When they got a clear look at the face of the man in blue robes...
The faces of the three gray-robed men, still brimming with lust a moment before, instantly turned deathly pale, and cold sweat sprang from their foreheads.
Thud! Thud!
Under Hu Liena's astonished gaze...
The three powerful Talisman Masters who had effortlessly defeated her just moments ago dropped to their knees in unison without the slightest hesitation.
"B-Big Brother Lin Dong!"
The man in the lead spoke in a trembling voice, not even daring to raise his head, his face filled with reverence and terror.
That was right.
The newcomer was none other than Lin Dong, the genius from a branch of the Lin Family in the Great Yan Dynasty!
At that moment, Lin Dong had just finished handling some trivial matters in Yan City and was riding Little Flame, preparing to leave this place for good.
He was heading to the capital of the Great Yan Dynasty to participate in the Lin Family Clan Competition, which would decide the fate of the Qingyang Town Branch Family as well as settle his personal grievances!
"We didn't know this woman had anything to do with you! We'll get lost right away!"
"Right away!"
The three gray-robed men did not dare utter another unnecessary word, terrified of angering this ruthless figure whom even Yan City's city lord had to treat with courtesy.
They scrambled to their feet and ran toward Yan City without looking back, not even daring to spare Hu Liena another glance.
Watching this dramatic scene...
Hu Liena, lying on the ground, was utterly dumbfounded.
Enduring the intense pain in her head, she raised her head and stared blankly at the Green-Robed Youth sitting on the tiger's back.
This young man had not even lifted a hand.
With just a single sentence, a single name...
He had frightened those three unfathomably powerful Talisman Masters into kneeling for mercy and fleeing in panic?
Just what terrifying status and strength did he possess in this world?!
Meanwhile, the Douluo Continent instantly erupted into an uproar as well.
When they clearly saw the Green-Robed Youth's face in the sky screen, gasps rang out across Shrek Academy's training ground.
"It's him!"
Tang San's eyes flew wide open as he pointed at the screen, his voice changing pitch.
"It's that young man named Lin Dong!"
Beside him, Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun also gaped, their eyes filled with disbelief.
With nothing but his face and his name, he could frighten otherworldly experts of that caliber into kneeling and begging for mercy!
Inside Spirit Hall...
Bibi Dong let out a long breath of relief as she looked at Lin Dong on the screen, but profound shock followed.
"What terrifying prestige..."
"He clearly looks about Nana's age, yet those experts are as lowly as dogs before him."
On the screen, Lin Dong paid no attention at all to the three fleeing Symbol Master Tower disciples.
Lin Dong lowered his head and casually glanced at Hu Liena, who was slumped on the ground.
"Not a trace of Yuan Power in your body, and your spiritual power is pitifully weak."
"With those paltry tricks, you still dare wander around outside? You're lucky nobody killed you outright."
With a casual wave of Lin Dong's hand, a fragrant Rejuvenation Pill flew out of his Universe Bag and floated gently down before Hu Liena.
"Take it and find somewhere to hide."
Just as Lin Dong was about to pat Little Flame and leave...
A white light suddenly flashed on his shoulder, revealing the illusory, purple-black figure of a Heavenly Demon Marten.
Little Marten folded his paws across his chest, his shifty eyes sizing Hu Liena up as he let out a strange, teasing laugh.
"Tsk, tsk, Lin Dong, you brat. You really do rack up romantic debts wherever you go."
"I, Lord Marten, saw it clearly just now. This little wench actually has an innate, foxlike allure, but her cultivation system is a complete pile of dog shit. It's squandered every bit of that talent."
"Well? You've saved the beauty, hero. Aren't you going to take her back as your bedchamber maid?"
Hearing Little Marten's teasing, so unbecoming of an elder...
Lin Dong rolled his eyes in irritation.
"Cut the nonsense. The clan competition is almost here. How would I have the time for any of this?"
"Let's go, Little Flame."
Roar!
Little Flame growled, then strode forward along the main road on his thick, powerful limbs.
Meanwhile, Hu Liena, still slumped on the ground, picked up the Rejuvenation Pill with trembling hands and swallowed it.
The moment the pill entered her mouth, a warm, gentle energy flowed through her entire body, and the agonizing sensation of her soul being torn apart vanished completely within mere seconds!
Hu Liena abruptly raised her head and looked at Lin Dong's straight-backed figure on the tiger.
She had grown up in Spirit Hall and been groomed as the Saintess by Bibi Dong, filling her with pride to her very bones.
But at the same time, she was a woman who was intensely drawn to strength.
