Douluo Continent: Starting with the Tiger Emperor Template

After the seventh-level Soul Master finished speaking, he pulled the trigger hard.

A terrifying, purplish-black beam of light erupted from the cannon's muzzle, scorching and distorting the air wherever it passed, and carving a deep trench into the ground.

The violent energy fluctuations spread outwards, and fine cracks appeared on the walls on both sides of the street. Gravel was swept up and smashed down by the shockwave.

This attack was enough to easily tear apart a Soul Emperor's defenses, and even a Soul Douluo would be injured if hit by it.

"Go to hell!"

The Soul Saint roared, pouring all his soul power into the level-seven soul tool in his hand. The purplish-black beam of light became even thicker, almost swallowing the entire width of the street.

Ji Juechen and Jing Ziyan's expressions changed drastically. They tried to move forward despite their wounded bodies, but they were already exhausted.

The two could only watch helplessly as the purplish-black pillar of light devoured Lu Ren's figure.

Meng Hongchen covered her mouth, her beautiful eyes filled with panic, her heart leaping into her throat.

The next second, the beam of light dissipated.

Lu Ren remained standing in the same spot.

The surging blood energy around him was even more concentrated than before. The purplish-black energy bombarded him, only causing ripples, without even leaving a crack.

The ground beneath his feet had been blasted into a large crater, with rubble and dust flying everywhere, but he himself remained motionless, not even a tear in the hem of his clothes.

"Impossible!" The Soul Saint's pupils contracted sharply, and his voice changed tone. "This isn't soul power protection at all! What kind of monster are you?"

Upon hearing this, Lu Ren slowly lifted his shirt:

"What a pity, it didn't hurt me."

After he finished speaking, everyone saw the blood-covered body surface beneath Lu Ren's clothes.

The blood-covered body surface is as hard as armor; this is a technique of the Crimson Blood Manipulation, which can greatly enhance one's defensive capabilities.

Combined with his physical strength and the amplification effect of the Crimson Scales, he was able to withstand a level seven soul tool, which was quite an amazing defensive ability.

"You seem very curious about why I, a Soul Master, am so strong. Well, let me explain it to you."

He raised his hand, and four spirit rings—two purple and two black—rose from beneath his feet.

"Are you familiar with the concept of restraint?"

"What is it?" the seventh-level Soul Master blurted out, his brows furrowed.

Lu Ren ignored his confusion and instead muttered to himself:

"Binding is an absolute contract formed with soul power. Those who break it will pay an unexpected price."

He replaced his curse power with soul power; this was a necessary disguise.

In this world, he needs to make everyone understand his power system, but he cannot reveal his true nature.

"The core principle of this contract is that the greater the investment, the higher the return."

Blood surged around him, as if blown by an invisible wind.

"The reason I'm so strong now, unlike a typical Soul Master, is because of self-imposed constraints. I've made a contract with myself and am willing to bear the consequences. And those consequences..."

He pointed to the spirit rings surrounding him.

"Extremely expensive."

"I traded the inability to use my first soul skill forever for a permanent 10% increase in all attributes and an improvement in the performance of my spells."

"Because the first spirit ring is only for a thousand years, that's the limit of what you can get."

"As for my second spirit ring, it took five thousand years to obtain a fifty percent increase in all attributes."

He paused, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"So, the one standing in front of you now is not an ordinary Soul Master, but a Soul Master whose normal attributes are increased by 60%."

His gaze swept over everyone present, finally landing on the pale-faced seventh-level soul master.

The pupils of a Level 7 Soul Master contracted violently.

He certainly knew what that meant.

In exchange for the permanent inability to use two soul skills, one gains a permanent 60% increase in all attributes.

These are only the first two spirit rings, the most useless first and second spirit rings.

What did he change to for the next two ten-thousand-year spirit rings?

More importantly, the more he listened to Lu Ren speak, the more he could feel the increasing aura emanating from the other man.

