Mad Rhino didn't dare take this lightly. With a roar, the phantom image of a gigantic iron rhino appeared behind him, and three Soul Rings—two yellow and one purple—rose into the air. The muscles in his body instantly swelled, while the veins beneath his skin thrashed like little snakes.
"Get the hell up!!!"
Mad Rhino roared as he wrapped both arms tightly around the two handles of the Bronze Cauldron. He planted his feet in a horse stance and unleashed every ounce of his Soul Power.
"Crack, crack, crack..."
The flagstones beneath Mad Rhino's feet splintered under the force.
His face turned crimson in an instant. The veins in his neck looked ready to burst, and even his teeth were clenched so hard that they bled!
Yet the Bronze Cauldron that Su Chen had just lifted with one hand as casually as a broken bamboo basket now refused to budge even a hair's breadth from the ground, despite the full strength of a Level 39 Battle Soul Elder who specialized in strength!
It didn't move an inch!
"Thud!"
After they had struggled for more than a dozen breaths, Mad Rhino's Soul Power was completely exhausted.
His arms went limp, and he slumped to the ground like a heap of mud, panting heavily. His eyes were filled with shock.
"It... it was actually true."
Mad Rhino raised his head trembling, and the look he gave Su Chen had shifted from doubt to conviction.
"This cauldron weighs at least five thousand jin!"
"I couldn't even make it wobble..."
Seeing was believing!
The Spirit Masters who had been hurling doubts around moments earlier stared at Mad Rhino slumped on the ground, then at Su Chen, who stood with his hands behind his back and hadn't shed a drop of sweat. Their scalps prickled.
A man without Soul Power had lifted with one hand a heavy cauldron that even a strength-type Battle Soul Elder couldn't move!
Could that world Mr. Su had spoken of—the Blood Moving Realm, where three-year-old children could wield a hundred thousand jin with one arm, and the Perfect Great Wilderness, where people cultivated their bodies instead of Soul Power—all of it really be true?
"Gulp."
In that moment, who knew how many people swallowed nervously?
The Martial Soul system they had once taken such pride in had begun to shift, if only slightly.
In the corner, Tang San, who had been so brazen earlier, had gone ashen. He bit his lip hard, his face full of disbelief.
"Mr. Su!"
Just then, an elderly Spirit Master seated near the front of the hall abruptly stood, overcome with excitement, and bowed deeply to Su Chen.
"Only today has this old man learned just how vast the world is!"
"May I ask, Mr. Su, since even a three-year-old child in the Perfect World can unleash a hundred thousand jin of strength in the Blood Moving Realm..."
"Then in that boundless world, what is the strongest creature of all?"
As soon as the old man posed this question, a thousand pairs of eyes in Listening Rain Pavilion turned toward Su Chen, eager for his answer.
Exactly!
If a three-year-old child could wield a hundred thousand jin, what about the adults?
What about those terrifying primordial beasts?
"Please enlighten us, Mr. Su!"
"Please continue your story!"
"That's right, please go on and open our eyes!"
For a time, pleas filled the entire hall, and everyone stared intently at Su Chen.
Looking at the Douluo natives below, who had been rendered speechless, Su Chen smiled faintly and strolled back onto the stage.
He sat down in the grand armchair again, then flipped his wrist. The folding fan appeared in his hand once more.
With a swish, he opened it.
"Since you all want to hear more, then I, Su, shall continue."
Su Chen's gentle voice once again echoed through Listening Rain Pavilion:
"Do you know that in the Perfect World, there are ten terrifying races that even Immortal Kings greatly fear? The world calls them the Ten Primordial Evils!"
"Among these ten are the Thunder Emperor, who commands thunder from birth; the Nine-Leaf Sword Grass, hailed as the foremost in slaughter; and the True Phoenix, reborn from the flames."
"And among the Ten Fiends, if we speak only of physical strength, of that so-called ultimate limit of power..."
Su Chen deliberately paused, then swept his gaze across the rapt faces around the hall before letting it settle on Yu Xiaogang.
"It is a creature known as the Heavenly Horned Ant!"
"The Heavenly Horned Ant?"
The crowd exchanged glances, confusion showing in many eyes.
An ant?
On Douluo Continent, ant-type Soul Beasts were strong enough, like the Thousand Jun Ant Emperor, but they were hardly top-tier beings.
Seeing their reactions, Su Chen knew what they were thinking.
"Do not measure it by the ants you know."
