(Folks, the protagonist is a beast. If you don't like that, don't read.)
Night.
A group of twelve hurried through the jungle by the light of the bright moon. The full moon hung high in the heavens, showing them the way forward.
They wore dark green robes so deep in color they were almost pure black. Monster masks covered their faces completely, leaving only their eyes, each a different color, visible.
They were elite disciples of the continent's foremost academy, members of the Shrek Inspection Corps from the Shrek Inner Court.
Whenever they donned the Shrek Inspection Corps' law-enforcement robes, it meant they were fighting to maintain peace on the continent, rooting out evil and championing justice in Shrek's name.
[Inspection Corps mission target, codename: Ming Zhao. An Evil Soul Master with Seven-Ring Soul Sage cultivation; exact level unknown. Soul Ring configuration: purple, purple, black, black, black, black, red. Cruel in his methods and a prolific killer, he once turned a small town of several thousand people into a ghostly wasteland overnight.] [Suspected target abilities: Death Attribute, Mental Attribute. Skilled in abilities involving vengeful spirits and ghosts; a control-type Soul Master. Countered by Light Attribute and Lightning Attribute Martial Souls. Fire Attribute Soul Masters can also suppress him to a certain extent.] [Target location: deep within the Departed Soul Mountain Ravine in the northern Heaven Dou Empire. The target is cautious, lying low by day and emerging at night. His movements are difficult to track during the day; he is active more frequently at night and is easier to capture then.]
None of the twelve running through the woods spoke. Only their footfalls and faint breathing echoed through the deep forest, where people rarely ventured.
Their target this time could be described as utterly vicious. The people who had died at his hands were too numerous to count. Even their Shrek Inspection Corps had lost a squad to him through carelessness and insufficient intelligence.
Three Soul Kings and two Soul Emperors, five elite disciples in all.
Whether for the stability of the continent or for the blood debt he owed the academy, the Evil Soul Master Ming Zhao had to pay with his life, repaying his sins in blood.
To ensure his death without fail, the Shrek Inspection Corps had dispatched twelve Inner Court elites with cultivation above the Soul Emperor level. Their leader was Zhang Lexuan, the strongest student of the current Inner Court, respectfully known as Eldest Senior Sister.
Besides that, to protect the students and prevent any accidents, even the Inspection Corps' deputy commander, the Level 98 Taotie Douluo Xuan Zi, had chosen to accompany them in person and watch over them.
The deeper they went into the Departed Soul Mountain Ravine, the denser the trees around them grew.
But this primeval forest, which should have been filled with the chirping of insects and birds, grew no livelier for all its lush trees. Instead, it became ever more deathly silent, cold and oppressive.
Even the bright moonlight was blocked by the inky black canopy, and the light grew dimmer and dimmer.
At some point, Zhang Lexuan, leading the group at the very front, abruptly stopped.
At her movement, the other eleven Inner Court disciples came to a halt behind her in unison, spontaneously forming an outward-facing circle and watching warily for threats that might appear from any direction.
"The light... is gone," Zhang Lexuan said softly, though her voice trembled somewhat.
Only then did everyone suddenly realize that the dim light had vanished entirely. Not a trace of moonlight filtered through the dense canopy anymore. Thick, heavy clouds covered the sky, as though a great stone had been laid upon their hearts.
Their steady, measured breathing slowly grew heavy and rapid. The deathly silent darkness threw some of the less mentally resilient students off balance, and they began to panic despite themselves.
They had fallen into a trap.
Without knowing when, they had already stepped into the enemy's trap, yet none of them had noticed a thing.
The chirping of insects and birds had vanished completely, leaving deathly silence all around. The Soul Rings shining around them barely provided a negligible trace of light in the pitch-black jungle, where they could not see their own hands before their faces, allowing them to make out their surroundings.
But that little bit of light... they would have been better off without it.
In the glow of the Soul Rings, especially the blood-red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring beside Zhang Lexuan, the once-unremarkable trees around them suddenly took on a grotesque, distorted appearance.
The natural grain on the trunks, viewed from any angle, looked like ghostly faces, their features contorted and full of pain.
Farther up the trunks were branches like withered ghostly hands, and clusters of foliage that looked uncannily like skulls, held aloft or dangling from those ghost-hand branches.
After seeing their surroundings in the light of the Soul Rings, the twelve members of the Inspection Corps suddenly felt a chill rise up their backs. Every hair on their bodies stood on end, and a numb sensation like an electric shock rose from their tailbones to their scalps, leaving them feeling as though ghostly hands had seized their heads, suffocating them.
"Ahhh!!"
A timid female Soul Emperor student broke down, her face full of hysterical terror. Tears and sweat mingled, blurring her vision, as her piercing scream rang through the mountains.
"Get away! All of you, get away from me!!!"
Her shrill shrieks erupted in the silence, stabbing at the others' ears. Before anyone could stop her, she lost control and lit up her Soul Rings one after another, hurling Soul Skills in every direction.
Some flew into the jungle, blasting the demon-like trees into splinters and powder.
Others struck at her teammates, catching the unsuspecting Inner Court disciples completely off guard.
Once one person broke, a second was sure to follow.
The Inner Court disciples who had been infected by her emotions and struck by her attacks in particular erupted from the oppressive atmosphere, where every tree and blade of grass seemed an enemy. Their expressions were crazed or fearful, and some even laughed and roared hysterically, attacking everything they could see without distinction.
"Hahahaha..."
"Die! All of you, die!"
"Watch me crush you faceless freaks!"
"Bastard, come out and face me!!"
"Calm down, all of you, calm down!!" Zhang Lexuan's face darkened as she moved to restrain one Inner Court disciple after another.
But her efforts were in vain. Even though she was a Soul Douluo powerhouse, she had only two hands and could not possibly restrain everyone. Nor was the gap between her cultivation and that of the other Inner Court disciples insurmountably vast.
Even the Inner Court disciples held in her left and right hands struggled relentlessly, their faces twisted and ferocious, and even attacked her, their Eldest Senior Sister.
What, then, of the other nine who had not been restrained?
Shrill laughter...
Terrified cries...
Furious roars...
Moans of pain...
Zhang Lexuan stood rooted to the spot, at a loss. The sounds of her comrades losing control echoed in her ears, yet she had no way to resolve the situation.
"That's it, knock them out!" Zhang Lexuan's eyes lit up. She was just about to act when she froze, her body rigid and her pupils contracting as she stared at the thick fog silently spreading around them.
This fog...
Mental attack?!