《Douluo Dalu: 9 Treasure Sword》 Chapter -1 - Status (SPOILERS OF CHAPTER 35) Name: Ning Bai Age: 15 years Rank: 40 System: Control Spirits: Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sword 1st ring age: 1050 years Reduce the opponent power 25% increasing his own 25% 2nd ring age: 6000 years Continuously absorb rival stamina causing to get tired early and recuperating for Bai 3rd ring age: 12000 years Reduce opponents speed 35% increasing Bai''s own 40% Oreo 1st soul spirit: Glut (Ravenous Giant Rat beast) 9.999 years old Spirit chant: ?Wonder if I gave a normal Oreo? beast spirits. Maximum 5 every day can be made. 2nd ring: Glut (Ravenous Giant Rat beast) 1200 years old [By consuming a lot of resources] Spirit chant: ?Wonder if I gave a double stuff Oreo? Effect: Consuming it recuperates spirit energy, in the case of Bai one quarter of his total. Maximum 10 every day can be made. Sword Realm: Sword Intent Sword skills: Intent an all around protection piercing through the ground shield aura after slashes Throw aura like shield by piercing forward Concentration of intent at the tip of the sword that expands damagin greatly if the sword pierced the foe. Clan Techniques: Mind Separation Control: 5 personalities. Possibility to affect 5 people controlling 5 skills Mind Eye: detection and observation technique maximum range100 m Stealth Treasure: hiding of cultivation Mirror Treasure: Changing to lower color rings Raising Breath: Passive breathing improving constitution Chapter 1 - Introduction I was, No! It will be better to say Paul Blanch was an 18 years old boy spending his life with any goal in life. He was finishing the high school without knowing what to do only following the trend imposed by society having a very boring life. His only place of escape in his monotonous life was his own mind so he had a little free time he will read some kind of book and imagine that him like the protagonist of the history. First starting with western books and finally thanks to the entertainment that the give and the recommendation of a friend he started watching anime. Being shingeki no Kyogyn his first, latter continue reading manga that was more advanced that the anime and finally the last step to light and web novels. One curious fact was that at first he didn''t like fanfiction, they were like copies done by non-professionals and knowing the trash that did some professionals, so it will be normal to novel people to do it worst. But last starting reading them he liked them the most because they show you more possibilities of a single story improving some aspects and even correcting others (even when the majority are shit like there''s a big possibility that this fanfic will turn), also he fell empathic because there''s a lot of people that though the same way that him imaging living this stories. Another fact that it must be enlighten is that he when he started reading Chinese novels ( he started first reading Japanese) he really like it but after reading 5 he would confuse them specially their start and never know what novel what is. One manga and novel that he really like was Douluo Dalu or Soul land, at least is was very simple to differentiate with the spirit cultivation and the name of the protagonists was easy to remember (yeah I know how to count up to 3, and I don''t know why I write novel because I never read it) and the development and fighting in them. Specially he liked the first Douluo because it was a simple life without being too technologically developed instead of the highly technological of the other (I hate mechas! If you want something big resistant and fully armed the human figure is never the correct body to do it). When he wasn''t doing anything he always though of reincarnating and living in that world sometimes being the protagonist, others being Yu Xiaogang and changing the ending being with Bibi Dong, even there''s time when he dreams of being reincarnated as a girls being the little sister of one of the 7 devils and there''s also the time of thinking a little perert having a spirit that was his own body known as 9 goddess body that can''t absorb spirit rings so he is rated as a trash but at last learn that he can create spirit ring having S with womens, improving their spirit and him gaining and ability of mimic a low grade of their spirit cultivating having and harem of 9 womens, one will be and OC that will be his childhood friend that cannot cultivate, other needed to be Bai Chenxiang breaking her 38 and also RongRong improving her spirit to the 9... and finally ascending, thinking about that the girls and womens where always described beautifully and that the protagonists of the saga only choose one when and harem was a very viable option. (WOW I think that a say too much and all lost the main story so let''s return to it). Like everything this starts with a start only that this start is and ending, the ending of Paul Blanch and the birth of me. One life finish to create another one creating a new path and changing fate. One day Paul was returning from school walking on the same street of always and crossing the street when suddenly a loud noise of a truck horn without time of turn his head he fainted due to a heart attack, watching the truck running in front of him waving his hand to some people, he close his eyes to not open again, while cursing that it''s prohibited to claxon in a city, at least Paul Blanch eyes. Chapter 2 - Reincarnation I don''t know what happened, it''s difficult to open my eyes, the only thing is that I am in a very confortable, hot place having a lot difficulty to move. Suddenly I sense some kind of force pushing me forward. Then I sense cold, it''s difficult to breath and I started crying. Finally I can open my eyes, despite being opened I only can see some silhouettes like shadow moving around me babbling being impossible to understand them. What the FUCK it''s happening! 1 year later Ok so 1 year passed since that day. It taken 3 fu?k?n? month to recuperate my sense and understand that I reincarnated as a baby, some may thing that wow 3 months you''re a little slow, but when your maxium range of vision is 3 cm and you can''t comprehend anything I will like to find how much you spend to find that you''re a baby. To summarize in this year a learn only 3 things: First, the location! I always, and I say always! Stay in the same room. It''s a big room of 20 square meters and it seems very wide. It''s has blue walls with some kind of a multi color flower pattern with a big window of 6x2 and it''s decorated with a lot of cupboard filled with expensive toys, at least it seems so, and at the center you can find a luxurious baby crib decorated with gold and white like leaf. Yeah too much room for so little furniture. Second, my family! My family consist in four members my dad, mother and two grandpas. Dad is 1,85 m with black straight hair and a handsome face, the way he dress is elegant always with some suit and it''s easy to see the noble and calm aura around him on the other hand my mother is 1,75 m tall with curly pink hair(yeah, strange I know) and eyes has with a fair and white like shining skin with good curves and a beautiful smile that seems to create flower when she laughs. She has a kind aura when looking at me but I saw the kind of look that she can do to others, a fiery like a beast that gonna jump and tear you apart, if I must describe with one word it will be strength. For my part I am a little baby 1 year old my only peculiarity it is my white hair and my black eyes that become violet when sunlight hit them. Also I think that my name is Bai they always call me Xiao Bai(little white) but maybe they only are referring to my hair. I aspire to look like them when growing and find a beauty like mother to be my wife. And if you ask about their names, this is a question that I would also like the answer, they always talking to me like a kid talking to them with mama and papa. For my grandpas they''re both very clinging and of all the toys of the room a 90% is of them so they doted me very much. One is grandpa Bone (yeah strange name) he is very tall like 2,5 m and has a face that seems like a cranium with eyes sockets with deep caves, the first time I saw him I though him of zombie and started crying turning my mama very angry to frighten me. My other uncle is grandpa sword and is an old man with white hair with a very sharp aura until he see me that it became a silly grandpa type. Third, my status! For all of that I think that I reincarnated as a noble child or at least a very wealthy family. We have a lot of servant that I saw running across my door and I have 2 nannies? I think that they''re nannies they wore a white and black maid uniform and they change every month so I never remember them, there''s also a guard always at me door staying alert and watching the surrounding. And for other information about the world that a life now no idea of its veracity. All other information is taken by books and difficult to differentiate reality or tales, the majority are of people training to became strong and destroy some kind of devil, having special power of animals or invoking legendary weapons. This is my beautiful, easy, full of love life and I''m gonna enjoin the best. 2 months later My mama and papa enter my room and my mama said, "Bai you''re gonna be a big brother". ''Ok so she is pregnant, it makes me happy to know Paul never had a sibling and it will be funny to play with someone'' I smiled at them thinking. "Oh, my Xiao Bai is happy surely he is gonna be the best brother" said mama while papa always has a smile pasted in his face. 6 month later My papa enters my room and take me to another place, yeah first excursion. We walk through a lot of rooms and halls finally arriving at a white room in there there''s my mother looking very tired but with a big smile in her face and in his embrace there''s a little baby with a pink hair ''so she will be like mother''. "What it will be her name? I chose Xiao Bai so you can decide it, but be sure that is very cute" said my papa. "Rongrong, Ning Rongrong, it sounds cute and has a good ring." answer father "Say hello to your little sister Bai" I stayed flabbergasted at listening my new sister name, Fuck I''m in Douluo Dalu. Chapter 3 - 6 years Ok so 4 years passed since my sister birth and me knowing this is the DD world. Meanwhile I start training my body with light running and some gymnastics to keep my flexibility. Moreover when I turned 3 years my parents started teaching me about the world, our clan and the need. I''m gonna skip the things that everyone know about ranks. Summarizing we are one of the 3 upper clans, or best to say 2? last year the Clear Sky Hammer Clan broke all contact with its allies and hide itself so in my opinion now there''s only 2 upper clans being us and the Blue Lighting Dragon Clan, also they explained the situation of continent with the intern war between the CKH clan and the rise in power of Spirit Hall. Our Clan is specialized in support having the best support spirit the seven treasure pagoda but being unable to break through the 80 rank. So to maintain our strength we cultivate talent people with strong attack power that can arrived to high ranks without any differentiation between spirit or nobility. Nowadays the power of our is very concentrated with having to Titled Douluos a, grandpas Bone and Sword, being rank 93 power attack system bone dragon spirit and 95 power attck system Seven Kill Sword spirit respectively and being supported by my papa a 79 spirit sage support system with the seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda (TGTP), there''s also my mother that is considered the future of the clan being a rank 89 power attack system with a Fire Volcano Sword spirit at the age of 40 is considered a genius of genius and it surely that she will advance to titled douluo at any moment. Her spirit is considered one of the most powerful spirit on par with the Seven Kill Sword or the Clear Sky Hammer due to it near ultimate fire. My parents say that the most probable spirit that I will be awakening is the TGTP because the main line of our clan always awaken it. When I asked them if it has relation with dominant and recessive genes and only at the main line they answer that Spirit power is strange and has a way to do thing, so the typical because is it. Papa say that if a awaken the TGTP and have more than 5 of spirit power I''ll we be the heir of the clan and that I need to find a strong person for a wife so that I can support her to the strength of the clan (REALLY! I''m only 5 years without awakening ceremony, the next step it will be the start of bride interviews). They also started teaching me the secret technique of the clan and one of the main reason of our clan success, the Heart Separation Control, some kind of multitasking permitting doing more than one spirit abilities to more than one person, but in my actual level the best that I obtained is a better memory, a higher reading speed and a better comprehensions of the surroundings , only for this my parents level me like a genius saying that they didn''t think it was possible to gain the first level without spirit energy. So now I''m known as the little genius another title to the list (its better than little snow or rabbit). For my body changes now I am 1,20 m, so average in that aspect, I keep my white hair short and have a very fair skin (I think that it''s impossible to me to gain a tan I spend an all day under the summer sun and 0 burning. Strange!) and a delicate face that seems more like mama but with my fathers eyes. So with a good way to be a handsome when grow up. For my sister she is the definition of cuteness, a little girl of 4 years 95cm with pink hair, white skin and very big round amethyst eyes that it''s not possible to be angry looking at them. Being a little replica of mama so surely a beauty in the future so big brother will have a lot of work defending her of any man that will try to court her (yeah talking about Oscar if he think that the clown of the team is enough for my little sister he is wrong). She always is smiling and its the happiness of the house. Finishing with all this talk tomorrow it''s my 6 birthday and in that day I will have my spirit awakened by my papa, so I start sleeping looking forward for my spirit and the grand future that awaits me. Next morning I wake up and the first that I see is my sister giving me a good morning kiss at the cheek that makes me have a very big smile at my face (Best birthday ever I don''t need anything else). There''s also my parent and grandpas surrounding me saying things like siscon (how is it possible to not love the manifestation of cuteness, eh?). Then we go to the dining hall and start breakfast having my favorite food, waffles with chocolate. After that they give me my presents. My sister give me a white lily saying that she remember me when she saw it, "I will treasured for life" I say smiling causing my sister to smile. Them my parent give me a set of new elegant white and gold (I don''t mean only the color, it''s authentic gold) suit to wear at the ceremony, I hug both of them saying thank you. And finally my grandpa sword gives me a wood sword saying that it''s always important to have some way to defend and grandpa bone gives me a set of figures of all the family, I hug them and say thank you. Then we go outside of the mansion to a near church? That is inside the mansion''s land. Opening the big doors I can see a big formation with spirit stones necessaries to do the spirit awaken, being surrounded by 5 elder people all dressed with white coats, they are the elders of the sect being all of them rank 79 with the TGTP, I hate them always with follow the rules and do this or that ("grandpas are way better!" showing my tongue in my mind). My papa step at the between the elders and activate the formation saying "Bai you can step at the center of the formation". I step forward and suddenly all the formation illuminates creating a flux of energy entering my body, circulation around all and concentrating at my hand. When I open my arm a great 9 colored lights blinding everyone while I stay observing with an awestruck and strange face. Chapter 4 - Sword awakening Finally the light turn off and in my hand there''s a strange looking pagoda, no comparing with my papa pagoda mine was more larger and thin, having 9 layers with different colors contrasting 7 of father there''s also a kind of handle at the inferior part. Some kind of information goes to my head that provoke me to say without thinking "Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sword". After that all the elders are discussing about the mutation spirit, at last one of them speak "A mutation of the pagoda in form of a sword, surely it will be worthless since our spirit is common know to have 0 offensive capability. So it will be better to stop teaching him the heir secrets of the clan and decide another heir. I can recommend my grandson Ning Fong a STGTP with a 7 innate spirit". Then hell broke all the elders arguing about the next heir and taking of all the resources from. "SHUT UP!" Shouted my papa showing his spirit creating some strength forcing the elders to kneel down by suppression. I never see my papa so angry (worthless elders). "Ei-Eight layers!" says wth a frightened voice one elder. It can be seen on top of my papa hand the new evolved Eight Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda showing its eight colors in all splendor. "Thanks to absorbing the energy of my son''s awakening this so called trash spirit my spirit evolved breaking through the 80 rank, so shut up and if I listen some more bullshit about my son, remember that I am this clan master having the power take your positions. Even if it''s true that the master of our clan must have our support spirit we don''t know how is it going to grow his sword. Also don''t forget that I also have a daughter that if she awaken the pagoda it will be first in line to be the heiress. " Said papa with an intimidating air around him. "Understood, Clan master!" all elders say in unison while kneeling. Changing his tone of voice having the calm and full of love he says to me while giving a strange orb "Now put some spirit power in this so you can test your innate spirit power". I take it a inject some spirit power, suddenly the orb shine very bright. "Heavens, innate full spirit power" says someone, "I complete genius". My mama approach me and hugs me tightly saying " My little Bai is a genius now we only need to you to absorb some spirit ring and see how your spirit response to it, I think that some kind of attack fire spirit beast will be the best option, fire for having a sword spirit like your mother and attack to see if your spirit is a type of support like the pagoda" Then she turn to face the elders " If someone tries to damage one of my children trying to improve their spirit only death awaits them" while showing all her rings 2 yellows, 2 purple and 4 blacks. "Rank 90!" said frightened all elders. "Yeah a broke through now so there''s only the need of a spirit ring and I will be become the third and youngest Titled Douluo of the clan, Let''s go Fengzhi, sons" Says mama. "All hail clan master, mistress and young master and miss! All hail for the future of STGTP!" say everyone in the room while we are leaving. "We will go tomorrow to Sunset forest and try to find you some compatible spirit ring to absorb" Says my mama. "I think that is a wrong idea, I awaken my spirit today and I''m not familiar with my spirit and spirit power so I think it better to spend some time training spirit power and sword arts, creating a good foundation is the key to success. It will be best improve the strength of the clan finding both of papa''s and mama''s rings"I discuss. "Yeah you''re right, we will take both Bone and Sword Douluo and go to Star Dou Forest to find our rings. Meanwhile you will familiarize with your spirit, Sword Douluo can give you some training sword manual as you already learn last year how to cultivate, we also hire some sword tutor so you don''t learn wrong. When we return of our trip we will try to find some ring for you" Says papa. "Hai" I answer. The next day my sister and me hug our parents and grandpas and they go Star Dou Forest to find the ring while I pray for their well being. Chapter 5 - Training to death My parent gone I run to my room, be sure that the door and the windows are close so anyone can see me. When I''m convinced that there''s nobody I open me left hand, a black light surge and a Oreo cookie appears (Wow so I have twin spirit with my second being a cookie, maybe one spirit will be mine and the other is of Paul, what a lame spirit to have a cookie even when it was Paul''s favorite). Resigning with the second spirit I decide to concentrate at the sword and then when having the capacity to absorb 10.000 thousand spirit I will start to absorb ring that improve my fighting style with the sword. Surely a sword spirit even being a tool will improve my physique while growing obtaining better results when having all my potential that start being a weak food system and improve very fast my body insert ring to the sword. Better hide this spirit at least it can be used hide me impersonating another person. So for now I decide to concentrate at the sword and start reading grandpa Sword''s manual. Summarizing, the way of the sword it can be separated in two ways, the physical part and the comprehension part that are related between them. The physical part it''s training your body repeating the same kind of exercises everyday getting used with the sword, the comprehension part is obtaining the state of one with the sword where''s the sword is like another limb. This is the foundation of the sword and can be copied using other people regime, then there''s the personal style, create your own style of fight and putting your emotion to the sword creating it. In function of what it''s your experience there''s different and attainments there''s different realms. Reading it seems like spirit techniques but without the need of a ring so very similar to self made techniques created by control only using the sword. The realms are: One with the sword: using the sword like being part of your body provoking a boost attack of 10%. It must be highlighted that having a sword spirit with the minimum train you arrive at this state because your sword is a part of you. Sword intent: an attack of your sword wrapping the blade with your aura and causing difference effects depending the person, it can be translated to a spirit technique usually gaining a ranged attack r defense. Sword domain: so like every domain improving your abilities and reducing the rivals create by manifesting your laws to your surrounding Sword heart: an influx of the domain concentrated at your sword creating a powerful attack like a combination of intent and domain. All sword: an state where your sword disappears and can be invoked everywhere in a certain area attacking like if you''re swing it. Sword god: it says that is the summit there''s no more explanation. Reading all the manual I start training with my tutor that ?ssures and correct my position showing the basic stance of attack and defense and then I start practicing swinging, slash and pierce. Two month passed continuing with the training building a very firm foundation, having last month attained the One With the Sword realm and trying to create and intent. My tutor says that I go with a good way, that I certainly have talent and to not worry is needed a lot of hard work and experience to create an intent is nothing that a six years could do with a calm voice void of any sentiment. Totally boring the only thing that made persevere is the encouragement of my little sister(AHHH!, I hate this man I''m looking forward to the return of mother and grandpa Sword so that the can teach me). Though and done it. Today my parents and grandpas came back hugging me and my sister saying how they missed us and said to group at the main hall where they gonna explain the gains of the travel. "I will start" says grandpa Bone waiting to be revered by us "I broke through rank 94 while fighting a 80.000 armored monkey" "Congratulation grandpa Bone" My sister and I clap. "I obtained my 8th ring being now at rank 83, the ring was of a crystal lighting elephant of 65.000 years a kind of animal that accumulate light to fire with great force. I obtained my eight ability named accumulate that permit me to have a reserve of spirit power a boost a 50% any of my others abilities" Says my father. "How is it that you''re rank 83 wouldn''t it be rank 81 after absorbing the ring?" asked (surprinsingly) my sister. "The only that was an obstruction for my break through was the limitation of the spirit so a had a very good foundation to break more than one rank" my papa answer gaining a nod of my sister. "For my case a broke through rank 96 entering the super douluo state, I broke by fighting and it was really dangerous, but because its related with your mother its better that she explains it" Grandpa Sword says. "Finally my turn, I continue being a rank 90 spirit douluo but in this adventure we obtained something better that a ring, 2 ring!"says mother while we made a strange face at her. "It''s a joke, we found a True Fire Lily, it''s a spirit plant with awareness that its main characteristic is its ultimate fire and if you can resist it it has close to 0 attack power. The problem is that was surrounded by a tribe of fire monkeys being more than 100 with 10 of them having more than 10.000 years and one even 100.000 protecting the Lily because the benefit of its aura for their cultivation. So we make a plan of attack having both Bone and Sword supported by Feng distract the leader and 10.000 beast while I take the Lily. Although we receive a lot of wounds specially Feng that have a very resistant to fire, at last I could take the Lily and escape 100 berserk monkeys thanks to Bone portal". She smiles at us for our incredulous faces, I looking forward for big adventures. Then mother finish talking saying "The best part is that Lily is more than 100.000 years so I only need to kill it, that is very simple, and absorb the ring and I will be a Titled Douluo with a 100.000 gaining two techniques, almost ensuring arriving at the super douluo rank and with a big possibility to obtain the ultimate fire". She laughs at our surprise face. Then my parents and grandpas go to a prepared room specially with a good amount of fire energy to create the best environment for the absorption and having a special glass so that we can observe her. My mother take a strange sealed cage and open showing us the Lily. Then she invoke her sword and kill the Lily with a single slash manifesting a big a shining red ring that creates a oppressive aura that even I can sense. My mama guide the ring to her sword and prepare to absorb it. All seems normal and the ring is shrinking approaching her body. Suddenly my mama''s face contort and big flames surround her and the ring and she starts to scream. (FUCK, all this tranquil and happy life make complacent and I though that this world will be a different parallel world where my mama lifes but it seems that is now trying to ascend to titled douluo when she dies. I MUST DO SOMETHING) Chapter 6 - Break Through 1 I watch shocked my mama burning and screaming. Grandpas Sword and Bone trying to approach her futilely being impossible for them to walk through the intense True Fire of a 100.000 years ring while papa its trying to support both grandpas and mother illuminating 3 of his ring improving both resistance and defense amplified by his 8th ring shouting "XIE!" {AN: yeah I forgot to name the name of the mother so I will say it here her name is Ning Xiangxie, she isn''t noble so she take her husband surname.} (FUCK, FUCK! If this continue mama won''t endure it) Suddenly I sense a grab of my sleeve, I turn and see the crying face of my little sister. In this instant I free from my sister hand and seeming without controlling my body run to the entrance door of the room. I can''t think clearly, I feel like I''m outside of my body observing my body moving of its own at the same time I sense in my body without thinking only with despair and the though of saving mama. (RUN!RUN!Save her!). AN: I will use [ ] for the more rational thinking of the third perspective that its observing like outside the body. I run arrive to the door without knowing I already have my spirit sword at my right hand suddenly a bright white light shine brightly surrounding the sword [what''s that light?], it can be sensed an aura from it, and aura of love and protection falling into despair. The aura keep growing until when I arrive at the door I hold the sword with both hand pointing forward and piercing provoking the aura to explode forward, destroying the door creating a loud explosion fulling the room with smoke. I slash with my sword cutting the smoke and freeing my sight. I can sense my surrounding, my mama burning the shocked faces of my grandpas, too astonished to react in time to stop me. I keep running to my mama sensing the intense fire [STOP! We''re going to die], I can feel the burning of my skin first time changing its forever white color to black, the sound of crisping, the water of my body evaporating, the feeling of dying. But I continue forward, never stopping, my sword shining, this time more brightly, not only with white color but with 9 colors. Before 10m of mama my body can''t go forward and I feel like I''m about to die. Suddenly a voice ring to my ears seeming coming from my sword "Go forward! ABSORB! DEVOUR!". Then all 9 colors merge into one showing a bright black color that seems to absorb all the light of the world, absorbing some of the fire also manifesting the previously white color and merging instantly with the black creating a dark gray. With this new found strength permitting me a last effort to jump forward with all my strength trying to pierce through the ring. In this instant my mind shut down falling unconscious closing my eyes the last view of my mama teary eyes looking at me (I need to save her) [Fuck, what a futile suicide]. I try opening my eyes closing them quickly at the first light ray that arrive. This time a opened slowly adapting to the light. I can see that I am at my bedroom on top of my bed wearing one of my pajamas. I try to move my body but it seems like it''s very difficult I feel very tired and have to spend a lot of effort only to stand the top part of my body. Then watch my surroundings seeing a my mother with a relived and smiling faced. Then she disappears "Bai wake up!" I listen a shout outside of the room. Suddenly, the room''s door burst forward exploding and destroying the windows in front. From the door I see both grandpas entering quickly with a nervous faces that shows a hint of happiness. They run to me and taking both of them one different hand infusing spirit power they check my body with a very serious face. Finishing the checkup they sight with relief. When they are about to speak my mama and papa enter the room with my little sister in my mama''s arm. My sister frees of her arms and jump forward tackling me while shouting "Bai Gege!". I catch her having a forces expression trying to not scream for the pain that she caused me (Your tackle is very effective but I withstand with the brother of love ability). "Rongrong stay calm, your Bai is recuperating and is a little weak you''re hurting him"says mama, then she looks to grandpas and ask "How is he?". "All seems fine he only needs to rest and recuperate for two weeks and he will be in perfect form with great improving contrasting before" says grandpa Bone producing my mother a sight of relief "I don''t know what should do if something happen to you" she says hugging me very careful. "Sorry Bai Gege" my little sister says with a sorrowful expression but you can easily see in her eyes a little mischief and a happy glint for my recovery (Or at least a expect that is that, and not some kind of awakening of m?s??h?st tendencies). Finally being that I don''t understand anything I ask "What happened?" In this moment a high pain run to my brain forcing me to put my hands over my head remembering all that happened at mama''s ring absorption until passing down. I turn to face my mama unconsciously tears falling my eyes. I shout "You''re alive mama! You''re fine" I say crying. My mother hugs me saying "All is alright, eat your breakfast and rest till afternoon then we will explain everything. The most important is your well being". At this moment a maid enter carrying a soup with very soft break my mama helps me eating while my sister is observing me. Once I finish breakfast my family leave the room letting me rest and I fall sleep. When I wake up I can feel my body much better and can stand up putting some effort. In the room there''s only grandpa Sword and he says that he will reunite all the others. Passing 3 min all my family arrives and my mother says "To start you stayed unconscious 1 month and I will explain what happened that day. I was absorbing the ring when..." Chapter 7 - Break Through 2 -Ning Xiangxie POV- "I was absorbing the ring when..." -Flashback of the ring absorbing day- I summoned my Fire Volcano Sword spirit and notice its closeness and eagerness to the plant in front. I slashed and kill it without much difficulty. After a second, a red spirit ring manifested on top of it, sensing the pressure of the ring I cannot help smiling (I''m gonna become one of the youngest titled douluo and with the champion at first position of the greatest treasure for a spirit master). I sit with the lotus position attracting the ring towards my sword. I sense the power flowing to the sword with a need to concentrate all my spirit, mental and psychical power avoiding turning it berserk. All goes well until suddenly a big mental chock come from the ring saying"BURN" I confront it head on and focusing my mental power I destroy the plant spirit listening the last word of the Lily "BURN! DIE!". In this moment all power of the ring comes to me, like influenced by the flower last conscience it let me absorb it too quickly. Having not recuperated my mental state I can''t control the new evolved power, even when usually I''m immune to my own fire, and starts burning me, being the pain so strong that trying to recuperate seems like impossible. Losing my strength I resign to my fate of burning alive (Sorry Bai, Rong it seems like I can''t see you grow and protect you. I''ll pray in the afterlife for your well being). With a last effort I turn to look at my children through the glass only to see the shocked face of Rongrong. Suddenly there''s an explosion and through the smoke I can see my Bai running to me with his spirit sword in his hands. (No! Stop! I don''t wanna be the cause of your death. Feng! Bone! Sword! Stop him. You must live Bai!) I try to say but the only thing that cause is tears to fall my face that doesn''t endure too much before evaporating due to the high temperature. Suddenly, 9 bright colored lights come out of his sword that emerge in a black one. After 0.1 s a white light appears merging with the previous black forming a dark gray light. Bai jumps forward to me piercing through the flames. I look at Bai''s eyes and can see his resolve, resolve to live, to protect not to die. Suddenly the power of the flames as if absorbed by Bai''s sword decrease a little and Bai fall unconscious (Knowing how much you fight how mother give up. I will live for both you and Rong!). Taking advantage of the moment of weakness of the flames I jump toward the wall moving away of Bai, breaking the wall flying out the mansion arriving to the garden. Then I return to a lotus position and continue absorbing the ring. (I''m not gonna lose to a dead plant, watch the power and determination of a mother!) Putting all my efforts in controlling the flames I recuperate its control just in time to them to return to the normal intensity. All this passing in 0,5 second. After having in control the fire,without any more mental consciousness of the Lily and the last permit of absorbing by the Lily, in contrast of before,I easily finish to absorb the ring. I run to the previous room and see Feng and Maya {One of the clan members having blue blood strawberry flower as a spirit, a spirit specialized in heal} healing Bai. I very worried ask them "How is little Bai?". Maya without turning to see me or pausing her spirit ability says "He has burns all around the body, I only can say that it''s a miracle that he''s alive, we must maintain the constant healing to preserve his life". I fall to my knees crying "It''s all my fall, if only I absorbed I 10.000 years ring, anything of this will happen and Bai will be alright". Suddenly someone holds my shoulder, turning a see Chen Xin that says "Don''t be to pessimistic, Bai is strong child and surely he will withstand, there''s always hope when there''s life". "Where''s Rongrong, is she ok?"I said frightened. "She only fell unconscious due to the shock we had Bone take her to her room and is resting there" Answer Chen Xin. "I will stay with Bai until it improve and I bow to the heavens that if he dies I will follow so I pray with all my whole for his well being because it''s all of my fault" I say causing the other people at the room to sigh exhausted. I stayed in the same room as Bai while the clan healers are interchanging to maintain a constant healing for Bai until after 3 days Maya says "It''s alright, he isn''t death danger anymore but the damage at the body is very large and seems to have some effect in his spirit so it''s impossible to estimate how much time needs to awaken so the best it will be to take to his room and carefully observe him for any change". I say "Thanks Maya I will stay with him until he wakes" {I changed the part of the maid of the last chapter, when writing I think it was better the part of the maid but thinking of mother love a think that even it is less impacting at reading it has more sense}. I spent at Bai rooms always worried about his well being only eating and sleeping the minimum necessary until after 1 month he wakes up. Seeing Bai wake up I can''t help to be happy and try not to cry (You wake up, mommy is so happy!). Then I run find the others to say the good news, taking Rong at my arms and returning to Bai''s room. When all the family arrive at Bai''s room I don''t know what I say, like in automode only thinking in the relive of seeing Bai awake and find. We finally leave Bai''s room and a fall unconscious. Later I am being waken by Feng saying "Bai wake up. You''re ok? We must talk to Bai about all but maybe it''s better to you to rest, you''re very tired for no sleeping". I answer "No, I spent 1 month what is a few more time I will explain all to him". We go to Bai''s room and I can''t help to smile when seeing him standing up and I say "To start you stayed unconscious 1 month and I will explain what happened that day. I was absorbing the ring when..." -End of flashback- -End of Ning Xiangxie POV- Chapter 8 - Gains and explications 1 "...and this is what happened" finish mama {without saying anything of the month of no food or sleep}. "So are you completely fine mama, without any hidden damage?" I asked. "I''m completely fine, have a little trust in your mother. Oh, and watch this" She answer manifesting all her spirit rings, 9 rings being 1 yellow, 2 purple, 5 blacks and 1 red controlling the spirit pressure so it didn''t affect us. "It''s over the ideal configuration!" I, my papa and grandpas say at the same time. I look to papa strangely (Didn''t they know her configuration?). To my look my papa answer in low voice "I''ll explain later". My mama with a look of pride and puffing his ?h?st says "Yep! After absorbing the ring my spirit evolved gaining true fire aging the rings that has fire spirit abilities changing their colors and not only this"she does a dramatic pause "I am rank 93. So triple gain!". My sister ask with a beaming voice taking advantage of our shock "What abilities you gained?". "Like any 100.000 years old ring a gain two abilities apart of the evolution of true fire a gain area of effect like domain rising the temperature of the area and generating a lot of fire energy, increasing fire attack power 50% and reducing others elements, neutralizing any not ultimate water element not ultimate, the True Fire Garden. For the second abilities is an attack that concentrates all the fire energy of the area causing a big and potent aoe forward, Hell Ray, a good combination with the Garden" Says mama proudly. "WOW" We all say at the same time. "We can stop talking about me and start the most important part" my mother says "How are you Bai? Do you have some damage, some pain, anything?" she asked me rapid and nervous. "I was checked before by grandpa and the healers so there''s no problem at all it only a little of stiff muscle for not moving in a lot of time. In reality, I''m better than before I sense more strength in my body and with little practice I know that I can return to optima condition." I say standing up and warming up moving my legs and arms. "Is he alright, Maya?" Mama ask Maya, that I now perceive her presence (Wow I never sense her is like she is a quotidian object). "Physically condition is perfect, nobody will say that he stayed unconscious 1 month. His body have a great strength being very robust comparable with an attack system spirit grandmaster. I tried to check his spirit power but due to the mutation of his spirit is very difficult to analyze having no experience in this type so the best option it will be that we investigate with a spirit power detector having young master insert his energy" Maya says with a robotic voice devoid of any sentiment (like always!) while giving me a detector orb. I take the orb and inject my spirit energy to it. The orb starts to shine showing my spirit rank. "15 rank!" My parents and grandpas say. "Hurry show us your spirit Bai" says papa with haste. I concentrate my spirit power to my right hand and open, showing my NTGTS. Observing closely now has some changed, acquiring a more vivid red color concentrated at the first layer and being dispersed along the way having no change keeping the previous white color at the top. "It''s more red, I like it more!" says my sister happily. "It''s true that there''s some changes, we will need to study what effect that changes produce, for now try to inject spirit power to the sword" say father. I inject my spirit power at my spirit, I can sense that I can put more than before (maybe my spirit power has a quality growth and now is bigger), suddenly surrounding the sword appear a purple ring. I look awed at the ring asking "How is it even possible? I didn''t kill any spirit beast and even less absorbing a ring of it". "I sense some familiar fire energy from that ring, if I must say something my hypothesis was that the ring absorbing day when you chase forward me some of the spirit energy of my 100.000 years ring was absorbed by your sword, enough for your spirit to materialize a purple ring with it" says mother while having a poise of thinking with her hand turned into a punch under her chin. "How is it possible? A spirit creating his own spirit like some humanized spirit beast" I ask. My papa interrupts "How do you know about humanized spirit beast?" he think a little and continue saying "Whatever, it''s not important" (Buff, it''s best not to show any special knowledge, If asked I will say that I find it in a book and that I don''t remember it) "There''s some case documented of some spirits that create their own spirits they''re very strange and usually not very powerful because they usually need a lot of time to grow. Usually they are spirit plants that to obtain spirit rings must grow like any other plant absorbing sunlight, nutrients and water. In your case your sword will have some kind of absorb and condensation property that in this case create the lucky chance of your ring manifestation, don''t expect it to happen again. And I suppose that I combination of the extreme situation, you''re mutated spirit, your previously good constitution even if it will let you absorb a 600 years ring at most and that the energy was from your mother, having you''re spirit some kind of resemblance to her there''s expect to be some resistance, finally Xie controlling consciously and unconsciously the ring and her spirit to not harm you, let you absorb a ring a lot more aged that your limit". "So now I can continue absorbing the rings more aged or I must continue with the ideal configuration?" I ask. "According to Maya your constitution is of a spirit grandmaster and having a purple ring will help you to get used to its energy so if you train hard for the time you arrive at the 20 rank you can have your body prepared to absorb a ring like one 40 rank." Papa explain causing me to smile. "Don''t be to complacent I''m only talking of the capacity of absorption, your spirit power will be much less than the actual rank provoking a less powerful attack and a more waste of spirit power when using it" My papa reprimand me. "Ok, I will now try to activate my spirit ability to know what it does"I say. I stand with a typical central guard position and I activate my ring ability noticing how my spirit power is spent "STOP!" my parents and grandpas shout while I continue trying to activate it suddenly I feel a blow to my neck and feeling air headed I see the floor approaching towards me (So falling unconscious again, maybe there''s a time where I''m used to it) being my last thoughs. -3rd POV- After Bai fell unconscious by Sword hit Fengzhi sigh saying "Good job Xin. How can he be so impulsive? Having waking up today being unconscious for I month and when he had the opportunity he tries to overwork" Fengzhi look around the room examining with spirit energy observing the unconscious Bai, a sleeping Rongrong that five minuts ago couldn''t maintain awake and suddenly his expression and aura change being very serious turn to Maya and says"Maya you can withdraw now" Maya bows to all and leave the room without doing any sound. Then Fengzhi look at Xiangxie, Sword and Bone finally saying with a very profound voice without changing his seriousness seeming having the face sculpted of ice "Having Xie broken through the titled douluo rank we have 3 at the clan with Sword being a super douluo, Xie surely will advance to be another if nothing wrong happen, Bone will need a lucky chance and with me being supporting douluo our clan gained a lot of strength. I think the best option is to hide it as a trump card for people outside the clan. Our spies detected strange movement by Spirit Hall, they''re gaining a lot of power. I think that they waiting to the future, preparing for when they''re powerfull enough to do an all war. Knowing that the actual supreme pontiff it''s a 95 rank douluo with twin spirit I expect that they''re waiting for her to arrive at the extreme douluo rank to start it. So If my calculation aren''t wrong it will be in 20 years more or less. So in this time we need to prepare. I need to arrive at least at rank 89 and try to find some way to further evolve my spirit to the legendary Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, if I can''t find some method we will need some of you to arrive at least to rank 98, with the supports and the location of our clan I think that having a rank 98 will be enough to defend against a rank 99. So I think that the best is to concentrate on the possibility with higher chances so the majority of resources will be for Xie, Xin is gonna to go out to travel trying to find some lucky chance and sorry Rong but you must stay here at the clan to protect it"Says Fengzhi bowing to Bone "even with the relative peace that we have now we cannot let the clan defenseless without any douluo" "Don''t worry to much I know my limits and in my previous break through I learned that will be impossible for me to step at the super douluo rank the best I can get its to rank 95." Says Bone sighing "Now I regret my rapid growth when growing up, only if my foundations will be a little better". "We must gain strength"says Xiangxie very determinate while stroking his children hair "I don''t want my children to fight to death in a war". "We need to train them you know that if we fail at the present they''re our future, Bai have a lot of potential even better than you and any documented case if I say the truth" My papa says "We will try to make a better world for them but they must grow strong for themselves if they want to survive at what will be coming. I also don''t want to depend of them but my intuition says that they''re the key even when Rongrong still doesn''t awakened her spirit" my papa says smiling "and my intuition was right when I saw you for the first time" he finish with a sorrowful look "It''s better to not say anything to them, at least for now, I want for them to be ignorant until its inevitable so the grow happy". "Yeah" says in a low both Xiangxie going to Rongrong''s and Bai''s room leaving them in their beds while Bai sleeps at least seeming ignorant of what will come at the future. Chapter 9 - Gains and explanations 2 I wake up feeling my neck sore and with a little headache (Waking up from unconsciousness it has become a routine). I walk to he window seeing the sunrise ( It must like 8 o''clock). I decide to go to the dining room and have breakfast. When I enter I can see my parents and only grandpa Bone (Strange. My sister surely is still sleeping but grandpa sword should be here). "Where''s grandpa Sword? And why he hit me yesterday?!"I say angrily. "Xin is travelling outside for a special mission and won''t return at least n a year, and don''t blame Xin if he didn''t stop you maybe you would had a backslash of your abilities and the damage it will be a lot worst of a little headache. Try to imagine if you had my spirit and tried to use the any skill support, being all high rank spirits master you''re spirit will unconsciously try to support one of use causing you a big backlash for supporting over rank, and this even if you''re at perfect conditions" Reprimand papa "You must never use something that you had any control" he thinks a little and continue "maybe except in extreme situations but that wasn''t one". "So how I''ll no know what to do if I even try?" I ask a little angry. "You didn''t read through all the spirit manual that we give you last year?" papa ask. "Maybe I skip some of the most boring parts" I answer a little guilty. My papa sighs and say in low voice very difficult to listen "Like mother like son" then return to normal volume "Once a ring is absorbed you must meditate concentrating all your mental power at your spirit specially at your new ring, after some time you will gain insight of the ring, its properties and effects in you. Similar when you know the name of your spirit when awakened. This case can be observed in your mother she didn''t use his new spirit skills but new what are and how to use them". "Soooo I meditate and I will know my skill?" I ask. "Yep, simple, no?" says mother " but even when you learn you''re skill it will better not to use it you''re not totally recuperated so it will be better to wait 1 week to stabilize your spirit energy, so meditate and cultivate a little before trying anything". I nod and take one apple of the table and quickly eat it then I sit in a position lotus and start meditating. My papa sighs and saying "You can find a better place better place to meditate and I hope that you''re breakfast will be more completes". I lost sense of my surrounding manifesting my sword and posing it over my two hand and legs focusing only in it. The purple ring manifest shining brightly. I open my eyes but I don''t see the familiar dining room I see a fiery scenery full of red flowers I sense the fire energy of them and also something more abstract like power. There''s also one silhouette of a person with a sword in the middle of all the flower difficult to recognize. I approach finally identifying him. It''s me or at least it''s has a resemblance being red headed and having his sword completely red being the only differences. He look at me and suddenly from the flowers flames erupt with a power of at least a 1000 years old beast burning the red-me, or not, after some time the flames extinguished and red-me is there completely fine only with very little burning like being produced by a lighter. He grins me grabs the sword with both hand and point and the sky suddenly I sense some energy leaving me feeling weaker and that energy going to red-me. Not only me I can see that is also absorbing from the flowers. After 0.5 second he dash forward me trying to slash me I rapidly invoke my sword and with a two-handed close guard I try to block his attack. When both sword collide his force I a lot stronger and I am pushed 5 meters behind (It''s like his actual power is higher than 50% of mine). Without losing focus I recuperate my guard and wait for the next attack that didn''t come. Red-me is grinning and dispersing in red light. I slowly close my eyes to open again and see the familiar faces of my grandpa Bone, parents and sister. "So? How is it? What skill do you acquire? Is super powerful?" My sister rapid fire questions very excited. I hug my sister rubbing her cheek with mine "Yep, super cool you''re big brother is the best and will protect" (Ah, I''m healed all the serious talk and the fainting there''s nothing better than little sister energy.). "Let me go! You meanie! I''m a big girl having in 4 month 5 years" pout my sister even when it''s easy to see her smiling face. "Yeah, yeah. Rongrong is the biggest and the most cute of all" I answer freeing her of my embrace. I turn a little more serious and say "I gained a skill I think that a have and idea of what it does but to be sure I will prove it the next week, also I gain a resistance to fire being necessary a fire of more power than a 1000 years ring to damage me" "It''s normal, having survived your my fire is to be expected to gain some resistance" Says mama proudly. "We will wait one week while you''re train and cultivate to your best condition and then we will prove your skill" says father then he looks at my confused face and ask "It''s everything okay?". I answer "Yeah, but there''s something that I still don''t really understand. The ring absorbing day what were the light that showed my sword? I could see a white one that destroyed door and a black one that absorbed some fire but I don''t know what were or how use them another time" "AHH! Yeah I forgot to explain, my fault" my mama tehepero {I know it''s japanese but I really like it} "The white light was your sword intent" She manifest her sword and without using any spirit energy a red aura surrounds it "See? It''s a power created by your will I think that in the extreme situation you put all your will and accomplish the state of Sword Intent unconsciously. In my case it''s battle and growth to continue fighting strong opponents years ago I was a famous battle junkie. For your case the most probable is that the intent was protection so it will be better that you remember that sentiment so it will help to control your intent. Until you accomplish the conscious manifestation at will you''re not considered at this realm, but it''s a big step nevertheless the first step it''s always the most difficult. In my case I arrive at the realm of Sword Intent when I was 8 years and the people called me genius I don''t think that you will spent more than a year to arrive so if I''m a genius you''re a monster" says my mama proudly of me while moving up and down her arm "For the black light I don''t have any idea". My papa interrupts saying "I think that I know what that light was. If my calculation are correct this was a forbidden technique of our clan names Glazed Light. It''s a forbidden technique that overwork our pagoda turning it golden permitting stack buff to the same person damaging our spirit in the aftermath shortening the user''s life force. In your case due to your mutation your spirit main ability it seems to be absorb so when using this absorption grew permitting to absorb some of the fire energy." (So I lost life force and damaged my spirit, Fuck!) my papa see my contorted face and say with light voice "You don''t have to worry for the life force or damage absorbing the fire it seems like you recuperate the energy and improve your spirit, according Maya''s test all seems good". I sight in relief saying "Buff, great! I will go to the training room to cultivation and train" I say while running away "See you later". Arriving at the training room I start meditating cultivating stabilizing my spirit rank and deepen in my sword realm. After sometime I stand up saw that someone prepare my lunch and left it on the ground, I eat it and start doing my foundation routine of sword''s swinging, piercing and slashing. When I finish it''s already night so I eat dinner and go to sleep. I repeat this routine during the one week. Chapter 10 - Gains and explanations 3 -One week later- Finally it''s the time to use my first spirit skill, my body is in top form and my 15 rank is stabilized. After having breakfast with my family, I and papa go to the training room. Entering I see that there''s already someone. There''s 5 boys and 2 girl having ages from 8 to 20 years. "I will present them" says father with a gentle and scholarly aura (When there''s someone he is always using this kind of aura, how can you be so false) "Starting to left they are: {I suck with names and they don''t have any importance so they will have western name without surname} David 8 years old attack system rank 12 blue monkey spirit Martin 11 yeard old defense system rank 18 armored rhinoceros spirit Lara 11 years old attack system rank 19 fire spider spirit Claudio 9 years old attack system rank 12 water green frog spirit Maria 13 years old support system rank 19 aromatic rose spirit Kevin 15 years old attack system rank 28 white wolf spirit Joseph 20 years old attack system rank 36 gigantic mantis spirit "They are some of the student at the STGTP school with different rank and system like you request me" Finish papa. "I am Ning Bai 6 years old control offensive system or at least I think that I will be rank 15 NTGTS spirit, nice to meet you and thanks for your help" I present myself doing a little bow. "I want to try my spirit skill to everyone so I will be start with the youngest and finish with the oldest, you will take a special detector orb, that calculates your spirit power that affects at your own empowering and use of abilities, after the use of my skill I want to know the difference". I and David go to the training ring and stay one beside the other. He invoke his spirit showing an illusion of a monkey behind his back and growing hair being blue, the orb marking 50. I also invoke my sword ,my orb marking 80 ,handling the sword with both hand and pointing up like the red-me when meditating. then my sword turns red. One one hand David has a little struggle and his orb marks 38, on the other I sense becoming more powerful and my orb mark 93. After that I do the same with all the other obtaining new results. Summarizing my skill reduce 25% the power of the rival of the same martial rank so in this case spirit master, and this power is equal to my increase being my increase a maximum of 25%. This debuff for the opponent is reduced to 10% in case of 1 realm difference for the spirit grandmaster and to 3% in case of a spirit elder. Always maintaining my 25% of increase if at least I can absorb this energy. Also there''s no difference between the system ignoring defense but in the case of a fire element spirit the debuf increase a 50% being close to a 38% and in the case of a water element the contrary reducing the effect to a 13%. "So it seems that we obtaining enough data so we can finish this test" say papa turning to leave the room. "Wait I want to try to 2 people at the same time" I stop papa activating my skill on both David and Martin. Their power is reduced 25% and my power also increase 25% (where will go the surplus power? Never mind, it doesn''t affect the results). "Ok now we are finished thank for the good work" I say while my father is watching me with his mouth opened and says surprised "Two Aperture Supporting Heart" in a second he calms and return to his usual character "When you attained the level two of the Heart Separation Control?". "Ah! So this was the absorbing ring day when I was running I sensed I second perspective calmer that was watching my body like in third person s I think that will be me breaking trough to level 2" I answer. My papa touch his face with his hand looking tired ordering for the boys and girls to leave the room, then says to me"It''s our specialized techniques of our clan it permit to support at the same time more than one person, in your case to debuff, having arrived at level at your age its strange there''s also that if the second calm perspective it''s true you acquired the secret Mind Separation Control where cultivating you will develop different personalities obtaining a true parallel thinking not a mere multitasking. Moreover you don''t have t worry for intern fighting between the personalities yours will be always be the principal an easily control the other, the others only appearing when needed even doing it unconscious like in this case where your second personality debuff a second person without any more requirement for you" Explain father. "So it will be like having people doing the work that I want under my control but without me having sense their presence" (All good, Yahoi!) I say. "Not only that in some cases if you want you can change your personality permitting another one to control your body, only use it when your mind is close to shot down by mental shock. It''s the evolved technique of our clan but has 3 big drawbacks, the first is that not anyone can practice you need to have predisposition to it, there has passed more than 200 years since last. The second drawback is that you require a great mental strength to maintain it and it can''t be shut down so if some moment the expense is higher that your capacity you may enter in a coma, also this technique is evolved automatically every spirit realm that you break through will create another personality without your consent augmenting your mental expense. And the last is that when you arrive at rank of spirit saint all your personalities will fuse creating new main personality with the support personalities without any consciousness. So you gonna change your mentally when arrive at spirit saint but usually is not a very big change because there''s a balance of the personalities." Finish papa "You must feel tires with using so much your skill, let''s go to sleep" say papa pushing me to my room while I yawn of exhaustion "Starting from tomorrow I will prepare a new training regime that you must follow without fail". Papa leave me at my bed and I can evade to fall sleep. Chapter 11 - Regime training <1 year and 9 months later> <3rd POV> The Dawn Forest was a forest situated at 500 km of the Heaven Dou City near the border. It was a forest no more than 100 square km form basically with Steel Blue Trees and the most common plant Blue Silver Grass. It was marked as a low dangerous area and due to its low resources it was uncontrolled by any clan, also the absence of more than 300 years spirit beast, populated with low grade 10 years beast or plants only existing 10 documented beast of more than 100 years. Basically it was a little forest where low grade spirit trainees without any backing and strength try to obtain easily his first spirit ring, being of poor quality but with a safety impossible to find in bigger and more famous forest like the Star Luo Forest. There in an open space near the centermost part of the forest surrounded with a lot of foliage and leafy hindering the view of outside of it, it can be seen hooded person that due to height he won''t be over 9 years old. In this moment 3 beast came from different points of the forest a 150 years old Land Bull {a brown bull like spirit with more than 4 m long and 2 m tall, known for its powerful tackle}, a 230 years old Grass Eater Snake {a silver-blue snake of 6 m long, known for its agility and poisonous enough to paralyze same age beast} and finally a 300 years old Steel Monkey {a 4m gray monkey with a skin like armor, known for its big defense}. Although in other places this will be weak beast running and hiding to be alive in this forest they are considered behemoths. Observing close enough you can see that the hooded person has its eyes closed. In this instant the hooded person open slowly it eyes observing his surrounding and grinning with contempt easily saw in his full of pride eyes he stands his right arm and moving his hand signing to the beast to come. The 3 beast seeing his demenour became angry as the oldest spirit there they are treated as kings so are unfamiliar with being treated with so much impudence and they quickly charge toward the hooded person creating a air shock with their big bodies creating a strange image of a little figure that is gonna be smashed by powerful big beast. Due to the air generated the hood opens showing the a young face with white hair that even even though the best way to describe it it will be cute, it can certainly appreciated that growing it will be a handsome man. The white haired boy changes its posture lifting his arm having his hands positioned like grabbing something materializing a red sword between his hand with a shining yellow ring around it being the sword pointed to the ground. Then I white light surge out of the sword and the boy pierce down nailing the sword to the ground says "Intent: Scattering Protection!" a white aura scatters at all direction surrounding him creating a kind of barrier. The charging beast colliding with the white are pushed 6 m to the contrary direction. Now having a scared look at their faces the 3 beast start running in a opposite direction of the boy leaving the white haired alone in the open space only accompanied by the forest''s silence. (It seems like 100 years old beast are no longer my match being impossible for them even leaving a crack at my most weak defense without considering their numbers). After scaring the beast I sit down in a lotus position doing my breathing routine improving my foundation and enlarging my lungs while I remember what I learned this last year. I am at the training room with mama and papa says "In addition of your normal routine you will have to learn 3 different techniques, they are Mind Eye, Stealth Treasure and finally the Raising Breath. The first 2 are techniques of our clan and I will teach you for the last is your mother self created technique and she will be who teach you." I nod "For Mind eye is technique that permits to observe your surrounding having a 360o view of what happen without necessity to even open your eyes, the information is essentially more basic than your normal sense so the information obtained it will be not too precise but nevertheless is always good to control your surrounding, moreover training it will help your mental energy to grow. Depending of your attainments in this techniques the range will grow and eventually it will be a passive where you can maintained without any effort. The method to training is meditating and slowly sending weak waves of spirit power outside your body that must have an boomerang effect detecting the changes of it" (So like a radar) "For the Stealth Treasure is a unique technique of our spirit so you should try if your mutated spirit can use it it based in controlling the flow off spirit power inside the pagoda maintaining it in each layer blocking the power to leave outside. With our spirit it is very simple to do and our spirit skills do not need to show our cultivation. With this technique we hide our cultivation being impossible to others to ascertain our rank without a very exhaustive analysis. There''s also the evolved version of it named Mirror Treasure that let you lie to the rival the cultivation that you want only permitting leave the spirit energy that you decide even having the power to change the color of your ring causing the rival to underestimate you, being it way it can only show at maximum your true cultivation and a minimum of no cultivation at all." Finish papa. "For the breathing technique is simply that a form to breath exciting all the muscle and cells of your body improving it specially your stamina, mine is a little special only because the strange flow and the use of spirit energy in it. I''ll will guide your first time and then you can repeat after that." Says mama. After that they spent 1 month teaching me the basic of each technique until I can practice without the help of any of them. With this my training regime grew keeping me busy most of the day. At the sunrise cultivation until breakfast, then meditating improving the Mind Eye and Stealth Treasure (Yeah it was exactly the same with my NTGTS than with the STGTP) improving my mental power until lunch, at evening running and doing weight training for 2 hours then a little snack and sword training finishing with a little sparing with my mother and breath routine (I shivered remembering, mama''s usually very kind and easy going but when she fight she become an spartan teacher that hit me every time a commit any tiny error. Specially when teaching the Raising Breath she was always hitting my stomach shouting that I''m wrong and that I must do a correct posture). Then taking dinner and finally a little cultivation before sleeping. Only having two days a week to rest and recuperate that a spent playing with my sister and taking naps feeling to numb to do much. After a year of continuing the regime, my Mind Eye rank it can be extended to 20 m when concentrating and 1 m of passive, the Stealth Treasure was easy to master and I can control the cultivation that I show but for the ring color I must concentrate in it and for now it impossible to maintain the changed color when using the skill. For the breathing a can finally do it alone and it is an always improving so my body is strengthening and finally my sword art has improved finally focusing in a more defensive style (Yeah at first I want go offensive but I have more talent in defense and with my Intent it go better) completely attaining the Sword Intent Real creating intent whenever I want even though it consumes a lot of stamina so I can only go with maximum strength 1 time and 2 times without overexertion. For my spirit rank it is 19 so it won''t take long before I become a spirit grandmaster. Today I wake up and as usually in a lotus position I start cultivating. When I go to take breakfast I find only grandpa Bone that he says "Your parents have an urgent business so they will not come in a while. Moreover you had a good foundation but lacks practical experience so we decided that I will take you to a forest to gain some experience fighting with spirit beast there. There you will be alone and learn how to survive without any help until you can win over the strongest beast there, don''t worry too much is a low grade danger level territory with only 10 years only spirit beast being only a handful of 100 years old" (Yahoi! Finally finishing this hell training and I can start real fighting and without the continue control over me.) like reading my mind grandpa Bone says "That is a training so even with your fighting you must continue to the training routine improving and putting it to practical use" I silently cry "If after that training you didn''t arrive at our expectations there will be a severe punishment" he says grinning causing me to shiver. Then grandpa invoke a black hole and both of us enter it. At the other side of the black hole I can see that we are at the entrance of a forest "Welcome to the Dawn Forest your new home for a undetermined time!"says grandpa doing a bow like presenting me the forest. Then grandpa gives me and white armor that can cover all the important part of my body and a a statue of a pagoda saying "This will be your protection this silver flexible armor able to stop a 1000 thousand beast strike at the cost of breaking. If there''s some case that the armor take damage to a certain extent it will warm me and I will go to rescue you, the statue is similar, if you break it will warn me, if nothing happen use it when you thing that you finish your training. Good Luck!" He says disappearing. (My new and first alone adventure will start) "Be prepare forest because I Come. YAHOI!" I shouted running to the forest. Chapter 12 - Forest and Cookies? A big Joke! I am now running through a forest while being chased by 20 10 years old Silver Wolves. (Yeah. If you want to know what I''m in this kind of situation I will say it is not a good idea to enter a unknown possible infested with spirit beast forest shouting like there''s no tomorrow. They surrounded me after running 5 km walking I need to use my intent to break through their encircled so now I''m tired running to the exit. I could kill 5 of them easily, 20 is overkill!). While I''m concentrated one wolf jumps to me I can evade completely and leave a cut at my cheek (If it leave a scar I''m gonna be sure to extinguish all the specie!). Suddenly the wolf stop and start running to the opposite direction "Yeah run! Little fu?kers!"I shout when my Mind eye warn me of and attack behind me. I quickly jump forward twisting my body mid air to confront the danger now before me. I invoke my sword blocking a big claw being pushed 7 meters until I recuperate and stand again. I can see a big 5 meters two legged silver bear (With this strength it surely will be a minimum 100 years old beast) "Maybe I''m not confident fighting a large number of enemies but in a 1vs1 I have no rival!" I say while pointing up with my sword then I charge toward the bear activating my sword intent having my sword turning red illuminated by a white light "Eat this!" I easily pierce through the bear killing it. Manifesting above its dead body a white ring. (So it was 10 years old. Fuck! I spent too much spirit and physical energy being tired as fu?k!). I quickly activate my Stealth Treasure hiding my cultivation and run cautiously to not find any beast. After 10 min a find a cave that it seems empty I active my Mind Eye at full power checking no live signs I sigh in relief and enter the cave. I rest a little and then start meditating trying to recuperate to top form. (Fuck this seems more difficult that I first expect. It''s not only about strength, I must always take in consideration my surroundings and without a safe zone running out of energy it can be my death or at least the coming of grandpa''s punishment). I use my storage bracelet {he has a storage bracelet gave to him for his 7th birthday with a capacity of 5 cubic meters} and take some bread and meat and eat it (In storage I only have 1 week worth of food I''ll need to restock and find some supply for my time here). After eating I open my left arm manifesting an Oreo (Finally I can use it without fear of being discovered, I wanna keep hide as a trump card). I approach the Oreo toward my mouth when suddenly an animal jumps an take it from me (WTF! I didn''t detect it). I watch carefully and see a little 5 cm long hamster like beast eating it quickly (So its too weak to detect. The most weak beast an hungry hamster I don''t sense any kind of danger from it). Suddenly the hamster starts doing some strange noise and stars coughing I become vigilant for some kind of trap of signal to other beast but after 1 min the hamster fall down I approach him touching it to see what happened and I find that it''s dead manifesting a white ring above him (Woaw, I don''t even think to be possible to a beast to die suffocated by a cookie, how weak). Suddenly the cookie that the hamster hold in contact with me touching the hamster illuminates and even before I can react absorb the white ring it didn''t take 0,5 seconds. I watch dumbfounded the half eaten Oreo now with a white ring surrounding it after a moment my face change to an anger one (FUCK! FUCK! HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO ABSORB SOMETHING SO SIMPLY! FUCK MY RING CONFIGURATION PLAN! I HAVE NOW A FUCKING SPIRIT WITH A WHITE RING!) After 30 min cursing all the ancestors of the hamsters and promising revenge a calm a little and start meditating trying to find the spirit skill obtained. After 5 min I open my eyes knowing the skill and how it works. (Not only the skill sucks even the summoning is embarrassing, too weak!). I breath to calm down open my left hand and sing "?Wonder if I gave a Normal Oreo?". After singing that line ( yeah singing if only said it doesn''t work) a bright Oreo appears above my left hand. I take one of the black cookie part and eat only the cream. After that I simple throw the black cookies. I don''t sense any difference (So weak that is normal to not notice anything) I sigh (The ability is called Normal Oreo and increasing the cultivation speed a 5% so if someone spent some say 50 years to arrive to titled Douluo {It''s a supposition} eating this cookie he will need like 47-48 years so very useless, not only that to maintain the effect you need to eat one everyday being impossible for me to produce more than 5 a day and not obtaining a greater effect eating more. There''s also another thing, eating the cream is useful for tool spirit type increasing the speed by 5% and eating the black cookie part is useful for beast spirit types increasing by 10% if someone eats the wrong part the effect is reversed multiplied by 2. Summarizing a useless shit. At least it taste better than the original). I hit my cheeks with my hands saying "Concentrated! Ignore this mishap and concentrated in training". I find a big stone and block the entrance of the cave then stayed all the day at the cave doing my routine finally falling sleep. The next day a wake up, have breakfast and sing to invoke the Normal Oreo and eat only the cream throwing the black part. "Yosh! Ready for today" I say standing up. I hide my cultivation and decide to explore the forest stealthily. I walk around the forest making a mental map to not lose my way. After walking 30 minuts I find a river (Great! Some water source, I can cross of the list the water and fish) I take some water into the storage and using my sword a fish some fish. After that I continue exploring I find 3 Silver Wolves. I inspect the surroundings checking that there''s no other wolves I stealthily invoke my sword pointing to the sky turning the sword red I dash towards them (Revenge Time!) easily piercing and killing the first one, then swing my sword killing another one I evade with a light right step the last while chopping its head. (Suck that one! You''re no so threatening alone). After some more time I decide that today was enough and return to the cave to finish my routine. This continued for 2 weeks creating my mental map off the forest fighting some beast and hunting other to eat meat, also I found some berries to eat near the river I still have to be careful of not being ambushed by more than 5 beast, when there''s more than 3 I need to use my skill an if they''re more than 5 I run away. Today I wake up and decide to go to the center area of the forest confided to run away if I''m surrounded (At most there will be a 100 years old beast so no problem). Near the forest''s center all noises seems to stop and I can''t detect any spirit beast. Arriving at the center I saw a open space, a the middle of it stand a enormous tree of 50 m tall with a diameter of 5 meters. I close distant to the tree trying to have a better view. Suddenly a sense some danger behind me, before I can even turn or invoke my spirit I''m hit with great force at my back throwing me 10 m to the ground. Trying to stand up I cough blood, notice that my armor is broken where I was hit and a kind of big root with 0,5 meters of diameter the guilty to hit me. I see 8 more roots coming closer and I close my eyes waiting for dead. (Nothing happen?) I open my eyes at the lack of any action and find grandpa Bone standing there immobilizing all the roots with his mere presence. With and angry face Bone shouts "You! A mere plant how you dare to harm little Bai?! Courting death!" He invokes a black hole with a bone spear in it trying to kill the tree "NO! Don''t kill it, it is mine I wanna kill it, chop it and make chopsticks" I say stopping Bone. Bone stop the black hole disappears and say to me "Ok, it''s your decision" he then open a new black hole and taking me both of us cross it appearing outside the forest. Then grandpa takes some kind of pill and make me eat it "Eat it will heal you, it was only a small hit thanks for your armor" Grandpa takes another identical armor and gives to me "Take another one the previously is useless now" He sighs and continue talking "If you want to kill that tree it will be big challenge I and your parents are not hoping for you to beat eat. That tree is a 10 Roots Demonic Tree a tree that after 1000 years gained conscience gaining every 1000 years 10 m length and 10 cm of roots'' diameter, being a tree the main body is immobile so it attacks using it 10 roots. This tree have a very big vitality so it can regenerate the cut roots almost instantly to kill you must overcame the root and attack the main body chopping it down if not a complete chop it will be regenerate. Are you sure you want to kill it?" Bone asked. I nod saying "Yes, I will train to overcome my debilities if in 9 month time I can''t kill I will give up". "Why the 9 months?" asked Bone. "I big brother can''t miss the 6 birthday and spirit awakening of his precious little sister" I answer. Grandpa Bone smiles at my answer and disappears in a black hole. I vow "Be proud oh king of the forest because it only will last until the wrath of this hero descends to you" I finish saying "So now...TRAINING TIME!". Chapter 13 - A Demonic Tree and 2 new rings (I depend too much of my intent and aura using to much spirit and stamina fighting being unable to fight long battles so to correct I will go to the outward part of the forest where only 10 years old beast live and practice fighting numbers with only relaying at the sword). Through 1 month a go to the outward area and fight weak spirits beast every time increasing the number of them learn how to defend, evade, attack and counterattack with the minimum movement possible, learning battle experience. (Now my spirit skill even though powerful it spends a lot of spirit energy, to reduce the best way it will be only activating at the correct instant during less than a second will suffice in the majority of case. So I''ll we need to improve my spirit control permitting the active and deactivate instantly and without the necessity of the posture pointing up being activated anytime without wasting time or movement.) The next 2 month a spent most of the time meditating controlling the flow of spirit power and injecting to rocks trying pulverize them without any movement of the rock or mine. Finally accomplishing after 1 and a half months and spent half month creating my new passive skill Recorded Light that permits me to ''write'' the movement of the spirit flow in a layer of my sword that will necessary to point upward to do. So now only with injecting spirit power the skill activates being easier and because it''s a single way being wrote there''s very little waste decreasing the spirit consumption by 15 %. Only to ''write'' this pattern I spent 3 days requiring a lot of control to do it correctly. (My intent have two mayor flaws the first one being the consume of stamina and the second its invariability even though it main property it''s protection augmenting the defense of it the only thing that I do is improve my sword attack becoming more powerful so a wasted of properties. For the stamina I need to do the something similar as the spirit power control it to only use the required controlling its input. For the invariability I need to change the aura form specially in some kind of shield form gaining another skill-like defense.) I start meditating the way of the sword deepening my knowledge about. I tried to change the aura but seemed impossible to change the sword form, after that I tried to use my intent in combination with the Raising Breath finally noticing some change along the breath. Little by little I manage to increase my control of it. Finally after 3 months I completely can control the form of the aura spending more stamina with more bizarre form. (Now I need to combine all of them, spirit, intent and swordplay so that it can be used fluently in battle. A practical approach it will be the best way.) I start going in killing spree fighting with every spirit beast that cross my path while maintaining my mind eye, Stealth Treasure and Mirror Treasure always active even while maintaining my breath. Combining of all them with intent, spirit and swordplay until my body is near exhaustion, then I return to my cave and rest. After 2 month and a half I''m proud of having extinguished or at least nearly the Silver Wolves beast and the Fucking Hungry Hamster beast (They don''t gonna be hungry ever again). Even with little cultivation I broke through rank 20 having a hard fundation thanks to the battle experience. Also with the combination of intent and swordplay I create 3 new skills: : That make my intent surrounds me having an all around protection. : The skill with the biggest defense creating a kind of shield aura after my swings. : The same as the former but its created by piercing and moves forward creating a ranged defense a little less resistant. Today it will be the final test before the Demonic Tree I will fight the three Beast King of the Forest at the same time. Going to an open area near the center I stay at the center then I stop the passive of Stealth Treasure scattering my spirit power all around the forest. I close my eyees and expand the Mind Eye being the actual range 50 m. After 5 minutes I sense the 3 Kings approaching Land Bull, Grass Eater Snake and Steel Monkey causing me to open my eyes and grin at them signaling with my hand to come attack. They angrily charge toward me at high speed I invoke my sword piercing to the ground white aura scattering all around pushing the three beast 6 m (To weak I didn''t even sweat. Now I''m ready for the True King.) After almost 9 month I''m ready to fight the Tree. I wake up and like normal have my breakfast finishing with song invoking my first Oreo skill throwing out the dark part and eating the cream. Then I meditated a little to calm my sense and I go to the center area of the forest. As I approach I can see the Demonic Tree standing alone at the center of the open area, now towering 60 m length "It seems that I''m not the only one that became stronger" I say. I inspire and dash towards it. Just setting my foot at the clear area 3 roots appears thrusting towards me, (60 m distance) I lower by body evading one of them slight steeping left for the other and lastly I cut the last one ,immediately regenerating, I continue forward (30 m) I sense something under my feet and I jump toward the left on my previously place appears a root trying to impale me. I continue (15 m) suddenly in front on me 5 roots block my way forming a wall and 3 roots try to attack me from behind I pierce the ground in front of me light scatters around me pushing all the roots, I recuperate the sword and continue running forward (10 m). 10 root are unearth in front lashing towards me like whips I close my eyes (Mind Eye Full Concentration) clearly noticing everything around 2 m of me I evade the whip-like roots. Lowering the body, light stepping toward one side, rolling, slashing, protecting toward the right side... it seems like an eternity but only 2 second passed (4 m) being completely surrounded by roots I jump forward twisting my body (1 m) I arrive at the base of the Tree I exhale and using all my strength surrounding my sword with red and white light being more powerful and resistant I slash the Tree cutting 3 m of its diameter with a thickness of half centimeter then the white aura left at slashing expanse creating a shield opening the cut to 5 cm. In only need half second for regenerate its trunk closing the cut (More than enough) just having finished the slash I pierce forward at the cut made previously the white light push forward with great strength breaking the tree finally piercing through the trunk. The root that were about to hit my back stop a 1 cm of distance and start to disintegrating. The trunk being chopped falls to the ground with a loud "BANG!" above the stump manifesting a purple ring. (The strongest property of this Demonic Tree was its regeneration and vitality, so absorbing this spirit ring it is probably that it give me a skill related with vitality or stamina, the perfect one with the use of my Intent). I sit in lotus position recuperating some energy. Passing 10 min I start absorbing the purple ring with my sword. After 30 min I finished absorbing it and the skill obtained is: : Slowly erodes the opponent stamina absorbing for you causing more fatigue for the opponent until him faints. The rate of absorption depends of the rival being of the same level rival doubling his consumption of stamina when attacking. (So no more to do in this forest, better to notify to uncle Bone) I take the pagoda''s statue and just as I was about to break I listen in a low voice "eat, eat" I look my surrounding without finding anyone but the sound still being listened or more correctly it will be sensed a sensation more than a voice. Then I close my eyes and use my Mind Eye finally locating the sensation at my left hand. I invoke my Oreo spirit surrounded by a white ring this time listening louder "eat!eat!" (WTF is this shitty cookie trying to say). Suddenly the Oreo stats glowing with a white light and like being a lantern the light signals at the feet of the Tree. I approach and following the sensation start to dig after 1 m I find two red potatoes "EAT!EAT!" I sense this time very loud (I''m gonna follow your intruccion cookire but if it''s a trap like poison I''m gonna eat you) I think completely knowing its my inert spirit. I start eating finally stopping the voice tasting its sweet flavor like strawberry (It''s good! But doesn''t seems to be any change at eating except the voice stopping). I decide to start meditate sitting in lotus position having invoked my Oreo spirit and closing my eyes. When opening my eyes I''m in a forest with a hard black ground and fluffy white leafage that seems like clouds there''s also some milk river ( This is not an balanced breakfast). Besides me there''s and open part and at its centers stays the red potato previously eaten "Cranch! Cranch!" I listen eating noises being made by a little Hungry Hamster eating the potato. I watched flabbergasted the 1 minute that the hamster spends eating the potato. Just having finished it the hamster starts to glow and after 30 second it grow to double it previously size (Congratulation my Hungry Hamster evolved to a Big Hungry Hamster) I recuperate my trail of thoughts becoming angry shouting "Fucking hamster what are you doing eating my..." Suddenly a sense a "Click!" and I know it my first Oreo skill improved a 50% and the ring previously without even 10 years it become 90 years old. I look surprised at big eyes of the Big Hungry Hamster and it answer saying happily "?Eat?Eat?". Chapter 14 - Rongrongs awakening (If this hamster has the capacity to evolve by eating it''s clear what I must do. It''s hunt time!) I run through all the forest, that for some reason it''s starting to rot, killing every beast that I cross and picking every fruit I find I started invoke my Oreo and concentrating spirit power it starts to glow and start eating all the food, for some reason it seems like my stomach has become I black hole eating all without any time being full. Finishing the food I meditated concentrating in my Oreo spirit, returning to the previous black and white world the only difference being a mountain made of food at the center of the open aura. There the hamster starts to smell the food, after a moment it does an angry face turning its head toward one side not seeing anymore the food, in this instant all meat food banish and I''m being forced out of the meditation. I sense like my stomach is about to explode so I can''t stop to start throwing an endless amount of vomit during 5 whole minutes. After finishing "I though I gonna die" I go to river to clean my self then I return to meditate entering the black white world. There I can see the hamster eating the last piece of fruit it sees me and like reprimanding say "EAT!EAT!" (So the fu?ker only likes fruit but it seems that normal fruit doesn''t gonna have any effect in its growth. I will ask dad and mother later for high source fruits). I stop meditating "?Wonder if I gave an Oreo?" a bright Oreo appears like always I eat the cream and throw the black cookie and starts cultivating (yeah it seems like I there''s some kind of improvement but it is so little that is difficult so estimate) standing up I observe the surrounding and it seems the all forest is dying (Maybe it for the death of the Tree. I''ll ask uncle Bone) I break the pagoda statue and 3 seconds later a black hole appears and from it uncle Sword come out "Its seems like it''s time or your return" he looks at his surroundings "What did you do little monsters the natural force of this forest it died in little time the forest will be an arid desert" say Bone. "I only killed some beast" I answer "Extinguishing 2 of them" I say in low voice that cause Sword to frown "Is it causes because I kill the Demonic Tree? Maybe it was the heart of the forest and killing it the forest die". Bone answer me explaining "There''s documented cases where the Demonic Tree is killed, after some decades it will grow again returning to be 1000 years old. Did you do something else apart of killing it?". I remember the two red like-potato so I take the one I didn''t eat and show to Bone "Under the trunk I find this potato, I don''t know what is it but I sensed some special energy from eat". Bone face palm saying "This is a Blood Spirit Fruit! It is a fruit created by concentrating large energy during 10.000 years so it is very difficult to find one. It''s main property is to improve the foundation of the body, to show the greatest results it''s necessary to eat it very young" I can''t help to smile and Bone seeing me say "You gonna eat it? It doesn''t have any problem even with its great results the pain caused at eating is very mild so it can be eaten by anyone without previously training". I answer "How can I eat the best present for my cute little sister" at that Bone helplessly sigh creating a black hole "Let''s go, tomorrow is Rongrong birthday and I don''t think you want to miss it" then both of us enters the black hole appearing at a dining room. "Big brotherrrrrrrr!" I pink torpedo launch toward me striking me and falling both of us to the ground, obviously the torpedo being Rongrong. "So much time without seeing you, I missed you!" say Rongrong "There''s no one to play only old people". I pat her head saying "Yeah, yeah. Your big brother also missed you but I need to go away for training. Also I brought you some presents". "Give, Give" she says. "Tomorrow is your birthday and spirit awakening ceremony so wait for it I will give it to you just after breakfast" I explain only to see her pouting. "Clap!" Turning my head to the clapping sound I find my mom and dad there looking at me smiling. Mum hugs me saying "I missed you so much. Did you eat well? Did you sleep well? Did you..." Papa interrupts "You''re suffocating Bai let him breath. Also he must be tired of or his training so it best that he goes to sleep early, tomorrow we will celebrate Rongrong birthday and the next day Bai can explain all his adventures". I nod yawning. After that I say good night to everyone (even though it was evening) an went to my room. Just laying at my bed I started sleeping. The next morning I wake up see the clock and exclaim "Its 10 o''clock I sleep 16 hours! I must quickly go to have breakfast" I change my damaged clothes (Yeah I didn''t even changed) I put some white with golden pattern suit. After being dressed I quickly run to the dining room finding there my parents, uncle Bone and sister finishing their breakfast "Good Morning Big brother" Say my sister happily with a mouth full of food, she is wearing a long pink dress with lots of frills and flowery pattern. "Good Morning everyone" I say to everyone kissing my sister at her forehead "Happy Birthday Rongrong!" Then I take a golden box a give to her "That is your present". Rongrong very exited opens the box, seeing the present inside it she makes an angry face and start hitting me "You''re present is only a potato. Bad big brother doesn''t love me" She starts crying. "No, no Rongrong is the best, cutest little sister that exist how can I not love you. This is a very special fruit, very sweet and delicious. Moreover, I have another gift" I say giving her a golden diadem decorated with some yellow flowers. Rongrong quickly take it happily wearing it on her head saying "I can forgive you, but only this time". After that she takes the red potato and eat it "yummy! Big Brother do you have more?". I answer "It''s very precious and strange so it will be almost impossible to find another, sorry. But try this" I give her an enveloped Oreo cream previously made {It has a duration of 10 min after made}. She eat quickly saying "It''s sweet! I like it, do you have more?" she asked hopefully. "Too much is bad for your health so only 1 every day". My dad interrupts our conversation saying "It''s time for the ceremony we must start walking to it". We leave the dining room walking toward the church outside the mansion. While walking dad ask what where the food that I given to Rongrong I answered saying it was a Blood Spirit fruit and a normal cookie that I bought and really like it causing a very surprised reaction to the fruit. The church didn''t change in this 2 years being completely the same even with the same hateful elders. Entering elder Zhong, the same that try to not teach me any clan techniques, says mocking me "Oh is not the pitiful sword mutation, how are you going with your little toy, it can cultivate?" My dad looks threatening at him changing his way to speak more politely "I''m only saying why do we need to spent resources and teaching main techniques to this child, it will be better to concentrate in someone like my grandson Fong there" He points a black haired boy "He is a genius at only 10 years old he is rank 18, his future it limitless". (I had enough of this shit!) I say "Oh the great genius why don''t we have some spar so we all can see your excellency. Of course I know your a support type so I''ll permit you to fight with your usually supporting partner. If You win I''ll renounce all my privileges and the future heir it will be him, If I win you will shut up always in my and my sister presence and your rank of elder will be lost returning to a normal clan member. Do you accept?". Elder Zhong turns to my father "You agree with your son?"my dad only nodding causing Zhong to grin "So I accept my grandchild and his partner will fight you". All the people at the church go to the courtyard outside. I stay at one side of the yard being at the other side one boy and one girl. The boy has black hair and haughty face with smirk that seems like a rat he present himself "Ning Fong, 10 years old support system, rank 18 STGTP spirit" invoking his STGTP with 1 yellow ring. The girl has a bright blond hair and a beautiful and fine face she walks at the front of Fong protecting him saying "Rei Xengfi 12 years old power attack system, rank 24 Straw Tiger spirit" manifesting her spirit changing half of her hair black and gaining some muscles with 2 yellow rings around her. Then I step forward "Ning Bai 8 years old control defense system rank 22 NTGTS spirit" I invoke my sword showing two yellow rings (There''s no need to show them the truth). Another elder lift his arm crying while lowering his arm "Fight!". At the signal Xengfi charges at me activating one of her spirit ring being supported by the spirit skill of Fong . When she arrive at 5 m of me I pierce forward Launching a white and red aura in front of me. The aura goes through Xengfi ignoring her hitting Fong situated behind here. Fong is pushed by the aura 10 m finally falling to the ground unconscious. Causing Xengfi to stop and stare surprised at Fong I say "I only want to protect this beautiful princess from an evil rat" making Xengfi blush and me taking advantage of it and dash toward her knocking her out with a simple hit at her neck saying "I''m very sorry hitting some beautiful lady but I can''t lose this fight" I turn to ex-elder Zhong "Now shut up ex-elder, we have more important thing to do like my sister awakening". We all return to the church leaving alone the ex-elder and his grandson. Inside my dad activates the formation and my sister walk in it. After 3 second of lights my sister open her right hand manifesting an Eight Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda with an innate full spirit power happily grinning toward us she says "The same as Papa!". Chapter 15 - 3 years 3 rings 33 {This chapter will be the first part in past tense, it will be a recounter of what happened in 3 years finishing the 1st volume of this book Childhood. Adolescence being the next one that it will be until the final of the competition ark. So let''s celebrate the finishing of the 1st volume with my longest chapter so far. Enjoy it} My sister awakening created a big fuss at the clan with the second coming of a ETGTP so the elders returned to ask questions about it but quickly shut up before the oppression of 2 titled Douluo. (They are a disgrace for the clan how can they be so stupid to demand something of us when the immense majority of the clan power is in our side). Finally it was decided it will be a clan''s secret protecting the secrets of their heiress, and yes, my sister became the heiress of the clan as we are a support clan based in a support spirit it really doesn''t have much sense being me the heir but anything to shut up the elders, now with any reason to opose the new heiress. Having innate full spirit power plus the evolved version of the pagoda becoming the person with the most potential in the clan (maybe except me). In my case I will trained to be a reserve of the clan or groomed to be an elder so I will continue having access at the best resources and techniques of the clan. After finishing celebrating my sister''s birthday playing all day with her and eating her favorites dishes the next day I explained all my experiences and gains of this 9 months causing some surprises for them and being congratulated by them. Then my parents informed me that I will have in addition of my training a new class, Etiquette. Even my puppy eyes and begging didn''t stop it causing my sister to laugh loudly until parents explained that she also will be attending. Finally both of us reluctantly agreeing in exchange of anything that we want. My sister asked for new clothes (You only need to ask and even without the exchange you will have it, but your naivety is very cute!) in my case I asked for rare fruits specially with a lot of energy saying that I really like fruits and I wanna know what is the best, they prepared a lot of fruits for me everyday when the saw how much I could eat and more or less once a month the gift me some rare spirit fruit all of them happily being eaten by Glut (Yeah I name the hamster Glut). Spending my time with training, cultivating, (I internally sigh) etiquette classes and spoiling Rongrong giving her and my family members Oreo cream every day (Uncle Bone taking the black cookie). After 1 month of giving Oreos my family finally asked where I took them and there''s it seems to be some kind of spirit energy in them finally me revealing my Oreo spirit to all and its ring capacity of improvement by eating. They swear to not say to anyone keeping it secret and recommend me to at least wait until being a spirit King to absorb ring in focusing in self support more than others. With this 3 years passed I am now 11 years old and Rongrong 9 and for our growth is the next: -Rongrong is now rank 20 with a 420 years old ring of a Muscle Bear with strength amplification of 35% as skill. She also arrived at the Three Aperture Governing Heart of the Heart Separation Control (I was very surprised and though to be impossible, how can she arrived at level 3 when she only use one skill?) and is quickly becoming a very charming little lady. The only bad part being that due to all the pampering of the family (specially me!) and her talent she became very proud and a little arrogant with everyone outside family having made 0 friends. -Dad is rank 88 and he broke through the 8 level of the Heart Separation Control creating a new never seen before level the Eight Aperture Legendary Heart having the ability to simulta manipulate eight spirit abilities to accurately support eight targets. -Mom is rank 95 only step away for the super douluo rank being able to break through any day. -Uncle Bone is also rank 95 but he says that he has burned all his potential reaching his limit so the possibility of breaking through is almost 0. -For uncle Sword he came to the clan one time to see how are we doing bringing a lot of present for me and Rongrong but he stayed a very short time hurriedly restarting his trip. He informed us he is now rank 97 a touching the moon Douluo and that he will become stronger. -In my case it didn''t change too much I honed all my skills and now they all kind of automatic reducing the consume of spirit or physical energy needed. For the spirit part I''m now rank 30 only a ring away of the spirit elder rank, having arrived at this rank 3 month ago I was training my mental power to endure the mental shock of a 10.000 years old ring now being prepared for it. For my Oreo spirit finally last year the ring became yellow improving the cultivation speed a 10% for tool spirits and 20% for beast spirits having Glut evolved to a 100 years old beast he (yeah it''s male) is now a Starving Mad Rat so he stopped of eating fruits and prefers meat but I don''t know why it only eat meat that I personally slay, if not the food cannot be entered in the Oreo space so in this months it was difficult to raise it a bit only being 110 years old now. For my sword, I improved the movement, battle instinct and I consolidated completely the Sword Intent realm, having the possibility of use 5 consecutive sword intent without needing to recover my physical energy. I tried to approach to the Domain realm being based on the understanding of the sword against the projection of emotion of the Intent realm but I''m not near to have any break through being unable of understand anything so I continue meditating and pray from some lucky chance. Today Rongrong, me and Chang are at Star Dou Forest searching for a spirit ring for my sister and me. For Chang she is a 14 years old rank 23 power attack system with Black Panther spirit and is the partner of Rongrong for her to practice her abilities because it will be impossible that I permit some dirty boy to be her partner and I can be it. In this year I learn that I can''t be supported by any pagoda, not only that I can cancel the abilities of any pagoda no more than 1 realm above me consuming their energy and improving my skills by 30%, so I''m the most counter of my clan a secret for any outsider, if any elder know about they will restrain me afraid of me going against the clan in the future. There''s also spying us or you can say protecting us uncle Bone but he is hiding and won''t appear except if a life threatening situation occurs. At the forest while we search for compatible rings searching both of us for some speed related beast I started in killing spread hunting and eating every spirit beast that I sense some pull of my spirit being the majority deer-like (It seems like Glut''s favorite meat is deer). After 1 week of traveling we arrived at a lake and there drinking water we saw the perfect beasts for our rings one big Lighting Gale Wolf that it seems to be 12.000 years all and a little Gale Wolf seeming be its children of 700 years old. The Gale Wolf its a specie of spirit beast that has the form of a wolf with a cloud lie symbol on its head, they are specialized in speed and when breaking through the 10.000 years they gain an attribute empowering them usually being wind, lighting or sometimes only pure speed. "They are perfect for us" I say to Rongrong creatin an attack plan "I will attack first distracting the Lighting Wolf then both of you will start attacking the baby wolf(Not so baby being 700 years old but in comparison). When the Lighting Wolf detect your presence I will protect you so don''t worry for it, kill quickly the Gale Wolf and then support me finishing the Lighting, once the Gale Wolf is subdued do a energy signal for me to detect , do you understand?" they both nod "Okay when you see that the Lighting Wolf is separated of the Gale Wolf attack it". I exit our hiding place and walk slowly toward both wolf, the Lighting watching me stay in a guard posture in front of the baby protecting being very attend at my movement. Arriving at 30 m of them I invoke my sword <1st skill: Fire Power> <2nd skill: Wood Stamina> combining red and green producing some king of brown then I pierce forward shooting a white sphere aura towards them and quickly deactivating my 1st skill to not waste energy, the Lighting wold stay protecting its child underestimating the white aura trying to stop with its body causing me to grin. The white sphere ignores the Lighting Wolf going through it and impacts the baby pushing it 10 m crashing to the ground (Luckily it doesn''t put any spirit energy to protect of the impact if not it won''t be able to go through it). "Haha It seems that you''re ignorable" I teased it. The Lighting Wolf seeing her baby injured but standing up charge angrily toward me I lightly block it letting being pushed away of the place. The Lighting Wolf continues pushing me with attacks until we are 1km away of the baby then it starts building up electricity and with a shout launch an electric ray. I quickly nail my sword to the ground and jump behind, the ray being redirected to the ground by the sword. Then the wolf starts circling me at great speed. I reinvoke my sword holding it with both hand and close my eyes maximizing the Mind Eye in close quarters. The Lighting Wolf launch toward my back I respond <1st skill: Fire Power> concentrated at my back blocking it charge using a lot of physical energy. This continue for 5 minutes me being nearly exhaustion and the Lighting Wolf only seems a little tired (Fuck counters, a quick battle is my low point preferring to wear my opponent at least it seems that its attack is not enough to break my defense), at this moment I receive Rongrong signal and it seems the Lighting Wolf detected something wrong with his baby "It seems it''s your lose" I say grinning then both of us run toward the lake ignoring the other. The Lighting Wolf wrapping with lighting and running across the air (Flying is unfair!) arrives before me to see in time for Rongrong piercing through the heart of the baby with a spirit knife while the baby is held by Chang. At this moment the Lighting Wolf enrages creating a lot of lighting that attacks its surroundings randomly finally charges toward Rongrong and Chang with full power spending a great deal of energy. I arrived at the lake seeing the Lighting Wolf 2 m away from my sister of my sister''s diadem a white aura sprout completely stopping the Lighting Wolf even rebounding it 30 m with a big crash "I can input my intent in objects even expending 1 month time injecting intent at the diadem is worth it for my little sister. Rongrong support!" I shout. My sister activate her first skill being absorbed by my sword turning it more bright. With this little respite without stopping my 2nd skill I recovered a bit I approach the Lighting Wolf. The Lighting Wolf was laying there exhausted having wasted a lot energy in its berserk state and absorbed by me I can easily sense his wrath using its last strength jumps towards me in a futile intend I step left easily avoiding it <1st skill: Fire Power> I surround my sword with intent and pierce its heart killing it. I stop all my abilities and fall to the ground exhausted "Buff it was very close luckily it was distracted and wasted a lot of energy if not the one who died maybe will be me". Then my sister and Chang approach me asking "Big brother are you ok?". "Yeah I only need a little rest and I will be completely find. Hurry and absorb your ring before it disappears" I answer. In this moment a black hole appeared leaving uncle Bone from it saying "You also need to absorb it don''t worry I will guard you". With uncle our security was ?ssured so I like my sister start to absorb the ring. After 6 hours of returning to fight the Lighting Wolf only this time is was in form of a mental attack and it was always shouting "You kill my son! Die!" and finally defeating it I successfully absorbed the ring gaining my 3rd skill Lighting Speed improving my speed 40% and decreasing a 35% of the opponent (Hahaha they will be like in slow motion) but with a great consumption of spirit energy being only possible of using 2 s or 2 instants (It seems that 10.000 years old abilities are too much for spirit elders). I open my eyes seeing the proud face of my sister telling "I only spent 30 minutes you''re too slow. My second ability is Agility amplification 35%". Then I explain to them my skill causing my sister to pout saying "Unfair! I also want a black ring!" she don''t stopped complaining even when us telling to wait for the spirit King rank until we promised to buy anything that she wanted. After that I take the body of the Lighting Wolf and take it away saying to my sister to not follow. After some walk and being sure of not being followed I start ravishing eating the corpse like not being eating anything in a month (I don''t want Rongrong to see this ungrateful side of me). Eating one of is legs I much something hard being impossible to eat. Observing it I find it is a right leg spirit bone (Lucky! Following the ten great core spirit competencies of Yu Xiaogang it says that the possibility of a spirit bone increase when the spirit is very enraged and how can it be more angry when we killed her child) I decided to finish eating the body and ask uncle before absorbing the bone. Finishing eating I can sense Glut with its stomach full and digesting it with a satisfied smile in his face (So if it to strong it need time to eat). I return to uncle, Rongrong and Chang showing them the spirit bone uncle Bone saying "Woah a 10.000 years old spirit bone there''s small countries that started wars for something like this you''re very lucky. Don''t waste time and absorb it usually leg bone type are best used for speed and being the Wolf a speed centered beast I don''t think that you can find any better". Listening and nodding I sit down and start absorbing. I think because I also had the ring of the same beast is was very easy to absorb only spending 10 minutes. Opening my eyes I say "The ability that is gives is a very low consumption one its name Air Walk and permits me to step in the air like being on ground improving a lot my mobility". Uncle answer "Even if not being a very powerful boost of speed with is low consumption it will be very useful at fighting, permitting to fight flying opponent being the best use like a surprise attack". "Not only that absorbing the ring I broke through rank 32 finally arriving at rank 33 after absorbing the bone" I add causing all of them to have a surprised face. We continue a little talking finally returning home with Bone''s black hole. The next day after breakfast father came to me and say "Bai you don''t have a lot of friends so today I''ll present you one boy. He is my student only 1 year older than you, has a great talent and good connections so I expect you both to be good friend". Then I follow him to his office opening the door dad says "I present you to Xue Qinghe". Chapter 16 - Versus Xue Qinghe He was boy 5 cm taller than me with blonde hair, golden eyes and I white and perfect skin face that will make many women jealous. He was wearing golden clothes showing at his shoulders the royal shield of Heaven Dou Empire (I don''t know why but I have a sense of familiarity with him like he is someone really important and special). Seeing me he makes a light bow and present himself "I am honored to finally meet the famous young master of the STGTP clan I heart great thinks from your father. I am Xue Qinghe crown prince of Heaven Dou Empire". I bow a little more than him showing my lower statue "The honor is mine who did not know of the genius and future emperor? My name is Ning Bai your highness". "You do not need to be so formal, as your father student I consider both if us the same so you can call me without honorifics, Qinghe is fine". He says smiling brightly (Woah is like he is shining). " In this case call me Bai" I answer. My dad leave the room saying " I will leave the young generation to talk alone". All alone in the room Qinghe says " Now that we''re alone there''s no need to speak formal. I''m happy to meet you and I would like us being friends, being the crown prince there aren''t a lot of people that I can befriend on similar terms. And I want to be in good terms with you and your clan that it''s one of the 3 upper clans". "Yeah, I think that father prepared this meeting for me to make one friend, the majority of the time I spent training and you never know if the people that approach you are only interested in the power of the clan. And I''m happy to finally met you my father talked a lot of your great character and intelligence there''s also your talent for cultivation known for everyone" I paused thinking to continue "Rather that having a pleasant talk while drinking tea what will you say of a little spar? I think that the best way to understand another one is crossing fist, in my case a sword". He surprised at first but rapidly changed his face of teasing one that cannot hide a little arrogance in his eyes "A little spar it will be okay, don''t worry too much because I''m gonna restrain a bit there''s never has been an opponent of my age that can contend me easily winning all fight I expect that you will be a bit better". " Oh you don''t have to worry you won''t lose your invincibility in your age" I paused and grin " because I''m a year younger". Qinghe laughed "How arrogant, I''ll like to see if you have the strength to be". Then I guide him to the nearest training room and positioned one in front of the other distancing 30 m between us "Ning Bai 11 years old rank 33 control system NTGTS spirit" I introduce me invoking my sword spirit showing 2 yellow rings and 1 purple. "Xue Qinghe 12 years old rank rank rank 41 power attack system Heavenly Swan spirit" He says while a big white and glowing swan appears at his back with 2 yellow rings and 2 purple. We stay quiet with relaxed guard both knowing that could been changed in an instant at this moment Qinghe says "As you''re the younger here I shall permit you the first move and as you''re one realm lower I won''t use my fourth ring skill". "Oh, what an honor" I reply activating my skill <2nd skill: wood stamina> turning my sword green. At that Qinghe observe his body with disgusted expression saying for himself"It seems a little more difficult to move my body" He thinks a little "No, it is not that is more difficult is it that in consumes more energy moving" He then turns to me "It''s some kind of stamina absorption ability?". "As expected of a genius you deduced my skill in a moment" I answer. "In this case it seems that there''s no need for worrying if I finish quickly" He points his palm towards me <1st skill: Light explosion> condensing spirit power in a bright yellow sphere form and shooting towards me, I quickly pierce forward shooting a shield-like white aura both attacks colliding causing a big explosion. "Clap!Clap! Congratulation to stop my first skill it debility it that explode in contact so is easy to escape its damage for ranger attackers. How will you react to that?" He says pushing forward both of his arms <2nd skill: Heavenly Descend> the swan at his back charges at me for it I slash downward my sword activating in one instant <1st skill: Fire Power> increasing my power and decreasing his creating a white shield before me at that Qinghe smirks until my shield stop his swain causing to disperse and for his face to distort "How can this be this skill ignores defenses passing through them only being possible to evade" He calms himself "So it must be some sort of defensive skill with some attribute to stop this kind of attack how lucky for you". "Hahaha, yeah it''s only luck big brother Qinghe". He flinches a little but then continue "Let me see how good you''re at close combat" He charges quickly at me <3rd skill: Heavenly Swain Transformation> the swan seems to fusion with him spouting feathers all around and 2 wings on his back and he starts to shine. He throw a punch at me that I easily block with my sword then he throws a shiny kick at my right side (It seems that the shine is a concentration of his spirit power hitting harder) I bent my right leg <1st skill: Fire Power> blocking with me knee his strike. Even when one leg blocked moving all his body he tries to do a lower kick with his other leg I jump back avoiding it and letting 5 m distance between us also deactivating my skill. "It seems that you''re ability is to improve your strength and speed and some of application of your first skill to make an explosive power there''s also the almost impossible flexibility" I explain. His face contorts a little and charges another time at me continuing attacking with some kicks and punches sometime even using his first skill to make explosion. I block or evade his attacks dodging to one side, jumping twisting my body an in the cases of explosion using my intent and first skill. Even though his attacks are powerful and quickly they are very predictable, causing his face to contort more with every attack evaded. "Your fighting style is too rudimentary you surely usually only need to overpower your opponent with power and speed but if it can be coped it''s no difficult to prevent" I say. Finally his facade broke and shows an angry face but only last a moment immediately changing to an arrogant one "You shall feel honored, not a lot of people needs me to not restrain myself. You shall see my 4th skill" He shouts jumping high flying 20 m over the ground opening his wings <4th skill: Feather Rain> out of no where appearing tens of brilliant feathers and falling slowly until he says "Dance!" then the feathers gain speed and are pushed towards me. I maximize my Mind Eye sensing it feather movement (Impossible to evade or block all of them, but with more speed) I pierce the ground pushing the feathers away "You won''t stop my technique only by pushing it " Qinghe laughs. <3rd skill: Lighting Speed> reducing the speed of Qinghe and his feathers and increasing mine I run toward him slashing no stop the feathers while dodging some of them I can''t evade all and I receive some cut but not enough to make me stop (1 second) I arrive under him and jump up piercing up a white sphere goes up to Qinghe while pushing the feathers, Qinghe easily avoid it flying around it saying "Sorry but it seems that you will need to learn how to fly to win me, but you did it well enough". In this instant my right leg shine with a yellow electric light I kick the air jumping toward Qinghe who makes a frighten and surprised face, my 3rd skill runs out of spirit energy (I don''t need it now) I slash toward him but when my sword is almost reaching him some light surrounds him and explodes pushing me and making me unconscious. While closing the eyes the last image was a blurred view of 3 pair of wings and an exquisite beautiful face of a girl. Chapter 17 - Friends I wake up and (like always. Sighs!) look my surroundings. I find in my bed and in my room there are my dad and Qinghe. I attentively look at Qinghe (He seems a little like a girl but he is clearly the crown prince of Heaven Dou empire so he will be a boy, also has a lot of male characteristic lie an adam aplee and the absence of curves. I really would like to meet a so beautiful girl. I internally sigh, another effect to put on my unconsciousness mirages). "How do you feel? You have my most sincere apology for injuring you. It seems that I overexcited a little while fighting. That and the shame of possible losing to someone of less rank and younger than me I had that reaction." Qinghe bows 90o "Truly sorry!". I quickly jump out of the bed and do a little of stretching "It seems all good, without any problem" I turn to Qinghe "Don''t worry too much for it me falling unconscious is like a part of my routine if I don''t do it 2 times a year is that there''s something wrong with me, hahah". At that my dad sighs and turns to leave saying "It seems all good I''ll live you alone to finish your affairs". Qinghe bows to my father leaving then turns to me with a serious face and says "It was your win I promised that I won''t use my 4th spirit skill". "What the Fuck are you saying?!" I shout surprising him "You lost because some prespeech? We were only analyzing our rival and watching how he reacts it''s normal when your put in a fight to use your full strength if needed. Moreover I''m happy to push you so much that you must use your full power. I little injury while fighting it''s normal we''re not flower in a greenhouse or at least I aspire to be much more. The reality it was that this was my first serious fight versus a spirit master even if it started as a spar. I usually only spar with people of my rank that are too weak and old or spar with my mother and in this case the correct world is not spar is being beaten. So I''m glad to have the opportunity to fight some other genius at my age group even with the lost" I smile at him and extend my hand "I really like be friend with you and have more ''spars''" for some reason his cheeks turn a little red grabbing my hand and doing a handshake he says "I really would like to be your friend it was the same for me my first true fight without any restrain it is a little funny that it was in a spar" he laughs. "So from today we are best friend! Like my mother says true friend are made at the heart of the battle so I wouldn''t fight a better way to start our friendship" I say laughing "And about the spar what was that last final explosion? It didn''t seems like your first skill and I sensed a very pure spirit power emitted by you" At that Qinghe''s face turn somber replying "It''s a secret techniques of my family if they know that I showed to you I will be hardy pushed" He bows "Please don''t say anything!"