At the bottom of the cliff.
Liu Erlong smashed a waist-high granite boulder with one punch.
She flexed her fingers, and her knuckles cracked.
The feeling of unleashing her strength was incredibly satisfying.
"Stop spacing out. Try something else."
Black fluid writhed over her right arm, condensing into a black dagger in three seconds.
She slashed the shattered rock in half with a backhand stroke. The cut was as smooth as a mirror.
"A blade."
The dagger melted and reshaped itself into a diamond-shaped buckler over her forearm.
"A shield."
The shield stretched into a whip. Barbs sprouted from its tip, and when she lashed it against the cliff wall, it carved a deep furrow.
"A whip."
The whip retracted, and a pair of three-meter black wings abruptly unfolded from her back.
With him now clad in a skin-tight black leather suit that hugged his ample curves, a pair of pitch-black wings spread behind him.
Sultry and dangerous, like a fallen angel flown straight out of Hell.
Black wings.
One beat sent the loose rocks flying.
"I can fly, too. I can't stay airborne for long yet, but eventually I'll be able to fly all day."
She tried disguising herself next—the pitch-black fluid surged.
The suit could switch between all sorts of styles, and could even mimic another person's appearance.
After testing her abilities,
Liu Erlong fell silent for a moment, then spoke.
"What level are you now?"
"On my own, I'm at the level of a thousand-year Soul Beast. But the stronger my host gets, the stronger I get. There's no limit."
"What's the price?"
She hadn't been raised by a sect and had never believed in windfalls from the heavens.
Everything came with a price. She'd understood that since she was ten.
"It's simple. You're mine now."
"I agree."
After dying once, she didn't want to be left helpless and alone again.
She wanted power. She wanted to grind the faces of everyone who'd looked down on her into the dirt.
If the price was sharing her body with a lump of black slime, so be it.
"Good. Let's go settle the score with that lizard."
The Red Flame Earth Dragon was still roaming above the cliff.
The female dragon was in a foul mood. Her tail swept more boulders over the edge, and sparks spat from her nostrils.
Liu Erlong scrambled up the side of the cliff and stood face-to-face with her.
The female dragon froze.
The next second, Liu Erlong charged, moving so fast she left afterimages in her wake.
The Earth Dragon had only just opened its jaws to breathe fire when she was already at its neck. She aimed for the joint where its scales were thinnest and drove her fist into it—
Boom!
The five-meter dragon was sent flying.
Before it could recover, Liu Erlong leaped onto its back. Her hands turned into black-fluid spikes, which she drove into the Earth Dragon's eyes and straight into its skull.
The Earth Dragon let out a wail.
Its thrashing went from fierce to feeble, until at last it crashed to the ground and lay still.
Liu Erlong stood on its back, panting, her eyes bright with exhilaration.
That damned Earth Dragon had chased her to the brink of death just moments ago.
Killing it now felt incredible.
She pushed the blood-matted hair from her forehead and looked down.
A purple Soul Ring rose from the corpse, floating faintly above it.
Liu Erlong jumped down and examined the Soul Ring.
"What a pity. I'm only level twenty-nine, not thirty. Even if I can absorb it, it's an eight-thousand-year Soul Ring. On the continent, the standard is yellow, yellow, purple, purple. Who's ever heard of an eight-thousand-year third ring?"
"Who says you can't?"
Black fluid surged over her body, turning into countless threads that pierced the dragon's corpse.
The threads burrowed through its scales and coiled around its flesh, beginning to devour it.
"The boost I gave you wasn't just to your strength and speed. Your Mental Power, meridian resilience, and bone density have all been reforged. Just because other people couldn't withstand it doesn't mean you can't."
The threads tightened.
Under the venom's embrace, the five-meter dragon rapidly shrank and dissolved. Its scales, flesh, tendons, and marrow were broken down into their most basic energy, which surged back along the threads.
Liu Erlong shuddered as a searing torrent coursed through her limbs and bones. Her Soul Power surged.
Level thirty.
At the same time, Jiang Ce's main body was digesting the energy, too.
The "fire equals pain" code in the Symbiote's genes was being overwritten by the essence of dragon flesh. Resistance factors from fire-attribute Soul Beasts were integrating into every cell.
The lingering dragon breath coursed through his body without triggering a stress response. Instead, it brought a comfortable warmth.
Devour fire-attribute Soul Beasts, gain fire resistance.
Swallow a few more dragons, and that fatal weakness to fire would be welded shut for good.
"Can I absorb it now?"
Liu Erlong reached out and touched the purple Soul Ring.
Energy surged into her, far more violently than a Hundred-Year Soul Ring.
Her venom-enhanced body easily withstood the impact.
Purple light gathered beneath her feet, growing steadier and steadier. Her Soul Power climbed again—level thirty-one, then thirty-two.
