Star-Bearing Dragon Beast

At the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest, ancient trees towered into the sky, and mist drifted through the woods like a gauzy veil.

Jing Hongchen moved like lightning, holding Bao Liang's hand with one hand and pressing the other to his chest-the old man's heart was racing so wildly that even a rank ninety-three Titled Douluo could hardly conceal his urgency.

"Damn it! Why did you make that training device so heavy?!" Jing Hongchen suddenly cried out, his voice half torn away by the wind.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't realize. I'll turn it off right now." Bao Liang hurriedly set the soul-tool training device's weight increase to zero.

Jing Hongchen immediately felt lighter and carried Bao Liang through the air at greater speed, explaining the Soul Beast they had found for him and what they had gone through along the way.

"To find you a Soul Beast, both Teacher Kong and I called on quite a few of our hidden assets over on the Douluo Continent, all to find more information on Soul Beasts.

"In the end, we didn't disappoint. After passing through more than seventy pairs of hands, several comprehensive guides to the Soul Beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest finally reached us from inside Shrek, and we found a Soul Beast in them that met every one of your requirements.

"We even have a pretty good idea about the Soul Beasts you'll need in the future. All that's left now is to find them." Jing Hongchen couldn't help sighing, an almost unbelievable weariness in his voice. "Speaking of which, aren't your requirements a bit too bizarre? It had to have the pure destruction attribute, be hard to kill, and be destroying itself every moment of the day!

"Good heavens, it's a good thing we looked in the Star Dou Great Forest. If we'd searched in Sun Moon, we probably couldn't have found a Soul Beast like that in ten years!"

"But luckily, I remembered to bring Old Ye along this time. We barely managed to keep that big fellow hanging on to life.

"But it's destroying itself too quickly. Its oil is almost spent and its lamp is about to go out, so we need to hurry.

"If our whereabouts are exposed, so be it. At worst, we'll kill until heaven and earth turn upside down."

Hearing what Jing Hongchen and the others had done for him, Bao Liang was deeply moved. His nose prickled as he said, "Thank you, Grandpa Jing."

"Ah, we're all family. No need for that." Jing Hongchen paid it little mind. "Right, let me tell you about that Soul Beast.

"Originally, Old Ye and I found you a mutated Thundering Hell Vine with the pure destruction attribute. But who would've thought a dragon beast we didn't recognize would suddenly come charging out and start tearing into the Thundering Hell Vine? And as we were thinking this, that dragon beast happened to have the destruction attribute too.

"That dragon beast was a hundred meters long, with wings on its back and purple flames surrounding its body.

"Old Ye and I planned to watch and see what happened, but who would've thought? Everything was fine until they started fighting, and then things went wrong."

Lingering fear crept into Jing Hongchen's voice. "Who knew that dragon beast was far stronger than the mutated Thundering Hell Vine? It opened its mouth and swallowed it whole. Even more outrageous, it had the exact same self-destructive tendency as the Thundering Hell Vine!"

"That fellow was probably close to death and couldn't hold on, so it thought it could devour a Soul Beast of the same origin and advance again. Instead, it sped up its own destruction, and now it really is damn near dead." Jing Hongchen's voice was full of disgust and loathing, but also helpless urgency. "Damn it! Why did it have to come out when it was already dying? If we let it die, this whole year of work will have gone down the drain!"

After hearing Jing Hongchen's explanation, Bao Liang understood how serious things were.

He said nothing, concentrating solely on adjusting his condition. Blue flames churned in his eyes, as though locked in a final struggle with the destruction factors in his body.

"Little Bao Liang, I reckon that dragon beast is fifty-nine thousand years old. Will your method still work on it?" Jing Hongchen asked, his voice carrying a last glimmer of hope.

Bao Liang nodded firmly. "Don't worry, Grandpa Jing. As long as Dragon Fang can swallow it, the method will definitely work.

"Besides, we've already used that method on Xiao and Sister Meng so many times, and Dragon Fang's strength shouldn't be inferior to that dragon beast's.

"It shouldn't be a big problem.

"Only this time, I might have to go along too."

"All right, be careful in everything you do." After that final warning, Jing Hongchen sped up again, flying toward the dragon beast's location.

At the far end of the sea of trees, a scorched clearing came into view. An unconscious giant beast lay at its center, purple flames rising and falling around it like breaths, growing weaker and weaker.

Ye Yulin, dressed in a moon-white robe, knelt on one knee with his hands pressed against the beast's forehead, continuously feeding some kind of silvery-white liquid into its mouth.

Sensing a familiar presence approaching, Ye Yulin hurriedly called out, "Old Toad, hurry up! This fellow's not going to make it!"

"I'm here!" The moment Jing Hongchen and Bao Liang landed, Bao Liang unleashed his full power. Blue flames erupted from his body, turning everything within a hundred meters into a sea of blue fire.

At the same time, a Dread Blueflame Dragon Fire Spirit nearly a hundred meters long, shaped like an eastern dragon, soared out of Bao Liang's Martial Soul and descended onto the dragon beast.

"Dragon Fang, are you confident?"

