Wind Conquest Dragon

"Barren Wind White Tiger!"

Upon seeing the newcomer's appearance and the faint dark yellow and green stripes on the White Tiger's body, You Chen recognized what kind of Soul Beast it was.

The Barren Wind White Tiger is a Soul Beast that possesses the attributes of earth, wind, and metal, with wind as its primary attribute.

Although he doesn't possess top-tier bloodlines, he is by no means an ordinary person.

If top-tier bloodline Soul Beast like the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, Titan Giant Ape, and Sky Azure Bull Python are equivalent to super-quality Martial Soul human Soul Master, and Earth Fire Dragon and Wind Conquest Dragon, which possess certain top-tier bloodlines, belong to top-tier Martial Soul, then the Barren Wind White Tiger is a first-level advanced Martial Soul.

Moreover, it is a higher-grade Martial Soul.

Most importantly, judging from the patterns and size of the Barren Wind White Tiger, You Chen believed it to be at least 50,000 years Barren Wind White Tiger, equivalent to the Soul Sage.

Unless he uses the Soul Shocking Tactic or unleashes some of his trump cards, even You Chen in his current state wouldn't be able to resolve this in a short time.

The most crucial issue is that You Chen doesn't want to expend too much Soul Power and mental energy when he might encounter Wind Conquest Dragon at any time.

However, sometimes the option that seems to result in the greatest loss is actually the one that results in the least loss in reality.

As the saying goes, hesitation leads to trouble; people often suffer losses while agonizing over how to make a decision.

And You Chen is the one who can make decisions at crucial moments!

'Soul Shocking Tactic!'

Two pitch-black suns rose in the eyes of the Barren Wind White Tiger. At this moment, it deeply regretted provoking such a monster...

Puff.

You Chen's hands transformed into dragon claws, piercing through the chest of the Barren Wind White Tiger like lightning. This "Wind Flow Claw" killed the 50,000-year-old Soul Beast with the Soul Sage in an instant.

This is not surprising.

After absorbing the second and third rings of the Second Incarnation, You Chen's Soul Power had increased to level 70, otherwise he would not have come to hunt for the seventh ring.

After acquiring the first three rings of his Second Incarnation, You Chen no longer needed to worry about the stability of his Martial Soul. He directly equipped himself with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone and the 70,000-year- Archaeopteryx Right Arm Bone.

To be precise, the latter is also on the order of 100,000 years.

Although the power of Martial Soul Origin enhanced by Soul Bone is far less than that of Soul Ring, You Chen always plans carefully for such crucial matters. In addition, Soul Bone undergoes a transformation every 100,000 years, and he estimated that it wouldn't be too difficult for him to upgrade all parts of his spirit bone to 100,000 years with his Soul Bone Age Increase Card. So, he chose to use it directly.

With such Soul Power, the enhancement of Martial Soul, the support of two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones, plus You Chen's basic physical attributes...

Even basic skills like Wind Movement Fist and Wind Flow Claw are enough to instantly kill Soul Sage who has no power to resist.

Speaking of Soul Bone, we can't forget about Soul Bone Skill.

Perhaps because it was originally a ten-thousand-year-level Soul Bone with only one skill, it was upgraded to a hundred-thousand-year level and still only had one skill, but it gained a more powerful effect than the skill of Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone level.

The only Soul Bone Skill the 100,000-year-old You Chen Archaeopteryx Right Arm Bone is called "Air Compression." This Soul Skill has two uses. One is as an active skill, which directly compresses the air in a selected area to the extreme, restricting the target. It can be simply understood as a spherical Yasuo's wind wall control skill. However... the oxygen density in this spherical area will be several times that of the outside world, an environment extremely close to pure oxygen, causing the controlled person to directly enter a state of oxygen intoxication or oxygen poisoning!

Similar to Azure Luan Douluo's "Azure Sky Cloud Sea Sound Dust Severance," but both its binding and suppressive power and its additional effects are significantly stronger!

Here's a little-known fact that goes against common sense: pure oxygen is more harmful to the human body than a vacuum.

Especially for extraordinary life forms like Soul Master, the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the vacuum is equivalent to physical damage, which they can resist.

However, oxygen poisoning is a form of magical damage. Unless one is aware of this and forcibly holds their breath, they will almost certainly be affected on their first encounter.

