Dugu Bo added, "Those eight spider legs are long and powerful, yet very flexible. They should also grant Yanyan tremendous bouncing power, allowing her to move regardless of the terrain. The devouring effect probably isn't limited to Soul Power, either; it should be able to absorb toxins as well."
"Moreover, the External Soul Bone's capacity to grow makes it an unlimited poison sac. Yanyan can hold off on absorbing that Left Arm Soul Bone for now, so others won't covet it. At this stage, she only needs to speed up its integration with her."
Xing Tian agreed. "That's right. And with this External Soul Bone, practicing the Ten Thousand Poisons Heart Sutra should be no problem."
"Then I'll have to hurry up and fuse with it. From now on, I'll call you the Eight Spider Lances!" Dugu Yan gazed at the shining purple Eight Spider Lances with admiration.
Dugu Yan had obtained her Soul Ring. Next, they had to find a Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Spirit Sacred Beast for Xing Tian—a long and arduous undertaking.
Xing Tian and Dugu Yan chatted as they walked. With Dugu Bo guarding them closely, they didn't have much to worry about as long as they avoided an attack by a large number of Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts.
"Sister Yan, what level is your Soul Power now?"
Dugu Yan held Xing Tian's arm and smiled. "Level 38. It's all thanks to the medicinal power of the Nine Grade Dragon Mushroom. Otherwise, how could I have advanced so many levels in one go?"
Xing Tian said, "The Man Faced Demon Spider's Soul Ring and Soul Bone should raise you by about two levels. The Nine Grade Dragon Mushroom mainly strengthens your foundation and stimulates your dragon blood to transform you into a true dragon. When it comes to raising Soul Power, it's a little less effective than other Immortal Herbs."
"I'm already very satisfied."
Xing Tian continued, "Then what's your third Soul Skill?"
"My third Soul Skill is 'Jade Phosphorus Purple Poison.' It's highly corrosive and very sticky. Once it gets on you or enters your body, it's difficult to clean off or force out."
"The Jade Phosphorus Purple Poison can also drain an opponent's Soul Power and use it to strengthen me. So unless a Soul Master is more than two major ranks above me, the more they use Soul Power to resist, the faster the poison spreads, and the stronger it becomes."
"Boosted by the Eight Spider Lances, this third Soul Skill becomes fifty percent stronger. So even a Soul King who lets their guard down could end up dead without a corpse."
Xing Tian praised her. "That's a powerful Soul Skill."
Dugu Yan said with a hint of disappointment, "It's powerful, but my third Soul Ring is only where your first one began. Grandpa told me you could challenge a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast for your third ring. You've left me far behind."
"What you said to Yu Tianheng applies to me, too. I can't even see you on the horizon anymore."
Xing Tian gently patted her head. "You're not my enemy, so why compare yourself to me? You've already far surpassed your peers, and that's enough. Besides, who says I'm beyond your sight? I'm right here beside you, aren't I? I'll always be here!"
Those five words, "I'll always be here," completely touched Dugu Yan. She clutched Xing Tian's arm even tighter, looking every bit like a girl deeply in love.
Even Dugu Yan herself found it a little strange. She was three years older than him, yet it didn't feel like she was in an older-woman-younger-man relationship. It felt entirely the other way around.
But none of that mattered. What mattered was that she was happy.
Though his granddaughter had found happiness, Dugu Bo couldn't shake his irritation. His fists had stayed clenched the whole time. He'd once been the one constantly urging Xing Tian to marry Dugu Yan, yet now that the two were actually together, he was still annoyed.
And the thought that he still had to hunt a Soul Beast for Xing Tian made his irritation multiply several times over.
The three of them kept up this routine for a full seven days. At last, something changed—but it was because of an outside force.
Xing Tian seemed to have caught the scent of something delicious. His whole body was brimming with excitement and energy.
"This smell... familiar... over there!" Xing Tian instantly sensed the source of his excitement and pointed toward it.
"Let's go!" The three immediately set off for the place Xing Tian had indicated. The sight before them made Dugu Yan shudder with dread.
In the clearing ahead, a giant spider, its body as large as a millstone, was rampaging.
Its body was pitch-black, but its face was covered by a thick, bone-like white carapace. Unlike ordinary spiders, its four fangs were shaped like sickles and sawteeth.
Its eight legs weren't long and slender like those of a Man Faced Demon Spider. They were short, but extraordinarily thick and powerful, covered in sharp barbs. Each one resembled a sickle-saw, and its front two legs were more than twice the size of the other six.
The Necrotic Demon Spider's bone-mask carapace had four openings, where its four eyes glimmered with an eerie white light. The two upper eyes were large, while the lower pair were only seventy percent their size and shone with a dimmer light.
The Demon Spider was slaughtering hundred- and thousand-year Soul Beasts in droves. A flash of eerie white light from its eyes left the other Soul Beasts frozen in place.
Wherever its legs swept, the Soul Beasts were torn apart in an instant. Blood gushed out, spreading into glaring red patches.
The corpses had piled up into a small mountain. Every kind of Soul Beast was represented, and not a single body remained whole. There were more than three hundred in all, most of them pack-dwelling Soul Beasts like Pink Ladies.
A thick miasma of corpses rose from the pile. It should have stung the nose, but the grayish-white aura around the Demon Spider completely smothered the stench.
A grave look flickered in Dugu Bo's eyes. "That's a Necrotic Demon Spider. The aura it gives off is its best means of control, and it can also conceal everything around it to an extraordinary degree. No wonder I didn't notice it. How did you find it?"
Xing Tian said, "The Necrotic Demon Spider can hide the stench of corpses and the smell of blood, but it can't conceal the resentment of the dead. I'm unusually sensitive to that."
Dugu Bo continued, "In a sense, it likes killing even more than the Man Faced Demon Spider. To break through its bottleneck, it has to slaughter a great many lives like it's doing now, turn the corpses' miasma into death energy, and devour the souls of the dead."
"That's why the Necrotic Demon Spider is also known as the Sacrificer of Slaughter."
"Judging by its eyes, it's preparing to break through the Ten-Thousand-Year bottleneck and evolve into a Necrotic Spider King. It's suitable for you, too. How about choosing it for your third Soul Ring?"
Xing Tian nodded. He saw no problem with that. In a sense, the Necrotic Spider King was even more suited to him than the Dark Spirit Sacred Beast.
When the last thousand-year Pink Matriarch was ripped to pieces by the Necrotic Demon Spider's sickle-saw forelimbs, its pale pink blood splashed onto the gray-white carapace and instantly congealed into black scabs. Only then did the Necrotic Demon Spider finally stop slaughtering.
Its four eyes, all gleaming with eerie white light, swept over the mountain of corpses. The two large eyes above suddenly blazed with dazzling white light, and the grayish-white aura around it surged, completely swallowing the more than three hundred Soul Beast corpses like a tide.
The thick miasma of corpses no longer rose into the air. Instead, it became streams of gray air that were forcibly dragged into the Necrotic Demon Spider's mouth.
Even more horrifying, twisted gray silhouettes began to appear above the desiccated corpses—the souls of the Soul Beasts.
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