Summon Ten Ten-Thousand-Year Black Tortoises (Fourth Soul Skill)

Ten minutes.

Su Chen had used only ten minutes to sketch out the entire outline of the underground lake on the dust-covered ground.

The hidden courses of every underground river, the exact elevation differences along every rock wall, the subtle changes in water depth, even the old turtle's fixed patrol route—all of it came from the root-sensing Ling Shuang had unleashed earlier.

Now, beneath Su Chen's fingertips, that fragmented information had been assembled into a deadly tactical map.

"First step: drain the water."

Su Chen's finger pressed heavily onto the convergence point of the three underground rivers at the lakebed. He looked up at Ling Shuang.

"Can your Earthvein Vines reach deep into the riverbeds?"

Ling Shuang lowered her eyes. Two seconds later, she uttered only one word.

"Yes."

She added, "But I can't block them off. At that depth, the water pressure would crush my vines outright."

"They don't need to be completely sealed." Su Chen's gaze sharpened. "Block seventy percent of the flow. If the water level drops half a foot per minute, that's enough. How many roots can you spare?"

"...Enough."

Ling Shuang said no more. She sat down cross-legged, pressed both palms against the ground, and emerald light seeped from between her fingers into the hard rock.

Silently, hundreds of Earthvein Vines became a swarm of underground serpents, drilling frantically through cracks in the rocks toward the beds of those three underground rivers.

"Second step: clear the field."

Su Chen turned his gaze toward Chu Yao.

"The old turtle's Netherworld Water has bloodline suppression over the guard turtles too. They only remain in the water because instinct outweighs fear. What if something could break that instinct?"

Chu Yao did not even need to think. Her hand was already reaching into her medicine pouch.

"Red Bee Pollen." She drew out a sealed bamboo tube.

"It isn't poisonous, but it severely stimulates a soul beast's olfactory center and triggers its most primitive territorial anxiety. It won't work on that seventy-thousand-year-old monster, but those thousand-year guards..."

"They'll think enemies have invaded their respective nests, abandon their formation, and scatter to defend them." Su Chen finished for her.

Chu Yao nodded and handed the bamboo tube to a Shadow Leopard beside her.

The Shadow Leopard clamped the tube in its jaws, flickered, and melted into the shadows of the cavern.

In less than three minutes, ripples suddenly surged across the lake.

The thousand-year Black Tortoises that had stood in orderly formation became restless one after another. They no longer held their ranks and began swimming chaotically toward the various branches of the underground rivers, clumsily shoving aside their companions and releasing low, mournful cries.

The guards had scattered.

At the same time, the lake's waterline was visibly dropping.

The rock walls once submerged beneath the water gradually lost their wet sheen, exposing black silt and broken stones that had been soaked for years.

The overlord that had slept for who knew how many centuries finally noticed something was wrong.

Its cloudy white eyes slowly turned, sweeping across the empty lake surface.

The guards were gone.

The water level was falling.

It let out a low cry, so deep humans could barely hear it.

It was not anger, but the displeasure of having its peace disturbed.

Like a sleeping emperor discovering ants crawling onto his dragon throne.

"It's moving." Su Chen's voice was extremely low. "Everyone, take your assigned positions."

The water level continued to fall.

The old turtle's belly began to emerge into the air. Its shell, covered in thick mineral crystals, glimmered darkly beneath the cavern's faint light. A black fortress awakened from ancient times was revealing its savage form.

It began moving toward the shore.

Not because it had been forced.

But because it chose to.

It wanted to come ashore itself and crush these reckless intruders.

"Now."

Su Chen swung his arm sharply!

Ten Fearclaw Bears roared as they charged out from behind the rock walls on both sides, forming a semicircular iron-clad formation along the shore and completely sealing off the old turtle's only landing route.

This was not an attacking formation.

It was a hunting cage.

They needed to do only one thing—leave this massive beast no path of retreat once it came ashore!

The old turtle's forelimbs stepped onto the lakeshore.

The entire underground space shuddered violently.

"Ye Linglong."

Su Chen's voice was as cold as if it had risen from the depths of the underworld.

"Wait for my signal. You only have one chance."

On a protruding stone platform at the top of the western passage, Ye Linglong stood silently.

Her eyes had already changed from emerald green to an unfathomable, pure violet-black.

The power of the Annihilation Demon Eyes was accumulating wildly. Veins bulged at her temples, and a thread of warm blood seeped from her nose.

She did not wipe it away.

The old turtle was completely ashore.

Its hill-like body lay across the center of the underground space, blocking everyone's view. Its head slowly turned toward Su Chen. There was not the slightest emotion in those cloudy white eyes, only eternal stillness and indifference.

Then it closed its eyes.

The same warning sign as when it had been in the lake!

With it as the center, a ring of ink-black death ripples spread outward once more!

This time, the medium was no longer water, but air and earth!

Nether Domain!

The ground was transforming, the air was congealing, and the aura of death became a tangible tide rushing toward them!

"Now!"

Su Chen's roar exploded!

Ye Linglong's pupils suddenly erupted with destructive violet light!

Annihilation Eye—All Things Return to Void!

An invisible mental shockwave burst from her eyes, crossing three hundred zhang in an instant and piercing the old turtle's consciousness with absolute precision!

For the first time in its seventy-thousand-year life, the Black Tortoise was deprived of all perception of the outside world.

It did not know what had happened.

It did not know where the enemy was.

It did not know where the attack had come from.

