Purple Ring Takes Shape, Hidden Weapons Fail

"Elder Ju, help me! Now is the best time to absorb the soul ring!"

Yang Yu's hoarse voice was firm and resolute, carrying an unquestionable determination. His face was pale, and the soul weakness brought on by forcibly activating Dragon Might still battered his consciousness. Yet his eyes shone with startling brightness as he stared fixedly at the Void Cicada in the pool, which had completely lost the ability to resist from extreme terror and could only flail futilely like a dying fish.

Yue Guan instantly snapped out of his shock at Yang Yu's precise use of Dragon Might to intimidate the soul beast. A sharp light flashed in his eyes, and he did not hesitate in the slightest. His Highness the Holy Son's orders took absolute priority!

"Good!" Yue Guan shouted in a low voice, his body flashing like lightning. He completely ignored the two uncertain figures by the pool—Tang San and Xiao Wu—and appeared above the water in an instant. He spread the fingers of his right hand and grabbed at the Void Cicada in the water from afar!

Vast Soul Power transformed into a gigantic energy hand composed of countless golden chrysanthemum petals. Carrying a terrifying suction force, it instantly scooped the transparent cicada silhouette, still twitching instinctively, from the icy pool water!

"Skree—!" The Void Cicada let out one final weak, despairing cry. Its transparent body struggled futilely within the giant hand of golden petals. Its Spatial Ripples flickered like a candle in the wind, but it could no longer break free from a Titled Douluo's control!

Yue Guan's gaze was cold and utterly without pity. Soul masters hunting soul beasts had always been governed by the iron law of the strong devouring the weak! He abruptly clenched his fingers!

Splat! A soft muffled sound rang out. The struggling five-thousand-year Void Cicada was instantly crushed apart by the giant hand of golden petals like fragile crystal! Transparent fragments mixed with strange silver-blue specks of light scattered in all directions before being wrapped up by the petals and annihilated!

A deep purple soul ring, so dark it was almost black, abruptly rose from the annihilated light specks amid dense, nearly tangible spacetime fluctuations! The soul ring was over a meter in diameter, its color as profound as purple crystal. Silver ripples flowed over its surface like constantly undulating water, radiating an energy fluctuation that made one's heart tremble! A five-thousand-year soul ring! And one with the exceedingly rare spacetime attribute!

The deep purple soul ring floated above the pool, slowly rotating and exuding deadly temptation!

"Your Highness! Quickly!" Yue Guan urged, a trace of urgency in his voice. Once a soul ring formed, if it was not absorbed in time, the residual will of the soul beast's soul would gradually dissipate, and its energy would disperse as well!

Yang Yu had long been ready! The instant Yue Guan crushed the Void Cicada, he took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the weakness in his soul and the churning of his blood! The phantom of the Dragon of Eternity and Time behind him instantly solidified! Its crystalline dragon body coiled in place, its left eye a collapsed singularity and its right eye a river of time. Vast, ancient Dragon Might spread out once more, but this time it was not attacking—it was protecting his soul with all its strength!

He sat down cross-legged on the damp grass beside the pool! His mind sank into his body as he fully circulated the Spirit Hall Basic Meditation Method, releasing his Soul Power without reservation like the most devout offering as he welcomed the hovering deep purple soul ring!

Buzz—! Drawn by some force, the deep purple soul ring instantly turned into a streak of light and descended over Yang Yu's head like lightning!

Boom!!! An indescribably violent torrent of energy, mixed with the lingering rage, fear, and unwilling chaotic will of the five-thousand-year Void Cicada, crashed brutally into Yang Yu's body like floodwaters bursting through a dam!

"Urgh!" Yang Yu's body shook violently as a muffled groan escaped him! His face instantly changed from pale to an unnatural flush. Veins bulged from his forehead, and beads of sweat rolled down like rain!

Pain! Tearing agony instantly swept through his entire body! The Void Cicada's energy was extraordinarily peculiar, carrying the sharpness of spatial cutting and the disordered sensation of time slipping away! This energy rampaged through his fragile meridians. Wherever it passed, it was like countless red-hot knives cutting and twisting through him! Even more terrifying was the impact of the soul beast's residual soul! The will of a five-thousand-year soul beast, even weakened by Dragon Might, was no trivial matter! Chaotic screeches, fragments of space, and turbulent currents of time frantically battered his Sea of Consciousness, trying to drag him into eternal confusion and madness!

Yang Yu clenched his teeth so hard that blood seeped from his gums! He gathered every shred of will and frantically circulated the meditation method, guiding his thirty levels of Innate Soul Power like an engineer building a dam, desperately channeling, containing, and taming the violent flood!

