Reaping the Fisherman's Reward

"Am I next?"

Watching the Fire Flame Lion King charge straight at him, Zhang Erjiang chose not to flee. He slowly closed his eyes and spread his arms with a smile, quietly waiting for death to come.

"Crack."

The Fire Flame Lion King crushed Zhang Erjiang's head in one bite. Blood mixed with white brain matter flowed from its foul-smelling maw.

The Fire Flame Lion King savored the chewiness of the delicacy in its mouth, narrowing its eyes in contentment as its tail swished instinctively.

"Those two pieces of trash couldn't even seriously injure the Fire Flame Lion King, and they died so easily. They're good for nothing but making things worse."

Huang Shan stared at the two corpses, his face livid and his expression terrifyingly dark. He hadn't expected a Soul Elder and a Soul Grandmaster to be unable to deal with the Fire Flame Lion King, or even seriously injure it. After all his scheming, he had lost everything down to his underpants.

"My fifty Gold Soul Coins!"

Huang Shan looked utterly devastated, his heart bleeding. The Poison Demon Powder he had spent fifty Gold Soul Coins on had been wasted on those two like meat buns thrown to dogs, never to return. Not only had he failed to earn any Gold Soul Coins, he had lost his entire investment. Now he truly had bitterness he couldn't put into words.

The Fire Flame Lion King lowered its head and opened its mouth, tearing into Zhang Erjiang's corpse. Before long, it had eaten the entire body.

After eating Zhang Erjiang's corpse, the Fire Flame Lion King raised its head and looked at Huang Shan, who was still crying out in anguish. Its slit pupils were filled with killing intent. Its four legs pushed off abruptly, and it charged straight at him.

This is bad. This beast clearly has no intention of sparing the humans who entered the Soul Beast Forest. What am I supposed to do now? Even Gu San and Zhang Erjiang died in its jaws. How can I, a Soul Grandmaster who doesn't even have the optimal Soul Ring configuration, escape?

While the Fire Flame Lion King was eating Zhang Erjiang's corpse, Huang Shan had been about to make his escape from the Soul Beast Forest. He hadn't expected the damned beast to eat so quickly; he had barely gotten anywhere before it spotted him.

"Roar-!"

Blood streamed rapidly from the Fire Flame Lion King's wounds, causing the running beast to slow more and more. It could barely stay on its feet.

Huang Shan, who had been watching the Fire Flame Lion King all along, spotted this excellent opportunity. Joy immediately lit up his face.

"Good... good... good! A beast really is a beast. It can't even deal with a simple wound. If I hadn't just been fooled by your presence, you beast, your Grandpa Huang Shan wouldn't have been scared so badly."

Huang Shan's eyes were full of amusement. He had been frightened by the beast's formidable strength and had briefly thought this Soul Beast possessed a healing skill. It turned out it had only been putting on a show. If the beast had really escaped, it probably would have found medicine to heal its wounds and survived.

Looking at the Fire Flame Lion King, which could barely stand from blood loss, Huang Shan fixed the beast with a fervent gaze. This beast was worth far more than a mere six hundred Gold Soul Coins.

This time, he, Huang Shan, was truly going to strike it rich. The king of the Fire Flame Lion clan would bring him fifteen hundred Gold Soul Coins. Its pelt was the most valuable part, followed by its meat and bones.

"You beast have eaten two humans, so you should be satisfied. Let me, Huang Shan, send you to your death. You're covered from head to toe in glittering Gold Soul Coins. Once I kill you, I won't have to worry about food or drink in my old age."

With that, Huang Shan cast a greedy look at the Fire Flame Lion King and charged toward it. He stopped three meters away, and two Soul Rings, one white and one yellow, slowly rose around him. The Yellow Soul Ring shone with a dazzling yellow light.

"Second Soul Skill, Turtle Shell Shock!"

With a low shout, Huang Shan unleashed his Second Soul Skill. His Soul Ring blazed, and visible ripples spread outward from him across a radius of four meters.

The ripples passed through the Fire Flame Lion King's massive body, knocking the injured, unsteady beast to the ground. It roared in pain again and again, its four legs kicking wildly.

"This beast's vitality is remarkably tenacious. It can even withstand the Soul Skill from my Soul Ring of over four hundred years. But no matter how much it can endure, it can't escape death."

"Beast, take another Turtle Shell Shock!"

Huang Shan hurled a few curses at the fallen Fire Flame Lion King, then lit up his second, yellow Soul Ring again.

The second Turtle Shell Shock struck, the Soul Skill piercing the Fire Flame Lion King's flesh in an instant. Blood poured from the Soul Beast's mouth, nose, and eyes. Shreds of internal organs spilled from its jaws, and its body convulsed.

After convulsing for some time, the Fire Flame Lion King's wildly thrashing legs stilled, and its head slowly sank. Specks of purple light drifted out of its corpse and slowly gathered a meter above it, forming a purple-glowing Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

"If this beast had to die, it could have died sooner. Instead, it wasted eighty percent of my Soul Power, leaving an old man like me without a shred of security here in the Star Dou Great Forest."

Huang Shan glared viciously at the Fire Flame Lion King and cursed it with a string of obscenities. He wanted nothing more than to chop the beast into mincemeat on the spot to vent the hatred in his heart.

Huang Shan took a sharp dagger from his clothes and slowly cut the Fire Flame Lion King open from its mouth toward its belly. Then he used his hands to tear apart the cut edges of the pelt on either side of its belly and slowly cut toward its limbs.

"What's this? Could it be a Thousand-Year Soul Bone?"

Huang Shan stared at the bone that had appeared in the Fire Flame Lion King's left leg. His gaze was instantly drawn to its crystalline, translucent, multicolored radiance, and the dagger in his hand remained motionless.

That multicolored light that suddenly flared up-could it be a Soul Bone?

Su Tianyu, hiding in the grass several hundred meters away, was instantly drawn to the multicolored light that had suddenly appeared. His breathing involuntarily grew heavier, and his previously placid gaze turned cold and wolfishly greedy.

A cruel smile curled at the corner of Su Tianyu's mouth, and a fierce light flashed in his eyes. He immediately activated Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track. Two Soul Rings, one yellow and one purple, slowly rose beneath his feet as he raced toward Huang Shan like a ghost.

Once he was within range of his First Soul Skill, Su Tianyu immediately lit up his first, yellow Soul Ring. An invisible domain rapidly expanded in all directions, and a volcanic landscape appeared before their eyes. This was an attribute-suppression terrain domain used against Huang Shan.

"Mental Shock!"

Giving Huang Shan no chance to struggle, Su Tianyu went straight for a lethal blow with a chain of attacks.

"Ah, my head!"

Caught off guard by the sudden sneak attack, Huang Shan felt as if his head had been struck by a heavy hammer. Everything went black before his eyes, and he lost his footing, crashing face-first into the ground.

"Ow, my face! My handsome old face! Who was it? Just who ambushed me?"