Seeing Qin Mu like this, everyone of Douluo Continent outside the Sky Screen finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Perhaps there was still room to turn things around?
When Dugu Bo saw Qin Mu address him as Grandpa, delight immediately welled up in his heart. It seemed there was hope.
"Little brother, I'm a traveler who got lost and came here from a very faraway place."
Dugu Bo deliberately put on a pitiful expression and sighed.
"Earlier in the valley, I was accidentally bitten by a huge bug. I couldn't move, and then I was brought here."
"I can tell from your full forehead and kind face that you're a softhearted, good child."
"Could you do Grandpa a favor? Open the door and help Grandpa out. Your granny must be looking for you too. Grandpa can take you home while I'm at it."
Dugu Bo spoke with great feeling, and to make his story more convincing, he deliberately brought up the Painted Skin Old Woman.
After listening, Qin Mu parted his little lips slightly, seeming to fall into thought.
He tilted his head, his large black eyes studying Dugu Bo for quite a while.
Then Qin Mu's gaze fell upon the nine faintly visible Soul Rings beneath Dugu Bo's feet.
Though Dugu Bo could not currently mobilize his Soul Power, the nine halos representing the cultivation of a Titled Douluo still flickered intermittently around his body.
"What pretty glowing rings."
Qin Mu extended a soft, pale finger and curiously poked the yellow hundred-year Soul Ring.
The peculiar rebound of energy against his fingertip amused Qin Mu greatly.
"Grandpa, did you say you wanted to leave?" Qin Mu withdrew his finger and looked at Dugu Bo obediently.
"Yes, yes, yes!"
Seeing that Qin Mu had taken the bait, Dugu Bo nodded repeatedly, wild delight flashing in his eyes.
"As long as you let Grandpa out, Grandpa will buy you lots and lots of delicious food. I'll even teach you some magic tricks. How about it?"
"I'll pass on the magic tricks. Village Chief said those are all little tricks meant to fool people."
Qin Mu shook his head with a smile.
He squatted on the ground, cupping his cheeks in his little hands and revealing two adorable canine teeth.
But what he said next instantly froze the smile on Dugu Bo's face, as though a bucket of icy water had been poured over his head.
"I was just thinking that the large beasts Pharmacist Grandpa usually caught for testing medicine were all kept in the cellar outside the village."
"So why was there a living person in this room for storing high-grade medicinal ingredients today?"
Qin Mu's eyes curved into crescents as he smiled. His tone remained innocent and carefree, yet a hint of cunning malice flashed through his eyes.
"So Grandpa, you're the human-shaped medicinal ingredient Pharmacist Grandpa mentioned."
"Pharmacist Grandpa was chatting with Grandpa Blind Man at the village entrance just now. He said he'd caught an old man whose poison-refining skills were shitty as a pile of crap, with several glowing rings beneath his feet."
"He said he was going to strip off your rings to use as fertilizer, then toss your whole body into the Myriad Poison Cauldron and boil you into a pot of soup to nourish Little Black and the others."
As he said this, Qin Mu sympathetically patted Dugu Bo's shoulder.
"Grandpa, Pharmacist Grandpa's Myriad Poison Cauldron is really hot. You need to simmer in there a little longer so your bones get tender enough for Little Black to enjoy."
"You're about to become a pot of soup. How are you supposed to take me home?"
Once those words were spoken, the entire thatched hut fell into dead silence.
Outside the Sky Screen, everyone on Douluo Continent sucked in a cold breath.
They looked at Qin Mu, who smiled as brilliantly as a little sun in the image, and felt a chill race up their spines to the backs of their heads.
How was this some innocent child?
He was clearly a little demon filled with black water when cut open!
As for Dugu Bo himself, he looked as though he had been struck by lightning.
His eyes were wide, his lips trembled, and he could not say a word for a long while.
He had thought he was deceiving a little lamb, only to discover that this old wolf was being treated as a joke by a little demon!
Just as Dugu Bo's mind faltered amid terror and shock,
Qin Mu suddenly leaned closer. His clear eyes fixed tightly on Dugu Bo as he quietly said something only the two of them could hear.
"Grandpa, if you don't want to be boiled into soup, I could help you out."
Hearing that, Dugu Bo shuddered all over. It was as though he had seized a ray of light in endless darkness, and he hurriedly asked,
"Y-you're willing to save me?"
At that, Qin Mu curled his lips upward, revealing a mysterious smile that sharply contrasted with his innocent face.
"You can live."
"But you'll have to trade me the glowing rings under your feet."
"I think they look fun. They'd be perfect for catching loaches by the river."
At those words, Dugu Bo's heart instantly plunged into the abyss, and his eyes became vacant.