Dragon Fang took a careful look at the dragon beast, then nodded firmly.

"Good!" Bao Liang sat down cross-legged. "I'll use Molten Fire Thousandfold Forging to help you in a moment. You need to be careful... Forget it, let's do it together. That'll be safer."

Dragon Fang nodded again and, without hesitation, plunged straight into the dragon beast's head and entered its Spiritual Sea of Consciousness. At the same time, Bao Liang unleashed his Explosion Martial Soul to its fullest, using the dragon beast's body as a furnace and its soul as iron, concentrating as he began to forge it.

Seeing the man and dragon begin, Jing Hongchen and Ye Yulin focused on standing guard over them.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. No matter how many times I see this method, it's still stunning! Speaking of which, how did that kid ever think of having Dragon Fang possess a Soul Beast and then make a Sacrifice to him?" Ye Yulin exclaimed, barely able to conceal the amazement in his voice. "And that thug's intimidation tactic of theirs...

"Good heavens, one of them burrows into its Spiritual Sea of Consciousness to attack its spirit, while the other beats up its body from the outside. Then they force the Soul Beast to learn how to make a Sacrifice to someone else.

"That brain, those ideas-even if you gave me fifty years, I'd never think of pulling something like that."

"That's why they're the future. That's also why, apart from Meng's Third Soul Ring, all their subsequent Soul Rings are Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings," Jing Hongchen said, his gaze fixed on the vortex of intertwined blue and purple energy.

"All right, keep an eye on the surroundings. Don't let some blind fool ruin things."

Ye Yulin snorted. "I'd do that without you telling me.

"By the way, I found this dragon beast's name in a travelogue. It seems to be called a Star-Bearing Dragon Beast. It has the pure destruction attribute, and its ability seems to cause continuous destruction over a wide area."

Jing Hongchen's face lit up at once, but then filled with worry. "Sigh, I don't know whether this is a blessing or a curse..."

Inside the Spiritual Sea of Consciousness, Bao Liang and Dragon Fang appeared together, and the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast's figure appeared at the same time. Unexpectedly, however, the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast wasn't the only one there. The mutated Thundering Hell Vine was there too.

"Two Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast souls? You've got to be kidding me!" Bao Liang was shocked, but had no time to think.

The next second, perhaps because enemies burned with particular hatred at the sight of each other or something else, the two Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts ignored Dragon Fang entirely and started tearing into each other again.

In an instant, dragon breath and lightning clashed throughout the Spiritual Sea of Consciousness, neither giving ground—the dragon breath carried apocalyptic corrosion, while the lightning bore the violence of destruction.

Seeing this, Bao Liang was happy to watch the show and reap the fisherman's profit while he was at it.

Before long, the battle was decided.

Just as it had swallowed its opponent in a few moves outside, the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast dispatched the Thundering Hell Vine in only a few moves inside the Spiritual Sea of Consciousness.

Just as it was about to swallow the Thundering Hell Vine's remaining soul, Bao Liang and Dragon Fang made their move.

Dragon Fang opened his mouth and blasted it with flames, whipping it far away with his tail at the same time. Then he turned and swallowed the Thundering Hell Vine's remaining soul fragment in one gulp.

Bao Liang also unleashed Molten Fire Thousandfold Forging to its fullest, trapping the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast firmly in the air from both inside and out.

Seeing its prey stolen and itself imprisoned, the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast's anger instantly reached its brain, destruction replacing thought. It continually spat dragon breath at Dragon Fang, but he dodged back and forth and sprayed its face full of fire in return.

After they went back and forth like this for nearly a quarter of an hour, the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast could bear it no longer. Its heart began to pound like a drum in its chest, and at the same instant, an unprecedented light shone forth-the final struggle before its life came to an end.

Dragon Fang's heart tightened. He scooped up Bao Liang and fled from it without looking back.

But just as the light was about to reach its critical point, the drumming stopped abruptly, and the light gradually faded with it.

As if sensing that its life was about to end, the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast's eyes were no longer filled with the savagery of wanting to destroy everything. Instead, a final glimmer of reason appeared in them.

After glancing at Bao Liang and Dragon Fang, it turned its head, gazing at who knew what.

At last, it slowly closed its eyes, and its soul dissipated completely.

While Bao Liang was still wondering what that glance had meant, Dragon Fang had already rushed to the place where it had finally died and begun absorbing the last remnants of its soul's power.

Seeing this, Bao Liang departed as well, his spirit returning to his own body.

Seeing Bao Liang wake up, the two old men hurried over to check on him.

"Grandpa Jing, Grandpa Ye, I'm fine. Don't worry."

"Good, good, as long as you're all right." Jing Hongchen breathed a sigh of relief, but failed to notice the faint trembling of the ground.

Just then, the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast rose to its feet again. Only now, its eyes were no longer the Star-Bearing Dragon Beast's purple eyes, but Dragon Fang's blue-flamed dragon eyes-deep, yet carrying a familiar glimmer of fire.

"Come on, Dragon Fang. I'm ready."

The next second, Dragon Fang took full control of the body.

The Sacrifice began once more!