The Purple Nether King Snake spat out a vast cloud of purple toxic mist directly at Dugu Yan, enveloping her instantly.
Faced with toxins that would make even a Soul Saint extremely wary, Dugu Yan neither dodged nor avoided them. Enveloped by the mist, her expression remained unchanged; the toxins failed to have any effect on her whatsoever.
After her Martial Soul evolved, Dugu Yan herself became akin to a source of poison. Unless an opponent's level far exceeded hers, their toxins could not affect her. She was now effectively immune to all poisons, as these external toxins were inferior to her own innate poison and thus could not take hold.
The Purple Nether King Snake initially felt a surge of smugness, but a moment later, it was struck by terror as it felt its own vitality draining away.
Dugu Yan raised her hand toward the snake. As her soul power surged, many tiny emerald-green beads separated from the snake's pores; these beads were the very essence of its life force.
As its vitality was stripped away, the Purple Nether King Snake instantly withered. However, it reacted quickly, frantically driving its soul power to condense on the surface of its body to block the extraction.
Dugu Yan's first soul skill was powerful, but it was not omnipotent. If it were, she would be invincible. While the Serpent Spirit Source could indeed strip vitality, an opponent could block the effect by using a massive amount of soul power as a protective layer. Unless the opponent's rank was lower than Dugu Yan's, she could not continue the extraction once they were on guard.
Nevertheless, this forced the opponent to consume soul power at an accelerated rate. Once their reserves were depleted, Dugu Yan could resume draining their life force.
In this instance, although the snake reacted quickly, Dugu Yan had already drained about one-tenth of its vitality. Under her control, this energy fed back into her own body, making her complexion even more radiant.
Though terrified, the Purple Nether King Snake realized Dugu Yan could no longer drain its life force. It launched a counterattack, knowing it had to end the fight quickly since it was burning through soul power just to protect its vitality.
The snake swung its four-meter-long body and charged directly at Dugu Yan.
Dugu Yan remained composed as her black fourth soul ring lit up.
"Fourth Soul Skill: Medusa's Gaze!"
As the skill was activated, two grayish-white pillars of light shot from her eyes, locking onto the charging Purple Nether King Snake.
The snake, already wary of her abilities, did not dare take the hit directly. It opened its massive maw, emitting a foul stench, and spat out two venom projectiles, each half a meter in diameter.
When the venom projectiles hit the pillars of light, they instantly petrified and fell to the ground, shattering into stone fragments.
As a top-tier snake-type soul beast, the Purple Nether King Snake had naturally dealt with super soul beasts like Medusa before. Seeing that Dugu Yan possessed such an ability, it reacted in an instant.
Ignoring the heavy consumption of soul power, the snake spat out five more venom projectiles at Dugu Yan and then turned to flee, abandoning its subjects entirely.
Wives and children could be replaced, but once life was gone, everything was lost. As a King, it understood how to make such a choice.
Dugu Yan was left feeling somewhat helpless when she saw the Purple Nether King Snake give up the fight and try to run. Her strength lay in using poison for control and attack, but if the opponent focused solely on escaping, she lacked the means to stop it, as her toxins struggled to affect the snake significantly at her current rank.
Dugu Yan swayed her snake tail, dodging the projectiles, and gave chase. However, her speed was no match for a forty-three-thousand-year-old Purple Nether King Snake. In an instant, a gap of dozens of meters opened between them. At such a distance, even Medusa's Gaze could not guarantee a hit, as the snake was not running in a straight line and would surely dodge.
At that moment, Gu Xuan and the other four girls descended from the sky, blocking the snake's path.
Now a desperate fugitive, the Purple Nether King Snake spat a cloud of toxic mist at the group.
Gu Xuan made no move. Instead, Ning Rongrong stood before him, holding the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud as her soul power surged.
"Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud Third Skill: Vast Sea Wild Waves!"
Ning Rongrong activated one of the shroud's abilities. As her soul power surged, a massive waterfall of raging waves, ten meters in diameter, erupted from the shroud, directly suppressing and pushing back the toxic mist.
Toxic mist requires air to spread; since air is sparse in seawater and the density of water is dozens of times that of air, the mist could not penetrate the barrier.
After blocking the mist, Ning Rongrong immediately activated the next skill.
"Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud Second Skill: Cosmic Stasis Barrier!"
The shroud in her hand transformed into fragments and flew toward the snake. Before the beast could react, the fragments enveloped it, forming a blue barrier that froze it in place.
The primary function of the Cosmic Stasis Barrier was control, with the duration determined by the gap in soul power between the users. Ning Rongrong was currently at Rank 54, and the previous Wild Waves skill had already consumed half of her soul power. To freeze a forty-three-thousand-year-old soul beast, her remaining soul power was drained to the bottom.
Even so, she could only control the snake for a single second due to the massive disparity in strength.
However, one second was enough. Seeing the snake frozen, Dugu Yan immediately unleashed her fourth soul skill. The two grayish-white pillars of light arrived in an instant.
The snake surged its soul power to break the blue shroud, but the moment it succeeded, it was struck by the pillars of light. Because of the strength difference, it wasn't completely turned to stone, but its lower body was petrified, effectively halting its movement.
Realizing it couldn't escape, the Purple Nether King Snake erupted with all its soul power, releasing all its toxins at once. In an instant, a toxic fog covered a ten-meter radius and continued to expand.
But by then, Dugu Yan had already reached the beast. Her first soul ring lit up again, and she actually absorbed all the released toxins, converting them into pure soul power to replenish herself.
Poison was both her weapon and her nourishment.
"Fifth Soul Skill: Titan Heavy Hammer!"
Dugu Yan's black fifth soul ring released its power. A massive snake tail, ten meters long and resembling a Titan heavy hammer, appeared and smashed down onto the snake's head. The Purple Nether King Snake had nowhere to hide.
"Boom!"
With a thunderous crash, the snake's head exploded, and it lost all signs of life.
A moment later, a black ten-thousand-year soul ring condensed over the beast's corpse. Dugu Yan sat cross-legged to regulate her breathing, preparing to absorb it.
Ning Rongrong also retracted the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud and sat nearby to recover. The consecutive attacks and control had exhausted all her soul power; she needed to recover as quickly as possible. At the same time, she was becoming more familiar with the shroud's abilities; in the long run, she would be able to utilize this treasure fully.
Fifteen minutes later, Dugu Yan finished her breathing exercises and began absorbing her sixth soul ring.
A forty-three-thousand-year sixth soul ring would be more than enough, even as a seventh ring for a Soul Saint. One could imagine the terrifying boost this ring would give her.
After three full hours, six soul rings—two yellow, one purple, and three black—floated around Dugu Yan, signaling her official promotion to the Soul Emperor rank.
"Rank 62," Dugu Yan let out a long breath, her face full of joy.
Her rank was now one level higher than Gu Xuan's. With her formidable strength, she officially possessed the ability to face a Soul Saint head-on. Of course, while Gu Xuan was only at Rank 61, his actual strength could not be defined by mere rank alone.
With Dugu Yan's successful absorption and Ning Rongrong's recovery, the group moved on without pause toward the next location to obtain the fifth soul ring for Li Li.
(End of Chapter)
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