Dorothy’s Forbidden Grimoire

Chapter 766 : Soul Rebirth Coffin

Across the great ocean, deep within the Starfall Continent in the distant west, lies the sacred land of Shamanism—the Ancestral Valley.

In the dead of night, at the center where the four great ravines converge, a towering totem pole emitted a faint glow. Within the wide area illuminated by this light, hundreds of figures had already gathered—shamans from all across the continent and various tribes, dressed in similar ceremonial attire.

Encircling the central totem pole, countless shamans sat cross-legged layer by layer, forming a massive disc-like formation. Among them, seated closest to the totem pole were four Great Shamans, each from one of the cardinal directions. With their legs folded, they too faced the pole in silent meditation like the others.

At this moment, nearly all shamans were immersed in quiet contemplation. Only Uta, seated to the east of the pole, showed visible worry in his eyes, glancing up at the sky from time to time. Opposite him, on the west side of the pole, sat the Great Shaman Pasadiko, perfectly composed and tranquil, showing no disturbance.

Then, the glow of the totem pole suddenly surged, and a resonant hum rippled outward—one that penetrated into the very souls of all present. The sound expanded through the Ancestral Valley and beyond.

Sensing the vast soul fluctuation, the meditating shamans opened their eyes, all gazing toward the source, the radiant totem pole.

A soft yellow light now hovered above the pole. From within it, a semi-transparent figure gradually emerged—a soul body, glowing with a distinct yellow spiritual light.

From the waist up, beneath white beard and hair, was an aged, weathered face. Numerous knots tied in his hair and beard bore tiny wooden animal totems. A simple white robe draped his form, its fringes decorated with ornate featherwork. Atop his head sat a plain circlet carved with an image of a soaring eagle.

The moment this elder’s spirit appeared, all present shamans bowed low in unison and spoke the same name in reverence.

“Guardian of the Sacred Land… True Spirit Shaman…”

Watching the scene below, the soul referred to as the True Spirit Shaman had a glint of light in his eyes. Sweeping his gaze solemnly across the vast ceremonial ground, he lingered longer on the four Great Shamans nearest him, as if confirming all was in order. He then gave a small nod and looked to the eastern heavens.

“The feathers of the Divine Eagle have brought warning. The catastrophe brewing in the East has worsened—the order of souls in this world is under threat.

“Though the eastern outsiders have repeatedly intruded upon our lands in recent years, in the face of this world-threatening disaster, we must still honor the ancient pact: summon the Divine Eagle to carry away the calamity…”

The True Spirit Shaman’s timeless voice resonated through every shaman’s soul. In response, the shamans softly echoed.

“We honor the ancestral pact… Let the Divine Eagle descend…”

Hearing this, the True Spirit Shaman paused briefly, then murmured.

“Ward Formation…”

At his words, in the dense forest surrounding the ritual site, countless wild spirits simultaneously raised their heads and howled toward the sky. Accompanied by this soul-stirring cry, a semi-transparent white spiritual barrier manifested—a dome of soul energy formed by the wild spirits, sealing off the entire site.

Satisfied the barrier was in place, the True Spirit Shaman turned back to the ritual itself and continued solemnly.

“Realm Piercing Soul Call…”

With that, a massive array of Silence emerged centered on the totem pole, encompassing all seated shamans. Around its outer edge, a faint outline of a great eagle with outstretched wings could be seen.

“Ah… Soul-Burier Suun… please hear this call from ancient times!”

The True Spirit Shaman called out first in soul-speech, and the other shamans—seemingly guided by a mystical force—echoed the same invocation.

“Ah… Soul-Burier Suun… please hear…”

After the unified call, the shamans began to speak one after another, each reciting their own praises to Suun. This chaotic chanting continued until the Eastern Great Shaman smiled slightly and began in a sonorous voice.

“Soul Eagle… Eternal Messenger of the Great Soul… Beacon of all souls…”

“Soul Eagle… Eternal Messenger of the Great Soul…”

Once again, the shamans’ chants aligned under a unified cadence, only to diverge into individual praises again—until the Western Great Shaman, Pasadiko, spoke.

