Facing the obstruction from the Undying Poison, Kong Deming's face instantly became incredibly grim, a pallid white even showing through the steel-grey.
His heart was burning with anxiety, his gaze attempting to bypass the Undying Poison and look far into the distance, where devastating energy was converging. Xu Tianran's situation was precarious.
"Undying Poison, move aside!" Kong Deming roared, his Silver Moon Divine Light Barrier once again radiating intense brilliance, countless soul-guided rays poised for attack.
"Move aside? Dream on!" The Undying Poison sneered, a emerald-green light likewise shooting into the sky, showing no weakness. "Why didn't you move aside just now? Now you want to leave? Too late! Stay here obediently and watch with me... how your Regent disappears into smoke and ashes."
The dynamic of offense and defense reversed in an instant.
Just moments ago, Kong Deming had been the one sitting comfortably, preventing the Undying Poison from attacking Xu Tianran.
In the blink of an eye, the Undying Poison was now the one full of vigor, firmly dragging the anxious Kong Deming in place.
This dramatic turn of events filled Kong Deming with helplessness and rage, yet he could only watch as the distant, terminal sun was about to deliver its final judgment upon Xu Tianran.
However, just as Karna's god-slaying strike was about to hit Xu Tianran, a sudden change occurred.
A destructive force, far exceeding the limit of the Douluo Continent plane, appeared out of thin air.
A blurred, purple-black phantom, wearing a strange, smiling mask, silently positioned itself in front of Xu Tianran. She merely extended a single finger.
The fingertip collided with the tip of the God-Slaying Spear.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, only a suffocating annihilation.
The light of the God-Slaying Spear—that single strike capable of slaying a god—was wiped away as if by an eraser, disintegrating and vanishing inch by inch, starting from the spear tip.
Not only that, a cold, strange power instantly rebounded along the connection between the Noble Phantasm and Karna.
"Ugh!"
Karna groaned, his golden armor lamenting under the unbearable weight of the counter-attack, cracks appearing all over it.
His core, already unstable due to the death of his Master and his Extreme Enhancement, instantly reached the brink of collapse under the impact of this power from the Lord of Annihilation.
The light completely dissipated.
Xu Tianran, still shaken, slumped to the ground, the purple-black phantom that had saved his life standing before him.
In the distance, Karna's figure had become extremely translucent, his golden armor shattered. He knelt on one knee, barely supporting his body with his divine spear.
He raised his head, his molten-gold eyes looking at Xu Tianran, yet also seemingly gazing into the void, filled with regret and deep self-reproach.
"My sincerest... apologies... Master..."
His voice was a faint whisper, carrying an unspeakable heaviness.
"In the end... I failed... to grant your wish..."
"This unfulfilled contract... this undelivered trust... truly is... my Karna's... greatest negligence..."
Carrying the immense regret and self-reproach for failing to avenge his Master, the figure of the Son of the Sun God transformed into countless golden light particles, slowly dissolving into the cold ruins, like a star extinguishing.
In the end, he failed to shine the sun's radiance to the destination his Master had hoped for.
Inside the isolation field of the Silver Moon Divine Light Barrier, the Undying Poison was intercepting Kong Deming, preventing him from rushing to Xu Tianran's aid.
However, when the earth-shattering energy fluctuation from Karna's Noble Phantasm release abruptly erupted and was then suddenly extinguished, as if pinched off by an invisible giant hand...
A terrifying aura, far beyond the comprehension of a Titled Douluo of the Limit, and one that made his soul tremble, fiercely manifested in the outside world.
"What... was that?!"
The Undying Poison was aghast. He could even feel Karna's existence, which had been as dazzling as the sun, rapidly dimming and dissolving under the interference of the suddenly-appearing power.
Even an existence as powerful as that, a Servant comparable to a god, was instantly defeated and forced to retreat?!
The colossal shock instantly overwhelmed the Undying Poison.
His original determination to fight to the death instantly cooled as if doused with ice water in the face of this incomprehensible, terrifying power.
He was not afraid to fight, but he knew deeply that facing an existence of this caliber, his death would be meaningless, unable to even cause a ripple.
The legacy of the Body Sect could not be ended here.
"I must leave."
This thought instinctively occupied his entire mind.
Just as the external energy surge subsided, and as Kong Deming was reeling from the sudden appearance of the Phantylia and the retreat of Karna, a subtle relaxation appeared in his control over the Silver Moon Divine Light Barrier.
"Open up, damn it!"
