But in truth, so-called "absolute defense" was never truly absolute.
Should one face god-tier attacks, or abilities designed to bypass defense altogether, such barriers would crumble just the same.
Still, that did not diminish how terrifyingly powerful these skills were.
Yet power comes with trade-offs. Absolute defense always carried extremely short durations. Even at the level of a hundred-thousand-year soul bone, the effect would last only a few seconds at most.
This White Tiger Contra's defense ended not from being broken, but from expiring prematurely. Its sudden disappearance after only a moment's use made it clear: this was a skill of overwhelming toughness but fleeting duration—not a ten-thousand-year defensive soul bone ability as Chu Chengzhou had suspected.
One more soul-power arrow finished the job. Chu Chengzhou cleanly claimed Dai Yao's head.
Minutes later, the battlefield fell silent.
All four Netherworld White Tigers lay fallen, and not a single one of Dai Sheng's eight escaped alive.
If slaying over twenty White Tiger Saints and four Contras had already been a grievous loss for Star Luo's royal clan, then this battle—where four Netherworld White Tigers were exterminated—was like severing a limb from their very body.
It was only the royal house's deep foundations, and the fact that producing a Netherworld White Tiger required merely pairing a White Tiger Contra with a Netherworld Spirit Cat Emperor, that spared them from collapse. Were this the Heaven Dou Empire losing four Titled powers at once, the throne itself would already be teetering.
When the battle ended, came the looting.
Chenxin and Gu Rong, deeming themselves elders and with Chu Chengzhou soon to instruct them in soul core cultivation, graciously left all the spoils to him.
Indeed, the difference between a common White Tiger Contra and those with the authority to use the Netherworld White Tiger was vast. Position determined both strength and what one carried.
When Chu Chengzhou killed Dai Yi, that Contra had but a single twenty-thousand-year left leg bone. Yet these four Star Luo elders each bore a soul bone of at least fifty-thousand years.
After sorting, he collected: two thousand-year bones, three between ten- and twenty-thousand, and four exceeding fifty-thousand years.
None were torso or head bones—only limbs, which was a pity.
The most striking piece was a sixty-thousand-year left arm bone, shimmering like pale blue crystal. Not the highest in age—one right arm bone surpassed seventy-thousand years—but this one drew his eye, because it had dropped from the very Contra he had slain with his arrow.
Two days later, at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
Under Chu Chengzhou's instruction, both Chenxin and Gu Rong successfully condensed soul cores.
As expected, the moment they did, the bottlenecks that had held them for years loosened. Both immediately entered seclusion.
Should they succeed, Chenxin would break through to a ninety-seventh-level Titled Douluo, and Gu Rong to ninety-six.
Then, Chenxin might still not be "the strongest attack under heaven," but Gu Rong's defenses would rival even Golden Crocodile Douluo, second consecrated of Spirit Hall, who stood at ninety-eight. Indeed, if the crocodile had no hundred-thousand-year defensive skill or bone, Gu Rong might even outshine him.
After all, Golden Crocodile was attack-type. In defense, he could hardly compare.
Back at the clan's courtyard, Chu Chengzhou called together his three beloved girls.
"Here are three bones, all over fifty-thousand years," he said, seated on a stone chair and pointing to the glowing relics laid on the table.
A seventy-thousand-year right arm bone glowing with metallic energy.A sixty-thousand-year right leg bone suffused with wind.And a fifty-thousand-year left arm bone radiating water aura.
"Brother, these are from your 'fishing trip' the other day?" Xiao Wu blinked curiously.
"Mm. Star Luo's royals are so generous, always sending me bones. And this time, the quality's not bad. They're practically funding my fortune." He grinned.
"What about the abilities?" Ning Rongrong asked, studying them.
"The metal and wind ones grant strong attack skills. The water one carries a passive soul-power regeneration effect."
Identifying their effects had been simple. He had entrusted Ning Fengzhi to arrange testers. How he did it, or who he used, was not Chu Chengzhou's concern. The next day, they'd been returned, fully catalogued.
The passive recovery was tempting—but it was a left arm bone, overlapping with the absolute defense one he'd just claimed. After much thought, he chose defense over regen.
Because only if one stood firm, could one continue to strike.
"Listen carefully," he said gravely. "Once refined, soul bones are difficult to replace. These aren't bad, but in my eyes, still too low. In the future, I'll definitely seize older, stronger ones. Think carefully before you fuse them."
