Chapter 204: Within the Domain 1v3
Dragon Emperor Shock Domain, this is a Domain created by Mu En using the Ruling the World combat technique.
Once deployed, the strength of Evil Soul Masters of the same rank and Soul Masters with dark-attribute Martial Souls is directly reduced by 30%, while he himself can use the power of light from heaven and earth to sustain a long battle.
Within this golden Domain of light, Mu En is the Incarnation of the rules; he says "Let there be light," and there is light.
But almost simultaneously, the Domain of the Malevolent Shrine also violently expanded.
A primitive and massive Shrine rose from the ground behind Lu Ren.
Furthermore, the range of the Malevolent Shrine's Domain also covered a hundred miles; judging solely by the size of the Domain, Lu Ren's Malevolent Shrine was even larger than Mu En's Dragon Emperor Shock Domain.
That Domain extended beyond the edge of the golden light Domain, wrapping around Mu En's Domain from the outside.
The two Domains collided fiercely at the boundary, contending with each other and emitting a harsh sizzling sound; the ground at the collision point was ground into fine powder by the two forces.
"Domain—he actually has a Domain too!"
Long Xiaoyao's expression changed drastically, and he subconsciously took half a step back, but he was still within the range of Lu Ren and Mu En's Domains.
He could feel two completely different Domain powers crushing each other crazily.
On one side was the light he was familiar with, and on the other was the deep, abyss-like Cursed Energy he had never seen before.
That Cursed Energy felt completely different to him than the evil Soul Power of Evil Soul Masters; evil Soul Power is cold and violent, while Lu Ren's Cursed Energy was purely like a crystallization of negative emotions stripped from the deepest part of the human Soul.
The number of Soul Masters on the entire continent who possess a Domain can be counted on one's fingers, and all of them stand at the apex of the pyramid.
But Lu Ren is only an 87th-rank Soul Douluo; how could he possibly condense such a complete and domineering Domain?
The intensity of this Domain was even a level higher than Mu En's Dragon Emperor Shock Domain.
Long Xiaoyao had never even heard of such completeness where it forms its own space and the rules are self-consistent!
In the center of the Domain, golden light surged around Mu En, but his expression was unprecedentedly solemn.
He could feel his Dragon Emperor Shock Domain colliding fiercely with the Malevolent Shrine Domain, the two Domain powers annihilating each other crazily at the boundary, emitting a harsh sizzling sound.
Each collision caused his Domain to consume a portion of its energy.
"Fortunately, my Domain can effectively restrain your Domain!"
The moment the Domains clashed head-on, a smile bloomed on Mu En's face.
That smile carried a trace of relief.
His power of light actually restrained Lu Ren's Domain.
In his eyes, Lu Ren's Domain was simply indistinguishable from the Domain of an Evil Soul Master.
That Cursed Energy, with negative energy as its core, was essentially similar to the evil Soul Power of Evil Soul Masters; both were powers of the dark side.
A large amount of aura similar to that of Evil Soul Masters was completely purified upon encountering Mu En's Domain; the Cursed Energy hissed with black smoke the moment it touched the golden light rain, and then melted away like ice and snow.
The golden power of light and the pitch-black Cursed Energy collided in the air, and each collision caused a large area of Cursed Energy to evaporate.
Mu En's Dragon Emperor Shock Domain was eroding the space of the Malevolent Shrine at a speed visible to the naked eye, the golden boundary advancing inch by inch.
In other words, if it came to a competition of Domains, Lu Ren would undoubtedly lose.
The light attribute naturally restrains all darkness and evil.
"Sure enough, the light attribute strongly restrains my Cursed Energy."
Lu Ren was thoughtful.
The essence of Cursed Energy is the condensation of negative emotions, which is naturally opposed to the sacred power of the light attribute, just like water and fire; when they collide, one side must be suppressed.
But even so, if the fire is stronger than the water, it can suppress the water in return!
"This Domain of Mu En can also neutralize the sure-hit attribute within the Domain."
Lu Ren remembered when he practiced Domain battles with the Snow Empress before, the Snow Empress's Frost Heaven could also neutralize his sure-hit effect.
It took him a long time to find a way to crack it back then.
Use the Anti-Domain Specialized Cursed Spirit to cut a small opening on the opponent's Domain, allowing the sure-hit effect to seep through the gap.
"Very good, just as I imagined; practicing Domain battles with the Snow Empress for so long, the effort was not in vain!"