The Undying Poison let out a beast-like roar. A blinding green light erupted around him, and his vital essence boiled as if on fire.
He recklessly activated the most domineering secret technique of the Body Sect, sacrificing permanent damage to his foundation to instantaneously force his power to an unprecedented peak.
"Ninth Soul Skill: Yellow Springs Emerald Starfall!"
He transformed his entire body into a terrifying, highly unstable emerald-green energy sphere and violently slammed it into the inner wall of the Silver Moon Divine Light Barrier.
Kong Deming snapped back to reality, his face changing, and he fully activated his soul tool: "You won't!"
Buzz—!
The Silver Moon Divine Light Barrier shone brilliantly, countless runes rapidly circulating, rigidly locking down the space.
However, the power of the Undying Poison's desperate strike was simply too frightening, coupled with the subtle gap caused by Kong Deming's momentary distraction.
Crack!
A crisp sound of shattering rang out. The incredibly tough inner wall of the Silver Moon Divine Light Barrier was forcibly impacted, creating a minute crack.
"Pft!"
The Undying Poison himself spewed out a large mouthful of blood mixed with organ fragments. His body was covered in countless bloody fissures like cracked porcelain, and his aura instantly plummeted, clearly having paid an extremely heavy price.
But a look of madness flashed in his eyes.
Now!
He transformed into a rapidly dissipating emerald-green streak of light, squeezing out of the crack with reckless abandon.
"Stay!"
Kong Deming was both shocked and enraged. A scorching soul-guided ray instantly condensed, accurately shooting toward the Undying Poison's fleeing back.
The Undying Poison made no attempt to defend, simply pushing his remaining soul power to accelerate.
Pfft!
The soul-guided ray instantly pierced his shoulder blade, drawing a plume of blood.
The Undying Poison's body violently shook, but he used the force of the impact to accelerate even more. He fled frantically toward the distant mountains outside Mingdou, vanishing into a tiny speck in the sky in the blink of an eye.
Kong Deming retrieved the Silver Moon Divine Light Barrier with a grim expression, looked toward the direction the Undying Poison had disappeared, and finally sighed in helplessness.
A Limit Douluo solely focused on escaping, even burning his own foundation, was indeed difficult to capture.
He turned, his gaze immensely serious, toward Xu Tianran's direction, or more accurately, toward the chilling purple-black phantom that had saved Xu Tianran.
Xu Tianran, still shaken, slumped on the ground, his eyes filled with ferocity and unwillingness as he looked in the direction the Undying Poison had fled.
"Why didn't you stop him?!" He couldn't help but look at the Phantylia.
The blurred, smiling purple-black phantom didn't even shift her gaze toward the Undying Poison's vanishing direction.
"A startled fleeing ant, nothing more. Why waste effort? His existence is harmless to the grand scheme, and perhaps... may even provide a touch of trivial... amusement."
An unearthly voice softly echoed, carrying the indifference of one who looks down upon all living things.
In the eyes of the Lord of Annihilation, even the powerful sect master of the Body Sect, the Rank 99 Undying Poison, was no different from a speck of dust—his life and death were insufficient to garner her slightest attention.
"So Karna also retreated... it was indeed Phantylia who acted."
Lu Jingming stood atop a relatively intact tall tower, his eyes slightly closed. His extraordinary spiritual power, like an invisible spiderweb, meticulously captured every trace of energy residue coming from the palace direction.
The once vast and surging auras of Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui had completely vanished, and Karna's sun, which had burned so brightly and irresistibly, was now extinguished.
Through his connection to the Holy Grail, he clearly confirmed the retreat of the Son of the Sun God.
Given Karna's strength, even the few strongest Servants in this Holy Grail War—Feixiao and Jing Yuan, among others—could not have easily killed him.
Therefore, it could only have been Phantylia, who had acquired the Golden Tree's physical body. Though heavily wounded by Phantylia, with Phantylia's recovery rate, she must have already regained a portion of her strength.
"It seems she still hasn't given up on Xu Tianran as a pawn."
A flicker of understanding crossed Lu Jingming's eyes.
He knew Phantylia's style all too well: she loved guiding civilizations to self-destruct rather than crushing them herself.
Preserving Xu Tianran and the framework of the Sun Moon Empire was precisely to ignite a war that would sweep the continent, allowing this world to self-destruct in endless conflict and annihilation.
"The moment the Holy Grail War ends will be the moment the continental war reignites."
He murmured to himself, a cold, detached arc curving at his lips.
