"Ton… ton… ton… ha!"
Lu Yuan seized a small opening and tilted back the wine jar, taking several gulps in one go.
He exhaled comfortably, the fiery liquor warming him from within.
"Ahhh, that hits the spot! You three idiots, watch me carve you up today!"
Half a jar of wine later, his strength surged once more.
"Boom!"
Dark spirit power flared. As he poured energy into the spirit bone of his left arm, the long black sword in his hand roared with black flame. At the same time, he infused the right arm's soul bone. A second black phantom blade, identical to the one he held, appeared out of the void.
"Split the Earth!"
Lu Yuan swung down with immense force. The black sword's arc slashed downward, and behind him, a seven-meter-long shadow blade followed like divine judgment. Two attacks ripped through the air simultaneously, howling toward the three Qianjun Ant brothers.
The explosion of force drew sparks across the massive forest floor, but the three ancient soul beasts weren't frightened. They had lived ninety thousand years. Among soul beasts, the only beings they truly feared in the Star Dou Great Forest were titan-class beasts—the Azure Bull Python and the Titan Great Ape. A human, no matter how bright his flames, was nothing compared to those monsters.
"Rumble!"
Two of the ants blocked his twin strikes with their massive pincers, while the third lunged, its glittering green eyes targeting Lu Yuan's chest with a crushing snap.
"Fifth Soul Ability—Absolute Sealing Slash!"
Lu Yuan's figure vanished from sight. In his place, a dozen arcs of vicious sword qi shredded the air, striking sparks against the ants' steel-like carapaces. The swarm of blades shredded forward momentum, forcing his giant enemies to halt. Lu Yuan appeared behind them in a blur.
"Second Spirit Ability—Air Rending Blade!"
He drew his sword in a flurry of nine blistering slashes, each one spilling streaks of black fire across the air. Steel clashed, carapaces screeched, and sparks fell like rain.
The third ant, however, didn't follow the rhythm of the fight. Six small green eyes darted past Lu Yuan, locking onto Xiao Wu and the child Lu Xiaoyu, who waited in the distance.
Lu Yuan was difficult to overpower—so instead, they would strike at his heart.
This battle tactic was familiar between the three brothers. One locked the enemy. Another broke through defenses. The last redirected aggression toward the weakest links.
With a silent signal from the lead ant, the other two immediately understood. Together they tore a path across the battlefield, pincers spread wide as they launched toward Xiao Wu and Xiaoyu.
"Xiaoyu, don't be afraid!"
Xiao Wu's heart froze. She stepped firmly in front of the trembling child, pulling him close. She spread her arms, soul power racing.
"Fourth Spirit Ability—Invincible Golden Body!"
Her body blazed with golden brilliance. For three seconds, she would be untouchable—an impenetrable defense below god level. But only three seconds.
"One second… two seconds…" she counted silently, her lips trembling.
The colossal pincers crashed against her barrier.
"Ding!"
A crisp impact sent dazzling shockwaves through the air. The golden aura protected her, but the force drove her body off its feet. Three seconds passed, golden light shattered, and Xiao Wu flew backward like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.
Before she hit the ground, two strong arms caught her.
"Hiss…"
A sharp pain lanced across her shoulder. Xiao Wu's brows knitted, sweat dripping down her pale face. Even though she had blocked the strike under her golden state, the power of the Ninety Thousand Year Ant still pierced through, leaving her injured.
Lu Yuan gently set her down, his expression utterly silent. The black flames wreathing his body flared violently, darkening his pupils until they were abyssal voids. His gaze locked on the three Qianjun Ants like a devil looming over them.
"What the hell are you doing?" one ant roared at his comrades.
"Stop him!"
"Stop him how? That bastard just used a soul bone skill—it's stealth! Even if we try, he's gone before we can react!"
"Look, now we've really pissed him off!"
A suffocating pressure descended over them. They were old, careful beasts, not afraid of power itself, but of this aura—a bloody, suffocating, unstoppable aura that made every hair on their bodies rise in primal terror.
"Hiss…" the ants exchanged signals.
Retreat!
Strength wasn't everything. If they died here, what use was their ninety thousand years of cultivation? They could still sense the distant rumblings of the Titan Great Ape's approach. To keep fighting here would be suicide. Better to live and run.
But Lu Yuan didn't intend to let them leave.
Black flames roared from every pore of his skin, surrounding him like an inferno. Sword qi whirled in chaotic arcs, explosions snapping the very air apart as if his sword had become the forest's executioner.
