Torso Soul Bone

Green Steel Sword was wedged between the bones and wouldn't come free. Ling Chen could only abandon it for the moment and put some distance between himself and the Lion-Man.

Blood flowed uncontrollably from the Lion-Man's neck, making him roar in pain.

Ling Chen had no time to worry about it. It wasn't a bad thing that his Green Steel Sword Martial Soul was stuck there; he could simply use his Martial Soul Origin to condense another one.

But his actions had already enraged the Lion. If he didn't run now, he'd end up a corpse on the ground.

In a flash, Ling Chen vanished from the Lion-Man's sight.

The Lion-Man wanted to chase him, but the Green Steel Sword in its neck left it dizzy and disoriented. So it kept eating the corpses, hoping to restore the flesh around its neck.

As it devoured them in a frenzy, more and more blood poured from its neck.

The sharp Green Steel Sword sliced through the newly grown flesh again and again. Rather than healing the wound, this only hastened its blood loss.

It tried shaking its head to dislodge the Green Steel Sword wedged between its bones. It even tried ramming itself into the wall to knock it loose.

But the sword didn't come out. Not only was it wedged in even tighter, the wound had grown larger.

The half-man, half-lion creature was tormented by the pool of blood at its feet and the bone-deep pain.

Ling Chen hadn't gone far. He had witnessed all of it.

With human intelligence, removing the Green Steel Sword stuck in its neck should have been simple. It only needed to stand upright, push the hilt outward with one hand, and use the other side to knock against the wall. The sword would have come free in no time.

But the Lion-Man lacked human intelligence. It had only animal instinct. Using the most savage method possible, it was torturing itself to death.

"Since it isn't human, killing it is simple. But why can't I cut through its bones?"

Ling Chen fell into thought, but soon found his answer.

This Lion-Man had a Soul Bone! A Torso Soul Bone, no less!

It was a spine and the surrounding ribs—in other words, the largest Soul Bone in the body. For one to have formed in a Soul Beast and appeared here was cause enough to play a few songs of Good Luck.

Still, getting his hands on the Soul Bone wouldn't be easy.

All Ling Chen could do was wait. In the end, the Lion-Man was a Martial Soul fused with a human body, not a creature that had completely transformed into a Soul Beast.

Once the Lion-Man bled dry, the Soul Bone would naturally be his.

And this battle had also given Ling Chen some inspiration.

In Slaughter City, most people would be thinking about killing their opponent with a single strike. This was especially true in the Hell Slaughter Arena, where ten people fought at once. The faster you took out your opponents, the more the pressure on you would ease.

Ling Chen's six-year-old body didn't have the explosive power of an adult's. In a direct fight, he was at an inherent disadvantage, so he could only kill by ambushing people.

Based on his experience killing Scarface last time and the injured Lion-Man in front of him, he didn't need to kill his opponents with a single blow.

Instead, he only needed to cut off their legs. That would rob them of their ability to move and make them bleed to death. As long as he stayed nearby, they wouldn't have time to bandage their wounds.

And with his small, agile frame, attacking adults' legs was a piece of cake.

Killing people didn't seem all that difficult...

Still, Ling Chen's methods were indeed somewhat cruel. But in Slaughter City, that was a different matter.

In this lawless place, any method was fair game as long as it could kill.

Cruel? In the face of death, nothing was more cruel than death itself.

Minute by minute, the Lion-Man still hadn't died. It had eaten every corpse on the ground, leaving only a few pools of blood behind.

Anxiety and agitation consumed it, driving it to smash the surrounding buildings to ease its suffering.

Amid the pain, cries that mingled human voices with lion roars could still be heard, but they were growing weaker and weaker.

"The opportunity's here!"

Ling Chen picked up a stone and approached the dying Lion-Man.

The Lion-Man leaned against a wall it had smashed apart, panting heavily. The blood around its neck had dried considerably, and its mangled flesh had dried out, starved of blood.

Judging by its condition, Ling Chen thought it had run out of blood to sustain its vital functions.

