Another morning dawned, with faint mist permeating the outer edges of the mixed zone in the Star Dou Forest.
Two figures moved slowly through it, none other than Xu Zihuang and He Caitou, who had endured half a month in the mixed zone.
Their steps were resolute, and even their seemingly casual movements carried an elusive quality, making it difficult to find any flaws.
Xu Zihuang, with his restrained divine aura, showed little change, but He Caitou's demeanour had become much steadier compared to half a month ago, especially his gaze, which had grown noticeably deeper.
The harsher the environment, the more it could push the human body to its limits.
Xu Zihuang, walking in front, suddenly halted. A sharp glint flashed in He Caitou's honest eyes, his muscles tensing as he prepared to face any situation.
Xu Zihuang's brilliant golden eyes shimmered with flowing light, a trace of coldness appearing at the corner of his mouth.
A strange dark red ripple flickered, and a crystal spear over three meters long materialised in his right hand. He abruptly turned and thrust it fiercely toward his right.
Amid a series of shrill screeches, dust billowed at the tip of the crystal spear, and low-lying plants and grass seemed to be crushed by something.
With a few flickers, a soul beast about half a meter long, covered in fine scales and resembling a lizard, appeared. The crystal spear in Xu Zihuang's hand had pierced straight through its head.
This lizard-like soul beast had a triangular head, a coiled tail, and protruding emerald-green eyes. Its fine scales shimmered with a gradient of seven colours, giving it a chilling appearance. Even its blood was an unusual bluish-green.
After struggling a few times, it fell silent. A bright purple soul ring slowly condensed above its corpse. A thousand-year soul beast had perished.
"Thousand-Year Seven-Colored Chameleon, highly venomous," He Caitou said, his expression shifting slightly.
Though they had supported each other through the past half month, he knew full well that Xu Zihuang could have survived in the mixed zone for half a month on his own, while He Caitou, without Xu Zihuang's help, would have been threatened by this Thousand-Year Seven-Colored Chameleon alone.
After all, he hadn't even noticed the chameleon's approach.
Today was the final day of their extreme test.
Xu Zihuang turned around, about to discuss with He Caitou their plans to exit the Star Dou Forest, when Tianmeng Iceworm in his spiritual sea suddenly jolted awake.
"Zihuang, be careful! Two soul beasts are heading your way. They're strong. If I'm not mistaken, one of them is a hundred-thousand-year soul beast. The other, hmm, probably around fifty thousand years of cultivation. How is that possible?! What kind of soul beast could face a hundred-thousand-year soul beast head-on with just fifty thousand years of cultivation?! Strange, these two auras feel somewhat familiar."
Tianmeng Iceworm's voice was grave, tinged with shock. Its latter words were muttered to itself.
Xu Zihuang's mind sharpened, but before he could react, three roars like tidal waves echoed from the distance, accompanied by a devastating shockwave.
Instinctively locking onto the source of the sound, he looked ahead. He could clearly see that five kilometres to his right front, vast swathes of forest fell like harvested wheat, collapsing endlessly. Within a five-kilometre radius, including the area where Xu Zihuang and He Caitou stood, the forest was razed to the ground. Trees and soil turned to dust under the terrifying shockwave, forming a massive crater.
Even with Xu Zihuang's physical strength and mental power, the three roars and the shockwave left him dizzy. He Caitou, meanwhile, fell unconscious, only spared from collapsing to the ground by Xu Zihuang's quick support.
At the same time, the soul beast that had unleashed those roars appeared in Xu Zihuang's line of sight.
It was a majestic soul beast over five meters long, resembling a lion but with three identical heads, each over a meter in diameter, its terrifying fangs glinting with crimson-gold light.
The three roars had clearly come from those heads. Then, the three heads let out low, furious growls mixed with madness, and intense dark red light erupted from their bodies. The three heads swelled in size, exuding an aura of carnage and bloodshed.
If seeing this soul beast only caused Xu Zihuang's body to tremble, his gaze froze, and his heart skipped a beat when he noticed the other soul beast confronting it.
