"Go!"
Lin Chuan's mind stirred.
Giratina's figure darted through the air like a ghost, steadily closing in on the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent.
As an external Martial Soul, this was how Giratina fought.
It handled most of the fighting itself. Fortunately, Lin Chuan could also use some of Giratina's Self-Created Soul Skills.
Giratina and the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent clashed, thunderous impacts erupting one after another.
In the midst of their struggle, Giratina slammed into the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's seven-inch spot.
After briefly pulling away, it gathered purple-black energy in its mouth and fired a wrist-thick, twisting beam of light down at the serpent.
The serpent refused to back down and spat out a scorching breath of flame in return.
The skills collided with a dull boom, sending waves of hot air rolling outward.
While the two were briefly locked in a stalemate,
Lin Chuan held his right hand like a knife. Energy wrapped around it, making it incredibly sharp and hard.
When striking a snake, aim for its seven-inch spot. That was its fatal weakness.
He rushed to the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's seven-inch spot and drove his right hand down with a whistle of rushing air.
The moment his glowing white hand struck the scales, sparks flew, and a metallic clang rang out.
"Damn! It's so hard."
Cursing under his breath, Lin Chuan quickly tried to pull his hand back and dodge.
The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent went berserk after suffering the heavy blow.
Its long body thrashed wildly, and its enormous tail came crashing down with a fierce gust of wind.
Lin Chuan pushed off the ground with his toes and sprang backward. The serpent's tail followed a moment later, smashing into the road.
With a thunderous boom, a huge crater appeared before them.
The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's tail was completely unharmed, its scales gleaming with a cold sheen. It swept around and came crashing down again.
Lin Chuan pressed forward instead of retreating. He twisted at the waist and leaped into the air, evading the serpent's tail lash.
At the same time, he flicked his right hand.
Three steel needles coated in poison shot out, aimed at the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's eyes.
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
"Whoosh!"
At the same time,
Giratina, which had been obstructed at every turn by the serpent before it, let out an indignant snort.
It rose into the air, and an immense dragon's might suddenly surged around it.
Sensing the oppressive Pressure from above, as well as Lin Chuan aiming for its vitals from behind, the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent felt panic well up inside it.
The cold sweat on its back vanished when one of the steel needles pierced its eyeball.
In its place came unbridled fury.
"Hiss—roar!!!"
Of the three steel needles,
two were stopped by its hard eyelids, while the last one luckily pierced its right eye.
The poison began spreading at once, and a stabbing pain raced from its nerves to its brain.
The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent crashed to the ground, unable to bear the pain, and writhed in agony.
"Stinking longworm, what are you screaming for?"
Giratina snorted.
A multicolored wave of energy wrapped in dragon's might blasted from its mouth, plunging downward with a roaring dragon's cry.
Lin Chuan had already run to safety. He watched the tremendous wave of energy crash down from above and strike the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent.
Dragon Breath slammed into its face, and the energy's shockwaves rippled several meters outward.
A gust of wind swept up clouds of dust, blocking the view ahead.
When the dust settled,
Lin Chuan's small figure was already standing on the serpent's broken scales at its seven-inch spot. He turned his right palm into a blade and drove it down hard.
"Hiss... roar!!!"
The tearing pain sent the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent into a violent struggle. Its body convulsed wildly, smashing every building nearby to pieces.
Lin Chuan gritted his teeth.
He braced his footing to keep from being flung off, then covered his right palm in energy and stabbed down hard again.
First, he slashed through the scales and skin; then he shattered the muscles and bones.
A surging heat suddenly burst from the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's body.
As if making a final counterattack before death, it opened its terrifying maw and lunged forward with a gust of stench, biting at Giratina.
The two were barely two or three meters apart.
At that distance, the serpent could easily have bitten it.
But in the next instant, Giratina vanished right before its eyes, recalled into Lin Chuan's body.
The Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's enormous head snapped at empty air, then drooped helplessly...
