DD Black White [406-408] (Patreon)

Chapter 406: Sea God, Hysilens

“Boom—!!!”

Another devastating explosion rang out. The Lightning Lord’s figure swayed violently, becoming faint and illusory.

Xiao Wu was also flung away by the immense backlash. Her qi and blood churned, and the blue divine glow around her dimmed noticeably.

After the prolonged battle, even with Jingyuan and Xiao Wu’s coordination, facing a first-rank god who had activated the Rakshasa Domain—driven mad and holding an exceptionally high god-position essence—they were ultimately forced onto the back foot.

Bibi Dong’s Rakshasa Domain was like a vast field of malevolent power, constantly absorbing grievances and negative emotions between heaven and earth to replenish her consumption and amplify her strength. With her rising and their falling, Jingyuan and Xiao Wu were showing signs of defeat.

“Calamity Hex: Annihilation.”

Pressing her advantage, Bibi Dong pointed the Rakshasa Scythe at the sky.

From the filthy depths of the Rakshasa Prison, eerie red lights surged up, converging in the heavens into a sinister sigil formed by countless blood-colored eyes.

Within the sigil, it was as if innumerable wailing spirits struggled and screamed, exuding a curse-laden aura of decay and death. It locked firmly onto Jingyuan and Xiao Wu, poised to deliver a terrifying verdict of calamity.

At that critical instant—

Huo Yuhao, who had been hiding at the entrance to the half-plane of the dead, watching anxiously, flashed a look of resolve.

He could not watch Jingyuan and Xiao Wu lose. Otherwise, all of them would face Bibi Dong’s frenzied revenge.

“I can only use that…”

He steeled himself. Deep within his sea of consciousness, the blood-red orb that represented the Herrscher’s core suddenly blazed.

“Soul Shock—!!!”

Huo Yuhao roared inwardly.

He poured all of his spiritual power into this strike: the origin power of the Blood-Red Spirit Eyes, the Purple Demon Eyes’ strength, the soul skill granted by the million-year spirit ring, and the spiritual origin left by the Skydream Iceworm—all unified and amplified by the Herrscher core—becoming a formless, intangible, yet terrifying tide of spirit powerful enough to shake a god’s soul. Like the sharpest spike, it crossed space without a sound and stabbed viciously into Bibi Dong’s sea of consciousness.

Success!

That spiritual attack—everything Huo Yuhao could muster—did pierce Bibi Dong’s mental defenses, which were slightly lax due to rage, and crashed into her divine soul.

“Urgh—!”

Bibi Dong let out a muffled grunt full of pain and fury. The calamity sigil forming in the sky jolted, nearly collapsing.

Her movements froze for an instant, and the Rakshasa Domain flickered unstable.

However, Huo Yuhao had made a fatal mistake.

He forgot—or, in his haste, overlooked—how dangerous spiritual abilities are when used against a being whose soul level far surpasses your own.

Bibi Dong is the Rakshasa God.

Her divine sense had long been tempered by the world’s darkest, filthiest evil thoughts and grievances. Its tenacity and backlash were beyond imagination.

“An ant… dares shake a god?!”

Bibi Dong snapped her head around, purple eyes blazing with a fire fierce enough to burn stars.

She didn’t even bother to seek Huo Yuhao’s location. The affronted divine might, that corruption-steeped Rakshasa god-sense, like an enraged venomous dragon, followed the path his attack had taken and surged back a thousandfold.

“Pfft—!”

Huo Yuhao reeled as if struck, spitting blood as his body dropped from the sky like a kite with a cut string.

He felt his soul thrown into the flames of purgatory, torn and gnawed by endless spiteful wills—about to shatter and be annihilated.

At the moment of despair when his soul was about to collapse—

“Hum—!”

Deep in his spiritual sea, in the corner forcibly sealed by the darkened persona, three wills long suppressed seized upon the external shock and the seal’s loosening, suddenly awakening and erupting.

“Yuhao, wake up.”

This was the Skydream Iceworm’s anxious, caring mental wave.

“What an evil power—but also an opportunity.”

This was Electrolux’s old yet wise and decisive voice.

“I’m... back.”

This was Huo Yuhao’s long-sealed primary persona, weary yet steadfast.

