Liu Erlong landed on a rock.
Only then did Ye Yingling come to her senses. She hurriedly bowed deeply to Liu Erlong.
"Thank you... Senior. Thank you for saving me."
Liu Erlong glanced at her.
"You're thanking me too soon."
Ye Yingling froze.
Before she could ask what Liu Erlong meant, a mass of pitch-black liquid suddenly surged from her chest.
The black liquid churned in midair, then lunged straight at her like a living creature.
Ye Yingling's pupils shrank. She instinctively tried to dodge backward.
But the black liquid was much faster than she was. In an instant, it wrapped around her whole body.
She let out a short cry of alarm.
The moment the black liquid seeped into her clothes, they were dissolved and replaced,
and in their place appeared a skin-tight suit as black as ink.
The suit covered her from her neck to her ankles, outlining her slender yet curvaceous figure in every detail.
Ye Yingling's face turned scarlet.
She felt as though she had been tossed into a pool of warm water.
The black suit felt like countless warm hands pressed against her skin all at once.
She instinctively crossed her arms over her chest, then tried to cover her legs, but she had no idea where she should put her hands.
She was covered from head to toe, yet it felt as though she was being touched everywhere.
"W-what is this?!" she cried in a panic.
"Heh heh. From this moment on, you're my mount."
An unfamiliar male voice sounded beside her ear.
Hearing that, Liu Erlong rolled her eyes without thinking.
That line again.
She knew all too well what would happen next.
Jiang Ce was a bastard who did exactly what he said: when there was trouble, the mount handled it; when there was nothing to do, he rode the mount.
Even during battle, he refused to keep still, always buried deep inside and unable to pull himself away.
She had gotten used to enduring it without changing expression, even while devouring two Phantom Dragons and continuing to fight.
But this little girl before her had just been scared out of her wits. Tsk, she was in for a rough time.
Hearing that she was going to become this so-called mount, Ye Yingling panicked even more and struggled to tear off the layer of black suit.
But the stuff was like slime. As soon as she pulled it away, it stuck right back onto her body, leaving her pretty face flushed red.
"Little girl." Jiang Ce's voice suddenly softened, turning coaxing.
"Are you still afraid because you have no power?"
Ye Yingling stiffened, her breathing quick and shallow.
Of course she was afraid.
When the Golden Armored Red Flame Dragon had cornered her just now, she hadn't even had the strength to run.
If the senior before her hadn't swooped down from the sky, she would already have died beneath the dragon's breath.
"Your Nine-Heart Begonia is certainly powerful, but it means you'll spend your whole life as a healer hiding behind other people."
"You can only heal, not fight. When danger comes, you can't even protect yourself. Wasn't what just happened enough for you?"
Ye Yingling trembled.
She remembered the mercenary captain whose chest had been pierced in a single blow.
She remembered the despair of her legs turning to jelly, leaving her unable to stand as the Golden Armored Red Flame Dragon approached.
She wanted to argue, but couldn't say a word.
"I can remove the flaw in your Martial Soul. I can evolve it and make you a hundred times stronger than you are now."
"And you've already experienced it firsthand. Feel your body now."
Jiang Ce released his control over the Symbiote.
Ye Yingling's eyes flew open as power surged through every inch of her body.
Her speed, defense, Mental Power, and recovery were all skyrocketing, multiplying several times over.
Unable to believe it, she lowered her head to stare at her hands and clenched her fists. Her knuckles cracked crisply.
Jiang Ce then poured a vast amount of information into her mind.
Filling her up like a cream puff.
When she had finished processing it, her face was full of shock.
The Nine-Heart Begonia, her Martial Soul, was the Ye Clan's one-of-a-kind, top-tier healing Martial Soul. No matter how many Soul Rings it gained, it only ever had one healing skill.
But now, through the layer of black suit covering her, she could clearly sense the existence of other skills.
They weren't healing skills, but combat skills.
She could call on them whenever she wanted.
To test it, she raised a hand.
It was the skill Jiang Che had gained after devouring a 2,500-year-old Explosive Flame Lizard.
Flame Burst Bomb!
In an instant,
a ball of fire the size of a human head appeared in her palm, radiating intense heat.
