DD Black White [375-376] (Patreon)

Chapter 375: The Seven Thunders of Retribution

"I see~ I understand."

Vita went with the flow, folding her hands elegantly over her chest—an unconscious gesture that only emphasized her proud curves.

That subtle smile still hung on her face, as if she knew everything yet couldn't be bothered to say it aloud.

"As expected… the relationship between Wang Qiu'er and Little Wutong is a tangled mess. Fascinating."

She chuckled inwardly.

"What a pity. Looks like I missed the most exciting part of the plot. But that's fine—there's plenty of time ahead. Fun… will come."

She dipped her chin slightly and offered Wang Qiu'er a courteous gesture that was half-teasing, yet impeccably proper.

"Well then, I'll be in your care from now on, my dear Master—Miss Wang Qiu'er."

With Vita tactfully acknowledging the new contract, the tension eased immediately—there was no need to keep fighting.

"That leaves only one enemy left to deal with."

Lu Jingming lifted his gaze toward the sky.

Up there, thunderclouds churned and lightning writhened like serpents. A massive Sky Azure Dragon was locked in fierce battle with Raiden Mei, who had taken on a form of living lightning. Even from afar, the surging energy waves made one's heart pound.

"Lemuen."

Lu Jingming smiled and turned to Lemuen beside him.

Lightning flashed in his hand, and a strangely shaped tachi, its length flowing with violet radiance and crackling arcs, appeared from thin air.

"Borrow this. Help send the Clear Sky Sect's sect master on his way."

He passed the blade over casually.

"Eh? For me?"

Lemuen blinked her pretty pink-violet eyes, confusion written all over her face.

She accepted the tachi on reflex, her tone a bit helpless.

"But I… I'm not very good with blades?"

She wasn't clueless, but her specialty was long-range sniping; her sword skills were beginner level at best—worlds apart from a true swordmaster.

Yet, the instant her fingertip touched the hilt, an anomaly erupted.

Bzz—!

The violet tachi in her hand burst with fierce lightning. The blade vibrated as if it had a will of its own, its form shifting and recombining rapidly in the glare.

"Eh?! It's transforming?"

Lemuen watched the weapon's change in surprise, her curiosity instantly piqued.

But when she saw the final form, her expression froze, and her tone turned bizarre. "Wait… why—why is it a lipstick?!"

Nestled in her palm was no divine weapon, but a lipstick—its shell gleaming with metallic luster and subtle circuit patterns—exquisitely crafted.

"Her name is the Seven Thunders of Retribution."

Lu Jingming's smile deepened, as though he had expected this.

"She's a very, very willful lady. If she doesn't get along with her user, or if you don't humor her, her condition becomes poor—she'll even throw a tantrum—like what you're seeing now."

"So basically…"

Lemuen's face darkened in an instant, disbelief and a touch of defeat in her voice.

"She's… looking down on me?!"

Being disliked by a weapon—what a hard pill to swallow.

"I'm afraid so."

Lu Jingming's lips twitched upward uncontrollably. He was obviously doing this on purpose—Lemuen had laughed when Wang Qiu'er turned the tables on him earlier.

"After all, you can't exactly fight with a lipstick, can you?"

He teased.

The Seven Thunders' pickiness was notorious. Aside from him—the wielder who manifested her—likely only Raiden Mei could wield her full power.

"Xiao Ming, you totally did that on purpose. I'm going to get mad, you know?"

Lemuen puffed her cheeks and feigned anger, glaring at him. Yet her curious eyes never left the magical lipstick. A weapon that could freely change shape had her thoroughly intrigued.

"Alright, alright, I'll stop teasing."

Seeing he'd had his fun, Lu Jingming reached out and tapped the lipstick lightly with his index finger, chuckling. "Seven Thunders of Retribution, switch form—sniper rifle."

At the instant the command was given, dazzling lightning exploded again.

Lemuen felt a sudden weight in her hands. Amid crackling arcs, the delicate lipstick extended, transformed, and recombined.

In the blink of an eye, a sleek sniper rifle—violet-black, brimming with techno-aesthetics and lethal beauty—appeared in her grasp.

Its long body gleamed with icy metal and restless arcs. The visual effects were intense, a perfect union of power and art.

"Waa—so cool!!!"

Lemuen's eyes lit up at once, her earlier displeasure gone in an instant.

