Three days later, on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The morning mist had yet to disperse, but the Withered Land at the forest's edge was already a complete mess once more.
In just a few days, the lifeless area had expanded several more miles outward. The forest within a radius of over ten miles had withered away completely, and gray-black vines crawled over dead trees and rubble like the veins of some enormous creature spread across the ground.
Outside the forest, a Soul Master legion of nearly a hundred stood in formation, waiting.
Their standard battle robes snapped in the morning wind, and the Spirit Hall emblems embroidered in gold thread over their chests were especially eye-catching.
At the front of the group stood a slender middle-aged man dressed in luxurious purple-gold robes. His long hair was black as ink, and his handsome face was almost bewitchingly beautiful. In his hand, he held a strange golden Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum.
Beside him stood a gaunt old man with a hunched back, draped in a gray cloak. His hood concealed most of his face, revealing only a pair of eyes glowing with an eerie green light.
Simply standing there, the two gave off a terrifying pressure that left the surrounding Soul Masters struggling to breathe.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan. Ghost Douluo Gui Mei.
The two great Titled Douluo of Spirit Hall had led the Elite Corps here through the night immediately after receiving the Pontiff's Decree.
Among the nearly hundred-man force, aside from the two Titled Douluo, there were three Soul Douluo, more than ten Soul Saints, over twenty Soul Emperors, and everyone else was at least a Soul King.
Such a lineup was enough to flatten any major city on the continent, or even confront the main