Chapter 97: Just chop them all off

"This Dark Gold Bat King actually anticipated—do you have that kind of strength?"

Being mocked by Qian Renxue's teasing gaze, the Dark Gold Bat King spread its vast, terrifying wings with a swish and lunged toward Qian Renxue.

Qian Renxue was not startled but delighted; she poured her rich soul power into the Angel Holy Sword, and the golden blade suddenly burst into brilliant flames, which, under mental control, turned into a fire dragon vortex that fiercely charged at the Dark Gold Bat King.

At this moment, the Dark Gold Bat King was suppressed by the Angel Domain and couldn't react in time; its middle head was instantly ignited by fire, and the intense burning sensation made it emit frantic, miserable cries.

What Qian Renxue didn't expect was that the Dark Gold Bat King's left head directly spat out a dark red light wave, instantly slicing off the middle head—this beast is really decisive.

The ultimate fire is too terrifying; if the contaminated part isn't removed promptly, the Dark Gold Bat King will definitely be burned to death.

The Dark Gold Bat King's other two heads glanced warily at the fallen, ash-covered remains on the ground, wanting to retreat, yet they greedily glanced at Qian Renxue's tender flesh, drool dripping madly.

For soul beasts, a soul master's physique brings great benefits—even this kind of mutant species is no exception; especially this woman before it, the Dark Gold Bat King sensed that devouring her would trigger an unprecedented metamorphosis.

It casually grabbed a few underlings and stuffed them into its mouth, and the middle head regrew.

Its massive wings spread out to both sides, causing its body to momentarily hover in midair.

As Qian Renxue flew toward it on wings, the leftmost head suddenly emitted a golden light wave—not acting on the opponent, but on itself.

In the next moment, under a layer of golden smoke, the massive body of the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat suddenly exploded, turning into hundreds of golden tiny bats that scattered in all directions.

Qian Renxue's missed swing didn't faze her; she casually turned in midair, holding the Angel Holy Sword upright before her eyes, the blade reflecting the scene behind her.

"Going from three heads to hundreds of heads makes no difference."

As Qian Renxue muttered to herself, hundreds of dark gold bats swooped from all directions, their sharp claws aiming at the girl's delicate body.

"Hoo~~~~"

The Fire Phoenix Heart Technique circulated; scorching heat flowed into her lungs, sparks ignited on the Angel Holy Sword's blade, and heat surged forth.

"Whoa——!"

The girl's sword blade, swung at extreme speed, resembled a phoenix bathed in fierce fire, carrying scorching light; the returning sword light traced a blazing ring around her at extreme speed.

In an instant, the bodies of the hundreds of dark gold bats froze; their tiny dark gold heads all went "Boom!" and burst like watermelons, juice splattering everywhere, their bodies thudding into the blood pool.

"Just chop them all off."

The surrounding fire ring was like the sharpest blade; under Qian Renxue's formidable physique, the necks of these dark gold bats were as flimsy as paper.

When Qian Renxue turned again, her deep purple eyes seemed ignited, two wisps of wind-blown sparks continually seeped from her pupils, and as she turned, they traced a scorching red line.

With the death of the Dark Gold Three-Headed Bat King, the other blood-colored bats instantly became leaderless; lacking a commander to hold the line, their instinctive fear of fire made them scatter and flee.

After the blood-colored bat swarm left, everything around quieted down again.

"Hoo~~~"

Exhaling a long stream of flame, Qian Renxue's hair, like burning fire, gradually calmed; her wild golden hair softened and fell over her waist, and the red fire in her pupils faded.

Now her body temperature feels like it's about to scorch; whenever she uses the Fire Phoenix Heart Technique, her temperature rises significantly.

Under such high heat, Qian Renxue's fair skin takes on a charming pink luster, smooth as fat, as if a light touch could wring out water.

【Wow! Just like that! This is the Fire Phoenix Sword Technique—gorgeous! Gorgeous and cool—this is what matters most! Xue'er, keep it up!】

Golden Phoenix Child happily bounced around in the Soul Mark Space.

"Mm-hmm, good, good, good." Qian Renxue casually appeased Golden Phoenix Child, then continued forward; her warm-up had just ended.

Qian Renxue kept flying forward along the passage; the air grew hotter and hotter, and gradually, even without using her soul bone, she could faintly see the dark red liquid flowing in the abyss on both sides.

