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**
"Ling Xiao."
Seeing Hu Liena arrive at his side, Ling Xiao gently shook his head, signaling that he was fine.
On the other side, Xie Yue swung his twin blades in unison, slashing out over a dozen blades of energy toward the Dark Thunder-Horned Rhinoceros Dragon.
Although these attacks couldn't truly harm it, they served to divert its attention, forcing the beast to momentarily falter. Taking advantage of this opening, the four exchanged glances, communicating their intent silently through their eyes.
Yan surged his soul power and unleashed a blast of Purgatory Flame. However, instead of aiming for the Rhinoceros Dragon's body, he directed it at the ground in front of the beast. Intense flames erupted instantly, forming a soaring curtain of fire.
Having completed this, Yan and Ling Xiao quickly turned to make their escape.
The Rhinoceros Dragon let out a furious roar, its soul power surging like a tide as it stepped forward to smash through the wall of fire. However, its pace slowed as it was hindered by Xie Yue's Moon Blades.
The two silver-white curved sabers merged into one, transforming into a crescent Moon Blade that danced through the air like a streak of silver light, a sight both dazzling and disorienting.
At that moment, Hu Liena activated her Martial Soul and unleashed her third soul skill, Charming Fox Flame. A torrent of crimson fire shot out like a fiery dragon toward the Rhinoceros Dragon.
While the flames did little actual damage, they merged with the lingering Purgatory Flames left by Yan, causing the conflagration to burn even more fiercely than before.
As the withered grass of the wasteland ignited rapidly, the fire grew until it nearly enveloped the Rhinoceros Dragon's massive frame, trapping it within. Thick billows of smoke rose, throwing the entire scene into chaos.
With their task done, Xie Yue and Hu Liena retreated, turning into two afterimages as they chased after Ling Xiao and Yan. Soon, the enraged roar of the Rhinoceros Dragon echoed from behind them.
Watching these small things—who were as slippery as loaches—escape from under its nose time and time again naturally sent the beast into a state of violent rage.
As Xie Yue and Hu Liena erupted with soul power to accelerate their escape, they felt a massive surge of energy explode behind them, followed by the deafening crackle of violent, explosive thunder.
Clearly, the powerful evil beast behind them had relied on its sheer strength to break through the wall of flames in a very short time and was now hot on their heels.
Despite its massive size, the Rhinoceros Dragon was not known for its speed among soul beasts. However, its cultivation far exceeded that of Ling Xiao's group.
Even though Hu Liena and Xie Yue were exceptionally fast for their rank, it was to no avail; the distance was closing rapidly. Just as the Rhinoceros Dragon was about to close in, several massive axe-lights suddenly tore through the air from a distance.
This was Ling Xiao launching a cover attack to protect the siblings.
Relying on its immense size, strength, and defense—and fueled by its fury—the Rhinoceros Dragon didn't even bother to dodge. It lowered its head and used its giant horn to smash the incoming axe-lights into fragments.
Although the semi-circular blades of light from the Profound Sky Slash failed to wound the behemoth, the impact against its head released waves of energy.
The dark-red ripples of soul power scattered outward, momentarily distracting the Rhinoceros Dragon and buying the siblings a few precious seconds. At this point, the terrifying Rhinoceros Dragon seemed entirely provoked by Ling Xiao's assault.
Because it had focused all its attention on Xie Yue and Hu Liena, it failed to notice the latent aura of power surging beneath the earth. As it charged, the ground suddenly split open, and a torrent of lava-like flames erupted upward toward the sky.
Caught off guard by this sudden strike and the crumbling of the ground beneath its feet, the massive Rhinoceros Dragon stumbled, its speed instantly plummeting.
"Nice work."
In the distance, Xie Yue and Hu Liena had already rendezvoused with the other two.
The reason Ling Xiao and Yan had moved ahead first was that, by comparison, they lacked the speed of the other two. It was more efficient for them to set up a position ahead while the siblings delayed the beast, allowing the two of them to provide support from afar.
This time, their coordination was remarkably seamless.
This was partly due to the hundreds, if not thousands, of dangerous trials the four had faced together in the Fiend Gorge over the past three months, and partly due to the initial training results they achieved under Teacher Da Shan's "Violent Panda."
"Hurry, let's go before it catches up."
"Mm."
Currently in his Flame Lord Martial Soul possession state, Yan remained slightly hunched with both palms pressed against the ground.
The previous erupting streams of lava were the result of him channeling his flame power deep into the earth. Having finished his preparations and set up the subsequent delaying measures, he gave a firm nod, stood up, and quickly retreated with Ling Xiao and the others.
On the other side, it took the Rhinoceros Dragon a moment to charge out of the zone. However, just as its massive frame was about to break into a sprint to give chase, lightning struck twice—the exact same scene repeated itself.
In fact, because it was moving too fast and taking such large strides, its heavy footsteps triggered several more bursts of lava and fire from beneath the earth. Although these eruptions struggled to breach its hide, the shifting terrain worked against it.
The beast found it impossible to build up enough speed to close the gap.
Seizing this window, Ling Xiao's group finally widened the distance between them and the Rhinoceros Dragon, narrowly escaping its pursuit.
While Ling Xiao's party of four continued to undergo the grinding trials of danger within the Fiend Gorge, the outside world was not always perfectly peaceful; it, too, held its own share of peril.
On a small forest path outside Heaven Dou City, a few figures were traveling together. One of them appeared to be of a mature age, roughly forty years old, with strands of white scattered through his hair.
Dressed in a dark green instructor's robe, he looked very much like a teacher from a Soul Master academy. Beside him were two young people, a male and a female, clearly of a younger generation.
The young man was tall and upright with short black hair, looking quite sharp and capable.
The girl beside him was also quite beautiful, wearing a jade-green dress. She had short, deep-red hair and a gentle temperament that didn't feel distant at all. Her gaze was always filled with a softness reminiscent of the morning sun.
"Teacher, why are we taking this path? Wouldn't the main road be better?" the young man asked curiously.
"Haha, Huang Yuan, why are you acting so impatient? If that kid Tai Long had asked so urgently, I wouldn't have found it strange," replied Yin Shu, a teacher at Blue Tyrant Academy, with a chuckle.
His mission this time was to lead these two students to a relatively large Soul Hunting Forest outside Heaven Dou City to hunt soul beasts and obtain soul rings.
Now that they had completed the task successfully and were returning safely, he was in high spirits and couldn't help but crack a joke.
Hearing this, Huang Yuan rubbed his head in embarrassment.
Standing to the side, Jiang Zhu couldn't help but smile at Yin Shu's words, thinking of a certain big idiot's personality.
"We're taking this path because it's a shortcut back to Heaven Dou City. You'll be able to walk a lot less this way, which saves you from constantly complaining about being tired," Yin Shu explained patiently.
"While there is a small Soul Hunting Forest nearby, and low-level soul beasts occasionally wander out—making this path unpopular for common travelers—it's nothing to us. The beasts that escape are usually just hundred-year soul beasts; thousand-year ones are rare. With my strength, I can easily handle it."
"I see. That makes sense. With your strength as a five-ring Soul King, Teacher Yin Shu, ordinary thousand-year soul beasts are naturally no match for you."
Jiang Zhu nodded with a smile, offering her praise.
**
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