The air smelled different.
Chu Yao's Poison Domain had been left behind, and that familiar sweet, bloody scent had completely dissipated.
The farther north they went, the older the forest became.
The canopies of giant trees formed an impenetrable black net, cutting the sky into countless shattered patches of light.
Even at noon, the forest was as dim as dusk.
Su Chen's gaze swept over a cluster of shrubs.
The breaks were neat, about four feet above the ground—traces left by large herbivorous Soul Beasts feeding.
But the broken ends had already dried and yellowed. They were old marks from at least three days ago.
The herbivorous Soul Beasts here had all fled.
For a thousand meters around, there was only deathly silence.
No birds or beasts remained, and not even insects made a sound.
Only the heavy footsteps of ten Fearclaw Bears beat out a monotonous rhythm over the dead branches and fallen leaves.
Iron Wall's enormous nostrils flared, and a muffled rumble of warning rolled from deep within his throat.
Su Chen waved a hand, signaling them to stop.
The ten mountain-like beasts froze instantly. Their diamond-shaped battle formation silently tightened, protecting the three of them at its absolute center.
"Ten-Thousand-Year Beast Domain."
Su Chen slid down from Iron Wall's back and walked toward a giant tree.
On its rough bark, he found what he had been looking for.
Three claw marks.
They were incredibly thin and shallow, nearly blending into the tree bark's natural grain.
Su Chen pressed the pads of his fingers against the cross-sections of the claw marks.
They were unnervingly smooth.
This had been cutting, not tearing.
The spacing and depth of the three claw marks were completely identical, precise to the millimeter, as though they had been carved by the most sophisticated instrument.
"Nether Shadow Leopard."
Mo Qianye stepped closer, his brows tightly furrowed.
"The cross-sections of the claw marks are uniformly deep." Su Chen slowly ran his fingertips over the traces. "Ordinary Soul Beasts strike in an arc. Their claws sink deepest at the start and shallowest at the end."
"Only in the state of Shadow Escape, when its claws are condensed into pure cutting law, can it achieve this level of precision."
He raised his fingertips to his nose and sniffed them.
"The sap hasn't fully oxidized yet. It happened no more than two hours ago."
Chu Yao unconsciously moved a few steps closer. She stared at the three claw marks, and a flicker of focus passed through her amber eyes.
The gourd at her waist swayed gently, as though it had sensed something.
Su Chen closed his eyes.
Deep within his consciousness, the intangible Void Throne gave a faint hum.
An ancient perception beyond the five senses awakened.
The life pulses of the entire forest transformed in his mind into a hazy, flowing heat map.
Most of the points of light were gentle and sluggish, the ordinary auras of hundred-year Soul Beasts.
But three hundred meters away, north by east—
There was one point.
It was exceedingly faint, yet exceedingly sharp: a blazing singularity of life.
Like the glimmer at the heart of a black hole that devoured all things.
"Found it."
Su Chen opened his eyes, his gaze rapidly mapping out the surrounding terrain.
Giant trees grew in dense clusters, their canopies linked together beneath heavy shadows.
The terrain sloped downward to the southeast, forming a natural dead end enclosed on three sides.
A perfect pocket trap.
"First plan." He began issuing orders, his voice utterly calm.
"Iron Wall, take four bears and advance from the front."
Iron Wall tilted his mountain-like head.
"Yes, slow is exactly what I want." Su Chen saw through his confusion. "Make plenty of noise. Every ten steps, slam the ground once. The goal isn't to chase it down, but to drive it away. Force it into the pocket to the southeast."
Iron Wall gave a muffled rumble from his throat to show he understood.
"The other five, circle around behind it and lie in wait on the mountain walls on either side of the pocket. Once it enters, seal the exit immediately."
The five dark golden beasts moved at his command. Their massive bodies slipped into the dense forest at the flanks with eerie silence, making not a single unnecessary sound.
Su Chen turned to Mo Qianye.
"Take to the air. Use Nether Phoenix Flame to block every route it might take upward."
Mo Qianye nodded. "What if it doesn't run upward?"
"It will."
Su Chen's gaze finally fell on Chu Yao.
"Spread your slowing poison mist at the entrance of the pocket trap. You don't need to poison it to death. The instant it steps in, I only need its speed reduced by ten percent."
Chu Yao removed a dark green gourd from her waist and pulled out the stopper.
A stream of pungent green smoke flowed close to the ground, spreading soundlessly.
"This stuff doesn't distinguish friend from foe," she warned coldly.
A frontal drive, encirclement from the flanks, aerial lockdown, and slowing on the ground.
A textbook three-dimensional hunting net took shape in an instant.
"Begin."
As Su Chen's words fell—
Boom!
Iron Wall led four Fearclaw Bears forward, turning into a moving earthquake zone as they crushed toward the north.
Every time their massive claws struck the ground, the earth shook violently, sending dirt and shattered stones flying into the air.
