A dense barrage of dark demonic thunder shot toward Chu Chengzhou, who initially intended to dodge. However, after noticing Big Bear's movements, he abandoned the idea of dodging and instead focused intently, preparing to deliver a fatal blow to the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
The golden streaks of light arrived in an instant. Three Golden Armor Piercing Arrows struck, but were completely blocked by the gray shield enveloping the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's body.
The next moment, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's attack also arrived. A dense volley of dark demonic thunder exploded around Chu Chengzhou.
"Boom boom boom boom boom—"
For a time, deafening thunder rolled across the sky above the Great Star Dou Forest.
As numerous dark demonic thunders detonated, the protective divine light descending from the soul power flower above his head rippled violently.
However, since these dark demonic thunders were area-of-effect attacks, though they created quite a commotion, their individual power wasn't particularly strong and remained within the defensive range of Instant Bloom. Aside from consuming a fair amount of soul power, they didn't cause any harm to Chu Chengzhou.
Simultaneously, Big Bear, who had been waiting for the right moment, unleashed another burst of dark golden light from his twin Dark Gold Terror Claws. A terrifying claw shadow imbued with dark golden radiance shot forth.
In an instant, the dark golden claw shadow landed on the gray shield formed by the innate soul skill: Evil God Guardian on the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's surface.
"Bang—"
If Big Bear's innate soul skill: Dark Gold Terror Claw was unleashed in soul skill attack mode, its power far exceeded the Golden Armor Piercing Arrows fired by Chu Chengzhou using the Sun Shooting Divine Arrow. The gray shield that hadn't been pierced by the arrows was instantly shattered by the soul skill attack mode of the Dark Gold Terror Claw.
At once, Chu Chengzhou's eyes lit up as he immediately activated his illusion technique without hesitation: Void Illusion Realm.
Intangible spiritual energy descended into the consciousness sea, and in an instant, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's mind was altered, turning it into Chu Chengzhou's temporary devout follower.
Though the nearly fifty-thousand-year-old Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was undoubtedly powerful, its God-Tier bloodline wasn't related to spiritual power, nor did it belong to the category of spirit-type soul beasts.
Compared to Chu Chengzhou, who excelled in spiritual power, this Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was clearly inferior in terms of spiritual strength.
And Void Illusion Realm, being a spiritual-type ability, didn't care about one's overall strength—it only mattered how strong your spiritual power was.
"Mission accomplished!"
Having successfully controlled the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, Chu Chengzhou nodded in satisfaction and stopped Big Bear, who was about to continue attacking.
Subsequently, Chu Chengzhou issued the command for the offering.
The great Lord God demands your soul ring. As His devout follower, can you refuse?
Impossible, absolutely impossible!
Becoming a soul ring for Lord God is akin to becoming a part of Him—a supreme honor for any devout follower!
Instantly, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger let out a roar to the heavens. Dense gray light erupted from the center of its forehead, freezing everything around it in absolute stillness.
Unsurprisingly, like the exceptionally unique soul beast that it was, even though its age was less than a hundred thousand years, it still possessed the ability to offer itself.
'Great Lord God, accept the humble offering of Your devoted follower!'
The soulful voice of the devout Dark Demon Evil God Tiger echoed in Chu Chengzhou's mind.
Gray flames began to burn from the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's body. Although its blood was gray, what burned now wasn't just its blood—it was its life, soul, and nearly fifty thousand years of cultivation!
'Lost lamb, rest assured! Death is not the end. Your Lord God grants you eternal life!'
Regardless of whether the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger could hear him or not, Chu Chengzhou, playing the role of a holy figure, responded in his heart.
Although the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was about to die through the offering, upon becoming his seventh soul ring, it would become his seventh summon.
Even if the summoned Dark Demon Evil God Tiger lacked prior memories and was essentially a new creation, it would still be formed by his soul power combined with the seventh soul skill. In Chu Chengzhou's view, this was akin to a fragment of true spirit reincarnating.
