You can tell just by looking at the shape.
If an ordinary ghost bat possesses the equivalent of three hundred remnant souls on average, then this king of ghost bats must possess more than three thousand souls.
It's not impossible for it to even reach four or five thousand; in any case, Zhou Ziwei simply cannot swallow it.
Therefore, in that short moment, Zhou Ziwei made a decision: he could only deal with this guy using Soul Roar.
This time, Zhou Ziwei didn't need to deal with too many targets; he only had one target—the Bat King. So he specially concentrated the soul power he spewed out, forming a unique death attack that directly locked onto the Bat King, who was rapidly approaching him.
No matter how fast the Bat King was, it couldn't keep up with the speed of soul power transmission. So when the Bat King was less than three meters away from Zhou Ziwei, the wave of the soul roar had already hit the huge Bat King. Instantly, the bat's body trembled violently, and its flying motion was immediately halted.
Zhou Ziwei had no confidence that he could defeat the Bat King with this one attack, so as soon as he let out a soul roar, he quickly turned around and rushed towards a low-lying area in the northwest at a speed almost comparable to that of a bat in flight.
After sprinting for more than ten meters, Zhou Ziwei, in the midst of his haste, mobilized a wisp of his soul power to probe behind him. He discovered that his powerful soul roar did not seem to have caused much damage to the Bat King. The huge figure only paused in the air for a second or two before moving again, still rushing towards Zhou Ziwei's back at high speed.
However, the Bat King was still somewhat affected. After taking flight again, its speed was slightly slower than before. Now, it was even slower than Zhou Ziwei's running speed. Therefore, the distance between Zhou Ziwei and the Bat King did not close due to the Bat King's pursuit, but instead slowly increased.
However, Zhou Ziwei felt no excitement at this moment, because the valley was full of ghost bats that had come after hearing the news. Even though the direction Zhou Ziwei fled in was relatively remote, four ghost bats still came from that direction.
At that moment, it pounced right in front of Zhou Ziwei, forming a pincer attack with the Bat King behind him.
Although these four ghost bats were only of average size, not even a tenth the size of the ghost bat behind him, Zhou Ziwei's Niu-style Tai Chi Chuan could easily handle them. However, Zhou Ziwei dared not waste even a second, so continuing the fight was not an option.
Absorbing their souls with the Six-Syllable Mantra is also not an option, because the Bat King behind him is also within Zhou Ziwei's sixty-meter range. Once Zhou Ziwei starts chanting the Six-Syllable Mantra, those halos will not care about front, back, left, or right; any soul within their range will be devoured in one gulp.
Left with no other choice, Zhou Ziwei prepared to use Soul Roar again for a ranged attack. Although Soul Roar was not very effective against the Bat King, it should be quite useful against the four ordinary ghost bats. Even if it couldn't shatter the souls of the four ghost bats in one fell swoop, it was still possible to stun them for a while.
But just as Zhou Ziwei had gathered a ball of soul power and was about to launch the Soul Roar attack, he suddenly felt a chilling sense of crisis coming from behind him.
Zhou Ziwei was startled. In his busy schedule, he turned around and saw the Bat King, which was about 30 meters behind him, flapping its wings and opening its enormous mouth.
Zhou Ziwei certainly didn't think this guy wanted to spit anywhere unhygienic. His soul roar was learned from the ghost bat, and this peculiar technique of using soul power was likely a unique skill invented by the ghost bat king in front of him. So it was only natural that the bat king would use this unique skill when he couldn't catch up with the enemy.
Zhou Ziwei's soul roar was learned from ordinary ghost bats. The Bat King, who created this unique skill, must have held back some of it when teaching it to many ghost bats. So how powerful would its soul roar be?
Zhou Ziwei dared not simply endure the power of the opponent's soul roar. In his haste, without a moment to think, he immediately unleashed the ball of soul power he had just gathered directly at the Bat King behind him...
