Da Ming's tenacity did not exceed Su Ming's expectations.
After all, he was the overlord of the Star Dou Great Forest. Even with Fierce Beasts like Di Tian in seclusion, this overlord position wasn't one that just anyone could claim.
Back in the Douluo 2 era, Su Ming had witnessed the battle between Du Busi and Da Ming and Er Ming.
The current Da Ming certainly hadn't experienced as much as he would ten thousand years later, and his strength definitely hadn't reached its limit, but he was still not one to be trifled with.
Even when Bibi Dong led the Spirit Hall elites to hunt them, it still took Da Ming and Er Ming a long time to be subdued, which was ample proof of their resilience.
Facing Chen Xin's Myriad Swords Return to Origin, Da Ming could only roar furiously.
His bovine head instantly swelled in size, and a layer of energy condensed into a spectral bovine head that raised itself to the sky and let out a long cry.
Moo!
The bovine head met the giant sword.
He was still struggling.
The bovine roar shook the heavens, carrying to a great distance.
Er Ming, who was in the process of taking Xiao Wu back to human society, stopped immediately upon hearing this roar.
His feet dug into the ground, plowing two massive furrows, as he turned back to look in the direction of the Life Lake.
"Big Brother!"
He was enraged.
Enemies had taken the opportunity to attack Big Brother!
Was it that Dark Demon Evil Tiger?
No, its strength was far inferior; it didn't even have the qualification for revenge.
Then who?
Those three ants?
Or perhaps, human Spirit Masters?
The thought of Spirit Masters made Er Ming's breathing become heavy.
"Er Ming, hurry back! Da Ming is in danger!"
On Er Ming's shoulder, Xiao Wu exclaimed and urgently urged Er Ming to return to the Life Lake.
"Roar!"
Er Ming roared and charged towards the Life Lake.
Life Lake.
Su Ming heard Er Ming's roar and reminded everyone.
"Everyone, we need to speed up a bit."
Yueguan and Gui Mei exchanged a glance and continued to 'strain' to maintain the Two Poles Static Field.
Chen Xin gathered another giant sword.
This time, despite exhausting all his means, Da Ming failed to break free from the restraints of the Two Poles Static Field.
The giant sword fell, piercing through his body, tearing a massive hole in his neck, nearly severing it completely.
His enormous body crashed down.
Yu Yuanzhen and Zhu Jiuyang quickly followed up with their Spirit Skills. The Thunder Dragon Head and Sacred Flame landed on the wound on Da Ming's neck, further exacerbating his injuries.
In his final moments, Da Ming saw a flash of fist light.
This fist light was fast, accurate, and ruthless, striking his right eye.
Roar!
He let out a pained howl.
The elemental power within the fist light exploded, detonating inside his eyeball. The damage inflicted was arguably no less severe than Chen Xin's sword strike.
Of course, Su Ming could only land the fist light directly into Da Ming's eyeball by taking advantage of his weakened state.
Da Ming's aura grew increasingly faint.
Su Ming gave him no chance to stall for time. He opened his Dual Phenomena Symbiosis Domain and actually condensed a strand of Destruction Power, channeling it in the form of fist light into the wound on Da Ming's neck.
The Destruction Power rapidly eroded Da Ming's body from within, grinding away his vitality.
Only then did Da Ming finally die.
The sky was dark and overcast, thunder rumbling.
Er Ming's furious roars came from the distance.
"Everyone, my thanks for your efforts."
Zhu Jiuyang came to Su Ming and signaled that he could now absorb Da Ming's Spirit Ring.
He looked towards the others.
Yueguan and Gui Mei finally ended their Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
"We cannot use the Two Poles Static Field again for now."
"Just stop that Titan Giant Ape. Ensure Su Ming has enough safe time to absorb the Spirit Ring," Chen Xin said.
Yueguan and Gui Mei exchanged another look.
"Fine. But although the two of us are not weak, facing the Titan Giant Ape head-on is certainly beyond our capability."