One day, when he broke through Level 100 and ascended to godhood, gaining infinite life, the summoned Dark Demon Evil God Tiger would effectively achieve immortality.
Hearing the words of the great Lord God, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's eyes immediately filled with satisfaction.
Indeed, death was not the end. Offering oneself to Lord God meant following Him on the path to eternal life—a much better fate than wandering alone in the forest, devouring soul beasts to increase cultivation!
No more fear of being hunted by powerful soul beasts, no need to worry about the wrath of the heavens after surpassing a hundred thousand years, and no concern about failing to break through to godhood. Offering oneself to the great Lord God was truly a path to the heavens!
The gray flames burned brighter and brighter, gradually shifting from gray to dark gray. Meanwhile, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's body became increasingly translucent, resembling ever-clearer gray crystal.
After a long while, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's body faded away. All the gray light expanded into a massive gray ring that slowly contracted, merging around both it and Chu Chengzhou.
Bathed in the gray flames emanating from the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, Chu Chengzhou felt an indescribable sense of comfort.
Compared to absorbing a soul ring through hunting and killing, accepting a soul beast's offering was far more pleasant and beautiful. There was no pain, no trials whatsoever.
After all, by accepting a soul beast's offering to gain a soul ring, even if one's soul power level was only at 10, they could safely and without side effects absorb a hundred-thousand-year—or even million-year—soul ring!
Finally, the light on the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's body completely faded. The surging gray flame ring abruptly contracted, transforming into a pitch-black soul ring that appeared in the seventh soul ring position outside the six existing soul rings of the True Spirit Flag martial soul.
In an instant, a series of low-pitched explosive sounds erupted from Chu Chengzhou's body. His aura surged significantly as his soul power level broke through the Level 70 barrier, officially advancing to the Soul Saint rank.
Simultaneously, a ray of gray light suddenly illuminated his forehead, and the silhouette of a skull flashed briefly before vanishing.
The next second, the offering stance disappeared. A gentle breeze blew past, and the corpse of the offered Dark Demon Evil God Tiger dissolved into wisps of gray mist. Only a strange, entirely black bead remained, floating silently in mid-air.
With a wave of his hand, the black bead flew into his palm. Chu Chengzhou keenly sensed that this peculiar bead contained multiple attributes: time, space, wind, thunder, darkness, and evil.
'Isn't this thing some protagonist's cheat?'
Chu Chengzhou couldn't help but think to himself.
Of course, he didn't care whether the absence of this bead would turn some protagonist into an irrelevant character. It had nothing to do with him anyway.
Moreover, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was a species, not a single isolated case—just an extremely rare one.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger that had offered itself to him might not even be the same one that Tang San had hunted down in the original storyline.
On the way back from the Great Star Dou Forest, seated on the back of the Fire Phoenix Summon Beast Little Red, Chu Chengzhou opened the invisible attribute panel that neither Xiao Wu nor Chen Xin could see, checking the changes in his own abilities and those of his cheat.
[Attribute Panel]
[Host: Chu Chengzhou]
[Soul Power: Level 73 Soul Sage]
[Martial Soul: True Spirit Flag]
[Soul Rings: Black (10,000), Black (10,000), Black (10,000), Black (78,100), Black (29,050), Red (100,000), Black (49,200)]
[First Soul Skill: Summon - Azure Tree]
[Second Soul Skill: Summon - Light Lion]
[Third Soul Skill: Summon - Fire Phoenix]
[Fourth Soul Skill: Summon - Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear]
[Fifth Soul Skill: Summon - Mystic Water Turtle]
[Sixth Soul Skill: Summon - Titan Giant Ape]
[Seventh Soul Skill: Summon - Dark Demon Evil God Tiger]
[Soul Bones: Crystal Protection Left Arm Bone (60,210), ??? Head Bone (49,200)]
[Soul Core: First Soul Core (Attributeless)]
[Skills: Nine Breath Cultivation (Gold), Invincible Golden Body (Gold), One Thought Eternal (Gold), Sun Shooting Divine Arrow (Gold), Golden Light Dash (Gold), Void Illusion Realm (Gold), Instant Bloom (Red), Absolute Control (Red), Creation Hammer (Red)]
[AFK Slots: 1. Invincible Golden Body (Gold), 2. One Thought Eternal (Gold), 3. Nine Breath Cultivation (Gold), 4. Instant Bloom (Red), 5. Fourth Soul Ring (Black), 6. Martial Soul: True Spirit Flag (Top Tier), 7. Absolute Control (Red), 8. (Empty)]
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's age wasn't particularly high—only forty-nine thousand years—but its inherent quality was exceptional. The soul ring contained substantial soul power, and during the offering, it even dropped a head bone of the same age. Upon advancing to the Soul Saint, Chu Chengzhou's soul power reached Level 73.
