Word Count: 3,043 Words
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Lifeless gray-gold and slaughterous blood-red collided in the sky. Space seemed to collapse inward for an instant, and an incomparable roar erupted outward.
Death and Slaughter were already among the most destructive of all divine attributes. And this was a war between two God Kings!
Outside Jialing Pass, the sky darkened and the earth sank into gloom. The terrifying aftershock of divine power rolled on for dozens of seconds before it finally began to wane. Then a figure tumbled from the clouds, plummeting toward the ground like a bird with broken wings.
BOOM—
The earth caved in, opening a vast, bottomless crater. Every blade of grass and scrap of vegetation on the surface crumbled to powder and vanished into nothing. The Asura God lay embedded deep in the soil, arms and legs flung wide in a spread-eagle sprawl.
The blood-red Asura God Armor was covered in dense, spiderweb-fine cracks. He spat mouthful after mouthful of bloody foam, his face full of bitter defiance as he glared up at the Death God whose divine might blanketed the sky!
Tang San forced himself upright and picked up the Asura Sword lying at his feet. His hair hung in tangled disarray, and not the slightest trace remained of his former elegance and nobility.
The Asura God's crushing defeat broke Tang San far more than the Sea God's loss ever had. Ling Bai had already ascended the Angel God to God King level, so the Sea God being outmatched was understandable. But the Asura God and the Death God were both God Kings, and Tang San had ascended ten thousand years before Ling Bai ever did!
Tang San's eyes turned completely scarlet. Desperate divine flames blazed to life around his body. The blood-red Asura Domain unfurled outward, fierce killing intent sweeping in all directions, and a pillar of blood-colored light shot into the sky!
"I am the Asura God! A God King cannot be defeated!"
"You call yourself a God King. Whose god? King of what land?"
A sneer drifted down from above. The Asura Domain folded over itself again and again, splitting and reforming as it tried to drown the Death God's silent extinguishing will beneath its slaughterous aura. Yet the death intent that radiated from the Death God Demon Scythe carried a destructive force that annihilated all things, and it sheared the Asura Domain apart. The sea of Far Shore blossoms opened a path of death for Ling Bai between sky and earth!
Divine Domain, Underworld!
Once again, tyrannical death power crushed the slaughterous aura down. Before that will of death, the Asura's killing intent cracked, shattered, and retreated in fear.
Tang San seemed to feel the bone-chilling edge of the Death God Demon Scythe against his throat. His face twisted out of all recognition. The killing intent Ling Bai released was actually stronger than that of the Asura God who controlled slaughter itself!
"Xiao San, we're here!"
Tang San's defeat was plain for all to see, and his life could be lost at any moment. The six companions who had once ascended to the Divine Realm alongside him could no longer sit still. Ignoring the God of Destruction's order, they rushed down from above.
A stalwart, brawny blond man from Star Luo took the lead. His tiger roar shook the mountain forests. A ray of dark nether light fastened itself to his back, its source a black-haired woman with a cold, elegant face and an exceptionally smoldering figure.
The two colors of light blended together. The man leaned forward, and his powerful body swelled as he transformed into a giant white tiger with twin wings sprouting from its back. Wreathed in illusory light and shadow, it dove toward the Death God!
Divine Spirit Fusion Skill, Hell White Tiger!
"Mubai!"
Tang San cried out with delighted surprise. As expected, he could still count on his Big Brother!
God of War Dai Mubai and Goddess of Speed Zhu Zhuqing were both 2nd Class Gods. But when the two unleashed their Divine Spirit Fusion Skill with everything they had, their true combat strength rivaled that of a 1st Class God!
Tang San's excitement did not last long. Ling Bai paid no attention whatsoever to the frenzied killing intent at his back. The Death God Demon Scythe carved out a crescent blade of light, and the Hell White Tiger froze in midair. A gray line of death appeared along its body from head to tail.
