Lin Yue's First Blood

As soon as those words were spoken, the scene fell silent for several seconds.

Then Lin Yue's undisguised scoff rang out.

She folded her arms and rolled her eyes dramatically, looking at Yu Xiaogang as if he were an idiot. "Yu Xiaogang, have you ever even read a proper Soul Beast bestiary? You just spout nonsense? The Solitary Bamboo's only core trait is the toughness of its stalk, allowing it to provide the most basic physical binding ability. It doesn't possess the slightest paralytic property, much less venom! You can't even grasp a Soul Beast's basic traits, yet you dare call yourself a Martial Soul theory master?"

The defense-type teacher beside them could not help frowning as well. He said gravely, "Master, Lin Yue is right. Solitary Bamboo is the most common low-level plant-type Soul Beast on the Douluo Continent. It grows only in cracks between rocks. Apart from decent toughness, it has no additional attributes at all. It is completely unsuitable as the first Soul Ring for a Soul Master with Innate Full Soul Power."

The dean's expression darkened even further, and his gaze at Yu Xiaogang was full of impatience. "Yu Xiaogang, if you keep talking nonsense, leave the group immediately. We're here to choose the most suitable Soul Rings for these children, not to listen to you make things up and ruin a genius."

Yu Xiaogang was left red-faced by everyone's rebukes. His hands clenched tightly into fists, and resentment accumulated over two lifetimes surged in his eyes.

He had only been nervous and forgotten for a moment, directly applying the Mandala Snake's traits to it.

But he still refused to give up. Stiffening his neck, he looked at Tang San and continued loudly, "Even if I was somewhat mistaken about the Solitary Bamboo's traits, the route is absolutely correct! Tang San, your Blue Silver Grass is far too mild by nature. Only by taking the poison-attribute control route can you bring a control-type Martial Soul's power to its fullest! Only venom combined with binding can give your Blue Silver Grass absolute suppression on the battlefield! I've studied Martial Souls for decades. This route is definitely the most suitable one for you!"

The moment he finished speaking, Lin Yue was so angry that she laughed. Right in front of him, she leisurely pulled the Complete Compendium of Soul Master Knowledge from her robes, flipped to the core chapter on Martial Soul attributes and Soul Ring compatibility, and read aloud word by word. Her voice was clear, every word like a slap across Yu Xiaogang's face:

"The first principle of Martial Soul Soul Ring absorption: take the Martial Soul Origin attribute as the core. Prioritize absorbing Soul Rings from Soul Beasts of the same attribute and origin, as this can maximize nourishment of the Martial Soul and promote Martial Soul Evolution. Secondly, one may absorb Soul Rings with related attributes, such as water and earth, wind and fire lightning. Forcibly absorbing Soul Rings with opposing attributes may, at best, contaminate the Martial Soul Origin and limit growth potential; at worst, it may cause the Martial Soul to collapse and leave one's cultivation completely ruined."

After reading that passage, Lin Yue looked up at Yu Xiaogang, whose face was growing paler by the second. Raising an eyebrow, she continued, "The book makes it perfectly clear, so let me give you two examples known across the entire continent. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, first among the Upper Three Sects, only lets its disciples absorb Soul Rings from dragon-type Soul Beasts in order to preserve the purity of their Martial Soul Origin. That is how they pushed the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul to the position of the continent's number one Beast Martial Soul generation after generation. Then there's Poison Douluo Dugu Bo. His Jade Phosphor Snake Martial Soul only absorbed Soul Rings from venomous snakes of the same kind throughout his life, eventually allowing his Martial Soul to evolve into the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor."

She took a step forward, her sharp eyes fixed on Yu Xiaogang. "Tang San's Blue Silver Grass has a life attribute at its origin, yet you insist on making him absorb poison-attribute Soul Rings and take a poison-control route. If that isn't putting the cart before the horse, what is? Unless his Blue Silver Grass is itself a poison-attribute mutation, doing this would be personally destroying his talent! Are you really doing this for his sake, or do you just want to use him to prove that your crooked theory is right?"

"Y-You... you're talking nonsense!"

Yu Xiaogang trembled with rage, yet he could not utter a single rebuttal.

The black-and-white words in the book and the two examples known throughout the continent had both struck him squarely in the face. The theory he had taken such pride in looked especially ridiculous at that moment.

A sinister rage churned within him. In his previous life, he had relied on this very theory to make Tang San utterly devoted to him. Why, in this life, did people keep tearing down his claims at every turn?

"I'm talking nonsense?"

Lin Yue sneered, closed the book, and tucked it back into her robes. "If you refuse to accept it, find any Martial Soul branch hall and ask one of the stewards inside. See whether you're right or whether the book is right."

