Monsters Die When Killed

The Demon Realm. The Two Realms Teleportation Gate. The ruins of the former European Union Harmony Bureau fortress.

This place should have been a heavy-firepower fortress, teeming with all kinds of cutting-edge weapons of war designed to fend off massive Magical Beast assaults. It was impregnable, like a steel bastion rising from the Black Forest, utterly impossible to breach from the outside.

But the Spirit Summoning Association had captured the fortress's teleportation gate on the Earth side and broken in from within. Furthermore, they had a member who was an exceptionally skilled hacker. He manipulated the network and detonated the entire Harmony Bureau fortress, along with its armory, reducing it to the current ruins of black ash and scorched earth.

The reason the Harmony Bureau Steward didn't want Su Zhou to act alone was that the fortress, which had served as the local information hub, was destroyed. If they unexpectedly lost contact, they would likely have no way of finding Su Zhou's location, let alone providing aid.

At this moment, still-hot black ash drifted in the wind. Even now, search and rescue teams were sifting through the ruins for the remains of the Harmony Bureau members who had perished here. Most of the bodies were far from intact. Even the Harmony Bureau could only identify the deceased by the residual spiritual fluctuations they left behind in life.

"Damn, that's brutal."

Even Su Zhou's brows furrowed slightly as he surveyed the ruins, which had been utterly obliterated.

He had initially dismissed the repeated warnings from Rafael and the Harmony Bureau Steward. He'd thought the Spirit Summoning Association was, at its core, a mere nuisance. He figured that once the Harmony Bureau's true fighting force gathered, reinforced by himself and a few powerful Transcendents from the American Federation, this elite unit—a gathering of Earth's finest—could simply steamroll the Association and all the local Magical Beasts.

But now, seeing this tragic scene, even he had to admit that if he had assaulted the Harmony Bureau fortress himself, the result would have been much the same.

'It seems the Spirit Summoning Association's raw power is truly formidable,' Su Zhou thought. 'The combined destructive force of their six Leaders is probably no less than my own when I assume my True Body. In that case, even if I can defeat them, it would be a pyrrhic victory at best.'

'Still, I anticipated that the enemy might not be so simple. That's why this time, I brought a weapon!'

With that thought, Su Zhou patted the Blade of Annihilation at his waist. The long, straight, antique-style sword was currently housed in its Rock Iron Blade Scabbard. But even ignoring the dense Source Power overflowing from the blade itself, the sheer might left behind from the Divine Blood of the Wind and Water Gods it had once drunk was enough to intimidate common Ghostly Wishing Souls and make ordinary wild animals and Spirit Beasts keep a wide berth.

However, in contrast to his weapon, which was stunningly cool just by its appearance, Su Zhou's clothes were quite ordinary. He wore a simple black shirt and a pair of jeans, dressed so casually you'd think he was on a trip to the countryside, not embarking on a mission to a dangerous Otherworld.

It wasn't that the Zhengguo government was unwilling to provide Su Zhou with Military Equipment and a cool uniform. The main reason was that in the upcoming battle, Su Zhou might transform into his True Body. If that happened, any armor or equipment, no matter how sturdy, would inevitably be destroyed.

Right then, Su Zhou was observing the whole of the Demon Realm.

The "flavor" of this world was vastly different from the Kunlun Secret Realm or the Beast God Realm. However, like most Realms once colonized by the Immortal Gods, this place also had a sun and moon, and its day-night cycle was under 30 hours. The differences were relatively few.

First was the almost omnipresent aura of deathly stillness. Although it was a far cry from the apocalyptic stillness of the Reincarnation World, its mere presence caused the life in this world to undergo various mutations. It made them irritable and short-tempered, easily given to destructive desires or self-destructive tendencies.

Second, the biological evolution here seemed to have gone down a very extreme path.

As the others watched, Su Zhou walked over to a patch of grass and bent down to inspect the blades. In the Demon Realm, even the most seemingly delicate and harmless green grass had edges as sharp as knife blades, lined with extremely dense, fine serrations. A light brush against them was enough to draw a bloody line on an ordinary person's skin.

