Thank You, Miss, for Saving My Life!

Half an hour later.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..." From behind a cluster of bushes across the stream came the unnatural sound of leaves and branches trembling.

"Hm?" Yang Yunhai, who had already been keeping part of his attention on the surroundings, was instantly alerted. His eyes snapped open.

Looking up, he saw a flying snake. It was over two meters long, pale red all over, with thin membranes stretched along both sides of its belly like wings and a crimson fleshy crest atop its head.

It flew less than three meters above the ground, yet it was quite fast. In the blink of an eye, it had crossed the streambed and flown over.

"A flying Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent. No wonder it managed to avoid the Blue Silver Grass on the ground and come here." Yang Yunhai's gaze flickered as he immediately summoned his martial soul and murmured, "Perfect timing. I can use you to test my martial soul's current devouring ability and energy-storage effect."

As soon as he finished speaking, he flicked his right hand, and vines shot out at high speed, meeting the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent as it prepared to dive before him.

A Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent with less than four hundred years of cultivation was nowhere near fast enough to escape his sight. Besides, its snake body was over two meters long—a sizable target.

With a muffled thud, the vines struck its waist cleanly.

"Crackle..." The sound of electricity rang out. The Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent's body abruptly stiffened before twisting as it fell to the ground.

"Little brat!" Raising a brow, Yang Yunhai immediately increased the vines' binding force, controlling them to Stretch and tie the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent into an immobile bundle of meat.

Then, he controlled the barbs to pierce the fleshy crest atop the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent's head and activated his devouring ability to begin Draining.

"Damn! It's even sucking in bodily fluids. Have my barbs really become syringes?" He was mildly startled.

Then he frowned slightly. "This won't do!"

"The effect is way too overbearing. It'll be easy for people to mistake it for a fallen soul skill. I'll need to spend some time practicing and learn to control this devouring ability."

With that thought, he hurriedly closed his eyes and carefully sensed the fluids and energy devoured from the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent's crest, trying to distinguish them further before attempting to control them.

To that end, he deliberately suppressed and slowed the devouring speed.

Only after half an hour, when he sensed that the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent had become utterly listless, did inspiration suddenly strike him.

"The barbs are needles, so aren't the vines IV tubes? If I can draw things out, then can I..." He could not help recalling the scenes of receiving injections and IV drips in a hospital when he had been sick in his past life.

Thinking of a possibility, he hurriedly circulated his Soul Power and pushed everything he had devoured back through the same route into the crimson fleshy crest.

He then clearly felt the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent's vitality gradually recovering, until it finally began struggling desperately.

"It really can be used like this!?" Feeling the force transmitted from within the vines, Yang Yunhai was mildly surprised again.

"Sigh, you're struggling so hard. You must be terrified. Don't be afraid—I was nervous the first time I got an injection too!"

With that in mind, he activated the devouring ability once more.

In order to become proficient with his martial soul's devouring ability as soon as possible, he reluctantly decided to make this snake that had delivered itself to his doorstep suffer a little longer.

Until more than two hours later.

"Brother, thanks for your hard work. I won't see you off!" Yang Yunhai watched the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent fly swiftly into the dense forest without looking back.

"The energy-storage effect at the roots is roughly one-tenth of my own Soul Power. Not bad. As for the devouring ability, it really can suck blood, bodily fluids, and Soul Power! If it could absorb Spiritual Power too, that'd be insane." Yang Yunhai shook his head and sighed as he walked back to the campfire and sat down.

For now, his martial soul could only Drain tangible energy. Things like spirit and soul were clearly out of the question.

Thinking so, he turned to glance at the girl. She still had not awakened.

He closed his eyes and continued regulating his breath.

Half an hour later, another blind hundred-year soul beast barged in and became Yang Yunhai's injection experiment.

Then came the third, the fourth...

Yang Yunhai became increasingly familiar with his devouring ability.

By the next day, as the sun slowly rose in the east, a large white rabbit carcass lay quietly beside Yang Yunhai. It was the seventh soul beast he had encountered last night. It was well suited for breakfast, so he had chosen to keep it.

As for the devouring ability, he had basically figured it out completely.

"Still not awake?!" He turned back for another look, then helplessly stood up, picked up the rabbit, and walked toward the stream, preparing to skin it, debone it, and turn it into rabbit skewers.

The water by the streambank was too shallow and would easily get muddied. Yang Yunhai chose to roll up his trouser legs and step into the water to get to work.

As he washed the meat, he suddenly raised his head.

"Rustle, rustle, rustle..." The sound was masked by the flowing water and was not loud, but he still heard it. Without question, soul beasts were approaching nearby, and they were already quite close.

"Which blind soul beast is it this time?" Yang Yunhai frowned, then his brows drew tight. "Not one—it's a group." In just that short moment, the sounds were no longer coming from a single direction, but from all around him.

