Spirit-attribute soul skills were exactly that—spirit-attribute soul skills.
Na Nali knew that her fourth soul skill directly targeted the sea of consciousness. With her pervasive emerald-green mist, it invaded the opponent's mental realm, condensing into thorns to assault their spirit.
But what was this now?
The entire domain surrounding them spanned three hundred meters. Within such a vast range, emerald-green thorns formed from condensed mist appeared everywhere.
Were these thorns trying to destroy the domain?
The problem was that due to the sheer scale, the thorns were minuscule—so small they were barely visible.
What kind of destructive power could they possibly have?
Even Na Nali herself doubted whether her soul skill would have any effect.
And indeed, it didn't. These thorns had no impact on Xu Yuan whatsoever—they couldn't harm him at all.
Instead, Xu Yuan found the thorns and the permeation ability of the emerald mist quite intriguing. He quietly absorbed them into a deeper layer of the Dream Space for future study when he had time.
"Third Soul Skill, Piercing Spear!"
Xu Yuan's third soul ring flickered.
His spear glowed with multicolored brilliance—five elemental forces, flames interwoven with blood essence and life force, and thunderous power—all combined into a single dark golden sheen.
At the spear's tip, a burst of dark gold erupted.
Within the crimson domain, a streak of dark golden light pierced through over a hundred meters in an instant, heading straight toward Na Nali.
Na Nali's expression changed drastically.
Her spiritual power was extremely strong—though not yet at the Lingyu Realm, she was already at the high stage of the Lingyuan Realm, allowing her to sense an overwhelming threat.
She reacted instantly, activating her life-saving soul skill.
Both her third and seventh soul rings began to shimmer.
"Third Soul Skill, Melodious Protection!"
The emerald-green bell above her head swayed, emitting a crisp, enchanting sound imbued with a sinister aura. Visible sound waves rippled outward, forming successive layers of waves.
These waves were tangible, each layer attempting to block Xu Yuan's spear.
However, though this was only Xu Yuan's third soul skill, it represented the culmination of all his abilities.
He had fused multiple powers into this spear technique, which fundamentally stemmed from his Piercing Spear. Naturally, its core essence was tied to his third soul skill.
When his third soul ring evolved into a hundred-thousand-year ring, it didn't grant him an additional soul skill but instead recorded this ultimate technique born from the fusion of various abilities.
As for his other soul rings, under Xu Yuan's deliberate control, no second soul skill had manifested yet.
After all, soul skills were ultimately bestowed by Jue, so Jue could influence and manipulate them to some extent.
To be honest, Jue's capabilities were limited—it didn't have spare soul skills to bestow upon Xu Yuan anymore.
This extra slot naturally became a blueprint for Xu Yuan to develop his own ultimate techniques.
For all his hundred-thousand-year soul rings, the first soul skill corresponded to the source of that ring's power, while the second soul skill would be a unique technique created by Xu Yuan fusing all his abilities.
This was Xu Yuan's vision and his self-imposed standard.
In reality, having soul ring slots and positions without actual soul skills might actually speed up development.
Perhaps this was the correct approach to becoming a true soul master.
Of course, achieving this was incredibly difficult.
Unless someone discovered this method, summarized the experience, identified patterns, and spread it, it might become the true secret art of soul master cultivation.
But all of this hinged on whether this method truly helped soul masters develop ultimate techniques.
Na Nali's Melodious Protection had formidable defensive capabilities.
With nine soul rings—six black, three red—even her third soul skill, corresponding to a ring exceeding fifty thousand years, surpassed the eighth soul skill of many titled Douluo.
Yet, under Xu Yuan's Piercing Spear, the waves of sound offered no resistance.
In an instant, the sound waves were shattered.
Layer after layer of waves dissipated in quick succession.
Though cumulatively, Xu Yuan was delayed for just a brief moment.
But even that short delay was enough.
Na Nali activated her seventh soul skill.
"Seventh Soul Skill, Dark Bell True Body!"
The emerald-green bell above her head grew enormous, enveloping her entirely. It continued expanding until it became colossal.
Clang!
The spear struck the massive bell, producing a deep, resonant sound like a muffled toll.
Xu Yuan's eyes widened in surprise.
It hadn't shattered.
Though he knew this was her life-saving ability and its defense must be extraordinary, he still expected to pierce through the bell.
After all, Na Nali's soul skill was a hundred-thousand-year one, just like Xu Yuan's. Moreover, Xu Yuan's technique was, strictly speaking, an ultimate skill combining all his hundred-thousand-year soul skills.
