Volume 3: Global Vanguard & The Advanced Pinnacle
Chapter 255
Gluttonous Black Wolf Solo Battles the Skeletal Beast Commander
The black rain grew heavier with every passing second, pelting rhythmically against the cracked granite flagstones of the Ancient Capital’s North Gate. A bitter wind howled across the wilderness, sweeping through the fissure-ridden earth and carrying the suffocating stench of millennia-old decaying corpses mixed with the foul, coppery reek of demonic blood. The nocturnal sky was pitch-black, resembling a colossal basin of ink churned into a violent vortex without a single star in sight. Only the flickering, candlelight-like glow of magic illumination from the watchtowers struggled vainly against the tempestuous storm.
At the foot of the outer subsidiary ramp leading to the North Gate’s rear portal, nearly three hundred soldiers of the 7th Reconnaissance Battalion dragged their leaden, exhausted feet forward. Every last man wore tattered military uniforms, their flesh scored by ghastly claw marks oozing coagulated black blood already stiffening from the bitter cold. Rasping, choked gasps and the muffled groans of soldiers suffering from fractured bones and severed tendons echoed intermittently through the freezing downpour.
“Hold on, brothers! We’re almost to the rear gate! The city wall is right ahead!”
Battalion Commander Song Kai—a weathered, battle-hardened middle-aged man with a jagged scar slashing across his left cheek—roared until his voice was raw and hoarse. His right arm had been devoured by a corpse-eating ghoul right up to the elbow, blood soaking through makeshift bandages, yet his left hand still tightly gripped a notched, battered magic battle-saber.
He turned his head to glance at the slender, imposing silhouette walking leisurely at the rear of the formation. Lin Feng’s dark Major General’s cloak fluttered gently with every gust of howling wind. Not a single speck of filth or stain of gore marred the young general’s pristine uniform. Had Lin Feng not materialized in the desolate wilderness ten miles out just in time, ripping through the dense encirclement of Dark Specters with Chaos Shields and Shadow magic, this entire elite reconnaissance battalion would have long since perished as scattered skeletons whitening the desolate plains.
Seeing the half-meter-thick magic alloy rear gate slowly lowering its chain pulleys to welcome them home, every soldier felt a thousand-ton boulder lift from their chests. Some collapsed straight into the mire, hot tears welling up in the corners of their eyes. Surviving a death-defying reconnaissance mission in the Ancient Capital felt precisely like crawling back up from the eighteenth tier of hell.
Yet, the Grim Reaper in this cursed land never surrendered its prey so easily.
CRACK... R-R-R-CRACK!
A crisp, bone-dry sound suddenly erupted from deep beneath the earth, dead-center in the open clearing less than two hundred meters from the rear gate!
The fracturing sounds cascaded in rapid succession. At first, it resembled snapping dry twigs, but within the blink of an eye, it escalated into subterranean thunder rumbling furiously from the bowels of the abyss. The flat, alluvial soil suddenly bulged upward in massive sheets like boiling water. Gusts of bone-chilling, foul, freezing demonic miasma spewed skyward from the splitting fissures, instantly flash-freezing the falling raindrops into razor-sharp shards of ice!
“HALT! FORM UP DEFENSIVE FORMATIONS!” Song Kai shrieked in horror, survival instincts honed through hundreds of deadly battles making every hair on his body stand on end.
BOOOOOOOOOM!
The ground exploded entirely! A colossal sinkhole over a hundred meters wide yawned open like the maw of a primordial fiend. Earth, mud, and countless shattered white bones blasted dozens of meters into the air.
From deep within the pitch-black, unfathomable pit, heaven-shaking evil energy billowed upward in tumultuous waves. Crushing the space itself, a gigantic, dark-gray skeletal dragon skull emerged from the depths, its hollow eye sockets ablaze with two unearthly, chilling blue nether flames!
Following the dragon skull came a colossal skeletal frame, over thirty-five meters in length, slowly dragging itself up from the earth. Its entire body was constructed from obsidian-black dragon bones as thick as ancient tree trunks embraced by three men, tightly interwoven with thick, ash-gray dark tendons. Sprouting along its spine were hundreds of razor-sharp bone spikes steeped in lethal death toxins, while blazing blue nether fire engulfed the entire skeletal framework, radiating a bizarre frigid temperature that instantly encased the surrounding ground in dark green toxic ice.