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 175: The Cross-Shaped Dart Displays its Divine Power
"Boom—" A silent roar that could only be heard by the soul exploded in mid-air. Two balls of sound wave-like energy formed by soul power collided violently between Zhou Ziwei and the bat, creating an impact force that resembled an explosion.
It spread out in a wavy pattern in all directions.
The dozen or so ghost bats that were chasing after them from the left and right sides were swept by the spreading ripples because they were close enough. They all let out a scream at the same time, then fluttered around for a few moments before falling to the ground in a crooked and unsteady manner.
Zhou Ziwei was also attacked by this ripple, but because he was one of the instigators of this soul power explosion, and he himself had more than a thousand soul power reserves in his sea of souls, the impact was not great. He was only slightly dizzy for a moment, and then quickly recovered.
Then Zhou Ziwei turned around, took long strides, and, enduring the waves of pain amplified dozens of times by the recoil from the soles of his feet, quickly continued running towards the low-lying area.
From the clash of soul roars just now, it can be seen that Zhou Ziwei and the Bat King were evenly matched. However, Zhou Ziwei did not believe that the power of his soul roar could really defeat the Bat King, after all, he had already attacked the Bat King once with a soul roar unexpectedly.
Although the Bat King appeared outwardly unaffected, his soul had undoubtedly suffered some damage.
If the opponent's soul roar is so powerful under these circumstances, then what level of power would the Bat King's soul roar reach in his prime?
As he ran, Zhou Ziwei quickly pondered these things in his mind, while also gathering his soul power again, preparing to unleash another soul roar to deal with the four ghost bats flying towards him.
However, he soon discovered that after the release just now, although there was still more than a thousand remnant soul energy in his sea of souls, it was extremely difficult to mobilize it and it was hard to gather it together again for the release of the soul roar.
Damn it!
Zhou Ziwei muttered to himself, but he wasn't worried that this special skill would become unusable. He guessed that this was just a consequence of him mobilizing too much soul power too frequently. It was similar to the amount of special skills used in games. Every time you used it, there was a cooldown period before you could use it again as usual.
Zhou Ziwei had never used such a powerful move, which was like burning money and wasting soul power, before, so he didn't know that there was a cooldown time for using Soul Roar.
However, Zhou Ziwei had no time to consider these things now, because as he ran quickly, and the four ghost bats were also flying towards him at top speed, the two sides quickly closed to within 20 meters of each other.
The four ghost bats clearly had excellent coordination; almost at the same moment, they suddenly paused in mid-air and then opened their mouths simultaneously.
Damn it, you're coming again...
Having dealt with the ghost bats several times, Zhou Ziwei knew exactly what they wanted to do. In fact, he wasn't afraid of their melee combat abilities; what he feared was their most proficient skill, which was also their only and most powerful soul roar.
Although the individual soul howls of these ordinary ghost bats are not very powerful, what is most troublesome is that they can cooperate very well and launch soul howls at the same time on the same target. In this way, the soul howls, which are weak individually, can be compensated for by their numbers.
After two soul roars, Zhou Ziwei's soul power reserves had already dropped back to the level before he entered the valley. If he were attacked by these ghost bats again, his soul power would inevitably drop even further.
However, that's not the main problem. What Zhou Ziwei fears most is being stunned for a moment by the soul roars of these ghost bats. If that happens, he'll probably be caught up by the Bat King behind him very quickly.
Zhou Ziwei can't use Soul Roar for the time being, and Niu-style Tai Chi... is also useless against the few ghost bats flying in the air. After all, no matter how powerful Zhou Ziwei is, he can't fly, so he can't hit the target flying five or six meters above his head.
Fortunately, at this critical moment, he finally remembered the twelve cross-shaped darts that he had asked Wu Di to order, and six of them were now tucked into his waistband...
Although Zhou Ziwei had never actually tested the power of these cross-shaped darts since he obtained them, he had no choice but to act now. He continued running forward at full speed while simultaneously reaching for his waist with both hands, and in an instant, four cross-shaped darts were in his hands.
