The peace of the sacred valley was a fragile, crystalline thing, and it shattered with the sudden, violent intrusion of overwhelming power. The hours of tense waiting had passed in a blur of hyper-vigilance, Huo Yuhao's spiritual senses stretched taut like a bowstring. Now, the threat was no longer a distant whisper on the wind. It was here.
Six figures descended from the sky, their forms wreathed in the potent, multi-colored light of Titled Douluo auras. They landed at the valley's entrance with the arrogant confidence of apex predators entering a hunting ground, their powerful presences a brutal violation of the valley's serene sanctity.
They were a formidable, intimidating group.
Their leader was a tall, hawk-faced man with piercing eyes and a cruel slash of a mouth. His aura was sharp and metallic, and behind him shimmered the ethereal form of a colossal, silver-winged roc. The Sky-Rending Roc Douluo.
Beside him stood a hulking brute of a man, his skin a strange, stone-grey color, his muscles bulging like granite boulders. His Martial Soul was his own body, transformed into a nigh-indestructible Diamond Golem.
The third was a woman, surprisingly beautiful, with long, flowing green hair and an aura that felt deceptively like gentle nature. But the predatory glint in her eyes and the thorny, venomous-looking vines that writhed at her feet revealed her true nature—the Thorned Empress Douluo.
The other three were equally imposing: a man cloaked in shadow whose very form seemed to waver, a short, stout man whose hands were encased in gauntlets of shimmering earth, and a final figure whose body was wreathed in crackling, violet lightning.
Their gazes swept over the valley, instantly locking onto the glowing nimbus of light in the center where the Snow Empress and the Snow Lotus were one. A covetous, hungry fire lit up their eyes.
"Just as the Soul-Seeking Compass indicated," the Sky-Rending Roc Douluo said, his voice a sharp, grating caw. "A hundred-thousand-year-old heaven and earth treasure, and a beast of at least 100,000 years undergoing a transformation. The fortune… it is immeasurable!"
"The energy is immense," the Diamond Golem Douluo rumbled, his voice like an avalanche. "Enough to push any one of us to the next level. Let's not waste time. We kill the beast, take the treasure, and divide the spoils."
It was then that their gazes fell upon the two small figures standing guard before the glowing light. Two teenagers. One, a handsome boy who looked barely twelve, the other a stunningly beautiful blonde girl who couldn't be much older.
The Thorned Empress let out a musical, condescending laugh. "Well, what is this? Has the great beast hired children as its guardians? How utterly adorable."
"They are Soul Masters," the Shadow Douluo hissed, his voice a dry whisper. "The girl is a Soul Emperor. The boy… a mere Soul Grandmaster. They are gnats. Let us swat them and be done with it."
The six of them saw only two foolish, overconfident children who had stumbled into a place they did not belong. They saw an easy, trivial obstacle between themselves and a world-shaking fortune. They had no conception of the true nature of the beings they were facing, no idea of the monstrous powers that lay dormant within these two youthful forms.
"Step aside, children," the Sky-Rending Roc Douluo commanded, his tone one of finality. "Leave now, and we might let you live. This is not a playground for your academy games."
Huo Yuhao and Jin Xi did not move.
Jin Xi took a step forward, the Golden Dragon Spear held loosely in her hand, its divine weight a comforting, familiar presence. She lifted her veil with her free hand, revealing her full, breathtaking face. A playful, disdainful smile touched her perfect lips.
"You have it backwards, old birds," she said, her voice a melodious chime that carried an edge of cold steel. "This is not your hunting ground. This is a sanctuary under our protection. You are the ones who have stumbled into a place you do not belong. Leave now, and we might let you die of old age."
The Titled Douluo were momentarily stunned by her sheer, audacious beauty, and then by the breathtaking arrogance of her words.
The Diamond Golem Douluo roared with laughter. "Brave words for a little girl who hasn't even reached the rank of a Soul Sage! I will enjoy crushing your pretty little bones!"
He stomped forward, his body glowing with a dull, earthy light.
The battle had begun.
'Now!'
Huo Yuhao's mental command was a silent thunderclap. The instant the Diamond Golem moved, his Spiritual Sharing ability activated, weaving an invisible network of thought and sense between himself, Jin Xi, the Ice Empress, and Skydream. Their four minds became one.
Simultaneously, he retreated, not out of cowardice, but with strategic purpose. He melted back towards the edge of the valley, becoming a ghost in the background, his body a conduit, his mind the command center of the entire battle.
'Jin Xi, engage the golem! He is slow, but his defense is absolute. Don't attack his body; target his joints, his footing. Keep him off balance! First Soul Skill: Golden Dragon Body!'
Jin Xi didn't need to be told twice. A brilliant golden light erupted from her, a thick, potent layer of energy encasing her slender form. She met the charging golem not with fear, but with a predatory grin.
'Ice Empress, the woman with the vines! Her attacks are likely control-based. Suppress her before she can lock us down! Skydream, the leader, the bird-man! Disrupt him! Hit him with everything you have!'
Two ethereal forms shot out from Huo Yuhao's body.
The Ice Empress materialized, a phantom of jade-green ice, her glacial eyes locking onto the Thorned Empress.
