The frigid northern air swept across the entire Heaven Dou Empire in an instant, leaving the commoners, who had still been enjoying summer, shivering with cold.
And during these few days while Gu Xian slept.
Earth-shaking changes had also taken place within the Star Dou Great Forest.
At some unknown point, densely packed high-level soul beasts had gathered along the edge of Abyss Canyon.
Every last one was over fifty thousand years old!
Not one dared make a sound. They all lay quietly around the abyss.
At the very front of these high-level soul beasts.
Da Ming, the Sky Azure Bull Python, and Er Ming, the Titan Giant Ape, lay prostrate on the ground, their gazes devout.
They had sensed the bloodline aura coming from underground.
As soul beasts, their senses were far keener than those of humans.
"Big brother, a group of human soul masters has arrived outside."
Er Ming lowered his voice, transmitting his words to Da Ming through soul power.
"They carry a very unpleasant lightning aura. They've already broken through the outer defenses and are heading this way."
Hearing this, Da Ming raised his bovine head, his eyes narrowing slightly.
"Ants who don't know their own limits."
"Pass down my command."
"Kill any human who attempts to approach. No exceptions."
"Even if we shed our last drop of blood, we must never let them disturb our lord's slumber!"
At the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest's inner region.
Normally, not a single human figure could be seen here, but today it was bustling.
Yu Yuanzhen led over a hundred elites of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan into the area with an imposing air.
They had not encountered so much as a ten-year soul beast along the way, proceeding without obstruction.
The grand elder followed behind Yu Yuanzhen, his brow slightly furrowed.
"Clan chief, something isn't right."
"We're almost at the core region. How come we can't even hear a bird?"
Yu Yuanzhen walked at the very front, his face filled with disdain.
"What's so strange about that?"
"A supreme soul beast has emerged. The pressure it gives off has long since scared those low-level beasts away."
"That only proves the giant beast ahead has an absurdly powerful bloodline!"
At the thought, greed surged uncontrollably in Yu Yuanzhen's heart.
He could even feel the faint, scorching aura in the air.
That was the scent of a supreme dragon's vital blood!
As long as they took down this soul beast, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan could rightfully become the greatest sect in the world!
"Pick up the pace!"
Yu Yuanzhen shouted and led the group onward at greater speed.
Soon, they passed through a dense stretch of woods and reached the outskirts of Abyss Canyon.
But when they saw the scene before them, everyone stopped in their tracks.
Even Yu Yuanzhen, so full of confidence just moments ago, sucked in a sharp breath.
Countless enormous soul beasts crowded the clearing ahead.
Man Faced Demon Spiders, Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears, Qian Jun Ant Emperors...
Every one was an apex predator over fifty thousand years old!
And their numbers made their scalps prickle. At a glance, there were at least several dozen!
Yet these overlords, who normally slaughtered one another, stood in orderly ranks blocking the way today.
At the very front of the beasts, two mountainlike figures watched them coldly.
The Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape!
"Gulp."
The grand elder swallowed with difficulty, his legs beginning to weaken.
"Clan chief, they're hundred-thousand-year soul beasts..."
"They've actually gathered all the ten-thousand-year soul beasts!"
The elites of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had all gone deathly pale as well.
They were accustomed to throwing their weight around outside, but faced with a high-level beast tide of this scale, even a Titled Douluo would have to think twice.
Yet Yu Yuanzhen was only briefly surprised before the corners of his mouth lifted.
"Good! Very good!"
Yu Yuanzhen pointed at Da Ming and Er Ming ahead and burst out laughing.
"I was wondering what had frightened the people from Spirit Hall away."
"So it was this pack of beasts blocking their path!"
In Yu Yuanzhen's view, Bibi Dong must have retreated with her tail between her legs because she did not want to fight these two hundred-thousand-year soul beasts head-on.
As for the monster beneath the abyss, it must have been gravely wounded or newly born, which was why it needed these soul beasts to act as guards.
"Human, get out."
Da Ming raised his enormous bovine head slightly and spoke in human language.
"This is no place for you."
Normally, Yu Yuanzhen would absolutely have taken a detour if he encountered the Sky Azure Bull Python.
But today was different.
He held the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's greatest trump card, the True Dragon Nine Crowns!
Moreover, the enticing fluctuations of vital blood beneath the abyss had already robbed him of all reason.
"A mongrel blue ox dares act insolently before me?"
Yu Yuanzhen snorted coldly, and deafening thunder instantly erupted from his body.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black!
Nine soul rings lit up instantly, and a phantom Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon over fifty meters long threw back its head and roared behind him.
