A streak of deep blue and pitch-black light tore across the golden horizon of the southern ocean, moving with such terrifying velocity that the sea surface thirty meters below was parted into a boiling white trough by the sheer pressure of its passage.
At the center of that hurtling meteor of spirit power was Tang San.
Thirty days had passed since he had departed Sea God Island to dive into the forbidden trenches and the volcanic calderas of the Dead Bone Archipelago. A month of relentless, solitary slaughter against the most vicious ancient overlords of the deep sea had washed away the frantic desperation he had felt upon hearing of the Star Luo Empire's collapse, replacing it with a cold, razor-sharp edge that made the very air around him hum with lethal danger.
His long hair, half midnight-black and half vibrant ocean-blue, trailed behind his shoulders like a banner of the abyss. In his right hand, the one-hundred-and-eight-thousand-catty Sea God Trident gleamed like a miniature sun, its golden runes fully awakened and pulsing in harmony with the Level 96 Super Douluo spirit power surging through his widened meridians.
Ahead of him, the crescent-shaped silhouette of Sea God Island rose out of the turquoise waters, crowned by the sacred, mist-wreathed peak of the Sea God Mountain.
Tang San did not slow his flight as he crossed the outer coral reefs. Using his vast mental force—which had grown significantly denser and sharper after absorbing multiple hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings and Spirit Bones—he swept the island below and locked onto the familiar spiritual fluctuations gathered near the steaming, golden-lit healing pools at the eastern base of the mountain.
With a graceful tilt of his shoulders, Tang San folded his aura inward and descended from the sky, his boots touching down upon the white jade flagstones beside the sacred pools without making a single sound.
Gathered around the edge of the steaming mineral waters were the surviving pillars of his family and Sea God Island.
Tang Chen sat cross-legged on a flat boulder near the center of the main pool, his muscular upper body bare and covered in faded, silvery scars as golden steam rose around him. Though his face still carried a trace of pallor from the severe internal backlash of detonating his hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring during the escape from the mainland, his breathing had grown steady and deep once more.
Beside the pool, Tang Hao stood with his arms crossed over his bandage-wrapped chest, the jagged, dark-red brand of the Slaughter God glowing faintly beneath the linen over his sternum. A few paces away, Tang Xiao sat on a stone bench, his empty left sleeve pinned neatly to his shoulder as he conversed quietly with the four surviving Titled Douluo elders of the Clear Sky Sect. Across from them stood High Priestess Bo Saixi, leaning lightly on her silver staff alongside Sea Dragon Douluo and Sea Spear Douluo.
The moment Tang San landed on the flagstones, every single pair of eyes around the sacred pool snapped toward him.
For three full breaths, nobody spoke.
Even though Tang San had deliberately retracted his domain and kept his spirit power calm inside his body, the sheer, suffocating density of his vital essence and the faint, invisible pressure radiating from his physical frame made Sea Dragon Douluo and Sea Spear Douluo instinctively take half a step back, their hands twitching toward their martial spirits!
"Xiao San?" Tang Xiao stood up from his stone bench in sheer disbelief, his eyes widening as he stared at his nephew. "Your aura... when you left the island a month ago, you had just reached the ninety-fourth rank. How has your spirit power grown so deep in just thirty days?!"
Tang Hao's fierce eyes lit up with a mixture of shock and intense paternal pride as he strode forward, clapping a heavy, calloused hand onto his son's shoulder. The moment his palm touched Tang San's collarbone, Tang Hao felt the immovable, mountain-like resilience of the hundred-thousand-year Torso Spirit Bone humming beneath Tang San's skin.
"Good! Very good!" Tang Hao barked out a rough laugh, the gloomy shadow that had hung over his face since the fall of the Star Luo Empire lifting for the first time in weeks. "Not only did you break through to the ninety-sixth rank as a Super Douluo, your physical body feels tougher than deep-sea divine iron! It seems those ancient beasts in the outer trenches gave you quite a harvest, Xiao San!"
"Great-Grandfather, Father, Uncle, High Priestess," Tang San greeted them respectfully, bowing slightly before straightening up. "With the coordinates provided by the High Priestess and the suppression of the Sea God Trident, the expedition went smoothly. How are your injuries?"
"The sacred waters of the Sea God Mountain contain tens of thousands of years of accumulated oceanic vitality," Tang Chen spoke from the boulder in the pool, opening his deep black eyes and nodding approvingly at his great-grandson. "While the hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings your father and I detonated cannot be recovered so easily, our fractured meridians have stabilized by nearly eighty percent. More importantly, Xiao San, let us see how far you have pushed the Eighth Trial. How many of your Spirit Rings and Spirit Bones have you replaced?"
Bo Saixi, Sea Dragon Douluo, and Sea Spear Douluo all leaned forward attentively. For Sea God Island, the completion of the Sea God Inheritor's Eighth Trial was the final prelude to the birth of a living deity.
"Please step back a few paces," Tang San said calmly.
As Tang Hao and Tang Xiao stepped back, Tang San planted the butt of the Sea God Trident against the white flagstones and raised his left hand.
Dark, metallic-blue vines covered in wicked, glowing thorns coiled out from his palm as his primary martial spirit, the Deathly Sea Emperor Vine, manifested in the air.
Immediately following the emergence of the vines, nine dazzling halos of light rose from beneath Tang San's feet, expanding outward with a low, rhythmic hum that caused the steaming water of the sacred pools to ripple violently!
Black. Black. Black. Black. Black. Black. Red. Red. Red!
Six pitch-black Spirit Rings, each radiating the suffocating, viscous pressure of ancient Spirit Beasts ranging from fifty thousand to over ninety thousand years of cultivation, hovered at the base of the sequence. And crowning those six black rings were three blindingly bright, blood-red hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings whose crimson radiance stained the white jade plaza and the surrounding clouds a deep, ominous scarlet!
"Six black and three red!" Sea Spear Douluo sucked in a sharp, cold breath, staring at the nine rings in awe. "Every single yellow and purple ring from his early cultivation has been completely purged and replaced with rings above fifty thousand years—and he now possesses three hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings on his first martial spirit alone!"
