Seeing this sudden explosive strike, the Scarlet Flame Blade Locusts had no ability to defend themselves. As Insect Soul Beasts, they specialized in offense and speed—defense was their weakness.
Moreover, the Clear Sky Hammer was the most powerful offensive Martial Soul. If it missed, that was one thing, but if it hit, a Spirit Beast like the Scarlet Flame Blade Locust, with low health and weak defense, would never withstand the blow.
Everything happened too quickly. From Tang San using his second Soul Skill to manipulate the rocks and soar into the air, to finally smashing down with the Clear Sky Hammer—it all took place in an instant!
In that split second, four Scarlet Flame Blade Locusts were brutally killed. The dozen or so surviving Wolf Raiders below were stunned, frozen in place with their jaws dropped.
Those Insect Soul Beasts, which could have wiped out their entire pack, had just been annihilated by this human Soul Master!
Tang San landed on the ground and glanced at the remaining ten Wolf Raiders. His eyes narrowed, killing intent rising from within. With a swing of his hammer, the remaining ten Wolf Raiders were all crushed beneath his Clear Sky Hammer.
If they had been other Spirit Beasts, Tang San might have let them go. But these were Wolf Raiders—sparing them would only bring disaster.
"Ghost Ring."
With a thought, a moon-white Ghost Ring appeared. The Soul Rings of those who had died under the Clear Sky Hammer were all absorbed by Tang San. The Wolf Raiders' Soul Rings were white, their strength not even reaching a hundred years, so the absorption was quick. In just a few seconds, dozens of Wolf Raider Soul Rings had all turned into Soul Light and were absorbed.
The five purple Soul Rings from the Scarlet Flame Blade Locusts took slightly longer to absorb. This was the first time Tang San had used the Ghost Ring to absorb a thousand-year Spirit Beast's Soul Ring. These rings first turned from purple to yellow, then finally white before vanishing.
[Soul Skill Unlocked.]
!?
Tang San's heart jolted. A strange sensation suddenly echoed in his mind. After carefully sensing it, he understood what had happened.
"As the Ghost Ring grows stronger with leveling, it will unlock multiple Soul Ring skills."
Some powerful Soul Rings could possess more than one skill, though such rings were extremely rare. Most of the time, this occurred because the Spirit Beast was exceptionally strong or because of mutations during absorption.
However, now wasn't the time for Tang San to leisurely test his new Soul Skills. After surveying the surroundings, he headed toward the entrance.
The entrance was overgrown with moss, vines twisting and curling along the walls. On the ground lay rusted weapons, seemingly standard-issue for kingdom soldiers. It was unclear what colored liquid had stained them.
"It stinks. What is this smell?" Not long after entering the passage, Tang San caught a whiff of a foul stench—though it wasn't the smell of rotting corpses.
The deeper Tang San ventured, the faint odor gradually intensified. Soon, a metallic door blocked his path.
"The stench is coming from behind this door." Tang San reached out and touched the metal surface, surprised. "This is an Access Control Soul Guidance Device. The door must be at least half a meter thick—extremely sturdy. Without a token, it can't be opened. Those Scarlet Flame Blade Locusts earlier didn't have anything resembling a Soul Guidance Device token. That means... they were just gatekeepers. There's something even more powerful inside."
Tang San had just shattered the opponent's physical body. If there had been a token, it would have definitely dropped. Therefore, it wasn't hard to guess that an even more powerful Insect King existed within the Five Wood Basin, most likely one with ten-thousand-year cultivation.
Knowing time was of the essence, Tang San summoned the Clear Sky Hammer. In the next moment, terrifying Soul Power surged as his third Soul Ring emitted an eerie glow. With the activation of his third Soul Skill, the Clear Sky Hammer in his hand seemed to lose its luster, turning pitch-black as if merging into the darkness itself.
Tang San's second spirit was the Rakshasa Martial Soul, and the Rakshasa God belonged to the dark pantheon, wielding powers aligned with darkness. Thus, he had deliberately sought out Spirit Beasts with dark attributes for his Soul Rings, with his third Soul Ring specifically obtained from a dark-aligned Spirit Beast.
"Third Soul Skill—Return to Emptiness!"
With a dull thud, Tang San swung the pitch-black Clear Sky Hammer at the door. The strike appeared feeble, seemingly weaker than even his First Soul Skill. However, in the next instant, light twisted, darkness converged, and a black void emerged where the hammer had struck.
Zzzzt—faster than words could describe, the distorted space collapsed inward as the void imploded. In that fleeting moment, not only was the entire door obliterated, but even the surrounding space was annihilated alongside the void's collapse.
Centered around the Clear Sky Hammer, a meter-wide hole appeared in the middle of the door. The entire process was eerily silent, starkly contrasting the hammer's typically domineering destructive force. Tang San's third Soul Skill, Return to Emptiness, was unnervingly quiet—no sound, no fragments of the Soul Guidance Device door, as if everything had simply ceased to exist, returning to nothingness.
This was Tang San's third Soul Skill, derived from a five-thousand-year dark Spirit Beast—the Abyssal Shadow Nightmare.
"The power is indeed astonishing, but the Soul Power consumption is immense, and it requires charging time. This move is difficult to use except in dire circumstances." Powerful Soul Skills often came with severe drawbacks.
Return to Emptiness could collapse even this meter-thick Soul Guidance Device door forged from special metal. Unless under extraordinary conditions, even if defensive Soul Skills were deployed, being struck by Return to Emptiness would bypass all defenses and result in instant annihilation.
As the door opened, an even more nauseating stench surged forth.
Stepping inside, Tang San relied on his Purple Demon Eyes to barely discern the surroundings in the darkness. Within, a foul-smelling pool occupied most of the space, with arm-thick pipes inserted along its edges.
Without a doubt, this pool was the source of the stench.
"What is this thing?" Tang San pinched his nose and activated an Illumination Soul Guidance Device to cast some light, allowing him to see more clearly.
He walked along the pipes by the pool's edge. At the ends of these pipes stood cylindrical Soul Guidance Devices, connected to the pipes. Behind these devices lay piles of ore, likely serving as their energy source.
"What kind of Soul Guidance Device is this?" Tang San approached cautiously, illuminating the device with his light as he examined it—this was his first time encountering such a contraption.
Suddenly—thud! Just as Tang San was scrutinizing the device's purpose, a hand slammed against the cylindrical Soul Guidance Device's cover from inside.
!?
Tang San was also startled. There was actually a living creature inside this Soul Guidance Device. He slowly approached, trying to get a clearer look at what was inside.
"Wolf Raider?!"
As the light shone on the cover of the Soul Guidance Device, a faint glow illuminated its interior. Inside lay a creature identical in appearance to a Wolf Raider, its body riddled with tubes. However, this Wolf Raider had been tortured beyond recognition—its fur had completely fallen out, black markings covered its entire body, and parts of it had already begun to rot. If Tang San hadn't just fought Wolf Raiders earlier, he would never have recognized this grotesque thing as the infamous Wolf Raider!
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