The ten-plus soul beasts that had just been readying their attack were somehow already down to the last one. Scattered across the ground, the dismembered remains of these soul beasts lay strewn about, looking utterly horrifying.
And even that last hundred-year soul beast was clearly not going to last much longer — its body was covered in slash marks from being cut apart, already at the end of its rope.
Bai Chen stood where he was, looking like he hadn't moved. He casually extended a hand, and loops of pale blue threads rose from his fingertips, rapidly coiling through the air above him.
These pale blue threads looked impossibly delicate — flickering in and out of visibility, as if they might vanish at any moment.
Yet the moment the hundred-year soul beast laid eyes on them, it reacted as if it had seen a ghost — letting out a terrified low whimper, it spun around and tried to flee.
How could Bai Chen let it actually escape?
He snapped his hand shut with a sudden force, then swung.
In an instant, the pale blue threads fell from the air and coiled around the soul beast.
A wretched shriek rang out. Every part of the soul beast's body that the blue threads touched was sliced clean apart — in a single moment, it was carved up just like the corpses on the ground.
"..."
Watching this scene, Yuan En Yeehui involuntarily swallowed.
Before coming here, she had been told by Zang Xin that the person she was about to meet was one year younger than her, but extremely powerful.
At the time she hadn't taken it very seriously. She was a person of the world — she had a clear understanding of her own gifts, and in her view, no matter how strong a kid one year younger than her could be, he couldn't possibly be stronger than her.
But this scene…
"Hm?"
At that moment, Bai Chen noticed her gaze and revealed a gentle smile, explaining:
"This is the effect of one of my soul skills. The ability of this particular skill is to compress wind-attribute energy into threads — how to put it… do you know what wind blades are? You can think of this as wind blades in thread form."
This was one of the thirty-plus soul skills Bai Chen had learned over the past year. Its individual striking power wasn't actually that great, but it was extremely well-suited for clearing large numbers of enemies at once, and its consumption was fairly low. In situations like this one, Bai Chen quite liked using it.
Yuan En Yeehui couldn't help asking:
"But didn't you say your martial soul is an evil martial soul? What does that have to do with evil?"
"Haha, that's my little secret."
Bai Chen laughed, gave no real answer, and instead waved his hand — driving the rising spirit energy over toward Yuan En Yeehui.
"Consider these a gift for our first meeting. Take them."
"..."
Yuan En Yeehui gave him a long, searching look. Without standing on ceremony, she drew the spirit energy to herself and said:
"Next time I'll pay you back."
"Then I'll look forward to it."
Bai Chen and Yuan En Yeehui spoke as they moved away from the spot.
The Frenzy Period Spirit Ascension Platform was genuinely dangerous. They had barely entered and they had already run into a crisis like this. If any soul masters still treated this place like the normal Platform, they would probably die right here.
Soon, they encountered a second wave of soul beasts.
This time Bai Chen deliberately held back, leaving all the soul beasts for Yuan En Yeehui to handle.
Her strength was indeed impressive. Although she was only two rings, the combat power she displayed was in no way inferior to a Soul Venerate. Under the terrifying oppressive pressure of the Titan Giant Ape, the hundred-year soul beasts they were encountering posed absolutely no threat to her.
After she finished off this batch, Yuan En Yeehui followed the same example and sent the spirit energy she'd gained over to Bai Chen.
"Here, yours."
"Thanks."
Bai Chen was equally unpolite about it. He reached out, a flash of black light swept across, and the spirit energy vanished from sight entirely.
"_____"
In the instant that black light flickered, Yuan En Yeehui's body couldn't help giving a slight shudder, and a feeling of deep dread welled up from the bottom of her heart.
Even among evil attributes, there were higher and lower tiers — and when it came to evil, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was clearly on a far higher level than the Fallen Angel.
She couldn't stop herself from asking:
"What kind of power is that?"
"Haha, didn't I already tell you?"
Bai Chen still didn't give her a direct answer.
The Frenzy Period Spirit Ascension Platform was actually quite the windfall for him — because he could ignore the hundred-fold slowdown in absorption time entirely, directly using his Devouring ability to swallow the spirit energy into his body on the spot.
This meant they would not easily draw the attention of others, and the probability of encountering hostile intent from other humans dropped dramatically.
After that, Bai Chen and Yuan En Yeehui continued roaming through the Spirit Ascension Platform hunting soul beasts.
During this time, Yuan En Yeehui truly had her horizons broadened.
She found that Bai Chen's abilities seemed to have no end — almost every single fight, he would deploy a different power.
Sometimes fluid and nimble, sometimes brute force, sometimes devious and ever-shifting, sometimes straightforward and direct — his constantly varying fighting style was nearly impossible to adapt to. She couldn't figure out where the limits of his power truly lay.
But one thing was certain: Bai Chen's strength was absolutely far above hers.
As the two searched through the Spirit Ascension Platform, they occasionally ran into thousand-year soul beasts.
But facing Bai Chen, these powerful thousand-year beasts couldn't even cause a ripple. They were simply dispatched by him using various methods.
They pressed deeper and deeper like this. Then, they encountered a truly formidable opponent.
The air distorted slightly from rising heat. One after another, lions wreathed in flames were hot on the heels of Bai Chen and Yuan En Yeehui, chasing them down.
Flame Demon Lions — this was the name of the soul beast pack that was hunting them.
In terms of overall strength, the Flame Demon Lions were without question one of the most absurdly powerful presences in this beginner-tier Spirit Ascension Platform. Their individual combat power might not be extraordinary — not even matching that of something like the Man-Faced Demon Spider tier — but they were pack creatures, and their collective force was nearly impossible for anyone to overcome.
In this pack of Flame Demon Lions, the male lions were all at thousand-year cultivation and above, while even the females were at minimum over a hundred years, with a considerable number of thousand-year beasts among them as well.
The threat level of a pack like this was already no less than that of a ten-thousand-year soul beast. Even a team of seven top-tier Soul Venerables, encountering an enemy of this caliber, could only run for their lives.
But on Bai Chen's side, the situation was playing out a little differently.
Boom——
Boom——
Yelp!
Yelp!
As the thunderous sounds of explosions mixed with the anguished cries of Flame Demon Lions rang out, yet more clusters of spirit energy drifted over to Bai Chen's side, absorbed directly into his body.
He said with a satisfied grin:
"Yeah, not bad at all — keep this up and we'll win."
Yuan En Yeehui silently kept pace beside him, already feeling somewhat numb.
Somehow, while sprinting at full speed, Bai Chen had managed to condense lightning element into hidden mines, burying them in the ground to lie in wait for their pursuers.
If there was only a single enemy, it would naturally be very hard to hit — but against the vast, swarming numbers of the Flame Demon Lion pack, this kind of tactic was extremely effective.
As a result, the poor Flame Demon Lions could only be worn down and whittled away bit by bit, all while chasing Bai Chen on what amounted to a marathon.