"Look carefully at the direction these trees fell."
Everyone looked where he pointed and discovered that all the trees had fallen outward toward the forest's edge in a radial pattern.
"What does that tell us?"
Yu Xiaogang clasped his hands behind his back, looking as though he held every answer in his grasp.
"It tells us that an incomparably powerful burst of energy erupted in the center of the forest, creating a shock wave."
"And this energy was extremely pure, without the slightest trace of a soul beast's savage aura."
"So my deduction is absolutely correct. An ancient formation must have been activated there!"
Hearing the Grandmaster's analysis, Dai Mubai, Oscar, and the others all looked impressed.
The Grandmaster truly was the Grandmaster. He could deduce so much information just from a few broken trees.
Tang San also nodded slightly. His teacher's wisdom truly was second to none on the entire continent.
Since these were formation ruins, that meant there was little danger, as long as they did not carelessly touch any mechanisms.
"Let's go. Pick up the pace. We might still get a sip of the soup before the other major sects."
With a sweep of his hand, Yu Xiaogang led the Shrek group deeper into the forest.
And just as the Shrek group pressed onward with their heads down...
A streak of fierce sword energy also cut across the sky above the Star Dou Great Forest.
An enormous silver sword hovered above the abyss.
Two people stood on its blade: Ning Fengzhi, the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and Sword Douluo Chen Xin.
"Fengzhi, look down there."
Chen Xin lowered his head to look at the abyss that had split apart more than half the forest. His eyes, ordinarily as still as an ancient well, were now filled with shock.
Ning Fengzhi also sucked in a breath of cold air.
Looking down from high in the sky, the visual impact was simply beyond words.
The entire Star Dou Great Forest looked like a giant green pancake that someone had forcibly pulled apart.
At the very bottom of that fissure, a faint Dark Gold glow shone through, making their hearts race.
"The people from Spirit Hall are already here."
Sharp-eyed, Ning Fengzhi spotted Bibi Dong and the others standing at the edge of the abyss at a glance.
"Uncle Jian, let's go down and take a look. Don't get too close."
Chen Xin nodded and guided the Seven Kill Sword slowly downward, stopping on a broken cliff several hundred meters from Bibi Dong and the others.
Bibi Dong naturally noticed their arrival as well, but she had no attention to spare for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect now.
All her attention was fixed on that Dark Gold wall.
Standing on the broken cliff, Chen Xin stared straight at the enormous Dark Gold surface at the bottom of the abyss.
He did not approach or unleash any soul skills.
As the Super Douluo with the strongest offensive power on the continent, his perception of danger had already reached a realm ordinary people could not comprehend.
"This thing..."
Chen Xin's brows knitted tightly. He could feel his Seven Kill Sword martial soul humming.
It was not excitement. Rather, it seemed like fear.
His martial soul was actually afraid of that thing below, with its Dark Gold sheen!
"Uncle Jian, have you figured anything out?" Noticing that Chen Xin's expression was off, Ning Fengzhi hurriedly asked.
"I can't see through it."
Chen Xin shook his head, but a glimmer of unwillingness to concede soon flashed in his eyes.
He was a sword fanatic of his generation. How could he be frightened by something of unknown origin?
"I'll probe it with my sword intent and see just what this thing is."
As he spoke, Chen Xin brought two fingers together and lightly swept them through the air.
In an instant, a transparent strand of sword intent crossed several hundred meters and settled lightly on the Dark Gold wall.
He harbored no hostility. He merely wanted to use his sword intent to sense its internal structure.
Yet something unexpected happened at that very instant.
When Chen Xin's sword intent touched the naturally formed Great Dao patterns on that scale...
Those previously motionless Dark Gold patterns merely circulated on their own once, blocking his probe outside.
A shattering sound rang out. The Seven Kill Sword Intent that Chen Xin took such pride in, which he had painstakingly cultivated for decades, was actually crushed directly into nothingness!
It did not even have the slightest room to resist!
"Pfft!"
Struck by the backlash, Chen Xin instantly turned deathly pale. A mouthful of blood sprayed straight out, staining the white robes over his chest red.
He staggered backward several steps. The phantom Seven Kill Sword in his hand flickered, nearly collapsing on the spot.
"Uncle Jian!"
