Douluo: Unlocking the Great Secrets of the Human Body, Becoming a Heavenly Demon

The mecha was so fast it seemed to teleport. In the blink of an eye, its massive iron fist was above Bai Xu's head.

But Bai Xu's figure flickered, and he appeared a hundred meters away the next moment. Gu Yue had grabbed his arm, and her spatial teleportation saved his life.

"Spirit Strangulation!"

Bai Xu was no pushover either. He had long scattered Spiritual Threads throughout the surroundings. The moment the Evil Soul Master dared to attack him at close range, dozens of Spiritual Threads rapidly assaulted the Evil Soul Master's Spirit Sea.

"Aaaahhhhh!!!!"

"How is this possible!? You only have Three-Ring Cultivation—how can you injure a Soul Emperor!?"

His Spirit Sea shook violently, its boundaries unstable, while his mental space showed faint signs of collapse. The Evil Soul Master's entire body was wounded by the spikes formed from Bai Xu's Spiritual Threads. Within his Spirit Sea, he was like a hedgehog, helplessly rolling across the surface of the sea.

Outside.

Gu Yue continuously flickered across the sea with Bai Xu. Blood streamed from his seven orifices, and the backlash had rendered him unconscious.

Gu Yue examined Bai Xu's face and said, "How strange. His Mental Attack can easily tear through a Soul Emperor's mental defenses and even damage his foundation, yet the backlash he suffered isn't as severe as expected. He merely fainted; his Spirit Sea hasn't collapsed."

"Is it because his soul is of a higher level? A level so high that even I can't understand it?"

Gu Yue carried Bai Xu as she hurried toward Leng Jiuming. In less than a dozen seconds, they met up.

Gu Yue summarized briefly, "The Village Chief was controlled by an Evil Soul Master. Bai Xu was injured by the Evil Soul Master. This place appears to be a deadly trap laid by him."

Seeing the unconscious Bai Xu, rage rose in Leng Jiuming's heart. He forced himself to calm down and rushed back to the island with the two of them, but the Evil Soul Master who had been clutching his head and rolling around was gone from the shore.

The moment he landed, Leng Jiuming sensed the concealed aura fleeing at full speed. He said coldly, "Trying to run?"

With his Two-Character Battle Armor equipped, his speed instantly rose to another level. After several booming sounds came from the distance, a figure resembling a dead dog was thrown back.

"A Six-Ring Soul Emperor. It's rare to encounter one like this." His gaze remained icy as he drew a Soul Tool Longsword and crippled the Evil Soul Master's limbs with several strikes.

Still enraged, he struck again. A palm charged with power smashed into the Evil Soul Master's chest, destroying his bodily meridians and leaving him unable to use Soul Power.

Only then did he settle down to treat Bai Xu. Yet Bai Xu had no external injuries; he had merely suffered backlash from using a Mental Attack on someone else. There was no way to heal that.

Then Leng Jiuming thought of something. He took out a palm-sized spirit fruit from his Storage Soul Tool, its soul aura incomparably dense.

"A Soul Spirit Fruit?" Gu Yue was startled. "Teacher, are you going to feed Bai Xu the fruit? He can't refine it in his current state!"

Leng Jiuming said, "You don't understand. His body is somewhat unusual, different from yours and mine. Eating it may have an effect. The Soul Spirit Fruit nourishes the soul, so it is perfectly suited to his current condition."

Once the spirit fruit entered his stomach, its dense soul aura unexpectedly triggered changes in Bai Xu's body. His spleen and lungs respectively glowed earthy yellow and brilliant gold. Then Metal Element generated Water Element, and dark blue points of light appeared in his Kidneys. The Water Element aura merged with the other two elements, nourishing Bai Xu's soul together with the Soul Spirit Fruit.

Leng Jiuming showed little surprise at the abnormality in Bai Xu's body and instructed, "Remember, what happens to him must not be spread outside."

Gu Yue stared fixedly at Bai Xu's body and nodded. "I understand."

Within just a few minutes, Bai Xu woke up.

Seeing Leng Jiuming's return, Bai Xu immediately felt much more at ease. "Teacher, this man controlled the old Village Chief. The real Village Chief is already dead."

Leng Jiuming nodded. "I've found the missing Zhang Wa and his mother."

!!!

"Where?"

"At the center of the Blue Ringed Jellyfish swarm."

"What!?" Gu Yue and Bai Xu were both shocked.

