The Unlucky Soul King Vanguard

On the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, a ridge weathered by time stretched across the land.

At the end of the ridge lay a silent ruin.

The foundations of walls built from massive stones still stood stubbornly. Parts of the arched structures retained their intact outlines. The arrays of soul patterns carved into the stone surfaces had long since blurred, yet they still exuded the grim, murderous air of an ancient war.

The ruins were as large as three Notting Academy training grounds. Broken stone pillars and tower remnants strangled by vines could be seen everywhere.

Su Chen walked a full circle around the ruins, his steps steady.

He crouched down and scraped away the thick moss covering a massive stone, revealing the flat, smooth surface beneath.

"Artificially excavated. The precision was very high."

He brushed the stone chips from his fingertips and stood up.

"The stone density far exceeds granite. It could withstand attacks at the Soul Sage level."

Mo Qianye leaned against a broken pillar with his arms folded, watching Su Chen's profile.

"You planned to settle down here?"

"Not settle down."

Su Chen's gaze passed over the ruins as he examined the surrounding terrain.

To the north was the natural continuation of the ridge, a barrier formed by nature.

Dense forests spread across the east and west, limiting visibility, but also ensuring that no large-scale force could deploy here.

To the south lay the only open passage, less than thirty meters wide.

One man could hold the pass against ten thousand.

"It's a temporary outpost."

After saying that, Su Chen turned his gaze to Iron Wall.

The mountain-sized bear tilted its head, its golden eyes filled with pure confusion.

"Time to work."

A Ten-Thousand-Year Fearclaw Bear clearly could not understand the complex meaning of "work."

But when Su Chen first pointed at the scattered boulders, then at the gaps in the wall foundations, a muffled rumble rolled from Iron Wall's throat.

It understood.

It stepped forward on its heavy hind legs and stopped before a boulder that would have taken three people to encircle. The muscles in its dark golden forelimbs bulged and knotted.

The boulder rose off the ground.

Then—

Bang!

Using an extremely brutal method, it smashed the boulder directly into a gap in the wall foundation.

The terrifying force made the entire remnant wall shake violently, sending gravel raining down.

"...Gently."

Su Chen pressed his fingers to his brow.

Seeing their leader's actions, the other nine Fearclaw Bears immediately understood the spirit of the task and eagerly joined in.

The scene instantly descended into chaos.

Two bears took a fancy to the same stone and began shoving each other, neither willing to yield.

One impatient bear simply hurled a boulder away, nearly hitting Chu Yao, who was studying a poisonous herb near the wall.

The smallest little bear, Little Gold, carried a chunk of rubble smaller than its own head in its mouth and scampered over to Su Chen's feet.

It set the stone down, then lifted its fluffy head and looked up at Su Chen with golden eyes, its tail giving an almost imperceptible wag.

It seemed to be waiting for praise.

Su Chen stared at it for two seconds.

He reached out and gently patted its damp, cool snout.

Little Gold let out an exceptionally satisfied snort, happily turned around, and went off to find the next piece of "building material" it could carry.

"Can't you control your bears?"

Chu Yao had narrowly escaped disaster. Her face was livid, but instead of scolding the bears, she directed her anger at Su Chen.

"They can understand 'charge' and 'tear apart.'"

Su Chen answered without changing expression.

"Instructions like 'handle gently' exceed their current understanding."

Chu Yao was left speechless. She snorted coldly, carrying her Poison Gu Gourd toward the only passage to the south.

She pulled out the stopper, and purple-green mist spread along the ground like a stream, laying down a thin poisonous barrier at the edges of the forests on both sides of the passage.

She had deliberately lowered its concentration. It was not enough to cause real harm, but the instant any creature entered it, the toxin reaction would be relayed to her senses.

It was an invisible warning line.

At the same time, the forms of ten Nether Shadow Leopards gradually faded, silently blending into the forest shadows surrounding the ruins.

They did not need Su Chen's orders.

Hunting and surveillance were the instincts of top-tier assassins.

The ten Shadow Leopards spread across a vast area within a radius of ten li, forming a sparse yet impenetrable network of hidden sentries.

No movement, however slight, could escape the watch of forty emerald eyes.

The poison mist stood outside as the warning.

The Shadow Leopards stood within as the scouts.

The bear pack stood at the center as the shield.

