"Damn it!"
"Zhongli Wu" knew deeply that if he couldn't break the formation soon, once Di Tian finished up down below and came over, he would absolutely have no chance of survival either.
At this moment, the dark energy surrounding him, along with the blood-red light, grew increasingly dense. Like substantive dark-red flames, it illuminated the space within the Zhuxian Sword Array in a dark-red hue.
He couldn't afford to be entangled here any longer; he had to break the formation as quickly as possible!
The thought flashed by. The phantom of the Death God Puppet behind "Zhongli Wu" merged with his main body. The scythe in the puppet's hand flickered with a bizarre blood light, as if thirsting for the nourishment of blood.
Chen Junting, located at the core of the sword array, had eyes that grew increasingly cold.
With a slight shake of the long sword in his hand, the sword qi of the Zhuxian Sword Array instantly became active. Like agile swimming dragons and startlingly swift soaring swans, they shot toward "Zhongli Wu". The sword qi crisscrossed, weaving into an airtight net of swords that sealed off all directions.
At the same time, the three great Soul Spirits plus Gu Tianchen swung the long swords in their hands. Different sword intents linked with the array, enveloping "Zhongli Wu". However, "Zhongli Wu" swung his scythe, carving out a massive blood-red arc. This arc was like a blood-colored crescent moon, engaging in a head-on collision with the Zhuxian Sword Array.
The clanging sound of swords ringing out was endless. The shockwaves generated by the continuous collision between the sword qi and the scythe made it difficult for the other Title Douluos and Rank 9 Soul Engineers within the array to get even a fraction closer.
Amidst the fierce clash, "Zhongli Wu" seized the opportunity. His figure flashed, and he instantly appeared at the edge of the sword array. He viciously hacked down with the scythe in his hand, attempting to forcefully tear open a corner of the array through sheer power.
However, Chen Junting had been prepared. With a thought, the power of the sword array instantly converged at this spot. Countless strands of the four great sword qi—"Zhu, Lu, Jue, Xian"—surged forth like a tide, submerging "Zhongli Wu".
After all, although he had the confidence to claim that his sword array couldn't be broken unless four experts of similar strength attacked together, the current "Zhongli Wu" was no longer in the Super Douluo category, but a Limit Douluo. And after being possessed, he was the stronger kind of Limit Douluo at that.
Therefore, breaking the array purely by force was not impossible.
After all, Chen Junting's own strength was only at the Super Douluo level. And the gap between a Super Douluo and a Limit Douluo...
...was bigger than the gap between a human and a dog!
"If you want to break the array, you have to get past us first."
Six swords struck out, and a tangible "Kill" character came roaring over with imposing momentum.
The clear and indifferent voice line caused "Zhongli Wu" to swing his scythe backhand, batting away the "Kill" character. Then, gripping the scythe with both hands, he hoisted it above his head and spun it forcefully.
For a moment, a massive blood-red vortex instantly formed. Wherever the vortex reached, the sword qi was swallowed and shredded.
At this moment, the entire sword array was like an underground bunker, trembling and on the verge of collapse under a terrifying earthquake.
Chen Junting did not hesitate, making the most rational choice.
He poured a massive amount of soul power into the Zhuxian Sword Array, completely ignoring the gap in strength between himself and "Zhongli Wu".
From the most rational perspective, the Zhuxian Sword Array being broken was only a matter of time. But Di Tian's arrival meant that even if his sword array was broken and his soul power was heavily depleted, his life would not be in danger.
Since that was the case, he might as well strive to secure a certain opportunity.
All he needed to do was stall for time.
The Zhuxian Sword Array flared with dazzling light. The density and intensity of the sword qi increased several fold as it pressed down on "Zhongli Wu" once again.
Furthermore, Gu Tianchen and the three great Soul Spirits taking action made "Zhongli Wu" incredibly frustrated. Having to deal with this one and then that one—it was purely a distraction!
The dark-red vortex and the sword qi entangled and collided. Every clash triggered a violent energy explosion. The space within the sword array constantly twisted and trembled, as if it would collapse at any moment.
Until...
Roar—
A bear's roar rang out. The Luxian Sword was directly batted away. The Soul Spirit, the Mad King, had been beaten to a miserable state by "Zhongli Wu". Unable to hold on any longer, he was withdrawn back into Chen Junting's Spiritual Sea.
And right after that was Gu Tianchen.
Having not condensed a soul core, Gu Tianchen's stamina was only at the Soul Douluo level. Right now, his soul power was basically completely exhausted, with only a tiny bit left reserved for emergencies.
Therefore, Chen Junting loosened a restriction, allowing the spatial power within the Zhuxian Sword Array to be utilized for a single breath of time, giving Gu Tianchen the chance to escape into his own alternate space to rest.
Because the sword array was fraught with peril; a single step could mean life or death. Leaving Gu Tianchen, with his soul power almost entirely drained, here without anyone to constantly look after him would be absolutely dangerous!
