On the other hand, the Black Barbarians thrived in this environment like fish in water. Their strength grew rapidly thanks to the abundant supply of resources. Furthermore, as the evil energy within the universe grew, the Black Barbarians, once limited to their physical bodies, were now able to harness this higher-level energy to unleash power and capabilities exceeding that of Dou Qi, thereby developing unholy skills and techniques!
It could be said that at the same level, a Black Barbarian wielding evil power could easily defeat five Dou Qi-wielding warriors.
Now, the once-renowned Dou Kings and Dou Emperors of the Northwest Continent, far from soaring through the heavens with their Dou Qi wings, were no match for even the weakest Black Barbarians, who were inferior to ordinary people.
It was not uncommon for once-powerful warriors, reduced to slaves, to be strangled by their Black Barbarian masters and beaten to death in the mud simply for a lack of respectful glances.
The Northwest Continent was like a pressure cooker, constantly brewing a devastating explosion.
Until one day, the contamination of evil energy spread across the oceans to the Central Plains. Furthermore, a large number of ferocious, dark-skinned invaders poured into the Central Plains from the Northwest Continent, which had been cut off for years. The entire Dou Qi Continent was truly shaken.
The Tianfu Alliance, once allied against the Soul Emperor and nearly disintegrated with the departure of the Flame Emperor, quickly regrouped and launched a counterattack against these invaders.
However, harsh reality soon shocked these proud Central Plains warriors. The Black Barbarians, described in ancient texts, possessed a strength far beyond what the impoverished Northwest Continent could sustain!
The number of Barbarian Saints even surpassed that of the Hundred Saint Barbarian Alliance of ancient times, and their sinister bloodline, unstoppable even against women, was even more potent than described.
After turning their fangs against Xiao Yan, his confidantes in the Northwest Continent became incredibly formidable and formidable, actually matching the top fighters of Central Plains!
As for Xiao Yan's beauties in Zhongzhou, who would dare to attack them? If they were to rebel against the Black Barbarians again, knowing their tactics and strength, the Tianfu warriors would be utterly mortal!
Among them, Feng Qing'er of the Heavenly Demon Phoenix Clan, a former loser who had survived a slap from Xiao Yan, somehow overcame the limitations of her ancient Sky Phoenix bone marrow transplant, rendering her unable to advance. Her bloodline reverted to its ancestral form, and she achieved unprecedented Quasi-Emperor status. She alone forced the entire Zhongzhou into a series of defeats!
To make matters worse, as the Dou Qi Continent was increasingly overwhelmed by the spread and erosion of evil energy, the strength of the local Dou Qi warriors dwindled.
Until finally, the protective formation left by Xiao Yan was automatically triggered by the evil energy, barely holding onto half of the Tianfu Alliance's territory.
In this critical moment, the Tianfu Alliance appointed Xiao Yan's son, Xiao Lin, as its new leader to fight against the Black Barbarians.
The Black Barbarians, wary of Xiao Yan's powerful tactics and the still-elusive Dragon Emperor Zi Yan, temporarily halted their expansion and instead engaged in a standoff with the Tianfu Alliance.
As for Tu Ku, the Black Barbarian King, his strength, after forging alliances with numerous powerful women and accumulating countless rare treasures from half of Zhongzhou, had already reached the peak of a Nine-Star Dou Sheng!
He was arguably the strongest of the Black Barbarians in history, but his bloodline's potential was limited no matter how much he explored it.
Even though, with Cao Ying's secret help, he devoured the Dan Ling Ancestor of the Dan Tower, who had already reached the threshold of a Tenth-Grade Emperor Pill, and even expended more resources than would have been needed to achieve Dou Emperor status three times, the paper-thin barrier still stood in his way, like an insurmountable chasm, preventing him from making any progress.
Meanwhile, the Black Man's lifespan is limited to a hundred years, and Tuku, a regressive Black Man with a fatal weakness of no more than fifty, further exacerbates Tuku's inability to break through the Dou Emperor barrier. A power-worshipper, he knows all too well that those below the Dou Emperor level are mere ants.
His only two possible breakthroughs are mating with Zi Yan, an Emperor-level female dragon, or hoping to unify the entire Dou Qi Continent and achieve the transformation that would result from the complete absorption and fusion of the Planar Embryo within his body.
Both of these avenues could potentially allow him to break free from the shackles of life and reach a new realm! However, all these plans were dashed when Zi Yan's dragon disappeared without a trace!
To break Xiao Yan's legacy and unify the entire continent, one must possess the strength of a Dou Emperor, and to break through the Dou Emperor barrier, one must first unify the Dou Qi Continent!
As the only remaining Dou Emperor on the Dou Qi Continent, Tuku, while confident that his bloodline's innate talents could conquer any woman, was helpless in the face of no news or even a chance encounter with Zi Yan.
As for his plan to unify the Dou Qi Continent first, the drastic changes in the world would inevitably lead to the emergence of Zi Yan, the Dou Emperor, and her tragic death at the hands of her tyrannical Dou Emperor strength!
As for his women, while many of them had the potential to achieve Dou Emperor status, the permeation of evil energy and the drastic changes in the world made their achievement impossible. This trapped Tu Ku in an unsolvable vicious cycle!
If Zhongzhou continued to hold out, the ambitious Tu Ku would soon die at the ridiculous age of fifty due to some ridiculous reason: his lifespan had run out. All his ambitions would be shattered.