BOOM—
The Hell White Tiger had come like a violent storm and vanished like dust on the wind. It reverted into Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing, both grievously wounded. A bloody gash ran across their chests and abdomens, and death divine power gnawed wildly at their organs. A half-baked 1st Class God formed through fusion had dared to ambush a God King. This was the fate it deserved!
"Boss Dai! Zhuqing!"
The Phoenix God Ma Hongjun roared in anguish and caught the two 2nd Class Gods before they could perish on the spot. Upon his back, ablaze with phoenix flames, the Nine Colored Goddess Ning Rongrong and the Food God Oscar scrambled to keep them alive, stuffing one sausage after another into their mouths, each sausage carrying a different life-sustaining effect.
Xiao Wu glared at Ling Bai with hatred written across her face. Tang San had told her that the demon before her had cruelly murdered the innocent Tang Hao and Ah Yin, imprisoned her daughter Tang Wutong, and humiliated and tortured her day and night!
In the eyes of this Asura Sword Scabbard, her Third Brother had lived a flawless life, pure as ice and clean as jade. He could never be wrong. The only one at fault was Ling Bai!
"Good. Since you've all gathered, it saves me the trouble of killing you one by one..."
Ling Bai looked upon the seven Gods united in shared hatred, and tyrannical death intent surged through his gray-gold eyes.
With his companions beside him, Tang San seemed to be reborn. He raised the Asura Sword high and shouted:
"Seven Monsters as One, slay the evil demon!"
The Nine Colored Goddess Ning Rongrong was the first to soar into the air. Magnificent nine-colored radiance bloomed from her delicate body as the nine-story pagoda settled steadily into her palm. Streams of colored light flowed into her companions, and everyone's divine power swelled to more than double in an instant. Even Tang San climbed from his battered, weakened state back to near his peak!
A heaven-shaking blood-red brilliance flashed and dyed a swath of the sky crimson. Slaughterous aura erupted like a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The Asura Sword Scabbard Xiao Wu, the Nine Colored Goddess Ning Rongrong, the Food God Oscar, the Phoenix God Ma Hongjun, and the barely rescued God of War Dai Mubai and Goddess of Speed Zhu Zhuqing lined up one behind another. They raised their arms and pressed their palms against the back of the one ahead of them. The power of six Gods stacked together like surging waves and poured into Tang San's body!
Seven colors of light flared at once. The sky turned dazzling and resplendent as sword radiance shot upward. The Asura Sword was no longer a single blood-red blade. Seven colors twined together, each holding a trace of the others, filled with a strange shifting texture that seemed to mirror the world itself.
Killing intent, flame, battle will... every kind of energy flickered through it in chaos. And within that chaos there seemed to lie a certain power born of emotion.
Seven voices rang out as one:
"Seven Monsters as One, invincible wherever we go!
This sword carries the power of us seven Gods and the deep bond the Shrek Seven Monsters have shared across ten thousand years!
Angel God or Death God, whichever you are, embrace your end!"
Seven-in-One Divine Spirit Fusion Skill, Seven Monsters Sword of Judgment!
The faces of the Shrek Seven Monsters shone with the exhilaration of striking down a great enemy. The earth heaved, the sky boiled, and that single slash seemed capable of cleaving the world in two. Even the Divine Realm trembled faintly beneath the Seven Monsters Sword of Judgment!
The God of Destruction's gaze turned grave. In ten thousand years, Tang San had never once revealed this Seven-in-One Fusion Skill, which was precisely why the God King had not intervened to stop the six from descending. To a God King's reckoning, mere 2nd Class Gods amounted to nothing!
Buzz—
Golden radiance draped the horizon, and Tang San and his six companions froze where they stood. Twelve angelic wings of the Angel God had unfurled from the Death God's Divine Armor, and the Angel Sword and the Death God Demon Scythe, two great Ultra Divine Weapons, appeared in the same instant in Ling Bai's left and right hands!
The brilliant gold of Angels, the gray-gold of Death. Two diametrically opposed energies blended until no line could be drawn between them.
Two God King Positions, Self-Fusion!