Under Electrolux’s lead, the three wills united in an instant. Riding the chaos caused by the Rakshasa god-sense’s backlash and the dark persona’s momentary lapse, they became three blades stabbing into the dark core that represented the second personality.

“No—!”

The dark Huo Yuhao roared in unwillingness, but under attack from within and without, his resistance crumbled rapidly.

Sealing chains woven from necromancy and light reappeared, binding and suppressing him tightly, dragging him once more into the deepest part of the spiritual sea.

Outside, Huo Yuhao’s falling body suddenly halted, and his eyes snapped open.

But those eyes were no longer the previous madness and coldness, nor the primary persona’s clarity, but a calm that had weathered ages—seeing through life and death, carrying boundless knowledge and majesty.

He raised a hand and wiped the blood from his lips. A pure, profound power—tinged with a faint aura of death yet incomparably sacred—began to coil around him.

He looked toward the distant Bibi Dong, even more enraged after her god-sense was disturbed. An old, tranquil voice resounded between heaven and earth:

“Hand on sun and moon to pluck the stars—none like me beneath the sky. I, the Holy Necromancer God, Electrolux, have returned.”

Electrolux had temporarily taken over the body.

The aura he exuded was entirely different.

No longer the icy necrotic miasma, nor the Herrscher’s eerie psychic ripples, but a profound, vast majesty carrying the mysteries of life and death across the ages.

Pure necromantic mana intertwined with a strand of holy radiance formed a unique domain around him, actually resisting the Rakshasa Prison’s insidious corruption—for the moment.

“Hm?”

In her fury, Bibi Dong keenly sensed this strange and powerful aura. Her violet eyes narrowed slightly. She suppressed her pursuit of Jingyuan and Xiao Wu and focused on this new opponent.

“Your soul… has changed flavor. But you’ll die all the same.”

Electrolux, controlling Huo Yuhao’s body, rose slowly, forming a triangle with Jingyuan and Xiao Wu to encircle Bibi Dong.

He gazed at her calmly. His aged voice carried a detachment born of seeing through the world:

“Rakshasa God, your strength is born of the world’s malice and evil. Powerful, yes—but it blinds your eyes and heart. Enough. This battle is meaningless.”

“Arrogant.”

Bibi Dong barked, raising the Rakshasa Scythe again as the Purgatory Ghost Hand launched.

Intersecting evil forces formed a massive purple-black cross slash, rending space into magic sigils. A purple-black ghastly hand, like a claw from hell, surged at Electrolux, laden with endless resentment.

Facing this evil strike, Electrolux didn’t dodge. He merely raised a palm.

He chanted ancient, obscure words—not any language of the Douluo world, but true magic from another plane.

“Eternal Bulwark, Coffin of Guardians—Descend.”

With his chant, a white-bone bulwark formed entirely of necromantic power appeared, etched with countless arcane runes. On it, faint phantoms of angel and demon manifested together, jointly guarding.

This was not mere defense—it contained Electrolux’s deep comprehension of life, death, light, and darkness.

“Boom!!”

The Purgatory Ghost Hand slammed into the bone bulwark, detonating with a deafening roar.

Rakshasa’s vile divine power and pure necromantic mana clashed fiercely, annihilating each other.

In the end, both the ghost hand and the bulwark shattered—an even match.

Bibi Dong’s pupils shrank. She hadn’t expected this sudden interloper to block her so easily.

“Now.”

Jingyuan seized the chance. The Lightning Lord gathered once more; ten thousand golden thunder condensed into a Heaven’s Penalty Lance that rent the sky, bearing awe-inspiring judgment upon all evil, hurled at Bibi Dong.

Xiao Wu moved in the same instant, her form turning into countless pink afterimages. From all directions she launched the opening sequences of Soft Bone Lock and Eight-Stage Drop, trying to restrict Bibi Dong’s movements.

Electrolux acted as well. He pressed down with both hands. The ground below turned ashen as innumerable phosphorescent bone spears burst up like a forest, stabbing from beneath. At the same time, a powerful spiritual suppression surged like the tide, disrupting her god-sense.

For the first time, three powers on par with divinity formed an effective joint offensive.

Bibi Dong finally felt pressure.

She roared as her Rakshasa Avatar fully merged with her body, aura skyrocketing. The Rakshasa Scythe spun like a wheel, and a storm of purple-black divine power swept out from her, fending off the fierce assaults from three directions at once.

