Holy Dragon Slays Soul Sages, Traces of the Thunderclap Nethervine

Purple-Gold light flowed like liquid, enveloping Yu Yuanchen's body. The lock of Purple-Gold hair before his forehead danced wildly without wind, like burning lightning flames. Behind him, the incomparably solid phantom of a Thunder Sacred Dragon, covered in Purple-Gold runic scales and looking down with the indifference of one regarding ants, radiated terrifying Dragon Might that blanched heaven and earth! The air throughout the entire Desolate Valley seemed to freeze as the ever-present Lightning Element frantically gathered toward him in worship!

The cruel grins and fury on the two Elephant Armored Sect Soul Sages' faces froze instantly, replaced by boundless horror and disbelief!

"Th-this... what Martial Soul is this?! No, this isn't the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon!" the injured Soul Sage cried out. From that Purple-Gold Holy Dragon phantom, he felt absolute suppression originating from the level of Life and the Martial Soul Origin! The heavy pressure his Diamond Mammoth True Body had been so proud of was utterly fragile before this Dragon Might!

The composed Soul Sage's pupils also shrank sharply. Alarms blared in his heart as he roared, "Watch out! There's something strange about his state! Defend with everything you have!"

He did not need to remind them. Both had already driven their Soul Power to the limit. Their Diamond Mammoth True Bodies shone brilliantly as layers upon layers of heavy diamond armor formed, like two true diamond fortresses shielding them securely. They could feel a lethal threat from that Purple-Gold figure!

Yu Yuanchen hovered in midair, his Purple-Gold eyes coldly watching the two below who faced him as if confronting a great enemy. At this moment, his Soul Power, Qi and Blood, and Spiritual Power had briefly fused under the stimulation of his bloodline. His level of power had soared to an entirely new realm. Though he had not measured it precisely, he felt that he dared to fight even an ordinary Soul Douluo head-on!

"Bloodline Soul Skill, Thunder Sacred Dragon Descent!"

He murmured softly. The immense Thunder Sacred Dragon phantom behind him released a Dragon Roar that shook the skies, abruptly breaking free from his body and transforming into a Purple-Gold torrent of lightning that spanned the heavens. Carrying the supreme will to judge and pass sentence upon all things, it crashed fiercely toward the two Diamond Mammoth True Bodies below!

This was not an attack simulated by Soul Power, but the strongest strike born from his temporarily evolved bloodline Origin Power, fused with and elevated by the Soul Power of his first five rings! Its might far surpassed any Soul Skill he had used before!

"Diamond Barrier!"

"Mammoth Earth-Shaking!"

The two Soul Sages roared hoarsely, unleashing their strongest defensive and counterattacking Soul Skills. Dazzling diamond radiance formed thick shields, while Mammoth Giant Feet stomped the ground, unleashing violent shockwaves in an attempt to interfere.

However, before the absolute power of Thunder Sacred Dragon Descent, all resistance seemed pale and powerless!

"Boom—!!!"

The Purple-Gold Thunder Dragon slammed into the Diamond Barrier with devastating force! There was no stalemate, no contest of strength. The Diamond Barrier, capable of withstanding a Soul Douluo's attacks, instantly filled with spiderweb-like cracks like glass struck by a sledgehammer before exploding apart! Shattered diamond light scattered in all directions like fireworks!

The Thunder Dragon did not slow in the slightest as it smashed fiercely into the two Mammoth True Bodies!

"Puh!" "Puh!"

The two Soul Sages were struck as if by lightning and simultaneously spat out mouthfuls of blood. Their Martial Soul Avatars shook violently, their radiance instantly dimming by more than half! One foreleg of the composed Soul Sage's Mammoth True Body was directly obliterated by the violent lightning, while the injured Soul Sage's True Body had its chest cave in, covered in charred cracks!

With a single strike, the two Soul Sages who had activated their Martial Soul Avatars were already gravely wounded!

