After blocking Night Fierce Light, Xing Tian immediately changed tactics. The roar of a vicious beast burst out of him from nowhere.
Even the savage Dark Night Fierce Mantis was stunned by the roar. Its body stiffened, and an illusion appeared before its eyes.
A vicious beast with a dark-green body and horns growing from its head, lizard-like in shape, opened its cavernous maw to devour it whole, leaving not even a bone behind!
While the Dark Night Fierce Mantis was stunned, Xing Tian thrust out his right hand. The mist around his body gathered into a giant hand that shot toward the mantis, reaching it in the blink of an eye.
This move was Impermanence Journey, one of the Nine Deaths White Bone Claw techniques.
When Impermanence went forth, it was to carry out the King of Hell's orders and hook a soul.
When the King of Hell wanted someone dead by the third watch, who dared keep them alive until the fifth? Naturally, no one could stop Impermanence Journey.
"Caught you." Xing Tian's voice was cold as ice.
Nine Deaths White Bone Claw—Impermanence Soul Hook!
The Dark Night Fierce Mantis came to its senses and realized it had been seized by a giant hand and was being dragged toward Xing Tian. It struggled, but could not break free.
When the mantis had been pulled close enough, Xing Tian released Impermanence Soul Hook. His hands flashed out like lightning, gripping the joints of the mantis's two forelegs before twisting sharply.
The Dark Night Fierce Mantis let out a pained, unwilling, furious wail. Its joints had been dislocated, rendering its most important weapons useless. It was now nothing but meat on a chopping block, at Xing Tian's mercy.
"Good thing I kept practicing the Tendon-Splitting Bone-Dislocating Hand."
Xing Tian privately congratulated himself on having learned the Tendon-Splitting Bone-Dislocating Hand when he first practiced claw techniques, and on keeping up his training over the years. Otherwise, the Nine Deaths Reincarnation Evil Art, having only just passed its first death tribulation, would hardly have been enough to deal with the Dark Night Fierce Mantis.
Nine Deaths White Bone Claw—Limb Severing Decapitation, go!
Xing Tian condensed and compressed the Nine Deaths Reincarnation Evil Art's true qi into his claws. He seized the mantis by the neck and tore in opposite directions.
The Dark Night Fierce Mantis's head and body were instantly separated. No viscous, disgusting fluid sprayed from its neck; the thick mist had sealed the wound, and was even invading its body.
This move ranked among the most powerful of the Nine Deaths White Bone Claw techniques. But Xing Tian's cultivation was insufficient: he could only use it a few times, and had to briefly gather strength before striking the same spot with both claws.
That was why he had used the Tendon-Splitting Bone-Dislocating Hand to buy time, and targeted the weakest part of its body: its neck.
However, the Dark Night Fierce Mantis was an insect-type Soul Beast. Even decapitated, it would not die immediately, and its body could still move on instinct.
Though the Nine Deaths Reincarnation Evil Art's recovery ability was peerless, able to circulate endlessly and replenish without limit with a single breath of true qi, Xing Tian had only just passed his first death tribulation. He had also used the Nine Deaths White Bone Claw several times in quick succession, which placed a heavy strain on him and left him somewhat drained.
"It didn't die right away. Perfect—Soul Seizing Spirit Snatching!"
The dark-purple mist on Xing Tian's hands swiftly enveloped the Dark Night Fierce Mantis. In the next instant, its body rapidly withered. The mist flickered in rippling waves, as though it had become a surging river flowing into Xing Tian.
Xing Tian once again felt that familiar, blissful rush. The true qi he had expended was restored, and even the exhaustion left by the battle vanished. But his cultivation had not improved at all.
That was Xing Tian's principle of cultivation: using others' cultivation to improve one's own was the lowest form of training.
Once the Dark Night Fierce Mantis had been reduced to an empty shell, Xing Tian withdrew the mist.
Faint purple lights gradually appeared over the mantis's corpse. They gathered three feet above it, forming a pale-purple ring.
