"Xiao Lin, open your eyes, I am the Fire Dragon King!"
"Xiao Lin, open your eyes, I am the Ice Dragon King!"
"Xiao Lin, I am the Thunder Emperor Dragon!"
"Lei Lei, you're getting full of yourself, huh?"
After being awakened in his consciousness space by the two great Dragon Kings, the first thing Xiao Lin did was curse at Lei Lei.
Daring to call himself the Thunder Emperor Dragon.
A junior should behave like a junior.
Once his consciousness fully recovered, everything around him was pitch black, and an extremely nauseating stench entered Xiao Lin's nostrils.
The disgusting sensation made Xiao Lin feel like vomiting.
"Am I inside the stomach of a soul beast?"
Xiao Lin frowned slightly and instinctively activated his Fiery Golden Eyes to observe, quickly arriving at a conclusion.
"I wonder what kind of soul beast it is?"
Xiao Lin muttered to himself.
Soon after, he learned the truth from the two Dragon Kings.
It was roughly a Medusa Snake with about seventy thousand years of cultivation.
"Ah… this…"
There was not the slightest trace of sorrow in Xiao Lin's heart—he was even a little excited.
What is this called?
Searching high and low, only to find it effortlessly.
But how was he supposed to convince the Medusa Snake to listen to him?
That was the real problem.
Xiao Lin walked through the Medusa Snake's belly, frowning slightly.
This Medusa Snake was quite large. Xiao Lin could walk alone inside its stomach without feeling cramped at all.
"Xiao Lin, the situation is urgent. Why not just kill the Medusa Snake directly?"
This was the Fire Dragon King speaking.
In the Fire Dragon King's view, a seventy-thousand-year Medusa Snake already had a sufficiently high cultivation age.
If a soul beast of that level hadn't condensed a soul core yet, and didn't drop a soul bone when killed, then it was simply trash.
Moreover, the corpse of a seventy-thousand-year Medusa Snake could be made into a fossil soul bone.
Or it could be used directly as fertilizer—perfect for enriching the Looking Through Autumn Water Dew.
To be honest, the Fire Dragon King's words did move Xiao Lin a little.
Aside from possibly wasting a bit of soul ring energy, doing this would bring nothing but benefits.
"Idiot. If you kill it, what about Xiao Lin's future soul rings? Xiao Lin is preparing to awaken a second martial soul."
The Ice Dragon King retorted purely to oppose the Fire Dragon King.
The Ice Dragon King's words made a lot of sense as well, and Xiao Lin didn't really feel like rejecting them.
After all, the Medusa Snake was a earth-attribute soul beast.
Moving through the Medusa Snake's insides, Xiao Lin was secretly torn.
"Xiao Lin, what are you doing? No matter what, shouldn't you get out first?"
At this moment, the Fire Dragon King suddenly became puzzled by Xiao Lin's actions.
Why stay inside the Medusa Snake when everything's fine?
Just punch your way out with the Qiu Dragon Staff!
Even if Xiao Lin used the unorthodox version of the Comet Star Scar Slash, on a massive creature like the Medusa Snake, it would feel no more than being pricked by a needle.
There was no need to worry about killing it.
Xiao Lin naturally understood this very clearly.
But wasn't he just thinking of going deeper to see if there were any treasures?
What if the Medusa Snake had swallowed quite a few soul masters, and those soul masters were carrying storage soul tools? Xiao Lin could just conveniently loot them.
"Xiao Lin, you're way too greedy."
The Fire Dragon King was speechless. After complaining, he couldn't even be bothered to pay attention to Xiao Lin anymore.
In the real world, under Xiao Lin's Fiery Golden Eyes vision—
Inside the Medusa Snake's abdomen, everything was made of flesh and muscle. Stepping down carelessly would cause one to be squeezed by the surrounding flesh and become trapped.
But Xiao Lin was different. He possessed Ultimate Ice.
With every step he took, the Medusa Snake's flesh instantly froze, giving Xiao Lin a chance to move freely.
In this long tunnel of flesh and blood, Xiao Lin soon discovered clues pointing to treasure.
Huh?
