In the Soul Hunting Forest, the night was as black as ink.
Luo Chen darted between the treetops. With every leap, the scorpion tail behind him hooked precisely around a branch, using it to launch him into the air like a ghost soaring through the woods.
An ordinary Soul Master would need about ten days to cross the outskirts of the Soul Hunting Forest.
But Luo Chen used his scorpion tail as a hook and the spiritual perception of Twin Emperor Soul Guidance to scout the way. In just three days, he reached the edge of the poisonous swamps in the southernmost part of the Soul Hunting Forest.
The poisonous swamps were a strange place.
Pitch-black, foul-smelling sludge covered the entire ground, with dense, twisted trees growing within it.
With no sunlight penetrating throughout the year, poisonous fumes and swamp gases ran rampant.
If ordinary Soul Masters entered unprepared, they would not even need to be attacked by poison-attribute Soul Beasts. Merely breathing the air would leave them dizzy, their vision blurred, and their bodies poisoned.
But Luo Chen was different.
Standing at the edge of the poisonous swamps, he felt the concentrated toxins in the air, and the corners of his mouth lifted slightly.
"This little bit of poison isn't even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth."
Luo Chen's Martial Soul was the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor, which lived in the deepest reaches of the Nine Nether Poison Marsh.
What kind of place was the Nine Nether Poison Marsh?
It was the most dangerous, most poisonous place on the Douluo Continent.
It lay on an isolated island, surrounded by deadly poisonous things everywhere. The poisonous fumes within could kill a fifty-thousand-year Soul Beast in an instant. It was perilous in the extreme.
By comparison, the poisonous swamps before him were mere child's play.
Luo Chen took a deep breath and activated Netherworld Scorpion Emperor Martial Soul Possession.
Dark green carapace patterns surfaced on his skin, and a scorpion tail gleaming with a dim, cold light slowly extended from behind him, curving toward the sky.
The next second, the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor's savage presence erupted from his body, sweeping outward with the force to topple mountains and overturn seas.
Countless Soul Beasts throughout the poisonous swamps froze at once.
At the same moment, they felt a terror rising from the depths of their bloodlines.
This was the pressure of a supreme Soul Beast, a Scorpion Emperor, and the absolute suppression a predator at the top of the food chain exerted over its food.
All the venomous serpent Soul Beasts curled into balls, not daring to move. Even the Two-Headed Poison Crocodiles deep in the sludge tucked their heads into their shells, not daring to breathe loudly.
The entire poisonous swamp fell into deathly silence.
Standing where he was, Luo Chen felt the effect of his Martial Soul's presence and was somewhat surprised.
"This strong?"
He had originally only intended to use Martial Soul Possession to adapt to the poisonous swamp's environment. He had not expected that releasing the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor's presence would terrify every Soul Beast in the area.
"Just as well. Saves me from clearing out the small fry."
He reined in his wandering thoughts and fully extended the spiritual perception of Twin Emperor Soul Guidance.
Everything within a forty-meter radius lay before his eyes.
Poisonous insects writhing in the sludge, venomous snakes coiled among the treetops, poison crocodiles lurking deep in the swamp...
Everything was within his perception.
Of course, none of these were his target. His target was the most unusual kind of Soul Beast in these poisonous swamps, known as the Nine Poison Scorpion.
Before entering the Soul Hunting Forest, Luo Chen had already drawn up a list of candidates from the library's Soul Beast encyclopedia:
The Netherworld Serpent was renowned for its speed. It could swiftly and silently slither to your feet and bite you. Since its venom contained a concentrated anesthetic toxin and its bite was tiny, most people would die from the poison before they could even react. It was truly vicious.
If Luo Chen absorbed it, it would probably give him a speed-type Soul Skill.
The Poison Pattern Spider focused on poison. It could shoot venom-laced webs to trap its opponent tightly. The more they struggled, the more easily the venom in the web would seep into their body through their sweat glands, until they were poisoned to death.
If Luo Chen absorbed it, it would probably give him a control-type Soul Skill.
