Word Count: 3,287 Words
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"Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor, a True Dragon bloodline that willingly fell…"
Ling Bai gazed at the dark violet giant dragon whose cultivation exceeded six hundred thousand years, a flicker of doubt furrowing his brow. If sea spirit beasts had been counted among the Ten Great Beasts, the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor would have firmly held fourth place on the continent.
A Great Beast of this caliber, reduced to being Tang San's dog?
Perhaps Ling Bai's look of 'you really have no ambition, do you' was too blatant. The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor thrust half its body above the waves, opened its maw, and spoke in human tongue:
"Tens of thousands of years ago, the Sea God saved my life from the jaws of the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King. Now the successor he has chosen has need of aid, and this Emperor naturally cannot stand idly by!"
Tang San had ascended to the Sea God position only ten thousand years ago. The sole 100,000-year sea spirit beast he had truly known was the Demon Soul Great White Shark King. The 100,000-year spirit beasts gathered now in the Extreme North Ice Sea were acting entirely out of respect for the first Sea God, the one who had once conquered the entire ocean and, in the end, ascended to the Divine Realm on the faith of all sea spirit beasts.
Since the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor sought to repay the first-generation Sea God's kindness, Ling Bai had nothing more to say. Their paths diverged, and there was no walking them together. This battle could not be avoided!
The angel released a clear, ringing whistle. The true dragon roared in fury. The Seraphim's Angelic Domain and the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's Abyss Domain unfurled at the same instant. Over the Extreme North Ice Sea, half the sky blazed with a scorching sun while the other half churned with roiling dark clouds. The two domains blanketed hundreds of miles of ocean as howling gales screamed across the waves, and Radiant Thunder Dazzles the World wove together with destructive dark lightning overhead like horns heralding the apocalypse!
Winds churned and clouds surged. The tides galloped. Amid the gold-and-violet lightning and thunder, a torrential downpour such as the Ice Sea had never witnessed crashed down upon it. Tsunamis reared from the surface as if to swallow the world!
Then a dead, gray domain unfurled, shattering the balance between the other two. Instinct screamed a warning through the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's blood, and an immense sense of crisis seized its heart.
A crisp sound like crystal shattering rang out. The dragon realized its Innate Domain was collapsing at terrifying speed. Its Abyss Domain was being slain outright by that sudden gray field!
The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's heart hammered wildly. It abandoned every last trace of contempt for Ling Bai and stared fixedly at the figures suspended in the sky. With the superior vision of a true dragon, it could make out every detail of Ling Bai's transformation.
Flesh and bone parted, inch by inch. A gray human figure crawled out from within Ling Bai's body, and eight savage spider lances, each over sixteen feet long, punched through its surface. The figure was human, identical in appearance to Ling Bai. The only differences lay in hair color, eye color, and the Martial Spirit unique to humans!
Ring after ring rose from beneath the feet of Ling Bai and the gray figure. With every spirit ring that appeared, the pressure radiating from the two climbed higher.
By the time the last rings settled into place and the two exhaled long breaths of scorching air, the look they turned upon the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor sent a chill through the dragon for the first time in its six hundred thousand years of life!
Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Gold, Red!
Gray, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Purple-Gold, Red!
Sixteen dazzling spirit rings rotated slowly in the sky, freely releasing a savage, primordial aura. The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor did not even notice that its own colossal body had begun to tremble of its own accord.
Each spirit ring represented the life of a 100,000-year spirit beast. Gold was the fabled color worn only by those whose cultivation had broken past the million-year threshold. After surviving the tenth heavenly tribulation, ten golden patterns merged into one, and the spirit ring shed its blood-red color to become brilliant gold.
Had Ling Bai truly slain a million-year spirit beast for that golden ring? The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor had no way of knowing. More terrifying still than the gold was the purple-gold ring around the gray figure. Overwhelming dragon might poured from it, and the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon bloodline coiled in the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's veins recoiled as if facing a mortal foe!
While the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's worldview shattered in dread, Ling Bai felt only that he could faintly hear the pulse of the world's veins beating somewhere beneath him.
In the Extreme North Ice Sea, where humans had long since vanished, facing one of the continent's top-five Great Beasts, he could finally unleash his full strength without restraint!
