The true form of Niu Tian's soul beast was incredibly formidable. The strength of his dragon scales was enough to rival, and even surpass, the most top-tier defensive soul tools. Yet, in front of the bullets fired by the Seven Thunders of Retribution, they were rendered useless, instantly pierced straight to the core.
As a level 99 Titled Douluo, Niu Tian had already cultivated the dream of all soul masters: the double soul core system, which was the source of his power and his foundation.
However, one of his soul cores was instantly disintegrated into atoms by the Seven Thunders of Retribution's bullet, while the other soul core, due to the perfect balance being utterly shattered, suffered an immediate energy runaway. This internal surge accelerated his demise from within.
This internal-external, physical and energy-level dual assault was the true reason for the fall of this peerless powerhouse.
"Is it... over already?"
A flash of lightning tore through the pervasive dust, arriving in a blink to form the figure of Raiden Mei.
She first glanced with slight curiosity at the strangely shaped sniper rifle, crackling with purple lightning arcs, in Remiuan's hand, then turned her gaze to Lu Jingming.
"Mm, you worked hard, Mei."
Lu Jingming smiled lightly, nodding with a calm tone, as if he had just completed a trivial matter.
The forces of the Clear Sky School that had come to Mingdu this time, including the specially-identified Tang Wutong, were completely wiped out.
No enmity, no grudge? Perhaps.
But their end was predetermined—after all, their allegiance was firmly tied to the chariot of the Sea God, Tang San.
For this single reason, their annihilation was an inevitable conclusion in Lu Jingming's eyes, unrelated to personal grievances, but purely the cold rule of factional confrontation.
The Shrek Academy was no different.
The root cause of him allowing Phantylia to destroy Shrek City lay here.
Aside from the younger generation like Ma Xiaotao and Han Ruoruo who still held potential or malleability, he did not intend to spare any of the old Sea God Pavilion elders whose thoughts were entrenched and who were completely subservient to Tang San.
The old trunk must be cut down for new branches to grow according to his will.
Once old powerhouses like Xuan Zi disappeared, the dominating power of the rebuilt Shrek Academy would become uncertain.
Shrek's ten-thousand-year accumulation of prestige was an immense wealth. What Lu Jingming needed was this brand, and the rallying power it could provide, to reduce the resistance for the future unification of the continent.
A completely destroyed Shrek was worthless, but a blood-changed, reborn Shrek that obeyed him would be an excellent asset.
However, just as Lu Jingming thought the battle here had completely concluded with the fall of the Sea God Tang San's divine consciousness clone, Tang Wutong, and Niu Tian, and was about to clean up the aftermath—
A grand finale, far exceeding everyone's expectations and capable of completely overturning the entire Mingdu and the current situation, was quietly prepared beneath the ruins.
The perpetrator was none other than that erratic, pleasure-seeking, and chaos-loving Masked Fool—Sparkle.
"Hmm... The disruptive bad guys, the disobedient actors, and the boring audience~"
Sparkle hummed an absurd tune, her slender figure flitting and leaping like a ghost through the shadows scattered across Mingdu.
From her hands, like a magic trick, she continuously pulled out harmless, even cute and charming, Sparkle dolls.
But the interiors of these dolls had long been replaced, with an extremely artistic flair, with cores that would send any soul engineer into a cold sweat: terrifyingly powerful Level Nine Fixed-Form Soul Cannon Shells.
They were meticulously placed in vulnerable locations beneath Mingdu: the various weak ground nodes, soul tool energy pipeline hubs, and the thin spatial tears created by the preceding cataclysmic battle.
Dozens of such dolls, like malicious cancers buried within the body of this dying giant city, quietly formed a devastating and terrifying array covering the entirety of Mingdu.
"Hehe~ You ugly Anti-Matter Legion creeps, I'll teach you for being so arrogant and for messing up my perfect script."
Sparkle pouted, but her face was beaming with a smile of excitement and anticipation.
"Since the stage has been made a mess, why not just... blow it all up, and then build a bigger, more interesting new stage."
Her purpose was never merely revenge or destruction.
She intended to use the terrifying energy generated by the simultaneous detonation of these dozens of Level Nine Fixed-Form Soul Cannon Shells—an energy capable of instantly wiping the entire Mingdu off the map—as a key to unlock a parallel world spacetime node precisely locked onto by Vita's All-Sight Heavenly Insight Eye.
