Second-Stage Gene Lock, Unlocked

Chen Zhuo wore a boyish, cunning smile.

"Well..."

"If it's ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, I should be able to control them a bit."

This was a secret he had never fully revealed until now.

The intensity of his Time Freeze was precisely the intensity the opponent could achieve when executing that soul skill the first time he copied Dugu Bo's eighth soul skill.

Controlling an ordinary Titled Douluo for a short time definitely posed no problem at all.

Yet the price he had to pay was always the same.

This soul skill consumed a massive amount of soul power, especially if he unleashed it at maximum output intensity.

The soul power within him would unquestionably be drained dry, leaving him unable to execute any soul skills other than his soul bone skills.

Actually, from a certain perspective, rather than calling his Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils his martial soul, it felt more like an external soul bone.

These copied soul skills were mechanically similar to soul skills stored within soul bones.

Normally, they automatically absorbed the energy between heaven and earth to replenish themselves, so the soul power consumed by his actual body was remarkably minimal.

The reason he currently faced the problem of being overwhelmed...

Was purely because the quality of these soul skills was far too high, and his physical constitution was still unable to bear the pressure.

Once his soul power level rose or his physique grew stronger a few more times, these problems would be readily solved.

Although she had long suspected it, hearing Chen Zhuo admit it himself still brought Dugu Yan a relieved smile.

For any soul master who fancied themselves a proud son of heaven.

Sharing an era with a monstrosity like Chen Zhuo was truly a deeply despairing affair.

Dugu Yan felt empathy for herself, while also pitying Yu Tianheng and the others.

Fortunately, this person was on her side.

She was even his follower.

As long as she worked hard, she might not lack the chance to stand beside the great mountains in the future and survey all the smaller peaks beneath.

To behold the scenery of the entire world.

After her inner doubts were resolved, Dugu Yan sat cross-legged and began to absorb the soul ring of the Golden Earth Dragon King.

The Red-Scaled Flame Python coiled at her side, guarding Dugu Yan against any people or soul beasts that might appear.

Time ticked away second by second.

At last, the momentum surrounding Dugu Yan abruptly surged, and the Jade-Phosphorus Poison Jiao martial soul behind her emitted a prolonged dragon roar!

It dispersed the spiritual impact of the Golden Earth Dragon King buried within that black soul ring.

With the soul ring entering her body, Dugu Yan's soul power broke through in a single bound to rank forty-three!

She opened her eyes.

Yellow, yellow, purple, black-a total of four soul rings gleamed beneath her feet.

A series of emerald-gold illusory scales appeared on Dugu Yan's body, and faint golden patterns circulated in loops.

An aura of a superior dragon race erupted overwhelmingly.

"It worked!"

Joy filled Dugu Yan's heart.

"Fourth soul skill, Golden Poison Dragon Armor!"

With this ten-thousand-year soul skill absorbed beyond her rank, she was confident she could do battle even against a five-ring soul king.

Her body was flooded with an unprecedentedly powerful soul power, rousing Dugu Yan's fighting spirit to a high pitch.

She truly wished to return to the Heaven Dou Underground Great Soul Arena right now to have a proper match.

"Congratulations."

"If you don't count me, achieving a black fourth ring should make you the first person in thousands of years."

The Dugu Lineage boasted a pair of prodigies.

One condensed a soul core, while the other absorbed a ten-thousand-year soul ring beyond her rank.

All of this was inseparable from ninety-nine percent talent, hard work, sweat, and that one percent of immortal herbs and genetic potions.

To Chen Zhuo, all of this was entirely predictable.

He had poured so many resources into Dugu Yan.

Making her soul ring exceed those of ordinary soul masters by over five thousand years was merely a matter of a natural course.

Having crossed this most difficult step.

From then on, every soul ring Dugu Yan added would surpass the limit age universally recognized by the soul master world.

In the future, without requiring divine bestowal.

By her eighth or, at the latest, ninth soul ring, Dugu Yan would inevitably be able to rely on her own strength to accommodate a ten-thousand-year soul ring, laying the foundation for her subsequent advancement to super douluo.

Wanting to be invincible among peers was forged step by step, slowly cultivated in this very manner.

"All thanks to the young master's cultivation!"

In Dugu Yan's eyes flickered an irrepressible girl's excitement and joy, alongside unmasked adoration for Chen Zhuo.

"Seeing how eager your hands and feet are, go find a few ten-thousand-year soul beasts to play with then."