In this other world, the martial soul and soul power she took such pride in had been casually crushed and trampled by a few low-ranking disciples.
Yet this Green-Robed Youth before her possessed absolute dominance that made those experts kowtow and beg for mercy!
That handsome, indifferent face, that imperious air that regarded the whole world as nothing with every movement...
Like a bolt of lightning, they violently split open Hu Liena's heart.
"W-Wait!"
Hu Liena had no idea where her strength came from.
She scrambled up from the ground, not even bothering to brush off the mud covering her, and chased after Lin Dong like a crazed fangirl.
"Benefactor! Please take me with you!"
"I can do anything! Even serving you tea and water as a maid would be fine!"
Hu Liena shouted as she ran.
"She's lost her mind! Has Nana lost her mind?!"
Inside the Pope's Palace, Xie Yue watched his own younger sister, the exalted Saintess of Spirit Hall, cast aside all her dignity and tearfully beg to become an otherworldly youth's maid.
He trembled with anger, nearly grinding his back teeth to pieces.
Bibi Dong's face was livid. She said nothing, her grip cracking the scepter in her hand.
On the screen, Lin Dong paid no attention to Hu Liena chasing behind him. Little Flame was extremely fast and was about to leave her behind.
But just then...
An earth-shaking crash suddenly came from either side of the ancient road ahead.
Immediately afterward, a Violent Earth Bear covered in black scales and standing over a dozen meters tall charged out of the forest, blocking Lin Dong's path.
The savage aura emanating from this Violent Earth Bear had actually reached the great perfection of Yuan Dan Realm!
That terrifying pressure was even more suffocating than that of the Douluo Continent's Titan Giant Ape!
Struck by that aura as she followed behind, Hu Liena's legs immediately buckled, and she collapsed to the ground again.
"It's over..."
Hu Liena's face filled with despair. Against a ferocious beast of this caliber, even His Holiness the Pope would probably be slapped into pulp.
Yet Lin Dong, sitting on the tiger's back, did not even furrow his brow.
"Get lost. Don't block the road."
Lin Dong's tone was calm.
Facing the Violent Earth Bear roaring and lunging at him...
Lin Dong did not even use any martial arts. He merely raised his right hand slowly and casually slapped through the air.
Boom!!!
A gigantic golden palm of Yuan Power, dozens of zhang across, materialized in midair and viciously struck the Violent Earth Bear at the great perfection of Yuan Dan Realm.
Just like that, beneath this effortless slap, the enormous ferocious beast exploded with a bang into a skyful of bloody mist!
Shredded flesh and entrails mingled with blood, raining down over the ground in a torrential shower.
An instant kill!
Gulp.
Hu Liena sat blankly beyond the rain of blood and swallowed with difficulty.
She gazed at Lin Dong's back, not even the hem of his robes disturbed, her face filled with infatuation.
So powerful!
So domineering!
Compared with this man, the so-called Golden Generation of the Douluo Continent really was almost painful to look at.
"Benefactor! Master! Wait for me!"
Hu Liena had fallen completely. Everything about Spirit Hall and the Pope's mission had vanished from her mind.
Gritting her teeth, she climbed up from the ground and dragged her exhausted body along, sticking close behind Lin Dong and Little Flame.
Little Marten, sitting on the tiger's back, glanced back at Hu Liena, who clung to them like a stubborn medicinal plaster, and let out another strange laugh.
"Hey, Lin Dong, this little fox is pretty persistent."
"Why not take her in to warm your bed? It's a long journey to Lin City anyway. She could help pass the time."
Lin Dong shook his head helplessly, not bothering to respond to Little Marten. He made no particular effort to drive Hu Liena away either, simply letting her follow at a distance.
The screen froze.
[Number Five Explorer, Hu Liena.] [Encountered Lin Dong of Yan City.] [Status: intensely drawn to strength, completely smitten.] [Current identity: a lowly admirer who willingly abandoned her dignity and shamelessly persisted in following Lin Dong.] [Live broadcast temporarily paused.]
As Hu Liena's jaw-dropping footage faded...
The majestic voice rang out from the sky screen once more.
[Switching to the perspective of Number One Explorer, Dugu Yan, granddaughter of Poison Douluo.]
As ripples flowed across the screen...
This time, the location displayed on the sky screen made everyone on the Douluo Continent hold their breath again.
Because this time, the explorer had arrived somewhere other than that so-called Great Yan Dynasty.
[Martial Universe location: Demon Region!] [This is the immense stronghold of the Great Thousand World's demonic beasts, a vast plane independent of the human dynasties.] [Eight Royal Clans and Four Great Overlord Clans rule over hundreds of millions of incomparably powerful ancient demonic beasts!] [Current precise location: Ten Thousand Poisons Swamp, a subordinate territory of the Heavenly Demon Python Clan on the edge of the Demon Region.]
