Black King's Blood: Nidhogg (Part 1)
The outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, Douluo Continent.
As the oldest forest on Douluo Continent, the Star Dou Great Forest had always been the largest forest on the continent and the gathering place with the greatest number and variety of Soul Beasts.
If you were willing to spend time searching, you could find almost any Soul Beast you wanted here—except for Sea Soul Beasts.
Seen from high above, the Star Dou Great Forest was a vast expanse of green. Countless ancient trees, each hundreds of meters tall, grew close together throughout the forest,
their branches and leaves crisscrossing to form a dense canopy that kept the sunlight firmly outside. The forest below was gloomy and dark, making it seem fraught with danger.
"Roar!"
A deafening roar rang out across the outskirts, shattering the forest's quiet. A dense thicket shook violently, and the next instant, a huge shadow burst out of it!
The Blue Silver Grass scattered across the ground gave off a faint blue glow, making the shadow's full form visible in midair.
It was a massive Soul Beast that resembled a horned lizard. Two sharp horns jutted from its head, and its body was covered in gleaming spikes, like a suit of sturdy armor. Its muscular limbs pumped as it raced across the ground, and its five claws were so sharp that rocks shattered at a touch.
Its thick tail lashed wildly behind it, creating a series of sonic booms. Trees exploded wherever it passed.
This was a Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard with a cultivation of around twelve thousand years.
Dragon Horn Hunting Lizards weren't well known among Soul Beasts. They were rare, and few people had even heard of them. But they carried a trace of rare Dragon Blood, which made them far stronger than ordinary Soul Beasts.
With a cultivation of around six thousand years, one could already contend with an ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
Yet this Ten-Thousand-Year Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard, powerful enough to dominate the Mixed Zone of the Star Dou Great Forest, now had panic in its blood-red eyes. It looked as though it were fleeing for its life.
And that was exactly what it was doing.
Among the dense trees above the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard, a figure appeared without a sound. One yellow and two purple Soul Rings slowly revolved beneath his feet.
Gloomy darkness shrouded him, making his face impossible to see. But his eyes shone with a brilliance beyond compare: Golden Eyes.
"My wrath is the wrath of a king. From the heights of Babylon, come forth and burn like the sun!"
"Word Spirit: Jun Yan!"
A language that did not belong to this world—ancient and profound, as though created by the gods—rang out in this forest, above the fleeing Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard!
The voice sounded like the roar of a giant dragon, majestic and savage!
It was also like the decree of a supreme king, issuing an execution order to his prey!
An invisible domain spread out from the figure. Within a radius of three hundred meters, every element but wind, fire, earth, water, and spirit was driven away!
The next instant, violent fire elements exploded around the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard! The blast was as powerful as a napalm bomb!
"Roar!"
The Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard let out a pained, shrill howl as the force of the explosion sent it tumbling to the ground.
Deep-red flames raged across its body, filling it with agony. Yet with its life in danger, it struggled to keep running.
As a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard wasn't unwilling to fight back. But the terrifying Dragon's Might radiating from that man left it no choice but to flee.
Whenever it faced those dazzling Golden Eyes, it seemed to see a colossal black dragon blotting out the sky.
That dragon's might was like that of the Dragon God. Its wings, which seemed capable of tearing apart the heavens and were covered in skulls, instantly snuffed out the beast's ferocity. All it could think of was turning tail and running.
Elsewhere, the burst of fire chased the darkness from the forest and revealed the figure in full.
Mo Yuan wore a black trench coat, and his long, ink-black hair streamed loosely behind him in the wind. His skin was pale, and his features were so beautiful they seemed almost demonic, flawless as if crafted by the gods.
His brilliant Golden Eyes were cold and murderous, with a trace of savagery, like those of a ferocious dragon.
Watching the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard below howl and flee in agony, Mo Yuan expressionlessly reached toward the empty air beside him and grasped.
A flash of white light appeared, and a three-foot-long, two-finger-wide blade gleaming with a cold light materialized in his hand.
Mo Yuan bent his legs and sprang like a tiger. Gripping the blade with both hands, he swung it down at incredible speed, tracing a Silver Crescent Moon through the air.
The strike was so fast that the curved blade vibrated at an imperceptible frequency as it cut through the air, letting out a shrill ringing that could tear eardrums!
No one on Douluo Continent could unleash such a flawless, murderous strike using only skill and physical strength, without a Soul Skill!
A torrent of blade light fell, slicing the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard clean in half at the waist!
Deep-red blood sprayed from its body with a shrill howl, raining down amid the flames burning all around.
The wound at its waist was smooth and even. As blood poured out, an extremely destructive force, an aura that seemed capable of annihilating all things, invaded the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard from head to toe.
Though the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard had an exceptionally tenacious life force thanks to the faint trace of Dragon Race blood in its body, it could do nothing against the fatal strike and that aura of destruction. It could only writhe in agony with half its body, waiting for death.
But Mo Yuan had no patience for waiting. After swinging his blade, he continued to grip it as he plunged rapidly from above, his black trench coat billowing like a battle flag!
He pointed the razor-sharp blade straight down and drove it toward the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard's head!
"ROAR!!!"
Terror, almost human in its blood-red eyes, the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard let out the final howl of its life.
With a wet squelch, the blade pierced its sturdy armor and plunged deep into its brain, grinding it to pulp in an instant.
Darkness surged in from all sides, quickly swallowing its vision. In the final moments of its life, the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard saw only those Golden Eyes that had terrified it beyond measure...
Whoosh—
Mo Yuan yanked the blade from the Dragon Horn Hunting Lizard's head and swung it in an arc through the air. The red and white gore clinging to it flew off.
"Twelve thousand years. That should just about do for my Fourth Soul Ring..." Mo Yuan said indifferently, watching the black Soul Ring drift slowly up from the corpse.
If another Soul Master had been there to hear him, they would surely have thought him insane.
Once a Soul Beast's cultivation passed ten thousand years, its lingering resentment after death would hide in its Soul Ring and unleash a fatal attack when a Soul Master tried to absorb it. Soul Masters called this Soul Shock.
Only after reaching level fifty, when both their bodies and mental strength had matured, could Soul Masters withstand Soul Shock. In the past, some Soul Masters had tried to absorb Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Rings beyond the limit their cultivation allowed.
Most of them had exploded on the spot. The lucky few who survived suffered a collapse of their Sea of Consciousness and spent the rest of their lives as idiots.
Mo Yuan knew all this, of course. He just didn't care. As a transmigrator who had read the Original Work, if he didn't break through the limits and absorb a Soul Ring, could he even call himself a transmigrator?
Besides, if you'd transmigrated, who the hell didn't have a cheat of some kind?