As Lu Jingming moved, the Black Abyss spear leveled toward Childe.
Death, ruin, withering, and lightning intertwined, forming a pitch-dark dot at the tip.
That dot was like a tiny black hole, exuding a terror that would unmake all things—as if it could swallow the world.
Lu Jingming lunged. For a moment, the entire world seemed to sink into endless darkness.
The black spear intent of annihilation tore the void like a peerless blade, as if carving a shocking black line across a pristine white sheet.
Under that razor intent, the massive whale was sliced cleanly in two in an instant.
Powerful water that had held force moments ago seemed to lose its vitality, the water-element itself, in that instant, endowed with the concept of death—reduced to ordinary, powerless water.
This was true death's power. In its face, nothing could be spared—not even elemental water.
Childe stared at the sight, a fine sheen of sweat beading on his forehead. His gaze flicked, almost reflexively, to the deep black fissure beside him.
Had his body not twisted away by instinct at the last moment, he would be in two pieces now.
That single thrust not only pierced his proudest Foul Art with ease, it split the entire training ground in two, leaving a bottomless black crack in the floor, like a hideous wound telling of the cataclysmic strike just now.
Silence fell.
Every student stared in terror at Lu Jingming, spear in hand.
The shock of that thrust made it feel as if, for a split second, they had each seen their own death. The bone-deep fear made their hearts feel like they stopped.
"Heh… hehehe… hahahahaha!" After a brief daze, Childe erupted into ecstatic laughter.
Laughing, he pulled down the red mask at his temple and fixed it over his face.
"Brother, forgive me—I underestimated you. Let's slaughter each other! Foul Legacy Transformation!"
At his shout, tides surged through the arena, and purple lightning leapt and flashed.
Water and lightning mingled like intimate partners, interweaving to produce a wondrous electro-charged reaction.
Empowered by it, Childe's aura skyrocketed tenfold or more.
The red mask was majestic and mysterious. Black armor gleamed with icy luster, and the cloak behind him snapped in the lightning's glare.
Only now, in Foul Legacy Transformation, did Childe show his full-power form.
"Come then—Sacred Spear, Reversion!"
Lu Jingming grinned, just as exhilarated, immersed now in the sheer joy of battle.
On the Douluo Continent, there weren't many who could let him fight so freely. Childe was undoubtedly one of them.
Black mist surged to wrap him, swiftly condensing into armor as black as night.
Black-red charge particles danced behind him like living ribbons. Beside Childe's domineering armament, Lu Jingming's gear was just as maxed-out on effects—handsome to the extreme.
Black and purple thunder exploded. Two dazzling bolts blazed and clashed in the air.
Each contact of their spears seemed to strike up a rousing war anthem in the void, leaving streaks of resplendent, searing afterimages.
Clad in black armor, spears in hand, thunder at their command, showing the extremes of strength and speed—the two were too alike. Just like Jingliu and Skirk, they shared many parallels.
Yet beneath the outward resemblance, their martial styles differed markedly.
Childe's Foul Arts leaned on elemental power, pushing the fusion of lightning and water to the limit to unleash explosive, crushing blows.
Lu Jingming's spearwork, however, evolved from the sword arts Jingliu had drilled into him. It emphasized the expression of intent, pursuing spear intent that unmade all things—an invisible yet overwhelming force that delivered the killing strike.
"So strong! I've decided—tomorrow I'm definitely going to ask them for an all-out training match!"
Miyabi stared, rapt. Her cute fox ears twitched as if feeling her excitement, playful and perky; her eyes shone with the thrill of the hunt.
Her gaze tracked Lu Jingming and Childe closely, as if to carve each of their moves into her heart.
"Black Abyss White Flower—his usage is completely different from mine," Durandal focused mostly on Lu Jingming.
As a fellow wielder of Black Abyss White Flower, she was deeply curious about how he used it.
Lu Jingming had clearly developed the weapon's withering-decay power far more deeply than she had.
There was a reason. To Durandal, Black Abyss White Flower was a weapon. To Lu Jingming, it was his martial soul.
A weapon is ultimately an external tool; a martial soul is an extension of oneself. The concepts are not the same.
It wasn't that Durandal's talent fell short—it was that her focus lay elsewhere.
Compared to digging into Black Abyss White Flower's power, Durandal prioritized elevating her own strength.
Even without Black Abyss White Flower, she was still Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie. So she hadn't invested as much into developing the weapon's powers.
Lu Jingming was different. As his martial soul, Black Abyss White Flower was his own power extended. He would naturally delve without reservation.
Take that Annihilating Thrust he just used. It possessed the power to impart the concept of death to its target—making even water-element, which shouldn't have such a concept, carry death.
You could say he was developing Black Abyss's withering-disassembly toward the occult domain of death's concept.
From the physical plane of disassembling all things to the mystical plane of granting death to all things—Lu Jingming's progress was obvious.
In his hands, Black Abyss White Flower was unveiling a look distinct from its original archetype.
On this point, as a fellow user, Durandal had the most to say.
At least with her current ability, she could not bestow death on water-element. At most she could use Black Abyss's power to disassemble it.
The final results might look similar, but the underlying meaning was worlds apart.
Because of this, her eyes sparkled as she watched Lu Jingming. She loved the feeling of getting stronger. She wanted to grow stronger—so she wanted to learn.
"Brother, don't you die on me now—Foul Art, Angelic Extinction!" After another fierce clash, Childe suddenly shouted.
A colossal whale's cry rang through the void, as if to shatter the space itself.
Destructive energy welled up like an undercurrent from the massive scar on the whale's body.
Childe rapidly drew that violent power onto his spear. Purple lightning and water wove madly together, and then he swung with all his might—a world-ending strike.
This blow contained everything he had—the pinnacle of what a human could reach.
One more step, and he would stand in the realm of gods.
In other words, his full-force strike rivaled an Ultimate Douluo's all-out attack—akin to the terrifying force at the ground zero of a Grade-9 stationary soul-guided artillery shell.
"That bastard…"
Xiao Hongchen's face went chalk-white. He'd only wanted to see Lu Jingming take a little punishment; he never expected things to spiral this far out of control. He didn't actually want the guy dead!