“Nether Rakshasa!”

“Calamity Hex: Annihilation!”

“Barrier of Extinction!”

She cast powerful Rakshasa god-arts with ease, colliding frenziedly with the three.

This battle was far more violent and terrifying than before.

Four god-level powers of different attributes and tiers erupted here without restraint, colliding and annihilating.

The sky was torn with even larger gaps, exposing the chaotic void behind.

The earth either cracked or sank; the terrain itself changed—mountain ranges were erased, new abysses formed.

The shockwaves rolled out like tangible tsunamis, wave after wave, sweeping across the Douluo Continent at astonishing speed.

From the frigid glaciers of the Extreme North to the bustling Star Luo capital, from the believers on Sea God Island to reclusive experts—every soul master above a certain level felt that distant, soul-trembling terror.

A god-war of the ages raged in a corner of the continent.

…

Meanwhile, far overseas, Sea God Island.

In the sacred Sea God Temple, Hysilens—who had been calmly receiving the final infusion of faith—suddenly opened her eyes.

Her eyes had become a deep oceanic blue, as if ten thousand waves surged within.

Having accepted the complete Sea God inheritance, her body had been fully reforged by the pure, vast Sea God power—not the negative-energy vessel sculpted by the Holy Grail War, but a true Sea God with flesh and divine soul.

Clad in azure Sea God regalia, a coronet set with a golden trident sigil upon her head, and holding the golden trident symbolizing oceanic authority, Hysilens now radiated solemn majesty, divine and commanding, a vast godly might that made all beings submit.

She clearly sensed the violently clashing godly auras from deep within the continent—especially the Rakshasa’s hateful, evil power—which made her brows knit.

Without hesitation, she lifted the Sea God Trident. A gentle yet vast Sea God light descended, forming a gigantic blue canopy that enveloped the entire Sea God Island, severing the oppressive pressure and potential threat from the distant god-war.

Having done this, she turned to the curiously appraising Cerydra at her side.

“Kaiser, come with me. Let’s find Lu Jingming.”

Hysilens extended her hand to Cerydra.

Cerydra nodded without hesitation and grasped Hysilens’s offered hand.

In the next moment, Hysilens pointed the trident forward.

“Hum—!”

A dazzling blue divine light shot skyward, tearing the clouds—a luminous causeway linking heaven and earth.

Hysilens took Cerydra by the hand and stepped into the light.

Their figures vanished.

Only a blue rainbow piercing the firmament remained, speeding with beyond-mortal swiftness, rending space as it raced toward the heart of the god-war.

The newly ascended Sea God, bearing the ocean’s vast power, formally entered the earth-shaking god-war sweeping the continent.

The prelude to a war of gods was about to begin.

…

Far away in the Spirit Empire’s grand camp, Lu Jingming and Qian Renxue both looked up, sensing this newly risen, unabashedly powerful divine might.

A sharp gleam flashed in Qian Renxue’s golden eyes, while a deeper smile curved Lu Jingming’s lips.

As the newly ascended Sea God Hysilens left Sea God Island for the continent’s apocalyptic battlefield, in the lightless, unreachable deepest trench of the ocean—a forbidden abyss even to the mightiest sea soul beasts—a cold, cruel, and frenzied ritual was quietly reaching its end.

There, the Demon Empress from another world stood amidst endless darkness and crushing pressure that would flatten steel.

Her form made clear she was no ordinary soul beast.

Her long hair had become plasma whips—mercurial streams intertwined with raging golden lightning—writhing behind her like living serpents of thunder. On her brow, a spiral narwhal-like horn pierced the dark, gleaming with peerless sharpness.

Her eyes were searing white, pupil-less—pure lightning condensed.

Fragments of a whale-bone mask covered her face; each breath exhaled ionized vapor reeking of ozone.

She was the Herrscher of Thunder—the King of Conquest.

The agony from another world—her husband, the Deep Sea Demon Whale King, slain by Sea God Tang San; her race’s decline; a hatred seared over tens of millennia—had twisted her mind completely, forging her into a weapon that existed only for destruction and revenge.

Chapter 407: Cerydra’s Path

The Demon Empress traversed a portal across time and space with a clear goal.

Guided by a deep blood-and-soul resonance, she easily found this parallel world’s herself—also a Demon Empress, still carefully sheltered by her husband, the Deep Sea Demon Whale King—still lost in a false peace.

