Three-Eyed Golden Lion: "..."
I was really just talking casually, you know...
At that moment, Three-Eyed Golden Lion noticed the human walking toward it.
Three-Eyed Golden Lion thought nervously, "Why is he approaching me? How dare he? Does he recognize me?"
Still getting closer. Closer. Right in front of it now.
Three-Eyed Golden Lion: "He... How dare he?! Maybe he did recognize me after all."
Truth be told, its thoughts were very lively.
Suddenly, Three-Eyed Golden Lion's eyes widened. That human actually reached out and touched its head, then pinched its nose.
Three-Eyed Golden Lion: "Human, how dare you!"
It was both furious and embarrassed. No one had ever dared treat it this way.
But Huo Yuhao was completely unfazed. "It's not like I touched your butt or something, what's the big deal? Besides, you did just say we saved you. What's wrong with a little petting? It's not like you're going to lose a tuft of fur over it."
Three-Eyed Golden Lion: "Y-You're touching me again?!"
It was fuming with anger, grinding its teeth. A dignified divine beast, being petted like a house cat!
Du Busi: "Yuhao, what the hell are you doing?"
Du Busi had just returned and found his disciple petting and pinching the divine beast, which looked all kinds of wrong.
Huo Yuhao chuckled sheepishly. He was really just indulging a guilty pleasure.
With Du Busi's return, the Dark Devilgod Tiger naturally hadn't escaped. Its bones had all been shattered by Du Busi, and it now lay limp and bleeding.
The Dark Devilgod Tiger's eyes were full of terror. Soul beasts were known for their tough bodies, and yet it had been reduced to this sorry state by a human's bare hands. Total disgrace to soul beasts everywhere.
Luckily, nothing unexpected had happened—though, to be fair, if a 98th-rank Du Busi had let a 45,000-year-old soul beast get away, that would've been humiliating.
Boom!
The nearly seven-meter-long Dark Devilgod Tiger was tossed to the ground by Du Busi like a sack of garbage.
Du Busi: "Yuhao, why on earth do you want to absorb its soul ring? It doesn't even have a spiritual attribute."
He had been meaning to ask earlier, but had been too busy chasing the beast down.
Huo Yuhao: "Master, the Dark Devilgod Tiger has multiple elemental properties. If I absorb its soul ring, there's a high chance I'll gain those abilities too—especially time and space, which are the most profound. That would be crucial for me when I form a Soul Core later."
Soul Core... Du Busi's mouth twitched. His disciple, still only at the Soul Sect level, was already planning ahead for becoming a Title Douluo?
The Soul Core was essential for a Soul Douluo to break through to Title Douluo. Du Busi wanted to tell his disciple to calm down, but seeing the determination in Huo Yuhao's eyes, he swallowed his words.
Forget it. Just trust him. He's done pretty well so far without me interfering.
The Dark Devilgod Tiger wasn't a spiritual-type soul beast, which meant absorbing its ring wouldn't significantly boost Huo Yuhao's spiritual power. He understood that. But to gain space manipulation ability, it was worth the trade-off.
Soul rings didn't always have to match the martial soul. Of course, matching was ideal, but as long as the attributes weren't opposite, it was fine. For instance, an ice-type martial soul couldn't absorb a fire-type soul ring, and a dark-type soul couldn't absorb a light-type one—unless you had a death wish.
Du Busi: "Alright, since your mind's made up, hurry. That beast is about to kick the bucket."
Huo Yuhao looked over at the Dark Devilgod Tiger, which indeed looked like it was hanging on by a thread—practically a dead dog already.
Walking up to it, Huo Yuhao stabbed his Bloodflame Spear through the tiger's eye into its brain. With just a twist, it died completely.
During the process, Du Busi used his immense soul power to keep the tiger's body pinned down, just in case it tried to pull a fast one—it was a highly intelligent beast, after all.
A black soul ring rose above the tiger's corpse. It was also a ten-thousand-year ring, but the Dark Devilgod Tiger, being 45,000 years old, made this soul ring look much more profound than Huo Yuhao's third one.
Just then, a black bead suddenly shot out of the tiger's body. As it did, a spatial rift appeared above it, clearly trying to swallow the bead.
But Du Busi wasn't about to let that happen. He simply raised his hand and squeezed. A palm formed from soul power appeared and grabbed the bead mid-air, holding it tight.
The soul-power hand floated to Du Busi, who examined the bead. It looked pitch black but shimmered with both blue and green hues.
Du Busi: "What's this bead for? How did you even know this beast would produce something like this?"
He couldn't make sense of it, so he turned to Huo Yuhao, who had previously warned him about it through sound transmission.
Huo Yuhao didn't answer directly. He couldn't exactly say "I read it in the original novel," now could he?
Huo Yuhao: "Read more books."
Du Busi's face darkened. He suspected Huo Yuhao just called him illiterate—but he had no proof.
Taking the bead from Du Busi, Huo Yuhao raised his right hand, gathered his soul power, and struck his own chest. A mouthful of blood sprayed onto the bead.
As soon as the blood mist touched it, a frigid aura erupted from the bead, rushing into Huo Yuhao's body. The chill was no weaker than the ultimate ice of his Ice Jade Scorpion Martial Soul.
The bead, as if drawn by something, shot straight into Huo Yuhao's mouth.
Huo Yuhao immediately sat down cross-legged, using his willpower to guide the soul ring onto himself.
A moment later, an extremely cold and sinister energy burst from his abdomen. But don't forget, Huo Yuhao had the Ice Jade Scorpion, which quickly absorbed the icy energy.
The rest—what the Ice Jade Scorpion couldn't absorb—wasn't just cold. It was laced with pure, malevolent evil.
Du Busi's expression grew grim. Their original goal had been a 60,000-year soul beast. Though the Dark Devilgod Tiger was "only" 45,000 years old, it wasn't a beast you could lump in with the rest. And now, with this mysterious black bead added to the mix, things had definitely taken a bad turn.
At that moment, Huo Yuhao felt a strong bloodlust rise within him. His previously light-purple eyes turned blood-red. His clothes began to billow without wind, and with every breath, streams of gray-black energy flowed from his mouth and nose.
Du Busi was shaken. Huo Yuhao was surrounded by a dark aura of evil, madness, and cold. His body trembled slightly, like he might lose control and lash out at any second.
And it wasn't over yet.
Huo Yuhao's skin began to flush an unnatural red, and his breathing became rapid.
Du Busi looked oddly disturbed. This situation… was kind of like… an aphrodisiac overdose.
Given his experience, he'd heard of certain powerful martial souls needing dual cultivation with the opposite sex to fully awaken.
And right now, Huo Yuhao's symptoms? Kinda looked like that.
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