Eight-Hundred-and-Eighty-Year Dragon Lizard, Double Pupils Shatter the Illusion

A normal soul master's first soul ring could usually withstand around four hundred years.

Top-tier beast soul masters with powerful physiques could raise that limit somewhat, but few dared to directly challenge a soul ring over eight hundred years old.

Chu Jin's first target, the Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard, had been limited to between eight and nine hundred years old.

This decision had undergone several reviews by the Consecration Hall.

Golden Crocodile personally tested Chu Jin's body.

His skeletal strength, meridian resilience, and total vitality had all reached the level of an ordinary Soul Elder.

Xiao Jin's continuous nourishment over the past three months had made Chu Jin's body far stronger than those of the same rank.

His Double Pupils had brought his spiritual power close to that of a Soul Ancestor.

Qian Daoliu ultimately agreed.

The soul-hunting team consisted of only Golden Crocodile, Guang Ling, and Chu Jin.

Chu Lie remained in Spirit City to settle the blacksmith shop.

Before leaving, he took out the spearhead from the Dragon-Patterned Spear left behind by Chu Jin's father and hung it at Chu Jin's waist.

"Your father carried it when he hunted his first soul ring too."

"The shaft is long gone, but the spearhead remains."

"Come back safely."

Chu Jin put away the spearhead.

"I will."

Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizards were extremely rare.

The three did not head to an ordinary soul-hunting forest. Instead, they entered a vast soul beast forest several days' journey from Spirit City.

Guang Ling was responsible for finding the target.

Golden Crocodile was responsible for judging its age.

Chu Jin recorded the soul beasts and surroundings they encountered along the way.

During the first six days, they discovered three soul beasts with partially compatible attributes.

However, neither their ages nor abilities were ideal.

On the afternoon of the seventh day, Guang Ling discovered an unusual area deep within the forest.

The trees around it grew luxuriantly, yet the woods were unnaturally quiet.

There was no insect chatter.

No birdsong.

Sunlight filtered through gaps in the leaves, forming scattered shafts of light.

Guang Ling stopped above the canopy.

"There's a soul beast with spiritual attributes nearby."

Golden Crocodile swept his gaze around.

"There's draconic energy in its aura."

"It should be ahead."

Chu Jin tightened his grip on his heavy halberd.

Xiao Jin lay on his shoulder, its nose constantly twitching.

It showed none of its usual excitement when encountering dragon-type materials. Instead, its scales tensed slightly.

The farther they went, the more oppressive the air became.

After passing through a patch of shrubs, they saw a rocky stretch covered in golden moss.

At its center lay a dragon lizard nearly five meters long.

Its entire body was covered in pale golden scales. A curved horn grew from its head, and its eyes were tightly shut as its body slowly rose and fell with each breath.

Golden Crocodile observed it for a moment.

"Eight complete light markings along its back. The ninth has yet to fully form."

"About eight hundred and eighty years old."

Guang Ling looked at Chu Jin.

"The target is suitable."

"How you fight it next is up to you."

The two Titled Douluo did not strike immediately.

They retreated to either side, cutting off the dragon lizard's escape routes.

Chu Jin took several steps forward.

The Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard's eyes suddenly snapped open.

Its pupils were an eerie silvery white.

Two waves of spiritual energy silently spread outward.

The scene before Chu Jin instantly changed.

The forest vanished.

Golden Crocodile and Guang Ling were gone as well.

A pungent stench of blood surged in from every direction.

He stood in a burning village outside Bluestone Town.

Houses had collapsed.

Corpses lay scattered across the streets.

His parents, who had died three years ago, lay in the open space ahead, their bodies stained red with blood.

A group of evil soul masters in black robes stood beside the corpses, letting out piercing laughter.

"Little Jin..."

His mother, Lin Yu, struggled to lift her head.

"Run..."

His father, Chu Xiao, clutched a broken spear, his body swaying on the verge of collapse.

An evil soul master wielding a blood-red saber stepped behind him.

The saber came down.

Chu Jin's pupils contracted slightly.

This scene was not part of his personal memories.

He had not been there when his parents died.

Yet the illusion before him recreated every scene he had imagined countless times in the past.

Fear, rage, and grief surged through his heart at once.

The distant evil soul master turned his face and revealed a vague, sinister smile.

"You're too weak."

"You don't even know how your parents died."

"And now you're going to rely on others to hunt a soul beast for you?"

Chu Jin's grip on the heavy halberd tightened further and further.

Just as his emotions were about to spiral out of control, dark golden light flared in his eyes.

The Double Pupils opened.

The incomparably real illusion began to change.

Threads of silver soul power appeared across the surfaces of the burning houses.

His parents' bodies were formed from spiritual power.

The evil soul masters were false images as well.

All the threads extended in the same direction, eventually converging on an inconspicuous rock at the street corner.

Chu Jin did not continue looking at the phantoms of his parents.

He abruptly turned around and swept his three-hundred-pound heavy halberd out.

"Get out here!"

Boom!

The heavy halberd smashed into the rock.

Cracks instantly spread across the entire illusion.

The village, corpses, flames, and evil soul masters shattered at the same time.

