Inside the great hall, Sea Dragon Douluo keenly sensed the violent fluctuations in the Grand Pontiff's aura.
He was so terrified that he dropped straight to the floor, not daring to breathe too loudly.
After a long, long while, that rampaging pressure finally began to subside.
Bo Saixi closed her eyes again, then drew a deep breath.
When she opened them once more, she had forcibly suppressed the turmoil in their depths.
Then Bo Saixi turned around without sparing another glance at the enormous Sea God Statue.
Instead, she took up her staff and walked step by step toward the exit of the Sea God Hall.
"Grand Pontiff?"
Seeing this, Sea Dragon Douluo hurriedly raised his head, staring at Bo Saixi's retreating figure in bewilderment.
"Pass down my orders."
Bo Saixi stood atop the lofty steps of the temple, her gaze reaching across the boundless ocean and pointing straight toward Heavenly Dou Imperial City on the mainland.
The sea breeze swept against her bright red robes, making them snap and billow.
"Open the barrier around Sea God Island."
"I will personally pay a visit to the Tiandou Empire."
"To meet this Mr. Su..."
"Who doesn't even take the gods seriously!"
At the same time, in the deepest part of the Star Dou Forest.
Life Lake.
This was an absolute forbidden ground in the eyes of every Soul Beast on Douluo Continent, as well as the very heart of this vast forest.
The lake's jade-green waters were like a gigantic, flawless emerald, quietly set among towering ancient trees.
A thin veil of white mist hung over its surface, formed from the dense spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Serene and unfathomable, it nonetheless exuded an oppressive aura that even Titled Douluo dared not approach lightly.
Yet today, the tranquility that had endured for countless days and nights was shattered by a dark shadow falling from the sky.
Whoosh!
Amid a rush of air, a giant bird with a wingspan of seven or eight meters and a body covered in steel-blue feathers came tumbling down onto the shore of Life Lake.
It was a Green Wind Eagle with a cultivation of fifty thousand years.
Thanks to its high intelligence and ability to conceal itself, it had spent years roaming the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest. It even occasionally took human form and slipped into human cities to gather information.
But at that moment, this normally lofty fifty-thousand-year Soul Beast could barely stay on its feet.
"G-Great King!"
The Green Wind Eagle didn't even bother to smooth its feathers. It flopped onto the shore and cried out toward the still surface of the lake.
Glug, glug...
At the Green Wind Eagle's call, Life Lake, which had been as still as stagnant water, suddenly began to boil.
Immediately afterward, a shadow as massive as a mountain strode out of the forest behind the Green Wind Eagle without warning.
It was an ape as enormous as a hill!
Its muscles bulged all over, piled atop one another, exuding terrifying strength.
The ruler of the Star Dou Forest, a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast—the Titan Giant Ape, Er Ming!
With every step Er Ming took, the earth around Life Lake trembled violently.
"What's with all this panic? Have you no manners?"
Er Ming looked down at the Green Wind Eagle sprawled on the ground, two clouds of white vapor blasting from his nostrils.
"Have human Spirit Masters launched another major invasion? Or has that woman from Spirit Hall come again?"
The Green Wind Eagle shuddered and shook its head repeatedly.
"N-no, Great King Er Ming!"
"This news came from Heavenly Dou Imperial City. There's a monster in the human world!"
Then the Green Wind Eagle took a deep breath and poured out every rumor it had heard in Heavenly Dou Imperial City about Perfect World and Shrouding the Heavens, like beans spilling from a bamboo tube.
It told of the vast territory stretching for millions of miles across the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm, then of the Supreme Bone born within a person from birth.
From the Heaven-Swallowing Demonic Art, it went on to the Ancient Sacred Body.
But when the Green Wind Eagle got to how Su Chen, while at Listening Rain Pavilion, had brought up the so-called Holy Fighting Ape Clan to refute Tang San, Er Ming's body abruptly stiffened.
"What did you say?"
Er Ming lowered his head, his yellow-brown eyes blazing with fury.
"That human called Su Chen said ten thousand hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Apes wouldn't even be worthy to tie the shoes of that so-called Holy Fighting Ape?"
"One strike of its staff, and ten thousand Titan Giant Apes would turn into a sky full of bloody mist!"
As the Green Wind Eagle shakily repeated those words, Er Ming's already volatile temper finally erupted!
Roar!!
Er Ming threw back his head and pounded his chest furiously.
In an instant, terrifying sound waves swept in every direction, as solid as matter.
Towering trees around Life Lake, each so massive that a dozen people couldn't encircle it, snapped in droves before the roaring waves!
Countless low-level Soul Beasts were so terrified they wet themselves and collapsed to the ground.
"Bullshit!"
Er Ming slammed a fist into the earth.
