Chu Yao: Myriad-Poison Gu Mother Martial Soul (Su Chen's Second Companion)

The change came on the afternoon of the second day.

Iron Wall's nostrils suddenly flared violently, followed by a short, low growl.

It was not a warning.

It was resistance.

Su Chen opened his eyes and looked ahead, his pupils suddenly contracting.

The colors of the forest had changed.

Starting a hundred meters ahead, every tree's leaves had taken on a sickly purplish-black hue.

Gray-white fungal threads crawled over the trunks like spiderwebs, or shriveled blood vessels.

There was not a single living creature visible on the ground.

Not even an insect.

A thin layer of purple-green poisonous mist clung to the ground, silently rising.

The ten Fearclaw Bears stopped almost at the same time.

Every strand of their hard dark-golden fur stood on end, while uneasy rumbles rolled from deep within their chests.

Iron Wall shook its massive head, showing clear resistance to Su Chen's command to advance for the first time.

Su Chen leaped down from Iron Wall's broad back.

He crouched and picked up a handful of dirt.

The soil was black and damp, giving off an extremely faint sweet, fishy scent.

He brought the dirt close to Iron Wall's scale-covered forepaw.

Hiss—

Dense gray-white patterns instantly emerged and spread across the surface of the dark-golden scales.

Corrosion.

Su Chen tossed aside the dirt and stood up.

"This isn't poison from a soul beast." His tone was utterly certain.

Mo Qianye jumped down from the shoulder of the third Fearclaw Bear, and the Netherfire beneath his black robes instinctively surged higher.

"How do you know?"

"When soul beasts release poison, it's instinctive. It only spreads indiscriminately and has no boundaries."

Su Chen raised a hand and pointed at the distinct dividing line ahead.

"Look there."

Mo Qianye followed his finger.

The poisonous mist's range of spread was precisely controlled by an invisible arc.

Although the plants outside the arc were withered and yellow, they showed no signs of corrosion.

This was territory deliberately marked by someone.

"Someone's using poison arts to stake out their territory."

As soon as Su Chen finished speaking, he stepped into the purple-green mist without the slightest hesitation.

"Hey—"

Mo Qianye's outstretched hand froze in midair.

He saw a thin layer of dark-golden soul power naturally circulating over Su Chen's body, keeping all the poisonous mist outside.

Mo Qianye gritted his teeth. Purple Nether Phoenix Flame instantly enveloped his entire body, and he followed.

Iron Wall hesitated in place for two seconds, let out an extremely unwilling muffled grunt, then finally led the other nine Fearclaw Bears into the poisonous mist.

The poisonous mist grew denser and denser.

After walking roughly three hundred steps, Su Chen suddenly stopped.

Twenty meters ahead, the density of the poisonous mist abruptly increased tenfold.

The purple-green gas had gathered there into a nearly opaque curtain, like a tightly shut door.

A voice came from behind that door.

"Take one more step, and that layer of soul power around you won't last three breaths."

It was a girl's voice.

Cold and crisp, yet carrying a trace of hoarseness.

Su Chen stopped, but not because of the threat.

He was listening.

Many things were hidden within that voice. There was killing intent, but not much. More than that, there was probing, evaluation, and the conflicted mentality of someone who had lived alone for too long—both longing for and rejecting the company of her kind.

A crack opened in the poisonous curtain.

A girl stepped out from it.

She looked about twelve years old, half a head shorter than Su Chen.

Her face was shockingly pale, the unhealthy pallor of someone who had not seen sunlight for a long time.

Yet her features were so exquisite they seemed unreal, like an overly perfect sculpture upon whose brow its creator had spitefully placed a crimson mole.

She wore a short robe sewn from some unknown beast hide, its cuffs badly worn.

The boots on her feet were clearly a size too large, as though she had stripped them from a corpse.

Seven or eight gourds of different colors hung from her waist, covered in densely packed sealing runes.

A faint fragrance drifted from her body.

The scent was not strong, but Su Chen noticed that a blade of grass by his feet turned to gray powder less than five seconds after touching it.

"You trespassed into my territory."

The girl's gaze swept from Su Chen to the ten enormous beasts behind him, and her pupils imperceptibly contracted.

But there was not the slightest hint of retreat in her tone.

"Looking to die?"

The Nether Phoenix Flame around Mo Qianye surged with a whoosh, and purple light instantly dispersed a large swath of poisonous mist.

Su Chen raised a hand slightly.

The flames fell at once.

"Who are you hiding from?"

Rather than answering her, Su Chen directly threw out a question.

The girl's expression changed.

For only an instant.

A crack called panic split across that ice-cold face.

She swiftly patched it up and put the mask of aloofness back on.

But Su Chen had already seen it.

"Your poison formation has a defensive radius of roughly four hundred meters. It covers a considerable area, but the poisonous mist isn't distributed evenly."

Su Chen calmly stated the results of his analysis.

"It is thinnest to the southwest and thickest to the northeast."

"If this were only meant to scare off soul beasts, there would be no need for such a directional arrangement."

"You're guarding against people, and you know your enemies will come from the northeast."

The girl's expression completely changed.

This time, it was not fleeting. She remained stiff for several seconds.

"Who exactly are you?"

