Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Dragon of the Underworld

There was no earth-shattering explosion.

Only an eerie silence.

The gray-white breath spread like a tide. Wherever it passed,

the blood-red vines withered inch by inch. The mouths bristling with sharp teeth didn't even have time to close before they turned to ash in the Death Qi.

The old man's pupils shrank abruptly.

He could feel the power contained in that breath corroding him.

"Damn it! What kind of martial soul is that?!"

He roared, no longer harboring the slightest contempt.

Qian Anci didn't answer.

He dropped to one knee, gasping for breath, his face as pale as paper.

He hadn't expected the First Soul Ring to consume even more of his strength than his Third Soul Ring, Dragon Transformation.

The old man had already recovered. With a grim laugh, his Sixth Soul Ring suddenly lit up.

"Sixth Soul Skill, Blood Explosion Technique!"

The Blood Soul Demonic Tree's trunk swelled abruptly. Countless wisps of blood-red mist condensed into fist-sized droplets that rained down like a storm.

Each droplet that struck the ground blasted open a crater several feet wide.

Qian Anci darted between the craters, dodging, but the blood droplets were too dense. Soon, several charred holes had been splashed into his robe.

"Ya Yi!"

He barked the name.

Amid the rubble against the rock wall, Ya Yi abruptly rose to his feet.

"Your subordinate is here."

"Fifth Soul Skill."

Ya Yi drew a deep breath.

His Fifth Soul Ring.

The black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring blazed to life.

"Fifth Soul Skill, Dark Feather Kill!"

His body split into more than a dozen afterimages. Wielding black feather blades, they stabbed toward the Blood Soul Demonic Tree's trunk from every direction.

The old man hurriedly urged the vines to intercept them, but the afterimages were too fast. Several feather blades struck the trunk at once, and cracks appeared across it.

"You're asking for death!"

The old man flew into a rage.

"Seventh Soul Skill, Blood Demon True Body!"

The entire cavern trembled. The Blood Soul Demonic Tree grew wildly, countless vines intertwining as they merged the old man with the giant tree, forming a ten-foot-tall Blood Demon Phantom.

The pressure of a Soul Saint crashed down like a mountain.

"Boy, you can die content, knowing you forced me to reveal my Martial Soul Avatar!"

The Blood Demon Phantom opened its mouth and fired a blood-red beam straight at Qian Anci!

With nowhere to dodge, Qian Anci lit up all three of his Soul Rings at once.

Purple, black, black.

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

A gray-white thread slashed out, splitting the beam open, but the following wave of blood-red light swallowed it in an instant.

He twisted aside. The beam grazed his shoulder, leaving it charred black.

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

A pitch-black slash struck toward the Blood Demon's head, only to be blocked by its palm. It left nothing but a gash, and the Blood Demon barely seemed to feel it.

The old man's grin grew more vicious. The Blood Demon Phantom stepped forward, its enormous palm pressing down like a mountain.

"Third Soul Skill, Yellow Springs Ferry!"

A gray-white curtain of Yellow Springs water formed in front of him. The giant palm slammed into it with a sizzling hiss. The blood mist was eaten away by more than half, but the palm's momentum didn't slacken.

The gust of the blow swept Qian Anci off his feet. He hurtled into the rock wall and slammed into it, spewing blood from his mouth.

"Your Highness!"

Ya Yi roared and lunged forward again, but the old man casually waved a hand and swatted him away. Ya Yi crashed into the rubble, his life or death unknown.

The Blood Demon Phantom walked up to Qian Anci and looked down at him.

"Saint Son of Spirit Hall? Today, I'm killing a Saint Son."

A blood-red palm coalesced once more, powerful enough to crush Qian Anci into a pulp.

Leaning against the rock wall, Qian Anci tasted blood in his mouth and instinctively prepared to dodge again.

But he was still a beat too slow. Just as the attack was about to land, a burst of light suddenly erupted.

Behind Qian Anci, two phantoms appeared at once.

On the left, the Scythe of Death hovered in midair, its blade black as ink and wreathed in gray-white Death Qi.

