Lu Wei had just used earth fire to drive back a soul.

She didn’t use methods that attract large numbers of souls to increase battle efficiency, as she was a pill cultivator, not specializing in single combat.

Dodging a soul’s attack, she drew a slender and elegant sword, lightly brushing her fingertip along the blade, causing it to emit a red flame.

With a swift flourish of her sword, the soul was instantly turned to ash.

Lu Wei smiled, satisfied with her still-familiar sword techniques.

“With such a long time passed, the Scatter Soul Pill should have taken effect.”

Lu Wei formed a fire circle in the air with her sword technique to assist in the pill’s vaporization.

With her pure white hand, she took out a round brown pill and crushed it with meticulous, almost aesthetic precision.

The powder was baked by the earth fire, emitting a peculiar smell.

An unsettling scene occurred: the dozen or so remaining souls surrounding Lu Wei suddenly froze and then began to sink like quicksand, eventually being blown away by the wind as if they had never existed.

The scene of destruction didn’t move Lu Wei.

Instead, she nodded and summarized her experience: “About three Soul Dissolving Pills are needed each time. The efficiency is still not high enough.”

She looked ahead and murmured to herself, “For Qingqing, attracting a thousand at once would probably be no problem.”

“But I’m not too bad either…”

A white figure darted like lightning through the dense crowd of remaining souls.

Occasionally, the figure’s gloved fists sent some souls flying.

..

Qi Rong stopped and looked at his palms, nodding, “My usual speed has now surpassed my previous top speed. It seems this weakness in speed has been addressed.”

“Elder Song said if my devouring physique evolves into a Taotie, it can swallow everything. Does that mean I need to swallow these remaining souls to deal with them?”

Qi Rong shivered and rubbed his goosebumps, “If that’s the case, I’d rather use my fists.”

Suddenly clenching his fist tightly, his joints cracking from the force, Qi Rong’s eyes narrowed.

With lightning speed, he struck out, distorting and shaking the surrounding space momentarily.

The ground cracked and split open beneath the feet of hundreds of remaining souls.

Qi Rong’s punch tore through the ground, causing the fissure to widen and bury countless souls within.

The tall, clean-cut young man approached the pit, glanced in, clicked his tongue in satisfaction, and then gathered the rule power.

Feeling pleased, he even performed a set of punches in the air, making “Hoo-ha” sounds.

Remembering something, he looked around and relaxed again. “Hey, my sister’s not here. Why be so nervous? If she saw that, she’d definitely say I’m being childish again.”

“Childish? More like immature, tsk.”

Prideful Qi Rong rubbed his head and strode confidently towards the next gathering of remaining souls.

…

Qin Ruqing crouched on the ground, resting.

Her posture was far from graceful or elegant; it resembled an old man squatting in a field.

Since there were no onlookers and no need for pretense, Qin Ruqing was as relaxed as she could be.

She sighed in frustration, “I can only handle about a thousand at a time. The efficiency is still too low! It takes time to lure the enemies.”

“It would be great if those remaining souls would just come to me willingly…” She shook her head and smiled self-deprecatingly, “That’s just wishful thinking…”

A ball of thread-like rule power floated in her palm, the result of the recent harvest of over a thousand souls.

Qin Ruqing examined the threads, intending to store them, but then her actions paused and her gaze refocused.

Threads, rule power… How did she forcefully enhance her strength in the Hungry Ghost Path?

It seemed she had manipulated the rules in the Ruins City to brainwash herself, leveraging the environment to gain the ability to contend with the Beast Emperor’s resentment.

Such an ability to completely twist, shield human consciousness, and even turn some thoughts into reality was obviously beyond her grasp.

But the experience had still given her some insights.

Still, the same old story: reckless actions may lead to disaster at any time, but they can be incredibly useful.

The focus is on survival in extreme conditions.

Qin Ruqing muttered thoughtfully, “Last time I brainwashed myself, can I brainwash the residual souls this time? Of course, they don’t have brains, but they have the power of rules within them!”

“It’s not just any rules; it’s the most basic, elemental rules!”

“Perhaps I can use this power of rules to modify the rules within them…”

Qin Ruqing straightened up, thought for a moment, and made a hand seal.

She lightly brushed her eyes, causing a golden light to flash and her eyes to take on a bright green hue.

This was a skill she had mastered after coming out of the Hungry Ghost Path, concentrating the green energy of the Dao Physique in her eyes to see things that couldn’t be perceived with just the naked eye or spiritual sense.

Additionally, Qin Ruqing had learned to use the boiling of her blood to catalyze her Dao Physique, bringing it to a pseudo-advanced state, significantly improving her physical abilities and control over certain things.

Rules were one of those things.

When her Dao Physique was catalyzed to a certain level, her understanding of the rules deepened significantly.

At this moment, Qin Ruqing saw a completely different world through her glowing green eyes.

Her breath stopped momentarily in awe.

If she had previously seen a net-like world made of rule power in the Wasteland City, now this net had become a complete network.

The former was a fishing net full of holes; the latter was a complex digital network world.

“It’s on a completely different level…” Qin Ruqing murmured.

She intended to use her eyes to look in the direction of the previous map disturbance.

But her rational mind held her back.

Qin Ruqing had learned not to act recklessly after her experiences in the Sin City.

She had learned to value her life.

Last time, her eyes were harmed when she looked at a side mural.

Who knew what the Dao Physique eyes might reveal this time?

Qin Ruqing forced herself to restrain and shifted her focus to a nearby residual soul.

She could see a misty, ghostly blue aura in the soul’s brain.

“That should be the power of rules.”

“Let me try to alter it.”

Soon, Qin Ruqing’s eyes returned to normal.

She used her life fire to carefully draw an upright fire circle, then pointed to a nearby residual soul that was glaring at her.

She commanded authoritatively, “You, jump in!”

The residual soul hesitated for a moment, clearly not human in life.

It was missing an ear and looked dazed.

After being commanded, it hesitated for a while, then its calm demeanor suddenly turned fierce, and it galloped towards Qin Ruqing in an aggressive posture.

Qin Ruqing took a deep breath.

Her instincts told her to dodge, but she held herself back.

A low-level residual soul couldn’t inflict much damage, even if it collided with her.

She refused to believe that all the effort she’d put into this was for nothing!

While Qin Ruqing was mumbling, the beast-shaped residual soul continued its run, heading straight for her…

Just as she was about to act on her instincts, the residual soul suddenly leaped over her, touched the ground, and jumped… into the fire circle she had drawn.

It was a graceful and decisive action.

With a whoosh.

There’s an ancient saying about moths to a flame; today it was souls leaping into the fire.

Qin Ruqing stared blankly at the rule power she had just obtained, letting out a laugh.

No way, she just tried it, and it actually worked?!