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**
"Watch me swallow you whole!"
"Soul-Devouring Ancient Toad Swallows the Moon—no, the Sun!"
The toad, wreathed in blue-white flames, let out a sharp gleam from its eyes. With a mighty leap, it pounced straight toward Wei Yang.
Gwaaah—!
Its mouth stretched wide open, grotesquely so—its entire body looked like it was about to morph into a gaping maw.
Inside that gaping bloody mouth, a swirling vortex of blue-white flame spun violently, a terrifying inferno spiraling with soul-devouring force.
"You brat! Once I devour you, I can recover everything I've lost. I'll digest your soul to repair my own, and your body... your Heavenly Flame... everything—will be mine!"
In the toad's nearly despairing heart, a flicker of hope emerged. Forcing itself to ignore the searing black radiance, it lunged beneath the pitch-black sun, stretching its mouth even wider.
Then—it bit down.
Soul Devour!
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
The blazing black sun trembled violently, sending out ripples of warning. It seemed to be alerting its master of imminent danger—or perhaps, on the verge of erupting on its own.
This scene struck utter fear into the heart of the toad. It was terrified that the black sun would detonate in the next instant.
If that really happened—at such close range—even if it managed to swallow Wei Yang's soul, it wouldn't gain any advantage. Most likely, both sides would perish together.
But regardless of the risks, the arrow had already left the bow—it had no way to stop now.
Fight, and there might be a sliver of life. Don't fight, and death is certain!
"I'm going all in!" the toad roared inwardly. "Live or die—it all comes down to this!"
At that moment, time itself seemed to slow.
Then—
"Hmm?" Wei Yang suddenly snapped awake, regaining full consciousness.
There was no time to think. With a single thought—
Buzz!
The black sun above his head flashed and dropped, instantly wrapping his soul within.
Immediately after—
AWOO~!
The toad's massive jaws clamped shut—chomp!—swallowing the entire black sun in one gulp.
"...?!"
Its bulging eyes froze wide open, a look of pure horror spreading across its face.
Only one thought flashed through its mind—
I'm screwed...
Then—
BOOM!!
The black sun exploded inside its body, rapidly expanding in mass, radiating an even more blinding light.
It was like a nuclear bomb detonated within.
And worse—the bomb had been swallowed willingly by the toad.
"NO—!"
You Hun Zun Zhe let out a soul-piercing screech of despair.
He couldn't understand—he had clearly swallowed Wei Yang's soul. How did it suddenly turn into a black sun at the last second?
That was a Heavenly Flame, dammit! Who in their right mind would swallow something like that?!
But it was already too late.
Endless black light burst from within its body.
With it came surging black fire, erupting outward.
The terrifying heat vaporized the toad's body from the inside out—turning it to ashes, annihilating it completely.
"I curse you... I'm not willing... aahh—!"
As the final howl faded into silence, everything gradually calmed down.
Inside the Sea of Consciousness—
Wei Yang stood tall, hands clasped behind his back.
Before him floated three things:
—A mass of chilling black mist.
—A quivering blue-white flame.
—A nearly transparent, illusory soul drifting weakly in the air.
Wei Yang's gaze fell on the translucent soul. It was so faint, it seemed like a single breath could blow it away.
At this point, the illusory soul had already fallen into slumber. From its vague facial contours, one could just barely make out—You Hun Zun Zhe.
"Thank goodness he didn't die... otherwise, that would've been a huge loss." Wei Yang secretly sighed in relief and muttered, "Though I held back deliberately, I must say... as expected of a Spirit Realm soul—it's pretty damn tough."
In a scenario like that, for the Black Sun Burning Heaven Flame to erupt inside his body, and still survive without total annihilation—that was nothing short of a miracle.
Any Mortal Realm soul would've been completely destroyed.
Only a Spirit Realm soul—and probably not even an early-stage one—could survive such torment. Only a soul of that level could cling to life, barely.
Still, even in this state, it probably wouldn't last much longer.
Unless something unexpected happened, it'd likely vanish completely within a few months.
Wei Yang suddenly thought of Tian Huo Zun Zhe—that guy had tenaciously clung to life for centuries deep within underground magma.
Shaking his head, Wei Yang raised his hand. With a change of hand seals, he casually cast several seals onto the illusory soul, locking it down completely to prevent it from dissipating at any moment.
Once he was done, Wei Yang turned to look at the other two items.
The mass of cold black mist was none other than Nine Nether Cold Qi.
At this moment, the cluster of Nine Nether Cold Qi was also extremely weak, its power having dropped to a very low level—probably not even as strong as the Ice Spirit Cold Fountain anymore.
