High-altitude detection soul tools were covered by an even stronger jamming field. The positions of the linked soul tools were precisely locked and wiped out by long-range artillery in the very first volley.
Floating battleships fell one after another under the combined assault of the Molten Knights and terrible anti-air barrages from the ground, as if they were nothing but target dummies.
When it came to high-end combat power, the situation was even more hopeless for the Sun Moon Empire.
Powerhouses like Firefly and Dan Heng stood at the front, and the 500 Molten Knights alone were enough to keep Titled Douluo-level opponents at bay.
Starry Sky Douluo Ye Yulin tried to stop him, but was sent flying by a single blow from Dan Heng. The power condensed into the spear's edge was infused with a sensation beyond his understanding, forcing him to retreat and reluctantly avoid further combat.
The Sun Moon army was crushed like a mountain collapsing.
Under Lu Jingming's command, the armies of the Star Luo Empire advanced without pause. Not only did they retake all the lost territory, they even counterattacked into the Mingdou Mountain Range, thoroughly expelling the Sun Moon Empire troops from this former strategic stronghold.
One after another, reports of victory drifted back to the rear of Star Luo Empire like fluttering snowflakes.
For a while, Lu Jingming's name resounded throughout Star Luo.
From the imperial court to the bustling markets, from soul masters to common folk, everyone was speaking his name.
It was he who stepped forward at the empire's most critical moment.
It was he who, with thunderous momentum, defeated the seemingly invincible invaders, defending the empire's territory and the safety of its people.
He became Star Luo Empire's undisputed hero.
The Star Lou royal family, especially Princess Xu Jiujiu who controlled the empire's propaganda apparatus, played a crucial role in this.
She spared no effort in depicting Lu Jingming as a savior, recording every victory and mythologizing every achievement.
She knew that if the royal family wished to smoothly transfer military authority to Lu Jingming, guiding public opinion was indispensable.
The wise of the empire had already seen which way the wind was blowing.
With the royal family leading the way and bowing unconditionally to Lu Jingming, the old power blocs with both the ambition and the strength to resist had already been purged along with the destruction of the White Tiger bloodline.
What remained were those talented enough to read the situation—or mediocrities with no ability to resist.
Under the dual pressure of military victory and public opinion, Lu Jingming's authority was established at astonishing speed.
In just half a month, he not only fully took control of Star Luo Empire's military power, but his prestige and influence surpassed that of the old nobles and former military overlords. In effect, he became the uncrowned king of Star Luo Empire.
All this seemed as if it had been destined by the times—
In the midst of crisis, it was Lu Jingming who was ordered to turn the tide.
But only the very few who stood at the true peak of power knew that the real chess player was hidden behind the scenes.
After a long-term layout and patient waiting, he finally smiled and placed his long-prepared chess piece onto the board, completing his ultimate control over Star Luo's chessboard.
The old era collapsed in the beacon flames and bloodshed of the Mingdou Mountains.
The new era belonging to Lu Jingming and Haiyuan City slowly raised its curtain to the songs of victory and the cheers of the people.
…
Sun Moon Empire, New Ming Capital, Imperial Palace.
A heavy pressure hung over the glorious yet icy palace halls.
The attendants knelt on the ground, shaking, hardly daring even to breathe.
Crash—!
A sharp, crisp shattering sound tore through the dead silence.
Emperor Xu Tiannan's face was twisted with rage. He had slammed the precious imperial teacup in his hand to the ground, scattering porcelain shards and hot tea in all directions.
"Trash, all of them are trash!!"
His chest heaved violently, and his furious roar echoed through the empty great hall.
"Mingdou Mountain Range—my Mingdou Mountain Range—
Was it really taken back by those miserable dogs?!
And my Soul Tool Corps, my floating battleships—were they all made of paper?!"
He had just received the urgent war report from the front:
The Star Luo Empire led by that man Lu Jingming not only withstood their offensive, but also launched a devastating counterattack, finally retaking the strategic Mingdou Mountain Range. The expeditionary force had suffered heavy losses and had to pull back entirely.
The pride and ambition he had been brimming with, fueled by a string of successive victories, were mercilessly crushed in an instant by cruel reality, turning into monstrous rage and a shameful sense of having been fooled.
He felt like a giant who had swung a mighty fist, only to punch into a bottomless pool: he stirred up no waves at all and instead was swallowed by the icy depths.
"Haiyuan City… what kind of abyssal city is that?"
Xu Tiannan gnashed his teeth. His eyes were filled with hatred—and fear.
