Douluo Continent: Gretchen at the start, empowered by the Star God.

Chapter 9 Heavenly Fire, Unsheathed!

Five days have passed since Lang Lei and Gretchen entered the inner perimeter of the Star Dou Great Forest.

During this time, Lang Lei encountered many soul beasts, but none of them were suitable for him.

"Brother Lang Lei, is this one not okay either?" Gretchen asked, looking at the lizard of unknown species that Lang Lei was holding down.

"Not good. This lizard is a dual element of water and wind, and has nothing to do with earth." Lang Lei grabbed the lizard's tail and flung it away.

"Done." Lang Lei clapped his hands.

To be honest, the Titan Giant Ape in the core area would be quite suitable for Lang Lei. However, he's not sure if he can absorb a 100,000-year-old spirit ring, so he's temporarily shelving the idea.

As Lang Lei pulled Gretchen away, he pondered to himself.

"Wow, look, Brother Lang Lei! There's a bear digging for something!" Suddenly, Gretchen tugged at Lang Lei's sleeve and pointed in a direction with her other hand.

Lang Lei looked in the direction Gretsch was pointing and sure enough, there was a bear digging something.

As if sensing their gazes, the Earth Bear turned its head and roared.

"Gresh, step back." Lang Lei stepped forward and punched the earth bear's paw as it charged forward.

Lang Lei was sent flying dozens of meters by a single palm strike, but fortunately he was not seriously injured.

The Earth Bear remained motionless in place.

As for Gretchen, she had already been taken to the air to watch the battle by the Painted World Creation Lamb, at Lang Lei's behest.

"Brother Lang Lei, are you alright?" Gretsch held her paintbrush, ready to act at any moment.

"No need to intervene, little Gretchen," Lang Lei reassured her. "This big guy can't hurt me."

"He came as expected. This guy is quite suitable for me." Lang Lei clenched his slightly numb fist.

"Dust Dragon Domain, activate!" Just in case, Lang Lei charged towards the Earth Bear and activated his domain skill the moment he got close.

"Roar—" The Earth Bear seemed a little impatient, slamming its fist on the ground, sending several rocks flying toward Lang Lei.

Lang Lei easily dodged several rocks, and as he got close, the Earth Dragon Dust condensed into a longsword, which he then slashed fiercely at the Earth Bear.

"Clang—"

The sound of metal clashing rang out, and Lang Lei, having failed in his attack, immediately dodged out of the Earth Bear's attack range.

"This defense... my first martial soul probably can't break through it." Lang Lei dispelled his first martial soul. "Sorry, Brother Xiong, I was hoping to give you a good fight, but it would be a pity if you got impatient and ran away."

The Earth Bear and Lang Lei are currently in a stalemate, neither able to gain the upper hand. Aside from honing their combat skills, the battle serves no other purpose.

With the enhancement of his Thunder Elemental Eye and physical prowess, his attacks were on par with his opponent's. However, the Earth Bear possessed strong physical defenses, and Lang Lei had excellent regenerative abilities. In the end, neither could gain a significant advantage in their exchange.

"I'd love to take little Gretchen out to see the world as soon as possible~" Lang Lei smiled, and a pair of pistols appeared in his hand.

The two pistols transformed and merged into a single greatsword.

A nameless fear gripped the Earth Bear, making it want to turn and run, but Lang Lei's Heavenly Fire Judgment had already locked onto the Earth Bear, and the terrifying pressure rendered it unable to move.

"Heavenly Judgment, Zero Rated Power, Heavenly Fire, Unsheathed!"

The towering flames engulfed the area, and the nearby spirit beasts sensed a terrifying pressure, causing them to flee into the distance.

Gretchen's eyes gleamed in the sky as she waved her hand, and the fire dissipated like smoke.

"Brother Lang Lei..." Gretchen came to Lang Lei's side. By this time, Lang Lei had already deactivated his second martial soul and was lying weakly on the ground. "He just used an ability that Uncle Kevin often uses... but this attack was a bit strange, Gretchen can't quite put her finger on it."

"This kind of attack is already a stripped-down version. It's unimaginable how Kevin could use the normal zero-rated power of the Heavenly Fire Judgment as a basic attack," Lang Lei said with a wry smile.

"Uncle Kevin is amazing, and Brother Lang Lei is great too!" Gretsch comforted him.

"Thank you, little Greta. I'm not disappointed." Lang Lei wasn't presumptuous enough to compare himself to Ancestor Kevin; there was no comparison.

After all, she is the Herrscher of the End, who can easily destroy a civilization and casually blast a planet into oblivion with a single sword strike.

After resting for a while, Lang Lei stood up with Gretsch's help and went to a glowing object.

"Not bad, I even got a soul bone." Lang Lei noticed that the Earth Bear's body was now completely gone, not even ashes remained. This soul bone had survived under some special rule.

Lang Lei picked up the soul bone. Just as he was about to wake up Elita, who was sleeping inside his body, and ask if he could have it appraised, a message box popped up automatically from the system.

[Ding, congratulations to the host for obtaining: the left arm bone of a 90,000-year-old Earth Bear.]

Host fusion is not recommended; please consider using it at your own discretion.

"Ninety thousand years..." Lang Lei casually tossed a soul bone that could fetch an astronomical price outside to his second martial soul, Heavenly Flame Judgment. "A ninety thousand year soul ring, that should be about enough to absorb, right?"

Lang Lei looked at the spirit ring floating up and down in the air. It even had a trace of red lines on it, which was probably close to 100,000 years old.

As for why it didn't appear in the original work...

Something must have happened later, right?

Lang Lei sat down cross-legged, gave some instructions to Little Gretchen, and then began to try to absorb the spirit ring.

Greta looked at the floating black spirit ring, and tried to touch it with her hand. A pure aura instantly washed away the resentment on the spirit ring.

Lang Lei understood that, unlike adaptive spirit rings, this spirit ring absorption should take into account the presence of resentment. However, for some reason, Lang Lei, who was still absorbing the spirit ring, did not sense the presence of resentment.

However, Lang Lei didn't delve into it further and focused on absorbing the spirit rings.

As always, after transferring some soul power to his second martial soul, Heavenly Fire Judgment, Lang Lei's soul power still reached level 27.

A seven-year-old reaching level 27 is probably a rare occurrence in the world.

Opening his eyes, Lang Lei felt that the pain from releasing the zero rated power of the Heavenly Judgment was significantly reduced.

Speaking of the Heavenly Fire Judgment, after this replenishment of soul bones and absorption of soul rings, its progress in condensing its first soul ring has successfully reached 31 years, which is gratifying!

[Ding, congratulations host for completing the accompanying mission: Soul Ring Absorption.]

[Rewards calculation will now begin.]

[Congratulations, host, you have obtained: 10 lottery draw chances, 1-year-old Earth Bear torso bone, and 1 custom anchor point.]

(End of this chapter)