It was a black tiger, over seven meters long. Unlike the Giant Palm Black Tiger he and He Caitou had killed, this black tiger was pure black without a single speck of colour, even the "King" character on its forehead was black—not the glossy black of its fur, but a dark, misty black.
Compared to ordinary tiger-type soul beasts, its tail was much longer and raised upward, composed of countless segments with a massive barbed hook at the tip, radiating a chilling gleam. On its broad back grew a pair of equally black wings.
It was the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, a legendary soul beast Xu Zihuang had encountered during his first visit to the Star Dou Forest.
Judging by this Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's size, its cultivation undoubtedly exceeded fifty thousand years.
"No wonder! What soul beast could match a hundred-thousand-year soul beast with just fifty thousand years of cultivation? It's this thing!" Tianmeng Iceworm's voice echoed again in Xu Zihuang's spiritual sea, on the verge of frenzy, tinged with fear.
Back when it had escaped the ferocious lands of the Star Dou Forest, it had fallen into the clutches of an eight-thousand-year Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, which later became Xu Zihuang's third soul ring.
"Wait, the hundred-thousand-year soul beast it's facing is that bastard Scarlet King?! No, there's another soul beast?!"
Indeed, the lion-like soul beast with three heads was none other than Scarlet King, the Three-Headed Scarlet Devil Mastiff, ranked eighth among the top ten ferocious beasts. A true ferocious beast, capable of matching a human Super Douluo. This also underscored the terrifying nature of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, which, with only fifty thousand years of cultivation, could hold its own against an enraged Scarlet King.
However, neither Tianmeng Iceworm nor Xu Zihuang focused on Scarlet King at that moment, because not far behind Scarlet King was another, even more extraordinary soul beast.
Like Scarlet King, this soul beast resembled a lion, but its four limbs were covered in golden-scaled dragon claws, and its mouth was longer than that of typical lion-type soul beasts. Its body shimmered like translucent golden crystal, exuding an otherworldly texture. Beneath its golden fur were fine golden scales, matching its dragon claws. In addition to its normal golden eyes, it had a third vertical eye, somewhat resembling the phantom of Xu Zihuang's Golden Eyes martial soul during its second awakening. However, this third eye was red, with a touch of eerie crimson.
Yet, this noble and extraordinary soul beast bore several deep, bone-exposing wounds. Gray-black energy seemed to invade its body relentlessly, but it was held at bay by the golden-red energy emanating from within, strangely preventing any blood from flowing. Its limbs lay weakly on the ground, its aura extremely feeble.
For any other soul beast, even one with a powerful bloodline like the Three-Headed Scarlet Devil Mastiff, such fatal wounds would mean certain death, or at the very least, severe damage to its essence. Yet this soul beast, with its extraordinary abilities, managed to seal its vitality, preventing it from draining rapidly.
"This… this is the Three-Eyed Golden Lion?!" Tianmeng Iceworm's voice was even more shocked than before.
"Did that Dark Demon Evil God Tiger injure the Three-Eyed Golden Lion? It dared to harm the Emperor Auspicious Beast—it's insane."
Tianmeng Iceworm didn't particularly care about the safety of the Emperor Auspicious Beast. Having been oppressed by the ferocious beasts of the Star Dou Forest's ferocious lands for years, it harboured only resentment toward the forest's powerful soul beasts. It would revel in the thought of Scarlet King and the fifty-thousand-year Dark Demon Evil God Tiger fighting to the death, or even the Emperor Auspicious Beast falling, leaving the ferocious beasts in impotent rage.
It would only gloat.
But a battle of this level could easily implicate Xu Zihuang, with whom it shared a bond of mutual prosperity or ruin. This forced it to consider the situation carefully.
Meanwhile, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's blood-red eyes locked onto Scarlet King, a human-like resentment flashing within. Its muscles, far more exaggerated than those of the Giant Palm Black Tiger, tensed as it stood firm, its grotesque scorpion-like tail swaying gently.
Tianmeng Iceworm was right—the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, had been gravely wounded by it. This Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had bided its time for thousands of years for this opportunity.
When it had just broken through to ten thousand years of cultivation, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, a supreme soul beast, already possessed considerable intelligence. After ten thousand years, its wisdom was no less than that of a human, and its strength was formidable, with few soul beasts posing a threat.
