The Soul Power tremors from Mighty Lion Douluo and Azure Luan Douluo's battle with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast reached them from afar.
The ground shook and the trees swayed. It was easy to imagine how fierce the battle over there was.
"Seventh Soul Skill! Holy Evil-Breaking Slash!"
While the Holy Light Spirit Deer was restrained, Qian Xunji unleashed his strongest single-target offensive Soul Skill!
Over a dozen slashes struck the Holy Light Spirit Deer, instantly opening several hideous wounds across its body.
Yoo!
The Holy Light Spirit Deer cried out, its legs buckling as it fell to its knees.
The Holy Light Spirit Deer was not a combat-type Soul Beast to begin with. Even though it was nearly a hundred thousand years old, it was weaker than a ten-thousand-year combat-type Soul Beast.
"Take the Holy Light Spirit Deer out of Star Dou Great Forest immediately!"
Qian Xunji spoke urgently.
"Yes, Your Holiness!"
Boom!
A series of thunderous crashes came from afar.
"Roar!"
An earthshaking roar rang out.
The pure white wings on Qian Xunji's back spread, and he swiftly rose into the sky. In the distance, he saw two streaks of light battling a giant ape!
The giant ape swung a fist down, sending dust and shattered rocks blotting out the sky as they shot in every direction.
The two streaks of light darted around the giant ape, evading its attacks while striking its body again and again.
"Yue Guan, tell Lion Worshipper and the others to retreat in ten minutes!"
"Yes, Your Holiness!"
Yue Guan answered from a treetop behind him.
After giving Yue Guan his orders, Qian Xunji beat his wings and left.
Qian Xunji led his people out of Star Dou Great Forest and prepared to absorb the Soul Ring.
Yoo!
The Holy Light Spirit Deer let out a mournful cry, as though it already knew the fate that awaited it.
The ring on Qian Xunji's finger flashed, and a glowing plant appeared in his hand.
This Holy Light Spirit Deer was only a hair's breadth away from reaching a hundred thousand years. Although there had been a previous instance of a Soul Ring mutating, that situation had been far too dangerous.
The safer approach was a method Qian Xunji had found by consulting ancient texts: using spirit herbs to accelerate a Soul Beast's maturation.
In Spirit City in the outside world.
"Heh! What a flight of fancy. Accelerating a Soul Beast's maturation? Soul Beasts aren't soul herbs. They can't just be made to mature at will."
"I, Yu Xiaogang, have read a hundred thousand ancient texts, and none of them recorded anything like this!"
Yu Xiaogang spoke with contempt written all over his face.
The Luolan Nine-Pearl Grass in Qian Xunji's hand was precisely a spirit herb that Spirit Hall had cultivated to an age of ten thousand years!
He forcibly fed the spirit herb to the Holy Light Spirit Deer. The herb's ten thousand years of Soul Power flowed into the deer, and its injuries rapidly healed. White light burst forth as the Holy Light Spirit Deer unleashed its innate skill, instantly breaking free of its restraints.
But Qian Xunji had already anticipated this.
"Sixth Soul Skill! Holy Domain!"
The domain spread, and servant angels appeared, working with the three Titled Douluos to restrain the Holy Light Spirit Deer once more.
"Sixth Soul Skill! Holy Evil-Breaking Slash!"
After a dazzling slash, the Holy Light Spirit Deer fell to the ground and did not rise. A red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring appeared.
Qian Xunji immediately sat cross-legged and began absorbing the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!
With his experience of absorbing Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings twice before, coupled with the Holy Light Spirit Deer's lingering will not being particularly tenacious, Qian Xunji soon finished absorbing the ring.
At that moment, three streaks of light raced toward them from afar, then landed before the group.
They were Mighty Lion Douluo, Azure Luan Douluo, and Yue Guan.
Seeing that Qian Xunji had successfully absorbed the Soul Ring, Mighty Lion Douluo smiled and said,
"Congratulations on successfully absorbing a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, Your Holiness!"
Seeing that both Mighty Lion Douluo and Azure Luan Douluo had sustained some injuries, Qian Xunji could not help looking at Yue Guan.
"Didn't I tell you to notify Lion Worshipper and Azure Luan Worshipper to withdraw from Star Dou Great Forest after ten minutes?"
Yue Guan's expression tightened, and he was just about to explain.
But Mighty Lion Douluo spoke first from beside him.
