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Hours later, the moon was like a silver disk, and stars filled the sky. On the other side of the Sunset Forest, the atmosphere was peaceful and orderly. At this moment, Dugu Bo had already hunted a suitable Spirit Beast for the Shi Brothers, who were now sitting cross-legged on the ground, fully absorbing their fourth spirit ring.
Beside the two Shi Brothers lay the corpses of two Spirit Beasts, each the size of a small hill, which were five-thousand-year-old Thorny Rock Turtles.
Its appearance was slightly ferocious, with a thick rock shell covering its entire body like natural armor, and sharp stone spikes protruding from its shell, all demonstrating its powerful defense in life.
Two deep purple spirit rings were suspended above the heads of the Shi Brothers, emitting waves of rich spirit power fluctuations, which then surged into their bodies like a tide.
Tang Chen and Dugu Bo stood not far away, quietly guarding them. Although Dugu Bo still maintained his lazy demeanor, the occasional glint in his emerald eyes indicated that he had never relaxed his vigilance.
However, this tranquility did not last long. Suddenly, an unusually violent and dense commotion, without warning, emanated from deep within the dense forest not far away.
The sound went from far to near, initially like a muffled thunder rolling, then quickly becoming like a surging tide. Amidst it were the crisp sounds of countless branches and leaves being trampled and broken, as well as the panicked cries, whines, and roars of various Spirit Beasts.
It was as if a thousand troops were rapidly gathering and stampeding in that area, immediately causing a localized ground tremor, as if an earthquake was approaching.
This commotion was by no means caused by ordinary Spirit Beast skirmishes; it was more like a prelude to a large-scale beast tide, or a collective riot of Spirit Beasts after being subjected to some extreme stimulus.
Immediately, Tang Chen and Dugu Bo's brows furrowed slightly at the same time, their expressions changing. The next second, Tang Chen looked up, his gaze heavy as he directed it towards the source of the sound, and he instantly pushed his Blue Silver Domain to its limit.
"Something's wrong! This commotion is too big; it seems like a lot of Spirit Beasts are gathering," he said with a hint of disbelief. Upon hearing this, Dugu Bo's formerly lazy posture vanished, his emerald pupils contracted to pinpricks, and an invisible, chilling aura emanated from him.
He coldly snorted and said, "Hmph! This aura is chaotic with savagery and anger. It doesn't seem like a naturally formed beast tide. It's more like the Spirit Beasts have been greatly frightened, or provoked by someone!"
Nodding slightly, Tang Chen knew the situation was not good, and immediately fully activated his Blue Silver Domain, his mental force spreading rapidly like mercury towards the direction of the commotion. The scene he perceived through his Blue Silver Domain made his heart sink. The distant dense forest seemed to have exploded into chaos.
Countless Spirit Beasts, from the lowest ten-year and hundred-year ones, to ferocious thousand-year ones, and even more than a dozen powerful ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts, were on the move.
At this moment, they had broken through their usual territorial boundaries and species barriers, mixing together to form a chaotic and violent torrent of Spirit Beasts. These Spirit Beasts were of various types: agile Wind Wolves, sturdy Rock Rhinos, ferocious Venomous Pythons, violent Giant Apes.
Their only commonality at this moment was their blood-red eyes, filled with fear and anger, and their frantic trampling of their surroundings. This was definitely not an organized beast tide. It was more like a large-scale, organized retaliation by Spirit Beasts against human Spirit Masters.
Sensing that a portion of the Spirit Beasts were rushing towards them like headless flies, Tang Chen's expression also changed. He immediately retracted his Blue Silver Domain and turned to look at the Shi Brothers behind him, who were in the critical period of absorbing their spirit rings and could not be disturbed in the slightest.
"Not good!" he said in a deep voice to Dugu Bo, who had just ascended into the air to set up a poison array. "The beast horde is in chaos, and some of them seem to be rushing towards us.
There are quite a few, including several ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts! If this chaotic beast horde crashes over, the Shi Brothers' spirit ring absorption will inevitably be interrupted, leading to a backlash with unimaginable consequences!"
Upon hearing this, Dugu Bo, who had just stepped into the Void Realm and ascended, was already enveloped in a dark green poisonous mist. He snorted coldly, a hint of disdain and arrogance flashing in his emerald eyes.
"What are you panicking for? They are just a bunch of mindless beasts! But then again, someone must be doing something atrocious to the Spirit Beasts in this Sunset Forest, otherwise, these beasts wouldn't gather and riot.
Don't worry, I won't let them break in," he said confidently. Immediately after, Dugu Bo quickly formed hand seals, and his vast Titled Douluo-level spirit power surged out, instantly fusing with the poison within his body.
As soon as his voice fell, Dugu Bo's figure flickered several times in the air, and the dark green poisonous mist, as if alive, rapidly spread, descended, and diffused outwards with him as the center. The vegetation below that the poisonous mist touched did not immediately wither. Instead, it seemed to be coated with a strange green glow.
He swiftly flew a circle around the core area where Tang Chen and the Shi Brothers were, and wherever he passed, the dense poisonous mist, like a paintbrush, drew a huge, dark green circle on the ground that perfectly protected everyone in the center.
"Emerald Poison Dragon ArrayâActivate!" Following Dugu Bo's low shout, the landed poisonous mist suddenly surged upwards, transforming into a dark green poison barrier dozens of meters high, thin as a cicada's wing yet emanating a heart-stopping aura.
It was like an inverted bowl, completely isolating the internal area. Above the poison barrier, emerald light flowed, and faint emerald Dragon shadows swam, emitting a deadly aura sufficient to deter Spirit Beasts of ten thousand years or more.