The first type is used as a control skill, while the second type is used as a support or enhancement skill.

It can be simply understood as enchanting and enhancing subsequent wind-type skills.

At the same time, because the Soul Ring and Soul Bone complement each other, additional passive effects are activated, which raises the power of You Chen's Air Blade to another level, and it is now incredibly close to the strength of Hundred Thousand Year Soul Skill.

If you further enhance this by using Air Compression, the resulting Air Blade will be at an extremely high level among ten-thousand-year attack Soul Skill!

However... the consumption of Soul Power is also rising, and with You Chen's current Soul Power, he can't use it more than a few times.

Let's get back to the main topic.

You Chen frowned as he watched the White Tiger Soul Beast collapse like a small mountain.

'Although I don't quite understand what's going on yet, the Aura Concealment Art doesn't seem to be very effective here?'

The Barren Wind White Tiger is by no means Soul Beast that excels at exploration or has spiritual talent; its abilities in these areas can only be described as ordinary.

If even it could detect You Chen and launch a sneak attack, it means that most of the Soul Beast living in this area could probably do something similar.

In fact, when You Chen passed through the outer perimeter earlier, he discovered that some of the bodies seemed to be vaguely aware of his presence, and this was by no means an isolated case!

After some consideration, You Chen decided to temporarily abandon the Aura Concealment Art and instead use more conventional, less mystical hiding techniques to move around the area.

Although You Chen couldn't understand the essence of the problem, his decision was correct.

The reason why the Barren Wind White Tiger was able to detect You Chen's presence was not because of any powerful perception ability, but simply because of two words—familiarity!

Soul Beast that can operate in such a harsh environment in the core area naturally know the environment here as well as if it were their own home.

The concentration of natural energy in the entire core area is extremely high and fluctuates frequently.

Although You Chen's seemingly perfect concealment of his aura was achieved using a less-than-perfect level of the Aura Concealment Art, it inevitably repelled the restless natural energy, preventing it from entering his body and causing You Chen's aura to become disordered and leak out.

But this, ironically, became a huge loophole.

For the Soul Beast who had adapted to the chaotic energy field of the core area, You Chen's use of the Aura Concealment Art was like a perfect void suddenly appearing in a tangled mess, so they could immediately tell that something was wrong.

If one were to use the perfected Aura Concealment Art here, its effect would be equivalent to perfectly merging oneself into the surrounding energy field, becoming a part of its chaos, and naturally there would be no such problem.

But even Great Accomplishment Aura Concealment Art is not yet refined to this extent.

Most people would find it difficult to make the right choice if the Aura Concealment Art had never failed them before, but You Chen did not have any unwavering belief and quickly made the right judgment.

Although he no longer possessed the Aura Concealment Art, You Chen had learned many martial arts techniques from various schools of thought in the martial world through previous mission rewards, so this method of concealment and disguise was no problem for him either.

Soon, You Chen was no longer the same as before, when he was discovered and ambushed by the Soul Beast.

However... these are only basic disguise techniques, which are still a bit insufficient for Soul Beast that live by hunting and hiding.

You Chen was chased all over the mountain by several powerful Soul Beast.

After summarizing his experiences and lessons learned, You Chen chose to temporarily retreat to the outer area to hone his disguise and concealment skills.

Although the breathing technique of the Aura Concealment Art Concealing Technique cannot be used, it still contains many records of disguise and breathing concealment techniques.

By comparing the two examples and practicing them, You Chen quickly became proficient.

During the more than half a month of going in and out of the core area, You Chen basically confirmed the information of most of the Soul Beast in the core area.

There aren't many Soul Beasts in the core area, roughly estimated to be a few dozen. The weakest of them is probably comparable to Soul Emperor among Soul Master, and even the weakest one is able to survive in this area because of its strong survival ability.

The Soul Beast here generally possess the combat power of Soul Sage, while those at the Soul Douluo level are rare. Based on You Chen's observation of their appearance and estimation of their age, there are only five or six that have reached this level.

Judging from this number, You Chen seems to be able to completely replicate the assassination tactics of Spirit City, reducing the number of Soul Beast to eliminate possible interference during the subsequent hunt for Wind Conquest Dragon.

But in reality, it's impossible.

The first issue is the special energy field of the Calamity Mountain Range.

