Word Count: 2,963 Words
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Fierce winds howled, the forest seethed, and crimson blood-light seemed to be the only thing in the world. The Eternal Night region was hosting a grand funeral!
The Dark Emperor Demon Vine shrieked and roared, attempting to suppress the surging panic within its heart. It had already sensed the anomaly. Its proud Death God bloodline was trembling unprecedentedly. Just gazing at the increasingly ferocious and sinister figure opposite made it want to plead and submit!
A wild-growing fear washed over the heart of the Dark Emperor Demon Vine like weeds sprouting uncontrollably. Yet, a more intense emotion suddenly surged, fiercely suppressing the fear—that was anger!
Rage churned in its eyes. The final pride of the Death God's descendant made it raise its battle flag once more. All its vines flashed with a cold, metallic luster as if cast from molten iron, and charged toward Ling Bai, whose imposing aura had reached its zenith!
However, after the Death Abyss Spider Emperor devoured the hundreds of spirit rings from the snake swarm, Ling Bai's spirit power skyrocketed. He had completely returned to his peak state and even surpassed it!
Raising the scythe, slashing down, shattering, annihilating!
The Death Abyss Demon Scythe fell upon the vines one by one, sparking dazzling flames. The Dark Emperor Demon Vine's eyes could no longer keep up with Ling Bai's ghostly speed. It was unable to resist, unable to grasp!
Crack—
The Death Abyss Demon Scythe pierced through the eerie eye at the center of the Dark Emperor Demon Vine's chest. In the next second, scalding blood spurted from various parts of the once-glorious 10,000-year spirit beast, forming beautiful yet tragic crimson blood flowers as they fell to the ground!
Boom!
A thunderous sound erupted. This time, the Death Abyss Demon Scythe cleaved open the Dark Emperor Demon Vine's chest, and revealed a steaming, deep red heart beating in confusion!
Ling Bai harbored not the slightest mercy for his prey. The eight ferocious purple-black spider legs on his back simultaneously lifted and struck down. The living heart of the spirit beast instantly bore eight gruesome holes as blood gushed out in streams. The life force of the Dark Emperor Demon Vine continuously drained away. In its final moments, it stared intently at Ling Bai's face, seemingly wanting to engrave this hatred into its very bones, to remember it in the next life!
As the fierce light in the Dark Emperor Demon Vine's eyes gradually dimmed, an incomparably deep black spirit ring slowly condensed in mid-air. The quality of this ring was comparable to most spirit beasts with eighty to ninety thousand years of cultivation!
The battle was not over yet. Ling Bai endured the swelling pain caused by his overloaded spirit power and shifted his focus to the Snake Queen Medusa, who had just broken through the Star Barrier and was attempting to flee!
Medusa was fleeing frantically. Although the Dark Emperor Demon Vine had only 50,000 years of cultivation, with the enhancement of the Death God's bloodline and its innate domain, the Land of the Undead, there were few spirit beasts under 100,000 years that could undoubtedly kill it. This was why Medusa dared to risk the extermination of her race to collude with it. Now, her backing had fallen—if she didn't escape now, when would she?
Cruel reality often delivers heavy blows to those who indulge in fantasies. Medusa suddenly felt her left side lighten considerably. Puzzled, she looked down.
It turned out that her left arm had inexplicably vanished. This wasn't just a problem—it was a dire crisis!
Her heart filled with terror. She instinctively swung her right arm, only to find that it, too, had lost sensation. She tried to wriggle her snake tail to accelerate but stumbled and fell to the muddy ground. Three meters away, that severed snake tail still twitched incessantly.
Even ants clung to life, let alone a 10,000-year spirit beast. Medusa's will to survive surged overwhelmingly. Even reduced to such a state, she struggled to crawl forward bit by bit like a maggot until a foot stepped onto her back.
Medusa struggled to turn her head and saw Ling Bai looking down at her. For a moment, she felt a sense of daze. Not long ago, the small snakes that the Dark Emperor Demon Vine had forcibly sacrificed seemed to be desperately trying to escape as well. In the end, they were devoured by the sea of flowers and reduced to nourishment for the Dark Emperor Demon Vine.
