Oscar also joined those people's actions without any hesitation.
The reason he joined this team was to have them help him hunt powerful soul beasts.
They had been tracking this Mirror Image Beast for a month. Originally, it could have become his sixth soul ring, but it was intercepted by Yan and the other two.
Oscar had no grudge against Shui Bing'er and Ye Lingling, but he saw Yan from the Spirit Hall as his enemy.
Yan had once single-handedly defeated their Shrek Seven Devils, causing them to harbor deep resentment.
Oscar didn't know why Yan would appear here with Shui Bing'er and Ye Lingling.
However, that didn't matter.
Obviously, this was a great opportunity to deal with Yan.
Oscar speculated that Yan and the other two had just killed the powerful Mirror Image Beast and must have consumed a lot of soul power.
Among their group of thirteen, there were seven Soul Kings, five Soul Emperors, and their captain Hao Te was even a Soul Sage at level seventy-six.
Hao Te might not attack the three young juniors without reason, especially Ye Lingling who was currently absorbing a soul ring.
But, with the other twelve people, it was entirely possible to kill Yan.
Every soul bone was extremely precious, rare and invaluable, a treasure that all soul masters dreamed of.
Having missed the Mirror Shadow Beast's soul ring, Oscar didn't want to miss that soul bone.
A thought struck him, and he pointed at Yan, trying to divert everyone's attention.
"That man received the champion's reward from the Soul Master Tournament he must have at least one soul bone on him!"
"What?! He also has a soul bone? Maybe even more than one. Then we've hit the jackpot!"
"Let's go together kill him!"
A group of people showed greedy expressions and released their martial souls and soul rings.
Facing the imminent encirclement, Yan remained completely calm and instantly released his eight soul rings yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, red, red.
The brilliant soul rings circled around Yan.
His sixth soul ring glowed red within black, clearly not an ordinary ten-thousand-year soul ring.
Two soul rings emitting the red glow of a hundred-thousand-year soul ring made everyone freeze in place.
Each of them was shocked, pupils dilating involuntarily, unable to believe what they were seeing.
"Are those… hundred-thousand-year soul rings?"
"And two of them, at that."
"He's so young, but his soul power is over level eighty, even stronger than Captain Hao Te…"
Oscar never imagined that in just five years, Yan would have become a Soul Douluo-level soul master, and that he possessed two hundred-thousand-year soul rings.
Scarlet-gold flames surged around Yan's body, and his powerful killing intent and oppressive aura made people tremble with fear.
The group who had just been so aggressive now all stood frozen in place.
They looked at each other the soul bone was right in front of them, but no one dared to take a single step forward.
Captain Hao Te was also terrified.
He could feel Yan's immense soul power, far beyond anything they could contend with.
"This young brother," Hao Te said, "we indeed tracked this Mirror Shadow Beast for a month. It was killed by your group, and my brothers are just a bit unwilling. We may have offended you just now, but I hope you won't take it to heart and can forgive them this once. We don't want the soul bone anymore we'll leave right now."
As soon as Hao Te finished, the others prepared to leave.
But suddenly, they felt an invisible pressure as heavy as a mountain pressing down on them, pinning their feet to the snowy ground as if welded there, unable to move.
Over the past year of cultivation, Yan's soul power had increased by three levels he was now at level eighty-eight.
With his current strength, against Soul Kings and Soul Emperors like these, it was a complete domination.
The Gravity Domain was silently released, enveloping them all.
Oscar panicked.
He had planned to seize the Mirror Shadow Beast's soul bone while his teammates were attacking Yan.
If necessary, he would use the Zhuge Divine Crossbow to deliver a fatal strike to Yan.
But now, he was completely suppressed and couldn't do anything.
Looking at the terrified expressions of his teammates, even Hao Te felt a chill down his spine.
Yan said coldly:
"Senior, I respect your character. But today's situation if I were weaker than them, the three of us would probably already be dead. I can spare your life, but these greedy people all of them deserve to die!"
Hao Te was the only one in the team who hadn't planned to attack the three of them. Yan intended to let him go.
As soon as he finished speaking, a mass of black-golden flames enveloped the entire gravity domain. The Nihility Devouring Flame consumed the bodies and souls of those people.
A series of miserable screams was quickly drowned out in that vortex of black-golden flames.
Hao Te had never seen such terrifying flames before. His legs went weak with fear, and he collapsed to the ground.
Moments later, Yan withdrew the Nihility Devouring Flame.
Everything around them calmed down once more, and those twelve people had vanished without a trace.
Hao Te understod those people had all been devoured by that black-golden flame.
They had paid a heavy price for their greed.
What pained Hao Te the most was Oscar. Oscar had once saved his life and was the only person in the team he truly trusted.
"Little Ao, why didn't you listen to me…"
After a moment, Hao Te slowly stood up.
Yan suddenly asked,
"Senior, may I ask you something?"
"Go ahead."
"Has the Heaven Dou Empire changed rulers?"
Hearing this, Hao Te was momentarily stunned.
"How long have you three been here?"
"More than a year."
"No wonder. Emperor Xue Ye was seriously ill before, but he suddenly recovered three months ago."
"Thank you."
Hao Te gave a slight nod, then departed with a melancholy expression.
"Brother Yan, why did you ask about that?"
"It's nothing. We've been here long enough—it's time to go back and take a look."
Yan didn't know who had cured Emperor Xue Ye, but one thing was certain: Qian Renxue's plan to seize power in the Heaven Dou Empire had not yet succeeded.
"Brother Yan, I really didn't expect that auxiliary-type soul master from Shrek Academy to appear here."
"It's precisely because he lacks offensive ability that he wanted to rely on his team to hunt powerful soul beasts. Unfortunately, he messed with the wrong person."
"Mm, we were quite lucky to obtain a soul bone."
"Looks like it's a skull bone just what Lingling needs. Let's hold onto it for her."
"Okay."
Afterward, Shui Bing'er retrieved the soul bone from the Mirror Shadow Beast's skull.
Under the protection of the two, Ye Lingling finally completed the absorption of her soul ring.
"Brother Yan, Bing'er, did something happen here just now?"
"Nothing much a bunch of bandits came by, but Brother Yan took care of them."
As Shui Bing'er finished speaking, she took out the soul bone.
"Lingling, this dropped from the Mirror Shadow Beast's head. Go ahead and absorb it too."
Ye Lingling looked in surprise at the faintly blue-glowing skull bone, then carefully accepted it and began the absorption.
After absorbing both the soul ring and soul bone from the same Mirror Shadow Beast, Ye Lingling's soul power rose by three levels, reaching sixty-three.
Her healing ability also improved significantly.
Ye Lingling's martial soul evolved into Ten-Hearted Begonia. Her soul skill didn't change no matter how many soul rings she obtained, she still had only one healing skill.
However, the skull bone skill granted her the ability of Shadow Clone.
While releasing her sixth soul ring and the skull bone at the same time, she could create a shadow clone with eighty percent of her original healing ability.
This would be extremely important in future battles, allowing her to provide long-range healing for teammates and avoid placing herself in danger.
A month later, Shui Bing'er successfully broke through to level seventy. After hunting an ice-attribute soul beast with fifty thousand years of cultivation, she obtained her seventh soul ring and gained the ability to activate her Martial Soul True Body.
Then, the trio of Yan, Shui Bing'er, and Ye Lingling left the Ice Bound Forest and headed to Sky Water City.