Azure-green wood energy still drifted through the forest, and the surprise had yet to fade from Leng Nu Jiao's emerald eyes.
Without her realizing it, her pride as the Spirit Pagoda's final disciple had shrunk by a third.
"Don't be too surprised, Sister Nu Jiao. Just a little trick."
Tang Qingye held his hands behind his back and turned to wink at her, his formerly profound gaze brimming with youthful mischief.
"Young master, I suspect you're humblebragging..."
Before she could finish, Tang Qingye stopped short. His striking, unusual eyes focused, his gaze piercing through layers of ancient trees before fixing on a break in the ground a hundred meters away.
"Have you discovered something, young master?"
Leng Nu Jiao's brows knitted slightly. She followed Tang Qingye's gaze but saw nothing.
Tang Qingye's lips curled into a playful smile. "Three hundred meters away, there's a hidden patch of rocky ground. A group of hundred-year Bloodclaw Badgers that specialize in burrowing and ambushes is hiding underneath, about twenty of them. Judging by the images coming through, the big fellow leading them is around nine hundred years old."
"This... you..." Leng Nu Jiao had no idea what to say.
They hadn't betrayed so much as a footstep, and you're saying you've already gathered information on the entire group? Isn't that cheating?
But a competitive flame immediately flared in her green eyes. With a turn of her slender hand, Ink Jade Spirit Bamboo extended from the void.
Now that they had found prey, they naturally had to strike first in this Asura battlefield of plundering spiritual energy, tearing it apart to nourish their Soul Rings.
"Young master, let's head over, then. I'll take the vanguard and clear the way, seizing this first wave of spiritual energy for you."
Leng Nu Jiao lifted her head slightly, her burgundy high ponytail stirring in the wind, an eager pride on her radiant face.
At those words, however, Tang Qingye turned sideways and wagged a fair index finger before her eyes, smiling like a scheming little fox.
"Hold on, Sister Nu Jiao. We need to establish a rule here first."
Leng Nu Jiao paused, bewilderment flashing through her emerald-green eyes. "A rule? What rule?"
Tang Qingye stepped forward, closing the distance between them, and lowered his voice with utter conviction. "Sister Nu Jiao, when we fight in a moment, you absolutely mustn't steal my kills. So, sign a 'Demon Pact' with me."
"A Demon Pact?"
Leng Nu Jiao's red lips parted slightly. She did not know whether to laugh or cry.
"That's right."
Tang Qingye clapped his hands, an avaricious gleam in his eyes. "Today, here in the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform, every last bit of Soul Beast spiritual energy is going into this young master's 'Big Stomach Bag.'"
Tang Qingye muttered inwardly, If I'm going to live off someone else, I'll do it with my head held high. I'm maxing out my resources.
Am I supposed to beam with joy over a little pay?
Sorry, but today, I, Tang Qingye, want it all.
Watching the nouveau-riche expression on Tang Qingye's face, Leng Yaozhu could not help pressing her red lips together before the soul-device screen outside, her phoenix eyes brimming with laughter.
This little rascal certainly has quite an appetite for amassing wealth. But what gift should I prepare?
Leng Nu Jiao gave him an even more beguiling sidelong glance, her unapproachable chill now entirely gone. "Young master, you really... won't accept the slightest loss. Since you have such an enormous capacity, I'll stand by and cover you."
"Just watch, Sister Nu Jiao. This young master has a very big appetite."
Tang Qingye smiled, pushed off, and became a streak of light shooting straight down the center.
Leng Nu Jiao's eyes shimmered as her figure followed him at an unhurried pace, like a wisp of ink-dark smoke.
A hundred meters took a Soul Master only a moment.
The primeval green forest ahead gradually thinned, revealing an open depression strewn with jagged rocks.
It was precisely the hundred-year Bloodclaw Badgers' lair.
Rumble!
Tang Qingye strode openly into the ring of rocks. More than twenty pairs of scarlet beast eyes lit up underground in unison, flashing savage red light as swathes of earth and rubble exploded.
Several hundred-year Bloodclaw Badgers leaped from breaks in the ground, the dark-red keratinous claws on their forelegs screeching through the air; from piles of fallen leaves on either side, another six old badgers skilled in sneak attacks attacked simultaneously, their ghastly-white nets of rending Soul Power bearing a bloody wind as they descended over Tang Qingye's head.
Surrounded, Tang Qingye raised an eyebrow. You think numbers will help?
His eyes lowered slightly, sweeping across the hideous faces lunging through the air, three parts disdain and four parts indifference.
Just dry rations to add years to my Soul Ring.
"Big Stomach Bag, open for business."
Tang Qingye spoke coldly and stepped forward, the air screeching from friction, while his right hand formed a claw and grasped at the void.
Beneath his feet, a purple Soul Ring containing the essence of the Nine Heavens Azure Luan rose.
The clouds high above shuddered strangely. Countless tiny motes of deep azure radiance descended, compressing furiously in his palm into a drop of deep azure Spirit Liquid threaded with ancient, dark-azure patterns.
Heavenly Cang Art, condense Azure Sky Marrow! Anything could be enchanted, with endless transformations!
