"Thump, thump—"
Two heavy impacts hit the ground. Xiong Da and Dahei dropped from the sky like war gods and landed not far from the Dark Devilgod Tiger.
The instant he landed, a dark-gold light flashed over Xiong Da. His innate soul skills, Dark-Gold Dreadclaw and Berserk, ignited. His aura was in no way weaker than that of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
Dahei made an even bigger entrance. Earthen-yellow radiance burst from him as two of his three innate skills activated: Titan's Strength and Earth Control.
At the same time, an invisible force spread out from Dahei as the center. Within a hundred meters everything seemed to twist.
"Domain force? A soul core?"
From a distance, Chen Xin could not help exclaiming.
As a Titled Douluo, Chen Xin's eyesight was keen. The moment he saw the distortion around Dahei he recognized it as the power of a domain.
For soul beasts, aside from rare exceptions, only hundred-thousand-year beasts are guaranteed to master domain force. Could it be that Chu Chengzhou's Titan Giant Ape summon had already stepped into the hundred-thousand-year tier?
Chen Xin guessed right. Dahei was indeed a hundred-thousand-year summon now.
Two months earlier, Chu Chengzhou had auto-leveled his sixth soul ring into a hundred-thousand-year ring.
With Dahei, the Titan Giant Ape summon, reaching a hundred thousand years, he automatically grasped a domain like a wild hundred-thousand-year soul beast would: the Gravity Control Domain.
On top of that, Chu Chengzhou had a sudden inspiration and taught the method for condensing a soul core to Dahei, whose intelligence had risen sharply after stepping into the hundred-thousand-year stage.
Dahei did not waste the teaching. Though the ratio of muscle to brain in his head seemed higher than it should be, after half a month he still managed to condense his first soul core. When he was summoned again later, the previously condensed core remained.
That spur-of-the-moment idea truly helped a lot.
A soul core can automatically draw in heaven-and-earth energy to replenish soul power. While refining Dahei's soul power and boosting his strength, it also indirectly extended Chu Chengzhou's endurance as the summoner.
Since Dahei can now restore soul power on his own, Chu Chengzhou spends less in battle.
And that is with only one soul core. If one day all his summons can condense yin-yang-complementary triple soul cores and become "perpetual motion machines," then in future fights he would only pay the cost to summon them out, without having to supply their consumption during combat.
Unfortunately, Xiong Da was not up to it. Even Dahei, whose muscles have invaded his brain, managed to form a core, but Xiong Da could not be taught. Chu Chengzhou could only pin this hope on Xiong Da after his years reach one hundred thousand.
Seeing the two giant beasts drop nearby, the Dark Devilgod Tiger's pupils tightened. Its cold, blood-red eyes locked onto Xiong Da and Dahei.
By virtue of its exalted bloodline, the Dark Devilgod Tiger's intelligence was high. Even with fewer than fifty thousand years, it was in no way inferior to ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul beasts or to humans. It recognized the two giants as the famed Dark-Gold Dreadclaw Bear and Titan Giant Ape.
Though those two species fall short of its own bloodline level, if they were the same age it was confident it could fight the two together. But the Dark Devilgod Tiger also knew that both the Dark-Gold Dreadclaw Bear and the Titan Giant Ape before it far exceeded it in years.
Especially that Titan Giant Ape. It possessed domain force, so its cultivation was very likely at the hundred-thousand-year mark.
With that thought, the Dark Devilgod Tiger felt like withdrawing.
Just those two were already hard to handle head-on. It had no power to face them directly, never mind the white-haired soul master in the distance who felt extremely dangerous.
But the moment the thought of retreat arose, before it could act, Xiong Da and Dahei charged straight in.
With Dahei's rush, the Gravity Control Domain swirling around him slammed into the Dark Devilgod Tiger's Evil God Domain.
There was no sound of impact, yet the Evil God Domain covering several hundred meters around the tiger shrank at once. The dim forest recovered its light.
Only a domain can break a domain.
With less than fifty thousand years, the Dark Devilgod Tiger's Evil God Domain could not compare to the Titan Giant Ape's hundred-thousand-year Gravity Control Domain.
Dahei's Gravity Control Domain could not forcibly tear down another domain, but because it was stronger, it could suppress weaker ones.
In the blink of an eye, the Dark Devilgod Tiger's domain was squeezed down to less than ten meters across, barely enough to cover itself.
