Dai Chong suddenly darted out, leading the six men towards Cheng Xiao's location, cutting through countless bushes in their path.
When the seven men arrived at Cheng Xiao's spot with grave expressions, they stopped abruptly upon seeing the slender figure.
"You've come? I'm finished. Get ready to leave."
Cheng Xiao calmly turned around, showing no sign of distress. Beside her lay the corpse of the Tiger Demon Cat, its shadow long since vanished.
"Huh? Where's the soul beast?" The sixth man was completely bewildered; they had clearly heard a soul beast roar coming from their direction.
"What soul beast?" Cheng Xiao looked puzzled, her face revealing no flaw.
"We just heard a Tiger Demon Cat roar and thought you were in danger, so we rushed over. Didn't you hear it?" Dai Chong narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing Cheng Xiao for a long time. For some reason, he felt that Cheng Xiao had changed compared to before. He
couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he felt that the slender figure was more profound, giving him a subtle, yet palpable, pressure.
The feeling was strange; it wasn't the oppressive soul power emanating from a Soul Saint or Soul Douluo, but rather a kind of aura-based suppression. The boy appeared weak and insignificant, yet possessed a chilling, unsettling aura that lingered in the mind.
But upon closer inspection, it seemed unlikely. This kid was only eleven years old; how could a Soul Master like him evoke such a feeling?
"I heard it. It seems to be coming from over there," Cheng Xiao pointed in a direction completely opposite to where Dai Chong had come from.
Dai Chong looked up, following Cheng Xiao's gaze, past her figure, and looked into the distance.
"Let's go. Perhaps it's that Tiger Demon Cat's mate. Let's leave quickly." Unable to understand the change in Cheng Xiao, Dai Chong shook his head and said.
"Okay, let's go." Cheng Xiao nodded and walked into the group of seven.
Escorted by the seven, Cheng Xiao left, leaving behind only the corpse of a Tiger Demon Cat. A purple spirit ring above the corpse seemed to have lost its luster, pulsating dimly.
No one noticed that the shadow beneath Cheng Xiao's feet was denser than before.
Suddenly, a pair of ferocious cat eyes slowly opened in the shadow beneath Cheng Xiao's feet.
"Behave yourself, little guy..."
Noticing the change in the shadow beneath his feet, Cheng Xiao smiled slightly, reassuring it in his heart. The cat eyes slowly closed, and the shadow returned to calm.
—
"Damn it! ****..."
Looking at the three-eyed giant ape before him, Cheng Xiao couldn't help but curse under his breath.
This was the fifth spirit beast they had hunted. The shadows of the first four had all been successfully summoned and incorporated into his Shadow Legion.
Only this fifth one had resisted Cheng Xiao's summons three times, ultimately leading to their failure.
"It seems my strength is still too weak to summon a more powerful shadow," Cheng Xiao thought with a sigh of regret.
The three-eyed giant ape before him was already 3,200 years old, extremely outstanding in the mental aspect. If it could become his shadow soldier, it would definitely make up for the lack of control in the legion.
"Sigh, I should have limited it to below 3,000 years," Cheng Xiao sighed. "Greed knows no bounds..."
Because of his greed, after obtaining the first soul beast shadow, Cheng Xiao kept increasing the level. The second was 2,700 years old, the third was 2,900 years old, and the fourth even reached 3,000 years old!
Although there were some twists and turns in the process, he managed to summon all three soul beast shadows without any major incidents after three commands.
Therefore, this time he once again turned his attention to the 3,200-year-old Three-Eyed Giant Ape.
However, this time he was utterly defeated.
Perhaps it was because the Three-Eyed Giant Ape was too old, or perhaps because it was a spirit-type soul beast with stronger spiritual power, its resistance to emotions was naturally higher. Or perhaps it was both.
In any case, Cheng Xiao was unable to summon its shadow.
For a moment, Cheng Xiao's mood was quite bad, wishing he could tear the Three-Eyed Giant Ape to pieces.
After sighing for a while, Cheng Xiao turned and left, heading towards the location of the Soul Sect team.
~~~
"Big brother, do you think this kid is really collecting soul beast data? I feel like something's not right," Lao Liu whispered to Dai Chong.
Dai Chong glanced at Lao Liu, then looked away, calmly surveying the surroundings again: "What do you mean?"
"Each time it ends, I noticed that the soul beast didn't have any extra wounds, which doesn't seem right. And..."
Lao Liu paused for a moment, a hint of doubt appearing on his stiff face: "I feel that kid... um... I don't know how to describe it, it's like... he's getting stronger and stronger. Last time, when we first met eyes after the battle, I was almost scared back two steps."
Dai Chong's expression shifted slightly. He had the same feeling, but it came inexplicably, leaving him clueless and thinking it was just his imagination.
But now, Lao Liu's words made him perk up. It seemed he wasn't the only one who noticed the problem, so it definitely wasn't an illusion. Something must have happened to that kid that they didn't know about.
"Just do your job honestly, this deal will be quite profitable." Dai Chong pondered for a moment, glanced at the other five, shook his head, and said, "Don't overthink the client's affairs, don't ruin the deal."
Dai Chong didn't want any unnecessary complications. The reward for this deal was substantial, arguably the most generous of all the clients he had ever received.
However, Lao Liu wasn't going to let it go so easily. Instead, he lowered his voice and whispered in Dai Chong's ear, "Boss, do you think this kid might have mastered some kind of secret technique for rapidly increasing strength?"
Dai Chong suddenly turned his head, his gaze meeting Lao Liu's eyes. Lao Liu's eyes gleamed with a greedy and excited light, making Dai Chong's heart skip a beat.
Dai Chong swallowed hard, his eyes darting around, "That's unlikely… that kind of secret technique doesn't seem like something a small-town merchant could possess."
On this continent, anything labeled a secret technique was priceless, treasured by any major sect and rarely passed on to outsiders. For example, the Haotian Sect's exploding rings, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's distraction control, and so on.
If these secret techniques were revealed, they would be enough to make ordinary soul masters on the continent fight tooth and nail.
They don't seem like something an ordinary merchant family could possess.
"Boss, don't you think about it? Collecting a soul beast specimen, what's there to hide? Not letting us see it clearly means there's a secret!" The sixth brother became more and more excited as he spoke: "I'm 100% sure this kid has something good in his hands. Even if it can't increase soul power, it can still scare me away, so it must be something special!"
Dai Chong's breathing became slightly sluggish, his eyes flickering, seemingly tempted.
"Big brother, how about we..."
The sixth brother drew his thumb across his throat, a ruthless glint appearing on his scarred, menacing face.
___________________________
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