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"—With a sword, open the Heavenly Gate!"
Under countless horrified gazes, Lan Minghua swept down his raised arm.
Hum!
Sword-song shook the world. A cataract of sword light surged skyward in reverse, like the river of stars hanging upside down across the firmament.
The gods of the Divine Realm widened their eyes and poured their divinities into the Heavenly Gate.
The Gate had always been incomparably indestructible; even a God King could not break it. After all, its true purpose was to separate the mortal and the divine, so that those above could not meddle in the affairs below. By that measure, the Heavenly Gate could be counted among the hardest things on Douluo.
Now, with the power of myriad gods reinforcing it, its toughness rose to yet another level.
Lan Minghua chuckled softly, openly mocking their efforts.
For the technique he used—"Sword Opens the Heavenly Gate"—was a conceptual sword art.
So long as it is a "Heavenly Gate," this sword can open it.
The sword light lanced straight toward where the unseen gate stood, like a tidal wave slamming against a city wall.
Rumble!
Heaven and earth quaked. The Gate, usually hidden, abruptly manifested—like a colossal portal in the sky.
Under the ravaging beam, it shuddered.
Then, to the gods' horror, with a tearing shriek it burst apart, a massive gap smashed into its face.
The sky… was broken!
Along with it, the "urn" the gods had prepared for years—shattered to nothing with a single sword.
"Th—This power! Is this my master's true strength?!"
Oscar stared, dumbfounded, only now realizing the gulf between himself and his teacher.
The others' faces were the same: stunned, as if witnessing the impossible.
On the field, there was nothing but gasps—one after another.
Even the gods of the Divine Realm turned bloodless with fear.
None understood the Gate's hardness better than they.
And their jar-to-catch-the-turtle scheme collapsed in a breath.
While the gods hesitated, the Shura God suddenly laughed.
"Hahahaha! Lan Minghua, you truly are strong enough to excite me! But now that the Gate is open, we can freely pass between the Divine Realm and the mortal world. Tell me—what will you do then?"
As the Realm's enforcer, Shura knew well: with the Gate broken, the laws of the Divine Realm were also broken. The bindings that shackled the gods… vanished at this very moment.
Prompted by his words, several deities near the Gate took the notion and, almost involuntarily, stepped across.
They had expected to be bound by divine restrictions—only to discover none remained.
"It's true—actually true! I can descend to the mortal world without any restraint!"
Excitement erupted among the gods.
They poured through the breach, eyes glittering with fervor.
No one expected that with one stroke to open the sky, Lan Minghua would, instead, remove the chains that bound the gods.
Hearts in the Tianlong Empire sank like stones.
Even the weakest god was stronger than Tang San with his dual godhood.
Facing a firmament full of gods—what chance did they have?
"Damn it—what do we do now!" Members of the Tianlong Empire could only groan.
Even Oscar felt a suffocating pressure like never before.
Zhu Zhuqing and the others wore expressions no better than his.
Lan Minghua watched this scene—and laughed in fury.
"So that's it? You look down on me that much? A bunch of scruffy little gods—what are they to me?"
"Indeed—their strength is 'nothing much.'"
The reply did not come from Oscar or the others, but from the Shura God.
Shura sneered. "But that's only in your eyes. To your disciples, they are unattainable deities."
He paused, then barked an order to the second- and third-tier gods: "All of you—move. Slaughter everyone in the Tianlong Empire. I refuse to believe one man can stand against a sky full of gods!"
"Yes, Lord Shura!"
Already itching for battle, the lesser gods streamed through the Gate and dove toward the continent's Titled Douluo of the Tianlong Empire.
They, too, believed that no matter how strong Lan Minghua was, he could not kill them all quickly.
And with the Five God Kings behind them, their courage swelled.
Little did they know—they were nothing but cannon fodder for those God Kings and the first-tier gods.
Lan Minghua flicked his ear and looked at the plunging tide of gods without the slightest movement.
