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Gu La arrived at the square outside the Hao Tian Sect and saw Huo Yuhao engaged in intense combat with Tai Tan from a distance.
Beside Huo Yuhao, a lifelike little girl soul spirit condensed from Ultimate Ice—the Snow Empress soul spirit—fought alongside him, radiating astonishing cold energy. Even Gu La's surrounding Ultimate Fire spontaneously surged, forming a warm halo to resist that icy chill.
Xiao Xiao was also startled by the cold energy enveloping the entire clan. She ran out of her room and, seeing Gu La, immediately jogged over and affectionately hugged his arm.
Looking at the unfamiliar ice-and-snow little girl in the arena, she asked curiously: "Gu La, what is that little girl? Her ice attribute is so powerful—why is she fighting alongside Yuhao?"
Gu La's gaze remained on the battlefield as he casually replied: "Probably some kind of special energy lifeform, similar to a soul spirit but more peculiar." He didn't reveal the Snow Empress's true identity.
The battle didn't last long. With Huo Yuhao combining forces with the Snow Empress soul spirit to unleash the might of Ultimate Ice, he successfully forced Tai Tan to retreat one step, proving his formidable strength.
After staying at the Hao Tian Sect for a few more days, the group bid farewell and departed, each returning to their respective places.
Gu La and Huo Yuhao returned to the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy to continue their studies and research.
However, the following days were relatively uneventful for Gu La.
Whether in the current timeline or the Legend of the Dragon King timeline, the next major event was still nearly two years away.
His second martial soul, Celebi, had already reached full rings, but his first martial soul still lacked one soul ring slot.
"Perfect. I'll use this opportunity to find a suitable soul ring for my first martial soul."
Gu La made his decision. After another year and a half of dedicated study at Mingde Hall, solidifying his soul device knowledge to near eighth-grade level, he prepared once more for temporal travel.
This time, his target was to find a fierce beast possessing both powerful fire and earth attributes—preferably in a dying state, to be transformed into his soul spirit.
He expanded the spatial tunnel as far as possible to a more distant, earlier parallel world. Taking a deep breath, he stepped into the distorted vortex of time and light.
…
The scene abruptly shifted.
Gu La found himself standing on an incredibly desolate, scorching land, the air filled with the smell of sulfur and scorched earth.
According to Celebi's precise temporal-spatial perception, this was approximately the western part of the Douluo Continent 150,000 years ago.
This was already the limit of his current traversal ability. Fortunately, the temporal-spatial laws of the Douluo universe were relatively "hospitable"—some soul masters' first soul skills could manipulate them, otherwise reaching such a distant era would have been utterly impossible.
"According to the information Gu Yue provided," Gu La recalled the ancient memory fragments given by the Silver Dragon King, "in this era, this region should be inhabited by a 'Magma Heaven-Piercing Python.' Its fire and earth dual attributes both approach the Ultimate level, with cultivation reaching over four hundred thousand years."
"It lacks a dragon bloodline yet cultivated to such heights—its talent is truly exceptional. But it ultimately cannot overcome the half-million-year heavenly tribulation…"
"Its destined fate should have been to attempt to detonate its volcanic habitat, placing itself in a life-or-death situation to seek treasures deep in the earth's core for a sliver of survival chance. But it was killed by Di Tian who arrived upon hearing the news…"
"The power released in its death caused the formation of vast deserts in the western continent, lingering for over a hundred thousand years. Only after colliding with the Sun Moon Continent to form mountain ranges did the land regain vitality."
Gu La hesitated no longer and flew swiftly toward the scorching west.
His spiritual power spread like a radar, quickly locking onto a massive active volcano constantly spewing thick smoke and heat waves, according to the general direction provided by Gu Yue.
Hovering above the volcanic crater, he spoke loudly, his voice imbued with powerful spiritual energy that pierced through the roar and reached deep into the volcano: "Flame Lord, please come out for a meeting!"
"Who?!"
A deep, impatient voice rumbled from the volcano's depths.
Immediately, the entire crater shook violently, magma churned, and a colossal head thrust out!
It was a giant python—just the exposed portion was terrifying. Its body was covered in dark red, heavy scales, with molten lava flowing through the gaps. Its enormous snake eyes, like two lava lamps, coldly fixed on Gu La in the air.
"A human?" The Magma Heaven-Piercing Python, Flame Lord, questioned, its voice vibrating the air.
"Indeed. Gu La."
Gu La responded calmly while summoning his two soul spirits—Gravity Titan Bear and Holy Sun Angel—to display his strength.
"Flame Lord, I know your time is near. The half-million-year heavenly tribulation is hard to overcome. Why not transform your form and become my spirit soul? I am confident I will inherit a divine position in the future—then you too can enjoy eternal life alongside me." He deliberately understated it, fearing to frighten the beast.
"And even if you miraculously overcome this tribulation, what of the next—five hundred fifty thousand years, six hundred thousand years? Each heavenly tribulation grows more terrifying. How could you possibly survive them?"
Gu La elaborated on the advantages of the soul spirit system, subtly releasing a trace of divine beast aura from the Pokémon world to enhance his persuasiveness.