"The Heavenly Horned Ant clan is said to break all laws with sheer strength!"
"They are born as the supreme embodiment of the laws of power in this vast world!"
"Even a newly hatched Heavenly Horned Ant larva is far beyond the hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts you speak of!"
"When a pureblood Heavenly Horned Ant reaches adulthood..."
"Its strength becomes so immense that even the laws of heaven and earth can no longer bear it!"
"When it flies into a rage, it doesn't need to use any precious technique. A mere swing of one arm is enough for it to fight a primordial True Dragon with its bare hands!"
"One punch is enough to shatter countless stars."
"Indeed, in the ancient Immortal Ancient Era, the adult king of the Heavenly Horned Ants could shoulder a broken universe and stride through chaos as if it were nothing!"
Rip a True Dragon apart with bare hands?
Shatter countless stars with one punch?
Shoulder a universe and stride through chaos???
As Su Chen laid out the Heavenly Horned Ant's power, so terrifying that words could barely describe it, every listener in Listening Rain Pavilion froze, unable to believe their ears.
After all, put together, those claims went far beyond the limits of their minds and understanding.
In their view, Spirit Masters fought by lighting up their Soul Rings and flinging beams of light around. If they could level a small hill, they were already peerless experts.
Shatter the stars? Could a person really do that?
After a brief stunned silence, someone in the hall finally couldn't hold back.
A Battle Soul King stood up. He was broad and burly, built like a little iron tower, with a face full of bristling flesh.
He rubbed his gleaming bald head and spoke with a touch of arrogance:
"Mr. Su, your story is certainly exciting. You've made that Heavenly Horned Ant sound like the greatest thing under heaven."
"But when it comes to strength, Douluo Continent isn't without creatures that can give it a run for its money!"
With that, the Battle Soul King folded his arms and raised his voice proudly:
"Deep in the Star Dou Forest lives a legendary Forest King, the Titan Giant Ape!"
"They say the Titan Giant Ape stands as tall as a mountain, possesses boundless strength, and can trigger earthquakes with a casual stomp. It can even control the Gravity Domain!"
"If they really fought, one slap from the Titan Giant Ape would probably crush that ant you're talking about—even its shell!"
His words immediately drew agreement from many nearby Spirit Masters.
"That's right! The Titan Giant Ape is a tyrant among hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts. It's the true pinnacle of strength!"
In the corner, Tang San, who had been feeling indignant on Yu Xiaogang's behalf, heard the words "Titan Giant Ape," and a flicker of disdain crossed his eyes.
He knew just how terrifying the two hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Forest were.
Comparing an ant to Er Ming? What a joke. Tang San sneered inwardly.
Xiao Wu, sitting beside him, wrinkled her delicate nose and pouted. She was clearly unhappy that Su Chen had made an ant sound stronger than the Titan Giant Ape.
Just as everyone was arguing, an aged voice suddenly rang out from an ordinary private room on the second floor.
"Heh. Whether or not this Heavenly Horned Ant is stronger than the Titan Giant Ape, if it's said to embody the laws of power, its Soul Ring must be the finest of the finest!"
The crowd looked up and saw an old man standing by the railing, holding a Serpent Cane. His eyes were sinister.
The powerful Soul Power he exuded, faint though it was, marked him as a high-ranking Soul Douluo!
The old man licked his dry lips, his eyes burning with fervor.
"This old man happens to be stuck at the Level 89 bottleneck. If I could travel to that Great Wilderness and hunt an adult Heavenly Horned Ant for my ninth Soul Ring..."
"Then not only would I break through to Titled Douluo, I might even gain a terrifying Soul Skill with a strength of several hundred thousand jin!"
"By then, the whole world would be mine to roam. I'd even dare to take on the Pope of Spirit Hall!"
His bold declaration drew envious, longing looks from many in the hall.
That was right!
If they killed such a divine creature and got its Soul Ring and Soul Bone, wouldn't they too be able to rise to the heavens in a single bound?
Yet Su Chen, listening to these frogs in a well indulging in shameless fantasies, couldn't even be bothered to mock them.
He simply looked at the daydreaming Soul Douluo—and the bald man who had put the Titan Giant Ape on a pedestal—with the gaze one might give a dead man.
"Comparing the Titan Giant Ape to the Heavenly Horned Ant?"
Su Chen shook his head and spoke calmly:
"I won't even speak of an adult Heavenly Horned Ant. If a freshly hatched, unweaned larva appeared in the Star Dou Forest..."
