Chasing after the routed troops was beyond easy. The demonkin were fast in their retreat, and they had experts bringing up the rear to deter Zhao Jundu and Song Zining from killing the ordinary soldiers. This limited the damage to their forces outside of the forest, but the fate of those within had more or less been sealed.

The demonkin fighting the beasts inside the forest made up the bulk of the unit, so Song Zining didn’t chase the retreating soldiers for very long. He turned his forces about and led them to exterminate the demonkin in the woods.

Due to the isolation effect of the forest, most of the demonkin inside had no idea that their forces outside had fled. By the time they had noticed something was wrong, they were already caught between the Empire and the beasts.

Woodland combat was complicated, and after eliminating the demonkin, the Imperial soldiers had to deal with the surviving beasts. These creatures would attack anyone regardless of faction. By the time everything had been settled, it was already midnight.

Song Zining wasn’t in a good mood. He kept asking Zhao Jundu, “Am I that scary now?”

The latter rolled his eyes without hesitation. “What would you think if you were a demonkin and you saw Song Zining charging at them at the head of an army?”

Song Zining was enlightened. “I understand now!”

According to common sense, Song Zining would only charge so recklessly if he was absolutely certain of a victory. The enemy experts also knew that Song Zining’s domain—while not lethal—was top-grade at trapping people. They would find it almost impossible to escape once they had been entangled, to speak nothing of the killer god that was Zhao Jundu nearby.

That was why they turned around and fled once they realized that things weren’t right. They had sacrificed the squad inside the forest, but they had retained some fighting power after running away. This result was better than fighting to the death and allowing Song Zining to wipe them out in one go.

Song Zining shook his head after realizing this. “Sigh, the beast hordes make for better opponents. They won’t run no matter what, all they know is to charge.”

A winged-beast struggling on the ground caught Zhao Jundu’s attention. He picked it up and observed it for a while before passing the creature to Song Zining. “The beasts aren’t so easy to deal with, either.”

Song Zining immediately noticed something different. There were numerous firm, hard granules at the base of its feathers—these were scales that hadn’t taken form.

The seventh young master was familiar with all of the beast-types that had made an appearance, but he was sure he hadn’t seen this one before. Additionally, the scales were especially evident around the creature’s soft abdomen. Once these scales were fully developed, their defense would increase significantly.

Song Zining reached out to pluck some scales off and pinched them between his fingers. “Once these scales are mature, our high-caliber machine guns might not be effective anymore.”

Zhao Jundu said, “They didn’t have these scales before, do you understand what I mean?”

The two exchanged glances, each noticing the worry in the other party’s expression. The beast army evolving was fine, but it would be horrible news if the six-armed commander were to transform as well.

Song Zining froze as he glanced at the corpse of the six-armed giant. According to the usual pattern, the six-armed creature in a forest with one holy tree was the weakest.

This type of forest hadn’t formed a pond of holy tree sap. At most, there would only be a puddle. Without the pond, there would be no island to produce that mysterious metallic stone material. Naturally, there was no throne, either.

The six-armed creatures were usually naked except for their weapons. It was also obvious that the weapons weren’t from the forest since the ruined ones couldn’t be replaced, unlike the three-holy-tree forests where the islands were full of stalagmites. The generals could grab them at will and turn them into weapons.

The six-armed creature here was wearing armor. Although it was just a simple, sleeveless chest plate, its defenses were much higher than its naked peers. Its weapons were also better designed and crafted.

This six-armed creature’s combat strength was far greater than the others from its race. No wonder the demonkin had to gather so many experts to defeat it. Their lineup boasted half a dozen marquises and a vice-duke leader, yet their victory was hard-fought and everyone was wounded.

That vice-duke had clearly suffered greater injuries. He hadn’t taken any action at all and fled immediately once the Imperial army appeared.

“Looks like the battles going forward won’t be as easy.”

Zhao Jundu nodded seriously.

…

At this moment, in a different corner of the new world. An austere Qianye was standing beside the corpse of a six-armed commander. Caroline looked abnormally pale as she walked over to him.

Qianye glanced at her. “Are your wounds under control now? Do you need to head out and recuperate for a bit?”

Caroline shook her head. “It’s not that bad. My lightning physique recovers quite fast, but I’ll be weak for the next couple of days. Who would’ve thought this monster could actually fire arrows?” She glanced at the six-armed giant with a bit of lingering fear.