That sense of threat is expanding at a visible rate.

Can't delay any longer.

"Damn bastard!"

He pulled the trigger again, and the energy beam of the soul-guided cannon went straight for Lu Ren's face, forcibly interrupting his speech.

"Ah, you found out."

Lu Ren raised his hand, and an invisible slash shot out from his fingertips, precisely cutting the incoming soul-guided cannonball in half.

Metal shards flew past his cheek, carving a row of deep holes in the wall behind him.

"Revealing information is also a form of self-restraint; the more you reveal, the stronger the spell becomes."

"Well then, it's time to end this."

Lu Ren clasped his hands together, fingertips touching, and pointed them forward.

Unbelievable blood gushed from his body, condensing, compressing, and heating in his palm.

Soul power transformed into blood, then concentrated at the fingertips and spun, emitting a sharp buzzing sound, as if something was being pushed to its limit.

"Crimson Blood Manipulation Technique - Hundredfold Convergence - Blood Piercing".

"Blood Piercing" is the ultimate technique of long-range attacks in the Crimson Blood Manipulation, and it is also an extremely powerful move.

The principle is to compress blood to its limit, concentrating it into a single point like a bullet and then ejecting it.

Its initial velocity can reach the speed of sound, and its penetrating power is extremely terrifying, enough to tear apart any defense of the same level.

The downside is that the initial speed is only the speed of sound, and the speed will decrease as the distance increases.

"not good!"

The seventh-level Soul Master realized the terrifying power of this move and frantically activated all the defensive Soul Tools on his body.

A level seven soul-guided shield and an invincible shield, two layers of defensive barriers unfolded around him, their dazzling light forming the final line of defense.

A cold glint flashed in Lu Ren's eyes.

The crimson energy compressed to its limit at the fingertips erupted instantly.

A thin, almost invisible line of blood broke the sound barrier, tearing through the air and leaving a trail of blinding shockwave.

It was like the fingertip of death, piercing straight towards the seventh-level soul master.

The bloodline tore through the sky, crashing into the level seven soul-guiding shield with a devastating shriek.

"Snap!"

The surface of the shield instantly cracked, like glass struck by a heavy hammer. The light flashed wildly, and after holding for less than half a second, the entire shield shattered, and the fragments dissipated into countless points of light.

The momentum of the bloodline was greatly weakened by this block, and therefore, when it collided with the second layer of invincibility shield, it only stirred up a shallow ripple before dissipating weakly into the air.

"Hahaha!" The seventh-level Soul Master was stunned for a moment, then threw his head back and laughed wildly. "Bluster, all you did was bluff! Your full-force attack couldn't even break through my invincible shield!"

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and a fierce glint rekindled in his eyes.

"The Soul Sect is ultimately the Soul Sect. Even if they used some evil and forbidden techniques, they couldn't possibly defeat a Soul Saint by crossing three major realms!"

Lu Ren stood there, looking at him expressionlessly.

The seventh-level Soul Master sneered, raised his hand to deactivate the invincible shield, and the golden light membrane faded away from his body, turning into energy that flowed back into the core of the Soul Guidance Device at his waist.

The moment the protective shield disappeared, the surging blood energy around Lu Ren suddenly exploded, turning into a thick blood mist that spread in all directions.

The red mist surged and billowed like a living thing, instantly enveloping an area of ​​several dozen feet in radius.

The seventh-level Soul Master's vision went dark as blood completely engulfed him. He could see nothing but the thunder of his own heartbeat and the rushing of blood through his veins.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

To his astonishment, he discovered that it was all human blood!

Such a large amount of blood being released... how many people's blood would it take to drain that much?

Unsure of what this blood actually was, the seventh-level Soul Master sealed his breath and began to protect himself with his Soul Power.

"Not bad." Lu Ren's voice drifted from the blood mist, shifting unpredictably from left to right. "You even know how to hold your breath; you're quite cautious."

