Word Count: 3,144 Words
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The notion that the Seraphim was Death Abyss Douluo? Nothing more than the dying fantasy of an Evil Spirit Master.
When the conclusion was wrong, it was simply wrong. However correct the process seemed, it was still worth nothing. Zero marks.
A Holy Spirit Cult Leader of his generation scattered with the wind amid boundless regret and hatred. His final contribution to the world was the spirit power he fed back to the Seraphim.
Most of Zhongli Wu's strength had always resided in his life-bound beast spirit, the Bone Dragon King. His own spirit skills leaned heavily toward support, and once the Bone Dragon King betrayed him, his strength plummeted. Had Ling Bai not killed him here, his future fate would have been even more miserable than Elder Xuan's. His Rank 98 spirit power would likely have fallen all the way to Rank 95.
"Leader!!!"
The Evil Douluo cried out in anguish.
"Wu'er!"
Blood dyed Ye Xishui's eyes crimson. No matter how much she resented that old ghost Zhong Li, she had always placed great hopes on her son, Zhongli Wu. Otherwise, she would never have passed the position of Holy Spirit Cult Leader to him while she was still hale and hearty.
She had never imagined that a Rank 98 Super Evil Douluo, together with a Limit-level Bone Dragon King that had received the Silver Dragon King's grace, two mighty beings standing at the very peak of the Douluo Continent, would fail to kill a mere Spirit Douluo. And an injured Spirit Douluo at that, one who had yet to recover after taking a direct hit from the Light of the Death God!
Even more absurd was the Bone Dragon King turning traitor in the middle of battle, chasing down its former master until Zhongli Wu died filled with resentment!
As for the 'truth' Zhongli Wu had exposed before his death, not a single person cared at this moment. It was exactly like the number one villain under heaven pointing at the continent's chief constable and saying, "Hey, he's actually my teammate. We're birds of a feather!"
Was this not pure desperation? A cornered donkey with no tricks left, making up stories and flinging mud!
The truth was destined to sink like a stone, never raising even the faintest ripple.
In the future, only one legend would remain. Storytellers in streets and alleys would describe it vividly to children gathered at their feet:
The Seraphim gave a thunderous shout, "Vile creature, why have you not surrendered!" The Bone Dragon King immediately bowed its head in submission and aided the angel in ending the life of the last Holy Spirit Cult Leader, restoring a bright and righteous world to mankind!
The Bone Dragon King knelt docilely before Ling Bai, its sinister dragon skull pressed tightly against the ground. Everyone's eyes twitched as they stared again and again at this master-and-servant pair, one holy and one evil, whose combination radiated an almost unbearable sense of dissonance.
This scene struck far too hard at their worldview. They needed a moment to recover!
"Such a perfect chance to clip the Sun Moon Empire's wings. None of you plan to join the battle?"
Ling Bai stepped onto the dragon's head with practiced ease and looked down from above.
The words had barely fallen before the ten people who had emerged from the Yin Yang Love Querying Valley began cracking their knuckles. Young experts like Zhang Lexuan and Han Ruoruo, who were high-ranking Spirit Douluo with strength comparable to Titled Douluo, directly sought out the Class 9 Spirit Guidance Masters.
Huo Yuhao and the others each did everything in their power to reduce the pressure on Shrek's teachers. Ning Tian and Wu Feng rushed over to support Ye Guyi. Asking a Rank 70 Holy Angel to face an Evil Douluo alone was somewhat too much.
Only Ling Qiuxi did not enter the battle. She leaped onto the Bone Dragon King's head, Golden Dragon Spear in hand, and stood beside Ling Bai like the most dutiful guard.
Ling Bai knew she was worried about him. With her beside him, he had an additional trump card. He smiled softly, and the Bone Dragon King beat its wings, shooting straight toward Azure Emperor Douluo Ning Fengyu's direction.
"Xiao Bai, I really didn't dote on you for nothing!"
The Sky Azure Vine Emperor lashed Crow Douluo Wu Yun away with a whip. Ning Fengyu looked at Ling Bai, who had thought of her first, and was so moved that tears streamed down her face.
In truth, she was overthinking it. Between a Class 9 Spirit Guidance Master and an Evil Douluo, Ling Bai would naturally kill the Evil Douluo first. Who could blame him, when Evil Spirit Masters provided such convenient spirit power feedback upon death?
