Chapter 238 Atop Changbai Mountain, the Tiger's Roar That Shattered the Clouds
The tragedy in the Amazon rainforest is just the beginning.
With the silent arrival of the "Enlightenment of All Things" patch, the entire Earth's food chain underwent an extremely violent and cruel dimensional upgrade within just a few hours.
Within the highest command centers of major fortified cities around the world, glaring red dots representing high-energy spiritual reactions spread like wildfire across holographic maps. The permafrost of Siberia, the East African Rift Valley, the Australian savanna... those areas that were once considered "resource mines" by human hunters have now all become deadly forbidden zones.
Meanwhile, in the far east, outside the northeastern defense line of China.
The continuous Changbai Mountains have been shrouded in extremely violent winds and snow and ice-type spiritual energy since the Great Calamity. It is rich in first-tier Frost Giant Wolves and second-tier Snow Spirit Foxes, and has always been the most coveted "high-level gold-farming ground" for mercenaries hired by various clans and independent hunters.
At the foot of Changbai Mountain, the No. 7 forward base.
This is an armed town constructed from thick black steel and the Great Sun Cold Protection Array. The towering city walls are densely packed with psionic heavy cannons, and massive searchlights tear through the wind and snow, sweeping across the dark forest.
Inside the hunter's bar inside the base, the heating was on full blast, and the air was filled with the aroma of cheap spirit wine and the grease from roasting mutated beast meat.
"Cheers! To this messed-up yet incredibly lucrative era!"
A burly man equipped with civilian-grade pseudo-spiritual roots slammed a bloodstained second-tier demon beast core onto the bar, eliciting a chorus of envious gasps from those around him.
"Old Zhao, your team did well today, you actually managed to get a Tier 2 item!"
"Just lucky." The burly man took a swig of strong liquor, wiped the stains from his mouth, but a hint of doubt lingered in his eyes. "But things are a bit strange in the mountains today. Those Frost Giant Wolves that usually go berserk at the smell of blood haven't even shown their faces today. This second-tier Snow Spirit Fox, which we caught in a cave, was actually lying on the ground, as if... kowtowing towards the main peak?"
"Kowtowing? Are you drunk? What do monsters know about kowtowing?" The other drinkers burst into laughter.
However, before the burly man could finish speaking...
"Buzz!!!!"
At the same time, all the psionic alarms in the entire 7th forward base erupted in extremely shrill screams! The ear-piercing red light instantly illuminated the entire bar, making it look like a blood-soaked hell!
"What's going on?!"
The patrons suddenly stood up, instinctively reaching for their weapons and exoskeleton connectors.
"Boom!!"
The earth began to tremble violently, and the glasses on the bar smashed to pieces. This was no ordinary earthquake, but an extremely high-frequency spiritual energy vibration, which even caused these hunters with implanted pseudo-spiritual roots to feel waves of resonant pain deep in their spines, as if they were being torn apart.
"Look at the radar! My God... what the hell is that?!"
A hunter pointed in horror at the holographic tactical projection in the center of the bar.
On the main peak of Changbai Mountain, which is over two thousand meters above sea level, in the direction of Tianchi Lake, a massive energy source that is reddish-purple, even blackish-purple, is taking shape at an extremely terrifying speed!
Its spiritual pressure reading directly broke through the measurement limit of the base's civilian radar, turning the entire screen into a jumble of characters!
……
At this very moment, atop Changbai Mountain, at Tianchi Lake.
The once frozen lake surface has now completely melted, and the water is churning violently as if boiling. The swirling snow and wind seem to be guided by some unseen law, forming a massive blizzard vortex with a diameter exceeding ten kilometers.
And at the very center of the vortex.
A colossal creature, over twenty meters long and resembling a small mountain, is quietly perched on the cliff edge of Tianchi Lake.
It was a mutated Siberian tiger.
But it had long transcended the realm of ordinary beasts. Its fur was like countless crystal-clear, ice-blue steel needles, reflecting a chilling metallic luster under the moonlight. Its bones were incredibly robust; through its flesh, one could even see that its spine was naturally growing and weaving together extremely complex and profound innate ice-type array patterns!
