Asura Emperor Venerable-Chapter 797: Underhanded Tactics

The battle erupted in an instant.

These Restless Souls were incredibly powerful, most having reached the Supplement God Temple Level. Although there’s a huge gap between the Supplementing Divine Temple and the Great Sacrificial Heaven, when a certain number was reached, a qualitative change would occur.

Moreover, since Restless Souls were intangible, sometimes when you clearly saw one attacking, another would split from within its body, and even sometimes several more, enabling the Restless Souls to fully utilize their numerical advantage.

Fortunately, this squad was strong enough.

All possessed combat power at the level of Great Sacrificial Heaven, with several at the formidable Shuanghua level, which devastates the Restless Souls, allowing the squad not only to hold on but also to advance.

There was nothing to be gained here; the subterranean structure was of unknown depth, the treasures and legacies of the Ancient Dynastic Court presumably on its lowest level.

After immense efforts, they finally reached the second level.

As with the first, a vast plaza set with a conical platform surrounded by bones stretched out before them. As they entered, the Restless Souls sleeping there woke up as well, launching their attack.

And the Restless Souls from the first level followed suit, flanking them and forming a pincer.

This naturally made everyone’s situation even more difficult—who knew when the slaughter would end?

"Killing the enemy is secondary, advancing is what’s important," Xu Zhong said.

Everyone nodded, realizing that to eliminate so many Restless Souls would require a tremendous cost, one they could not afford.

So, they focused on breaking through.

The battle was immensely draining; although they had arranged a rotation for rest, if the intensity of the fight increased, probably no one could take a break.

Charge! Charge! Charge!

They reached the third level, which appeared exactly the same, except the sacrificial platform here was somewhat larger.

Indeed, the sacrificial platform on the second level was also a bit larger, but only marginally so, hence it hadn’t caught anyone’s attention.

Kan Haoming’s eyes were constantly on Shi Hao, filled with murderous intent.

He had been looking for an opportunity, but Shi Hao was very cautious, not providing any.

However, who can be vigilant every day?

Finally, Shi Hao showed a flaw.

Kan Haoming immediately made his move, appearing to strike at a Restless Soul; in reality, he sidestepped and slammed into Shi Hao.

As Shi Hao had already revealed a flaw, he naturally had no strength left to defend himself and was instantly knocked away.

"Oops!" he even pretended to exclaim.

At that moment, everyone had their own matters to attend to; who could spare a thought to rescue Shi Hao?

Thus, they could only watch helplessly as Shi Hao fell among the Restless Souls.

And the Restless Souls did not miss this opportunity, enveloping Shi Hao like a tide and quickly distancing him from his comrades.

There were still sounds of fighting initially, but soon, all went silent.

The group knew that Asura had certainly met his end.

Everyone frowned.

They had no relationship with Shi Hao, so, Shi Hao’s death did not affect them; however, it was known that Restless Souls could inhabit bodies, whether alive or dead.

The difference being, if the host was alive, the combat power exhibited would be greater.

Thus, Shi Hao’s death wasn’t the issue—the problem was his corpse being taken over by a Restless Soul, which would provide it with a physical form!

With a physical form, the Restless Souls could manipulate external restraints, thereby gaining their release and swarming out of the underground passage, potentially wreaking havoc on Qihe Star.

Once they thought about it, even the strongest Restless Soul was merely at the Ascending to Saint Position level, and that was a weakened version at that. Moreover, with the presence of powerful beings outside the ancient relic, they believed when a Restless Soul burst forth, it would be suddenly obliterated at most.

Yes, it would certainly be so.

Thinking this, everyone stopped dwelling on the matter, and no one even blamed Kan Haoming.

—Dead men have no value, and now Kan Haoming’s strength was needed; even if there was to be accountability, that would be a matter to be dealt with after getting out.

Kan Haoming dared to take ruthless action precisely because he understood this.

However, everyone felt somewhat sorrowful that Asura, who even Venerable Shuanghua had failed to kill, had died so pathetically, so unguarded.

What a pity, such a pity.

Meanwhile, in the distance, Shi Hao sneered.

He was in the Immortal Abode; the battle had suddenly ceased because he had entered the Immortal Abode, though it seemed as if he had suddenly died.

If anyone had pointed fingers at Kan Haoming, he would have remembered them in his heart and saved them at a critical moment.

But now?

Shi Hao shook his head; he never harmed others on his own initiative, but one should not expect him to repay evil with goodwill.

Kan Haoming and the others continued to move forward, heading towards the fourth level.

After a while, Shi Hao emerged from the Immortal Abode, and immediately, a mass of Restless Souls attacked him.

Boom!

Shi Hao stimulated his physique, surging with rolling yang energy, as if a great furnace, exemplifying Utmost Firmness.

"Screech!" The Restless Souls gave off soul-level shrieks, yet each of them melted away rapidly like snowflakes splashed with hot soup.

Shi Hao just kept walking, treading as though on flat ground.

Here, no one dared to extend their domain.

Because the attacks of Restless Souls targeted the soul directly, if one opened their domain, they would be gnawed away by the Restless Souls, which subsisted on devouring souls—it was akin to delivering food to others.

Unless one’s strength was overwhelmingly crushing, then anyone trying to gnaw at you would be on a path to their own death.

Shi Hao was not careless; he slowly approached and was taken aback to find that Kan Haoming and his party had been split into three squads by the impact.

Continuously segmented by the Restless Souls, the three squads could never regroup and could only fight individually as they moved forward.

Even sticking together was extremely arduous, let alone being split apart; each of the three groups faced considerable attrition, though there were no deaths at the moment.

Upon reaching the fifth level, one of the squads could hold out no longer. They ceased to advance and started to retreat.

Kan Haoming was in that squad.

Like a collapsing army, the squad had lost its fighting spirit. After several impacts from the Restless Souls, the squad was completely scattered.

Each person fought on their own, and the situation grew worse and worse, with likely casualties soon—it made no difference from being dead if one was alive but possessed by another.

Kan Haoming played his trump cards, not willing to die and thus using the methods he would typically reserve for competing for the ancient dynastic court heritage.

Shi Hao watched, nodding to himself. The foundation of a disciple from a ten-star force was indeed considerable; Kan Haoming had already used several Talismanic Soldiers, all possessing the power of the fourth sacrifice level.

These could not kill Shi Hao, but they were enough to injure him, or at the very least, force out his Nine Lotus Sky-Sealing Technique.

However, even the richest endowment is eventually depleted.

Kan Haoming fell into despair as his last resort was exhausted.