Douluo: Brains Over Bloodline

The soul rings of the Dark Blood Demon were all self-generated and gradually upgraded as he cultivated.

Unfortunately, even though he had reached the Limit, it seemed he still hadn't met the threshold for all his soul rings to reach the ten-thousand-year level.

Otherwise, if he completed this transformation, he might become an even more terrifying existence than the Ghost Emperor or the Underworld Emperor.

A configuration of nine ten-thousand-year soul rings—currently, Xu Yuan only knew of one such individual, the Qilin Douluo Tong Yu. Aside from him, the only other comparable figure was Yun Ming.

Even Yun Ming's first two soul rings were black, with the later orange-colored ferocious beast soul spirits compensating for this.

It couldn't be helped—even for Yun Ming, whose martial soul developed normally without any mutations, achieving a hundred-year soul spirit that could transform twice into a ten-thousand-year soul ring was already incredibly difficult. Further transformations would be even more painstaking, especially since the other seven soul rings also required spiritual energy to be distributed among them.

The nine black soul rings lined up in sequence, with the second soul ring flashing.

A crimson-black halo spread out, quickly enveloping the surrounding space.

A wave of weakness began to creep into Xu Yuan and Xu Shengqun's minds.

This sensation originated in their spirits but quickly spread to their bodies.

Xu Yuan was shocked.

As expected of the Dark Blood Demon—a top-tier evil soul master.

This martial soul was simply—

"Exquisite!"

It shared a similar mechanism to the Plague Bringer, but its curse seemed broader in scope. Additionally, it possessed the ability to devour souls, combining absorption powers. Furthermore, this Dark Blood Demon also had effects akin to the Huang family trio's Blood Demon, which fused bloodlines. Xu Yuan estimated that it likely triggered abilities related to the essence of the soul.

Whether it was stripping bloodlines to fuse them or stripping souls to devour them, these were evil applications. If reversed, these abilities would be extraordinarily overpowered, continuously strengthening a soul master's physical body and soul essence, indirectly enhancing every aspect of the soul master's qualities from a fundamental level.

The Dark Blood Demon's martial soul encompassed so many attributes—it was truly exquisite.

Having knowledge of Ha Luosa's situation, Xu Yuan understood the extent of the Underworld Emperor's monstrosity. Thus, he became intensely curious about the specific martial soul mechanics of the Ghost Emperor, who was on par with the Underworld Emperor and ranked above the Dark Blood Demon.

Of course, he was also mobilizing his spiritual power to resist the curse.

Having studied the green light of the Plague Bringer, Xu Yuan had some understanding of curses like this.

"Uncle, link your spirit with mine."

Xu Yuan had immediately activated the first soul skill of his brain martial soul—Spiritual Link—and his fifth soul skill, Star Shift.

The Spiritual Link allowed for the exchange of the curse they were subjected to.

Its primary purpose was to disrupt the mechanism of the curse.

Originally, the curse targeting Xu Shengqun's soul aimed to weaken his physical body. However, under the influence of Xu Yuan's Spiritual Link and Star Shift, the target of the curse on Xu Shengqun's soul was disrupted, attempting instead to curse Xu Yuan.

However, there was no medium connecting Xu Yuan's body and Xu Shengqun's soul.

Thus, the curse was effectively neutralized.

Fifth soul skill, Star Shift.

This was the fifth soul skill granted to Xu Yuan by Huan Xing for his brain martial soul. Its effect was to construct a spiritual chessboard, allowing the effects of spiritual-type soul skills to be transferred among targets encompassed by the spiritual chessboard.

For example, illusions.

If Xu Shengqun were affected by an illusion, Xu Yuan could use Star Shift to construct a chessboard encompassing both Xu Shengqun and himself, transferring the illusion to himself. He could also pull enemies into the chessboard and transfer the illusion to them.

Naturally, the second soul skill of the Dark Blood Demon, Wilted Blood Curse, was also within the scope of Star Shift's transfer capabilities.

This soul skill originated from the defensive talent of phantoms splitting into different spiritual entities to inhabit separate avatars, countering various spiritual soul skills.

With the target of the Wilted Blood Curse being shifted, there was no medium to invade the physical body through the soul, rendering it nullified.

At the same time, these two instances of Wilted Blood Curse were captured by Xu Yuan's dream realm.

"Hmm?"

The Dark Blood Demon shifted his gaze from Xu Shengqun to Xu Yuan.

Although his target was Xu Yuan, he had been focusing on Xu Shengqun ever since he appeared.

In his eyes, Xu Shengqun was the key; Xu Yuan's strength posed no threat to him.

He never expected that Xu Yuan could directly nullify his curse?

This was unacceptable!

The Dark Blood Demon's entire strength rested on his martial soul, and its most practical ability was the curse.

If this curse ability were countered, it would be extremely troublesome for him.

Especially since Xu Yuan was a genius—an unparalleled genius. Once he grew stronger, wouldn't the Dark Blood Demon be completely suppressed?

"Third soul skill, Dark Blaze Fire!"

"Seventh soul skill, Blood Demon True Form!"

A dark flame emanated from the vengeful spirit, which then merged with the dark fire and attached itself to the Dark Blood Demon's body.

The Dark Blood Demon's form rapidly transformed into the previous ghostly appearance, becoming a massive Blood Demon.

"Fifth soul skill, Blood Demon Inferno!"

The Dark Blaze Fire erupted from his body, forming rays of flame that resembled the giant hands of the Blood Demon, covering both Xu Shengqun and Xu Yuan.

Xu Shengqun let out a cold snort, and a spear appeared in his hand.

The spear thrust forward.

Space shattered.

The surrounding space seemed to collapse, and even the Dark Blaze Fire lost its foundation for propagation, being directly annihilated by spatial cracks.

The best defense was a strong offense.

This principle was perfectly embodied in Xu Shengqun's spear techniques.

He thrust the spear again.

If the previous spear strike shattered space, causing spatial fragmentation, this strike pierced into space itself, passing through it and striking right in front of the Dark Blood Demon.

The Dark Blaze Fire on the Dark Blood Demon's body condensed into smaller Blood Demons, swarming forward to block Xu Shengqun's attack. However, the intensity of the Dark Blaze Fire on his body also weakened significantly.

"Eight soul skill, Soul Devouring Feast!"

Twelve soul-devouring entities split off from his body, tearing toward Xu Shengqun and Xu Yuan.

These soul-devouring entities were his first soul skill and could be considered the innate talent of his martial soul, enabling him to devour souls.

These twelve soul-devouring entities charged at Xu Shengqun and Xu Yuan, targeting their souls directly.

"Hmm?"

The Dark Blood Demon sensed a powerful presence rapidly approaching. This presence was overwhelmingly vast, filled with an intense yang energy that made him feel as if he were facing a blazing sun.

Alarmed, he quickly turned his gaze toward the direction of Tiandou City.

Who?

Just the aura alone made him feel as if he were being scorched—not the burning of yang or fire attributes, but rather a feeling of being smelted.

This was an unfamiliar sensation for the Dark Blood Demon.

In the past, he had never faced a Limit Douluo from the Body Sect.

Of course, Mu Ye wasn't quite a Limit Douluo, but he was close enough.

A blood-red sphere of light rapidly approached, its fierce scarlet flames burning brightly, turning the sky a deep crimson.

On the other side, Mu Ye, who was swiftly arriving, sensed the Dark Blood Demon's presence from afar and felt slightly puzzled.

"Hmm? Is he weaker than expected?"

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