman's true form was the Calamity Flower Demon. Under Virus's manipulation, the Calamity Flower Demon had devoured vast quantities of life, poison, and Annie's corpse.
It had grown into its current appearance, bearing some resemblance to Annie.
In theory, a ten-thousand-year soul beast could possess intelligence equal to a human's.
The Calamity Flower Demon, owing to its unique nature, could even communicate in simple ways.
Yet despite having been nurtured to ninety thousand years, it still showed no response whatsoever.
Virus did not lose heart. Perhaps things would take a turn when it reached a hundred thousand years.
For now, however, he still lacked a water-type toxin needed to bring about its transformation.
But before that, he had to deal with the intruders first.
Outside, the Azure Eagles had arrived just above the poison miasma, drawing very close.
But their animal instincts prevented them from approaching any farther.
Their current altitude was low enough that, with everyone's abilities, they could jump straight down into it.
To guard against an ambush, however, Qian Renxue, their captain, took the lead.
With her six-winged angel martial soul possessing her, Qian Renxue left the cabin and fiercely beat her wings in midair.
In an instant, tremendous heat and a violent gale rose.
They dispersed the poison miasma for thousands of meters around.
The others followed close behind, leaping down and using the cliff walls and towering trees to break their falls before landing in front of the cave.
Without wasting words, Qian Renxue raised her greatsword, her sacred soul power surging and concentrating.
Then a golden energy blast roared forth!
Boom!
But almost immediately, a vast cloud of poisonous mist surged out of the cave, blocking the energy blast.
The two powers clashed for only a moment before exploding again.
The blast enlarged the cave enough for a young Titan Giant Ape to pass through.
Not only that, but vast quantities of poisonous mist blanketed the area once more.
"Luring the tiger away from its mountain? An angel martial soul? The Spirit Hall certainly thinks highly of me, Virus."
"But you're also underestimating me a little, sending even Soul Grandmasters. Have you run out of useful people?"
Virus's voice came from every direction within the poisonous mist.
Everyone immediately formed up.
They released their martial souls and gathered back-to-back in a ring, protecting Tang San, Hu Liena, and the other two support-type and control-type soul masters in the center.
Not one of them answered Virus. Before descending, all ten had drunk an entire bottle of Purification Dewdrop each, a dose that would grant poison immunity for a while.
Still, their opponent was a Soul Saint-level Evil Soul Master with an endless arsenal of poisoning methods. Caution remained paramount.
Tang San carefully activated his blue silver grass and spiritual power, sensing Virus's location.
Beside him, Gao Yuli played his gilded jade-bone zither martial soul, enhancing everyone's condition while attempting to influence Virus.
Xu Yu's Brilliant Gold Scepter stood ready, prepared to help free anyone from control at any moment.
Hu Liena and Xie Yue pressed close together, keeping their martial souls and soul power synchronized.
Yan was responsible for ensuring that, when necessary, the pair's Martial Soul Fusion would proceed without mishap.
Xiao Wu, Qian Renxue, and Li Kai, who possessed a black-horned mountain boar martial soul, stood ready for battle, giving Virus no opening to strike at the three within the ring.
The Soul Master World could spend a long time learning from this squad's coordination.
This could greatly reduce their chances of coming to grief.
"Six o'clock! Behind us!"
Tang San suddenly shouted, and everyone immediately focused their senses in that direction.
Tang San promptly manipulated his blue silver grass, unleashing Blue Silver Entanglement. The distinct sensation of binding something told him that their opponent had been restrained.
Gao Yuli followed up in time with another control effect, his sound waves becoming solid rings that closed around the target.
Qian Renxue trusted them without the slightest reservation, unleashing Judgment Sacred Sword toward the rear.
Boom!
"Guh! Such powerful perception."
The light blast dispersed the poisonous mist again, exposing Virus within it. Everyone could see that his hands had been charred black.
Clearly, Virus had come off distinctly worse in this exchange.