The crystalline azure liquid flowed along his fingertips, covering his entire right hand in deep azure patterns like those of an ancient bronze artifact.
A Bloodclaw Badger vanguard with two hundred years of cultivation became a ghostly red flash, its innate blood-red rending air blades bearing straight for his throat.
Me, avoid your edge? Take my Soul-Shattering Iron Claw!
Expressionless, Tang Qingye swept his right claw toward the blood-red claws, and three fierce azure streaks instantly tore through the air.
Claw against claw.
The Bloodclaw Badger's scarlet claws could tear through iron and stone, but against Tang Qingye's casual strike, it was like a Haji cat hitting a Dayun truck-it suffered terribly.
Crack!
Azure Sky Power surged backward along its foreleg, the savage force shredding its right arm and the front half of its body.
Bang!
A cloud of bloody mist and shredded flesh burst in the air, turning into pure energy that drifted toward Tang Qingye's Soul Ring.
The vanguard did not even have time to scream before sheer numerical superiority crushed it into a skyful of minced flesh raining down. How romantic.
Having landed his strike, Tang Qingye moved like lightning, leaving an afterimage where he had stood as he charged straight into the enemy ranks.
"I've surrounded you!"
A punch, an elbow, a palm, a claw-every blow enchanted, every blow a critical hit, each carrying the overwhelming might of Azure Sky Marrow.
There was no technique to it, only slaughter.
He lowered his shoulder and rammed forward, caving in two Bloodclaw Badgers' breastbones; a backhand slap unleashed tremendous rending force that directly crushed an ambusher's throat.
In three short minutes, the vicious Bloodclaw Badger pack had been almost exterminated.
The few surviving hundred-year Bloodclaw Badgers were utterly terrified.
At that moment, the Bloodclaw Badger King hiding in the deepest part of the depression's fissure finally could not stay put.
All his underlings were dead; he could not willingly fall behind either!
"Roar!"
With a savage roar, a massive blood-red shadow burst from the earth.
The nine-hundred-year leader's fur stood on end like steel needles. His charging body trailed a brutal blur of light and shadow as his forelegs tore through the air, raising three ghastly-white blades several meters long.
Under their king's pressure, the remaining Bloodclaw Badgers also opened their bloody maws and spat blasts of force and fragmentary blades, blanketing the sky as they descended on Tang Qingye.
You dare challenge me without understanding the gap in our strength? Take this.
"Scatter."
Tang Qingye spoke coldly, one hand in his pocket as his clenched right fist shot out at light speed.
A pale azure Firmament Protective Membrane appeared over Tang Qingye's body. The moment those waves of light and fragmentary blades struck it, its purifying power dissolved them.
Beneath the Heavenly Emperor Fist, all foes scattered. An incomparably wild force exploded outward, azure radiance tearing through the sky.
The remaining lackeys wailed as their bodies burst apart. Although the Bloodclaw Badger King had shielded himself with the other badgers, the aftershock still sent him flying, leaving a gaping, blood-red hole in his chest.
He was afraid, truly afraid. The badger king howled in pain, but strangely, the hole in his chest erupted with dazzling red light. Then his body began to writhe, bone spurs piercing his skin through the squirming flesh. His eyes became entirely suffused with scarlet, and his vicious aura abruptly surged.
Berserk? This ugly thing has a skill like that too? Tang Qingye muttered inwardly, without the slightest fear in his eyes. What can worthless trash do even if it goes berserk?
Following the lingering energy shock waves, Tang Qingye stamped his right foot, sinking the ground farther. Like an azure hurricane, he fast-forwarded straight into the Bloodclaw Badger King's embrace.
"Hello there, little sister."
Power condensed at his fingertips. The Soul-Shattering Iron Claw blazed with light as it bore straight for the badger king's face, nearly blinding him.
The Bloodclaw Badger King roared. Apparently truly furious, he rammed his coarse, enormous face straight into the Soul-Shattering Iron Claw.
Squelch.
The badger king's face yielded like rotten flesh at the touch, sliced open with ease to reveal his pale brains. Watching nearby, Leng Nu Jiao felt as though she was about to throw up her breakfast.
The internal force drove straight in, its savage impact churning his organs into bloody pulp.
The massive body slid backward several meters under its momentum and slammed heavily into the rubble, dead with his eyes still open.
"Done."
Tang Qingye withdrew his right hand, the ancient azure patterns on his fingertips quietly fading.
The energy formed from more than twenty Bloodclaw Badgers poured into his solitary purple Soul Ring like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
Nearly three hundred years of cultivation went into the "Big Stomach Bag," making that purple hue even more subdued.
This feeling... distinguished, so distinguished it was as though there were no distinction at all.
Even "Qingye shocking Nu Jiao four times in a night" could not describe the shock Leng Nu Jiao felt behind him. She stared blankly at the boy, her eyes shimmering, even her breathing slowing half a beat.
Tang Qingye turned toward the contemplative Leng Nu Jiao, his eyes curving with a composed expression.
"Sister Nu Jiao, this young master will gladly accept the Demon Pact's first haul."
Just then, after the badger king's gruesome remains dissipated, they actually left behind a blood-red ball of light. Within that light was unmistakably a Soul Bone!
Before you continue