"If it isn't the Dragon God, then there must be a mysterious being hidden deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, one whose status is higher than Di Tian's and who inherited a pure true dragon bloodline!"
"There must be a master above all the ferocious beasts, issuing orders on the Dragon Ancestor's behalf!"
Amid these human experts' wild speculation.
The outline of a "mastermind" slowly took shape in their minds.
Just as they had even forgotten to flee.
"Hum!"
The golden light deep within the fissure surged once more.
This time, it was more than just pressure.
Amid the dazzling golden light, an illusory golden dragon shadow over a hundred meters long slowly rose from underground.
However, it was not a physical entity.
It was merely a tiny phenomenon that had naturally condensed in midair from a mere wisp of blood energy leaking from that indescribable being underground!
But even though it was only a phenomenon.
Its true dragon pressure left every human Soul Master present unable to hold on any longer.
"Thud! Thud!"
Hundreds upon thousands of human experts fell to their knees in unison before that pressure, like wheat being cut down.
Even the Super Douluo, including Yu Yuanzhen and Chen Xin, felt their legs buckle and dropped uncontrollably to their knees!
As the words fell, not a single human remained standing in the entire Core Area of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The golden phantom slowly circled in midair.
It was merely radiating golden light.
Yet the human experts below could not even move a finger.
Ning Fengzhi knelt on the ground, gasping for breath.
He felt that his Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda martial soul had been completely sealed.
Yu Yuanzhen clenched his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead, but could not stand no matter how hard he tried.
Just then, the heavy breathing deep underground stopped.
The golden dragon shadow in midair dissipated with it, turning into specks of golden light that withdrew into the fissure.
The suffocating pressure finally receded.
Relieved of that crushing burden, everyone collapsed onto the ground.
Yet before they could catch their breath.
"Tap, tap, tap."
A series of crisp footsteps came from the darkness behind Di Tian.
Ning Fengzhi abruptly raised his head.
The space ahead rippled once more.
A breathtakingly beautiful woman with a full head of silver hair slowly stepped out of the void.
The woman wore a long silver dress, and there were no soul power fluctuations about her. She looked like an ordinary person.
But the next second.
Including Di Tian.
Xiong Jun, the Myriad Demon King, Bi Ji, and Zi JI.
These five peerless ferocious beasts who struck terror into the entire continent lowered their proud heads in unison.
"My lord."
Di Tian's voice carried the utmost reverence, and even a trace of trembling apprehension.
"These humans disturbed the Dragon Ancestor's slumber. I shall dispose of them at once."
My lord!
Hearing those words, Ning Fengzhi, Yu Yuanzhen, and the others instantly widened their eyes.
The vague suspicion in their minds had been confirmed beyond doubt!
As expected!
Ning Fengzhi stared fixedly at the silver-haired woman, towering waves surging through his heart.
Di Tian really was only a subordinate!
This silver-haired woman they call their lord is the true ruler of the Star Dou Great Forest!
Beside him, Sword Douluo Chen Xin was also breaking out in a cold sweat.
He gripped his broken Seven Kill Sword tightly, utterly unable to see through the woman's cultivation.
In the speculation of Chen Xin, Yu Yuanzhen, and the others.
This woman was undoubtedly an ultimate being who had inherited the bloodline of that underground "Dragon Ancestor."
She might very well have even crossed the million-year threshold, with one foot already in god rank!
No wonder Spirit Hall had risked everything to suppress the news.
Against a monster of this level, any number of Titled Douluo would only be throwing their lives away!
At that thought, everyone's heart sank to rock bottom.
They were trapped in a dead end today.
At that moment, in midair.
Gu Yuena paid no attention whatsoever to what the humans below were thinking.
She merely cast an indifferent glance over Ning Fengzhi and the others.
"Dispose of them?"
Gu Yuena shook her head slightly.
"If we strike and spill blood, what if its scent drifts down through the cracks and displeases the Dragon Ancestor?"
At those words, Di Tian shuddered and hurriedly bowed his head even lower.
"I failed to consider that. Please punish me, my lord."
Gu Yuena ignored Di Tian.
She slowly took a step forward, looking down from above at Ning Fengzhi and the others slumped on the ground.
"Go crawling back."
Gu Yuena's voice was quiet, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly.
"And take a message to the entire Douluo Continent while you're at it."
"From this day onward, the Star Dou Great Forest is completely sealed off."
"If anyone dares set even half a step inside again and disturb the Dragon Ancestor's slumber."
"I will personally visit your human territories and leave the Douluo Continent without a single human."
With those words, Gu Yuena turned and walked back into the void.
There was no pressure, no attack.
Yet that casually delivered statement instantly made every Titled Douluo present feel as though they had plunged into an ice cavern.
Di Tian gave everyone a cold look.
"Didn't you hear our lord tell you to crawl away?"
At that, Ning Fengzhi and the others dared not waste another word.
Yu Yuanzhen did not even dare offer a single parting remark.
