"Artifact Spirit?" Di Tian was stunned as he carefully examined the Glazed Holy Sword in front of him.
The style of the sword had changed somewhat, but Di Tian could still tell—this was the trophy Ning Rongrong and her master had obtained after killing Hypnos: the second-level god's divine artifact, the God-Slaying Sword.
But… it had actually been refined into a super-divine artifact?
Truly unbelievable.
Di Tian withdrew his thoughts.
"The artifact spirit you're referring to… is it like the Dark Devilgod Tiger?"
The Dark Devilgod Tiger was precisely the artifact spirit of Ning Rongrong's Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda—currently Tokisaki Kurumi.
"That's right. I plan to use the Glazed Holy Sword to trigger the heavenly tribulation. Kurumi is still cultivating; if we did this with the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, something could easily go wrong."
Di Tian's attribute was not pure darkness, so Ning Rongrong would not act so radically toward him.
Light and darkness can transform into each other. Most importantly, Di Tian and Kurumi's attributes partially overlap, so there would not be excessive rejection.
By devouring the tribulation lightning and converting it into his own zhenqi for a breakthrough—there was risk, but it should be achievable.
Ning Rongrong paused slightly, then continued:
"You're different from Kurumi. She herself is protected by the Evil God Pearl and can withstand soul conversion, but you…"
"Formerly the clan leader of the black dragon race—your soul's resilience is certainly sufficient. However, the current you is ultimately not a god."
"In other words, if even the slightest accident occurs, you will very likely die."
"Even if there is no accident, you will no longer be of the black dragon race, nor even a soul beast—you will become the artifact spirit of this sword of mine."
"I will not force you." Ning Rongrong looked toward Di Tian as she spoke. "It's fine if you disagree. I already have a backup plan for Qian Renxue's side, though it doesn't have much certainty of success."
"No need. Since you came to find me, it means the success probability of the backup plan on Qian Renxue's side is lower than this one."
Di Tian did not know exactly what method Ning Rongrong intended to use, but from his understanding of her, she would not create unnecessary trouble.
He slowly dispersed the soul power in his body and closed his eyes.
"Ning Rongrong, I hope you won't forget your promise."
"I won't."
The Glazed Holy Sword in her hand thrust forward directly.
"Chi—"
The sword body, carrying bright red blood, protruded halfway out from Di Tian's back.
Drip, drip—the blood slid down along the sword tip. Instantly, the scent of blood filled the array.
A pained expression appeared on Di Tian's face, but he did not resist.
His form could no longer maintain its human shape. He reverted to his dragon form, and then his entire body exploded with a "bang" into a mist of blood.
Blood rain carrying a pungent metallic smell scattered across the array.
Ning Rongrong bathed in the dragon blood pouring down like a waterfall. Her clothes, her pink hair, and even her entire beautiful face were dyed blood-red.
The Glazed Holy Sword, now soaked in blood, absorbed a blood-red soul ring that fused into it.
Immediately afterward, at the position of the sword body, an engraving of a black dragon pattern appeared.
The Glazed Holy Sword trembled lightly and emitted a low, deep dragon roar.
Ning Rongrong raised her blood-soaked left hand, placing her palm against the blade of the Glazed Holy Sword. Her palm gently slid from the hilt all the way to the tip.
After a long moment, she slowly lowered her left hand.
"Drip, drip…"
Blood flowed from the hideous wound across her palm—from the base of the thumb to the base of the little finger—sliding down her fingertips and finally dripping onto the array.
"I, Ning Rongrong… really am an evil soul master, huh!"
Ning Rongrong's delicate brows furrowed slightly. The blood staining her body was evaporated by the zhenqi she released.
Even the wound on her left palm, stretching from thumb to pinky, was visibly healing at a speed noticeable to the naked eye.
"Blood River Grand Array."
"Activate."
The Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array began to rotate rapidly.
The Taiji diagram reflected in the sky, spreading across the entire planet.
The black-and-white interlocking Eight Trigrams patterns— the white parts visibly turned blood-red at a speed visible to the eye.
Beneath Ning Rongrong's feet.
Di Tian's 990,000-year soul bone lay quietly, rapidly dissolving and then being absorbed by the array.
"Living beings of the Douluo Continent, I am Ning Rongrong, Young Sect Master of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Next, I will absorb the energy from your bodies to maintain the stability of the array."
"After this incident is over, the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and Spirit Hall will give you corresponding compensation."
As soon as Ning Rongrong's words fell, before everyone could understand what was happening—
A wave of weakness surged through their bodies.
