"Boom—!!!"
Another devastating explosion rang out. The Lightning Lord's figure swayed violently, becoming faint and illusory.
Xiao Wu was also flung away by the immense backlash. Her qi and blood churned, and the blue divine glow around her dimmed noticeably.
After the prolonged battle, even with Jingyuan and Xiao Wu's coordination, facing a first-rank god who had activated the Rakshasa Domain—driven mad and holding an exceptionally high god-position essence—they were ultimately forced onto the back foot.
Bibi Dong's Rakshasa Domain was like a vast field of malevolent power, constantly absorbing grievances and negative emotions between heaven and earth to replenish her consumption and amplify her strength. With her rising and their falling, Jingyuan and Xiao Wu were showing signs of defeat.
"Calamity Hex: Annihilation."
Pressing her advantage, Bibi Dong pointed the Rakshasa Scythe at the sky.
From the filthy depths of the Rakshasa Prison, eerie red lights surged up, converging in the heavens into a sinister sigil formed by countless blood-colored eyes.
Within the sigil, it was as if innumerable wailing spirits struggled and screamed, exuding a curse-laden aura of decay and death. It locked firmly onto Jingyuan and Xiao Wu, poised to deliver a terrifying verdict of calamity.
At that critical instant—
Huo Yuhao, who had been hiding at the entrance to the half-plane of the dead, watching anxiously, flashed a look of resolve.
He could not watch Jingyuan and Xiao Wu lose. Otherwise, all of them would face Bibi Dong's frenzied revenge.
"I can only use that…"
He steeled himself. Deep within his sea of consciousness, the blood-red orb that represented the Herrscher's core suddenly blazed.
"Soul Shock—!!!"
Huo Yuhao roared inwardly.
He poured all of his spiritual power into this strike: the origin power of the Blood-Red Spirit Eyes, the Purple Demon Eyes' strength, the soul skill granted by the million-year spirit ring, and the spiritual origin left by the Skydream Iceworm—all unified and amplified by the Herrscher core—becoming a formless, intangible, yet terrifying tide of spirit powerful enough to shake a god's soul. Like the sharpest spike, it crossed space without a sound and stabbed viciously into Bibi Dong's sea of consciousness.
Success!
That spiritual attack—everything Huo Yuhao could muster—did pierce Bibi Dong's mental defenses, which were slightly lax due to rage, and crashed into her divine soul.
"Urgh—!"
Bibi Dong let out a muffled grunt full of pain and fury. The calamity sigil forming in the sky jolted, nearly collapsing.
Her movements froze for an instant, and the Rakshasa Domain flickered unstable.
However, Huo Yuhao had made a fatal mistake.
He forgot—or, in his haste, overlooked—how dangerous spiritual abilities are when used against a being whose soul level far surpasses your own.
Bibi Dong is the Rakshasa God.
Her divine sense had long been tempered by the world's darkest, filthiest evil thoughts and grievances. Its tenacity and backlash were beyond imagination.
"An ant… dares shake a god?!"
Bibi Dong snapped her head around, purple eyes blazing with a fire fierce enough to burn stars.
She didn't even bother to seek Huo Yuhao's location. The affronted divine might, that corruption-steeped Rakshasa god-sense, like an enraged venomous dragon, followed the path his attack had taken and surged back a thousandfold.
"Pfft—!"
Huo Yuhao reeled as if struck, spitting blood as his body dropped from the sky like a kite with a cut string.
He felt his soul thrown into the flames of purgatory, torn and gnawed by endless spiteful wills—about to shatter and be annihilated.
At the moment of despair when his soul was about to collapse—
"Hum—!"
Deep in his spiritual sea, in the corner forcibly sealed by the darkened persona, three wills long suppressed seized upon the external shock and the seal's loosening, suddenly awakening and erupting.
"Yuhao, wake up."
This was the Skydream Iceworm's anxious, caring mental wave.
"What an evil power—but also an opportunity."
This was Electrolux's old yet wise and decisive voice.
"I'm... back."
This was Huo Yuhao's long-sealed primary persona, weary yet steadfast.
