Douluo Continent: Tonight, a Fairy Tale Descends

Brigitte stood not far from him, her gentle, watery eyes reflecting the figure that was slowly dimming its light.

Her posture was more relaxed than Xiong Jun's, but beneath that relaxation lay an extremely subtle tremor.

"It really did it."

Brigitte's voice was very soft, as if she didn't want to disturb the figure that was stabilizing itself, "How long has it been since it arrived at the Lake of Life..."

Xiong Jun did not respond.

He knew that what Bi Ji said was true. The Nine-Colored Deer had not been in the Star Dou Great Forest for very long. In the eyes of these ferocious beasts who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years, it was almost just a blink of an eye.

But in that short period of time, it has gradually risen from a rare auspicious beast that had just embarked on the path of a soul beast to its current position.

The Demon King hovered above the dense forest in the southeast corner, with countless slender branches extending outward from his body, the ends of which trembled slightly.

He also sensed the aura of the Nine-Colored Deer becoming a god. He could feel that auspicious power had completely integrated into every inch of the Star Dou Great Forest, and the spiritual herbs and exotic trees that he had carefully cultivated for countless years were growing at an extraordinary speed.

……

On the first day after the Nine-Colored Deer became a god, the first batch of human soul masters stepped into the outer area of ​​the Star Dou Great Forest.

It was a temporary team of more than a dozen independent cultivators, led by a middle-aged Soul Master in his early forties with a cultivation level of Soul King.

They were originally hunting soul beasts at the edge of the forest, but a few days ago they saw the nine-colored pillar of light shooting into the sky in the distance, and heard rumors in nearby towns about "a peerless treasure appearing in the Star Dou Great Forest". Unable to suppress their greed, they changed their minds and headed towards the direction of the pillar of light.

They didn't venture very deep, spending most of the day exploring the outer areas, but found nothing.

Those hundred-year or thousand-year-old soul beasts that we occasionally encounter on ordinary days seem to be more vigilant than ever before, disappearing into the depths of the dense forest as soon as they sense the presence of humans from afar.

They found a few medicinal herbs that were still of decent age, and encountered a lone ten-thousand-year-old soul beast, which they hunted down with some effort, but they gained nothing related to the pillar of light.

As evening fell, they left the forest, exhausted and somewhat unwilling.

In the days that followed, such teams appeared one after another on the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest.

There were solo wandering soul masters, small groups of mercenaries, and joint expeditions from several small families.

Each of them entered the forest with the thought, "What if I run into them?", and most of them returned empty-handed a few days later.

However, there were exceptions. Some stronger teams began to try to advance into deeper areas, inevitably leading to more conflicts with the spirit beasts living in the middle layer of the forest.

The number of killings began to rise.

Initially, there were only a few occasional encounters, but as more and more human soul masters entered the forest, the soul beasts that originally only roamed the outer edges of the forest were forced to retreat deeper into the forest.

However, during the process of retreating deeper into the region, territorial conflicts inevitably arose with the soul beasts that originally lived in the deeper areas.

The ecological balance inside the Starry Sky Forest is being slowly disturbed, and the chain reaction caused by that disturbance is spreading outward in a way that is not easily noticed.

A few days later, on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, three teams from different factions arrived at the edge of the forest almost simultaneously.

The first to arrive were the people from the Spirit Hall.

Their base was located in the town closest to the Star Dou Great Forest, and they completed their assembly in less than half a day after receiving the order.

The group was led by a middle-aged man wearing a platinum bishop's robe, accompanied by more than twenty elite Soul Masters from the Spirit Hall dressed in uniform light armor.

They moved very quickly, their formation was orderly, and they did not linger anywhere along the way.

Leading the group was a sharp-looking platinum bishop. He stood on a high ground at the edge of the forest, his gaze sweeping across the sea of ​​trees that shimmered with a dark green hue in the morning light. Then he turned and waved to the group behind him: "Go. Don't scatter, keep formation."

The Spirit Hall's forces, like a silent undercurrent, quickly disappeared into the depths of the dense forest.

The Spirit Hall members had a completely different goal from the other Spirit Masters who entered the forest; they were not looking for treasure, but rather conducting reconnaissance.