The malignant overlord of the nether realm: NETHER SKELETAL DRAGON BEAST!
Rank: PEAK COMMANDER!
Nor did it end there. From the yawning abyss where the Skeletal Dragon had crawled out, hundreds of emaciated, lightning-fast black shadows surged upward en masse. It was a pack of nether hunting beasts—Bone-Spiked Hunting Hounds! Each skeletal hound exceeded three meters in length, sporting razor-sharp bare bones, whip-like tails bristling with wicked barbs, and jaws lined with jagged fangs dripping corrosive venom. They emitted ear-piercing, shrill screeches, locking their blood-red eyes onto the North Gate’s rear portal in a death-pincer movement meant to devour the entire reconnaissance battalion alongside the fragile city gate!
“Heavens... The Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast! It’s an underground overlord-tier supreme beast!”
“The rear gate doesn’t have the protection of the Radiant Barrier Array like the main gate! If it rams into it, the gate will shatter to pieces!”
Atop the rear gate’s watchtower, dozens of garrison soldiers trembled as they gripped the stone baled railings, drained of all color. The overwhelming pressure of a thirty-five-meter Peak Commander weighed down like Mount Tai, causing numerous Primary-level mages to suffocate as their knees buckled beneath them onto the brick flooring.
A Peak Commander-tier monster bearing dragon skeletal bloodlines possessed defensive might and destructive power capable of wiping out a regular military regiment unless at least two Advanced-tier mage companies coordinated their spells to form a containment domain! Yet here at the rear gate, defenses were at their thinnest, with the majority of elite forces concentrated at the North Gate’s front lines holding back the undead horde.
“7th Battalion... Form the defense line!” Song Kai ground his teeth until fresh blood welled up, his voice trembling as he roared: “Even if we die, we must stall this monster until reinforcements arrive from the main gate! Brothers, release your magic!”
The dozens of Intermediate-level mages with a sliver of magic energy remaining in their bodies frantically attempted to connect their Star Orbs. Yet under the terrifying undead dragon pressure radiating from the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast, their spiritual seas convulsed violently, shattering their newly forming Star Trails into soapy bubbles.
Desperation! An overwhelming sense of utter helplessness squeezed the hearts of every single soldier. Having just escaped the jaws of death, were they to be buried right on the threshold of sanctuary outside their hometown?
ROOOOOAAAAAR!
The Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast flung its ash-gray skeletal skull skyward, unleashing a roar that tore through the black rainstorm. The undead soundwaves churned into a toxic gale that swept across the ground, kicking up earth and boulders and knocking dozens of reconnaissance soldiers tumbling backward.
Its blazing blue eyes swept across, locking firmly onto the solitary figure standing calmly in the center of the pathway leading to the city gate. It lowered its forequarters, four dragon-bone claws as large as houses digging deep into the stone pavement as it prepared to charge forward and trample everything into dust! The pack of Bone-Spiked Hunting Hounds growled hungrily, their paws driving against the earth as they lunged forward like black arrows, savagely spearheading the massacre!
Amidst this hair-raising moment of life and death, Lin Feng stood motionless in place.
The raging storm whipped his pitch-black cloak wildly about, yet his physique remained as steadfast as an ancient tree rooted deep into the earth. His handsome, angular face betrayed not a hint of fear or hesitation, only a chilling, terrifying composure.
Facing the colossal thirty-five-meter behemoth charging toward him like a moving mountain of bones, Lin Feng didn’t even bother raising his hand to connect Lightning or Fire Star Trails. Given his current realm, personally crushing this monster with Nine-Palaces Exterminating Fist or Nirvana Lightning Seeds wouldn’t even require much effort. Instead, he wished to test the true combat prowess attained by his most loyal companion after devouring primordial spirit essences and breaking through realms in the Western Frontier marches.
“Major General Lin Feng! Fall back!” Song Kai screamed in despair from behind, preparing to fling himself forward as a human shield.
The corners of Lin Feng’s lips curled upward into a faint smile.
“Fall back? A rotting skeleton crawled out from the mud isn’t even qualified to make me take half a step back.”
His voice rang out gently, yet it carried a bizarre magic resonance, echoing clearly in the ears of every soldier amidst the howling storm and driving rain.
With that, Lin Feng slowly raised his right hand.
His slender fingers swept gracefully through the void, tracing an ethereal arc. Without chanting incantations or reciting cumbersome ancient scriptures, a brilliant burst of silver-purple magic radiance exploded in an instant, illuminating a corner of the North Gate’s nocturnal sky!
