After passing the first stage, Wu Ling continued along the path. After walking for a while, he estimated the distance and thought, "About right."
In the next instant, an enormous serpent-type Soul Beast appeared not far ahead of him.
On the serpent's head and back were nine protrusions. Each protrusion looked like a bright red mushroom, as if blood flowed inside it. Its abdomen was especially huge, rising high over the narrow path. Its body was at least over ten meters long.
Judging from the scorching breath spilling from the serpent's mouth, it was clearly a top-tier fire-attribute Soul Beast.
An ordinary person might not know this serpent's name even after reading countless books, but Wu Ling, who had read the original story, happened to know it.
The serpent before him was none other than the primeval anomaly, the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent. Its strength surpassed even a sixty-thousand-year Soul Beast. Even the Dark-Gold Three-Headed Bat King from the first stage was no match for it. It was also the boss of the second stage.
When Wu Ling saw the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent, the original story's record of it surfaced in his mind. Among Shrek's Seven Devils, the Evil Fire Phoenix, Ash, had soared upward by relying on the inner core of the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent. His Martial Soul evolved a second time, giving him the possibility of inheriting the seat of a first-tier deity, the God of Fire. Unfortunately, Ash himself had failed to live up to it and ultimately only inherited the seat of the second-tier Phoenix God.
What Wu Ling cared about most was the title primeval anomaly. Wu Ling was extremely familiar with the concept of the Primeval Wasteland, but for it to appear in Soul Land, a world that should have nothing to do with it, invited deeper thought.
Tang San's previous-life Tang Sect world could clearly be defined as an ordinary martial world, yet he knew the term Primeval Wasteland.
And this place was the trial ground for the Asura God's divine trial. Did that mean the Asura God had been to the so-called Primeval Wasteland?
There was also the question of why a martial-world cultivation method could be used in this world. Why could Tang San find identical places and identical knowledge in Soul Land based on what he had learned about immortal herbs in his previous life?
Wu Ling had read many Soul Land fanfictions in his previous life, so he was no stranger to theories about the Asura God's conspiracy. Although the original work never truly mentioned such a thing, what those fanfictions wrote was not necessarily impossible.
Waah!
Just as Wu Ling was thinking, the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent let out a cry like an infant's wail. The nine tumors on its back bloomed with golden-red light. It opened its mouth and spat, sending out a beam of fiery red light. A foul wind came with it, rushing swiftly toward Wu Ling.
Before the firelight even arrived, its scorching heat baked Wu Ling's stamina like the sun in Hell Road's already blistering environment.
Wu Ling said nothing. He raised his blade and cut the light apart, then jogged toward it.
Although the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent was much stronger than the Dark-Gold Three-Headed Bat King, it was different from the Bat King, which had controlled the air. In Wu Ling's mind, a Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent that could not fly was actually less threatening than the Bat King.
The facts proved exactly that. After a battle lasting more than ten minutes, the long blade in Wu Ling's hand had already become Arondight. Under the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's hard scales, his last long blade had ultimately failed to last until he left this place.
In exchange, most of the serpent's scales and large chunks of flesh had been carved away by Wu Ling.
As Wu Ling once again used Swallow Reversal with the double-edged sword, the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent let out a despairing, infant-like cry. It wanted to repeat its old trick and abandon part of its flesh to block Wu Ling's attack, but now instinct told it that if this continued, it would definitely die.
The instinct of a beast made it act without hesitation. The nine tumors on its head all burst apart. Golden fluid splashed out and gathered above the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's head, condensing into a tiny fiery-red sun. It kept collapsing and compressing until it was only the size of a ping-pong ball, then suddenly smashed toward Wu Ling.
This was the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's inner core. Most of the serpent's essence gathered inside it. Its value exceeded even a Soul Beast's Spirit Ring, and its power was immense.
However, with the three slashes Wu Ling had accumulated to their peak, he was confident he could cut the inner core into several pieces before it fully formed. He could even take the chance to kill the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent. But if he did that, the inner core would certainly be annihilated in the blade-light.
Although he had no teammate beside him who perfectly matched the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's inner core, Wu Ling naturally did not want such a rare treasure to vanish in a place like this.
So the results of Wu Ling's year and a half of training showed themselves again. He easily controlled the sword in his hand and tilted it by one inch.
That one inch avoided the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's inner core while still being more than enough to strike the serpent's enormous body.
As three sword-lights flashed and vanished, the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's terrifying body suddenly froze. With a boom, the giant serpent corpse collapsed to the ground.
Wu Ling reached toward the corpse, and the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's inner core appeared in his right hand. The moment he touched it, every cell in his body became active, impatient to devour it.
The Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's inner core not only gathered its power, but also contained most of the essence of its body. It was exactly that essence that made the inner core unimaginably beneficial to a Spirit Master's body.
If a Spirit Master with a fire-attribute Martial Soul refined it, the benefits would be no less than consuming an immortal herb. The user's physique and Spirit Power would both rise greatly, and they would carry an innate pressure that naturally suppressed all serpents, including Spirit Masters with serpent-type Martial Souls.
Unfortunately, Wu Ling did not have any particularly close fire-attribute companions. It would be difficult to bring out the best effect of this Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent inner core.
Wu Ling played with the inner core for a while longer. He had already decided that if he truly could not find anyone suitable for it, he might as well eat it himself. Although that would be somewhat wasteful, any increase to his strength was still good.
Wu Ling stored the inner core away and came to the fallen serpent's corpse. The tumors on its head had completely shattered, leaving it looking badly mangled.
First, Wu Ling reached through the wound into the serpent's upper body. After feeling around for a while, he pulled out a blood-soaked gallbladder. Then he stored the rest of the serpent in his storage ring.
The Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's gallbladder was the most valuable part after the inner core. After consumption, even if it could not make someone immune to all poisons, it would at least let them ignore most poisons. It could also brighten the eyes and clear the mind, offering no small benefit to future Martial Soul cultivation.
After storing the Ten-Headed Blazing Sun Serpent's corpse in his storage ring, Wu Ling continued forward. Gradually, the air seemed to fill with a scent that made emotions grow agitated. That scent could draw out the killing intent hidden inside a person's heart.
This was Hell Road's third stage. If the first two stages tested the challenger's strength, then the third stage tested the challenger's state of mind.
If the challenger could not control their emotions on Hell Road, with bottomless abysses on both sides, there would be no chance of survival.
Likewise, if someone wanted to truly control the Deathgod Domain formed from condensed killing intent, a powerful state of mind was necessary.
But none of this had anything to do with Wu Ling, who possessed Vitrification.
And so, this third stage, which should have been the most dangerous, was passed by Wu Ling with ease.
Wu Ling walked all the way to the end of Hell Road. Ahead of him, white light condensed into an oval screen. At a glance, he could see the exit.
But there was no road left in front of him. The path ahead had been completely swallowed by magma.
Rose could have made some potion that allowed him to swim through magma, or a potion that could freeze magma. More simply, she could have made a Craft Essence that let him fly.
But because there was already an example left by a predecessor, Wu Ling did not have Rose make any of those flashy things. He simply took two rectangular boxes from his storage ring and fastened them to his waist.
Then Wu Ling set his stance. Two fork-like devices shot out from the boxes, dragging him into the air.
After several releases and retractions, Wu Ling arrived above the light screen.
"Farewell, Slaughter City."
Before his voice faded, Wu Ling's body rushed into the light screen, leaving the fallen city where he had spent a year and a half.