Soul rings that are ten-thousand-year or above, as long as they are produced from the corpse of a deceased soul beast, will contain remnants of the beast's soul consciousness.
When absorbing such a soul ring, one must also withstand the soul shock formed by the beast's residual soul. Otherwise, the light consequence is soul injury; the severe consequence is soul shattering and complete death.
At this very moment, within Mu Yang's Sea of Consciousness, the unwilling soul remnant of the Titan Giant Ape stirred up significant waves.
Thus, Mu Yang had no choice but to split his attention. While operating the Iceflame Meditation Technique to rapidly refine the soul ring's energy, he had to devote a portion of his focus to his own Sea of Consciousness to extinguish the Titan Giant Ape's soul remnant.
In the Sea of Consciousness, a pure white full moon—symbolizing Mu Yang's Spiritual cultivation—hung high. Under the faint moonlight, an illusory Titan Giant Ape was roaring in unwilling rage.
Each roar from the Titan Giant Ape's soul remnant would stir up a wave of soul shock in the Sea of Consciousness.
For ordinary soul masters, they would naturally have to hold fast to their minds, withstand wave after wave of soul shock, and persevere until the Titan Giant Ape's soul remnant exhausted its soul energy and dispersed on its own.
But Mu Yang didn't want to bother with such a process. He gave the Titan Giant Ape's soul remnant a glance and unceremoniously activated the secret technique True Illusion Realm.
If it were the Titan Giant Ape in its peak state, he wouldn't dare to act so directly, lest he misjudge the power gap and suffer mental backlash from the spirit technique, ending up with more loss than gain.
But right now, the Titan Giant Ape was merely a soul remnant, with greatly weakened spiritual strength, and the remnant itself was rootless like duckweed. Using a spiritual secret technique against it was far too simple.
Once True Illusion Realm was unleashed, the Titan Giant Ape's soul remnant—which had just been roaring furiously, attempting to create soul shocks and drag Mu Yang down with it—instantly quieted down.
Very soon, within the True Illusion Realm, Mu Yang, by virtue of overwhelming power, annihilated the Titan Giant Ape. The soul remnant within the Sea of Consciousness immediately collapsed, vanishing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
In the outside world, following the predetermined evacuation route at high speed, it didn't take long before Huo Lie and his two companions—who had gone to intercept the Sky Azure Bull Python—caught up with the trio riding the ten-thousand-year Black-Feathered Vulture.
"How was it? How strong was that Sky Azure Bull Python?" Shui Yanyu asked upon Huo Lie's return.
"It was very strong. Took a small hit. Almost got taken down," Feng Zhen replied with a serious expression, glancing at Mu Yang, who was refining the hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape soul ring on the back of the Black-Feathered Vulture.
Although they had known the general information on the Sky Azure Bull Python before the operation, all three were aware that it possessed a soul skill with extremely fast activation and a degree of homing ability. Once hit, it would severely dull the six senses and impede movement.
But knowing was one thing—whether they could dodge it or not was another matter entirely.
And clearly, he couldn't dodge it. After being hit, he had no gap to respond and was struck directly by a bolt of lightning.
Fortunately, his teammates were reliable. At the critical moment, they pulled him out of danger, and he didn't suffer major injuries. He even chewed on an Orange Jade Blood-Replenishing Ginseng—produced by Mu Yang and amplified through battle armor, reaching the quality of a nine-ring herb—and recovered.
"That Sky Azure Bull Python is that strong?" Shui Yanyu couldn't help but feel surprised. With the strength of Huo Lie's team, facing a mere Hundred-thousand-year Sky Azure Bull Python, and yet they suffered losses?
One must know, Huo Lie and his team's overall power far exceeded hers and Mu Yang and Shui Bing'er combined. And Mu Yang and Bing'er, with Ice Phoenix Flame Shadow's fusion, had hunted the Titan Giant Ape with little difficulty.
Could it be that, although both were Hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, the Sky Azure Bull Python was far stronger than the Titan Giant Ape?
Huo Lie nodded and said, "That Sky Azure Bull Python's control-type innate soul skill is extremely fast. Not just Feng Zhen—even I likely wouldn't have reacted in time.
"Control paired with assault—its strength is indeed formidable.
"But that's all. A Hundred-thousand-year soul beast's innate soul skill is similar to our ninth soul skill; it can't be used many times in a short span. We just have to be more careful in future encounters."
What Huo Lie didn't say was that the real reason they ended up like that was mostly because all three of them underestimated the opponent.
If they had gone all out from the start, unleashed their martial soul true bodies, and combined their couple's defensive secret techniques, then even if Feng Zhen was hit by the Sky Azure Bull Python's Sky Azure Numbness Divine Claw and then seamlessly struck by Sky Azure Annihilation Thunder, he still wouldn't have been injured.
Simply put, ever since becoming Title Douluo with nine rings and possessing the 'divine artifact' of Spirit Gold Battle Armor, their mentalities had swelled. Without realizing it, they had developed the bad habit of underestimating their opponents.
Well, it's not entirely their fault. Anyone else would've been the same.
Take Huo Lie for instance—eight or nine years ago, he was just an ordinary eight-ring Soul Douluo. But today, eight or nine years later, he had become one of the strongest individuals in the continent's soul master world.
With 97-level peak strength after donning the Spirit Gold Battle Armor, there were few in the continent who could surpass him.
To have such explosive growth in strength over just a few years any person would naturally feel inflated, let alone Feng Zhen, whose rise was even faster than Huo Lie's, having been just an ordinary Soul Douluo three years ago.
Meanwhile...
In the forest, the earth trembled as the Sky Azure Bull Python, filled with grief, charged forward at high speed.
All of a sudden, a somewhat disheveled girl came rushing headlong from up ahead.
"Sister Xiao Wu?!"
Seeing the figure of that girl, the pain in the Sky Azure Bull Python Da Ming's heart momentarily paused. Once he confirmed that this was indeed his beloved Xiao Wu, and not an illusion formed by emotional confusion, he immediately shouted out in excitement.
"Wuwuwu~ Da Ming, Er Ming he... Er Ming he..."
As if releasing all the tension in her heart after surviving a great ordeal, Xiao Wu's steps faltered. She was tripped by wild forest vines and tumbled to the ground, falling headlong as she began to cry bitterly.
Hearing this, the excitement that had emerged in Da Ming's heart upon seeing Xiao Wu safe and sound instantly vanished. His eyes were filled with resolve and hatred as he said firmly, "Sister Xiao Wu, it's enough that you're alright. We will definitely avenge Er Ming!"
"Wuwuwu, Da Ming, it's all my fault... I shouldn't have left the Lake of Life..."
Pounding the ground with her fists in frustration, Xiao Wu wept with guilt all over her face.
"Sister Xiao Wu, don't cry. Er Ming... he's still waiting for us to bring him home."
Just like how "in life, we seek to see the person; in death, we must see the corpse," now that their younger brother Er Ming had been slain by those wicked human soul masters, aside from seeking vengeance on that group of humans, their top priority at the moment was to retrieve their brother's body and bury him beside the Lake of Life.
Er Ming's body was massive, and human soul masters rarely had storage-type soul tools with such large internal space. In other words, those wicked human soul masters could only take Er Ming's soul ring and soul bone—his corpse was definitely left behind. As the elder brother, he could not allow his little brother's body to lie exposed in the forest.
For additional chapters
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Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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