These top experts who had arrived with such overwhelming aggression, claiming they would flatten the Star Dou Great Forest.
Now supported one another as they scrambled and crawled toward the forest's edge.
They did not even dare look back.
Several days later.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Council Hall.
The doors were tightly shut.
Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong sat inside the hall, the atmosphere oppressive to the extreme.
Chen Xin's injuries had stabilized, but his face remained deathly pale.
"Fengzhi, I'm afraid the world really is about to change."
Chen Xin sighed, his eyes filled with lingering fear.
"That ferocious beast named Xiong Jun defeated the three of us working together with a casual strike."
"And that silver-haired woman was even more unfathomable."
Ning Fengzhi interlaced his fingers, his brow tightly furrowed.
"Uncle Jian, Uncle Gu."
"Although we failed to obtain the supreme treasure on this trip to the Star Dou Great Forest, we did at least see the truth."
Ning Fengzhi drew a deep breath, his tone certain.
"Spirit Hall wasn't trying to keep it all for itself. Bibi Dong already knew that silver-haired woman existed!"
"She sealed off the Star Dou Great Forest to protect herself!"
Hearing this, Gu Rong slapped his thigh.
"No wonder!"
"No wonder Spirit Hall would rather fall out completely with our Seven Great Sects than let anyone inside!"
"That silver-haired woman claimed to represent the so-called Dragon Ancestor."
"With her there, the Star Dou Great Forest is now powerful enough to crush all of Spirit Hall!"
Ning Fengzhi nodded, a sharp gleam flashing through his eyes.
"Since Spirit Hall is afraid, this has instead become our opportunity."
"Send people to contact the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the Heaven Dou Imperial Family immediately."
Ning Fengzhi rose to his feet, his tone resolute.
"With a monster like this emerging from the Soul Beast Clan, humanity must huddle together for warmth."
"We must form an alliance to jointly resist any beast tide the Star Dou Great Forest might launch!"
And so, amid the wild speculation of Ning Fengzhi and the others.
Not only did the human powers across the continent fail to investigate what exactly lay hidden underground.
Instead, they treated Gu Yuena as their greatest imagined enemy and began making feverish preparations for a defensive war destined to be a joke.
They had no idea.
That Gu Yuena, whom they regarded as an apocalyptic threat, did not even amount to a speck of dust in the eyes of that being underground.
Meanwhile.
Slaughter City, Underground Blood Pool.
Tang San slowly opened his eyes, and excruciating pain instantly swept through his body.
He lowered his head and glanced at his arms hanging limply, their bones completely shattered.
And not far in front of him.
The King of Slaughter was kneeling on the ground, his palms pressed together, kowtowing nonstop toward the enormous dark gold "cylinder" in the center of the Blood Pool.
"What are you doing?" Tang San asked through gritted teeth, his voice weak.
Hearing him, the King of Slaughter abruptly turned his head.
He ignored Tang San's wretched condition and instead scrambled over, clamping a hand over Tang San's mouth.
"Shut up! Don't drag me down with you if you want to die!"
The King of Slaughter lowered his voice, his eyes bloodshot.
"Look for yourself!"
"Look closely at the texture on it!"
Hearing this, Tang San froze for a moment as well.
Enduring the agonizing pain, he looked toward the center of the Blood Pool again, a purple gleam rising in his eyes.
This time, he did not look at the whole thing.
Instead, he focused his gaze on one spot on its dark gold surface.
Several seconds later.
Tang San's breathing abruptly stopped.
Because he could clearly see fine pores on that seemingly indestructible dark gold surface.
Not only that, the layer of dark gold skin was gently rising and falling in a steady rhythm.
Each rise and fall took roughly a full hour.
That was breathing.
The breathing of a living creature!
"Do you see it clearly now?"
The King of Slaughter released his hand, his voice trembling.
"This is a living whisker."
"It hangs down through a fissure in the earth's crust and happens to pass through our Slaughter City's Blood Pool."
"That hammer blow of yours struck the whisker of an unimaginably enormous dragon!"
Hearing those words, Tang San felt the world spin around him.
His father Tang Hao's teachings and his teacher Yu Xiaogang's theories flashed through his mind.
Not a single theory could explain the thing before his eyes.
A single whisker was dozens of meters thick and pierced through the entire underground space.
Then how large must its actual body be?
"What... what kind of monster is this...?"
Tang San lay crumpled on the ground, utterly consumed by despair.
The hidden weapons he took such pride in, the Divine Slaughter's Domain he had pursued so desperately.
Before this colossal creature, they were not even worth calling a joke.
"A monster?"
The King of Slaughter sneered.
"This is an ancestor who could kick the entire Douluo Continent around like a ball!"
With that, the King of Slaughter turned and shouted out through the passage.
"Guards!"
"Throw him into the dungeon!"
"Chain him up with the thickest iron chains and rip out his tongue, so he can't make another sound!"
Soon, several black-armored knights rushed in.