Leng Jiuming explained, "I'm afraid that the Blue Ringed Jellyfish swarm formed a friendship with that boy Zhang Wa and sheltered him because of it. There is a giant jellyfish with no less than eighty thousand years of cultivation in that swarm. Even I would struggle against it. It seems we won't be able to complete this mission, but handing in a Six-Ring Soul Emperor should still be acceptable."

Boom!

The situation suddenly changed. A hundred-meter-long Blue Ringed Jellyfish emerged from beneath the sea, lurking close before everyone's eyes.

Sitting atop the jellyfish's head were Zhang Wa and his mother.

Leng Jiuming instantly equipped his battle armor and fully activated his mecha, shielding Bai Xu and Gu Yue behind him as he confronted the eighty-thousand-year Blue Ringed Jellyfish.

But Gu Yue's expression suddenly became strange. As she looked at the Blue-Dressed Woman atop the Blue Ringed Jellyfish, the light in her eyes kept shifting, and her expression became abnormal.

Mysterious Yellow Qi circulated on its own in Bai Xu's eyes. He softly said, "Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast Transformation."

"What!?"

Leng Jiuming was utterly horrified. At this moment, he had not the slightest doubt about Bai Xu's words. No wonder that woman could command the Blue Ringed Jellyfish—she was a transformed one-hundred-thousand-year Blue Ringed Jellyfish!

Then Zhang Wa, the child she had borne, possessed half-human, half-beast blood. No wonder the villagers had seen Zhang Wa communicate with the Blue Ringed Jellyfish.

The Blue-Dressed Woman spoke. "Are you Soul Masters from the continent? Can I entrust my child to you?"

Leng Jiuming snorted coldly. "He became an Evil Soul Master and has already killed people. He will surely be wanted by the Soul Master world in the future."

"No. The truth is not as you imagine." The Blue-Dressed Woman gently stroked Zhang Wa's forehead. "Show them your martial soul."

Zhang Wa nodded. The Blue Ringed Jellyfish possessed him, and both his hair and eyes turned azure blue. There was not a trace of an Evil Soul Master's aura around him.

Zhang Wa's Mother continued, "Ever since that one-hundred-thousand-year Deep Sea Alligator Gar arrived in the nearby waters, nearly every school of fish in the area has been devoured by it. There were no fish to catch around the island, and everyone fell into panic.

"Later, villagers saw Zhang Wa playing with young Blue Ringed Jellyfish by the shore. Word spread from one person to ten, then ten to a hundred, until rumors arose that our family had caused all of this.

"Although I wanted to explain, the villagers would not listen. So I intended to gather the jellyfish swarm and drive away that alligator gar. But then I received terrible news: my husband had been driven to death by the villagers. After Zhang Wa witnessed his father's tragic death, he fell into madness. This man used his methods to induce a mutation in Zhang Wa's martial soul, and he nearly became an Evil Soul Master.

"I fought him fiercely and took back my child. In the deep sea, I used the secret techniques of my clan to stabilize his martial soul. That was why he did not become an Evil Soul Master."

Leng Jiuming remained wary. "How do I know whether what you say is true?"

Bai Xu said weakly, "Teacher, let me test him."

Looking at the Evil Soul Master lying on the ground, barely alive, Bai Xu's third soul ring emerged. Mental Domination instantly took hold. Mysterious Yellow Qi swirled in the Evil Soul Master's eyes, leaving him stunned and vacant.

Bai Xu asked, "Is what she said true?"

The Evil Soul Master answered blankly, "I was passing through Small Fishing Village when I happened to see the villagers drive Zhang Da to death. A desire to toy with them gradually arose, so I used my abilities to lead Zhang Wa astray and darken his state of mind, allowing evil to arise from his heart. Later, I learned of his mother's identity from the child. Greed took hold of me. I wanted to kill her, a fellow Soul Emperor, and obtain a one-hundred-thousand-year soul ring."

The Evil Soul Master laid out his crimes one by one, revealing the truth.

But Gu Yue's expression kept changing. She asked solemnly, her bright eyes filled with confusion, "Why did you marry a fisherman whose Soul Power was only a few levels? And why did you live on this island?"

Zhang Wa's Mother laughed bitterly. "Why? Looking back, it was probably forced by the environment we lived in. I was originally a one-hundred-thousand-year Blue Ringed Jellyfish, the strongest cultivator in my clan, yet I was still helpless before the tide of the era.

"The coastal waters were gradually occupied by humans, and Soul Beasts were hunted whenever they appeared. I could only lead my clan into the deep sea, but the deep sea was filled with ferocious beasts. There were many Sea Spirit Beasts with over two hundred thousand years of cultivation, and our Blue Ringed Jellyfish clan simply could not gain a foothold there.

