Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Dragon of the Underworld

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

There was only an eerie silence.

The grey-white breath spread like a tide, and wherever it passed, the blood-colored vines withered inch by inch. Those tooth-filled maws did not even have time to close before they turned into fly ash within the Death Qi.

The old man's pupils contracted sharply.

He felt the power contained within that breath beginning to erode him.

"Damn it, what kind of Martial Soul is this!"

He roared, no longer harboring even a shred of contempt.

Qian Anci did not answer.

He knelt on one knee, gasping for air, his face as pale as paper.

Qian Anci had not expected the consumption of his first soul ring to be even greater than the dragon transformation of his third soul ring.

The old man had already regained his composure and let out a sinister laugh as his sixth soul ring suddenly lit up.

"Sixth Soul Skill, Blood Explosion Technique!"

The trunk of the Blood Soul Demonic Tree suddenly expanded, and countless blood-colored mists condensed into blood beads the size of fists, raining down like a storm.

Every time a blood bead hit the ground, it blasted out a crater a zhang wide.

Qian Anci's figure darted and dodged between the craters, but the blood beads were too dense, and his robes were soon riddled with charred, tattered holes.

"Ya Yi!"

He shouted sharply.

Amidst the shattered rocks of the cliff wall, Ya Yi stood up abruptly.

"This subordinate is here."

"Fifth Soul Skill."

Ya Yi took a deep breath.

The fifth soul ring.

The black ten-thousand-year soul ring lit up.

"Fifth Soul Skill, Dark Feather Kill!"

His figure transformed into a dozen afterimages, holding pitch-black feather blades, stabbing toward the trunk of the Blood Soul Demonic Tree from different directions.

The old man hurriedly urged the vines to intercept, but the afterimages were too fast; several feather blades struck the trunk simultaneously, and cracks appeared on its surface.

"You seek death!"

The old man was enraged.

"Seventh Soul Skill, Blood Demon True Body!"

The entire cavern trembled as the Blood Soul Demonic Tree grew wildly. Countless vines intertwined and wrapped around, merging the old man with the giant tree to transform into a three-zhang-tall Blood Demon Phantom.

The pressure of a Soul Saint level descended like a mountain.

"Brat, to be able to force out this old man's Martial Soul True Body, you can die with no regrets!"

The Blood Demon Phantom opened its maw, and a beam of blood-colored light shot straight at Qian Anci!

Qian Anci had nowhere to hide, and three soul rings lit up simultaneously.

Purple, black, black.

"First Soul Skill, Guidance of the Underworld Path!"

A grey-white thin line slashed out, splitting a gap in the beam of light, but it was instantly swallowed by the subsequent blood light.

He dodged to the side, the beam grazing his shoulder, leaving it charred black.

"Second Soul Skill, Dark Scale Breath-Severing Slash!"

The pitch-black slash struck toward the Blood Demon's head, but it was blocked by its palm, leaving only a small cut; the Blood Demon felt neither pain nor itch.

The old man's smile became increasingly ferocious. The Blood Demon Phantom took a step forward, its giant palm descending like a mountain.

"Third Soul Skill, Yellow Springs Ferry!"

The grey-white water of the Yellow Springs transformed into a water curtain, blocking his front. The giant palm slammed into the water curtain with a hissing sound, eroding most of the blood mist, but the momentum of the palm did not diminish.

Qian Anci was struck by the palm wind, sent flying backward to crash heavily against the cliff wall, spraying blood from his mouth.

"Your Highness!"

Ya Yi shouted sharply and lunged forward again, only to be swatted away by a casual wave of the old man's hand, smashing into the rubble, his life or death unknown.

The Blood Demon Phantom walked up to Qian Anci, looking down from above.

"Saint Son of the Martial Soul Hall? It is precisely a Saint Son that I am killing today."

The giant blood-colored palm condensed once more, enough to crush Qian Anci into pulp.

Qian Anci leaned against the rock wall, the taste of blood filling his mouth, instinctively preparing to dodge once more.

Unfortunately, he was a beat too slow; just as the attack was about to land on him, a burst of light erupted.

Behind Qian Anci, two phantoms emerged simultaneously.

On the left, the Scythe of Death hovered in mid-air, its blade pitch-black as ink, wreathed in grayish-white Death Qi.

On the right, the Shadow of Pollux crouched on the ground, its bones like jade, ghostly blue soul-fire flickering in its eye sockets.

