Iron Wall's roar exploded before his body moved.
Ten Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears charged out of the western passage like heavy tanks released from a gate. Their massive paws crushed the rocks along the lakeshore as they lined up by the water, forming a dark golden line of death.
Su Chen stood behind the wall of flesh and blood they had formed, his gaze piercing through three hundred zhang of dim water vapor as he stared fixedly at the center of the lake.
That Seventy-Thousand-Year Ancient Black Tortoise was crossing the lake.
It was not fast.
Yet every step it took upon the rocky lakebed sent a dull tremor through the entire underground space, as though the earth's pulse was beating in welcome of its arrival.
Its body tore a savage V-shaped wake across the water's surface.
It was not traveling.
It was inspecting its territory—and the invaders within it who were about to die.
The forty-two turtles arrayed on either side moved aside like the most loyal guards, opening a straight path for their king.
"Distance: two hundred zhang." Ling Shuang's trembling mental transmission sounded in Su Chen's mind, carrying a trace of fear even she had not noticed.
Su Chen raised a hand and issued a cold command.
"Thunder Eagles."
Ten Purple Lightning Thunder Eagles shot upward against the current, circling beneath the underground dome as violet electricity crackled at their wingtips. The ceiling was not high enough for them to execute a perfect death dive, but it was more than enough for a lightning bombardment.
"Ten Thousand Thunders Descend."
In an instant, ten violet lightning pillars as thick as water barrels tore through the darkness and crashed down, striking the giant tortoise shell with flawless precision!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom—!
Lightning instantly lit the entire underground lake as brightly as day!
Violent arcs scattered like serpents. The lake surface erupted into towering columns of water dozens of zhang high, while rolling steam rapidly filled the entire space.
Su Chen had not expected anything.
Sure enough.
As the steam dispersed, the old turtle's pace had not faltered in the slightest. The thick mineral crystals covering its shell had become perfect insulators, channeling the Ten-Thousand-Year Thunder Eagles' full-power strike entirely into the lake water.
The guardian turtle swarm in the water suffered instead. Several young turtles were electrocuted until they floated belly-up, only to be flipped back over by their companions moments later, looking utterly miserable.
"The Thunder Eagles are ineffective." Su Chen's voice remained completely calm. "Change targets. Clear the turtle swarm. Don't let the little ones come over and get in the way."
The Thunder Eagle flock immediately redirected its attacks and began indiscriminately bombarding the turtle swarm on both sides.
"One hundred and fifty zhang." Ling Shuang's warning was taut with strain.
"Iron Wall, enter the water. Intercept it."
"Roar!"
Iron Wall let out an earth-shaking battle roar and stepped into the lake first, with the ten Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears following close behind.
The water reached their bellies.
Their heavy bodies made them as steady as mountains in the shallows. Dark golden claws sliced through the water, throwing up two white waves as they charged straight toward the approaching mountain of flesh!
Iron Wall was the first to make contact.
Sky-Rending Claw!
Su Chen's strongest close-combat unit unleashed its most powerful single-target attack at that very moment!
Dark golden radiance condensed to its limit over Iron Wall's right claw, forming a razor-sharp blade of light that seemed capable of tearing space itself apart before it slashed down fiercely!
Screeeech—Craaaack—!!!
A metallic grinding shriek that made teeth ache to the marrow, mixed with an explosive howl, echoed through the entire cavern!
Sparks burst outward like a torrential downpour.
That ancient tortoise shell did not move in the slightest.
Iron Wall's Sky-Rending Claw had merely left a ridiculously shallow white scratch on the black shell.
The old turtle had not even lowered its proud head to look at Iron Wall from beginning to end.
It simply continued forward.
One step.
The aftershock of that single step blasted the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Iron Wall back three zhang, its massive bear paws gouging two bottomless trenches into the lakebed!
Su Chen's breathing stopped for an instant.
It could not be pierced.
The Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear's Sky-Rending Claw could tear through space, yet it could not break this old turtle's defenses.
That was not simple toughness.
It was devouring on the level of laws.
Iron Wall's attack power had been "eaten" by that shell.
"Ten bears, form up! Switch to a combined attack and stop it!" Su Chen's command followed immediately.
The ten Fearclaw Bears instantly shifted positions and formed a circular Dark Golden Iron Wall battle formation. They abandoned their useless attacks and instead gathered all their power into defense, attempting to block the old turtle's advance with their formation.
A defensive barrier amplified fifteenfold by the legion could withstand a Titled Douluo's ninth soul skill head-on on land!
However, the moment the old turtle collided with them, Su Chen understood just how terribly wrong he had been.
It did not use any skill.
It simply walked.
Thud.
A dull impact sounded.
It did not resemble a collision. It was more like an irresistible law of physics descending. The Dark Golden Iron Wall formation began to collapse from the front. Five Fearclaw Bears were shoved left by an unstoppable force, while the other five were squeezed to the right.
The entire formation crumbled apart instantly like a crushed biscuit.
Iron Wall, who had taken the impact head-on, was hurled away directly. Its huge body became a cannonball that smashed viciously into the distant rock wall by the shore, sending broken stones raining down!
Little Gold let out a shrill cry of grief.
"Shadow Leopards, flank it!"
Ten Nether Shadow Leopards leaped soundlessly from the shadows, their agile forms trailing black afterimages through the air.
But they had miscalculated.
Shadow Leopards were kings of darkness on land, but this was a water domain. Their paws landed on the slick turtle shell and instantly slipped, throwing their bodies off balance.
Three Shadow Leopards barely managed to cling to the side of its shell. Their claws scraped frantically, yet they could not leave even the faintest white mark.
