Douluo: One Man Returns, Heaven-Defying Seal Smashes Tang San

Lu Yu's expression changed slightly, and he swiftly retreated.

The next moment...

"Boom!!"

The Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff's claws struck the spot where Lu Yu had been standing, the terrifying force shattering the ground.

Watching the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff bleed from all seven orifices while its combat strength surged, Lu Yu knew that this was its final desperate counterattack!

Faced with the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff's death throes, Lu Yu could only avoid its edge for the time being and resume his harassment tactics.

"As expected of the ancestor of canine and lion-type soul beasts!"

"It's already this powerful with only a hundred years of cultivation!"

"Luckily, I encountered it first. Otherwise, it probably wouldn't be long before the person in charge of Night Soul Forest noticed it!"

"By then, a top-grade hundred-year soul ring like this wouldn't fall into the hands of a backgroundless commoner like me!"

With those thoughts in mind, Lu Yu grew increasingly excited.

However, the effects of the three Heavenly Gang Talismans could only last ten minutes. Beyond that time, Lu Yu's body would struggle to endure them.

As time passed and the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff still showed no signs of weakening, a fierce glint flashed through Lu Yu's eyes.

"I didn't expect obtaining my first soul ring would require risking my life!"

After cursing under his breath, Lu Yu suddenly turned around. He stopped dodging and lunged at the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff.

At the same time, a talisman condensed and landed on his body.

Six layers of silvery-white barriers instantly enveloped Lu Yu.

Six Ding Heavenly Armor Talisman!

"Bang!"

Relying on the Six Ding Heavenly Armor Talisman to protect his body, Lu Yu first clashed head-on with the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff. Then, borrowing the momentum to twist through the air, he smashed an elbow into its head!

At the same time, a talisman condensed above them and immediately transformed into a blurry phantom.

Then, the phantom raised a hand and pressed downward, sending a gigantic palm crashing down!

After Lu Yu's elbow knocked the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff to the ground, it had just tried to rise and counterattack when it discovered that Lu Yu had already retreated more than ten meters away.

Before it could rush after him, it sensed an intense threat descending from above.

Looking up, it saw a gigantic palm hurtling down!

"Boom!!!"

The earth trembled, and the trees in the forest swayed violently.

More than ten meters away, Lu Yu stood atop a tree, his face somewhat pale.

For that Giant Spirit Palm Talisman just now, he had poured in a full eighty percent of his spiritual power and reinforced it with all the qi in his body!

It could be said that Lu Yu was now nearing his limit as well. If the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff still did not die, then he could only choose to give up for the time being.

As the dust settled, the ground beneath where the gigantic palm had landed was covered in cracks.

A massive palm print nearly a meter deep and spanning six or seven meters had appeared in the earth.

At the center of that palm print lay the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff, its flesh mangled beyond recognition.

Lu Yu's nerves were taut as he stared fixedly at the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff.

Only when a dark yellow ring slowly rose up a moment later did he finally let out a breath of relief.

Success!

Lu Yu did not hurry forward to absorb the soul ring. Instead, he sat down cross-legged and began restoring his condition.

An hour later, Lu Yu opened his eyes.

When a soul beast died, it produced a soul ring. If no one absorbed it, the soul ring would automatically dissipate after one shichen—two hours.

Precisely because he understood this, Lu Yu had not rushed to absorb the soul ring and had instead recovered his condition first.

He had not been injured in the earlier battle; he had merely expended a great deal of physical strength, qi, and spiritual power.

But he possessed Reverse Birth Triple, as well as the spiritual cultivation method of the Heavenly Talisman, so his recovery speed was extremely fast.

By now, his physical condition had returned to its peak, while his spiritual power had recovered to roughly seventy percent.

Jumping down from the tree, Lu Yu came to the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff's corpse. Looking at the dark yellow soul ring, he narrowed his eyes.

Dark yellow!

As expected of a soul beast with a super bloodline!

But he wondered...

What was special about this soul ring?

Lu Yu stopped dwelling on it. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, he used qi to draw it over. The dark yellow soul ring floated toward him, then slowly expanded until it encircled his entire body.

Half an hour later...

Lu Yu opened his eyes, a sharp gleam flashing through them.

It worked!

"Good thing my spiritual power is strong. I never expected the Soul Ring produced by a mere hundred-year Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff to come with a soul attack!"

Lu Yu felt rather fortunate. Thankfully, he had been cautious and only began absorbing the Soul Ring after recovering most of his spiritual power and physical condition.

If someone else had tried to absorb it, with the intensity of that soul attack, Soul Masters below the Soul Ancestor rank probably would not have been able to withstand it at all.

Lu Yu slowly rose to his feet and clenched his fists, feeling the Soul Power continuously flowing through his body. A smile appeared on his face.

Level seventeen!

Having just absorbed his first Soul Ring, broken through the bottleneck, and converted all the qi in his body into Soul Power, he had directly reached level seventeen!

Of course, the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff deserved some credit as well.

Simply absorbing the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff's Soul Ring had raised Lu Yu's Soul Power by nearly two levels. Combined with his uninterrupted cultivation of Reverse Birth Triple, the accumulated qi in his body had erupted in explosive growth.

"The bottleneck of Reverse Birth Triple has broken through! The bottleneck of the Golden Light Spell has broken through too!"

"Before obtaining my Second Soul Ring, I'll cultivate the first stage of Reverse Birth Triple to perfection, bring the Golden Light Spell to minor mastery, and get the Thunder Arts to the beginner level while I'm at it!"

"By then, the limit for absorbing my Second Soul Ring will be at least two thousand years!"

Lu Yu was immensely satisfied with this trip to the Soul Hunting Forest.

But at that moment, his gaze suddenly sharpened.

"Were my eyes playing tricks on me?"

Lu Yu muttered.

He had just seen a flash of light from the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff's right front paw, but it had vanished in an instant.

Taking two steps forward, Lu Yu had no sharp weapon on hand, so he simply brought down a punch, smashing the flesh of the Golden Mane Lion-Mastiff's right front paw into a bloody pulp.

Yet the bones within the flesh were incomparably hard, numbing Lu Yu's arm from the impact.

"Hiss..."

Lu Yu sucked in a sharp breath from the pain, but a new light gleamed in his eyes.

A Soul Bone!

It was actually a Soul Bone!

And it was even...

Looking at the intact palm bone, crystalline and translucent as it shimmered with a black-gold luster, Lu Yu's grin gradually widened.

An External Soul Bone!

He had struck it rich!

Without another word, Lu Yu picked up the palm bone and held it in his right hand. Then he sat cross-legged on the ground again and used his Soul Power to guide it.

Half an hour later, Lu Yu opened his eyes, shook his right hand, and curled his lips. "What an overbearing External Soul Bone!"

During the fusion process, Lu Yu had felt as though the bones in his palm were being shattered inch by inch. The pain had been excruciating, followed by waves of numbness and itching.

Fortunately, the pain did not last long.

He extended his right hand and slowly clenched it into a fist.

Then black-gold light flickered, and a black clawed gauntlet etched with dark-gold patterns enveloped Lu Yu's right hand.

"Bang!"

He punched a thick tree beside him. He did not infuse it with Soul Power, nor did he use the Golden Light Spell—this was purely the strength of his physical body.

Yet the tree instantly exploded, turning into splinters that filled the air.

Power!