It was the Summoning Star Palace!
Seven silver-purple Star Patterns interwove at speeds beyond the capture of the naked eye, flawless and precise down to every inch of space. The entire sky before Lin Feng suddenly ruptured into a colossal spatial tear stretching over thirty meters!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
From deep within the unfathomable dimensional tear, a torrent of pitch-black kinetic energy overflowing with primordial devour-breath and explosive thunder-fire poured out like a cascading waterfall! That aura was so ferocious, tyrannical, and ancient that the nether flame upon the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast abruptly wavered violently, causing the monstrous behemoth’s heavy advance to stall for a full beat!
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!
A wolf howl carrying supreme dragon resonance tore the night sky apart!
The earth shook with ten times the violence of moments before. Emerging from within the Summoning portal, a massive black silhouette resembling a mountain of steel lunged outward, its four hooves clad in dark thunder-flames slamming heavily into the granite pavement!
CRASH!
Earth and stone exploded into a three-foot-deep crater! A purple-black shockwave swept outward in all directions, blowing away the falling rain and knocking hundreds of charging Bone-Spiked Hunting Hounds sprawling backward!
As the dust and crackling violet lightning sparks dissipated, every soldier and civilian atop the North Gate’s rear watchtower collectively held their breath, their eyes wide with utter astonishment.
Materializing before them was a majestic and ferocious grand beast!
The demonic wolf’s body stretched an astonishing TWENTY-FIVE METERS, as robust as a moving granite mountain range. Its entire body was encased in obsidian-black dragon scale armor, sharp and gleaming with cold metallic luster beneath the rain. Layer upon layer of dense dragon scales spanned from the nape of its neck to the tip of its tail, closing seamlessly like mythological divine battle armor from antiquity.
Four colossal claws the size of chariots dug firmly into the earth, wreathed in dark violet thunder-flames that continuously emitted crackling snaps tearing through the air. Along its massive spine, pitch-black manes stood erect like a forest of spears, while atop its head crowned a towering obsidian dragon horn etched with ancient golden runes radiating overwhelming dragon pressure!
Its eyes burned with twin crimson blood-flames like pools of fresh blood, deep within whose pupils twin void vortices slowly spun, as though capable of devouring the souls of all living beings in existence!
NETHER ABYSSAL GLUTTONOUS WOLF!
Realm: PEAK COMMANDER — HALF-STEP RULER!
“Good heavens... Is that Major General Lin Feng’s summoned beast?!” Song Kai’s jaw dropped slack, his saber nearly slipping from his grasp. He had witnessed plenty of Commander-tier contract beasts belonging to military senior mages, but never had he seen a demonic wolf bearing dragon scale armor and emitting such terrifying pressure! This pressure was completely on par with—and vaguely overshadowed—that thirty-five-meter Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast!
The Gluttonous Black Wolf stood guard before Lin Feng, its long, spiked armor-clad tail flicking rhythmically to cleave through the wind and rain. It slightly lowered its colossal head, using its muzzle exhaling scorching thunder-flame breaths to gently rub against the back of Lin Feng’s hand, emitting an affectionate, deeply loyal purr.
Only beside Lin Feng did this ancient fierce beast reveal the tenderness of a soulmate. But when it turned its head to face the enemy...
The Black Wolf’s gaze transformed into mad, bloodthirsty ferocity in an instant!
Lin Feng gently patted the cold obsidian scales on the Black Wolf’s shoulder, fixing his gaze upon the gigantic skeletal beast ahead while speaking in a calm yet murderous tone:
“Old friend, your feast has arrived. Crush it!”
ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAR!
The Gluttonous Black Wolf’s roar exploded like a detonated atomic bomb mid-air! The soundwave carrying the might of Dragon Resonance surged turbulently, transforming into a visible shockwave ring that swept straight forward!
The hundreds of Bone-Spiked Hunting Hounds charging ferociously abruptly halted mid-stride. Before the absolute pressure of True Dragon and the Gluttonous Fiend, the feeble fire-souls burning within the hounds’ skulls trembled violently. Their ferocious hunting instincts were utterly crushed by primordial terror!
Before the hounds could recover, the Gluttonous Black Wolf raised a thunder-flame-clad claw!
SWISH!