Boom!
Seeing this entirely new world setting...
Everyone on the Douluo Continent felt their scalps tingle.
The Demon Region?!
An immense stronghold independent of the human dynasties?
Places like the Great Yan Dynasty, where Titled Douluo could be casually crushed to death, were already as numerous as hairs on an ox in the Eastern Xuan Region. Now there was a Demon Region that even humans dared not easily enter?!
On the screen, Dugu Yan had just landed in Ten Thousand Poisons Swamp.
Pools emitting green poisonous fumes surrounded her. The miasma permeating the air was so toxic that even birds passing overhead would instantly be poisoned down to bare bones.
Dugu Yan swallowed and immediately activated the soul power within her.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple.
Four soul rings rose, and her Jade Phosphor Snake martial soul possessed her body.
"The poison here is so strong... but I work with poison. I should be able to adapt."
She carefully stepped forward over the muddy ground.
Just then, bubbles suddenly began rising with a gurgle from a black pool ahead.
Immediately afterward, a poisonous toad the size of a water buffalo, covered in black venomous spines, slowly crawled ashore.
The toad's compound eyes fixed squarely on Dugu Yan.
"Third soul skill, Jade Phosphor Purple Poison!"
Not daring to be careless, Dugu Yan immediately spat a mouthful of her most potent poisonous mist at it.
Yet a scene unfolded that plunged every poison-type Soul Master on the Douluo Continent into despair.
At the sight of the purple poisonous mist, the toad did not dodge. Instead, it excitedly opened its enormous mouth and sucked the deadly poison Dugu Yan took such pride in straight into its belly, as though slurping noodles.
After inhaling it all, the toad even let out a thoroughly contented belch.
Then it thrust hard with its hind legs, turned into a black blur, and slapped Dugu Yan in the chest.
Bang!
Dugu Yan screamed as she flew backward and slammed into the muddy water, three of her ribs snapping instantly.
"How is this possible? My poison..."
Despair covered Dugu Yan's face.
Just as the poisonous toad was about to pounce and swallow her whole.
Two tall figures suddenly emerged from the depths of the swamp.
Although both had human bodies, their faces were covered in fine, blue-green snake scales, and their pupils were sinister vertical slits!
Transformed Demonic Beasts!
The two walked forward and casually kicked the poisonous toad away.
Then one of them fixed that same slimy gaze on the gravely injured Dugu Yan lying on the ground.
"Oh?"
"A human woman with no Yuan Power in her body, yet there's actually a faint trace of snake venom in her bloodline."
The other man, whose face was also covered in snake scales, gave a cruel smile.
"Heh heh, as it happens, the young master of our Heavenly Demon Python Clan has been cultivating the Ten Thousand Poisons Evil Art lately."
"Let's take this woman back and toss her into the young master's snake pit as a living poison cauldron. He'll definitely reward us."
Upon hearing the words of these two Transformed Demonic Beasts.
Dugu Yan, sprawled in the muddy water, shuddered uncontrollably.
Snakes were lustful by nature.
Although that saying also circulated on the Douluo Continent, most of its Soul Beasts were bound by rules and rarely crossed racial boundaries to torment humans.
But this was the Demon Region!
It was a savage world ruled entirely by ancient Demonic Beasts!
The man whose face was covered in blue-green snake scales stepped forward, grabbed Dugu Yan by the hair, and roughly hauled her entire body up.
"Tsk, tsk, this little human wench is quite a fresh-faced beauty."
The man extended his forked, scarlet tongue and licked his lips, his eyes brimming with undisguised lust.
"Our Heavenly Demon Python Clan has always favored the Essence-Devouring Technique."
"And the Ten Thousand Poisons Evil Art the young master cultivates specifically requires virgin women who cultivate poison to serve as cauldrons."
"Strip her naked and throw her into the young master's bedchamber. While they dual cultivate, he can drain the poison and primal yin from her body bit by bit."
"Once the young master gets tired of playing with her, perhaps we two brothers can have a sip of the broth too, and get a taste of this woman from another world."
The other man let out a strange laugh as well.
"That's settled, then."
"This woman's poison may be as weak as water, but she'll be just right for giving the young master a change of flavor."
As she listened to these two half-human, half-snake monsters brazenly discuss how to ravage her.
Dugu Yan's mental defenses crumbled completely.
"Let go of me! Get away from me, you monsters!"
She struggled desperately, flailing both hands against his arm.
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