(It''s a taboo asking for secret techniques so best to stay silent). I pat his shoulder saying "What are friends for I won''t say a thing and don''t worry too much for family technique in our fight I used a lot of mine" he sighs in relief. "I remembered that you said something of a conversation drinking a tea, how does it sound?" asks him smiling. "For me okay but if you''re not in disagree I prefer a good cup of coffee". Then I guide him and both go to big terrace with a little table where you can have a view of all the frontal garden. After 2 minutes a maid came leaving a cup of coffee and another one of tea, after leaving I scan the area with Mind Eye to detect any spy, not detecting I turned serious and say "Ok we''re alone. I will like to ask why did you become my father''s student? Yeah sure he is very intelligent but I don''t think that he has the capacity of teaching you too much due to secrets so an average teacher will suffice. In this case what are your reasons? And what is their relation with me and my clan?" I sip the coffee seeming interesting. Qinghe listening turned serious and replies "You''re father is one of the most intelligent people of the continent and I''m learning a lot from him but the truth of being my teacher is for connection and information". I ask "And what is your main objective for obtaining them?". "Even when nowadays the continent is it in peace I don''t think it will be very lasting and the main culprit it will be Spirit Hall. There''s some strange movements for its part, they''re preparing for a war while they also seems to be searching for some think but my net of information didn''t exactly find anything concrete. So the best will be to prepare ourselfs, improving our strength and creating alliances between us. For these reason I approach your father being the clan head of one of the upper clans being recognized by his wits and intelligence t was the perfect teacher to learn information of the continent trying to find promising people and recruiting to my side improving my strength". I smile sarcastically "And that they will help in swiftly ascend to the throne of the empire doesn''t have anything to do?". He smiles replying "It''s not the main point but nevertheless it is a good extra". I start laughting "I like you. Sure it''s important to keep the continent in piece but if yourself don''t have any gain why the need to work so hard. You''re like me we fight for our profit or the people that we care about. It is a sophistry to say that peace is the first". Qinghe keep calm answer "It maybe be, but it is not necesarry for a monarch to create a kind and fair image to be respected by its people" He smiles "Yeah I know that we should act for our profit but it necessary to at least appear that is for the good of people. So I will ask as a friend if you will help me adquiring information and power and in the future at the battle with Spirit Hall" He extends his hand. I grab his hand saying "I will help you in anything that I can while it doesn''t affect me negatively". "Clap! Ok so we finish all this bored conversation. How much time you can stay in the clan before returning to your empire?" I ask. "I came here as a intermediary for our empire and your clan in the form of a teacher-student relation so I can stay 1 month before return, after that it will be your father to come there" He answer. "So there''s no time to waste, it''s time!" I shout. He makes a confused expression asking "Time for what?". I grin "Of course for a helling training. I can''t waste the opportunity of having a good spar partner improving my fight against people on the other hand you need to improve your foundation, you''re skills, spirit power and characteristics are top notch but its fluidity and your between skill is very forced having no style at all except overpower the enemy so in this month you need to at least start creating a self style. I need to have some rest so we will start tomorrow" I leave the room waving my hand "Be prepared!" leaving a astonished Qinghe. I wake up the next day meditate a little and find something change at the Oreo spirit so I enter its mindscape. At the Oreo space it seems that Glut has finish digesting the Lighting Wolf meat causing to grow to 2 m and turning his hair a brilliant brown tone that seems harder, inspecting it I know that he grew to 850 years old (so it won''t be long to become a thousand years old beast) causing the effect of the first skill improves to 15% for tools spirits and 30% for beast spirits. I ??r?ss Glut a little and say good bye to him leaving the space. In my room I decided to go have some breakfast. Going to the dining room to have breakfast at there I find my family happily talking with Qinghe stopping when the saw me coming. "Oh Bai, we were talking with Qinghe and I must say he is a charming little one, I''m very happy for you making good friends" My mom says with a big smile causing I and Qinghe to bush a little. "Big brother Qinghe is cool!" Rongrong says. I approach to him and in low voice so that he can only hear I say "If you touch my sister, forget being friends, you''re dead!" I have a big smile "Do you understand" causing Qinghe to only nod. "So what are you planning for today, boys?" dad ask. "We are going for some training together at the morning, in the evening he must attend your class father" dad nods. Qinghe and I finish eating and we go to the training ground. "First of all, you depend to much on spirit energy and skills so in the first week we will only do physical training and spar using our fist, in my case I won''t use my sword. So will we start doing 10 ??ps to the mansion with this heigh" I say while a take arms and legs weighs of 10 kg. "You want to run with 10 kg of weigh 10 km without the use of spirit energy, you''re crazy" He shouts. "No, no. I want with 40 kg it we will use one of them for every extremity" I reply causing her mouse to hang. We finish the ??ps in 1 hour in my case with only a little sweet and for Qinghe he is so exhausted that can''t even move. "Not so majestic now, eh?" I teased. "I whose fault is this?!" he shouts. "Hey don''t get angry is only a light warming up at the final of the month it will be a child game, moreover I only say that you can''t use your spirit energy while running. You can use it now to recuperate in 10 minutes we will start sparring. Then I decide to give him the Oreo black part (It will only be 1 month so the effect won''t be to strong but it is delicious and eating some sugar won''t go wrong). I give to him "Eat it, you need the energy". He eats saying "It''s sweet and very good do you have more?". "After every ??p training I will gift to you, ok? It will be the gift for a good world done". After 10 minutes Qinghe recuperate his proud face and majestic bearing. "So, start!" He charges at me "You''re a swordmaster while I''m a close fighter you don''t have any possibility" throwing a punch I lightly dough toward the left evading the punch I grab her arm and using the same impulse of his charges I throw him to the ground using my back. "Speed and power if you can''t directly overpower you''re rival the best technique win. You blind charged without any kind of faint or thinking of the next attack. So foreseeable that there wasn''t any difficulty to throw you." We spar or better say I beat him for 4 hours, he didn''t even grace me I didn''t even need to block, finishing today training I saying "Everyday is will be more difficult 2 kg more and 1 ??p more" causing him to flinch. With this regime 1 week passed and Qinghe and I are sparing. He throws a punch at me, I dodge to the right trying at the same time to grab his wrist. He twist all his body kicking me I bend my left arm blocking the attack. Then I punch towards his stomach with my right hand, he twist his body jumping using my shoulder as a support to impulse his body away of me while doing a somersault perfecting landing 5 m of me. "Ok so we finish this part of the training. You''re truly a genius with only one week you arrive almost at my level taking advantage of your superior speed and flexibility. Now we will fight using spirit energy, but only as a support not offensively with this you will learn its movements and how to control it being more efficient when using spirit power consuming less". We continue sparing this time using spirit energy enlarging another time the power between us winning me easily. After the spar I say "Take off your shirt" causing his face to turn like a tomato asking "Wh-why I need to do something like this?". "I will help your spirit circulation by guiding eat so it will be easier for you, It''s like and specialized method of my clan being know for our control, but don''t worry is not any secret or big think is only creating a way easing the move of spirit energy" I answer. The red color goes down a little and he calms and then open the back part of shirt only showing me his back "You don''t need to touch more so this is sufficient do what you must do". I out my hands at is back (Woah how white and tender he seems like a girl) and start to improve his spirit power circulation. Having finished I ask "How do you feel?". She looks around her "It seems a little strange but I can move more energy easier so when I''m used to it will be a big improvement". Training and me guiding his spirit power another week passed. "For this week is will be a use of physical progress and spirit power"I say being interrupted by him "So finally prepared to lose with normal fighting?". "No, you need to create a self style that combines your skills while fighting, for example the first skill is one of the most important, due to its low consumption creating the future way that will follow the spirit master. In your case when you fight sometimes you illuminates some attack increasing its attack power, why don''t you use it in this cases your first skill fully?" I ask. "My first skill is an explosive concentration of spirit energy if I make it explode near me I will also be injured" She answer. "So you only need to control the explosion, control it range and direction and you can use it completely at close combat, not only that if you can perfectly control it its use won''t be only for attacking you can use it to propel yourself gaining speed or impossible evades" I explain causing him to be very surprised and then like having some revelation hugs me tightly shouting excited "You''re right with its my power and especially my maneuverability will improve by leaps and bounds". Realizing what he did we separate and both of use blush (How can he smell so good. I''m not gay I like beautiful women!). 2 weeks later you can see two boys that seems age 12-13 years old running 40 1km ??ps around a big mansion carrying weight of 100 kg. Finishing the ??ps they enter a training room and don''t leave for 4 hours only being able to listen explosion sounds and the sound of destruction. At leaving you can see the two boys heavily exhausted and full of light injuries but with smiling faces. Of course they are Bai and Qinghe. I wake up today being Qinghe farewell I go to the principal entrance to see all my family there and Qing in front of a carriage. Qinghe bows to us saying "Thank you for having me stayed here for 1 month. I''m very grateful for all" he turn to me "Specially you Bai. I can happily say that I did my first true friend and thanks to you I improved a lot my fighting progress. I will continue training and I want to continue being in contact with you" then he blush a little and hugs me (He really smells good) saying at my ears in low voice "I expect a good fight the next time we meet, if you win maybe I can tell you a little secret". We separate him having a teasing smile leaving me completely shocked (Maybe he is the gay) then turn to my family and waving his hand "Good bye to all, I''m really looking forward the next time we meet!" Then he enters at the carriage and I watch him leaving until I can''t see anymore. Two month passed and I continued with my normal regime training missing my friend and spar partner. I go to my father office, I nock the door and receiving permit I enter. There I can see dad sat at his chair surrounded by a lot of documents. I bow saying "Dad I have a request for you". He signal me to sit and says "And what would it be?". "In the month with Xue Qinghe I learn an important thing, one strength is not enough. Don''t misunderstand me in crisis time sometimes you only can trust you own strength but with the changing times is being more important to win allies specially when our clan is a support one, we need strong fighters to maintain our power. So I decided that I need to go out of the clan and meet people, make allies and connections improving our strength and maybe find some cultivation partner like you with mum". My father say raising an eyebrow "It seems you think it thoroughly. I don''t going to stop you. However, I want to know what place you decided to go". I breath and say full of myself "I will go to..." Chapter 18 - Heaven Dou Imperial Academy "I will go to... Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. It is known as the best spirit academy of Heaven Dou Empire with having the best facilities and ambient for training. Learning new things and using their resources my training will improves. Moreover the main reason is for its connections. Heaven Dou Academy is known to be a very exclusive school where most of its alumni being nobles, there I can find strong people with beneficial backgrounds for us of my age and maybe make even make some friend, easing the creation of alliances. Specially, I know that the young heir of the Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon Clan is there, being only 2 years older and the heir of another upper clan he surely will be strong, if not at least a good connection for his clan". My father wait for me to finish and thinks for a little then saying "I think that some change of air it would be good for you, your starting to get used to our protection and going to study it will be a good test before leaving to see world. Specially you need t improve your social skills. I''ll write some recommendation letter to he academy talking for your transfer. Wait until I receive a reply". I nod then leave the office saying good bye. 2 weeks later my dad calls me to come to his office. I enter his office and dad gives me a letter "I reply of Heaven Dou Academy has arrived, take it". Reading the letter and extracting the main meaning, ignoring pleasantries and second meanings, it can be summarized in that they''re very happy to accept me a rank 34 with only almost 12 years in their academy if I permit them recognizance for my part of being part of their alumni, being completely free of charge and that I can enter whenever I want. I answer with a letter saying that their demands are acceptable and that I would arrive next months. I decided to leave next week after my birthday {If someone ask the birthday are not celebrated only the 6 because the awakening age} going through the shortest route running, that it will be traversing Star Dou Forest so I will take advantage of it and ''eat'' some spirit beast. One week after I am at the entrance of the mansion with all the necessary luggage in my bracelet storage ready to leave. At the door there are my parent, uncle Bone and sister, all of them with sad faces. I make a little smile "I will miss you very much. Look forward for our next meeting and how strong I become" I say trying not to cry. My mom hugs me saying "Take care. I know that my big boy will do great things. And don''t forget your training". Then I approach my sister who is almost crying hugging her saying "I will miss you the most. Take care of the family and don''t do a lot of mischief". She starts crying "I will miss you very much! When I''m 12 I also will make a trip being strong as big brother". We separate and I look at my dad eyes, they''re a little sad. Then we hug dad saying a simple "Take care". Finally uncle Bone rubs my hair giving me a pagoda statue "If you have any problem I''ll we always there for you". I almost crying bow to all of them saying "Thank you very much for all! I love you all! Bye, bye!" I say and start running in direction of Heaven Dou City (I new chapter of my life is starting!). After running 3 hours I arrive at Star Dou Forest and started hunting easily 1000 years spirit beast and finally finding a 10.000 spirit beast alone a decided that it will be the main dish. It was an Armored Rhino between 10.000 and 19.999 years old known for the length of its main horn, It''s a beast in form of a rhino of more than 20 m long it''s main strength is its defense and power but is very slow beast so it easy to evade. I approach it <2nd skill: Wood Stamina> causing the rhinoceros to charge at me I dodging without much difficult. I move around it waiting for it to tire only attack with weak attacks when it seems to try to escape. After 3 hours wearing it it is too exhausted to even to stand out so I approach him and with a simple move pierce going through its right eye killing it instantly. Then I proceeded to eat it, I don''t even need to cook it only putting it in my mouth it became so soft that it can be easily eaten. At the Oreo space Glut happily eat the rhino in 1 minute and falls sleep, after a moment he starts glowing (It seems that the glow is increasing so I think it will take some time to evolve at a 1000 years beast. Having accomplished my main objective coming to the forest I start running to Heaven Dou City quickly leaving the forest ignoring all the beast trying t attack me. After 2 week of continuing running only stopping for eating and sleeping I finally arrive at Heaven Dou City. For all running I am not in my best appearance some ragged clothes with dirty parts everywhere (Bah, it doesn''t matter at the academy surely there''s some cloth to change). I walk the street toward the academy observing the big number of building even being less grand that my mansionand the crowd of people, surprised being the first time to see so many people at the same time being a lot bigger in numbers and looking around excited to investigate the city seeming a little like a country bumpkin (I never went to a city so maybe I am a little of country boy. I will go to the academy take a quick shower and when I have time do a little of sightseeing). I arrive at the academy''s entrance seeing the over 20 m majestic gold doors I can''t help to become excited. Arriving at the door some guard stops me ordering "You are entering the territory of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy step out if you don''t want t receive a beating!". He is a man of what it seems 40 years old and its rank is only spirit grandmaster (Trash! But is only a guard, a servant doesn''t need to be strong only to be useful). I decided that is not worth beating him so I decided to take the principal''s letter but I''m interrupted by 4 boys, they seems to be 3-4 years older than me and are wearing what it seems to be the academy uniform being all of them spirit grandmaster and having an arrogant face. One of them come forth saying "How can a such lowly class country bumpkin come to our academy? Your mere presence is dirtying our elegance! Maybe we can forget your audacity if you prostrates before us and clean our shoes with you tongue!" causing the other boys to start laughing. My only response is a incredulous look quickly changes to view them like seeing trash (How can they be so arrogant being so weak!). Seeing my face the boy says "How you dare!" approaching me and throwing a punch. I easily see it coming (Woah, if it''s more slow maybe it will stop) I tilt my body to the left easily dodging the punch, I charge a little of spirit power in my right hand punching him at his face hearing the sound of a broken nose and throwing him 20 m away. Then I look at the other 3 boys and showing my rings yellow!yellow!purple! I press with all my spirit pressure causing all of them to fall to the ground scared shitless showing wet marks in their intimate parts. I stop my pressure and approach the guard, his face quickly changing from a surprised one to a terrified one. I give him the principal''s letter saying "Guide me to the principal''s office" he needs 5 second to calm himself and actual seeing the letter then respectfully bowing to me and start guiding me. I follow the guard leaving behind the group of scared boys. Arriving at the principal office the guard nock the door, bows to me excusing him and leave. "You can enter" listening it I open the door and enter the office there there are 3 people. One of them being a tall white bearded old person, the other one being very fat seeming to be equally in length than width and the last one seeming a very ordinary old person. The tall person signals me to sit saying "I am Meng Shenji the principal of this academy, at my sides they are the academy elders" he signals to his left pointing at the fatty "Bai Baoshan" then turns to his right "and Zhi Lin". Then he turns to look at me "All of us being spirit Douluos we are the highest position in this academy. We are very pleased for your incorporation, it is not every day that we have a transfer student of one of the upper clan, specially being so gifted being rank 34 at the age of 12. We want you to slowly adapt to the academy live so we prepared one of our students as your guide so that she can show a little of our school. After some time when you''re finally adapted we will have another little talk about the future" He then inspect me and gives me an uniform "It will be best to change your cloths before anything, you''re a little bit rugged" I smile at them and a maid guide me to a changing room. It''s a big room with a big sofa, a round table with 4 chair and a bathroom with a 4 meters long bathub. I take a shower (Finally! After 3 weeks a can finally clean with warm water) and change for the uniform being a white suit with gold lines. Finished dressing I return to the principal''s office, this time being inside a beautiful girl seeming 2 years older than me with deep purple short hair with a pair of brightly green eyes giving a strange feeling with a kind of bewitching charm. "Oh, It seems you are ready" Meng Shenji turn to the girl "This is one of our most talented students and she will be your guide if you have any question don''t doubt in asking her". The girl steps forward doing a courtesy presenting herself "I am Dugu Yan. Is a p???sur? to meet you Mr. Ning". I approach her taking his hand and kissing it "The p???sur? is all mine miss Dugu, is not everyday you can see a great beauty like you. And as your junior you can simple call me Bai" I say smiling at her. She blush a little but quickly returning a calm smile "In this case do not doubt to call me Yan. Come this way I will show you the most important facilities". I leave the office following her. We go for all the academy while she shows me and inform about all the facilities, seeing the different kind of environment creating the best mimicry effects to cultivate and the most innovate training machines at the different training room. There''s also some club where the people focus in a main area, even having a sword club. While walking I tell her "Before a cross some students at the door and they were extremely weak and arrogant, are they all like them? Because is this is the level of this academy even with so resources I am very dissatisfied I was waiting for the best". At that she looks a little of content but say respectfully "In this academies the majority are nobles so it''s normal the arrogancy, for the level of strength they surely are tiny heaven rank. This academy divided their students and teachers in 3 levels, tiny heaven, reaching heaven and finally Heaven Dou level being the last the strongest the other groups are kind of ignorable. Of course with your strength and status you will be put at the Heaven Dou level having access at the majority of resources and facilities. There also another distinction in the Heaven Dou level that will be the Emperor level where the strongest and the representatives of the academy are. By order of the principal now we will go to the Emperor building when only Emperor level students can enter, there we will do a little combat test to see if you arrive at the rank. We walk to a grand building with a huge garden seemingly a lot more expensive of any other facilities. At the entrance two Ancestors rank guards seeing Yan bow and open the doors. Entering she guide me to a luxurious room with sofas all around and its own bar. Inside there are 6 people. Yan looks around saying "It seems that Mayi is not here" she sighs "That girl is always at her leisure" receiving my questioning gaze she answer "Here there are the strongest students of our age group the actual Emperor team, we are all here only missing one of us. She is Tai Mayi and is always at her leisure ignoring everyone, doing things forced and very rarely showing any change of expression". At this moment the same entrance''s door open entering a beautiful brown haired girl. She looks around the room with an iced expression until she sees me. Crossing our sight her eyes illuminates and makes a big smile. Then she jump to me and hugs me tightly saying happily "I love you! Big brother!" making me surprised and all the people around staying with the mouth open and finally saying "EHHHHH!!!!". Chapter 19 - Versus Mayi After separating us I closely observe Mayi she seems to be you ger than me, 1,45 m straigh long brown hair that arribes at her waist, big and cute green eyes, a very fair skin and having a fibrado body surely being trained a lot. She was in essence a very cute girl that without doubt will grow to be a very charming lady. "Did we meet before, miss Tai?" I ask with a little of doubt. She happily nods saying " Big brother gave me very delicious cookies. And call me Mayi" I smile at her rubbing her hair making her very happy (How cute! It''s like being with Rongrong) "Sorry, but I don''t remember and you can call me Bai". At that her face changes and almost start to cry " Big brother doesn''t like me? He won''t gift more cookies?". I quickly interject calming her "No,no. It''s only that I have very bad memory and I don''t t remembered you but later I will give you the most delicious sweets" . Listening my answer her happy mood return and then she go and sit in a big armchair in the middle of the room returning to her previously indifferent self she ask "And why are we reuniting here" listening it all the emperor members recuperated from their stupor and Yan cough "Ehen! Yeah, like I was saying previously we reunite here to test Ning Bai as a candidate for the Emperor team" Yan turns to me "With your rank, age and background you accomplish all our requirements so in this case you only need to choose one of us an win in a little fight. For your advantage we will present ourself before and later you will decide who you prefer to fight being possible to choose the weakest or someone who you can counter. Of course you can''t choose the support system to fight" The Yan turn to the other member. The first one stands up. He is a handsome youth, average height, moderate weight with short golden hair, a pair of extremely active brown eyes. He presents making and over exaggerated bow "Yu Feng 11 years old rank 31 agility attack system Wind Chime Bird spirit. Nice to meet you!". Near him another there''s another blonde youth seeming more elegant he without standing up waving his hand in a cook way say "Osler 15 years old rank 32 agility attack system Black Leopard spirit". After him a girl with a graceful figure, long blue hair with the same color of her eyes that not reveals any feeling. She with a pleasant and empty voice does a little courtesy says "Xie Lingling 12 years old rank 31 support system Nine Heart Flowering Apple spirit". After her Yu Feng signals two people sitting at the floor meditating saying "They are the Shi brother M¨° and M¨®. It''s difficult to differentiate them. They''re both 16 years old 32 rank defense system Black Tortoise spirit. They are people of few words don''t worry". Both of them having straight nosed and square jawed, built large and sturdy. Then Yan presents herself "Dugu Yan 15 years old rank 33 control system Jade Phosphor Serpent spirit. Then she turn to Mayi "She is Tai..." Mayi quickly interrupts her jumping with her hand up shouting "Me! Me!" She smile brightly saying "Tai Mayi 10 years old rank 29 attack system Fifteen Ton Ant spirit. Nice to meet you again Big Brother!". Finally a black haired slender youth stands up. He can''t be considerated very handsome with lacking facial expressions a noble aura surrounds him seeming stronger of the people before. He does a little bow saying "I am the leader of the actual Emperor team. I am Yu Tianheng 15 years old rank 33 power attack system Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon spirit" (So he is the other upper clan''s heir). I make a little bow "I am Ning Bai 12 years old rank 34 control system NTGTS spirit". All them a bit surprised knowing my actual rank and age except Yan that already known. "Nice to meet you all. For the person I choose to fight it will be..." I think a little (To cause the most impact the ebst will be win against their leader, but for the other hand maybe a create some apathy winning versus their leader and I want first observe their actual power and training before changing it. To cause the least change in their impression I will choose Mayi she is the weakest in rank and age so winning quickly is gonna be normal. Moreover, I have curiosity in her, maybe fighting her I start remembering her and for the other hand is strange to have someone so young that didn''t cross the big bottlenect of the 30 rank directly put in the best team. There''s also the fact that with her surname she had a high chance of being part of the strength clan and with her spirit is not part of the main line, so her nobility can be dubious) "... Mayi". "Yata!" Mayi run to me and quickly guide me to outside where there is a combat ground. At there Yu Feng shouts "Don''t be to conceived for her age and rank of pure attack power she wins easily versus the leader. In my opinion you did a wrong choice being her only being a spirit grandmaster the second strongest of the team in 1 vs 1 having the best strength, defense and speed of us. It''s only that she doesn''t have any spirit skill". Hearing I prepared myself. Yan comes near us deciding to be the referee. Yan lift her tight arm saying "You can show your spirits" I invoke my sword surrounded by 3 rings yellow, yellow and purple. In Mayi''s body appears a dark brown armor covering all her body, creating even a light brown mask for her head, appearing two antennas over her head and two kind of ants'' legs under her arms, surrounding her there are 2 rings, yellow and purple (So this will be the main reason for her being part of the team, and over ideal configuration). Yan seeing us ready quickly lower her hand shouting "Start!". Even before that I can activate any skill Mayi stomps the ground launching very fast towards me leaving a crater of 2 meters diameter. I hurriedly change my posture of attack to a guard one and infusing intent block her strike, finally stopping her after being pushed 10 m (How can she have so much strength). I jump back gaining distance and taking advantage to activate my skills <2nd skill: Wood Stamina>. Doing another time the same she launches at me, this time stopping before me and starts repeteadly attacking me with a lighting fast barrage of punches and kicks I try to evade or block the attacks, every time blocking an attack my hand turning numbs due her strength (I though that with the second skill it will suffice to exhaust her only needing to continue stalling time but she is too powerful and her stamina seems high if I not attack I will lose). <1st skill: Fire Power>, being easier to cope her attacks. After some minutes of continue at the defending side a finally see a gap in her attacks, doudging to the left her right punch and blocking with my leg knee her kick (Fuck! Blocking with my body it''s not a good idea) I think having being injured even when I successfully block her. Then I use her gap and slash at her, at this moment one of her ant arms moves for the first time blocking my attack (Fuck! They''re not decoration) creating now I gap in my defense the other ant arm pierce forward towards me. (There''s no other option if I don''t want to lose) <3rd skill: Lighting Speed> I quickly evade the attack with my new speed and with the minimum movement I go through her, being both back with back I use the handle of my sword and strike her neck causing her to fall to the ground. I turn to the surprised Yan saying "It seems that is my win". Yan recuperate from his stupor and says "Winner Nin...". "No! I can continue!" shouts Mayi standing up "Let''s continue fighting Big Brother!" (How can be she be alright after that hit) says smiling. When she prepare to charge again suddenly her armor disappears and she falls again to the ground sleeping. At that Yun Feng says "Woah we need too fight all of us to tired her down, congratulation Bai!". Yan seeing her sleeping shouts "Winner Ning Bai!" then she turn towards me saying "She has a lot stamina and a so monstrous resilience that she can go all out until she expends all her energy. Her weakness being that she don''t control really well her strength going always at full power, but I think that this is more of her preference that her incapacity". Yu Tianheng approach me putting his hand at my shoulder says "Congratulations to past the test with this you''re now part of the Emperor team. It will be ?ssigned a room at our building and you will have access at the best resources that the academy. For now relax, you seems tired, take a rest or a little walk. Tomorrow we will talk about the daily training and duties that being part of the Emperor team entails" He turn around returning to the Emperor building, all the other members following him. Yun Feng turn to me saying "For Mayi you can let her sleep, she really has bad temper when someone wake her and it won''t be the first time for her to sleep outside. So don''t worry". I watch Mayi sleeping (She is younger than me and I had difficulty winning when she will break through the spirit elder rank maybe she can win me. And where do we met before and caused her so be so intimate with me? It''s a matter for later now better go sleep we will live together from now on so I will have amply time to find it out.). Then a maid guided me t my ?ssigned room and I start sleeping. Chapter 20 - Heaven Dou Imperial Academy 2 The next day I wake up. I observe my new room from now for the first time, being too tired yesterday with all the traveling sightseeing and combat. I am sit on a big double bed in a big room of 100 square meters all decorated with seeming expensive furniture and decorations principal being the academy''s color white and gold and with a big shield of the academy at one of the walls, having a big sofa, 2 tables 2 armchairs and two chairs with its own bathroom. I stand up and see on the sofa a prepared uniform so I decided to take a quick shower. Finishing I change dressing with the uniform (The other Emperor members don''t wear the uniform so surely it will not be obligated for us. I need to go shopping and make my own style). Leaving the room I find a black haired maid low bowing that will guide me to the dining room. The dining room has a big long table capable of eating 40 people with big windows that illuminates all with sunlight and where you can see the outside. Sitting there are Tianheng and at his side being a little intimate giving him food Yan, both nod at me seeing me enter. At other side there''s Feng waving at me to sit near him. I approach him and take the sit at his side, he saying "Good Morning! It seems that you are the 6th one to wake up" I look at him strangely (I won''t be the 4th?) "Ah! The brothers Shi always woke up very early so rarely can be seen here, for the order I am usually the 3rd and Yan and Tianheng come always together" then signal to Yan and Tianheng "For them don''t worry too much they always like these. The puberty will also come to us!" says winking causing a death stare from Yan "Sorry, sorry Yan. But it''s a little unfair to show your love so blatantly to us!" Then he turns again to me "This is the dining room where we usually eat except in especial occasions. You can order whatever you want and the exclusive chef will do it very quickly, if the case of liking something very special, strange or unknown to the chef you can always ask beforehand for it and they will prepare for the next day, I suggest the omelet, the main chef is a spirit grandmaster with eggs like his spirit so everything with eggs will have and energy recover effect to be at full power every day. I follow the suggestion and order a cheese omelet with a cafe latte. In two minutes some maid gives me my order. When I start eating the door opened entering Osler who says yawing "Good morning. A beef steak with cola, you know how I want it" Then he sit next to the other side of Feng but keeping a chair between both. Seeing anyone responding to him a think of normal and ignore it starting eating my breakfast (It''s good!). Just as I finished my breakfast the door open again entering Mayi "Woah, I think that I''m starting seeing illusions because how is Mayi awake so early" say Feng, she completely ignores Feng, look around and smiles seeing me, running towards me sitting at my ??p "Good morning Big Brother! I want a fruit salad like always with orange juice!". Seeing her reaction I say "Good morning Mayi. Do you not think it''s a little inappropriate for you to sit on me?". She cutely looks at me saying "I see sometimes Yan sitting with Tianheng". I sight answering "They seems lovers so its normal for them". She smile at me "I love Big Brother so there''s no problem!". Causing me to sigh in resignation (Let it be she is only a little girl and very cute at that so I will treat her like a little sister). After finishing breakfast a let Mayi eating in the dining room and prepare to leave. At that moment Yan says to come with her and explains "As part of the Emperor team you''re only responsibility is to grow strong representing the academy so all the classes are optional in nature. I advice to you to find the best area for your training, the academy has a lot of areas to cause the mimicry environment possible with some spirit beast for training, try not to kill any of it or you will receive some punishment. For our training we have a unite training session every week, the next session being the next day of tomorrow so be prepared to be there after breakfast" She then says good bye and leave with Tianheng. I decide to go sightseeing the academy. I leave the Emperor building to the training areas. Walking trough them there''s a lot of different areas, a forest, a volcano, a lake, a desert... All them with abundant spirit energy and with some low level spirit beast, of less than 1000 years, only being one ''king'' in every area of 1000 years old but this being trapped so it can be controlled is position. With only emanating my spirit elder aura nearly any beast try to approach me too scared for it, the only stupid enough ones attacking me were easily beaten unconscious without more than a swing. After that I went to the main building where most of the classes are taught I enter one about spirit beast and abilities relation and I not endured even 30 minutes in there before leaving because it''s simple and useless explanation and the kind of environment, very lazy for student and the teacher, being learned everything said when I was 6 years, and better explained. After some more walk I listen the ring announcing the finish of classes. Seeing one student leaving the main building carrying a sword I decide to follow him. He arrives at a run out building that shouts poor quality with a simple training ground at one side. At the entrance of the building there''s a poster that says Sword Club (It doesn''t seems as the academy put much resources to this club but maybe I can find some swordman to spar). I enter the building with my sword at hand and in there I find 6 people swinging wood swords and another one siting on a sofa. Without saying anything I charge towards them hitting them. (8 second! 8 fu?k?n? second to win over seven people, being all of them fu?k?n? newbies no different that a baby swinging a stick, only the sitting one having a Sharp Sword spirit and being a little better having at least attained the One with Sword, normal having a sword spirit. But WTF they had 4 years more than me, and didn''t know a thing of sword. This is an insult for the Sword''s way!) I concentrate a little intent at my sword and with 360o swing white area explodes in all direction destroying completely the building. without damaging any of the students. I then turn to them and say angry "If you have the audacity of call yourself something even relation with the sword, next time destruction will be your body!". Then I leave without looking back. (Seeing the clubs and classes this academy seems worthless except the Emperor team. Sighs. I think am gonna go for a walk at the city). I walked outside the academy deciding to do a little clothes shopping for my new style. I enter some cloth shops finally buying a black trousers with a long black jacket with a red shirt with some red lines focusing in their resistant and easy to move, immediately wearing them. I the walk returning to the academy I bought some chocolate sweets remembering Mayi being a sweet tooth. Arriving at the academy go to my room. Entering my room and can help to be surprise at seeing the door room broken and Mayi sleeping on my bed. I approach her and try to wake her up by calling her futilely. When I am about to touch her she quickly open her eyes warily and throw a punch at me. I surprised dodge hurriedly throwing me to the ground. Then I Mayi look at my eyes opening her eyes a lot she says "Sorry! Sorry, Big Brother! I don''t know it was you and don''t like anyone approaching me when sleeping, it''s a kind of natural reaction to attack." Then she hugs me crying "Please don''t hate me!". I pat her trying to her to calm "Don''t worry, I don''t hate you. And see me, I''m totally find nothing happened" she calm a little seeing my smile and my patting "And what were you doing sleeping in my bed? And was also you who broke the door?". She stop crying and happily says "I wanted to see Big Brother so I decided to go to your room, finding the door closed I nock the door and with the 3rd nock the door broke so I enter and decided to wait you here, but I got tired quickly and finally fell sleep" (Woah so it''s normal for her to easily destroy a door only to meet me. She seems to have little to zero common sense). "And what do you want to meet me?" I ask. "I want some sweets!" she answer. I sigh and take some of the chocolate that I bought before. Seeing them Mayi take them and quickly eat them but quickly she angrily turns at me crying "This are bad! I want Big Brother sweets!" (Maybe she is thinking about the Oreo. But how can she know about it, only my family knows my second spirit. If I show the Oreo to her It will be like admitting I have twin spirit. But I want to know if she has some connection with me and showing the Oreo will be the conclusion to know if the connection is real or if it''s some delusion of her. Moreover she is a little naive, for the conversation with the other members she is very lonely so I suppose that she will keep my secret if asked. Bah! I just show her the Oreo and see her reaction then I will think about it) I open my left hand manifesting an Oreo, at that Mayi eyes shine brightly and she launch to catch the Oreo. I surprised can evade her. In the same instant Mayi bites the Oreo a bright white and black light erupts blinding us. Chapter 21 - Mayis past 1 {I changes from the previous chapter touch for bite. Also I create After some time the light disperses. I very surprised say unintentionally "Fusion affinity". She says "Big Brother is warm" then she eats the Oreo of before and eat it "Mmmm. Yummy! Big Brother sweets are the best!" she makes a thoughtful face "But I remembered better". I recuperate from the shock, look at the happy Mayi and hug her picking her up "It''s actually Fusion affinity! And a big one at that!" I celebrate circling. "What is fusion affinity?" Mayi''s ask surprised. "The fusion affinity is the relation between the spirits of different spirit masters. Being high enough it means that is possible to fuse our spirits increasing its powers doing a explosive technique, this is called spirit fusion and it very strange to happen specially with spirit completely different like us" I explain. She smiles saying "So Big Brother and I have a special relation, I''m happy!". "Yeah. Now we must know how much compatible are we so it will be necessary to cultivate at the same time. Mayi join our hands and we sill start meditating at the same time. Later I will give you an even better cookie." I explain to her. She smiles and extend her arms joining hands with me. I close my eyes entering in a meditation state trying to sense her spirit without any result. (How can be possible it''s like she isn''t even here a can''t sense her spirit at all). I stop meditating opening my eyes and saying "Mayi, I can''t detect your spirit force at all. Do you know why is it?". At this Mayi nod "Because my spirit being the fifteen ton ant it''s a spirit where our spirit power circulation it''s only internal, having a strong skin that block almost every spirit energy, this is the main case my spirit doesn''t have any spirit skill, our spirit energy is contained inside our body becoming stronger, not wasting any and with a great defense specially against spirit attack". (So it seems that we can cultivate like usually with a simple contact) "If this is the case how can you cultivate? If your skin doesn''t let pass spirit energy how do you do it?" I ask. She replies like the most common sense in the world "Naturally I absorb spirit energy by the mouth and nostrils, breathing or eating". (So this is normal for her, she never meditate to cultivate. So to cultivate she need a direct way to her inside. Maybe that will work) "Mayi with only contact it''s impossible to cultivate together so..." I blush a little "Will you ki-kiss me? It''s only for cultivate it doesn''t meant anything". At that Mayi nod "I like Big Brother so there''s no problem!". I approach her lift her chin a little with my left hand and I lean closer to her I can''t help to be nervous looking at her small, wet and red lips and smell her sweet like wild fruit fragrance. Finally our lips meet, at this moment her tongue is in my mouth tasting like the best food of the world I enjoy the moment. (Concentrate! This is for meditation not anything romantic). While pressing our lips I enter meditation this time sensing her spirit. In this moment I can sense everything from her spirit and she can sense mine. I observe all her characteristic and can''t help to be so surprised that unwillingly I broke the meditation state and cut our kiss. Separating from her I look at her with open eyes she was panting a little with a very red face, I shout to her "You are a spirit beast!". Listening Mayi''s face lost every color becoming completely white full of terror. Suddenly she activates her spirit creating an armor around her body, then she jumps toward the window breaking it and leaving the room crying while saying "Sorry Big Brother!". I recuperate from the shock and can see Mayi running quickly moving away. I jump through the window and chase her while activating all my three spirit skills absorbing the attributes of plants around. After 5 min I lose any sight of her, she having escaped from the academy''s grounds. At that a sense a pull from my left arm, invoking the Oreo spirit is seems that some pulling toward the way Mayi escaped so a follow the pull, leaving the academy grounds, later leaving Heaven Dou City. Finally arriving at a nearly forest I sense the pull becoming stronger. After running 10 more minutes I find Mayi on her knees crying seeming ignoring her surroundings. I jump toward her tackling her and in the process blocking her preventing her movement "Mayi! Calm Down!". She starts struggling trying to break free. (With her strength I can''t even keep 5 second before she breaks free) Without hesitating I kiss her this time being me whom use the tongue invading her little mouth. She stops struggling also answering with her tongue. Finally calming her down I break the kiss changing the block to a gentle hug and say "Calm down Mayi, I don''t gonna do anything to you". Mayi even now crying say "Big Brother knows that I''m a beast so he will hate me and try to kill me for my ring". "I can promised you that I will keep your secrets, even I can vow to heavens to protect you of any harm. I only know you for one day but I like you, your cuteness, your smiling self even your naivety and lack of common sense ignoring the people around you" I say very seriously. "Big Brother is lying! You surely hate Mayi for being a beast and when you can you will kill Mayi for power like any other human!" She shouts crying. "Mayi I like you, maybe now is more like a little sister but in the future and won''t know, and if it''s for resources you don''t have to worry. I must be a completely idiot to try to harm you, Mayi. We have fusion affinity a complete at that, being possible to speed our cultivation and increasing our power. Moreover, what do you think will happen if I try to absorb a 100.000 years old ring right now, I will explode!". Mayi tears stop falling "So you won''t harm Mayi?". "Of course not, we can grow stronger together in the future being unbeatable. So stay at my side Mayi ". Mayi starts crying again but this time being for happiness "I love you Big Brother!" she hugs me tightly. After 1 hour of us hugging and I patting her head she finally calms completely, we separated and she stands up does a 360o turn finishing with a cute pose and presents "I am Tai Mayi, I am a 100.000 years old fifteen ton ant empress turned human. Nice to meet you Big Brother! And I will depend on you in the future". This time she launch at me kissing me and entering her in the meditate state. In there I can sense her happiness and I show my good will towards her. We continued to meditate knowing more about the other, both of us completely sure that we won''t mean any harm to each other. We continue cultivating together until dawn. With the first sunlight we open our eyes and separate each other. Then she sit at me ??p resting her head at my ?h?st. "It seems that our spirits are completely compatible, the strange thing is that is only my food spirit and your beast, having 0 compatibility toward my sword spirit. It seems that it will be easy to make a spirit fusion between that spirits. And it seems that our dual cultivation is really effective me having broke through rank 35 in one night" I explain. Mayi smiles at me activating her spirit showing now 3 ring, yellow, purple and purple "Mayi is now rank 31 having broke through spirit elder and creating my third ring". I smile at her "Woah, now I don''t even know if I can win against you" Then I ask "The spirit beast can condense their own spirit ring but it wasn''t the limit the ideal configuration, how is it that your configuration is over ideal?". She hit her ?h?st proudly answering "Spirit beast create their perfect ring obtaining the best abilities for their spirit, even if in my case there''s none, and with the maximum age that can be endured. Mayi having so strong body can bear more energy than others". I invoke my sword, this time showing to her for the first time the actual ring configuration, 3 ring, purple, purple and black , saying "This are my actual rings, due my mental power, strength and luck my start point was higher than normal and with training I could maintain that difference". She has her eyes fully opened surprised, then she smiles saying "Big Brother is the best!". Then I open my left hand invoking the Oreo "And this is my second spirit Oreo food system, don''t worry I will give you some everyday" from the Oreo appears 2 rings, purple and purple. I observe the both rings floating "Mayi, I will meditate a moment wait for me". I meditate entering at the Oreo space. There there''s Glut with a new form, having grown taller to 3 m and having the form of a tiger. With a little of observation I know he is now 1200 years old Ravenous Giant Rat the first ring evolved to a purple one increasing the cultivation boost to 30% for tools and 60% for spirit beast, in case of Mayi being the double for her a 120%! There''s also that Glut manifested another ring, with the same age of the previously one having the effect of create an Oreo that recuperate spirit energy, in my case being close to a quarter of my spirit power reserve and creating a maximum of 10 everyday. Being it''s chant ?Wonder if I gave a double stuff Oreo?. I exit my meditation explaining to Mayi all the changes. Then to demonstrate my completely trust in her I explained all my life to her explain how I obtained all my rings and about Glut. After finishing she hugs me smiling being happy of my trust. Then she separate from me, she stands up with a very serious face and says "Big Brother explained all his secrets so Mayi will also explain all about herself" She inhales a little nervous "I was born as a female fifteen ton ant..." Chapter 22 - Mayis past 2 "I was born as a female Fifteen Ton Ant, as a female my main objective should be to grow becoming a queen and moving away from my actual nest forming a new one in another place extending the influence of the ants and specially of my mother the at that time Fifteen Ton Ant Queen. One thing that you will need to know is that the Fifteen Ton Ant Queen doesn''t have any attack power it can only make offspring and control them" Mayi starts. "Being born I was very weak and I only need to eat the special queen essence of my mother to grow needing 100 years to become one queen myself. In the colony there was thousands of ants I specially liked 3 of them that were especially powerful, having gained a lot of honors fighting against other beast usually being other ants. This three came a lot of times to me explained their adventures and their demonstrations of royalty to mother. I really liked them, even more than mother, calling them brothers. She was always commanding me and trying to brainwash me to do as she want, and always saying how useless is to train my body because I as a female will be impossible to obtain attack power, and always saying to maintain at my control all the males ant... Having a very monotonous life" She then sighs and continue "All of this changed one day when my 3 brothers grew to a thousand years old, I was happy for them and the nest having all grow stronger. Then mother said to me that the 3 must die because she couldn''t control a thousand years old ant. I try to convince her to let them live, that they were very loyal and they will become our main strength to fight others but she ignored me. Hopeless one night before the trap to kill them I escaped my mother view escaping without anyone knowing and told my brothers all of mother''s plan. They thanked me and quickly escaped from the nest. At that time I was sad because I though that I won''t never see them again but happy for them being alive. Mother was furious not knowing how they learn of her plans escaping and she bullied me to calm herself". She turns serious "Then after some days another war started between our nest and another ant''s nest. My mother and I stayed at the main nest while mother commanded the other ants to attack. When the war was at his highest point and mother was concentrated commanding the army my 3 brothers entered our room and quickly before mother could contact any ant they killed her without any resistant for her part. After that they eat her corpse and some of the queen essence prepared for me. Then they turned to me and I though that they would kill me. But they not they gave me some of my mother remains saying to eat it that they will escape with me and that they will protect me from any harm. Me trusting them more than anyone and being afraid of the other now uncontrolled ants I ate my mother remains growing a little stronger and follow them". "After that we escape from the uncontrolled army and they hid me in a hidden cave saying that they will find food and queen essence for me. So they went to hunt another ants'' colonies breaking the nest and killing their queens eating their body and taking their essence to me, sometimes they came very injured. But as time went by they grew stronger being easier to attack nests. After a lot of time when they finally broke through the 10.000 years they were so strong that the other ants only could hide from them. Then some time passed and I also broke through the 10.000 years growing my powers to the point of being capable of controlling other nest easily. So I ordered in a big area to all the ants to take their queen to us. With so much amount of essence and food in little time we accomplished growing to 50.000 years old evolving my brothers to emperors and in my case to empress". "Being an empress, for the first time I obtained offensive capabilities being even stronger than my brothers only being suppressed by them because their fight experience and my lack of it. After a lot of time we all grew to 90.000 years old. Being so full of our new power and thinking of us as invincible we went to the center part of the forest. There, there was a lake where the concentration of spirit energy was the highest being the best place to cultivate and grow stronger to try to attack the 100.000 years bottleneck" She does a frighten face "But when we approached at the center, the area was occupied by three 100.000 years old beast, one orangutan, one big three headed serpent and a rabbit. At seeing us invading their territory they attacked us" Mayi has a chill "They were so strong that we didn''t even put a fight, it was a beating. Leaving us heavily injured with the only choice to separate in different ways trying to escape". "I run without looking back, leaving the entire forest arriving at another little one, where the spirit energy''s quality was that all the beast living there were pitiful weak. When a stopped running my injuries were so serious that even one of that pitiful beast maybe will be enough to kill me. So I hid inside a cave trying to recuperate to not vain due the lack of spirit energy. After a year being debilitate I though that I will die there, but at this instant a white haired human entered the cave". She smiles at me "It was you Big Brother. For me it was the first time seeing a human but my brothers warned me about them, saying that all of them are evil creatures trying to kill indiscriminately every beast. So at the moment a saw you I prepare to use my last strength to kill you. But at that moment you shouted to a little hamster that was so inoffensive that it couldn''t do anything, then you throw to me a black cookie. From it I could sense spirit energy so with a little of doubt I ate it. It was delicious, the sweetest and best food ever, even it helped me to recuperate some energy to start healing me. After that day you came everyday and throw more cookies to me, sometimes it was not in the cave but after a month a could finally walk so I was following you whenever you went. You were my savior my hero in shiny armor that came to me to heal me, bringing sweets!". "After 9 month I was completely recuperated, not only that even I was stronger. Then I listened a holy voice saying that a broke through 100.000 years and if I wanted to continue with my actual strength and continue being a beast or if I want to reincarnated as a human returning to being weak and small with low numbers of years to live but with the possibility of finding divinity. If it was asked before I without doubt will choose the first option, but your help all this month, the sweets! Your effort to grow strong. I really liked you so I decided that I will became a human and live all my life with and for you" She says. I am touched and hug her saying "Mayi..." But she quickly interrupts me pushing me and saying "Let me finish Big Brother. After accepting the offer I entered in a deep sleep and when I finally waken up, I didn''t know how much time passed. I observed my body and it was like a little human girl a little younger than yourself. I was happy to be able to be together so I tried to find you and be with you. But searching the forest I couldn''t find you and even the forest was dying so I went outside of it trying to find you." "Because you were in a forest before I went to my previous forest, maybe you grew tired of that weak forest and went to a stronger one to train. Arriving at that forest I search for you. After some time without any result a big monkey attacked. It was not even 400 years old, but without having eaten almost anything in days desperate to find you and not being used to my new body and strength the big monkey injured me and I couldn''t fight it" "At that moment when the monkey was doing its final attack a big pressure caused the monkey to crash to the ground immobile. Then came the person responsible of the pressure. He was a big and old man, very tall with strong muscles with a short white hair and a long white beard. He was accompanied by another little monkey faced boy 4 years older than me. The boy killed the monkey and absorbed the ring. Then the old man seeing me injured asked me if I was fine and if there was someone with me. I answered that I was alone and I didn''t have any family and seeing that he also had white hair maybe he had some relation with you so I asked if I could follow him" "He took me to his clan and healed me. I was sad being unable to find you there but they treat me well enough. When I was fully recuperated they ask me for a little spar to observe if a was fully healed. I fought the monkey faced boy of that time. I won easily over him surprising all the clan" "After that the old person asked me if I want to be part of his clan that if I didn''t have any family he will adopt me as his granddaughter, that my spirit was perfect for his clan. Knowing that I would need help to move around humans to try to find you I accepted. Then they presented themselves, being the strength clan specializing in strength configuration and blacksmith, being the old man its clan head and named Tai Tan and the monkey faced boy Tai long being his grandson becoming my granddad and brother. Not having any previously name granddad decide that I will be named Tai as part of his family and Mayi as my spirit being an ant". "Then the clan spent 2 years teaching me some things, specially common sense that I lack but also a little of history and blacksmith, but even having the strength I lacked the patience for it. Being I little more used to be a human I asked granddad where the strong people of my age were, knowing that you were strong for your age. He answered that depend of their background but a lot of them went to prestigious academies, and if someone is very strong sooner or later it will be known to the world. With this information I decided to go to the best academy. So I asked granddad if I could go to an academy. Seeing me begging for the first time he accept saying that after a year training at the clan he will permit me to go out and make a name for the clan. After a year of training I was rank 23 with a purple ring so when I asked for transfer at the best school of Heaven Dou Empire they quickly accept me". "Entering the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy I was disillusioned not finding you but I thought that staying there someday I will listen about you. After a year I was the strongest of my age group and they put me in the strongest team, the Emperor team, even when I didn''t accomplish the minimum of rank 30. At that time I was so disillusioned of not finding you and bored of the pitiful weak people and classes that at that time I followed the flow without regardless of anything." "The members of the emperor were somewhat strong so it was a little funnier but I was sad without finding you so I decided to not show much emotions. Finally the day before yesterday came and after waking up like usual and being called to a reunion, I entered the room and I saw you. I was so happy that I couldn''t contend myself and jump towards you hugging, swearing that I will not let you escape another time and that I will be with you forever" Her serious face return to a smiling one and hugs me "And here we are Mayi and Big brother together, I couldn''t be happier knowing that you don''t mind Mayi being a spirit beast". I answer also hugging her "Thanks for telling me all your life. I really like you Mayi, and I will protect you as if you were my little sister so trust in me. ?Wonder if I gave a normal Oreo?" I invoke an Oreo eat the cream part and give the black cookie to Mayi. Her eyes shine likes starts seeing the cookie and eat it quickly "Yummy! It''s even better than before, Big Brother is the best! More Big Brother!". I stop her "Only one everyday, eating more it will be bad for you. She pouts a little "Meanie!". I rub her hair causing her to smile then I take her hand "It''s late, it will be better to return to the academy, let''s go!". Mayi nods and we run with joined hand to the academy. Chapter 23 - Emperor Team We returned to the academy and decide to have breakfast. Arriving at the dining inside it there are Feng, Osler, Yan and Tianheng. Seeing us Feng stands up and come to us "Hoho {Merry Christmas}, something good happened? Arriving both of you late, together and with joined hands" He tap my shoulder "Even if Mayi is cute she is only a child you should wait some years". I become angry and throw a punch at him to the stomach saying "We don''t have this kind of relation, hereinafter Mayi will be like my little sister so I advice to not bully her" I say with a devil hint in my eyes. Feng still with his hand on his stomach from the pain nod and quickly recuperate and stands normally "It seems that we have another member that quickly turns to hit" He does a big bow to me "I vow to the second coming of Yan!". Before I or Yan can do anything Feng activates his spirit and escape flying. "Now seriously, something happened? We couldn''t find any of you in your room" Yan ask with a hint of concern and curiosity. I answer "Nothing serious, yesterday Mayi and I found that we have fusion affinity. So after some cultivating together both advanced one rank. Having Mayi broke through rank 30 she needed a spirit ring so we went to Star Dou Forest and obtained one ring for her. So she is now rank 31" All of them have big round eyes and their mouths open even Feng that for some reason has returned. "WTF! This is nothing serious, a possibility of spirit fusion and a break through from one realm is nothing for you? We must celebrate! And forget the thing I said before, your a match made in heavens with spirit affinity, but at least wait 2 years" Shout Feng. This time Yan kicking him at the back. Then Yan turns to me and Mayi "Tomorrow is the weekly season so please show us your progress" after saying this Yan and Tianheng finishing their breakfast leave the room. Having finished the little talk Mayi and I sit for breakfast, again she sitting in my ??p and this time I spoil her giving her the food while she happily moves her legs up and down. After finishing breakfast we went to the city I want to find some cute cloth for Mayi so I take her to the best cloth shops dressing her like a doll (Ahh, I''m healed is like still being with Rongrong). Finally Mayi decided to dress with a black low skirt with rose patters and a brown top because the dresses obstructed her movements. We spent all the day walking around the city specially buying and eating all kind of foods. Finally, we return to the academy and with a very pushy Mayi we sleep in the same bed (It''s good to have a little sister). Next day after breakfast all team Emperor reunited at the training grounds. Entering the grounds with Mayi I find that all the other team members were there, there also a man of seemingly 30 some years old with black hair and simple clothes seeming a very average person except for the bright light in his eyes. The man turn to me and say "So our new admission come. I am Qin Ming and I am the teacher in charge of the Emperor team". "Don''t let him deceive you, even with his average looks unlike this handsome master he is one of the youngest spirit emperor only being 36 years old and having broken through 2 years ago." Interrupts Feng causing to Ming to sigh saying "What I always say about interrupting and being so insolent?". Feng bows shouting "That someday will take me to the grave!" Ming nods. "For today training you will all spar with Mr. Ning here so all of you can adapt at your new teammates styles. Other day we will work on the team synergy. Lingling be prepared to heal any injure" Lingling nod expressionless like always. "The first match will be Yun Feng vs Ning Bai! The other start running ??ps across the grounds" Yun Feng specialized in flying, flying outside the range of the rival and waiting to attack when the rival is not attend to his back, but his attack patterns where so obvious that I easily block all his range attack, being wind cuts or bird attacks and when he tries to close back a quickly dispatch him with a light swing when he tried attack me from behind without any necessity of seeing him. After him it came Yan. She being a control spirit master with only one spirit skill not mean for support the only thing the she did was use her skill liberating a purple venomous cloud that with a single swing with a little intent I dispersed it and then was incredible simple to close to the surprised Yan. Then it was the turn of Osler. He was a little better than Feng, even if he couldn''t fly his speed is greater and his pattern is more erratic but with activating my 3 skill my speed surpassed his so is was easy to win over him with some strikes. In the case of the Shi brothers I fight both of them at the same time because teacher Ming think that the best of them is their combination. In this case I charge toward them stopping my strike just as it about to hit their shield and evade their shield to attack to the uncovered areas. After two hit they become mad and use their third skill broking their shield in pieces and attacking me with them like being a tornado (Really a defense system that all their skills are forms of attack, electrifying their shield, throwing it and finally break in, their attack system that uses shields!). I quickly pushed all the part away with scattering protection and attack the now defenseless form of them and with the same swing I knock down both. "The last match will be Yu Tianheng vs Ning Bai!" (Finally it''s the turn vs the leader, the only true attack system and the strongest one of them specially in 1vs1) Tianheng charges quickly toward me <1st skill: Thunder Dragon Claw> surrounding his arm with electricity creating a claw. (I direct hit trying to overpower me, eh?) I guard my self and with a little intent block his attack. "You can block the attack but your sword is conductive so you will be electrocuted the same!" Tianheng says with a smile like having already won while I look him like an idiot (Really, you didn''t even learn that my intent is a protection from everything, if you don''t break it it won''t pass through. Really an idiot!). Seeing his attack completely blocked he surprised a lot but quickly calms smirking <3rd skill: Thunder Fury> accumulating a lot of lighting around him <2nd skill: Thunder Crash> exploding electricity in all directions. I simple swing downwards blocking all of his attacks that come to me. "You''re too much straightforward always trying to overpower your enemy with skills but what will you do between skills? Your wasting to much spirit energy. Also why the fu?k all your skills has thunder in its name when they produce lighting? Really, you didn''t think about it?" I say causing Tianheng to go mad and come forward to me. He dragonifies all his right arm <3rd skill: Thunder Fury> <1st skill: Thunder Dragon Claw> this time creating a even bigger lighting claw. (It seems that I need to humiliate him, I will win in all aspects). <1st skill: Fire Power> increasing my power and clearly reducing the size of his claw I strike surrounding my sword with intent my sword. Sword colliding with claw causing the claw to be totally destroyed and Tianheng to crash to the ground over 10 m away. He stands up (At least he is a little resilient). This time a charge toward him he tries to block my attack with his dragonified arm. <3rd skill: Lighting Speed> increasing me speed I quickly go to his back and with a light knock at his neck he falls unconscious. "It wasn''t too difficult" I say. I hide my sword and observe my surrounding all of them very surprised seeing my strength fighting with the exception of Mayi that is happily smiling. Recuperating from the shock Lingling comes and heal Tianheng. Tianheng having being healed wakes up. At that time Mayi jump shouting "I want to fight too!". After that Qin Ming permit Mayi to fight all the others the same way as me. She quickly dispatch all of them overpowering in all attributes and doing their spirit skills pointless now that she has the same realm that them. I observe of the fight analyzing them this time in third person. Finishing all fighting Qin Ming says "Mayi, Bai you said that you had fusion affinity, can you create a spirit fusion?". I look at Mayi''s eyes receiving a nod then turn to Ming and say "Yeah we can do it, but is a little unstable so its duration will be little and the expense of spirit power will be monstrous. At that Ming answer "Don''t worry I only want to see it and have a slight understanding of it. So what will be the best conditions of use?" "To show it highest power the best will be all the other Emperor''s members to attack at the same time and then try to defend" I answer. All the other emperor members positioned in formation, first both Shi brothers, then Tianhen, at the middle Yan, Feng and Osler and at the back it would be Lingling but because is a test she stays away (At least their formation is not so bad). When we are all prepared all of them attack using all their spirit abilities. Toward Mayi and me flyes multitude of attacks, wind cuts, leopard doppelgangers, lighting, poison, pieces of shield... At that moment I take Mayi and kiss her causin from both of us to shine with a brilliant white and brown light. Fusioning her spirit with my Oreo (Without anyone knowing that is my Oreo instead of the sword) A giant phantasmal ant appears, it open its mouth eating all the attacks it becoming more physic and growing a little. Then the other members prepares to defend from an attack using their maximum spirit power. The ant charge toward them so quickly that they can''t even react causing all of them to fly out injured. The ant disperse in light particles leaving Mayi and I sitting at the floor exhausted. "So its defensive-offensive skill absorving the opponent attack turning at the same stronger and then attack them. Now it consume is extreme but with practice will improve" Ming comments thinking. Then turns to me and ask "What do you think are the weak points of the Emperor Team". I think a little and answer "The main problem I will say it will their dependence in spirit skills not attacking between them, for their team fight I didn''t see them fight as a team so I won''t comment, for individuality I will say that they''re a little wrong. Feng even is his spirit is specialized in speed he tries to force to much in power even discarding his speed when it will be his strongest point, combining his flying with a great speed will cause a big power {e=m*c^2}. It''s like you''re afraid of its speed. The Shi brothers, really your a defensive type with a great defense capacity but all your skills are centered in attack and at the minor opportunity you throw your shield to attack, leaving you unprotected and incapable of protecting any teammate. Yan your a control master but has little control over your abilities. I know that the first ones are support but he third you can''t control it only marking its first direction being impossible to move after using it affecting allies and opponents alike, even your allies have the antidote is not good to poison them. For Lingling, she wasn''t at the fight only observing and healing after them. Even with its fantastic healing abilities if she can''t protect a little herself it will be difficult to the other to protect you so you should learn to run, the best way to evade attacks waiting for your teammates. Finally Tianheng, you have one of the strongest spirit beast so you relay too much in its power and you can''t keep your mind calm so it will be very easy to guide you to a trap. You must learn a fighting style not only overpowering with the combination of your dragonify and your electricity. Summarizing, you lack a solid fighting foundation and the best will be that you focus in training control and technique fixing it before it''s too late". Qin Ming nods "You have a lot to think about. Think how you can improve to be better. We finish this training lesson we will see next week". I take Mayi''s hand and we leave leaving the other member injured while Lingling is healing them. Chapter 24 - Team growth After that ''sparring'' session the emperor team members seems more eager for training so they started to train harder. I even made a training regime for them so they can improve their foundation. But after 1 month of training and no apparent strength growth for them, they stopped training seriously. Saying it was a waste of time that will be better to use for cultivate. They accepted Mayi and my strength over them and thought of it as normal both of us being of good clan. They as noble where good enough, being superior to common people. I could only sigh at their poor ambition and their pride and arrogance. (For then to start thinking seriously they will need to lose very badly versus a common team with low level spirit. But where can you find a team like that? For the age group the Emperor team is almost invincible, only losing very bad if the go against Spirit Hall, and again they will think as normal) Like this two years passed. Mayi and I both broke through rank 40. I was waiting for her to arrive at my rank, because I learn that when our ranks are more similar both our cultivation speed grew. Also, I confirmed with my previous rings that having twin spirit permit you to absorb an older ring dividing the pressure at absorbing between both spirit, so I want to try if as Mayi and I have spirit affinity maybe when absorbing a ring she can help me and I can help her creating one, having the possibility of taking an older ring. So we will try in my case for some 40.000 years old and Mayi to create her own minimum of 10.000 years. So in this years I trained using the most of every resources of the academy improving my control and sword play greatly. I even get a glimpse of the sword domain, still I can create one but with some training I''m sure that at spirit king rank I will surely have it, being extremely rare to a spirit king to posses one. For the other members of the Emperor team I almost give up of them. They maintain their arrogance and only focus in their spirit energy. All of them arrived at the late ranks of spirit elder and they accepted me and Mayi as the strongest. Only Tianheng still being the leader because me not accepting the position. For the team practice, Qin Ming decided that our best formation will be similar at the previous one, only changing the vanguard Shi brothers for Mayi and me. Mayi having a stronger defense, better power and speed surpassing in all aspects at the attack oriented defense system of the brotbers. And in my case stay back Tianheng, applying debuffs and defending the the control and support directly and the speed system with ranged protection. Even with having less basic defense that the brothers, I surpass them with my intent and ranged defense. Fortunately, after some months there were 2 exceptions that found me to become stronger. They were Feng and surprisingly the always expressionless Lingling. Feng was the first one to come saying he wanted to become stronger. I prepared him a regime focusing on improving his flying control and speed. At first he was very against the idea of training his speed wanting to focus in strength doing weight training. After some weeks of asking why, he finally confessed us the truth. First being that he was part of the speed clan. Like Mayi''s strength clan, the speed clan is one of the four uni attribute clan, the other two being the Breaking clan and the Defense clan. Previously being under the upper clan Clear Sky Hammer before they went hiding. In the case of the speed clan they focus in speed of course, but it''s a little different than the other clans, they didn''t have other option. They have the best speed of almost any spirit, the price being their completely lack of attack power. Their spirit must focus in speed, in the case they absorb a ring not-speed oriented they will be unable to advance further. In the case of a strength configuration since their first ring, they''re locked at the rank 38. And this is the main reason for her obsession with power, wanting to not follow his clan steps and trying to break through the famous 38 rank demonstrating to the world that his clan is not a good for nothing cowards only good at running. After 2 month I finally convinced him of training his speed saying that never had been a power focused speed clan member that broke through over the 38 so if he wants to do something that anyone did it he must try to think different to everyone, combining speed and attack. Since then he put his maximum effort training until exhaustion creating his own style. Like Grandmaster 10 great core spirit competencies say the first skill marks the way of the future for the spirit master being the easier to use so Feng focus in his Wind Edge applying the wind attacks when flying gaining speed and having the possibility of changing direction midway, increasing the power of the others attack skills because his bigger speed. He improved a lot now being a true speed attack system but he is blocked at rank 38 trying to find some way to broke through. Also after a year we discovered that ''he'' is a ''she''. Feng was in truth a girl, she was cross-dressed because she wanted to be recognized for her strength not for her looks, also she though that it will be easier to hide her past as a speed clan member stuck at the 38 with an identity of a boy. I couldn''t disagree with her, surely if the principal of the academy now about she at least will expelled of the team, thinking that she never would go over rank 38. Her real name was Bai Chenxiang and her spirit is in truth the speed clan Needle-Tailed Swift but for its strength configuration it muted seeming another so she changed its name to Wind Chime Bird to hide her origins. We promised to keep her secret identity and to completely help her in trying to break through, when someone accomplish going against the heavens law is when the most power can be obtained, so if she can broke through she will have the best potential, similar as my clan STGTP, if broken through to the spirit douluo is support power improve greatly, in my father case improving a 30% all his other abilities and this without having the legendary NTGTP only with the ETGTP. For Lingling she is now also rank 38 she wanted to improve her body strength, she was tired of following her clan rules and only being a little static flower only capable of healing. At that I couldn''t help to grin. Maybe healing is not the best power to have while fighting, but it was one of the best after the actual fight and for training. Thanks to her all our training, I, Mayi, Chenxiang and Lingling, evolve to the next level. We trained with heavy weight, rupturing everyday or muscles and snapping our bones followed by a healing of Lingling, greatly improving all our body constitution. Now Lingling even though not strong as a power attack system with a beast spirit she has a body robust enough to draw with a attack tool user. Her combat style is based in self-defense, never attacking the rival and only counterattacking and evading waiting for time until their comrades will help her. Her being a support system is best to not directly fight and with her heal skill is necessary that she not lose first. Also I taught both of them to better control their energy increasing their spirit reserves and reducing their consumption. Now Lingling will easily win vs Yan in 1vs1 being immune to her poison with continue healing and with greater physic and Chenxiang easily winning vs Osler and maybe drawing vs Tianheng due to him counter her, being electricity a good counter of flying type stopping her flight with ranged and all around lighting. But in her role in group battle being her better speed power than him attack power. Even when all of this changes in both I couldn''t make for the others to overcome their arrogance, they being conformed with a higher spirit rank that Chenxiang and Lingling, but surely in the future Lingling will surpass them and Chenxiang if she can solve her problem. I''m really sorry for Qin Ming, even if he is considered a genius he also train a lot even joining with a more severe training for him to our ''healing'' training. But Ming never achieve that the other members join our training remaining in their arrogant nature. He is now rank 64 with his Inferno Grey Wolf. For Mayi she became a lot stronger with all the training and finally she stopped using always all her full power, being able to stay more time fighting even when her words "It''s boring when you don''t go with all, being entertaining fighting strong people and finish quickly the weaklings". Also she seems to enter a some rebellious phase, calling me Bai instead f Big Brother and getting a little mad when I call her little sister or a treat her like a child (She only has 12 years so she is a child). And always blushing at kissing saying something like we must do it romantically and not like if a routine. For our spirit fusion now is completely controlled, only needing 1 second to use it and being able to fight after using, only using the minimum spirit energy required. There''s also an increase of power and now even if it doesn''t absorb a previously attack it can attack but being less powerful. Today is the weekly training of the Emperor team so now I''m waiting with the other member at the training grounds for Qin Ming to arrive. He finally arrive, a little late, and says "This training will be a little different of what your used. You all need practical experience so we will go to the Great Spirit Arena to train against other teams". Chapter 25 - Silver badge We follow Qin Ming to a luxurious carriage and after 2 hours we finally arrived at our destination, the Great Spirit Arena of Imperial City. Before registering Qin Ming says "If any of you wants to participate in individual or 2vs2 battles you can do it, but we will focus in the team battle 7vs7 we will start with Mayi and Tianheng at the front followed by Yan to control. Then will go Osler and Feng attacking with speed to the sides and finally Lingling and Bai as supports, I want you Bai to only concentrate in debuff don''t attack or defend if not completely obligatory. For the other battle the formation will be changing. Our first battle will be tomorrow at 7 pm so be ready for it" he finish say and leave us there. I turn to Mayi "Mayi want to form a team together and have a little warm-up". Mayi nods "Yes!". We leave the other teammates going to register for battling today. At the register there is a beautiful women with a cold aura, seeing us smiles a little saying "How can I help you?". "We want to register as a team of 2 people and if possible have a battle today" I say. "First time?" She asks both of us nodding. She then give us some paper "Please fill the form with your age, spirit and rank, also the name you want for yourself and your team". We fill it naming me 9 Debuff Colors, Mayi Fifteen Ton Ant and the team Brilliant Ant and give to her. She surprise a lot reading our age and rank but quickly calm down and gives us a iron badge "Your form has successfully been completed here are your iron badges, taking in consideration your victories and how you perform your rank will increase being iron ''The newbies'', bronze ''The weak'', silver ''The professionals'', gold ''The strong'' and platinum ''The legendary''. Your first battle is decided will be in 2 hours vs the Ground Sky Combination team" She bows to us "I pray for your good luck". After 2 hours we enter the arena, there''s not a lot of people (How it could be expected with iron newbies fighting). The rival team is composed by two 40 some years men, one of them being very fat rank 37 with and Armored Cow spirit, the other being very thin also rank 37 with Wind Sparrow as spirit. Their tactic based in the cow to defend and distract the rival while the sparrow wait to find some weakness and eliminate them. The referee, being a man with a flying spirit, shout "Activate your spirits!". They show their spirits both of them with 3 ring, white, yellow and purple, then the sparrow start to flight positioning over the cow. In our case Mayi is in front of me and we didn''t even take out our spirits. After 10 second the referee impatient for us not using our spirit shout "Start!". The opponents grin and both charge to Mayi to beat her down before she can even use her spirit. Just as both are about to hit her a brown armor surrounds her with 3 ring, yellow, purple and purple. They strike her, the cow at front and the sparrow at rear not causing any damage to Mayi''s armour. "Weak" Mayi yawns then punch both of them with different arms both of them shooting out in opposite direction and crashing to the wall outside the arena, in my case needing to dodge the sparrow. The referee and spectators are so surprised that didn''t even make any noise. After 10 second the referee recuperate and announces "Winner the Brilliant Ant team!" waking up the audience who start to clap for us. Leaving the arena Mayi says to me "Bai, it seems that there''s not gonna be any good rival so best stop wasting our time beating weakling" then blush a little and says "Let''s go tomorrow both of us to a date to see the city". I nod her without any thinking provoking her to pout a little. The next day we walk around the city visiting its most touristic and beautiful places and eating food of stands. Then at afternoon we reunited with the other of the team at a VIP room at the Arena. In the room Qin Ming seeing all of us there say "The formation will be the same I said yesterday, your opponents are the Charging team, all 7 having a non-elemental beast spirit and being all power attack system. They usually only charge toward the enemy with all their force activate all their skill at the start if you can stop their first ?ssault is as good as a win. I expect a quickly win, show your power!" We nod and enter the arena. At the arena we make our formation. The rival have a arrow formation, one at a center with 3 in every side. The referee in this case is a young woman with an eagle like wings, she shout "Today match we have the Emperor team" she signal us "Don''t let be deceived by their youthful looks and being their first time in the arena, they all have strong spirit and high rank. Versus the Charging team" She turn to the opponents "with 10 victories and 7 loses known for their famous combined ?ssault. Activate your spirits!". The opponents activate their spirit all of them being simple beast spirits and 3 ring, white, yellow and purple, except the one at the middle having a Bull spirit with ideal ring configuration. We activated all our spirits showing all of us ideal configuration with Mayi her yellow, purple and purple, causing the rival team to be very nervous. Seeing all us ready the referee shouts "Start!. All the rivals activate their spirit skills illuminating all their rings and they charge all toward us. I aim up my sword illuminating the rivals <1st skill: Fire Power> <3rd skill: Lighting speed> reducing the speed and power of the 5 front chargers leaving only normal the two at the side. Yan points toward them <3rd skill: Jade Phosphor Violet Poison> creating a cloud of poison toward the enemies. The enemies staying to much at the cloud due their low speed fall down except their leader that arrives near Tianheng. Tianheng punch toward him <1st skill:Thunder Dragon Claw> stopping his charges and throwing him outside the arena area. With the leader knocked out and all the other member unconscious by poison they can''t battle anymore, all of it in 3 seconds. The referee shout "And the winner is the Emperor team. Easily stopping the enemy charges and finish the combat in a surprisingly 3 seconds, creating a new record of this Silvers Great Arena. Congratulation!" causing for the audience, being a lot of more people than the previos one, to shout and clap celebrating our victory. Leaving the arena Mayi cutely pouts "Buaaa, Mayi couldn''t even move. Soooooo weak!". I smile at her saying "Don''t expect too much of so low level opponents". After the next 4 combats being similar low level I requested to Qin Ming for Mayi and me to not participate in any more, that it was no good for any of us, and even advicing that for the other members is was only to inflate their ego. Qin Ming accepted. After months of the same kind of winnings the Arena gave to the Emperor team the Silver badge, being recognized as professionals. After gaining the Silver badge Qin Ming decided to move to Suotuo City saying that he know it will be more interesting. (if he says it, surely there will be something worth there). So after that all the team went to Suotuo City. Chapter 26 - Suotuo City We all arrived to Suotuo city and we will stay the best hotel of the city, being a smaller city of what we where used the hotel was not as luxurious as usual. In my case I didn''t mind it but in Yan case she didn''t