Core area of the Evil Demon Forest.
Chen Junting sat cross-legged atop a patch of ruins. Suspended above his head was a blood-red soul ring engraved with eight golden runes, cascading strands of bloody aura that completely enveloped his body.
A terrifying mental magnetic field radiated outward, its overwhelming pressure preventing any ordinary person from approaching. Only a black-haired, gold-eyed man—Di Tian—stood to the side, looking perfectly calm. He stared intently at Chen Junting's condition, ready to intervene at a moment's notice.
He could sense that Chen Junting's current condition was extremely poor. If this continued, his entire being would collapse.
"Kid, you have to hold on." Di Tian's gaze sharpened, his tone grave.
It all started half a day ago.
"We're almost there." Chen Junting stood up from the tip of the sword and gazed down below.
Attracted by his voice, the others also looked down at the land below, where a rather unusual sight met their eyes. The dense, massive forest beneath them displayed a color gradient ranging from dark green to pitch black. Across both the Douluo Continent and the Sun Moon Continent, only the Evil Demon Forest possessed such a characteristic.
"We're finally here!" Flames ignited in Ma Xiaotao's eyes! "Today, I'm going to completely obliterate the Holy Spirit Cult here!"
Whoosh—
Blazing flames surged as her phoenix wings unfurled. Clearly, she would attack the moment the order was given!
The others were equally eager to get started, rubbing their fists as they itched to wipe out the Holy Spirit Cult's headquarters. If Long Aotian hadn't been talked down by Huo Yuhao, he would have already jumped into the fray.
After all, the Body Sect had fallen to its current state, and a large portion of their clansmen had died unnatural deaths—most of which was the handiwork of the Holy Spirit Cult's scum!
"I'll call for backup first." Chen Junting naturally understood everyone's thoughts, so he took out Di Tian's reverse scale and immediately summoned him.
With a tearing of space—"Riiip!"—Di Tian stepped out. The human-formed Myriad Demon King and Bear Lord closely followed behind him.
The Myriad Demon King appeared as a middle-aged man. His features weren't particularly handsome; his complexion was somewhat pale with a greenish tint, and even his eyes were a cyan-green color, brimming with a demonic luster. His build wasn't tall, but it appeared quite slender. A dark green robe fluttered autonomously without any wind, and his matching long hair trailed a full ten meters behind him.
Compared to the Myriad Demon King, Bear Lord was far more exaggerated. Setting aside his copper-bell-like eyes that radiated ferocity, his dark golden figure alone was incredibly burly. He stood at nearly three meters tall—a veritable freak even among human soul masters. He wore nothing but a sleeveless vest across his upper body, exposing a large area of skin that bore a faint dark golden sheen. His thick arms were as sturdy as small tree trunks, radiating an astonishing vitality!
"So this is the place." Di Tian recognized their location at a glance.
"Correct." Chen Junting nodded slightly. "The Holy Spirit Cult's headquarters is situated within the Evil Demon Forest. But we still need to pinpoint its exact location." After all, the original novel hadn't specified exactly where it was.
However, who would have thought—"No need." Di Tian cast his gaze toward a specific direction in the Evil Demon Forest. "Back when I came looking for that Evil Eye brat, I sensed something within this forest. I didn't pay it any mind back then. Looking at it now, it must have been those bugs."
"Then what are we waiting for!!" Bear Lord roared. "Find them and slaughter them all!"
No one disagreed with Bear Lord's words.
Di Tian looked at the Myriad Demon King and said, "Myriad Demon King, take control of the trees in the Evil Demon Forest. Don't let a single bug escape."
"Understood."
As the fifth-ranked existence among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts, the Myriad Demon King was known to rule over all plant-type spirit beasts within the Great Star Dou Forest.
To the outside world, this was just a legend. But after Chen Junting and Di Tian became acquainted, they learned that this legend wasn't baseless; in fact, it was the absolute truth.
Therefore, sending the Myriad Demon King into action would absolutely be the fastest way to subjugate the plants and plant-type spirit beasts within the Evil Demon Forest. If that happened, who could possibly escape?
Just as the Myriad Demon King was about to head down, "Yuhao," Chen Junting spoke up. "You go down with him."
"Alright."
In Chen Junting's eyes, only by adding Huo Yuhao's Mental Detection Sharing could it truly be said that "the net of heaven has wide meshes, but it lets nothing through." This way, not even a single fly would be able to escape.
He didn't want the news of the Holy Spirit Cult's destruction and the Evil Emperor's death to spread too quickly, which would interfere with his subsequent plans.
As the man and the beast floated down, the Myriad Demon King rooted himself to the earth. Huo Yuhao's Mental Detection had already swept outward like a massive net, blanketing the Evil Demon Forest. Then, following Di Tian's guidance, the net continuously contracted from all directions toward a single focal point, deliberately avoiding the core area of the forest.
"Let's move out as well."
Relying on Di Tian's memory, the group headed toward the outer edges of the Evil Demon Forest, which was closer to Mingdu. Soon, the imagery captured by Huo Yuhao's Mental Detection fed directly into their minds.
Deep underground in this outer region of the Evil Demon Forest, a structure that could only be described as a subterranean palace appeared in their minds. It covered an area of over a thousand miles and was constructed entirely from solid granite. The interior decorations were indescribably luxurious.
"This is the place."
"Make your move!"
As soon as the words left his mouth, a furious roar echoed out!
"I'll go first!"
Bear Lord violently shook his incredibly thick arms, and dark golden blades instantly snapped out from his fingertips. His aura surged wildly. His figure expanded in a flash, and in the blink of an eye, he had transformed into a terrifying giant bear standing a hundred meters tall. A pair of dark golden claws continuously grew along with his body, ultimately reaching over thirty meters in length.
The next second, those terrifying, thirty-meter dark golden blades violently cleaved through the air in a horizontal slash. It looked as though the sky itself was being ripped apart, plunging the world into darkness as if doomsday had descended.
At this very moment, inside the Holy Spirit Cult.
The Evil Soul Master elders left behind to guard the headquarters simultaneously raised their heads to look at the sky. As powerhouses with cultivations of Titled Douluo and above, they all possessed acute sensory abilities. How could they possibly fail to sense the immense pressure that suddenly descended from the heavens?
The terrifying pressure induced panic, and the source of this pressure was completely unknown. Many times, the unknown was the most frightening thing of all.
"Defensive formation!"
With a single command, a layer of light instantly surged upward! A linked defensive barrier enveloped all the Evil Soul Masters.
These kinds of tools weren't exclusive to the Sun Moon Empire's officials. Having been the state religion for so long, the Holy Spirit Cult naturally possessed plenty of life-saving measures, let alone here at their very headquarters.
High in the heavens, the thoroughly dark sky suddenly erupted with a burst of golden light, as if a ray of dawn had pierced through the darkness.
But upon closer inspection, that was no dawn light! A thousand-meter giant claw descended from the sky, tearing through space itself. Everything in its path was reduced to absolute nothingness.
Puff!
The linked defensive barrier failed to stop the claw for even a split second before being thoroughly ripped apart. The massive claw descended in an instant.
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