It felt as though their bodies had been hollowed out.
"How is this possible! I'm Seven Times a Night Lang, and my legs are actually going soft!"
Inside Heaven Dou City.
A burly Soul Emperor two meters tall with a fierce face staggered and collapsed flat on the ground. He struggled several times but couldn't get up.
It wasn't just Heaven Dou City—similar scenes were occurring in other cities as well.
Everyone felt as if their vitality had been drained.
Ning Fengzhi, Sword Douluo, and Bone Douluo landed on the ground.
"Rongrong… she's not even bothering to hide it anymore? Directly extracting everyone's power." Bone Douluo panted heavily and plopped down on the ground.
"If she does this, Rongrong's future path on the continent will probably be very difficult." Sword Douluo wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and half-crouched down.
This was already the conduct of an evil soul master—practically the very kind that Spirit Hall had been purging for so long.
"Don't worry. Rongrong knows her limits." Ning Fengzhi's expression was complicated as well.
"Even if we set aside whether Rongrong's personality would care about what others say—would Spirit Hall really dare to issue a warrant for Rongrong?"
"I was just saying." Sword Douluo shrugged. "I can roughly sense that the power loss is being done through martial souls."
"Martial souls…" Ning Fengzhi murmured. "Come to think of it, Rongrong once mentioned that the essence of martial souls on the Douluo Continent originates from fragments of the Dragon God after its fall. It seems she's collecting power through this method!"
The three of them fell silent, gazing up at the now-strange Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array in the sky.
Bibi Dong and the other two who were maintaining the array.
"Ning Rongrong, what a grand move!" Having reached the god level, her martial soul had separated from her body—similar to how Sea God Bo Saixi's martial soul had become the divine artifact Sea God's Trident.
Although Bibi Dong had not yet had the chance to do the same, she was not affected by the array and did not have her power absorbed.
"Di Tian has fallen." Xue Di's voice came through. "Ning Rongrong is drawing power from the living beings of the Douluo Continent through Di Tian's identity as the Dragon King."
"She killed Di Tian?" Lan Fozi sounded quite surprised.
"I don't know." Xue Di was silent for a moment. "Perhaps it was a sacrifice. After all, we also saw the Silver Dragon King and the Crimson Mother appear."
"With the previous intensity of the array, it absolutely could not have withstood them."
"Now it has been strengthened by more than one level."
"Maintained by us, breaking it would require the power of a God King."
"Merely surrounding them… seems somewhat meaningless." Bibi Dong's tone carried worry.
"Whether it's Gu Yuena or the Crimson Mother—their strength is very formidable."
"They've been suppressed to the peak of first-level gods. I can feel that both of their powers have been restricted."
"It probably won't last too long." Xue Di replied. "But Ning Rongrong is likely planning to do something during this time!"
"Try your best to maintain the array. Otherwise everything will be meaningless."
"Sigh…"
Hearing Xue Di's words, Lan Fozi and Bibi Dong could not help but sigh.
At the same time.
Ning Rongrong left the range of the array and flew up to the thundercloud layer of the tribulation.
"Although it's a bit risky, there's no choice but to do it this way."
She had originally planned to convert and absorb the tribulation lightning through the array after using the array to defeat the Crimson Mother.
At that moment, Qian Renxue would absorb the fallen Crimson Mother and the Crimson Domain, achieving the position of Plane Lord and God King.
She would definitely be faster than Qian Renxue. By then, there would be no need to worry about Qian Renxue crossing the river and burning the bridge.
The main target was still the Divine Realm.
As for Gu Yuena—once both she and Qian Renxue had broken through, they could go to the Dragon Valley to track her down.
Gu Yuena was not the Dragon God. With her and Qian Renxue together, they could steadily suppress the Silver Dragon King.
"I really didn't expect this!"
"The Silver Dragon King lost control much faster than anticipated."
Now she could only rely on the resonance between Di Tian, the array, and herself to absorb the tribulation lightning.
A half-step God King tribulation lightning—even possibly developing into a full God King tribulation in the end.
Just thinking about it made her tremble with excitement.
"Hm, it's all Gu Yuena's fault."
Why did she have to push her spiritual power to the God King level for no reason!
Now she finally understood how helpless Di Tian must have felt in the Douluo series.
"The subject wishes to fight to the death—why did Your Majesty surrender first?"
Truly a case of having the heart to kill the traitor, yet lacking the strength to turn the tide.
(End of chapter)