Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear

After watching the three of them leave, Lu Yuan's gaze fell on the Man-Faced Spider Emperor's corpse again. "Wutong, did this Man-Faced Spider Emperor drop a Soul Bone?"

Tang Wutong replied, "My lord, this Man-Faced Spider Emperor produced a left leg bone. I found it on one of its severed legs. It's relatively intact, though it bears some marks from the blast."

As she spoke, she took out a Soul Bone that shimmered with a dark purple glow.

"Man-Faced Spider Emperor left leg bone..." Lu Yuan's expression turned strange.

Could Man Faced Demon Spiders even drop something like this?

"Put it away for now. We'll continue looking for a Soul Beast suitable for me."

Lu Yuan glanced at the dark purple Soul Bone, then quickly looked away.

This Soul Bone was useless to him.

"Alright."

Tang Wutong casually put away the Soul Bone and continued leading Lu Yuan through the Great Star Dou Forest in search of Soul Beasts.

Before long, the two discovered a giant bear at the bottom of a valley.

It lay lazily on the ground, its head resting between its thick arms as it slept soundly.

The bear's fur was dark gold, and the claws extending from its forearms were exceptionally long, giving off the oppressive presence of an armored vehicle.

"This is... a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear?"

Lu Yuan's eyes lit up. This Soul Beast was undoubtedly an excellent fit for him.

The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear possessed both offense and defense, and was known as the Earth Ripper.

Tang Wutong's gaze was sharp. Noticing the interest in Lu Yuan's eyes, she said,

"My lord, this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear is roughly eight thousand four hundred years old. Do you want to absorb its Soul Ring?"

"It's the one. I'll handle it myself. You stand by and cover me."

A blazing battle spirit burned in Lu Yuan's eyes.

Ever since gaining the ability to summon the Ice Dragon King outside his body, he had yet to test it in actual combat.

Now, he could use this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear to gauge his own strength.

Rumor had it that a century-old Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear could contend with a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast, though that might have been somewhat exaggerated.

But in the original second Douluo story, there had indeed been a ten-thousand-year female Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear whose performance was quite impressive.

This eight-thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear before him could likely contend with an ordinary Soul Saint, or at the very least, it was no weaker than a high-level Soul Emperor.

Its raw physical defense and brute strength were firmly at the Soul Saint level.

Lu Yuan did not dare underestimate it in the slightest. He planned to catch it off guard and weaken it first.

"Ice Dragon King, emerge!"

Frigid air surged up from all directions, gathering above his head into a massive vortex of icy dust. With a dragon roar, the Ice Dragon King spread its wings and flew out of the vortex.

"Dragon Dance."

Lu Yuan observed the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's condition. Seeing no signs of it waking, he intended to stack several layers of enhancement first.

It gave him the strange sensation of playing a Pokémon battle...

It was just that the Dragon Dance of Pokémon and Rock Kingdom differed somewhat from his own less-than-authentic Dragon Dance.

Seeing this, Tang Wutong instantly understood her lord's intentions.

She hurriedly used her Soul Power to form a barrier around Lu Yuan, isolating every trace of their presence and blocking outside perception.

The Ice Dragon King flapped its wings and circled through the air. A stream of empowering energy swirled around it and poured entirely into its body.

When the fourth stream of empowerment entered the dragon's body, Lu Yuan immediately felt that his body could no longer be strengthened further.

"Looks like I can only enhance it four times for now. Still, a 400% increase in speed and attack power is enough."

Lu Yuan muttered softly.

No matter how powerful a Soul Skill was, it still depended on the Soul Master's own strength. The greater one's strength, the greater the power one could unleash.

He looked at Tang Wutong. "You can remove the barrier now."

Tang Wutong nodded slightly and removed the barrier that blocked outside perception, her beautiful eyes fixed tightly on the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.

"Ice Dragon King, Extreme Cold Ice Blade."

As Lu Yuan spoke, he gripped the Sky-Propelling Spear and activated his first Soul Skill, Domination Domain. His body abruptly swelled into that of a small giant.

