In the past, no one ever considered large-scale slaughter of soul beasts.
After all, no one wanted to cut off their own roots and completely strangle the future of soul master civilization.
But now, times have changed.
The emergence and rapid spread of the Stigmata System provided soul masters with a new path of power, no longer needing to hunt soul beasts for spirit rings.
The explosive advancement of soul tool technology further developed special devices that could preserve spirit ring energy, as well as innovative technology that allowed non-killers to absorb spirit rings.
This meant that even without living soul beasts, humans could continue to train new generations of soul masters using preserved rings. reliance on soul beasts had reached a historical low.
This was good news for the survival of soul beasts, but it also buried enormous danger.
The downside was that humans now had no scruples regarding soul beasts.
When soul beasts transformed from a necessary strategic resource to a pure threat to continental security, the complete destruction of Star Dou Forest shifted from a crazy fantasy to a concrete and feasible strategic option that could be seriously discussed at the highest levels of the empire.
Xu Jiawei picked up a detailed military map of the Star Luo Empire, his slender finger slowly sliding between the regions marked Star Dou Forest and Mingdu.
The fall of Shrek City, the chaos in Mingdu, the inexplicable eruption of the beast tide.
This series of earth-shaking events seemed chaotic and unordered, but they all pointed in the same direction.
The Douluo Continent was experiencing a great upheaval unseen in millennia—a storm that would completely reshuffle the balance.
And the Star Luo Empire had to find its place in this storm, stand firm, and even ride the wind to rise.
He sighed lightly, spread the map out again, and his gaze became extremely deep.
The sunlight outside remained bright and brilliant, shining on this land that had prospered for thousands of years, but Xu Jiawei knew clearly that the old peace of Douluo Continent had completely ended.
A storm far greater than the Mingdu chaos or the destruction of Shrek was quietly beginning, using these two events as its prologue and catalyst, sweeping across the world.
He and his Star Luo Empire were already at the very center of the storm, with no choice but to ride the overwhelming waves step by step into an unknown and unpredictable future.
If the three great empires were truly determined to wipe out Star Dou Forest at any cost, it would be an extinction-level disaster—a genocide for all ordinary soul beasts except the few fierce beasts.
The three empires had long histories and deep foundations.
Just the Title Douluo powerhouses directly supported by their royal families numbered over thirty across the three nations.
If the war rose to a matter of species survival, all those reclusive elders from major sects, top academy deans, and solitary masters would surely be called out, whether for fame, profit, or the righteousness of humanity.
Counting these hidden top powers, humanity could mobilize Title Douluo-level strength surpassing fifty, maybe even approaching a hundred.
In this era, humanity had long been the undisputed masters of the Douluo Continent.
Soul beasts might have an edge in individual physical power and innate abilities, but in the face of overwhelming numbers and ever-advancing soul tool technology, they had no chance.
The fierce beasts were powerful, but the Star Dou Forest had only a handful of 100,000-year soul beasts at best. In terms of peak combat strength, they could not compare to the vast human ranks of Title Douluo.
What's more, humans had all kinds of powerful soul tool cannons, cooperative soul tool arrays in legion warfare, and individual soul tool battle armor.
Even ordinary soldiers, after training, could operate heavy soul tool cannon arrays, whose volleys could devastate thousand- and ten-thousand-year soul beasts.
Thousands of soul tool rays forming crossfire nets created death barriers with no blind spots, harvesting all lower-tier soul beasts who dared to charge.
From any rational military analysis, soul beasts were at a total and absolute disadvantage.
Of course, all these cruel calculations were based on the premise that the Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena did not intervene.
Sadly, the three empires never knew of Gu Yuena's existence, nor that this soul beast queen, asleep for countless years and holding the power of creation and elements, was the true trump card ensuring the survival of Star Dou Forest.
It must be said, Phantylia's plot was both flawless and vicious.
She used Di Tian's hand to trigger the beast tide, destroying humanity's soul master sanctuary, Shrek, in one stroke, planting the seeds of extreme fear and hatred toward soul beasts in human hearts.
On the soul beast side, witnessing piles of clan corpses and massive casualties, their hatred of humanity reached its peak.