Without his support, the power he had built around women would instantly crumble.
After all, aside from the regressive Black Barbarians, even if Tuku's legitimate sons could naturally reach the Dou Sheng level through the Dou Sheng Mother's body, they would never be able to advance further and would forever remain the weakest of the one-star Dou Sheng ranks.
Even their ability to conquer women was far inferior to their father's, whose bloodline had regressed. These descendants alone could not sustain the entire tribe's high-end combat power.
Without Barbarian King Tuku and his women, the Black Barbarians would be engulfed in the wrath of all living creatures on the continent. They would not even have the chance to escape to the overseas Barbarian Islands and survive, facing complete and utter annihilation!
Xiao Lin cast a somber glance at the still-warm cauldron before him, his mind racing with thoughts as he pondered Tuku's intentions.
Undoubtedly, Tuku was now in a state of panic!
You must know that at this moment, the Tianfu Alliance would never rashly venture beyond the Yan Emperor's protection to engage in a decisive battle with the Black Barbarians. Clearly, they knew of the Black Barbarians' fatal weakness in lifespan and were planning to outlast the Barbarian King Tuku. After all, for those powerful beings, decades pass by in the blink of an eye!
"Tuku must have summoned me now for a reason. Could it be that... Aunt Ziyan has finally fallen into the hands of that beast Tuku and helped him break through to the Barbarian Emperor?!!"
The thought of this despairing possibility made even Xiao Lin feel a little suffocated and dejected, but he thought again.
"No! Absolutely impossible! If that beast had broken through to the Emperor level, given his personality, he would have charged forward on his own. Why would he need to go to such lengths? He must still be at the peak of the Dou Sheng realm!"
"But what could possibly attract or force Tianfu to initiate a decisive battle... And that beast, Tuku, actually summoned me all the way here? Indeed, my father's methods are like a giant bowl, holding half of Zhongzhou hostage. Only people of the Xiao family like me can freely enter and exit Tianfu's sphere of influence! But what conspiracy does that beast have up his sleeve that could allow Zhongzhou to break their inevitable victory?"
Several possibilities surfaced in Xiao Lin's mind, each one bleak, but he still dared not confirm them.
"Forget it, let's go and see the situation first before making a decision. Even if everything ends up in the worst-case scenario, even if that beast truly breaks through and becomes the first Barbarian Emperor in the history of the Black Barbarians, I, Xiao Lin, still have a last resort!"
At this thought, Xiao Lin's expression grew serious, and he activated the teleportation array on the circular stone platform.
As the teleportation array lit up, Xiao Lin's fawning, obsequious expression returned to his face, though the gloom and hatred in his eyes lingered.
The vast, desolate world was shrouded in a pitch-black, evil cloud, devoid of sunlight.
Most of the original green vegetation on the land had withered and died, and the few that remained had been completely eroded by the evil force, becoming hideous and ferocious. Even the surviving birds and beasts had mutated into hideous and terrifying creatures.
Even the earth and the distant mountains were a smoky, pale black.
From afar, the entire world looked as if it had been doused in a black broth, filled with an ominous and eerie aura.
This was the northwest continent, the place where the Yan Emperor was born and rose to power. Now, it was shrouded in evil force, transformed into a closed, unknown, and dangerous place.
"Boom!!!"
A small space in the sky above this land of disaster seemed to be violently shattered, forcibly opening a microscopic wormhole connecting Zhongzhou and the northwest. Then, a figure was ejected from it, falling awkwardly to the ground.
This figure was, of course, Xiao Lin, who had been transported to the northwest continent, returning to his ancestral homeland.
The moment he appeared, even with his Dou Sheng strength, Xiao Lin felt an indescribable sense of oppression, as if the entire world was rejecting him, an alien who wielded Dou Qi!
He stretched out his palm, attempting to gather external power, forming a Dou Qi ball within his palm.
However, the ball of light was so filthy and sinister, almost ninety-nine percent of it was ominous evil energy, with only a trace of Dou Qi remaining.
If he rashly absorbed it, he would be immediately invaded by the evil energy, his entire Dou Qi would be contaminated, and his cultivation would plummet!
This meant that a Dou Qi expert fighting the Black Barbarians here would be unable to replenish their Dou Qi from the outside world, let alone mobilize the power of heaven and earth.
The Dou Qi within the Dantian was like water without roots; every drop consumed diminished it. Over time, defeat was inevitable!
"Has the erosion of the Northwest Continent reached this point?"
Xiao Lin frowned deeply. Everything was happening much faster and worse than he had anticipated!
"For now, it's better to go to Wutan City and investigate the current situation."
Having made up his mind, Xiao Lin didn't hesitate. With a single movement, he tore through space and teleported.
Although he couldn't use his Dou Skills or cultivation techniques, the Dou Sheng's instinct for manipulating space allowed him to travel thousands of miles at a time at full speed!
But as he continued to advance, Xiao Lin's uneasiness grew, for he realized how desolate the world had become along the way!
Everywhere he passed was deathly silent, not a single living person in sight. It was like a land of the dead!
"How many people had that beast slaughtered in just a dozen years across the Northwest Continent?!"
Thinking of this, Xiao Lin's heart sank deeper and deeper. He hadn't imagined these damned barbarians could be so brutal. The innocent people of the Northwest Continent didn't even have time to wait for him, Xiao Lin, to rescue them after enduring humiliation!