It was then that it chose to enter the Star Dou Forest, intending to devour its soul beasts to accelerate its cultivation. By chance, it discovered the existence of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, the Emperor Auspicious Beast, and was immediately consumed by greed. It knew that devouring this beast could propel its cultivation to the hundred-thousand-year level in a short time.
No Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had reached such a level in countless years. The strongest in their clan had only reached about sixty thousand years, and through their clan's unique abilities, they vaguely knew that the sixty-thousand-year Dark Demon Evil God Tiger had been defeated by a human and became their soul ring.
This was why few Dark Demon Evil God Tigers dared to enter the Star Dou Forest.
It wanted to devour the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, but the beast was always guarded by powerful soul beasts. So, it chose to bide its time in the Star Dou Forest, lingering at the edges of the mixed and outer zones, devouring weaker soul beasts to boost its cultivation while waiting for the right moment.
It was cautious, using its clan's innate domain to conceal its presence, remaining undetected for thousands of years. Finally, today, it found the Three-Eyed Golden Lion alone, hunting light-attribute soul beasts for their brains as food.
Everything went according to plan. Its strike, prepared over thousands of years, severely wounded the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. Though the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's bloodline was noble as the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was on the same level, both with the potential to reach demi-god status. The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger wielded the ultimate evil attribute alongside five other attributes, while the Three-Eyed Golden Lion had near-ultimate fire and light attributes, plus a mental attribute. With only about fifteen thousand years of cultivation, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was no match.
But just as it prepared to devour the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, Scarlet King arrived, interrupting it. How could it not be furious?
"Roar—" The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger let out a sky-shaking roar, its eyes' resentment and hesitation vanishing instantly. With a flap of its massive wings, a fierce wind surged, and it transformed into a streak of light, fleeing into the distance.
It desperately wanted to devour the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, but it was no match for Scarlet King. Not to mention, in the ferocious lands of the Star Dou Forest, there were several beings far stronger than Scarlet King.
What it lacked least was patience. Only by surviving could it have an infinite future.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger tried to flee, but Scarlet King would not allow it. Its three heads roared furiously, dark red fur rippling with black patterns, and its massive body shot toward the fleeing tiger like lightning.
Its anger nearly overwhelmed its reason. The Auspicious Beast was under its protection, yet it had been gravely wounded by the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger—a dereliction of duty.
All this happened in an instant. Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo appeared beside Xu Zihuang and He Caitou almost simultaneously.
"Why is Scarlet King at the edge of the Star Dou Forest's mixed zone? A fifty-thousand-year Dark Demon Evil God Tiger? And what is that other soul beast…?" Both wore grave expressions. As one of the top ten ferocious beasts, Scarlet King was no stranger to them. The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was recorded in Shrek Academy's ancient texts, allowing them to barely identify it. But the identity of the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, was beyond their knowledge, as it was a creature of legend.
The critical situation left no time for deliberation. Qian Duoduo took He Caitou from Xu Zihuang's hands and said sternly, "Let's leave the Star Dou Forest first. Lin'er, take Tianhuang."
Though Qian Duoduo's strength was inferior to Xian Lin'er's, he was far more rational and decisive in this moment.
But just as Xian Lin'er reached for Xu Zihuang's arm to leave with Qian Duoduo, Xu Zihuang suddenly dashed toward the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.
His action was so sudden that Xian Lin'er, unprepared for such a move, failed to stop him in time.
Both Qian Duoduo and Xian Lin'er's pupils contracted, and Xian Lin'er's brows twitched sharply. Qian Duoduo, familiar with her, knew the Martial God Douluo was on the verge of rage.
Even he couldn't comprehend Yu Tianhuang's actions.
For Xu Zihuang, five kilometres was a matter of a few breaths. What Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo couldn't see was a silver hexagonal pattern appearing at his brow, faintly solidifying into a silver scale.
This was the second time this had happened. The first time had given him a strong urge to come to the Star Dou Forest, and this time, the urge in his mind was to touch foreheads with the Emperor Auspicious Beast, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, as if guided by fate.
