"This is the tenth location."
Sun-Moon Empire, Mingdu.
Jing Hongchen wore a black robe concealing his figure, looking at that unremarkable building in the distance before walking over.
Arriving at the courtyard gate, he raised his hand and knocked five times.
One long, two short, two long. This was the signal established before the soul hunting operation began for all Holy Spirit Cult branch altars in Mingdu.
However, after that soul hunting operation failed, with Zhongli Wu and Ye Xishui's deaths, the Holy Spirit Cult—which had lost its top combat strength—completely vanished without a trace, as if disappearing from the human world.
Along with the Holy Spirit Cult, Xu Tianran's younger brother—who was personally guarded by the Holy Spirit Cult's Great Elder—also disappeared.
If he couldn't bring the Holy Spirit Cult under control, they might use imperial bloodline to cause chaos in the empire in the future. Therefore, the second task Xu Tianran assigned to Jing Hongchen was to find them.
However, what Jing Hongchen guessed in his heart was:
Xu Tianran said finding the Holy Spirit Cult was to prevent turmoil, but in reality, he wanted to grasp this power in his hands even more. After all, although the Holy Spirit Cult had suffered heavy losses, there were still many Title Douluo and ninth-level soul engineers remaining, which could reduce casualties in future wars.
At this moment, five seconds had passed since the knocking.
Looking at the courtyard that showed no movement at all, Jing Hongchen sighed helplessly, "Sigh—no one again. On to the next location."
Just as he turned to leave, "Hmm..."
Seemingly sensing some movement, Jing Hongchen slightly turned sideways, "Creak—" a door crack was quietly opened.
Seeing this, Jing Hongchen lightly flashed and slipped inside.
"Hall Master Hongchen."
Inside the courtyard gate, a young man who opened the door bowed respectfully.
"Who is your person in charge?"
Jing Hongchen looked around left and right, searching for traces of others in the courtyard, "Have him come see me. This old man has matters to discuss."
"Hall Master Hongchen, long time no see."
The room door opened, and an old man appeared before Jing Hongchen. He had a dignified appearance, with a head of white hair neatly combed behind him, white beard flowing, and a kind smile on his face.
This appearance looked completely unrelated to evil soul masters.
"Nangong Wan." Jing Hongchen had no time for reminiscing, "Where is your Great Elder? Quickly return His Majesty's imperial brother!"
This immediate questioning—Nangong Wan's expression remained as normal as ever. Instead, he extended his hand in a gesture, making a "please" motion, "Hall Master Hongchen, don't be anxious. Why not have some tea with me, how about it?"
Tea?
Glancing at this smiling tiger Nangong Wan, Jing Hongchen didn't refuse either. Stepping inside, he let the door close behind him.
'Drinking tea' was fake; the true intention is negotiation.
...
Meanwhile, at the Holy Spirit Cult headquarters in the Evil Demon Forest.
Before the Holy Emperor's stone statue, in the blood pool, two corpses were continuously floating and sinking, their rosy skin no different from living people.
Looking closely, these were clearly Ye Xishui and Zhongli Wu.
"Has it been repaired?"
The Demon Empress, wearing a purple-black palace robe, walked gracefully to the edge of the blood pool. Her right hand gently lifted, and Ye Xishui and Zhongli Wu's corpses broke through the blood, floating naked in midair.
Examining carefully, whether it was the wound in Ye Xishui's chest pierced by Di Tian, or Zhongli Wu's corpse that had been sliced in half, they were all "brand new" with not a single trace remaining.
"Not bad, not bad."
A rare trace of relief appeared on the Demon Empress's exhausted face.
Since the soul hunting operation failed, no matter how she called to the Holy Emperor's stone statue at the Holy Spirit Cult headquarters, the Holy Emperor made no response.
Knowing that the Holy Emperor had fallen silent because the Holy Spirit Cult's great momentum was gone, the Demon Empress integrated the Holy Spirit Cult's remaining forces with thunderous momentum, then completely hid in the shadows.
Except for personnel continuing to execute original missions, everyone else was dispatched by the Demon Empress to the sea to arrange the patterns given by the Holy Emperor. She herself used the success of this soul hunting operation to continue breaking through, making slight progress in her cultivation. And in the end, she even personally arranged quite a few.
After a period of time, the Holy Spirit Cult lost quite a few more people. After all, the sea was full of dangers—this was inevitable. Of course, quite a few also fell to sea spirit beasts and the Sea God Family.
Thus, after being busy for so long, the Demon Empress contacted the Holy Emperor again. And the Holy Emperor's first words were blame toward the Demon Empress and the others, along with giving one last chance.
