The might of Heavenly Punishment! Unrivaled in the cosmos! The might of Heavenly Punishment! The first place of lethal darkness!” He Chongxiao and the others shouted, raising their arms in unison. Behind them, the White Jade Lion King and the Golden-Haired Monkey King also roared toward the heavens, venting their battle cries in their own distinct ways.

“Heavenly Punishment is forbidden from entering the mainland, forbidden from disturbing common folk; this is the immutable rule of the Heavenly Punishment Forest, a rule that cannot be broken. Xiong Kaishan, you will lead the Tiger King, Monkey King, Lion King, and Snake King—the ground forces—into direct confrontation with the forces from Tiannan City! He Chongxiao, you and the Eagle King’s aerial legion must stand ready to provide support at any moment! If we are to fight, we must strike hard a few times first, make them feel the pain, make them fear us, and only then will we consider whether to proceed with a massive decisive battle or settle things with a peak showdown: but the final decision must ultimately be that they come begging me! Do you understand?”

“Yes!” both replied instantly.

“Old Fourth Xiong, how is your injury now?” the man in black asked.

“I’m fine now, thank you, Boss, for channeling your power to dissolve it,” Xiong Kaishan said gratefully. “If it weren't for the Boss, that Vein-Splitting Heart-Piercing Sword strike wouldn’t have been so easily neutralized.”

“There is one more thing, Boss,” He Chongxiao said suddenly, his tone serious. “I suspect that Li Juetian’s primary target this time was actually Old Bear!”

“Oh? And what reason do you have for that? Li Juetian is not an unwise man. If he truly dared to openly execute Old Fourth, it would mean forging an irreconcilable enmity with our Heavenly Punishment faction. Does he dare?” The man in black scoffed.

He Chongxiao looked grim. “Perhaps others do not know, but we should. The world often uses the term ‘bear heart and leopard guts’ to describe someone’s immense courage: but we know the truth. Li Juetian has clearly consumed the Leopard King’s Mystic Elixir. Following this logic, then…”

“Then he still needs Old Bear’s heart?” the man in black grunted furiously.

“Precisely. With the human physique, once a Mystic Elixir is ingested, even if one already possesses profound Xuan Qi cultivation, it cannot be fully absorbed. Li Juetian has obviously run into this obstacle. But if he were to combine Old Bear’s heart with the Leopard King’s Mystic Elixir, he wouldn't just fully absorb the Leopard King’s Elixir—he could even double its effect in one go! And if, simultaneously, he also ingested Old Bear’s own Mystic Elixir, the effect would double again—a four-fold efficacy! At that point, surveying the entire Profound Continent, who could possibly stand against Jue Tian the Supreme? Even making an enemy unto death of Heavenly Punishment—what would that matter then?”

He Chongxiao’s face twisted in extreme loathing. “Li Juetian’s strike this time paid me no mind; every move was aimed directly at Old Bear! Every technique, every strike, was a fatal move! His malice is obvious! This is the true reason why Old Fourth Bear and I initiated this wave of the Beast Tide!”

“Li Juetian!” The man in black’s body shuddered, and the name seemed forced out through clenched teeth. He spat the words out hatefully: “No wonder he was willing to lower his status to issue a Supreme Summoning Order, no wonder he didn't hesitate to use that draining Vein-Splitting Heart-Piercing Sword against Old Fourth. So, he was planning a killing blow all along! And he intended to use the Xuan Qi experts of the entire continent to achieve this ambition—what a vicious heart! What a meticulously calculated scheme!”

“You two must return now and prepare. For this operation, anyone below the Seventh Rank must return to the Heavenly Punishment Forest. This time, they will not participate. Every one of them must focus solely on cultivation!” The man in black’s robes billowed as he commanded: “Snake King Qian Xun, your group is slower. Be mindful. If we have enough Seventh-Rank Flying Vipers, Golden Centipedes, and Seven-Stars, the others can temporarily stand down.”

What he referred to as the Flying Vipers, Golden Centipedes, and Seven-Stars were three of the most lethally venomous and fastest snakes within the Heavenly Punishment Forest, moving almost without shadow or trace, invisible to most ordinary eyes.

The green-clad young woman, Snake Jiang, bowed respectfully, accepted the order, and turned to leave.

“Third Brother, Fourth Brother, you both mentioned that mysterious person earlier possessed terrifying strength; his oppressive aura even seemed greater than mine. Based on your judgment, how does his cultivation compare to mine? I want the truth!” The man in black’s voice was somewhat raspy.

“That person’s cultivation is indeed very high. In my estimation, even at the absolute lowest limit, it might not be beneath yours, perhaps standing between us as peers,” He Chongxiao replied cautiously after long consideration.

Xiong Kaishan, however, possessed no subtlety whatsoever and completely missed He Chongxiao’s careful maneuvering. He grinned widely, “Third Brother, why are you speaking nonsense with your eyes wide open? That person’s cultivation is truly profoundly unfathomable. He is stronger than you by more than a little bit. To put it bluntly, he could probably take on three or five of you… Uh—I mean, perhaps just one or two... and still win easily... I deserve death, I deserve death!” He stammered, trying to correct himself. “That’s not what I meant at all... This damnable mouth of mine... Boss, you are the strongest! I meant that you could take on ten of him!”—A heart-rending, agonizing scream of “Ah-zhou!” followed.

