Terrifying Night, Forbidden!

Wang Xiu smugly withdrew the fifth soul ring around him.

He had never even considered that those animals were not afraid of him, but running for their lives.

At that moment, everyone on Douluo Continent outside the light screen also breathed a sigh of relief.

"Looks like Grandmaster was right. These unknown beasts aren't all that strong after all."

"Exactly. The pressure from a Soul Emperor scared them into running all over the place."

"If a Titled Douluo had been chosen to go over, wouldn't they steamroll the place in a day and rule it in two? Ahahahahahaha."

Yu Xiaogang once again nodded in satisfaction, feeling that his judgment was as sharp as ever.

Yet just as everyone was dismissing it, the sun fully set.

Night finally descended upon the Great Ruins.

It was no ordinary night, but something like a tide, as if thick black ink had instantly poured backward into this world.

There was no moonlight. No starlight.

In the span of a single breath, the light around Wang Xiu was completely swallowed up.

So much so that the entire scene on the canopy plunged into pitch-black darkness where no one could see their own hand in front of their face.

Within the canopy, Wang Xiu also fell into utter panic.

Because it was the kind of darkness where one could not see a hand in front of one's face.

It was like thick ink, not only blocking his vision, but even seeming to make breathing difficult.

He was a rank sixty-three battle Soul Emperor! An elite carefully trained by Spirit Hall!

"What the hell is this place?! Light up for me!"

Wang Xiu roared, his voice carrying fear he could not hide.

The soul power within him erupted without reservation. The six soul rings beneath his feet flashed madly as he tried to use their radiance to illuminate his surroundings.

Yet what happened next plunged him into despair.

The light of his soul rings, which would normally illuminate a range of dozens of meters with ease, was now pressed by the surrounding darkness to less than an inch from his body.

Just then, a faint sound suddenly came from the darkness.

"Crunch..."

"Crunch..."

It was like someone chewing on brittle bone. The sound was not loud, but in the terrifyingly silent night, it seemed especially grating.

"Wh-who's there?!"

"Get out here!"

Wang Xiu was completely scared out of his wits. After his martial soul possessed him, his leopard claws slashed wildly in every direction.

"Sixth Soul Skill! Shadow Killing Formation!"

He unleashed his strongest ten-thousand-year soul skill almost hysterically.

Violent soul power tore through the air, turning into countless black panther phantoms that charged into the darkness.

In the end, they did not even make a ripple. Those soul skills powerful enough to destroy small hills on Douluo Continent vanished silently just like that.

Immediately afterward, a crisp crack rang out from the scene, like the sound of some creature's sharp claws crushing a cervical vertebra in an instant.

At the same time, Wang Xiu's movements came to an abrupt halt. Before he could even let out a scream, his whole body fell straight down.

Afterward, the chewing sounds grew louder, and the blackness on the light screen quickly receded like a tide.

Then the entire enormous canopy turned blood-red.

Several lines of large text slowly emerged in the very center of the light screen.

[Participant: Wang Xiu (Spirit Hall guard, rank sixty-three battle Soul Emperor)]

[Current Status: Deceased]

[Cause of Death: Encountered the eerie entities of the Great Ruins' night. Left the protection of the ruins. Skull crushed and body devoured by an unknown monster in the darkness.]

When those lines of large text appeared clearly before everyone across the entire continent, the whole of Douluo Continent fell dead silent.

Spirit City, inside the Supreme Pontiff Palace.

"How is that possible..."

At that moment, even Bibi Dong, that lofty peerless Douluo, had her brows tightly furrowed, her beautiful eyes filled with disbelief.

A rank sixty-three Soul Emperor had not even seen the enemy's face, had not even managed to put up the most basic defense, and was just gone so cleanly?

What level of monster was hidden in the Great Ruins' night?

A hundred-thousand-year soul beast?

Or a savage beast beyond a hundred thousand years?

At the same time, on the sports field of Shrek Academy.

The smugness on Yu Xiaogang's face froze in an instant, and he could no longer say a word.

On the other side, after Dai Mubai made out the words on the screen of light, he could not help swallowing. His throat felt dry, and even his voice was trembling.

"G-Grandmaster..."

"Is this still an illusion? That was a Soul Emperor, and he just died like that?"

Hearing his student's question, a dense layer of cold sweat inevitably seeped across Yu Xiaogang's forehead.

He opened his mouth and tried to explain, stammering.

"This..."

"Perhaps it was some kind of potent neurotoxin, combined with sleight of hand, causing a person to hallucinate before death."

But the further he spoke, the less confidence even he had.

Tang San stood to the side without speaking, only silently clenching his fists.

He possessed Purple Demon Eye, and the perception of his five senses was far sharper than other people's.

In the instant Wang Xiu died just now, he had truly and clearly sensed an extraordinary feeling within the screen of light.

It was as if there really had been something in the darkness. It was absolutely not something like what Yu Xiaogang said, not something any illusion could simulate!

And just as everyone from Douluo was still trapped in shock, unable to pull themselves free...

The large words on the heavenly screen gradually faded away.

The image flashed, and the perspective of the second participant lit up.

This time, the one who appeared in the image was the ordinary blacksmith whom Yu Xiaogang had declared would not survive, Chen Aniu.

Compared with Wang Xiu's miserable death, Chen Aniu looked wretched at this moment, with a large wet patch on his crotch, but at least he was still breathing.

In the image, Chen Aniu was slumped on a bluestone slab, gasping for breath in great gulps.

It turned out his luck had been very good. He had been teleported to the vicinity of a small riverside village in the Great Ruins.