And yet, it failed to break through?
Xu Yuan could now reasonably conclude that this wasn't an issue of soul skill strength but rather the martial soul itself.
"Fifth Soul Skill, Bell Devouring Wind Sorrow!"
"Sixth Soul Skill, Demonic Soul Wailing Roar!"
Using Xu Yuan's spear strike as a catalyst, the massive bell swayed, emitting eerie, melodious sounds. The once pleasant chimes now birthed terrifying emerald-green vengeful spirits.
Some of the spirits scattered aimlessly, unable to find a target, while others charged directly at Xu Yuan.
Within her True Body, Na Nali's heart sank.
She had just confirmed her earlier suspicion.
Her soul skills—or rather, spirit-based attacks targeting the soul or sea of consciousness—had no effect on Xu Yuan.
Her fifth soul skill unleashed vengeful spirits to attack the enemy's soul, but here, those spirits wandered aimlessly within the domain, eventually being incinerated by the dense flames of blood essence.
However, her sixth soul skill was physical in nature. Though also involving vengeful spirits, it targeted the body, not the soul.
Before Xu Yuan could retract his spear, dozens of vengeful spirits lunged at him.
Gripping the base of his spear, Xu Yuan took half a step back, swinging the weapon. Five elemental forces surged along the spear shaft, and thunderous power coursed through it.
BANG!
A dull sound echoed.
The spear swept horizontally, forcing the vengeful spirits on the left to retreat. However, numerous divine lightning bolts had already latched onto the spirits, swiftly annihilating them.
Xu Yuan tapped his toes, leaping to the left while continuing his relentless spear movements. He swept the rear half-circle, the spear tip tracing an arc as five elemental divine lightning formed a crescent-shaped blade.
Even though the spear tip didn't physically touch the vengeful spirits on the right, the crescent-shaped blade slashed out before Xu Yuan retracted his spear.
Thunder surged.
Under the corrosive power of lightning, all the vengeful spirits were utterly annihilated.
At this moment, Na Nali's soul rings were embedded in the colossal bell. Her eighth and ninth soul rings were about to activate.
Noticing this, Xu Yuan decided not to give her another chance.
However, Na Nali's soul skills were too swift. The bell swayed, and a torrent of sound waves emerged.
"Eighth Soul Skill, Despairing Heaven-Shaking Roar!"
"Ninth Soul Skill, Evil Bell Abyssal Howl!"
These were both her hundred-thousand-year soul skills. If allowed to fully manifest, the destructive power of these sound waves would be devastating.
The sound waves propagated through energy and were linked to space itself. Xu Yuan couldn't block them entirely, nor could he guarantee his domain would completely negate the waves. Once they escaped the domain, they could harm the Blood God Legion soldiers outside.
Na Nali's inclusion in this operation was clearly due to her powerful area-of-effect capabilities.
Her individual combat prowess was already formidable, but she excelled even more in group battles.
With her pervasive sound wave attacks, she could instantly kill hundreds, if not thousands.
Xu Yuan retrieved the previously collected thorns from the deeper layers of the Dream Space, guiding them to attack his own sea of consciousness.
He understood why these spirit-targeting thorns hadn't acted against him earlier. His Blood Essence Domain had merged with his sea of consciousness, essentially replacing it.
In reality, Xu Yuan's true sea of consciousness still resided in his brain.
As the thorns gathered in Xu Yuan's mental sea, *Huan Xing* appeared above it.
Huan Xing activated the Starry Sky Contemplation Diagram, causing stars to swirl.
The entire world seemed to transform into a massive chessboard.
Two figures appeared on the board: one was Xu Yuan, and the other—Na Nali.
"This bell likely has defenses against both physical and spiritual attacks. But these thorns are part of your martial soul; they should be able to penetrate it, right?"
Xu Yuan had Huan Xing activate the fifth soul skill of his Brain Martial Soul on his behalf.
Currently, he was in the state of his Tianyuan Five Elements Spear and had activated the Blood Essence Domain—the True Body of this martial soul. He couldn't freely switch martial souls at this moment.
If he hadn't activated the Blood Essence Domain, he could've let *Jue* take over his martial soul, enabling him to use various soul skills while simultaneously wielding another martial soul.
Nevertheless, the existence of spirit companions held significant meaning.
For dual martial soul users, spirit companions were the key to simultaneously utilizing the abilities of both martial souls.
