Kill the Marsh Lake Beast?

"Thank goodness, Brother Fan — you're really alive!" Without sparing a thought for the foul mud caking his body, Zhang Xiaohou threw his arms around Mo Fan in an enthusiastic embrace.

It had been nearly two years since they'd last seen each other — not since their parting at Bo City.

When Mo Fan learned that Zhang Xiaohou had come all this way specifically to find him, a wave of warmth surged through his chest.

Mo Fan knew better than anyone how dangerous the Dongting Lake plains were. That Zhang Xiaohou had come here alone left him at a complete loss for words.

Once they were back at the cave, Ah Li Man, whose poison had yet to fully subside, had already fallen asleep.

"Oh right, Brother Fan — this is for you." Zhang Xiaohou carefully drew two vessels from his pack and held them out with a sheepish grin.

"What are these?" Mo Fan looked them over, though he didn't need to open them to know what they held.

He knew these containers well — the kind designed to store Spirit Essence.

"There are two Spirit Essences inside. Boss Zhankong said your soul was in grave danger and that you needed a massive amount of Spirit Essence to protect it — so on the way here, I stopped in Biyi City and picked up two." Zhang Xiaohou's voice was bright with excitement.

Just knowing Mo Fan was alive was enough to fill Zhang Xiaohou with overwhelming relief. After all, Mo Fan had always been like a real older brother to him.

"Where did you get the money?" Mo Fan held the two spirit vessels carefully, something flickering behind his eyes.

In the time since the Demon Element's backlash, Mo Fan had recovered his normal state — but the element's unpredictability kept him from returning to the city. He needed to wait until his soul was fully secured before he could go back.

There was no denying it, though: this kind of life was profoundly lonely.

That Zhang Xiaohou had traveled such a distance to find him was already more than Mo Fan could have asked for. That he'd also brought two Spirit Essences — that was something else entirely.

Spirit Essence was exactly what Mo Fan desperately needed. The reason he'd remained on the Dongting Lake plains was precisely because he needed vast quantities of it to shield his fragile soul — and the source of that Spirit Essence was the countless swarms of Lizard-Skull Giant Demons.

He had long since lost count of how many Lizard-Skull Giant Demons he'd slaughtered, or how many Spirit Essences he'd refined. In truth, the Servant-class Spirit Essences Zhang Xiaohou had brought were no longer of much practical use to him — but the thought of this foolish kid risking his life to reach this place, just to deliver two Spirit Essences, left Mo Fan without words. The corners of his eyes grew wet.

Mo Fan had always thought of himself as someone without much sentiment. Apparently he'd been wrong.

"Money's not an issue — I'm a military officer now, after all. But never mind that, Brother Fan, are you doing all right? Everything Boss Zhankong told me had my heart in my throat."

"Take these back," Mo Fan said, pushing them away. "Sell them. Buy yourself some decent defensive Enchanted Gear."

The gift itself was modest, but the feeling behind it was anything but — especially for someone who had been drifting alone in the wilderness for over three months. Servant-class Spirit Essences weren't hard for Mo Fan to obtain on his own, which meant Zhang Xiaohou had probably spent every coin of his savings on these two.

"I've already got Enchanted Gear. And Boss Zhankong told me how enormous your Spirit Essence needs are, so just make do with these for now — and now that I've found you, the timing couldn't be better. Brother Fan, you just focus on recovering. I'll go hunting for Spirit Essences myself. A few dozen Lizard-Skull Giant Demons are nothing for me at this point. I borrowed a Soul-Capture Vessel from the military — the odds of Spirit Essence dropping are low, but kill enough of them and one's bound to turn up eventually…" Zhang Xiaohou had come fully prepared; one look at his enormous pack made it clear he'd planned for an extended stay in the wild.

"You." Mo Fan let out a laughing groan. "All right, all right, spare me the bragging. I've got my own two hands — what do you think I've been doing out here this whole time?"

"True! Then let's hunt together, Brother Fan! The two of us working side by side — even the Death God of Dongting Lake had better step aside! Ha ha ha!" Zhang Xiaohou burst out laughing.

Mo Fan clicked his tongue, debating silently whether to tell Zhang Xiaohou the truth about the so-called Death God of Dongting Lake.

He decided against it. *No point deflating the enthusiasm of this bull-headed kid.* Besides, Zhang Xiaohou couldn't have arrived at a better time — Mo Fan genuinely needed a partner.

Mo Fan had been camped in this valley for quite a while now, and his true objective was the creature lurking at the center of the marsh lake.

It was a Commander-class beast that had been gravely wounded. Who had injured it, Mo Fan had no idea. What he knew was that during one of his Demonization states he had already crossed blades with it, and killing it was within reach.

What he needed now, more urgently than anything, was a Commander-class soul — whether as a Spirit Essence or a Remnant Soul.

This wounded Commander was his only real hope. If the next backlash came without it, his soul would very likely be shattered completely by that torrential, consuming force.

The power the Demon Element granted was immense — but what it extracted from his life and soul in return was equally terrifying. When Mo Fan had chosen not to leave with Zhankong, it wasn't because he'd lost his mind entirely. He'd known that even the military couldn't supply Spirit Essence on the scale he needed, not unconditionally. So he'd decided to acquire it himself.

With the Loach Pendant to refine them, the method was simple enough: kill Demon-Beasts.

Remnant Souls could be gathered and, once enough had accumulated, refined into a full Spirit Essence.

With luck, a Demon-Beast would drop a Spirit Essence directly — one more layer of insurance for his life.

What Mo Fan hadn't anticipated was how ferocious the Demon Element backlash would be. The very first episode had nearly killed him, and he'd had no choice but to keep throwing himself into Demonization and slaughter his way through it.

Lizard-Skull Giant Demons had long overrun the Dongting Lake region. The military had been drafting plans to cull their numbers and actively encouraging Hunter-mages to wipe them out.

Mo Fan, driven purely by necessity, had been using his Demon Element to do exactly that — purging a plague from the land — and had inadvertently become the infamous Death God of Dongting Lake.

There was no avoiding what was coming: in another week, one final, devastating Demon Element consumption would strike.

Mo Fan had gained mastery over Four Elements, which meant the Demon Element backlash would come four times in total. He had survived the first three through pain and desperate improvisation. This final one, he had a feeling, would be the worst of all.

The Loach Pendant had already refined a fair number of Servant-class and Battle-General-class Spirit Essences for him.

But what Mo Fan still needed was a Commander-class soul to anchor everything together.

Commander-class creatures yielded Spirit Essence at a far higher rate. Even if the wounded Commander failed to produce a priceless Spirit Essence, a Commander-class Remnant Soul could still supply a tremendous amount of soul energy.

A Commander was still a Commander. Killing one was never easy — not even a critically wounded one.

Mo Fan was running out of patience. If the Commander's wounds healed before he could act, even throwing the full force of the Demon Element behind him likely wouldn't be enough to finish it.

And now, perfectly timed, Zhang Xiaohou had traveled all this way to reach him — alongside a female mage who seemed to be no pushover herself. With them at his side, killing the Commander was actually within reach.

"We're going to kill the creature at the center of the marsh lake." Mo Fan stated his intentions plainly.

"*What???*" Zhang Xiaohou stared, wide-eyed. The monstrous silhouette that had swallowed an entire Hunter-mage squad flashed vividly through his mind.