Chapter 4: Soul Snakes

As soon as Yue Zheng appeared, the other five could no longer strike to seize it.
Yue Zheng held a low-grade spiritual weapon, the Yellow Yuan Sword. As he swung it, Earthly Vital Energy flew out, forming an axe-like blade that struck the four Soul Snakes.
The four Soul Snakes had been in the cave, sensing disturbances outside. They intended to take a quick look before retreating, but as soon as their four heads appeared, a yellow axe blade slashed down.
Zizz!
The four heads of the Soul Snakes vanished instantly, and their entire bodies condensed into a silver sphere the size of a fist, as if their whole bodies had shrunk inside it. The axe blade flew right above the sphere, and the strong wind carried it far away.
Since Soul Beasts could only use soul-based attacks and not cast spells with Vital Energy, the four-headed Soul Snake could not resist with magic when faced with the axe blade and had to transform its body into a sphere.
This was the survival skill of Soul Beasts—using soul attacks, and when those failed, transforming their entire body as if it were made of intangible soul, allowing them to change size at will.
Of course, no matter how much they transformed, Soul Beasts could not truly disappear.
Seeing that his attack hadn’t killed the four-headed Soul Snake, Yue Zheng looked embarrassed. He glanced at the five others awkwardly before flying over again, wielding the Yellow Yuan Sword. With four swings, he created a storm of blade-like energy that surrounded the sphere.
This time, Yue Zheng was determined to kill it.
Sure enough, the four-headed Soul Snake realized the power of this spell and knew it could no longer escape unscathed. Suddenly, it reverted to its original form and exploded, with its four heads shooting out in different directions.
The explosion scattered the storm of blade-like energy, and each head grew new bodies, turning into four one-headed Soul Snakes.
Each one-headed Soul Snake only possessed the strength of an early Yuan Ying stage.
The four-headed Soul Snake even had the ability to self-destruct with its soul body. Though it split into four one-headed Soul Snakes at the early Yuan Ying stage, it managed to save its life.
As soon as the four one-headed Soul Snakes landed, they immediately dug into the ground and fled.
Yue Zheng was completely stunned. As a powerful warrior in the late Consolidation stage, he hadn’t even managed to kill this one-headed Soul Snake in the early Consolidation stage. It would be hard for him to show off in front of the other five now.
When the next Soul Beast appeared, Yue Zheng likely wouldn’t even dare compete with the other five for it.
Qu Yi and the other five simply smiled, without mocking him.

But just as the six of them experienced varying emotions, the ground suddenly trembled as if there were an earthquake, as if countless soul beasts were crawling out of the earth. One-headed soul snakes, two-headed soul snakes, three-headed soul snakes, and four-headed soul snakes emerged from various places on the ground, all taking to the air—numbering no less than a hundred thousand—sealing off the entire area. This place turned out to be the territory of the soul snakes. Earlier, Yue Zheng had attacked and injured four four-headed soul snakes, and those four one-headed soul snakes returned to their nest and reported immediately. As a result, all the soul snakes in the area were mobilized. Four-headed soul snakes equaled the strength of the Consolidation stage; three-headed soul snakes corresponded to the Divided Mind stage; two-headed soul snakes were at the Departure stage; and one-headed soul snakes were at the Nascent Soul stage. Faced with the appearance of these soul snakes, Qu Yi and the others showed no sign of fear. Scanning with their spiritual senses, they discovered that there were over a thousand four-headed soul snakes at the Consolidation stage and tens of thousands at the Divided Mind stage. This made them worried—such a large number of soul beasts, if they used their soul attacks, would be extremely difficult to resist. Soul attacks were too hard to defend against. “Everyone, attack in one direction and break through!” Chu Gao shouted immediately, seeing that the soul snakes hadn’t fully formed a formation. If those soul snakes combined their forces and used their collective soul attack spells, even though the six of them were at the later stages of the Consolidation stage, they wouldn’t be able to escape. After all, there were still over a thousand soul snakes at the Consolidation stage among them, and even those at the Tribulation stage wouldn’t dare to resist such a soul attack. “Okay!” Qu Yi and the other five quickly understood and replied. Then, Qu Yi took out his Golden Spear, and together with Chu Gao, Zu Xiao, Zhuang Xiao, Zong Chun, and Yue Zheng, they channeled their vital energy to unleash powerful spells, wiping out the dense swarm of soul snakes in front of them, killing thousands of them in one go. Seeing an opening, the six of them immediately flew out, escaping the encirclement of the soul snakes and rising into the air to watch the swarm below. “I really didn’t expect that as soon as we entered the inner area, we’d encounter such a powerful swarm of soul beasts. It seems we need to fly to other places quickly to look for other isolated soul beasts,” Chu Gao said calmly in the air. These six people had come here to search for soul cores at the Tribulation stage to rapidly advance their spiritual realms. Therefore, they didn’t want to waste time on these soul beasts at the Consolidation stage—they were not only dangerous but also useless for them even if killed.

