The Darkgold Fearclaw Bear stared at Zhao Xuanzhen. Sensing the surging aura around him, a bloodthirsty gleam emerged from the depths of its beastly eyes. Its massive claws scraped against each other with a piercing screech, and terrifying pressure spread outward!
It was a show of force. The Darkgold Fearclaw Bear seemed to be declaring its sovereignty before a human, proclaiming itself the ruler of this forest!
It truly had the bearing of a king. The cultivation limit for soul beasts in the Primary Spirit Ascension Platform was a thousand years, and as a Super Soul Beast that stood at the peak of Douluo Continent, the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear was nearly flawless in every basic attribute—attack, defense, strength, and speed. Its combat power utterly crushed ordinary soul beasts. Among the former Ten Great Fierce Beasts was a Darkgold Fearclaw Bear King that had even dared to challenge Beast God Di Tian!
Zhao Xuanzhen completely ignored the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear's pressure. His third soul ring shone brilliantly, two pale flames ignited in his pupils, and soul power surged through him. Every strand of his hair stood on end, while white streams of light bursting from the hair tips tinted the surrounding air. His body seemed crystal-clear and translucent, his bones, muscles, and blood taking on a semi-transparent jade-like sheen.
In the state of The Way of Wuji, Zhao Xuanzhen seemed to undergo a complete sublimation. Heaven and earth became one with him, and the power surging through his body was boundless, as though it would never reach a limit.
"Dui Word, Glazed Glass."
Black glazed glass covered both his arms and hands, reflecting a cold, hard gleam under the sunlight. At the same time, his first soul ring blazed brightly, and black and white streams of air clung to his fists and palms.
Bagua Qimen layered with Qi Follows the Heart!
With both abilities unleashed at full force, this was a side of Zhao Xuanzhen he had never shown before. His previous enemies had never been worth it, but this extraordinarily special Darkgold Fearclaw Bear was enough!
"Gan Word, teleportation!"
Space flickered, and Zhao Xuanzhen appeared before the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear in an instant. Its crystalline yellow beast eyes widened slightly. It had not expected a human to possess spatial abilities.
Zhao Xuanzhen had arrived too suddenly for the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear to dodge, but this soul beast overlord had never intended to dodge in the first place. That was the cowardly behavior of the weak. Its Darkgold Fearclaw came crashing down with peerless sharpness!
Relying on the hardness of Dui Word Glazed Glass and the protection of Yin and Yang Dual Qi, Zhao Xuanzhen exerted force as delicately as drawing silk. His Taiji Yin Hand stuck to the Darkgold Fearclaw and used its momentum to sweep it aside.
The Darkgold Fearclaw Bear's momentum faltered, and a stunned look crossed its ursine face at the misdirected force. Zhao Xuanzhen had already closed in. His penetrating force struck the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear's chest, and the soft, binding Yin Hand abruptly changed into a fierce and domineering Yang Hand, delivering a Shocking Palm toward its heart!
"Roar—"
The threat of death instantly awakened the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear's survival instincts. Dark gold streams of light burst from the fur covering its body. The Shocking Palm landed solidly on it, yet despite flesh striking flesh, an explosive clang of gold and iron rang through the forest!
With an enraged roar, the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear raised its most iconic and savage pair of massive claws. Dark gold phantoms over five meters long descended from the sky, ripping several cracks through the air!
Innate Soul Skill, Darkgold Fearclaw!
Trees, wild grass, earth—everything was shredded apart by those terrifying dark gold phantoms. This was the tyrannical soul skill the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear clan used to tear giant dragons apart alive!
Facing the Darkgold Fearclaw, Zhao Xuanzhen used the Gen Word of Bagua Qimen to create mountain rock as a shield. Taking the opportunity, the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear retreated. This soul beast overlord, always fond of close combat, had chosen to put distance between itself and a human for the first time ever.
Even though it had blocked the Shocking Palm, the violent pain of its spasming heart continued to race through its nerves into its brain. Cold sweat streamed from the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear as it silently regretted underestimating the Human Soul Master at the beginning. It had nearly paid the painful price of being killed in an instant!
