Nine Lightning Punishments Break the Seal, A Strange Blue Soul Ring?

"Just as I thought!"

Xue Chen felt his heart settle. He completely let go of his mind and body, channeling the massive thunder energy with all his might, slamming it again and again, more fiercely than ever, against the first seal deep within his dantian that was already covered in cracks!

"Rumble!!!"

Before the energy of the third thunderbolt could be fully absorbed, the fourth, the fifth...

Thicker thunderbolts with increasingly deep, dark colors descended one after another from the black hole of thunder, their target remaining constant: Xue Chen!

Inside the Ice Crystal Palace, Ice Emperor and Xiao Lan looked up at the tiny figure being repeatedly submerged by the destructive lightning in the high sky, their hearts trembling with fear.

Even though they had witnessed Xue Chen absorb the first two bolts, the momentum of the subsequent tribulation grew stronger with every strike!

"Snow Maiden, this is already the fifth one! Why hasn't it ended yet? Little Chen... can he really hold on?"

Ice Emperor couldn't help but transmit her voice to Snow Emperor in the sky, her tone filled with worry.

The mere ripples of energy leaking from each thunderbolt were enough to make her heart palpitate.

Snow Emperor's spiritual power remained tightly wrapped around Xue Chen, sensing his most minute life fluctuations.

She clearly perceived that Xue Chen's life force was not weakening; on the contrary, it was growing more vigorous under the infusion of thunder. The sound of his blood surging was audible to her even from such a great distance.

"Chen'er's life force is very stable, and it is even... continuing to climb."

Snow Emperor's ethereal voice carried a hint of amazement as she replied to Ice Emperor:

"The power of this tribulation seems to be perfectly absorbed and converted by him. For now... trust him."

Despite her words, the extreme cold soul power swirling around her remained in a state of readiness, her ice-blue eyes watching constantly, not daring to relax for even a second.

The thunderbolts fell one after another: the sixth, the seventh...

When the eighth thunder dragon roared and slammed into Xue Chen, the first seal within his body finally let out a groan of unbearable strain!

A crisp shattering sound, as if originating from the depths of his soul, was infinitely amplified in Xue Chen's perception.

The first seal, composed of layers upon layers of complex, dark-glowing runes, saw its cracks spread across the entire structure instantly after enduring the frantic impact of eight thunderbolts.

Finally, amidst a blinding flash of thunderous light, it shattered with a boom!

It dissolved into countless specks of light, dissipating deep into the origin of his life.

The phantom of the Thunder Dragon Emperor behind him suddenly solidified significantly. The thunderous light in the dragon's eyes flared brilliantly, and the dragon patterns on the Radiant Thunder Dragon Spear seemed to come alive, emitting a joyful hum.

Snow Emperor keenly captured the subtle change in the aura surrounding Xue Chen.

A deeper sense of gravity flashed through her ice-blue eyes.

The moment the seal shattered, a wave of energy, far more vast and pure than all the thunder force absorbed previously, surged wildly from the depths of the broken seal!

"BOOM!!!"

Xue Chen felt his entire body boiling at this moment!

His blood energy soared and expanded frantically! A layer of rich, blood-colored radiance emerged on the surface of his skin.

His small body now resembled that of a pure-blooded fierce beast!

"ROAR!!!"

The Thunder Dragon Emperor martial soul behind him let out a passionate dragon roar that shook the heavens!

At the same time, a new mutation occurred!

Before the final ninth thunderbolt could fall, the power surging from the broken seal began to gather on its own around Xue Chen!

A ring of deep, sapphire-like transparent blue light suddenly emerged around his body!

This light ring was pure and deep in color, as if it contained an endless ocean of thunder.

Along its edges, dazzling blue-gold lightning coiled, emitting an aura that was similar to a soul ring, yet fundamentally different!

This martial soul was not attached to either his Thunder Dragon Emperor or his Radiant Thunder Dragon Spear; it was purely circling his own body.

"This is...?"

Below, Ice Emperor's emerald eyes widened, her pretty face filled with disbelief.

Sensing the special rule-based aura within the light ring—which was of the same origin as a soul ring but transcended it—she subconsciously exclaimed: "A soul ring?!"

Even the knowledgeable Snow Emperor was filled with unprecedented astonishment and confusion in her ice-blue eyes.

She hovered in mid-air, feeling the strange power radiating from the light ring circling Xue Chen, and for the first time, an expression of near-bewilderment appeared on her beautiful face.

"Condensed from tribulation energy and his own blood? A... soul ring that circles his own body instead of attaching to a martial soul?"

Snow Emperor whispered, her tone filled with uncertainty and deep shock.

Having traversed the continent for nearly seven hundred thousand years and read countless secrets of humans and soul masters, she had never seen, or even heard of, such a bizarre sight!

This completely overturned the inherent understanding of the Douluo Continent's soul master system!

These successive strange occurrences brought the doubts in Snow Emperor's heart to their peak.

Innate full soul power at level twenty, twin top-tier martial souls, triggering an abnormal thunder tribulation covering the Far North, absorbing the power of thunder, and now this strange "soul ring" that condensed on its own and circled his body...

Everything pointed toward a possibility she had never dared to imagine in such depth before.

"Xue Chen... what is his true origin? Could it be... that he does not belong to this Douluo Continent at all?"

The thought struck her mind like a thunderclap.

Just then, the lightning tribulation in the sky seemed to sense that the first seal within Xue Chen had been completely shattered.

"BOOM!!!!"

The ninth, and final, bolt of lightning crashed down toward Xue Chen!

The sheer power of this last strike caused the ruins of the Ice Crystal Palace below to collapse on a massive scale, leaving even Snow Emperor feeling a sense of trepidation.

Yet, Xue Chen showed no fear.

He let out a roar toward the heavens, the vast primordial power that had broken free from his seals boiling over and surging madly into the hazy blue soul ring surrounding his body.

The two vast forces, internal and external, used Xue Chen's body as a battlefield for their final collision and fusion.

Under the frantic assault of the lightning, the deep blue soul ring around him trembled violently, its radiance growing ever more brilliant as the blue-gold lightning at its edges danced wildly.

Snow Emperor and Ice Emperor both held their breath.

At the very moment the mysterious soul ring finished condensing—"HUM!!!"

A strange hum resonated across heaven and earth!

All the lightning, all the blood energy, and all the primordial power suddenly collapsed and condensed inward.

The remaining lightning vanished into the blue ring of light like rivers flowing into the sea.

The blue-gold lightning patterns at the edges were greatly nourished, coiling tightly around the blue ring.

A complete, solid-looking blue soul ring now hovered around Xue Chen.

The main body of this soul ring was a deep, translucent blue, while its edges were rimmed with a restless, leaping blue-gold lightning, exuding an imperial majesty that transcended all things, along with a surging power of blood energy!

It rotated slowly around Xue Chen, no longer dependent on any martial soul; it seemed to be a part of his life's essence, a symbol of his strength as an individual.

The lightning tribulation dissipated.