The next morning.
Liu Erlong was still wearing the Venom Black Latex Suit. Her figure was explosively curvaceous.
Compared to a few days ago, she looked a little more mature.
"You bastard, making me train to the brink of death for a whole day and two nights was bad enough."
She furrowed her brow. "But you even gave me two Phantom Dragons! I'm so not used to this!"
"That's exactly why you need to get used to it. The training will only get more intense from here."
Liu Erlong pursed her lips. "Where do you come up with so many tricks? I can't even take a day off. The training is way too intense."
"Take a day off? How are you supposed to get stronger if you rest? This is the intensity we're sticking to from now on."
"That way, you'll be ready for anything, anytime. Real battles won't give you time to prepare."
Jiang Ce let out a wicked cackle.
If he didn't have to send her out today to hunt Soul Beasts and keep devouring their genes—sealing shut her two weaknesses, fire and sound waves, once and for all—he had another new training plan he wanted to ease her into.
Liu Erlong took a deep breath and headed for the Mercenary Guild.
The Mercenary Guild.
A few people instinctively stepped back when they saw Liu Erlong come in.
The sight of her smashing Ma San's face into a table with one hand yesterday was still fresh in everyone's minds.
What was more, Ma Biao and his whole crew had vanished without a trace.
Ma San was his cousin. The man was usually arrogant and domineering, and he'd never let an assault like that slide.
But for the past two days, there hadn't been a single word from Ma Biao's entire group.
There was only one explanation:
Liu Erlong had powerful backing. They'd either scared Ma Biao into keeping his head down or made him vanish from the face of the earth.
In a world where the strongest fist made the rules, picking a fight with someone you couldn't handle meant you were finished.
Liu Erlong ignored all the undercurrents in the room.
She went straight to the notice board, skipped all the Soul Elder missions, scanned the top row, and tore down a bounty notice.
Target: one five-thousand-year fire-attribute dragon-type Soul Beast.
Requirement: Kill it and bring back the intact corpse.
Recommended mission level: teams of four-ring Soul Ancestors or above.
Bounty: thirty thousand Gold Soul Coins.
A few mercenaries beside her saw the notice in her hand and sucked in a collective breath.
"That's a Soul Ancestor-level mission. Isn't she only a three-ring Soul Elder?"
"Didn't she take a Soul Ancestor-level mission yesterday, too?"
"How is that the same? Last time she only had to gather herbs, and she could do that by luring away the Soul Beast. This time she has to kill one outright. The difficulty's on a whole different level."
A few tactless men kept muttering among themselves.
Then those crimson, slit-pupil eyes slowly turned toward them, and their faces changed in unison.
"Ahem, I just remembered, my kid's waiting for me to get home and teach him how to farm—"
"Haha, me too, me too! My old man's waiting for me to read to him—"
They bolted, not daring to look back.
Liu Erlong glanced at their retreating figures and snorted before turning toward the counter.
The clerk paused when she approached.
Yesterday's memory of being unable to get a single word out in response to her still caught in his throat.
Even so, when he took the bounty notice and checked it, he hesitated before quietly saying, "This mission carries considerable risk. You'd be better off bringing a few companions."
Then he completed her registration.
Liu Erlong gave a slight nod and said nothing.
The outskirts of Sunset Forest.
A dark figure darted through the trees like a leopard.
Liu Erlong surveyed her surroundings, searching for every Soul Beast she might encounter.
By midday, aside from casually slapping a few hundred-year nuisances to death, she hadn't caught so much as a glimpse of her target.
"Head three miles northeast. There's a Soul Power fluctuation over there," Jiang Ce's voice sounded in her mind.
Liu Erlong immediately changed course, lowering her body as she hurried through the forest.
The farther in she went, the clearer the Soul Power fluctuations in the air became.
She stopped behind a large tree and parted the branches.
Ahead, a bat-like Soul Beast with a gray-brown body hung upside down from the branch of a dead tree, its wings folded as it dozed.