"Fall back!" Su Chen gritted his teeth.
The Shadow Leopards were his sharpest blades, but this blade could not cut through a mountain.
One hundred zhang.
The old turtle was only one hundred zhang from the entrance to the western passage.
Then it stopped.
Su Chen's heart suddenly clenched.
Not because it had been stopped.
But because it was about to strike.
That savage head covered in rock-like skin extended fully from the shell. Its cloudy, nearly pure-white eyes slowly closed.
The next second.
With the old turtle as its center, a ring of ink-black ripples spread soundlessly in every direction.
Black.
A pure black capable of devouring all light, devouring all hope.
The lake water was changing.
The originally dark green lake water was visibly assimilated by those black ripples, turning into a stranger liquid that was deeper, thicker, and colder.
Netherworld Water.
"Everyone! Get off the water!" Su Chen's roar exploded in everyone's mind.
Too late.
The five Fearclaw Bears still struggling in the water became the first victims.
The instant Netherworld Water touched their legs, the dark golden fur they had been so proud of turned ash-gray.
That was not frostbite.
Their life force itself was being forcibly erased, reversed into death!
The movements of the five Ten-Thousand-Year Fearclaw Bears instantly froze, as though they had sunk into a mire of time. Even struggling became unbearably slow, and they could only watch helplessly as death spread from their legs through their entire bodies.
"Yan Wuji!" Su Chen roared.
Yan Wuji had long since pressed both palms to the ground. His Profound Ice Forbidden Domain erupted at full power, attempting to freeze the lake surface from the shore and stop the black death from spreading.
The ice advanced three zhang.
Then it stopped.
Web-like cracks appeared across the ice. Black liquid seeped out in reverse through the fissures with a sizzling sound, corroding and devouring Yan Wuji's profound ice inch by inch.
Yan Wuji's face turned pale as paper.
His Profound Ice Forbidden Domain was being suppressed in reverse!
That was not water at all!
That was the Seventy-Thousand-Year Black Tortoise's domain! Within this water domain, it was the law itself!
"I can't freeze it!" Yan Wuji retreated three steps in a rush. The webs between his thumbs and forefingers had split open, dripping with blood.
The Netherworld Water Domain did not stop expanding.
Before long, the entire underground lake had completely transformed into a silent black abyss.
Jiang Tieyi roared and rushed to the water's edge. Ignoring everything else, he reached out to drag the two Fearclaw Bears nearest the shore back onto land.
Sizzle!
The instant his right arm entered the black water, his flesh gave off a scorched stench. His entire forearm turned charred black, as though it had been viciously branded by red-hot iron.
"Fuck!" He gritted his teeth and forcibly dragged the two half-dead Fearclaw Bears ashore, while his own right arm had blackened from his fingertips all the way to his shoulder.
Chu Yao rushed over and scattered handful after handful of precious antidote powder over his wound.
It was useless.
The black corrosion continued to spread.
She switched to a second kind, then a third...
At last, the spread was barely contained, but the necrotic portions could never recover.
"What about poison mist?" Mo Qianye asked urgently.
"Try blowing some over that water's surface," Chu Yao said, her face cold as frost. "The vapor evaporating from Netherworld Water will turn your poison mist into a death miasma that spreads even farther. All of us will be affected!"
A dead end.
They could not break its physical defenses, energy attacks were nullified, their domain was suppressed, and they did not dare use poison.
"Is there seriously nothing that can hurt this damned thing?!" Jiang Tieyi clutched his half-ruined arm, veins bulging on his forehead.
Su Chen did not answer.
He was not looking at Jiang Tieyi's injury, nor was he looking at the dying Fearclaw Bears.
While everyone else retreated, rescued the wounded, cursed, and despaired, Su Chen's eyes remained fixed on the old turtle from beginning to end.
They had not moved away for even a second.
His mind was operating beyond its limits, breaking down, analyzing, and reconstructing every scene and every detail that had just occurred!
The Thunder Eagles' attack.
Iron Wall's collision.
The path, speed, and energy fluctuations of the Netherworld Water Domain's spread...
Then.
He caught it.
At the instant the Netherworld Water Domain spread out from the old turtle's body, there had been a detail that lasted less than three seconds, one nearly impossible to notice—
The old turtle's head and limbs had contracted ever so slightly.
At that very moment, the lower edge of its mountain-like tortoise shell had lifted slightly, opening the faintest gap.
Through that gap, Su Chen saw it!
At the junction between its tortoise shell and plastron was a ring of dark brown core scales.
During the three seconds when the Netherworld Water Domain was unleashed, those scales opened like fish gills, frantically drawing in and expelling dense black energy!
Three seconds later, the scales closed, the gap vanished, and its defenses became flawless once more.
"All forces—fall back!"
Su Chen issued the command at that moment. His voice was not loud, but it carried a decisive chill.
Everyone immediately retreated, pulling back deep into the entrance of the western passage.
All the Abyss Seven Generals turned their eyes toward him.
"We... can beat it?" Jiang Tieyi's voice was hoarse, filled with unwillingness.
"We can."
Su Chen crouched down and drew a circle in the dust-covered ground with his finger, representing a tortoise shell.
Then, at the very bottom of the circle, where the abdomen would be, he pressed down hard with his fingertip and marked a point.
"When it releases its domain, its abdominal core is exposed."
Everyone's breathing froze at the same time.
Su Chen slowly rose to his feet, his gaze passing over each of the companions he trusted most. Cold flames burned in those black eyes.
"The opening it leaves us lasts only three seconds."
"And I..." Su Chen's voice brimmed with endless killing intent and confidence, "only need those three seconds."
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