Support me at patreon for 500+ advanced chapters :
patreon.com/YaoIk
**
The two forces collided, and the terrifying ripples of energy surged out like a violent storm. The fierce aftershock tore the surrounding space apart; it shattered into countless tiny fragments, revealing the pitch-black void within.
From a distance it looked like a black eye, rapidly growing larger. Because Lin Feng and the others were fighting inside a branch hall, in less than the blink of an eye the ripples from that explosion slammed into the walls built from black monoliths.
"Rumble!"
Under such a heavy blow the surrounding walls couldn't hold for even a millisecond; the thick, black stone simply exploded into innumerable fine dust particles. Those particles were swept up by the energy ripples and hurled toward the wall behind the first one!
In the blink of an eye the once-magnificent grand hall had become a lifeless ruin. Of course, kind-hearted Lin Feng couldn't bear to see the Hall of Souls Protectors and the soul bodies inside suffer.
During the previous energy shock he had deliberately used Dou Qi to protect the Hall of Souls Protectors inside the grand hall, and also to preserve that large hall where, from his perception, a great many soul bodies existed.
"Clatter—"
Before those Protectors could thank him, Lin Feng waved his palm. Countless invisible fire-chains shot out with a noisy rasp, piercing the illusory bodies of those Protectors.
"Return."
As Lin Feng spoke the word calmly, the fire-chains, as if they had eyes, all traced their path back.
"Heh, a hundred Dou Zong Protectors' souls—quite a nice haul."
Lin Feng glanced at the Hall of Souls Protectors he had pierced and smiled slightly. Then he skillfully took out a soul pouch and collected all the Protectors into it.
After that he slipped the soul pouch into his storage ring and turned his attention to the two branch hall masters lying on the ground. One of them lay completely exposed on the rubble; the other was buried under the debris with only a small section of one finger sticking out.
Lin Feng waved his palm and collected the exposed black-robed elder's corpse. As for the other man, he "accidentally" didn't see him. Full of anticipation, Lin Feng walked toward the room where, by his perception, a large number of soul bodies existed.
Since the rest of the grand hall had been destroyed, only that one room remained. Lin Feng didn't need to follow the original corridor; he flew low across the hall and landed at the entrance to that large chamber.
Facing the black door, Lin Feng reached out and smashed it to pieces with a single punch.
"Clang!"
Under the heavy blow the seemingly indestructible iron door burst open.
With the door collapsing, the scene beyond appeared in Lin Feng's vision. This soul-locking grand hall had a layout similar to the branch hall he had visited before; it was also roughly three times larger than the other rooms.
Inside the chamber dozens of towering black pillars, each carved with strange runes, rose toward the heavens. From the pillars extended pitch-black chains that crisscrossed through the air above the hall.
Attached to those chains were faintly glowing clusters of light. But when Lin Feng saw the light-clusters his hopeful expression quickly vanished, replaced by a flash of disappointment. There were far fewer souls here than he had imagined.
Compared with the branch hall in the Nether Demon Mountain Range, this place had less than half. At most, there were only about two hundred thousand souls here. There were no particularly powerful soul bodies kept separately.
"Why are there so few souls here? Could it be that after my raid and Xiao Yan's disruption, the Hall of Souls transported most of the soul bodies away?"
After thinking for a long while, Lin Feng rubbed his chin and muttered to himself.
At this moment he had no idea that the branch hall he previously plundered happened to be one of the Ninth Tian Zun's most important branch halls, which was why it contained such a massive number of souls.
The branch hall he had come to this time was merely one of the most ordinary Earth Halls in Central Plains, so naturally it was impossible for it to hold that many soul bodies.
As for why there were no powerful soul bodies at all, that was simply because the hall master and vice hall master here didn't have the strength to kill an eighth-tier alchemist and claim their soul.
"Forget it, having something is better than having nothing. I'll collect all the soul bodies here first."
After the moment of disappointment passed, Lin Feng helplessly shook his head and took out a new soul pouch.
He began sweeping up the defenseless soul bodies hanging from the chains as fast as he could. After spending some time collecting all the soul bodies inside the hall, Lin Feng immediately followed the chains toward their source.
Because the hall was now completely empty, Lin Feng quickly spotted a much thicker chain dangling straight down from high on the wall, its end piercing deep into the floor on one side of the hall.
Finding the end of the main chain, Lin Feng flashed forward and appeared before the thickest chain in the entire hall. He flicked his sleeve, creating a powerful gust of wind out of thin air. Like blades of wind, the sharp force flung the heavy black stone slabs and the dirt beneath them aside.
With his relentless excavation, a deep pit more than ten meters deep formed in the blink of an eye. Inside the pit floated a pale yellow light-cluster about ten centimeters in size.
"Sigh… it really is a poor hall. Even the Soul Origin it stores is much smaller than the one in the Nether Demon Mountain Range branch hall."
Looking at this faint yellow orb that was only half the size of the one he had obtained previously, Lin Feng sighed with disappointment.
Before coming here he thought this branch hall would contain roughly the same amount of soul bodies as the last one.
He did not expect the harvest to be less than half of what he imagined.
"Forget it. Being able to get this much is already good enough. If Xiao Yan hadn't created that perfect opportunity for me, I might not have gotten even a single soul body."
Thinking of the soul bodies he collected previously, plus this Soul Origin, he now had over three hundred thousand souls in total. And with more than a hundred Hall of Souls Protectors added to that, Lin Feng found himself blaming his own greed.
With that thought, he gently curled his fingers.
"Whoosh—"
The faint yellow orb floated up from the pit and landed in his palm.
He then took out a large jade box, placed the orb inside, closed the lid, and stored it back into his ring. After finishing all that, Lin Feng lightly leapt and shot into the air, rising straight to a height of a hundred meters.
He stretched out his hand and waved lightly toward the last intact soul-locking hall below.
"Rumble!"
A surge of tremendous force blasted downward, instantly destroying the final surviving building as well.
Seeing this, Lin Feng nodded with satisfaction. If he didn't erase all traces of himself taking the souls, the Hall of Souls would definitely notice something was wrong. With that, he turned and shot at full speed toward the Eastern Region.
**
Support me at patreon for 500+ advanced chapters :
patreon.com/YaoIk