"Form the formation!"
Yu Yuanzhen shouted.
Several clan elders behind him immediately reacted, releasing their martial souls.
They pulled more than a dozen thick black iron pillars from their soul tools, their surfaces covered in intricate lightning inscriptions.
This was none other than the Lock Dragon Formation, passed down through the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan for hundreds of years!
A supreme formation designed specifically to suppress and capture large dragon soul beasts.
"Drive in the Lock Dragon Pillars!"
With that, Yu Yuanzhen formed seals with both hands, pouring his soul power into the iron pillars without reservation.
"I'll bind that giant beast first today, then deal with you two animals!"
At the sight, a flicker of anger flashed through Da Ming's enormous eyes.
These foolish humans had no idea what kind of being slept underground!
"Stop them!"
Da Ming roared, his massive body rising straight into the air.
Er Ming pounded his chest and hurled himself at Yu Yuanzhen like a meteor.
The high-level soul beasts behind them roared in unison and surged forward like a tide.
"You're courting death!"
Ferocity blazed in Yu Yuanzhen's eyes.
He struck his chest hard, and the power of the True Dragon Nine Crowns erupted instantly.
In that instant, his aura actually broke through the boundary of rank ninety-five, faintly touching the threshold of rank ninety-six.
Lightning filling the sky became a terrifying net of thunder, forcibly blocking Da Ming and Er Ming's attacks.
Though it could only hold them back for a moment, that was enough.
"Release the Lock Dragon Pillars, now!" Yu Yuanzhen shouted to the elders.
Seizing the opening, several elders joined forces to hurl down the dozen or so black iron pillars flashing with lightning.
The iron pillars linked together in midair, forming an enormous binding net of lightning.
At the sight, Da Ming's enormous eyes instantly turned red.
It was over.
These ants who didn't know their own limits actually dared attack the being underground!
Meanwhile, beneath the abyss.
More than a dozen Lock Dragon Pillars plunged downward, trailing dazzling lightning.
At last, they struck firmly against the dark-golden wall.
The formation activated instantly!
Countless blue lightning chains spread from the iron pillars, attempting to burrow into the dark-golden scales and bind the creature below completely.
But at the very instant the formation touched the surface of the scales.
Yu Yuanzhen, struggling to sustain the lightning net in midair, suddenly paled.
He felt his connection to the Lock Dragon Formation forcibly severed in an instant!
It was not merely severed.
A retaliatory force utterly beyond description surged backward along the soul power he had released and poured straight into his body.
Bang!
With a faint sound, the dozen or so specially made iron pillars, supposedly capable of binding even a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, turned into a heap of iron dust that scattered on the wind.
They were utterly annihilated without even a flicker of lightning.
As for that backlash.
"Pfft!"
Suspended in midair, Yu Yuanzhen looked as though he had been struck by lightning.
Before he even had time to react, he was sent flying backward, and the phantom Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon behind him instantly shattered.
Even the radiance of the True Dragon Nine Crowns dimmed.
Yu Yuanzhen slammed heavily into the ground, leaving a large crater.
"Clan chief!"
The elders turned pale with shock, hastily abandoning their resistance against the beast tide to rush over and help Yu Yuanzhen up.
Da Ming and Er Ming stopped attacking as well.
They stared in horror toward the source of the disturbance, not daring to move.
Yu Yuanzhen's hair hung loose, blood flowing from all seven facial orifices. He was in an utterly wretched state.
He pushed away the elders supporting him, gripped the edge of the abyss with both hands, and peered down.
The instant the formation shattered, he had faintly sensed an aura.
By the sunlight shining in from outside, Yu Yuanzhen finally saw the scene below clearly.
He saw the dark-golden surface stretching in both directions, its edges nowhere in sight.
He also saw the golden blood flowing slowly beneath that translucent material.
Those blood vessels were as vast as a golden ocean.
A single glance left Yu Yuanzhen frozen in place.
His lips trembled incessantly, and he could not utter a complete sentence.
What had he just done?
"A dragon..."
Yu Yuanzhen collapsed onto his backside, urine running down his trouser legs.
All his life, he had regarded himself as a true heir to the dragon lineage.
Only today did he realize that the trace of dragon blood in his martial soul was not worth a fart before this being.
"Clan chief, what exactly is down there?"
Seeing Yu Yuanzhen in this state, the grand elder grew so anxious that sweat covered his forehead.
Yu Yuanzhen gave a bitter laugh, his gaze already beginning to lose focus.
He pointed at the boundless golden ocean below.
"Run..."
"Run, now!"
With that, Yu Yuanzhen scrambled away, practically on all fours, stumbling and crawling.