Qian Daoliu and Bibi Dong both knew that it was the aura of a god. What they needed was not rare and precious materials, but to confirm the stance of the new god and whether the soul beasts inside the Star Dou Great Forest would react strangely because of the appearance of the new god.

Chapter 568 The Fall of Xingluo

The Spirit Hall's forces advanced at an extremely fast pace, and other Spirit Masters they encountered along the way gave way when they saw their standard light armor and platinum bishop's robes.

Those rogue cultivators and mercenaries might dare to fight over herbs and soul beasts in the forest, but no one would be foolish enough to block the Spirit Hall's path.

They ventured deep into the central part of the Star Dou Great Forest. After confirming that the movements of the soul beasts inside were normal, they did not linger and quickly withdrew from the forest.

Then the people from the Three Sects Alliance and the Star Luo Empire arrived at the Star Dou Great Forest.

They didn't have the same intelligence channels as the Spirit Hall, so they didn't know that the nine-colored pillar of light meant the descent of a god. They only thought it was the birth of some kind of rare treasure. Therefore, after entering the forest, they scattered and began a thorough search along the direction of the previous strange phenomenon.

The carnage in the Star Dou Great Forest did not stop with the withdrawal of the Spirit Hall forces. On the contrary, it intensified with the arrival of the Three Sects Alliance and the Star Luo Empire forces.

Upon seeing the forces from the Spirit Hall, the Three Sects Alliance, and the Star Luo Empire, the independent cultivators and mercenaries became even more convinced that something extraordinary was indeed hidden in this forest.

If it had no value, why would forces like the Spirit Hall send people here?

This logic was simple and straightforward, yet it quickly spread to every town around the Star Dou Great Forest in a short period of time.

In the days that followed, the number of Soul Masters entering the forest increased rather than decreased.

There were lone hunters, entire mercenary groups, expeditions organized by small families with all their manpower, and even some independent cultivators who came from far away and whose names were unknown.

Like a swarm of ants drawn by sweetness, they surged into the dark green forest, hunting down any valuable soul beasts they encountered without hesitation.

The number of killings continues to rise.

At first, there were only occasional bursts of soul skill explosions, but later the sounds became more and more frequent, and almost every day, soul beasts fell to the hands of those greedy hunters.

From ordinary soul beasts that live for hundreds or thousands of years, to those ancient soul beasts that have lived in the forest for thousands of years and have long since developed intelligence, more and more lives are disappearing in that forest.

The nine-colored deer sensed it.

She hovered in the void above the Lake of Life, the nine-colored light flowing around her still pulsating steadily, but a clear ripple appeared in her clear, glass-like eyes.

She could sense that the Starry Sky Forest was changing at a faster pace than she had anticipated.

The soul beasts roaming the forest are dying in large numbers, and their deaths are feeding back into the forest's fortune in some way, like a thread being slowly pulled out, causing the warp and weft of the entire net to begin to loosen slightly.

She remained silent for a long time, and the nine-colored light surrounding her paused slightly for a moment.

The Nine-Colored Deer raised its front hoof and gently stepped into the void. The instant that step landed, an extremely soft nine-colored halo spread out from beneath its feet, silently passing through the surface of the Lake of Life and spreading to every corner of the Starry Sky Forest.

Where the light passed, the growing plants drooped their branches slightly, as if responding to a silent command.

Immediately afterwards, the forest paths that had been trampled by countless Soul Masters began to move slowly. They reorganized, closed, and deviated on their own along paths that were impossible to track with the naked eye, as if the entire terrain of the forest had been rearranged by an invisible hand after that deer cry.

The human soul masters who were searching in the forest quickly realized that something was wrong.

Some people find that they clearly remember the path they took, but when they turn back, they can no longer find the direction they came from.

Someone walked along the stream for a long time, only to find that the stream had led him in a big circle, back to where he started.

Some people could clearly see a clearing in the woods not far ahead, yet they wandered among the bushes and vines for hours without ever reaching it.

Panic began to spread among those groups.

Some people tried to force their way through using their soul skills, but the severed vines would regrow at an even faster rate after a short while.

Some people tried to fly up into the treetops to find their way, but the gaps between the treetops also seemed to be constantly shifting.

Amidst this chaos, the soul masters who had once raised their knives to slaughter the soul beasts of the forest fell one after another on the forest paths they thought they knew well.