She stroked the cold, powerful frame, unable to put it down. As a top-tier sniper, she was helpless before the Seven Thunders' rifle form—utterly conquered in a heartbeat.

"The Seven Thunders can do much more than transform."

Lu Jingming continued with a smile.

"The rounds she fires have the property of disassembling all things—reducing what they hit to atoms. More importantly, she grants her user a vision beyond the three-dimensional concept. Through her lens, nothing in this world can hide. For you, she's a perfect match."

The more Lemuen heard, the brighter her eyes shone. As a sniper who pursued precision and one-shot kills, the Seven Thunders' abilities felt tailor-made—more alluring than any legendary artifact.

Still, thinking that this powerful weapon didn't seem to like her—and had only taken combat form because Lu Jingming ordered it—she couldn't help feeling a trace of regret amid the excitement.

"Don't worry."

Lu Jingming saw through her thoughts and offered comfort.

"Spend more time with her. Communicate with intent and technique. With your ability, Lemuen, I believe you'll eventually win the Seven Thunders' true recognition."

He himself had Black Abyss White Flower and didn't urgently need the Seven Thunders.

Raiden Mei could fully exert its power, but for the rifle form, pairing a dedicated sniper like Lemuen with the Seven Thunders was unquestionably a match made in heaven—enough to produce a terrifying synergy.

Imagine it: with Lemuen's preternatural sniping skill, paired with a Divine Key that disassembles atoms and pierces illusion—she'd redefine what it means to kill at eight hundred km with a single shot, leaving nothing behind.

Lemuen drew a deep breath and tightened her grip on the Seven Thunders, confidence and sharpness rekindled in her eyes.

She lifted her gaze to the vast dragon-shadow in the sky, lips curving into the exclusive smile of a top sniper. "Then… it's my turn."

High overhead, thunderclouds boiled like a sea of ink. The colossal Sky Azure Dragon and the purple-haired girl incarnate as lightning fought at full tilt.

Raging thunder and azure dragon breath crashed wildly, each clash unleashing a roar that made heaven and earth pale. The chaotic energy tides scoured the already shattered heavens.

Niu Tian, transformed into the Sky Azure Dragon, roared thunderously—sound waves rippling the clouds.

Every swipe of his massive claws bore world-rending force, tearing apart the dense net of lightning woven by Raiden Mei.

Raiden Mei, however, moved like living lightning—flickering through the gaps between dragon breath and claws. Each swing of her tachi drew down ten-thousandfold thunder. Her expression was cold; her violet eyes held only the foe before her.

Niu Tian's strength was astounding. As Tang San's agent in Douluo Continent and master of the Clear Sky Sect, his cultivation was unfathomable. His physical might and soul power foundation nearly rivaled the Beast God Ditian of Star Dou Forest.

Even so, he faced a Servant. Though Raiden Mei wasn't summoned at her peak, she still wasn't someone a Limit Douluo could compare to.

Continue this fight and his defeat—and death—were almost certain. Only because his painstakingly tempered dragon body had exceptional resistance to lightning did the battle reach a temporary stalemate.

Raiden Mei wasn't impatient. Her mission was to stall, not kill. So she pressed steadily, grinding down his strength.

But beneath this seeming equilibrium, a fatal killing stroke had quietly arrived.

Below, Lemuen raised the Seven Thunders like the finest hunter, soundlessly.

The cool, technological lines of the violet-black rifle formed a strange contrast with her slender frame.

Purple arcs flickered along the weapon, resonating deeply with her own energy, humming faintly with excitement.

Her gaze became impossibly focused. The space around her seemed to turn silent under the concentration of her spirit.

All stray thoughts vanished. All senses, all calculations—wind speed, energy fluctuations, target trajectory, even minute wrinkles in space itself—flowed like rivers into the single sharp eye behind the scope.

Through the Divine Key's lens that pierced beyond three dimensions to the essence of all things, the world became pure streams of data and energy tracks.

The Sky Azure Dragon in the heavens—vast as a mountain range, energy blazing like a sun—revealed within his body the core node where his soul power surged.

That soul core sustaining all his might shone to her like the only lighthouse in a moonless night—vulnerable and blatant.

"Locked…"

Lemuen's red lips parted. Her voice was a whisper, scattered on the wind.

Her slender finger, steady and resolute, gently pulled the trigger.

There was no deafening blast—only the faintest hiss, like a hot blade tip piercing ice, or space itself being punctured by ultimate force.

