Chương 477: Chapter 477: Flustered and Exasperated

"Those two old fools thought they could show off their spatial manipulation skills in front of me. They dug their own graves," Zi Yan said as she tossed the two corpses disdainfully, leaving them floating in the air.

Xiao Ming smiled faintly at this. Zi Yan was currently at the intermediate four-star Dou Saint stage, which was already higher than these two Dou Saints. Moreover, with her spatial manipulation skills, it was rather foolish for those two old guys to try to escape through the void in front of her.

He quickly collected the two corpses and signaled for Zi Yan to descend. After a quick inspection, he confirmed that their souls were shattered.

Inside the ruins of the Earth Hall, there was nothing left but broken walls and debris, resembling a desolate ghost town.

Where the main hall had once stood, there were numerous intertwined black chains with countless soul orbs dangling from their ends.

He had deliberately avoided this area when eliminating the members of the Hall of Souls earlier, leaving it relatively undisturbed.

As he looked at the countless withered soul orbs, Xiao Ming couldn't help but sigh softly. Although the entire continent operated on the principle of survival of the fittest, with few truly good-hearted individuals on the path of cultivation, the methods employed by the Hall of Souls were exceptionally ruthless, even among the wicked. Exploiting souls even after death showed a complete lack of humanity.

After this brief sigh, Xiao Ming lightly waved his hand and a terrifying surge of energy swept through the area, shattering the chains in an instant.

The souls within the orbs gradually opened their eyes, appearing weak and disoriented as they looked around. Eventually, waves of intensely joyful soul fluctuations began to emanate from them.

Though they couldn't pinpoint the exact moment of their release, they felt a sense of freedom they hadn't experienced in countless years.

How many years had they been imprisoned here? Sometimes even death had become a luxury they longed for...

"Go, all of you. Don't let the Hall of Souls capture you again," Xiao Ming said to the souls who were overcome with joy and excitement, tears welling up in their eyes.

Countless souls gathered in the sky, all kneeling before Xiao Ming after making a deep bow. Then they howled as they burst through the spatial barrier, racing towards the free world beyond.

Xiao Ming couldn't help but shake his head as he watched these souls flee the area. He then looked towards the center of the main hall where he felt the pure soul essence.

With a wave of his sleeve, a tremendous blast of energy sent the massive pillars, hundreds of meters high, flying away.

His foot landed on the ground, and as his white robe fluttered, a roaring sound filled the air. A thunderous surge of dark energy exploded, creating a deafening 'boom' and forming a massive crater several meters deep.

Inside the crater lay soul chains, and at the center of the pit was a high platform inscribed with eerie, lifelike runes. It resembled an altar, and on this altar was the cluster of soul essence Xiao Ming had sensed.

These soul chains were connected to the cluster of soul essence at one end and branched out at the other, each one connected to the souls that had just escaped to extract their soul essence.

Xiao Ming jumped into the pit, where he could sense that the remaining soul essences still held traces of lingering resentment. The amount of resentment here was greater than any other cluster of soul essence he had absorbed before.

This cluster of soul essence had clearly absorbed more souls.

"I have avenged you all. If any of you sense this, let go of your grudges and disperse," Xiao Ming's words were more than a formality. The slightest dissipation of their grudges would make it easier for him to absorb and refine the cluster of soul essence.

The cluster of soul essence began to emit a faint glow after his words landed. Eventually, a thin gray mist began to emanate from it, dissipating into the air.

Zi Yan glanced at the dissipating mist and felt an instinctive aversion to those malevolent thoughts.

"Xiao Ming, what is that thing?" She asked him, intrigued.

"That cluster of light is the essence of millions of souls gathered together. What just dissipated were the obsessions of those millions. These obsessions are like curses, designed to harm the person who absorbs their soul essence. Without being aware of it, even a Heaven Realm soul could lose their mind and possibly go insane and die if they absorbed them recklessly."

"That terrifying?" Zi Yan widened her large, watery eyes upon hearing this and took a few steps back.

The souls of magical beasts were quite weak, and even as the Dragon Emperor, her soul was no exception. She had no desire to absorb these obsessions and risk the stability of her soul.

"Hehe, there's nothing to be afraid of. These obsessions have mostly dissipated by now," Xiao Ming reassured her.

He then stepped forward, his white robe swaying as he reached out and gently touched the cluster of soul essence. After a wave of fluctuation, he collected it.

Everyone in this Earth Hall had been slaughtered. While many of the experts in the Hall of Souls were soul bodies that would disperse into the world upon death, there were still some with physical bodies. As a result, this space now appeared as a sea of flesh and bones, with a pungent smell of blood permeating the air.

Xiao Ming looked around calmly, his heart without a ripple. He had no sympathy for people as evil as the members of the Hall of Souls. This mindset had been forged during his experiences in the Black-Corner Region.

"Let's go," Xiao Ming said.

He didn't want to stay in this place filled with corpses. He gathered the cluster of soul essence and turned away, heading towards the mountain range. Zi Yan quickly caught up and grabbed his arm as she followed...

Half an hour after Xiao Ming and Zi Yan left the area, slight spatial fluctuations occurred near a mountain peak not far from the canyon.

A shadow shot out and eventually entered the ruins of the Earth Hall. When the shadow saw the excavated ruins, its face darkened and its eyes filled with fury.

"All the souls gathered by the Earth Hall in the last century have been snatched away. The Man Hall suffered a similar fate. Combined with the previous soul essence losses, we've lost almost half of the soul essence collected by our Hall of Souls in a century. If this information reaches the clan, even I will be severely punished! Damn it!"

That figure was Hun Mie Sheng. With a hint of greenish pallor on his face, he stared into the empty depths of the Earth Hall.

The Earth Hall and the Man Hall were vital branches of the Hall of Souls that contained powerful souls. The soul essence they collected was naturally powerful as well.

Because of their strong defenses, when the branch halls were attacked in the past, only the souls of the Disha Halls and those below were transferred.

Now, the soul essence of both the Earth Hall and the Man Hall were taken, and the trapped souls were released. Such losses were unbearable, even for the Hall of Souls.

"The Heavenly Court had become a great threat. Only by destroying the Heavenly Court can we recoup our losses. If I act alone, I will undoubtedly be stopped by that old ghost. It looks like I'll have to ask someone from our clan to intervene. Hmph! Xiao Ming, you better be ready..."

Hun Mie Sheng's figure disappeared into the world, but his eerie and malicious muttering lingered in the air for a long time.