Word Count: 2,785 Words
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Once her Red-Tailed Demon Fox was manifested, Shangguan Wei Er cast aside her refined lady facade. Her hair, which had been coiled in an elegant chignon, now cascaded down her back, shimmering with iridescent light. She now gripped a crescent-shaped blade in each hand.
The Common Alliance ranked among Mingdu's most powerful underground factions, and Shangguan Wei Er herself was a formidable Titled Douluo. Given her exalted status, these twin moon blades could only be Class 9 Spirit Guidance Devices.
All around her, the other Common Alliance elites responded in kind. Martial Spirits blazed to life, Spirit Guidance Devices hummed with energy, and the banquet hall of the Minghuang Grand Hotel became a battlefield of swirling spirit rings and flashing weaponry, every attack aimed squarely at Ling Bai and Ning Fengyu.
Ning Fengyu only smiled. Her seventh spirit ring shone, and her skin shimmered with the same cyan-green luster as her Sky Azure Vine Emperor, faintly interwoven with threads of azure-gold light.
Seventh Spirit Skill, Sky Azure Avatar!
With her avatar unleashed, the hall was transformed into an ocean of Sky Azure Vine Emperor. Combined with the amplification of her Life Unending Domain, the thick vines resembled massive cyan dragons, mercilessly harvesting the lives of the Common Alliance members.
Shangguan Wei Er slashed through the encroaching Sky Azure Vines with her moon blades and shouted, "Spirit Saints and Spirit Douluo, take to the air! Break through that restriction-type Spirit Guidance Device!"
Her command gave the panicked Alliance a backbone. More than twenty Spirit Saints and Spirit Douluo broke free from the Sky Azure Vines and soared toward the hall's ceiling. Ning Fengyu did not pursue them, focusing instead on slaughtering the weaker opponents below Spirit Saint rank. She knew she was not fighting alone.
The Seven-Colored Forbidden Realm was a Class 8 Spirit Guidance Device that restricted movement within its boundaries while generating a seven-colored mist to obscure outsiders' vision. Support devices like this stood no chance against the combined might of over twenty high-level experts.
If they broke through it, word of the slaughter would spread in moments, and Mingdu's Imperial Guard and the Sun Moon Empire's Worships would arrive at maximum speed to control the situation!
But just as the Common Alliance mustered to shatter the barrier, a heartbeat thundered through the hall like a war drum. Every member of the Alliance felt a tremor rising from the depths of their soul.
A ghastly white domain swallowed the ceiling. In an instant, they realized the outside world had vanished. This domain was the utter antithesis of the Life Unending Domain's gentle vitality—here surged only slaughter, fear, and despair, a maelstrom of violent emotion crashing over their hearts!
Bloodsea Heart, Skill One: Slaughter Hell!
Every person at the ceiling, including Demon Fox Douluo Shangguan Wei Er, was isolated by Slaughter Hell. The tremor that struck the most fragile corners of their minds left a flash of horror in every eye.
A figure, radiant in dazzling gold, soared into the air. Every panicked gaze locked onto him as Ling Bai made his presence known. His golden eyes swept the hall, cold and crushing as the dawn sun outshining the stars.
After absorbing the Bloodsea Heart, Ling Bai had intended to test its skills on Ancient Demon Douluo and his ilk, but the three Evil Douluo had proven no match for the Seraphim's absolute suppression. Tonight, these foes would serve as a true proving ground.
Slaughter City was where the inheritances of the Asura God and Rakshasa God converged. The Bloodsea Heart held the divine power of both. It functioned like an external spirit bone with four skills attached. Slaughter Hell combined the fundamental domains of both Gods—amplifying allies' momentum and attack, while sapping the enemy's strength. In this balance, the gap became a chasm.
With a mere thought, a crimson gleam bled into the gold of Ling Bai's eyes.
Bloodsea Heart, Skill Two: Seething Blood!
