As soon as it completely took shape, the illusory spirit pagoda faded away, and moments later, the hall was empty once more. Octagonal in shape, the hall had a diameter of at least three hundred meters. Tang Wulin’s team of seven stood in the center of the hall. Eight doors, each ten meters tall and five meters wide, surrounded the students, towering before them.

  “Yuanen, Zhengyu, triangle formation. Xie Xie, adapt to the situation. Gu Yue, Xiaoyan, Lizhi, stay in the center,” Tang Wulin barked as he stepped forward to form one of the triangle’s points. Yuanen Yehui and Yue Zhengyu immediately did as they were told and moved into position.

  And three soul rings appeared beneath Xu Lizhi, all of them purple.

  Tang Wulin was certain that Xu Lizhi only had two yellow soul rings the last time he saw him. Shock filled him as he realized that Xu Lizhi’s spirit soul had ascended. He knew just how hard it was for a food-type soul master to have their spirit soul ascend, especially when they already had two soul rings.

  “I have a pork bun,” Xu Lizhi muttered, and his first soul ring lit up. A pork bun appeared in his hands and he threw it to Tang Wulin, who caught it and devoured it two bites. Warmth filled Tang Wulin after eating the bun. His blood essence roared and his mind sharpened. He and Xu Lizhi truly were a perfect match! Xu Lizhi recited the chant several more times and distributed buns to the rest of the team. These pork buns restored their stamina and soul power, as well as providing some basic healing. Without looking back at Xu Lizhi, Tang Wulin gave him a thumbs up.

  At that moment, a low rumble resounded throughout the hall as all eight doors slowly slid open.

  Just beyond the doors, dozens of green eyes peered through the darkness at Tang Wulin’s team.

  “They’re wolf-type soul beasts,” Xie Xie said. “They excel at attacking in packs.”


  Tang Wulin firmly met the gazes of the predatory eyes. His three purple soul rings rose up while bluesilver grass began swarming out of the ground around him, swiftly slithering outward to cover a radius of around a dozen meters.

  “Conserve your soul power. We won’t have a chance to rest as we climb the tower,” said Gu Yue.

  This was everyone’s first time here. Even Yue Zhengyu didn’t have the strength to participate in the tower attack when he got his first soul. No one within a three-year age range of him had been able to help him either, so there was no point in him even trying back then.

  After distributing pork buns, Xu Lizhi sat down on the floor and began meditating. He was no combatant. In spite of that, Tang Wulin had undoubtedly been right to invite Xu Lizhi. Although he couldn’t fight, his support would allow them to endure longer and display even more strength.

  Soul beasts began pouring out of the doors, wolves with dark-green fur and emerald eyes. They were wind wolves, a type of soul beast usually found in forests. Despite the fact that none of them were powerful alone, they were terrifying in packs. Their strength lay in their numbers and how they didn’t fear death. They would attack until either they or their prey were wiped out.

  Over a hundred wind wolves surrounded Tang Wulin’s team. The wolves slowly circled around the seven students, gradually drawing closer and closer. This was just the first floor of the spirit soul tower, and they were beginning to understand just what sort of challenges awaited them now.

  “Stay back, everyone. Gu Yue and I will take care of this,” said Tang Wulin.

  Yuanen Yehui stood stock still while Yue Zhengyu withdrew his soul rings. In order to advance as far as possible, they had to work as a team and take advantage of each other’s strengths.

  The wolves drew nearer, but had yet to breach the domain of Tang Wulin’s bluesilver grass. They continued watching from the perimeter, patiently waiting for an opportunity to pounce. The seven that made up Tang Wulin’s team remained unmoving. The battle would begin the moment either side took action.

  Tang Wulin looked at the wolves with contempt, and the bluesilver grass suddenly stirred, shooting out like vipers and binding several wolves. The grass then yanked the wolves toward Tang Wulin. A wall of earth erupted from the ground, protecting everyone but Tang Wulin, and the pouncing wolves crashed into it.

  As if he had just poked the hornet’s nest, the wolves reacted instantly, swarming toward him in a ferocious onslaught. Wind wolves had the innate ability to lash out with blades of wind, and in the blink of an eye, hundreds of criss-crossing wind blades slashed at the earth wall. Most of the wolves, however, focused on Tang Wulin, and although he wasn’t protected by the first earth wall, another sprang up to defend him from the slicing winds. He thrust his hands into that giant wall and hoisted it into the air, using it like a shield against the onslaught of attacks.

  All of the wind wolves pounced at Tang Wulin at the same time, but his second soul ring lit up. Spears of bluesilver grass skewered the closest ones mid-air. Many of the wolves were impaled through their stomachs by the grass spears, and all of them went rigid upon getting struck. At the same time, an icy light burst from the center of the earth wall, shooting three meters into the air and exploded into a storm of countless jagged icicles.

  A baptism of ice rained down upon the wind wolves, every single icicle aimed at their eyes.

  Death came for the wolves, raining from above and piercing up from below. Tang Wulin’s Bluesilver Impaling Array stabbed them from the ground and Gu Yue’s icicles speared them from the sky.

  Everyone knew that wolf-type soul beasts had bones as hard as metal, but their bellies were as soft as tofu. As a result, most soul masters took advantage of that. However, be it the lowliest soul beast or a tyrannical overlord, the eyes were always a weak point. If the icicles were just an inch off target, they would harmlessly shatter against the hard skulls of the wolves. However, they struck the eyes with keen accuracy.

  The grass spears swiftly withdrew and the earth wall collapsed. When Yue Zhengyu and Yuanen Yehui stepped out from the rubble, they only saw was a sea of corpses. The sight stunned them. Not a single wolf had survived.

  They understood how amazing such a feat was. After they were enclosed in the earth wall, Tang Wulin displayed powerful crowd control abilities and restrained all of the wolves. But that wasn’t what amazed them. The truly amazing person was Gu Yue, who had masterfully directed hundreds of icicles to pierce through the eyes of all the wolves! Not a single wolf didn’t have an icicle sprouting from their eye sockets. They couldn’t even begin to fathom just how much spiritual power she possessed. Even Tang Wulin, as familiar as he was with Gu Yue, turned to look at her in surprise. Her spiritual power had definitely progressed by leaps and bounds once again. There was no way she would be able to control each and every icicle so precisely otherwise. Tang Wulin had thought that he and Xie Xie would need to clean up the stragglers.

  But Gu Yue proved him wrong.