“In accordance with the ancestral pact… awaken from your eternal slumber… and bring deliverance to this world…”

“In accordance with the ancestral pact…”

The crowd once again followed suit, repeating the line before falling into another round of disordered chants. It wasn’t until the Southern Great Shaman led the call that harmony returned again.

Thus, at the heart of the Sacred Land of Shamanism, within the Ancestral Valley, the Great Wild Rite began. Led in turns by the True Spirit Shaman and the four Great Shamans, the shamans alternated between disarray and unity, chanting words to summon the Soul Eagle, Suun.

This awe-inspiring soul invocation, carried by the sacred ritual, was transmitted through the inner realm, broadcasting deep into the Nether Realm to awaken the slumbering being.

Since the beginning of this era, the world’s grandest spirit-summoning ritual had begun in silence.

…

In the same hour, at the outer edge of the Ancestral Valley, another soul-calling ritual was underway.

At Uta’s camp on the periphery, Meihag—a high-ranking member of the Nether Coffin of North Ufiga—was channeling the spirituality of the real Pasadiko, conducting a powerful Great Shaman ritual. Using Kapak’s body as the medium, they were determined to retrieve his escaped soul from the Nether Realm.

“Is it not ready yet? It’s just a Black Earth soul…”

Standing by the ritual, the armored Norris growled impatiently, watching the ongoing ritual. At this, Pasadiko—possessing Meihag—retorted flatly.

“I already told you, something’s secretly helping that boy. A mere Black Earth soul couldn’t have broken my seal. And now someone’s interfering with my summoning…”

“So what? Can you do it or not? I’ve already given you full support!”

Even Meihag, speaking under possession, mocked him. Irritated, Pasadiko barked.

“Cut the nonsense, both of you…”

With a grim face, Pasadiko doubled down, channeling more spirituality into the ritual. At last, he sensed a ripple—something in the Nether Realm approaching fast under his summoning.

“It’s coming… it’s coming! I’ve summoned it!”

His tone grew excited, like an angler whose patience had finally paid off after being mocked all day.

Hearing this, Norris and Meihag froze, then focused their gazes on the summoning array where Kapak lay. The glow brightened, spiritual reaction surged—something was truly coming.

Eyes fixed, the two men watched as Pasadiko prepared his soul-binding technique, ready to capture the summoned soul. Finally, in a brilliant flash, two spirits emerged from the array. But what they saw left them stunned.

One spirit matched Kapak perfectly, a young tribesman from the New Continent. But the other was an elegant young woman, around eighteen or nineteen, with a beautiful figure—completely unexpected.

“Two souls?”

“Hey… who’s this girl?!”

Meihag and Norris turned to Pasadiko, who stared wide-eyed in shock.

“You…?! Why is it you?!”

“Thank you for your efforts, Western Great Shaman… Farewell.”

Nephthys spoke calmly, then drifted away alongside Kapak’s soul. Pasadiko instantly cast his pre-prepared spell.

“Don’t think you can escape! Soul Bind!”

Possessing Meihag’s body, he unleashed a binding spell on Nephthys and Kapak. Last time, this had allowed him to seize control over them.

But this time, the spectral thorns that shot from the earth were repelled before touching them.

“Soul Seize…”

Startled, Pasadiko tried a different technique, extending his hand to exert powerful soul-drawing force—enough to tear a soul from its body.

Yet it had no effect. Nephthys and Kapak continued to drift away swiftly.

“What…?”

Inside Meihag, Pasadiko was stunned. He couldn’t comprehend how these two spirit forms could completely ignore a Great Shaman’s powers.

What Pasadiko did not know was that at this moment, both Nephthys and Kapak were under the influence of a Sacred Law issued by Kramar. Within the “Warrant” Kramar had declared, only members of the Radiance Church’s Inquisition were authorized to pursue the two. Any other form of control or coercion was deemed obstruction to “apprehension” and thus categorically forbidden. In other words, Nephthys and Kapak were now in a state of near-complete immunity—Pasadiko’s abilities were powerless to override the ruling of the Inquisition Cardinal.

