Mu En did not make a move at once.
He led Mu Tianyi through Golden Valley for three days, familiarizing himself with every exit, every stream, and every patch of woodland that could serve as a hiding place.
That Star-Glory Unicorn seemed to have sensed something as well and never showed itself.
However, the activity range of those ten-thousand-year Golden Unicorns had clearly contracted, as if they were guarding something.
At noon on the third day, Mu En stopped atop a cliff. Looking at the trampled flat grassland below, he suddenly smiled.
"Tianyi, step back."
Mu Tianyi retreated ten paces.
Mu En raised his right hand and pressed down at the grassland through the air.
The Soul Power of a rank ninety-nine Limit Douluo poured forth, like an invisible giant hammer smashing into the ground.
Boom! Dust scattered, and turf rolled up.
A brilliant golden figure shot out from an underground cave, landing thirty zhang away. Its pair of silver vertical pupils stared fixedly at Mu En.
It was none other than the Star-Glory Unicorn.
It was fully twice as large as the ten-thousand-year Golden Unicorns, its entire body a brilliant gold. Its mane seemed woven from moonlight, while the horn on its forehead glimmered with a golden halo.
It stood there, surrounded by an intense metallic aura. Even the golden particles in the air began to tremble faintly.
Rather than attack first, it spoke, its voice low and carrying the rasp unique to beasts.
"Human, this is my territory."
"I can yield part of the gold vein for you to mine. Take your people and leave, and we can each take a step back."
As soon as it finished speaking, the clatter of hooves came from every direction in the valley.
One Golden Unicorn after another emerged from the woods, from behind boulders, and from beside the streams...
Their golden coats were uniform as they densely filled half the valley.
Mu Tianyi made a rough count. There were at least a hundred of them, and even the weakest had over five thousand years of cultivation.
At the forefront stood a Golden Unicorn whose size was second only to the Star-Glory Unicorn.
Golden light flowed across its entire body, and the tip of its horn gave off a faint golden gleam. The aura of its eighty-thousand-year cultivation was released without concealment.
The Star-Glory Unicorn raised its head slightly, its gaze settling on Mu En with scrutiny and threat.
It could sense the aura on this white-haired old man that made it uncomfortable.
Yet it was exceedingly confident!
The new skill it had awakened after breaking through to one hundred thousand years was enough to severely wound its opponent at a critical moment.
Together with more than a hundred of its kin and that eighty-thousand-year general, no matter how strong this human was, he should think twice.
Mu En glanced at the eighty-thousand-year Golden Unicorn, swept his gaze across the dense golden figures around him, and finally looked back at the Star-Glory Unicorn.
He said nothing, and even his expression did not change.
The next instant, his figure vanished from where he stood.
The Star-Glory Unicorn's pupils suddenly contracted.
Before it could make any response, a withered fist had already slammed into its head.
Boom!
Its brilliant golden body flew away like a kite with its string cut.
Mu En withdrew his fist and slowly walked toward the cliff wall.
The Star-Glory Unicorn struggled to rise from the rubble, shaking its head as blood ran down from its forehead.
Before it could steady itself, a foot had already stepped onto its head, pressing it back into the pile of rocks.
Mu En looked down at it from above. The force beneath his foot was neither too heavy nor too light, just enough to keep it from raising its head.
The valley fell deathly silent.
Those ten-thousand-year Golden Unicorns froze in place.
They looked at their king beneath his foot, then at the white-haired human elder. Not one dared step forward.
The eighty-thousand-year Golden Unicorn let out a low growl and pawed at the ground with its hooves, but it did not charge over.
Mu En turned his head and glanced at Mu Tianyi in the distance.
The youth had already completed his transformation. His white hair was like snow, black-and-white wings spread behind him, and light and shadows in the pattern of yin and yang flowed around his body.
Without waiting for Mu En to speak, he took the initiative to meet the restless herd of unicorns.
The Sacred Dragon Rending Sky Claw tore through a five-thousand-year unicorn's defenses. The golden light of the Radiant Dragon Body flickered through the herd, and together with the kicks from the Hell Demon Dragon right leg bone, every step landed precisely at the herd's weakest point.
Pinned beneath Mu En's foot, the Star-Glory Unicorn watched the white-haired youth move through the herd with ease, and the last trace of luck in its heart vanished.
The humans before it had come to kill it. There was no possibility of negotiation between them!
It no longer hesitated and threw back its head with an angry roar.
Roar!
The roar sounded neither like hoofbeats nor a tiger's cry, but rather closer to a dragon's roar.
Brilliant golden light burst from its body as a power that did not belong to the Star-Glory Unicorn was forcibly activated.
The Star-Glory Unicorn's body expanded once again, and golden markings surfaced across its silver-white coat.
They spread from its spine to its limbs, eventually converging upon the horn on its forehead.
Those golden eyes gradually became draconic vertical pupils, and the shadow of a dragon faintly appeared within them.
This was the Star-Glory Unicorn's final trump card, the Bright Sacred Dragon bloodline buried deep within its veins.
After its cultivation had advanced to one hundred thousand years, part of the bloodline within its body had reverted to its ancestral state.
It could rely on this bloodline to forcibly transform itself into a dragon-like form.
The pressure beneath Mu En's foot eased slightly. He lowered his head to look at the unicorn beneath him, surprise flashing through his eyes.
The fluctuations of this aura had already surpassed the realm of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, approaching that of a Super Douluo.
The Star-Glory Unicorn suddenly broke free from Mu En's suppression. Its four hooves struck the earth, and golden light blazed from its entire body.
Those golden markings bulged beneath its coat, as though something were about to break free from within its flesh and blood.
Two rows of bone spurs rose along its back, a cluster of golden mane grew at the end of its tail, and fine dragon-scale patterns wound around the horn on its forehead.
Its appearance was half dragon and half beast, savage yet magnificent.
The Star-Glory Unicorn raised its head and let out a long cry. The sound waves, carrying the sharpness of metal and the scorching heat of light, spread in all directions, shaking cracks into the cliff walls on both sides of the valley.
Then it lowered its head, pouring all its strength into that horn as it charged at Mu En.
Golden light condensed at the horn's tip into a dazzling sphere of light, growing larger and brighter, like a tiny falling sun.
Mu En took a deep breath, and dazzling golden light lit up around him.
The Martial Soul Avatar of the Dragon God Douluo fully activated at that moment. The phantom of the Bright Sacred Dragon solidified behind him and collided head-on with the sphere of light.
Boom—
Golden light exploded, and shockwaves surged.
A thick layer was shaved off the cliff walls on both sides of the valley, while shattered rocks and dust filled the sky.
The Star-Glory Unicorn flew backward from the smoke and dust, covered in blood. Its golden markings had dimmed by more than half, and fine cracks had appeared in its horn.
Mu En stood where he was. Several tears had been ripped into his robes by the shockwaves, and his long silver-white hair was somewhat disheveled, but his stance remained as steady as a mountain.
Mu Tianyi withdrew from the herd, his black-and-white wings folding behind him. His gaze passed over the fallen Star-Glory Unicorn and settled on Mu En.
Xuan Zu was certainly fine. It was only a hundred-thousand-year unicorn with a trace of Golden Sacred Dragon bloodline. How could it possibly be Mu En's match?
What interested him was that Star-Glory Unicorn.
After activating its Bright Sacred Dragon bloodline, the Star-Glory Unicorn's burst of attack power was already sufficient to threaten a Super Douluo.
He licked his lips, his gaze returning to the blood-covered unicorn.
He wanted that bloodline-activating soul skill.
Before you continue