Chapter 10: Defying the Heavens

“Ugh…”

A soft, pained groan caught the attention of Jiang Jie and Dugu Bo.

Dugu Bo’s expression instantly turned serious. In a flash, he was by Dugu Yan’s side, carefully sensing the changes in her body.

She was his only remaining family, holding a place in his heart even more important than himself. If anything happened to her, he would be inconsolable.

Jiang Jie also put down his roasted meat, tilting his head to observe Dugu Yan as she absorbed the soul ring.

However, with his limited knowledge, he couldn’t discern much. All he saw was Dugu Yan’s pretty face contorting with discomfort, her body trembling slightly from the pain.

“Teacher, what’s happening to Sister Yan?” Jiang Jie asked curiously, unable to figure out the reason behind her distress.

Dugu Bo shook his head lightly, his expression growing more worried.

The Man-Faced Demon Spider’s soul ring indeed brought great benefits to Dugu Yan, but it also exacerbated an existing problem. Like Dugu Bo, the venom in her Jade Phosphorous Serpent martial spirit had grown stronger. While this increased her power, it also heightened the toxicity’s corrosive effect on her body.

Dugu Yan was currently in a precarious stage where the venom in her body was increasing too rapidly for her body to handle.

Death was unlikely, but her lifespan would probably be shortened. The longer the venom accumulated, the more damage it would do to her body, inevitably reducing her lifespan.

There was also the risk of a venom outbreak.

No wonder Dugu Bo was worried.

“Ah, this…” Jiang Jie was at a loss. Seeing Dugu Bo’s expression, he had a rough idea of what was happening. He had initially thought that given Dugu Yan’s current low level of power, she wouldn’t suffer much from the venom’s backlash.

But unexpectedly, the venom was indeed a significant burden.

Solutions…

Solutions!

There didn’t seem to be any!

Jiang Jie felt like crying. Instinctively, he turned his gaze to the Man-Faced Demon Spider’s corpse.

The only way to help Dugu Yan now, apart from the celestial herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, might be the Eight Spider Lances, the same kind that the “crippled” character in the original story had.

But the crippled character absorbed the Eight Spider Lances along with the spider’s soul ring; he didn’t find them in the corpse. Dugu Bo hadn’t sensed any soul power fluctuations within the Man-Faced Demon Spider, so would this spider even produce a soul bone?

Jiang Jie gritted his teeth, stood up with a conflicted expression, and walked over to the Man-Faced Demon Spider’s corpse.

He had to try.

His wrist flicked, and the Flame Wave Blood Blade sprang out. The blade, dark blue with a crimson glow, gleamed ominously in the sunlight.

With a swift motion, Jiang Jie sliced open the spider’s exoskeleton and peeled it back with the blade.

Despite the spider being dead and its defense significantly weakened, even if it were alive, the Flame Wave Blood Blade was sharp enough to cut through its carapace as easily as tofu.

Hearing the commotion, Dugu Bo turned his head, puzzled by Jiang Jie’s actions.

The soul ring had already been absorbed. What use was dissecting the Man-Faced Demon Spider now?

Did this child think that desecrating the body would alleviate Dugu Yan’s pain?

Dugu Bo was both amused and exasperated.

He didn’t blame Jiang Jie, though. After all, he agreed with the theory he had presented. He just hadn’t anticipated the sudden increase in toxicity would burden Dugu Yan so severely.

Watching Jiang Jie’s puzzling behavior, Dugu Bo didn’t intervene. He continued to protect Dugu Yan, using his own martial spirit to draw out the excess toxins from her body.

His efforts paid off; as he extracted the poisonous mist, Dugu Yan’s expression visibly relaxed.

Meanwhile, Jiang Jie had completely removed the top part of the spider’s carapace and was now feeling around its eight legs.

But to no avail.

Aside from the faint, dissipating soul power in the spider’s corpse, Jiang Jie found no trace of any unusual soul power that might indicate a soul bone.

“Is there really nothing?”

Jiang Jie sighed inwardly, standing over the Man-Faced Demon Spider’s corpse in deep thought. Almost instinctively, he extended his hands, blades pointed at the spider, his hands forming claws as if holding an invisible basketball.

Simultaneously, a field of energy filled with madness, slaughter, and death expanded, enveloping the entire corpse.

The Devouring Demons’ Hearts Domain!

Dugu Bo’s head shot up, his face full of shock as he stared at Jiang Jie, the boy bathed in a blood-red glow reflected in his aged eyes.

A domain!

Sensing the energy, Dugu Bo immediately recognized it as a domain. Though he didn’t possess a domain ability, as a Titled Douluo, he had witnessed domains before.

Soul masters with domains were invariably among the most powerful figures on the Douluo Continent.

This boy had a domain?

Dugu Bo’s eyes widened in astonishment.

What happened next almost shattered his worldview, cultivated over six decades.

Under Jiang Jie’s Devouring Demons’ Hearts Domain, streams of blood-red energy were drawn from the Man-Faced Demon Spider’s corpse. In a place Dugu Bo couldn’t see, the phantom of the spider, screaming silently, was pulled from the corpse, merging with the blood light into Jiang Jie’s body.

At that moment, Jiang Jie felt like he was about to explode. The soul power from the Man-Faced Demon Spider, though not much, was considerable for a six-hundred-year-old soul beast, an enormous amount for Jiang Jie.

Besides soul power, the spider’s vital essence and soul were also being pulled into him by the domain.

Jiang Jie’s body, having never absorbed a soul ring before, was only six years old. This operation was nearly pushing him to the brink of explosion.

As the soul power and vital essence were continuously drawn, the spider’s corpse shriveled, starting from the spines and hairs to the eight legs and finally the entire body, which turned to ashes.

Jiang Jie’s face turned red, blood oozing from his pores, and his eyes were streaked with red as he reached his limit.

“Condense!”

With a shout, the residual soul of the Man-Faced Demon Spider appeared between Jiang Jie’s clawed hands, its eight resentful eyes staring at him, its fanged mouth issuing silent screams.

Simultaneously, the soul power and vital essence drawn from the spider’s corpse were infused into its remnant soul.

Under Dugu Bo’s wide-eyed gaze, eight legs, like miniatures of the spider’s, slowly took shape in Jiang Jie’s hands.

The spider’s remnant soul shattered, merging into the eight legs, imbuing them with an indescribable quality.

“Heaven-defying!” Dugu Bo was stunned.

(End of Chapter)