Upon hearing this, Shu Yan looked at Qian Gu Chaoshen with slight surprise, but he eventually nodded without any objections.
Qian Gu Chaoshen wasn't surprised by Shu Yan's reaction. A nostalgic light flickered in his still-bright eyes as he began to speak softly:
"I was born in a small city in the southern region of the Star Luo Empire. My father's martial soul was the Coiling Dragon Staff, and my mother's was a mutated Wind-Chasing Wolf."
"When I turned six, I successfully awakened my father's Coiling Dragon Staff martial soul. It was then that I finally learned from him the origins and legacy of our bloodline."
"But at that age, I was too young to understand the significance of his words. All I cared about was becoming a powerful Soul Master—not just to make my parents proud, but more importantly, to fulfill my own desire for strength and status."
"Youth always carries its own pride and ambition. Yet all of that gradually changes with age. Maturity, driven by reality and countless life experiences, changes us. Over time, I saw things more clearly—and only then did I begin to understand the true meaning behind the words my father once said."
Qian Gu Chaoshen sighed softly here before continuing:
"That was the turning point of my life. In the first half, I lived for my youthful pride; in the second, I fought for my family and those who would come after me."
"The year I broke through to become a Title Douluo, my mother passed away due to illness. Grieving and lost, I left my father and other elders behind to travel the continent. That journey... truly changed the course of my entire life."
Shu Yan could clearly sense the change in Qian Gu Chaoshen's tone. It was indescribably complex—an emotional mixture of hatred, regret, gratitude, and more. It was impossible to tell exactly what he was thinking.
As Shu Yan pondered, Qian Gu Chaoshen's deep voice rang out again:
"During my travels, I accidentally stepped into a bizarre, eerie ruin."
"There, I encountered a near-death-level ferocious beast…"
"A ferocious beast?" Shu Yan's eyes widened slightly, his expression shifting in surprise—he hadn't expected such an encounter from the old man.
Qian Gu Chaoshen, however, didn't seem surprised by Shu Yan's reaction. He simply shook his head with a small chuckle and continued:
"It was only long after I left that ruin that I learned its true name from ancient records. From that point on, I leapt from a Title Douluo who didn't even possess a single 100,000-year soul ring to a peak-level Title Douluo with three of them. From there, my cultivation journey was smooth sailing. In less than twenty years, I reached Rank 98."
At this point, Shu Yan couldn't sit still anymore. A Title Douluo sets off after his mother's death, stumbles upon a mysterious ruin, and undergoes a complete transformation—wasn't this basically a main character's template?
Staring at Qian Gu Chaoshen, Shu Yan's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. But soon, he picked up on something unusual.
"Senior Qian," he asked carefully, "may I ask—what kind of existence did you encounter in that ruin to undergo such a drastic transformation in such a short time?"
Qian Gu Chaoshen simply gazed at Shu Yan. After a long pause, he finally said softly:
"That place... was once the Slaughter City, a prison that confined the world's most twisted evils and violent freedom."
"And that ferocious beast—was the former Blood-Red Nine-Headed Bat King."
Shu Yan froze, then said in disbelief,
"But after the ancestor of the Tang Sect, Tang San, destroyed Slaughter City, didn't the Blood-Red Nine-Headed Bat King fall at his hands too? How could it still exist in this era as a ferocious beast?"
Qian Gu Chaoshen gently shook his head and corrected him:
"The Blood-Red Nine-Headed Bat King did not die ten thousand years ago. At the last moment before it was dissolved by the Sea God's Light, it used a forbidden technique to let its soul escape. Eventually, it was reborn in the Boundless Blood Sea."
"After Slaughter City was destroyed, all the evil soul masters held there were released into the world. The Blood Sea flooded everything within a hundred-mile radius, turning the area into a bloodstained land of ill omen, shrouded in red mist year-round."
"Normally, the Bat King should've perished without the Blood Sea's protection. But that monster somehow clung to life for nearly ten thousand years, and even raised its cultivation to nearly five hundred thousand years…"
"It originally planned to possess me. But during its last tribulation, it had reached its limit. Even after resting for millennia, it was still too weak. Though its cultivation remained powerful, its strength didn't match—it could only trap me in a spiritual illusion and try to slowly corrupt and parasitize me."
"But what it never expected was that my Coiling Dragon Staff martial soul contained a unique being: the Purging Dragon, a creature born of Heaven and Earth's righteous qi—capable of dispelling all evil. Stimulated by intense danger, the Purging Dragon awakened at the last moment and dealt a devastating blow to the weakened Bat King. I regained control of my body…"
"…And by then, it had already poured nearly all of its cultivation and origin into my body, sealing it within me."
"Later, with the help of my father and several elders, I completely destroyed its lingering soul. The Bat King's over 500,000 years of cultivation and powerful origin... all became mine. That's how I managed to achieve my transformation in such a short time."
Shu Yan's mouth twitched uncontrollably, his eyes filled with disbelief. He was overwhelmed—shocked and numb all at once.
So this was it? He'd assumed Qian Gu Chaoshen's strength was the result of tireless cultivation… and now he finds out the guy basically had a legendary treasure trove walk into his arms post-breakthrough?
Qian Gu Chaoshen watched Shu Yan's changing expression, then sighed again and said:
"This was both a blessing—and a curse."
"The Blood-Red Nine-Headed Bat King's origin power was heavily tainted with evil. When I began refining that soul power, the Purging Dragon spirit in my martial soul would frequently lose control and go on violent rampages. As I've said—being born of Heaven's righteous force, how could it tolerate its host accepting such evil energy…"
"When I reached Rank 98, the Purging Dragon went berserk again. In its clash with the evil energy, it caused irreversible damage to my soul's foundation. That incident cost me the chance to ever become a Limit Douluo."
Shu Yan lowered his head in contemplation. Then he suddenly asked:
"Is your life nearing its end because of the Bat King's poison?"
Qian Gu Chaoshen shook his head, regret flashing in his eyes.
"At the time, I had just fallen in love with a high-ranking woman from the Xingguan Sect. When she learned of my condition, she introduced me to the Medicine Immortal Douluo—the greatest healing-type Soul Master on the continent. That's how I joined the Star Luo Hall of Worship. Over the next few decades, the three of us worked tirelessly to purge all traces of the Bat King's poison—even the lingering evil aura within my soul power."
"But... it was too late. Had I met that old healer earlier, even if my soul's foundation couldn't be fully healed, he might have salvaged part of it. Even a little bit would've let me surpass Rank 98…"
"As for my lifespan—heh, I suppose it's been a fulfilling one. After all, ordinary Rank 98 Super Douluos don't live nearly as long as I have. The only reason I've made it this far is due to the vast life force the Bat King left behind…"