The ground split apart at once, and a terrifying fissure hundreds of meters long spread out like a spiderweb.
"My Titan Giant Ape Clan was born to embody the very pinnacle of strength! We are the undisputed overlords of the Star Dou Forest!"
"Even human Titled Douluo can only flee like stray dogs when faced with my mighty fists!"
"How dare some mere human storyteller spout such nonsense, using my Titan Giant Ape Clan to elevate some dead monkey that appeared out of nowhere!"
Er Ming's eyes were bloodshot, his chest heaving violently.
The pride of a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast made this humiliation unbearable.
What did he mean, killing ten thousand with a single strike?
It was as if they'd thrown his dignity to the ground, then stomped on it twice for good measure!
"I'm going to Heavenly Dou Imperial City right now and tear that shit-spewing human to pieces!"
Er Ming roared and turned, ready to charge out of the forest.
But—
Splash!
Just as Er Ming took his first step, an immense column of water suddenly burst from the boiling waters of Life Lake.
Then an enormous azure bull's head, crowned with two coral-like dragon horns, slowly emerged from beneath the lake's surface.
As the bull's head appeared, a colossal serpentine body a hundred meters long and as thick as a water vat slowly coiled up out of the lake, sending water spraying in every direction.
The hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast, the Sky Azure Bull Python—Da Ming!
"Er Ming, stop."
Da Ming's voice was not as violent as Er Ming's. Instead, it carried an air of authority.
Yet this calm, measured command was enough to make Er Ming stop in his tracks at the brink of losing control. He turned around and looked at the lake, his face full of unwillingness.
"Big Brother! That human insulted me like that. I can't swallow it!" Er Ming ground his teeth.
Da Ming paid no attention to Er Ming's anger.
Instead, his enormous azure eyes remained fixed on the trembling Green Wind Eagle by the shore.
"You just said..."
"That storyteller's world has Primordial Remnants?"
"An entire nation's Sacrificial Spirit?"
"And the Human Emperor of the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm is surrounded by Imperial Dragon Qi, transformed from a True Dragon of the Nine Heavens?"
The Green Wind Eagle nodded repeatedly, then buried its head deep in the dirt.
At this, Da Ming slowly closed his eyes.
His enormous serpentine body rolled through the lake unconsciously, raising wave after wave.
Unlike Er Ming, who had only focused on the insult to himself, Da Ming was a mutated being with a trace of dragon blood. What he had heard reached far beyond that.
What was the fate of Soul Beasts on Douluo Continent?
They were born to be prey for humans!
No matter how many years they cultivated, no matter how powerful their bloodline, their final destiny was to become a Soul Ring around a human's feet or a Soul Bone in their possession.
Even Da Ming, the emperor of the Star Dou Forest with a hundred thousand years of cultivation, had no choice but to remain on guard against those greedy human Titled Douluo and eke out a wretched existence in Life Lake.
But according to that human called Su Chen, in the place known as Perfect World, those so-called Primordial Remnants and other powerful beasts were worshipped by billions of humans!
They were revered as Sacrificial Spirits, and enjoyed the fortune and offerings of an entire nation.
They stood above all others, and could even swallow billions of humans in a single bite!
Such a reversal in status, such a brazen and unrestrained way of life—
It stirred Da Ming as well.
Why?
Why were Soul Beasts born to be inferior, destined to become Soul Rings?
Yet in that world, beasts could exist like gods?
"And that True Dragon..."
Da Ming murmured to himself.
His greatest obsession in life was to shed his serpentine body and transform into a True Dragon soaring through the Nine Heavens.
But according to Su Chen, that sacred and inviolable True Dragon was merely a stream of Imperial Dragon Qi on a human emperor's body?
Those words had thoroughly ripped apart Da Ming's worldview.
As Da Ming's mind reeled, the Green Wind Eagle on the shore swallowed and dropped the biggest bombshell of the day.
"Great Kings..."
"Su Chen wasn't just talking."
"He... he actually took action!"
"Poison Douluo Dugu Bo attacked him at Listening Rain Pavilion, trying to kill him with poison."
"But Su Chen didn't have the slightest trace of Soul Power!"
"He just waved his sleeve and scattered Poison Douluo's attack."
"Then, with one hand, he smashed Poison Douluo—who had activated his Martial Soul Avatar—into the ground, leaving him alive or dead!"
Hearing this, even the enraged Er Ming abruptly stiffened, his eyes widening until they were as big as bells.
"What did you say?!"
"No Soul Power? He knocked out a Titled Douluo with one hand?"
Er Ming instinctively glanced at his own thick arms.
The Titan Giant Ape Clan took the greatest pride in their physical strength.
