In the Dragon-Tiger Ranking's consciousness space, Dugu Bo chuckled.
With a turn of his hands, he scattered several kinds of plant powder around himself.
The smell was strong and pungent; even catching a whiff from far away could leave one dizzy.
The surrounding Soul Beasts had fled far away the instant they smelled it, while Dugu Bo sat serenely in the middle of the circle, leisurely watching the show.
"Whoa, this really opened my eyes today. I've seen every sort of Soul Beast now."
In the pure-white consciousness space, there were even a few deep-sea fish Soul Beasts flopping around on the floor. Could you believe it?
While Dugu Bo watched the many Soul Beasts ahead with a smile, a venomous scorpion about the size of a puppy quietly approached him from behind.
It seemed unconcerned by the poisonous powder that all the other Soul Beasts feared.
Once it was close enough, its tail suddenly stabbed forward.
But Dugu Bo seemed to have noticed something amiss long ago, reaching back and grabbing the little venomous scorpion.
His grip on the scorpion was exceptionally deft. With a press of his finger, it instantly froze.
"Hmm, a rare venomous creature, too. What a shame. Nothing here can be taken outside. It's all fake."
As he spoke, Dugu Bo crushed the scorpion to death and casually tossed its corpse aside, but then he abruptly realized something.
"What's going on? Isn't everything here a consciousness form? How could the scorpion leave a corpse?"
Still, there was no hurry to think about that; it could wait. This Fallen Red True Scorpion was very precious.
Although its venom was not strong, combining it with several other poisons could greatly amplify their toxicity.
But a Fallen Red True Scorpion could only be found by chance, not sought out. Dugu Bo had encountered just one in his younger years, and in all the decades between then and becoming a Titled Douluo, he had never seen a second.
With extreme care and exquisite technique, Dugu Bo removed the scorpion's stinger along with its venom sac, then carefully placed them inside his Space Soul Tool.
"I wonder whether I can take it out. After all, I came here as a consciousness form myself."
This consciousness space of the Dragon-Tiger Ranking was extraordinary. The instant someone entered it, nearby objects, along with their clothes, Soul Tools, and so on, could all be brought inside normally. They could even be used normally without Soul Power, but Soul Tools capable of releasing Soul Skills could not be activated at all.
"Whether it works or not, I'll know very soon. It's about time, too."
Dugu Bo chuckled a few times. The poisons he had scattered around himself earlier were not merely there to keep the Soul Beasts away.
Mixed together, these poisons could form a slow-acting but extremely lethal poison. By his reckoning, it was about time.
The movements of the Soul Beasts fighting within the consciousness space gradually slowed.
Then every Soul Beast simply stood where it was, panting heavily.
Several dozen seconds later, Dugu Bo gently clapped his hands. As his hands came down, black-red blood flowed continuously from the corners of every Soul Beast's mouth in the Soul Beast space, and they all fell to the floor and breathed their last.
While Dugu Bo won with ease, Ma Hongjun faced one peril after another.
Ever since being burned by his red flames, every single Soul Beast here had gone mad. Even the plant Soul Beasts crazily wielded their own bamboo poles, skewering one Soul Beast after another until they, too, were knocked aside by indescribable pointed horns.
Ma Hongjun sent feathers flying and dogs scrambling among the Soul Beasts, frantically dodging.
Fortunately, there were so many crazed Soul Beasts here, and they were not determined to have Ma Hongjun alone. Before long, they had all found targets, clutching one another in groups of two or three.
Their movements grew increasingly violent, and often only one or two Soul Beasts at most survived in each pile.
Yet their desire seemed endless. When the Soul Beast they were holding died, they immediately sought a new target.
In the end, all that remained before Ma Hongjun was a Six-Eared Elephant, covered in wounds yet still extremely excited.
Seeing that Ma Hongjun was the only living thing left on the field, the Six-Eared Elephant charged madly toward him with bloodshot eyes.
It came with ferocious momentum and frenzied movements. With Ma Hongjun's slight build, a single hit would absolutely tear him to pieces.
Tense, Ma Hongjun stared intently at the elephant.
