Reborn as a lotus, she initially refuses to hand it over to the state.

Chu Zhou's lotus leaf trembled slightly: "System, deduce the boundary nail."

[Analyzing the target.]

hum!

Above the Imperial Seal, a phantom image of the interior of the Boundary Nail appeared.

A hundred-meter-long iron nail was driven into the earth's veins of Duanyunling for thousands of meters.

Nine jet-black chains extended from the nail, pierced through the mountain rocks, and disappeared into the gray-black wasteland below the crack.

Each chain was entwined with countless beast souls—wolf souls, bear souls, ape souls, tiger souls, and so on. Their souls were pierced by the chains, emitting silent roars.

[Boundary nail completion rate: 60%]

[Estimated stabilization time: twelve two-hour periods.]

[Warning! Forcibly destroying the Boundary Nail will cause the nine Beast Soul Locks to break.]

[Expected consequences: Tens of thousands of beast souls will rush into the Sichuan geomantic veins, triggering a large-scale soul chaos.]

Chu Zhou said coldly, "Using the souls of ten thousand beasts as nails, these things deserve to die."

The strange stone said, "The most vicious thing about the Boundary Nail is that it doesn't need living creatures to guard the gate; dead beasts are its chains."

"If it is destroyed directly, the beast souls in the wasteland will be placed into the Sichuan ley lines. At that time, Xiongling, Duanyunling, and even the surrounding beast groups will be destroyed by the soul thoughts."

Chu Zhou asked, "How can we break this situation?"

After a moment of silence, the strange stone said, "Outer boundary nails, inner soul-severing locks."

"You shall have Black Tiger lead the Black Tiger Guards into the wasteland to sever the nine soul locks. Ironback shall remain outside to suppress the Broken Cloud Ridge's earth veins with the power of mountains and rivers. As for the Lotus Demons, you shall protect their souls with the Soul Suppressing Platform."

Chu Zhou explained the situation to the Black Tiger King and the others. The Iron-Backed Bear King stepped forward and said, "This king will enter the wasteland."

The Black Tiger King stood in front of it: "You stay outside. The boundary nails are embedded in the Sichuan ley lines. Only your Iron Mountain Moving Technique can suppress the mountain."

The Ironback Bear King growled, "Your soul was just injured by the Soul-Locking Net."

The Black Tiger King's voice was deep: "The wasteland is filled with the remnants of strange beasts. If I don't go in, who will bring them back?"

Chu Zhou's voice traveled a thousand miles: "Black Tiger."

Black Tiger King prostrated himself on the ground: "Your subordinate is here."

"Nine Soul Locks, break seven and retreat. I will destroy the Boundary Nails, or you will return alive."

The Black Tiger King's forehead twitched with a battle command: "Your subordinate obeys."

……

Before the crack in Duanyun Ridge.

Dozens of Black Tiger Guards gathered.

Black Panther, Black Wolf, and Shadow Fox are all elites who followed Black Tiger King out of Black Dragon Mountain.

The Black Tiger King said, "In the wasteland, beast souls must not be killed indiscriminately. If you see a soul-locking line, first suppress the soul, then break the line."

"Anyone who dares to cause trouble will be expelled from the Black Tiger Guard."

A black panther with a severed tail grinned and said, "Tiger King, I'm not here to kill indiscriminately."

Black Tiger King glanced at it: "Stay close to the third team, or you'll die before me."

The black panther with its broken tail flicked its tail and said, "Don't worry, Tiger King, I'm tough."

The Black Tiger King said nothing more. Its body merged into the shadows, and dozens of Black Tiger Guards followed closely behind, stepping into the gray-black rift.

The desolate world shattered.

A blood moon hangs in the sky.

There was no wind or sound in the wasteland, only countless broken animal bones covering the gray-black earth.

As soon as the Black Tiger King landed, a dense series of sounds came from a pile of bones in front of him.

Click!

A giant wolf made of white bones crawled out of the pile of bones, followed by a giant bear made of white bones, a mountain ape made of white bones, and birds made of white bones.

