Dark Demon Evil God Tiger

[At eighteen, your accumulated Soul Power reached rank sixty-three.]

[Leaving Heaven Dou City, you set out alone on the path of cultivation.]

[Without Ah Yin beside you, you felt deeply unaccustomed to it.]

[While traveling by day, you would occasionally turn your head without thinking, wanting to say something to the person beside you.]

[Only when the words reached your lips did you realize that beside you lay nothing but empty wilderness and howling wind.]

[Sitting beside the campfire at night, you would always unconsciously glance to your side, as though a strand of Blue Silver Grass might still quietly wind around your wrist there.]

[But every time you turned your head, there were only dancing flames and elongated shadows.]

[You gave a bitter smile and stirred the campfire with a branch. Sparks scattered, then quickly died in the night wind.]

[You knew very well that this was the pain you had to endure after pulling yourself away.]

[After breaking through rank sixty, the constraints of advancing without a Soul Ring became increasingly apparent.]

[After months of bitter cultivation, you had only barely pushed your Soul Power to the peak of rank sixty-three, and further progress proved difficult.]

[You understood that it was time to obtain your Sixth Soul Ring.]

[You left the Heaven Dou Empire and traveled south, heading once more for the Star Dou Great Forest.]

[This forest straddled the borders of several nations, a vast expanse of wilderness with no end in sight, and was the continent's most renowned gathering place for soul beasts.]

[Countless varieties of soul beasts lived within it, their ages ranging from ten years to several hundred thousand years, with everything in between.]

[For soul masters, this was both sacred ground for ascending to the summit and a graveyard where their bones would lie buried.]

[You first rested for three days in a small town on the forest's outskirts. After replenishing your dry rations and wound medicine and taking inventory of the supplies in your Storage Soul Tool, you plunged into that boundless sea of trees.]

[You did not rush deeper to hunt for a Soul Ring. Instead, you slowly patrolled the outer region, learning the rhythms of the creatures' movements and the workings of the forest's ecology. Only after becoming familiar with the terrain did you advance step by step into the depths of the forest's mixed zone.]

[Your goal was clear: around seventy thousand years old, either plant or beast, with priority given to soul beasts whose innate Soul Skills offered area damage, perception, or mental attributes.]

[Your Soul Skill framework was already quite complete: "Life Enhancement" forged the resilience of your foundation, "Essence Devouring Absorption" sustained you through prolonged battles, "Myriad Forms Mimicry" answered endless changes, "Blue Silver Armor Attachment" defended against attacks from all directions, and "Blue Silver Overlord Spear" broke through formidable enemies' defenses.]

[All you lacked was a true domain-type Soul Skill-]

[A battlefield-control trump card capable of changing the battlefield environment and suppressing opponents.]

[At dusk on the tenth day, you were crouched beside a stream, bending down to collect water, when you suddenly sensed a deathly stillness that made your hair stand on end.]

[The insects' cries abruptly ceased, and the wind suddenly stilled.]

[Even the sound of the flowing stream seemed to have been utterly devoured by an invisible force. All that remained was a faint, sinister pressure that made the soul tremble, spreading heavily from deep within the woods.]

[That was by no means the aura of an ordinary soul beast. Dark, savage, and sinister, it felt as though something exceedingly dangerous was roaming this forest.]

[You instantly held your breath and focused, driving the "Breath Concealment Technique" to its limit. With a flicker of movement, you leaped into an ancient tree. You quietly used "Myriad Forms Mimicry," blending your aura completely into the surrounding trees.]

[The Blue Silver King's vines slowly drooped down the trunk, faintly resonating with the vegetation covering the land.]

[Although you had yet to awaken the complete Blue Silver Domain, Ah Yin had personally taught you a rudimentary Grass Manipulation Method.]

[Within this lush sea of vegetation, your perception extended several times farther than that of soul masters at the same rank.]

[Through the network of Blue Silver Grass, your spiritual power quietly spread like a tide-]

[Three li away, an enormous, pitch-black tiger was staggering forward.]