But if he couldn't use any Soul Power at all, and had to rely solely on his muscles to knock out a Titled Douluo who had activated his Martial Soul Avatar...
He couldn't do it. He absolutely couldn't do it!
A Titled Douluo's Martial Soul Avatar had the combined defenses of laws and Soul Power.
Without Soul Power to counter them, smashing into it with nothing but his flesh would be no different from punching a blade.
No Soul Power, just the flesh.
"Could the golden blood he mentioned, and that physical limit of one hundred thousand jin in a single arm, really be true?"
At the thought, Da Ming couldn't help drawing in a sharp breath.
If it was true, it would bring a revolution to the world of Spirit Masters—and to the Soul Beast Clan.
Humans wouldn't need to hunt Soul Beasts for Soul Rings. They could suppress everything with their bodies alone.
Could their Soul Beast Clan cultivate this kind of method too?
If he could master that so-called physical limit and even condense golden blood and qi, what would he have to fear from a hundred-thousand-year tribulation?
He might even be able to tear the tribulation apart, forcibly transform into a True Dragon, and ride the wind away.
At the thought, Da Ming's heart, calm for a hundred thousand years, was thrown into complete turmoil.
Splash!
Da Ming's enormous body abruptly rose out of the lake, sending a waterfall of water cascading everywhere.
Then he lowered his head and looked at Er Ming below.
"Er Ming."
"Big Brother?" Er Ming blinked.
"Take human form."
"We're leaving the Star Dou Forest."
"We're going to Heavenly Dou Imperial City."
At those words, Er Ming and the Green Wind Eagle were both struck dumb as if by a bolt of lightning.
"Big Brother, you've gone mad!"
"There are Titled Douluo everywhere out there. The moment we leave, the aura of our hundred-thousand-year Soul Rings will be impossible to hide!"
"That would be suicide!"
"And Sister Xiao Wu is in the human world. If they set their sights on us too..."
"Enough."
"At dawn, to hear the Way; at dusk, to die content."
"We've been trapped in Life Lake for a hundred thousand years, only to face another tribulation and be reduced to ashes."
"If that Su Chen really knows a way to break the laws of heaven and earth."
"If he really could tell us how to become that nation's Sacrificial Spirit, how to cast off our mortal bodies and become True Dragons..."
"Even if it meant dying."
"It would still be worth seeing with my own eyes the magnificent Perfect World he spoke of. What was it really like?"
Meanwhile, night fell.
Heavenly Dou Imperial City shed the bustle of the day and gradually sank into silence.
On the top floor of Listening Rain Pavilion, inside a quiet bedroom.
Su Chen sat cross-legged on the bed.
He had not lit a single candle, yet the entire room was brightly illuminated by a gentle golden glow radiating from him.
Through his jade-like skin, golden blood could faintly be seen surging through his body like a mighty river, rumbling like distant thunder.
Above his head, the phantom of a Grotto-Heaven, shaped like a volcanic crater, hovered silently, ceaselessly drawing in the spiritual energy of the world around him.
The ultimate might of a hundred and eight thousand jin in one arm, combined with this Grotto-Heaven that plundered the world's Fortune, gave Su Chen an imposing presence as steady and majestic as an abyss and a mountain.
After his vital energy had circulated through several great cycles, Su Chen slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a tangible white stream of air.
Like a blade, it tore through the air before him, leaving a visible ripple that lingered.
"The Cave Heaven Realm truly is wondrous."
Su Chen clenched his fist, feeling the terrifying power that filled him to the brim. A hint of satisfaction flashed in his eyes.
Just as he was about to get up and pour himself a cup of tea,
the autumn insects outside, which had been chirping now and then, abruptly fell silent, as if some terrifying presence had cowed them.
A heavy pressure then silently enveloped the entire rear courtyard of Listening Rain Pavilion.
The aura was concealed so deeply that even an ordinary Soul Douluo might have struggled to detect it.
But to Su Chen, who had already opened a Grotto-Heaven, it was unmistakable.
At the sensation, Su Chen's hand paused slightly as he poured the tea.
Then he set down the teapot and sneered.
"Looks like after beating the young ones, the old ones have come calling."
With that, Su Chen pushed open the door and strolled out onto the top floor's open-air balcony.
The bright moonlight fell upon him, and the chilly night breeze swept through his snow-white sleeves, making them flap in the wind.
He raised his head and calmly looked toward a spot in the air above the rear courtyard.
"Since you're here, why hide like a rat? Get out here." Beneath the night sky, Su Chen spoke with unruffled composure.
As his words fell, a man appeared in a patch of shadow that had seemed empty moments before.
He was extremely tall and wore a tattered black cloak. Most of his face was hidden beneath its hood; all that could be seen was his long, hay-like hair and the tangled stubble on his chin.
Before you continue