Thanks to Pasadiko’s medium-channeling power, Nephthys successfully returned from the depths of the Nether Realm. In her remnant-soul state, Kramar also used his contract link with Nephthys to rapidly draw himself closer to the surface world. However, due to still bearing the Forgetting curse, Kramar remained exiled from the present world and could not yet return completely—at least not under the current circumstances.

Now, Kramar was lingering in the shallow layer of the Nether Realm corresponding to the Ancestral Valley, observing the situation in the real world while providing Nephthys and the others with Sacred Law support. While only a small amount of Sacred Law could be transmitted this way, it was still extremely effective.

“Why… are my abilities failing…”

Pasadiko muttered in disbelief. Just then, Meihag—the body he possessed—suddenly moved.

“Useless fool. Watch how it’s done!”

With that, Meihag pulled out a bone shard. As he waved it, a spirit emerged from within—a vulture-shaped animal spirit. Upon appearance, it instantly possessed Meihag.

Once the second vulture spirit possessed him, Meihag’s clothes tore open from behind. A pair of massive vulture wings unfurled from his back. Flapping them with great force, he generated a fierce gale and took flight toward Nephthys and Kapak, far faster than the drifting pace of spirits.

Sensing the threat from behind, the spirit-form Nephthys turned and saw Meihag’s approach. She ceased retreating and instead faced them head-on. In that instant, her semi-transparent soul-body rapidly solidified—her transparency vanished in the blink of an eye as she returned to her physical form.

“He forcibly canceled my soul-form? A mere White Ash shouldn’t have that strength… is it that same power again?”

Pasadiko thought uneasily. At the same time, Meihag—now in bird-man form—reached the re-materialized Nephthys and swiped at her with talon-like claws. Nephthys caught his wrist mid-swipe, stopping the strike. Meihag tried to force his way free with brute strength, but her grip was immovable.

“That strength… Is she a White Ash-rank Chalice?!”

Just as Meihag had that thought, Nephthys shifted her stance. Using his own momentum, she pulled and redirected him to the side, then let go—throwing him away. Meihag flapped twice to regain balance midair. But just as he was about to launch a second assault, the air’s temperature dropped drastically.

A chill wind swept across the ground, filled with ice and snow. From the direction of the camp, a massive blizzard surged toward Nephthys, devouring everything in its path. Grass, insects, birds, and beasts alike froze instantly, lifeless under the extreme cold.

Seeing the storm like a towering white wall rolling in, Meihag gave up on engaging Nephthys directly. He flapped hard, soaring upward to escape the icy reach as fast as possible. Nephthys and Kapak, still on the ground, had no such option—lacking flight, they couldn’t dodge the oncoming blizzard.

Amid the intense cold, Nephthys showed no fear. She reached out, allowing Kapak’s soul to take the form of soul-flame and possess her. As the white storm closed in, she slammed her palm to the ground—activating a soul-summoning array.

In the moment the ritual circle lit up, her small figure was engulfed by the snowstorm, which continued to sweep forward and flood the forest. From above, Meihag could see nothing but white.

He exhaled lightly, then turned in midair to look toward the source of the blizzard. There stood Norris, armored and silent, holding a longsword radiating a biting chill.

“Hey… Norris, wasn’t that a bit much? Starting off with something this big?”

Seeing the massive frost mist spanning over a kilometer, Meihag shouted toward the Frost Knight. Norris silently shook frost from his blade and replied.

“You and Pasadiko couldn’t take her down in the first move—that alone proves she’s no ordinary opponent. No need to escalate slowly. Best to end it in one strike.”

Hearing this, Meihag nodded.

“True. That woman is full of strange anomalies. Best to go all out. With this kind of attack, she definitely… huh?”

Before he could finish, the scene shifted again. After the frost wind stopped, the lingering mist suddenly stirred. A cold wind rose once more, but this time it blew in the opposite direction—toward Norris.

“What’s going on, Norris? Are you ramping it up again because she’s still moving?”

Meihag called out.

Norris, gripping his sword tightly, stared ahead.

“No… This isn’t me.”

“What…?”

Before Meihag could finish his sentence, the wind accelerated, and another snowstorm surged straight at Norris. Frost formed instantly around him, even covering his thick armor.