As Zhou Ziwei drew out the four cross-shaped darts, four invisible streams of soul power swiftly flowed from his hands into the darts. In an instant, the four soul imprints already embedded in the darts were activated, reforming into four independent soul entities with vigorous vitality.
Zhou Ziwei was incredibly fast. He completed the above actions almost the instant the four ghost bats opened their mouths. Then, without even raising his head, he raised both hands and threw the four cross-shaped darts out one after the other.
With a "whoosh," four cross-shaped darts shot out of the hand at an astonishing speed, immediately producing a sharp whistling sound that sounded like a ghost's cry. Hearing this in the darkness of night gave one a chilling feeling.
The design of this cross-shaped dart is extremely reasonable. Although it was designed by the ancients, its appearance is strikingly similar to that of modern airplanes. Every movement of the dart is in accordance with the principles of aerodynamics, so when it is thrown by someone with a unique technique, the speed it generates in an instant is almost impossible to detect with the naked eye.
As for the sharp whistling sound, it was simply caused by the air holes unique to the cross wings of the cross-shaped dart due to the rapid friction of the air.
If Zhou Ziwei were to listen carefully to the whistling sound emitted by the cross-shaped dart, he would be surprised to find that although the whistling sound was a sound wave, its frequency was extremely similar to the frequency of the soul power fluctuation when the soul roared.
Therefore, the whistling sound of the cross-shaped dart is actually a form of attack. If one hears the whistling sound of the cross-shaped dart directly, it can easily cause a person to lose their senses for a short period of time.
The effect of this distraction is not obvious, unlike the soul roar which can directly cause strong damage to a person's soul. However, even if it can only slightly affect the enemy's mind and slow down their actions, then the sharp dart that follows will become a truly deadly and unpredictable event.
Zhou Ziwei didn't know if the whistling sound of the cross-shaped darts was very noticeable to ordinary people, but it was definitely a deadly weapon to these ghost bats.
Because bats are naturally designed with exceptionally developed hearing, their sensitivity to sound is similar to how Zhou Ziwei's limbs have been tripled in agility. This extraordinary hearing makes them particularly vulnerable to sound wave damage.
So when Zhou Ziwei's four cross-shaped darts flew out, the four ghost bats, which had already completed all preparations and were about to let out a soul roar, were suddenly stunned by the shriek, causing the soul roar that should have been let out to stop.
Fortunately, these ghost bats were all very powerful. Although their physiological structure made them particularly afraid of this kind of sonic damage, their powerful souls allowed them to easily neutralize the consequences of the sonic damage. Therefore, the dazed state only lasted for less than 0.1 seconds before they immediately regained their senses. However, through their radar-like sensory systems, they each sensed that a sharp object was piercing towards their vulnerable hearts at an astonishing speed.
It must be said that after these ghost bats' souls became accustomed to animal bodies and incorporated human intelligence, their reaction speed far exceeded that of ordinary humans or animals. Although the cross-shaped darts were about to hit the four ghost bats, they were still able to rapidly flap their wings and dodge in a small area at this critical moment. Even though they were all relatively large, they might not be able to dodge completely, but as long as the cross-shaped darts did not hit their vital organs, they would definitely survive with their strong survival ability.
However, the four ghost bats never expected that, just as they reacted and tried their best to dodge, the four cross-shaped darts that had flown not far from their bodies also adjusted their angle very slightly as they dodged.
So no matter which angle the four ghost bats dodged from, or how fast or slow they dodged, the final result was the same: each ghost bat was pierced deep into the center of its heart by a cross-shaped dart... and killed instantly.
No sooner said than done, almost at the same time the four cross-shaped darts pierced the hearts of the four ghost bats, Zhou Ziwei was also nearly upon reaching them. Seeing the four lifeless ghost bats swaying and falling from the sky, Zhou Ziwei, with a thought, connected with the four cross-shaped darts embedded in the bats' bodies. With a flick of his wrist, the four darts vibrated violently a few times and were forcibly pulled out of the ghost bats' bodies on their own. They then fell before the bats' corpses and were caught by Zhou Ziwei, who had just reached the bottom.
