Devouring Soul Emperor

Chu Qingyun’s group of five was exposed.

The Martial Soul Hall Martial Artists inside the house immediately rushed out. Half of them split off, escorting the boy with the Tier Three Martial Soul as they fled east.

The rest charged toward the back of the house, completely surrounding Chu Qingyun and his four companions.

Their shouts alerted more and more of the Martial Soul Hall’s personnel, and the crowd gathering in the area grew larger and larger.

"Heheheh, finally! I’ve been itching for a fight. So this is what you Martial Soul Hall bastards have been up to!"

A savage grin spread across Xiao Feng’s face as he gripped his giant Wolf Fang Club with both hands. He glared fiercely at the surrounding Martial Soul Hall Martial Artists, his body practically radiating killing intent.

His words echoed the fury felt by Chu Qingyun and the others.

Anyone—or rather, any intelligent species—would be sickened to see their own kind penned up and treated like livestock!

"Since we’ve been discovered, let the slaughter begin!"

"Xiao Feng, Chen Yu, you two will lead the assault!"

"Huang Yinghao, stay back. Don’t waste your Primordial Power. Watch for the right moment to use Tree Demon Guardian!"

"Xia He, make sure you conserve enough Martial Soul Power so we can retreat at a moment’s notice!"

"I’ll provide support!"

Even at this critical moment, Chu Qingyun didn’t forget the importance of their team’s coordination.

A five-man team like this was carefully assembled after thorough deliberation by the Great Xia Dragon Guard’s various Military Lords, Grand Commanders, and even the Lord Chief Manager himself.

With perfect coordination, unleashing the team’s full potential, they were capable of astonishing killing efficiency in large-scale battles!

"Hahaha, die! I’m going to smash you bastards to pieces!"

"Bursting Strike!"

Once the orders were given, Xiao Feng was the first to charge. Unleashing his Soul Technique, he swung his giant Wolf Fang Club with the force of a gale. With a single swing, any Martial Soul Hall members in his path—regardless of their rank—were instantly obliterated. None were spared!

His Martial Soul was the Tier Three Saber-toothed Tiger, and its Soul Technique, Bursting Strike, originally involved blasting a ball of explosive energy at his foes.

However, Xiao Feng’s control over his Martial Soul Power was far beyond ordinary. Through painstaking training, he had learned to channel that explosive energy and fuse it with his Wolf Fang Club!

His own Spirit Level Staff Technique, combined with the explosive power of a Tier Three Soul Technique, made his attacks among the most powerful of all the Gold Medal Captains in the Celestial Wind Army!

Meanwhile, Chen Yu was the complete opposite of Xiao Feng. His lips were pressed into a thin line, his expression cold and stern, not uttering a single word.

He moved like lightning, his spear a striking dragon!

In his hands, the Tier Three Martial Soul, the Overlord Spear, seemed to come alive. The synergy between man and weapon was far beyond mere Spear Technique; it was a kind of spiritual, innate connection—something that couldn’t be described in words.

With every thrust of Chen Yu’s spear, a Martial Soul Hall Martial Artist’s head would explode, killing them instantly!

Xiao Feng and Chen Yu—one as explosive as fire, the other as frigid as ice—were both shockingly efficient killers.

Like tigers let loose in a flock of sheep, they cut through the Martial Soul Hall’s ranks, leaving a trail of screams and sending their foes into a disorderly retreat.

The two of them alone had nearly broken the Martial Soul Hall forces!

And Chu Qingyun wasn’t idle, either.

The ten vines of Chu Qingyun’s Ten-Star Vine had already snaked their way deep into the Martial Soul Hall’s formation.

Every time Chu Qingyun used his Thunder Sword Momentum, he reaped the lives of several Martial Soul Hall Martial Artists.

Though each of the ten vines attacked infrequently, their combined killing efficiency was in no way inferior to that of Xiao Feng and Chen Yu!

Furthermore, Chu Qingyun’s ten vines served to control the entire battlefield.

Whenever Xiao Feng or Chen Yu faced a stray attack, just as they were about to defend with their Primordial Power or weapons, a vine would suddenly emerge to block or swat the attack away for them.

After this happened a few times, the two of them stopped bothering with defense altogether, focusing entirely on offense!

With the two of them pushing their offensive tempo to the limit, supported by Chu Qingyun’s auxiliary attacks and defense, the three of them alone routed the nearly one hundred Martial Artists who had surrounded them!

Of course, the lower-ranked Martial Artists in the Martial Artist Realm were essentially useless.

Under the terrifying pressure emanating from the Ninth-Grade Martial Artists and their Tier Three Martial Souls, they were too paralyzed to even fight back. They could only stand there trembling like deer in headlights, waiting to be slaughtered!

"Damn it!"

"All of you in the Martial Artist Realm, fall back now!"

In just a few exchanges, the trio had killed most of the Martial Soul Hall members who had first surrounded them, leaving only a few scattered survivors who fled in terror, pissing themselves.

Just then, a furious roar came from the outer perimeter.

The powerful auras of Ninth-Grade Martial Artists began to flood in, one after another. Over a hundred such auras converged, brutally suppressing the momentum of Chu Qingyun’s group!

The few remaining lower-ranked Martial Artists felt the pressure on them suddenly vanish. As if granted a royal pardon, they scrambled away, turning to flee for their lives.

Right after the furious roar, a new group of Martial Artists arrived. Every single one of them exuded a powerful aura—they were all Ninth-Grade Martial Artists!

"The Great Xia Dragon Guard... Hmph. You’ve got some nerve. Just five Ninth-Grade Martial Artists, and you dare trespass in my Shilin Town!"

The leader of the Martial Soul Hall group sneered as he stared at Chu Qingyun and his companions.

The previous Martial Artists who weren’t Ninth-Grade, and those even weaker, were merely the forces Shilin Town had accumulated over the past decade or so.

As a designated point of provocation against the Great Xia Dragon Guard, Shilin Town’s true core strength was these Ninth-Grade Martial Artists who had been transferred here later!

Five hundred Ninth-Grade Martial Artists in total!

Ninth-Grade Martial Artists were a different breed from ordinary ones.

In the Great Xia Dragon Guard, any Martial Artist who reached the Ninth Grade, regardless of their actual combat ability, was qualified to become a Captain.

In the Martial Soul Hall, a Ninth-Grade Martial Artist was also a figure of leadership, not someone to be casually sacrificed as cannon fodder.

Consider the Zhao Family Ancestor: a mighty Martial Spirit Level expert who had operated in Flame City for decades. In all that time, he had only managed to cultivate ten Martial Artists for the Martial Soul Hall and recruit a dozen or so Ninth-Grade Martial Artists under the Zhao Family’s banner.

But now, the number of Ninth-Grade Martial Artists arriving in waves had already surpassed one hundred, and it was still climbing!

More than a hundred Ninth-Grade Martial Artists, each with an imposing aura.

They were all filled with hostility toward Chu Qingyun’s group. Their combined auras pressed down on the entire area, the grounds of the Town Mayor’s Mansion, making the very air feel thick and oppressive.

The scale of this battle couldn’t compare to what Chu Qingyun had faced during the third stage of his examination.

But its intensity was far greater!

Even though all five members of Chu Qingyun’s team possessed Tier Three Martial Souls, in this clash of auras, they were completely overwhelmed!

Under the crushing weight of the auras from over a hundred Ninth-Grade Martial Artists, a heavy, suffocating pressure settled upon the hearts of the five teammates.