"Yun Shan, sparing you wasn't in vain after all. You really have brought me a surprise."
Inside Queen Medusa's palace, Queen Medusa lay languidly on her throne, feeling somewhat fortunate that she had spared Yun Shan back then.
When Yun Shan had come all those years ago, he had been terribly arrogant, declaring that he would break through to Dou Zong and Dou Zun in the future and make her see him in a new light.
Yun Shan had been very young then, and very strong. Although Queen Medusa hadn't believed she could break through to Dou Zong, let alone Dou Zun, Queen Medusa had still spared him.
On the surface, it had seemed like a passing whim of Queen Medusa's, but in truth, it was because Queen Medusa had thought: what if?
Unlike on the Douluo Continent, Queen Medusa on the Dou Qi Continent had never been some love-brained fool.
Leading the Snake-People Tribe through life in the barren Tagor Desert, Queen Medusa had only ever faced one question: how to survive.
How to survive with more of her tribespeople.
That was why the husband of every Queen Medusa had to be stronger than Queen Medusa herself. Such an extremely harsh environment simply wouldn't allow Queen Medusa to keep some pretty boy. Survival was a necessity for the Snake-People Tribe.
Queen Medusa's fearsome reputation rivaled her reputation for beauty, so that not just anyone would dare come and trample on her.
She left those who coveted her beauty to die without a burial place, not because Queen Medusa had been cruel by nature from the outset, but to make those people understand the price of daring to offend her and reduce the trouble she faced.
Those who coveted her beauty faced risks, and very great risks at that. Only then could Queen Medusa remain safe.
But as a Peak Dou Emperor, Queen Medusa also understood that this so-called safety was only temporary. Once someone in a neighboring empire broke through to Dou Zong, it was hard to say how much longer her safety could last.
That was why she had spared Yun Shan back then. After all, Yun Shan had looked decent at the time, and he had also been captivated by her. If Yun Shan really had broken through to Dou Zong early, it wasn't as though Queen Medusa couldn't have accepted him.
After all, what Queen Medusa wanted was survival, not love.
But as Yun Shan remained stuck at the Dou Emperor stage for so long, Queen Medusa had lost interest in bothering with him.
Human lifespans weren't that long. Even if Yun Shan broke through to Dou Zong, he would find it difficult to climb much higher in this lifetime, and that could hardly give Queen Medusa room to survive.
By now, Queen Medusa had already begun sending people to search for Heavenly Flames, preparing to gamble on that sliver of a chance to grow stronger.
After all, with no one around her to rely on, Queen Medusa could only rely on herself to lead her tribespeople out of the desert.
Heavenly Flames weren't easy to find. Even if she truly found one, evolving through Heavenly Flames would still mean nine chances of death and one of survival. But as the pressure to survive grew greater and greater, she had to do it, even with those odds.
Queen Medusa knew that without strength to match her beauty, her fate would probably be little better than that of the ordinary snake women of the Snake-People Tribe.
Yet Heavenly Flames were so difficult to find that there had been no news even now.
Fortunately, Yun Shan had arrived with Su Yun at this moment.
An eight-year-old first-tier alchemist-once he matured, even the seventh tier would most likely not be his limit.
And even for a seventh-tier alchemist, giving the Snake-People Tribe a little more room to survive would be no difficult task.
With a Transformation Pill, Queen Medusa could also attempt to break through to Dou Zong. If she could even find Heavenly Flames and undergo evolution as a Dou Zong, her chances of success would be somewhat greater.
Yes, evolution was a must. Tying everything she had to a man would make her no different from a captured snake woman, and Queen Medusa would never accept that.
"Hopefully, you really will be able to grow into your potential. When that time comes..."
Queen Medusa closed her eyes and thought no further.
Inside Queen Medusa's imperial palace, after obtaining the Snake-People Tribe's secret technique and accepting all the medicinal ingredients they gave him, Su Yun closed the doors and returned directly to the Su Clan on the Douluo Continent.
Upon Su Yun's return, the three Su Clan elders who had relied on medicine to break through to level eighty, then officially become Soul Douluos with the fifth-tier magic cores and Pulse-Protecting Pills Su Yun had given them, immediately bowed to him.
"Greetings, young clan leader."
Su Yun's gaze swept casually over the three of them. "What level are you all at now?"
"Young clan leader, thanks to the magic cores you gave us, we have all reached level eighty-two Soul Power."
As the elder standing at the front spoke, eight Soul Rings appeared behind him: two yellow, two purple, and four black.
Of those four black Soul Rings, the first three were somewhat pale. Only the last was pitch-black as ink, proof of the Soul Ring's great age.
"Do you know how many years that last Soul Ring is equivalent to?"
The elder thought for a moment. "Around eighty-five thousand years. Otherwise, the three of us couldn't possibly have skipped level eighty-one and reached level eighty-two directly."
Su Yun nodded, very satisfied with this.
Thanks to the Pulse-Protecting Pills, these three clan elders had all absorbed Soul Rings far beyond their normal limits.
Even the Ninth Soul Rings of many Titled Douluos hadn't reached eighty thousand years or more.
As for the Eighth Soul Ring, only Shrek's elite students could barely manage an Eighth Soul Ring over eighty thousand years old.
Setting aside Bei Bei's exceptional twenty-thousand-year Heavenly Dragon Horse Eighth Soul Ring, even among those who absorbed their Eighth Soul Ring normally, few could absorb one over eighty thousand years old.
It hadn't been possible in Douluo I. There had been almost no methods for absorbing Soul Rings beyond one's limits back then.
It was possible in Douluo II, but excluding the protagonist, only a handful had absorbed Soul Rings beyond their limits.
Among them, Xiao Hongchen had ended up bedridden just from absorbing a Fifth Soul Ring beyond his limits, while Zhang Lexuan had recuperated for half a year after absorbing an Eighth Soul Ring beyond hers.
And never mind gaining extra Soul Power Levels from absorbing Soul Rings beyond their limits in either case-even with Zhang Lexuan's talent, which had brought her to level eighty at twenty-three or twenty-four, her Soul Power had barely increased for several years after absorbing her Eighth Soul Ring.
Su Yun strongly suspected that Zhang Lexuan had had eight rings when Huo Yuhao had one, and still had eight rings when Huo Yuhao had eight.
That Soul Ring absorbed beyond her limits had clearly damaged her foundation. Aside from looking somewhat better, it had utterly ruined Zhang Lexuan's talent.
As for his own Su Clan's elders, although their Soul Rings weren't as old as Zhang Lexuan's, judging by how they had no need whatsoever to lie in bed and their level-eighty Soul Power, far from damaging their foundations, absorbing Soul Rings beyond their limits could even raise their talent somewhat.
"What about the grand elder? How is he doing now?"
"Young clan leader, as you know, absorbing it is more difficult for the grand elder than for us. We've been doing our best to equip him with Soul Bones during this time, so he only began merging with his Ninth Soul Ring four hours ago. But he should be nearly finished by now."
The moment that elder finished speaking, a terrifying presence arose within the Su Clan's grounds, filling everyone who knew what was happening with wild joy.
The Su Clan finally had a Titled Douluo.