Chapter 4 Stripping the Taotie Bloodline.
"No, that's impossible!"
"This can't be true!"
"It must be a hallucination!"
Xuanzi couldn't believe his eyes and was unwilling to face this reality.
But reality is reality.
He had to face it.
He approached shakily, and saw that the children's clothes were Shrek's school uniforms, and they were the students he had brought.
Everyone is dead.
Xuanzi felt a buzzing in his head, and then he went berserk, frantically slaughtering the surrounding soul beasts.
"Damn it, damn it..."
"It's all because of you filthy and ugly soul beasts! If it weren't for you, Le Xuan and the others wouldn't have died..."
Xuanzi completely lost his mind and went on a rampage!
Every soul beast within sight was brutally killed and slaughtered!
In an instant, there was not a single living creature left within a radius of dozens of miles.
Such turmoil quickly attracted the attention of Emperor Tian in the Lake of Life.
"Those people from Shrek Academy are truly courting death!"
Upon realizing the man's actions, Di Tian became utterly enraged.
After several conflicts, they reached an unwritten agreement with Shrek Academy: the spirit beasts tacitly allowed Shrek disciples to hunt spirit rings reasonably in the outer reaches of Star Dou, while Shrek Academy restricted its disciples from venturing into the core area, hunting rare spirit beasts, or exterminating spirit beast populations.
Xuanzi's large-scale slaughter of soul beasts has now crossed Ditian's bottom line.
"You're pushing your luck! Well then, stay here!"
Di Tian made a sudden move, unleashing a powerful attack that hurtled towards Xuan Zi.
Hiding underground, Jiang Heng clearly sensed the power of these two forces, and he cautiously poked his head out to observe.
The battle did not last long. Even though Xuanzi's Taotie bloodline restrained Ditian, the gap between them was simply too great.
Under the powerful dragon god's claws of Di Tian, Xuan Zi lost an arm and fled frantically.
"That direction isn't Shrek Academy!"
Jiang Heng, who was lurking deep underground, saw the direction in which Xuanzi fled in a panic, and his eyes immediately brightened.
I have to say, he was tempted.
If Xuanzi were at his peak, a mere 150,000-year-old soul beast like him would naturally not dare to show his face.
But now, Xuanzi is not only seriously injured and on the verge of death, but he has also lost an arm, an arm with a soul bone.
How much fighting power does he have now?
Level 92, level 93, at most level 94.
Such an opportunity is rare, perhaps only once in ten thousand years.
What he desired was the bloodline of Xuanzi Taotie.
Taotie, also known as the Earth Dragon King, is one of the nine great dragon kings under the Dragon God! (The settings in Douluo Continent II and III are quite chaotic, so I'll take a middle ground here to try and keep the settings as consistent as possible.)
The Taotie bloodline possessed by Xuanzi's martial soul is pure blood, far superior to his bloodline, which has been diluted through countless generations of dragon kings.
If a soul beast wants to quickly increase its strength, there is only one way besides consuming rare and precious herbs.
Devour!
He doesn't have the talent to devour. Although he has figured out some tricks over the years, he can only eat, not devour, and cannot maximize the consumption of energy.
"Leave two clansmen who are over ten thousand years old to take the Silver Moon Wolf King back to the palace. The rest of you, follow me and dig the tunnel with all your might!"
Without any hesitation, Jiang Heng immediately issued the order.
Although they didn't know what the king was going to do, all the golden earth dragons obeyed Jiang Heng's orders.
The 100,000-year-old Golden Earth Dragon King is the main force, the nine 20,000-year-old Golden Earth Dragons are the secondary force, and the remaining 10,000-year-old Golden Earth Dragons continuously assist from the side.
They dug tunnels frantically and moved forward at top speed.
He would occasionally peek out to make sure he wasn't deviating from the direction Xuanzi had fled.
The commotion caused by the Golden Earth Dragon Clan attracted the attention of many underground soul beasts, but upon seeing the 100,000-year-old soul beast at the head, they all fled.
There's no way around it; we can't afford to mess with them.
