Just as Xiao Yan and his group were getting closer to the core area of Star Dou Great Forest, the surrounding air suddenly became heavy.
It wasn't a sudden drop in temperature, nor a change in air pressure, but a sense of oppression from the depths of one's soul.
It was as if a pair of invisible eyes had opened from the depths of the dense forest, coldly watching the three intruders.
Xiao Yan's soul perception became exceptionally sharp under the blessing of the Venerable Feng's source power, and he detected the presence of that power almost the instant it appeared.
In Xiao Yan's perception, an extremely powerful and violent force suddenly rushed towards them from the core area.
The speed of that force was astonishing. Wherever it passed, the auras of Soul Beast that were thousands or even tens of thousands of years old all gave way, as if subjects had encountered their monarch.
"Roar--"
A powerful roar of a wild beast resounded from the direction of the core area.
The roar was deep and powerful, like a heavy hammer slamming into Xiao Yan's chest, making his heart skip a beat.
That was a declaration of war containing the full might of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast; it was the overlord of this forest issuing a final warning to the intruders.
The roar was still echoing over the forest when the earth began to tremble violently.
It wasn't a slight tremor; the entire earth was shaking, like an earthquake.
Xiao Yan could even hear a muffled rumbling sound coming from deep underground, a mournful cry from the earth itself as it endured some unimaginable pressure.
On the ground, countless small Soul Beast emerged from the bushes and fled frantically away from the direction of the roar, forming gray torrents.
Under Xiao Yan's watchful gaze, in the nearby forest, towering ancient trees began to collapse and fall at both ends.
Each of those trees is tens of meters tall, with a thick trunk that would require more than a dozen people to encircle, and they are probably no less than a thousand years old.
But faced with that approaching force, they were as fragile as wheat stalks in a field.
It was casually knocked down and uprooted by an invisible force.
The tree trunk snapped in half, and pieces of wood and broken branches were thrown into the air before pouring down like a torrential rain.
The roar of the collapsing giant trees echoed incessantly, and the dust they kicked up resembled giant gray walls.
It rolled towards Xiao Yan from the depths of the forest.
Wherever the smoke and dust passed, visibility was completely obscured.
All that could be heard was the sound of more and more trees being broken, trampled, and ground into dust.
The sound made your teeth ache, made your heart race, and made you involuntarily want to back away.
Immediately afterward, under Xiao Yan's sensory lock, a huge black shadow leaped up from the smoke and dust.
The dark shadow was so large that when it leaped up, it seemed to cover half of the sky.
The sunlight cast a huge shadow behind it, enveloping Xiao Yan entirely.
Xiao Yan's gaze fell on that figure.
Its body is over ten meters tall, like a moving small mountain.
Its entire body was covered in thick, black fur, each hair as thick as an arm, gleaming with a metallic sheen in the sunlight.
Its limbs are disproportionately thick, especially its forearms, which are bulging with muscles and contain a violent power capable of tearing the earth apart.
The contours of each muscle were clearly visible, like sculpted rock beneath the cover of black hair.
Its chest was broad enough to hold a carriage, and each breath it took created a deep hum in the surrounding air.
What is most terrifying is that hideous face.
The skull was broad and thick, with high-rising brow bones, and two scarlet eyes, like two burning flames, coldly looked down at everything below from beneath the towering brow bones.
With each breath, it exhaled two white jets of air from its nostrils, each exhalation carrying a scorching heat that baked the surrounding leaves until they curled and turned yellow.
Its mouth was slightly upturned, revealing a set of sharp fangs, each about half a meter long, with bits of prey or tree debris still clinging to them.
It was none other than the Titan Giant Ape, a renowned Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast from the Star Dou Great Forest.
Xiao Yan's pupils suddenly contracted.
He clenched his fists instinctively, and a fine layer of cold sweat had seeped into his palms.
Xiao Yan had personally witnessed the terror of this Soul Beast.
He remembered that experience clearly.
The Titan Giant Ape suddenly appeared in front of them, grabbed Xiao Wu, and turned to leave, moving so fast that no one had time to react.
He and Tang San chased after it together, but even with all their might, they couldn't catch up.
That scene is still deeply etched in his mind, and every time he recalls it, he feels a sense of powerlessness.
The Titan Giant Ape is one of the most powerful beings in the Star Dou Great Forest.
Its power is enough to rival Titled Douluo, and its defense can ignore the vast majority of Soul Skill attacks.
On its territory, it is an invincible force.
Faced with the overwhelming pressure emanating from the Titan Giant Ape, Xiao Yan gently flapped his wings, unleashing the pure white frost of the Bone Spirit Cold Flame on his left wing and the verdant heat of the Green Lotus Core Flame on his right wing simultaneously.
With the power remaining from the Venerable Feng, his figure suddenly turned in mid-air, drawing a smooth and sharp arc as he quickly dodged to the side.
Just as Xiao Yan's figure swept through the air, the enormous black shadow shot out from where he had just been.
The Titan Giant Ape's body, several meters tall, was like a cannonball, carrying terrifying kinetic energy capable of crushing everything.
It passed through Xiao Yan's original position and crashed heavily into the forest behind him.
The sonic boom produced by its body rubbing against the air made Xiao Yan's eardrums sting painfully.
"Boom!"
The earth trembled violently.
Countless towering trees were snapped in half at the point where the Titan Giant Ape landed; its thick trunks were as fragile as matchsticks in the face of its impact.