Ning Fengzhi's expression changed drastically, and he hurried forward to support the swaying Chen Xin.
He could hardly believe his eyes.
Chen Xin had merely sensed it with his sword intent. He had not even attacked, yet the backlash had made him vomit blood?
He was a rank ninety-six Super Douluo!
Meanwhile, Bibi Dong and the others at the edge also noticed the commotion.
As Golden Crocodile Douluo watched Chen Xin spit blood, the little resentment remaining in his heart instantly vanished like smoke.
Even Sword Douluo, hailed as the foremost attacker, had ended up like this. It seemed that having only broken a nail and chipped his scales earlier meant the other party had already shown him mercy.
"Fengzhi... don't-don't touch that thing!"
After recovering somewhat, Chen Xin grabbed Ning Fengzhi's wrist, gasping for breath, his eyes filled with the terror of having narrowly escaped death.
"The patterns on it aren't things that should exist in our world at all!"
"If I'm not mistaken, there are fluctuations of laws on it."
"I..."
"I'm no match for it."
Hearing Chen Xin's words, everyone present felt a chill run down their backs.
Laws?
That was a realm one could only touch after reaching rank one hundred and becoming a god, according to legend!
Could this truly be something left behind by a god?
Or was this Dark Gold wall some super divine artifact that had fallen from the Divine Realm?
Golden Crocodile Douluo glanced at Chen Xin, who was still gasping for breath, and could not help swallowing.
A wave of lingering fear swept through him as well.
Fortunately, he had only used a physical attack to smash it earlier, rather than probing with spiritual power and sword intent like Chen Xin.
Otherwise, if the backlash from the laws had surged into his brain, he would probably have become an idiot by now.
Bibi Dong stood at the very front of the cliff, a complicated light flickering in her beautiful eyes.
She paid no attention to the two people from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect nearby.
As the Rakshasa God's successor, she was closer to the level of a "god" than anyone else present.
I'm going to see just what you are.
Bibi Dong whispered inwardly.
She did not act presumptuously like Chen Xin. Instead, she very cautiously released a wisp of the divine aura granted by the Rakshasa God Trial.
This purplish-black aura was extremely faint. Even Golden Crocodile Douluo beside her did not notice it.
Controlling this wisp of divine aura, Bibi Dong carefully sent it drifting down into the abyss like a gentle breeze.
She gave it no offensive intent whatsoever. She purely wanted to touch it.
Yet the instant that wisp of purplish-black aura touched the Dark Gold surface...
Bibi Dong felt her wisp of divine aura vanish without a trace, like a drop of ink falling into a vast ocean!
From the look of it, it had either been ignored outright or naturally absorbed by the wall itself!
Bibi Dong's expression changed as she sensed all this.
Immediately afterward, she abruptly severed her connection to that wisp of aura and involuntarily retreated half a step.
"Your Holiness!"
Gui Mei and Yue Guan hurried forward from beside her.
Bibi Dong raised a hand, signaling them to remain silent.
But her hands, concealed within the broad sleeves of her papal robes, were trembling uncontrollably.
The Rakshasa God's aura had actually been ignored?
Just what on earth was this thing?
Meanwhile, in the innermost region of the Star Dou Great Forest...
The Lake of Life.
This was ordinarily the quietest and most sacred place in the entire forest.
Today, however, the clear lake water churned incessantly, as though it had been brought to a boil.
It was not because the temperature had risen, but because the surrounding air pressure was frighteningly low.
Two incomparably enormous figures lay in the mud at the bottom of the unfathomably deep lake.
They were the forest's absolute overlords: the hundred-thousand-year soul beasts Titan Giant Ape Er Ming and Sky Azure Bull Python Da Ming.
These two hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, whose slightest movement could strike terror into the soul masters outside, now pressed themselves against the lakebed like two frightened quails.
Er Ming's hill-sized body was trembling slightly.
"Big Brother, what on earth is happening...?"
Er Ming transmitted his voice through soul power, unmistakable fear in his tone.
"I feel as though there's something underground pressing down on me so hard I can't breathe."
Da Ming was in an even worse state than Er Ming.
On his enormous bovine head, his eyes, larger than lanterns, were filled with unprecedented awe.
Even his blue-green scales were uncontrollably seeping traces of blood.