Thus, Chen Junting only had the Soul Spirits Snow Empress and Tyrant left to continue controlling the sword array. But with the other two swords uncontrolled, the power of the Zhuxian Sword Array obviously dropped significantly.
"Zhongli Wu" finally seized the opportunity. His scythe erupted with terrifying power. A thick blood-red pillar of light shot out from the blade, heading straight for Chen Junting.
At the critical moment, Chen Junting lit up his seventh soul ring. But this time, he didn't use a Martial Soul True Body, but rather an Armament Soul True Body.
The four swords merged, linking with the sword array!
His entire person instantly fused with the sword, turning into a brilliant streak of sword light that rushed to meet the blood-red pillar of light.
Boom!
An earth-shattering bang echoed as the sword light and the blood-red pillar of light collided, erupting with unparalleled brilliance.
The intense energy shockwave spread outward in all directions from the point of collision. At this moment, affected by this shockwave, the Zhuxian Sword Array shook violently. The sword qi within the array ran amok in all directions, and its light became dim and gloomy.
Meanwhile, outside the Zhuxian Sword Array.
Di Tian spread his dragon wings. The dragon breath he exhaled howled within the chaotic energy currents. Looking down at the five demonic pillars of light soaring into the sky, a sneer curled up on his dragon maw, "Heh..."
The golden giant roared at the heavens. Dark-purple demonic runes frantically spread across its golden body. The originally clear golden blood essence became incredibly murky. Its thirty-meter-tall body actually expanded once more, with ferocious bone spurs growing out of its joints. "Jin Peng"'s pupils had turned completely blood-red. What he spat from his mouth was no longer blood essence, but rather flames carrying a scent of sulfur, seemingly straight from hell.
The other four Title Douluos underwent bizarre mutations as well.
The Iron-Arm Douluo's arms were crawling with demonic runes; the Flame-Leg Douluo's burning footprints in the air solidified into paths of magma; the Bone Douluo's body was entirely covered by purplish-black bones, obscuring his human form. The most terrifying was the Brain Douluo. His head swelled to three times its size, and the ends of his countless silver threads were adorned with blood-red eyeballs—it was a complete Cthulhu-esque aesthetic.
Roar!
The golden giant made the first move. Its giant fist, wreathed in hellfire, smashed out, and the space seemed to be scorched with spider-web-like black cracks. At the same time, the sky full of silver threads poured down like a rainstorm, and the eyeballs at the end of every thread were unleashing mental attacks.
Di Tian coiled in the high sky. Purplish-black lightning wrapped around his dragon claws as he reached downward. The dark elements swirling around his fingertips condensed into five spatial vortexes, blotting out the sky.
Just this back-to-basics move caused the heaven and earth origin energy within a radius of a hundred miles to suddenly freeze. The golden giant's hellfire, the instant it touched the black vortexes, actually vanished like melting snow and ice. The five vortexes merged into one, transforming into a sky-blotting black dragon claw that grabbed the thirty-meter-tall golden giant in its palm.
Crack—
A crisp sound of bones breaking echoed to the heavens.
The golden giant's torso martial soul true body, which it could be so proud of, was as fragile as glass under the crushing force of Di Tian's dragon claw. The dark-purple demonic runes flickered wildly, trying to summon demonic power to repair the body, but it still couldn't match Di Tian's overbearing soul power.
Right at this moment, the attacks of the other four arrived in succession.
The Iron-Arm Douluo swung his soul tool blades, unleashing a slash from hell. The magma paths locked down all escape routes, and the mental pierces targeted the very origin of the soul. However, Di Tian merely let out a dragon roar. A thousand-meter black dragon phantom appeared behind him, and accompanied by the vibration of Ultimate Darkness and spatial power, all the attacks completely dissipated.
"It's time to end this."
Di Tian's massive dragon body forcefully swung in the air. His giant wings spread open, and the scales on his body stood up. The light blooming from them suddenly dimmed, yet then abruptly expanded outward.
Instantly, a brief stagnation appeared in the sky. Purple fissures emerged in the areas that had previously caved in. From within these fissures, massive dragon heads poked out one after another.
And every single one of these dragon heads looked exactly like Di Tian. These dragon heads opened their massive maws, and streams of terrifying purplish-black dragon flame sprayed directly toward those four Title Douluos.
This was the Myriad—Dragon—Flame!
Seeing this, the four Title Douluos immediately took action to resist.
At this moment, the purplish-black dragon flames intertwined with the light of soul power, erupting with world-destroying energy. The light illuminated the entire dark zone, and the violent energy fluctuations caused the surrounding mountains to begin collapsing. When the light dissipated and the dust settled, the figures of the four Body Sect Title Douluos appeared before everyone's eyes.
Every single one of them had withering auras, and the light of their martial souls was dim and lifeless. The Iron-Arm Douluo's dark-iron arm bones were fractured, his arms hanging powerlessly; the Flame-Leg Douluo's legs were broken, and he collapsed to the ground; the Bone Douluo's chest armor was completely shattered, leaving him with only a single breath left; the Brain Douluo's spiritual network had long since shattered, his eyes completely vacant, as if he had become a fool.