"Wait, look at his skeleton," Sea Dragon Douluo pointed with a trembling finger as four distinct, blood-red glows illuminated Tang San's left arm, right arm, chest, and left leg, accompanied by a dark purple-red gleam from the two sharp poison fangs resting at the corners of his lips. "Four hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bones, plus anExternal Spirit Bone that has evolved to the hundred-thousand-year level! And that is only his first martial spirit!"
Without saying a word, Tang San clenched his left fist.
The Deathly Sea Emperor Vine and its nine terrifying Spirit Rings vanished in an instant, as he could only wield one martial spirit at a time. A split second later, a heavy, oppressive black light exploded from his left palm as the colossal, rune-covered head of the Clear Sky Hammer materialized in his grip!
BOOM!
The flagstones beneath Tang San's boots cracked under the sudden gravitational surge as eight massive Spirit Rings rose around the Clear Sky Hammer!
The first, second, and third rings were pitch-black, pulsing with sixty-five thousand to seventy-two thousand years of condensed killing intent. The fourth and fifth rings were blinding blood-red hundred-thousand-year rings left behind by Er Ming and Da Ming. The sixth ring was a deep, deathly black ring from the eighty-nine-thousand-year Dark-Gold Bone Dragon. And above that sixth black ring floated two more newly acquired, scorching blood-red hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings harvested from the Hellfire Behemoth and the Abyssal Nine-Headed Hydra!
Four black rings and four blood-red hundred-thousand-year rings on his second martial spirit!
Combined across both of his twin martial spirits, Tang San now possessed a staggering total of seventeen Spirit Rings: ten high-tier black Spirit Rings and seven blood-red hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings!
Looking at the four crimson hundred-thousand-year rings orbiting his nephew's Clear Sky Hammer, Tang Xiao and thefour surviving Clear Sky Sect elders felt their blood boil with excitement, tears springing to their eyes after weeks of humiliation.
"Four hundred-thousand-year rings on the Clear Sky Hammer..." Tang Xiao murmured, his voice shaking with emotion. "Even in the ten-thousand-year history of our Clear Sky Sect, no ancestor has ever forged such a terrifying foundation! With seventeen rings of this caliber and five hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bones, Xiao San's true combat strength at the ninety-sixth rank already rivals a ninety-ninth-rank Limit Douluo!"
Tang San dismissed the Clear Sky Hammer, allowing the suffocating crimson and black light to fade from the plaza so the elders could breathe easily again.
However, as the light receded, High Priestess Bo Saixi's keen blue eyes remained fixed on Tang San, a slight frown creasing her brow.
"Tang San, your progress in a single month is nothing short of a miracle," Bo Saixi said, her voice carrying both praise and a touch of confusion. "Yet, I notice that while your primary martial spirit's nine rings and your Spirit Bones have met the requirements of the Eighth Trial, the ninth and final Spirit Ring slot of your Clear Sky Hammer remains empty. Consequently, the golden mark on your forehead has not yet signaled the completion of the Eighth Trial."
She stepped closer, looking at him earnestly. "In the outer trenches and the Dead Bone Archipelago, there are still two or three other hundred-thousand-year sea overlords—such as the Evil Spirit Shark King in the western trench. With your current strength and the Sea God Trident, you could easily slay one of them to fill your ninth hammer ring and complete the Eighth Trial today. Why did you return while leaving that final ring slot vacant?"
Tang Chen and Tang Hao also looked over at Tang San, curious as to why he had stopped just one step short of finishing his foundation.
Tang San gripped the golden shaft of the Sea God Trident, his ocean-blue eyes gleaming with a cold, ambitious light.
"Because an ordinary hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast is no longer worthy of occupying the ninth and final ring slot of my Clear Sky Hammer," Tang San stated calmly, his voice echoing across the quiet pool. "If I want to crush Zhang Tian, tear down the Spirit Hall, and slaughter Bibi Dong and Qian Daoliu when we return to the mainland, a standard hundred-thousand-year ninth ring is not enough. For the final ring of my Clear Sky Hammer, I have only one target in mind."
He turned his gaze toward the vast, dark blue expanse of the northern ocean beyond Sea God Island.
"The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King."
The instant that name left Tang San's lips, the warm, celebratory atmosphere around the sacred healing pools froze solid!
Sea Dragon Douluo and Sea Spear Douluo both gasped aloud, their expressions shifting from admiration to sheer, unmitigated shock, while Bo Saixi's hand tightened sharply around her silver staff!
"What did you just say, Tang San?!" Sea Dragon Douluo blurted out, stepping forward hastily. "You want to hunt the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King for your ninth Spirit Ring?! Have you lost your mind?!"
Tang Hao frowned, glancing between the pale faces of the two Sacred Pillars and Bo Saixi before looking back at his son. "Xiao San, what is this Deep Sea Demonic Whale King? Even the elders of Sea God Island look terrified at the mere mention of its name."
"Father, Great-Grandfather, you have spent your lives on the continent, so you have never heard of the true terror that lurks in the deep waters two hundred miles north of this island," Tang San explained evenly. "I myself have never met this creature face-to-face. However, before I departed on my hunt last month, the Sea God's Divine Consciousness inside the trident—as well as the ancient records kept by the High Priestess and the Pillars—revealed the truth of its existence to me."
Tang San looked at Bo Saixi, who let out a long, solemn sigh and nodded slowly, stepping in to explain to Tang Chen and Tang Hao.
"The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King is not an ordinary hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast, Tang Chen," Bo Saixi said gravely, her deep blue eyes filled with lingering dread. "It is an ancient, bloodthirsty overlord of the ocean that has lived and devoured sea creatures for more than nine hundred thousand years."
"More than nine hundred thousand years?!" Tang Chen's pupils contracted sharply, even his Limit Douluo composure shaken as he stood up in the shallow water of the pool. "A Spirit Beast that has lived for nearly a million years?! How can such a creature still exist in the mortal world without ascending or being struck down by the heavens?!"