When the scorching air made ordinary people feel uncomfortable, as if their lungs were burning, but after circulating the Fire Phoenix Heart Technique, Qian Renxue felt like a fish in water, and her soul power circulation sped up considerably.

This hell road spirals downward, not a straight line, though its curvature is slight, so it's hard to notice.

The deeper one goes, the stronger the bloody stench in the blood pool becomes; Qian Renxue's killing intent can partially resist it, and the Angel Domain can also shield, but keeping the domain active constantly drains soul power and mental power greatly—even with Qian Renxue's abundant soul power, she cannot waste it recklessly when she doesn't know how long the journey will last.

After a while, another 150-plus red bird-like creatures flew toward Qian Renxue, constantly spitting strange mist from their beaks at her.

The mist isn't toxic, but it reacts with the toxins in the blood pool, triggering a soul master's killing intent and causing loss of reason; if she had already expended too much energy on the Dark Gold Bat King, facing these blood birds might truly be a disastrous loss—losing reason in this hell road is practically suicide.

These blood mists tinged with purple light are extremely thick and pervasive; even Qian Renxue cannot dodge them.

Qian Renxue directly enveloped herself with the Angel Domain to purify and weaken the blood mist's effects, but the mist's penetrative power is too strong; even the Angel Domain offers little resistance, and purification is incomplete.

Before Qian Renxue could angrily rush to slash these blind birds, her spider soul mark on her abdomen stirred again.

"You can eat this too? Are you a baby? Why do you suck everything?"

Her spider soul mark can still absorb this strange mist; if so, Qian Renxue need not resist—perhaps this mist benefits her martial soul.

After a while, with the cries, the blood birds finished spitting the mist, found no effect, and quickly fled while calling out.

The blood mist originally formed from the qi and blood of these aberrant birds; their qi and blood were completely drained by Qian Renxue's second martial soul, like using up a whole pack of tissues in one night—left empty.

"Is that it?" Qian Renxue grumbled dissatisfied; after her spider soul mark absorbed the mist, her own body returned to peak condition, as if she'd taken a stimulant.

"At least this soul mark has a conscience—it doesn't hoard everything for itself, and it knows to leave me some."

This saves time for recovering soul power on the hell road; the environment here is terrible, and if she tried to recover soul power here, the vicious qi from beneath the blood pool would easily seep into her body, severely damaging a soul master's spirit and reason—so the deeper she goes, the less she can recover soul power.

After advancing a bit, Qian Renxue encountered another batch of strange red flying insects, the explosive kind, reminding her of the Zerg in space—could there be a Blade Queen down there?

Qian Renxue directly used the Ultimate Fire to burn them all; she didn't want to be bitten by bugs, and the crackling sounds continued nonstop all the way.

At this moment, this side path is only three hundred meters from the blood pool.

Qian Renxue pressed on; soon she met the fourth wave of attack—the same primordial strange beast Tang San encountered in the original work: a ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake. This snake cannot fly; its eyes are fire-red, and a dark red body coils and twists along the path.

On the snake's head and back are nine protrusions; each protrusion on the back looks like a bright red mushroom, inside which blood seems to flow, though the forehead is stained with a mysterious purple hue.

This purple light clashes sharply with the snake's overall dark red tone, making it very conspicuous.

The ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake's abdomen is especially huge, bulging in the passage, and its length is at least over ten meters.

Qian Renxue sensed its cultivation—about sixty thousand years, another strengthened mutant soul beast; this hell road is harmful, but fortunately her combat power is high, otherwise she'd really have capsized.

The ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake lay across her path; its head, crawling on the passage, slowly lifted, and its pair of fire-red eyes instantly brightened like lanterns.

From its mouth came a "gu-gu" sound, like a baby's cry, and behind it, the nine tumors began to emit a golden-red glow.

"Gu——" At twenty meters from Qian Renxue, the monster snake struck first; a fire-red light suddenly spurted from its mouth, carrying a strong fishy odor, and swiftly spread toward Qian Renxue.

This fire-red light also bears a layer of faint red mist; needless to say, this red mist certainly contains potent toxins.

"Oh? Flames?" Qian Renxue laughed as if she had seen something interesting.

"Trivial tricks, dare to show off your skills before a master?"

"Gua————!"

The Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake's intelligence is extremely high; the corners of its mouth excitedly split wildly back to its ears, and it spewed poisonous fire with all its might toward Qian Renxue's direction.

