Dugu Qingyue

PS: I skipped ahead a little. Some chapters will be used as side stories later.

One year later, in the Sunset Forest of the Heaven Dou Empire.

The forest lay silent. Amid the endless, winding expanse of emerald green, densely packed firs stood like enormous umbrellas holding up the sky. Only tiny specks of sunlight slipped through the overlapping branches.

A girl in an emerald-green dress raced through the woods with a white-robed boy on her back, pressing onward between the trees.

Most of the boy's white robes had been stained red with blood. Hideous wounds deep enough to expose bone were faintly visible, and every so often, he broke into a violent cough, making the anxiety on the girl's face all the more apparent.

Suddenly, a faint voice broke the forest's silence.

"Q-Qingyue, put me down. They... they're after me."

The boy, his white robes bloodstained and his breathing weak, suddenly spoke to the girl in the emerald-green dress, stumbling over his words.

"Qian Chongling, are you wasting your strength just to spout nonsense? If you have that much energy, you'd be better off healing yourself first." Dugu Qingyue snapped at him without the slightest courtesy.

Not only did you choose not to fly away with your angel martial soul, you even took a blow for me. How could I abandon you? Dugu Qingyue thought.

"But..."

"No buts. If we can hold out a little longer, Snake Lance Douluo might kill that Titled Douluo-level Evil Soul Master."

Dugu Qingyue spoke without slowing her steps in the slightest, still racing through the woods.

At her words, Qian Chongling's expression darkened. If Snake Lance Douluo, who had been secretly protecting him, could kill the Evil Soul Master titled Blood Nether that quickly, that would certainly be ideal.

But battles between Titled Douluos were not so easily decided. Besides, Blood Nether only needed to keep Snake Lance Douluo occupied.

Several minutes later, accompanied by a gust of blood-reeking wind, three figures passed through the woods and appeared where Qian Chongling and Dugu Qingyue had been earlier.

Leading them was a middle-aged man in red, holding a blood-red gourd. The moment he appeared, he pulled out its stopper and took a deep swig through his purplish-red lips. Instantly, a pungent stench of blood filled the air.

Next came an old man in gray, who occasionally tossed unidentified pieces of shriveled meat into his mouth. Last was a young man in black whose entire body reeked. He was tearing into a chunk of rotten meat with his teeth.

These three were the Evil Soul Masters Blood Gourd, Vulture, and Corpse, all of whom had reached the Soul Emperor level.

Blood Gourd sniffed and said, "Those two brats ran northwest. The scent of blood is faint, but I can still pick it up."

Corpse smiled and said, "The boss wants the boy alive. As for the girl, I really want to know what she tastes like."

The moment Corpse spoke, a foul stench spilled from his mouth, and Blood Gourd and Vulture both covered their mouths and noses.

His martial soul was a ghoul, and its influence had given him a particular fondness for rotten flesh. The smell of his breath went without saying.

Vulture said, "Once we catch that little girl, we'll do that to her first, then that other thing. Let her know what being a woman feels like, so no one laughs at her on Yellow Springs Road."

"Exactly, exactly."

"Enough. Don't hold up Lord Blood Sword's important business. We still have to keep chasing them, so stop wasting time." Blood Gourd shook his head as he looked at Vulture and Corpse, who were already planning how to play with their prey before they had even caught them.

As soon as he finished speaking, Blood Gourd sprang up first. Vulture and Corpse exchanged a glance and leaped lightly at the same time. A moment later, they landed on branches several meters away and sped deeper into the Sunset Forest.

It had all begun half a month earlier. Qian Chongling and Dugu Qingyue had been traveling the continent together when they happened upon a small village, where villagers drained of blood lay everywhere.

They also discovered a young Soul Master slaughtering villagers with a blood-red longsword. After killing each victim, he plunged the sword into their heart.

Stranger still, the blood-red longsword seemed to be alive, gulping down blood like a straw. Clearly, this young Soul Master was an Evil Soul Master.

Determined to rid the people of this scourge, the two hit it off immediately and decided to cast a long line to catch a big fish. They secretly followed the young man, who was only a Soul Elder, and found their lair.

But the outcome caught them both off guard: there was actually a Titled Douluo inside the Evil Soul Masters' lair. Although Snake Lance Douluo, who had been secretly protecting Qian Chongling, stepped in to hold him back, another Evil Soul Master at the Soul Saint level severely wounded Qian Chongling.

Under Snake Lance Douluo's cover, Dugu Qingyue fled first with Qian Chongling, but Blood Nether Douluo stopped Snake Lance Douluo.

The other Evil Soul Masters began pursuing Qian Chongling and Dugu Qingyue. After all, a battle between Titled Douluos was not something they could interfere in.

Half an hour later, on the other side of the Sunset Forest, an old man in red stood holding a scarlet longsword, looking at Dugu Qingyue ahead of him. Seven soul rings beneath his feet-white, yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, and black-revealed that he was a Soul Saint-level expert.

"Why aren't you running anymore? Perhaps you could survive if you jumped off that cliff." The old man in red looked at the towering cliff behind Dugu Qingyue and spoke mockingly.

The Sunset Forest contained a cliff tens of thousands of feet high, impossibly steep and bristling with jagged rocks. Even a Soul Douluo-level expert who lost their footing and fell would likely perish unless they were a flight-type Soul Master.

Thus, the old man's supposed escape route was actually a bottomless abyss and certain death for Dugu Qingyue, who could not fly, and the severely injured Qian Chongling.

"You old bastard, I'll fight you to the death!"

"Third Soul Skill-Jade Scale Red Poison! Fourth Soul Skill-Jade Scale Purple Poison! Fifth Soul Skill-Jade Scale Black Poison!"

Dugu Qingyue threw Qian Chongling off her back into the distance and attacked in fury. Her jade-scaled snake martial soul instantly possessed her body. A diamond-shaped green scale appeared between her brows, and her legs transformed into a thick, long snake's tail.

Her red lips parted slightly, and three differently colored poisonous mists intertwined, sweeping toward the old man in red.

"Nothing but jade-scaled snake venom!"

Without even looking, the old man swung his scarlet longsword, sending a scarlet arc of Sword Qi straight at the poisonous mist. The expected clash between Sword Qi and poisonous mist never occurred. The mist was cleaved apart almost instantly.

Shhk!

After cutting apart the poisonous mist, the old man flashed forward, leaving an afterimage behind. His true body appeared before Dugu Qingyue in an instant, and the scarlet longsword in his hand pierced her heart as swiftly as thunder before one could cover one's ears.

Gulp, gulp!

Under the old man's urging, the Blood-Drinking Sword began draining Dugu Qingyue's blood essence. Feeling the young girl's vibrant blood essence, the old man revealed a smile of utter satisfaction.

But he failed to notice that an utterly crazed smile had also appeared at the corner of Dugu Qingyue's mouth.