Zhu Zhuqing: Hold Me Tight, Tang Shuo!

At that moment.

An ancient little bell appeared out of thin air in Tang Shuo's hand.

Chaos Bell.

He turned its opening downward, aiming it at the Blazing Sun Golden Falcon, which had completely given up resisting.

"Return to the Void."

Tang Shuo calmly spoke the two words.

His wrist sank as he lightly smashed the Chaos Bell downward.

Already severely wounded and scared out of its wits, the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast did not even have time to let out a cry.

Its body, along with the ground beneath its feet, was disintegrated and annihilated by that power of chaos!

Only a pitch-black Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring, glimmering with eerie light, remained suspended in the air.

In the distance.

Zhu Zhuqing sat collapsed on the ground, her delicate body trembling uncontrollably.

She stared at the figure standing beneath the halo of sun and moon.

Her mind was completely blank.

A... support-type martial soul?

All color drained from Zhu Zhuqing's lips.

She finally understood.

That was not a mirror at all.

Tang Shuo's martial soul had never been a support type.

It was a...

Living, walking true god in the mortal world!

The godlike phantom slowly dissipated, and the twin wheels of sun and moon vanished with it.

The terrifying pressure that had seemed capable of crushing eternity disappeared without a trace.

Everything returned to calm.

Yet Zhu Zhuqing, slumped on the ground, knew she did not even dare raise her head.

Just recalling the instant that majestic phantom had appeared made her feel as though an invisible hand had gripped her heart, making even breathing difficult.

Just then, Tang Shuo moved.

He walked toward the pitch-black Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring floating in midair.

His footsteps were light.

Yet they struck Zhu Zhuqing's heart like heavy hammer blows, jolting her awake from her boundless fear.

Absorbing a Spirit Ring!

The thought instantly flashed through Zhu Zhuqing's mind.

She abruptly raised her head and looked at Tang Shuo's back.

What was he going to do?

Was he going to absorb that Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring?

That was a Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring!

His first Spirit Ring, and he was absorbing ten thousand years?!

Zhu Zhuqing's heart skipped a beat.

This was simply impossible! Even a Titled Douluo would not dare do such a thing!

Yet Tang Shuo had already sat cross-legged before the Spirit Ring.

Without the slightest hesitation, he reached out and drew in the black Spirit Ring radiating a terrifying aura.

Buzz—!

The Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring slowly descended and settled onto his body.

"No!"

Zhu Zhuqing came to her senses and practically scrambled to her feet, rushing desperately toward Tang Shuo. However, it was already too late.

Zhu Zhuqing could only stand there in a daze.

She knew that the process of absorbing a Spirit Ring could not be disturbed.

After running closer and looking around to make sure it was safe.

Zhu Zhuqing's gaze fell involuntarily upon Tang Shuo.

The young man sat cross-legged with his eyes shut.

The usual gentleness was gone from his handsome face, replaced by solemn determination.

Though this was such a harrowing moment, Zhu Zhuqing found herself staring in a daze.

She suddenly felt that this young man, who was only a few years older than her, seemed... especially handsome.

Unknowingly, a blush quietly crept across her fair cheeks.

She simply stood guard in silence, watching him.

Suddenly!

Tang Shuo's body jolted violently.

The black Spirit Ring blazed brightly as an incomparably violent torrent of energy poured madly into his body like floodwaters bursting through a broken dam.

It was all the resentment and unwillingness of the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast before its death, now transformed into the fiercest resistance.

It wanted to burst apart this human who dared absorb it!

Beads of sweat the size of soybeans slid down Tang Shuo's temples.

His face turned pale at a visible rate.

"Tang Shuo!"

Zhu Zhuqing's heart leaped into her throat.

Yet Tang Shuo kept his eyes tightly shut, his teeth clenched.

His consciousness sank into his body.

"Submit... to suppression!"

He connected with the little Chaos Bell in his dantian.

Dong—!

A bell toll that seemed to come from primordial antiquity did not sound in the outside world, but exploded through Tang Shuo's sea of consciousness and every limb and bone!

At the bell's cry, the heavens stilled and mountains and rivers fell silent; with one thought of chaos, all laws shattered!

The violent energy that had been rampaging through his body was instantly suppressed by the bell toll, becoming completely docile and unable to stir even the slightest ripple.

It was then devoured by the power of chaos and fully absorbed!

The aura of Tang Shuo's Soul Power began to surge wildly.

Level fifteen... level sixteen... level seventeen...

Finally, it stabilized firmly at the peak of level eighteen!

Huff.

Tang Shuo let out a long breath of stale air and slowly opened his eyes.

A brilliant golden glint flashed through his gaze.

He had succeeded.

His first Spirit Ring was ten thousand years old!

[First Soul Skill: Solar Corona Divine Wheel.]

"You... you succeeded?"

Seeing Tang Shuo open his eyes and the heart-palpitating Soul Power fluctuations settle, Zhu Zhuqing felt genuinely happy for him.

But as soon as the words left her mouth, she remembered something. Pouting, she walked over.

She reached out and poked Tang Shuo's shoulder, a faint, almost imperceptible coquettish complaint in her voice.

"You lied to me!"

"You clearly said your martial soul was that bronze mirror."

Tang Shuo could not help but smile at her adorably puffed-up expression.

"I never said that."

He stood up and dusted off his clothes.

"The bronze mirror truly is my martial soul."

"But it is only one part of my martial soul."

Seeing Tang Shuo's candid attitude, the small knot in Zhu Zhuqing's heart vanished completely.

Who did not have a few secrets?

It was already enough that he was willing to tell her this much.

"All right, we should leave," Tang Shuo said.

"Mm." Zhu Zhuqing nodded.

But just as she was about to take a step, her vision suddenly went dark, and all the strength in her body seemed to be drained away in an instant.

Her body went limp, and she began to fall to the ground.

"Careful!"

Tang Shuo's expression changed, and his figure vanished from where he stood.

The next second, he appeared behind Zhu Zhuqing, extending an arm and steadily catching her soft, collapsing body in his embrace.

A faint fragrance drifted into his nose.

But Tang Shuo had no time to notice it. Supporting the pale-faced girl in his arms, he urgently asked,

"What happened to you?"

The delicate body in his arms was frighteningly cold.

"Cold..."

Zhu Zhuqing's lips had turned slightly purple, and her teeth chattered softly.

"Hold me tight... I'm so cold..."

The girl's hands instinctively clutched Tang Shuo's lapels. Like an octopus, she desperately burrowed into his embrace, seemingly trying to draw the only warmth she could find from his body.

Tang Shuo furrowed his brow.

He immediately understood that this was no simple case of exhaustion.

Cold poison had invaded her heart!

It was likely related to the frigid nature of her Hell Spirit Cat martial soul, or perhaps a hidden ailment left behind from her cultivation since childhood.

After consecutively hunting Spirit Rings, she had expended enormous amounts of Soul Power and could no longer suppress the cold within her body. It now erupted completely.