From the current situation, it looked like the Alliance still had a chance to fight back. The outcome of the battlefield should have depended on the duel between Huo Qiqiang and Di Tian.
But now? Three ultimate-ranked super-beasts had shown up, along with a whole horde of vicious beasts, countless 100,000-year soul beasts, and a full beast tide.
How the hell was anyone supposed to fight that?
Yu Xiaogang trembled in terror. He was collapsing inside, almost crying without tears. Weren't they told that the ruler of the Heaven Dou Great Forest was the Sky Blue Bull Python? Then why had so many terrifying "big brothers" appeared out of nowhere?
If he had known earlier—if he had known just how deep the waters of this forest ran—he should have listened to Ning Fengzhi and stayed safely in the rear instead.
Yu Xiaogang could hear soul beasts roaring from all directions. Panic overwhelmed him. He had a strong premonition that he might lose his life here, and he instantly became desperate.
Little San is about to become a god. And I am his divine teacher, the teacher of gods! The future holds endless riches, honor, and divine authority waiting for me. I can't die here. I must not die here.
So, Yu Xiaogang made a decision. He shouted at the eighteen Soul Emperors carrying his stretcher:
"Quick, retreat! Take me to a safe place!"
Those eighteen Soul Emperors were already terrified out of their wits and secretly wanted to run. Once they heard Yu Xiaogang's order, they immediately carried him and fled madly toward the edge of the forest.
Yu Xiaogang's retreat set off a domino effect.
The coalition soul masters seized the chance—while the powerful soul beasts were being held off by the Body Sect and before the beast tide fully closed in—to break out in the direction where the encirclement was weakest.
Before those two Limit Douluo dragons appeared, they had still considered fighting to the death against the beasts. But now? Forget it. Time to run.
As for the Body Sect being pinned down?
Better them than us. They hoped the Body Sect could hold on just a little longer to buy them more time to escape.
And so, a great mass escape began in the Star Dou Great Forest.
"Faster, you useless lungs! Move it! Haven't you eaten? The soul beasts are right on our heels!" Yu Xiaogang shouted frantically, watching the dust clouds of the beast tide getting closer and closer as he urged the nineteen Soul Emperors beneath his stretcher.
As they ran, the nineteen Soul Emperors kept hearing Yu Xiaogang's endless complaints. Suddenly, they glanced at each other, and a shared understanding passed between them.
"To hell with you, you damned pig!"
In unison, they lifted the stretcher and hurled it straight toward the onrushing beast horde.
Yu Xiaogang felt his body soar into the air before crashing heavily to the ground along with the stretcher.
Pain.
"You damned wretches! How dare you abandon your noble master, me, Yu Xiaogang! Just wait—when I get back, I'll have every one of you executed by slow dismemberment!" he roared through clenched teeth, glaring at the eighteen Soul Emperors who were already running far away.
But before he could indulge in anger, the thunderous vibrations of the approaching beast tide reached his ears, forcing him to focus on survival.
Yu Xiaogang scrambled to his feet and began running for his life.
As he ran, inspiration struck. He summoned his great flower pig martial soul. Grabbing its ears with both hands, he swung himself onto its back, riding it forward.
The flower pig galloped, but its speed was still far too slow. The beast tide drew ever closer. Suddenly, Yu Xiaogang's stomach churned. He felt overjoyed. With a loud, foul-smelling fart, his soul power level dropped from 16 to 15—and the flower pig suddenly accelerated, nearly catching up with the fleeing Soul Emperors ahead.
But soon its speed slowed again. Another churn in his stomach, another fart. His level dropped to 14, and the pig sped up once more.
Meanwhile, at the Lake of Life…
The so-called "intense battle" was nothing more than the God Sequence Alliance's fantasy.
The reality was that the Body Sect's soul masters were casually "sparring" with the fierce beasts.
Huo Qiqiang sat comfortably in a grand master's chair, enjoying massages from Di Tian's two wives, Zi Ji and Bi Ji. As for Di Tian himself, he was humbly brewing tea and serving it to Huo Qiqiang.