But because the Holy Spirit Cult's manpower was depleted, the Holy Emperor decided to send people from his side over. Only hindered by plane barriers, even with all the Holy Spirit Cult and Demon Empress's efforts, it was impossible for people from their plane to come over in complete condition. They could only use the arranged patterns to let their consciousness and part of their power parasitize onto corpses of people from this plane, becoming stowaways.
Therefore, Ye Xishui and Zhongli Wu's corpses came in handy. If not for Long Xiaoyao's corpse already being dismembered by Di Tian and his spirit bones taken, leaving the body incomplete, the Holy Emperor and Demon Empress might have gone grave-robbing.
"Prepare to begin."
"Then you should step back, preferably go outside."
The Demon Empress naturally remained unmoved by this.
Seeing this, the Holy Emperor's stone statue erupted with black light! At the same time, the patterns laid down across the Douluo Star also began to faintly glow. The movement seemed quite large, but was actually extremely concealed, difficult for ordinary people to detect.
Except for...
"Hmm?"
The Silver Dragon King, who had just fallen asleep, opened her eyes again. After scanning with her gaze, although she sensed something was wrong, she found nothing. Thus, she could only direct her gaze toward the Lake of Life.
"Love God..."
"Another human favored by a fallen god."
Perhaps she should use Di Tian's mouth to spread this news.
And while the Silver Dragon King was considering, the Holy Spirit Cult's great hall was already enveloped in darkness. Terrifying and intense dark aura surged out from the Holy Emperor's stone statue, shocking the Demon Empress!
"Darkness, descend!"
Seductive sounds played, causing the Demon Empress to suddenly become alert.
Because a cold and crazy will began to rapidly drill into her spiritual sea along with the demonic sounds, wanting to merge with her spiritual sea. Strong bloody, killing, fear, and crazy negative emotions also surged in along with that coldness.
"Hmph—"
A cold snort like thunder exploding—the Demon Empress's spiritual power erupted greatly. After guarding her mind, she coldly gazed at the Holy Emperor's stone statue.
"This seat has warned you."
The Demon Empress was speechless; she knew she was in the wrong. Thus, she crossed her arms before her chest, silently watching the changes in the two corpses.
Thick dark oil-like substances began to drill into Ye Xishui and Zhongli Wu's corpses, rapidly transforming them.
As time passed, two phantoms seemed to drill into Ye Xishui and Zhongli Wu's corpses, flashing and vanishing like illusions.
But the Demon Empress, who saw clearly, knew that something had indeed drilled into their corpses just now. And at this moment, Ye Xishui and Zhongli Wu's two corpses began their final changes.
"Thump thump thump—", "Bang bang bang—" Suddenly, in the silent great hall, two continuously beating heart sounds appeared.
The next second, "Ye Xishui" and "Zhongli Wu" suddenly opened their eyes!
Their entire auras all became incomparably dark, much colder than when they were alive, and also emanated an even denser death aura, like the Death God reborn. Eyes thirsting for slaughter, filled with bloodlust—more evil soul masters than evil soul masters!
Behind them, the Blood Soul Demon Puppet and Death God Demon Puppet—two great martial souls—emerged together. The originally shattered martial souls were condensed again by god-level power, and welcomed new transformations.
A pair of massive wing membranes slowly emerged from behind the martial souls. As six black and three red spirit rings spiraled around them one by one, purple-black light already rendered them, like demon rings.
And on the martial souls' heads, a pair of curved long horns had already drilled out, dense dark elements filling the entire great hall.
"Roar—"
When low roars sounded in their throats, the two great martial souls instantly possessed their bodies, and dense dark aura rushed toward them!
After this dark aura completely converged, "Ye Xishui" and "Zhongli Wu's" eyes flashed with a wisp of purple-black light.
Dark aura wrapped around them, transforming into their respective clothing.
"This body is truly weak."
"Zhongli Wu" exhaled turbid air, examining his current body, his tone quite dissatisfied. In his eyes, such a weak body simply couldn't bring him full security.
"Yours is considered good."
A muffled voice came from the side.
"Ye Xishui" made a voice completely unlike a woman's, helplessly saying, "Damn it, how did I end up in a female."
"Gaga ga—"
Hearing this, and looking at that voluptuous body, "Zhongli Wu" let out an unpleasant sinister laugh, "Old Ba, nice figure." While speaking, his hands also made grasping motions, "Why don't you bear with it, do me a favor and take one for the bros."
"Get lost!!!"
The "Ye Xishui" called "Old Ba" exploded with coarse language, "My current identity is your mother, show some respect to this old man."
After entering the corpse, the soul's residence gradually activated the brain, and the original owner's memories began to emerge in their minds.