A thread of violet lightning, honed to the limit and fine as a hair yet carrying the power to disassemble all things, moved at a speed defying all sense. It ignored distance, traversed the sky in an instant, and silently entered the tiny point where the dragon's neck met its body.

There lay Niu Tian's soul core.

Just as he gathered soul power for another gout of dragon breath to counter Raiden Mei, Niu Tian's massive body went rigid.

An unprecedented terror—not physical pain but the forced dissolution of his very existence into nothing—flooded his senses like ice water.

He looked down in disbelief at the strike zone—there was no gaping wound, no fountain of blood. Only a spreading patch of absolute void and silence.

In that region, tough dragon scales, powerful flesh, even his surging oceanic soul power—all of it unmade at a calm yet unstoppable pace, silently returning to base particles, to the world, as though it had never existed.

"Rooooar—!!!"

The Sky Azure Dragon bellowed with pain, shock, and unwillingness.

The roar no longer brimmed with power—it carried the weakness of life quickly draining away, and a bafflement he couldn't resolve.

His vast body trembled uncontrollably. The azure divine light around him guttered like a candle in the wind.

He could not fathom that a no-holds-barred duel with Raiden Mei would end like this—decisively ended by a completely unexpected shot from far below.

He died without ever seeing the attack's source or the hand that fired it.

At the same moment, Raiden Mei, poised to unleash even greater thunder, halted midair.

Niu Tian hadn't sensed the fleeting lightning from below—but she had.

That familiar aura belonged to the Herrscher of Thunder's power. She could never mistake it.

Raiden Mei stopped, hovering as her violet eyes, complicated in emotion, took in the titan whose aura was collapsing like an avalanche and whose life's flame was about to go out. Her fine brows knit faintly.

She hadn't wanted the battle to end this way.

In just a few breaths, the awe-inspiring sect master of the Clear Sky Sect, the mighty Sky Azure Dragon Niu Tian, could no longer maintain flight. Like a crumbling mountain, he plummeted from ten thousand meters.

Only one last, unwilling dragon cry lingered in the gradually calming thunderclouds like a lament—until even that fell silent.

Below, Lemuen lowered the Seven Thunders, still glimmering with faint violet arcs. She exhaled softly and turned to show Lu Jingming a light, mission-complete smile.

Even she was moved by the Divine Key's near-terrifying might.

A Limit Douluo at the pinnacle of the continent, with a physique comparable to or surpassing a true dragon, was slain by a single shot—dying without ever knowing whose hand killed him or how.

This is what makes a top sniper terrifying—thunder unheard, life and death decided from a thousand miles away.

All the more when the sniper wields a weapon that ignores physical defense, erasing the target at the level of existence itself: the Seven Thunders of Retribution.

Chapter 376: Sparkle's Prepared Surprise

Niu Tian's true soul-beast form was overwhelmingly strong. His dragon scales rivaled or exceeded the finest defensive soul tools—but before the Seven Thunders' bullet, they were meaningless. The round pierced clean through to the core.

As a level 99 Titled Douluo, Niu Tian had achieved the soul masters' dream—dual soul cores in resonant equilibrium. This was the source and foundation of his power.

But one soul core was instantly disassembled into atoms by the Seven Thunders' bullet, while the perfect balance of the other was utterly broken. Its energy ran amok, accelerating his demise from within.

This pincer strike—physical and energetic—was the true cause of the fall of this peerless powerhouse.

"Is it… over?"

A streak of lightning cut through the settling dust and became Raiden Mei.

She glanced with curiosity at the strange rifle dancing with violet arcs in Lemuen's hands, then looked to Lu Jingming.

"Mm. Good work, Mei."

Lu Jingming nodded with a light smile, his tone calm, as if merely finishing a minor task.

The force the Clear Sky Sect brought to Mingdu—including the specially positioned Tang Wutong—had been wiped out.

No personal grudge? Perhaps.

But their fate was sealed from the start—they had tied themselves to the chariot of Sea God Tang San.

For that alone, their destruction was inevitable in Lu Jingming's eyes—no personal vendetta, merely the cold rules of factional conflict.

The same applied to Shrek Academy.

He had let Phantylia destroy Shrek City for this reason.

Aside from the promising and moldable younger generation—Ma Xiaotao, Han Ruoruo, and the like—he had no intention of sparing those ossified elders of the Sea God Pavilion who obeyed Tang San unquestioningly.

Cut the old trunk, and the new branches can grow in accordance with his will.