"Please, try this," Di Tian said respectfully as he offered a pot. "This tea is unique to the depths of our Star Dou Great Forest."
Huo Qiqiang inhaled the fragrance and took a sip. "Not bad. Your tea here is excellent. You certainly know how to please."
"To serve you is my honor," Di Tian replied with reverence.
It was only natural he acted this way. Not only was Huo Qiqiang's true identity that of a supreme God King—but deep within the Lake of Life, an egg was being nurtured. That egg would eventually hatch into the future Dragon God.
This young Dragon God would carry the blood of both the Silver Dragon King and the Golden Dragon King, and even contain a trace of the Eternal God King's bloodline. In a very real sense, Huo Qiqiang was its father.
How could Di Tian not show the utmost respect to the father of the future Dragon God?
Huo Qiqiang waved his hand, opening a divine projection of the battlefield.
In the vision, the beast tide was closing in from both flanks toward the Lake of Life, while the God Sequence Alliance soul masters rushed to escape through the gap left in the encirclement.
This was intentional. If the soul beasts had truly formed a full encirclement from the start, there would have been no gap at all.
"But master," Di Tian asked, "should we really let these intruders leave? Shouldn't we ensure none of them escape the forest alive?"
"They're just bugs," Huo Qiqiang said lazily. "Crushing them all at once would be boring. I've prepared a very entertaining encore for them. They can't die so easily."
"Let four to six tenths of them remain in your Star Dou Great Forest. The rest… let them slip through. Just make sure it doesn't look too deliberate."
"Yes," Di Tian bowed.
The divine projection shifted again—showing a flat-topped young man riding a giant flower pig, urging it forward desperately. The beast tide nearly caught him, but every time it did, he let out a fart that made the pig surge forward faster, widening the gap.
Huo Qiqiang chuckled. "Lu Yuan."
Lu Yuan, who had been sparring with the beasts, instantly transformed into light and appeared before his master. "Master, you called me?"
"Your speed is the fastest, giving you the best chance to 'escape.' From now on, you'll lead part of the Body Sect in a staged breakout, pretending to flee with heavy losses. Afterward, you will betray the Body Sect in name and bring them into the Spark Alliance."
"Yes, master," Lu Yuan nodded.
He quickly gathered a group, smeared themselves with fake wounds, and charged out of the forest in a convincing display of desperation.
Yu Xiaogang was frantically fleeing within the beast tide. For the sake of his pitiful life, he desperately squeezed his PY, trying to release every bit of gas he could muster.
But usually when he didn't want to fart, it came nonstop. Now that he actually wanted to fart, at the critical moment, he choked.
A black panther spirit beast, extremely fast, was closing in on Yu Xiaogang.
Panic-stricken, Xiaogang furiously pinched the ears of the big flower pig he was riding and roared viciously:
"Hurry up, hurry up! You useless swine, faster! Do you want me dead?"
"Roar—!" The black panther lunged at Yu Xiaogang, its jaws aiming for his rear. Suddenly—
Pfffft!
A vile stench exploded in the panther's face.
The black panther was stunned for a moment.
Yu Xiaogang seized the opportunity and widened the distance between them.
But the very next moment, the panther and the beast tide behind it surged forward again.
Hopeless, riding the pig, Yu Xiaogang suddenly saw a figure above him—someone flying on a sword.
Recognizing the man, he cried out desperately:
"Chen Xin, I'm here! I'm Alliance Leader Yu Xiaogang, save me! I don't want to die! If you save me, when my disciple becomes a god, I'll have him confer upon you the title of divine officer!"
The Sword Douluo, Chen Xin, originally had no intention of saving this swine. But hearing Yu Xiaogang's words, he suddenly recalled something important.
Ning Fengzhi had once told him: Tang San despised this teacher, yet he was also someone who cherished his own reputation. So he grudgingly acknowledged this pig as his teacher. For the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, keeping Yu Xiaogang alive meant that his pig head could one day be used as a bargaining chip with Tang San, the future god.
A god's favor—that could be a great opportunity for the clan's future.
Of course, the prerequisite was that Yu Xiaogang could not die here.