She took a step back, her right hand pressing against a pitch-black gourd at her waist.

"Just passing through," Su Chen said. "What about you?"

A long silence followed.

The girl's hand remained on the gourd, her fingertips glowing with a faint green light.

She was weighing her options.

Fight, or flee.

In the end, she chose a third option.

"Chu Yao. Poison Sect."

She enunciated every word as if forcing thorn-covered chunks of ice from her throat.

"If you know of the Poison Sect, turn around and leave now. You still have time."

Su Chen did not turn around.

"The Poison Sect has an eight-hundred-year legacy. It specializes in refining hundreds of poisons and focuses on gu arts."

His tone was as flat as if he were reciting from a textbook.

"Six years ago, Spirit Hall exterminated the entire sect on the grounds of 'colluding with evil soul masters.'"

Chu Yao's breathing suddenly quickened.

"They said we were evil soul masters."

Her voice lowered, and beneath its hoarseness was a coarse layer of hatred.

"The Myriad-Poison Gu Mother has been the Chu Family's martial soul for eight hundred years. Eight hundred years ago, no one called it an evil martial soul."

"Spirit Hall coveted my family's Myriad-Poison Secret Canon and demanded that my father hand it over with both hands—my father refused."

She paused.

"And then, there was no then."

Mo Qianye said nothing behind them, but the Nether Phoenix Flame around him dimmed slightly.

Su Chen took a step forward.

Chu Yao abruptly retreated, her voice sharpening. "Don't come closer! The toxins on my body aren't something I can control—if you get too close, then..."

Su Chen did not stop.

He walked up to her, reached out, and directly grasped her wrist.

Dark-golden soul power condensed into a dense thin membrane in his palm, neatly blocking the all-pervasive toxins outside.

Chu Yao's entire body froze.

Not because of fear.

Ever since awakening the Myriad-Poison Gu Mother martial soul at the age of six, no one had touched her again.

When her mother held her, she had to wear three layers of thick beast-hide gloves.

When her father taught her, he always stayed two zhang away.

She had grown used to it.

She thought she had stopped caring long ago.

Su Chen released her hand and stepped back half a pace, speaking in a businesslike tone.

"The Myriad-Poison Gu Mother cultivates both gu and poison. It can provide a legion with multiple poison-based debuffs."

"Its offensive power is average, but its control and weakening abilities are top-tier."

He looked straight into Chu Yao's eyes.

"My legion lacks a debuff support position."

"Come with me."

"I'll provide food, safety, and revenge."

Chu Yao stared at him.

When this boy said the words "provide revenge," his tone was no different from when he said "provide food."

Flat.

Certain.

As though he were stating a fact that had already happened.

Chu Yao remained silent for a long time.

"You aren't afraid of my poison?"

"I have ten Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears."

Su Chen jerked his chin toward the beasts behind him.

"Compared to their bad tempers, your poison is much gentler."

Behind him, Iron Wall was rubbing its huge cheek against an ancient tree to scratch an itch, making the centuries-old giant tree sway as if it were about to topple.

On the other side, Little Gold was innocently chewing on a hard stone. The crunching sounds were especially clear in the poisonous mist.

Chu Yao's mouth twitched.

She was not sure whether this person was praising her or mocking her.

She took a step and followed Su Chen.

After walking a few steps, she finally spoke, her voice still stiff.

"I have nowhere else to go. Don't misunderstand, it isn't because of you. I just temporarily need a..."

"Mm."

"Can you wait for me to finish?"

"Mm."

Chu Yao seemed to choke on her words and took a deep breath.

"One day, I'll poison you to death."

Su Chen did not look back.

"Get in line. Spirit Hall is ahead of you."

Mo Qianye silently sighed behind him.

Another troublesome one.

The group set off again.

The diamond-shaped battle formation of the ten Fearclaw Bears subtly adjusted its structure, leaving an absolutely safe space at the center.

That was Chu Yao's position.

Iron Wall deliberately slowed its pace, its mountain-like body completely blocking out the remaining corrosive poisonous mist around them.

Chu Yao walked within the bears' encirclement, surrounded on all sides by silent, powerful dark-gold figures.

For the first time, she felt safe.

But she would rather die than admit it.

Su Chen returned to Iron Wall's back and looked northeast.

That was the direction of Netherworld Valley.

His second Spirit Ring.

The blade he needed was there.

And farther away, beyond the reach of his gaze—

Two utterly terrifying auras were tearing through the night over the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest at astonishing speed.

Soul Sages.

Two of them.

Bibi Dong had given them seven days.

They had reached the forest's edge in only two.

Leading them was a gaunt old man in Spirit Hall's dark crimson robes, his face like dried orange peel.

Behind him, a pitch-black Spirit Ring emitted heart-palpitating fluctuations in the night.

A seventy-thousand-year Spirit Ring!

"The target entered the Star Dou Great Forest?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

The other Soul Douluo beside him immediately bowed. "The intelligence has been confirmed. He brought one companion, as well as... ten ten-thousand-year Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears."

At last, a trace of expression appeared on the gaunt old man's face.

It was a twisted smile.

"Interesting."

He took a step forward, and his figure instantly vanished into the boundless darkness of the Star Dou Great Forest.