Zhou Ziwei narrowly escaped the four bat corpses that were about to crash down, continuing his frantic sprint toward his destination.
However, Zhou Ziwei almost forgot one thing: those ghost bats were not simple life forms. Although the ghost bats' bodies were dead, the evil souls parasitizing inside them could not be killed by ordinary physical damage such as cross darts.
The souls parasitizing those four ghost bats were extremely powerful, some even being "humans" who had died once before.
So even though they had lost their physical bodies, they didn't have the fragility and confusion that ordinary life forms have when their souls are reborn after death. Almost the instant they broke free from the bat's corpse, they frantically pounced on Zhou Ziwei again.
At this moment, they had completely transformed into pure souls. Without the constraints of a body, the mature souls moved at an astonishing speed. Although Zhou Ziwei was running as fast as lightning, he was still as slow as a snail compared to the speed of the souls' attack. In the blink of an eye, the four evil souls had pounced on Zhou Ziwei's body one after another. Then, in a peculiar trembling manner, they transformed into four rotating drills and rapidly drilled into Zhou Ziwei's body and disappeared.
Holy crap... these guys actually want to take over my body.
Zhou Ziwei was both annoyed and amused. He kept his speed unchanged, but as his thoughts raced, a large amount of soul power surged out of his sea of souls, rushing towards the four evil spirits that were running rampant in his body like the tide of the Qiantang River.
Although he is currently unable to mobilize a large amount of soul power to unleash the Soul Roar, he can still do it easily by simply letting the soul power flow within his body.
However, Zhou Ziwei's expression quickly changed several times, because he realized that no single evil spirit was as powerful as his soul, but the four of them together were almost equal to him in strength.
In order to prevent these four evil spirits from invading his sea of souls, he had to extend his soul power to the outside of the sea of souls to block their invasion. However, at the same time, he also had to leave enough soul power to guard the sea of souls. Otherwise, if he mobilized all his soul power, even the faintest soul roar from a ghost bat outside would be enough to cause his sea of souls to collapse immediately.
As a result, Zhou Ziwei could only spare half of his strength and had to deal with four evil spirits at the same time. He was immediately overwhelmed and began to retreat under the relentless pressure from the four evil spirits.
Seeing his soul power being greatly depleted in the fight against the four evil spirits, while the four evil spirits were slightly weakened due to his obstruction, they were still unstoppable. At this rate, it might not be long before his sea of souls was conquered by these four evil spirits. Zhou Ziwei's heart tightened, and cold sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.
This can't go on...
Although Zhou Ziwei felt that his soul had undergone a qualitative transformation after being frequently cleansed by the Six-Syllable Mantra, and should be very different from ordinary souls, even if these evil spirits really invaded his sea of souls, these evil spirits would definitely not come out on top. It was impossible for them to really control his body. In fact, they might even be directly purified as soon as they entered his sea of souls.
But these were just Zhou Ziwei's assumptions. Whether they were actually true or not was unverified and he dared not guarantee it. The Sea of Souls was like the heart of a soul, so how could he dare to actually let an evil spirit enter it?
If that's the case, what if his idea is wrong? Wouldn't he end up with his soul scattered?
However, if he continues to consume his soul power like this, the half he has given up will not be enough to cover the losses, and sooner or later these four evil spirits will invade his sea of souls.
Zhou Ziwei gritted his teeth and made a sudden decision: since it would be attacked sooner or later, it would be better to let only one or two evil spirits attack the Sea of Souls than four.
In that case, even if my previous idea was wrong and the evil spirits would not be purified once they entered the Sea of Souls, I could at least gather the soul power left in the Sea of Souls for a final blow.
Otherwise, if four evil spirits were to enter at the same time, then this would be truly disastrous.
