Douluo: Spiritual Sword

Having arrived at the Hell Road, a trace of blood-red light suddenly flashed in Hu Liena's eyes. The Blood Mary poison in her body began to react with the Hell Road environment.

Tianlin hadn't helped Hu Liena detoxify as Tang San did, and even if he had given her the antidote at the time, given her disgust and vigilance toward Tianlin, she probably wouldn't have taken it.

However, as blue light flickered across her forehead, she quickly regained her composure.

As expected of the protagonist's skull from the original work—the mental amplification was truly powerful, forcibly allowing Hu Liena to maintain her sanity.

Bibi Dong had another soul bone no weaker than the Wisdom Skull, but she let Hu Liena choose this one first specifically because of its wisdom—the smarter a person, the more rational they can remain in a crisis.

"So, this is the Hell Road?" Hu Liena looked at the narrow path ahead, less than half a foot wide. "How fitting. One misstep and you'll fall into hell, never to return."

Before coming to Slaughter City, Bibi Dong had roughly described the scene inside the Hell Road to Hu Liena. But after so many years, it couldn't have stayed the same. So, the information at hand was only for reference.

Still, Hu Liena felt that having even a little intel was much better than Tianlin, who knew nothing. She could use this to set up a plan and ensure this Sword Prince, or Sword Asura, dies inside the Hell Road.

"Now's not the time to release killing intent at me. Otherwise, I might not be able to stop myself from cutting you down." Tianlin walked ahead, not looking back.

Hu Liena smiled slightly and caught up. "Sorry, after living too long in Slaughter City, sometimes I can't control myself."

They didn't tie themselves together with rope or clothes, for a simple reason: neither trusted the other.

"Hu Liena, have you noticed? As we move forward, the temperature around us is rising," Tianlin asked after walking for a while.

"Yes, the magma below us is getting closer. It started one kilometer down, but now it's only about nine hundred meters. At this rate, the final section of the Hell Road will be completely submerged in magma—that will be the hardest part." Both Hu Liena's level and mental power were much stronger than in the original, and she also noticed something else. She looked up. "Something is coming."

"Bats. Thousands of them." Tianlin said in a low voice. If Hu Liena could sense them, how could he not? He sensed them even more clearly.

As they got closer, the flying creatures became visible: blood-red bats, miniatures of that blood-marked bat seen before at the Slaughter Arena. Each was about a foot long, with wings spanning over a meter.

A few would be nothing, but thousands formed a crimson blood cloud swooping rapidly toward Tianlin and Hu Liena.

Hu Liena's face turned grim. She held her short sword before her chest, anxiously asking, "What should we do?"

"What's the big deal? It's just a few thousand," Tianlin said indifferently. "Shadow Sword!"

With his increasing level, his innate soul skill, Shadow Sword, had grown stronger—now able to unleash thousands of swords at once. If he used the Ten Thousand Sword Technique, he could release a hundred thousand swords in an instant.

But Shadow Sword alone was enough. Countless shadow swords shot at the bats, sweeping the blood cloud away in moments, leaving only bat corpses falling into the magma.

"Let's go. If this counts as a trial, then we've passed the first stage." Tianlin said calmly, moving on.

"How powerful. Such a dense sword rain—if it fell on me, I wouldn't be able to dodge at all, certain death." Hu Liena marveled inside, strengthening her resolve to leave Tianlin here for good. If he gained the Deathgod Domain and left, he'd be even harder to deal with—he'd surely become Spirit Hall's greatest enemy.

"Screech!"

At that moment, an angry bat cry sounded ahead.

Hanging upside down beneath the narrow path ahead was a gigantic creature, shrouded in dim red light and emitting a dark gold glow. Its body was over four meters long, with two massive claws gripping the path, each claw more than a meter wide, digging deep into the stone.

As the blood bats screamed, the dark gold creature slowly unfolded its enormous wings, spanning ten meters. Its claws released, and with a mighty flap, its huge body took flight—a truly gigantic bat.

Its whole body was dark gold, and most terrifying of all, it had three heads.

Hu Liena murmured, "Looks like the first stage isn't over yet. We're in trouble. We killed the small ones, now the big one's here for revenge."

"Darkgold Bat King, attribute: darkness. I've seen this soul beast in the compendium, but this one seems mutated. Judging by its size, it's at least sixty thousand years old—be careful." Tianlin explained.

A sixty-thousand-year soul beast's strength surpassed even Soul Sages, and with such a mutant, even a Title Douluo would struggle to defeat it here without soul skills.

The Darkgold Three-headed Bat King was cunning. It didn't attack right away but started destroying the path ahead, trying to ensure their death.

"Tianlin, against this monster, we have to work together. You attack physically, I'll attack with mental power!" Hu Liena urged.

"Alright, fight as we run! Before it destroys the path, let's get through this section!" Tianlin activated his Shu Mountain movement technique and rushed forward.

Hu Liena didn't have his movement skills, but she activated her external soul bone, Fox Tail, increasing her overall attributes and speed.

There's no way the Bat King would let them pass so easily. Its three heads screamed simultaneously, preparing to unleash a powerful skill.

Tianlin, familiar with the original story, knew that to kill the three-headed bat, all three heads had to be destroyed at once. Otherwise, it would instantly regenerate. So, he held off attacking rashly.

"We must stop its skill! Phantom Divine Light!" Hu Liena's eyes flashed. Her soul bone skill, usually used for charm, could also be used as a spiritual blast.