It was not that Dahei refused to push harder; the tiger's foundation was not bad either. Gravity Control could suppress but not completely erase it.
That was also because the Dark Devilgod Tiger was straining to maintain its own domain. Otherwise, once the Evil God Domain was wholly suppressed and the Titan's gravity field dropped over it, its movements would be severely restricted. With strong foes on all sides, it would be in real trouble today.
"Roar—"
With a bellow, Xiong Da raised his right arm, more than six or seven meters long, and brought a dark-gold, razor-edged claw straight down at the Dark Devilgod Tiger's head.
The tiger's pupils contracted. The air around it surged in violent ripples. With a gusting wind it slipped past the claw by a hair's breadth.
In the next instant, red light flashed in its eyes. The black wings on its back beat hard. Countless black rays erupted, turning into several dozen foot-long blades that shot out.
But those blades were not aimed at Xiong Da. They targeted Chu Chengzhou in midair.
The tiger had seen clearly. The Dark-Gold Dreadclaw Bear and Titan Giant Ape were both summoned by that six-ring soul master.
It did not understand how a mere six-ring soul master could summon beasts so strong, but that did not matter. What mattered was if it killed that six-ring master, would these two giants vanish?
As the dozens of black blade-beams screamed in, Chu Chengzhou did not dare neglect them. Soul power surged. A flower of soul power blossomed above his head, and as petals drifted down, a faint body-guarding divine radiance covered him.
At the same time, he triggered a movement art, Golden Light Earth-Leap. Before the blades reached him, his body became a streak of light and slid sideways more than twenty meters in midair, evading the volley.
The next second he drew and nocked. Golden light flared on his hand. Soul power poured in and three Flowing-Gold Armor-Piercing Arrows hissed from the string as three golden streaks that blasted toward the Dark Devilgod Tiger.
"Clang, clang, clang—"
Those armor-piercing arrows, meant to crack defenses, struck the target, but were stopped by the gray barrier covering the tiger's body. It resembled Xiao Wu's absolute defense, Invincible Golden Body, though its upper limit should be somewhat lower.
Even so, with Sun-Piercing Divine Archery paired to Flowing-Gold Armor-Piercing Arrows, plus the Nine Heavens Profound Spirit Bow's elemental amplification, the three shots were no joke. The gray barrier trembled violently as if the arrows were nearing its defensive limit.
Just then a dark-gold claw shadow lanced out and smashed onto the Dark Devilgod Tiger's body.
With that terrifying edge descending, the gray barrier that had just taken Chu Chengzhou's three armor-piercing arrows and was shaking violently seemed to freeze in time.
In an instant, fine cracks crazed the barrier, then with a bang it blew apart into motes of gray air and vanished.
At the exact moment Xiong Da's innate skill, Dark-Gold Dreadclaw, shattered the barrier, a massive fist wreathed in thick earthen-yellow light crashed down on the tiger's huge head.
Boom.
Dahei's heavy, unstoppable punch knocked the Dark Devilgod Tiger flying for dozens of meters. It smashed through several towering trees before slamming to the ground.
Clink.
A sound not very loud rang out as a dark-gray tiger tooth, stained with a bit of gray blood, hit a protruding stone and clicked.
Truly, it got a tooth knocked out.
Only because a soul beast's body is tough and thick-skinned did the tiger merely lose a big tooth to Dahei's punch. If it had been a Titled Douluo like She Long with no defenses up, a head-on hit from a hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape would have blown his head apart.
"Roar—"
Shaking his dazed head, the Dark Devilgod Tiger got up and roared in fury.
No one—no, no beast—had ever beaten it like this. Intolerable. That big ape must die.
Gray light rose over the tiger. All four limbs drove at once. It lunged to Dahei in a blur like teleportation.
At the same time the pitch-black Evil God Hook at the end of its tail snapped straight, like a black spear, and stabbed into the boundary of Dahei's Gravity Control Domain.
The instant the black spike touched the domain, Dahei's formless gravity field collapsed with a boom. The tiger's suppressed domain surged back to cover a hundred meters again.
Next, blue ghost-light flooded its eyes. Black radiance flared over its body. The tail that had been an Evil God Hook twisted into an Evil God Spike and flicked. A black point of light appeared out of nowhere.
In a blink a fierce black glare erupted. The dot swelled into a three-meter-wide black hole.
Not good.
Seeing the sudden black hole, Chu Chengzhou, who knew what this meant, narrowed his eyes and loosed three more Flowing-Gold Armor-Piercing Arrows.