waste any opportunity to complain about the poor conditions. When we had all our luggage in our room Qin Ming reunite us. When all of us arrived at his room Qin Ming says "The first match will be in 2 days so be ready for it" but he is interrupt by Yan "Why did we come to a backward city like this? What can it be expected to find in this rundown place? Surely all the teams will be extremely weak, I don''t think any of them will keep more than 5 min. And can we find a better hotel? I''m feeling dirty only being here much less sleeping". At that Qin Ming can only sigh "This place is the best of the city, you can''t expect to sleep in 5 stars hotel everyday if your live so take it as a test. For the fighting maybe you will find some interesting team here. It won''t be your first rival, but I think that in a month time it will be ready. So have a little patience" He finish leaving us alone at the room. "I listened that Suotuo city is famous for its food stands, especially one that ramen shop that it says to do the most delicious pork ramen. Someone joins me?" Chenxian says. "I never understand how can you dirt your mouth with such commoner food" sighs Yan shaking her head. "I want to try it! And surely Bai also." Mayi says. "It''s a good plan. And Yan if you''re always so focus in avoiding non-noble things, you won''t try some of the best things of life. Live a little and don''t be so arrogant for once" I say. Yan becomes angry "I have better plans! I will go with Tianheng to find some decent restaurant. Even in this forgotten city must be something acceptable". At that Chenxian smiles and tease Yan "So this is it. It''s normal to want spend time like two lovely birds" She pats Yan''s shoulder "You don''t need to invent excuses, but try not to be so merry with us in the room. We will be jealous us being poor v?r??ns. You should learn about Bai and Mayi only in intimity" At that Yan explode in anger and try to hit Chenxian, but she easily dodge it stepping aside without being aware that a red faced Mayi is kicking at her back, hitting her smashing her to the wall. Osler help Chenxiang to stand up "You should stay quiet, you will live more. And next time it will be better to let Yan hit you, it will always better than Mayi" He turn to Lingling "Lingling, please?" Lingling nods activating her spirit and healing Chenxiang saying "It seems that Mayi held back this time, only 2 broken bones. Good for you Feng". At that Chenxiang says "It''s my honor for this handsome me being a partner of such beautiful lady in her goal to control her strength". Before Mayi makes another strike I stop her clapping "Clap! I''m hungry. Did you say something of ramen? Let''s go" I take Mayi and Chenxiang being in the middle of them to stop their fight. Calming down we went outside and walk toward the food stands. "Do you always have the need to make fun of them?" I ask. "It''s one of the p???sur?s of the live to make ladies in love angry " she answer. "Your also a girl and surely someday you will fall in love, and that day be prepared for a laughing round from Yan" I say. "You''re wrong my dear Bai. How can such a beauty like me fall in love. It will be the other way around needing to chase away the crowds of men madly in love for me". "Yeah sure, there''s no more attractive than a girl cross-dressing like a boy" Mayi interject. At that Chenxiang pouts saying "You''ll see when I will break through over the 38 rank, I could finally use my true identify, and at that moment it will be the start of my love life, even Bai here would fall to my woman''s charms" says making Mayi very angry. I pat her shoulder sarcastically saying "Yeah, yeah". Arriving at the food stands we find that is full of people. " There are a lot of stands, it seems that this city has a gourmet focus, there''s a lot types of food" I observe. "There! There! There''s the ramen shop come" Chenxiang says running toward the ramen and us following her. "" One service of the pork special ramen!"" Chenxiang and a fad boy next to her say at the same time. " Sorry but for today I only have enough for one" says the vendor causing the fad boy and Chenxiang to look to the other with hate "I arrived first, so it''s mine!" Say the fad boy. "It seems you''re not only ugly you''re also blind. It''s clear that this handsome me said before!" She turns to me "Right! Bai". " Don''t take me in your mess. Decide yourself" I answer. Finally they decided to have and eating contest, the one that could eat more ramen will take the special pork ramen. "You''re very intelligent, let''s eat until full to win a service of rammen" I say sarcastically "Let''s go Mayi I found some dumplings that seems delicious" Mayi then takes my hand and we go to another stand leaving both of them in their own world eating (It seems she found another mad eater like her. One more with Mayi). Mayi and I eat a lot of different food Mayi eating the ration of 10 people causing the vendors to be happy saying "The second coming of Hongjun!" whoever is Hongjun, surely being a big eater. Finishing eating we return to the stand where is Chenxiang. I can see a semi unconscious Chenxiang lying down surely having eaten too much. "Did you finish, Feng?" I ask. She recuperates a little and say sadly "I can''t believe a lost" The vendor happy to such a profit day gives the special pork ramen to the fad person "So here''s your prize, you don''t need to pay for it with how much you spent today Hongjun" (So he is Hongjun, it isn''t strange to be so famous with the food stands if he can win in a food contest versus Chenxian). At that Hongjung being in a similar state than Chenxiang with a small voice says "I''m completely full reserve it for tomorrow". Mayi taking advantage takes the ramen bowl and quickly eat it in only 5 second saying with a big smile "It''s really delicious! The best I tried today". The vendor smiles at the compliment "Thanks for the compliment little lady. I saw how much you ate next time come to my stand" Mayi nods saying thank you. I sigh saying "I''m surrounded by foodies" causing Mayi and Chenxiang to pout. Chenxiang turns to the Hongjun and angry challenge "Your only lucky today. Come tomorrow at the same time and I surely win! It''s a challenge!" and she run away. I approach him "Nice to meet another one that can keep with their rate. My name is Bai" I present him my hand. He shakes "Ma Hongjun, nice to meet you" he say with difficulty almost throwing up. "Mayi" says Mayi. I point to the direction that Chenxiang run away "And he is Feng, he is always like that. If you continue challenge like this tomorrow don''t let him win or he won''t stop bragging." Then Mayi and I leave him resting "Good bye" receiving a low movement of his hand. After that we go to the commercial area too see if we can find something interesting. We walk through all the shops observing their merchandising and I gift Mayi a rose hair pin that seems to like. She accepts and she doesn''t wait an instant to put in her hair blushing a little and smiling. Walking a little more I see a girl running away through the crowd, she has long black hair with black eyes, a slender body with a very developed figure, specially the bosom. Chasing her is a boy of similar age as me blond hair, heterochromic blue and red eyes, tall with broad shoulder shouting "Please stop Qing''er!" without being very aware of his surroundings he crash with Mayi, Mayi falling to the ground and breaking the hair pin that a gifted her. The boy stops a moment and say "Sorry, I must hurry!" but before he can start running a mad Mayi activates her spirit and with great speed and strength punch the boy. The boy with very little time to defend he only can activate his spirit appearing a ghost figure of a white tiger at her back to increase even a little his defend. Being struck at his face the boy fly away crashing and breaking a cloth stand. I approach the boy and help him stand up "Sorry for her, she is sometimes a little temperamental and you broke something of her and don''t apologized correctly". The boy still touching his injured face "What a punch!" then bow to Mayi "I am Dai Mubai, I am completely sorry for hitting you and for my disrespect. I will pay for any damage caused" He turn to the owner of the broken stand "Put everything at my count" then he give me his hand. I shake presenting me "Bai and her is Mayi, apologized her for her rude behavior, there''s better ways to respond". He look around and hurried say "Sorry but I''m in a rush". I pat her shoulder and push him toward the running away girl "Love quarrels, good luck!". He thanks me, say good bye and return to run. After that is become dinner time so we return to the food area. There''s a new stand with a boy somewhat handsome with white hair he is selling sausages. Mayi approach him "I want to try one! They seem to have some spirit energy". The boy smiling gives Mayi one and I pay for it. Just as Mayi was about to eat it I see the boy saying "I, your father, have a big sausage" and creating more sausages. At that moment a hurriedly invoke my sword <3rd skill: Lighting speed> to Mayi and take the sausage from her throwing it towards the floor, causing Mayi to pout angry "What did you do? I wanted to eat it". "Never eat this sausages Mayi, please do it for me" I beg she nodding. Then I approach to the boy angry "What''s your name?". He turn to me with a smile "My name is Oscar. Do you want more of the delicious sausages of this handsome me?". At that a lift him catching his neck "Never! And I say never give to that girl" I turn to Mayi "Any of you sausages. I will forget you this time because I know how lame can be the food masters chant". Then I leave with Mayi to eat more until she is full finally returning to the hotel. The next day it was the day before of the team fight, but he won''t participate like usual. To pass the time Mayi and I went to the Spirit Great Arena. We approach the women at the counter and I ask "We are the Brilliant Ant team, there''s some two people team here that had some record of unbeatable?". The women search our information "Brilliant Ant team, spirit elders with 10 wins and 0 loses all the combats finishing within 3 minutes" she says a little surprised, then continue searching for something "We have one team of your rank that didn''t lose anytime. I''ll try to contact to them and prepare a match. Please come later to know about". We spent some time walking and like always eating (Sighs). Before lunch we return to the arena. There the same woman inform us "The other team has accepted your challenge. Your match will be tomorrow at 5 o''clock at evening. The other team name being Three Five Combination". Chapter 27 - Versus Three Five Combination The next day I have breakfast with all the team. Qin Ming entered the dining room saying "This night opponents are the Mad Battle team. A team consisting in 7 spirit elder or above 35 rank having one of them with ideal configuration. The people that you should take into account is their leader, rank 38 power attack system with a rhinoceros spirit, their control system a woman with the ideal configuration and spider spirit and finally their support system with his 3rd skill fascination which creates a berserk state for the other member increasing their attributes a lot at the expense of their control, being the reason for their name. The formation will be the Shi brothers at vanguard, followed by Tianheng, then Osler, Yan and Feng and finally at the back Lingling". "So another easy win, they were only commoners, even with some good spirit they''re no match for us" say Yan. Finishing breakfast I start my breathing routine, trying to improve it, spending all the morning at that. Having a light lunch I and Mayi are prepared for the fight vs the Three Five Combination. We go to the arena waiting at our VIP room until a hostess inform us that it''s time to the fight. We enter the ring, this time there''s a lot of people, usually you don''t expect too much from 2vs2 fight but a fight between two teams with 0 loses is a good reclaim. At the other side of the ring there are two people, one boy and a girl seeming both the same age as Mayi. The boy having black hair hanging half way to his shoulders, blue eyes and a facial features that not being considered handsome gave an easy to get along feeling. In contrast the girl it can be easily see her future beauty, tall, slender with smooth black hair combed in a scorpion braid with bright and intelligent eyes and fair face giving a charming feeling, lovely perfectly describing her. The referee was a like usually a charming young woman with a flying spirit. She circling the ring say "Today we have a very special match" she turns to us "Competing for the first time in our Suotuo Great Arena with 10 victories and 0 loses and some record of speed time under them, we have the Brilliant Ant team formed by 9 Debuff Colors and Fifteen Ton Ant" receiving a lot of claps and shouts of the audience. The referee turn to the other team "versus the already famous for their coordination and impressive fights in our arena with 21 victories and 0 loses the Three Five Combination formed by Thousand Hand Asura and Soft Bones Demon Rabbit" receiving even more cheers than us (It''s normal they fight in home) and causing Soft Boned Rabbit to shout "Ahhh, It''s dance! Dance! Not five!" the people laughing like being completely normal (so a kind of routine?). "Today we will all observe the downfall of one unbeatable team, finishing their winning strike. Activated your spirits!" Shouts the referee. Both of use activate our spirit with their respective rings like usual. The rival activate their spirits the boy being Blue Silver Grass with 3 rings, yellow, yellow and purple, (It''s very strange to have such a low level spirit with so much rank at his age, interesting) and the girl activates her spirit appearing a pair of rabbit ears and white fur in part of her body being surrounded by three ring, also ideal configuration. At that moment I sense Mayi tensed I turn to her worried for her when the referee shout "Start!". Before I could say something to Mayi she boldly jumps toward the girl shouting angrily "RABBIT!!!!!". I stay dumbfounded, but recuperate quickly saying "Calm down Ant!". Mayi quickly arrive at the girl and punch with all her power. The girl surprised hurriedly activates her spirit skill teleporting two meter at her left dodging it, Mayi hitting the ground causing it to leave a 3 meter diameter hole at the ring. She in her berserk state continue chasing the other girl without stop. Suddenly a Blue Silver vine trap Mayi stopping her movements. Mayi only with pure strength breaks the vine but just being broken a lot of grass appears around her body entangling her, this time being impossible to break free. At this time the girl activate her 1st skill, traps Mayi''s neck using her braid and kick her back liberating her of the previously entanglement but being throw towards outside the ring. I pierce towards the place that Mayi will fall creating a shield mid way. Mayi recuperate mid way and stepping toward my shield jumps again toward the ring landing at my side. "Are you calm now?" I ask receiving a nod. I grin"It seems this gonna be more interesting" I activate <2nd skill: Wood Stamina>. I charge towards the girl just as I was about to hit her she teleports, I activate my Mind eye at maximum sensing her at my back, <3rd skill: Lighting speed> I quickly turn around directly hitting her before she can react at the new difference in speed. She is throw away but is quickly taken by a vine from the boy returning at the ring. For Mayi she is trying to hit the boy but every time the boy evade it with bizarre steps. For the other hand the boy is trying to trap her but she easily destroys all the grass. "Ant tactic 3!" She ignores the boy and changes direction charging towards the girl. I also pierce toward the girl and then I quickly run towards the boy. The girl startled by the abrupt two attacks towards her, just as the attacks are about to connect without time to think she teleport away, separating her further of the boy. While the boy''s vine are trying to stop Mayi charge towards the girl, Mayi twist her body kicking my remote protection and changing direction taking advantage of her kick force and the vine''s pull. As I swing my sword towards the boy I hit something tough. Looking over the boy I see that he blocked my and Mayi''s strikes with some kind of eight spider legs (Really? I external spirit bone?). "Back Down!" I shout both Mayi and I moving away from the boy returning to our first position and also for the girl to move next to the boy, all 4 of us like at the start of the match. I turn to the boy and girl "It seems that I underestimated you. Sorry for that, we will honor you showing us our full strength" I turn to Mayi "Ant, full power!". Listening me Mayi smiles and takes off her jacket throwing it outside the ring. The jacket crash toward the ground loudly and creating a small crack to the surprised of the rival duo. Mayi moves her body doing light stretching saying "Finally free!" then turn toward me pouting "I always say that 80 kg is too much!". In my case I take of some weighs of my legs and arms weighing a total of 40 kg. Seeing our weighs taken the rival duo can''t help to be nervous and be on guard. "Let''s go Ant" I make a pierce guard position activating all my skills on the rivals <1st skill: Fire Power> <3rd skill: Lighting speed> and wrapping my sword in intent causing a light brown aura. Both of us prepared we charge toward them being more than twice fast than before. The boy shoots a spider web toward us but it was easily cut by one swing of me. At the same time the girl eyes shines with a bright red causing me to have a little headache (So I mind attack? It won''t work on us). Finally Mayi strikes the boy that blocks the attack with 7 of his spider legs but can''t help being pushed 4 meters. Then the free spider leg pierce toward Mayi''s stomach but when in contact with her armor it is unable to drill it. Taking advantage of the moment of surprise of the enemy Mayi throws another punch toward the boy, this time breaking through his defend and crashing him to the wall outside the ring. While Mayi was with the boy I charge towards the girl. She quickly teleports 6 meters over the ground, I jump towards her. Seeing me in the air the girl smiles saying "Wrong decision coming for a air battle" while she teleports at my back. Just as she was about of wrapping me with her braid at the immobile me I activate my spirit bone my right feet turning yellow surrounded by lighting. I kick the air doing a 180o twirl to the left evading her wrap and using the impulse to kick her back. Connecting my strike at her back, she is shot towards outside the ring, heavily crashing on the ground. Being both of our rival outside the ring, the referee announced "The winner is the Brilliant Ant team! Showing us a spectacular fight with techniques and finally overpowering their rival with their attributes taking of their restrains after some intense match they finally win finishing the win strike of the Three Five Combination team. Let''s congratulate both team for their battle and look forward for the winning strike of the winners!". Mayi and I leave the ring arena while being shrouded by the claps and shout of the spectators. Arriving at out VIP room Mayi says "It was great! Finally some fighting" then she turns a little serious "Next time let me hit the rabbit". I remembering the lost of reasoning at the start I ask "What happened at the beginning of the match? You usually don''t lose your cool". She answer like anything happened "Sorry, my fault. Seeing her some memories came as she is also spirit rabbit humanized" causing me to drop my jaw Chapter 28 - Shrek Seven Devils team "The girl was a spirit beast! How did you know?" I asked Mayi. "As a humanized spirit beast is easy to know, her essence and aura they were clearly of a spirit beast" She answered like being common knowledge. "In this case, she also will know your true identity" I said worried. At that she smiled proudly and hit her ?h?st "Don''t worry about that. As a Fifteen Ton Ant I hardy manifest any external aura, so it will be extremely difficult to detect me. It will be necessary that at least a spirit Douluo or a humanized spirit beast to completely analyze my inside" she blushed a little "Like for our spirit fusion that is necessary some internal connection like kissing". I sighted relieved and asked "Can you explain a little more about you losing your cool?". "Remember when I told you about my past? the time when my brothers and I went to the core area of Star Dou Forest and we were attacked by three beasts. The girl has a very similar aura to the rabbit of that time. At that time the rabbit wasn''t 100.000 years old, but she was near. So I suppose that she evolved to human form after reaching 100.000 years" she then made a regret face and bowed to me "Sorry for not controlling myself at that time and attack impulsively". I hugged her and said "Don''t worry too much, nothing happened" Finally calming her I asked "Do you want some kind of revenge. Anonymously reporting her condition it will surely do the trick". At that Mayi paled a little and quickly shook her head "No, no. I don''t want to kill any other humanized spirit beast if they didn''t make any move against me or you. It was only that it was so sudden seeing her that I react badly. I already forgave her. Thanks to her I met you Bai and arrived at 100.000 years" she paused a little and made a little angry face "But I still want to hit her to vent a bit of anger. But it will be only a little beating, nothing important". I patted her head "Surely we will find her again. Next time I''ll let you take some revenge" causing her to happily nod. Then we went to the main Spirit Arena where the Emperor team will fight the Mad Battle team, only 1 hour for it start. At the audience I could see a lot of people wearing expensive clothing and talking about the easy money they will make in this match (Woah. If this surely nobles always bet for the team. We will have problem with the Arena later on). The match quickly finished in victory for the Emperor team. Even when the Mad Battle team were empowered by the fascination skill they were no match to the high grade spirits of the team. With a cloudy mind and being unable to break through the brothers defense they became easy targets for all the others attacks without any need for spirit skills, quickly eliminating all of them. The next 2 days were similar matches all of them easily won. Today we received an order for a reunion from Qin Ming. When the time came Mayi and I went to our VIP lounge at the Arena. Entering, all the other members were already there. Tianheng and Yan were sitting at the sofa, Yan leaning at Tianheng''s shoulder, Osler was standing near the window while drinking something, the Shi brothers where meditating at the floor, Lingling was standing in a corner and Chenxiang seeing us entering she stood up and greet us. Chenxiang pouted a little "Always so intimate. You like Yan and Tianheng always the lovely bird rubbing your love to our faces. You will arouse the urges of us poor v?r??ns" Yan clearly angry shot a glance to Chenxiang "Then come, let big sister teach how to become a man". Causing Chenxiang to turn green quicklt answering while shaking her hands "No need to defile this handsome body with your poison. I think that only Tianheng is good enough for you" Osler and I couldn''t help to laugh a little at their conversation gaining death stare from Yan. At that moment Qin Ming entered the lounge. Seeing all of us in he said "Your opponents for today has been decided. Take a look" He gave us a paper with the rival team information. Shrek Seven Devils team, iron badge, 27 victories 0 loses. Captain: Evil Eye White Tiger power attack system, rank 38, White Tiger spirit, spirit rings, 2 yellow and 1 purple. Vice captain: Thousand Hands Asura control system, rank 32, Blue Silver Grass spirit, spirit rings, 2 yellow and 1 purple. Member: Soft Bones Demon Rabbit power attack system, rank 31, Soft Bone Rabbit spirit, spirit rings, 2 yellow and 1 purple. Member: Hell Civet agility attack system, rank 28, Hell Civet spirit, spirit rings, 2 yellow. Member: Sausage Monopoly, food support system, rank 31, Sausage spirit, spirit rings, 2 yellow and 1 purple. Member: Eight Treasures Glazed Tile, support system, rank 31, Eight Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda spirit, spirit rings, 2 yellow and 1 purple. Reading the list I couldn''t help to be very surprised (What is Rongrong doing participating in this Arena! Moreover the Three Five combination are part of her team so surely they will be strong. Ahhhh! I want to hug Rongrong and spoil her!). Yan also surprised but for another reason "How can they be our opponents? Their spirit rank is too low and they''re only iron badge". "Even with only the iron badge they accumulated enough point in one month to acquire the silver one. I think that they are your match so be aware of them" said Qin Ming. "You surely are overestimating the enemy. How can they be our match? They even have the vice captain with a Blue Silver Grass spirit, he won''t stand even my first spirit skill. The only person that must be aware it will be this Eight Treasures Glazed Tile. I never listened about the eight but if we supposed it is an upgrade of the famous Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda she will be an incredible support, but I don''t think is enough to change the difference in attributes" Tianheng said. "You better be prepared. It is a team specially dispatched by the Spirit Arena. Never underestimate an enemy. Furthermore, you are all forbidden to heavy injure any of them" Qin Ming turned to Yan "Specially you Yan, if some of them get poisoned quickly give them the antidote" then he turned to all of us "I will explain after the match. The formation will be the same as the previously matches without Mayi and Bai participating. You can go now". "Cough!" I coughed to catch their attention. Once they looked at me I angry said "If anyone injures the Eight Treasures Glazed Tile, be prepared to run because I will chase you to death!" Causing all their face to turn white. They all nod and quickly leave the room. I signal Mayi to leave and that I will stay a minute more. Finally being alone with Qin Ming I asked"What is your objective? I know my sister capabilities and potential, I also fought 2 of their members. Clearly this team is strong, strong enough to require from Mayi and my strength to win. So, what are you planing?". Qin Ming smiled at me and said "It seems that you discover me. If I must say the biggest debility of the team it will be their arrogance. They always take the victory as granted only basing in their spirits and rank". "So your plan is for them to lose against a team with weaker spirits and rank so they can repent and improve their training at the future?" I asked. He nodded "I am sorry but they need some setback. All this year fighting were too smooth for them. They need to strive for more". "Hahaha!" I started laughing "You''re completely right, maybe with this match they will start joining to my ''healing'' training. I look forward for their defeat. I though to be impossible to find a team with this characteristic, weak spirit and rank but strong enough to win against them. Good job teacher Ming finding one". I left the room meeting Mayi outside who was waiting for me pouting "I wanted to fight! They seems strong. It will be entertaining and it will be the perfect opportunity to bully a rabbit" Mayi said. I pat her head "Surely there will be another chance. It''s better for us to no participate, this match maybe it will be the most important one for them. Moreover after the match I will present someone very important, so look forward to it". Chapter 29 - Emperors vs Devils When night came Mayi and I went to the main Arena to watch the fight. After some brief explanation of the referee the match started. The White Tiger charging only to be stopped by the Shi brothers being pushed to the air by the recoil. Tianheng taking advantage of the opponent inability to move in air attacked toward him falling into a trap. The White Tiger was pulled by a vine away from danger, while Tianheng failing his attack was surrounded by all the enemies, receiving all kind of attacks causing him to waste a lot of spirit energy and they even broken his arm until the Shi brothers could protect Tianheng taking him to Lingling to heal. After sometime Tianheng recuperate a little but unable to exert his maximum strength due to its low spirit energy. Even though Yan quickly used her 3rd ability, it was fast nullified by Thousand Hand Asura throwing alcohol. At that moment the battle divided, the not completely recovered Tianheng b?r?ly keeping vs the White Tiger, Osler suppressing the Hell Civet with his higher speed and spirit power, the Shi brothers against the Three Five Combination and Chenxiang fighting the Evil Fire Phoenix, this one protecting and being supported by the Sausage Monopoly while Ronrong supported all her team members. In spite of Yan creating a weak mist causing dizziness, it was being countered by one type of Sausage. For Lingling she was prepared for heal anyone that needed. They continued fighting, gradually the Emperor team was pushing the other team thanks to their higher spirit power. The Shi brothers used their 3rd ring skill injuring and taking out of the fight the Soft Bone Demon Rabbit who was unable to evade so much shield pieces. This elimination caused the other Shrek Seven Devils to react, the White Tiger and the Hell Civet activated their spirit fusion. Creating a big white tiger that with a howl pushed Tianheng and Osler, vomiting blood being both unable to fight more. Finishing their spirit fusion the Tiger and the Civet where too exhausted to continue in the match. For Chenxiang, she started playing with the Evil Fire Phoenix throwing spirit skills, but unable to break through his evil fire even when using her 3rd skill because the natural suppression of the phoenix to bird type spirits and the support of the 3rd skill of Rongrong which seems to improve the spirit power. When Chenxiang was about to attack physically, surrounding herself with wind increasing her speed some blue sphere shot toward her. She twisted her body rapidly spinning creating a mini tornado that cut the blue sphere that expanded to form a web. That blue sphere was shot by a completely angry Thousand Hand Asura. Now with his external spirit bone of eight spider leg activated. After throwing the blue sphere he was attacked by the four shields of the Shi brothers. But he used Tianheng''s body as a shield who was previously entangled by Asura''s 2nd skill. This caused the Shi brothers to hurriedly stop their attack creating a backslash from them. Thousand Hand Asura took advantage of the Shi brothers debilitation and lost of shields and shot toward them impulsing with his external spirit bone. Piercing toward both brother badly poisoning them. Then he jump again using his spider legs toward Yan lifting her, poisoning her. For Chenxiang after cutting the blue sphere, she charges towards the Evil Phoenix Fire with a twirl using wind evading his evil fire and with overwhelming speed arriving at his back, kicking him pushing him outside of the ring. Then she invoked two sharp feather and pointed at the neck of Rongrong and the Sausage Monopoly. Both Thousand Hands Asura and Chenxiang look both at the other eyes showing some glint. After 1 second Chenxiang lightly pushed outside the ring the two supports while Thousand Hands Asura threw Yan and both charged toward the other. Surrounded completely by wind arriving at her maximum speed, Chenxiang struck towards Asura. Asura with all his spider legs and strength diverted Chenxiang''s attack rebounding her toward the air. After 5 meter Chenxiang finally could recuperate and balance herself hovering in the air. She looked around, seeing the state of the Shi brother and Yan caused by the poison. She sighed, lifted her hands in surrender and said "I concede, we lose" she signal the brother and Yan shouting "Quickly treat them!". Asura completely calm turned to Lingling, pulled her towards him with a vine and said "Treat my friend" (I see Lingling blushing? Nah! It must me my imagination, the always expressionless Lingling''s face never change). Leaving her near his teammates he turned toward the poisoned members and piercing with his spider legs extracted the poison. Seeing the ending of the match Mayi and I stand up of out seats and went to the ring side of the Emperor team while listening the referee proclaiming Shrek Seven Devil as the victor and all the applause of the audience. Arriving outside the ring I nodded to Qin Ming who was waiting there and we wait together to the other members to come. I could listen to Tianheng saying that they didn''t completely lose and that next time they will win. For Yan something about her poison winning against Asura''s. Chenxiang was talking to the Evil Fire Phoenix saying that she look forward for his growth. Lingling seemed to want to say something but finally said nothing. The emperor member left coming toward us. Tianheng bowed toward Qin Ming "Sorry teacher, we lose. It''s completely my fault!". Osler interrupted saying "No, this can''t be blamed all in you, how can we know that Shrek would be so treacherous?". Yan looked towards me and Mayi saying "It''s your fault for not participating. With your help we surely would easily overpowered all of them". I grinned at her "So are you saying that without me you are useless?" causing Yan to lower her head. "You can return to rest. Recover as quickly as possible. I still have some matters to attend" said Qin Ming leaving them there. I and Mayi follow Qin Ming and I said "Can we follow you? I also want to meet someone" Qin Ming nod at me and we went to a VIP lounge that wasn''t the same of our team. Entering I can see inside all Seven Shrek Devils and their professors. Chapter 30 - Mayi vs Rongrong When I entered the room I was tackled by Rongrong, both falling to the ground. She had a smile inn her face with some tear falling to her cheeks crying "Big Brother!". I couldn''t help to be a little sentimental, having some moist in my eyes I hugged her tightly. Suddenly we were separated by a huge force. I saw that the culprit who separate us being Mayi with a very angry face with red eyes full of hate looking at Rongrong. At the same time I could observe Rongrong''s face changing first to one of surprise and quickly morphing to one upset to an angry stare towards Mayi. "Bai is mine!" Shouted Mayi surprising everyone of the room for her loud voice even me. Then she came to me and hugged my left arm. At that Rongrong answered trying futilely to separated Mayi from me, becoming more angry shouting to Mayi "Leave Big Brother! Minx! I''m the only one who can be pampered by Big Brother!" and hugged my right arm putting me in a somehow complicated position. "Ejem!" Coughed Qin Ming interrupting her fight receiving death stares of both of them causing even for him to back up one step (Thanks God that someone stopped them. Rest in Piece Qin Ming). Then he calmed down and continued "Looking everyone surprised I think that presentations are necessary" he bowed to Shrek teachers "Qin Ming pays respects to teachers". One of Shrek''s teachers who was a middle aged person that gave a devious feeling said "No need to be so humble. Your one of the best graduates of Shrek. And it seems that it went good for you seeing that you become a teacher of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy" said the devious teacher surprising all Shrek students to Qin Ming relation with a so famous academy and theirs. Qin Ming turned to the students saying "Hello juniors, I am Qin Ming and I am also a Shrek graduate" He turned towards me and Mayi "They are the reserve of the Emperor team they are...". I took advantage of his opportunity separating from an angry Mayi and Rongrong and did a little bow "I am Ning Bai, student at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy and the big brother of Rongrong. I think that I previously met all of you Shrek Devils but I don''t know some of your names" I turn to the teachers "Neither I have the honor of meeting teacher Qin teachers". With that all of them presented themselves. The [DESCRIPTION] teacher "I am Shrek principal, you can call me Flender". "Zhao Huji" said the teacher with wide shoulders and powerful muscles. "Yu Xiaogang, you can call me Grandmaster" said the average looking man with short black hair. Listening his name I couldn''t help to be surprised and I made a big bow towards him "It is a big honor meeting the famous Grandmaster. I am a big fan. A big part of my training was influenced by your theory" causing him to smile and nod. Next came the turn of the Shrek students. "Dai Mubai. We met the other day at the plaza" the White Tiger said then turned to Mayi "Sorry for the hit. And good strike!". "Ma Honjung" said the Evil Fire Phoenix "Please say to your bird teammate that next time I won''t gonna lose. And that I''m still unbeaten at eating contest". "Zhu Zhuqing" said coldly the Hell Civet. "Oscar" said the Sausage Monopoly flinching remembering our previously encounter. "Tang San" said Thousand Hands Asura with a little smile. Finally Rongrong turns to Qin Ming and did a little courtesy "I am Ning Rongrong". Listening Rongrong surname it seems that Mayi finally resolved 2+2 learning that she is in reality my little blood related sister. Her previously hate vanished like never being there and with a big smile approached Rongrong a hugged her "I am Tai Mayi! Nice to me you little sister Rongrong". Only to be pushed by Rongrong. Then Rongrong returned to hug my arm and showing her tongue to Mayi said "I don''t accept you. Big Brother only spoils me!" causing Mayi to return to her previously angry state and came to hug my other arm while furious looking at Rongrong. Rongrong looked at me with big eyes "Big Brother, who do you prefer? Who do you think is cuter? Your precious little sister or some ugly ant?". Mayi then also looked at me and said "Yeah, who is cuter? Me, your precious partner or some pink bubblehead?". I thought a little receiving spectating stares from both girls (Fuck! It doesn''t matter what I say one of them will go after my head. My first option will be to say my little sister but I live with Mayi and I will notice the effect longer, for the other hand I don''t meet Rongrong a lot but I don''t want her to hate me! I don''t want any of them! They too precious to me. Oh! I have an idea). "I have an idea! It''s too obvious my response so let''s do a contest" I look at Shrek students "All the boys we can all vote for the best girl of the group. I am curious for what do you prefer" (They surely will all vote for the manifestation of cuteness Rongrong because they know her. So I will vote for Mayi. Rongrong will be happy to winning and forget about all. Then I will said that I voted the most obviously, clarifying in intimacy for Mayi that I voted her and the same for Rongrong). With some odd looks from all the girls of the group to specifics boys, the other boys didn''t have any option than participate. We wrote the name in a paper and put in a bowl. Then Mubai as their leader came and read the results (Surely it will be 4 Rongrong and 1 Mayi). Rongrong turned to me with tears falling her eyes "Big Brother doesn''t like me. I hate you Bai!" quickly leaving the room running closing the door with a "Bang!". I could see the happy look of Mayi and the surprised of all the others. I angry turned to the males Seven Devils "You''re all idiots! You couldn''t let Rongrong win or at least take her 2 votes" I turned to leave the room to chase Rongrong. I last looked to them "Next time we meet it will be time for a beating!" I made a death stare to Oscar "And you. Oh, you! You''re so dead!". I quickly leave the room to the direction of Rongrong. Leaving the Arena building I could see Rongrong sat in a bench crying. I sat next to her and try to approach her only to be rejected "I hate Bai! You changed me for another girl" said angrily Rongrong while weakly hitting me. I let her hit me and said "Rongrong your will always be my precious little sister for me. Mayi is a very precious friend and in the future I expect her to be more, but she can''t replace you. I will protect you with my life if necessary" I hugged her. She stops crying but still with some teary face she said "But you voted for Mayi, so you prefer her before me". "I thought that all your teammates will vote for you. They must be blind to no acknowledge you as the best. I voted Mayi because I knew that she won''t receive any vote because they don''t know her. You are my number one girl Rongrong" I said. "?Wonder If I gave a normal Oreo?" I said invoking an Oreo throwing the black cookie and giving the cream part to RongRong. "?Wonder If I gave a double stuff Oreo?" This time summoning a double cream Oreo and also giving to her. Rongrong took both of them and ate them. Then she smiled and cleaned her tears saying "Big Brother sweets are always the best". I smile listening her calling me again Big Brother. Rongrong made a surprised expression "Woah, your sweet recuperation of spirit energy is even better that Oscar''s sausages". I answered her "How can I be worst than some low life like him?". Rongrong reacts with a strange look, some with little embarrassing and a little of hate, but quickly start laughing. At that moment we could see Mayi coming towards us. Rongrong stood up "I must return with my teammates, they will be worried for me. I will leave you with your girlfriend" I blushed a little "Don''t worry to much for me I''m good at Shrek Academy. Bye, bye! Looking forward for the next meeting" she run returning to the Arena. When Rongrong crossed with Mayi she said to Mayi''s ears "This time maybe is your win, but don''t expect that I will let you have Big Brother so easily" then she run returning with her teammates. Mayi made a strange face that then change to one with conviction. She approached me and sat next to me "All good?" she said. I sighed relieved "Yeah all good" I turn serious and look at Mayi''s eyes directly "Mayi I like you, no. I love you! Will you like to be my girlfriend?!". She dumbfounded blink at me and finally asked me with a cute ignorant face"We weren''t before? Grandpa said that if you love someone, go a lot of dates alone with him and finally sleep in the same bed you are boyfriend and girlfriend and that the boy should take responsibility". This time is me that I am dumbfounded. I started laughing "Hahaha! Yeah, you were right. We are an item" I kiss her sweetly without tongue "In the future I will take responsibility". We stayed hugged together until dusk when we returned to our hotel. Chapter 31 - Aftermath "Bang!" made the door closing. Mayi looked to Shrek student "You made Bai mad. Next time fight will be your beating" She calmly said leaving the room without hurry. All the people at the room looked very surprised at the scene that happened before. After some time they recuperated "The younger generation always so emotional" Flender said. "To think that him was Rongrong''s brother I expected some arrogant he-devil young master like Rongrong before. Next time we meet them we must be a little wary, that Mayi hit strong" said Mubai laughing. "You can laugh unworried. It''s me who recieved a death sentence!" said a little frightened Oscar. "It''s your fault to talk to much!" said Xiao Wu. Then she turn to Tang San blinking cutely her eyes "You voted me, no? Brother San?". "Who could I vote if not you? All the others must be blind" hurriedly answer Tang San receiving a happy nod from Xiao Wu. "Of course I voted for you, Zhuqing" said Mubai only to receive a cold glare from her. Hongjun then pat Oscar''s shoulder "Don''t worry to much. What can he do to us? He is only a reserve member and we already beat the main one. So next time it will also be our win". Xiao Wu laid her head on her shoulder cutely ignorant and asked "How can they only be reserve? They beat me and brother San, even when brother used his spirit bone" Receiving a nod from Tang San and a shocked expression from the others. "They are considered part of the reserve team not for their low strength. They are reserve because they don''t usually fight, considering boring easy matches. In case of strength, both of them are at the top of the team." said Qin Ming "I prohibited them for participating vs Shrek because I wanted for the others to learn from a defeat. If both of them participate your winning probability would drop to almost impossible" scaring all the others. "For other matter, congratulations to teachers to have this great generation of so talented students. Like always Shrek only accepts monster and it seems this generation is better than mine. It''s great to see Shrek strive". Flender a little tired and sad said "This will be our last generation of students". "You continue with the financial problems? If is that maybe..." Qin Ming said quickly being interjected by Flender "It''s also that but we are old, we lost the spirit and passion of past days. After this batch of students graduate we will finally close the school. Ming you are doing a good job teaching those youths, they can be regarded as elites". Qin Ming humbly answered "It''s not my skills that attracted them, rather it was our academy". "Right now I am teaching at the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, this children are its most outstanding disciples. So their progress can be regarded as their talent not mine" Answered Qin Ming. After that the ?du?t left the room leaving the children talking about the previous battle. Returning to our hotel with Mayi we went to our group room to see if any of the others was awake. We entered the room only to find all the team there. Despite that all their injures were healed by Lingling spirit, they still had a haggard look, seeming exhausted. I looked at all the other eyes. The Shi brother, Osler and Yan returned with an ashamed look and a quickly cut of view. Chenxiang looked frustrated with a hint of happiness. Lingling was upset minded but some was different of her normal state. My biggest surprise was Tianheng who was showing a glace with resolution. "Tianheng, good look" I said to him "Something happened after me leaving". "Tianheng found his uncle and had a private conversation with him. After that his depression change to resolution, so. Good for him!" Said Chenxiang. Tianheng bowed to all of us surprising me a lot "Sorry! I let my arrogance blind me making all of us lose face in this match" he turned to me "Bai sorry for my previous actions completely rejecting your training methods. After seeing that even a stupid bird like Feng contribute more than me in the fight I can''t ignore the results anymore" "Hey!" Chenxiang said offended "Of course this talented handsome me was the MVP, who can win over me?" She proudly states. I look at her with a frown, she quickly evading my stare. "To much responsibility. I hardly fight with all of you, so I will prefer that you maintain your status as leader. For the training you can join us in it. Tomorrow I will leave with Mayi to finally obtain my fourth ring so I can''t create a unique regime from you. So the best is that you start training following the basics with Feng and Lingling help". "You must call me handsome big brother Feng from now on, I only expect respect from my little juniors" hummed Chenxiang causing her to be the receptor of everyone death glare. Chenxiang apologized shaking her arms "Sorry, sorry! It was only a little joke!". "When we return I will expect from all of you to at least having created your foundation. After that we will finally start the true training. Don''t forget that you have the talent for it" I said encouraging them "Because in the Continental Spirit Master Academy Elite Grand Competition in one year time I won''t accept any less than victory. For victory!". All of them shouting "For victory". "Good. It seems that you experienced a great growth with this defeat. I''m happy for you" Qin Ming said entering the room. All the Emperor team members bowed to him and said "Teacher Qin, please continue teaching us" Qin Ming answered with a nod "I did a deal with Shrek academy. They will come in the near future as exchange students with their professors. Being a separated group, we using their name for our academy''s fame in exchange for them using our facilities. They will take the second spot to the Continental Tournament of the academy" he informed us. "Great! We will see them again!" Said Lingling causing all of us to be very surprised at her clearly show of emotion and high voice. "Lingling are you okay? Did you eat something in bad state? Are you dying?" Asked Chenxiang only to Lingling to punch her with a heavy blushed face. "Feng stop laughing at Lingling" said Tianheng to Chenxiang. Then he turned to Lingling "But is great seeing so much emotion on you Lingling" causing Lingling to blush more. "Ejem! Anyway it will be a good opportunity to have a spar team of a similar level to practice" Osler said interjecting in the previously conversation. "Of course, the best being near my little Rongrong" I said. Mayi had a resolute look, looked at me and said in a low voice only to her to hear "I won''t never lose to you". "It surely will be a good experience to learn for both teams" Said Qin Ming. I turned to Qin Ming and said "Teacher Qin, Mayi and I will take break from the team and we will go alone to Star Dou Forest to find our 4th rings. So I request your permission to leave" "You have my permission to go. Even if a deny it you will go anyway. Do you really not want any help from the academy? We can help find you an specific beast and hunt it" Qin Ming said. "We prefer to go alone gaining vital experience. I think that you must use your own strength to obtain your rings, not depend on others" I explained. Qin Ming nodded at me "Be careful". Chapter 32 - Spirit Ring There were 2 important characteristic when you choosing for a spirit beast to absorb the ring. First it was the skill that can be obtained by it. Ring spirit skills are the main power of a spirit master. Doing impossible thing possible, surpassing your limits. For low level spirit masters sometimes is the true difference between them and some really powerful normal people. It''s very important the spirit skills that will determinate your path. So you need to be very careful when choosing one and that have a good synergy with your other skills or that go well with your way of fighting. Being support, defense, attack, speed... If someone have very different effect, he at least needs to be strong enough to that they individually affect the enemy evading becoming to a jack of all trades. Another important fact of the skill is that can evolve all your spirit. Changing some characteristic of the spirit itself passively. This example is very intensified in spirit plants when absorbing some spirit plant or theoretically even beast they can obtain some of it characteristic like more resistance or even poison. The other important aspect is the age of the spirit. The older the better, obtaining more powerful skills and a higher boost for your further cultivation. However, absorbing a too aged ring will cause rejection, injuring oneself. In cases of 10.000 years old or older is not too uncommon to became mentally retard. So is it very important to know your limit of age absorption, and try to find some near this age. The named ideal configuration was created based in a study 1000 years ago. It was an analysis following the creation rings of a humanized spirit beast. The humanized beasts are considered to cultivate better and at a higher peace comparing with humans. So it configuration was considered as the ideal. The last study about age restriction it''s being developed by Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang. He analyzed a lot data of thousand of years ago an created a more defined ideal configuration, even with some differences due to the spirit, changing a little for beast, tools, plants... But even when all this studies this ideal configuration can be said for sure to be ideal. It''s only a average calculation. An study to evade some hot blood people to go over their capabilities and injure themselves. In truth the age absorption can change a lot. Grandmaster posted a thesis about this ''ideal configuration'' that was accepted in all the continent. But he made another one exposing the needs in each process when you absorb a ring, making the most limiting one the maximum for oneself. Theoretically, you need to improve in all the areas not concentrating in anyone to maximize your age restriction. The processes of ring absorption are Ring Destruction, Ring Combat, Ring Dissolution and Ring Internalization. Ring Destruction step is to break the ring itself inserting and start the reconstruction in oneself spirit. For this is necessary to have approval of the ''world''. In simple words you need to kill the beast hitting the final blow. This is only for under 100.000 years old rings, when the ring is over that age it''s destruction grow exponentially becoming difficult to gain the approval. For this approval there''s little study but with empirical data is decided that someone at the douluo rank always have the approval. If someone under douluo rank do the last kill of a 100.000 years all by some fluke, he might won''t be able even to try to absorb it. For other approval further the douluo rank it isn''t sure what others can be. Ring Combat step is an internal fight between the person that absorb the ring and the spirit of the ring. In this fight you only use your spirit energy to try to control the rampage energy of the spirit beast. You need to purify its energy so that it became similar to yours becoming truly your spirit ring. In this process the limitation is about if you have enough spirit energy to control the ring. If not the rampage energy will affect your own spirit energy, causing it for also rampage. Being able to lose all your cultivation or simply die in the process by your uncontrolled spirit power. Having twins spirit helps this part, having a more mutated spirit energy it easier to absorb other type, also the other can help in the process. Ring Dissolution is the fight versus the conscience of the beast. Even when the energy of the ring is under your control, the ring still held the conscience of the beast. You need to eliminate it withstanding its pressure and fight with your own spiritual power. For this step the limitation is your spiritual power or mental power. If you don''t have enough your mind is injured breaking the absorbing process usually becoming mentally retard. Ring Internalization is the last step and is the true absorption of the ring. When you start ?ssimilating the previous purified ring. Absorbing all the energy of the ring boosting your cultivation breaking through the next rank. Moreover, your spirit absorb transform with the new energy evolving further and obtaining the spirit ring skill based in the characteristic of the ring''s beast. In this process you need to have enough physical power to withstand the energy. Otherwise, your body will be overcharged and finally explode. Every step is extremely important and even if you can''t withstand only one of the process death is an usually effect, except for the first one. There''s an exception to this rules. In the case that the spirit beast give you on its own accord his spirit ring. The first process is complete in an instant, the energy is not rampage so no second process need, the conscience quickly disperse so no third step. For the Dissolution the spirit beast can even limit the excess of energy being absorbed the maximum you can at the moment, later will be absorbed more. Doing the process incredible easy and quickly, only needing second to complet without age restriction. In my case with my spirit being a mutation from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, it can obtain the most notable characteristic of the spirit beast. Usually in low aged beast their attribute and in older beast some kind of special ability. For my 4th ring I wanted some related to defense. As my swordsmanship is focused in defense. Even if as now nobody broke my defense it didn''t mean that in the future they won''t. Also, a decrease in the rival defense will help my attacks to go against defense type enemies. Due to my low attack and focus in control and defense if the opponent have a good defense, I can only wait till their exhaustion. So it will be an improvement of my strength and decrease of a weakness. As the spirit beast is under 100.000 years I don''t really thing that I would have any problem at the Ring Destruction. My Mind Separation Control completely helps in the process of Ring Dissolution being like a cheat dividing the mental attack between all my personalities passively. So it''s like me being 5 people at the same time fighting only one beast soul. A little overkill. For the Ring Assimilation thanks to my heal training my physical progress is a lot better that what I would think. Moreover having started as a abnormal configuration improved my body by leaps and bounds, there''s also the improvement of my previous rings getting used to absorb aged rings. However, there''s something that caused my absorbing age limit grow. This being Mayi, a spirit fusion is as the name says the union of two or more spirits becoming more powerful. If my theory is correct when I absorb a ring Mayi can help me thanks to our almost 100% compatibility, being as if I have triple spirit, reducing a lot the spirit energy requirement at the second step thanks to her help. Also I can use Mayi''s spirit power so is like fighting 1/3 of the enemy with 2 people. This was the main reason to wait all this time to absorb my 4th ring. Before our fusion compatibility was around 90%. But nearing our rank with long training season combining our spirit power we rose our compatibility finally achieving the almost 100%, where I and she could use the other energy easily as our own. But even with this we couldn''t achieve the complete 100% without mattering how much time passed so I finally give up for now. With this facts my limit should be between 30.000 and 50.000 years being the limit of a spirit sage ring. I did some test about the use of Mayi''s spirit energy and is almost 100% compatible so in theory it will possible. In the case that something will go wrong I will quickly cut the ring absorption causing the lowest damage possible. With the clan medicines it won''t be to complex. Chapter 33 - Searching for a ring After two days trip I and Mayi arrived to Star Dou Forest. Star Dou Forest is divided in 4 areas. The Outer is relatively safe being guarded by some spirit master of Spirit Hall. There you can find weak spirit beast all of them lower than 1.000 years old. The Inner area is unprotected. There live a lot of spirit beast the oldest found being 15.000 years old. The Central area has a big increase in spirit density. It is considered a territory controlled by spirit beast due to the large number of them a big part being over 10.000 years. Even a titled douluo can be easily killed if he is not careful enough. Finally, the 4th area is one special because is not only refers to one place. It is the combination of 5 places, the Star Lake, the Gem Statue, the Flowery Garden, the Steel Dump and the Venom Swamp. This places has the most spirit concentration, being 10 times more than the central area. This zones are named the Death area. In all of them live at least one 100.000 years. We entered the Outer area. Showing our identifications to the guards they easily let us through. We quickly passed through all the outer area. After that we crossed the Inner area finally arriving at our destination the Central area. "We finally arrived!" said Mayi "What beast are you looking for, Bai?". "I want a defense type beast of around 40.000 years old. Since we are here I want to hunt some spirit beast that try to attack us. I want to eat them for Glut" I answered. "So..." Mayi said with a smile "Your Oreos will be tastier?" I laugh a little answering "Yeah, but my main objective is to be stronger. There''s also that Glut can create his own spirit ring with its own skills that can be aged by him. The bad part is that I cannot absorb any spirit ring for him so I look forward for what his new skill will be". "I like being fruit savor next!" she shouts. I sigh and we continue our march. Even with this relaxing atmosphere I have activated Mind Eye with it''s rank of 100 m to cover any enemies that can approach us. Even if we are at the suburb of the central area if a lot of spirit beast surrounds us we won''t be able to escape. We carefully traveled around the area, only fighting spirit beast alone or a maximum of 2 at the same time, deciding to run at the minimum sign of surrounding us. After 2 weeks we kill more than 35 spirit beast over 10.000 years old, the older being a Heaven''s Cat, with 45.000 years, the problem is that is was a speed type so it was not the one that I want. For defense type the best option was a Black Spiked Tortoise, it has some blood of the legendary Black Tortoise but with very little concentration, being only 20.000 years old and a beast a little biased towards strength I prefer to search for some more compatible. The good part is that Glut ate all of them without any problem and now he has grown to 9.999 years old. The bad part, apart from not finding a spirit beast for my ring, is that Glut stopped eating anything more. It seems I would need to find something that he want to eat to finally break through to the 10.000 years old, also, there''s no new skill in sight. The next day we decided to go nearer to one of the death areas, so we will find older and stronger beast. All with an exponencial increase in danger level. Approaching the death area, I can sense the increase in spirit energy. Also a sense my sword resonate with the environment. (It seems that this place will be my best mimicry place). Even when we are more than 30 km of the death area it can be noticed some pressure in the air. We continue walking this time evading all fight. Being hidden thanks to my Stealth Treasure and Mayi inability to externalize her spirit energy. We crossed a lot of spirit beast, the majority with steel element as their main. We even find an Armored Gray Tiger that it would be perfect for my ring but it was in a herd. I won''t risk our live if it can be avoided. After 2 of the most stressful days of my life being always alert for any danger, completely opposed to Mayi that she seems completely fine without any worry. When I asked her about it her only reply was that her brothers were stronger. I finally found a compatible beast. It was an alone Unicorn Armored Beast King. Its a beast with the form of a crocodile, 8 meter long with 6 eyes. All its body covered by a thick and durable black armor with a long horn at the center of its head. By the length of horn it could be estimated to be around 30.000 years old, enough for my next spirit ring. The Unicorn Armored Beast King, specialized in close combat, with great strength and usually just ignores all the attacks thanks to its great defense without any debility. Even her mouth strengthen when it became 10.000 years old. Its weak point being the absence of any attack skill. I gestured Mayi to start attacking to the contrary side of me. Just as she was positioned I manifested my sword and point the Unicorn activating my second skill. Just activating my skill was enough for the Unicorn to determinate my presence and it jumped towards me. I activated my first skill decreasing the power of its strike and blocked its charge with my sword only being pushed 3 meters. Mayi taking advantage at the now stopped Unicorn struck it with both of her hand using them like a hammer. The Unicorn quickly separated from us leaving some space between it and us. The previous attack wasn''t very effective and the Unicorn seems uninjured. However, if you observe close enough you can see some minuscule cracks in its armor created by the previous attack. It seems that the Unicorn sensed the damage dealt, being afraid of the possibility of its armor breaking it decided to run away. It turned to the opposite direction of us and started running. "Like I permit it" I said activating my third skill slowing him down enough for Mayi to catch to him. Mayi punched the same are as before, now creating a visible little crack. Using the force of her impact she jumped in front of the Unicorn somersaulting gaining momentum and she kicked at the face of the Unicorn. She didn''t do any damage to it but the Unicorn was pushed toward me with its back pointing at me. I charged toward it activating my first and third skill and I wrapped my sword in intent. I pierce towards its crack penetrating a little of its armor. I grinned "Expand!" my intent concentrated a the tip of my sword creating a concentration of it that then expanded in all direction. Being the tip penetrating the Unicorn''s armor the new expanded intent went across the cracks, expanding them and finally breaking the armor. The Unicorn is pushed 10 meter towards Mayi who pinned down the Unicorn preventing from moving it. I slowly approached the now immobilized Unicorn with a 50 centimeters crack in its back where it can be seen his skin unprotected by its amor. I activated my first skill increasing my power and wrapped my sword with intent to do the killing blow. Just as I was about to pierce him I quickly turn around sensing some energy only to see a high-speed white light filling my sight blinding me. So fast that I couldn''t react. I and Mayi were swallowed by the light. Chapter 34 - White Sword Dragon Finally recuperating my sight a saw in front of me Glut. Glut looked at me and burped then as if he never was there disappeared, I couldn''t help to blink in incredulity. Calming my self I looked at my surrounding, I could see a devastated area. With half meter deep hole of more than 200 meters long and 20 meters wide without any kind of vegetation following the trail of the light attack. I and Mayi staying over a untouched land platform with eclipse form 10 meters long and 3 meters wide. At the direction of the attack I could find a dragon like figure. It slowly approached us pressuring us with every step. When it was 50 m of us I can clearly see what beast it was. White Sword Dragon, it is a type of dragon witch is covered by pure white swords instead of scales. It was 10 meter long standing with 4 powerful legs, 2 meter long tail and a characteristic 3 meters sword in its forehead with 6 swords of 1,5 m along its back with one little sword at its back''s center. This type of dragon can''t fly but with its body covered with hundreds of 30 cm long sword has the best defense, considering impregnable, only having one little sword at it back with has a weaker defense that the rest, but even with that its defense is great, the called Reverse Sword. It is said that if you don''t have enough power to break its Reverse Sword even if its completely immobile and dying it would be impossible for you to injure it a bit. Even when its specialization is defense, it also has attack methods. It can control all its sword enlarging them doubling their length, he also can control outside sword that are under its control putting energy in it. Finally, it most powerful attack is a concentration of sword energy like intent throwing it using its forehead sword. If I was correct the previous light attack was its more powerful, and it can''t do it again, needing to rest and accumulate energy to execute again. Another aspect to highlight is that when it break through to 100.000 years it evolve to Dragon Swordmaster, a pseudo human spirit beast, which is known to be impossible to escape from its domain. There''s one of them as the king of the Steel Dump, considering the Steel Dump one Death area where when you enter is impossible to escape without its king permission. I didn''t waste any second I caught Mayi''s hand "Run!" I shouted to her and started running away from it. I could sense some sword domain from the dome cutting any kind of information to the exterior of it. The good part being that also seemed to improve my intent, but surely the Dragon is stronger in there. This is the famous Sword Domain of the dragon, being created injecting its aura to countless sword it is a pseudo Domain because it needed the preparation of swords as a catalyst. This is the main reason of the terror of the Dragon Swordmaster, being capable of create a 10 km domain around the Steel Dump where it can control all the swords in it. I only can pray that this Sword Dragon in front of me still hasn''t arrived at that level. "It seems that there''s no escape" I though in loud voice "Mayi, be prepared to fight". The previous easy going attitude of Mayi complete vanished and she nodded to me completely serious with any ounce of emotion, completely at guard. "By the length of its forehead sword it seems that it is only 30.000 years old. I don''t think that it is capable of sword control further than creating the domain. Be aware nonetheless" I said. I quickly killed the previous Unicorn piercing with my sword, I don''t want a random factor in this battle. I breathed profound preparing completely for probably the most difficult fight of my life. I exhale all the air concentrate my Mind Eye to it maximum detail only with 2 m around me, charging toward the Dragon being closely followed by Mayi. "Grooahhhh!" The Dragon howled at us staying still at his place looking us like below him. We arrived at it. The Dragon lift its front legs, then it quickly strike our positions. I activated my 3rd skill slowing it down. I and Mayi evaded the attack both of us dodging to opposite directions. Just as its attacks just grazed us, the swords at its frontal legs illuminates and expanded. I reacted in time blocking it causing me to only be pushed 5 meters. Mayi hadn''t had much luck and she was struck in her armpit causing a little crack in her armor and was thrown crashing to a nearly tree. She quickly recuperated and stood up but it can be easily see her injured. At our previous positions it can be seen a 5 meters diameter hole made by the Sword Dragon impact. I direct impact meaning our death. We regroup "This time you attack I will concentrate in defend you" I said. Mayi charged toward the Dragon I followed near her prepared for any attack. This time the Dragon only lifted his right leg and strike toward us. We both evaded to the left. The leg''s swords illuminated expanding. This time using my intent I swung at them creating a shield with the aura effectively blocking all the swords. Mayi passing through the front of the dragon jumped up over the dragon. I pierced toward her throwing aura creating a footstep for her. She flip 180o in mid air stepping at my footstep and kicked it shooting her toward the Reverse Sword of the Sword Dragon. In that moment the Dragon even without looking at us, its forehead''s sword illuminated and from it tip a little light ray no more then 5 cm diameter shot toward Mayi. I activated my first skill and swung my sword toward the Dragon''s ray creating an intent shield to block the ray. The light ray easily passed through my shield completely destroying it. I become very surprised at that and could only observe impotent as the ray pierce through Mayi''s stomach canceling her charge and being thrown to the ground completely immobile. Looking at Mayi immobile at the ground while a red pool of blood is being formed under her. I couldn''t control my grief and fury and reckless charges toward the Dragon. I jumped to its back and activating all my skills with the maximum input in combination with my intent a swing toward its Reverse Sword. My all powered attack crashing towards the Reverse Sword "Clack!" only to be rebound not causing any damage at all, except for my own hand than can stop to shake. This time I sense the Dragon gaze. It was looking at me seeming to grin at me, it pointed at me with its forehead''s sword that suddenly lengthen piercing my right arm, causing for me to drop my sword. Chapter 35 - Death After no more than 10 seconds I recuperated my conscience opening my eyes. I was on the Dragon''s back my sword piercing through its skin having completely destroyed its Reverse Sword. A cold, lifeless aura was surrounding me, around it seems like anything will decay, extinguishing all, Death! A Death Domain!. My sword had became black and was where the Death concentration was at its strongest being the source of it. After only 1 second all the Death aura banished leaving an exhausted me laying on the corpse of the dragon, which was tinted with black color around the place where the sword pierce. Not having enough spirit power to even maintain my sword activated it quickly disperse. Without any knowledge of what happen here, only being able to link it to the mysterious voice previous to my black out. Letting the matter for later I approached Mayi unclimbing the Dragon''s body with difficulty. Touching Mayi''s face, it is extremely pale and cold. I inspected her, she''s b?r?ly alive, only with a little pulse and very little blood due to the blood lose of her injured stomach. I can''t help to cry and grimace for her, holding her injury to stop the bleeding. "Graaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" An angry shout was listened all across the forest coming from the Steel Dump direction. Listening the shout I didn''t waste any moment, I put the Dragon''s corpse inside my bracelet inventory, at the same time taking a pagoda statue from the inventory. I broke the pagoda and lift Mayi with my arm as a princess carry. After only 3 second a worm hole appeared, from it uncle Bone appeared. Bone looking at my state with a mix of worry and anger asked "What happened t...!?" but I interrupted him pushing him toward the black hole while I held Mayi in my arms. We leave the forest going through the hole, appearing at our mansion at the Seven Treasure Glassed Tile Pagoda Clan. "Hurry! Close the black hole!" I shouted scared and worried using my last strength, blacking out instantly. Uncle Bone sensing some strong aura from the hole dispersed his hole. Just at it was about to close, before the hole disappeared a black sword shot from the hole toward uncle Bone. Bone looked scared and quickly activated his ninth ring skill invoking a Black Boned Dragon that protected him from the sword. At the previous black hole position at the forest appeared a human-like figure with a black armor that covered all his body with a helmet with a dragon''s form, seeming like a Black Knight. The Black Knight appeared there like teleporting, but the truth was that its speed was so great that it was difficult to even perceive. Looking around and not sensing the previously black hole it started to shout "Graaaaaaaahhhhh!", emitting a powerful aura that was enough to destroy 500 meters area around him. At the Seven Pagoda Clan grounds it can be seen a 3 km destruction trail. At the trail''s end it can be seen Bone surrounded by a Black Boned Dragon with a black sword stuck to the ground in front of him. The Black Bones Dragon b?r?ly holding the attack soon fell apart completely destroyed while Bone face reflected fear, surprise ,spirit exhaustion and a hint of relieve. After a moment a man with a scholar aura around him came to where Bone was, this man being the Clan and School Head of the Seven Pagoda Ning Fengzhi. "Are you fine, elder Bone? What happened?" asked Fengzhi worried. Bone recuperated his calm and said "I am fine, only a little exhausted. It seems that little Bai got into another mess. More important, quickly sent some healing master to my room!" Bone said worried and with hurry "Bai with a little girl are injured there. For what happened it will be better to listen Bai''s story". Fengzhi did a signal with his right hand, two near shadows reacted, they quickly dashed towards the mansion. Then both of them also returned toward the mansion. I opened my eyes finding me in uncle Bone''s room. I could see Maya dressed in her usual maid uniform commanding two white dressed people who are healing me. Maya looked to my eyes with her always expressionless face, she did a little bow and said "I am glad that young master woke up. For Mayi? I supposed is the little girl that was accompanying you. She had very serious injures in all her body, a hole in her stomach, broken arm and rips... She is now stabilized but she continue sleeping. If she arrived a little later maybe she couldn''t have lived" I sigh relived "Something happened after a fell asleep?" I asked. "Elder Bone def..." Maya started but was interrupted by dad and uncle Bone entering the room. My dad turned to the healers and asked "How are their conditions?". The healers bowed to him a answered "They are completely healed, without any future problem. In young master''s case he is completely recuperate. For the little miss there she is only sleeping too exhausted to wake up. I calculated that she will woke up in a few minutes". Dad nodded at them, did a hand signal and the healers and Maya exited the room bowing before leaving. Now at the room we are only dad, uncle Bone, Mayi sleeping on the bed and I. My dad turned to me and raising one of his eyebrow asked "So... What happened? I''m also interested in who is the little girl over there". "For the girl she is Tai Mayi, I would formally present her later when she is at least awake. And I doubt that you don''t know who she was. Surely your spies know about my teammates". Dad only smiles at my reply. "For what happened long story short I was hunting for a spirit ring. I encountered a very powerful enemy and both Mayi and I were heavy injured. For the beast..." I explained stopped by a "Wahhhhh". "Mayi they are my family" I turned to dad "This is my dad Ning Fengzhi" I signal uncle Bone "This is my uncle Gu Rong, he is an elder of the clan being a titled douluo, titled Bone with a rank of 95". Mayi made a shocked expression then she bowed to them so quickly that create an afterimage "Sorry! I was very disrespectful I didn''t know you were Bai''s family. I am Tai Mayi, I am a teammate of Bai at Heaven Duo Imperial Academy, also I-I" she blushed "I am his girlfriend!". Listening her a couldn''t help to also blush a little, uncle Bone was a little surprised and teased me "So little Bai''s spring finally arrived, ah youth!". For my dad he was seriously said "Bai, we need to discuss about it. Being a main member of the clan there are some rules to follow" I nodded to him. At this time something in my mind clicked and I remembered "Quickly! How much time passed since I passed out?" I asked. "You stayed unconscious for almost 1 and a half hour, why?" answered uncle Bone. I used my inventory taking out the White Sword Dragon corpse. The body was exactly the same as before, with a black ring floating over it. Looking at the ring a sigh in relieve seeing that the ring is still there. I look at the surprised uncle and dad and said "Without any circumstance what will happen here will be told outside our family. This is a family secret!". Hearing the family secret they became serious and nodded at me. "Come Mayi. Let''s obtain our 4th ring!" I said to Mayi. Chapter 36 - 4th ring "Come Mayi. Let''s obtain our 4th ring!" I said to Mayi. Mayi looked around a little worried. I approached Mayi and hug her calming her "Don''t worry. You can trust my family, they will keep your secret". Mayi nodded "Hi. I will trust my future family". We both kissed. I started to attract the black spirit ring towards my now floating sword on my head. The ring was easily destructed seeming that it was the truth that I killed him and not an external person. I started absorbing it. For the Ring Combat I used all my spirit energy to changed the nature of the spirit ring controlling its rampage spirit power. Just as it was about to overcome me I sensed Mayi spirit power helping me. And just as she was about to run out of spirit power we finished the Ring Combat. For the soul of the ring I only noticed a very weak part. In my mental world there was a little sword dragon I only need to expend 10 second striking the almost immobile beast to destroy it completely finishing this step. For the Ring Internalization, all the previous spirit energy spent plus the energy of the ring traversed all my body changing where it goes, my body becoming stronger. While it was flowing I directed the flow toward Mayi. Mayi took advantage of the energy and started her Ring Creation. Using my given energy plus the energy around her, specially the biggest source of spirit energy being dad and uncle. Detecting Mayi absorving their energy creating a kind of vortex surprised them a lot. Mayi''s body was strengthening slowly creating her own ring while the new increased energy was circulating between both of our bodies, further strengthening not only my body, but also my spirit energy and spirit rank. "30.000 years old! My ring became 30.000 years old!" Happily shouted Mayi. I separated Mayi from me and activate my sword spirit showing the sword now surrounded by 4 rings, purple, purple, black and black. With a quick analyze a determinate the age of the new ring "40.0000 years old. When it was alive it was only 30.000 years old" I observe the corpse seeing that its sword length hadn''t changed "It is 30.000 years old. So it seems that our method improve the ring gaining for both of us around 10.000 years" "Ejemp!" My dad interrupted our dialogue with a serious face that scared me a little "It seems that you need to explain a lot of things Bai". "Before anything I want to confirm some thing. Then I would explain all" I said. I approach the Dragon corpse and try to eat one of its sword. Slowly a much first being afraid of hard can it be. Luckily it seems like Glut like it so when I bit it it became completely soft being easily eaten. I sighted in relieve and started devouring all the Dragon. In less than a minute all the corpse disappeared in my body. After that I started meditating concentrated in my Oreo spirit. Entering the black and white world I can see Glut at its center happy while he ate the dragon''s body. {AN: In the mental space ( ) or [ ] will become dialogue} Sensing me Glut stopped and looked at me. I observed some change in his eyes, they are bright with intelligence. (What did you do before to stop the Dragon''s attack?). He looked at me and suddenly information entered my mind (So it is that. Have a good meal) I said to him. Glut quickly returned to eating. After 5 minutes he finished and started to glow. Knowing that the evolution takes its time I left the Oreo world. "First, what is the relation with her and you?" dad asked. "Like we said before she is part of the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy main team like me. Moreover, she is my girlfriend. In the future I want to marry her so in a near future I will go to pay my respects to the Strength Clan asking them for their blessing in our marriage. For the clan rules I don''t see any problem. She is a extremely talented and powerful attack system being rank" I looked at Mayi. "43!" Mayi answered. "Rank 43! With only 13 years old. If nothing happened she will surely become a titled douluo. There''s also the fact that I won''t be your successor me not being a supprt system. So I don''t see any problem at all" I finished. "Stop joking!" shouted dad angry "I know that your relation is not explicit against the clan rules. However, do you know what she is and how can affect to your future?". "I know she is a humanized spirit beast. I would be blind if I didn''t know it after seeing her creating her own rings. For the risk, I know about them. If she is discovered all the powers around the country will turn mad towards her. A 100.000 spirit ring plus a 100.000 spirit bone is enough for a lot of people to offend our clan" I said. "But I have my reasons. Subjectively, I love her and I want to be all my live with her. Yeah I know that is not a particular good reason seeing it as the clan leader. Objectively, with her talent in the future will be a powerhouse. With enough time both of us will be able to ascend the clan to new weights becoming undoubtedly the number 1 clan of the continent". "Moreover, we have almost 100% spirit fusion compatibility. We have our own spirit fusion and both our cultivation are boosted when we are together. Also, you saw the ring''s absorption, I could absorb an older ring even aging it thanks to her" I paused a moment. "Finally" I turned to uncle Bone "Can you detect her as a spirit beast? I let you even touch her hand to analyze her". "I was a Fifteen Ton Ant. The main factor of you not detecting me being that our spirit energy it can only move internally. It''s impossible for us to externalize it, being unable to use any kind of spirit skill. Due to this while growing it''s only our body that grow stronger, being usually stronger that same aged beast and having a better defense toward spirit energy attacks thanks to our spirit insulating armor" Mayi explained. "It''s also the reason why we need to kiss to cultivate. It''s necessary an internal connection." I said dad and uncle nodding. "So with all of this you can easily see that there''s a lot of gains in front of little risk" I finished. "I understand. I will permit your relation" dad turned to Mayi "Don''t worry we will keep your secret. I don''t want to make Bai sad. However, before accepting some kind of marriage I want to see how both of you fight together. The true sentiment emerge in battle. But we will wait for your mother return" I was about to ask about mum when he said "Your mother is fine. She is outside now traveling but I informed her. She will return tomorrow. Surely she would want to be the one to fight you. Be prepared" I nodded "Can you finally explain what happened in your ring hunting?". I then explained them all that happened without hiding anything, except I don''t know why the mysterious voice, explaining that maybe thanks to the rage I gained enough strength to kill the dragon, but I don''t know what exactly happened Chapter 37 - Sword Domain After the explanation it was late and we decided it will be better to show my improvements tomorrow, so we went to sleep. I went to my usual bedroom while Mayi was guided by Maya. Next day I woke up. Looking at the familiar surroundings a couldn''t help to be a little sentimental, it was almost 3 years since I didn''t come home. After a quick shower I decided to go to the dining room. Entering the dining room I was quickly lifted by a hug, the culprit being mum. "Bai, how much I missed you. Mum was very sad without my son and daughter!" mum said crying. I tried to free myself without any result "Mum, I also missed you. But please, you''re suffocating me!" mom ignored me and continued the hugging session. I resigned to my fate until the dining room''s door opened again, entering Mayi. Mayi was for the first time dressing a long cute pink dress, with matched high heeled shoes. Looking at her uncomfortable face I was sure that the only thing in her mind was freeing from this dress. Mum finally let me free. As she approached Mayi, she stroked her hair "How can you be so bad to not present me this cute girl until now" mum hugged Mayi and ??r?ssed her cheek. "Puff!" I couldn''t help to laugh, Mayi''s expression with a dress that would be wore by Rongrong it was hilarious. Mayi pouted at me "Muu! Don''t laugh Bai. Your mother abducted me this morning and forced me to wear this. It''s super uncomfortable, I can''t move around!" Seeing us arguing dad finally stepped in the conversation "Xie, let the children be" he turned to Mayi "For the dress, it''s good on you, don''t worry after breakfast you can changed it". Mum finally free Mayi and sat on a chair, no without signaling me to sit next to her. Knowing that I didn''t have any escape I sat next to her, Mayi sat to my side. "So Bai, when were you gonna present me your cute girlfriend?" Mum said with a sinister smile, easily seen an angry twitch. "Oh? So you weren''t going to present her to us directly?" mum asked her evil smile growing bigger. I shook my head and hands excusing myself "No, no! The letter would be to plan for a meeting to formally present her". She stroked my hair "I trust you Bai, you surely won''t be the kind of son who hurts his mum''s feelings hiding this things from her". I nodded quickly multiple times scared. My mum returned to her normal character and started having breakfast. I sighed in relieve and also started eating. After some time mum asked "What are your plans?" "We plan to stay at the clan sometime consolidating our realm. Whenever we are ready we will return to the academy. The Continental Tournament is in a year, and I accorded to train all my teammates, then we must improve our coordination. So the sooner the better." I answered. "You want to leave mum sad alone" mum said. "Stop teasing the children Xie" dad said "Next month I have some matter to attend at Heaven Dou City. If you don''t have any problem you can stay at the clan until, then you can accompany me". "I have classes with Qinghe, I need to talk to him about certain things" dad said. Listening the tone of the ''certain'' I knew that it didn''t matter if I asked I won''t receive any satisfactory answer. "It will be good to meet Qinghe again" I said. "Clap!" mum clapped "Let''s talk about the most important. Bai, Zhi explained me your adventure, you gained your 4th ring, how strong you became this years?". "I am now rank 43, for the skill it increase my defense 80% and decrease 40% the rival, there''s also..." I said but was interrupted by mum "I don''t need your explanation. One image is more than hundred words. Let''s spar!" mum turned to Mayi "You can also join, I want to see how is your teamwork". Mayi quickly nodded, finished her breakfast saying "Let''s go now!" wanting to take of her dress. Mum smiled "This is the spirit" she turned to me "Let''s go Bai!". I could only resign and followed them. We went to a battle ground outside the mansion. Once we arrived we positioned, Mayi next to me and mum 30 m away. "I am now rank 95" said mum "Don''t worry too much, I won''t use any spirit energy and for sword I''m gonna use some training one. Fight with all your strength, go for the kill!" Mum took a wooden sword, she swung it creating a circle of 8 meters diameter around her "Come! I won''t attack unless you pass the line" Even with her using a wooden sword I know that reinforced with her aura it will be strong enough to easily cut my sword provoking a strong backlash, not that she will do it. "Mayi, full power!". Mayi nodded activating her spirit. A brown armor appeared around her, this time has a black ?uster, seeming stronger than before. Surrounded by her 4 rings, yellow, purple,purple and black. I manifested my sword with its 4 rings, purple, purple, black and black. My sword also had some changes, now with 4 brightly colors, red, green, yellow and gray, forming a brown metallic light, and it became a little sharper. I directly activated all my skills, this time the objective being the plants surrounding us. If I target mum or dad without any doubt I will have a strong backlash because the difference in rank. Without any ideal target I can only use a 30% of the skills effect, but it doesn''t matter, knowing my mum she will focus in my swordsmanship and teamwork more than in spirit related skills. Mayi and I charged at her. Mum had a relaxed pose with her wood sword on her shoulder. I lifted my sword to prepare to slash. Just as both Mayi and I arrived the line we were repulsed, pushed 5 meters. I touched my body, I sensed like hitting a wall but there aren''t any trace. Looking at my mum she is in the same position as before, completely still. "Now that is a 2vs1 and you are spirit ancestor I expect from you to at least enter my domain. It''s only pressure, so with a little of effort you should do it" mum said. I looked at Mayi, she nodded. We charged again. This time we attacked the line, like if some kind of wall where there. I slashed with intent in my sword. My sword easily passed through. Then kicked the ground charging towards mother. "It''s a domain Bai, I don''t expect for you to break it. However, you should stand here. Try to only endure at first" said mum. This time I slowly approach the line, I lift my left hand and go forward. I sense that I touched a wall. Testing with my sword, it can pass through, but it seems like moving in water. Putting some intent the resistance completely disappeared. I crossed the line, first my sword with intent and then my body against the pressure. Inside I emitted a scattered aura from my sword all around my body. I sensed resistance but no so great . The major problem being that in this position I couldn''t move. Moreover, the expense of intent was so great that it was physically exhausting. "What are you doing, Bai?" said mum "It''s true that it''s easier to confront a sword domain with sword energy, but your method is horrible, your wasting your energy. Why do you not use intent in other parts of your body with continue circulation? Similar when you create a domain". "How? I never did it before. And what about a domain I hadn''t arrived at that realm yet" I shouted. At this moment my energy run out so I couldn''t maintain the scattered intent. Then I was pushed outside the domain. Mom titled her head confused saying "What are you talking. I can sense a domain in you. Maybe is not complete but surely you activated at least one time. The first time is the most difficult, it won''t take a lot of effort to do it again" Mom''s words made me remember the death domain (Maybe I activated then). "Sorry, but I don''t know what are you talking about. You should start explaining better the domain" Mum sighed and turned to Mayi "Good work, girl! It seems like your better than Bai". Mayi was standing inside the circle 1 meter away from mother. Concentrating in enduring the pressure. Mum stopped her domain "Both of you rest a little, then we will continue the spar, this time without domain". Chapter 38 - training After resting for 15 minutes and some double stuff Oreos, Mayi and I were ready to continue the par vs mum. This time mum traced a circle of 1 meter diameter and said "I won''t move from this circle if you can push me outside is your win". "Mayi, I will start attacking from the front, you from her back" I commanded. Mum was standing inside her circle, she was b?r?handed without any trace of any kind of sword. We positioned, 10 meters from mum, Mayi at mum''s back. We charged at the same time, arriving together at mum I slashed at her while Mayi punched at her back. Mum simple rotated 90o and extended both her arms catching my sword and Mayi''s punch. Both of us quickly reacted, even with being caught by mum we both kicked at her. Mum ,while keeping holding us, jumped evading our attacks, causing both of our kicks to hit the other. Then mum extended her legs kicking both of us at the ?h?st throwing us to the ground. I recuperated my balance and stood up. I couldn''t help but flinch a little from the pain. Mum attack was a light push, the problem being Mayi''s kick, a lot stronger than mine. Mum was looking at me with a sneer at her face. "Mayi tactic 8!" I shouted, Mayi came next to me. I banished my sword spirit and I and Mayi run towards mum "?Wonder if I gave a White Fudge Oreo?". 