This World Was Wrong, and So Was I

"Urgh, pfft! Is this snake venom? How is that possible?"

Only a few breaths had passed when the red-robed old man's face darkened. He abruptly pulled the Blood-Drinking Sword from Dugu Qingyue's chest, then spat out a mouthful of blood and sank to his knees. The blood was not bright red, but black and foul-smelling.

By all rights, a mere Soul King's snake-venom Soul Skill should never have been able to harm a Soul Saint like him. Yet the red-robed old man had indeed been poisoned, and the venom was already coursing through his entire body.

He stared in disbelief at Dugu Qingyue, whose body had now grown noticeably thinner, and only then noticed the strange, crazed smile at the corner of her mouth.

"The Jade-Scaled Snake martial soul is poisonous, and its venom becomes part of a Jade-Scaled Snake Soul Master's flesh and blood. The heart is where the poison is strongest. Our clan calls it Jade-Scaled Heavenly Poison!" Clutching her chest, Dugu Qingyue staggered over to the red-robed old man and spoke between ragged breaths.

"What are you going to do?"

The red-robed old man's pupils contracted. He suddenly realized that all the soul power inside this woman was gathering in her lower abdomen. Her body was also frantically absorbing the unrefined soul power drifting between heaven and earth. Could she be...?

As she absorbed that enormous quantity of soul power, it rapidly formed a storm centered on Dugu Qingyue. Seeing this, Qian Chongling also understood what she intended to do.

Almost simultaneously, both men shouted, "Stop!"

But Dugu Qingyue ignored Qian Chongling. She thrust out her palm, sending his struggling body flying, and told him quietly, "I owe you my life. It's time I repaid you."

Then she turned back and smiled without expression. "Old bastard, die with me!"

The instant those words fell, her body exploded!

Rumble! Rumble!

It was as though a thousand volcanoes had erupted at once, laying waste to the earth. The immense, rampaging soul power formed a vast storm that tore ancient trees out by their roots.

An enormous mushroom cloud slowly rose from where Dugu Qingyue stood.

All of this happened within just a few breaths. Qian Chongling was gravely wounded and had been sent flying by Dugu Qingyue's palm strike. From so far away, he had no chance to stop her.

He could only stare blankly at the tattered green ribbon drifting toward him from afar, instinctively reaching out to catch it.

"Why...?"

An unbearably piercing, anguished cry, like the howl of some monster, escaped Qian Chongling's mouth. At that moment, transmigrator, cheat, descendant of a god-he cast all of it out of his mind.

Indeed, as someone familiar with the plot and possessing a cheat, however amiable he appeared on the surface, he had always harbored a faint sense of superiority deep inside, born of being a transmigrator.

In his eyes, these people were merely fictional characters living inside a book, while he truly existed.

On top of that, he had been reincarnated straight into Spirit Hall, the strongest power on the Douluo Continent. When he underwent martial soul awakening at six, he inherited the divine martial soul, the Six-Winged Angel. His innate soul power and divinely bestowed soul power totaled twelve ranks. At the very least, he could become a rank ninety-six Super Douluo. His entire life was practically set.

As one of the strongest people on the Douluo Continent, a rank ninety-six Super Douluo could, put simply, do whatever he pleased: young models at private clubs, a mother and daughter in the same bed, twin blossoms blooming together. The only limit was his imagination, not his ability.

Before he turned six, he had still cultivated seriously. If the system screwed him over, he would have a backup plan. After all, martial soul awakening would determine whether he stood above others or amounted to less than an Alaskan Malamute.

All these factors combined to shape his current personality. Perhaps he was not arrogant or contemptuous of everyone, but there was no denying that he shirked effort, cut corners, and drifted through his days.

It was like being someone who had once struggled for a house, a car, or even enough food to survive, only to suddenly become the second son of the richest man in the world-a family with so many businesses that it could not divide them all up and needed more children to share the burden.

Would you still work diligently, put in overtime, and keep grinding away as a corporate slave?

The answer was obvious: no!

You would only indulge wildly in life-luxury cars, beautiful women, seaside villas, cruise ships, speedboats, and the like. You would play however you pleased. Perhaps, once you grew bored, you might take a job for a few days just to experience that life.

You would never truly work. After all, if you were already part of the richest family in the world, why would you work for someone else?

But at this very moment, the world he had regarded as nothing more than an illusion slapped him hard across the face. In the bloodiest way possible, it told him that this world truly existed, and that every person in it was flesh and blood.

It told him that this was a world unlike Blue Star. Here, no rules could restrain anyone. There was only the naked law of the strong devouring the weak, only the powerful holding absolute sway over the lives and deaths of the powerless.

True, being a descendant of Spirit Hall's Qian Family gave him an illustrious identity, but countless people also wanted him dead. The Star Luo Empire, Heaven Dou, the Upper Three Sects, Evil Soul Masters-all of them longed for Spirit Hall, that thorn in their eyes and barb in their flesh, to disappear as soon as possible.

The darkness within Qian Chongling surged wildly at that moment. Rage, hatred, fear, despair, brutality, regret-all manner of extreme emotions proliferated without restraint.

Some were directed at the Evil Soul Masters, others at the world, but more than anything, he hated his own inaction.

"Aah!!"

Qian Chongling clutched his forehead with one hand and roared. Without the slightest warning, his Six-Winged Angel martial soul suddenly appeared behind him.

Immediately afterward, a deep black spread swiftly through his golden hair, from roots to tips. In an instant, his golden hair turned black.

The Six-Winged Angel, a symbol of light and purity, radiated brutality and bloodlust in the next instant. Its wings began to lose their color, the golden radiance peeling away. In its place, a black liquid gushed forth continuously, covering the wings in their entirety.

The formation of a martial soul had two main sources. One was inherited bloodline; the other was the projection of an individual's inner self, an outward manifestation of the power of the soul.

Without interference from outside forces, an individual's martial soul actually matched his own personality. This was also why martial soul mutation occurred on the Douluo Plane.

Having heard the explosion, Blood Gourd, Vulture, and Corpse finally appeared before Qian Chongling.

Blood Gourd looked at the figure nearby, shrouded in black mist and exuding brutality and bloodlust. He frowned and muttered, "What is that?"

Before his words had faded, Qian Chongling became a blur and charged straight up to Blood Gourd. Spreading his five fingers, he seized his forehead and lifted his body a foot off the ground through the strength of those fingers alone. Then...

"Bang!"

His skull was crushed outright!

"I wanted to see whether the structure of an Evil Soul Master's brain was the same as a normal person's. But I overlooked something: I've never seen the structure of a normal person's brain."

"Heh, you two must have seen one, right? Can you tell me?"

Vulture and Corpse remained silent, staring at Qian Chongling as though facing a formidable enemy. His figure flickered, vanishing once more and leaving behind only a single sentence devoid of emotion.

"Then let's take another look at the structure of an Evil Soul Master's body. That, I understand!"