The moment he stepped out of the tent, Tang San saw Dai Mubai sprinting toward them from not far away. Behind him, a pillar of fire erupted skyward, nearly scorching his back. Dai Mubai vaulted back over the camp boundary with a fish leap, and rather than a trace of panic on his face, there was nothing but elation.
"A suitable one's delivered itself right to our doorstep. Xiao San, your herbs don't seem to have much effect on it. It's at least a four-thousand-year Soul Beast."
Before Dai Mubai had even finished speaking, Tang San had already laid eyes on the creature he was talking about.
It was an enormous scorpion, its body no smaller than the Man-Faced Demon Spider Tang San had killed before—in fact, it was even larger. What was peculiar was that this massive scorpion was entirely snow-white, its joints exuding a fierce killing intent. Its pale body hugged the ground as it glided along, moving with astonishing speed. A tail formed from nine segments of tailbone was raised high, crowned by a fiery-red barb.
The moment Tang San spotted it, a column of flame shot from that very tail, hurtling straight toward Dai Mubai.
"Hah." Dai Mubai barked out a breath. "You think I'm scared of you?"
The White Tiger Martial Soul possessed his body in an instant. Two yellow, two purple—four Soul Rings materialized around him simultaneously. In the state of Martial Soul Possession, his frame grew even more imposing than before. He brought his palms together before his chest, and the first Soul Ring skill—White Tiger Protective Barrier—activated.
A deafening boom erupted as flames scattered in every direction before Dai Mubai. His body staggered back three full steps before he managed to steady himself.
By now, Tang San had identified the species of this Soul Beast. From its appearance, he could be certain—it was an Earth King, a fire-attribute Soul Beast.
The scorpion known as the Earth King was extraordinarily domineering and bloodthirsty by nature. Although it didn't command the same terror among Soul Beasts that the Man-Faced Demon Spider's lethal poison did, few Soul Beasts of equal rank dared provoke it. It was absolutely a top-tier fire-type Soul Beast. The nine segments of its tailbone alone told Tang San that this Earth King's cultivation was around forty-five hundred years, since its tailbone grew by one segment for every five hundred years of cultivation.
Earth Kings came in three colors. A red Earth King indicated cultivation below one thousand years, with each tailbone segment equivalent to fifty years of cultivation. Once its cultivation reached one thousand years, its massive body would return to a more modest form, shrinking back down, but its color would shift from red to white. It would not change color again until its cultivation evolved to the ten-thousand-year level, at which point it would turn deep blue.
From the color and the number of tail segments, Tang San instantly and accurately gauged its strength. Yes—this Soul Beast was exactly what they needed for their current level of forty-rank Soul Power.
Just as Tang San prepared to act in coordination with Dai Mubai, and the other Shrek Seven Devils began emerging from their tents, a figure suddenly burst from a nearby tent. It was Liu Erlong, her hair in disarray.
Her clothes were still somewhat rumpled, but she looked half-mad as she charged out. The instant she spotted the forty-plus-year Earth King, she let out a piercing shriek and hurtled straight at it. Her movements were incredibly fast, and the explosive force of her aura left Dai Mubai, Tang San, and the others stunned. With their attention fixated on Liu Erlong, they didn't even notice the sorry sight of Zhao Wuji being kicked out of a tent by Flandre.
"You dare ruin my good time? I'll fight you to the death!" Liu Erlong cursed furiously as she unleashed her Martial Soul—the Fire Dragon—without a moment's hesitation and charged in.
The Earth King was simply unfortunate. With its level of cultivation, it might have had a chance to flee against Tang San and the others, but it had appeared at precisely the wrong moment. Having thoroughly enraged Liu Erlong, it no longer had any chance at all.
Seeing a human lunging at it, the Earth King's first instinct was to spew fire from its barb—just as it had attacked Dai Mubai moments ago, a column of flame blasted toward Liu Erlong's chest.
But Liu Erlong was no Dai Mubai. She didn't even bother to dodge. Flames erupted across her entire body, and in the next instant, Tang San and the others watched clearly as the firelight around Liu Erlong blazed violently. Her seventh Soul Ring flared brilliantly, all her clothes vanished in a heartbeat, her skin became covered in scales, and a terrifying dragon's roar echoed through the air.
Tang San stared blankly. "It's just a thousand-year Soul Beast—surely Teacher Erlong doesn't need to unleash her seventh Soul Skill, the Crimson Dragon True Body? Isn't the whole point that we handle the Soul Beasts ourselves? Why is Teacher Erlong jumping in?"
Dai Mubai's heterochromatic eyes were equally glazed over. "I always thought a tigress was the most fearsome thing in the world. Now I know—a dragoness is even more terrifying than a tigress."
"Dai Mubai, who exactly is this tigress you're talking about?"