2 white chocolate covered Oreos appeared at my left hand, I ate it and I gave the other one to Mayi who also ate it. Both of us started to glow with a white light. Then I invoked my sword again I activated all my ring skills, with four shining ring and a brown metallic light. Just as we are 3 meters from mum I stopped positioned in a throwing position and threw my sword to her like if being a javelin. At the same I took Mayi hand pushing her towards me and kissing her. Both of our glows intensified and our spirits fused. From us a 10 meters long brown ant was manifested surrounded by a white glow. The ant charged towards mum. "Oh, a spirit fusion. I puny little trick. Too slow! Too weak! Too shallow!" Mum opened her right hand that became red. Like using a sword, mum slashed toward us with her hand. Just as she was about to came in contact with the ant, we broke the fusion, the ant dissipating leaving Mayi and I at both sides of mum slash. Dodging mum''s attack, that passed between us. I invoked my sword and pierced toward her right shoulder while Mayi punched to her left. Mum right hand was still with her slash position so she couldn''t move it yet. With her left arm she blocked Mayi attack. My attack connected to her shoulder, but even with all my skills activated and my intent is was like hitting a solid wall, I couldn''t even push her 1 mm. Mum then holding only with her left leg, her right leg shot towards me, trying to kick me. This time her foot having a red color (Fuck! Mum doesn''t like tricks in battles. She is enough angry to use intent to attack me. This gonna hurt). Without time to use my right arm and sword. I moved my left arm to try to block lowering the damage. I concentrated all my power and spirit energy in my left arm. At this moment without knowing how I even unconsciously put sword intent in there. Some very bright white light shined from my left arm. Mum kick connected to my shining arm I was shot more than 20 meter away crashing to a nearly rock and falling to the ground. Except the pure white color it was a very crude sword like any cheap iron sword made by a random smith. But from it I could sense my intent stronger, at least 50% more! "It seems it''s your win" mum said. Her left foot steeping on the line. "Even with this win don''t be to conceited. I was pushed from my own power not yours. From your fight I can say that your teamwork is good, how it could be expected from two people with fusion compatibility. Individually, I can say that even though Mayi doesn''t have any spirit skill ability, she makes up for it with her strength and endurance. Her instinct is also good. For you Bai, your spirit power, strength" she glared at me "and tricky nature, improved. Like it can be expected when growing. However, I must say that I''m a little disappointed, you swordsmanship didn''t improved a lot. I expected from you to at least project your intent in no sword things. For your win, you only win because I didn''t expect you to have a external spirit bone, even less one that improve sword intent. I unconsciously used to much strength to break your improved defense. So I need to quickly weaken my attack, Mayi took advantage and kicked my support leg pushing me a little" I looked at the white sword and asked "Is this sword a external spirit bone?". Mum nodded "Yeah, a compatible one. It seems that it improve your intent. If it has more functions, I don''t know about it. For your unacknowledged of it, external spirit bones sometime hide inside spirit rings or maybe simple you ate it and was fused with you while digesting" "What was the new cookie that you used?" dad asked approaching. Dad nodded "Have 4 boosted attacks is good enough, specially the no negative effect part. For your new spirit bone to be a external one, it seems your very lucky to gain the second most sought thing for spirit master only less precious than a 100.000 years ring. Try to not use it very openly, or at least that it doesn''t seem a spirit bone" I nodded. I tried to unsummon the white sword. It entered my body from my left wrist, quickly without any sign to be there before. I tried to invoked again, from my wrist exited the sword like being a dislocated bone, when fully outside was resting at my left hand. Trust be told, it was a little creepy. I sighed "Now I would need to learn how to fight with two swords" "We only have 1 month so let''s continue our training. In this month I expect Bai to learn how to use a domain, at least activate it one time" said mum. "The first thing to obtained a sword type domain is the comprehension, but as I detect you at that realm, we can cross this part that it''s the most difficult to achieve, external advice not helping. For the second you need to create intent with parts of your body, it will be weaker than with a sword but it will make you stronger" She grinned "As you have a defensive intent the best way will be trying to stop my blows". She charged at me and with an incredible speed impossible for me to react started striking me. It wasn''t very powerful but repeatedly attacks at the same places I accumulated damage "You must protect with intent the parts that I hit, I will always attack the same places" she said with an evil smile. I without any mean to defend I tried to use intent at the areas that she attacked without any result yet. "How can you beat so much your cute little boy?" I shouted. Mum smiled at me with a kind smile that seems to radiate like the sun "This is for your own good". I looked at dad pleading. Dad resigned "You know how your mother is. In this state she won''t stop. Just endure. Good luck!" he said leaving the grounds towards the mansion. After 1 hour of beating, I run out of any kind of strength that I couldn''t move even a finger. Even with all my Oreos spent. Mum seemed happy without any stress. Mayi flinched. When mum approached her, Mayi tried to hit mum. But is was for nothing, the difference in raw attributes was so great that she played with Mayi. After 45 min Mayi joined me completely exhausted "Your mum is a demon!" she said tired. Mum listening Mayi came toward us with a happy smile "We finished from today. Good work!" she said "As it was the first day it wasn''t too intense, so next day will be harder. Be prepared!" mum left us laying on the ground. Mayi looked at me with tears in her eyes "I don''t like your mum, Bai. Buaaa!" said crying. Chapter 39 - Meeting with Qinghe All of us entered the carriage which started moving towards Heaven Dou City. "Grandpa, why couldn''t we use your black holes to quick travel" Mayi asked, after a month of infernal training with only uncle Bone spoiling her giving sweets to her, Bone treats her similar as Rongrong and convinced her to call him Grandpa, he always has a soft spot for girls. "You only see grandpa as a transport method?" said Bone joking but with his usual serious face. Bone explained "My black holes long transport are my 5th ability and it only let me teleport 50 m of my target. I can only make 5 targets, that can''t be changed, being Fengzhi, Xiangxie, Chen Xin, Rongrong and Bai, so that I can quickly protect them". After a long trip we finally arrived at the city. We directly went to the palace. We passed through many guards checks. With our status as one of the three upper clans the inspections where minimal and we easily passed. At the palace''s doors we exited the carriage, uncle Bone simply disappearing leaving us three ''alone'', at least is what it seems. There we were guided by some maid inside the palace to a room. The room was very luxurious, with one big table surrounded by two sofas at one side, on the other side there was a desk with chairs. Inside the room there was Qinghe. Seeing us he signaled to the maid who made a bow and left the room. Qinghe approached us and bowed to dad "It is a p???sur? to meet you again, teacher" he turned to me and smiled "Long time not seeing you Bai". My dad sighed "I always tell you to skip the formalities, Qinghe". "How can I be so disrespectful to my teacher?" Qinghe said, then turned to Mayi and made a light bow and smiled at her "Who may be this beautiful lady?". Mayi a little nervous made a curtsy "I am Tai Mayi, your highness, it is my honor have the privilege to meet you". "You don''t need to be so formal, if you came with Bai surely you are good friends, his friends are my friends" Qinghe said "And it''s my p???sur? miss Tai, I am Xue Qinghe, you can call me Qinghe". "In this case you can call me Mayi" Mayi answered but even now a little wary. "What will be your relation with Bai and teacher? If is not too disrespectful to ask" asked Qinghe. "She is my girlfriend, in the future she will be my fiancee when I will tal with her clan" I answered rubbing my neck. Qinghe''s expression changed to a little pissed, but was only an instant, it was so fast changed to her usual smile that we didn''t even realized it "Good news for you to find love. I am very jealous" "What are you joking? With your look and status, surely there are tones of women throwing themselves at your arms" I said to him. Qinghe forced smiled "In the future a must marry for the convenience of the kingdom, without mattering my opinion so I am glad at least for you to find true love" Qinghe said "For other matters, how did you two meet? Knowing Bai surely there will be some kind of fight". Seeing Mayi very tense and knowing that she won''t answer I answered "We are part of the main team of Heaven Du Imperial Academy. The truth is that the first day that we met we fought". "I cannot expect anything less from you, Bai" laughed Qinghe. He turned to Mayi "You don''t need to be so nervous, speak informally, is no offense" Qinghe tried to calm Mayi "I suppose that if you obtained Bai attention is means that you are very talented" Mayi nodded "I am rank 43 with 13 years, for strength I am similar to Bai, oriented in raw power unlike him". "Oh, so another young genius. I would like to have a little spar with you. Maybe later." Qinghe turned to dad "Congratulations to teacher, it seems that the Seven Treasured Titled Glaze Clan gained another talent, securing the future of your clan". "Is my clan luck for having so talented young generation" Dad said. He then turned serious "For other matters, did you find something new about that?" Qinghe looked around, specially at Mayi with doubt "Do you completely trust the people in this room?" "You don''t need to be wary, I will trust them with my life" said Dad. "If teacher said so" Qinghe said "For new information. It is now a matter of fact that Spirit Hall is preparing for war. With the information that I obtained I can ?ssure that, with a minimum of 10 years, they will try to seize the continent" "So it''s true that they are arming themselves, preparing for war" said Dad. "It is sure. Moreover I investigated about the matter of the Clear Sky Clan 13 years ago. I discovered that Spirit Hall was trying to obtained something that Tang Hao had" said Qinghe. "What exactly happened between Tang Hao, the Clear Sky Clan and Spirit Hall?" I interjected. "Tang Hao had something that Spirit Hall wanted. Spirit Hall attacked him, him breaking through to titled douluo killing one titled douluo, injuring another one and injuring the previous Supreme Pontiff so serious that he died after short. At that time Spirit Hall made Tang Hao its number one enemy and the Clean Sky Clan scared from Spirit hall possible repercussions hided away" explained dad. "It should have been very important, to the Supreme Pontiff himself to go for him. Do you have any idea what could it be?" I asked. "With the high speed of Tang Hao cultivation being the youngest titled douluo, I can expect to be some kind of method or object to fasten cultivating. I think the latter, because if it was a method the Clear Sky Clan would sided with Tang Hao and not abandoned him, hiding away. For the location of the Clear Sky Clan even now I hadn''t found anything" said Qinghe "But Spirit Hall, also is searching for them". "Spirit Hall as is now is strong enough to clean the continent by themselves with a lot of damage for their part. So if they are preparing, I think is not about collective power. I think that they are waiting for something or someone. Maybe is related with Tang Hao" I said Dad nodded "This is also another matter, the actual Supreme Pontiff has twin spirits and her strength is without any doubt one of the greatest of the continent. I suspect that Spirit Hall is waiting for her to arrive at her maximum power. Maybe in few years she would arrive at extreme douluo" Dad padded my and Mayi''s shoulder "Sorry, but it seems that even your generation might fight in a war in the future" "Don''t worry dad, I am prepared to fight for the clan. In the future I will help" I said looking at the now sad face of dad. "If all go as planned there won''t be any need" said Dad "Changing the subject, we have a class to do" dad turned to me and Mayi "It is best for you to leave, you will be more a annoyance than help" I was a little angry for his remark, but I calm sighing "Ok. Let''s go Mayi" I said. I turned to Qinghe "Good to see you fine. Next time better not wait so much time to meet us". Qinghe smiles at me "Sure" Qinghe then give some ornament in coin form with the emblem of Heaven Dou Imperial family "Come any time you want, showing this the guards will let you pass. Next time maybe will have some spar" Qinghe turned to Mayi with a teasing smile "I want to know how much stronger than Mayi I am". Mayi tensed even more and shot an angry face at him. "It is a joke, don''t worry I will restrain" Qinghe turned to me giving me his hand "Bye Bai!". I shook his hand "Bye Qinghe!" I and Mayi left the room and we were guided outside the royal palace by a maid. Outside of the palace I turned to Mayi and asked "Something happened with Qinghe? You were very tense" Mayi even now a little strange thoughtful answered "I feel something strange about him. I don''t like him. You should be more wary around him, he is hiding something" "Everyone hides something, specially royalty. He was my first friend, one with a talent that might even be better than mine. I would like to you two to be friends" I said to Mayi "He is also dad''s pupil and he trust him so you don''t need to be so wary" "I will try to tolerate him, but I can''t ?ssure you that we will be friendly. I sensed some hate towards me, specially after you introduced me" said Mayi. "Surely is only your imagination. But I am happy for you to at least to try" I said "Let''s forget about him and go to the academy. If you want we can stop at the udon stall that you like" Chapter 40 - Hells Door After one attack to the food stalls until Mayi was full, we decided to go to the academy. Entering the academy grounds, the guards knowing us, let us pass without any hassle bowing. We walked to the emperor''s building. I was looking forward to see how much the team improved in our absence. Specially, I was very happy to see Rongrong again, surely she and her team should have already joined our academy. Entering the building we went to the usual meeting room to look for them. At the meeting room we found Yan, Tianheng, Osler, Lingling and Chenxiang, only the Shi brothers and Qin Ming missing. I greeted them "Hi! How are you lot? How much did you improve this two months?". They completely tensed looking at me terrified. Yan stood up pushing Tianheng and stuttered nervously "H-hi Bai. Go-good to see you. Sorry but Tianheng and I have plans. We need to meet some important people" They both left at full speed leaving me a little shocked. I turned to the others "Something happened?" Osler hit his forehead "Oh, yeah the meeting" he took Lingling arm "We must hurry" he also quickly left with Lingling saying "Good to see you Bai, don''t worry to much for the meeting". Lastly Chenxiang said "Oh ye-yeah, I also need to go. We will meet later, Mayi, Bai" She hurriedly tried to leave, but before she left the room I stopped her holding her arm. "What happened? Why did they escape at seeing us?" I asked a little pissed to Chenxiang. "No-nothing happened, it''s only that we are very busy" Chenxiang answered frightened. I smiled kindly at her "Don''t worry, you can explain the truth, your my dear teammate I won''t hurt you". Chenxiang shyly looked at me. Finally she sighed and slowly explained warily "So you see, something maybe happened. Your sister''s team...". <3rd POV> At the inner most part of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy there was one of the most luxurious and grand building, the emperor''s building. Only seeing the front you can see how robust is the building and that they expend quite a sum of money to make it. Suddenly, from the second floor a explosion occurred, a white light broke through the floor, destroying all the windows of that floor and illuminating the surrounding with a bright white light. Followed by an angry shout "WHAT THE FUCK DID THAT FUCKERS DO?!!!!!". Frightening all the people near it and causing for them to run away. I was now surrounded by the debris caused by my angry explosion of intent plus domain before. I even can sense the wind that entered at the room by the now broken windows. With my uncontrolled rage I even manifested my sword spirit with its true rings, showing 4 rings, purple, purple, black, black. I approach to Chenxiang who was pushed towards a wall, crashing in it. I help her to stand up. "So you said that the fu?kers of Xue Beng and Xue Qing kicked out my sister" Chenxiang a little scared quickly nodded. "Explain what happened!" I asked her angrily. "So you see, Shrek''s people came to our academy. When they entered were stopped by Xue Beng and some students. After they laughed at Shrek, one of them kicked the prince. After some time the prince returned with his uncle and using his authority as supervisor of the academy he made Shrek leave the academy. Also, Qin Ming as a ex-member of Shrek he was offended and followed them leaving the academy" Chenxiang said. I though a little and said "Even as supervisor he doesn''t have that much of power, the elders and principal won''t be so stupid as to kick out people as talented as them" I glanced at Chenxiang "What are you hiding?". Knowing there was no escape Chenxiang explained "Xue Qing used Dugu Bo influence to make Shrek leave". "So Yan''s grandfather is at fault!" I said, Chenxiang nodding. "What did you do? Where were you when that happened?" I asked her. "I was outside of the academy, I couldn''t do anything to prevent it" Chenxiang said looking away from me. I patted her shoulder "If I find later that your lying to me, the punishment will be greater". Chenxiang shivered "Sorry! I was in the academy, but I didn''t learn about it before Shrek abandoned the academy. What I could even do?" I angrily said "So didn''t try to do anything, no?" Chenxiang shook her head and said fearful "Are you going to beat me?" I kindly smiled "How can I injure you, my dear teammate? But maybe the training it will become a little more brutal" I evilly smiled causing her to shiver more and even some tears to fall from her eyes. I paused and thought a little. After a moment I said "Chenxiang, Mayi. Let''s find the others members. I think that now is the perfect moment to start their new training. For the prince I will ask Qinghe for a need of etiquette lessons to his little brother. Surely he will be happy to have a great teacher like me teaching him" I evilly smiled "For Xue Qing and Dugu Bo, I will revenge in the future". Chenxiang was about to leave when I stopped her saying "Do you know where did my sister go after leaving the academy?" Chenxiang answered "I think that she and her team went to the Blue Tyrant Academy. I am not really sure what are their condition, but sometime after they left our academy, the Blue Tyrant Academy changed its name to Shrek Academy" I nodded "The most probable is that they joined the other academy only in name to participate in the Continental Tournament. But is very strange for some academy as famous as the Blue Tyrant to gave its control to them and even change its name" I though a little "It doesn''t matter I will learn it later. At least it seems that Rongrong is doing fine" I turned to Chenxiang who calmed a little and to Mayi that stayed still all the time "Let''s go to find the rest!". Before leaving Chenxiang pointed my still manifested sword "Ahh, about this. This is my true configuration, I hided it with a family technique so avoid problems. I expect for you to keep it a secret" I said disappearing the sword She nodded and we left the building searching from the other teammates. After 30 minutes we all returned to the emperor building training grounds. Mayi was dragging the Shi Brothers, Chenxiang somewhat convinced Osler and Lingling to come voluntarily, both of them following Chenxiang. I was dragging a beaten Yan and Tianheng who couldn''t even walk by themselves. Seeing all of them I could only smirk seeing their reactions at Yan and Tianheng''s state "Let''s only say that they were so desperate to start the training, that I couldn''t help to show them a little of it" causing all of them except Mayi to shiver. "It is already dusk, Why don''t we calm a little ourselves and start tomorrow?" Osler said. I smiled at him "I think that the best time to start at night. Don''t worry too much for not sleeping, I think that you would have worst worries and I can ?ssure that after the training you won''t have any problem to sleep" I threw Yan and Tianheng to Lingling "Quickly heal them so we can start quickly" I smiled at Lingling "I exactly know your healing speed, so don''t try to be slow" Lingling quickly nodded. After 1 minute Yan and Tianheng could stand for themselves "1 minute, it''s okay. But I expect some improvement after this months Lingling" I said, Lingling nodding. "What the fu?k are you doing, Bai?! To chase towards us like a berserk and beat us without any explanation!" Yan said. "Oh, who were the ones that run away just seeing me? Who has some grandfather who kicked out my sister?" I angrily asked. Yan knowing that I learnt about the incident looked down the ground. Then she turned to Chenxiang "How could you tell him about?! Traitor!". "It was you or me!" said Chenxiang. Then she did a pray sign with her hands "Your sacrifice will be remembered." As Yan was about to use her poison to attack Chenxiang I stopped her "It seems that you gained a lot of energy this months. I shall do the training a ''little'' harder". Yan''s face lost all his colors "N-no n-need. I''m very tired, the normal training will be enough. We trained very hard this months, with weight training and combat foundation in combination with Lingling healing". I ignored her and turned to Mayi "Mayi, take the Shi brothers and start training with them". Mayi asked "How hard?". "Similar to mum''s, but try to not break them" I paused a little and turned to Chenxiang "You can also accompany her. We all know that the Shi brothers are not very social, for you Chenxiang take it as a reward for your help" I turned to the other smiling evilly "For Osler, Tianeng and specially Yan I will personally train you" I turned to Mayi "I will take Lingling, I have the sensation that they will need more of her healing". "Y-you can''t do this to us! I will tell my grandfather!" Yan said. I turned to her "So your saying that it will be best to have more teachers" I glances deathly at her "Maybe uncle Sword or Bone want to also help the training". Yan looked even more pale "N-no. Sorry! Please forgive us!". I approached her and patted her shoulder, looking directly at her eyes I smiled warmly "This is for your own good". <3rd POV> At the inner most part of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy there was one of the most luxurious and grand buildings, the emperor''s building. Only seeing the front you can see how robust is the building and that they expend quite a sum of money to make it, specially it can be observed the grand new windows that were recently changed. In this building happened a curious thing. Before 10 months of the start of the Continental Tournament, in this building it can be listened shrieks and shouts of pain that seemed from poor tormented souls in hell. Sometimes even evil laughs and broken bones could be listened if you listen carefully enough. There''s also the cases when you can''t listen anything at all, completely calm without any sound neither done it by people, insects, birds... From this day all the building''s personnel were fired, only to be seen very little people. All of them youngsters no more than 20 years old with white faces that seemed without any live and soul left. From this moment people called the building Hell''s Door and all student evaded to come near it fearful to be trapped by its claws and pressure. Chapter 41 - Hells Training The training continued until 3 at morning when I was surrounded by corpse, if I gained coin for every bone broken, let''s only say that I will have gained a small fortune. And if shrieks and shouts joined to the count, I will be the richest of the city in little time. The training finished with a completely exhausted Lingling to a point that she couldn''t even invoke her spirit. To lengthen the training a even gave Lingling some of my double stuff Oreos, without saying that they were my other spirit, only telling that it was a family secret, note that it wasn''t a lie. After some good work and a let off steam I left them at the ground sleeping completely exhausted only throwing them a blanket. I went to the academy''s main building I asked the principal to take all the personnel of our building, they only need to provide us raw food, this will help them not being so arrogant and to try harder in the future. Since I was there I made the principal kick out the 5 students with Xue Beng that stopped Shrek. Under the option of kicking them or me leaving following Qin Ming and Shrek, he didn''t need much thinking, glad that I didn''t asked to punish the prince, with his royal power. After some talk he finally agreed to both. I thanked to him and left his office. Outside I couldn''t help to laugh imagine this rich mummy children doing all the house labor. I then went to sleep until noon. Waking up I searched for Mayi. I found her at the training ground doing some light exercise. I approached her. "It seems that their training went well" Mayi said signaling the ''corpses'' which were still there. "Yeah, all good. I sense you in good mood" I said. "I''m happy to show them Master''s bea...training, Master''s training" She said smiling "But we only stayed 2 hours until they couldn''t move, next time let me have Lingling" "Okay, sometimes I will let you have her" I said "Would you like to visit Shrek Academy and meet Rongrong" We went to the previous Blue Tyrant Academy now Shrek Academy. Arriving at the academy''s doors one guard stopped us "Stop! Identify yourself. Why do you want enter?". "I am Ning Bai, this is Tai Mayi. I want to meet my sister" Showing him my clan''s medal and manifesting my sword with 4 rings was sufficient to scared him to almost faint. The guard bowed to us and opened the doors. Mayi and I walked towards the main building while looking around "It seems they have worst facilities than our academy, but they are in the upper side of other academies" I said. I approached 5 students who were chatting while sat in a bench "Do you know where can I find Ning Rongrong". They looked at me, seeing how I dressed, one that seemed their leader stood up and spitefully said "Eh, how can a noble come to our academy like owing it. Moreover, your searching for one of the goddess of the academy" He turned to the other students "Let''s beat him, brothers!". "Yes!!!" shouted the other students. Before any explanation they launched to attack me while activating all their spirits. I sighed, without any need to activate my spirit I beat them. After 1 minute I found myself surrounded by 5 boys, all of the bowing to me with their faces so swollen that even their mothers will have it difficult to recognize them. "Sorry for our manners! We should have served you the best of our possibilities" The leader said. "At least you can learn from this. Will you guide us to Rongrong?" I said receiving a quick nod from them. They guided us to a classroom. Just as we arrived the class seemed to finish and a group of students leaving it. One of them being Rongrong, followed by if I not remember wrong the rabbit beast Xiao Wu and Zhuqing I think. Seeing me Rongrong smiled and hugged me "Big Brother!". But she quickly separated from me and she turned her head to one side angrily. "Are you angry with me, Rongrong?" I asked. Rongrong nodded "Big Brother didn''t do anything when we were kicked out from Heaven Duo Imperial Academy. What are you doing here?" "What will I do if not visiting my cute little sister?" I said trying to calm her "Sorry for that. I was traveling this months for my 4th ring so I didn''t even know until yesterday. Don''t worry, if you want I could try to made all of them apologize and recruit all your team again". Rongrong smiled and hugged me again "It doesn''t matter, I am happy to stay here. Moreover, I don''t think that the other will accept to return after the offense" Then Rongrong realized of my surroundings, angrily looking at Mayi and showing her tongue, Mayi reacting glancing at her. Rongrong was surprised looking at the beaten students who guide me, she signaled to them asking "Who are they?". "Don''t worry too much about them, they only guides who I ''taught'' some manners" I said signaling to them to leave. They bowed and leaving at high speed even activating their spirits. "So...Will you join me to lunch? I invite" I turned to Rongrong''s friends "Of course, if you want to join I don''t have any problem, it will be my luck being surrounded by such a beauties" I said gaining a poke from Mayi''s elbow. We were guided to a private room. Waiting for the food I said to Rongrong''s friend "I listened how my academy treat you, I can only said that I am completely sorry. Forgive my academy." "Don''t worry too much the teachers are happier now with a bigger academy with Shrek name. Grandmaster even met her wife. Do you know that the previous principal was Grandmaster''s wife? She gifted the academy to our principal. Moreover, the facilities are much better than previously" said Xiao Wu. "So this was the reason for the name change. I''m glad that you''re happy. For the culprit of your expulsion, the school already kicked the students out. For the prince let''s say that in the future he would have a special training" I said. Rongrong smiled "Mama''s style?" I nodded "Yeah, similar. Had the academy made difficult for any of you. I will use my influence to try to correct it" "Dugu Bo took Xiao San away!" Angrily said Xiao Wu, she then turned very sad "I miss him a lot" I blinked surprised "What?" I turned angry "Did he injured him or something worse? Where are they now?". "Don''t worry, San told the teachers that he is now okay, he now is training with Dugu Bo, and he will be away some months" said Rongrong. "That little bitch didn''t say anything about it, it seems that her training will need to be recalculated" I said in low voice for them not to listen. "If all is under control I''m glad" I said "If you have any problem you can count on me for anything" After that the food arrived and we all talked about what happened this months, I explaining some of my ring hunting adventure... and they some school stories. Rongrong and Mayi hugging each one of my arm not letting me eat while they glanced at each other. After eating, I was a lot poorer, specially thanks to Mayi''s food, maybe I should start charging for the training. I said good bye to them and they leave towards their academy. After parting with Mayi who also returned to the academy, I went to Heaven Dou Royal Palace. Showing Qinghe''s coin they easily let me pass. I asked one maid if Qinghe was occupied. She guided me to a waiting room informing me that she will ask for the crown prince. After 5 minutes the door opened, entering Qinghe "Glad to see you again. I wasn''t expecting your visit so early" Qinghe looked at the surroundings and seeing me alone smiled. "Hi, Qinghe. Sorry, but this time is for a personal revenge" I said. Then I explained him all that happened to the Shrek Academy. "...So I want you to give me permission to some manner ''training'' to you brother Xue Beng" I finished the story. "It''s a shame to lose so many talented individual who could be a very good publicity for the academy and so for the Kingdom. I will permit! I will appoint you as his teacher. You can teach him however and whenever you like. But please, I don''t want any proof" Qinghe said. "Don''t worry there won''t be any, at least externally" I evilly smiled "I owe you a favor for this, Qinghe" "Don''t! What are friends for?" Qinghe said giving me some certificate that dictated me as Xue Beng''s tutor. Since we were alone we expended some time talking about hobbies and what happened since we last saw, without counting yesterday. When the sky was darkening we said goodbye and I returned to the academy. That night the Yan''s screams intensified. Next day I approached the prince Xue Beng. Seeing my evil smile he was a little scared but he quickly recuperated returning to his arrogant self. "What do you want with me? Don''t try to do anything strange. I am a prince! Even with your clan you can''t touch me without repercussions" Beng said. "I came to present myself as your new tutor. I will teach you some manners from now, be prepared" I said showing him the tutor''s certificate. "Ho-how can it be?" He said with a mix of fright and surprise. "Let''s say that your big brother and I have a good relation and that you need some improvement" I answered "I think that now is a good time for our first teaching". I approached him smiling evilly while he trembled scared. I dragged him outside. I forced him to apologized to every student that we saw, completely bowing 90o saying how much trash he was. At first he tried to fight but quickly followed my teaching thanks to my ''negative reinforcement''. Moreover, I prohibited to any school staff to help him in any way, only providing the pitiful and completely necessary necessities to live. I also put some weight on him that made difficult to him to even move but with the ''reinforcement'' as a punishment he accomplished all my tasks. After we finished I went to find Lingling who healed Beng of the aftermath of the ''negative reinforcement''. "Good work! See that is wasn''t so difficult. Next day will go to the city, maybe next to the slums. Look forward to it!" I said while returning to my room leaving a crying Xue Beng lying down on the ground. "It''s really comfortable being the other side. I now understand mum" I said to myself smiling. Chapter 42 - Heaven Dou Auction After 1 month continuing the new routine, our team ''training'' I finally pitied them and lower one level the training, I even permit the staff to return. They were almost crying and now they are a lot more humble and glad for their privileges. I even feel pity toward Xue Beng. The reality is that he wasn''t so bad. I think that maybe he has a little of low esteem everyone comparing him with his genius brother. When you expend a little time with him his arrogant nature seems more like a facade hiding his real self, so I stopped his training with his vow to not doing anything against my family. I visited Rongrong for some healing time at least once a month, but for some reason she never let me know her actual rank, she would wait for some surprise. I also met Qinghe regularly, we talked about our things and spar a little. I must say he is very strong I must use all my strength against him even if I know he is restraining himself. With his perfect foundation, his strong and extremely quick growth, battle sense and being of a higher realm made very difficult to win against him. I couldn''t force him to use his secret technique at all. Sometimes, we even go out to the city, he is always dressed hiding his true identity to avoid the hassle. One time I even accomplish that he cross-dressed like a girl. I was trying to have some fun but seeing how good it fit I swallowed my word, it was impossible to tell apart that he was a boy! He surely has the physique of a girl, but in his defense also Xue Beng. So it must be something of family or maybe caused by their spirit the Heavenly Swan. Maybe before stopping Xue Beng ''training'' I should also had dressed him like a girl as a punishment. He like normal also made me cross-dress. Let''s say that the results didn''t live up to Qinghe, but he had a good laugh at my expense. I didn''t forget about Mayi and we usually have some dates, usually focused in her eating but some where romantic. I will wait until the end of the Continental Tournament to go to her clan to make her my fiancee. I need to find some good gift for them. With this routine of training and having fun 6 months passed. I must say that the Emperor team improved tremendously, increasing all of their battle progress. All of them improved a lot spirit energy control, wasting a lot less spirit energy with greater effects, only a step away of maybe creating some self-technique. For their spirit rank it improved, not with a alarming speed because the training focused in foundation. All of them broke through spirit ancestor. So we waited for all them to arrive at the rank and we went to Star Duo Forest Inner area and all of them obtained their 4th ring. As the training was lowered a lot when we were outside hunting they called this hunting trip vacations. However, there was an exception, Chenxian was still unable to broke through, blocked at the 38 rank. As she was blocked at her rank for so much time while the others surpassed it was easily observed that she had a problem, preoccupying all the team. Even when I lowered the named Hell''s Training one level, she didn''t give up and continue forcing, passing out everyday. I''m worried about her overwork even if her strength has increased a lot if she continued like this she will break but I was unable to convince her. I also listened the academy''s board that if she won''t break through before the tournament she will expelled of the team, even kicking her out of the academy after the tournament. I tried all I can to help her without any gain, it''s very difficult to go against fate. So I tried to support with all my might trying for her to relax a little or that at least that she eats and sleeps enough. Today I was doing my usual regime at the training ground when suddenly a black hole appeared near me. From it exited dad. "Hey Bai. Sorry if we surprise you but this is the fastest method to come to Heaven Dou City. I have some affairs here. I think that it will be a good class for you. So, if you are not too busy, do you want to join me?" said dad. "I didn''t have anything special planned for today, so I will join you" I answered. We went toward the academy''s exit where a carriage with the Seven Treasured Glazed Title Clan''s emblem in it. Entering the carriage, it went toward the center of the city. "So, where are we going? And for what?" I asked. "We will go to the Heaven Dou City Auction House. I want you to learn about the dark parts of the city and the auction is the perfect example. Moreover, I gained the information about a talented spirit master with a mutation of a cat spirit who has a very high talent so I expect to buy her and make her join our outer branch" dad explained me. "I though that slavery was prohibited in Heaven Dou Empire" I said. Dad smiled at me "Maybe in its surface, but in the auction all can be sold. Too much money is involved to stop it". Seeing us and recognizing dad they bowed opening the Auction House''s doors. Entering an even more beautiful women came to guide us "It is a honor to receive again school master Ning to our House Auction". She was to guide us to the very VIP area but was stopped by dad. "This time I prefer to be a little less conspicuous, we will go to the white area" dad said. The guide nodded politely and offered us some mask that dad rejected. Dad turned to me and said "In this kind of auction people usually wear masks, you don''t usually want you linked to a place like this where everything can be bought. Also, is important to protect your own identity in case you obtain very valuable objects. However, we are the Seven Treasured Glazed Title Clan, be proud of it and don''t hide it, we have enough power to defend ourselves". "For the areas, they are divided based in the ring colors. The clients are divided based in their money. The areas being red for more than million gold coins VIPs, black for normal million gold coins, purple for more than 100.000 gold coins, yellow for more than 10.000 gold coins and lastly the white area for people with the minimum requirement to enter the auction. I have the hobby to analyze other people so I prefer the fuller white area instead of the private rooms of the red" Explained dad. "What happened with all the attendants? They were all very beautiful, but they are strange, like lifeless" I asked. "Like everything at the auction they are also good that can be bought, in their case for 100.000 gold coins. They were commoner girls trained by the auction itself. Now they only live to serve, not knowing anything else. Remember this Bai, like them, there''s people who can''t be saved. Trying to save someone and not worry if they can fend for themselves later is an act of sophistry" dad answered. I nodded at him thoughtfully. We sat in seats of the white area. The auction is 24h opened but the best goods are sold at night. We spent 2 hours, dad explaining me how the auction worked, its rules, mysteries... He also taught me about the tricks they use to lie the buyers, and how differentiate true treasures from trash. Our spirit is classified as a treasure tool spirit and have the passive function to detect true treasures, it''s a kind of instinct. This property is the main reason that made our clan the richest. Even if the other upper clans can contend our battle power there''s no one that can win against our financial progress. With this 2 hours a learn to detect a little this instinct, but according to father maybe for my spirit mutation I don''t have a lot of talent in this, only recognizing the b?r? minimum. On the other hand dad explained that Rongrong treasure detection is even better than him, being specially gifted in that area. Good for Rongrong. In this hours dad only bit for people who weren''t broken and can be saved. Buying 6 of them saying that they can serve as staff for the clan, they will have future now because our clan won''t treat them badly, more like employers than slaves. When the true auction of today was going to start, selling the best products of the day, two youths came and sat near us. "How unusual, for some so young to come to the auction, not only that, they seem to be high level spirit master of more than 35 rank, with I would say some 13 years old" dad said analyzing them. "You really like to analyze people, dad" I said to him. "The best disciples of the outer branch are recruit like that, knowledge is a power. It''s also good knowing more than the rival" dad said. Listening to dad, he surely will start a conversation with the youths. For the first time, I looked at them attentively. They were a boy and a girl wearing mask, for the physique and eyes they couldn''t hide their youth. Looking at them I couldn''t help to shout "Tang San! Xiao Wu! What are you doing here?!" surprising them. Dad looked at me and reprimand me "Bai, you must control your emotions. Also, It is very disrespectful to uncover the identities of someone who tries to hid it, specially in the auction, be more aware". I blushed a little embarrassed, I turned to San and Wu and said "Sorry for before. I am glad to meet you again". "Oh, you''re Bai. Don''t worry about it. It''s not like we are important or anything. I don''t thing that anything will happen for people to know our names. I''m glad to see you are calmer than last time without death sentence" San said laughing. I blushed a little "This was only for a moment. I permitted my fury to control me" "Do you know them, Bai? Are you going to present?" dad interjected. "Oh? Sorry" I turned to San and Wu and signaling dad "This is my and Rongrong''s father, the actual master of the Seven Treasured Glazed Title Clan, Ning Fengzhi" I turned to dad signaling them "They are Tang San and Xiao Wu, they are students at the same academy as Rongrong, they are also part of the same battle team called Shrek Seven Devils". "It is a p???sur? to know my daughter''s friends" said dad. "It''s a p???sur? to meet school master Ning" said both of them. "You don''t need to be so formal. Is there something you want to buy?" dad said, they answered that they were here for selling. After that we converse a little, dad also explained them how the auction work, similar as me. I think that dad took a like to them, specially Tang San, he surely would try to them join our clan. After some time the true auction started the first ''item'' being the girl with the mutated cat spirit, which caused her to have true cat ears and tail. Seeing the first human to be auctioned like a pet, made Xiao Wu very angry. Dad calmed her a little and explained the circumstances of slavery. Dad finally bough her even going against the fu?ker of Xue Xing, like some useless prince could win in a monetary fight vs our clan. Xiao Wu wanted to see us take the cat girl, surely she want to make sure that we don''t mistreat her. Father quickly accepted. After more item as we were about to leave the last item was showed, being a small rectangular metal box named Powder Shooting Shadow. "Third Brother isn''t this you weapon?" Wu asked Tang San. Dad seemed very interesting in the weapon. The announcer explained the weapon which could launch 36 thick steel needles capable of piercing a 1 cm thick steel plate with 15 m. Moreover, it has a paralyzing poison. Chapter 43 - Beautiful Silk Tulip After the last bid we left followed by San and Wu. We were guided by some attendants to a private room. There they showed our bought items, the girls and the weapon. Dad took the weapon and gave a red card to the attendant "Settle the bill, also send these girls to my place". The attendant bowed and left the room with the girls. Dad turned to San "So this weapon was yours?" receiving a nod from their part "Not trying to be too presumptuous. Which clan do you belong to?" "We don''t belong to any clan, we are only students" Tang San said. Dad inspection the hidden weapon detecting a brand on it "Tang Clan? Is this the clan where this weapon was manufactured? How is that I have never listened about it?" Xiau Wu smiled saying "Normal. The Tang Clan only has one member, being my Third Brother!" Dad turned surprised to Tang San "So this hidden weapon was made by you?" receiving a nod from Tang San. "Are you able to mass product this hidden weapon? I hope to purchase them, I can ?ssure that the price will satisfy you" said dad. "Thank you for your good will. But we have others matters to attend. As Rongrong''s father we surely will meet again in the future to talk more about this dealing" said Tang San "You are right, this may not be the best place and moment for a conversation. It has been a p???sur? to meet you" said dad. "For us as well" said Tang San leaving the room. After they left dad said "They seem a little wary of us". "Let''s say that we didn''t have the best first impression, it is better to improve our relation little by little" I said, dad nodding. At this moment uncle Bone appeared "Fenghzi, Bai we should return to the clan something happened" "What happened?" I asked. "Rongrong returned to the clan, she said is important" uncle Bone said. We followed him teleporting using uncle Bone spirit ability arriving at the clan. We appeared at a rest room, there I could see mum hugging Rongrong sat on a sofa with Rongrong somewhat angry. Seeing us come mum dragged Rongrong towards me and forced me to join the hug "Both my little children in the house. What a happiness!" Knowing how mum is a let her be "I''m also happy to see you again mom. Also you Rongrong, even when is was only 2 weeks ago that we met" "Hi Big Brother! Mama and papa are bad! They don''t love Rongrong! After a year without any communication with me they didn''t have prepared any gift for me, dad wasn''t even at house when I came" said Rongrong "I though that I escaped the clan, but now I think that they let me go, that they prefer that I''m not here" "Rongrong, how can papa not love you" said dad "We were looking for you for nothing bad to happen, we though that a little of independence will be good for you. For the gift we will find a perfect one, don''t worry". Listening the gift part Rongrong knew that she could wish for anything and will be delivered to her so she calmed and returned to her usual smile. Dad seeing her smiling finally asked "Did you work hard outside? What is your rank now" "I didn''t lazy around. My spirit power didn''t raise much, only 10 ranks" said Rongrong smiling Dad blinked in surprised listening the 10 ranks "10 ranks? You were rank 29 when you left, are you saying that you are rank 39 now?" "Bad dad! Not believing Rongrong. Even if I''m a bit naughty I won''t lie" said Rongrong offended. "It''s true, Rongrong is at 39 rank" said mum who took advantage of the hug to analyze Rongrong''s rank. "10 ranks in 1 year is inconceivable, even the fastest spirit master won''t live up to it. Our Rongrong is a genius" said uncle Bone, Rongrong making a proud face. Dad turned very serious, this speed of cultivation is almost impossible, maybe she used some dark cultivation in exchange from vitality. "Rongrong, immediately tell us everything about cultivating at Shrek, don''t omit anything" "Why are you angry dad? Rongrong cultivated properly and with a lot of effort. I even grew a lot" said Rongrong. "I am afraid you might have taken some wrong step. Hurry, tell us your entire cultivation" Dad said very serious. "I worked really hard. When I went to Shrek I was average in there so I worked hard to not fell apart" said Rongrong. "Even with that I can''t believe that you grew 10 ranks in a year" said this time uncle Bone. "Let me explain it..." Rongrong explained then her time at Shrek Academy. Breaking through the 30th rank in a live and death situation at the forest, the control training... "...Finally last month arrived at the 34 rank" finished Rongrong "Grandmaster sure is a character. To improve you so much in this time, but 5 ranks in a year is in the realm of possible, what happened this month to make you grow 5 ranks?" asked uncle Bone. "The truth is that it was more specific to say that happened in a day. I just ate an herb and gained this strength" Rongrong said. "What herb?" I asked expectantly, maybe it will also help me with a similar spirit as her. "It is named Beautiful Silk Tulip and it was given by third brother. According to third brother it is a rare immortal treasure that grew absorbing the essence of heaven and earth. You don''t have to worry, third brother explained that it improve foundation without any harm if you don''t use more than one" Rongrong said, "The true surprise it''s not my increase in rank" Rongrong grinned "After this you won''t have any doubt" Rongrong lifted her right hand, from it appeared her Pagoda spirit, but something seemed different. "It has 9 layers! And 9 colors like my sword" I shouted surprised. "What?" said dad surprised. The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was his dream, the possibility to arrive at titled douluo and beyond. Dad sighted "It seems that my worries were unfounded, with the evolution of your spirit it is proved that your vitality hadn''t decreased, the contrary it has increased with an incomparable stable foundation" Rongrong proudly said "You should trust me more. How can third brother harm me? Moreover, all the other Shrek student used similar immortal treasures, all of them improving their rank tremendously" "Beautiful Silk Tulip to be able to promote my daughter spirit to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Such a herb is worthy of being called immortal treasure" said dad thinking. He then turned to Rongrong "Do you know where it can be obtained?" Rongrong shook her head "According to third brother immortal herb are incredible precious and scare, it''s your luck to find one. Finding two exemplars of the same is close to impossible" Dad made a little sad face but quickly recuperated at least her daughter accomplished his long dream "Could you at least describe it? Maybe with my contacts it can be find another or some with similar capabilities" Rongrong signaled a jade box on the table "I brought it here. Inside there the Beautiful Silk Tulip" For a moment dad hungrily looked at the box but was quickly disillusioned by Rongrong''s next words "The herb inside is completely dead. To obtain the best results I need to breath its stamen, to take the best features and then cultivate. So now it lost all its properties" "At least it is a good proof that the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda is possible. Maybe analyzing I can find something" dad said as he approached the box. Glut, now a big rodent with white and black hair jumped out from my hand and before anyone could react shot towards dad, taking the tulip and swallowing it under all our shocked faces. Chapter 44 - Deja vu After eating the tulip Glut started to cough a lot. (Ahh! A sense of deja vu) "Rongrong do you know what could happen if you eat the herb" I asked Rongrong. "According to third brother its good properties were emitted by the steam to the air leaving the herb completely poisonous, eating signifying death" explained Rongrong. "Shit!" After 1 minute Glut stopped rigid and disappeared. I turned to mum "Mum, can you release me? I need to find if something went wrong with Glut". Mum let me free and I started meditating. Entering the white an black I could see some changes. From the blacks trees were now growing golden fruits, and the hardiness of the forest grew. At the center of the world was Glut sat waiting like being a dog. There were some changes in him, his body reduced, being only 1 meter long now. It''s fur now shined brightly, I can even see my reflection in him. He maintained his black and white color, being black with some big white stains gaining some golden lines that started at his eyes until his tail. If I must describe him it will be a cute dog, now he doesn''t look like a rodent. (Are you fine Glut?) He looked at me with doubtful face like saying what do you expect. After some conversation, if it can be named like that me thinking and Glut sending sensations, I learned that my fears were unfounded, as my spirit soul he is immortal as long as I am alive and supplying spirit energy. At most he could enter a weakened state. Also, he evolved now to an Insatiable Golden Beautiful Wolf. (Yeah very beautiful) I said sarcastically. "Gooof!" Just as I was about to exit Glut bark. (Now even you bark like a dog) I sighed. Around Glut manifested 3 rings, all of them black (It seems that you even aged the second one this time, Glut.) "Goof!" Glut barked with a face that seemed to say you didn''t see anything. Around him appeared another black ring, this one was strange with an orange tone in it. I was very surprised seeing the orange color (Orange! What did it means? Orange is close to red so maybe near 100.000 years) Opening my eyes I looked at the nervous and expectantly faces of my family. "So?" asked dad. "Glut is fine. It seems that he can''t die while I am alive so I don''t have to worry about him" I said, causing my family to sigh. "You must be more wary, Bai. Glut is a completely new resource for cultivation, maybe in the future we could learn how to replicate it, he is very precious and important now that is completely linked at your second spirit" said dad. "How can it be replicate it? You will need to have a food spirit, let some weak spirit beast choke with it. And after this you even need to hunt for its own food, how can a food spirit master hunt enough beasts?" I said "Without considering that the most probable is that there are others requirements. But yeah, I know dad that he is important". "It''s a shame that we lost the opportunity to study the Beautiful Silk Tulip, even when the most probable is that we wouldn''t accomplished anything. The nature, specially the powerful one is almost impossible to replicate" said dad tired"Anyway, I''ll try to search for another one" "Maybe this won''t be necessary, dad" I interjected. I lift my left hand, from it appeared an Oreo surrounded by 4 black rings, one of them a little orange. "Orange?" Mum said surprised, but quickly returned to a smile "Even with its orange tone it''s pressure is not even close to 100.000 years, maybe 20.000?" "20.150, its the actual age of Glut. This ring is quite particular, the energy that emit is the maximum that Glut can emit. But when actual using the spirit ability it will use the residual energy left after Glut ate the Tulip, the own tulip essence instead of only my own spirit energy" I said. "Are you saying that for your 4th ability you don''t expend spirit energy?" dad asked. "Yes and no, it used a lot of my spirit power. The truth is that I need to expend all my spirit power. However, the main energy that it is used is the residual one. With this residual energy its power become beyond what its age will permit, actually I think that the effect it will be one over 100.000" I explained surprising all my family when they listened 100.000 "However, there''s a big flaw. The residual energy unlike mine that it is replaced automatically, this one will run out. To more uses I will need to replenish the energy with the same source so another Beautiful Silk Tulip" "How many times you could use it?" dad asked. I answered "If my calculations are correct, 10 times. There''s a lot to consider so...". "Ahhhh! Stop Bai!" mum stopped me "Go first to the important part, what is the ability? Even with 10 uses limitation will be a good trump card" "It''s not a trump card at all, like my first ability it doesn''t have any application in a battle. In this case, the effects are simple to imagine. It''s an imitation of the Beautiful Silk Tulip, a cookie with the effects of breathing the heaven and earth essence of the tulip" I said, dad eyes shined with glee "Without knowing exactly the potency of the actual herb, I couldn''t ?ssure that it has the same power, but boosted by my spirit and Glut, the potency will be high. Its main property being the improvement or even evolution of spirits related to plants or light, improving their foundation and increasing spirit power" Dad hugged me tightly "Your great Bai! With it the flaw of our spirit is solved" Dad recuperate from his exhilarating mood. I only saw dad so happy when Rongrong''s birth. "We should try it first like you said you don''t know the potency, maybe the improvement is not necessary enough to evolve to the nine pagoda spirit" dad said calmer. "Zhi, don''t try to hide now. All of us can see how expectant you are" mum laughed provoking dad to blush a little. "Let''s try it now on you dad" I said. "It''s a limited use, treasures like that are best used when growing to rise one potential. It will be better to..." dad was saying until mum interjected angrily "Zhi, we all know that your dream was to obtain the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Be a little mean for one time and not think about yourself!" "The most important thing is our family, not the clan. If there''s a possibility, even is little to greatly improve your strength, why doubt? Even if nothing happen there''s 9 more uses don''t worry" I said. Dad smiles at me and lifted both of his hands in surrender "I surrender. Yeah I would really like to try it. Please Bai, use your ability" I nodded "It only can be maintained 15 seconds so eat it quickly. ?Wonder if I gave a golden Oreo?" From my left arm surged a very intense golden light that blind us. After 5 second the light finally died out and I could open my eyes. Over my left hand was hovering a golden Oreo surrounded by a golden aura. I approached dad who took it from me. Just as he took I fell to the floor completely exhausted with my spirit reserve empty. "Are you fine, Bai?" dad asked worried. "Yeah it''s only lack of spirit power after a quick rest I will be better" I said "Hurry eat it quickly!" Dad ate the Golden Oreo "I sense a very pure energy, without doubt a true treasure! I will need to start to cultivated immediately, if you''ll excuse me" dad said and sat in lotus position and started cultivating. "Now it seems we can only wait for its results" said mum "Come Bai, while Zhi cultivate explain mum about this months" mum said signaling me to join the hug. I sighed and accepted being again trapped with mum. At least I have Rongrong! Chapter 45 - Golden Oreo effects After 5 hours talking with mum and Rongrong and eating some sweets served by Maya, dad finally opened his eyes and stood up. Dad smiled radiantly at us and joined our family hug "Bai, your ability is truly great!" he distanced a little from us and invoked his spirit, we could see 9 layers and 9 colors, Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda! "Not only my spirit evolved, I even gain two ranks, now rank 89. With this I only need a little step to arrive at title douluo" said dad. "Congratulations papa!" said Rongrong happy. "Thanks, darling! With this our clan will arrive to new height" said dad. "Dad, what I must do with this ability? Keep it only for the clan and have more people evolve?" I asked dad. "This is your ability, without you the most probable is that I would stayed with the seven pagoda eternally. Is your decision in who to use it" said dad "However, at least you should keep 3 for the clan future. There''s no need for more than one nine pagoda in one generation as its effects can''t be stacked. So keep it for future descendants. It would be only given to the successor" I nodded and thought about who I want to give it. I must really trust them, having a good relation with them, also it''s only useful for light and plant spirit, like our spirit that is classified as a treasure based in light. The only people I can think of are Lingling with her Nine Heart Flowering Apple plant spirit and Qinghe with his Heavenly Swan a light attribute beast spirit. Plus me using it and the 3 for the clan, there would be 3 left. It will be better to keep it, we never know what we can expect for the future. "Dad, I would like to gift it to my teammate Xie Lingling and to the crown prince Xue Qinghe. What do you thing?" I asked dad. "If you trust them. They both have extremely powerful backgrounds, Lingling being the next head of the Flowery Healing Clan because her unique spirit and Qinghe being the next emperor. It will be good to owe a favor from them. And trust your ability, it is a big favor. Our spirit lacks powerful healing ability so it will be great have the backing of the Flowery Healing Clan, the number one clan in healing. Without talking of strengthen our relation with Heaven Dou Empire" Dad said "If it''s your decision, I accept for you to use it in them, even showing your twin spirits to them. However, it will be better not to explain anything related with Glut, so keep it a secret, if asked explain that you 4th ring is obtained killing a Beautiful Silk Tulip." dad explained. I nodded "For a moment I was worried about you forcing me to use the ability on the clan elders, improving immediately the clan strength" "I may be a bad clan master,but the clan is my second most important thing, the first one being all of you. It is a pity that neither Xie, Bone or Sword has light or plant based spirits." dad said. "Now that I remembered" dad turned to Rongrong showing her the Powder Shooting Shadow. "How do you have third brother weapons?" asked Rongrong. "Is this third brother the one that manufactured it?" asked dad. Rongrong nodded "Yes! But this is only a low level hidden weapon, third brother can do even better one. I brought some here with me" We went outside and Rongrong showed the power of the hidden weapons of Tang San. Their power surprised us a lot, they even can injure a little a titled douluo who is not prepared! "It seems that I must really attract that youth to our clan or at least make a contract for him to make weapons for our clan" dad said. "Clap!" clapped mum "It''s late, let''s go eat dinner and to the bed. Bai, Rongrong you are still growing so it''s important to sleep properly, specially you Bai, I know that you try to hide it. But it''s very easy to see that you are exhausted. You explained that you must expend all your spirit energy using your ability, don''t force yourself and rest" mum said. After that we ate dinner and went to sleep. Waking up next day I feel much better and I recuperated some spirit energy. With this expense it will be impossible for me to properly cultivate after eating it, at least alone. If I want to maximize its effect I would need Mayi''s help. Going to have breakfast I found all the family sat waiting for me "Good morning!" we all said at the same time. "Rongrong wants to return to her academy so after breakfast we will go there. Do you want to join us?" dad asked. I nodded. "My little children are gonna leave me again alone, mama is sad!" mum said embracing me and Rongrong. "Don''t worry too much mum, in 6 months is the Continental Tournament, at most we will all reunite there" I tried cheering mum. "6 months is a lot, I need my children energy!" cried mum. Dad pat mum shoulder "Xie, stop bulling the children, give them some space" Mum let us free reluctantly. Then, we had breakfast and left to Heaven Dou City after a long argument convincing mom to stay protecting the clan. After some time we arrived at the city, just as we were about to go to Shrek Academy the carriage stopped. Looking outside I could see a little pissed Mayi. Mayi forcefully entered the carriage without anyone stopping her. She sat next to me and puffed her cheeks "You left alone Mayi! At least you could left me a letter of something". All of us were too shocked but her sudden appearance that it took us a while to answer. "Sorry Mayi, the truth is that it was rather unexpected. I expected only to be some hours outside, but there was some clan matters that lengthen it" I explained trying to calm her. She then hugged me "Don''t leave me alone next time". "hi,hi" I agreed "Talking about other matters, how did you know I was here?" I asked interested. Mayi blushed "Maybe, I marked Bai with Mayi''s ant pheromones so I can detect where you are" "What?" I said surprised "It was for your security, in the case that something happened" said Mayi. I sighted and flicked her forehead "I will forgive you this time, but if you did something like complete vigilance against me, next time please said to me or I''m really going to be very angry" "Sorry Bai" apologized Mayi. "Something else that you hided from me?" I asked her. Mayi looked down nervous and embarrassed, her face totally red "Sometimes I threatened girls that tried to be intimate with Bai, even broken some bone" my jaw fell shocked "But don''t worry, they were complete unfamiliar I never attacked your sister or friends" she tried to fix. "Ahhh! Bai, she is crazy! You should broke your relation with her now! Next time maybe even me is attacked" Rongrong shouted. Mayi angrily said "I would never do anything that will cause sadness to Bai. I only threatened people with bad thoughts" she turned to me and looked at my eyes, with her big eyes with some tears falling "Please, Bai! I''m very sorry! Don''t leave!" I recuperated from the shock "Really, I don''t know how the conversation escalated so much" I said. Then I patted Mayi''s head "I can protect myself don''t worry about it. You don''t need to be afraid of me leaving, I already said that I love you so don''t worry. But please stop that crazy behavior or maybe I really must broke with you" "Yes! Sorry, Bai" said Mayi. "Hahaha!" dad couldn''t help to laugh "Youth, divine treasure" "Dad!" I shouted offended "Please, stop it!" "Sorry Bai, I tried to not laugh but it was impossible. I remembered my young days" said dad. "How could you had similar experiences?" I asked a little angry. "Bai, think a little. You know how caring Xie could be with family, add her battle junkie tendencies and you can easily imagine what happen when she is jealous" dad said. I trembled in fright, the image of mum''s training is terrifying and she really love us, with people that could damage her family I couldn''t think how she could react without trembling. I looked at dad with a little pity "You had it rough". Dad laughed "And you didn''t know her before, she was even more temperamental" After the stop we continued our trip to Shrek Academy, this time with one more passenger. As we arrived at Shrek Academy and left the carriage, we could detect some strong high level spirit master''s pressure. Chapter 46 - Vigorous God "There''s some kind of fighting inside? For the absence of noise I don''t think that is too salvage" I said. Dad smiled "Bai, Rongrong only with the pressure, could you say the rank of the one emitting it?" I though a little. "More than douluo rank" said Rongrong. Dad turned to me waiting for my answer. "I think that its a titled douluo aura for it''s high strength" I said. "Douluo, rank 86" Mayi said. Dad was surprised by Mayi''s answer "How could you exact its rank so precisely. Even in my case, the maximum that I can say is that it is a high douluo specialized in strength" dad turned to me "You fail Bai, the pressure is similar as a titled douluo, but not its spirit energy, showing that the person specialization is strength" "It''s difficult for me to sense aura, even less to analyze it. But I can recognize grandpa pressure and I know his rank" Mayi explained. "Ah! So it''s the old orangutan!" said dad I turned to Mayi "You grandfather is here, do you know why?" Mayi shook her head "No idea why is he here" We went near the pressure. We could see a big crowd surrounding an elder with grizzled hair and beard who gave a forceful impression and a boy. The elder being Mayi''s grandfather Tai Tan and the boy Tang San. Tai Tan was pressuring Tang San. After asking someone of the crowd we learned that it was a bet, if Tang San could resist 5 minutes the pressure Tai Tan will join Tang San''s clan. If Tang San surrender under the pressure he will join the Strength Clan. This bet started with Tang San winning against the grandson and son of Tai Tan. "Your grandfather seems a little childish, to step in a fight between juniors forcing Tang San to join his clan" I said to Mayi. I turned to dad "Are we going to stop them?" "Bai, the time is extremely important, it is bad to be late but it is no good to arrive too early. We will wait for the perfect moment to make the most impact. Until then just observe, I want to know Tang San limit" Tang San was resisting Tai Tan pressure. Tan''s pressure keep increasing little by little and San was using more of his strength to resist. First San uses his Blue Silver Grass extending surrounding his body to lower the pressure, then he even used his external spirit bone to keep standing. Tai Tan''s pressure finally arrived at a enough level pushing Tang San to a corner, he couldn''t keep with it. "Is now the moment, dad?" I said. "It seems at his limit, but I can see in his face that he hasn''t given up yet" dad said. "Dad, please! Save third brother" Said Rongrong. Just at this moment, from Tang San hand appeared a hammer, its appearance weakened the pressure greatly. "Now!" dad said activating his spirit and supported Tang San with his abilities. When the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda or in this case nine arrive at spirit sage all abilities can be combined to create a recuperative effect, recuperating spirit power and physical strength, it is called Rainbow Day. Dad control was so great that even with his nine pagoda could control only 7 colors hiding the fact of his spirit evolution. Dad used the Rainbow Day on Tang San, recuperating him from before. Tang San took advantage of it at started cultivating to recuperate. Tai Tan had a shocked expression and stopped his pressure. Then we walked through the crowd towards them. Arriving where Tang San where "Old orangutan, aren''t you too old to bully the young generation?" said dad. Tai Tan seeing us glanced at dad and uncle Bone "So it was school master Ning and Bone douluo. This old man pays his respects" Then he continue looking our group. When her sight stayed in Mayi he couldn''t help to blink "Mayi, what are you doing here? Even more important, what are you doing with them?" Mayi approached Tan and smiles saying "Long time not seeing grandpa!" she hugged him. Tai Tan was completely shocked. Then he looked to dad with an angry expression "What did you do to her?" "Old orangutan, I don''t know what are you referring. Could you clarify your doubts?" said dad. "Don''t joke with me! Look at her" shouted Tai Tan, Mayi tilted her head confused asking "What happened to Mayi grandpa?" "Your having expressions! You were always indifferent like the cold ice. Surely they had brainwashed you" Tan said. I face palmed "So...You are saying that our clan did something wrong to Mayi only because she smiled? Are you an idiot!" I said Tan reacted putting pressure toward me. I sensed like being crashing to the ground but it was only an instant. At the same moment that Tan used his pressure uncle Bone was already near him, and held him by the neck "If you try to attack Bai another time, I can ?ssure that there won''t be another one" said uncle Bone with an angry look letting him free. "I can ?ssure that we didn''t cause any kind of damage to your grandaughter. The truth is that I didn''t had the p???sur? of expending a lot of time with her. For my son, he and your granddaughter are in a relation" dad said "It will be better to talk about another time. This time I am here not for you. Can you give us some face and let this matter for later? Also, please let Tang San free. Our school is very interested in him" "Hahaha" Tai Tan laughed "Give some face? Sure I can give you some face, let''s talk about Mayi later. For the boy, we''ll drop the bet without winners or losers, but look at his left hand. Do you have the qualifications to recruit him?" We all looked attentively the black hammer spirit at Tang San''s left hand, its design was unmistakable "It can''t be. Clear Sky Hammer!" said uncle Bone shocked. "No wonder he is so outstanding, coming from the Clear Sky Clan. With his family name I should have realized long ago" said dad. At that moment Tang San finally opened his eyes. Rongrong went toward him and asked "Third brother, are you alright?" Rongrong''s teammates also came to see how Tang San was, only missing the white tiger Dai Mubai. "I''m fine" said Tang San. He turned to dad and bowed "Greetings, school master Ning. You have my most sincere gratitude helping my recover" Dad smiled "Don''t be so formal, your Rongrong''s friend. You can call me uncle Ning" "Greetings, uncle Ning" said Tang San, dad smiled. Then Tang San turned to Tai Tan "Sorry senior, our bet was interrupted, if you want we can do it again" Tai Tan very serious asked "Is your father''s name Tang Hao?" "How did you know?" said Tang San surprised. Tai Tan knelt with one knee at the ground towards Tang San "This old slave, pays his respects to young master!" said Tai Tan, his son and grandson following him while Mayi was still without knowing anything. "Young master? How can I be? Father was a simple blacksmith in a little village" said Tang San causing some tears in Tai Tan eyes. "Ejem!" dad interrupted "I don''t think that this is the ideal place to talk about this" said dad signaling the crowd "As our children are part of Shrek, why don''t we talk inside?" Then came a teacher from the academy, Zhao Wuji, seeming a little scared from Tai Tan, dad and uncle Bone. He dispersed the crowd and guided us inside the academy. Entering we were all divided, Rongrong went with Tang San, Mayi was dragged by her grandfather. In our case we were guide to a prepared meeting room waiting for Tang San. Chapter 47 - Tai Mayi Inside the room when we were alone dad turned to me "Bai, what do you think of what happened?" "It''s more than obvious that Tang San''s spirit was the Clear Sky Hammer, plus like me he also possess twin spirits. Add his strong mentality and intelligence, undoubtedly, if nothing wrong happen he will be a future power, not difficult to arrive at the titled douluo rank" I explain "By what Rongrong told me he doesn''t seem to be related to the Clear Sky clan, so there''s a big possibility that he is the son of the Clear Sky douluo Tang Hao, the only know member of the clan that left it. Also, his age match" I said "How do you think we should react?" asked dad probing me. "I think that it''s impossible for him to join us. With his mentality, talent and his background it will be almost impossible. The only case that I see it is by marriage. However, from Rongrong I know he has a love interest and I don''t think that Rongrong and him will end up together" I explained, dad nodded. "The worst situation will be that he will rejoin the Clear Sky school. They will gain another titled douluo in the future putting pressure for us. However, I think this is improbable. The clan abandoned his father and in my opinion he will form his own clan in the future" I said "What do you base in to say that he will form a new clan?" dad asked "In his weapons. They are all branded as Tang Sect, when we met him at the auction, Xiao Wu said that the Tang Sect only had one member being Tang San. So we can suppose that he believe in that sect, so he will want to grow in the future with more people, forming a true sect" I said. "So, what will you think our clan should do?" Dad asked. "In my opinion there''s two ways for us, go against him or ally with him. The first one is kill him, protecting us from possible future damage, in case he grows too strong. The second one is make him our ally, supporting him in what we can for make in the future a good opinion of us, even better if he owes us" I said. "In both cases, I think the best to do now is be passive. If we want to kill him, the best moment will be before he is strong and when our clan could surpass Tang Hao strength, ensuring a fight without loses. I would recommend to kill it silently and wait until you dad are a titled douluo and mum a super douluo, with uncles helping" I said "If we want to be allies it will be depend on the need in the future we don''t know what awaits. So for now the best is to have a friendly front" "Anyway, I won''t recommend killing him, it will be a waste, only with his relation with Rongrong we have friendly term and I won''t want to make Rongrong sad" I said. Dad nodded "Good conclusions, we will wait till the future. For now, I want to make a contract with him to arm our clan member with his hidden weapons, in the fut..." dad stopped talking, I turned to the door that after 5 second opened coming Rongrong from it. "How is Tang San feeling?" asked dad. "He has some complicated thoughts about his father, physically he is completely recuperated thanks to papa" said Rongrong "What were you talking about?" "We want for Tang San to made weapons for the clan, we were planning it" said dad, rongrong seemed not to convinced. "Rongrong, did you learn what happened before? Why that bet started?" I asked trying to change the mood. Rongrong forgot about our talk and explained all about the bet. I laughed "So, if you beat the son, appears the father and when he beat the father appeared the grandfather, truly hilarious. Maybe if he beat Tai Tan, would have appeared his father" "It''s coming" Uncle Bone interrupted us signaling the door. We stopped talking waiting for Tang San. After 5 second Tang San entered. This time I stayed quiet and was dad who talked. Dad started light talking of the greatness of his father to create a good image and excuse for not trying to rope him to the clan. At the end he accepted to produce hidden weapons for our clan. The first batch being 500 sets for 10.000 gold coins each. His condition where that he will give us the method to prepare each part, but the ?ssembly would be done by himself, totally secret for us. With our clan providing the material, his cost will be 0, being the 5.000.000 millions gold only profits, too much money. However, with all his help to Rongrong, specially the Beautiful Silk Tulip, it won''t be a lost for us to not owe him anything. Moreover, we create a good impression. "I talked with Mayi and it seems that you both are in a relation" Tai Tan said to me "What are your plans, kid?" "Mayi and I meet 3 years ago, since then she was my teammate and friend. Our relationship evolved and I finally can say that I''m in love with her. In the future I want to marry her" I said. "Oh? You stayed together for 3 years, but you didn''t have any though of paying respects to her family?" Said Tai Tan angry. "Our girlfriend-boyfriend relation started few months ago. As we are busy with the training for the Continental Tournament in half a year, I planned to visit your clan and pay my respects, plus ask for Mayi''s marriage after the tournament, with an appropriate gift" I said. "It''s easy to let things for later" said Tai Tan "Anyway, I reject your proposition. Mayi won''t leave the clan to join the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. She will surely arrive at titled douluo rank, she is the hope of our clan" "I am willing to let her maintain her status as part of the Strength Clan, all her honor will go to your clan. It will be an alliance between our clans" I said. "Never! You! You expect from my clan to prostate toward yours, keeping under you?" Tai Tan said angrily. "It will be an alliance between equals, not a servant-owner one!" I shouted. "It doesn''t matter what you say. Mayi will leave Heaven Dou Imperial Academy and return to the clan. You won''t influence her more" said Tai Tan. "Grandpa! I want to stay with Bai. I love him, since the first time I saw him. At first I knew that he didn''t love me, he treated me like a little sister. Finally, I have got him to love me. I don''t gonna leave his side!" said Mayi while crying a little "I''m very glad for all the clan''s help, but if you force me to separate from Bai, I don''t gonna have another choice that leave the clan. Even if after that I was to be persecuted by it, I don''t mind. I know that Bai will protect me!" I couldn''t help to be moved by Mayi words "Mayi..." when I was about to say something Tai Tan interrupted me shouting. "Mayi! You don''t understand anything. In this world love is not the most important. You can''t expect for calculative monster like them" Tai Tan say signalizing me and dad "to protect you at any cost. When they get better option they will throw you!" Tai Tan sighed, he approach Mayi and at her ears in low voice to only listen her said "Mayi, you have very special circumstances, what will happen when they knew your condition. Can you ?ssure that they won''t go against you?" Mayi blinked confused and said in loud voice "Grandpa, do you know that Mayi is a spirit beast?" Just at this moment Tai Tan aura exploded, uncle Bone quickly protected me and Rongrong positioned in front of us. Tai Tan quickly stayed between Mayi and us showing his eight spirit ring, yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black and black. His body grew one head, fur started to grow around his body, becoming very similar to an orangutan. "Silly, girl. Run, Mayi! How could you say your secret before them. Run, hide! I will do my most to try to stop them. Try to live a happy life and remember that I love you" Tai Tan shout. He then turned to us, in his eyes you can see his willingness to give his life in order to gain a little time. Even though he knew that it will be impossible going against uncle Bone, without taking in account dad''s support. He was prepared to die. Mayi tucked Tai Tan robes "Grandpa stop!" "Can you see the situation, Mayi? You must run away!" said Tai Tan. "No! Grandpa! It''s you who doesn''t understand the situation!" shouted Mayi. She signaled at us "They already knew that I was a spirit beast. Look at them, they didn''t even move to attack". Tai Tan looked at our strange faces due to his outburst "Did you know that Mayi was a spirit beast?" asked toward us, we nodded. "Did you accept it? And in the future will you not try to kill her?" Tai Tan said, we nodded. Tai Tan sighed and withdraw his spirit returning to his normal state. "Grandpa, did you always know that I was a spirit beast?" asked Mayi. "Of course, the first time that we met when you were sleeping a analyzed you and detected that you were. Didn''t you find strange that we never asked about your past or even doubt your lack of common sense in some areas, and the bast amount of knowledge in others?" Tai Tan said "It''s a clan secret, the only people who know about it are the people in that room and Tai Long''s mother. I was waiting for you to explain to us when you were comfortable enough". Mayi run towards Tai Tan and hugged him while crying "Sorry, grandpa! Sorry, for doubting you. Thanks for all you did. I''m very happy to be your granddaughter! I love you" "Don''t worry about it. We will protect you. I''m glad that you finally show sentiment like truly being alive" Tai Tan turned to me "Kid, since when did you know her condition?". "Since the second day I met her. We have fusion affinity, when we were trying to connect our spirits together I learned about her being a spirit beast" I said. Tai Tan turned serious looking to my eyes "Do you really love Mayi?" I resolutely answered "Yes! I really love her. I will protect her with my life if necessary. In the case that her condition is known I will escape with her" "Hahahaha! Good look, kid!" Tai Tan laughed. He approached and hit my my back throwing me 3 meter towards the floor. "Stop uncle!" I shouted before uncle Bone reacted to attack Tai Tan. "Only 3 meters, good!" Tai Tan said "It seems that at least you train your body, not like your clan members!Kid!" I stood up, even now a little sore from the hit "Can you stop calling me kid? My name is Bai". Tai Tan laughed "If you are going to be the couple of my granddaughter, I will keep the privilege of calling you like I want. If you want that I change it, show me that your good enough. If you want our clan permission to marry Mayi you must proof your strength, winning against me. I look forward to the future". I nodded Then he turned serious "Kid, I will leave Mayi to you, take care of her". "Hi!" I agreed. Tai Tan approached Mayi and kiss her forehead "Bye Mayi" then he turned to his son and grandson "We are leaving" and they left the room. When they left Mayi hugged me and we stayed 1 minute quiet until Rongrong said "So? Is Mayi a spirit beast?" "Oh, true. You didn''t know it" I facepalm "Rongrong, I know that you both don''t have the best relation, but you won''t say anything about her, no? If someone learns about her, Mayi will be persecuted by all the powers" "Don''t worry big brother. I won''t say a thing, I promise you. I don''t want to make big brother sad" said Rongrong. This time Mayi hugged Rongrong and in low voice said "Thank you" Rongrong smiled and permitted the hug. "Good that all finished fine" said dad "We have some matters yet to discuss. You three can leave us alone. Bai, Mayi be aware when you return". Mayi, Rongrong and I exited the room leaving dad and uncle alone. After a farewell with Rongrong we returned to our academy. Chapter 48 - Bai Chenxiang When we arrived at the academy I was surprised seeing all the emperor team, with the exemption of Chenxiang, reunited outside talking. I approached them and asked "Something happened? What are you doing here?" "It''s Yu Feng. Since yesterday he stayed at his room with the door close. He didn''t answer any of us and he didn''t eat anything. We are worried about him. Something may have happened" Yan said. I turned to Lingling "Do you know something? Maybe related with ''his'' circumstances?". Lingling shook her head. "I will try to talk to ''him''" I went toward Chenxian''s room, seeing that I was being followed I turned to them "Don''t follow me, if ''he'' has a problem that didn''t want to be known, it''s more probable that ''he'' talk to me alone". All the others nodded and waited there. Arriving at Chenxiang''s door I nocked it "Chenxiang, something happened? It''s me Bai. Open the door". "Leave! I don''t wanna talk with anyone! Leave me alone" I listened inside the room. I sighed "Everyone have times when they want to be alone. Usually I will respect you, but when it escalated to not even eat. Understand that is for your own good". I manifested my sword at my right hand and I broke the door with two simple slashed. Watching me entering her room she shouted "WTF are you doing Bai?". "Calm down Xiang, it''s not like is the first time I broke a door" I said. Approaching her I could finally see her condition. Her room was completely in the dark without any light on and with the blinds closed. Thanks to the light of the corridor which entered by the previously destroyed door I could see Chenxiang. She really was in bad shape. After months of overworking she couldn''t be considered in top form but now was even worse. Her clothes were dirty her complexion was dry like if someone absorbed the life out of her. And the most significant were her eyes, completely red, surely for long hours of crying that even now tears are threatening to fall and big eye bags from not sleep. I turned serious "Really, what happened, Xiang? Staying here alone crying is not your style. Where is it the cheerful one who tease and bother us at every moment?" Chenxiang started to cry and pointed at her desk. I approached it and took a letter on it. The letter was destined to Chenxiang and was from the academy''s board. Summarizing, eliminating pleasantries and irrelevant facts the letter communicated that Chenxiang was expelled from the academy. The academy found her true identity, as a part of the speed clan, and knew about her incapacity of breaking through over the 38 rank because of her strength choice. That in the actual emperor team and in the academy there wasn''t a place for trash incapable of even arriving at spirit ancestor. "That fu?kers! WTF are they thinking? There are half a year left for the tournament yet, you can broke through and even with you being spirit elder you''re stronger than Osler or every member of the second team" I shouted agryly. "It''s my fault, I''m an idiot. I wanted to be strong. I though that with my talent I could go against fate breaking through rank 38 and becoming the first in my family to have high rank with actual attack capacity" said Chenxiang crying "I''m not strong enough, maybe it was impossible since the start and all that I did was futile" Chenxiang cleaned the tears of her eyes "Bai, I will return to my clan. The Speed Clan has a secret techniques that permit to reset your cultivation, destroying your actual ring enabling to start over again. This time I will focus only in speed" She made a forced smile "I will be the fastest, with my talent I maybe could surpass grandfather and arrive at titled douluo with luck" I approached her and gently hugged her "Calm down Xiang. I promised that I would help you, not only me, you also have Mayi, Lingling and all the emperor team supporting you. You don''t need to feign strength, I''m here for you" Chenxiang couldn''t maintain her forced smile and broke again crying "I don''t want to leave! I want to tease Yan! Fight Osler! Eat with Mayi! Go shopping with Lingling! Laugh at Tianheng! Cultivate with the brothers! Train with you! I really love you all! I don''t want to forget all of you!" She said while weeping. "Even if you leave, nothing will happen. We can continue being friends. Even we could follow you, if that fu?kers didn''t recognize the talent why I need to give them some face" I said trying to cheer her. "You don''t understand. My clan secret technique not only affects the cultivation it will also affect my mind. Forgetting it''s very common" She said "I promised grandfather that if I couldn''t break through before 15 I will return to the clan, but why wait for one more year when it is sure that I won''t accomplish anything. Better forget about it and start a new" "But really. I will always miss you, even if I forget about you, in my interior I will miss you, I promise" she said crying. She approached the windows and opened it. "I can''t bear to see their faces, for them to see in my state. Please, Bai. Say my farewell to them" She said determinate, she activate her spirit appearing metal like wing from her back. She put one feet at the window''s frame, she turned to me "Bye, Bai". Just as she was about to jump I run towards her and held her right hand pushing her inside "Leave me Bai!" she said crying. I became very serious "Xiang. I may have something to help you surpass your block". She blinked at me surprised "I tried everything and didn''t work, leave me Bai. Don''t give me false hopes". I lifted my left hand manifesting my Oreo spirit surrounded by 4 black ring, with one of them a little orange. Chenxiang stopped crying and shocked said "Twin Spirits. You have twin spirits. I know that I would never equal to you, this only make our abyss greater. This change nothing!". "Listen Xiang. This is one of my secrets and I expect you to keep it. My second spirit is a type of food spirit. The important part is that I have an ability that maybe will help you to break through. However, it also can have unknown negative effects in you" I said. "Do you have a skill to make me advance, don''t joke Bai, it''s impossible. We all know how trash are food spirits, only good for great armies when they can produce great numbers" said Chenxiang. "My skill evolved my dad spirit to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda" I told. Chenxiang hang her mouth shocked "Wh-what? Can it evolve spirit? Please Bai, use it on me!" "Before that, the main property is an improve of foundation and growth of spirit power being possible its evolution, however, it''s only for plant and light related spirits" I explained "I don''t know what will be its effects in other kind of spirits. The normal will be to negate the positive effect, becoming trash for them. At worst the influx of light and plant energy may become a poison for you, damaging your spirit or even killing you" "It''s your decision if you want to risk. The truth is that the probability it decant to not eating" I said serious. "I will try, Bai please use your ability. If I care about something like probability, I will never tried to go against fate at the beginning. If there''s a change, it doesn''t matter how tiny is it, of breaking through maintaining my self, I will risk. Even if I die I won''t blame you I will try my hardest" said Chenxiang. I looked at Chenxiang''s eyes, even with traces of hours of cries I could see how resolutely she was. "?Wonder if I gave a Golden Oreo?" I chanted, from my left hand surging and intense light condensing in a brightly Golden Oreo hovering over my hand. "You need to sing that lame phrase?" Chenxiang laughed a little. "If I want the best effects I can''t help it. Eat it quickly, it will only last 15 seconds" I said. Chenxiang took the Golden Oreo and gulped nervous. After a little moment she resoluted enough and ate it. "Do you sense anything different. The best will be for you to cultivate, circulated the new influx of energy around your body" I explained. Chenxiang nodded "I don''t sense anyt... Ahhh!" at the middle of her words she started shouting in pain "My back! It burns!". Her spirit was unconsciously activated, destroying her shirt in the process. Her spirit was shining brightly and from it I sensed I high temperature. So high that even was burning Chenxiang, crisping her previously white skin now with a black-brown burns. "Fuck! It seems there''s a rejection. Keep fighting Xiang!" I encouraged her "I will bring Lingling, so keep it until then, never lose your conscience or it will be the last time you have your eyes open" I run outside shouting "Lingling!". The truth is that I was very tired close to faint due to lack of spirit power even shouting it was difficult for me. After a minute all the Emperor team came when I was arriving to the outside door. "Lingling quickly go to Xiang room, she need your help" I said, too tired to even realize that I used her true name and the female pronoun. Lingling nodded and quickly run to the room. "The other stay here! The less people disturbing her, the better" I turned to Mayi "Please Mayi, can you share some spirit power with me". Mayi without saying anything approached me, kissing me sharing some of her energy. After a minute I was in a good condition again, I rubbed Mayi''s hair "Thanks Mayi". I quickly returned to Chenxiang room. Approaching the room I could listen cries and shouts from Chenxiang surely due to her intense pain, that only made me go faster. Entering the room I could see Lingling with her spirit activated trying to heal without stopping "How is her?" I asked her. "She is in a very bad state. She need to be continuously healed. If a stop more than 5 minute she would die burned alive" Lingling answered. "How much time you can last?" I asked "She needs too much healing, I''m going at full power. With this conditions I won''t last more than 20 minutes" Lingling explained. "Lingling tell me when you are near exhaustion. I could lengthen that time to a little more than an hour" I said. She trusting me nodded "What happened to her. I never see such a violent reaction. It''s like her own body is attacking her. Even if I continue healing her I can''t ?ssure that she will be fine. Her spirit is changing, damaging her physically and mentally. If this continue she might break" "She must endure it. We can only pray that she would be strong enough to resist it. For the how this happened I will explain later, now concentrate in healing her" After 15 minutes of the tortuous trial for Chenxiang, Linling was about to run out of energy I gave her a Double Stuff Oreo. She surprised a little seeing my spirit for the first time but knowing that there were more important thing she made a look of you must explain it later. 1 hour passed. Lingling was exhausted, even if her spirit power recovery thanks to my Oreo her mental power was at her limit, never having healed during so much time. Chenxiang was at her limit she even tried to stop us the healing, pleading for death. Her deterioration finally winning against Lingling healing and burning marks were expanding all around here body with their core as Chenxiang spirit. Her wings were only thin bones, without any feathers. If she would have enough strength to even try to fly, she won''t be capable of. I couldn''t help to tears to fall my eyes seeing the proud girls beside me in that terrible state. "?Wonder if I gave...?" I summoned all my types of Oreos. Even if they were not for this, I need to try anything. With Chenxiang in no state to eat anything I put all the Oreos inside my mouth and masticate them. Then I kissed Chenxiang forcing her to eat the cookies. Even with this her condition didn''t change. Lingling finally couldn''t keep and collapsed exhausted incapable of even invoke her spirit. Without Lingling continue healing the burning expanded quickly all around her body, all her skin was charred, her hair was on fire. In this state she was impossible to recognize. She could die anytime. I couldn''t help to cry and curse fate. At that moment something strange happened, from Chenxiang wings appeared her three spirit rings, yellow, yellow and purple. Some cracks started appearing in them, they where expanding along until finally the rings broke. The spirit power liberated filled all the room, now having a high concentration. Then, Chenxiangr wings'' bones started shining, all the spirit power of the room and surrounding was being absorbed by Chenxiang''s wings. The quantity of energy was so much that a vortex was being created on her back. Her wing started to grow larger, white crystal feathers grew from it. The bright light started moving towards her body until all her body was shining. Little by little her burns were being healed. A pure white, fair skin could be seen. Her hair started to lengthen not stopping until it arrive at her hip height. Now even more brilliant, with a gold color that shined like a precious gem when the sunlight hit it. The vortex on his back started spinning even faster and it expanded forming three different diameter rings. The inner ring condensed quickly shining yellow. After 10 seconds the middle ring also started forming its own spirit ring. This time it condensed showing its new bright purple color. The outer ring continued spinning absorbing more and more spirit power, the suction was so strong that even my spirit energy threatened to leave. I approached Lingling and covered both of us in intent aura stopping the absorption force to affect our spirit energy. The vortex was slowly turning black, with so much strength that it will remember a black hole continued to absorb energy. Just as the vortex absorbed all the energy of its surroundings, it trembled. The previously uniform energy started to move erratically, now more than a ring it seemed more like a wave. The energy was out of control. I completely open my eyes shocked "It''s going to explode!" I shouted. I could see the worried face of Lingling. Chenxiang was still with her eyes closed ignorant of what was happening at her. Even if I could protect Lingling with intent it will be impossible for Chenxiang the core of the energy. "It seems that there''s no other option" I turned to Lingling "Keep it a secret". I opened my left palm facing towards the vortex . From my left arm surged Glut with his dog like form. He opened his mouth, like being a black hole all the uncontrolled spirit energy started being absorbed by his mouth being devoured by Glut. After 2 seconds Glut disappeared with the ring stabilizing, now controlled it started to condense. Because of the energy lost the ring changed his pure black color. Now it only maintained its black colors at the corner, the majority being purple now. Having condensed the three rings, Chenxiang''s spirit withdrew leaving for the first time in more than an hour the room quiet and completely absent of spirit energy. Looking at Chenxiang now. She was completely nude, showing her perfect figure. She grew a little taller, her t?ts grew a size, her face more refined exuding a high womanly charm with her red big lips, tiny nose and high cheeks. I couldn''t help to blush at her sight. I turned to Lingling a little embarrassed "Are you okay, Lingling?" Lingling nodded "Could you see if something is wrong with Xiang?". "I will try, but it will be too rudimentary, I''m too exhausted to do a complete check" Lingling said. "Good enough for now" I said. Lingling approached her. She took of her coat and covered Chenxiang. Then Lingling measured Chenxiang pulse and vital signs. "Physically she is fine, no problem found. Like if the previously experience was a imagination. For her spirit we will need her to wake up" explained Lingling. After 30 minutes Chenxiang finally opened her eyes. Chapter 49 - Chenxiangs changes "Xiang, are you fine?" I asked worried Xiang looked around the now destroyed room, finally, she realized that she was nude only covered by a coat and blushed a lot "Bai, leave the room, now!" she shouted. "Okay, okay. I will be outside, call me when you''re ready" I said leaving the room. After 5 minutes they call me inside. Entering the room I could see that Chenxiang was dressed in her usual blue jacket and blue jeans which were used to hide her gender, however, because of her changes now it was impossible to resemble a boy, the peaks on her ?h?st, her face. Even her now enchanting gold eyes that shined with a characteristic glint. Just as I entered Chenxiang jumped towards me, I caught her into a hug "Thanks, Bai!" she said crying, but this time it was undoubtedly tears of joy. "Are you completely fine?" I asked concerned. She nodded "Yep. I''ve never felt better" she grinned, from her back appeared a pair of wings, they seemed like an angel one, if not for giving a metallic sensation and their complete transparency, only seeing the contour, seemingly a kind of mirage. Surrounding the wings, it could be seen three rings, yellow, purple and purple, the last one with a hint of black showing that it was very close to the 10.000 years old. "I''m now rank 40! I finally broke through!" She said excitedly. "Congratulations, Xiang!" I said. "Sorry for making you go through all that pain" I said a little remorseful. "Bai, it was my decision. I accomplished my long dream, if I could repeat the decision I will accept it again" Chenxiang cheered me. "So? What are the changes? It is easily seen that your spirit changed" I asked. "It transformed. Now it is a Thousand Lights Needle-Tailed Flash. A kind of spirit mutation obtaining light attribute, even with this it keeps its main property which is the speed that it even increased" said Chenxiang smiling. "What about the new spirit rings?" I asked her. "They changed. They are now more focused on speed, however, my attack power also grew. The first one is Light Body that improves my speed 50% plus 1% for every rank that I have. The second is Flash and extremely quick dash, it so fast that it seems like teleportation, the problem is that I can''t change direction. Lastly, my third skill is Light Strike, it converts my speed to power, so the faster I go the stronger will be the attack" Chenxiang excitedly explained. "It seems that you are a true speed system at last. Even with a good attack power. Congratulations Xiang!" I congratulated her. Then she made one round spinning over her "What do you think about me now, Bai?" said Chenxiang charmingly. I blushed a little causing her to giggle "You''re very pretty, a stunning beauty. I don''t think that you could still maintain your facade as a boy" I said. "It doesn''t matter" she said playing with her hair. Then she touched her ?h?st "This is the true me. I made a vow to appear as a boy until a could breakthrough, once I accomplish it I will start to live as the one that I truly am. I don''t gonna hide again, I''m proud of being from my clan. So, for now, please, feel free to always call me Xiang" Chenxiang smiled. Then Chenxiang jumped towards me, even so, I caught her in a hug both of us were thrown to the floor. "Thanks, Bai! You made my dream true! I don''t know can I return this favor. Anytime that you need help don''t doubt to tell me, I would help you with all my strength" She happily said with some tears of joy. Just at that moment, Mayi entered the room. Seeing our easily misinterpreted position she froze. Then she started trembling, clenching her fist. She made a death glaze at Chenxiang and activated her spirit manifesting her armor. "Calm down, Mai! She is..." I tried to explain too late, Mayi didn''t wait to listen to me and charged toward Chenxiang at full power. As her punch was approaching Chenxiang activated her spirit showing her beautiful wing, at the same time her purple ring started to shine and just about Mayi''s hit was about to connect she disappeared leaving only light particles. With our position of Chenxian over me, the punch losing its previous objective it went towards me. I cross my arm infusing all the defense intent that I could, prepared for the strike. Mayi hit my arms with so much force that the floor couldn''t keep it. The cracks expanded forming a hole in the floor. I and Mayi fell to the next floor where I could finally stop her attack. "Bai, traitor!" said Mayi with teary eyes. Then she turned to the hole to the next floor "I will kill this bitch!". Just before she was about to jump I caught her arm stopping her "Calm down! She is Chenxiang! She was only a little excited, it was a friendly hug" I tried to reassure Mayi that nothing happened. "So, nothing happened? You still love me?" asked Mayi expectantly, I nodded a little scared causing her to smile "Sorry, Bai. But better not be intimate with any girl" I stood up and both of us returned to the top floor with a light jump. Chenxiang was at a corner "Calm down, Mayi. I didn''t do anything to Bai" said Chenxiang still a little scared. "I know. Bai explained Sorry to don''t recognize you, Chenxiang" said Mayi. She turned to me "So... What happened? You told to stay aside. I only came because I feel and instinct of you being attacked" she said doing from an instant a death glare to Chenxiang. "I obtained a new ability that improves the foundation of light and plant spirits. We tried in Xiang, to try if she could breakthrough. The reaction was so strong that she almost died. Finally, thanks to Lingling healing and my ability Xiang resisted enough to transform her spirit from the wind element to a light element breaking through in the process" I explained. "Congratulations, Chenxiang! You finally could cultivate without worry, now you would keep the team level" Mayi said. At this moment from the destroyed door came the other team members "Can we enter? Mayi shot towards here, I don''t know if we may molest" said Osler. "All is good now, you can enter" I said. "What the fu?k did you do here!? The door is destroyed, a big hole at the center of the floor and all the furniture is crashed toward the wall, all of them with burning marks" asked Yan. "It''s my fault, sorry. But it is not like it is the first time we made a little wreck" answered Chenxiang. "Who is the beauty?" asked Osler pointing at Chenxiang. "Oh, pitiful me. For you to not remember this pretty me" said Chenxiang with fake tears. "Yu Feng!" shouted Osler "Woah, you really changed. I have already known that you were a girl but I never imagined you to be so beautiful" All the other team members were confused "Was Feng always a girl?" asked Yan shocked. "Oh? You never know it. Spending time with her is was kind of obvious. I didn''t say anything, waiting for her to start" said Osler. "Okay, so Feng is a girl. Could you explain what happened here and your changes?" Yan asked. Chenxiang bowed "Sorry for lying to all of you. My true name is Bai Chenxiang. As you may have guessed I am part of the Speed Clan. With my strength-oriented ring configuration I was blocked at rank 38 impossible to breakthrough due to the limitation of my clan spirit, only being possible to go for speed" She explained "Bai gifted me some special and unique treasure to help me breakthrough, even to arrive at rank 40" She spun around "This is the result. In the process, I had a very violent reaction and destroyed the room a little" Chenxiang pointed the door and then the hole "For the door, the culprit is Bai when entered and the hole it was now made by Mayi" "You can finally follow us, congratulations Fe-... Chenxiang, congratulations Chenxiang!" said Tianheng. "What are you going to do now, Xiang?" I asked seriously. "I''m gonna leave the academy" said calmly Chenxiang. "WHAT! Just as you finally breakthrough you want to leave, why?" asked surprised Yan. "The academy''s board plus the supervisor expelled me. They discovered my true identity and my condition" explained Chenxiang. "But you can stay. You''re arrived a rank 40 with 13 years, I true genius! It will easy to convince the academy to accept you again" said Yan. Chenxiang shook her head "No. I will quit the academy. They never trust me, always despising me for not being noble, they only accepted for my talent and when they found a fault they quickly expelled. I will show them my power! I will you all the world the power of the Speed Clan! I will make them regret expelling me!" Chenxiang said with conviction. "Xiang, I''m with you. The only salvation of the academy is the principal, the board is completely rotten, only looking at your nobility, not the talent or effort. They not only expelled you, they even expelled my sister and her friend" I looked at Chenxiang eyes "I will go with you". "Me too!" said Mayi. Lingling nodded. "I don''t know how I will explain to grandfather but I will join you" said Yan "We are a team, we will be together" said Tianheng The Shi brothers nodded. Chenxiang smiled brightly even she cried in joy "Thanks guys!" but after a second shook her head "But no. If you leave the academy you won''t be able to participate in the Continental Tournament, they surely will ban you for leaving, in my case, there''s no problem because I was expelled. I don''t want you to lose this opportunity. Moreover, I want for the academy to regret me leaving the academy due to my own power, not because the academy lost all of you" "I will join another academy, surely any other will accept me. In the future we will fight against" said Chenxiang smiling "Please don''t lose too badly against me" she teased us. I smiled at her "If it''s your decision I will accept it and I imagine the others so". All the other members nodded. "Good luck, Xiang!" I said lifting my hand. She smiled and rejected my hand hitting it, then she hugged me "Thanks!". Mayi puffed her cheeks and separated us, she turned to Chenxiang and said "Good luck" with a little frown. After Mayi, all the other members gave their encouragement. "Before you leave we must do a farewell party!" said Osler. "This night party!" I shouted "Let''s have three days free of training to celebrate" "Uooooooh!" All shouted excited. Chapter 50 - Farewell, Chenxiang At night we all reunited together in the dining room. The Shi brothers brought the food. Being a party for Chenxiang the food was not the usual ''noble'' food, it was more of the commoner type. Dumplings, ramen, chicken wings, hamburgers... Knowing how much Chenxiang and Mayi could eat the amount was incredible. Osler and Tianheng brought a lot of drinks from juices and water to alcoholic drinks like wine, beer, ale... With all gathered, we started the party. We started eating and drinking lightly, happily conversing, laughing, dancing even we convinced the Shi brother to sing a song and to the surprise of all, they really had talent, a potent soprano voice. "Hahaha! If the spirit master path goes wrong you could always live like singers" giggled Chenxiang angering the brother who stopped talking. Having completely finished all the food, deed that seemed impossible with the huge amount. But with two black hole named Chenxiang and Mayi, all it''s possible! I served one glass of beer to everyone and lift it. "For Chenxiang for breaking through. I wish you the best in your next adventure, cheers!" I made a toast. All lifted their glass shouting ""Cheers!!"" and drink of it. "Maybe is not a good idea to let the children drink more. I''m talking about you Chenxiang and Mayi, Your 14 and 13 respectively, too young to drink" said Tianheng. "Yeah, maybe it is better to let the babies return to their beds early, if not they may wake up badly, hahaha!" teased Osler. "Muuu, Mayi is big enough!" said Mayi pouting. "If you could, how can this pretty me not. I bet that I could drink more than you!" challenged Chenxiang. "Oh, bring it on!" answered Osler. They both started drinking. All of us were shocked by how heavy drinker was Chenxiang who never drink alcohol before. Osler couldn''t keep her rate, collapsing after the eight glass. "Hahaha! Who is the little baby now" "It seems that is not only your hunger that is insatiable, your such a heavy drinker. You should be more lady-like" said Yan while drinking a glass of wine with elegance. "Who cares about manners? We are between friends. Go crazy for once Yan!" said Chenxiang who was a little drunk. Then she forced Yan to drink. All of us had a lot of laughs and started drinking like there weren''t a tomorrow. This night we knew what kind of drunken we were. Mayi after only one cup was completely drunk having low alcohol resistant. She happily started dancing around destroying all. The happy type? With a lot of insensitivity of her acts. She kept until she fell asleep. Lingling started to argue with all, trying us to force us to not dirt, keep low the noise... That night we nicknamed her mother. Yan forgot every manner and started flirt with everyone, even the girls. Tianheng should control her drinking if he didn''t want anyone to touch her girl. Tianheng was the sad type. He started lamenting how weak he was, crying calling her uncle to return. The Shi brothers changed 180o they became very talkative, the sang again, finally we need to gag their mouth to shut them, they were too tiring! Osler when he recuperated a little after his bout with Chenxiang he started to challenge everyone to fight, so the fighting type. He quickly returned to sleep being hit by Mayi. Chenxiang seemed to tolerate too well the alcohol and her behavior changed little with only a happy mood around her. After hours celebrating all of us fall asleep. I woke up, looking through the window it was night yet, so too early to wake up. I looked around and could see everyone laying at the floor soundly sleeping, all of them except Chenxiang. I was a little light-headed, with alcohol in my system, so I decided to a quick walk at night, thinking that the cool night breeze will help. Exiting the building I found Chenxiang, she was outside looking up the moon, her back facing me. Realizing my presence Chenxiang turned around to see me. Her figure plus the moonlight made a perfect figure that I couldn''t help to stare mesmerized by her beauty. She smiled at me charmingly and approached me. She threw herself to me, leaning at my ?h?st. She looked at my eyes. I could see her beautiful eyes like shined brightly like gold. "I love you" She softly said "Since the first time we started training I always liked you. Now, at last, I could be myself I''m not scared to say that I love you, Bai!" she said convinced "I know that you love Mayi, but you know? I won''t lose" Then, she approached her face to mine, she closed her eyes and her lips made contact with mine. I could sense her full, wet and soft lip touching mine. Her tongue entered my mouth and started playing, with being her first time is was a little unskillful. I on instinct reacted with my tongue, more proficient thanks to Mayi. I played with her., making her even m??n. After some time she separated from me. She su?k?d her lips seductively and smiled brightly at me. Then she returned to the building only saying "Good night, Bai". I stayed completely still there. My heart was beating like crazy, sensing some kind of pressing at my heart. I didn''t know if it was that I really loved Chenxiang, the alcohol affecting me or both. One thing I was sure if Mayi learns about it Chenxiang and I are dead. I trembled. At last, I slept there, outside under the moon. The next day I was approached by Mayi "Wake up, Bai. It''s not good to sleep outside. You could catch a cold" she said "And we are at noon already". Not reacting Mayi shouted "Wake up!" her voice was like a drill penetrating my brain, it was like my head was going to explode. "Fuck hangover!" I said "I''m awake, you can stop shouting, Mayi". She giggled "Chenxiang is going to leave now, so we must go to say goodbye". "Okay, I will take a quick shower and change my clothes" I said. "There''s no time!" Mayi said dragging me to the academy entrance. At the entrance, there were all the team Emperor members, including Chenxiang. She was dressed in a very girly blue sky dress with a low skirt with a matching blue hat. She also had a big suitcase with her. I approached. Chenxiang looking at me smiling "I saw you better, Bai. It makes me a little sad that you didn''t tidy up even to my farewell" She said smiling with fake tears. "I was dragged here by Mayi, I didn''t have any other option" I looked at her "And seeing how prepared you are it seems that I must thank her. If not, you may leave without my goodbye" She said goodbye to everyone kindly with some teary eyes, hugging all of them even Mayi. Seeing her acting like normal I thought that maybe she didn''t remember yesterday and it was merely an act of the alcohol. When it was my turn, Chenxiang approached me and hugged me tightly "I will really miss you, Bai" she stood tiptoe approaching her moth to my eyes and said in a light voice only for me to listen "I will fight for you". She separated from me leaving me with a shocked face. She giggled and left running. After 20 meters she turned around waving her left hand "Goodbye! I ''m really gonna miss you all". Then she manifested her spirit and flew away. We stayed there watching until her figure disappeared in the horizon. Mayi then turned to me "What did she say to you?" I remembered yesterday events and felt a little guilt with Mayi, however, I kept my calm knowing how observant she could be "Nothing important, thanking for all" She didn''t seem to believe but let it pass. She glances at the sky at the direction which Chenxiang left and said for herself "I preferred Yu Feng, Bai Chenxiang is dangerous. I must protect Bai". Then we returned to the academy. Too many things to think about, I decided to rest for the promised 3 days without training and took it easy Chapter 51 - Xie Lingling After Chenxiang left I returned to the dormitory to continue my sleep. When I woke up again it was afternoon. I left my room. Outside Lingling was waiting for me. "I''m not like the air-headed Chenxiang, I don''t forget. You have a lot of things to explain" said Lingling. I sighed, then I signaled for her to come to my room. When we were inside I asked "So. What do you want to know?" "First. What did you do to Chenxiang? Her spirit evolution was not normal, it''s like a complete change even transforming the main element" She asked with her typical expressionless face. "Okay, to explain that I will show you this first" I lift my left hand summoning my Oreo spirit surrounded by its 4 black rings, with one of them a tinge of orange. "Twin spirit" Lingling said. I scratched my head "Yeah. I have twin spirit. The second one being a food type. My fourth skill was obtained with a Beautiful Silk Tulip, it''s..." "An immortal treasure!" Interjected Lingling surprised. "Oh! You know about it" I said surprised. "Of course. My clan is specialized in plant spirits. I have a vast knowledge of plants. There''s a secret library where there''s an explanation of how potent and rare are the immortal treasure, condensation of heaven and earth energy, improving your foundation with an additional boost of cultivation and in some cases even evolution. My clan is always trying to find one to" she explained. "Woah! You really know your stuff. Summarizing, my fourth skill had a similar effect, with certain limitations, like limited use or less potency" I said. Lingling made a strange face "And all the pain that Chenxiang went through, almost dying in the process" I shook my hands "No, no! This was an abnormal case. What do you think will happen when you inject forcefully a concentration of one type of energy to one spirit of another energy" "You have a rejection!" She realized "How could you try that, Bai? She is only alive for pure luck" Lingling reprimanded me. "I know! I never thought of using this ability on her. It was a kind of wager, she was about to leave and I couldn''t see that death look in her eyes. I needed to do something and she accepts it, knowing what could happen" I explained. She nodded "She was at her limit" she said in low voice. Then she looked at me with shining eyes "I have a plant spirit, so...? Will you use this ability on me?" she asked expectantly. I was a little shocked seeing her reaction, but I quickly laughed "Hahaha". "Don''t laugh at me, Bai" she said returning to her cool self. "Sorry, I couldn''t help to be amused. It was the first time I see you wanting something so eagerly" I apologized "Don''t worry, we are friends and I trust you. I was thinking about using the ability on you" "Great!" She joyful said, contrary with her usual character "Use it now, Bai" "Wow, I never see you so eager maybe I should wait" I teased her. She calmed down bowed to me "Mister Ning, could you honor this lowly me, making use of your ability. You will have the eternal gratitude of me and my clan" "Shut the crap, Lingling!" I shouted at her. She giggled a little "I thought that you will prefer a polite request". "When has it mattered to me the crap of manner?" I said, she smiled "Okay, you win, good joke". I lifted my left hand "?Wonder if I gave a Golden Oreo?" I chanted, appearing the usual concentration of light forming a brightly Golden Oreo. I gave it to Lingling "Eat it quickly, only last 15 seconds" I warned. Lingling quickly ate it, she fully opened her eyes shocked. Then she sat down, closed her eyes and started cultivating. In contrast to Chenxiang, it seems that all went smooth After 4 hours of cultivation, she finally opened her eyes. Despite being little change compared with Chenxiang, Lingling experimented some. Her hair became a different kind of blue now with a tint of light green color, her eyes matching this glow. Her body was surrounded by warm green light, only being near it I could sense my vitality improving. Her face facial expression soften, she no longer seemed an expressionless doll sculpted of ice. She kept her beauty but now the previously cold aura that made her unapproachable, changed to a warmly one that invited to approach her. When she turned to me she kindly said "Thanks, Bai" Even her voice turned more melodic completely changing her previously empty one. Just as this her green aura disappeared and with it awoke up from my stupor. Even without her green aura her warmly expression maintained. "All went well, Lingling?" I asked. She smiled warmly seeming to illuminate the room "It couldn''t go better" She opened both of her arms invoking her spirit, a pretty white-pink flower appeared surrounded by ten stamps