It was the true remnant soul of the Soul-Devouring Venerable!
Compared to the mere projection that had appeared at the Heaven-Evil Sect, this soul-body was hundreds of times stronger!
Though it was still clearly incomplete, the soul-pressure it radiated had reached a terrifying extreme. The dragon army that had just stormed in felt crushing weight bearing down on them.
“Jie jie jie… Little brat Chen Ping, this venerable one hadn’t even come looking for you, yet you deliver yourself to my door!”
The Soul-Devouring Venerable let out a grating, sinister laugh that echoed throughout Soul-Burying Abyss, stirring the surrounding resentment into resonance.
“And you brought so many longworms to serve as burial offerings. How thoughtful!”
Chen Ping hovered in mid-air, facing the skull throne from afar.
There was not the slightest trace of fear on his face. Instead, he wore an almost mocking ease and confidence.
“Soul-Devouring old mutt, you really picked a remote cesspit to hide in, just like a rat in the gutter. Made this grandpa search high and low for ages.”
Chen Ping spoke, his tone dripping with undisguised contempt. “What’s wrong? Last time you fled like a homeless cur. Been licking your wounds at the bottom of this blood sea? Scars not healed yet, but the pain’s already forgotten, so you’re barking again?”
The Soul-Devouring Venerable’s ghostly green soul-flames flared violently. He had clearly been provoked by Chen Ping’s brazen insults.
Yet he was, after all, an ancient monster with unfathomable cunning. He sneered coldly. “Sharp-tongued little whelp! You think that, just because you got lucky, tamed the Demon-Suppressing Tower, and subjugated these beasts, you’re invincible under heaven? In this venerable one’s eyes, you are still nothing more than a slightly sturdier ant!”
“Ant?”
Chen Ping laughed, laughed loud and wild. “You’ve got it backwards, old dog. Look at the state of you now: neither human nor ghost, no flesh body left, just a wisp of remnant soul cowering in this bird-forsaken backwater, clinging to life. I almost pity you!”
He pointed at the dragon army behind him, then at himself. “Now look at me: young, with a perfect body, cultivation that pierces the heavens, countless strong followers, and just now I unified the entire Ninth Heaven!”
“And you? What do you have? Apart from your shameful schemes and sneaking cold arrows from the shadows, what else can you boast?”
“Oh, right, you still have the face to call yourself a Heavenly Venerable? I say you’re more like the Squatting Venerable, squatting every day in this stinking sewer growing mould!”
“You…!”
The Soul-Devouring Venerable was so enraged his soul-body rippled violently. The surrounding resentment began to riot.
In all the tens of thousands of years he had lived, when had anyone ever pointed at his nose and cursed him like this?
“You what?”
Chen Ping gave him no chance to retort, firing off words like a machine-gun. “Calling you an old dog is actually flattering you. Dogs at least know loyalty and how to protect their master. And you?”
“All you know is betrayal, devouring others, and pulling dirty tricks from the dark!”
“Oh, I almost forgot. You’re also really good at running! Faster than anyone!”
“Last time at the Void Rift Valley, then at the Heaven-Evil Sect, your fleeing posture was truly practised to perfection. It almost brought tears to my eyes!”
“Want this grandpa to teach you a few more elegant escape techniques? So next time you’re chased like a homeless cur again, at least it won’t look so pathetic?”
“Pfft…”
Old Black couldn’t hold it in and snorted with laughter. He quickly stifled it, but his shaking dragon body betrayed how hard he was trying not to crack up.
The other dragons all wore strange expressions, torn between wanting to laugh and not daring to.
“Junior! You court death!!!”
The Soul-Devouring Venerable completely lost it. His ghostly green flames turned blood-red in an instant. Terrifying soul-pressure erupted like a volcano. The entire Soul-Burying Abyss trembled under his fury!
“This venerable one will rip out your soul and torment it with Nine Nether Demonic Flames for ten thousand years! You will never know rebirth!”
“Tsk tsk tsk, look at you, all worked up already!”
“Lost your temper so quickly? This grandpa hasn’t even warmed up yet! With that little self-control, no wonder after tens of thousands of years you’re still a shady old creep who can’t see the light of day.”
“I think you should stop calling yourself Soul-Devouring Venerable. Change it to ‘Petty Venerable’ or ‘Narrow-Minded Venerable’. Much more fitting for your character.”