Death Abyss Spider Emperor Fifth Spirit Skill, Spider Emperor Clone!
The Death Abyss Spider Emperor split off a clone that inherited every one of its spirit rings. Apart from requiring Ling Bai to control it with a portion of his spiritual power, the Spider Emperor Clone was nearly flawless!
Gray hair, gray eyes, a face identical to Ling Bai's, and an aura of deathly stillness. This was the true form of the Spider Emperor Clone, the true Death Abyss Douluo, revealed once the Thousand Illusion Charming Appearance Class 9 Spirit Guidance Device was set aside!
"Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor, you're fortunate. You get to see me holding nothing back."
Ling Bai and the Death Abyss Douluo spoke in unison. The Angelic Domain and the Death Abyss Realm, two Innate Domains, continually purified and devoured the Abyss Domain. The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor felt a strange daze sweep over it. One figure holy, the other evil. It could not shake the illusion that it was being judged by the holiest heaven and the deepest hell all at once!
The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor shook its head violently, casting off every stray emotion that did not belong there. Its sky-blotting body lashed about as a furious roar tore loose from its throat. Destruction burst from its maw, piercing the clouds and locking onto the two figures high above!
Brilliant gold and purple-gold. The two seventh spirit rings flared with incomparable radiance. Their Martial Spirit Avatars manifested, and the two stood proudly in the sky as their auras climbed at breakneck speed. Then came a sun-bright wheel of fire and a pitch-black thunder laced with three elements!
Scorching Sun Wheel!
Dark Demon Evil God Thunder!
BOOM—
The detonation of three great spirit skills thundered across the sky. The dragon of destruction collided head-on with Holy Fire and Evil Thunder, and the combined might of their clash shook the heavens and overturned the sea.
Before the aftershocks had even finished rippling outward, Ling Bai activated his sixth spirit skill, Great Sun Angel. His six angelic wings ignited into burning plumes of flame.
On the Death Abyss Douluo's side, his eighth spirit ring, engraved with four gorgeous golden patterns, lit up in a single instant. Silver light spread outward, and behind him the illusory form of a Sea-Swallowing Evil Dragon Whale coalesced. It tilted its head back and gaped open a deep, cavernous maw, devouring every trace of energy within a thousand-mile radius!
Death Abyss Spider Emperor Eighth Spirit Skill, Evil Dragon Swallows the Heavens!
This evil spirit skill had awakened only after the Azure Sea Silver Dragon Whale fell and transformed into the Sea-Swallowing Evil Dragon Whale. The Silver Dragon lineage was born with multiple attributes, and Evil Dragon Swallows the Heavens exploited that innate gift to ignore attribute conflicts, devouring every trace of elemental energy within the skill's range to strengthen itself.
How dense were the ice and water attributes of the Extreme North Ice Sea? The effect of Evil Dragon Swallows the Heavens was so overbearing that it startled even Ling Bai, nearly rivaling the Prayer of Despair unleashed beneath the Light of the Death God. The torrent of spirit power that flooded inward filled the Death Abyss Douluo's meridians to the brink of bursting in a single instant!
By the time Evil Dragon Swallows the Heavens finished drawing in the surrounding spirit power, the aftershocks of the three great spirit skills had slowly dissipated, revealing the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's massive body once more upon the surface of the sea. Both man and beast were crafty to the bone, and each seized the lull to gather strength. Between the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's twin horns, another Innate Spirit Skill condensed.
Destruction Deathlight!
The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor lunged skyward. Destruction Deathlight blasted toward the two figures, and wherever it passed, space itself seemed to crack apart, seething with twisting dark-purple lines like writhing pythons.
A golden sun and a black moon projected directly above the sun. Sky and sea reflected one another's radiance as water and air interwove and merged.
Seraphim Eighth Spirit Skill, Chaos Reversion!
The Death Abyss Spider Emperor's eighth spirit ring flickered. A melodious, desolate whale song echoed across the sea, vast and majestic. Eardrums trembled. The song sank straight into the soul.
Sea-Swallowing Evil Dragon Whale Spirit Ring Second Skill, Requiem for a Fallen World!