A purple-black wave of thunder-fire exceeding fifty meters in length swept horizontally across the ground from the Black Wolf’s claw! The dark flames burned furiously, carrying searing heat and destructive lightning across the dog pack.
CRACK! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
The sounds of fracturing bone mingled with heart-rending explosions echoed continuously! Those arrogant, hideous Bone-Spiked Hunting Hounds, beneath the Black Wolf’s casual claw sweep, didn’t even have time to shriek before being incinerated into ashes by the dark thunder-fire! Over two hundred gray skeletal hounds vanished into blinding white dust swirling in the stormy air within a fraction of a second!
An entire pack annihilated in a single strike!
That overwhelming, terrifying power left every soldier on the city wall staring dumbfounded, their blood surging hot!
The Black Wolf’s massacre of its pack completely enraged the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast!
As a Peak Commander-tier supreme beast that had rampaged beneath the Ancient Capital’s earth for hundreds of years, how could the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast stomach such humiliation? The twin nether flames in its eyes blazed furiously, its thirty-five-meter frame launching forward at terrifying speed, utterly contradicting its bulky outward appearance.
BOOM!
Every step the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast planted cracked the earth into deep trenches. Its colossal skeletal dragon tail bristling with sharp spikes whipped upward, tearing through the air with shrill, ghost-weeping screeches carrying countless pounds of force as it lashed directly toward the Black Wolf’s flank!
Had an ordinary fierce beast taken this tail-whip, its bones would unquestionably have shattered into a hundred pieces.
Yet the Gluttonous Black Wolf didn’t even bother dodging!
The Black Wolf’s eyes flashed with utter disdain. Its forelegs flexed, muscles rippling taut beneath its obsidian dragon scales. The dragon horn atop its head blazed with golden light.
CLANG-G-G-G-G-G-G!
An ear-piercing metallic impact rang out like a gigantic bronze bell struck by a sledgehammer!
The Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast’s massive skeletal tail slammed squarely into the Black Wolf’s dragon-scaled flank! Violet lightning sparks and magic stone debris blasted in all directions. The obsidian scales merely exhibited a few faint white scratches, while the Black Wolf stood steadfast like a mountain of stone, its four paws buried deep into the earth without retreating even half a step!
Conversely, the terrifying recoil force transmitted from the Black Wolf’s armored physique caused dozens of bone spikes along the Skeletal Dragon’s tail to snap clean off, pattering down into the mud!
ROAR?!
The Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast roared in shock. It couldn’t believe this demonic wolf’s defensive power was absurdly impervious to such a degree!
Without giving its opponent time to retract its tail, the Gluttonous Black Wolf flung its maw wide open! Sharp fangs like great sabers clamped onto the skeletal dragon tail, and then its twenty-five-meter colossal body executed a breathtaking, flawless spin, flinging outward with mountain-moving force!
CRASH! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
The thirty-five-meter, dozens-of-tons physique of the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast was actually hoisted right off the ground by the Black Wolf and violently hurled against the subsidiary ramp’s side! Earth and stone flew as an entire section of the auxiliary trench was flattened into rubble!
“Good lord! Too powerful! Too domineering!” The garrison observation officer on the watchtower roared hoarsely, his grip on the stone railing whitening his knuckles. Over twenty thousand soldiers fighting in adjacent sectors were equally shaken by this colossal beast duel, casting glances filled with trembling excitement!
Thrown and tumbled to the ground, the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast scrambled up frantically. Humiliation and hatred drove the gray skeletal monster into a state of supreme frenzy.
Its hollow ribcage suddenly swelled up bizarrely. The emerald nether flames wrapping its entire body frantically converged toward its throat, forming a thick, concentrated dark green death-energy sphere that hissed with toxic smoke, melting the surrounding air!
The skeletal dragon’s ultimate finishing move: NETHER SOUL DRAGON BREATH!
This was a dragon breath accumulated from the resentment and corrosive toxins of tens of thousands of corpses beneath the Ancient Capital. Once unleashed, even Advanced-tier magic armor or sturdy city walls would dissolve into toxic liquid within seconds, and any living creature caught in its path would have its soul incinerated beyond reincarnation!
ROOOOOOOOAR!
The Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast reared its head and unleashed its breath! A column of dark green dragon breath blazing with evil fire, over ten meters in diameter, roared through space, plunging straight toward the Gluttonous Black Wolf’s head! The dispersing toxic miasma caused the ground beneath its paws to turn into bubbling, viscous swamp slime!
