Spirit City.
The door of a courtyard residence burst open with a crash, and a shadow slowly walked inside.
Ah Yin surveyed the residence. Although the courtyard was small, it was exquisitely arranged, with a stream running through it and fish swimming in the water.
"Miss Ah Yin, you'll be staying here for the time being!"
A voice sounded behind her, and Ah Yin turned to look at Gui Mei.
"Staying here?"
"Isn't he going to kill me for my Soul Ring?"
"Miss Ah Yin, I don't know anything else either. These are His Holiness the Pope's arrangements."
"Someone will deliver all your daily necessities. Just stay here with peace of mind, Miss Ah Yin."
Watching Gui Mei leave, Ah Yin turned to look at the courtyard again, her expression complicated.
Inside the Pope's Hall, Qian Xunji rested his elbow on the desk and held his forehead in one hand. A pile of Spirit Hall's administrative affairs lay before him.
Yet he seemed to be lost in a daze.
Just then, the hall doors opened, and a figure walked inside.
Gui Mei approached the throne and dropped to one knee.
"Your Holiness!"
Hearing his voice, Qian Xunji raised his head.
"How did it go?"
"As you instructed, Your Holiness, Miss Ah Yin has been settled in a secluded residence. Men have been stationed nearby to watch over her. Without your written order, no one can see Miss Ah Yin."
"Mm, understood!"
"Have the Soul Beast scouts found a target?"
"Your Holiness, we've tracked down a Holy Light Spirit Deer approaching a hundred thousand years of age!"
"Good!"
"In two days, we'll head to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for a Soul Ring!"
"Yes, Your Holiness!"
Just then, the hall doors opened again, and a burly figure walked inside. It was Qian Daoliu.
"Greetings, Great Enshrined!"
Gui Mei placed a hand over his chest and bowed.
Qian Daoliu nodded and glanced at Gui Mei. The latter immediately took the hint and withdrew from the hall.
The sound of the hall doors closing rang out behind him.
Qian Daoliu looked at Qian Xunji, who sat on the throne.
"Xun'er, I heard you captured a hundred-thousand-year transformed Soul Beast?"
"Doesn't that mean you'll have three Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings? Hahaha!"
The thought of Qian Xunji having three Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings filled Qian Daoliu with irrepressible joy.
"Father, I haven't absorbed the Soul Ring yet!"
"You haven't? Why?"
"Because I want to save this hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast for when I advance to Titled Douluo!"
Qian Xunji spoke without a ripple of emotion.
"So that's it!"
"A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring would indeed be better as your ninth Soul Ring."
"Since you have your own plans, I won't interfere."
After Qian Daoliu left the Pope's Hall, Qian Xunji sat back down, a trace of worry appearing between his brows.
In the courtyard, Ah Yin sat on a bamboo chair, staring at the flowing water in a deep trance.
Just then, the residence's door suddenly opened. Startled, Ah Yin looked up.
A man wearing magnificent, sumptuous robes walked inside. It was Qian Xunji.
Ah Yin rose to her feet and was about to speak, only to stop. With the words on the tip of her tongue, she no longer knew what to say.
The residence's door closed behind Qian Xunji.
The two stood in silence for a while. In the end, Ah Yin broke the silence.
"Are... are you here to kill me?"
"Yes!"
Qian Xunji coldly spat out a single word.
Even though Ah Yin had been prepared, her heart still could not help trembling when she heard that word.
"Then do it!"
Ah Yin closed her eyes.
A gust of cold wind struck her face, and Ah Yin immediately sensed another presence beside her.
Ah Yin's body trembled slightly. Yet after a long while, the person before her still made no move, and she could not help opening one eye in confusion.
That face remained handsome, but at this moment, it carried a touch of frost.
The next second, that handsome face abruptly grew larger in Ah Yin's pupils.
Until a soft sensation touched her lips.
Ah Yin's eyes flew open, her pupils contracting.
Coming to her senses, Ah Yin raised her hands to push away the person before her, but a pair of stronger hands suddenly seized her!
Ah Yin realized that all the Soul Power in her body had been sealed!
The Clear Sky Sect.
Tang Hao lay in a medicinal bath, still looking listless.
Beside him was Tang Xiao.
To stop that Titled Douluo, Tang Xiao had also used Ring Detonation to unleash his strongest strike, yet he had likewise been defeated.
The two had been sent back to the Clear Sky Sect. Upon learning what had happened, everyone in the sect was furious that the brothers, Tang Xiao and Tang Hao, had actually let such a tremendous opportunity slip away.
A hundred-thousand-year transformed Soul Beast!
And Spirit Hall had obtained her just like that, without paying a thing.
With this hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast, Spirit Hall could produce at least one more Peerless Douluo expert.
"Ah Yin! Ah Yin, don't go!"
"Ah Yin!"
"You can't leave with them!"
The unconscious Tang Hao was still muttering to himself.