Once Xuan Zi and the old guard vanished, who would lead the rebuilt Shrek? That would be anyone's guess.

Shrek's millennia of prestige were a massive asset. Lu Jingming needed that brand and the rallying power it conferred to reduce resistance to unifying the continent.

A Shrek annihilated outright had no value, but a reborn Shrek—cleansed and obedient—would be an excellent aid.

…

Yet just as Lu Jingming thought the battle here had ended—with the fall of Tang San's divine sense avatar, Tang Wutong, and Niu Tian—and was about to clean up…

A grand finale far beyond anyone's expectations—enough to overturn all of Mingdu and the wider situation—had been quietly prepared beneath the ruins.

The instigator was that freewheeling, joy-seeking, chaos-loving masked Fool—Sparkle.

"Mm… naughty spoilers, disobedient actors, and boring audience~"

Humming a nonsensical tune, Sparkle's slender figure flitted like a wraith through the shadows across Mingdu.

From her hands popped one cute, harmless-looking fireworks doll after another, like stage magic.

But inside those dolls, she had artistically replaced the cores with what would make any soul engineer's soul flee in terror: level-9 fixed-installation soul-guided shells.

She placed them at Mingdu's underground weak geonodes, soul-guidance pipeline junctions, and even the spatial weak points torn open by the earlier apocalyptic battle.

Dozens of such dolls, like malignant tumors buried within the dying city, formed a destructive array spanning the entirety of Mingdu.

"Hehe~ Ugly freaks from the Anti-Matter Legion, strutting around and messing up my perfect script."

Sparkle pouted, but her face beamed with excitement and anticipation.

"Since the stage is a mess, then… let's blow it all up! And then set a bigger, more interesting stage."

Her goal was never just revenge or destruction.

She would use the simultaneous detonation of dozens of level-9 shells—enough to erase Mingdu from the map in an instant—as a key to pry open a parallel-world spacetime node, precisely marked by Vita's all-seeing eye.

She would harness this raw, violent annihilation to blast open a stable passage to an unknown parallel world.

This would be her gift—a shocking, earth-shaking surprise—for every survivor, friend or foe alike.

"Ready—!"

Sparkle stopped at a relatively safe vantage point and made an exaggerated conductor's opening pose, as if summoning the climax of a symphony of destruction.

The next second, she snapped her fingers playfully.

No sequence. No delay.

As if a silent signal hit all at once, the ground of Mingdu—both the districts of shattered ruins and the scorched battlefield center—lit up with dozens of searing red points that made the heart seize.

Then—

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble!!!!!!!!!!!!

Words could not describe the terror. Explosions erupted from every corner of Mingdu, all at once.

It wasn't a single blast, but dozens, layered until they fused into one ultimate roar that tore heaven and earth and stole all hearing.

Blazing light and violent heat swallowed everything in sight in an instant.

Buildings, corpses, metal wreckage—even the air—were vaporized, annihilated.

A colossal fireball of absolute ending swelled at unimaginable speed, threatening to erase everything within its range.

But this energy of ultimate destruction did not discharge fully.

At the peak of the explosion, the hidden spacetime node precisely located beneath Mingdu by Vita was forced open by the brutal torrent.

Bzz—!!!

A churning, twisted, chaotic passage more profound and eerie than the explosion's light ripped open reality at the heart of the fireball.

Like a ravenous black hole, it devoured the vast majority of the blast's energy—and everything within the blast radius.

The terrifying energy was twisted, absorbed, and repurposed to sustain the passage's existence and stability.

The annihilating fireball collapsed like a pricked bladder. Its horrifying energy and all it carried—

"W-what is that?!"

Xuan Zi and the others, battling the undead legion and the Borisin legion, were petrified by the sudden apocalypse before them.

They looked back to see the annihilating light surging at terrifying speed and fled in panic, no longer thinking about chasing the Holy Spirit Cult—only running for their lives.

Even though most of the energy had been redirected into the node, the overflow from dozens of level-9 shells was still enough to erase any Titled Douluo with ease—including level-98 Xuan Zi and Zhongli Wu.

"Run!!! Run!!!"

Xuan Zi screamed hoarsely. He could barely save himself; how could he care for Ning Tian and the others?

"My lord is here!"

Jeanne's face was solemn, but she didn't flee alone. She unfurled her holy banner and unleashed her Noble Phantasm true name.