On the right, the Shadow of Pollux crouched on the ground, its bones gleaming like jade, blue soulfire flickering in its eye sockets.

Their auras resonated with each other.

Then.

They moved.

The Scythe of Death flew into the Bone Dragon's mouth. Pollux gripped the shaft in its jaws and threw its head back with a roar!

The dragon's roar shook the heavens!

The Bone Dragon's body began to burn. Blue soulfire spread from its eye sockets across its bones, merging with the gray-white Death Qi on the scythe blade.

The blue soulfire and gray-white Death Qi fused into a vast halo, enveloping both the Bone Dragon and the scythe.

The light was dazzling, impossible to look at directly.

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

In midair, a bone dragon, its entire body gray-white, hovered with its wings spread.

It was about twenty feet long, far smaller than Pollux in its true form, which could blot out the sky.

Every bone shone with a jade-white luster. Gray-white Death Qi surged through the joints, and the soulfire in its eye sockets was no longer pure blue, but a deep gray-blue.

There was no rider on its back.

Because Qian Anci was this Bone Dragon.

Martial Soul Fusion Skill

[Dragon of the Underworld].

It wasn't a summoning. It wasn't possession.

They had become one.

Qian Anci's consciousness had fused with Pollux. Those gray-blue dragon eyes looked down at the Blood Demon Phantom below, as a god might look down upon an ant.

The old man's blood-red palm struck the Bone Dragon.

The Bone Dragon didn't budge.

The instant the palm touched its body, gray-white Death Qi crawled up the Blood Demon's arm like a living thing. Blood mist vanished, vines withered, and flesh crumbled into gray-white powder wherever it passed.

"Ah~!"

The old man let out a shrill scream and frantically shook his arm, but the Death Qi clung like a bone-deep parasite. He couldn't shake it off.

The Bone Dragon opened its mouth.

Gray-blue light gathered in its jaws.

It wasn't breath. It wasn't flame.

It was the Grim Reaper's gaze, the call of the Underworld.

[Death Dragon Breath]

A gray-blue beam surged from the Bone Dragon's mouth, ripping through the air and slamming straight into the Blood Demon Phantom's chest.

There was no explosion, no shockwave.

A massive hole appeared in the Blood Demon Phantom's chest. Its surface was smooth as a mirror, its edges wreathed in gray-white Death Qi.

The blasted fragments turned to powder in midair and scattered on the wind.

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

He felt no pain, because every trace of life in that area had been completely erased.

"No... Impossible..."

The Bone Dragon plunged down and reached out with its claws.

One swipe tore off the Blood Demon Phantom's entire left arm. Black mist roiled at the stump, eating away at the rest of its body.

The old man could no longer speak.

His Martial Soul Avatar was crumbling at a terrifying speed. The life force it had devoured leaked from the cracks, becoming specks of light that drifted skyward.

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]

Gray-white light surged from within the Bone Dragon and spread in every direction.

Where the light passed, the cavern floor became a cracked, deathly pale wasteland. Gray mist churned in the air, and the night sky overhead turned to a leaden-gray firmament.

For a hundred yards in every direction, the world had been remade into the Underworld.

Within this domain, all life was denied.

The Blood Demon Phantom melted rapidly like snow beneath the blazing sun.

The vines withered. The blood mist scattered.

Before the old man could even scream, he was utterly erased within the Yellow Springs Domain.

The Blood Soul Demonic Tree withered along with him, its trunk turning to powder that scattered across the ground.

The life force it had devoured escaped from the powder, becoming countless specks of light drifting through the gray-white Underworld Domain like fireflies above the River Styx.

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

Then the light faded.

The Bone Dragon began to disintegrate, turning into a sky full of gray-white specks of light.

Qian Anci's figure fell from among them. His plain white robe had been torn to shreds, and he was covered in blood, his face pale as paper.

A trembling hand caught him before he hit the ground.

Ya Yi knelt on one knee, drenched in blood, but held Qian Anci's back firmly.

"Your Highness... Your Highness!"