For once, Ning Fengyu dropped her usual laziness and went all out. Fighting one against three, every one of her opponents was a Holy Spirit Cult Worship: Crow Douluo Wu Yun, a Darkness-attribute half-Evil Spirit Master, while Myriad Soul Douluo and Abomination Douluo were pure-blooded Evil Spirit Masters through and through.
In an age when Evil Spirit Masters were growing scarcer by the day, how could any Seraphim possibly resist such temptation?
"Supreme Leader, save me! Worship Dragon Emperor, save me!"
Despair filled the eyes of the three Evil Douluo. The strongest among them, Wu Yun, was only Rank 94, nowhere near enough to withstand a single slap from the Bone Dragon King!
Ning Fengyu was also the nasty sort who kicked an opponent while they were down. The Sky Azure Vine Emperor wove itself into a cyan-gold cage and restricted the three Evil Douluo's movements, hammering the final nail into their coffins!
The Bone Dragon King opened its enormous maw. Deep within its dark throat, dazzling crimson firelight gathered and swelled. Scorching dragon flames swept toward the three of them.
Fire Dragon Breath!
The three Evil Douluo refused to sit still and await death. They launched a desperate final struggle, and three ninth spirit rings lit up at the same time. Abomination Douluo transformed into a bloated, nauseatingly slimy giant and planted himself at the front as a living shield. The Darkness Crow spread its wings and sent a storm of pitch-black rays shooting from its feathers. Myriad Soul Douluo whipped the Myriad Soul Banner overhead as black clouds boiled into existence and the howls of wronged souls ripped through the air!
Golden light blazed. The instant the Angelic Domain unfolded, the three men's dying struggle collapsed on the spot. Their evil attributes melted and vanished like snow meeting raging fire.
The Fire Dragon Breath roasted Abomination Douluo's skin until it turned red, crisp, and charred. The aroma of cooked flesh and rendered fat instantly filled the air. Abomination Douluo lost consciousness and plummeted straight down. Ning Fengyu reacted quickly, sending out a strand of Sky Azure Vine Emperor to wrap around him and deliver him before Ling Bai. The Angel Sword flashed once and ended his life.
Abomination Douluo died in battle, but his thick layers of fat had reduced much of the Fire Dragon Breath's power. Wu Yun and Myriad Soul Douluo scraped past death for the moment, yet within the Angelic Domain they could barely take a single step. The Bone Dragon King caught up in moments and clasped them both in one massive clawed grip.
Ling Bai wasted no words. Two Evil-Banishing Slashes sent them to follow their great Holy Spirit Cult Leader into oblivion.
"So clean..."
Ling Bai looked at the place where the three Evil Douluo had vanished without leaving the slightest trace and sighed in disappointment. Three paupers added together, and they could not even produce a single spirit bone!
Look at Zhongli boy, on the other hand. A full set of top-tier spirit bones, and more than one 100,000-year spirit bone among them!
The Holy Spirit Cult's inheritance should naturally be inherited by Death Aby... the Seraphim!
"Quick, quick, quick! Let's kill a few more, then go help the old man!"
Ning Fengyu chuckled and rushed toward Ning Tian, Wu Feng, and Ye Guyi's battlefield. If they could completely wipe out this group of Titled Douluo, the Sun Moon Empire would not dare start a war within twenty years!
Ling Bai looked across the various battlefields and counted. "The Holy Spirit Cult has three Evil Douluo left. Netherworld, Dark Lightning... and Death God Douluo!"
Dragon Emperor Douluo Long Xiaoyao was not an Evil Spirit Master, so Ling Bai placed him last on the list. Death God Douluo Ye Xishui was a Limit Douluo; killing her would require serious effort no matter how one approached it. Thus, his first priority was eliminating the Holy Spirit Cult's final sparks, Netherworld Douluo and Dark Lightning Douluo!
The two Titled Douluo seemed to sense something. They turned their heads at the same time and met the strikingly similar hunting gazes of Ling Bai and the Bone Dragon King. A violent shiver ran through them, and they wanted to cry but had no tears.
Leader, oh Leader, dying is one thing, but your Bone Dragon King has doomed us completely!
BOOM—
A sudden change erupted on another battlefield. A pallid beam of the Light of the Death God pierced through the Greenshadow Godly Eagle's body.
