"Buzz—!"
An extremely terrifying sense of oppression.
There was no warning whatsoever.
It was as if an invisible hand had suddenly gripped the heart of everyone present.
The first to sense the abnormality was Iron Hammer Douluo, who was walking at the very front of the group.
He was swinging his heavy hammer, preparing to deliver the final blow to a wounded ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, when his arm suddenly froze halfway up.
The hammer hung motionless in mid-air.
His back was ice cold.
Iron Hammer Douluo has experienced the pressure of powerful figures before.
He himself is a titled Douluo, and he has endured Bibi Dong's aura countless times.
But the oppressive feeling that was enveloping him at this moment was unlike any he had ever experienced before.
It has no specific direction.
It surged in from all directions at once, as if the entire forest had come alive, watching them with countless invisible eyes.
"What...what is this?"
Iron Hammer Douluo's voice was dry.
The White Bone Douluo also stopped what he was doing.
His face turned pale, and despite being a Title Douluo, his body trembled uncontrollably.
The other members of the team also stopped what they were doing.
The smiles on the faces of those who were gleefully disposing of the soul beast corpses froze.
A Soul Saint who was squatting on the ground digging at a corpse suddenly dropped his tools.
His legs were trembling, his knees buckled, and he collapsed to his knees.
"Wha...what happened?"
"This aura..."
"It's a soul beast! A very powerful soul beast!"
"Could it be a legendary 100,000-year-old soul beast?!"
The crowd looked at each other in dismay, and fear spread rapidly through them.
Iron Hammer and White Bone Douluo made their judgments almost simultaneously.
One hundred thousand years.
It must be 100,000 years!
And it seems there's more than one!
Their senses told them that at least three distinct auras were approaching.
Iron Hammer Douluo immediately turned to look at Yue Guan and Ghost.
"Elder Ju! Elder Gui! Did you sense it?"
Yue Guan had already jumped down from the tree, his face also showing a solemn expression.
He exchanged a glance with the ghost and the spirit kite.
They saw the same word in each other's eyes.
run!
But they didn't act immediately.
We can't run immediately; it's too sudden and will cause panic, which might provoke those who are approaching.
A thin layer of sweat appeared on Ling Yuan's forehead, and her muscles were taut under her combat gear, but her voice remained relatively steady.
"How many have come?"
"Three." Ghost transmitted his voice to the two of them, "Their aura… is much stronger than that of ordinary 100,000-year-old soul beasts."
Upon hearing this, Ling Yuan and Yue Guan's expressions turned even more grim.
They remembered what Ci Xue had said last night.
'Dongfang Jing says the forest is dangerous.'
Is this the danger?
Iron Hammer Douluo and White Bone Title Douluo walked over.
All five titled Douluo were gathered together at this moment.
"Elder Ju, Elder Gui, what should we do?" Iron Hammer Douluo gripped his heavy hammer tightly, took a deep breath, and asked, "Fight, or retreat?"
Yue Guan glanced at the ghost.
Ghost shook his head slightly; he couldn't win in a fight.
"Send someone forward to investigate the situation," Ghost said in a deep voice.
Iron Hammer Douluo was taken aback.
"Investigate?"
"We need to know what the other side is, how many there are, and where they are." The ghost's tone left no room for argument. "Without figuring out the situation, we won't even know how to solve the problem as quickly as possible."
"But…" Iron Hammer Douluo hesitated for a moment.
Should we send someone forward to investigate?
Sending people there is just sending them to their deaths, isn't it?
But the ghost didn't give him time to hesitate.
The two points of dark purple light suddenly lit up, and an aura of a Title Douluo was released, pressing down on dozens of people in the team.
"You, you, you... and all of you, step forward and investigate."
The ghost selected fifty people.
The fifty Soul Masters whose names were called turned pale.
A Soul Saint managed to speak, "Elder Ghost... this subordinate..."
"This is an order." The ghostly voice was devoid of warmth, and soul power gathered in his hand. "Do you intend to disobey?"
The people whose names were called exchanged glances, their eyes filled with despair.
They wanted to find a united protest from their teammates.
But then they saw that their comrades who had just fought side by side were now all retreating, isolating the fifty of them.
Ultimately, under the tyrannical power of the ghost, they dared not disobey.
Gritting his teeth, he walked shakily into the darkness ahead.
Everyone watched their retreating figures.
The forest was eerily quiet; there wasn't even the chirping of insects or the calls of birds.
The hastily assembled team wandered further and further away, their figures gradually swallowed up by the trees and shadows.
Then--
A scream.
It was the voice of the Soul Saint at the very front.
He had only taken less than thirty steps when the oppressive feeling suddenly intensified tenfold.
His knees buckled and he knelt on the ground.
The next second.
A huge black shadow swept overhead.
A paw.
It was a claw larger than a human body, with a dark golden luster at the tip.
The claws slashed across the Soul Saint's body.
No blood splattered.
Because of him, along with the people behind him.
They were torn into three pieces from head to toe.
Internal organs, scraps of meat, broken bones.
The moment the claw retracted, everything scattered on the ground.
at the same time--
Flames erupted from another direction!
Crimson flames, carrying terrifying heat, instantly engulfed the remaining investigators.
Their bodies shrank, charred, and carbonized at a visible rate in the flames.
In less than two seconds, only two piles of black ash emitting blue smoke remained.
The surviving Soul Masters who were sent out saw the dead bodies of their companions and their blood froze.
They opened their mouths as if to scream.
Several branches, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, silently wrapped around his neck.
The branch was covered with a sticky green liquid.
The moment the liquid touched the skin, a hissing, corrosive sound rang out.
White smoke rose from the necks of the remaining Soul Masters, and their flesh rotted and dissolved at an alarming rate.
Their mouths were wide open, and they let out a hoarse howl that no human could make.
More branches surged up and entangled their limbs and torsos.
His body began to shrink rapidly.
Blood, soul power, moisture—everything that has life is being frantically drained by those branches.
In the blink of an eye, these living people turned into shriveled corpses.
The mummified body was carelessly discarded on the ground by branches, making a slight cracking sound.
All of this happened too fast.
From the moment the first person was torn apart to the moment the last person turned into a dried-up corpse, the entire process took no more than ten seconds.
The remaining members of the Soul Hunter Squad witnessed this scene.
Screams and pleas for mercy erupted instantly.
Some people turned and ran, some collapsed to the ground, and some squatted on the ground, trembling with fear.
And at that very moment—
Three enormous figures slowly emerged from the depths of the forest.
They formed a pincer movement, surrounding the remaining people from three directions.
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(End of chapter)