No words. No reminiscing. Not even a heartbeat’s hesitation.

Under the other’s shock, fear, and disbelief, the frenzied Demon Empress struck.

The authority to manipulate electromagnetism exploded in an instant. An invisible field sealed the sea area, imprisoning that naïve Demon Empress and her enraged, protective husband—this world’s Deep Sea Demon Whale King.

“No—who are you?! Why—”

This world’s Whale King roared, struggling, but the law-level electromagnetic binds were not something brute force could resist.

The Demon Empress’s searing white eyes looked coldly at the giant beast whose appearance and aura matched her husband. There was no love—only a bone-scraping obsession and madness.

“You are not him…”

Her hoarse voice, threaded with chilling menace, carried through the sea.

“My husband is the only one. To resurrect him, you… will all be my food.”

Next came an even more terrifying devouring.

The massive Deep Sea Demon Whale body manifested. Lightning and darkness crossed, becoming a black hole that swallowed everything.

In despairing screams and struggles, this world’s Demon Empress and Whale King were mercilessly torn apart and disassembled by the Demon Empress from the parallel world—reduced to purest life essence and energy to be ravenously absorbed.

She did not stop.

She felt the Herrscher of Thunder core within her shudder under the immense energy—one final step from full activation and perfection.

The chance came soon.

Not long ago, Osial, the Vortex Demon God who had fought Sea God Island and been repelled, dragged his ruined body—along with a trove of accumulated marine malice—back to his deep-sea lair to heal.

Like the most patient hunter, the Demon Empress lay in wait.

At Osial’s weakest and least wary moment, she struck a killing blow.

A silent plasma whale-song swept out, laced with hallucinatory infrasound and energy-igniting electromagnetic force, instantly scrambling Osial’s senses.

Then geomagnetic manipulation triggered submarine volcanic eruptions. Chaotic undercurrents and corrosive acid-lightning shrouded everything.

Osial didn’t even see his attacker clearly before the core of negative energy he’d accumulated over years was pierced by claws wrapped in liquid mercury and thunder.

“Roar—!!!”

Osial’s last unwilling bellow sounded as the colossal malice was devoured like a breached dam.

The demon-god’s origin became the final straw.

“BOOM—!!!!!!!”

An indescribable brilliance of lightning exploded from the Demon Empress, illuminating the abyssal dark.

The spiral narwhal horn on her brow blazed with dimension-piercing light. The plasma strands behind her cheered like living things.

The complete Herrscher of Thunder descended.

She felt the vicious curse born from the Dragon God—that had shackled the soul beast race for a million years—shatter like brittle glass before this complete, otherworldly Herrscher authority.

Her life-form transcended the plane’s limits, becoming a truly terrifying, godlike-yet-not-god existence that held ultimate dominion over electromagnetism.

Yet upon that pinnacle of power came her daughter Lan Fozi’s boundless despair.

Forced to absorb this world’s counterpart’s soul and memories, Lan Fozi’s consciousness was in chaos, her heart riven.

She watched her mother devour her father, watched her grow ever stronger—ever stranger, ever madder.

“Mother… stop… we can’t…”

Lan Fozi pleaded weakly, tears mixing with seawater.

The Demon Empress glanced at her coldly. No warmth flickered in those white eyes—only uncompromising command:

“Not enough. If you want revenge—if you want to resurrect your father—you need more power. Become stronger. Otherwise, you’re not even qualified to stand beside me.”

At that moment, the Demon Empress snapped her head up, her white eyes seeming to pierce endless water and space, locking onto the continent.

There, Rakshasa, Angel, mysterious powers, and the newly ascended Sea God shone like beacons in the night.

Naked greed surfaced beneath the shattered whale-bone mask.

“Gods… what a delightful scent…”

She licked nonexistent blood from the corner of her lips.

“If I devour them… none shall oppose me. Sea God Tang San… Poseidon… wait for me. I will come for you soon, to settle all blood debts.”

Her dead husband’s obsession—revenge upon the Sea God—had fused with her soul, becoming her sole meaning.

Now, she needed one last reserve.

And the chaotic god-war far away had become, in her eyes, a feast prepared for her… a blood-soaked banquet.