Purple light flickered on its forehead, and its mind held only a single thought.

That is to eat her! Eat her! Eat her!

To ensure absolute safety, the Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake also condensed a golden small ball.

The snake's body arched, and the nine tumors were completely aimed at Qian Renxue's position.

Suddenly, the nine tumors burst simultaneously, nine streams of gold-red liquid shot out; the liquid in the air was not a straight shot but flew toward the space above Qian Renxue's face, the nine streams merged into one in the air, and just as it was about to reach her, it suddenly paused.

All the liquid simultaneously contracted, forming a gold-red ball the size of a fist.

The ball arrived first despite being launched later; the flames in its mouth also contracted and rushed toward the ball, taking the golden ball as the dragon's head, forming a fire dragon with terrifying heat.

However, Qian Renxue merely extended a slender, jade-like white index finger and lightly pressed it against the incoming red fire dragon.

Fire dragon, forbidden.

— Not allowed to advance an inch.

A single finger holding back a blazing red fire dragon—this terrifying visual impact is no less than an ant easily lifting an elephant.

"Gua——?"

All this happened under the bewildered gaze of the Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake.

At the center of the slender index finger, a tiny scarlet flame suddenly sparked.

A fear stemming from the very level of life instantly surged in the Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake's heart—the ultimate trembling buried deep within a creature's soul! The terrifying scorching power boiled instantly like surging magma.

"Crack——!" A slight cracking sound rang out.

Qian Renxue thought, "Oh no," and quickly withdrew her strength.

This is bad; she wouldn't accidentally crush the Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake's inner core, would she? If she had known, she wouldn't have pretended to be so cool—sniffle, she feels so sorry.

Several fine cracks appeared on the golden ball, the Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake's massive body shuddered violently, then came to an abrupt halt.

Next, Qian Renxue saw the Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake, starting from its head, gradually turn into crumbling powder and finally collapse with a boom.

Qian Renxue took the golden ball in her hand, examined it, and felt relieved; fortunately she withdrew in time, it didn't break—only a few cracks on the surface, not reaching the core inside.

This is the Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake's inner core; on the Douluo Continent, though it is a variant, it is still a spirit beast, and a spirit beast's inner core is equivalent to a spirit core. Spirit masters who consume it can still absorb spirit rings, and it's unknown whether it could be used as an embryo for a spirit core.

However, if that's the case, then spirit beasts already possess the concept of a spirit core? 【"The Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake's inner core—I never expected this godforsaken place to still have such a treasure; we've really struck it lucky, Little Snow."】

Hearing Jin Huang'er's voice, Qian Renxue asked in surprise, "Isn't Jin Huang'er the type who only practices swordsmanship and otherwise just loafs around? She actually reads? Impossible, absolutely impossible."

"Do you still know the Ten-headed Blazing Sun Snake?"

【"Of course!"】

【"A primeval exotic beast, incredibly poisonous, adults can exceed ten meters in length, possessing the strongest fire toxin among snakes; after cultivating for ten thousand years it can form an inner core, hidden among the nine heads on its back—when the inner core emerges, heaven and earth lose color."】

【"If one obtains its inner core, all snakes will retreat; it is the supreme among snakes."】

【"Most importantly, with this, your Angel Holy Sword can gain a second spirit ring! How about it, aren't you happy?"】

"Huh? But you said my Angel Holy Sword can only attach sword-shaped spirit rings, right?"

【"This kind of variant inner core actually works too! As long as you consume the inner core, I can guide this power to form a spirit ring on your Angel Holy Sword!"】

Qian Renxue hesitated for a moment, then shook her head: "This snake's cultivation is still under sixty thousand years—too low; sword-shaped spirit rings can keep evolving, but this variant's inner core falls far short."

Jin Huang'er stared blankly, then said, "Eh, Little Snow doesn't have any spirit rings below a hundred thousand years on her; this variant inner core is indeed rather poor. Having followed Qian Renxue for so long, Jin Huang'er's standards have risen considerably."

【"Then you'd better keep it for now; we'll talk later."】

"En."

Qian Renxue acknowledged with a sound, then stored the golden inner core in her storage bracelet and pressed on; the surrounding temperature had already risen to a hundred degrees. She now understood that this Hell Road had been amplified more than once—she didn't know which deity had tampered with it? The Asura God? Or the Rakshasa God?

(End of chapter)