“Dangerous! Get out of the way!” Song Kai and the reconnaissance soldiers shouted with their hearts in their throats. This attack carried extreme corrosive properties; no matter how tough dragon scales were, resisting it intact would prove immensely difficult!
Yet facing this destructive dragon breath, not only did the Gluttonous Black Wolf refuse to retreat, but a blaze of extreme excitement ignited within its crimson blood-flames!
Because it carried the bloodline of the ancient fierce god: GLUTTONOUS!
What was Gluttonous? It was the devourer of heaven and earth, the bottomless maw swallowing all things in creation!
HOWL-L-L-L-L-L!
The Gluttonous Black Wolf opened its colossal jaws wide!
A heart-shaking spectacle unfolded before the entire army: deep within the Black Wolf’s pitch-black throat, a bottomless dark vortex suddenly materialized, spinning furiously. A heaven-shaking suction force exploded outward, causing the surrounding space to warp and twist!
FIERCE GOD INNATE SKILL: GLUTTONOUS DEVOURING!
That ferocious dark green Nether Soul Dragon Breath column, upon rushing within three meters of the Black Wolf, had its trajectory completely bent by the dark vortex’s suction! The entire surging torrent of corrosive undead energy flowed inward like a massive whirlpool, sucked entirely into the Black Wolf’s maw!
Devoured!
Without even a shred of evil fire left behind!
The dragon breath column capable of destroying a sturdy fortress gate was swallowed down into the Black Wolf’s belly like a refreshing gulp of mountain spring water!
The ground instantly plunged into an eerie silence. The wind and rain seemed to pause for a heartbeat.
The Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast stood frozen like a rotting log. The nether flames in its hollow eye sockets twitched erratically, flickering weakly as though about to extinguish. It utterly failed to comprehend what had just transpired. Its strongest killer move... where had it gone?!
Glug... Glug...
Muffled energy-conversion sounds echoed from within the Gluttonous Black Wolf’s chest. The devoured death energy and resentment fire were instantly filtered and crushed by the Black Wolf’s elixir field combined with the Primordial Dragon Pendant’s spiritual energy, transforming into pure, explosive energy coursing into its four paws!
The obsidian dragon scales across the Black Wolf’s body blazed with purple-black thunder-fire veins intermingled with dazzling emerald light!
“Finished digesting? Now it’s your turn to pay the debt!”
Lin Feng stood behind, speaking softly as a chilling glint flashed across his cold eyes.
Receiving its master’s intent, the Gluttonous Black Wolf instantly erupted with terrifying speed!
WHOOSH!
Its twenty-five-meter colossal physique vanished on the spot, transforming into a dark afterimage tearing through the black rainstorm!
Shadow Teleportation!
Scarcely a blink later, the Black Wolf appeared directly above the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast’s skull! Its four paws trod upon fractured void, its massive foreleg raised high toward the sky as dark thunder-fire condensed into five claw-images exceeding forty meters in length, sharp as divine swords cleaving the heavens!
NETHER ABYSSAL THUNDER-FIRE CLAW — GLUTTONOUS DESTRUCTION!
SCHL-L-L-L-L-G-G-G-G!
Five descending claw-images tore space apart! A strike synthesizing the full might of Peak Commander physique and newly converted thunder-fire energy slammed squarely into the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast’s dragon-bone-armored chest!
CRACK! CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! BOOOOOOOOM!
A terrifying fracturing sound reverberated across the Ancient Capital’s battlefield! The indestructible solid dragon bone armor of the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast shattered like chicken eggshells beneath a sledgehammer! Massive rib bones snapped cleanly, spraying outward in all directions. The thirty-five-meter behemoth’s chest was ripped open by a gaping wound over twenty meters deep, its internal nether flames scorched black and charred by the dark thunder-fire!
AWOOOOOOOOOOOO!
The Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast emitted an ultimate, agonizing shriek as its entire colossal frame crashed to the ground, thrashing frantically in the muddy mire!
Yet the Gluttonous Black Wolf afforded it no opportunity to right itself!
ROOOOAAAAAR!
A roar of Dragon Resonance issued from the Black Wolf’s maw, striking directly into the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast’s spiritual sea and paralyzing its final shred of fire-soul completely for a crucial half-second!
In that very fateful half-second, the Gluttonous Black Wolf lunged downward like a dark meteorite! Its wide maw clamped straight onto the cervical spine connecting the skeletal dragon’s skull!