She would wait—wait for the gods to exhaust each other. Then she would become the final reaper, paving her stairway to vengeance with divine blood.

The deep sea’s darkness could not hide the madness forged of hatred and thunder, about to pounce upon the world.

…

Above the Spirit Empire’s camp, a brilliant blue divine light fell like a meteor—yet in the moment of descent, it hushed, coalescing into two graceful figures: Hysilens in Sea God regalia and her companion Cerydra.

Hysilens did not flaunt her divinity, but the innate pressure of a god instantly alerted everyone in the command tent.

With a flash of gold, Qian Renxue appeared before Lu Jingming. The Angelic Sacred Sword remained sheathed, but her sharp divine sense locked firmly on Hysilens, golden eyes wary and appraising.

A stranger radiating vast divine power had arrived; she couldn’t be careless.

“Who goes there?”

Qian Renxue’s voice was cold and authoritative, carrying the Angel God’s majesty.

Before Hysilens could answer, Lu Jingming chuckled softly behind her and placed a calming hand on Qian Renxue’s tense shoulder.

“Sister Xue, relax. She’s one of ours.”

Qian Renxue blinked, glanced back at Lu Jingming’s ever-placid smile, and relaxed slightly—though the surprise in her eyes did not fade.

One of ours? A stranger—and a god?

Lu Jingming stepped around Qian Renxue, approached Hysilens, and openly admired her, smiling:

“Congratulations on shedding that negative-energy shell and being truly reborn. Hysilens, the Sea God regalia suits you.”

A subtle smile glimmered in Hysilens’s ocean-deep eyes. She nodded slightly:

“I didn’t expect this world would hold a god-position inheritance suited to me.”

She paused, glanced at the still-wary Qian Renxue and the others in the tent, and got straight to the point:

 “I sensed violent god-war fluctuations. I came to see. What’s your plan?”

Only now did Qian Renxue, Golden Crocodile Douluo, and the rest fully grasp that this newly ascended Sea God stood on Lu Jingming’s side.

Their eyes toward Lu Jingming grew deeper—more reverent.

Just how many hidden cards did this man still hold?

At that moment, Cerydra stepped forward beside Hysilens, meeting Lu Jingming’s eyes.

“Lu Jingming, the Knight of the Ocean is free. Tell me—how do I break my shackles?”

Her question was direct and sharp—regal.

Had anyone else demanded so, Lu Jingming would have delivered a thorny retort. But Cerydra?

No problem.

He looked at Cerydra—this 2D waifu who had once ruled with an iron hand in his memories—with a smile.

He didn’t mind their breaking free of the Holy Grail’s bonds—even if the Grail system was created by him and The Herta.

His forbearance came from nostalgia—and absolute confidence in his own strength.

He believed that whether Hysilens or the ambitious Cerydra, they would ultimately find their places on his path, not become his enemies.

“Simple.”

Lu Jingming pointed toward Slaughter City.

“There’s a god-position there for you—Asura God.”

He explained in detail.

“Defeat the negative-energy bearer wielding the Asura Demon Sword. Gain the sword’s recognition. With the legalistic authority you command, inheriting the Asura God—arbiter of slaughter, judgment, and law—is perfect.”

Cerydra’s eyes lit up.

She was decisive and ruthless—a steel-blooded empress who would sacrifice even herself for law and order.

The Asura God’s domain—absolute judgment and law—was a perfect match for her essence.

In Lu Jingming’s blueprint for a future empire, a law-wielding, impartial god was essential—and Cerydra was the ideal choice.

A razor-sharp light flashed in Cerydra’s eyes: hunger for power—and determination to claim the Asura position.

But Lu Jingming cautioned seriously:

 “Don’t underestimate him. That negative-energy being is called Kevin. Even as a copy, he surpasses the Vortex Demon God Osial you fought before. With the Asura Demon Sword in hand—even you as Sea God, Hysilens—might not win easily.”

Cerydra, however, smiled in confidence.

Not blind self-belief, but absolute trust in Hysilens at her side.

She looked to the black-haired goddess with the trident, her tone firm:

“No matter. Hysilens is a war goddess—my invincible Knight of the Ocean. In raw combat, even a demigod of strife might not best her. I trust her blade to cut any obstacle from my path.”

Hysilens said nothing—just gripped the Sea God Trident tighter, blue divine power rippling, her actions speaking support.

