Inside the Ten Heavenly Stems God Locking Formation, Zhu Ziyang opened his eyes and stood up, his spirit rings behind him flashing with a light that was enough to shock and terrify everyone.
Black, black, black, black, black, red, red, red, red!
Nine spirit rings, five black and four red, floated behind him, and Zhu Ziyang's face revealed a faint smile.
At level 91, after subduing the Demon Empress, a Soul Spirit with 800,000 years of cultivation, Zhu Ziyang's spirit power directly broke through from level 86 to level 91. Not only did he successfully break through to the Titled Douluo realm, making himself a Titled Douluo at only nineteen years old, but he also gained two quasi-god-level spirit rings with eight golden Texture.
Of course, for Zhu Ziyang, this was not his greatest gain; his greatest gain was acquiring the Demon Empress as a Soul Spirit.
Thinking this, Zhu Ziyang's mind stirred, and the Demon Empress, now a Soul Spirit, appeared before him, clad in a black dress, with long purple hair, an exquisite face, eyes full of curiosity, and a slightly flustered expression.
In her Soul Spirit state, the Demon Empress, apart from transforming from a life form into a spirit body, did not undergo significant changes. Her strength was fully preserved, and one could even say it was enhanced, as in her Soul Spirit state, she was practically immortal.
"M-Master!" the Demon Empress called out with some difficulty.
"Haha, if you can't bring yourself to say it, you can also call me by my name, Ziyang. I won't mind," Zhu Ziyang said with a smile, looking at the Demon Empress's conflicted expression. "By the way, do you have a name? All my Soul Spirits have names; it wouldn't be right to keep calling you Demon Empress!"
"Name?" A trace of bewilderment flashed across the Demon Empress's face, and then she said apologetically, "N-No!"
"Is that so? Then I'll think of one for you!" Zhu Ziyang was not surprised by the Demon Empress's answer. He said with a smile, "How about calling you Quan Er?"
"Quan Er?" The Demon Empress showed a puzzled expression; she didn't understand why Zhu Ziyang had thought of such a name for her.
"Mm! Aren't you the Underworld Enchantress? Isn't calling you Quan Er just right?" Zhu Ziyang explained with a smile. He would absolutely not admit that he couldn't think of a better name, which was why he gave the Demon Empress the name Quan Er.
"Oh, oh!" The Demon Empress's face showed understanding, and she no longer struggled with it. After all, a name, to her, was just a code name, like Demon Empress. She said, "Alright then, I'll be called Quan Er from now on!"
"Good, I'll first introduce my other four Soul Spirits to you," Zhu Ziyang said with a smile, summoning the four Soul Spirits, Snow, Ice, Frost, and Dew. Then he introduced them to the Demon Empress one by one: "Xue'er, you know her; she was once the ruler of the Extremely North Land of the Douluo Continent, the Ice Snow Maiden, Snow Empress, with 700,000 years of cultivation. This is Bing'er, she is the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion, with 400,000 years of cultivation. This is Shuang Er, the Heavenly Frost Silver Dragon King, with 700,000 years of cultivation. This is Lu'er, she is the extremely cold Immortal Herb, Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, with 100,000 years of cultivation."
As Zhu Ziyang's cultivation reached the Titled Douluo realm, the strength of the four Soul Spirits, Snow, Ice, Frost, and Dew, also increased. The Snow Empress and Second Shuang, without draining Zhu Ziyang, could also unleash battle power equivalent to 700,000 years of cultivation. The Ice Empress and Lu'er's strength also reached the Titled Douluo realm. Coupled with the Demon Empress Quan Er, who possessed 800,000 years of cultivation, Zhu Ziyang alone was enough to wipe out all human forces on the Douluo Continent except for Shrek Academy, the Body Sect, and the Sun Moon Empire.
While the four Soul Spirits, Snow, Ice, Frost, and Dew, began to interact and familiarize themselves with the Demon Empress Quan Er, Zhu Ziyang took the opportunity to enter the God Position inheritance ground to undertake his final assessment.
Arriving at the God Position inheritance ground, Zhu Ziyang stood on the eightieth step. After receiving the rewards for the Death God's Eighth Trial, his gaze fell on the steps above the eightieth level. He saw that the mist shrouding the remaining twenty steps had all disappeared, revealing all the steps and the palace above them.
Looking at the palace, a surge of excitement rose in Zhu Ziyang's heart. Without hesitation, he ascended the steps, reaching the ninetieth step. When he tried to continue upwards, he was blocked by an invisible wall. Helpless, he had to give up on moving further, knowing that he couldn't proceed until his God Position affinity reached one hundred percent.
His gaze fell on the last pair of god-locking pillars on either side of the ninetieth step. He saw the contents of the Death God's Ninth Trial displayed on the god-locking pillars.