Reality reappeared.

Chu Jin's heavy halberd had struck a massive rock covered in golden moss.

The rock's surface caved inward.

An enraged hiss came from beneath it.

The Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard emerged from its camouflage, its tail sweeping toward him in a blaze of golden light.

Chu Jin swiftly raised the heavy halberd at his side.

Bang!

The dragon tail crashed into the halberd shaft.

The overwhelming force sent him flying, halberd and all.

His body rolled several times across the ground before crashing into a large tree and coming to a stop.

A sharp pain shot through his chest.

Both arms had been shaken almost numb as well.

The strength of an eight-hundred-and-eighty-year dragon-type soul beast far exceeded that of ordinary soul beasts of the same age.

"Xiao Jin!"

Chu Jin shouted in a low voice.

Xiao Jin had already rushed out.

Its body was far smaller than the dragon lizard's, but it was exceptionally agile.

The Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard opened its jaws to bite.

Xiao Jin slipped beneath its jaw and bit into the gap between the scales on its foreleg.

The dragon lizard howled in pain and raised a claw to strike.

Xiao Jin immediately released its bite.

Chu Jin got to his feet again, his Double Pupils fixed firmly on the dragon lizard.

Before each of its attacks, soul power gathered within its body in advance.

When its tail swept out, the light markings on its waist and abdomen lit up first.

When it unleashed a spiritual attack, the soul power nodes near its eyes rapidly contracted.

The Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard opened its mouth again.

A beam of golden light gathered within its jaws.

Chu Jin did not block it head-on.

He dove to the left.

The golden beam grazed past his body and pierced through two trees behind him.

After landing, Chu Jin rolled with the momentum and swept his heavy halberd at the dragon lizard's foreleg.

Clang!

Sparks flew from the golden scales.

The halberd blade left only a shallow mark.

The dragon lizard lowered its head and charged.

Its horn struck Chu Jin's heavy halberd, sending him flying once more.

This time, he adjusted his posture in midair. After landing, he staggered back several steps without falling.

Golden Crocodile remained standing in the distance.

His hand had risen several times, only to lower again.

With Chu Jin's current strength, killing an eight-hundred-and-eighty-year dragon lizard alone would be extremely difficult.

Both he and Guang Ling were prepared to intervene at any moment.

Yet Chu Jin did not ask for help.

After the repeated exchanges, he had already discovered the dragon lizard's defensive weaknesses.

Its abdomen.

Its throat.

Its eyes.

The dragon lizard was gradually losing patience as well.

It raised its head, and golden light markings lit up from its back all the way to its tail.

A powerful wave of spiritual energy erupted again.

For a brief moment, double images appeared before Chu Jin's eyes.

His Double Pupils forcibly suppressed the illusion.

The Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard seized the opportunity to pounce, its enormous jaws aimed straight at Chu Jin's upper body.

Chu Jin did not dodge.

He deliberately held his heavy halberd horizontally before him, as if his mind had been affected and he had no time left to react.

The dragon lizard closed in rapidly.

Three meters.

Two meters.

One meter.

"Xiao Jin!"

A small golden figure suddenly burrowed out from beneath the dragon lizard's belly.

Xiao Jin gripped the scales with all four claws and climbed upward, sinking its teeth into the thinnest scale on the dragon lizard's throat.

Crack!

The scale was bitten apart by sheer force.

The Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard let out a pained howl, its lunge toward Chu Jin faltering.

Chu Jin planted his feet on the ground.

The strength of his entire body surged through his waist and abdomen into his arms.

His Double Pupils locked onto the crack in the scales.

The three-hundred-jin heavy halberd thrust straight forward.

Squelch!

The halberd tip pierced through the crack and drove into the dragon lizard's throat.

Blood gushed out.

The dragon lizard thrashed wildly.

Chu Jin gripped the halberd shaft tightly as he was dragged along, smashing through several shrubs.

Xiao Jin kept its teeth clamped on the wound.

The dragon lizard's struggles gradually weakened.

Chu Jin suddenly twisted the halberd shaft.

The wound tore open even further.

The Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard's body stiffened for a moment before crashing heavily to the ground.

The forest fell silent once more.

Chu Jin released the heavy halberd and sat on the ground, gasping for breath.

His palms had already been rubbed raw by the halberd shaft.

Pain also pulsed from the ribs on his right side.

Golden Crocodile stepped forward to examine him.

Only after confirming that it was merely a minor fracture did he nod.

"For your first soul hunt, that was passable."

Guang Ling dropped down from the tree.

"Passable?"

"How old were you when you first killed an eight-hundred-year soul beast alone?"

Golden Crocodile remained expressionless.

"I don't remember."

"Then there wasn't one."

As the two spoke, a dark yellow soul ring rose from the Radiant Nightmare Dragon Lizard's corpse.

Its color was already close to purple, and the soul power it emitted far surpassed that of an ordinary hundred-year soul ring.

Before Chu Jin could begin drawing it in,

Xiao Jin had already run beneath the soul ring.

It tilted its head up, staring longingly at the soul ring as drool dripped from the corner of its mouth onto the ground.

It looked exactly the same as when it spotted high-quality ore.