With a thought, she launched it.
The fire shot toward a distant mountain peak.
As it flew,
the fireball burst apart, splitting into dozens of fist-sized fireballs.
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
In an instant,
the mountain was hit by a barrage of explosions.
Rubble came tumbling down.
"This..."
Ye Yingling couldn't believe it.
She really could use other skills.
She had gone from a healer to a Power Attack System Soul Master!
"That's right. Any skill I've devoured can be used by you while we're symbiotic."
"All six skills of that Golden Armored Red Flame Dragon are available. Just call out whichever one you want."
Ye Yingling felt like her mind was about to short-circuit. A Nine-Heart Begonia Soul Master could actually use the combat skills of a dragon-type Soul Beast.
Then,
Jiang Ce revealed another fact that left her stunned.
"When I devour a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, you get two percent of the benefits."
"That's two hundred years' worth of Soul Beast cultivation in soul power, equivalent to three or four months of hard cultivation."
Ye Yingling's heart skipped a beat.
Killing a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast would be worth three or four months of meditation and hard cultivation.
A Symbiote this powerful had never been recorded anywhere on the Douluo Continent.
But splitting off a Fission body came at a cost.
Jiang Ce's cultivation had originally been 24,000 years. After splitting, it became two bodies with 12,000 years each: one remained inside Liu Erlong, while the other had attached itself to Ye Yingling.
Though each body's level had dropped, he now had two mounts online at the same time. And since they could keep devouring to regain their years, it was a deal that could only make him money.
"This Venom Symbiote... it's almost too powerful."
Ye Yingling murmured. The fear in her voice had been completely replaced by excitement.
Before she had even finished speaking, the black suit around her suddenly tightened.
Ye Yingling cried out in alarm. Her hands instinctively flew to her chest, yet she didn't know where to cover.
The suit clung tightly to her body, outlining every inch of her curves in exquisite detail.
"Tsk, tsk. Not a bad body." Jiang Ce's voice held a satisfied chuckle.
Ye Yingling's cheeks flushed red, and even her neck turned pink.
"Y-you, don't—"
"You need to get used to it, or how will you fight later?" Jiang Ce said righteously. "You can ask your senior sister to teach you."
"Senior sister?" Ye Yingling froze and instinctively looked at Liu Erlong.
She remembered what she had just witnessed in battle: a three-ring Soul Elder had beaten a 20,000-year-old dragon into the ground, every punch landing hard enough to send scales flying.
That kick from the sky, dropping like a falling meteor, had left a crater in the forest.
And hadn't Liu Erlong just absorbed the 20,000-year-old Soul Beast's Soul Ring?
Her fourth Soul Ring was already a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring. Was she even human?
Liu Erlong felt a little uncomfortable under her gaze.
"When did I become her senior sister?"
"From now on, you can call me teacher," Jiang Ce declared, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Liu Erlong raised an eyebrow. There he went again.
The "teacher" he had in mind was definitely not meant literally. That guy had all sorts of tricks up his sleeve.
Role-playing, making her call him Daddy, even getting her to call herself Mommy—he was game for all of it. He was a total pervert.
Teacher-student romance was just another dish on his menu. She was too tired to resist anymore.
Either way, he'd twist her this way and that until she took his shape. What difference did it make?
"Senior sister," Ye Yingling obediently called out to Liu Erlong.
Sensing what Liu Erlong was thinking, Jiang Ce activated Phantom Dragon Impact again.
Liu Erlong's expression changed drastically, and she staggered.
Ye Yingling hurriedly steadied her.
"Senior sister, what's wrong? Were you hurt in the battle?"
But she clearly remembered Liu Erlong had completely dominated that fight.
Liu Erlong covered her lower abdomen and buttocks with both hands, gritting her teeth.
"Ah... ngh... y-you, stop—ngh—"
"My eldest disciple, you need to behave and stop letting your thoughts run wild."
Jiang Ce spoke slowly.
Once he stopped, Liu Erlong panted for a long while before coming back to her senses.
"What do you mean, my thoughts are running wild? You're the one messing around with me!"
"I'm training you."