Requiem for a Fallen World used the whale song of the Sea-Swallowing Evil Dragon Whale as its medium and carried two modes of attack. The first awakened the power of nature, borrowing the might of sky, ocean, and glacier to strike. The second sent the whale song straight into the enemy's Spiritual Sea to ravage it from within, and simply blocking one's hearing offered no defense against the Requiem!
Chaos Reversion smashed the Destruction Deathlight out of the sky, while the ocean itself woke beneath the call of the Requiem. The sea was no longer the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's home ground. Like a land Spirit Master whose strength had been crippled in open water, the dragon's power drained away at frightening speed. The ocean had abandoned this sea spirit beast!
Utter horror seized the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor. It had never imagined that repaying a favor owed to the first Sea God would end with it throwing its own life into the bargain!
Its dragon roar grew ever more piercing. The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor soared into the sky, and its body, over three hundred feet long, swelled violently. Round bulges rose along its spine, and deep-purple Destruction bone spikes punched through one after another. The Destruction attribute condensed across its hide and wound about the massive frame, transforming the dragon into an unstoppable engine of ruin!
A fierce, bone-splitting killing intent swept up from below and rushed past them. Ling Bai and Death Abyss Douluo did not so much as flinch. Their long golden and gray hair whipped wildly in the gale stirred by the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's charge. The instant ruthlessness flared in those deep violet dragon eyes, Ling Bai's form turned illusory, and the Death Abyss Douluo released an indestructible gray barrier.
Void!
Evil God Protection!
They slipped past the first wave of the assault. The sky rippled, and several Death Locks thrust upward, their black-and-red spikes bristling as they closed on the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor from all directions. The dragon spat a gout of Destruction Dragon Breath, but Divine Skyfire flared from Ling Bai's main body and shattered the attack in the nick of time.
The Death Locks clambered across the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor like living snakes, coiling around its entire body in an instant. Sinister demon eyes snapped open along their lengths and melted away the hard, thick dragon scales beneath them.
The black-and-red spikes along the chains plunged without mercy into the dragon's flesh, injecting a massive dose of poison far more terrifying than that of the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor.
Death Abyss Spider Emperor Poison!
"ROAR—"
The Death Abyss Spider Emperor Poison spread into the depths of its bloodline, and the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's agonized cries carried far across the sea. Cornered at the brink of life and death, it erupted with latent power. Its body swelled further still. Bulging, knotted muscles snapped the Death Locks' bindings apart, only for a spiderweb blanketing sky and sea to greet it.
Zhen Poison Spiderweb!
Beneath the web, the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor gazed up at those two pairs of eyes alive with killing intent, and at last it understood completely. Ling Bai had never regarded it as an opponent. From the very beginning, it had only ever been prey!
Ling Bai's main body gripped the Angel Sword and dove from the sky. The brilliant blade blazed with a will that stood above all things.
Sword Intent: Heavenly Brilliance!
Before Death Abyss Douluo's chest, eight spider lances crossed in pairs. The fourth 100,000-year spirit ring shone with dazzling light.
Eternal Scar!
The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor loosed one last, unwilling beam of Destruction Deathlight, but beneath such absolute violence it amounted to nothing. After a mere quarter of a second of stalemate, the dragon's body came crashing down from the sky into the sea. A circular shockwave over three hundred feet across rippled outward. Water reversed course and surged back, heaving up a fresh tsunami.
The Death Abyss Douluo merged back into the main body, and Ling Bai's form descended slowly. A few droplets of scarlet dragon blood clung to that handsome face, gleaming against the molten-gold light that flowed through his eyes.
The 600,000-year dragon had already lost all power to resist. Ling Bai alighted before its head and drew away the residual Death Abyss Spider Emperor Poison and Eternal Scar energy. His left hand pressed lightly against the dragon's skull. Cold spread in an instant, and the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor froze solid. He summoned a Spectral Gate and casually tossed the frozen dragon into the Spectral Demiplane.
The Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor's cultivation ran deep, its Destruction attribute and True Dragon bloodline both first-rate on the continent. For the moment, however, Ling Bai had no need of its spirit ring or spirit bone. He would spare its life for now and let it keep the Holy Spirit Cult's Evil Spirit Masters and the other frozen sea spirit beasts company.
While Ling Bai waged his battle against the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor, a streak of emerald light came tearing in from the direction of the Extreme North Ice Plains, plowing violently through one iceberg after another.
