Dugu Bo

"You finally came out!"

Shadow Moon looked at the young man with dark green hair standing before him.

From the very beginning, Shadow Moon had sensed the other's presence. Though he had only felt it for an instant, he knew someone had been watching their battle.

Especially after Shadow Moon defeated Tian Yuheng, that gaze became increasingly intense. And when Shadow Moon advanced toward Dugu Yan, that gaze felt as though it wanted to slice him into a thousand pieces.

So, just as Shadow Moon had expected, when he prepared to make a probing move against Dugu Yan, the other party finally appeared.

However, Shadow Moon was naturally no stranger to the dark green-haired man before him. He had done plenty of research.

Dugu Bo—the grandfather of Dugu Yan, whom Shadow Moon had intended to target—and also one of the exceedingly rare Titled Douluo of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Though he could be called the bottom rung among Titled Douluo, the Heaven Dou Empire simply did not have many Titled Douluo to begin with.

Its openly acknowledged enshrined expert was Poison Douluo Dugu Bo. It was not that there were no Titled Douluo within the Heaven Dou Empire, but those people were elders of the Upper Three Sects and the like. Why would they listen to the Heaven Dou Emperor?

To be honest, which of those sects was not stronger than the Heaven Dou Empire? But the Heaven Dou Empire had numbers.

Even if those Titled Douluo declared that they would obey the Heaven Dou Emperor's orders, if you were the emperor, would you dare command them?

To be honest, there were only two reasons Dugu Bo had remained in the Heaven Dou Empire as an enshrined expert.

First, he had a deep friendship with the prince, so he was willing to serve as an enshrined expert in support of him.

Second, naturally, was Dugu Yan. Dugu Yan attended Heaven Dou Royal Academy, and the empire had given him so many things, so he naturally became an enshrined expert of the Heaven Dou Empire.

Although, in the original story, the protagonists led by Tang San went to Sea God Island to grind levels before even reaching the middle of the story, honestly, it was because there was not much left to write.

Take One Piece's protagonist Luffy as an example—he had a reason too. There were so many big shots in the New World, and Luffy did not even know what Haki was. Of course he had to go train.

But the training was only needed for the plot, so while the setting said Luffy trained for two years, the story simply skipped straight over it.

They only released a 3D2Y movie that roughly showed what he trained.

Then, the transformed Straw Hat crew naturally gave readers the sense that they had grown stronger.

But you could not feel that in the original story. Why? Because it clearly wrote out exactly how the protagonists leveled up.

Some people might say that was a good thing. It certainly was, but if you wrote it like a running account, it became boring.

In the early stages, you could watch Tang San train, obtain Martial Souls, and participate in competitions bit by bit.

Then suddenly it told you, I'm going for a God Trial, and he directly rose to Titled Douluo. Soul Rings? The gods directly gave him God-given Soul Rings, all at the maximum age limit!

So, the original story was truly best in its early stages.

That was a bit of a digression. Back to Dugu Bo.

Dugu Bo was a very special Titled Douluo.

Although Dugu Bo had everything a Titled Douluo should possess, anyone who had read the original story knew that Dugu Bo always gave people the impression that he was weak.

In truth, Dugu Bo's Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul was very strong, but the people he fought were too powerful.

Chrysanthemum Douluo's Martial Soul was stronger than Dugu Bo's, and his Soul Power was higher as well. So whenever Dugu Bo encountered Chrysanthemum Douluo, he was done for.

Though that was said, Dugu Bo really was still the bottom rung among the Titled Douluo of Douluo Continent. His poison was powerful, but Tang San was not afraid of poison, while others with higher Soul Power developed resistance to it. Naturally, he was weakened.

But Dugu Bo's greatest strength was not fighting opponents of the same level, but dealing with those below his level.

Dugu Bo's poison could turn a battlefield into one containing only Titled Douluo. That was the most terrifying thing about him.

Back on the arena.

"Oh? It seems you sensed my arrival long ago?"

Dugu Bo narrowed his eyes as he looked at Shadow Moon.

Although Dugu Bo was the weakest Titled Douluo, he was still a Titled Douluo. He was not someone a mere Soul Ancestor like Shadow Moon could compare to.

Dugu Bo was also shocked by Shadow Moon. After all, Shadow Moon was a Soul Ancestor, while Dugu Yan, Tian Yuheng, and the others were Soul Elders—a difference of ten levels.

But a ten-level gap at the lower ranks was not actually that difficult to overcome, especially since Tian Yuheng's Martial Soul was the number one Beast Martial Soul on Douluo Continent.

Furthermore, Shadow Moon had completely crushed Yu Tianheng without even using his Soul Rings.

After fighting Yu Tianheng, Shadow Moon had immediately gone on to face the remaining six members of the Heaven Dou Royal Battle Team.

It would have been one thing if it were merely Osler, Yu Feng, and Shi Mo Shi Mo, but Ye Lingling and Dugu Yan had also both been instantly defeated in a single blow.

Even if Ye Lingling had absurd healing power, Shadow Moon knocked them down one punch at a time. You might be able to recover health, but what could you do when someone directly emptied your health bar and sent you to a black screen?

As for Osler and Yu Feng, the agility-type Soul Masters, they had been directly KO'd before they could even react. Dugu Yan had not even had time to make a move during the entire battle.

Not to mention the Shi Mo Shi Mo brothers. They had shattered the moment they were touched. Anyone unaware of the situation might have thought their Martial Souls were glass.

So now, even an idiot could tell that Shadow Moon was a true peerless genius.

Even compared to the Golden Generation that Spirit Hall boasted about, he was absolutely no inferior.

"Mm. You were already there when we first arrived at the arena, weren't you?"

Shadow Moon's words were a statement, not a question.

"Mm. You're quite impressive."

Dugu Bo smiled as he spoke.

"But this was only sparring. Was there really any need to strike so heavily?"

"No. I simply didn't expect the Heaven Dou Empire's strongest battle team to be so fragile."

Shadow Moon casually loosened his arm and pulled it free from Dugu Bo's iron-like grip.

That action made Dugu Bo's heart jolt. Even though he had not exerted force, it was still not something a mere Soul Ancestor could contend with.

"Fine. Since Yan Er and the others have lost, let me spar with you next. Don't worry, I'll suppress my Soul Power to the Soul Ancestor level!"

Dugu Bo's voice was filled with intimidation toward Shadow Moon.

"Since Senior wishes to spar, I would be more than happy to oblige. However, I hope Senior can suppress your Soul Power to the Soul King level and let Kotaro and me take the field together. What do you think?"

Shadow Moon responded in kind, making Dugu Bo even more displeased.

Who was Dugu Bo? Against opponents of equal Soul Power, he was meek and cautious; against those weaker than him, he struck with full force.

Face? That word did not exist in Dugu Bo's dictionary. Since they had dared attack Dugu Yan, they could not blame Dugu Bo for taking the field against them!

On the arena.

"Fine. The two of you, come at me together!"

Dugu Bo crossed his arms over his chest and looked coldly at the two before him.

"Kotaro, this time I'll have to rely on you to fight alongside me!"

"Shadow Moon, we're brothers. Let us brothers fight together!"

"Mm, together!"

"Hen Shin!"

"Hen Shin!"