Hearing Jiang Ce's shameless words, Liu Erlong clenched her teeth, then finally sighed.
Forget it. He'd already twisted her into his shape.
Ye Yingling stared at her senior sister's strange expression, utterly confused.
"Senior sister?"
Suddenly, the black suit on her chest swelled. A black tentacle poked through her collar, its tip quickly molding itself into a human face.
The face was handsome and dashing, with a valiant air and a steady yet unruly pressure about it.
Ye Yingling instinctively shrank back, but when she saw the face clearly, her eyes flickered. For some reason, she felt a little more at ease.
"What about me?"
Ye Yingling pursed her lips and softly called out, "...Teacher."
"Good, good." Jiang Ce nodded in satisfaction. "You were planning to get your Second Soul Ring, but put that on hold for now. First, you need to hone your body properly."
Ye Yingling was a little curious, but she understood as soon as she thought it over.
Even if she went hunting for a Soul Beast and obtained her Second Soul Ring now, the Nine-Heart Begonia's nature wouldn't change. It could only raise her soul power limit and increase the potency of her healing skill; it wouldn't give her a new skill.
Rather than locking in her path now, it was better to use the Symbiote's skill set to build a solid foundation in combat first.
And after experiencing all the combat skills the Symbiote had granted her, she was even a little reluctant to be just a healer. What support Soul Master didn't have a warrior's heart?
Jiang Ce seemed to sense what she was thinking. He snorted and began explaining the plans he had for her next.
He told her about the evolution path, removing the limitations on her Martial Soul, and the ultimate goal.
Ye Yingling listened in a daze.
Could this really be done?
Could a healer Soul Master keep stacking buffs on other people?
If so, wouldn't she be even more terrifying than the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda?
If not for the restrictions on the Nine-Heart Begonia Martial Soul, the title of the continent's number-one support Soul Master should have belonged to her Ye Clan.
And her teacher's ideas were so profound. She had never heard anyone else talk about anything like them.
"What an idiot."
A black tentacle emerged from her shoulder and lightly tapped her on the head.
Ye Yingling covered the spot where it had hit her, looking wronged. "Teacher, why did you hit me—"
"Even if your Martial Soul never evolves or mutates, you can still use my abilities to fight."
"Power attack, control, agility attack, healing, support—I've got everything. You can be whatever kind of Soul Master you want. Who decided you had to stand in the back and heal people?"
Ye Yingling blinked, finally coming around.
That was right. Even if her Martial Soul only ever had one healing skill,
As long as the teacher was still on her, she could call upon all of her combat skills.
One second, she could be healing her teammates; the next, she could dive into the enemy's back line and unleash a burst of damage. Nothing like that had ever been heard of across the entire Douluo Continent.
Even Liu Erlong couldn't help marveling from the sidelines. She was the same, after all.
In her Symbiote state, she could call upon Jiang Ce's hundred-plus skills, though she rarely used them.
Once she went all out, she wouldn't just be a four-ring Battle Soul Master focused on attack. She'd be an all-around warrior, strong in every field.
Jiang Ce would devour more Soul Beasts in the future and gain even more skills. His potential was nowhere near its limit.
"All right, let's head back and restock for now." Jiang Ce transformed into the Black Latex Suit again, his tone languid. "While we're at it, we'll get something good to help our Lingling get properly nourished."
Ye Yingling blinked. Nourished?
What did he mean?
Liu Erlong gave her a meaningful look, her gaze slowly traveling over the curvaceous figure outlined by Ye Yingling's tight black suit.
Ye Yingling felt uncomfortable under her gaze and instinctively hunched her shoulders.
She looked down at the black latex suit that was still faintly rippling over her body, then at Liu Erlong's identical suit, which perfectly outlined her ample curves.
A rather ominous association suddenly surfaced in her mind.
"Senior Sister... what exactly did Teacher mean by 'get properly nourished'—?"
Liu Erlong didn't answer. She only gave a meaningful hum and strode ahead.
Ye Yingling shivered where she stood.
P.S. During this trial period, updates will come at midnight. Please follow along, toss me a few free votes, and save up chapters—it's easy to die otherwise!
The traffic this time around is really bad. Sigh...
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