Yu Yuanchen pressed his advantage without mercy, mentally controlling the slightly more illusory Thunder Sacred Dragon phantom as it launched another savage assault. Dragon Claws tore through the sky; the Dragon Tail swept out and shattered mountain rocks; Dragon Breath poured forth, completely engulfing the two in a Purple-Gold thunderstorm!

The two Soul Sages could only struggle to endure with the Diamond Mammoth's formidable defense. Like two small boats in a raging storm, they were battered so badly they could not retaliate. Their True Bodies were continuously damaged, and their auras rapidly weakened. Their hearts were filled with despair and regret. Had they known Yu Yuanchen had hidden himself so deeply and possessed such a terrifying trump card, they never would have been so arrogant!

I can't drag this out any longer! This state consumes too much! Yu Yuanchen felt the power within him rapidly draining away and knew he had to end this quickly. Thunder Sacred Dragon Descent was incomparably powerful, but to completely defeat two Soul Sages known for their defense, especially while they were desperately defending themselves, would still take time. And time was what he lacked most!

A fierce gleam flashed through his eyes as he made his decision.

The deep sixth Soul Ring beneath his feet, black with purple, suddenly lit up—Sixth Soul Skill, Thunderous Armament!

Purple-Gold lightning rapidly gathered and compressed in his hands. Rather than forming close-combat Dragon Spear armor, it transformed into two incomparably solidified thunder spears, each flowing with destructive energy!

Effect Two: Thunder Spear Piercing the Sky, Explosive Evilbane!

"Go!"

Yu Yuanchen shouted as both arms swung out sharply! The two Purple-Gold thunder spears seemed to pass through space, vanishing from his hands in an instant. The next moment, they had appeared before the two Soul Sages desperately resisting the Thunder Sacred Dragon phantom's attacks! The terrifying piercing force and locking aura contained within the spears made their souls nearly leave their bodies!

"No—!" Despair filled the injured Soul Sage's face as he tried to evade, but the Thunder Sacred Dragon's Qi held his body firmly suppressed, making his movements sluggish.

"Squelch!" "Squelch!"

Two faint sounds rang out, like hot knives slicing through butter.

One thunder spear precisely pierced through the composed Soul Sage's Mammoth True Body's head, corresponding to the space between his actual body's brows. The other drilled through the enormous crack in the injured Soul Sage's True Body's chest and stabbed directly into his heart!

Time seemed to freeze at that moment.

The two Soul Sages stiffened, the light in their eyes rapidly dimming and scattering. Their massive Diamond Mammoth True Bodies began to crumble and dissipate inch by inch like weathered sand sculptures, revealing their corpses, faces full of unwillingness and horror, which crashed to the ground.

The Thunder Sacred Dragon phantom also dissipated, turning into specks of Purple-Gold light that returned to Yu Yuanchen's body.

Yu Yuanchen descended from the air, his face slightly pale and his aura somewhat disordered. Using the bloodline Soul Skill and the Sixth Soul Skill's killing move in succession had depleted him enormously. He did not dare linger. He quickly cleared the battlefield, disposing of the two Soul Sages' corpses and every trace that could expose his identity, then immediately left the Desolate Valley.

After a brief rest and recovering most of his Soul Power, Yu Yuanchen hurried without pause toward the Star Dou Great Forest.

Upon entering this vast Soul Beast habitat filled with an ancient and mysterious aura, Yu Yuanchen used the clues he had previously analyzed from the Five Academies' materials to narrow his search to a fan-shaped region in the forest's northwest, near the border between the Mixed Zone and the Core Zone.

The search was far more difficult and tedious than he had imagined.

This region was still enormous and had Complex Terrain, encompassing deep valleys, rushing rivers, dense primeval forests, and several Dangerous Places with chaotic energy. Not only did he have to remain vigilant against the powerful Soul Beasts that appeared here—Thousand-Year and Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were not uncommon in this area—he also had to meticulously search for every possible trace related to the Thunderclap Nethervine.

