A Million-Year Fifth Soul Ring!

Skydream Iceworm lay sprawled on the ground, nine golden rings on its snowy-white body shimmering with a soft golden glow.

Beneath its skin, the tenth golden ring could faintly be seen slowly taking shape.

Xu Linjiu's expression changed as he hurriedly took out the Pokédex to inspect Skydream Iceworm's condition.

Sure enough, Skydream Iceworm's experience bar, which had been just short of full, had been completely filled by the energy brought by the Never-Melt Ice.

It was only one final step away from breaking through to level one hundred.

Boom—!

A thunderous explosion interrupted Xu Linjiu's thoughts.

He looked up at the sky. What had been fairly clear moments ago was now completely blanketed by dark clouds gathering from every direction.

Golden arcs of lightning flashed and darted through the clouds, each flash accompanied by deafening thunder.

It was a lightning tribulation!

Xu Linjiu's pupils constricted as he whirled toward Skydream Iceworm. "What's going on, Tianmeng? Didn't you say you didn't need to undergo a lightning tribulation?"

"But I really never went through one before..."

Skydream Iceworm shrank under Xu Linjiu's stare, its gaze drifting away.

"Uh... maybe... perhaps... back then, I was always hiding at the bottom of the ten-thousand-foot ice cave in the Extreme North. That cave was covered by several thousand feet of ten-thousand-year ice. The lightning tribulation couldn't detect my aura, so it never struck me."

"Then you... sigh, forget it."

Xu Linjiu had wanted to point out that, ten thousand years later, Skydream Iceworm had still lived perfectly well after reaching a million years of cultivation, without the slightest sign of having endured a million-year lightning tribulation. Xu Linjiu refused to believe Skydream Iceworm's scrawny little body could withstand the relentless bombardment of such a tribulation.

But first, Xu Linjiu had no way to explain how he knew what would happen ten thousand years in the future. Second, he had fully figured it out himself: as one of Tang Buddha Ancestor's crucial chess pieces for controlling the Douluo Continent, wasn't a mere lightning tribulation something that could be resolved with a wave of the hand?

Boom—!

Another clap of thunder roared across the heavens.

Xu Linjiu took a deep breath and turned toward the training ground behind the mountain, where Tang San and Xiao Wu were still training.

Though he and Skydream Iceworm had a backup plan in case of emergencies, they had to be cautious. If the lightning tribulation descended and affected Tang San and Xiao Wu, the consequences would be unthinkable.

"Tianmeng, can you hold it in for now?"

"Hold what in?"

"Hold back your breakthrough."

Xu Linjiu spoke quickly. "This place is too close to Notting Academy. If the plan fails and the lightning tribulation erupts in full, half the academy will be flattened. So I need you to suppress your urge to break through. I'll take you far away from here."

Skydream Iceworm gritted its teeth and nodded, its massive body beginning to tremble violently.

The light from the nine golden rings on its body began to draw inward. The tenth golden ring, which had already started to take shape, was forcibly suppressed back down.

"I can only hold on for... three minutes at most!"

It forced the words through clenched teeth. "Hurry!"

Xu Linjiu wasted no words. He thrust both hands forward, and Psychic surged out like a tide, lifting Skydream Iceworm's seven-meter-long body into the air.

Light blazed in his eyes, veins bulging across his forehead as he pushed Psychic to its limit and sent Skydream Iceworm flying toward the uninhabited depths of the back mountain.

The wind howled past their ears as the trees on either side rushed backward.

Held aloft by Psychic, Skydream Iceworm curled itself into a ball. Golden light churned beneath its skin, but each surge was ruthlessly forced back down.

Its breathing grew more and more labored. The nine golden rings on its body began flickering uncontrollably, while the outline of the tenth ring grew ever clearer, as if it might burst forth at any moment.

"Are... are we not there yet?"

Even Skydream Iceworm's voice trembled. The violent power within was stretching it to the point where it could barely hold on.

"Hang in there a little longer!"

Xu Linjiu gritted his teeth, the veins on his forehead throbbing as his Psychic output reached its limit.

They had already penetrated deep into the back mountain, at least several dozen li away from Notting Academy. Yet the thunderclouds overhead still followed them closely, even continuing to expand.

"I can't take it anymore—! I can't hold it back—!"

Skydream Iceworm suddenly let out a long howl, its body abruptly unfurling.

The power it had suppressed for so long erupted all at once. The nine golden rings blazed to life, their light as dazzling as nine suns rising together.

Then, beyond the ninth golden ring, the tenth finally fully condensed. A brilliant golden halo blossomed across Skydream Iceworm's body, its radiance shooting straight into the heavens.

Level one hundred.

At that moment, Skydream Iceworm officially entered the realm of a million-year soul beast.

But what followed was even greater fury from heaven and earth!

The long-gathered thunderclouds erupted completely, countless golden bolts of heavenly lightning beginning to bombard the entire area without pattern.

At the very center of the storm clouds, a lightning pillar thicker than all the previous bolts combined was gathering its might within the eye of the clouds.

"Don't just stand there! Use that contract of yours to conceal our aura!"

Under the pressure of the heavenly lightning, Skydream Iceworm struggled to remain clear-headed as it turned and shouted at Xu Linjiu.

Xu Linjiu was already moving.

The Pokédex Martial Soul had automatically floated between man and worm. Its screen lit up, and an invisible connection linked them together, transforming into an intangible umbrella that firmly concealed the aura of the million-year soul beast.

At the same time, Xu Linjiu hurled out his skills like they cost nothing.

Psychic, Light Screen, Reflect, Meditation, Substitute, Misty Terrain—streams of light in different colors swirled around them, turning the patch of ground beneath them into an impregnable fortress.

The golden lightning pillar, only halfway through gathering its power within the clouds, seemed to have lost its target. It began wavering uncertainly, circling endlessly through the thunderclouds.

But Xu Linjiu knew this was only temporary. The power of the contract could deceive the lightning tribulation for only a few breaths at most.

"Tianmeng!"

Xu Linjiu shouted, "Now!"

Skydream Iceworm did not hesitate.

Its body suddenly rose upright, its seven-meter snowy-white form giving off a gentle pale-golden glow beneath the thunderclouds.

The ten golden rings seemed to come alive, beginning to rotate according to the same rhythm.

Then Skydream Iceworm shot straight at Xu Linjiu and pressed its head against Xu Linjiu's forehead.

Xu Linjiu felt an incomparably pure force of heaven and earth pour into his body through his brow. In that instant, his meridians were stretched to their limits.

"This is the last of my force of heaven and earth!"

Within the Pokédex, Xu Linjiu's experience rapidly surged. Level forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine!

"Enough!"

The instant he reached level fifty, Xu Linjiu shouted, and Skydream Iceworm immediately stopped pouring the force of heaven and earth into him.

At the same time, the ten golden rings on Skydream Iceworm's body detached one by one, then slipped around Xu Linjiu in succession.

Meanwhile, Skydream Iceworm's main body continuously shrank, transforming into streams of light that kept flowing into Xu Linjiu's body.

When the final trace of Skydream Iceworm's light merged into Xu Linjiu and vanished, an immense surge of Inner Focus erupted in an instant.

Every living creature within a hundred li seemed to have had its pause button pressed at the same moment. All of Notting City and the surrounding forests fell silent.

The next second, everything returned to normal, as though nothing had ever happened.

Unable to find a target to attack, the thunderclouds could only churn in the sky and let out peals of thunder before gradually dispersing in helplessness.

Only Xu Linjiu remained between heaven and earth, along with the fifth platinum-white soul ring beneath his feet.