Six golden figures streaked through the air, their light converging into a deadly magic array. Moving at blistering speed, they almost instantly closed the gap on Zara — the man who had just abandoned his comrades to save himself.
"Damn it, you bastards! Aren't you afraid of being cursed?!" Zara stopped running, realizing there was no escape. Fury flashed in his eyes, and he spat his words like venom.
"That's something you should be worried about yourself," the captain of the Angel Legion replied coldly. To him, Zara was already a dead man.
"Execute."
The six golden figures moved in perfect unison, attacking from six directions at once. Zara's fate was sealed.
After a brief, futile struggle, six spears pierced his body. Divine power surged through the shafts, burning him from the inside out. His screams ended abruptly as his body crumbled into ash.
The two girls who had been with him were escorted to the nearest Martial Soul Hall branch. They had no soul power, but they would be given work — weaving, sewing, or other crafts — enough to live on without starving.
Elsewhere, three figures raced along the coastline.
"Big brother, do you think those two really managed to lead the Martial Soul Hall's people away?" the Soul Saint asked. Something about the situation felt off, but he couldn't quite put it into words.
"Heh, if they did, all the better for us. If not, it still forces them to split their forces. Either way, our chances of escape improve."
"So… those two are as good as dead?"
The Soul Saint's voice was casual — as if they weren't even talking about comrades.
Shura gave a curt nod. "Enough talk. I've got a bad feeling. We speed up."
"Oh? Then your intuition's pretty good."
A cold, crisp voice drifted from above. Before they could react, several icy arrows rained down from the sky like falling stars.
"Not good! We've been caught!"
Shura's eyes widened. A black magic blade appeared in his hands, slashing upward in rapid arcs, shattering the arrows before they could strike.
A man in a light blue robe landed lightly on a reef ahead of them. Long snow-white hair trailed behind him, ice-blue eyes gleamed beneath pale lashes, and a pair of crystal-like wings slowly dissolved behind his back.
It was Guangling Douluo.
He had shaken off his allies earlier, chasing these three alone at full speed — and now, less than five hundred miles from Zhenqi City, he had intercepted them. If he hadn't trusted his instincts, the consequences could have been dire.
"Oh? Isn't this the 'Magic Knife' who was famous twenty years ago? What a pitiful sight," Guangling said coldly, his gaze fixed on Shura.
Memories flashed in his mind — Shura had once been a titled Douluo under the Star Luo Empire, but was exposed for advancing his cultivation using human blood. The Martial Soul Hall sent two elders to kill him, and the Empire, fearing retribution, sold him out without hesitation.
The elders injured him badly, but Shura escaped into the Killing Capital and vanished. Now, to find him here… it was unexpected, yet made perfect sense.
"…Who are you?" Shura frowned. He didn't recognize Guangling, who had kept his identity hidden for years.
"You don't need to know my name. All you need to know is that you'll die under my arrow today."
Guangling unslung the massive bow from his back — over two meters long, taller than himself.
"High-Explosive Penetration."
The bowstring thrummed. An arrow imbued with extreme ice power tore through the air, leaving a trail of frost behind it.
Shura's nine soul rings rose — two yellow, two purple, five black. Three of them lit up at once. His first and third rings boosted his attack power by fifty percent, while his fourth unleashed a wave of bloody blade energy. The slash met the arrow mid-air, shattering both.
"Hmph. Level ninety-three, and you think you can stand against a Super Douluo?" Guangling's voice dripped with contempt. Ice crystal wings unfurled once more as he took to the sky.
"Light Arrow Rain."
The heavens filled with glittering motes of light, falling like a meteor shower.
"Not good! Martial Soul True Body!"
The three activated their true forms — a blood-colored bat, a massive black tiger, and Shura's own blade spirit — to weather the storm. But Guangling's arrows, infused with both light and ice, were merciless. The two beasts froze solid within moments. Only Shura, as a fellow Titled Douluo, endured.
Even so, an arrow punched through his left shoulder, ice instantly crawling over half his body.
"Argh!"
With a roar, Shura shattered the frost. His ninth soul ring blazed.
"Ninth Soul Skill — One Knife Shura!"
Blood energy erupted, his form expanding into a hundred-meter-tall figure of slaughter incarnate. The colossal blade in his hands descended toward Guangling with enough force to split mountains.
"Interesting," Guangling murmured. His seventh ring lit up.
"Martial Soul True Body."
Layers of frost crystallized in his left eye, focusing his aim like a sniper scope. An ice-blue magic array formed before his bow, catching the titanic blade.
"What?!" Shura's expression twisted. Realizing the gulf between their strengths, he spun on his heel and tried to flee.
If a Titled Douluo focused solely on escape, even a rank ninety-nine might not catch him.
But Guangling only smirked. His fifth ring pulsed.
An arrow shot forth — silent, almost invisible. Shura's eighth skill, "Space Tear: Demon Breaker," met it head-on… only for the arrow to twist mid-flight and come at him from behind.
A glimmer of blue light flashed in Shura's eyes.
"Purple Divine Light!"
Two beams of spiritual energy blasted from his gaze, knocking the arrow aside. Guangling's brow rose in surprise — a spiritual head soul bone, and a rare one at that, around sixty thousand years old.
But Shura didn't linger — he turned and ran again.
"You think you can run?" Guangling's ninth ring lit up.
"Point of the Heart — Flying Arrows Through the Clouds."
The world turned to ice within a hundred miles. The arrow streaked across the sky like a falling star — too fast for human eyes to follow.
Shura's ninth ring began to glow again. "Ninth—"
Pffft.
The arrow punched through his heart before he could finish. Shock filled his eyes as his body froze solid, crashing to the ground in pieces.
A faint blue light gleamed in the snow — a soul bone.
Guangling landed, picking it up. A faint smile crossed his lips.
"As I thought — the sixty-thousand-year Wisdom Skull of Spiritual Condensation. Heh… Star Luo Empire, you'd better hope you never slip."
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