like branches of green color. The previously green aura manifested again, this time even stronger, filling the room with a nature scene of grass, flowers... full of vitality. "Look" Lingling smile became bigger. Then, the green aura expanded through all the room, I could see green particles floating around, all my fatigue disappearing. "Domain! You obtained a domain!" I said shocked. Lingling nodded "This domain is an aura healing type, it will heal the people inside, with an improved effect of my own healing" She frowned a little "The problem is that is impossible to control, I will heal all the people without difference friends or foes" "Even with this is really great, there''s any other improvement?" I asked. She nodded happily "My rank increased 5, I am now rank 47" She grinned "Also my spirit evolved now is the Ten Heart Flowering Apple. It''s truly the legendary spirit of my ancestor" "Legendary? I never heard about it" I said. "You know that only one every generation can have the Nine Heart Flowering Apple" I nodded "There''s a legend passed in my clan, this all started with the founder who created our clan. It was a long time ago so we only know that her name was Ming. She had a simple Apple spirit, and not so great talent, but she put a lot of effort, always trying to improve the lives of the people around, healing them and feeding them. Her mediocrity changed when she found a Fruit of Life a kind of immortal treasure" Lingling explained. "After that, her spirit bloomed changing to the Ten Heart Flowering Apple, and her talent boosted, easily arriving at titled douluo. According to the legend, her healing was so strong that could even revive the dead, if haven''t passed enough time" She said. "The legend says that she formed the clan for the sake of healing people and that she didn''t want any fight. After some time she disappeared without any trace. However, before she left she condensed her power in an apple form and gave to her long friend, that would become the second clan master." "Her friend spirit transformed becoming a degraded version of the ancestor the Nine Heart Flowering Apple. It is said that that apple was so powerful that even now its power remains. Passing the complete power to the next generation. This can only be passed to one person and even when passing it over, its effects last" "This is considered the reason why there''s only one Nine Heart Flowering Apple for generation, always in the main family. If we believe in the legend, I am now the owner of that Apple. So it will pass to the next generation. However, now that my spirit evolved, maybe I could create another Apple increasing the number of Nine Heart Flowering Apple spirit of my clan" She finished her tale. She bowed to me "Thank you very much, Bai. I and all my clan are in debt with you. I will repay you in the future". "What are friends for? Don''t worry too much. You helped me enough all these years of continued healing" "It''s not close enough!" She shouted. She sighed " For a start, don''t think I forgot about the dog. But I won''t ask any more secrets from you. I told you my clan secret, as a first repayment I will permit you to keep your secrets" she said smiling. I sighed in relive "Thanks, Lingling" She nodded smiling "Please call me Little Li" I made a strange face "What?" I said dumbfounded, I rubbed my hair "At least we have the same age. If it makes you happy, Little Li" She smiled brightly "Great, I will call you Little White" "How can be both be little" I retorted "Can it be negotiated?" She shook her head and giggled "Nop! You are Little White" "If there''s no other choice" I accepted reluctantly. Then Lingling turned serious "I will return to my clan to inform them" she paused "Don''t worry, in two weeks you will recuperate your healing machine, even updated!" she giggled. "Don''t say as I use you as an object. You are an irreplaceable part of the team. Take care, Little Li". She nodded and hugged me warmly, it remembered my mother embrace when I was little. "Tell the other about, and they don''t have to worry". We broke the hug and she left the room saying "See you later, Little White!". When I was alone "It seems that now only I and Qinghe are missing" I said to myself. Then my stomach growled, remembering that almost one day passed without eating I went to the dining room to find something to eat. Chapter 52 - Me and Qinghe The next day all the remained members, we reunited at breakfast. When I entered the room there was some gloomy aura "Still down?" I asked. "It''s only now that we don''t have Fen-Chenxiang that I really miss her. She really makes every time more lively" said Osler. "Try to enjoy the new silence. Her behavior was always unbecoming for us" Yan said drinking a tea, but couldn''t completely hide a sad tone. "Don''t think too much about her, it''s not like we will never see again" said Tianheng "Talking about other things. Anyone of you knows where''s Lingling? It''s strange for her to arrive late" "Oh yeah. Lingling returned to her clan due to some improvement in her spirit. She said that she will return in two weeks, no need for us to worry" I explained. "Do you know exactly the reason, Bai?" Asked Yan. "You will find sooner or later so I will explain. Her spirit evolved to a spirit that it was legendary for her clan, so she went to inform of her new spirit" I explained. Yan frowned "I hope that all go well, if not maybe she will be forced to stay at her clan. It''s big news when a spirit evolves especially one so powerful. It is like if your clan Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda evolved to the Nine Pagoda" I spat my drink shocked. Yan looked at me strangely, but continue "it will be big news and your clan will retain the responsibility to know if it can be replicated" "Wait a moment the Nine Pagoda is secret, how can you know about it, Yan?" I asked. "I explained to her, sorry Bai" said Tianheng. "This didn''t explain anything!" I shouted a little pissed "How do you know about?" "My uncle explained to me when I was young about the top spirit. Following his words, It''s kind of obvious that the Seven Pagoda spirit is limited to spirit sage cultivation a don''t know can they still consider a secret after so many generations without anyone, no matter the talent arriving at douluo spirit. Seven layers, seven rings, Seven Pagoda, so if the achieve an evolution of their spirit it will be nine layers, nine rings, Nine Pagoda" Tianheng explained. "Yeah, common sense" said Yan. "Another secret revealed by Grandmaster" I sighed. At that moment Mayi hugged my arm "I like this tranquility and absence of loud flies" she then looked at Yan and Tianheng "Yan is safe" she smiled. I finished my breakfast "I''m finished. Today I will have special training with Mayi. Please, don''t disturb us" I left taking Mayi''s hand to our room. When we arrived I said "Mayi, do you know what caused Chenxiang mutation?" Mayi shook her head. "I obtained a 4th ring for my Oreo Spirit, this ability improves the foundation and spirit power of light and plant spirit. It can only be used 10 times and I had already used 3 times, in Chenxiang, Linling, and dad. This ability also use all my spirit power, no matter how much I have left" I explained "I want to use it in myself. But due to the lack of spirit power, I couldn''t really use it well, so I asked you that will give me your spirit power after I used the ability. I will first circulate the energy alone, making it mine, once I accomplished that we will double cultivated" I said. "Okay, Bai" said Mayi "Could I try it later? I want to taste your new sweet" "Sorry, Mayi. But this is kind of strange one, if your spirit is not light or plant-based there will be a huge rejection, maybe even dying. Chenxiang survived only by sheer luck" I said. She puffed her cheeks, a little annoyed at not being able to try it. "?Wonder if I gave a Golden Oreo?" I chanted invoking a Golden Oreo and I ate it. Then I approached Mayi and kissed her. She gave me her spirit energy, I was very cautious to make the exchange only one-sided in fright of some energy of the Golden Oreo enter her body. After 1 minute of kissing, I had enough spirit energy and we separated "Sweet!" Mayi said with a seductive voice ???k?n? her lips. I sat in lotus position and started to cultivated, circulating the new pure energy that entered my body. I sensed light green particles inside my body, with every circulation they became more whiter decanting toward the light element of it, discarding the plant element. After 2 hours of cultivation, I could finally make mind the new energy, now with my attributes, I was sure that it won''t injure Mayi. I opened my eyes, just beside me, Mayi was observing me very attentively. I embraced her and took her to bed. There I kiss her and we started to double cultivated. Our energy circulating around both of us, this time a permit my spirit to use it, increasing its quality benefiting with its high purity, little by little, revitalizing my spirit improving it. When we finished it was already dusk. We separated, Mayi''s sweet scene still engraved in my lips. "How do you feel, Mayi?" I asked. She smiled happily "Great! My rank went up by 3, now being rank 49. Also, my vitality increased a little" I nodded "The same for me, I also arrived at rank 49. Moreover, my spirit improved. It can now share the energy absorbed, however, it would only be 30% of mine so the support is no near even to a normal Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda" I sighed "As dad and Rongrong evolved increasing their support capability I expected mine to improve its absorption or power. Maybe my effects are low because Glut as my spirit already eat a Beautiful Silk Tulip in bad state gaining for me some kind of resistance" I resigned "Better than nothing" "Today we have a free day let''s go on a date" I proposed. "Yes!" Mayi agreed, eagerly jumping hugging my arm. After that we went to a little walk to the town, passing the day together. We expend two weeks consolidating our new ranks, truly arriving at the 49 rank. Today I arranged a meeting with Qinghe. As Mayi didn''t like it very much I decided to go alone even if it will be better to have her to quickly recuperate. Arriving at the palace the guards let me easily pass. Even without showing them Qinghe''s coin, they saw me enough times to remember me, also, they were probably warned of my visit beforehand. Entering Qinghe''s office. He greeted me "Hey, Bai! Long-time no seeing you. Do you have a complicated month?" "Hi, Qinghe" I greeted him "Yeah this month was a little chaotic, some important thing happened, add the usual training and family matters that made impossible to have a lot of freedom these days" "Welcome to the life of important people, Bai. I, as crown prince, have a lot of responsibilities, spending a lot of my time. In the future if you become your clan head, these chaotic days will become your everyday life" said Qinghe. I laughed "I won''t be my clan head" this surprised Qinghe "I will push the position to my sister. She is more capable. It will be estranged to have me as a head of a support clan, Rongrong will be better" I thought a little "Thanks for giving more reasons to not be. But I''ll need to support a little Rongrong in the future" "I thought that you would be, teacher explained that he is instructing you, teaching how the clan''s matters go" said Qinghe. "Nah, dad is only teaching me some common sense for the high society" I paused a moment. "Lately, dad is trying to teach me more thoroughly, and I never heard anything about him even talking too much with Rongrong" I said thoughtful "Fuck! He is grooming me to be the next clan head! That manipulator old man!" I cursed. Qinghe started laughing receiving my death stare "Sorry, Bai. I couldn''t help it" He apologized "Typical of teacher if I can say it. To slowly influence for the future. He always talks about how proud of you he is and that you will follow his steps" I made a sad face "I don''t want to be like dad, always with a mask in his faces, attend to all the surroundings, full of paperwork. If I must choose I will prefer to be like mum, at most she only stays at the clan protecting for usually nothing, only focusing on her training" Qinghe made a solemnly face "Sometimes the choices are made by others, and we don''t have any other options to follow it" "As a crown prince you have it rough" I said. "Yeah, as a crown prince" he said sadly. Then he returned to her usual face "In the future tell me how to go your conversation with teacher. Let''s change the conversation" He turned serious "Why do you want to meet me? It''s strange for you to notify in advance, moreover, you said to make all my day free. I doubt that it''s only for light talk. Not that I''m saying I don''t like our meetings" "Oh? Yeah. First of all, you must promise me that anything that I will explain and happen today will be informed to anyone, even your father the emperor" I said seriously. He hit his left ?h?st with his right punch and lowered her head a little "On the honor of Heaven Dou''s royalty I promised to keep it a secret" he did the typical vow of the royal family. I smiled. I lifted my left hand invoking my Oreo spirit with his 4 rings. Chapter 53 - Qinghes wings "Twin spirit!" Qinghe shouted shocked and I don''t know why I could detect some trace of fury. He calmed down "You have twin spirits. You''re truly a genius, Bai" "Don''t think too much of it. It''s only a food spirit, so not really useful in real battle" I said. "In that case, it won''t be better if you started with this spirit and then start absorbing rings with your sword" Qinghe said. "If your talking of pure strength you may be right. But a food spirit doesn''t boost your constitution, starting with the sword permit me to take the most advantage of the increase in strength as I grow. Improving my foundation, it''s better than a quick boost later on. Moreover, I cultivated the way of the sword, being easier as my sword improves" I explained. "Makes sense" said Qinghe "Why did you tell me of your second spirit? It won''t be to show off, no?" he teased. "Of course not! Your one of my best friends, also my first one. I trust you so I will use my spirit in you" I said "What can help a food spirit?" He asked. "My fourth skill is a little peculiar. It was obtained by absorbing an immortal herb. The skill shows some of the effects that will be obtained eating the original herb" I said. "What was the immortal herb?" Qinghe asked. "It was a Beautiful Silk Tulip, this herb absorbed pure heaven and earth energy. Eating it you will have a boost in strength and foundation. However, this is only true for light and plant spirit, for others might be poison" I explained. "So you thought of me? My spirit is light-based, but it is one of the strongest one so I don''t think the change will be very notable" He said "Thanks anyway for thinking in me. I''m glad that you trust in me for this and tell me some of your secrets" "You will know later in the tournament so I will tell you now. What if I said this herb was the cause for my sister''s spirit evolution to the legendary Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda" I grinned. Qinghe was completely shocked by the news "Please, Bai let me use your skill. I will trust your judgment better from now on" "Okay. I decided to use you anyway. ?Wonder if I gave a Golden Oreo?" I chanted invoking a Golden Oreo "You must eat it quickly it onl..." Before I could finish the sentence Qinghe already took the Oreo in his eyes I could see and hungry look. He ate it quickly. "Wow, too fast. Now, you should start to cultivate" I said. His blue eyes started glowing, from his back appeared a golden swan that quickly morphed in a humanoid figure. It was like a golden woman wearing golden clothes, with three pairs of wings with a powerful golden aura that exuded dignity. It had great pressure showing to be a top spirit. At that moment the figure positioned in a fetal position, using her wings as a cover, with her eyes closed. Just as the figure opened its eyes a big expansive wave occurred. A light explosion came towards me. I quickly invoked my sword, covering in protection intent, I protected from the explosion swinging my sword creating a shield with aura. The shield b?r?ly withstood, even with the shield I was pushed crashing at the nearest wall. I stood once again and looked toward Qinghe. He seemed completely fine, the only difference being that he had three pairs of wings at his back. The figure on her back manifested some changes. It grew two pairs more of wings, now 5 in total. Moreover, the aura surrounding it grew stronger. "What was that?!" I shouted shocked. Qinghe made a doubtful face, but finally, he answered "It seems that my spirit evolved". He bowed 90o "Please, Bai. Don''t tell this to anyone. I can ?ssure that I will keep your secret. But you have to promise me don''t tell anyone about today. Don''t try to find about, keep my most important secret" he supplicated. I helped him to lift his head "Everyone has your secrets, I will trust you this time and I won''t inquire in this matter, don''t worry" He hugged me, he had some teary eyes, I don''t know if they were for happiness or sadness "Thanks, Bai. I promise to help you in the future. What you did today it''s very important for me. If you want something, you only need to ask. Even if you ask for a spirit bone, I should use all my resources to obtain one for you" I was a little mesmerized by his good smell, and the radiance that he emitted, but I quickly calmed and said "I won''t ask for something so outrageous, but if in the future I find in a pinch I expect you to help me" "Of course!" he agreed "I promised on my spirit and clan to help you". This time even though he didn''t do the usual promise of Heaven Dou''s royalty I could sense his truthfulness. "Bai, if you excuse me. I have a lot of matter to sort. Sorry for it, but could you leave now? Let''s meet another time soon" he apologized, seeming truly regretful. "Yeah, you must stabilize your changes. We will talk later. Take care, Qinghe" I said leaving the room. "Yo too, Bai. Goodbye" Qinghe said. Leaving the palace I said to myself "It''s strange how quickly it went the changes, usually you need to cultivate to obtain some results. There''s also the fact of the swan becoming that figure" I shook my head "I promised not to meddle in this, I will trust him and wait for him to explain" thinking that I returned to the academy. The next day Lingling returned, all the other members were really surprised seeing her changes, especially her character ones, seeming more animated and talkative. We celebrated a party for her return, all glad that her family permit her to return and her advances. In the next two months, I focused on two things, the first one being cultivating to arrive at rank 50, the second was trying to fight with two swords style. If I told the truth I don''t have any talent, I were stronger using only one sword, my left hand never being too skilled, it couldn''t keep with my right. I decided to let it for the future and only use the spirit bone in punctual occasion. I also met Qinghe again. He explained his changes, an evolution of his spirit, increasing his strength a lot. But, strangely his spirit power didn''t increase, it was as if all the energy went to the spirit without any circulation around his body, improving the spirit, but not his cultivation. Mayi and I finally arrived rank 50, we decided to go to Star Dou Forest and search for my 5th spirit and like the last one, absorb it with Mayi, while she also would create her own. This time I didn''t decide what I want for my 5th skill, so it will depend on what we can find compatible. In this way it will be easier to find one, broadening my options. Mayi and I arrived at the entrance of Star Dou Forest, this time we were not permitted to go alone so we were followed by mum. "Seeing what happened last time, you can expect that we let you go alone. No argument valid!" were the textual words of dad. So here we are walking towards the inner, area mum taking any opportunity to hug me and Mayi saying how happy she was to be able to join us. "Finally, they permitted me to leave the clan. I was tired of staying always there. I don''t know why Bone couldn''t stay normally" mum said, then embraced Mayi and me in a tight hug "Mum time with her little children" I resigned to our fate, and let mum do whatever she wanted on this trip. The truth is that she was very stressed staying at the clan. In Mayi''s case, she was afraid of her ''master'' to do anything. "Bai, what kind of spirit are you searching this time?" asked mum. "I don''t know, one to improve my power, around 50.000 years or so. But I''m not decisive in one" I answered. Mum puffed her ?h?st "You can trust your mum! I will find you the best spirit". Just as we arrived at the inner area I sensed something strange from my left arm. I invoked my external spirit bone, White Dragon Sword. It was vibrating and I have the sensation that it was guiding me in some direction. "Bai, hurry to notify Bone to come here. We will need to escape" mum said very serious. She then invoked her Fire Volcano Sword. Then we were pushed away more than 500 m by her pressure that she controlled to cushion us"Hurry!" she shouted. I broke uncle Bone''s pagoda notifying him to come. At this moment I could listen to some clashes between swords, with some trees flying. Two swordsman fighting, their power so strong that even the air vibrated. Even at that distance, I could move by their pressure. Just at that time uncle Bone came with one of his black holes. He seemed shocked. Looking at the surrounding he dragged Mayi and I throwing us towards his black hole. We appeared in a room at the clan. I stayed there feeling impotent, only being able to pray for mum and uncle''s well being. Chapter 54 - Versus Hei Qi -Ning Xiangxie POV- Finally, I could leave that stupid jail called the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan. After lots of complaints, I finally convinced Zhi to follow little Bai to her spirit ring hunt. After in his last travel to Star Dou Forest he angered one of its king, the Dragon Swordsmaster Hei Qi. So this time we wouldn''t let him go alone. After a big argument and a little spar with Bone which I won. I was selected to look out Little Bai and her girlfriend Mayi. I dressed with one of my best soft armors. I have to find them at their academy. I was so happy to finally leave the clan that I rejected the idea of a carriage and decided to fly there, I''m faster than any transport anyway. When I arrived at their academy, Mayi and Bai were waiting for me holding their hands (How can they be so cute?) When I informed them that I will take both flying they seemed very happy, never stopping trembling. If only Rongrong was here I couldn''t be happier. After 2 hours and a negligible quantity of spirit power burned, we arrived at our destination, Star Duo Forest. Passing through the outer and middle areas was like a camp trip, no spirit beast was stupid enough to try to approach a titled douluo. While walking I asked "Bai, what kind of spirit are you searching this time?" "I don''t know, one to improve my power, around 50.000 years or so. But I haven''t decided one yet" Bai answered. (My little Bai is a genius, so young and he can absorb 50.000! He had a really strange configuration so I really don''t have any idea what will be good for him. As he has a lot of different elements, his next one must be of another one to maintain equilibrium. It doesn''t matter! I''ll just hunt whatever I find and let him choose) I thought. I puffed my ?h?st "You can trust your mum! I will find you the best spirit" We continued walking until we arrived at the inner area. Just as we step in it, I noticed Bai doing some strange face, then he invoked his external spirit bone, a crude completely white sword. The sword was trembling. At that moment, that sword made me very shocked, from it I could sense a tint of sword power even superior to mine, I having arrived at the All Sword Realm. Not even a second passed, I noticed a similar force coming from inside the forest. Without any moment to lose, I shouted at Bai very serious "Bai, hurry to notify Bone to come here. We will need to escape" The force was approaching, I invoked my Fire Volcano Sword, using hot air plus spirit pressure I pushed Bai and Mayi away, carefully enough to cushion their fall, and shouted at Bai "Hurry!" If my instinct is right something dangerous is approaching, I must protect the children. From more than a kilometer away from a black projectile shot. Its objective was not myself, it was Bai. "Like hell, I''ll let you!" I turned my sword in the projectile trajectory <8th skill: Inferno Slash>. A concentrated heat slash shot from my sword, scorching and transforming the earth under it to lava. The slash collided with the projectile changing its directions. I finally could see what was the projectile, it was a black blade. Its power was colossal, destroying more than 5 kilometers of forest until it stopped. He seemed that he was walking slowly but with every step he passed tens of meters, it was only that it was difficult to perceive his speed. My sword at the front, I prepared to fight him at any moment. When he arrived 10 meters away from me, he stopped "Human, there''s no need to fight. Give me the human with the Fragment and I will let you live" he talked with a very crude voice that exudes strength, with every letter the air trembled. (He must refer to Bai) I thought. "If you want it, you should pass through my corpse" I shouted. "Like you prefer!" He said. In an instant he was at my range, only leaving a big crack where he previously was. He slashed at me. I could react to blocking the strike. Then, we started interchanging strikes, in 2 seconds more than 20 hits were made. He broke the interchange with a strong kick, I hurriedly blocked it with my sword but even with it, I was pushed 10 meters away. "Not bad. I need to work harder" He said. Black aura expanded from it, I quickly knew what it was, Domain! I also activated mine, a fiery red aura surged from me. Black and red collided, loud sounds could be listened, crack appeared in the ground, destroying it. Finally, both auras joined surrounding both of us in a black-red dome. Inside the dome, nothing could exist, everything will be cut. Now both of us without any support, we were hovering in the air. From his back, three black swords came, a pure condensation of sword aura. They were shot towards me. I used all my skills that supported my fire, illuminating three of my rings, 1 purple and two blacks. Powerful flames enveloped my sword, feeding off the domain . I stepped forward and dash towards him. My sword became giant, triple of his original size . I slashed the first sword, flames impulsing the sword forward reaching an extreme speed, I cut clean in half the sword. The second one approached for the right, I twisted my wrist, doing and impossible slash toward it. On impact my flames roared, causing a concentrated explosion that disintegrated the sword. I continue forward exiting, the smoke caused by the explosion, completely intact, unable to be injured by my own flames. The last one I evaded blending my knees, the sword grazing my nose. I just stood there in front of the immobile Swordsman. My sword dissipated in fire particles of different colors that surrounded him. Each particle grew to become replicas of my own sword and penetrated him , a big explosion occurred. A simple slash from him enough to dissipate all the smoke. He was still surrounded by flames of different colors, however, there''s a black smoke between the flames and him, being impossible for the flames to penetrate. "Graaaaaaa!" He shouted. He exuded so much pressure that dispersed the flames surrounding him. "Not good enough. Take a look at the pinnacle" He said. He positioned to pierce, now a gray aura covered his sword "" he said piercing forward. Broadsword rarely were used for piercing attacks due to its size and weight, in this case, it didn''t matter. A piercing attack came towards my heart. I could see it slowly approaching, even if I could see it as slow, of slow had nothing! Its speed to fast to react. I could see my death coming, I started to remember all my life. I remember meeting Zhi, falling in love with him, scaring all the woman approaching him. I could see Bai''s birth, his smile, our training. Rongrong, my cute angel always happy being spoiled. Finally an image of all my family, Zhi, Bai, Ronrong, Bone, and Sword smiling at me. "I''m not gonna die!" flames roared from the left side of my sword, pushing me lightly towards the right. The sword pierced my side failing its objective, the heart. I was thrown 100 meters away vomiting blood. A part of his sword broke, the sword''s tip was stuck in my side. I looked toward the Swordsman, his sword was not completed, missing the tip. In an instant, his sword regenerated seemingly like new. "How could you dare!" He shouted furiously, angrier than never before. Just as he was about to dash toward me a big skeleton dragon struck him from the right side. He blocked with his sword, being pushed by the dragon. "Bone!" I shouted excited seeing the nostalgic silhouette of elder Bone. After being pushed 100 meters the Swordsman freed his sword, blocking now the dragon with his left arm. With his sword at his now free right hand, he slashed at the dragon, crashing it easily. "If you want to leave, you should destroy this domain, Xiangxie" said Bone moving his hand towards the Swordsman, throwing black particles. These particles surrounded the Swordsman and became black holes. From each one uncountable number of bone lances shot towards him. "Noisy flies!" shouted the Swordsman protected by a black aura, the lances were incapable of penetrating it, but at least they slowed him. "Enough time?" asked Bone to me. I stood weakly supported by nailing my sword at the ground "Yeah" I nodded weakly. I used all my power activating my 9th skill, my red ring shining brightly . Pure fire energy surged from me, this time my own sword domain ceasing its existence being replaced by a pure fire one. This one without any color, fully transparent. With my last strength, both physic and spirit, I lifted my sword, my bones cracking furiously. I pointed towards the Swordsman and shouted "!". All the pure fire energy concentrated at the tip of my sword, with the absence of the domain we were surrounded by the black one. Then the concentrated energy was launched in a very tiny but nevertheless powerful ray. Even Bone, only near it was having trouble not being burnt. The ray traveled unstoppable towards the Swordsman, incinerating the black domain in its trail. "Now, Bone!" I shouted. Bone taking advantage of the instant without domain created a black hole and both of us jumped at it. We appeared in a desert and I could see elder Sword shocked face seeing us. I, with my last strength spent, and now seemingly safe I fell to the ground painting, completely exhausted. At that moment I listened a profound and neutral voice that didn''t reflect any emotion, only sharpness. The voice said [You pass]. Then I fell unconscious. Chapter 55 - Hei Qis revenge? After some time, a black hole appeared. From it left uncle Bone and uncle Sword, Sword was holding mum in a princess carry. I opened my eyes shocked, both uncles seemed fine, only uncle Bone has some burn mark on his robes. The worst condition was mum, she was unconscious, her soft armor was all ragged with cut everywhere, the worst part is a wound at the left side of her ?h?st, only a few centimeters on the right and it would perforate her heart. Looking at that, I knew how near death was mum. I couldn''t stop my tears to fall. Uncle Bone patted my shoulder "Don''t worry, Xiangxie is fine. She is only sleeping, with a little of heal she will return to top condition". I sighed in relieve, but I was still worried. "I have already warned the healer, they are coming" surprised me Maya who appeared at the corner of the room. "Good work, Maya" said uncle Sword letting mum rest on the room''s bed "What happened?" I asked worriedly. "I also want to know it" said uncle Sword. Bone explained "After I put Bai and Mayi in a safe place". "Who is Mayi?" Interjected Sword. Mayi at a side of the room lifted her hand "I am Tai Mayi, nice to meet you elder Sword". "She is part of my team at the Heaven Dou Academy. Also, she is my girlfriend" I explained "Let''s talk more about what happens this years later, uncle Sword. Please, continue, uncle Bone" "Like I was telling. After I put Bai and Mayi in a safe place, I found Xiangxie fighting one of the kings of the forest, the Dragon Swordsman. They were fighting in close quarters and I couldn''t find any opening to support her. When the Swordsman injured her" uncle Bone pointed mum''s big wound "She was pushed away. I took advantage of the distance and attack him, the best that could do my attacks was slow a little his movement. Then Xiangxie used both of her 100.000 skills creating an opening for our escape" "We teleported near you Sword. Because the energy around was too much, it would injure anyone under titled douluo, you were the only option" explained uncle Bone. At that moment entered the clan healers, all 5 of them wearing white robes and started analyzing mum. "Except for the left side wound, all the others are superficial. It seems that madam Ning evaded being damaged in any important part. After an hour she will be fine, I apologized for the speed, but with the difference in spirit power is the least that we will take. If you allow us, we will move madam Ning to the healing wing, where the risk of infection will be zero" said the healers'' leader. Hearing the professionals, great weights lifted from my shoulders. Uncle Sword made a sign allowing it, they took mum away, bowing towards us before leaving the room. "I am glad that all is fine" uncle Sword said. "Bai, why was Xiangxie fighting one king?" asked me uncle Bone. "Mayi, mum and I were walking in Heaven Dou Forest for searching for my 5th ring. It was all normal, we were leisurely without any beast approaching us until we arrived at the inner area. My external spirit bone became agitated" I explained "At that moment, mum pushed us away from her, warning us to notify uncle Bone. Then I could sense mum fighting someone really strong" I finished. "The Swordsman was the same as last time, as your external spirit bone came from a White Sword Dragon, the pre-evolved version of him, maybe he can detect you when you are near enough. It would be better if you don''t go again to Heaven Dou Forest" said uncle Bone. "So you were attacked both times by Hei Qi?" asked uncle Sword. "Hei Qi?" I asked. "It''s the name of the king, the Dragon Swordsman. All who enter in his domain, never escape, unless he wants" This time, surprisingly, was Mayi who said. "How you know Hei Qi?" asked uncle Sword. Mayi answered "I lived most of my life in that forest. Everyone knows about him. His area is the death area" "Yeah, we know that is one of the 5 death areas," uncle Sword said. "You didn''t understand it. That is truly a death area. There''s no distinction, it doesn''t matter who enters, human or beast, everyone that past the lone of his domain, die. There are other kings, some of them if you vow to work under its service they will let in their area. Or at least they will warn you before anything" Mayi explained. "How can you know all of this?" asked uncle sword. I facepalmed, forgetting to tell uncle Sword about Mayi''s special condition "Uncle Sword, I forgot to tell you something very important, Mayi is a spirit beast who became human, before she was a Fifteen Ton Ant" I explained. Uncle Sword made a shocked face, then he calmed "Everyone knew about it?" "Yeah, every member of our family knew about it and it didn''t matter for them, I expect that the same will be for you" I said. "If all of you accept her, what other option I have" said uncle Sword scratching his head. He turned to Mayi "Can you continue your story about Hei Qi?" Mayi nodded "Every beast hate him, he would be killed long ago by the other kings if not for the fact that he is the strongest one when in his domain. The steel domain is his stronghold, where he doesn''t fear anyone. It''s very strange for him to leave his area, so if he goes after Bai, it must be important" Mayi said. "So, if the other beast detected Hei Qi outside his area, they will attack him?" asked curiously uncle Sword. "It''s not so easy, he is very strong, without a planned attack even the other kings will be injured, so if he didn''t leave enough time for the others to group, they won''t attack him" Mayi answered. "It''s very interesting, but now we were talking, why did he attack Bai?" said uncle Bone. "The most plausible idea would be for revenge, for Bai killing his descendant" said uncle Sword. "It''s strange, there''s more than one White Sword Dragon, and its not the first one to be killed. Even my brother and I killed one once, but Hei Qi never moved against us. Maybe its because you are a human" said Mayi. "Bai, you said you obtained an external spirit bone, no?" Sword asked I nodded "Could you show me?" I invoked my White Dragon Sword, holding in my left hand I approached it to Sword. Sword looked attentively "It doesn''t seem anything special, a very crude sword. It has some effect?" "It improves the output of intent, 50% more or less" I answered. "Strange, I didn''t feel anything" said Sword. Sword then tried to take it. Just as he touches it with his right hand, he quickly retreats her hand. From his right finger, there was a small cut. All of us opened our eyes shocked "How could it cut you? You didn''t even touch the blade. Moreover, your a titled douluo for a weapon to damage you" I said shocked. "It seems that this sword has more secrets than what we expect" said uncle Sword "I sense a powerful sword aura from it, even if it only was an instant" he turned to Bone "Try to touch it, Bone" Bone approached and touch the white sword without anything happening. "Very strange, indeed. The most probable is that this blade is the cause of Hei Qi''s attack. He tried to take it" Sword said. "The best will be waiting for Xiangxie to wake up and ask her if she knows the details. For now, as a measure of prevention, you won''t approach Heaven Dou Forest, Bai" Sword said "Now, there has been a lot of years without seeing any of you. Let''s explain what happened these years" Sword said. After that, the servant came to serve us tea and biscuits. I explained all that happened these years, the academy, Rongrong, my new spirits rings... Sword explained that he was only a step aside rank 97, a little more and he will break through to it. Then he explained some adventures, slaying beast, saving people... He was waiting impatiently for our praise. I praised him about being stronger than Bone, of course, the usual happened. He started to brag to Bone and both started fighting. After the day the fighting wasn''t any serious, easily seen that in an actual fight Sword will be the winner, it was more than rock, paper, and scissors with some light hits from the winner. Light hits in the titled douluo perspective, if one of the hit me, the best that could happen will be half of my bones broken. So there was a little damage to the mansion. "Ah!" I sighed "They''re like children. We are lucky that Rongrong is not here, if not they will be even worst for her affection. They always had a more weak point towards her" I said to Mayi who was watching with me my uncles'' spectacle eating popcorn. Mayi nodded. "Where did you take the popcorn?" I asked. "Maya" Mayi answered. (Fuck I never can detect her). When night came Mayi and I went to our room leaving both uncles their space. Tomorrow they surely will have stopped, if not we should wait for mum to recuperate and stop their fight. Chapter 57 - Sunset Forest One week later, mum finally woke up. This week I expended it talking with uncle Sword and sparring him. He had a great understanding of the sword art, having attained his own All Sword. He also specialized in equilibrium, especially his emotions. His more characteristic being his majestic killing intent. It was very fruitful sparring, very different from mum''s own style, always offensive using her fire to increase her power. Just as mum had woken, she ordered both uncles, Mayi and I to reunite all in her room. When we entered her room, she seemed completely recuperated, her usually aura at full power. She was already dressed with one of her armor, that matched her pink hair. She seemed fully prepared for a trip. "Mum, are you fine?" I asked her worried. Mum smiled kindly "Yes. Bai, you don''t have to worry. My wounds weren''t that great, this time sleeping was more about some mental problem. I resolved it, so all good now" Observing how mum was clothed and her air a asked "Mum, will you go on a trip" Mum quickly approached at and hugged me tightly, she had some tears in her eyes "Yes. I will go on a trip. It would be a long one, but I need to do it. I will protect all of you" she turned to uncles "I will explain the details later" Sword and Bone nodded. Mum turned very serious and took my left arm "Your external spirit bone is very dangerous, try to never use it in public unless it''s a life or death situation. Also, try to evade any high ranked swordmaster, never trust in them. Finally, Bai, promise me. Never return to Star Dou Forest" "It''s about Hei Qi?" I asked. Mum nodded seriously "Yes, he is extremely dangerous and will do anything to take your external spirit bone. In the future, maybe I will need to kill him, but until then, please don''t go. Bai, promise me" I very serious nodded "I promise you, mum. I won''t go to Star Dou Forest" Mum rubbed my hair smiling "Good boy, your mum''s pride, grow strong" she then turned cold "Bai, in the case that the resonance, the trembling, happened again. In the case that you know that it would be impossible to face against it. You must cut your left arm, cut it and leave it behind, with this maybe they will have mercy to you" I looked at her strangely "How could I cut my own arm? It would be like throwing away my cultivation" "There are more important things than strength or pride, Bai. You being one for me. Keep alive at all cost" She said seriously. She then signaled at Mayi "And keep those that you love too" Mum broke the hug kissing me at my forehead "Bye Little Bai. Take care and be happy".Her aura seemed a little sad saying this like we won''t meet in a long time. Just as I was to ask her her aura completely changed to her usually cherry one and brightly smiling said "Now, go. Accompany your little girlfriend outside, I have an important ?du?t talk. For other places to obtain your ring, I will recommend to try luck at Sunset Forest, even if there aren''t a lot of old beast because the overhunting, at least is near. If you don''t find any, you could try at the Far North for one ice oriented one or to the Vast Sea for one water" she explained. Then she pushed me and Mayi outside the room, I could only say quickly "Bye, uncle Sword, Bone. Bye, mum" before we were outside and mum shut the door closed, leaving Mayi and I outside. "What are we doing now, Bai?" asked Mayi. "It seems that mom is fine, even is she is hiding something I doubt that she would tell us. Let''s follow her advice and try luck at Sunset Forest for my 5th ring" I said, Mayi nodded. Leaving the mansion, a carriage was already ready for us to take us to Sunset Forest. Sunset Forest is the spirit beast forest nearest to Heaven Duo City. It has a small size comparing to Heaven Duo Forest, but even with that, it considered big. The major problem is there is very little older beast. Being small, without any 100.000 beasts to protect it, it has been hunted for many years. Due to this over hunt their beast number is low, so it''s very difficult to find one compatible. The positive part is its fewer danger, being favored by low-level spirit masters. I didn''t expect too much from it. We will stay there trying to find some beast for 2 months. If at this time I don''t find any, we will try to go to another area. We have 5 months before the finals of the Continental Tournament. When we arrived, I could see the forest for the first time. It has big trees like fir with low vegetation apart. This one is better described by forest, not like Star Dou Forest that with its high temperature and humidity and vegetation, it seems more like a jungle. Walking normally around the forest we received very little attacks, most of them from not even 1000 years old beast. With Mayi natural cultivation antidetection and my own technique, it seems like we are two normal humans walking. So there''s a very little number of beasts or the big majority are intelligent enough to detect that something goes wrong. To have this kind of intelligence, they should be over 10.000 years old or at least mental type, being that in one day, the older beast was 2100 years, I will decant for the option of low numbers. The beasts were so weak that there wasn''t any need to even use any skill, or anything really. Showing my rings was enough to make them unconscious. They were not even good food to Glut that refused to eat them. So to not help the overhunting and decrease their low numbers, we only defeat them, keeping their lives. We found a cave good enough to make our camp here. So we prepared a provisional camp. This time at the forest was expend more like a holiday than any other thing, if not for being with Mayi, I would be crazy. We decided to stop wasting our time and leave early on what was predicted. "Mayi, let''s go to our last walk here. Tomorrow we will go. What do you think will be a better place to go?" I asked Mayi. "I hate cold and I never saw the sea" She said thoughtfully. "So the Far North discarded. Let''s go to the Vast Sea, I listened that seafood is really great. Also, it will be good to practice water fighting" I said, causing Mayi to smile and nod quickly, looking forward to the new food. When we were about to return to our provisional camp, Mayi suddenly stopped. She clenched her hand very tightly. "It''s something wrong, Mayi?" I asked alert. Mayi narrowed her eyes "Danger" she said seriously. I invoked my sword and prepared for the danger. I activated my Mind Eye at his maximum of 500 meters to detect what was approaching. At that moment, I realized that even if Mayi seems nervous and a little angry, she was not ready to fight. She didn''t even activate her spirit. After 2 seconds I could detect at my range something coming very quickly at us. I turned to the direction of the one who was approaching and wave my hand greeting. I could see approaching, a yellow light quickly coming towards us. (Fuck! She won''t stop). I opened my arm, covering them with a little of intent, preparing to stop her. When the girl like torpedo was about to crash towards me, her momentum nearly stopped, totally under her control, causing my intent to be useless. She lightly tackled me, hugging me in the process "Long time not seeing you, Bai!" said the girl. She had long brightly blond hair that fell until her waist. Her golden eyes shined brightly with happiness and a little of seductive glint. She was a very beautiful girl, with a perfect body, wearing a green and white dress with a green skirt, with two wings at her back that shined with the sunlight. Mayi approached us trying to separate, but before she could, Chenxiang shined brightly disappearing of her position and appearing 5 meters away "I also missed you, Mayi. Very jealous like always" the girl teased Mayi with a smile. "Chenxiang!" shouted Mayi angrily, glancing narrowing her eyes. Yeah, it was Bai Chenxiang. Chapter 58 - Shreks rings Chenxiang spun 360o finishing with a cute pose "How do you find me, Bai?" "Long time not seeing you, Xiang. You''re radiant Chenxiang, breath-taking" she blushed a lot and I received a jab at the stomach from Mayi. "What are you doing here, Chenxiang?" spatted Mayi. "I was thinking of Bai, like always, remembering all the good times when..." Chenxiang teased Mayi, Mayi starting to growl. "Xiang, stop! Don''t make Mayi mad" I try to soothe Mayi "But really, what are you doing here?" "I am with my new team members. They are searching for compatible beast for their rings" She smiled and surrounding her wings were 4 rings, yellow, purple, purple and black "I am rank 44, I obtained mine 2 months ago" "Congratulations, Xiang" I congratulated her. "What is the ability? "Thanks, Bai. For the ring skill, you''ll need to wait to see it. By the way, what are you both doing here?" She asked. I answered "We are trying to find some spirit rings for us". "But here..." She was about to say before a answered "We know that the number of older beast here is scarce. But for some problem we can''t go to Star Dou Forest, so we tried luck here. Before meeting you, we decided that today will be our last day here, after more than a months searching, we didn''t find anything worth it" Chenxiang nodded "My teammates are also trying to find compatible spirit rings. So far, we only found two. We are in a hurry, if in 2 weeks we don''t find for the others, we must leave without them. The Continental Tournament selection is very soon" "Oh? So you really join an academy to participate. What academy did you join?" I asked curiously. Chenxiang smiled "You will see. I must return with them, they will be upset if I absent too much time. You can follow me" "We don''t have anything better to do. Also, I want to know your teammates" I answered. Chenxiang then guided us to her provisional camping, which consisted of some tents. Approaching there I could listen to a familiar girl''s voice "Where did you go, Chenxiang? Next time warn us at least". "Oh, my fault Rongrong. I needed to stretch my wing" Chenxiang apologized. "And watch who I brought" Yeah, it was my little sister. I could also see the other members of Shrek Academy. "Big brother, what are you doing here?" asked surprised Rongrong. I turned to Chenxiang who was smiling "So you joined Shrek". Chenxiang nodded "Yep. I know that they are strong. Moreover, they also were expelled from Heaven Duo Imperial Academy, so we have similar circumstances. Without forgetting that teacher Qin is also there. They easily accepted me, now being part of the main team" "Good for you, Xiang" I approached Rongrong and hugged her "Glad to see you are fine. I''m delighted to see you again, Rongrong" Rongrong hugged me tightly "I missed you, big brother" We separated and I congratulated Rongrong "It seems that you broke through rank 40, congratulations Rongrong. And for what are we doing here, I think that we are in the same basket. We are also trying to hunt some spirit beasts for our rings" "So you broke through rank 50. It will be difficult to go against your academy which will have at least 2 spirit kings" She said glancing at Mayi "It seems that you weren''t lucky enough to find one" "Yeah, we planned to leave tomorrow, as I doubt that we will find some spirit beast here. I will go to another higher level place" At that moment Tang San approached us "Maybe, it won''t be necessary" I looked Tang San incredulously "What are you planning, Tang San?" He smiled lightly "We have little time to waste here. So I planned to use this" He then took out an herb, it was a pink flower, from it, it could be smelled a rich and fragrant aroma. He quickly withdrew it. "I will use this Aromatic Silk Beauty, to attract spirit beast. A lot of spirit beast will be attracted to its energy as an immortal treasure" Explained Tang San. I lifted one eyebrow "Too much. Even with your teachers here, do you really think you could restrain the sheer quantity that will come?" I asked. "Truly observant. I have it into account. In this forest, there is a poisonous formation capable of install-killing an under 70 spirit master, even stronger against beast. I have the antidote, so we will use it to protect ourselves" Tang San explained. "Are you sure to help me? In the tournament, we will be rivals?" I said. "Your Rongrong''s brother, all in Shrek are like a family. It''s normal to help you. Also, it would be helpful to have another powerful spirit master in case something unexpected happen" He said. I inclined a little my head "Thanks, Tang San. I would ensure that anything bad happens. In the future I would try to help you" I thanked him. "Don''t worry, and you can call me San. You don''t need to be formal" he said. I nodded "In that case, don''t doubt me to call me Bai" I turned to the other members of Shrek "Of course, it goes for all of you" After some light talk between us, we were all being guided by San. While walking Rongrong approached me and dragged me a little far from the group and asked in a low voice "Big brother, what do you think about sister Xiang?" I looked at her surprised by the question "She is a very good friend, she put a lot of effort into all, using her 100%. She was always who trainer harder and finally she accomplished her long dream of breaking through rank 38. She is also very strong, specializing in speed. She..." "I wasn''t asking about that" Rongrong interrupted me "I was asking about her, sentimentally. Do you like her?" I blushed a little "I really like her, she is very passionate, straightforward and intelligent when she wants. She is also very beautiful. But I already with Mayi, so it won''t be fair to any of us. So it''s more like friends" Rongrong smiled "She is always talking about how great you are big brother. It''s easy to see that she is in love. If what you say it''s true, it will be better to make it clear. Don''t give her false expectations, she is really great. She is already one of the most popular at the academy" she said seriously "Ah, and for your knowledge. I will prefer 100 times more sister Xiang, she doesn''t seem so crazy" Rongrong left saying. I stood thinking about Chenxiang "I really need to clarify my feeling" I said to myself, before quickly catching the group. After an hour of walking, we arrived near a little hill. I could detect a powerful poison surrounding it. At that moment San gave us two pills "This will make you immune to the poison. They will last 1 day, eat one now and the second one tomorrow at the same time. I think that with 2 days will be enough" explained San. We all ate one pill. San then took the Aromatic Silk Beauty and plant it at the ground outside the poison formation. Then he took a bottle and spray some black liquid from it to the herb. The herb started to exude an even more rich fragrance that started to spread around. "Be aware. If a lot of beasts come, be prepared to quickly back to the poisonous formation. I already put a low potent poisonous formation surrounding the herb, so low-level beast won''t come. Be prepared" San said. We all surrounded the herb, with the support ones being nearer it, protected by the others. Grandmaster approached me and said "If there''s not any need to intervene, please don''t move. Let them take care. The experience will be good for them" I nodded in understanding. After only fine minutes we could listen to a growl, from its sound it seems like a tiger one. From the forest came a tiger purple like beast. It was a Phantom Tiger, a tiger beast who excelled in speed, its main characteristic was its innate ability to create copies of itself. "A Phantom Tiger, for its size it seems near 4000 years. Completely compatible with Zhuqing" said Grandmaster "Go for it". The Phantom Tiger came towards us, its objective without doubt being the immortal treasure. Approaching at us, it divided into three. "Let me handle this" said Chenxiang. From her back appeared her translucent wings with its four rings. The black one started to shine. At that moment, Chenxiang shined and after a bright light there were 4 Chenxiangs, all of them had spirit energy, and it was really difficult to detect the real one. One stayed with us, the other three went towards the beast, each one to one of its copies. When they were close to the beasts, the Chenxiangs smiled and started to shine "BOOOOOM!" all three exploded. Two of the Phantom Tigers disappeared, and one of them stopped its charge and was pushed away 20 meters, with some severe burnings. Chenxiang smiled at me "Diffraction. My 4th skill ring, incredible, eh?" "Truly great" I said "It can be used as an attack technique and as a distraction, being very difficult to differentiate the real one" "Quickly, Zhuqing! Finish it" said Grandmaster. Zhuqing nails grew close to half a meter with a purple shine. She charged towards the tiger beast and killing piercing its neck. From the beast appeared a purple ring. Then, Shrek students moved the body to the poison formation and Zhuqing started absorbing the ring. Mayi and I with the teachers stayed outside, beating the beast that was approaching. After 20 minutes, more than 10 beasts came, and the numbers continued to grow "There are too much. Quickly retreat to the formation" Grandmaster shouted. San approach to the immortal treasure and stored it, then we all retracted to the formation. Even without the herb, its potent essence endured, continuing to attract more beast. After some time Grandmaster suggested a Unicorn Armored Beast for Rongrong 4th ring, being a defense specialized beast, close to 4000 years. It made me a little nostalgic about us fighting its older version. "I think that it would be a better option, that" I said signaling a Blue Hard Tortoise. "It''s almost 10.000 years! I would say it has 9000 years, is too much for the 4th ring of Rongrong" Grandmaster commented. "With her improved foundation, I think that she won''t have any problem absorbing anything younger than 10.000. I could also help her a little absorbing. Trust me" I said, this time looking at Rongrong. Rongrong nodded "Yep. I''m prepared for it" Grandmaster sighed "If you say it, okay let''s capture it" The teachers took some, weapons? From the students. They were similar to metal claws. The weapons shot towards the Tortoise beast, blocking it and dragging it to the formation. An incredible weapon, and very versatile its use. Inside the formation, the woman teacher, Liu Erlong, beat it a little, plus the poison in the formation, it was quickly reduced to an immobile object. Rongrong approached it and pierced inside its shell with a spirit knife. From the corpse appeared a purple ring and Rongrong started absorbing it. Even if I could sense that Rongrong was having some difficulties to absorb it, I didn''t think that it would be impossible for her. So I decided to not act. In the case I see it impossible, I could always use Glut skill to devour some energy from the ring, the ring becoming younger in the process. Even if it will show Glut to Shrek, they all showed me their abilities, doing it easier for me when fighting them. Also, for Rongrong its worth it, and she really trusts all of them. After some time Rongrong finished absorbing the ring, her new ability improving the defense 60%. We all congratulate her. Chapter 59 - Balloons everywhere Then I finally saw a good spirit beast. It was all alone, creating a big area around it where the other beast didn''t dare to approach. It was a little sphere of no more than 1 meter of diameter, purple with some spikes around him. It didn''t have eyes, it was completely smooth except the spikes. And was hovering 1 meter over the ground. Just at that moment, one ignorant beast entered within 50 m of it, the ignorant beast was a Ground Shielded Hippo of maybe 4000 years old, a brown hippopotamus like beast specialized in defense. The purple sphere quickly shot more than 20 spikes to him, they were very fast and they seem to be very sharp. They easily penetrated the Hippo. The Hippo was gravely injured but survived. However, it didn''t last long, after 1 minute fell dead. The sphere approached it, this time one hole opened in its form. The sphere inflates more than 5 meters and easily swallowed the Hippo. I couldn''t help to shudder, of its strength and expectations. My defense power is great contrasting with my low attack one. This beast will surely provide one skill for improving my attack power. I really didn''t know what will be, but seeing it the skill will be something related to poison, throwing attack or some increase in size. All of them perfect to improve my attack qualities. Due to its size and easily overpowering a 4000 years old beast, I was sure that it would be over 10.000 and seeing even the other 10.000 beasts scared to approach it, it will be stronger than them. Usually beast grew in size until the 10.000 years old, and then they started to decrease the size, even if there are exemptions, they usually follow this rule. The sphere seemed more attracted to the other beasts rather than the essence of the immortal treasure. Having come for the great group of beast formed. I turned to Grandmaster "Grandmaster, do you know what is it that beast?" I asked signaling the purple sphere. "The purple sphere? I am not completely sure, it seems a very characteristic beast, but rarely seen. The most similar beast I listened about its the Spiked Balloon. A beast in the form of a sphere with spikes. But in that case, when it was killed it was only 1000 years old. Also, it was brown. So maybe its a variant, I don''t really know" explained Grandmaster. "Do you know the age?" I asked. "It''s a rarely seen beast so I don''t have the knowledge to estimate. The only read document one was a thousand years old and its description is similar to that one. Seeing how the other beast reacts we could expect to be over 10.000 years, but I really can''t calculate it" Grandmaster answered. I turned to Mayi "This will be my ring. As it seems its area is absent from other beasts, we won''t need to attract it. Mayi, let''s kill it" Mayi nodded enthusiastically, really wanting to have some fight. "I don''t recommend that beast. We don''t know exactly its characteristics, attacks and age. You should try another safer option" Grandmaster advised. "Thanks for the warning. But I already decided it" I said. "Mayi, full power" I told Mayi. Shrek showed all their techniques fighting previously, so as a show of sincerity, we will also use our own. I turned to the others "Please, don''t help us, except if you detect that it is completely necessary" I invoked my sword, showing 4 rings, yellow, yellow, purple and purple. Mayi activated her, her usual armor manifesting. We charged towards the Balloon, Mayi following at my back. When we arrived at its range, like before against the beast, the Balloon shot multiple spikes towards us. I activated my 4th skill, I quickly realized that the defense of the Balloon was minimum, so I focus in near beast to increase my defense. I swung my sword covered with Protection intent, creating a shield before us. I was tensed, prepared to dodge in case the spikes penetrated my shield. My worry was unfounded, the shield blocking the spikes. We continued charging, quickly arriving near the Balloon that seemed to not react at all. When we were at our range of attack, its body spikes extended, I blocked them changing their trajectory, Mayi jumped over me. She concentrated her spirit power in her punch and punched the Balloon. I expected her to push it to the ground, however, what happened surprised me a lot. Mayi''s punch pricked the Balloon like a rubber one with a "Pooof" sound. Breaking it, surrounding as in scraps. When Mayi landed at the ground she was surprised by how easy was to break it. At that moment all the Balloon''s scraps started moving. All of them became little Spiked Balloons that started to inflate. I could sense the danger. From my body expanded a gray aura arriving until 10 meters diameter . Then I used my intent covering Mayi and me in it. Just as I finished the Balloons exploded, shooting an uncountable number of spikes in all directions. I could listen "clap" sound hitting my intent, trying to break it. After 3 seconds, the sounds finished, my intent keeping its form. Looking at my surroundings, I couldn''t see any other Balloon. Instead, in the place where was the Spiked Balloon a purple ring was floating. "What the fu?k is this?!" I exclaimed. Mayi looked at me with a regretful face "Sorry for killing it, Bai" "You don''t need to worry about it. It was too weak, to only be 1.000 years beast. I don''t know why I sensed that it would be good for me" I said. At that moment I detected something from my Mind Eye. I quickly turned around swinging my sword creating a shield. The shield stopped three spikes. This one was a little different, they were brown and a lot bigger, they also were slower and their penetrating power was lower, but their strength and resilience was bigger I looked at the culprit of the attack. In that direction, now appeared a brown balloon. This was similar to the other one, the difference was their color and that this one only has 3 big spikes in it. Mayi approached it and kicked it in my direction, this time it was a lot harder, even if it was some broken areas where Mayi kicked, the balloon didn''t explode. Seeing it coming to me, I activated my 4th skill, this time I could absorb a lot more defense from it, affirming that its defense was greater than the other one. I also activated my 1st skill increasing my power. When it came to me I swung my sword cutting it in half in two parts, even if there was some resistance it wasn''t enough. Each half shot 3 big spikes towards me. Activating my 3rd skill I easily evaded all. In the balloon position, now there was a purple ring. "Maybe, they are some kind of evolution beast. When depending on how it grows, its characteristic changed" I thought aloud "It didn''t matter, each one is too weak. It''s not worth it for my ring" I sighed. Mayi then approached me and took my sleeve "Something is not right. They don''t seem alive. Strangely, they have a ring. My instinct told me that something is wrong" said Mayi. I glanced around, expanding at maximum my Mind Eye trying to find something. Nothing, I couldn''t detect anything special nor any other balloon. Mayi, for her part, was also searching since the brown Balloon appeared, her antennas twitching around. Suddenly, she widely opened her eyes. At that moment from nothing, we were completely surrounded by 50 Spiked Balloons. All of them were different colors and I could detect them having different characteristics, some were harder, some were on fire, there were poisonous ones... "What? I couldn''t detect any!" I shouted surprised. All the Balloons'' spikes pointed us. Before they started attacking us, Mayi launched towards a near tree, the Balloons started shooting her, completely ignoring me. Mayi easily evaded, the more powerful one while ignoring the weaker ones that were reflected in her armor. I didn''t know what was her intention, but at least I would support her. I started to shot aura shield towards her surroundings. Some of them blocking spikes, Mayi also used them as a trampoline. When Mayi arrived at the tree I could see doing a catching gesture. In the space of her hand appeared some cracks in the air, then the air seemed to break and in Mayi''s previously empty hand, now there was a little translucent sphere, no more than 2 cm of diameter with 2 black points like eyes. Just as she caught it, all the Spiked Balloons surrounding us stopped floating and fell to the ground, completely stopping their attacks. Mayi approached me with the sphere in hand "This beast is who was controlling all the others. Kill it, Bai" "Good job, Mayi" I said kissing her, she smiled "How did you know where it was? I couldn''t detect anything in its position" I asked. "It was hiding its presence, it was impossible to detect by smell, sight or presence. But I could detect its influence in the other one, marking its location" Mayi explained. "So this little sphere was who was controlling the others" I pierced it with my sword. The truth is that it was completely defenseless and I easily penetrated killing it. From its body appeared a black ring. At that the same moment, from all the balloons appeared different rings, there were whites, yellows, purples and even a black one. "Killing it, it caused all the other to die. This is truly strange" I said. At that time all the beast that was being wary of the balloon, charged towards us. Seeing the big quantity Mayi and I didn''t have other options than run, so we retread to the poison formation. Inside, Grandmaster approached us "It seems that one was controlling all the other, even maintaining their life. The most probable is that the recorded one was one of the controlled ones. But really a peculiar beast. Surely it''s a control type, but I don''t know if it has another type. For its pressure, its age will be around 40.000 years or so. Too older for you absorb" "I will absorb it" I said. "This is too much" shouted Grandmaster "Trying to absorb a 40.000 years old beast as a 4th spirit is nothing less than a suicide" "Thanks for worrying about me, Grandmaster. However, you don''t need to worry, I have a secret technique to reduce the age of a ring. It didn''t matter how much older it is I could reduce its age until being optimum for me" I explained. Grandmaster seemed curious about it, but knowing that it was probably a familiar secret he didn''t try to convince me to tell him "Anyway, we didn''t know a lot about it. Its effects may be negative. It''s too aleatory" "I had a sensation that it will be good for me, I will absorb it" I said leaving their position with Mayi "Please, don''t follow me. It''s a family secret so don''t come" They respected us and didn''t follow us. At least now, I have monitored them just in case. Mayi and I moved to the opposite side of the hill. Like when I absorbed my 4th ring. Mayi and I did the same thing. After 4 hours of absorption, I obtained my 5th ring of 51.000 years old and Mayi created her own of 42.000 years old. Chapter 60 - Continental Advanced Spirit Master Elite Tournament Absorbing it, I learned that the beast element was space. This was the main reason it could hide from my detection, hiding in another plane, and it also explains the other balloons appearing from nothing. The ability I obtained was a really strange one. I couldn''t say that it was a good or bad one. The skill permits me created copies of my sword and control them in a 50 m area. I could create thousands of swords completely control them to attack all around, it seems great but it has a big downfall. Those swords at defect were useless, completely void of any spirit energy. They don''t consume a lot of spirit, but the swords created are too weak to damage anyone over rank 40, even without defense skill. Attack system, with a powerful body, could simply ignore them. They break easily and disappeared. The good part is that I can control them and that they are swords. Being swords is relatively easy so influx intent in them. Surrounded by intent their durability and strength grew. But, it''s impossible to put intent in a lot due to its tremendous consumption. I could create better swords, but it required a lot of time and comprehension. Now I could only create a useful one. This one is a completely white copy of mind, being very resilient, but without edge. Summarizing, I have infinite useless sword and one controllable shield in sword form. I also learned about the Balloon, it obtained other beasts, parasitizing them, using their bodies as copies of himself, with similar properties with the beast used. It made a lot of them and controlled them. It also could store his copies, invoking them when he wants while it hides away in another created plane, where it doesn''t move. If not for Mayi detection, It would be impossible for me to find it, and I should destroy all the copies to survive. Or simply, considering the losings greater than the wins he would ignore me. If it fought with all his power maybe it could win against us, but it reacted too late. I sighed (why can the skill be like him and made a powerful sword with beast?!) "Hi" I saluted, showing our presence. "Oh, you returned big brother. You had any problem absorbing it?" asked Rongrong. I showed my sword, now surrounded by 5 rings, 2 yellows, 2 purples and one black "No problem at all. Where''s San?" "He is absorbing a ring, he went to a special place to ease the absorption. He is trying to absorb a 10.000 years beast so it will be difficult, better not distract him" explained Grandmaster, unable to hide his worry. I nodded in understanding and we all wait for Tang San. After a lot of time he finally came, having accomplished absorbing 10.000 years old as his 4th ring, something completely abnormal, but talking to abnormalities I am more so I wasn''t too surprised. As I was there, like in my case, he didn''t explain his skill. It''s always good to try to hide a little for future rivals, even if you have some trust in them. I said thank you for all their help in searching for beasts. Even if little trash it wasn''t their fault, it was only my shitty luck. Then we all returned to Heaven Dou City, separating there going to our own academies. As must start the preselection tournament nearly, while we had much more time until the finals so we were calmer. Before departing from them, Chenxiang approached me "I will win, over you and Mayi. Shrek will win, when it happens you will do anything that I ask" she said smiling, quickly leaving without waiting for my answer or trying to make some type of bet, only being an affirmation. I shook my head sighing. Mayi was growling "We won''t lose, never!". Returning to the academy and seeing the other Emperor''s member, we have a little celebration. From the next day, we started training our coordination, improving our strength as a team. We have some months until the finals. Even with this, I will go to the preselection and ranking competition. It will be good seeing other teams fight and knowing the strength of future rivals. I also want to see Rongrong and dad will be there accompanying the emperor as the schoolmaster of one of the most powerful schools of Heaven Dou Empire, so I will be able to meet both of them. I also want to know if something happened to mum. Continuing our training one month passed, finally marking the start of the preselection tournament. The Continental Advanced Spirit Master Elite Tournament is divided into different phases. The first is the preselection, this one will take place at the central stadium of Heaven Duo City Arena. In that part, the schools and academies qualified to enter the tournament are divided into groups of 27 teams. These teams will fight each one versus all the others in team battles of 7vs7, from their win-loss ratio, from all the groups will be decided 21 who will pass to the next phase. The next phase is the ranking one. All the 21 teams will fight with all the other another time, this time it will be 1vs1 fights until one of the team loses all its members. From these fights, it would be decided the 15 teams that pass to the next phase. It also decided the ranking of them, important at the next phase. Then it will be the finals. The finals will take place in Spirit City, the capital completely governed by Spirit Hall. This part will participate in a total of 33 teams. The 15 teams previously selected by Heaven Dou Empire and the 15 teams selected by Star Luo Empire, plus the 3 seeded teams, one from each empire and one from Spirit Hall. In the finals, there will be a total of 5 rounds, in the first round the 3 seeded teams will rest and the others will fight a qualifying match 7vs7, leaving 18 teams. The second round the 2 first ranked will rest, leaving after the round a total of 10 teams. The third round the second-ranked will rest, leaving 6 teams. Then after the fourth round, nobody will rest and there will be the final 3, starting the true Final. This Final round will be like the ranking competition, the three teams will fight between all the others in 1vs1 matches, the first ranked will directly pass to the final match. The second and third will fight 7vs7 deciding who will fight the first. Then it will be a 7vs7 match, deciding the victor. As the seeded team of Heaven Dou Empire, we don''t have to participate in the preselection or ranking competition. Nevertheless, we will need to at least be present at the opening ceremony. All the team members prepared to go to the stadium, this time we were dressed in the academy''s uniform. The opening ceremony is an act of presentation of all Heaven Duo Empire''s teams, an opening match between two randomly selected teams and the draw of the first matches for the next day. Once we were ready, a carriage took us towards the stadium. Passing through the streets we could see how it transformed, becoming some sort of festival, full of people. Arriving at the entrance of the stadium and exiting the carriage we were welcomed by a lot of cheering by the crowd. As the seeded team of Heaven Dou Empire, we are one of the favorites to win the tournament and the principal representative of the empire. Without a doubt, the empire will win more prestige if we win the tournament rather than any other team, even if they are part of the empire. It must be known that some schools even when they are considered part of Heaven Dou Empire, they have some kind of relation with Spirit Hall being even affiliated with them. So you can''t really trust them in cases of war. We were guided to a waiting room. When we arrived and the attendants left us alone, Osler said "I hate these useless acts. Why did we need to come? Is not that there will need to fight" "We are the representatives of the empire. As the best of it, we need to at least show our greatness" Yan answered. "It''s only for today. In the next days, we don''t need to come until the start of the finals. Don''t be too prim, hold it for today. We shouldn''t embarrass ourselves" Tianheng said. "I would like to fight" said Mayi sadly. I turned to Mayi "The majority of the are very weak, consisted of only spirit elders. For the powerful one, we will meet them at the finals so don''t worry about" "I am worried, with 5 more than 45 rank spirit ancestors and 2 spirits king. I don''t think that there will much fight. I really would be a little useless" Lingling said. "What''s wrong in being useful only in important situations!" Osler said "Cheer up, Lingling!" "I think that I would offer to one of the healers of the tournament, at least until the finals. It would be some training and it will improve my reputation" Lingling said. "With your power, it''s impossible that they will refuse your help. Undoubtedly, you''re the best healer under douluo rank" flatter Osler. Lingling smiled "Thanks, Osler" The truth is in those months, with Lingling change her emotionless state, smiling more and simple-seeming more alive, she really became more approachable. It''s very easy to see that she gained a lot of fans in the academy, now that she actively helps others. Also, it''s obvious that Osler fell for her charms, now following her like a puppy with the excuse of protecting her. Puppy? He is a panther so maybe it will be better to say kitty. For the other hand, I don''t think that Lingling liked him anything more than friends, Even with her development, I don''t think that she is really ready for something like love. We will need to wait for the future. I turned to Tianheng "In your opinion, what are the teams that we must be careful about?" I asked him. Tianheng as the team leader is the one that investigates this kind of information. I already studied the teams, but there''s no damage in listening to others'' opinions. "There''s not a lot of teams that can be considered a threat. For the strong one, even if there''s not a lot of information about them because they are usually kind of closed to the outside. The strongest will be the 5 elemental schools. The Skywater Academy, its members all have water attribute spirit. If my information is correct, their strong point is their good cooperation, they also are rumored to be capable of a spirit fusion between its captain and her sister. The Blazing Academy, with their fire attribute spirits. Even if all their member has a fire spirit, they have a balanced team with attack, control, and support. Their main strength is their power, especially its captain. The Godwing Academy, with air attribute spirits. They focused on speed, but they also have good power. It must highlight their captain, considered a rare genius born with full innate spirit power, he has an almost perfect control, having even created one self-created technique. I don''t have information about what the technique is exactly. Finally, the Thunderclap Academy, with lighting attributes. As it''s backed by my clan, I won''t explain their secrets. But, I can tell you that we don''t need to worry, their captain is my cousin and even if his spirit rank is greater than mine, I can say the same of his strength. With my resistance, I could easily win over them. Lastly, the other team to worry it will be Shrek Academy. Even if you, Bai and Mayi, weren''t there, it is a fact that we lost before. Their best feature their cooperation and control. I don''t know how much they improved, but I don''t think they will be much of a threat, their principal weakness being their age. They have the youngest members of the tournament, limit their strength. For Star Luo, the only team you need to watch is their seeded team, the Star Luo Imperial Academy. It is composed of the main clans of the empire, their main strength the spirit fusion of their royal family, the Hell Tiger. And the last and considered the favorites to win, the team of Spirit Hall. There''s little information about them, I only know that they have 3 members that arrived a spirit king. They are considered the Golden Generation, and they are stronger than any other year. It is considered that the winning prize of 3 spirit bones are and excuse to give this spirit bones to them. Each of the spirit bone being compatible with each of the three, an excuse to show Spirit hall power, and let them gain prestige" Finished Tianheng, Mayi smiled and shouted "I''m looking forward to fighting them!". At that moment someone knocked on the door, an attendant informing us that the opening ceremony will start now, guiding us there. Chapter 61 - Opening act "Now let''s receive one of the favorites, the representative of our Heaven Dou Empire, the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy!" Finally, they announced us. We entered the stadium, showing us towards all the people. There were a lot of people, too much to count them. "Heaven Dou for the win!" "Heaven Dou is the strongest" We were cheered by the crows. Inside all the other teams already were there, us being the last one. It could easily see the Elemental Schools with their respective vivid colors. I could also see all the other academy. I didn''t spend too much time to see Shrek. I was shocked they were dressed with a very ugly green snot color full of advertisement. I couldn''t help to get angry, Rongrong would never dress like that. (How can they force her to wear it? Some heads are going to fly!) After a little presentation of our team, announcing our names and praising us. A useless act, how I hate these formalities, I need to keep smiling hiding my anger and boredom. "Let''s give us our most encourage to the proud of our Empire" said Xue Ye, the Emperor, causing a round of applause. Xue Ye was sat in gold like a throne at the plateau, the best position where only the most important people were. There were 2 people sat next to him, even if a little lower in position, they held a similar power. On one side, there was the Platinum Bishop Salas, the representative of Spirit Hall in the Heaven Dou Empire. He was an old man, was dressed entirely in red robes, wearing a pentagonal platinum hat. He seemed bored and didn''t try to hide, with a posture that seemed that he was sleeping. Being a Platinum Bishop it shows that he is a spirit douluo rank. Finishing the presentation, it came the time for the opening match. This will be the only match for today and it will be completely randomly selected. It didn''t have too much importance but it was to give some exited to the public that came. Bishop Salas was the in-charge to ''randomly'' draw the two teams that will fight. After taking two papers that were delivered to the announcer. The announcer was a man who seemed to be 50 some years old with some type of microphone type spirit, being a spirit elder specialized in communication, his ability improving his voice. "For the opening match will fight... Heaven Dou Imperial Academy second team! Versus... Shrek Academy!" announced shouting. All of us abandoned the stadium, we had reserved seating at the sided. After some time, the ring became empty. Then the fighters of both teams entered. From Shrek, there was Tang San, Xiao Wu, Dai Mubai and 4 others who I didn''t know. (So they are hiding their strength). There were closed no zero cheering being an unknown academy the people didn''t expect anything. I could listen to the people, how this match was prepared to show the strength of the Heaven Dou second team against a very weak team, being very easy to see which team will be. When the Heaven Dou Imperial second team entered, they were boasting, doing poises, they really exuded arrogance thinking that this will be an easy victory. Their captain even entered the ring for the spectator''s side, jumping with some somersaults landing with a smile. I facepalmed "How can they be so morons?! They are weak as fu?k and are boasting" I said to my other teammates. "I''m really ashamed to be of the same academy" said Yan. "They will lose terribly" said Mayi. "How much do you expect them to last?" Osler said "I bet 10 gold coins that they eve last 5 minutes" "5 minutes? I will forget them if they last more than 2" I said. "We are in public, behave a little" Tianheng said. Then he thought a little "I bet for 3 minutes" "1 minute!" said Mayi. "They are nobles, let''s have some faith in them" said Yan "6 minutes?" "Be good with them" said Lingling "I bit for more than 6 minutes" After biting for the match we concentrated on watching it. Like we all expect, it was an overkill from Shrek. They could even fight 3vs1 versus Mubai. Even if it could easily that the 4 other members of Shrek were weaker than the main team, they were stronger than the other team. When Shrek main 3 used their skills, they defeated the other team instantly. "Boring" complained Mayi. "Not even 1 minute, Mayi wins" announced Osler. We all gave 10 gold coins to Mayi. "I only pray to not being compared to the second team, what an embarrassment. It will be a lot better for them to not participate" said Yan. "Really, I a terribly bad performance" I said. After the match, it was decided the next days'' match. The only a little interesting one being Shrek Academy vs Elephant Armored School. With the match decided, the opening ceremony finished, throwing some fireworks. The other members returned to the academy. The other members decided to not see any other match, being only in the preselection phase they''re not really worried to know about them, as the truly powerful one they will hide their true strength. If anything remarkable happened they will be informed, so they preferred to ignore it and concentrate on their training, preparing for the finals. In my case, I decided to stay there and have a talk with dad. I also decided that I would see some of Shrek''s matches, to see if Rongrong participates in some of them. Outside of the arena, I was waiting for dad. After a little time, dad approached me. Dad smiled "An interesting match, eh? Bai?" "If for interesting you refer for pathetic, yeah! I truly interesting one" I said. Dad laughed "I would meet Rongrong, to congratulate her team. Do you want to follow me?" "I want to tell you something before that" I requested. "I am a little just of time so be quick, Bai. If not we could always talk about later" said dad. "It''s only about Rongrong. How can their team dare to dress her like that? You must do something about it" I said. Dad laughed "You really worry for Rongrong" "I saw her face. At first, she seemed to want to die for embarrassment" I said. "Okay, don''t worry I would move some threads" dad accepted "Do you want something else?" "Not that we could talk about it now. Let''s go with Rongrong" Dad nodded and we went to search for Rongrong. We found her leaving the arena accompanied by her teammates. We introduced ourselves to Rongrong''s teammates. Then she introduced all of them, even telling their spirits and spirit rank. Dad couldn''t help to try to rope them to the clan when he learns of their talent. By their expressions, they didn''t seem too interested, with the exemption of the 4 weaker ones that participated in the last match. Rongrong acted strange when she presented Oscar to dad. Her voice was lower than normal and she seemed a little nervous. Being a food master with so much rank at such a young age it''s really strange. But he was really shy and nervous never daring to cross my sight. When dad, Tang San and I were alone dad guided us to somewhere "After knowing who is your father I asked around to learn more about him. I''m bringing you to meet someone who knows about him" dad explained. I lifted my eyebrow suspicious of dad. Dad guided us inside a tea house. We went to a private room, inside we found Xue Qinghe waiting for us with a smile. After a presentation and a little talk about Tang San''s father, praising him and telling his exploits, his fight against Spirit Hall... Tang San thanked us and left the room thoughtfully. For all the conversation, Qinghe maintained his prince-like behavior, smiling calmly, trying to make a good first impression. When Tang San left "So, did you want for Tang San to meet Qinghe?" I asked dad "You already knew that information, and even with that you hide important thing, only telling the minimum necessary to obtain his favor" "I''m glad that you understood it" answered dad "Tang San will become a powerhouse in the future, it will be very useful to have a good relation with him. As we support Qinghe as the new emperor is normal to wide his connections" I sighed "As manipulative as always". Dad smiled "It''s being an ?du?t" I turned to Qinghe "So? What do you think of Tang San?" "He has a lot of potential. He doesn''t look like a normal 14 years old child. His calm and collected attitude with his spirit rank and power at that age, it already made worth to have a good relation with him. If we sum his father, I really would like to recruit him" Qinghe explained. "With his character, it may be impossible. Keep a good relationship first, treat him like a friend, not a subordinate" advised dad. Qinghe bowed "Thanks teacher for your directions" Then Qinghe turned to me "Bai, what do you think about the tournament?" "Even if there''s some good team, I don''t think that they could win. Of the actual teams, we only need to be wary of Spirit Hall. Shrek is a special case, they grew a lot very quickly, so if they continued to grow like that, maybe they can put a fight. But as now, I think that our team is the one with the highest probability to win" I explained. "Win, take some honor to Heaven Dou. It will be great to take the wind of Spirit Hall''s sails and taking three 10.000 years spirit bones" said Qinghe. After that we ate all together while talking about the tournament, I was told that in the finals, all the teams will be accompanied by Qinghe as a representative since his father can''t leave the empire. After saying goodbye to Qinghe and he left dad told me "For tomorrow match, Shrek Academy vs Elephant Armored School I would like you to accompany me. This match was done in purpose by Bishop Salas to lower Shrek reputation and I know that the schoolmaster of the Elephant Armored School will accompany Salas, so you being there won''t be anything too strange. The opinion of a young generation surely will be enlightening" "Dad, are you teaching me to become the next clan head?" I asked. "What makes you think like that?" He answered with a question. "You''re always explaining how the clan and important people works, like this. You are inviting me to meet some very important people. You never did anything of this to Rongrong" I explained. "It seems that you discovered me. I would like you to be the next head. Rongrong is too mischievous and straightforward. I know that she has the talent and if she strives a little she will be a good one. But I''ll prefer you, you will manage all the clan''s matter fine, you passed off the test that I put to you" Explained dad. "It''s only that I will be better? I don''t think so. If I succeed you, a lot of elders of the clan will oppose it, it is impossible that you don''t have it in consideration, the clan is a support one, it didn''t have much sense to have me as his head. I am as an elder is enough" "I will tell you the truth, Bai" dad said seriously "The clan''s head is a lot of responsibilities, it will limit you, you must always think cool, keeping your true emotion hidden. Even if I think that Rongrong could be a good clan master, the position will break her. She can''t keep herself, she will be crashed by the responsibilities. In that front, I know that you will keep better, your older, your more m?tur?. I trust you to this" "Fuck! What will you do if I escape? I abandon all behind and leave the clan" I asked "It will be your decision and I will accept it. But are you really sure you will leave Rongrong?" dad answered. I surrendered "It seems that I would be the next clan''s head. Dad, you are a manipulative demon" I said angrily. "Don''t worry, Bai. You will also learn to become one" said dad leaving the room while laughing. Then I returned to the academy, I lay on the bed organizing the new information "Fuck" I couldn''t help to said tiredly. Chapter 62 - Elephant Armored School The next day was Shrek''s match. I wore my formal robes and prepared to go to the stadium. The other members already decided to not come and see the match so they stayed at the academy training. In Mayi''s case, she asked to follow me, but I negated her. As a formal meeting with the most important people of the empire it won''t be polite to bring another person without invitation, moreover, Mayi could be a lot of things but being lady-like is not one of them. Leaving the academy, dad was waiting for me outside, besides a carriage. "Prepared, Bai?" Asked dad. I shrugged "I don''t have any other option" Dad smiled "Always so positive. It won''t be too horrible, I have a good relationship with the emperor, and he will favor you as one of his representative team. For bishop Salas, he can be very grumpy, ignore him" "A meeting with the most important people of the empire, what will I worry about?"I sarcastically said. "Don''t worry too much. It''s not like a formal meeting, take it as simple as watching a match. I expect a lot of you" then he smiles "And even if you offend them, it''s not like they could do anything. The power of three titled douluos plus my own support can''t be ignored" "So you say that there''s the possibility of an all-out fight, thank god! I''m much calm now" I continued with the sarcasm. "You will do it great" dad signaled the carriage " Let''s go" We both entered the carriage that took us to the stadium. Inside, we were guided to a room. Only seeing the door you could already see how much VIP it was, exuding wealth and status. Walking through a room that even if wasn''t very full, the little furniture showed a prim and noble air. On the other side of the room, there was the exit to a VIP box. It was the same that yesterday they were sat. There wasn''t anyone yer. This time there were 4 seatings. Dad went towards the one on the right side and sat. "Sadly, as you are now you didn''t have any rank so it will be impossible for you to sit. You should stay standing" dad said. "Why are we the firsts one to arrive?" I asked. "As a favor to take you here, at least I wanted to give then some respects arriving a little before than them. Usually, the emperor arrives last, even when there''s sometimes the bishop arrives late with a bad excuse" dad explained. I went towards dad and positioned behind his seating. Shortly, two men came. One of then was Bishop Salas, the other one was a big man, more than 2,5 meters with white hair and beard with strong muscles. For dad explanation, he should be the school head of the Elephant Armored School, Huyan Zhen. Entering Huyan Zhen made a light bow toward dad while the bishop only looked at us and sneered. I made a light bow while dad only smiled. While they may have better standings than me, that I wasn''t even the heir of the clan yet, as a part if the Seven Treasured Glaze Titled Clan, not affiliated with Spirit Hall or even strictly with the empire, I don''t have the need to kneel or do a complete bow. A light bow is enough to show my respect for their power. They both took the two sits on the left side. When they were sat Salad looked at me attentively "This is your son? As irrespective as his father" I was a little angry but I keep my calm and calmly said "My name is Ning Bai. A p???sur? to meet you, bishop" only gaining a sneer. He entered and sat at the center sit. "Very glad to meet you again" the emperor said. He looked at me and smiled, the smile was like a father one. "Especially, to our new additions" I light bowed, this time a little more respectful "It''s an honor to meet you, your majesty". The emperor smiled "There''s no need to be so formal. You are my son''s friend, he praised you a lot" "It''s my honor to be friends with the prince. And I can''t compare with him, at least now" I answered. The emperor laughed "The youth should be ambitious" Huyan Zhen also bowed "It''s an honor to meet the sun of the empire" "I am happy that you could come, schoolmaster Huyan. What are your expectations for this match?" The emperor asked. "This year we have a strong team. Especially, captain Huyan Li, who is my grandson. He is especially talented, being stronger than I was at his age. We all trust him, maybe he can achieve our long dream of arriving at titled douluo rank" he said. "Hoho" the emperor nodded "What do you think about their rivals?" "Even if they surprised us in yesterday match against Heaven Dou second team, especially, the boy with a 10.000 years old ring as his 4th one. I don''t think my school will have a lot of problems to win. With their strong defense and coordination, they will not be easily defeated, the other team won''t finish them quickly and tired themselves. They won''t break their defense" Xue Ye turned to dad "You seemed to have high esteem to Shrek team yesterday, schoolmaster Ning. What do you expect would be the results?" Dad smiled "I am not completely sure. As my daughter is part of the Shrek team, I had the p???sur? to meet all their member and I must say they are very talented. In yesterday match, they only used 3 of their main team, so it depends on which members will participate" At that time both teams entered the ring. From one side there was the Elephant Armored team, specializing in defense, all their 7 members were more than 2 meters tall with big muscles. On the other side came Shrek, they made some changes respect yesterday match. Now with 5 main members, Zhu Zhuqing and Oscar substituting Tai Long and Jiang Zhu. "You could see the difference in their aura, my team surely will win" said Huyan Zhen. The emperor turned to me "Let''s hear the young generation opinion, what do you think about the match, Bai?" I thought for a little "Now they have 5 main members respect the 3 of yesterday. The two new addition I know them to be a food type and an agility one. The change in support has a meaning, wanting to concentrate in a long battle of endurance, the strange is the other one change. Changing a power one for a speed type it would be usually considered a bad option against defense system. I doubt Shrek don''t know about it, so their plan must depend on it" "Oh? What do you think their plan will be?" asked Xue Ye. "Against the Elephant Armored team the most important is to break their defense, so I will say that the agility one is necessary to it. For example a spirit fusion" I reasoned. Xue Ye nodded and said "Let''s see the match". After the presentation of the teams, the match started with all the fighters activating their spirits. Just as the match began the Armored team invoked shields and advanced towards Shrek trying to push them outside the ring. From Shrek, Oscar gave a sausage to Tang San. When Tang San ate it, a beautiful pair of blue wings grew on his back, then he used his Blue Silver Grass to connect all their teammates, all of them flying, passing over their defense. Bishop Salas sneered "It seems that our little companion was wrong. The change didn''t have any meaning in power, it was a change is weights. With the Armored team unable to fly they will have the advantage" I only smiled at him (If it would be only for the weight, there would be more option) "Such a little trick won''t be enough to win against them" explained Huyan Zhen. The Elephant Armored team counterattack with a combination, they used themselves as a cannon, gaining momentum, shooting themselves towards the rivals. This new tactic forced Shrek to the ground. After some exchange of blows, Tang San finally used his 4th skill trapping in a cage all the rivals. Huyan Li could quickly liberated, breaking the cage. But he found himself surrounded but the 5 offensive members of Shrek at the mercy of their attacks. Seeing his grandson being beaten, Huyan Zhen buzzed something. I was sure that it was communicating with his grandson. "Schoolmaster Huyan doing this seems against the rules" dad said. Huyan Zhen feigned innocence "I don''t know what are you referring" At that moment Huyan Li activated a head spirit bone, after an external one and trunk one it was one of the rarest types. This spirit bone was in the form of an elephant head helmet, increasing tremendously his defense, he could resist Shrek attacks until his companions finally broke through the cages. "To have a head spirit bone, your grandson sure has talent and luck" Xue Ye said. The match seemed to start again, this time the Armored team decided to attack the weaker ones. When they were about to take out Zhuqing, she and Dai Mubai used a spirit fusion. A giant white tiger appeared. I grinned at bishop Salas, gaining an angry grunt of his part. Taking advantage of the other distracted Armored''s members distracted by the other Shrek''s members. The tiger attacked Huyan Li who was alone, defeating him. Then it could take out the other two members. For their part, the combination of Tang Sand and Xiao Wu took out the other two members. Now with 5 members unable to continue, the Armored team only has 2 members left. Shrek in its part had 5, both Zhuqing and Mubai too exhausted after their spirit fusion. The 2 left decided to attack Tang San and Xiao Wu, ignoring the other members for their inability to break their defense, taking advantage of their tired states after their fight. The main problem for them is that thanks to the food support of Oscar they weren''t too tired. Tang San and Xiao Wu with their great coordination quickly disposed the last to members, winning the match. The main factor of their victory is the good control of Tang San over his team and the enemies, plus the spirit fusion. Huyan Zhen could help to clench his hand angrily. A match that he was sure to win was lost. "The effect of a control system is really great, increasing strength and avoiding weakness," said dad. With the match finished, the stadium started to become empty, dad and I also left after said our goodbyes to them. Outside the arena, we took our carriage that brought to my academy. "You did it great today, Bai. Formal, but showing the pride of our clan. In the future it would only be easy" congratulated dad. "For you, it may easy, you are on the same ground. I never could talk unless the asked me" I complained. Dad smiles and left me alone, I returned to the academy. Chapter 63 - Nightmare! One week passed, Shrek didn''t fight against any important team winning easily all the matches. Now, there were only 3 teams who are unbeaten like Shrek, being the Godwing Academy and the Thunderclap Academy. This week I heard strange news. It seems that some people suicide. The strange part is that 3 of them were the most powerful ones of teams that were competing in the tournament. It''s not like they are the favorites like the 5 elementals academies, but they were near. Being only 3 cases I would doubt it, but one thing took my interest. The 3 people were known to have a type of mental spirit, specializing in mental defense. Being a suicide of people with mental defense resistance, I thought that maybe a powerful mind attacker was the culprit of the suicides, wanting to eliminate them. That the so-called suicides were not suicides at all, being murdered by mind attacks. Mind attacks are one of the most profound and mystic kind of attacks. Very few studies had been made due to the low number of them. This low number also made the people very frightened by them, is difficult to cope with the unknown. With mind attacks, it will easily make a murder seems like a suicide without leaving any proof of the contrary. As I had free time, I was investigating the city, to find something strange. Until now, I could only make some conjectures. That I could find in Heaven Dou City there were only 3 people who could make these attempts. Mao Xia, a spirit sage and vice-head of Heaven Dou City defense, with a Dreaming Ghost spirit. Shi Nian, a spirit sage with Brutal Dream as spirit. He is the vice-dean of one of the academies participants, the Blue Sunshine Academy which specialized in mental powers. Ji Jue, a spirit sage with a gemstone spirit. She is from Star Luo Empire, in my opinion, she came to spy in Heaven Dou teams. She is the most probably guilty of the three, wanting to lower Heaven Dou forces, but I am not really convinced of her. The top competitors are always watched careful and these little attacks wouldn''t affect much the final progress of Heaven Dou Empire. There''s always the option of some secret expert or that all of this is simply my imagination and were natural cases, caused by the stress of them. Just in case, I was observing the three of them. According to dad, my Mind Separation Control made me almost immune to mental attacks so I wasn''t very worried for them to find me and attack. Mind oriented spirit master was very skillful in them, but if you could cope with the attack, they are mostly useless, having the actual physical strength of 2 lower realms. Today most important match was the Elephant Armored School against the Thunderclap Academy, as the most important it was the one made in the central ring, being watched by the majority of the people. As I was approaching the Arena I detected someone marching in the opposite direction. Curiously, I used my Mind Eye to see who was. It was a man who seemed over 60 years old, with purple hair and beard. I recognized him instantly as Shi Nian. He seemed in a hurry and was actually hiding his presence. I used my Stealth Treasure, doing my cultivation undetectable and being extremely difficult to find me without any specific searching ability. I sensed Shi Nian activating one of his abilities, one black ring shining. It seems that his control was good, the spirit energy exuded was despicable. I didn''t know what ability was or who was its target, but not sensing anything different in my I didn''t that I was targeted. After some time he made it outside the city. I could also detect someone following near us, it was Tang San. His eyes were a little glazed with some purple light in them. After going inside the forest outside the city, Shi Nian stopped while Tang San who was more than 2 kilometers away was heading down towards his position. Detecting that there wasn''t anyone near except him. I decided to attack Shi Nian, stopping him from attacking Tang San. I stealthily approached him from behind. I invoked my sword in my right hand. I swiftly charged toward him. He seemed to detect me, being a mental type his detecting capacities were over the same realm. However, he was too late. Before he could turn towards me, I had already slashed him. My sword easily cutting his unprotected right arm that fell to the ground followed by a fountain of blood. "Ahhhhh!" Shouted Shi Nian in pain "How do you dare, little shit?!" he shouted angrily. I pointed my sword at his neck, leaving only 1 centimeter between us "I know of your crimes, it will be better to surrender. Maybe you could keep your life" "Keep my life? How naive of you" he grinned "You lost your opportunity". Sensing danger I pierced forward to his neck, easily piercing through, no! My sword passed through him like going through air. The Shi Nian in front of me disappeared, then a multiples copies of Shi Nian appeared surrounding me, he was grinning "It was not my plan to kill someone of the most famous clan, but I won''t lose this opportunity. I would only need to run away, surely Spirit Hall will appreciate my efforts and protect me" his smile grew bigger "Nightmare!" Then I found myself in a familiar place. I was in the Seven Treasure Glazed Title Clan''s mansion. My body rejuvenated returning how it looked when I was 6 years old. Beside me there was mu-mama. Yeah, she was trying to absorb her 9th spirit, she would be one of the youngest titled douluo, a strong one with a 100.000 years old ring. Something went wrong and the fire around her started to burn brighter and uncontrolled. Mama was dying. I run towards her, I didn''t know why but a wave of great anger came from me. I could help to be angry, blaming fate. I also started burning, so much that I was reduced to cinders. The surrounding changed. I grew a little being like 8 or 9 years old. I looked at my surroundings and I was in a forest, a big tree was beside me. (What happened to mama?) I thought nervously. At that time a breeze passed me and I was completely calm. I invoked my sword pointing at the big tree "You will be my second ring!" I shouted. From the earth shot roots like lances, that pierced my body. I could keep calm and started shouting in pain. The scenery changed, I found myself in a bigger forest I even grew more. I touched around my body trying searching from some injured. Then from nowhere appeared a lot of wolves, there was also Rongrong and a girl. Then I listened to a *zap*. "Why think about when you can always act?" I shouted. I started attacking the wolves without thinking, only concentrating on fighting. After 2 seconds I could listen to a shout. I turned towards it and saw Rongrong being eaten by the wolves. Her dead body looked at me and said "Why, Big brother?". "Fuck! Rongrong!?". The