Even from afar, Ray could clearly discern the towering silhouette of the Blazing Demon Lion King. Its massive frame blazed like a living furnace as it rampaged through the battlefield, locked in combat with a group of seven soul masters.

Ray lifted his hand, signaling his teammates to stop. His purple soul ring flickered briefly, its glow suppressed to the faintest shimmer as he shot a strand of Silverfalls Vine toward a thick tree branch. With a smooth pull, he vaulted upward and perched among the leaves.

The soul ring vanished as quickly as it had appeared. Purple light glimmered in his eyes as the Purple Demon Eyes activated.

From this elevated vantage point, the battlefield unfolded with startling clarity. Everything within two hundred meters lay exposed beneath his gaze, the clash below rendered sharp and vivid.

One Blazing Demon Lion already lay motionless on the scorched earth, its life extinguished. The rest of the pride, however, attacked in a furious frenzy, their roars shaking the air.

Spirit energy surged and collided as the soul masters fought back, their strength unmistakable.

Ray rapidly assessed the situation. All seven were three-ring Soul Elders, and two of them bore purple soul rings. Judging by their physiques and bearing, they were around twenty years old. This was clearly a team that had come prepared to hunt the Blazing Demon Lion King.

Including the fallen one, the pride numbered sixteen lions.

At the center stood their ruler.

The Blazing Demon Lion King radiated tyrannical dominance. Even standing still, it seemed to bend the battlefield around itself.

Ray drew in a sharp breath.

He had suspected that this pride might hide multiple thousand-year beasts. Seeing it with his own eyes, however, drove the point home with merciless clarity.

Among the remaining fifteen Blazing Demon Lions, four were at the thousand-year level. Three lionesses, and the king itself. Worse still, the king's colossal size suggested that it was no ordinary thousand-year soul beast.

If its cultivation exceeded three thousand years…

Then this pride was nothing short of a roaming catastrophe.

Ray gestured subtly, signaling his teammates to stay patient and avoid acting rashly.

If this were a true battlefield, saving the other team would be the obvious choice. But this was the spirit ascension platform. Death carried no finality here. What mattered was spirit energy and survival.

So Ray waited.

His judgment proved sound.

The seven soul masters had clearly underestimated their prey.

Under the relentless assault of the lions, casualties mounted one after another.

Blazing Demon Lions were terrifyingly versatile. Whether at close range or from afar, they were deadly. Flames wrapped around their muscular bodies like living armor. The only way to distinguish their cultivation was by the color of their fire. Hundred-year lions burned bright red. Thousand-year lions blazed with deep, molten yellow.

Four yellow-flamed figures dominated the battlefield.

After killing one of the pride, the soul masters had completely enraged the lions. The remaining beasts surrounded them tightly, cutting off all escape routes.

Still, the humans fought fiercely.

Even as they fell, they left their mark. Wounds crisscrossed the lions' bodies, blood and flame mingling as both sides collapsed one after another.

Yet the balance was unmistakable.

The humans were losing.

Ray remained motionless, calm as stone. Challenging a pride like this was playing with death, but now that this team had already bled the lions, an opening had formed.

Class zero could become the final hunter.

Scavengers, striking when both sides were exhausted.

Silently, Ray slipped down from the tree and leaned close to Raziel Phoenix, whispering a few swift instructions.

Raziel Phoenix grimaced as he listened, but in the end he nodded firmly and flashed a thumbs-up. In the next breath, his figure melted into the darkness, swallowed by the night.

By now, darkness had fully descended. The sky was moonless, and savage winds howled through the forest, carrying the scent of blood and fire.

Ray turned to Lily and Violetta, giving them quick instructions. Then he and Lily advanced together, their figures blending into the shadows as they skirted the edge of the battlefield.

Only three soul masters remained.

All were badly injured.

On the lion's side, two-thousand-year-old beasts were wounded, and four-hundred-year-old lions lay dead. The injuries were not fatal, but they had clearly sapped the pride's strength.

The leader of the surviving soul masters stood out immediately.

He was a towering youth, roughly twenty years old, with spiky yellow hair and a physique like carved stone. Under the influence of his martial soul, his muscles bulged as his body expanded to nearly two and a half meters tall.

In his hands, he wielded an enormous metal rod, over four meters long with a thickened tip. Dark lines ran along its surface. From Ray's blacksmith's eye, it was clearly hundred-refined metal. Given its size, it likely weighed over five hundred kilograms.

This youth was the linchpin of the team.

Though the rod was not his martial soul, he swung it like an extension of his body, yellow light flaring around him as he smashed and blocked with brutal force.

It was this overwhelming strength that had allowed the group to hold on for so long.

Earlier, he had crushed the skull of the first lion with a single blow. Since then, the remaining pride focused its fury almost entirely on him.

Beside him, a girl struggled to maintain shields of white light, blocking the lions' attacks. Her breathing was ragged, blood trailing from the corner of her mouth as the shields weakened visibly.

"Big brother," she cried, voice strained. "I can't hold on any longer!"

With a thunderous roar, the youth swept his rod in a wide arc, forcing three charging lions back. His voice came out hoarse. "Our luck's terrible this time. You all leave first. I'll take one or two with me."

The girl hesitated only a moment before slapping the escape button on her wrist. A flash of light swallowed her whole.

Pain within the spirit ascension platform was no illusion. No one wanted to be torn apart by lions.

Now only two remained.

The giant youth and a slender agility-type soul master.

Suddenly, the thousand-year Blazing Demon Lion King leapt forward.

The youth roared in response, yellow light exploding from his body as veins bulged across his arms. He raised the massive rod and swung with everything he had.

But the lion king was cunning.

The charge was a feint.

Midair, it twisted sharply, an impossible maneuver made possible only by the intervention of a thousand-year lioness. She crashed into the king's flank, redirecting his momentum completely.

Together, they slammed toward the agility-type soul master.

The shift was too sudden.

Crimson flames engulfed the youth instantly. He managed only to slap his escape button before vanishing in light.

In the blink of an eye, only the leader remained.

Despair flickered through his eyes as he braced himself for a final stand.

Then—

Blue vines erupted from the earth.

They burst upward in a dazzling cascade, binding the charging lions mid-stride.

Each vine was as thick as a child's arm, translucent and crystalline, faint light shimmering within.

The Blazing Demon Lions stiffened, their movements abruptly halted.

Opportunity screamed.

With a furious bellow, the giant youth surged forward, smashing the skull of a hundred-year lion. Blood and bone sprayed into the air.

He spun like a whirlwind, his rod slamming into the head of a wounded thousand-year lioness.

The lions answered with roaring infernos, flames devouring the vines. Yet the bindings released at the last moment, retreating before they could be reduced to ash.

The Blazing Demon Lion King snarled and lunged toward the youth—

Only to be locked in place by a single golden vine.

The other lions continued to struggle, but their combined strength could not match the king's raw might.

And then—

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