But against the terrifying physical strength of a transformed Demonic Beast, her struggles did not even amount to a tickle.
Smack!
The snake-man holding her delivered a crisp backhanded slap, leaving half of Dugu Yan's face swollen and blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
"Behave yourself!"
"To serve as a Cauldron for the young lord of our Heavenly Demon Python Clan and receive his favor is a blessing a lowly human like you would need eight lifetimes to earn!"
With that, the snake-man took out a black bone chain and snapped it around Dugu Yan's neck.
Then the two figures flashed, turning into two streaks of black light as they dragged Dugu Yan straight into the sky and sped toward the depths of the Ten Thousand Poisons Swamp.
On the Douluo Continent.
The grounds of Heaven Dou Royal Academy had descended into utter chaos.
"Yanyan!!!"
Yu Tianheng's eyes were bloodshot as he roared like a maddened beast.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul he took such pride in erupted wildly, its lightning blasting craters into the ground around him.
"I'll kill them! I'm going to the Demon Region to kill those monsters!"
Yu Tianheng screamed hysterically. Several teammates beside him strained with all their might just to pin him to the ground.
Only a few days earlier, Poison Douluo Dugu Bo had dissolved into bloody liquid in that world, leaving no remains.
And now his only granddaughter, Dugu Yan, had met such a fate!
Captured to serve as a Cauldron!
Drained dry by those half-human, half-snake monsters!
Such torment, worse than death, was an unbearable disgrace that any hot-blooded man would find harder to endure than being killed.
Xue Ye of the Heaven Dou Empire sat upon his throne, his aged face filled with dejection.
"It's over... the dignity of our Heaven Dou Empire has been utterly lost..."
Soul Masters across the Douluo Continent watched the girl in the screen of light, a bone chain around her neck as she wept helplessly in midair.
They felt a chill shoot from the soles of their feet straight to the crowns of their heads.
The Demon Region.
A place even human dynasties dared not casually enter-it was truly a living hell!
In the image.
Dragged along by the two snake-men, Dugu Yan flew rapidly through the air.
About an hour passed.
The poisonous mist ahead gradually dispersed, and a black mountain range so immense it took her breath away slowly came into view.
The entire mountain range was actually built from countless enormous Demonic Beast skeletons!
At its very center lay a gigantic, bottomless black hole, constantly spewing nauseating poisonous fumes.
This was the Heavenly Demon Python Clan's base in this region: the Ten Thousand Snake Bone Cavern!
The moment they approached the bone cavern.
Dugu Yan heard wave after wave of scalp-prickling hisses.
As far as the eye could see.
Countless enormous venomous snake Demonic Beasts lay coiled densely across the mountain range.
Some had two heads, while others had backs covered in bone spikes.
Even the weakest of the auras these Demonic Beasts emitted was above the Earth Origin Realm!
"Heavens..."
Dugu Yan's face went deathly pale, and she even forgot to breathe.
Any single snake here, if dropped onto the Douluo Continent, would be enough to unleash a devastating beast tide.
Yet within the Heavenly Demon Python Clan's territory, they were merely watchdogs on the outermost perimeter!
Dragging Dugu Yan along, the two snake-men landed directly before a massive stone hall in the deepest part of the bone cavern.
The stone hall was lavishly built, but an air of debauchery and blood permeated every corner.
Several sets of human women's withered bones were even scattered across the steps of the hall.
Clearly, these were women previously captured to serve as Cauldrons, who had died miserably here after being drained of their primordial yin.
At the sight of those bones, Dugu Yan's legs gave way, and she fell to her knees, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.
"I don't want to go inside. Please, just kill me..."
Dugu Yan had utterly despaired.
She would rather die a quick death like her grandfather than suffer such inhuman torture here.
But the two snake-men paid no attention to her pleas.
"The young lord is cultivating inside. Hurry and bring this living vessel in."
One of them tugged the bone chain, dragging Dugu Yan into the hall like a dead dog.
Inside the hall, the light was dim.
A strong, strange aphrodisiac fragrance filled the air.
On a broad bed covered with an enormous beast hide at the far end.
A young man in luxurious black robes, with delicate, handsome features, sat cross-legged.
He looked very young, but his narrow eyes held cold-blooded cruelty.
The Yuan Power fluctuations emanating from his body churned around him as though solid.
He was, unmistakably, a terrifying Demonic Beast who had already reached the Half-Step Nirvana Realm!
He was none other than Teng Hua, the young lord of the Heavenly Demon Python Clan in this territory!
"Young lord, while patrolling, we captured a human woman whose body contains an unusual snake venom. We have brought her here for your enjoyment."
The two snake-men knelt respectfully on the ground and pushed Dugu Yan forward.
Upon hearing his subordinates' report.
Teng Hua slowly opened his eyes on the bed.
His icy, slit-pupiled eyes fell directly on Dugu Yan, who trembled in her somewhat torn clothes.