The moment night fell, he had just happened, through blind stumbling, to reach the village entrance.

Four old, broken stone statues stood at the village entrance.

When the darkness surged over like a tide, the four statues suddenly emitted a faint layer of fluorescence. Like an upside-down glowing hemisphere, it firmly shielded the entire village inside.

Chen Aniu saw with his own eyes that when a terrifying giant beast the size of a small mountain chased after him and accidentally crashed into the fluorescence at the village entrance, it was instantly burned into a heap of ash without even letting out a scream.

After seeing this scene replayed, everyone from Douluo outside the screen of light could not help sucking in a cold breath even more.

"Even a giant beast like a mountain was instantly killed..."

"Just what level of divine artifacts are those four unremarkable stone statues?"

At the same time, within the image on the heavenly screen...

Chen Aniu lay collapsed on the ground for a long while before finally coming back to his senses.

He discovered there were actually still people in the village, with a few households lit by dim yellow lamplight.

In this strange place, seeing living people felt even more intimate than seeing his own father.

Chen Aniu hurriedly crawled to his feet and followed the village's dirt road inward, wanting to find someone to ask about the situation.

He had only taken a couple of steps when he happened to see a shirtless young boy, humming some unknown little tune as he carried two buckets of water back from the riverside.

The boy looked only around twelve or thirteen years old, but his frame was sturdy. He wore rough hemp clothes and looked extremely simple and honest.

Chen Aniu thought that, as a blacksmith, he at least had plenty of strength.

Since he had arrived in this strange and dangerous place, he had to first get friendly with the locals. Helping with some little task could not be wrong.

"Little brother!"

Chen Aniu hurriedly went up to him, piling a fawning smile onto his face.

"You look pretty tired carrying water. It's the middle of the night—let Uncle give you a hand!"

As he spoke, Chen Aniu did not wait for the boy to agree. He directly reached out to grab the handle of one of the wooden buckets.

The boy froze for a moment, then kindly reminded him, "Uncle, don't touch it. This water is very heavy. You won't be able to lift it."

Chen Aniu felt a little displeased.

He was, after all, a sturdy man who had forged iron for over a dozen years. Usually, he could swing a great iron hammer of dozens of jin without even panting hard.

How heavy could one little bucket of water be?

"Hey, little brother, who are you looking down on? Uncle's got plenty of strength!"

As Chen Aniu spoke, his right hand clamped tightly around the wooden bucket's handle. With a sudden burst of strength, he meant to lift the water one-handed and show off his muscles while he was at it.

But in the next second, not only did Chen Aniu fail to lift the bucket, he used too much force, slipped, and fell flat on his face with a heavy splat.

"Ow, my poor old back!"

Chen Aniu clutched his shoulder, rolling around on the ground in pain.

The wooden bucket tipped over as well, and with a splash, the water inside spilled all over the ground.

Seeing this, the youth quickly put down his shoulder pole and ran over to help him up.

"Uncle, are you all right? I told you this bucket was pretty heavy."

"This bucket is made from iron wood, a specialty of our Great Ruins. Filled with water, it weighs more than a hundred jin. And the ground's slippery too. Why push yourself?"

Hearing the youth's words, Chen Aniu's weathered face flushed red.

He was a blacksmith, after all. Of course he could lift something weighing over a hundred jin.

If anything was to blame, it was that he had not been mentally prepared, and the moss by the river was simply too slippery. He had lost his footing for a moment and made a fool of himself.

"Ahem... I just slipped, that's all."

Chen Aniu awkwardly patted the mud off his body, taking the excuse and running with it.

Afterward, led by the youth, Chen Aniu smoothly entered the village and met the old village chief.

The old village chief leaned on a cane and looked Chen Aniu up and down.

Seeing that he was an outsider without the slightest cultivation, he did not make things difficult for him. He merely pointed casually to a shabby, empty thatched hut at the end of the village and told him to stay there for the night.

"No one goes out after dark in Great Ruins. Sleep there tonight, and don't run around."

The old village chief gave the instruction in a hoarse voice, then turned and went back inside.

Chen Aniu thanked him profusely and walked into the thatched hut.

The inside of the hut was very crude. Aside from a wooden plank bed covered in dry grass, there was nothing at all.

But he was already more than satisfied.

Through the broken window, Chen Aniu could see that the four stone statues at the village entrance were still giving off a faint light, firmly holding back the darkness outside.

"Heh, looks like my luck isn't bad."

Chen Aniu lay on the pile of dry grass and crossed one leg over the other.

When he had first been chosen, he had been rather afraid, but now it seemed that as long as he found the right place in this higher-dimensional world, it was not that terrifying after all.

"Once I make it through a year here, I'll take back some glowing stones or herbs, and I'll live the good life for the rest of my days."

The more Chen Aniu thought about it, the happier he became. Gradually, he closed his eyes and began to snore.

The night grew deeper and deeper.

The entire little village grew so quiet that only the rustle of wind blowing through leaves remained.

Just as Chen Aniu was sleeping soundly, two green lanterns suddenly lit up on the thatched hut's aged roof beam.

But on closer look, they were not lanterns at all. They were a pair of eyes.

It was a huge green snake. It made no sound at all, simply hanging upside down from the roof beam without a whisper.

At night in Great Ruins, the stone statues could block the terrifying demon gods outside.

But the village itself was within Great Ruins, and as for the venomous insects and savage beasts that had long been hiding in the trees or abandoned houses inside the village, the stone statues did nothing about those.

The Green Snake flicked its crimson tongue, slowly drawing closer to Chen Aniu's face.