Three hundred meters away, that sharp singularity of life jolted violently.
Then it vanished.
The next instant—
A black line too fast for the naked eye tore across Su Chen's vision.
It had not fled toward the planned southeastern route at all!
Instead, it had chosen... above!
The Ten-Thousand-Year Nether Shadow Leopard!
Its body was not truly solid. It was more like a moving streak of pure darkness. Its limbs skimmed the ground like a drop of ink silently flowing through the void, and in an instant, it appeared on the trunk of a giant tree thirty meters tall.
It did not climb!
It merely tapped the trunk lightly, and its body transformed into a black bolt of lightning, beginning a series of silent, refracted leaps through the layered canopy overhead!
"Qianye!"
Su Chen did not need to remind him. Mo Qianye had already moved.
Purple-black Nether Phoenix Flame exploded in his palm, transforming into a massive wall of fire that precisely blocked the Shadow Leopard's path.
The searing heat warped the light and scorched the air.
The Shadow Leopard did not slow down.
The instant before it hit the wall of fire—it "melted."
Fur, flesh, bone—every three-dimensional physical structure instantly broke apart into a two-dimensional shadow. It flattened smoothly against the underside of a leaf and slipped through a gap in the flames.
Netherfire could not burn a shadow.
Mo Qianye's hand froze in midair.
The Shadow Leopard passed through the fire wall, condensed into form once more, and suffered no loss of speed.
It did not flee.
Instead, it began to counterattack.
A patch of pitch-black shadow peeled away from the shaded side of a giant tree and silently dropped toward the ground.
Its target was the bear pack!
Iron Wall reacted first. His mountain-crushing giant claw roared with enough force to tear steel apart as it smashed toward the falling shadow.
The strike missed.
The Shadow Leopard's true body had already flashed out from the shadow of another tree. Three black claw blades swept across the belly of a Fearclaw Bear at the outermost edge of the formation.
A piercing metallic screech erupted!
Only three shallow white marks remained on its dark golden hide.
It had failed to break through its defenses.
After one strike, the Shadow Leopard withdrew, transforming into a shadow once more and disappearing without a trace.
A second time, a third time, a fourth time.
Every attack came from an inconceivable angle, and every one precisely targeted a different Fearclaw Bear.
It was not fleeing.
It was hunting!
It was using ten Ten-Thousand-Year Fearclaw Bears to test its own claws and fangs!
"Roar—!"
Iron Wall was completely enraged. His violent roar shook dead leaves from the sky.
It was useless.
The Shadow Leopard darted out from the shadow directly beneath Iron Wall, its claws viciously raking across his lower jaw.
This time, the white marks were deeper.
It had come within a hair of breaking through the hide of the Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bear, said to possess absolute defense.
It was probing the limits of their defenses.
The first tactical plan had completely failed.
Mo Qianye landed beside Su Chen, his expression grim.
"Its Shadow Escape lets it teleport between any shadows. Wherever there are shadows, it is invincible."
Chu Yao also tightened the stopper on her gourd, her voice grave.
"My poison is useless against its shadow form. It doesn't breathe or touch anything physical. My preparations are completely meaningless."
Yet Su Chen smiled.
He looked up at the sky, completely obscured by the dense canopy.
Then he lowered his head and looked at the thick, ubiquitous shadows beneath his feet.
"It chose a perfect battlefield."
Su Chen's voice was calm, even carrying a hint of admiration.
Mo Qianye and Chu Yao both looked at him, unable to understand why he could still smile at a time like this.
"You think the plan failed?"
Su Chen's smile turned playful.
"No."
"This was only a test."
"I had to find out exactly how many ways my prey... had to escape."
He had used ten Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts to set up a battle he knew would fail, all to see one hidden card clearly.
"Now, I have seen it clearly."
Su Chen closed his eyes again. The Void Throne trembled like thunder in the deepest depths of his consciousness.
"It says that wherever there are shadows, it is invincible."
Su Chen opened his eyes, a cold curve appearing at the corner of his mouth.
"But who told it there would be shadows here?"
At the same time.
At the northeastern edge of the Star Dou Great Forest.
A gaunt old man stood beside a massive pit filled with the remains of giant trees that had been uprooted.
Ten sets of enormous claw prints were clearly stamped into the soil.
"They've headed toward the core region." Another Soul Sage beside him spoke in a low voice. "Elder, the target seems to be actively hunting Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. Should we..."
The gaunt old man ignored him.
He crouched down and pressed his withered hand into one of the claw prints, feeling the lingering, overwhelmingly domineering fluctuation of Soul Power.
"Ten Ten-Thousand-Year Fearclaw Bears, controlled as easily as his own limbs by a mere Second-Ring Soul Master..."
He slowly rose to his feet. The twisted smile on his face grew wider, carrying a sickly excitement.
"Bibi Dong's order was to capture him alive."
He took a step forward, and his figure blurred into the dusk.
"But she never said he had to be captured alive in one piece."
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