Devouring Soul Emperor

They hadn’t even gotten their hands on Chu Qingyun, yet they had already lost a Sixth-level Martial Spirit.

A shadow of gloom fell over the hearts of Tu Qiang and his men.

Meanwhile, Chu Qingyun swept wide around their perimeter and once again locked onto a Sixth-level Martial Spirit who had fallen slightly away from the group.

"Shadow Splitting Clone Skill!"

He used the Soul Technique again. In the dead of night, Chu Qingyun’s shadow split off and merged with the shadow of that Sixth-level Martial Spirit.

Four arms materialized from the shadow, seizing the man’s legs and arms. Then, Chu Qingyun struck, decapitating and instantly killing the Sixth-level Martial Spirit with another swift strike!

With this bizarre and unexpected Shadow Splitting Clone Skill, Chu Qingyun had killed four of Tu Qiang’s Sixth-level Martial Spirits in quick succession, leaving the remaining sixteen members of the group terrified.

Each of the four victims had seemed as if they were possessed, standing completely motionless as Chu Qingyun decapitated them with a single stroke of his sword!

The only pity was that Chu Qingyun had no time to devour their Primordial Power.

With four of their comrades dead, the remaining fifteen Sixth-level Martial Spirits gathered in a tight formation, protecting Tu Qiang in the center. Each clutched their weapon, not daring to let their guard down for even a moment.

The sixteen of them simultaneously unleashed their Primordial Power, illuminating a large area as brightly as day and giving Chu Qingyun no opportunity for a sneak attack.

’Iron Thread Ten-Star Vine!’

Hiding in the distance, Chu Qingyun silently summoned his Iron Wire Ten-Star Vine Martial Soul.

The floor of the primeval forest was covered in a thick layer of dead branches and fallen leaves. The ten vines of the Iron Thread Ten-Star Vine hid amongst the debris, snaking silently toward Tu Qiang and his men.

With the help of the Hidden Qi Technique, not one of them could detect the fluctuations of the Martial Soul or Primordial Power.

The vines crept forward, quickly closing in on Tu Qiang’s group.

However, the area was completely illuminated, and the sixteen Earth Spirit Realm experts were on high alert. It wasn’t long before they noticed a disturbance on the ground.

"Something’s on the ground! Be careful!"

"Protect the Young Master!"

The fifteen Sixth-level Martial Spirits tensed up instantly.

Tu Qiang, surrounded by his guards, drew the longsword from his waist with a SHING. He lowered his head, his eyes nervously scanning the ground around him.

WHOOSH!

A piercing whistle cut through the air as a vine shot out from the ground, instantly wrapping around a Sixth-level Martial Spirit’s legs. It then yanked hard, trying to drag him away.

"Dammit, help me!"

The Sixth-level Martial Spirit staggered, quickly unleashing his Primordial Power to barely steady himself.

The few Sixth-level Martial Spirits next to him raised their weapons and began hacking at the vine.

Just then, another vine erupted on the opposite side, wrapping around a different Sixth-level Martial Spirit’s waist and yanking him fiercely outward, drawing the attention of several more guards.

Just as they focused all their attention on the two targeted guards...

...four vines suddenly shot up from the middle of their formation. All four wrapped around Tu Qiang’s ankles, yanking him to the ground and dragging him away.

The strength of a single vine wasn’t enough to overpower a Sixth-level Martial Spirit.

But four vines working together were more than enough to handle a Fourth-level Martial Spirit like Tu Qiang.

"Damn it, save me! Save me!" Tu Qiang’s face went pale with fright. He screamed for help, repeatedly stabbing at the vines with the sword in his hand.

As expected of a weapon from the same source as the Strange Sword, the blade in his hand was incredibly sharp.

Each thrust pierced more than halfway through a vine. Given the vines’ current tenacity, not even the Primordial Power of a Fifth-level, or even a Sixth-level, Martial Spirit could necessarily do that.

"Save the Young Master!"

"Dammit, his target is the Young Master!"

The dozen or so Sixth-level Martial Spirits panicked and swarmed forward, frantically unleashing a barrage of attacks on the four vines. Already shredded by Tu Qiang’s sword, the vines couldn’t take any more and snapped instantly.

In reality, if Tu Qiang had been calm enough to use his full strength and wield his sword with composure, he could have easily freed himself with the blade’s sharpness. After all, the thing Chu Qingyun’s vines feared most was sharp objects.

With his attempt to capture Tu Qiang failed, Chu Qingyun sighed inwardly. He settled for the next best thing, swiftly regrowing the broken vines and having all ten of them seize a Sixth-level Martial Spirit.

The guard was in the middle of helping Tu Qiang up and was caught completely off guard. He was yanked down by the ten vines and dragged at high speed into the seemingly endless darkness.

"Help me! Young Master, save me!"

The Sixth-level Martial Spirit struggled and screamed for help.

But Tu Qiang held out a hand, stopping the men who were about to give chase. "Don’t go. He’s a dead man. Your most important task is to protect me."

After only a few seconds, the man’s screams came to an abrupt halt. Chu Qingyun had used his Shadow Splitting Clone Skill to kill him with ease.

At that moment, a chill ran straight up the spines of Tu Qiang and the fourteen men he had left.

They all regretted their decision to pursue him into the forest.

Just then, many others who had been drawn by the commotion began rushing over.

The commotion from Chu Qingyun’s fight with over a dozen Sixth-level Martial Spirits was so great that nearly everyone in the area—more than a hundred people in the Earth Spirit Realm—had noticed.

The vast majority of those who rushed over were Fifth-level Martial Spirits.

To Chu Qingyun, a Fifth-level Martial Spirit wasn’t particularly strong, but a large number of them gathering together could still be a problem.

But now, shrouded in the deepest darkness of night, Chu Qingyun and his Shadow Martial Soul held the absolute advantage. He decided he was done running.

With a flicker of movement, Chu Qingyun temporarily abandoned Tu Qiang and his men, instead darting toward the nearest Fifth-level Martial Spirit he could sense.

SHLICK!

A flash of purple light flared and vanished in the darkness. A Fifth-level Martial Spirit, caught completely off guard by Chu Qingyun’s strike, was killed instantly.

Half a minute later, the purple light flashed again in another location, and a Fourth-level Martial Spirit was cleaved in two.

At this moment, Chu Qingyun was like a specter of death in the night.

Every time the purple light flashed, those nearby could sense an aura rapidly weaken until it vanished completely.

It meant that with every strike of his sword, Chu Qingyun was taking a life!

Everyone who had rushed to the scene was now panicking, terrified that a flash of purple light would suddenly appear beside them at any moment.

They no longer felt safe, even in groups.

"Run! Run for your lives!"

"Run! Get out of the forest! That guy is terrifying!"

After Chu Qingyun had killed more than a dozen people in quick succession, the rest finally broke. One by one, the Earth Spirit Realm experts, their faces masks of terror, fled in a blind panic toward the edge of the forest.