Guixu

The Eternal Silence Return Ruins lived up to its name.

This place seemed like the end of the world, the abyss of the Deep Sea. Light was completely devoured, leaving only eternal darkness and deathly silence. The seawater was thick and freezing, filled with violent currents, chaotic spatial folds, and unknown energy radiation capable of tearing ordinary soul beasts apart. There was no life here in the conventional sense—only bizarrely shaped "Return Ruins Creatures" that survived by devouring energy residue and enduring extreme conditions, their Soul Power attributes equally strange.

This was a forbidden zone for life, but also the best hiding place and training ground.

During the first few months, Jingtian lived with extreme caution. He avoided the areas where energy was most violent and dug a temporary, crude nest in the relatively "calm" chaotic zone at the outer edge. Relying on his powerful concealment abilities and precise control over poison, he successfully evaded the senses of most Return Ruins Creatures, like a shadow blending into the darkness.

He knew full well that Sea God Island and its forces would not easily abandon their pursuit. Mo Lin's death and the terror of Dan-Devour were enough for Sea God Island to list him as a top-priority threat. The next pursuers would, at the very least, be led by Soul Saints; they might even dispatch Soul Douluo. If they could not find him in the Storm Sea Abyss, they would surely expand their search. Though Guixu was dangerous, it might not completely stop true experts—especially Soul Saints and Soul Douluo skilled in marine combat and equipped with special Soul Tools or Spirit Empires.

He had to grow stronger as quickly as possible! Before more powerful pursuers arrived, he had to gain the strength to protect himself—and even strike back!

Guixu's environment was exceptionally harsh, but it also contained vast, pure primordial Soul Power beyond anything imaginable in the outside world, wrapped in chaotic energy. This Soul Power was difficult to absorb and full of corrosive properties, but for Jingtian, whose Poison Source had undergone a transformation and who could use the principles of Poison Erosion to "digest" foreign energy to a certain extent, it was an exceptional supplement.

He no longer relied solely on hunting soul beasts and devouring their life essence as he had before. He began trying to directly devour and refine the chaotic energy drifting through Guixu. The process was painful and dangerous. A single mistake could result in backlash from the chaotic energy, damaging his meridians or even his soul. But high risks brought high rewards; the rate at which his cultivation improved through this refinement far surpassed that of devouring ordinary ten-thousand-year soul beasts.

At the same time, he did not give up hunting. Most of the bizarre creatures in Guixu possessed strange Soul Power attributes, and their life essence was difficult to absorb. Yet some contained special energy cores or toxic traits that offered immeasurable benefits to the growth and diversification of his Poison Source. He had even hunted a worm-like creature capable of spewing attacks with the spatial cutting attribute. From its core, he absorbed a trace of spatial power. Though it had yet to form a complete system, it gave him a new understanding of controlling his Poison Domain and moving himself.

Time quietly passed amid endless darkness, painful cultivation, and life-or-death battles against Return Ruins Creatures.

One year, two years, five years...

Jingtian's cultivation soared as though riding a rocket. From ten thousand years, he broke through to twenty thousand, then thirty thousand... Guixu's chaotic energy and the essence of those powerful, bizarre creatures provided him with immense accumulation.

His poison arts also continued to evolve in this extreme environment. To resist the erosion of Guixu's energy and the special attacks of those monsters, he developed the principles of Poison Erosion to new heights. His poison could not only corrode life and energy, but could even briefly "contaminate" spatial attributes within a small area, creating distorted, highly toxic "pseudo-domains." His use of Dan-Devour became more proficient as well. Though creating it still consumed an enormous amount of power, he could cast it faster and more covertly.

His body grew even larger, his tentacles like mountain ridges. After absorbing vast amounts of Guixu energy and special toxins, the dark blue rings became deeper and more restrained in color, faintly showing signs of turning dark purple. The golden patterns flowing between them also became increasingly distinct—mutations brought about by devouring rare metals and certain Guixu minerals.

Fifteen years passed in the blink of an eye.

When Jingtian slowly "awoke" from a deep cultivation session lasting several months, the Soul Power surging through his body was already as vast and boundless as the sea. His cultivation had astonishingly reached seventy thousand years!

A seventy-thousand-year soul beast! Among soul beasts, that was already a powerful existence capable of dominating a region and even challenging the hundred-thousand-year Heavenly Tribulation! And with his unpredictable, defense-ignoring Dan-Devour, along with poison arts that had become ever more terrifying and adaptable after fifteen years of tempering in Guixu, his true combat strength was likely enough to make many eighty- or ninety-thousand-year soul beasts tremble in fear.

