Douluo Continent: From Internal Martial Arts to the Law of Heaven and Earth

Chapter 425 Severe Injury

Tang Shan was unaware that the Shrek Seven Devils nearly broke up after he left; at this moment, his attention was entirely focused on the lying Titan Giant Ape.

"What kind of soul skill do you hope to obtain from it?" Gu Yue put her hands behind her back, her long silver hair swaying gently, her face full of curiosity, a far cry from the imposing and dignified demeanor she had shown earlier when she intimidated the Seven Devils.

Tang Shan sized up the Titan Giant Ape in the distance, pondered for a moment, and then replied, "Let's mainly see what kind of soul skills it has. After absorbing soul rings several times before, I can basically confirm that the soul skills I can choose when I enter the soul skill space are not only those possessed by the soul beast itself, but also those of its superior bloodline. The Titan Giant Ape possesses the bloodline of the legendary soul beast Titan, and I am very curious about what kind of soul skills it has."

"What about the Titan Giant Ape's soul bone? Do you want to absorb it?" Although Gu Yue was the sovereign of soul beasts, she didn't know much about legendary soul beasts. In other words, having just woken up, she only knew the general development history of soul beasts. As for the more detailed habits of various soul beasts, she knew nothing and couldn't introduce Tang Shan to the general abilities of the Titan. She could only vaguely change the subject.

Tang Shan had already considered this point. Gazing at the still terrifying body even in its demise, he gently shook his head: "Gu Yue, how do you think soul bones are born? Is it possible to create soul bones artificially?"

The artificial soul bone that Tangshan mentioned does not refer to the secret method of condensing soul bones by hunting large numbers of the same kind of soul beasts, as is the case with soul masters ten thousand years later. Rather, it refers to whether soul masters can condense soul bones that perfectly match themselves, just as soul beasts condense soul bones.

His idea wasn't entirely unfounded. As everyone knows, the creation of soul bones isn't due to some random resentment, but rather the fusion of a soul beast's nascent soul core with a bone fragment after its death. If a soul beast's soul core, combined with a bone fragment, can undergo a series of special reactions to become a soul bone, then what about a soul master's soul core?

Although this was just a hypothetical scenario, Tang Shan temporarily abandoned the idea of ​​absorbing any soul bones other than external soul bones. His strength was already close to the pinnacle of the continent, and even a 100,000-year-old soul bone would only have a limited effect on his strength. For the sake of a potentially brighter future, it was no big deal not to absorb soul bones for the time being.

Artificial soul bones! Gu Yue's eyes widened in disbelief at Tang Shan's suggestion, but upon closer examination, she felt that it didn't seem to make much of a difference. After all, soul bones are products unique to the Douluo rules. If she could thoroughly study the rules that gave rise to them, it wouldn't be impossible to create them artificially.

As the two talked, they arrived at the corpse of the Titan Ape. Even though it had lost all its life force, its huge pupils were still wide open, filled with resentment, clearly indicating that it had died with its eyes open.

It makes sense when you think about it. Your beloved is so close, yet you don't even have the chance to see them one last time. You can imagine how intense that resentment must be.

Tang Shan ignored the Titan Ape's glaring eyes, sat down cross-legged in front of it, and began to circulate his soul power. Only when he was back to his peak condition did he begin to draw upon the blood-red soul ring in preparation for a breakthrough.

The crimson 100,000-year soul ring slowly floated to the top of Tang Shan's head, and then suddenly descended. When it was placed on him, it shrank by a large size, and the blood light became even more intense.

……

hold head high!

Blocked by the Demon King, the Azure Bull Python let out a mournful howl. A strange sadness rose in its heart, constantly reminding it that the thing it least wanted to see had happened: Erming had most likely met with misfortune.

With its soul power boiling and bloodline burning, the Azure Bull Python's aura surged, and its massive body charged straight toward the Demon King with the force to shatter mountains and cleave rivers. Its eyes were blood red, filled with hysterical rage and sorrow.

"Stubborn fool!" The Demon King snorted coldly, completely enraged by the ungrateful Azure Bull Python. He unleashed his vast soul power, causing towering ancient trees to rise from the ground. The dense branches intertwined and strangled each other, like indestructible wooden cages, instantly binding and binding the Azure Bull Python tightly.

Click!

The earth cracked, and saplings broke through the soil. The tender shoots grew rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, and in an instant, their height was no less than that of those ancient trees that had been around for hundreds of years. Their branches and leaves intertwined like a forest of iron chains and ropes, layer upon layer, binding the azure ox python completely.