It was about half a person's height, its belly rising and falling faintly.
A Phantom Sound Bat. Mental and sound-wave attributes. Judging by its size and Soul Power fluctuation, it was at least fifteen hundred years old.
"Don't let it make a sound." Jiang Ce's voice suddenly dropped, his tone filled with a loathing Liu Erlong had never heard from him before. "Kill it in one strike. Don't give it a chance to open its mouth."
Liu Erlong stared at the bat and nodded.
So Jiang Ce hated sound waves.
No, it wasn't just hatred. From how he'd deliberately made her avoid the flames when they faced the Red Flame Earth Dragon, it seemed the Symbiote had an innate weakness to certain kinds of attacks.
Sound waves probably affected him no less than fire.
That made sense. It would be strange if a Symbiote with such an outrageous ability to amplify power didn't have one or two natural enemies.
But she kept that thought to herself.
She and Jiang Ce were one now, sharing glory and ruin alike. Whatever he feared, she feared too.
She still didn't know just how much sound waves affected the Symbiote.
But if a sound-wave attack hit it head-on during a fight and stopped it from boosting her power—
That would instantly strip away every card she had to play.
The fifteen-hundred-year Phantom Sound Bat in front of her was manageable. Even without the Symbiote's boost, her strength as a three-ring Soul Elder was enough to kill it alone.
But what if she encountered a stronger sound-wave Soul Beast in the future?
Being knocked back to her original state in the middle of a life-or-death battle—that would be a true dead end.
Jiang Ce sensed her thoughts and let out a satisfied chuckle in her mind.
No wonder he'd chosen her as his mount.
He'd make sure to reward her properly later.
Liu Erlong silently raised her right hand. Black liquid gathered in her palm, hardening into a short blade about half an arm's length.
She fixed her eyes on the Phantom Sound Bat. This thing had to die without a sound.
She pushed off lightly with her toes, and her figure vanished from where she stood.
She covered the distance of nearly ten meters in a flash. The short blade in her hand stretched as she charged, instantly piercing the Phantom Sound Bat's half-open mouth and driving straight through its skull.
The Phantom Sound Bat let out no shriek. Its wings twitched once, then it fell completely still.
Black liquid welled from the wound, covering the corpse as it began to devour it.
Liu Erlong landed steadily on the dead tree branch. A moment later, the Phantom Sound Bat had vanished completely from the tree.
"How was that?" She withdrew the short blade.
"My resistance to sound waves just got a boost. I'm nowhere near immune, but at least it's no longer zero." Jiang Ce sounded pleased. "I also got its skill."
Phantom Sound Wave—release a mental-attribute sound wave from the mouth, spreading in a fan shape.
Targets struck by it suffer mental disruption, causing brief dizziness and disorientation. Targets of the same level or lower are stunned for about five seconds.
The skill dealt both sound-wave damage and mental impact.
At the same time,
Devouring the fifteen-hundred-year Phantom Sound Bat converted roughly one hundred and fifty years of Soul Beast lifespan for Jiang Ce.
Liu Erlong also felt a warm current flowing into her body.
"That's about fifteen years' worth of feedback, equivalent to nearly a week of painstaking cultivation in Soul Power."
Liu Erlong rolled her wrist.
She could clearly feel that Soul Power flowing into her meridians, tempering her body bit by bit.
Just killing one thousand-year Soul Beast had given her as much as a week of meditative cultivation.
The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. She said nothing, but her eyes shone a little brighter.
At this rate,
she'd soon reach the threshold of level thirty-five.
Jiang Ce really was the greatest opportunity heaven had ever granted her.
"Greatest?"
Jiang Ce let out a wicked chuckle in her mind.
The next second,
the Black Latex Suit on her body suddenly rippled. A black hand took shape out of nowhere and slapped hard against her round, pert buttocks.
Smack.
Before you continue