A Mortal Cannot Bear the Countenance of a God

As they withdrew from the core region of Star Dou Forest.

The four of them wore grave expressions, and none dared let their guard down.

They feared that one moment of carelessness would cause them to miss that terrifying being's reappearance, or that another hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast overlord might suddenly spring out from somewhere and ambush them...

Thus, the journey had been immensely taxing.

On top of that, aside from Bibi Dong, the other three were seriously wounded, making every step exceptionally difficult.

Although the two Title Douluo had already prepared themselves to fight to the death at any moment, determined to carve out a bloody path if necessary and protect the Holy Maiden's safety.

They walked several dozen li without incident...

Strange.

Too strange.

They did not even catch sight of a single high-level Soul Beast.

Forget hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast overlords—even ordinary hundred-year and thousand-year Soul Beasts seemed to have vanished into thin air.

Logically, after such a huge commotion last night, even if ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts did not dare approach the core region, they might well have been waiting to ambush them on the outskirts.

Yet this silence only made their skin crawl.

"How strange..."

One of the Title Douluo lowered his voice and looked around, his brows tightly furrowed. "Why is it so quiet? Where are all the Soul Beasts?"

"They were probably frightened away by that person last night and fled overnight."

After pondering for a while, Yue Guan narrowed his eyes, seeming to figure it out. He sneered. "If I were a Soul Beast and saw the glow of nine hundred-thousand-year red Soul Rings, I would run overnight too."

When he put it that way, the others recalled last night's scene and felt that... it made sense.

That was right. That terrifying existence—forget Soul Beasts, even they, several Title Douluo, still felt chills down their spines whenever they thought about it.

Yue Guan felt that surviving that person's fist last night was surely because his ancestors had cracked their heads kowtowing underground. Otherwise, how could he have lived to see today's sun?

Even they were like this.

Those high-level Soul Beasts in Star Dou Forest that had survived for ten thousand years, or even more than a hundred thousand years, were not fools. The moment they sensed trouble, they would definitely run faster than anyone else. Who would dare stay behind and wait to die?

Even if they had not fled, they must have hidden themselves away.

Having worked that out, the anxiety they had carried all along finally eased somewhat.

They walked for a while longer.

Then a new problem arose.

The two Title Douluo clutched their chests, their faces pale as their steps grew increasingly labored...

The distance from the core region of Star Dou Forest to its outskirts was not merely ten or twenty li.

In the half-dead state the three of them were in, and with none of them daring to release their soul power and fly, if they truly walked back step by step, their soul power would likely be exhausted before they even left this forest.

"..."

Yue Guan glanced at them, and his feminine eyes suddenly lit up.

"Your Highness... please wait a moment."

He licked his lips and forced his nearly shattered body to move. Channeling his soul power, he formed a chrysanthemum radiating faint golden light at his fingertips, which suddenly turned into a streak of light and drifted toward the depths of the forest.

Not long after.

A Purple-Winged Spirit Kite, a flying Soul Beast with an astonishing wingspan, was driven into a panic by the golden chrysanthemum and burst out of the woods.

The corners of Yue Guan's lips curled upward. His figure flashed, golden light flickered, and he landed on the beast's back.

"Be good~ Be obedient~ Let's not live for now~"

The thousand-year Soul Beast did not even have time to scream before its vital point was wrapped in soul power, temporarily suppressing its savagery and allowing someone to control it.

"Your Highness, please..."

Bibi Dong said nothing more. She nodded, tapped the ground with the tip of her foot, and lightly landed atop the Purple-Winged Spirit Kite.

The two Title Douluo followed, leaping aboard in turn.

Carrying four people on its back, the thousand-year flying Soul Beast Purple-Winged Spirit Kite wobbled through the sky. It was not absurdly fast, but it was still far better than traveling on two legs.

On the Purple-Winged Spirit Kite's back.

Bibi Dong stood alone at the front, staring into the distance without saying a word. No one knew what she was thinking.

The wind was fierce, causing her dark-purple Holy Maiden robes to flap loudly.

From last night until now, she had barely spoken.

Yue Guan and the two Title Douluo exchanged glances. They saw the same thought in one another's eyes—Her Highness was unable to get past it.

Although she was usually taciturn and rarely spoke much.

This unusual silence throughout the journey still revealed the pain in her heart.

Yue Guan and the other two exchanged looks and sighed inwardly.

Thinking about it, that was only natural.

