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**
The flames atop her burning tails erupted with a violent blast.
The Man-Faced Demon Spider instantly let out a shriek of agonizing despair, its malevolent features twisting into an even more hideous contortion. Its entire body was charred black, its original purple hue completely buried under soot and gore.
Countless wounds, torn open by the explosive fire, riddled its frame.
The moment its toxic, cobweb-patterned blood began to flow, it was instantly seared and evaporated by the heat. Despite sustaining such devastating injuries, the Demon Spider had not yet perished; its vitality was truly tenacious.
Driven mad by the intense pain, it struggled frantically.
Its remaining four spider legs thrashed about with such violence that Hu Liena found it somewhat taxing to maintain her restraint over the creature.
Seeing that the spider still clung to life, Hu Liena knit her delicate brows slightly. However, catching sight of a figure coming into focus within the woods behind her, she saw Ling Xiao had finally arrived.
A sense of relief washed over her.
In the next instant, Hu Liena surged her Martial Soul power, and with a sudden whip of her silver-white flaming tails, she hurled the Man-Faced Demon Spider toward Ling Xiao.
"Ling Xiao, catch!"
Hearing Hu Liena's voice, Ling Xiao instantly understood her intent.
With a light chuckle and a loud shout of acknowledgment, he immediately activated his Profound Sky Axe. The giant axe erupted with a brilliant radiance, and a powerful surge of energy fluctuations rose accordingly.
"Profound Sky Slash!"
The Profound Sky Axe was raised high and swung downward.
A massive axe-light, radiating a blackish-red energy aura, extended from the physical blade. Shaped exactly like the Profound Sky Axe itself and spanning over ten meters in length, it resembled a colossal divine weapon descending from the heavens.
It cleaved straight down toward the head of the incoming Man-Faced Demon Spider. Accompanied by a scream of terror that sounded almost human, the Man-Faced Demon Spider tried to use its last four legs to block the strike with all its might.
The result, however, was like dry weeds before a scythe. The legs and the entire body were instantaneously split in two by the gargantuan axe-light. The massive carcass of the Demon Spider was severed down the middle, dying a truly wretched death.
A large burst of purple spider blood exploded in mid-air like a rain of gore.
Ling Xiao extended his left hand and raised it high. Manifesting a portion of his third soul ring's power, a golden light blossomed from his palm, and a golden light screen expanded outward, intending to block the falling toxic blood.
However, before the venomous ichor could touch his golden barrier, a wave of crimson, high-temperature flames surged from ahead. Upon reaching the space above the light wall, the fire rapidly spread outward, incinerating every drop of the toxic blood until nothing remained.
Ling Xiao looked in the direction the flames had come from and saw that it was Hu Liena, who had used her Charming Fox Martial Soul to spit that torrent of fire.
He couldn't help but marvel inwardly; it seemed Nana's fusion with her second attribute was progressing exceptionally well. Her every move now carried the genuine prestige of a pure fire-attribute Martial Soul.
"I might not have been able to defeat this Man-Faced Demon Spider directly, but I could at least manage to catch up to it while it was injured," Hu Liena said as she withdrew her Martial Soul and stepped forward.
"If you hadn't caught up to it, I'm afraid I would have let it escape," Ling Xiao replied with genuine admiration. Finishing his praise, the smile faded from his face as he turned to look at the mangled remains of the Man-Faced Demon Spider on the ground.
Ling Xiao thought to himself: Although I studied the data on the Man-Faced Demon Spider back at the academy, this was the first time actually encountering and fighting one. While its toxicity is indeed potent, it didn't seem quite as formidable as I previously imagined.
I wonder how Tang San's Eight Spider Lances compare—could they be even stronger than the original legs of a Man-Faced Demon Spider.
Dismissing those thoughts, Ling Xiao turned to Hu Liena and said, "Nana, this isn't a place to linger. It's getting late. Let's find a spot to rest for a bit, then tomorrow we can push further into the forest to see if we can find your brother or Yan."
"En."