Among the Golden lineage, recognized as a combat ace, she had the right to such confidence.

Lu Jingming smiled at the well-matched pair, not denying Hysilens’s might.

But he knew Kevin’s depths—a savior who once bore an era’s fate. His combat power was no trivial matter.

“So be it. Go test yourselves.”

He gave precise coordinates for the mountain range where blackened Kevin lurked near Slaughter City.

“Defeat him, and you’ll not only earn your god-position. The feedback will be enough to nudge this planet to its final evolution—which favors my next plans.”

He watched Hysilens and Cerydra turn to divine light and streak toward the slaughter-stained mountains, eyes gleaming with expectation.

After they left, the tent quieted for a time—but the concern between Qian Renxue’s brows only deepened.

She dismissed the attendants, leaving only herself and Lu Jingming.

“Xiao Ming.”

Her soft voice carried rare confusion and fatigue.

“The Spirit Empire’s army is under my control now, and Grandpa Golden Crocodile supports me. But you know—the Elder Hall and Hu Liena—they bow only to circumstance. If… if she returns—given her nature and strength—the empire will split in an instant.”

She raised those brilliant golden eyes to Lu Jingming, full of complex feelings:

 “I don’t want her to die. Whatever our grievances or the coldness and hurt between us—she is still… my mother. That’s a line I cannot cross.”

This was Qian Renxue’s inner conflict.

She craved power, wanted to realize her ambitions, and longed to keep pace with Lu Jingming to see a vaster world—but blood-ties and the remnant of filial feeling would not allow her to bear killing her own mother.

Lu Jingming smiled gently at her rare vulnerability, a reassuring power in it.

He walked to her side, voice even and clear:

 “I understand. I’ve never planned to kill her.”

He paused, then analyzed:

“Bibi Dong is indeed mad—her mind twisted by hatred and Rakshasa power—but not irretrievably.”

His gaze seemed to pierce hearts.

“She isn’t without bonds. Toward you—though she appears cold and even hateful—that comes from her inability to face her own humiliation and pain, not true absence of feeling. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have given birth to you. As for Hu Liena—their master-disciple bond is one of the few lights in her dark heart.”

Chapter 408: The Demon Empress’s Ambush

“As long as those bonds remain, she isn’t uncontrollable.”

Lu Jingming concluded.

“The power of a first-rank god—especially with the unknown threats ahead—is precious. We can’t waste it. And you cannot strike her down. So what we must do is not destroy—but… control.”

“Control?”

Qian Renxue frowned slightly. “She’s so proud and obstinate. How would she accept control?”

“Simple.”

A knowing curve tugged Lu Jingming’s lips.

“Crush her head-on. Use absolute strength to make her clearly understand her power is not invincible. Her madness and obstinacy are meaningless before real power.”

He understood Bibi Dong’s nature deeply.

Bibi Dong’s specialty was forbearance.

After Qian Xunji violated her—such a humiliation—she endured, even bore Qian Renxue. She waited until Qian Xunji was gravely wounded, then bared her fangs and took revenge.

What does that show?

That weighing the situation, preserving strength, and waiting for the moment are instincts carved into her bones.

Lu Jingming’s tone carried calm command.

“She’s mad now because she believes she can crush everything—act as she pleases. When we display strength far surpassing hers—when she sees resistance only worsens outcomes, even endangering the few she cares about—she’ll be forced to ‘calm down’ and revert to the Bibi Dong who knows to endure. She’ll temporarily sheath her edge and obey orders then accumulate power in the shadows, waiting for the next chance.”

“And what we must do,”

he looked at Qian Renxue, eyes sharp and confident,

“is ensure that chance never comes. Make obedience a habit. I’ll let her see a power she cannot resist. Each attempt will be mercilessly suppressed—until she learns… to judge the situation.”

Qian Renxue listened to his cool—almost cold—analysis, tasting mixed feelings.

She had to admit his read of Bibi Dong was chillingly accurate.

It was the most realistic way—and the one that preserved Bibi Dong’s life.

Forcing a mad god’s behavior through absolute might sounded arrogant, but from Lu Jingming it carried a compelling authority.

She drew a deep breath. The confusion in her eyes was replaced by resolve. “I understand. We’ll do as you say.”