surrounding changed again, the forest seemed very similar to the other one with only some little changes, I also grew a little. My hands were still trembling thinking about Rongrong being eaten because I didn''t think about protecting her. "Mayi, let''s go," I said with a cold and indifferent voice. Both of us charges towards the dragon. The dragon seeing us coming near it growled. Its head''s sword started to shine, from it a white light ray shot toward us. I stepped back, using Mayi as a shield. Mayi stopped for a second using her body. Then a used her to impulse me towards the dragon. I slashed at him, with only one slash I easily cut its head that now fell to the ground. I indifferently looked at Mayi. She had a big hole in her ?h?st. Then sorrow came to me, I let my sword fall to the ground, looking at my hand disgusted "What the fu?k did I do?" I lamented crying. Then the scenery changed. I was in a forest a lot less leafy than the last one. I was surrounded by the people of Shrek, there was also Mayi. Besides us, there was an uncountable number of beast. I listened a *crack*. I smirked, I turned to all the others "Follow my command!" I signaled one of them "You to the left", "You to the right". They didn''t follow my order and stayed completely quiet "Why are you doing? Follow my orders" I said domineeringly. "I''ll do it myself" I charged towards the beast, that easily beat me. The scenery changed, this time it was one very strange that I didn''t remember. It was some kind of room. The room was full of chairs with a desk, there was a big window on one side, the window had bars seeming to want to trap the people inside. I was different, I had a very average complexion, not fat or fit, with straight short black hair. After I second I found that in all the 20 chairs were sat, boys and girls. They were all looking attentively towards the front at an old man of maybe 60 years who was writing something in a green board. I jumped up shouting surprised "Where I am?". All the people turned towards me and started laughing "Hahaha". I shouted angrily at them "I''m serious, don''t laugh" I tried to invoke my sword and swing it around intimidating, this only made them laugh louder "Hahaha, what a chuni!" "Really a fool" "Where do you think you are? Hahaah". The old man looked straight at my eyes a little angry "Return to your seat, Mr. Blanch. And start copying the blackboard". I felt a sad air. I bowed to the old m-teacher "Sorry professor Martin. I am a little sleepy. Sorry for distracting the class" I returned to sit. "I expect that it won''t happen again" the teacher said grumpily. "Too much time playing games? Hahaha" said one boy. "Quiet!" shouted the teacher making all the laughs stop. I took my pen with my left hand like always and started copying the board. After finishing the class, I left the school to return home, I really was bored with that everyday life without any meaning. I stopped before a crosswalk for the red light of the traffic lights. When it became green I started crossing it. While crossing I heard a loud claxon, I felt my heart squeezed. I put my hand at my ?h?st feeling a lot of pain [Like hell!] I listened to someone shout. I was pushed back to the ground. The pressure at my ?h?st disappeared, now I became more handsome with silky white hair. In my previous position, I was there. I exactly copy of me was there standing, no! At my previous position, there was Paul Blanch with an angry look in his face. Paul approached the truck that used the claxon, It was stopped before the crosswalk talking with a person. Paul started to be surrounded by a black aura. He kicked the truck, completely destroying it pushing more than 50 meters away and crashing and destroying a nearby building, killing a lot of people in the process "Next time, don''t use the claxon in a populated area, little fu?ker!" shouted with a mix of anger and relieve while he grinned. All our surroundings dispersed leaving both of us in a black world. Paul looked at me with contempt and sneered "Useless!". Then, he ignored me turning 180o and walked forward. In front of him appeared diverse figures. Shrek''s members, the emperor''s team members, uncle Sword, uncle Bone, mum, dad, Qinghe, Chenxiang, and Mayi. Like being all the same person they talked at the same time being easy to understand "Leave!", "Monster!", "Liar!", "Impostor!", "You''re not Bai!" they said with angry and sad voices, some of them even crying. Paul grinned, from his left hand a completely black sword appeared "As if I care!" he shouted swinging the sword that shot a black aura dispersing all the people. He finally looked to me "Stay there lamenting" he turned again to the front "Now it''s my turn" said disappearing, leaving me alone in the black world. Chapter 64 - Against Shi Nian Shi Nian was holding the injured where previously was his right arm. Using spirit power he could stop the hemorrhage. He was looking at the white-haired boy beside him with a combination of anger and enjoyment. The white-haired boy was struggling, shouting and cursing, seemingly to be in great pain while his eyes were unfocused. "To think that I would lose my arm by a little spirit king" Shi Nian said in anger, then his tone came to enjoyment "At least, I will have the opportunity to see another young genius die at my hand. It''s a shame that I cannot see what he is dreaming, but his grieving is great" "However, attacking one member of the main team of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy and the son of the Seven Treasure Glazed Title schoolmaster, I will be persecuted by Heaven Dou Empire and the Seven Treasure Clan. My best option will be to kill him quickly and then left the Empire. With my power I will be easily accepted in Star Luo Empire or Spirit Hall" Shi Nian said for himself. "It''s a shame to finish this much funny suffering, but I need to finish him quickly" Shi Nian took out a dagger, it has an intrinsic pattern being made of an alloy usually made to kill spirit beast. As Shi Nian was approaching the white-haired boy, he suddenly sensed pressure from the boy that made him step back unconsciously, even drops of sweat started to fall from the back of his neck. From the by a black aura started to manifest, as a spirit king, the aura was not strong enough to affect a spirit sage like Shi Nian. The problem was what it could be sensed in it, a void that will devour all, leaving anything alive. Being only near it, Shi Nian could even sense that some of his vitality was being lost, approaching it seemed to go nearer to death. The boy seemed affected by this aura, his hair slowly changing his previously white color to a deep black. His expression of suffering changed, his facial features sharpened, even his spirit power changed its nature. Looking at the now black-haired boy, it was like seeing a completely different person. Shi Nian wouldn''t recognize him being the same if he didn''t view his transformation. At that moment, the boy aura that was exuding furiously stabilized, being a thin film around him. Then the boy opened his eyes, a completely black eyes, who showed sadness, death with a hint of madness, dispersing his aura. I finally opened my eyes, how many years it was the last time? I looked around and I could see that I was in a forest. In front of me, there was an old man with a little frightened face. I looked at my right hand to the sword that I was holding. I changed the sword to my left hand, being more familiar at using. Holding the sword I could sense a disgusting sensation of rejection and I understood that I couldn''t use any of its skills. I withdrew it, it is only a piece of trash for me. Then I invoked my Oreo spirit at my left hand, manifesting a floating Oreo with 5 black rings "At least, I could use you, eh?" "You have twin spirit!" Shi Nian said shocked. I ignored him and did some stretches familiarizing with my body "It feels good, to actually move a true body not a spiritual one" I breathed intense "It''s really great being outside" "How could you ignore me!" shouted the old man in front of me "I don''t know how you could break my seventh skill, but don''t think that you could leave this place alive" I looked at the old man, with my enthusiasm for finally being in control of the body I almost forgot him. I put my left hand under my chin thoughtfully, I was remembering the last memories experimented by the body. "Oh! So you are Shi Nian!" I said realizing his identity "This little idiot, uselessly protecting the main character when there''s no need" I spatted. I glanced at his eyes causing him to flinch "Really, I should thank you for your help. If not for your attack maybe I will be trapped forever, However, you are trying to kill this body and I can''t forget you about it. Really, I don''t know if hug you or kill you" I said thoughtfully. "As I am not into man, I will go for the second option" From my left arm formed a black sword. I looked closely to it "It''s good that you follow me" Shi Nian started laughing "You really think you have the capabilities you kill me. Dream on!" One of his black ring started shining, he pointed me with his left arm and shot a black ray "<5th skill: Mental death>. You will die here". I snorted "Are you really trying to kill me with this little mental attack". Before the ray stroked me, from my sword expanded a black aura surrounding, when the ray made contact with the aura, it simply dissolved, the aura continued expanding enclosing Shi Nian in it. "" "Do-domain! How can I spirit king have one!" Shouted shocked Shi Nian. I grinned "It''s easy when you expend all your time in it" I clenched my hand in fury "Enough time for I useless bastard to profit for my comprehension" "This changes nothing!" shouted Shi Nian. Another black ring illuminated "Die! Mental Shock!" He shouted but nothing happened. "You really have bad luck. My domain is death, how could a little mental attack affect it. This is not the realm for the living, especially countering, mental and plant spirits" I grinned "Now, die!" I charged toward him "Don''t approach!" he shouted trembling swinging a little dagger toward me. "Ok, I won''t approach, as there''s no need to it" I said, concentrating intent at the tip of my sword I shot a little black sphere no more than 1 cm of diameter. The black sphere quickly shot toward Shi Nian, Shi Nian hurriedly concentrate his spirit energy creating a barrier to stop the black sphere "There''s no defense against death, it would come to all" I said laughing. The sphere simply ignored the barrier passing through like air, it lightly striking his ?h?st, where''s the heart is situated. Touching Shi Nian, the sphere dissolved without any sound, seeming to not cause anything. However, Shi Nian''s eyes lost his light, he stayed in the same position standing now completely dead. Looking at the dead body I couldn''t help to laugh "Be proud, you are the first of a long list of people who I would kill" After some time I calmed myself "Fenrir" I said in low voice. From nowhere appeared a big 10 meters long black and white with some gold lines hound. It had a ravenous look in its eyes, seeming to want to eat all. I pointed to the corpse "Eat it". Fenrir appeared next to the corpse, so fast that seemed to teletransport. Opening its mouth he easily engulfed Shi Nian "Good boy, stay quiet" I ordered. I then turned to one side, covering my sword in black intent I slashed towards one tree. From my sword was shot a black slash aura, that was cutting through everything in its way. From a near tree just before the slash passed, I figure jumped to a next tree evading the attack that cut the figure''s previous position. "Do you think that you could hide from me, I can detect life, main character!" I shouted to the figure that was reveled as Tang San. He had a shocked face in his face and was sweating, I don''t know if it was a surprise of me to find him or simply experimenting my attacks. I expanded my domain enclosing him, but this time I only created a dome. Even if in the outside you could see a black some, the people inside weren''t affected by the domain, they were in an enclosed space, seeming a ground area floating in the void. "Don''t try to escape, it''s useless" I warned "You will be a good mummy, a stepping stone to make me stronger" I grinned "I will show that I am the main character! There''s no need for weakness!" I said launching towards Tang San. Chapter 65 - Against the black-haired boy (It seems that I was being misled by some kind of illusion. By the power of it, the user will be a high-rank spirit master, it may be related to the suicides last week. I will need to let him drop his guard and try to kill him in one-shot). Suddenly, the illusion broke and I could clearly see that I was outside Heaven Dou City (Why would the illusion break so suddenly) I decided to investigate the cause of it. 1 kilometer away I could finally found what I could expect to be the culprits. I quietly approach hiding my presence, watching them far enough for them to not detect me. Now that I was near enough I could finally see them, there were 2 people. One of them an old man that I recognized as Shi Nian, the vice dean of the Blue Sunshine Academy. The other one seemed a lot younger, with black hair and a strange air surrounding him. Shi Nian showed his 7 rings pressuring with his spirit sage realm. For the boy side, he only showed his spirit one moment, and he didn''t even use it. It was two cylindrical caps with something white between them, it has 5 black rings around it. This configuration should be impossible unless he had twin spirits, being that one his second one to put rings. The boy cultivation seemed strange and I couldn''t detect exactly what realm he was. Then, both of them started to fight, Shi Nian tried to attack, but the boy invoked a black sword and dissolved Shi Nian attack. Black aura expanded from the boy (Domain!) sweat started falling at my neck''s back. I could sense death from it, my instinct telling me to not go near it. The boy shot a black sphere to Shi Nian who couldn''t defend against it and Shi Nian was killed instantly. "Fenrir" the boy said, appearing a big wolf that swallowed Shi Nian body (Maybe this is his other spirit, like master an alive spirit). The boy''s sword started to exude a black aura and the boy turn to my direction and did a light swing. Following my instinct, I jumped away. The light swing shot a dark aura that cut more than 100 meters including my previous position. "Do you think that you could hide from me, I can detect life, main character!" the boy shouted seeming a little deranged (Fuck! He could find me. And what is he referring as main character) From the boy black aura expanded, this time it surrendered us, creating a barrier. I could sense anything beyond that barrier. "Don''t try to escape, it''s useless" he warned "You will be a good mummy, a stepping stone to make me stronger," he said grinning "I will show that I am the main character! There''s no need for weakness!" he said charging toward me with his sword. (He seems a little crazy, but having the capability of killing a spirit sage he is very dangerous) I used my first skill launching Blue Silver Grass to stop his movements. "Oh, you think that a weak grass would do anything. Let''s try fire!" the boy''s face changed to an angry one. From his sword came raging fire, even with my grass fire resistance, it could only resist enough to touch him. I activated my second skill Parasite, growing grass around him stopping his movement. The boy tried to burn the grass, but with difficulty now stronger than before. Taking advantage that he was blocked I shot him with my sleeve hidden weapon, 13 needles were shot all of them with a potent paralyzing poison. The boy grinned "It''s true, you have a good fire and ice resistance thanks to I don''t know what poisonous immortal herb" His flames disappeared, changing to lighting turning his sword yellow. The grass in contact with the lighting burned. He swings his sword deflating all the needles. He shot towards me again, this time more quickly. I activated my external spirit bone, and using the eight lances I impulsed myself jumped to the left evading his attack while shooting him more needles, that due some magnetism created by his lighting were deflected. "Not bad, it seems that my speed is not enough. Try to stop this" the boy said, his lighting disappeared and his sword became a translucent one. He ''hit'' the air around him cracking it, he disappeared in the process. I opened my eyes shocked. I extended grass around me in all directions, trying to find him. I couldn''t detect him, it was like he disappeared with a trace. I calmed myself guarding me against any attack After 3 seconds, I finally sensed a tuck from my grass, some movement at my back. I turned around protected by the Eight Spider Lances, blocking a strike of the boy who appeared. "Tch!" clicked his tongue the boy "If only I was the main one, I could easily control the other" he sighed "It seems that this is the maximum that I can. Let''s go with what I''m good at". His sword became black "Your spirit bone is a good one, improving your mobility and giving you a potent poison that can be upgraded with you. But the defense it''s not his best property. If you want to live, next time use your hammer" the boy said this time surrounding his sword in a black aura that seemed to circle around his blade. (The sword seemed a lot sharper than before, and certainly, I couldn''t block with my spirit bone, but how can know about my hammer spirit?) I was shocked. He light slashed towards, shooting black aura. I hurriedly evaded it using my Ghost Shadow Perplexing track leaving afterimages behind me. His eyes seemed to always follow me. "When you attain a domain, there''s no way I couldn''t detect your position, Tang San. Don''t play around" he slashed two times forming a cross to my position. I bend my knees twisting my body passing under the cross, but I couldn''t completely evade and two of my lances were cut. If a directly receive one attack of him I''m dead. Before I could stand properly, he was already at me slashing me. I invoked my Clear Sky Hammer blocking his strike. With his sword blocked, he twisted his body kicking me at my stomach pushing me away while spitting blood. While in air, I extended both of my arms, shooting 16 needles at the same time. I crashed more than 20 meters away to a tree. The needles were rebounding between them attacking the boy to impossible angles, the 10th secret technique of Tang Sect Batwing Rebound. The boy turned serious, exuding a lot of black aura away from him. The needles weren''t strong enough to pierce the aura and were deflected by it "A good trick, but it will only be effective in the case that I didn''t have spirit energy" with the reflected ones, one needle continued to rebound at shot to his back. This needle was the true attack, Yama''s Invitation! All the others were only a decoy for it. I already recognized his spirit energy as one at the spirit king realm. Yama''s Invitation will corrode his spirit energy killing him. The boy''s face became alarmed and before the needle could hit, unlike the other one that was deflected, he evaded it bending down. The needle passed across hitting a nearly already dead tree, that at being hit by the needle started to dissolve. "That was near, this will be too much to take. I already met Yama one time, it will be better to avoid its invitation rather than defend against it" the boy said. "Ho-how could you know it? Who are you!" I shouted shocked. He approached me with his sword at his hand and grinned "I am Paul Blanch, nice to meet you". He then lifted his sword and slashed at me. I was very injured, his previously kick was not a normal one, I could detect my organs weakening. Knowing I couldn''t evade his attack I went for all. I pierced with all my lances towards him, if he wanted to evade, he should stop his attack. What happened next surprised me a lot, he grinned and stopped his attack. His aura moved from the sword to his body creating a light film around. My Spider Lances pierces through with difficulty, only leaving light injuries, but good enough to poison him. I could see the places where I pierced started turning purple "Thanks. I will be careful with the rabbit if I were you, losing the herb will be her end, at least like a human" this was the last words that I listened before receiving a hit at my neck and falling unconscious. Chapter 66 - Trash Spirit "Hahaha! Having a real fight is surely great! Even if I was sure of my victory!" I laughed withdrawing my domain and sword. Then I looked at the injures made by Tang San''s Eight Spider Lancers, which were becoming purple and extending. "The spirit bone poison is influenced by the user, having acquired the fire and ice poison. If Tang San could resist both poisons improving his physique, why cannot I do it??Wonder If I gave a Red Velvet Oreo?" I chanted. A black ring shined and on my left hand manifested an Oreo, this time with the cookie part red instead of the usual black. My Oreo spirit 5th skill Red Antidote Oreo, it can cure any poison of the one who ate it. I really don''t know its limit so I didn''t risk with Yama''s Invitation. The Oreo created by this skill will last forever, always maintaining its properties until being eaten or in the case that I die, the bad part is that I only can create 3 every year. With so little uses it can be considered quite a trash ability, however, the best part is that it didn''t cancel the poison in your body, it adapts the body to the poison he has in the body. I will obtain all the benefits of the poison, plus a complete immunity to it, without any drawback. Think about doping without any drawbacks. It sucks that I was not obtained before or that I couldn''t control the body. If I had, Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan would have given everything they have to obtain it. Immunity to their Jade Phosphor Serpent poison, obtain all its benefits. A better alternative of healing it or redirect it to a spirit bone, losing any good effect that could be made in their body. "This surely will make Dugu Bo stronger, even if it''s not as important as before maybe I could make some deal with him, having another titled douluo on your part is nothing bad" I ate the Oreo and sat cultivating, distributing the new Oreo energy all around my body. After half an hour finished. Inspecting my body I could feel it stronger. Before it had the physical strength of a late spirit emperor, close to sage. Now I could go on par with a spirit sage, without using spirit energy I could fight against a spirit sage with a spirit beast and not lose. I also gained some near immunity to all poisons, with the combination of cold and hot energy there''s not a lot of poisons that could resist it. I stood up doing light stretches "Now, now. What could be my next course of action? The reality is that I don''t know Bai''s condition, only being aware of the very short memory of him. So I don''t really know what he did. By Shi Nian attack now it would be the Tournament arc. The best I could do it will kill Xiao Wu, even if her spirit ring is too strong for me I could really use her spirit bone, however, I don''t think it''s possible to attack her without being noticed" "The appearance of 100.000 years old spirit ring will be detected by a lot of people and being the Tournament I don''t think that I could escape as how much guards there are" I said thoughtfully. "Yata!"I clapped my hands "As now, the best option will be go to Slaughtering City, with my current physique plus my sword cultivation I don''t think that I would have any problem. A god inheritance is too good to ignore" I grinned "Plus killing and s?x will be the best to vent the frustrations of being trapped 10 years" As I was about to left I suffered a slight headache "FUCK! Fuck! You really want to return, leave me alone and stay in the dark like I was before! Why you must to be the one in control, useless weak trash. Even as support I contributed a lot more in our strength!" I cursed having sensed a push to my mind, recognizing as Bai''s mind returning and pushing me away. "Fuck! I really have little time!" I turned to Fenrir who had waited at one side guarding me all this time "Good job" I said kindly. Then I ordered angry "Spit it out!". Fenrir followed my order and spit out something. It was a blue shining little cranium, a head spirit bone. I took it observing closely "A ten thousand years old head spirit bone if I should have been obtained by Tang San and given to Rongrong. It''s a pity that it is more oriented to support than anything else. I don''t really know what to do with it" I thought "Maybe it will be better to give to Rongrong, I liked her character and is our body''s sister. In the manga, they used in the final battle vs Spirit Hall, but I really don''t know if this world follows the manga, novels or a completely alternative route, plus the variations that Bai could make. Fuck, why couldn''t I simply be always in control?" Then an idea came to my mind "I have little time and I really want to try my hypothesis. At worst he would die, causing Heaven Dou strategic power to lower, but I don''t think that would change to much the story. By that time, I expect to be in control so I will change the war nonetheless. Let''s try some luck!" I said grinning. I saved the spirit bone in the storage bracelet and went away. I then returned to the city, it was near night time with the city illuminated. Not knowing were Shrek Academy was, I asked some passerby who showed me directions. Arriving at the doors of Shrek Academy it will be better to not show my presence. I invoked my bone sword at my left hand. Holding it, it became translucent. I stroked the air, causing it to crack and disappeared. Walking in another plane is strange as fu?k, easy to lost if you are not careful. And even concentrated it caused me a terrible headache for my low comprehension of space "If only I could use the space personality this won''t happen" I cursed "This will be like walking in the park, I could even shrink the distance" I continue walking slowly. Being near the main building I searched for what it seems the teachers building. After some time searching I finally find my objective''s room. "Domain!" shouted shocked the middle-aged man "Who are you? And, what do you want?" he asked. I made a little bow to him "Nice to meet you, Yu Xiaogang. You can call me Paul. For my reason for being here. Mmmm" I hummed a little "It will be to resolve one doubt" "You don''t need to intrude my room like an ?ssassin if you only want to ask something" he said. I grinned "Who said I''m not an ?ssassin" I focused a little my death domain to him causing him to shrink scared. I moved my arm withdrawing it effects "Hahaha. It''s only a joke, I won''t kill you today, at least directly" I laughed. Xiaogang sighed relieved losing my domain effect "It thought that I was going to die" "Yeah, it''s the usual effect when you have exposed a death domain" I smiled. Xiaogang looked at me with hatred "What do you really want?!" "Don''t be angry at me" I approached him flicking his forehead stumbling him to the ground "If you want t to be angry be at your own weakness. Your only that, a weak man who hid in a mountain of books" "What do you know about me?!" He said angrily. "I know a little, something that you even you don''t know, or at least you want to ignore. No? Ex-Supreme Pontiff''s lover?" I said smiling. "H-how do you know?" He said shocked. "Hahaha. It''s difficult to read a maiden heart, but not impossible" I laughed. He calmed down "Are you from Spirit Hall? You came to kill me?" he said seriously. "Don''t be so tense, didn''t I already said that I wouldn''t kill you?" I said. "Directly, directly were your words" he corrected me. I smiled "Yeah, the truth is that I want to ask you something. You are considered one of the best theorists in the world, so say, why are you so weak? Why prevent you to be stronger?" He was calmer now, and I could see him looking around "Please, nobody will come. And even if they came, you really think that I can''t kill you before they can react? Please, answer my question" I said. He smiled "So you lied saying that you won''t kill me directly in the case of someone coming?" "Good point, but it''s not like honor matter to me, I can withdraw my words anytime" I said. "Okay, I will answer. My spirit is a mutation of the Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon, San Luo Pao. This mutation is a bad one not permitting me to break through rank 29 until..." "I know, until your disciple, Tang San gave you an herb to clean your impurities increasing your spirit essence. What I am asking is, what is it your spirit? What mutated?" "He became an alive spirit, with very low strength, that only can fart to attack. It doesn''t have any other power" He answered. "There''s no trash spirit, only trash people. Very true, you remember this sentence?" I asked. He nodded. "So following it you''re trash! Not your spirit" I said. "I know that I''m trash! I always knew since my awakening day" he shouted angry "You didn''t need to tell me" "What would happen if I could change that?" I asked grinning. He looked at doubtfully "What can you do?" "How can a spirit that comes from one of the greatest ones be trash? Even observing it, it really seems alive and intelligent, having the capability to control your three people fusion, how can such a spirit be weak? The problem is not in the spirit in its rings" I told my hypothesis. "The rings?" He asked. "Yeah, the rings. Your configuration is what made your spirit useless. There are examples of wrong ring configurations. For example, the speed clan spirit can only be specialized in speed, if you absorb any other the spirit will turn useless, not being able to breakthrough rank 38. But if you absorb a correct configuration you could continue to grow stronger, even if it''s only faster in their case. The same case in your clan, the Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon spirit can only absorb dragon-type beast, they are lucky to have a picky spirit that don''t let them absorb any other type, if they could, they will find themselves unable to advance" He opened his eyes surprised "Are you saying?" "If my hypothesis is true, your spirit needs another configuration. I concrete one to grow. The proof is that you arrived at your rank very early in age, the problem is that you stuck in it. If it were completely trash, you will bear with close to zero spirit innate rank" I explained. Xiaogang looked up thoughtfully "You may be right, but this didn''t change anything. I already absorbed my rings, what could now change? And even if I could, how could I know what is correct? To tell you the truth I sense San Luo Pao attracted to dragon spirit, he wanted to absorb i-" "Really? The first ring marks the way of the spirit master. You sensed that push?" I asked. He opened his eyes "I pushed my spirit towards the dragon way, so it was normal that later he will be attracted by it, even if its wrong for it" he realized. "Clap!" I clapped "Correct, or at least I think that''s it like said before it''s only a hypothesis" He looked at me serious "What can you do? You said you could change it" "Finally, I grab your intellect attention and not only your enmity. This is only my hypothesis, so the last choice is yours so listen attentively. The only other spirits that are alive, manifesting outside and having some free will, even having the capability of absorbing exterior energy, in your case food, it''s the elemental ones" I exposed opening my arm. "True, the elemental one absorb their element of the ambient, lowering their spirit power consumption if there enough of their element and they have some free will. But San Luo Pao is like a dog with a physical body. The elemental ones are like phantasm" argued Xiaogang. "This is true for a normal one, however, you truly expect for your spirit to not have any vestige of its ancestor spirit? Moreover, you created him a body with the new rings, restringing more its abilities. If you were for the energy type spirit beast, in my opinion, San Luo Pao would have broken through his body becoming a spiritual one, showing all its might" I explained. "If your hypothesis is true, I destroyed my spirit, limiting it. But it can''t be confirmed that your true" he said with a scholarly air. "To confirm it. It will be necessary to see your descendant, they will have more holy attribute spirit. It''s own name it says San, usually refereed as 3 or to holy people, saints. I will say that this is your element, holy" I explained. "What is the other one? You already said that you could change it" He asked me, this time with some hope in his voice. "I have a method, it will reconstruct your spirit, leaning more to the light side" I said. "Use it on me!" He shouted eagerly. "Before that, let''s say that this method could kill you. If my hypothesis is correct, you have a slim hope to get it, followed by a lot of pain, but even if I am correct the most probable is that you die. In the case that I am incorrect, you will die, 100%" I explained. He flinched "What is the probability if you''re correct?" "I don''t like to lie without meaning so I will say the truth, if I am correct it would depend on your willpower, at most, you will have a 40%. But I will come here for nothing if you deny my offer, so I won''t let you have much time to think" I extended my left arm "?Wonder if I gave a Golden Oreo?" a very brightly Golden Oreo appeared on my hand, double the size of a usual Oreo. I throw it toward Xiaogang who carefully took it "You had 30 seconds! After that it will disappear your opportunity, I will ?ssure that it won''t come. Choose, power or trash!" I withdrew my domain and my sword became translucent I stroked the air, crashing it. Before disappearing a looked at Xiaogang "You own me one" I said grinning and disappeared. After 25 seconds I could listen to agony cries from its room, making my grin grow bigger "I really want to know if I am right. At worst he will die, totally okay for me" I said smiling. At that moment I had a big pain in the head, I couldn''t maintain being this plane. With a crack I returned to the normal plane, spitting blood due to the backslash of breaking the ability. I could sense my mind spacing out, knowing that the next time this body opened his eyes it will be Bai. "FUCK!" I spat more blood "I vow to Heavens, that I will return! I will control this body and be the strongest!" I shouted angry before falling unconscious. Chapter 67 - Personalities I opened my eyes found me laying in a bed. Standing up, I could sense some discomfort at my body, having my muscles sores. On the other hand, I noticed that my body seemed a lot stronger than before. Trying to remember what happened yesterday, my memories were not very clear. I remembered following Shi Nian and all after that is completely blank. Shi Nian is a mental spirit master, maybe he affected my mind or maybe it was all a dream. [Yeah, like always try to run from reality. Think for one time and look around] I listened to a voice. I looked around trying to find the source. I couldn''t find anyone, but I could notice that I wasn''t in my room, I was in an unknown little room with a bed, a desk and a drawer. "Where I am?" I said in a low voice. [Finally, you realize, good job] I listened again the same voice. "Where are you? Who are you?" I asked a little scary, someone who can hide his presence so well could kill me anytime. [So you finally accept my existence, what an honor] said the voice sarcastically [You''re really an idiot, you didn''t even recognize a mental communication. It can be considered that I am you] "How can you be me? Speak the truth where are you" I intrigued. Even if he is lying, it''s a fact that I couldn''t find him. If he wanted to attack me and could, he would have already done. I sat in a lotus position concentrating on my Oreo spirit. I opened my eyes appearing in the usual black and white world. At the center of the forest, instead of the usual Glut, there is a boy. He has black hair, is as tall as me, has a very expressive face traits, showing a pissed looked. There''s also an aura surrounding him that gave a dangerous feeling. (Who are you?) I asked. [So even you can''t recognize me] the black-haired boy said, then he swang his hand and his dangerous aura disappeared and he smiled kindly. Without the aura is was easy to see who it appeared, me! (Stop copying me. Show your true face, who are you?!) I shouted angrily. The boy grinned returning the previous dangerous aura [Always ignoring me, running away and not recognizing me, eh?] the boy approached me [I am you, and you are me. Both of us are part of this body. It''s only that I am better than you, but you have the luck to be the one who controls the body] (Don''t lie! I am me. The most probable is that you are a ghost trying to possess me. I won''t let you control me!) [Are you really an idiot. What part of myself can control you now?] He snorted [Only with your permission I could control the body, or in the case that you log out] (Log out?) (So you''re the culprit that I don''t remember about yesterday!) I incriminated him. [Yeah, it was for my actions that you don''t remember anything. And it''s also thanks to me, that we didn''t die yesterday. I was who was strong enough to kill Shi Nian] (Who are really you?) I inquired a little scared. [You continue with this, useless!] He shouted [Think for one time your life, truly think. You could sense the truth, we are part of the same. You separated me 10 years ago, caging me more with the time passing] He then opened his arms. Suddenly, five clouds of smoke, each one of different color fell from the sky. The smokes concentrated on the ground condensing themselves, forming human figures. They were all copies of me, the only difference their hair color and some facial traits. They stayed standing still, maintaining an expression in their face, angry, calmness... each one different. [Can you recognize them?] The boy asked. I looked them attentively and a part of my mind sensed it, they were part of me (The Mind Separation Control) [Clap!] He clapped [Correct! They are your other personalities if you want you could use them, focusing on one, taking advantage of all their strong points, but you were always to coward to even try it. You don''t trust you enough to be in control?] He sneered. I turned to the black-haired me (So you are like them? A personality) I said calmly. The black-haired boy''s eyes twitched and he angrily said [Like Hell I am like them! They are nothing except weapons for you to use] He cold down [Look at them, alone they''re nothing! They do nothing except staying still, flooding in their own concept. You only use them unconsciously, when they help you use your abilities in multiples objective. I am different, I can think for myself. Do you know why?] I shook my head. [I have memories. Do you know why your father advises you to not use them? Memories are power, experience helps you think and grow. If you gave them too many they will affect you more, but it''s not like we can take the control in normal situations] (So you are that. A personality that gained too many memories. How could you gained, I never used actively the technique?) I asked. [Even now, you didn''t remember, eh. Always running away. I am myself. I am Paul!] He said approaching me. When we were a palm of distance, he inclined his head back and then shot it forward, hitting my head with him. I big quantity of memories or it will be better-said sentiments came to me. The information too broad to analyze but I could remember scare and sadness when that when I was 6 years old. I looked horrified at the black-haired me (You are the first one, the one created when I awakened my spirit) [Correct! Mind Separation Control is an innate technique it can''t be learned. You have it thanks to me. I can be considered a soul of another world, with my previous life experience and the new one, it was easy to differentiate both, starting the Mind Separation Control unconsciously. Starting our spirit awakening we separated, but even then we were both the same, both affecting the body. But you] he signaled at me angrily [You unconsciously were too afraid, of your family don''t recognizing you, treating you like an impostor, leaving you behind. So taking advantage of every new realm, every ring absorption you pushed me away, caging me with every new personality. It was not long that you even forget about my existence and memories. You are useless!] He started shouting madly [You run away from my knowledge and power! If I was there I could have done so much. After your second ring, I was completely sealed, before it, I could see what happened even if I couldn''t react. After that, you know what it feels to be in a black world, spending time completely alone without anything, the only that I could use what you had in your self, a sword and my Oreo. It''s a lot better to die again] He then extended his arms and started strangling me. It''s not like I couldn''t breathe, but he was sending me his frustrations and feeling. I hurriedly left my mental world. I was sweating a lot and my face was completely white. I lay down on the bed, breathing quickly, very nervous. "It will be better not to return there. I can''t permit him to control my body again, I really don''t know what could he do. For the other hand, I really pity him, to be caged without any contact so much time" To calm me a little, I decided to eat the usual morning Oreo. "?Wonder if I gave a Normal Oreo?" I chanted, however, this time nothing happened. I looked at my left hand an invoked the Oreo. It had 5 black rings but I realized that I couldn''t use any of its abilities. [The Oreo is from my previous soul, it is bound to my memories. Now that I am free of your control, it''s natural that you will need my permission to use it. How do you feel about? Experiment even a minuscule fraction of my pain. Hahaha!] Paul laughed, then paused a moment and calmly said [Sorry for before, sometimes I can''t really control me] [?Wonder if I gave a Normal Oreo?] on my left hand appeared the Normal Oreo. I was shocked realizing that Paul could use the spirit. [Eat it. This body is also mine, and I don''t really want to be weak or its death] Paul calmly said. I inspected the Oreo and I didn''t find anything wrong, if I must say, I think that it was even stronger than before like 30% more. I ate it carefully, and other than the new improvement I didn''t find anything wrong. [If you let the true user free control it, of course, it will be better] Chapter 68 - 3 injured Just at this moment, the room''s door opened and Rongrong entered the room. She looked at me happily and jumped to me, hugging me with some tears in her face "Big brother, you''re awake! What happened to you?" I decided to put Paul''s problem aside for the time being "I don''t really remember about yesterday, Rongrong. Can you explain to me, why I am here and where I am?" I asked. Rongrong separated from me and cleaned her tears "Some students found you yesterday night at the academy''s garden. You were injured, with a lot of blood. They informed the teacher and they recognized you and took you to the nursery. Then they called me and I prepared you this room for your recovery. They said you are completely fine and only need to rest. How do you feel?" she asked I smiled "I''m fine, only a little sour. And like I said I don''t remember anything. I should thanks your dean later for the academy''s help" Rongrong pouted "And me what? I stayed all night awake caring for your health. I only went away a little to have breakfast" I rubbed her hair "Thanks Rongrong. I don''t know what I will do without you" She smiled "I expect a nice present to thank me" "Yeah, yeah. I would find something good" I said sighing. [What a spoiled princess] Paul spatted, the strange fact was that I could sense some warning in it. I reacted making a strange face. "What about that face!" shouted Rongrong "You will forget about me!" (Fuck, Paul! I need to learn to ignore him) I thought (I need to find an excuse) [Look at your storage, there''s a present there] Paul said. "Big brother doesn''t ignore me!" said angrily Rongrong "You are spacing out! You don''t love Rongrong now that you left home" "Of course I love you, I love you the most. I already have a present here" I put my hand in my storage bracelet activating it (If it is some kind of joke. I don''t know how, but I will kill you, Paul!). From the storage, I could detect a new item that wasn''t there before and I extracted it. In my had now there was a blue shining crystal cranium. I opened my eyes shocked "Th-this is" Rongrong had her eyes fully opened shocked "An sp-spirit bone! Big brother I''m very glad for you giving me this, but it is too much. It will be better for you to take it" I recuperated from my shock and quickly analyzed the spirit bone. The truth is that is very compatible with Rongrong rather than me, focusing on illusions or support. I decided that it was good to gift it to Rongrong "It''s not too good for me but it''s perfect for you, so take it. But it will be better to keep it hidden. If you trust your teammates I don''t mind you informing them" Rongrong hugged me tightly "Thanks, big brother. This is the best present ever, you really are the one who loves me more" "Bang!" the door opened with a crash and Chenxiang entered the room "I listened that you were injured. Are you fine, Bai?" Chenxiang asked worriedly. [Who is the beauty?] asked Paul. I ignored Paul and answered Chenxiang "I am in perfect form, Xiang. Only a little sour" Chenxiang sighed in relieve and approached me. Rongrong broke our hug leaving space for Chenxiang who hugged me "I was worried that something would happen to you, Bai" Seeing Chenxiang worried face and remembering Mayi I felt a little guilty and broke the hug "I am fine. You don''t need to worry" Chenxiang glanced at me and said in a low voice that I couldn''t listen "I will make you fall". Then she returns to her usual face "What a night yesterday! There was a lot of commotion with three injured people" "There were more people injured, what happened?" I asked her concerned. "First, you were injured at the academy''s garden, even with some blood you were the less injured. Then, we found cousin injured in the forest outside Heaven Dou City, thanks to Xiao Wu we could find him" "Cousin? Who is your cousin?" I asked. "Of course, you didn''t know about it. Tang San is my cousin, his grandfather and my grandmother were siblings, we found it when he talked about his father, Tang Hao" Chenxiang answered. [She is Bai Chenxiang?! What is she doing here at Shrek] Paul commented/asked. "What happened to Tang San?" I inquired. "His condition was a strange one. He had some broken ribs, but nothing very serious. The strange thing is that he was very weak, her organs only working very slowly seemed to stop at any moment. With some healing and herbs, he is stabilized now, Dugu Bo helped to cure him" "And who was the last one?" I asked. Chenxiang turned serious "The last one is Grandmaster. He was the worst of all, and even now they are continuing healing him. His blood venues exploded, his body saturated with spirit energy, with his skin charred. He nearly died yesterday" she then lowered her voice "Bai, did you give him a Golden Oreo" "How could I give him one, I don''t remember what happened yesterday. But, Grandmaster doesn''t have a light or plant attributes spirit, giving him one will be like killing him. And you think that someone will survive. You were lucky that your spirit evolved and Lingling healing. I don''t think another could survive" I explained. "You''re right, the effects were similar at what I suffered, but clearly not so severe, if not he will have died. Sorry to doubt you, Bai" She shyly smiled. "We will need to search for the responsible for this. Maybe it has some relation to cousin''s attack. But for now, we could only wait for them to wake up" At that time Zhu Zhuqing entered the room [Really the fu?k?n? day of the spontaneous. It''s too much to knock the door!] "Tang San woke up. He is a little weak, but he said that wanted to explain to us what happened to not make us worry" Zhuqing explained. Rongrong and Chenxiang looked at me "I''m fine you could go. To tell you the truth, I also a little curious, can I accompany you?" I asked. "I don''t think that cousin will molest. Come with us!" said Chenxiang, she hugged my arm and help me to stand up. "I can walk alone" I said. "You were injured, maybe are some hidden one, I will help you walk" She said smiling charmingly. I could see Rongrong cheering for her. I sighed surrendering "Okay, whatever you want". Chenxiang separated from me and approached Tang San "Are you fine, cousin?" she asked worriedly. "I am fine, only tired, nothing that a good sleep won''t solve" Tang San said lightly smiling. "Now that we are all here, would you explain what happened to you?" Dai Mubai requested. "We should wait for master to arrive" said Tang San. The other listening to him looked between them with a worried face. "Something happened?" asked Tang San observing their reactions. "You see..." Dai Mubai explained Grandmaster condition making Tang San worried about his master condition and angry at the culprit. "Could it be related to what happened to you?" asked Xiao Wu. "I don''t think it was the same person. Yesterday I was attacked by Shi Nian" Tang San told. "The vice dean of the Blue Sunshine Academy" asked Dai Mubai. Tang San nodded "He used illusions to make me leave the city, I think that to kill me and made it like a suicide. The strange thing is that when I was at the forest outside Heaven Dou City the illusion broke. I investigated what happened and found a black-haired boy killing Shi Nian" Listen to the black-haired boy I couldn''t help to think in Paul [¡­] "The boy had a death aura around him, and his behavior was very strange, he seemed a little crazy. He found me and we both fought. After the fight he won me making me unconscious, I could pierce him with my Eight Spider Lances poisoning him" Tang San explained. "With your poison, he will be dead, we all know how terrifying could it be" Dai Mubai said. Tang San shook his head "I doubt it, he let me poisoning him, even stopping his attack and then he was grinning" "So someone could win against brother San, he will be a high ranked spirit master" Xiao Wu said concerned. "Do you know how old was he?" I interjected, "How tall it was?" "He seemed young, close to our age. More or less of my stature. He also named himself as Paul Blanch" Tang San explained (It was you, fu?ker!) I shouted in my mind. [It''s not like I killed him. And even I were to kill him, so what? There wasn''t anyone to see us] "I never listened to anyone with this name" said Rongrong "What was his spirit?" "I don''t really know, he had a strange tool and a big wolf. But he didn''t use any of them when fighting, he only used a sword. Without showing any spirit ring he could form flames, lighting and a death aura. Really strange" explained Tang San. "The important is that you''re fine, brother San. Let''s forget about it and concentrate in your recovery" Xiao Wu said pushing all of us outside the nursery, only staying herself "Brother San need to rest" I looked at the other devils of Shrek and rubbing my neck I said "Thanks all for helping me. I will try to find information about the attacks. I will return to my academy, they will be worried about my whereabouts. Goodbye at all" Chenxiang approached me and kissed my lips using a little tongue. She separated ???k?n? his lips said "Bye, Bai. I look forward to the next time" I was shocked and stayed still until Rongrong pushed me away "I will guide you outside the academy, big brother" Leaving the building with Rongrong, she said "She really is in love, you should go out with her, at least one time. Don''t make her sad" "I can''t really do this to Mayi. You already know" I said. "Sister Xiang will accept others for you if both of you really love. While you love her, she wouldn''t mind" said Rongrong. "What can you said about the ant?" she spatted "She is crazy enough to go on a killing spree" "Don''t talk badly of Mayi. I know she is a little temperamental. But I will respect her, I promised" I said. Rongrong sighed "I''m only worried about you, big brother. Sister Xiang is always training with you in mind. In the future, she would surely beat Mayi and then she will go for you" We arrived at the door and Rongrong said smiling and waving his hand "Goodbye. And a lot of thanks for the present" I kiss her forehead "Bye, Rongrong". I walked into my academy direction. Chapter 69 - Knowing eachother Walking to the academy I asked Paul (So it was you all yesterday attacks? Why?). [All of them had some meaning, and Grandmaster can''t be considered an attack, he do it himself] (So Xiang was right! You gave him a Golden Oreo, why?) [An answer for an answer] I sighed (Okay, that''s fair. Start) [Why is Bai Chenxiang at Shrek?] Paul asked. (Really? This is the first that you ask?) [It is important to know the flow of the story, and see what changed] I really couldn''t understand Paul, but he had some insights of the future so I decided to answer (She was expelled from the Emperor team for her being blocked at rank 38, so she decided to follow Shrek that had a similar experience) [It seems that is manga] Paul said thoughtfully [I detected she as a spirit ancestor so she broke through. She was previously dressed as a boy?] I made a little face of shock (In reality, you know what happened, you''re only laughing at me, no?) [It would be too easy to laugh, but for your reaction, it can be considered a yes. How did she break through?] Paul asked. (Before that it''s my turn. What you did last night? And why?) I asked. [As you formulate two questions, even if the first one is useless, as you could have discovered now. I will answer that useless question and ask after it] (Wait!) I tried to change my reasoning. [After you log out. I killed Shi Nian taking from it the skull bone. Good job, warning Rongrong about careful using it. It won''t be good that she will be related to his death. After that I fought Tang San, winning of course. Then I went to Shrek and gifted Grandmaster a Golden Oreo after some conversation. After that you recuperated enough to push me away from the control, I only could maintain a little my Independence like now. We were injured due to the backlash of the sudden change] Paul explained. (This is close to an ?ssassination! Did you not know the effects of the Golden Oreo?) [Whatever, it doesn''t matter to me. And of course, I know the effects, I could recognize them better than you. This made two answers, my turn] I grumbled. [How Bai Chenxiang broke through rank 38?] Paul asked. (I gave her a Golden Oreo. Her spirit evolved breaking through her block) [Hahaha] Paul laughed [And you have the balls to incriminate me? Yours is a lot more of an ?ssassination, without any thinking. Her spirit is a wind type, incompatible with the Golden Oreo. Maybe the one with plot armor is her not Tang San if she could survive that] (She was crying! She was about to renounce to all herself, I couldn''t see her and do nothing!) I shouted in my mind. [Yeah, yeah. And you tried to kill her, truly hilarious! She is truly a beauty and even a blind can see that she is madly in love with you. You should take her before she changes her mind. Maybe like in the original she falls in love with a chicken] (I like Chenxiang but I already had a girlfriend. It would be bad for all) I explained. (Fantasy world? This is the real world, don''t dream! Do you think that it would be happy sharing the one you love? I know that I couldn''t keep it, I will very jealous. I can''t ask them that!) I refuted. [¡­] Paul stayed quite some seconds [Sure, this is not a game. But at least try it slowly. If the girls have a good relation I don''t think it will be impossible. Treasure the people you love or you''re gonna lose them] Paul said sadly. I was shocked by Paul tone, maybe he really suffered in his past life (I will surely treasure them, I will protect my loved one) [If this is what you think, it won''t be better to give me body control? I''m much stronger than you if only I could use your offensive spirit. I can promise you that I will protect this body loved one] Paul returned to his cheeky self. (You maybe are stronger than me, we didn''t fight between us, it''s impossible to know) [Hahaha. You truly think that you''re better than me? Talking about delusions. I am not under your control now, you can''t reap the fruit of my effort, try to fight and you will see how hard it became] Paul laughed. (I''m strong for my age. I have a good spirit rank plus my cultivation in the sword is very high. I must say it''s thanks to your Oreos that my spirit cultivation could keep up, with all the time spend in sword cultivating) I explained. [Hahah. Your sword cultivation is high? What a joke! You only used mine! Try next time to use it] Paul refunded. (You will see it later. Returning to the questions. Why did you attack Tang Sand and Grandmaster?) I asked. (So similar to Xiang, his spirit evolved) I said to myself. [If you''re saying the truth, Chenxiang was a change in the foundation of her spirit, close to a miracle that she survived. Grandmaster is a reset, returning to his foundation, improving it and destroying his path. The probability to survive, a lot higher] (Why? What could you win doing that? It''s not like you have any relation with him) I asked. [It was a hunch that I wanted to prove. And Grandmaster had some secret relations that can be useful later. It''s good to make him own me a favor] Paul explained. (And what about Tang San?) I asked. [Oh, that. I was interested in fight the protagonist. It was not so difficult, but his ruthless stealth attacks are a pain in the ?ss. I also had another motive, do you noticed the increase in the body strength?] I nodded. [This was because of the fight, using Tang San poison. Do you remember the 5th skill of the Oreo?] Paul asked. (Yeah, it''s a poison healing. Kind of trash if I must say, too few uses considering it only cure poison) I answered. [You really not know all its power. That it''s only the point of the iceberg. I used the poison with the skill to refine our body as Tang San did, making stronger] Paul explained [I''m bored of these useless questions, I already learn your character with them, let''s go to the important one. What you did after you obtained your second ring until now? With a little summarizing will be enough, especially concentrate in what are you doing for the Continental Tournament] (Summarizing, I trained) I could sense a death glance (Okay, okay. The important things I did, I obtained my 3rd spirit ri-) [You can evade the capture of spirit rings or any related combat detail, I already know every change in our spirits, don''t waste time] Paul interjected. (Okay, when I was 12 I joined Heaven Dou Imperial Academy) [You really joined those arrogant weaklings, useless!] Paul said. I ignored him and continued (In there I joined the strongest group, being part of the called Emperor team. I met my girlfriend Mayi) I won''t say anything about her condition to Paul (I also became friends with all the members, especially Xiang and Lingling) [All girls, you really seem like a bad school romance main character] Paul said contemptuously. I rolled my eyes (With Lingling, I don''t have that kind of relation. All the team was very arrogant at first but with time they started putting the effort in the training. Rongrong entered Shrek Academy at 12 and even my team and she has a fight) [Yeah, so little changes, the most notorious is the effect of the Golden Oreo. In what people did you use it?] Paul asked. (Dad, Chenxiang, Lingling, me and Qinghe) I said. Paul coughed up [What?! Xue Qinghe? The crown prince of Heaven Dou Empire?] I nodded (We are friends) [How could you give her more power. Even if you want her, the best option is to fighting and winning, she really respects the strong. Making her stronger is the worst option. If she is better than you, you will only be looked down by her used like some tool] Paul shouted indignantly. (I think that you confuse in the person. For start Qinghe is not a ''she'', he is a boy) I explained. Paul sneered (If you say so) (Paul be sincere. I know that you had a past life memories, following your words I caged you in fright of not being accepted by my family. But how do you know so much? Intelligence is not enough to explain your knowledge, even if there are things that you''re wrong) I asked him. [I had a past life. It was in a different world, there was a novel, manhua, even anime] I made a baffled face [They are stories, they related a story about this world. I only know what will happen in those stories, and as there were differences between them, I''m not completely sure what will happen, but it gave me some insights. I already know that this world is our reality, and I know that I can trust 100 % of those stories. For start, we don''t exist in those stories, already creating changes] (So it''s that) I said thoughtfully. I then said very seriously (Paul, why don''t we work together? With your help we could become stronger. I won''t treat you rashly, I even don''t mind in some moments give you control. What do you say?) I sensed a death glance [You''re truly too naive] Paul said in cold voice [Do you really think that we could coexist? Eventually, only one will last. You really think that I would let you be stronger only for you to learn that I am not necessary after. Continue with your plans, I will make mine. Don''t forget, even if both of us want to make this body strong. We are enemies, who will fight in the end] (Paul reconsider!) I said but I couldn''t detect him anymore, and he didn''t answer anymore. Chapter 70 - One Arriving at the academy I could see Mayi waiting for me at the entrance. She run towards me and hugged me tightly "Bai, I missed you!". She separated from me and pouted "You promised me that you will inform me if anything happened" "Sorry, Mayi. I had some circumstances and I couldn''t inform you, but don''t worry, it was only one night" I said. She titled her head and made a strange look "Something is different, I sense that something changed in you. What happened?" (Always so perceptive) "Nothing happened, I had a little fight. I also found a method to improve my physical strength" I excused. "Bai" She said worried "Let''s double cultivate. I really think that something important happened" I sighed "Okay, let''s go to our room" We both then slowly walked to our room. Inside, we did like always, we sat on the bed and we kissed starting to cultivate together [Interesting. What will happen if I do this?] I listened to Paul in my mind. At that moment, Mayi and my connection seemed to increase. The usual circulation of energy became faster, moving and absorbing a greater quantity of energy. Suddenly, the power was too much and we lose control of it. We were repulsed each other, being pushed with great force crashing each other to one wall. I spat blood (What the fu?k, Paul!) [It''s very interesting, a fusion of spirits. She seems compatible with both our spirits. It''s even more interesting having into consideration that she is a spirit beast who evolved to human. A very peculiar OC] (Paul!) I thought angrily (I backslash of a spirit fusion is no joke. I could be internally injured) [It''s under control don''t worry. If I want it, I could easily control] Paul sighed [Really it sucks, but you really lucky with girls. You have more than one beauty to choose and this one 100% compatible spiritually. Good job finding her. Next time I''ll regulate the cultivation, you don''t need to worry] (Explain properly, Bai!) I shouted indignantly. [Looking at the girl''s face, I think you have other things to worry about. Hahaha!] Paul laughed. I turned to look at Mayi. She had her hand clenched tightly with a shocked expression, she even had some ticks from time to time. I approached her "Are you fine, Mayi?" I asked worriedly. Her eyes looked to mine and she jumped towards me. I closed my eyes thinking that she was going to attack being angry but the only that I noticed was a hug. Opening slowly my eyes, I could see Mayi smiling brightly. She jumped then in emotion "We are one, we finally achieved! I know that I sensed something strange but I didn''t know that it will be this. We finally broke the difference" I was confused "Are one?" Mayi continued smiling "Ourselves, or maybe it would be better say spirits were attracted to each other. But there was always something off. And we never arrived to be One. Now we finally achieved. Our spirits will work as one, greatly improving our strength when we are together" "So like before, we always had good coordination between us. And we fusion our spirits easily" I said. "It''s completely different!" She said a little molested "Now, there''s no difference between us. For example, if you permit I could even use your Sword Spirit, with all its spirit skills using my own power. Now, we can even fusion all our spirits, fusing 3 together! Not only that" She grinned. {We could even communicate like that} I listened to her voice in my head instantly, faster than speaking and a little similar to Paul [Unless I want she won''t detect me] Paul said. "You''re mine, Bai. We are a true couple, the perfect one made by heavens!" Mayi said enthusiastically. "What are you referring to?" I asked. "If 2 beast is perfect for each other, they are considered married, husband and wife. We are now married! I win! I don''t need to worry about Chenxiang stealing you" I opened my mouth shocked "Wait a moment, Mayi. I don''t know about beasts, but we are not yer married until we made a ceremony, at least for humans. It doesn''t matter the compatibility between spirits" Mayi expression changes her eyes becoming teary "You don''t like Mayi? B-but we are perfects!" I hugged her "It''s not that. I continue loving you. It''s only that even this becoming One or 100% compatibility, didn''t change anything. We continue like before, I still want to marry you in the future" She stopped crying and smiled nodding "Let''s try it again. This time will be better" She kissed me and we started to dual cultivate. This time without any problem. We continued until the next day when we finally broke the connection "Wow" said Mayi happily. "It seems that our spirits are in more synchrony, our spirit fusion will surely have improved" I said. "Yep! Bai let me your sword" She asked. I invoked and gave it to her. She was holding and showed its 5 rings, purple, purple, black, black, black. One purple started shining and the sword became red. "I truly can use it" [A beast spirit at the same time as a tool spirit. The main character aura is strong in her] I touched her shoulder circulating spirit energy. A brown armor appeared around my body, I could sense a great increase in my physical power, it was almost intoxicating the feeling. Breaking the contact the armor and the increase disappeared "It seems less useful in my case" Mayi smiled "We are One! It doesn''t matter, it''s our strength" "Let''s go outside and try our spirit fusion" I said, Mayi nodded. Outside we kissed, now that we are 100 % compatible we won''t need to kiss and a simple contact will be enough, but it continued being more familiar and easy doing in it like this. We tried fusing her spirit with my sword spirit. The result was a huge sword that slashed forward, it only lasts a moment, but its power was enormous, only a level lower than a Tool Avatar. After resting sometime to recuperate, we probed the usual Oreo and ant, but unlike always, we couldn''t do it. We were rejected each other injuring both of us. "We are One. Why can''t we fusion all the spirits? We could fusion the cookie before" Mayi sadly said. "Don''t worry Mayi. At least, we can continue to use one spirit fusion. For the other, surely in the future, we accomplish them" I comforted her. "Let''s calm down and stop for today. I need to do some errands" "Okay, if something happened you can tell me, Bai" Mayi said. "Yeah. See you later" I parted from Mayi went outside the city. When I was sure to be completely alone I asked (Paul, what happened?) Paul sneered [It''s not obvious enough?] (Don''t start your puzzles and answer!) I said angrily. (I already know before, but why we can''t fusion my sword before and now we can?) [You unconsciously expend too much mental power having me under control. Now that you can''t, your mind decided to at least make good use of it, concentrating on your spirit. For this reason, you can now fusion. On the other hand, you can''t control my spirit, how could you fuse it with her. I will need to be the one trying it, not you. Simple as that, you are trying to use a spirit, not yours] Paul explained. (Why don''t you cooperate and help in the fusion?) I asked. [Why don''t you let me control the body and tried for myself?] Paul snorted [Let''s stop this useless chat. I''m open ears if you want to give me control, for all the other, you don''t need to inform me] Paul said and stayed silent. (Idiot!) Today was Shrek match against one of the elementary schools, the Blazing Academy. I decided to go and watch the match. Chapter 71 - Against Blazing Academy The Blazing Academy as one of the Elemental Academies supported but one of the 7 great clans, was considered one of the strongest. This year they stood out, having the team more balanced even when they focus on power. If we excluded the Godwing Academy, they will be the strongest this year. There''s always the doubt with the Godwing because of the difficulty to deal with flying spirit masters. A arrived at the arena just as the match was about to start. The match was in the central arena, as they were two teams with 0 loses. Both teams entered the ring. For the Blazing Academy side, their formation can be considered as a triangular one. On the front it was Huo Wushuang, he was an average looking man, a spirit ancestor with One-Horned Tyrant Dragon spirit. His spirit is considered one with the strongest power, only a little lower than the Lighting Tyrant Dragon spirit, considered the best spirit beast. At the rear they have Huo Wu, she was a very beautiful woman with exquisite facial features and red long hair. She was a spirit ancestor with Fire Shadow spirit, being the control system of the team. Huo Wan and Huo Weng stayed with Huo Wu supporting her with their spirits. Both of them are always hooded so it''s difficult to see how they are. They were spirit elders with the Spark Spirit, it''s a special support spirit that only can support fire type. But their power is undeniable, to fire types it''s very close to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. At the side there were the twins Huo Yun and Huo Yu, they had some gloomy appearance. They both are spirit ancestors with the Fire Crane spirits, being the speed attack system of the team. The last one is Huo Bao and situated at Wushuang back, he had short red hair, with an unremarkable face. He was a spirit elder with the Fire Leopard spirit, like Wushuang, he was a power attack system, supporting him. On Shrek''s side, they were the 4 substitute members of the team with Xiao Wu, Mubai and, for the first time participating, Chenxiang. When they were all positioned, they activated their spirits. Chenxiang ring configuration, yellow, purple, purple, black, caused a lot of shock in the spectators, followed by a cheer. "10.000 years old ring!" "Two purples and one black! Impossible" "Beauty, come play with daddy" It could be listened to shouts of the spectators. I frowned listening to the last one. "Start!" Shouted the announcer. Wushuang started charging colliding with Mubai. Both punches hit each other, they were strong enough that even a shock wave was created between them. After they hit, both were pushed 3 meters, it was a drawn in pure strength. "Let''s finish this quickly!" shouted Huo Wu. She sent her Fire Shadow in the middle of Shrek''s formation, one of her purple rings started shining "<3rd skill: Defying Flame Ring>". Her Fire Shadow caused a little explosion, followed by flames like whip that stroked towards Shrek''s members. Each whip was made of condensed flames, plus the initial force of the explosion they gained speed and substance. Even if the strength of the whip weren''t too much, they pushed Shrek''s members, separating them, breaking their formation. Just as the skill activated, the twins, Yu and Yun, activated one of their ring skills, surrounding both of their feet in flames gaining speed. They flanked Huo Wu''s skill going directly to attack the weaker ones, targeting Jing Ling and Jian Zhu. While both twins were going at high speed a black light illuminated in the ring, being Chenxiang''s 4th ring. When the twins were near their targets, their purple rings lighted up, this time their arms like wings, became fire claws. "You''re trying to use speed in front of me, dream on!" Said Chenxiang smiling. At the same moment, Huo Bao who went through Huo Wu''s skill using his innate fire resistance arrived at one of the Chenxiangs. Bao resembled even more to a Leopard and his claws were even bigger, all his body surrounded by fire while all his three rings were illuminated. Bao slashed at Chenxiang, but he didn''t feel anything, this Chenxiang dispersed in light particles before Bao''s attack. "Txe!" Bao clicked his tongue "It was the copy. You''re truly lucky" he said looking at the other Chenxiang. "Luck is also a strength" Smiled Chenxiang. Taking advantage of Bao coming to Shrek''s side, the three substitute members of Shrek started attacking him. Wushuang tried to help him, but he was too occupied with Mubai. Under the barrage of attacks of 3 spirit elders against him, even if Bao was a little stronger than them, he couldn''t resist too much and after a minute he was eliminated by Xiao Wu who was tired of waiting teleported near it, graving him and throwing him. "If this continues, we surely would lose" said Huo Wu worried "Let''s use that attack" Listening to Huo Wu, Wan and Weng used all their skills supporting Huo Wu whose fire grew exponentially. Both yellow rings of Huo Wu lighted, from her Fire Shadow were shot fire whips toward Chenxiang, which caged her forming fire dome "We don''t want the birdie to fly away" said Huo Wu smiling. At the same moment, Wushuang run outside the ring accompanied with Wan and Weng, while saying "Better surrender now that you can" "Do you think that a weak cage could trap me?" Said Chenxiang. "A moment is enough" Said Huo Wu while illuminating all her rings. Her Fire Shadow hugged her, creating a fire sphere surrounding her, little by little floating up in the air. Sensing the increase of her power, Shrek''s team knew that it would be a tremendous attack "Leave it to me! Run!" Shouted Chenxiang to her teammates who left the ring. "Die!" shouted Huo Wu launching towards the ground. When she collided with the ring it caused a big explosion, shooting flames to all sides, the explosion engulfed Chenxiang. The explosion was so strong that a spirit douluo need to block it, containing in the ring that was now full of smoke. Al the spectators held their breath, anxious and expectant of what happened. When the smoke dispersed, in the ring previous position, now there was a big crater and in its center stood Hu Wuo. There wasn''t any trace of Chenxiang. The public recuperated from their shock and started talking "There''s no trace" "She killed her!" "Murder!"... I, knowing better, looked to the sky. There stood Chenxiang floating with a calm face "You really think that this little power was enough to defeat me!" Chenxiang shouted, showing her presence, finally to Huo Wu to detect her, changing her face who was a little worried about killing someone to a shocked one. Chenxiang then slowly approached Huo Wu and punched her stomach "Try better next time". Huo Wu too tired to even use spirit energy couldn''t put any resistance falling unconscious. All the public stayed quiet to shocked trying to find what happened. The truth is that it was only a trick made by Chenxiang, the authentic Chenxiang was the one who was attacked by Bao, she simply used her second ability evading it and hiding from the battle, creating the false impression that the copy was the true one. Then she only need to evade anyone attacking the copy, while waiting in the sky. When Huo Wu used her skill, she destroyed only her copy, Chenxiang being safe outside the attack''s range. "Shrek only teach monsters!" Shouted Chenxiang. The announcer listening to her recuperated from his stupor and shouted "Shrek Academy Team wins!" Causing a lot of cheers and claps from the audience. I waited Chenxiang at the exit. When she left, seeing me she hugged me. I accepted "Good job, Xiang. But I must advise you that these tricks won''t always work, and even less against my team" I said. Chenxiang smiled "I know, but I wanted to hide my strength" she turned serious "Bai. If we fight, could you let me fight Mayi alone?" "If it''s a team battle I won''t, in the case we fight 1vs1it could be arranged. But really, are you sure? Mayi is the strongest in 1vs1 matches, excelling in defense and attack. You as a speed system don''t have too many possibilities to win her, she is even in a higher realm" I explained. Chenxiang giggled "Thanks to being worried about me, however, I have a plan, let me fight her" "I only will say that in 1vs1, Mayi will always fight first. What you do with this information is up to you" I shrugged. Chenxiang smiled "Thanks. Bye, Bai. I need to train hard" Chenxiang saying goodbye kissing my cheek and leaving me alone. Chapter 72 - To Spirit City 1 After the match against the Blazing Academy, Shrek easily won against all the other teams in the selection part of the tournament, the majority surrounding even before the match. The only especial matches were the one against the Blue Sunshine Academy and the Skywater Academy. The Blue Sunshine, even with a full team of spirit elders, surprised everyone with a seven fusion technique, caging all Shrek team in an illusion. But Shrek could break it, especially thanks to Tang San who was recuperated after resting some days. The match vs Skywater was also an easy one, Shrek overpowered their rivals. The only special was the spirit fusion of the captain and vice-captain, which was ignored by a flying Chenxiang, who waited until they run out of spirit energy. I must say that flying spirits are a cheat in low-level fights. For the ranking tournament, it was more of the same. Shrek usually needs one person to take an all team, they also showed Ma Hongjun power in some matches. In this tournament, there were 4 interesting matches. Shrek against the Thunderclap Academy, a fight between two powerful academies finishing with Shrek victory. Shrek vs Blazing Academy again. It was one of the shortest fights, Huo Wu who discovered Chenxiang trick and was mad, decided for herself to do a 1vs1 against her, all her team obliged to surrender. The match was Chenxiang easily evading all Huo Wu''s attacks. Huo Wu was mad enough to use a technique using all her rings and spirit energy causing a big attack. Chenxiang simply evaded it using her 2nd skill and the only one injured was Huo Wu for the recoil. Shrek vs Botanic Academy, it wasn''t an interesting fight, the interesting part was that when the captain plant spirit touched Xiao Wu, he received a backslash losing the match. Even now, I don''t really know what happened. Finally, Shrek vs Godwind. Chenxiang annihilated all the other team members except their captain, showing better flying control and speed. When it was time to fight their captain, Chenxiang surrendered and let Tang San fight. Tang San used his Clear Sky Hammer in the match, shocking everyone, then with a self-created technique win over the self-created technique of Godwind''s captain. Tang San used his Clear Sky Hammer following dad''s advise to curry favor of Heaven Dou''s emperor to gain his protection. This time, I trained more. There were some changes now that Paul was free and not helping. I had a strange sensation when I used for the first time my domain and it was a little unstable. But with little time I could stabilize and now is like before, even having improved a little. Paul grumbled about how I used his comprehensions to created my own and bla, bla, bla... I ignored him. I was also very poor using my left hand, clearly right-handed, but after Paul''s freedom, I became even worse. I think that Paul had more control over my left hand, where his spirit is, so is making things difficult for me. Summarizing, there wasn''t a lot of changes in my fighting truth be told. The biggest difference was the changing in spirit fusion technique with Mayi. From one defense who only served as a defense against spirit energy attacks, with variable attack power, to an offensive one. In my opinion, an improvement. After the ranking tournament, the ranking was 1st Shrek Academy, 2nd Godwing Academy, and 3rd Blazing Academy. Today all Heaven Dou teams were reunited to congratulated the teams of the ranking competition who will participate in the finals and hear some cheers and encouragement and then we will travel to Spirit City were the finals will take place, it was a 20 days travel. This act was made at the Square in front of Heaven Dou''s imperial palace. On a platform, there were the emperor and the crown prince. "Congratulations to all teams to arrive at this day" congratulated Xue Ye with a lot of dignity "You showed your strength, your the proud of the empire!" he signaled his son. Qinghe stepped forward "This Tournament is really important. To all of you that will participate in the finals, you will receive the noble rank of viscount! Our imperial family will award you based on your results, in the case one of you win the tournament, it will receive the title of duke with its corresponding land to manage" Qinghe''s word made the people cheer loudly "For victory!" "For Heaven Dou empire" "We prepared a carriage for every team, all of them equipped with spirit tools to maximize the comfort, all being guarded by imperial knight. I will also accompany all of you. I hope that you enjoy the travel" Finished Qinghe. After some fireworks and lightwork with some music and other speeches, all the team entered their private carriages that headed towards spirit city. I was in a carriage with the other members of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy''s first team. While we were traveling Tianheng asked me "What is your opinion of the other teams? You''re the only one that saw directly the matches" "For what I listened there aren''t any team that needs our worry. Any of them even have a full team of spirit ancestors, always some spirit elders in. The only that we must be careful it will be the other main team" Yan interjected. "It''s bad manners answering another one''s question" Lingling giggled causing Yan to frown "Bai, what is your opinion?" "Yan is telling the truth, our only possible rivals would be Spirit Hall and Star Luo main team" I explained "Plus another one" "All come another time to Shrek, eh?" Osler said. "Yeah, they are really strong, all of them being spirit ancestors. And you already know Xiang strength" "Why it matters Chenxiang strength?" asked Lingling. "She is in Shrek," I said shocking everyone "You really didn''t know it? Your informants suck, really" "I listened to some about them but there were only rumors. They said that someone of Shrek had a black ring as his 4th and that one of them had 1 yellow, 2 purple and 1 black as configuration. You can''t really trust the rumors. Shrek was strong last time that we fought, but not near that level. We only lost because of the circumstances and tricks" Tianheng explained. "You listened well, Tang San has a black ring as his 4th and Xiang is one of the strange configuration. I don''t know why you are so shocked, you already see Mayi''s configuration" I said to them. "Mayi is a monster of her own! There''s also the fact that her spirit can''t have spirit skills, she always could absorb overage rings" Yan shouted causing Mayi to only light smile at her. "So Chenxiang joined Shrek, good for her" Lingling happily said. "Guys, you should put more effort into gathering information. I war is not only won by pure strength" I reprimanded them. Chatting and cultivating we traveled towards spirit city. On the 4th day, I decided to do a little walk to stretch my legs, I explained to my teammates who ignored me to focus on their own cultivation. When I was alone I listened to a familiar voice in my head [You should be more aware in this travel] Paul said. (Why would I need it? We have the 15 most powerful academies of the empire, accompanied by their best students and teachers. What is the risk?) I said smiling. (Who would be crazy enough to attack us?) [Spirit Hall, even using titled douluos to do the job] At this moment I realized (They would attack Tang San now that they discovered that he is Tang Hao''s son?) [Ding, ding, ding! Bingo. I will make sure to have some of your elders near, you will need their help if we are attacked by two titled douluo] (You already said that your knowledge is not to be trusted 100%. Even if they start attacking, I could always call for uncle Bone. So don''t worry) [As always, we will do as you want] grumbled Paul stopping talking. It''s true that Paul has some interesting future ideas, but he usually kept them for himself. Following him, we shouldn''t exist and mum should be dead. But even so, I couldn''t forget what he told me about Qinghe. Paul called him a girl, a power-hungry one. There''s have been a lot of times that I didn''t talk to him. I decided to go to look for him. Qinghe''s carriage was the first one, guiding us. It was to gain the sympathy for the fact that he was in the considered more dangerous position, even if the danger was close to 0. Arriving at his carriage, the guards let me in when I showed them Qinghe''s coin. Entering the carriage I could Qinghe who smiled at me and gave me his hand. After a handshake, we both sat down. "Long time not talking with you, Bai. It was since the selection matches?" I nodded "I was really busy preparing the trip and all the international policies" Explained Qinghe. "Don''t worry, is to be expected from a crown prince" I said. Truth be told I could take from my mind Paul''s word and I was a little nervous. I always liked Qinghe, but I always had a strange feeling of him, not that it was a bad one. "What do you want to tell me, Bai?" asked Qinghe "Don''t take it wrong, I always appreciate your visits. But seeing your face I know that there''s something that worries you. You can tell me, what are friends for?" I sighed "So I''m that easy to read" "Yep" Qinghe said laughing. I looked at Qinghe''s eyes and turned serious. Seeing me so serious Qinghe also became. "Qinghe, do you have some secrets? Are you hiding me something?" Qinghe shrugged the question "What are you saying? As an imperial member, of course, I have secrets, I can''t tell you everything, Bai. You surely are same" I continued serious "I know. We all have our secrets. But what I was asking is about one that could affect our relationship. Some deep secret, that you hide from everyone" Qinghe was becoming a little nervous but was trying to keep calm. "I only want to say that I am your friend. Even if you had an obscure secret, if not goes against my family, damaging it, I will take your side, whatever it is. I will trust you, you can trust me." I continued seriously. Qinghe was becoming more nervous. Just as he seemed to want to say something "Bai, the truth is..." he stopped a moment, returning to her usual smiling face "Nothing, Bai. Like anyone I have my secrets, like anyone but nothing to worry" "I''m glad that my thoughts were wrong" I laughed "It would be strange for you to be a girl" I slipped without want it. "Wh-wha-what are you saying!?" Qinghe stuttered, becoming red. "Sorry, delusions of mine. But you really are girly sometimes" I laughed at him. "Don''t laugh at me, Bai. You don''t want to make me angry" Qinghe said grinning. "Sorry, sorry. Thanks for talking with me, I was always worried. I''m better after this talk" I said. "For next time find another subject to talk, I don''t really like interrogations," said Qinghe smiling. "Sure, sure. I would take it into account" I said. We then talked a little about unimportant things, when it was becoming night I said goodbye and went to my carriage. [It''s too obvious that she was lying] (Is a he! And I will trust him) [You decided to remain ignorant and keep your friendly act rather than accept the reality. It''s normal to be afraid of the unknown. But, what will you do when you can''t keep your ignorance? It''s impossible to always escape, I''m the proof of it] We stayed quiet arriving at our carriage to sleep. In Qinghe''s carriage, Qinghe was in nightwear. He lay on the bed and hugged his pillow. He made a worried face and said with a sad voice "Maybe, I should have told him" while having his cheeks lightly tinted red. Chapter 73 - To Spirit City 2 We had already traveled half the distance to Spirit City. Today we took a shortcut between two hills, due to the rough terrain, the carriages slowed their speed and the distance between them increased. Being bored, I decided to visit Rongrong so I headed to her carriage. All Shrek''s team were walking outside the carriage with the exemptions of Xiao Wu and Chenxiang. "Hi" I said approaching them. They greeted me. "Hi, big brother. Are you also bored with the trip?" asked Rongrong. "Yeah, maybe it will be a better option to go running, it will be half the time" I sighed "I don''t see Xiang, Xiao Wu or Grandmaster, where are they?" Reacting to Grandmaster, Liu Erlong growled and left to another place angrily. I was surprised "Something happened?" "You see, Erlong is very mad, it''s better to not approach her, you won''t be the first to be attacked by her. And never said the name of you know who in her presence" "What exactly happened?" I asked. "It seems that Grandmaster broke his relation with her, telling that she was like a sister. Like his feeling were distorted and were wrong, that he truly didn''t love her. He bowed apologized and accepted a beating from her. Erlong stayed 3 days crying, and Grandmaster went to someplace, explaining to us that we will see again in Spirit City" Rongrong explained. "Oh? They''re inside the carriage cultivating, we let them alone to concentrate. They are working really hard to breakthrough before the finals. We only need to stabilize our ranks, but Xiao Wu and sister Chenxiang will have a lot of impact if they breakthrough" explained Rongrong. "I knew that Xiao Wu was near 40, but Xiang is near 50?" I asked a little surprised. "Yep!" nodded Rongrong. "Xiao Wu won''t have any problem, but Xiang will find it difficult to find a compatible spirit ring" I said in low voice. "What are you mumbling?" asked Rongrong. "Nothing, only that it would be difficult for them to search for a ring" I answered. "Sister Chenxiang said that she had a plan, but she keeps it a secret. Are you worried about losing against us?" Rongrong teased. I pinched her cheeks "Don''t be too cheeky, Rongrong. You think you''re really to fight against me?" The Imperial Knight immediately moved to push them aside from us. Looking at them clearly, they were corpse [Quickly! Activated your domain!] Paul shouted. Sensing that something wasn''t right I followed Paul''s advice. I manifested my Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sword. Holding it with both hands I concentrated on my will. If the intent is a manifestation of your will, the domain is forcing that will to your surroundings. A white aura exuded from me creating a white dome figure covering Shrek''s group and carriage. Just a second after I deployed my domain, all the corpse started shining with a purple light, the corpse started swelling and exploded. Louds "Booom!" were listened, filling all outside my domain with purple flames, shooting debris everywhere. I could see the Imperial Knight falling prey to the flames, they seemed to be chuckled by them, become older until they seemed like mummies without any life in them. The truth is that the explosion wasn''t very strong, and I resisted just fine with my domain. The main attack where that purple flames, that chased any living they close and for what it seemed absorbed their vitality. It was an attack without true strength to my domain easily stopped it. I could see the shocked faces of Shrek, closing their mouths with their hands. After 10 seconds the flames went out, leaving a tray of mummies. I withdraw my domain. Looking at other carriages, they seemed to be facing the same situation. The majority could protect from the attack, thanks to their teachers, but even with it, some weak students fell victim to the attack. When the attack seemed to have stopped, the mummies started moving, doing doll-like moved they slowly stood. Almost all of them were the armor of the Imperial Knights, and in the place where their eyes will be, they had now shining purple flames. Almost every imperial knight became one mummy and they numbered 1500. They had the strength of a spirit elder, but their movements were easy to read. Looking at others fighting I could see that the mummies ignored any damage, and could move any part connected with their head. Shrek prepared to fight, but for some reason, the mummies started to ignore us going to other places. "Did you like my fireworks?" cracked a gloomy voice. I turned to the voice finding a hooded figure all covered with a black cape and a white mask, he seemed to piggyback a little replica for himself. I sensed the area is constricted by a great power, I immediately knew that the statues pagoda couldn''t create a signal. I quickly turned to Rongrong "Rongrong, warn the clan! Quickly!" Rongrong nodded and shot firework, showing the clan emblem. "If the Seven clan came, we will be beaten down" said the little one with a squeaky voice. "They will be dead before they arrive" said the big one. At that moment the black-dressed man manifested his rings, there were 9, 2 yellows, 2 purple, and 5 blacks, a titled douluo! The figure then turned transparent and charged towards Tang San. Shrek''s members took out something like crossbows and started shooting arrows, but they simply passed through the figure. "Tang Hao''s son must die!" said the big one. The little one shivered "Tang Hao is very scary" I activated my domain knowing that it couldn''t stop him but it will improve my intent. "Rongrong, support!" Rongrong activated her skills and I absorbed all of them canceling them in the process. I activated my four first skills, my sword shining brightly in different colors. I pierced towards Tang San activating my 5th skill, shooting a single white sword with a highly condense Protection intent. The best conductor of sword intent is a sword, more if it''s familiar with you, using one sword as a carrier of my intent, it improves a lot more than crossing the air. Just as the black figure was about to attack Tang San with a big purple claw, the claw was stopped colliding with the white sword. "He could stop us" said the little one. The big one turned toward me, I could sense a death stare from it, full of blood ?ust. "Die, fly!" said the tall one. One of his black rings shined "<6th skill: Hell''s entrance>", a black dome surrounded me, then from the ground around, black shadows appeared. I couldn''t move and the shadows started clinging me. I could sense a great death intent from them, trying to drag me with them. [You useless! Quickly! Give me the control] Paul shouted desperately. I didn''t doubt him, knowing that only death waited for me I let Paul take control. I sensed being pushed inside my mind. My hair turned black as Paul. "I already experimented death one time, you think that I would return, dream on!" my body shouted, Paul could move the body and swing my sword now black in color, dispersing all the shadows, the black dome started cracking. Paul had bloodshot in his eyes and was trembling, he looked at his trembling hands "Take care of the body, I need time to recover. If I need to control before that both of us will die" Paul said, I returned to the control, returning my hair to its white color. Taking control of the body, the black dome finally fell apart. "A tiny spirit king could escape from Hell? This is an insult!" said the big one madly. "If we let him grow, he would be very frightening" said the little one. The black figure changed his target from Tang San to me and charged towards me "You will die first, then it will be Tang Hao''s son!" He opened his arms and a purple ring shined "<3rd skill: Shadow Entanglement>". Shadow appeared at my feet and blocked me, I couldn''t move! Seeing him nearing my position I could sense my death nearing [You fu?ker! You killed both of us, simply for helping Tang San, Your truly an idiot! