In the Dragonbone Abyss, ten-thousand-year soul beasts had become noticeably more numerous.
"This is a ten-thousand-year Mysterious Thunder Nether Dragon Vine, with the rare combination of lightning, dragon, and poison attributes."
"Any ordinary Control System soul master would be wild with joy to see one."
"But you deserve better."
Chen Zhuo patted the Red-Scaled Flame Python beneath him, signaling that it could leave the Mysterious Thunder Nether Dragon Vine's territory.
This was not the soul beast they were looking for.
The ten-thousand-year Mysterious Thunder Nether Dragon Vine's main stem had become completely woody. From a distance, it looked like a tree.
It sensed a powerful enemy approaching.
The Mysterious Thunder Nether Dragon Vine lashed out with one thorn-covered vine after another.
Lightning surged over the vines, coating their entangling attacks in a layer of lethal bioelectric energy.
Its branches were extraordinarily flexible, even capable of snapping straight in an instant and thrusting toward them like arrows.
Fortunately, most plant-type soul beasts were still slower to react than animal-type soul beasts.
The Red-Scaled Flame Python swiftly slithered away, carrying them out of danger.
Afterward, Chen Zhuo and Dugu Yan visited the territories of several beast kings.
The Thunder-Marked Winged Dragon, Thunder-Scaled Dragon Lizard, and Wind God Pterosaur were all sub-dragon species with potent dragon bloodlines.
But the soul skills these soul beasts yielded were mostly lightning-attribute skills geared toward powerful attacks.
Dugu Yan already had strong offensive skills, as well as both single-target and area control skills.
For her fourth soul skill, Chen Zhuo had just one recommendation.
Give herself more room for error!
For a fragile Control System soul master like Dugu Yan, once a Power Attack System opponent got right in her face, she was pretty much finished.
That was also why, in the original timeline, the entire Heaven Dou Royal Team put together could not withstand even one move from Xie Yue and Hu Liena.
Building in more room for error was also a tried-and-tested, viable approach.
For example, Dugu Bo himself had a defensive soul skill.
As for adding her fourth soul ring-
Chen Zhuo told Dugu Yan to prioritize defensive soul skills, followed by movement or evasion skills.
In battle, she had to survive before she could deal damage.
If she was killed in an instant, even the Dugu Family's formidable Jade-Phosphorus Poison Mist would have no chance to shine.
"Don't worry. We still have plenty of time. If we take our time looking, we'll find something suitable."
"If we really can't find anything, we'll go back for that Wind God Pterosaur."
Hearing Chen Zhuo say this warmed Dugu Yan's heart.
She stroked the Red-Scaled Flame Python's smooth scales.
Riding on a soul beast's back and freely choosing a ten-thousand-year soul beast for her soul ring-
This was something she had never dared dream of before.
She fully understood why Meng Yiran looked at Chen Zhuo with the eyes of a pilgrim gazing upon something sacred.
This boy, several years younger than her, truly kept doing things they had never even imagined possible.
Mysterious and powerful.
As Dugu Yan gazed into Chen Zhuo's sparkling eyes, a tender feeling had already begun to grow in her heart.
But whether this budding love would ever be returned... only heaven knew.
Chen Zhuo had little room in his mind for anything beyond growing stronger.
Aside from helping Dugu Yan obtain her soul ring, advancing his own Dragon-Form Fist cultivation was his top priority.
Those sub-dragon soul beasts they had encountered earlier could all serve as first-tier ingredients for the Genetic Bloodline Potion.
But Chen Zhuo felt their bloodlines were still a little too impure.
Then he encountered an Azure Thunder Horned Dragon.
With a cultivation age approaching forty thousand years, this one should have been the overlord of this level.
At least, after wandering around for a week, Chen Zhuo had yet to find anything stronger than this Azure Thunder Horned Dragon.
"This should be the evolved form of a Purple Lightning Horned Dragon."
Dragon soul beasts had nearly endless branches, along with complete evolutionary chains.
For all dragon beasts, sub-dragons, true dragons, and dragon kings, the ultimate source of their evolution was, of course, the Dragon God.
He was an existence above the current Divine Realm's Five Great God Kings.