Originally, he had planned to secure ferocious beast bones for his girls once his wings grew stronger. Star Dou Forest's guardians he'd leave alone, but across the Extreme North, distant continents, and endless seas, countless beasts roamed. Surely enough to outfit them each in full sets.
But plans change. And since he had these already, he would not hoard them like some miser, nor risk being branded selfish by those he cherished most. Better to lay the choice openly before them.
To take what lay at hand—or to wait for what the future promised.
Of course, bones could be replaced. One need only sever the limb and grow it anew. Tang Hao had done so, sacrificing an arm and a leg—his rank dropping twenty levels at once. Miraculously, when the bones were reattached later, his rank returned.
Chu Chengzhou found the whole affair crude and barbaric. He suspected more elegant methods must exist.
Soul bones were not true flesh—they were crystallized energy. With his Absolute Control, surely one day he could extract them safely. Perhaps not yet, but when his technique reached gold grade—or beyond—it should become possible.
For now, the three girls made their choice.
Ning Rongrong took the water bone, its passive recovery suiting her support role.Zhu Zhuqing chose the wind leg bone.Xiao Wu claimed the metal arm bone.
They were not shortsighted. In their hearts, they knew: when the day came, if Chu Chengzhou secured hundred-thousand-year bones, those should go to him first. Only surplus, if any, would be theirs.
But surplus hundred-thousand-year bones? They laughed at the very thought.
Chu Chengzhou only smiled, letting them be.
As for himself, he began the process of fusing his own soul bone.
For the past two days, Chu Chengzhou had been guiding Chenxin and Gu Rong in condensing their soul cores, lest either Titled Douluo slip up and bring disaster upon themselves. He hadn't even had the time to refine that sixty-thousand-year left arm bone with its absolute defense skill.
Half a day later, Chu Chengzhou completed the refinement. His soul power rose by nearly a full level, from just shy of level 64 to the latter half of 64.
From a single bone alone, he couldn't determine which beast it had dropped from. After all, soul beasts were innumerable, with the occasional mutated strain. Even among different species, bones could manifest similar skills.
After a moment's thought, he named it the Crystal Guard Left Arm Bone. Its ability, Crystal Body, granted absolute defense against all non-divine physical and energy attacks, lasting three seconds.
The skill itself was peculiar. As a sixty-thousand-year ability, it was weaker than Xiao Wu's fourth ring skill, Invincible Golden Body. That too lasted three seconds, but also increased her strength while active.
Yet at the same time, Crystal Body was exactly the same as the ten-thousand-year Soft Bone Rabbit's right arm bone skill from the original story. It could only mean that certain bunnies were not as simple as they seemed.
Opening his attribute panel, Chu Chengzhou noted the bone was just over sixty-thousand years old. To level it up at his current pace would take more than a year.
He decided against putting it into the upgrade slot. After this counter-kill, Star Luo Empire wouldn't be making moves against him any time soon. The difference between a sixty-thousand-year and a hundred-thousand-year absolute defense was not large enough to matter.
Moreover, absolute techniques upgraded far faster and returned greater benefits than soul bones. And soul rings—those had to be prioritized. Xiong Da and Da Hei were his trump cards; even if slower to upgrade, their growth was indispensable.
That night, Chu Chengzhou didn't sleep well. Not because he was juggling three dreamscapes of happiness with his three girls, threefold joy at the cost of threefold effort.
But because at midnight, Chenxin and Gu Rong both broke through, the surging auras of their advancement covering the entire Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. And, as was habit, both let out resounding roars afterwards, disturbing his good time.
To be disturbed in the dead of night—well, such interruptions went unpunished only because they were Titled Douluo. Were it anyone else, they might have been taught a harsh lesson.
Over the next three days, three more soul cores were condensed.
Two of them were by clan elders of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan who had been stuck at the peak of level 89 for years. Unlike Spirit Hall, where elders were all Titled Douluo, in the clan even Contras could hold the elder's seat. Chenxin and Gu Rong were different—they were Guardian Douluo, akin to Spirit Hall's consecrated elders rather than ordinary ones.
After forming their cores, both broke through to level 90, only needing their ninth rings to become Titled Douluo.
The clan now possessed the soul core secret. With Sword and Bone Douluo advancing in quick succession, and more new Titled soon to follow, its strength was rising rapidly.
This glimpse alone made Chu Chengzhou realize: should Spirit Hall obtain the method, he could hardly imagine how many of its elders would shatter bottlenecks, how many new Titled would appear.
