"Crack, crack, crack-!"
The Sun Man-Eating Flower opened its sole remaining head and let out a muffled, piercing screech. Its serrated teeth scraped together with a cracking sound, and its furious roar carried a scorching wave of heat straight toward him.
The flower, engulfed in flames from head to root, was utterly bewildered. It had been winning so comfortably-how had things turned out like this?
Its command of Sunfire gave it resistance to flames. The sap inside it had yet to burn away completely, and the powerful vitality of a plant Soul Beast kept it from dying anytime soon.
The Demon-Striped Tiger had broken free of its restraints when the Sun Man-Eating Flower began burning itself. Though it had no idea what had happened, the familiar sight of the flower burning prompted it to let out a series of taunting roars.
Already driven mad by the flames, the Sun Man-Eating Flower flew into an even greater rage at that provocative roar.
Realizing that its own predicament was no different from what it had just done to the tiger, the Sun Man-Eating Flower became increasingly convinced that the damned tiger was behind it.
And so, enduring the flames consuming its body, it crazily fired Sun Cannons from its mouth.
The Demon-Striped Tiger, with its broken leg, failed to react in time and was finally hit.
After blasting off the Demon-Striped Tiger's foreleg with a cannon shot, the Sun Man-Eating Flower gathered all its Soul Power in its huge mouth and fired a Solar Ray.
Facing the Sun Man-Eating Flower's final strike, the Demon-Striped Tiger had nowhere left to retreat.
With ruthless resolve, it pushed through the searing ray to reach the flower's side and detonated itself!
"Boom-!"
After the explosion, the Demon-Striped Tiger's corpse lay torn to pieces.
A moment later, a purplish-black Soul Ring slowly rose from its remains, giving off a faint glow in the sunlight.
The appearance of the Soul Ring left Li Mingzhu absolutely certain that the Demon-Striped Tiger was dead.
He turned his attention back to the deep crater blasted out by the self-detonation. The Sun Man-Eating Flower was still alive, struggling on the brink of death.
Judging by its movements, however, the explosion had left it with only a breath remaining. It no longer even had the strength to self-detonate.
At that moment, the Sun Man-Eating Flower in the crater was seething with rage!
With the vitality and regenerative power of a top-tier plant Soul Beast, it could ordinarily survive even with only a breath left.
But now, the strange flames consuming it were tightly bound to its body and would not go out until it had burned to nothing, leaving its regenerative power with no room to work.
Seeing that his Dragon Flame was still burning, Li Mingzhu stopped worrying about the Sun Man-Eating Flower.
He had plenty of time. He could simply wait until it died!
A quarter of an hour later, Li Mingzhu decided it was about time, revealed his aura, and appeared at the edge of the crater.
He had originally planned to wait until the Sun Man-Eating Flower dropped its Soul Ring before showing himself.
But then he remembered that the deeper a Soul Beast's hatred toward a human, the greater its chance of dropping a Soul Bone.
Just imagine how agitated the mantis would become when the oriole lurking behind it finally appeared before its eyes.
Besides, Li Mingzhu wanted the Sun Man-Eating Flower to at least die knowing the truth!
Seeing Li Mingzhu suddenly appear above the crater, the Sun Man-Eating Flower initially assumed that the explosion had drawn him over.
But when it saw the Dragon Flame swirling around his fingertip, it realized that Li Mingzhu was responsible for everything happening to it, and its entire body began trembling violently.
Li Mingzhu quietly watched it tremble and even thoughtfully asked, "Feeling hot?"
With intelligence comparable to that of a ten-year-old child, the Sun Man-Eating Flower was so enraged by those words that it died outright!
Then a purple Soul Ring, shimmering with specks of starlight, drifted out of the Sun Man-Eating Flower's corpse and hovered in the air.
At that sight, Li Mingzhu felt safe enough to dispel the Dragon Flame burning on the flower.
He then took a spear out of the Domain Space and began rummaging through the corpse.
Slicing open the flower's rootstock, he found a tiger's corpse inside.
Now Li Mingzhu understood why that Demon-Striped Tiger had fought the Sun Man-Eating Flower to the bitter end.
"So it ate his wife!"
Li Mingzhu thrust his spear into the flower's center. During its earlier transformation, he had noticed intense changes taking place there.
The spearhead had barely pierced inside when a dazzling golden-orange light burst from the core of the flower's center.
"There's actually one in here!"
Seeing that, Li Mingzhu knew he had struck gold.
He carefully extracted the object giving off the golden-orange light.
Upon closer inspection, it actually turned out to be an External Soul Bone!
The entire External Soul Bone shone with a warm golden luster. Concentric markings unique to the sun were etched across its surface, and scorching Soul Power seemed to slowly seep out of it.
Li Mingzhu happily put away this extraordinary Soul Bone, then mercilessly mocked the corpse.
"Looks like you really hated me, huh? But since you dropped a Soul Bone for me, I'll forgive you!"
Having finished mocking it, Li Mingzhu went over to the Demon-Striped Tiger's remains to see whether it had dropped any gold.
By all rights, this Demon-Striped Tiger should have harbored quite a grudge. Not only had its wife been eaten, but it had lost its own life too!
Following his usual routine, he began looting with his spear.
He thrust the spear inside!
One thrust. Just one!
Li Mingzhu felt the spear meet resistance. After being burned by the flower's Sunfire for so long, the Demon-Striped Tiger's corpse should have been like charcoal, easily pierced by a single thrust.
Whatever had stopped the spear was almost certainly another Soul Bone.
He pried apart the charred remains, revealing a torso bone as white as jade.
Getting Soul Bone drops was like opening loot boxes-it really set his blood racing.
Having pulled another gold, Li Mingzhu felt thoroughly refreshed!
Grinning, he stored both Soul Bones in the Domain Space, then prepared to find a secluded place to absorb one.
Although this nearly ten-thousand-year-old torso bone did not catch his fancy, he could give it to someone close to him in the future. But he was definitely going to absorb this External Soul Bone, which could grow stronger.
As Li Mingzhu departed, a seed was working its way out of the Sun Man-Eating Flower's remains!
What Li Mingzhu did not know was that the flower he had just killed was still some distance from becoming a true Sun Man-Eating Flower. It would have needed to reach at least ten thousand years of age to complete that transformation.
"What? Why can't I absorb it?"
Li Mingzhu stared at the External Soul Bone before him as his attempts to fuse with it failed again and again. He wanted to cry, but had no tears.
Who could understand this feeling? It was like Huo Yuhao marrying Tang Wutong-able to look, but not take a bite! (Dear readers, this isn't meant to maliciously disparage the protagonist; it's just a spontaneous thought. If you're unhappy with it, please don't curse the author. You can ask for it to be changed.)
"What a lousy Soul Bone!"
Li Mingzhu put this Soul Bone, which he could look at but not take a bite of, back into his space and set off once more toward the Void Stone Ruins.
The closer he came to the Void Stone Ruins, the more Li Mingzhu felt something drawing his Martial Soul toward it.
Li Mingzhu suppressed his Martial Soul's reaction, planning to investigate after obtaining his Soul Ring.
Although Li Mingzhu was concentrating on his journey, much of his mind remained occupied by the External Soul Bone. He could not understand why he was unable to absorb it.
Neither of his two Martial Souls nor his body showed any sign of rejecting that Soul Bone.
What Li Mingzhu did not know was that the External Soul Bone dropped by the Sun Man-Eating Flower lacked the vital essence of a plant Soul Beast. This left it teetering between completeness and incompleteness, so only Soul Masters with particular Martial Souls could absorb it.
And that missing vital essence was inside a seed waiting to sprout.
Before you continue