A thunderous boom split open the sky. The five travelers spilled from a rent in midair, tumbling like loose stones before catching themselves above a sprawling range of jade-green peaks.
“So this is the Hundred-Beast Range?” Leopold asked, steadying his sword-calloused hands against the wind. Vermilion Demon Lord hovered beside him, crimson pupils narrowing while he surveyed ridge after ridge of untamed wilderness.
All around, the land pulsed with life: distant avian shrieks carried on the wind; somewhere below, something enormous pounded through a valley, each footfall shaking loose pebbles from cliff walls.
In the vault of heaven, a shadow with wings wider than a house glided past the sun. Yet what drew every gaze lay to the northwest. Nearly a thousand miles off, a column of black-red resentment energy spiraled upward, and beneath it rolled the unmistakable thunder of battle—steel on fang, spell on spell.
“Not good!” Winslow muttered, face turning ashen. “That’s Myriad Beast Valley. Malevolent Path Hall is already attacking it!”
“Move!” Jared barked.
Five streaks of light tore across the sky, racing toward the distant clash where dread smoke met screaming steel.
***
Beyond the defense formation of Myriad Beast Valley, the world had darkened as if noon had turned to dusk. More than 5,000 Soul Hunters massed in serried ranks, their black-iron armor knitting together like a living thunderhead.
In unison, they unfurled the Soul-Seizing Grand Array. Gray-white currents of reincarnation aura climbed the air, weaving an immense web that covered several dozen miles. Slowly and inexorably, the net tightened and hissed against the valley’s shimmering shield, gnawing at it like acid on bone.
Inside the waning barrier, thousands of demon beasts answered desperate whistles from their handlers. A Flame Lion belched roaring fireballs, a Thunderwing Golden Eagle hurled spears of lightning, Armored Rhinos formed a battering wedge, and a pack of Gale Wolves spun into a jade-green whirlwind.
The beast tide crashed again and again, yet could not pierce the eerie gray web that smothered every spark of momentum. Still more frightening were the three figures floating before the Soul Hunter Army.
To the left lumbered the Soul-Subduing Puppet General, two stories tall, wrapped in rattling Soul Binding Chains. Each ponderous footfall made the earth tremble. On the right hovered a skeletal elder draped in tattered robes. He gripped a Bone Banner painted with a thousand twisted faces; a mere flick sent shrieking soundwaves that hammered the shield, leaving ripples that refused to fade.
And between them hovered an all-too-familiar foe: Soul Devourer.
Dark-red scale mail clung to his lean frame, six ragged wings spread like a carrion bird’s, and his ash-gray eyes stared icily at the valley below. The reincarnation aura coiled into a spear in his fist; every thrust tore a fresh rent in the failing barrier.
Within the valley, atop a platform piled from bleached beast bones, Blaine Leedon, leader of Myriad Beast Valley and famed Lord Beastmaster, stood broad-shouldered beneath a cloak of stitched pelts, his crimson mane bristling like a furious lion’s. Beside him crouched his life-bonded partner, the Three-Headed Flame Lion King, each snarling head crowned in fire. Their combined aura burned hot enough to warp the air.
“Mr. Leedon, our southeast quadrant is about to give!” A beastmaster, slick with his own blood, stumbled up the bone steps, voice hoarse with exhaustion.
Blaine roared, his tone like cracking boulders. “Send the Ironback Earth Dragon to hold that corner. Move all the earth-type beasts to the southeast corner and strengthen the defenses!”
“Mr. Leedon, the Bone Banner’s wail is driving our beasts mad. They’re starting to turn on their beastmasters!” another elder exclaimed, panic edging his words.
Blaine’s jaw tightened. He glared at the banner high above, eyes glinting with resolve. “Lion King, come with me. We’ll break through and destroy that banner!”
The Three-Headed Flame Lion King answered with a single sky-shaking roar. Just then, a voice rang out. “Please wait, Mr. Leedon!”
Five streaks of light speared down and came to rest upon the platform. It was none other than Jared, Vermilion Demon Lord, and the others!
Blaine pivoted. His beast-amber gaze swept the newcomers, pausing when he saw the demon lord’s crimson armor. “Demonic cultivator? Who are you people?”
Winslow stepped forward with his silver cane in hand. “I’m Winslow Walden of the Azure Firmament Sword Sect. I’ve come with my friends to assist you!”
Blaine blinked, sorrow flashing beneath his wrath. “Azure Firmament Sword Sect? Winslow, even your sword sect has been…”
“Mr. Leedon, now is not the time for catching up,” Jared cut in, voice steady as forged steel. Jared Chance stepped off the platform, shoulders squared, his gaze cutting through the smoke-choked sky to the three blurred figures aloft. It lingered on the hulking Soul-Devouring Puppet before hardening like tempered steel. “Our first order of business is to break the enemy.”
Blaine’s hawklike eyes swept over Jared, measuring the young man’s modest Heavenly Immortal Realm Level Three cultivation, and a doubtful crease formed between his brows. “Young man, this ground is steeped in death. It is not a place for the likes of you.”
Before he could say anything more, Jared hurled himself from the platform. Cold light streaked as the Dragonslayer Sword rang free of its scabbard, the note clear and defiant against the thunderous sky.
With both hands, he carved the air and roared, “Chaos Origin! Heaven-Splitting!”
A column of murky, ash-gray sword energy burst upward like a newly awoken volcano, but instead of lunging at the Soul-Devouring Puppet, it veered, cleaving straight toward the sprawling gray-white net that smothered the heavens. Wherever that sword energy passed, the web sizzled and melted, fibers shrieking as they dissolved. In the span of one heartbeat, a hole a hundred yards long gaped open in the suffocating canopy.
“What?”
The skeletal elder clutching the bone banner reeled backward, parchment-thin face blanching as the sky-wide web unraveled before his eyes.
Far overhead, the Soul-Devouring Puppet’s dull gray eyes swiveled toward Jared. For the first time, ripples disturbed those hollow pupils, the laws of the Reincarnation Realm instinctively recoiling from raw chaotic energy.
“It is you… The one my master seeks,” it said in a mechanical voice. The gray-white spear in its hands flicked, and the puppet abandoned the valley’s barrier, streaking downward like a bolt of ghostly lightning aimed straight at Jared’s chest.
Jared’s eyes burned with battle lust. “Good… Come take your shot!”
Clang!
Spear and sword collided, releasing a peal of metal so fierce it mimicked thunder chased by rolling drums. The impact hurled Jared thirty feet back. The skin between thumb and forefinger split, painting the Dragonslayer Sword’s hilt crimson.
The power of a Top Level High Immortal Realm cultivator was indeed every bit as savage as legend claimed. Yet the puppet staggered three steps, and fine cracks spidered across its spear. Chaotic celestial energy proved a far deadlier bane to reincarnation aura than anyone had dared imagine.
Vermilion Demon Lord bellowed, “Everyone! Strike Together!”
Cloaked in roaring black-red flame, he resummoned his Demonic Flame Blade and lunged toward the towering Soul-Subduing Puppet General.
Gerald raised a weathered palm. A lotus of incandescent gold blossomed in the air, birthing nine serpentine dragons of Earthfire True Flame that spiraled toward the skeletal banner-bearer.
At the same time, Winslow and Leopold plunged into the ranks of the Soul Hunters, their twin swords weaving silver arcs that smashed soul armor and carved a path for the valley’s beasts to surge forward.
