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**
The Mystic Trace Canyon is located at the border between the two great empires of Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire, lying to the east of the Star Dou Forest.
The canyon is shrouded in a thick mist all year round, shielding it from the sun. The mountains within are steep and the terrain complex, inhabited by countless bloodthirsty and crazed evil beasts.
It can be said that there is not a single normal living being here; even for Soul Masters, it is considered a forbidden zone and is also known as Death Canyon. However, at this moment, the Mystic Trace Canyon welcomed four living beings from the outside world.
Seeing that the surroundings were filled with wild grass, sandstorms, strange rocks, and a large number of pale white skeletons scattered everywhere, Ling Xiao could not help but sigh.
The Mystic Trace Canyon was indeed quite different from other places in the outside world—no, it should be said that it was completely different.
While the vast majority of soul beast gathering places have a large number of soul beasts and contain immense danger, they always exude a sense of vitality.
Even the Frozen Forest in the Far North, covered in snow year-round, does not have as high a density of soul beasts as typical soul beast forests, but it is still a place that nurtures life, with a large number of ice-type soul beasts calling it home.
In contrast, the environment of the Mystic Trace Canyon is extremely harsh. The surroundings are exceedingly gloomy and dim, practically devoid of vitality, and it naturally repels all life.
"No wonder this place is called Death Canyon. Other places are meant for nurturing life, whereas this place can only spawn death," Ling Xiao could not help but say.
"They're coming!" Hu Liena suddenly looked in a certain direction and said. Ever since entering the Mystic Trace Canyon, she had been continuously using her spiritual detection.
As a spiritual secret technique that purely utilizes spiritual power, its effects are much stronger compared to the simple spiritual power sensing used by non-spiritual-type Soul Masters.
Furthermore, through her cultivation and the guidance of Pope Bibi Dong, she has now transformed this spiritual secret technique into a spiritual soul skill.
It not only uses pure spiritual power but also uses Soul Power to activate her martial soul, enhancing her spiritual power and allowing her to execute it through her Demon Fox martial soul.
After incorporating the power of her martial soul, both her detection range and accuracy have become far superior. Additionally, the consumption of spiritual power is reduced.
This is also the difference between a pure spiritual secret technique and a spiritual soul skill, and it is a manifestation of the unique traits of spiritual-type Soul Masters.
Other Soul Masters can at most learn spiritual secret techniques, but cannot use spiritual soul skills.
This is because non-spiritual-type martial souls lack the most fundamental spiritual attribute; using Soul Power to activate their martial souls cannot convert it into spiritual power.
Moreover, when other Soul Masters learn spiritual secret techniques, they are limited by their low total spiritual power, making the process of learning and executing spiritual methods yield half the result with twice the effort.
This further reflects the uniqueness of spiritual-type Soul Masters.
Just as Hu Liena finished speaking, a cloud of dust rose in the distance.
A large number of wolf-type evil beasts, with ink-black bodies resembling cheetahs, rushed toward them.
Seeing the sharp spikes on their backs that differed vastly from ordinary wolf-type soul beasts, the group immediately recognized the identity of these predators.
The Wasteland Wolf is a species of wolf-type evil beast unique to the Mystic Trace Canyon, and it is also the evil beast with the largest number and widest distribution in the canyon.
The Soul Master world speculates that they are a mutated variant of the Nether Wolf.
However, having lived here for a long time and being influenced—and even having adapted to—the special powers within the Mystic Trace Canyon, their appearance and traits have undergone some changes.
Like other evil beasts, they are still essentially soul beasts.
The reason the soul beasts in the Mystic Trace Canyon are called evil beasts is that, compared to ordinary soul beasts, the ones here seem to be affected by an evil force. They become extremely violent, bloodthirsty, and devoid of reason.
Even soul beasts with an age of ten thousand years or more cannot develop high levels of intelligence, remaining just as crazed as low-level evil beasts. Besides that, when an evil beast dies, it will also produce a Soul Ring.
However, although the Soul Ring produced by an evil beast can be absorbed by a Soul Master, the difficulty of absorbing it is much higher than that of an ordinary Soul Ring at the same age.
Not to mention that the soul shock from a ten thousand-year Soul Ring will additionally contain a crazed, evil force. For evil beasts under ten thousand years, their Soul Rings contain a massive amount of crazed thoughts.