Skydream Iceworm became a shimmering, crystalline blur, his million-year spiritual will focused entirely on the Sky-Rending Roc Douluo.
The six Titled Douluo, expecting a quick, brutal victory, were met with a storm of impossible power.
The Diamond Golem's massive, stone-like fist, capable of pulverizing a city wall, swung towards Jin Xi. She didn't meet it head-on. As instructed, she sidestepped, her movements impossibly fluid, and slammed the butt of her Golden Dragon Spear into his ankle.
The blow, backed by her immense dragonic strength, would have shattered the leg of any other Titled Douluo. Against the golem, it only produced a dull, grinding crack and caused him to stumble, his charge momentarily broken.
"Annoying little pest!" he roared.
At the same time, the Thorned Empress smiled cruelly, her hands gesturing. The ground erupted with thick, thorny vines, shooting towards the glowing Snow Empress.
But before they could even get close, a wall of absolute, ultimate ice slammed down from above, turning the living vines into brittle, frozen statues that shattered into a million pieces.
"What?!" the Thorned Empress cried out, her eyes widening as she saw the ethereal form of the Ice Empress floating before her. "A spiritual projection? No… an illusion… a beast illusion that can affect us?!"
Before she could process it, the Ice Empress attacked. 'Ice Empress's Glacial Prison!'
The air around the Thorned Empress instantly solidified. A cage of translucent, jade-green ice erupted from the ground, its bars thick as tree trunks, trapping her completely.
The Sky-Rending Roc Douluo, seeing his comrades falter, was about to unleash his own attack when a spike of pure, agonizing pain slammed into his mind.
'Spiritual Shock!'
Skydream's attack was invisible, intangible, but devastating. The Titled Douluo cried out, clutching his head, his vision swimming, his own powerful Soul Power faltering for a crucial second.
The remaining three Douluo, momentarily stunned by the chaos, unleashed their own attacks. The Earth Gauntlet Douluo slammed his fists together, sending a wave of stone spikes across the ground. The Lightning Douluo summoned a spear of crackling, violet energy. The Shadow Douluo melted into the ground, preparing for a stealth attack.
But their every move was seen, anticipated.
'Ice Empress, storm! Left flank! Jin Xi, fist, break the lightning!' Huo Yuhao's commands were calm, precise, a conductor orchestrating a symphony of violence.
'Ice Empress's Glacial Storm!' The Ice Empress raised a spectral hand. The very air of the valley answered her call. A furious, localized blizzard erupted, not of snow, but of massive, house-sized blocks of Ultimate Ice that rained down on the Earth Gauntlet and Lightning Douluo, forcing them to scramble and defend. The environmental advantage here was immense; her power was amplified tenfold.
'Golden Dragon's Fist!' Jin Xi, disengaging from the golem for a split second, unleashed a punch. A concentrated cannonball of pure, golden draconic energy shot from her fist, meeting the lightning spear in a deafening explosion of light and sound.
The six Titled Douluo were in a state of shock. They were being held back. They were being fought to a standstill by a Soul Emperor, a Soul Grandmaster, and two powerful but disembodied spirits. The boy, the weakest of them all, was directing the entire battle with a tactical genius that was terrifying. His commands were perfect, exploiting every opening, countering every attack.
"Enough of this!" the Sky-Rending Roc Douluo roared, shaking off the last of his headache. The humiliation was unbearable. "These are not mere children! They possess great treasures! Forget capturing the them alive! Kill them all! Use your tools!"
The battle escalated. The Earth Gauntlet Douluo roared, and the Class 7 Soul Tool on his hands began to glow. It was a pair of 'Mountain-Shaker Gauntlets', capable of amplifying his earth-shattering attacks.
The Lightning Douluo brandished a spear that was not of condensed energy, but a Class 8 Soul Tool, a 'Storm-Caller Lance', which hummed with a captured tempest.
The Thorned Empress, having finally shattered her ice prison with a powerful Soul Ring ability, summoned a wicked-looking whip, a Class 7 'Venom-Lash Scourge', its tip dripping with a corrosive, soul-damaging poison.
They were getting serious.
'Jin Xi, pull back! Ice Empress, armor! Now!' Huo Yuhao's mental voice was sharp with urgency.
Jin Xi gracefully retreated as the Diamond Golem charged again, his fists now glowing with the amplified power of his own soul rings. The Ice Empress's spectral form flew in front of Huo Yuhao, and a thick, beautiful armor of jade-green ice instantly encased his body.
The Earth Gauntlet Douluo slammed his fists into the ground. A colossal stone hand, empowered by his tool, erupted from the earth beneath Huo Yuhao. It struck the Ice Empress's Armor with a deafening crash.
The armor cracked, spiderwebbing with fractures, but it held. Huo Yuhao was sent tumbling, but he was unharmed.
The onslaught was too much. Jin Xi was powerful, but she was being forced back by the combined assault of the Diamond Golem and the Sky-Rending Roc. The Ice Empress and Skydream were powerful, but their attacks were limited by the amount of Soul Power Huo Yuhao could channel. They were being overwhelmed.