When its charge brought it within two meters of him, he abruptly dodged, throwing himself toward its side.
The elephant did not even brake. Even without a target ahead, it kept charging.
With a bang, the elephant slammed bodily into the boundary, then lay motionless.
Ma Hongjun went over to inspect it. The elephant had actually rammed itself to death. Still shaken, he wiped the sweat from his forehead. "These red flames are truly terrifying. In the future, I'd better avoid using them whenever I can."
[Winner: Ma Hongjun!] [The finals will take place tomorrow. Contestants, please prepare yourselves.]
Once the announcement finished, Ma Hongjun was kicked out of the consciousness space.
In the cell opposite, Yu Xiaogang had yet to awaken. Clearly, he was still in the Dragon-Tiger Ranking's consciousness space.
"No way. Is Yu Xiaogang really that capable?"
"Could he actually have some tricks up his sleeve, and just failed to perform well with Tang San?"
"Both his hands and feet are broken, yet he's lasted this long? Come to think of it, how did he get through the previous rounds?"
Before Ma Hongjun could think further, several soldiers arrived outside his cell carrying hot water and brand-new clothes.
"Ma Hongjun, the Supreme Pontiff summons you."
Ma Hongjun sneered. "Hmm, she couldn't hold back this soon? She's a Supreme Pontiff, at any rate, but I don't think this Bibi Dong amounts to much."
The jailers dared to be angry but did not dare speak.
They were furious that Ma Hongjun dared to publicly disparage Spirit Hall's Supreme Pontiff, yet they could do nothing to him. After all, the Supreme Pontiff had personally summoned him many times, and had even specifically ordered that he must not be allowed to die.
Even Chrysanthemum Douluo no longer dared come to the prison to torment Ma Hongjun. Small fry like them naturally needed to be even more cautious when dealing with him.
Ma Hongjun followed the jailers away, while in the nearby cell, Yu Xiaogang still had not awakened.
The Dragon-Tiger Ranking competition was still underway.
Ning Rongrong was different from the other contestants. Rather than waiting until the Soul Beasts had nearly finished fighting among themselves before acting, she faced them head-on.
Against the Soul Beasts pouncing at her, she threw one punch apiece, sending them straight into peaceful slumber.
As for the Soul Beasts releasing Soul Skills from afar, Ning Rongrong lightly dodged whatever she could. When she encountered something she could not evade, she blasted out a heavy punch, shattering the incoming icicles, fireballs, and other Soul Skills with a single blow.
At some point, the entire consciousness space had filled with the sounds of Ning Rongrong's fists striking flesh.
"Da-da, da-da-da!"
"Da, da-da, da-da-da-da-da!"
Ning Rongrong advanced steadily, one firm step at a time, toward the middle of the Soul Beast horde.
No matter how many Soul Beasts gathered around her, Ning Rongrong always defeated them one by one. Even in the most chaotic situations, she could tease apart the tangled threads and resolve a deadly predicament with the simplest, most effortless movements.
When too many of these Soul Beasts attacked together, Ning Rongrong could even turn them to her advantage.
The Soul Skills they released struck other Soul Beasts, while Ning Rongrong used the Soul Beasts leaping toward her as shields.
By the time the consciousness space fell quiet, exactly one hundred Soul Beast corpses lay piled before Ning Rongrong-not one more, not one less.
"A mere hundred punches. That didn't even count as a warm-up. These Soul Beasts are so boring. But why are most of them deep-sea fish? Their looks are the only thing that can hurt me."
"Against opponents like these, there's nothing to be happy about even if I win."
"Who would be happy about beating a few dozen fish on land?"
What Ning Rongrong did not mention, however, was that most of her so-called few dozen fish were actually ferocious-looking sea snakes and great white sharks, and even octopuses and crabs. Every one of them was enormous, with even the smallest measuring two meters long.
There was even a Deep-Sea Saberfish whose entire body shimmered with silvery light. A lash of its body could instantly slice another Soul Beast in two.
Because they lived in the deep sea and had never been observed by human Soul Masters, they had no names.
But they were certainly not the fish helpless on land that Ning Rongrong described.
Before you continue