#137 - Soul Hunter

Beneath the fiery sunset, the palace stood with its doors wide open.

There were signs of entry; messy footprints marred the dust-covered floor.

"Someone entered the palace before us!" Jun Wuxie said to Yan Qingcheng with a grave expression, "Right now, the situation inside is still unknown, so you can't cause any more trouble!"

Yan Qingcheng couldn't help but grind her teeth at his words.

She really wanted to hit this little rascal.

What did he take her for?

Was she the kind of girl who didn't know her limits, didn't understand the situation, and didn't know what was important?

Her primary goal for coming to the Nanshan Mystic Realm had not yet been achieved.

What she was looking for was very likely inside this palace.

This might be the most crucial place in the entire mystic realm world!

"No one will think you're mute if you don't speak!"

Yan Qingcheng glared at him coldly.

Jun Wuxie paid her no mind, proceeding deeper along the bluestone corridor, where he saw many corpses along the way.

"These skeletons seem to belong to the same force…"

Jun Wuxie examined the bones in the corridor. Some had fallen in the middle of the corridor, some leaned against the sides, and some were pinned to the corridor walls by decaying battle spears.

They all had a common characteristic.

Each skeleton tightly gripped a long-handled scythe in their hands.

Even after countless years of death, the bones had decayed beyond recognition, but their finger bones still firmly grasped the weapon.

Beside each of these corpses was a shattered bottle.

The bottles were ink-black, broken into pieces, and faint black runes could be seen on the fragments.

"Yan Qingcheng, can you sense a trace of tragic aura from these bottle fragments?"

Jun Wuxie frowned, a strange sense of dread rising within him.

The fragments of these bottles seemed to indicate that they were originally something terrifying.

"What's wrong?"

He saw that Yan Qingcheng's expression was somewhat unpleasant, her gaze fixed on the corpses and shattered bottle pieces, a deep sense of fear seeming to lurk in her purple eyes.

Yan Qingcheng did not respond, her eyes fixed on the corpses and shattered bottles.

Jun Wuxie felt deeply puzzled.

What hadn't a person like Yan Qingcheng seen before?

Yet now she was so out of sorts?

He picked up a fragment of the bottle and handed it to Yan Qingcheng, saying, "Do you recognize this thing? What exactly is it?"

Yan Qingcheng seemed to snap back to reality, her gaze shifting from the corpses. When she saw the bottle fragment that Jun Wuxie handed to her, her expression changed drastically. Almost reflexively, she waved her hand and sent the fragment flying.

She stumbled back several steps, her face pale, her delicate body trembling.

Jun Wuxie was taken aback, seeing goosebumps rapidly rising on her skin, her purple eyes filled with horror.

She retreated to the corner of the wall, squatted down, hugged her chest with both arms, her whole body shaking.

"Yan Qingcheng?"

Jun Wuxie hadn't expected her to react this way.

What was this thing that could terrify someone like Yan Qingcheng to such an extent?

"Don't be afraid, they've already become corpses, and those bottles are all shattered, they won't pose any threat!"

Jun Wuxie stepped forward and grabbed her shoulders, comforting her.

Yan Qingcheng burrowed into his arms like a frightened bird finding a safe haven.

Her body trembled violently.

"It's okay, it's okay…"

Jun Wuxie gently patted her back, maintaining a calm facade, but the impact on his heart was exceptionally strong.

He realized that the origins of these corpses and the shattered bottles must be connected to something terrifying.

The terror of this thing might be beyond imagination!

Otherwise, how could it make someone like Yan Qingcheng so terrified that she was on the verge of mental collapse?

Yan Qingcheng held him very tightly, squeezing him until he could hardly breathe.

But he didn't struggle, simply giving her the warmth and the sense of security she craved.

Her body continued to tremble.

It wasn't until a full half hour had passed that she gradually calmed down.

"You…"

Yan Qingcheng calmed down and realized that she was actually hiding in Jun Wuxie's arms, hugging him tightly.

A wave of shame and indignation washed over her, angry at herself for being so out of control.

She pushed him away abruptly, leaving Jun Wuxie's embrace.

Caught off guard, Jun Wuxie landed on his butt on the ground, looking at her speechlessly and saying, "Why do you always do things like kicking away the ladder after crossing the river?"

"You little rascal! You take advantage and then act innocent!"

She gritted her teeth in hatred.

Jun Wuxie didn't mind, saying, "Tell me, what exactly is going on?"

"It's related to an experience from my childhood. I don't want to mention the unbearable past…" She shook her head, her face somewhat pale, then said, "I can only tell you that these corpses come from a very terrifying organization. They call themselves Soul Hunters, that weapon is called the Soul Hunting Scythe, and the shattered bottle is called the Soul Hunting Bottle!"

"Soul Hunters, an organization?"

Jun Wuxie was shocked, finding it hard to believe.

Yan Qingcheng was someone who dared to make the quasi-Sovereign-level Xiao Clan give her face.

It could be imagined that the power behind her was very likely at the Sovereign level!

Sovereign level, as the name suggests, dominates one side and is one of the overlords of the world.

Such an existence was actually so afraid of the organization behind the Soul Hunters.

"Can't the power behind you deal with the Soul Hunters?"

"No!" Yan Qingcheng said very certainly, "The organization behind the Soul Hunters is extremely mysterious. No one knows where their headquarters are. Only the Soul Hunters walk the world. We have studied them. Throughout history, their figures have appeared in the long river of time, existing solely to hunt ancient bloodlines and seize their souls…"

Jun Wuxie's eyes turned cold: "An organization that specializes in hunting down those with ancient bloodlines? What exactly do they want to do?"

"No one knows their true purpose for hunting ancient bloodlines. According to limited records in ancient books, they have been hunting ancient bloodlines for several eras without stopping. Twenty years ago, I unfortunately encountered them…"

"Are the Soul Hunters strong?" Jun Wuxie looked at the skeletons in the corridor. Some were nailed to the wall, some were lying on the ground, or leaning against the wall. There were holes in the bones of some parts of their bodies, as if they had been pierced by battle spears.

"Strong beyond your imagination, and numerous." Yan Qingcheng said, "According to the information we have, there are six levels of Soul Hunters: Low, Initial, Intermediate, Advanced, Special, and Super. Each level of Soul Hunter corresponds to different realms and different levels of talent growth. The higher the level, the higher the realm and talent."

"The ones I encountered back then were just the lowest-level Low Soul Hunters. Even those lowest-level Soul Hunters all had genius-level talent growth!"

She looked at the skeletons here and said, "It seems that these Soul Hunters must have come here to pursue the disciples or someone of the mystic realm's master and were killed by the master of the mystic realm. Otherwise, if the hunting target was the master of the mystic realm, the one who came would definitely be a Super Soul Hunter, capable of hunting Saint Sect realm peerless experts!"

"Soul Hunters…"

Jun Wuxie felt a deep sense of crisis.

This kind of organization exists solely to hunt ancient bloodlines.

Then, have I already been targeted by them?

Even if I haven't been targeted yet, I will inevitably be targeted in the future!

He will become a target of the Soul Hunters!