Shrek Academy's foremost Agility Attack System Titled Douluo, Elder Song, died tragically beneath the Death God Pagoda!
"Seraphim, I want you dead!"
Ye Xishui shrieked. Mad with fury, she tore Elder Song's soul free and forced it into the Death God Pagoda. How powerful was the soul of a Rank 97 Titled Douluo? In an instant, it became the Death God Pagoda 's new core of evil power!
"Light of the Death God!"
The tip of the Death God Pagoda unleashed another pallid beam, locking onto the Bone Dragon King's head. Ye Xishui intended to annihilate two people and one dragon in a single strike!
With the Bone Dragon King that Zhongli Wu had painstakingly nurtured for half his life shielding him, Ling Bai no longer needed to risk everything as he had before. He gave up on chasing down Netherworld and Dark Lightning and calmly released his eighth spirit skill instead.
A Golden Sun and Black Moon emerged. Light and Darkness flowed into one another, merging into Chaos. Within that Chaos, clusters of cyan wind appeared out of thin air. Wind fed the flames, and the flames borrowed the wind's might. One fire meteor after another howled forth like shells fired from a cannon.
Seraphim Eighth Spirit Skill, Chaos Reversion!
Bone Dragon King Innate Spirit Skill, Wind Fire Meteor!
The three forces collided violently. For a hundred miles around, the air filled with the stench of scorching, and the terrifying pressure made it almost impossible to breathe.
The Light of the Death God went from blazing brilliance to gradual decline, then slowly vanished altogether. Ye Xishui clenched her fists and whipped around. Her vicious gaze locked onto the Darkness Holy Dragon that had been half-heartedly sparring with the Godly Taotie Bull, and she roared, "Long Xiaoyao, get over here!"
Long Xiaoyao's pupils trembled. His dragon tail swept out in a full arc, and Elder Xuan was instantly knocked out of his Martial Spirit Avatar state. The old man rolled several times before collapsing where he sat, gasping heavily for breath.
"Xishui."
A low, cautious voice came from the Darkness Holy Dragon's maw. Long Xiaoyao had joined the Holy Spirit Cult for Ye Xishui and Ye Xishui alone. He cared nothing for what happened to the Holy Cult. Watching its strength gutted like this actually pleased him. In his heart, he looked forward to the day the Holy Spirit Cult perished until only Ye Xishui remained.
Perhaps then, Ye Xishui would abandon her ambition to rule the world and follow him into the mountains to live in seclusion.
Long Xiaoyao had been playing around with Elder Xuan this entire time. Now that Ye Xishui had spoken, he knew he could no longer keep pretending.
Ye Xishui glared at him coldly, her tone icy and sinister. "Long Xiaoyao, the Holy Spirit Cult's headquarters has been destroyed. Wu'er died at the Seraphim's hands.
I can ignore everything else, but a blood debt must be repaid in blood. The Seraphim absolutely cannot be allowed to live today. I will use his flesh and soul to comfort my son's spirit!
If you still love me, then stake your life if you must, but stop the Bone Dragon King for me. Don't let me see your hesitation again!"
"...I understand, Xishui."
Long Xiaoyao lowered his head. In the depths of his eyes, grief had grown so dense it seemed almost tangible. Over the past hundred years, Ye Xishui had used this method countless times, and each time, she got what she wanted.
Because of the guilt buried in his heart, he could not refuse her request.
The two Limit Douluo closed in from left and right. Ling Bai took Ling Qiuxi with him and leaped down from the Bone Dragon King. The Bone Dragon King and Ling Bai were linked in perfect mutual understanding. The two enormous dragons flew into the distance and began tearing into each other, leaving behind a vast battlefield for the three who remained.
"Brat, this Seat will make you endure the torture of soul refinement day and night!"
Ye Xishui stood atop the tip of the Death God Pagoda. Without the Bone Dragon King beside them, she did not place Ling Bai and Ling Qiuxi in her eyes at all. Under wave after wave of violent provocation, her already unstable mind sank even deeper into madness.
Her hands emerged from beneath her black robe. Her palms and fingers were pale and delicate, like those of a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old girl, but each fingertip bore a hooked, dark-red nail like an eagle's talon. The sight was especially horrifying. Ye Xishui rubbed those nails together, and waves of sharp, grating noise pierced Ling Bai and Ling Qiuxi's ears, continuously pressing down on their minds.