When everyone on Douluo Continent heard Qin Mu say in the Sky Screen that he wanted to strip off the glowing rings to catch loaches, an uproar erupted after a brief silence.
On the training grounds of Shrek Academy, Yu Xiaogang's already stiff face turned the color of pig liver.
He sharply flung his sleeve, clasped his hands behind his back, and his chest heaved violently. Clearly, he was furious.
"Absurd! Utterly ridiculous!"
Yu Xiaogang gritted his teeth, unable to suppress the rage in his voice as he loudly rebuked him.
"That ignorant brat actually dares to insult the Soul Master system of our Douluo Continent like this!"
"Soul Rings are the foundation by which Soul Masters communicate with heaven and earth and unleash Soul Skills. They are sacred crystallizations of power that must not be profaned."
"And he actually shamelessly said he wanted to use them to catch loaches?"
In Yu Xiaogang's eyes, Qin Mu's words were not merely an insult to Dugu Bo. They were trampling the Martial Soul system that all Douluo Continent took pride in beneath his feet.
The thing he was proudest of in his life was the Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul. Though his own cultivation was low, he valued the dignity of the Soul Master system more than his own life.
Beside him, Tang San nodded in firm agreement, anger flashing in his eyes.
"Teacher is right. The natives of the Great Ruins are truly arrogant beyond all bounds."
Hearing his beloved disciple agree, Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath and calmed his agitated emotions.
He slowly paced two steps across the training grounds, then turned around and analyzed the matter for everyone at Shrek Academy in a tone as though he were surveying the world.
"If you think about it carefully, this so-called Great Ruins may not be as invincible as we imagined."
"Recall the information revealed by the Sky Screen just now."
Yu Xiaogang raised a finger, his eyes gleaming with the self-assured wisdom of someone who believed he had seen through everything.
"What did that child named Qin Mu mention?"
"He said Pharmacist Grandpa was chatting with Grandpa Blind Man at the village entrance."
"Combined with the granny casually mentioned by that youth earlier, along with the disabled Butcher we saw before."
"What does that tell us?"
Everyone exchanged glances, waiting for the Master's brilliant insight.
Yu Xiaogang sneered, his tone filled with disdain.
"It tells us that this child is not some peerless genius raised by a prestigious sect or aristocratic clan."
"The place where he lives is most likely nothing more than a remote, backward peasant village."
"And the elders in that village are all cripples with incomplete bodies!"
At this point, the confidence on Yu Xiaogang's face grew even stronger.
He cleared his throat and continued his analysis.
"Let us use Soul Master combat theory to examine these cripples."
"First, that Butcher who only has his upper body left."
"His strength with a blade is indeed immense. He can even split mountain peaks."
"But what use is great strength in actual combat?"
"He has no legs, which means he has no mobility whatsoever!"
"If our Douluo Continent sent out a high-level agility-attack Soul Master, they could use their incredible speed to circle around and wear him down. That Butcher would not even be able to touch a Soul Master's clothes, and in the end, he could only be exhausted to death!"
Dai Mubai's eyes lit up at this. He clenched his fist and struck his palm.
"The Master makes sense! An attack that can't hit anyone is useless no matter how powerful it is!"
Yu Xiaogang nodded in satisfaction and continued.
"Then there's that Blind Man."
"Blindness in both eyes is a fatal flaw on the battlefield."
"No matter how sharp his hearing is, if we send Soul Masters with sound-wave Soul Skills to interfere with him, or use special methods to conceal our footsteps and ambush him from behind, killing a blind man would be as easy as turning over one's hand."
"As for that old woman wearing human skin, she is probably some unorthodox practitioner skilled in disguise or illusion techniques."
"People like that are extremely weak in direct combat. As long as a power-attack Soul Master gets close, one punch can break her witchcraft."
Yu Xiaogang grew more and more excited as he spoke, as though he could already see the Shrek Seven Devils and the people of Douluo Continent slaughtering their way through the Great Ruins.
After finishing, he stopped and swept his gaze over everyone.
"Overall, the only person in this village worthy of even slight caution is the poison user wearing the Evil Ghost Mask."
"But Senior Dugu Bo lost solely because he was careless and underestimated his enemy. On top of that, the poisonous insects in the Great Ruins were simply too enormous and caught Senior Dugu Bo off guard."
Yu Xiaogang abruptly waved his hand and concluded forcefully.
"If several Titled Douluo-level powerhouses descended upon that same place, working together with power attacks, agility attacks, control, and support all covered—"
"That crippled village would absolutely be no match for the top powerhouses of our Douluo Continent!"
"As long as we advance steadily, Soul Masters will surely find opportunities in that land and may even sweep through the entire world of Tales of Herding Gods!"
Yu Xiaogang's lengthy speech was impassioned and clearly organized.
After hearing it, the students of Shrek Academy all felt their blood boil.
