Chapter 4: The Double Pupils Show Their Might! Instant Kill of a 700-Year Soul Beast!
Liu Yuan exhaled a long, measured breath, forcing the lingering agitation from his chest. The cold air of the forest filled his lungs, grounding him. He needed to focus. His immediate priority was selecting the optimal target for his first Soul Ring.
For six long years at Shrek Academy, he had lived in absolute darkness. Yet, blindness had never been a cage; it had been a crucible. Deprived of sight, his other senses had sharpened to a razor's edge. His hearing caught the slightest shift in a person's breathing; his mind processed information with mechanical precision. He had spent his meager savings on a low-grade soul tool audio player. That small, metallic box had been his sole window into the vast, brutal reality of the Douluo Continent.
Night after night, while the self-proclaimed geniuses of Shrek slept, Liu Yuan had listened. He absorbed every audiobook he could requisition from the outer courtyard library. Encyclopedias on Soul Beasts, dense treatises on Soul Power theories, complex tactical combat formations—he memorized them all. As a result, his theoretical foundation was a fortress of knowledge, far surpassing the arrogant instructors who had dismissed him.
He leaned back against the rough bark of an ancient tree, tapping a finger against his knee as he calculated his next move.
'In the original timeline, Huo Yuhao chose the path of a control-system battle Soul Master,'Liu Yuan mused, his lips pressing into a thin line.'Spiritual Detection Sharing is undoubtedly a god-tier ability on the battlefield, and Soul Shock has its merits. But his entire development trajectory leaned far too heavily into support and crowd control.'A scoff escaped his throat.'What a catastrophic waste of a spiritual-attribute Martial Soul.'
To Liu Yuan, spiritual power was never meant to be relegated to mere scouting or minor interference. It was an invisible, unpredictable, and utterly terrifying weapon forged for absolute slaughter. The Soul Master progression system of the Douluo Continent had evolved over tens of thousands of years, yet it harbored a glaring, fatal flaw: spiritual defense.
The vast majority of Soul Masters spent their lives desperately tempering their physical bodies, condensing their Soul Power, and maximizing the raw destructive yield of their Soul Skills. Almost no one dedicated time to cultivating their spiritual resistance. The reason was simple mathematics: true spiritual-type Soul Masters were exceedingly rare.
Operating under this blind spot meant that even a mighty Titled Douluo could be brought to their knees. Without a specialized defensive soul tool or an ultra-rare spiritual-attribute skull Soul Bone, even the strongest elites would suffer catastrophic damage if struck by a sudden, concentrated spiritual assassination technique.
'Since I possess these Double Pupils, and my innate spiritual capacity eclipses that of ordinary mortals, why would I ever degrade myself to a support role?'Liu Yuan's hands clenched into fists, a cold fire burning in his unique eyes.'The path I will forge is one of pure, unadulterated spiritual annihilation. Spiritual power is the sharpest blade in existence.'His tactical roadmap was crystal clear. He did not have the luxury of the Skydream Iceworm bestowing four ready-made Soul Skills upon him. He had to hunt for his own power.'My first Soul Skill must be a devastating single-target spiritual attack. Something simple, brutal, and highly efficient. An ability capable of directly shattering an opponent's Spiritual Sea, much like Soul Shock, but dialed up to a lethal extreme.'He closed his eyes. The vast archives of the Soul Beast compendiums he had memorized began to flip rapidly through his mind, pages of data projecting against the darkness of his eyelids.'There are a select few Soul Beasts capable of yielding a purely offensive spiritual Soul Skill... The Spiritual Demon Spider? No. Its innate toxicity is too dominant. Absorbing its ring carries a high risk of the Soul Skill mutating into a poison attribute, diluting the mental strike. The Purple Spirit Eye Beast? Far too rare, and its rings are notorious for causing severe mental backlash during absorption.'He mentally discarded the flawed options.'That leaves only three viable candidates in the outer perimeter: the Phantom Spider, the Three-Eyed Demon Wolf, or the Cyclops.'
These three species were the quintessential spiritual-attribute predators of the forest. While they lacked the heaven-defying pedigree of a million-year beast like the Skydream Iceworm, they were incredibly lethal apex hunters within the low-to-mid-tier ecosystem.
The Three-Eyed Demon Wolf stood out perfectly among them. It was a notoriously cunning creature. The vertical third eye situated between its brows possessed an innate racial ability known as Spiritual Piercing. It was a hyper-focused, armor-bypassing mental strike that aligned flawlessly with Liu Yuan's combat philosophy.
