Word Count: 2,692 Words
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"Human, how dare you act so presumptuously here!"
At the heart of the Eternal Day region, the Luminous Wolf Emperor soared into the sky like a blazing sun flaring to full brilliance.
Wolves were pack spirit beasts. Haunting howls echoed from afar as packs of Luminous Silver Wolves surged out in full force, following their emperor. They tipped back their heads to the heavens, pairs of bestial eyes gleaming with bloodthirsty light.
Five years was but a blink in the world of spirit beasts. The Luminous Wolf Emperor looked no different from the way Ling Bai remembered it. This 290,000-year Great Beast locked onto the two figures before it, aura climbing steadily.
"Go ahead and do as you must. Your teacher will hold the line for you."
The words had barely fallen when Jianmu Douluo's figure vanished. Alarm bells rang in the Luminous Wolf Emperor's mind. It instinctively lowered its body, yet even with its formidable cultivation, it still couldn't track the human elder's movement!
Ling Bai drew a deep breath. Eight deathly gray spider lances burst from his back as spirit rings rose from beneath his feet one after another: gray, red, red, red, red, red, purple‑gold!
'Five red, one gray, one purple-gold…'
Jianmu Douluo's face twitched. He even rubbed his eyes in disbelief, wondering if his old sight had finally failed him. This was the first time Ling Bai had revealed his full spirit ring configuration to anyone, giving the old man a 'tiny' bit of shock.
The Luminous Wolf Emperor's gaze went equally blank. It didn't recognize the gray ring from Electrolux's incarnation or the Purple-Gold Dragon King spirit ring, but those five blood-red rings meant only one thing: five 100,000-year spirit beasts had met a bitter end at this youth's hands!
The unique seventh ring radiated a deep purple-gold light. The illusory Death Abyss Spider Emperor materialized behind Ling Bai, its eight beast-like eyes flickering with a sinister gleam as the phantom merged wholly into his body.
Seventh Spirit Skill, Death Abyss Avatar!
Every hair on the Luminous Wolf Emperor's body stood on end. The human from moments ago seemed to have vanished, replaced by a demon of unparalleled evil radiating savage, tyrannical malice.
Dragon scale armor locked into place with ringing clicks. When the eight spider lances, each over five meters long, spread wide, even the sunlight seemed to flow backward across the sky!
Gold was the symbol of a million-year spirit ring. Skydream Iceworm's true ring color, for instance, was pure gold. The Death Abyss Spider Emperor's seventh spirit ring had been forged by the Water and Fire Dragon Kings using their Dragon King bloodline as the core, drawing on the combined energy of the Sunset Forest and the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. It too had crossed into the million-year realm!
A million‑year Death Abyss Avatar!
At this moment, the only part of Ling Bai that still resembled a human was his face, and even that held only faint traces of his original features. Those deep gray eyes were something the Luminous Wolf Emperor had never seen before. Meeting that gaze felt like staring into a deathly abyss where nothing existed but the darkness of hell!
The Death Abyss Avatar carried a trace of Dragon King might. In Ling Bai's presence, spirit beasts faced natural bloodline suppression. The Luminous Wolf Emperor felt as if a massive boulder pressed upon its chest, crushing its breath. It threw back its head in a roar and unleashed its golden domain.
Radiant Light Domain!
Spirit beasts that broke through to the Great Beast level generally possessed a domain attuned to their abilities. As the Radiant Light Domain unfolded, the sunshine grew even more brilliant. Golden flames ignited across the Wolf Emperor's body, easing the discomfort of bloodline suppression.
Its relief lasted only a few heartbeats. Gray clouds surged outward with Ling Bai at their center, blotting out the blazing sun in an instant. A heavy gray mist draped itself over the sky. Sunlight could no longer pierce the thick cloud layer. The entire Eternal Day region turned grim and shadowed, filled with ferocity, evil, and the most primal wicked desire.
The Death Abyss Spider Emperor's domain had evolved: Death Abyss Realm!
Martial Spirit evolution was an all-round enhancement. The Death Abyss Realm brimmed with overwhelming death and evil energy, and hidden throughout it lay the omnipresent threat of Ultimate Poison!
"Roar—"
The Luminous Wolf Emperor bellowed and opened its cavernous maw. A thousand-meter-wide pillar of golden light erupted forth. Its terrifying heat and radiance whipped up rolling shockwaves that revealed just how devastating the energy within truly was!
Innate Spirit Skill, Glorious Holy Light!
A pitch-black Spectral Gate opened. Ling Bai extended his left hand and drew the Death Abyss Demon Scythe from beyond, like Death himself claiming his executioner's blade. His second spirit ring blazed bright.
Extreme Punishment!
One slash, two halves!
The Death Abyss Demon Scythe swept through the air and ruthlessly cleaved straight through the Glorious Holy Light. The golden pillar veered aside, missing Ling Bai entirely to smash into the ground below. Trees instantly became blackened husks under the terrible heat while the earth erupted into a sea of flames, sending spirit beasts stampeding in panic.
