Half a year later, Dragon Duke and Snake Granny returned from hunting soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest.
Snake Granny had officially become a Seven-Ring Soul Sage.
When Dragon Duke and Snake Granny saw that their precious granddaughter's soul power had risen another level, they grinned so widely they could not close their mouths.
Chen Zhuo told them the secret of whale rubber and sent them on a trip to the Star Luo Empire.
With those two overseeing matters, purchasing ten-thousand-year whale glue was practically guaranteed.
Even if something unexpected happened, they could handle it.
Dugu Bo naturally stayed by his side to protect him.
When he could play it safe, he had to play it safe.
Calculating the time, that once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity was not far off.
With no schoolwork to interfere.
Chen Zhuo devoted almost all his energy to increasing his soul power and competing in the Great Soul Arena.
A year later, Dragon Duke and Snake Granny brought back over four hundred pieces of ten-thousand-year whale glue.
They had acquired even more than they had in the Heaven Dou Empire.
Under Chen Zhuo's supervision, and with potions poured into them in copious amounts, Dugu Yan and Meng Yiran both achieved their goals.
After a year of intensive training, both girls had made tremendous strides in strength and temperament.
After that, they worked hard on their own without needing Chen Zhuo to push them.
The results were immediate.
Time flew, and two years had passed.
The team formed by Demon Eye, Poisonous Flood Dragon, and Dragon Snake had already made quite a name for itself in the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena.
After each of them earned a Silver Badge.
Faced with increasingly powerful opponents as their winning streaks grew.
The three began sticking together and left the individual matches behind.
They subsequently fought three against seven many times.
In their final match, they even defeated a team led by a Soul Emperor, claiming Purple-Gold Badges with a record of thirty-eight consecutive victories.
That achievement left Meng Yiran feeling as though she were dreaming.
She had no doubt that, with this Purple-Gold Badge in hand, she could apply directly to the Heaven Dou Royal Academy for graduation.
Dugu Yan asked Chen Zhuo about his plans.
Could they go hunt soul beasts and acquire soul rings now?
She had broken through to level forty several months earlier.
After two years of arduous cultivation, Meng Yiran had also reached level thirty.
"Go back to the academy first and catch up on your academic classes."
"We'll consider the soul rings during the holidays."
Chen Zhuo intended for both girls to acquire a soul ring from either a sub-dragon species or a true dragon species.
Apart from the Dragon Form Fist, every form of his Twelve Animal Form Fist had reached at least minor achievement.
He also urgently needed dragon-blood potion to unlock the second-stage gene lock.
At this point.
He could either try his luck in the inner reaches of the Star Dou Great Forest.
Or he could target the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, one of the Upper Three Sects.
The former was a question of probability, the latter a question of difficulty.
Neither could be resolved quickly.
He still needed a heavyweight ally.
The woman who kept herself most deeply hidden in Heaven Dou City.
Once he finished dealing with the matter at hand, it would be time to approach her.
Two years.
He had waited quite a while for this day.
Chen Zhuo brought Dugu Bo with him to find Dragon Duke.
After some discussion, both sides reached an agreement.
Holy Soul Village.
Having just graduated from the junior Soul Master Academy in Nuoding City, Tang San returned to the village where he had been born and raised with his newly acknowledged "sworn younger sister," Xiao Wu.
Brimming with joy, he wanted to introduce Xiao Wu to his father, Tang Hao.
Instead, all that greeted him was a handwritten letter containing a few hastily scrawled lines.
"Dad's gone..."
Despite having lived two lives, Tang San felt like crying.
He had worked so hard, cultivating Blue Silver Grass, a trash martial soul, to level twenty-nine at just twelve years old.
All because he had always wanted his father's approval.
"Brother San, don't be sad."
"I'm sure your dad will come back for you once he's finished what he needs to do."
Dressed in a velvet miniskirt with two decorative rabbit ears on her head, Xiao Wu comforted Tang San.