"Boy, you're a monster. You've got ten levels of Soul Power, yet without using your Martial Soul, you killed a top-tier thousand-year Soul Beast with such ease." Dugu Bo appeared beside Xing Tian in an instant.
Xing Tian replied modestly, "I was lucky. My abilities are rather strange, and they happen to counter it."
Dugu Bo's expression remained impassive. "You clearly haven't attached a Soul Ring. How did you use so many skills just now? Self-Created Soul Skills? At your age? I absolutely refuse to believe it!"
"His Excellency Dugu, the difference between one person and another is often greater than the difference between a person and a pig. Besides, the skills I just used were essentially just releasing and controlling Soul Power." No matter what, Xing Tian could not possibly reveal the cultivation technique he practiced.
"But releasing that much Soul Power and controlling it with such precision is absolutely beyond what a ten-level Soul Scholar can do. Even those two seniors couldn't manage it..."
Dugu Bo remained baffled, but in the end he sighed. "So be it. Everyone has secrets, and I won't pry into yours. But there's one thing you must do!"
"Please, go ahead."
Dugu Bo's expression turned exceptionally grave. "You just devoured the Dark Night Fierce Mantis's vitality, spiritual power, and Soul Power, didn't you? That kind of method defies the natural order. It's easy to become one of the Fallen Ones. The Fallen Ones are forbidden among Soul Masters and enemies of every Soul Master on the continent. Any faction has a duty to capture them, and may even deal with them as it sees fit."
"Fortunately, you only used it to recover, not to cultivate, and you haven't used it on any Soul Masters. But there's no question you're walking the edge of the law."
Dugu Bo bent down, his emerald-like eyes fixed on Xing Tian. Nine Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black—appeared around him, murderous intent spilling forth.
"So remember this: no matter what happens in the future, you must never devour a Soul Master to cultivate, nor devour Soul Beasts on a large scale to cultivate. If you become one of the Fallen Ones, don't blame me for showing no mercy and killing you myself!"
Xing Tian said solemnly, "I swear on my Martial Soul and the path I will walk in cultivation: I will never become one of the Fallen Ones. If I break this oath, may Heaven and Earth destroy me!"
"Good. Quickly absorb the Soul Ring. It will only last an hour. Sit cross-legged, focus your mind on your Martial Soul, and use your Soul Power to draw it in. Remember, no matter how the Soul Ring attacks you, you must not waver in the slightest."
"Yes!" Xing Tian sat cross-legged and began absorbing the Soul Ring as Dugu Bo had instructed.
The moment the Soul Ring settled around him, the Nine Deaths Reincarnation Evil Art began circulating of its own accord. Dark-purple mist spread rapidly, shrouding Xing Tian completely. Even Dugu Bo could barely make out his figure.
A mantis-shaped phantom flickered into view in the mist. It was Xing Tian's still-undefined Martial Soul.
Then the Dark Night Fierce Mantis's essence, imbued with a dense aura of darkness and death, surged through Xing Tian's dantian and meridians.
The impact was indeed powerful, but the pain it brought was nowhere near a fraction of what Xing Tian had endured while passing a death tribulation.
As the Dark Night Fierce Mantis's essence was absorbed, the once-blurred phantom of the Martial Soul gradually emerged from the chaos.
First came the patterns on its wings, then the ridges of its carapace, then the curve of its forelegs...
The mist gradually dispersed, and Xing Tian's Martial Soul finally stabilized completely.
It was a dark-purple mantis, a head taller than Xing Tian, looming behind him with its claws raised menacingly.
Its carapace seemed coated in a layer of transparent black glaze. A faint black radiance clung to the edge of every plate, as though it could swallow the light around it.
Its mouthparts were exceptionally savage, lined with sharp teeth, and upward-pointing fangs jutted from either side.
Most horrifying of all were its two huge sickle-shaped forelegs, covered in twisted black patterns. Even looking at them from a distance made one's soul tremble. Their blades seemed forged from deathly energy and pure evil, black as night and utterly without a glint.
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