Chapter 364 - Seconds

“Huh?”

Both Yuanen Yehui and Yue Zhengyu frowned at the idea of Tang Wulin going in alone. The Demon Lizard Dragon in front of them was definitely above the four-thousand-year level, and like any other draconic beast, it was extremely powerful and savage.

“Just let him handle it,” Gu Yue said, already sitting on the ground off to the side. She didn’t even bother looking to see how Tang Wulin was doing before closing her eyes to meditate. “We can use this time to rest.”

The Demon Lizard Dragon had a fiery temper, so Tang Wulin’s approach was more than enough to draw its full attention. It pounced at Tang Wulin at an unimaginable speed that didn’t match its bulk, one that would leave any who saw it move flabbergasted. Six webbed wings spread from its back while its tail whipped at the ground and hissed through the air. The room seemed to grow dim, and the dragon reached Tang Wulin in the blink of an eye, its mouth open wide to devour him.

At that moment, a low roar shook the room. Yue Zhengyu and Yuanen Yehui stopped their bickering and turned to see Tang Wulin soar into the air, his body surrounded in golden light. A golden soul ring appeared around him, and the roar grew to its full intensity, the air trembling before its draconic majesty. In the face of this mighty roar, the arrogant Demon Lizard Dragon froze in mid-air. Then its wings went limp and it crashed to the ground with a dull rumble.

This scene left everyone stupefied, overwhelmed by confusion. They saw Tang Wulin drop through the air and neatly land atop the Demon Lizard Dragon’s head. He readied his claw, then thrust it into the back of the dragon’s head, burying his entire arm into its skull and piercing into its brain.

The dragon’s body spasmed for a moment, then went still.

Yue Zhengyu and Yuanen Yehui stood there dumbstruck, racking their brains to try and make sense of what they just witnessed. Yuanen Yehui was confident in her strength, but she knew it would be a challenge for her to take down a four-thousand-year Demon Lizard Dragon on her own. Yet Tang Wulin singlehandedly slaughtered the beast as easily as cutting paper. This was simply inconceivable!

Tang Wulin turned to his team with a casual look on his face, almost as if nothing noteworthy had happened. On the inside, however, he was actually quite surprised.

The second he engaged the Demon Lizard Dragon in battle, Tang Wulin used Golden Dragon Body and reversed the flow of his blood essence. The aura of the Golden Dragon King exploded from his body and stunned the dragon, leaving it open to Tang Wulin’s attack. This made its demise a swift one, but when he thrust his right arm into the dragon’s head, a warm energy flowed into him and caused his blood essence to flare up.

The energy stimulated his blood essence and pushed Dragon Shocks the Heavens from eighty percent to eighty-five!

Tang Wulin needed to practice restraint when progressing with Dragon Shocks the Heavens. According to his original expectations, it was supposed to be incomparably harder for him to finish the last twenty percent of Dragon Shocks the Heavens, more so than all eighty percent he had completed thus far.

Yet he had just made a month’s worth of progress in the blink of an eye!

Killing draconic soul beasts makes me stronger? I never felt anything like this in the spirit ascension platform... Is it because this Demon Lizard Dragon is real?

Just as the idea formed in his mind, the Demon Lizard Dragon faded into particles of light and disappeared. The electronic voice sounded off once more, announcing that they had ten seconds to decide if they wanted the Demon Lizard Dragon martial soul. Yuanen Yehui simply waved at Tang Wulin dismissively, a wry smile on her lips. It had been killed in one shot by Tang Wulin! There was no way she would choose such a fragile spirit soul!

As he rejoined his companions, Tang Wulin thought about the sensation of that warm energy entering his body. It seemed to him that, after breaking another Golden Dragon King seal, his blood essence had grown stronger along with his influence on draconic soul beasts. He was certain that the Demon Lizard Dragon wouldn’t have been so affected by him otherwise. It had just been bad luck for it to encounter him. If it had at least refrained from flying into the air, its death wouldn’t have been so brutal.

Having completed ten trials, they understood just how much time they had to recover between each one. Tang Wulin’s team of six didn’t enter the golden door until the last possible second. Once they did, they found that the eleventh floor was the same as the tenth. Only a single gigantic door stood in the hall. True to form, the door slowly slid open. This time, however, there was no burst of oppressive might. Every floor contained soul beasts far stronger than the one before it, especially from the ninth floor onward. They were now on the eleventh floor, and there was no way the coming trial would be easier than the previous ones.

“Careful, everyone. Triangle formation!” Tang Wulin commanded. His soul rings appeared around him as bluesilver grass came twisting out of the ground to secure the perimeter. Tang Wulin now spearheaded their triangle formation. Yuanen Yehui and Yue Zhengyu flanked him as the other two points of their formation. It was their job to protect their three teammates inside of the triangle.

With a twirl of her hands, Gu Yue sent out three green lights to her guards, boosting their agility. Yue Zhengyu and Yuanen Yehui weren’t even fazed by the versatility of Gu Yue’s martial soul anymore. They had tried to figure out just how great her abilities were in the previous trials, but she never revealed the full extent of her hand. They could only tell that her martial soul was capable of providing just as much well-timed support as it could dish out damage, and that she had many elements at her disposal. It was their first time encountering such an incomprehensible martial soul.

Soon enough, a refreshing scent wafted to their noses. It smelled of air after a long day of baking in the sun. Yet all it did was make Tang Wulin even more cautious. He narrowed his eyes as he stared at the gaping doorway, and bluesilver grass instantly shot up to form a dense net around them. A split-second later, lightning shot out of the doorway and bombarded the net with a thunderous crash. The explosive impact left their ears ringing. A shockwave rippled from the point of impact in the net, and Tang Wulin groaned under the strain. He struggled to support their defense, his entire body going numb in the process.

Only then did the attacker finally step out of the darkness beyond the doorway.

The strength of the soul beasts they faced before seemed to match their size, but that wasn’t the case for this one. It was actually quite small, standing at about a foot in height, with tiny yet sharp claws, and sported large violet-blue eyes. It also had bright sunny fur that Tang Wulin and the others had never seen on a soul beast before. The color extended to its tail, which was shaped like a lightning bolt. Electromagnetic power propelled it through the air, currents of electricity coursing through its body as it headed toward them.

“Is that… a thunder beast?” Xie Xie sputtered.

Confusion filled Tang Wulin, Zu Lizhi, and Yuanen Yehui, Gu Yue knitted her brow in thought.

Yue Zhengyu, on the other hand, had realization written all over his face.