Chapter 27: The Second Ring, Three Green Sparrows
Chirp——
The three-colored auspicious feathers fluttered in the wind as a raptor rapidly flapped its wings, and the wild wind scattered the trees in chaos.
The bird looked strange, its feathers transitioning from white to green. Three long necks sprouted three heads, resembling the mythical King Ghidorah.
Its expression seemed to show panic, as if it were desperately fleeing.
At that moment, a black dot appeared on the horizon, like a rainbow slicing through the sky.
An amber-gold bone arrow, trailing a long flame tail, was speeding toward the bird at lightning speed. Its sharp edge created a tearing sound as it cut through the air.
Clearly, someone was hunting the Three-Beast Green Sparrow.
Clang——
Just as the arrow was about to hit, the Three-Beast Green Sparrow's wings suddenly flapped, creating a strange air current around it.
The dark-gold bone arrow, which could break through the defense of a ten-thousand-year soul beast, was unexpectedly deflected, missing its target.
Whoosh, another arrow followed, and the same thing happened—it was deflected again.
It felt as though the heavens were playing a joke—just when the arrow seemed to hit, it ended up missing.
"…It flies so fast, and with interfering air currents… Wind attribute soul beasts are truly amazing!"
Su Ye didn't dare waste time and quickly dove down to retrieve the dark-gold bone arrow.
This arrow was made from the bones of the Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear, and he had crafted dozens of arrows, but there were only three left.
Each one was extremely sharp, capable of easily breaking through the defense of ten-thousand-year soul beasts, but it was useless against the Three-Beast Green Sparrow.
This ten-thousand-year soul beast caused such a disturbance in the air that it could throw the arrows off course and greatly reduce their speed.
"Fly, keep flying!"
"If you're wounded, I don't believe you can outrun me!"
Su Ye gritted his teeth, closely following the Three-Beast Green Sparrow. It was the most valuable ten-thousand-year wind attribute soul beast, which he had been searching for in the forest for a week.
No matter what, it had to be his second soul ring!!
Ahead, the Three-Beast Green Sparrow let out a low, despairing cry, seemingly expressing the cruelty of humans.
Upon closer inspection, two bloody holes had opened in its chest, and its feathers were stained with blood.
As a ten-thousand-year soul beast, it had expected that its massive size and imposing pressure would easily overpower the human.
But it never anticipated that as it dove, a golden phoenix would burst out from the human's body, and one claw broke through all its wind defenses.
Realizing the vast physical gap, the Three-Beast Green Sparrow turned to flee, but this human refused to give up.
It was too much...!
Chirp——
As time passed, its strength began to wane, and the Three-Beast Green Sparrow's three heads screamed in agony as two enormous phantom birds detached from its body, flying backward toward Su Ye.
The two birds resembled the Three-Beast Green Sparrow, but each had only one head.
One was entirely green, and the other entirely white, while the main body of the Green Sparrow only retained a single head.
It seemed that the previous three-headed form was the result of the merging of these three entities.
This was why Su Ye valued the Three-Beast Green Sparrow so much—it could split into three, and its strength wouldn't significantly decrease in a short time.
As long as one managed to escape, the other heads would grow back after recovery.
Wind attribute! Speed! Clones!
"Did you think you could escape just by using your innate skills?"
"How naïve!!"
In a cold sneer, Su Ye's black soul ring shone brightly, and his soul power surged like a tidal wave.
A burst of fire erupted, and a strange hot wind rapidly spread, covering a hundred-meter radius. A fiery phoenix, radiating intense heat, separated from the golden phoenix and rushed toward one of the green sparrow birds.
The attack was completed in an instant, and the movement was so fluid that it almost seemed unreal—it was hard to believe this was a soul skill.
Instant Release!!
Boom——!
The fiery phoenix slammed into the green sparrow, the sizzling flames exploding as the green sparrow let out a miserable scream.
Although the first soul ring was only a ten-thousand-year level, its actual power had far exceeded this limit after fusion.
Especially the fused flames—though not the ultimate fire, they were still powerful enough to obliterate.
What made it even worse was that the wind properties of the Green Sparrow enhanced the power of the Phoenix Flame.
Boom——!
With a violent explosion, the massive body of the green sparrow instantly burst apart.
The white bird tried to escape in fear, but the fiery phoenix chased it down, and a small mushroom cloud of flames erupted in the sky behind it.
At this, Su Ye's expression remained unchanged, his sharp gaze never leaving the main body of the Three-Beast Green Sparrow.
Was this an accident?
The Red Heaven Flowing Fire soul skill was already capable of terrifying destruction; killing the ten-thousand-year Three-Beast Green Sparrow was no problem.
That's right, Su Ye's soul power was only slightly over level thirty at the moment, so normally he wouldn't be able to activate a ten-thousand-year soul skill.
The last time… it was his first time using it, and it nearly cost him his life. Realizing the problem, how could he not take precautions?
So, he had already hunted two Fire Crystal Lizards and fused them into his soul rings.
The Fire Crystal Lizard is a soul beast covered in dark crystals, capable of absorbing light and heat energy to unleash powerful thermal impacts.
By fusing them into his soul ring, Su Ye could store solar energy and unleash the Red Heaven Flowing Fire skill.
As the chase continued, the Three-Beast Green Sparrow's speed slowed down due to its injuries.
Cornered by Su Ye, it let out a mournful cry and dashed deeper into the forest, seemingly trying to hide and escape in the dense trees.
"Sorry, I don't have time to play your game!"
Su Ye's eyes turned cold. After chasing for so long, he had lost all patience.
From his quiver, he drew an arrow fused with the Sacred Radiance Lion Emperor's bloodline.
To increase his speed, Su Ye would seek faster soul beasts, not this Three-Beast Green Sparrow.
This time, he only wanted the soul ring of the Three-Beast Green Sparrow.
With a whoosh, a straight line of fire shot through the air, and the forest erupted into towering flames with a deafening roar.
The sudden violent attack was completely unexpected by the Three-Beast Green Sparrow, which had been hiding in the forest.
Amidst the flames, a blood-red, heavily wounded firebird soared into the sky, trying to escape.
But before it could get far, the moment the fire and blood intertwined, a dark-gold arrow shot through the Green Sparrow's head, disappearing into the forest.
The Three-Beast Green Sparrow's pupils were dilated, its wings weakened and drooping, as if a phoenix were falling from the sky, silhouetted by flames, in a tragic and desolate manner.
The first soul ring beneath Su Ye's feet lit up, and the surrounding flames surged back, merging into the soul ring. The flames disappeared, revealing the scorched, flat ground.
Su Ye landed in front of the Three-Beast Green Sparrow. The wind around him was unpredictable, and the black soul ring in front of him was emitting fluctuating wind attribute energy, sometimes gentle, sometimes fierce.
"Now I have the wind attribute soul ring for splitting, next is to improve my speed and wind attribute power…"
"Hm, it would be best to find two more soul beasts that can amplify soul skill effects. Then, with six monster wind phoenixes combined…"
"With wind aiding the flames, the soul rings can interact with each other, and whether in combat or hunting soul beasts, the effect will be greater than the sum of the parts."
Cleverly keeping this to myself…
Su Ye was about to absorb the soul ring when suddenly, a golden puppy's fluffy round head popped out from the Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear's backpack, sniffing the air as the smell of roasted meat reached it.
Thud——
The short little legs thudded to the ground, and the puppy bounced back up, rolling a bit.
The golden pup happily wagged its tail and trotted over toward the body of the Three-Beast Green Sparrow, its gluttonous nature completely revealed.
"…."
(End of chapter)