The ground trembled.
It was not a steady vibration, but chaotic, frenzied impacts—as if hundreds of war drums had been shattered at once, their drummers driven mad.
The rotting leaves beneath Su Chen's feet bounced, and an aura of terror seeped from the cracks in the soil.
The images sent back by the Shadow Leopards exploded in his mind: to the due north, a "flood" half a mile wide was brutally sweeping forward.
It was not water. It was beasts.
Hundreds of Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were crammed together. Ironspine Wild Boars' tusks tore through Scarletflame Python scales, while Rockhorn Rhinos' heavy hooves snapped their companions' tails.
Those predators that normally fought to the death had completely lost all sense of territory.
Their eyes were bloodshot, and they had only one thought: south, escape.
They did not even spare Su Chen a glance.
That was the most chilling part.
"A beast tide." Yan Wuji abruptly rose to his feet, a crack appearing in his usual refined mask. "No, this is a rout!"
A true beast tide was an invasion, the destruction of everything in its path.
But in the eyes of these creatures, only one word remained—life.
Su Chen made his judgment in an instant.
"Everyone, move west. Stick close to the cliff face! Fearclaw Bears, form up on the left flank! Thunder Eagles, take to the air!"
Thirty mental links trembled at once.
The Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bear pack moved with a thunderous roar. Ten massive beasts formed a heavy arc, wedging the group tightly between the cliff wall and the wall of bears.
The Purple Lightning Thunder Eagles beat their wings and soared higher. Lightning burst between their feathers above the treetops, illuminating the chaos below.
The beast tide came too fast, too broad.
When the first wave struck, Iron Wall planted all four limbs firmly and slammed both palms into the earth.
A dark golden shockwave exploded from its palms, forcefully knocking three leading Rockhorn Rhinos off course.
The Fearclaw Bears at its side exerted their strength at the same time. Their dark golden force fields joined together, like a reef splitting open a gap in the beast tide.
Soul Beasts surged past from both sides like a flood.
Su Chen's gaze swept rapidly over the formation, his expression turning faintly cold.
Two people were missing.
"Jiang Tieyi! Chu Yao!"
A ghostly light shone from Ye Linglong's crimson eyes as she pointed southeast. "They were swept into the gorge. Three hundred zhang away. Their auras are still there."
Three hundred zhang.
Su Chen held two fingers together like a blade, and five mental links shot from his fingertips, precisely locking onto five Nether Shadow Leopards.
"Numbers Three, Five, and Seven, enter through the gorge's north entrance. Numbers One and Nine, circle around to the south entrance. Bring them back within fifteen breaths."
The Shadow Leopards vanished.
They melted directly into the shadows on the ground, leaving behind not even a ripple.
"The rest of you, follow me."
Su Chen raced along the cliff face, splitting his mental power to its limit: half maintained his own route, while the other half synchronized with the Shadow Leopards' vision.
--
The gorge was not deep, but it was astonishingly narrow.
The stone walls pressed in from both sides, leaving only four zhang of space. Once the rushing beast horde flooded in, their desperate flight turned into a brutal stampede.
A Scarletflame Python was knocked over, its thick body lying across the middle of the gorge and instead creating a strange pocket of empty space behind it.
Jiang Tieyi was crouched in that gap.
One hand pressed against Chu Yao's shoulder, shielding her tightly behind him, while his other hand gripped his martial soul.
The phantom of a Savage Ancient Ape rose behind him, every strand of its dark brown fur standing on end.
The ground beneath his feet had sunk half an inch, a sign that his gravity field was operating beyond its limit.
"Miss Chu, are you all right?"
"If you don't take that hand away, I'll make sure you aren't."
Jiang Tieyi coughed awkwardly and sheepishly withdrew his hand.
The Scarletflame Python had been enraged by the stampede. Its tail swept wildly, smashing an Ironspine Wild Boar into a bloody heap of shattered bones.
But as it turned over, it exposed the shadow beneath its belly.
A crystalline giant pincer stabbed out from the rubble.
A Millennium Amethyst Venom Scorpion.
This vicious creature had clearly been driven mad by the crush as well. Purple venom dripped from its tail hook onto the ground, and the rocks instantly gave off foul-smelling smoke.
The venom scorpion was beyond reason. Right now, it only wanted to kill everything in front of it.
"Move."
Chu Yao stepped past Jiang Tieyi, her tone cold as ice.
"Have you gone mad? That's a Thousand-Year venom scorpion! One strike from that tail could pierce through my—"
"Shut up."
