Poison Bone

Deep within the lair, violet-black light pulsed madly like the heart of a dying behemoth, illuminating two pairs of equally cold eyes.

Blood poured from Jingtian's wounds. His blue-black poisonous blood mingled with the violet-black energy of the Soul Bone inheritance, giving off a nauseatingly sweet, bloody stench. The infusion from the Soul Bone Core's inheritance had been forcibly interrupted, and violent energy rampaged through his body, clashing fiercely with the newly inflicted cuts imbued with Sea God's Purification. The pain seemed to tear his soul apart. Under the twin blows of grievous injury and energy backlash, his aura fluctuated wildly, surging and sinking.

The Titled Douluo from Sea God Island blocking the entrance was none other than Sea Horse Douluo, Luoxius, one of the guardians of the Seven Sacred Pillars, renowned for his composure, decisiveness, and skill in tracking and hunting. His face was cold and stern. The crystalline phantom of a seawater trident in his hand flickered with an icy gleam. His azure eyes held not the slightest trace of complacency, only absolute calm and the determination to kill.

He wasted no words as Luo Kes had, nor did he give Jingtian any chance to catch his breath. The instant he confirmed that his ambush had succeeded and Jingtian was in terrible condition, he moved.

"Domain—Vast Sea Cage!"

Deep-blue light instantly expanded around him. Rather than pursuing wide-ranging suppression, it condensed and contracted like a moving water prison that kept tightening, closing precisely around the gravely wounded Jingtian! Within the cage, seawater grew thick as lead and mercury, carrying terrifying powers of suppression and cutting. It also possessed the purifying property unique to Sea God's Power, a natural counter to Jingtian's poison.

He knew full well how unpredictable this Poison Beast was, and how lethal its defense-ignoring poison technique could be, thanks to Luo Kes's intelligence. Thus, he opened with his strongest restraint, refusing to give his opponent any chance to unleash that bizarre poison technique! He intended to imprison Jingtian completely, then kill him with thunderous force before his poison could take effect!

You think you can imprison me?! Jingtian roared inwardly. His survival instinct and towering fury overwhelmed the agony. He could no longer maintain a complete Poison Domain, but the extreme sensitivity to energy currents and control he had tempered through twenty years in Guixu's deathly stillness reached their utmost limit at that moment!

He did not try to pit his broken Poison Domain against the intact Vast Sea Cage. Instead, he drove his remaining poison and Soul Power like exquisitely precise wedges, frantically "stabbing" them into the nodes and weak points of the cage's circulating energy! At the same time, his enormous body hurled itself recklessly toward the rear flank—toward the entrance of the fissure that still churned violently and spewed violet-black energy!

"Poison Erosion—Barrier Breaking! Guixu Assimilation—activate!"

Dark-violet poison erosion power mingled with a trace of Guixu's deathly stillness, corroding and disrupting the cage's energy structure like the most insidious acid. His rush toward the fissure also made Sea Horse Douluo frown. The vast, uncanny fluctuations of poison within it gave him pause.

In that brief moment of disruption and hesitation, Jingtian's battered body had already plunged halfway into the raging torrent of violet-black energy pouring from the fissure!

"You're courting death!" Sea Horse Douluo's gaze sharpened. Holding nothing back, he made the trident phantom in his hand blaze with light. It became a blue-gold streak that tore through space and stabbed straight toward Jingtian's back as he vanished into the fissure! This strike carried ninety percent of his power, bolstered by his domain. He meant to kill with a single blow!

Yet, just as the trident's radiance was about to touch Jingtian's body—

Riiip!

A thick tentacle that Jingtian had previously severed from himself and used as an "offering" to establish a connection with the Soul Bone suddenly shot out of the violet-black glow deep within the fissure as though alive, placing itself across the trident's path!

Pfft!

The trident's radiance pierced the tentacle without resistance and blasted it to pieces! But that obstruction had diminished most of its power and speed.

More importantly, the instant the tentacle exploded, the poison and Spirit Energy imprint within it, deeply linked to the Soul Bone, were fully triggered and detonated! Like a drop of water falling into boiling oil, the violet-black energy torrent deep within the fissure seemed utterly enraged. It let out a silent roar and erupted even more violently!

This violent energy shock not only further weakened the remaining force of Sea Horse Douluo's strike, but also battered everything near the fissure indiscriminately! Jingtian bore the brunt of it. It knocked him off balance and piled injury upon injury, yet he also rode its force to slip completely into the depths of the fissure. Sea Horse Douluo's Vast Sea Cage domain was likewise struck hard by this sudden torrent of wildly different energy, developing violent fluctuations and gaps!

An opening! A moment hanging by a thread! His last chance!

As the energy torrent swallowed him and his consciousness stood on the verge of sinking, Jingtian's hunter instinct overrode everything. He no longer thought of the Soul Bone or its inheritance. Only one thought remained—make this ambusher pay!

He lacked the strength to condense a complete Dan-Devour, which required delicate control. Yet a trace of its origin poison remained within him, highly concentrated earlier to connect with the Soul Bone and not yet fully dispersed. This strand had been prepared to "knock at the door." It was incomparably pure, but its brief contact with the Soul Bone's energy had also imbued it with an indescribable hint of antiquity and stillness.

Now!

Jingtian let out a silent shriek from the depths of his soul. Mixing that special strand of Dan-Devour poison with all his fury, defiance, and the most venomous curse he could muster before death, he used his final trace of Spirit Energy as a catalyst. Disregarding the limits of his meridians and soul, he forcibly compressed, ignited, and unleashed it!