Moreover, it wasn't just barely Level 73—it was firmly in the mid-range of Level 73, demonstrating the extraordinary nature of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
Otherwise, if it were an ordinary forty-nine-thousand-year soul ring and soul bone, Chu Chengzhou's soul power level would likely only be in the upper range of Level 71.
After all, he possessed a soul core, and his meditation technique was extraordinary. The quality of his internal soul power far exceeded that of soul masters at the same level. To advance one soul power level required much more accumulation than an average soul master of the same level.
Unsurprisingly, due to the unique nature of the True Spirit Flag martial soul, the effect of the seventh soul skill wasn't the typical martial soul true form seen in other soul masters. Instead, similar to the previous six soul rings, it was a summoning skill.
Following the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear summon Big Bear and the Titan Ape Big Black, Chu Chengzhou gained his third summon with title-level combat strength.
Although the summoned Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's age was relatively low, against opponents like She Long, a Titled Douluo, it would likely dominate effortlessly.
Moreover, with its unreasonable innate soul skill: Life-and-Death Arena, even high-level Titled Douluos weren't immune to the possibility of being instantly killed.
By possessing the multi-attribute Dark Demon Evil God Tiger summon and thanks to the characteristics of the True Spirit Flag martial soul, Chu Chengzhou could now freely convert his attributeless soul power into time, space, wind, thunder, darkness, and evil attribute soul power.
Without hesitation, Chu Chengzhou immediately placed the seventh soul ring into the eighth AFK slot that appeared after advancing to the Soul Saint level.
Suppressing his excitement, Chu Chengzhou resisted the urge to check the changes in his panel and instead examined the head bone dropped by the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger. The main course~ must be saved for last.
Generally speaking, when soul beasts drop soul bones, they typically correspond to the aspects they excel in.
For example, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger should have dropped wings or tail-related external attachment soul bones, yet it dropped a head bone instead.
Sure enough, as the self-proclaimed protagonist, he was destined to be incompatible with external attachment soul bones.
Of course, obtaining a head bone was still a good outcome—it marked his first time receiving a soul bone during a hunt, setting a precedent.
After carefully examining it, Chu Chengzhou raised his eyebrows slightly.
To his surprise, the soul bone skill attached to this head bone seemed unrelated to the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's known abilities.
Soul Bone Skill: Elemental Domination, enhancing comprehension and control over all elemental forces and increasing the power of all elements by 30%.
'Elemental comprehension, control, and amplification?'
Chu Chengzhou pondered silently.
He had expected the head bone to carry skills like Dark Demon Thunder, Evil God Guardian, or Life-and-Death Arena that the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had used earlier. He hadn't anticipated it to be an auxiliary-type soul bone skill related to elements.
Upon further reflection, however, Chu Chengzhou understood why such a soul bone skill had appeared.
Soul bone skills were always related to the soul beast's inherent abilities. For instance, in the original storyline, Void Illusion Realm's hundred-thousand-year Soft Bone Rabbit right arm bone—if she hadn't mastered Invincible Golden Body and teleportation—the soul bone skill wouldn't have included those abilities.
Generally speaking, aside from attributeless soul beasts, most soul beasts only mastered one elemental force, a few mastered two, and very few mastered more than two.
