Ancient Battle Intent

The three of them continued to venture deeper with extreme caution.

They hadn't gone far when the detector in Ling Xuan's hand suddenly emitted a sharp, urgent alarm. A striking red dot appeared on the screen, and the signal strength indicated that this was a Planet-level Tier 3 monster!

The three of them exchanged glances, their eyes flashing with a mix of excitement and tension.

In the Coming-of-Age Ceremony of the Mangu Tribe, slaying a Planet-level Tier 3 monster was the ultimate goal, and now, that very target had appeared before them of its own accord.

"Chase it!" Ling Yue said without a moment's hesitation.

The three of them quickly pursued the monster in the direction it had headed. Along the way, the slime trails left by the beast became increasingly obvious, and the stench of rot grew ever more pungent.

After passing through a stone forest, they saw two Planet-level Tier 3 monsters.

These two monsters were massive, each standing three stories tall. Their enormous heads resembled small hills, and their thick limbs were like stone pillars; every time they stepped on the ground, the earth trembled.

They were currently tearing into their prey on the ground, blood splattering everywhere in a gruesome scene.

"Why are there two?" Ling Yue felt something was wrong and stopped Ling Xue, who was about to step forward. "The detector clearly showed only one monster just a moment ago."

However, when Ling Xue looked down at her own detector, it clearly displayed the life signatures of two Planet-level Tier 3 monsters.

"Maybe it's because we were in such a rush to chase this beast that we didn't pay attention?" Ling Xue suggested.

Ling Yue secretly breathed a sigh of relief, chiding herself for being overly suspicious.

"You take one, I'll take the other. Third brother, you stay back and cover us for now. We'll find the last one later, and then I'll help you watch over it with Second sister," Ling Yue commanded.

To complete the trial, one had to secure a solo kill. Those in a group could only watch from the sidelines and were forbidden from interfering, or else the results would be invalidated and they would have to retake the assessment.

Ling Xue and Ling Xuan naturally had no objections to this.

The two women each gripped their weapons and charged toward the monsters currently feeding ahead.

The monsters sensed the attack and roared in anger, swinging their massive claws as they lunged at Ling Yue.

Ling Yue flashed aside, skillfully dodging the monster's attack, and continued to look for an opening to strike.

Ling Xue also charged at the monster on the right. The spear in her hand danced with fierce momentum, the tip flashing with a cold light as it aimed straight for the beast's vitals.

The monster was instantly enraged and lunged forward violently, attempting to swallow Ling Xue in one bite.

Ling Xue jumped away nimbly, using the trunk of a nearby large tree to propel herself and charge at the monster once more.

Ling Xuan stood to the side, vigilantly observing the battlefield, ready to provide support to his sisters at any moment.

Just then, the detector began to blare a violent alarm, and immediately after, a commotion erupted behind him. Ling Xuan turned his head to look, only to see a third Planet-level Tier 3 monster charging down from the hillside. It was moving at incredible speed and reached him in an instant.

Ling Xuan was startled and hurriedly stepped forward to block it.

The monster's claws slammed heavily against the blade of his saber, the immense force sending Ling Xuan stumbling back several steps.

As the fierce battle raged on, the sounds of beast roars echoed all around them.

The alarms on the three detectors merged into a continuous wail. The red dots on the screens multiplied—a fourth, a fifth Planet-level Tier 3, Tier 4, and even Tier 5 monsters appeared one after another, surrounding them completely.

Faced with such a crisis, the three had no choice but to stand back-to-back to deal with the attacks coming from all directions.

"What's going on? The monsters are right on top of us and the detector only just started ringing. Is there some kind of malfunction?" Ling Yue stared at her detector in disbelief.

These three detectors were issued uniformly by the clan and had been carefully checked before departure to ensure there were no issues. She never expected such an accident to occur here.

After a round of slaughter, Ling Xue's left arm had been clawed by a monster, blood gushing out and staining her sleeve red. Ling Yue's right leg had been struck by a monster's tail, leaving a dark bruise that made her movements increasingly difficult.

But even so, the two sisters gritted their teeth and persisted, their weapons dancing in a seamless defense as they fought to protect Ling Xuan in the center.

Ling Xuan also tried his best to protect his sisters' flanks, but unfortunately, his spear technique was somewhat lacking, and the injuries on all three of them continued to mount.