For true unity, the longer future—and to let Bibi Dong live another way—this step was necessary.

Lu Jingming nodded, gaze drifting to the distant, still-raging god-war. He said softly:

 “Prepare. I’ll show her that her era of running wild is over. And you, Sister Xue, will be crowned—the sole sovereign of this continent.”

…

At the mountain’s edge, the battlefield had become a deadland of gods.

The sky was webbed with cracks, exposing chaotic void currents. The ground looked gnawed by an unseen giant—abysses and scorched earth interlaced; the air reeked of post-annihilation ozone and the Rakshasa’s chill.

At the center, Bibi Dong, draped in Rakshasa regalia, near-fused with her avatar, swung her scythe—each stroke a soul-rending shriek.

Purple-black divine power surged like boiling tides, battering the trio.

Jingyuan, atop the Lightning Lord, unleashed golden god-thunder into chains and spears, crashing against the Nether Rakshasa’s purple blades. Each clash burst thunderfire, throwing the heavens into flicker.

Xiao Wu flashed like lightning. Blue divine power condensed into tangible fist and leg shadows, lashing Bibi Dong’s flank like a storm—her attacks agile and lethal, prying at gaps in the Rakshasa power.

Most troublesome to Bibi Dong was Electrolux in Huo Yuhao’s body, who avoided close combat. From a slight distance, his ancient chant never ceased.

Pure, deep necromantic power would become massive bone bulwarks to block the Calamity Hex’s blood sigils, or call forth countless pale bone spears laced with holy light from impossible angles. Balanced, measured—yet suffused with the stillness of death—the power strongly restrained the Rakshasa’s evil divinity.

“Barrier of Extinction.”

Bibi Dong snarled. An invisible field locked space, trying to limit Xiao Wu’s speed.

But Jingyuan’s Lightning Lord roared, summoning nine heavens thunder. A mountain-thick pillar of lightning crashed down, blasting ripples and a gap in the field.

Xiao Wu slipped through in a flash and hammered a waist-bow strike—condensing all her power—into the Rakshasa Avatar’s shoulder, making it stagger.

“Begone!”

Bibi Dong backhanded a Purgatory Ghost Hand, purple-black claws tearing space toward Xiao Wu.

At the last moment, Electrolux’s staff struck earth. A Wall of Sighs—runes etched, formed of countless wailing soul phantoms—rose. The claws scraped it with tooth-aching screeches, and both dissolved.

The four-way melee thundered without end.

Purple-black, gold, blue, ash-white—four colors of divine power flashed, intertwined, and annihilated, plunging the world into chaos.

Shock rings spread in layers. Distant peaks were shaved flat, and bottomless trenches plowed the land.

The two sides were temporarily even—locked in brutal attrition.

Bibi Dong was strong, but facing three godly foes of distinct powers growing in synergy, her furious strikes were neutralized again and again, draining her.

At the peak of stalemate, a sudden change.

Without warning, a sharp report split the sky—like a billion birds shrieking at once.

A bolt of white lightning laced with mercury-blue hues speared down at mind-breaking speed, like a godly javelin through heaven and earth. Ignoring the chaotic melee, it aimed unerringly at the core—Bibi Dong’s back.

Too fast—too vicious.

Where it passed, space did not rip—it electrolyzed, as if the rules composing space itself were decomposed by the force.

Before the bolt struck, its raging electromagnetism made the Rakshasa armor on Bibi Dong’s back sizzle with strain. Purple-black plates showed fine, circuit-board-like scorch marks.

“What?!”

Bibi Dong’s full attention was on the three before her. This ambush from the blind spot was timed to perfection.

She barely managed to sweep the scythe back and pour power into her armor.

“Boom—crack!!”

The white bolt smashed into the scythe’s haft.

No explosive blast—rather, a deadlier, high-frequency annihilation vibration.

The scythe shuddered violently. Bibi Dong felt an indescribable force—laden with decomposition and magnetic storm—like countless red-hot needles shooting from the scythe through her armor and stabbing into her body.

“Pfft—!”

She spat purple divine blood, staggering forward like a severed kite. Her Rakshasa power stalled; even the towering avatar dimmed and blurred.

The attacker’s form appeared in the lightning—the Demon Empress.

Beneath the shattered whale-bone mask, her white eyes held no emotion—only greed.

