On the official road, a carriage rattled southward.
Inside, Chu Chengzhou released his spiritual sense, ever on guard. Fishing in deep waters was dangerous—he might not catch his prey, but instead end up dragged under himself.
Why ride a carriage instead of summoning his Fire Phoenix, Xiao Hong? Because the carriage was slow. The "big fish" would be able to catch up.
Spies needed time to report. Assassins needed time to mobilize. If he flew Xiao Hong, the fish would likely never reach him in time.
Suddenly, Chu Chengzhou's expression tightened. His gaze locked on a small grove flanking the road ahead.
"Four Contras… with two Saints and two Emperors? No—four fused Netherworld White Tigers at the Titled Douluo level!"
The next instant, he smiled, amused. "Stop the carriage."
The Seven Treasure Glazed Sect's coachman was skilled. The pace was modest, so after a dozen meters the horses pulled to a halt.
"You head back."
Chu Chengzhou stepped down, waving the driver off.
A fierce battle was about to erupt. Kindhearted as he was, he had no wish to involve innocents.
Chu Chengzhou: I really am too merciful.
Once the carriage vanished down the road, golden light flared around him. The Nine Heavens Profound Spirit Armor, Nine Heavens Profound Spirit Bow, and Flowing Gold Armor-Piercing Arrow manifested in full.
At the same time, his Zhenling Banner spirit appeared, its six "best-ratio" soul rings deliberately disguised.
His fourth and sixth rings glowed. With a surge of soul power, the aura and size of his summons were deliberately suppressed as the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear, Xiong Da, and the Titan Giant Ape, Da Hei, materialized at his side.
The quickest way to judge a beast's strength was by aura and size.
By concealing their full presence, he set the stage for a nasty surprise.
He made no attempt at a sneak attack. These foes had come for him; they'd be wary. In any case, they were hidden while he was exposed—ambush wasn't an option.
As soon as his summons appeared, Dai Sheng's party realized they'd been discovered. Without hesitation, they launched their fusion.
"Roar—!"
Four pillars of black light rose from the grove. Tiger roars thundered as four winged, crystalline, twenty-meter Netherworld White Tigers burst forth.
Each emanated terrifying might. Two were even stronger than freshly soul-core-condensed Du Gu Bo at rank 93. The other two matched ordinary Contras at rank 92.
And being soul power constructs, Netherworld White Tigers were more durable than flesh-and-blood Douluo. Unless blasted apart with overwhelming force, most wounds could be mended with soul power.
Had he been alone, Chu Chengzhou would have bolted. But with Chenxin and Gu Rong shadowing behind, why not fight?
"Xiong Da, Da Hei—go! Tear them apart!"
With his shout, earthy-yellow light bloomed. Overhead, a flower of soul power blossomed, scattering petals that cloaked him in a faint protective radiance.
This was Blooming Instant Defense, his earth-aligned absolute defense technique.
Xiong Da's body flared with darkgold light. His twin innate abilities—Berserk and Darkgolden Terrorclaw—ignited. His eyes burned blood-red, claws shining with savage sharpness.
Da Hei roared as Titan's Strength doubled his might, his mountainous muscles bulging even further.
Like living war tanks, the two behemoths thundered forward to meet the charge.
"Eighth, Ninth—you handle those beasts!"
Dai Sheng, directing one Netherworld White Tiger, gave his order.
Dai Xu and Dai Yao, guiding the other two tigers, lunged at Xiong Da and Da Hei. The stronger pair drove straight for Chu Chengzhou.
To Dai Xu and Dai Yao, a six-meter bear and a seven-meter ape were just oversized beasts. Even if the Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear was famed for its claws, weren't their fusion tigers tougher than fleshly Douluo? At worst, they could take a swipe or two.
As for the Titan Ape—did it even have the strength of an eight-ring Contra?
They miscalculated.
Xiong Da and Da Hei weren't mere illusions. Xiong Da's sixty-thousand years and Da Hei's eighty-thousand placed them beyond what most Titled Douluo could match. Especially in raw offense, Xiong Da was unmatched.