Beside him, Tang Xiao, who had already regained consciousness, wore a complicated expression.
Over their years of traveling, he too had come to love Ah Yin. He had simply never imagined that she was a hundred-thousand-year transformed Soul Beast.
With Ah Yin captured by Spirit Hall, there was no doubt that only death awaited her!
Ah Yin, it seems we can only be brother and sister again in our next lives!
Tang Xiao sighed inwardly.
In a room within the residence in Spirit City.
Qian Xunji fastened his belt. On the bed behind him, Ah Yin curled up beneath the covers, her hair disheveled.
Her azure eyes shimmered with moisture like a lake in spring.
She could not understand Qian Xunji's purpose!
Hadn't he come to kill her for her Soul Ring?
How had it ended up like this?
"Don't leave this residence without reason!"
"As long as I'm here, you won't be harmed within Spirit City!"
Qian Xunji's voice reached her, and Ah Yin quietly clenched the bedsheet.
Outside, Tang San was already as dumbstruck as a wooden chicken!
The others were likewise too shocked to speak.
Qian Xunji seemed to have fallen in love with this Soul Beast!
One was Spirit Hall's Pope, who took restraining Soul Beasts as his duty; the other was a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast, an expert found only once in ten thousand among Soul Beasts.
The two were natural enemies!
Yet now, feelings that should never have existed had been born between them.
This was forbidden love!
"Qian Xunji, as Spirit Hall's Pope, you actually fell in love with a Soul Beast! You don't deserve to be Pope at all!"
"Haha! No wonder Spirit Hall ended up in its current state! It turns out the cause of everything lay with you, Qian Xunji. Spirit Hall's destruction was heaven's will!"
Previously, Qian Xunji had repeatedly obtained heaven-defying Soul Skills and Soul Bones, convincing many that he carried heaven's mandate. Yet now, it seemed that Qian Xunji himself had destroyed that mandate.
Despite everyone's mockery, Qian Xunji at the center-no, Lin Mo-still said nothing.
"Third Brother, what's wrong?"
Xiao Wu looked at the deathly pale Tang San and asked with concern.
Only then did Tang San snap out of his prolonged shock.
"I... I'm fine, Xiao Wu!"
Tang San forced a smile. Looking at Xiao Wu before him, he felt an inexplicable ache in his heart.
On the Heavenly Screen.
Qian Xunji had already led his men out of Spirit City toward the Star Dou Great Forest.
This time, Qian Xunji had brought only Yue Guan with him. Aside from him, he had summoned three Titled Douluo and two enshrined elders from the Worship Hall, while Gui Mei had been left in Spirit City to watch over Ah Yin.
Inside the Star Dou Great Forest.
A snow-white spirit deer appeared. It walked leisurely, its ears flicking from time to time, its large eyes brimming with lively intelligence.
This Soul Beast was the Holy Light Spirit Deer!
Possessing the dual attributes of light and life, it could purify curses and evil. Its life attribute granted it a talent for healing, making it one of the most important Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest.
The Holy Light Spirit Deer wandered leisurely through the forest.
When the Holy Light Spirit Deer stepped onto a patch of moss, something suddenly happened.
The ground abruptly sank, while vines sprouted and swiftly formed a cage around the Holy Light Spirit Deer.
Figures flashed in the surroundings, and several people appeared before it.
Yoo!
The Holy Light Spirit Deer let out a cry!
At the same time, light suddenly burst from its body, and the vine cage restraining it actually dissolved.
Just then, a terrifying fluctuation of Soul Power came from the depths of the Star Dou Great Forest.
"Roar!"
A terrifying roar rang out as a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast hurtled toward them.
The Holy Light Spirit Deer was an important Soul Beast in the Star Dou Great Forest. Now that Soul Masters were hunting it, the other hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts would never stand idly by.
Almost simultaneously, two streaks of light appeared in the path of this hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast.
They were Mighty Lion Douluo and Azure Luan Douluo!
"Seventh Soul Skill! Martial Soul Avatar!"
As two furious shouts rang out, the Blazing Lion Martial Soul and Azure Luan Martial Soul appeared overhead.
Inside the forest, the three Titled Douluo were also attacking the Holy Light Spirit Deer with all their might!
"Ninth Soul Skill! Thousand Threads Bind the Soul!"
"Ninth Soul Skill! Thorn Forest!"
"Ninth Soul Skill! Land of Mire!"
These three Titled Douluo were all control-type Douluo, which was also why Qian Xunji had brought the three of them to hunt for his Soul Ring.
Under the three men's Soul Skills, even though the Holy Light Spirit Deer possessed an innate Soul Skill that purified and removed negative control effects, it remained firmly restrained once its Soul Skill's effect wore off.
Yoo!
The Holy Light Spirit Deer let out a cry!
"Roar!"
The unidentified hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast in the distance also let out a furious roar in response.