DD Black White [335-336] (Patreon)

Chapter 335: Qian Duoduo and Xian Lin'er

After tearing through the silver spatial barrier, the dark-golden claw light formed by Sky Splitting Claw barely slowed at all. It still carried a despair-inducing, terrifying momentum as it drove straight for Xian Lin'er's heart.

"Black Dragon Shield True Body!"

Qian Duoduo's eyes bulged with bloodshot fury; his roar carried urgency and resolve.

Without a moment's hesitation, he activated a precious ring etched with spatial runes on his finger—a short-range teleportation soul tool.

A pale blue spatial glow flashed and vanished. Qian Duoduo's figure disappeared from where he stood and, the next instant, reappeared before Xian Lin'er without a backward glance.

His martial soul, the Black Dragon Shield, erupted with unprecedented ebon light, swelling in a burst to tens of meters tall, turning into a massive metal shield carved with ancient dragon patterns, heavy as a mountain, locking Xian Lin'er and himself behind it.

Ebon light flowed over the shield's surface; the dragon patterns seemed to come alive, letting out a low roar. This was his Soul Tool True Body.

"Clang—!!!!!!!"

A deafening metallic detonation tore through the skies, a shrill, piercing shriek like ten thousand blades scraping across the heart, making all nearby soul masters clutch their ears in pain; even their soul power circulation stuttered.

The golden claw light slammed into the colossal Black Dragon Shield.

An invisible shockwave spread like an annihilating ring. The ground beneath the two of them ripped like paper into several-meter-deep trenches, and even the far-off crenellations of the stout city wall shuddered, shedding bricks.

"Urgh—ah!"

Qian Duoduo braced both arms hard against the back of the giant shield. His feet drove into the ground like nails up to his knees. His bones groaned under the load; the muscles in his arms trembled violently, veins bulging like coiled dragons. His face went paper-white in a heartbeat, drained of blood.

He could feel with terrible clarity how savage and irresistible the force transmitted through the Black Dragon Shield was—the Sky Splitting Claw's might pressed down like a mountain.

From the shield's supposedly indestructible surface came a chilling crack. Fine fissures spread out from the impact point like a spiderweb, racing madly.

"Crack… crack…"

The sound of metal failing under strain rang clear in everyone's ears. The shield's cracks multiplied and deepened; its ebon glow dimmed rapidly, as if it would shatter into countless fragments the next second.

"Pff—!"

Qian Duoduo suddenly spat a mouthful of scalding blood. His martial soul's true body had been grievously damaged; as its master, his very soul felt torn, the backlash brutally severe.

Yet his bloodshot eyes were locked ahead. His knees bent to the limit but he still stood, using a shaking body and a martial soul on the verge of breaking to keep Xian Lin'er shielded behind him.

He knew better than anyone that if he fell, the one behind him would be laid bare before the Bear Lord's claws that could rip anything apart.

From the Bear Lord's sudden ambush, to Qian Duoduo throwing a soul tool, teleporting, and unfolding his true body to stand before Xian Lin'er—everything happened faster than most could even think. All in a spark of lightning.

"Duoduo!"

Only when warm blood splashed across her cheek did Xian Lin'er snap out of her shock.

Seeing Qian Duoduo's broad back tottering, spitting blood, yet still planted in front of her, her eyes reddened instantly. Heart-rending pain and a tidal fury drowned her reason.

Without hesitation, the spear in her hand was wrapped by a gale of azure—her martial soul was named Azure-Flame Dragon, but in truth it was a mutated wind-attribute soul.

When wind power is compressed to the extreme, it violently rubs against the air, producing a unique azure flame.

A raging tempest formed out of thin air, shrieking sharply. The extremely compressed wind-attribute soul power rubbed the air, bursting into that distinctive, ever-leaping azure fire.

Though this Azure Flame lacked the absolute domineering decay of Lu Jingming's Black Abyss White Flower, it shared a property of disintegration: anything it touched would be torn and reduced in an instant, broken down to primordial particles by the violent wind-flame.

"Azure Flame: Flood-Dragon Rend!"

Xian Lin'er gave a crisp shout. She hurled her spear, now fully wreathed in dense azure flames, with all her strength at the towering Dark-Gold Dreadclaw Bear.