Thinking of this, Zhou Ziwei immediately had a thought, and the soul power that had been blocking the four evil spirits from various parts of his body suddenly regrouped, bypassing the two evil spirits that were slightly behind, and then split into two streams, directly crashing into the two evil spirits that were charging at the front...
The feeling of concentrating a large amount of soul power into a sudden impact reminded Zhou Ziwei of the special soul skill, Soul Roar. Then, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he suddenly realized... Although he couldn't release a large amount of soul power like an explosion within his own body, he could condense his soul power into a thin beam and then imitate the unique vibration frequency of Soul Roar. Although this would be much slower than a real Soul Roar, once this concentrated beam of soul power pierced into his soul body, it might have some of the effect of Soul Roar, causing greater damage to evil spirits.
This is like using a shovel to slap a wall versus using an iron rod to pierce a wall. Even though the amount of iron used to make the shovel and the iron rod may be the same, and the force used to slap and pierce may be the same, it is easy to imagine that the effect of the shovel and the iron rod on the wall will be completely different.
Just now, Zhou Ziwei transformed his soul power into a raging torrent, attacking the four evil spirits from all directions, which was equivalent to hitting a wall with a shovel. Now, he condensed all his soul power into two streams and compressed them into two thin beams to concentrate on attacking the two evil spirits, which was equivalent to stabbing a wall with an iron rod. The effect was naturally different.
However, simply condensing his soul power into two beams wasn't enough. Without adding that unique vibrational frequency, his soul power wouldn't be able to penetrate the evil spirit's body directly, resulting in a head-on clash of attrition. But now, with the addition of the soul roar's unique vibrational frequency, the effect is quite different...
Volume 1, Rebirth of a Prodigy, Chapter 176: Bloodbath Against the Bat King
In a flash of inspiration, Zhou Ziwei, as if by divine intervention, directly transferred the powerful Soul Roar into his own body. The difference was that once the Soul Roar was released, although it was powerful and fast, it was like an arrow released from a bow, with no possibility of turning back.
Therefore, Zhou Ziwei would generally not consider using Soul Roar, a skill that consumes a lot of soul power, when facing a single enemy, simply because he could not control the amount of soul power he could output in a single attack; at most, he could only control the general range of the attack.
Therefore, using this soul roar on only one or two people would be an absolute waste.
However, this time, Zhou Ziwei used his soul power to attack the two evil spirits within his own body, but only employed the unique vibration frequency of the Soul Roar. Therefore, although this attack method did not have the terrifying power of the Soul Roar, the remaining soul power consumed would not disappear and would still be used by him. So for him, this skill was definitely a terrifying nightmare for those pure soul beings.
Almost instantly, the two evil spirits at the forefront of Zhou Ziwei's body were directly hit by the attack wave conjured by Zhou Ziwei's soul power. Moreover, the attack wave was like two frantically spinning drills, which easily drilled into the two evil spirits' bodies. Then, like inserting a red-hot stick into a snowdrift, it melted them into pieces without any suspense.
Wow... it can't be that effective!
Although Zhou Ziwei had considered that this method might work, he never expected it to be so surprisingly effective. The total amount of soul power he used in this attack was actually less than the energy of the two evil spirits, but it felt as easy as cutting melons and vegetables. Once the soul power he gathered pierced into the evil spirit, it was simply invincible.
What surprised Zhou Ziwei the most was that the amount of soul power he consumed in eliminating the two evil spirits was almost negligible.
What excited Zhou Ziwei the most was that after the two evil spirits were smashed into countless fragments, they turned into ownerless soul energy, which was directly absorbed and fused with his two soul powers. In an instant, the two soul powers became more than twice as strong as before.
It turns out that I don't need to use the Six-Syllable Mantra. I can directly fuse with other soul entities simply by using my own soul power to attack them. It turns out that my soul power also has the characteristic of fusion.
This sudden surprise thrilled Zhou Ziwei so much that he almost forgot about the two other evil spirits wreaking havoc inside him.