Looking at it this way, her fate was no different from those small snakes—becoming a spirit ring for a human Spirit Master to break through their shackles.
Medusa did not possess the stubbornness of the Dark Emperor Demon Vine. She gave up resisting and resigned herself to being killed or skinned. However, Ling Bai's expression remained cold and indifferent. The eight spider lances gleamed menacingly. Scales and bones were as fragile as paper before the Death Abyss Spider Emperor. The spider lances precisely pierced through Medusa's vital organs and injected the Death Abyss Spider Emperor Poison, which was several times more potent than the Death Spider Emperor Poison.
Capturing her alive meant leaving her with a breath of life. To be on the safe side, Ling Bai had to extinguish any thoughts of Medusa making a last-ditch struggle. He deliberately controlled the spread of the poison, leaving Medusa in a state of severe poisoning. Her entire body wracked with excruciating pain, unable to muster any spirit power, until she dissolved into a puddle of poisonous liquid four days later.
Ling Bai stored the nearly unrecognizable Medusa into his Storage Spirit Guidance Device and sat down against a large tree. His entire body was covered in blood, as if he had been run over by a train. His abdomen bore various shocking wounds that were painful to look at directly.
As the Death Realm—the innate domain of the Death Abyss Spider Emperor—dissipated, the pain from his wounds surged through his nerves into his mind in an instant. The sudden, overwhelming pain after prolonged suppression was no less than the most brutal torture imaginable. Yet, his face did not reveal any emotion related to pain. He simply sat alone under the tree, gazing up at the dark and lightless sky of the Eternal Night region.
In Ling Bai's lingering, gloomy gaze, Xu Jiujiu unwittingly entered his field of vision.
Her footsteps paused slightly. She pursed her lips as if pondering, ultimately deciding to approach. With a ripping sound, she tore off a piece of her clothing to use as a bandage. She took Ling Bai's blood-stained hand and meticulously wiped it clean, finger by finger, leaving no trace behind. Then, she earnestly tended to the wounds on his abdomen and chest.
Ling Bai's lips, at first somewhat irritable, curved slightly upwards.
This princess does have a bit of conscience.
"All done. Perfect!"
Xu Jiujiu exclaimed after a quarter of an hour, clapping her hands as she surveyed Ling Bai, who now looked like a mummy wrapped in bandages, and nodded in satisfaction.
Ling Bai stiffly stood up, with only one thought in his mind:
Damn it, he had been taken in!
This princess couldn't bandage for shit!
Perhaps because the regret in his eyes was so undisguised, Xu Jiujiu couldn't help but turn her head to hide her embarrassment. She stubbornly said, "It's my first time, so I'm not very skilled. Don't worry, I'll definitely improve next time!"
"I suspect you're cursing me, but unfortunately, there's no evidence."
Ling Bai flexed his arms and slowly approached the Dark Emperor Demon Vine's 10,000-year spirit ring. He had gone to great lengths and risked his life to hunt this top-level spirit beast. He couldn't let this opportunity slip away.
The process of absorbing the spirit ring went incredibly smoothly. The soul fluctuations of the Dark Emperor Demon Vine served as a post-meal dessert for the Death Abyss Spider Emperor. It first consumed the spirit ring, then devoured its resentment. It gorged itself so much in one night that it was completely stuffed. In the Spiritual Sea, even the way it looked at Ling Bai seemed much more refined.
Ling Bai opened his eyes, a glimmer of brilliance flashing in their depths. Above the solitary gray spirit ring, a pitch-black spirit ring appeared, emitting extremely dangerous spirit power fluctuations.
At the same time, his spirit power leaped from rank 44 to rank 46. Part of it came from the Dark Emperor Demon Vine, while another part was the additional effect of the Ultimate Talent, Soul Devouring.
The reason why Evil Martial Spirits were called Evil Martial Spirits was that they possessed the ability to devour/slaughter life forms to increase their spirit power, such as the Bloody Infant Douluo harming infants, the Death God Demon Puppet killing to seize souls, and so on.
