Douluo Continent: This Tang San is different

Chapter 176 White Cloud Forest, Crimson Cloud Tree

After introducing the situation in the White Cloud Forest, Norax then spoke about the Fallen Ones, saying, "According to the information we have gathered so far, one of the Fallen Ones has already broken through to become a Soul King. His identity is Blood Sword Norman, who first appeared at Notting Academy in Fasnoxing Province..."

"Over the years, that bastard has massacred many remote villages. His behavior is extremely heinous and his crimes are unforgivable."

At this point, Norax paused for a moment, glanced at the three people from the Spirit Hall, and saw the local Spirit Hall Master shake his head at him. He sighed and continued, "That Blood Sword Norman also has a ten-thousand-year-old right leg bone, which he obtained from the wolf bandits... When he first arrived near the White Cloud Plains with his men, he encountered a group of wolf bandits who had wandered into the area."

"It was their battle that caught our attention."

"Originally, Blood Sword Norman's corrupt team had nearly a hundred people."

Wolf bandits are a species that exists between humans and spirit beasts. Legend has it that they were born from female humans being raped by wolf spirit beasts.

Although they have human characteristics, their wolfish nature and bloodlust mean that although wolf bandits are no less intelligent than humans, they are always dominated by their wolfish instincts and take pleasure in killing.

Moreover, wolf bandits are all male and cannot reproduce on their own; they can only reproduce by relying on human females... This is somewhat similar to the goblin setting in Western fantasy works that Tang San had seen in his previous life.

"Wolf Thief? A ten-thousand-year-old soul bone? Tsk tsk!" Yan glanced at Norax and chuckled coldly. "It seems you were planning to kill that Fallen One yourself and keep the soul bone, but you couldn't handle it, so you reported it, right?"

Norax and the local Spirit Hall Master exchanged glances, then smiled wryly.

It was obvious that Yan guessed correctly.

However, this also made everyone realize Yan's wildness, arrogance, shrewdness beneath his rough exterior, and—

They have very low emotional intelligence.

Although as a member of the Spirit Hall's Golden Generation, Norax possesses the strength, status, and position to qualify, he is, after all, the city lord of White Cloud City, belonging to the Heaven Dou faction. The Spirit Hall has no right to manage him.

If Yan had only said this to the Martial Soul Branch Hall Master of Baiyun City, it could be considered a reprimand of a subordinate.

But facing Norax would be somewhat against the rules.

Although Norax was furious, he didn't say anything. After all, he and the local branch master of the Spirit Hall had concealed the truth for their own selfish reasons, causing more casualties, which was indeed his fault.

but!

He actually believed that it was only a matter of time before he eliminated Blood Sword Norman and the others, and that the soul bone would inevitably be his; however, plans often change.

The Soul Master team hunting in the White Cloud Plains encountered Blood Sword Norman and witnessed him using a Soul Bone skill...

Once this matter became known, it could no longer be kept secret.

It can be said that in addition to the three major forces sending their best team members to train, many Soul Master teams have also come here hoping to find some hidden gems.

Soul bones are priceless treasures!

Moreover, Blood Sword Norman possesses a ten-thousand-year-old soul bone!

After learning about the situation in the White Cloud Plains, White Cloud Forest, and Blood Sword Norman and others, the teams from the three major forces put on their equipment, took their tools and medicines, and headed towards the White Cloud Forest.

However, the three major forces acted separately.

"I will watch you from afar and will not participate in any specific actions. After all, this is your experience." Qin Ming walked the students of the Heaven Dou Royal Team for a distance before stopping and saying to Tang San and the others.

After saying that, he turned to the members of the Heaven Dou Royal Second Team and said, "As for you, you can just stay and wander around the outskirts of the White Cloud Plain. As long as you don't take off your boots and don't throw away your medicines, there won't be any major problems. There are only hundred-year-old soul beasts in the outskirts."

To be honest, Qin Ming thought that the Tian Dou Royal Second Team was just there to make up the numbers and add prestige, and that they should just stay in Baiyun City. He didn't expect them to come to Baiyun Plain with him.

That would really make them a burden.

Fortunately, Xue Beng was self-aware enough to use his status as a prince to stabilize the members of the Heavenly Dou Royal Second Team, allowing them to accompany him on a stroll in the outer area.

"Teacher Qin Ming, I can temporarily cooperate with the members of Team One." Wang Chen gritted his teeth and decided to join Team One.

The plot of Douluo Continent has gone completely out of control.