But Ling Chen wouldn't let his guard down. If the beast was faking death and bit him in retaliation, it wouldn't be worth the risk.

The Martial Soul Origin he could obtain might be reduced, but getting a Soul Ring or even a Torso Soul Bone in exchange—now that would be a fine deal!

After quite some time, when the Lion-Man still hadn't moved, Ling Chen finally threw the stone in his hand at it.

The stone struck its enormous lion's head, and it didn't react at all. But Ling Chen wasn't reassured. He threw seven or eight more stones before slowly approaching.

Only by being cautious could he avoid capsizing in a gutter.

After confirming that the Lion-Man was dead, Ling Chen pressed one hand against its lion's head to extract its Martial Soul Origin, while using the other to try to pull out the Green Steel Sword.

The moment Ling Chen tugged at the Green Steel Sword, the Torso Soul Bone that had been wedged around its blade seemed to vanish. With a casual pull, the sword came free.

"Hss... could it be...?"

Ling Chen hurried into the Dragon Pillar Space to check. At that moment, seven Soul Rings were flying toward the White Dragon Pillar, while the Torso Soul Bone that had just been on the Lion-Man was now flying toward the Black Dragon Pillar.

The Black Dragon, which had been asleep, woke and sprang up, swallowing the Torso Soul Bone in one bite.

Ling Chen had planned to fuse with the Torso Soul Bone himself, but after he looted the corpse, the Dragon Pillar Space had snatched it away.

The Golden Dragon, which had already swallowed the Martial Soul Origin, seemed to notice Ling Chen's confusion. It lowered its enormous head and met his gaze.

"You haven't even awakened your Martial Soul. You can't absorb this Soul Bone!"

With that, the three dragons returned to their pillars and fell asleep.

Ling Chen was at a loss for words. Did he not want to awaken his Martial Soul? This damn place simply didn't have anywhere to awaken one!

Ling Chen helplessly shook his head and placed his hand on the Black Dragon Pillar. The information about the Soul Bone he had just obtained traveled up his arm and into his mind.

[Unowned Torso Soul Bone]: 13,900 years.

[Origin]: Flame Heart Fire Monkey.

[Soul Bone Element]: Fire.

[Effect]: Can be stacked onto one of your own Soul Bones to increase its age, with a very low chance of adding a Soul Bone element.

[Currently Stored Soul Bones]: 1.

[Current Bone-Stacking Limit]: 99 years.

The information was much like that of the White Dragon's Soul Rings. After collecting them for some time, Ling Chen had lost track of how many Soul Rings he had gathered. He placed his hand on the White Dragon Pillar as well.

[White Soul Rings]: 99 years (10 rings), 67 years. [Automatically fused up to the current stacking limit]

[Yellow Soul Rings]: 312 years, 198 years, 430 years, 273 years, 581 years, 900 years.

[Black Soul Rings]: 12,000 years, 34,000 years.

[Soul Ring Elements]: Metal (3 rings), Wood (3 rings), Water (4 rings), Fire (6 rings), Earth (3 rings).

[Effect]: Can be stacked onto one of your own Soul Rings to increase its age, with a very low chance of adding a Soul Ring element.

[Currently Stored Soul Rings]: 19.

[Current Ring-Stacking Limit]: 99 years.

"Automatically fused?"

Ling Chen was a little surprised. He guessed he had stripped away too many white Soul Rings, and after the White Dragon swallowed them, it had compressed them.

But what surprised Ling Chen even more was that the Lion-Man he had just killed had been a Soul Emperor above level sixty. He could sense the origins of those two black Soul Rings.

Judging by its Martial Soul, it was probably a Power Attack System Beast Martial Soul. But it had turned into this in Slaughter City, and Ling Chen had no idea why.

After all, Tang San had destroyed Slaughter City in Douluo I. Ling Chen knew far less about it than the original story did.

If he wanted to get to the bottom of it, he'd have to ask the King of Slaughter—Tang Chen!