The Titan Giant Ape frenziedly tried to rush to save the brother dear as life itself, but more Abominations and Gargoyles swarmed like maggots on bone, clinging tight with rotten bodies and sharp claws. No matter how it raged, it could not break the flesh-and-blood barricade of piled undead in time.
Squelch—!
A hair-raising, tooth-aching tearing sound rang clear across the battlefield.
It was followed by the Azure Bull Python Da Ming's shriek—so sharp it twisted, filled with pain and despair.
The death knights' massed charge was devastating; their spears pierced the reverse scale stripped of energy protection with no hindrance. A terrifying flood of death energy poured into its vast body, ravenously destroying all life within.
The Azure Bull Python—fell!
Its colossal cyan body convulsed a few times, then went limp and crashed onto the frozen lake, throwing up a storm of ice shards.
Witnessing his elder brother's death with his own eyes, the thread of reason in Er Ming's mind snapped.
He fell into a total, reckless madness.
Scarlet light burst from his body—he began burning his precious life origin to gain a temporary surge of power.
"Roar—!!"
With a heaven-shaking bellow, an unprecedented force exploded from him, blasting and ripping apart all nearby undead.
His bloodshot eyes locked onto the instigator in the distance—Huo Yuhao.
His giant fist clenched again, now not only with brute force, but also with the annihilating will born of burning life.
He would use this final strike to drag the human who brought them death down with him.
That sky-blotting fist fell with a power that could make mountains and rivers change color.
Compressed air shrieked; the ground below began to crack inch by inch.
Yet Huo Yuhao showed no panic in the face of a blow that would make any Title Douluo blanch.
He didn't even step back—still standing calmly, blood-red eyes reflecting the approaching shadow of death.
At that hair's-breadth instant—
A petite figure flashed ghostlike in front of Huo Yuhao.
Compared to the Titan Giant Ape's mountain-like fist, she was as small as an ant.
But she didn't hesitate. A seemingly tender, jade-white, slender fist swung out, calm yet resolute, to meet the world-ending blow.
The two fists, grossly mismatched in size and proportion, collided in the next moment.
There was no stalemate—only… overwhelming destruction.
Boom—!!!
At the point of impact, space shattered like a mirror, jagged black cracks spiderwebbing outward.
An indescribable, void-piercing, mountain-splitting force erupted from that petite fist like an invisible raging dragon.
It pierced through the Titan Giant Ape's fist aura born of burning life, through its tough hide and muscle, and—more directly, more cruelly—through its still-furiously beating heart.
Only then, as power ebbed like the tide and consciousness dimmed, did the Titan Giant Ape finally see clearly who had blocked it and dealt the fatal blow.
That exquisite face, that familiar yet faintly strange aura—
"Xiao Wu…?!"
Er Ming's lantern-wide pupils were full of disbelief, confusion, and the heart-rending sorrow and pain of betrayal by the dearest one.
"Why…"
With its last strength, it voiced a weak question laden with doubt and grief.
Then its vast body went rigid, all life snuffed out in an instant. Its voice fell silent.
When the shockwave of the colliding fists finally dissipated and the dust settled—
The Titan Giant Ape's mountain-like body had lost all luster of life and collapsed like toppling gold and falling jade, raising a cloud of dust and announcing the fall of a forest ruler.
The Star Dou Forest's two rulers—the hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape and Azure Bull Python—both perished in this battle.
Two blood-red hundred-thousand-year spirit rings, radiating terrifying energy fluctuations, slowly floated up from their still-warm corpses. Their dazzling yet tragic glow was piercing to the eyes, suffused with indescribable bleakness and sorrow.
Huo Yuhao slowly exhaled a blood-tinged breath. The constant high-intensity command of such a vast undead army and maintenance of Spirit Detection Sharing had cost him dearly in mental power. His face was a little pale.
But when he looked at the two suspended spirit rings that symbolized great power, his eyes burned with fervent expectation.
He did not delay. He sat cross-legged at once, closed his eyes, and began to adjust his state at full strength, preparing to absorb the hard-won hundred-thousand-year spirit ring.
Off to the side, Xiao Wu—who had personally slain the Titan Giant Ape—stood dazed, head lowered, staring at her still jade-white, harmless-looking fist.
Just now, she had only acted on instinct to protect Huo Yuhao. Her body moved faster than thought.
Even now, that destructive force seemed to linger at her fingertips.
She raised her head, her blank gaze sweeping over the two lifeless hulks of the Titan Giant Ape and Azure Bull Python, and the two ominously glowing red spirit rings.
The vague sense of kinship that had haunted her heart didn't vanish at their deaths. Instead it turned into a heavy, suffocating sorrow and guilt that made it hard to breathe, like icy tides flooding her heart.
She subconsciously clutched her chest, as if it were wracked by a cruel twist of pain.
Those eyes—almost identical to the Xiao Wu of this era—were now filled with endless bewilderment, confusion, and a deep pain even she couldn't understand.
She killed it… so why does her heart hurt so much? As if… she had lost something vital.
This sudden heavy emotion clashed violently with the blank spaces in her memory, plunging her into unprecedented turmoil.
Meanwhile, as Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged, soul power surging around him while he absorbed the Titan Giant Ape's blood-red, terrifying hundred-thousand-year spirit ring—
Bei Bei, Tang Ya, and the leisurely Jing Yuan had retreated to a relatively clean open space nearby to wait quietly.
