Chapter 572: Encircle or Duel?

“It’s still Madel City!!!” Sherlock said as he turned around. “Follow me!”
Before his words faded, he had already disappeared, and Ye Feng and the others immediately followed.
When they reappeared, they were outside a small village north of Madel City, just a few hundred kilometers away from where Berent and the others had died.
“Is it around here?” Urbeka frowned slightly. Her soul detection found nothing unusual.
“Three hours ago, a family in this village was killed, and the children were taken away. It’s a bit far from Madel City, so it took some time for the news to reach the city lord,” Sherlock said grimly. “My soul detection also found nothing. Let’s go check the bodies first to see if there’s any information left.”
“You go. I’ll try other methods,” Ye Feng refused Sherlock’s suggestion and turned to Long Ge. “Long Ge, protect Xiao Yu, Xiao Bei, and the others.”
Long Tian, who had planned to leave with Ye Feng, glanced at the people behind him before nodding in agreement. He knew Ye Feng had certain methods he didn’t want others to see, so he needed to use them alone. Staying behind could also prevent others from disturbing Ye Feng.
“If you find him, don’t alert him. Notify us immediately,” Sherlock said. Though he guessed Ye Feng was no weaker than himself, he wasn’t confident of winning this time, so he naturally didn’t have much faith in Ye Feng either. As long as Ye Feng didn’t alert the suspect, with their group of over thirty people surrounding him, the murderer wouldn’t be able to escape.
“Don’t worry. I know my limits,” Ye Feng said. He wouldn’t call for help unless he tried the murderer’s strength first and realized he couldn’t handle him. Besides, even if he alerted the suspect, the other party couldn’t escape his pursuit. He was skilled in four spatial techniques. If he couldn’t catch them even then, all those years of practicing spatial techniques would have been in vain.
Before the others entered the village, Ye Feng vanished into thin air.
“Will he be okay?” Urbeka frowned, looking at Long Tian worriedly.
“Even if he can’t win, he won’t perish,” Long Tian said with a smile, shaking his head. “Besides, he might not even lose.”
“He’s just an alien. How could the boss lose?” Bernard, of course, had the greatest faith in Ye Feng’s strength. Although his cultivation level was now comparable to Ye Feng’s, he had fought against him before and knew they were not on the same level at all.

Sherlock was surprised that Ye Feng’s friends trusted him so much. He didn’t say much and led everyone toward the village.

Ye Feng arrived at a deserted place and, after confirming that he wasn’t being followed, he activated the Great Clumsy Bell in his spiritual sea. Such a pseudo-illusory treasure could attract many powerful beings even in a lower-tier primary plane. Ye Feng wasn’t worried about these people coveting it, but the fewer people who knew about his secret, the better. He trusted people like Long Tian but not others—even Sherlock, whom he had only known for a few days.

As a soul-defense-type pseudo-illusory treasure, the Great Clumsy Bell didn’t just have soul-defense functions; it also had capabilities like soul exploration. Previously, due to Ye Feng’s low cultivation level, he could only passively use this basic function of soul defense. Now that he had transcended the Saint realm, he had the strength to freely control such spiritual treasures. Moreover, pseudo-illusory treasures were among the strongest spiritual treasures, and since it had already chosen Ye Feng as its master, controlling it was easy.

“Soul exploration!” Ye Feng’s spiritual energy spread out like sound waves through the Great Clumsy Bell, quickly covering an area of tens of thousands of kilometers around him.

At this moment, Ye Feng was like a dolphin, constantly emitting sonar, with all the feedback coming back in crystal clarity. This was completely different from ordinary soul exploration, which merely scattered spiritual energy like a net. If a powerful being with a similar level of spiritual cultivation deliberately hid, it would be ineffective.

But Ye Feng’s method was different. As long as his wave-like spiritual energy detected the slightest anomaly, it would be reflected back—unless the other party could mimic the wavelength of his spiritual energy. But that was impossible, as each wave emitted by Ye Feng, after being processed by the Great Clumsy Bell, had a different wavelength. In this way, nothing could hide.

After a moment, Ye Feng finally detected an unusual soul fluctuation inside a cave hundreds of kilometers away. The strength of that soul was on par with that of a peak-star-level warrior—a strength similar to Long Tian’s, which Ye Feng was very familiar with. After assessing the opponent’s cultivation level, Ye Feng felt a sense of anticipation. When he sparred with Long Tian, they rarely used supernatural powers or deadly techniques, so their matches usually ended in a draw. Yet Ye Feng knew that if he used his five supernatural powers against Long Tian’s one, Long Tian’s chances of winning in a real battle were less than 10%. So, upon learning about the killer’s cultivation level, Ye Feng was confident he wouldn’t lose.

In a flash, he appeared inside the cave and witnessed a nauseating scene: a mantis-like monster with only four legs. Its legs resembled those of a mantis, clearly possessing immense explosive power, while its upper limbs were scythe-shaped like a mantis’s. A small triangular head, covered in blood, raised itself, still clutching a child’s palm in its mouth. It turned its head sideways and stared at Ye Feng with its black eyes.

Ye Feng frowned slightly and shot out his five fingers simultaneously—this was the Destruction Law in its tenth layer of perfection, combined with his already perfected Sky-Rending Fingers. The power behind it was unimaginable.

The mantis monster seemed to sense danger and tried to escape, but was trapped by Ye Feng’s Gravity Law amplified by the Heavy Mysterious Tower, causing its speed to plummet.

“Puh, puh.” Two sounds of impacts came as the mantis monster’s agility was indeed remarkable; it managed to dodge three attacks under such circumstances.

Ye Feng looked at the monster, which had taken two hits. Yellow liquid seeped from its waist, abdomen, and shoulders, suggesting the wounds weren’t deep. It didn’t seem badly injured at all. Instead, it roared frantically at Ye Feng twice before charging straight at him.

“Oh, you want close combat? Then you’re in for a loss,” Ye Feng said as he activated the Hundred-Refined Vajra Body. This technique had originally been developed using the Melting Law, but after the Melting Law was upgraded to a supernatural power, his physical strength had increased by dozens of times. His current strength was likely comparable to that of an ordinary spiritual treasure. Coupled with the techniques he had learned from the martial classics and the life-and-death trials in the refining realm, fighting Ye Feng in close combat was nothing but asking for punishment.

As expected, when fists met blades, the mantis beast’s scythe-like arms were twisted and deformed by Ye Feng’s punch.

Seeing that its physical advantage was gone, the Mantis Beast panicked immediately. It retreated at full speed, trying to escape.
“Trying to run?” Ye Feng narrowed his eyes slightly. “Space Freeze!”
It wasn’t the first time Ye Feng had used the Space Freeze technique, but it was the first time he used it on someone else. As soon as the technique was activated, the Mantis Beast’s speed slowed down visibly until it finally came to a halt, frozen in place as if the scene had been paused.
“Really useful!” As soon as Ye Feng finished speaking, he noticed that Sherlock and the others had arrived and happened to see the moment the Mantis Beast was frozen.
“Uh, the moon is quite nice tonight…” Ye Feng acted as if nothing had happened and looked up at the sky, where two moons were visible together…