"Because it is terrified of the Divine Realm's Heavenly Tribulation," Tang San answered, his eyes flashing with cold calculation as he recounted what the Sea God's remnant consciousness had told him. "According to the divine imprint inside the Sea God Trident, that Deep Sea Demonic Whale King has already cultivated to the absolute threshold of a million years—in fact, ninety-nine percent of its physical body has already transformed into a true Divine Body! By all rights, it can already be considered a half-step Divine Beast."
"However," Bo Saixi picked up the explanation, her voice dropping low, "because Spirit Beasts are forbidden by the laws of the Divine Realm from easily ascending as Divine Beasts, the moment the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King takes that final step over the million-year mark, a lethal Heavenly Tribulation will descend from the skies to obliterate it. Knowing it lacks a true divine inheritance to survive that tribulation, the beast has spent centuries forcefully suppressing its own aura and cultivation down to the level of a Spirit Beast, hiding at the bottom of the northern abyss while devouring everything that enters its territory."
Tang San raised the Sea God Trident in his right hand, looking at the golden halberd blade where a small, empty depression sat near the central joint.
"Thousands of years ago, before the Sea God ascended to the Divine Realm, he battled that Deep Sea Demonic Whale King and blinded one of its eyes," Tang San continued, his voice vibrating with eager ambition. "At the time, the Sea God could have killed it. Instead, the Sea God purposely spared its life and left it sealed in these waters as the ultimate whetstone and final harvest for his future inheritor!"
"Left behind purposely for you?" Tang Hao's eyes widened as he grasped the sheer scale of the Sea God's arrangement.
"Yes," Tang San nodded firmly. "If we can slay the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, the rewards will be unimaginable. First, its nearly million-year-old Spirit Ring will fill the ninth slot of my Clear Sky Hammer, granting me a ring that surpasses every hundred-thousand-year ring in history and instantly completing my Eighth Trial! Second, its corpse will yield a nearly million-year-old Spirit Bone—most likely a Torso Bone or Skull Bone—that will push my physical body directly to the threshold of a demigod! And third, its inner Whale Core contains nearly a million years of condensed oceanic and thunder-devouring energy, which can be fused directly into the Sea God Trident to fully awaken the artifact's true divine power!"
Hearing the monumental benefits listed one after another, Tang Chen, Tang Hao, and Tang Xiao all breathed heavily, their eyes burning with fiery greed and hope.
If Tang San obtained a nearly million-year-old Spirit Ring, a million-year-old Spirit Bone, and a fully awakened Sea God Trident before even starting his Ninth Trial... who on the Douluo Continent could possibly stand in his way?!
"Even if that bastard Zhang Tian has those strange mechanical cannons, and even if Bibi Dong has inherited the power of that evil Rakshasa Goddess, how could they possibly withstand a million-year Spirit Ring and a true divine artifact?!" Tang Hao roared, slamming his fist into his palm. "We don't know whether Zhang Tian has any other hidden tricks or if he only used some ancient life-attribute treasure to tattle to the Divine Realm during the war, but once Xiao San slays this whale and becomes the Sea God, we can wipe out the Heaven Dou Empire and the Spirit Hall in a single sweep!"
Neither Tang San nor Tang Chen nor Bo Saixi knew what had transpired in the Star Luo Imperial Palace's study just days ago. They had no idea that the Goddess of Life and the Godking of Destruction had personally visited Zhang Tian, nor did they have the slightest clue that Zhang Tian possessed the Primordial Chaos God Tree or a pact with two supreme Godkings. In their minds, the only divine threat on the enemy side was Bibi Dong's Rakshasa Goddess inheritance, while Zhang Tian was merely a scheming mortal genius who relied on Spirit Tools and external cunning.
"Then what are we waiting for?!" Sea Spear Douluo asked, though his tone remained hesitant as he glanced at Bo Saixi.
"We are waiting because I cannot defeat that monster alone right now," Tang San said calmly,pouring a bucket of cold water over their excitement as he looked realistically at their current state. "The High Priestess warned me clearly: in the ocean, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's raw combat power is fully equal to hers even when she channels her Sea God's Divine Energy! Even with my current Level 96 cultivation and the Sea God Trident, facing a nearly million-year-old half-step Divine Beast in its home waters by myself carries too high a risk of failure."
Tang San looked at Tang Chen, Tang Hao, and Bo Saixi.
"Great-Grandfather, Father, and the High Priestess are still recovering from the backlash of the mainland battle," Tang San said methodically. "I need the three of you, along with Uncle, Sea Dragon Douluo, and Sea Spear Douluo, to spend the next ten days soaking in the sacred pools to restore your spirit power to its peak condition. Meanwhile, I will meditate on the western cliffs to thoroughly master the seventeen Spirit Rings and five hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bones I just acquired. In ten days, all of us will march north together, surround the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, and slay it in one decisive battle!"
Tang Chen stroked his beard and nodded with deep satisfaction.
"Well thought out, Xiao San," Tang Chen praised. "True strength lies in knowing when to sharpen the blade and when to strike. Ten days in these sacred waters will be more than enough for your father, Bo Saixi, and me to recover ninety percent of our peak combat strength. With three Limit Douluos and three Super Douluos assisting you from the sides, even a million-year sea beast will become a stepping stone for your ascension!"
"Go to the Black-Rock Cliffs and consolidate your cultivation, Xiao San," Tang Hao nodded encouragingly. "Leave the preparations to us."
Tang San bowed once more to his elders. Turning on his heel, he activated Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, his figure blurring into an azure afterimage as he vanished from the sacred pools and sped toward the desolate western coastline of Sea God Island.
The western edge of Sea God Island was a stark, unforgiving contrast to the warm white beaches and lush forests of the eastern shore.
Here, towering cliffs of jagged black basalt rose three hundred meters straight out of the churning, foam-flecked sea. There were no gentle coves or swaying palms—only sharp, wind-carved crags where colossal ocean swells crashed relentlessly against the black rock, sending plumes of freezing salt spray high into the twilight air.
Sitting cross-legged at the very edge of the highest basalt spire, with the Sea God Trident planted upright in the rock beside him, Tang San closed his eyes and sank into deep meditation.
As the sun slowly dipped toward the western horizon, painting the storm clouds in shades of bruised purple and dark crimson, Tang San methodically circulated the Mysterious Heaven Skill through his meridians, familiarizing himself with the surging power of his newly forged Level 96 foundation.