Holy and Evil as One!
From the moment he awakened his two great Martial Spirits, the Seraphim and the Death Abyss Spider Emperor, Ling Bai had stood in a state where holy and evil walked hand in hand. Not for an instant had he ceased wielding both extreme attributes at once.
The powers that had grown alongside him through every step of his ascent now culminated in a legendary God King-level Self-Fusion. The God of Destruction exchanged a glance with the Goddess of Life beside him, and each saw the shock plain on the other's face. Angel and Death God, holy and evil dancing as one. Its might was not the slightest bit inferior to the creation divine power born of Life and Destruction!
The world shuddered. A power towering as a mountain range erupted upward, and resplendent golden radiance pierced into the unreachable clouds.
The thick cloud layers above churned violently. Countless clouds began to spin at tremendous speed, and gold and gray light flickered through them in waves. The sky split open in a vast rift, baring the true face of what lay beyond the firmament.
A giant sword ablaze with dazzling golden light grew larger without pause. It shed thousands upon thousands of sword rays, more by the instant, faster by the instant, until they filled the entire sky. Halos of light rippled through the world!
"This sword carries every realization I have earned in my growth!
This sword carries the deathless hatred between you and me!
This sword carries the conviction of countless people who stand behind me!
Shrek Seven Monsters, take it well!"
His voice seemed to descend from beyond the Ninth Heaven. Cool and calm it came, yet beneath it ran a faintly impassioned, soaring force, as though the speaker could draw a response from the world with a single careless word.
Five fingers closed!
Ling Bai grasped the Holy Evil Sword forged from the fusion of the two great Ultra Divine Weapons and looked down upon all creation, as though nothing in existence could rival him.
Across the vast, empty expanse between sky and earth, a row of enormous golden words blazed into existence. They stretched from the heavens to the ground, spectacular beyond measure!
Slay Gods and Vanquish Evil. All Taboos Broken!
The hearts of the Shrek Seven Monsters trembled at the sight. Tang San's eyes went blank for an instant. Within the Holy Evil Sword he seemed to see the Rakshasa God Bibi Dong, the Angel God Qian Renxue, an old man holding a staff, and countless armored Spirit Empire soldiers bearing sharpened weapons alongside roaring spectral creatures!
Tang San shook his head, clenched his teeth, and cast aside every stray thought. Life and death hinged on this single strike. The immense power of the Seven Monsters as One poured without reservation into the Seven Monsters Sword of Judgment!
The radiance of the two great divine swords enveloped the firmament. Winds and clouds churned violently, and the world seemed to rustle in mourning. Deep within the brilliance, thunder abruptly exploded. The sky tore apart, and golden light blazed above the horizon!
"Slay—"
A clear cry pierced the clouds. Ling Bai's figure seemed to blur, and only the faint outline of him remained, head raised, gaze fixed deeply upon the vast and boundless world.
The Supreme Divine Skill, Slay Gods and Vanquish Evil · All Taboos Broken, descended.
The rising Seven Monsters Sword of Judgment was severed in a single stroke, crumbling and collapsing to either side. The supreme sword ray that held both holy and evil stretched across the firmament and dropped straight down toward the heads of the Shrek Seven Monsters.
A terrifying, bloodcurdling scream tore from Tang San's throat. Filled with disbelieving despair, he could only watch helplessly as that sword fell.
The edge of the Holy Evil Sword stretched longer and longer, the unprecedented joy of the two great divine weapon spirits made manifest. In the end it grew into a giant blade over three hundred feet long, stirring up a tide of light as it descended from the sky.
Seven pairs of eyes widened to their limit. Panic carried a thread of pure terror. In the Shrek Seven Monsters' vision, the world no longer existed. There was only that long, long blade.
"No! Make a bet with me! Make another bet with me!"
Tang San's voice was hoarse. If only Ling Bai would agree to a God King's wager, he could surely turn everything around!
"Angel God, I am your ancestor! I am your ancestor!
