Ganyu remained as gentle and silent as ever, quietly following behind Ningguang.
Little Herta cast a final glance toward the Golden Tree, a faint smile playing on her lips.
As the three figures completely vanished into the staircase on the top floor of the Jade Chamber, an intensely dazzling and broad silver light abruptly and rapidly expanded, centered on the palace. It was like an instantly inflating silver bubble, precisely enveloping the entire main structure and all personnel assembled on the plaza below.
The next second, the silver light quickly receded and dissipated like an ebb tide.
The bustling plaza instantly became deserted. The magnificent and opulent Jade Chamber main building still stood, but its interior was now empty of people, devoid of any life.
Whether it was Ningguang, Ganyu, Little Herta, or all the employees assembled and waiting on the lower plaza, they were all, in this moment, completely and tracelessly transported out of Shrek City by a spatial power beyond comprehension, along with necessary supplies.
It was as if they had never existed in this city.
Inside the Golden Tree, the Ocean of Life was vast and boundless. The immense life energy was so rich it had condensed into a liquid state, shimmering with brilliant and sacred gold-green light. Every drop contained the colossal vitality that Soul Masters outside dreamed of obtaining.
If an ordinary Soul Master were lucky enough to absorb and refine even a trace, it would be enough to transform their physique and greatly advance their cultivation.
This place was originally one of the vital nodes of the Douluo Star's life脉络 (pulse/meridian), a supreme holy land for nurturing vitality and purifying filth, filled with sacred aura of peace, warmth, and nourishment for all things.
However, at this moment, this perpetually peaceful and inviolable domain of life was being swept by a cold and greedy will of destruction originating from outside the world.
"Rumble—!"
Monstrous waves surged without warning from the center of the tranquil Ocean of Life.
The ocean, composed of the purest life essence liquid, was forcefully pushed aside by a brutal, cold, and utterly foreign destructive energy, emitting a painful wail as if the heavens and earth were being ripped apart.
Space trembled violently. Golden life particles scattered frantically like startled fireflies.
Phantylia's true form was completely manifested here. Its appearance was far more grotesque than anything the Douluo Continent had ever conceived.
She was not a flesh-and-blood entity but an aggregate of energy constructed from the purest destructive will and surging purple-black flames. Her figure expanded rapidly the moment it appeared, blotting out the sky and the sun, like an ancient primordial demon god from the abyss, giving the illusion that she filled the entire colossal space inside the Golden Tree.
Thousands of energy strands, resembling withered branches and tentacles burning with purple-black flames, danced wildly like her hair. Each strand was entwined with an aura of annihilation that withered life and caused souls to decay.
Her mere existence was continuously polluting and eroding the surrounding pure life energy.
She seemed to let out a scornful sneer. The laugh was bone-chilling and devoid of any warmth, like a harsh wind sweeping across an icy plain in deep winter. It echoed over the boiling Ocean of Life, bringing endless coldness and despair.
She gently raised one hand, seemingly delicate but composed of energy. In her palm, highly concentrated destructive energy violently compressed and coalesced in a manner that defied logic, instantaneously shaping a miniature, pitted, planetary Phantylia flowing with magma-like destructive patterns.
Although this miniature star was small in volume, it radiated an indescribable, space-crushing heaviness. The magma patterns on its surface seemed like the brands of countless suffering souls' cries, emanating a terrifying pressure that made even one's divine soul tremble and threaten to disintegrate.
Its mere appearance caused large areas of the life-sea water nearby to violently boil, evaporate, and retreat in terror.
"Perish."
Phantylia's voice carried a cruel mockery, as if she were toying with all living things. Her wrist sank imperceptibly, brutally smashing the star of destruction, which held the weight of a small world, down towards the grim-faced Sea God Tang San.
Facing this earth-shattering blow, Sea God Tang San's divine sense clone remained as calm as deep water, facing an immense threat.
His figure appeared infinitesimally small compared to Phantylia's boundless energy body, but the Sea God's divine light emanating from him was dense and solid. The azure light stood firm and unmoving, like a colossal mountain.
His sea-blue hair flew violently in the raging energy storm. His eyes, which contained the profound wisdom of the ocean, clearly reflected the crushing star of destruction, yet showed no hint of panic, only the complete focus born of extreme calm.
"Mom, step back, use all your power to protect your divine sense source. You absolutely must not interrupt your refining process," Tang San commanded in a deep voice, his words cutting through the energy roar like a tidal wave.
Simultaneously, he violently thrust forward the Golden Trident, the symbol of the Sea God's authority, that he held in his hand.
"Weng—!!!"
The Sea God Trident suddenly erupted with an unprecedented, dazzling golden light. Vast, boundless Sea God divine power surged out like a flood that had breached a dam.
Miraculously, although this life ocean was not a true ocean, its essence was a liquid, flowing, and immense life energy, which had an extremely high degree of compatibility with the Sea God's divine power attributes.