Now he finally understood why Bibi Dong had not touched this thing.
Who the fuck would dare touch it!
Touch it once, and even the graves of eighteen generations of ancestors would turn to dust along with you!
Watching Yu Yuanzhen stumble and crawl away, the Star Dou Great Forest's beast tide did not pursue.
Er Ming scratched his large head and looked beside him in some confusion.
"Big brother, are we just letting these humans go?"
Da Ming shook his enormous bovine head slightly.
"Guarding our lord's resting place is what matters most."
"Pass down the order: seal off the inner region of the Star Dou Great Forest completely. Kill anyone who sets foot inside without mercy!"
Meanwhile, in the Heaven Dou Empire.
At the edge of Sunset Forest.
The abnormal tremors that had swept across all of Douluo Star earlier had left equally astonishing traces here.
On what had once been a perfectly level plain, five towering peaks had actually thrust straight up out of the ground, reaching into the clouds!
All five peaks were a mysterious dark gold from top to bottom.
Their shapes were extremely strange, curving inward, with incomparably sharp tips that pierced straight into the clouds.
Prince Xue Xing of the Heaven Dou Empire was stationed at their foot with a large contingent of Imperial Knights.
Beside him stood a gaunt old man whose hair and beard were both green.
It was none other than Poison Douluo, Dugu Bo.
"Your Excellency Poison Douluo, look at these five mountains of gold."
Prince Xue Xing pointed ahead, greed written all over his face.
"This must be a shift in the earth's crust that forced top-grade rare metals up from underground!"
"If our Heaven Dou Empire can mine these five mountains of gold and bring them back, the weapons we forge will absolutely sweep through Spirit Hall!"
Dugu Bo stroked his chin, a gleam flashing through his eyes as well.
Over the past few days, all the major powers had been spreading word that a supreme treasure had appeared in the Star Dou Great Forest. He had never expected something this good to emerge within their Heaven Dou Empire's borders too.
Dugu Bo gave a cold laugh.
"Rest assured, Your Highness."
"These five peaks are still covered in a layer of rock and waste soil. Let me corrode it away with my venom."
"That will make mining much easier."
With that, Dugu Bo released his Martial Soul.
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black!
Nine Soul Rings lit up in an instant, and the enormous phantom of a Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor appeared behind him.
"My Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor venom can melt even refined steel into bloody liquid!"
Dugu Bo opened his mouth wide, and a cloud of sickly green poisonous mist instantly gushed out.
The poisonous mist transformed into an enormous venomous dragon, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws as it lunged toward the five dark-gold peaks.
Prince Xue Xing and the Imperial Knights all backed away, terrified of getting even the tiniest speck on themselves.
Yet the very next second.
A sight that left everyone utterly dumbfounded unfolded.
The instant that Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor venom, supposedly capable of corroding all things, touched the surface of the dark-gold peaks, it failed to produce even a wisp of white smoke.
Instead, the natural patterns on the dark-gold surface shifted slightly, and a counterattack came straight back along the poisonous mist!
"Boom!"
Dugu Bo did not even have time to react before his whole body felt as though it had been struck by a heavy hammer.
The phantom of the Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor behind him collapsed on the spot.
"Pfft!"
Dugu Bo violently spat out a great mouthful of blood and was sent flying backward.
He rolled over a dozen times on the ground before barely coming to a stop, his face instantly turning deathly pale.
"Your Excellency Poison Douluo!"
Prince Xue Xing blanched in shock and hurried over to help Dugu Bo up.
Dugu Bo clutched his chest, his eyes filled with horror.
The deadly poison I take such pride in was actually purified in an instant by a mere aura?
Even my Martial Soul Origin suffered considerable damage!
"What in the world is this damned thing?"
Gritting his teeth, Dugu Bo stared at the five dark-gold peaks towering into the clouds.
Just then, a sudden commotion broke out among the Imperial Knights clearing the foot of the mountains ahead.
A knight captain scrambled back, stumbling and crawling, with an expression even more exaggerated than if he had seen a ghost.
"Your Highness! Your Eminence Poison Douluo!"
"We dug... we dug it out!"
Prince Xue Xing frowned. "Dug out what? What kind of conduct is this, panicking like that!"
The knight captain swallowed and pointed toward the foot of the mountains ahead.
"Underneath... they're connected underneath!"
"These five peaks are connected underground!"
Hearing this, Dugu Bo and Prince Xue Xing exchanged a glance and hurried forward.
When they reached the edge of the deep pit the knights had just excavated.
Both of them instantly froze on the spot as well!
Before you continue