DD Black White [393-394] (Patreon)

Chapter 393: The Encirclement and Slaughter by the Undead Army

The moment Ma Hongjun blurted out that offbeat question, the heavy atmosphere eased a little.

Dai Mubai and the others couldn't help rolling their eyes, but they understood. Anyone who suddenly learned they would have descendants in the future would inevitably be wildly curious about the partner who would accompany them for life.

Xiao Wu didn't speak, but her actions made her stance clear.

She extended her slender jade hand and clasped Tang San's tightly, as if to pass her strength into him.

She lifted those soft, beguiling eyes to look at him. Her voice was gentle, yet carried firmness and deep affection:

 "Brother, no matter where you go, no matter what powerful enemies you face—even gods—I will always be by your side. We will never part. Your hatred is my hatred; your goal is my goal."

Her words were simple, but as heavy as a thousand ton.

What's more, it wasn't only Tang San who bore enmity with the Spirit Empire. Xiao Wu also had a blood-deep vendetta—her mother had been slain—against Bibi Dong, who had already become the Rakshasa God.

Zhu Zhuqing remained as cool and distant as the moon. She did not speak, only gave a slight nod, a flash of cold light passing through those clear cat-like eyes.

Her attitude was self-evident—compared with potential power struggles and intrigue within the Star Luo royal family, she valued more the comradeship and trust forged with the Shrek Seven Devils through life-and-death trials.

"It's a pity Rongrong was taken away by Sect Master Ning. Otherwise, she would definitely stand with us."

Oscar sighed with some regret, but he believed Ning Rongrong's heart was with them. The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect was still a powerful ally they could win over.

Dugu Bo let out his trademark cold laugh, venom-snake light flickering in his emerald eyes:

"Hmph, a god seat? This old man has no interest in such illusory things. After living for decades, I've seen through it all. But since I promised that little monster back then that I'd keep you youngsters safe, I naturally won't go back on my word."

His tone shifted, carrying a hint of chill.

"Sometimes, poison… is far cleaner and neater than a frontal brawl. If some people think that just because they're from ten thousand years in the future they're superior, and dare harbor crooked thoughts toward you, I don't mind letting them taste what it's like when the Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor's venom seeps into bone, erodes the soul, and melts the spirit."

He straddled the line between right and wrong, acting purely on preference, but once he gave his word, he followed through to the end.

And he had his own calculations.

He knew his situation clearly: he was old, his potential almost exhausted. Let alone attaining a god seat, even breaking through to Rank 99 Limit Douluo was a faint hope.

His granddaughter Dugu Yan had decent talent, but a god seat was even further out of reach.

Rather than force some mirage of a godhood opportunity, better to steadfastly act as guardian for these few young people of boundless potential—especially Tang San.

A weighty debt of protection would be enough to secure the Dugu family's prosperity and peace for several generations to come.

Of course, all of this rested on the premise that he was betting on someone who knew gratitude and repayment.

And Dugu Bo prided himself on his venomous insight—he believed Tang San was such a person.

Even if he were to fall in battle in the future, Tang San would never mistreat Dugu Yan.

"Since our goals align and our hearts are united, we must now prepare actively."

Yu Xiaogang, seeing that the core team had achieved consensus and remained unusually sober and vigilant, felt slightly relieved and began to deploy.

"Erlong and I will do our utmost to persuade my father to stand on our side. Though his injuries haven't fully healed, Rank 96 Title Douluo is still a formidable power that cannot be ignored. With him joining us, both our safety and our voice at the table will improve significantly."

The more critical the moment, the more they needed to unite every force that could be united.

Tang San said in a deep voice:

"I will also find an opportunity as soon as possible to meet my uncle and formally return to the sect. Before he died, one of my father's greatest regrets was what he owed the sect. He hoped I would acknowledge my roots and clan, to make up for his past mistakes. Taking this chance, I must not only fulfill my father's last wish and seek the sect's forgiveness, so his spirit may rest, but also draw on the Clear Sky Sect's strength to add leverage to our journey."

Tang Hao had told him everything before dying. He had to carry out that heavy fatherly love and regret.

Just as Tang San, Yu Xiaogang, and the others were discussing countermeasures and planning the perilous trip to Sea God Island, Xiao Wu, quietly nestled at Tang San's side, felt a sudden, indescribable unease rise in her heart.

At the same time, an extremely faint yet inescapable strange sensing—like a call across a thousand mountains and rivers—seemed to come from some far-off direction.

In a daze, her consciousness felt tugged. She vaguely saw a figure—one whose looks were seven or eight parts similar to hers, but more mature, colder, radiant with a powerful and chilling aura.