She knew she could never meet the Bear Lord's Sky Splitting Claw head-on. The only chance was to save one by attacking another.

As long as she could force the Bear Lord to feel mortal peril, to make it defend or dodge, she could buy Qian Duoduo a sliver of life.

Once released, the spear seemed endowed with life and will. The azure flames surged and stretched, in an instant becoming a life-like, roaring azure flame flood dragon.

Where the dragon passed, the ground was melted into a scorched-black trench by terrifying heat and disintegrative force. Low-tier soul beasts brushed by even a fringe of the azure flame's aftershock didn't manage a full scream before the blue fire engulfed them and reduced them to ash in a blink.

However, at the critical instant between life and death—

"Rumble—!"

Without warning, the ground convulsed and split. Broken rock and earth geysered upward.

Next, countless thick, twisted ancient trunks of eerie blue-black burst from underground like tentacles from hell.

Their surfaces were wrinkled like aged skin, entwined with countless inky-green, ominous vines. They whipped savagely through the air, exuding a nauseating stench.

These uncanny roots wove, twined, and fused at a speed beyond reason, finally condensing into a malevolent, blue-black wooden giant over thirty meters tall.

Its torso was brute-twisted from dozens of the thickest trunks; its limbs were like the brawny boughs of millennial trees. Most horrifying of all, on its head and massive body, one after another, hundreds of scarlet, evil eyes snapped open, packed densely together.

Each eye turned independently and eerily, locking onto Xian Lin'er and the azure flame flood dragon she'd thrown.

This was the Myriad-Demon King, the Demonic-Eyed Devil Tree, ranked fifth among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts.

A master of controlling forest flora and masking his presence, he revealed himself the moment he saw Xian Lin'er's all-out strike threaten the Bear Lord's vitals. His titanic right arm flared open.

That palm was braided from dozens of vine-serpents as thick as venomous pythons. In its center was set a basketball-sized scarlet eye radiating potent spiritual waves.

That monstrous hand, howling with wind sharp enough to tear eardrums, smashed down precisely at the unstoppable azure flame flood dragon.

He meant to crush any hope of human counterattack, leaving Qian Duoduo and Xian Lin'er not a single breath.

"Humans, today is your doomsday. Taste the sear of hellfire."

Almost simultaneously, the Scarlet King—the three-headed Scarlet Demon Mastiff—let out a rage-filled, tyrannical roar.

His three ferocious heads aimed at the most crowded sections of soul masters atop the city wall. Their bloody maws yawned open, spewing three pillars of scarlet hellfire hot enough to melt fine steel.

Though not yet at the ultimate grade, the flames were close. The heat warped the air into rippling layers. The three pillars converged midair, fusing into an even larger, gold-hued column of terrifying fire, blasting toward the defenders on the wall.

Where it passed, it left a stench of sulfur and charred flesh. The heatwave burned the soldiers' skin even from afar.

"Pathetic ants, die, foolish humans."

The Bear Lord's furred, ferocious face curled into a cruel, contemptuous sneer. He ignored the azure flame flood dragon that could threaten him.

He had absolute confidence in the Myriad-Demon King's power.

At this moment, his sole thought was to annihilate the meddlesome human Title Douluo before him—together with that loathsome shield—in the most brutal, crushing fashion, wiping them from the world.

His dark-golden talons rose high again. A tearing power, even more violent and concentrated than before, crazed at the claw tips. Air split under the ultimate sharpness with tooth-aching zzzts, as though even space itself whimpered.

Dozens of meters of dark-golden annihilating claw light, brimming with god-reaping, demon-slaughtering sharpness, ripped the air once more and hacked down at Qian Duoduo's Black Dragon Shield, now latticed with cracks and dim of glow.

"Pff—!"

Qian Duoduo's body convulsed. He spat another mouthful of blood mixed with organ fragments. His face, previously flushed from exertion, turned ghostly white.

He poured the last dregs of his soul power madly into the nearly-broken Black Dragon Shield in a final struggle.

But the shield that had accompanied him through a lifetime of battles was as fragile as fine glass art before this second, wrath-fueled Sky Splitting Claw.

"Crack… BOOM!"

The piercing shatter echoed across the battlefield.

The Black Dragon Shield could no longer bear the destructive force. It exploded into countless metal fragments glimmering with dim ebon light.