When he saw Dugu Yan's lovely face and sensed the lingering aura of her Jade Phosphorous Serpent Martial Soul.
A satisfied smile appeared on Teng Hua's delicate face.
He slowly rose from the bed and walked toward Dugu Yan, step by step.
Reaching out with cold fingers, he gripped her chin and forced her to lift her head.
"No Yuan Power, yet you can fuse poison with your soul?"
Teng Hua licked his lips, a fierce, lustful gleam rising in his eyes.
"What an excellent constitution."
"My Ten Thousand Poisons Evil Art happens to have reached a bottleneck. Tonight, I'll drain all that poison from you along with your primordial yin."
"Attendants."
Teng Hua released her and gave a cold command.
"Strip her naked and chain her to the bed. Once I've bathed and changed, I'll personally open this vessel and harvest her essence!"
Upon hearing those utterly undisguised words.
Dugu Yan's eyes rolled back, and she fainted outright from terror.
The two snake-men, meanwhile, strode forward with savage grins and reached out to tear off Dugu Yan's clothes.
The sky screen froze.
[Number One Explorer: Dugu Yan.] [Encountered: the Heavenly Demon Python Clan of the Demon Region.] [Status: captured, all cultivation lost.] [Current identity: a living Cauldron about to be subjected to Dual Cultivation Harvesting by the Heavenly Demon Python Clan's young lord, a fate worse than death.] [Live broadcast temporarily suspended.]
As the image of Dugu Yan fainting in despair faded completely to black.
The grounds of Heaven Dou Royal Academy on the Douluo Continent fell deathly silent.
Thud!
Yu Tianheng's knees buckled, and he dropped heavily to the ground, his nails digging deep into the dirt as blood flowed freely.
He no longer roared wildly as he had before.
For overwhelming rage and despair had completely choked his throat.
His mind was filled with images of Dugu Yan being stripped naked by those half-human, half-snake monsters and bound to the bed.
That suffocating helplessness made him want to kill himself on the spot.
His teammates all lowered their heads, none daring to touch Yu Tianheng.
Before this higher-dimensional world of appalling cruelty, these so-called geniuses of Douluo were not even worthy of serving as cannon fodder.
In the Heaven Dou Empire's palace, Xue Ye slumped in his dragon throne, looking as though he had aged ten years in an instant.
Poison Douluo was dead, and his only granddaughter had met such a fate.
Their Heaven Dou Empire had no hope left at all.
The sky screen's cold, majestic voice paid no heed to the Douluo Continent's grief and once again resounded across the heavens.
[Switching to the perspective of Number Two Explorer, Star Luo Empire Eldest Prince, Dai Weisi.]
As ripples of water flowed across it.
The image lit up once more.
An immense, bustling, and extraordinarily prosperous city came into view.
Shops lined both sides of the streets, and every martial practitioner passing to and fro emitted substantial Yuan Power fluctuations.
This was Great Eagle City, a major city within the Great Yan Dynasty!
Dai Weisi was hiding in a dark alley, his clothes in tatters.
When he had first been transported over, he had landed near a mercenary camp. To escape with his life, he had spent two whole days scrambling through the woods, and branches had long since shredded his luxurious Star Luo Imperial Family robes into strips.
"Grrrrumble..."
A loud protest came from Dai Weisi's stomach.
As the dignified eldest prince of the Star Luo Empire, raised in fine clothes and on exquisite food, when had he ever endured hunger like this?
No. If I don't eat something soon, I'll starve before anyone from this other world can beat me to death.
Dai Weisi gritted his teeth and fished two glittering Gold Soul Coins from inside his clothes.
They were all the wealth he had left.
He cautiously stepped out of the alley and approached a roadside stall selling meat buns.
Smelling the rich aroma of meat, Dai Weisi swallowed repeatedly.
"Owner, give me ten meat buns!"
Putting on an air of wealth, Dai Weisi slapped the two Gold Soul Coins onto the chopping board.
The bun stall's owner was a fat man with a fleshy, brutish face.
He picked up a Gold Soul Coin, examined it, then bit it, immediately furrowing his brow.
"What is this scrap metal?"
The owner tossed the Gold Soul Coin back to Dai Weisi in disdain.
"Look at you in those rags. You dare bring useless gold from the mundane world to Great Eagle City and try to fool me?"
"We only accept Yang Yuan Pills and Yang Yuan Stones here!"
"If you have no money, get lost! Don't interfere with my business!"
Hearing the Gold Soul Coins he took such pride in called "scrap metal."
The royal pride in Dai Weisi's bones was instantly provoked.
He slammed his hand against the chopping board and shouted.
"Are those dog eyes of yours blind?!"
"These Gold Soul Coins are made of pure gold! In my empire, these two coins could buy your entire lousy bun stall!"
