Black air surged out, turning the sky dark. This air was filled with slaughter and gloom.

“Is this the premonition of a world-shaking battle?” Gu Yang looked at the black clouds. The entire world had turned dim now, and his voice was subdued.

This kind of scene naturally felt ominous. The very air smelled of death, and it was oppressive.

The Dragonblood Legion had fully gathered now, standing in front of the Forest of Life. This was the final defensive line before the Forest of Life.

All the other defensive lines had been abandoned because of Long Chen’s orders. This final defensive line was like the gate to the Forest of Life. Once broken, their enemies would be able to swarm in.

Despite being in such a large group, this air of death was still hard to bear.

“What premonition? This is the dark energy released by the Dark Forest. That darkness is a mass of tiny runes that will allow them to unleash their attacks more effectively. That dark energy is like water, while they are the fish. Without the water, their combat power would sharply drop. Have you forgotten that the entire Dark Forest is covered in that kind of air constantly? Gu Yang, I’m puzzled, how can someone with a bright head like yours be unable to understand something so simple?” Long Chen looked at Gu Yang. That bald head that reflected the sun and moonlight was definitely bright.

“Hahaha…”

Guo Ran, Li Qi, Song Mingyuan, and the others all laughed. The laughter of the Dragonblood warriors made Gu Yang’s whole face turn red.

“Boss, you’re the one with the brighter head,” said Gu Yang.

“No, I rather like my long, flowing hair. In the Dragonblood Legion, you’re the one with the brightest head. Just having you is enough,” joked Long Chen.

Following Long Chen’s joking, the pressure everyone felt lessened. They now felt like they had just been scaring themselves. When they had first entered the Spirit World and dropped into the Dark Forest, they hadn’t felt that the Dark Forest’s air was so intense.

“This is the influence of the Forest of Life. It shrinks your guts.” Long Chen solemnly looked at everyone, gravely saying, “Right now, the difference between the Dragonblood warriors and the Dragonmark warriors has grown negligible. At the very least, your power is about the same. But the Dragonmark warriors are lacking a certain confidence and fearlessness in their souls. That is the only area where you are lacking compared to the Dragonblood warriors. That showed itself during your last tribulation, and now it’s showing itself in the face of the Dark Forest. The Dragonblood warriors are still able to stay calm, but I can see the Dragonmark warriors still feel a great deal of pressure.”

“Boss, we’ll work harder on tempering our wills,” promised a Dragonmark warrior.

Long Chen waved his hand, shaking his head. “It’s not that your will isn’t strong enough. The greatest difference is that you were born into too good of a family. The height that you were born into was different. The Dragonblood warriors followed me from the Eastern Wasteland, encountering countless pitfalls and battles. We slaughtered our way out of those restrictions, forcing our way into our current height. We paid a great deal, but we also gained a great deal. As for the Dragonmark warriors, you’ve also gone through many battles, all of them fierce and intense. You’ve long since tempered your wills to a good enough level. It’s just that you still don’t understand the meaning of battle. Why do we fight? Fighting isn’t to kill, it’s to protect. Fighting isn’t to establish fame, but for your personal convictions. Only once you understand your convictions can you become fearless in the face of death. The reason your fear has appeared today is because of the effect of the Forest of Life.”

“The Forest of Life? What is that supposed to mean?” asked Guo Ran. The others also didn’t understand and looked at Long Chen for the answer.

Long Chen solemnly said, “You’ve been affected by the Forest of Life’s beliefs. They are a group of kind lifeforms, and they feel respect and gratitude toward all life. They don’t hold grudges, and they don’t feel hatred. When our human race betrayed them, did they complain? Despite being betrayed by the human race, they still accept and trust us. This is their instinctual reaction. They are pure-hearted and good. They love life, they revere life, and they make life their conviction. When you received the Life God Tree’s blessing, you were affected by that conviction. You’ve also started to feel respect for life, and a thirst for life. This kind of conviction is their Dao, but it’s not the Dragonblood Legion’s Dao. Our Dao is the weapons in our hands. The Forest of Life’s creatures are kind, but that kindness can only be given to good people. If given to bad evil, they will take advantage of it and destroy them. For example, the Forest of Life was betrayed by the human race, and now they’ve fallen into their current straits. Is that fair?”

“No!”

Everyone roared. Thinking of the human race’s betrayal, they felt furious. They felt this was a disgrace of the entire human race.