"Your Holiness, there's no need to blame Chrysanthemum Douluo."
"We wanted to retreat, but that hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape kept pursuing us relentlessly."
"That was why it took some effort. It's nothing serious."
"Your Holiness, since you've successfully obtained your Soul Ring, Azure Luan Douluo and I will return to Spirit City ahead of you."
"All right. Lion Worshipper, you two may return to Spirit Hall first."
Qian Xunji nodded as he answered.
The Worship Hall was different from the Elder Hall. Qian Xunji could command the Elder Hall directly, but the Worship Hall was headed by his father, Qian Daoliu.
Thus, even as Pope, Qian Xunji had to show the Worship Hall greater respect.
After Mighty Lion Douluo and Azure Luan Douluo left, Qian Xunji took a carriage back to Spirit Hall.
As the Pope of Spirit Hall, he normally had to handle its administrative affairs and had no time to travel, so Qian Xunji treated every hunt for a Soul Ring as a chance to unwind.
Qian Xunji also told the other three Titled Douluos to leave ahead of him.
With only Yue Guan remaining by his side, he made a leisurely return to Spirit City.
In the outside world, all the Soul Masters were dumbfounded as they watched Qian Xunji use a ten-thousand-year soul herb to accelerate a Soul Beast's maturation.
That was actually possible?
Yu Xiaogang clenched his teeth even harder. It was not because he envied Qian Xunji for absorbing another Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, but because Qian Xunji's actions had once again proven his shallowness and ignorance.
Fortunately, no one was paying attention to Yu Xiaogang, sparing him everyone's ridicule.
On the Heavenly Screen, Yue Guan drove the carriage at a leisurely pace while Qian Xunji sat cross-legged, meditating with his eyes closed.
After absorbing the Holy Light Spirit Deer's Soul Ring, his level had risen all the way to 85!
And the Holy Light Spirit Deer's two Soul Ring skills had provided Qian Xunji with two powerful lifesaving Soul Skills!
The first Soul Skill, Returning Light Backflow, could swiftly restore him to an uninjured state even when he was gravely wounded and on the verge of death. However, it had a usage limit of once per day.
The second Soul Skill, Purification Glazed Glass, could render Qian Xunji immune to control skills below the god level for ten seconds. It also had a usage limit: only ten times per day.
The Holy Light Spirit Deer's Soul Bone also provided two powerful skills.
The first Soul Skill was Holy Light Star Rain, a large-area group healing Soul Skill. The second Soul Skill was Imprisonment Holy Ring, which could provide three seconds of forced control.
With these four powerful Soul Skills at his disposal, Qian Xunji could be said to stand on unbeaten ground.
Just then, the carriage suddenly stopped, and Yue Guan's voice rang out.
"Your Holiness, something seems to be happening over there!"
Qian Xunji stepped out of the carriage and looked into the distance. Down in the river valley opposite them, fires blazed throughout a small village, thick smoke billowed into the sky, and cries and screams rang out incessantly.
"Come, let's see what happened!"
Down in the river valley, inside the mountain village.
A gaunt man propped himself up on his elbows and kept scrambling backward, his face filled with terror as he pleaded with the Soul Master before him.
"Please, spare me! Don't kill me!"
"I don't want to die yet!"
"I'm not killing you. I'm sending you to meet our Lord!"
"Only by returning to our Lord's embrace can you truly attain eternal life!"
After speaking, the Soul Master, who wore a black robe embroidered with a red vortex rune, killed the man before him with a single stroke of his blade.
"Help!"
"Don't kill me! No!"
Meanwhile, the other villagers were still fleeing, with black-robed figures likewise pursuing and killing them.
In a clearing at the center of the village, a dozen or so black-robed figures stood in a circle. Intricate patterns had been drawn on the ground in blood, together forming the image of an eye.
At the center of the pattern, a little girl who looked only six or seven years old was bawling.
The dozen or so black-robed figures chanted, and the patterns on the ground gradually began to emit an eerie blood-red glow.
Just then, one of the black-robed figures stepped forward and approached the little girl.
"You will become our Lord's representative in this world. This is your honor. Now accept your fate!"
After speaking, the black-robed figure slit his own wrist with his blade, sprinkling blood around the little girl.
The entire eye pattern instantly flickered with light, and an utterly evil presence filled the whole pattern in an instant.