Lava Claws and the Resonance of Souls

BOOM!!!

It was not an explosion.

It was as if the entire valley had been viciously clenched by an invisible giant hand.

The earth howled in agony.

The hard rocky ground cracked open like a biscuit being snapped apart, splitting into jagged black scars.

The central fissure was bottomless.

Then—

A claw reached out from the fissure.

A colossal claw... covered in dark crimson lava scales and burning with the fires of the earth's core!

The claw merely rested casually against the edge of the fissure.

Yet an indescribably terrifying pressure swept across the entire area in an instant, like a tangible Category Twelve typhoon!

Thud! Thud!

The members of the Gao Family and the Mengli Squad were like people whose bones had been sucked out in an instant.

Their legs went weak, and they fell to their knees uncontrollably.

Even their right to stand had been stripped away!

The air turned into iron.

Every breath felt like swallowing red-hot blades, scorching their lungs.

Their souls trembled.

It was a fear born from the deepest depths of life itself—like a rabbit encountering an ancient heavenly dragon, like an ant gazing up at a god!

"Ten thousand years... no, even more than that!"

Gao Yan's teeth chattered wildly, and his pupils held nothing but despair as devastating as a collapsing mountain.

"What the fuck is this monster?! A Soul King? Or a Soul Emperor?!"

It was over.

It was fucking over.

Their little group was not even enough to fill the gaps between this monster's teeth!

The Mengli Squad members were even more ashen-faced.

They could not even summon the thought of resisting.

Before this pressure, their Soul Power was like a tiny candle in a gale, ready to go out at any moment.

Even the berserk Jade Eyed Fox wilted at once.

With its tail tucked between its legs, it lay prostrate on the ground. Every strand of its Silver White fur stood on end as it trembled and let out despairing whimpers.

The entire valley fell deathly silent.

Only despair spread wildly.

Amid that frozen despair, there was only one exception.

Han Yuchen.

He too felt as if a mountain were pressing down on him.

His muscles creaked beneath the pressure, and his bones groaned.

But... that was all.

Deep within his soul, the original divine soul belonging to the Starlight Ruse King did not collapse under the pressure.

Instead, as though provoked, it independently lit up with an almost imperceptible divine radiance from a higher dimension.

It formed an indestructible barrier.

Well, shit. This had gotten out of hand.

Had I... let something out?

In his mind, the Star Atlas was flashing with blinding red light at an unprecedented frequency.

Lines of blurred text rapidly analyzed themselves before finally settling.

[Warning! High-Dimensional Shadow energy corruption detected!]

[Target: Ancient Earth Dragon Species (bloodline mutation)]

[Status: Soul in chaos, long-term contamination by Solonsen's Shadow Power, on the verge of slumber and rampage...]

Solonsen?

That old bastard again.

Han Yuchen understood everything at once.

So that was it.

This Soul Fragment of mine was not some treasure—it was the fucking roof of the Demon Suppressing Pagoda!

So I... personally released Sun Wukong?

In the very second he was complaining inwardly—

RUMBLE—!

The massive lava claw suddenly pressed against the ground.

A gigantic dragon head covered in dark crimson lava scales and crowned with a savage horn slowly rose from the fissure.

Its enormous eyes were as large as lanterns.

One eye roiled with lava-like brutality and madness.

The other was a deathly, empty void, like the Abyss itself.

Run?

Run my ass.

If it fully woke up, everyone here, without exception, would become barbecue.

Han Yuchen's thoughts raced. Not only was he unafraid, but an extreme excitement rose within him.

A crisis?

No, this was a delivery right to his doorstep!

Purify it and absorb its soul imprint. This ancient creature corrupted by Solonsen would be the finest supplement imaginable!

At that critical moment.

Under everyone's horrified gaze, Han Yuchen made a move none of them could understand.

He did not retreat.

Instead, facing the pressure powerful enough to crush a Soul Ancestor, he took a step forward.

He proactively extended a thread of his divine soul toward the Star Fragment floating in midair!

I'll gamble on it!

I'll bet this fragment still recognizes me as its "old master"!

HUM—!!!

The moment they touched, brilliant light erupted!

Han Yuchen's divine soul and the fragment produced their strongest resonance in hundreds of millions of years!

The ghostly blue Ghost Fire changed.

It was no longer a cold, sinister light that bewildered the mind.

Instead, it transformed into a pure, vast, warm power of Purification, like stars from the nine heavens descending into the mortal world!

Like a clear spring, the light instantly enveloped that savage dragon head.

"Roar...?"

The dragon's destructive roar, on the verge of erupting, came to an abrupt halt.

It caught in its throat and became a confused low growl.

The lava-like brutality in its eyes rapidly faded like charcoal doused with water.

In its place came endless confusion, and a trace of... relief.

The way it looked at Han Yuchen no longer held hostility.

Instead, it was an incomparably complex scrutiny, carrying a trace of gratitude.

At the same time.

The invisible mountain pressing down on everyone receded like the tide.

"Whew... ha... ha..."

Gao Yan, Meng Li, and the others gasped greedily for fresh air like fish thrown onto shore.

They lay limp on the ground, their bodies already drenched through with cold sweat. They were so exhausted that they could not move even a finger.

They could breathe.

They had survived.

Then they raised their heads and witnessed a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives, one that utterly shattered their understanding of the world.

That Bamboo Hat Youth.

He stood calmly amid the vast Starlight, calmly facing the ancient beast whose mere exposed head had driven them into despair.

The sight was sacred, yet absurd.

It was as if a god had descended into the mortal realm.

Han Yuchen extended his hand.

Before everyone's petrified gazes, he slowly, gently pressed it against the Soul Fragment that continuously emitted starlight.

Hum.

All the light instantly withdrew inward.

A heaven-shaking crisis that could have destroyed them all was temporarily pacified by him in a manner beyond all imagination.

The dragon gave him a deep look, then slowly drew its massive head back into the fissure.

Only its pair of still-confused eyes remained, watching him from within the darkness.

As though waiting for his next move.

The berserk state of the Jade Eyed Fox was completely dispelled as well.

It fearfully glanced at the dragon within the fissure, then at Han Yuchen standing there.

In the end, it let out a low whimper and, in an almost human gesture, prostrated itself on the ground and lowered its proud head.

Submission.

The valley regained a temporary peace.

All the previous mysteries—Ghost Fire, the berserk Soul Beasts, the danger underground...—were fully explained at that moment.

In everyone's hearts, Han Yuchen's image rose from that of a "mysterious powerhouse" to a level they could not comprehend.

Han Yuchen did not immediately absorb the fragment.

He turned around.

The gentle Starlight on his face instantly vanished without a trace.

All that remained was coldness.

His gaze swept over the Gao Family members who had just crawled back from the gates of hell, as though he were looking at a pile of... trash.

The internal problems had not been settled yet.

Garbage had to be taken out while it was hot.