Entering a state of frenzy, all attributes increased by twenty percent, with immunity to all negative status effects!
Seething Blood filled Ling Bai with exhilaration. Looking down at the terrified Common Alliance members, he felt that if he wished, every person in this hall would flourish or wither according to his will.
He closed a fist.
Bloodsea Heart, Skill Three: Mass Blood Combustion!
Shangguan Wei Er's blood surged violently, while the others fared even worse. Under the Mass Blood Combustion's influence, their blood began to churn savagely. What flowed through their veins no longer felt like blood but scorching fire. The Spirit Douluo could barely endure for a short while, but the Spirit Saints let out miserable screams as they plummeted to the ground!
The combined amplification of Slaughter Hell and Seething Blood allowed the Mass Blood Combustion to demonstrate its power to devastating effect. Slaughter Hell had already compromised the Common Alliance experts' mental defenses, severely lowering their resistance. In this state, they had little strength to withstand the Mass Blood Combustion's sudden assault.
Those falling Spirit Saints were predictably impaled by the Sky Azure Vine Emperor. Ning Fengyu raised her head to observe the ghastly white domain in the sky and muttered to herself, "Such heavy killing intent... are you a Seraphim or a Slaughter Angel?"
After her quip, she continued controlling her Sky Azure Vine Emperor against the stubbornly resisting enemies. Ling Bai belonged to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. The stronger he became, the better. Even if his killing intent grew ten thousandfold, it was no concern of hers.
"Damn it...!"
Shangguan Wei Er fought desperately to suppress the blood-fire surging within her. As a citizen of the Sun Moon Empire, she had consumed vast quantities of spirit power-enhancing drugs throughout her cultivation journey. Half of her Rank 94 spirit power was nothing but water.
The Mass Blood Combustion was especially effective against Spirit Masters with such unstable foundations. Shangguan Wei Er had an ominous feeling that if she fully circulated her spirit power through her meridians, she would likely suffer the same fate as those Spirit Saints—death by blood combustion!
A brilliant light gathered in Ling Bai's hand, forming the Angel Sword. He plunged into the ranks of the Spirit Douluo, a single horizontal swing sending blood spraying high!
The dying Spirit Douluo's eyes remained frozen in shock. He could never have imagined that someone as powerful as himself would one day be slaughtered as casually as a chicken.
The remaining Spirit Douluo and Class 8 Spirit Guidance Masters scattered like startled sheep, suppressing their internal blood vessels as they fled in all directions. Behind them was a merciless hunter, and in their panic, their spirit skills and Spirit Guidance Devices offered only futile resistance.
Within the Slaughter Hell domain, heads flew one after another. Blood poured from the headless corpses of Spirit Douluo, staining the Sky Azure Vines beneath them. Ling Bai's expression remained unchanged as he claimed one life with each stroke of his sword. Yet despite the carnage, the Angel Sword remained immaculately clean as tragic blooms of blood blossomed in the air.
"What kind of monster is this?!"
Astonishment twisted Shangguan Wei Er's exquisite features. Though she appeared young, she had led the Common Alliance for over forty years and was no longer young in reality. Yet this was the first time she had encountered such a terrifying Spirit Master.
He had not even summoned his Martial Spirit just a few spirit bone skills, and all of them were suppressed. And that golden longsword... was capable of cutting down gods and devils alike!
As the Common Alliance suffered devastating casualties, Ling Bai targeted a beautiful woman. She was the Common Alliance's vice-leader, whose spirit power ranked just below Shangguan Wei Er's at somewhere between Rank 87 and 88. Of course, one look at her superficial appearance made it obvious her cultivation had been piled up using secret medicines.
As Ling Bai closed in on her, the woman spun around and dropped to her knees in midair. Tears and snot streamed down her face. "My Lord, please spare me! I'll serve as your slave from this day on—anything you wish!"