"I am the crown prince of the Star Luo Empire! How dare you speak to me like that?!"
Dai Weisi's shout immediately drew the attention of the surrounding passersby.
The bun stall owner froze for a moment, then looked at Dai Weisi as though he were an idiot and burst out laughing.
"The Star Luo Empire? What backwater dump is that?"
"And a crown prince? Looking like that, you'd be too shabby even to beg!"
The owner sneered, pulled a rolling pin from beneath the chopping board, and pointed it at Dai Weisi.
"Get lost! Keep acting crazy in front of my stall, and I'll break your dog legs!"
Humiliated like this by a mere bun seller.
Dai Weisi could no longer contain his fury.
"You're courting death!"
"White Tiger Possession!"
Dai Weisi roared, and his cultivation as a rank forty-seven Soul Ancestor erupted in an instant.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple.
Four Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet, his body abruptly swelling a size larger as the phantom of a white tiger appeared behind him.
"Second Soul Skill, White Tiger Fierce Light Wave!"
Dai Weisi opened his mouth, and a mass of white light blasted straight toward the bun shop owner.
On the Douluo Continent, this strike of his would have been enough to blast an ordinary commoner to pieces.
"Yes! The eldest prince is fighting back!"
In the Star Luo Empire's square, many commoners and soldiers could not help clenching their fists when they saw Dai Weisi unleash his Martial Soul.
At last, someone dared to fight back in this world!
Yet the scene on the screen in the sky once again doused them with a bucket of ice water that chilled them to the core.
Faced with the White Tiger Fierce Light Wave hurtling toward him from Dai Weisi.
The bun shop owner did not even look alarmed.
"So you're just a piece of trash who hasn't opened his dantian and practices some unorthodox cultivation method."
The owner snorted coldly.
Although he only sold buns, making a living in a place like Great Eagle City meant he at least had cultivation at the Body Tempering Eighth Layer.
Without even trying to dodge, the owner simply swung the rolling pin in his hand.
A faint glow of Yuan Power enveloped the rolling pin.
Bang!
Like an iron rod, the rolling pin smashed straight into the White Tiger Fierce Light Wave with utterly brute force.
Crack!
That mass of Soul Power light Dai Weisi took such pride in was actually smashed to pieces on the spot by a rolling pin, like a pane of fragile glass!
"What?!"
Dai Weisi's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Before he could react.
The owner had already stepped forward, the rolling pin in his hand whistling through the air as it lashed viciously against Dai Weisi's knee.
"Aah!!!"
With the crisp sound of a bone breaking.
Dai Weisi's right knee was deformed on the spot, and he screamed as he dropped heavily to his knees.
The white tiger phantom behind him instantly collapsed as well.
"You dare raise a hand against me?"
The owner spat, stepped forward, and delivered several more kicks, leaving Dai Weisi's face covered in blood as he rolled back and forth on the ground.
"Someone! Throw this lunatic making trouble in the street into the stinking ditch!"
Several guards who kept watch over the premises stepped forward and hauled Dai Weisi up like a dead dog.
They dragged him straight to a stinking ditch at the end of the street and threw him in like garbage.
The Douluo Continent.
Inside the Star Luo Imperial Palace, all was utterly silent.
Every minister lowered their head.
The dignified crown prince of the Star Luo Empire, a genius Soul Ancestor at level forty-seven.
On a street in another world, a bun seller had broken his leg with a rolling pin and thrown him into a stinking ditch like garbage.
The humiliation of such a crushing disparity in power left every person of the Star Luo Empire utterly disgraced.
In the scene.
Covered in foul-smelling sludge, Dai Weisi lay beside the stinking ditch, sucking in cold breaths from the pain.
Now he finally understood that in this world, the Martial Soul and status he took such pride in were not worth a fart.
Just as Dai Weisi was filled with despair, not knowing how he could survive.
A clear jingling of bells suddenly came from farther down the street.
Then a spacious, lavishly decorated carriage drawn by two towering Demonic Beasts slowly approached, surrounded by more than a dozen guards.
This carriage was clearly the exclusive vehicle of some major faction in Great Eagle City.
The passersby all cleared the way, their eyes filled with awe.
Dai Weisi raised his head with difficulty and happened to glance inside through the carriage's gauze curtain as the wind lifted it.
Just one glance.
Dai Weisi instantly froze as though struck by lightning.
He even forgot the searing pain in his leg, his eyes fixed on the carriage's interior, filled with disbelief and wild joy.
On the wide, soft couch inside the carriage.
A woman with an extraordinarily voluptuous figure reclined languidly, wearing a red dress as thin as a cicada's wings.
Holding a cup of fine wine, the woman was feeding it to a young man in brocade robes beside her, her face full of seductive charm.
Wasn't this woman in red the one who had been transported here a few days ago and willingly thrown herself into the arms of a warrior from this other world to survive...
Zhu Zhuyun?!