Earth Tide!

Two hours later.

Su Chen opened his eyes.

The forest outside the cave was dying.

This was not the withering brought by changing seasons, but the desolation left after some vital essence had been forcibly drained away.

When the wind swept through the treetops, it no longer carried the rustling of leaves, but sharp cracks like splintering bones.

"Shadow Leopards, expand your scouting range to three hundred zhang."

Su Chen rose to his feet and brushed stone chips from his pant legs.

The ten Nether Shadow Leopards had long been lying in wait within the shadows. At his command, they turned into streaks of black light and vanished into the forest.

In Su Chen's mind, a panoramic map woven from mental links instantly unfolded.

To the north, the path crushed flat by the beast tide resembled a blood-red corridor forcibly torn open.

Fallen ancient trees, shattered rock formations, and thickets trampled into mud silently testified to the earlier madness.

But this was not the most terrifying part.

In the image sent back by Shadow Leopard Number Three, a hemlock tree thick enough to require several people to encircle it was rapidly turning to charcoal.

There was no fire and no infestation, yet its bark peeled away as its branches twisted into the posture of a dying creature.

In barely a dozen breaths, emerald green turned ash-gray before finally crumbling into powder on the wind.

"Earth Tide."

Yan Wuji stepped closer, pressing his palm firmly against the soil.

His icy-blue detection ripples pushed less than two hundred zhang north before a tyrannical force knocked them back.

"The spiritual energy in the Star Dou Great Forest Core Area has gone out of control."

Yan Wuji closed his eyes, his face pale from the effort of holding himself back.

"Every thousand years, ancient spiritual energy accumulated underground surges up through the cracks. Its concentration becomes high enough to destroy all life."

Ye Linglong watched the powder scatter in the wind, her brow tightly furrowed.

"So even Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts have to flee?"

"They have to."

Yan Wuji pointed at the circle he had drawn on the ground.

"To them, this level of spiritual energy concentration is not medicine. It is deadly poison."

"If they remain in their territories, their Soul Cores will burst apart instantly."

Su Chen stared at the deathly blackness to the north.

Through the Shadow Leopards' vision, the circle of decay was still steadily expanding outward.

The Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts were being forced from their dens.

They had abandoned the advantages of territories they had cultivated for centuries, cast aside their hordes of followers, and become stray dogs fleeing for their lives.

"Look."

Su Chen stepped onto the rough map Yan Wuji had drawn.

"In the past, hunting Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts meant breaking formations, guarding against ambushes, fighting wars of attrition, and even watching out for their desperate counterattack at the brink of death."

"That was like storming a fortified city, with death lurking at every turn."

Jiang Tieyi stuffed jerky into his mouth and answered indistinctly, "So what about now?"

"Now the city walls have collapsed, and all the defenders are dead."

Su Chen spoke slowly, but his voice carried an unquestionable killing intent.

"All we have to do is wait along the route they must take to escape."

"And kill them one by one."

The cave fell into deathly silence.

Yan Wuji was the first to react. He looked at the three arcs Su Chen had drawn across the map.

"You want to set an ambush in the southern passage?"

"Not an ambush."

Su Chen corrected him.

"A harvest."

He jabbed hard at the middle section of the passage.

"Fearclaw Bears, form a line and seal the front."

"Thunder Eagles, take to the air and lock down the high ground. Anyone who flies gets struck down."

"Shadow Leopards, hide on both sides. Once the target hits the bear formation, cut in from behind."

"Encircle them from three sides. Leave no survivors."

A strange glint flashed through Mo Qianye's eyes.

"A lone Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, without terrain or guards, will lose at least thirty percent of its combat strength."

"We will be waiting at our leisure. This is an overwhelming advantage."

Jiang Tieyi swallowed his jerky and slapped his thigh.

"Big Brother, is your brain made of iron? Other people come in here to risk their lives, but you came in to stock up on goods!"

Su Chen ignored him and turned to Ye Linglong.

"How far can the Annihilation Demon Eyes see?"

Ye Linglong closed her eyes, her silver lashes trembling faintly.

"If they do not deliberately conceal themselves, no Ten-Thousand-Year-level spiritual energy fluctuations can escape me within eight hundred zhang."

"Good enough. You are the radar."

Su Chen looked over everyone before his gaze finally settled on the depths of the north.

There, that "wall" impenetrable to mental power still stood.

"The thing is still there."

"Earth Tide cannot harm it. That means its level is far beyond that of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."

"We will not touch it, but it may come to watch the show."

The breath Jiang Tieyi had just let out caught in his throat again.

"So we move fast."

Su Chen swung himself onto Iron Wall's back.

"From contact to kill, the whole process cannot exceed a quarter of an hour."

"Anyone who slows us down will stay behind to feed that monster."

Iron Wall let out a low roar, its dark-gold claws scraping across the rocks and throwing up piercing sparks.

The ten Fearclaw Bears formed a column, each step shaking loose stones into the air.

Thunder Eagles circled above the canopy like grim reapers patrolling their territory.

The group advanced north along the ruins left by the beast tide.

The muddy stench in the air grew heavier, while the oppressive spiritual energy made everyone's skin ache faintly.

"The spiritual energy concentration is still rising."

Yan Wuji hurried alongside Su Chen, his voice lowered.

"It is rising faster than the records say. Within three days, this place will become a dead zone too."

Su Chen did not turn around.

"Then we will finish everything within three days."

Ahead, the outline of a cliff emerged from the gray-white dead forest.

Two steep stone walls enclosed a narrow path less than five zhang wide.

A natural execution ground.

"Fearclaw Bears, seal the entrance."

"Thunder Eagles, take the cliff top."

"Shadow Leopards, enter the woods. Stay silent."

Thirty mental links tightened at once.

Like precisely meshing gears, the legion instantly locked down the entire passage.

Su Chen led the others back into the shadows beneath the cliff wall.

Jiang Tieyi hunched his burly frame and squeezed in beside Chu Yao.

"Miss Chu, make some room. The wind is strong outside."

"Get lost."

Chu Yao's gu insects stirred restlessly at her fingertips, but her eyes remained fixed on the north.

Su Chen closed his eyes, and his mental power completely overlapped with Ye Linglong's sensory network.

To the north, the earth was silently splitting apart.

A flood of ancient spiritual energy was erupting from the depths of the earth.

Those once-unrivaled rulers of the wilderness were stepping over the corpses of their own kind, walking step by step into the meat grinder Su Chen had prepared.

Hunters needed no pity.

Only patience.