Although Xie Yue was carrying Tang San, a Soul Master above rank sixty already possessed a considerably tough physique, so it did not slow him down. Tang San leaned against him, rapidly recovering his mental strength. Surrounded by an environment saturated with Blue Silver Grass, even though his spiritual power had suffered severe damage earlier, its recovery rate was astonishingly fast. With the Blue Silver Domain active only upon himself, invisible threads of Blue Silver Grass energy continuously flowed into his body, replenishing what he had expended. Of course, outwardly, he still appeared just as weak.
Sensing that they were drawing closer to the position his spiritual sense had probed earlier, Tang San's heart grew tense once more. Those two powerful presences had been formidable, but the forces Spirit Hall had dispatched were no weaklings either. Could those two powerful auras truly protect Xiao Wu?
"Welcome to the Star Dou Great Forest," a gentle voice suddenly came from ahead, causing Ghost Douluo, who was walking at the very front, to stop abruptly.
Hearing that voice, Tang San's body trembled involuntarily, despite his best efforts to conceal himself. Five years. Five whole years had passed, and he finally heard that moving voice again. Who else could it be but Xiao Wu?
Chrysanthemum Douluo flickered forward to Ghost Douluo's side. The two exchanged a glance, and Chrysanthemum Douluo made a hand signal to the Spirit Hall experts behind them. The formation of twenty Soul Saints immediately shifted, contracting into a circle with the three members of the Golden Generation and Tang San at its center. At the same time, they all released their Martial Souls.
The spectacle of twenty Soul Saints releasing their Martial Souls simultaneously was absolutely breathtaking. In an instant, with them at the center, the air within a hundred-meter radius warped violently as soul ring after dazzling soul ring materialized around their bodies.
The Golden Generation's three Martial Souls were released as well. Xie Yue supported Tang San with one hand while the Moonblade appeared in the other. Every person gazed ahead with full vigilance.
"Haven't you been searching for me for quite some time? Now that you've found me, why don't you dare come forward?" The gentle voice rang out again, carrying a serenity that gave even Spirit Hall's experts an uneasy feeling.
Chrysanthemum Douluo nodded to Ghost Douluo, and the two stepped forward first. They had finally located their target — even if a trap lay ahead, they had to walk into it. Miss this opportunity, and there was no telling when they would find that cunning rabbit again.
Passing through a dense grove of trees, the view ahead opened up suddenly. Every single person from Spirit Hall had their pupils contract almost simultaneously, because what lay before them was a scene of beauty beyond the power of words to describe.
A crystal-clear lake made the air more humid, its surface reflecting the towering trees all around. Sunlight bathed everything, making it all shimmer with crystalline brilliance in the mirror of the water.
To one side of this picturesque scene, an extraordinarily massive figure crouched in silence — a being like a mountain, its coat of jet-black fur glimmering faintly under the pale sunlight. Even on all fours, its shoulder height easily exceeded seven meters. Standing upright, it would likely reach fifteen meters or more.
By appearance, it was a creature somewhere between an ape and a black gorilla. Apart from two lantern-sized eyes that gleamed with a yellow-crystal luster, its entire body was pitch black.
This colossus was simply too imposing — inconceivably so. Not only was it enormous, but every part of its body was covered in muscles more terrifying than granite, bulging like small hills. The whole frame was a union of raw power and primal beauty.
If it represented the pinnacle of masculine might, then perched upon its shoulder was a figure of ethereal femininity.
A white dress fell to her feet, and her features — delicate as those of a wood spirit — were utterly flawless. Her long black hair cascaded from behind, draping over the giant ape's shoulder. Seen from the back, it looked like a black waterfall covering her form.
Every strand appeared impossibly smooth. She seemed to embody the finest grace under heaven — her beauty not only innate but perfectly at one with the surroundings. In that moment, even Hu Liena, who considered herself among the most beautiful, felt a pang of inadequacy.
Tang San's eyes had long since opened. At this very moment, his gaze was filled with rapture.
Five years had passed, and Xiao Wu had become even more beautiful. She had grown a little taller, a little fuller. The vestiges of youth had fully transformed into a breathtaking maturity. Her luminous, soft eyes gazed down at the Spirit Hall group across the lake, as though everything around her orbited in her presence. She stood there like a goddess of the forest, poised atop the Titan Giant Ape's colossal shoulder.
Most of Spirit Hall's experts had their eyes fixed on Xiao Wu, but the two Titled Douluo stared instead at the Titan Giant Ape beneath her feet. The ape itself exuded no oppressive aura, yet merely crouching there conveyed a mountainous heaviness.
Only now did they understand why no powerful Soul Beasts lurked nearby — this was the Forest King's territory. What ordinary Soul Beast would dare trespass into the domain of the Forest King and court death?