At the same time, deep within his soul, the phantom of the Dragon of Eternity and Time let out a soundless roar! A power that controlled the origin of spacetime spread out, forcibly suppressing and sorting through the chaotic temporal and Spatial Energy in his body, guiding them onto relatively orderly paths! Meanwhile, the Chaos Creation Lotus slowly rotated in his Dantian, radiating gentle Power of Creation that swiftly repaired the tiny meridians torn apart by the violent energy like the toughest threads!

The instinctive protection of the two God-Tier Spirits reached its limit at this moment! In particular, the Dragon of Time's natural affinity for and control over spacetime Soul Power allowed Yang Yu to forcibly endure what should have been a near-certainly fatal absorption process!

Yet the pain still crashed against the limits of his nerves in wave after wave! His body trembled violently, and the blood vessels beneath his skin wriggled like earthworms, as though they could burst at any moment!

"Guard him!" Yue Guan roared, instantly moving to stand directly in front of Yang Yu, facing Tang San and Xiao Wu! Nine terrifying soul rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black—rose from beneath his feet! The mountain-like pressure of a Titled Douluo erupted without restraint! Behind him, the enormous phantom of a Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum bloomed, its petal edges flowing with a sharp aura capable of slicing space! The air throughout the forest clearing became thick and heavy, filled with deadly killing intent! His eyes were cold as blades as they locked onto the two figures across the pool. His meaning was clear: move, and die!

Almost the instant Yue Guan's soul rings appeared, the shadows at the edge of the clearing twisted. Gui Mei's illusory figure emerged silently from the depths of darkness, as though he had walked out of hell, appearing behind and to Yang Yu's side. He did not release his soul rings, but the cold, deathly aura surrounding him formed an invisible domain of frost that sealed and froze the space around Yang Yu! Any energy or physical attack attempting to approach would be swallowed by the shadows!

Two Titled Douluo guarded with their full strength! All so one person could absorb a soul ring!

Across the pool, Tang San and Xiao Wu felt as though an invisible mountain had crashed down upon them the instant Yue Guan's terrifying Titled Douluo pressure descended!

Thud! Thud! Both their legs gave way almost simultaneously, and they crashed heavily to their knees! Their knees struck the hard rocks with dull thumps!

"A... a Titled Douluo?!" Tang San's face turned paper-white, his eyes filled with utter shock and disbelief! The glow of those nine soul rings scorched his eyes like nine blazing suns! The terrifying pressure that made even his soul tremble was unlike anything he had ever encountered! Zhao Wuji had been more than a hundred times weaker! How was this possible?! Why would an existence of this level appear in the outskirts of Star Dou? And why was he guarding a child who looked even younger than himself?!

He laboriously raised his head, his gaze passing over Yue Guan, who stood before him like a golden barrier, and fixed on Yang Yu, seated cross-legged on the ground with his body shaking violently beneath the deep purple soul ring's glow! Jealousy! Unwillingness! Malice! They gnawed at his heart like venomous snakes! That Void Cicada! It had been the perfect target that he and Xiao Wu had tracked for days! They had been on the verge of succeeding when this brat suddenly interfered! Not only had he stolen their soul beast, he had even summoned Titled Douluo to protect him?! Why?! Just who was this brat?!

Xiao Wu's situation was even worse than Tang San's. Yang Yu's earlier burst of Dragon Might had already left her unsettled. Now, facing the terrifying pressure of two Titled Douluo at close range—especially the cold aura around Gui Mei, which felt like a natural predator—her soul beast instincts were terrified to the extreme! Her petite body shook violently like a sieve, and her ruby-red eyes were filled with panic. She kept her head lowered, not daring to look at Yue Guan or Gui Mei, much less the five-thousand-year soul ring glowing around Yang Yu. That light made her heart pound with empathy and... sorrow.

"B-Brother..." Xiao Wu whimpered, her voice barely louder than a mosquito's buzz and filled with helplessness.

Hearing Xiao Wu's voice, Tang San's heart clenched! Seeing her terrified appearance, then looking at that brat surrounded by a soul ring and enjoying the protection of Titled Douluo, an uncontrollable rage and killing intent instantly overwhelmed his reason!

"Bastard! You stole my soul beast! You hurt my sister! Die!" A flash of madness crossed Tang San's eyes! He bit down hard on the tip of his tongue, and the sharp pain allowed him to forcibly gather a trace of Soul Power! His right hand flashed toward his waist!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Four black streaks shot forth like venomous snakes leaving their nests, tearing through the air with piercing shrieks as they flew toward the defenseless Yang Yu within the soul ring's glow! Two targeted his throat! Two targeted his heart! The angles were vicious and deadly! They were precisely the Tang Sect's Hidden Weapon technique—Hand-Flinging Arrows! Their arrowheads gleamed blue, clearly coated in deadly poison!

