"Friends, even if I coveted your Soul Bones, I don't have the strength to contend with you. Besides, once we leave the Star Dou Great Forest, the Douluo Continent is so vast that finding you again would be like fishing a needle out of the sea. As the saying goes, one more friend means one more road to take. Why go this far?"
As Nan Zhou spoke, he carefully watched the changes in the middle-aged man's expression while transmitting his voice to Nan Zhuliu and Jiang Jingyan, telling them to be ready to fight or escape at any moment.
At this moment, they all knew full well that their opponents clearly had no intention of letting them leave the Star Dou Great Forest alive. This was a battle they could not avoid.
"Why go this far?" The middle-aged man smiled disdainfully. "Haven't you heard that the best way to avoid trouble is to strangle its first signs in the cradle?"
The only female Soul Master in the squad said bluntly, "Captain, there's no need to waste so much breath on people who are about to die. Let's get on with it before a long night breeds more dreams."
"Attack!"
Two voices rang out simultaneously. Nan Zhuliu and his two companions erupted into motion, charging straight at the enemies closest to them.
The instant his Crimson Nether Martial Soul possession was complete, Nan Zhou's Soul Ring blazed with light, and his fist, wreathed in roaring flames, shot straight at the middle-aged man's chest.
He put almost every last ounce of strength into this strike. At such close range, if he could catch his opponent unprepared, even someone at his own level would be crippled if not killed.
But since their opponents had already decided to kill them to silence them, how could they not have prepared for a desperate counterattack?
The one thing the middle-aged man had not expected was that Nan Zhou was an agility-type Soul Master with both high attack power and high speed.
The middle-aged man roared. His already tall frame grew even taller, swelling until he stood roughly two and a half meters high. Thick brown hair sprouted wildly across his body, making him resemble a humanoid beast.
Two yellow, three purple, and one black-six Soul Rings rose from beneath him, carrying surging fluctuations of Soul Power that churned like towering waves. At the same time, he formed a bright yellow, translucent Soul Power barrier before him.
Nan Zhou slammed a claw against the Soul Power barrier. It shattered with a crack, and his claw then struck the middle-aged man.
The blow forced the middle-aged man back, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
At the sight of the six Soul Rings around the man, Nan Zhou could not help feeling a chill run through his entire body. But he did not dwell on it. His mind was filled with the need to get Nan Zhuliu and Jiang Jingyan out of there.
Relying on his speed advantage as an agility-type Soul Master, Nan Zhou darted back and forth, continually evading the Soul Emperor's attacks while seizing openings to strike, drawing most of the Soul Emperor's hostility onto himself.
At the same time,
Several astonishingly powerful bolts of lightning, each as thick as an arm, descended from the sky, striking one after another in pursuit of the Soul Master squad's instinctive retreat.
Then everyone turned their gaze toward the source of the lightning.
When they saw Nan Zhuliu, his forearms transformed into powerful Golden Dragon Claws, the Prison-Subduing Dragon Spear in his hands and terrifying lightning surging around his body, with a horrifying configuration of purple, purple, and black Soul Rings floating beside him that completely overturned everything they knew, their surprise and astonishment instantly gave way to shock.
Before their minds could catch up, they saw the three Soul Rings surrounding Nan Zhuliu flash rapidly in succession within the blink of an eye.
With life and death at stake, Nan Zhuliu held nothing back.
First Soul Skill: Golden Dragon Rampage
Second Soul Skill: Golden Dragon Fierce Battle
And his newly acquired Third Soul Skill: Annihilation.
Of these three great Soul Skills, Golden Dragon Rampage and Golden Dragon Fierce Battle were both enhancement-type utility Soul Skills.
The two complemented each other, not only raising all of Nan Zhuliu's attributes to one hundred and fifty percent of their original values, but also granting immunity to various negative effects.
Annihilation's function was to unfold a Lightning Domain, converting all energy within its range into lightning particles. The greater the concentration of lightning particles, the stronger each of his subsequent attacks would become. He could also absorb lightning particles to replenish his own condition, including but not limited to Soul Power, spiritual power, and vitality.
As Annihilation unfolded amid violent thunderous booms, the surroundings instantly sank into a sea of flashing lightning, with lightning particles flickering in the air.
And there was also...
The three Soul Rings around Nan Zhuliu swiftly vanished, replaced by an extremely peculiar golden ring of light.
Yes, the vast amount of bloodline energy he had fused with upon breaking through to three rings had greatly enhanced his bloodline and blood vitality, while also granting him the Golden Dragon Body, one of the Golden Dragon King Bloodline's abilities. It could greatly increase his four major attributes: strength, attack, speed, and defense.
The four enhancement Soul Skills sublimated every aspect of Nan Zhuliu's attributes to the utmost. His momentum soared like a rainbow, at one point actually approaching that of the middle-aged man with Soul Emperor cultivation.
Nan Zhuliu raised his spear and thrust. As he unleashed this all-out strike, the surrounding lightning continually gathered onto the Prison-Subduing Dragon Spear, and even the air began to tremble.
At that moment, every member of the Soul Master squad fell into a brief daze.
They did not know whether it was an illusion, but they seemed to see a formless ferocious beast opening its blood-filled maw toward the squad's only female Soul Master.
The suffocating sensation rushing toward her frightened the female Soul Master out of her wits. But at such close range, with Nan Zhuliu's speed pushed to its limit and the Lightning Domain hindering her, it was already too late to dodge this strike.
Seeing that things were going badly, one of them moved to rescue her. Six Soul Rings abruptly rose-two yellow, two purple, and two black, unmistakably the optimal Soul Ring configuration for a Soul Master.
This was actually a Soul Master squad composed of two Soul Emperors and four Soul Kings.
Before the overwhelmingly powerful attack arrived, the female Soul Master instinctively used every means at her disposal to survive. But as an agility-type Soul Master herself, she had few defensive options available.
Vast lightning instantly engulfed the female Soul Master with Soul King cultivation.
The Soul Emperor was still a step too late. He could only watch helplessly as, beneath this spear strike, the female Soul King's Soul Power shield shattered like a bubble at the slightest touch, before her entire body was instantly annihilated in agony amid the overwhelming lightning.
Dead-she was dead?
It was like a dream. None of them could believe that their companion with Soul King cultivation had actually been slain in a single move by a Soul Elder.
Even a Soul King might not be able to kill a Soul Ancestor in one move, yet Nan Zhuliu had actually defied the gap with his Soul Elder cultivation and slain a Soul King. This was far too absurd.
This dazzling performance earned neither flowers nor applause. Instead, like a series of slaps, it smacked the remaining five members of the Soul Master squad out of their daze.
The Soul Emperor abruptly snapped awake and roared, "Quick, join forces and deal with this monster first!"
His voice carried a trace of trembling that even he had not noticed.
Although that female Soul King had only recently entered the Soul King level, she had still been a genuine Soul King expert.
Yet Nan Zhuliu, with his three-ring cultivation, had crossed two major realms and killed her in a single move.
At this moment, all five felt a faint twinge of regret. Why had they provoked such a monster?
But the feud had already been formed. Whatever they said now was too late.
All they could do now was combine their strength to uproot this monster, Nan Zhuliu, cutting off any possibility of him growing stronger and returning to take revenge on them.