Chapter 140: The Frenzied Tyrant! Old Xuan, I'll Fight You to the Death!
The scorched earth in the empty valley still radiated a faint, blistering heat, but the sudden roar that tore through the air plunged the ambient temperature straight to freezing.
Elder Xuan, Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong'er, and Xiaoxiao froze. Four pairs of eyes locked simultaneously onto the pitch-black depths of the ancient woods.
Within the suffocating shadows of the towering canopy, a colossus was slowly forcing its way through the dense foliage.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
With every deliberate step, the ground emitted a hollow, agonizing groan. It felt as though the entire Star Dou Great Forest was quaking beneath the weight of this single entity.
As the monster finally breached the tree line and revealed its true form, the pupils of all four humans constricted to pinpricks.
A Duskgold Terrorclaw Bear. But its size was entirely absurd, defying all natural logic.
A thick layer of dark golden fur covered its mountainous body like a suit of impenetrable heavy armor. Each individual strand of hair caught the dim forest light, gleaming with a cold, vigorous metallic luster that screamed of absolute defense.
Yet, what truly made the blood freeze in their veins was its pair of massive forelimbs. Five dark golden claws, each stretching several meters long, hung from its paws. As the beast shifted, those blades casually sliced through the murky forest air, leaving behind terrifying, lingering arcs of destructive light.
"A Duskgold Terrorclaw Bear..." Wang Dong'er forced the words through a tight throat, her voice strained by sheer shock. Her delicate fists clenched subconsciously, her knuckles turning white.
"With a body that massive... exactly how many years of cultivation does it have?" Xiaoxiao's face drained of all color. The oppressive aura radiating from this Soul Beast completely shattered her understanding of twenty-thousand or even fifty-thousand-year creatures. This was something else entirely.
Huo Yuhao held his breath, his chest tight. The visual feedback flooding into his brain from his Spirit Eyes felt like a cluster of needles piercing his skull. The sheer density of the beast's soul power was blinding. This was not merely a matter of physical enormity; it was an absolute, crushing suppression at the very foundational level of life. One breath from this monster felt like it could wipe them from existence.
However, the expression on Elder Xuan's face—the man standing at the absolute front of their formation—was far uglier than the pale faces of the three children behind him.
His usually cloudy eyes were now wide and bloodshot, locked in a death stare with the towering beast. When he spoke, his voice carried a rare, irrepressible tremor, revealing an identity that would make any Soul Master on the continent break out in a cold sweat.
"One of the Ten Great Savage Beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest... Xiong Jun!"
The moment the name left Elder Xuan's lips, Xiong Jun's crimson eyes—pools of pure, unadulterated violence and slaughter—snapped directly onto the old man.
The Bear Lord did not waste a single breath on words. His mountainous body exploded forward with a speed that completely contradicted his massive bulk.
He swung his right arm in a brutal, sweeping arc. The dark golden Terrorclaw tore through the fabric of the void, leaving five deep, jagged purple fissures suspended in the air. Carrying the ultimate, absolute power to annihilate anything in its path, the massive claw slammed directly down toward the crown of Elder Xuan's head.
Faced with this apocalyptic strike, dodging was an impossibility.
Elder Xuan let out a furious roar. Nine soul rings erupted from beneath his feet in a blinding flash of light: yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, and red.
A colossal phantom of the Taotie Divine Bovine manifested from the earth behind him. The beast threw its massive head back, its giant horns thrusting violently upward to meet the descending Terrorclaw head-on.
Boom!
The deafening collision sounded exactly like a high-tier stationary soul cannon shell detonating at point-blank range.
Huo Yuhao's vision swam. His brain buzzed violently, and his entire body was nearly thrown backward by the sheer kinetic force of the soul power shockwave ripping through the clearing.
Elder Xuan let out a harsh, muffled groan. Under the terrifying weight of the bear's strike, his legs were driven straight into the solid earth up to his knees. The ground within a ten-meter radius instantly pulverized into fine, choking dust.
