"Trembling with fear."
High in the sky, the booming thunder roared so loudly that it made Ning Rongrong's scalp tingle.
"No wonder soul beasts that fail their tribulation don't even leave behind a soul ring."
"Double devastation to both body and soul—surviving would be strange." Although she murmured this, Ning Rongrong actually felt a slight relief in her heart.
Engraving Di Tian's soul into the Glazed Holy Sword to draw in the lightning did not cause the tribulation to stop.
Looking up at the sky.
Thunderclouds rolled violently, electric light flashing nonstop.
Ning Rongrong swallowed hard:
"I'm clearly just a lazy fish, so why am I pushing myself this hard!"
"I hope I can go home for dinner tomorrow."
Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!
Don't set flags.
That kind of hopeful thinking is absolutely forbidden.
Ning Rongrong took a deep breath.
Then she sat cross-legged in midair, floating. The Glazed Holy Sword lay flat across her knees. Her hands rested on the sword body as faint zhenqi flowed, perfectly complementing the Glazed Holy Sword.
The roaring sound was deafening.
The thunderclouds in the sky suddenly split open. Lightning like heavenly pillars poured straight down.
Within hundreds of kilometers, the air pressure plummeted as if everything had been sucked empty.
In an instant, the Glazed Holy Sword lying flat on her knees trembled slightly, emitting a low sword hum mixed with dragon roars. Gentle energy fluctuations rippled around the blade.
The lightning did not strike Ning Rongrong directly as usual. Instead, it collided with the barrier raised by the Glazed Holy Sword and was rapidly absorbed by it.
Afterward, the crackling thunder began to wander along the sword body. Passing through her hands that rested on the blade, it poured into Ning Rongrong's body and finally dissipated completely.
Before Ning Rongrong could fully absorb it, the second bolt of lightning crashed down.
Once again, it was blocked by the Glazed Holy Sword's barrier.
Moments later, just like the first bolt, it quickly vanished without a trace.
Then the third, the fourth…
With each descending bolt of lightning, the oppressive pressure grew noticeably stronger than the previous one.
Gradually, dense cracks appeared across the Glazed Holy Sword's barrier.
A long, resounding dragon roar echoed through the sky.
The phantom of a black dragon rose from Ning Rongrong's body.
The black dragon that blotted out the sky opened its golden eyes and spread its massive bloody maw, swallowing the lightning that was about to strike Ning Rongrong in one gulp.
Afterward, the black dragon-shaped phantom dissipated. Dots of light quickly merged into the Glazed Holy Sword.
"Sorry, I can only help you block up to here." The voice was almost identical to Di Tian's, only carrying a slightly heavier tone.
"Mm, that's enough. No need to force yourself."
Ning Rongrong slowly stood up and gripped the Glazed Holy Sword in her right hand.
At the same time.
Within the area of the Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Array, the refined tribulation lightning had turned into heaven-and-earth vital energy and rapidly poured into Ning Rongrong's body.
"The remaining energy, combined with the blood qi that just converged from across the continent, should still be able to hold off the Silver Dragon King and the Crimson Mother's battle for a little while longer."
Ning Rongrong glanced toward the Star Luo Empire's direction, then withdrew her gaze.
Her entire body turned into a streak of golden light and flew toward the profound depths high in the sky that resembled the "Eye of Heavenly Punishment."
Bolts of thunder struck her body one after another, only to be absorbed by her zhenqi or deflected away.
Her eyes had also turned one golden and one bluish-white. The clock-like engravings of time and space in her pupils slowly rotated.
Her figure grew smaller and smaller until it soon vanished completely into the dim, thunder-filled void.
High above, the thunder still boomed, but no more tribulation lightning descended from the top.
"Koku-tei, Kuru-kuru-tei"
"Void Collapse Dragon—Myriad Transformations: Void Devour"
Time and space seemed to freeze in an instant.
Yet upon closer inspection, it was as if nothing had changed at all.