"Even if it merely yawned, a breath from its mouth would be enough to instantly destroy that vaunted Titan Giant Ape of yours, along with half the Star Dou Forest!"
With that, Su Chen slowly raised his gaze and fixed it on the Soul Douluo on the second floor.
"And you want to hunt one for its Soul Ring?"
"Old fool, you won't need to go looking for it."
"If an adult Heavenly Horned Ant truly descended into this world, it wouldn't even need to lift a finger."
"The pressure of its very existence, from the sheer level of its life force, would instantly vaporize every Spirit Master on Douluo Continent, along with the Martial Souls inside them, leaving nothing but ashes!"
"'Hunt a Ten Fiend'? Even the exalted Immortal Kings and True Immortals wouldn't dare make such a boast. What makes you think you're worth anything?!"
Su Chen rebuked him without mercy, leaving the old man's face flushed crimson.
He had been about to lash out, but remembered the terrifying sight of Su Chen lifting the cauldron with one hand. He swallowed his anger and slunk back into his chair without daring to make a sound.
The entire hall fell silent again.
The Spirit Masters who had been spouting nonsense moments ago now blushed with embarrassment, not daring to mention the Titan Giant Ape again.
Before beings of such a higher order, capable of destroying heaven and earth with a casual gesture, even the Soul Beasts of Douluo Continent seemed unworthy of being the butt of a joke.
"Mr... Mr. Su."
A young Spirit Master in the crowd, who seemed somewhat learned, swallowed and summoned the courage to ask:
"Since the Heavenly Horned Ant is already so terrifying, then among the Ten Primordial Evils, which one is the strongest?"
At this question, everyone perked up their ears again.
Exactly. There were ten of them, so surely some were stronger than others?
Su Chen heard them and slightly tempered his sharpness. He gently waved his folding fan and began to explain:
"The Ten Primordial Evils each took the laws and Dao of their own domain and developed them to the utmost."
"If they truly fought to the death, it would be difficult to say which was stronger or weaker with any certainty."
"However, when it comes to overall heritage and combat strength, people often honor the True Dragon as the leader of the Ten Fiends."
"The True Dragon clan is not only blessed with an undying body; the True Dragon Precious Technique they command is also the ancestor of all techniques, able to evolve the mysteries of the myriad heavens."
At the mention of the True Dragon, everyone held their breath.
Unfortunately, Su Chen didn't seem inclined to delve much further into the subject.
"But, everyone..."
Su Chen changed the subject, drawing their thoughts back from the distant Ten Primordial Evils:
"Though the Ten Fiends are powerful, in the vast river of time, they are still merely creatures of this great world."
"But the protagonist of the story I'm about to tell, little Shi Hao..."
"His future achievements will far surpass even those of the Ten Fiends!"
At last, the story had returned to the little milk baby who was always clutching a jar of beast milk. Hearing that this baby would surpass the Ten Fiends, the listeners in the hall perked up, their anticipation soaring once more.
"Smack!"
Su Chen struck the block and continued:
"After enduring that near-fatal medicinal bath, little Shi Hao's physical strength had soared to a terrifying level."
"But for the children of the Great Wilderness, brute strength alone wasn't enough. They needed to taste blood and undergo trials."
"One day, while the elders of Stone Village were away hunting, a group of older children decided they would improve the village children's meals. They boldly climbed a sheer cliff on the edge of the Great Wilderness!"
"Their target was the enormous nest on the cliff."
Su Chen's words quickened, carrying a tense urgency:
"That was no ordinary bird's nest. It belonged to a ferocious raptor of the Great Wilderness, the Green-Scaled Eagle!"
"The Green-Scaled Eagle had a trace of the bloodline of a Primordial Demonic Bird flowing through its veins."
"It was seven or eight meters long, its body covered in scales as cold and hard as green gold. When it spread its wings, it could whip up gales that tore through trees."
"Its sharp iron beak and talons could easily crush boulders and pierce an elephant's skull!"
"The older children had no idea how high the heavens were. They stole three eggs glowing with a green light from the nest."
"Yet not long after they fled down the cliff, the sky suddenly darkened."
At this, Su Chen snapped his folding fan shut:
"The Green-Scaled Eagle had returned from foraging. When it discovered its offspring had been stolen, it went completely berserk!"
"This terrifying demonic bird quickly spotted little Shi Hao's group, as well as Stone Village in the distance."
"In an instant, gales howled and sand and stones flew!"
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