"..."
Silence fell upon everyone, and though it might have been an exaggeration, it seemed to hold a certain truth.
"Old Qin's words are spot on," Wang Ce chuckled, adding, "If we're talking about insidious intent, those two could make the Soul Dragon Emperor kneel and call them ancestors..."
The others nodded in agreement. Insidiousness wasn't something one cultivated just by living long; it depended mainly on talent. Besides, ferocious beasts were accustomed to settling matters with brute force.
As they were chatting and laughing, the figure of an ice bird appeared in the distance.
"They're back," Qin Tian smiled faintly, just as he had predicted. Nothing had gone wrong.
Wang Ce asked with a grin, "How was the harvest?"
"Barely passable. Only eighteen were killed in total," Chen Shu shrugged, simultaneously producing a large mass of immense soul power.
"Hmm?!"
Everyone's expressions turned to surprise. They had initially thought it was a falsehood, but upon seeing the mass of soul power, they instantly believed it.
"Stop boasting!" Liu Feng landed a sharp rap on his head, saying, "We captured the main body and got some spoils."
"Is that so?"
The others looked enlightened. No wonder the soul power in their hands was more than all four of them combined.
Then, Liu Feng gave everyone a brief explanation. This made everyone marvel at the pair's good fortune, but in reality, none of this was by chance...
"Uh, everyone hand over your spoils to me, and I'll distribute them centrally..." Chen Shu rubbed his hands together, a sly, grinning expression on his face.
"Distribute what?!" Qin Tian's mouth twitched. Handing it over to you would be like pure gifting! He stepped forward and asked, "Are any of the contracted spirit beasts injured? Prioritize using this."
The battle with the Soul Dragon Emperor, though one-sided, had still managed to injure them, as the Beast Emperor was still a Beast Emperor. Particularly soul-level injuries, which were not easy to heal.
Upon hearing this, Chen Shu didn't argue further and voluntarily handed over the soul power in his possession. After all, the five of them had come to assist him, and it was truly unfair if they couldn't even heal their injuries...
Without further ceremony, the five of them allowed their dispirited contracted spirits to ingest the soul power. Indeed, after a short while, they became energetic and recovered to their peak state.
"Alright, we have two spoils now," Qin Tian stated. Before him lay a large, unused mass of soul power, and the corpse of a black and white butterfly monarch. He scanned everyone and asked, "How should we distribute them?"
Wang Ce pondered for a moment and said, "Let's distribute them based on value. Whoever wants them can bid directly."
"I'll take them all!" Chen Shu immediately raised his hand, declaring expansively. After more than a month of frantic hunting, he lacked for nothing except money now...
"Do you have that much money?!" Qin Tian raised an eyebrow, his eyes showing a hint of doubt. Wouldn't this guy be trying to pull a fast one again...
"Give it to him, he really has it..." Liu Feng sighed, recalling the mountain of true treasures, which was simply outrageous...
"Fine! We'll calculate the exact value when we get back." Qin Tian nodded and handed both spoils to Chen Shu, not fearing the guy would run off, as everyone present was at the King level.
The group left the [Lost Desert] in good spirits. For them, the greatest gain was injuring the Soul Dragon Emperor, which indirectly alleviated the pressure on Long Yuan.
...
At this moment, in the peripheral areas of the [Lost Desert],
"Chen Shu... Chen Shu... Chen Shu..." The Soul Dragon Emperor muttered as it walked, appearing utterly deranged... This showed the immense depth of its hatred...
When it reached the spatial mist barrier, it instantly sobered up.
"We're here?" It breathed a sigh of relief, looking at the perilous mist, it felt as if it were returning home. It was finally escaping its suffering...
The Soul Dragon Emperor stepped into the mist without hesitation, immediately feeling a sense of security.
"I failed again this time..." The Soul Dragon Emperor analyzed rationally, only regretting not having split off more powerful projections. It even considered having its main body appear, but unfortunately, the mist blocked its way.
"Next time, the main body must act!" It made a silent decision. Continuously using its projections was making it feel like a mere errand boy delivering treasures... This was the purest form of a foolish villain...
"However, the situation isn't too bad. At least some power was preserved, plus the soul materials gifted by the three Beast Emperors..." The Soul Dragon Emperor murmured to itself. In truth, it was a significant loss, but it could only console itself this way.
But just then, its body trembled, and it instinctively sensed a life-or-death crisis!
Whoosh—
A massive dark shadow, like teleportation, instantly enveloped the Soul Dragon Emperor and forcibly dragged it away from its spot.
"Gluttonous Giant Toad, you dare touch me?!" The Soul Dragon Emperor roared, its eyes filled with terror, completely caught off guard by this development. Its terrifying soul power surged out, but it had no effect.
In the mist-shrouded area, a colossal green toad, the size of a mountain, stood imposited, emanating a terrifying aura. Its tongue was rapidly retracting, and the Soul Dragon Emperor was being enfolded by it. With a gulp, the giant toad ignored the Soul Dragon Emperor's struggles and calmly swallowed it.
"Scraping the bottom of the barrel..." The green giant toad's eyes slightly widened, a hint of mockery appearing. If the Soul Dragon Emperor's projection had returned in its full glory, it would have refrained from acting out of caution for the Four Great Beast Emperors. But now, the other party was severely injured and fleeing, which meant it had encountered an enemy. And daring to attack a Beast Emperor implied that Long Yuan had formidable enemies. Simply from the Soul Dragon Emperor's state, the forbidden mist's great fiend had easily analyzed the external situation. Therefore, it no longer needed to be cautious. It didn't believe the Four Great Beast Emperors would dare venture into the forbidden mist to cause it trouble.
...
"Roar roar roar—" Deep within Long Yuan, a colossal blue dragon thrashed back and forth, its blood-red eyes filled with madness and rage, as if possessed by a nine-tailed fox... The relentless onslaught of blows had pushed its psyche to the brink of collapse. Chen Shu's insults, the siege by a swarm of ants, the sneak attack by the Gluttonous Giant Toad... It was becoming disoriented, feeling as if the entire world was against it...
Boom—
Terrifying soul power, like immense oceanic tides, forced ferocious beasts within tens of thousands of meters to prostrate themselves. Their souls were like small boats in a giant wave, on the verge of shattering at any moment. And further away, the ferocious beasts also wore expressions of fear, utterly unable to understand what had happened to their Emperor. At this moment, they could only say one thing to the Soul Dragon Emperor: Stop your erratic behavior!