Feeling the abundant strength coursing through his body, he poured all his Soul Power into the spear, leaped high into the air, and smashed down at the ground with all his might.

The spear tip struck the earth. The ground cracked apart, and a shockwave like a collapsing mountain surged directly toward the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.

The second style of the Sky-Propelling Nine Styles—Mountain-Crushing.

The Ice Dragon King's wings glimmered with cold light in midair. It suddenly flapped them, sending two crescent-shaped ice blades howling toward the slumbering Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.

The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear jolted awake the instant it heard the ice blades slicing through the air.

A beast's instincts warned it that it could not take this attack head-on.

It was about to dodge when the shockwave hit it, leaving it briefly dazed.

Some of its fur was torn away by the shockwave, and several gashes appeared across its body.

In its haste, it could only rely on instinct and raise its massive palms to block the incoming ice blades.

But at that moment, the two crisscrossing ice blades had already arrived one after another. One severed its left paw, while the other sliced off its right.

The two bear paws hit the ground with dull thuds.

A layer of bone-chilling frost also formed over the limbs that had lost their paws.

"What a pity. Even with a sneak attack, I only cut off its two paws. I'm lacking a bit of follow-through."

Lu Yuan was somewhat disappointed.

Still, disarming this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear counted as no small achievement.

The damage he himself had inflicted on the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear was still far too limited.

A level-thirty Quasi-Soul Elder without even a single Soul Ring was trying to fight a Soul Beast comparable to an ordinary Soul Saint. It was truly a bit of a stretch.

"Roar!"

Having lost the paws it relied upon for hunting, the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's ferocity was completely provoked. Its eyes turned blood-red as it let out a roar and charged at Lu Yuan without regard for anything else.

"You still dare act wild without your claws!"

Lu Yuan sneered and waved a hand as he commanded, "Ice Dragon King, keep using Extreme Cold Ice Blade."

"Roar!"

The Ice Dragon King roared furiously. Cold light bloomed from its wings as two ice blades shot out, pouncing upon the enraged Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear with lightning speed.

"Rip!"

A sharp tearing sound rang out. Blood flashed at the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's neck and left arm. Before the ferocity could fade from its eyes, its head and severed arm had already fallen to the ground.

"Bang!"

The Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's body collapsed as well.

Its remaining body twitched for a moment before a deep purple Soul Ring slowly emerged.

"Hah—"

Lu Yuan felt all the strength in his body drain away in an instant, and the Ice Dragon King automatically returned to his body.

At the same time, the duration of Domination Domain had come to an end.

Lu Yuan's body shrank back to its original size.

Just as he was about to fall, Tang Wutong reacted quickly and caught him. Her face was filled with worry. "My lord, are you alright?"

"I'm fine. It's just that the Ice Dragon King's Soul Skills consume too much Soul Power. The Soul Power in my body is nearly exhausted now."

Lu Yuan explained, signaling that she need not worry.

Although the Ice Dragon King's Soul Skills were quite good, their consumption was so immense that Lu Yuan's current cultivation could not sustain them for long.

At the very least, he needed to condense a Soul Core first.

If that Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear had avoided those final two ice blades, Tang Wutong would have had to step in and save the situation.

Being able to kill this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear had truly involved a fair amount of luck.

Tang Wutong lowered her head slightly and gently kissed Lu Yuan on the cheek.

"My lord is amazing. This is the first time I've seen someone kill a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear close to ten thousand years old at level thirty."

"Heh, why do you sound like you're praising a little kid?"

Lu Yuan paused slightly, then grew a little dissatisfied.

"Isn't my lord a child?" Tang Wutong asked in return.

Lu Yuan said, "Mentally, I'm not a child."

Tang Wutong said, "But physically, you are."

Lu Yuan said, "..."

After a moment of silence, Lu Yuan turned his gaze toward the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's remains.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "I'll rest for ten minutes first and recover a little. Then I'll absorb that Soul Ring."

"Wutong, go check whether that Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear dropped a Soul Bone."