The whole process was so quiet that it didn't feel like a punishment, but more like a natural dissolution. It was as if they had exhausted their last bit of strength while walking, and then quietly collapsed into the grass and trees.

It was several days later when the survivors, driven by fear, finally found their way out of the forest.

Most of them didn't even have time to take any of their prey with them, stumbling out of the forest exhausted and disheveled. Those hunters who remained in the forest never returned.

Since then, the rumors about the "peerless treasure" around the Star Dou Great Forest have gradually subsided.

Most of the Soul Masters who were once driven by greed to step into the forest no longer dared to easily set foot in that forest after experiencing that change in terrain.

Occasionally, some skeptical people try to enter again, but they soon discover that they can't even find the entrance they used last time.

Meanwhile, the war on the continent did not stop because of the changes in the Star Dou Great Forest.

In fact, after the brief anomaly caused by the Nine-Colored Deer's ascension to godhood, the flames of war on all fronts raged even more fiercely than before.

The situation on the southern front completely spiraled out of control after the eleventh month.

The Star Luo Empire's army had lost most of its elite troops in months of fierce fighting. The new recruits drawn from the rear were hastily sent to the front lines before completing their training. Under the combined assault of the Spirit Hall's Title Douluos, they were practically using their flesh and blood to hold back the steel torrent.

Dai Tianfeng had tried to buy himself some breathing room by tightening his defenses, but the Spirit Hall's advance was much faster than he had anticipated.

Towns that were once considered strategic buffer zones fell one after another. The fall of each town meant that another batch of supplies and soldiers were taken over by the Spirit Hall. With this ebb and flow, the Star Luo Empire's defenses collapsed at an almost irreversible speed.

Finally, on the day the first snow of early winter fell, the vanguard of the Spirit Hall broke through the last outer defense line of the Star Luo Empire, and their forces headed straight for Star Luo City.

Dai Tianfeng stood on the highest observation platform in the palace, looking at the black torrent approaching on the distant horizon.

He was dressed in a dark gold imperial robe, his face still cold and stern, but his sharp, hawk-like eyes were churning with extremely complex emotions.

He did not immediately order a retreat, but stood there for a long time, so long that the black torrent was so close that the patterns on the banners could be seen clearly.

"Pass down the order," he finally spoke, his voice low and steady, "Evacuate the entire city. Pack up all supplies, files, and soul tools that can be taken away and transport them. Close the palace gates in one hour."

The messenger obeyed and left, his footsteps quickly fading into the distance in the empty corridor.

Dai Tianfeng came down from the observation platform, passed through the Imperial Study which had been mostly cleaned up, and met Davis, who was walking briskly towards him, at the door.

His face was paler than usual, but his steps remained steady, and he was still clutching a newly translated intelligence report in his hand.

"Father, in the northern border... Lady Eva has already sent people to take over several important towns north of Xingluo, the reason being to prevent the Spirit Hall from taking advantage of the chaos to expand northward."

Davis's voice was low, but every word was as clear as if he were reading a finished verdict.

“Our messengers were stopped outside the city gates. They said they needed a letter in Lady Eva’s own handwriting before they could be allowed to pass.”

Dai Tianfeng stopped in his tracks.

He stood under the pillars of the corridor, the twilight filtering through the courtyard beside him, casting his long, pale shadow on the stone floor.

He didn't respond to Davis's words immediately, remained silent for a moment, and then spoke in a steady voice: "She certainly knows how to pick her time."

Davis didn't ask any more questions, but simply followed behind him, his footsteps silently passing through the corridors and palaces that were being cleared out.

As dusk settled, Xingluo City slowly quieted down. The once bustling streets were now mostly empty. The people who had been allowed to evacuate had disappeared outside the city gates with their belongings, leaving only the empty doorways and the howling of the wind as it passed through the alleys.

When the vanguard of the Spirit Hall arrived at the gates of Star Luo City, the gates were already wide open, and the city walls were empty without a single flag.

Most of the important items in the palace had already been loaded onto trucks and transported away, leaving only an empty complex of buildings that was being rapidly swallowed by the twilight.

Dai Tianfeng led the remaining men and retreated westward under the cover of night along a pre-planned route.

He glanced back at the Star Luo City that was being swallowed by twilight, then looked away and quickened his pace.

On this day, the Star Luo Empire officially disappeared from the map of Douluo Continent.