Yet facing this mirror-like existence, Xiao Wu felt no familiarity or closeness—only a bone-deep, soul-level chill suddenly surged up, as if some voice in the dark warned her that if she met that other self, it would trigger some unpredictable, even cataclysmic consequence.

The feeling came suddenly and left quickly, but it cast a lingering shadow in her heart.

…

Meanwhile, in the distant core area of the Star Dou Forest, beside the Lake of Life—

In stark contrast to the grave council among the Shrek group, a brutal and eerie encirclement and slaughter was underway here.

A dense mass of undead creatures exuding a thick aura of death kept pouring out of a twisted rift in space like a tide. Fearless of death, they hurled themselves forward endlessly at the two mountain-like figures in the middle of the lake—the rulers of the forest, the hundred-thousand-year soul beasts Titan Giant Ape and Azure Bull Python.

Huo Yuhao stood on a rise, blood-red eyes flashing with icy light. Like a supreme commander, he calmly directed the undead army, constantly shifting formations, grinding down the two rulers' strength.

He needed a hundred-thousand-year spirit ring to break through his bottleneck, and these two top-tier hundred-thousand-year soul beasts had become his best targets.

At his side, Xiao Wu quietly stood guard.

She watched the Titan Giant Ape and Azure Bull Python roar and struggle under the undead army's siege, yet puzzlement crossed her exquisite face—ill-suited to the carnage before her.

For some reason, she felt a vague, almost illusory sense of kinship from these two powerful soul beasts that weren't even of her kind, as if something deep in her soul had been touched.

But the feeling was too fleeting, more like a mirage, leaving her unable to understand.

Farther off, Bei Bei gripped Tang Ya's hand tightly. Protected by Jing Yuan, the two silently observed the hunt.

They had stumbled into this world via a temporal passage. Although they were initially scattered, thanks to their communication soul tools which hadn't been overly disrupted, they quickly regrouped.

Bei Bei and Tang Ya were lucky enough to be transported together with Jing Yuan, and Tang Ya carried a communication soul tool capable of contacting Huo Yuhao.

However, Tang Ya's condition was dire.

Without the Holy Spirit Sect's special secret medicine to suppress it, the hidden peril planted in her body was constantly eroding her vitality. Her life hung by a thread.

Thus, as soon as Bei Bei regrouped, he found Huo Yuhao and Xiao Wu by any means necessary.

Huo Yuhao indeed carried some of the Holy Spirit Sect's secret medicines, but they were limited in number—critical life-prolonging items.

If they couldn't find a way back to their original world for a long time and return to the Holy Spirit Sect to obtain a stable supply of medicine, then Tang Ya… would surely die.

Just as the Xiao Wu of this era felt a tremor and unease sensing the mature version of herself in the distant Star Dou Forest—

Within the Star Dou Forest, the Xiao Wu who was observing the battle also shuddered slightly, a trace of confusion flashing in her eyes, before turning into a strange longing.

She too vaguely sensed the existence of the other Xiao Wu.

At the same time, a fierce intuition born of life instinct rose within her—find her.

Find the Xiao Wu of this era, still tender and young—as if… as long as she could find and… fuse with the other, she would become more complete. The old, hidden injuries within her, which even divine power could not fully heal, might finally be wholly cured.

Once that thought arose, it spread like wildfire across her heart, impossible to suppress.

The once serene, idyllic Lake of Life had become a living hell.

The thick, cloying stench of blood mixed with the life-eroding death energy of the undead army, forming a nauseating miasma that made even the air feel viscous and heavy.

For the Titan Giant Ape Er Ming, its mountain-like, majestic body had become the very source of its pain.

Its once glossy fur was shredded to tatters, covered in countless ghastly claw marks that laid open to bone. Large patches were charred and ulcerated by the corrosive energy in the undead's breath, exuding a foul burnt smell.

Each roar of pain and fury shook the earth like muffled thunder and churned the lake. Its massive fists, carrying ten thousand ton of force, could crush swathes of lower undead into powder and scatter them as black mist in an instant.

But the terror of the undead army lay in its near-endless regeneration.

The broken bones and dissipated soul bodies would often hover in the air for only a moment before the low, eerie chanting of the undead warlocks in the rear would draw and gather unseen necrotic power to reassemble them. They would take on their hideous forms again and charge forward howling, as if without end.

The Azure Bull Python Da Ming was in even direr straits.

Its vast, sinuous body was ensnared and gnawed by countless semi-transparent wraiths exuding bone-chilling deathly cold, clinging like a malignancy to bone.

