Douluo Continent: Starting with the Tiger Emperor Template

"Kid..."

The Soul Saint's voice came from beneath the shattered skull, hoarse and low, filled with suppressed rage.

He braced himself against the walls with both hands and slowly pulled his body out of the wall.

Gravel rolled off him, hitting the ground with a dull thud.

The black flames reignited on his body, more intense and violent than before.

He straightened up, and the seventh spirit ring beneath his feet suddenly lit up.

A black light shot into the sky, enveloping the entire courtyard.

The light was so intense, like ink that couldn't be dissolved, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression.

The seventh soul skill, Martial Soul True Form.

The skeleton expanded once more at that moment. The already three-meter-tall frame grew wildly, instantly surpassing five meters.

The bones became thicker, and strange black patterns appeared on each bone, like some kind of ancient incantation.

In his hand, the skull knife also grew larger, with bone spikes standing upright on the blade, and the skull at the hilt opened its mouth, letting out a silent roar.

The immense power of the Soul Saint swept outwards like a raging sea.

The plants in the courtyard swayed wildly under this oppressive force, their leaves falling like rain.

The pergola groaned under the weight, and fine cracks appeared on the bluestone pavement.

The Soul Saint stood in the center of the black pillar of light, the eerie green flames in his skull's eye sockets locked onto Lu Ren.

His voice came from beneath the hood, like muffled thunder rolling in his chest:

"Anyone who dares to trespass and cause trouble here will die!"

Lu Ren looked at him calmly.

He felt very uncomfortable hearing those words.

Especially since it was a Soul Saint threatening them with murderous intent.

Therefore, Lu Ren slightly raised his hands, as if to resist the overwhelming pressure.

"You're under pressure, Lao Feng."

Soul Saint sneered.

Pretend.

In the face of absolute power, any pretense is futile.

In his Martial Soul True Form state, even Soul Saints of the same level would have to avoid his sharp edge.

Even if a mere fourth-ring Soul Master is strong, how could they possibly...?

His thoughts came to an abrupt halt.

Because he saw that Lu Ren's hands formed a strange hand seal in front of his chest.

It was a gesture he had never seen before, neither like the starting gesture of a soul skill nor the activation action of a soul tool.

It's more like some kind of ancient ritual, a symbol of power that's out of place in this world and originates from another system.

"Domain expansion".

"The Demon-Slaying Chef".

The moment the words fell, the surging spell power and soul power around Lu Ren exploded. His hands remained in a mudra, and the spell power and soul power surging from his body merged perfectly at this moment, turning into a visible light membrane that spread outwards from him.

Wherever the light membrane passes, everything changes.

The courtyard disappeared.

Vines, bluestone slabs, walls, the sky overhead—everything was covered and replaced in the instant that layer of light swept across.

Instead, there was an extremely bizarre space.

The water beneath my feet was shallow and crystal clear, yet I could not see anything beneath it.

The water was as calm as a mirror, reflecting the outline of a building.

The building stood right behind Lu Ren.

It was a shrine.

A shrine with an ancient and strange design, carrying an exotic style that does not belong to this world.

At the edge of this space, where the courtyard wall should have been, a semi-transparent barrier has been replaced.

Outside the barrier, everything was swallowed by darkness, and nothing could be seen.

This is an independent space completely isolated from the outside world, yet it is also the domain of the technique, the embodiment of the domain's unfolding, and an absolute barrier that brings the practitioner's inner world to life.

Soul Saint stood there, dumbfounded.

He looked down at the water at his feet, then looked up at the eerie shrine, and finally his gaze fell on Lu Ren.

The boy remained in the hand seal posture, standing in the center of the water.

"What...is this...?"

The Soul Saint's voice was as dry as sandpaper rubbing against a stone surface. His Martial Soul True Body remained unchanged, and his five-meter-tall skeletal body exuded a powerful aura.

But in this space, the oppressive aura seemed to be suppressed by something, becoming sluggish and stagnant, and could no longer spread as freely as before.

He felt an unprecedented fear.

Lu Ren stood directly in front of the shrine, his posture remarkably like that of a deity.

The Soul Saint's five-meter-tall skeletal martial soul form was as insignificant as an ant in front of this shrine.

The immense pressure brought by the seventh soul skill dissipated like bubbles under the suppression of the domain's rules, and even the circulation of soul power within the body became extremely sluggish, as if it had been filled with viscous mud.

"What the hell is this?!"

The Soul Saint repeated the words again, letting out a terrified roar.

He gripped the skull sword with both hands, frantically channeling the remaining soul power within his body, wanting to slash at the shrine.

It struck the boy standing before the shrine.

But he discovered that his movements were being firmly restrained by an invisible force.

Raising his hand was like dragging a heavy object.

Taking a step felt like sinking into a swamp.

Moving even a single bone required ten or a hundred times the usual effort, and the binding force continued to strengthen, as if an invisible hand was gripping his entire body in its palm, slowly tightening.

"Could it be... a domain-type soul skill?"

The Soul Saint's voice came from under the hood, hoarse and trembling.

Although he couldn't understand the structure of this space, the meaning of the shrine, or what this hellish place was, as a high-level Soul Saint, his eyesight was still sharp.

He recognized the nature of this force.

field.

This is the domain!

Domains are the most expensive and rarest abilities in the world of Soul Masters.

This is even rarer than a 100,000-year-old soul skill, and more precious than a top-grade soul bone.

A threshold that countless titled Douluo cannot reach in their entire lives, a domain power that most geniuses dream of but cannot obtain.

He had only heard how powerful the domain was, but he had never thought about it, or rather, never had the opportunity to experience it firsthand.

It has such overwhelming power.

What could possibly cause a four-ring Soul Master, or even a seven-ring Soul Saint, to feel such a strong threat of death while activating their Martial Soul True Body?

Lu Ren hovered before the shrine, his hands forming a mudra. The crimson lines around his right eye had spread to his temple, writhing slightly in the crimson halo, like a living thing. His gaze pierced through those crimson lines and landed on the Soul Saint.

indifferent.

Icy.

Like a god or demon who holds the power of life and death, looking down at an ant about to be crushed.

The rules of the Demon-Slaying Chef took full effect at this moment.

In the chef's life-giving techniques, the form of attack is a slash.

However, the slash itself has two completely different properties.

One of them is "Solution".

This is a series of ordinary slashes, which can be one, or countless, or even like a tidal wave, or like a storm, overwhelming the target completely in a torrent of slashes.

The second is "捌".

A fatal blow whose power is adjusted according to the amount of cursed energy output; a single strike can utterly destroy everything in its path.

The strength of a slash depends on the spell power that the caster infuses instantly; the higher the output, the stronger the power.

Whether it's "Kai" or "Ba", now that he possesses the abilities of Itadori, both of these slashes come with the same special power.

Soul Slash.

This is damage that directly affects the soul, ignoring the physical defenses of the body to a certain extent and striking the soul directly.

Each strike not only inflicts physical wounds but also damages the soul.

Each strike was equivalent to enduring the soul impact of Huo Yuhao's full-force burst, or even more terrifying.

Because Huo Yuhao's soul impact is a one-time burst, while the Demon-Subduing Chef's soul slash is an endless series of blows.

Every second, every instant, new strikes are generated, and within the domain, all his strikes are guaranteed to hit.