The next second, a surge of rich jade-green soul power burst from between the coiled serpent shadows, condensing in an instant into a venomous python with its jaws wide open.
"Sixth Soul Skill, Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Burst!"
The distance between them had never been great.
Dugu Bo had also used his shield to conceal the fluctuations in soul power as he attacked. Only when the venomous python shot out did Li Qingshan truly see the strike.
The poisonous mist behind him closed in completely at that same moment.
"Let's see how you dodge this time!"
Dugu Bo's gaze sharpened. He wanted to see just what else this young man could do!
Yet Li Qingshan did not retreat. He merely raised the silver-white longsword in his hand slightly, and his fifth soul ring lit up.
"Follow the light upstream to its source; let the sword reach its master and ask the way home."
"Fifth Soul Skill, Traceback!"
The instant the venomous python struck Li Qingshan, the collision Dugu Bo had expected never came. Li Qingshan's figure abruptly vanished within the jade-green light!
Almost simultaneously.
A silver-white longsword had already followed the incoming venomous force back to its source, appearing before Dugu Bo.
"What?!" Dugu Bo's pupils contracted at the sight. He had not even seen how his opponent had evaded his attack!
Fortunately, the Serpent Python Heavenly Shield had not dissipated. The coiled serpent shadows swiftly tightened, rising to block the blade.
Boom!
Sword light crashed into the shield, sending the surrounding poisonous mist churning in all directions.
Dugu Bo used the impact to retreat half a step. The venomous scales on his arms gleamed as he prepared to block the close-range attack that would follow.
But the red flames on the Passionate Sword swiftly climbed onto the serpent shadow through the point where their soul power met.
Before the shield had even broken, Dugu Bo frowned. That same stabbing pain again! He forcibly suppressed the discomfort in his mind, but his gaze had changed completely.
His poison formation had failed to trap his opponent, his close-range ambush had been countered, and even the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Burst unleashed at such close range had become Li Qingshan's means of approaching him.
If he kept fighting the same way, he would only be driven further onto the defensive!
At that thought, Dugu Bo's seventh soul ring suddenly blazed. He shouted in a low voice:
"Seventh Soul Skill, Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor Avatar!"
An immense surge of soul power immediately erupted outward.
Li Qingshan withdrew his sword and retreated in time. Dugu Bo, who had been standing before him, rapidly swelled within the dense jade light.
Then a thirty-meter-long jade phosphorous serpent coiled along the outer face of the mountain wall. Its enormous head slowly rose, looking down at Li Qingshan below.
Dugu Bo did not stop to wait for his opponent's next move.
The moment his Serpent Emperor Avatar took shape, the bewildering poisonous mist scattered earlier spread outward again. Jade-purple poison gas, far denser than before, mingled with it.
Most of the immense serpent's body was soon concealed.
Then a thick serpent tail swept out of the mist!
Li Qingshan pushed off the ground and swiftly leaped up.
Boom!
The stone surface where he had been standing shattered beneath the sweep of that tail.
But just as Li Qingshan leaped, two points of green light suddenly shone in the mist. The Serpent Emperor opened his massive jaws, and a serpent-shaped blast of venomous force shot straight toward him, blocking the very spot where he intended to land!
The poison formation concealed him, the serpent tail forced his opponent back, and the venomous force cut off his landing point.
Dugu Bo's attacks came without pause, leaving Li Qingshan no chance to find steady footing. Meanwhile, the enormous serpent shadow formed by the Serpent Python Heavenly Shield remained coiled around his head.
Dugu Bo had remembered that earlier close-range encounter. Even if Li Qingshan used another attack to reach him, he would first have to get through this layer of defense!
As Li Qingshan watched the venomous force hurtling toward him, his expression finally grew more serious.
Dugu Bo's soul power already exceeded his own, and now he had unleashed his Martial Soul Avatar. Continuing to rely on ordinary sword moves would be taking him too lightly.
He raised the Passionate Sword.
The seventh black soul ring around him suddenly burst with dazzling light.
"Ten thousand Threads of Emotion gather the jade shadow; one passionate sword subdues the Serpent Emperor."
