The God-Slaying Missiles descended, and the entire Shrek City was enveloped in a blinding white light. The violent energy explosion deprived all senses of sight.
Even within the realm of spirit, the terrifying energy turbulence was enough to instantly obliterate everything.
At this moment, everyone lost their perception.
Perhaps, this was what it felt like when the world was destroyed?
Dubbed "God-Slaying," the name was no exaggeration.
Because the power of these two missiles was indeed sufficient to slay gods. Unfortunately, in the original story, all three God-Slaying Missiles were not used to slay gods—or rather, they were not used against normal gods.
In the universe, an ordinary god-level being below true god level, if locked onto by one of these God-Slaying Missiles, would suffer severe injuries even if they managed to evade the core area five seconds in advance.
If they tried to resist head-on, there was no chance of survival.
This time, Shrek did not have Yun Ming, the quasi-god, but it had the Golden Ancient Tree resisting with full force.
Tree Elder directly controlled his own power, coordinating with the soul-guided grand formation to resist, which was even more effective than a true god fully resisting.
On the other side, within the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud, the hidden divine power of the Sea God was inevitably stirred.
A sigh echoed.
The color of the grand formation shifted from emerald green to a mix of blue and green. On Shrek's side, green dominated, while above the Tang Sect, blue became the primary hue.
"Yun Ming's guess was very accurate. The Sea God indeed left behind power to protect us from a fatal crisis," Zang Xin thought.
Judging actions, not intentions.
Regardless of the purpose behind the Sea God leaving this divine power—whether for today's confrontation with the God-Slaying Missiles or not—it no longer mattered.
This time, it was the Sea God who protected the Tang Sect.
"The remaining power should be insufficient to stop you now," Tree Elder's voice appeared in Feng Wuyu's ear.
Feng Wuyu's pent-up rage finally erupted. A column of flames shot into the sky, breaking through the energy shield.
No, it wasn't that he broke through the shield—it was that as he rose halfway into the air, the shield finally shattered and dissipated.
The residual power of the two God-Slaying Missiles still lingered, but it was not enough to affect Feng Wuyu, a Limit Douluo.
The Golden Ancient Tree had shrunk significantly and now showed signs of withering, as if the core that once supported the entire world had suddenly declined.
Even so, the Golden Ancient Tree continued to release its power, dissipating the residual effects of the God-Slaying Missiles.
Shrek Academy held firm.
The Tang Sect held firm.
Beyond the two core areas, scattered Soul Sages and Soul Douluos unleashed the strongest powers of their lives to resist the energy shock.
This was Shrek City!
A place teeming with hidden talents was no exaggeration.
Perhaps a single neighborhood housed more than one Soul Sage, and a district might contain multiple Soul Douluos.
Though the detonation of the two God-Slaying Missiles was despair-inducing, the heart-stopping energy fluctuations were enough to crush anyone's will to resist. However, the emerald radiance bursting from Shrek also inspired hope.
The grand formation withstood the initial impact—the most terrifying phase—and now it was their turn to contribute by eliminating the remaining aftershocks.
Fortunately, the resistance of the grand formation gave them the opportunity to mobilize their soul power and unleash the strongest soul skills of their lives.
Explosions of soul skills erupted everywhere across Shrek City.
Unfortunately, even so, ordinary people were still caught in the blast, struck by the terrifying energy shock.
Thankfully, the soul-guided grand formation allowed them to survive the instant evaporation phase, leaving only the energy shock and the sudden spike in temperature after the formation dissipated.
Though the scorching heat was still unbearable, it lacked the horrifying ability to instantly vaporize people.
A dragon's roar echoed.
The exhausted Chen Xinjie collapsed to the ground, looking up at the sky as a massive dragon emitting both darkness and light soared into the clouds.
"Damn it! It's all Qiangu Dongfeng's fault!"
Ghost Emperor glared fiercely at the Shrek City below, unable to accept the fact that the two God-Slaying Missiles had killed fewer than a million people.
Moreover, even though a million had died, they no longer had the right to harvest souls.
Long Yeyue, Feng Wuyu, and Zang Xin had surrounded numerous evil soul masters.
Outside Shrek City, countless mecha swarmed in, densely packed.
It was a trap laid long ago.
But the Ghost Emperor was not surprised.
What truly shocked him was the outcome of this battle.
It had not met the expected goals.