It knew only one thing: its domain was being unleashed, and the core scales on its belly were opening.

And it could not close them.

"One second!" Ling Shuang's sharp voice rang out.

Mo Qianye had already arrived directly beneath the old turtle's belly. His entire body transformed into a black sun capable of burning all things as he slammed straight into the turtle's underside!

Within the gaps of those core scales, spread open like fish gills, thick black energy was being frantically expelled and drawn in!

Mo Qianye slammed both palms onto that fatal gap!

Nether Phoenix Heavenly Flame forcibly poured in!

"Hiss—!!"

For the first time, a heart-rending scream erupted from the throat of that ancient beast! The black energy flow was cut off, ignited, and burned by the Nether Phoenix Heavenly Flame. The edges of its core scales instantly blackened and curled!

"Two seconds!"

Yan Wuji stepped forward, brought his palms together, and thrust them out!

Absolute Zero!

A pure white force of extreme cold surged madly through the crack burned open by the Nether Phoenix Heavenly Flame!

The alternating ice and fire drove the temperature difference within the shell to a destructive limit in an instant!

Crack!

Fine sounds like shattering porcelain came from deep within the shell.

"Three seconds!"

Jiang Tieyi launched himself into the air from a spring platform Ling Shuang had instantly constructed from vines.

His left fist—the only arm he could still use—clutched a sharp stone frozen by Yan Wuji's Absolute Zero to the utmost hardness.

All the bloodline power of the Savage Ancient Ape gathered there.

Without a word, he poured all his will and all his strength into that remaining left fist.

One punch fell.

Bang—!!!

A horrifying, penetrating crack appeared across the seventy-thousand-year Black Tortoise's shell, renowned for its absolute defense!

The crack burst forth from its belly and spread like a spiderweb across its entire side along the fragile stress lines created by the alternating ice and fire.

The old turtle's body trembled violently. Its limbs instinctively drew inward as it tried to retreat into its shell, but that crack had caused its defensive system to suffer irreversible collapse for the first time.

Its white eyes opened again.

The three seconds of sensory deprivation had ended.

Its gaze finally refocused.

It saw Su Chen.

That tiny young man, who had done nothing but watch from beginning to end, now stood before it.

No weapon.

No armor.

No posture of attack.

He merely raised his right hand and gently pressed his palm against that savage crack.

Within him, the dormant Supreme Summoner martial soul completely awakened at that moment!

With a thunderous boom, the phantom of a Void Throne vast enough to blot out the sky manifested behind Su Chen!

Upon the throne, the first three of the nine Spirit Ring slots shone with dazzling black light. Meanwhile, the fourth slot flickered more violently than ever before, emitting an ancient hum!

That was not soul power.

That was authority.

A power older than soul power, deeper than laws themselves, seeped through Su Chen's palm and into the old turtle's body.

The seventy-thousand-year Black Tortoise's pupils suddenly contracted to a point.

What it sensed was fear and... reverence, carved into the deepest part of its bloodline since the moment it was born.

That was the mark of a king!

In ancient times, above all beasts, there had once existed a supreme being who ruled over every soul beast.

It was not slaughter. It was not conquest.

It was submission.

It was the most primordial and irresistible instinct within every soul beast's bloodline—when the throne appeared, all beasts bowed their heads!

The old turtle stopped struggling.

Its massive body slowly lowered. Its limbs drew in, its head bowed inch by inch, until that enormous head covered in rocky patterns gently touched the ground by Su Chen's feet.

Boom—!

Behind Su Chen, the fourth Spirit Ring slot blazed with brilliant light!

Black!

A black Spirit Ring, so deep it seemed capable of devouring all light, slowly condensed into form.

Seventy thousand years!

Light swept across the entire underground space, forcing everyone to close their eyes.

When the radiance faded.

At Su Chen's feet, ten even larger ten-thousand-year Black Tortoises stepped slowly out of the void.

Their shells were carved with profound ancient patterns. Every step they took caused a layer of pale golden defensive light to ripple over the ground.

They automatically moved ahead of the Fearclaw Bears, forming an impregnable crescent-shaped defensive line.

Iron Wall glanced at them, then looked away and released a low snort from his throat.

It was not hostility.

It was acknowledgment.

From this day onward, they would no longer be the only ones at the very front of the legion.

Feeling the surging new power within him, Su Chen sensed two skills branded into the depths of his soul—

Black Tortoise Immortal Shield.

Nether Exchange.

He turned and looked at the Abyss Seven Generals behind him.

Jiang Tieyi knelt on one knee. His right arm had become charred, and blood dripped from his left fist, yet he bared his teeth in a silent smile.

Ye Linglong slid down against the rock wall into a seated position. Blood had run from her nose to her chin, and her face was white as glass.

The flesh on Mo Qianye's hands had split and curled from severe burns, yet he did not even furrow his brow.

Yan Wuji had exhausted his soul power and sprawled on the ground, lacking even the strength to stand.

Chu Yao was frantically tending to their wounds one by one, cursing under her breath while her eyes reddened.

Ling Shuang still held both palms against the ground. The vines she had spread out had long since withered and snapped. Her ten fingers were embedded deep in the stone cracks, all her nails torn back and her flesh a bloody mess.

Su Chen's gaze swept over every one of them. The icy killing intent in his eyes had long faded, leaving behind only an indescribably complicated emotion.

"Let's go."

His voice was soft.

"Go back and recover. The next stop—"