Chu Yao raised her right hand. A thumb-sized emerald-green gu insect rested in her palm.
The phantom of the Myriad-Poison Gu Mother quietly bloomed behind her, like a dark purple demonic flower opening in an abyss.
The venom scorpion's tail hook stabbed forward, trailing afterimages.
Chu Yao neither dodged nor retreated.
She raised her left hand, spreading her five fingers through the air.
Third Soul Skill—Hundred Poisons Return to Origin.
The purple venom came to an eerie halt three inches from her palm.
It was not blocked.
It was devoured.
The deadly poison condensed into a thin line and slipped through Chu Yao's fingers into her palm, greedily sucked into the gu insect's belly.
The venom scorpion froze for an instant.
It frantically spewed out more poisonous mist, its concentration increasing severalfold in a moment.
An unusual flush appeared on Chu Yao's face.
It was pure energy fed back to its host after the gu insect digested the toxins.
The meridians damaged in the collision were rapidly repairing themselves.
The Thousand-Year venom scorpion emptied the poison it had accumulated over several months, only to discover that the human girl before it had not collapsed. Instead, she looked even healthier.
It turned and ran.
After two steps, it stumbled over its own massive pincers.
Chu Yao looked down at it from above, disgust in her eyes. "That's it?"
Jiang Tieyi leaned against the stone wall, looking as if he had seen a ghost. "Miss Chu, that martial soul of yours... do poison-type Soul Beasts have to kneel and call you ancestor when they see you?"
"Say one more word, and I'll feed you next time."
"I'll shut up."
A sharp whistling sound came from above.
Three black figures leaped down from the gorge overhead. The Shadow Leopards landed before Chu Yao and obediently lowered their backs.
Chu Yao swung herself onto one of the leopards with a clean, efficient motion.
Jiang Tieyi looked at the remaining two Shadow Leopards, then at his own burly six-foot-three frame.
The Shadow Leopards turned their heads away in disgust.
"...Fine, I'll run myself."
--
The beast tide continued for half an hour.
Su Chen directed the Fearclaw Bear pack to form up at the mouth of a rock cave, forcibly withstanding the sporadic impacts.
By the time Jiang Tieyi and Chu Yao returned to the group, the tide was nearing its end.
Su Chen examined the two of them. Seeing that neither was seriously hurt, he nodded slightly.
"Are you injured?"
"Just scratches." Jiang Tieyi patted his chest. "The ancient ape's hide is thick. I can take it."
Su Chen looked at Chu Yao. She turned her head away. "What are you looking at? I'm not as obedient as your bears."
Su Chen withdrew his gaze without taking it to heart.
Ye Linglong leaned close to his ear and lowered her voice. "She drained a Thousand-Year venom scorpion dry. Her gu insect evolved."
Understanding dawned on Su Chen.
The Myriad-Poison Gu Mother used poison to nurture gu. The poisonous creatures in this forest were death sentences to others, but powerful tonics to her.
"Where do we go next?" Yan Wuji crouched at the cave entrance, drawing a simple map in the dirt with his fingertip.
Su Chen walked over. His gaze swept over the map before turning north, toward the direction the beast tide had fled.
Hundreds of Thousand-Year Soul Beasts had fled south without a shred of dignity.
There had been no hunting, no fighting—only pure terror.
He looked into the depths of the forest.
The sky there was unnaturally dark, and the air seemed to have become viscous as it continuously sank.
The "wall" his mental power had touched earlier lay in that direction.
"It's clearing the field," Su Chen said slowly.
Yan Wuji's hand stiffened.
Mo Qianye opened his eyes, his tone grave. "Clearing the field? For what?"
Su Chen did not answer.
But he understood clearly. A being capable of making hundreds of Thousand-Year Soul Beasts flee in unison was actively driving every creature from its territory.
It was not hunting, nor was it showing off its might.
It was making room.
Making room for an absolutely silent battlefield, free from all interference.
It was waiting for an opponent worthy of it.
Su Chen raised his hand and lightly brushed Iron Wall's cold, heavy dark golden claws.
"Rest for two hours."
Su Chen leaned against the stone wall and closed his eyes.
"Then we head north."
Jiang Tieyi swallowed and muttered quietly, "Big brother, you really aren't afraid of dying."
Su Chen did not open his eyes. His tone was calm as still water.
"Those afraid of death have no right to enter this forest."
Outside the cave, the final lingering tremors faded, and the woods sank into deathly silence.
In the darkness to the north, that presence was still waiting patiently.
Before you continue