The claw light that tore all things did not slow after shattering the shield. Like red-hot iron through thin ice, it punched straight through Qian Duoduo's unprotected chest.

Its momentum unspent, the dark-golden claw light roared on and slammed into Shrek City's massive wall barrier.

"BOOOOM—!!!!!!"

A cataclysmic roar detonated, shaking the entire battlefield.

Chapter 336: Chaotic Spacetime

Before the terrifying power of the Sky Splitting Claw, the immensely thick wall barrier was like glass struck by a giant hammer—instantaneously webbed with cracks, then, in a flash of blinding energy, it blew apart into drifting motes of light.

Immediately after, a section of the southern wall—stacked from giant hard stones—lost the protection of the energy shield and couldn't withstand the residual force. With a tooth-aching groan, the masonry came apart and collapsed.

Huge stones mixed with dust blasted upward, then fell like a torrential rain.

When the murk cleared a little, a ghastly gap yawned where the majestic wall had been. It was several meters deep, shaped like it had been raked by a titanic bear claw.

Through the opening, one could faintly glimpse the panic within the city.

The garrison cried out in despair and fear. Many, too slow to dodge, were buried or crushed by the falling stone. Crimson blood stained the shattered ruins; screams rose one after another.

"Duoduo—!!!"

Xian Lin'er's heart-rending cry, laden with boundless grief and despair, finally cut through the battlefield's din.

At that moment, she was bound fast by countless tough vines split off by the Myriad-Demon King. Even as she blasted wave after wave apart with frenzied soul power, she could only watch helplessly as that fatal claw light pierced straight through Qian Duoduo.

Limitless regret and fury scorched her heart.

She burned her soul power without regard for anything. Azure flames erupted from her like a volcano, vaporizing every vine that touched her.

She became a shrieking streak of azure, flashing to Qian Duoduo's back. With trembling arms, she tried to catch his limp, falling body.

"Lin'er… live…"

Qian Duoduo's broken body sagged in Xian Lin'er's cold arms. His blood-smeared face twisted with extreme pain, yet his eyes were full of endless affection and reluctance.

He opened his mouth; more blood gushed like a spring, soaking the front of Xian Lin'er's clothes crimson. The harsh red stabbed at her eyes.

The soul-tool armor he'd designed himself—enough to withstand the full-force strike of a Title Douluo—had already shattered and warped in the prior impact. The exposed skin was crosshatched with countless torn cuts.

By his fallen side lay fragments of several eighth-level defensive soul tools, flickering with broken light.

Those were every last life-saving measure he had triggered on instinct in his final moment.

But the Bear Lord's Sky Splitting Claw was a terror not even Ditian would take lightly. Famous for his defense as he was, giving everything, he still could not stop that second blow.

Before he finished, Qian Duoduo's body convulsed violently. He spewed another mouthful of thick blood, again laced with organ bits. The wounds bored through his chest by the claw light suddenly widened, deep enough to reveal bone, with glimpses of shattered viscera within.

That was the residual tearing force of Sky Splitting Claw detonating inside him.

The last spark in his eyes guttered like a candle in the wind. The hand that had gripped Xian Lin'er's arm slackened and fell. His breath ceased.

Only those half-closed eyes still held a trace of longing for the one before him.

"Duoduo—!!!"

Xian Lin'er clutched Qian Duoduo's swiftly cooling body and let out a scream so riven with pain and despair it seemed to tear eardrums and pierce the heavens. Even the distant beast tide's roars faltered.

Azure flames burned out of control around her, exploding wildly. The extreme heat ignited the air itself, forming rings of distorting heatwaves, turning the space around her into a domain of annihilating blue fire.

Blood threads and killing madness stained her eyes completely. She fixed on the massive Dark-Gold Dreadclaw Bear not far away. The hatred and venom in her gaze seemed almost tangible—as if she would, in the next heartbeat, pounce and devour it alive, grinding it to dust.

"How could… this be…"

Cai Meier, Shi Xing, Yan Shaozhe, and the others watched the carnage, their faces filled with disbelief and bone-deep sorrow.

In a single moment's lapse, they had lost an old comrade who had fought by their side for decades, a pillar of Shrek Academy's Soul Tool Department, an indispensable Elder of the Sea God Pavilion.

