Anti-Magic Ninja Training! Medusa!

To help Ye Yingling recover her soul ring age as quickly as possible while honing her combat instincts, Jiang Ce had Liu Erlong lead her into the outskirts of the Sunset Forest for round-the-clock hunting.

They also took the opportunity to complete the few tasks they had previously accepted from the Mercenary Guild.

At first, Ye Yingling was thrilled; in her Symbiote state, she could freely summon dozens or even hundreds of combat skills, allowing her to play whatever type of soul master she desired.

However, it didn't take long for the smile to fade from her face, as Jiang Ce's Phantom Dragon Impact would trigger without warning whenever she was at her most focused.

It caused her to stumble, nearly sending her straight into the jaws of a soul beast.

On several occasions, she had clearly locked onto her target, only for that impact to force her fist half an inch off course, leaving her to be countered by the soul beast and sent rolling across the forest floor.

Jiang Ce not only refused to help her, but he even ordered her to deactivate all defenses on her Black Latex Suit.

That layer of material, usually as tough as steel, truly became nothing more than a simple bodysuit once he withdrew the defensive properties, failing to block even the claws of a century-level soul beast.

His goal was to force her to feel the weight of every strike and use her very bones to memorize the pain of being beaten.

Regardless, with his presence and the super-healing capabilities of the Nine-Heart Begonia, even a near-fatal injury could be mended on the spot.

After all, Ye Yingling had previously been nothing more than a support-type healing soul master; her combat instincts were a far cry from Liu Erlong's, lagging behind by a massive margin.

She had to be tempered properly.

Besides, he still had his Anti-Magic Ninja project to carry out.

His very own personal squad of Anti-Magic Ninjas!

Ye Yingling gritted her teeth and persevered. Although Jiang Ce could heal her, the hits were genuinely painful; the recoil from her fists slamming into scales traveled from her finger bones all the way to her shoulders, making her internal organs tremble.

She had no choice but to focus with everything she had, struggling to keep her eyes from rolling back while controlling her breathing to match the rhythm of her movements.

"Teacher... slow down!" she cried, her voice trembling as she flipped a six-thousand-year soul beast with a single punch.

"Yes! I actually managed to send an eight-thousand-year soul beast flying with one hit!" she cheered, riding on the back of an earth dragon and raining down heavy blows until fragments of its scales flew everywhere.

"This skill is terrifying—it grabs the opponent and slams them into the ground, leaving them completely unable to move!" Her eyes lit up the first time she used the Blazing Dragon-Capturing Slam.

"Teacher, Teacher, I can't take it anymore—" She had just smashed through two soul beasts when the Phantom Dragon inside her lashed out, nearly forcing her to her knees on the spot.

"This skill has such strong defense, and it even reflects damage! It bit me and broke its own teeth!" She touched the arm covered by the Golden Flame Scale Armor, a brilliant smile on her face.

"There are so many Gold Soul Coins in this dragon lair—I'm rich!" She scooped up a handful of glittering soul coins from the cave, her eyes curving into crescents.

After several consecutive days, Jiang Ce was having the time of his life, while Ye Yingling, the former high-born young lady, was being kneaded and molded by him in two diametrically opposed ways.

On one side was the most brutal form of combat, where every punch connected with flesh.

On the other was the most bone-deep torture, forcing her to endure that near-collapsing impact even in the heat of battle.

Even Liu Erlong found it hard to watch, offering a rare moment of silent mourning for the poor girl.

Ye Yingling had previously been a pure support healer who had never lifted a finger to do any manual labor.

Now, not only did she have to charge to the front lines to trade blows with soul beasts, but she also had to endure Jiang Ce's varied and creative "combat training" at the same time.

However, watching a dignified and gentle young lady shriek with excitement during battle, only to have her eyes roll back from the Phantom Dragon Impact, provided a truly stark contrast.

There was no one else in this forest, and that bad guy was enjoying himself to the fullest.

Liu Erlong hadn't been idle either; over the past few days, Jiang Ce's consciousness had been switching back and forth between two bodies, and since he spent more time tormenting Ye Yingling, he naturally spent less time tormenting her.

From that point on, the soul beasts on the outskirts of the Sunset Forest encountered their most ruthless mother.

She fought with raw power, leaving the soul beast packs on the outskirts howling in misery, while the dragon-type soul beasts would dive into their burrows the moment they heard her footsteps.

Jiang Ce split off two more Fission variants, bringing all four bodies down to six thousand years to start everything from scratch.

Because of this, they stayed in the Sunset Forest for several more days, killing from dawn until deep into the night, from the outskirts all the way into the depths.

By the seventh day, the age of all four clones had finally climbed back up to thirty thousand years.

The frantic hunting of these past few days had transformed Ye Yingling from a novice who could only passively endure into a qualified warrior capable of maintaining a combat stance and flipping soul beasts with a single punch, even while under the influence of the Phantom Dragon Impact.

This was, of course, thanks to Jiang Ce's day-and-night "whipping"—both in the combat sense and in every other sense.

After these few days of dual development, Ye Yingling's entire temperament had changed; the initial fragility of a green girl had been replaced by a faint, mature charm.

Her figure had also become increasingly lush and full, the curves beneath her Black Latex Suit even more stunning than they had been seven days ago.

The difference in temperament between a woman who had been thoroughly developed and a girl who had never known the ways of the world was impossible to hide.

Jiang Ce was extremely satisfied with this; after all, something he had personally trained was naturally the most to his liking.

