The calm words rang in everyone's hearts like a morning bell and an evening drum.
Serpent Queen Medusa?
What was that?
Across the continent, all Spirit Masters were dumbfounded.
This was yet another term they had never heard of.
Yet after receiving the guidance, Dugu Yan's body trembled, and her previously chaotic aura truly began to stabilize.
She closed her eyes, and a faint purple serpent-shaped mark flickered between her brows.
The stalled evolution began once more!
At this moment, The Entire Continent fell silent.
Everyone was once again deeply Shocked.
Human intervention?
This was far more than intervention!
This was practically hands-on instruction—creation itself!
Heaven Dou Empire, inside a royal carriage heading for Sunset Forest.
Xue Ke watched the scene on the Sky Screen through the carriage window, her beautiful eyes sparkling with excitement.
"Great! Sister Yan is going to succeed too!"
She was genuinely happy for her fellow disciple, while her admiration for her master, Gu Nian, reached its peak.
Her master had always been so omnipotent.
Across from her, the gentle smile on the face of "Crown Prince Xue Qinghe" had long since vanished.
It had been replaced by unprecedented gravity and horror.
A monstrous wave surged through Qian Renxue's heart.
She was numb!
She was completely numb!
Where had this monster come from?!
Helping a Spirit Master evolve her Martial Soul?
Even the Deities of the God Realm could never accomplish such a thing so effortlessly!
This was no simple improvement. It was reconstruction and reshaping from the very source of life!
She knew Dugu Yan.
As Dugu Bo's granddaughter, she had inherited the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul. Yet because its poison was too tyrannical, her bloodline itself carried flaws and backlash.
With such a flawed Martial Soul, let alone evolving it, being able to cultivate safely was already a blessing.
But now?
Under Gu Nian's guidance, not only had its flaws been remedied, it was even evolving toward an unheard-of Nine Nether Underworld Dragon Emperor!
And from the sound of it, even the Dragon Emperor form was not the Endpoint?
There was also this Serpent Queen Medusa?
Qian Renxue felt as though her understanding of the world was being shattered and rebuilt over and over again.
This Gu Nian was absolutely the greatest variable in her plans!
Shrek Academy.
Deathly silence.
Everyone's gaze unconsciously gathered on Yu Xiaogang.
Master's expression was spectacular beyond words.
It went from red to white, then white to green, and finally turned utterly ashen.
His body trembled slightly, his lips quivered, yet he could not utter a single word.
The live broadcast on the Sky Screen was like an incomparably resounding slap, viciously striking his face.
A blind cat stumbling upon a dead mouse?
It could not happen twice?
Every word he had just declared with such certainty had now turned into the sharpest blades, slicing his pitiful pride and theories into pieces.
The air was filled with an atmosphere of unbearable awkwardness.
Just then, an ill-timed voice drifted out.
Ma Hongjun scratched his head, looked at Yu Xiaogang, who had lowered his head in silence, and carefully asked:
"Um... Master, are you still eating?"
Nuoding City, Shrek Academy.
Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back, staring up at the five words "Evolution in Progress" on the Sky Screen Golden Ranking, his brows tightly furrowed.
"Absurd! Utterly ridiculous!"
His voice was not loud, but it carried an air of arbitrary certainty.
Flender, standing nearby, was somewhat puzzled. "Xiaogang, is Dugu Yan's Martial Soul really that powerful? How could she suddenly rank seventh?"
Yu Xiaogang snorted coldly, as though he had heard the greatest joke in the world.
"Powerful? Flender, you know only one part and not the other."
He turned around to face everyone at the academy and began his usual "theoretical" lecture.
"The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Martial Soul may seem unparalleled in poison, but in truth, its flaws are enormous!"
"First, the poison of this Martial Soul backlashes against the Spirit Master herself. Why has Dugu Bo's complexion remained blue-green all year, tortured by deadly poison?
The root lies here! The stronger the Spirit Master, the more severe the backlash. One day, she will be Devoured by her own Martial Soul. That is its fate!"
"Second, this Martial Soul's upper limit has already been fixed! The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor is the Endpoint of its evolution. It is absolutely impossible for it to advance any further! This is the Iron Rule of the Martial Soul world!"
Yu Xiaogang spoke with unwavering certainty, as though he were the embodiment of Martial Soul Laws.
"As for this so-called 'evolution,' it is even more utter nonsense!
Martial Soul Evolution is a realm only Deities can touch! What gives some so-called Blue Silver God King the right? In my view, this is nothing more than a smoke screen meant to deceive others!"
"There must be an error with this Sky Screen Golden Ranking!"
He reached his conclusion, his eyes filled with absolute confidence in his own theories.
Yet the instant his words fell, the live broadcast on the Sky Screen suddenly became clear!
Sunset Forest, Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Within the misty haze, Gu Nian stood with his hands behind his back, his expression calm.
Before him, Dugu Yan sat cross-legged, her entire body wrapped in a dense emerald-green cocoon of light. Countless tiny serpent phantoms slithered across it, radiating a heart-palpitating aura.
Gu Nian's voice traveled through the Sky Screen, clearly spreading across the entire Douluo Continent.
"Yan'er, remember this: the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor is not your Endpoint. It is your shackle."
"Serpents are inherently poisonous, but poison is not the root. Trace it back to its origin and feel the call from the deepest part of your bloodline. That is not the hiss of an ordinary serpent, but divine words from antiquity."
Dugu Yan's delicate body trembled slightly within the cocoon of light, as though she were enduring immense pain.
Gu Nian continued to guide her. "Abandon the hollow title of Serpent Emperor and awaken the true Emperor sleeping within your bloodline. Above serpents are kings, above kings are gods!"
"With your human soul, command that ancient Demon God's body! Turn the Jade Phosphorous poison into Petrifying Divine Light! Turn the Serpent Emperor's body into a Descendant of God!"
"Awaken... Medusa!"
Boom!!!
As Gu Nian's final three words fell, the emerald-green cocoon of light exploded!
Divine light shot into the heavens, piercing the clouds!
An incomparably massive and noble phantom, radiating a primordial aura, slowly condensed behind Dugu Yan!
It was a Deity with a human upper body and a serpent's lower body!
Her lower half was a colossal snake tail stretching for a thousand meters. Every scale seemed carved from the most perfect emerald jade, gleaming with a deep and magnificent luster.
Her upper half possessed the flawless form of a woman. Her beauty was peerless, yet her face carried the indifference of a god.
Her long black hair cascaded like a waterfall, moving without wind. The tip of every strand seemed to be a tiny venomous serpent ready to devour its prey!
Most soul-trembling of all were her eyes!
When those closed eyes slowly opened, they revealed a pair of Golden Vertical Pupils capable of plunging the sun and moon into darkness and bringing gods and demons to ruin!
Merely watching through the Sky Screen, countless Spirit Masters across the continent felt as though their souls were about to be drawn into those eyes and turned into eternal stone statues!
The supreme race above the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor!
Jade Phosphorous Medusa!
Before you continue