Chapter 36: Chapter 35: The Power of the Multiple Shadow Clone Technique
The air fell into a heavy silence.
At this moment, whether it was Mr. Xiong, Red King, or the two Douluo, Yue Guan and Gui Mei, their minds went blank.
What just happened?
What in the world happened?
Yue Guan and Gui Mei felt as if the sky itself had just collapsed.
If they had the chance to stand before Su Chen in that instant, they would have grabbed him by the shoulders, shaken him violently, and shouted with desperate urgency:
"What were you thinking?!"
They had used this strategy to help him escape, not to provoke these beasts into a fury!
Under their desperate gazes, the golden and silver light surrounding the Bear King and Scarlet King began to dim rapidly. Despite their best efforts, their attacks proved futile.
Crack!
The sharp sound of breaking filled the air, striking at the core of Gui Mei's resolve. Both Douluo could no longer maintain the Two-pole Forbidden Realm. Their faces turned ashen, blood spurted from their mouths, and they fell weakly from the air.
Ignoring the two old Douluo, who had been immobilized by the young man's technique, the two giant beasts began inspecting their lower bodies in fear.
It was well known that, no matter how powerful a male might be, his lower body is particularly vulnerable. This applied to soul beasts as well.
Despite their incredible strength, they instinctively feared such a vulnerable spot, even though they knew the attack wouldn't penetrate their defenses.
After a few cautious checks, and finding no injury, they exhaled in relief—but their rage only intensified toward a certain silver-haired youth.
"Ho! I'll tear you apart!"
With a deafening roar, the two beasts unleashed violent auras that spread over thousands of meters. Everyone within range, whether human or soul beast, staggered and collapsed, their senses overwhelmed by the crushing pressure.
The entire area trembled under the overwhelming power of the two ferocious beasts.
"Now, all attention should be on me, right? You two elders, please lend me your strength," Su Chen murmured with a glint of satisfaction in his eyes as he wiped the sweat from his forehead, listening to the deafening roars of the beasts.
But despite his satisfaction, his expression remained taut, knowing full well that the real battle had just begun.
"I don't want to die here today," Su Chen muttered to himself.
Boom!
In an instant, the hundred-thousand-year-old soul beasts closed the gap between them and Su Chen, moving faster than any human could comprehend.
Like two destructive trains of terror, their momentum crushed and tore through everything in their path.
"Where is that kid?!"
The Bear King's nostrils flared as he scanned the area with bloodshot eyes, and after a brief search, he finally spotted a silver blur dashing to the left.
"Trying to run?"
A cruel grin spread across the Bear King's face. He signaled to the Scarlet King to cut off the youth's retreat.
But just as the Bear King was preparing for a final strike, Scarlet King, too, shifted direction, cutting off the boy's escape.
"Hm?"
The two beasts exchanged confused glances before scanning their respective surroundings. They saw two silver-haired figures darting in different directions.
No.
More than two.
Opening their mental senses, both the Bear King and Scarlet King were shocked to realize that dozens of identical figures, each emanating the same aura and soul power, were now scattering in all directions.
"What is this?"
Both Xiong Jun and Scarlet King were taken aback.
They had seen clones before, but never had they encountered so many with identical soul power signatures.
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, one of the giant beasts appeared a hundred meters away in an instant, its colossal claws slashing down. Several silver-haired figures turned into smoke, disappearing without a trace.
"Hah... hah... hah..."
The Bear King grinned, his fangs bared as he eyed the remaining shadows still running about.
One by one, Su Chen's shadow clones were torn apart by the beast's claws and teeth, vanishing into thin air.
But amidst the chaos, the beasts failed to notice a peculiar sight in the corner of their vision: a wooden pile, trembling, moving toward the depths of the forest.
"Old Ghost, what should we do?"
At the edge of the battlefield, Ju Douluo and Ghost Douluo, both severely weakened and bloodied, leaned on each other for support. They were in no shape to continue their fight, their powerful figures now but a shadow of their former selves.
Yue Guan's nose tinged with sorrow as he looked at Ghost Douluo helplessly.
The latter remained silent.
From the moment the two ferocious beasts relentlessly pursued Su Chen, ignoring them, both had understood his intentions.
But that only made them more concerned.
"No, we must save him."
After a while, Ju Douluo wiped his eyes and stood up, his face resolute despite its grim appearance.
"That child cannot die. He is the hope of her Holiness the Pope and the future of Spirit Hall."
Ghost Douluo nodded and clenched his fists tightly.
"Old ghost, you must find a way to send the message to His Majesty the Pope, and then join me."
Yue Guan patted his old friend's shoulder, a faint smile playing on his lips.
"If this child dies, we—"
"It would be shameful to live, right?"
Neither of them questioned whether Su Chen could survive the ordeal. They firmly believed that the boy could create miracles, just as he had done before.
Boom!
When the last shadow clone dissolved into smoke within the jaws of the Red King, the faces of the two beasts finally darkened.
There was no real body.
Although the aura and soul power of each clone were indistinguishable from the real Su Chen's, there was no doubt that these were mere illusions.
"Dammit!!"
The Bear King roared, smashing the ground with a mighty punch. The shockwave destroyed everything within a hundred meters.
"Don't worry, he won't escape."
The six eyes of the Scarlet King glowed as it locked the area with overwhelming mental power.
"I refuse to believe he can stay in this forest forever!"
In the underbrush, the rolling wooden stake came to an abrupt stop, and to everyone's surprise, it let out a hiss, almost as if it were a sentient creature.
"Hiss—this feeling is unbearable."
It was Su Chen.
When the clones from the Multiple Shadow Clone technique dissipated, all sensations were transmitted back to the main body. The advantage was that it allowed for rapid learning and cultivation, but the downside, as he was experiencing now, was the pain.
In just seconds, Su Chen had felt what it was like to die at the hands of the bear's claws or the mastiff's jaws in more than a dozen ways.
It wasn't a pleasant experience. If his spirit hadn't been strong, he would've collapsed long ago.
But, on the bright side, the technique had worked flawlessly.
This A-level forbidden technique from the ninja world had bought Su Chen enough time to escape the two monstrous beasts, enabling him to use the Transformation technique—a technique with similar benefits—to slip away from the battlefield.
However, the situation hadn't improved significantly.
The Bear King and Scarlet King wouldn't wait forever. After all, the lord of the soul beasts, the Silver Dragon King, was still gravely injured, and they couldn't afford to expose themselves to the soul master world prematurely.
As long as Ju Douluo and Ghost Douluo moved quickly and gathered reinforcements from the Great Forest, the beasts would eventually be forced to retreat, no matter how unwilling they were.
With Ghost Douluo's speed, this would happen within three days at most.
But the most pressing issue was that Su Chen's chakra reserves were almost depleted, and he could barely maintain the Transformation technique.
Once that technique failed, the two beasts would immediately track him down.
"Is there no other way but to press forward?"
Running away was a dead end, and moving forward would likely end in disaster.
It went without saying what fate awaited a human whose soul power was exhausted deep in the forest.
"Forget it, let's move forward first, huh?"
The boy, having made up his mind to move ahead, paused for a moment.
Through his vision, he saw an enormous energy source underground not far away.