That dusk-colored sword aura struck the giant blood-red ice hand with unstoppable force.
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion shook the heavens.
The "Hate Palm: Oblivion Without End", able to freeze souls and annihilate life, shattered from the center like ice meeting its nemesis, exploding into countless blood-tinted ice crystals that rained down over the battlefield.
Huo Yuhao's blood-red pupils shrank sharply, his composure instantly replaced by shock and fury.
He whipped his head around, his gaze stabbing like an icicle at Yae Sakura, who had arrived with the green lightning.
Yae Sakura landed lightly, spirit blade pointing to the ground. She lifted a finger to wipe a trace of blood from her lips, her expression as calm and cold as ever, as if she hadn't noticed the rage and accusation in Huo Yuhao's eyes.
"Sorry,"
Her voice was utterly emotionless. "I couldn't stop him."
"You…!"
Huo Yuhao's tone was icy, his killing intent almost tangible.
But as he was about to erupt, his gaze caught the figure standing before Xu Sanshi and the others—Siegfried.
Just one look, and the words of rebuke choked in his throat.
Siegfried's state was tragic!
A terrifying wound ran from his left shoulder diagonally to his right waist, nearly splitting him in half.
The wound was deep, exposing glimpses of his organs beneath. Most fatally, pitch-black negative energy poured uncontrollably from the wound—sign of a servant's impending collapse and dissolution.
Clearly, in order to break through Yae Sakura's blockade and return in time, this dragon-slaying hero had taken the blow head-on, risking death for this chance to turn the tide.
Though driven by hatred, Huo Yuhao was not without reason.
He could see that Siegfried's move was a desperate gamble, and rebuking Yae Sakura for "failing" was pointless—and might even provoke her displeasure.
He suppressed his anger, his face dark.
"Master, are you… alright?"
Siegfried dropped heavily to one knee, only his massive Balmung sword keeping him upright.
His voice was hoarse and weak, each word spilling blood from his lips.
Yae Sakura's slash had already severed his very foundation for existence.
Even in Mingdu, with its pervasive negative energy, his wounds were fatal.
He and Yae Sakura were evenly matched—prolonged battle was inevitable.
But sensing his master Dai Huabin's mortal crisis, he had no choice but to risk everything.
He won the gamble, saving his master, but the price was his own end.
If he could recover in peace, there might be hope—but the current situation allowed no such luxury. The battle was far from over.
"Miss Yae!"
Huo Yuhao looked away from Siegfried, his voice cold as ice.
"Finish this quickly! I don't want to see any more surprises!"
Yae Sakura was powerful, and Huo Yuhao respected her, but her ambiguous stance and disconnect from the Holy Spirit Cult, plus his own even stronger servant Hoolay and Tang Ya's restraint, made his tone inevitably carry a command.
Before he finished, Huo Yuhao's aura surged again.
Extreme cold and overwhelming hatred converged, freezing the air into ice as a massive sword—made of white bone and blood-red ice—appeared out of thin air.
Bloody energy and icy soul power twined like serpents along the blade, radiating an aura of freezing and utter despair.
"Ultimate Grudge Sword: Eternal Night Without Light!"
Huo Yuhao roared, grasped the sword with both hands, and slashed down.
As the blood-red sword light burst forth, his vast spiritual power formed a massive dark vortex, latching onto the sword strike.
The vortex seemed to connect to endless darkness, devouring all light and sound, plunging the area into suffocating, absolute blackness.
These three moves—Hate Fist, Hate Palm, Grudge Sword—were the three ultimate techniques Huo Yuhao had created under the tutelage of Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao.
Among them, the Grudge Sword was the strongest, far exceeding the previous two.
A trace of helplessness flashed in Yae Sakura's eyes, but she didn't hesitate.
She knew that holding back now would only provoke Huo Yuhao's true fury; while she wasn't afraid, she didn't want unnecessary trouble.
She flicked her wrist, and her blade, Sakura Fubuki, sang out—a hundred-meter-long blade aura, brilliant as cherry blossoms, but sharp as death, ripped through the air toward the dying Siegfried.
Facing this killing blow, Siegfried silently raised his massive dragon-slaying sword with his last strength.
Zzzt—BOOM!