That was because Da Ming carried a faint trace of the Dragon Clan's bloodline within him.
And precisely because of that trace of bloodline, the pressure he felt now was thousands upon thousands of times stronger than what Er Ming felt!
It was an oppressive might that came from the very source of his bloodline, and even transcended that source.
"Don't speak..."
Da Ming's voice trembled violently.
"This aura is too ancient."
"I've seen a statue of the Dragon God in my inherited memories, but even the Dragon God's aura amounts to nothing before this oppressive might."
"The existence underground is absolutely not something we can pry into."
Enduring the pain of every bone in his body nearly being crushed, Da Ming raised his head and glanced at the lake's surface.
He knew that everything outside must already have descended into chaos.
Human soul masters would certainly be drawn over by this disturbance.
"Er Ming, relay my orders."
"Have every ten-thousand-year soul beast in the core region mobilize and seal off the perimeter of this area."
"No matter the cost, we absolutely cannot let humans disturb that existence underground!"
Although Da Ming did not know just what lay underground...
His instincts told him that if humans recklessly courted death and woke that existence...
The entire Star Dou Great Forest would be finished.
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest...
Led by Yu Xiaogang, the group from Shrek Academy was advancing swiftly toward the source of the tremors.
"Teacher, wait a moment."
Tang San, walking in the middle of the group, suddenly stopped.
Yu Xiaogang turned and looked at him in some puzzlement. "What is it, Little San?"
Tang San did not speak. Instead, he pointed at a patch of bushes not far away.
Everyone looked where he pointed and immediately froze.
More than half that patch of bushes had been crushed flat.
An enormous spider with a hideous human-face pattern on its back lay there.
"Man Faced Demon Spider!"
Dai Mubai cried out and immediately released his White Tiger martial soul, placing himself in front of everyone.
This was a notoriously murderous fiend among soul beasts, savage beyond compare.
Yet what left everyone utterly astonished was...
That Man Faced Demon Spider, with at least two thousand years of cultivation, paid them no attention whatsoever.
All eight of its long legs dug into the soil, its entire body crouched extremely low. Its head faced the center of the forest as it trembled incessantly.
It did not look as though it was about to attack. Instead, it seemed to be kneeling in worship?
"What's this beast doing?" Ma Hongjun scratched his head, looking utterly bewildered.
And it was not just this Man Faced Demon Spider.
As the group continued forward, they saw more and more strange sights.
A pack of bloodthirsty Gale Demon Wolves usually tore into their prey together.
Now, however, they all lay neatly on the ground, their tails tucked between their legs.
Even when a Mandala Snake happened to pass through the wolf pack, no conflict broke out. Instead, each found a place to lie down, prostrating themselves toward the center of the forest together.
Every Soul Beast on the outskirts had set aside its hatred for its natural enemies and lay on the ground in an utterly devout posture.
The sight was truly staggering.
Tang San quietly activated his Purple Demon Eye and carefully observed his surroundings.
Soon, he discovered something even more amiss.
"Teacher, the flow of Soul Power in the air has changed."
Tang San spoke in a lowered voice.
"Normally, the Soul Power in the forest drifts about chaotically, but now all of it is converging very slowly toward the central area."
"It's as though something is absorbing it."
Hearing Tang San's words, Yu Xiaogang's brows furrowed into three deep lines.
The scene before him did indeed go somewhat beyond his theoretical understanding.
But he was the Grandmaster whose name resounded across the continent. How could he show uncertainty in front of his students?
At that thought, Yu Xiaogang hurriedly cleared his throat twice, forcibly maintaining his inscrutable expression.
"Little San, you've observed things very carefully."
"But this happens to confirm my conjecture."
"Once an ancient super-array activates, it inevitably requires vast amounts of the world's primal energy to sustain it."
"As for these Soul Beasts' reactions, that's even simpler."
Yu Xiaogang pointed at the wolves lying on the ground and spoke with complete confidence.
"When Ancient Great Experts laid out arrays, they would usually incorporate the blood essence of high-ranking Soul Beasts to anchor the Array Core."
"Now that the array has activated, that powerful Soul Beast's aura is leaking out. When these low-ranking Soul Beasts sense it, they naturally have this instinctive reaction to prostrate themselves."