"I've made some occasional gains and need to go into seclusion for a period of time."

Chen Zhuo had the Red-Scaled Flame Python follow Dugu Yan to prevent any unexpected accidents.

As for himself, he occupied the lair of the Golden Earth Dragon King.

The beast king's aura still lingered, and basically no hundred-year or thousand-year soul beasts dared to trespass into this place.

Moreover, given his current strength, he did not need Dugu Yan to guard his meditation.

The Main God Space had just informed him that the bloodline genetic potion of the Azure Thunder Horned Dragon was refined.

He could consume it at any time.

There was no time like the present.

Chen Zhuo hesitated no longer; since there was still plenty of time before the secret realm closed,

He might as well complete his breakthrough in the Dragon-Form Fist right here.

"Azure Thunder Horned Dragon potion, exchange!"

After Dugu Yan departed, Chen Zhuo spent ten contribution points to exchange for the first-stage Azure Thunder Horned Dragon potion.

Upon consuming it, he began to practice the Dragon-Form Fist.

Now he lacked neither money nor various supplies, and exchanging contribution points had long since ceased to be a headache.

The dragon tucks its body, the dragon probes its claws, the dragon ascends to heaven.

Every single movement drove his entire body through the spiral twisting of his waist and hips.

As the foremost of the Twelve Animal Forms in Xingyi Fist, the Dragon-Form Fist placed the utmost importance on the waist, spine, and the explosive force of "twisting, wrapping, drilling, and turning."

Meaning that when fighting an enemy, especially if grabbed head-on at close range by the opponent, one could still use the Dragon-Form Fist to break free.

The hands had to be able to drill in and turn out.

Coupled with the footwork of "rising like a crouching dragon ascending to heaven, falling like a hibernating dragon churning waves."

His combat style could shift high and low, striking the upper body while seizing the lower, advancing and retreating freely.

Hand gestures and footwork went from unfamiliar to skilled.

The shadow of practicing martial arts in his past life overlapped with his current appearance, driving the other eleven Xingyi Fist forms that had already reached Minor Achievement.

"Just a little bit more."

Chen Zhuo felt a flash of insight in his heart. He once again summoned the will of the Main God Space and exchanged for the newly extracted bloodline essence of the Golden Earth Dragon King.

Crack, crack!

Chen Zhuo directly tossed the entire vial of potion, which contained a trace of the Golden Dragon King Bloodline, into his mouth, crunching the glass test tube to pieces just as if chewing bubble gum.

He chewed the mouthful of glass shards.

The potion, mixed with shards of glass and fresh blood, passed down his throat and entered his stomach.

This behavior was no different from courting death, and even gastric lavage might not necessarily save him.

Once the glass shards lacerated his internal organs, they would cause massive internal bleeding, subsequently triggering shock and death.

Yet Chen Zhuo could care about nothing of the sort! He was determined to push himself to the limit.

A person capable of scoring two hundred percent under the enslavement of the Main God Space differed somewhat from ordinary people.

Agony!

The pain was multiplied compared to when he first unlocked the gene lock.

Chen Zhuo clenched his teeth, his features contorted, and a roar akin to that of a wild beast issued from his throat.

The evolution of the Twelve Animal Forms did not stop; he could only use practicing his fist to divert his brain's attention.

His whole body's muscles went from acute pain to aching soreness.

He lost every ounce of his strength.

Immediately afterward, an unbearable itch like bone-eating maggots assaulted him.

As for himself, he resembled a bedridden paralyzed patient with only his eyeballs able to move.

His body crawled with swarming fleas, lice, and all manner of blood-sucking parasites.

Watching them drink his blood, itching to the point of driving a person mad, yet leaving him entirely helpless.

When Chen Zhuo finally regained consciousness, his eyes were as red as dripping blood, and his lower lip had been bitten away by more than half.

His entire person looked as though he had suffered through a round of torture.

Fortunately, he had endured it and recovered his sanity.

Sensing the changes within his body, Chen Zhuo let out a wheezing laugh.

It sounded as though someone were pumping an old broken bellows.

Crack!

Chen Zhuo shifted his posture, and a chorus of creaking bones echoed throughout his entire body.

His physique was mutating.

Before long, his height shrank from six feet down to a dwarf-like four feet.

The missing lower lip also rapidly regenerated fresh pink flesh.

Chen Zhuo laughed heartily and then shook his body, transforming back to his original height.

Muscle recombination, super-accelerated wound healing, bone compression...

Second-stage gene lock, unlocked!