Under Electrolux's lead, the three wills united in an instant. Riding the chaos caused by the Rakshasa god-sense's backlash and the dark persona's momentary lapse, they became three blades stabbing into the dark core that represented the second personality.
"No—!"
The dark Huo Yuhao roared in unwillingness, but under attack from within and without, his resistance crumbled rapidly.
Sealing chains woven from necromancy and light reappeared, binding and suppressing him tightly, dragging him once more into the deepest part of the spiritual sea.
Outside, Huo Yuhao's falling body suddenly halted, and his eyes snapped open.
But those eyes were no longer the previous madness and coldness, nor the primary persona's clarity, but a calm that had weathered ages—seeing through life and death, carrying boundless knowledge and majesty.
He raised a hand and wiped the blood from his lips. A pure, profound power—tinged with a faint aura of death yet incomparably sacred—began to coil around him.
He looked toward the distant Bibi Dong, even more enraged after her god-sense was disturbed. An old, tranquil voice resounded between heaven and earth:
"Hand on sun and moon to pluck the stars—none like me beneath the sky. I, the Holy Necromancer God, Electrolux, have returned."
Electrolux had temporarily taken over the body.
The aura he exuded was entirely different.
No longer the icy necrotic miasma, nor the Herrscher's eerie psychic ripples, but a profound, vast majesty carrying the mysteries of life and death across the ages.
Pure necromantic mana intertwined with a strand of holy radiance formed a unique domain around him, actually resisting the Rakshasa Prison's insidious corruption—for the moment.
"Hm?"
In her fury, Bibi Dong keenly sensed this strange and powerful aura. Her violet eyes narrowed slightly. She suppressed her pursuit of Jingyuan and Xiao Wu and focused on this new opponent.
"Your soul… has changed flavor. But you'll die all the same."
Electrolux, controlling Huo Yuhao's body, rose slowly, forming a triangle with Jingyuan and Xiao Wu to encircle Bibi Dong.
He gazed at her calmly. His aged voice carried a detachment born of seeing through the world:
"Rakshasa God, your strength is born of the world's malice and evil. Powerful, yes—but it blinds your eyes and heart. Enough. This battle is meaningless."
"Arrogant."
Bibi Dong barked, raising the Rakshasa Scythe again as the Purgatory Ghost Hand launched.
Intersecting evil forces formed a massive purple-black cross slash, rending space into magic sigils. A purple-black ghastly hand, like a claw from hell, surged at Electrolux, laden with endless resentment.
Facing this evil strike, Electrolux didn't dodge. He merely raised a palm.
He chanted ancient, obscure words—not any language of the Douluo world, but true magic from another plane.
"Eternal Bulwark, Coffin of Guardians—Descend."
With his chant, a white-bone bulwark formed entirely of necromantic power appeared, etched with countless arcane runes. On it, faint phantoms of angel and demon manifested together, jointly guarding.
This was not mere defense—it contained Electrolux's deep comprehension of life, death, light, and darkness.
"Boom!!"
The Purgatory Ghost Hand slammed into the bone bulwark, detonating with a deafening roar.
Rakshasa's vile divine power and pure necromantic mana clashed fiercely, annihilating each other.
In the end, both the ghost hand and the bulwark shattered—an even match.
Bibi Dong's pupils shrank. She hadn't expected this sudden interloper to block her so easily.
"Now."
Jingyuan seized the chance. The Lightning Lord gathered once more; ten thousand golden thunder condensed into a Heaven's Penalty Lance that rent the sky, bearing awe-inspiring judgment upon all evil, hurled at Bibi Dong.
Xiao Wu moved in the same instant, her form turning into countless pink afterimages. From all directions she launched the opening sequences of Soft Bone Lock and Eight-Stage Drop, trying to restrict Bibi Dong's movements.
Electrolux acted as well. He pressed down with both hands. The ground below turned ashen as innumerable phosphorescent bone spears burst up like a forest, stabbing from beneath. At the same time, a powerful spiritual suppression surged like the tide, disrupting her god-sense.
For the first time, three powers on par with divinity formed an effective joint offensive.
Bibi Dong finally felt pressure.