Xiao Wu's calm gaze did not ripple with even the slightest disturbance. She looked quietly at the two Titled Douluo. "You've been searching for me for a long time as well. Then let us settle things here today."
The instant her words fell, the Titan Giant Ape beneath her feet opened its yellow-crystal eyes wide, blazing like two suns even in broad daylight. A mountainous, overwhelming presence surged forth, sending wave after wave rippling across the lake's surface.
Ghost Douluo and Chrysanthemum Douluo had never imagined they would encounter a terrifying Soul Beast as powerful as the Titan Giant Ape here. They knew perfectly well that slaying a Titan Giant Ape would yield benefits no less than those from the hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast Xiao Wu, who had entered her humanoid juvenile stage. But what manner of being was the Titan Giant Ape? The King of Soul Beasts. Even Soul Beasts of equal rank could only tremble and bow before it.
The Titan Giant Ape's status among Soul Beasts was even higher than that of Dragon or Phoenix Martial Souls among all Martial Souls. In their memory, only one person had ever defeated a Titan Giant Ape — and that person was the Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao, the man who had slain Spirit Hall's previous pontiff.
"Roar—" The Titan Giant Ape's enormous body rose to its full height. A crushing, mountain-like pressure swept across the lake, churning up a massive wave. Xiao Wu still stood on its shoulder, her black hair billowing from the shifting air currents. Yet the expression on her face remained as serene and composed as ever.
Her time with Tang San had given her the warmth of human presence. Five years in the forest's tranquility had restored her former peacefulness. It was as though these powerful enemies before her had nothing to do with her at all.
Ghost Douluo and Chrysanthemum Douluo simultaneously released their Martial Souls, each unleashing nine soul rings to withstand the aura pouring off the Titan Giant Ape. Ghost Douluo spoke in a deep voice: "Ju Guan, hold off that beast for a moment. I'll capture the rabbit first. Once I succeed, we retreat immediately."
Having fought together for years, Chrysanthemum Douluo understood him at once. He shook the Auspicious Chrysanthemum Skyblossom in his hand, and it rapidly expanded as his seventh soul ring lit up. Facing the mighty Titan Giant Ape, he immediately deployed his Martial Soul Avatar.
Ghost Douluo bellowed, "Everyone else, stay where you are!" With that shout, his body soared skyward, becoming entirely phantasmal — even his nine soul rings turned nearly invisible.
The enormous golden chrysanthemum, swollen to five meters across, swept beneath Ghost Douluo's feet. Ghost Douluo transformed into an afterimage hurtling toward the opposite bank. Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan was far from idle either — he too leaped up, skimming across the water's surface in rapid pursuit. One high, one low, Ghost Douluo was fast, but Chrysanthemum Douluo's enormous chrysanthemum had already surged ahead in his advance, the golden bloom expanding further mid-flight. Every golden petal gleamed with dazzling splendor.
Yue Guan and the launched Auspicious Chrysanthemum Skyblossom seemed tethered by an invisible thread, pulling his body forward at a speed that, for a brief moment, was no slower than Ghost Douluo's phantom form.
A flicker of contempt crossed the eyes of the Titan Giant Ape, Er Ming. Facing the charge of the two Titled Douluo, he shrugged his shoulder and Xiao Wu, who had been standing atop him, soared into the air, landing behind him. The instant Xiao Wu departed, he moved as well.
The Forest King was the Forest King indeed. He exploded with speed utterly disproportionate to his colossal frame, hurtling toward Ghost Douluo in midair. As for the Auspicious Chrysanthemum Skyblossom and Chrysanthemum Douluo himself heading his way, he simply ignored them.
Ghost Douluo clearly sensed that the moment the Titan Giant Ape lunged at him, everything around him grew leaden. His body felt as though it had been filled with molten lead, and his speed — once a blur of flickering light — plummeted. The world before his eyes seemed to warp subtly.
A domain. This was the power of a domain. Ghost Douluo immediately recognized it as something beyond any ordinary skill. His guess was precisely correct: as the Forest King, the Gravity Control Domain was one of the Titan Giant Ape's abilities. Among countless species of Soul Beasts, those that could truly wield domain power numbered fewer than ten, and among those ten, even fewer had cultivated a full domain. Ghost Douluo had certainly hit the jackpot.
The Titan Giant Ape's Gravity Control Domain differed from ordinary gravity skills. Within this domain, it could freely manipulate gravity at any point — not merely increasing it, but potentially reducing it drastically as well.
As an agility-attack Titled Douluo, Ghost Douluo excelled above all in speed. Yet the moment the Gravity Control Domain settled upon him, his greatest advantage was instantly nullified.
The Titan Giant Ape was not as blunt