The human coalition had only just purged the remaining forces of the Soul Hall and reorganized its defenses along the Northern Region's border when another earth-shaking disturbance came from the direction of the Ancient Wilds.
A pitch-black beast tide swept in like storm clouds once more, massing beyond the Northern Region's border with murderous intent soaring into the heavens.
Yet to everyone's surprise, the beast tide did not attack at once. Instead, it stopped a thousand miles away, facing off against the human defenses from afar.
Immediately afterward, a figure radiating the aura of a Two-Star Dou Sheng stepped into the air from within the beast tide.
The newcomer was tall and slender, with blue-gray skin and cold gray mist curling around his body. His arms were covered in scales, and several long chi-dragon whiskers hung from his chin. He was none other than Cold Bone Marquis, one of the ten vicious beast saints.
He came alone before the human defenses and spoke in a cold, utterly emotionless voice. Every word reached the ears of everyone present with perfect clarity.
"Our commander has issued an order."
"My race is willing to enter a temporary one-year truce with the human race."
"One year from now, we will clash again at this border. However, neither side may deploy experts at the Half-Saint realm or above. Only cultivators at the Dou Venerable realm and below may determine the victor!"
The moment this news emerged, the entire Northern Region defense line erupted into an uproar!
A truce?
And one proposed voluntarily by the vicious beasts, who held an absolute advantage?
How was that possible?!
Inside the central command tent, the human race's upper echelons gathered once more, every face filled with shock and suspicion.
"Absurd! Utterly absurd!" Fire Cloud Ancestor, known for his fiery