A Thousand-Year Second Ring
What made his heart sink to rock bottom was that his First Soul Skill had become useless at this moment. Not only had it failed to control his opponent, it had exposed his position and cost him even the advantage of invisibility. He simply couldn't find a chance to invade the Cyclops's soul!
Seeing this, the Cyclops let out a mocking roar and lunged at Su Tianyu again.
Its massive figure loomed over him, bringing with it a mountainlike pressure that nearly left Su Tianyu unable to breathe. He retreated again and again, his foot slipping and nearly sending him sprawling. His situation was perilous!
"I can't just sit here and wait for death!"
A ruthless gleam flashed in Su Tianyu's eyes. He reached back and snatched the crossbow from his back, a deadly weapon he had poured his heart and soul into forging specifically to deal with Soul Beasts with formidable defenses!
He quickly drew a meter-long iron arrow from his quiver. Its tip glinted coldly, carrying a sharp, fierce air.
Gritting his teeth, he loaded the iron arrow into the crossbow and pulled with both arms until the bowstring was drawn to its limit. His knuckles turned white from the strain.
"Break!" Su Tianyu shouted under his breath and released his fingers.
"Whoosh!" With an ear-piercing whistle, the iron arrow shot toward the Cyclops's single eye like a bolt of black lightning!
The Cyclops's pupil contracted at the sight of the speeding arrow. It tried to dodge, but its enormous size made it too sluggish to react in time.
"Pfft!" The iron arrow struck true, piercing straight through its single eye. Blood gushed out!
"Awooo-!"
A piercing scream echoed through the forest. The Cyclops clutched its eye and rolled on the ground in agony. The fiery red light around its body abruptly dimmed, and the boost from Giant Spirit Transformation was forcibly interrupted!
"The chance is here!
"Su Tianyu's eyes lit up, and he was wild with joy. Ignoring the dizziness in his head, he forcibly gathered what little Soul Power he had left and shouted, "First Soul Skill, Golden Pupil Illusory Realm!"
The yellow Soul Ring lit up again. This time, invisible spiritual power slipped through the opening like a venomous snake and attacked the Cyclops's mind with savage intensity. With its spiritual power greatly weakened, the Cyclops was powerless to resist. Its body stiffened at once, and it stopped rolling as the red light in its eye gradually faded.
"Soul Realm, open!"
As the soul-control pattern in the Soul Ring lit up, the space within the domain instantly warped. Before long, a black space appeared above the Cyclops. A pitch-black chain reached out of it, plunged into the Cyclops's head, and dragged its soul out and into the space.
Inside the Soul Control Realm, Su Tianyu looked at the Cyclops's trembling soul before him. A vicious light shone in his eyes, and his lips curled into a cruel smile. Letting out an eerie "Jie jie" laugh, he slowly walked toward its soul like a cat stalking a mouse.
The Cyclops trembled all over, its eye filled with terror and despair. It remembered clearly how terrifying this human's Soul Skill was. The last bout of torment was still vivid in its mind, yet now it had fallen victim to it again! It wanted to roar, wanted to resist, but found its soul bound so tightly that it couldn't even twitch.
Su Tianyu walked up to the Cyclops's soul and looked down at it without a trace of mercy in his eyes.
In this chase between life and death, he had been the one to laugh last, but he didn't dare let his guard down. No one knew whether this overlord-class Soul Beast had another trick up its sleeve. He had to finish it off as quickly as possible and obtain his second Soul Ring.
"You chased me so fiercely just now. What's the matter? Are you afraid now?"
Su Tianyu's lips curled into a cold smile as his spiritual power swept through the illusory realm like a tide.
In the blink of an eye, the once-ferocious Cyclops was firmly bound to a cross that had appeared out of thin air. Pitch-black soul-control chains wrapped around its limbs and body like a spiderweb, digging deep into its soul body and leaving it unable to move.
Gazing at the trapped Cyclops, Su Tianyu gathered swirling light in his palm. A spiritual-power whip with an eerie blue sheen silently took shape.
"Crack!"
The sharp snap of the whip broke the silence as it whistled through the air and lashed the Cyclops's soul body.
"Waga! Waga!"
Piercing screams rang out one after another. With every lash, the Cyclops's solid soul body grew a shade dimmer, and fragments of soul light fell away like shards of shattered glass. After a hundred lashes, the soul body on the cross had become almost translucent, as though a gentle breeze could scatter it completely between heaven and earth.
Su Tianyu wasted no more time and activated the Soul Control Chain, frantically absorbing the power of the Cyclops's soul.
"Bang!"
In less than a minute, the Cyclops's soul body shattered, turning into wisps of black smoke that vanished without a trace.
"Rumble!"
As its soul body was extinguished, the Cyclops's massive body collapsed outside, slamming heavily into the ground and sending dust billowing into the air.
Immediately afterward, countless specks of purple light poured from the corpse and finally condensed into a thousand-year purple Soul Ring radiating a rich presence. It floated quietly above the corpse.
Su Tianyu quickly dug a deep pit beside the corpse and leaped in. With all his strength, he dragged the Cyclops's corpse over to cover himself, then sat cross-legged. Soul Power surged around him as his Martial Soul possessed him in an instant.
"Come, my second Soul Ring!" he shouted, setting the Soul Power within him racing.
As if answering his call, the purple Soul Ring slowly passed through the Cyclops's corpse and came to hover above his head. After circling there for a while, it suddenly slammed down toward him.
The instant the Soul Ring touched his body, Su Tianyu shuddered violently as if struck by a heavy hammer, and a mouthful of blood burst from his lips.
"I have to hold on! I can't let the Soul Ring's energy rampage through me! Mysterious Heaven Skill, circulate at full power!"
Su Tianyu's face twisted, and cold sweat streamed down his forehead. His body swelled under the impact of the Soul Ring's energy as his Mysterious Heaven Skill, which had broken through to the second layer, circulated at great speed.
Guided by the Mysterious Heaven Skill, the Soul Ring's energy, which had been charging around inside him, gradually grew docile and calm, slowly flowing along his meridians toward his dantian.
Time passed quietly in the silence, and five hours flew by in the blink of an eye. When the last trace of the Soul Ring's energy within him had been completely refined, Su Tianyu's eyes snapped open, a brilliant light flashing in them.
He shoved the Cyclops's corpse off him with all his strength and leaped out of the pit. Looking around, he realized that day had given way to late night. Shrouded in darkness, the Heavenly Eye Forest had an eerie, sinister air.
"Purple Demon Eye!"
A faint violet tint appeared in Su Tianyu's eyes as his sharp gaze pierced the night and swept across the surrounding forest.
The next second, his pupils contracted slightly. In the darkness, pairs of green eyes were rapidly approaching him, accompanied by a jumble of hurried footsteps.
"Hell Wolves?"
Once he saw what kind of Soul Beasts had appeared, Su Tianyu breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Fortunately, they were only Hell Wolves of no great age, nothing to fear.
Light bloomed beneath his feet, and two Soul Rings, one yellow and one purple, slowly rose. Without hesitation, Su Tianyu lit up the yellow Soul Ring.
"First Soul Skill, Golden Pupil Illusory Realm!"
Invisible ripples of spiritual power spread through the domain like a tide. Wherever they passed, dozens of Hell Wolves fell to the ground under the Mental Shock and did not rise again. The eerie green light in their eyes quickly dimmed, and white Soul Rings slowly rose above their corpses, their faint white light illuminating the sinister forest beneath the night sky.