Seeing the situation becoming increasingly dire and watching the wounds on her younger brother and sister continue to accumulate, Ling Yue could no longer care about the glory of fighting to the death. She gritted her teeth and sent a distress signal through the Virtual Universe Network: "We are surrounded by a beast horde, requesting support!"

Soon, they received a cold reply: "Monsters are rioting in all sectors. Support cannot arrive in time. Hold on!"

In the dense forest, they were not the only three in crisis; every youth from the Mangu Tribe who had entered had encountered unprecedented difficulties.

The number of monsters far exceeded expectations, and their levels were quite high. There were even hidden Domain Lord-level monsters that had pinned down the Elders guarding the group.

Not only that, it wasn't just their Mangu Tribe that had come to the Zhulong Secret Realm; other tribes of the Zhulong Clan were also holding their Coming-of-Age Ceremonies at this time.

This was a grand event for the entire Zhulong race!

Similar beast riots were occurring in other tribes, and there was simply no manpower available to provide support.

As for the planets of the various branches, they were extremely far away, requiring at least several days to travel unless an Immortal Elder could teleport them via a Divine Kingdom.

For now, they had to rely on themselves to hold out until the Domain Lord-level Elders could finish off their opponents and come to their aid.

However, the youth of the Zhulong lineage were all hot-blooded warriors. Upon learning that their elders could not provide support, not a single one retreated. The fighting spirit of their ancient ancestors—who had slaughtered monsters to carve out territories and fought on every life planet—echoed in their hearts.

When this Primal Universe era first began, humans were merely an incredibly weak race due to their physical limitations.

Yet, this race, much like the powerful Monster Race, was distributed across every planet or secret realm throughout the universe.

Faced with the dominance of the Monster Race, these weak human ancestors did not cower. They fought incessantly, producing hero after hero, and successfully occupied star after star.

They then contacted human groups scattered across the universe to form an alliance, eventually growing step by step into a peak race standing at the pinnacle of the billions of races in the universe.

And the Zhulong Ancestor was a living fossil who had survived from that very era.

His descendants would naturally never forget the glory of their ancestors.

The sounds of slaughter, roars of rage, and the bellows of demonic beasts intertwined, echoing throughout the entire dense forest.

To shield Ling Xuan from a fatal strike by a demonic beast, Ling Xue had suffered three deep, bone-exposing gashes across her back, leaving her swaying unsteadily; Ling Yue's Beast Bone Blade had been knocked away by a beast, and her arm was bitten, dripping with blood.

At this moment, a powerful demonic beast resembling an Abyssal Giant Crocodile, its entire body covered in ink-black, iron-hard scales, lunged swiftly toward Ling Xuan with bloodthirsty light radiating from its cold, vertical pupils and its massive maw agape.

Those serrated fangs were as thick as a forearm, each one glinting with a chilling, icy light, as if they could easily tear anything in the world to shreds.

Ling Xuan wanted to dodge, but his two sisters were right behind him; if he moved, they would be the ones under attack.

No! I cannot dodge!

"Thump, thump, thump~"

A dull, rapid heartbeat suddenly rang out, sounding like ancient war drums being struck, as if to awaken an ancient god of war.

In an instant, the world seemed to have been pressed on the pause button by an invisible hand.

The Abyssal Giant Crocodile's massive mouth, which had already reached Ling Xuan, came to an abrupt halt, its foul-smelling saliva suspended in mid-air, one drop landing right on Ling Xuan's shoulder and emitting a nauseating stench.

The sharp teeth were mere millimeters from his throat; if they had advanced even a fraction further, Ling Xuan would have been torn to pieces in an instant.

Ling Xuan looked back in terror to see Ling Yue frozen in a posture of lunging to his rescue, her hair disheveled in the wind, her eyes filled with horror and despair as if witnessing an irreversible catastrophe; Ling Xue was half-kneeling on the ground, her outstretched hand suspended in mid-air, her fingertips trembling, her face etched with pain and unwillingness, seemingly filled with regret for being unable to save her younger brother in time.

In the distance, the clansmen locked in battle and the frenzied demonic beasts were all motionless at this moment, and the entire vibrant world turned into black and white in a flash.