Young people's thoughts flitted east one moment and west the next.
With Xiao Wu keeping him company, Tang San, whose heart was desperately starved of affection, soon cheered up.
The two spent the entire afternoon playing and teasing each other.
The sun sank in the west.
They nestled against each other amid a sea of flowers on the hillside.
"Brother San, will you comb my hair?" Xiao Wu took out the comb her mother had left her.
Tang San combed her hair, but failed to notice the blush on her cheeks hidden beneath her tresses.
When she had lived in the Star Dou Great Forest, she had seen her father comb her mother's hair just like this.
Now was the time for a young girl's daydreams.
Before long, however, she remembered her special identity.
A sharp pang pierced her heart.
Xiao Wu turned around and looked at Tang San earnestly.
"Brother San, if one day lots of people wanted to kill me, and they were so powerful you couldn't beat them, what would you do?"
Tang San froze. He had no idea why Xiao Wu would suddenly ask such a question.
Perhaps that was simply how women were.
Always imagining things, always agonizing over who would be rescued first if they fell into the water.
He reached out and gently stroked the ends of Xiao Wu's hair.
"Then they'll have to step over my corpse first!"
Tang San's words resounded in Xiao Wu's heart like thunder that could awaken the deaf.
Tears shimmered in her eyes, and she was deeply moved.
The boy and girl, just beginning to discover love, slowly drew closer without realizing it.
Just then.
Xiao Wu noticed someone standing on the hillside, though she had no idea when he had arrived.
He wore extremely strange clothing, his face concealed beneath a black cloak.
The black-clad man raised his head.
Emerald eyes, cold and emotionless as a snake's, met Xiao Wu's lovely pink-crystal eyes.
Smack!
Tang San, who had already closed his eyes, never received the kiss he was waiting for.
Only a headless corpse fell into his arms.
Blood smeared Tang San's face, and the world before his eyes seemed to turn entirely crimson.
Am I having a nightmare?
That was the first thought that surfaced in Tang San's mind.
The violent surge of emotion made his heart stop, and he immediately passed out.
Elsewhere.
In the hills behind Holy Soul Village.
Before a picturesque waterfall.
Dugu Bo plunged the blade emerging from his palm into the water, and the entire river parted to either side.
The scene behind the waterfall's curtain of water was revealed as well.
Dugu Bo was startled.
Everything was exactly as the young master had described.
Inside this hidden cave, Dugu Bo found two things.
A Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, lustrous and smooth as jade.
A sickly stalk of Blue Silver Grass that had received little sunlight, rain, or dew for a long time.
With a sweep of his hand, Dugu Bo took both items.
He then meticulously erased every trace along his route that might expose his identity.
After the three regrouped.
The way Dugu Bo looked at Dragon Duke changed completely.
Judging by his aura, his soul power level was no longer ninety, but ninety-two!
Nine soul rings appeared beneath his feet. Their configuration surpassed even the optimal arrangement.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, red!
The final ring was the scarlet soul ring exclusive to a hundred-thousand-year soul beast!
To a soul master.
What a dazzling, enchanting shade of red it was.
Dugu Bo could not conceal the shock on his face.
He really did let this nobody leap through the dragon gate, Dugu Bo thought.
He stepped forward to offer his congratulations.
Dragon Duke was delighted, but he had not let his newfound power go to his head.
He knew perfectly well that without Chen Zhuo, he would never have reached this point!
"Aren't we going to kill him?"
Dragon Duke glanced at Tang San and raised the issue with Chen Zhuo.
Chen Zhuo had told him about Tang San's close relationship with the hundred-thousand-year soft bone rabbit whose soul ring he had absorbed.
He also knew that Tang San's father was the Clear Sky Douluo, whose name had once shaken the world.
Few people in this world dared claim they did not fear Tang Hao.
As for Dragon Duke.
Even now that he had become a Titled Douluo, he was still afraid.
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