The Ice Empress arrived wreathed in sparks and lightning. The moment she reached the Ice Sea, she paid no heed to anyone or anything else and charged straight for the Sea Princess opposite the Snow Empress. She activated Ice Empress' Pincer and drove in two heavy punches, bellowing as she struck:
"Sea Princess, you dare hurt Xue'er?! I'll have your fish life!"
One Snow Empress alone had been enough to leave the Sea Princess gasping for breath. With the Ice Empress now joining in, she was stretched to the point of breaking. Being beaten black and blue was bad enough, but the Ice Empress's wild, indiscriminate accusations were so outrageous they nearly made the Sea Princess vomit blood.
Big Sister, is there anything rattling around between those ears of yours?!
It's clearly the Snow Empress who's been one-sidedly pounding on me!
Before long, the Ice Bear King and the Ice Devil Titan King led the Extreme North's 100,000-year spirit beasts in a frenzied charge onto the battlefield. At a single command from the Snow Empress, the Extreme North beasts and the undead army caught the sea spirit beasts in a vise between front and rear.
The 100,000-year spirit beasts of the Extreme North crashed onto the field, and what followed was less a battle than a slaughter. One punch, one downed enemy, as easy as swatting children. Now that was what they called invincible. The sea spirit beast army collapsed in an instant.
How could Emperor Clear-Water Crabs and Red Pincer Dragon Lobsters hope to match the Extreme North's Great Beasts? Set against the Ice Devil Titan King and the Ice Bear King, those two slabs of solid muscle, they were nothing more than fragile shrimp soldiers and crab generals, pinned beneath massive haunches and unable to so much as twitch.
The clash between the two armies gradually wound down. Sea spirit beasts lay dead on the ice or shackled as prisoners, while the undead army had actually swelled by a full third compared to before the fight, having absorbed the specters of countless fallen sea spirit beasts.
It couldn't be helped. The Necromancers were simply too diligent and refused to leave a single corpse behind. Even sea spirit beasts whose bodies had been torn apart were stitched back together into Sea Monster Corpse Demons.
The undead army moved through the battlefield in orderly formation, cleaning up the aftermath. The 100,000-year sea region overlords had brought their subordinate races along with them, so the total number of sea spirit beasts was staggering. Looking out across the ice, spirit bones lay scattered everywhere, at least several dozen pieces at a glance, each one lustrous and gleaming.
One war, and they were filthy rich all over again!
On top of that, anyone could absorb the spirit rings of beasts slain by Spirit Guidance Devices. A few months earlier, Lin Jiaran had given Ling Bai a Spirit Ring Storage Device, and one sharp-eyed Necromancer was now carefully picking out spirit rings of fifty thousand years and above from beasts that had fallen under Spirit Guidance fire.
The Death Abyss Bone Dragon had already taken care of the Floating Nether Blue Whale and the Sword Tail Sea Snake King. It dragged one of the great beasts in each skeletal hand, waiting obediently for Ling Bai to return and seal them away in ice.
Ling Qiuxi's battle beneath the sea had also gone very smoothly. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion possessed Ultimate Light and Ultimate Fire, but its core attribute was in fact spiritual.
Once she took human form, Ling Qiuxi's spiritual power was several times stronger than that of Spirit Masters at the same rank. Combined with the Despair Light Wave released by the Demon Soul Great White Shark King's skull, even Li Ya and Li Jing fighting together as a pair could do nothing against her, and the Golden Dragon roamed the battlefield in triumph, showing off its might.
With the Deep Sea Nether Dragon Emperor crushed and the sea spirit beast army utterly routed, the two mermaid princesses' will to fight collapsed, and their defenses opened up with flaws on every side. In the end, they took several solid hammer-blows from the Golden Dragon's fists and were seized alive on the spot by Ling Qiuxi.
Pouring her last strength into blocking the Ice Empress' Wrath, the Sea Princess could only watch in despair as the Snow Empress's Snowless Glacier struck squarely against her chest. The chill of Ultimate Snow poured into her body.
Her fingers slackened on the shaft of her spear and slipped free. Tears spilled one after another, turning into golden pearls as they fell. The Sea Princess stared up at the sky and cried out in grief:
"Sea God! Lord Sea God!
The sea spirit beasts… are finished…"