The Heaven Dou Empire was one of the two most powerful empires in this world.
It governed four independent kingdoms and one duchy.
The total number of Soul Masters in the empire exceeded forty thousand.
Its capital was Heaven Dou City.
Second only to Spirit City, it ranked alongside Star Luo City as the world's second-largest capital.
At Dugu Manor in Heaven Dou City.
A gatekeeper was haughtily and impatiently trying to send a young man away.
"These days, every stray cat and dog dares claim kinship with my master?"
"Go! Go! Go! Or I'll give you a beating."
"We get hundreds, if not thousands, of people like you every year."
The gatekeeper spat into the air.
"You only need to pass what I'm about to tell you on to Dugu Bo."
"If you leave out so much as a word."
"The one who loses his life certainly won't be me."
Faced with the gatekeeper's foul attitude, Chen Zhuo wasn't angry. Instead, he tossed him a Gold Soul Coin.
The man was only a hired hand.
Surely no one would actually get worked up over a gatekeeper?
Then he recited that classic immortal herb redemption code to the gatekeeper.
He told him to relay it to Dugu Bo.
With that, he turned and left.
The gatekeeper alone remained rooted to the spot, his expression shifting uncertainly.
"I've never seen such a strange lad before."
Unsure of what to make of it, he dared not keep it from the manor's steward.
The next day.
The gatekeeper saw his master, who had just returned home, stumble out toward the street.
In all his years, he had never seen his master lose his composure like this.
The Good Fortune Inn.
Chen Zhuo had booked the entire establishment and stayed there for the past two days.
Dugu Bo pushed the door open and entered.
Their gazes met.
"You lost your father in your youth, your wife in middle age, and your son in your twilight years."
"Dugu Bo!"
"I've come to save you."
Chen Zhuo tipped his chin up slightly, his eyes lowered.
A single glance.
Dugu Bo felt as though lightning had struck him, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
With a thud.
He dropped to his knees.
Had anyone outside witnessed this scene, jaws would have dropped all over the floor.
Dugu Bo, the Titled Douluo known as Poison Douluo.
An honored guest of the Heaven Dou Empire, and its strongest publicly known expert!
Yet now he resembled a wanderer returning home after half a lifetime adrift, tears and snot soaking his robes.
As he kowtowed to his parents.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black.
His Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor martial soul manifested uncontrollably, bringing forth nine Soul Rings.
His surging, mountain-like pressure spread outward, reaching the people in several surrounding streets.
They either fell to their knees or were crushed beneath his level-92 soul power, unable to straighten their backs.
Then.
It was as though someone had pressed pause.
Leaves drifting through the air, fish leaping out of the water.
And all those terrified faces.
Everything throughout the neighborhood froze in that instant, utterly motionless.
Only Chen Zhuo and Dugu Bo remained unaffected.
A Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring spread beneath Chen Zhuo's feet.
Pitch-black as ink, so deep it seemed ready to drip.
Then another black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring lit up beneath his feet.
It pulsed with exactly the same soul-path rhythm as Dugu Bo's Eighth Soul Ring.
That Soul Ring had come from a seventy-thousand-year-old Queen Medusa.
Its Soul Skill was called Time Freeze!
This was a wide-area control skill that could lock down and freeze time within a radius of several kilometers around the user.
Only the caster could move.
Though it appeared to be merely a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skill, its effect deserved to be called divine!
And the price of using such a heaven-defying Soul Skill was nothing more than a massive expenditure of soul power.
Now, this divine "time-stop" skill.
Had been copied by Chen Zhuo and become his second Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring!
His chosen career path had more or less been settled as well.
A control system Soul Master.
In this world, Soul Masters awakened different martial souls, giving them different innate strengths.
There were seven categories in all.
They were the power attack system, agility attack system, defense system, control system, support system, food system, and healing system.
His martial soul was the body martial soul, Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils.
The agility attack system, defense system, support system, food system, and healing system could all be ruled out.
That left only the power attack system and control system.
In the end, Chen Zhuo chose the latter.
Aside from the main reason-that his supernatural path of the gene lock could compensate for his lack of attack power-he truly coveted Dugu Bo's control Soul Skill.
Its mechanics were underhanded beyond all bounds.
Naturally, almost no skill was utterly flawless.
When the opponent's soul power exceeded the caster's, the effects of Time Freeze would be greatly diminished.
