Her true form's eyes shimmered with a pale purple light, a characteristic of the Serene Moon Love Shadow Cat Martial Soul when it was activated to its fullest extent.
Her perception reached its peak at that moment, and she clearly captured every subtle change in the shadows of the dense forest.
The Shadow Spirit Cat leaped continuously in the shadows.
It moves incredibly fast, each appearance lasting less than a breath before disappearing back into the shadows.
But Zhu Zhuqing was faster. Her three afterimages were like three purple lightning bolts, darting through the dense forest and gradually compressing the Shadow Spirit Cat's movement range into an increasingly smaller area.
Whenever the Shadow Spirit Cat attempts to break out from a certain direction, a phantom of Zhu Zhuqing will block its path in advance, forcing it to retreat back into the encirclement.
Xiao Yan stood on a branch of an ancient tree, his Spiritual Soul Power firmly locking onto the location of the Shadow Spirit Cat.
He didn't make a move; this was Zhu Zhuqing's task of Soul Hunting, and he only needed to ensure her safety.
However, he had secretly prepared himself for the possibility that if the Shadow Spirit Cat made any unusual moves, his Startling Soul Spike would strike its soul immediately.
The battle was decided in the blink of an eye.
Zhu Zhuqing's three afterimages tightened simultaneously, forcing the Shadow Spirit Cat into the center of an open space where there was no shade to be found.
As the Shadow Spirit Cat darted out from the last patch of shadow, it found itself nowhere to hide, and a flicker of fear finally crossed its dark purple vertical pupils.
It opened its mouth, and a thick cloud of black mist gushed out from deep within its throat, rushing towards Zhu Zhuqing head-on.
The black mist was extremely eerie; it swallowed up even the light in its wake, and a cold, decaying aura permeated the air.
This is Shadow Spirit Cat's last resort for survival: Shadow Breath, which can corrode anything it touches.
But Zhu Zhuqing was prepared.
Her figure vanished just as the Shadow Breath was about to touch her.
Fifth Soul Skill: Netherworld Shadows Linked!
Her true form appeared behind the Shadow Spirit Cat, switching places with the Shadow Clone!
The next moment, Zhu Zhuqing's claws flashed across the Shadow Spirit Cat's neck, so fast that even Xiao Yan only saw a silver afterimage.
The Shadow Spirit Cat froze on the spot.
A flicker of surprise crossed its dark purple vertical pupils, then the light gradually dimmed.
A jet-black Soul Ring slowly rose from its corpse, emitting a soft glow in the dim light of the dense forest.
Zhu Zhuqing wasted no time.
She sat cross-legged in front of the Shadow Spirit Cat's corpse, her hands forming a hand seal, guiding the Purple Soul Ring to slowly merge into her body.
Xiao Yan stood guard beside her, his Spiritual Soul Power enveloping the entire valley to ensure that no Soul Beast or human could disturb Zhu Zhuqing at the crucial moment of absorbing the Soul Ring.
The absorption process went extremely smoothly.
The attributes of the Shadow Spirit Cat are highly compatible with Zhu Zhuqing's Serene Moon Love Shadow Cat Martial Soul, and her 20,000 years of cultivation is also within her tolerance range.
When the Soul Ring entered her body, there was almost no rejection reaction; it was as if it had always been a part of her body.
The whole process took less than an hour. When Zhu Zhuqing opened her eyes again, there was a very faint shadow in her clear, cold eyes.
" Sixth Soul Skill, Shadow Kill. Allows the user to instantly merge into the shadows and launch a fatal attack from within the opponent's shadow."
Zhu Zhuqing opened her eyes, met Xiao Yan's gaze, and spoke.
This move is exactly the same as the Shadow Spirit Cat's innate ability, but after being enhanced by the Serene Moon Love Shadow Cat's Martial Soul, its power is even more terrifying.
Ordinary Shadow Traversal can only move to a designated shadow location, but " Shadow Kill " can break through the shadow directly beneath the opponent's feet, making it impossible to defend against.
As Xiao Yan watched the fluctuations of Soul Power around Zhu Zhuqing gradually subside, he reached out and pulled her up from the ground.
"Let's go find a secluded spot first. You can take the Three Yang Blazing Fire Pill while we're at it."
Several days later, Zhu Zhuqing's body was enveloped in a mist of Soul Power.
After taking the elixir, her Soul Power successfully broke through to level sixty-two.