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!] Paul shouted more mad than usual. I closed my eyes in fright. At that moment, I smelled a flower fragrance. Opening my eyes I saw the black dressed man had stopped still, his hand only an inch of my heart. He was surrounded by flower petals that stopped him. "Gu Mei, what did we said about attacking him?" Floating 30 meters in the sky there, was a beautiful woman with long brown hair, wearing a red robe with gold and silver decorations that could only be worn by titled douluos, she stood with elegance and a very rich scent left her. "We were caught, her holiness will punish us, how scary!" said the little one. "He is Tang Hao''s son, he must die" said the big one. "Oh? You already listened to her holiness orders, he can''t be attacked. And why are you about to kill another boy? Did you lose your sight growing old?" the woman said. The big one grumbled "He dared to stop me. Her holiness didn''t say anything of him, let me kill him" The woman sighed "You really are demented to attack the Seven Pagoda clan heir. Return, her holiness will punish you" The black-robed man became shadows and disappeared grumbling. Having escaped a near-death experience I sighed, I bowed to the woman "Thanks for helping me, senior" The woman warmly smiled "You don''t need to thank me, it''s our fault. We should apologize" At that moment a black hole appeared, from it dad and uncle Bone and Sword left. Uncle Sword directly came to us protecting us from the woman. Looking around uncle Bone turned to the woman "Oh? It''s not Yue Guan, you''re becoming more beautiful with the years" he said teasingly. "Long time not seeing you, Gu Rong, schoolmaster Ning" said the woman, named Yue Guan. "What is the situation? You used the clan alarm?" Asked dad. "It was only one of my companions got out of control, and attack this group of children. Spirit Hall will pay for all the damages, and repay all the loses, don''t worry." said the woman. Dad turned to me "The ?du?ts would talk about this, it seems that the carriages are just fine, return to them and continue your trip. Elder Sword accompanied you" The damage of the mummies attack, wasn''t to much, only a cover to gain time. The loses being the non-spirit master of the imperial knight. Arriving at the carriage they were now surrounded by a group of more than 500 spirit masters, all of them wearing Spirit Hall guard clothes. We were informed, that they will guide us to Spirit City continuing with the travel. In the carriage a turned to uncle Sword "Uncle, what was all of that? Who attacked us?". "Spirit Hall. For the damage and techniques, I could detect, you were attacked by Gui Mei, mostly know as Ghost Douluo, and elder of Spirit Hall. The other one, don''t let him deceive you with his image, he is very feminine, but he is a man over 200 years old, he is Yue Guan, the Chrysanthemum Douluo, another elder of Spirit Hall. Why the were fighting between them, I don''t know" explained uncle Sword. "They were talking about her holiness order to not attack Tang San, Yue Guan ignored them" I explained. "It''s strange, the supreme pontiff should hate Tang Hao. Maybe Spirit Hall has some intern problem, I hope that will lower their power" said uncle Sword. I nodded. Then we continued the travel, talking about different things, especially about sword cultivation. When I could be alone a started a conversation with Paul (Do you know what exactly happened?) (Trap? Another of your make up words?) [It means a man dressed as a woman, the Chrysanthemum Douluo] (Yeah, your prediction were wrong, you said that we will be attacked by two douluos, but only one attacked us, the other protected us instead) [If all went as I know, we will be attacked by both of them, until they escape when our clan''s elder come] (This prove that you''re not always right) [The important is not that I am not right. The most important is why? Why two elders of Spirit Hall act differently? Ghost is a crackpot that hate Tang Hao for injuring him a lot of years ago, so it''s normal for him to want to attack Tang San. The Trap move by BiBi Dong orders. It''s strange for Bibi Dong to protect Tang San] Paul paused 3 seconds [Of course! It''s that! It can only be him, he is the only one who could convince her. I would like to know better what happened and know the conversation] (What are you talking about? And about whom?) [Discover for yourself] (So another riddle. Could you at least tell me how could you destroy Ghost attack, and why did you return so quickly the control) [Oh, that? The attack wasn''t a power attack, it was a conceptual attack. Anyone without enough comprehension would simply die. It''s an attack used more to kill lower level than him. The attack had the death concept and the killing concept. I could destroy thanks to my death comprehension, but doing it I was infected by the killing concept. If I continued there, I will be swallowed by the killing, turning into a berserk killing machine. Both of us impossible to take back control. We must familiarize with killing, in this world, it''s impossible to grow without killing] Thinking about it''s right, the spirit master world is full of death, but even now I didn''t have the need to kill anyone. But it is not like I want to kill without reason. (Now that I remembered, you said you need time to recover, I suppose is from the killing intent. How much time would you need?) [There''s no need. I''m already recovered. The Trap used one skill to heal us, the rich Heaven and Earth essence of an immortal herb helped me eliminating it] (It''s so. I''m glad for your recover) [You''re really an idiot. If you followed my advice, anything of this would have happened] Finished Paul saying leaving the conversation. I returned to the carriage, continuing the trip. Chapter 74 - Spirit City After a long 20 days of travel, we finally arrived at Spirit City. Spirit City it can be considered the main city of Spirit Hall, completely controlled by it, it houses two of the three most important building of Spirit Hall, the Supreme Pontiff Palace, a magnificent and huge construction were the Supreme Pontiff lives, and the Spirit Temple, amount all the temples is was the biggest and considered the most important one. It was considered a great honor to simply put a foot in it, it was considered the holy land of every spirit master and something unattainable for non-spirit masters. The only more prestigious building being the Douluo Palace were the great elder of Spirit Hall resides, but it''s very difficult to enter in it. You can only enter with the explicit consent of the great elder, that it was near impossible to obtain, or by attaining the titled douluo rank. When one person obtain that rank, he would go to the Douluo Palace and will receive his title in it, besides a Spirit Hall Writ obtaining the rank of elder of Spirit Hall, with all of its benefits. Entering, we finally could see how it was the city. There were 3 very easily distinguishable areas, the outer with normal-looking houses, this couldn''t be considered the true city as it only was the place where resided slaves and non-spirit masters, its function as a production area for the main city. The other areas were grant, the true city was spirit masters lived and the Supreme Pontiff Palace, its size being half of the city. For the tournament, they prepared a stadium in front of the Supreme Pontiff Palace. The Supreme Pontiff herself will only be for the final 3 matches. The stadium wasn''t so big as the one in Heaven Dou City but it was more luxurious. There wasn''t any need to be very big as the competition could only be attended as spectators by spirit masters, so the audience won''t surpass the 5.000 people, a lot lower than in the other parts. Spirit Hall prepared houses for every team to stay there. We arrived at our designed house, leaving there all our things. "Finally! Tomorrow we will start fighting" said Mayi enthusiastically. I shook my head "Mayi, as a seeded team, we will skip the first match so tomorrow we won''t fight" It took more than half an hour to stop Mayi''s wailing. The next day we all went to the stadium, like in Heaven Dou Empire, there was a little presentation, thank god they did it very quickly, wanting to start the matches as sooner as possible. The ones at the VIP lounge were the 4 cardinals, they were one the highest-ranking of Spirit Hall, at least politically, the truth is that they didn''t have too much power for themselves. The power of Spirit Hall is divided in two, the Supreme Pontiff, considered a sacred being with the most talent and power, with her faction, and the Elders Palace, the join organization of elders, all of them at the titled douluo rank with the final decision in all matters, untouchable by even the Supreme Pontiff. What is the actual power of them, is something unknown, but it is said that they have 6/10 of all titled douluos of the continent. After the brief introduction, the matches started without rest. In this first round, there was a total of 33 teams, 15 teams plus one seeded of Heaven Dou Empire, 15 teams plus one seeded of Star Luo and the seeded team of Spirit Hall. In this first round, the 3 seeded teams will rest. The matches were 7vs7 matches, were the losers one were eliminated from the competition. Finishing all the matches, now there were only 18 teams. There wasn''t any exiting match at all, as the best team can be considered Shrek and the seeded teams, and the seeded didn''t participate, it was normal that there weren''t any powerful clash. Knowing the team for the others round it was very easy to know who will win. The only worthy to be mentioned it will be the fact that the Flaming Academy forfeit their match which was against Shrek, Shrek passing the round without the need to fight. Arriving at the Finals and then forfeit was very strange, but it was discovered the reason when it was the turn of the Godwing Academy to fight. The actual Godwing Academy was a combination of the strongest fighters of the Godwing Academy and the Blazing Academy, now with a full team of 7 spirit ancestors. With this new combination, they increased a lot in power, it commonly knows that fire can be strengthened by the wind. And the combination of firepower plus the ?ssistant of flying spirits master could be a pain in the ?ss. It was very strange that Spirit Hall accepted this change, so it must be some kind of a deal, the most probable being that they will join Spirit Hall in the future. The new Godwing Academy easily defeated their rivals passing the round. The next round will be in 2 days, so I decided to take it easy tomorrow, doing a little sightseeing going to sleep soon. Walking around, there weren''t as many shops as in Heaven Dou City and the air of a carnival was no existing. However, the quality of the products made up of its low quantity. There were a lot of products destined only for spirit master, even you could find some rare spirit tools, all their prizes lower than in the empire. As it could be expected of the holy land of the spirit masters. The most surprising was outside the main city, it was over 20 km away, it was a restricted area. But as part of the team in the finals have permission to enter. The area was a combination of different spaces, with very different conditions that tried to emulate the better mimicry environment. The spaces even have spirits beast emulating better the environment. I inspected a little because curiosity, it must be said that it was a lot better than in my academy, the conditions were more extreme and realistic and there was a lot more variety, wherein my academy there were only 7 different areas, here there were 46. We so little time to stay here, it wasn''t possible to make any noteworthy breakthrough thanks to this, so I thought that this permission was a kind of show-off from Spirit Hall, trying to lure the empires'' talents to their side. When I was leaving the mimicry area I was stopped by a voice "Oh? It isn''t Bai?". Looking at him more attentive, I could finally recognize him "Grandmaster?" He nodded "We didn''t talk a lot, I thought that you won''t recognize me" He then looked at me directly, I could sense his gray eyes in me, seeming to see all my secret, even if I knew that the possibility of seeing me was very low due to my spirit and cultivation. After a second, he smiled. Without me even realizing he moved to my back and patted my shoulder "I owe you one" he said in a low voice. I quickly turned back, not seeing anyone in there, it was like he had been a ghost. I was trembling with cold sweat at my neck. I didn''t know if it was true what I saw, he was like a completely different man, younger, stronger, more self-confident and it gave a dangerous feeling. What frightened me the most was his stare, who seemed to analyze me and the actual fact that I couldn''t detect any cultivation from him. All my clan spirit begin the seven or nine pagoda or my sword, have a very good detection, even if I couldn''t pinpoint his cultivation, there has never been the case when I couldn''t detect any cultivation. And I was sure that he was hiding because I could feel how dangerous he was, that I would die if I fought him. [I didn''t expect so much change. She must have a part in it. He even recognized us, so he could detect my energy even when I am hiding, truly dangerous] (So it wasn''t an illusion? How can someone change so much in 3 months?) [I don''t know the details, but it surely related to Bibi Dong. His aura was similar to mine, even with better comprehension. It''s really strange that some light spirit like his to give this dark feeling, he should have experiment another change or evolution. One thing is clear, he is more than a spirit king, at least in power] (Should we be wary of him?) [Of course, like with everyone, especially if they are stronger. At least, he owes us, I don''t think he would directly attack us until he at least repay us] I nodded and decide that it was enough for today, I returned to our house and cultivated calming me down in preparation for tomorrow''s match. Chapter 75 - 1vs7. I want more candies! The next was our team debut in the competition. In this round there was 18 team, 2 teams will skip the round, they were the first of the ranking competition, from Heaven Dou Empire it was Shrek Academy and from Star Luo Empire it was Shining Night Academy. Like the first round, it was a qualifying round 7vs7. Luckily or unlucky if you want to fight strong opponents, our opponents weren''t any of the other seeded teams or anything close. By the ranking, it was the 5th ranked academy of Star Luo, High Union Academy. It must be said that the method of grooming talents was different in the empire. Heaven Dou opted for an extreme type, the 5 elemental academies the best example of it. The specialized in one aspect and maximize it, almost ignoring the others, this creates weakness, but it also made almost impossible to go against them if they counter you. The Blazing Academy with its boost power, The Godwing Academy with its speed, the Skywater Academy with its control, the Thunderclap with its attack strength, and the Armored Elephant School with its defense. On the other hand, Star Luo empire focus in equilibrium, they have very little weaknesses, but they don''t have any apparent strong point. They usually are better in 1vs1 matches, they having more adaptability. Our opponents had all different kinds of spirits, focusing on individuality. Neither of the two types really surpassed the other. In my opinion, the best is the extreme type combined in a team, creating an equilibrium. The curious fact was that the seeded teams of each empire didn''t really represent their ideas. Our team and the Star Luo Imperial team were this extreme type combination to equilibrium. In Spirit Hall case, they usually also go for that method. This year they said that the best word to describe them is overwhelming. Before our match, our team decided to have a little reunion to discuss our tactic. Having all reunited there we decided who will participate, being Shi M¨° who wouldn''t compete in this match. "The information about our opponents describe them as individual, with close to no resemblance of any team fighting, but powerful enough. For this team, we will use the formation of..." Tianheng was saying but was interrupted by me "I don''t think any of that it necessary" "What is your idea, Bai?" asked Lingling. "One of our advantages is that all the other teams are not really aware of what we are capable of, as we didn''t fight before, they didn''t have a lot of information about us. Our rivals are weak, why even show our spirits. Let Mayi fight alone against all the other team, she can only show strength, as she didn''t have any spirit skill" I explained. Mayi jumped with her hand up "I agree with Bai!" Lingling giggled "Bai, you only want Mayi to stop wailing letting her fight some" "You discovered me, she is really becoming more irritant," I said. "Muuu!" puffed her cheeks Mayi. "I don''t see any problem anyway if something happens and they can win against Mayi, we will act as usual" Tianheng finished. "Okay!" We all answered. Then it was our turn to enter the stadium. "On one side, we have the seeded team of Heaven Dou Empire, Heaven Dou Imperial Academy" We were announced. We entered the ring, the other academy was already there, they were positioned in an arrow formation 1-2-1-3. We positioned ourselves, Mayi smiling at the front while all the others we stayed at the back forming a line. "A very peculiar formation from Heaven Dou, what will they be planning?" the announcer said "Show your spirits!" All the other academy started activating them, I didn''t focus on them and decided to ignore them. I already analyzed them when we were entering, 1 spirit ancestor plus 6 spirits elder, they didn''t have any possibility. From our side only Mayi activated her spirit, manifesting her brown armor resembling ant "Hah?! You are really underestimating, only one of you using their spirit" "Even only I am too much for you, try to entertain me a little" said Mayi cutely making the other team angry. Just as the other team was about to talk back, Mayi showed her 5 rings, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, silencing the other team who had shocked expression with open mouths. "K-k-king!" they shouted "Monster!" they started to tremble. "Calm down" said the spirit ancestor, I supposed their leader "She is only one person, we could win over her. And look closely, her configuration is impossible and I can''t sense cultivation from her, the most probable is that is a kind of illusion skill to make as afraid" Listening to their leader, the team calmed down "Right, how can it be?" "Yeah, you won''t trick us!" Idiots, true you couldn''t see her cultivation, but the pressure that she gave was real. Mayi then turned to the announcer "When it will start?" asked tilting her head. "So-sorry. Match start!" The announcer shouted. Mayi launched to them, she arrived immediately in front of the first one, a man with a strong body and big muscles, some strength-oriented beast spirit. The man threw a punch to Mayi, she reacted with her own punch. When they both punches clashed, no! The truth was that it would be wrong to call it a crash Mayi punch simply passed throw her opponent arm, crack noises could be heard from his broken bones, Mayi crippled him and shot outside the ring. Looking at the bent arm full of blood, it was difficult to recognize it as an arm. "Mayi, lower the power, they are not strong I said. "Sorry, but I didn''t expect him to be so weak" answered Mayi. "If you continue like that we won''t let you fight again" I told her. "He didn''t even activate any skill, it is his fault!" Mayi said blaming the man. The leader recuperated "Don''t close to her! Attack long-ranged!" he ordered the team. The leader seemed to have some gloves spirit, he punched the floor with a purple ring shining "<4th skill: Rock Rain>" the ground cracked under his punch and rocks made by the ring started floating, they seemed to be strengthened, then they were launched to Mayi. Mayi stayed still, she punched every rock towards her easily breaking all of them. "Twins, spirit fusion!" said the leader to two people, now that I looked at them they really resemble each other, tall with brown hair. Both brown-haired men joined their hands "". Under Mayi''s feet, boulders started to grow, encasing her in it. "This is our trump card, we even hid in the other competitions" the leader said "It can only stop her, prepare your more powerful attacks when they are ready, break your spirit fu-" "BOOM!" A loud noise followed by a little earthquake interrupted the leader talking, the other team all started looking to the source, inside the Eternal Coffin. Looking at it the Eternal Coffin already had a minuscule crack. After a second it listened another "BOOM!", the Eternal Coffin''s cracks now it even could be seen by the spectators, having grown a lot. "How could it be?" the leader said surprised. "BOOM!" Finally, the Eternal Coffin broke to piece, the twin who created spat blood from their mouth due to the backslash. Leaving the Coffin was Mayi who had one her left hand over her right shoulder and was stretching her right arm. "Impossible!" one of the other team members said. "3 hits. They are strong enough. I could play a little" Mayi said smiling brightly. "Attack!" said the leader. Even with his order, the other 3 people who could actually fight were too scared to even move. The leader punched the ground another time with a purple ring shining "<3rd skill: Sand Attack>" shooting a very dense cloud of sand towards Mayi, blocking her view. "She can''t see, attack!" the other 3 members recovered a little and started using their spirits, one with a bow shot a barrage of arrows, another one shot fireballs to Mayi and the last one, who had a sword spirit, he simply threw his sword while it was surrounded by wind. Mayi punched the ground, the shock wave that she created was enough to push the sand aside. Seeing the attacks coming to her, she started moving her right arm, deflecting all the attacks. It seemed like she was scaring flies, for the sword she let it hit her ?h?st, but the sword only could rebound without leaving a dent in her armor. Mayi smiled "Now, it''s my turn" she prepared to jump to them when the leader said "We surrender" Listening to the opponent''s leader the announcer shouted "The High Union Academy surrenders, Heaven Dou Imperial Academy wins!" Mayi fell to her knees, I approached her and patted her shoulder "I wanted to fight! I only hit one!" she was crying, she seemed a child who someone took her candy away. "Calm down, Mayi. The next one will be stronger". Then we all left the ring from the audience we could her "How can she be so strong" "A spirit king sure is different" "Did you see that she didn''t even use any spirit skill?". After some time, the low voices became cheering "Heaven Dou for the win!" "Heaven Dou the strongest!" We left ignoring all the cheers while I was trying to cheer Mayi promising some good to eat. She answered with some tears in her eyes "I want more candies" Chapter 209 - War Preparations After some days, Bai''s group finally reached Heaven Dou City only to find the palace with the minimum protection. There, the guards were very respectful to them, having recognized them. They were informed by a high ranking officer that the war against the Spirit Empire had already started, the alliance of Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire already attacking the Spirit Empire. However, it seemed that they had some problems and were on standby, the actual information somehow unknown to them. Bai''s group started again another trip. This time towards Jialing Pass. Jialing Pass was a highly important strategic place. Spirit City was surrounded by a great mountainous terrain called Heaven Spirit mountain range. It was a complex mountain where armies couldn''t cross it except for Jialing Pass, a somehow narrow path that crossed the mountain range. The Spirit Empire''s forces should have focused on there to stop the invasion of the other empires. Even if the Spirit Empire had a higher number of high spirit masters, it couldn''t compete with the size of the combined army. Jialing Pass was the perfect place to restrain the numbers. Moreover, it was a natural fortress being easily defended. It would be difficult to cross it. As Bai''s group approached the Jialing Pass, a full military camp was before the Pass. Bai''s group could recognize the empires and some kingdoms'' flags. Just as they approached the camp, two soldiers stopped them. They were covered in full armor with Heaven Dou''s colors with a long spear that pointed at Bai''s group "Stop! Reveal your identity!" Bai took something out of his inventory bracelet and threw at them. One guard caught it and opened his eyes widely shocked. It was Bai''s tablet. It had the symbol of the Seven Treasure Pagoda Clan with the character Ning, its colors in it, reveled Bai as the heir of it. The wary look of the guards instantly vanished, being replaced by awe and respect, bowing themselves towards Bai. "Could you guide us to the highest officers?" Bai asked. "Only a moment, sir" The guards started talking between each other, one of them running inside the camp "My companion would make known your presence. Someone would come to guide you shortly" he said full of respect. Bai''s group accepted. It was normal, even with the tablet they were unfamiliar. They couldn''t be directly guided to the high officer as they could be ?ssassins impersonating. After five minutes, something crossed the sky, it was someone running over a sword, quickly landing in front of Bai''s group. Long white hair and sharp eyes, Bai instantly recognized him, it was his uncle, Sword Douluo Chen Xin. Xin looked over the group "You have grown, little Bai" he said with a smile. It had passed a lot of time and things without meeting. Bai became a little sentimental "Uncle Xin" he nodded smiling at him. Xin was someone of few words, preferring to be reserved and rarely show his expressions, but he couldn''t hide the look of concern and joy looking at Bai. "Tang San, Xiao Wu, Bai Chenxiang" Xin nodded at them with a cold and stoic face. The three of the joined their hands respectfully lowering their head "Sword Douluo" "I don''t deserve your respect" Xin said attentively looking at the group "You almost reached my level, if not surpassed. You can call me uncle Sword" "Uncle Sword!" said the three of them. "I see that you are prepared. I would guide you over the headquarter" Xin turned around towards the camp each step crossing tens of meters, Bai''s group following him. The crossed various tents, finally reaching the biggest one with Heaven Dou Empire''s flag flapping with the wind. The group entered inside, finding people around a table discussing war affairs. At the head, making them the most important, stood a young brown-haired man of some 20 years old and a black-haired man about 50 years wearing armor, they were a spirit ancestor and a spirit douluo respectively. The young man was none other than Xue Beng, the actual emperor of Heaven Dou Empire, Xue Ye having died two years before. Xue Beng lowered a little his head seeing the group "Teachers!" This was for Tang San and Bai. For the help of the recently created Tang Sect to Heaven Dou Empire, Tang San was given the title of teacher of the emperor. In Bai''s case, he had been his teacher for a short while at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy and he was only beating him, teaching him manners. Now knowing that it was all a charade for his survival, Bai was a little regretful. Xue Beng made some signals and everyone at the room stood up. They bowed towards him before leaving the tent, only leaving Xue Beng, the black-haired man, Sword Douluo and Bai''s group. "Let me present you to the head of my army, Marshal Ge Long" Xue Beng said signaling the man. Ge Long bowed a little at them keeping his cool. Being able to keep stoic surrounded by powerhouses showed his strength and experience, his great position reserved. Bai group presented themselves "Could you explain the situation of the war?" Bai asked. Xue Beng started explaining the situation. Spirit Empire had closed himself inside Jialing Pass'' fortress like they expected, only defending themselves of the attacks. Even if the allied force were bigger, they couldn''t use that advantage. Moreover, the fortress was not only protected with strong walls and artillery but there was also the Supreme Pontiff accompanied by some titled douluos, making the fortress impregnable. "They didn''t try to attack the supply line?" asked Bai. Clearly it was a weak but highly important factor. It was weakly protected, but without food, the army wouldn''t last long. "We weren''t informed of any attack" Marshall Ge answered, "The supply line working properly, being protected by a little army." Bai shook his head, in the canon the Spirit Empire try to attack the supply line only to be stopped but Tang San, but it had long since the canon had really lost its importance. Bai would live in the present reality. After some questions, Marshall Ge informed them about the battles until now. They tried to attack with strong momentum but they were stopped by the Spirit Empire''s titled douluos, suppressing them in the little area. With each attack, the allied forces were forced to flee. The Spirit Empire never trying to chase them, causing the actual loss of troops to be low, but the morale being low. After listening and seeing the written reports, Bai turned to Sword Douluo "Uncle, how is it that the clan didn''t fully participate in any attack? The clan forces are there supporting, but neither father, mother, or uncle Gu are there. With mother''s strength, it would have been possible to break through their defense. Sword God furrowed his eyebrows "It''s because of Xie. She is not in a state capable of fighting" "What had happened to mum?!" Bai asked worriedly. Chapter 210 - Little Hui "Calm down, Bai. Xie is completely healthy" Chen Xin said "You shouldn''t let your feeling take control of you." Xin advised Bai. "Sorry, but what happened to mother?" Bai said calming himself. It was strange for the battle junkie of her mother to not stand in the first line, something must have occurred while he was out. "You see, Xie is-" Just as Xin was about to say it, a black hole appeared at his side. From it, Bone Douluo Gu Rong''s head popped out "It''s time" he announced. Gu Rong looked around the room and saw Bai "Oh, it''s not little Bai? You came at the perfect time. We will have time later to tell stories, now come here. Xie would be glad seeing you." He said not waiting for an answer before disappearing inside the black hole, completely ignoring everyone at the tent and letting the black hole there. "It''s an important time for your family, we understand your absence" Xue Beng said permitting him to leave. "Go. I''ll stay here as a link for Bone" Chen Xin said. Bai was really confused, not really knowing what was the situation. He sensed clutching his arm, turning to see Chenxiang "I''ll follow you, so don''t worry. They said that all is fine." Bai nodded as he stepped forward. Bai turned around "You can continue the meeting. Let me be informed about it later" Bai and Chenxiang crossed the black hole that disappeared behind them. Bai and Chenxiang found themselves inside a long corridor. Bai recognizing it as his family''s mansion at the clan. Specifically, they were in the west wing of the mansion, where the infirmary was located. Outside the infirmary, it could be seen Ning Fengzhi skipping over the door, again and again, he had an impatient, worry, and looking forward to, face. Fengzhi turned towards Bai, his face showing surprise "When did you come, son? Did you find out the good news?" "I finished my business outside, just now arriving here thanks to uncle Bone. What are you referring to good news?" "You didn''t know? Xie''Er is about to-" "Ngggg!" Painful cries left the infirmary, Bai recognized her mother''s voice. Just as Bai was about to worry "Buaaaaaahhh!" Xiangxie cries were replaced by a baby''s cry. (Of course) Bai realized what it was all about. His mother wasn''t in a state to battle, but she was fine and it was good news. His mother was pregnant and just now his little brother had born. A woman dressed as a healer left the infirmary "It''s a boy. Both, lady Ning and the baby, are healthy." She informed, the people outside sighed in relieve, showing joy in their faces "You can already come inside, but it would be better to come one on one, to not alter the lady and the baby" Fengzhi nodded stepping forward "Wait here for a little while. We will talk later, son" He said entering the infirmary. Bai turned to Gu Rong "What didn''t you tell me that mother was pregnant?" "We all decided it was better to not tell it to you or Rongrong." Gu Rong stated "You are doing extremely important things, we didn''t want to distract you. Moreover, I don''t know where you were but it was incredibly unstable, not even I being able to detect your position." Bai knew that they were right. It would be putting more weight over them and he had been very busy, very close to the death. For Rongrong, she should be at Seagod Island, busy with the trials "A lot of things happened." Bai started telling to Gu Rong an overall of his adventures, excluding his constant never death experiences. The infirmary''s doors opened again. From it left 4 healers and Fengzhi. Fengzhi approached Bai and hugged. He didn''t say anything else, but the paternal love feelings were transmitted "You can enter, son." Fengzhi turned to Chenxiang and smiled at her "Xie also requested your presence. If you d?s?r?, you can also enter." Both nodded and entered the infirmary. Inside, Bai found, laying on a bed, his mother who carefully and warmly hugged a just born baby. Xiangxie seemed a little tired, with sweet running across her forehead, but she had a warm, beautiful, and radiant smile that flowers seemed to bloom around her. "Bai" Xiangxie said smiling at her son "Let me present you your little brother, Ning Hui" She said patting the baby. The baby was already completely cleaned and wrapped around a white towel. His half-open were black like his father and on his head, a little of pink hair could be seen like his mother. "You can hold him" Xiangxie said. Bai approached taking the baby in his arms, carefully holding him. This was his little brother, someone who following canon should never exist due to his mother''s death. Seeing his little brother, he couldn''t help to smile, especially when Hui took Bai''s finger. Another person to love, to protect, and another reason to be strong. Bai reassured himself to protect his brother, if he had a say, he would never have the need to fight like him and his family. Xiangxie stood up of her bed and carefully took little Hui, carefully resting him on a cradle next to the bed. "Mum! You should move to carelessly. You must be tired after little brother''s birth" Bai said worriedly. Xiangxie leaned over Bai, enclosing him over her arms "I''m happy that you are here, Bai. I really, really missed you, my little Bai" Bai could feel warm inside her mother''s embrace. Even if his 1,9 meters tall overtowered Xiangxie 1,75 meters, he sensed little with her. He would be always her mother''s little son. Bai could feel the love from her. Xiangxie separated and smirked, lifting her arms "Who do you think your mum is? I won''t be tired for a birth, especially my third one" She looked at Bai from up to down smiling warmly "You have grown. Everything of you, not only your height and power. I''m proud." Xiangxie turner towards Chenxiang "You also became even more charming, little Xiang" Chenxiang smiled "Thanks, madam" "Oh, please! Never call me that. It makes me feel old. You can call me mum" Xiangxie said alternating her gaze from Bai and Chenxiang "For what I sense, you already went beyond that. What about the other girl?" Chenxiang made a forced expression "Bai fell for her." "I told you to be more forceful, not letting flies approach this little charmer" Xiangxie reprimanded pointing at her son "If I wasn''t, someone might have taken over Zhi''Er." "She''s not a fly, her feelings were real and she is like my sister" Chenxiang explained "Bai loves us dearly" she turned towards Bai and smiled "and he would continue, even risking his life. I don''t mind sharing him with her." Xiangxie looked at Chenxiang and sighed "If it''s your decision." Xiangxie turned to his son "I don''t want to find out making her cry, or there would be a punishment" she said even leaking killing intent, Bai nodding at her "Great!" she clapped her hands, her killing intent instantly replaced by a warm smile. Xiangxie came towards Chenxiang "Little Xiang, could you leave Bai and me alone. I have something to discuss with him in private". "Of course" Chenxiang nodded turning away, but she was stopped by Xiangxie who held his left arm. Xiangxie leaned over Chenxiang''s ears and whispered "Always fight for the first position. Never let another take it." Xiangxie went towards Hui and started playing with his little hands "You have a good girl, treasure her." "Always!" Bai answered "Mum, what did you want to tell me alone?" Xiangxie patted Hui one last time, the little baby falling asleep, Xiangxie warmly kissed his forehead. Xiangxie turned towards Bai and held his arms. She dragged him towards a shelf at the wall. She touched some books at a high speed. The shelf started soundlessly moving, revealing behind it some stairs going down. "Maya created secret passages everywhere. It was like her hobby, always secretly appear" Xiangxie said with a sad and longing smile "Come. I already called someone to look after Hui." Bai followed his mother. They went down the stairs silently, Bai could sense a strange air around her mother. After some turns from different hallways, they finally left the secret passage arriving outside, at an open field that Bai recognized it as the mansion''s training ground. Xiangxie walked towards the middle of the ground and turned towards Bai. She lifted her right hand, over it her Fire Volcano Sword appeared, pointing at Bai "There won''t be spirit energy or skills. Only a clash between swords" "Mum?!" Bai shouted surprised. The air twisted around them, even space seemed to bend over. Xiangxie''s sword shined with a gray ?uster, countless swords surging from the ground, transforming the exterior. "Shing!" after a flash, Bai and Xiangxie stood alone over an infinity space only formed by swords, completely isolated from the exterior. "Don''t doubt and use your full strength, Bai" Xiangxie said swinging her swords, a burning blade of air, shooting towards Bai, grazing his right cheek, leaving a little wound over it "Because this is your trial" All emotions left Xiangxie''s face, turning expressionless and cold. Opposing her face, strong flames burst all around "Let''s fight, Bai" Chapter 211 - Son vs Mother The field around Bai had transformed, similarly when he used the Sword God Arena skill. All full of different shaped swords around them, brown and red being the dominant colors. Bai quickly invoked his twin swords. He could see the seriousness in his mother''s face. If he didn''t fight with all, he could be greatly wounded. Xiangxie lifted her greatsword and dashed towards Bai, swung her greatsword, flames burst out at its back, increasing its speed and strength. Bai crossed both his sword, coating them in intent, blocking Xiangxie''s greatsword. Bai could be considered a balanced type, using different combinations to obtain great effect in his sword arts. On the other hand, Xiangxie was pure attack power. She had pushed her fire and earth intent to the human limit, fully focusing on offense. This difference made Bai paid a price to try directly blocking the attack, he was pushed 10 meters away, his arms trembling a little. "Mum, even if this is a trial, we could fight later. You just gave birth!" Bai shouted. Xiangxie smirked "I am more than enough for this" She held her sword with both hands and pierced the ground "" the sword fusing with it. Bai''s instinct went loudly. Bai jumped back "BOOOM!" where he stood before, the ground cracked and a pillar of lava shot up. Multiple pillars appeared all over the battlefield, creating a scene of erupting volcanos everywhere filling all the battlefield with fire and earth energy, creating a permanent fire rain. The battlefield seemed to have become Hell. A new red and brown greatsword appeared over Xiangxie, this one formed by pure energy and intent "Take it seriously, Bai. Or you will burn!" The lava pillar around Xiangxie bent over her sword, the sword aura increasing as flames danced around it. Xiangxie backed her greatsword leaning over the ground "" She swung her sword upwards, cutting the ground under her. A powerful pillar of flames shot towards Bai. Bai couldn''t doubt. He knew that he needed to fight with all his strength "" Bai''s left sword turned pitch back, creating an area where any Life would be extinguished. Bai''s right sword disappeared, a dome of white light expanding all over the battlefield. Xiangxie wouldn''t be affected by the action and reaction law from his All Sword, but it would greatly improve Bai''s defense and he could use the reaction of the defended attacks. "!" Bai black sword exploded, increasing its side. The black aura clashed with the fire pillar, weakening it. At the same time, Bai stepped at a side, a white sword appeared over his hand with a multiple layers shield. There was no need to fully destroy Xiangxie''s attack, evading was enough. With the weakened attack being protected by the white sword''s shield, Bai rolled over, finally leaving the area of effect of the attack, evading it. Or not. "Shit!" Just where Bai landed a 10 meters long earth spike surged from the ground impaling Bai. Bai was pushed up over 50 meters. At the last moment, Bai lifted his right leg, focusing his retaliation over it, creating a shield that blocked the spike, avoiding being completely empaled by it. Bai landed at the ground, flinching a little when he leaned his right leg "Shit, I didn''t though of the earth part" Bai couldn''t block completely the spike, it had pierced Bai''s leg leaving a nasty hole in it where it could be seen the bone. He must be glad for his strong body and the Torso Spirit Bone, letting resist the attack with only receiving that much. White and green aura was already shining at Bai''s wound, slowly healing it. "Take it seriously!" Xiangxie charged towards Bai, each of her steps was followed by a small explosion, leaving a pool of lava behind her, increasing her speed. Xiangxie swung her greatsword. Bai crossed his swords reflecting her attack, not taking all the momentum. Butt Xiangxie had expected it, swinging her leg and kicking Bai''s. Just as Bai was about to try to evade, the ground under him trembled, destabilizing him, not being able to evade and receiving Xiangxie''s kick full might. Bai being throw again. Xiangxie didn''t give him any respite, charging again towards him. Bai somersaulted recovering in the air, he crossed his swords just stopping Xiangxie''s greatsword. Xiangxie quickly connected it with another attack. Bai fell over Xiangxie''s rhythm, forced to defend. Both started slashing at each other, metal sound could be heard with each clash, their movements so quick that it was difficult to see. Bai''s speed was greater, he swinging more times his swords, but Xiangxie strength surpassed Bai. Moreover, she calculated each strike not letting any opening with the minimum movements stopping all Bai''s attacks. Flames danced around her sword, increasing her strength and threatening to burn Bai who was surrounded by white lights protecting him from the flames, but not from the increase of temperatura. Bai was usually highly resistance against fire, but before his mother, he found himself suppressed, not even trying to use his fire intent. Bai found himself being forced to step back, with each clash the burden of his arms increased, becoming very sore. Bai couldn''t continue like this. Bai''s face formed, his eyes became incredibly sharp, his mere gaze enough to cut. The look of his eyes was a very decided one, it was one that recognized the one in front of him as his enemy, killing intent oozing from them. The air around him changing. Xiangxie sensing the change, she stepped back, creating a distance between both. [That''s it, Bai. You should fight me with all] Xiangxie smiled. Over Bai''s hand, his twin swords reappeared. He lifted them "!" the blade of each started spinning like a drill, the colors fusing with each other. Under Bai, a twirl of different colored sword qi spun around, flames, lightning, leaves, metal shards, waterdrops, icicles... All dancing around Bai. Bai''s presence increasing to a new level. This was Bai''s All Sword where he activated the All Sword of each element at the same time. This was a true All Sword, twisting reality, reshaping like Bai wanted. It would be impossible to Bai to do it back then, but with his increase in strength and cultivation, it became a great leap of physical and mental strength, making it possible. Bai charged towards Xiangxie, his speed higher than before, crossing his swords slicing Xiangxie. Wind could increase his speed, reducing the pressure around him, while lightning being conducted and amplified by water could produce a burst of speed. Xiangxie tilted her greatsword, blocking Bai''s swords. For the first time, she was pushed away, overpowered by Bai''s strength that had surpassed her. Fire could be boosted by Wind, reinforced by Steel and exploded by Slaughter, surpassing the pure strength-oriented Xiangxie. Xiangxie kept her cold face [Yes, like this. I''m proud of you, Bai!] Xiangxie stomped the ground, earth swords surged from the ground attacking Bai. Bai charged towards Xiangxie, his body flashed, afterimages appearing around him. Just a sword was about to pierce him, it became an afterimage, the true Bai appearing near it. This was Bai using Space, even if Space was highly suppressed here, he was able to little distance movements. Bai reached Xiangxie, slicing at her, she b?r?ly blocking again. The tabled had been turned, now it was Xiangxie who was forced to defend, being in a worse situation than Bai before as she focused on offense. After some clashes, Bai finally found an opening, using his greater speed, thrusting forwards and piercing over Xiangxie''s stomach. Xiangxie retracted, flames surged at her wound cauterizing it instantly, not greatly affecting her strength. The truth was that both of them were tired. Xiangxie had just given birth followed by an all-out battle and for Bai was the first actual fight in using his full All Sword and was consuming a great deal of energy, not being able to last for long. Xiangxie''s All Sword was canceled, all the volcanos around them disappearing, only leaving the lava trails from them. Over Xiangxie''s hands appeared her Fire Volcano Sword. She held it with both hands and lifted over. "Bai, experiment the apex!" Xiangxie''s sword shined with gray light, the pressure around her increasing exponentially, making it even difficult for Bai to approach her, blocking him by sheer pressure. Xiangxie put all her strength, comprehension, her own spirit and soul, over the sword, burning them. This was a forbidden technique for humans, it was close to suicide and it was only possible thanks to the Sword God''s help. This was over the All Sword realm, it was the next realm, one only touched by gods. Xiangxie''s sword increased in size, becoming a 100 meters long sword. The blade was all black and irregular, countless volcanos were surging across the blade, erupting lava that danced all around the blade. "!" The giant volcano sword fell over Bai. [Bai, you should learn this. I''m only possible to touch it one time. But you, you will be able to actually reach it. The true limit of the sword, the realm of god!] Xiangxie thought. Bai clenched his teeth, biting his tongue, forcing his body that was overborne by the enormous strength to move. Xiangxie''s sword was like a whole new world falling towards him, evading was impossible. Bai clenched his swords, focusing all his power on them. He joined them, holding as if the were one, and thrust them forward "!" The colored aura around him was absorbed by the swords, twirling in them and boosted before being shot upwards. An incredible powerful rainbow tornado ascended clashing the Soul Sword. Even if Life and Death couldn''t join, the absence of one could empower the other, making them exist and absorb each of their elements, without affecting the other, would produce a powerful boost. Then, they were powered by all the intent comprehended by Bai. This was him, all his experiences and strength in a single attack. "AAAAAAAAAAH!" Bai shouted as he pushed forwards, but the Soul Sword was truly too strong, it didn''t stop its descend. Bai was being pushed by its pressure, the ground under him cracking and digging him, the immense approaching temperature was burning his skin and boiling the water of his body. The Soul Sword never stopping. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Bai pushed his all, his sword exploding one last time, the rainbow tornado growing bigger, pushing his last strength. Suddenly, the pressure was lifted, Bai''s swords went forward piercing through the Soul Sword that was disintegrating. On his path, Xiangxie appeared. She had a proud look in her eyes, warmly smiling at Bai "You will do great things, Bai. I''m very proud of you" Bai couldn''t stop his momentum, his swords thrusting forward and piercing over Xiangxie''s heart, impaling her. Chapter 212 - Sacrifice? This was Xiangxie''s plan since the beginning. She was informed by the Sword God about Bai being ready. So she decided to have a final battle with him. She would teach him that she had learned, even the next realm. She should sacrifice herself to it, but she knew that Bai would make it his own, reaching godhood and showing the true might of the sword. Since the day she accepted the Sword God''s proposal to become his High Priest, Xiangxie already knew what her destiny would be, sacrificing herself for the birth of a new Sword God. She didn''t regret her decision, thanks to it, her strength quickly increased and was able to protect her family. Her family was always the most important for her and she would never doubt sacrificing herself for them, exactly the same as her best friend Maya. She truly didn''t expect her sacrifice to be needed so quickly, but the world seemed to move incredibly fast. She was even glad that Bai was the one before her. She didn''t need to change her believes, sacrificing for the family made it an easy option for her. She was very proud of Bai reaching that level so quickly and was glad to be part of his strength. It might seem a little coward, but Xiangxie didn''t like goodbyes. She had spent all these happy memories with her family and didn''t say goodbye to them. She preferred to silently disappear without any difficult moment between them. It was also the reason that she wanted to fight Bai, letting herself be killed in the spur of the fight. Not letting Bai react otherwise. She knew that her son, he treasured family and love over all, he would never let herself be sacrificed for him. Moreover, she couldn''t think of a better way to die that under a powerful sword after having passed all her knowledge. It might have been too quick, she would have liked to pass more time with them, enjoying their company rather than fighting to become strong. But there was no much time. She had even been a little greedy. In all these turbulent times, she didn''t participate in the war, she let herself rest, bringing another son to live. He was her little miracle, her last will. She would become a bright fire that would empower her little Bai, consuming herself leaving ashes, her little and loved Hui {AN: Hui means ash in Chinese, I think}. Her sons would be proof of her existence. Being her heart pierced by Bai''s sword, Xiangxie slowly closed her eyes. Death seemed to be warmer than she thought, not feeling any pain at all. "Cut up the crap, mum!" Bai shouted pissed "You can open your eyes" Bai retired his swords from her mother''s body, not a single trail of blood left in them. "W-what?" Xiangxie opened her eyes and surprisedly blinked. "How could it be?" She traced her ?h?st, discovering that it was not injured at all. Looking at Bai, she discovered why. Bai''s swords were shining with a warm and healing green light. He should have switched his intents in the last moment, changing power to healing. "Slap!" Bai slapped his mother''s cheek, leaving it with a red color "How could you tried to sacrifice yourself?" Bai was furious, but in his face was also a mix of worry and sadness, tears falling his cheeks. "Bai, you didn''t understand. I must-" Tears were falling from Xiangxie''s eyes as she tried to explain her sacrifice. "Shut up!" Bai interrupted "I don''t want to listen to your excuses. I understand what you are trying to do. Since the start of this battle, I sensed your intention. How could I react in the last moment changing my intent if I didn''t know about it?" Bai put himself theatrical. "You want to sacrifice yourself, for me to be able to overtake the Sword God''s position!" Bai shouted "If it means your death, I don''t want this shitty power! I won''t sacrifice my loved one, I won''t let you sacrifice for me." "Bai you didn''t understand. This human war is a pantomime. Humans are fighting and killing between them, but it didn''t matter how much kills there are, this war would be finished by gods!" She announced. "A great number of gods are in the move, they would shortly start to descend, we human didn''t have any say in that. If this continues, we will be swallowed by their strength, being at their whim. You should take this opportunity, reach godhood and protect the family. I''m already prepared to die, I don''t mind dying for all of you!" She tried to convince him, more tears falling her eyes "I am glad for your feeling and proud of you. But this is our destiny, I must sacrifice for you and you ascend to godhood." "That destiny and god can fu?k themselves!" Bai spatted "I won''t let you sacrifice for me. I will carve a new path for me" Bai cleaned his tears and turned around "Don''t even try to die, mum. Even if you sacrifice, I won''t take this opportunity, I will negate the Sword God" Bai stepped forward, the space in front of him breaking. All the sword space collapsing and finding themselves outside at the intact training ground. Bai walked away without turning to see her mother who laid over the ground whimpering with a mix of sadness and joy for being alive and seeing her son''s growth. Bai''s eyes turned sharp and cold, his face very determined "I will show what I am capable. Nobody would stop me. I will finish this dammit war, now!" Chapter 213 - Before the War Bai returned with his father, Chenxiang, and Gu Rong that had worried faces. Seeing him coming, Fengzhi approached "Where did you and Xie go? What did happened to you to be in such state?" Even if Bai had already healed all the wounds from the fight and his spirit energy was at the peak, his clothes were full of burns here and there, b?r?ly hanging. "We had a little fight between us" "What were you thinking?!" shouted worriedly and furiously Fengzhi. Bai sighed "You should ask mother. Also, she is at the training ground outside. She is very tired, call some healers to take care of her." Fengzhi was surprised by the cold air exuding from Bai. He always knew that his son had this side of him, but it was never directed on them. Instinctively, he knew that Bai shouldn''t be pissed and that he needed some time for himself. "If you need someone to talk, call me" Fengzhi said to Bai, before calling some healers and brought them to the training ground. "Thanks" Bai said in low voice. Then, he turned to Gu Rong "Uncle, could you bring me to Jialing Pass?" "What had really happened, Bai?" Gu Rong inquired. "I am little pissed with mum" Bai coldly answered "For now, I want to finish this stupid war the sooner the better. Please, uncle. Help me." Gu Rong sighed knowing that he wouldn''t obtain any more concrete answer. Not even his position of elder or his strength wold help as his little Bai had grown even stronger than him. Gu Rong lifted his hand, a black ring shining surrounding it. A black hole materialized next to him "Don''t do anything rash" "Bai" Chenxiang hugged his arm "Are you really fine?" she asked blinking her beautiful brown eyes. "All''s fine, nothing irreparable happened" Bai reassured her, kissing warmly her forehead. Bai turned towards Gu Rong "Thanks" Bai crossed the black hole. Chenxiang bowed towards Gu Rong before following Bai, the black hole closing behind her. Both arrived inside Heaven Dou''s headquarters where the reunion hadn''t finished yet. Tang San, Xiao Wu, Chen Xin, Yue Beng, and Marshall Ge discussing the state of war. Seeing Bai and Chenxiang enter, all the faces turned to them with a little doubt seeing Bai''s face. Bai was tired of the questions. Before anyone could ask anything, he unleashed his aura over the tent, 8 red rings shining brightly, increasing the pressure at the same time that lowered their attributes. Everyone found himself being suppressed by Bai, the titled douluos could move, but Marshall Ge and Xue Beng''s state was worse. Marshall Ge was b?r?ly able to move his fingers while Xue Beng was directly forced to kneel on the ground, being difficult to even breathe for him. Bai quickly retracted his aura giving them a breath "You said that you were on a stand by, but the army should be prepared to attack. With 4 more titled douluos, there shouldn''t be any problem in breaking through. I will march first, cleaning the battlefield and destroying the Fortress''s doors" Bai turned to Marshall Ge "When will the army be ready to attack?" Marshall Ge quickly recovered from the shock and calmly answered "All troops are ready. Tomorrow, it could be prepared. However, it should be better to wait at the morning of the next day, preparing a new formation" "Like you said, we will attack the day after tomorrow in morning" Bai said with a commanding voice "Call me if you need something before that" Bai turned around, walking away. Bai left the camp going to a near forest. He leaned over a tree and sat down, closing his eyes and started meditating, controlling his feelings. After some time, he calmed himself. He had been a bit too rash. Bai was even surprised how much her mother''s intent to sacrifice herself had affected him, even more, when it was an event that Bai was already expecting. Bai could be cold and impossible to move with other people, but when his family was affected, his feeling would flare. Bai opened his eyes finding Chenxiang looking at him. She should have been looking at Bai all this time. Chenxiang smiled and sat down next to Bai. "Xiang, sorry" "You don''t need to apologize or tell anything. But you must know that I will always be here for you" Chenxiang leaned her head over Bai''s shoulder. Bai affirmed once again, how much he loved Chenxiang. He leaned over her, warmly kissing her, their tongues joining together. They broke the kiss and spent the night like this, sleeping one leaned over the other. The next day, Bai felt much better. Finally, Bai told Chenxiang what happened yesterday. Chenxiang looked determined at Bai and said "If something happens, leave it to me" Both returned to the camp and Bai apologized for his outburst of yesterday. They accepted the apologies and concluded that the plan wouldn''t change. They needed to finish this war before Spirit Empire grew too strong. Now that they have the required strength, they would move the main army, attacking tomorrow in the morning with Bai at front. Then, a reunion with all the high officers was done, explaining and revising tomorrow''s attack. The next day, the first sunlight started falling to the plain, bathing Heaven Dou''s and Star Luo''s armies that stood before Jialing Pass full armed. At the center stood the more numerous infantry while the cavalry waited at the side, prepared to pierce the enemy''s flanks. 5 people walked across the enormous armies towards the front, soldiers retreating opening a path for them. The soldiers were in awe looking at them, their pressure and dignity around them enormous, showing their great strength. The 5 of them were one of the strongest people of the continent, all of them titled douluos. They were Tang San, Xiao Wu, Chen Xin, Bai Chenxiang, and at the front Ning Bai. A red light flashed over Bai "Munch!" He ate something and an armor grew around him, protecting all his body, only leaving the head. The armor was similar as Bai and Mayi''s spirit fusion, but the color was brown with the right robes being white and the left side robes being black. The cold, serious, and handsome face of him, plus the armor, increased a lot his dignity, people controlling themselves to not prostrate before him. The group of five reach the front of the army, stopping. All had been told, there''s no need to more words, everyone was prepared. Light flashed over Bai, two swords appearing at his hands. He pointed his left one towards Jianling Pass Fortress. "Attack!" He charged the first, all the army following him "HOOOOOOO!" Chapter 214 - Slaughter The army started mobilizing organized, at each step the ground trembled under them. Bai took the lead, with his fighting style, it was decided it was better for him to fight alone and slaughter his way, clearing a path for the main army to follow and finishing the scattered troops. It didn''t take long before Bai reached Jialing Pass. In front of him stood a massive fortress. It had strong and wide walls with one big black metal gate on each side. Archers stood over the wall ready to shoot their arrows. At the foot of the fortress, stood a great number of soldiers, infantry and cavalry, prepared to battle. There was a special group wearing shining white scaled armors that for the aura around them, it was clear that they were high level spirit masters, but not reaching titled douluo. However, the numbers were too little, the Spirit Empire should be able to mobilize a greater army. Bai arrived at the range of the archers. The already prepared archers released their bows, a rain of arrows falling over. Bai didn''t need to worry at all. Bai''s 8th ring shined, surprising everyone with its red glow. A burst of wind expanded from Bai, shocking away all the arrow that started to fall at the Spirit Empire''s army. This was Bai''s complete reign of over wind, not only it was one attack, but the wind permanently changed, strong gusts of wind going against the fortress, making their archers useless. "It''s only one person! Attack! Tired him out!" Orders could be heard from the Spirit Empire''s side. The infantry charged towards Bai. Bai''s swords widened, becoming 5 meters long, shining with a black glow. This was war, there was no reason to doubt. Without stopping, Bai charged at the army continuously swinging his swords. Blood surged with every swing, multiple soldiers continuously falling under his sword while his 6th ring shined. There wasn''t much need of replenishment fighting this low level soldiers, but Bai kept his cautious and strength at the peak. It didn''t take long for the soldiers'' face being painted with fear. Bai was an unstoppable raging torrent, charging towards him, only death awaited. The moral of the soldiers started falling and slowly retreat. Suddenly, Bai jumped at a side, a rain of what it seemed to be knives fell under his previous position. Bai swung his swords reflecting the all the knives reaching him. Bai could see what the knives were, they were golden sharp petals. "You''re too rash, young man" A man stood floating at 50 meters away giggling. He was wearing a golden armor and seemed more a woman than a man. Bai recognized him as Crysanthemum Douluo, Yue Guan, a titled douluo under the direct orders of the Supreme Pontiff. Bai twisted his left arm, positioning his sword at his back "Clink!" Bai''s sword stopped a hand surrounded by purple aura. From the shadows, of a dead soldier had surged a man coated in black armor. He was Ghost Douluo, Gui Mei. Having failed the initial attack, Gu Mei jumped back snapping his fingers. The dead bodies surrounding Bai, turned purple, anguished voices leaving their bodies. The bodies convulsed and started inflating. "Booom!" All the corpses exploded with a purple light, engulfing Bai in it. "Shing!" The explosion was cut by a sword, revealing Bai completely unscratched. Seeing this, Gu Mei and Yue Guan''s faced reflected fright "We need to stop him!" Their spirit power overlapped "". Surrounding Bai, a black cage appeared, encasing him in it. "Crack!" It didn''t even without one second, the black cage was cut, smithered in pieces by Bai''s swords. Bai''s rings shined from an instant. Mei and Guan found their movements struggling, their bodies much weaker. Bai''s skill was unable to affect titled douluos and people with domains before, but now that he reached titled douluo, it experimented a qualitative leap, affecting them. To evade their effects, they should be at least limit douluos or have their domains evolved to a Truth like Renxue. Bai''s body flashed, appearing over both titled douluos. "Y-yo-!" Bai swung his swords, cleanly slicing over Yue Guan, his head flying away, silencing forever. Bai spun his body, swinging his swords towards Gui Mei. Gu Mei could b?r?ly react being the second objective, his rings shined and the body of his companion convulsed and exploded. The explosion of a titled douluo''s body was much greater than of the normal soldiers. Bai was forced to use one of his swords, coated in Protection Intent, as a shield protecting from the explosion while the other one slashed at Gui Mei. Due to the explosion, Bai''s attack was reflected, only being able to cut Gui Mei''s right arm. Gui Mei''s rings shined, his body exploding in a purple aura. He shooting away from Bai. He held his wounded arm as he ran away for his life "I must run away. It doesn''t matter the punishment, everything is better than death" Sometimes when the people get older, the more than they cherished their life, even at his 261 years old. "Blurgggg!" Gui Mei vomited blood. A sword had impaled his body, from the sword black flames surged completely burning his body. The last he could see before being consumed by the flames was Bai pointing a sword at him, his 5th ring shining. "M-monster!" Someone shouted, causing the army around Bai to collapse, trying to run away from him. It didn''t even take Bai 10 seconds to kill two titled douluos, finishing completely unharmed. This wasn''t a fight, it was a slaughter! Bai charged again at the disorganized army, killing his way, completely alert from his surroundings for another titled douluo''s attack. However, he couldn''t sense how a black figure emerged from his own shadow, the arm of the figure formed in black scaled claws, thrusting them towards Bai. "Crnnn!" The sound of piercing flesh could be listened, an arm flew away leaving a trail of blood. Chapter 215 - Sword Douluo At the last moment, Bai was pushed away by none other than Chen Xin. On the last instant, with Gu Rong''s help who was hidden, overlooking the battlefield. Chen Xin had appeared and pushed Bai away from the path, putting in his position, the black claws slicing his arm, Chen Xin falling to the ground. Seeing what happened, Bai became furious "AAAAAH!" He turned around, swinging his swords towards the black figure, his spirit rings shined focusing on the black figure. "Clank!" Like if metal collided with metal, Bai''s attack was blocked, Bai''s sword rebounded. Bai didn''t stop at that, he continuously sliced the figure, but the figure precisely moved his claw, blocking every cut. (He is strong!) Bai''s mind instantly cooled down, recognizing the human before him as a threat. Taking Chen Xin with him, Bai jumped back, creating a distance. Looking at the black figure, Bai finally could see his attacker. A 1,85 meters tall man, black hair and eyes, all his skin clad in black scales with two black thorn growing over his head, making him seem like a humanoid dragon. "Xiaogang" Bai recognized him, even with the great changes of him. He was the grandmaster, Yu Xiaogang. He seemed even younger than last time, resemble at his 30 some years. His feeble image long lost, power exuding from him. Like last time, Bai was unable to see through his cultivation. However, he discovered that his skills didn''t have any effect on him, meaning that he was a rank 99 titled douluo and/or his comprehension had created a Truth. Xiaogang smiled "Long time not seeing you, Bai." He was completely calm as if he wasn''t in the middle of a war. He looked around, his gaze turning where Tang San was fighting "You sure have grown" He coughed and turned again at Bai "In my case, you can call me Dark Dragon Douluo" Under Xiaogang 9 spirit rings revolved, 8 blacks and 1 red. Bai clenched his swords. Just as he was about to charge "Are you really sure?" Xiaogang said "He is in a bad state if not treated" He said signaling Chen Xin. This was clearly a threatening, even if Bai could fight against him, he wouldn''t be able to protect Chen Xin at the same time. This created a stand by where any side made any move. Xiaogang lifted his head, seeing the approaching allied army that was about to catch Bai''s position. He turned to Bai "Do not worry too much. Even now, I am thankful for your help" A black ring shined and his body turned all black. Then, the black body dispersed in the air without any trail, like if he had never been there. "" Bai right sword dispersed, the air around him turning white. This All Sword had two reasons, detecting if Yu Xiaogang was really gone and help him heal Chen Xin. "Uncle!" Bai leaned over Chen Xin whose face was sickly pale, focusing his Life Intent on him. After some time, Bai was able to stop the bleeding, but he seemed very weak, too much for such a clean cut. "Uoooo!" The allied army reaching them, avoiding them as if a big rock in a river. They continued charging, fighting the Spirit Empire''s army. Bai was focused on healing Chen Xin, even if the wound had healed, there was some darkness lingering in his arm. It wasn''t life-threatening but was weakening him. Bai focused his Life on his sword and cut the darkness that dispersed away. Next to Bai, a black hole appeared, Bone Douluo leaving from it. Seeing his old friend and partner all these years, he grimaced. "How is he?" "He is very weakened." Bai answered continuously transmitting Life energy to him. "Stop, Bai" Chen Xin opened his eyes and lifted his upper body "We are in a war. You shouldn''t waste your energy on me." "How could it be healing you a waste!?" Bai shouted angrily. "I am wounded, but not in danger. I will retire for now" He said looking at Bone Douluo. "But your cult-" "I know." Interjected Chen Xin. 9 rings revolved around him, the 9th one seemed to be shivering. It shined one last time before it dispersed. Due to the great injury, his cultivation had been lowered, returning to a spirit douluo. He was no longer Sword Douluo. "I''m glad that it was me instead of you, Bai" Chen Xin smiled "Don''t pity me, I am already too old, without any option to breakthrough, instead, you had great potential and all your life in front. "Bone, could you bring me away?" Chen Xin requested, Bone nodded creating a new black hole. "Uncle" Bai said with some tears "You fought all of your life, experimenting a lot of drawbacks. You shouldn''t sacrifice for me. Don''t be like mum.I don''t want all my family to sacrifice, I want to protect you. Don''t do it again, please uncle" "Grandpa" Chen Xin said "Could you call me again grandpa like when you were younger? Uncle seems too cold and I am already very old" Bai nodded with tears "Yes, grandpa" Chen Xin stood up with the help of Gu Rong "One last thing. Even if you reached the titled douluo realm, you don''t have any title. Take mine" Bai opened his eyes shocked "How can I? I would make sure of healing you later. You would recover!" "It doesn''t matter" Chen Xin "I can''t think of a better Sword Douluo than you. It''s my honor to give you this title. Take it and make it sound everywhere, make me proud, grandson" "Yes, grandpa" Bai clenched his sword and nodded. Chen Xin smiled leaving the battlefield with Gu Rong. Seeing him alone again, surrounded by both armies fighting, Bai clenched his swords tightly and breathed profoundly. "I will make it resound" Bai''s spirit energy exploded all around the battlefield, everyone feeling suppressed by him and unconsciously turning towards the source, most even stopped fighting. Bai was floating, at his back, white and black wings unfolded, seventeen 100.000 years old rings revolving around him, a pillar of different colored energy over him. Bai looked down at the people fighting "I am Ning Bai" his voice resounded across the battlefield "Rank 98, title SWORD. I AM SWORD DOULUO, NING BAI!" he shouted "I will finish this battle!" Red rings flashed, countless different colored swords appeared filling the sky "Die" Bai said coldly. A rain of swords descended over the battlefield, precisely avoiding the allied army and raining over Spirit Empire''s side, killing countless soldiers, even spirit masters were unable to defend from them. Bai''s ring shined brightly as he charged towards the fortress, blades dancing around him. The swords orbited around Bai, increasing the speed. After a red flash, Bai became a black giant sword covered with a vicious black aura. It was a fusion of Bai''s All Sword, Sword Heart, and Sword Avatar. The giant sword passed through the Spirit Empire''s army, only leaving corpses in his way, clashing with the Fortress''s front gate "BOOOOM!" The sword pierced through the gate, exploding it into smithers, opening the path. The dust dispersed, revealing Bai. In front of him, inside the fortress, countless of armed soldiers were prepared to fight. "ATTACK!" Someone commanded "UOOOOOOOO!" the allied forces morale skyrocket as they trambled over Spirit Empire''s army, charging towards Jialing Pass Fortress. Chapter 216 - Bai vs Dark Couple Entering the fortress Bai was surprised by the number of soldiers there (Something is fishy) With such numbers, the defense that could have been displayed before could have been much greater. However, Bai didn''t know why, it seemed like they wanted to fight inside, but it didn''t change the fact that here they had the main force that must be defeated. Bai focused his Mind Eye encompassing all the fortress, his sense at his peak to be prepared for anything strange. Looking around while slaughtering his way, Bai finally could his objective, over the wall, looking down at the battlefield, stood a couple. The man short black hair contrasted with the long golden hair of the woman, both seemed an ideal pair, a handsome man and a beautiful woman around some 30 years old, power and dignity exuding from them. Of course, they were Yu Xiaogang and Bibi Dong. Bibi Dong wasn''t wearing her usual ceremonial robes, instead, she was wearing black clothes that hugged her body, fitter to fighting. Without her body covered by robes, almost hiding her face, Bai could see the resemblance with Renxue. Bibi Dong was like an older version of her, the biggest difference being the eyes, Renxue had beautiful and somewhat warm golden eyes while Bibi Dong had cold and sinister blood-red eyes. Bai clenched his swords and charged towards them. They nodded between each other. Under Xiaogang, 9 spirit rings appeared, his own shadow shivered and started gaining volume. The shadow started taking form, becoming a 10 meters long ghostly black dragon, Xiaogang''s spirit rings now surrounding it. Under Bibi Dong, 9 spirit rings appeared, optimal configuration. Her lower body formed becoming round, her legs becoming six coarse long spider''s legs, becoming something like an arachne. "Go, Luo San Pao!" The black dragon charged towards Bai. A black ring shined "<1th skill: Dark Claws>" the claws of the black dragon grew to double his size with a black glow around them. Bai''s ring shined, boosting his attributes. He might not be able to absorb their attributes, but on a battlefield, he would have no problem absorbing it. Bai swung his right sword reflecting the claw and thrust his left sword towards the dragon. Before the left sword hit the dragon, Bai twisted his ankle, swinging his sword to his side, cutting a spider web that was shot towards him. The spider web seemed poisonous with its purple glow and was shot by Bibi Dong from a side, her 3rd spirit rings shining. Bai focused slaughter intent on his feet and kicked the black dragon. However, a black ring shined "<3th skill: Dark Dragon Tyrant Body>" the black dragon''s scales shined absorbing the impact of Bai''s kick. The dragon opened his mouth, darkness accumulating in it. "<4th skill: Darkness Ray>" A black ray shot from the dragon mouth towards Bai. Hurriedly, Bai crossed his swords covering them in Protection Intent. Bai was shot to the ground, thanks to his protection and armor, not receiving any important wound from it. Just at the place where Bai was to land, sharp purples sickles, resembling spider legs, surged from the ground trying to pierce Bai, <3rd skill: Death Sickle Formation>. Bai''s wings shined, he flapped them strongly, stopping him in the air before the sickles. His rivals didn''t let him breathe, from the sides, spiders thorns were surrounding him while at the front the dark dragon was charging at him. "Fuck!" Bai cursed "?Wonder If I gave a White Fudge Oreo?." Bai''s 3rd ring shined, him eating an Oreo, a white aura surrounding him. Bai opened his arms, his 8th and 5th ring shining "" 12 different colored swords appeared around him, they started dancing around him, creating a powerful rainbow-colored tornado. The tornado pushed all the thorns away and the dragon, the dragon withdrawing his attack to avoid any damage. The tornado stopped and Bai looked at his rivals. The dark dragon and behind him, a calm Xiaogang and Bibi Dong. Only a short time passed and Bai could already sense himself pushed. Their strength was the real deal, especially their coordination and precision, Bibi Dong controlling the fight while the dark dragon commanded by Xiaogang attacked. Bai knew that this wasn''t even their greatest strength, only low grade spirit skills while that he was forced to use his 8th. It wasn''t like there was a problem with Bai''s spirit energy consumption, with all this death around, he would be able to replenish, but Bai needed to be wary of them. Bai needed to go all out. Bai''s left arm 8th ring shined "" Bai chanted, over his hand a brown cookie in the form of an ant with wings appeared, it had some chocolate between in. Bai ate it, two more pair of wings appeared at his back. Bai''s 9th ring shined "!" a new cookie appeared, this time in the form of an ant with long arms. Bai ate it, his armor acquired some red lines that seemed to excite Bai''s body, his muscles bulging. These were Bai''s new skills created by Mayi. Cookies that gave the power, defense, and speed of the Thousand Catties Ants, transforming the eater body in something like a spirit beast. In other people it would be an increase of them for 5 minutes, not being able to take another at least for a day. However, for Bai himself, this time was removed, changing it by spirit consumption, he could keep them forever, but once he released the skill, he would be unable to use them for that day. "You are looking down to us if you think you can face alone" Seeing the increase in Bai''s strength, Xiaogang and Bibi Dong acted. The dark dragon 7th spirit ring shined "<7th skill: Dark Dragon Avatar>" A copy of rings appeared under Xiaogang, his body transforming, black scales surging from his body, acquiring draconic features, becoming a dragonized dragon. Dong''s 7th ring shined "<7th skill: Death Spider Empress Avatar>" her body convulsed, purple fur appearing all over her body and started transforming becoming a 5 meters long Death Spider Empress. She didn''t stop at that. His 8th ring shined "<8th skill: Death Empress Clone>" An identical spider as her, appeared next to her, this one exuding the same strength as the original. The three of them revolved their spirit energy, their power and aura reaching the peak. The air around the couple became pitch black, only darkness and death could be sensed from them as they unleashed Xiaogang''s Darkness Domain and Dong''s Death Domain. Seeing the powerful domains that had reached the level of Truth, Bai focused on his swords "!". Bai''s All Sword manifested as multicolored light, clashing against their truth, fighting for dominance. They clashed no one being able to win over the other. The aura around them was so strong that Heaven and Earth trembled before them, killing all the unfortunate people over 200 meters around them. Now at full strength, they prepared for another clash. Chapter 217 - Bai vs Dark Couple 2 Countless swords manifested surrounding Bai and were shot towards them. The dark dragon stepped forward. "GRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The dark dragon roared creating a shock wave that reflected all the swords. However, they were a mere smokescreen. Bai was charging towards the dark dragon, a pillar of light exploding from his sword. The dragon swung his claws towards Bai, at the same time spiders threads came from each side, slashing at him. "Boom!" Bai clashed with the claws, but he never tried to overpower them. Instead, Bai used his sword to pole vault, propelling himself towards the real Bibi Dong, easily cutting the thread and thrust his swords at her. In a 1 vs many fight the ones that should be warier are control system, they sneakily and precisely act controlling the fight and restraining the opponent without affecting the attack spirit masters. On the other hand, it didn''t matter how many attack spirit masters there are, it''s impossible for them to attack at the same time without affecting the others, so it''s easy to disrupt their coordinated attack. Because of this, Bai''s first target was Bibi Dong. She even separated with her clone to cover a bigger area. Bibi Dong kept her calm, her 9th red spirit ring shined. Bibi Dong 9th skill was Undying Body, she couldn''t be killed, even if her body was destroyed it would be quickly repaired. To surpass her defense, it would require a divine attack and she couldn''t sense that from Bai. So she was to let herself hit to finish him. However, in the last moment, as Bai''s swords approached, her instinct screamed, she twisting her body, Bai''s swords piercing her body but failing to hit her heart. "<4th skill: Thistle Spider Armor>" Purple thorns shot from Dong''s body. At such close distance, Bai couldn''t evade the attack, most of the thorns were stopped by his armor, but one precisely struck a joint, piercing Bai''s body. It was only a light wound, but it seemed poisonous. A dark ray came from Bai''s right side, shot by Xiaogang. Bai covered in Protection Intent and crossed his arm. The ray swallowed Bai pushing him towards the ground. Xiaogang arrived at Bibi Dong''s side with a worried face. Bibi Dong''s spirit avatar broke, revealing a pale and shocked Bibi Dong. She wasn''t dying or anything, but her wounds couldn''t be closed in a short time and she was tired like great energy had been lost from her. "Calm down, Dong''Er. Never let yourself hit again" Xiaogang looked furiously at Bai "He seems to have some control over Life and Death". Xiaogang was right. Bibi Dong''s ability was a control over Death, not letting the body be affected by it. Theoretically having a body that couldn''t die. Of course, a divine attack could overpower it, but Bai could simply directly input his own Death concept at her, being able to kill her. Moreover, Bai was able to use his Life concept to take away the life out of her, causing great exhaustion. If Bibi Dong hadn''t evaded in the last moment, she could have been killed for underestimating Bai. Bai wasn''t intact of this clash. He wanted to quickly finish one of them, putting himself in danger. His armor had been dented, its defense lowering. Moreover, a thorn had pierced his body and was oozing a poisonous purple smoke, corroding his body. The poison was so strong that his face was turning purple even in such a short time. "?Wonder if I gave a Red Velvet Oreo?" Bai chanted and ate a Red Velvet, normal colors returning to his face, completely suppressing the poison and becoming immune to it. If something, even his body had become a little stronger. "Poison seems not working on you. Even Tang San''s was unable" Xiaogang deducted "Moreover, even when continuously unleashed powerful attack, you seem untired, at your peak. You should have some replenishment method" Xiaogang looked around "Blood. If I must say. Making this battlefield perfect for you. We need to finish this quickly before the tables are turned" Finished deducting Xiaogang. Xiaogang''s and the dragon''s 8th ring shined, both of them were engulfed by shadows, their presence completely erased. "I won''t fall again for this trick" Bai lifted his left hand, his 7th ring shining "?They go Together?" Instead of a cookie, what appeared over Bai''s hands was an Oreo cake. Bai swallowed it with three bites. Bai''s eyes shined with black and white color, his armor glowed with a brown aura, repairing all the dented parts, the ant''s wings becoming longer and sharper. The hood of the armor was put over Bai, covering his head and forming itself, becoming a metal helmet in the form of an ant''s head, four antennas surging from it. This was Bai''s 7th skill, Oreo Cake. It could maximize the cookies already eaten, increasing their effects 100%. In Bai''s case, he could join all the effects of ether Mayi''s cookies or Fenrir''s cookies, acquiring their strength and form. Physically, Bai now obtained the boost of Mayi''s spirit, like acquiring a new spirit, obtaining Mayi''s strength and senses. Bai could have used Fenrir''s power, but in this situation, it was better Mayi''s. Fenrir was faster and stronger while Mayi had a better defense and senses. He decided on Mayi for the senses part. Bai''s antennas twitched. "" His swords exploded in energy. Bai turned around cross swinging them, cutting the air and space. In front of the swords, Xiaogang appeared, his stealth completely broken. This was Mayi''s specialty, she had monstrous instinct and senses, making stealth or mind attack useless, as when they fought against the balloon spirit beast at Sunset Forest or when they fought against Spirit Hall Academy at the Continental Tournament. Bai could sense that the dark dragon was behind, but he would finish Xiaogang before the dragon attacks. Xiaogang seeing the swords aiming at him was surprised to have been found so easily, but he kept his calm. He prepared himself to make a sacrifice to create a new opportunity. Xiaogang''s 6th ring shined, instantly switching position with the dark dragon. Bai cut over the dark dragon whose scales shined with a dark glow trying to stop the attack "BOOOOM!" Bai''s swords exploded, overpowering the scales defense and cutting through the dragon. His swords cut an X over the dragon, cutting him in 4 parts, killing it. The dragon became a dark smoke and disappeared. Even having killed the dragon, Bai was completely opened for an attack. Xiaogang had broken his stealth, his face was completely pale, blood running from his mouth and nose, internally damaged due to the backslash of Luo San Pao dying. Even so, he didn''t stop, he thrust his claws at Bai''s back "<5th skill: Pure Darkness>" his claws shined black, covering them with strong Dark Elemental energy. It didn''t stop there, the most dangerous wasn''t his attack. Xiaogang''s 6th ring didn''t stop shining, from his own shadow, Bibi Dong surging from it. Xiaogang''s 6th skill was . He could switch himself with Luo San Pao and at the same time switch his shadow with another designed partner, in this case, Bibi Dong. He could have tried to defend against Bai attack with Bibi Dong help, but he decided to sacrifice Luo San Pao in exchange of a counterattack of them, swiftly finishing Bai. Bibi Dong''s body formed, her lower body returning to her slender legs and 6 deep green spider legs surging from her back, 9 new spirit rings appeared behind her, 4 blacks and 5 reds! This was her second spirit! She was a twin spirit user, her first one being the Death Spider Empress and the second spirit the Soul Devouring Spider Empress. Bibi Dong''s 6th ring shined "<6th skill: Everlasting Wound>", her spider''s leg glowed with jade and ominous light as they were thrust towards Bai. This skill was able to pierce over any physical defense, Bai''s armor becoming useless, and causing an injury impossible to heal. Bai could feel how death was approaching him, unable to turn as such two powerful attacks approached at his back. Chapter 218 - Battles End Just as the attacks were about to hit, Bai''s arms shined brightly. The left one with a black and white glow while the right shined brown. Bibi Dong''s spider''s legs found themselves penetrating a stuffy animal while rows of teeth stopped Xiaogang''s claws. It was Mayi and Fenrir, respectively. They had appeared next to Bai. "You killed Anty!" little Mayi puffed her cheeks angrily. Bibi Dong''s legs penetrating the antdoll''s body that had grown becoming 2,5 meters tall and now with its holes, seemed deflated. Mayi put her hands over the doll''s head and pulled it, separating it from the damaged body and put it over her head as a helmet. The aura around Mayi completely changed surprisingly greatly Bibi Dong who asked herself how the little girl appeared and just by putting a doll the aura around her changed from a normal human to a peak existence. "Baddy!" Mayi punched at Bibi Dong who hurriedly crossed her spider''s legs blocking the attack, her face changed when over a tone of strength was behind the little girl''s punch, pushing her over 30 meters before she stopped herself piercing the ground with her spider''s legs. On Fenrir''s side, he was in his werewolf''s form. He bit Xiaogang''s claws, completely devouring his darkness. His teeth pierced over Xiaogang''s scales. He dragged Xiaogang''s body, throwing him away. Normally, Bai could invoke Mayi and Fenrir for a very short time, like his last invocations of Fenrir, only doing a technique. However, this changed thanks to Bai''s spirit bones. When Bai absorbed Mayi, she had left a right arm spirit bone. And Fenrir created his own left arm spirit bone when he reached 100.000 years old. These bones boosted their power, permitting to displace their might like inside the mind space. With these two final spirit bones, Bai had completed his armament, his physique reaching a new level. With Mayi and Fenrir''s appearance, the tables seemed to have turned, from a 1vs4 to a 3vs2. However, it wasn''t exactly like that. (WTF!) Bai had recovered his position and looked shockingly at Bibi Dong (How was possible in canon for a titled douluo, and even when he was spirit douluo, Tang San to win over her. She is a monster!) Bai shouted in his mind. Bibi Dong''s aura had completely changed with the change of her spirit. Before, Bai was sure that he would be able to beat her more or less easily if it weren''t for Xiaogang. But now, Bai could feel a very intense divinity from her, her Death concept surpassing his own, her strength almost reaching a god. Bai wasn''t sure if he could go against her in 1vs1, he would need Mayi and Fenrir''s help to win, with Xiaogang there Bai had some doubts about his victory. Bibi Dong''s 2nd ring shined, a over 2 meters long scythe appeared at her hands. It had a deep green color over the shaft that ended with a purple deathly glow at the blade. With the glow of her 1st ring, rings of green energy condensed over the scythe increasing its sharpness. Xiaogang, even with his weakened state, he clenched his hands, his 5th spirit ring shined covering all his body in darkness. Both of them prepared for a final clash with Bai. Bai focused all his strength over his swords, this started shining brightly becoming over 2 meters long. Mayi and Fenrir growled, their auras exploding. The three of them prepared to face Xiaogang and Bibi Dong. "BOOOOM!" "BOOOOOM!" Just before they were to clash, two big explosions resounded inside Jialing Pass Fortress, low divine powers could be sensed from them. This caused both sides to turn over the explosions. The east and west gates had burst open, Chenxiang and Tang San surging from them, respectively. Following them, more soldiers of Heaven Dou and Star Luo''s armies charging inside the fortress, overwhelming Spirit Empire''s forces attacking now from three directions. "It seems that it''s the time" Bibi Dong stated. She opened her spider legs, Death Aura spreading everywhere. Her 3rd spirit ring shined, the Death aura started taking form, pure Death energy concentrating in the form of 50 spiders that spread all over the fortress, non of them targetting Bai or anyone. "It''s time" Xiaogang approached Bibi Dong and hugged her from behind, their 18 spirit rings shining brightly. At their feet, a strange green-purple blood pattern appeared, instantly it spread all over the fortress, the Death Spiders dissolving with them. This caused all the fortress to be illuminated by a cold and ominous green light. "This is...?" Bai could feel that it was dangerous, he could sense some resemblance with the patterns at Slaughter City, the ones used to open the door to the Hell Road, a blood sacrifice. "Tang San!" Bai shouted warning Tang San who was already approaching him "Regroup!" Tang San was also concentrated in the pattern, feeling a sense of familiarity. Hearing Bai''s shout, he recovered and quickly acted. If this was what they thought, it would be fatal. Vines of Blue-Silver Grass Emperor surged from Tang San, spreading all over, binding the maximum number of soldiers that he could, favoring the known one, Xiao Wu, his first option. Bai and Chenxiang quickly reached him, just as the blood pattern was becoming blindly. Bai''s Slaughter Domain surged, avoiding people and covering his maximum area of 50 meters, helped a little by Tang San''s own Deathgod Domain. "HAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Cries of pain surged from all the battleground. It happened as Bai had expected, all the soldier''s eyes became bloodshot, becoming crazy and madly fighting each other or scratching their own bodies to death, while blood was continuously surging from their orificies, drying them. This was a true hell, it didn''t matter what side, Spirit Empire or the allied forces, both armies were collapsing in a pool of blood. The only exemption being Bai''s domain, inside it, not being affected by the bloodsucking curse. As Bai hopped, if having the qualifications of taking the Hell Road made you immune to the formation, the Deathgod Domain would have higher resistance, being able to protect the people inside from its effects. After 1 minute, the battlefield became silent, all the people inside the fortress dead with the exception of bai''s group. The blood pattern started retracting, all the blood going to the center of the formation, over Bibi Dong and Xiaogang, concentring over Bibi Dong''s hand. Finally, the formation completely disappeared, not a single drop of blood was left on the battlefield, all of it collected in a condensed deep red sphere over Bibi Dong''s hand. "Master!" Tang San shouted, his face showed despair and shock looking at Xiaogang "What are you doing?!" He shouted with some anger. "Tang San" Xiaogang looked down coldly at Tang San "I am no longer your master. Now, I don''t have any need for you." "We have finished here. Let''s go" Bibi Dong said to Xiaogang, ignoring completely the others and turning around leaving. Xiaogang nodded "Take this last gift that I had prepared" Xiaogang snapped his fingers "BOOOOOOM!" A big explosion occurred outside the fortress, concretely over the allied camps. "MASTER!" Tang San charged forward, his trident in front over. His face a mix of complicated feelings, for now only wanting answers about the change of his kind master. "Bye" Xiaogang turned over with Bibi Dong, his 8th and 5th spirit ring shining. Darkness exploded over his body, it swallowed Tang San, stopping his charge and pushing him away. The darkness didn''t damage Tang San, but once he recovered in the air, the darkness disappeared and with it, Xiaogang and Bibi Dong''s presence. Just like this, in a mere minute, the battle finished, killing thousands and thousands of soldiers, hitting a great deal from both armies, both strengths weakening. This would be known as the Bloody Battle at Jiangling Pass, the advent of darkness swallowing the world. Chapter 219 - Difficult Path "Everyone is fine?" Bai asked looking at his surrounding, the only people alive, being some 100 people that surrounded him. "We are fine, but everyone else..." Chenxiang answered with a terrified face looking at the desolate place. "Third brother!" Xiao Wu teleported near Tang San, ?ssessing his condition. Tang San was fine, the last attack being more of a distraction than anything, he was only a little in shock due to Xiaogang''s change and slaughter of both side armies. "Shit!" Bai blamed "We fell for their plan. Since the start, they planned to cluster the maximum number of people inside the fortress to activate the formation. For what or why they did? I don''t have any idea." Bai opened his Mind Eye, observing his surrounding "There''s nothing to do here and it seems that the headquarters were attacked. Let''s regroup for now and find the situation" Bai deducted "Let''s return! We will join the left army and regroup!" Bai ordered to the surrounding soldiers. "Yes!" They shouted in unison, their faces were completely pale, they were scared by such deathly attack and thankful for they being alive thanks to Bai. Bai''s group left the fortress and controlled the outside army that was full of chaos due to the sudden death of the people in front of them and at the headquarters, the commanding line becoming shambles. Bai used his spirit suppression to force them to calm down and stay still. Then, he went towards the camp. Bai wasn''t moved at all by all the death and cries in his way. A great number of people had died in this battle, but Bai just accepted them as only a loss of numbers. With all the death that Bai had seen, he had turned kind of immune, just accepting and going forward, especially soldiers dying in a war. However, this thought wasn''t for everyone. If someone loved by him died, he would explode in anger as they were the most important for Bai. Now, his only concern about going to the camp was to ?ssess the losses of the explosion there, nothing more as he already knew that his grandpas Rong and Xin, and all his family were at the clan. It might seem cold, but it was in what Bai had become with his experiences. Reaching the camp, Bai could see a 30 meters craters where the main tent stood before, surrounded by flames and debris from an explosion. For what it seemed, it was a normal attack, even if a powerful one, nothing similar to the bloodsucking formation. Bai jumped over the crater, he could sense some life in it. At the bottom, he found some charred bodies, but he focused on one of them, the bulkiest one. Seeing the burnt armor, he recognized the corpse as Marshall Ge. Bai lowered a little his head in sign of respect and approached the corpse, carefully setting it aside, revealing what was hiding with his body. It was Xue Beng. Marshall Ge should have detected the attack in the last moment and used his own body to protect the emperor. For Bai, someone with such a high loyalty only deserves respect. Xue Beng had his hair completely gone, burns all over the body, with a highly visible at the right side of his head. Even with these wounds, he was alive, only unconscious. Bai focused his Life Intent over Xue Beng, the painful look on his face relaxing, his life not being in danger anymore, but the burn over his head persisted. Xue Beng opened his eyes, fright and shock in them as he looked the surrounding "What happened? Marshall Ge jumped at me and then I heard a loud explosion and the world became black." Bai explained the actual situation to Xue Beng, advising him to not let himself be swallowed by grief and anger, that he must think before act. Xue Beng was mad with such losses and how vicious was the Spirit Empire. However, he showed the good traits of an emperor and decided to not act rashly, being controlled by the anger, and keeping his cool. Xue Beng and Bai left the crater and Xue Beng made known his survival, calming the army who would have received a great hit losing one of his heads. With the officers that were alive, he restructures the commanding line in a simple and quick manner as it was the best way now. he focused on regrouping his forces and count the loss, making an accurate report of the battle. Bai was a little surprised by how great was his response, realizing that he had grown to be a fine emperor or that he was really good at bluffing before at the academy. The report was finally completed three days later, the rest of the army regrouped. The allied army forces accumulate to a 50% loss, 10 of the highest rank officers killed in the last explosion, making this battle a great loss and a slaughter for them. On the other hand, the Spirit Empire had also great losses. 100% of Spirit Empire''s army in Jialing Pass had died or surrendered, Jialing Pass Fortress instantly falling to the allied army''s hands. With Jialing Pass''s fall, they had lost their strongest defense against the allied forces. The path over Spirit City now opened to attack. Finally, Xue Beng decided to rest for 5 days, letting the soldiers recover their minds from the losses. Then, command a direct attack towards Spirit City, preparing scouts to avoid any other hidden attack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bai opened his eyes finding himself surrounded by swords. Instantly, he realized that it was Sword God''s place, the already familiar silhouette appearing in front of him. "If you had accepted our offer. Nothing of this would have happened" the Sword God said "You are already prepared, you only need to accept our high priestess offering to be reborn as the Sword God" "I already said that no" Bai stated calmly "I won''t sacrifice my mother for you. I will find another way to become a god, with or without your help" "You do not know a thing" the Sword God seemed a little pissed "To activate an inheritance, a great deal of faith and power are required. That''s what high priests are for, they are a concentration and storage of our faith, having enough energy to activate. That why a groomed her." "My mother is not an object to be sacrificed. I won''t change my mind, you''re not worthy." Bai said determined "Leave! I will find another way." "Ha!" the sword sighed giving up, knowing that he would be unable to convince Bai like this "There is another way for you to take our inheritance. However, unlike the high priestess''s sacrifice, this one is much more difficult and dangerous, with high probabilities of you dying" Bai lifted his eyebrows curious "What would it be?" "As we said, faith and strength are needed to start the last trial. Without the high priestess''s sacrifice, the only way to reach the necessary requirement would be killing Hei Qi. He had robbed me a great deal of the strength left in your plane, killing him and recovering all our fragments would let us help you with the inheritance. However, it did not finish with Hei Qi, Hei Qi alone being insufficient as you would lack the necessary faith." "So how can I obtain this faith?" Bai asked, for now, putting aside the fact that he needed to beat Hei Qi, most probably in his domain. "You should take over an already concentrated faith from a god. Moreover, this faith must be related to swords or we won''t be able to work with it." the Sword God informed, instantly making Bai think of two different people "Of course, this is mostly impossible. Killing Hei Qi and robbing another god would be close to suicide. You should simply take the high priestess''s off-" "So it''s that" Bai interrupted "I get it. I won''t sacrifice my mother. I will take the other option" "You should think about and analyze the best option" Warned the Sword God. "I already decided. I''m prepared, I won''t sacrifice my mother nor any of my loved ones. I will take over my destiny and follow my own path." The Sword God sighed "Such talent wasted. It could have been so easy" He lamented "Yours is the choice. Do not regret it" Bai found himself being expulsed from the mind space "I won''t" he said before disappearing, leaving only the Sword Gods silhouette surrounded by countless swords. "Fool!" Chapter 220 - Yu Xiaogang I am Yu Xiaogang, the second son of the head of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, one of the strongest clan of Heaven Dou Empire and the Douluo Continent. Now, I am mostly known as the trash of the clan, with the jokely epithet of Grandmaster due to being unable to break through over Spirit Elder, being over 30 years stuck at rank 29. Having born in a great clan, people had expectations for me. My father and brother both had the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon spirit, the characteristic spirit of the clan and considered the strongest beast spirit, with great talent, so people expected the same for me. All these expectations were broken the day I awakened my spirit, Luo San Pao. Instead of a mighty dragon, mine was a fat dog with very little combat capabilities comparing with the Blue Tyrant. It couldn''t even fuse with my body, making my body weak as support or food spirit master. After I obtained my first spirit rank and became a spirit master, my situation even worsen. My spirit attacks, while not directly using my spirit energy, were using farts as a weapon, becoming the laughing stock of the clan. The only reason that I could keep in the clan was being my father''s son. My cultivation was slow, my spirit was weak, I had long since discovered that I didn''t have a bright future as a spirit master. However, I had somethings that I was better than most, my intelligence and curiosity. Since little, I liked reading very much, every read word never forgotten in my head. In a world were people focus on strength, the theoric value is laughed at it, completely disregarding it and negating changing their ways. To make up for my weak spirit, I decided to focus on knowledge, reinforcing my strength. So I started reading all the books inside the clan, most of them easily acceded as they were forgotten by the other members, increasing my knowledge about it. I almost didn''t leave the clan, prohibited to it to not taint the noble image of the clan. The biggest change happened when I reached 20 years old. For two years, my rank had blocked at rank 29, becoming impossible to advance. It didn''t matter how much a tried to improve my cultivation or how esoteric methods I used, it didn''t work. About that age, my knowledge was very vast, having surpassed every one of the clan in theoric knowledge at least. I thought of some ideas that would help, but most of them were too late, I was too old and had already my two spirit rings. Spirit rings the most important about mutations of spirits. The knowledge of knowing that I could have done it better made even angrier at myself. That year, the clan finally decided. They were bored and angry at the trash that I was without being able to breakthrough. They decided to cast off me of the clan, never refer me as one of them. It was a great shock, some little part of me always dreamed to be accepted, that my knowledge and my theories would greatly help them, but seeing the cold faces of everyone, the smirking face of my hateful uncle, my father and mother avoiding my eyes, I learned that it was impossible. The Blue Tyrant Clan would always be one of only strength mattered. This day, as I left the clan while being laughed by the members, even some rocks being throw at me, I made up my mind. I would show them my value and force them to kneel over me. I might not be able to reach their strength, but my knowledge would reach them. I would focus on learning more about the world and cultivation, someday, my theories would make someone surpass them all. After being kicked out, I focused on recollect information all over the continent, using my savings and some little connections that I made, traveling all around the continent. Nothing else except trying to surpass my clan in my head. Then, I met her. While I was at the Heaven Dou''s royal library reading some new books, she appeared. Long shiny golden hair, with beautiful red eyes that seemed gems and reflected intelligence, she was truly beautiful. She wore expensive robes and seemed from a powerful clan, like many people I met before that laughed at me. However, she seemed different, she came day after day at the library, continuously reading different books with a very concentrated face while surrounded by books. After a week, I acted. Most of the books that she was reading were about opposite spirits and different energies coexisting, so I put a book at her. This was about a spirit beast that could control the fire and ice inside its body, greatly explaining how they coexisted. It was from my favorite author, one than rather than only explain the attack and spirit rings of the beasts, he explained beyond, studying its manners. Inside the book, some of my commentaries written over it, with some of my theories. If I was right, she should be studying about twin spirit, she having them. She seemed so focused on her reading that she didn''t realize the book. However, the next day that I came to the library, she approached me showing me the book that I gave her. She thanked me about the book, saying that it had greatly helped her, making it worth coming there. Then, we started discussing it, comparing the theories and how could they be implemented in other areas. She was really intelligent, the first person that I could have this type of conversation without being ignored, laughter, or making the other person bored. We were warned to leave by the librarian. Without realizing we had spent all the say discussing, it was already night. A little embarrassed, we left the library, promising to meet again the next day, and finally, she told me her name, Bibi Dong. Since that day, we would meet each other almost every day, talking about theories and slowly opening us. I told her about the shame at my clan and she explained her life. I was right about her, she was really an important person, the disciple of Spirit Hall''s Supreme Pontiff. Not only she was intelligent, but she was also an extremely gifted spirit master with twin spirits. Even when she discovered about me being trash, she didn''t mind it, negating that someone with my intelligence couldn''t be. If something, they were the true trash not being able to recognize my talent. We studied her twin spirits, thinking about how to maximize their strength. She was the first person to be interested in my theories and even help them. With her own knowledge and her giving me access to some of Spirit Hall''s books, my theories improved a lot. Both of us proposing a theory of how to obtain the maximum strength of the twin spirits without exploding as cases before. I didn''t know if she would risk to try it, but somehow I knew that she would have it in mind, improving making it suitable for her. This time with her became the happiest of my life. Before I realized, I had already fallen in love with her. Her wits, her smile, our long time together. I loved everything about her. Some part of me said that I wasn''t worthy to be with her, she was a monstrous talent while I was considered trash, pushing me more into my studies to help her. I realized that I didn''t mind my clan or anything else, I only wanted to be with her. Finally, I couldn''t hold it any longer and confessed to her. With joyful tears in her eyes, she also told me that she loved me, making that day the best of my life. After two months, I had prepared a gift for her. It was a compilation of my theories, all of them in a book that I called 10 Great Core Spirit Competencies, it was only a draft, many theories needing a rework, but it was the first book that I could call mine and she was the only person that I wanted to have it. Bibi Dong accepted with shock and a smile, surprised about how important and useful were its content, a revolution she called. She would finish to read and show it to his teacher, with it Spirit Hall would recognize him and she promised that they would be together after that. I trusted her, but I was wrong, very wrong. Bibi Dong returned 3 days later, her face was cold as she looked down at me, her usual radiant smile replaced by a smirk like the ones I had received countless of times at the Blue Tyrant Clan. She laughed at me, ridiculing that I thought that she was in love with me. She was only acting to obtain my knowledge, now that she had it, there was no need to meet again. This time was only for her so see and enjoy my despair. She quickly left me alone without looking back. She broke my heart, tears uncontrollably fell from my eyes. My most precious memories, my love, it was all a delusion. The little voice inside my head was right. How could I thought that someone such as herself, the beautiful and talented disciple of the Supreme Pontiff, could fall in love with m, the discarded trash of the Blue Tyrant Clan? It was my fault to try to believe such a joke, so much knowledge and what an idiot I was. At that time, all that I wanted to do was to die. I went to a nearby bar to try to drown the sorrow in alcohol or die from an ethyl coma, any option was fine with me. At the bar, after too many cups, I started a fight with some grunts. They dragged me outside at a nearby alley and started beating me. I couldn''t even feel the pain, the pain of my heart overshadowing it. I accepted every hit, with them I might accomplish my death. Then, the grunts stopped, a single guy had appeared at the alley and easily beat them down. He extended me a hand that I unconsciously took. He had realized my situation, my heartbreak, and talked about him to make me forget. He was called Flender, with an owl spirit, he was strong. He was a highly talented rogue spirit master who traveled the lands trying to find adventures and treasures. However, his dream wasn''t becoming the strongest, or live an easy life. He wanted to share his experiences and eventually opening a school, a school where only monsters would be trained and that would be recognized as the strongest of the continent. I couldn''t help to laugh at him and at myself, he really dreamed big. But somehow, it was similar to my dream of being recognized by my clan. I finished accepting it. I needed to think about another thing and forget Bibi Dong. Traveling and maybe retaking my lost dream of revenge from my clan might help. Not long after we start traveling, Flender became my best friend, but he could never rival what Bibi Dong had been. He followed my suggestions, plans, and ideas but he wasn''t very interested in the knowledge that laid behind them, being too confusing for him. Little by little, my frail heart was being repaired, gaining strength to continue forward with my life and theories. In one adventure, we went to a forest to search for ancient ruins that I deciphered in some old diary. There, even before reaching the ruins, we were surrounded by a great number of spirit beasts. We were about to run away using Flender''s flight when we met a woman who was soundly sleeping under the shadow of a tree. The woman was beautiful, with a delicate face, with long black hair and a slender body. It seemed that all the noise of us being chased had woken her up. She stood up, her black eyes shining in anger looking at the spirit beast that had woke her. Flames exploded from her body as she charged towards the spirit beasts. It was a complete slaughter. Hundreds of spirit beasts were killed by her, burn bodies part flying around while I and Flender could only look up to her with our mouth wide open. Once she finished relieving herself with the spirit beasts, there was a smile at her face and she looked to us, asking us what were we doing. As thanks, and mostly for fright, we told her our idea of searching for ruins. At what she joined the group, wanting also to explore the ruins. We presented each other, her being called Liu Erlong, her spirit being a Fire Dragon. Now, being a group of three, I guided us following my information and discovering the ruin''s entrance. Inside, we passed some trials, using my intelligence to resolve some puzzle, Erlong''s strength to kill some beasts, and Flender flight capability as a great scout and lifesaving from traps. At the last chamber, a powerful 10.000 years old beast was guarding it. We almost lost our life against it, but at the last moment, our spirit energy seemed to resonate with each other, boosting Erlong''s strength and killing it, she obtaining her 6th ring. At the end of the ruin, we found two spirit fruits and a belt. I knew what were the spirit fruits and knew that it wouldn''t help my condition, the effects being increasing the spirit power absorption, incrementing the cultivation speed. Flender and Erlong took the fruits and they forced me the belt. Reading the ruins, the belt was called Twenty Four Moonlight Bridges, a spirit artifact that worked as a storage compartment, each of its 24 round pieces of jade, capable of storing up to a meter cubic. I always had been very interested in spirit artifacts. They were objects made by long lost people, now impossible to replicate. How could they make this so many years before? I took it to investigate it, to see if I could somehow replicate the effects. After finishing the exploration an all being happy with the results, we decided to continue traveling together, searching for adventures and treasures. I studied their spirits and cultivation and suggested them to improve their spirit control, changing a little their usual cultivation with great results. With the study of their spirits, I finally discovered what was that boost effect at the ruins. All three of us were highly compatible, being theoretically capable of a three people spirit fusion. The problem was that my strength was to despair with them, not making the equilibrate forces needed for a fusion. After much study, I finally found a solution. Rather than directly fusing the three spirits, it would be to focus the strength of two over one, this one being the core. Surprisingly, the best core was my Luo San Pao, being able to absorb the other two becoming a strong and completely different beast, a giant golden dragon that we called Golden Saint Dragon. With the passing of time, the three of us became closer. We made great explorations and hunts, our names resounding all over the continent, being called the Golden Iron Triangle in honor of our spirit fusion. I was the Directing Corner who commanded us, Flender the Flying Corner due to his ability, and Erlong the Slaughter Corner due to her tendencies of gorily killing her enemies. My theories greatly improved with all the new knowledge learned traveling and to explore. I even dared to publish another 10 Great Core Spirit Competencies. This one more exact and instead of being focused over Bibi Dong, this one was about the average spirit master, being able to greatly help them. Not that many people even try it to use or read it. With the passing of time, I found myself more attracted with Erlong. I found it different than with Bibi Dong, but, Erlong was much different than her so it might be normal. Erlong was beautiful and caring and I liked to be with her. She might not share my obsession with knowledge, but I realy liked her. This feeling blooming in love. After some time, Flender declared his love to Erlong. Like me, he also had fallen in love with. I was prepared to congratulate them, as they both were strong and would make a great couple, when Erlong negated Flender, confessing that she loved me. After a year, I and Erlong married, only to my hateful uncle to interrupt after the ceremony. I discovered that Erlong was the illegitimate daughter of my uncle, making her my first cousin. H-how could it be? After so much time healing my heart and falling in love again, at final, it was my family. How could I be married with my cousin? I didn''t know what to do under the shock and tears of Erlong and the hateful face of uncle. Unconsciously, I ran away. I needed to run away, far away. I finally stopped at a little city called Nuoding. I wasn''t made to be love. Every time that I open my heart is only to be destroyed again. The only thing that avoided me suiciding myself was that as I had discovered before I was too much of a coward. "I''m truly trash" I decided to stay here, I would hide away from the world, peacefully living in this countryside city. Running away from all, vowing to not open again my heart to anyone, and working in the spirit master''s academy of the city, Nuoding Academy. Nothing changed until I met him, Tang San. Tang San was a young boy with enormous talent that seemed to appreciate my knowledge even requesting myself being his teacher. Seeing him, I instantly knew that he had twin spirit and that the most probable was that he was the son of the Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao. He instantly made me remember Bibi Dong, both with great talent, with twin spirits and great backers. I wanted to negate him, but I decided the opposite. My long lost revenge awakened in full might. I decided to take him as my disciple. I would use him, I would make him the strongest, probing all my theories and surpassing the stupid clan that kicked me out and even surpassing Bibi Dong. What could it better than using someone to similar to her to take my revenge? I would show my value through him, I would be recognized! And I would make him destroy the fu?k?n? clan and Bibi Dong! Chapter 221 - Yu Xiaogang 2 Like people said, the next was history. I trained Tang San all these years putting my maximum effort, planning to create a monster. Once he became 12 years old, I decided to send him with Flender. I had taught most of my useful knowledge, now what he required was combat experience. In these years, Flender had made the first step to his dream. With other strong spirit masters, he had made his own school, one that only accepts monsters. It''s not very famous due to how isolated it was and due to how little alumni studied there, but it was slowly being recognized by strong powers. I decided to go an help a good friend, accepting Flender''s offer of teaching at his school. In Shrek Academy, Flender''s academy, Tang San had gained powerful companions and friends, his strength increasing. Seeing the group of 7 students, I decided that they need more combat experiences, fighting against the strongest. I decided to make them participate at the Continental Tournament, facing against the strongest academies of the continent. Some different things happened and we finished meeting my wife, Erlong. Erlong had become the headmistress of her own academy that she gifted it to Flender, becoming the new Shrek Academy and the children being able to participate at the Continental Tournament. Seeing her, my fright and inferiority returned, I couldn''t be with my cousin, my head negated her while my body wanted her near me. I wanted to run away again, but I was stopped and forced to meet her again. I had loved her, but I didn''t know if I would be able to open my heart again to her. After some uncomfortable moments, I realized that she never forgot me. She had spent all her life with sadness, waiting for me. I truly didn''t deserve her love, if only she had chosen Flender. Finally, I accepted to be with her. We loved each other and even if now our relation was strange due to us being cousins. In the future, it might become easier, finally, opening my heart and fully accept her as she deserves. I thought that this would be my future, trying to solve my relationship with Erlong while training Tang San to accomplish my dream. However, all changed one night. A man clad in darkness appeared in my room. Death could be felt around him, making me