He had managed to block the blow. Relying on the vast, ocean-like reserves of his soul power as a Level 98 Super Douluo, he had survived Xiong Jun's opening strike. But Elder Xuan's heart plummeted into an icy abyss.
He had absolutely no desire to tangle with this notorious, battle-crazed tyrant. Not now. Not when he had to protect the fragile lives of three children.
"Xiong Jun! Stay your hand!"
Seizing the momentary lull in the crushing pressure, Elder Xuan frantically projected his soul power, attempting to force a line of communication.
"I am Elder Xuan of Shrek Academy! I came here today solely to secure a suitable third soul ring for the children of my academy. We have not crossed paths, nor have we interfered with your territory! Why are you attacking me out of nowhere?"
Elder Xuan was genuinely baffled, his mind racing.
According to the ironclad, unspoken laws governing the Star Dou Great Forest, Savage Beasts of Xiong Jun's caliber rarely showed themselves, let alone initiated unprovoked attacks. They only moved if a human powerhouse was wantonly slaughtering high-tier Soul Beasts or brazenly trespassing into the core zone.
Even among Soul Beasts, the vast differences between species meant they rarely fought for one another. Unless they belonged to a specific, fiercely protective pack, a Savage Beast would never risk a life-or-death battle against a Level 98 human Super Douluo over the death of an unrelated creature.
It was no different from human society. Unless bound by blood or deep ties, a stranger walking down the street wouldn't throw their life away to avenge someone they didn't know.
Why risk everything for nothing?
But Xiong Jun's rumbling response froze the blood in Elder Xuan's veins.
The massive bear lowered his heavy head just a fraction. His crimson gaze burned with a hatred so intense it seemed to scorch the air. A low, freezing snort escaped his massive jaws.
"You slaughtered the Spatial Soul Beast! That was my friend!"
Because the Spatial Soul Beast possessed the rare innate ability to manipulate the fabric of space, it had provided Xiong Jun with crucial, stabilizing spatial support on numerous occasions when the Bear Lord was undergoing heavenly tribulations or deep cultivation.
Within the brutal hierarchy of the forest's core circle, the two had forged a genuinely deep bond.
Hearing this accusation, Elder Xuan nearly coughed up blood from sheer, maddening frustration. Caught between a gross injustice and a lethal crisis, he screamed his defense.
"We didn't kill it! I merely brought the children to this valley, and the beast was already dead when we arrived! Are you blind? Can't you sense that the residual soul power attributes on its corpse are completely different from mine?"
But Xiong Jun was a Soul Beast whose entire existence was defined by raw, unyielding strength. His nature was inherently stubborn, aggressive, and entirely single-minded.
The Bear Lord slammed his massive paw into the pulverized earth, letting out a roar that shook the heavens.
"Do not feed me your pathetic human excuses! My own eyes are the only measure I need! Within a hundred miles of this valley, there are only you few hairless apes! If you didn't kill it, who else could it be? Your soul power aura reeks of high-level strength! You cannot deceive me!"
Elder Xuan's composure completely shattered. The sheer absurdity of the situation broke his restraint, and he practically jumped out of his crater, cursing at the top of his lungs.
"Are you actually blind?! I told you it wasn't me! You stupid bear, you are attacking the wrong person!"
"You dare call me stupid? You dare call me blind?!"
Xiong Jun's already volatile temper detonated like a powder keg. A blinding, blood-red light erupted from his massive eyes, completely swallowing his pupils.
"Fine! Fine! Fine! Today, I, Old Bear, am going to see exactly how hard the bones of you Shrek dogs really are! Today, only one of us leaves this valley alive!"
Xiong Jun descended into a state of absolute, unhinged frenzy.