If you kill me, the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan will never forgive you!"
Ning Rongrong screamed with tears streaming down her face. At death's door, she had finally remembered that she was an ancestor of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. Unfortunately, back in the Yin Yang Love Querying Valley, she had aided evil and burned through every last ember of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan's goodwill toward her.
Sword light blotted out sky and sun. With the momentum to split mountains and sever rivers, the Holy Evil Sword carved a ruthless arc. Blood mist and countless fragments of minced flesh scattered through the air. Ling Bai flicked the blood from his blade, and a torrential rain of crimson poured down!
A thousand swords, ten thousand cuts. Seven Gods fell!
Ling Bai released the Twin God Self-Fusion form. His twelve angelic wings gave a single gentle beat, and divine power swept outward, gathering every scrap of flesh and blood from the seven Gods and burying it all in the massive crater Tang San had smashed when he crashed from the sky!
Rumble—
A water dragon roared as it poured into the pit. Ling Bai had diverted water from the city moat, and outside Jialing Pass a clear spring now bloomed where the crater had been.
Sea God Tang San, Asura Sword Scabbard Xiao Wu, God of War Dai Mubai, Goddess of Speed Zhu Zhuqing, Nine Colored Goddess Ning Rongrong, Food God Oscar, and Phoenix God Ma Hongjun. The seven Gods once revered across the continent had been slain by the Angel God at Jialing Pass. Their flesh, blood, and souls became nourishment for a divine spring!
Sword light flashed. Ling Bai raised an enormous stone stele beside the spring, and the Angel Sword carved bold, vigorous words upon its face:
Seven Gods Well!
Years earlier, Ling Bai had silently promised himself that one day he would forge a divine spring to rival the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. From this day forward, the Angel Empire would remember the Angel God's deeds through the Seven Gods Well, while Tang San and the other six Gods would be nailed to the pillar of shame for all eternity!
Ling Bai reached into the empty air and closed his hand around a golden key shaped like an eight-pointed star. This was the Divine Realm Hub, the core of the Divine Realm.
Alongside it came the seven God Positions headed by the Asura God, together with two Ultra Divine Weapons, the Asura Sword and the Sea God Trident.
The God of Destruction shook his head helplessly. The Divine Realm Hub was the victor's spoils, and he had quietly hoped Ling Bai would fail to grasp its true function, that he might slip in and claim it while the waters were still muddied. Ling Bai had given him no opening at all.
The first-generation Goddess of Kindness and God of Evil had held it first. Then it had passed to Tang San, who inherited the Sea God and Asura God Positions. Now it rested in the hands of the Angel God, Ling Bai. In all this time, the God of Destruction had never once held the Divine Realm Hub himself.
Frustration aside, the God of Destruction acknowledged Ling Bai's strength and standing as a God King. From a distance, he offered his congratulations:
"On behalf of the Divine Realm, I welcome you, the fifth God King of the Divine Realm Committee, Angel God."
By the laws of the Divine Realm, a newly ascended God was permitted to remain in the mortal world for one hundred years, while the God of Destruction would need to wait only one hundred days above. Extending his congratulations early was, in its own quiet way, a gesture of goodwill.
"Until we meet again, fellow God Kings and colleagues of the Divine Realm."
Ling Bai inclined his head toward the Divine Realm. His twelve angelic wings gave a single beat, and patterns of light rippled outward like waves across still water. The sky seemed to turn into a piece of magnificent amber.
The Angel God flew unhurriedly toward Nine Treasure City. His family and his beloved waited there. Along the way, those brilliant golden eyes took in the dazzling world beneath him.
Red clouds spread across the sky as though a great fire had been kindled overhead. The enormous sun sank slowly toward the west, and its warm, golden light draped the earth in a soft glow.
The old Gods had fallen, and a new God had risen. The world welcomed a new order, a new sovereign, a new future!
The glory of the Angel clan bloomed once more upon the Douluo Continent!
(End of Main Text)
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// We still have a few epilogue chapters left!