"So I thought of humans. I wanted to understand humans, to understand how human society operated. I transformed into a human and hoped to secure living space in the coastal waters for the Blue Ringed Jellyfish.

"But I was wrong. When I transformed into human form and entered human society, when I learned that Soul Beasts across the continent were all raised in captivity within Star Dou Fortress, I knew there was no way forward there. So I came to this Small Fishing Village in the Outer Sea, married, had children, and cultivated alone.

"Who could have expected such a disaster to fall from the sky? My family was shattered, and I no longer knew where the road ahead lay. Though I am already a level sixty-nine Soul Emperor and can step into level seventy at any time, at which point I would become a true human, I do not wish to become human.

"I want to live alongside my clan. I do not want to face the scheming and deceit of human society. The darkness humans hide beneath their rules is an abyss deeper than the deep sea.

"Therefore, I hope you can take my son away. He is different from me. He is human."

"While holding a position, one must bear its responsibilities. I have done everything I could to find a path forward for my clan, yet in the end, all my efforts came to nothing. We still have to face the terrifying slaughter of the deep sea. I am not a qualified leader."

A terrifyingly powerful ferocious beast was slaughtering freely in the ocean. No one knew how many Sea Spirit Beasts had already died at its hands, especially those races that worshipped the Sea God.

This one-hundred-thousand-year Blue Ringed Jellyfish had initially been too naive, actually believing she could enter human society and seek benefits for her clan. But after she transformed into human form and learned of the continent's current situation, all such thoughts vanished into smoke.

This mother's story left everyone present silent. Gu Yue lowered her head, unwillingness and resentment intertwined within her. The conflict between humans and Soul Beasts had long become irreconcilable. Only one final war could decide the survival of both sides.

"Please, could you take in my son? Let him return to human society and grow up normally."

Struggle appeared on Leng Jiuming's face. Although this mother only had level sixty-nine cultivation, she could command several ten-thousand-year Sea Spirit Beasts among the surrounding Blue Ringed Jellyfish swarm. Such strength could even keep all of them here, yet she was pleading now.

The only person present who could answer this question was Leng Jiuming. As a level seventy-nine Spirit Sage, his status within the East Sea Spirit Transmission Tower could allow Zhang Wa to safely enter human society.

After a long silence, Leng Jiuming rose with a desolate expression. "All right. I will make sure he lives well in the human world."

"Thank you."

Tears filled Zhang Wa's Mother's eyes. She crouched down and kissed her son. Then the Blue Ringed Jellyfish beneath her slowly used its tentacles to send Zhang Wa to the shore.

Zhang Wa was unlike an ordinary child. His gaze was resolute, though his voice trembled slightly as he shouted, "Mother, when I become a Titled Douluo, I will definitely go to the sea and help you! I will help the Blue Ringed Jellyfish clan find a new path forward! So... Mother... you must not die."

Before leaving, the transformed Soul Beast cast a meaningful glance over everyone. Her gaze lingered briefly on Bai Xu before she resolutely turned and plunged into the deep sea.

Gu Yue watched the departing jellyfish swarm with respect. At this moment, she could not help but be reminded of herself. As the Master of Soul Beasts, she bore the heavy responsibility of reviving Soul Beasts, but would the outcome truly be as she wished?

Was her plan truly correct? Would humans truly submit once more beneath the claws and fangs of Soul Beasts?

She had walked on thin ice throughout her life. Could she really reach the other shore?

While everyone was immersed in the atmosphere of parting, Bai Xu frowned deeply and could not help asking, "Isn't this too much of a coincidence?"

His words left everyone greatly surprised.

"What coincidence?"

Bai Xu looked at Zhang Wa beside him and pinched the child's soft cheek. Why did she choose us, of all people, to entrust her child to? She could have easily taken Zhang Wa into the human world, spent some time investigating families, and with his Innate Soul Power, plenty of families would surely be willing to adopt him.

Yet that transformed Soul Beast chose us, the most dangerous option. It makes me wonder whether she knew that, once she told us the truth, we would not harm her.

Bai Xu and the others knew the truth. What if someone had evil intentions, or secretly contacted people from the Spirit Pagoda to come and besiege this transformed Soul Beast?

Especially when Leng Jiuming was on the verge of breaking through to Soul Douluo.

That woman had been willing to take such a huge risk, making Bai Xu think of God King Tang's methods in Douluo II.

Could something also be influencing Bai Xu in secret?