This was not a precision shot seeking a perfect hit, but a desperate, sweeping eruption of poison, a strike meant to drag his enemy into death with him! Its target locked onto the blurred blue figure whose aura had faltered slightly amid the upheaval of his domain—Sea Horse Douluo!

A tiny streak of poison, deeper and darker than any he had ever released, almost indistinguishable against the surrounding violet-black energy, flashed from Jingtian's curled body. It pierced the raging turbulence and silently "drifted" toward Sea Horse Douluo.

It was slow and terribly unstable, as though it might dissipate at any moment.

Yet it carried the most primal intent of death Jingtian could summon in that instant.

Sea Horse Douluo's entire attention was caught up in the violent tide of Soul Bone energy and the upheaval of his own domain. He saw that tiny, inconspicuous streak of poison, and a faint warning stirred within him. Yet his confidence in the purifying might of his Sea God's Power, coupled with his judgment that the Poison Beast was already a spent arrow, kept him from fleeing immediately. Instead, he swung his trident and raised a concentrated stream of water, attempting to scatter and purify it.

"Paltry tricks. A dying struggle!" he snapped coldly.

Yet, the instant that stream touched the dark streak of poison—

The streak vanished soundlessly. It had not been purified. Rather, as though alive, it actively "broke down" into countless even finer particles, almost impossible to perceive with Soul Power. Following the current—and even moving against it—in a way that defied reason, they silently adhered to Sea Horse Douluo's protective Soul Power and armored clothing, then seeped through the tiniest gaps into his skin!

What?! Sea Horse Douluo's heart jolted. He immediately drove Sea God's Power through his entire body. A faint numb itch and chill spread across his skin, but they seemed to be swiftly suppressed and dispersed by the immense purifying power.

An empty bluff... The thought had barely formed when his expression changed drastically!

Without warning, a sense of emptiness and weakness rose from the deepest reaches of his soul, sinking its fangs into his life core like an icy venomous snake! He felt his Soul Power being slowly but inexorably "devoured" and "annihilated" by something invisible! It did not feel like the corrosion of poisoning. It was more as though... his life origin was being directly "erased"?!

"It's poison! That wretched beast's poison!" Sea Horse Douluo finally understood, and alarm appeared in his eyes for the first time. The incurable poison described in Luo Kes's intelligence had still been unleashed despite his opponent's miserable, near-death state—and had struck him in such a covert, treacherous fashion!

He frantically drove his Soul Power and Sea God's Power, trying to locate and expel the poison within him. Yet this strand of Dan-Devour was too fine, too dispersed, and carried a trace of eerie stillness. Like the finest dust falling into the sea, it was difficult to capture yet present everywhere, continuously and slowly "gnawing" at his vitality.

His Soul Power instantly grew sluggish, and his domain began to stutter noticeably. A powerful wave of dizziness and weakness swept over him. Jingtian, whose chest had been grazed by the lingering force of the trident strike, had bought this blow by staking his life. Though it was not enough to kill immediately, it drove deep into Sea Horse Douluo's lifeline like the most poisonous thorn, instantly reducing his combat strength by more than thirty percent—and his condition continued to worsen!

I must leave now! Go back and have the High Priest and Sea Star Elder treat me! Sea Horse Douluo made his decision at once. He knew that in his current condition, he could no longer guarantee killing this unfathomable Poison Beast. If he remained entangled here and the beast had another trick in reserve, or this Dan-Devour erupted more quickly, he might very well die here!

He stared hard at the fissure, where the energy still churned chaotically. Feeling the poison within him clinging like an abscess to bone and steadily devouring his vitality, his eyes filled with frustration, shock, fury, and a trace of inexpressible dread. Without another moment's hesitation, he spat out a mouthful of blood flecked with pale-gold light; forcibly driving his Soul Power had aggravated Dan-Devour's erosion. His figure became a slightly unsteady streak of blue light, rushing from the lair at full speed and vanishing into the darkness.

He had to race against death.

Deep within the fissure, the violent energy gradually subsided.

Like a husk utterly drained, Jingtian lay limp against the cold, rough rock wall, his aura so faint it was almost nonexistent. That final forced release of Dan-Devour had nearly squeezed out the last of his soul's strength and vitality. The rings across his body were dull and riddled with cracks. The Soul Bone inheritance's infusion had long since ceased, leaving utter devastation within him.

Yet the corner of his mouth—in his mind—seemed to twitch.

He had "felt" it. That faint but successful strand of Dan-Devour had hit.

Heh... Titled... Douluo... so what... His shattered thought drifted through the darkness like the final wisp of smoke from a dying candle in the wind.

Then endless darkness and cold swallowed him completely.

He sank into an absolute, insensible stillness deeper than death.

This time, there was no Guixu Assimilation, no Tortoise-Breath Feigned Death, only an ultimate dormancy in which his vital functions had all but ceased. His body rapidly grew cold and stiff. A thin layer of poisonous ice crystals even formed across his skin. Only in the deepest reaches of his poison source did a spark of spirituality remain, one that had briefly resonated with Dan-Devour's origin and the Soul Bone. Like an ember frozen in ancient mystic ice, it "burned" at a pace measured in hundreds of millions of years, preserving one final possibility of enduring.

The lair fell utterly silent. Only the Scorpion Tail Soul Bone remained deep within the fissure, its light completely dimmed and its vitality severely damaged. It still lay quietly beside the ancient remains, as though sleeping alongside another newly made skeleton.

Hope was fainter than the abyss was deep.

But that strand of Dan-Devour had, after all, already been planted.