Morning in the Star Dou Great Forest brought no sunlight.
Tree canopies accumulated over hundreds of millions of years blotted out the sky, slicing it into shards of broken glass.
Thin mist drifted through the woods, soaked with the peculiar sickly sweetness of rotting leaves mixed with dried beast blood.
Su Chen sat cross-legged on Iron Wall's back, his body rising and falling rhythmically with the giant beast's heavy steps.
Every strand of Iron Wall's dark golden fur was as thick and hard as steel needles, except for the unusually soft patch at the center of its back, as though nature had reserved a throne there for its king.
Mo Qianye rode atop the shoulder armor of the third Fearclaw Bear.
The hood of his black robe hung low, revealing only a pair of eyes flowing with dark purple flames as he stared fixedly at the formation ahead.
The ten Fearclaw Bears did not march side by side.
They automatically spread apart, forming a diamond-shaped battle formation that was narrow at the front and wide at the rear.
Iron Wall led the way, an unshakable spearhead and shield wall.
Three giant beasts spread diagonally along each flank, guarding the sides.
The final three brought up the rear, their heads facing outward as they watched three different directions vigilantly.
This was not a march.
This was a moving meat grinder.
"They... were they commanded by you?" Mo Qianye's voice was somewhat dry.
"I gave them a coordinate."
Su Chen kept his eyes closed, his tone as calm as if he were discussing something insignificant.
"The rest is instinct."
Mo Qianye said no more.
He recalled Spirit Hall's elite Temple Knights. Those armies made up of Soul Kings and Soul Emperors required months, even years, of coordination to drill a proper formation, and still needed signal flags and horns to direct them in action.
Yet Su Chen needed only a single thought.
It was unfair.
But damn it, he liked that unfairness.
Ahead, Iron Wall's mountain-like head suddenly paused, and it stopped walking.
Its enormous nostrils flared, catching an unfamiliar scent in the air.
In an instant, the other nine Fearclaw Bears stopped as well, their movements perfectly synchronized, as though they were one body.
"Something's here." Su Chen opened his eyes.
Before his words faded, a series of deep roars erupted from the bushes on both sides and ahead!
Twenty-three Thousand-Year Wind Demon Wolves!
The wolf pack surged out from three directions, wind elemental light constantly flowing over their gray-green fur.
The lead wolf was twice as large as its kin, and visible wind blades coiled around its sharp fangs, enough to tear through steel.
The phantom of the Nether Phoenix behind Mo Qianye uncontrollably spread its wings, and purple Netherfire shot three feet into the air with a whoosh.
"No need."
Su Chen's voice was very soft.
He did not even rise from Iron Wall's back. He merely raised his right hand, palm forward, fingers spread.
A silent command.
Advance.
The ten Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears stepped forward at once.
They did not charge or roar. They merely maintained that suffocating diamond formation and advanced toward the wolf pack at a steady pace.
Army Combined Strike activated on its own!
A translucent dark golden wall of light condensed before the formation, fifteen meters wide. Moving with the bears' footsteps, it advanced steadily like a mobile wall of sighs.
The Wind Demon Wolf King at the front let out a savage howl and lunged forward like a gray-green bolt of lightning, its claws wrapped in wind blades as they viciously struck the light wall!
The piercing scraping sound even drowned out the wolves' howls!
Sparks flew!
The light wall did not budge.
Instead, the Wolf King's claws gave a cracking sound of unbearable strain, and two snapped on the spot.
It screamed and fell to the ground, rolling madly in agony.
The remaining wolves erupted into a moment of unrest and hesitation.
But the dark golden wall of light continued advancing.
Unreasonably, mercilessly, it crushed forward.
Iron Wall did not even look at those ants.
It casually swept its right forepaw outward.
An action as simple as could be.
Three Wind Demon Wolves that failed to dodge were struck by the tremendous force. Their bodies came apart in midair, exploding into clouds of blood, while severed limbs and shattered bones smashed through two ancient trees thick enough to require an embrace.
Throughout the entire process, Iron Wall's stride did not falter in the slightest.
It was like a person casually crushing a few ants in the way while walking.
The wolf pack's mental defenses completely collapsed.
The surviving lead wolf let out a shrill, warped wail—the signal to retreat.
The remaining twenty wolves spun around and fled like mad, moving three times faster than when they had arrived.
Their escape route was astonishingly unified as they desperately tried to get as far away as possible from that bear army that was "taking a stroll."
This was not a rout after defeat.
This was terror carved into the depths of their genes, a desperate flight driven by the instincts of life itself.
From beginning to end, Su Chen did not spare them another glance.
"Two minutes..." Mo Qianye withdrew his restless Nether Phoenix martial soul, his tone immensely complicated. "They couldn't even make your bears run."
Su Chen did not respond.
His gaze fell upon the extreme speed displayed by the fleeing wolf pack.
Too slow.
He told himself.
The Fearclaw Bears were too slow.
They were invincible in a frontal advance, but if they encountered enemies much faster than themselves who knew how to maneuver around them, this diamond formation would leave at least a three-second defensive gap when turning.
Three seconds.
It was enough for an agility-type Soul King to make a round trip through the bear pack and kill several times over.