“Chu Gao, I don’t think we should spare these Soul Snakes. The soul beasts in the Heart Soul Star Region all have their own unique ways of communicating. I guess once we disturbed these Soul Snakes, the other powerful soul beasts on this planet must have also noticed and will likely come over soon. So why not kill these Soul Snakes first, and then wait for those powerful ones to arrive and wipe them out all at once?” Yue Zheng suddenly spoke up, his voice filled with murderous intent.

It was true. The soul beasts in the Heart Soul Star Region seemed to have a special way of communicating through souls. As soon as one of them detected the arrival of human cultivators, all the soul beasts on the planet would know that humans had arrived.

Of course, if the human cultivators were too powerful, the soul beasts on the planet wouldn’t come to help. But if they were just slightly stronger cultivators, the soul beasts on the entire planet would be eager to join the fight.

Zu Xiao, Zhuang Xiao, and Zong Chun all showed anxious expressions, wanting to leave, but they realized that if they separated from the group and encountered a powerful soul beast, it would be extremely dangerous. Qu Yi, on the other hand, appeared relaxed, simply watching Chu Gao.

Chu Gao thought for a moment before saying, “Alright, then let’s kill those soul beasts in the fusion stage before they form a formation. That way, we won’t have to worry about their soul attacks.”

Although there were over a thousand Soul Snakes in the fusion stage, judging from Yue Zheng’s attack results earlier, these snakes could only launch soul attacks, and their ability to transform into spheres was still slow. As long as the six of them reached their maximum speed, it was still possible to kill all of them.

When Qu Yi heard Chu Gao’s order, he immediately flew out, becoming a blur of motion. Before the other five could even blink, he killed one mid-fusion stage four-headed Soul Snake, which also contained a soul core.

“Qu Tian is so fast!” The five were shocked again and gained a new understanding of Qu Yi.

Seeing Qu Yi kill one four-headed Soul Snake and obtain such a precious soul core, they were also inspired and immediately showed their own speed, attacking the four-headed Soul Snakes in the middle of the group.

Strangely enough, despite Chu Gao and his group attacking continuously and killing nearly fifty four-headed Soul Snakes, they hadn’t obtained a single soul core.

On the other side, Qu Yi moved up and down among the Soul Snakes, unafraid of soul attacks, moving freely as he killed one four-headed Soul Snake at a time, each time gaining a soul core.

It seemed as though Qu Yi already knew which of the four-headed soul snakes contained a soul core, as each of his attacks targeted such snakes. Chu Gao, Zu Xiao, Zhuang Xiao, Zong Chun, and Yue Zheng, while swiftly killing the four-headed soul snakes, were once again deeply shocked by Qu Yi’s origins, feeling that he had an extraordinary and mysterious background. In truth, it was all because Qu Yi was guided by the Artifact God. The Artifact God seemed to have an innate absolute control over souls, being familiar with every trace of their energy, so it knew clearly whether a four-headed soul snake had a soul core or not. After obtaining thirty soul cores, Qu Yi stopped selecting specific four-headed soul snakes to attack. Instead, he took out a stack of spirit talismans from his space ring and sent them out one by one. All the four-headed soul snakes with soul cores had been killed, so Qu Yi no longer needed to choose targets and could use the spirit talismans to carry out widespread attacks. These hundreds of spirit talismans were all crafted by Qing Wu Gui over the years. Once Qing Wu Gui grasped a certain killing intent and advanced in his cultivation, he would study the “Talisman Treasury” and further understand the properties of various energies by crafting spirit talismans. As a result of years of effort, Qing Wu Gui had created tens of thousands of spirit talismans, all of which he gave to Qu Yi. “The spirit talisman attacks have begun! Soul snakes, why don’t you run away yet?” Qu Yi suddenly shouted before throwing the spirit talismans one after another. A hundred talismans activated almost simultaneously in the air, unleashing spells that attacked the dense swarm of soul snakes from all directions. These were spirit talismans in the early stage of fusion, possessing great power. When the hundred talismans exploded, they immediately enveloped all the soul snakes, with various spells mercilessly attacking them. Chu Gao, Zu Xiao, Zhuang Xiao, Zong Chun, and Yue Zheng, sensing the energy fluctuations from the spirit talismans, realized they were of the fusion stage and immediately flew out of the swarm of soul snakes to the air. The collective explosion of the spirit talismans caused massive casualties among the soul snakes—out of a hundred thousand, less than a thousand remained, all of them panicking and burrowing underground, likely never daring to emerge again in their lives. Qu Yi laughed heartily, flew to the side of the five men in the air, and said with a smile, “Fellowmen, how about that? My spirit talismans are powerful, right?”

Chu Gao, Zu Xiao, Zhuang Xiao, Zong Chun, and Yue Zheng all looked embarrassed. It could basically be said that Qu Yi had taken care of all those soul snakes by himself. However, while feeling awkward looking at Qu Yi, a strange glint appeared in Yue Zheng’s eyes as he plotted something in his mind.
How could they possibly escape Qu Yi’s detection? But Qu Yi didn’t seem to care, smiling happily.