After a Soul Master absorbs one, although their strength often improves, their disposition tends to undergo a drastic change, and they may even lose their sanity—just like the evil beasts within the Mystic Trace Canyon.
Therefore, almost no Soul Master would deliberately come to the Mystic Trace Canyon to hunt evil beasts for their Soul Rings.
"Good grief, we've only just entered this place, and we've already attracted so many evil beasts. There are at least over fifty in this pack of Wasteland Wolves," Xie Yue said with a solemn expression.
"Don't get bogged down in a prolonged fight. Even if we wipe them out, the combat will only attract other evil beasts."
"Hmm, let me slow them down." Yan, who was usually extremely eager for a fight, did not object. Although he liked to fight and didn't like to run away, he wasn't so stubborn that he would try to show off when he knew it was impossible.
A heavy and scorching aura suddenly rose.
Yan's Flame Lord martial soul quickly manifested. On his dark red martial soul body, a large amount of flames surged instantly, and even stronger energy fluctuations gathered on his arms.
As Yan activated his martial soul, he threw out both fists, sending two massive magma fireballs shooting toward the pack of Wasteland Wolves, leaving two dark red energy trails in the air.
Faced with Yan's Purgatory Flame, the dozens of Wasteland Wolves showed no fear at all. Their eyes were filled with brutality and greed for flesh and blood, and a jet-black, ink-like Soul Power surged over their bodies, protecting them all around.
"Boom!"
The fireballs formed by the Purgatory Flame instantly erupted in power, causing a deafening roar. The intense magma fire flow directly blasted the pack of Wasteland Wolves apart.
Dozens of Wasteland Wolves were scorched by the dark red flames, with the fire spreading and burning fiercely on their bodies.
Those that took a direct hit died almost instantly, turning into charred wolf corpses. Yan wasn't happy just because his attack had heavily wounded this pack of hundred-year Wasteland Wolves.
They still faced a threat from the pack; these Wasteland Wolves were vicious by nature, and unless they were completely dead, they would never set aside their hunting instincts.
Yan's eyes were focused and sharp.
As he activated his martial soul and channeled his Soul Power, the dark red flames on his body suddenly grew exceptionally dense, soaring toward the sky. His entire body resembled a pillar of fire constantly spewing out flames.
With a low shout, Yan slammed his palm heavily onto the ground in front of him.
With a muffled thud, a palm print was left on the earth. Immediately, the flames on his body seemed to possess a will of their own as they surged into the ground. Like streams of light, they extended along the ground toward the Wasteland Wolf pack.
Upon reaching them, the flames suddenly burst out from the ground, forming a massive circular curtain of fire that surrounded the Wasteland Wolves.
"This will only trap them for a little while. Hurry up and let's go."
Ling Xiao and the other three nodded in unison, summoned their martial souls, and dashed in another direction.
Just as they had run only a few hundred meters, Ling Xiao sensed a considerable commotion from another direction. It seemed as if another pack of evil beasts was charging their way.
If they had chosen to completely wipe out the Wasteland Wolf pack earlier, they probably would have been surrounded by new evil beasts before even finishing off the wolves.
"Good grief, do the evil beasts in the Mystic Trace Canyon naturally have a sense for normal, sane life from the outside world?"
After running for a while, the four felt that they had shaken off the Wasteland Wolf pack behind them.
They planned to stop and rest for a bit. After all, having run a long distance, recovering their stamina would help them handle any potential dangers they might encounter later.
However, just as the four of them were about to rest, they all suddenly paused. Xie Yue and Hu Liena immediately circulated their Soul Power, pushing off the ground with their feet to leap backward.
The reactions of Yan and Ling Xiao were exactly the opposite; one threw a punch, and the other swung a giant axe, immediately slamming into a purple-black figure that emerged from a giant tree to the side.
With a "bang," the two men backed away and looked at the entity they had just attacked. Following a muffled thud, the owner of that figure also landed on the ground.
It turned out to be a tiger-type evil beast.
However, unlike an ordinary tiger-type soul beast that exudes a fierce and domineering aura, it appeared somewhat sinister and dark. The Soul Power on its body belonged to the dark attribute.
**
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