These wraiths had no physical form, rendering physical attacks largely ineffective, but their mere presence relentlessly eroded Da Ming's life force and greatly hindered its movements.

It tried to summon a sky full of azure lightning or spit a heat breath hot enough to melt metal and stone, but under the suicidal attrition of the undead tide—and the battlefield's necrotic canopy that constantly suppressed and weakened elemental energy—its proud soul skills had lost ninety percent of their might, becoming dim and anemic.

Huo Yuhao stood on a slightly raised earthen slope, blood-red eyes cold and merciless.

Through Spirit Detection Sharing, he functioned like a master strategist, precisely transmitting orders to the high-tier undead commanders.

Under his command, the tireless, deathless army became a precise and efficient killing machine. Its various arms coordinated, leveraging their endless numbers and curses, freezes, corrosion, and other negative states to wear away, drip by drip, the power, stamina, and unyielding will of the forest's two rulers.

"Roar—!"

The Titan Giant Ape Er Ming let out a roar filled with pain and unwillingness. It stomped the ground, trying to unleash its innate soul skill—Gravity Control Domain—to crush the annoying undead into powder.

But as the warped gravity field spread outward from it, several undead warlocks, long prepared, jointly cast interference spells. Gray-black energy ripples slammed into the domain, making it unstable and greatly diminishing its effect.

Almost at the same moment, the Azure Bull Python Da Ming raised its head and hissed, trying to gather its remaining soul power to summon a final world-shaking thunderstorm for a desperate gamble.

But Huo Yuhao had anticipated this. The undead canopy constructed by hundreds of undead mages abruptly thickened. Dense deathly clouds became the toughest barrier, layer upon layer weakening and absorbing the blazing heavenly lightning. In the end, only scattered arcs with feeble power reached it.

"Now."

A sharp light burst in Huo Yuhao's blood-red eyes like a viper catching its prey.

"Death Knights, charge. Target locked!"

He also struck personally, no longer holding back.

Ultimate cold erupted from him, freezing even the air with crisp cracking sounds.

The massive jade-like phantom of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion flickered behind him. Terrifying low temperatures swept across the entire lake; the water froze at a speed visible to the naked eye.

A thick layer of ice, glimmering with ghostly blue light, coated the Azure Bull Python's surface. Its once-ready movements froze, lagging for a fatal instant.

"Charge—!"

With a silent psychic roar from their commander, the long-still Death Knight corps finally moved.

They became a black steel flood. Hooves shattered the ice with a deafening thunder. Deathly aura condensed into an unstoppable spearhead as they launched a do-or-die charge.

Their sharp lances flashed coldly in the dim light, thrusting in unison at the python's fatal spot—its reverse scale at seven inches—now poorly defended due to the freeze.

"Da Ming—!!"

The Titan Giant Ape Er Ming, seeing this, eyes splitting, loosed a heart-rending roar.

Chapter 394: Tang Ya's Problem

The Titan Giant Ape frenziedly tried to rush to save the brother dear as life itself, but more Abominations and Gargoyles swarmed like maggots on bone, clinging tight with rotten bodies and sharp claws. No matter how it raged, it could not break the flesh-and-blood barricade of piled undead in time.

Squelch—!

 A hair-raising, tooth-aching tearing sound rang clear across the battlefield.

It was followed by the Azure Bull Python Da Ming's shriek—so sharp it twisted, filled with pain and despair.

The death knights' massed charge was devastating; their spears pierced the reverse scale stripped of energy protection with no hindrance. A terrifying flood of death energy poured into its vast body, ravenously destroying all life within.

The Azure Bull Python—fell!

 Its colossal cyan body convulsed a few times, then went limp and crashed onto the frozen lake, throwing up a storm of ice shards.

Witnessing his elder brother's death with his own eyes, the thread of reason in Er Ming's mind snapped.

He fell into a total, reckless madness.

Scarlet light burst from his body—he began burning his precious life origin to gain a temporary surge of power.

"Roar—!!"

With a heaven-shaking bellow, an unprecedented force exploded from him, blasting and ripping apart all nearby undead.

His bloodshot eyes locked onto the instigator in the distance—Huo Yuhao.

His giant fist clenched again, now not only with brute force, but also with the annihilating will born of burning life.

He would use this final strike to drag the human who brought them death down with him.

That sky-blotting fist fell with a power that could make mountains and rivers change color.

Compressed air shrieked; the ground below began to crack inch by inch.

Yet Huo Yuhao showed no panic in the face of a blow that would make any Title Douluo blanch.

He didn't even step back—still standing calmly, blood-red eyes reflecting the approaching shadow of death.