The Common Alliance controlled Mingdu's red-light industry, and its women were all enchanting beauties. This Spirit Douluo vice-leader was bewitching and sexy. Countless high officials and wealthy merchants had dreamed of spending a night with her. Yet now, she was crying and begging to become a slave.
Ling Bai glanced at her charming face. His expression remained calm as he moved past her. With a flash of his sword, her head toppled from her shoulders like a child's block while her body fell lifelessly to the ground.
He could not be bothered to consider whether she was sincere or false. There were countless excellent, untainted women around him, more than he could count on both hands. This woman from the underworld did not deserve even half a glance.
This act of mercilessness shattered any hope for the other Spirit Douluo observing in secret. They immediately abandoned any thought of surrender and fled desperately, trying to attack the Seven-Colored Forbidden Realm. They had finally realized that the man behind them was a cold-hearted, cold-blooded monster, a peerless killing machine who regarded human life as grass. He absolutely would not stop until he had slaughtered every last one of them!
Shangguan Wei Er bit down on her silver teeth. The Common Alliance she had built with her blood and sweat was collapsing, her elite subordinates falling like autumn wheat. Soon, her own turn would come. This kind of fear was hard to describe in words.
Close combat was out of the question, but Shangguan Wei Er refused to await her doom. The Red-Tailed Demon Fox was a fox-type Martial Spirit, and foxes naturally possessed much stronger spiritual power than other spirit beasts of the same rank. On top of that, she happened to possess a spiritual-attributed skull spirit bone!
Shangguan Wei Er fixed her beautiful eyes on Ling Bai, ready to make her final desperate move. Her nine spirit rings flashed in succession as her pupils suddenly ignited with twin flames of purple fire. Following her burning gaze, two beams of deep purple light shot from her eyes.
80,000-year Sacred Illusion Demon Ape skull spirit bone skill, Sacred Demon Divine Light!
The Sacred Illusion Demon Ape's innate spirit skill was a concentrated, point-focused spiritual attack with terrifying singular destructive power.
The strength of this skill depended on spiritual output. Shangguan Wei Er wrenched forth every ounce of spiritual power from her Spiritual Sea, pouring in every drop of spirit power her body could muster after steadying her blood and qi!
Twin beams of Sacred Demon Divine Light shot straight ahead, spanning dozens of meters and slamming directly into Ling Bai's Spiritual Sea.
Yet despite taking Shangguan Wei Er's full-power attack, Ling Bai appeared completely unaffected. As he slowly turned his head, Shangguan Wei Er felt every hair on her body stand on end.
A suffocating bloodlust, so dense it seemed to choke the air itself, surged forth from those majestic, dazzling golden eyes, completely shattering her psychological defenses. Death's grip seemed to close mercilessly around her throat.
Frantically, Shangguan Wei Er swept her gaze around the hall, only to find that every expert and patron of the Common Alliance had already been slain. Corpses sprawled across the Minghuang Grand Hotel, blood splashed over every surface, each body marked by a different grisly end.
Ling Bai gave her no chance to react. Activating the Traceless Phantom skill of his Harbinger Zhen left leg spirit bone, his form flickered into a ghostly blur. In an instant, his hand clamped down on Shangguan Wei Er's bare shoulder. The Angel Sword pierced straight through her abdomen, holy fire surging into her body, ravaging her organs with consuming destruction.
A heart-rending, soul-deep pain exploded in her gut, twisting her lovely features into a mask of agony.
Before she could even begin to endure the torment, her vision blurred. The Angel Sword carried her as it fell toward the ground, and an extremely shrill, miserable scream echoed throughout the banquet hall.
The sound of breaking bones and tearing tendons filled the air. The once ravishing leader of the Common Alliance now lay pinned to the ground by the Angel Sword, counting each passing moment as her life ebbed away.
The Life Unending Domain faded. Ning Fengyu's graceful figure reappeared, her eyes curving upward as she watched Ling Bai descend. There was a subtle, knowing smile on her radiant face.