"Killing you should give me enough energy to condense my second spirit core."
Ling Bai stared at Ye Xishui and the Death God Pagoda, his expression cold and indifferent. He showed not the slightest trace of fear despite losing the Bone Dragon King's protection. In the next instant, he took Ling Qiuxi's warm hand, and their bodies gently leaned together.
Golden motes of light drifted through the sky like angel feathers. Brilliant golden radiance rose upward. A stirring dragon roar and a melodious chant rang out at the same time. Ling Qiuxi's figure grew fainter and fainter, becoming part of those scattered motes of light before finally sinking into Ling Bai's body.
Feeling the surging power within him, Ling Bai drew in a deep breath, as if he meant to inhale all the air in the world into his chest. His bright golden pupils burned silently, like lamps that would not go out in a raging storm.
Pure white spread across his angelic wings. Dragon-patterned armor locked together with crisp, ringing clicks. When those pure-white angel wings unfurled, sunlight reversed its flow and streamed upward into the sky!
The low clouds above the battlefield twisted into a vortex and stretched downward toward the earth. Ling Bai hovered in the air, his entire body covered in a layer of white dragon-patterned armor. It bore none of metal's heavy sheen and instead resembled a suit of flawless, crystalline gemstone.
His angelic wings were no longer six golden wings, but eight immaculate wings of pure white. Their shape resembled not ordinary feathers, but the bold, majestic wings of an ancient dragon.
His waterfall of white hair drifted behind him. At the center of his forehead, a rose-gold third eye shone deep and bright, as though reflections of the world's ultimate truths could be glimpsed within it. That handsome face had not the slightest flaw. Holy, magnificent, mysterious beyond comprehension, yet no matter how one searched the mind, every word seemed to fall just short.
Angel and Dragon, Destiny Intertwined!
Spirit Fusion Skill, Angel of Finality!
The Seraphim carried the bloodline of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. The two were perfectly compatible. They had discovered as much back in the Star Dou Forest.
After Ling Bai replaced Huo Yuhao as the Son of Destiny, the connection between him and Ling Qiuxi had only grown closer. Everything seemed arranged by fate itself. The human race's Son of Destiny and the spirit beast race's Destiny Beast, each bearing the destiny of their race, merged into one and became the Angel of Finality that controlled the fate of all things!
This was not the fusion of a Spirit Douluo and a Spirit Emperor. This was the fusion of destiny with destiny!
The sight of the eight-winged, pure-white Angel of Finality left Ye Xishui stunned for a brief moment. That rose-gold vertical pupil was something she had never seen before. Merely meeting its gaze made it feel as if only pure light remained in all the world.
"Angel... God Descent!"
Ye Guyi's eyes flickered with an excited light of faith. With a sharp rustle, two pairs of wings suddenly unfolded behind her. Under the stimulation of the Angel of Finality's bloodline, her Holy Angel had grown an additional pair of angelic wings ahead of time!
"So this is what it feels like to pluck the strings of destiny?"
Ling Bai's bright golden eyes turned blazing white. Since becoming the Son of Destiny, he had not actually undergone any particularly obvious outward change, nor had he awakened any overwhelmingly powerful ability.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion possessed the Eye of Destiny. Although it controlled destiny ahead of time, that also gave those with ulterior motives the possibility of drawing in and stripping away its power of destiny.
The Son of Destiny was completely different. Destiny lay hidden within the Son of Destiny's body, silently guarding its host's growth and helping him turn danger into safety through every crisis.
Only after merging with Ling Qiuxi and transforming into the Angel of Finality did Ling Bai truly come into contact with the mighty power of destiny. Within that rose-gold vertical pupil, the fate lines of everyone present were reflected. It seemed that with a casual flick, he could easily determine a person's fate.
The three eyes of the Angel of Finality fixed on Ye Xishui from afar. For the first time, Death God Douluo felt that neither her Limit Douluo spirit power nor the Death God Pagoda could give her any sense of security. The Angel of Finality was almost a power of another level entirely!
Ling Bai extended his right hand. Endless light gathered in his palm. A white longsword like glazed crystal appeared there, its spine carved with a swimming dragon, while a golden dragon coiled around the hilt so vividly it seemed alive.
Sword of Destiny!