"As I thought, they hid their strength too deeply. I always knew they weren't simple, but to think… they could be this strong…"
He had always maintained the highest level of vigilance toward Haiyuan City, yet the technological and military might they had just revealed far exceeded his expectations.
Weapons that could completely crush his own soul tool systems, Molten Knights capable of shaking Titled Douluo themselves—these things made his heart race uncontrollably.
At that moment, a calm, aged voice sounded from the side.
"Your Majesty, there is no need to be so enraged. Wasn't all of this within our expectations?"
The speaker was Kong Deming, the Mount Tai and Big Dipper of the Sun Moon Empire's soul master world.
He looked as unperturbed as an ancient well. The defeat at the front seemed to have nothing to do with him. Gently stroking the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield in his hand, he said slowly:
"Since Haiyuan City chose this moment to act, our earlier victories were most likely within their calculations from the beginning.
They may have been using our hand to sweep away Star Luo's rebellious old forces."
He raised his eyes to look at the still-fuming Xu Tiannan, his tone level and composed.
"Anger is meaningless. The top priority is to take advantage of Haiyuan City's main force being tied down in the Star Luo direction, and to gather our strength as quickly as possible. We must seize the opportunity to capture the Heavenly Soul Dou Empire and Dou Ling Empire, who are already at the end of their rope.
Once those two nations fall under our control, we will occupy most of the mainland's heartland, with sufficient strategic depth and resources."
Kong Deming paused, a deep light flashing through his gaze.
"As for the hardest bone to crack—Star Luo Empire…
Since Haiyuan City has already stepped onto the stage, it is only natural to leave them to those two Lords Ravager. Let them deal with each other."
His words eased Xu Tiannan's agitation somewhat.
Xu Tiannan took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. He knew Kong Deming was right.
Their cooperation with the Lord Ravagers had always been meant to deal with the tiger of Star Luo. Now that Haiyuan City, an uncontrollable variable, had appeared, letting those two Lords handle it was indeed what most benefited the empire.
He glanced at the composed Kong Deming, unable to suppress the complicated emotions in his heart.
He knew that Kong Deming had his own plans and calculations, but that didn't matter.
As long as Kong Deming remained useful to him for now, once he achieved hegemony and unified the Douluo Continent, everyone else could naturally be erased.
And Kong Deming also clearly understood what Xu Tiannan was thinking—
He himself had already made flawless preparations.
He had sent Xu Tianzhen to Haiyuan City, and at the same time, he knew very well who Zhang Lexuan really was.
In the end, whether the Sun Moon Empire triumphed or Haiyuan City had the last laugh, the bloodline of the Sun Moon royal family would be guaranteed to continue.
Thus, there was nothing for him to worry about. Even so, compared to Haiyuan City, he still undoubtedly hoped that Xu Tiannan would succeed— that would be the best outcome for the royal family.
"What teacher says… is reasonable."
Xu Tiannan fell silent for a moment, then finally suppressed all his emotions, regaining the composure of an emperor. His eyes, however, had never been colder.
"Pass down my will. Order the main forces at the front to break off all entanglements in the Star Luo theater. They are to attack the Heavenly Soul Empire's capital with full strength.
Within three months, I want the Heavenly Soul Empire's banner to disappear completely from this continent."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
Kong Deming lowered his head slightly, a barely noticeable arc rising at the corner of his lips.
The palace of New Mingdu City once again sank into quiet, but the undercurrents had fundamentally shifted.
The focus of the war began to shift from Star Luo Empire to the collapsing Heaven Dou and Dou Spirit Empires.
…
God Realm.
This sacred place, which should have been eternally peaceful and overlooking all worlds, had now become a battlefield of utter chaos and destruction.
The sky was shattered, and the laws of the world wept in lament.
Magnificent temples lay in ruins, and the rivers once flowing with divine power had been evaporated by violent forces.
As far as the eye could see, raging energy storms, jagged rifts in space, and terrifying attacks strong enough to tear apart the stars crisscrossed the void.
At the center of the battlefield, several figures radiating supreme divine power were clashing violently.
Shrouded in blood-colored divine light, gripping the Asura Demon Sword, Tang San's face was twisted in ugliness. His eyes burned with a nearly insane hatred, and he refused to let the crimson figure, scattering flames of destruction across the battlefield—Ma Hongjun—escape for even a moment.
Behind Ma Hongjun, once a sworn brother but now the Lord of Flames, spread wings of pure destructive fire. Every flap whipped up a heatwave that burned through everything, twisting and warping the very fabric of space in the God Realm.
Not far away, a gigantic Golden Dragon King, its body covered in dark-golden scales and exuding limitless tyranny and oppressive might, roared as it fought the Goddess of Life and the God of Destruction.