'It's time,' Huo Yuhao thought, his face grim as he scrambled back to his feet.
The Shadow Douluo, seeing his chance, materialized from the shadow cast by a large icicle directly behind Huo Yuhao. A dagger of pure, condensed darkness, a Class 7 'Soul-Severing Dirk', plunged towards the boy's unprotected back.
'Now, Zi Ji!'
Huo Yuhao didn't even turn. He simply squeezed the purple-black dragon scale in his pocket while inputting his Soul Power in it.
The scale dissolved into a wisp of smoke. In its place, an ethereal, purple-black chain, shimmering with an abyssal power, shot out. It moved with an impossible, otherworldly speed, wrapping around the Shadow Douluo in an instant.
The assassin's eyes went wide with terror as his body was frozen solid, his soul bound by an ancient, draconic power he couldn't comprehend. The Abyssal Dragon's Binding.
He was trapped, helpless, for three precious breaths.
It was more than enough time.
The Sky-Rending Roc Douluo, seeing the Shadow Douluo suddenly freeze, had a moment of confusion. He was in mid-air, preparing to dive-bomb Jin Xi. It was a moment of overconfidence. A moment of fatal distraction.
'Now, Uncle Xiong Jun!'
Huo Yuhao threw the Darkgold Terrorclaw heirloom. It shot through the air, a blur of dark gold. He poured his Soul Power into it.
The claw pulsed once, and unleashed its stored essence.
A colossal, spectral bear claw, twenty meters tall and shimmering with the annihilating power of the Darkgold Terrorclaw Bear, materialized in the air directly above the Sky-Rending Roc Douluo.
The Titled Douluo's eyes widened in sheer, abject terror. He had no time to dodge, no time to defend. He could only watch as the claw descended.
It swiped.
There was no sound. The Titled Douluo's body, his powerful soul, his very existence, was simply… erased. Wiped from reality by an attack that carried the full, unbridled might of a Ferocious Beast. But that wasn't all.
Even the Shadow Douluo…The one who had been trapped at this moment was killed.
Two of the six were gone.
The remaining four Titled Douluo froze, their attacks faltering. They stared at the empty space where their leader had been, then at the small, determined boy who had just, impossibly, killed a Titled Douluo.
The shock was absolute. The fear was palpable.
But fear quickly gave way to a desperate, furious rage.
"He killed the captain and that assassin!" the Lightning Douluo screamed, his face contorted with fury. "The boy has treasures! He must have more! Kill him! Kill him and take them!"
Their greed, now fueled by rage and the promise of more treasures, overwhelmed their fear. They abandoned all pretense of tactics, their powerful auras flaring as they prepared for a final, overwhelming onslaught. Four enraged Titled Douluo, unleashing their strongest abilities, their most powerful tools…
Huo Yuhao knew they couldn't withstand it. Jin Xi was powerful, but not invincible. His own soul power was nearly depleted. They had used their trump cards.
He looked at the glowing nimbus of light in the center of the valley. The Snow Empress's transformation was at its peak, her aura pulsing with the final, critical stages of her rebirth. Any disturbance now would be catastrophic.
There was no other choice.
He reached into his robe, his fingers closing around the final gift. A dark, golden scale, pulsing with a quiet, terrifying, world-ending power. The Reverse Scale of the Dragon King.
'Forgive me, Lord Di Tian,' he thought, a grim resolve settling in his heart. 'I have no other choice.'
He poured the last dregs of his Soul Power into the scale.
The world did not shake. The air did not tremble. Instead, something far more profound happened.
Reality itself bent.
The dark scale in his hand that had activated had created a tear in the fabric of space. It was a small, black fissure, no bigger than his hand, but it was a wound to the world itself.
From within the tear, a pressure so immense, so absolute, so ancient that it dwarfed everything else—the cold of the Snow Empress, the aura of Jin Xi's Golden Dragon, the combined might of the Titled Douluo—poured out.
It was the pressure of a true monarch. The pressure of the Beast God.
The four remaining Titled Douluo felt it. Their enraged charge stopped dead. The very Soul Power in their bodies froze, refusing to obey them. Their hearts seized with a terror so primal it transcended thought. They felt like ants before the indifferent gaze of a star.
The tear in space widened, ripped open from the other side by an unseen, unstoppable force. It expanded into a swirling, black vortex, a gateway to a place of shadow and might.
And then, from that gateway, a single, colossal, golden eye opened.
It was an eye that had witnessed the birth of continents. It was an eye filled with the cold, absolute authority of a king.
The rest of the head emerged. Scales as black as the abyss, a horn that seemed to pierce the heavens, and a jaw that could swallow a mountain.
The Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, in all his colossal, world-ending glory, began to pull his immense form through the spatial rift.
He had arrived.
Di Tian's furious, golden gaze swept over the sacred valley, over the glowing form of the Snow Empress, over the two children he had protected. And then, his gaze settled on the four, trembling, terrified Titled Douluo.
A low, rumbling growl, a sound that was not just heard but felt in the very marrow of their bones, emanated from his throat. It was the sound of a king whose sanctuary had been invaded, whose children had been threatened. It was the sound of impending annihilation.