Only three days passed.

Using the most primitive brute force, the ten Ten-Thousand-Year Fearclaw Bears transformed the ruins into a rough yet sturdy stone fortress.

The wall foundations were raised to four meters, and every gap was filled.

Two staggered stone walls were even erected along the southern passage.

They were not meant to block enemies, but to forcibly divide their formation, forcing them to slow down and expose their vulnerable flanks.

Every detail came from Su Chen's design.

On the evening of the third day, Su Chen crouched in the open space at the center of the stone fortress.

He picked up a handful of pebbles and drew a rectangle in the damp earth, then began arranging them.

Ten large stones formed a horizontal line.

Ten small stones were scattered along both sides and behind the line.

Mo Qianye walked over and understood at a glance.

"The Fearclaw Bears form up head-on, while the Shadow Leopards circle around the flanks."

"This is the most basic formation."

Without raising his head, Su Chen drew several sharp arrows in the dirt with his right hand.

"If the enemy launches a frontal assault, the bear pack uses Dark Golden Iron Wall to hold the front. The Shadow Leopards circle behind and take out the commander directly. Battle over."

He casually wiped away the arrangement and set it up again.

This time, the ten large stones were divided into three groups.

Five at the front, three on the left, and two on the right.

The ten small stones were all gathered in the "shadow" of the two large stones on the right flank.

"What if the enemy attacks in scattered groups and tries to stretch the line?"

Su Chen asked and answered his own question.

"Five bears stabilize the front, and three bears seal off the left flank. The right flank deliberately shows weakness, luring them to break through from here."

His fingertip pressed heavily onto the two large stones on the right flank.

"The instant they rush in, the Shadow Leopards encircle them. Close the door and beat the dogs."

He wiped the ground again and rearranged the stones.

This time, he drew an additional circle in the central open space.

"What if the enemy has aerial units?"

Su Chen stared at that empty circle, and his brows finally furrowed.

"Flying Soul Masters, or flying soul beasts. The Fearclaw Bears' defenses can't withstand attacks from the sky."

"The Shadow Leopards can't either. They are purely ground units."

He fell silent.

Watching him repeatedly run through the possibilities, Mo Qianye suddenly spoke.

"This doesn't look like you're cultivating a martial soul."

Su Chen's movements paused.

"You look like you're fighting a war."

Su Chen finally looked up at him.

"The essence of a Supreme Summoner is war."

His voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable certainty.

"Twenty soul beasts are not twenty soul skills. They are twenty independent combat units. I'm not a Soul Master, Qianye."

He stood up and brushed the dirt from his hands.

"I'm a general."

"And what a general can least tolerate is having weaknesses in his own army."

His gaze returned to the ground.

To that empty circle representing "the sky."

He needed an air force.

Before dawn on the fourth day, a silent warning from the Shadow Leopards entered Su Chen's mind.

Two people in the southern passage.

Standing atop the stone fortress wall, Su Chen saw them.

Two Soul Masters dressed in Spirit Hall's standard black uniforms were striding down the passage.

The leader's soul power fluctuations were dense and heavy, at the peak of the Soul King level.

The one behind him was lean and nimble, moving lightly, his toes touching the ground like a dragonfly skimming water.

An agility-attack type.

They had easily broken through Chu Yao's poison mist perimeter.

The leading Soul King took out a thumb-sized metal bead from his waist and gave it a gentle squeeze. A pale blue membrane of light enveloped the two of them.

A detoxification-type soul tool.

"By order of Spirit Hall."

The leading Soul King stopped thirty meters from the stone fortress and looked up at the young man on the wall.

His tone was fairly polite.

"Please come with us, young friend Su Chen. Spirit Hall is very interested in your martial soul and means you no harm—"

"I refuse."

The voice fell from the wall, crisp and decisive, without the slightest room for negotiation.

The leading Soul King's expression instantly stiffened.

Behind him, the two agility-attack Soul Masters had already bent slightly at the waist like cheetahs poised to pounce.

"Young friend, I'm afraid Spirit Hall's invitation is not something you can refus—"

"There are others behind you."

Su Chen interrupted him again.

The leading Soul King's pupils abruptly contracted.

Within the dense forests on both sides of the passage, three Soul King-level experts were using the treetops as cover to circle around them.