Thinking this through, Chen Xin immediately shifted his direction and flew down. He raised the Seven Kill Sword and slashed at the beast tide. The spirit beasts behind Yu Xiaogang fell like cut wheat. But quickly, more beasts filled the gap. Taking advantage of the opening, Chen Xin snatched Yu Xiaogang up.
Yu Xiaogang felt he had escaped death, letting out a long sigh of relief.
Suddenly, his stomach gurgled, and his face changed drastically.
During his escape, he had wished so badly to fart more. But now—if he remembered correctly, his level was exactly 10.
At level 10, with one spirit ring, he was still counted as a soul master—part of the noble soul master class. But if he released this fart and his spirit power fell below level 10, he wouldn't even qualify as a soul master anymore. He would lose even the little superiority he had over ordinary peasants.
Cold sweat poured down Xiaogang's flat-topped head. He clenched his buttocks, covered his mouth, and swore never to let this fart escape—even if it killed him.
But rejected air, craving freedom, will always find its way out.
As his stomach bloated, still he forced himself to hold it in. So—the fart found other exits.
Some blasted out of his nostrils, some spewed from his ears, and some seeped out from every pore of his body.
In an instant, Xiaogang's body released an unbelievably dense yellow stench. Chen Xin, caught off guard, was dizzy and blinded.
Worst of all, because of this foul emission, Yu Xiaogang's level plummeted from 10 down to 3. He had lost seven entire levels at once.
His final spirit ring appeared—only to shatter like the last one, turning to motes of light and disappearing forever.
"Gone… completely gone…"
In the thick yellow mist, Yu Xiaogang's eyes were lifeless with despair.
Level 3. He was now just a level 3 spirit trainee. He had officially fallen from the noble class of soul masters down to the level of common rabble. How could he accept such a fate?
In grief and rage, he needed someone to blame. He lashed out at Chen Xin, clutching his sleeve and shouting furiously:
"Why? Why didn't you come faster to save me? If you had, I wouldn't have lost my soul master status! It's your fault, all your fault! Give me back my level—give it back!"
Chen Xin, already dizzy and nauseous from the stench, was stunned by this accusation. Even with his usually mild temper, fury surged within him:
You dare blame this on me?!
Suddenly, a chilling sense of danger struck him. A sixty-thousand-year spirit beast lunged from behind. Caught off guard, Chen Xin had no time to defend. He raised his arm to block—only to feel searing pain as the beast tore it clean off.
It was a tiger-type spirit beast. With a few chomps, it swallowed his arm.
Chen Xin froze. The sharp pain told him clearly—he had become the one-armed hero, like Yang Guo.
In another timeline, he too had lost his arm but in the midst of battle, breaking through to level 97. But here, it was different: first suffocated by Yu Xiaogang's stench, then distracted by his hysterical accusations. As a result, a Super Douluo had been careless before a sixty-thousand-year beast—costing him his arm.
Chen Xin was furious. He drove the Seven Kill Sword to slay the tiger, then turned with blazing eyes toward Yu Xiaogang. Carrying his sword in his remaining hand, he walked toward him.
"You… you… what are you doing?" Yu Xiaogang trembled in fear.
"What am I doing? You caused me to lose an arm. Isn't it fair I take both of yours?" Chen Xin said coldly.
"No, you can't! My disciple is Tang San, destined to become a god! If you do this, Tang San will definitely avenge me!" Yu Xiaogang quickly invoked Tang San's name.
Chen Xin hesitated.
He wasn't afraid of Tang San, but he understood him well. Tang San despised Yu Xiaogang, yet valued his reputation too much. That was the only reason he tolerated this pig as a teacher. If Chen Xin killed Yu Xiaogang, Tang San might thank him privately—but in public, he would surely "avenge" his teacher for the sake of appearances. Chen Xin's own life meant little, but he could not risk dragging down the entire clan.
Thinking this, Chen Xin spat on Yu Xiaogang and turned away.
But suddenly, Yu Xiaogang leapt onto his back, clinging tightly:
"No! Take me out of here! I don't want to die! You can't abandon me!"