The Silver Dragon King and the Crimson Mother, who had still been locked in battle, both came to a halt.
Both of them instinctively looked up toward the sky.
"That aura just now… a God King?" The Crimson Mother was first stunned, then quickly rejected her own thought.
"No, completely different."
The expression on the Crimson Mother's face was extremely serious.
Originally, according to the plan, there should have been no problems. Her son, the Abyss Holy Lord, would be revived, the marked passage would stabilize, and she could arrive safely.
But this unknown silver dragon appeared and widened the passage until it nearly collapsed.
With no choice, she could only confront the other party inside the passage. Thanks to the expanded space, she was able to press the entire Crimson Domain forward and touch the Douluo plane.
However, this silver dragon was simply too powerful.
With half-step God King strength and God King-level spiritual power, and it even seemed to be going berserk.
There was no other way. She could only risk injury to come to the Douluo plane, devour the Abyss Holy Lord's Heavenly Abyss, and raise her soul level close to God King before barely managing to resist.
Besides that, the earlier explosion of the Heavenly Saint Splitting Abyss Halberd had also inflicted some damage on the opponent.
However, what worried the Crimson Mother the most was how extremely strange the Douluo plane was. The silver dragon in front of her kept entangling her, leaving her completely unable to investigate the surrounding situation.
And the most crucial point—her strength versus the opponent's strength.
Aside from soul level, both had been suppressed to the peak of first-level gods.
Moreover, that aura she had just sensed.
In her heart.
The feeling of unease grew increasingly severe.
If she devoured the silver dragon in front of her, she was one hundred percent confident she could break through to God King. The problem was that the opponent's rank seemed higher than hers, and the Abyss's devouring ability was almost completely ineffective.
Unless she could continuously weaken the opponent or inflict serious injury.
"This array definitely has a problem." Even while fighting, the Crimson Mother was not completely unaware.
As a half-step God King powerhouse, it was impossible for her not to notice that all the energy was being tightly confined within a certain range.
"We can't drag this out any longer. If we keep dragging, I might die here." The Crimson Mother immediately made her decision.
She trusted her sixth sense very much.
This silver dragon was only half-step God King. Even if its spiritual power was at God King level, with the addition of the Crimson Moon Blade, she might still be able to inflict heavy damage.
That sense of unease came from the sky.
"Break the array first!"
The Crimson Mother switched her weapon to another super-divine artifact—the Crimson Scepter.
"Foolish silver dragon, if you have the guts, come at me!"
"Crimson Binding!"
Crimson blood whips shot out and directly wrapped around the Silver Dragon King, only to be shattered by the divine power it emitted.
This move also provoked the slightly calmed Silver Dragon King. It no longer paid attention to the sky and instead launched an attack on the Crimson Mother. Flapping its wings, it dove straight toward her.
"Just waiting for that."
The Crimson Mother turned into a streak of light and sped from the central zone toward the border of the Star Luo Empire.
"Not good!" The faces of Xue Di and the others maintaining the array changed slightly.
The Crimson Mother wants to break the array?
"We should be able to stop her, right?" Watching the Crimson Mother draw closer and closer to the Star Luo border, Lan Fozi's tone carried quite a lack of confidence.
"In theory, yes. The array's strength surpasses first-level gods, but…"
Xue Di sounded somewhat worried.
"What is it?" Bibi Dong pressed.
"Super-divine artifacts are usually something only God Kings possess, yet the Crimson Mother has two of them." Xue Di hesitated for a moment before continuing, "If she does it the same way as before, I'm afraid…"
Xue Di did not finish, but both Bibi Dong and Lan Fozi understood.
If she detonated a super-divine artifact, she might be able to tear open a corner of the array.
If she combined it with some special method, the consequences would be unimaginable.
And it seemed the Crimson Mother was precisely planning to do just that. After arriving at the boundary, she reached out and touched the solid barrier.
"Truly terrifying. It's practically a God King-level array barrier, but… it's not completely unbreakable."
(End of chapter)