But one thing he was certain of was that Tang San definitely had great fortune.

This hunt for the Fallen Ones is probably Tang San's chance to obtain that ten-thousand-year-old soul bone. He can't just watch Tang San get stronger; he has to fight for it.

Wang Chen didn't know who Blood Sword Norman was, but he had a premonition that the soul bone he obtained from the wolf bandits was the same soul bone in the original work that had the "Bloodlust Berserk" skill.

As a transmigrator, he initially thought that he would need to live for 100,000 years to acquire a soul bone, but he later discovered that soul bones are truly rare.

Even the sect leader of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School and the patriarch of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan did not absorb the soul bone completely.

He has no power or influence; for him to desire the soul bone is nothing short of a pipe dream.

And now there is such an opportunity.

How could he give up?

"Life is not a game." As if sensing Wang Chen's thoughts, Tang San reminded him quietly.

"Wang Chen, you stay here and protect Xue Beng and the others." Qin Ming didn't understand Tang San's implied meaning, but he felt that with Wang Chen there, Xue Beng and the others would be safer.

"Yes." Wang Chen lowered his head, his eyes flickering, but he couldn't disobey Qin Ming's orders, so he could only agree, though other thoughts were swirling in his mind...

···

Outside the White Cloud Forest.

Tang San and the others stopped and looked at the vast expanse of cloud trees, clusters and clumps, like layers of white clouds in the sky, truly magnificent.

Huo Wu exclaimed, "What a beautiful tree! Its leaves are just like the white clouds in the sky."

Tang San plucked a branch, pinched it, and thought to himself, "It does resemble a certain type of fringe tree, but the difference is that these are leaves, not flowers."

In his previous life, Tang San had seen fringe trees in bloom, and a pruned fringe tree could be described as "fragrant snow in April in the human world."

The cloud trees of Douluo Continent have dense clusters of leaves that form a shape resembling clouds.

As the group entered the White Cloud Forest, they could see the "white clouds" as they looked up. Unlike ordinary forests, the leaves of these trees allowed light to pass through and diffuse, making the light in the forest very soft.

Moreover, this forest is filled with a peculiar fragrance, unlike the unpleasant smells of decaying branches, dead insects, and animal droppings that are common in ordinary forests.

The ground was covered with white cloud leaves.

If you dig it away, the bottom is black and has a slightly damp, earthy smell. If you dig further away the black part, you can see earthworms, insects, and the like underneath.

It turned out that these fallen cloud leaves blocked the earthy smell and rotten odor from the ground.

"A very interesting plant-type spirit beast." Tang San collected some branches, leaves, and sap from the cloud tree. He planned to study it in depth when he returned, to see if this plant-type spirit beast could be considered as a candidate for his sixth spirit ring in the future.

After all, the description of the Cloud Tree in the "Encyclopedia of Soul Beasts" is very brief: The Cloud Tree has lush branches and leaves, just like clouds in the sky. Its cloud-like leaves and canopy can be used by bird soul beasts to build nests (Note: Even soul masters with plant-type martial souls are not advised to absorb this type of soul ring.)

From just that one sentence, Tang San couldn't figure anything out.

After all, the leaves of the cloud tree are not real white clouds, they just resemble them.

Moreover, there are very few cases of Soul Masters obtaining Cloud Tree Soul Rings, and because the Martial Souls are different, the Soul Skills are also different—

Firstly, the martial soul is a dandelion, and the soul ring of the cloud tree brings a soul skill called "water absorption". It is not water absorption from the roots, but rather the collection and storage of rainwater by the fluff on the dandelion seeds.

This must be inherited from the cloud tree's ability to collect rainwater using its cloud leaves.

Secondly, his martial soul was a cloud bird. The soul master felt that the leaves of the cloud tree were light and could increase the lightness of his own martial soul, so he absorbed the cloud tree soul ring.

This Soul Master used a Beast Martial Soul to absorb the Soul Ring of a Plant Martial Soul and conducted experiments on it personally, which was three hundred years earlier than Yu Xiaogang's proposal that Plant Martial Souls could absorb Animal Soul Rings.

According to records, after this Soul Master absorbed the Cloud Tree Soul Ring, it did not enhance the lightness of the Cloud Bird Martial Soul, but the repulsion between the Cloud Tree Soul Ring and the Cloud Bird was minimal. However, the Soul Skill was rather useless and was named: Falling Feather.

It can make the cloud bird's feathers fall down; it has no offensive power, no defensive power, and no support capabilities.