He countered with his own ability, trying to suppress the storm. But just as he thought it was easing, a sharp sense of danger hit him. Raising his sword in defense, the white mist in front of him suddenly surged, and a figure burst out, slashing with a blade.

CLANG!!!

A flash of white light, a loud crash of weapons, and a shockwave dispelled the surrounding mist, revealing frost-covered terrain.

There, Norris knelt on one knee, sword gripped in trembling hands. Before him stood a woman.

A towering female warrior, wielding a massive double-headed battle axe made of dark ice crystal, clad in light armor of the same material, a twin-horned dark-ice helm on her head, and a frostwoven cloak flowing behind her.

It was Nephthys, crushing Norris with sheer force, her battle axe pressing against his sword. Dark ice crystals spread from the impact point, crawling along the blade and even reaching his gauntlets.

With disdain, Nephthys sneered loudly.

“Ha! What’s wrong? Can’t even hold your sword steady, boy? And you call yourself a Frost Armament warrior of this era? What a joke!”

Norris remained silent. He could feel her frost spreading across his blade and armor—his own frost couldn’t cover hers at all. It was as if she too wielded ice powers, but completely outclassed him.

“This power… Is this the Body Possession Path? And what is this ice? I’m being overwhelmed…”

Grim-faced, Norris forced strength into his sword. He twisted to redirect her blow and quickly skated backward on an ice path, gaining distance.

Then, with a swing of his hand, massive ten-meter-long ice spears materialized in the sky and hurled down at Nephthys.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Each impact shook the earth. The crashing spears shattered and piled into a towering icy mountain, burying her.

Still wary, Norris did not relax. As expected, the mountain exploded moments later, a dragon-headed warship burst forth.

Standing atop it, Nephthys remained unharmed, her dark-ice armor intact. With battle axe in hand, she laughed and shouted.

“Hahaha! That’s all you’ve got?! Just plain ice? No matter how cold, it’s still mundane! How can it compare to Soul Ice? If you’ve got guts, freeze your own soul and let’s duel for real!”

With that, she leapt from the dragon-head ship, axe raised high. Norris braced and blocked, but the blow sent him flying.

When he rose again, sword planted in the ground for balance, he saw the blade was not only severely damaged, but even more deeply encased in dark ice.

“What the hell… is she?!”

Norris thought desperately, but Nephthys was already charging at him again, axe ready. He could only grit his teeth and meet her head-on.

Afterward, Norris and Nephthys engaged in fierce, close-quarters combat. In this exchange, Norris was utterly outmatched. Whether in raw strength, ice-based erosion and mutual freezing, or even fundamental combat skill. Against the opponent wielding that strange dark-ice weapon, Norris was driven back step by step.

Nephthys was able to overwhelm Norris—a Crimson-rank Ice Elementalist—for two key reasons. First, she was possessed by the soul of Harald, an ancient Northern Sea warrior of equal Crimson-rank strength. Second, she had completed her advancement ritual, breaking through White Ash to become a Crimson-rank Beyonder.

At this moment, Nephthys was a Soul Rebirth Coffin of the Body Possession Path, and a Crimson-rank Beyonder.

Back in the Nether Realm, Nephthys had completed the second stage of her advancement—the Thousand-Souls Suppression Ritual. When Pasadiko summoned her back from the deep Nether into the present world, the third stage, the Return Ritual, also finished. After more than two years walking the mysticism world, she officially became a high-ranking Crimson—hence her ability to bypass Pasadiko’s soul-to-body transformation and return to her physical form.

When Norris launched his massive frost storm toward her, Nephthys, under sound tactical guidance, quickly borrowed the soul of Kapak and initiated a spirit-summoning.

Earlier at the camp, Kapak had seen Uta’s message. Besides mentioning that he had gone ahead to attend the Great Wild Rite, Uta also said he had left behind the two spirits of Rachman and Harald, instructing them to keep searching for Kapak and Nephthys in the shallow Nether nearby. Thus, in that moment of danger, Nephthys decisively used Kapak to perform the summoning.