That was their backup plan, their killing move should negotiations fail.

Yet Su Chen did not even glance in that direction.

Of course he knew.

Because ten minutes earlier, his Shadow Leopards had already marked the positions, cultivation levels, and routes of all five men on the tactical map in his mind.

Two in the open, three in hiding.

Five in total.

Five Soul Kings.

"I'll say it again."

Su Chen raised his right hand.

Iron Wall rose behind him, its enormous shadow looming overhead.

Then came the second, the third... ten Dark Golden Terrorclaw Bears lined up in a row, filling the entire wall.

Their metallic dark golden hides reflected a cold sheen in the morning light.

Twenty eyes burning with golden flames looked down indifferently at the five tiny humans below.

The entire stone fortress seemed to groan beneath the crushing pressure.

The leading Soul King's face completely changed.

"I refuse."

The instant his words fell, Su Chen curled the fingers of his left hand and flicked them lightly.

There was no sound.

But from deep within the forests on both sides of the passage came three brief, suppressed groans almost simultaneously.

The three hidden Soul Kings did not even have time to release their martial souls.

Black claw blades erupted from the tree shadows beneath their feet, soundless, lightless, and without warning.

They precisely severed their hamstrings.

The two Soul Kings at the front finally reacted after a brief moment of shock.

The two agility-attack-type Soul Masters activated their martial souls and shot forward, one to the left and one to the right, trying to bypass the front and launch a surprise attack from both sides of the city wall.

Su Chen did not move.

Iron Wall leaped down from the city wall.

Its massive body, weighing sixteen hundred jin, dropped from four meters up and smashed a vicious crater into the ground.

It did not chase the two agility-attack-type Soul Masters. It merely strode toward the two Soul Kings at the front.

One step.

Two steps.

With every step it took, the ground cracked beneath it.

The two Soul Kings released their martial souls at the same time. Their Spirit Rings spun wildly as soul power gathered in their palms.

Then they saw the other nine Fearclaw Bears following behind Iron Wall and jumping down from the city wall one after another.

At that moment, their morale completely collapsed.

The leading Soul King let out an angry roar, turned, and ran.

However, a jet-black shadow slid out from beneath his feet, its claw blade sweeping across.

He screamed and fell to the ground, his right leg completely numb.

The other two agility-attack-type Soul Masters ran even faster.

But the shadow leopard was faster than they were.

This dense forest was the shadow leopard's home ground.

One minute later, the battle was over.

Of the five, four had fallen.

The last agility-attack-type Soul Master desperately fled sixty meters, just about to rush out of the passage.

A dark-gold giant paw swept in from the side and swatted him into a tree trunk like a fly.

Iron Wall withdrew its front paw, pulled the human-shaped object embedded in the tree free, and casually tossed it onto the ground.

Su Chen walked down from the city wall and crouched before the leading Soul King.

The interrogation was brutally short.

When the tip of a Nether Shadow Leopard's claw lightly pressed against his Adam's apple, this Soul King's mental defenses proved thinner than paper.

"Are there more troops coming?"

"Yes... yes! An elder is leading them personally, a level seventy-five Soul Sage! There's also a level seventy Soul Sage and three Soul Emperors... They're waiting for news from us in the northeastern part of the forest. We were only the advance force..."

"Soul Sages."

Su Chen rose to his feet and looked at Mo Qianye.

Mo Qianye shook his head.

"I can't fight them. The gap is nearly fifty levels."

There was no need to ask whether Chu Yao's poisonous mist would also be greatly weakened against Soul Sages.

Su Chen was silent for several seconds.

He returned to the center of the stone fortress, crouched down again, and looked at the empty circle he had drawn on the ground.

The circle representing the sky.

His legion lacked a blade that could descend from above.

"Qianye."

Su Chen suddenly spoke.

"Do you know Thunderstorm Peak?"

Mo Qianye's gaze sharpened.

"In the middle region of the Star Dou Great Forest, there is a solitary peak shrouded in thunderstorms year-round. That place is..."

"The habitat of the Purple Lightning Thunder Eagles."

Su Chen stretched out his hand and swept away all the pebbles on the ground.

Then, within that hollow circle, he used his fingertip to draw a bird with spread wings.

He raised his head, his voice cold and resolute.

"I need an air force."