Qianye picked up the giant bow. At more than three meters, Qianye couldn’t hold this gigantic weapon vertically. He could only lift it horizontally to observe the details.

The bow was made rather crudely from the stony metal of the lake island, but it was very hard and flexible. The core of the bowstring was also made from the same material, coated in a layer of weaved tree bark. In terms of craftsmanship, an apprentice blacksmith from any race could produce a better weapon.

Qianye put down the bow, and keeping it pressed down with one foot, he tried using both hands to pull back on the string. He exerted abrupt force with a shout, yet the string only opened up a bit. Qianye was startled—he had already exerted sixty percent of his strength for this pull.

Qianye’s face flushed red as his blood core pulsed and auric flame blood began to churn throughout his body. Erupting in a burst of great power, he pulled the bow open to as far as his arms could extend.

Qianye relaxed his arms and allowed the bow to bounce back. “What a bow!”

“How much force did you have to exert?” Caroline was curious.

“Ninety percent,” Qianye replied.

“Doesn’t that mean it's even stronger than you are?”

“Indeed.”

Qianye had to use so much force just to pull the bow back, yet that six-armed general had been firing tempestuous volleys of arrows at them. Even someone of Caroline’s speed was struck by the projectile, producing a large penetrating cavity. The wound didn’t even bleed as the edges had been crystallized upon impact.

Fortunately, Qianye’s Spatial Flash was the bane of bow-type opponents. He grasped this opportunity to fire four Shots of Inception in a row in order to kill the six-armed general. It was just that three shots was the limit at his current level, and overdrafting himself left him with hidden injuries.

Caroline touched the six-armed general’s armor and said with a frown, “It wasn’t like this in the past.”

“We changed our strategy and gear to deal with the beast army. They’re doing the same.”

“Looks like we were quite lucky before.”

“Yes.”

Qianye glanced at his surroundings. The constant sounds of fighting could be heard as the werewolves and mercenaries worked to clear the forest.

This was a forest with three holy trees, after all, and the beasts were superior both in number and in quality. Although Qianye and Caroline had kept the six-armed general in check, the others still didn’t have an easy time. Fortunately, the aristocratic families had bet heavily on Qianye, each sending forth experts to aid his cause. After combining forces with the Storm Territory, the number of werewolf experts under Qianye’s command had also increased greatly. That was why he could overcome the beast army on his own.

The main reason for this fair outcome was because the six-armed general couldn’t control and coordinate the troops.

Qianye could vaguely sense the existence of a forest with four holy trees in the distance. He shook his head and gave up on any notion of attacking it.

He had managed to defeat that six-armed general by a fluke back then. Now that they had evolved, taking that forest down would surely involve a painful price.

Qianye decided not to touch any quad-tree forest without more experts to help him.

…

In a different corner of the new world, there was a single-holy-tree forest that was rather lively. The images of mountains flickered in the air above as trees collapsed with loud rumbles. Apparently, the battle here was rather fierce.

Before long, howling laughter erupted from the center of the forest. “What can a mere six-armed creature do to me?”

This voice was crude, vulgar, and inexplicably arrogant. Who else could it be except Wei Potian?

He was standing at the center of the forest. Behind him was a holy tree, and in front was the corpse of a six-armed commander. This creature was wearing a short piece of armor, and his equipment was better made, but Wei Potian noticed none of that. Origin power flickered around him, and the mountain projections hadn’t yet dissipated.

A group of experts appeared from the forest at this point and started to praise him. “Young Master, your might is on full display today! You’ve really broadened my horizons by breaking through in battle!”

“Congratulations on advancing to rank-seventeen. You’re only one step away from becoming a divine champion.”

“As I see it, the divine champion realm is just around the corner!”

Everyone fell silent following the round of flattery. These people were experts from the Wei clan. Some of them might have external surnames, but there were no strangers here. Those words just now were too shameless—even Prince Greensun had to spend most of the year to go from rank-seventeen to divine champion. Wei Potian was a far cry from Zhang Boqian no matter how one looked at him.

Wei Potian’s eyes sparkled as he propped his chin upon his hand and said, “This daddy might really break through in the new world if I encounter more of these things!”

Surprised, everyone asked him about it and Wei Potian explained without holding back.