If the gap between their soul power was too large, the Soul Skill might even fail entirely.
Such limitations were more a matter of the Soul Master's own shortcomings.
They had little to do with the Soul Skill itself.
Now that the experiment had succeeded, he had gained another way to acquire Soul Rings.
And picked up Dugu Bo, a Titled Douluo, in the process.
The Main God Space had already worked it out for him: without a divine position to serve as an anchor.
In this world.
No snake-type Soul Beast or Soul Master, regardless of their soul power level, could resist his divine eyes.
He was the King of All Snakes!
"Master!"
Dugu Bo wore a humble expression. His mind had been completely occupied by the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils.
Obedience had become his instinct.
As for the principle that allowed Chen Zhuo to copy Dugu Bo's Soul Skills for his own use.
It was an extension of the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils' innate ability to read serpentine souls and devour their bloodlines.
After merging with this world's laws, they could naturally acquire the Soul Skills of those under their control.
Chen Zhuo had simply made that ability permanent as his own Soul Skill.
"Let's go spend some time at your Dugu Manor," Chen Zhuo said.
He had rented out the Good Fortune Inn for two days already.
If he kept pretending to be rich, he really would go bankrupt.
At the Ye Manor in the capital.
Dugu Yan, who had been enjoying herself with her close friend, received a letter from home.
She opened it to find only two words: "Return immediately."
Dugu Yan didn't know what had happened at home, but her grandfather never joked with her about serious matters.
"What's wrong, Yan'er?"
Dressed in a yellow top and green skirt, Ye Lingling asked with concern.
Her voice was as lilting as an oriole's song, and compared with the radiant Dugu Yan, her beauty held a little more nobility and composure.
"Lingling, I need to go home."
"I'll come play with you another day."
Dugu Yan couldn't make sense of what was happening at home, and she didn't want Ye Lingling to worry.
She feared it had something to do with the Spirit Hall.
After all, when the Spirit Hall had failed to recruit her grandfather, it had once sent its own elder, Chrysanthemum Douluo, to hunt him down.
Only after they had partly placed themselves under Prince Xue Xing's protection in recent years had the Spirit Hall stopped.
The Ye Family was a prominent household in the imperial capital.
Ye Lingling herself was renowned throughout the world as the heir to the Nine Heart Begonia lineage, hailed as the world's greatest healing martial soul.
But all those distinctions amounted to nothing before the Spirit Hall.
They were merely a firefly's glow beside the brilliant moon.
"All right. Be careful on the way."
Ye Lingling noticed the change in Dugu Yan's expression and made no attempt to keep her.
She immediately had the steward prepare a carriage and assign escorts to ensure Dugu Yan's safety.
When they were ready to leave, they found that the Dugu Family's carriage had already been waiting outside the Ye Manor for quite some time.
Everyone knew that Wu Qian, the steward of Dugu Manor, was a six-ring Battle Soul Emperor.
Since he had come in person, the Ye Family's modest security detail was naturally unnecessary.
The two young women said goodbye.
When Dugu Yan returned home.
The scene was nothing like the preparations for another flight she had expected.
Her grandfather, Dugu Bo, was actually standing beside a young man like a servant.
"Yanyan, come and pay your respects to our Dugu Family's master."
Dugu Bo's words brought Dugu Yan's mind to a complete halt.
Until Chen Zhuo turned around.
She too met those emerald-green eyes, as still as the waters of an ancient well.
A shudder ran through her body.
As though she had just awakened from a dream.
When Dugu Yan recovered, her gaze burned with fervor, and she displayed even greater enthusiasm than Dugu Bo.
Like a believer encountering her god on a pilgrimage.
To outsiders.
Dugu Bo merely said he had found a long-lost distant relative and become overly excited.
The incident that had affected several streets was thus brushed aside with ease.
No one dared investigate further.
Within the household.
Dugu Manor now had a young master.
A penniless boy had transformed overnight into a member of high society.
Word of this soon spread throughout Heaven Dou City.
While the imperial relatives and nobles of Heaven Dou City were trying every means to learn about this young master of the Dugu Family, hoping to be the first to befriend him.
Chen Zhuo had already taken Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan onto the road to Sunset Forest.
That Paradise Grotto at the heart of Sunset Forest.
The Immortal Herb Hot Pot.
Who could partake of it without singing its praises?
Before you continue