Secondly, the Calamity Mountain Range is mainly composed of rocky terrain, unlike Spirit City, which is easier to hide in. Moreover, Soul Beast do not have the same concerns about affecting their fellow Soul Beast as human Soul Master.

Finally, Soul Hunting beasts could lead to them uniting and potentially triggering Soul Beast riot. The end result could be that you lose more than you gain, and it could also endanger the human civilians around the Cataclysm Mountain Range.

To put it simply, apart from Wind Conquest Dragon, none of the other Soul Beast were You Chen's target. Any one of them would be an ineffective hunt. You Chen was trying to search for Wind Conquest Dragon by infiltrating rather than by launching a direct attack. His most important goal was to find the best opportunity to fire a Barrett bullet at Wind Conquest Dragon, rather than doing anything pointless.

For a powerful Soul Beast like the Wind Conquest Dragon, which is also a speed-oriented one, the Barrett Sniper Rifle can only achieve its maximum effect on the first shot.

Considering the Barrett's cooling issues, there's no guarantee that there won't be a chance to fire a second shot.

Therefore, the timing of firing the first shot is of paramount importance.

You Chen believed that even if it was just for this one shot, it wouldn't be a problem to delay for another month.

Fortunately, perseverance pays off, and the patient hunter finally stumbled upon an opportunity.

'That's Wind Conquest Dragon...'

You Chen huddled in the shadow of a natural cave formed by jagged rocks, gazing into the distance.

A giant dragon with a black chest and back, blue wings and limbs is coiled up and resting.

The feathers on its blue limbs seemed to be wearing swirling storm armor, vibrating at a high speed with an extremely peculiar frequency in sync with the dragon's breathing. A large amount of airflow passed through it, forming an invisible cyclone protective membrane.

The dragon with such unique and distinctive physical characteristics is precisely the target of You Chen's journey— the Wind Conquest Dragon!

(It's supposed to be Wind Conquest Dragon, but the picture is actually Gale Conquest Dragon)

At this moment, the place where Wind Conquest Dragon was perched was more like an open-air altar with drafts coming from all sides than a rock cave.

One after another, the winding and twisting natural stone pillars stand tall towards the sky like a stone forest. However, there is a huge flat area in the center of the stone forest. If viewed from the sky, it looks like a demonic hand with a dozen withered fingers reaching towards the sky, and Wind Conquest Dragon is lying in the palm of that demonic hand.

It is unknown whether this Demon Hand is a special type of terrain. The energy here is extremely chaotic, yet also exceptionally powerful. Even though the energy intensity in the core area is generally very high, the intensity here is at least three times higher.

If You Chen hadn't cultivated the Godly Elephant Suppressing Prison Strength and possessed two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones, an ordinary Titled Douluo would probably have been driven mad by the energy impact in such an environment, while You Chen only felt slightly uncomfortable.

Although You Chen had seen Wind Conquest Dragon flying by from afar during previous intelligence gatherings, this was the first time he had observed it at such close range, not flying but resting and almost still.

You Chen did not intend to ambush Feng Zhenglong here. In fact, he tried hard to control his emotions, dividing his mind into three parts to supervise and reflect on each other, maintaining a state of near emptiness and purity, and not harboring any hostility towards Feng Zhenglong.

He knew very well that beings whose life level was high enough, even without special spiritual cultivation or the spiritual realm of the Spirit Abyss Realm, such as the cicada sensing the autumn wind before it even stirs or the divine understanding, would still possess an extremely powerful sixth sense.

Just like the previous Earth Fire Dragon could sense the danger emanating from him.

Facing the Wind Conquest Dragon, which was far more powerful than any other creature, You Chen naturally couldn't reveal any killing intent before he could truly determine the right moment to snipe. Otherwise, even if it appeared to be fast asleep, the Wind Conquest Dragon would react immediately, unlike the dragon creatures in Monster Hunter who wouldn't wake up until the hunter had completed a third charge attack with the Greatsword.

You Chen conservatively estimates that Wind Conquest Dragon's warning range is at least one kilometer.

So he was only there to get a preliminary assessment of Wind Conquest Dragon's situation; the real sniping would have to be done from two thousand meters away.

As a fantasy version of the Barrett, the sniper's physical strength far exceeds that of ordinary humans, and its maximum range is also far beyond that of the technological society of the previous life. However, to unleash its full power, it is best to keep it within a range of three kilometers.