The King of Ten Thousand Demons, floating in the air, flew to the massive bull head of the Azure Bull Python. Ignoring the other's bloodshot eyes that seemed to want to devour people, a sinister smile appeared on his lips, and his right hand suddenly clenched.

The Azure Bull Python, glaring at the King of Ten Thousand Demons, suddenly opened its eyes wide in the next moment. The vines on its body tightened instantly, and terrifying power was applied to its entire body in an instant, squeezing its muscles, bones, and flesh until it let out a mournful cry.

Click!

The crisp sound of bones breaking echoed continuously. The Azure Bull Python wanted to roar in pain, but its huge mouth was tightly bound and blocked by vines. Crimson blood overflowed from its tightly closed mouth and dripped down its scales.

After a while, the Azure Bull Python's bones were shattered in large areas, its scales were scraped off, and its blood flowed like a small stream, staining the grass and trees beneath it red.

The Demon King manipulated the Azure Bull Python's body to sway slightly. After a few symbolic struggles and twitches, the Azure Bull Python lost its strength, just like a broken rope, riddled with holes, not far from being ruined.

"It will probably take some years to recover." After observing the injuries he had sustained, the Demon King nodded in satisfaction. With a wave of his arm, the dense vines worked together to violently fling the tattered body of the Azure Bull Python away.

Whoosh!

Its massive body crashed helplessly into the pseudo-Lake of Life, creating towering waves. The continuously flowing blood stained the lake surface completely red, and ripples surged endlessly.

The Demon King clapped his hands, glanced one last time at the lake stained red with blood, and vanished above the vast forest in a flash. The newly grown trees showed no signs of degeneration and, together with the previous trees, became part of this expansive green sea.

……

The energy contained in a 100,000-year spirit ring is already violent, not to mention that this is the spirit ring of a 100,000-year super spirit beast, the Titan Giant Ape.

As soon as the blood-red spirit ring connected with his body, a savage and domineering energy, like magma, surged wildly into Tang Shan's body, each strand as heavy as a thousand pounds.

The energy is in liquid form, and it rivals the liquid soul power of Tangshan in the meridians. Wherever it passes, the body is impacted and broken apart, but it is quickly repaired and reorganized under the nourishment of the soul power, in an endless cycle.

Fortunately, Tang Shan's body was already beyond human capacity to withstand the power of a 100,000-year-old spirit ring; otherwise, he would have only died from his body exploding in the face of its terrifying energy.

Soul power took the lead, circulating rapidly through the twelve meridians, refining the liquid energy bit by bit. However, faced with the continuous torrent of energy, this refining speed was just a drop in the ocean. In less than a quarter of an hour, the meridians were completely filled, causing them to swell and feel like they were about to burst.

Chapter 426 Opening Up the Meridians Throughout the Body

With his multi-threaded thinking activated, Tang Shan focused one of his soul skills on fully mobilizing his internal soul power to refine the raging energy surging from the 100,000-year soul ring. The rest of his consciousness quietly resided in his sea of ​​consciousness, silently awaiting the arrival of the Titan Giant Ape's spiritual body.

The soul rings of ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts contain soul vibrations, not to mention the Titan Giant Ape, a super soul beast with a cultivation level of one hundred thousand years.

hum!

Outside, the crimson spirit ring encircling Tang Shan trembled slightly, and the surging crimson light dimmed abruptly. At the same time, a peculiar entity, almost tangible, connected with Tang Shan's body through the spirit ring's energy, directly entering his body and rushing upwards, instantly entering his sea of ​​consciousness.

The pale golden sea surged and churned, vast and boundless, with wave after wave relentlessly crashing against the invisible boundary, strengthening Tangshan's spirit bit by bit.

Boom!

A massive body suddenly burst in, hovering above the vast ocean, its body expanding as if inflated, seemingly about to pierce through the entire space in the blink of an eye.

"Hahaha! Kid, you didn't expect that, did you? Your grandpa isn't dead! Your combat strength is indeed formidable, but how strong can a Soul Emperor's mental power be?"

The sound was like a thunderclap, shaking the spiritual space of Tangshan, and causing a huge upheaval in the sea of ​​spirits, with overwhelming force!

"Is that so?" Tang Shan's spiritual body also appeared, its body rapidly expanding to reach the sky and stand tall, standing shoulder to shoulder with the spiritual body of the Titan Ape.

The Titan Ape's maniacal laughter abruptly stopped. Sensing the figure opposite him that seemed even stronger than himself, his expression stiffened.

He subconsciously looked around, but even with his spiritual body enlarged, he still couldn't see the edge of the vast ocean. The Titan Ape's heart sank to the bottom.