As the sky gradually dimmed, Hu Liena and Ling Xiao each swallowed a third-rank pill—a Spirit Recovery Pill—to restore their soul power. They continued their trek; perhaps due to the previous battle, they encountered no other soul beasts along this stretch of the path.
After walking for a while, Ling Xiao casually hacked through a pile of tangled wood.
Suddenly, both of them sensed a rather strong energy fluctuation coming from not far ahead. It seemed to be a battle between a human and a soul beast, and one side was at least a Soul Elder at the peak of the thirtieth rank.
Ling Xiao and Hu Liena came to a halt, their expressions turning solemn.
Hu Liena immediately activated a specialized spiritual secret technique, Spiritual Detection. A distinct bright silver glow surfaced in her eyes as her spiritual power extended far forward, attempting to sense the situation in detail.
Suddenly, Hu Liena's face lit up with joy.
"I sense it! This energy aura belongs to Yan. I also detected brother's soul power aura."
Ling Xiao was stunned for a moment but quickly followed with a happy grin.
"In that case, it looks like the two of them have already met up. Come on, Nana, let's go join them."
"En."
In the distant jungle—compared to the clearing where Hu Liena and Ling Xiao had been ambushed by the Wind Baboons and the Man-Faced Demon Spider—the terrain here was less open and far more lush and chaotic.
However, at this moment, an unnatural fire-attribute aura and dark red flames permeated the area.
Yan had already activated his Martial Soul Possession.
The Flame Lord possessed his body, turning his frame into a terrifying, hard, and scorching entity that looked neither human nor like an ordinary beast. Yet, currently, his body was wrapped layer upon layer by a massive amount of purple-black vines.
These vines were covered in eerie patterns and lined with sharp thorns, looking extremely ghoulish. This was a truly terrifying plant-type soul beast in the world of soul beasts: the Ghost Vine.
Not only was it highly toxic, but it was also naturally bloodthirsty, preferring to devour the flesh and blood of living creatures as its nourishment. Although it was only a mid-level soul beast, being a plant-type made it inherently special.
Moreover, as one of the rarer species among them, the rarity of a Ghost Vine was no less than that of a typical high-level soul beast. Nearby, Xie Yue dodged a sneak attack from a stray vine. Holding his blades in both hands, several flashes of silver light erupted as his blade-glow surged.
In an instant, over a dozen Ghost Vines were severed. Plant-type soul beasts generally develop intelligence slower than ordinary soul beasts. The Ghost Vine before them seemed to be over two thousand years old but hadn't yet reached three thousand.
Seeing that Xie Yue could sever its vines with a few strikes while the other person failed to dodge, the Ghost Vine instantly shifted its target.
A massive amount of vines surged toward Yan. In the blink of an eye, countless purple-black vines coiled around him, burying his dark red radiance until he was transformed into a botanical sphere made entirely of Ghost Vines.
Watching this scene from the side, Xie Yue wasn't worried in the slightest. If he were the one caught off guard and entangled to the point of being unable to swing his blades by a Ghost Vine of this cultivation level, it would indeed be a massive threat.
But for Yan, it was utterly useless.
After all, plant-type soul beasts were fundamentally afraid of fire—especially flames of an extremely high caliber.
While the Ghost Vine was a peak existence among mid-level soul beasts and could resist the fire of most fire-attribute soul beasts, only the flames controlled by high-level soul beasts could truly pose a threat to it.
However, the fire of the Flame Lord was no ordinary flame; even in the entire world of soul beasts, it ranked near the very top.
Although Yan had not yet reached the Rank 71 Soul Saint and his Fire Mountain Rock Flame could not yet exert its true power, this Ghost Vine's cultivation was likewise not strong enough to produce a bloodline mutation.
Yan's Martial Soul was quite literally its natural nemesis.
**
Enjoying the story? Support the translation and get early access to future chapters here: www.patr eon.com/c/FanficTranslator
Thanks for reading!
I have 100+ advanced chapter now on Patreon. I will post 5 advanced chapter on Patreon everyday except Sunday