Under Chen Ming's planning, the workers and craftsmen who arrived began forging all kinds of tools and machines for clearing roads.
At Chen Ming's request, all the Imperial Guards took off their heavy armor, changed into leather armor, and joined the construction work.
These Imperial Guards were obedient enough, and their strength was good too. One person could do the work of several oxen and horses combined. They were enough to replace large livestock and keep the whole situation moving.
With the effort of the Spirit Masters, Imperial Guards, and workers, the first road was finally cleared again.
The Spirit Masters who had long been prepared took the Heaven Dou imperial seal and the emperor's trusted men, then proceeded along the established route to search for the settlements built by the Spirit Masters who had remained behind.
During this period, there were many clashes between humans and Spirit Beasts.
But after losing the Dragon Turtle, the Sacred Magical Devil Ape seemed to become much more cautious. Aside from occasionally showing itself to try to stop the humans, it no longer dared to directly face the top experts on the human side.
With the Sacred Magical Devil Ape backing down, the Spirit Beasts, who were not very rational to begin with, started losing control again.
The Spirit Beasts began killing and fighting each other inside their own side. At the same time, the scattered Spirit Beasts were also defeated one by one by human experts.
The greatest danger of a beast tide usually came at the beginning and the end.
At the start, many different Spirit Beast species would unite and attack humanity together.
At the end, large numbers of Spirit Beasts would often enter human settlements. Once they spread out through populated areas, massive human casualties would follow.
But because the Sacred Magical Devil Ape had held them back, the first wave of the beast tide had not directly killed too many humans. It had mostly focused on driving humans away.
And because of the border fortresses, the Spirit Beasts had been unable to push deeper into human territory.
It might sound cold-hearted, but the truth was that the Sacred Magical Devil Ape's greatest achievement was destroying the infrastructure humanity had spent centuries building in this region and breaking the established order that had existed here.
It had greatly slowed human expansion and exploration.
The damage was certainly serious, but given enough time, humanity could recover from it.
The losses were nowhere near severe enough to truly threaten the foundations of the Heaven Dou Empire. At most, they would cause a period of hardship and recovery.
If the destruction had been greater and posed a real threat to humanity, then it wouldn't just be the Heaven Dou Empire responding—the experts of Spirit Hall would have become involved as well.
But if the destruction was too limited, Spirit Hall would have no reason to step in.
Even if the Heaven Dou Empire had its flaws, it was still a powerful human empire with deep foundations.
In the end, this was no longer the era of Spirit Beasts.
Spirit Beasts could attack humanity, but they could not afford the cost of an all-out war against humans.
Not to mention, after the Dragon God died, the so-called Spirit Beast race itself had already become a false idea. Spirit Beasts of different species did not truly treat each other as their own people. Spirit Beasts in different regions also had their own groups.
Even if all Spirit Beasts were counted as one side, the current Spirit Beast race on the Douluo Continent only had one god-level fighter: the Silver Dragon King.
Di Tian could probably count as half of one.
As for beings like the Deep Sea Demon Whale King and the Snow Empress, they were simply not on the same side as the Spirit Beasts on the continent.
Humanity, on the other hand, truly had the Angel God backing them.
If things escalated too far, Sea God Island would likely intervene as well.
After all, the Sea God at least considered himself human, and he still had quite a lot of humanity in him. If a major disaster truly happened, then whether out of reason or to expand his faith, Sea God Island would probably force its way into the matter.
As for the Rakshasa God, nobody expected any help.
That god embodied negativity itself.
It would already be a blessing if the Rakshasa God didn't make things worse.
...
As more roads were reopened, high-level Spirit Masters from the Heaven Dou Empire and experts from various sects began arriving in the northeastern region.
Some had accepted the imperial family's request.
Some wanted to take the chance to collect high-age medicinal herbs.
Others were attracted by rumors of hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beasts.
Among all of them, the strongest was unexpectedly Yu Yuanzhen, the leader of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
With his Level 95 cultivation as a Titled Douluo, he boldly entered the northeastern region alone.
After greeting Chen Ming, Dugu Bo, and Qian Renxue, Yu Yuanzhen relied on his strength and fearlessly charged straight into the depths of the region by himself.
According to reports from various exploration teams, within only ten days, Yu Yuanzhen had personally killed twenty ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts.
As for thousand-year Spirit Beasts, the number was impossible to count.
While searching for traces of hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beasts, he continuously hunted powerful ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts, hoping to obtain more Spirit Bones from them.
Spirit Masters also had an interest in protecting resources.
Within the three major human-controlled regions, Spirit Masters generally avoided killing high-level Spirit Beasts unless necessary. They did so for their own future and for future generations.
If someone went too far in slaughtering Spirit Beasts, it could trigger a chain reaction.
On a small scale, other Spirit Beasts and Spirit Masters in the hunting forests would be affected.