CRACK!
Sharp fangs clad in dragon scales sank deep into the joint, and then the Black Wolf twisted its body with earth-shattering might, executing a savage wrench!
RIP!
The seven-meter-long skeletal dragon skull of the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast was snapped clean off its body! Dark gray demonic blood and evil fire spewed forth like gushing fountains!
The Black Wolf tossed the gray skeletal skull onto the ground, then raised its obsidian-dragon-scaled foreleg—heavy as Mount Tai—and slammed it down squarely onto the monster’s skull!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
A heaven-shaking explosion! The skull of the Peak Commander-tier supreme beast Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast was completely pulverized into fine powder! The emerald nether flames burst and dissolved into the void, leaving not a trace of life behind!
Dead!
The overlord-tier commander that had sown terror among the Ancient Capital’s military and civilians was executed in the most cruel, overwhelming, and absolute manner imaginable!
The battlefield abruptly plunged into absolute silence.
The wind ceased howling, and the black rain pattered against the bone fragments scattered across the ground. Nearly three hundred soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion and thousands of troops atop the rear gate stood frozen in shock. They stared blankly at the headless, thirty-five-meter skeletal dragon carcass lying motionlessly on the ground, then up at the twenty-five-meter pitch-black colossal wolf standing proudly atop the pile of ashes.
Perched atop the highest boulder, the Gluttonous Black Wolf raised its face to the darkened night sky of the Ancient Capital, unleashing a long, heaven-shaking howl:
HOWL-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L!
The soundwave carrying dark thunder-fire surged up to the nine firmaments, blowing away heavy black clouds and proclaiming the undefeated prestige of the KING OF GLUTTONOUS BATTLE WOLVES!
Upon Lin Feng’s chest, beneath his Major General uniform, the Primordial Dragon Pendant suddenly blazed with a dazzling golden radiance.
WHOOSH!
Rising from the ashes of the Nether Skeletal Dragon Beast’s skull came a dark-blue orb of light, bowl-sized and flawless without a single blemish. It was none other than a supreme Peak Commander Soul Essence!
The Dragon Pendant spun gently, opening a minor vortex that swallowed the Soul Essence entirely into its soul dimension. A colossal torrent of energy poured into Lin Feng’s body, causing his magic Star Seas to ring out joyfully, continuing to accumulate a rock-solid foundation for his next breakthrough.
And then, the battlefield’s silence erupted into an emotional seismic wave!
“WE WON! THE SKELETAL DRAGON IS SLAIN!”
“Heaven has eyes! The Gluttonous Battle Wolf! Major General Lin Feng’s battle wolf is too terrifying!”
“Long live! Major General Lin Feng, long live!”
Thousands of soldiers atop the city wall raised their weapons skyward, roaring in wild, intoxicated ecstasy. Song Kai collapsed to his knees in the mud, hot tears streaming down his weathered cheeks as he gazed at Lin Feng’s retreating back with ultimate reverence and gratitude. A Peak Commander-tier supreme beast capable of slaughtering an entire legion had its spine torn apart in the blink of an eye by a single summoned beast belonging to this young Major General!
Lin Feng waved his hand casually, recalling the Gluttonous Black Wolf back into the contract dimension. The Black Wolf gently rubbed its head against his shoulder one last time before its colossal form dissolved into silver-purple points of light vanishing into the void.
He turned around, taking slow strides toward the city gate opening wide to welcome him home.
Yet after taking merely three steps, Lin Feng’s stride abruptly halted.
He frowned slightly, turning his head to gaze deep into the pitch-black horizon of the distant wilderness beyond the Ancient Capital’s outer bounds.
There, space appeared to be warped and torn apart by some invisible force into a bottomless black fissure resembling an abyss-like maw. The ground beneath his feet transmitted muffled, bizarre pulses resembling the heartbeat of a death god slowly awakening.
The portent of a millennia-old death forbidden zone: ABYSSAL RUIN!
Nor was that all. Amidst the pitch-black fog beyond the range of magic vision, several figures draped in ash-gray cloaks bearing malevolent crescent moon insignias appeared to be silently observing the entire battle before slipping quietly back into the endless dark...
Lin Feng’s eyes flashed with a chill as cold as millennium-old frost.
“So they’ve arrived... It seems tonight in the Ancient Capital, rivers of blood are merely the prelude to come.”