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*****
Su Wen reappeared at the same time as the Dark Devilgod Tiger's corpse, returning to his original spot completely unscathed.
"Is it over?"
The moment they sensed the shift in the atmosphere, Dugu Bo, Chen Xin, and Ning Fengzhi immediately tensed up. It was only after seeing the tiger's lifeless body and Su Wen standing tall that they finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Upon his return, Su Wen instantly unleashed his mental energy to lock onto the Dark Devilgod Tiger's remains. He pinpointed the jet-black bead—radiating those eerie glows of blue and green—the very second it emerged.
He reached out to seize the bead.
However, the object seemed possessed of a spiritual will. It darted away, narrowly evading Su Wen's grasp, and zipped toward the side. A jagged rift in space tore open, and the black bead looked as though it were about to vanish into the void.
Su Wen's expression remained stony. He activated his fifth soul skill.
A vertical pupil manifested on his forehead, pulsing with a rhythm that synchronized with his eyes. Together, they radiated a powerful wave of spatial energy, and an illusory world flickered into existence, superimposing itself over reality. The spatial rift in front of the bead was suddenly blocked, swallowed by the descent of a different dimension.
The black bead found itself trapped within Su Wen's Phantasmal Domain. With a casual motion, Su Wen reached out and snatched it from the air.
"This is remarkably similar to the situation with the Void Silver Moon Tapir," Su Wen muttered to himself, somewhat exasperated.
Is this just a common trait among top-tier soul beasts? he wondered. Even in death, they had an arsenal of tricks. The Void Silver Moon Tapir had tried to infuse its remnant soul into its soul ring to seek a mutual destruction with Su Wen. The Dark Devilgod Tiger, however, was different; it had directly infused its entire soul into this Life Bead. As long as the bead escaped and its soul remained intact, it would effectively have cheated death.
Su Wen frowned. He recalled the protagonist of Heavenly Jewel Change merging with this bead, but in that story, there had been no mention of the tiger's remnant soul being present.
"Could this be special treatment just for me?"
Thinking back to his assertive, almost arrogant performance inside the Life-and-Death Arena, Su Wen nodded thoughtfully. It was likely that the Dark Devilgod Tiger knew it was doomed the moment it saw him "cheat" the arena's rules, and it had prepared this escape route in advance. There had definitely been a lingering scent of the Evil God's power during that final moment.
"As expected of a super soul beast. It completely defies common logic, even being able to trigger an innate ability while inside the Life-and-Death Arena."
Su Wen tucked the Life Bead away and turned his gaze toward the spatial rift. He had used his Phantasmal Domain to fix the crack in place temporarily. He hadn't had the chance to feel it while chasing the bead, but now he began to probe it carefully.
"Xiao Wen, absorb the soul ring as quickly as possible," Ning Fengzhi reminded him.
The earlier battle had caused massive disturbances. Never mind the trouble of other human Spirit Masters coming to investigate; the real concern was the Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python. In the Star Dou Great Forest, those two were the undisputed overlords. With the scent of the Dark Devilgod Tiger now out in the open, those two titans would almost certainly come to investigate.
Su Wen didn't rush. He merged his mental energy with the power of space, following the thread through the rift.
"The Grand Azure Continent..."
He took a deep breath. Although he couldn't clearly perceive the situation on the other side, he was certain that it was not the Douluo Continent. He retracted his Phantasmal Domain, and the spatial rift quickly mended itself, vanishing into nothingness.
Su Wen glanced at the Life Bead in his hand one last time before stowing it safely. This beast likely held the coordinates to other planes of existence. Finally, he turned his attention back to the tiger's corpse.
A black soul ring, swirling with the dense, grey power of the Evil God, hovered over the remains. Su Wen sat cross-legged and guided the ring toward himself.
Boom!
The soul power within the ring carried a chilling aura, saturated with extreme evil and a violent, unyielding resentment. A thick sense of malice took root within the energy. Perhaps influenced by this malevolent will, the soul power of the Dark Devilgod Tiger was exceptionally potent—the impact was several times more intense than a typical soul ring of the same age.
Simultaneously, a stream of grey mist seeped into Su Wen's Mental Sea. Waves of resentment began to form, crashing against his consciousness. However, none of it could truly shake him.
Three days later.
Su Wen opened his eyes. The absorption of the Dark Devilgod Tiger's soul ring had been significantly easier than he had anticipated. This confirmed his theory: at the final moment, the tiger had used the Evil God's power to transfer its soul into the Life Bead.
The soul ring contained almost no remnant soul; there were only symbolic waves of resentment that posed no real threat to Su Wen's mental defenses. With his mental state unburdened, he had been able to quickly refine the soul power, even with its malevolent intent.
ROAR!
MOOO!
Two thunderous voices, carrying a suffocating pressure, echoed through the forest. Su Wen's face paled slightly. He looked toward the deepest part of the Star Dou Great Forest.
"The Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python!" Ning Fengzhi's expression was grim. He released his martial soul, ready to augment Chen Xin and Dugu Bo at a moment's notice. The two Title Douluos had used their Martial Soul Avatars recently and hadn't yet returned to their absolute peak.
Two gargantuan figures loomed in the distance. One was a massive black gorilla with eyes that glowed like yellow crystals—a creature as large as a mountain. Beside it was a soul beast with the head of a bull and the body of a serpent, its hide a deep greenish-black. The bull head alone was over four meters in diameter, and its serpent body was thicker than a water vat.
Two pairs of eyes, large as lanterns, glared down at the four humans. Su Wen felt a crushing weight settle over him.
The Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python...
On the shoulder of the Titan Giant Ape, Su Wen spotted a familiar figure.
"It's you, Su Wen!" Xiao Wu cried out in shock. "Da Ming, Er Ming, they're the ones who forced me to come back!" She pointed an accusing finger at Su Wen and Dugu Bo. "They were the ones who tried to kill me for my soul ring before!"
As Xiao Wu's voice fell, the soul power of the two super soul beasts erupted in a violent frenzy.
Chen Xin let out a cold hmph and summoned the Seven Kill Sword. A terrifying sword-qi gathered around him, radiating a piercing intent that acted as a warning to the two hundred-thousand-year beasts. Dugu Bo also completed his Martial Soul Possession, his body wreathed in the lethal Jade Phosphor poison.
Following a mental prompt from Su Wen, Dugu Bo prepared to detonate his toxins if necessary.
Sure enough, faced with the combined pressure of Chen Xin and Dugu Bo, the two overlords hesitated. Although this was the outer circle, many soul beasts lived nearby. In an instant, Dugu Bo's poison had already saturated the area within a hundred-meter radius. If he fully detonated it, he could easily blanket dozens of kilometers in a toxic fog. For the soul beasts living in the surrounding forest, it would be a catastrophic disaster.
Furthermore, the fluctuations of Chen Xin's sword intent made them wary. Most importantly, they were too close to the forest's edge. If the humans fought while retreating, they could easily escape the Star Dou Great Forest entirely. Without knowing if this was a trap, the two super beasts were unwilling to leave the safety of their domain.
Their primary mission today had been the Dark Devilgod Tiger.
Suddenly, Xiao Wu's pupils shrank as she stared intently at the massive corpse of the black tiger on the ground.
"Da Ming, Er Ming! That's... that's the body of the Dark Devilgod Tiger!" she exclaimed.
(End of Chapter)