Its body still hung over Hell Road, and flames began rising across it.
There was something strange about these flames.
The moment Lin Chuan drew near, he felt the Primordial Yang inside him being stirred awake.
He forced down the burning sensation in his abdomen. His face flushed, and he backed away, panting hard, putting distance between himself and the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's corpse.
In just a short while,
the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent's enormous body and terrifying flesh burned to ash, leaving behind only a fist-sized inner core.
The inner core radiated terrifying heat. The ground nearest it had been baked until it was covered in countless cracks, crumbling at the slightest touch.
Looking at the inner core before him and thinking of the Primordial Yang Evil Fire Giratina had mentioned,
Lin Chuan understood more or less what was going on.
In the original story, Ma Hongjun had first purified his Evil Fire with Immortal Herb essence, then refined and absorbed the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent Inner Core to complete his Martial Soul Evolution.
The Primordial Yang Evil Fire contained in the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent Inner Core alone was probably comparable to the high-temperature flames of his Evil Fire Phoenix.
"Absorbing it directly might be dangerous, but I can use the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to help me absorb it."
Once he had steadied himself, Lin Chuan began drawing on the power of his domain, using Soul Power to suppress the inner core.
A bone-chilling cold gathered around it, lowering its temperature.
When it was sufficiently suppressed, Lin Chuan drew on a wisp of energy and slowly pulled the inner core into his hand.
Once suppressed, the inner core settled completely, and the heat it released withdrew.
It took only a moment for Lin Chuan to pick it up. The light on its surface had also faded completely.
He let out a quiet breath.
Lin Chuan looked down at the inner core, which contained terrifying Primordial Yang, then put it away in his Storage Soul Tool.
At the same time, the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King recovered.
The strange sensations of pain and dizziness had faded. It shook its head, coming back to its senses.
When it turned around, it happened to see Lin Chuan put the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent Inner Core into his Storage Soul Tool.
Rage and greed filled its two heads.
The largest head in the middle also swayed, its eyes glinting with greed.
But when it recalled the attack that had made its soul tremble—the threat of death that came from the annihilation of its very soul—its greed and rage were suppressed once again.
That soul attack was specifically capable of countering its regeneration.
After all, the soul was a living being's most precious and most vulnerable part.
If the body was destroyed but the soul remained intact, it could still be revived.
But once the soul dispersed, there was no way to come back to life.
Watching Lin Chuan's back as he walked away, the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King grew anxious and gave chase, unwilling to accept this.
It simply couldn't let him leave, especially when the Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent Inner Core held such an immense attraction for it.
Somehow, it felt that if it managed to swallow and refine that inner core, its strength would soar!
Hell Road rose from bottom to top, its slope growing steeper the farther along it went.
The path was clearly dozens of meters above the underground magma, yet the temperature was still unbearably high. Lin Chuan's long hair and clothes were even beginning to singe, so he had to use Soul Power to protect himself.
The heat pressed in on the surrounding air, and a wave of heat came rolling toward him from behind.
As the flapping of wings drew closer and closer, more and more of them filled the air.
Seeing this, Lin Chuan realized something was wrong.
He circulated his Soul Power, moving almost as fast as he could, and raced forward.
One man and one beast began a chase.
Seeing that Lin Chuan was about to leave the final passage, the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King gritted its teeth, suddenly accelerated, and closed in again, appearing above Lin Chuan.
"Creak!!"
A long, grating Growl rang out from the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King's mouth, echoing far along Hell Road.
As the one taking the attack head-on, Lin Chuan felt his brain swell with pain in an instant, nearly knocking him unconscious.
He gritted his teeth, using his spiritual power to resist the other's soul attack.
Enduring the stabbing pain in his mind, he swung his right hand once more.
Giratina's figure shrank down to its normal size, appearing behind the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King.
It let out the same obscure, unpleasant cry.
Lin Chuan had been prepared. He circulated his spiritual power with all his might to resist, while using Soul Power to run several meters ahead as fast as he could.