Yet the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, according to Chu Chengzhou's confirmed knowledge, possessed six distinct attributes: time, space, wind, thunder, darkness, and evil (an evolved form of darkness).
Such a variety of attributes likely weren't innate to the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
According to legend, the origin of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's bloodline stemmed from an evil god descending upon a white tiger, causing it to mutate. This transformed the white tiger's original light attribute into darkness, sprouting jet-black fallen wings and a scorpion-like evil god hook.
This legend had a high probability of being true, otherwise, it would be difficult to explain why the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's bloodline was so powerful.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's darkness attribute evolved from the white tiger's light attribute and further transformed into an evil attribute. Its innate soul skill: Life-and-Death Arena involved time and space, but there was no basis for its wind and thunder attributes.
Perhaps, apart from its innate darkness, evil, time, and space attributes, the wind and thunder attributes were acquired later through the Elemental Domination ability?
It's worth noting that the soul bone skill: Elemental Domination was a semi-active, semi-passive type.
Even without activating the skill, the enhancement to comprehension and control over all elemental forces remained active. For instance, Chu Chengzhou could already feel that he could control his already-mastered elemental soul powers more flexibly.
The 30% amplification effect on all elemental forces, however, required activation of the soul bone skill to take effect.
'Not bad!'
After mulling it over, Chu Chengzhou nodded to himself.
This praise referred not to the 30% elemental amplification effect that required active use but to the passive effect of enhancing comprehension and control over all elemental forces.
Of course, the 30% amplification effect on all elements wasn't bad either.
The passive effect of this soul bone skill aligned perfectly with his original vision of a grand path.
Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth fuse to form the Five Elements; earth, water, fire, and wind evolve into chaos; time and space merge into spacetime—these were all lofty concepts.
Mastering laws was the hallmark of gods. Whether it was the Five Elements Law, Chaos Law, or Spacetime Law, the primary prerequisite was achieving multi-element fusion. With this soul bone skill aiding him, his journey to becoming a god would undoubtedly be twice as effective.
Moreover, he could upgrade the soul bone's age through AFKing. As the soul bone's age increased, the effects of the soul bone skill would grow stronger and more pronounced.
With a slight shift in thought, the ??? head bone displayed in the attribute panel transformed into the Elemental Domination Skull.
Names were trivial—whatever sounded good worked.
Next, Chu Chengzhou's gaze fell on the AFK slots.
Soon, a smile spread across his lips.
It was evident that Chu Chengzhou's mood was exceptionally cheerful at this moment.
After advancing his soul power level to the Soul Saint, his AFK cheat not only gained a new AFK slot but also saw a significant boost in efficiency.
Before advancing, upgrading an ultimate Red-Tier technique to gold required three hundred days, and upgrading a Gold-Tier technique to the next tier took a full thousand days.
After advancing, upgrading a Red-Tier technique to Gold now only took one hundred days.
Similarly, upgrading a Gold-Tier technique to the next tier now only required three hundred days. The efficiency of AFKing techniques had at least tripled.
Though the efficiency of AFKing soul rings, soul bones, and martial souls didn't reach triple the original rate, it had improved from previously increasing soul ring age by eighty years per day to now increasing it by two hundred years per day.
At this rate, even starting from zero, upgrading a soul ring to a hundred-thousand-year level would only take five hundred days—just over a year and four months.
Considering the previous progress, the fastest advancement among the AFK slots would come from the Red-Tier defensive technique: Instant Bloom, which would undergo qualitative change in about a week.
Two and a half months later, the auxiliary technique: Absolute Control would advance to Gold-Tier.
In less than four months, the fourth soul ring's age would reach a hundred thousand years, and the summoned Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear Big Bear would evolve into a hundred-thousand-year summon.
Within a few days, the meditation technique: Nine Breaths Qi Absorption Technique would advance to the next tier, reaching the ultimate tier of technique quality categorized by his AFK cheat.
Seven months later, the True Spirit Flag martial soul would undergo evolutionary transformation. If all went well, following the six-winged angel, the continent would see its second God-Tier martial soul.
