The cold wind howled, the leaves withered and yellow!
The morning air carried a slight chill.
After a night, Dai Mubai finally finished absorbing his third soul ring!
Ma Hongjun dismembered the giant ape's corpse and placed it in his spatial belt, planning to cut off the flesh to extract the Dragon Beard Needles later.
Zhao Wuji also taught the two a lesson. He was a ruthless man, so he wouldn't teach them gentleness, but rather to understand that a true man should act with righteous indignation.
He had high expectations for them and certainly didn't want them to go astray.
Ma Hongjun sincerely accepted the lesson. To be honest, although he had lived two lives, he had only lived for about thirty years, making him a junior compared to Zhao Wuji and the others. Zhao Wuji, on the other hand, had been young and experienced many trials and tribulations, and his understanding of life was far more profound than Ma Hongjun's.
Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai also reflected on themselves, correcting their attitude towards life and cultivating the demeanor of strong individuals.
As expected, Dai Mubai obtained the powerful soul skill, White Tiger Vajra Transformation.
Next up was Ma Hongjun's third spirit ring.
The target had been set long ago; after testing by teachers like Flander, it was estimated to be around seven thousand years old.
The seventh mountain of the Soul Hunting Forest lay ahead, and Ma Hongjun's target was within it.
It was the king of the spirit beasts in this forest.
The seventh mountain wasn't high, but it was vast and expansive. The entire mountain was shrouded in mist, obscuring its true form; thick water vapor enveloped the entire forest.
Entering the mountain, there was complete silence; not a single spirit beast was encountered.
The terrain gradually flattened, and a lake was faintly visible ahead.
Calling it a lake was a bit of an exaggeration; it was more like a large pool.
The surface was calm, without even a ripple. The air was eerily still.
The pool was shrouded in mist, making the bottom impossible to see.
"Teacher Zhao, is the Water Flood Dragon down here?" Ma Hongjun asked Zhao Wuji.
The Water Flood Dragon was the king of this place; it was said that the pool here was extremely deep, and no spirit master had ever dived down to its depths.
This place is also a sacred ground for soul beasts to cultivate. A ten-thousand-year-old soul beast once cultivated here, but was later hunted down. The current master of this place is the Water Flood Dragon.
This Water Flood Dragon is said to have about seven thousand years of cultivation and is said to possess dragon blood. It thrives in this pool, and many have tried to harm it, but it has escaped by diving into the deep pool.
This deep pool was named Flood Dragon Pool because of it.
Relying on this Flood Dragon Pool, it has evaded countless hunts. However, it is only a thousand-year-old soul beast, and those who lead the hunts are at most Soul Emperor level experts.
Zhao Wuji was sent this time, of course, with a plan. Dealing with a thousand-year-old soul beast is not difficult; the difficulty lies in preventing it from diving into the deep pool and hiding.
"The water dragon is definitely in the pool. You two be careful. I'll lure it out later. Don't get eaten alive. If your vicious needles can hit it, I won't object at all."
Zhao Wuji finished speaking and surveyed the pool. The water dragon's strength was beyond what Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai could handle. This wasn't the two-thousand-year-old giant ape, King Kong. Even if they could hit it with their dragon whisker needles, given their soul power, the needles would likely not penetrate its defenses.
"Back off, I'm starting!"
Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai quickly retreated. Zhao Wuji had already completed his martial soul possession, and Ma Hongjun and Dai Mubai followed suit, summoning their martial souls as well.
Zhao Wuji picked up a stone from the side and threw it into the pool.
"Ding-dong!"
The calm surface of the pool rippled. After the ripples caused by the stone subsided, the water began to tremble, as if an earthquake had occurred.
"Splash!"
Before anyone could see what was happening, the water on the pool suddenly exploded, and a huge water dragon burst out of the pool.
Fine, blue scales added to its handsome appearance, while the antennae on its head displayed its majesty.
The water dragon's sapphire-like eyes looked at Zhao Wuji, then it opened its mouth, its white, sharp teeth releasing an invisible ferocity.
It didn't care what this human-bear hybrid was; it bit down, intending to swallow it whole.
Zhao Wuji's second spirit ring lit up, and he struck out with both palms, colliding with the water dragon's upper and lower jaws, then grabbing its head. The
powerful bite force made Zhao Wuji's hands tremble slightly. He conjured bear claws, trying to dig into its flesh, but the dragon scales on its head were extremely thick, and for a moment, the bear claws couldn't penetrate. Zhao Wuji retreated
, trying to drag it out of the pool; now only the upper half of the water dragon was above the surface.
The water dragon was very surprised. After the contest of strength, it knew it was no match for this bear-man, and in trying to break free, it could only hide.
Suddenly, the water dragon's body began to writhe, like a crocodile's death roll. With each roll, the force in its jaws increased.
However, the strength of a Soul Saint was far beyond its reach. The Mighty Vajra Bear embodied sheer power. Zhao Wuji roared and forcefully pulled the water dragon's body out, slamming it to the other side like an over-the-shoulder throw.
Zhao Wuji firmly grasped its jaws with both hands, seizing the initiative.
The water dragon panicked; this feeling of its body being forcibly controlled made it sense the approach of death.
Forced open,
the water dragon managed to spew out a blue water arrow. The arrow aimed directly at Zhao Wuji's face; at such close range, Zhao Wuji couldn't dodge.
"Bang!"
The water arrow failed to pierce Zhao Wuji's defenses, disintegrating on his face and turning into a pool of water, falling helplessly.
But this also affected Zhao Wuji; it seized the opportunity to break free from his control.
Its body surged, plunging into the pool like blue lightning.
Zhao Wuji angrily threw the two blue scales in his hand to the ground. The water dragon had shed its scales to escape his control.
"Hmph, you can't escape!"
Zhao Wuji said, immediately activating his fifth spirit ring, a deep black that alone exerted considerable pressure on Ma Hongjun.
A ten-thousand-year spirit ring skill.
"Gravity Compression!"
This was the reason Zhao Wuji had come; the water dragon was slippery, and at the slightest sign of trouble, it would hide in the dragon pool. Even if you were stronger than it, you couldn't enter the pool to fight it. Moreover, the depth of this
pool was unknown.
Gravity Compression is a powerful soul skill that combines control and attack within a certain range. The
Flood Dragon Pool stood there quietly, but when Zhao Wuji released his soul skill to cover its surface, the water level dropped significantly. The soul skill continued to affect the water, and this gradually increasing pressure made the stagnant, solidified water increasingly heavy.
Under the influence of gravity, the water dragon beneath would endure ever greater pressure, even heavier than under direct gravity compression, as it was equivalent to adding the weight of the pool itself. At
this moment, the deep pool protected it, but the pool water also became a deadly weapon.
It could be said that it was "born from the deep pool, and destroyed by the deep pool." Like
a cunning rabbit with three burrows, the water dragon had always stayed in the deep pool, but only in this one.
Although it had relied on the deep pool to escape many dangers, someone would always find a way to deal with it. Now was the time to end its fate.
"Roar..."
The water dragon burst out of the pool with a mighty roar; it had finally given in and emerged.
Zhao Wuji's Gravity Squeezing was a ten-thousand-year-old soul skill; the terrifying pressure it created was self-evident. If the water dragon didn't emerge soon, it would be crushed to death at the bottom of the pool.
"Offer up your soul ring!" (