He slowly stretched his eight massive tentacles, which seemed capable of stirring the undercurrents of the Deep Sea. His senses spread outward like a tide, easily covering dozens of li around him within Guixu. The energy currents and spatial folds that had once troubled him were now clearly visible to his senses, and he could even skillfully exploit or avoid them.

Fifteen years of lying low had transformed him completely.

Yet just as he was feeling his own tremendous power and preparing to venture deeper into Guixu in search of an even greater opportunity that might help him break through the hundred-thousand-year bottleneck—

An extremely faint yet incomparably clear tremor suddenly came from a distant connection deep within his soul!

This tremor was not danger, but a kind of... resonance? Or perhaps it was an echo that had crossed endless space and time, reaching the depths of his Poison Source when a powerful life source he had once "marked" completely vanished?

Jingtian focused his senses. The source of that tremor... was unmistakably the mark left behind by Dan-Devour! Moreover, it was the Dan-Devour he had planted inside Mo Lin, that Quasi-Soul Saint, in the Storm Sea Abyss fifteen years ago!

Mo Lin was dead?

No, he should have died long ago—shortly after Jingtian left.

But why had this tremor only reached him now? And why did it feel so... intense and unusual?

Unless... this was not merely an echo of Mo Lin's death. It was a special resonance produced when the Dan-Devour poison, after Mo Lin's death—or rather, when Mo Lin's corpse or remains were studied, activated, or even subjected to attempts at replication or countermeasures by some existence, such as Sea God Island's experts!

Humans... had never given up investigating and studying him over these fifteen years! They had likely analyzed certain characteristics of Dan-Devour from Mo Lin's death and might even have... traced the connection between this poison and his origin!

This thought set alarm bells ringing in Jingtian's heart once more! Though the pursuers might be "at least Soul Saints," Sea God Island's methods might far exceed his imagination. Their research into Dan-Devour could be providing intelligence and support for even higher-level pursuers—Soul Douluo, or perhaps even...

Almost simultaneously, at the very edge of his powerful senses and from an immense distance away—at least a hundred nautical miles, with Guixu's energy field severely interfering with long-range perception—he vaguely caught a thread of unfamiliar, terrifyingly powerful Soul Power approaching the Eternal Silence Return Ruins at astonishing speed!

That Soul Power contained the majesty of the sea, surging vitality, and a quality... faintly sharing the same origin as the Sea God Island aura that had lingered on Mo Lin fifteen years ago, yet countless times stronger! The intensity of this presence far exceeded that of a Soul Saint and was even much deeper and more condensed than the Soul Douluo Jingtian had anticipated!

A Title Douluo! It was absolutely a Title Douluo from Sea God Island!

Jingtian made his judgment in an instant. He had still underestimated Sea God Island's determination and the importance they placed on Dan-Devour! They had actually dispatched a Title Douluo! And through their study of Dan-Devour or some special method, they seemed to have roughly determined that he was hiding within the Eternal Silence Return Ruins!

"Fifteen years... from Soul Douluo to Title Douluo. No, perhaps he was already a Title Douluo, or had only recently advanced..." Jingtian's heart turned cold. Sure enough, what was meant to come would come, and it had arrived in the worst possible form. He had hidden for fifteen years, and they had searched for fifteen years. Now they had finally sent a true peak expert to kill him.

Seventy thousand years of cultivation, against a true Title Douluo.

What were his chances? Jingtian did not have the slightest confidence. Title Douluo were the true pinnacle of human soul masters. They possessed domains and controlled laws; they were far beyond Soul Saints and Soul Douluo. Dan-Devour might be powerful, but could it break through a Title Douluo's domain defense and successfully take root? Even if it did, how long would it take to corrode a Title Douluo to death, given that person's level of life and soul strength? That time would be enough for his opponent to kill him countless times over.

He could not fight head-on.

But neither could he simply flee like he had fifteen years ago.

A dark glint flickered in Jingtian's eyes as he made his decision swiftly. His massive body slowly sank into the depths of his nest, and he began erasing every trace he had left around Guixu's outer region over the past fifteen years as quickly as possible—especially the fluctuations from his recent activity and cultivation. At the same time, he restrained his aura to the utmost limit and even deliberately guided the violent Guixu energy around him to cover and disrupt the area.

Once he was done, he did not hesitate. He swiftly slipped toward the deeper reaches of the Eternal Silence Return Ruins, toward the core forbidden zone where the energy was even more violent and chaotic, the spatial structure was exceptionally unstable, and where even he had never dared explore deeply!

Since the Title Douluo dared pursue him into Guixu, then Jingtian would let him witness the true terror of this forbidden zone of life.

And he would use this desperate situation as the final... life-or-death trial for breaking through the threshold of one hundred thousand years!

A Deep Sea pursuit, a grudge spanning fifteen years.