Mission complete!

Three hundred thousand years!

Golza had swallowed the lava crystal core.

The presence he gave off pressed down on everyone, leaving them barely able to breathe.

The moment Sword Douluo shouted "three hundred thousand years," everyone's fear reached its peak.

From ancient times to the present, the Douluo Continent had been quiet for far too many years. Never had a Soul Beast this powerful appeared.

Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were rare, Two-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were hard to encounter, and a Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast had never even been born.

At that level, cultivation alone was useless. A Soul Beast also had to face a tribulation.

With the spiritual Qi in the world as it was now, it was absurdly difficult for a Soul Beast to survive a tribulation.

Even calling it a narrow escape from death was putting a pretty face on it.

Yet today, everyone present had watched a Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast come into being before their very eyes!

The shock it gave them was beyond words.

There was simply no describing how fearsome a Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was.

That vast presence, bearing down on heaven and earth.

Like a mountain, it weighed heavily over everyone's heads.

Especially those who had planned to snatch the crystal core when it first appeared.

They were closest to Golza and felt it most keenly.

It was like being watched by a ferocious tiger, liable to die at any moment.

Golza slowly turned his head.

His fiery red eyes swept over the crowd that had gathered around him.

He snorted a blast of scorching breath, then stomped heavily.

A ring of fire swept outward in a storm, instantly turning everything within ten thousand meters into a purgatorial sea of flames.

Trees, rocks, even the steel fragments of the soul ships melted in an instant.

The whole world burned into a red expanse of emptiness.

This was the Soul Skill Golza had unlocked upon evolving to three hundred thousand years.

Lava Domain!

"Ah! Run!"

Hundreds of Soul Masters scattered and fled for their lives, but how could they outrun the spreading domain?

The red heat wave swept over their bodies, instantly denaturing their muscle tissue, which then carbonized.

They didn't even let out a scream, and not a single corpse or bone remained.

All that remained were small, human-shaped scorch marks on the ground and rocks.

The scene was utterly horrifying.

Quite a few female Soul Masters shut their eyes at once and slumped to the ground, their legs trembling.

"Pfft!"

Bone Douluo spat out a mouthful of blood.

The heat wave knocked him to the ground, and all his clothes melted and stuck to his body.

His hair, beard, eyebrows, and eyelashes were all burned off.

"Elder Gu!"

The people of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect rushed over, and those who cultivated ice Soul Power immediately cooled Gu Rong down.

At the sight of Gu Rong's miserable condition, Ning Fengzhi's scalp went numb.

Gu Rong was a level ninety-five defense-type Douluo, far stronger than an ordinary Titled Douluo.

Yet even he had been reduced to such a sorry state by that terrifyingly hot blast.

Just how terrifying was a Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!?

All the soul ships retreated ten thousand meters in one go, no longer daring to harbor the slightest trace of greed.

Golza was at the height of his power now. Going after him would be suicide.

After dealing with the human Soul Masters, Golza turned his gaze back to the Fire Emperor.

He would settle every score, one by one.

The Fire Emperor now stood much shorter than him, and its presence was utterly incomparable.

In the dense forest, Tang San and the others climbed out of a rocky pit, covered in dust and grime.

They had been too close to run in time, so they had found a nearby mountain hollow and hidden there.

When they climbed out, they saw scorched earth all around them, a wasteland with nothing left.

Flender said gravely, "Good thing Xiaogang told us to hide in the rocky pit, or we'd have been finished."

Tang San asked, "Dean, even you couldn't have blocked it?"

Flender shook his head. "You're underestimating Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. This is a good chance to tell you about them. Oh, actually, your teacher should explain. He knows more than I do."

Yu Xiaogang coughed and slowly said with his hands behind his back, "A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast is equivalent to an ordinary Titled Douluo; a Two-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast is equivalent to a level ninety-four or ninety-five Titled Douluo; and a Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast is equivalent to level ninety-five or ninety-six. At that level, they already stand at the very pinnacle of the continent. Every level makes an enormous difference among Titled Douluo. After level ninety-five, the gap between each level is roughly equal to the gap between major realms before becoming a Titled Douluo. To put it plainly, in the eyes of that Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, a Soul Douluo is no different from a Soul Emperor."

"So that's how it is."

Understanding dawned on the faces of Tang San, Oscar, and Ma Hongjun, and their gazes toward Yu Xiaogang suddenly filled with respect.

Dai Mubai, Ning Rongrong, and the others, however, folded their arms with disdain on their faces.

They had long known this. In the circles of the great clans, it was no secret at all.

The battle between Golza and the Fire Emperor soon reached a fever pitch.

The Fire Emperor had never been his match to begin with, and once Golza evolved, it could no longer hold out at all.

In less than half an hour, the Fire Emperor was defeated.

As the king of the volcano, the Fire Emperor had its own pride. It chose not to flee, fighting Golza to the bitter end.

But that resolve meant nothing to Golza.

Golza tore the Fire Emperor's wings apart, twisted off its head, and trampled it underfoot, finally ending its life.

And just like that, the legendary Two-Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast fell.

The experts from every faction who witnessed it were all stunned.

Xiao Wu even covered her eyes at once.

Such was the world of Soul Beasts: the weak were prey to the strong; either you died or I did.

Aboard Spirit Hall's soul ship.

Without realizing it, Hu Liena had gripped Qian Lingye's hand.

Qian Lingye could feel that her hand was cold and trembling slightly.

Clearly, the sight had given her quite a fright.

Yet she still didn't look away, her beautiful eyes fixed on what lay below.

That was Hu Liena's nature: stubborn, unwilling to admit defeat, and unwilling to retreat.

That was also one of the reasons Bibi Dong had chosen her as her successor.

At that moment, a system notification sounded in Qian Lingye's mind.

[Host's exotic beast: Golza has absorbed the earthcore magma crystal core and completed his first-stage evolution.]

[Physique, defense, and lava-origin attack power comprehensively enhanced. Growth limit unlocked; he can continue absorbing the origins of heaven and earth and special crystals to keep evolving.]

[Beginner mission complete. Host rewarded with one chance to draw a prize!]

[Magma core fusion in progress... Upon completion, a new ability will be unlocked for the host.]

Hearing the notification, Qian Lingye breathed a sigh of relief.

The mission was finally complete!

And it seemed the lava crystal core was only the beginning. Golza could continue evolving, and his limit was far higher than this!

Atop the volcano, Golza, having killed the Fire Emperor, was covered in the smell of blood.

The crimson energy surging around him slowly subsided, and his rock armor, reborn through tempering fire, gleamed. His imposing presence left people struggling to breathe.

His enormous body turned slightly, and his cold eyes, burning with the light of lava, slowly swept across the entire sky.

Every expert caught by his gaze felt a chill in their heart and lowered their head instinctively, not daring to meet his eyes.

The next second, Golza's gaze suddenly fixed on something.

It passed over the fleeing sect groups, over the trembling members of Shrek, and over the soul ships scattered at different heights across the sky.

With precision, it locked firmly onto the great gilded ship at the very center of the sky-

Spirit Hall's flagship!

At that instant, Bibi Dong's eyes narrowed, and everyone in Spirit Hall went on high alert.

Chrysanthemum Douluo said gravely, "His target... is us!"