Of course, counting the Sea God Island overseas, it would be the third God-Tier martial soul.
Eight and a half months later, the seventh soul ring's age would reach a hundred thousand years, and the summoned Dark Demon Evil God Tiger would evolve into a hundred-thousand-year summon.
Ten months later, the body-forging technique: Invincible Golden Body and the spiritual power-training technique: Eternal Thought would, like Nine Breaths Qi Absorption Technique, successively upgrade to higher tiers.
In short, Chu Chengzhou, who had already been cheating, had just expanded his cheat even further.
After resting overnight in a city along the way, the next morning, after sending Chen Xin back to the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, Chu Chengzhou took Xiao Wu to the Sunset Forest.
"Brother, aren't we going straight home?"
Seeing that Little Red's flight direction wasn't toward Tian Dou City, Xiao Wu asked Chu Chengzhou curiously.
Chu Chengzhou nodded and said, "We'll go home later. I have something to do in the Sunset Forest and will test Little Tiger's abilities while I'm at it."
The Aromatic Silk Beauty was still in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, so it was convenient to pick it up along the way.
Moreover, after advancing to Soul Sage yesterday and leaving the Great Star Dou Forest, he hadn't yet tested the strength of the summoned Dark Demon Evil God Tiger. Chu Chengzhou planned to conduct tests to understand the various abilities of the summoned Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
"Little Tiger?"
Xiao Wu blinked.
"It's the name I gave to the summoned Dark Demon Evil God Tiger."
Xiao Wu: "..."
Why does he keep coming up with such terrible names?!
Clearly, she shouldn't have any expectations regarding Chu Chengzhou's naming "talent."
"I think," Xiao Wu said after a pause, "compared to Little Tiger, it suits being called Big Black more than Big Black does."
"I agree," Chu Chengzhou shrugged. "But I can't exactly rename Big Black, can I?"
It must be said that the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was indeed darker than the Titan Ape and not small in size either, so it did deserve the name "Big."
Hearing this, Xiao Wu became excited and quickly suggested, "Why not? Of course, you can! Let's call Big Black 'Little Ming' and name the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger 'Big Black'!"
Upon hearing this, Chu Chengzhou glanced at Xiao Wu. Little Ming? What kind of terrible name was that? Da Ming, Er Ming, Xiao Ming?
Perhaps Big Black's current strength wasn't greater than Er Ming's, but in the future, Big Black's strength would definitely surpass Er Ming's. Calling it Little Ming would be inappropriate, wouldn't it?
Well, someone clearly forgot that compared to Xiao Wu, he was the real failure at naming.
"Brother, just listen to me~!"
Xiao Wu clung to Chu Chengzhou's arm and coaxed him.
At this moment, Xiao Wu couldn't help but imagine bringing Little Ming to meet Da Ming and Er Ming in the forest.
Would Er Ming cry and insist on claiming kinship then?
"Tsk-tsk," Chu Chengzhou said, "Giving you the naming rights isn't impossible, but…"
Changing a name wasn't a big deal.
As for Big Black's opinion? Big Black wasn't human—it didn't have human rights.
"But what?"
Xiao Wu quickly asked.
"Xiao Wu, you, Rongrong, and Zhuqing are the best sisters in the world, and we're all family. Shouldn't we be honest with each other?"
Licking his lips, Chu Chengzhou said mischievously.
Chu Chengzhou: I have a bold idea!
"What about adding Hu Liena? Want me to arrange it for you~?"
Winking, Xiao Wu, who immediately understood, asked with a smile.
"Hm? Xiao Wu, are you really this nice?"
Unaware of the impending danger, Chu Chengzhou exclaimed in surprise.
"Go die!"
Enraged, Xiao Wu lifted her long leg and kicked Chu Chengzhou off Little Red's back without hesitation.
Since Chu Chengzhou could fly, she wasn't worried about him falling and getting hurt.
Little Red: ...
------------------------------------------------------
Join my Patreon to read an exclusive novel – 'Douluo: Rebuilding Hao Tian Sect'
40+ Chapters Ahead: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)