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"Excitement Mist!" Dugu Bo shouted.
A thick, blood-colored mist surged from his mouth—not toward Ye Lan, but directly onto the ground beneath his feet.
Within moments, the crimson fog enveloped a radius of several meters around him. Standing inside it, Dugu Bo took deep breaths, inhaling the mist into his lungs.
In just a few seconds, he had absorbed every last wisp of the blood mist.
His emerald pupils instantly turned blood-red. The Excitement Mist boosted Dugu Bo's strength by fifty percent and doubled his speed!
With the mist absorbed, the cells in his body burst into activity.
It had been decades since Dugu Bo had used his first soul skill. Normally, he could kill opponents outright with poison, so there was rarely a need to fight physically.
This surge of cellular vitality rekindled the thrill of youthful battle within him.
Savoring the sensation for only a brief moment, Dugu Bo suddenly blurred into a green afterimage, dashing toward Ye Lan at a speed more than thirty percent faster than his.
Even so, Ye Lan's Golden Eyes slowed his movements in his perception. He drove his right fist toward the path Dugu Bo was bound to take.
But Dugu Bo's body, moving at extreme speed, suddenly twisted with serpentine flexibility, swaying left and right like a venomous snake.
Ye Lan's fist grazed dangerously close to his left cheek.
Taking advantage of his momentum, Dugu Bo formed a dagger-hand with his fingers and stabbed toward Ye Lan's lower ribs. The strike was so fast that he couldn't dodge.
Yet the sensation at his fingertips wasn't what he expected. First, his hand struck the unyielding Blue Silver Armor. After breaking through that, he assumed it would slide easily into Ye Lan's lung. Instead, it still met hard resistance.
Between the armor and the Blood Armor beneath it, his dagger-hand only penetrated about a centimeter into his lower rib area.
A thin stream of blood seeped from Ye Lan's lower abdomen, staining the Blue Silver Armor.
He felt a warm sensation there and knew Dugu Bo had finally breached his defenses.
But instead of instantly retreating with Shunpo, his chest flashed with golden light.
The shattered Blue Silver Grass at the point of impact instantly transformed within his body into its Radiant Form.
"Solar Furnace!"
A massive wave of golden energy erupted from his chest, blasting Dugu Bo back over ten meters.
The shockwave disrupted any chance he had to follow up. Ye Lan instantly accelerated, pursuing him.
But before he could close the distance, Dugu Bo had already adjusted mid-air, landing with both feet braced against the trunk of a large tree. With explosive force, he pushed off—shattering the tree and propelling himself straight back toward Ye Lan.
His hands formed daggers once again.
This time, Ye Lan didn't respond as he had before.
"Shunpo—permanent mode."
He vanished, reappearing at Dugu Bo's side. Caught in mid-air, Dugu Bo had no solid ground to push off from.
His right fist erupted in a surge of crimson-gold light—another tricolored meteor strike—slamming full force into the right side of Dugu Bo's face. A bone-jarring pain shot up Ye Lan's arm; Dugu Bo's skull was hard as steel!
Not giving him any chance to recover, he pressed the attack.
"Echo Step!"
Boom!
Two deep craters marked where he'd been standing, but his figure had already appeared behind Dugu Bo.
"Meteor Strike!"
This time, he used his right leg, forming it into a tricolored crescent.
Leg strikes carried far more power than punches, though they also left him more exposed.
But positioned behind Dugu Bo, he had no fear of counterattack.
The crescent smashed into Dugu Bo's back with devastating force.
He had been scanning for footholds mid-air, but before he could act, the blow detonated against him.
Combined with the momentum of already being knocked back, the strike made him feel as if his old back might give out entirely.
In that instant, Dugu Bo was forced to raise his soul power to the Soul Ancestor level just to defend against the compounded Meteor Strike.
Bang!
He crashed into the ground, sending dark soil and clumps of grass flying everywhere.
Tumbling for more than a dozen rolls, he finally stopped.
Inwardly, Dugu Bo sighed. I really am getting old. Is this truly the power of a mere Grand Soul Master?
Though he had quietly boosted his defense with Soul Ancestor-level power, no one present would have been able to tell.
In his heart, Dugu Bo had already acknowledged Ye Lan's victory.
Still, for the sake of his pride, he rose with a calm expression, already considering ways to restrict Ye Lan.
In just the blink of an eye, Ye Lan was charging him again.
He wasn't surprised that Dugu Bo was uninjured—after all, he was a Titled Douluo; being durable was expected.
To Ye Lan, this was a perfect chance to have some fun with a high-level human target.
If only there were a damage counter, he thought, I'd love to know my DPS at full power.
As he neared him once more, Dugu Bo finally understood the secret behind his sudden teleportation.
His bursts of speed weren't purely from physical movement but were more like rapid travel between two points.
As a Titled Douluo, his experience far surpassed that of ordinary soul masters.
His new plan was to focus on Ye Lan's footwork. The moment he determined his intended direction, he would treat every point along that line as his next possible position.
With the Excitement Mist's speed boost, he was confident he could seize the advantage in the next exchanges.
Centering himself, Dugu Bo fixed his gaze entirely on Ye Lan's legs.
Unaware of his thoughts, Ye Lan continued to rely on his Golden Eyes to anticipate Dugu Bo's responses, planning to use his sudden slow-fast transitions to catch him off guard.
But Dugu Bo stood perfectly still, watching his footwork without making a move.
Seeing his stillness, Ye Lan decided not to use Shunpo immediately, wary of a trap.
Instead, he used the speed boost from the Blood Armor Full Form to launch another Meteor Strike.
At that instant, Dugu Bo finally moved—slightly shifting his body while reaching out to grab Ye Lan's right arm.
His Golden Eyes caught the movement, and his permanent Shunpo mode activated instantly.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared to Dugu Bo's left—only to be met with a sudden kick to the chest.
Bang!
The blow sent him flying more than ten meters.
Mid-air, Ye Lan frantically summoned his remaining Blue Silver Grass, wrapping it around nearby tree trunks to slow his momentum and soften the impending impact.
(End of Chapter)