At that hair's-breadth instant—

 A petite figure flashed ghostlike in front of Huo Yuhao.

Compared to the Titan Giant Ape's mountain-like fist, she was as small as an ant.

But she didn't hesitate. A seemingly tender, jade-white, slender fist swung out, calm yet resolute, to meet the world-ending blow.

The two fists, grossly mismatched in size and proportion, collided in the next moment.

There was no stalemate—only… overwhelming destruction.

Boom—!!!

 At the point of impact, space shattered like a mirror, jagged black cracks spiderwebbing outward.

An indescribable, void-piercing, mountain-splitting force erupted from that petite fist like an invisible raging dragon.

It pierced through the Titan Giant Ape's fist aura born of burning life, through its tough hide and muscle, and—more directly, more cruelly—through its still-furiously beating heart.

Only then, as power ebbed like the tide and consciousness dimmed, did the Titan Giant Ape finally see clearly who had blocked it and dealt the fatal blow.

That exquisite face, that familiar yet faintly strange aura—

"Xiao Wu…?!"

Er Ming's lantern-wide pupils were full of disbelief, confusion, and the heart-rending sorrow and pain of betrayal by the dearest one.

"Why…"

With its last strength, it voiced a weak question laden with doubt and grief.

Then its vast body went rigid, all life snuffed out in an instant. Its voice fell silent.

When the shockwave of the colliding fists finally dissipated and the dust settled—

The Titan Giant Ape's mountain-like body had lost all luster of life and collapsed like toppling gold and falling jade, raising a cloud of dust and announcing the fall of a forest ruler.

The Star Dou Forest's two rulers—the hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape and Azure Bull Python—both perished in this battle.

Two blood-red hundred-thousand-year spirit rings, radiating terrifying energy fluctuations, slowly floated up from their still-warm corpses. Their dazzling yet tragic glow was piercing to the eyes, suffused with indescribable bleakness and sorrow.

Huo Yuhao slowly exhaled a blood-tinged breath. The constant high-intensity command of such a vast undead army and maintenance of Spirit Detection Sharing had cost him dearly in mental power. His face was a little pale.

But when he looked at the two suspended spirit rings that symbolized great power, his eyes burned with fervent expectation.

He did not delay. He sat cross-legged at once, closed his eyes, and began to adjust his state at full strength, preparing to absorb the hard-won hundred-thousand-year spirit ring.

Off to the side, Xiao Wu—who had personally slain the Titan Giant Ape—stood dazed, head lowered, staring at her still jade-white, harmless-looking fist.

Just now, she had only acted on instinct to protect Huo Yuhao. Her body moved faster than thought.

Even now, that destructive force seemed to linger at her fingertips.

She raised her head, her blank gaze sweeping over the two lifeless hulks of the Titan Giant Ape and Azure Bull Python, and the two ominously glowing red spirit rings.

The vague sense of kinship that had haunted her heart didn't vanish at their deaths. Instead it turned into a heavy, suffocating sorrow and guilt that made it hard to breathe, like icy tides flooding her heart.

She subconsciously clutched her chest, as if it were wracked by a cruel twist of pain.

Those eyes—almost identical to the Xiao Wu of this era—were now filled with endless bewilderment, confusion, and a deep pain even she couldn't understand.

She killed it… so why does her heart hurt so much? As if… she had lost something vital.

This sudden heavy emotion clashed violently with the blank spaces in her memory, plunging her into unprecedented turmoil.

Meanwhile, as Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged, soul power surging around him while he absorbed the Titan Giant Ape's blood-red, terrifying hundred-thousand-year spirit ring—

Bei Bei, Tang Ya, and the leisurely Jing Yuan had retreated to a relatively clean open space nearby to wait quietly.

Tang Ya nestled quietly at Bei Bei's side. Though her memories were still sealed by the Holy Spirit Sect's sinister means—her eyes sometimes empty and dazed, sometimes bearing the innocent bewilderment of a child—her soul-deep, almost instinctive reliance and closeness to Bei Bei had not changed at all.

Her slender, fair fingers unconsciously clutched the hem of Bei Bei's clothes tightly, knuckles whitening, as if it were the only piece of flotsam she could grab while drowning—so fragile it was heartbreaking.

Bei Bei gently wrapped an arm around Tang Ya's shoulders—thinner than he remembered—his handsome face shrouded in heavy worry and ache that wouldn't disperse.

He instinctively drew Tang Ya closer into his arms, as if that could ward off her suffering.

