Shedding the Skin Reveals Two Hundred and Six Bones, Donning Clothes Offers Eighteen Thousand Forms

As he continued to press forward, the sound of flapping wings drowned out the bubbling of the magma.

A dense, massive swarm of bats formed a giant web, enveloping Lin Chuan from the darkness.

He tore straight through it, casually absorbing the souls of the bats struggling in his hands until they lost all signs of life.

Those bats seemed to be merely going through the motions.

Once the giant web was broken, they did not return to harass him, simply flying off into the distance.

The further he advanced, the more the Hell Road inclined upward.

In the darkness, a sudden gale of wind struck Lin Chuan as he sprinted along the Hell Road.

Fortunately, he had been prepared.

Standing firmly on the Hell Road, his feet seemed to have taken root; even as the gale tilted his body, his steps did not shift in the slightest.

In the blink of an eye, a hideous, gigantic bat emerged from the darkness.

It possessed three ferocious heads with protruding fangs and dual horns, its chilling eyes filled with a greedy, sentient light.

On its broad, skeletal wings, sharp bone spurs protruded from the joints.

"SCREECH--!!"

The eerie roar echoed throughout the entire Hell Road.

The bat did not attack immediately, instead gripping a broken pillar to the side with its claws, clinging to it.

Glancing at the pillar that acted like a boundary, Lin Chuan observed the path ahead and asked inwardly:

"Giratina, is there any way for you to refine this creature's soul?"

The disgusting Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King before him possessed regenerative abilities and an incredibly fast recovery rate.

Fighting it was a complete waste of time and stamina, and it was notoriously difficult to kill.

After a moment, Giratina's voice sounded, laced with a hint of laziness:

"No."

The answer was blunt, leaving Lin Chuan speechless.

It was useless at the critical moment.

However, since this guy was truly difficult to deal with, he retreated to a secondary plan and asked:

"Then is there any way to restrain it?"

As long as he could keep this Bat King from interfering, he would have enough time to deal with the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent alone.

His current strength was sufficient to take down the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent; killing it to obtain its inner core would allow him to suppress all serpentine creatures and neutralize snake venom.

"Why don't you just summon me to have a fight with it? I'll try my best not to kill it."

"It's just a bit taxing on soul power."

"If that doesn't work, you can release your domain, and I'll find an opportunity to hit it with a Confuse Ray. If you're lucky, it might be disoriented for a few minutes."

Giratina spoke without much seriousness, but it was indeed a somewhat ordinary plan.

Knowing that he wouldn't get a better solution from Giratina, Lin Chuan felt a sense of helplessness upon receiving the answer.

It would all depend on this attempt.

If he couldn't disrupt the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King, he would simply force his way through and leave.

Whether he could deal with the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent would depend on if he could trap the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King.

Having made up his mind, Lin Chuan looked at the path ahead.

The next instant, he charged out.

The moment he entered the range of the pillars, the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King instantly spread its massive wings and dove toward the figure darting rapidly below.

It seemed to melt into the darkness, its speed so great that it was difficult for the naked eye to track.

Lin Chuan only caught a glimpse of a residual shadow in his peripheral vision.

Fortunately, he was prepared, and he suddenly dropped his body low.

The sharp, scaled claws of the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King slammed directly into the path ahead, kicking up dust and sending gravel flying.

Lin Chuan turned serious, the surging dark aura around him spreading to the surroundings, and without slowing his movements, he swung his right hand.

Giratina's figure appeared on the scene in an enlarged form.

The mental power of the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King was exceptionally strong; after being disrupted by the domain for a few seconds, it instantly recovered.

It shook its three heads, just about to look up to continue searching for Lin Chuan's figure.

At that very moment, a beam of colorful energy as thick as an arm slammed fiercely into its head.

Before it could react, caught completely off guard, it suffered a massive attack on its soul.

"Take it all!"

He roared in anger.

The beam gathering in Giratina's maw grew thicker, continuously battering the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King's soul.

A wave of dizziness swept over it; the soul-shaking paralysis was not something one could adapt to or act through in a short time.

Lin Chuan took this opportunity to slip away first.

Having bypassed the obstacle of the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King, he resumed his mad dash toward the front.

This Hell Road trended upward, and the exit lay at the very end.

However, there was one last nuisance in the way.

Before long, Giratina drifted back, its voice dripping with disdain:

"I thought it was something impressive, but it was stunned instantly. Hurry up and finish off the last one you mentioned."

Lin Chuan was somewhat surprised.

With less than a third of his soul power consumed, the full-force Confuse Ray unleashed by Giratina had managed to trap the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King.

Mental power really is a cheat code.

A powerful soul is the only true power.

The man and the beast hurried forward.

Floating in the air, Giratina glanced at the magma below, which seemed to be boiling even more violently, and said indifferently:

"There is something down there."

The path ahead grew wider, and the thing below swam rapidly through the sea of magma to a spot a dozen meters ahead.

There appeared to be a hall there; beyond the wide Hell Road, there were several pavilion-style structures, dilapidated yet exuding a sense of ancient, profound depth.

With the help of the faint, warm light from the magma.

Lin Chuan barely managed to make out a figure dozens of meters long clinging to a thick pillar, slithering upward.

When he finally saw the face of the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent, even with his resilient will, he couldn't help but gasp.

His heart was filled with indescribable disgust and revulsion.

It was a giant python over ten zhang long.

Its upper serpent body was as black as ink, its scales interlocking and gleaming with a cold light, and the patterns on its exposed belly were so eerie that one glance felt like being bewitched.

On both sides of its hideous serpent head, nine repulsive, bulbous growths bulged high.

As if alive, the growths pulsed rhythmically, their surfaces shimmering with golden-red light.

Before Lin Chuan could even voice his thoughts.

Giratina complained with a hint of loathing:

"This is truly disgusting enough."

Turning his head to look at the disgusted Giratina, Lin Chuan was somewhat surprised.

In all the time they had spent together, this was the first time he had heard Giratina complain about a soul beast.

No, it was an exotic beast; the creature possessed no soul power.

Even though the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent was indeed disgusting, especially those nine pulsating growths beside its head!

But without seeing it clearly, it shouldn't have been that severe.

As the saying goes: in the dark, everything is the same.

After all these years, Lin Chuan naturally knew this.

Giratina was complaining about its soul, not its appearance, because it did not judge a thing by its exterior.

Stripped of the skin, there are merely two hundred and six bones; clothed, there are eighteen thousand manifestations.

The appearance of its soul was the true form of the creature.

Giratina locked eyes with the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent, and its voice echoed in Lin Chuan's mind once more:

"It has no soul power; clearly, it is not a species of this world."

"Those nine growths are nine heads, and also nine souls. This is an exotic beast that survives by devouring souls."

"Ten souls mean it is inherently cruel and fickle in nature, and this serpent's Primordial Yang Evil Fire is also immensely powerful."

"Fortunately, it has not yet fully matured."

"The Primordial Yang Evil Fire is still just a relatively trashy fire poison; it has not yet undergone a complete metamorphosis."

While Lin Chuan was still stunned, it added in an indifferent tone:

"It looks like it is being kept here in captivity. The souls sacrificed by the King of Slaughter to open the Hell Road likely ended up in its belly."