"Truly hopeless—sold off and still counting the money. Since you're in such a hurry to die, I'll kindly see you off."
He lifted his hand and, with two fingers, caught a drifting blade of sword-grass.
Then he glanced at the tense Oscar and the others and said calmly, "Watch closely. This sword is going to look very cool."
A speck of dust can fill the sea; a single blade of grass can sever sun, moon, and stars.
The Grass-Character Sword Canon!
In these past two years, Lan Minghua had obtained yet another of the Ten Ferocious Arts—the Grass-Character Sword Canon.
As he was now, even alone, he could punch through the Divine Realm with ease.
Before the words fully settled, he swung his arm. The captured sword-grass bloomed with resplendent light.
The sword light was purest white—so blinding even gods could not keep their eyes open.
In the next heartbeat, every second- and third-tier god drowned in that light—
their bodies unspooling into nothing under mortal sight, their divine souls likewise swallowed in an instant, erased without so much as a scream.
Even after scouring the gods who'd descended, the blade did not falter; it carved straight into the void of the Divine Realm.
Boom!
A single thunderclap—the sun within the Divine Realm was cleaved apart. The heavens dimmed.
The Five God Kings' faces changed wildly.
They had thought they were overestimating Lan Minghua—only to find they had underestimated him by an ocean.
"Damn—he's that strong! We can't stay here—this God King prefers his freedom!"
The Shura God was the first to react. Without looking back, he bolted toward the void beyond the Realm.
The other four God Kings saw it too. Their faces turned black with rage—but none dared hesitate. All four prepared to flee.
Suddenly, they felt the Shura God's aura halt. Imagining, for a heartbeat, that his conscience had awoken, they looked up—
—and the scene before them left even God Kings breathless.
No one knew when Lan Minghua had stepped into the Divine Realm. Effortlessly, he had subdued the Shura God.
One hand dug idly at his nose; the other pinched the Shura God—eyes rolled white, aura withered—by the neck.
"If you have any helpers, call them now. Otherwise, this is the day your Divine Realm perishes."
A crisp crack sounded—he twisted. The Shura God's neck snapped. A God King fell.
The God of Destruction bulged his eyes and immediately released the Silver Dragon King to buy himself time.
Roar!
A dragon's cry split the realm. A thousand-zhang dragon of purest silver soared into being—the Silver Dragon King.
In recent years, the gods had awakened her and promised that if she slew Lan Minghua, they would reopen the Divine Realm and allow soul beasts to ascend as gods.
Simple-hearted, she believed them—and became their hired blade.
Lan Minghua snorted. "So naïve. So easily deceived. You seek death."
He bore the Silver Dragon King no personal hatred—but nothing like affection either.
She, enraged at his disregard, bellowed and charged.
Lan Minghua did not hold back. One move—Black Dragon Sunders the Firmament—and the Silver Dragon King was hewn in two. Slain on the spot.
He looked over the deities scattering in panic and did not pursue.
Those who deserved to die had already died by his hand.
"The Divine Realm—should be destroyed."
Controlling his strength, he struck once—and the Divine Realm collapsed.
From that day on, soul masters upon the continent, upon reaching Rank 100, no longer needed a divine seat to continue growing stronger.
It was the existence of the Divine Realm that had nailed Douluo Continent to the floor of fantasy.
Whistling a little tune, Lan Minghua drifted down before Oscar and the others.
Seeing their stupefied stares, he waved a hand. "Keep it low-key, keep it low-key. Routine work."
Oscar and the rest were speechless. Their master was still the master they knew.
Just then, Yun Shan strode forward and said, "Sect Master, the war is over, but there's a mountain of matters that require your personal attention."
Before the words finished, Lan Minghua had already flickered into the sky—so fast no one could react.
A voice drifted down: "Work? Not in this lifetime. You lot, cultivate hard. If you grow strong enough, we're bound to meet again."
He gave Oscar and the others one last glance, then plunged into the void, beginning his journey to take disciples in a new world.
(End)