"A twelve-thousand-year-old Scarlet Flame Pterosaur. Just right." Yang Wudi transmitted his voice, suppressing his excitement. "It has both strength and speed, perfect for making up for your shortcomings. Scarlet Flame Pterosaurs are exceptionally fierce fighters and extremely fast. We must kill it in one strike, or if it senses trouble and flees, we won't be able to catch it!"
Before he finished speaking, the Scarlet Flame Pterosaur had already detected the humans' presence. Its draconic eyes, like two blood-red lanterns, instantly locked onto them. A dragon's roar rolled from its throat, its sound waves almost tangible as they shook loose showers of stone from the rock walls and raised waves of fire dozens of feet high on the lava river!
"Die, beast!" Yang Wudi's expression changed abruptly. He felt a tyrannical surge of spiritual power clamp onto him like an iron hoop. No matter how he moved, that will held fast to his presence. He actually could not break free!
Yang Wudi roared, and his first Soul Ring and second Soul Ring lit up simultaneously. Dazzling, black-jade light erupted from the Soul Breaking Spear.
As the spear tip quivered, fine cracks tore through the air. His imposing presence abruptly soared, and even the rock beneath his feet shattered into dust.
The Soul Breaking Spear spun in Yang Wudi's palm, its tip tracing a profound arc. It actually drew aside the pillar of molten flame spewed by the Scarlet Flame Pterosaur, turning its strength against it. The pillar curled back and blasted into the beast's own left wing.
Pain shot through its wing, and the Scarlet Flame Pterosaur flew into a rage. With a beat of its wings, it opened its jaws and spat out a lava fireball two meters in diameter in the blink of an eye.
The entire fireball was scarlet, with golden patterns flowing across its surface. Wherever it passed, even the air warped and collapsed under its scorching heat.
More terrifying still, it seemed alive as it held fast to Yang Wudi's presence. No matter how he twisted and dodged, the fireball followed him like his shadow!
"Damn it, a lock-on Soul Skill!" Yang Wudi pushed his movement techniques to their limit, leaving trails of afterimages across the rocky ground, but the fireball clung to him like a festering sore on the bone. He could not shake it off.
Yang Wudi could only grit his teeth and turn, holding the Soul Breaking Spear across his body as Soul Power flooded into its shaft like an erupting volcano.
Boom-!
The spear tip collided violently with the fireball, unleashing a deafening explosion.
Yang Wudi shuddered, his face instantly flushing crimson. A scorching force of dragon flame actually invaded his body through the spear, burning his Soul Power and meridians like countless steel needles.
It felt as though lava were flowing through his veins!
What tyrannical lingering damage! Yang Wudi was inwardly shocked. Had it not been for his deep reserves of level-eighty-five Soul Power, that blow might have severely injured him.
Yang Wudi dared not be careless. He exerted all his strength, and his seventh Soul Ring suddenly blazed, brilliant as the blazing sun!
"Seventh Soul Skill, Tool Soul Avatar!"
The Soul Breaking Spear swelled in the wind, becoming a divine black-jade spear thirty feet long, its shaft entwined with nearly tangible, dragon-shaped Soul Power.
Yang Wudi's imposing presence surged. His long, graying hair stirred without wind, and a soul-piercing gleam shot from his lone eye, making him look like a god of war descended to earth!
Seeing Yang Wudi withstand its fireball head-on, the Scarlet Flame Pterosaur felt a trace of fear amid its fury. Ignoring the injury to its left wing, it beat its single wing hard and plunged down as a scarlet afterimage.
Its claws tore through the air with an ear-piercing shriek. Moving so fast that only a streak of fire remained, they reached straight for the crown of Yang Wudi's head!
"Just in time!" Yang Wudi advanced instead of retreating. He was a Soul Douluo with exceptionally rich combat experience, someone who dared clash head-on even with Spirit Hall's Titled Douluo. How could he fear a mere Soul Beast barely over ten thousand years old?
His eighth Soul Ring lit up!
"Eighth Soul Skill, Annihilation!"
This was Yang Wudi's strongest strike. The Soul Breaking Spear pierced the sky, its tip striking precisely into a gap in the dragon claw's joints.
The spear's force did not drive straight through with brute strength. Instead, it seeped in like mercury spilling across the ground. Hidden force that combined hardness and softness exploded inside the bones of the dragon's wing!
Crack! Crack!
Amid a series of sharp cracks, the bones of the Scarlet Flame Pterosaur's left wing actually shattered inch by inch from within. Its translucent flaming wing instantly dimmed and drooped like a torn rag. Its body lurched sideways, its speed dropping sharply!
Now!
A brilliant gleam burst from Tang Feng's eyes after his long wait in hiding. The Clear Sky Hammer thundered into his hand, and he stamped hard against the ground. Rock cracked like a spiderweb as he shot skyward like a cannonball!
"First Soul Skill, King Kong's Wrath!"
"Second Soul Skill, Dark Gold Berserk!"
The two enhancement Soul Skills erupted simultaneously. Muscles bulged across Tang Feng's body like coiling dragons, his skin took on a jade-like luster, and Soul Power poured into the hammer like rivers flowing backward! Dark-gold and scarlet light entwined the Clear Sky Hammer, which weighed three thousand jin!
