Douluo: Emerald Poison Emperor

Chen Ming took away several people's soul tools, froze the dismembered individuals again, and left only their heads to endure the pain.

Chen Ming searched through their soul tools and found a thousand-year soul bone in one of them. From what Chen Ming had observed earlier, this was a recent acquisition by the three elders during their soul-hunting activities. It came from a family that once belonged to the Clear Sky Sect but had not fought wholeheartedly during the battle against the Spirit Hall. The family had been completely slaughtered by the three elders during their hunt.

Except for this soul bone, the rest of the items were mostly cultivation medicines and spare clothing. However, in what appeared to be a medicine box, Chen Ming found a small lead container hidden inside.

Curious, Chen Ming opened it and discovered that it contained the blood skull of the Seventh Elder of the Clear Sky Sect, who had once sacrificed himself. This skull was filled with curses from countless resentful souls and the unwillingness of the deceased at the moment of their death.

Activating his spiritual vision, Chen Ming began to see the history of this blood skull.

The skull originally belonged to an evil Spirit Master who had been Titled Douluo over 500 years ago. This Titled Douluo's martial soul was his bones, and his innate talent had granted him full innate soul power at birth. However, lacking certain opportunities, he was stuck at level 89 and could not break through to become a Titled Douluo.

Near death from old age, he stumbled upon an evil method in an underground black market that allowed him to increase his soul power by sacrificing his blood relatives. In his youth, he had scoffed at such practices, but the fear of death had consumed him. His once-strong will and convictions had long since eroded during years of comfort.

Thus, without hesitation, this Soul Douluo sacrificed over a hundred of his blood relatives, forcing his breakthrough to become a Titled Douluo. His original bone martial soul was corrupted by the resentment of his blood relatives, transforming into an evil martial soul known as the Blood Bone.

To escape the Spirit Hall's pursuit, this evil Titled Douluo hunted his ninth soul ring and fled to a remote corner of the continent. He changed his identity, remarried, and had children. Over the next 30 years, he married over 20 wives and fathered hundreds of direct descendants. Then, he sacrificed them all again.

This cycle of marrying, fathering children, and sacrificing them continued for over a hundred years. Eventually, he was gravely injured by a Titled Douluo from the Spirit Hall and had to go into hiding. Even in seclusion, he continued to father children, producing over a dozen offspring every 20 years. The youngest of these children inherited his mutated blood bone martial soul.

The evil Soul Master abandoned his cultivation and poured all his efforts into teaching his youngest child. However, what he did not realize was that his son had secretly discovered his diary and the improved sacrificial method.

When the evil Soul Master grew too old to wield his full power, his son, who had already reached the level of Soul Sage, betrayed him. Taking advantage of his father's love and trust, the son ambushed him and sacrificed him using the same evil method his father had once employed.

That blood skull was the former evil Soul Master's skull. His lifetime of cultivation and martial soul were sealed within it, making it a cursed, malevolent artifact.

Later, this son of the Titled Douluo followed in his father's footsteps—having children and sacrificing them. In the end, he too was killed by his own youngest son. Before this third generation could carry on the family's twisted traditions, he encountered Qian Daoliu and Tang Chen, who were traveling together at the time.

Qian Daoliu initially wanted to purify the cursed item, but Tang Chen refused, deeming it a rare artifact and storing it in the treasure vault of the Clear Sky Sect. However, after the Clear Sky Sect encountered internal strife, the elders began to use the blood skull for their purposes, initiating a new round of sacrifices.

Among the five surviving elders of the Clear Sky Sect, each had used the blood skull at least once. Sometimes they sacrificed the corpses of relatives, and at other times, they directly sacrificed living clan members they deemed unimportant. Even Soul Masters from the four single-attribute clans, who had blood ties to the Clear Sky Sect and were fighting on their behalf, were not spared from these sacrifices.

While the four single-attribute clans fought to the death for the Clear Sky Sect, many of their Soul Masters with blood ties to the sect were ambushed and sacrificed without hesitation.

Chen Ming shuddered, placed the blood skull back into the lead container, wrapped it in several layers, and buried it deep within his storage soul tool.

"How utterly sinister."

Standing nearby, Ah Yin, who did not know the full story of the blood skull, still nodded in agreement. With a worried expression, she advised Chen Ming:

"My lord, this thing is undoubtedly an evil and cursed object. Keeping it will bring no benefit. It's better to destroy it quickly." To persuade him, Ah Yin even addressed Chen Ming as My Lord.

Hearing her words, Chen Ming smiled and nodded.

"I am the God of Sin. Why would I fear such an object?"

"Besides, if I were to truly walk the path of evil, with my divine status, I could simply unleash plagues across the continent indiscriminately. That would allow me to level up far faster than through sacrifices. As long as I kill enough people, instill fear in others, and commit enough atrocities, I can ascend to godhood directly."

"You don't need to worry about me being corrupted by this thing. After all, it not only targets one's own family but is also ridiculously inefficient. It's simply not worth it."

Hearing this, Ah Yin grew even more anxious. She wanted to convince Chen Ming to calm down and not resort to such extreme ideas. After all, there were still beautiful things in this world.

Unbeknownst to Ah Yin, Chen Ming silently added in his heart:

"Moreover, I can use this object in the future to set a trap for Tang San. I'd like to see if the noble and righteous Tang San, the God-King of the Divine Realm, would sacrifice the entire Clear Sky Sect. Would he become another Fang Yuan?"

As a pawn of the Asura God, Tang San was destined to become a god. But how, when, and in what form he ascended were all variables Chen Ming intended to manipulate.

Chen Ming wanted Tang San to become a failure—a puppet god under his control, a being he could suppress at will.

If the Asura God were to pass down his divine position, Chen Ming planned to use Tang San to shatter the Asura God's divine seat and absorb it as fuel for his self-created divine position.

After dismissing Ah Yin, Chen Ming froze the three elders into ice statues again and stored them in the soul tool originally prepared for Ah Yin. He then melted the surrounding ice and used his concealment technique to fly toward the Blacksmith Association.

It didn't take long for Chen Ming to return to the Blacksmith Association. He summoned Lou Gao to a secret room.

As Lou Gao looked on in confusion, Chen Ming retrieved the three frozen elders from his storage soul tool and presented the soul bones he had obtained.

"This is what happened."

Chen Ming briefly recounted how he had ambushed and dealt with the three elders of the Clear Sky Sect. Hearing how easily Chen Ming had dispatched three Titled Douluo, Lou Gao couldn't help but applaud and shower him with praise.

After letting Lou Gao calm down, Chen Ming took out four ten-thousand-year soul bones he had obtained from the elders.

These four soul bones were all strength-oriented and matched perfectly as a set of limbs. From any perspective, they were ideal for Lou Gao.