The Martial Soul Skeleton, in Douluo Continent's Bone-Changing Susanoo

Chapter 78 Gastly, Bone Dragon Dagger

Because of the earlier discussion about drugging the food, Dugu Yan was flushed and hot all over. She didn't even dare to look Xia Liang in the eye and kept her head down without saying a word.

"Young man, I haven't had a drink in a while. Why don't you keep me company tonight?" Dugu Bo took out a flask of wine from somewhere and placed it on the table.

The medicine bottle was taken away by the granddaughter, but the alcohol produced by fermenting a highly poisonous substance was enough to intoxicate a Soul Saint who was completely unprepared.

Drinking this pot of wine can make even the most serious mistakes happen, effectively turning a bad situation into a fait accompli.

By joining the Heaven Dou Royal Academy as a commoner, defeating his own granddaughter despite being of a higher level, and with Yu Tianheng from the Old Dragon Family, Dugu Bo had already guessed Xia Liang's talent and potential based on these points alone.

Since his medicinal herb garden has been exposed, and this person is so attentive to his granddaughter, and his granddaughter is also interested in him, why not play matchmaker to prevent the good fortune from going to outsiders?

Seeing her grandfather take out a flask of strong liquor without any regard for her feelings, Dugu Yan closed her eyes helplessly. She felt that tonight was really too sudden, so sudden that she was not prepared at all.

Much later.

At the dinner table.

Dugu Yan didn't drink; she just sat on the stool, her whole body burning with anxiety, without saying a word.

Xia Liang and Dugu Bo had already finished three jugs of wine.

One possesses the venom of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent King, which can counteract the potency of wine made from highly toxic substances by using poison against poison.

Someone with an immune system can drink this wine as easily as drinking water.

After the two drank three jugs of wine, neither could get the other drunk.

After finishing the fifth jug of wine, Dugu Bo's excessive drinking stimulated the snake venom in his body, causing a backlash from the venom.

Left with no other choice, he could only hurriedly leave the mansion.

"Why did your grandfather leave without saying a word?" Xia Liang put his wine glass on the table.

Dugu Yan knew that her grandfather only lost his composure when the snake venom was acting up, so she concealed the truth and said, "He probably ran out of wine. He went out to buy some. The tavern is quite far from my house, so he probably won't be back until tomorrow morning."

"So you're saying it's just the two of us tonight?" Xia Liang asked, looking into Dugu Yan's eyes.

Dugu Yan immediately looked away, lowering her head and remaining silent. She didn't want to play with fire right now, because she wasn't mentally prepared for things to become a fait accompli. This was the first time, and tonight had all been too sudden.

"Xia Liang, what did my grandfather say to you, right? Don't do anything reckless tonight. Please understand how I feel right now, okay?" Dugu Yan said weakly.

"Alright," Xia Liang suggested, "Let's go train after dinner. It'll be a good opportunity to practice our dual-ring fusion technique. What do you think?"

Hearing this, Dugu Yan nodded in relief. She knew that if Xia Liang insisted on forcing his way in, she would definitely not be able to resist, and her grandfather would not care either.

At this moment, her sudden feelings were understood and her opinions were respected. Dugu Yan felt a strange sense of goodwill and trust in her heart. At least she knew that the person she liked was not a creature whose lower body couldn't even control its lust.

The next day, in the morning.

Tian Dou Royal Academy, Cave Simulation Field.

Xia Liang sat cross-legged on the ground, meditating and cultivating.

When Xia Liang left the Dugu residence in the morning, Dugu Bo happened to return and asked if he had slept with Dugu Yan. Xia Liang answered no, and was scolded by Dugu Bo for being useless.

The meditation ended. Xia Liang opened his eyes, then closed them again, his consciousness entering the spiritual world.

In the gray spiritual world, a wisp of blackish-purple ghost fire floats.

Under the control of his mind, the dark purple will-o'-the-wisp grew a head, eyes, and a mouth, gradually transforming into the shape of Gastly.

Then, a strange scene unfolded.

Gastly suddenly sprouted two arms from the sides of its round black head.

Unlike the two skeletal arms of the Necromancer's Skeleton Spirit, Gastly's two arms are merely two claws detached from its body.

Even more strangely, after growing two claws, Gastly's entire body was wrapped in wisps of black energy, forming a ball of light resembling a total solar eclipse.

The moment the orb of light exploded into dust, Gastly, which was floating in the spiritual world, underwent a significant change in appearance.

At this moment, Gastly's entire body was blackish-purple, and its two claws, which had separated from its body, hovered in front of it like a wandering ghost.

It has three spiky protrusions on each side of the back of its head, triangular white eyes, and a large mouth with sharp purple teeth.

If Gastly is an upgraded version of the black and purple will-o'-the-wisp, then this new Gastly with two claws is its evolved form.

Xia Liang named it Gastly.

I spent about an hour in the mental world, letting Gastly and Haunter battle.

Observations revealed that Gastly's two claws can not only move like human hands, but can also detach completely from the body to grab a target from a distance.

This is somewhat similar to the aerial grabbing technique of the Bone Dragon's external left metacarpal bone.

In the spiritual world.

Gastly was suddenly knocked away by Gastly's claw, and when it fell to the ground, its eyes were crossed, rendering it unable to battle.

Judging from the battle between Gastly and Haunter, Haunter is far superior to Gastly in both agility and offensive capabilities.

Surprisingly, the required soul power and mental power are the same when summoning both.

Therefore, it seems that Haunter should be the product of an upgrade to the Undead attribute, rather than something that can only be created by increasing Soul Power and Spirit Power.

As his consciousness emerged from the spiritual world, Xia Liang opened his eyes, and a faint black aura suddenly burst forth from his body.

This is a sign of increased soul power.

After absorbing the third spirit ring, his spirit power reached level thirty-six.

Now, by consuming two pieces of ten-thousand-year-old cold marrow and successfully refining them, his soul power has increased to level thirty-seven.

It was also thanks to the ice and fire energy bestowed by the Ice and Fire Immortal Grass within his body that he first endured the erosion of the icy power of the Ten Thousand Year Cold Marrow through the ice energy, and then used the fire energy to transform the energy of the Ten Thousand Year Cold Marrow into his own energy, thus successfully raising his soul power by one level.

With his X-ray vision activated, Xia Liang's eyesight penetrated his own flesh, allowing him to clearly see the flow of soul power between his meridians.

The thickness of the soul power within the body has indeed increased, and there is no instability in the foundation.

Currently, there are still thirty pieces of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Marrow stored in the Three-Colored Ring. Xia Liang plans to save them for when he breaks through the bottleneck of soul power every ten levels.

Alternatively, one could wait until the Necromancer Skeleton Martial Soul is upgraded to its ultimate attribute, and then rely on the Ten Thousand Year Cold Marrow to accelerate the cultivation speed.

Having just adapted to the sudden increase in the thickness of his soul power, Xia Liang suddenly took out a black bone dagger from his silver bracelet.

This is a knife made from the bones of a bone dragon, imbued with the bone dragon's spatial attributes.

Activating the third soul skill, Bone Dragon Transformation, grants temporary access to spatial attributes. When consuming soul power to perform a spatial jump, one can directly jump to the location of the Bone Dragon Dagger.

The principle is that the Bone Dragon Dagger and the Bone Dragon Soul Ring come from the same soul beast, and their spatial attributes are connected.

(End of this chapter)