The moment the poisonous fog descended, Su Hang didn't retreat.
He stood at the very front of the rocky slope, Dark Purple Lightning spreading beneath his feet as it tore a gap straight through the poisonous fog ahead.
Xiao Wu was protected behind him, still clutching the antidote pill in her hand. She stood pressed close against him.
"Don't move around."
Su Hang raised a hand and held her shoulder, his fingers steady.
"If you release your Soul Beast aura, this snake will go even crazier."
Xiao Wu immediately stopped moving and obediently stayed put.
"Then I'll listen to you."
Below them, the Mandala Snake coiled in the mud. Its head swayed from side to side, its forked tongue flicking rapidly.
It had just been suppressed several times by Tang San, then had its retreat cut off by Su Hang's Dragon Might. The entire snake had gone berserk.
It no longer had its eyes only on Tang San.
Now, its first target was Su Hang.
Su Hang didn't rush to use his second Spirit Skill. He simply watched the snake's movements as it slithered through the woods.
Tree shadows, bushes, slopes, rocks.
The place it pushed off from changed every time.
The most troublesome thing about snake-type Soul Beasts wasn't their poison, nor their strength, but their rhythm.
When it was about to pounce, it first made use of the terrain, hid its position, then sought the shortest path to kill.
Su Hang tapped the rocky slope with his toe and leaned slightly to the left.
The next moment, the Mandala Snake shot out of the tree shadows on the right.
Its jaws gaped wide as it charged, spewing poisonous fog straight toward Su Hang's throat.
Behind him, Xiao Wu's fingers had gone rigid.
Su Hang didn't retreat.
The First Spirit Ring lit up beneath his feet. Deep purple Spirit Power flared outward, and lightning raced across the ground in a single burst.
"Boom!"
The entire muddy ground shook.
Dark purple currents burrowed into the grass roots, cracks in the rocks, and tree roots, then shot straight up along the Mandala Snake's belly.
The snake's body stiffened. Its forward momentum was abruptly cut off for half a beat.
Su Hang seized that brief opening, stamped down again, and half-spread the Dark Demon Evil God Wings behind him. The recoil sent him skimming diagonally upward.
The poisonous fog brushed past his feet and sank into the cracks in the rocks, giving off a pungent, scorched smell.
"Above!"
Yu Xiaogang watched from below, his hand tightening so suddenly that he nearly dropped his wooden staff.
Tang San also raised his head.
He had been looking for a chance to land another strike. He'd planned to seize control again while Su Hang held the Mandala Snake at bay.
But this attack made everything clear to him.
Su Hang's First Spirit Ring was definitely no ordinary thousand-year ring.
The range of the lightning's burst and the force of its Spirit Power Suppression had already far surpassed anything that should appear in a place like Notting Academy.
Tang San halted, several pebbles frozen in his palm.
That Spirit Ring Age was far beyond the normal limit.
Just where had this guy found such an opportunity?
Before he could push the thought away, Su Hang had already landed beside the Mandala Snake.
The snake had only just started to twist around when Su Hang's fist came crashing down.
There was nothing fancy about the punch. It was direct and forceful.
All the lightning was concentrated in his right arm, lending the blow a brutally destructive force.
"Bang!"
The punch landed squarely near the Mandala Snake's seventh inch.
A large patch of scales shattered on the spot. Dark green blood ran across the ground, flattening the grass beneath it.
The Mandala Snake was struck so hard that half its body flipped up, and its head slammed into a nearby tree trunk.
The bark split open, and splinters rained down.
Yu Xiaogang's hand stopped moving.
He had spent his life studying Spirit Master Theory, placing the greatest importance on Spirit Ring Matching and Spirit Beast Habits. But what had just happened was beyond the question of whether it was "reasonable."
Six years old. First ring. A direct blow against a Mandala Snake more than four hundred years old.
If this were entered into the Spirit Hall archives, they'd probably first check whether they had the person's name wrong.
Tang San's expression darkened as well.
He'd thought Su Hang's Spirit Ring was the only outrageous thing about him. He hadn't expected him to be so fierce in actual combat, too.
After that punch, the Mandala Snake's movements had gone haywire.
Tang San knew exactly what that meant.
It meant Su Hang's physical foundation, Martial Soul quality, and Spirit Ring Age were all superior to his.
Even if he managed to obtain his First Spirit Ring this time, it would be difficult to maintain an advantage over this person later.
And besides—
Tang San glanced at Xiao Wu.
That girl had already taken her place firmly behind Su Hang.
Su Hang gave the Mandala Snake no chance to catch its breath.
He rolled his arm, pressing the lightning down again. Another spread of electric arcs shot up from the ground.
The Mandala Snake twisted desperately, trying to flee toward Tang San.
But just as it darted that way, the residual gray-gold specks of light from the Luck Deprivation Card inside Su Hang abruptly drew together.
A fine thread of light was torn away from the direction of the snake's head.
The thread of opportunity that had been faintly gathering around Tang San was forcibly severed at that very moment.
The system's notification rang out in Su Hang's mind.
[ Ding! Tang San's core opportunity for his First Spirit Ring has been stripped away. ]
[ Current conversion options: ]
[ Option One: Convert into Mall points. ]
[ Option Two: Condense into a poison-attribute Spirit Ring crystal shard. ]
Su Hang didn't hesitate.
"Shard."
