As one of the larger species among dragon-type Spirit Beasts, the Heavy-Armored Earth Dragon weighed at least several thousand pounds. Hearing Chen Ming casually ask him to flip the creature over, Dugu Bo fell silent for a brief moment.
Then, without a word, he summoned his Martial Soul.
Carefully controlling his power, he guided a strand of his recently refined poison into the dragon's nostrils, jolting it awake from its deep slumber.
Before the beast could even react, Dugu Bo moved.
In a flash, he stepped forward, seized its neck, and with a sharp twist of force, hurled the massive creature onto its side—sending the enormous body crashing down until it lay sprawled on its back, limbs flailing helplessly in the air.
Even if he was considered the weakest among Titled Douluo, he was still a Titled Douluo. With the aid of Spirit Power, handling a creature like this was well within his capabilities.
The Heavy Armored Earth Dragon let out a panicked roar, struggling desperately to right itself. But Dugu Bo gave it no chance. With a faint release of poison, the beast's muscles instantly seized, locking its entire body in paralysis. Only its eyes remained able to move, wide with confusion and fear.
Watching the immobilized dragon, a sudden thought surfaced in Chen Ming's mind.
"Senior, if a Spirit Beast is killed with poison… who does the resulting Spirit Ring belong to?"
"To the one who used the poison, of course," Dugu Bo replied without hesitation. "I tested that myself in my early years."
Chen Ming tilted his head slightly, his tone calm but probing.
"But what exactly defines 'the one who used the poison'? If the poison was created by you, but then used by a low-level Spirit Master to kill a Spirit Beast, that person can still absorb the Spirit Ring, right?"
Dugu Bo frowned faintly, considering.
"That's correct… but the poison was still mine."
"Then why doesn't the Spirit Ring belong to you?" Chen Ming pressed. "The poison came from you—the other person merely used it."
"Because of the aura," Dugu Bo answered after a moment. "Even if I created the poison, the aura left behind during the kill is different."
Chen Ming's eyes sharpened slightly.
"Then what if a low-level Spirit Master used your poison from a distance, and immediately retreated dozens of miles away to ensure no trace of their aura remained? When the Spirit Beast eventually dies, who would be qualified to absorb the Spirit Ring?"
Dugu Bo didn't respond immediately.
"And what if," Chen Ming continued, "someone possessed a Spirit Ability that allowed them to disguise their aura—perfectly mimicking yours? If they used your poison while cloaked in your aura, then from the Spirit Beast's perspective, both the cause of death and the residual aura would belong to you. In that case… could that person still absorb the Spirit Ring?"
"…That…" Dugu Bo hesitated, genuinely stumped. "I've never tested anything like that. I can't even imagine a situation where it would happen."
Chen Ming nodded slowly.
"If something like that could be understood—if aura could be hidden or perfectly imitated—it would fundamentally change how Spirit Rings are hunted in the future. But that's beyond what I can explore right now. I don't have enough data or examples, so… I'll set it aside for now."
In truth, Chen Ming already knew the answer.
In a later era, there would be a method involving specialized soul tools—killing Spirit Beasts in such a way that no aura was imprinted into the resulting Spirit Ring, allowing anyone to absorb it. Combined with storage-type soul tools, Spirit Rings could even be traded as commodities.
However, at the end of the second era, Huo Yuhao introduced the concept of Spirit Souls and founded the Spirit Pagoda, leading to the obsolescence of that method. Otherwise, things might have reached a peculiar stage that no one could have predicted.
Chen Ming mentioned it briefly before setting it aside. He approached the Heavy Armored Earth Dragon to observe this Spirit Beast, which was identical to his Martial Soul when it first awakened.
"Judging by this chin and the scales, it has just passed a thousand years. It's roughly one thousand one hundred, perhaps one thousand one hundred fifty—not exceeding one thousand two hundred fifty years."
Chen Ming's gaze shifted lower, and a flicker of surprise passed through his eyes.
"And this belly... it's actually a 'Golden Belly'? How rare."
When a Heavy Armored Earth Dragon digests metal, its abdomen generates heat. If it remains stationary in one spot for a long time, its metallic scales will slowly turn a dark brownish-black. However, if it is active, the scales receive a degree of heat dissipation, manifesting a dark-gold luster.
While a Golden Belly is not a rare innate talent but rather an environmental influence, a more active Heavy Armored Earth Dragon is undoubtedly superior in quality to its lazier counterparts.
After a moment's thought, Chen Ming nodded decisively at Dugu Bo.
"Senior, this is the one. I'll take it as my second Spirit Ring."
"Do you want me to break its defenses for you?" Dugu Bo asked.
"No need."
Chen Ming reached into his storage pouch and pulled out a thick iron spike, its base shaped into a tapered cone, along with a heavy iron hammer.
Stepping forward, he forced open the dragon's massive jaws and drove the spike into its upper palate. Then, with several resounding blows of the hammer, he drove the sharpened end straight into its brain.
The enormous body trembled once.
Then it fell still.
A purple Spirit Ring slowly rose from the corpse.
The unfortunate creature had simply fallen asleep in its own den—only to lose its life without ever waking properly.
Chen Ming sat atop the dragon's belly and retrieved the Land Dragon Golden Melon from his pouch.
The moment it appeared, something strange happened.
The still-warm corpse twitched violently, and even the purple Spirit Ring hovering in the air suddenly contracted before expanding again, as if reacting instinctively to the melon's presence.
But after that brief disturbance, everything fell silent once more.
Holding the Land Dragon Golden Melon before his dantian, Chen Ming split his focus—guiding its energy with one portion of his processing power while beginning the absorption of the Spirit Ring with the other.
In his original estimation, absorbing a thousand-year Spirit Ring should have placed considerable strain on him.
Yet the reality was far smoother.
Although the quality of the Spirit Power matched his expectations, the presence of the Land Dragon Golden Melon seemed to exert a subtle influence. Instead of resisting violently, the incoming energy was unexpectedly docile, merging into his body with unusual ease—far faster than normal.
In just one hour, Chen Ming opened his eyes.
A deep, resonant dragon's roar burst from his throat.
He rose to his feet and leapt down from the corpse, gripping the Land Dragon Golden Melon in his hand. The golden, armor-like scales covering his body began to melt into flowing streams of energy, surging toward the Land Dragon Golden Melon.
As his second Spirit Ring flared to life, his Martial Soul stirred violently, almost boiling with power.
Then, slowly… something began to take shape in his grasp.
A giant, ferocious hammer.
Its head was formed in the likeness of a ferocious dragon's head, while the handle resembled a fusion of metal and bone—solid, yet eerily organic. Within the dragon's eyes flickered a cold, unsettling intelligence, and clutched within its jaws was a golden orb—
The Land Dragon Golden Melon itself.
"Haah!"
Chen Ming let out a sharp shout.
Light erupted from the hammer's eyes, and the Land Dragon Golden Melon shone brilliantly in response. Faintly, almost imperceptibly, the sound of a dragon's roar echoed through the air.
The one-handed hammer rapidly expanded, swelling in size until it became a colossal weapon—so large that even with both hands, Chen Ming could barely wield it properly.