He could already foresee how his Sea Abyss City faction would rise amidst the ruins of the Heaven Soul and Dou Ling Empires, after the Star Luo Empire had all its edges ground away by war, to seize the ultimate authority.
War inevitably brought mountains of corpses and rivers of blood; he knew this clearly.
That supreme throne had always been constructed from piles of white bones.
Lu Jingming was extremely clear about his own self-perception—he was a selfish, ambitious villain, at least in the eyes of those who harbored impractical ideals.
He didn't care how many people died in the process of achieving his goal.
Of course, he believed he retained a tiny, negligible bottom line. For instance, he had indeed left behind countermeasures during the catastrophe in Mingdou, which might save the lives of many civilians.
But this was more to appease his last shred of conscience than genuine benevolence.
"Which ruler in history hasn't had a blackened heart?"
He sneered, "As long as I can ultimately reach the destination I desire, if conscience is what it takes, let it blacken."
If a man doesn't look out for himself, heaven and earth will destroy him.
This was precisely his life motto.
He quite admired a certain saying from Boss Cao: "Better to betray the world than be betrayed by it."
Of course, as for Boss Cao's certain... peculiar preferences, he respectfully declined; he preferred things to be purer. See? Is this not another form of selfishness?
Everything seemed to be within his calculations, with the situation developing exactly as he had foreseen.
He was ready. Once the Sun Moon Empire launched a war, the Heaven Soul Empire and the Dou Ling Empire would be unable to stop them, their fate already sealed. As for the Star Luo Empire, all dissenting voices would vanish after a single war.
That would be the time for Sea Abyss City to step onto the stage.
Just as everything seemed about to settle, Lu Jingming felt a persistent twitch in his eye, as if he had forgotten something.
The battle at the palace was over. There were now only three ongoing battlegrounds: Jingliu versus Sea God Tang San, Feixiao versus Celenova, and Shrek Academy versus the Holy Spirit Cult.
As for everyone else, they had either already left the powder keg of Mingdou via Sea Abyss City or died at the hands of the Anti-Matter Legion.
Regarding the civilians, not many survivors remained in Mingdou. Ordinary people were no different from ants before the Anti-Matter Legion.
In other words, Mingdou was currently an inferno, and the colossal negative energy brought by the deaths of millions of civilians was an eagerly anticipated feast for evil soul masters.
The situation was clear, and the Holy Grail War would soon end. Lu Jingming couldn't think of any point he had missed that would cause such unease.
On the chaotic battlefield of Mingdou, destructive energy turbulence and earth-shaking battle cries intertwined into a symphony of the apocalypse.
However, beneath this clamor, a far more ridiculous spectacle was being quietly prepared.
"Hehe~ It's so lively. So many 'big fireworks,' wouldn't it be a shame not to set them off?"
The Masked Fool, the trouble-making Sparkle, was humming an off-key, cheerful tune, flitting lightly through the ruins of Mingdou's various armories and hidden ammunition storage points like an elf celebrating a festival.
Wherever she passed, the Level 9 fixed soul cannon shells, considered national strategic weapons by the Sun Moon Empire, capable of instantly vaporizing a city, vanished as if by magic.
In their place, funny-looking, brightly colored Sparkle dolls wearing eerie, smiling masks were left behind.
These dolls were carelessly scattered in street corners, on rooftops, and even on the debris of destroyed soul tools. The substance within them was no longer cotton, but terrifying explosives that Sparkle had modified and compressed using the power of the Masked Fool's unique path of Joy.
An unprecedented prank—one that turned the entirety of Mingdou into a potential powder keg—had been set up.
"Oh my, preparation complete~ Next, I need to ask my 'good sister' for a favor."
Sparkle clapped her hands in satisfaction, a pure yet dangerously bright smile radiating on her face, before her figure rippled like water and melted into the shadows.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the battlefield, the atmosphere was completely different.
The golden Valkyrie Durandal, wielding the Abyss Flower, launched an offensive like a tempest, every thrust containing the immense power to shatter mountains and cleave the sea.
Her opponent was Vita, whose posture was elegant and unhurried, as if she were dancing a waltz.
"Such astonishing power and fighting spirit, Miss Durandal."
Vita chuckled, elegantly sidestepping a direct stab.
"But sometimes, wisdom is more effective than sheer force."
As her words fell, the colossal mech—the Star Watcher—flashed with cold metallic luster, its heavy mechanical arm slamming toward Durandal with immense force, momentarily forcing the powerful Valkyrie to retreat.
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