Su Chen set down his teacup and straightened his cuffs.
"Yes, Shopkeeper." The young attendant was puzzled, but didn't dare ask questions. He hurriedly withdrew.
Before long, the sound of extremely heavy footsteps echoed through the corridor.
The wooden door swung open.
Two men of extraordinary height, almost unnaturally so, strode in from outside.
The one in front had long blue-green hair cascading over his shoulders, a resolute face, and deep-set eyes. An imposing aura of authority radiated from him.
The man behind him was a hulking giant, like an iron tower. Muscles bulged across his body, and he exuded a ferocious, wild air.
They were Da Ming and Er Ming, both transformed into human form!
The two entered the room and warily surveyed their surroundings.
Then they saw Su Chen sitting at the table, his expression utterly calm.
Da Ming drew a deep breath, stepped forward, and gave a stiff salute.
"We've taken the liberty of visiting so late at night. We hope you'll forgive us, Mr. Su."
Su Chen made no move to get up. He merely pointed at the chairs across from him.
"Sit."
"Rather than ruling over the beasts in the Star Dou Forest,"
"you've come all this way to my Listening Rain Pavilion. Aren't you afraid those Titled Douluo from earlier will strip you of your Soul Bones?"
Su Chen's offhand remark made both Da Ming and Er Ming's expressions change at once.
Er Ming's muscles tensed instinctively. A wildly turbulent wave of Soul Power surged within him as he fixed his stare on Su Chen.
"Y-you know who we are?"
Da Ming grabbed the impulsive Er Ming and held him back. His blue-green eyes were filled with shock.
They had come out this time using a Silver Reverse Scale bestowed upon them by their Lord, who dwelled beneath Life Lake.
The aura of that scale was enough to conceal them from the workings of heaven itself.
Even if one of humanity's level-ninety-nine Peerless Douluo stood before them, they would never see through their true forms!
How could this Su Chen have recognized them at a glance?
Seeing them on high alert, Su Chen casually waved a hand.
"Enough. Put away your hostility."
"If I wanted to kill you for your bones, you wouldn't even be standing here talking to me."
At that, Da Ming's expression shifted several times before he finally released his clenched fist.
He knew the white-robed young man before him was telling the truth.
A monster who could casually make six Titled Douluo kneel in the street would find killing the two of them no harder than crushing a pair of ants.
Da Ming gritted his teeth, then pulled Er Ming over to sit at the table.
"Since you've already seen through our identities, I won't hide anything from you, Mr. Su."
Da Ming looked at Su Chen, his eyes burning with fervor.
"My brother and I have come today to ask you something."
"Go on," Su Chen said calmly.
"We listened to your story earlier today."
Da Ming swallowed, his voice carrying an urgency unlike any he had ever felt before.
"In Perfect World, even ferocious beasts can cultivate precious techniques and contend with heaven. They can even slay gods and leave them trembling!"
"May I ask you something, Mr. Su?"
Da Ming stared fixedly into Su Chen's eyes.
"Do the ferocious beasts in that world not have to face a life-or-death tribulation every hundred thousand years?"
Hearing the question, Su Chen understood why they had come.
On Douluo Continent, Soul Beasts had a miserable lot.
A hundred thousand years was a cruel death sentence.
They could either transform into humans and cultivate anew for decades, all the while risking being hunted by humans.
Or they could withstand the tribulation, with nine chances in ten of dying.
This fate, with heaven itself pressing down upon them, was a wound that every Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast carried forever.
Su Chen looked at the yearning in Da Ming and Er Ming's eyes.
He smiled faintly.
"Tribulations?"
"In Perfect World, all things can cultivate. As long as the bones and blood are imprinted with the runes of heaven and earth, one can seize the fortune of creation."
"The ferocious beasts there have no need to fear any hundred-thousand-year tribulation."
"The powerful pure-blooded creatures can even feed on lightning tribulations and temper their bodies with them."
Su Chen's words were like a door opening onto an entirely new world for Da Ming and Er Ming.
Their breathing turned ragged, their eyes filled with longing and astonishment.
Feed on lightning tribulations!
To them, it was something they wouldn't even dare dream of!
"Mr. Su!"
Da Ming sprang to his feet and bowed deeply to Su Chen with utmost solemnity.
"May I ask if you have a cultivation method for the ferocious beasts of Perfect World?"