"It's all Qiangu Dongfeng's fault! If he had helped us, we could have unleashed the full power of the two God-Slaying Missiles!"
Launching the God-Slaying Missiles came at a cost. Activating these two missiles resulted in the Holy Spirit Sect losing over a hundred Soul Sages, thirty Soul Douluos, and five Title Douluos.
This was an extremely heavy price for the Holy Spirit Sect.
If Qiangu Dongfeng had cooperated, hiding within Shrek City to execute this plan would have halved the losses and allowed them to perfectly detonate the two God-Slaying Missiles.
Unfortunately, Qiangu Dongfeng dared not take the risk with them.
"Ghost Emperor, for everything that has happened today, you must pay the price!"
Zang Xin stared at Ghost Emperor, his eyes bloodshot.
They had almost died.
Even with all their preparations, the soul-guided grand formation, the Golden Ancient Tree restored to its peak and actively striving to survive, and the forced activation of the Sea God's power within the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud—
Even so, Zang Xin could feel the threat of death through the soul-guided shield at that moment.
Ghost Emperor's dark eyes swept over the three, showing disdain.
"Do you think you can do anything to me?"
However, despite his apparent disdain, there was a hint of seriousness in his expression.
And the person he was most wary of was naturally Long Yeyue.
Long Yeyue was the only quasi-god among the three Limit Douluos, possessing two Sacred Dragon martial souls of light and darkness. The power of the Light Sacred Dragon subtly countered their evil soul masters.
"You've truly played a good game," Ghost Emperor said through gritted teeth.
He hadn't expected the God-Slaying Missiles to be intercepted.
After all, even if the headquarters of the two major factions were preserved and internal casualties were minimal, the entire Shrek City should not have survived. After all, the God-Slaying Missiles were weapons of mass destruction, not single-target attacks.
Yet, even so, the terrifying aftershocks of the God-Slaying Missiles were blocked.
He couldn't understand.
He couldn't accept it at all.
"But with Yun Ming absent, what can you do to me?" Beneath Ghost Emperor's feet, nine soul rings appeared in sequence.
Nine soul rings—four black, four red, and one orange!
The exaggerated arrangement of soul rings caused Long Yeyue, Feng Wuyu, and Zang Xin's pupils to contract.
Nine ghostly flames burned, enveloping Ghost Emperor. The flames formed nine puppets.
Six ghostly flame puppets lunged toward Long Yeyue, two charged at Zang Xin, and one rushed toward Feng Wuyu.
Ghost Emperor himself led the numerous evil soul masters in retreat.
"Arrogant!"
Zang Xin fused his four-word battle armor, grasped the Passionate Sword, and slashed.
Two ghostly flame puppets closed in instantly, erupting with eerie ghostly flames that nullified the sword qi.
However, the two ghostly flame puppets also grew weak.
Zang Xin slashed several more times, causing the ghostly flame puppets to completely disperse.
Long Yeyue also burst into action, swiftly destroying the six puppets.
By this time, Ghost Emperor had already led the evil soul masters over a hundred meters away.
However, a figure had already intercepted the middle group of evil soul masters.
Ghost Emperor turned to look at Feng Wuyu.
"Four-word battle armor?"
Staring at Feng Wuyu's battle armor, which resembled a blazing flame, Ghost Emperor was filled with doubt.
How long had it been? Had Feng Wuyu not only broken through to Limit Douluo but also completed his four-word battle armor?
"Thanks to you, my battle armor is now fully formed."
Feng Wuyu transformed into a massive fiery dragon. The terrifying high temperature was absorbed by him, and his battle armor gleamed across his body. He absorbed the high temperature from the God-Slaying Missile explosion and fused the destructive aura.
A faint image of a fire dragon emerged in the void.
Void Armor Formation.
The four-word battle armor had developed its own life. Feng Wuyu's battle armor resembled a true fire dragon, merely fused onto his body in the form of armor.
In the sky, another blazing sun appeared, though its energy fluctuations were far weaker than those of the two God-Slaying Missiles.
The blazing sun erupted, flames spreading as Feng Wuyu swiftly eliminated the remaining evil soul masters following Ghost Emperor.
While the Ghost Emperor looked back in shock, Zang Xin and Long Yeyue quickly followed.
Evil soul masters lacked humanity, and Ghost Emperor naturally wouldn't delay his retreat for the sake of his subordinates.
The destruction in Shrek City was limited. Once reorganized, Ghost Emperor would find himself at a disadvantage.