He turned slightly to the man at his side—Jing Yuan—whose transcendent air and deep golden eyes seemed untouched by worldly affairs. With a tremor and a plea in his voice, he asked softly:

 "Mr. Jing Yuan, your knowledge is vast and you grasp the arcane. Do you know whether Xiao Ya… still has hope of recovery? Is the poison planted by the Holy Spirit Sect truly without cure?"

Jing Yuan's calm gaze swept over Tang Ya's slightly pale yet still pretty face. A trace of understanding and pity flashed in those golden eyes that seemed to see through the world.

He didn't answer directly, but explained in an even tone:

 "The poison she bears is no ordinary toxin; it is exceedingly troublesome. It is not an external substance anymore, but deeply entwined with her flesh, her martial soul, even the source of her soul—like symbiosis, yet parasitic—constantly drawing on her life force. When it thrives, she thrives; when it withers, she withers."

Bei Bei trembled slightly, instantly grasping the cruel truth implied in Jing Yuan's words. His face grew uglier; his voice turned rough:

"You mean… the toxin within Xiao Ya is already tightly interwoven with her life origin, hard to separate?"

"Correct."

Jing Yuan nodded slowly, his voice steady as ever, each word pounding Bei Bei's heart.

"This poison is insidious and vicious to the extreme. It has invaded her limbs and bones, sunk into her marrow, and seeped into the depths of her soul. In a sense, it has twisted itself into a… malformed balance that sustains her current fragile state."

"If one were to rip it out with domineering force, it would be like drawing water from beneath a cauldron—or cutting flesh to treat a boil. The instant the toxin leaves the body, it would also wrench away what little life force she has left after long erosion. At that point, even divine means would be hard-pressed to keep her alive three to five days."

Jing Yuan's flat words were like a basin of ice water dumped over Bei Bei's head, plunging his heart into the abyss. He went cold all over, his face as white as paper.

He instinctively gripped Tang Ya's cold little hand more tightly, fingertips trembling from the force.

Ever since he found Tang Ya, he had been like this—guarding her at every moment, as if afraid that with one careless blink he would lose her again. The fear of losing and then losing again after recovery had become a heart demon to him.

"Is there… truly no way at all? Why must Heaven be so unfair to Xiao Ya…"

Bei Bei's voice was low and hoarse with despair, as if asking Jing Yuan, yet also questioning fate.

Jing Yuan pondered slightly, a thoughtful light passing through his golden eyes, then spoke again—his soft voice bringing a sliver of hope:

"There is not absolutely no way. The key lies in balance and substitution. If one can find a method whereby, at the very instant the toxin is cleared, a vast power of life origin is injected into her body to precisely fill the life deficit inevitably caused by the toxin's departure, then perhaps… she could grasp a thread of survival."

He paused, seeing the sudden light in Bei Bei's eyes, then gently shook his head and added:

"However, heavenly treasures capable of replenishing—or even remolding—life origin in an instant are rarer than rare, more a matter of chance than search. Their preciousness goes without saying."

As they spoke, not far away, the once rampaging soul power fluctuations around Huo Yuhao ebbed like retreating tides, gradually returning to calm.

The blood-red, suffocating hundred-thousand-year spirit ring that had hovered around him had perfectly merged into his body without a trace of rejection.

He slowly opened his eyes; a flash of sharp light flickered in the depths. His already formidable aura now felt thicker and more solid—clearly, the breakthrough had succeeded and his strength had greatly increased.

He stood and immediately looked toward Bei Bei and Tang Ya, striding over.

Evidently, even while fully absorbing the ring in that perilous process, he had kept a thread of attention on their situation.

For Huo Yuhao, whose mental power had long surpassed ordinary levels thanks to the Herrscher of Knowledge core, dividing his focus was not difficult.

Absorbing the hundred-thousand-year ring had indeed been tricky—the Titan Giant Ape's residual soul will was violent and fierce—but under the suppression and washing of his vast, steel-hardened mental power, it quickly collapsed and was fully absorbed.

As for the precious soul bone that would inevitably be produced by the Titan Giant Ape, he planned to absorb it later when he had time.

"Senior Bei Bei, Mr. Jing Yuan."

Huo Yuhao approached and greeted them, then his eyes fell gravely on Tang Ya's still-blank gaze.

"I've been thinking about Teacher Xiao Ya's problem as well. Mr. Jing Yuan's analysis matches my own judgment. The key to detoxification indeed lies in how to replenish the life origin that will be consumed violently."

Huo Yuhao's gaze turned to Tang Ya. Naturally, he did not wish to see her perish.

Tang Ya was one of the few who had treated him with genuine kindness. He had truly felt that warmth.

Even with the second personality now in the lead, that recognition and slight bond from the depths of memory had not entirely faded.