"It's time to end this."
Di Tian looked down at them from a high vantage point. He opened his giant maw and sprayed out a black soul power light pillar. To even prevent the four of them from escaping, he completely locked down the surrounding space.
Almost simultaneously, his right claw violently clenched. The golden giant, which could already be considered shattered, exploded violently. Countless dark-purple demonic runes struggled, but were completely swallowed by the Ultimate Darkness.
The five of them, knowing they were powerless to resist, saw their demonic runes suddenly flare with blinding light at this critical moment of life and death.
Five souls suddenly soared into the air. At this exact moment, the heavens violently convulsed. An endless pressure swept in from the horizon, causing even Di Tian, who had been calm and collected the entire time, to drastically change his expression.
He was deeply familiar with this feeling.
Only a Heavenly Tribulation could be like this.
If Di Tian stayed any longer next to these five souls, he would also be treated as an enemy by the Heavenly Tribulation and slain together with them here.
Just as his mind relaxed and he was about to tear through space to leave, the five souls actually broke through his defence, tearing open five purplish-black spatial rifts beside them. One could vaguely feel the dense dark energy from the other side. The five souls transformed into streaks of flowing light and escaped into the rifts, leaving only five heavily cracked husks to fall into the mountain ravine.
Right at this time, the Heavenly Tribulation had arrived.
The roaring thunder, like a god disdainful of the world, overlooked the mortal realm, searching for those invaders. But obviously, it found nothing. Yet, before It could carefully search, the heavenly phenomena violently fluctuated once more, and the Heavenly Tribulation that was pressing down on the mortal realm rapidly dissipated.
It came and went so quickly, leaving Di Tian puzzled even as he felt fortunate.
Why did this Heavenly Tribulation leave even faster than when he was undergoing his own tribulation?
However, Di Tian didn't overthink it. He was just a little unresigned about being played by those five souls before they escaped.
Transforming from his dragon body into his human form and descending from the high sky, he looked down at the Death God Soul Tool. Di Tian let out a cold snort. He reached his hand down, it turning into a towering dragon claw, intending to uproot the entire mountain!
It was just that this evil creation still emitted a nauseating aura at this moment. The dark-red energy runes on its surface pulsed, as if resisting Di Tian's approach. But obviously, Di Tian wasn't about to tolerate its resistance. As he grabbed the base of the Death God Soul Tool, his soul power surged, and his terrifying Dragon Prestige erupted forth.
"Rise!"
The massive dragon claw pulled upward forcefully.
The Death God Soul Tool was rooted deep within the mountain body, tightly connected to the surrounding rocks and energy. But before Di Tian's terrifying strength, it gradually loosened. Amidst a violent tremor, the Death God Soul Tool was forcibly ripped out of the mountain by Di Tian.
Rumble—
Amidst the loud crash of the shattering mountain, Di Tian's five fingers closed together.
Spider-web-like cracks appeared on the surface of the Death God Soul Tool, exposing the countless wailing vengeful souls stored within it.
"Humans are truly ruthless enough to their own kind." With a sneer, just as Di Tian was about to gather up all these vengeful spirits...
Buzz—, Crack!
An earth-shattering sword cry came from the direction of the Zhuxian Sword Array.
"Zhongli Wu", looking somewhat battered, broke out of the array.
Besides him, there were the pale-faced and extremely poorly-conditioned Chen Junting and Gu Tianchen, as well as the three Star Luo Empire Title Douluos who had already stopped fighting, and three Sun Moon Empire Rank 9 Soul Engineers. As for the other Rank 9 Soul Engineer... he had long since perished, even thoroughly torn to shreds by the sword qi of the Zhuxian Sword Array.
Now, Chen Junting and the others were all in strict battle readiness.
They were worried that "Zhongli Wu" would make a move against them.
However, their worries seemed to be unnecessary.
"Zhongli Wu"'s attention was now entirely focused on Di Tian.
"Di—Tian—, you deserve to die!"
The destruction of the Death God Soul Tool and the exposure of the vengeful souls undoubtedly caused massive losses. This made "Zhongli Wu" no longer care about Chen Junting and the others. The most important thing right now was to minimize the losses!
Hah—
Suddenly, "Zhongli Wu" erupted with a burst of blood mist.
It seemed tangible, but was actually formless.
Even with Di Tian making a move, he was unable to stop the blood mist.
As the blood mist merged into the remains of the Death God Soul Tool, the stored vengeful spirits completely rioted. They turned into a sky-blotting black tide that surged toward the Star Luo army. The White Tiger Guards at the very front were instantly eroded; they either died or went mad. Many of those who went mad even had their eyes turn red, pouncing on their former comrades-in-arms.
This sudden mishap caught everyone off guard.
In just a few short seconds, it caused catastrophic casualties to the Star Luo army.
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