“I…fine, I get it…” Feiyun sighed. Being told to stay behind wasn’t what he had in mind, but it would have to do.

And just like that, the three of them had their orders on who to fight. They all had the looks of men who were expectant of winning. None of them were afraid of dying in the slightest.

Kai Wen was the first to take action. Waving his right hand, a ‘ball’ as black as night and the size of a bowl appeared out of thin air. He waved his hand again to take out a half-transparent white pill for him to liquify with a spot of elemental fire and throw into the black ball.

Rather than splash and dye the black ball with its remains, the liquid was seemingly sucked into the ball and disappeared from sight. Soon after, the black ball began to wriggle and squirm over its surface before breaking apart like grains of ‘sand’.

Then the grains of ‘sand’ began to clump together like water. It wasn’t sand or water at all, they were ants! Ants that were suddenly the size of chicken eggs!

And thousands of them!

The pill Kai Wen liquified earlier had been enough to cover all the ants before they grew in size. It must’ve been some kind of powerful sustenance that excited the ants enough to have them devour it all straight away!

A strange metallic light started to s.h.i.+ne from the ants next. One by one, they fell to the ground and drilled underneath to disappear from sight!

“Only you’d be able to raise these metal-devouring ants like this, Kai Wen…” w.a.n.g Tong sighed.

“Your two flame-winged vipers aren’t all that different either.” 

Two dark-red vipers the size of a finger were slinking out from w.a.n.g Tong’s sleeves at the time Kai Wen spoke. They slithered up his arm and around his shoulders to rub their heads against his check and lick at it affectionately.

w.a.n.g Tong smiled. Two white pills appeared out of thin air so they could be fed into the maws of the two vipers.

Feiyun was squatting down near the ground off to the side with the three differently colored dogs in front of him. “Da Mao, Er Mao, San Mao. You have to show off your strengths, don’t let me down…”

Then he fed each dog two pills each.

w.a.n.g Tong and Kai Wen chose to stay quiet rather than speak up to him.

And now, the group of enemies were nearly upon them!

Around eight Soul Exalts were either standing on top of their swords or skywalking to the top of a small hill thirty meters away from the three. The shadows of twenty other figures shot out from the forest underneath to stand at attention between the eight a while later.

The person leading their group was a middle-aged man who wore robes as black as the night. His ruthless eyes scanned the area and quickly found the two corpses and unconscious figure near the three Immortals. 

“Capture them!!” He snarled at once!

No words had to be said there. This was the type of moment where it was better to act now and ask questions later!

The four Early-stage Soul Exalts flew forward at once. To them, the two males in front of them were only Soul Ancestors and the child with them was only just a ‘commoner’. They wouldn’t even need all four of them to make sure these three people were apprehended and taken care of.

On the other side, Kai Wen looked almost incensed that they were being treated this way and sent a single pulse of soulforce outward!

“Ah!! What is this?! Ahhh!!”

Screams began to ring out from the group behind the four Soul Exalts a moment later. Something was happening to the Soul Ancestors and Soul Sprites!

“What?!”

Everyone turned around to see what was going on only to see that the grounded group of people were all running around in terror!

At some point, while the Soul Exalts were making their charge, black dots came crawling out from the ground to climb up the legs of whomever they were closest to. Upon further inspection, the Soul Ancestors and Soul Sprites realized they were being besieged by what appeared to be a storm of armored ants!

The speed at which the ants were traveling at seemed almost unreal. Some of the soul cultivators had seven or eight ants at their thighs already before…digging straight into their flesh before they could react!

“Ah! Ah! Ahhh!!!”

The anguished cries of pain rang out as the soul cultivators felt the ants dig in. Several people were trying to use their soulforce to force the ants out while others use elemental energy, but after just two seconds…those who had ants dig into their bodies fell dead to the ground!

“Ahhh!! Ahhh!! What are these things?! Ahhh!!”

Panic was setting in on every single Soul Ancestor and Soul Sprite as they tried to survive. Waves of soulforce and elemental energy flew about everywhere in an attempt to shake off the ants before it could get to them, but it was no use. The ants were like glue with how it stuck to the skin. Persistent and quick, these ants took hold of whomever they could and dug in without mercy!

It was like a black tidal wave had crashed into these twenty soul cultivators. More and more ants were climbing on top of the soul cultivators now and devouring away at their bodies. Soon, there was no one left to let out a cry of pain or even alive!

The Soul Exalts were discouraged by the sight. Some of them had planned on helping the others but…a powerful aura on the other side forced them to abandon that thought!

“Swish swish swish swish….”

A sudden heat wave and four blades of wind shot at the incoming four Early-stage Soul Exalts. Like arrows of red light, the four streaks of red light flew with blinding speed to pierce whatever unfortunate soul that stood in their way!

The one responsible for this attack was Kai Wen! He had been hiding his strength this entire time; rather than being a Soul Ancestor like the others thought, he was actually…a Late-stage Soul Exalt!

“A Late-stage Soul Exalt! How in the wo—agghhhh?!”

An Early-stage Soul Exalt cried out in terror. With how intimidated they were by the ants devouring their comrades and this Late-stage Soul Exalt suddenly attacking them, how could they possibly dodge the four gusts of wind?

“Ah! Ah! Ahhhh!”

The four were struck down almost immediately. Two of them had even their chests speared straight through and killed instantaneously!

The other two were able to get away with a severe blow to the abdomen and fell to the ground in pain. 

But…

The ground beneath the two surviving Soul Exalts opened up to reveal another hundred metal-devouring ants. Like moths to a flame, the ants climbed on top of their bodies and ate straight away at them!

Meanwhile, w.a.n.g Tong was sending out the two vipers around his shoulders to attack. Complying with his orders, the two vipers sprouted wings and took flight!

As the two vipers flew, their sharp fangs could be seen bared and ready for prey. The auras of a late-stage cla.s.s six soulbeast could be felt as the vipers closed in on the two Mid-stage Soul Exalts!

“Dao Ma, Er Mao, San Mao, go!!”

It was Feiyun’s turn to attack. Excited, the child had all three of his dogs pounce after the two vipers to take action on the fight!

“Aoo! Aoo! Aoo!!!”

Flying at speeds no slower than the vipers in front of them, the three dogs flew overhead and after the two Late-stage Soul Exalts!

“Ahh!! Soulbeasts?! Are you beast tamers?! This can’t be!!”

The elder howled in fear. This wasn’t what he thought would happen. This wasn’t supposed to be it at all!

The roars of the soulbeasts were powerful and intimidating to hear. The silence of the mountain was long gone with these beasts ready to play, and all sorts of multi-colored lights flooded the forest as they flew about. From far away, this would’ve been a beautiful sight. 

But up close, the sight was nowhere as beautiful as one would expect… 

There weren’t many people left alive to scream now. The fluctuations in energy were decreasing in intensity and things were coming to a lull now. Soon, the mountains were back to being silent as usual… 

w.a.n.g Tong, Kai Wen, and Feiyun were still standing in their original spots. On the other hand, there wasn’t anyone left standing on the other side… 

Eight Soul Exalts and over twenty Soul Ancestors and Soul Sprites. A force that would’ve been more than enough to take on a middling school was…taken apart and dealt with without resistance!