Kapak, being a Shaman Apprentice—meaning a Black Earth-rank Beyonder of the Shaman Path—had summoning ability, but not nearly as strong as Uta’s. Even with willing souls, summoning two Crimson-rank spirits without a ritual would normally be impossible.

However, as a Soul Rebirth Coffin, Nephthys possessed a unique ability to amplify the summoned soul’s power. Her presence boosted Kapak’s summoning to the next level. As a Crimson-rank of the Body Possession Path, Nephthys could not only empower herself via spirits, but also enhance the spirits in return—producing synergy greater than the sum of their parts.

Once she summoned Harald, she instantly possessed him. Harald had been a soldier under the Northern Emperor Inut thousands of years ago, and naturally walked the Frost Path. With Harald’s spirit inside her, Nephthys easily withstood Norris’s ice storm.

After that, she counterattacked. Since the Body Possession Path synergizes with Chalice, a combat-relevant spiritual aspect, her physical power far exceeded Norris’s. As a Crimson-rank Beyonder merged with a Crimson-rank soul, she gained strength beyond typical Crimsons. And with Harald’s extensive battlefield experience and elite combat skills, her advantage was overwhelming.

Especially in technique, Harald, once a subordinate of the Frost Dragon, had a mastery over ice far superior to that of modern-day Beyonders like Norris. Instead of large-scale freezing magic, he used a specialized close-combat style, freezing his soul into armor and weapons. This was the traditional combat approach of the old Northern Empire's high-level warriors, who favored direct, exhilarating melee over distant control.

Against Nephthys possessed by Harald’s spirit, Norris could barely hold on. Watching from above, Meihag, hovering midair, frowned deeply.

“This woman… she's also Body Possession Path? Same rank as me… but with a powerful soul, she’s unleashing overwhelming force. I can’t just sit by…”

After quickly analyzing the situation, Meihag decided to intervene. Without breaking his current possession state, he took out two more bone fragments. From them emerged two more spirits.

One was a large, muscular gorilla-like spirit. The other was a plate-armored knight clearly styled after the Radiance Church.

Meihag then possessed both spirits simultaneously. His body transformed rapidly—his muscles swelled, black fur grew, sharp beastly fangs jutted out, and his hands turned into fiery, massive fists. His wings and fists burst into flames.

As a fellow Soul Rebirth Coffin, Meihag couldn’t summon a soul like Harald’s, but he had quantity—plenty of high-quality souls for possession.

“ROAR!!”

Letting out a savage roar, the now Flame-Wreathed Flying Gorilla Meihag dove from the sky toward Nephthys. She had just knocked Norris back and was about to press the attack when she sensed danger from above.

Nephthys swung her dark-ice battle axe, unleashing a huge icy arc that split an incoming fireball. The explosion blasted high-heat flame toward her, but she swept her frost cloak to conjure a cold wind and block it. At that moment, Meihag burst through the fire, his blazing fists hammering her and sending her flying.

When she rose, her dark-ice armor showed no damage, but the unarmored joints—protected only by standard frost—had started melting.

Neither the heat nor the impact left marks on Harald’s dark-ice armor. Holding her axe and looking at Meihag, Nephthys muttered.

“Another one…? Dammit, I just ascended—I’m still a rookie here. Can’t they come one at a time…?”

“Ha! A proper brawl at last! I don’t care how many come!”

Though initially rattled by the new foe, Nephthys quickly regained composure under Harald’s influence. Tightening her grip on the axe, she charged forward again.

Now faced with both Norris and Meihag, her advantage faded. Meihag’s flight gave him high mobility, and his strength slightly surpassed Nephthys’s. While his flaming fists couldn’t pierce her dark-ice armor, the flames snaked into armor gaps, threatening her body directly. Because dark-ice was rigid and less malleable, she had to use regular frost to counter these flames.

Without Harald's dominance over branch affinity and combat mastery, Meihag became a more difficult opponent than Norris. And with Norris interfering, Nephthys’s situation began to tilt against her.

On the white-frozen battlefield, fire and frost clashed, powers and armor slammed, shockwaves echoed. The ground trembled endlessly, and their battle reached a deadlock, neither side able to win.

It was then that Pasadiko, still dormant within Meihag, took action.