Following the clues, he first found the valley mentioned in the Godwind Academy records, where abnormal Deep Purple thunderstorms had once appeared. Lightning Element activity was indeed intense within the valley, but after carefully sensing it, Yu Yuanchen discovered that the lightning here leaned more toward naturally accumulated eruptions. Though its power was concentrated, it lacked the unique rhythm of "stealing heavenly tribulation" and the immense Life Force it contained. It differed from the phenomenon caused by the Thunderclap Nethervine described in the records. He spent two days there and found nothing.

Next, he searched the region mentioned in Blazing Fire Academy's records concerning Thunder-Struck Stones. He did find several ores containing the Lightning Element, but most had merely been caused by ordinary lightning strikes. Their internal energy was violent, yet he found none of that unique Life Aura. After searching for several days, he found only a few Lightning Attribute ores of decent but irrelevant quality.

Following Skywater Academy's hydrological map annotations, he traveled upstream in search of the underground river. The river was hidden extremely deep, and its entrance was well concealed, requiring considerable effort to locate. Trace amounts of active Lightning Element could indeed be detected in the water, but their source seemed to lie in deeper earth veins rather than being caused by a living creature's long-term influence. Moreover, the activity was far too weak to track.

He had personally surveyed the earth-vein magnetic field anomaly zone mentioned in Boulder Academy's report as well. The magnetic field there was indeed active and had a distinctive rhythm, but after carefully analyzing it, he found that it was more like a phenomenon caused by a naturally formed special geological structure. In essence, it differed from the magnetic field changes triggered by the Thunderclap Nethervine's act of going against the heavens.

Half a month swiftly passed in a cycle of setting out full of hope, then changing locations with faint disappointment. Like a tireless prospector, Yu Yuanchen traveled through forests where danger and opportunity coexisted. Relying on his powerful Spiritual Power and keen perception of lightning, he continuously eliminated false leads.

The first glimmer of hope appeared on his twenty-first day in the Star Dou Great Forest.

At the time, he was resting in an apparently ordinary depression surrounded by several hills. After failing to find anything for so many days, even someone as resolute as him could not help feeling somewhat anxious. He casually released a thread of lightning-attributed Soul Power containing the life-generating artistic conception of Awakening Spring Thunder, attempting to nourish his liver, which was slightly fatigued from days of constant travel.

Then, an unexpected change occurred!

When that faint ray of lightning, carrying Life Force, touched a patch of unremarkable damp soil covered in moss at the center of the depression, it let out a faint "sizzle," like a drop of water falling onto red-hot iron! Immediately afterward, something beneath that patch of soil seemed to be stirred. An incomparably faint yet supremely pure spiritual fluctuation, carrying a pure "greed" and "desire" for Thunder Power, flashed by and vanished!

Although that fluctuation had been so weak it was almost impossible to detect and disappeared instantly, Yu Yuanchen's Spiritual Power was extraordinarily sharp! He clearly caught that fleeting, unique rhythm—a presence that surpassed ordinary lightning, as though it pointed directly to the lightning origin, yet carried an overbearing Heavenly Might utterly incompatible with the entire world! It was completely different from the Lightning Element he had sensed at every other suspected location!

More importantly, the "greed" and "desire" that fluctuation displayed upon touching his life-filled lightning perfectly matched the Thunderclap Nethervine's trait of cultivating through devouring lightning, especially special lightning!

Yu Yuanchen's heart jolted, and uncontrollable ecstasy burst from his eyes!

"Found it! It's here!"

He forcibly suppressed his excitement and did not act rashly. The Thunderclap Nethervine possessed extremely high intelligence and excelled at concealment. What had happened just now was likely only an instinctive response it had unconsciously revealed. Its true body was surely hidden somewhere among these hills, perhaps even deep underground.

He restrained all his aura and carefully spread his Spiritual Power outward like a spiderweb, beginning to search inch by inch through these seemingly ordinary yet mysterious hills, which might conceal the continent's supreme Lightning Attribute existence.