Like dragging a dead dog, they hauled Tang San straight out, both his arms broken.
Tang San no longer even had the strength to struggle.
His resolve had completely collapsed the moment he saw that rising and falling dragon whisker.
Elsewhere.
Spirit City, the Pope's Palace.
Ghost Douluo hurried inside once again.
"Your Holiness!"
Ghost Douluo dropped to one knee and presented an intelligence report.
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect has made a move."
"Ning Fengzhi has contacted the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the Heaven Dou Imperial Family, and has even sent people to the Star Luo Empire."
"They've formed a Beast-Slaying Alliance."
At those words, Bibi Dong raised her eyebrows from her papal throne.
"A Beast-Slaying Alliance?"
Bibi Dong took the report and glanced over it, then laughed aloud.
"They think that silver-haired woman in the Star Dou Great Forest is the ultimate Dragon Ancestor?"
"So they intend to gather the military might of the entire continent to take on the Star Dou Great Forest?"
Ghost Douluo nodded.
"Yes."
"Ning Fengzhi believes that as long as they gather all the continent's Titled Douluos and combine them with the two empires' million-strong army..."
"Even if their opponent is a Ferocious Beast over a million years old, they can overwhelm it with sheer numbers."
Hearing that, Bibi Dong tore the report in her hands to shreds.
"A herd of stupid pigs."
Bibi Dong leaned back in her chair, her eyes full of mockery.
"They have absolutely no idea what they're fighting."
"A million soldiers? Titled Douluos?"
"Against a creature that size, is there any difference between sending a thousand people and a million?"
As she spoke, Bibi Dong stood and walked to the hall's window, looking toward the Star Dou Great Forest.
"Pass down my orders."
"All Soul Masters of Spirit Hall are to withdraw to the major cities and shut the gates."
"Other than to maintain everyday order, no one is permitted to go outside."
"If Ning Fengzhi and the others want to march to their deaths, let them."
"Spirit Hall will have absolutely no part in such stupidity."
Ghost Douluo froze.
"Your Holiness, are we just going to watch them form their alliance?"
"What if they really fight their way into the Core Area and anger the one underground..."
Bibi Dong drew a deep breath, her gaze turning utterly icy.
"If they anger him, we all die together."
"Douluo Star's destruction would be an outcome no one could change."
"But until then, I'll be damned if I play house with those idiots."
The scene returned to the Star Dou Great Forest.
Deep within the planetary core.
There was no concept of time here, only endless darkness.
Gu Xian's immense body remained coiled.
Every dark gold scale on his body was vaster than a continent.
At that moment, Gu Xian, deep in slumber, seemed to feel that he had held the same position for too long.
His body instinctively stretched ever so slightly.
It really was a tiny movement.
For his body, which spanned the starry sky, it was merely a faint twitch of muscle.
It did not even amount to a millimeter of displacement.
Yet that utterly insignificant twitch alone...
"BOOM!"
The next second, the continental plates of the entire Douluo Star let out a mournful groan under an unbearable burden.
It was a terrifying tremor that could not be described through sound.
It did not come from the surface, but radiated straight from the depths of the planet's core to every corner of its crust.
Heaven Dou Empire, the imperial city's square.
Tens of thousands of Imperial Knights, clad in armor and wielding weapons, stood in orderly ranks, their banners blotting out the sun.
On the raised platform in the square, Ning Fengzhi, Yu Yuanzhen, and the Heaven Dou Emperor, Xue Ye, were preparing to announce the official founding of the "Beast-Slaying Alliance" to the world.
"Everyone!"
Xue Ye raised the golden cup in his hand, brimming with confidence, his voice carrying across the square through the Amplifying Soul Tool.
"The beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest seek to overthrow humanity. Today, our two great empires have joined forces with the Seven Great Sects, and we shall surely take those..."
Before he could finish.
The next second.
"BANG!"
Without warning, the golden cup in Xue Ye's hand burst into a cloud of gold dust.
Immediately afterward, the sky over the entire Heaven Dou Imperial City went dark.
It was not dark clouds covering the sun.
Instead, several distant peaks, each a thousand zhang tall, collapsed with a thunderous crash at the same instant, raising dust that filled the sky and blotted out the sun!
"An earthquake?!"
Yu Yuanzhen swayed; a mighty Super Douluo had actually almost lost his footing.
He jerked his head up, only to see a sight he would never be able to comprehend in his lifetime.
Outside the imperial city, the water in the hundred-meter-wide moat that ran through the entire Heaven Dou Empire was forced backward into the sky in an instant by an invisible power!
Like a fragile biscuit, the earth split down the middle, opening a terrifying chasm thousands of li long.
An unbroken chorus of screams rose from the square below.
The tens of thousands of Imperial Knights, whose momentum had been like a rainbow just moments ago, did not even have time to release their Martial Souls before they tumbled in droves into the bottomless fissure like dumplings dropped into a pot.
"Save His Majesty! Hurry, protect His Majesty!"
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