No one paid any more attention to the dejected Yu Xiaogang. The dean waved his hand and said to the group, "Stop wasting time here. This ten-year Solitary Bamboo is useless. Let's keep going. Up ahead is the hundred-year plant-type Soul Beast area. There are vines and flowers with life attributes there. There will definitely be something suitable for Tang San."

Everyone responded and turned to continue onward. No one gave the inconspicuous Solitary Bamboo in the rock crevice another glance, and no one knew that while Yu Xiaogang had been prattling on just now, the consciousness of that Solitary Bamboo had awakened.

[Ding! The Destiny Binding System has been activated! Host detected: ten-year Solitary Bamboo, transmigrator from another plane!]

[Ding! Child of Destiny Tang San detected nearby! Direct bloodline of the Blue Silver Emperor and Clear Sky Hammer, Twin Martial Souls, future inheritor of the Sea God and Asura God's dual Divine Positions!]

[System mission issued: immediately sacrifice yourself to Child of Destiny Tang San! Upon successful sacrifice, unlock the Plant Emperor talent, permanently bind with the Child of Destiny, and share the Divine Position inheritance!]

[System warning: once the sacrifice begins, no one can stop it! Host, execute immediately! If this opportunity is missed, the host will remain trapped in the ten-year Solitary Bamboo body for life, unable to take human form or move!]

The consciousness within the rock crevice instantly boiled over!

He had transmigrated into this Douluo world six whole years ago, only to remain trapped in this tiny rock crevice. Exposed to wind and sun, unable even to move, he had nearly been driven mad.

And now such an incredible opportunity had fallen into his lap? By sacrificing himself to the future dual-Divine-Position Tang San, he could not only make up for his cultivation years, but also share the Divine Positions?!

Only an idiot would refuse!

No matter how much he disliked Tang San, if he missed this chance, he would be finished.

"System! Start the sacrifice immediately! Hurry! They're getting too far away!" the Solitary Bamboo's consciousness screamed frantically.

[Sacrifice program activated! Constructing Soul Power link! Locking space! Sacrifice cannot be reversed!]

Just as the group had already walked more than ten meters away and were about to turn at the next bend, the ten-year Solitary Bamboo in the rock crevice suddenly erupted with dazzling green light. The entire stalk ripped itself out of the crack, transformed into a green blur, ignored the distance through space, and instantly shot behind Tang San. It was about to forcibly merge into his body and complete the sacrifice!

Once a Soul Beast sacrifice was initiated, even a Titled Douluo would find it difficult to interrupt, much less with only one Soul Ancestor and two Soul Elders present.

Once the sacrifice was complete, even if Tang San did not want to absorb this ten-year Soul Ring, he would have no choice. The foundation of his Martial Soul would inevitably suffer irreversible damage.

At that critical moment, Lin Yue's pupils suddenly contracted. She possessed an innate, extreme sensitivity to fluctuations in Soul Power and spatial disturbances. The instant the Solitary Bamboo initiated the sacrifice, she sensed the strange Soul Power behind her forcibly locking onto Tang San!

At last, a powerful opponent.

"Watch out!"

"Watch out!"

As she shouted the warning, Lin Yue's body had already become an afterimage. She flashed behind Tang San as though she had teleported. With a flick of her right hand, the pitch-black Evil Repeller Battle Spear instantly condensed in her grasp. Her Soul Power of more than ten levels poured into the spear without reservation. A fierce chill flashed through her eyes as she spoke two words, her voice not loud, yet carrying the resolve to cleave through all things:

"Dragon Tooth!"

The instant her words fell, three silver dragon-shaped patterns suddenly lit up along the Evil Repeller Battle Spear's shaft. Three frigid glints like the fangs of a giant dragon condensed at the black spearhead! Carrying a shriek that tore through space, those glints even carved three fine spatial cracks into the air. The first strike did not target the Solitary Bamboo itself, but precisely slashed at the invisible, colorless sacrificial origin thread linking the Solitary Bamboo and Tang San's souls!

"Rip—"

With a soft sound like cloth tearing, the sacrificial link that even Titled Douluo found difficult to sever was split cleanly in two by the Dragon Tooth glint! The green light that had already touched Tang San's back abruptly froze, and a shrill system alarm instantly rang within the Solitary Bamboo's consciousness.

[Warning! Sacrificial link forcibly severed! Origin damaged!]

"What is going on? You told me sacrifices could be interrupted?"

But Lin Yue's attack did not pause in the slightest. The instant she severed the sacrificial link, the three Dragon Tooth glints merged into one, becoming a dragon-shaped spear shadow that pierced through everything and accurately stabbed through the core of the green light in midair.

The Dragon Tooth power carried by Evil Repeller did not merely tear apart the Solitary Bamboo's physical body. It seemed to possess the power to annihilate souls as well, grinding the transmigrator consciousness from another plane, before it could even scream, together with the origin of the system bound to it, into dust!