Even if Ning Fengya and Jianmu Douluo had kept their lips sealed, she had still managed to deduce a few things from the clues and traces within the clan.
Everyone had a face they showed the world and a truth they kept hidden. Only in moments of uninhibited action did one reveal their true nature, and beneath the Seraphim's divine and holy facade lay a brutally violent countenance.
"My Xiao Bai is so amazing, wiping out the Common Alliance so quickly!"
Ning Fengyu set aside her musings, skipped lightly across the floor, and threw herself into Ling Bai's arms. Cradling his face between her hands, she looked as if she meant to reward him with a loving, fragrant kiss.
Ling Bai had long since anticipated this. He activated Void, dodging away at once, and gave her a look of exaggerated distaste. "Let's wrap this up. Xiao Tian is waiting for me."
Together, they approached the dying Shangguan Wei Er. Even as the life ebbed from her, she glared at Ning Fengyu with bitter hatred, her breath so faint it was barely a whisper. "I… refuse to accept this. You only beat me because of a man…"
Ning Fengyu beamed. "Anyone else might have grounds to complain, but not you. Isn't seducing men what the Common Alliance does best?
So you see, if you're going to seduce someone, go for the strongest man! You wanted to swallow Linglong Pavilion, but too bad—the Common Alliance is destined to become part of Linglong Pavilion in the end."
She crouched, gently stroked Shangguan Wei Er's blood-smeared cheek, and then a Sky Azure Vine shot up from the floor, piercing straight through Shangguan Wei Er's skull. With a single twist, it drew forth the 80,000-year Sacred Illusion Demon Ape skull spirit bone.
Ling Bai gazed at the spirit bone. Just now, Shangguan Wei Er's desperate, all-out strike had been neutralized by the accompanying skill of the Thousand Illusion Charming Appearance, Spiritual Wall.
The Thousand Illusion Charming Appearance was made from the spirit bone of a 100,000-year Thousand Illusion Charming Fox, a mutated species of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. That 100,000-year Thousand Illusion Charming Fox, which had taken human form, was an outstanding individual even among its own kind and had caused a riot in the Sun Moon Empire back then. Naturally, its Spiritual Wall was not a defense that the Red-Tailed Demon Fox and the Sacred Illusion Demon Ape could break through.
Still, the Sacred Illusion Demon Ape was a rare skull spirit bone. The next moment, Ling Bai turned to find Ning Fengyu gazing at him with an almost pitiful, puppy-eyed longing, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
"Aunt Yu, do you have a skull spirit bone?"
"No, I've only ever absorbed limb bones." Ning Fengyu shook her head like a rattle drum.
"Then you can have this one."
This spirit bone trophy was hardly something Ling Bai would begrudge her. After a moment's thought, he reached into his Storage Spirit Guidance Device and produced a teardrop-shaped piece of green metal. A vast surge of life energy instantly swept through the hall, dispersing the heavy scent of blood and enveloping everything in its warmth.
"What is that?"
Ning Fengyu involuntarily licked her red lips. She suddenly felt an impulse to swallow this piece of metal in one gulp.
"Don't ask. Just take it."
Ling Bai gently placed the Life Gold in her palm. "With your 'three days fishing, two days drying the nets' slacker cultivation, who knows how long it'll take you to inch your way to Titled Douluo.
The Sky Azure Vine Emperor and this metal are both life-attribute. For you, it's a treasure beyond price. I'll give you three months—break through to Titled Douluo. By then, Xiao Tian and Wu Feng should be around Rank 50. Then, we'll all go spirit beast hunting in the Valley of Life together."
"Mm-hmm!"
Ning Fengyu grinned so wide her smile nearly split her face. That was Life Gold! A single drop held life energy on par with the 1,000,000-year Skydream Iceworm!
"I'm going to find Xiao Tian. Cleanup here is your job—don't leave a trace."
"Lord Xiao Bai's orders are guaranteed to be fulfilled!"