"Die!"
Roaring, Tang Feng swung with both hands, bringing the Clear Sky Hammer down with crushing force, aimed precisely between the Scarlet Flame Pterosaur's brows! The beast tried to turn its head and dodge, but Yang Wudi pinned its tail with his spear, leaving it unable to move!
Boom!!!
The instant the hammerhead struck the dragon's head, a deafening explosion erupted!
A visible shock wave burst outward, pressing a depression dozens of feet deep into the lava river. The lava surged backward, and fiery rain filled the sky.
The Scarlet Flame Pterosaur's head caved in like a watermelon. Its skull shattered into fragments, and its eyes burst into two clouds of bloody mist. Its enormous body fell like a kite with its string cut, crashing to the ground and leaving a deep crater a hundred feet across!
Dust and sparks slowly settled. The Scarlet Flame Pterosaur was dead!
A black Soul Ring, deep as night, slowly rose from the dragon's corpse. The pressure unique to a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring spread out almost tangibly, catching Tang Feng's breath in his throat. His heart pounded like a drum, and even his soul trembled.
But there was no fear in Tang Feng's eyes, only burning battle intent and greed.
"Grandfather, guard me." Tang Feng sat cross-legged, his voice steady.
Drawing a deep breath, Tang Feng laid the Clear Sky Hammer across his knees and slowly guided it with his Soul Power. The ink-dark Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring immediately descended around him like a black chain.
The instant the Soul Ring entered his body, Tang Feng felt as though he had been thrown into the mouth of an active volcano!
Violent fire-attribute power flooded into him like scorching lava. His meridians hissed as they burned, scarlet light flowed like molten rock beneath his skin, and even his hair stood on end, giving off wisps of smoke.
The agonizing pain almost made Tang Feng scream, but he clenched his teeth and fiercely restrained his body's instinctive reaction.
Even more dangerous was the spiritual assault.
The Scarlet Flame Pterosaur's remnant soul coalesced violently within his Sea of Consciousness, becoming a savage flaming dragon with bared fangs and brandished claws.
Dying defiance and brutality burned in its eyes, and destructive draconic might coiled around its body. Every roar raised towering waves of fire across Tang Feng's Sea of Consciousness, as though it meant to burn his consciousness into nothingness!
Come on! Tang Feng roared inwardly. His Sea of Consciousness churned, and his spiritual power condensed into a towering hammer that reached the heavens, its head wreathed in a pale golden halo.
The evil dragon hurled itself madly against the hammer's image, but it was like a moth flying into a flame. With every collision, the giant hammer used a force-layering technique to dissipate, guide, and absorb its strength layer by layer.
The Sea of Consciousness expanded by the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew now revealed its terrifying reserves. Its lake remained smooth as a mirror. No matter how the evil dragon rampaged, it never broke or collapsed.
Time passed. Two hours, four hours...
The Scarlet Flame Pterosaur's remnant soul finally exhausted itself. With one last mournful cry filled with defiance, it was utterly shattered by a blow from Tang Feng's hammer, becoming the purest spiritual nourishment and merging into his Sea of Consciousness.
In reality, Tang Feng's entire body was red and swollen like a cooked shrimp, with traces of blood seeping from all seven orifices. Yet a smile curved his lips. The black Soul Ring fully merged into the Clear Sky Hammer, and fine scarlet dragon patterns appeared across its body, vivid and lifelike.
Just as Tang Feng thought the Soul Ring absorption was about to end, a sudden change occurred!
A fist-sized ball of scarlet-gold light suddenly floated from the Scarlet Flame Pterosaur's remains. At its center, a burning drop of golden dragon blood seemed to be sealed, radiating a pressure that made the heart tremble.
It plunged irresistibly into Tang Feng's back. Sharp cracks came from his shoulder blades as two entirely new bones forcibly pierced through his flesh and grew out!
"Aah!!!" Tang Feng screamed and collapsed. The clothing on his back instantly burned away, revealing twisted muscles and bones.
Yang Wudi's expression changed drastically before turning to wild joy. "This... could this be the legendary External Soul Bone?"
Once it had fully merged into his body and the pain vanished, Tang Feng shakily stood. A pair of translucent dragon wings had appeared on his back.
Their span reached twenty feet, and they were formed from scarlet bones and golden flames. Every wing bone was as fearsome as a dragon's fang, yet the flames were gentle as flowing water, circling his body without harming him in the slightest.
At a thought from Tang Feng, the dragon wings spread with a whoosh. A heat wave swept in every direction, while his feet left the ground and he actually began to float slowly upward!
"External Soul Bone..." Feeling the newborn power at his back, Tang Feng immediately understood what it was, and wild joy burst into his eyes.
Amid his excitement, Tang Feng used his will to command the dragon wings on his back to retract. The fearsome flaming dragon wings slowly folded away, their flames gradually disappearing into his body. In the end, only two pale-red, dragon-shaped markings remained on his shoulder blades, like exquisite tattoos.
Yang Wudi hurried several steps forward, his voice trembling slightly with excitement. "Feng'er, do you feel any discomfort? Was that an External Soul Bone just now?"