They still took time to fly and were a step too slow.
Though the arrows hit the black hole and blew it apart, under the powerful suction Dahei and the Dark Devilgod Tiger were swallowed first.
Chu Chengzhou's face darkened. He had failed to stop it.
Many things remain out of reach even when you know about them. At least it was not himself who got pulled in.
Of course, before this unreasonable innate skill of the Dark Devilgod Tiger, Dahei was about to pay with his first ever "death while fighting an enemy."
No—his first death to an opponent.
Back when he condensed his soul core, Dahei had already "died" several times from solid-state soul power going out of control. Otherwise, a summon as dim as he is would never so easily condense a core.
In that sense, summons who do not fear death have an edge over normal soul beasts in forming cores.
Elsewhere, in an unknown space.
Everything around was darkness. Dahei felt his body light and force-less, as if weightless.
What felt even stranger was that his great strength seemed to be ebbing away, and something odd was happening to his body.
After an unknown time, light flared. The feeling of solid ground returned underfoot. Blinking, Dahei found himself in a strange space.
It looked like a colossal arena. It seemed circular, yet stretched without end.
There was nothing in the sky, only boundless darkness, suffocatingly oppressive. The only light came from the arena itself.
Just then Dahei saw the culprit who had dragged him here.
The Dark Devilgod Tiger stood thirty meters ahead, baring a bloody maw with one tooth missing. Its blood-red eyes seemed to watch him with mockery.
Yes, mockery. Dahei could feel it in the tiger's eyes.
"Squeak—"
Meeting that mocking gaze, Dahei grew angry. By habit he lifted both arms and thumped his chest, then charged in with a roar to pound this thing into a pancake.
Squeak?
Where was Big-Grandpa Dahei's resonant, booming voice?
Puzzled, Dahei glanced at his own rather "slender" arms. He compared his size to the Dark Devilgod Tiger's.
Assuming the tiger had not been enlarged, Big-Grandpa Dahei had turned into a little monkey less than a meter tall.
"Roar—!"
A thunderous howl shook the air. The Dark Devilgod Tiger threw back its head and roared in delight.
How to solve the many powerful enemies outside? Kill the six-ring human who summoned the bear and the ape? Or the white-haired soul master who had yet to act?
No. The shrewd Dark Devilgod Tiger chose to use its innate skill, the Life-and-Death Arena, and ambush the Titan Giant Ape.
This prey was a hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape. If it could devour and digest him, its own years would increase by tens of thousands at least.
Ninety-thousand-year beasts and hundred-thousand-year beasts look close by the numbers, but to the Dark Devilgod Tiger a ninety-thousand-year beast is not essentially stronger than itself. Devouring ten of them would be worse than devouring a single hundred-thousand-year beast.
And killing the ape outside would never give it the time to devour and digest.
Inside the Life-and-Death Arena it was different. No other enemies could enter. Once victory was decided, as long as it kept feeding soul power to maintain the arena, it could devour and digest the Titan Giant Ape before leaving.
With a surge in strength, why fear the foes outside?
As for winning inside the arena—please. It was a Dark Devilgod Tiger nearing fifty thousand years, while its opponent was a baby Titan Giant Ape. It could kill that little monkey with a casual move. A fart would probably pop him like a bubble.
It had even specifically used the Evil God Hook to pierce the ape's domain so that the ape could not use a domain to resist the black hole's suction, avoiding mishaps during the pull.
A strange voice rang from every direction. "Welcome to the Life-and-Death Arena. Only the death of one side will end this duel and release you from this space. Countdown, five, four, three, two, one. Begin."
Dahei: "…"
He looked at the six-plus-meter tiger like a demon god, then at his own skinny limbs. In baby form, Dahei closed his eyes, unwilling to witness the tragedy about to befall him.
Dark Devilgod Tiger: keh-keh-keh—
"Roar—!"
With the countdown over, the tiger lunged with a joyous roar. One pressing claw slapped the baby Dahei into a flat cake.
In a flash the outcome was decided. The baby Dahei's corpse expanded back to its original giant form.
Unlike in the original story where Tang San killed the Dark Devilgod Tiger and instantly left the arena, this time the winner was the tiger. The Life-and-Death Arena was its innate skill. As the controller it could keep the arena active for a time by continuously burning soul power.