"Yu Yuanzhen, stop holding back. It's your turn to handle this now," Chen Xin said coldly.
Yu Yuanzhen silently took the lead, walking in the direction of Er Ming's roars.
Chen Xin, Yueguan, and Gui Mei followed closely behind, intending to intercept Er Ming from returning here.
They left Zhu Jiuyang and Dugu Bo by Su Ming's side to watch over him as he fused with the Spirit Ring.
"A hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring..."
Zhu Jiuyang looked at the blood-red Spirit Ring enveloping Su Ming's body, a look of envy in his eyes.
If possible, who wouldn't want to fuse with a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring?
It was, after all, what every Spirit Master craved the most.
However, Zhu Jiuyang could not absorb a hundred-thousand-year ninth ring.
It wasn't that his constitution didn't meet the standard, but that he wasn't permitted to.
This was part of the price for having Qian Daoliu intervene on his behalf back then.
The Qian and Zhu families had intermarried for generations, but there was a clear primary and secondary relationship in these alliances. The Qian family was undoubtedly the main family, while the Zhu family primarily served to provide the pure attributes of the Sacred Flame to the Qian family. Therefore, throughout the generations, the Zhu family's Spirit Ring absorption had always emphasized the purity of the fire attribute and the development of the sacred attribute.
By Zhu Jiuyang's generation, conflicts had arisen due to Qian Xunji, and Zhu Jiuyang had already deviated from the Zhu family's traditional absorption methods for several rings.
The ninth ring was his chance to correct his path once more.
Qian Daoliu had agreed to hunt down Tang Chen, and in return, Zhu Jiuyang had to promise that his ninth Spirit Ring must enhance the Sacred Flame, and that his descendants would resume intermarriage with the Qian family in the future.
That ninety-thousand-year Fire Phoenix was the most compatible Spirit Ring Zhu Jiuyang had encountered.
Finding a hundred-thousand-year fire attribute Spirit Beast that was also compatible with the sacred attribute wasn't just difficult; it was questionable whether such a creature even existed on the continent.
So he had almost no choice.
Su Ming absorbed the hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring very quickly.
With sufficient conditions and ample experience, he completed the digestion in just two and a half hours.
When he opened his eyes, he could still hear Er Ming's furious roars.
"How are things over there?"
Su Ming asked.
"Still fighting. It seems the Titan Giant Aran has a transformed hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast with him. Yueguan and the others are considering capturing that transformed Spirit Beast."
A transformed hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast?
Su Ming's heart stirred slightly.
Wasn't that Xiao Wu?
Tang San, after joining the Blacksmith Association and encountering an accident, should have lost contact with Xiao Wu afterwards.
"Teacher, let's go lend a hand. A transformed hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast has its strength sealed; dealing with them should be quite straightforward."
'This is terrible. The identity of the transformed Spirit Beast is exposed. With the resources these Titled Douluo have, they'll surely quickly uncover my identity in the human world. There's no way I can go back to Shrek Academy now, and it will be extremely dangerous for me to enter human society in the future.'
Xiao Wu was inwardly lamenting her misfortune.
It wasn't that she wanted to suffer in human society, but a transformed Spirit Beast needed to connect its aura with humans to borrow their human aura and complete the transformation process fully.
Spirit Masters who are transformed Spirit Beasts might seem to have good talent, but they are actually constrained by the need for human aura.
If they cannot absorb human aura, their cultivation after transformation becomes very problematic, as if lacking a crucial ingredient, and their Spirit Power cannot advance an inch.
This was also the reason why Xiao Wu had no Spirit Rings when she first enrolled at Nuoding Academy, but acquired them a few days later.
She had just entered human society at that time.
Her initial insistence on sharing a bed with Tang San was also to better absorb human aura.
Being unable to enter human society meant Xiao Wu's cultivation would be affected.
Once the human aura she had accumulated over the years was depleted, her cultivation would be restricted.
For a transformed Spirit Beast, this was essentially cutting off her future.
***
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