Most of the soul beasts that hide underground and rely on the terrain for survival are very weak, so they naturally dare not provoke a 100,000-year-old soul beast.
If Jiang Heng and his group hadn't been digging ahead while the rest of the golden earth dragons filled in behind, a landslide would have definitely occurred underground in the Star Dou Great Forest.
Xuanzi's injuries were too severe. He not only lost his arm and soul bone, but even his soul core was cracked.
His cultivation level regressed directly to level 91.
If he hadn't threatened Di Tian with his soul core self-destruction at the end, he really wouldn't have been able to escape.
The cracks in his soul core constantly threatened his life, so he had no choice but to choose a relatively remote place to stabilize his injuries and soul core.
"Damn Di Tian, one day..."
Just as Xuanzi was about to utter a few harsh words, the image of Di Tian's domineering and invincible demeanor flashed through his mind, so he had no choice but to swallow the rest of his words back down.
"Bang!"
Just then, a huge dragon claw suddenly emerged from the ground and slapped Xuanzi.
Xuanzi, who was already seriously injured, suffered a severe blow, with most of his bones breaking instantly. He lay on the ground like a dead dog, unable to even sit up.
The person who made the move was Jiang Heng.
He never expected that the chase would be so easy.
Immediately, a massive figure over thirty meters tall emerged from the ground, instantly crippling Xuanzi's limbs and dantian to prevent any unforeseen events.
"I still know some methods to strip someone of their bloodline."
Looking at Xuanzi's body on the ground, even though he had become a soul beast, he couldn't overcome the mental barrier to devour him.
Moreover, if he were to directly devour it with his mental power, he might suffer a backlash.
Why not strike while the iron is hot, strip him of his bloodline, and then devour him once he's become ownerless?
He then manipulated his soul power to begin stripping Xuanzi of the bloodline power belonging to Taotie.
"Soul beasts… filthy and vile soul beasts…"
Faced with the intense pain of having his bloodline stripped away, Xuanzi fought desperately, only to find that he couldn't muster any power at all.
His face contorted in intense pain.
He wanted to open his mouth and curse, but as his strength waned, he had no strength left.
Now, because his dantian is destroyed, he can't even mobilize his soul power to self-destruct his soul core. He can only watch helplessly as his own power is taken away.
"yes!"
"Now that I'm a soul beast, no one will believe me even if I say I'm human!"
As Jiang Heng spoke, he slapped Xuanzi to death, then collected the soul bones and storage soul tools from Xuanzi's body. He then used his soul power to wrap the bloodline extracted from Xuanzi's body and dug a tunnel back to their underground palace.
After returning, Jiang Heng chose to go into seclusion.
As for what will happen in the outside world after Xuanzi's death, with Di Tian around, he doesn't need to worry about it.
The 100,000-year-old Silver Moon Wolf King gave the 90,000-year-old Golden Earth Dragon, which controlled both water and earth attributes, to the clan.
Absorbing the bloodline of the Taotie is destined to be no simple matter; in fact, if one is not careful, his own bloodline may be devoured by the Taotie's bloodline.
We need to take it slowly, step by step.
Fortunately, he is no longer the same person he was when he first arrived.
It took him a full year to successfully fuse the Taotie bloodline with himself.
In this way, he gained another innate divine power: devouring all things to strengthen himself!
With this supernatural power, he was able to devour other soul beasts and thus rapidly strengthen himself.
With the help of the Devouring Divine Power, he was able to better refine the power he had accumulated in his body, and his cultivation level reached 170,000 years in one fell swoop.
For the next six months, he rapidly increased his strength by absorbing power while researching soul tools. The materials needed to refine soul tools were difficult for humans to find, but were easy for soul beasts.
Finally, with the help of rare materials and human knowledge about soul tools, he successfully created an 8th-level soul tool.
Although much cruder than those made by humans, the powerful flying bricks can still exert considerable force.
"Judging by the time, the plot should be starting soon."
As Jiang Heng spoke softly, his enormous body began to shrink until it reached about ten meters in height, at which point the change stopped.
He wants to steal all the opportunities that belong to Huo Yuhao.
(End of chapter)