The dignified Holy Maiden of Spirit Hall, an eighty-ninth-level peak Soul Douluo, held such an exalted status. She had been proud and arrogant since childhood. When had she ever suffered such humiliation!?

Who could swallow that resentment?

"Your Highness."

Yue Guan carefully chose his words before speaking cautiously. "Please do not take it too much to heart."

"There are many reclusive experts in this world. Spirit Hall is vast and powerful, but it is impossible for us to know everyone. That person from last night was likely some ancient senior who had lived for who knew how long and happened to be cultivating in seclusion within Star Dou Forest when we ran straight into him. If anyone was to blame, it was our bad luck."

"And that appearance was simply too misleading."

Another Title Douluo picked up the conversation, nodding repeatedly as the more he thought about it, the more outrageous it seemed.

"He looked eight years old, yet possessed the strength of a Limit Douluo. Who would believe that!?"

"Eight years old?"

One Title Douluo suddenly froze, turning around with a bewildered expression.

"Wait... who was eight years old?"

"That senior, of course...? Huh? Why are you making that face?"

"That's not right. I remember that senior was clearly a handsome, refined young man. He had white hair, a bare upper body, and what seemed to be a black sun-shaped mark on his chest... Under the moonlight... he was rather handsome."

"Ha! Have you gone mad?"

Yue Guan also turned around, looking utterly baffled. "What nonsense are you two talking about? That person last night was obviously—"

He opened his mouth, but the words halted at his lips. His brows drew together, and confusion appeared on his face.

Wait.

What... did that person look like again?

Yue Guan frowned deeply, struggling to recall that face from last night.

Eight years old? Or a young man?

What... did that person actually look like?

He desperately tried to think deeper.

The next instant.

A sharp pain exploded from the depths of his mind.

"Hiss—"

Yue Guan sucked in a cold breath, clutching his head tightly with both hands as cold sweat instantly broke out across his body.

He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, only to discover...

He could no longer remember that person's face at all.

Only a vague outline remained.

The harder he thought, the more his head hurt.

He only vaguely remembered that person was terrifyingly powerful, sparing with words, cold-faced, and beneath the moonlight...

Handsome?

Yue Guan jolted and suddenly came back to himself.

No! Where had handsome come from!?

Wasn't he a child... Wait, a child? Where had a child come from?!

While he was lost in thought.

The two Title Douluo were still arguing fiercely.

"Bullshit! He clearly looked like an eight-year-old child, with such a tender face!"

"You're the one spouting bullshit! What eight-year-old child? He was a white-haired young man!"

"I saw him with my own eyes!"

"Your eyes must have hemorrhoids."

"Wait... I think I can't remember clearly either. It really does seem like he was a white-haired young man..."

"That's what he was! Did your brain get fried or something!?"

"Go to hell. Don't make me slap you."

"..."

The louder they argued, the more confused they became.

"Stop arguing, you two!"

Yue Guan's expression gradually changed as well. He gave a low shout, his face dark.

"That person's appearance... why can't even I remember it clearly?"

The two Title Douluo looked at each other and fell silent, watching him cautiously.

"Elder Ju, even you... cannot remember?"

Yue Guan nodded slowly, his face grim.

In just this short time, he could no longer remember that person's face at all.

He could only watch helplessly as the memory gradually blurred, unable to do anything about it. He simply could not retain it.

It was as though the battle last night had been nothing but a nightmare.

Once awake, it scattered away.

But at that moment.

Yue Guan suddenly raised his head.

A question ten thousand times more terrifying than being unable to remember the face suddenly surfaced in his mind.

"Do you really not remember..." Even his voice began to tremble. "How exactly... did we survive last night?"

The two Title Douluo froze on the spot.

How had they survived?

How the hell would they know?

Their final memory was of that person releasing nine hundred-thousand-year red Soul Rings, terrifying pressure blanketing heaven and earth...

And then?

What happened after that?

Nothing.

A complete blank.

When they opened their eyes again, it was already late morning the next day, and they were lying wounded all over on the grass.

What about the middle?

What had happened during that time?

How had that youth spared them?

How had Her Highness remained completely unharmed?

None of the three could answer.

"Perhaps it is not that we cannot remember..."

Yue Guan slowly raised his head. His already gloomy, pale face was now frighteningly bloodless.

"It was... deliberately erased..."

The Purple-Winged Spirit Kite fell silent all at once.