"Soul spirit? Become your servant?" Flame Lord's huge snake eyes flashed with ferocity. He was a naturally born elemental being, born from underground magma—wild and untamed. If he were willing to submit to others, he would have long accepted Di Tian's recruitment to join the core circle of the Great Star Luo Forest. Even when he had the opportunity to transform into a dragon in his youth, he had refused.
Even sensing Gu La's strange divine beast aura, Flame Lord felt no fear. He could see Gu La's soul power quality was extremely high, but the total amount was still too "small" compared to his four-hundred-thousand-year cultivation—likely due to some extraordinary opportunity.
He wasted no more words. With a roar, he opened his heaven-devouring maw. His thick snake tail, carrying immense force and boiling magma, viciously lashed toward Gu La!
Simultaneously, he controlled the volcano beneath him to erupt violently. Countless magma fireballs shot toward Gu La like a meteor shower. Thick volcanic ash instantly obscured the sky, mixed with toxic fumes that obscured vision and paralyzed nerves—his killing intent was pure and scorching!
"Naturally, it still comes down to a fight…" Gu La sighed. He was unfamiliar with this ancient timeline and unsure if divine beings were watching. He needed to finish this quickly.
He instantly switched to his Celebi martial soul: "Second Soul Skill, Myriad Visions of the Forest!"
The upgraded Myriad Visions of the Forest possessed terrifying illusory abilities.
Though Flame Lord's cultivation was equivalent to a Level 97 Super Douluo, spiritual power wasn't his strong suit—merely adequate at best, far from reaching the Spiritual Domain realm.
Gu La's Myriad Visions of the Forest labyrinth required ten times his spiritual power to forcefully break free.
In an instant, Flame Lord felt the surrounding scenery drastically change, as if trapped in an endless temporal-spatial maze, losing perception of the real world. His attacks became chaotic.
"It seems the backup plan must be used after all." Gu La had anticipated this—fire attribute soul beasts were mostly hot-tempered, and the success rate of persuasion was never high.
With a thought, he began communicating with his Groudon half sleeping far away in the Pokémon world.
As a clone, Groudon had ample time to sleep and accumulate strength. It had already completed its second evolution ahead of schedule, becoming a God King-level existence surpassing 1st-Class Gods—Primal Groudon · Magma Form!
"Borrow power!"
Gu La shouted. Vast, boundless God King-level power poured across infinite time and space.
His body instantly covered in dark red, scorching rock armor. His physique expanded, radiating terrifying pressure like a master of earth and volcanoes. He transformed into a smaller version of "Primal Groudon."
Of course, with his current body's capacity, this state couldn't last long—he needed to kill with one strike.
"Primal Force· Titan Mode!"
Gu La's body expanded further, molten rock covering his surface as if never extinguishing. His attack power surged dramatically, with continuous life force regeneration.
"Precipice Blades!"
"Lava Plume!"
Gu La attacked with full force! A dark red magma greatsword condensed from Ultimate Earth and Fire laws appeared in midair—seemingly capable of splitting continental shelves. It shattered through space with pinpoint accuracy, slashing toward Flame Lord trapped in the illusion.
BOOOOOOM—!!!
Amidst earth-shattering roars, Flame Lord's incredibly hard scales tore like paper. His massive body was nearly cut in half at the waist. Magma-like blood sprayed out, his aura instantly withering to near death.
Without hesitation, Gu La followed with his second strike.
Magma Fury was a technique whose power grew stronger the better one's condition. He used the same-source divine power to forcibly extract Flame Lord's remaining essence, intending to use its soul and soul ring combined with his Groudon clone's divine power origin to crazily reshape and transform it.
He aimed to create a special "artificial spirit soul"—one based on Flame Lord's soul and essence, but with Groudon's origin as its core, completely controlled by his consciousness.
This technique was even more domineering and dangerous than the Spirit Pagoda's forced conversion—a crazy idea born from observing Electrolux creating the Snow Empress soul spirit. The success rate was unknown, but if successful, the rewards would be immense.
At the very least, with a same-source martial soul and soul spirit, he would more freely borrow Groudon clone's divine power. His Martial Soul True Body would also perfectly align with his true nature.
Divine power surged. The Flame Plate, Earth Plate, and Mind Plate powers were forcibly activated by Gu La to assist in this heaven-defying soul surgery. Flame Lord's soul was shattered, then reformed and fused with Groudon's origin…
This process lasted a full three hours. Finally, a smaller, more primitive Groudon-like soul spirit prototype gradually stabilized.
"Success… halfway!"
Joy filled Gu La's heart. Though nearly half of Flame Lord's essence was wasted during the process, reducing its cultivation to just over two hundred thousand years, the soul spirit prototype had formed.
However, at this moment, the Groudon spirit soul prototype suddenly trembled violently. Its internal energy became extremely unstable, showing signs similar to the Snow Empress's earlier self-destruction!
"Damn!"
Gu La cursed inwardly, using all his divine power to suppress it. But after all, he wasn't a soul master like Electrolux—his methods were still too crude.