Crimson soul flames burned in their eye sockets.

The Black Wolf Guard growled, "Tiger King, Bone Beast!"

The Black Tiger King raised its head and saw that each bone beast had an extremely thin black thread wrapped around its chest.

The black line stretched all the way to the depths of the wasteland.

"They are not enemies, but beast souls controlled by the Boundary Nails."

The voice just fell.

A white skeleton fawn stumbled and rushed towards them.

Half of its body was missing, and its bones kept falling off as it ran.

The black panther with its broken tail raised its sharp claws.

Black Tiger King coldly shouted, "Stop!"

The white-boned fawn bumped into the black tiger king's claws. It did not attack, but simply curled up on the ground and let out a low moan.

The Black Tiger King's forehead lit up with the battle order: "Shadow Soul Suppression".

hum!

A dark light fell upon the fawn's brow.

The black line on its chest trembled violently.

Following the black line, the Black Tiger King sent the power of the Soul-Suppressing Force deep into the wasteland.

boom!

The black line broke.

The crimson soul fire in the eyes of the skeletal fawn extinguished, and a pale white light floated out of its skeletal body, stopping in front of the Black Tiger King.

A moment later, the spiritual light bowed to the Black Tiger King and then dissipated into the blood moon.

The Black Tiger King said, "Look carefully, they are not Abyssal Erosion, they just want to go home."

"Follow me, suppress the soul."

The Black Tiger Guards roared in unison, "Yes!"

……

The Black Tiger King, accompanied by his beast guards, ventured deep into the wilderness.

Every so often, skeletal beast spirits would pounce out.

Some of them are fierce, some are numb, and some just squat in place, desperately protecting a small piece of bone.

The Black Tiger Guard did not kill indiscriminately; it used its shadow to suppress souls and sever the soul-binding threads one by one.

Above the wasteland, more and more pale white beast souls followed behind them.

Those souls did not leave, as if they were all waiting for something.

Suddenly, the bone mountain ahead shook.

boom!

A giant skeletal bear, tens of meters tall, rose from the mountain of bones.

A scarlet beast core was embedded in its chest.

Inside the beast's core, a black tide surged.

The oppressive aura of a late-stage seventh-order cultivator crashed down.

The Black Tiger Guards all crouched low, and the giant skeletal bear opened its massive jaws, spewing out dozens of chains that crashed down on the Black Tiger King.

The Black Tiger King merged into the shadows.

"spread!"

Bang bang bang!

Chains lashed across the wasteland.

The ground was smashed into deep craters.

The Black Tiger King charged out from behind the giant bear.

The tiger's claws slammed towards the scarlet beast core.

boom!

The giant skeletal bear slapped back.

The Black Tiger King was thrown back by the immense force and crashed into the bone forest.

It had just stepped out of the mountain rocks.

The core on the chest of the giant skeletal bear lit up.

Black Tiger King's soul suddenly sank, and countless voices drilled into his consciousness.

"Stay with us, don't leave..."

The scenery around the Black Tiger King suddenly changed. The south side of Black Dragon Mountain was submerged by the black tide, and the beasts of Black Tiger Ridge were littered with corpses.

Black Tiger Guards were pinned to trees by the Soul-Locking Net, Little Golden Treasure fell from the sky, and Lord White Mountain was covered in blood.

Finally, the lotus in the center of the lake withered, its roots broke, and it sank into the black water.

From the depths of the black tide, a voice echoed: "You cannot hold on. Stay, stay, and you will never lose again."

The Black Tiger King stood in the black tide, its battle command on its forehead emitting a ghostly light: "I cannot protect everything, but if I do not protect it, then nothing will be left."

boom!

The shadows patrolled the realm, shattering the illusion.

The Black Tiger King shattered the illusion of the Black Tide and returned to the wasteland.

It stepped onto the back of the giant skeletal bear and slammed its tiger claws down.

"Shadow Suppressor!"

boom!

The crimson beast core cracked open, and the massive body of the white bone bear froze.

