A Beast Tide Once a Year!

Dai Mubai swallowed hard and nudged Oscar beside him with his elbow.

Oscar jolted and stumbled three steps back. His heel caught on the stairs, and he landed butt-first in the flower bed.

The two exchanged a glance, not daring to even breathe loudly.

Yu Xiaogang was still clawing and scratching at the ground. He had torn out a huge clump of his own scalp, blood dripping through his fingernails, yet he remained completely unaware of it.

"Fake... It's all a trick!" he howled hoarsely, spraying spittle everywhere.

He had spent most of his life researching these "Ten Core Competencies," only for someone to stomp them into the mud, leaving nothing behind.

If this Soul Beast corpse-refining secret realm was real, then what was he? The biggest joke in the world!

Flender hurried over, grabbed his philtrum, and pressed down with all his strength.

Dai Mubai stared fixedly at the Sky Curtain, his teeth grinding loudly.

The royal talent he had always been so proud of was not even worth a fart before this Fire Domain!

"If I could cultivate in there for one day... even just one day!" He punched the tree trunk beside him, sending leaves rustling down.

The image on the Sky Curtain spun rapidly.

The sun rose and the moon set, light and shadows intertwining.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

At the center of the Eight Desolations Endless Flame Domain.

Ning Wuqian sat cross-legged atop a crimson Jade Marrow Platform.

The violent Soul Power swirling around him had already been completely tamed by the Fire Domain's formation, turning into wisps of pure white mist that crazily poured into his body through his pores.

His once shriveled, exhausted meridians were now swollen tight with dense Soul Power.

"Buzz—"

The air suddenly trembled.

Ning Wuqian abruptly opened his eyes.

A shockwave spread outward in a ring from his body, forcibly leveling several small dunes in the distance.

His Soul Power had broken through Level 10! He had successfully advanced to become a Soul Master.

Fifteen days!

From a cripple with blocked meridians, he had directly crossed the threshold that ordinary people needed years of bitter cultivation to overcome.

This cultivation speed was far too much faster than the outside world's.

Outside the Sky Curtain, the entire Douluo Continent fell silent for a moment before erupting into an uproar.

Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Ning Fengzhi sprang up from his chair, his thigh knocking over the tea table before him.

Scalding tea splashed over the top of his foot, leaving a patch of red, but he did not even blink.

"Level 10! In half a month, he went from a useless nobody with no Soul Power to Level 10 by sheer force!"

Both his hands gripped the hall pillars tightly. His nails split apart, and wood splinters pierced his flesh.

"Our ancestor... Our ancestor has finally made something of himself!" Bone Douluo Gu Rong rubbed his hands excitedly and could not help sighing. He was even more thrilled than when Ning Rongrong had awakened her Martial Soul.

During the previous Sky Curtain rankings, their Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had truly been rather embarrassing.

Although he was only a Level 10 Soul Master now, it was still far better than before.

Spirit Hall.

Bibi Dong tore off her luxurious papal cloak and viciously threw it to the ground.

Her chest heaved violently, her breathing so heavy it sounded like bellows.

The effects of this Fire Domain were ten times more terrifying than she had expected!

It could create a Soul Master in half a month!

What about half a year? What about a year?

If Spirit Hall could control such a secret realm, what Upper Three Sects, what two great empires? They would all be nothing but chickens and dogs!

They could directly nurture elite younger-generation Soul Masters!

Inside the Sky Curtain.

Ning Wuqian stood up and brushed the dust from his clothes.

He stretched his limbs, his bones cracking in a series of crisp pops like bursting beans.

His entire body brimmed with strength.

So this was what being a Soul Master felt like?

He clenched his fist and turned to look at Tang Potian, who stood nearby.

"Come on. I'll take you to see the defensive line our master established." Tang Potian waved a hand, and a massive jet-black hammer appeared out of thin air, carrying them both into the sky.

A fierce wind howled past their ears.

Ning Wuqian looked down at the earth below.

At the edge of his vision lay an endless primeval forest. Towering ancient trees blotted out the sky, radiating a savage, ancient aura that made his heart tremble.

The Star Dou Great Forest!

Ning Wuqian's heart skipped a beat.

This was humanity's absolute forbidden zone, a deadly land that devoured people whole.

It was said that even the Soul Beasts on the outskirts had cultivation levels of over a thousand years, and once one ventured deeper, even Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were not uncommon.

Hearing Ning Wuqian's words, the Chat Group members were all shaken.

[Yu Xiaogang: The Soul Beasts on the outskirts have thousand-year cultivation??? Are you kidding me? That's way too absurd!]

[Tang San: Even ordinary hundred-year Soul Beasts need to be carefully sought out. In the Star Dou Great Forest twenty thousand years ago, there were quite a few thousand-year Soul Beasts even on the outskirts?]