Meanwhile, half a mile back along the upper mountain ridge overlooking the western cliffs, Tang Chen and Bo Saixi walked slowly side by side along a stone path, taking in the cool sea breeze after hours of soaking in the warm mineral pools.
"Xiao San's talent truly exceeds anything I witnessed in my youth," Tang Chen remarked quietly, his hands clasped behind his back as he looked down at the solitary figure meditating on the distant black spire. "Once he slays the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King and inherits the Sea God's throne, the humiliation our Clear Sky Sect suffered on the mainland will finally be washed clean."
"He is indeed the most remarkable inheritor the Sea God could have asked for," Bo Saixi murmured softly, though a faint shadow of worry lingered in her deep blue eyes. "Still, Tang Chen... during that confrontation in the sky above the mainland, when the Asura God possessed your body and two higher rulers of the Divine Realm forced all the deities to withdraw... do you think the Asura God has given up on wanting Xiao San to inherit his position as well?"
Tang Chen paused on the stone path, his thick brows furrowing slightly.
As the High Priest of the Asura God—and the mortal whose physical body had just been used as a vessel by the Asura Godking weeks ago—Tang Chen understood the pride and stubbornness of the Divine Realm's chief enforcer better than anyone.
"The Asura God never gives up on something he has set his sights on," Tang Chen said in a low voice. "However, holding two divine positions simultaneously—especially the Sea God's oceanic power and the Asura God's pure killing intent—is practically impossible for a single mortal body. Unless the Asura God finds a way to resolve the clash of divine energies inside Xiao San's meridians, Xiao San can only ascend as the Sea God first."
Hardly had the last word left Tang Chen's lips when the old Limit Douluo suddenly stiffened!
His head snapped sharply toward the northeastern sky, his deep black eyes widening as the faded crimson runes hidden beneath the skin of his forehead gave a violent, involuntary throb!
"Tang Chen? What is it?" Bo Saixi asked immediately, her hand tightening on her silver staff as she spread her own mental force outward toward the sea. "Have enemies from the Spirit Hall followed us across the ocean?!"
"No... that is not the Spirit Hall," Tang Chen breathed, his expression shifting into a bizarre mixture of shock, recognition, and deep bewilderment as he stared at a dark, blood-tinted cloud streaking across the twilight sky from the direction of the mainland at terrifying speed. "Bo Saixi, can you not feel the core of that aura?!"
Bo Saixi frowned, focusing her perception on the approaching streak of crimson light. "I feel a dense, ferocious Spirit Beast origin mixed with an overwhelming Super Douluo cultivation... and a cold, suffocating domain of slaughter that resembles your Deathgod Domain, yet feels far older and deeper."
"It is not just similar to my domain," Tang Chen said solemnly, taking a step toward the cliff edge as his heart beat faster. "I housed the Asura God's divine consciousness inside my own flesh and blood during the battle on the mainland, and I carried the Asura Demon Sword in my hands! I would recognize that aura even if I were reduced to ash! That approaching figure carries the pure, unmistakable divine imprint of the Asura God himself—and beneath that divine imprint is the thick, ancient killing intent of Hell Road from Slaughter City!"
"What?!" Bo Saixi's eyes widened in astonishment. "An emissary sent directly by the Asura God from Slaughter City?!"
Before the two Limit Douluos could fly down from the upper ridge to intercept the newcomer, the streak of blood-red light ignored the rest of the island completely. Guided by an unerring spiritual lock, it dove straight out of the twilight clouds and plunged toward the isolated black basalt spire where Tang San was meditating!
On the tip of the basalt spire, Tang San's eyes snapped open two breaths before the figure arrived.
His Level 96 mental force had already detected the incoming presence. Grasping the Sea God Trident in his right hand, Tang San rose smoothly to his feet, his long black-and-blue hair whipping in the salty gale as he looked up at the descending crimson shadow.
Whoosh!
With a soft, eerie rustle like giant leathery wings folding against the wind, the blood-red light landed twenty paces away on the jagged black rock of the cliff.
Surrounding the newcomer was a thick, swirling veil of rosy, blood-colored mist that carried a sweet, cloying fragrance—like blooming red poppies mixed with warm iron.
As the rosy blood-mist parted slightly, a woman stepped out onto the wet basalt stone.
To normal eyes, bathed in the shimmering refraction of that crimson mist, she appeared to be a woman of striking, exotic, and wildly seductive beauty. She wore a rough, dark cloak that clung tightly to a remarkably curvaceous, full-bodied figure with wide, swaying hips and a heavy, heaving chest. Her skin looked pale and smooth like pink-tinted ivory in the mist, framed by long cascades of dark reddish-gold hair. Her lips were painted a vivid, glistening scarlet, and she looked at Tang San with a pair of misty, alluring red eyes that dripped with fanatical infatuation.
"Found you... I finally found you..."
The woman spoke, and the moment her voice rang out across the wave-battered cliff, a cold, unpleasant shiver crawled straight up Tang San's spine.
Her voice did not match the alluring, seductive image projected by the rosy mist at all. It was high-pitched, raspy, and strangely layered—as if three different throats were speaking in slightly out-of-sync harmony at the exact same time, accompanied by a faint, clicking echo at the end of every syllable that sounded like sonar bouncing off dark cave walls.
Worse still was the way she looked at him.
She tilted her head at an unnatural, ninety-degree angle that no normal human neck should have been able to manage comfortably, her nostrils flaring rapidly as she inhaled the scent of Tang San's spirit power and the Deathgod Domain lingering around his body. A wide, unsettling smile stretched across her face, her chest heaving with obsessive, predatory excitement as she took a swaying step toward him.
"You smell so good... just like the Lord God said you would," the woman purred in that raspy, triple-layered voice, raising her hands and licking her scarlet lips as if she couldn't decide whether she wanted to kiss him or gnaw on his bones. "My Master... my destined husband... my sweet, delicious sword! I am Xue Ji! The great Asura God reshaped my flesh and sent me across the sea just for you! From today onward, my body, my blood, and my heart belong to you! Come... let me hold you, let me wrap around you and swallow all your boiling killing intent into my belly!"