Perhaps then, by sheer force of numbers, Spirit Hall's legions of Titled Douluo would be enough to unify the continent.
The third was Xiao Wu. After refining the seventy-thousand-year right arm bone, her soul power rose by a level, reaching 69. She then condensed her first soul core.
Her cultivation base was still a little low, and her rank remained beneath 70, but with Immortal Golden Body, Eternal Thought, and Absolute Control under her belt, her body, spirit, and control far surpassed her peers. For her, forming a core was not difficult.
Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing, however, were still far behind. Even with one or two levels from bone refinement, both sat at just level 57.
Another three days later, in the Star Luo Palace.
Within its opulent hall, the royal family gathered again. This time, though, only seven of the eleven golden-haired elders were present.
"Clan Head, Your Majesty, the Heaven Dou intelligence branch reports—Sixth Elder and his party have vanished."
It was Dai Feng, the Grand Elder, who spoke, his face stiff as he addressed Dai Tao and Dai Yutian.
Vanished, but with so many days gone and no word, it was clear they had fallen.
"Four royal elders, four Titled-level powers… who did this?!"
Dai Tao's voice grew darker and darker, until at last it broke into a furious roar.
Shrinking under the wrath, Dai Feng said, "After investigating, there were witnesses near the battlefield. They reported seeing a river of sword qi in the sky, as well as the shadow of a skeletal dragon."
Crash.
The chair arm beneath Dai Tao's hand shattered.
The next moment his roar filled the hall: "Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, this blood feud shall never rest!"
Sword river, skeletal dragon shadow—who else but Chenxin and Gu Rong? If it were not them, Dai Tao might as well swear to relieve himself standing from this day forth.
"Father, this insult cannot be borne. The Empire has long prepared for war—let us march on Heaven Dou at once!"
Dai Yutian stepped forward. Losing four Titled elders was a crippling blow.
But Seven Treasure Glazed Tile stood just outside Heaven Dou City, and as one of the continent's three great clans, its strength was immense. Without mobilizing the full might of the empire, they could not destroy it.
And if they did march with armies, would Heaven Dou stand idly by? Even were the two not allies, no empire would tolerate foreign legions camped before its capital.
So in truth, the grudge would have to be laid on Heaven Dou itself.
Smack.
Dai Yutian had not finished speaking when his father's palm struck his face with thunderous speed.
"So this is how you rule as emperor?" Dai Tao snarled coldly.
He swore vengeance, and Yutian would rush to carry it out blindly? Could the boy not see that Spirit Hall loomed as well, watching for weakness?
The empire had already bled four elders. Should they clash with both Heaven Dou and Seven Treasure Glazed Tile, losing yet more, their lineage might not survive.
The White Tiger was their ancestral spirit—but must the heir be as brainless as a pig?
In that instant, Dai Tao questioned whether the empire's succession by martial strength had been a mistake. Power did not equal wisdom. Unless one stood at Tang Chen's peerless might or Qian Daoliu's celestial heights, intellect mattered just as much as strength—especially to rule an empire.
"Father, then will you simply let this pass?" Yutian asked through the pain.
Were it anyone else, they would already have lost their head for such an insult. But a father's slap was untouchable law. He could only endure.
"Grand Elder," Dai Tao turned back to Dai Feng, "was it truly only Chenxin and Gu Rong? Four elders, four Titled together… even against those two, they should not have fallen so quickly."
"We do not know. But scouts reported the battle ended swiftly. Likely, another unknown master struck as well."
Dai Feng shook his head. At that level, no lesser soul master or mortal agent dared linger to watch. But even from a distance, they had sensed it—less than ten minutes, and all was over.
"Find out!" Dai Tao's eyes burned. "Those who dared kill my royal elders—this blood debt shall be settled in full!"
To him, Chu Chengzhou was still but a junior, unworthy of his gaze.
Their fall could not possibly be his doing. It must have been Chenxin, Gu Rong, and some hidden master together.
"And another thing," Dai Tao added coldly. "Purge the Heaven Dou intelligence branch. Twice now our strikes failed—once before they even began, once within a day of arrival. Coincidence? Impossible. Someone leaks our secrets."
His glare fell on Dai Yutian again. To lose face was one thing. To bungle intelligence was unforgivable.
And in truth, stripping away all else, the Star Luo failures in Heaven Dou did look suspiciously like betrayal from within.
T/N: For up to 30 chapters ahead on most of my translations, become a p@tron at [email protected]/LordHipposApostle