Every single strand of his dark golden fur stood on end, vibrating with lethal energy. The beast swung his massive claws in a relentless, chaotic flurry. Waves of dark golden light blades, each stretching over ten meters long, tore through the air, sweeping toward Elder Xuan like a torrential, world-ending downpour of steel.
Elder Xuan's head throbbed with a splitting agony.
He had never anticipated that Xiong Jun would be such an unreasonable, hot-headed brute, entirely deaf to logic or evidence.
As he frantically swept his arms in wide arcs, summoning layers of soul power to deflect the lethal barrage, he felt the oppressive weight of the surrounding atmosphere growing heavier by the second.
He knew he was out of time. The shockwaves from this battle were tearing the empty valley apart. If they dragged this out and drew the attention of even one more Savage Beast from the core zone, the three children behind him would be reduced to bloody mist.
"Ninth Soul Skill: Taotie Descent!"
Elder Xuan's eyes bulged, the veins on his neck popping. He no longer dared to hold back even a fraction of his strength.
The deep, blood-red soul ring at his feet flared with a blinding, catastrophic brilliance. His physical body seemed to expand and warp, transforming into the true, ancient visage of the Taotie.
Enduring a heavy, mountain-cleaving strike from Xiong Jun's claws right against his defense, Elder Xuan charged forward with suicidal momentum.
"Get out of my way!"
Elder Xuan unleashed a shrill, ear-piercing roar. His massive, transformed body slammed directly into Xiong Jun's broad chest, his own claws erupting with a desperate, destructive force.
An devastating boom echoed through the forest. Even a physical titan like Xiong Jun was forcibly staggered back several heavy steps by the full-power detonation of a Super Douluo's Ninth Soul Skill. The bear's massive frame crashed through a thick row of ancient trees, snapping them like dry twigs.
The reckless, head-on clash came at a severe cost. The lingering, jagged energy of Xiong Jun's Terrorclaw had raked across Elder Xuan's shoulder. His chest churned violently, his organs screaming in protest, and he spat out a massive mouthful of dark blood onto the scorched earth.
He didn't even waste a millisecond to wipe his mouth.
Elder Xuan spun around, his large hands grabbing Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong'er, and Xiaoxiao in an iron grip. The Taotie Divine Bovine phantom behind him let out a mournful, shrill cry.
Completely disregarding his internal injuries, he ignited every last drop of his soul power. Transforming into a streaking meteor of light, he fled madly toward the outer perimeter of the Star Dou Great Forest, not daring to look back even once.
Not long after Elder Xuan and the children vanished into the horizon, the chaotic, dust-choked valley gradually settled back into a deathly, heavy silence.
Xiong Jun dug his claws into the earth, steadying his massive frame. He glared at the empty space where the humans had been and let out one final, earth-shaking roar of pure rage. Yet, surprisingly, he did not give chase.
Instead, the Bear Lord turned his massive head, his violent demeanor fading into a look of deep, quiet respect as he gazed toward a specific direction in the unbroken tree line.
From the shadows of the dense, thorny bushes, a silhouette of pure, radiant gold slowly stepped out into the clearing.
It was a small beast, roughly three meters in length, its sleek body covered entirely in bright, flowing golden fur that seemed to catch the light of a sun that wasn't there.
It possessed three eyes. The third eye, situated perfectly in the center of its forehead, shimmered with an impossibly deep, mysterious purple-gold radiance.
The very moment it stepped into the valley, the chaotic, violent spatial tears and lingering soul power fluctuations left behind by the battle instantly calmed, smoothed over by an invisible, ancient hand.
This was none other than the Emperor Auspicious Beast of the Star Dou Great Forest—the Three-Eyed Golden Lion.
The majestic creature walked with slow, deliberate grace toward the corpse of the Spatial Soul Beast, which had already begun to shrivel and decay.
A deep, almost human sense of contemplation flickered within its highly intelligent eyes. Slowly, it lowered its regal head, its nose hovering just above the scorched earth, sniffing a very faint, highly unique aura that still lingered in the dirt.
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