Standing on the basalt spire, Tang San did not take a single step forward.
Instead, his brows drew together into a deep, disgusted frown, his grip tightening on the cold golden shaft of the Sea God Trident.
Ever since his childhood, and through his years of traveling the continent, Tang San had always prided himself on his pure, unwavering devotion to Xiao Wu. Even when faced with genuine, peerless beauties in the past, he had kept his heart guarded. To have a strange, reeking woman drop out of the sky and speak to him in such a vulgar, clingy, and deranged manner immediately sparked an intense revulsion in his chest.
Moreover, as a grandmaster of hidden weapons and someone who had cultivated his ocular technique to the peak of the mortal realm, Tang San noticed something deeply wrong about the rosy blood-mist clinging to Xue Ji's skin.
'That red mist around her is vibrating at an ultrasonic pitch to distort light and interfere with ordinary visual perception,' Tang San noted coldly, feeling a familiar, nauseating stench of ancient subterranean blood-rot leaking from beneath her sweet perfume. 'An optical and auditory blood-illusion? You dare use such crude glamour tricks in front of my eyes?!'
Without a word, Tang San channeled a surge of his Level 96 Mysterious Heaven Skill directly into his ocular meridians.
Purple Demon Eye — Boundless Stage!
Instantly, Tang San's ocean-blue eyes turned a deep, crystalline purple-gold, shooting out two tangible beams of microscopic, illusion-shattering spiritual light that pierced straight through the swirling rosy blood-mist wrapping Xue Ji's body!
Under the supreme, truth-revealing gaze of the Purple Demon Eye, the refracted light of the blood-mist glamour shattered like cheap colored glass.
And what lay beneath that illusion was laid completely bare before Tang San's eyes.
Tang San's breath caught in his throat, his stomach churning with such violent, visceral disgust that his expression twisted into a mask of sheer horror and revulsion!
Beautiful?! Seductive?!
The creature standing twenty paces away from him wasn't a human beauty at all—she was an absolute, stomach-turning abomination!
Through the Purple Demon Eye, Tang San saw that her skin was not pale ivory; it was a sickly, coarse, grayish-gold leathery hide covered in goosebumps and thick, wriggling dark-gold veins that pulsed like earthworms beneath her flesh! Because the Asura God had crudely mashed three bat skulls together into one human head, her face was grotesquely wide and asymmetrical, with cheekbones that jutted out like jagged rocks and a jaw that unhinged slightly when she breathed.
On either side of her wiry, moss-like brownish-gold hair twitched a pair of oversized, hairless, veined bat ears covered in dried scabs. Her mouth was split nearly from ear to ear, and protruding over her black, cracked lips were four long, yellowed fangs dripping with viscous, foul-smelling acidic saliva! Worst of all were her eyes: instead of alluring red gems, they were two dead, bulging crimson orbs with vertical slits that stared in slightly different directions—one locked onto Tang San's face, and the other twitching erratically toward his throat!
And coiled around her broad, muscular back beneath the torn black cloak were raised, scarred dark-golden welts shaped like folded leathery bat wings!
'That aura... those three merged skulls... that ultrasonic blood-mist!' Tang San's pupils shrank to pinpricks as a memory from years ago in Slaughter City flashed through his mind. 'The Dark Golden Three-Headed Bat King from Hell Road?!'
He remembered that hideous, disgusting monster hanging from the stalactites above the boiling blood lake when he had crossed Hell Road! Back then, he had used clever positioning and hidden weapons to get past the beast's territory. He had never imagined that the ancient, three-headed bat monster from the filthiest pit of Slaughter City had somehow been squeezed into a grotesque, misshapen female human shell!
And this hideous, cross-eyed, fang-drooling bat monster was standing here calling him "husband" and asking to hold him in her arms?!
Just imagining those leathery, grayish-gold hands touching his skin, or that wide, saliva-dripping mouth coming anywhere near his face, made every single hair on Tang San's body stand on end in pure, unadulterated revulsion!
"Why are you staring at me with such sparkling purple eyes, my sweet Master?" Xue Ji giggled, a sound like iron nails scraping across a chalkboard as her two slightly crooked red eyes spun happily. Unaware that his Purple Demon Eye had seen right through her blood-mist glamour, she tried to strike what she thought was a coy, charming pose, puffing out her heavy, vein-covered chest and licking her yellowed fangs as she took three quick, shambling steps toward him. "Did Xue Ji's beauty leave you speechless? Don't be shy! The Lord Asura God imprinted your soul right into my brain! He told me that if you want to inherit his supreme Asura God Position alongside your Sea God Position, you must accept me into your heart as your beloved woman and your living sword sheath! Come here, Husband, let Xue Ji give you a sweet kiss to connect our meridians—!"
"Get back, you hideous monster!"
Tang San couldn't listen to another syllable!
His face dark as the bottom of a cauldron and his stomach rolling with nausea, Tang San lashed out with his left hand without a shred of hesitation!
"First Spirit Ring Ability: Abyssal Maelstrom Bind!"
ROAR!
Twelve massive, metallic-blue Deathly Sea Emperor Vines, each as thick as an ancient pine tree and covered in razor-sharp black thorns, erupted from the black basalt rock beneath Xue Ji's feet, twisting into a crushing gravitational whirlpool to smash the repulsive bat-woman straight off the cliff and into the sea!
Yet, what happened next made Tang San's expression change from pure disgust to startled shock.
Facing the sudden, lethal ambush of a Level 96 Super Douluo's fifty-thousand-year first Spirit Ring ability, Xue Ji did not panic, nor was she swept away!
"Oh? My Husband likes to play rough before we mate?" Xue Ji let out a shrill, delighted screech, her wide mouth splitting open as a terrifying, suffocating wave of pure crimson light exploded from her leathery body!
Asura Domain!
And it was not an incomplete domain like Tang San's evolved Deathgod Domain—it was a genuine, blood-soaked Asura Domain carrying a direct trace of the Asura God's law!