As they clashed, Xiong Da's body suddenly swelled to its full size. His cunning eyes glinted as his right claw glowed, soul skill Darkgolden Terrorclaw transforming his passive strike into an active technique.
"Impossible—!" Dai Xu gasped.
Too close to evade. The claw-shadow, sharp enough to split the world, cleaved through the tiger's skull.
"Pfft—!"
In an instant, the massive Netherworld White Tiger collapsed, shattering into soul fragments. Dai Xu and his partner staggered out, blood spraying from their mouths under fusion backlash.
In that same heartbeat, Chu Chengzhou's bow thrummed. The golden Flowing Gold Armor-Piercing Arrow blurred forth—then split mid-flight into twin projectiles.
They drilled straight through the skulls of Dai Xu and his partner.
"Bang! Bang!"
Two wet explosions echoed. Skulls burst, red and white matter spraying the dirt.
Two more dead.
"Damn it!"
Dai Yao recoiled. He'd been trading blows with Da Hei. But the ease with which Xiong Da and Chu Chengzhou had obliterated his comrades froze him.
Worse, Dai Xu's cultivation had been higher than his own. If he had faced the bear, he would be the corpse now.
Da Hei slammed a titanic fist into him—Titan's Fist.
The Netherworld White Tiger shuddered under the crushing blow, Dai Yao's mind blank from the impact.
Though not instantly killed, he was driven to desperation.
Xiong Da roared, charging toward the stunned Dai Yao.
The tiger spread its wings and shot skyward. Better to flee than be crushed by ape and bear together.
"Roar—!"
Xiong Da bellowed after him. Damn it—your grandpa bear can't fly!
Frustrated, the bear turned toward his master's side. Seeing Chu Chengzhou pressed by the other two Netherworld White Tigers, Xiong Da barreled over to assist.
As for the flying tiger? Da Hei could handle it.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—
Three Flowing Gold Armor-Piercing Arrows shot forth in a sudden flurry. Surrounded by his Killing God Domain, Chu Chengzhou had no time to check the results; with a flicker of his form, he left only an afterimage behind as he flashed ten meters away.
The next instant, a massive, razor-edged tiger claw smashed down, shattering that afterimage into nothing.
Meanwhile, the three golden arrows struck another Netherworld White Tiger head-on.
Bang, bang, bang—
Explosions rang out as the arrows punched deep. The immense beast's abdomen sprouted three gaping, bowl-sized cavities.
Had it been flesh and blood, such wounds—together with the penetrating force of the arrows—would have left it gravely injured. But for the Netherworld White Tiger, they were trivial.
A surge of soul power burst forth. Before Chu Chengzhou's eyes, the gashes closed rapidly, knitting together in the blink of an eye until not a mark remained.
That was the terror of the Netherworld White Tiger—any wound short of a fatal spiritual strike could be mended instantly, at the mere cost of draining soul power from its hosts.
In some sense, such fusion techniques granted their wielders a form of near-immortality.
Against two Titled-level Netherworld White Tigers, even with Blooming Instant Defense and the soul-forged Nine Heavens Profound Spirit Armor, Chu Chengzhou dared not take their blows head-on. He could only dodge again and again, loosing surprise arrows whenever he found a gap.
The tigers had raw strength to spare, but in agility and speed they fell short of him.
For a time, the fight locked into stalemate.
Soon, support arrived—Xiong Da thundered into the fray.
Yet grounded as he was, and having already unleashed Darkgolden Terrorclaw once, he could not use it again so soon. His presence, though heavy, did not tip the balance toward victory.
The battle became a war of attrition, soul power against soul power.
Chu Chengzhou's defensive art consumed little when not directly under attack. But maintaining two spirit summons, running Vertical Earth Radiance to dodge, and empowering his arrows with Shooting Sun drained him heavily.
The four Star Luo elders, meanwhile, hemorrhaged energy as well—fusion was costly, and the tiger's self-healing against his arrows consumed them even faster.
Still, in the long run, Chu Chengzhou would be the first to flag. His cultivation was lower, and his summons and techniques all burned through reserves like wildfire. Not even his new soul core could fully keep pace.