'Its body is very clean, thanks to the automatic cleaning effect of its [Flowing Skin · Armor of Wind], which allows the Wind Conquest Dragon to better maintain its health and prevent germs and infections. However, on the other hand, it also makes some of its injuries more noticeable. Now... it doesn't have any serious injuries, not even moderate wounds. The two minor injuries, judging from the marks, were probably from earlier and are almost fully healed. It seems its foraging went very smoothly. In this state... it's probably just converting its food into fat reserves.'

You Chen observed Wind Conquest Dragon, silently conducting a series of analyses.

The core area has the highest energy concentration. Even without those Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, just living here can allow Soul Beast to rapidly improve its cultivation level.

However, in addition to this, the Soul Beast still need some nutrition from food, so they generally go out to hunt in the outer areas every now and then.

With its terrifying speed and flight ability, coupled with its current status as the ruler of the core area, the Wind Conquest Dragon can basically come and go as it pleases.

'Um?'

While observing Wind Conquest Dragon from the perspective of an absolutely indifferent, high-dimensional bystander, You Chen suddenly sensed a new aura and immediately shrank his body further back into the small natural cave.

That is...

He narrowed his eyes slightly, and the two auras, as if they had communicated in advance, approached at high speed from the sky and the ground respectively.

"Hey~!"

"Roar!!!"

A clear, crisp voice followed by a deep, muffled roar.

A gigantic eagle with Dragon Head, covered in dark purple feathers, and accompanied by surging lightning, flew at breakneck speed from a great distance.

A giant ape with bright purple fur standing on end, muscular body, and strange black markings on its face trampled the earth as it galloped through the gap in the "thumb" of the Demon Hand Stone Forest.

'Thunder Dragon Eagle and Purple Lightning Demon Ape! Are they joining forces to challenge Wind Conquest Dragon's dominance?'

Both of these are near-top-tier Soul Beast with top-tier bloodlines and ecological niches similar to the Wind Conquest Dragon.

You Chen had previously encountered the Purple Lightning Demon Ape, but he had only encountered traces left by the Thunder Dragon Eagle.

The Purple Lightning Demon Ape You Chen had already observed and determined that its cultivation period was 72,000 years, while on the other side was the Thunder Dragon Eagle...

'Seventy-five thousand years of cultivation!'

Although the two near-top-tier Soul Beast were slightly inferior to Wind Conquest Dragon, the gap was by no means insurmountable!

If Wind Conquest Dragon is Titled Douluo -level fighter, then the other two are the pinnacle of Soul Douluo power!

It goes without saying that this will be a fierce battle!

'Chance!'

You Chen's eyes lit up.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind—this is a timeless strategy.

The best time for him to make his move is when both sides are locked in fierce combat!

Ugh—.

The air began to hum.

Unlike You Chen, after this period of training and deliberate practice, had already discovered his long-standing advantage in concealing himself within the Calamity Mountain Range, was his Second Incarnation! In his Second Incarnation state, he only exhibited level 40 Soul Power fluctuations, which, in the perception of Soul Beast, was equivalent to the aura of a thousand-year-old Soul Beast.

In this core area, unless you're too close, you'd probably be mistaken for another chaotic energy field, or for an unlucky little animal that was accidentally caught in the energy field's upheaval and blown here by mistake...

Having just eaten his fill, Wind Conquest Dragon was somewhat relaxed and wouldn't pay much attention to You Chen's presence.

However, when the two Soul Beast invaded Wind Conquest Dragon's territory, Wind Conquest Dragon immediately sensed their presence. The moment he opened his eyes, the air began to vibrate.

Teng!

With a flap of its wings, Wind Conquest Dragon soared into the sky in the blink of an eye, heading straight for the Thunder Dragon Eagle.

Witnessing this, You Chen's eyes widened in disbelief: 'So fast! This speed... is definitely no less than that of the Azure Luan Douluo! Is it because of its large size and astonishing wingspan that it's so fast?'

Witnessing the speed of his prey, You Chen's expression became more serious.

"No, don't worry too much. Even if he's faster, his agility is relatively inferior. Overall, Wind Conquest Dragon's speed hasn't reached the level of Super Douluo. Don't scare yourself."

You Chen calmed himself down and began to observe the battle between the Soul Beast from the shadows.