Simultaneously, the dark-golden wing scars on Xue Ji's back flared with blinding light as her martial spirit—the Dark Golden Three-Headed Bat King—manifested behind her in the form of a colossal, three-headed golden-winged bat phantom!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Nine massive Spirit Rings rose from beneath Xue Ji's bare, clawed feet, their terrifying aura colliding head-on with Tang San's gravitational maelstrom and blowing the sea spray around the cliff into a hundred-meter vacuum!
Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Black! Red! Red! Red!
Tang San's eyes widened sharply as he stared at the nine rings orbiting the bat-woman.
Six pitch-black Spirit Rings, followed by three genuine, blindingly bright blood-red hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings in the seventh, eighth, and ninth slots!
Because Xue Ji's original body in Hell Road had been an ancient, mutated Three-Hundred-Thousand-Year-Old Spirit Beast that had fed on the Asura God's leaked killing intent and the blood lake for countless millennia, when the Asura God forcibly reshaped her into a human woman and converted her three-hundred-thousand-year beast origin directly into human Spirit Rings, it had automatically condensed into an unprecedented nine-ring Super Douluo configuration of Six Black and Three Red! Her cultivation stood at a staggering Level 96 Super Douluo—matching Tang San's current rank step for step!
"Third Spirit Ring Ability: Golden Sonic Blood-Claw! Fifth Spirit Ring Ability: Crimson Bat Wing Guillotine!"
With a frantic, ecstatic cackle, Xue Ji's third and fifth black rings flashed. She didn't even use her hundred-thousand-year rings against Tang San, afraid of accidentally hurting her "beloved master." Instead, her leathery arms blurred into dark-golden wing-blades wrapped in condensed ultrasonic blood-waves!
SHING! SHING! SHING!
With three ear-piercing screeches that shattered the basalt boulders along the cliff edge into powder, Xue Ji's dark-golden wing-claws sliced cleanly through all twelve of Tang San's fifty-thousand-year Deathly Sea Emperor Vines, severing the gravitational whirlpool in a single breath!
Before the cut vines even hit the rock, Xue Ji used the recoil to kick off the ground, lunging straight through the shredded mist toward Tang San's chest with her arms wide open, trying to tackle him to the ground and wrap her thick, leathery legs around his waist!
"Hold me, Husband! Feel how tough and warm Xue Ji's body is!" she shrieked joyfully, her foul, blood-scented breath washing right toward his face as her crooked red eyes gleamed with fanatical obsession. "Let me bite your neck just a little bit so our blood can mix!"
"Get away from me, you vile beast!"
Tang San felt a chill of revulsion so intense it nearly made his scalp explode! He would rather be struck by Qian Daoliu's Angelic Purifying Flames ten times over than let this grotesque three-headed bat monster latch onto his body and bite his neck!
"Left Leg Spirit Bone Ability: Netherworld Phantom Flash!"
Tang San's left leg flashed with a hundred-thousand-year crimson glow. In a fraction of an instant, his true body teleported fifty meters backward into the air above the crashing waves, leaving behind a lifelike toxic water-clone on the cliff edge!
Xue Ji pounced right onto the water-clone, hugging it tightly against her chest before the clone violently detonated into a cloud of hundred-thousand-year abyssal poison!
BOOM!
Yet, when the corrosive purple-black poison cloud cleared, Xue Ji stood completely unharmed in the center of the crater! Her seventh Spirit Ring—a hundred-thousand-year blood-red ring—flashed briefly as a layer of dark-golden ultrasonic blood-armor repelled every single drop of the abyssal venom! After soaking in the toxic blood lake of Hell Road for three hundred thousand years, her physical body was practically immune to ordinary poisons!
"Hahaha! Husband's little water-doll tickles!" Xue Ji licked the purple venom off the back of her grayish-gold hand with her long, forked tongue, her blood-mist glamour flickering wildly around her face so that her hideous bat ears and yellowed fangs flashed in and out of the rosy illusion. "You are so strong, Master! Fight me more! The harder you hit Xue Ji, the faster our killing intent will harmonize!"
She stomped the basalt cliff, her eighth hundred-thousand-year blood-red Spirit Ring lighting up!
"Eighth Spirit Ring Ability: Three-Headed Blood-Sea Embrace!"
Three colossal phantoms of dark-golden bat heads, formed from condensed hundred-thousand-year blood energy and ultrasonic waves, shot into the sky from behind her back! They did not carry lethal cutting intent; instead, they formed a massive, sticky, inescapable net of crimson blood-mist and sonic paralysis that enveloped a five-hundred-meter radius of the sky, trying to snare Tang San like a fly in a web and drag him back down into her arms!
Floating in mid-air, Tang San's face was livid with rage and humiliation.
He was the proud Inheritor of the Sea God, a genius of the Tang Sect and the Clear Sky Sect, and the man who had vowed his eternal love only to Xiao Wu! Yet here was a hideous, mutated bat Spirit Beast from Slaughter City openly harassing him, calling him "Husband" at the top of her lungs, and actually pushing back his ordinary spirit abilities with her three-hundred-thousand-year beast foundation and Asura Domain!
"You dare humiliate me?!" Tang San's eyes turned blood-red with fury as he raised the Sea God Trident in his right hand and summoned his ninth God-Bestowed Spirit Ring alongside his eighth hundred-thousand-year ring!
"Imperial Sea Death Domain! Eighth Spirit Ring Ability: Crimson Vacuum Severing Slash! Golden Thirteen Halberds, First Strike: No Constant Wind and Clouds!"
Tang San unleashed his true power!
The golden light of the Sea God Trident erupted like a blazing sun, tearing apart the twilight sky as the laws of the surrounding ocean answered his call. Dozens of spatial-cutting vine blades fused with the chaotic, unpredictable golden halberd strike, slicing the three colossal bat-head phantoms to ribbons in mid-air and slamming like a collapsing tsunami straight into Xue Ji's chest!
Even with her three-hundred-thousand-year physical toughness and her Six-Black, Three-Red Super Douluo cultivation, Xue Ji could not withstand the direct divine suppression of the one-hundred-and-eight-thousand-catty Sea God Trident wielded at full force!
BANG!
With a muffled groan, Xue Ji's blood-armor cracked across her collarbone. Her body was blasted backward like a cannonball, smashing through three jagged basalt pillars along the cliffside before crashing into a heap of black rubble with dark golden blood trickling from the corner of her fanged mouth!