An emerald ring rippled outward. Trees surged upward as if suddenly nourished, shooting into towering giants in an instant. Thick branches lashed through the air, snuffing out the lingering aftermath of the Glorious Holy Light.
Jianmu Douluo had intervened. Humans hunted spirit beasts because they needed spirit rings to surpass bottlenecks in their cultivation, but all farsighted Spirit Masters understood one thing: indiscriminate slaughter was absolutely forbidden. Spirit Masters and spirit beasts shared a fate. If spirit beasts were ever driven to extinction, Spirit Masters would vanish from history as well.
Jianmu Douluo watched Ling Bai and the Luminous Wolf Emperor clash and nodded to himself. Though the Death Abyss Spider Emperor was sinister and treacherous, its abilities were undeniably formidable.
He was no inflexible relic. As long as Ling Bai could fully stabilize the Death Abyss Spider Emperor and avoid losing control like he had during his Martial Spirit Awakening at age six, Jianmu Douluo was content to let him do as he pleased.
High above, terrifying spirit power fluctuations boomed like rolling thunder. This was war between a light-attribute Wolf Emperor and an Evil Spirit Master. Man and beast unleashed their full might, colliding again and again. After more than ten seconds of deadlock, they suddenly broke apart.
A scarlet tongue swept along sharp fangs. The Luminous Wolf Emperor eyed Ling Bai warily, its body now bearing several wounds deep enough to expose bone. Wisps of gray smoke hissed from each fresh gash.
A closer look revealed something shocking: this Great Beast that had ruled the forest for over two hundred thousand years was trembling.
Once struck by the Death Abyss Demon Scythe, Ultimate Death and Ultimate Poison surged in like blood-crazed vampires, dissolving into the bloodstream and racing along the meridians to destroy every organ they touched.
To continue fighting meant certain death. The Luminous Wolf Emperor shook its head desperately, trying to dislodge the despair flooding its mind. Dragon King bloodline suppression bound it at every turn, while absolute attribute suppression only compounded its disadvantage.
In the eyes of ordinary Spirit Masters, light was evil's natural enemy. They had no idea that evil could also triumph over good. The Death Abyss Spider Emperor's evil came from the God-level bloodline of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger. Against the absolute pinnacle of Ultimate Evil, the Luminous Wolf Emperor's light attribute simply didn't measure up.
On top of that, Ling Bai possessed his first spirit core. His spirit power density rivaled a Titled Douluo's. Whatever 'spirit power advantage' the Wolf Emperor might have claimed vanished entirely!
BOOM—
Thunder detonated from nowhere above the Luminous Mystic Forest. Ling Bai, who had been hovering still, moved again.
The Luminous Wolf Emperor had been watching him intently when it suddenly met a pair of demonic eyes tinged with black and red. Its mind convulsed as destructive spiritual power pierced straight into its Spiritual Sea, and for one crucial instant it lost track of Ling Bai entirely.
External Spirit Bone Demon Eye, Spiritual Annihilation!
The evil, deathly gray light of the Death Abyss Realm crashed down along with the eight Death Abyss Spider Lances at Ling Bai's back.
The Luminous Wolf Emperor endured the impact of Spiritual Annihilation while desperately maintaining its Radiant Light Domain. Gray and gold—two utterly incompatible forces—began to blend together.
Very soon, the bright golden domain was being assimilated, transforming into gray as it spread. The Wolf Emperor nearly shattered its teeth in frustration. The Death Abyss Spider Emperor's attributes were simply too suppressive!
Even Ling Bai himself felt a faint sense of unreality. Usually, he bullied Evil Spirit Masters with his Ultimate Holy Seraphim. Now the tables had turned; he was using the Ultimate Evil Death Abyss Spider Emperor to bully a light-attribute spirit beast!
No problem. Holy and evil both answer to me!
The third 100,000-year Calamitous Ice Devil spirit ring lit up. The Necromancer Eye activated, scrutinizing the Luminous Wolf Emperor with minute precision, and he finally pinpointed its fatal weakness!
Gray eyes gazed impassively at the struggling Wolf Emperor. A clear, piercing cry burst from Ling Bai's lips as the spiritual world of the Abyss of Suffering expanded outward, engulfing the Luminous Wolf Emperor in an instant.
"You Ying…"
The Wolf Emperor froze. In its vision, its attacker was no longer the human Ling Bai but a colossal pitch-black wolf: the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor!
Its weakness was the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor!
The Abyss of Suffering manifested the memory one most dreaded, most agonized over, and most wished to avoid. For the Luminous Wolf Emperor, time seemed to reverse to that year when its younger brother underwent a dark mutation and was banished by their father, who revered the light bloodline above all.
Back then, the Luminous Wolf Emperor had been merely a 50,000-year young wolf with no voice in the matter. Only after their father perished beneath his 300,000-year tribulation did both brothers break through to 100,000 years.
The Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor had wandered for tens of thousands of years, harboring resentment toward their father and toward the elder brother who had remained silent, eventually igniting war among the spirit beasts.
