Beneath the Skin, Only Two Hundred and Six Bones; Dressed, One Could Take Ten Thousand and Eight Thousand Forms

As they continued forward, the flapping of wings drowned out the bubbling of the magma.

A vast swarm of bats packed together into a giant net and closed in on Lin Chuan from the darkness.

But he tore straight through it. The bats struggling in his hands had their souls absorbed with a casual touch, their life fading away.

The bats seemed to be there just to go through the motions.

Once their giant net was broken, they didn't return to harass him, but flew straight off.

The farther they went, the higher Hell Road climbed.

In the darkness, a whirlwind abruptly swept toward Lin Chuan as he sprinted along Hell Road.

Fortunately, he'd been prepared.

He stood firm on Hell Road, his feet seeming to take root. Even when the whirlwind bent his body, his feet didn't shift an inch.

In the blink of an eye, a monstrous giant bat appeared in the darkness.

It had three fiendish heads, outward-curving fangs, and a pair of horns. Its unnerving eyes gleamed with greedy intelligence.

Sharp bone spurs jutted from the joints of its broad wings, each bone clearly defined.

"SKREE—!!"

Its bizarre roar echoed throughout Hell Road.

The bat didn't attack. Instead, it clung securely to a broken pillar nearby with its claws.

Lin Chuan glanced at the pillar, which seemed to mark a boundary.

As he studied the path ahead, wondering how to break through, he asked in his mind:

"Giratina, can you refine this thing's soul while it's still alive?"

This disgusting bat king had the ability to regenerate, and recovered incredibly fast.

Fighting it would be a complete waste of time and energy, and it would be difficult to kill.

A moment later, Giratina's somewhat languid voice sounded:

"No."

The answer was blunt, leaving Lin Chuan speechless.

Useless when it mattered most.

But this thing really was difficult for him to deal with, so he settled for the next best thing and asked:

"Then is there any way to keep it occupied?"

As long as the bat king didn't interfere with what he was doing,

he'd have enough time to deal with the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent alone.

He was strong enough to take it down now. If he killed it, he could claim its inner core, which would let him suppress all snakes and ward off snake venom.

"Why not summon me and have me fight it? I'll try not to kill it."

"It'll just cost a bit of Soul Power."

"If that doesn't work, use a domain. Then, when you get the chance, I'll hit it with a Confuse Ray. If we're lucky, it'll be disoriented for a few minutes."

Giratina's suggestion was rather offhand, but it was a fairly ordinary plan.

Lin Chuan had known he wouldn't get a good solution from Giratina, but the answer still left him helpless.

He'd just have to see what this one attack could do.

If it couldn't disorient the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King, he'd just break through and leave.

As for the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent, he'd see if he could find a chance to trap the bat king.

With his mind made up, Lin Chuan looked toward the road ahead.

The next moment, he shot forward.

As soon as he entered the pillar's boundary, the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King spread its enormous wings and dived toward the figure racing below.

It seemed to merge with the darkness. It was so fast that the eye could barely catch it.

Lin Chuan saw only a blur from the corner of his eye.

Fortunately, he'd been prepared. His body dropped sharply.

The Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King's razor-sharp talons smashed into the road ahead, kicking up dust and sending rubble flying.

Lin Chuan grew serious. The dark aura surging through him spread in every direction, but he didn't slow as he swung out his right hand again.

Giratina appeared in the arena, its body rapidly growing larger.

The Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King's mental strength was extraordinary. It recovered almost instantly, just seconds after being disrupted by the domain.

It shook its three heads and was about to look up for Lin Chuan again.

Just then, a rainbow-colored beam of energy, thick as an arm, slammed into its head.

It had no time to react. Caught completely off guard, it took a massive blow to its soul.

"All yours!"

With a furious shout,

the beam gathering in Giratina's mouth grew even thicker, relentlessly Tackle-ing the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King's soul.

The dizziness swept over it. The tremors and numbness in its soul weren't something it could simply overcome and act through.

Lin Chuan took the chance to slip away.

Having passed the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King, he charged down the road again.

Hell Road climbed steadily. The exit lay at its far end.

But one last obstacle still stood in his way.

Before long, Giratina floated back, its voice full of disdain:

"I thought it'd be tougher. I stunned it in one shot. Hurry up and deal with that last one you mentioned."

Lin Chuan was a little surprised.

He'd used less than a third of his Soul Power, and Giratina's full-strength Confuse Ray had already trapped the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King.

As expected, mental strength was just unfair.

A powerful soul was the real strength.

The man and beast hurried onward.

Giratina, floating in the air, glanced at the magma below, which seemed to be growing even more turbulent, and said casually:

"There's something down there."

The road ahead grew wider, and the thing below swiftly swam through the sea of magma until it was just over ten meters ahead.

It looked like a hall. Besides the broad, lengthy Hell Road, there were several pavilion-like buildings, dilapidated but radiating an ancient, profound air.

By the faint glimmer of the magma,

Lin Chuan could just make out a figure dozens of meters long, clinging to a massive pillar and swimming upward.

When he finally saw the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's face, even his iron will couldn't stop him from drawing a sharp breath.

His heart filled with unspeakable disgust and revulsion.

It was a giant serpent more than ten zhang long.

Its upper body was black as ink, its scales interlaced and gleaming coldly. The patterns on its exposed belly were so strange that one glance was enough to make a person feel bewitched.

On either side of its hideous head, nine repulsive fleshy nodules bulged high.

They seemed almost alive, pulsing in a steady rhythm as golden-red light shimmered across their surfaces.

Before Lin Chuan could say anything,

Giratina muttered in disgust:

"That really is disgusting."

Lin Chuan looked over at Giratina, surprised to hear it complaining about a Soul Beast.

No, it was an alien beast. It had no Soul Power.

The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent really was disgusting, especially those nine fleshy nodules squirming beside its head!

But even so, it didn't seem bad enough to deserve this reaction when they could barely see it.

As the saying went, with the lights off, they all looked the same.

After all these years, Lin Chuan knew that well enough.

Giratina wasn't complaining about its appearance, but its soul. It didn't judge things by their looks.

Beneath the skin, there were only two hundred and six bones; dressed, one could take ten thousand and eight thousand forms.

The soul was a thing's true form.

Giratina met the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's gaze, and its voice sounded in Lin Chuan's mind again:

"It has no Soul Power. Clearly, it's not a native species of this world."

"Those nine fleshy nodules are nine heads, and nine souls. This alien beast feeds on souls."

"Ten souls mean it's brutal by nature and moody. That serpent's Primordial Yang Evil Fire is incredibly powerful, too."

"Luckily, it hasn't matured yet."

"Its Primordial Yang Evil Fire is still just a fairly weak fire poison. It hasn't fully transformed."

As Lin Chuan stared in a daze, Giratina added in an indifferent voice:

"Looks like it's being kept here in captivity. The souls sacrificed by the King of Slaughter to open Hell Road probably ended up in its belly."