Abandoning this hard-won, luck-blessed soul spirit was absolutely impossible.
His gaze swept the surroundings, locking onto the massive active volcano beneath his feet.
"Since your original fate was to detonate this volcano… let everything return to its 'proper course'!"
A glint of resolve flashed in Gu La's eyes.
He immediately communicated with the system, using the previously obtained "Legendary Exchange Voucher" to exchange for special materials needed for Groudon's martial soul's further evolution—though he was borrowing power, his main body also needed synchronous improvement to better carry the soul spirit.
A streak of light flowed into his body.
The next moment, holding the extremely unstable Groudon soul spirit prototype, he leaped like a meteor into the churning volcanic crater, drilling deeper toward the earth's core.
His Groudon clone had evolution experience and knew the deepest magma layers were the best location.
The elemental resonance unintentionally caused during evolution would trigger massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. He could use this miraculous power to completely stabilize the newborn soul spirit.
Simultaneously, he could pull back the potentially disrupted "causality" from this altered timeline to its proper course—letting this volcano erupt as scheduled, forming the western deserts!
Scorching magma enveloped him. Gu La's consciousness, holding the soul spirit prototype, slowly sank into the deepest silence within infinite light, heat, and earth energy, entering a deep state of evolution and fusion…
Outside the volcanic crater, magma began boiling violently. The earth emitted deep rumbles as massive cracks spread across the surface. Destructive energy accumulated wildly underground—a super volcanic eruption capable of reshaping terrain was imminent.
In the earth's core, infinite magma and earth energy wrapped Gu La like a nurturing bed. Light representing evolution's miracle illuminated the subterranean magma world.
The super volcano eruption had already begun. Destructive power tore through the earth, scorching magma and ash covering vast regions, altering terrain and ecology. But none of this could affect Gu La deep below, undergoing the most crucial transformation.
The core fusion of the evolution process lasted only a minute, but Gu La's body and soul needed deeper sleep and harmonization to adapt to this surge of terrifying power from a God King-level martial soul. He slept for a full month.
When he opened his eyes again, the eternal burning sea of red-yellow magma still filled his vision.
But now, these scorching fluids capable of melting refined gold brought him only warmth and kinship.
With a subtle thought, his new martial soul quietly released.
Buzz—!
An indescribable aura of heaviness and scorching mastery spread from his body.
Behind him, a more majestic, ancient beast phantom slowly materialized—forged from primal continental core and eternal magma. This was the evolved Primal Groudon Martial Soul!
Even more astonishing were the seven soul rings slowly circling around him.
Four dazzling orange-gold soul rings came from Gravity Titan—through soul rings, hybrid soul spirit, and multiple evolutions.
Two vivid blood-red soul rings came from the Holy Sun Angel soul spirit—and… the final one, radiating beyond hundred-thousand years, seemingly containing star birth and death and earth's pulse—a golden soul ring.
This was precisely the first martial soul's seventh soul ring, coalesced from the four-hundred-thousand-year Magma Heaven-Piercing Python Flame Lord's essence, combined with Groudon's divine force and the miracle of volcanic evolution—its quality had already surpassed ordinary million-year soul rings, reaching the threshold of divine level!
For the earth's core containing infinite heat, the consumed energy was negligible.
"My power… has more than doubled…" Gu La clenched his fist lightly, feeling the terrifying strength surging within him—power that could shatter mountains with a single punch.
"With just this physical strength, an ordinary Super Douluo hit directly would likely suffer heavy injuries and be near death."
His soul power level had also naturally broken through during this month of sleep, reaching seventy-four levels. His soul power was approaching qualitative change, and the formation of his second soul core was now on the agenda, with preliminary conditions met.
The temperature of the flames he controlled once more soared to an immeasurable, terrifying height—wherever his will directed, all things burned to ashes.
More importantly, he felt as if he had become the master of the earth beneath his feet and the infinite flames. A single thought could trigger earth veins, control volcanoes!
The authority granted by a God King-level martial soul far exceeded his previous imagination.
"So… the gap at this step is truly so immense."
Gu La murmured to himself, feeling unprecedented strength.
He was certain that now, even without wearing Battle Armor, he dared to face any Limit Douluo without Battle Armor in direct combat.
Compared to Lan (Tang) Xuanyu who inherited the Dragon God bloodline… even if there was still a gap, it wouldn't be much.
Satisfied, he retracted his martial soul. The suffocating aura of mastery slowly receded.
Gu La raised his head, his gaze seemingly piercing through layers of rock, seeing the dim, ash-covered sky outside.
Time to return.
He raised his hand and drew a line through the air. Emerald green light intertwined with dark red primal power, easily tearing open a stable time-space tunnel. From the tunnel's other end came familiar energy—the Peerless Tang Sect timeline.
Gu La stepped forward, his feet treading on churning magma as if on solid ground, calmly walking into the time-space tunnel. His figure vanished, the tunnel slowly closing.
This ancient land, having just experienced a catastrophe, returned to silence once more. Only the slowly flowing magma and ash-covered earth recorded everything that had happened—and the changes brought by that quietly departed figure.
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