It's one thing for a human Soul Emperor to possess the combat power of a 100,000-year-old Soul Beast, but now he's being told that the other party's mental strength is in no way inferior to his own, and is even a bit stronger. Is that reasonable?

The initial arrogance upon arriving at the Sea of ​​Spirit has vanished without a trace, leaving only the coldness and despair that penetrates deep into the spiritual body.

Watching the Titan Ape's arrogance quickly dissipate, Tang Shan stopped wasting words and slammed his fist, which resembled a pillar of heaven, down straight for the ape's massive body.

"Human! You've gone too far! I'll take you down with me!" The Titan Ape was enraged when Tang Shan attacked without saying a word. Its eyes widened in fury as it desperately fought back, waving its fists wildly.

Tang Shan remained silent, only throwing punches. With his mental strength already giving him the upper hand, coupled with fighting on home turf, this mental confrontation was not as evenly matched as before; Tang Shan was overwhelmingly dominating the fight.

Simple punches and kicks struck the Titan Ape's body, shattering a large portion of its spiritual body. The remaining fragments of spiritual energy scattered like petals in the sea of ​​spirit, quickly being swallowed and digested by the seawater, becoming perfect resources for Tang Shan's spiritual growth.

Ripples spread across the golden sea, each fragment merging with it, making the water increasingly condensed and profound, and the boundaries of the spiritual sea continuously expanding outwards. If viewed from the highest point of the spiritual space, the area of ​​the entire spiritual sea was rapidly increasing at a visible speed.

Boom!

His body was cracked and shattered, then repaired, only to be shattered again, and the Titan Ape was forced into a steady retreat. Even when his emotions boiled to the extreme and he went completely mad, it was all in vain. Douluo Continent was not a fantasy world of idealism; no matter how high his emotions were, they could not be converted into power. His fate was already sealed from the very beginning of the battle.

"The Heaven-Opening Seal!"

Tang Shan formed a hand seal and slowly pushed forward, the terrifying aura instantly eroding the Titan Ape's remaining spiritual body. The next moment, an ancient giant axe, formed purely from spiritual power, appeared in Tang Shan's hands, wrapped with a terrifying will that seemed to be able to split the heavens and the earth, pressing down on the Titan Ape's brow.

Even a starved camel is bigger than a horse. Although the Titan Ape's spiritual body was extremely weak, its essence remained. In the end, it barely managed to shake off the influence of that chaotic and ignorant state of mind, but unfortunately, it was too late.

The Titan Ape had barely opened its eyes when the giant axe was already in front of it. Before it could react, the axe blade cleaved down from above its head without any hesitation, splitting its spiritual body in two and instantly destroying all resistance.

As the spiritual body collapsed and consciousness gradually blurred, before it completely succumbed to endless darkness, a spiritual message from Tangshan echoed in the Titan Ape's consciousness: "Don't worry, I will send Xiao Wu down to find you in the future."

The remaining consciousness completely collapsed, and the fragments that made up the spiritual body scattered. The sea of ​​spirit frantically absorbed this rare nourishment that could only be encountered during a breakthrough, and the spiritual power began to grow rapidly.

The pure essence of the soul was completely assimilated, the depth of the sea of ​​spirit continued to increase, and the degree of spiritual power condensation rose steadily.

However, it will probably take quite some time to fully digest all these gains, after all, this is the foundation of a 100,000-year-old super soul beast.

……

Tang Shan's consciousness shifted back to refining the energy within his body, and his long-trained physique finally began to function properly. Even though his meridians were swollen, and the refining speed couldn't keep up with the influx of soul power, he only felt slight discomfort in his meridians, like someone who had overeaten, without any substantial damage.

This absorption isn't a long-term solution. Tang Shan looked inward and slowly refined the soul ring's energy with his own soul power. A sense of worry rose in his heart. At this rate, it would take at least a month to completely absorb this 100,000-year soul ring.

Ok?

Tang Shan was startled and suspicious. The part of his mind that was controlling the rapid operation of his soul power noticed that the soul power seemed to be fluctuating. With a sudden inspiration, he took the initiative to give up control of the liquid soul power.

Click!

As soon as the liquid soul power lost control, it broke away from the original cycle of the twelve meridians and headed toward a path that had never been explored before.

Before Tang Shan could react, the liquid soul power had already flowed through the entire path, and a strange sense of smoothness rose in his heart. The meridians and acupoints that had been blocked for many years were opened one by one, and his whole body trembled slightly.

The liquid soul power, carried by the violent energy, continued its unabated advance along the other seven paths.

Click!