And in areas with denser vegetation, there were sure to be thorny, poisonous briars or spiky succulents resembling cacti. They were all clearly venomous, covered in thorns, and very unfriendly.

To say nothing of the Black Forest not far away—Su Zhou didn't even need to go deep inside to see the protruding barbs and gnarled burls on the tree trunks. The burls were multicolored, and from time to time, a visible miasma would spurt out from them and merge into the surrounding air.

This world, rated as Danger Level A-tier by the Zhengguo government's official world classification system, certainly lived up to its rating. If not for the fact that humans could breathe the air and gravity was normal, it could easily have been rated A-plus.

"To think that the fall of a single Celestial Venerable could twist a world into such a malevolent state!"

Su Zhou couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement. "Alive or dead, the Creator's Rank truly lives up to its name!"

The world's environment alone was this treacherous; naturally, the Magical Beasts living in it were also exceptionally powerful.

As everyone knows, if a domestic pig is released into the mountains, it can regrow bristles and tusks within a few years, and its offspring can easily revert to wild boars. Such is the power of the environment. According to the Harmony Bureau Steward, while the Magical Beasts here were not as intelligent as the Spirit Beasts of the Beast God Realm, they far surpassed them when it came to physical strength and the instinct for life-and-death combat.

Just as the Steward was leading Su Zhou and detailing the specifics of this Otherworld for him...

Suddenly, a staticky electronic hiss came from his earpiece.

"Urgent intel..."

The Steward made an apologetic gesture to Su Zhou, Rafael, and the others, who understood. When the Steward stepped aside to take the call, his voice, though lowered, was still clearly audible to the Transcendents as he exclaimed in shock, "What?!"

The Steward's tone was one of utter astonishment. "You're saying all the surrounding Magical Beasts are migrating away?!"

"The origin point... the epicenter... is the fortress ruins?"

After another moment of conversation, the Steward ended the call and turned to look at Su Zhou with an expression that was a mixture of shock, disbelief, and awe.

By now, they could faintly see clouds of miasma being kicked up in the distance by the countless fleeing Magical Beasts.

There was no need to even think about why the Magical Beasts were fleeing. Who else but Su Zhou could make every Magical Beast within a thirty-kilometer radius run for their lives without a second glance?

'As expected of the Divine Dragon Bloodline!'

Meanwhile, Rafael and Selos, the grandfather and grandson, began to whisper to each other.

"Isn't Professor Su's title the Sea King?"

"Yeah, he's amazing in the water, but I didn't expect him to be this strong on land too."

"Come to think of it, last time in the Beast God Realm, he seemed to subdue a lot of local Spirit Beasts just with his Suppression alone..."

"Well, he is the Sea King, after all..."

Seeing the conversation about to devolve into whether he could also talk to Magical Beasts if he could talk to fish, Su Zhou sensed things were going off track. He frowned and waved his hand dismissively. "What are you all looking at me for? I'm not that scary! Those Magical Beasts are running off on their own. I didn't even release my Suppression..."

"Anyway, isn't this a good thing?!"

Currently, in its public statements, the Zhengguo government only said that Su Zhou possessed the bloodline of some ancient Divine Dragon, but they never specified which one. Some guessed it was a Thunder Marsh, others an Yinglong. Quite a few suspected a Pixiu, and some even thought it was a Candle Dragon.

Of course, some also guessed that Su Zhou had likely crafted his True Body himself, which was why its design felt so modern.

After all, "For they unite to form a body and scatter to form patterns, riding the cloud-like qi to soar between yin and yang"—this was the true nature of a Dragon.

The definition of a Dragon was not fixed. Its very existence embodied the meaning of endless transformation—or rather, constant change itself was the true essence of a Dragon.