However, the fallen cloud bird feathers were no longer condensed soul power, but became real cloud bird feathers that could be woven and modified by people.

Tang San, however, saw "turning the illusory into the real," which means turning a part of the Martial Soul, a supernatural organ that lies between energy and matter, into a real, existing substance.

There are only two records in the archives of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy and the Heaven Dou City Spirit Hall regarding the spirit masters who absorbed the Cloud Tree Spirit Ring.

Other unrecorded Soul Masters may also exist, but perhaps because their Soul Skills are all "useless," the "Encyclopedia of Soul Beasts" directly states "not suitable for absorption."

Although there aren't many examples, Tang San felt that if the Cloud Bird Soul Master's "Falling Feather" soul skill wasn't a mistake, then the Cloud Tree could bring him unexpected benefits from the Blue Silver Emperor.

Of course, Tang San cannot yet determine whether the Cloud Tree's essential ability is to turn the illusory into the real.

"Captain, what are you knocking on the cloud tree for?" Yu Feng asked curiously, seeing Tang San knocking on the tree trunk and collecting branches and resin as he walked forward. "Does this cloud tree have some function we don't know about?"

"The main purpose is to collect some samples to see if this plant-type spirit beast can become my sixth spirit ring," Tang San said. "Secondly, we can tap on trees to make sounds that will spread and perhaps attract the Fallen Ones we're looking for."

The group didn't know much about the Cloud Tree, but they did have some ideas about how it attracted the Fallen.

"The Fallen are mostly bloodthirsty. How about we pretend to be a weak Soul Hunter group?" Fire Dance suggested. "The best hunt is to disguise yourself as the prey."

"I think we're too many people; the Fallen Ones won't all swarm us," Yu Tianheng chimed in. "We should spread out a bit."

Did you come from a horror movie set?

Tang San glanced at Yu Tianheng with a strange expression, inwardly complaining, and then said, "We're not familiar with this place. Splitting up is a big no-no; we could easily be picked off one by one."

"From now on, follow my instructions."

Tang San, who had temporarily set aside his research on the cloud tree, began arranging the queue:

Yu Feng and Bai Chenxiang can fly and scout from the air; Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing are fast and scout from the left and right sides, while Oslo is responsible for the rear; the Shi Mo and Shi Mo brothers are physical defense-type Soul Masters, protecting Ning Rongrong, an amplification-type support-type Soul Master, and Ye Lingling, a healing-type support-type Soul Master, while Yu Tianheng leads the way; Dugu Yan is behind Yu Tianheng, just in case.

Guangling and Huowu, two ranged damage-dealing Soul Masters, were positioned behind Ning Rongrong and Ye Lingling, ready to unleash their firepower on the enemy at any moment.

Tang San stood in front of the two support-type characters and behind Dugu Yan, using the Endless Grassland technique to explore underground and prevent the Fallen Ones from setting up traps or similar things on the ground.

Lan Yinzi stood by, ready to assist Tang San at any moment.

This was also the first time Tang San had used Endless Grassland after obtaining his fifth spirit ring. He was able to keenly sense every leaf of the Blue Silver Emperor, and the Blue Silver Grass growing in this forest seemed to be connected to his Endless Grassland, telling him everything about the place.

"With the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, my mental power can now precisely control each Blue Silver Emperor, and I can also sense the fluctuations transmitted by the Blue Silver Grass. Furthermore, my mental power can even be transmitted to those Blue Silver Grasses, achieving an energy manifestation similar to the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well."

After realizing what he was capable of, Tang San was thrilled and thought to himself, "It's just that it takes a lot of mental energy, but this ability has great potential!"

Imagine if you could manifest yourself using any Blue Silver Grass in the future, wouldn't you be able to go anywhere in the vast Douluo Continent?

At that time, every Blue Silver Emperor and Blue Silver Grass will become a base station for transmitting his own information!

However, as things stand, Tang San's mental power cannot cover the entire Douluo Continent, and each time he manifests, he consumes a great deal of mental power.

"The Blue Silver Grasses can sense each other. My Martial Soul is the Blue Silver Emperor, which was influenced by the Golden Ancient Tree. In the future, I will control the power of life and be able to rule over all plants."

"However, for now, we still need to rely on Blue Silver Grass as a foundation to perform the transmission of spiritual power manifestation..."

"Then, is it possible to combine the fluctuations of the Blue Silver Grass that I can sense to form a network-like structure? As long as the Blue Silver Grass can connect autonomously, perhaps even if my mental strength is not up to standard, I can still manifest my spirit anywhere on the continent where there is Blue Silver Grass and condense an existence similar to a thought entity."

