The Monster of Great Thunderclap Temple!

Hearing this, Flender was startled too.

A chill shot straight up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head, crawling all the way along his spine and making him shudder hard despite himself.

The air around him seemed to turn cold in that instant.

The faint scent of sandalwood from before vanished completely, replaced by a nauseating stench like rotten meat left out for ages mixed with sewer sludge.

"Gulp..."

Another sound of a bubble bursting rang out.

Flender watched helplessly as, on the lotus base of the broken-armed Buddha statue, the crack he had lightly touched with the tip of his dagger spread to both sides at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The golden lacquer was like dried tree bark, falling away piece by piece.

Each flake of gold paint that landed on the jade floor made a crisp tap.

And deep within that crack, the black-red mist grew thicker and thicker, squeezing out through the gap as if it were alive.

The mist churned around the base, gradually condensing into thin strands like hair, spreading in all directions along the floor of the great hall.

Cold sweat slid down Flender's forehead, dripping one drop after another down his cheeks and splashing onto his collar.

No matter how much he loved money, no matter how stingy he was, he had finally realized it now.

How was this some treasure that would make him rich?!

This was clearly a seal!

A seal used to suppress some kind of terrifying monster!

And that dagger strike of his just now had happened to poke a hole in this seal that had endured countless years and was already somewhat fragile.

"Run..."

Only that one thought remained in Flender's mind.

He gritted his teeth and desperately tried to move his legs.

But the pressure radiating from the crack was far too terrifying.

At the same time, outside the Sky Screen.

On the training field of Shrek Academy.

The smiles of everyone who had just been happy that the dean had found shelter instantly froze on their faces.

A cool wind swept across the field, rustling the leaves on the great trees.

Yet among the crowd, there was not the slightest sound.

Ma Hongjun's mouth hung open, the fat on his face twitching twice before he stammered out, "Wh-what's going on?"

"Why is black smoke coming out from under that stone base?"

Zhao Wuji rubbed his eyes hard with his large hand, his brows furrowing into a deep crease.

"That old ghost Flender is usually sharp as anything. How did he get so muddleheaded today?"

"That place is connected to the night of the Great Ruins. Is that something you can just touch carelessly?"

And Yu Xiaogang, standing at the very front, had a face as pale as paper.

The little notebook in his hand fell to the grass with a snap, but he did not even glance at it.

"That's a seal..."

Yu Xiaogang's lips trembled slightly, and his voice carried an unconcealable terror.

"The gold lacquer on the surface of that Buddha statue isn't decoration at all. Those are sealing runes used to suppress an evil thing beneath the ground!"

"Qin Mu said this stone statue could give off light and keep the monsters of the night away."

"So these lights were not only blocking the things outside, they were also suppressing the thing inside!"

Hearing the Grandmaster's words, Tang San beside him also sucked in a sharp breath.

A layer of purple light rose in the depths of his eyes as he pushed the Purple Demon Eye to its limit.

Through the light screen, Tang San stared fixedly at that black-red mist.

After watching for a while, Tang San's expression turned even uglier than Yu Xiaogang's.

"Teacher, the energy in that mist... is extremely evil."

Tang San lowered his voice, his tone filled with gravity.

"That aura is a hundred times more sinister and venomous than any poison I've ever seen."

"If Dean Flender doesn't leave quickly, even touching the slightest bit of it will bring consequences too dreadful to imagine."

Spirit City, Supreme Pontiff Palace.

Bibi Dong sat upright on her throne, her beautiful eyes narrowing slightly, their gaze deep enough to be unreadable.

"Great Thunderclap Temple, Buddhist statues, seals..."

Bibi Dong's pale, slender fingers gently rubbed along her scepter.

"The depths of these Great Ruins are truly unfathomable."

"Even in some abandoned, ruined temple, there's actually an evil thing sealed away that can make even a Title Douluo's heart pound with fear from a single glance."

"And judging by this situation, beneath each of the dozen or so huge Buddhist statues in this ruined temple, there's probably something equally terrifying suppressed."

When Bibi Dong thought of this, even her breathing involuntarily grew heavier.

If Spirit Hall could control evil things of this level, then unifying the entire continent would be as easy as turning over a hand.

But the prerequisite was having the life to control them.