A genuine Agility Attack System Battle Soul Emperor!
After breaking through to the Soul Emperor, the two moved even faster and soon arrived at the entrance to the Slaughter City Ning Fengzhi had told Xiao Yan about.
Soon, a desolate land shrouded in blood-red mist appeared before the two of them.
There is no sun, no stars, and it is shrouded in a thick, almost tangible, blood-red mist all year round.
The mist wasn't ordinary water vapor, but a strange energy with a faint, sweet, fishy smell; each breath felt like swallowing something viscous and warm.
When Zhu Zhuqing first smelled this aura, she frowned slightly. Her senses were more acute than Xiao Yan's, and she could detect an extremely faint resentment contained within the mist.
The ground was black, scorched earth, so soft underfoot that it sent chills down your spine, as if you were walking on crushed bones instead of mud.
Occasionally, one or two skeletons can be seen protruding from the scorched earth, leaving one wondering who died here, when, or if they have been buried here for decades or even centuries.
The two walked side by side, passing through layers of blood mist, and finally stopped in front of a pile of ruins.
Deep within the blood mist stood a completely black stone building.
Or rather, there once stood a building.
Its shape resembled a skull magnified countless times; the empty eye sockets should have emitted a dark red light, but at this moment, those two dark red lights had been extinguished.
A pile of rubble lay in front of the door, the largest pieces being more than a person tall, with traces of being torn apart by some immense force remaining at the edges.
A massive crack stretched from the entrance all the way to the top of the building. The crack was several feet wide and bottomless, and the stone walls at its edges were as smooth as a mirror.
It doesn't look like it was formed by natural weathering; rather, it looks like it was blasted open all at once by some extremely terrifying energy.
A lingering, extremely violent energy shockwave and an aura that made both of them feel a chill run down their spines remained in the air.
That aura transcended Soul Power and Martial Soul; it was a power they had never encountered before.
It is more ancient, more primitive, and closer to the essence of power.
Xiao Yan's gaze slowly swept across the ruins, his brows furrowing deeper and deeper.
"Strange, this place seems different from the location described by Sect Master Ning..."
" The Slaughter City multiple entrances. This location was obtained from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's intelligence, so it shouldn't be wrong..."
Ning Fengzhi once said that the Slaughter City a hell created specifically for killing, and only one in ten who enters survives.
But he didn't say that the Slaughter City end up like this, with the entire entrance blasted apart.
It looked like someone had blown the entire building upside down from the inside.
The residual energy in the air caused a faint resonance within his Heavenly Flames Martial Soul.
Zhu Zhuqing squatted down and picked up a broken stone slab from the ruins.
Her movements were very light, but as soon as she touched the stone slab, she sensed something was amiss.
There were five deep claw marks left on the stone slab, each about an inch deep, with a dark red glow still remaining at the edges.
The light was extremely faint and weak, yet it carried a chilling killing intent that sent shivers down one's spine.
Zhu Zhuqing tried to touch the Soul Power mark with her Soul Power, but it was bounced back as soon as it made contact.
The power contained in the claw marks was of a quality far exceeding that of her own Soul Power.
She handed the stone slab to Xiao Yan, frowning as she said:
"These aren't claw marks from Soul Beast; these are pure, ferocious killing intent—so terrifying, so intense..."
Xiao Yan took the stone slab and immediately sensed a strong killing intent creeping towards him.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
In a daze, Xiao Yan seemed to see a gray figure roaring loudly!
The intense killing intent was almost tangible!
Xiao Yan probed a wisp of Heavenly Flames power into the claw mark.
The moment the Heavenly Flames came into contact with the dark red light, it produced an extremely violent reaction.
The power within the claw marks and the Heavenly Flames seemed to be of the same level; the two lit up simultaneously the moment they made contact, dispersing some of the blood mist within a few feet around them.
Just as he was about to venture deeper into the ruins to investigate, an extremely strange sound came from the depths of the ruins.
The sound was initially very soft, like the whistling of the wind through a broken windowpane, or like the low panting of some wild beast in the far distance.
Zhu Zhuqing's eyes immediately turned towards the direction from which the sound came, her face filled with vigilance.
Xiao Yan's Twin Flame Wings unfurled instantly, forcing the surrounding blood mist back several feet.
The two entered battle mode almost simultaneously; their long-term camaraderie had forged an unspoken understanding between them.
The sound grew closer and louder.