"God Position Affinity: Ninety Percent
Death God's Ninth Trial: Congratulations, inheritor of the Death God! You are but one step away from truly obtaining the Death God's inheritance. This final step is also the most crucial one; countless prodigies have fallen at this last hurdle. Whether you can successfully achieve this step depends entirely on your own talent and will!
Assessment Content: Raise spirit power to level 99.
Assessment Requirements: None.
Assessment Rewards: Unknown."
As the final assessment, the Death God's Ninth Trial was indeed very simple and clear: raise spirit power to level 99 Limit Douluo. For ordinary people, this might be an extremely difficult task, but for Zhu Ziyang, it was not difficult. After all, his age and talent were evident; even if he only gained one level every ten years, he would only need eighty years.
Moreover, how could it possibly take ten years to advance just one level?
With a relaxed and joyful smile, Zhu Ziyang left the God Position inheritance ground. After returning to the Ten Heavenly Stems God Locking Formation and recalling his Soul Spirits into his spiritual sea, he walked out of the Ten Heavenly Stems God Locking Formation.
"Brother, how did it go?" Jiang Nannan and the two other girls immediately gathered around him, asking.
"The Death God's Eighth Trial was successfully completed. Now I just need to raise my spirit power to level 99, and I can officially accept the Death God's God Position," Zhu Ziyang said with a chuckle.
"Really? That's wonderful!" Jiang Nannan said excitedly.
"Yes, it's truly wonderful!" Zhang Lexuan and Qian Lingyi also said in unison, their pretty faces beaming with excited smiles.
"The mission is perfectly completed; let's prepare to return to the Douluo Continent!" Zhu Ziyang said. "Sister Weiwei, go call Kou Marko and the others back; we're ready to leave!"
"Understood!" Zhang Weiwei received the order and disappeared from the four people's sight in the blink of an eye.
After Zhang Weiwei left, Zhu Ziyang began to dismantle the Ten Heavenly Stems God Locking Formation, recalling the god-locking pillars one by one. Compared to the time and effort required for deployment, dismantling was very simple and easy; he only needed to input a stream of spirit power into each god-locking pillar, and these god-locking pillars would automatically shrink to the size of a silver needle and fly back into Zhu Ziyang's hand.
Before long, all ten god-locking pillars had returned to his hand. He placed these ten god-locking pillars with the other six, carefully preserving them.
Zhang Weiwei and the five other Light powerhouses returned quickly. Except for Rogier and Beimonstan, who were somewhat disheveled, everyone else was unharmed. After Zhu Ziyang inquired, he learned that Rogier and Beimonstan had been fighting the Earth Tyrant Dragon King to a standstill, and only with Zhang Weiwei's participation was it completely suppressed.
And the Earth Tyrant Dragon King was also very sensible; upon seeing Zhang Weiwei's addition, it decisively chose to flee. Zhang Weiwei and the two others, having received Zhu Ziyang's instructions, did not pursue it, which allowed the Earth Tyrant Dragon King to save its life.
After listening to Rogier's report, Zhu Ziyang couldn't help but smile, then put the matter out of his mind. After sending the five Light powerhouses back to the Saint Law Demiplane, he led Jiang Nannan and the two other girls out of the Mountain Range of the Dead.
A week later, the group of four boarded the Moon God Shuttle on a coast of the Martial Soul Continent. Without any of the Martial Soul Continent's forces noticing, they left the Martial Soul Continent, taking with them the ruler of the Mountain Range of the Dead, the Demon Empress.
By the time the Spirit Masters on the Martial Soul Continent noticed the Demon Empress's disappearance, it was already several centuries later. As for why it was several centuries later, one can only say that the Spirit Masters of the Martial Soul Continent were too incompetent.
Conversely, the Spirit Beasts on the Martial Soul Continent noticed the Demon Empress's disappearance the very next year. The first to discover this fact was naturally the Earth Tyrant Dragon King. As the only Spirit Beast that had interacted with Zhu Ziyang's group and survived, it immediately wanted to meet the Demon Empress after escaping the encirclement of Zhang Weiwei and the two others.
It knelt outside the Devil Emperor Palace for nearly a year, not only receiving no response from the Demon Empress but also noticing that the Death Qi accumulated in the Devil Emperor Palace for countless years was slowly dissipating. This discovery made it very puzzled and shocked. Thus, it bravely pushed open the gates of the Devil Emperor Palace and discovered the fact that the Demon Empress was not in the Devil Emperor Palace!
As for how the Spirit Beasts on the Martial Soul Continent dealt with the fact of the Demon Empress's disappearance after that, it had nothing to do with Zhu Ziyang and the others. By then, they had already sailed an unknown distance across the sea.