Before long, Lin Jing appeared near the source of the energy fluctuations.
He slowly reined in his aura and silently dropped from the air, his toes lightly touching a thick branch.
He looked up, and the scene ahead made his eyes narrow slightly.
In a clearing not far away, a dense purple halo of Soul Power hung suspended in midair.
It was ten meters long.
Even from quite a distance, Lin Jing could clearly feel the violence and chill contained within that Soul Power.
His gaze passed through the halo and settled on the figure at its very center.
It was a huge arthropod Soul Beast.
Nearly ten meters long, its entire body was covered in a layer of dark purple armor. Under the purple light, it reflected a metallic, icy sheen.
Countless legs lined both sides of its body like blades. There were so many that they couldn't be counted—at least several hundred.
At a glance, it looked exactly like a giant centipede enlarged countless times over.
"Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede."
Lin Jing's lips moved as he murmured the four words.
It was venomous and savage, feeding on the flesh and blood of other Soul Beasts. Among Soul Beasts of the same rank, it was a particularly troublesome opponent.
His gaze slowly traveled along the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede's long body, finally coming to rest on its head.
Two enormous, sickle-like mouthparts gleamed with a chilling light as they plunged into the body of a wolf-shaped Soul Beast lying on the ground.
It was a wolf-type Soul Beast of around a hundred years.
It had already gone completely still, its body visibly withering away.
The Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede was steadily draining all the blood from its body.
As it absorbed the wolf's blood essence, the dark purple armor covering the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede began to change in subtle ways.
Its tightly fitted plates had started to loosen.
Through the gaps, a fresh layer of armor could be seen slowly growing beneath them.
"Just as I thought."
Lin Jing stood on the branch with his arms crossed.
This Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede was already nine hundred and ninety-nine years old.
It was just one step away from a thousand.
And what it was doing now was devouring the blood essence of this hundred-year-old wolf Soul Beast to complete its final metamorphosis.
Once it successfully shed its old shell and the new one finished growing, it would officially enter the ranks of thousand-year Soul Beasts.
Lin Jing remained on the tree, using the Disguise Soul Skill attached to his Blue Silver Devouring Domain to disguise his aura as that of an ordinary Blue Silver Grass.
He was patient.
He waited in silence.
The Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede's transformation into a thousand-year Soul Beast was exactly what he wanted.
More importantly, just after it shed its old shell, while its new shell had yet to fully harden, it would be at its weakest.
If he struck then, Lin Jing was confident he could kill it with one blow.
Lin Jing found a comfortable position against the branch and closed his eyes to rest.
Time slowly passed.
Night fell without a sound.
The forest grew darker and darker. Insects and birds began to chirp all around him, while low growls from distant Soul Beasts echoed through the trees.
Yet the area where Lin Jing was remained unusually quiet.
The Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede's transformation had reached its final stage.
All that remained of the wolf Soul Beast before it was a skeleton.
Every bit of blood and flesh had become nourishment for the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede's transformation.
Lin Jing opened his eyes, glanced down at the scene below, then sensed his surroundings.
He had been standing there for nearly two hours.
Besides waiting for the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede to transform, he had been keeping an eye on the activity nearby.
The Blue Silver Devouring Domain had remained spread across a radius of a hundred meters. Not a single movement could escape his senses.
Yet over all this time, he hadn't sensed a single Soul Beast entering his range.
"This must be the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede's territory."
Lin Jing muttered under his breath.
A nine-hundred-year-old Soul Beast was already quite powerful in a place like the Soul Hunting Forest.
It was only natural for it to have a territory of its own.
"No wonder the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede dared to transform so brazenly."
"So it's absolutely confident that no Soul Beast would dare trespass on its turf."
He shook his head, then turned his gaze back to the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede.
That worked out well.
He wouldn't have to worry about other Soul Beasts targeting him while he absorbed its Spirit Ring.
Lin Jing stretched and rolled his stiff shoulders.
His eyes gradually sharpened.
The aura around the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede was undergoing an earth-shattering change.
The aura of a thousand-year Soul Beast had taken shape!
Its transformation was complete!
The Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede emerged fully from its old shell and gave its stiff body a slight shake.
Its countless legs wriggled gently, as if it hadn't quite gotten used to them yet.
Just then,
"Whoosh!"
Lin Jing plunged from the tree like a ghost.
His hair had turned entirely translucent and glazed, while the muscles in his arm bulged and the veins stood out. He gripped a dagger that gleamed with cold light.
He poured all his Soul Power into his right arm, its muscles taut with tension.
He held nothing back. His first strike was already at full strength!
The dagger's tip pointed straight at the Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede's head!
The Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede suddenly felt a powerful sense of danger.
It raised its head and saw a human charging toward it.
The Thousand-Legged Withered Centipede flew into a rage.
It had just broken through to a thousand years, and already a human had dared to trespass on its territory!
He was practically asking to die!
Instinctively, it tried to use its hard shell to block the attack, but halfway through the movement, it suddenly realized what was wrong.
Its new shell had yet to harden. It abruptly changed the way it would defend itself.
Its pair of sickle-like mouthparts snapped upward, carrying a foul gust of wind as they thrust straight toward the dagger in Lin Jing's hand.
Seeing this, Lin Jing wasn't the least bit surprised. Instead, the corners of his mouth lifted in a faint smile.
"Earth Domain!"
He gave a low shout.
"Vmmm—"
A ring of ocher light suddenly spread from beneath his feet, rippling like water and instantly enveloping everything around him.
Earth Domain!
This was the Innate Domain of the Vast Sea Glazed True Dragon Martial Soul.
Although this was Lin Jing's first time activating it, he had understood the domain's effects thoroughly ever since the moment his Martial Soul awakened.
Just like the Blue Silver Devouring Domain, the Earth Domain had also granted him four additional Soul Skills.
Two of them had left the deepest impression on him.
The first was called Myriad Dust Return.
Within the Earth Domain's range, all of an enemy's physical defenses would turn to sand and scatter on the wind.
With his current Soul Power Level, the effect would work perfectly on any opponent below the Soul King level.
As for those above Soul King...
It wasn't entirely useless, but its effect would be greatly reduced, only slightly weakening their defenses.
The second Soul Skill was called Gravity Quagmire.
Just as the name suggested,
the ground within the domain would turn into a bottomless quagmire, frantically dragging enemies down while also slightly slowing their movements.
On top of that, Gravity Quagmire had a Mental Attribute.
An enemy's mental power would also be affected by the quagmire, becoming sluggish and slow, with their reaction speed greatly diminished.
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