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"Then… would you die for someone?" Su Wen suddenly asked.
"For a human?" The auspicious beast reacted as if it had just heard the joke of the century. Curling its lips in disdain, it said, "I am the auspicious beast, my status noble beyond compare. How could I possibly give my life for a mere human? Ridiculous! Even if I were to kill myself, even if I jumped from here to be captured by those evil soul masters, I would never do such a thing!"
"…"
Su Wen's gaze lingered on the beast, his eyes flickering.
The so-called incarnation of destiny, the auspicious beast, could not control its own fate. In the original story, it had sacrificed itself to the Child of Destiny, becoming the stepping stone that allowed Huo Yuhao to ascend to godhood…
Fate was truly a strange thing.
"So you were hiding here!"
A voice full of excitement rang out.
From beyond the dense leaves, a dragon of ice several meters long hovered in the air. Standing atop its head was a youth of about thirteen or fourteen, his eyes arrogant, locked firmly on the auspicious beast.
Man and beast exchanged a glance.
The black-robed youth had roughly Soul Ancestor strength, having just advanced not long ago. Yet beside him floated two more figures, clad in black, supported by flying soul tools. Their cultivation couldn't be discerned, but it was clear they weren't weak—certainly stronger than Zhou Yi.
"This could be troublesome." Su Wen scratched his head with a troubled look.
"Trouble? Hah, what arrogance." The black-robed youth sneered. "I've come to take your lives—the auspicious beast's, and this little brat who came out of nowhere. Remember my name!"
"The Holy Spirit Church's Yan Feng?"
Before he could introduce himself, Su Wen raised his brows and asked.
"Hm? How do you know?"
Yan Feng froze. He was considered the number one genius of his generation within the Holy Spirit Church, highly likely to become the next Holy Son. His identity was a tightly kept secret, known only to a few elders. How could this boy possibly…?
"No reason."
"Domain of Eternal Freeze!" Su Wen's voice rang cold.
Pale blue frost spread rapidly from beneath his feet. The three on the opposite side were caught completely off guard, unable to escape its range in time.
The Ice Empress was not by his side, so he had to unleash the ability himself. Though its power reached only two-thirds of hers, it was enough.
"Roar—!"
From deep within the dense canopy of the ancient tree came an echoing bellow.
Several pale cyan wind blades shot out, slicing directly toward the three.
"Damn it!"
Their expressions changed drastically. From their earlier composure, they now turned frantic with fear.
Ice slowed them while the wind blades pressed the attack. This boy—he had so many tricks?!
Yan Feng was especially shaken, rooted in place. His martial soul, a bone dragon with a top-tier ice attribute, was utterly suppressed under Su Wen's ice. It felt as though the dominion of a true sovereign crushed him, leaving his so-called ice power completely useless.
"Yan Feng!"
One of the black-robed men roared, throwing himself in front of the youth. He hastily conjured a wall of wind, the phantom of his martial soul rising behind him. It was the Azure Wind Bird, a wind-attribute beast soul. After corruption, however, it had become the "Demon Wind Bird," tainted with the attributes of an evil soul master.
"Just ordinary wind?" Su Wen grinned.
The next moment, screams rang out.
The cyan gales tore through the hastily formed wind wall like sunlight through thin clouds, slamming directly into the black-robed man.
His limbs were severed instantly by the wind blades, blood spraying as he plummeted downward. His soul power went into chaos, and his flying soul tool shook violently before failing. He fell like a limbless torso toward the depths below.
"Hurricane."
Su Wen spoke lightly.
In the blink of an eye, a white shadow streaked downward. Like a gust of wind, it intercepted the falling man and slammed him against the trunk of a giant tree, crushing him like a mosquito into pulp.
This was to prevent the body from falling and alerting other black-robed men below, or to stop him from firing a signal flare.
The truth was, the man had been caught off guard and hadn't even used a tenth of his strength. Otherwise, even with attribute suppression, a Soul Emperor should never have died so easily. Of course, Yan Feng deserved some of the credit—had the man dodged, the youth behind him would have been struck instead.
Su Wen smirked at the dumbfounded boy and shook his head.
"Too weak."
"…"
Yan Feng gasped heavily, terror filling his face.
This was the first time he had truly faced a life-and-death battle. His teacher had always protected him well. Though he bore the infamy of the Holy Spirit Church, he had never fought from a disadvantage or confronted an enemy stronger than himself.
Among his peers, he could crush all the so-called geniuses of the Church with ease.
This had swelled his confidence to the extreme. Facing a youth even younger than himself, he naturally dropped his guard, putting all his focus on the auspicious beast. He never expected to capsize so miserably here.
Was this boy really only twelve or thirteen?!
Watching the calm and unhurried Su Wen, Yan Feng felt an unprecedented despair—not only for his life, but for his very Dao heart, which now cracked apart.
"Thinking of calling reinforcements?"
Su Wen sneered, his eyes flashing with a cold light.
He raised his palm.
"Soul Bone Skill—Winter's Descent!"
Layered atop his Domain of Eternal Freeze came an additional freezing effect.
The terrifying power of Ultimate Ice froze the two instantly into sculptures. Yan Feng was completely trapped, while the other Soul Emperor-level evil soul master was immobilized for a second or two. In that instant, the hand clutching the signal flare was severed by a wind blade and fell downward.
"Demonic Puppets!"
A moment later, the black-robed man burst free from his icy shell, shaking off the frost with wide, horrified eyes. The chill had dulled his reflexes but also numbed the pain from his wrist. With a roar, dozens of small wooden figures spilled from his chest. They instantly merged into human-shaped puppets wreathed in black mist, fine threads stretching from their backs to his hands.
The flare was gone. Yan Feng was still here. He couldn't retreat.
If he fled, death awaited him anyway.
He could only fight desperately, praying a stronger Church member might sense the disturbance.
"Human puppets…" Su Wen's voice was cold.
They were clearly crafted from the corpses of soul masters. This was why the word "evil" clung to evil soul masters—their desecration of the dead and their souls. Normal soul masters might kill, but once the battle ended, the grudges ended too. Not so for this group.
When souls became "pills" to increase one's strength, all manner of evil flourished.
The authority of death in this world… is still broken.
"The strongest puppet is at the Soul Sage level, two are Soul Emperors, and five are Soul Kings. I have to end this quickly," Su Wen murmured, narrowing his eyes.
He silently gave thanks that his surprise attack had eliminated the other Soul Emperor.
Evil soul masters were indeed far trickier than soul masters of the same rank. One-on-two, he was confident he could kill them, but it would be difficult to stop them if they were determined to flee.
Now, only Yan Feng's presence forced the man to fight head-on.
"Hurricane, Blood Surge."
Su Wen made his decision instantly.
"ROAR—!!"
Hurricane's aura exploded upward. With a terrifying one-hundred-percent boost to his attributes, his power surged, instantly elevating him from the Soul King to the Soul Emperor realm.
A white shadow danced and darted through the air, and puppet after puppet was either crushed into fragments or smashed into the tree's bark.
(End of Chapter)