"Die!" Tang San's killing intent boiled over as he raised the Sea God Trident high above his head, preparing to execute One Goes Without Return to nail this disgusting bat monster permanently to the cliff wall!
"Wait, Xiao San! Lower your trident! Do not kill her!"
A booming, urgent roar echoed from the mountain ridge above!
In the next instant, three powerful domains swept across the western cliffs as Tang Chen, Bo Saixi, and Tang Hao descended rapidly from the sky, landing between Tang San and the rubble pile where Xue Ji had crashed!
Tang Chen raised his massive hand, releasing a wave of his Level 99 Limit Douluo pressure to calm the violent golden energy gathering at the tip of Tang San's trident.
"Great-Grandfather, step aside!" Tang San shouted, his chest heaving with anger as his Purple Demon Eye remained locked onto the rubble pile. "Do not be fooled by the rosy blood-mist covering her face! Underneath that optical illusion, she is the Dark Golden Three-Headed Bat King from Hell Road! That disgusting, mutated Spirit Beast somehow took on a grotesque human shell and came here spouting nonsense about being my wife and my sword sheath! Let me obliterate her right now!"
In the pile of black rubble, Xue Ji pushed the broken boulders off her chest and scrambled up onto her knees. Despite having her collarbone cracked by the Sea God Trident, she didn't show a trace of anger toward Tang San. Instead, she hugged her own shoulders, shivering with perverse, masochistic delight as she stared up at Tang San in the sky with her crooked red eyes.
"So domineering... my Husband's golden fork hurts so good..." Xue Ji rasped, wiping the dark-golden blood from her fangs and offering him a wide, terrifying grin through her flickering pink glamour. "Hit me again if it makes you happy, Master! My three-hundred-thousand-year body was forged by the Lord Asura God specifically so you would never have to worry about breaking me!"
Hearing that grating voice and seeing her blow him a kiss with her clawed fingers, Tang San nearly vomited blood on the spot, his fingers trembling on the shaft of the trident.
However, down on the cliff, Tang Chen did not attack Xue Ji.
Instead, the ancient founder of the Clear Sky Sect stared intently at the crimson aura swirling around Xue Ji's body and the faint, unmistakable divine seal branded deep within her spiritual sea. After a long, heavy silence, Tang Chen let out a deep, complicated sigh and turned to look up at his great-grandson.
"She is not lying to you, Xiao San," Tang Chen said gravely.
Tang San froze in mid-air, staring down at his great-grandfather in disbelief. "Great-Grandfather... what did you say?"
"I said she is not lying," Tang Chen repeated, his deep voice solemn as he gestured toward Xue Ji. "I am the High Priest of the Asura God, and the Asura God's own consciousness inhabited my body during the battle on the mainland. No one in the mortal world knows the Asura God's divine aura better than I do. The Asura Domain she just unleashed, the way her three-hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast origin was forcibly compressed into six black and three hundred-thousand-year red Spirit Rings, and the divine imprint sealing her soul... it is undeniably the personal handiwork of the Asura God himself!"
Beside Tang Chen, Tang Hao and Bo Saixi both looked at Xue Ji in shock.
Because Tang Hao, Bo Saixi, and Tang Chen did not possess Tang San's Purple Demon Eye, when they looked at Xue Ji through her innate ultrasonic blood-mist glamour, they only saw a somewhat strange, wild-eyed, curvaceous woman in a torn cloak rather than the horrifying, cross-eyed, fanged bat-corpse that Tang San saw with total clarity!
"Wait... Grandfather, you mean the Asura God actually turned a three-hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast from Hell Road into a Level 96 Super Douluo and sent her across the ocean to help Xiao San?!" Tang Hao exclaimed, his eyes lighting up as he looked at Xue Ji's nine terrifying Spirit Rings. "Six black rings and three hundred-thousand-year red rings, plus the Asura Domain! Having another Level 96 Super Douluo with three hundred-thousand-year rings join our side right before we hunt the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King is a godsend!"
"It is more than just combat assistance, Tang Hao," Tang Chen said, looking up at Tang San with an earnest, serious expression. "Xiao San, Bo Saixi and I were just discussing this moments ago. You possess twin martial spirits, and both the Sea God and the Asura God have chosen you as their inheritor. However, the Sea God's oceanic divine power and the Asura God's pure killing intent are completely incompatible inside a single mortal body! If you try to inherit the Asura God's position after becoming the Sea God, the clash of two divine cores will tear your meridians to pieces!"
Tang Chen pointed directly at Xue Ji, who was kneeling dutifully on the rocks and nodding her head like a chicken pecking at rice.
"There is only one secret method to hold both the Sea God position and the Asura God position simultaneously: a being that can carry one of the God's divine power when you are not utilizing it!" Tang Chen explained clearly. "And perhaps…Asura God believed that you need a companion whose body is completely saturated with killing intent and tough enough to endure the Asura Demon Sword's aura—someone who can house the Asura God's divine power inside her own flesh and act as your spiritual scabbard when you use the Sea God's power! Because there is likely no human in this world who can endure the Asura God's killing intent, the Asura God personally extracted the three-hundred-thousand-year Dark Golden Three-Headed Bat King from Hell Road, wiped its feral mind, reshaped it into a human, and sent her here to become your companion and your sword sheath!"
"Yes, yes! This old man is very smart!" Xue Ji clapped her hands happily from the rubble, her raspy triple-voice echoing across the cliff. "The Lord Asura God said that as long as Master accepts me into his heart, loves me as his woman, and links our souls and bodies together, Master will be able to draw the Asura Demon Sword whenever he wants and become the strongest Dual-God in the universe!"
Silence fell over the western cliff, save for the crashing of the black waves below.
Tang Hao and Bo Saixi both looked up at Tang San, waiting for his reaction. From a purely practical standpoint, Tang Chen's explanation made complete sense. This Xue Ji possessed the strength of a Level 96 Super Douluo with three hundred-thousand-year rings, and she was the sole key to allowing Tang San to inherit the supreme Godking throne of the Asura God alongside the Sea God position!