The Luminous Wolf Emperor, wracked with guilt and unwilling to fight its own brother, had voluntarily ceded half its territory. The two emperors had kept to their own spheres from then on, thus establishing the twin phenomena of Eternal Day and Eternal Night in the Luminous Mystic Forest.
Already struck by Spiritual Annihilation, the Luminous Wolf Emperor's Spiritual Sea was as fragile as paper. The Abyss of Suffering tore through its heart without resistance. Each of Ling Bai's attacks felt like the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor's revenge.
Its resistance weakened. The light in its eyes dimmed. The Death Abyss Demon Scythe traced a beautiful, tragic arc as the Eternal Scar tore savagely through its body.
BOOM—
The Luminous Wolf Emperor plummeted from the sky. Dust billowed as the ground shattered, spiderweb cracks spreading into the distance.
The emperor of the Eternal Day region knelt on the ground, head hanging powerlessly. Ling Bai raised the Death Abyss Demon Scythe high. Death had issued the execution order!
Creak, creak…
Teeth-grinding sounds of resistance rang out. The Luminous Wolf Emperor caught a familiar scent and jerked its head up to see a pitch-black demon wolf standing resolutely before it, jaws clamped tight around the Death Abyss Demon Scythe. The Shadow Domain condensed into a dark shield, barely holding back the drilling Death Abyss Spider Lances.
The Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor!
"Hey, you worthless trash, how did you get beaten this badly by a human?"
Even with the Death Abyss Demon Scythe clenched between its teeth, the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor still managed to squeeze mocking words through them.
"You Ying…"
The Luminous Wolf Emperor struggled to its feet. It had always believed its younger brother hated it. It had never expected him to come at this desperate moment.
Compared to the Luminous Wolf Emperor's dual suppression from both bloodline and attribute, the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor fared slightly better. After all, darkness differed from evil, death, and poison. Even so, the life-level oppression instantly made it understand why its elder brother had been defeated so miserably.
The Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor's body blurred as a dense dark aura burst forth. Clusters of purple-black light pillars blasted toward Ling Bai.
Ling Bai's eyes narrowed slightly. Under the Death Abyss Realm's influence, the evil and terror of the Death Abyss Spider Emperor manifested completely. Traceless Phantom carried him out of the barrage while his blood-red 100,000-year spirit ring flashed. A spiderweb dripping with virulent poison spread across the sky like a canopy, pressing down on both Wolf Emperors.
Fourth Spirit Skill, Zhen Poison Spiderweb!
The Luminous Wolf Emperor's severe injuries forced it to devote most of its energy to suppressing the Ultimate Death and Ultimate Poison ravaging its body, leaving less than a tenth of its combat power. The Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor alone stood no chance against the Zhen Poison Spiderweb empowered by both the million-year Martial Spirit Avatar and the Death Abyss Realm.
The enormous spiderweb descended like a prison. The Shadow Domain compressed to within a meter of the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor's body as immense pressure bore down from all directions. It was hard to imagine that Ling Bai, who didn't even have an eighth spirit ring, could force the infamous Twin Wolf Emperors into such dire straits.
"I originally planned to defeat you one by one. Your brotherly bond is quite touching…"
Ling Bai had set his sights on these twin Great Beasts of light and dark for his eighth spirit ring, intending to save effort by eliminating them separately. Things had largely proceeded according to plan. The Luminous Wolf Emperor's injuries were too severe; its death was certain. The Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor was also meat on the chopping block, destined to become a ring and a bone sooner or later.
"You Ying, you should have fled…" the Luminous Wolf Emperor sighed faintly.
The Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor replied bitterly, "We brothers can fight among ourselves all we want, but humans deserve to die!"
"Listen to me. This fellow didn't come alone. There's an old monster with him. Even if we beat the younger one, we can't beat the elder."
The Luminous Wolf Emperor's voice suddenly became vigorous again. Sorrow welled up in the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor's heart at those words.
A final flare before death!
The last light of a dying life!
"You Ying, if I die, then I die. Now I give you all my bloodline and spirit power. Don't be stubborn—find a way to escape the Luminous Mystic Forest. The Chaos Wolf Clan's bloodline must not be severed!"
The Luminous Wolf Emperor leaned against its brother and dissolved into motes of golden light that merged into the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor. No spirit ring or spirit bone remained. It gave everything to its younger brother!
Receiving the Luminous Wolf Emperor's gift, the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor's injuries healed at astonishing speed while its power surged upward. 300,000 years, 350,000 years…
400,000 years!
Two major breakthroughs in succession!
The Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor's body expanded rapidly. Its fur took on a unique hue, woven from countless points of light and shadow. Its eyes grew even more peculiar. One blazed with dazzling golden radiance while the other was as deep as the night sky, containing endless darkness!
This giant wolf was no longer the Luminous Wolf Emperor or the Mystic Shadow Wolf Emperor, but the source of their bloodline!
The sovereign who commanded both light and darkness: the Chaos Wolf Emperor!
"Human, pay with your life for my brother!"
The Chaos Wolf Emperor raised its head and opened its abyss-like maw. Like a black hole devouring everything, a black-gold demonic flame that had been brewing in its throat burst forth with devastating force!
Chaos Breath!