Star Dou Great Forest Training (Four)

The poisonous smoke and netherworld noise had come from these man-eating flowers!

"Watch your feet!" Qin Ming roared, both fists bursting into fierce flames. "First Soul Skill, Azure Wolf Claw!"

His flaming claws slashed viciously at the incoming vines, sending sparks flying. But there were too many vines. They burrowed out of the ground from every direction, surging forward one after another.

Each time one was burned through, two more immediately took its place. The barbs on the vines scraped across the ground, gouging deep grooves. Several vines even slipped around Qin Ming and coiled toward Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu tapped the ground with her toes and activated her Third Soul Skill, Teleportation. Her pink figure instantly flashed aside.

But the vines seemed to have eyes, chasing close behind her. Poisonous smoke came pouring down from all directions, threatening to engulf her.

She exerted the power of Waist Bow and smashed one vine apart with a punch, but more vines swarmed in, instantly swallowing her figure in a green tide. Only flashes of pink light could dimly be seen within it. A barb opened a shallow wound on her shoulder, and numbness quickly spread from it.

Halfway up the slope, Lin Chen's situation was just as dire.

He was at the most crucial stage of protecting Ye Lingling: the medicinal power was assaulting the bottleneck. If the process was interrupted, not only would she fail to absorb the Soul Ring, but the rebounding medicinal power would also injure her meridians. At best, her cultivation would regress; at worst, she would suffer Qi deviation.

The poisonous smoke had already reached him, and the netherworld noise was growing shriller.

Ye Lingling's brows instantly knitted, and her body trembled slightly. She had clearly been affected by the noise: her sea of consciousness was in turmoil, and the Soul Power guiding the medicinal power had also fallen into disorder. A trace of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth. She was on the verge of losing control.

"Hold steady." Lin Chen's deep voice sounded beside her ear.

He did not turn around, or even move an inch.

Three Soul Rings beneath his feet-purple, purple, and black-suddenly lit up.

"First Soul Skill, Chaos Shield."

Hum-

A pale gray, translucent dome of light instantly spread open, protecting the two of them securely at its center.

The milky white poisonous smoke struck the dome as though it had hit an invisible wall and was instantly shut out. Not the slightest wisp could seep through. The sweet, bloody sensation of paralysis vanished at once, leaving only the churning waves of white smoke outside the dome.

But the netherworld noise was not so easily blocked.

This mental assault had neither form nor substance and could slip in through gaps in space. Ye Lingling's face remained pale, and the stabbing pain in her sea of consciousness made it almost impossible for her to concentrate.

"Second Soul Skill, Chaos Suppression."

Lin Chen activated another Soul Skill.

A gray force field slowly spread outward from him, instantly smoothing the turbulent mental fluctuations wherever it passed. The shrill netherworld noise sounded as though its mouth had been covered. Its volume plunged, growing muffled and distant, and the stabbing pain in the sea of consciousness rapidly subsided.

But that still was not enough.

The earlier turmoil had already thrown the medicinal power inside Ye Lingling into disorder. The medicinal power of a 3,400-year-old Holy Spirit Flower was immensely potent; if it ran out of control, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Lin Chen's left hand remained pressed steadily against the center of Ye Lingling's back. Gray Chaos Soul Power flowed continuously into her, gently but firmly stabilizing the raging medicinal power and soothing her trembling meridians again and again.

A faint glow appeared at his fingertips. The Power of Chaos nourished and repaired the minor injuries caused by the earlier turmoil.

One man, one shield, one force field.

Lin Chen stood where he was, straight as a pine.

His right hand maintained Chaos Shield, keeping out the poisonous smoke that filled the sky; Chaos Suppression spread around him, smoothing the mental assault; his left hand continuously supplied Soul Power, stabilizing Ye Lingling's absorption process. All three drained him at once, placing a terrifying strain on his Soul Power.

Fine beads of cold sweat gradually appeared on his forehead and dripped from his chin. The Chaos Pearl in his dantian spun at high speed, emitting a low hum as it frantically refined Soul Power to make up for the immense consumption. The Soul Power in his meridians flowed swiftly like a surging river, yet remained steady and orderly.

Outside the dome, Qin Ming's roars, the snapping of vines, and Xiao Wu's sharp cries rose and fell in succession.

"Fourth Soul Skill, Cang Wolf Howls at the Moon!" A giant wolf of dark red flames soared into the sky, burning a great hole through the poisonous smoke overhead.

But the man-eating flowers seemed endless. New vines kept burrowing out of the ground, and the poisonous smoke was continuously replenished. For a time, the fight fell into a stalemate.

Xiao Wu darted through the tangle of vines, using Teleportation again and again and smashing vines apart with punches powered by Waist Bow. But as the fight dragged on, her breathing gradually became unsteady, and the numbness in her shoulder wound grew worse.

"Lin Chen! We're fine. Take care of Ye Lingling first!" Qin Ming had seen the predicament on the slope and shouted at the top of his lungs. He knew Lin Chen was at a critical point in protecting her and could not afford to be distracted.

Lin Chen did not answer, merely furrowing his brows slightly.

He could clearly sense that the man-eating flowers around them were still increasing in number. At least seven or eight thousand-year-old man-eating flowers were releasing poisonous smoke and mental assaults at the same time.

Chaos Suppression had a limited range. It could protect the slope, but not the entire valley. Qin Ming and Xiao Wu were still fighting desperately outside, while Shi Mo and Shi Mo lay unconscious on the ground. The situation did not look promising.

More troublesome still, if he continued expending Soul Power like this, he would not be able to hold out much longer.

Just then, an earth-shaking boom suddenly came from the west!

Boom-

The ground shook violently, the trees in the valley rustled, and even much of the poisonous smoke filling the sky was dispersed by the tremor.

Immediately afterward came another series of thunderous collisions, accompanied by a young man's shouts and a rough laugh, all clearly audible from several miles away.

Qin Ming's spirits lifted. "Is that Instructor Lin and the others? No, there are outsiders' presences too!"

Something stirred in Lin Chen's heart.

"Teacher Qin, let's end this quickly," Lin Chen suddenly said, his voice steady. "I'll suppress their mental cores. Concentrate your firepower on the parent plants."

As his words fell, the Chaos Suppression around him abruptly contracted. Instead of maintaining its wide-ranging suppression, it formed several gray mental spikes that followed the direction of the spreading poisonous smoke and struck precisely at the parent man-eating flowers hidden underground.

The Power of Chaos struck each man-eating flower's mental core hard, instantly interrupting their release of poisonous smoke and noise.

Now!

A cold light flashed in Qin Ming's eyes, and the flames around him surged to their peak.

"Fifth Soul Skill, Azure Wolf Burns the Heavens!"

Dark red flames became a towering sea of fire that spread wildly across the ground. Wherever it passed, vines instantly turned to ash. Even the parent plants underground were engulfed in the raging flames, giving off a sizzling sound.

The poisonous smoke filling the sky quickly dispersed, and the netherworld noise stopped abruptly.

A few breaths later, the sea of fire receded.

The valley was charred black, littered with the remains of scorched vines.

Xiao Wu jumped out from among the severed vines and brushed the dust off herself. The wound on her shoulder still ached faintly. Though the numbness had faded, her strength had not fully returned. Qin Ming withdrew his Martial Soul and was also breathing a little heavily. The move had consumed quite a lot, and with his sea of consciousness shaken by the earlier mental assault, his head still felt somewhat heavy.