Thunderbolt Golden Snake

This incredibly precious corpse had... disintegrated just because he touched it?

After a few seconds of panic, Wang Hong quickly dismissed that possibility.

He had merely touched the remains of that Soul Beast. He hadn't done anything else. Rather than saying he had destroyed the remains, it was more likely they were so fragile that they couldn't withstand even the slightest contact.

For such fragile remains to have stayed intact on the ground until Wang Hong found them was already nothing short of a miracle.

Wang Hong looked at the ground. Fortunately, the ashes hadn't all been blown away by the wind; a tiny bit still remained.

To prevent any further mishaps, a purple Soul Ring appeared beside him, and a transparent Bubble, one meter in diameter, appeared before him.

The Bubble drifted down, enveloping the patch of ground where some ashes still remained.

When Wang Hong activated his Soul Tool again, the entire patch of earth and the Bubble were taken inside together.

"That should be enough to keep those people at the Soul Beast Research Institute busy for a while."

After confirming there were no traces left nearby, he started back toward Bei Bei and Huo Yuhao. But just then, he heard a strange sound.

It was like the lively beat of drums at a festival, but it was accompanied by an unnatural crackling sound.

"That sound is... it!"

Wang Hong picked up speed. In less than a minute, he had raced back to the children's camp. But at first glance, he couldn't see either of them.

"Brother Wang Hong!" A faint call came from the side. He turned to look and saw Huo Yuhao and Bei Bei, who had already hidden themselves.

"You heard that sound?" Wang Hong stepped into the bushes where the two were hiding. He looked around. The bushes were large enough to conceal their entire bodies while still letting them keep an eye on their surroundings—a pretty good hiding spot.

"Yeah. There's no doubt that roar came from our target!"

"The Thunderbolt Golden Snake!"

Bei Bei's voice was tinged with restrained excitement. He was staring intently in the direction the sound had come from—the river where Huo Yuhao had been catching fish yesterday.

"By the way, Brother Wang Hong, did you find the remains of the... Dream Silkworm?" Huo Yuhao suddenly asked. Although Brother Sky Dream had said he had already taken care of the remains, Huo Yuhao was still worried something might go wrong.

"Unfortunately, the remains disintegrated on their own. It's probably a special trait of this kind of Soul Beast. The good news is that there's still a little left to take back and show them." Wang Hong pointed at his Storage Soul Tool.

Huo Yuhao breathed a sigh of relief. If it was only a little ash, there shouldn't be any problem.

Wang Hong crouched down with the two of them, waiting for the Thunderbolt Golden Snake to appear and preparing to kill it with a single strike.

But just then, Huo Yuhao had a question.

"Brother Wang Hong, I remember you said Brother Bei Bei needed a draconic Soul Beast. So why is it called the Thunderbolt Golden Snake?"

As if he had expected Huo Yuhao to be puzzled, Bei Bei began to explain:

"According to the Soul Beast Encyclopedia, among Soul Beasts of the draconic kind, those with lightning and water attributes are the two most unusual types."

"Most draconic Soul Beasts have bodies more like lizards or crocodiles. But these two types are almost indistinguishable from snake-like Soul Beasts."

"So, most of these two types of draconic Soul Beasts are given names with 'snake' in them."

After hearing Bei Bei's explanation, Huo Yuhao was sure this was yet another fact that hadn't existed in his memories.

Weren't there only a few kinds of draconic Soul Beasts? A snake-shaped draconic Soul Beast? To him, it was as strange as eating grilled fish without cumin and sprinkling it with white sugar instead.

While Huo Yuhao was still wondering what made a snake different from a dragon, Wang Hong suddenly spoke:

"It's here."

Following the direction Wang Hong pointed, Huo Yuhao saw the Soul Beast he had mentioned. At a glance, he knew the name Thunderbolt Golden Snake suited it perfectly:

The snake was about five meters long, by his estimate, and covered in azure scales. Yet in the sunlight, they reflected golden flashes, like streaks of lightning passing across a clear blue sky.

A golden horn grew from the snake's head, and actual lightning crackled across it.

The Thunderbolt Golden Snake truly lived up to its name, even from its appearance alone.

"So that's the Thunderbolt Golden Snake... It's so cool!" Huo Yuhao exclaimed. Wang Hong and Bei Bei nodded in agreement:

"Not only does it look cool, this Soul Beast is also an expert at controlling lightning elements. Judging by its size, this Thunderbolt Golden Snake is between eighteen hundred and twenty-three hundred years old. It's an excellent choice for Master Bei Bei!"

Wang Hong and Bei Bei exchanged a glance. Once they had confirmed their target, a purple Thousand-Year Soul Ring appeared beside Wang Hong, marked with rings of various sizes.

At the same time, a transparent silver Bubble appeared in his right hand. Guided by him, it slowly sank into the ground and moved toward the Thunderbolt Golden Snake.

Wang Hong's Martial Soul was called Bubble. When he first awakened it, it had been nothing more than a soap bubble that could be popped with a casual touch. But by adding Soul Rings, he could give the Bubble all sorts of different properties.

The Bubble he had used earlier to collect the ashes of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's remains had been created with his third Spirit Skill, "Bubble of Cutting Things."

The one now sneaking toward the Thunderbolt Golden Snake was created with his fourth Spirit Skill, "Bubble of Piercing Space."

The outside of the Bubble couldn't touch anything in the real world, and a mere pinprick was enough to burst it.

But no matter which of Wang Hong's Spirit Skills created it, the Bubble had one fixed property:

It could trigger an indiscriminate Soul Power explosion at any time against whatever was enclosed inside it. The explosion's power depended on the age of the Soul Ring.

Of course, Huo Yuhao knew none of this. But when he saw the Bubble, his senses told him it contained an enormous amount of Soul Power.

While Huo Yuhao was still wondering what kind of Martial Soul this was, the Bubble had drifted beneath the Thunderbolt Golden Snake. Wang Hong was watching the snake's every movement closely with his own eyes.

Wang Hong's Martial Soul was powerful, but because of the nature of its Bubbles, their movement speed was somewhat slow unless they were created by a specific Spirit Skill.

He had to keep track of every movement the snake made and predict its path, luring it into his trap so he could ensure a one-hit kill.

Yet in that instant, Wang Hong suddenly felt his vision change.

Everything around him became crystal clear. Every shift in the Thunderbolt Golden Snake's muscles and every glint reflected off its scales became distinct.

Not only that, it was as if countless eyes had opened across the hundred-meter radius around him. The moment he wished, he could catch every change in every detail.

He felt as if his thoughts had separated from his body. His mind seemed to move faster than sound, faster than light.

It was as if he had nearly limitless time to think through his next move, then control his body and Soul Power with incomparable precision.

He immediately sensed where this feeling had come from. Disbelieving, he looked at Huo Yuhao behind him. Purple and silver light swirled in Huo Yuhao's eyes.