Even if they couldn't fully unleash both martial souls at once, they could still use the spirit companion to access the other martial soul's skills.
Moreover, with the help of spirit companions, there was potential to develop a true method for using both martial souls simultaneously. For instance, Xu Yuan's grand-uncle Hu Jie's True Body fused two body-type martial souls, allowing him to use the soul skills of both martial souls in his True Body form and create combination techniques between them.
The bell's defense was peculiar. Since Xu Yuan's spear hadn't pierced it, he decided not to waste time attacking it directly.
Fifth Soul Skill, Star Shift!
The emerald-green thorns vanished from Xu Yuan's mental sea, transforming into mist and rapidly seeping into the bell.
Pervasive and Relentless!
This was precisely why Xu Yuan had wanted to collect these things for research earlier.
The emerald-green mist bypassed the sound waves entirely, seeping directly into the interior of the bell.
Na Nali sensed that something was amiss.
But before she could react, the mist had already entered her body and began condensing into countless thorns within her sea of consciousness.
Though small, these densely packed thorns—thousands upon thousands of them—were more than capable of inflicting damage on her mental realm.
One by one, the thorns pierced down, making Na Nali feel as though her soul was being pricked by an endless barrage of needles.
"Ah!"
A pained scream echoed from within the bell.
The agony in her soul made it impossible for Na Nali to continue unleashing her two soul skills, forcing her to interrupt both.
Xu Yuan did not let up.
Above his sea of consciousness, a scroll unfurled.
Mountains and rivers!
Yao Yao also appeared, manipulating the Dream Space and merging it with the mountains and rivers. She allowed the怨邪魂刺 (Malevolent Spirit Thorns) stored within the Dream Space to resonate with the scroll, repeatedly replaying the archived sensations.
Soon, a mass of emerald-green mist spread across the scroll, and countless thorns began to form.
The emerald glow on the scroll flickered, and the mist detached itself from the painting, manifesting within Xu Yuan's sea of consciousness. It immediately launched an assault against his mental realm.
Seeing this, Huan Xing activated Cosmic Shift.
"Ah!"
Xu Yuan stood at a distance, calmly observing as the light of the bell dimmed further, while inside, Na Nali clutched her head and wailed in anguish.
Unfortunately, the Malevolent Spirit Thorns were only a ten-thousand-year soul skill, and their damage to Na Nali—the original caster—was somewhat limited. Many of the fatal burns and poison effects that would devastate a soul were largely nullified, leaving only the stimulation of her spiritual body intact.
Thus, Xu Yuan had no choice but to repeatedly replicate this soul skill, using Cosmic Shift to redirect it into Na Nali's sea of consciousness.
It wasn't that Xu Yuan hadn't tried replicating the soul skill directly with Na Nali as the target—it simply didn't work.
However, as the bell grew increasingly insubstantial, Xu Yuan's direct application of the Malevolent Spirit Thorns finally managed to strike Na Nali directly.
With the intermediary step of Cosmic Shift removed, Xu Yuan's attack frequency increased, and Na Nali's mental trauma rapidly escalated.
The commotion on this side seemed to catch Ghost Emperor's attention, but he was temporarily unable to disengage. Cao Dezhi's strength was evenly matched with his own, and the razor-sharp sword qi was causing him immense trouble.
Dark Hummingbird had no opportunity to assist either. He was already straining to hold off a Limit Douluo and a four-word battle armor master, barely managing to keep himself from being overwhelmed—how could he spare any energy to help Na Nali?
BOOM!
From another part of the legion, near the spatial entrance to the cosmic phenomenon, a deafening roar erupted.
An overwhelming surge of Abyssal energy spewed forth.
Mu Ye retreated from the chaos, looking rather battered.
Before him, large numbers of soldiers had already evacuated, and all the equipment the legion had stationed within the cosmic phenomenon had been retrieved earlier.
As expected, following the Holy Spirit Sect's attack, the Abyss had launched its own assault—and the scale far exceeded Zhang Huanyun's expectations.
Previous Abyssal tides below level three could never have reached a point where even a Limit Douluo couldn't intercept them.
Now, under the unique environmental boost of the cosmic phenomenon, only a level four or even level five Abyssal tide of the past could explain how the Abyssal energy had breached the cosmic phenomenon so quickly and spilled over into Douluo Planet.
Xu Yuan turned his head toward the direction of the spatial entrance.
The distance was too great for him to see clearly, but he could make out a powerful aura of blood essence—that was Mu Ye.
