Overwhelming

People said a normal person lived by the principle, "If no one offends me, I won't offend them." But he'd already gone a hundred kilometers out of his way, and humans were still sending Soul Tools to track him down. They really thought that just because they were Soul Masters, they could treat Soul Beasts as prey. This wasn't even the timeline of Legend of the Dragon King, when Soul Beasts were utterly suppressed without technology. Hunting a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast without a little caution would get even a Titled Douluo killed.

The strongest member of the human squad approaching him was only level 92. His concealed aura had played a part, but they were still taking him far too lightly.

So Rus Wang turned and headed straight toward them.

The squad sent out to hunt him, made up of the strongest Soul Masters at the Sun Moon Empire's Research Station, naturally noticed Rus Wang approaching. But they weren't particularly surprised. This was perfectly normal when hunting a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. Whenever a Soul Beast was weaker than humans, it would usually cower and flee. But when it was stronger than humans or evenly matched, it would often take the initiative and attack them. After all, humans and Soul Beasts were mortal enemies.

Their opponent had clearly been angered by the Soul Tool they'd sent out earlier.

The Titled Douluo was delighted. He signaled for everyone to fire their Fixed Soul Cannon Shells while still in flight. From a great distance, they unleashed a sweeping barrage at the area where Rus Wang was moving. Even from far away, they could feel the terrifying power of the attack.

Seeing the results of the strike against this unknown Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, the squad's confidence soared. The Titled Douluo didn't even have the Soul Douluo members follow behind him. He went ahead to investigate, and the entire squad surged through the air toward the Soul Beast.

"An eight-grade Fixed Soul Tool? Doesn't look all that powerful."

Rus Wang's Soul Guidance Shield activated. He wasn't especially talented at carving Core Arrays into Soul Tools, but after more than two hundred years of painstakingly studying Soul Guidance Shields as a single category, he'd still learned how to make ninth-grade Soul Tools.

"Maybe I can use the smoke from the shells as cover, wait for the humans to come closer, then take them all out at once."

With that thought, Rus Wang stopped and sensed the humans rapidly approaching, waiting until they were close enough for him to kill them in one strike.

But the humans weren't fools. Seeing that the Soul Beast was still in the smoke, the Titled Douluo manifested his Beast Martial Soul and used Soul Power to disperse it. Rus Wang, completely unharmed, appeared in their line of sight.

"Completely unharmed?"

The Titled Douluo was astonished. He signaled the Soul Douluo members of the squad to keep their distance and use Soul Tools and Soul Skills to wear down the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast. He would take the opportunity to deliver the killing blow himself.

When Rus Wang saw the humans clear away the smoke, he didn't stay put. He beat his wings and lunged at them in the sky.

The humans scattered and unleashed Soul Skills and Fixed Soul Cannon Shells against Rus Wang's enormous body. But then something unexpected happened. As their attacks struck him, the Soul Guidance Shield's repeated reactions became clearly visible.

"A Soul Guidance Shield!"

The Titled Douluo's eyes widened. How could a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast have a Soul Guidance Shield? Unless...

An immense pressure descended on every member of the hunting squad. They had been hovering in the air, but now they plunged to the ground like geese shot down by hunters. The humans whose cultivation had only reached the Soul Douluo rank died in moments, blood flowing from their noses and mouths, eyes rolling back under the crushing pressure. As for the Titled Douluo, he hit the ground and struggled only briefly before Rus Wang's claws pierced all his Soul Tools and Soul Armor. His internal organs were ground into bloody pulp.

"Six hundred thousand years... How despicable..."

Rus Wang had no interest in talking to the Titled Douluo. He struck again with one claw, crushing the man's head into a smear of red. Then he lifted his dragonlike body into the air once more, this time heading for the human Research Station, now without its strongest fighters to protect it.

He could sense many tangled Soul Beast auras there. But the drone had earlier observed only humans and human buildings, which meant those Soul Beasts had all been captured and locked up.

Rus Wang had come to the Old Continent, where his wife Thalassa had once lived, to explore the world beyond the Folded Ear Continent and bring back more Soul Beasts to enrich the variety of Soul Beasts in the Nanshan Rainforest.

Now that he'd killed a group of humans, he had to finish the job and make sure everyone at the Research Station was dead. Otherwise, the humans might escape and report the existence of a mysterious six-hundred-thousand-year-old Soul Beast to even more powerful people, who would then come after him in wave after wave.

That didn't mean Rus Wang was heartless. Though he'd been human in his previous life, he was Rus Wang now—the king of Soul Beasts and Elves on the Folded Ear Continent. No matter that he still carried the soul, emotions, and interests of his former human self, he would always remember his current identity first. (Here, Rus Wang was going to give the Silver Dragon King a piece of his mind.)

"What the hell is all this?"

The outpost's commanding officer shut the door, took off his heavy winter coat, and slumped over his desk. After making sure he was alone, he began cursing.

"Damn it, the pay's lousy, and I'm just a captain, but the people from the Spirit Pagoda still order me around. Is this the Empire's army or the Spirit Pagoda's private army?"

The officer thought of the storage Soul Tool he'd just secretly traded to someone from the Spirit Pagoda. It held more than a dozen Hundred-Year Soul Beasts.

Here on this icy, snowbound frontier, far from home, all kinds of deals were going on. The Titled Douluo turned a blind eye to them. Soldiers trading food and school officers exchanging money for sex with female members of the expedition team were all perfectly normal.

As for him, he was a commoner who'd risen to the rank of junior officer thanks to his cultivation. He was stuck in the middle: he got some benefits as an officer, but he was still only a company commander. He was two ranks above a soldier or noncommissioned officer, but at the Research Station he was still near the bottom. Maybe someday he'd want a promotion to senior captain, only for the military brass to pull some strings and arrange his retirement before giving him the rank. But once he was retired, he'd have to apply for his pension. Whoever handled his severance pay would see he was a powerless commoner of an officer, then pocket the money and get gangsters to beat him half to death.

Knowing how the military worked, he had his own connections. For instance, he kept up a secret trade with people from the Spirit Pagoda, passing them Soul Beasts that weren't supposed to be sold. That way, if the army really did something like that to him, he could call in the favor and get a steady paycheck as an ordinary Spirit Pagoda employee.

Unfortunately, his bright future was unlikely to come to pass.

When Rus Wang unleashed [Skill: Giant Pincer Overwhelming Strike], the Research Station, designed with nothing in mind but protection from the cold and no defenses against a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, met its end along with every human inside.