A level-thirty-two Soul Elder.
Her eyes snapped open, a flash of fire in her pupils.
The flames in her palm had changed color. A golden core like molten lava gleamed within their dark red depths, and their heat had more than doubled.
She gave her Soul Power a jolt.
Dark-red flames burst from within her and engulfed her body. Fiery tongues coiled around her limbs and torso, while the shattered rocks beneath her feet crackled in the intense heat.
Third Soul Skill: Dragon Flame Blood Burn.
All attributes doubled—attack, strength, defense, attack speed, and more.
Grants hyper armor.
Dragon flames coat the body, inflicting burn damage. All fire attacks also inflict an additional Dragon Flame burn.
Duration: two hours.
"Not bad." Jiang Ce sounded pleased.
After devouring the dragon's corpse, the Symbiote's replication ability kicked in, copying the Red Flame Earth Dragon's skills into his genes one by one.
Dragon Flame Roar Bomb—compresses fire-attribute Soul Power and fires it as a high-speed blast. On impact, it explodes over an area and inflicts burn damage.
The dragon breath the Red Flame Earth Dragon had used to chase Liu Erlong was a weaker version of this skill.
Dragon Scale Hardening—instantly hardens the body's surface with fire-attribute Soul Power, greatly increasing defense.
This was the Red Flame Earth Dragon's natural defensive skill, the one that had helped it reach adulthood.
Liu Erlong nodded and was about to leave.
"Hold on."
"What is it?"
"There's something valuable in this female dragon's territory. Another Soul Beast had been fighting with it, and it got lucky and picked up an External Soul Bone."
Liu Erlong's breathing quickened.
An External Soul Bone.
It was a priceless treasure, impossible to find on the market.
Even Titled Douluo would risk their lives to fight over one. It could transform a Soul Master's combat power.
And it could grow, too.
"Let's go."
She turned and strode toward the lair, her steps steady, no longer a trace of her earlier disarray.
The lair was a vast cavern half-buried in the mountainside.
Torn shrubs and dense claw marks littered the entrance, and the air reeked of sulfur.
Dragon breath had scorched the cave walls again and again, melting the stone into a glassy glaze.
Several clumps of dark-red Dragon Breath Grass grew in the cracks between the stones—the very herb she'd been commissioned to gather.
Liu Erlong headed straight for the deepest part.
There, she found a small mountain of Gold Soul Coins and gems, glittering in the sunlight.
Liu Erlong's eyes lit up.
This enormous fortune would be enough to cultivate her to the Seven-Ring Soul Sage level.
"There's plenty more over there."
At Jiang Ce's prompting, Liu Erlong turned and looked. She saw piles of human bones.
Among the bones were some with unusual colors.
"Soul Bones!"
Liu Erlong's breathing quickened. "I can't believe there are so many Soul Bones here."
She immediately set about gathering them, quick as a flash, along with the jewelry on some of the remains.
After all, that jewelry was made up of Soul Tools.
And there were plenty of Soul Coins in the Soul Tools, too.
"But the most important thing is the External Soul Bone."
A pair of wing bones, half an arm's length each, dark red from end to end and covered in naturally formed scale-like patterns. They felt slightly warm to the touch, as if a ball of fire were trapped inside.
An External Soul Bone—a complete pair of Dragon Wing bones.
The Earth Dragon had brought them back as spoils and buried them beneath the lair.
"Red Flame Dragon Wings. They can evolve as your level rises, and there's a chance they'll mutate a second time if they devour the essence of other dragon Soul Beasts."
Liu Erlong pulled the pair of dark-red wing bones from her arms.
The moment her Soul Power entered them, the bones turned into a stream of heat and drilled into her palm, burning its way along her meridians and into her spine.
On either side of her shoulder blades came the sound of bones spreading apart and knitting themselves back together—
A pair of dark-red Dragon Wings tore out of her back. Their wingspan nearly reached four meters, their membranes translucent with flame patterns, their edges sharp as blades.
The Soul Power essence sealed within the Dragon Wings was released at the same time, pouring into her meridians.
Level thirty-three.
The fusion was complete.
The Dragon Wings beat slowly behind her, their dark-red membranes gleaming with molten light.
External Soul Bone: Red Flame Dragon Wings.
Dragon Wing Enhancement: When the wings spread, all attributes increase by 100%, and fire-attribute damage increases by an additional 50%.
Duration: two hours.
The wing bones themselves grant flight, blade-like slashes, and Dragon Flame coating. They can evolve as the user's level rises.
There is a chance of a second mutation after devouring the essence of dragon Soul Beasts.
"Level thirty-three, a pair of wings that can fly and cut, and a skill that boosts all my attributes."
"Coming here was worth it."
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