But just as the tiger prepared to feast, to devour Dahei's body and raise its own years, it saw the huge Titan Giant Ape's body crack inch by inch and dissolve into countless motes of soul power that drifted away in the arena's sky.
"???"
The Dark Devilgod Tiger's eyes went wide.
Where did that hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape go?
"Roar, roar, roar—"
Its enraged howl echoed through the silent arena.
If Chu Chengzhou could have heard what the tiger was thinking, he would have said, "You are overthinking it."
Dahei's summoned body looks like flesh and blood, but it is soul power manifested by a soul skill. In essence it is still soul power. Where would a corpse come from for you to eat?
Planning to power up by devouring a dead Dahei's hundred-thousand-year "corpse"? Dream on.
Outside.
The moment baby Dahei died in the arena, Chu Chengzhou sensed it.
He had expected this outcome, yet his face still darkened.
"Kid, how is it?"
Noticing the change in Chu Chengzhou's expression, Chen Xin, who had flown over beside him, asked.
"Dahei is dead."
Chu Chengzhou lifted his shoulders, helpless.
Chen Xin's pupils narrowed.
In his view, even though Chu Chengzhou's sixth ring was still marked at eighty thousand years, that Titan Giant Ape had a domain and likely rivaled a hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape.
A hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape is not necessarily weaker than a level-97 Titled Douluo like him. Even if he could win, it would not be decided quickly.
For that summon to be that strong, yet die within a few seconds after being swallowed by the black hole, proved what Chu Chengzhou said earlier: the Dark Devilgod Tiger had a truly unreasonable method.
Good thing it was Chu Chengzhou's death-insensitive summon that got pulled in. If it had been him, Sword Douluo Chen Xin might have fallen in the Star Dou Great Forest today.
At once Chen Xin manifested the Seven-Kill Sword. Nine soul rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black—flared around him. He fixed his gaze on where the black hole had vanished and became fully alert.
This Dark Devilgod Tiger was no pushover. He could not afford carelessness.
His own life was one matter. Another was not wanting to "stain his late reputation."
For a level-97 Titled Douluo to fall to a soul beast under fifty thousand years would be more humiliating than Qian Xunji nailed to the pillar of shame.
Likewise Chu Chengzhou drew his bow and took aim at where the black hole had disappeared.
From what he knew, although the Dark Devilgod Tiger had a space attribute, it lacked true spatial transposition. The Life-and-Death Arena was unreasonable, but entry and exit had to be at the same point.
When the tiger emerged, they would hit it hard at once.
If the tiger had something like an absolute-defense gray barrier that warded off mental methods, they would burst it first, then use the Sumeru Illusory Realm to control it.
If it had no defense up, he would directly trigger the Sumeru Illusory Realm, seize its consciousness, and force an immediate sacrifice.
The Dark Devilgod Tiger was extraordinary. It should be able, like ordinary hundred-thousand-year beasts, to offer sacrifice to a soul master eligible for a ring, right?
He had heard that a beast's voluntary sacrifice raises soul bone drop rates. Having never gotten a soul bone from a hunt, Chu Chengzhou wanted to try.
Time ticked by. After half a minute, spatial ripples flared. The light dimmed. A black figure appeared in the forest, domain spreading and a gray barrier covering its whole body.
It was the Dark Devilgod Tiger. The plan had succeeded, but the outcome was not as it wished.
It was not that the tiger did not want to remain in the arena for ten days or half a month, even a month or two, and grind out a battle of patience to make Chu Chengzhou and the others outside give up. It simply could not.
After victory, maintaining the arena consumed soul power constantly and not in small amounts. Once its soul power ran dry it would be forced out, and with its reserves empty it would be a lamb to the slaughter.
Better to adjust quickly and come out. At least now it still had the power to fight.
Swish, swish, swish—
The instant the tiger appeared, Chu Chengzhou, already prepared, relaxed his fingers. Three golden streaks blasted out.
"Roar—"
The Dark Devilgod Tiger roared. Trusting in its innate skill Evil God Guard, it did not dodge. Gray light surged over it. Wind and thunder mingled with its evil main attribute, condensing into masses of gray marbles that then shot toward Chu Chengzhou in the air.
It had tasted Chu Chengzhou's arrows before. Their power was decent, but they could not break Evil God Guard. Its Dark Devilgod Thunder, on the other hand, was not something a mere six-ring soul master could endure.
T/N: For up to 30 chapters ahead on most of my translations, become a p@tron at [email protected]/LordHipposApostle