Sand and stones flew everywhere, some as big as a fist and others as tall as half a person, crashing down like cannonballs.
It carved out one deep crater after another in the forest.
A huge crater, several feet deep, was left in the ground. The soil at the edge of the crater was charred black by the high temperature and impact, emitting a pungent burnt smell.
The Titan Giant Ape's massive body stood in the forest, the broken pieces of ancient trees scattered at its feet, looking like a pile of carelessly discarded matchsticks.
Its body was permeated with a dense, almost tangible, Soul Power fluctuation. That Soul Power was a deep, dark red color, like congealed blood, constantly flowing on its surface.
It raised its head and let out a deafening roar towards Xiao Yan and the others.
The roar transformed into a visible sound wave that spread outwards, shaking all the remaining leaves off the surrounding trees.
Its scarlet eyes burned with undisguised hostility, not directed at any one person, but at all humans who trespassed into its territory.
The pursuing Yue Guan and his Gui Mei figure stopped atop an ancient tree that had luckily escaped the brunt of the attack.
The trunk of that ancient tree was covered with cracks. Although it had barely held up in the shockwave, several deep fissures had appeared in its trunk, and it could collapse at any moment.
The two men looked at the Titan Giant Ape that had suddenly appeared, and a look of seriousness appeared on their faces.
The Titan Giant Ape before them was even more terrifying than the Sky Azure Bull Python, another Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast from the Star Dou Great Forest, in terms of pure power.
The Sky Azure Bull Python's strength lies in its ice-attribute breath and massive body, while the Titan Giant Ape's strength lies in its brute force, capable of tearing apart the Martial Soul Avatar of Titled Douluo's martial soul.
The black mist around the Gui Mei Gui Ying surged much more violently than usual.
Although he didn't speak, Yue Guan, a partner of many years, could immediately see the apprehension that Gui Mei was feeling.
" Titan Giant Ape..."
Yue Guan uttered the name with difficulty, his voice dry as if sandpaper rubbing against sandpaper.
His Adam's apple bobbed, and his fingers tightened unconsciously around his cuff.
Xiao Yan sensed the violent aura emanating from the Titan Giant Ape, and his eyes twitched slightly.
Even with the blessing of the Venerable Feng's power, he still felt immense pressure from this Soul Beast.
The pressure he felt was completely different from the pressure he felt towards Bibi Dong.
The oppressive aura of the Titan Giant Ape is a pure, extreme barbarity and domineering force, like a mountain hanging overhead, ready to crash down at any moment.
Even at their peak, Yue Guan and Gui Mei didn't give him such a strong sense of oppression.
That sense of oppression did not come from the difference in cultivation level, but from the crushing effect on the level of life itself.
Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast is already at the very top of the food chain in the entire Douluo Continent.
Their physical strength, Soul Power reserves, and combat instincts have all reached a level that a human Titled Douluo can hardly reach.
"Roar! Humans, this is not a place for you to set foot in."
Get out!
The Titan Giant Ape roared to the sky, its sound like summer thunder, shaking the surrounding leaves.
Its scarlet eyes swept over Xiao Yan, Yue Guan, and the others, filled with undisguised disgust and hostility, before it let out a furious roar.
Its voice boomed like thunder across the forest, each word carrying the unique pressure of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, making it almost impossible for people to breathe.
Xiao Yan's brain was racing at that moment.
He had to find a way to redirect the Titan Giant Ape's hostility from himself to Yue Guan and Gui Mei.
Otherwise, he would be surrounded by enemies on three sides.
With the Titan Giant Ape in front and the Yue Guan Gui Mei behind, he would truly have nowhere to go.
"Senior Titan Giant Ape, I'd like to leave."
But the two people behind him were hot on his heels.
They insisted on trespassing into your territory; I was forced to flee here."
Xiao Yan cupped his hands in a gesture of respect towards the Titan Giant Ape, his tone carrying just the right amount of helplessness and reverence.
He wasn't lying.
He was indeed driven to desperation by Yue Guan and Gui Mei, which is why he plunged into the Star Dou Great Forest.
The Titan Giant Ape's crimson gaze fell upon Xiao Yan Xiao Yan, its eyes burning with rage as it stared at him for a long while.
When it finally saw Xiao Yan's face clearly, a very brief look of surprise appeared on its ferocious face.
The surprise lasted for less than a breath before it quickly suppressed, reverting to its previous fierce and indifferent expression.
The Titan Giant Ape clearly remembered that when Sister Xiao Wu and her group were here, it had "kidnapped" Sister Xiao Wu.
The human in front of him had attacked him along with several other people before.
At that time, Xiao Yan was no more than an ant compared to it.
He didn't even need to lift a finger; the mere pressure of his Soul Power was enough to render the man immobile.
But the Titan Giant Ape didn't expect that in such a short time, for a being that had lived for 100,000 years...
A few years is but a blink of an eye.
The aura emanating from the opponent has undergone such a significant change, it's already faintly comparable to Titled Douluo?
This discovery slightly surprised the Titan Giant Ape.
It has lived for 100,000 years and has witnessed countless human Soul Master hunting Soul Beast in the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain Soul Ring. It has also seen many powerful humans attempt to break into the core area and challenge its authority.
But to achieve such tremendous progress in such a short time, even it has to admit that this human does indeed have some skill.