The heavy footsteps made the earth tremble slightly with each step, and the rubble in the ruins bounced on the ground, the small stones colliding with each other and making a crisp sound.
Cracks spread across the ground like a spider web, and each step caused the existing cracks to widen further.
A sense of oppression far more violent than any previous aura swept in from the depths of the ruins like a tsunami, containing a pure and extreme madness and killing intent.
Without any rational constraints, without any trace of thought, only the most primal instincts.
Xiao Yan felt a weight on his shoulders, as if an invisible mountain was pressing down on him.
Press his back down little by little.
The oppressive feeling alone slowed down the flow of his Soul Power by at least 30%.
Zhu Zhuqing's face also paled slightly, and her knuckles turned white from the force, but she did not tremble at all.
A tall figure slowly emerged from the blood mist.
He was an old man with white hair and beard.
He was extremely tall with a broad frame; even with his back hunched, he was still more than half a head taller than the average person.
His robes were already torn to shreds, hanging tatteredly on his body, revealing his incredibly well-developed muscles.
Those muscles were gnarled and twisted on the bones like the roots of an old tree, each containing a terrifying power capable of tearing the earth apart, and their surface was covered with countless crisscrossing scars.
Some scars have turned white, indicating they are old wounds from many years ago; others still have a pale red tinge, suggesting they have only recently healed.
His hair and beard were disheveled and unkempt, the ends stained with blood and dirt, making it impossible to discern their original color.
His face was mostly obscured by his disheveled hair, revealing only a pair of blood-red eyes.
Those eyes burned with two balls of frenzied blood flames; the pupils were unfocused, devoid of reason and thought, containing only the purest, most extreme instinct for killing.
He simply stood there, and the oppressive aura emanating from him prevented the surrounding blood mist from getting within three feet of him.
'kill...'
"Kill!"
His right hand gripped a massive, blood-red warhammer.
The warhammer was dark red all over, and its head was as big as a water vat. Countless fine blood-red lines Entanglement the surface of the hammer, and each line was emitting a dark red light, as if it were a living thing slowly wriggling on the hammer.
The hammer handle was as thick as a child's arm, its surface worn smooth as a mirror—marks left from countless swings.
The hammerhead dragged on the ground, making a screeching sound as it rubbed against the gravel, sending sparks flying.
When Xiao Yan saw the warhammer, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Clear Sky Hammer!!!
He had seen Tang San use the Clear Sky Hammer at the Shrek Academy, and he had seen Tang Hao Bibi Dong back with a single hammer blow at the Soul Master Tournament. He still vividly remembered the power of that hammer blow.
But the Clear Sky Hammer before us has even more, denser, and more bizarre blood-red patterns on its surface.
Xiao Yan didn't know who the old man was, but since he was holding the Clear Sky Hammer, he was undoubtedly from the Clear Sky Sect!
But more importantly, the aura emanating from this person is the strongest that Xiao Yan has ever seen!
Even if Bibi Dong, Chrysanthemum Ghost Douluo were combined, they wouldn't be a match for the powerhouse before them.
Even the oppressive feeling that Venerable Feng gave Xiao Yan back then was far less powerful than that of the old man in front of him!
This means that the old man's strength has probably already reached the limit of Titled Douluo!
"Senior, we have mistakenly entered this place. We apologize for disturbing you. Farewell!"
Xiao Yan was extremely vigilant. He stood in front of Zhu Zhuqing and spoke to the irrational old man in front of him, adopting a very humble posture.
A peak expert who has lost their mind is more terrifying than a peak expert who is clear-headed.
Zhu Zhuqing also felt that unprecedented sense of oppression, and her eyes became serious.
Looking at Xiao Yan standing in front of her, a hint of tenderness flashed in her eyes.
However, as soon as Xiao Yan Xiao Yan speaking, his expression suddenly changed!
" Zhu Zhuqing, retreat quickly!"
Almost as soon as Xiao Yan shouted those words, he flapped his wings and appeared in front of Zhu Zhuqing like a bolt of lightning, a mix of blue and white.
His Sixth Soul Ring lit up at the same moment, and the spatial rift of the Gate of the Mystic Realm slowly opened in front of him.
Faced with life and death, the old man's terrifying presence made Xiao Yan hesitate without the slightest hesitation.
Even disregarding safety, he planned to open the Gate of the Mystic Realm and escape into the Dou Qi Continent with Zhu Zhuqing.
Besides that, Xiao Yan couldn't think of any other way for them to survive!