The moment the word formed in his mind, a dark green speck of light was drawn out of the Mandala Snake's body. It quickly condensed into a crystal about the size of a knuckle and landed in his palm.
Fine Poison Patterns were concealed within the crystal, and a trace of lightning marked its edge.
It would be just right for improving his poison resistance and control resistance later.
Su Hang stored the crystal shard in his system space, but a portion of his Soul Power was drained along with it.
His steps faltered briefly, and his face paled.
Xiao Wu immediately caught his sleeve.
"Are you all right?"
"I'm fine."
Su Hang lifted a hand and moved her farther behind him.
"Step back. Don't touch the snake's blood."
The Mandala Snake was badly wounded, but it wasn't dead yet.
It rolled halfway over in the mud, then dragged its broken body onward. Its target was still Tang San.
But just as it had moved two steps, the remaining thread of opportunity between Tang San and the Mandala Snake completely disintegrated.
The snake's Soul Power fluctuations began to go haywire as well.
The core point of compatibility that should have made it Tang San's First Spirit Ring had been forcibly torn apart by Su Hang.
Its age was unchanged, and its poison was still there.
But the crucial sense of compatibility was gone.
Tang San saw it most clearly.
The snake should have been drawn toward him, but now even the guidance that would have helped its Spirit Ring take shape had mostly dissipated.
He stood where he was, the pebbles in his hand unmoving for a long while. At last, he slowly slipped them back into his sleeve.
Yu Xiaogang even took two steps forward. The words "That's the one" had reached his throat, but he forced them back down.
Something was wrong.
Something was wrong with the snake.
Tang San's First Spirit Ring should have formed the most natural control path with Blue Silver Grass.
But now, Su Hang's punch and lightning had thrown the snake's poison into chaos. Its Spirit Power attribute had also been skewed by an outside force, and even its aura had become muddled.
Absorbing it in this state would double the risk while reducing the rewards.
It was as good as half-ruined.
Yu Xiaogang's face had gone pale, and the wooden staff in his hand trembled.
He had plotted the whole way here and talked the whole way here, leading Tang San around for ages. In the end, Su Hang had forcibly stolen the First Spirit Ring best suited to Tang San—and even ruined it in the process.
This wasn't cutting in and taking the prize.
He'd taken the whole pot.
On the high ground, Su Hang took another step, and lightning spread outward from his feet.
The Mandala Snake raised its head one last time. Its jaws had only just opened when Su Hang charged up to it, pinned its neck with his left arm, and struck three times with his right fist.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
After the three punches, the snake's body went completely limp.
A Spirit Ring, dark red with black patterns, slowly rose from the corpse.
But as soon as the ring took shape, it began to waver.
It swayed up and down, and the black patterns along its edge started to fade.
Su Hang looked up at it but didn't absorb it right away.
He could feel that its most essential compatibility had been disrupted by his blows.
If Tang San took it now, it would absolutely be inferior to the one in the original story.
If Tang San forced himself to absorb it, he would have a far harder time than expected.
But if he didn't absorb it, Tang San would lose this crucial opportunity completely.
Su Hang had already bent this path out of shape.
Standing beside the snake's corpse, Su Hang slowly drew the lightning back into his palm.
He didn't look at Tang San again. He only glanced down at the Spirit Ring.
"Too late."
The two quiet words fell into the woods.
Tang San stood below, motionless for a long while.
He rarely showed his emotions, but this time, even his breathing had grown heavier.
It wasn't because the Mandala Snake had died.
It was because the path had been changed.
He could feel that his connection to this Spirit Ring had already been severed for the most part.
It would be difficult to continue along the original path now.
Yu Xiaogang finally came to his senses. He looked up at Su Hang, his throat bobbing twice before he managed to force the words out.
"You... what did you do?"
Su Hang didn't answer. He simply drew Xiao Wu half a step closer to his side.
"Stole the Spirit Ring."
"While I was at it, I changed someone's fate."
Yu Xiaogang felt a blockage in his chest, and his hands sank limply to his sides.
He had brought Tang San to hunt Soul Beasts, hoping to make his name with this First Spirit Ring.
In the end, he hadn't made a name for himself. Instead, he'd ruined the ring best suited to Tang San.
Worse still, Su Hang's move had been so ruthless that even theory couldn't explain it away.
At the edge of the low-lying ground, a shadow had been standing against a tree trunk for a long time.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan raised a hand and pushed aside the leaves blocking his view. Half his face remained hidden in the darkness.
"That kid really dares to strike."
In the black mist beside him, Ghost Douluo Gui Mei remained still.
"The Spirit Ring Age was altered, and its attributes were suppressed by half."
Yue Guan raised a hand and tapped the air.
"This has to be recorded."
"There'll probably be a stir at Tang Hao's end, too."
Gui Mei didn't respond.
The next moment, far away, in a dilapidated blacksmith's shop outside Notting City, the drunkard sprawled over the table suddenly raised his head.
A wine jar lay tipped to one side on the table, while wood shavings and iron filings were scattered across the floor.
Tang Hao's disheveled hair hung over his forehead. The wine bowl in his hand stopped in midair.
That dejected look lasted only half a breath.
Right after that, he slowly sat a little straighter. A trace of clarity crept into his cloudy eyes.
"Little San's luck... someone's tampered with it?"
He spoke in a low voice, setting the wine bowl back on the table.
Tang Hao looked up in the direction of the Soul Hunting Forest. For the first time, his eyes were clear.
"Notting Academy—what exactly has come there?"
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