Brilliant golden light became a solid bulwark, shielding the weaker Ning Tian, Wu Feng, and the others.

She knew at this blast's speed, the kids stood no chance.

Aglaea turned as well. Countless golden threads wove a second vast shield, gently but firmly wrapping Ning Tian and the rest layer by layer.

Cerydra's gaze flashed. A strange chess piece dropped into the void, and a blue halo lit up beneath Aglaea and Jeanne—their just-used defensive skills were reset briefly and triggered again. Jeanne's aura of invincibility and Aglaea's golden-thread shield overlapped, forming double insurance.

Hysilens's lutesword sang brighter. A giant phantasmal whale of sound and mist let out a ringing call and charged the annihilation wave head-on, buying the shields a heartbeat.

"Bastards!"

Huo Yuhao couldn't help cursing.

The Holy Spirit Cult's vileness was laid bare. Faced with mortal danger, Zhongli Wu and the higher-ups abandoned their subordinates and even him, the Holy Son, bolting for their lives.

Thanks to the undead legion and Borisin's interference, the cult's main force had already fled farther—and they sprinted faster still.

"Yuhao!"

A pink figure broke the sound barrier, barreled through chaotic currents, and appeared in front of Huo Yuhao—Xiao Wu.

She seized him and bolted.

Even she dared not face the blast head-on or tear space—attempting teleportation amid such turbulence would be suicide.

"Mr. Jing Yuan!"

Bei Bei was pale. Though he had left Shrek, he couldn't watch his former teachers and classmates die. He turned pleading eyes to Jing Yuan.

"…Very well."

Jing Yuan sighed. He could have taken only Bei Bei and Tang Ya to safety, but if Bei Bei's heart clung to old ties, he wouldn't stand by.

"Radiant spirit, heed my word—!"

As Jing Yuan's usually half-lidded eyes opened, majestic golden thunder coalesced into a sky-filling Divine General.

The giant raised a spear of pure lightning and hurled it into the onrushing wave of destruction.

Thunder crashed, myriad serpents of lightning ravaged the void.

The wave hit.

Hysilens's sound-whale shattered almost instantly.

Aglaea's golden threads, along with Cerydra's reset shield, tore apart with a shriek.

Just as the wave was about to consume Ma Xiaotao and the others, the golden thunder-spear collided head-on.

Boom—!!!

Half the wave's power was erased by the titanic strike.

But the remainder was still dreadful. Ma Xiaotao and the others were flung like leaves in a storm.

Without Jeanne's two layers of invincibility at the last instant, Ning Tian, Wu Feng, and the other lower-level students would have been torn apart on contact.

Even so, the shock knocked them out cold, their bodies drifting helplessly in chaotic currents.

And the blast wave was only the beginning.

As the core energy collapsed, a more terrifying suction—like a black hole—surged from the chaotic passage.

The remaining Anti-Matter Legions, Xuan Zi, the Sea God Pavilion elders, Ma Xiaotao, Han Ruoruo, Aglaea, Jeanne, Cerydra, Hysilens, Xiao Wu pulling Huo Yuhao, Bei Bei carrying Tang Ya, Jing Yuan, and countless ruins…

Everything within range was caught and dragged by the passage's stabilized gravity, pouring into that deep unknown.

"What is this?!"

Even Lu Jingming was taken aback.

Just when everything seemed settled, an upheaval like this erupted.

It was completely beyond his expectations.

Beside him, the newly cowed Vita couldn't hide the curve of a satisfied smile.

"Looks like little sister Sparkle pulled it off…"

Facing the wave, Gu Yuena and Jingliu appeared in front of Lu Jingming at once.

A surging dragon's roar and a clear sword-song erupted together, easily holding the annihilating wave at bay.

The following terrible suction couldn't budge them either. With Jingliu and Gu Yuena shielding him, Lu Jingming and his group were safe.

"Xiao Ming, that's a spacetime passage."

The Herta's teasing voice echoed in Lu Jingming's mind, clearly amused at his expression when things slipped beyond his control.

"Did you forget? Among the summoned Servants this time, there's an ungovernable masked Fool."

"Sparkle!"

Lu Jingming's mouth twitched. He had indeed nearly forgotten the one who'd made almost no waves from the start—only to cause the biggest one.

"The passage to a parallel world has been blown open. You should know which world it links to—we used Cosmic Juggernaut to anchor it before."

The Herta's voice continued, tinged with the excitement of a scientific madwoman.