“We don’t have to feel guilty. That wasn’t done by us, and the Forest of Life has never blamed us for it. But look at the Martial Heaven Continent as a whole. How many good people really exist? If you put out your kind heart, what you will get in return is betrayal and the butcher’s knife. So you have to have a kind heart, but you can’t give it to just anyone. To love life isn’t wrong. To be grateful for life isn’t wrong. But we have to know to whom we should be grateful. To respect life isn’t wrong. To the people who protected us, who bestowed us with our lives, we naturally have to feel gratitude and respect. But other than our parents and those elders, there’s no one else worth our gratitude. If we want to protect our family in this bloody, chaotic world, then we have to bare our fangs. In the face of those evil people, we have to wield our butcher’s knife without hesitation. The Forest of Life gave us its favor, and today, even if we have to fight to the last, we have to use our hot blood and lives to prove our conviction and oath. Why do we have to be afraid? Remember, what we cultivate is not the Life Dao! We cultivate a Killing Dao! Our world is full of disorder, and there’s no way for us to discuss things reasonably. When convictions clash, the only thing that can protect us is our own butcher’s blade.”

Long Chen’s words resounded through their minds. It was like they were enlightened. Before coming here, they were unrivaled warriors who had dominated whatever battlefield they had fought on. They had long since grown indifferent to death. But after receiving the Life God Tree’s blessing, they had truly been affected by it. The desire to fight had lessened, while their respect for life grew.

However, Long Chen’s words brought them all back to their initial state. In the Martial Heaven Continent, only the strong could live with dignity. Only the strong could protect those close to them.

They had understood that principle before. But after being affected by the Life God Tree, this principle had grown muddled. Now with Long Chen’s reminder, they were ashamed.

“Remember, there is no one innocent on a battlefield. Anyone who raises their own butcher’s blade to you is someone you have to kill. Perhaps those people are innocent and don’t know the true story behind the scenes, perhaps they were tricked and are being used, but those aren’t reasons. As long as someone dares to raise their blade at us, no matter what reason they have, they have to be killed mercilessly. A person has to pay the price for their own mistakes and foolishness, because their foolishness will only bring us endless pain. Once the battle starts, don’t bother with what race they come from. They only have one identity. They are all enemies. Let me repeat it again: as long as they’re our enemies, they must be killed with our full power. We definitely can’t have mercy, understand?” called out Long Chen.

“Understood!”

Everyone answered together. They knew that Long Chen was planning a real slaughter.

Right now, the ancient races, the Corrupt path, and the ancient family alliance’s experts were present. The Corrupt path was the mortal enemy of the Righteous path, so there was no need to worry about the Dragonblood warriors being merciful to them.

However, they might have some misgivings when it came to the ancient races and the ancient family alliance. After all, the relationship between them hadn’t reached the point of ‘either you die or I die’. This made them a bit different from the Corrupt path.

If the Dragonblood Legion truly slaughtered them, those two powers would definitely become the enemies of the Xuantian Dao Sect. There was no way the Xuantian Dao Sect would be able to endure the attacks of those two powers.

Long Chen was warning everyone because he was worried about those misgivings. On the battlefield, the people you faced were enemies. And enemies had to be killed without hesitation.

Now, he was telling them that if they were unable to harden their hearts and kill their enemies, then the kind Spirit race warriors behind them would be slaughtered.

The Spirit race warriors were powerful, but they did not walk the path of slaughter. Their killing power was limited. That was why Long Chen didn’t place very high hopes on them. He placed the greatest burden on the Dragonblood Legion.

They were warriors that had followed him for many years. With his reminder, they all returned to their battle state.

The sky grew darker and darker. The world felt like it was turning completely black. But that brutal aura was no longer able to affect them.

“Boss Gu Yan, please light up your head to show us our path in the darkness!” joked a Dragonblood warrior.

The Dragonblood Legion’s warriors were all good brothers, and they all joked around with each other. It was very lively, and they didn’t treat each other as superiors and inferiors.

Long Chen was called boss, and now the other captains were called boss as well. However, they always added their name as well to differentiate them. For example, boss Gu Yang, boss Guo Ran.

Only captain-class members were qualified to be called boss. That included Gu Yang, Guo Ran, Li Qi, and Song Mingyuan.

BOOM!

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble. Powerful auras began to rise in the distance, slowly approaching.

“They’ve finally come.” Long Chen narrowed his eyes, staring into the distance.