This was not the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear's first encounter with humans. Which of them had not screamed and fled the moment they saw a bear? The slightly braver soul masters would at most use ranged soul skills to attack it. For the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear, a peerless hero like Zhao Xuanzhen, who teleported directly in front of it and launched close-quarters combat the very next second to strike at a fatal weakness, was also a first in its life as a beast!
Man and beast met each other's eyes. The human was cold and solemn, while the giant bear was bloodthirsty and savage. After one exchange, both understood the other's offensive and defensive strength. Now came a second battle without restraint, two masses of light crashing together heavily!
Elsewhere, Na'er and the Evil Eye Tyrant began their life-and-death battle at the same time.
The Evil Eye Tyrant and Darkgold Fearclaw Bear clans differed greatly. The latter's entire race possessed the Metal Attribute, while the former had the potential for multiple attributes. Yet the Evil Emperor, who suppressed the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear King on the continent's fierce beast ranking, had been born with only one attribute: Mental Attribute!
At this moment, the four tentacles and huge central eye of the Evil Eye Tyrant fighting Na'er were both silver-white, signifying that it possessed only the Mental Attribute. Its bloodline resembled that of the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler, making it one of the absolute best among the Evil Eye Tyrant clan!
The silver dragon roared, and the evil eye shrieked. Storms of soul power and mental strength ravaged the Spirit Ascension Platform forest, twisting the air into madness. Everything seemed to become unreal, while plants within the area withered at an astonishing rate, their life structures degenerating under the terrifying mental devastation!
The Evil Eye Tyrant wore a vicious expression as its mental fluctuation grew even stronger. Its four tentacles spread fully open, each one flashing with intense silver light.
As a Mental Attribute Soul Beast, the Evil Eye Tyrant longed to absorb high-quality mental strength. Looking at Na'er, who held the Silver Dragon Spear, its eyes were filled with irrepressible greed.
It vaguely sensed that if it could devour Na'er's mental strength in one go, it would surely transcend the shackles of its bloodline in the future and escape this prison-like Spirit Ascension Platform!
Driven by greed, the Evil Eye Tyrant brought out one hundred and twenty percent of its combat power. A beam of silver light erupted from its enormous evil eye, and space trembled wherever it passed!
Evil Eye Gaze, the innate soul skill of the Evil Eye Clan, was one of the most terrifying offensive abilities of the Mental Attribute. Its power and effect varied according to the individual Evil Eye.
Seeing that silver passageway annihilate every obstacle before it, Na'er had no choice but to temporarily avoid its edge. She activated the amplification of her Second Soul Skill, Silver Dragon Rage, and dodged to the side.
"Spatial Power... is that something you should be able to comprehend at your age!?"
Na'er recognized the familiar spatial attribute and accused the Evil Eye Tyrant of cheating!
Even a pure Mental System Soul Beast like an Evil Eye Tyrant could not comprehend Spatial Power at a thousand years of cultivation. Therefore, the source of this Evil Eye Tyrant's bloodline had to be an extraordinary being, allowing its descendants to stand on a giant's shoulders and touch upon the spatial attribute!
"If you're not an Evil Emperor Descendant, I'll eat dirt!" Na'er gritted her teeth.
After losing the protection of the Evil Eye Tyrant Ruler, the Demon Forest had suffered even worse than the Star Dou Great Forest. After humans and Evil Eye Tyrants had a friendly exchange, the entire Evil Eye clan relocated to the Spirit Pagoda. A great many of the Evil Emperor's descendants—sons, grandsons, and more—became the soul spirits most sought after by Mental Attribute soul masters!
"Thorn Dragon!"
Zhao Xuanzhen was, after all, a Third Ring Soul Elder, while Na'er was only a Second Ring Soul Grandmaster. Against an Evil Emperor Descendant that had comprehended the spatial attribute, she still needed her soul spirit's assistance.
"Roar roar roar! (Your dragon is here!)"
