The wind outside Stone Fort suddenly turned biting cold. Several withered yellow leaves spiraled down onto Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan's shoulder. He had just stepped onto the fortress stairs when his fingertips inadvertently brushed a falling leaf, and his pupils suddenly contracted—a trace of blood that had not yet dried stained the leaf. The scent of blood was scattered by the wind, but it could not escape the keen senses he had honed through years on the battlefield.
"Something's wrong!" Chrysanthemum Douluo spun around, his Golden Rose Spirit instantly forming in his palm as Soul Power surged like a tidal wave. He kicked open the gates of Stone Fort, and the sight before him chilled his heart: fifty elite soul masters lay sprawled across the ground, each with a Blue Silver Grass blade glowing with a faint dark-blue luster embedded in a vital spot. They had long since stopped breathing. Only he remained standing at the entrance, utterly alone.
"Who is it?!" Chrysanthemum Douluo roared. Soul rings lit up beneath his feet in succession—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black. The seven soul rings radiated terrifying Spirit Power Fluctuation. Raising a hand to form a seal, he abruptly unleashed his seventh soul skill, Golden Stamen Flowing Rosy Clouds. Countless golden petals, sharp as blades, shot toward the shadows within Stone Fort, slicing through the air with shrill whistles.
"You can't save them." A cold voice came from the shadows. Tang San slowly emerged as the pale-blue glow of the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud gradually faded. He stood in the center of Stone Fort, Blue Silver Grass coiling around him, his gaze as cold as frost. "Die."
At his soft command, the Blue Silver Grass embedded in the soul masters' corpses suddenly sprang up and swept toward Chrysanthemum Douluo like venomous