At this moment, Mu Ye's blood essence fluctuations were intense, pushing his power to its absolute limit.
His dark golden battle armor gleamed, and in his hands, he wielded a crimson long blade. Flames of blood essence burned around him, forming a fiery aura that enveloped his body and weapon alike.
With each swing of his blade, fierce sword beams akin to raging fire consumed everything in front of him.
It was these relentless sword beams that cleared the way for the Blood God Legion soldiers to retreat, slaughtering the Abyssal creatures behind them.
At the spatial entrance, torrents of Abyssal energy erupted, dense and terrifying.
Zhang Huanyun gritted his teeth as he stared toward the spatial entrance.
Had the Abyssal Sage King personally intervened?
Cao Dezhi was also taken aback. Raising his Ruthless Sword, his eyes turned cold as he entered a peculiar state, unleashing a single devastating slash. This strike targeted not just the body but also the soul, seemingly capable of influencing even emotions.
Ghost Emperor's expression shifted slightly, clearly recognizing this technique.
Rather than attempting to block it, he retreated.
This gave Cao Dezhi the chance to break free, turning his gaze toward the spatial entrance.
By now, the flames of blood essence at the spatial entrance had been extinguished by the surging Abyssal energy, which poured in like a flood.
Mu Ye retreated several hundred meters before finally stopping.
From the passage, countless figures emerged.
Thousands upon thousands of Abyssal creatures descended, accompanied by several immensely powerful Emperors.
There was the colossal Ba Emperor, the three Emperors ranked fifty to sixty whom Xu Yuan had slain, Mei Empress resembling a demonic enchantress but larger and radiating even stronger spiritual fluctuations, and another Emperor whose terrifying energy caused the entire space to tremble.
From afar, Xu Yuan could only vaguely make out their forms. However, his spiritual energy extended, connecting with the primordial Dream Space, allowing him to faintly perceive the situation at the spatial entrance.
"Hiss~"
He immediately sucked in a breath of cold air.
Was the Abyss planning to cripple the Blood God Legion in one fell swoop?
This level of power had transcended the ordinary framework of living beings, entering an entirely new realm.
Soon, a name surfaced in Xu Yuan's mind.
Ardent Emperor!
The ruler of the third layer of the Abyss and one of only two Emperors aside from the Abyssal Sage King to have mastered divine power.
The Abyssal Sage King of the first layer possessed the strength of a 1st Class God—on par with a Primary God. The second layer's ruler, the Spirit Emperor, commanded spiritual power at the Divine Origin stage. As for the third layer's ruler, the Ardent Emperor, his strength had evolved into true divine power.
If the Abyss advanced even further and allocated more energy to the second and third layers, the Spirit Emperor and Ardent Emperor would undoubtedly ascend to true godhood.
The Abyssal Sage King had actually sent out the Ardent Emperor.
No wonder Mu Ye, despite unleashing his full power, had been forced to retreat in such a battered state.
Were it not for the chaotic spatial fluctuations within the cosmic phenomenon, even a safe retreat might have been difficult, let alone covering the legion's soldiers.
Cao Dezhi's eyes reddened.
Sensing the Ardent Emperor's presence, he was now filled with an overwhelming urge to tear apart every evil soul master before him.
These despicable wretches had colluded with the Abyss, launching an inside-out assault that rendered all the legion's previous exploration efforts futile.
Such scum deserved death!
Xu Yuan's expression was grim as he glanced at Na Nali, who had already become mentally depleted within the Blood Essence Domain. Swiftly, he unleashed the Malevolent Spirit Thorns several more times.
"Senior Brother!"
Xu Yuan turned to Ah Ruheng, who was locked in combat with a ninety-sixth-rank evil soul master.
His spear, burning with blood essence and vitality, flickered with the light of his third soul ring.
"Jue!"
With a sudden motion, Xu Yuan hurled his spear. It emitted a piercing sonic boom, arriving at Ah Ruheng's battlefield in the blink of an eye.
The spear moved with incredible agility, almost as if imbued with intelligence.
The spirit of the spear awakened, and Jue took full control of the weapon.
Ah Ruheng roared, throwing a punch that blocked the evil soul master's escape route.
The evil soul master clenched his teeth, dodging the spear at the last moment but still taking a direct hit from Ah Ruheng's punch.
Though the spear didn't land a direct blow, it showed no signs of slowing. It curved gracefully, adjusted its trajectory, and surged toward another battlefield.
This single spear traversed the battlefield, creating opportunities for several Blood God Legion members in mere moments.
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