The two dragon souls clamped down tightly on the Azure Scale Serpent Emperor's body. The powers of ice and fire surged violently into it, trying to annihilate it from within!
Fortunately, because Li Chang'an had consumed two immortal herbs, he possessed a strong resistance to both ice and fire. And since a Martial Soul was a part of the Soul Master's body, the Azure Scale Serpent Emperor naturally shared that resistance.
Thus, even though the invasion of the ice and fire energy caused unbearable pain, it could not destroy him.
It was only pain—nothing more.The dragons' power, which should have killed any living being, instead became pure nourishment.
The Azure Scale Serpent Emperor's body was like a bottomless pit, greedily devouring the divine energy poured into it by the two dragon souls, then channeling that power to both Li Chang'an's true body and his soul beast clone.
At that moment, though Li Chang'an's body trembled in agony from the conflicting ice and fire energies, deep within his soul, something ancient and powerful began to stir awake…
That sensation told him everything: the energy being injected into him by the two dragon souls was divine energy—exactly the fuel required to awaken his mythical bloodline!
The two dragon souls possessed no true intelligence, acting purely on instinct. Even as their divine essence drained away, they didn't stop. They only knew one thing—to destroy the living being before them, no matter the cost!
If it had been anyone else—even someone with resistance to ice and fire—they would have exploded from energy overload.
But Li Chang'an was different. His bloodline's awakening required a vast and endless supply of divine energy. The dragons' assault was precisely what he needed!
And so, he endured the agony, his mind trembling between pain and ecstasy, as the slumbering bloodline within his soul slowly, steadily began to awaken…
Meanwhile, in the cavern where his soul beast clone resided—
The transformation occurring in his true body resonated perfectly with the clone.The Azure Scale Serpent Emperor clone, now enveloped in a cocoon of energy, shimmered with intertwining colors of crimson and pure white. The two hues merged, separated, and merged again—like yin and yang performing a cosmic dance of rebirth.
Time passed…
Then, at some unknown moment—
The cocoon's light began to dim and converge inward, until it took the shape of a massive oval egg.
"Crack…"
A fissure appeared across the shell.
The egg trembled violently.
"Crack… crack… crack!"
More fractures spread across its surface, and the trembling intensified—until finally—
BOOM!
The eggshell shattered in an explosion of fragments!
"ROOOAAARRR!!"
A deafening, primordial roar echoed through the cavern—like the scream of a creature that had slept since the dawn of time.
A being from another world—an ancient Fierce Beast—had been born anew.
It was a monstrous serpent with nine long, sinuous heads, each identical yet alive with their own will.
Its entire body was covered in densely packed scales, black as night with streaks of fiery red, forming a shimmering obsidian hue that glowed ominously in the darkness.
"…What a strange feeling," one of the serpent's heads hissed."So this is what it feels like to break free of all shackles?""Ha… hahaha!"
Nine voices roared in unison, identical yet layered, echoing with boundless pride.
Li Chang'an, who had now fully awakened the ancient bloodline hidden within his soul, felt better than he ever had before.
It was as if every fiber of his being sang with power.
He could sense it clearly—he would no longer be bound by the Heavenly Tribulation that soul beasts faced upon reaching one hundred thousand years, nor would he be limited to a million-year lifespan.
Because the moment his bloodline awakened—he was no longer a "soul beast."
He had transcended that definition.
He had become an Alien Beast—a Fierce Beast from beyond the rules of the Douluo world!
The laws of this world governed soul beasts…but could they truly bind a being whose bloodline did not belong to this world at all?
His awakened bloodline was called—Jiu Ying (Nine Infants)!
According to the ancient text Huainanzi: Benjing Xun, the Nine Infants was a monstrous Fierce Beast of catastrophe, a creature of both water and fire, possessing nine heads that could spew flames and torrents.
Its cries were said to sound like the wailing of infants, capable of bewitching the mind and corroding reason.Because of its endless slaughter and havoc, the legendary archer Hou Yi had to personally hunt it down and slay it in the northern lands of the Deadly Water.
Another version of the legend claimed that the Nine Infants was born at the dawn of creation, when heaven and earth were still thick with primal energy. It was born from the chaotic mingling of yin and yang, in the depths of ancient mountains and vast swamps.
Born directly from the essence of the world itself, the creature possessed an immortal body—its flesh indestructible, its life force eternal. It was said to have nine lives—and unless all nine were destroyed within a short span, it would always return, feeding on the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to resurrect itself.
To truly kill it, one would have to slay it nine times in succession.If even one life remained, it would inevitably recover to full strength.
That was the terrifying nature of the Nine Infants—the reason it was deemed one of the ultimate Fierce Beasts.
And to clarify:its nine lives weren't tied to its nine heads.Cutting off its heads wouldn't kill it nine times—it was merely a symbolic representation.
To truly end it, one had to kill its body, wait for it to revive, then kill it again—nine separate deaths in total.
If its nine lives were really linked to its heads, then killing all nine at once would defeat the whole purpose of its ability.
Now that Li Chang'an's Nine Infants bloodline had fully awakened, he had inherited all of its abilities—including that absurd nine-life immortality.
If used wisely, it was practically the same as having infinite resurrection.
As long as even one life remained, he could recover the other eight over time and return to full power.
In other words—it was now almost impossible for him to die.
"Still," Li Chang'an mused, "I need to understand the details…"
"When I resurrect, will it be instantaneous—reviving at the same place from my corpse—or will my body reform elsewhere?"
"If it's the former, that's risky. My enemies could strike again before I even stand up. In that case, nine lives might as well be none."
"But if it's the latter, I could fake my death and escape unseen."
"Also—after resurrection, will I be at full strength, or weakened?"
"And does 'death' only apply to the body? If someone destroys my soul, can I still revive? And if I do—am I still me?"
"How exactly does this nine-life system work…?"
So many questions filled his mind.
Unfortunately, there was no inherited memory in his bloodline—only instinctual knowledge of his abilities, like how humans naturally know how to breathe.
That meant he understood what powers he had, but not how they functioned in detail.
It seemed that the Nine Infants' legendary immortality wasn't as foolproof as he first thought. There were too many unknowns—too many risks.
Perhaps other mythical beasts with overwhelming power would have been even better options—like the Ancestral Dragon Yinglong, the Time-controlling Candle Dragon, or the Sun-Devouring Heavenly Dog…
Each of those bloodlines carried sheer destructive force that might surpass even the Nine Infants.
But the question was—what were the conditions to awaken those other bloodlines?
At long last, the protagonist's true cheat power had arrived.
(End of Chapter)
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