As unfamiliar meridians were continuously opened, stagnant and violent energy surged towards the eight new paths, and the changes continued unabated. With each opening, the flow of soul power became smoother, and the violent energy was gradually tamed, transforming into pure power that nourished the meridians.

With the last two pathways located along the front and back midlines of the body being opened, the soul power seemed to find a new direction to flow, instantly surging throughout the entire body and every limb.

Tang Shan understood what had happened. His eight extraordinary meridians had been opened, and the microcosmic orbit of his body had officially formed. Not only that, the surging soul power still hadn't stopped, and was expanding its territory with the violent soul ring energy, preparing to open up all the tiny meridians in Tang Shan's body to form the macrocosmic orbit of his body.

This is the benefit of going with the flow. As Tang Shan sat cross-legged absorbing the soul ring, a faint smile unconsciously appeared on his lips. He could have forcibly opened the eight extraordinary meridians long ago, but when he remembered the origin of the twelve regular meridian circulation paths of soul power, he temporarily gave up the idea. In any case, whether he opened them or not wouldn't have much impact on him.

Chapter 427 The Flaws of External Soul Bone Techniques

He was quite satisfied with the results of his natural opening up. Not only were all eight extraordinary meridians opened, but the opening momentum continued, heading straight for all the tiny meridians throughout his body.

While the difficulty of opening up the small meridians is certainly not as great as that of the eight extraordinary meridians, this is only a comparison of individual meridians. If all the small meridians in the body are included, the difficulty of opening them may even exceed the combined difficulty of opening up the twelve regular meridians and the eight extraordinary meridians.

The difficulty lies not in the energy required to open them, but in finding all the branches. Unless one acts like Tang Shan, going with the flow and achieving success in one fell swoop, one must use mental energy to search inch by inch to fully open all the small branches in the body.

Soul power, carrying the energy of the soul ring, surged wildly through Tang Shan's body. With each impact, several branch meridians were opened up, and a dense network of meridians gradually emerged in Tang Shan's mind.

With the last branch meridian being connected, Tangshan's overall soul power circulation began to evolve automatically. It still originated from the dantian, but the difficulty of its circulation increased exponentially. The twists and turns were not enough to describe its complexity. Fortunately, it was an automatically generated circulation path that Tangshan naturally mastered. In addition, the Great Circulation was naturally formed, and the soul power circulated naturally. If he had to learn this circulation method by opening it up on his own, who knows how long it would have taken.

With the formation of the Great Circulation, the refining speed of the Soul Ring energy was like driving on a fast track. No matter how turbulent the energy was, under that complex yet perfect path, it no longer brought any burden to Tang Shan's meridians.

The bottleneck of level 60 has long been broken, and soul power is rising steadily. The energy consumed in opening up the meridians is simply insignificant in the face of the foundation contained in the 100,000-year soul ring.

Once Tang Shan saw that the absorption of energy within his body was no longer hindered, he shifted his focus. Now, there was something more important for him to do: select a soul skill.

Tang Shan's confidence in leaping to higher levels lies in his extraordinary soul skills. The soul skills he currently possesses would be enough to establish any soul beast as a top-tier soul beast, and Tang Shan has a total of five of these soul skills.

Some of the more outrageous ones, such as the Amethyst Origin and the Dharma Image Heaven and Earth, can directly upgrade any ordinary soul beast to a super soul beast. If the foundation is even slightly better, it is not a problem to promote them to the legendary soul beast.

Titan Ape, let me see what talents and abilities you and your superior bloodline possess. Tang Shan's mind wavered slightly before returning to calm.

Outside, five spirit rings appeared in succession: black, black, purple, black, and black. The first spirit ring, as black as ink, suddenly flashed, and the first spirit skill, Self-Control, was activated.

With his enhanced control and awareness of his body, Tangshan soon discovered a mysterious connection.

hum!

As soon as Tang Shan entered the Soul Ring Space, he noticed something was wrong. The effects of his multi-threaded thinking Soul Skill were still active. Currently, apart from one thought controlling the flow of Soul Power in the outside world, the other eight split thoughts, including the main thought, had all entered the Soul Skill Space.

After a moment's thought, Tang Shan understood what was going on. Only thought and will could enter the Soul Skill Space. Even though Tang Shan's thought was divided into multiple parts, its essence had not changed, so it was normal that he could enter it through a special connection.

Perfect timing! This time we might need to choose two soul skills, and with the help of seven consciousnesses, the selection process might be faster.

Tang Shan hadn't forgotten that a 100,000-year soul ring grants two soul skills. However, given his situation of choosing soul skills, he wasn't sure if he could still obtain two more soul skills. He hoped everything would go as he wished.