"Tsk tsk, what a waste. Such a fine heaven-and-earth treasure, and it's been ruined into this state. Who knows how much it'll cost to recover it," Wei Yang said with some heartache.
He then turned to look at that Rank 7 azure-white flame: the Azure Nether Flame.
Now, it too was completely wilted, its power greatly diminished—almost inferior to the ordinary Rank 5 crimson beast flame in Xian'er's hand.
"Sigh!" Wei Yang wore a pained expression; these were all his precious treasures, after all.
He silently mourned for a while before finally raising his hand. With his fingers forming seals, he placed several seals upon both the Nine Nether Cold Qi and the Azure Nether Flame to stabilize them.
...
Outside.
Xiao Yan, Medusa, Qing Lin, and Yao Lao were all silently watching Wei Yang, patiently waiting.
At that moment...
The black flame that had been enveloping Wei Yang's body gradually began to subside.
"The flame's withdrawing!" Qing Lin said nervously.
Medusa, Xiao Yan, and even Yao Lao all tensed up slightly, their gazes fixed intently on Wei Yang's gradually revealed face.
In Medusa's hand, a strand of seven-colored energy quietly gathered.
Even though the odds were slim, one could never be too careful.
What if—just what if—Wei Yang had failed and was successfully possessed by the enemy?
That would be a real disaster.
A few moments later...
Wei Yang finally opened his eyes slowly. Within his pupils, a faint black flame danced.
Everyone stared at him intently.
Wei Yang's gaze swept around slightly, and he immediately understood what was going on. With a smile, he said, "What? Afraid I got possessed?"
Everyone nodded in unison.
Then, Qing Lin quickly shook her head and called out a bit hesitantly, "Young Master?"
Wei Yang shifted his gaze and looked at Qing Lin.
Qing Lin stared into his eyes—and then, she smiled.
"Young Master!" she cried joyfully, throwing herself into Wei Yang's arms and hugging him tightly.
From Wei Yang's eyes, she saw that familiar spirit and aura. She could instantly confirm that this was unquestionably her young master.
Of this, Qing Lin had absolute confidence.
The eyes are the window to the soul—and her young master's eyes were something she could never forget.
Medusa and Xiao Yan, seeing this, also smiled.
They too had seen that same familiar essence within Wei Yang's gaze.
Medusa nodded slightly with a soft smile.
"I knew it—you bastard wouldn't go down so easily. The wicked live for a thousand years," Xiao Yan muttered, curling his lips, but there was also an uncontrollable smile on his face.
"If he failed, now that would've been the real shock," Yao Lao's voice rang out as well.
Wei Yang held Qing Lin in his arms and chuckled, "Just a feeble remnant soul dares enter my sea of consciousness? Naturally, I can crush him however I want."
Medusa and Xiao Yan both nodded.
Within his own sea of consciousness, Wei Yang held the home ground advantage—his soul power could constantly be replenished, while the opponent was like a rootless drifting weed... So, let alone a remnant soul—even if the enemy had entered at full strength, they wouldn't have gained the upper hand.
"You killed him?" Xiao Yan asked.
"No, almost. I stopped just in time," Wei Yang said casually. With a flip of his hand, a faint, almost ethereal sleeping soul appeared in his palm. "Luckily, his soul origin was tough enough—otherwise, he wouldn't have lasted this long."
Everyone looked at the extremely weak, nearly transparent soul with curiosity.
"Hmm, it's a Spirit Realm soul!" Yao Lao said with a bit of awe. "I can faintly sense the remaining threads of spiritual awareness within it. Only a Spirit Realm soul's origin could survive being this severely weakened without completely dissipating."
"But judging by the way it looks now... it probably won't hold out for much longer."
Wei Yang took out a jade bottle, placed the soul inside, and casually applied a seal on it before putting it away.
"We'll see what fate has in store for him. If he can endure until I find the soul-repairing medicinal ingredients, and he hasn't crumbled by then—maybe I'll give him a hand. Otherwise..."
Xiao Yan blinked in surprise and said, "But soul-repairing materials are super rare! Why even bother saving him? That's such a waste!"
Before Wei Yang could respond, Yao Lao scolded, "Xiao Yan, are you stupid? That's a Spirit Realm soul, for heaven's sake—it's worth a fortune! It's even more valuable than a peak Dou Zun's corpse!"
You have to know—even at his peak, Yao Lao's soul was only at the peak of the Spirit Realm.
And many Dou Zun experts still had souls stuck in the Mortal Realm, which just goes to show how rare and precious a Spirit Realm soul really is.
As for the soul of You Hun Zun Zhe, it was at least mid-to-late Spirit Realm.
That kind of soul? Extremely valuable.
If the Hall of Souls knew about this, they'd probably send several Dou Zun to come seize it.
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