Tang Ya nestled quietly at Bei Bei's side. Though her memories were still sealed by the Holy Spirit Sect's sinister means—her eyes sometimes empty and dazed, sometimes bearing the innocent bewilderment of a child—her soul-deep, almost instinctive reliance and closeness to Bei Bei had not changed at all.
Her slender, fair fingers unconsciously clutched the hem of Bei Bei's clothes tightly, knuckles whitening, as if it were the only piece of flotsam she could grab while drowning—so fragile it was heartbreaking.
Bei Bei gently wrapped an arm around Tang Ya's shoulders—thinner than he remembered—his handsome face shrouded in heavy worry and ache that wouldn't disperse.
He instinctively drew Tang Ya closer into his arms, as if that could ward off her suffering.
He turned slightly to the man at his side—Jing Yuan—whose transcendent air and deep golden eyes seemed untouched by worldly affairs. With a tremor and a plea in his voice, he asked softly:
"Mr. Jing Yuan, your knowledge is vast and you grasp the arcane. Do you know whether Xiao Ya… still has hope of recovery? Is the poison planted by the Holy Spirit Sect truly without cure?"
Jing Yuan's calm gaze swept over Tang Ya's slightly pale yet still pretty face. A trace of understanding and pity flashed in those golden eyes that seemed to see through the world.
He didn't answer directly, but explained in an even tone:
"The poison she bears is no ordinary toxin; it is exceedingly troublesome. It is not an external substance anymore, but deeply entwined with her flesh, her martial soul, even the source of her soul—like symbiosis, yet parasitic—constantly drawing on her life force. When it thrives, she thrives; when it withers, she withers."
Bei Bei trembled slightly, instantly grasping the cruel truth implied in Jing Yuan's words. His face grew uglier; his voice turned rough:
"You mean… the toxin within Xiao Ya is already tightly interwoven with her life origin, hard to separate?"
"Correct."
Jing Yuan nodded slowly, his voice steady as ever, each word pounding Bei Bei's heart.
"This poison is insidious and vicious to the extreme. It has invaded her limbs and bones, sunk into her marrow, and seeped into the depths of her soul. In a sense, it has twisted itself into a… malformed balance that sustains her current fragile state."
"If one were to rip it out with domineering force, it would be like drawing water from beneath a cauldron—or cutting flesh to treat a boil. The instant the toxin leaves the body, it would also wrench away what little life force she has left after long erosion. At that point, even divine means would be hard-pressed to keep her alive three to five days."
Jing Yuan's flat words were like a basin of ice water dumped over Bei Bei's head, plunging his heart into the abyss. He went cold all over, his face as white as paper.
He instinctively gripped Tang Ya's cold little hand more tightly, fingertips trembling from the force.
Ever since he found Tang Ya, he had been like this—guarding her at every moment, as if afraid that with one careless blink he would lose her again. The fear of losing and then losing again after recovery had become a heart demon to him.
"Is there… truly no way at all? Why must Heaven be so unfair to Xiao Ya…"
Bei Bei's voice was low and hoarse with despair, as if asking Jing Yuan, yet also questioning fate.
Jing Yuan pondered slightly, a thoughtful light passing through his golden eyes, then spoke again—his soft voice bringing a sliver of hope:
"There is not absolutely no way. The key lies in balance and substitution. If one can find a method whereby, at the very instant the toxin is cleared, a vast power of life origin is injected into her body to precisely fill the life deficit inevitably caused by the toxin's departure, then perhaps… she could grasp a thread of survival."
He paused, seeing the sudden light in Bei Bei's eyes, then gently shook his head and added:
"However, heavenly treasures capable of replenishing—or even remolding—life origin in an instant are rarer than rare, more a matter of chance than search. Their preciousness goes without saying."
As they spoke, not far away, the once rampaging soul power fluctuations around Huo Yuhao ebbed like retreating tides, gradually returning to calm.
The blood-red, suffocating hundred-thousand-year spirit ring that had hovered around him had perfectly merged into his body without a trace of rejection.
He slowly opened his eyes; a flash of sharp light flickered in the depths. His already formidable aura now felt thicker and more solid—clearly, the breakthrough had succeeded and his strength had greatly increased.
He stood and immediately looked toward Bei Bei and Tang Ya, striding over.
Evidently, even while fully absorbing the ring in that perilous process, he had kept a thread of attention on their situation.
For Huo Yuhao, whose mental power had long surpassed ordinary levels thanks to the Herrscher of Knowledge core, dividing his focus was not difficult.
Absorbing the hundred-thousand-year ring had indeed been tricky—the Titan Giant Ape's residual soul will was violent and fierce—but under the suppression and washing of his vast, steel-hardened mental power, it quickly collapsed and was fully absorbed.
As for the precious soul bone that would inevitably be produced by the Titan Giant Ape, he planned to absorb it later when he had time.
"Senior Bei Bei, Mr. Jing Yuan."
Huo Yuhao approached and greeted them, then his eyes fell gravely on Tang Ya's still-blank gaze.
"I've been thinking about Teacher Xiao Ya's problem as well. Mr. Jing Yuan's analysis matches my own judgment. The key to detoxification indeed lies in how to replenish the life origin that will be consumed violently."
Huo Yuhao's gaze turned to Tang Ya. Naturally, he did not wish to see her perish.
Tang Ya was one of the few who had treated him with genuine kindness. He had truly felt that warmth.
Even with the second personality now in the lead, that recognition and slight bond from the depths of memory had not entirely faded.