"Seventh Soul Skill, Passionate Sword-Martial Soul Avatar!"
Silver-white sword light soared into the sky!
The Passionate Sword rapidly expanded, and Li Qingshan's figure merged into its light. The enormous sword of love slashed diagonally down at the venomous force, forcibly cleaving it aside into the mountain wall.
Shattered stone flew everywhere.
Countless slender Threads of Emotion had already slipped into the surrounding mist with the spreading sword light.
At the sight, Dugu Bo violently twisted his immense serpent body. His tail swept out again, attempting to scatter every approaching thread of love.
Some of the Threads of Emotion were indeed torn apart, but even more followed the sweep of his tail and wound around his body.
At first, Dugu Bo paid them no mind.
Could something so fine possibly restrain his Serpent Emperor Avatar? Yet when he tried to channel his soul power again, his movements suddenly slowed for an instant.
The Threads of Emotion did not cut through his scales. Instead, they seemed to wind directly around his mind, adding an indescribable resistance every time he mobilized his soul power.
Dugu Bo's heart sank.
Another technique targeting the mind?!
Dugu Bo hurriedly focused his mind, trying to break free of the Threads of Emotion's restraint.
But this was precisely the moment Li Qingshan had been waiting for. The silver light on the Passionate Sword dimmed slightly, and the Threads of Emotion wound around the serpent's body suddenly took on a hazy sheen.
At the same time, his sixth black soul ring abruptly lit up.
"Let one dream fulfill your lifelong wish; a devoted heart refuses to ask what is false or true."
"Sixth Soul Skill, Delusion!"
As his words fell, the Threads of Emotion that had merely restrained Dugu Bo's mind immediately changed.
Dugu Bo saw the sword light flicker before his eyes. Before he could react, a familiar voice suddenly reached his ears.
"Father!"
Dugu Bo's heart jolted, and he instinctively turned his head.
Dugu Xin was standing beside him.
The frightening blue-green tint on the boy's face had vanished completely, and his once-pale lips had regained their color. He was looking at Dugu Bo with a broad smile.
"Xin?" Dugu Bo froze for a moment, then hurriedly took his son's wrist and sent a strand of soul power into him.
His meridians were clear.
His breathing was steady.
The deadly poison that had once ravaged Dugu Xin's body and nearly claimed his life had now become utterly docile. It circulated slowly with his soul power, no longer eating away at his body.
"The poison... it's really cured?"
Dugu Bo's voice trembled slightly.
Dugu Xin nodded and said with a smile:
"Father, it doesn't hurt anymore."
At those words, the string that had been stretched taut in Dugu Bo's heart for years finally seemed to slacken.
His grip on his son's hand involuntarily tightened.
But then he realized that it was not only Dugu Xin. Even the numbness that had lingered along his own ribs for years, along with the dull ache buried deep in his bones, had vanished.
The poisonous power remained within him, but it would no longer turn against him and torment him.
Dugu Bo tried circulating his soul power.
The deadly poison he had always needed to spare part of his concentration to suppress during cultivation now flowed together with his soul power, driving his aura ever higher.
Level 80.
Level 85.
Level 90!
The threshold he had once yearned for so desperately shattered open at that very moment!
Nine soul rings rose in succession from beneath his feet. The Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor coiled behind him, and the immense fluctuations of soul power made the surrounding air tremble faintly.
"A Titled Douluo..." Dugu Bo lowered his head to look at his hands, his eyes brimming with unconcealable excitement. He had finally reached this stage!
The scene before him changed.
Billowing poisonous mist blanketed the mountains and wilderness. The Soul Masters he had once feared now retreated far into the distance. No one dared approach him lightly anymore.
Gaze after gaze turned toward him, filled with awe.
"Your Eminence, Poison Douluo!"
Hearing that title, Dugu Bo could not help smiling.
His son no longer had to suffer the agony of the poison flaring up, and he himself had escaped the backlash of accumulated toxins. Now he had even become a true Titled Douluo.
From this day onward, with his mastery of poison, who would dare provoke him and his son?
This was what he wanted!
Before you continue