Hearing this explanation, everyone from Shrek wore a look of sudden understanding.
So that was it!
Their teacher's knowledge was truly vast. He even knew these ancient secrets inside and out.
Tang San also nodded silently, finding his teacher's analysis perfectly logical.
Since it was merely an aura leaking from an array, there was nothing to fear.
"Come, let's keep going."
With his head held high and chest thrust out, Yu Xiaogang strode ahead.
Meanwhile, at the edge of that Abyss Canyon.
Spirit Hall's investigation was still underway.
Since they could neither break through it nor see its limits, Bibi Dong ordered the accompanying Red-Robed Archbishops to take measurements with instruments.
An elderly archbishop with graying hair was setting up measuring equipment at the canyon's edge with several subordinates.
They carefully inserted a graduated probe made of refined steel into the gap between the Dark Gold wall and the soil.
The elderly archbishop pushed up the crystal reading glasses on his nose and stared intently at the markings on the probe.
The surroundings were utterly quiet. No one dared disturb him.
Suddenly, the elderly archbishop rubbed his eyes, for he noticed that the markings on the probe seemed to have moved.
The movement was extremely slight, probably less than a millimeter.
"Am I imagining things?"
The elderly archbishop muttered to himself and brought his eyes a little closer.
He had someone bring an hourglass and began timing it.
The time it took an incense stick to burn passed.
The probe moved again.
This time, it was pushed outward by about a millimeter.
Then another incense stick's worth of time passed, and the probe retracted to its previous position.
The elderly archbishop's breathing suddenly quickened.
With a trembling hand, he scooped up a handful of fine dust from the ground and gently sprinkled it above the gap.
Under the puzzled gazes of his nearby subordinates, the dust did not fall straight into it, but hovered in midair.
After a while, a faint current of air drew the dust slowly toward the Dark Gold wall.
Another incense stick's worth of time passed, and the airflow reversed, gently pushing the dust away before it drifted outward.
Drawn in.
Pushed out.
The cycle repeated with great regularity.
At the sight, the notebook in the elderly archbishop's hand fell to the ground with a clatter.
As though struck by lightning, he collapsed onto his backside in the mud, his face instantly drained of all color.
"Your Grace, what's wrong?"
His nearby subordinates were startled and hurried over to help him up.
But as though he had gone mad, the elderly archbishop crawled on his hands and knees toward Bibi Dong.
"Your Holiness! Your Holiness!"
As the elderly archbishop's terrified cries echoed through the empty canyon, they instantly drew the attention of every Titled Douluo present.
Bibi Dong frowned slightly as she watched the elderly archbishop scrambling toward her.
"What has frightened you so?"
At her words, the elderly archbishop, who had fled over in a blind panic, knelt on the ground. His entire body shook like grain in a sieve as he pointed down into the abyss, barely able to speak coherently.
"It moved..."
"It's moving!"
Hearing this, Golden Crocodile Douluo immediately gave an irritated snort.
"Nonsense!"
"I struck it with all that force just now, and it didn't budge an inch. Now you're telling me it's moving?"
The elderly archbishop shook his head desperately, nearly driven to tears by his urgency.
"Not that kind of movement!"
"It's expanding!"
"It's rising and falling!"
"Its surface expands outward by one millimeter every incense stick's worth of time, then contracts by another millimeter!"
Everyone present was a top-tier powerhouse with a lightning-quick mind.
Hearing the words "expanding and contracting," Ning Fengzhi's expression instantly changed.
"You mean..."
Seeing that no one believed him, the elderly archbishop knocked his forehead straight against the ground.
"Your Holiness, that's breathing!"
"It's breathing!"
Breathing?
This Dark Gold surface that stretched for hundreds of miles without an end in sight was breathing?
If its rising and falling was caused by breathing, then perhaps the muffled booms they had heard earlier were not movements of the earth's crust at all.
But rather...
Heartbeats???
Bibi Dong felt the world spin around her.
If this thing could breathe and had a heartbeat.
Then it was no divine artifact that had fallen from the Divine Realm.
It was a living creature!
And what made their scalps prickle most was that all they could see now was merely a single scale on the surface of this creature's body!
If even one scale was so vast that its edges lay beyond sight, then the creature itself, slumbering deep beneath the earth...
Just how big was it?
Before you continue