Yet, floating in the twilight sky above them, Tang San's face turned from red to green, and then to an ashen, livid white.
Accept her into his heart?! Love her as his woman and link his body and soul with hers?!
Because his Purple Demon Eye had already permanently pierced the structure of her blood-mist illusion, Tang San could no longer unsee what she truly looked like! Every time he looked down at Xue Ji, he saw that wide, asymmetrical mashed-together bat skull, those scabby, twitching pointed ears, that gray-gold leathery skin wriggling with thick veins, and those four yellowed fangs dripping with foul saliva!
Even worse, a bitter, infuriating comparison flashed uncontrollably through Tang San's mind.
On the mainland, his greatest enemy, Zhang Tian, sat upon the throne of a united continent, surrounded by peerless, breathtaking beauties—including Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, his own gentle mother Ah Yin, and his beloved childhood sweetheart Xiao Wu, whom Zhang Tian had cruelly stolen and locked away!
And meanwhile, what did the great Asura God—a supreme Godking of the Divine Realm—send him to be his destined partner and lover?!
A hideous, foul-smelling, three-headed mutated bat monster scraped off the ceiling of Hell Road!
To a man as proud, conceited, and protective of his own dignity as Tang San, the sheer humiliation of this arrangement felt like a resounding slap across his face! In his heart, only the pure, gentle Xiao Wu was worthy of being his wife and sharing his soul. How could he—the peerless genius of the Tang Sect and the chosen Inheritor of the Sea God—possibly degrade himself by opening his heart and embracing a grotesque, repulsive bat abomination?!
"Never!"
Tang San's voice rang out like shattering ice, echoing furiously across the western coast of Sea God Island!
"Xiao San?!" Tang Chen and Tang Hao both looked up in surprise at the sheer venom and disgust in Tang San's tone.
Tang San descended onto the stone path beside his great-grandfather, his ocean-blue eyes blazing with unyielding pride and cold revulsion as he refused to even look in Xue Ji's direction.
"Great-Grandfather, I do not care if she was sent by the Asura God himself, and I do not care how many hundred-thousand-year rings she possesses!" Tang San declared coldly, each word bitten out through clenched teeth. "With my mental force, I can see her true form beneath that glamour—she is a grotesque, stomach-turning three-headed bat monster reeking of rotting blood and subterranean filth!"
Tang San gripped the Sea God Trident tightly, his chest heaving with righteous indignation.
"In my heart, there has only ever been, and will only ever be, one woman—and that is Xiao Wu!" Tang San stated firmly. "I am cultivating to become a God so that I can return to the mainland, slaughter Zhang Tian, and rescue Xiao Wu and my mother from his clutches! How could I possibly betray Xiao Wu and stain my own soul by accepting a hideous Spirit Beast from Hell Road as my woman?! Even if I only inherit the Sea God's position, or even if I have to rely on my own skills and willpower to suppress the Asura God's killing intent by myself, I will never accept such a repulsive creature as my woman!"
Down in the rubble, hearing Tang San call her a grotesque, repulsive creature and flatly reject her, Xue Ji froze.
Because the Asura God had stamped an absolute instinct into her blank soul that her sole purpose for existing was to be accepted by Tang San, his harsh rejection caused a sharp, stabbing pain in her newly formed spiritual sea. She whimpered—a high-pitched, warbling bat sound—and shrank back against the black rocks, looking up at him with pitiful, confused red eyes.
"Master... Xue Ji is not dirty..." she rasped weakly, holding up her clawed, vein-covered hands. "Xue Ji is very useful... please don't hate Xue Ji..."
"Shut your mouth!" Tang San snapped, feeling another wave of nausea at the sound of her voice. He pointed the golden tip of the Sea God Trident toward the desolate, wave-battered sea stacks half a mile off the western coast. "The only reason I am sparing your life right now is out of respect for the Asura God's imprint and Great-Grandfather's intervention! Get off Sea God Island immediately and stay on those outer sea stacks! If you dare come within a mile of my meditation grounds or call me 'Husband' one more time, I will shatter your core with the Sea God Trident regardless of who sent you! Get lost!"
Seeing that Tang San's killing intent was completely genuine and that he was one breath away from striking her again, Xue Ji let out a low, mournful hiss. Clutching her cracked collarbone, she turned into a streak of dark-golden blood-light and fled off the cliff, landing on a lonely, jagged sea stack half a mile out in the churning surf, where she curled up in her black cloak and stared unblinkingly back toward the cliff like a stray beast waiting in the rain.
On the basalt cliff, Tang Hao opened his mouth to persuade his son, thinking it was a waste to throw away a Level 96 Super Douluo helper and the key to the Asura God's inheritance just because the woman looked ugly beneath her illusion.
However, Tang Chen raised a hand to stop Tang Hao from speaking.
"Leave it be, Tang Hao," Tang Chen sighed, shaking his head slowly as he glanced out at the lonely sea stack where Xue Ji was perched. "For a living sword sheath to function without backfiring, the wielder must genuinely accept the sheath into his heart without a trace of disgust or rejection. With Xiao San feeling such intense revulsion toward her true form, forcing her onto him right now would only disrupt his mental state before our battle with the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King."
Tang Chen looked at Tang San, patting his great-grandson's tense shoulder.
"Focus on your meditation for the next ten days, Xiao San," Tang Chen said calmly. "As long as that bat-woman remains out on the distant reefs, she won't bother you—and when we go to hunt the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, having an extra Level 96 Super Douluo act as cannon fodder from a distance won't hurt us. As for how to handle the Asura God's inheritance... we can think of another way after you complete your Sea God trials."
"Thank you for understanding, Great-Grandfather," Tang San exhaled slowly, forcing down the lingering disgust in his throat as he turned his back on the western sea stacks.
Sitting back down on the basalt spire with the Sea God Trident across his knees, Tang San closed his eyes and immersed himself once more in the Mysterious Heaven Skill, firmly convinced that with his own peerless talent and the power of the Sea God, he would never need to lower himself to touch that repulsive creature waiting in the storm.
He had no way of knowing that thousands of miles away on the continent, Zhang Tian was already preparing a gift that would shatter every last shred of his pride, his sanity, and his stubborn resolve.