She wanted to use this sheer, brutal, destructive great power to forcibly blast open a stable channel leading to an unknown parallel world.
This would be an unprecedented, earth-shattering surprise gift for all survivors, whether friend or foe.
"Ready—!"
Sparkle stopped at a relatively safe vantage point, striking an exaggerated conductor's pose, as if preparing for the climax of a symphony of destruction.
The next second, she playfully snapped her fingers.
There was no sequence, no delay.
As if a silent signal had been received simultaneously, the entire Mingdu earth—be it the fragments of the city that still stood or the central battleground already turned to scorched earth—simultaneously lit up with dozens of extremely dangerous, heart-stopping, fiery red dots.
Immediately following—
Boom! Roar! Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
An unimaginable, terrifying explosion erupted simultaneously from every corner of Mingdu.
It was not one explosion, but dozens of destructive sounds superimposed, finally merging into one ultimate roar that ripped apart heaven and earth, stripping away all hearing.
Blazing light and violent heat instantly swallowed everything in sight.
Buildings, corpses, metal wreckage, and even the air were instantly vaporized and annihilated at this moment.
A massive, colossal fireball, symbolizing absolute ending, expanded wildly at an unimaginable speed. Its contained power was visibly about to utterly obliterate all existence within its range.
However, this energy of ultimate destruction was not allowed to fully vent its fury.
At the very instant the explosive energy peaked, the hidden spacetime node directly beneath Mingdu, precisely located by Vita, was finally and violently forced open by this aggressive energy torrent.
Buzz—!!!
A chaotic channel, far deeper, more bizarre, and constantly twisting and spinning than the light of the explosion, suddenly tore reality from the core of the destructive fireball and burst forth.
It was like an insatiable black hole, furiously devouring the vast majority of the explosive energy, as well as all matter within the blast radius.
The terrifying explosive energy was forcefully twisted and absorbed by the channel, turning into the sustenance to maintain its own existence and stability.
The devastating flame fireball rapidly collapsed like a punctured balloon. Its horrifying energy and everything it encompassed—
"W-What is this thing!?"
Xuan Zi and the others, who were entangled with the Undead Legion and the Borisin Legion, were terrified out of their wits by this sudden, doomsday-like spectacle.
They turned back in horror, seeing the destructive light rapidly sweeping toward them. Their hearts were instantly shattered, and they no longer cared about pursuing the Holy Spirit Cult, instinctively sprinting for their lives away from the light.
The energy surge generated by the simultaneous detonation of dozens of Level Nine Fixed-Form Soul Cannon Shells—even with most of its power cleverly guided by Sparkle to impact the spacetime node—had an overflow of residual energy that was enough to easily annihilate any Titled Douluo, including powerhouses like the Level 98 Xuan Zi and Zhongli Wu.
"Run!!! Quickly run!!!"
Xuan Zi screamed in panic. At this moment, he could barely save himself, let alone care for young students like Ning Tian.
"My Lord is here!"
Jeanne's expression was incredibly solemn, but she chose not to flee alone. Instead, she resolutely unfurled her Holy Banner and released the True Name of her Noble Phantasm.
The brilliant golden light turned into a solid bulwark, firmly shielding the less powerful Ning Tian, Wu Feng, and others behind her.
Aglaea also turned almost simultaneously. Countless brilliant golden threads rapidly interwoven in the air, forming a second massive protective shield. The layers of threads gently yet firmly enveloped Ning Tian and the others.
Cerydra's eyes flashed. A strange chess piece dropped into the void, and a blue halo instantly lit up beneath Aglaea and Jeanne's feet—time seemed to echo strangely at this moment.
The defensive skills they had just used were briefly reset and triggered again. Jeanne's Noble Phantasm halo and Aglaea's golden thread barrier appeared almost overlapping, forming a double layer of insurance.
Helektra's melodious sound of her Qin-Sword became passionate. A massive illusory whale, composed of sound waves and water vapor, let out a high-pitched cry, fearlessly charging toward the destructive light wave, attempting to buy even a split second for the defense behind it.
"Bastard!"
Huo Yuhao couldn't help but curse.
The wickedness of the Holy Spirit Cult was exposed at this moment. Facing a life-and-death crisis, top officials like Zhongli Wu unhesitatingly abandoned their subordinates, and even him, the Holy Son, only caring for their own escape, each one faster than the last.