'As for the cultivation age...'Liu Yuan assessed his current physical state.'I have reached rank twenty Soul Power. After a full month of grueling physical conditioning and the passive nourishment from my awakened Martial Soul, my meridians and flesh are far more resilient than an average Soul Master's. Absorbing a seven to eight-hundred-year Soul Ring should be well within my physical tolerance limits.'
His target was locked. He pushed himself off the ancient tree trunk, brushing the dirt from his clothes.
"Time to hunt."
Driven by absolute purpose, Liu Yuan's movements through the perilous woods became a masterclass in efficiency. Over the next seven days, he ceased his broad, aimless wandering. Instead, he systematically tracked through the specific topographical zones favored by his target prey.
His Double Pupils remained active, the twin irises glowing with a faint, ancient light. His innate ability, Insight, was pushed to its maximum output. The forest was laid bare before him. A snapped twig, a crushed blade of grass, the faint acidic scent of territorial markings, or the shallowest indentation of a paw print—nothing escaped his terrifying visual processing.
The grueling search culminated on his thirty-seventh day within the outer perimeter of the Star Dou Great Forest. He crouched at the jagged lip of a rocky, desolate valley.
"Found you," Liu Yuan breathed, his voice barely a whisper against the wind.
He flattened his body against the cold surface of a massive boulder, exposing only the upper half of his face. His Double Pupils locked onto a dark, gaping cave entrance situated roughly fifty meters below his vantage point.
The perimeter of the cavern was a macabre graveyard. Bleached white bones carpeted the rocky soil—the massive ribs of lesser beasts intermingled with the unmistakable, fragile skulls of human Soul Masters. A putrid, coppery stench of rotting flesh and dried blood drifted up the valley walls, carried by a stagnant breeze.
There, resting just outside the cave's maw, was the apex predator. It was a massive wolf, measuring nearly two meters from snout to tail. Coarse, wire-like blue-gray fur covered its heavily muscled frame. It lay stretched out across a flat rock, lazily soaking in the afternoon sun.
Every line of its body spoke of coiled, explosive violence. But its most defining feature was its face. Above its two standard, dark-yellow eyes sat a third, vertical slit positioned dead center on its forehead. This third eye pulsed intermittently with a sickly, ghostly luminescence, radiating a chilling aura that would make an ordinary person's stomach turn.
A Three-Eyed Demon Wolf.
Liu Yuan analyzed the beast's dimensions, the thickness of its limbs, and the deep, rich hue of its blue-gray coat. 'Based on the morphological data, its cultivation age sits precisely between six hundred and fifty to seven hundred years.'A cold smile tugged at his lips.'The perfect prey.'
The beast was acutely sensitive. Sensing the microscopic weight of a predator's gaze, the previously lethargic Three-Eyed Demon Wolf snapped its massive head upward. All three of its eyes dilated, locking onto the exact coordinates of Liu Yuan's boulder with terrifying precision.
"Roar!"
A guttural, bone-rattling snarl ripped from its throat. Unlike a mindless brute, the wolf did not charge blindly up the steep incline. Instead, it planted its heavy paws into the dirt, anchoring its stance. The vertical eye between its brows snapped wide open, erupting with a blinding, toxic-yellow radiance!
Hum!
A high-pitched, vibrating hum tore through the atmosphere, warping the very air between them. An invisible, hyper-compressed shockwave of spiritual energy materialized. It took the form of an unseen, jagged spear, crossing the fifty-meter gap in a fraction of a second, aimed directly at the center of Liu Yuan's forehead!
Spiritual Piercing!
This was the apex racial ability that allowed the wolf to slaughter creatures twice its physical size. If this invisible spear struck a target with an inferior Spiritual Sea, the sheer concussive force would instantly liquefy their consciousness. The victim would be reduced to a drooling husk, or worse, suffer immediate brain death before they even realized they were under attack.
Yet, facing this lethal, invisible execution, Liu Yuan did not flinch. He did not duck behind the boulder. Instead, he stood up to his full height, exposing himself completely to the beast. A chilling, arrogant sneer carved itself across his face.
"You dare challenge me in the world of spiritual power? You are vastly out of your depth!"
He widened his eyes, glaring down at the beast. Within his sockets, the twin irises rapidly spun and overlapped. A tyrannical, suffocating pressure—an aura that felt as though it had bled straight from a primordial, ancient era—erupted from his body like a volcanic geyser!
Boom!
The invisible spear of the Spiritual Piercing slammed into Liu Yuan's forehead. But instead of piercing flesh and mind, it struck the impenetrable fortress of his Spiritual Sea. The resulting impact was like a fragile bird's egg smashing against a mountain of solid steel. The wolf's invincible attack shattered into a million harmless fragments.