No, there was no need to wait—variables had already emerged.
A beam of purplish-black light shot out from a square next to the Tang Sect headquarters.
Ghost Emperor sensed a fatal threat and hastily changed his flight path, narrowly dodging the beam.
However, this was only the first beam.
Beam after beam of soul-guided rays fired relentlessly, all originating from the areas near the Tang Sect headquarters.
---
Blood God Legion.
Yun Ming had left the Starry Sky Phenomenon and now stood high in the air, gazing toward Shrek.
Xu Yuan also quickly exited the Starry Sky Phenomenon and looked toward Shrek.
"Has it finally happened?" Xu Yuan's thoughts churned.
At last, the two God-Slaying Missiles had fallen.
But he wondered if the academy's preparations would be enough to withstand them.
"The presence of the Golden Ancient Tree is waning."
Xu Yuan could feel it.
His fourth spirit ring from the Tian Yuan Five Elements Spear was granted by the Golden Ancient Tree. Normally, across half a plane, he shouldn't have been able to sense the tree's presence, but with the tree's rapid decline, he still felt it.
"However, it hasn't completely extinguished. Clearly, it held up—the Golden Ancient Tree is fine, so the damage to Shrek Academy is within a controllable range."
Xu Yuan waited a full ten minutes to confirm his suspicions.
After some hesitation, he manipulated the forces of heaven and earth, ascending higher and higher until he reached an exaggerated altitude. There, he indeed saw his teacher.
"Teacher."
Yun Ming glanced at Xu Yuan and nodded.
"Did you feel it?"
"Yes."
"Don't worry. We were well-prepared this time. Those were two God-Slaying Missiles, said to be capable of slaying gods, but in the end, we blocked them," Yun Ming said.
"Teacher, has Elder Tree's power recovered to this level?"
"Not just Elder Tree. We also managed to draw upon the power of the Sea God."
"The Sea God's power?" Xu Yuan was puzzled.
Had the academy called back Tang Wulin? Had they confessed to Old Tang and asked him to intervene?
Seeing Xu Yuan's confusion, Yun Ming briefly explained.
"The Sea God Pavilion has a treasure known as the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud."
Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud?
Xu Yuan understood.
It was the core of the Sea God's inheritance, and it was credible that it contained the divine power of the Sea God.
Though this detail didn't seem to exist in the original story.
Wait—no, in the original story, Tang Wulin seemed to have obtained it, and it became a key to his acceptance of the Sea God's inheritance?
Realizing this, Xu Yuan found everything made sense.
The power within the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud was sufficient for Tang Wulin to communicate across dimensions and inherit the god position from Tang San, who was trapped inside a black hole, no matter how distant the distance.
God-Slaying Missiles?
They must be considered trivial in comparison.
"The grand formation had two cores. The Golden Ancient Tree protected Shrek, and the Sea God protected the Tang Sect," Yun Ming said calmly.
In his tone, Xu Yuan heard relief, but also something else.
"Teacher, are you returning to Shrek?"
"No. I'll continue my cultivation here. Everything at Shrek has been arranged. At this moment, my absence will yield better results."
Yun Ming withdrew his gaze and turned toward the entrance of the spatial channel below.
"This Starry Sky Phenomenon is more important than I imagined. Have you spent the past month hunting Abyss creatures to cultivate your soul power?"
"Yes," Xu Yuan replied honestly.
"While hunting Abyss creatures, don't forget to cultivate. Practicing the Seven Forbidden Techniques within the Starry Sky Phenomenon will yield special gains," Yun Ming reminded him.
Xu Yuan frowned, unable to fully grasp Yun Ming's meaning.
Practicing the Seven Forbidden Techniques within the Starry Sky Phenomenon?
How could he not have practiced before?
Moreover, over the past month, he had often paused to cultivate.
Aside from the lack of suppression from a plane master—similar to Dragon Valley and the Demon Plane—the cultivation efficiency was slightly higher, but nothing particularly remarkable.
"Detach from your original Dream Space, detach from the Dream Space entirely, and practice the Seven Forbidden Techniques in their purest form. Treat the two aspects of this Starry Sky Phenomenon as one to control: the illusory aspect represented by your original Dream Space, and the tangible aspect represented by the original spatial channel."
Control both the illusory and tangible aspects together?
And without relying on the Dream Space?
Xu Yuan pondered.
