An ordinary Great Soul Master would naturally be unable to sustain this kind of drain.
The destructive power of mines capable of instantly killing thousand-year soul beasts was easy enough to imagine — and the corresponding soul power cost of laying them was considerable as well.
But this was no concern for Bai Chen. By devouring the spirit energy that dissipated from the soul beasts as they died, he was rapidly recovering whatever he expended — his internal soul power hadn't decreased at all. If anything, it showed a faint upward trend.
Truthfully, if it came down to a direct fight with these Flame Demon Lions, he had the ability to win. But even for him, his condition after going head-to-head with so many powerful soul beasts wouldn't be pretty — there was always the risk of someone swooping in to take advantage of his weakened state afterward. So the current approach was the more reliable one.
The unfortunate part was that this method of his didn't seem like it could be sustained indefinitely.
"Roar——"
Apparently fed up with Bai Chen's shameless hit-and-run tactics, the most powerfully-built Flame Demon Lion in the pack let out a furious roar. An enormous flaming spear coalesced from thin air, aimed directly at Bai Chen and Yuan En Yeehui beside him.
The other Flame Demon Lions immediately followed suit, and dozens of blazing spears materialized in the air all at once — a breathtaking and spectacular sight.
"Oh, they've finally decided to use ranged attacks."
Bai Chen glanced back with a grin.
"Too bad — too late!"
With that, both his and Yuan En Yeehui's figures vanished without a trace.
At the same moment, the Flame Demon Lion pack's alpha abruptly froze mid-stride. Murderous fury still blazed in its eyes — as if time itself had stopped at that very instant.
A dark shadow materialized directly above its head. A razor-sharp tail hook pierced clean through its throat without the slightest hesitation.
One second passed. The time-freeze effect ended. Roughly seventy or eighty percent of the lion king's spirit energy had already been drained away by Bai Chen's devouring power.
This was what made Time Freeze so terrifying — with this soul skill, the moment an enemy stepped within Bai Chen's attack range and he could breach their defenses, he could inflict devastating damage.
Bai Chen's effective attack range had originally been quite limited. However, as fortune would have it, several months ago he had devoured a soul beast and absorbed an ability called "Spatial Shift."
In other words — teleportation.
With this skill, Bai Chen could teleport while bringing along up to two other people. His current teleportation range was a fifty-meter radius — nothing enormous on its own, but in Bai Chen's hands, its value was extraordinary.
If a certain someone's father had possessed this ability back in his day, five seconds of time-stop wouldn't have seemed quite so helpless.
"Aooo——"
The Flame Demon Lion King's death cry rang out through the forest. Hearing their king's wail, the Flame Demon Lions all spun around — staring in disbelief as that massive body slowly crumpled to the ground.
"Roar——"
A chorus of furious roars erupted. The Flame Demon Lions howled in rage and grief — but at that very moment, the corners of Bai Chen's mouth curved upward.
A black curtain spread open, instantly stripping the Flame Demon Lions of their sight.
The Flame Demon Lions had already been shaken to the core by their king's death. Now hit by this sudden shock on top of everything, overwhelmed by equal parts fury and panic, they instinctively unleashed their most powerful attacks.
"Boom boom boom boom boom boom boom——"
"Hss."
High in the air, watching the dark curtain below turn a deep crimson, Bai Chen smiled serenely:
"Quite the striking power. If we'd been caught in a focused barrage like that, we'd definitely have been charcoal by now."
Yuan En Yeehui, held in his arms, couldn't help twitching the corner of her mouth.
This guy was an absolute demon...
Just as Bai Chen said, the explosive power of the Flame Demon Lion pack was genuinely terrifying — the attack they had just unleashed was equivalent to dozens of Soul Venerables and Soul Sects going all-out simultaneously. Never mind the two of them — even a Soul Emperor might not necessarily have been able to tank it.
But Bai Chen had never intended to tank it from the very beginning.
He had long since prepared his exit. Relying on his flight ability combined with his dark-attribute stealth, he had not only successfully slipped out from the center of the Flame Demon Lion pack — he had thrown the entire herd into massive chaos in the process.
Yuan En Yeehui looked down at the dark crimson curtain and was already reluctant to imagine just how catastrophic the carnage below had been.
When the curtain's effect ended and the Flame Demon Lions reemerged into the sunlight, only a sparse handful were still standing.
And even those survivors were covered in sweeping, extensive burn wounds. For them, death was merely a matter of time.
"Come on — let me put you out of your misery."
Bai Chen descended from the air, smiled slightly, gave a casual flick of his finger — and the pale blue threads snapped shut, slicing the remaining Flame Demon Lions into pieces.
At the same moment, an incomprehensibly vast tide of spirit energy came surging toward him and Yuan En Yeehui.
An entire Flame Demon Lion pack. Dozens of thousand-year soul beasts — the sheer abundance of spirit energy they left behind was easy enough to picture.
Even Bai Chen couldn't absorb it all in an instant. While drawing in the spirit energy around him through his devouring ability, he marveled aloud:
"The Frenzy Period Spirit Ascension Platform truly is something else. The normal beginner-tier Platform would never produce a pack of this caliber — there's simply no comparison in efficiency."
At this point his soul power had already broken through level twenty-eight and was surging straight toward twenty-nine.
He turned to Yuan En Yeehui and asked:
"What about you — aren't you going to absorb any?"
Yuan En Yeehui shook her head heavily.
"No. The fact that we achieved results like this is entirely thanks to you. I contributed absolutely nothing."
She knew herself well. No matter how powerful her martial soul, no matter how exceptional her talent — right now she was still just a Great Soul Master.
The Flame Demon Lions' strength, while not quite reaching the tier of a Man-Faced Demon Spider, was far beyond what ordinary soul beasts could match. With her current power, holding her own against a single thousand-year Flame Demon Lion was plenty — let alone wiping out the entire pack this effortlessly.
This kid is genuinely terrifying... Is he really a full year younger than her?
In the battle just now, what Bai Chen had displayed went beyond raw power — it was precise tactical planning and flawless judgment at every step.
First, using the hidden mines to eliminate the Flame Demon Lions at the front of the pack, whittling down their overall numbers.
Then, without anyone noticing, quietly closing the distance between himself and the Flame Demon Lion King — drawing the king within his attack range.
Next, deploying Time Freeze — an absolute, ironclad lockdown — to immobilize his target completely, cutting off all capacity to resist, before using Spatial Shift to descend from above and deliver a single lethal strike to the throat.
And finally, when faced with the enraged Flame Demon Lion pack, showing not a flicker of panic — instead turning their own fury against them, letting them annihilate themselves while their vision was sealed.
The entire sequence was a perfect chain, every link clicking into the next without a gap. Bai Chen had barely expended any soul power, and yet he had accomplished something of this magnitude.
Even if she were given exactly the same abilities as Bai Chen, she absolutely could not have pulled off something like this.