But Liu Yuan was not done. Seizing the invisible tether of spiritual energy the wolf had just established, he weaponized his own vast mental reserves and sent a devastating surge of power rushing straight back down the connection!
"Awooo—!!"
The Three-Eyed Demon Wolf unleashed a shrill, agonizing shriek that echoed off the valley walls. Its massive, muscular frame convulsed violently, collapsing onto the rocky ground. The fierce, predatory intelligence in its three eyes instantly dissolved into a vacant, glassy stare. Thick white foam began to bubble and spill from the corners of its snapping jaws.
Spiritual backlash!
This was the absolute, unforgiving cruelty of spiritual warfare. It was a domain of binary outcomes. The victor claimed total dominance, and the loser was instantly stripped of all combat capacity, their mind plunged into chaos.
"Now!"
Capitalizing on the wolf's paralyzed, vulnerable state, Liu Yuan refused to give the beast a single second to recover. He immediately unleashed his most lethal innate technique!
"Double Pupils—Distortion!"
Liu Yuan's gaze locked onto the anatomical weak point of all canine beasts: the fragile lower spine. He ruthlessly drained the remaining half of his Soul Power, fusing it with a massive volume of his spiritual energy, and channeled the volatile mixture directly into his eyes.
He held nothing back. This was an all-or-nothing execution!
Hum—!!!
The air warped violently around his line of sight. A terrifying, invisible gravitational force plummeted from the sky, crashing directly onto the paralyzed Three-Eyed Demon Wolf. The beast, still twitching blindly from the brain damage, suddenly jerked upward. It was as if two colossal, invisible hands had clamped down on its midsection, gripping the upper and lower halves of its torso in opposing directions.
And then, with merciless mechanical force, those unseen hands twisted.
Crack! Crack! Splat!
The valley echoed with a sickening chorus of destruction. Thick hide tore, dense muscle fibers snapped like taut steel cables, and heavy bones splintered under the immense torque. The Three-Eyed Demon Wolf's incredibly resilient spine was forcibly wrenched into a grotesque, unnatural ninety-degree angle!
Immediately following—
Bang!
A split second later, the pressure reached its absolute critical mass. The beast's midsection ruptured entirely. The wolf's torso blew apart in a horrific shower of gore, scattering shredded flesh, jagged bone fragments, and steaming internal organs across the rocky ground like a macabre firework display!
The apex predator, a vicious beast that had terrorized this sector of the forest for nearly seven centuries, was dead before the bloody mist even settled. It hadn't even possessed the time to utter a final whimper before its body was literally torn in half by the sheer kinetic force of Liu Yuan's gaze!
Thud.
Liu Yuan leaped down from the boulder, his boots hitting the rocky earth with a heavy thud. The moment he landed, his knees buckled. He staggered forward, barely catching himself against a jagged stalagmite.
A wave of intense vertigo crashed over him. Black spots danced across his vision, and the blood drained entirely from his face, leaving his skin as pale as parchment. Pushing his innate ability, Distortion, to its absolute limit had nearly hollowed out his Spiritual Sea.
Yet, through sheer force of will, he locked his joints and forced himself to stand tall. He stared down at the mangled, bisected corpse of his prey.
From the steaming ruins of the wolf's flesh, specks of golden light began to condense. Slowly, a deep, vibrant yellow Soul Ring floated upward, hovering above the blood-soaked earth. It pulsed with a rich, alluring luster, humming with untamed energy.
"Ha... haha..."
Liu Yuan panted, his chest heaving as he braced his hands on his knees. Despite the exhaustion, a wild, ecstatic grin split his face. The energy consumption had been severe, but the resulting devastation... it was utterly intoxicating!
He had obliterated a seven-hundred-year Soul Beast with a single look!
This was the absolute, tyrannical supremacy of the Double Pupils!
"I may not have the Skydream Iceworm handing me power on a silver platter," Liu Yuan muttered, wiping a bead of cold sweat from his brow, "but this Three-Eyed Demon Wolf is a flawless match for my foundation."
He walked forward and sat cross-legged in the dirt, mere inches from the pooling blood. He watched the brilliant yellow Soul Ring drift closer, his unique eyes burning with intense anticipation.
"Come to me, my first Soul Ring," he whispered, his voice laced with dark excitement. "Let me see exactly what kind of slaughter you will help me unleash."
[Akarin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/AkarinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/AkarinTL
🔗 All My Links: linktr[.]ee/AkarinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]