Just then, a figure emerged from within the gray mist shrouding the front of the avenue.
It was a humanoid Abyssal Demon with an exceptionally burly figure, standing over five meters tall. Upon its ferocious head grew a pair of horns like those of a yak, bat wings spread from its back, its whole body covered in purple demonic patterns. In its hands it held a massive steel trident, while its thick, wild, dark-purple hair whipped about, and its entire body exuded an aura of evil and chaos.
"Judging by aura alone, its strength isn't all that high, about the level of a ninety-thousand-year soul beast or someone who has just entered the Titled Douluo stage?"
After carefully sizing it up, Mu Yang evaluated the opponent's strength.
However, such strength was by no means weak. One had to know, both his and Shui Bing'er's soul power ranks were still only at the seventy-first rank Soul Saint level.
For the second trial of the Asura God's Nine Trials to produce an opponent with the strength of a newly advanced Titled Douluo, the difficulty could not be considered low.
What's more, the opponent in this second trial was not just this humanoid demon before them. The countless cannon fodder Abyssal Demons—though weak individually—were also part of the assessment.
Of course, an opponent at the level of an early Titled Douluo appearing in the trial did not mean the difficulty was excessive.
After all, there were two people taking the trial. Even if it were replaced with trial-takers of the same soul power level as him and Shui Bing'er, two Soul Saints with the Killing God Domain working together would not necessarily be weaker than this humanoid Abyssal Demon.
"#@￥%&%￥#"
With the steel trident in its hand pointing straight at Mu Yang and Shui Bing'er, the burly humanoid demon spoke words that Mu Yang could not understand.
"Mu Yang, what is it saying?"
Hearing a string of incomprehensible gibberish, Shui Bing'er was baffled and asked Mu Yang.
"No idea, but it's definitely not anything nice."
Having no intention of wasting time in chatter with this humanoid Abyssal Demon, Mu Yang activated the soul bone skill Taiyin Divine Light from his Spirit-Concentrating Wisdom Skull Bone.
As majestic spiritual power surged forth, a deep-blue radiance lit up on Mu Yang's forehead, and then a brilliant beam of white light shot out, striking the head of the shouting humanoid Abyssal Demon in the distance.
Bang—
With an explosive sound, the ferocious head of the humanoid Abyssal Demon burst apart like a watermelon smashed on the ground, sending fragments of dark-purple flesh mixed with splintered bone flying in all directions. Immediately after, the massive, headless demon corpse holding the steel trident collapsed to the ground.
Under the powerful spiritual attack of the soul bone skill Taiyin Divine Light, this humanoid Abyssal Demon—whose strength was on par with the likes of She Long but essentially a weakling Titled Douluo—was directly one-shotted with a headshot!
"Tch~ Trash!"
Mu Yang curled his lip in disdain.
Very soon, the fallen, headless Abyssal Demon dissolved into a mass of gray mist and dispersed.
And at the same moment the humanoid Abyssal Demon was completely annihilated, Mu Yang noticed that the few surviving Abyssal Demons in the rear—still alive despite the slaughter by the Iceflame Dragon and Extreme Ice Phoenix—suddenly seemed to be frozen in place by some great power, before likewise dissolving into gray mist and vanishing.
Immediately after, at the very end of the avenue, a speck of white light abruptly appeared, then rapidly expanded, transforming into an oval-shaped white light screen.
'BOSS dies, the mobs instantly go GG, and even the exit portal pops up?'
Seeing the mobs vanish into gray mist after the humanoid Abyssal Demon's death, and the appearance of the white light screen, Mu Yang thought to himself with a strange expression.
This pace… why did it feel a little like that MMO from his past life that boasted eight million brave warriors?
Stepping into the white light screen that led out of Hell Road, their vision shifted, and Mu Yang and Shui Bing'er returned to the demonic archway where they had first entered Hell Road.
At the same time, a solemn voice rang out in Mu Yang's mind.
"Asura God's Nine Trials, Second Trial: The True Hell Road, completed! Reward: Asura Affinity +10%, one God-bestowed Spirit Ring, all spirit ring years increased by two thousand years!"
As the solemn voice faded, Mu Yang's two martial souls appeared in succession, and the years of all nine of his spirit rings across both martial souls were each increased by two thousand years.
Counting the previous reward from completing the first trial—which had increased all spirit rings by one thousand years—Mu Yang's total spirit ring year increase had now reached three thousand years.
However, compared to last time, this increase in all spirit ring years did not bring about another qualitative change.
After all, the second spirit ring of his Icefire Immortal Jade Ginseng martial soul had an initial age of just over one thousand years. Even with an increase of three thousand years in total, it was still only a little over four thousand years old. His first spirit ring had an even lower initial age, and at present was still far from the ten-thousand-year threshold.
As for the other spirit rings, there was no need to mention them—since they were already ten-thousand-year spirit rings, achieving another qualitative change might only be possible upon completing the entire God Trial.
And that was still under the assumption that the Asura God was generous. If it were someone like the Rakshasa God, that miserly type, there would be no need to even think about it.
As for Asura God Affinity, after completing the second trial, it had once again increased by 10%, which was double the increase from completing the first trial, bringing the total to 15%.
As for the reward of the God-bestowed Spirit Ring—Mu Yang was not the only one to receive it. Shui Bing'er, who had served as a companion in the God Trial, also obtained one.
Mu Yang saw two dark-red beams of light descend from the sky, landing before him and Shui Bing'er respectively. The dark-red light then dispersed, revealing a golden bead.
The golden bead was quite extraordinary, as if it had been carved from the most precious golden crystal, flawless in every way.
Most curious of all was the faint layer of golden mist constantly swirling within the bead, making it appear like a work of art.
'Not bad. While the Asura God isn't as generous as Poseidon, at least he can't be compared to that miserly Rakshasa God. The only question is—what is the upper limit on the years of a God-bestowed Spirit Ring?'
Reaching out to take the God-bestowed Spirit Ring before him, Mu Yang couldn't help but think to himself.
In the original work, the Shrek Seven Devils who underwent the Sea God Trial obtained more than a few God-bestowed Spirit Rings, but the maximum year count of the ones they condensed was only one hundred thousand years.
In other words, the lower bound for the God-bestowed Spirit Ring's maximum was one hundred thousand years. But whether it could reach higher—two hundred thousand years, nine hundred thousand years, or even one million years—Mu Yang couldn't be sure.
"Bing'er, how many years did your spirit rings increase by—eh? Your soul power rank also increased?"
Mu Yang turned to look at Shui Bing'er beside him, only to suddenly notice that her soul power rank had risen from Rank 73 Soul Saint to Rank 74 Soul Saint.
"Mhm! All my spirit rings increased by two thousand years, and my soul power went up by one rank."
Shui Bing'er said happily.
She wasn't like Mu Yang, who could quickly raise his soul power rank by attaching high-year spirit rings to his second martial soul. At her current seventh-ring stage, even with her extraordinary talent, gaining one rank of soul power would take at least several months.
Saving several months of cultivation time, plus gaining two thousand years on all spirit rings, all for the effort of merely killing some Abyssal Demons that posed no real threat—this was just too satisfying.
As expected, coming to train in the City of Slaughter back then had been the right choice!
For additional chapters
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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