"If you'd grant us such a method and save our Soul Beast Clan from this miserable fate,"
Da Ming gritted his teeth and made his pledge without hesitation.
"Then you may take any heavenly treasures from the Star Dou Forest as you please!"
"My brother and I are willing to honor you as our lord!"
Watching Da Ming remain bowed, Su Chen's eyes glinted.
Then he flicked his wrist.
A jade slip covered in intricate Bone Scripts appeared on the table.
"This is a low-grade Bone Text Precious Technique for ferocious beasts."
Su Chen's tone was calm.
"Take it back and study it carefully. It should be enough to reshape your foundations and condense source runes of your own."
Da Ming and Er Ming both trembled at the sight of the jade slip.
With shaking hands, they carefully lifted it into their palms.
The ancient aura emanating from it stirred the Soul Power within them, as though it were on the verge of transforming, just from a single glance!
"Thank you for your immense kindness, Mr. Su!!!"
Da Ming and Er Ming dropped to one knee, their voices trembling with excitement.
Looking at the jade slip on the table, glowing with a faint, ancient light, Da Ming and Er Ming were at a loss for words.
In their long lives as Soul Beasts, they had met countless human Spirit Masters and seen countless so-called supreme cultivation methods.
Yet nothing had ever stirred a desire in their blood so instinctive as this jade slip, simply by sitting there.
"Thank you for your immense kindness, Mr. Su. My brother and I, and the countless Soul Beasts of the Star Dou Forest, will never forget this day!"
Da Ming bowed deeply once more. Then he carefully wrapped the jade slip in a gentle veil of Soul Power and tucked it away.
He knew how much it meant.
This was more than a cultivation method. It was the hope of changing the fate of the entire Soul Beast race—the trump card that would let them stand tall and truly contend with heaven for their lives!
Su Chen remained seated in his armchair, his expression calm. He merely waved a hand.
"Enough. Take it and be on your way."
"The Imperial City is full of Titled Douluo right now. Even with your Lord's Reverse Scale concealing you, there's no guarantee you won't give yourselves away if you stay too long."
Hearing Su Chen mention their Lord and the Reverse Scale, Da Ming's heart jolted. A flicker of shock crossed his eyes, but he didn't dare ask another question.
In his eyes, Mr. Su had become a god beyond all mortal sight.
"Yes. We'll take our leave, then."
Da Ming pulled Er Ming, who still looked dazed with wonder, to his feet. They bowed to Su Chen again, then wasted no time.
Their figures blurred. In the next instant, they became two faint wisps of wind, slipped through the crack in the window, and vanished into the pitch-black night.
The room fell silent once more.
Su Chen picked up his now-cool tea and took a sip, then slowly rose to his feet.
"That should do it."
Su Chen murmured under his breath, then went to the bed and sat cross-legged.
Hum!
As Su Chen breathed, the profound Unique Cave Heaven behind his head slowly emerged. Like a miniature black hole, it revolved silently in the void.
Deep within the Unique Cave Heaven, the drop of Thunder Emperor True Blood pulsed faintly.
With each breath Su Chen took, the spiritual energy in the surrounding world surged into his body, where the Thunder Emperor True Blood and Bone Text Precious Technique refined it into the purest energy.
He could feel his body growing stronger and stronger in that wondrous rhythm.
At that very moment, far to the south of the continent, in the Star Luo Imperial City of the Star Luo Empire,
the entire city was built against the mountains. Its thick walls were scarred with the marks of blades and axes, exuding an air of murderous severity.
Its architecture was utterly unlike that of the Tiandou Empire. Everywhere reflected the Star Luo Empire's brutal creed of the law of the jungle and survival of the fittest.
Star Luo Great Emperor Dai Tianfeng sat on a throne fashioned from the spine of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
He was a towering, powerfully built man, his golden hair flying in the wind. His eyes were sharp as hooks as he stared at the secret report that had just arrived.
On either side of the great hall, the Star Luo Empire's civil and military officials held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
They could feel that the Soul Power radiating from the emperor on the throne had reached a terrifying threshold.
"What a Listening Rain Pavilion..."
"What a Su Chen!"
Dai Tianfeng slammed the report onto the table, the dull impact echoing through the hall.
"He subdued Tang Hao with one hand, crippled Bo Saixi with a flick of his finger, and even made the entire Clear Sky Sect kneel in the street."
Dai Tianfeng's voice rang through the hall, thick with wariness.