"I need a sharp blade," Su Chen suddenly said.
Mo Qianye froze.
"Speed, stealth, and a lethal strike." Su Chen's voice was cold and clear. "Something that can stab out from the shadows and precisely hunt those fleas."
"Ten-Thousand-Year Nether Shadow Leopards." Mo Qianye understood at once. "Extreme speed, invisibility, specialized assassination. Ten Shadow Leopards working with ten Fearclaw Bears... Iron Wall holds the front line, while the Shadow Leopards circle around the flanks under stealth and harvest every highly mobile target."
Just imagining that scene made his scalp tingle.
"You know where they are?" Su Chen asked.
Mo Qianye fell silent for a moment. "In Netherworld Valley, in the northeastern part of the Star Dou Great Forest. It is shrouded in darkness all year round and is one of the most dangerous places in the outer region."
"How far?"
"At our current speed, three days."
"Two days."
Su Chen uttered two words, leaving no room for argument.
He turned and leaped onto Iron Wall's back, issuing a new command.
The instant Iron Wall took a step, Su Chen's hand unconsciously slipped into his robes and touched a hard edge.
He took the object out.
A dark golden token.
It was palm-sized, its edges worn smooth and rounded from who knew how many years of being handled.
The patterns on the front of the token were intricate and ancient.
The instant he saw those patterns, Su Chen's pupils suddenly contracted to pinpoints!
He would never forget those patterns, even in death.
They were precisely the miniature imprint of the Void Throne that had condensed behind him when his martial soul awakened!
This was the only relic his adoptive father had left him.
He had always believed it was merely an ordinary keepsake.
At this moment, as his Soul Power uncontrollably seeped into the token—
Buzz!
The phantom of the Void Throne flashed behind him and vanished, while its nine empty Spirit Ring slots trembled violently.
The dark golden Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring in the first slot shone brilliantly, resonating intensely with the patterns on the token!
A fragmentary thought exploded directly in his sea of consciousness like thunder.
"You are... Supreme..."
"When all nine rings gather... all beasts shall bow..."
Then it abruptly stopped.
It was as though a divine sword from beyond the heavens had viciously severed the transmission at the crucial moment!
Su Chen clenched the token tightly, his knuckles turning white from excessive force.
The incomplete message nevertheless revealed a world-shaking secret.
This martial soul had existed in ancient times.
It had once been sealed.
And the force that sealed it came from... the Divine Realm!
"What happened?" Mo Qianye sensed the brief disturbance in his aura.
"Nothing."
Su Chen put the token away against his body again, his voice returning to the still calm of an ancient well.
"Keep moving."
But his mind, far sharper than those of others his age, was racing madly.
Who exactly had his adoptive father been?
Why would an ordinary herbal farmer living deep in the mountains possess a token belonging to the Supreme Summoner, along with a book on military strategy?
Had he raised Su Chen because... from the very beginning, he had been waiting for this martial soul to awaken?
Countless mysteries had no answers for now.
Su Chen buried them all in the deepest part of his heart and instead began planning the optimal marching route to Netherworld Valley within two days.
Set aside what remained unresolved.
Do everything that could be done before him to the utmost.
That was his habit.
Iron Wall's footsteps once again shook the earth.
A thousand miles away.
Spirit Hall, Pope Hall.
The great hall was brightly lit, yet so silent that a pin drop could be heard.
Bibi Dong sat high upon the Supreme Throne, slender fingers holding an urgent report written in rough strokes, almost carved into beast hide.
The report came from Nording City, signed by Jiang Yuandong.
She read it three times.
Then she opened an ancient tome beside the throne, thick with dust and wrapped in layers of restrictions.
The last time this forbidden book had been opened was three hundred years ago.
Its pages were yellowed and brittle, and there was only one line of large blood-red words upon them.
"The Supreme Summoner, king of all beasts, is the great calamity sealed by the Divine Realm. If the awakened one succeeds, the gods shall retreat; if he fails, he shall suffer eternal damnation."
Bibi Dong closed the book.
For a long time, deathly silence filled the hall.
"Your Holiness?"
Below the throne, a purple-robed elder who stood in attendance finally could no longer bear the suffocating pressure and cautiously spoke.
Bibi Dong's voice drifted down from above, calm as water, yet making the Soul Douluo-level elder feel a bone-piercing chill.
"Pass down the order."
"Deploy two Soul Sages, three Soul Emperors, and five Soul Kings immediately. The target is the Star Dou Great Forest."
She paused, as though considering a more crucial matter.
"I want him alive."
Her voice lowered further, carrying a trace of strange... excitement?
"If he cannot be used by me—"
Those eyes, deep as a sea of stars, glimmered with an eerie cold light beneath the flickering candle flames.
"Destroy him."
The purple-robed elder accepted the order, bowed, and withdrew. His footsteps quickly faded down the empty corridor.
Silence returned to the great hall.
Bibi Dong reopened the tome, her jade-white fingers gently resting upon the four blood-red words, "the gods shall retreat."
She smiled.
The smile was faint.
Yet every candle in the hall flickered wildly at that moment, nearly going out.
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