[Its body stretched over five zhang long, its shoulders nearly two zhang high. Its fur was the purest, deepest black, as though it could swallow all light, and the mere sight of it sent a chill through the heart.]

[A pair of "fallen" fleshy wings of wind and lightning grew from its back, now drooping limply. Most of its right wing had been torn apart, and dark-purple blood slowly dripped from the wing bones, leaving a long bloody trail across the rotting leaves.]

[Behind it, its scorpion-tail-like Evil God Hook dragged along the ground. Several barbs at the tip had snapped off, and pitch-black, evil blood seeped from the breaks.]

[A claw wound deep enough to expose bone stretched across its abdomen from its chest to its hind leg, dark energy constantly churning and spilling from it like inky smoke.]

[It moved exceedingly slowly, every step accompanied by heavy panting. Its dark-red, slit-pupiled eyes, which should have blazed with ferocity, now held only exhaustion and pain.]

[Your heart tightened.]

[You recognized this kind of soul beast-]

[The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.]

[Legend held that this species of soul beast had not arisen naturally, but was an evil soul beast born when the power of the God of Evil descended upon a white tiger and caused a drastic mutation.]

[Their strength far surpassed others of the same age, and they possessed numerous attributes, including wind, lightning, evil, time, space, darkness, and strength.]

[They could not cultivate on their own and could grow rapidly only by devouring other living beings. Humans and soul beasts alike regarded them as beings of utmost ferocity and evil.]

[They were exceedingly cunning and possessed extreme speed comparable to teleportation. Even Titled Douluo were unwilling to provoke an adult Dark Demon Evil God Tiger lightly.]

[More troublesome still was their innate Soul Skill-the "Life and Death Arena," activated through the Evil God Hook, an overwhelmingly domineering rule-based skill.]

[Once unleashed, it would lock firmly onto an enemy and forcibly drag them into an exclusive alternate space. Within that space, its rules overrode everything, forcibly leveling both sides' cultivation to the same age bracket for a life-and-death duel that ended only in death.]

[No matter how high an enemy's cultivation was, once they entered this alternate space, the rules would forcibly suppress them, reducing them to the same age as the tiger.]

[The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger itself, however, would generate a protective shield. As long as that shield remained intact, it would be completely immune to the rules' backlash and retain its full strength.]

[Thoughts raced through your mind.]

[This Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had roughly sixty-five thousand years of cultivation, slightly below the age you had expected for your Soul Ring.]

[Although it lacked a life attribute, the Soul Ring of such a soul beast was top-tier in its own right. As long as you could absorb it, you would undoubtedly obtain an exceptionally powerful Soul Skill.]

[In terms of Soul Ring quality alone, it unquestionably far exceeded your expectations. But in terms of the difficulty of obtaining it-]

[A sixty-thousand-year-old Dark Demon Evil God Tiger possessed actual combat power sufficient to rival an ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul beast.]

[Its multiple attributes left it with virtually no obvious weaknesses. Close-quarters combat, ranged bombardment, defense and damage absorption, battlefield control and restraint, combined with its unpredictable innate time-and-space skills, were enough to give any opponent an enormous headache.]

[Had it been at its peak, you would have turned and fled without another word, without the slightest hesitation.]

[But now-]

[Watching its swaying, tottering figure, you gradually began to form a plan.]

[Dark Demon Evil God Tigers were cunning by nature, savage and bloodthirsty. Even when gravely wounded and near death, they would never pass up an opportunity to devour flesh and blood to heal their injuries.]

[And you happened to possess bait it could not resist-an exceedingly pure life essence.]

[More importantly, you still had a considerable amount of Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well Spring Water. Supremely pure and fierce, it contained the ultimate polar powers of ice and fire and had an extremely strong suppressive effect on sinister forces. Used properly, it could ensure that you stood undefeated.]

[A plan came to mind. You quietly withdrew and found a nearby valley.]

[Mountains enclosed it on three sides, leaving only a narrow entrance. Blue Silver Grass covered the ground, and vegetation flourished. The terrain was open yet easy to seal off, making it your ideal home ground.]