"If messages hadn't come in from both Spirit Hall and the Tiandou Empire, I would never have believed such a figure existed in this world!"
As the ruler of the Star Luo Empire, he knew better than anyone what the Clear Sky Sect and Bo Saixi represented.
They were once among the mightiest forces on the continent.
Yet before Su Chen, they had been like unruly children, utterly powerless to resist.
"Your Majesty."
Just then, a senior Star Luo Empire official stepped forward cautiously and bowed.
"According to our hidden agents in the Heavenly Dou Imperial City, Bibi Dong of Spirit Hall and Xue Ye of Heaven Dou have both personally visited the Listening Rain Pavilion and tried every way to curry favor with him."
"But Su Chen paid them no mind. He even publicly humiliated Bibi Dong."
A glint flashed in Dai Tianfeng's eyes at this.
"He paid them no mind?"
"Of course. Why would someone who possesses a legacy from Perfect World—one that grants immortality and lets mortals defy heaven and change their fate—care for this little Douluo Continent?"
Dai Tianfeng slowly rose to his feet and paced along the steps, his tiger-like eyes filled with calculation.
He, Dai Tianfeng, had believed in nothing but strength all his life.
The brutal competition within the Star Luo Imperial Family had taught him from the marrow up to trust in no so-called affection.
But he also understood that before absolute power, every scheme was futile.
"The Tiandou Empire has already honored him as Imperial Tutor, and Spirit Hall was even willing to have Bibi Dong personally brew his tea."
"My Star Luo Empire cannot fall behind!"
"Or the Star Luo Empire will be in danger!"
With that thought, Dai Tianfeng stopped and turned to a guard nearby, issuing an icy command:
"Go! Pass on my imperial decree. Tell that good-for-nothing son of mine, Dai Mubai, who's been running wild outside, to get to the Heavenly Dou Imperial City at once and await orders!"
"Tell him that if he can't secure a good seat for me at the Listening Rain Pavilion, and can't make Mr. Su remember his name, he can forget ever returning to the Star Luo Empire—or competing for the throne again!"
Dai Tianfeng gave a cold laugh.
"I'll go to the Heavenly Dou Imperial City myself as well."
"If Spirit Hall and Heaven Dou can go, then so can my Star Luo cavalry!"
At the same time, on Sea God Island,
this sacred island floating in the vast ocean was now shrouded beneath a layer of heavy, dark clouds.
Inside Sea God Hall, the holy, gentle blue light had turned strangely cold.
Bo Saixi knelt before the statue of the Sea God, her face deathly pale.
As the Sea God's Grand Pontiff and the most powerful person in these waters, she had never felt so humiliated and helpless.
That finger in the Heavenly Dou Imperial City had not only shattered the Sea God's phantom image; it had shattered the faith she had upheld all her life.
"Lord Sea God..."
Bo Saixi's voice echoed through the vast hall, carrying a note of pleading.
"That Su Chen doesn't respect the gods at all."
"He said you were a charlatan who pretended to be a god while raising sacrifices like livestock..."
With every word Bo Saixi spoke, fear crept deeper into her heart.
Rumble!
Just then, the statue inside Sea God Hall began to tremble violently.
Then, a terrifying divine might crossed the barrier of the Divine Realm and descended upon Sea God Island!
In an instant, the entire sea boiled. Towering waves crashed against the shore one after another, as if the gods were in a rage.
"Those who blaspheme the gods must die!"
The next second, a solemn voice rang out in Bo Saixi's mind.
Then, a deep blue light suddenly coalesced in the palm of the statue.
When the light faded, a diamond-shaped blue crystal, clear and translucent all over, slowly floated before Bo Saixi.
"This is the Sea God's Wrath."
"It contains a trace of my divine intent."
The statue's voice rang out again.
"Bo Saixi, as Grand Pontiff, you must wash away the shame of this battle with Su Chen's blood."
"Take this and issue an order to the Seven Great Elders of Sea God Island. Set out at once."
"At any cost, kill that wretch within Heavenly Dou Imperial City!"
"Let the world know that none may touch divine might—and all who do shall die!"
Bo Saixi looked at the blue crystal floating before her, trembling as she lifted it above her head with both hands.
"Bo Saixi obeys!"
"I shall not fail the divine decree. Su Chen will die!"
Though she feared Su Chen's strength, she believed that before the gods' trump card, there was no way he could escape death.
Before you continue