On a large scale, it could even cause a beast tide to attack the human world.
But things were different now.
Right now, killing Spirit Beasts was not called reckless slaughter.
It was called helping the Heaven Dou Empire reclaim lost land and helping humans defeat the beast tide.
Killing them now would not draw criticism. Instead, people would praise it.
And if large-scale killing could draw out the hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast, that would be even better.
Yu Yuanzhen had come here with that idea from the start.
As a Spirit Master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon clan, Yu Yuanzhen's lightning attribute and dragon attribute were both extremely strong.
Even if the Dragon Turtle drew down its hundred-thousand-year lightning tribulation, Yu Yuanzhen had great confidence that he could kill it while enduring the tribulation.
Even if he could not kill the Dragon Turtle, Yu Yuanzhen was confident he would not be struck to death by the lightning tribulation.
In any case, it was a gamble.
If he won, it would be a huge leap in fortune.
And a hundred-thousand-year dragon-attribute Spirit Bone would be a family treasure for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon clan. In the future, it could greatly raise the limits of Yu Yuanzhen and his descendants.
Meanwhile, Chen Ming kept a relatively low profile.
On one hand, he commanded the Heaven Dou Empire's troops, overseeing construction efforts, reallocating workers, and assigning personnel to various posts.
On the other hand, he kept a close eye on reports arriving from all directions.
As experts from the various factions took action, most of the major roads had already been reopened.
The larger settlements began taking in scattered refugees who had fled during the disaster. These people were reorganized, assigned duties, and dispatched to cultivate and restore lands that had been ravaged by Spirit Beasts.
Meanwhile, large numbers of Spirit Beasts had retreated into the depths of the untamed forests, returning to the hidden existence they had led before.
Then, one day, Chen Ming finally received the news he had been waiting for.
"The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon clan head, Yu Yuanzhen, encountered the Sacred Magical Devil Ape while hunting Spirit Beasts. After the two sides fought, the Sacred Magical Devil Ape and the black ape were badly wounded and fled. Yu Yuanzhen pursued them but failed to catch up. However, the last beast tide has fully collapsed."
"It's about time."
Chen Ming put down the report and went to inform Qian Renxue that he would be leaving.
Following the traces left behind and the reports gathered from various sources, Chen Ming's group tracked the Sacred Magical Devil Ape's path.
With Dugu Bo's sharp senses for detecting blood and life force, combined with Chen Ming's analysis of all the available information, they eventually followed the trail into a part of the deep forest that humans had never explored.
At the top of a giant tree over a hundred meters tall, they finally found thee Sacred Magical Devil Ape and its son hiding inside a hollow trunk while recovering from their injuries.
The massive black ape was covered in horrifying wounds.
Its face bore clear signs of heavy blows. Its nose was completely gone, and one eye socket was now empty.
Clearly, as the "mount," when Yu Yuanzhen attacked the Sacred Magical Devil Ape riding on him, the black giant ape had been forced to take many attacks with his face.
If not for his decent strength, tough life force, and the Sacred Magical Devil Ape protecting him with all his strength, his head would have been smashed through by Yu Yuanzhen long ago, leaving behind a Spirit Ring no Spirit Master would bother absorbing.
The Sacred Magical Devil Ape was in even worse condition.
The old monkey, who had already shrunk to about one and a half meters because of age, had now withered even further.
His body was thin like a bamboo pole. The white fur on him kept falling off. He looked like he could die at any moment.
But at the same time, the Sacred Magical Devil Ape's spiritual power had reached its peak.
After seeing Chen Ming and the other human Spirit Masters appear, he no longer cared about his future condition. Instead, he burned his spiritual power with everything he had.
His almost solid spiritual power even twisted the air around him.
"Human, since you want to wipe us out, then come die with me!"
The Sacred Magical Devil Ape's seven openings lit up. Burning light poured out from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.
His whole body was lifted by his own spiritual power like an old cloth sack. Behind him, the shadow of a huge illusory ape appeared.
Just from its height, it was no smaller than the black giant ape.
No one knew whether the Sacred Magical Devil Ape had really been this large before he was injured, or if this was only an illusion he had projected.
But considering that the Black Ape had inherited a trace of Titan bloodline from his mother's side, perhaps the Sacred Magical Devil Ape had once been a truly massive creature as well.
A cornered beast fights the hardest.
The moment the Sacred Magical Devil Ape ignited its spiritual power, there was no turning back.
Today, even if it died, it would ensure that its child escaped.
Even if it died, it would never allow its last bloodline to be harmed.
But at that moment, Chen Ming raised his Dragon Spear.
A blood-red Spirit Ring appeared before the Sacred Magical Devil Ape.
The familiar aura of its old enemy instantly filled the air.
The giant phantom behind the Sacred Magical Devil Ape froze for a brief moment.
"Human... how did you get the Dragon Turtle to sacrifice itself to you?! What exactly did you do?!"