And hearing this, "Zhongli Wu" also lost interest. Instead, he greedily breathed the air, "Ah—I don't even need to walk out to feel how wonderful this plane is!"
Then, he glanced at the Holy Emperor's stone statue that had fallen silent due to connecting the mutually blocked planes. Remembering the lord's instructions, he looked at the Demon Empress beside him, "So you're the one responsible for receiving us. Tsk tsk—nice figure..."
Before he could finish flirting, a purple-black thunderbolt instantly struck! Fortunately, "Zhongli Wu" reacted in time and barely dodged. But even so, half his hair was scorched black from the graze.
"Tsk, truly a violent temper."
"Zhongli Wu" looked at the Demon Empress, secretly estimating her strength, thereby making corresponding assessments of his current state.
"If there's a next time, I don't mind acting to replace you."
The Demon Empress's cold words made "Zhongli Wu" unconcerned.
Instead, "Ye Xishui" continuously adjusted her vocal cords, suppressing her original slightly rough male voice, using Ye Xishui's voice to let out a disdainful cold laugh, "Heh, with just you?"
The Demon Empress didn't respond, only facing her with cold eyes.
For a moment, both sides' killing intent seemed to surge in the great hall at this moment, and a tyrannical aura also spread from "Ye Xishui" and "Zhongli Wu," displaying their originally arrogant personalities.
Until "Zhongli Wu's" aura converged accordingly, and he stopped "Ye Xishui," the initial probing upon arrival finally ended.
He looked at the Demon Empress, their partner from this plane cooperating with their plane, and spoke, "Give us some time. Our souls have just taken residence, so we need to adapt to these current bodies."
"Once we're adapted, we'll discuss cooperation."
Hearing this, the Demon Empress nodded coldly.
"Alright."
Thus, following this, under the Demon Empress's waiting, "Ye Xishui" and "Zhongli Wu" also sat down cross-legged on the spot, adapting to their bodies and thoroughly understanding the original owner's situation.
When "Zhongli Wu" got up, "What the hell!"
A sudden outburst of coarse language startled "Zhongli Wu," who was halfway rising, causing him to stumble, "What are you doing?"
Turning his head, he looked dissatisfied at "Ye Xishui."
However, the next second, he was completely shocked by his brother's change. Under their mutual staring, the dark aura on "Ye Xishui" receded, and instead, she began emanating light aura, as holy as a sacred angel.
At this moment, "Zhongli Wu" had only one thought in his heart.
Brother, you've betrayed us?!
But then, he cast aside this thought.
Their entire plane was steeped in darkness—where would light come from? That is to say, this light aura belonged to the original owner of this corpse. But before replacing, didn't the lord say both corpses were evil soul masters? Then the question was, where would an evil soul master get light attributes?
"Twin martial souls."
The Demon Empress's eyes narrowed slightly, answering the puzzle.
"Unexpectedly, that Ye Xishui hid it so deeply. The dignified Holy Spirit Cult Supreme Leader, actually also possessed the Bright Phoenix martial soul."
"And that's not all."
"Ye Xishui" shook her head, continuing to excavate the original owner's memories, "She seems to have had a child with someone called Long Xiaoyao, and then that child's descendant entered some place called Shrek Academy, becoming some kind of dean there."
"What?"
The Demon Empress was shocked once again!
Truly couldn't understand, truly couldn't have imagined!
Who would have thought that in Shrek Academy—which took clearing evil soul masters as its duty—there was actually a descendant of an evil soul master leader.
If this news were spread out...
Just as her heart moved, the Demon Empress cut off this thought.
If this news spread, the world wouldn't believe it.
This time, the Demon Empress's mind worked rapidly. She was thinking about how to use this news to obtain the most favorable result.
...
At the Holy Spirit Cult branch altar in Mingdu.
"I already know Hall Master Hongchen's purpose."
Nangong Wan put down his teacup, unhurriedly saying, "Only this matter is of great importance and difficult to decide. Although I personally hold an approving attitude, ultimately the Cult Leader must make the decision."
Hearing this, Jing Hongchen's heart moved. "Oh? Then I wonder who the new Cult Leader is? Could it be the Great Elder Yang Yuan?"
Thinking carefully, only Yang Yuan had this qualification.
Unexpectedly, Nangong Wan directly shook his head.
"Of course not. Our Holy..."
Just as he wanted to reveal the truth, both Title Douluo-level experts stopped speaking and looked toward the door.
A few seconds later, "Knock knock knock—"
After a series of knocks, "Enter."
A Holy Spirit Cult disciple walked in and said respectfully, "Second Elder, urgent assembly information has just come from within the church."
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