And just as the entire Douluo Continent was sweating over Flender's fate...

On the Sky Screen.

Inside the dilapidated hall of Great Thunderclap Temple.

That black-red mist had already spread to Flender's feet.

"Sss, sss, sss..."

The moment the mist touched the soles of Flender's shoes, his specially made cowhide boots seemed to have been thrown into a pot of boiling oil, instantly giving off a plume of white smoke.

An acrid, charred smell drifted out.

The burning pain from the soles of his feet finally snapped Flender out of that rigid state of being cowed by the pressure.

"Holy mother!"

Flender let out a strange cry, his whole body like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, and abruptly sprang two or three meters backward.

The dagger in his hand also slipped free and fell.

The dagger landed in the black-red mist with a clatter.

Immediately after, under the terrified gazes of every viewer across the entire continent...

That dagger, forged with refined steel and incomparably sharp, actually failed to last even half a breath.

It directly turned into a puddle of foul-smelling black molten iron, seeping into the cracks between the jade floor tiles.

Seeing this, Flender felt as if his scalp was about to explode.

What the hell kind of monster was this?!

It could instantly corrode even refined steel. If this stuff got on a person, not even bone dregs would be left!

"Run! Run now!"

Flender's mind screamed frantically.

He pushed off with his feet, turned, and charged toward the hall entrance.

He remembered that when he had come in just now, although it had been dark outside the door, at least there had not been this poisonous mist that could melt a person in an instant.

But just as he had run to the entrance of the hall, the instant one foot was about to step over that old, worn threshold...

Flender forcibly stopped.

His body swayed violently, and he nearly pitched headfirst outside the threshold.

Beyond the door was an endless, viscous black night.

In that darkness without a single trace of light...

Flender clearly heard a burst of teeth-grating chewing.

"Crunch, crunch..."

Accompanying the chewing were heavy panting breaths, as well as the sound of some kind of slime dripping that made his entire body crawl just from hearing it.

Flender slowly raised his head and, borrowing the faint Buddhist light from inside the hall, glanced into the darkness outside the door.

With just that one glance, every storm and hardship he had experienced in his life turned into a joke.

Less than a meter from the threshold, enormous eyeballs glowed with an eerie green light, packed densely together in pair after pair.

These eyeballs were as large as lanterns, greedily staring at Flender inside the hall.

As long as he dared to cross the threshold by even half a step, he would instantly be torn to pieces.

Ahead was the endless, man-eating black night.

Behind was the unknown evil thing about to break free of its seal.

Flender stood at the edge of the threshold, unable to advance or retreat.

For the first time in his life, he felt that despair could be so concrete.

Heaven Dou Imperial City.

Countless nobles and commoners watched the images on the Sky Screen and involuntarily held their breath.

"It's over. Dean Flender is really dead this time."

A minor noble wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and muttered to himself.

"This is a death trap."

"Outside are those dark monsters that can instantly kill even ten-thousand-year soul beasts, and inside is poisonous fog that can melt refined steel in an instant."

"So this is the Great Ruins? Even if you find shelter, one wrong step means eternal damnation."

Inside Shrek Academy.

Ma Hongjun had already closed his eyes, not daring to keep watching.

Zhao Wuji also sighed, his hands dropping weakly.

At the same time, inside the Sky Screen.

Within the main hall of Great Thunderclap Temple.

Flender took two steps back, retreating once more into the range covered by the Buddha light.

He gulped in ragged breaths, his chest heaving violently.

"I'm the dean of Shrek Academy, damn it. If you want to kill me, it won't be that easy!"

Flender gritted his teeth, a ruthless look flashing across his face.

He understood that if he wanted to survive today, he could only risk everything.

"Four-Eyed Cat-Eagle, possess me!"

Flender roared and slammed his hands together in front of his chest.

Along with a piercing eagle cry, a powerful fluctuation of soul power erupted from within him.

His eyes turned a deep amber, his pupils narrowing into vertical slits.

The clothes on his back tore apart, and a pair of broad dark-cyan wings instantly unfurled, lifting his body into the air above the hall.

Seven soul rings rose in succession from beneath his feet.

Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black!

The seven soul rings that represented half a lifetime of cultivation rhythmically moved up and down around his body, releasing the pressure that belonged to a high-level soul master.