During the collision of the two Domains, seeing Lu Ren standing still without any movement, Mu En directly charged forward and engaged in close-quarters combat with Lu Ren again.
His Dragon claws of light received unprecedented amplification within the Domain, and every swipe dragged a long golden tail flame, with the air even burning where the tail flame passed.
Lu Ren did not show weakness either; Flowing Red Scale pushed his speed and strength to the limit, his arms covered in blood-colored armor, clashing wildly with Mu En's Dragon claws.
Both sides traded blows, fist to flesh.
Mu En's right claw slashed down from top to bottom, Lu Ren blocked horizontally with his left arm, and a circle of golden-red intertwined shockwaves exploded when the fist and claw collided; his right fist simultaneously blasted towards Mu En's face, Mu En tilted his head to avoid it, and the fist wind grazed his cheek, blasting a pit several feet deep in the ground behind him.
In the blink of an eye, Mu En's left claw suddenly swept up from below, Lu Ren used his knee to deflect the Dragon claw, the force of the knee strike causing Mu En to leap up, Mu En took advantage of the momentum to flip in the air, and both claws smashed down simultaneously; Lu Ren crossed his arms to block, the ground beneath his feet unable to withstand this force, and it exploded outward with him as the center.
The sound of fists colliding with Dragon claws was as dense as a rainstorm hitting a tin roof, and clusters of golden and blood-colored light exploded continuously where the fists and claws met; every collision caused the ground to tremble, and the shockwaves spread outward, scraping away layer after layer of the ground at the edge of the Domain.
The two fought from the ground to mid-air, and then were smashed back to the ground from mid-air; when their figures crossed, they were so fast that even Spiritual Power could only capture blurry afterimages.
Strangely, Black Flash still hadn't been triggered.
Every punch Lu Ren threw was a normal physical attack, without that iconic black lightning.
There were only scarlet fragments splattered when the blood-colored armor on his fists shattered, but no crit light from the perfect overlap of Cursed Energy and physical impact.
But Lu Ren did not feel strange about the fact that Black Flash did not trigger, and even silently counted in his heart.
The corners of his mouth turned up slightly, with an expression like someone who is silently accumulating something.
Like dropping coins into a piggy bank one by one, waiting for the moment to smash it open when the jar is full.
"This is the sixty-ninth time I haven't landed a Black Flash—continue!"
And seeing that he could suppress Lu Ren in hand-to-hand combat, Mu En was also ecstatic inside.
"It seems that close combat is Lu Ren's weak point."
"A Spiritual Soul Master is a Spiritual Soul Master after all, still not good at close combat."
"Since that's the case, then use close combat to compete for victory, and attack his weak point fiercely!"
While competing in hand-to-hand combat with Mu En, Lu Ren suddenly overloaded his use of the mental Domain.
A slight buzzing sound came from deep in his brain, and his Spiritual Power surged crazily like ignited flames, golden light shining through his pupils.
His eyes completely turned into two burning golden fireballs.
Overload can support Lu Ren in using multiple Cursed Techniques at the same time.
Not only that, Lu Ren's seventh Soul Ring lit up, and his Martial Soul Avatar was activated.
Lu Ren's whole body began to emit golden light.
The golden light shone from under his skin, every inch of his skin was glowing, even his hair was dyed with a layer of pale gold, and fine golden light chips trailed when the tips of his hair fluttered in the wind.
Lu Ren's pupils completely turned golden, with golden patterns faintly flowing in the whites of his eyes, and his Spiritual Power formed a visible golden halo around his body, with circles of golden ripples constantly spreading outward from the edge of the halo.
And at the observation point tens of kilometers away, everyone held their breath, staring fixedly at the screen.
Sect Master Du Busi shouted excitedly, his voice cracking from excessive excitement: "It's the secondary Awakening of a Body Martial Soul! And it's a golden-grade secondary Awakening!"
"This kid is really awesome!"
"Our Body Sect really has so much talent in this era, hahahaha!"
Regardless, Lu Ren's Martial Soul is a Body Martial Soul, so he is a member of the Body Sect.
If he is awesome, doesn't that mean the Body Sect is also awesome?
A sixteen-year-old Soul Douluo, eight rings, golden-grade secondary Awakening—any one of these taken out would be enough for the Body Sect to brag about for a lifetime.
Not only was Sect Master Du Busi shocked, but even Mu En was frightened by Lu Ren.
"It's actually a mental Domain? And it's a secondary Awakening of a Body Martial Soul, golden-grade?"
