At this critical moment, Jiang Shengyu and Jiang Qingtong—who had remained inactive until now—finally made their move.
This was their first time using their martial soul fusion skill since forming their soul cores. Within the body of the God of Destiny, each of their soul cores occupied a complementary domain, forming a true yin–yang dual-core structure.
Behind the deity, seven spirit rings—four black, two red, and one chaotic-colored—nested together, rotating like a galaxy, giving the figure the presence of a true god.
Within the golden spectral hand was a small, dark-purple bead. Inside that bead was sealed an immense, destructive power—containing not only the energy from Er Ming's self-detonation, but also Jiang Shengyu's fire lotus, as well as the new destructive force generated by the two repeatedly colliding.
At this moment, that terrifying destructive power erupted in an instant.
A pillar of violet light shot into the heavens.
The aura of destruction swept across the entire Lake of Life. Even Bear Lord and Xuanzi at the lakeside were forced to retreat far away from the devastating explosion within the lake.
The massive shockwave flattened the entire core region's trees in an instant. If the soul engineers had not already distanced themselves at the start of the battle, they would have been caught in the explosion and torn apart on the spot.
Within the violet beam, countless phantoms split and recombined. Da Ming's body was soon hurled away like a ragdoll—if not for the Vast Sea Protective Barrier guarding him, the erupting destruction would have been enough to tear apart parts of his body…
Even threaten his life.
Yet even so, the Vast Sea Protective Barrier ceased functioning after taking the blow.
This sky-piercing light—like a condensed nuclear explosion—caused an illusory, prismatic realm to appear before the eyes of the God of Destiny. In that bizarre space, the deity heard a faint laugh.
A distant, ethereal voice—like one from the farthest shores—whispered into the deity's ear:
"Human… when all of this is over, we shall talk."
The voice was extremely faint, appearing only once before vanishing without a trace. Even when Jiang Shengyu and Jiang Qingtong were blasted out of their martial soul fusion by the overwhelming energy, they both wore confused expressions.
Their bodies fell into the Lake of Life, immediately enveloped by its potent vitality.
In the sky, Di Tian was already pursuing Da Ming, who had been blasted back by the explosion. With the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud disabled, Da Ming's own defenses could no longer withstand Di Tian's attacks.
"It's them!"
Xuanzi, Yan Shaozhe, and the other Shrek Academy members finally noticed Jiang Shengyu and Jiang Qingtong. Their faces twisted with fury. They had once invested so much emotion and trust into Jiang Qingtong—only to discover it was all for nothing in the end.
And because of them, Shrek had lost prodigious students like Jiang Nannan and Xiao Xiao. It was the greatest humiliation the academy had suffered in ten thousand years.
Thus, upon seeing the two, Yan Shaozhe immediately charged toward the Lake of Life, intent on capturing them both.
Jiang Shengyu slapped the water surface and leapt out from the lake. Beneath his and Jiang Qingtong's feet, lotus blossoms of mirrored light bloomed, supporting them so they would not sink.
As their spirit rings lit one after another, various soul skills burst forth. Jiang Shengyu's hand already held the Twilight Flower Sword. Without any hesitation, he rushed toward Yan Shaozhe to meet him in combat.
After receiving support from Da Ming and Haotian Fort, Yan Shaozhe had broken through to Level 97 Super Douluo, and at the very peak of that level—comparable to Elder Song's former realm. Without accidents, he could even reach Xuanzi's previous height.
But powered by the yin–yang dual soul cores' vast soul power, plus a full set of ninth-level soul tools, Jiang Shengyu—despite only having the soul power of a level-70-something Soul Sage—was able to hold his ground against Yan Shaozhe without falling behind.
Elder Song saw this and immediately joined the battle, intending to join forces with Yan Shaozhe to capture Jiang Shengyu. But she was quickly intercepted by Jiang Qingtong.
"Elder Song, why must you join hands with Dean Yan to bully a junior?"
Though Jiang Qingtong lacked the Twilight Flower Sword, she wielded the Ice-Fire Dragon Spear, which was unquestionably a top-tier divine weapon on the Douluo Continent.
Forged from the fused bone relics of two Dragon Kings, combined with Jiang Qingtong's endless mirror-lotus soul skills, she forced Elder Song—who excelled at speed—into a disadvantage in her own specialty.
And if Elder Song could not widen the distance, she would be forced into close combat with Jiang Qingtong—something she was least suited for.
Seeing Jiang Shengyu and Jiang Qingtong holding off Yan Shaozhe and Elder Song respectively, Bear Lord and the other vicious beasts roared in support. With the two obstacles removed, Bear Lord led the Myriad Demon King, Scarlet King, and Zi Ji to launch an assault on Xuanzi and the Heavenly Sun Douluo.
The situation reversed rapidly—shifting from disadvantage to balance, and still improving.
At that moment, from the outskirts of Star Dou Forest's core area, streaks of fiery meteors rose into the sky—not just one, but an entire volley.
These lights were fixed-installation soul tool shells of various grades—every one aimed at Da Ming, who was battling Di Tian in the air. Alongside them, numerous soul-tool beams of different types were fired.
The beams varied greatly in effect—some disrupted soul power defenses, others specialized in physical destruction.
When Da Ming noticed them, he immediately disengaged from the fight with Di Tian. But Di Tian's mastery of space was unparalleled across the entire Douluo Continent. He tore open a spatial channel, swallowing all the incoming shells and beams, then redirected them to explode point-blank in front of Da Ming.
Forcing him to take the full brunt of the attack.
The soul engineers below were overjoyed—Di Tian was cooperating with them! Their leader waved his hand and shouted:
"Bring out Swallowing Heaven!"
Swallowing Heaven (Tun Tian) was Mingde Hall's latest ninth-level fixed-installation soul tool—a space-type shell that created spatial ruptures upon detonation, devouring everything within range.
A streamlined, man-height fixed-installation shell was rolled out and loaded into a special launcher. Without aiming, they fired it directly toward the sky.
Di Tian instantly understood their intention and used his spatial power to store the projectile.
Da Ming accelerated, attempting to keep Di Tian from accurately locking his position with spatial channels. But instead of repeating his earlier tactic, Di Tian rushed directly before Da Ming, raising his hand—and forced the exit of the spatial channel right in front of him.
Inside it, Swallowing Heaven detonated.
An unmatched spatial storm erupted toward Da Ming. Razor-sharp spatial blades tore across his body, carving hideous wounds in an instant.
This was an attack far beyond that of ordinary Ultimate Douluo—a terrifying superweapon of the current human era.