He didn't even have to pat her backside before she knew exactly what position to take.

On the morning of the seventh day, Liu Erlong brought Ye Yingling to the entrance of a valley shrouded in dense, toxic mist.

At this moment, they were accompanied by a tall, burly man with handsome, extraordinary features and an imposing air.

This was the complete human form Jiang Ce had condensed from one of his bodies; even a Super Douluo standing before him would be unable to see through his true identity.

Liu Erlong looked at the valley entrance, which was layered in poisonous miasma, and frowned; the emerald-green vapors were so potent that merely brushing against fallen leaves turned them into black sludge.

"Relax, my poison resistance was maxed out long ago. Besides, with the Nine-Heart Begonia's healing skills in hand, what are you afraid of?"

Jiang Ce said casually.

The two women followed him, one on the left and one on the right, stepping straight into the poisonous miasma. Layers of miasma churned around the trio, yet they could not penetrate their bodies in the slightest.

Passing through the final patch of dense miasma, their field of vision suddenly widened.

In the center of the valley floor, a spring of icy blue and a spring of fiery red stood side by side, their extreme cold and heat forces intersecting yet remaining clearly distinct.

The land below the valley was densely covered with all sorts of flowers and grasses, each one radiating spiritual energy fluctuations far exceeding those of ordinary medicinal herbs.

Ye Yingling covered her mouth with both hands, her eyes wide and round; these were the heaven-and-earth spiritual treasures that could fundamentally change a soul master's destiny.

The key to lifting the curse of her Ye Clan's Nine-Heart Begonia Martial Soul grew right here on this land.

Liu Erlong maintained a calm expression, but the muscles at the corners of her eyes could not help but twitch; the immortal herb that could allow her Fire Dragon Martial Soul to evolve once more was also here.

Jiang Ce's gaze swept across the entire valley, and he raised an eyebrow slightly. Beyond the immortal herbs he already knew of, there were many varieties growing here that were not recorded in the original story at all.

Ye Yingling's fingers trembled with excitement, and Liu Erlong's breathing became noticeably faster.

Just then, a sharp hiss erupted from the direction of the valley's rock walls, and a massive figure lunged out from a cave.

The upper body was the face of a woman of extreme, cold beauty, her ink-green long hair moving without wind behind her, while her lower body was a thick, slender snake tail.

Upon closer inspection, her hair was actually made of living small snakes, all of which were flicking their tongues at the three of them in unison—

A thirty-thousand-year soul beast, Medusa.

"Humans, retreat at once. This is not a place you should set foot in."

The Medusa coiled her snake tail around a rock, looking down at the three uninvited guests from a position of superiority.

"Finish this quickly," Jiang Ce said faintly.

Before the words had even faded, Liu Erlong and Ye Yingling vanished from their spots simultaneously, flanking the beast from left and right like two bolts of lightning.

Layers of buffing effects lit up on Ye Yingling, making her shine like a walking orb of light.

The Medusa whipped her tail in a horizontal sweep, but when the thick tail struck her, it only caused ripples to splash across her shield.

Ye Yingling grabbed the snake tail with a backhand, using the momentum to pull herself closer, and slammed her right fist, wrapped in dark golden flames, downward with force.

The Medusa was sent flying sideways, and just as she stabilized her figure, Liu Erlong had already struck from another direction.

Her Dragon Arm-enhanced fists hammered into the beast's most vulnerable waist and abdomen like a violent storm, each punch driving deep into the muscle.

The Medusa let out a sharp hiss, her eyes suddenly glowing with a cyan light, but the two women gave her no chance to lock onto them.

In just a short moment, this thirty-thousand-year Medusa was forcibly beaten from the rock wall to the ground by the two humans, lying paralyzed in a pile of rubble and shivering.

If not for Jiang Ce's prior order not to kill her, this Medusa would have long since been hammered into snake meat paste.

Jiang Ce had his own plans: first, let Ye Yingling absorb the immortal herbs to completely remove the defects of her martial soul, temper her physical body to the extreme, transform her spiritual power, and evolve her martial soul, so she could directly absorb the thirty-thousand-year Medusa soul ring for her second soul ring.

However, after seeing the Medusa's appearance clearly at close range, he had an additional idea.

Her upper body was the image of an extremely cold and beautiful woman; soul beasts could transform into human form once they reached one hundred thousand years of cultivation, and this Medusa already had the foundation.

He would keep her to continue guarding this treasure land; from now on, this place would be his private garden.

After all, this was the best immortal herb nursery.

In this place, one year of planting was equivalent to a hundred years outside.

As for the Medusa's skills, he could simply parasitize her to copy them all; there was no need to kill her at all.

He didn't care about missing out on a few soul bones.

Action followed thought; a mass of pitch-black liquid suddenly surged from Ye Yingling's chest, lunging straight at the Medusa lying on the ground.

"Ah! What is this—it's sticky and slimy! Get it off!" The Medusa watched helplessly as the black liquid crawled onto her snake tail, spreading up over her waist and abdomen, and wrapping around half of her face.

"Not bad, little Medusa, you have quite a lot of skills," Jiang Ce's voice echoed in her consciousness.

Venomous Snake Constriction, Medusa Miasma, Purple Venomous Snake Light, Petrification Beam, Snake Spirit Wings, Etherealization, Snake Scale Armor Defense, Venom Devour—a long list of skills was laid out clearly.

"Who exactly are you!" the Medusa shrieked in her consciousness.

"I am your master."

"You are my pet now."