Both the Death Spider Emperor and the Soul Devouring Spider Emperor could be considered Evil Martial Spirits in the current Douluo Continent, let alone the fusion of the two, the Death Abyss Spider Emperor.
If the Death Abyss Spider Emperor's main body had not cut off most of the energy from devouring the snake swarm's spirit rings, with Ling Bai only obtaining a negligible bit from between its fingernails, perhaps his spirit power might have directly soared to the Spirit King rank from this battle alone!
In this regard, Ling Bai would rather the Death Abyss Spider Emperor be greedier. After all, gaining without labor was addictive. Many Evil Spirit Masters fell into depravity because they accidentally killed someone once, and their spirit power easily obtained a huge increase. Moved by their inner desires, they did it again and again, growing bolder and bolder, until they finally became unable to stop themselves and walked down the path of depravity!
Sensing the leaping growth of his spirit power, Ling Bai silently made a mental note to use Soul Devouring less or not at all in the future to avoid leaving hidden dangers for himself!
The next step after absorbing the spirit ring was naturally to dissect the spirit beast and open the spirit bone 'blind box.' After a series of strenuous efforts, he stared at the spirit beast corpse that was empty of spirit bones and fell into deep thought.
For real, I'm going to go nuts!
A freak of a spirit beast like the Dark Emperor Demon Vine didn't drop a spirit bone?!
What's going on? Whose fault is this?!
Ling Bai seriously considered the feasibility of going to the Star Dou Forest to borrow luck from the Emperor Destiny Beast. After several hypothetical simulations, he finally decided to give up. It wasn't that he couldn't provoke those Great Beast bigwigs; but mainly because that 100,000-year Golden Tortoise had a better cost-performance ratio!
'It's about time to leave.'
Having completed the Inner Courtyard examination assignment, he planned to return to Shrek Academy to watch Ning Tian and Wu Feng in the Outer Courtyard freshman competition.
To be honest, he wasn't optimistic about Ning Tian's team winning the championship under the premise of a fair fight. Due to Wu Feng's limited combat strength and intelligence, coupled with Nanmen Yun'er dragging them down in high-level matches, if they encountered Huo Yuhao's or Dai Huabin's teams, forget about challenging Tang San's own daughter or the Twin Martial Spirit user Xiao Xiao, even dealing with Zhu Lu and Cui Yajie would be tough.
Even with Ning Tian's Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda amplifying them, it would be difficult to match the two teams' Spirit Fusion: Golden Road and Hell White Tiger.
'Hope they can win...'
Having grown up with Ning Tian and Wu Feng, Ling Bai knew that Ning Tian's personality was actually more prideful than Wu Feng's. It was only the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan Head's good upbringing that prevented her from saying hurtful words to people's faces. If they were unfortunately defeated, Ning Tian would undoubtedly be depressed for a long time.
'Where did Xu Jiujiu run off to?'
Ling Bai looked around but couldn't find any trace of Xu Jiujiu. Activating the Spider Emperor Sense, he discovered that Xu Jiujiu was crouching under a large tree, busy with something while murmuring to herself.
He heard her softly chanting as he gradually approached:
"Uncle She Chong, Jiujiu will always remember your sacrifice. The spirit beasts that killed you have been vanquished. May your spirit in heaven rest in peace..."
Xu Jiujiu had built a small grave and erected a stone tablet with five large words engraved on it: 'Grave of Guard She Chong.'
Ling Bai immediately suppressed his smile upon seeing this. Few people could laugh off past grudges, but when a person dies, it's like a lamp being extinguished. The unpleasantries during their life are gone with the wind. Moreover, there was no deep hatred between the two of them. Had he been in She Chong's shoes, he would have similarly prevented any ill-intentioned stranger from getting close to Xu Jiujiu.
"Are you finished?"
After paying her respects to She Chong, Xu Jiujiu looked at Ling Bai as if he were some kind of monster. Absorbing a 50,000-year spirit ring in less than half an hour was simply outrageous!
Ling Bai nodded slightly and said, "Let's go, Miss Xu. Let's leave the Luminous Mystic Forest."