The deeper reason was the mutual devouring between systems, though Lin Yue did not know that.

The entire process took no more than a flash of lightning.

With a soft "puff," the dazzling green light instantly scattered, and the ten-year Solitary Bamboo's body exploded into fine bamboo fragments in midair.

Only a lone white ten-year Soul Ring remained. Having lost all support of power, it drifted down gently from the air, slowly spinning amid the light and shadows of the forest.

The entire process had taken only a flash of lightning. By the time everyone reacted, everything was already over.

Tang San's whole body stiffened. Just now, he had only felt a gentle yet irresistible force lock onto him, leaving his body unable to move.

If Lin Yue had not acted, he could never have avoided that sudden attack. He might have ended up dead.

He lowered his head to look at Lin Yue standing in front of him, and deep gratitude welled up in his heart. "Lin Yue, thank you," he said softly.

Xiao Wu was so frightened that her face had gone pale. She hurriedly rushed over, grabbed Tang San's arm, and checked him from top to bottom for injuries. Her soft voice was full of lingering fear. "Brother Tang San, are you okay? You scared me to death!"

[Ding! SSS-rank target Tang San's conquest progress +5%! Current progress: 20%!]

The dean and the two teachers also hurried over, their faces full of shock and fear. They looked at the white Soul Ring floating in the air, then toward the rock crevice, utterly unable to believe it.

Xiao Wu was included among them, her head full of confusion.

"What happened? A ten-year Solitary Bamboo was actually able to leave the soil and move on its own? It even charged directly at Tang San?"

"Unless a plant-type Soul Beast has cultivated for more than ten thousand years, it is absolutely impossible for it to do something like this! What exactly was wrong with that ten-year Solitary Bamboo?"

No matter how hard they thought, they could not understand it.

"That Soul Power fluctuation just now was actually a sacrifice?! A ten-year Soul Beast voluntarily sacrificing itself? This is simply unheard of!"

Yu Xiaogang also squeezed forward. Looking at the white Soul Ring in midair, he was completely dumbfounded, repeatedly muttering, "Impossible... absolutely impossible... How could a Solitary Bamboo move on its own? And sacrifice itself? This doesn't conform to the fundamental rules of Soul Beasts..."

He had studied Martial Souls his entire life and had never seen such a bizarre situation. Remembering that he had even gotten the Solitary Bamboo's basic traits wrong just now, he fell into even deeper self-doubt.

And nothing like this had happened in his previous life either.

Could it be that, aside from Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, Soul Beasts with lower cultivation years could also sacrifice themselves?

At the front of the group, Lin Yue tightened her grip on the Evil Repeller Battle Spear slightly, while her mind had already exploded into chaos.

The moment she shredded the Solitary Bamboo's body, the Battle Mage System in her mind suddenly sounded an unprecedented series of notifications.

[Ding! Congratulations, host, on successfully hunting one transmigrator from another plane!]

[Ding! The system has absorbed the transmigrator's origin and completed a full upgrade! Functions unlocked: Battle Mage full skill tree preview, exclusive enhancement route for the Evil Repeller Battle Spear Martial Soul!]

[Ding! Multiple transmigrators from other planes still detected in the current Douluo world!]

[Ding! Congratulations, host, on obtaining the title Dark Forest Hunter!]

[Ding! Ultimate mission updated: host, survive until the end, eliminate as many other transmigrators as possible, and in the end, winner winner, chicken dinner!]

Lin Yue's heart jolted violently, and the shock in her heart was beyond measure.

Transmigrators?!

There were actually other transmigrators in this world besides her? That inconspicuous ten-year Solitary Bamboo just now had also transmigrated here?

She had originally thought that she was the only variable in this world. She had never expected it to be a world packed with transmigrators.

The system had even updated a battle royale mission? It wanted her to survive until the end and eliminate every other transmigrator?

Lin Yue took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the stormy waves in her heart. Her expression remained calm as she turned and smiled at everyone, casually explaining, "It was nothing. I just sensed something wrong with that Solitary Bamboo's Soul Power. It suddenly charged at Tang San, and I was afraid it would hurt him, so I acted on instinct. I didn't expect that thing could actually move on its own. It gave me quite a fright."

Hearing that, no one thought much of it. They merely assumed that her Battle Spear Martial Soul was especially sensitive to Soul Power fluctuations, and they all praised her quick reaction for protecting Tang San.

The dean even smiled and patted her shoulder, repeatedly praising her courage and intelligence, saying she was a fine prospect.

No one noticed Lin Yue's gaze sweep across the surroundings, a sharp glint of excitement flashing in her eyes.

Where exactly were the other transmigrators?

"I originally planned to become a qualified traveler or wanderer, but now it seems I must first become a hunter of the dark forest."

P.S. Sorry, Solitary Bamboo brother. I actually quite like pole vaulting too.