Killing the Mandala Snake Again II

Xu Jie watched the Mandala Snake slowly retreating and hurriedly summoned his martial soul as well. A sun slowly rose above his head, while the soul ring beneath his feet rose and pulsed. A fist-sized fireball suddenly appeared in his right hand.

Whoosh!

With a wave of Xu Jie's right hand, the fireball shot straight toward the Mandala Snake, which was hissing continuously at Dugu Lu.

Bang!

A violent explosion rang out. The Mandala Snake, which had been standing there blankly facing Dugu Lu, was immediately blasted away. Seeing this, Dugu Lu rushed forward at once. His first soul ring pulsed, and a green snake head appeared over his right hand.

The lifelike snake head bit down on the wound the Mandala Snake had suffered from Xu Jie's fireball.

Smack!

The Mandala Snake lashed its tail at Dugu Lu, sending him flying. Fortunately, Soul Masters with beast martial souls saw their physical strength greatly enhanced during Martial Soul Possession, so Dugu Lu was not seriously hurt as he lay on the ground.

"It's poisoned!"

Hearing that, Xu Jie did not move in to tangle with the Mandala Snake. Instead, he remained where he was, continuously using Fireball Spell to restrict its escape routes.

Time slowly passed beneath Xu Jie's repeated Fireball Spells. Dugu Lu, who had been lying nearby, got back to his feet and watched the Mandala Snake inside Xu Jie's ring of fireballs move ever more slowly.

Venomous snakes possessed immunity to their own venom, but that immunity only applied to venom from themselves or their own kind. They were not immune to the venom of every snake, since each type of snake venom worked differently.

Bang!!!

The Mandala Snake finally could not withstand the erosion of the Jade Phosphor Snake Venom and collapsed to the ground.

Smack!

Xu Jie grabbed Dugu Lu, who was about to step forward and finish off the Mandala Snake.

"Be careful. Use this to finish it off from a distance!" Xu Jie took out a flying dagger from the Black Ring and placed it in Dugu Lu's hand.

"Alright, thanks." Dugu Lu accepted the flying dagger without refusing. It was indeed better to be cautious at a time like this.

Whoosh!

The flying dagger shot out and stabbed directly into the Mandala Snake's wound.

Hisss!

The Mandala Snake had been playing dead, but the stab sent pain shooting through it. It immediately shrieked and began rolling around on the ground.

Squelch!

After several rolls, the Mandala Snake failed to dislodge the flying dagger from its wound. Instead, the dagger sank even deeper, and bright red blood gushed out at once.

The Mandala Snake instantly collapsed to the ground without moving. A yellow soul ring rose from its corpse.

Just then, a familiar figure suddenly appeared before them.

"Not bad. Absorb the soul ring!"

At once, Dugu Lu drew the soul ring over and sat cross-legged on the ground to absorb it. Xu Jie stood to one side, taking out the Milk Bottle Zhou Yi had given them earlier to restore his Soul Power.

Five minutes later,

Xu Jie put away the Milk Bottle, glanced at Dugu Lu, who was still absorbing the soul ring, then walked over to Zhou Yi, who was resting with her eyes closed nearby. "Teacher Zhou, can my second soul ring be a Thousand-Year Soul Ring? Anything under fifteen hundred years will do."

"The limit for a second soul ring is 764 years. You can't absorb however many years you want just because you say so." Zhou Yi opened her eyes and frowned at Xu Jie.

"Teacher, I really can handle it." Xu Jie froze for a moment, feeling somewhat helpless. After ten thousand years of development, Yu Xiaogang's so-called optimal soul ring ratio had long become complete nonsense. The age limit for absorbing soul rings was tied to a Soul Master's physical condition and mental endurance.

If a Soul Master had gone hungry since childhood and possessed a frail body, trying to make him absorb a four-hundred-year soul ring would get him blown apart by the power within it in minutes.

And logically speaking, the limit for a seventh soul ring should be around fifty thousand years, but wasn't there someone in the inner courtyard who had absorbed a hundred-thousand-year soul ring?

"Whether you can handle it isn't for you to decide." Zhou Yi rose to her feet, shook her head, and pointed at Xu Jie.

The speed of a six-ringed Soul Emperor was far beyond what Xu Jie could perceive at this point. Before he could react, Zhou Yi's slender fingers, clearly at odds with her apparent age, touched his shoulder.

"Mmgh!!!" Xu Jie suddenly grunted.

A powerful surge of Soul Power suddenly erupted within Xu Jie's body. Fortunately, while the Soul Power was fierce, it did not rush toward his relatively fragile meridians. Instead, it spread throughout his body and began squeezing his muscles.

Huff!

He exhaled a breath of turbid air. In barely a minute, the formidable Soul Power inside him had been completely devoured by his Nine Yang Soul Power, and that was with him deliberately slowing the devouring process.

"Mm, your physical condition is sufficient. But what about your mental strength?" Zhou Yi watched Xu Jie recover in such a short time, a trace of shock appearing in her eyes. The powerful aura of a Soul Emperor around her suddenly condensed and poured entirely onto Xu Jie.

Standing there, Xu Jie only felt a powerful aura suddenly emerge from Zhou Yi's body. Then... nothing happened.

Zhou Yi looked at Xu Jie, whose expression remained unchanged even after a full minute beneath her aura, and the shock in her eyes grew stronger.

"You were right. You really can absorb a Thousand-Year Soul Ring." Zhou Yi withdrew all her aura back into her body. She had already decided that once they returned, she would report this to the Sea God Pavilion. So long as a genius like this did not die prematurely, he would certainly enter the inner courtyard—perhaps even the Sea God Pavilion.

Huff!

Dugu Lu, having successfully absorbed the soul ring, stood up with a delighted expression. Two yellow soul rings slowly rose from beneath his feet. Emerald scales now covered more than half his face, and the transformed snake pupils in his eyes were even more aggressive than before.

"What's your soul skill?" Zhou Yi came back to her senses and looked at Dugu Lu, who had summoned his martial soul beside her.

Pfft!

Dugu Lu's second soul ring lit up. He opened his mouth and breathed out a stream of green vapor toward the Mandala Snake's corpse nearby. The ground touched by the green vapor beneath the corpse immediately melted into thick liquid and seeped into the earth.

"This soul skill is called Snake Breath," Dugu Lu explained.

"Mm, not bad. Get ready." Zhou Yi said nothing more. The black metallic wings on her back spread open again, and she transformed into a streak of light before vanishing.

Dugu Lu raised his eyebrows at Xu Jie, clearly quite pleased with his soul skill.

Xu Jie smiled faintly at Dugu Lu. That soul skill was indeed quite good. It was a semi-ranged soul skill; as long as he had enough Soul Power, using it to disgust people would definitely be highly effective.

Whoosh!

Zhou Yi appeared before them again, tossing a gigantic wild boar as tall as a person in front of them. Blazing flames burned across the boar's back.

"A Thousand-Year Flame Pig? Teacher Zhou must have made a mistake!" Dugu Lu cried out, turning to look for Zhou Yi. Yet he found that, just as before, Zhou Yi had vanished after tossing down the Flame Pig.