Each swing of its vast draconic body stirred the laws of reality, birthing countless gravity waves in midair that carried a Sovereign's authority, trying to completely suppress the two God Kings.
Meanwhile, the strongest beings from the Six God Realms all revealed their terrifying divine powers:
The Light God King's holy sword of radiance.
The Immortal Emperor's Ruyi Jingu Bang.
The Qin Emperor's Withered Wood Dragon.
The Heavenly Emperor's Demon God Bow.
Mad God's Berserk God Armor.
The God of Death's Netherworld Blade.
This was an unprecedented melee that had swept across the entire inner ring of the God Realm, affecting countless deities.
Hatred, greed, destruction, protection…
All kinds of extreme emotions and wills collided fiercely. The former order and rules of the God Realm Council had been reduced to nothing but a joke.
In this chaotic maelstrom, even a god could easily lose his sanity. Yet at this moment, Tang San, who only knew how to hound Ma Hongjun in madness, felt a sudden lurch in his chest.
It was not an external strike, but something from the deepest part of his soul—
Two divine imprints intimately bound to his very origin flickered in rapid succession and then… vanished.
One came from the core of life of the Douluo Continent, the Golden Ancient Tree that had sprouted under his great expectations, where he had left a hidden backup.
The other shocked him even more—
It was the divine clone he had left with his daughter, Tang Wutong.
"How is that possible?!"
Tang San's heart surged with towering waves.
The destruction of the Golden Ancient Tree's clone could still be explained by some unpredictable change in the lower realm.
But the avatar left within Tang Wutong's body…
That was the final safeguard he had left, sacrificing part of his own origin to protect his daughter.
Unless Tang Wutong herself suffered an accident…
Or some existence beyond his expectations had appeared and forcibly erased the divine clone.
At the same time, as his reason returned, he clearly sensed that the power of faith anchored to his Sea God divine position was slowly, yet very firmly and irreversibly… rejecting him.
In theory, there was only one Sea God throne.
Even if another Sea God appeared in some other dimension, as long as it wasn't rooted in Douluo Star and recognized by the God Realm, it could not shake his authority.
Unless…
Unless a new Sea God had been born on the Douluo Continent and acknowledged by that world's will.
This new god would fundamentally shake, and ultimately replace, the very foundation of his authority as the Sea God of Douluo Star.
The lower realm…
The Douluo Continent…
What on earth had happened?!
The destruction of two divine clones and the weakening of the Sea God authority—this chain of bad news struck Tang San's heart like a colossal hammer, pounding the hatred-blinded Asura God out of his desperate frenzy and forcibly awakening him.
And at the instant of that clarity—whether it was his instincts, or the pull of fate in the dark—his vast, unparalleled divine sense pierced the heavy barrier between God Realm and the lower planes and caught a faint, flickering aura.
It was extremely weak, yet it stirred his soul with a familiarity that could never be mistaken—
Xiao Wu.
It was Xiao Wu's aura.
Like a candle flame swaying in the wind, unstable and intermittent, but through the bond of a soul mate, Tang San would never misidentify it.
Xiao Wu… is still alive!
She was truly on the Douluo Continent?!
This discovery made Tang San completely lose his composure.
Hope—
Even a single thread of hope was enough to temporarily overwhelm the flames of all-consuming hatred.
He was no longer fighting just for revenge, but for the possibility of regaining what he had lost.
The monstrous killing intent receded like the ebbing tide, replaced by calculation and patience.
His hands did not slow in the slightest—on the contrary, they moved even more fiercely. Blood-red sword light poured from the Asura Demon Sword, rending space itself. Ma Hongjun was forced to retreat again and again, flames scattering everywhere.
His expression was still twisted and hideous, like that of a Asura God driven mad by the fall of his beloved wife.
But beneath the divine radiance that cloaked him, deep within his eyes, the insane crimson was rapidly fading, revealing once more his cunning and shrewdness.
He could not let anyone realize that he had awoken—
Especially not the six God Kings whose gazes never left him, nor the Golden Dragon King and Ma Hongjun, who were in such a strange condition.
In the midst of the chaotic battle, the thoughts of a god quietly spread.
He rapidly assessed the situation.
Time flowed differently in the God Realm and the lower world. Not much time had elapsed here, but the mortal realm was likely already completely changed.
To be able to simultaneously destroy two divine clones and allow a new Sea God to arise—it was inevitable that some earthshaking upheaval had occurred in the lower realm.
And Xiao Wu's aura had emerged within that mysterious lower world.