Thanks to the obstruction of the Undead Legion and the Borisin Legion, the main force of the Holy Spirit Cult had already fled a considerable distance, and now they wished they had several more legs.
"Yuhao!"
A pink figure instantly broke the sound barrier, ignoring the chaotic energy flow, and suddenly appeared in front of Huo Yuhao. It was Xiao Wu.
She grabbed Huo Yuhao and turned to sprint without hesitation.
Even she dared not face the full force of the explosion at this moment, much less tear the space—forcibly traversing space under such violent energy disturbance was tantamount to suicide.
"Mr. Jing Yuan!"
Bei Bei's face was ashen. Although he had defected from Shrek, he ultimately could not bear to see his former teachers and classmates perish here, and could only cast a pleading look toward Jing Yuan beside him.
"Sigh... So be it."
Jing Yuan sighed softly. Although he could easily take Bei Bei and Tang Ya out of danger, since Bei Bei cared for his old associates, he would not stand idly by.
"Splendor and might, heed my decree—!"
As Jing Yuan's slightly closed eyes suddenly opened, majestic golden lightning converged into the towering phantom of a Divine General.
The giant Divine General raised the spear in his hand, condensed purely from lightning, and hurled it fiercely at the sweeping wave of destructive light.
Thunder boomed, and thousands of lightning snakes raged across the void.
The destructive light wave arrived in an instant.
The sound wave giant whale summoned by Helektra bore the brunt, lasting only a moment before being utterly annihilated.
Immediately after, the golden thread defense laid out by Aglaea, along with the second layer of protection formed by Cerydra's ability, were successively torn open amidst piercing shattering sounds.
Just as the explosive aftermath was about to engulf Ma Xiaotao and the others, the golden lightning spear thrown by the Divine General finally arrived, crashing head-on against the shockwave.
Boom—!!!
In the fierce blast, the shockwave had nearly half of its power neutralized by this powerful strike.
But the remaining force was still terrifying. Ma Xiaotao and the others were violently flung away like fallen leaves in a gale.
Had it not been for the two layers of invincible shields granted by Jeanne's Noble Phantasm performing a crucial role at the last moment, the less-cultivated students like Ning Tian and Wu Feng would have been torn apart upon contact.
Even so, the immense impact instantly knocked them unconscious, leaving them drifting helplessly in the chaotic energy currents.
However, the explosion shockwave was only the beginning.
As the core energy rapidly collapsed, a much more terrifying suction force, like a black hole, abruptly emanated from the chaotic channel.
Whether it was the residual Anti-Matter Legion Phantoms, Xuan Zi, the Sea God Pavilion elders, Ma Xiaotao, Han Ruoruo, Aglaea, Jeanne, Cerydra, Helektra, or Huo Yuhao being pulled by Xiao Wu, Bei Bei holding Tang Ya, Jing Yuan, and countless wreckage fragments...
Everything within the range of the suction force was mercilessly captured and dragged by the terrifying gravity generated by the suddenly stabilized parallel world channel, pouring toward that deep, unknown entrance like all rivers returning to the sea.
"What's going on?!"
At this moment, even Lu Jingming was somewhat startled.
Just when everything was about to settle, such an astonishing change suddenly occurred.
This was completely outside of his expectations.
Beside him, Vita, who had just been forced to submit, couldn't help but let a slight, successful smile curl on her lips.
'Looks like little sister Sparkle succeeded...'
Facing the sweeping shockwave, Gu Yuena and Jing Liu instantly appeared in front of Lu Jingming.
A majestic dragon roar and a clear sword cry erupted simultaneously, easily blocking the destructive shockwave.
The terrifying suction that followed was also unable to shake Jing Liu and Gu Yuena in the slightest. Lu Jingming and the others, who were firmly protected behind them, were naturally safe and sound.
"Little fellow, it's a spacetime channel."
Herta's somewhat playful voice sounded directly in Lu Jingming's mind, seemingly enjoying his expression when things went beyond his control.
"Did you forget that a lawless Masked Fool snuck in among the retainers this time?"
"Sparkle!"
Lu Jingming's mouth twitched. He had indeed almost forgotten this individual who had little presence from the start, yet managed to create the biggest commotion.
"The parallel world channel has been forcibly blasted open. You should know which world it connects to, after all, we anchored it with the Cosmic Juggernaut before." Herta's voice continued, carrying a hint of scientific fanatic excitement.