Now, the two sides were like two piles of dry wood soaked in oil; a single spark could ignite a war that would burn away the very foundation of continental civilization.
While the three empires were busily mobilizing their troops and forming a strategic encirclement of Star Dou Forest, the atmosphere by the Core Lake at the heart of the forest was stifling.
Di Tian, who had been temporarily frozen by Ganyu's ultimate ice, had already broken free.
The moment Phantylia's consciousness left his body, the Beast God used every bit of his spiritual power and will to furiously fight off the mark of destruction and control left deep in his soul by Phantylia.
After several hours, he finally managed to barely break free from that terrifying spiritual shackle and regain control of his body.
But before leaving, Phantylia had planted an even more vicious gift deep in his flesh and soul sea.
At this moment, Di Tian had taken human form. His tattered black robe set off his face, pale as paper, utterly bloodless.
He knelt on one knee in the damp earth by the lake, right hand pressing tightly on his head, veins bulging on his forehead like twisted worms, his face contorted in agony from pain at the soul level.
In front of him, Gu Yuena stood quietly at the water's edge, her silver-white gown trailing the ground, her figure graceful. Her purple eyes were deep as an ancient cold lake, so calm that no emotion could be seen.
"Lord... Lord, it was my incompetence, my carelessness and underestimation... I was controlled by an external evil, causing... a terrible mistake..."
Di Tian's voice was as hoarse as sandpaper scraping, each word full of pain and self-reproach.
"Because of me, tens of thousands of our kind died tragically, our clan's vitality gravely wounded... I deserve a thousand deaths, I beg the Lord to grant me death, so that my blood may bring some comfort to the souls of our kin in heaven."
Nearby, the fierce beasts Bi Ji, Ten Thousand Demon King, and Bear Lord, all in human form, looked at the kneeling Di Tian with faces full of complex emotion.
They had already learned part of the truth from Gu Yuena—that the order to launch the devastating beast tide had not come from her, but resulted from Di Tian being controlled.
Di Tian himself was an innocent victim, but the immense losses suffered by the soul beasts were a bloody reality.
Bi Ji's jade-green eyes were full of pain and reluctance. She opened her mouth to plead for Di Tian, but when she met Gu Yuena's icy, emotionless purple eyes, the words stuck in her throat.
Before the supreme soul beast queen, no one dared to speak without permission.
Di Tian truly wished for death.
As the guardian and ruler of Star Dou Forest for countless years, he had personally driven his own clan to the brink of destruction. The immense sense of guilt nearly crushed his will.
But for someone with Di Tian's will, tempered for hundreds of thousands of years, that alone would not break him.
Rather than using death to escape, he would more likely atone by living.
What truly drove him to despair and seek death was the mark of destruction deeply embedded by Phantylia before leaving his body.
This mark had seeped into his bone marrow, corroded his soul core, and entwined his spirit.
Since being possessed by Phantylia, he had mysteriously gained a deathly, destructive attribute in addition to his original darkness, and his power had soared.
But the price for this power was that his soul was constantly assaulted by the mad whispers of destruction.
Those whispers, like billions of venomous snakes, hissed day and night in his mind, tempting him to give in, embrace the path of destruction, and shatter the vibrant civilization of Douluo Continent to nothingness.
For now, he could barely suppress it with his immense spiritual power and will, but he did not know how much longer his broken body could hold out.
If his will faltered and he fell, he would become the vanguard of the Antimatter Legion, bringing even greater disaster to the already wounded soul beasts.
So Di Tian would rather end his own life than become a butcher's knife in enemy hands once more.
The soul beasts could not withstand another internal blow.
"Lord, we have just received confirmed reports that the three human empires have assembled large elite forces and completely sealed off all known exits from Star Dou Forest."
"Their soul master legions are building fortifications on the outskirts, and all kinds of large-caliber fixed soul tool cannons are in place, their barrels pointed at the forest core. Judging by this posture, they may launch a full-scale attack at any moment."
At that moment, the Ten Thousand Demon King, responsible for outer defenses and intelligence, stepped forward on one knee and reported in a grave tone.
"Those damned humans! Outrageous!"
The most hot-tempered Bear Lord smashed the ground with a fist, his terrifying strength making the earth tremble. His eyes were red as he roared in rage.