Mu En was shocked.
A Gold-grade second Awakening—based on this alone, if Lu Ren chose to fully integrate into the Body Sect, the titles of the next Body Sect Sect Master and the Body Douluo would undoubtedly be passed down to him.
This guy's talent is simply too good.
So good that even Mu En, a man on the verge of death, felt a twinge of regret.
If Lu Ren had been born a hundred years earlier, and if he hadn't formed such a deadly feud with Shrek, perhaps he would have become the most dazzling Genius in the history of Shrek Academy.
Unfortunately, there are no ifs.
Realizing this, Mu En hurriedly accelerated his offensive again, raining down on Lu Ren like a storm.
The speed of his Dragon claw swings was so fast that it left streaks of golden afterimages in the air; every strike was aimed precisely at Lu Ren's throat, heart, temples, and waist.
All of these were the most vulnerable vital points of the human body.
Seeing this, Long Xiaoyao immediately stepped into the Domain of both sides to help Mu En suppress Lu Ren.
His Dark Dragon claw cut in from the side, forming a pincer attack with Mu En's Light Dragon claw.
The two diametrically opposed powers of light and darkness slammed into Lu Ren simultaneously, and the resulting energy conflict caused the air to emit a groan of unbearable strain.
"Didn't I tell you to go outside and destroy Lu Ren's Domain?" Seeing Long Xiaoyao come to help, Mu En couldn't help but ask.
Mu En had previously told Long Xiaoyao that the internal defense of a Domain was far stronger than the external; to break a Domain at the fastest speed, one should attack from the outside and shatter the boundary shell of the Domain.
Long Xiaoyao was stunned for a moment, then shouted with a clear sense of frustration: "I want to destroy Lu Ren's Domain too, but the problem is, Lu Ren's Domain seems to have no boundaries!"
"I circled around the outside, flew for over a hundred miles, and I couldn't find the shell of the Domain anywhere!"
"It has no barrier, no shell, no boundary of any kind to attack. It's as if it grew out of the earth itself, rather than being released!"
"What? A Domain without boundaries? How is that possible?!"
Mu En was shocked.
A Domain without boundaries.
This concept completely exceeded his understanding.
Boundaries are the Foundation of a Domain. How can it be called a Domain without boundaries?
Yet Lu Ren's Domain actually had no boundaries?
It was as if one could paint out of thin air without needing a canvas.
It was like asking, can you hold water without a container? Can a plant take root and sprout without a seed?
One can imagine how shocked Mu En was by the fact that Lu Ren's Domain had no boundaries.
This completely overturned all his knowledge about Domains.
Meanwhile, a wisp of pitch-black, profound Cursed Energy quietly spread from under Lu Ren's feet, like a drop of ink falling into clear water.
The ink-like Cursed Energy slowly spread along the water's surface, emitting a cold, eerie light that dragged long, thin black threads across the water.
Following closely behind, a Cursed Spirit in the form of a bug, as small as a chopstick and pitch-black all over, slowly emerged from the Cursed Energy.
It was only the size of a finger joint, wriggling gently on the water's surface near his feet, its body covered in a pale silver halo—a shell of Cursed Technique evolved specifically to target Domain barriers.
"Stop him!!!" Mu En shouted again after seeing the bug Cursed Spirit appear.
He didn't know what this thing was for, but as long as he could stop Lu Ren, that would be enough.
Hearing this, Long Xiaoyao immediately reached out his Dragon claw.
The ink-colored Dark Dragon power condensed into a thin blade, as thin as a cicada's wing, yet the edge was sharp enough to cut through the air itself.
A light sweep of his fingertips slashed the tiny black bug into ashes.
When the black bug shattered, it made a faint squishing sound, and the moment its body exploded, not even a ripple of Cursed Energy dissipated.
He frowned slightly, assuming it was just a small harassment tactic released by Lu Ren, and said coldly: "Is this all you have?"
But before his voice had faded, the pitch-black Cursed Energy under Lu Ren's feet suddenly surged.
As if an anthill had been poked, dense swarms of black bug shadows poured out frantically from the shadows.
Each one was only the size of a finger joint, their bodies shimmering with the dark luster of Cursed Energy, and the carapaces on their backs refracting dull reflections in the light.
The sound of their wings beating was inaudible, yet they swarmed like a tidal wave toward every corner of the Dragon Emperor Shock Domain, numbering at least several hundred.
