Toxins and destruction intertwined and annihilated each other. The shockwave razed the ruins again.
Du Bushi shuddered and staggered a step back.
Xu Tianran stumbled back several steps; a sweetness rose in his throat, and he nearly spat blood—but he forced it down, an unhealthy flush rising to his face.
Even with Phantylia's boon, his power surged, but against Du Bushi's wrathful strike—backed by a Body Martial Soul at rank 99—he showed a clear deficit.
"Du Bushi, you court death."
Murder boiled in Xu Tianran's eyes—rage and shame mingled.
"I've lived long enough. If I can drag a scourge like you to hell today, that's a bargain well struck."
Laughing madly, Du Bushi suppressed his roiling blood and charged again—fiercer than before.
Karna would not miss such a chance. His spear blazed like a small sun. His assault grew even more incisive, binding Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui so tightly they could not break free to aid Xu Tianran.
As Du Bushi lunged for Xu Tianran, a calm voice sounded.
"Sect Master Du, have you forgotten this old man is your opponent?"
With the voice, a crystalline barrier inscribed with countless intricate soul tool sigils appeared silently between Xu Tianran and Du Bushi.
The mountain shattering, all corroding toxic palm slammed into the crystal wall, which rippled with violent rings—but held fast. Not a trace of poison seeped through.
A moment later, Kong Deming stepped from the void, face serene as a deep pool, holding a delicate, silver glowing dome shaped soul tool.
The soft silver light radiated a soul force so vast it made hearts quail.
"Elder Kong."
Xu Tianran smiled upon seeing him.
Du Bushi's sudden breakout had indeed slipped past Kong Deming's block, but Xu Tianran did not think it intentional.
Kong Deming had now intercepted Du Bushi in time—proof enough.
Though they had clashed unpleasantly before, it didn't stop Xu Tianran from wielding this imperial blade.
He knew the imperial grand worship well: Kong Deming cared only for the Sun–Moon Empire's interests and the royal house's safety; besides that, only for soul tools.
And Xu Tianran was the Empire's future. As long as he lived, unification remained possible. Mingdu's fall was a setback; the Empire's roots were intact.
Kong Deming gave Xu Tianran the slightest nod, then turned to the grim Du Bushi.
"Sect Master Du, having reached the limit, why so impatient—why rush to moth to flame? Allow this old man to finish our unfinished match."
With that, the silver dome—the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield—soared aloft.
A web of impossibly complex soul tool arrays flared. Silver light surged, and like an inverted bowl, it formed a vast silver domain that swallowed the raging Du Bushi whole.
A rank 10 soul tool—the Silver Moon Divine Light Shield.
With this pinnacle of Sun–Moon soul tool craft, Kong Deming could, lacking a Limit body, nonetheless restrain—even suppress—the freshly ascended and surging Du Bushi.
Know that with a golden Body Martial Soul awakening, Du Bushi's strength far exceeded an ordinary newly minted rank 99 Douluo—enough to contend with veterans like Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui.
The battlefield was forcibly partitioned again.
Kong Deming, by virtue of the Silver Moon Shield, dragged the greatest variable—Du Bushi—into a separate domain duel.
On the main field, Xu Tianran snatched a breath and regrouped with Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui.
Opposite them stood He Caitou, spent of soul power and running on hate alone, and Karna, invincible in mien but unable to go all out while protecting his Master.
Though He Caitou shouted for Karna to ignore him and strike down Xu Tianran, how could the Altruistic Hero, the Son of the Sun, watch his contracted Master die before his eyes and remain unmoved?
That concern was an invisible shackle upon the sun's light.
The battle seemed to sink again into suffocating stalemate and despair.
In He Caitou's eyes, the flame of revenge still burned, yet a tint of powerlessness and sorrow crept in unbidden.
Above the palace ruins, the fighting was at its cruelest.
Feeling the last threads of soul power dry up, watching Karna—glorious even two on one—yet ever turning to shield him, a surge rose in He Caitou's heart.
Vengeance!
His only reason to live was revenge.
If his existence shackled the hero and doomed their vengeance, what meaning had his lingering breath?
"Karna!"
He Caitou cried with all he had left, his voice broken but chillingly calm.
"My Servant, forgive my selfishness… and forgive my incompetence."
Karna's molten eyes trembled faintly, as if he would speak.
But He Caitou gave him no chance.
He looked one last time at his hated enemy, Xu Tianran—eyes full of regret and unwillingness: regret that he would not witness his death, unwilling that his family's blood debt would not be settled by his own hands.
A heartbeat later, all that emotion became a final entrustment and faith.
"Karna!"
He raised the crimson Command Seal on his hand—its glow brighter than ever.
"My hatred, my obsession, my all… I entrust to you. Please, sever this karma for me."
This was not a command, but a last prayer and bequest.
As the words fell, He Caitou leapt from Karna's protection and charged straight for Xu Tianran—into the death zone woven by Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui.
He spread his arms. In his eyes—no fear, only release, only final hope.
"Courting death!"
Xu Tianran snorted. A sweep of purple lightning. Ye Xishui's blood sea engulfed the charging figure.
Only Long Xiaoyao sighed and shook his head.
No miracle came.