Isn't that the uniform of the Tianshui Team?
Xiao Lin rubbed his eyes, staring in disbelief at a piece of dark-blue light armor being continuously compressed within the flesh.
He had seen this outfit before—it belonged to Tianshui Academy.
Had Tianshui Academy been wiped out?
This thought flashed through Xiao Lin's mind.
It wasn't strange for him to think so. After all, he himself had already been hit once by the Medusa Snake's mental shock.
Even someone like him—with a vast consciousness space, a sea of consciousness, the Qiu Dragon Staff acting as a stabilizing pillar, and mental strength not inferior to a Soul Douluo—had still been tricked by the Medusa Snake.
There was no reason those from Tianshui Academy could have withstood it.
Tsk tsk tsk… coming all the way to Sunset Forest—what soul beast were people from Tianshui Academy trying to hunt anyway?
Xiao Lin kept shaking his head.
If events had followed the original timeline, these people wouldn't have encountered any trouble at all.
"Help!"
At that moment—
Xiao Lin faintly heard someone calling for help.
"Damn Medusa Snake… Bing'er! Yue'er! Xuewu…"
Before long, Xiao Lin clearly identified the source of the voice.
It was coming from deep within the Medusa Snake's abdomen.
They're not dead!
Xiao Lin couldn't help but let out a breath of relief.
As a human, there was naturally no reason not to save his own kind.
Very quickly, Xiao Lin ran toward the source of the voice, the Qiu Dragon Staff in his hand igniting with icy flames.
With the icy flames, the pitch-black interior of the Medusa Snake's belly was finally illuminated.
As he drew closer and closer to the source of the sound, Xiao Lin also clearly recognized who was calling for help.
It was the same teacher he had seen before—the one with a somewhat authoritative voice.
But now, that voice sounded miserable.
"Hey, are you okay?!"
Suddenly, Xiao Lin's shout echoed through the tunnel of flesh.
Not far away, upon hearing Xiao Lin's voice, Shao Wanqing instantly felt hope.
She looked toward the distant icy-blue glow. Under the flickering light, Xiao Lin held the Qiu Dragon Staff high, raising holy flames.
It was as if a god had come to save them…
No—wait, why is it that kid from earlier?
The hope Shao Wanqing had just mustered instantly collapsed.
After the immense disappointment, she instead lost all will to live.
Trapped inside the Medusa Snake's belly like this, she and her students were all going to die here.
"Gone mute?!"
From afar, Xiao Lin's puzzled voice sounded once more.
This time, Shao Wanqing didn't even lift her head to look at Xiao Lin, nor did she give any response.
"Six… it's probably because there's too much gastric acid and acidic gas in this Medusa Snake's stomach, making your throat go hoarse."
Xiao Lin speculated to himself as he walked over to Shao Wanqing.
Only after reaching her side did Xiao Lin realize what had happened to the people of Tianshui Academy.
Take Shao Wanqing beside him for example—she used to dress like a proper head instructor, but now most of her clothes had been severely corroded, exposing large patches of snow-white skin.
And beneath that pale skin were many ugly scars.
If even the strongest instructor was in this state, one could imagine whether the other students had already died.
Looking again at the exposed pale areas on Shao Wanqing's body, Xiao Lin noticed that there were also many signs of petrification on her.
"You were hit by the Medusa Snake's gaze?"
"Isn't that a good thing? Turning disaster into fortune, basically."
Xiao Lin said as he lifted Shao Wanqing—who was slumped on the Medusa Snake's flesh—up to her feet.
If he didn't lift her up, her butt would soon be completely corroded.
Next, Xiao Lin stopped concealing his strength.
The powerful pressure of a Soul King was released, and the flames of Ultimate Ice instantly ignited on the Qiu Dragon Staff.
Gradually, the icy flames spread outward.
Everything they passed over froze into solid ice.
"Ultimate Ice? You're a Soul King?!"
Looking at Xiao Lin's appearance and strength—especially the Ultimate Ice that was even stronger than Shui Bing'er's—Shao Wanqing was already so shocked she could hardly breathe, her face filled with disbelief.
(End of Chapter)