Just as the members of the European Union Harmony Bureau were marveling at the sheer scale of Su Zhou's intimidating presence, thinking that if they had known, they should have invited him over sooner—which might have prevented several Magical Beast attacks on the fortress...

From the distance, the auras of seven abnormally powerful life forms, their Blood Qi flaring like rainbows, surged toward them!

Instantly, even the heavily injured Rafael prepared for battle. The old man produced a thick stack of cards from out of nowhere, his expression grave as he scanned his surroundings. Each card in the deck sealed a Spirit Beast of at least Mid-stage Awakening rank.

But they soon discovered that these powerful auras, presumably from the local Magical Beast Kings, were not pressing down on everyone. Instead, they were all focused entirely on Su Zhou.

'Interesting. Even though my power is clearly higher than theirs, they still dare to challenge me? It seems the Magical Beasts of the Demon Realm truly are fearless in the face of death.'

Su Zhou wasn't surprised. After all, to these beasts, his sudden appearance was like an overwhelmingly powerful predator being dropped into a complete ecological chain. His very existence would disrupt the local balance. Therefore, even if they were competitors or even mortal enemies, the local Magical Beasts would unite to face an intruder like him.

However, the strongest Beast King among them was merely Extraordinary High-tier... Even if they joined forces, these Magical Beasts were no match for Su Zhou.

Therefore, Su Zhou simply raised a hand. Pulses of cyan and purple Spiritual Power surged skyward, forming a massive dragon silhouette with vector nozzles on its back. It easily overwhelmed the life auras surging from the distance, sweeping away the presence of all the Beast Kings in a continuous clash of wills.

He didn't hold back, directly unleashing the might of the Commander Tier. Instantly, all the Beast Kings' auras vanished, hidden from perception.

Realizing it was impossible to defeat Su Zhou, the Beast Kings decisively retreated from the area, ceding the territory to him as his domain.

"Excellent."

Su Zhou knew exactly what had happened, so he chuckled and muttered to himself, "Looks like if I ever fall on hard times, I can always go to a Barbaric World like this and become a Beast King."

Yara chimed in, "As they say, a dragon returning to the sea, a tiger back in the mountains..."

"How many times are you going to use that one? And where's the sea?!"

"A sea of trees is still a sea."

And at the same time.

「A few minutes after Su Zhou entered the Demon Realm.」

The Spirit Summoning Association's camp was being assaulted by a massive wave of Magical Beasts that had appeared out of nowhere.

"What's going on?!"

The Planters, who was manipulating the surrounding Black Forest into a fortress of layered black tree-walls, was fuming with exasperation. The Array he had painstakingly set up to conceal the camp's aura had been directly trampled and dispersed by waves of stampeding Magical Beasts. "Why are so many Magical Beasts suddenly coming this way?"

"Yeah, didn't the Silent just kill the local Beast King?"

The Exchanger, who was controlling the machine gun emplacements to hold back the Magical Beasts, was also completely overwhelmed. The beasts weren't particularly strong, but they were tough and thick-skinned. They could kill them, but they couldn't stop the horde's momentum as it threatened to trample their camp to pieces.

What was most infuriating was the Silent standing off to the side. As the strongest member of the Spirit Summoning Association and the wielder of the Demon of Punishment, he could have cleared out the surrounding Magical Beasts in droves. Yet there he was, staring blankly in the direction of the Two Realms Teleportation Gate, completely zoned out.

If he took action, the thousands upon thousands of attacking Magical Beasts would be nothing more than a piece of cake.

"Regardless of whether this Magical Beast stampede is a natural phenomenon or proof that the European Union has found a sufficiently powerful Beast Control expert to help them, our position has been exposed."

The Reborn, an old man, spoke in a low, extremely serious tone. "With this large-scale exchange of fire and display of power, even the Controller's fate concealment can no longer prevent the enemy from detecting our presence."

"We must either relocate immediately or find a way to eliminate the enemy! Otherwise, if he just keeps doing this wherever he goes, we'll never be able to develop our foothold in the Demon Realm in peace!"