Instead of continuing its attack, it knelt on the wasteland.

A wisp of brown light emanated from the bones.

It was the remnant soul of an ancient giant bear, who looked at the Black Tiger King and said, "You are not the Beast of the Abyss."

The Black Tiger King said, "I come from the Ancestral Realm."

The ancient giant bear's remnant soul trembled: "The ancestral realm still exists?"

Black Tiger King said, "It's still here."

The remnant soul of the giant bear looked towards the end of the wasteland: "The Nine Locks Altar, the root of the Boundary Nail, is there, where a king beast that refuses to die is locked up."

The brown aura dissipated, and the Black Tiger King continued onward with his Black Tiger Guards.

Outside Duanyun Ridge.

The boundary nail trembled violently, and with each broken soul-locking thread, the boundary nail sank deeper by an inch.

The Ironback Bear King pressed its paws against the nails, and blood flowed down its palm lines.

The armored mountain pattern on its back became even brighter.

"All beasts of Bear Ridge, guard the mountain!"

Boom!

Hundreds of bear-like beasts scattered throughout Broken Cloud Ridge, some carrying huge boulders to plug the cracks in the ground.

Some sent the young animals out of the mountains.

The green-haired mountain ape, carrying two baby apes, ran away with the herd of beasts.

Suddenly, a crack appeared at the top of the boundary nail, and a giant hand covered in bone armor emerged from the crack.

A giant hand gripped a nearby mountain peak.

Click!

The entire mountain peak was crushed into rubble.

The rubble rained down on the herd of beasts below.

The Ironback Bear King roared, "Protect the cubs!"

Dozens of bear-like beasts charged out.

They stood in front of the herd of beasts.

A fifth-tier bear beast was struck on the back by a boulder, and half of its body was pressed into the ground.

It struggled to lift its head.

"The Bear King!"

The Ironback Bear King tried to charge forward.

It has only moved half a step.

The boundary nail suddenly sank.

The earth veins of Duanyun Ridge emitted a piercing roar.

The Ironback Bear King stopped.

The injured bear-like beast grinned.

"Bear King, hold the boundary spikes, I can still hold on."

The Ironback Bear King gripped its massive hand tightly, staring intently at the giant bone-armored hand.

"This mountain belongs to Bear Ridge. If you dare to destroy it, I will smash your claw."

boom!

The Iron-Backed Bear King ignited its bloodline: "Iron Mountain Moving!"

Dozens of illusory mountain peaks rose from the ground and crashed into the giant bone-armored hand.

boom!

The bone and nails split open.

The giant hand was forcefully pushed back into the crack of the boundary nail.

Blood gushed from the Ironback Bear King's mouth. It knelt before the boundary nail, but its paws remained on the nail.

……

Deep within the desolate, shattered realm.

The Nine-Chain Altar stands beneath the blood moon.

The altar was made of countless animal bones.

Nine chains extend from the center of the altar.

At the end of the chains, a colossal black beast, shaped like a giant bear, was coiled.

Its back was covered in mountain-like bone armor, and a black bone spear was inserted into its chest.

The Black Tiger King stood before the altar.

All the Black Tiger Guards felt an indescribable, heavy pressure.

The strange stone's voice was deep: "The last wisp of the Mountain-Splitting Mystic Bear's power to suppress the world is locked here."

Chu Zhou asked, "How do we break the final nine locks?"

The strange stone said, "Awaken it. If it is willing to release the remnants of the King Beast's will, the Nine Locks Altar will break on its own."

Chu Zhou directly relayed the order to Black Tiger King.

Without saying a word, the Black Tiger King walked up to the Rift Mountain Black Bear. It did not attack, but simply raised its tiger claw and pressed down on the first soul lock.

hum!

A surge of ferocious beastly intent rushed into its consciousness.

In the endless black tide.

The Black Bear, carrying mountains on its back, stands alone before the land of Sichuan.

Behind it lay countless corpses of beasts, and the black giant bear turned around.

"What are you guarding?"

Black Tiger King said, "Guard the mountain."

