The light in the one-eyed Soul Emperor's eye gleamed with venom.
"Think about it. That woman's won forty-seven matches. Just how many good things must she have accumulated?"
"As long as we get our hands on the little brat and make her hand over all her Bloody Mary, we brothers can live comfortably in Slaughter City for at least a few years."
The goateed Soul Emperor nodded again and again.
"Big Brother, you're brilliant."
"If we can snatch that child, heh heh, do you think she'll have any choice but to obediently submit?"
"Then all her resources, and that perfect figure of hers, will belong to us brothers!"
The two exchanged a glance, their faces breaking into terribly greedy, lecherous smiles.
The two murderous Soul Emperors immediately set their plan in motion.
They had been watching the place for several days. Today, while Bibi Dong went to the Slaughter Arena for her forty-eighth match, they had taken the opportunity to scout the area in advance.
Keeping to the shadows like a pair of venomous snakes, they crept toward Bibi Dong's temporary hideout.
"Click."
A faint sound rang out.
The one-eyed Soul Emperor slowly forced open the cellar's flimsy stone door.
Though the sound had been barely audible, Lin Yuan, lying on the stone bed, still heard it.
His keen senses, inherited from the Nine Nether Beast, kicked in at once.
Someone had broken in!
Lin Yuan opened his eyes and stared straight toward the doorway.
Two towering shadows entered, one after the other.
The goateed Soul Emperor spotted Lin Yuan lying on the stone bed at once.
He said with a mocking grin,
"Big Brother, there he is!"
"So he really is just a baby. That tender little skin makes my stomach turn. Hurry up and take him. We don't want to be here when that woman gets back."
The one-eyed Soul Emperor strode forward and reached out with his calloused hand. He was just about to snatch Lin Yuan up and carry him away.
At that critical moment,
Lin Yuan sensed an immense threat, and the berserk instinct of one of the Ten Fiends, the Nine Nether Beast, flared to life once more.
The one-eyed Soul Emperor's calloused hand had only just reached out, not yet touching Lin Yuan's skin, when an abrupt change occurred.
The dormant Nine-Nether Ao Bloodline within Lin Yuan was thoroughly enraged by the man's utterly pure malice.
A halo of pitch-black light burst from his tiny body.
In the next instant, fine black scales appeared across Lin Yuan's pale, tender skin.
Forged as if from the hardest divine iron in the world, the scales radiated a baleful aura that made the soul tremble.
"Hiss—"
A piercing shriek burst from Lin Yuan's mouth.
The sound was not human. It carried the vastness of the primeval age and an overwhelming urge to destroy, stabbing straight into the two Soul Emperors' eardrums.
The cramped cellar twisted around them.
Behind Lin Yuan, dense black mist roiled and gathered, congealing into a colossal, terrifying apparition.
It was a fearsome Ferocious Beast.
A pair of thick, ashen horns sprouted from its enormous dragon head, and black scales like the Abyss covered its body.
Most terrifying of all was its massive tail. At its tip, nine savage dragon heads had split apart, glaring at the two intruders.
One of the Ten Fiends, the Nine Nether Beast!
"What kind of monster is that?!"
The one-eyed Soul Emperor was so terrified his guts nearly burst. Every hair on his body stood on end.
He tried to retreat, only to find the space around him sealed by that dreadful pressure. He couldn't even summon the strength to move his legs.
The goateed Soul Emperor's knees buckled. He dropped straight to the ground, his pupils shrinking to pinpricks. A foul, fishy puddle had already spread across his trousers.
In the face of such unimaginable ferocity, their vaunted Soul Emperor cultivation was no more than an ant facing a true dragon. Even the thought of resisting was crushed to dust.
Lin Yuan gave them no time to catch their breath.
Drawing on the trace of power that had just awakened within him, he focused his mind.
The Nine Nether Beast's apparition thrust out a giant claw covered in black scales and slammed it down.
There was no earth-shattering crash, only the soft sound of flesh bursting apart.
The two Soul Emperors didn't even have time to scream before their bodies exploded in midair, becoming two clouds of blood mist.
Just as the blood mist was about to disperse, Lin Yuan activated the Nine Nether Beast's most tyrannical gift: Devour.
All nine dragon heads on the apparition opened their mouths at once, releasing an immensely powerful suction.
The two clouds of blood mist, which contained the Soul Emperors' lifelong cultivation and vital essence, were instantly drained along with their scattered Soul Power. They became two streams of incomparably pure energy that poured into Lin Yuan's belly.
The instant the Devour was complete, every black scale vanished from Lin Yuan's body, and the apparition faded away.
He let out a belch, feeling warm from head to toe.
The two Soul Emperors' power had been completely refined. It not only replenished what Lin Yuan had spent activating his bloodline, but also greatly elevated his physical foundation. His once-soft bones had grown far more resilient.
"Bang!"
The cellar door was suddenly kicked open with tremendous force.
Bibi Dong rushed inside, panting.
She had just finished her battle in the Slaughter Arena when she keenly sensed that someone had touched the warning mark she'd left at the hideout. Without a second thought, she sprinted back at full speed.
Slaughter City was crawling with demons. If the hideout had been breached, Lin Yuan inside would have been as good as dead.
But when she rushed into the cellar, she saw nothing like the horrible scene she'd imagined.
A savage pressure still lingered in the cramped space. A few scraps of cloth and two patches of black ash were all that remained on the ground.
Lin Yuan lay safe and sound on the stone bed, even blowing a bubble of saliva.
Bibi Dong stared in astonishment, shock filling her beautiful eyes.
They were dead just like that?
Bibi Dong hurried to the stone bed and pulled Lin Yuan tightly into her arms.
Her bloodstained fingers carefully searched him from head to toe. Only after confirming that the little one hadn't so much as lost a hair did she finally let out the breath she'd been holding.
"Child, what kind of secrets are you hiding?"
Bibi Dong sighed softly.
After sprinting back, her already slightly injured body felt weak.
She went over to the pile of supplies, took out a clean waterskin and a piece of compressed jerky wrapped in cloth.
It was rations she'd just traded for with her reward for winning forty-eight matches in a row.
She tore off a tiny crumb of jerky, mixed it with water, and cautiously brought it to Lin Yuan's lips.
"Eat something. In Slaughter City, you have to keep your strength up at all times," Bibi Dong said gently.
Lin Yuan looked at the morsel of meat by his lips and turned his head away in distaste.
He had just devoured the full cultivation of two Soul Emperors. His belly was brimming with pure, high-grade energy. He wasn't hungry at all, much less interested in eating rough jerky like this.
Seeing Lin Yuan refuse, Bibi Dong paused. Then, as if she'd thought of something, a rare hint of chagrin crossed her face.
"How could I be so foolish?"
"You're still so little. You haven't even grown all your teeth. How could you swallow something so tough?"
She looked down at the exquisite Lin Yuan in her arms.
This child was not only her sole source of solace in this lightless hell, but had once again protected himself in a moment of danger—and had even, in a way, helped her get rid of a major problem.
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