The Thorn Dragon charged out in exceptional excitement. Every time Na'er called on it to fight, it became incredibly excited, as if it were showing off before its ancestors while also desperately earning favor and battle merit!
Having broken through to a thousand years of cultivation, the silver on the Thorn Dragon's back had become increasingly dazzling. For some reason, its bloodline aura was also much stronger than that of its kin. According to Sky Phoenix Douluo Leng Yaozhu's judgment, Na'er's Thorn Dragon seemed to be evolving from a sub-dragon into a true dragon!
Who would the next Space Dragon King be? So hard to guess!
The physical advantages of the Dragon Clan were something Mental System Soul Beasts could only dream of. In addition, its cultivation was far higher than that of this Evil Eye Tyrant that had only just surpassed a thousand years. The Thorn Dragon released Space Element to protect its beast body and charged straight at the Evil Eye Tyrant through the attack!
It would spare no effort in easing its master's burdens!
The battle between the human Monster Soul Master and the soul beast's top bloodline entered a fever pitch on both fronts.
On Zhao Xuanzhen and the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear's battlefield, not a single part of the lush forest remained intact. It was as if a tornado had swept through, destroying all things in the world with unrestrained fury.
The ground was riddled with devastation. Stone pythons broken into several pieces and twisted, torn claw marks all proclaimed the brutality and savagery of the two culprits. An indescribable violence poured forth like a waterfall, and every mark seeped with the killing intent of a battle to the death. One could only imagine how cruel the fighting here had been.
A Qimen Array Diagram of Earthly Dao Technique blossomed beneath Zhao Xuanzhen's feet. The moment his figure vanished, five dark gold claw marks crushed his former position into dust.
The Darkgold Fearclaw Bear lunged down like Mount Tai Crushes Down, moving at a speed utterly at odds with the usual impression of bear-type soul beasts. Ice spikes suddenly emerged from the void, but the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear did not halt. Its fearclaws swept through them, shattering the ice spikes, while the flying Ice Cones were turned into white mist by its blood energy before they could touch its fur.
Then blazing fire ignited. The giant bear roared in pain amid crimson flames, and the dark gold radiance writhed and flowed as if alive, desperately extinguishing the Li Word flames on its body.
The flames scorched the beast body charred black, exposing crisscrossing, gruesome wounds. Some were so deep that bone could be seen, but the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear had long since ignored the pain of its injuries. Clearing the way with its Darkgold Fearclaw, it charged forward without fear, wanting only to tear the human before it into pieces!
The pair of Darkgold Fearclaws crossed into an X, and the air seemed to peel away layer by layer like fragile silk. Zhao Xuanzhen's eyes reflected the frenzied soul beast as four Earth Walls rose from the ground to trap the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear. Then Bagua Qimen bloomed with a deep blue radiance.
"Gan Word, Zhiming."
A layer of distorted deep blue ripples expanded outward from Zhao Xuanzhen, dyeing everything around them the same color. The Darkgold Fearclaw Bear's Ominous Aura vanished, and terror replaced the savagery in its beastly eyes.
The Darkgold Fearclaw Bear tried to struggle, only to discover that it could not move no matter what it did. Its consciousness was clear, but its movements were sluggish and its body frozen.
Carried by the gale, Zhao Xuanzhen appeared above the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear. The two figures overlapped vertically, and realizing that its enemy was directly overhead, the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear raised its head frame by frame, as if in an old film played in slow motion.
Pouring all its soul power into its body, the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear finally caught sight of Zhao Xuanzhen. A bloodstained ice blade spun nimbly between his fingers, and droplets of blood gathered along its edge before splashing down in an irregular half-arc.
Zhao Xuanzhen's white hair slowly turned jet-black. His glazed-glass-like body began to break apart from his fingertips, and in the end, even his martial soul and soul rings withdrew into his body.
The world resumed its normal flow. The Darkgold Fearclaw Bear felt that it could move freely again and threw back its head in a joyous roar, its howl shaking heaven and earth as it echoed into the distance.