They poured out continuously from the shadow beneath Lu Ren's feet like a black stream flowing upstream, splitting into countless tiny tributaries in the air, each one diving precisely toward different parts of the Domain.
These were all Anti-Domain Specialized Cursed Spirits, naturally equipped with a Cursed Technique to cut through Domains, specializing in gnawing on Domain barriers and cutting through spatial structures—the natural nemesis of all Domains.
They had no frontal combat power, but they excelled in their massive numbers and small size. Once they attached themselves to the Domain barrier, they would use their mouthparts to forcibly gnaw out cracks, silently disintegrating the Foundation of the Domain like termites eating wood.
"Not good! There are actually so many!"
Long Xiaoyao's expression changed drastically, and he dared not show the slightest bit of contempt anymore.
The phantom of the Dark Sacred Dragon behind him raised its head and roared, and the ink-colored Soul Power spread out, turning into an airtight curtain of darkness that shrouded most of the Domain.
The curtain pressed down like a tidal wave, completely blocking out even the sunlight.
Wherever the curtain passed, the black bugs were like moths flying into a raging fire, sizzling as they turned into ashes and falling in droves, their charred bodies dropping from the air with a rustling sound.
But the number of bugs was simply too great, and they were scattered everywhere in the Domain, weaving through cracks. Even though Long Xiaoyao was exerting his full power to drive the dark curtain to slaughter them, there were still dozens of fish that slipped through the net.
They silently attached themselves to the light membrane of the Dragon Emperor Shock Domain, their mouthparts vibrating at high speed, emitting a dense gnawing sound, and easily cut several long, thin cracks into the golden Domain barrier.
The edges of the cracks shimmered with a dark, corroded black, and golden rain of light leaked out frantically from the openings.
Mu En let out a muffled grunt, feeling the power of the Domain suddenly stall.
The purification power of the Dragon Emperor Shock Domain instantly weakened by thirty percent; that light power, which had been so dense it was almost liquid, leaked out frantically from the cracks, turning into golden specks of light drifting in the air, like water gushing from a punctured water bag.
Through the cracks, the sure-hit slashes of the Malevolent Shrine slipped inside, silently sweeping across his limbs and sides. With a few faint hissing sounds, Mu En's robes instantly ripped open in several places, blood seeping out, and golden blood flowed down his arm.
Wounds of varying depths appeared on his body out of thin air; even he hadn't seen where the slashes came from.
He only felt his skin suddenly split open, and then the pain followed. That feeling was as if the air itself had turned into countless invisible blades.
Just at the moment when the Domain was in turmoil and Mu En was in a state of Divided Soul, Ye Xishui, who hadn't made a move for a long time, finally acted.
She stood high in the sky outside the Domains of both sides, her dark red cloak flapping in the wind, her hands pressed tightly onto the top of the death god tower, and the dark red death Soul Power around her body poured frantically into the tower, her arms trembling slightly from the excessive transmission of Soul Power.
The vengeful Souls on the tower let out an unprecedented, shrill shriek, a shriek so sharp that even space itself was trembling, and countless twisted faces on the tower opened their mouths simultaneously.
The entire death god tower hummed and vibrated, and a blinding dark red point of light condensed at the tip. The air around the point of light was violently distorted by the high temperature; that was her ultimate lethal strike, which she had been condensing for a long time—the death god ray.
She had been planning this strike for a long time, specifically choosing the moment when Lu Ren was pinned down by Mu En and the other.
The position where the ray was condensed was exactly in Lu Ren's blind spot, aimed from his side and rear, the angle tricky and vicious to the extreme.
"It's time to end this!" Ye Xishui's resentful shriek pierced the sky.
A dark red ray, condensed to the extreme, tore through the clouds, its speed so fast it was almost Teleportation, shooting straight toward Lu Ren at the core of the Domain. Wherever the ray passed, even space was corroded into a long, thin black trail.
Lu Ren frowned, his Spiritual Power running frantically in the Overload state, and his brain processed all the surrounding information in an instant.
He caught sight of that ray; it was extremely fast, so fast that even he could only barely react.
Lu Ren barely turned his body just before the ray reached him, rotating half a circle and stepping out an invisible slash to gain leverage.
The dark red death ray grazed his shoulder, bringing a wave of corrosive, excruciating pain. The robes on his shoulder instantly turned to ash, his skin was burned with a sizzling sound, and the edges of the burn glowed an unnatural dark purple.
But the ray then struck squarely and ruthlessly onto the core Shrine of the Malevolent Shrine behind him.