Huo Wu looked at Chen Jin, an ominous premonition rising in her heart.
"Chen Jin, listen to me. We'd better leave this place right now."
Huo Wu tugged at Chen Jin's sleeve, her tone urgent.
"For so many thousand-year Soul Beasts to flee in panic, there must be a terrifyingly powerful Soul Beast up ahead. It might even be a ten-thousand-year one."
"With our current strength, the consequences would be unthinkable if we got caught up in this."
However.
Chen Jin merely shook his head gently.
"No."
The next instant.
He stamped his foot hard against the ground.
His entire body became a streak of Gold-Red light as he charged straight into the depths of the forest, heading against the flow of fleeing Soul Beasts.
He moved so fast that he left trails of afterimages in the air.
Huo Wu stood rooted to the spot, her beautiful eyes filled with shock.
"Chen Jin! Are you insane?!"
He knew perfectly well that something extremely dangerous lay ahead. Not avoiding it was bad enough, but he was actually heading straight toward it?
What was this if not throwing his life away?
Watching Chen Jin's retreating figure rapidly vanish from sight, Huo Wu bit her red lip and stamped her foot in anger.
"That arrogant fool! That lunatic!"
She badly wanted to turn around and leave.
But when she recalled the scene of Chen Jin saving her earlier, and the words he had just spoken.
If she simply watched him die in there.
She would never forgive herself for the rest of her life.
"Damn it!"
Huo Wu cursed under her breath.
She gritted her teeth.
Her slender body moved, red Soul Power erupting in an instant as she became a mass of blazing fire and followed close behind.
The temperature within the dense forest was rising sharply.
The deeper she went, the more withered the surrounding trees became.
The soil beneath her feet had already lost its moisture, turning a strange, scorched yellow.
Huo Wu circulated her Soul Power to its limit, only barely managing to withstand the suffocating waves of heat around her.
As she passed through a thicket burned by the flames, the view before her suddenly opened up.
It was a clearing several hundred meters wide.
The earth was cracked.
Countless ancient trees had turned to charcoal, sending up wisps of bluish smoke.
At the center of the clearing.
A bird that was not particularly massive hovered in midair.
It was a giant bird with crimson light flowing all over its body.
Its feathers looked as though they had been carved from the purest rubies, each one radiating scorching heat.
Its tail feathers were extremely long, tracing elegant yet dangerous arcs through the air.
Although its body was only a little over two meters long, the pressure radiating from it was suffocatingly heavy.
At that moment.
The giant red bird was fighting an enormous Raging Earth Bear.
The Earth Bear was covered in thick stone armor, and its cultivation was at least three thousand years.
However.
Before this giant red bird, the enormous Earth Bear seemed utterly powerless to fight back.
The giant bird let out a clear cry and gave its wings a fierce beat.
In an instant.
A mass of Gold-Red flame roared forth, becoming a sea of fire that engulfed the Earth Bear.
The savage flames rampaged wildly.
The thick stone armor covering the Earth Bear actually melted like ice and snow the instant it touched the flames.
It let out an agonized scream, but beneath that terrifying heat, it struggled only a few times before falling still.
A moment later.
The flames gradually died out.
The Earth Bear, so formidable before, had now become a charred corpse, sending up wisps of bluish smoke.
At the sight, Huo Wu's face instantly turned deathly pale.
"That's... a Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow!"
Huo Wu's voice trembled.
"Judging by the purity of its flames and its size, this Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow has probably already reached six thousand years of cultivation!"
As a prodigy of Blazing Fire Academy, she had an extremely deep understanding of fire-attribute Soul Beasts.
The Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow was among the finest fire-attribute Soul Beasts.
It possessed exceptionally pure blazing fire, with terrifying destructive power.
A six-thousand-year Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow could even rival an ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in actual combat strength.
"Chen Jin, let's go!"
Huo Wu hurriedly grabbed Chen Jin's sleeve, her voice anxious.
"This Soul Beast is too dangerous. Even a Power Attack System Soul Ancestor above level forty could only flee for their life against it."
"The two of us couldn't possibly be a match for it!"
However.
Before Chen Jin could respond.
The Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow in midair seemed to detect the presence of strangers.
A pair of eyes shining with Gold-Red light slowly turned toward them, locking firmly onto the two people standing at the forest's edge.
At that instant.
A savage, scorching pressure bore down on them like mountains toppling and seas overturning.
Huo Wu felt her breath catch, and even the circulation of Soul Power within her body became sluggish.
"Oh no, it's spotted us!"
Horror filled Huo Wu's heart as she tried to pull Chen Jin backward.
"Run! If we don't leave now, it'll be too late!"
However.
Chen Jin did not move so much as half a step beside her.
"A six-thousand-year Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow..."
Chen Jin murmured, his voice devoid of fear and instead carrying an irrepressible anticipation.
"Now this is the most suitable third Soul Ring for me."
Hearing Chen Jin's words, Huo Wu was completely dumbfounded.
"Are you insane? You want to challenge a six-thousand-year Soul Beast?"
"You're only level thirty!"
Chen Jin gently brushed away Huo Wu's hand holding his sleeve, his expression calm and resolute.
"Stand back. Don't interfere."
"I'm going to kill it with my own hands."
With that.
Chen Jin began walking toward the Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow, which radiated terrifying pressure, one step at a time.
His steps were steady, without the slightest hesitation.
Watching Chen Jin's back, Huo Wu stamped her foot in anger.
"You lunatic!"
But the Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow's gaze was already locked onto them. Running now would only turn them into living targets.
The Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow in midair let out a piercing cry.
To it, this puny human actually daring to look straight at it with such an indifferent gaze was nothing short of an insult to its majesty.
The giant bird spread its wings.
A terrifying wave of scorching air instantly descended from the sky, withering and charring all vegetation within a hundred-meter radius.
Faced with this terrifying pressure, Chen Jin did not even furrow his brow, his figure still straight as a spear.
The enraged Blazing Fire Azure Sparrow abruptly opened its sharp beak.
A mass of pure Gold-Red flame instantly gathered in its mouth, then became a massive pillar of fire that spewed toward Chen Jin, blotting out the sky.
Wherever the flames passed, the air burned fiercely, producing piercing explosions.
The attack covered an enormous area, sealing off almost every route of retreat Chen Jin had.
"Watch out!"
Huo Wu cried out in alarm, her slender body retreating rapidly.
The flames were simply too hot. Even from dozens of meters away, she felt as though her skin would be scorched.
As she watched the towering flames swallow Chen Jin's figure.
Huo Wu's heart instantly sank to rock bottom.
"Chen Jin..."
Under such terrifying fiery breath, how could a level-thirty Soul Master possibly survive?
Before you continue