He wouldn't fully trust such an ethereal feeling, but he was certain that connecting with the Three-Eyed Golden Lion and gaining the Eye of Destiny would bring immense benefits.
This was undoubtedly a perfect opportunity.
However, he wouldn't gamble with his life. As he rushed forward, he spoke solemnly to Tianmeng Iceworm in his spiritual sea, "Tianmeng, if anything unexpected happens, use your final spatial teleportation ability to get me out."
"Alright," Tianmeng Iceworm replied gravely. It didn't know what Xu Zihuang planned, but it felt his trust, stirring its emotions.
"Zihuang, leave it to me."
On the other side, seeing Xu Zihuang's figure rapidly approach, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was stunned. Before it could react, its four limbs and neck were encased in solid, dark red crystal.
Xu Zihuang, now before the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, pressed his right hand firmly onto its head.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion's initial shock turned to rage. As the Emperor Auspicious Beast, even the ferocious beasts of the ferocious lands wouldn't dare touch its body lightly. Being restrained by this seemingly insignificant human filled it with indescribable humiliation.
Unfortunately, in its weakened state, it was powerless to resist.
In some ways, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was similar to Xu Zihuang, both believing no soul beast or human was on their level, a pride rooted in their very bones.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion roared repeatedly, speaking in a clear, melodious female voice.
"Vile human, daring to touch my body! I'll curse you with endless misfortune and a terrible death—"
But in the next instant, its voice cut off as Xu Zihuang's forehead touched its red third eye. In its vision, only Xu Zihuang's indifferent, deep purple eyes remained.
As their gazes met, both man and beast trembled violently.
Ripples of strange, distorted light enveloped them, making their bodies seem transparent, with flickering light. Each shift in the light caused their bodies to shudder.
A silver hexagonal scale had formed at Xu Zihuang's brow, while a special golden light surged from the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's red third eye, merging into the silver scale. The silver scale gained a trace of brilliant gold, which continued to deepen, blending seamlessly with the silver. The gold and silver intertwined, surrounded by faint nine-colored halos.
The rich life energy from the Gold of Life in Xu Zihuang's spiritual sea flowed back into the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, healing its wounds at an astonishing rate.
Within the light halo, space and time seemed cut off from the outside world. The man and beast felt as if they had lived through endless ages, sharing each other's memories, though only an instant passed in the outside world.
"Hum—"
A burst of golden light erupted from where Xu Zihuang and the Three-Eyed Golden Lion touched, and Xu Zihuang's body was flung back, caught by Xian Lin'er, who had arrived a step later.
"You reckless kid, what are you doing?!" Xian Lin'er shouted, losing her composure for the first time in years. Yu Tianhuang was the future of Shrek Academy, undeniably important. If anything happened to him here, she and Qian Duoduo would bear the blame.
Without waiting for Xu Zihuang's response, she transformed into a massive dragon covered in azure scales, surrounded by layers of azure flames.
Dragon roars echoed as her wings flapped, carrying her toward Shrek City.
This was Xian Lin'er's martial soul, the Azure Flame Dragon. A type of flying dragon, it was on the same level as the Rouge Dragon inherited by Nan Shuishui and Nan Qiuqiu's lineage.
The difference was that the Rouge Dragon's attribute was annihilation, focused on destruction and erasure, while the Azure Flame Dragon wielded the power of decomposition, derived from mastering the wind attribute to an extreme degree, capable of cutting and dispersing.
Xu Zihuang stood dazed on Xian Lin'er's dragon body, still immersed in the insights from his connection with the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. He didn't even notice Qian Duoduo arriving with He Caitou.
"Roar, roar, roar—" Three roars sounded again as Scarlet King, sensing the anomaly, rushed to the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's side.
It had been blinded by anger earlier, but compared to chasing the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's safety was paramount.
"Damn it! Two human Titled Douluo?!"
Looking up at the Azure Flame Dragon disappearing into the distant sky, Scarlet King's crimson-gold fangs quivered. But when it saw the healed, dazed Three-Eyed Golden Lion, its eyes filled with confusion.
It seemed those humans hadn't harmed the Auspicious Beast? Instead, they had healed its wounds?
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