But he did not worry. Soon enough, Xiong Da's claw would be ready again, and one well-timed strike could finish a tiger.
More importantly—the clash had been loud and drawn-out. By his reckoning, Chenxin and Gu Rong should already be arriving.
"Sixth Soul Skill—Myriad Swords Return!"
As the thought crossed his mind, a shout split the air. From the northern sky, countless sword shadows streaked forth, weaving into a river of sword light that came crashing down upon the two tigers.
At the same time, a ripple of space tore open above them. A towering, skeletal figure emerged—nine soul rings gleaming in yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black.
"Sixth Soul Skill—Dragonbone Majesty!"
Gu Rong's sixth ring flared. Behind him loomed the phantasmal shadow of a colossal bone dragon. A suffocating dragon's might rolled forth, instantly suppressing the two Netherworld White Tigers below, their auras plummeting by thirty percent.
Among all spirit beasts, dragons reigned supreme. Even bone dragons carried their bloodline's weight, and under dragon's might, every beast spirit and beast-type fusion buckled.
The next moment, Chenxin's river of swords crashed down, carving countless rents into the tigers' crystalline bodies.
"Retreat—!"
Hemmed in by both the Killing God Domain and Dragonbone Majesty, their strength suppressed and bodies torn, Dai Sheng knew they were doomed if they lingered. He barked the order at once.
With Dai Xu's pair already slain in the opening exchange, the six remaining could not even pin down Chu Chengzhou alone. Now Chenxin and Gu Rong had joined, their strength beyond expectations—Chu Chengzhou's included. To stay was to die.
"Think you can flee? Sixth-rate curs! Eighth Soul Skill—Move Mountains and Fill Seas!"
Chenxin's disdainful shout cracked across the battlefield. His eighth ring blazed, and twelve titanic sword beams roared forth, tearing through the sky toward Dai Sheng's tiger.
"Eighth Soul Skill—Shattering Bone Lances!"
Gu Rong's eighth ring flared in turn. From his frame erupted a storm of obsidian spears, plunging down upon Dai Heng's tiger in a storm of bone.
With the two masters engaged, Chu Chengzhou turned his bow elsewhere—toward the fleeing tiger that had been trading blows with Da Hei.
As the great man once said: Pursue the enemy with all your strength; do not seek false glory like Xiang Yu!
Three against three—even with wings, the Netherworld White Tiger would not escape.
This time, Chu Chengzhou went all in.
He loosed arrow after arrow without restraint. A storm of golden shafts blotted the sky, each one sinking deep into the fleeing beast.
Thirty Flowing Gold Armor-Piercing Arrows in a breath. Under that merciless hail, the massive white tiger convulsed and shattered apart midair, the fusion collapsing outright.
The hosts tumbled free.
In an instant, a split golden shaft streaked across the sky. One line drilled through the skull of the Netherworld Spirit Cat Emperor—its head burst in a grisly spray. The other shot straight for the White Tiger Contra—
Only to crash against a sudden crystalline blue barrier.
"What's this—?"
Chu Chengzhou's brows rose.
Again he fired. Again the arrow struck that shimmering shield, sparking harmlessly away.
Impossible. His Flowing Gold Arrows pierced all ordinary defenses. For them to fail—
Could it be a hundred-thousand-year soul bone?
His lips curled into a fierce grin.
So what if it was? His own arsenal still lacked a soul bone. If this elder truly bore one, then today would be his last stand—and his treasure would change hands.
The shield gleamed defiantly against another volley. Yet a heartbeat later, it flickered and vanished altogether.
"Absolute defense…"
Realization dawned in Chu Chengzhou's eyes.
Among all defensive techniques, three types existed: fixed-value shields, percentage-based damage reduction, and—rarest of all—absolute defense, like Xiao Wu's Invincible Golden Body.
No matter the strength of the attack, while the skill lasted, no force short of spiritual techniques could break through.
And this elder, it seemed, had such a card.
T/N: For up to 30 chapters ahead on most of my translations, become a p@tron at [email protected]/LordHipposApostle