"Boom!"
The three ants slammed their six legs into the ground, detonating the soil and using raw force to rocket themselves backward like cannonballs.
"Chichi—!"
They hurled themselves straight into Lu Yuan's attacks, forcing a desperate breakthrough as they prepared to bolt from the battlefield. Freedom was only moments away. They thought mistakenly that they could shake him off and vanish.
But Lu Yuan's power at this point wasn't something they had properly measured.
Sword qi, flaming black and serpentine, sprang from his blade like writhing fire-dragons. They sliced into the ants' hard shells, splitting cracks across their armor. The great beasts slowed, their impenetrable hides unraveling against the violent storm of black steel.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The sword qi rained mercilessly, forcing the ants back. For the first time in centuries, fear gleamed sharp in their eyes. This wasn't just combat—it was annihilation.
Then came a roar that shook the skies.
"ROAR!!!"
The Titan Great Ape had arrived.
A pair of colossal fists, each the size of a hill, slammed down behind the ants with world-shaking force.
Lu Yuan shot forward with black flame erupting beneath his steps, like a meteor wrapped in darkness. The sword in his hands burned hotter, and arcs of qi bent space itself as he raised it overhead.
One ant curled into a defensive ball, relying on its thick carapace for protection. Its instincts screamed that death was upon it.
"Chi chi zzz…"
But the long sword, surrounded in hellfire, pierced through the cluster of green eyes like a spear through paper.
"Zila—!"
The smell of burning flesh rioted in the air as smoke curled out. The giant ant's body spasmed uncontrollably, limbs thrashing as it screeched in death agony. Moments later, it collapsed limp, life extinguished, and its massive body shriveled away into a desiccated husk.
"Boom!"
Behind them, the Titan Great Ape—Er Ming—slaughtered the other two ants, smashing their bodies into pulp. He panted, glaring down at the remains.
"Last time I let you bastards get away. And you had the guts to come back?!"
Enraged, Er Ming stomped on the corpses until the ground quaked, venting his fury like a child throwing a tantrum.
If he hadn't arrived in time, Xiaoyu or Xiao Wu might have been fatally injured. The thought only made him angrier.
"Lu Yuan! Are you alright?!"
Xiao Wu rushed over, heart still palpitating. She had seen Lu Yuan in this terrifying state before—black flames, abyss-like pupils, the killing aura of a god-demon. Every time she worried he might lose himself completely and never return to the man she knew.
"Hmm?" Lu Yuan glanced at her. "What could possibly happen to me?"
He drank casually from his wine jar, as if nothing had occurred, though the black fire around him and the death in his eyes said otherwise.
"Lu Yuan, look!" Er Ming suddenly exclaimed, plucking something glittering from the remains. "A soul bone!"
A shimmering piece of essence radiating spiritual light had fallen out from the ant's corpse.
Er Ming looked at it with indifference. As a soul beast, he despised humans who hunted and robbed rings and bones. But when it came to these three murderous ants, there was no sympathy in his heart. Their deaths deserved no tears.
"It's a right arm soul bone," Er Ming added.
"Not bad at all," Lu Yuan replied. He tucked it into his soul guide quietly, as naturally as if picking up a coin.
Then his deep voice murmured, "Let's go home."
He scooped Xiaoyu up with one arm, slipped the other around Xiao Wu's waist, and together their figures landed heavily on Er Ming's massive shoulder.
"Er Ming, why so slow today?" Xiao Wu couldn't help asking, though a tremor still lingered in her voice. If Lu Yuan hadn't reached them in time, if her golden body had been even a heartbeat slower… she dared not finish the thought.
Er Ming scratched his great head awkwardly. "Ah, Sister Xiao Wu… that's a long story."
He glanced guiltily at Lu Xiaoyu. The truth was, he had been pleading for Xiaoyu's sake in front of Liu Erlong, distracted and not watching the forest as carefully as usual.
"Little Yu, what did you do this time?" Xiao Wu's eyes narrowed, suspicion thick in her voice. She knew the boy too well. Every time Er Ming looked that embarrassed, Xiaoyu had caused trouble again.
Er Ming laughed dryly.
Xiaoyu pouted. "I didn't do anything wrong!"
Lu Yuan cut in with a quiet chuckle. "It's not the boy you should worry about, Xiao Wu… It's you. That shoulder's still hurt."
Then he leaned close, wrapping her gently in the warmth of his black yet strangely soothing soul power. "Come on. Lean on my shoulder."
--
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