The fear they had felt after witnessing so many gruesome deaths was actually dispelled by more than half through Yu Xiaogang's so-called god-tier theory.
"So those monsters have such obvious weaknesses. Only the Master could see through them so clearly!" Ma Hongjun flattered him, his face full of worship.
Tang San also sighed softly in relief, and much of the gloom in his heart faded.
He felt that his teacher's analysis was perfectly logical. All things countered one another, and as long as they found the right weaknesses, even people from a higher-dimensional world were not unbeatable.
Meanwhile, within the Heaven Dou Empire, atop a majestic mountain perpetually shrouded in thunderclouds.
This was the sect headquarters of one of the Upper Three Sects, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
Lightning flickered throughout the grand hall, while distant thunder rumbled.
Yu Yuanzhen, the patriarch of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, was seated upon a broad grand chair carved from lightning-struck wood.
He was powerfully built and stern-faced, his entire body radiating an unrivaled, domineering aura of lightning.
More than a dozen elders with real authority in the clan sat along both sides of the hall, each with pride written deep in their eyes.
They too were watching the Sky Screen image hanging in the air.
When they saw Dugu Bo being mocked by a child like a tattered sack, an elder with white hair and beard could not help but snort coldly.
"That old poison freak has utterly disgraced the Titled Douluo of our Douluo Continent."
The elder picked up the teacup beside him, lightly brushed aside the tea leaves, and spoke with utter disdain.
"Normally, he relies on his poison arts to throw his weight around in Heaven Dou Imperial City."
"But when he meets someone even slightly formidable, he immediately shows his true colors."
"Exactly," another elder chimed in.
"Dugu Bo is merely the publicly acknowledged weakest Titled Douluo of our Douluo Continent."
"That meager ability of his is only enough to bully low-level Soul Masters."
"In a true one-on-one duel, our patriarch could beat him until he was crawling all over the ground in fewer than ten exchanges."
"Getting captured by an insect cannot represent the true strength of the Soul Masters of our Douluo Continent!"
At this, voices of agreement immediately rang throughout the hall.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had always held itself in high esteem. They possessed the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, hailed as the continent's foremost power-attack beast Martial Soul, and had always looked down on poison users like Dugu Bo.
Yu Yuanzhen, seated at the head of the hall, slowly opened his eyes. It was as though lightning flashed within his deep gaze.
"Dugu Bo's fate has nothing to do with our clan."
Yu Yuanzhen's voice was low, yet it echoed through the hall like muffled thunder.
"What truly concerns me is the night of the Great Ruins."
When the patriarch mentioned the terrifying darkness that had devoured the previous explorers, the atmosphere in the hall tightened slightly.
But soon, an elder with a fiery temper rose to his feet and loudly declared,
"Patriarch, in my opinion, there is nothing to fear from that darkness!"
"Our Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan controls the mighty heavenly thunder above the nine heavens!"
"Lightning is the nemesis of all evil and darkness!"
The more the elder spoke, the more confident he became. He even released a trace of his Martial Soul aura.
Blue light flickered around him as several thick bolts of lightning coiled around his arms like swimming dragons.
"If the Sky Screen chooses someone from our clan to travel to the Great Ruins—"
"Once night falls, we need only unleash our Martial Souls. The utterly righteous and blazing power of lightning will illuminate the surroundings as brightly as day!"
"If those ghosts and monsters hiding in the darkness dare to approach, we will reduce them to ashes beneath our lightning!"
After hearing this, Yu Yuanzhen nodded slightly.
He had absolute confidence in his clan's Martial Soul.
Lightning represented light and judgment.
In their eyes, the night of the Great Ruins was terrifying only because those who had gone before were too weak and lacked a powerful enough attribute to drive away the darkness.
"If there is an opportunity..."
Yu Yuanzhen stared at the Sky Screen, a blazing ambition flashing in his eyes.
"Our Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan will surely establish itself within the Great Ruins!"
"By then, hunting those massive native beasts for Soul Rings will certainly allow our clan to rise in a single leap and become the strongest force across all worlds!"
Meanwhile, within the Sky Screen.
Great Ruins, Crippled Old Village.
Inside that dilapidated thatched hut, dim and reeking of medicine.
Dugu Bo looked at the smiling little brat before him, who was actually full of wicked schemes, and the hope in his heart was utterly extinguished.
He knew that this child named Qin Mu had no intention of letting him go. He was even coveting the Soul Ring beneath his feet.
"Good! Very good!"
Dugu Bo gritted his teeth inwardly, his gaze gradually turning sinister.
After all, he was a battle-hardened Titled Douluo, not some soft persimmon for others to squeeze.
"Since you monsters refuse to leave me a way out, then we'll all perish together!"
Before you continue