Before he could finish, his entire body convulsed violently. He suddenly realized his mistake, but it was too late. With a heavy thud, his body was suddenly hurled headfirst into the earth beneath his feet. A faint crack-crack sound followed, as he shattered quite a few of the dense, underground tree roots.

“From what you two are saying, the gist is that this person’s cultivation is definitely higher than mine? Is that the meaning? Just say it clearly, why waste time with so many words!” The man in black’s voice—

With a slight, suppressed frustration, he nonchalantly patted his foot and then stomped down hard onto Xiong Kaishan’s only visible feet protruding from the soil. A dull groan rose from underground, and Xiong Kaishan instantly vanished with a whoosh.

“Even counting the Three Great Sacred Lands, apart from their Masters and those few reckless old relics, there is absolutely no one whose cultivation surpasses mine. Who on earth is this person? To possess such cultivation!?” The man in black paced back and forth, utterly baffled. Yet, with every step he took, a pained, muffled groan would echo from below the ground.

“His origin is indeed mysterious and unpredictable, and his strength is immensely profound. However, I can guarantee he is definitely not from one of the Three Great Sacred Lands!” He Chongxiao stated sternly, standing perfectly straight, not a single wrinkle on his clothing. Having witnessed Xiong Kaishan’s fate just moments before, He Chongxiao now triple-checked every word in his mind.

He deeply feared this misfortune befalling him.

“On what basis do you make that claim?” The man in black continued pacing. Each step he took onto the ground failed to stir even a speck of dust, yet the force transmitted directly downward, landing accurately time and again on the pitiful Xiong Kaishan buried beneath. It never caused injury, never caused pain, but merely forced him repeatedly to use his head as a drill, driving him deeper into the earth.

Since Xiong Kaishan was thick-skinned and tough, he wouldn't actually be hurt. Finally, the man in black felt his foot step into empty air. Only when he finally succeeded in stomping the fellow deep into the yellow mud did he cease, satisfied.

“Boss, you know that any old fossil emerging from the Three Great Sacred Lands carries a distinctly annoying, cloying aura. At our level, this sensation is incredibly easy to perceive. But this person’s aura, far from being repulsive or tiresome to us, instead evokes a deep sense of kinship! It’s an indescribable, ineffable feeling—a desire to naturally draw close to him…”

“En, I understand. That is actually intuition,” the man in black interrupted him with a wave of his hand.

“Intuition?” He Chongxiao’s expression became peculiar. Surely those were two different things? Finally unable to resist, he secretly glanced at his Boss again, muttering to himself.

“What are you looking at? What are you thinking? Do you think my analysis is wrong?” the man in black demanded menacingly, carrying heavy pressure. An invisible surge of energy seemed to bind He Chongxiao tightly.

“Truly... worthy of the Boss... the Boss is truly wise, Ha-ga—” He Chongxiao, startled, nearly blurted out what he was thinking and quickly changed his tune, forcing a dry laugh.

“He Chongxiao, He Third Brother,” the man in black said darkly, “you are getting bold!”

“Boss, spare me, ah!” He Chongxiao immediately pleaded for mercy, but his body was already flying, skimming along the ground, forcibly plowing a deep furrow into the earth with his own body.

Simultaneously, a small mound suddenly puffed up nearby, then burst through the surface with a poof. Xiong Kaishan emerged, his head and body coated in thick yellow mud. Before he was even fully out, he saw the satisfying spectacle unfolding before him. He immediately spat out a mouthful of mud and laughed gleefully: “He Third Brother, oh, He Third Brother, so you have a day like this too... Hahahaha...”

He Chongxiao struggled up from seven or eight zhang away, covered in grime, and snorted, “So what if I have a day like this? It’s certainly better than some brute being smashed dozens of zhang into the ground, covered head to toe in yellow sludge, looking like he fell into a latrine pit, yet still acting triumphant! What was that you just spat out? Yellowish muck...”

Xiong Kaishan immediately lost the ability to speak. Though he knew Third Brother was intentionally disgusting him, a wave of nausea still washed over him.

“If I had the time, I would like to meet this mysterious master, to see definitively who ranks higher or lower,” the man in black coldly snorted, pulling the attention of the two squabbling men back.

“It’s a shame; the agreement we had with him expired more than a month ago...” Xiong Kaishan kicked the ground petulantly, shaking off clods of mud. “But that task, which wasn’t difficult, we failed to complete within the deadline. Damn that Li Juetian, that old scoundrel ruined everything!”

“However, he did say that after we complete the mission, we should find Jun Wuyi in the Jun Family of Tianxiang City...” He Chongxiao suddenly recalled. “Since he said that, Jun Wuyi must be connected to him! If we follow this thread, we should have a chance to find him. And as far as I know, the leading general dispatched by the Tianxiang Empire to deal with the Xuan Beast Tide we stirred up this time is Jun Wuyi himself! Right now, this man is in Tiannan City!”

“If that is the case... then we must plan carefully to see if we can exploit Jun Wuyi to glean information about that mysterious high master,” the man in black’s ethereal voice seemed to have subtly... changed its cadence...

But Xiong Kaishan and He Chongxiao failed to notice anything amiss, seemingly accustomed to it by now.

“Boss, regarding this matter of Jun Wuyi, we must be cautious. If we blunder and accidentally anger that person, the loss will far outweigh the gain...” He Chongxiao suggested carefully.