166 The call of Poseidon Island, Poseidon's ambition
As the voice kept rising from underground, the demons surged out even more frantically, as if they'd been shot with adrenaline.
But what good did that do? It only made it easier for Chu Feng to feast!
That cursed demon boss could do nothing but roar; after all this time it still hadn't emerged.
"The Demon King can't get out." The familiar voice belonged to Zhu Zhuqing.
"Weren't you heading back to Tianyun City with the city lord? How come you've got time to stroll around here?" Chu Feng stopped his madly chewing mouth.
"I saw long ago you weren't simple. I've never seen a technique that lets you eat anything. I came, of course, to broaden my horizons." After just one trip back to the city, Zhu Zhuqing suddenly seemed more mature.
"If that blustering Demon King can't come out, then we'll just go in."
"Don't rush—I brought you a treasure."
Zhu Zhuqing's unexpected friendliness felt abrupt to Chu Feng. He wasn't the old man Hui Xu, so he stayed on guard.
Because he'd stopped devouring, the demons flooded past like a tide, yet Zhu Zhuqing, relying solely on her spirit body—the Heavenly Spirit Body—erected a powerful barrier.
Calmly she began separating her spirit body from her flesh. When Red Fang the monkey saw this, its eyes turned blood-red as if gone mad.
Chu Feng asked, "What are you doing?"
"This beast soul was a gift from my father the day I was born; it's hidden inside my spirit body. But my luck's been terrible—I never ran into a spirit beast of high enough cultivation. After so long without extracting it from my spirit body, it's hard to remove."
Zhu Zhuqing looked calm on the surface, but this body had never undergone systematic cultivation; extracting the spirit body was painful, and trickles of blood could be seen flowing.
"Though the world holds ten-thousand destinies, you and I are barely acquaintances. Is this really appropriate?"
"Haha, once we rescue the Holy Maiden, you'll understand."
Could this be another old acquaintance? Yet Chu Feng couldn't dredge up any memory of her.
As the pale-blue spirit body separated three inches from Zhu Zhuqing's flesh, a walnut-sized gold-and-red sphere appeared, slick with blood.
This was a beast soul; only sentient beasts could consume it. A spirit beast that swallowed it would gain the soul as a second heart, and with every breakthrough in cultivation a crack would appear on the soul—the more cracks, the stronger it became.
Before Chu Feng could recover his wits, Red Fang lunged at Zhu Zhuqing's spirit body and swallowed the beast soul in one gulp.
Its fur turned hard as armor, its body expanded tenfold, and seven cracks instantly appeared on the soul it had just devoured.
Zhu Zhuqing thumped her chest to stay conscious; if she fainted, her spirit body might vanish. "Leave these small fry to the little monkey—follow me into the pit."
"Are you okay? You don't look well," Chu Feng said.
But Zhu Zhuqing had already leapt down. The two prodigies, brimming with spiritual energy, weaved through the dense horde; no creature could catch them.
Inside the pit, aside from bubbling magma, were black rocky hills forming a vast square arena. At its center sat the so-called "boss" the Old Woman had mentioned.
A purple-black body, huge as a boiler, roughly thirty meters tall, its base entwined with vines while magma flowed beneath.
The monster had fused with the terrain; on its shell several female demons served tea and water.
Its arms were the same withered wood bundles as before, only harder and sharper.
"I, Lord of the Ten Thousand Monster Forest, have ruled here ten years. No one has dared disturb me; even Fusen City can do nothing—how foolish you mortals are." The creature's panting voice shook the ground with every word.
"Tell me, what's there to flaunt when you're so fat?" Chu Feng mocked.
"You infuriate me!" The Forest Lord swung a colossal arm at the two; they nimbly dodged, shattering the rock behind them.
"Let me test you."
Though Zhu Zhuqing lacked formal training, her talent was extraordinary; the technique of her spirit body excelled, splitting spiritual energy into multiple doppelgängers.
They struck the boiler-like monster from every direction.
The monster's vines lashed out, smashing the clones at high speed.
Chu Feng activated the Qiankun Cover and, like a raging bull, rammed straight into the Forest Lord's belly.
This cover was different—now infused with spiritual power, it sprouted spikes upon impact for a second strike.
Seeing black blood seep from its body, the Forest Lord bellowed, "Do you still want to save the Holy Maiden or not?"
Chu Feng and Zhu Zhuqing froze; after all this time they hadn't caught a glimpse of Qian Renxue.
"Since you're both dead meat anyway, I'll tell you: that Old Woman is a life-collector linked to statues in every nearby village. Those statues drain people's lifespans; kill her and all that life flows to me, and then I pour it into Qian Renxue—her divine consciousness will be forced out."
The Forest Lord's meaning: once a god absorbs human life, their consciousness dwindles until death.
"Kill him first. He's only absorbed a sliver of consciousness—trying to trick us. Saving Qian Renxue means killing him." Zhu Zhuqing's tone turned resolute.
"Bro, I trust you—but if something goes wrong, don't blame me for turning on you." Chu Feng, worried for his goddess, was now deeply anxious.
Seeing them whisper, the Forest Lord kept tempting: "If you keep fighting, that consciousness will be wasted; that girl might…"
"Enough!" Chu Feng roared, spiritual energy surging.
He channeled it into his dagger; the immense aura caused the underground magma to erupt everywhere.
The monster released a wisp of divine sense—a power only gods should wield. Just that faint smoke inflicted invisible, crushing pain on Zhu Zhuqing's organs.
Under such pressure Chu Feng's Qiankun Cover was nearly useless; that mighty divine sense filled him with desire.
He pushed the Extreme Spirit Body to double its usual load, condensing spiritual power for a fatal strike.
Zhu Zhuqing's eyes widened in shock—how could someone at the Nascent Soul Stage wield such terrifying, limitless power?
The Forest Lord's boiler-like body erupted with demonic qi—preparing a mutual-destruction move.
Chu Feng detonated his spiritual energy, flipping the entire ground. For a hundred li the place became a field of gravel littered with the stinking remains of monsters.
Apart from Zhu Zhuqing and the monkey, Chu Feng had slaughtered nearly every living thing nearby. Floating in the air, he allowed the wispy divine sense to seep into his body.
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