The two auras resonated with one another.

Then.

They moved.

The Scythe of Death flew into the mouth of the Bone Dragon, and Pollux gripped the handle, letting out a roar toward the heavens!

The dragon's roar shook the sky!

The Bone Dragon's body began to burn; ghostly blue soul-fire spread from its eye sockets across its entire skeletal frame, merging with the grayish-white Death Qi on the scythe's blade.

The ghostly blue soul-fire and the grayish-white Death Qi fused, transforming into a massive ring of light that enveloped both the Bone Dragon and the scythe.

The light was blinding, impossible to look at directly.

When the radiance faded, Qian Anci was no longer where he had been.

Suspended in mid-air, a bone-white dragon flapped its wings.

Its form was roughly twenty feet long, far smaller than the sky-obscuring size of Pollux' original body.

Every bone shimmered with a jade-white luster, grayish-white Death Qi surged within the bone joints, and the soul-fire in its eye sockets was no longer purely ghostly blue, but a deep, grayish-blue.

On its back, there was no rider.

Because Qian Anci was this Bone Dragon.

Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

[Dragon of the Underworld].

It was not a summoning, nor was it a possession.

It was a union of two into one.

Qian Anci's consciousness merged with Pollux, and those grayish-blue dragon eyes looked down at the Blood Demon Phantom below, like a god gazing upon ants.

The old man's massive blood-colored palm slammed into the Bone Dragon.

The Bone Dragon did not budge.

The moment the giant palm touched the dragon's body, the grayish-white Death Qi climbed up the Blood Demon's arm like a living thing; wherever it passed, the blood mist dissipated, the vines withered, and the flesh turned into grayish-white powder.

"Ah~!"

The old man let out a shrill scream, frantically shaking his arm, but the Death Qi clung to him like maggots on a bone, impossible to shake off.

The Bone Dragon opened its maw.

A grayish-blue light condensed within the dragon's mouth.

It was not a breath, nor was it fire.

It was the gaze of the Reaper, the call of the Underworld.

[Death Dragon Breath].

A grayish-blue beam of light erupted from the dragon's mouth, tearing through the void and slamming directly into the chest of the Blood Demon Phantom.

There was no explosion, no shockwave.

A massive hole appeared in the chest of the Blood Demon Phantom, the cross-section smooth as a mirror, its edges permeated with grayish-white Death Qi.

The parts that had been shattered turned into powder in mid-air, drifting away with the wind.

The old man looked down at the hole in his chest, his eyes filled with terror.

He could not feel pain, for the vitality in that area had been completely erased.

"Im... impossible..."

The Bone Dragon dove downward, its dragon claws reaching out.

With a single swipe, the left arm of the Blood Demon Phantom was torn off entirely, black mist churning at the severed end, eroding the remainder of its body.

The old man could no longer speak.

His Martial Soul True Body was collapsing rapidly, the devoured life force escaping from the cracks and turning into specks of light that drifted into the air.

The Bone Dragon hovered before the Blood Demon Phantom, its dragon eyes fixed on the old man's terrified face.

[Dragon of the Underworld: Yellow Springs Domain].

Grayish-white light surged from the Bone Dragon's body, spreading in all directions.

Wherever the light passed, the floor of the cavern transformed into a cracked, ghastly white earth, gray mist churned in the air, and the night sky above turned into a leaden-gray firmament.

A hundred-foot radius had been transformed into the Underworld.

In this domain, all life is denied.

The Blood Demon Phantom melted away like ice and snow under the scorching sun.

Vines withered, and the blood mist dissipated.

Before the old man could even let out a scream, he was completely annihilated in the Yellow Springs Domain.

The Blood Soul Demonic Tree withered along with him, its trunk turning to powder and scattering on the ground.

The life force that had been devoured escaped from the powder, transforming into countless light spots that drifted in the gray and white Underworld Domain, like fireflies above the River Styx.

The Bone Dragon hovered in mid-air, its gray-blue dragon eyes watching it all.

Then, the light faded.

The Bone Dragon's form began to disintegrate, turning into a sky full of gray and white light spots.

Qian Anci's figure fell from the light spots, his plain white robe torn into strips, his body covered in blood, his face as pale as paper.

He was caught by a trembling hand before he hit the ground.

Ya Yi knelt on one knee, his body drenched in blood, yet he firmly supported Qian Anci's back.

"Your Highness... Your Highness!"