The Nine Poison Scorpion, however, was different from them. It was a relatively rare Soul Beast with both poison and netherworld attributes.
It was three times the size of an ordinary scorpion, pitch-black all over, with a carapace as hard as iron.
Its most unusual feature was that the Nine Nether Scorpion had nine scorpion tails.
Each tail could attack independently, and could even spray deadly scorpion venom.
The Nine Poison Scorpion's venom was extremely unusual. It was not merely a corrosive toxin, but a netherworld poison capable of eroding an enemy's vitality.
The dual attributes of deadly poison and netherworld were precisely the direction Luo Chen wanted for his first Soul Ring.
His spiritual perception spread through the poisonous swamps, searching for traces of the Nine Poison Scorpion.
Soon, Luo Chen found the Nine Nether Scorpion's hiding place.
About three hundred meters to the southeast in the poisonous swamps stood an enormous dead tree, with a pitch-black cave at its roots.
At that moment, an enormous scorpion lay curled up at the edge of the cave, utterly motionless.
Luo Chen leaped up, hooked his scorpion tail around a tree trunk, and reached the vicinity of the dead tree in just a few bounds.
Soon, Luo Chen saw what the Nine Poison Scorpion truly looked like.
The Nine Poison Scorpion was as black as ink and over two meters long. Its enormous pincers hung limply on the ground.
Most striking were the nine sharp scorpion tails behind it, coiled above its head.
After a glance, Luo Chen quickly estimated its age in his mind.
This Nine Poison Scorpion is seven hundred years old. Would absorbing it be too rash?
The limit for a Soul Master's first Soul Ring was around four hundred years.
Although Luo Chen's Martial Souls, the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor and the Karmic Fire Scorpion Emperor, had already strengthened his physique during his Martial Soul Awakening, and his cultivation of the Scorpion Emperor Body Tempering Technique and Twin Emperor Soul Guidance had made his body and spiritual power far stronger than before, leaving him capable of withstanding a seven-hundred-year Soul Ring,
But...
To be safe, Luo Chen still decided it would be better to find a younger Nine Poison Scorpion.
Just as Luo Chen activated Netherworld Scorpion Emperor Martial Soul Possession and prepared to leave, the Nine Poison Scorpion, already struggling to breathe beneath the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor's presence, found its plight even harder to endure.
If the faint presence of the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor had merely pinned it in place before, then Luo Chen releasing his Netherworld Scorpion Emperor Martial Soul again right before it now was demanding its life.
Terror from the depths of its bloodline flooded its entire body like a surging tide.
Its instincts told it that it had to flee, but its body refused to obey, as though invisible shackles held it in place.
"Hiss!" The Nine Poison Scorpion let out a faint sound of fear.
Luo Chen, who had been leaving, suddenly stopped. With his hooked scorpion tail coiled overhead, he turned to look at the Nine Poison Scorpion.
"What was that strange noise just now?" Luo Chen looked around in confusion.
While Luo Chen was puzzled, the Nine Poison Scorpion was now on the brink of death.
As Luo Chen turned, the Netherworld Scorpion Emperor's presence had crashed toward the Nine Poison Scorpion with the force to topple mountains and overturn seas.
When it saw the hooked scorpion tail above Luo Chen's head slowly approaching it, its eyes abruptly contracted. The next second, it actually died of fright.
"..."
Standing before the Nine Poison Scorpion's corpse, Luo Chen was somewhat speechless.
"I haven't even attacked, and this Nine Poison Scorpion died on its own?"
"So fragile? Will that affect my first Soul Skill?"
He had only intended to find a younger Nine Poison Scorpion, but had never expected this seven-hundred-year-old Nine Poison Scorpion to actually die of fright.
"Forget it. Since this is heaven's will, I'll absorb this seven-hundred-year-old Nine Poison Scorpion."
At that thought, Luo Chen crouched down and looked at the Nine Poison Scorpion's corpse.
The next second, a deep yellow Soul Ring slowly coalesced above the Nine Poison Scorpion's head, giving off a faint glow.