Sometimes, human luck can be truly perverse. It wasn't that Gu Xuan's fourth soul skill wasn't the Spatial Portal; it was that, for a while, he didn't even have a fourth soul skill to speak of.
When Gu Rong brought Gu Xuan and Li Li to the territory in the Star Dou Great Forest, where the Spatial Demon Dragon usually resided, the beast was long gone. Its old lair was now occupied by a thirty-thousand-year Red-Armored Earth Dragon.
This was baffling. Even a thirty-thousand-year Red-Armored Earth Dragon shouldn't have been a match for a Spatial Demon Dragon. Even if it were outmatched, a creature possessing the laws of space could easily escape; there was no way it could have been killed by such an interloper. Furthermore, in terms of bloodline purity, the Spatial Demon Dragon was an entire tier above the Earth Dragon.
Gu Rong performed a meticulous search of the area. He found no signs of a struggle, no carcass, and not a single shard of bone. This proved the dragon was still alive—it had simply vanished.
Gu Xuan was speechless. Powerful soul beasts of this caliber rarely abandoned their established territories without a monumental reason, yet he had managed to run into exactly that scenario.
Seeing the empty nest, Gu Rong considered an almost unbelievable possibility. He had visited this dragon over a year ago; perhaps it had sensed him then? After all, Gu Rong's eighth soul ring came from this dragon's own sire. Spatial Demon Dragons were highly intelligent; it was entirely possible that it had sensed Gu Rong's aura, connected the dots, and decided to flee before it shared its father's fate of becoming a soul ring.
When Gu Rong shared this theory, Gu Xuan felt numb. 'What kind of luck is this? My fourth soul ring actually ran away from me?'
Li Li, standing to the side, couldn't help but giggle at the explanation. "Big brother, your luck is terrible! If it's really like what Grandpa Bone said, does that mean your fourth ring is just... gone?"
Gu Xuan looked down at the Red-Armored Earth Dragon with a dark expression. "How could it be gone? The Star Dou Great Forest is big, but there are only so many places a dragon like that can hide. Even if I have to dig three feet into the ground, I'm going to find it!"
Gu Rong pondered for a moment before nodding in agreement. "Fair enough. The compatibility between the Spatial Demon Dragon and our Bone Dragon Martial Soul is extremely high. Losing such a ring would indeed be a waste. For a while, you two will follow me as we hunt it down. In the meantime, we can find a suitable third ring for Li Li as well."
Gu Xuan smiled and nodded. "Grandpa, then I'll have to trouble you."
Gu Rong waved it off. "I only have one grandson; it's only right that I put in some effort. I just hope you can give this old man a great-grandson sooner rather than later!"
This caused Li Li to burst into laughter again. If Gu Xuan knew what she was thinking, he would have been tempted to give her a little "correction" just to see if such a cute girl would cry for a long time.
As the three of them began their search, the presence of a Rank 97 Super Douluo like Gu Rong meant that Gu Xuan and Li Li's safety was guaranteed, even if they stumbled upon a hundred-thousand-year beast. Space-type abilities were the most unpredictable and elusive; even if Gu Rong had only recently broken through to Rank 97, he could easily retreat from a Rank 98 Super Douluo if necessary.
The reason they didn't hunt for Li Li's ring first wasn't because Gu Xuan was the priority, but because they hadn't encountered anything perfect for her. Li Li was now at Rank 30, but having consumed Whale Glue and an Immortal Herb, her body could comfortably handle a two-thousand-year ring. With Gu Rong leading the hunt, they weren't about to settle for mediocrity.
A month passed with no sign of the dragon or a perfect ring for Li Li. Most of their time was spent tracking the Spatial Demon Dragon's trail, which seemed to vanish into thin air. They had encountered a Man-Faced Demon Spider, but it was only fifteen-hundred years old. While it shared her lineage, its age was too low, so they passed it by.
Gu Xuan suddenly remembered that in the original story, Tang San's third ring was from a two-thousand-year Man-Faced Demon Spider, which had also provided the legendary Eight Spider Lances. He decided to set a similar goal for Li Li: a two-thousand-year Man-Faced Demon Spider. While they might not get the same external soul bone, a beast of that caliber was the perfect fit for her current potential.
Another month of fruitlessly scouring the ten-to-thirty-thousand-year regions left Gu Xuan feeling restless. Then, a thought struck him. Typically, low-level beasts don't enter high-level territories, but the reverse happens all the time. The Spatial Demon Dragon was smart; maybe it was hiding in the outer regions where no one would expect to find such a powerhouse.
Gu Rong agreed that the logic was sound. If it wasn't in the inner core, they might as well try their luck in the outer circle. Since the outer regions lacked powerful threats, the search could proceed much faster.
One month later, the trio hovered silently above the territory of a thousand-year soul beast colony. Below them was a group of about fifty Rock Snakes. The strongest among them was only at three thousand years, but their leader wasn't a snake at all. It was a five-meter-long dragon covered in black scales—the Spatial Demon Dragon Gu Xuan had spent two months hunting.
The beast was actually quite clever. After taking over the Rock Snake colony, it had been living a life of luxury, using the snakes as its lackeys to bring it food while it did nothing but sunbathe.
Suddenly, the dragon sensed something. It raised its savage head from the ground and peered into the sky. Gu Rong wasn't flying particularly high, and the dragon's eyesight was keen enough to spot the dark silhouette against the clouds.
That familiar, overwhelming sense of dread and pressure flooded its brain. Without a second's hesitation, it scrambled to its feet. It didn't bother using its wings; instead, soul power surged, and a pitch-black Spatial Portal tore open in front of it. It lunged straight in.
Watching the dragon's desperate escape, Gu Xuan wasn't anxious at all. In fact, he watched with a satisfied grin.
At the exact moment the dragon released its innate skill, the nine rings—two yellow, two purple, five black—erupted around Gu Rong. The eighth ring, a deep black ten-thousand-year ring, lit up in perfect synchronization with the dragon's skill. A Spatial Portal of Gu Rong's own appeared right in front of them.
"Now that we've found it, it's not going anywhere," Gu Rong said with a chuckle. He stepped through the portal, and Gu Xuan and Li Li followed immediately after.
(End of Chapter)
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