“Let me help. I have non-binding spiritual techniques.”

His spirit urged Meihag, who immediately punched the ground with a fiery boom to repel Nephthys momentarily. Then, placing his hand on the earth, he called upon Pasadiko’s power.

Two massive spirit-summoning formations appeared at Meihag’s sides. From them emerged two animal-form spirit bodies—a massive spiritual serpent, and a towering spiritual polar bear.

“I link you to this land, become its spirit-body, manifest as nature, and fight for me!”

Pasadiko, within Meihag, issued the command. The two wild spirits emitted radiant light.

With a roar from the bear spirit, surrounding ice gathered rapidly, forming a towering 7-8 meter snow-white bear. Meanwhile, vines and branches from the forest coiled and intertwined around the snake spirit, weaving it into a massive 20+ meter long Withered Vine Serpent.

Nature Body—a core ability of high-level wild spirits—allowed them to absorb their surroundings as bodies. And as a Great Shaman, Pasadiko could temporarily designate any region as wild spirit territory.

With their bodies formed, the bear and serpent roared and joined the fray. The pressure on Nephthys multiplied—now facing not just Norris and Meihag, but also two wild spirits under Pasadiko’s command. The battle’s momentum shifted dramatically.

The Vine Serpent coiled toward her, trying to entangle and crush. As Nephthys sliced free, Meihag struck it with his flaming fist, igniting it. But before the flames spread, Norris doused them with frost, then teamed up with the Ice Bear for another assault.

Nephthys’s dark-ice axe could freeze one opponent at a time—she severed the bear’s claw but was then distracted by a blinding ice mist from Norris’s sneak attack. Meihag took the chance to blast a massive fireball at her. An explosion roared out.

Amid the blast, Nephthys was thrown far, landing hard. Gasping, she stood, her armor was intact, but flames had seeped into the seams, burning her beneath the shell.

Meanwhile, the two Nature Bodies rapidly drew materials from their environment to regenerate. The Vine Serpent’s burns healed with fresh vines, the bear’s severed claw reformed with snow and ice.

“Hmph… these creatures have real power…”

“We’re losing ground fast… how long can we hold out like this…”

Facing the enemy as they recovered and prepared for their next assault, even Harald began to feel the pressure. Meanwhile, a distinct panic surged within Nephthys—until, right then, a familiar soul voice rang out at just the right time.

“You’ve done well! I found a suitable target!”

Hearing that familiar voice, Nephthys paused in surprise and turned—spotting a small bird flying toward her with great effort from the sky. Within the bird, she could clearly sense a familiar soul presence.

“Mr. Rachman! You finally made it back!”

As Nephthys cried out in joy, the enemy side—Meihag and the others—had completed their preparations. With the two fully restored wild spirits as the vanguard, Meihag and Norris flanked behind, charging at Nephthys in a fearsome formation.

“Quickly, Miss Boyle...!”

At this critical moment, Rachman's soul shot out from the flying bird, turned into soul-flame, and was swiftly caught by Nephthys before merging with her body. With the possession of a second Crimson-rank soul, a strange light sparked in Nephthys’s eyes.

Guided by that light, she turned toward the bird that Rachman had brought and reached out to touch it.

“Soulblood Ancestral Tracing—Return to the Origin!”

Suddenly, the bird she touched began to radiate intense light. Under the radiance, its body started to expand rapidly—swelling without end.

One meter... two meters... ten meters... twenty!

In just moments, the glowing bird had grown to a monstrous size. Its shape morphed drastically, its wings disappeared, its body expanded, legs thickened and stepped onto the ground, and a thick tail stretched out behind it.

“What is that?!”

Under the stunned gazes of Meihag and his group, the glowing silhouette—once a tiny bird—reached nearly thirty meters before its expansion ceased. As the light faded, an enormous and terrifying creature was revealed before them—one none of them had ever seen.

Its body was covered in dense scales. Thick hind legs supported its immense bulk. A massive tail swayed behind it. Small but sharp-clawed forelimbs hung before a thick neck topped with an elongated head, from which rows of sharp fangs jutted outward.

From every angle, it was unmistakably a dinosaur—a colossal, grotesquely oversized tyrannosaurus rex!