"After all, I have Douluo Continent, or rather, Douluo Star, as an external energy source that provides the power of the earth, so the consumption of soul power is negligible."

"We could try this in the future—"

Just then, Tang San sensed the fluctuations transmitted by the Blue Silver Grass and "saw" a cloud tree that was over 100 meters tall and over 20 meters wide. Its cloud-shaped canopy had nine layers in total, forming an irregular pyramid shape. The top layer of cloud canopy had a diameter of 10 meters, while the bottom layer of cloud canopy had a diameter of over 80 meters.

It was quite spectacular.

However, through the fluctuations of the Blue Silver Grass, Tang San also "saw" eleven ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts lying in pools of blood under the cloud tree, as well as the corpses of more than twenty people.

Among them, there was a middle-aged man with white hair standing in front of the cloud tree, holding a blood-red short sword in his hand. There seemed to be a dragon pattern on it, but it was very blurry, as if it was interfering with Tang San's mental power.

"Head northeast!" Tang San said, his eyes narrowing. "I've already sensed the location of Blood Sword Norman through the Endless Grassland. He has already killed eleven ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts in this White Cloud Forest, as well as the other Fallen Ones. He's currently near that ten-thousand-year-old cloud tree."

No one dared to slack off, and they quickened their pace.

As they approached the heart of the White Cloud Forest, the number of spirit beasts they encountered along the way increased, but due to the powerful fluctuations of their spirit energy, they dared not get close.

However, Tang San and the others also became serious.

Along the way, they had seen many corpses of Soul Hunters, their bodies shriveled, their blood completely drained, not a drop left, their faces distorted, as if they had witnessed some terrifying scene.

"You fallen ones, you deserve to die!" Huo Wu cursed. "These guys who will do anything for power are no longer human."

With heavy hearts, Tang San and the others spent twenty minutes traversing most of the forest to reach the center of the White Cloud Forest.

The towering cloud trees, almost reaching the ninth heaven, stood before them.

Beneath the cloud tree, the corpses of the eleven ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts were constantly drying out, their blood and soul power continuously flowing into the cloud tree, staining its white cloud crowns blood red.

If the cloud tree Tang San saw before, which he perceived as pure white and naturally beautiful, was the one he had received through the Blue Silver Grass, then now, this cloud tree has an added touch of eeriness.

The fluctuations it emitted were extremely powerful, indicating that its cultivation had reached over 90,000 years.

"This is a cloud tree? It's completely different from the ones outside, and it exudes a strong smell of blood." Yu Tianhenglan Electric Tyrannosaurus Martial Soul instantly possessed him, and he looked at the blood-red cloud tree warily.

"Be careful, this cloud tree is continuously absorbing the blood and soul power of those eleven ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts, and its cultivation is already close to ninety thousand years."

Tang San's gaze fell on the Fallen One who was sitting cross-legged on the ninth cloud crown of the blood-red cloud tree. His eyes were solemn. "Norax said that this cloud tree is only 20,000 years old. Blood Sword Norman obviously used some means to make this cloud tree forcibly devour other soul beasts, causing its age to increase rapidly."

"A plant-type soul beast with a cultivation level of 90,000 years is not easy to deal with." Huo Wu's eyes flickered. "A soul beast with a cultivation level of 50,000 years or more is equivalent to a Soul Douluo, and a 90,000-year-old one already possesses the strength of a Title Douluo."

If we only consider cultivation level, a soul beast with 90,000 years of cultivation is equivalent to a Soul Douluo-level soul power. However, the body of a soul beast is much stronger than that of a human. Therefore, an ordinary soul beast with 50,000 years of cultivation can be considered equal to a Soul Douluo. Even a Title Douluo would need to exert their utmost effort to reach 90,000 years of cultivation. —Note: Soul masters whose martial souls are either naturally powerful or have undergone mutations should be excluded from the comparison.

If it's at the 50,000-year level, Huo Wu is certainly not to be underestimated.

But at the 90,000-year level...

Even though his martial soul, the Sun Goddess, possesses light and fire attributes, which are effective against trees, he would probably still find it difficult to completely destroy this blood-red cloud tree even at full power.

Moreover, setting fire to this forest is like weaving a cocoon around your own grave!

"There's no need to worry too much. This cloud tree didn't attack because of our arrival. It's probably because Blood Sword Norman used some method to control its intelligence..."

(End of this chapter)