Chapter 168: City of Blacksmiths

However, Dugu Bo still could not defeat Zhou Heng.

Zhou Heng's soul power had progressed quite slowly over these past few months, but his insights into the rules of the world had not improved slowly at all.

During their sparring, Zhou Heng did not unleash soul power of other attributes, showing only the poison attribute he had comprehended from his Pseudo-Demigodhood, yet the performance shocked Dugu Bo.

Once released, Zhou Heng's toxins were already capable of acting like living things, devouring the primordial energy between heaven and earth to continuously spread and grow, while also possessing a small portion of eerie spiritual power.

When Dugu Bo's poison-attribute soul power entered, it would be instantly assimilated into a part of the toxins Zhou Heng released; even if he used non-attribute soul power to bombard them or used an attack from a soul bone skill, the soul power would still be assimilated into a part of the toxins.

Zhou Heng snapped his fingers, and the toxins gathered rapidly as if they had life, transforming from poison mist into venom, and finally into a viscous, mud-like texture; a dense, ominous power was gestating within it, and even Dugu Bo could feel a massive threat from it.

Zhou Heng caught a Millennium Soul Beast of the elephant type in the Sunset Forest and applied a small portion of the poison mud onto this soul beast's body.

In the blink of an eye, the huge elephant-type soul beast's body underwent a mutation.

Its flesh swelled and twisted, its bones grew abnormally, and its massive body collapsed in an instant, only to re-aggregate into a twisted, evil object.

That monster looked like a giant egg, yet it sprouted a large number of deformed limbs and tentacles; its flesh formed a hotbed for virulent poison and plague, and the entire soul beast was instantly transformed into a dangerous bomb.

What made Dugu Bo's hair stand on end most was that although this soul beast had already been twisted into a monster, no Soul Ring had appeared, which in the Douluo World meant that this soul beast had not yet died.

Zhou Heng caught a passing Human-Faced Demon Spider, then manipulated the Chaos Egg to touch this Human-Faced Demon Spider, which was around five hundred years old; consequently, this Human-Faced Demon Spider also began to swell and twist violently, eventually popping with a "pop," leaving behind a large patch of twisted flesh.

And within this burst flesh, there still existed a massive amount of virulent poison and plague, enough to instantly kill ninety-nine percent of Millennium Soul Beasts.

Moreover, the most terrifying thing was that this burst flesh still possessed a powerful ability to spread, to the extent that the green grass on the ground and the innocent trees nearby began to twist in a bizarre fashion.

This terrifying scene made even Dugu Bo feel his back go cold, and he felt a chill travel from the base of his spine all the way up to the crown acupoint on the top of his head.

Zhou Heng manipulated this Chaos Egg to move further away, then chose to detonate it.

In an instant, the Chaos Egg transformed from the Millennium Soul Beast exerted a destructive power equivalent to a full-force strike from a Spirit Douluo under the effect of the Poison Explosion Technique, and the toxins within, under the pressure of the massive explosion, sprayed out forcefully and scattered in all directions.

And it was only after the explosion that a purple Soul Ring emerged from within the Chaos Egg, symbolizing that this twisted and modified soul beast had truly died.

But the influence caused after its death had only just begun.

Trees were twisted, snakes and insects in the grass were twisted, and they even began to convert toward the Chaos Egg, but their weak origins could not support the conversion process, and they could only burst in a twisted manner halfway through the conversion, after which the virulent poison and plague gestated within them continued to scatter toward the surroundings.

This skill was not very effective against high-level Soul Masters, but its influence in group battles was almost incalculable: powerful destructive force, the ability to spread, plus the twisted transformation.

Although people in this era were not so double-standardized, and would not define someone as an evil Soul Master just because they saw them possess a strange ability.

But honestly speaking, this method was undoubtedly the kind of evil Soul Master technique that could not be more evil; if unleashed, one would definitely be chased and attacked by others as an evil Soul Master.

Even Zhou Heng himself admitted this point; after all, this Corrupting Plague was indeed a bit too harmful to the harmony of heaven.

If someone else used this trick in front of him, he would certainly also think that the other person was an evil Soul Master.

This was only because there was no evil Soul Master organization like the Holy Spirit Cult in this era; otherwise, if an ordinary Holy Spirit Cult Soul Master saw this trick, they would have to kneel on the ground and kowtow respectfully to Zhou Heng, shouting "The Holy Son has descended!"

Flames surged from Zhou Heng's hands, rapidly incinerating the flesh on the ground and all the places that had been splattered by the flesh.

Under the control of Zhou Heng, the master, and the burning of the flames, the influence caused by that bizarre poison mud, which was both virulent poison and plague, was finally completely eliminated.

And from the bodies of the elephant-type soul beast and the Human-Faced Demon Spider, a piece of somewhat dim and ominous soul bone burst out, representing that these two soul beasts had once suffered extreme torture.

And what terrified Dugu Bo the most was that these two soul bones, carrying a dense ominous aura, also carried some of that twisted plague and toxins, which meant that once someone absorbed these two soul bones, they would also likely continue to be twisted and corrupted.

Even when Zhou Heng took action himself, he only retrieved all the plague and toxins from these two soul bones; as for the soul bones themselves, they were simply scrapped.

After witnessing Zhou Heng's power, Dugu Bo could only repeatedly urge Zhou Heng to be careful when taking action in the future, though he no longer worried about whether Zhou Heng would encounter any danger.

Leaving the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Zhou Heng first made a trip to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, greeted Dugu Yan and Ye Lingling, and then officially began his travels across the continent.

Zhou Heng drove a carriage, traveling for several days in a row; whenever the horses pulling the carriage became exhausted, he would inject life force and soul power into the horses' bodies, then rest for a day before continuing on his way.

After repeating this several times, Zhou Heng arrived at Gengxin City, the Tiejiang Zhi Du of the Douluo Continent, and at a shop belonging to the Blacksmith Association, he displayed the token and secret code he had agreed upon with Lou Gao.

After confirming that Zhou Heng was indeed the person the president had been waiting for, the blacksmith in charge of the shop immediately went up to the top floor of the association to inform the president.

Not long after, Lou Gao slowly walked over from upstairs with a few disciples.

It was not that Lou Gao wanted to be slow, but that Lou Gao's body no longer allowed him to walk quickly.

Nowadays, he even needed the support of others to move.

Although it had only been about a year since he last left, Lou Gao's body seemed to have aged several decades; not only were there more wrinkles on his face and his body had become weaker, but even the flame of life that had already begun to shrink slowly had shrunk by a large circle, and the whole person seemed as if they had already burned out.

One must know that when they last met, Lou Gao was still an old man with a very robust body due to years of blacksmithing.

When Lou Gao first appeared on this floor, Zhou Heng's spiritual power sensed Lou Gao's condition; although he did not know what was going on, Zhou Heng still walked quickly toward Lou Gao and then stopped Lou Gao from his attempt to bow to him.