In their pursuit of immortality, humans have sacrificed their lifespans, using crude laser tools to inscribe formations onto the bone marrow of demonic beasts and forcibly stitch them into their own spines, creating deformed and painful "pseudo-spiritual roots."
Under the baptism of the "Enlightenment of All Things" law, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth actively cleansed and refined the tiger king's marrow. It didn't need any external steel meridians; its extremely powerful flesh and blood body was the most perfect "top-grade ice-type spiritual root" in the world!
"call!!"
The Tiger King slowly opened his eyes.
What kind of eyes were those?
Gone was the chaos and bloodthirsty instinct of a wild beast; in its place was a terrifying gaze as deep and rational as ancient ice, imbued with the aura of a supreme ruler.
It awakened true wisdom.
It glanced down at its massive claws, powerful enough to shatter heavy armor, then looked up at the human advance base at the foot of the mountain, emitting a faint light. In its inherited memories, countless of its kind had been slaughtered, skinned, and dismembered by those two-legged sheep clad in iron during those three years.
Now, times have changed.
The Tiger King slowly straightened its massive body. It took a deep breath, and the raging blizzard within a ten-mile radius around it was actually drawn into its chest cavity with each breath!
Its chest and abdomen bulged high, and the ice-blue innate array patterns on its body surface burst forth with extremely dazzling light.
next second.
"roar!!!!!!!!!!"
A terrifying, furious tiger roar, beyond description, boomed from the summit of Changbai Mountain!
This was not a simple sound at all, but a tangible shockwave formed by a mixture of extremely cold spiritual power and terrifying mental pressure!
"Snap! Snap!"
Wherever the sound waves passed, tens of thousands of tons of solid ice around Tianchi Lake instantly became covered with cracks, and then collapsed with a roar, forming a tremendous avalanche.
The blizzard vortex in mid-air was shattered like a fragile glass dome by the impact of the tiger's roar! The originally gloomy night sky was completely torn apart by this roar, revealing the cold starlight!
A roar shattered the clouds!
The residual force of this sound wave, carrying the momentum of destruction, swept towards the No. 7 forward base at the foot of the mountain like a tsunami.
"Defense! Activate the city's defensive formation at full power!"
The base commander roared hoarsely into the communications channel.
On the city wall, the cores of eight large, impregnable formations were operating at full speed, and a thick, pale golden light screen tightly protected the entire base.
However, the moment that visible ice-blue sound wave struck the light screen...
"Clang!! Crack!!!"
There wasn't even a fraction of a second of stalemate. The city's protective array, capable of withstanding the onslaught of tens of thousands of first-tier demonic beasts, shattered like paper before this tiger's roar, turning into a shower of light!
The sound waves swept across the entire base like a whirlwind.
"Ahhhhh!"
Those mortal hunters who had just been boasting in the bar were now all clutching their ears in agony, writhing on the ground. The pseudo-spiritual roots implanted in their spines were experiencing a terrifying backlash in the face of the spiritual pressure from this absolute superior, with blood gushing out of the connection points.
"Third-tier... no... this is absolutely comparable to a fourth-tier Great Demon King in the Nascent Soul stage!!!"
The base commander collapsed to the ground in despair, staring at the blood-red dot on the radar.
Over the past three years, humanity has barely managed to create elite hunters who can hover around the threshold of the Foundation Establishment stage, despite using its massive population and industrial capacity. Meanwhile, a wild beast in these deep mountains and forests, favored by the system's laws, has ascended to the heavens in one leap!
But what makes humans feel most desperate is not the tiger king itself.
"Awooo!!"
"roar!"
"Hiss!!"
After the thunderous roar that shattered the clouds, countless mutated beasts throughout the Changbai Mountains seemed to hear the command of a supreme monarch.
They stopped fighting each other and stopped eating.
Countless eyes, gleaming with eerie green and scarlet light, lit up one after another in the dark forest. They converged from all directions, like a black mudslide cascading down the snow-capped mountain.
They are no longer a disorganized mess.
Led by several second- and third-tier commanding demonic beasts, they surprisingly formed a tactical formation of charging and covering with remarkable coordination. Their chilling killing intent was aimed directly at the human defense line at the foot of Changbai Mountain!
The Tiger King of Changbai Mountain stood atop the mountain, coldly looking down upon all living beings.