The next instant, agonizing pain exploded. Along the hard, thick back of its neck, a fine bloodline gradually widened. Blood pierced through the surface and dyed its dark gold fur red like a gushing spring. Its enormous head hit the ground with a heavy thud, and the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear's final lingering gaze remained savage.
All was silent.
When a soul beast died in the Spirit Ascension Platform, it granted spiritual power feedback equal to one-tenth of its cultivation. Yet this Thousand-Year Darkgold Fearclaw Bear displayed no spiritual power. Its corpse shattered into specks of light and vanished, leaving behind two dark gold bones.
They resembled human palms, one left and one right, corresponding exactly to the left and right hands. Their five fingers were distinct, their palms broad and heavy, their tips long and sharp, and dark gold cloud patterns flowed over the bones.
Darkgold Fearclaw, left and right palm bones!
Conventionally, soul bones came in six major parts: the torso, skull, and four limbs. Anything beyond those categories was called an External Soul Bone!
Compared with ordinary soul bones, External Soul Bones possessed two major advantages. First, they continuously grew stronger as their host's cultivation rose. If their host broke through to Super Douluo or even Extreme Douluo, the power of their soul bone skills could rival Fierce Beast Soul Bones.
Second, after perfectly fusing with an External Soul Bone, it would remain with its master forever. Once its master died, it would automatically dissipate.
It was extraordinarily rare for a soul beast to drop two soul bones at once. In Zhao Xuanzhen's memories, there were only the left and right arm bones of Rakshasa God Bibi Dong's Death Spider Emperor, as well as Tang Wulin's future left and right leg bones from the Evil Orca King.
For this Thousand-Year Darkgold Fearclaw Bear to drop two External Soul Bones was even more exceptional. There might not be another case like it in the entire Spirit Pagoda! The left and right palm bones produced by the same Darkgold Fearclaw Bear were undoubtedly far more compatible and better matched than two different palm bones!
By absorbing the left and right Darkgold Fearclaw palm bones, Zhao Xuanzhen would gain more than a powerful soul skill. His physical fitness, hand strength, and every future Taijiquan attack would all increase tremendously!
"Zhao Xuanzhen is done. It's time for me to speed things up..."
Na'er had never been inferior to anyone in her life. Seeing Zhao Xuanzhen defeat the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear, a sharp glint flashed through her silver eyes.
Her first and second soul rings lit up. Na'er's fingers brushed over the scaled dragon patterns winding around the spear shaft, and those silver-white scales began to glow. The Silver Dragon Spear spun in her palm, and the path cut by its blade left fine cracks in the air like a shattered mirror, reflecting the Evil Eye Tyrant's astonishment.
Her silver eyes narrowed into vertical slits. Stimulated by her powerful bloodline, Na'er's eyes transformed into the Dragon Clan's iconic vertical pupils.
The Evil Eye Tyrant sensed danger, and its enormous eye emitted a high-pitched shriek. But the Thorn Dragon was no pushover, and the Spatial Power of the two soul beasts crushed against each other.
Its conviction to fight for its king was unwavering. The loyal Dragon Clan subject, the Thorn Dragon, tightly entangled the Evil Eye Tyrant!
Na'er leaped into the sky. Taking the spear tip as the origin, the space within a five-meter radius caved inward into a bowl-shaped form. Silver Dragon Slash cut open crystal-like spatial cracks. With a movement of the spear shaft, all the spatial cracks contracted at once.
"Screech—"
The Silver Dragon Spear pierced the core of the giant eye. The Evil Eye Tyrant let out an earth-shaking scream, and the forest seemed to ring with the crisp sound of shattering glass. Cracks burst across its pupil as silver streams of air sprayed endlessly outward.
The mental pressure abruptly dispersed. All four flailing tentacles came to a halt, and the Evil Eye Tyrant collapsed and disintegrated like the Darkgold Fearclaw Bear, leaving behind a silver-white eye the size of a palm, shimmering with an unusual radiance.
Evil Eye Tyrant External Soul Bone, Evil Eye!
Leng Yaozhu's gift: three great External Soul Bones!
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