Ancient Ferocious Beast

The two dragon souls clamped down hard on the Azure Serpent Emperor's body, continuously pouring the power of ice and fire into it, trying to kill it!

Fortunately, Li Chang'an had consumed two Immortal Herbs and possessed a certain degree of ice-and-fire immunity. Furthermore, since a Martial Soul was part of a Soul Master, the Azure Serpent Emperor shared that immunity. Thus, although the invading ice-and-fire power left it in unbearable agony—

It was only agony. The two dragon souls' power simply could not kill the Azure Serpent Emperor. Instead, they were pointlessly feeding it energy.

The Azure Serpent Emperor's body was like a bottomless pit, greedily absorbing the power injected by the two dragon souls before sharing it with the main body and the clone...

At that moment.

Although Li Chang'an was in extreme pain from the ice-and-fire power entering his body, deep within his soul, he could sense something wondrous slowly awakening...

This meant the ice-and-fire power injected by the two dragon souls was on the level of Divine Power. It was precisely the best nourishment for awakening his bloodline.

The two dragon souls possessed no intelligence, retaining only their instinct to attack. Thus, even as their source power constantly drained away, they had no concept of cutting their losses. Driven purely by instinct, they wanted to kill the creature before them and would not stop until they succeeded!

If it had been anyone else, even with ice-and-fire immunity, the uninterrupted stream of power from the two dragon souls would eventually have caused their body to burst from excessive energy!

But Li Chang'an was different. Fully awakening the bloodline within him required an enormous amount of energy. The power being poured into him by the two dragon souls was exactly what he needed most right now.

So, he endured pain and pleasure alike, feeling the "bloodline" slumbering deep in his soul gradually awaken...

Elsewhere.

Inside the underground cave where the Soul Beast Clone was located.

The effects on the main body were synchronizing with the clone. The Azure Serpent Emperor clone, which had turned into an energy cocoon, was covered in intertwined pure white and vermilion hues that merged and separated, as though undergoing some wondrous transformation.

Who knew how much time passed.

At a certain moment.

The dual-colored glow flickering across the Snake Cocoon suddenly dimmed, gradually receding until it finally became an oval-shaped egg.

"Crack..."

A fissure suddenly appeared on the eggshell.

Immediately afterward, the entire oval snake egg gave a sudden shudder.

"Crack, crack, crack..."

More and more cracks appeared across the shell, while the entire egg shook with increasing violence.

Finally, after reaching a certain limit.

Boom!

The enormous eggshell shattered into fragments that flew in all directions.

"Roar...!"

An ancient roar seemed to echo from the primordial wilderness.

An ancient Ferocious Beast from another world finally broke out of its shell and entered this unfamiliar world.

Upon closer inspection.

It was actually a strange snake with nine long snake heads!

Its body was covered in dense scales, black with fiery red patterns, and its entire body was a deep obsidian color.

"...What a marvelous feeling."

"Is this the exhilaration of breaking free from one's shackles?"

"HAHAHAHA!!!!"

Nine identical voices rang out simultaneously from the mouths of the nine snake heads.

At that moment.

Li Chang'an, whose ancient bloodline had fully awakened within his soul, felt better than ever before!

He felt absolutely incredible!

He would no longer be troubled by the Heavenly Tribulation Soul Beasts faced after one hundred thousand years, nor was he bound by the Million Year limit. Having awakened his bloodline, he was no longer a Soul Beast.

He should now be called an Exotic Beast—or a Ferocious Beast!

The rules of the Douluo World could govern Soul Beasts, but could they govern an Exotic Beast from another world like him?

The bloodline Li Chang'an had awakened was called Nine Infants!

According to the ancient text Huainanzi, Nine Infants was a great Ferocious Beast that brought disaster upon the world! A nine-headed monster, a kind of strange snake, it was a creature of water and fire, capable of spraying water and breathing flames. Its cry resembled an infant's wail, capable of bewitching hearts and muddling minds. Since it had nine heads, it was called Nine Infants.

Because it harmed the mortal world, this strange snake was later shot dead by Da Yi in the Northern Di Ferocious Water.

There was also another account.

It said that Nine Infants was born when heaven and earth had first separated. At that time, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was so dense it was almost tangible, producing countless powerful spirit beasts and monsters. This ancient Nine Lives demon was born in the deep mountains and great marshes, where yin and yang essence mingled!

Because it had been directly created by heaven and earth, its body was extraordinarily powerful and it possessed an immortal body. Furthermore, it had nine lives. As long as one life remained, it could gather spiritual energy from heaven and earth and recover.

In other words, one had to kill it nine times within a short period in order to end its life completely. Otherwise, even if it had only one life left, Nine Infants could quickly recover after some rest! It was simply absurd.

There was one more point that needed to be clarified.

Nine Infants' nine lives were not because it had nine heads. The heads were merely an outward symbol, so do not imagine that cutting off all nine heads meant killing it nine times.

Only after truly killing it once, then killing it again after it revived, would that count as taking two of its lives. This had to be repeated nine times to completely kill this Nine-Life Strange Snake.

Otherwise, if its nine lives merely meant it had nine heads, and chopping off all nine heads could kill it, then what difference was there between its so-called nine lives and one life?

Now that Li Chang'an had fully awakened the Nine Infants Bloodline, he had undoubtedly inherited all of Nine Infants' abilities, including those absurd nine lives!

As long as he handled things properly, nine lives were practically equivalent to endless resurrection!

After all, as long as he retained one life, he could slowly restore the eight lives he had expended with enough time and return to having Nine Lives.

Under such circumstances, it would be difficult for Li Chang'an to die even if he wanted to.

The only thing I need to watch out for is whether, after being killed, I revive directly from my corpse at full health on the spot, or whether a new body forms somewhere else?

If it's the former, then this resurrection is rather lackluster and extremely risky. The enemy might attack me again while I'm reviving.

At that point, forget nine lives—even ninety thousand lives wouldn't be enough.

The latter would be better. I could fake my death and escape, making my enemies think I was dead.

I just don't know whether this resurrection works the first way or the second.

And do I revive at full health? Or would I be in a weakened state?

Also, does "being killed" only refer to physical death? Does resurrection only restore the body? If someone targets my soul and destroys it, could I still revive?

Even if I can revive, would the revived me still be me?

How exactly are these nine lives counted?

Li Chang'an had far too many questions in his heart.

Unfortunately, his bloodline contained no inherited memories. It only gave him instinctive talents, allowing him to naturally understand what abilities he possessed, much like how people were born knowing how to breathe. That was all.

Precisely because he did not understand the exact form his abilities took, he realized that the nine lives granted by Nine Infants did not seem as secure as he had imagined. Compared to them, perhaps other powerful Exotic Beasts that represented absolute strength might suit him better.

For example, Yinglong, known as the ancestor dragon? Or the Candle Dragon that controlled time? Or the Heavenly Dog that could devour the sun and moon?

Which of those bloodlines was not stronger than Nine Infants?

The key was that he had no idea what conditions were needed to activate the bloodlines of other Exotic Beasts.

The protagonist's true Cheat had arrived.