Clearly, they were a pack-dwelling species. He had been surrounded.

Standing in the stream, he could not use the Blue Silver Grass's information-gathering ability to investigate the surroundings. But how long had he been washing the rabbit meat? For the soul beasts to reach this place so quickly, there was no need to guess—the beasts that had come to hunt him were definitely fast.

Without thinking further, he quickly jumped ashore, placed the rabbit meat on the prepared leaves, and summoned his martial soul in vigilance.

Since he was already surrounded and they were not far away, there was no point in using his detection ability to identify the type of soul beast.

In an area inhabited by hundred-year soul beasts, what did he have to fear?

After waiting quietly for a moment, a gray wolf over two meters long suddenly shot out from the bushes not far from the girl with a whoosh.

Then came the second, the third...

Just a few breaths later, Yang Yunhai swept his gaze around and counted seven wolves in total. Every one of them had gray fur, eerie green eyes, and exposed fangs, looking exceptionally ferocious.

"Awoo..." With a long howl from the largest alpha wolf, the other six stepped forward in unison, closing in around them.

"Hm?" Under the sun's gentle rays, Yang Yunhai saw everything clearly. As its companions advanced step by step, the wolf suddenly turned to look at the girl lying behind him.

Drool dripped from its mouth, and it looked utterly ravenous.

The next moment, it turned back, its expression returning to one of ferocity. It stamped a forepaw, the fur along the sides of its head standing on end as two cyan wind blades rapidly condensed and shot forth.

"!!!" Yang Yunhai reacted instantly. The eight vines extending from his back seemed to come alive, two of them shooting out like whips and lashing fiercely toward the attack.

At the same time, he cursed inwardly and guessed, Could these wolves be the legendary Gale Devil Wolves?

They were the perverts of the soul beast world. He remembered them vividly from the books he had read in his previous life. However, since arriving in this world, he had never looked into them. Still, with their gray fur, ability to use wind blades, and tendency to sneak glances at girls, he felt it was quite possible.

Did they smell the blood that flowed down when she cleaned her wounds earlier? Or were they just passing by?

Wolf-type soul beasts had extraordinarily keen senses of smell. Forget the few hundred meters he could sense—even from a thousand meters away, they could catch a scent. So, it was entirely possible that this pack had smelled the scent from afar before launching their encirclement.

As these thoughts flashed through his mind, "Pfft! Pfft!" The vines collided with the wind blades, while the six wolves following behind the wind blades had already rushed before him.

"Hisss..." Yang Yunhai's vines met them head-on, stabbing straight into their throats before violently twisting. "Pfft! Pfft!" The wind blades struck the vines without even scraping their skin.

"Awooo..." Agonized howls echoed through the forest. Seeing that things had gone badly, the alpha wolf in the distance turned and ran.

"Mmm..." A soft groan followed.

"Trying to run? Not so easily!" A cold glint flashed in Yang Yunhai's eyes. He had no intention of letting Gale Devil Wolves like these get away. With a thought, he sent the two vines that had blocked the wind blades shooting out, swiftly binding the alpha wolf's legs.

After all, it had less than five hundred years of cultivation and was not some top-tier agile soul beast. Its speed was still lacking.

"Awoo! Awoo! Awoo..." Tearing pain erupted from its legs, and the alpha wolf immediately let out a heart-wrenching howl.

"Bang!" A crisp sound, like someone stomping on the ground, rang out as well.

"!??" Yang Yunhai instinctively turned his head, only to see the girl standing on the grass with her body slightly lowered, all ten fingers curled into claws in a clear combat stance.

Judging by the situation, she had probably been awakened by the wolves' howls, then instinctively rolled up onto her feet.

Her body's flexibility was truly impressive! And with a figure this outrageously good, her potential for future development was enormous!

That was how he supplemented the thought inwardly.

"Gale Devil Wolves!?" Once she saw the soul beasts clearly in the sunlight, the girl's face turned pale almost instantly. She subconsciously looked down at herself, then her expression quickly eased.

She then raised her head and swept her gaze over the mess on the ground, immediately understanding what had happened. Clearly, the person before her had saved her, helped her get dressed, and guarded her the entire time, fending off more than one wave of soul beasts along the way.

Especially this pack of Gale Devil Wolves.

She knew these soul beasts very well. If she ever encountered them and could not defeat them, she would rather kill herself early.

"Thank you, miss, for saving my life." She raised her head to look at Yang Yunhai's fair, delicate face and spoke with great solemnity.

PS: I'm taking a train at midnight tonight and will arrive around noon tomorrow. I'll post extra chapters the day after tomorrow to make it up to everyone. Thank you all for staying with me all this time.

Love you all, mwah!