What a pity.
With the failure of the "God Star" plan, this Supreme God King had also left the stage of history.
Normally, a Purple Lightning Horned Dragon needed to reach at least fifty thousand years before it could evolve into an Azure Thunder Horned Dragon.
This Azure Thunder Horned Dragon had completed its transformation ahead of time.
That alone showed how extraordinary its bloodline was.
It would do well enough for his first dragon-blood genetic potion.
"Second soul skill, Time Freeze!"
Under Dugu Yan's astonished gaze, four soul rings rose from beneath Chen Zhuo's feet-black, black, black, and black.
As the second soul ring lit up, the Azure Thunder Horned Dragon was immobilized, unable to move.
"Main God Space, take him!"
When the Main God Space took something in, even a hundred-thousand-year soul beast could not resist its will, let alone one only forty or fifty thousand years old.
From spotting the Azure Thunder Horned Dragon to capturing him, Chen Zhuo had taken less than a single breath.
Beyond her shock, Dugu Yan's head was full of questions.
Chen Zhuo had barely left their side all this time. How had he suddenly advanced beyond Soul Elder and even obtained his soul rings?
Could it be... the young master is a hundred-thousand-year soul beast who transformed into a human to cultivate anew?!
According to legend, weren't soul beasts that transformed into humans the ones capable of condensing their own soul rings?
No wonder her grandfather's attitude toward Chen Zhuo had been so peculiar.
No wonder that Red-Scaled Flame Python had obediently bowed its head in submission to Chen Zhuo.
It all fit. Everything fit!
Like Columbus discovering a new continent, Dugu Yan shuddered several times, her scalp tingling.
The way she looked at Chen Zhuo grew strange.
After all, not everyone could accept marrying a soul beast the way the Tang Lineage could.
Even knowing that the soul beast had taken human form, she could hardly avoid feeling a knot in her heart.
After capturing the Azure Thunder Horned Dragon, Chen Zhuo found that his luck had begun to improve.
Within a few days, they discovered a Golden Earth Dragon King around twelve thousand years old.
"Let's choose him! What do you think?"
The Golden Earth Dragon King's bloodline descended from the Ancient Golden Dragon King.
The Golden Dragon King symbolized the Ancestor of Strength and possessed strength of the ultimate attribute.
As a sub-dragon species, the Golden Earth Dragon King could forget about possessing an ultimate attribute unless he encountered some extraordinary opportunity.
But as a surviving relic of that lineage-
He would still inherit, to some extent, the Golden Dragon King's immense strength and astonishing defensive abilities.
"Whatever you command, young master!"
Dugu Yan was thinking, You've read more books than I have, so whatever you say is right.
"You're fortunate, too."
"Even among ten-thousand-year dragon soul beasts, this Golden Earth Dragon King is exceptional."
In Douluo, whenever a soul beast or martial soul had the word "golden" in its name-
There was no need to think twice. It was almost always something outrageously powerful.
Every last one was a wheelchair-riding stat monster.
Chen Zhuo was already planning to have the will of the Main God Space collect the Golden Earth Dragon King's corpse once Dugu Yan finished absorbing the soul ring.
He wanted to see whether he could extract even a trace of the golden dragon bloodline.
Once again, Chen Zhuo effortlessly took absolute control of the Golden Earth Dragon King's body.
Dugu Yan then delivered the finishing blow.
"Third soul skill, Poison-Origin Serpent Shadow!"
The phantom Jade-Phosphorus Poison Jiao split into multiple serpent-shaped streams of energy, attacking the target simultaneously from different angles.
A one-hit kill!
The Golden Earth Dragon King's body, over five meters long, crashed to the ground, and a black soul ring emerged.
Dugu Yan swallowed. The scene she had imagined-hunting down a ten-thousand-year soul beast after a battle of life and death-had never even had a chance to happen.
In Dugu Yan's eyes, the young master was simply too powerful.
A twelve-thousand-year soul beast fell in an instant, and so did a forty- or fifty-thousand-year soul beast.
He was so strong that she could never fathom his limits.
"Young master, just how powerful is your Time Freeze's control effect?"
In the end, Dugu Yan could not resist asking.
Before you continue