A creature believed extinct since the Second Epoch, now reborn from a small bird. And this… this was the power of a Soulblood Knight!

By tracing bloodline memory through genes and spirituality, a Soulblood Knight could rewind millions of years of evolution, restoring a creature to the form of its ancient ancestor. Even if the ancestor wasn't directly along the evolutionary line, if the kinship on the Tree of Life was close enough, ancestral regression was still possible.

And the birds of this world… evidently descended from dinosaurs. Thus, with Rachman’s help, Nephthys turned a small bird into a massive tyrannosaurus rex.

Previously, Rachman's absence had been due to him searching for a viable organism. Norris’s early blizzard had frozen most of the nearby wildlife, making Rachman's task difficult—only now had he returned with success.

“ROAR!!”

With an earth-shaking bellow, the beast from a bygone era sent tremors through the entire ravine. It stomped with tremendous force, instantly crushing the Frost Bear beneath its feet, then stomped again to pin down the Withered Vine Serpent. Biting down with its massive jaws, it ripped the serpent to pieces!

“What… what kind of monster is that?!”

Meihag stared in awe, then unleashed a huge fireball. The blast struck the beast dead-on and erupted in an enormous explosion. Fire consumed it completely.

But when the flames died down... the creature still stood.

To the horror of Meihag, Pasadiko, and the others, they saw that the beast was now encased in a full suit of dark-ice armor, radiating a bone-chilling gleam.

Its body was fully clad in thick dark-ice plating. Upon its head sat a massive double-horned helmet—majestic and monstrous all at once.

Soul Rebirth Coffin was not merely about embodying the power of the possessed soul and mimicking reincarnation. It could also combine powers from multiple souls, blending the abilities of distinct souls into one entity, unleashing effects never seen before.

…

While Nephthys, empowered by Rachman and Harald, clashed with the three Crimson-rank Nether Coffin members, in another part of the Ancestral Valley, deep in the forest, the young Kapak of the Tupa Tribe was running with all his strength toward the center—to the towering totem pole, the site of the Great Wild Rite.

After Nephthys used Kapak’s soul to summon Rachman and Harald, Kapak’s soul had left her body. While she fought Meihag and the others, he had quietly slipped away amidst the cold mist.

As Meihag’s group pursued their souls, Dorothy had already used spiritual threads to discreetly guide Kapak’s body to retreat. Once his soul also exited the battlefield, she reunited Kapak’s soul and body and gave him his next task.

With two ancient Crimson-rank souls and backed by the Sacred Law of the Inquisition Cardinal, Nephthys’s role was now to stall the three Nether Coffin elites. Kapak, meanwhile, had to reach the site of the Great Wild Rite, contact Uta, and expose the schemes of the Nether Coffin Order—revealing the falsehood of the Western Great Shaman to the True Spirit Shaman.

Now, Kapak was sprinting toward the site with all his might.

“Huff… huff… almost there…”

With Dorothy’s supportive sigils, Kapak’s speed was tremendous. Before long, he reached the edge of the ritual grounds, where he could clearly see the massive Soul Barrier stretching to the sky.

Continuing forward, he soon reached the barrier. But just before he could touch it, a massive lion-shaped wild spirit materialized and roared at him, stopping Kapak in his tracks.

He realized: this was a guardian wild spirit of the ritual.

“Huff… huff… noble spirit, please let me through… I have something of the utmost importance!”

Panting, Kapak pleaded earnestly. But the lion spirit shook its head without hesitation, clearly rejecting his request. Kapak grew anxious.

“Noble spirit… please! It concerns not just this land, but the entire world! If you can’t let me in, at least send word—let someone inside come speak with me!”

Kapak continued to beg, but the lion still shook its head firmly. It was clear: no interference would be tolerated during the Great Wild Rite. The answer left Kapak near panic.

“Honored spirit, I…”

“ROAR!”

Irritated by his repeated insistence, the lion roared thunderously in warning. Behind it, more wild spirits appeared, each one casting wary, cautionary gazes at Kapak.

Seeing this scene, Kapak froze. For a moment, he didn’t know what to do.