Xu Jiujiu's delicate brows knitted in displeasure upon hearing this. "I told you not to call me Miss Xu!"
"Then shall I call you Princess Jiu Er?"
When Xu Jiujiu held off Medusa, she had revealed the Star Crown. It was well known that the Star Crown was the inherited Martial Spirit of the Star Luo Empire's imperial family. Addressing her this way was indeed fitting.
"Suit yourself!"
Xu Jiujiu tossed her long hair and stomped off in a huff. An Evil Spirit Master teasing her? Did he think she was blind to the clear mockery on his face?
As a royal descendant adept at reading people and having fought and bled alongside him, Xu Jiujiu believed she had grasped part of Ling Bai's character. When not in combat, he was gentle and humorous, very much open to jokes. At times, she even forgot he was an Evil Spirit Master.
"Awooo—"
A long wolf howl echoed from afar. The two exchanged glances, both seeing confusion in each other's expressions. The only wolf-type spirit beast in the Luminous Mystic Forest was the Luminous Silver Wolf, but they lived in the Eternal Day region and would never set foot in the Eternal Night region!
The one Xu Jiujiu and She Chong had encountered was an exception. It had lured them in with the resolve to die.
A silver glow flickered in and out of sight. The Spider Emperor Sense informed Ling Bai of the Luminous Silver Wolf's cultivation level, which was not much different from the previous one, having just broken through to the 10,000-year level.
"Hmm? Something's not right. Luminous Silver Wolves are purely silver-white in color, but this one seems to have faint golden specks on its body..."
Ling Bai noticed the anomaly and whispered to Xu Jiujiu.
"I know! It's a mutated variant of the Luminous Silver Wolf, the Stellar Silver Wolf!"
Xu Jiujiu's face visibly flushed red, her voice involuntarily trembling with a hint of excitement.
"Ancient records of the Star Luo imperial family state that only one Stellar Silver Wolf is born among a hundred thousand Luminous Silver Wolves! Stellar Silver Wolf are born bathed in starlight, commanding the powers of the sun, moon, and stars. They are the most suitable spirit beasts for the Star Crown Martial Spirit, bar none!"
She disregarded a young lady's restraint and a princess's dignity in her urgency and tightly clutched Ling Bai's sleeve. The brilliance in her eyes seemed about to overflow as she excitedly said, "Ning Bai, quickly help me kill it! By absorbing the spirit ring of the Stellar Silver Wolf, the quality of my Star Crown will surpass all the past experts of the imperial family!"
'That impressive?'
Ling Bai lightly stroked his smooth chin. Xu Jiujiu's words were not exaggerated. Certain spirit rings could bring about earth-shaking changes to a Martial Spirit. Without going into distant examples, the Golden Tortoise could help the Mystic Deep Turtle awaken its bloodline and completely evolve into the Xuanwu!
The Stellar Silver Wolf was to the Star Crown what the Golden Tortoise was to the Mystic Deep Turtle. Its importance went without saying!
With a cultivation of 10,000 years, no matter how strong the Stellar Silver Wolf was, it couldn't surpass the Dark Emperor Demon Vine. Ling Bai could directly strangle it with his bare hands, but he didn't want to satisfy Xu Jiujiu so readily. So, he earnestly said to her:
"I agree, but surely I can't help you hunt a spirit beast for nothing, right?"
"Why are you negotiating conditions at such a critical time!" Xu Jiujiu stomped her foot in anger but was forced to suppress her frustration. "Hurry and help me. When we return to Star Luo City, I'll gift you a 10,000-year spirit bone!"
"Not interested." Ling Bai shook his head like a rattle drum.
"Just tell me what you want. I swear by the honor of the Star Luo imperial family, I'll definitely give it to you!"
Xu Jiujiu raised three fingers and vowed. She was about to be driven mad by Ling Bai. If she missed the Stellar Silver Wolf for nothing, she would wake up in the middle of the night and slap herself twice!
Ling Bai revealed his true intentions. "Alright, then say, 'Young Master, please slay the spirit beast for me.'"
Xu Jiujiu: ???
Okay, okay, okay, are you brat really an Evil Spirit Master?