She didn’t even look at Jingyuan and the rest. With one strike landed, she gathered a second, mercury-and-thunder claws raking for the back of Bibi Dong’s unguarded neck.

Strike the sick—take the life.

In that split second—

“Insolence!”

A cold, majestic cry rang as if from the ninth heaven.

A pillar of pure, warm, resplendent gold fell like a sword of judgment, precisely between the Demon Empress and Bibi Dong.

As it struck, holy fire bloomed, purifying all evil and taint.

A faint sacred hymn echoed, soothing the turbulent energy.

The Demon Empress’s unstoppable electromagnetic lightning met the golden pillar—and sizzled like snow under blazing sun, quickly melting and dissipating.

The Demon Empress grunted, forced back several steps by the surging divine power. Doubt flickered in her white eyes for the first time.

The golden light faded, revealing Qian Renxue.

She held the Angelic Sacred Sword. Six great golden wings spread behind her. Vast angelic might surged like the sea, standing against the Demon Empress’s electromagnetic field and forcibly partitioning the chaotic battlefield.

She stood before the flagging, blood-lipped Bibi Dong, eyes coldly fixed on the ambusher.

“Despicable!”

Qian Renxue’s glare was icy. She might vie for Bibi Dong’s power, but she would not watch her be slain by a sneak attack.

Behind her, Bibi Dong was mired in unprecedented turmoil.

Half-kneeling, she wiped purple blood from her lips. Her violet eyes were filled with disbelief, humiliation—and a sprout of emotion even she couldn’t parse, like wild grass bursting through stone.

She… was saved?

And the one who saved her… was Qian Renxue?

 The daughter she had long ignored, despised, and treated as a stain on her life?

Staring at that upright back before her—radiant with pure light and warmth, power contrary to her own Rakshasa evil—yet now her stoutest bulwark—

A strange emotion strangled her breath—tangled weed of long-standing hatred, pride shattered into shame, and that deeply buried, nearly denied blood-bond twisting around her heart.

She opened her mouth—rebuke for meddling?

 Or—

At last, she only bit her lip hard, forcing down the churn and leaving only thicker madness and chaos in her eyes.

This being saved struck her harder than any attack.

The Demon Empress’s sudden ambush and Qian Renxue’s intervention pressed pause on the battle.

Jingyuan’s Lightning Lord drew back the thunder; Xiao Wu slipped lithely to Electrolux’s side; Electrolux halted his chant, ash-white necromancy subsiding. All three watched the uninvited guest and the newly arrived Angel God with wary appraisal.

Silence fell—punctuated only by residual crackles and the hiss of healing space.

Into that hush, a calm voice sounded—as if whispering by each ear.

“King of Conquest.”

Three simple words made the Demon Empress—recently driven back—jolt.

Her white, pupil-less eyes snapped to the source, shock barely hidden beneath the broken mask.

Not far away, Lu Jingming had appeared with Jingliu, Gu Yuena, Xiadie, and Liuying.

They had arrived without a ripple—as if they had always been there.

Lu Jingming’s calm gaze fell on the Demon Empress—deep, detached, all-seeing.

“Leave.”

He spoke again—no command in tone, yet brooking no refusal.

“Leave this world. Return to where you belong. Your enemies are there—not here, where you waste your strength.”

The Demon Empress frowned.

King of Conquest.

That was her title as the Third Seat of World Serpent.

This identity was an absolute secret—known only to the core. No outsider should know.

How does he know?!

An uncontrollable thought—was he also of World Serpent?

A Seat?

Her eyes flicked over the two at Lu Jingming’s side.

Jingliu—merely standing there—made her skin prickle. That pure, ultimate sharpness triggered primal warning.

Gu Yuena—pressed on her with bloodline oppression—more than Jingliu did.

Each one’s presence overshadowed even true gods—Angel Qian Renxue and Rakshasa Bibi Dong.

The threat they posed was tangible—far deadlier than the others present.

Weighing took but an instant.

She was mad, ruthless for revenge—but not witless.

In this situation, she had no chance. To persist would be folly.

She gave no reply, didn’t look at the others—only stared a heartbeat at Lu Jingming, as if to etch him into her soul.

Then lightning flared. Mercury hair lashed. She became a white bolt that ripped the void—vanishing without hesitation—leaving only a faint ozone-burnt scent to mark her passing.