[You activated "Myriad Forms Mimicry," blending your aura completely into the valley's vegetation. Then you took out your treasured Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well Spring Water, sealed it within layers of Blue Silver vines, and buried it at seven formation nodes in the valley.]

[Next, you sliced open the pad of a finger. Using your own blood essence mixed with the sub-dragon aura of your fourth Soul Ring as a lure, together with the "Breath Concealment Technique" and "Myriad Forms Mimicry," you fabricated a gravely wounded, dying "Dark Thunder Scale Armor Dragon" in the center of the valley.]

[You precisely controlled every detail: the cracks in its scales, the outward curl of its wounds, even the faint trembling of its dying body... you strove to render every last detail, making the false indistinguishable from the real.]

[You also sealed more than half a bottle of the ice-and-fire spring water inside the mimicked dragon body's chest cavity. A mere thought would detonate it instantly.]

[Finally, you injected a strand of pure life fluctuations and draconic blood vitality into the mimicked dragon body. You let the aura slowly seep through its flesh, making it resemble a truly gravely wounded, dying sub-dragon soul beast.]

[To the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, desperately needing to devour powerful flesh and blood to heal its wounds, this was undoubtedly a fatal temptation.]

[With your preparations complete, you held your breath and stilled your mind, hiding "invisibly" within the dense shade of a towering ancient tree in the valley, watching the entrance with cold eyes.]

[Before half an incense stick had burned, a pitch-black figure appeared soundlessly at the valley entrance.]

[Those dark-red, slit-pupiled eyes fixed on the mass of dense "life energy" within the valley. Its nostrils flared rapidly, and irrepressible greed and longing churned in its eyes.]

[Yet it did not immediately pounce inside. Instead, it lowered its body, its hooked tail lightly sweeping the ground as a trace of humanlike wariness flashed through its eyes.]

[It paced halfway around the valley entrance and tentatively unleashed a ranged innate skill combining wind and evil attributes-"Light Blade."]

[The "Light Blade" struck the "Dark Thunder Scale Armor Dragon's" scales with a crisp **clang**, leaving only a faint white mark without shattering them.]

[The "Dark Thunder Scale Armor Dragon" stirred slightly, and its life aura weakened further.]

[After several probes, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger still found nothing unusual.]

[Finally unable to restrain itself, it gave a low growl and lightened its steps, advancing little by little, its hooked tail swaying slowly behind it.]

[When it was less than three zhang from its "prey," it suddenly sprang forward-]

[*Now!*]

[You shouted inwardly and instantly detonated the mimicked shell!]

[The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well Spring Water exploded with a thunderous blast. Red-and-blue mist suddenly billowed outward, completely engulfing the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger in an instant.]

[As the mist touched its body, its dark energy melted violently like ice and snow meeting boiling oil, giving off a corrosive **sizzle**.]

[The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger let out a howl of pain. How could it not realize it had fallen into a trap?]

[Its tattered wind-and-lightning wings suddenly spread as it tried to take flight and escape. But the membrane of its right wing had long since been torn apart. It rose barely half a zhang before crashing heavily back to the ground.]

[It still tried to struggle free and flee, but its grievous injuries slowed its limbs a fraction.]

[The Blue Silver Grass lying in wait underground abruptly burst through the earth and grew wildly. With your first Soul Skill, "Life Enhancement," driven to its limit, countless vines surged like an emerald tide, winding layer upon layer around its limbs, fleshy wings, and hooked tail!]

[The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger roared in fury. "Light Blade" swept across the valley wreathed in lightning, instantly shredding great swathes of Blue Silver Grass.]

[But the nature of Blue Silver Grass was to grow without end. You activated "Essence Devouring Absorption," continuously drawing away its escaping evil energy and Soul Power, converting them through your Martial Soul Origin to replenish yourself, then spurring still more vines to surge toward it, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.]

[You had never intended to meet it head-on and kill it.]

[Hidden in the shadows, you intended to use the entire valley's Blue Silver Grass as a millstone, grinding this gravely wounded evil tiger to death, inch by inch, bit by bit.]