The holy light burning around Yan Shaozhe flickered, wavering violently. The time-space silver disc revolving behind Shi Xing rippled with chaotic energy.

Everyone's heart was smashed by the sudden, heavy loss. Boundless grief surged like a tide.

"Roar—!!!"

The instant the wall barrier shattered and the great breach opened, hundreds of vanguard soul beasts, long-scenting blood and slaughter, howled in bloodthirsty excitement.

Greed and cruelty flashed in their eyes. Like starving sharks catching the scent of fresh blood, they lost all reason and trampled each other in a mad rush for the fatal gap.

Break this last line, and the defenseless humans inside would become lambs for wanton butchery and feasting.

"Don't even think about it!"

Time Douluo Shi Xing tore himself from grief, a cold killing intent flashing in his eyes.

He knew better than anyone this was no time to drown in sorrow. If the beast tide broke through, Shrek City would become a living hell in an instant, and Qian Duoduo's sacrifice would be for nothing.

His hands formed complex, profound seals at a speed the naked eye couldn't follow. The silver-disc martial soul etched with space-time runes shot skyward, hanging directly above the breach.

Silver light of time and space burst forth, like a small silver moon suddenly descending, radiating mysterious, vast waves.

All nine soul rings on him lit at once—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, black.

Five deep-black ten-thousand-year rings emanated a vast soul power that made hearts race, marking him clearly as a Super Douluo.

"Eighth Soul Skill—Chaotic Spacetime Current!"

With a full-throated roar, his eighth black ring erupted in a dazzling darkness that seemed to swallow light.

The suspended time-space silver disc began spinning with unprecedented frenzy. Silver radiance grew ever more blinding; the surrounding space warped, folded, and collapsed like a lake struck by a stone.

At last, a colossal silver vortex over a hundred meters wide formed, its interior filled with flickering shards of light—like a cosmic maw opened into a deep abyss.

A vast, invisible suction surged into being, locking precisely onto the breach.

The charging beasts—whether mere hundred-year weaklings, massive and savage thousand-year brutes, or even the occasional ten-thousand-year leader in front—were seized by this power that touched upon time and space.

They screamed and thrashed in terror, claws gouging deep furrows in the ground, but like flies in a spiderweb, they were torn from the earth with no resistance, swept up like leaves in a gale, dragged helplessly into the silver vortex.

Once swallowed, even ten-thousand-year beasts, thick-skinned and iron-boned, couldn't manage a single full scream before the vortex's internal storm of chaotic time-space fragments sliced, dissolved, and annihilated them into primal particles—erased without a trace.

In just a few breaths, the hundreds of beasts surging toward the breach were cleared away as if they had never existed.

With this earth-shaking strike, Shi Xing wrested a precious moment of breathing room for Shrek City.

Shi Xing's time-space silver disc was a one-in-hundreds-of-millions Soul Tool that touched both the laws of time and space. Its rarity and might commanded reverence from any who knew the name.

In any world, time and space stand among the supreme laws at the pinnacle of power—"time sovereign, space king." Even if the silver disc channeled only a trickle of their power, the might it displayed was far beyond ordinary martial souls.

Because of this, Shi Xing, not yet fifty, could ascend to the lordship of Shrek City and become one of the youngest Sea God Pavilion Elders in history.

Among all Soul Tool on the continent, the time-space silver disc stood no less exalted than the Clear Sky Hammer's dominance, the Seven Treasure Glazed Pagoda's support, the Star Crown's defense, or the Seven Kill Sword's peerless edge—a top-tier Soul Tool beyond dispute.

However, forcing such a vast Chaotic Spacetime Current exacted an unimaginable toll.

His face blanched visibly, sweat beaded on his brow, his body trembled. Even the light from the hovering disc grew unstable and dimmed.

In the distance, the Myriad-Demon King and Scarlet King would not let the chance pass.

Countless terrifying vines, as tough as diamond and tipped with rending maws, lashed out again like serpents, seeking to bind and tear the exhausted Shi Xing.

The Scarlet King's central head vomited another pillar of hellfire, adjusted its aim, and blasted it at the silver vortex to shatter it.

Shi Xing clenched his teeth, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. He struggled to maintain the collapsing vortex while twisting space around him to dodge. The situation turned perilous once more.