Spent of power and bereft of defense, He Caitou's body was torn and devoured like a broken doll… Only his eyes, to the last, locked on Xu Tianran.
He Caitou—dead.
"…"
Karna's movements froze for an instant.
On his ever placid face, something seemed to crack.
In his molten pupils, for the first time, emotion boiled—pain at failing to protect, and a mountainous burden: the hatred that had been entrusted to him.
Slowly—terribly slowly—he lifted his head. His gaze slid past Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui and fixed on the suddenly uneasy Xu Tianran.
"Master."
The low voice sounded—calm as a still pool, yet chilling.
"Your grievance, your wish—I, Karna… have received them in full."
In the next heartbeat, the sun descended.
"O Brahma, curse my flesh!"
Karna hesitated not at all and invoked his Noble Phantasm.
His spear swept; a flood of annihilating flame, borne on crushing radiance, swallowed everything ahead.
Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui blanched, defending with all they had. Shadows and blood seas keened under the sun's blaze, boiling away.
They were blasted into the distance, bodies charred, their auras instantly halved.
But that was only the beginning.
"O Brahma, cover the earth!"
Karna's eyes shone brighter than the sun. Stronger beams poured forth in indiscriminate saturation fire.
The palace ruins—and far beyond—shuddered and melted under the onslaught, power enough to topple a city.
Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui mustered their last strength to raise a joint defense, but under such relentless Phantasm fire, their bulwark was shredded layer by layer like paper.
In the end, the destroying light consumed them.
When the light faded, the two lay at the bottom of a vast crater—bodies ruined, life flickering like candles in the wind, near extinction.
Blood dribbled from Long Xiaoyao's lips. He turned his head with effort to look at the likewise dying Ye Xishui.
Those eyes, always so complicated, held only fatigue—and a trace of release.
"Xishui… kh… in the end… we still…"
His voice broke to whispers.
Ye Xishui's pale face formed the faintest, most complex smile.
"Heh… Xiaoyao… we… were wrong… both of us… too stubborn…"
Blood stained her words.
"If there's a next life…"
"If there's a next life… don't…"
Long Xiaoyao tried to lift his hand; it fell, powerless.
Entangled for a lifetime, the two Limit Douluo, at the end, finally laid down all grudges. In their eyes remained only each other, as they slowly closed them.
Karna's gaze did not waver—still locked on Xu Tianran, who, though battered by the backlash, clung to life by the power of the dragon and Phantylia's boon.
He felt his Master's final obsession urging him on.
He raised his spear; all radiance drew inward—condensing to a single point at the tip.
That point of light held the secret of creation and end. For the first time, Xu Tianran felt mortal terror.
"O Sun, obey death!"
Karna unleashed his true god slaying lance—his anti divinity Phantasm—its ultimate power, without reserve, at Xu Tianran.
Xu Tianran screamed in despair, amassing all his destructive power to his front—his last struggle.
In the distance, within the Silver Moon Shield, Kong Deming's face changed drastically.
Though inside his domain, external cataclysms and the shifting course of battle could not escape his senses.
The turn had come too fast.
From He Caitou's resolute death, to the twin Limit Douluo falling under Karna's unleashed brilliance—it all happened in a flash, too quick to breathe.
"This is bad!"
Kong Deming blurted, waves crashing in his heart.
He had never imagined that the Sun's son, stripped of restraints and burning his existence to ascend, would be this terrifying—beyond anyone's reckoning.
That was not power humans could block.
The crisis spurred an instant decision—he had to reinforce.
Even knowing he was no match for Karna as he was now, he had to try to extract Xu Tianran. The Empire's future could not end here.
He moved to retract the Silver Moon Shield and hurled himself toward the main field.
But at the instant his mind wavered and the domain slackened—
"Roar!!"
A deafening bellow exploded within the domain.
The massive dark green figure he had suppressed burst through the silver bonds with brutal force—like a volcanic mountain of poison—and planted itself before him.
Du Bushi.
Though still bearing scars from his earlier clash with the domain, his bulging eyes now burned with excitement and glee—none of his prior frustration remained.
He grinned wide, voice booming:
"Hahaha! Old man, didn't you just block me to your heart's content? Now the wheel turns. It's my turn to block you. Leave? No way."
The sudden reversal made Du Bushi's heart soar.
Moments before, he'd thought the assassination had failed and was planning a minimal loss retreat.
Who would have thought—after darkness, light.
That Shrek lad, He Caitou, had, by such resolve, bought the Sun Servant's unbridled eruption.
That sacred, destroying aura sweeping heaven and earth; that instant annihilation of two Limit Douluo.
Du Bushi felt clearly—if not on par with the flying Xiao he had personally tasted, then not far off.
This power would be more than enough to blast Xu Tianran to slag.
His goal was within reach.
Best of all, it seemed he needn't throw his life away to achieve it.
For him, this development was perfect.
"You Shrek—beautifully done. Well played."
Elated, Du Bushi even praised the fallen He Caitou aloud.
"Since you staked your life for revenge, this old man will lend you a hand today—by holding off the greatest variable."
His massive figure stood like an unscalable escarpment, barring Kong Deming from the main field. Billowing poison fused with raging vital force to form a domain that sealed every path.
Against a Limit Douluo going all out, Kong Deming would not be reinforcing anytime soon.