But in the vast ruins of Great Thunderclap Temple, that pressure seemed so insignificant.

Even the radiance emitted by those Buddha statues was far brighter than his soul rings.

Flender hovered in midair, staring warily at the base of the cracked Buddha statue below.

By now, that crack had widened to the width of a finger.

Black-red mist poured out from within without end, gathering into a small puddle on the hall floor, and it was still spreading continuously outward.

"Clatter, clatter..."

The sound of chains scraping grew louder and louder.

It was as if some enormous thing was struggling to crawl up from beneath the ground.

I can't let it get out!

Flender steeled his heart in secret. He knew that once this thing completely broke its seal, he would have absolutely no way to survive.

The fifth black soul ring on his body suddenly flared with dazzling light.

"Fifth soul skill! Cat-Eagle Storm!"

Flender's wings beat fiercely, and wild gales instantly swept through the hall.

Countless wind blades condensed from cyan soul power interwove densely, forming a tornado with astonishing destructive force.

Carrying the momentum to rip everything apart, the tornado blasted straight toward the cracked lotus base below.

Rumble!

The storm smashed into the base, releasing a violent roar.

Dust in the hall was whipped up and sent flying everywhere.

Seeing this, the Shrek students outside the light screen felt a flicker of hope reignite in their eyes.

"The dean's showing his power!"

"That fifth soul skill is incredibly powerful. Even a defense-type Soul Sage wouldn't dare take it head-on. Maybe it can hammer that seal back into place!"

However, Yu Xiaogang's expression did not improve in the slightest.

He shook his head, his voice somewhat bitter.

"It's useless..."

"An energy like soul power was far too fragile before the laws of the Great Ruins."

As if to prove Yu Xiaogang's words true.

On the Sky Screen, after the dust that filled the air dispersed.

Flender hovered in midair, his Cat-Eagle eyes fixed hard on the ground below, his face full of disbelief.

The lotus pedestal he had struck head-on with his fifth soul skill had not been damaged in the slightest.

Even the gold lacquer that had flaked off it had not been scraped away by the wind blades.

As for the black-red mist that poured out.

It was as if it had just feasted on a great meal. Not only had the storm failed to scatter it, it had instead grown even denser.

The mist churned and actually rose slowly along the direction from which the storm had just come, like a huge mouth trying to swallow Flender in midair.

"The taste is a little strange..."

That faint voice once again sounded in Flender's mind.

This time, the voice was much clearer.

It carried a dizzying magic, as if countless insects were gnawing at Flender's brain nerves.

"Too weak. This energy isn't even enough to get stuck between my teeth..."

The voice was filled with disdain and mockery.

As those words fell, a hand suddenly reached out from the crack.

It was a withered hand, nothing but skin and bones.

Its skin was a strange purplish black, and its fingers were terrifyingly long.

The hand grabbed the edge of the lotus pedestal and pressed down hard.

Crack, crack...

The cracks on the pedestal instantly widened, and even more black-red mist gushed out.

The temperature inside the great hall plunged sharply, and even the breath they exhaled turned to white frost.

Under Flender's horrified gaze, a long, thin figure shrouded in black-red mist slowly squeezed out from inside the pedestal.

Its body was somewhat twisted.

Its head was unnaturally large, without any hair.

On its face, there was only a huge mouth split all the way to its ears, and a vertical eye that occupied half its forehead.

The instant this thing emerged, the surrounding Buddha statues that had originally been giving off a soft golden light dimmed at once.

It was as if even the spirituality of these Buddha statues feared this thing.

"So this is... the monster that was suppressed..."

Flender swallowed, feeling as if his throat were so dry it was about to catch fire.

The monster stood on the pedestal. Its huge vertical eye slowly turned, finally locking onto Flender in midair.

"Fresh flesh and blood..."

The monster opened its huge mouth, and a scarlet tongue covered in barbs stretched out, licking its purplish lips.

The next second, the monster's figure abruptly vanished from where it stood.

Flender did not even see how it exerted force.

He only felt his vision blur, and a nauseating stench of blood was already rushing at his face.

"Not good!"

Flender had rich combat experience and instinctively folded his wings together to protect himself in front.

At the same time, the seventh soul ring on his body shone brilliantly, preparing to release his Martial Soul Avatar.