"It's done, kid. You can rest assured now. Unless a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast comes personally, or a Titled Douluo forcefully attacks my poison array, otherwise, those crazy beasts outside absolutely won't be able to break in even an inch.
Any Spirit Beast below ten thousand years that touches this poison array will die instantly," Dugu Bo said as he clapped his hands. With a flash of his figure, Dugu Bo stepped on the Void Realm and lightly landed beside Tang Chen, as if he had just done something trivial.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Sunset Forest, in stark contrast to Tang Chen's composure, relying on the poison array to fish calmly, the atmosphere here was extremely tense.
Tang San was sitting cross-legged in front of the corpse of the ten-thousand-year Exploding Fire Ape. The deep black spirit ring had been drawn above his head, and vast energy was frantically surging into his body, attempting to fuse with his Clear Sky Hammer Spirit.
However, as the first spirit ring of the Clear Sky Hammer, the energy was far too much. The terrifying energy brought by Tang San's choice to directly absorb a ten-thousand-year spirit ring, bypassing his level, had far exceeded the limit his current Physique could withstand.
At this moment, his face was flushed red as if bleeding. Veins bulged on his forehead and neck, writhing and pulsating like coiling Dragons. Large beads of sweat continuously seeped from under his skin, already soaking all of Tang San's clothes, making him look as if he had just been pulled out of water.
Furthermore, his body was now uncontrollably trembling violently, his muscles spasming, as if he could explode at any moment from this wild energy. "Ugh... Ah..." The next second, a painful groan escaped Tang San's tightly clenched teeth.
His spirit power fluctuations were extremely chaotic, at times violently overflowing, impacting the surrounding ground and leaving cracks. At other times, they would suddenly retract, as if to crush his own flesh and bones.
The phantom of the Clear Sky Hammer suspended in his palm was also violently trembling at this moment. At the same time, the dark red fire attribute energy on the Clear Sky Hammer was also uncontrollably running wild.
Clearly, Tang San had overestimated his own Physique. At this moment, not only was his body on the verge of collapse, but even his Sea of Spirit seemed to be scorched by flames.
His consciousness began to blur, and there was already a faint tendency for his body to explode and die! Yu Xiaogang had no idea what the real problem with cultivating twin spirits was. It wasn't that attaching the first two spirit rings wouldn't cause the body to explode. Every Spirit Master's situation is different.
The previous Spirit Master with twin spirits didn't explode with the first two spirit rings. That was because his body could still absorb the energy brought by the spirit rings, while Tang San's current body had already reached the critical value for spirit ring absorption.
First, how many spirit rings a person can absorb depends on the limit their body can withstand. In the process of a Spirit Master cultivating their Spirit, they are constantly breaking their own limits. When an ordinary Spirit Master's spirit power is around level ten, the limit their body can withstand is a spirit ring of about four hundred years.
When spirit power reaches level twenty, the limit is a spirit ring of about seven hundred years. At the same time, every time a spirit ring is absorbed, the Physique will improve once.
The process of a Spirit Master absorbing spirit rings and increasing strength is inherently a virtuous cycle: absorb spirit rings, improve Physique, break shackles, and cultivate upwards. Within their own limits, every spirit ring a Spirit Master absorbs can improve their Physique, and the next time they absorb a spirit ring, they will gain a new limit.
If the absorbed spirit ring is closer to the limit of one's own cultivation, then the Spirit Master will enter a virtuous cycle. If one blindly covets higher-year spirit rings, and the body cannot withstand the huge energy impact, then the result is direct death by explosion. A single Spirit can often maintain a good standard and continuously cultivate upwards. But twin spirits are different.
If a Spirit Master cultivates two Spirits simultaneously, then a phenomenon like this will occur: others' bodies originally only need to bear the energy load brought by one spirit ring, while he needs to bear the energy load brought by two spirit rings.
Tang San is currently only a Spirit Ancestor. Since he has already cultivated the Blue Silver Grass Spirit, and his fourth spirit ring is a ten-thousand-year spirit ring, his body has already reached the critical value for spirit ring energy absorption.
If he were to forcefully absorb another ten-thousand-year spirit ring as the first spirit ring of the Clear Sky Hammer, Tang San's body would simply not be able to withstand it. To absorb it smoothly, he would at least need to withstand the full spirit ring energy of a Spirit Saint.
But the problem is that Tang San is currently only a Spirit Ancestor. How could he possess the Physique of a Spirit Saint? Even if he has a Spirit Bone and his Physique has been greatly improved, it is absolutely not enough to support his Clear Sky Hammer directly absorbing a ten-thousand-year spirit ring.
In the original work, both Tang San and Bibi Dong completed the virtuous cycle of their first Spirit, cultivating it to its peak, before cultivating their second Spirit. At the same time, they eventually possessed all six Spirit Bones to strengthen their Physique.
In such circumstances, their Physique was very strong, so cultivating a second Spirit was certainly not a problem. But the current Tang San has only just cultivated his Blue Silver Grass Spirit to around level forty before rashly beginning to attach spirit rings to his Clear Sky Hammer.
His body simply cannot withstand such a vast amount of energy. Therefore, this is destined to be a road of no return. The pressure on his soul was immense, and the heat felt like it was melting his bones.
Every second felt like an eternity of pain for the young boy. There was no one around to help him, and his teacher, Yu Xiaogang, was not there to see the danger he had put his disciple in. As the dark energy continued to pour into him, Tang San's vision started to turn white, and he felt himself slipping away into the darkness.