Chen Ming had no way to complain to the will of the world. He could only brace himself for whatever was about to happen.
An hour later, Dugu Bo arrived at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well with Dugu Yan, both of them emanating an aura of readiness for battle. His energy was fully activated, prepared to fight at any mont. Only after confirming that Chen Ming was unhard did Dugu Bo finally breathe a sigh of relief.
After escorting Dugu Yan to a small house nearby, Chen Ming pulled Dugu Bo aside and quietly explained part of what had happened. For instance, he explained that the initial commotion was caused by his breakthrough, while the latter chaos was due to a soul beast triggering a heavenly tribulation.
Even though Dugu Bo knew about Chen Ming's unique nature, hearing that the commotion from his breakthrough had covered the entire Sunset Forest made him involuntarily suck in a breath of cold air. However, within three seconds, he had adjusted his mood.
Looking at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Dugu Bo felt a bit of a headache.
The commotion in the Sunset Forest was bound to attract a considerable number of people. Although it might not compare to the recent appearance of nurous 100,000-year soul beasts in the Star Dou Forest, it would undoubtedly draw powerful figures from various factions.
"This Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well absolutely cannot be exposed. If it's revealed... then..."
Dugu Bo paused for a mont and sighed.
"Will I have to go on a killing spree?"
He contemplated his current strength—96th level, close to reaching the 97th—and fell into a brief silence.
Currently, the only faction on the Douluo Continent capable of suppressing him was the Spirit Hall. The Upper Three Sects and the Lower Four Sects posed no real threat to him. Furthermore, his relationship with the Spirit Hall was not entirely hostile. If a fight broke out, they would likely side with him.
After all, the Spirit Hall's princess had been saved by his grandson-in-law, and he had even accepted money from the Spirit Hall, occasionally helping the fake crown prince with minor tasks and ensuring his safety.
Moreover, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan currently had a favor to ask of him—they needed soul tools to arm their sect. With Ning Fengzhi's cunning nature, it was unlikely they would risk attacking him at this critical juncture. If a fight did break out, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan might even assist him and the Spirit Hall in utterly overwhelming their enemies.
Reflecting on this, Dugu Bo realized that his previous worries were unnecessary. Analyzing the situation objectively, most major forces on the continent were connected to him—or rather, to his grandson-in-law. In a direct confrontation, there seed to be no one they couldn't defeat.
The only concern now was guarding against small-ti thieves who might try to steal from them.
Flight-type soul masters, space-type soul masters capable of teleportation, or earth-type soul masters who could burrow underground—all these posed potential threats that needed counterasures.
After a brief discussion with Chen Ming, the two began reinforcing the poison formation around the area. Chen Ming even divided a portion of his spiritual power into key nodes of the formation. By combining his soul skills Spirit Control and Evil God's Power with his own spiritual energy, he transford the toxic energy at these nodes into theoretical poison elent lifeforms that should not exist.
These poison elent lifeforms possessed three extre attributes: evil, death, and lethal poison. Even though their intelligence was not particularly high, within the poison formation, each one could unleash combat power comparable to that of a Super Douluo.
There were four such poison elent lifeforms in total, corresponding to the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. Though Chen Ming knew that his poison formation had nothing to do with the celestial constellations or the Four Divine Beasts, his prior-life knowledge made him habitually use these symbolic shapes when setting up formations.
While this naming convention did not enhance the formation's power, it beca a habit of his.
Initially, the poison formation was rely a circle of toxic energy that could fend off ordinary Title Douluo. Super Douluo-level soul masters, if determined, could still break through it with relative ease.
After reinforcent, however, the poison formation began to resemble a true array. The toxic energy gained miasma-like properties, becoming not only more dangerous but also more stable. It could even slowly convert the surrounding elental energy to sustain itself, preventing degradation over ti.
