The Evil Emperor

The Nether, one month later.

The once-enormous Wither Storm had regressed to its second stage-the stage where it looked like a ball with three newly grown, short tentacles.

This was the stage Li Chen could now control completely. Having evolved from the Command Block, the Wither Storm now counted as an exceptionally unusual beast martial soul.

He could use it for possession or have it fight outside his body, much like Luo Sanpao. However, fighting separately required him to divide his attention; otherwise, the Wither Storm would stand there like a wooden post, waiting for his commands.

Now that he had gained control of the Wither Storm, each soul ring of his martial soul had two sets of soul skills: one from the original Command Block, and another from the Wither Storm.

The first soul skill, Rose Brand, planted a mark inside the target. Whenever the target took damage, the mark would trigger, inflicting additional damage and generating a wither rose beneath their feet.

The second soul ring, Death Wail, dealt soul damage to all surrounding targets. The closer they were, the greater the damage. Those with weak souls would fall unconscious or even die outright.

The third soul ring, Despair Cocoon, covered his body in a purplish-black wither cocoon, greatly enhancing his Mental Power and granting him a god's-eye view. If a single attack dealt less damage than the cocoon could withstand, it would absorb that damage to strengthen itself, but he could not move during this time.

The fourth soul skill, Withering Touch, extended countless tentacles imbued with wither power from the ground or the air. Any target they touched would have their vitality and soul power continuously eroded.

The fifth soul skill, Cursed Laser, fired a purple energy beam after a brief charge, disintegrating all nonliving matter and energy it touched.

The sixth soul skill, Void Devouring, gathered and compressed wither power at a designated location to form a "Singularity Black Hole." The black hole would devour everything around it and explode after ten seconds. The more it swallowed during that time, the more powerful the explosion.

The seventh soul skill was Martial Soul Avatar, which greatly strengthened both him and the Command Block's soul skills.

Besides the Wither Storm's new set of soul skills, he had made other gains. First, he had finally grown taller and now looked like a teenage boy.

Then there were the three Wither Symbiotes he had preserved from within the Storm Radius. These symbiotes wore black-and-purple robes and had three wither tentacles on their backs.

They looked much like him, but purple markings spread across their faces, and their eyes were purple as well.

Without a close look, the three symbiotes appeared identical. A little scrutiny, however, revealed that each had one long tentacle and two short ones, with the long tentacle in a different position on each.

The symbiotes' levels were perfectly synchronized with his, but they had no martial souls, retaining only their original abilities.

As long as he did not die, the symbiotes could revive endlessly. Their revival was not instantaneous, however; they still had to accumulate enough energy first.

Li Chen named them Greed, Wrath, and Delusion.

He withdrew his martial soul. Now he could finally enjoy fighting normally. Most of the Command Block's soul skills had previously been usable only once a day, but the Wither Storm's skills had no such restriction.

He walked over to Wine Fox, who was resting against a wall. As he reached out to stroke her, she seemed to sense something and opened her eyes.

Looking at the drastically changed Li Chen, she blinked again, then sniffed. Once she finally confirmed it was him, she suddenly threw herself into his arms.

"M-Master, thank goodness you're all right."

Li Chen gently stroked her head without a word.

Only after a long while did Wine Fox lift her head to look at him. Seeing her eyes reddened from crying, Li Chen reached out to wipe away her tears. "All right, let's go home."

With that, he glanced back at their return route. It was riddled with pits, and some stretches were no longer passable at all.

Returning to their original portal would probably be difficult. He could only activate creative mode and take out a stack of obsidian, then casually choose another six stacks of things they might need.

Now, taking items out in creative mode no longer ended the mode outright; it merely prevented him from opening the Creative Inventory again.

Using Copy, he replenished Wine Fox's supply with another box of Totems of Undying, then quickly built a portal frame. Li Chen took out the Flint and Steel, lit it, and waited for the portal to form completely.

"We've come so far. I wonder if we'll still be on the Douluo Continent when we get back."

Without dwelling on it, he took Wine Fox through the portal. Outside lay a sinister, eerie coniferous forest, its ground a swamp of sticky humus.

After looking around, he still had no idea which way to go, so he ordered the three symbiotes to scout in different directions. "Go gather information about the surroundings."

At the same time, he took out a Teleportation Stele and erected it on the spot, then used Iron Golem Spawn Eggs to spawn two level-72 Iron Golems to patrol and guard the area.

Li Chen was in no hurry to return. Instead, he planned to wait for the information the symbiotes brought back. If they really had reached another continent, especially the Sun Moon Continent, he could acquire some knowledge of soul tools while he was there.

Less than ten minutes later, Symbiote Greed died. The last image he transmitted was of a gigantic eyeball covered in countless tentacles.

"The Evil Emperor! Looks like this is the Evil Demon Forest on the Sun Moon Continent."

Before he could think any further, the Evil Emperor's Mental Power had already swept across the Evil Demon Forest. Then he appeared above Li Chen.

The Evil Emperor hovered in midair, as though his arrival had plunged the entire Evil Demon Forest into deathly silence.

His immense Mental Power bore down like a surging tide, carrying a suffocating aura of blood and darkness.

Before, that tremendous Mental Power would probably have left Li Chen unable to breathe. But after a month of the Wither Storm's soul-wrenching wails, his Mental Power, while still nowhere near the Evil Emperor's, was at least strong enough to keep him unaffected.

The Evil Emperor's gaze first fell upon the Nether Portal and the Teleportation Stele beside it. Possessing both spiritual and space-time attributes, he was acutely sensitive to spatial auras-a portal had been built in the heart of the Evil Demon Forest.

"Human, do you think being level 97 gives you the right to tear open a space-time rift in my territory? Even Level 99 Limit Douluos take a detour when they see me. A mere Titled Douluo dares covet the very foundations of the Evil Demon Forest?"

Enraged, the Evil Emperor lashed out with a tentacle, intending to kill the two before him on the spot, then unleash a beast tide to slaughter every town around the Evil Demon Forest and teach those humans that some things were beyond their reach.

Li Chen activated Martial Soul Possession. Now that his martial soul had evolved into the Wither Storm, flying came as naturally as instinct.

[Fifth Soul Skill · Invincibility]

The tentacle struck him, sending him flying nearly a hundred meters and crashing through five or six trees. Yet he suffered no injuries whatsoever.

The Evil Emperor was astonished to see Li Chen completely unscathed. However poor he was at close combat, that attack was not something a mere Soul Saint could withstand.

Under the pressure of that Mental Power, Wine Fox's reactions had become sluggish. The moment she recovered, she activated Martial Soul Possession and charged forward.