The level seven soul master turned around abruptly, aiming his soul cannon at the direction from which the sound came, only to see surging blood.

He pulled the trigger repeatedly, but the energy beam shot into the fog and hit nothing.

A slight tremor came from beneath my feet.

He looked down, only to find that the blood was so thick that he couldn't even see his own feet.

Then he heard breathing.

At that moment, his scalp tingled and the hairs on his body stood on end.

Right behind me!

The seventh-level Soul Master's pupils contracted sharply. He instinctively wanted to turn around, to activate his defensive Soul Guidance Device, to do something, but a sharp blade formed from blood was already at his neck.

The blood-stained blade was as thin as a cicada's wing, its edge gleaming with a cold, reddish light.

The blade pressed against his skin, and he could feel its icy touch, along with the chilling killing intent emanating from it.

"I don't need to elaborate on what will happen to you Soul Masters once you're engaged in close combat, do I?"

Lu Ren's voice came from behind him.

"You don't even have the combat power of an ordinary Soul Saint."

The seventh-level Soul Master's body froze.

He dared not move. The blood-stained blade was pressed against his carotid artery, and he had no doubt that if he moved even slightly, the knife would slice open his throat.

But he was not willing to give up.

He is a level seven Soul Master, a Soul Saint-level expert. How could he be forced to this point by a level four Soul Master?

"Go to hell!"

He abruptly turned to the side, the muzzle of the soul-guided cannon pointing behind him, energy condensing inside the barrel.

However, Lu Ren merely flicked his wrist, and the blood-stained blade slashed across his side.

It wasn't deep; it just scratched the skin, causing a thin line of blood to seep out.

Then Lu Ren quickly withdrew, retreating several feet away, and collected all the blood that filled the sky.

These bloodstains were all transformed from his own soul power, so Lu Ren didn't feel any heartache at all.

The seventh-level Soul Master was stunned.

He looked down at the wound on his waist, then looked up at Lu Ren in the distance.

That's it?

"Hahaha!" He burst into laughter again. "That's it? You went through all that trouble to get close, just to slash me? Are you kidding me?"

He raised the soul-guided cannon and aimed it at Lu Ren.

The laughter stopped abruptly the next moment.

A violent burning sensation erupted from the wound, like magma pouring into the blood vessels.

The burning sensation flowed through the blood to every part of the body, and wherever it passed, the meridians felt as if they were being burned by a raging fire, and the muscles began to spasm.

The seventh-level Soul Master's face turned from pale to bluish-purple, his lips turned black, and his pupils began to dilate.

A mouthful of blood gushed out, splattering on the ground and emitting a pungent, fishy stench.

"This, this is..."

"My blood is poisonous, and that knife was made from my blood," Lu Ren said calmly. "So why do you think I went to the trouble of getting close just to slash you?"

The seventh-level Soul Master opened his mouth, as if to say something, but a mouthful of black blood gushed out first, splashing onto the ground and emitting a pungent, fishy stench.

His knees were bent and his body leaned forward.

"Thump."

The seventh-level Soul Master knelt on both knees, his hands braced against the rubble, blood gushing from his mouth and nose, staining the bluestone slab in front of him red.

The level-seven soul tool slipped from his hand and crashed to the ground with a dull thud.

"Alright, you've been watching the show for so long," Lu Ren said irritably. "Now it's your turn to clean up the mess, Master."

As soon as he finished speaking, Jing Hongchen finally showed himself.

He saw the group of people staggering about and his lips twitched.

He seemed to want to say something, but hesitated to speak.

"Don't blame me for making a big fuss." Looking at Jing Hongchen, Lu Ren added, "You could have easily solved this yourself, but you insisted on making me do it, so don't blame me for making you clean up this mess."

Upon hearing this, Jing Hongchen's face darkened.

Well, he really shot himself in the foot.

He dug his own grave!