Now, driven entirely by the will of Tang San, the Sea God, the entire vast Ocean of Life seemed to have been instantly imbued with true ocean will and life, obeying the command of its sovereign.
"Roar—!!!"
The water dragon, which was originally just an energy Phantylia coiled around the Trident's tip, let out a roar that shook the entire space and struck the very core of the soul.
Its body frantically swelled countless times within a millisecond, becoming incredibly solid. Every scale was clearly visible, flickering with blue-golden divine light. Huge azure Sea God flames burned fiercely in its gigantic dragon eyes.
It was no longer a simple energy construct but the complete materialization of the entire Life Ocean's power, concentrated by the Sea God's supreme authority.
It surged upward with the inexhaustible, boundless, and terrifying force capable of moving stars, brazenly meeting the star of destruction falling from the heavens.
"Who exactly are you? This level and nature of spiritual power, coupled with this intensely pure destructive will, could never be birthed by the Douluo Continent or any of its known surrounding planes."
Tang San's voice pierced through the earth-shattering collision of energies, carrying an unprecedented gravity and inquiry.
The core mission of his divine sense clone was to protect his mother, Ah Yin, as she refined the Golden Tree. Yet, he had encountered a terrifying powerhouse far exceeding all pre-established contingency plans.
The opponent's spiritual power level was extremely high, even vaguely giving him the pressure he felt when facing the God of Destruction, yet its essence was even more bizarre and cold, filled with an absolute malice that drove all things towards the end, distinctly different from the authority of destruction wielded by the God of Destruction.
"Who I am is unimportant. Although such brutal destruction, devoid of artistic beauty, doesn't entirely conform to my aesthetic..."
Phantylia's voice was ethereal and cold, as if descending from a great height, carrying a condescending air of scrutiny towards the struggles of mere ants.
"But I am not entirely an unyielding brute. A change of pace is occasionally welcome. I will bring you all the most thorough end and silence."
The force in her hand did not diminish at all; instead, it became increasingly violent.
The light of destruction poured down from the miniature planet like a nine-day waterfall. Wherever it passed, the life-filled sea water was rapidly polluted, decomposed, and annihilated into nothingness. Even the tough spatial barrier within the Golden Tree began to emit sounds of unbearable, teeth-grating distortion, as if it could completely shatter at any moment.
The life energy torrent guided by Tang San's Sea God power clashed furiously with Phantylia's pure destructive force, eroding and annihilating each other.
Every collision unleashed terrifying spiritual storms and energy turbulence capable of instantly dissipating an ordinary Titled Douluo's soul.
This violent fluctuation had long exceeded the tolerance limit of the Golden Tree's internal space. The destructive shockwaves, as substantial as physical force, brutally penetrated the Golden Tree's natural spatial barrier and violently spilled out into the material world.
On Sea God Island, the core of Shrek Academy, the ancient Golden Tree, which usually emitted a gentle and sacred golden light, began to violently tremble without any warning.
The light on its incredibly thick, ancient trunk, which required dozens of people to embrace, became extremely unstable. It was sometimes dazzling like the midday sun, and at other times covered and eroded by an ominous, purple-black light that seemed to devour all brightness.
A terrifying aura of despair and extreme oppression, one that chilled the heart, rapidly spread from the Golden Tree as its center, like an uncontrolled plague, throughout the entire Sea God Island, and even further.
This aura was mixed with the wails of life and the howling of destruction, forming a terrifying spiritual pollution.
All members remaining in the Sea God's Pavilion, whether they were research-oriented teachers who were not adept at fighting, aging veterans, or ordinary staff, felt their hearts plummet. It was as if an invisible, cold giant hand had relentlessly squeezed their hearts, and the deepest part of their souls uncontrollably surged with a primal fear and trembling born of instinct.
Those with weaker cultivation instantly turned white as paper, staggering and retreating repeatedly, their Soul Power circulation sluggish, barely able to stand. Some even collapsed directly to the ground, shivering uncontrollably.
"Wha... what happened?! What's wrong with the Golden Tree?!?"
"Th-that aura is so terrifying! I feel like my soul is being ripped apart!"
"Look at the treetop, what is that flickering black light?!"
"Alert! Maximum alert! Immediately find a way to notify Dean Yan and the City Lord! Something terrible is happening on Sea God Island!"
Inside and outside the Sea God's Pavilion, chaos instantly erupted. Screams of terror, wails of alarm, and the sound of frantic running echoed repeatedly.
No one could imagine that within the Golden Tree, which they regarded as the academy's holy land and the repository of countless beliefs and hopes, a war between deities, far exceeding their comprehension, was currently raging.
And now, inside the core of the Golden Tree, the Ocean of Life continued to boil, and the confrontation had reached its climax.
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