Even brighter green lightning exploded around him, a pillar of dusk-colored light shot into the sky, as if the final blood of a hero sought to ignite the heavens.
"Awaken from the golden dream—"
"Be freed from the cradle!!"
"Evil Dragon—!!!"
"Must be destroyed!!!!"
"Phantasmal Greatsword: Balmung!!!"
With the last of his strength, Siegfried called out his Noble Phantasm's true name, turning the sky a heroic yellow dusk.
This sword aura was no longer just a beam of energy, but a world-cleaving blade of fate, its power approaching city-destroying levels.
It was the ultimate blow, burning his core and existence itself.
After this strike, the dragon-slaying hero Siegfried would disappear from this world forever.
The sword aura cleaved through the clouds, far stronger than before, displaying its full might on the war-torn fields of Mingdu.
Siegfried knew, in his state, even holding off Yae Sakura was his limit.
If she pinned him down, Huo Yuhao and Tang Ya could kill Dai Huabin and Zhu Lu.
So, he resolutely burned his body and core, unleashing his Noble Phantasm at full power.
"Not good! He's gone mad!"
Huo Yuhao's face turned white as paper.
Without hesitation, he activated the Blessing of Abundance, transforming into a powerful frost Borisin.
At the same time, his hands blurred, throwing out countless flashing defensive soul tools—soul barriers, energy deflectors, even his most precious Invincible Barrier.
Layer upon layer of shields wrapped him tightly.
During his time in the Holy Spirit Cult, Huo Yuhao hadn't neglected his soul engineer talent.
With Ye Xishui, a top-tier soul engineer capable of crafting rank-10 tools, as a mentor, he had advanced rapidly.
Now, he could craft rank-8 soul tools on his own.
With his strong spiritual power and the bonus from his Spirit Eyes, Ye Xishui believed he would one day surpass even Kong Deming and herself.
"Higokumaru!"
Yae Sakura's expression changed as well—Siegfried's desperate blow far exceeded before; if she was careless, she too could be swept away.
"Big sister!"
Higokumaru's voice carried a hint of panic.
In the next moment, flames erupted—a huge, fox-shaped spirit made of demonic fire appeared, shielding Yae Sakura.
A pillar of fire roared upward, trying to counter the descending dusk judgment.
"Xiao Ya!"
Bei Bei's eyes nearly burst; the blood of the Light Holy Dragon burned within him, unleashing dazzling golden lightning.
He turned into a golden bolt, throwing his wounded body in front of Tang Ya as a final bulwark, his eyes filled with determination.
…
"Damn it, damn it, damn it! Why did we have to run into a lunatic like this?!"
On the battlefield's edge, the Holy Spirit Cult's Third Worship, Crimson Douluo Xie Yan, stomped her feet in panic, nearly dropping her parasol.
She had thought that with Huo Yuhao, the mysterious and powerful Xiao Mei, and the strong servant Yae Sakura, nothing could go wrong.
But who would have thought Siegfried would go this far, willing to die together?
Xie Yan was inwardly miserable, cursing her luck.
Though terrified, she couldn't abandon Huo Yuhao and the others to escape alone.
If Huo Yuhao and Tang Ya died, her fate as their secret protector would be grim.
"There's nothing for it—!"
Gritting her teeth, Xie Yan's fingers danced like a zither, sending countless nearly invisible crimson puppet strings into the void.
BOOM!
A massive, ominous Tramplers fell from the sky, crashing in front of Huo Yuhao and Tang Ya.
At the same time, the wandering anti-matter legions voidrangers eyes blazed red, as if controlled by unseen strings, howling madly and piling up to form a twisted, writhing barricade.
Crimson Douluo Xie Yan's terrifying martial soul was the chilling "Puppet Master".
Her soul skills were insidious, capable of turning body and spirit into her puppets.
But facing the anti-matter army, she felt unprecedented fear.
These monsters were not living beings—their cores filled with pure destruction, a force that could pollute and annihilate any outside will.
She had once tested her spiritual power, and the instant she touched that apocalyptic will, her soul was severely burned, nearly collapsing entirely.
She could sense that, behind this destructive tide, there was a deeper, nameless horror—the Lord Ravager.
Were it not for her caution, she would have been assimilated long ago.
So she dared not touch their spirits, only their shells.