She roared as her Rakshasa Avatar fully merged with her body, aura skyrocketing. The Rakshasa Scythe spun like a wheel, and a storm of purple-black divine power swept out from her, fending off the fierce assaults from three directions at once.
"Nether Rakshasa!"
"Calamity Hex: Annihilation!"
"Barrier of Extinction!"
She cast powerful Rakshasa god-arts with ease, colliding frenziedly with the three.
This battle was far more violent and terrifying than before.
Four god-level powers of different attributes and tiers erupted here without restraint, colliding and annihilating.
The sky was torn with even larger gaps, exposing the chaotic void behind.
The earth either cracked or sank; the terrain itself changed—mountain ranges were erased, new abysses formed.
The shockwaves rolled out like tangible tsunamis, wave after wave, sweeping across the Douluo Continent at astonishing speed.
From the frigid glaciers of the Extreme North to the bustling Star Luo capital, from the believers on Sea God Island to reclusive experts—every soul master above a certain level felt that distant, soul-trembling terror.
A god-war of the ages raged in a corner of the continent.
…
Meanwhile, far overseas, Sea God Island.
In the sacred Sea God Temple, Hysilens—who had been calmly receiving the final infusion of faith—suddenly opened her eyes.
Her eyes had become a deep oceanic blue, as if ten thousand waves surged within.
Having accepted the complete Sea God inheritance, her body had been fully reforged by the pure, vast Sea God power—not the negative-energy vessel sculpted by the Holy Grail War, but a true Sea God with flesh and divine soul.
Clad in azure Sea God regalia, a coronet set with a golden trident sigil upon her head, and holding the golden trident symbolizing oceanic authority, Hysilens now radiated solemn majesty, divine and commanding, a vast godly might that made all beings submit.
She clearly sensed the violently clashing godly auras from deep within the continent—especially the Rakshasa's hateful, evil power—which made her brows knit.
Without hesitation, she lifted the Sea God Trident. A gentle yet vast Sea God light descended, forming a gigantic blue canopy that enveloped the entire Sea God Island, severing the oppressive pressure and potential threat from the distant god-war.
Having done this, she turned to the curiously appraising Cerydra at her side.
"Kaiser, come with me. Let's find Lu Jingming."
Hysilens extended her hand to Cerydra.
Cerydra nodded without hesitation and grasped Hysilens's offered hand.
In the next moment, Hysilens pointed the trident forward.
"Hum—!"
A dazzling blue divine light shot skyward, tearing the clouds—a luminous causeway linking heaven and earth.
Hysilens took Cerydra by the hand and stepped into the light.
Their figures vanished.
Only a blue rainbow piercing the firmament remained, speeding with beyond-mortal swiftness, rending space as it raced toward the heart of the god-war.
The newly ascended Sea God, bearing the ocean's vast power, formally entered the earth-shaking god-war sweeping the continent.
The prelude to a war of gods was about to begin.
…
Far away in the Spirit Empire's grand camp, Lu Jingming and Qian Renxue both looked up, sensing this newly risen, unabashedly powerful divine might.
A sharp gleam flashed in Qian Renxue's golden eyes, while a deeper smile curved Lu Jingming's lips.
As the newly ascended Sea God Hysilens left Sea God Island for the continent's apocalyptic battlefield, in the lightless, unreachable deepest trench of the ocean—a forbidden abyss even to the mightiest sea soul beasts—a cold, cruel, and frenzied ritual was quietly reaching its end.
There, the Demon Empress from another world stood amidst endless darkness and crushing pressure that would flatten steel.
Her form made clear she was no ordinary soul beast.
Her long hair had become plasma whips—mercurial streams intertwined with raging golden lightning—writhing behind her like living serpents of thunder. On her brow, a spiral narwhal-like horn pierced the dark, gleaming with peerless sharpness.
Her eyes were searing white, pupil-less—pure lightning condensed.
Fragments of a whale-bone mask covered her face; each breath exhaled ionized vapor reeking of ozone.
She was the Herrscher of Thunder—the King of Conquest.
The agony from another world—her husband, the Deep Sea Demon Whale King, slain by Sea God Tang San; her race's decline; a hatred seared over tens of millennia—had twisted her mind completely, forging her into a weapon that existed only for destruction and revenge.