But now...

He rubbed his eyes, thinking he had seen wrong.

At the forest's edge, pressed right up against rows of towering ancient trees, stood massive clusters of buildings.

On the left, a mountain had been cut cleanly in half, and an enormous fortress was built against it. A giant black hammer totem hung from its walls.

The Clear Sky Sect!

Not far to the right stood a colossal pure-white hall radiating holy light, piercing into the clouds. Countless smaller palaces surrounded it.

Spirit Hall!

Farther away stood a magnificent temple shrouded in pale blue ripples, where a huge statue of the Sea God's Trident could vaguely be seen.

Sea God Hall!

Beyond those, more than a dozen smaller yet equally imposing sect strongholds were under construction in full swing.

Countless craftsmen and Soul Masters moved back and forth among massive stones and lumber like a swarm of crazed flying ants relocating their nest.

All these superpowers had, without prior agreement, established their headquarters along the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest!

This made no sense at all!

Ning Wuqian felt his scalp go numb as cold sweat streamed down his back.

Had these people gone insane?

His mind was already racing through the possibilities.

Building their sects on the edge certainly made hunting Soul Beasts convenient.

But once a Beast Tide began, they would be the first to bear the brunt of it!

There was no buffer zone, no strategic depth.

Once the walls fell, the elderly, weak, sick, and disabled within the sect would have nowhere to run!

This was a strategy that left them no way out at all!

He swallowed hard and pointed at the buildings below, his finger trembling violently.

"Clear Sky Sect Master... Are you tired of living? You know perfectly well what's inside the Star Dou Great Forest. Building here is just waiting to die, isn't it?"

Tang Potian stood with one hand behind his back, facing the gale. Not a single strand of his hair was out of place.

He shot Ning Wuqian a glance and snorted coldly.

"Without us, all of you would be finished!"

He extended a thick finger and drew a large circle through the air, encompassing all the sect strongholds below.

"Do you see these connected walls?"

"This is the defensive line!"

"Those beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest unleash a large-scale Beast Tide every year. They blot out the sky, and there's no end to killing them."

"If we didn't build the first defensive line here and hold them firmly inside the forest..."

He paused, his voice turning icy, thick with the stench of blood.

"Within three months, the humans of the Star Luo and Heaven Dou Empires would be gnawed down until not even bone fragments remained! Even terrifying Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts are difficult for a Title Douluo like me to defeat."

"Once a year?! And even Title Douluo can't beat them?" Ning Wuqian cried out in shock.

Outside the Sky Curtain.

The Chat Group instantly exploded.

[Star Luo Emperor Dai Tianli: A Beast Tide once a year? What kind of joke is that! Historical records clearly state that Beast Tides only occur once every century, and only when the human Soul Master world suffers a gap in strength!]

[Heaven Dou Emperor Xue Ye: That's impossible! If Beast Tides twenty thousand years ago happened once a year, how did the ancestors of that era even survive? How many lives would have had to be sacrificed?]

[Spirit Hall Worshipper Qian Daoliu: Resisting the entire Star Dou Great Forest's assault every year... Even the current Spirit Hall couldn't endure that level of consumption for three years!]

[Sword Douluo Chen Xin: No wonder Soul Masters back then were so terrifyingly strong. They were forged from mountains of corpses! Kill, or be killed!]

[Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan Master Yu Yuanzhen: They used their sects as shields and blocked the entrance to the Star Dou Great Forest?]

The royal members of both empires were all trembling, cold sweat soaking through their inner clothes.

The danger of Douluo Continent twenty thousand years ago had utterly exceeded their understanding.

That had not been an age of flourishing cultivation at all, but a human hell where entire clans could be wiped out at any moment!

A Beast Tide every year meant that every year, tens of thousands of Soul Masters died on the battlefield.

This high-intensity war machine had forcibly produced countless peerless powerhouses.

Inside the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace.

Xue Ye slumped on his dragon throne, feeling waves of coldness creep down his back.

These Soul Beasts had actually been so terrifying ten thousand years ago?

Inside the Sky Curtain.

Tang Potian withdrew his finger and slapped the back of Ning Wuqian's head.

The force was so great that Ning Wuqian nearly got slapped straight out of the sky.

"That's enough. These matters aren't for a rookie who just reached Level 10 to worry about."

Tang Potian controlled the giant hammer and suddenly accelerated. It turned into a streak of black light and plunged straight into the depths of the Star Dou Great Forest.

The fierce wind poured into Ning Wuqian's mouth, forcibly choking back the rest of his sentence.

"Right now, the most important thing is getting you your first Soul Ring. Your task is to help our master complete the Treasure Appraisal."