To Be King

Almost immediately, the moment Blade Ruse King launched his attacks with his Soul Guidance Devices and missiles, Dai Zuoheng and his group activated the soul guidance shields on their bodies, simultaneously wrapping themselves in soul power. Behind them, the spirit rings obtained from hunting spirit beasts emerged one by one.

Among them were even a few Soul Spirits who dared to manifest beside the humans in front of Blade Ruse King, working together with them to cope with the attacks from the weapons Blade Ruse King carried.

"Bastards! I don't care if you're trying to survive, but to side with humans against me at a time like this? Your brains must have been turned into mush by the humans."

Blade Ruse King was furious. The drawback of a Soul Spirit is that the spirit beast is essentially enslaved; although the spirit beast keeps its life, it loses its physical form and must reside within the body of a spirit master. It goes wherever the spirit master goes, akin to imprisonment. Even if the spirit master dies, it can only choose to sign a contract with another spirit master to continue serving them, never to be free again. Therefore, in the eyes of Blade Ruse King, providing a spirit ring to a human is one thing—a necessity—but fighting alongside humans is, to him, the act of a traitor to the spirit beasts.

Blade Ruse King's aura surged, expanding wildly and intensifying with every passing second.

[Skill: Azure Power] When this skill is used successfully, 100% chance to increase own attack level by +1; when the skill is used successfully, 100% chance to increase own speed level by +1; the next attack skill used will definitely land a critical hit.

"You bunch of clueless Soul Spirits, since you want to stand on the same side as humans, don't blame me for being heartless! Giant Pincer Overwhelming Strike!"

Blade Ruse King's attacks were no joke; he could utilize both the spirit skills of the Douluo system and the skills of the Seer system. As he activated the skill Giant Pincer Overwhelming Strike, several water tornadoes appeared out of thin air around the humans. The first thing to strike them wasn't the water, but the violent wind. The wind, moving at 40 meters per second, pinned the humans firmly between the water tornadoes. If not for their protective layers of soul power, these humans would have been swept away by the wind and left struggling to breathe long ago.

"Oh no!"

How could Dai Zuoheng not know what Blade Ruse King was doing? He was sealing off their room to dodge, intending to cripple the humans in one blow! Looking at his team floating in the air, some of the Spirit Sages were already needing the Spirit Douluos to pull them along to keep them from falling under the pressure and attacks of a 600,000-year spirit beast. Sensing the spirit beasts of 400,000 years and below rushing toward them from the Dragon Valley Forest, Dai Zuoheng made a resolute sacrifice.

"Under that tsunami attack, the soldiers are already doomed. Duke Libai, I will hold them off. You take the survivors and leave immediately, and bring news of this spirit beast back!"

"Understood, Your Highness!"

The level 96 Duke Libai knew that staying behind meant nothing more than being swallowed by the wrath of the fierce beasts. Unless someone chose to stall, they would all be wiped out. Even if he couldn't escape the imperial punishment or even execution later, as long as these seeds of the Star Luo Empire's Title Douluos survived, they would eventually repay the spirit beasts double for today's losses.

Duke Libai struck his left chest hard with his right fist, then, taking the remaining Spirit Douluos and Spirit Sages with him, he activated his Martial Soul Avatar: Steel-Toothed Gray Shark, forcibly leading everyone in the team to break through the gale of the water tornadoes.

"Xiao Heng, no! Didn't we promise to be together for a lifetime?"

"My lady, this is a matter of life and death, don't be willful!"

A level 91 Title Douluo grabbed a female Spirit Douluo, preventing her from breaking away from Duke Libai's group.

"Damn it, how can there be a pair of star-crossed lovers here?!"

Blade Ruse King naturally couldn't just let such a large group of humans break through the encirclement, so he directed his skill attacks straight at Duke Libai's side.

"Don't even think about it!" Seeing this, Dai Zuoheng roared and threw himself between the claws and the fleeing crowd.

"Ninth Spirit Skill: White Tiger World-Destroying Fist!"

Dai Zuoheng's entire body erupted with blinding golden light. His figure shifted several times in the air, and the concentrated golden light exploded in a cross, forming a massive fist that struck toward the enemy with immense power, colliding head-on with Blade Ruse King's Giant Pincer Overwhelming Strike.

Unsurprisingly, the moment they collided, a crushing sensation traveled through his right arm. A surge of agitation rose in Dai Zuoheng's throat, and blood mixed with fragments sprayed from his mouth. He himself was sent flying by Blade Ruse King's attack, the force of the impact slamming him into what had previously been a forest, now turned into a marshland.