"Courting death!" Yue Guan's killing intent burst forth so intensely it seemed tangible! He did not even need to move! The massive phantom of the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum behind him merely trembled slightly!

Buzz! Four golden chrysanthemum petals, brilliant and blade-sharp at their edges, instantly detached from the main body. Though launched later, they arrived first, intercepting the four black streaks with perfect precision!

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Four crisp metallic collisions rang out almost at once! The four poisoned Hand-Flinging Arrows, capable of piercing refined steel, struck the seemingly delicate golden petals as though they had hit the hardest alloy wall. They were instantly knocked away, their arrowheads warped and twisted as poison splattered everywhere! The golden petals remained completely unharmed and continued forward, transforming into four golden streaks that shot fiercely toward Tang San with ear-piercing whistles!

They were far faster than Tang San had imagined! His pupils contracted sharply as the shadow of death instantly enveloped him! He wanted to dodge, but under that horrifying Titled Douluo pressure, his body felt filled with lead. He could not move at all!

"No—!" Xiao Wu screamed in terror!

At that critical instant!

The inconspicuous pitch-black ring on Tang San's chest, covered in cracks—the Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlight Night—suddenly erupted with a gentle milky-white glow! The light instantly spread, forming a translucent shield that enveloped both him and Xiao Wu!

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! The four golden petals slammed into the milky-white shield! The shield shook violently as though boulders had fallen into water, letting out an overwhelmed groan as spiderweb-like cracks instantly covered its surface! But it successfully blocked the fatal attack!

Pfft! The instant the shield shattered, Tang San suffered a heavy blow and spat out a mouthful of blood! His body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, crashing hard into a large tree before sliding limply to the ground. His face was ashen, and his aura had weakened to the extreme! The light on the pitch-black ring completely dimmed, and it seemed to have gained even more cracks.

"Brother!" Xiao Wu cried as she rushed to Tang San's side, her little face drained of all color.

Yue Guan snorted coldly. A trace of surprise flickered through his eyes, but there was even more icy killing intent. That shield was somewhat interesting—it had actually blocked his casual attack? But that was all! He was about to strike again and utterly crush this ant who had dared ambush the Holy Son!

"Elder Ju! Keep them alive!" A hoarse yet exceptionally steady voice suddenly rang out, halting Yue Guan's movement.

It was Yang Yu!

At that moment, the deep purple soul ring glow around him rapidly receded! The impact of the violent energy and the howls of the soul beast's residual soul swiftly weakened! He remained seated cross-legged, but his body no longer shook violently. Though his face was still pale, his aura became stronger, more condensed, and heavier at an astonishing rate! Strange Soul Power fluctuations, carrying the sensation of spatial displacement and time flowing away, rippled from his body like waves!

Above his head, the deep purple soul ring, as profound as purple crystal, gradually stabilized before completely solidifying and settling around him like a perfect purple halo, slowly pulsing! Silver Spatial Ripples flowed endlessly across its surface like living things!

First soul ring! Five-thousand-year Void Cicada! Successfully absorbed!

Yang Yu abruptly opened his eyes! Two concentrated beams of light shot out like tangible rays, lasting for two full breaths before slowly withdrawing! He felt the surging, dense Soul Power within him, now more than twice as powerful as before. He felt his meridians expand and toughen, and he felt an unprecedented liveliness and satisfaction radiating from the Dragon of Time Spirit deep within his soul!

He had succeeded! Not only had he endured the impact of the five-thousand-year soul ring, but at the final moment, he had relied on his powerful will and Martial Soul Origin to completely suppress and refine the Void Cicada's residual soul will! He could even faintly sense that his Dragon of Time Spirit had absorbed and fused with a trace of the Void Cicada's Space Attribute origin! It was extremely faint, but it was a good beginning!

He slowly rose to his feet and stretched his limbs. A faint series of crackling sounds came from within his body, filled with a sense of power. His Soul Power Level had astonishingly reached the peak of level thirty-three! He had crossed three entire levels! And that was merely the basic increase brought by the soul ring!

Yang Yu's gaze passed over Yue Guan standing before him like two cold arrows, locking precisely onto the Blue-Clad Youth across the pool—Tang San—who was supported by Xiao Wu, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth and venomous resentment in his eyes!

"Tang San." Yang Yu's voice was calm and without ripples, yet it carried a cold superiority. "Your Hidden Weapons are still as unimpressive as ever."

He raised his right hand. Within his palm, the phantom of the Dragon of Eternity and Time emerged once more. But unlike before, extremely faint silver spatial ripples undulated around its crystalline dragon body!

"Those attacks just now weren't even enough to scratch an itch." "Now, it's time to settle the score for your ambush."