This poison formation essentially beca a fixed domain of extre poison, with the four poison elent lifeforms as its core. Unless all four were destroyed in quick succession, the domain would remain intact. Even if one poison lifeform was defeated, it could regenerate within the domain and resu its defense.
Once the poison formation was fortified, it didn't take long—just half a day—for several Soul Douluo- and Soul Sage-level soul masters under the Heaven Dou Empire to gather. Backed by military forces, they set out toward the Sunset Forest.
anwhile, Heaven Dou City mobilized large numbers of its imperial guards to protect the royal palace. Nobles flocked to the imperial court to pay their respects to Emperor Xue Ye and awaited his response to the strange phenonon. Many low-level soul masters, especially those from small factions or with no affiliations, seized the opportunity to leave Heaven Dou City, eagerly heading toward the Sunset Forest.
There was no doubt that the changes in Sunset Forest reminded the Heaven Dou Empire's nobles of the recent events in the Star Dou Forest.
To most uninford individuals, it seed logical that, as one of the three great soul beast habitats on Douluo Continent (as recognized by humans), the Sunset Forest might harbor a significant number of Super Douluo-level soul beasts and even 100,000-year soul beasts, similar to the Star Dou Forest.
Although experts like Di Tian and the Spirit Hall knew such assumptions were laughable—since the Star Dou Forest was uniquely special, far beyond the other two hunting grounds—the emperors and nobles of the two great empires considered this reasoning quite plausible.
Dugu Bo and Chen Ming flew to the site of the 100,000-year soul beast's tribulation, hoping to find sothing unusual. However, what they discovered was a massive crater, as if a chunk of land had been scooped out. There were no remnants of the soul beast, not even traces of its body—only a deep pit saturated with lingering lightning energy.
Finding nothing, the two returned to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. This ti, Chen Ming brought out another Eight Spider Lance.
This set of Eight Spider Lances had dropped from a 50,000-year-old Man-Faced Demon Spider. It wasn't that Chen Ming was unwilling to give Dugu Yan his own Nine-Spider Lance, which had been forged from the core essence of nurous Man-Faced Demon Spiders and had a 90,000-year lifespan. Rather, the issue lay in the distinct energetic difference between 100,000-year and lower-level soul bones.
While soul bones absorbed into the body were concealed by the soul master's own energy, making it nearly impossible to distinguish their age, external soul bones like the Eight Spider Lance would inevitably reveal their aura when activated. This could easily attract unwanted attention, even if the external soul bones couldn't be forcibly taken after absorption.
After all, in a world like this, desperate individuals with nothing to lose weren't uncommon.
Under Dugu Bo's envious gaze, Chen Ming called Dugu Yan over and assisted her in absorbing and fully refining the Eight Spider Lance into her body.
Over the following days, Chen Ming absorbed the left arm bone dropped by Chang You (the Sea Monkey) and began experinting with linking it to his left hand bone. Despite the differences in type and age, progress was slow but steady. He confird that with enough effort, even soul bones of varying quality and age could eventually fuse. However, replicating the growth characteristics of external soul bones remained an unresolved problem.
Absorbing Chang You's left arm bone also brought him so improvents. His left arm gained enhanced durability, his water attribute evolved into the Ultimate Water attribute, and it resonated with his Ultimate Ice attribute.
As for his soul power, even after absorbing the fierce beast soul bone and part of Chang You's essence, Chen Ming's level only increased by three, from 71 to 74. However, the two soul skills he gained were excellent.
The first soul skill from the left arm bone was Beast Command, derived from Chang You's innate ability. Due to Chen Ming's unique nature, this skill underwent so changes.
Chang You's original Beast Command had two functions: absorbing the souls of soul beasts and using water elent power to create vessels for these souls to control in battle.
Chen Ming's version was much more versatile. Not only could he create beasts with minimal effort, but the elent used didn't have to be water. He could use fire, earth, or even space elents as carriers. In fact, Chen Ming even experinted with creating with creating beasts powered by spatial energy—and it worked.
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