Coincidentally, at this moment, the Giant Mountain Golden Ape also "arrived." Looking at the retreating wave of human spirit masters, then looking at the level 97 Title Douluo before him whose entire right arm had been shattered by a single claw from the strange water-attribute dragon, he felt a surge of annoyance. If he hadn't been injured, he would have arrived faster and kept all the humans here.

Blade Ruse King looked at the humans who had already put enough distance between them using their individual soul guidance flight devices, then looked back at the various spirit beasts and humans floating in the marshland on the ground. He descended from the air and used his soul power to fish out the spirit beasts. Most of the hundred-year and thousand-year spirit beasts that had fainted under his waves had already lost their lives in the aftermath of his Giant Pincer Overwhelming Strike, but there were still hundreds of thousand-year and ten-thousand-year spirit beasts that could potentially be saved.

Blade Ruse King knew how underhanded his actions were. He placed the bodies of these thousand-year and ten-thousand-year spirit beasts into a lake and took an [Advanced Stamina Potion] from his system. This was the highest-level health recovery potion he currently possessed. When Yanjin had once hidden his ten-thousand-year heavenly tribulation from him and was hanging by a thread, he had used one. The medicinal power had been too strong, causing Chijin to pass his ten-thousand-year tribulation in a single day while simultaneously triggering a two-hundred-thousand-year tribulation. If he hadn't helped him shoulder it, it would have been a disaster.

Soaked in this potion, not only would these spirit beasts recover their vitality, but they might even break through their bloodline limitations and have a chance to become hundred-thousand-year spirit beasts. They wouldn't end up like one of his former subordinates, the Sharp-Tailed Swift, who had hovered around 50,000 years, unable to increase its cultivation age, until its lifespan was exhausted and it quietly slept forever in the Nanshan Rainforest.

When Blade Ruse King unscrewed the cap of the potion, the medicinal scent and life energy immediately spilled into the air. The intensity of the energy and scent was so great that even the Giant Mountain Golden Ape and the captured Dai Zuoheng couldn't help but stare, stunned, at the item in Blade Ruse King's right claw.

He poured the liquid, which smelled like a rare treasure, into the lake, causing a massive reaction. The faint aura of the thousand-year and ten-thousand-year spirit beasts began to stabilize, and within minutes, ten-thousand-year spirit beasts began to rise from the water.

Seeing this, Blade Ruse King did nothing more. He turned his head toward the Giant Mountain Golden Ape and began to move.

The Giant Mountain Golden Ape and the dragons of the Dragon Valley Forest stood in two rows, clearing a path for Blade Ruse King to reach Dai Zuoheng.

"Human, your act of covering the other humans to help them escape my encirclement was indeed heroic. Before I kill you, tell me your name."

"Dai Zuoheng! The sixth son of Emperor Dai Luoli of the Star Luo Empire. After I die, the empire will surely retaliate and wipe out all of you spirit beasts!"

Dai Zuoheng braced himself, staring straight at Blade Ruse King without the slightest retreat. As a human Super Douluo, he would die heroically in front of a spirit beast.

"You're right about that. You humans trampling on the forests where we spirit beasts live is an undeniable fact. But you're wrong about one thing, Star Luo man: you are the outsiders on this land."

Seeing that this person was the descendant of Huo Yuhao's half-brother, Blade Ruse King wasn't overly surprised. It had been over two hundred years; anyone related to Huo Yuhao who was still alive was either an old man or woman, or their lifespan had been exhausted and absorbed by the Life Ancient Tree. Blade Ruse King had no fears, and naturally, he didn't hesitate. After giving Dai Zuoheng a chance to speak, he tore him into a bloody mess with his sharp claws, leaving not even a spirit bone behind, killing him thoroughly.

Blade Ruse King looked at the blood on his claws and wiped it off using the mud-soaked ground.

He turned to look at the native spirit beasts of the Dragon Valley Forest gathered around him. Their monkey faces and dragon faces all revealed confusion, unease, worry, and a hint of excitement.

This was perfectly normal. For this 600,000-year-level dragon that had suddenly appeared, even though it had helped wipe out the human spirit-hunting team, it was not part of the same group as the Giant Mountain Golden Ape and the dragons of the Dragon Valley Forest. Their common enemy, the humans, had been chased off by Blade Ruse King alone. The Giant Mountain Golden Ape hadn't even participated in the killing, and conversation was difficult to initiate. Thus, approaching him with caution became the situation.

"King."

The Giant Mountain Golden Ape and the Turquoise Dragons lowered their heads before Blade Ruse King and expressed their request for submission in their language.

Seeing this, Blade Ruse King didn't blame them too much for failing to protect the Dragon Valley Forest and chose to accept their submission.

"First, take the surviving spirit beasts to the undisturbed forest mixed zone. When the time comes, lead me to the place where you hold your meetings, and we shall talk further."