Could it be that relying too much on the Dream Space to practice the Seven Forbidden Techniques had deprived him of certain unique perspectives?
"Your Dream Space offers great benefits for mastering and early cultivation of the Seven Forbidden Techniques, but problems arise later. I failed to notice this earlier," Yun Ming said. "The Dream Space is ultimately an illusion, constructed by you. Whether or not it contains laws is irrelevant. Thus, there has always been a flaw in your cultivation of the Seven Forbidden Techniques—you haven't touched the realm of laws."
Xu Yuan understood.
Though Yun Ming's explanation wasn't entirely accurate, the root cause was similar.
Laws.
By using the Dream Space to transform the illusory into reality, referencing real planes, he naturally referenced their laws. He even used this method to touch and feel the laws ahead of time.
This was different from what Yun Ming described.
However, because Xu Yuan relied on the Dream Space to learn external laws, he rarely directly sensed external laws himself.
Of course, he occasionally tried, to avoid the situation where relying on the Dream Space yielded inferior insights compared to direct perception.
Yet the problem lay here.
On Douluo Star, directly sensing laws was slower than using the Dream Space to reference external perceptions.
But what about within the Starry Sky Phenomenon?
---
The attack on Shrek City and the descent of the two God-Slaying Missiles spread rapidly, soon causing a massive uproar across the entire Federation.
Someone dared to act against Shrek City!
Nearly a million deaths.
Over six million injured.
On the Federation's network, discussions about the nature of the two blazing suns couldn't be suppressed.
What were those two blazing suns?
Someone provided the answer—they were God-Slaying Missiles.
Twelve-level fixed-installation soul-guided cannon shells, of which the entire Federation possessed only three.
Whoever leaked such classified information clearly wanted chaos.
"Damn Holy Spirit Sect! They've turned the Federation into a mess!" In the Federation Parliament, many chairmen angrily denounced the Holy Spirit Sect, attributing the leak of this classified information to them.
"Gentlemen, the focus of today's meeting is how to address this crisis."
The public outcry, the challenge of rebuilding Shrek, and the pressure on Shrek and the Tang Sect.
Among Shrek City's three major organizations, two had been attacked, leaving only the Spirit Pagoda. How should they question the Spirit Pagoda next?
These were the pressing issues before them.
Shrek and the Tang Sect had been destroyed—but they resisted fiercely and endured.
The only organization left untouched, the Spirit Pagoda, became the target of everyone's accusations.
Especially since the loss of the God-Slaying Missiles was already linked to Qiangu Dongfeng.
---
Spirit Pagoda.
Qiangu Dongfeng stood by the window.
Since the appearance of the two blazing suns, he had remained here. Now, as the storm subsided, he still gazed at the horizon, staring at where the two God-Slaying Missiles had exploded, his eyes vacant.
It was over.
He knew everything was over.
When Ghost Emperor called him the most foolish from start to finish, Qiangu Dongfeng realized the issue.
"The Holy Spirit Sect's goal wasn't to destroy Shrek or kill Yun Ming. Their fundamental purpose was to detonate the God-Slaying Missiles."
Reflecting on his numerous collaborations with the Holy Spirit Sect, all the conditions added up to one common point:
Death.
The Holy Spirit Sect only cared about death.
They would help destroy Shrek, but only with the God-Slaying Missiles.
They would incite terror attacks within the Federation, slaughtering countless people.
They urged Qiangu Dongfeng to support the Federation in launching wars, which would result in even more deaths!
From start to finish, the Holy Spirit Sect's intent was clear.
Only Qiangu Dongfeng, immersed in his pursuit of power, had foolishly believed he was playing his cards perfectly.
Did he realize this?
He had realized it long ago.
But in his world, he was on the verge of success, about to elevate the Spirit Pagoda to unprecedented heights.
However, when he was about to succeed, the hidden dangers planted by his enemies had also erupted.
And the seemingly insignificant hazard he had ignored had now become his death sentence.
Qiangu Dongfeng understood—he was finished.
---
Shrek Academy.
Chen Xinjie, bent over, landed on Sea God Island.
At this moment, Feng Wuyu, Long Yeyue, and Zang Xin stood before Sea God Pavilion, gazing at the withered Golden Ancient Tree.
Once brimming with vitality, the Golden Ancient Tree now showed no outward signs of life force. All vitality was locked within, not leaking a single bit. From the outside, it appeared like a dead tree.
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