The Rift-Mountain Black Bear roared, "Those who guarded the mountains all died in the end! I guarded Sichuan and all the beasts, but in the end, the mountains and rivers were still swallowed up by the Black Tide!"

The Black Tiger King was silent for a moment, then said, "Then let's guard it one more time."

"I don't know what the future holds."

"All I know is that if we retreat today, there will be no mountains left to defend in Sichuan."

"The young beasts of Bear Ridge will die, and Broken Cloud Ridge will become a beast graveyard. Therefore, I will not retreat."

boom!

Cracks appeared on the first soul lock.

The Rift-Mountain Black Bear asked again, "Did your master send you here to die?"

The Black Tiger King said, "My master didn't send me to my death; he let me choose for myself, and I chose to come here."

boom!

The first soul lock shattered.

The profound sense of mountains and rivers surged into the Black Tiger King's body.

Countless powerful and profound auras of mountains and rivers surged into the Black Tiger King's body, and the Black Tiger King endured the impact of the remnants of the King Beast's aura time and time again.

Its fur was soaked in blood.

The Black Tiger Guards behind them were also resisting the ever-surging tide of white bone beasts.

The black panther with the broken tail was pierced through the shoulder by a bone spear.

The Black Tiger King roared, "Step back!"

The black panther with the severed tail bit into the bone spear and pulled it out forcefully: "Tiger King, I have guarded Black Dragon Mountain and my master. I don't want to go back to the days when anyone could capture or kill me."

Dragging its wounded body, it charged at the beast horde once more.

The Black Tiger King shuddered and raised its paw to strike the fifth soul lock.

"Black Tiger Guards, follow me, suppress the soul!"

"yes!"

Dozens of Black Tiger Guards simultaneously burned their spiritual energy.

Instead of killing the bone beasts, they spread their shadows across the altar.

The countless shadows merged into a vast dark curtain.

The battle token on the Black Tiger King's forehead emitted a ghostly light.

"Shadow Suppressor!"

boom!

Around the altar, tens of thousands of beast souls simultaneously broke free from the black lines.

Finally, in the center of the altar, only the ninth soul lock remained.

The Rift-Mountain Black Bear opened its eyes and looked at the Black Tiger King. Its eyes no longer held only ferocity, but also a trace of desolation.

"Tiger of Black Dragon Lake, I lend you a wisp of your power to guard the realm, so that Sichuan may never again become a beast's graveyard."

hum!

An ancient mountain pattern flew out from between the eyebrows of the Rift Mountain Black Bear.

The mountain-shaped markings fell onto the Black Tiger King's forehead.

The Shadow Patrol within the Black Tiger King's body trembled violently.

Countless dark shadows coalesced into a massive chain behind it.

[The Black Tiger King, a subordinate beast, obtained the remnant intent of the King Beast's Realm-Suppressing Power.]

[Shadow Soul Suppression Upgrade.]

[Awakened Ability: Shadow Lock.]

The Black Tiger King raised its claws, and the massive Shadow Lock entangled the ninth Soul Lock.

"Break!"

boom!

The ninth soul lock shattered with a deafening roar.

The Mountain-Splitting Black Bear let out a roar that shook the wasteland.

Tens of thousands of beast souls transformed into a sky full of spiritual light.

Instead of dispersing, they gathered around the Rift Mountain Black Bear, dragging the black bone spear in its chest and pulling it outward inch by inch, causing the Desolate Bone Shattered Realm to shake violently.

Black Tiger King turned and shouted, "Retreat!"

The Black Tiger Guard dragged the heavily wounded, tailless black panther toward the crevice.

Behind him, the Rift-Mountain Black Bear grabbed the black bone spear that had been pulled out and turned to stab it into the Nine-Lock Altar.

boom!

The sky of the Desolate Bone Shattering Realm cracked open, and the last voice of the Rift Mountain Mystic Bear entered the consciousness of the Black Tiger King: "Beasts of the Ancestral Realm, guard your mountains and rivers, and do not disappoint this king."