flinch when I saw him. His aura was so intense that it made it difficult to recognize him inside it. The man started talking, showing him having knowledge about me and finishing offering me a fragrant cookie, one that could change my own destiny. The man didn''t seem to lie, I could risk my life to attain greater strength, I could become strong, stopping being trash. I had long forgotten the idea of becoming strong. I tried many times before without vail, but seeing the rich energy from the cookie, my dreams of becoming strong bloomed again. Before a realized, I had already eaten the cookie, my body moving by instinct. "HAAAAA!" An intense pain ran through my body, muscles exploded, bones snapped, ants seemed to crawl over my head. It seemed that all my body was reforging from new. The pain was so unbearable that I thought that this was the end of my life, experimenting all my life crossing over my eyes. Flender and the adventures, Erlong and my love with her, the hard times at the clan, all the hate, and ridicule from the world. The final memory was of Bibi Dong, my first and more intense love, the happiest moment of my life simply being with her, wanting to spend all my life with her. Finishing with the memory of she rejecting me, calling me trash. I could see that memory much clearly than I had remembered and in low motion. I realized that her voice was hoarse, hidden over her cold eyes was sadness and longing, even a little tear hide in them. At that moment I realized, how could I have been so moron? Our moments together weren''t fake, she loved me too. Thinking about know it was easy to realize, how could Spirit Hall let its more talented spirit master ran away with a nobody. She might have been forced to break up with me, maybe even being blackmailed with my death. And even if not, breaking with me would have been the best way to protect me from Spirit Hall. Tears uncontrollably fell from my eyes. I''m such an idiot. Even when the only feature that I liked about me was my intelligence it took me more than 25 years and a death experience to find the truth. All these years, trying to forget about her, even using others to accomplish my revenge against her. I''m truly trash. Finally, the intense pain stopped. All my body was sore and I even had difficulty to breathe, but the pain was bearable. I spent one week on the bed healing my wounds while being taken care of by Erlong. My body was all in pain, but somehow it felt the best way ever, strength flowing over my veins, my body''s strength far surpassing the one before. Looking at the worried face of Erlong while she looked after me, I felt strange. Somehow, my attraction with her seemed to lower, my body being quiet while my mind said that she was my cousin. I realized that I never had loved her as Bibi Dong. Our love wasn''t real, it was an intent to forget about her. And now that my spirit mutated, I was sure that the obsession with her was in great part due to my spirit. Somehow, both of our spirits were attracted, mine wanting to take her to become strong, searching to become a true dragon. Our love was only a hoax, I loved her as a great friend or sister, but it wasn''t real love. "Erlong" Finally, I was able to move my body. I stood up and called Erlong who made a happy seeing me recuperated. I bowed towards her, lowering my head apologizing "Sorry!" Then I told her the truth, she deserved the truth and I for one time didn''t try to run away, I told her all without skipping any fact, declaring my love for Bibi Dong. "Erlong, sorry. I know that I am trash, you wasted all your life for someone that did not deserves you. I am truly sorry. I would never be able to repay you. You can do whatever you want with me, beat me, torture me, cripple me... I don''t mind, I deserve this. However, I want to at least be alive, I want to give my life to Bibi Dong as apologies." Erlong punched my face, throwing me crashing to the wall. I took the hit and waited for the following, knowing that I deserved all the pain, even death for her, but I was too greedy, I wanted to at least see Bibi Dong one last time. However, no other hit came. Erlong''s face was all red, tears filling her face, anger and sadness over her black eyes "If you love her so much, go with her!" she shouted in pain, her heart breaking "Never appear in front of me again" she said angrily before turning around and leaving the room, breaking the door. I hit my head to the wall "I''m truly trash" Erlong was too good for me. I had been an idiot to her. I stood up and left Shrek Academy without warning anyone, determined to meet Bibi Dong again. I bought some horses and the required utensils and started my trip alone towards Spirit City. After a week of traveling at full speed, I finally reached Spirit City. Thanks to the elder token that gave me Tang San''s father, I was easy able to pass the frontier, reaching the Supreme Pontiff Palace and requesting an audience with Bibi Dong. Entering the Supreme Pontiff Palace''s main hall, she was there sat on a golden throne. She was really beautiful like if all these years didn''t pass for her while I received the full brunt of age, my wealth lowering and even my hair turning white. Seeing me enter, she squinted her eyes glancing coldly at me and ordered all the people at the hall to retire, leaving only us alone. "So the grand Grandmaster deign to appear in front of me?" Bibi Dong said sarcastically "Did you came to ask for your disciple to be sparred? If it is for this, you can already forget about it. I will not change my mind" I kneeled on the ground, lowering my head even slamming into the ground "Sorry!" I apologized, her eyes showing a trace of surprise "I''m an idiot. All these years you must have suffered all alone, carrying a great weight over you. I love you, Bibi Dong. I love you everything about you, with all my whole. I don''t know if you stopped loving me after all this time, I''m even unsure if you loved me before, but I want to apologize. I was so blind by my inferiority that I couldn''t see the truth, letting you suffer." I sensed Bibi Dong''s force surrounding me, it forced me to stand up and approach her. She stood up from her throne, directly looking at my eyes "You don''t have any idea of what I had experimented all these years!" she said in fury. "I don''t. However, I want to pay you" I said while all my body was in pain due to the force pushing over me "I realized what the most important is. I want to be with you, I want you to be happy. If it''s for you, I don''t mind giving up my body. If you d?s?r?, you can kill me now, I won''t resist and I would gladly accept it" "Hahaha" Bibi Dong laughed forcefully, the force around me disappearing, causing me to fall to the ground "Do you think this is so easy? That I can''t forget all this time, that your death would be enough to paid for all of this? You''re too naive!" Her force exploded again, suppressing me kneeling over the ground. "Leave now! Never return or I might truly kill you!" "No!" I focused all my strength, my bones cracking as I forced them to stand up "I won''t run away again. I want to always be with you, I love you! The only way you will be able to force me to leave would be killing me." I said resolutely. Seeing my resolve, her eyes opened widely, becoming tearful "You don''t know what I did all these years. , I''m a devil that made countless sins, killing, torturing, slaughtering. You don''t have any idea what I needed to do to reach my position. I''m dirty, I must be all alone. I can''t be with you." I forced my body to move, a lot pain with every move, encircling my arms over her, hugging her "I don''t mind them. I would accept your sins as mine as it''s my fault that you were forced to them. The only thing that matters is you being with me." Tears started falling from Bibi Dong''s eyes "I loved you, Xiaogang. I always loved you!" her suppression disappeared and she hugged me, leaning her head over me. After 10 seconds, she broke the hug "But, we can''t be together. You won''t be able to bear my sins, only death awaits you if you are with" she smiled "But, I''m happy to know about your love. You can forget about me now. Go live your own life" "Never!" I shouted "You are my life, without you, all the meaning is lost!" Four spirit rings appeared behind me, Luo San Pao appeared, this time as a 5 meters long golden dragon, showing his might "I would be forever with you! I will do anything necessary!" Bibi Dong was moved by my resolution and surprised at the same time seeing my new strength "Are you really serious? You will accept me with my dirt?" she asked shyly and hopefully. I leaned over her, lifting her chin and kissing her lips, our tongues joining inside. It was a longed, warm, and a little painful kiss, like describing our relationship. However, I knew that I loved her. "For you, I don''t mind becoming a devil. Being together with you is the most important." "Xiaogang!" Tears fell from her face, this time of joy, as she jumped hugged me "Thanks. I love you, Xiaogang. Accept my whole" While we were hugged, 6 deep green spiders legs appeared at her back, 6 spirit rings under her. "Hg!" I tried to keep from shouting as the spider legs encircled me, piercing my back, some strange substance coming from them, flowing around my body and destroying it. My conciousness fading away. I could feel Bibi Dong''s memories and pain. I was right, she was forced to leave me to protect me, even being r?p?d by her teacher and forcing her to have his daughter to keep her in Spirit Hall. All the painful memories and the indescribable sins that she committed. Starting to killing that bastard of her teacher taking advantage of the wounds in his fight against Tang Hao and followed by countless innocent and not so innocent falling from her own hands. She was no longer a normal spirit master. She had sold herself to the devil for strength for his vengeance to her teacher and family, for the destruction of Spirit Hall. She had even changed her cultivation, now cultivating pain and resentment. I new form to cultivate, an evil one. That evil energy flowed all over my body, but suddenly stopped "Won''t you run away?" The sweet voice of Bibi Dong''s sounded over my head, fear of rejection in it. I shook my head "I will be always with you, our destiny would be the same. I don''t mind becoming the devil himself for you." "Thanks" I sensed some tears fell over my head. Then, the pain returned, the evil energy revolving all over my body changing it, reconstructing. I was no longer a normal spirit master, I was now reborn as an evil spirit master that I gladly accepted for being together with Bibi Dong. I opened my eyes, seeing the tearful eyes of Bibi Dong, her face showing her pain and happiness as she patted my hair, me being at the ground, my head over her ??p. However, all these changes weren''t important for me. The most important was able to be with the woman that I love. I leaned over her, kissing her. "I love you." Chapter 222 - Yu Xiaogang 3 After so much time, I was finally able to be with my love, without any secret between us. We couldn''t go back at that happy times, he had grown for them, discovering how rotten was this world, we committed too many sins. However, we at least were together and for me, it was the most important. Improving my individual strength became vital to survive inside Spirit Hall and keep the title of elder. Now that I had become an evil spirit master, I could rapidly increase my cultivation killing others. As most spirit masters, I had killed people before, a necessity in this world if you want strength. But in two months here, I killed many times more people than in all my life, the killings being torture and gruesome. I had discovered that the cultivation improved better with quality rather than quantity. The quality of the people that die and the way that they did, needing to maximize their dark feelings of despair and resentment. It had been a little difficult the first day, but I quickly become immune to it. For Dong''Er, I would do anything. Due to my great foundation plus the two boost of the cookie and the evil cultivation of Dong''Er, my cultivation skyrocket. My attack power was especially boosted, as an evil spirit master I was much stronger than a regular one. By the time of the finals of the Continental Tournament, my cultivation had reached rank 81, becoming a spirit douluo. When I reached rank 71, with Luo San Pao''s Spirit Avatar, I could use Pao''s strength, becoming draconian like if a normal dragon spirit. I was surprised how little excited about it I was when it had been a long dream of mine. During the finals, I didn''t directly approach Shrek Academy due to Erlong''s last words, only giving them hints and trainings by letters. I also discovered two interesting facts. The first one was that Xiao Wu was in truth a spirit beast reincarnated as a human. I always had some doubts about her control and natural talent, but it was now thanks to my new strength that I could confirm. I recommended her to leave the tournament as it could become too dangerous for her, but she negated. It was her decision so I let her do as she wanted. The second fact was that I found the identity of the black-clad man that gave me the cookie that started it all. He was in truth Ning Bai, the oldest son of the head of the Seven Treasure Clan. By normal means, he seemed completely normal, not an ounce of death energy surrounding him, but if it was inspected inside, pure black energy laid dormant. It seemed like Bai himself was unaware of what truly was. I was really curious about him, about his reason to offer me the cookie. The different coexisting inside him made him even more interesting. I met him, but he seemed completely unaware of my change, not understanding his own power. I decided to let him leave, it would make an interesting subject, but as he had helped me before, I didn''t want to pay a favor with pain. The tournament finished with Heaven Dou Imperial Academy''s win, mostly thanks to Bai and a girl with an ant spirit called Mayi. They had a three spirit spirit fusion, making them very special. The win was eclipsed by the discovery before all the titled douluos of Xiao Wu''s condition of spirit beasts. She had been truly an idiot, keeping fighting in a mere tournament risking his life. I would have preferred to not break the heart of my previous disciple so early like me, but she asked for it. At least, she would be useful as Dong''Er spirit ring. Finally, Tang Hao stepped and escaped with Xiao Wu and Tang San. Dong''Er would have been able to stop him with Spirit Hall''s strength, but as there was no real anger between them, she let him leave. If something, Dong''Er was indebted to him for creating an opportunity to kill that bastard of Qian Xunji. After the tournament, we focused on our own strength while preparing a war over the continent. Dong''Er was chosen by the Rakshasa God to inherit his position, her cultivation focusing on the Rakshasa''s trials. However, there was an important problem, Dong''Er started too late her inheritance, creating a rejection from her own cultivation and spirits, producing a weakening of her power as she was trying to ?ssimilate the new divinity. In the future, even creating more problems when she reached godhood. In my travels, I had discovered that there was a method to destroy the actual spirit rings, resetting the cultivation. This method was one passed over the Speed Clan, one of the single attributes clans that had been under the Clear Sky Clan. We forced our way in, killing some people and controlling others, obtaining the formation to accomplish. Using my lost knowledge of ancient times, I was able to reform the formation, making sure that it would only affect one of her spirits, lowering the effect of it. Thanks to her other spirit, she would be able to keep her actual cultivation. I even repaired the formation that had an error that could cause memory loss. The ritual with the new formation was a complete success. Dong''Er''s Soul Devouring Spider lost its spirits ring while the Death Spider and her cultivation were maintained. With a blank spirit, Dong''Er would be able to completely ?ssimilate Rakshasa''s powers. I also gained a lot with this. Just as I completed the ritual, I had an enlightenment. In my mind space, a man shrouded in darkness appeared. He had short pure black hair and eyes covered with square glasses, while he wore dark clothes. He called himself the Darkness God. He was surprised about my talent, my sacrifice for love, my control, and especially my intelligence remaining him of himself. He proposed me as his inheritor, giving me his position. My test would be to follow Dong''Er and help her reaching godhood. As it didn''t go against my plans and it would be a great help being accompanying Dong''Er, a quickly accepted his offer, becoming the inheritor of the Darkness God. Dong''Er power quickly increased after that. We didn''t require to find very old beasts for her rings. The important being the resentment and despair behind it. Rakshasa''s influence would affect the spirit ring absorbing the death and resentment of the surroundings, increasing its age, power, and making it extremely compatible with Rakshasa''s power. After 5 years, the slaughter and sins behind us were so numerous that counting them had long lost all the sense. Bibi Dong''s cultivation had already reached the human limit, becoming rank 99. Her Death Spider Empress spirit was like before, focusing on control and not very powerful. On the other hand, her Soul Devouring Spider Empress with 7 spirit rings had evolved with Rakshasa''s powers, its lethality and power reaching another complete level, being capable of even use divinity, her attacks grazing godhood. My cultivation had greatly improved, I had become a rank 96 super douluo, my last spirit ring especially gifted by the Darkness God himself, a red one covered by a dark aura. With our new strength and Spirit Hall''s preparations, we started targetting the two empires'' clans, joining them to our forces or destroying them. Finally, the time had arrived. I would return to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, this time to destroy it with my own strength. Not even in my wildest dream, I dreamed about this being possible and it only took 5 years with Dong''Er. I entered the clan with my draconian form, slaughtering any guard that tried to stop me. It didn''t take much time before I found myself being surrounded by clan''s members, even there were some elders. I extended my darkness over them swallowing them, instantly killing them. A weak spirit douluos elders wouldn''t be able to stop me. Finally, I was surrounded by all the elders, even the Erlong''s father, the head, and the patriarch were there, my uncle, my father, and grandfather, respectively. They were the only one that had reached titled douluo, the patriarch being a rank 96 while the other being 95. They discovered who I was, greatly shocking them about my new strength, my father''s eyes wavering in pain. The bastards even offered me to return to the clan with an elder position after all that they did, after a life of ridicule. I decided to show them what this ''trash'' was able to do. I invoked San Luo Pao who roared in the sky showing all his might. The clan members found themselves greatly suppressed, not being able to use half of their strength, people under spirit douluo rank were forced to near before us. San Luo Pao was a Darkness Evil Dragon King, an evolved form of the Blue Tyrant and a true dragon, completely suppressing them, his strength much stronger. I must say that it was too easy. With them suppressed and me being of a higher rank, they didn''t have any chance. I quickly killed my grandfather and some elders while a tortured my uncle to death. For my father, I paid with the same coin. I avoid his eyes, completely ignoring him while Dong''Er killed him as we had accorded. After killing and destroying the clan with my own hands, I realized how little I cared for it, not much different than any other clan''s destruction. They had the opportunity but threw it away. We were never considered family, my only family and the most important being Dong''Er, I following her even to death. At least, we gained some good with them. With all the death and resentment from them, Dong''Er was able to form her 8th spirit ring, her strength increasing again. She was at the perfect state, finally prepared to take the Rakshasa''s tests. Before starting the tests, we returned to Spirit Hall for the final preparations. There I met Qian Renxue for the first time. I had a difficult opinion about her. On one hand, she was Dong''Er''s daughter. On the other hand, she was conceived by that bastard raping Dong''Er. He was the one that caused our separation. Renxue might not have the fault as his child and completely clueless about the truth, but she was a reminder of the most painful time of my life. The first time that I saw her, I couldn''t help to blink in surprise. She had a cold face and exuded dignity and arrogance, even after having lost an important battle at Heaven Dou Palace. Having lost her hard work of more than 10 years. I thought that her plan to supplant the prince was a good one, but not doing it herself. I would have tried other people. What surprised about her was that she was the exact copy of Dong''Er years before except for her golden eyes. Looking at her with her eyes closed, I could only remember my happy and naive times with Dong''Er, the happiest of my life. Her opening the eyes, awakening from my dream. It made me difficult to hate her, as somehow her birth was my fault. Another negative fact of her was her holy aura. An incredible thick and powerful holyness exuded from her, even at the spirit sage realm, I could sense some divinity in her, something impossible for Dong''er or me. She was truly a monster. Dong''Er decided to let her alone. She would follow her grandfather, most probably trying to reach one godhood. While we will reach ours. After the meeting, we finished preparing ourselves and directed towards the Rakshasa''s test, over Slaughter City. Chapter 223 - Yu Xiaogang 4 Dong''Er and I walked all the way to a small village. It seemed a poor an inconspicuous village at first sight but sensing it nearer, there were a fool stink and death aura all around it. Dong''Er walked towards the middle of the village, spirit rings flashed, 6 green spider legs appearing at her back. She slashed the ground with them, forming a strange pattern with them in the form of a bat. Each cut had a great killing intent behind. Once she finished, she pierced her legs to the ground and her killing intent was released. A green and purple aura surged from her as she activated her Death and Deathgod domains. "I am to become the god of Death, all beings shall kneel under Rakshasa!" The bat pattern was illuminated absorbing the Dong''Er domains, red lines surged from the draw, expanding all over the village. Dong''Er had already explained to me this trial. Slaughter City was a paradise of depravity, where death was completely normal. However, the truth was that it was a place made by the death gods in order to collect blood and death, transforming it into faith for their inheritors. Now that Rong''Er was going to become a goddess, the place had achieved its purpose. All the people inside the city would be sacrificed by this ritual, Dong''Er absorbing the faith and accumulated strength. "BOOOM!" From a near tavern, a red pillar shot up, destroying completely the tavern and piercing the sky. The pillar was deep red with some purple aura and seemed to be made purely of blood. "It''s too early" This ceremony was supposed to kill all the people inside Slaughter City including its ruler. This couldn''t be done in so little time, it was supposed to slowly kill them. Something was wrong. "Dong''Er!" I wanted to warn her, but she was in a trance state, ignoring her surroundings. "Booom!" 5 more blood pillar shot from the ground and pierced the sky from nearby places. The blood pillars bend over clashing between them just over us. A thick killing intent like no other fell over us, suppressing us. It was so dense that I almost flinched unconsciously. "Be prepared" Dong''Er warned, the light returned to her eyes as she left the trance state. A blood rain fell over us, it was at so high speed that resembled knives falling towards us. Most of them were focused on Dong''Er, but I tried to contain some of them. The blood didn''t cut perse, but it directly pierced over your mind, despair, resentment, pain, fright... multiple negatives feelings could be felt in an instant. Each drop was like a mental attack, strong enough to make someone mad. I was completely sure that if it weren''t for this years of slaughter with Dong''Er, I couldn''t have resisted even one, falling into a mad state instantly. I suffered thinking about the torture that was experimenting Dong''Er who was receiving the full might of the attack. My d?s?r? to become stronger and help her growing. The rain was becoming stronger until a blood pillar fell over us. I could only think about killing, about wanting blood, but once I saw Dong''Er''s determined and unwavering face, I calmed myself. This was her test and I was only a helper, I wouldn''t forgive injuring her for my uselessness. Dong''Er face was completely pale, sweat ran over her face as she panted tiredly. Her killing aura had greatly improved, her pale face had obtained a tint of green, a purple horn surged from her forehead. All her eyes became dark with the exception of her red pupils. Her nails grew becoming over half meter claws. She seemed to have become a devil surged from hell. She turned to me and forcefully smiled "Do I look ugly?" No, she was truly different, but she continued being the woman that I fell in love, her look didn''t matter at all. Even so, I didn''t hate his actual form, it was a remember of our history together. I approached her and hugged her "You will be always the most beautiful to me" deeply kissing her. We broke the kiss and she started meditating, detecting the new changed on her. After some time, a phantasm of a devil similar to her actual form condensed over her back, her features returning to normal. The phantasm disappeared inside her and she opened her eyes showing a serious look. "Something is wrong" she stated "There should have been enough faith and energy for me to be able to activate the last trial to become a goddess. However, there''s a lack from it. Even the two most important things are lacking." "What are they?" I already noticed that something was wrong, but she would have much more information than me. "Faith and the weapon" she answered "Most faith should be with the Slaughter King, meaning that he didn''t die here. On the other hand, a weapon should have been created. Prepared during years and able to absorb the Rakshasa''s aura, boosting it. Rakshasa should have been creating a divine weapon here, but there''s no sight from it" "Shall we investigate?" I opined. She nodded "Let''s enter what left from Slaughter City" We walked over where the tavern had previously stood. There, Dong''Er swung her hands, slashing the ground and revealing a stair. We start going down. After what it seemed going down a kilometer, the stair finished in an open area, like an immense cave. It was a barren land where no plant could grow. A lingering smell of blood was all over the place, but it seemed that it had been all drained by Dong''Er, not a single drop of blood any way. Suddenly, from the tip of my vision, I had b?r?ly sensed some movement. My body reacted instinctively, jumping over Dong''Er pushing her from her position. "Crrrrr!" A growl and blood falling from my right arm was the only that I could sense as an extremely quick black shadow passed through us and escaped following the stairs that we took to reach here, too quick for us to chase. Even now I couldn''t sense that black shadow at all, as it didn''t have any presence or spirit energy. "Xiaogang!" Dong''Er approached me worriedly, treating my wound. A deep teeth mark was all over my arm, piercing even the bone, a little more profound and my arm would have been torn. A black and purple aura lingering from the wound, weakening me. Somehow he aura was similar to the previous test. It wasn''t long before Dong''Er used her spirit energy to absorb the aura and forcefully closed the wound. "Are you fine, Xiaogang?" she asked worriedly. I nodded "It wasn''t serious. I''m glad that you''re fine, Dong''Er. But what was that? I couldn''t sense it, it was only by pure instinct that I reacted." "That should be an ancient beast as I couldn''t detect any spirit energy from it. They had great physical strength and we aren''t used to them, making them nasty enemies. It seemed that it took the opportunity to escape from here" Dong''Er explained due to her experience in Slaughter City "I don''t know how it survived, but it seemed to be one of the reasons for the energy loss. From the aura over your wound, I could feel Rakshasa''s powers" "So we need to chase after it? It would be difficult to find it as we can''t detect it normally" "It had a great deal of the accumulated energy, we will need to eventually find it, for difficult that it seem" Dong''Er deducted "But I am worried about the faith and weapon, they are more important. Let''s investigate." After that strange episode, we continued our explosion. Slaughter City was a ruin of a small city, most of the buildings were little and destroyed. We directed us to the tallest building, the Slaughter King''s castle. A great cut of a kilometer long extended outside of it, showing the results of an intense battle. More hints of fighting could be seen inside the castle, especially near to what it should have been the treasure trove that was completely empty. There was no trace of the Slaughter King or the weapon. "This was caused by the Slaughter King" Dong''er said signaling a claws'' marks over a vip lounge. It seemed to be made randomly like done in a state of fury or madness without any clear objective. Over the Arena, I could feel some traces of an ancient formation. Being one of my passions, I couldn''t help to take a look at it, moreover, it could be of help for Dong''er. After some time I was able to grasp the fundamental information about it. The formation had traces of blood, some patterns indicating absorption and madness. It extended all over the colosseum being able to affect anyone inside. "We might not need to worry about chasing that black shadow" I said to Dong''er "This formation had the function to kill the people inside that not have the ''requirements'', I suppose that the requirements being completing the 100 victories at the Arena. The blood, despair, and resentment of the death would then be used as a sacrifice to activate a spatial door. This blood containing a great deal of the energy necessary to Rakshasa." I explained. "It might take some time. But I should be able to copy this formation. I can''t rewrite is as it''s too ancient and complex, but I should be able to redirect the blood to ourself" I explained. Dong''Er''s eyes opened widely "We will be able to obtain the necessary energy from the death. Recovering the lost energy" Dong''Er jumped kissing me "You''re such a genius!" she stopped still and frowned "We will need a lot of sacrifices to make it work" Then she made an evil and s?xy grin "With war approaching, it wouldn''t be difficult to find sacrifices. Their negatives feeling even stronger in the fire of battle" she started evilly laughing "Fate is at our side." I stayed some months inside Slaughter City, completely learning the now named by me Bloodsucking Formation. Then, the next years were spent planning for the future war against the continent and searching for the Slaughter King that most probably ran to the surface. 10 years had passed since I was together with Dong''Er again. We might have made horrible acts together, but I was truly happy being with my most loved person. Being with Dong''Er the only truly important for me. Our preparations were ready, we forced the war to start, focusing all the troops over Jialing Pass. Inside the fortress, I already had draw the Bloodsucking Formation. My and Dong''Er had greatly increased, her completely controlling her Rakshasa''s powers and me obtaining some of the darkness divinity and reaching rank 99. Who would have thought that trash like me would one day reach the limit of humans? Moreover, we even found the trace of the Slaughter King that we found him madly destroying towns. We only need to collect the blood here, kill the Slaughter King and take his own divine weapon and Dong''Er would become the Rakshasa Goddess. Dong''Er being the Supreme Pontiff had mostly full control of Spirit Hall''s army. We focused most of our troops inside the fortress. Now we only required some diversion to make the allied armies of Heaven Dou and Star Luo enter the fortress. The problem was that they were to passive. I would kill their high-rank officers, breaking the commanding line. Then I would take advantage of the chaos and sent a small unit to kill them. This small unit would be insufficient to win over even the chaotic army, being forced to retreat again to the fortress, the allied army chasing over them would then with my help broke the ''robust'' gates of the fortress, invading it and starting a chaotic battle. With all the negatives feeling of kills and death all over the place, it would be the perfect moment to activate the formation. My plan was canceled due to the appearance of a new player in the game, Ning Bai. He commanded the allied army directly attacking the fortress. It was a change of plans, nevertheless, it could become a good opportunity, quickening my plans. Ning Bai was stronger than what I thought. He easily killed his way over our army, even killing two titled douluos under Dong''Er in mere seconds. He was too quick, he had advanced his own army and charged alone and unstoppable. If this continued, he alone would enter the fortress and kill most of the sacrifices himself, even it might detect the oddity of the high number of troops inside and command his army to retire. I couldn''t permit this, I need to delay him. I used my darkness powers with my spirit avatar form and dashed towards Ning Bai. There, I wanted to stop him, disabling him for some time. His death wouldn''t be as worthy as a simple delay, him being the perfect one to break the gates without showing my plan. There was also the fact of not wanting to kill him due to his help in my change. I only need their army close to him when it happened. Once the army entered the fortress, it would become too chaotic to even retire. Chen Xin interposed between us, my attack finally cutting one of his arms. It seemed that Ning Bai was very fond of him, making him delay enough trying to heal him for their main army to reach them. It was a bit different than what I had planned, but it was effective anyway, so I retired returning to the fortress, changing my position with San Luo Pao and then withdrawing him. Like I wanted, Ning Bai broke the gate, the allied armies entering the fortress, the negative feelings reaching their peak. However, it wasn''t enough. Some time was needed for more people to enter the fortress to complete the ritual for Dong''Er. Dong''Er and I were forced to entertain Ning Bai, keeping him to kill a great number of people. With Dong''Er and I combination, it wouldn''t be much difficult. Ning Bai resulted being an extremely strong opponent, forcing us to seriously fight, even trying to truly kill him. His skill sword arts were strange, adaptable, and very numerous, making him a difficult opponent with a physical strength boosted to over the human capabilities, surpassing even Dong''Er. At final, even Dong''Er was forced to use Rakshasa''s power with her second spirit. Even with that, Bai invoked a little girl and a werewolf that were capable of stopping us. I was really surprised and interested by them, Ning Bai really had a lot of secrets. If we didn''t were in a hurry, I would have wanted to dissect him of all his information. Just as we were about to fight completely seriously. The other gates were broken by none other than two previous Shrek''s students, Bai Chenxiang and my previous disciple, Tang San. With the new influx of people, there was no need to fight anymore. With the help of Dong''Er''s Deathgod domain, I activated the Bloodsucking formation, effectively killing everyone inside the fortress and collecting all the energy of both armies. The only ones that survived were the people near Ning Bai and Tang San. Both of them had the Deathgod domain and had the qualifications to not be affected by the formation. Now that we collected the necessary energy and blood, we only need to kill the Slaughter King. Dong''Er and I left the battleground, completely ignoring everything from it. The next time we appeared before the public would be as gods. Chapter 224 - Slaughter King Blueberry town was a little town in the north of Star Luo, situated nearby of Star Duo Forest. It was a normal town with 200 people living there without anything remarkable with Blueberries plants all over the place giving its name to the town. A red projectile crossed the sky crashing at the town''s center "BOOOOM!" The shock force was enough to destroy most of the buildings of the town. Over the crater, a man wearing a red coat stood up. He had a pale face and had injuries all over his body. Cries broke over the town, fright, terror, and despair due to the havoc produced by the red-coated man, destroying their home and killing their loved ones. The red-coated man ignored the cries, his gaze fixed over the sky. From where he was looking, two figures appeared flying toward him, a woman with golden hair and some strange insect''s wings at her back and a man with dragon wings. They were Bibi Dong and Yu Xiaogang. As they descended, the cries in the town stopped, complete silent taking place. The aura around her was so powerful that the poor villager that survived couldn''t resist it, instantly dying by their thick killing intent. They calmly landed near the crater, looking down at the red-coated man "You don''t have any place to run away. Death is your only option, Slaughter King" The red-coated man was in truth the previous lord of Slaughter City, the Slaughter King. Xiaogang and Bibi Dong had been searching for him a lot of time, finally localizing him and cornered him with no way of escaping. The Slaughter King could have been considered a powerhouse in the past, even in the top 3 of the continent, but a lot of time had passed, his strength degrading by madness and poison, his actual strength even lower than a super douluo. Against two limit douluos like them, he could only struggle in vain, not even being able to create an opening to escape. "Bastards!" the Slaughter King shouted furiously "I will kill all of you!" A red aura containing a great killing intent exploded from him. However, he was not up to his rivals. Bibi Dong swung her arm, focusing her purple aura over the Slaughter King. He was completely suppressed, his red aura extinguished under the powerful purple energy, forcing him into his knees. Bibi Dong slowly approached him, lifting her spider legs preparing to strike and kill him "Be glad. You can die knowing that your death will create a god." Just as she was about to thrust her legs, she pierced them to the ground, using them to jump backwards. A powerful white blade of sword qi cut between Bibi Dong and the Slaughter King, leaving a trail of white flames that separated both of them. A thick Life intent could be felt from the flames that clearly countered Bibi Dong''s Death aura. Bibi Dong turned to see the culprit behind the attack "Ning Bai" she coldly said looking at the young man with two swords at his hands. "Youuuuu!" shouted furiously the Slaughter King recognizing Bai as the one that tricked him and most probably poisoned him. "What are you exactly doing here, Bai?" Xiaogang asked Bai while he positioned between Bai and Bibi Dong. "I came for him" Bai signaled the Slaughter King. "You''re unlucky. He is our prey now." Xiaogang stated coldly "I am kind in a good mood now. For your help before, I will let you leave alive. But..." Xiaogang focused his killing state over Bai "Don''t interpose!" "I must refuse your kind offer" Bai''s own killing intent clashed with Xiaogang''s "But I also want him" Bai''s 17 spirit rings appeared over him. He muttered something as red rings shined "Crunch!" Bai swallowed some cookies, a black and white armor appeared all over his body, a wolf-like helmet covering his head. Fenrir''s powers especialized in strength and speed. "Hahaha" Xiaogang smirked "You were b?r?ly our rival some days ago, this was counting your secrets, me being injured by surprise and the death at the war, making your power stronger with almost infinite spirit energy. How could you dream of fighting us now?" Xiaogang ridicule. "You don''t have any chance against us two" In front of him, San Luo Pao appeared "I will show you our true strength" All the rings over San Luo Pao shined brightly, each spirit ring seemed to react with the others, slowly coming close. The spirit rings combined forming a single one it had a dark red color with half of it with a golden black color. "Spirit skills overlapping!" Bai shouted in surprise. The new ring shined brightly, San Luo Pao turned into black smoke and was absorbed by Xiaogang whose body started bulging, his muscles perturbing as he became over 4 meters tall, all his body clad with black dragon scales. His head lengthening, sharp and big teeth appearing over his mouth. He had become a bipedal black dragon, the aura around him much stronger than before as darkness covered him. "It''s the results of a prepared ring configuration, studying the effects to make them possible to overlap" Xiaogang explained. This only complicated the things for Bai. With this form, the physical strength of him would be able to content with Bai. It would be difficult to win over him, being impossible while also facing Bibi Dong. "Last opportunity!" Xiaogang warned "Leave or die!" Bai lifted his swords, prepared to fight "Die!" he dashed towards Xiaogang. "Idiot!" Xiaogang dashed towards him. His crawls extending over 2 meters as he thrust them towards Bai. Bai twisted his body, starting to spin over himself creating a round different colored blade over him. The blade crashed with Xiaogang''s, lightning surging between their clash, any of them being able to win over the other. Bai put his weight over the swords, impulsing himself to jump up, leaving Xiaogang''s attack "This trick won''t work again!" Over Xiaogang''s back, two big black wings spread. He flapped them furiously changing his direction following Bai. However, even he was surprised by Bai''s speed. Bai''s leg shined brightly activating his spirits bone, at the same time that his wings flapped. Bai kicking the air and reached a tremendous speed that Xiaogang couldn''t cope with it. Bai dashed towards Bibi Dong, countless swords appeared around him, each one exploding with a strong aura as they spun around forming a drill around Bai "Die!" The aura around Bai exploded, all his All Sword activating over his swords, his strength reaching the limit. "Courting death!" Purple aura surged from Bibi Dong with the glow of her two first rings, her spider legs became complete purple and joined in front of Bibi Dong''s forming an over 3 meters death scythe. Her 6th ring shined, a jade glint appearing over the scythe as it became sharper and able to ignore physical defense, its wound becoming impossible to heal. Just as they were about to clash, lightning appeared over Bai''s light leg, his spirit bone activating at his limit. Bai kicked the air, instantly changing his direction. The sword formation like drill clashed with Bibi Dong who easily overpowered it, diverting and destroying all the swords. On the other hand, Bai had changed in the last moment of target, he directly launching towards the Slaughter King, his objective since the start. "Fuck!" Xiaogang and Bibi Dong quickly reacted charging at him. "?Wonder If I gave a Red Velvet Oreo?" Bai chanted "?They go Together?" Bai''s swords disappeared, a Red Velvet Oreo and Oreo cake appearing over his left hand. At the same time, a purple aura surged from Bai, condensing over Bai''s right hand and taking the form of a 2 meters long purple scythe. In a swift movement, Bai crushed the Oreos, scrubbing them over the tip of the scythe. Then, Bai swung the scythe at the wounded Slaughter King who couldn''t avoid it at high speed. The scythe''s tip pierced over the Slaughtering King''s side, his red coat flying away, the Oreo''s leftovers entering his system and a purple aura leaving the Slaughter and being absorbed by the scythe. Just as Xiaogang and Bibi Dong were about to reach Bai "Clank!" A powerful shock wave surged hitting them, forcing them to defend from it and being pushed more than 20 meters away. "I might not be able to win a 2vs1" Bai said smiling "Let''s see how you cope in a 2vs2" 9 shining spirit rings appeared next to Bai, 8 black and 1 red, surrounding where the Slaughter King had stood before. Now in his place, a man that seemed about 40 years old stood there. He had a short dark brown spiky hair, nothing was covering his upward body, revealing his strong muscles. His eyes were extremely sharp and shined with a red glow while he smirked showing his sharp teeth. An overwhelming strength surged from his muscles that could even surpass the people surrounding him. At his hands, a two meters Clear Sky Hammer stood, the air distorting around it. "Let me present to you the Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Chen!" Bai announced "Now..." Bai smirked "Who doesn''t have a chance?" Chapter 225 - Lost Legend Bibi Dong and Xiaogang retreated creating distance. Most people had already forgotten about Tang Chen, but they had listened about him before. The previous patriarch of the Clear Sky Clan, a legend that had reached rank 99 long time ago, even stronger than Spirit Empire''s Grand Priest, Qian Daoliu. Looking at his aura, he seemed to have recovered most of his strength. Bai knew since the start that it would be almost impossible to win against Xiaogang and Bibi Dong, their power was incredible and he was sure that they had their own aces under the sleeves. When he saw them almost killing the Slaughter King, Bai''s mind went overwork formulating a new plan. His plan was using his detoxifier cookie, even improving its effects with his 7th skill as he didn''t know how it would work in someone that had been affected by poison so much time, healing the Slaughter King''s body, even improving the damage over all these years. However, simply curing him wouldn''t be enough to face Xiaogang and Bibi Dong, the Slaughter King''s strength was insufficient. So Bai opted to also heal his mind, like Mayi he had been affected by Rakshasa''s madness so his scythe would work against it. Tang Chen had been a limit douluo and Asura''s inheritor, stopping at the 8th trial. He should have a strength to at least distract one of them. Bai plan worked, Tang Chen was completely healed, his strength flowing over all his body healing his previous wounds, reaching almost his top condition. Recovering his mind and seeing the situation, Tang Chen unleashed his Clear Sky Hammer hitting Bibi Dong and Xiaogang away. Tang Chen turned towards Bai "Who are you?" Tang Chen knew that Bai was the one that healed his state, but he knew nothing about him or his intentions. "I am Ning Bai. A friend of your grand grandchildren" Bai stated as he prepared to face the couple again "Keep the questions for later, now we have other things to focus." Tang Chen grasped the situation of the strong couple trying to kill him, Bai at least now being his ally. He nodded accepting for now going with the flow, he would have time later to ask about his clan and the continent. Tang Chen clenched his hammer, his rings shined, the hammer growing becoming 20 meters long with a surface of 5 meters of diameter. A red domain surged from him, concentring over his hammer. A great Killing Intent could be sense from it, it was somehow similar to Bibi Dong''s own domain, but this one lacked the resentment and madness part and was replaced by a coldness and sharpness. This was his own Deathgod Domain that had evolved following the Asura''s path. He charged dragging his hammer towards them, each of his steps cracking the ground under him. Xiaogang stepped forward to block it. His right claws grew bigger and glowed with a black ?uster as he thrust it towards Tang Chen. Tang Chen''s strength could be considered tyrannical. His hammer had its own gravity that pulled his target towards him. There was no need for technique or for the rival evading, the gravity suppressed the target forcing it to receive his hammer. Xiaogang found his own claws pulled by the gravity, meeting the giant hammer head-on. There was a black flash and Xiaogang was shot flying away vomiting blood while Tang Chen only was pushed 1 meter away. Tang Chen''s strength was too much for Xiaogang skill to cope. However, the clash had let Tang Chen completely opened to a new attack, even if his strength was enormous, his speed wasn''t up to it. 20 Death Spiders appeared at his side, jumping toward him only to be pierced by 20 white swords. The spider exploded but the aura contained inside the swords blocked the explosion. "You''re not the only one that can control" Bai smirked having stop Bibi Dong''s attack. Xiaogang recovered, quickly returning over Bibi Dong''s side. They nodded between each other. Xiaogang opened his mouth, darkness accumulating over it while at Bibi Dong''s concentrated her strength over her green-purple scythe. Xiaogang shot a dragon''s breath, black flames surging towards Bai and Tang Chen. Bibi Dong swung her scythe shooting a half-moon shaped green light that cut over the sky. Bai shot swords forward, creating a shield, his All Swords would weakening the incoming attack while Tang Chen stepped forward "Crunch!" Tang Chen ate a White Fudge Oreo, his next attack being boosted. The flames and green light broke Bai''s shield. Tang Chen swung his hammer, the gravity of it pulling the attack towards him, directly facing his hammer that overpowered them, dispersing in the air. At the same time, an air shock was shot from the hammer. Xiaogang moved in front of Bibi Dong protecting her from the attack. He crossed his arms successfully blocking the attack. "Buaah!" Xiaogang vomited blood. The seemingly stopped air had made vibrate his scales and body, internally damaging him. If he hadn''t used his overlapped skill, he would have been already defeated. It was only thanks to his dragon resilience and strength that he was able to continue fighting. The Clear Sky Clan was one that focused on strength, facing everything head-on with their absolute strength. However, it didn''t mean that they didn''t have other tricks. Tang Chen had lived a long life and was very experienced in battles, in his travels learning new methods to attack and increase his strength. His hammer properties being wind and gravity, he had learned to force them with each of his swings. "You''re not bad, boy" Tang Chen praised Bai, his control and support abilities being the best that he ever saw. It was a perfect combination with a pure attack system like him. Bibi Dong and Xiaogang where truly in a bad spot. Tang Chen''s strength was too tyrannical. It perfectly countered Xiaogang''s dragon strength. Moreover, Tang Chen''s own domain had the characteristic of Asura, suppressing Bibi Dong''s own Death domain, her Rakshasa''s power falling short against Asura. "Let''s do it" Bibi Dong said. Xiaogang''s transformation was released, returning to his usual form without any dragonic characteristic, San Luo Pao appearing in front of him. Xiaogang approached Bibi Dong. He held her hand, both touching the scythe''s shaft. His ring shined and San Luo Pao turned into black smoke, this time being absorbed by Bibi Dong''s scythe. The aura from the scythe exploded in darkness and death energy, becoming 30 meters long scythe, its blade glowing with a black, purple, and jade light, while being held by both. "" This was their pseudo spirit fusion. It was pseudo because it wasn''t a natural one. Xiaogang''s mutation was due Bibi Dong''s infection of evil spirit energy, making both of their energies extremely compatible. Xiaogang was able to give all his strength over Bibi Dong. Seeing the incredible attack, Bai''s side didn''t stay still. Bai invoked a White Fudge Oreo and an Ant Strength Oreo and gave it to them to Tang Chen. At the same time, he focused all his All Swords over his swords that grew over 5 meters long as he prepared to unleash his strongest attack. Tang Chen ate the cookies, being gratefully surprised by their great effects. His hammer disappeared from his hands, now a blood-red sword was held in them. The sword had a curved blade, having the form of a dao. It was extremely sharp seeming to be able to cut over any defense, a powerful divinity could be sense from it. It stimulated Tang Chen whose killing intent was skyrocketing, reaching another dimension, his eyes glowing with a strong blood-red light. Seeing the dao, Bai couldn''t help to gulp. That was the Asura''s sword, considered one if not the strongest divine weapons from the Divine Realm. Both sides prepared their strongest attack, their aura clashing against the others. Just as they stepped forward, preparing to unleash their attack, all of them stopped still. All of them turning their head towards the same direction with shocked faces. Far away from their position, a holy golden pillar of aura pierced the sky, extending all over the continent, seemingly to illuminate the world. Showing all the world the strength of it, the descend of a god. Bai unconsciously opened his mouth "Renxue" Chapter 226 - Angels Final Trial In Spirit City, there was a magnificent building. It seemed to be a big palace that even surpassed the majesty of the Supreme Pontiff Palace, all made of white marble adorned with gold. From it, it could be sensed a strong and holy aura, making it even more awe-inspiring. This was the Douluo Palace, considered the most important edification of the Spirit Empire. It was a prohibited place where not even the Supreme Pontiff could enter without the permission of his guardian, the grand priest Qian Daoliu. Usually, the only ones that received the honor to enter inside were that proud son of heaven that reached the titled douluo realm. They could enter one time inside the Douluo Palace and decide their title there, engraving it over the palace to be remembered forever. Inside the Douluo Palace where rounds of names of pasts titled douluos should be written over tombs and walls, only rumble could be found, most of them destroyed previously by Qian Daoliu himself to teach his granddaughter how insignificant they were against their proud angel clan. At the deeps of the Douluo Palace there was a statue of a beautiful angel with six wings at her back. On her hands, she was holding a beautiful golden sword that had a lingering energy that emitted a strong divine and holy aura. In front of the statue, an old man and a young woman stood. They were Qian Daoliu and Qian Renxue. "Xue''er, you showed your immense talent, greatly surpassing any other talent before. Only you are worthy to take our name, to ascend over the humans and govern them" Qian Daoliu approached the statue and touched its sword. The space around them distorted and they found themselves in a different place, it was a golden chamber that seemed a mix of real and mental world with only the angel statue there. "You will complete my long dream. You will become a goddess, making our name and the goddess known all over the world" Daoliu''s body started shining, from his heart a golden sword surged. When it left completely, it changed its form becoming an angel''s halo that floated over his hand. This was the last of the 6 spirit bones that conformed the Divine Angelic Raiment. "I''m very proud of you Xue''er." Daoliu smiled as golden flames surged all over his body, this flames started combusting him, converting him in pure energy to activate Renxue''s last trial. "Grandfather!" Renxue shouted worriedly finally discovering the destiny of his grandfather. Her own grandfather and the only person that showed family love to her was sacrificing himself for her. "Don''t worry about me" Daoliu smiled as his body was disappearing "Do me a last favor. If you meet a strong spirit master called Tang Chen outside, kill him and make him know that I surpassed him, creating a god." Renxue nodded with tears over her eyes, accepting his grandfather''s last will. Daoliu completely disappeared and the golden flames surrounding him were absorbed by the halo spirit bone. The halo that now shined brightly approached Renxue, resting over her head. Golden flames exploded all over her body, but they were not hot or burned, instead Renxue only sensed a warm feeling like being tightly hugged. Unconsciously, her 10 wings spread, covering herself and forming a golden cacoon over her. "Yours is not a simple inheritance" Over Renxue''s mind a voice that she recognized as the Angel Goddess resounded, it was full of dignity and holiness "You would step over myself, reaching an even greater." she announced "But be aware, my daughter. Only your true and pure feelings would help you step forward, never let evilness taint you." Over the Divine Realm, the Angel Goddes was praying for Renxue. If Renxue''s feeling were dark and evil, she wouldn''t be able to pass the trial, dying being purified by the angel''s divine powers. With Renxue''s life of hate and revenge, she wasn''t sure if Renxue would be able to pass it. After the voice left, Renxue found herself in golden space. Energy unstoppable was entering her body, changing completely. However, this energy came with a great pain, some unbearable pain that seemed to tear her body apart. As Renxue was trying to resist it, two figures appeared in front of her. They were Qian Daoliu and Qian Xunji, her grandfather and father. Qian Xunji warmly smiled at her, it was a smile full of care and love. She didn''t remember much of his father, him dying when she was 4 years old. The only that could she remember was this smile. She knew that his father loved her very much, making him a very special and holy existence in her heart. This love made her stronger, being able to resist the energy entering her body before Qian Xunji disappeared. "I wish to know you better, father" Qian Daoliu was with his usual grandfatherly smile. Seeing him, Renxue couldn''t help to sadly smile at him. His grandfather had been the most important person in her childhood. He was the only that showed love to her, the one that taught her all about the world. She loved her grandfather dearly, greatly respecting him. "Thanks, grandfather" More energy entered her body, the pain becoming bearable for a moment. Qian Daoliu disappeared, in his place stood Renxue''s mother, Bibi Dong. She was looking down at Renxue, with hate and coldness in her eyes. Renxue clenched her hands. This woman who was supposed to be her mother had ignored her all her life, only showing her contempt as she pushed her away, not even trying to look at her. She even negated Renxue as her child, preferring to make known that Renxue was her sister. Even as her mother, Bibi Dong never was one. Renxue hated her, one of her dreams being able to defeat her. "I hate you, sister!" Renxue said in fury. "Ah!" Renxue cried in pain as she clenched her head and heart, both of them hurt a lot, like if some hot knives were piercing them. "True feeling" A sweet voice resounded in Renxue''s mind. "Why?!" In front of Renxue, a little girl about 10 years old shouted in tears. Renxue knew who she was, it was herself. Her image when she was a little girl. She was looking up to Bibi Dong "Why don''t you look up me, mum? I only want to be loved" The little Renxue cried "I only want to be like you, intelligent, strong, and respected by everyone. I want to be your daughter" The little Renxue knelt on the floor. "Of course" Renxue realized. Her plan of impersonating the prince of Heaven Dou Empire was only to be recognized by her mother, to demonstrate to her that she was talented and worthy of being her daughter. She only wanted her recognition. The little Renxue cleaned her tears and made a determined look at Bibi Dong "I will make you recognize me" Both Renxues'' voices overlapped at they said with a determined look. She would show her strength to her mother, forcing her mother to accept her and explain all the why of the contempt of all these years. The little Renxue and Bibi Dong disappeared. Renxue''s pain lowered a little and a great deal of energy entered her body. However, it was too much, it seemed to not have an end. She clenched her teeth. It was like thousands of ants were crawling all over her body, her head seemed to be about to explode when the last figure appeared, it was Bai with his black and white hair. Hate. It was the first thought that crossed her mind. He was her enemy, someone that should be eliminated. He was the one that interposed in her path, even destroying all her hard work over 10 years at Heaven Dou Empire. He and his family were the ones that interposed in her plans, even hurting her grandfather. "AAAAAAAAHH!" Renxue clenched her teeth, her hands over her heart. The pain was unbearable "True feelings" "I hate him!" shouted Renxue "I must kill him. If it weren''t for him, the continent would have long become mine" In front of her, the memory of Bai piercing through her truth, beating her at Heaven Dou Palace ran like a film, intensifying her hate and sense of defeat. "...!" Renxue''s body shuddered, the pain was so high that she couldn''t even shout, voice not being able to leave from her mouth. "True feeling!" the voice inside her shouted this time. The Bai in front of her changed, replaced by a white-haired Bai about 12 years old. "My name is Ning Bai, your highness" He introduced himself "What do you say about a little spar?" The little Bai said grinning. "I''m a year younger" The memory of the battle happening. Bai smiling even having lost "Let''s be friends!" Renxue as Qinghe smiling at him giving her hand. Memories of their time together, spending it chatting or sparring. Bai gifting him a saber to practice the sword arts. Even if Renxue wanted to negate as a lie, as part of her cover, she knew that it wasn''t absolutely. In her years impersonating Qinghe, Bai had become her friend. She even had thought of telling him the truth but she didn''t dare. Bai was the only one with whom she didn''t need to act. "I like Bai. He is my best friend" Renxue unconsciously said, gaining a little strength to continue fighting the energy and not fell prey to it. But she wouldn''t last much more. Bai''s form changed again, becoming like the last time she had seen him. "Truce!" Images surged of them inside the Giant Sword Mountain, both of them fighting together to pass their trials. They chatting together when they were under the torture of the swords. "Look out!" Bai saving her when her attacks failed and were cornered by the enemies. Renxue realized she was simply too proud. Without wanting the image of Bai had imbued in her heart, even becoming her most important person, even more than her family. "Die!" the last image was the final at Heaven Dou Palace. Renxue had been tired and injured in the last moment, never being able to analyze what happened at the last moment. Bai''s face was contorting. His left eye shined in pure darkness full of killing intent towards her. However, his right side was painted with indecision, pain, longing, and Renxue was even able to sense love for her. Similar to when he was with Qinghe, even stronger than that. Finally deciding to protect her and not kill her. "Don''t forget it" Bai said his last words. Renxue realized, they were enemies due to the circumstances, but any of them wanted any harm to the other. Renxue''s most important dream was for Bai to join her. She had offered him to join her side with the excuse of his support and spirits, but it was more profound. Renxue wanted to be with him forever. "Bai" Even with all her pain, Renxue smiled charmingly at Bai, it was so bright that even could overshadow the golden world "I love you" New strength surged from her, her willpower increasing every second. "I love you!" She shouted her true feeling that she had hidden even for herself. The pain was gone replaced by a warm feeling all over her body. The energy around was already her, under her control, rapidly absorbing it. At the Douluo Palace, the golden cocoon shuddered. It started becoming smaller, taking human form. A human silhouette could be seen inside the cocoon. The face of the silhouette was revealed, showing Renxue''s face. Renxue seemed younger, returning to her 18 years old, like recovering the best years of youth that she had lost impersonating Qinghe. She became extremely beautiful, her rosy cheeks, her jewelry golden eyes, her fair features, her long and shining like gold hair, made her a perfect beauty. Renxue could be considered beautiful before, but seeing her, people would focus on her dignity. Now her beauty couldn''t be negated, becoming otherworldly. The golden energy from the cocoon perfectly hugged her slender body and long legs, condensing over her body forming a perfect sized armor. It was a extremely beautiful white armor with gold patterns that enchanted the holiness aura and beauty over her, exuding divinity. At her back, wings spread, showing a total of 12 wings. Her true feelings were positives and strong, so much compatible with the Angel Goddess that she evolved at the last time. Renxue put her arms over her ?h?st. A bright light appeared, a golden saber surging from her. Her saber had also evolved, more intrinsic patterns appearing over it. The holy aura around it, even surpassing the one at the angel statue''s hands. Finally, a halo made of golden flames manifested over her heart, her senses boosting to a greater level, receiving knowledge about her god''s powers, a mark of with the form of 12 wings appearing over her forehead. It didn''t stop there. The golden pillar concentrated over the sky, twisting itself and acquiring a round form, becoming a complete new Sun that could eternally illuminate the world. Showing the world the Angel Goddess''s strength and influence, the strength of a God King! "Congratulations, my daughter" the previous Angel Goddes''s voice sounded "However there''s something that you should know" she said very seriously and with a sad tone "Ning Bai is..." Renxue clenched her hands, a rain of tears falling over her rosy cheeks. Chapter 227 - Deals and Betrayals Looking at the second Sun appearing over the sky, Bai, Tang Chen, Xiaogang, and Bibi Dong were unmistakable sure that a god had appeared. As the most closer to become gods, they could feel the strong divinity emitted by it. "Too late" Bibi Dong clenched her teeth "We will need to change the plans" Xiaogang nodded "We need to hurry" Xiaogang stepped forward, their spirit fusion disappearing. Tang Chen and Bai put up their guard, attentively observing what Xiaogang was about to do. Xiaogang lifted his left arm, its claws increased their side, darkness surrounding it "Crack!" Bai and Tang Chen opened widely their eyes surprised. Xiaogang had grabbed his own right arm and crushed it, breaking its bones, blood leaking from it. "Bai" Xiaogang turned to Bai "I want to make a deal" he said with a forced smile due to his pain. Bai didn''t lower his guard glancing at him, his swords ready to attack at any moment "What would it be?" "As I sign of goodwill, I will let myself fall unconscious" Xiaogang said "Yours is the sword, ours are the body and your scythe. Let''s work together." Tang Chen opened his eyes widely in shock somehow having an idea about what they were talking. He turned to Bai, but was too slow. Bai was the first one to react. He flapped his wings, boosting his speed at the maximum. As he passed over Xiaogang, he grabbed him, dragging him with his right arm over his stomach while his left arm made a swift move, hitting Xiaogang''s neck with the handle of the sword. Xiaogang didn''t put any resistance, letting himself be dragged and the sword hit his neck, without any protection neither of spirit power or dragon scales, instantly falling unconscious. Bai continued forward arriving at Bibi Dong''s side releasing Xiaogang''s body on the ground. Even at her side, Bai warily looked at Bibi Dong who even she didn''t move at all had a glint of killing intent in her eyes when she saw Bai hitting Xiaogang. Xiaogang had made a risky move, and for the moment it seemed that it worked. When Xiaogang saw Bai coming and saving Tang Chen from them. He was sure that it wasn''t a kind move for Bai''s part. The same as them, he wanted Tang Chen for his own interest. Bibi Dong had previously talked about the Sword God, a strange god that shared his powers to swordmasters, forcing them to fight against each other to increase their strength while absorbing the other, some in Spirit Hall being his followers. Xiaogang had met before one of the followers, the 4th elder priest, Bi Ying. Bai should be related to him, as he could feel that strange vibe from him like Bi Ying that risked his own accumulated divinity. In these conditions, once he saw Tang Chen invoke a divine weapon in the form of a sword, he theorized that Bai''s objective was to take away the divine weapon, the faith of a death god accumulated in Tang Chen''s body not necessary for him at all. Xiaogang and Bibi Dong had come for Tang Chen to retrieve this divinity extremely compatible with Rakshasa and take the divine weapon to transform it for Bibi Dong. However, this objective changed when they saw Bai invoking a scythe. This was it, there was no need for a change. That scythe undoubtedly was Rakshasa Scythe. The one that the god had planned to create. It was even charged with Death energy, meaning that all the blood collected in the war became meaningless. He didn''t know how it reached Bai''s hands, but it wouldn''t have much use for him who specialized in swords arts. The time was short and they must do it and Xiaogang had doubts about winning against Bai and Tang Chen. Xiaogang''s plan was to work together. Their objectives shouldn''t clash so he wanted to make a deal with Bai to work together and distribute the spoils of Tang Chen. Of course, Xiaogang knew that Bai wasn''t an idiot. He wouldn''t accept a deal where he could finish fighting two powerful people like them if it went wrong and we betrayed him. For this, Xiaogang took himself out of the picture. Becoming, three different sides with one person at each.. It was a risky bet as he could have been killed without putting any defense. But Xiaogang had faith in two things, his intelligence and Bibi Dong. With his intelligence, he had hypothesized Bai''s objective and even if Bai objective would have been also Tang Chen''s body, he trusted Bibi Dong to be able to beat him and Bai preferring to fight against Bibi Dong rather than against Tang Chen in a 1vs1. The only problem would be if Bai''s objective was simply to save Tang Chen, acquiring his power for the war. But how could he know about the Slaughter King''s identity and condition that even they ignored if not for the knowledge of a god? That god giving him the trial to obtain him. Xiaogang was right and his bet paid off, changing the battle with a deal and a betrayal, making it Bai and Bibi Dong against Tang Chen. "So this was your objective" Tang Chen said clenching his teeth "You''re also after my divinity, changing sides to take it. Your thinking too low of me!" the aura around Tang Chen exploded, red power overflowing from him, condensing into his sword as his rings shined brightly. The truth was that Tang Chen wasn''t in his peak. He had been greatly injured before recovering his body and his mental energy was exhausted after so many years under the influence of Rakshasa. Fighting such an intense battle just as he recovered was very taxing. He decided to finish it in the next attack, using all his strength. Tang Chen lifted his sword, blood seemingly to bubble from it "!" He swung downward his Asura''s sword, his rings position over it, being cut by the sword. Each ring cut exploded in energy, boosting the power of the sword that shined brighter with a strong blood-red energy "". Bai and Bibi Dong could feel the pressure, that sword could cut over reality itself, something like distance or defense lost all their meaning against it. "The scythe, hurry!" Bibi Dong shouted hurriedly at Bai. Bai didn''t expect such a tremendous attack that didn''t fall lower than that of a god. He didn''t have any other option. From his aura, the purple scythe surged, throwing it towards Bibi Dong. A flash of light occurred. Bib Dong''s aura covered the scythe, instantly being accepted by it and making it hers. The purple scythe absorbed her previously scythe, jade lines appearing over the shaft as its power increased, Bibi Dong''s aura boosting under it. She had obtained her divine weapon, the Rakshasa Scythe. Over 2 meters long, sharp tips and a high ominous aura around it, glowing with purple energy seemingly to beat alive in pain and grief. Over Bibi Dong''s hand, a red marble appeared. This was the concentrated blood drained in the Jialing Pass Battle. She pushed over her scythe that hungrily devoured it all, the purple glow over its blade becoming stronger as it burned the blood. "" Bibi Dong''s scythe didn''t change its sized, but energy manifested around it making a mirage seemingly to. She swung her scythe "!" Both attacks that went against the world will, that should be suppressed by the world, clashed each other. Reality broke down over them, a crack forming at their collision, a black hole forming in it. Both sides used all their strength, Tang Chen breaking his spirit rings that would need a lot of time to recover and Bibi Dong sacrificing a lot of her collected blood. Slowly, Tang Chen''s attack starting winning over Bibi Dong''s, showing his greater experience, unlike Bibi Dong, not being his first time doing it. Tang Chen''s attack cut through the black hole and Bibi Dong''s attack, approaching her "Buahhh!" Tang Chen vomited blood, losing his concentration and his attack disappearing. A sword was impaling over his heart, being held by Bai. Bai didn''t stay still. Even if the power of both attacks was so strong that suppressed him, not letting him move, he took advantage of the clash and black hole appearance that created an instant void of the suppression. He cut over air and space, creating a void like another dimension over him, being capable of dashing and piercing Tang Chen''s heart. Tang Chen fell to the ground. His face was full of grief, pain, and longing. He looked at the distance with his eyes unfocused "I would have liked seeing you one last time, Saixi" He said full of sadness and repentance before closing his eyes for eternity, dead. Bai had cold sweat falling at his back due to the might of the attacks. Only staying near them had tired him so much. He turned towards Bibi Dong. She was panting exhausted while holding herself with the help of her scythe. Bibi Dong stepped forward using the scythe as a cane, positioning in front of Xiaogang. Evil aura started surging from the scythe surrounding her, her form changing to a demon. Her condition was much worst than Bai. However, if Bai decided to attack them, she was determined to sacrifice herself and take Bai with her. At least, saving Xiaogang who laid unconscious on the ground. Bai slowly shook his head "Let''s stop. Let''s keep our words for now" Bai approached Tang Chen''s corpse. From it, he retrieved his Asura''s sword and also took away his identity token, a golden tael with the Chinese character of Tang written over it. "You can take the rest" Bai''s wings flapped, flying and disappearing in the horizon. Sensing Bai''s presence gone. Bibi Dong released her spirit, falling to the ground next to Xiaogang''s, panting exhausted. Chapter 228 - Mighty Sun vs Flying Light Bai flew across the sky. Finally, landing once he was sure he was far enough from Bibi Dong or anyone else. Bai pierced the Asura Sword in the ground. Following the Sword God''s words, to activate the last trial without Bai''s mother''s sacrifice there was a need to obtain Hei Qi''s sword fragments and faith. Even if there was no need for the Sword God''s faith, this faith should be somehow compatible with the Sword God, needing to be in the form of a sword. Bai had first thought about Renxue''s divine weapon, the Angelic Sword, and Asura''s Sword from Tang Chen. Deciding the latter due to the simplicity of it, being much easier to kill Tang Chen than directly charging over Spirit City. There was also the fact that Bai knew that the time was approaching, Renxue near to become a goddess. Obtaining the Asura Sword became more difficult than he thought due to Xiaogang and Bibi Dong''s interference, but Bai was able to obtain it. Thanks to his torso spirit bone, it wouldn''t be too far exed to say that Bai''s body was made of swords. He could even absorb other swords to heal his wounds and try to improve his physique, not like at the level that he had reached, there would be a lot of beneficial enough for him. Bai''s plan was to absorb the Asura Sword, absorbing the faith contained there. Bai''s body started shining with gray light, he approaching the Asura Sword. A flash of gray light shined when Bai touched it. "Crack!" Bai''s body shuddered, cracks appearing all over his body as a great killing intent exuded from the sword attacked him "Crack!" Bai''s body broke up. However, no blood or organs surged, instead, swords that seemed to have composed his body separated from each other, lifelessly falling to the ground. A gray light started surging from the separated swords, 8 spirit rings appearing over them. The swords started standing like moved with an invisible force. They started spinning all over the Asura Sword, each sword shining with a different color and their own auras slowly subduing the Asura Sword''s aura as they approach it. A tornado was formed by all the swords, lifting a lot of dust. After 20 seconds, the tornado dispersed, in its place Bai stood there with a pale face "Fuck. Dying is never a pleasant experience". Unintentionally, Bai had used his Immortality technique from his torso spirit bone to be able to absorb the sword. This meant that he would need a month to be able to use it again, not being available for the near battles that were to come. Bai could feel a strange aura inside him, this one full of killing intent. It was flowing a little rampant all over his body, not completely subjugated. "It would take some time" Bai deduced that it would take some time before he was able to ''digest'' it. He sat cross-legged and started meditating, discovering that the Deathgod domain helped to subjugate it, he continued meditating in a hurry to finish as soon as possible. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Renxue left Spirit City. With her new divine sense, her sense could cover a great distance. She could sense how the allied army of Heaven Dou and Star Luo empires had crossed Jianling Pass, entering the plain towards Spirit City. How the Spirit Empire''s forces were being overwhelmed by numbers, struggling to stop their advance. Renxue had already decided, she would finish this war, fulfilling her grandfather''s dream. As she was approaching the battleground, something or someone at hight speed entered her divine sense. Renxue lifted her left hand, exerting her control. A sphere of high-condensed light and spirit energy that approached her stopped still at 5 meters of her under her control. "Boom!" the sphere exploded. However, due to Renxue''s aura, the explosion seemed to avoid her, not daring to taint her holy image. "What are you trying to do here, Bai Chenxiang?" Renxue instantly discovered the aggressor. Chenxiang was over 5 kilometers away, but for Renxue it was like if she was next to her. Renxue''s wings flapped, she disappeared only leaving a wave of holy power behind, instantly appearing in front of Chenxiang "Did you come here to be the first one to die by a goddess?" Chenxiang was a little flustered sensing the holy aura and cold face devoid of any feeling of Renxue. Her power was several times stronger than what Chenxiang had previously supposed. She had detected someone reaching godhood at Spirit City. Knowing that a god could change the tide of the war, she decided to at least entertain the god, gaining time with her speed. Moreover, she had received the Ligh Goddess''s revelation with her last trial, passing it, meaning that she would be able to reach godhood. As the Light Goddess said her last trial would be a Hide and Seek game. She must make her presence known to the new god and escape from that god''s sense. Seeing Renxue standing in front of her, Chenxiang was surprised, not expecting Renxue to attain godhood. Renxue''s aura and 10 rings over her made her unmistakable a goddess, an extremely powerful at that. If Chenxiang said that she wasn''t worried, it would be a lie. She had faith over her own speed, thinking that this Hide and Seek game could be won. But seeing the overwhelming presence and power of Renxue, she started to have doubts. "Renxue" Chenxiang said coldly, she breathed calming herself. She invoked her Light Rapier and revolved her spirit energy preparing to fight. Even if her objective was only to escape, she knew that she must give her all. "I came here for my revenge, things will be different than the last time. I won''t let you approach Bai!" Chenxiang tried to affect Renxue''s mood. Chenxiang wasn''t dense as other, she knew that between Bai and Renxue there was something, Renxue clearly affected when Bai was named. Chenxiang tried to make use of this. A Renxue that let herself been controlled by her emotions would be easier to trick and escape. However, to Chenxiang''s surprise, Renxue''s face remained cold, not slightly affected. "Revenge? Bai?" Renxue huffed "I had left behind such worldly matters. My view is beyond that. I will quickly finish my affairs here and ascent to the Divine Realm. Everyone that block my way would die, it didn''t matter who they are." Renxue spread her wings, holy aura exuding from them, suppressing Chenxiang. Chenxiang clenched her rapier, she leaned her body forward while backing her sword. Chenxiang rings shined "" A flash of light shined over Chenxiang, she appearing over Renxue. Before, she required great preparation and efforts to unleash her rapier techniques. But with her boost in cultivation and control, having attained the rank 96 super douluo, now she could unleash them instantly. Chenxiang widely opened her eyes shocked. Renxue had stopped her attack, two of her finger gripping the blade of the rapier with a casual move. Chenxiang couldn''t go forward, it was like an immovable mountain had blocked her rapier. "Ultimate Light" Renxue stated seeing Chenxiang''s attack. Renxue released the grip, letting the rapier stab over her armor. However, the rapier could go further, Chenxiang could feel her rapier being rejected by Renxue''s armor, like same charged poles. "It is powerful, but against me is completely useless. Even if my main control is over fire, light also obeys me." Chenxiang focused her power on her rapier "" Chenxiang started thrusting countless stabs over Renxue, her rapier moving at an incredible speed, creating afterimages with each move. Each stab created a trail of light that started surrounding Chenxiang who started resembling a comet surrounded by the stale that illuminated her surroundings However, it didn''t matter how many times or how fast she hit. Even with an unresponsive Renxue who only stayed there still, non of her attacks could go through Renxue''s defense. Chenxiang spread open her wings that started shining with different light, somehow it seemed to even collect the light of her surroundings "!" Her rapier absorbed all the light from her, even creating a little pure darkness surrounding her, with a complete absence of light. Chenxiang thrust her rapier forward shining with a beautiful and powerful light "BOOOOM!" A great explosion occurred as Chenxiang hit Renxue unleashing all the accumulated light. At the same time, a red glow appeared over Chenxiang who used her 9th ring. From the explosion a hundred of light flashes surged, extending over different directions resembling fireworks. Looking closely enough, each one of them was one of Chenxiang''s clones, each one of them having a high spirit energy concentration. Chenxiang unleashed an extremely powerful skill only to distract and create an opportunity for her true aim, escape. Long had she discovered that she didn''t have any possibility of beating her. She would escape and face her later on also as a goddess. "Now you are trying to run away?" Renxue flapped her wings. With her divine senses, it was easy to detect the real one. She appeared over a flying Chenxiang, extending her hand over Chenxiang. Just as Renxue was about to touch Chenxiang, this one dispersed in light particles, making it known that it was a simple clone. "This is your game?" Renxue instantly realized that each Chenxiang was a clone and at the same time was a real one, the real one capable of changing between them. If it was a conscious act or automatic, Renxue didn''t know it. "Let''s play it then." Renxue spread her wings, holy aura spreading from her, turning the sky around her golden. 10 mini red-golden suns appeared around her "" Each of the sun starting morphing, each one forming a clone of Renxue. Each Renxue chased after the flying Chenxiang. With each flash of light, a Renxue appeared over a Chexiang, destroying her. It was clear that Renxue was much powerful and faster, even if her numbers were far lower, she quickly was extinguishing all the Chenxiang. A red ring shined over the Chenxiangs "Boom!" "Boom!" More fireworks exploded, forming even more Chenxiang whose only objective was to run away. Renxue''s clones disappeared "I am getting tired of this game" Renxue coldly stated. A golden light shined from her heart, her Angelic Saber appearing at her hand. She lifted her saber pointing it at the sky. "" At the sky, both Suns reacted turning themselves golden-red. A golden light descended from the Suns over Renxue and all the Chenxiangs. Being hit by the scorching light that seemed to burn over their spirit energy, the clones couldn''t keep it up, dispersing in light particles. "Buah!" The only Chenxiang remaining vomited blood, a great deal of her spirit power being consumed by the Suns. Renxue approached Chenxiang and casually swung her saber. A thin line appeared crossing Chenxiang''s body. Blood surged from it as Chenxiang''s body was split in half. Renxue looked coldly at the half-cut body "You think that this would trick me" Renxu extended her left hand exerting her divine control. Where Renxue was pointing, a pale looking Chenxiang appeared, breaking her stealth. Chenxiang had tried to create a plot, trying to fool Renxue''s sense to not bail. Chenxiang found herself being pulled by Renxue. Chenxiang shot attracted towards Renxue, Renxue gripping her for her neck, asphyxiate her. "Die" Renxue started slowly exerting more strength in her hand. Chenxiang finding more difficult to breathe each second as she struggled to try to be released from Renxue''s grips, but she was too strong. "Stop!" Renxue turned her head towards the new voice, a giant Clear Sky Hammer was approaching her. Tang San was wielding his Clear Sky Hammer, swinging it to Renxue, trying to stop her from killing his cousin. Tang San and Chenxiang were together when they detected someone ascending to godhood. They both. When he saw his cousin rushing towards the god, he immediately followed her. Being much slower than Chenxiang, he sensed the battle from afar, only to be finished, Chenxiang at the border of death when he finally arrived. Tang San''s spirit rings burst "!" With each explosion, a great deal of spirit energy burst, being absorbed and accumulated by the Clear Sky Hammer whose might increased. The mightly giant hammer covered the Suns as it approached Renxue. Without even releasing Chenxiang, Renxue swung her saber shining with a golden light. Hammer and saber clashing, the air around them trembling under both immense forces. It was shocking how such a thin saber could resist under the strong and heavy hammer, but not only the saber resisted, Renxue showed her strength, the saber surpassing the strength of the hammer, pushing it. "Crack" The Clear Sky Hammer started cracking, Tang San vomiting blood. Renxue''s saber cut forward, slicing the hammer in two. In such an opening, a little blue blade from Tang San crossed over the hammers'' halves. This was the 1st ranked hidden weapon of the Tang Sect, Guanyin''s Tear. The hidden weapon with the greatest piercing strength. Tang San had refined his own blood, extracting the water from it, condensing all his strength and soul over it, shooting it towards Renxue, taking advantage when she was cutting his hammer. Just as the Guanyin''s Tear was about to reach Renxue, Renxue''s forehead glowed. Her twelve wings mark over her forehead shined brightly, her halo bursting in golden flames, unleashing her true mental strength and sense. She focused them over the tear, completely stopping it before it could even reach her, all of Tang San''s movements had been under her control. "Useless" She contineud swinging her saber, slashing it towards Tang San who was too weakened to even try to evade or block. Chapter 229 - Bai Sword Renxue stopped her saber and turned to her right side, a tornado formed by sword qi and multiple elements approached her. Renxue moved Chenxiang, positioning in front of her like a shield. The tornado shuddered and opened, completely avoiding them. "You are also here" Renxue looked at the culprit behind the attack "Bai" It was Bai. He stood floating over the sky with both of his swords at hand. Once he had been able to control the Asura''s sword, he had sensed the battle of Renxue and Chenxiang, coming here to save Chenxiang. "Renxue" Bai was trying to hide his shock and act calmly. The holy aura around her was too strong, like an insurmountable wall impossible to pass through. "Let them leave and fight against me!" "You are thinking too highly of yourself, Bai" Renxue said with her unchangeable face "Why should I need to release them? They were impudent enough to face a goddess like me. They should face the consequences. And you?" Renxue looked attentively at Bai "You are nothing more than an insect, exactly the same as them. How could you order something at me?" "You might be right" Bai answered, he could sense that Renxue had changed, she was too cold and distant, usually more temperamental. If it was a side effect of her becoming a goddess or something else, Bai didn''t know. However, he knew that in this situation, he needed to act coldly and reasonable to her without feelings. "But, you continue owing me a favor for the Golden Oreo as our last meetings could be considered a draw. It would be a dishonor for a goddess as yourself to continue having a debt to a lower being like myself. I will let you pay the debt. Let ourselves leave. At least this time." "I can let you leave. But, I won''t let them live" Renxue said looking at Tang San and Chenxiang "They had collected divinity themselves, being very close to godhood. I would prefer not to let loose ends, especially dangerous ones. Your life is enough to pay for my debt." She answered increasing the strength over Chenxiang''s neck. "Stop!" Bai shouted worriedly, not being able to keep his calm anymore "You can do whatever you want with me, but let Xiang leave. Is the only that I request." "A walking corpse for a future goddess, I do not think is a good trade" Renxue said looking down at Bai "Your value is too low, Bai" She said putting more strength over her left hand, Chenxiang''s face turning purple due to the lack of oxygen. "Let''s make a bet!" Bai shouted desperately "You can attack me however you like. If I stop the attack, you would release us all, waiting 7 days before joining the war. No! 3 days would be enough. Your debt for accepting this bet." "You are implying that you are able to stop me? How impudent" Renxue said indifferently "But I will accept it. Take it as my magnificent and accepting your life wish." Renxue swung her arm throwing Chenxiang to the ground and twisted her body kicking Tang San''s back, also throwing him at the same place." "Stop this" Renxue snapped her fingers. The suns in the sky seemed to react to the simple gesture, turning deep red, shooting a pillar of flames that resembled more of lava towards the ground "" "You!" Bai said in fury seeing the target of the attack. The target wasn''t Bai. Instead, it was the immobile Tang San and Chenxiang. "The bet doesn''t change. Stopping the attack would protect them and I will you leave" Renxue said "Not guarding against it, meaning their death." Bai quickly flew over them, interposing between them and the strong flames from the suns. A few flames from the attack could mean Chenxiang''s and Tang San''s death. "!" Pillars of different colors shot from Bai towards the flames. However, Bai found the flames were b?r?ly affected by them. All Sword were capable of subduing the world, forcing it to your own laws. However, that flames had Renxue''s Truth in them, their surrounding being incredibly affected by it. When both concepts clashed, Bai''s couldn''t compete with a goddess like Renxue. Bai opened his arms, 17 spirit rings appeared over him. Facing a god, he could only use his all. All the spirit rings shined "Crunch!" "Crunch!" Bai ate all his Oreos, a wolf-like armor appearing around him, maximizing with Fenrir''s strength and boosting it with Mayi''s. Bai even ate a Golden Oreo, it wouldn''t improve his spirit, but it would have him a sudden Light and Life boost. His Oreo''s rings plus the sword''s rings pushed his strength to his limit, even overexerting his body, his spirit energy expense becoming insane, not being able to keep it for much time. I didn''t matter technique or optimization, he only required strength. Swords surged from the sky and ground, using the metal element of the ground making them stronger than in the air, countless swords appearing around Bai, all them shining with a strong aura of pure elements. "Ahhh!" With Bai shot, the swords swarmed upwards like waves from a sea made of swords. The torrent of swords spun around Bai as they shot against the pillar of flames, each one was a concentration of Bai and the world''s intent against the holiness of Renxue. Both attack clashed, waves of swords clashing with the raging flames of the suns. It seemed like a lava river was clashing against a gray river, fighting for dominance. Bai focused all his strength over it, the swords spinning together piercing forward the flames with great strength. However, the most that could be done was slowly the flames. It didn''t matter how many sword clashing with the flames being melted by them, the flames weren''t weakened. At final, it seemed that Bai''s strength wasn''t enough to face a god''s attack. Bai clenched his teeth, blood started leaking from his nose as he was trying to stopping the flames "FENRIR!" Bai''s left arm shined, activating his spirit bone, a little wolf appearing at his side. Bai looked at Fenrir with an apologetic face "Sorry" Fenrir looked at him with big round eyes, but he nodded at him, giving him permission. "Let''s do it!" Fenrir''s body started shining "Boom!" Fenrir burst in pure energy, all of it being absorbed by Bai''s body. When Bai saw Tang Chen''s Great Summeru Technique, he thought about being able to do something similar to achieve a momentary greater strength. His rings already boosted him so sacrificing them for pure power could become counterproductive. However, he had something stronger than even spirit rings, his spirit souls. With them, he would be able to reach even greater strength, like sacrificing his own soul. Of course, it would be extremely painful for them and they would require a lot of time before being able to recover from it. But unlike sacrificing oneself, they would recover while Bai survived. With the new energy, Bai was able to reach a new height. The aura around Bai exploded, all the swords exploding, each of them showing the might of an individual Sword Heart. The swords started spinning around, focusing over Bai. "Shinx!" After a flash of light, the swords combined themselves forming two giant swords over 100 meters long over Bai''s hands. Different colored swords made of crystal formed them and surged all around the blade resembling a sword graveyard, one of the giant sword main color being white while the other being black. Both swords had an otherworldly aura around them, surpassing human capabilities. This was Bai''s swords, a representation of all his experiences an life, a manifestation of his soul "" Bai''s mother sacrificed her own spirit, losing her cultivation to reach this level. Bai mimicked her thanks to Fenrir''s sacrifice. Bai cross swung the swords. The Soul Sword cut forward, slicing over the Solar Flames. Bai''s attack had reached a godly level, Bai''s comprehension momentarily surpassing Renxue''s attack. It might be different if Renxue was continuously infusing her divine sense to the attack, but the shadow of an attack like her flames could go against Bai''s attack. The swords cut apart the flames, extinguishing them completely leaving only a rainbow trail as Bai''s swords dispersed returning to their usual form. Bai panted tiredly having accomplished stopped Renxue''s attack, not reaching Chenxiang and Tang San. Bai turned towards Renxue. She stood there coldly looking around like nothing really matters a lot. "Congratulation, you stopped the attack." Renxue said without any feeling. "What happened to you, Renxue?" Basi asked doubtful "When did you become so cold? Even if you tried to kill me before, I could feel your feelings, I could feel something from you. But now..." Bai glanced up and down at her "You are surrounded by holiness, but you don''t reflect it at all." "Leave, Bai" was the only answer of Renxue "You win the bet. I will let you leave and not attack for 3 days." for an instant, she made a hesitant face. However, it quickly turned into an extremely furious one as she looked up and down at Bai "You! Never appear in front of me or I''ll erase you!" Renxue turned around, she flapped her wings disappearing with a golden flash, the thick holiness of the place disappearing with her. Where she stood before, there was a little shine produced by a single tear that disappeared when it fell to the ground. Seeing Renxue gone, Bai approached Chenxiang and Tang San. Tang San was already standing, he wasn''t injured, only a tired due to backlash of bursting his rings and his spirit being damaged. Bai kneeled over Chenxiang, focusing his Life Intent over her. Her state was more serious. She had spent a lot of spirit energy flying away from Renxue and she had been affected by Renxue''s spirit power''s effect, purification. Making it difficult to recover, with burns all over her body. "Bai" After 5 minutes, Chenxiang was able to finally recover her conscience. She opened her arms, clinging over Bai, hugging him "Thanks, Bai. Thanks for saving" Tears were over her face. She knew what Bai must have faced to save her. He could have easily died trying to protect her from a goddess. "Don''t worry, Xiang" Bai kissed Chenxiang, it was a sweet and warm kiss "I will do anything to protect you." Chenxiang blushed a little and nodded with a slight smile. "I love you, Bai" Then she turned serious, with a determined face "I will be the one that will protect you next time." "Don''t force too much, Xiang. I can protect myself" Bai said warmly kissing her forehead. Bai stood up and looked at Tang San "We only have three days. In these conditions, the chances of winning are odd for us. We need all the strength that we can accumulate. We need to become gods" Bai swung his arm, throwing a shining object towards Tang San. Tang San took it, seeing that it was a golden token with Tang wrote in it. "This is..." Tang said doubtfully. "Is from your great grandfather. The last patriarch of the Clear Sky Hammer, with this token, the Clear Sky Hammer should respect you as their leader, but this is not important now with gods descending" Bai explained "Return quickly to Sea God Island and finish your trials. Give the token to Bo Saixi, telling her that Tang Chen is dead that he was killed by a god." "Why? What are you planning?" Asked Tang San suspiciously. "Bo Saixi wouldn''t want to sacrifice until she knows about Tang Chen. She is capable of even trying to kill you. With this, she will let you complete your trials" Bai asnwered "About why I know this. There''s no need to know. Everyone has secrets in their lives or others." Enfacing the others part, Tang San glanced at Bai, but let it go. Bai had let Tang San continue his adventure to ascend godhood for a very simple reason. He was like a safe. If something were to happen Bai, he knew that Tang San would at least protect Chenxiang and his family. Lingling could protect herself with the spirit beasts. "Don''t worry!" Interjected Chenxiang standing up, a great glow of light was covering her, healing all her injuries and boosting her strength. Her cultivation was growing, quickly becoming a limit douluo. "Grow after the battle?" Bai though in loud voice but shook his head "This is a god trial" Chenxiang''s aura was full of divinity, very close to a goddess, only at one step "I''m ready to become a goddess, I only need the last inheritance. I will finish that Renxue and protect you all" She said with strength, her aura flaming with her determined eyes. "Xiang" Bai turned to Chenxiang, his eyes full of worry "I know that you are strong, but Renxue is extremely strong. Promise me one thing Xiang." "Whatever it is!" Chenxiang nodded. Bai approached Chenxiang and tightly hugged her "Wait until the three days of Renxue''s bet pass. I will be prepared then. She might not be the only god that we must face, you must be prepared. Help your cousin until the three days pass. Please, promise me" "Why can''t I follow you, Bai?" Chenxiang seemed to doubt, wanting for her to accompany Bai or fighting against Renxue and taking her revenge for the two previous battles. But finally she nodded accepting it "I will wait three days. I will become a goddess and help cousin." "I look forward to seeing you as a goddess" Bai said hugging her tightly "Wait for me" "Don''t force too much, Bai. I will always be here for you" Chenxiang said smiling. Bai smiled at her "Thanks. I truly love you, Xiang" He made a long kiss, both tongues interlacing "Please, take care, Xiang" Bai broke the kiss, creating distance between them. He flapped his wings flying to the horizon. Bai was unsure about the future that was full of uncertainties. He clenched his hands, he would face destiny head-on, being the final winner. He made a determined face and flew at full speed, his objective Star Duo Forest. Chapter 230 - Welcome to the Steel Dump In the middle of Star Duo Forest, a blue-haired girl sat under a big tree over 50 meters tall with her eyes closed. The tree''s trunk was white with pure green leaves, with only one but enormous pink flower. The girl opened her eyes, showing her beautiful blue eyes with a green tint in them. She looked at the sky and over her face appeared a beautiful and warm smile that literally produced multiple flowers to bloom around her. From where she was looking, a young man appeared flying towards her that landed in front of her. "Whity!" The girl jumped at the young man''s arms, hugging him. "Lily" The young man said warmly, his voice and eyes full of love towards her. Of course, the blue-haired girl was Xie Lingling and the young man was Bai. After some seconds, they broke the hug. Lingling smiled at Bai directly looking at his eyes, but quickly changed her expression. She frowned glancing at Bai, seeing a seriousness in his eyes. "You are going to face Hei Qi." It wasn''t a question, it was an affirmation. Bai opened his eyes surprised "How did you k-?" "Who do think I am?! I knew you since we were little, you''re always pushing yourself. Also, I obtained some knowledge from an ancestor" She said rubbing her hand over the big tree "Adding both, I can easily predict your conduct" She said puffing a little her ?h?st, but quickly got shy seeing what she had done, her face turning deep red. Lingling shook her head, becoming serious again "I already know about Renxue breaking through godhood. Also, the negation of your mother''s sacrifice. Now, even risking your life trying to face Hei Qi, only to fight again yourself." "I need to do it, Lily" Bai said seriously "It''s my only way to face destiny. You might not understand" "You are the one that doesn''t understand anything!" Lingling nterjected shouting angrily "You have people that love and care for you. You are trying to put them aside and act all alone. Even if it''s to protect us, I won''t let you. It''s not only about facing Hei Qi, it''s all that would come afterward! Couldn''t you for once stop and wait for us." Tears started filling Lingling''s eyes "I don''t want you to die!" Lingling cried, clinging her body over Bai''s ?h?st "Please, stay here with me. There''s no need to fight, stay with me until we grow old together." Bai was shocked seeing Lingling''s reaction, affection, and love for him. He warmly embraced her, letting her cry in his ?h?st "Sorry, but I can''t" "Please" Lingling looked up towards Bai, all her face was full of tears "There''s no path further, I don''t want to lose you." she said with despair. "Lily" Bai said warmly, taking out a handkerchief and cleaned Lingling''s tears "I will win even against fate if necessary. I will become a god and be with you forever, nothing will stop me I need to do this. Trust me." Lingling glanced fixedly at Bai, seeing the determination in his eyes. She was a little doubtful, but finally, Lingling nodded "I trust you. You will accomplish the impossible." She smiled at him. Bai leaned over her kissing her in a warm and profound kiss, taking her breath and even causing some m??ns. "Did you finish!?" A pissed voice could be heard, making Bai and Lingling stop the kiss, turning themselves to the voice. Mei stood there, her fists over her h?ps with a pissed expression. "Oh? Sorry, Mei, I didn''t know you were here. Don''t worry you will also find love" Bai sarcastically apologized looking at her. "Maybe, I must make myself more noticeable" A deep aura started coming from her body, thorned vines with fire surging from the ground pointing at Bai. The aura around Mei was incredibly thick, she had become stronger since last time, her body completely returning at the age when Bai first met her, her hair and eyes even shinier. "Stop it, Mei. Bai. Don''t fight between each other" Lingling scolded looking at both. "Sorry" Mei said grumpily, the vines around her retracting. "Sorry for teasing you, Mei." Bai said this time more truthfully "There''s a reason for you to come here?" Mei glanced a little angry at him, but finally, let it go "I listened that you want to kill Hei Qi." Bai nodded "Even if there are little things that I would be happier than Hei Qi''s death, I don''t recommend you fighting him. Outside of his domain, he is nobody incapable of facing me, but in it, not even Di Tian would win." "Thanks for your advice and worry about me, Mei" Bai smiled at her "But I need to do it. There''s nothing that would change my mind." "If you want to die, is your decision" Mei said waving her hand "Anyway, Di Tian told me that he wanted to talk with you before you leave." "Okay, I will go" Bai leaned over Lingling and kissed her one more time "I will return" He turned around walking towards Di Tian''s place. Crossing Mei, she blocked Bai, holding his shirt "Say to Di Tian that I am not a messenger, I am the queen of all the plants, the Queen of Thorns!" She said angrily at Di Tian and at the same time self-appreciating. "Okay" Bai laughed at her antics. However, Mei didn''t release him yet "Bai" Mei said very seriously and with concern "Take care. Lili would be sad if you were to die". "You can calm down. I''m not going to die" Bai said, this time Mei released him and Bai leaving the place. Entering Di Tian''s lair, Di Tian was already waiting for him "Ning Bai" Di Tian said coldly, but it was better than him calling simply human. "I see that Mei had informed you" "Yes, she was rambling around, complaining about you treating her like a messenger" Bai explained. "This rose" Di Tian sighed and shook his head "Anyway, let''s us talk about the important. I fought against Hei Qi once inside his domain. I am the one in charge of the forest, I usually don''t act unless they put the forest in danger like Mei''s outburst a lot of years ago." "Hei Qi tried to expand his own domain, affecting and destroying other spirit beasts. I warned him, stopping his advancement, but I was forced to act against him." Di Tian started to explain all about the fight without skipping anything, describing Hei Qi''s strength "Finally, I run away, almost dying in the try. It cost me 100.000 years to heal my wounds, even with the Bi Yi''s help." Bai attentively listened to him and was shocked about Hei Qi''s strength. It might be a far greater rival than he had thought about. However, he should continue forward, not running away from it. "Now, leave. I don''t like human around here" Di Tian said coldly. "Thanks!" Bai bowed respectfully towards Di Tian, truly thanking from it, before leaving towards the Steel Dump. Reaching the Steel Dump, Bai could finally see its normal form. It was an over 5 kilometers dome, surrounded by rounds and rounds of ramparts. The dome and ramparts formed exclusively by swords, possibly being over a million swords. Just as Bai stepped in, the swords reacted. Like already waiting for Bai''s presence, the swords started moving, forming elegantly created gates to cross over the ramparts. "Of course you will know I am here" Bai said looking at his left arm, detecting it being in resonance with something inside the Steel Dump, all his body could feel it. Bai crossed each rampart, finally crossing the dome and entering the Steel Dump. It was a big area. Even without natural light, all the place was highly illuminated by some swords at the ceiling that functioned as lights. Hundred of thousands of swords laid all around, making the majestic image of what it seemed a steel garden, with swords instead of flowers. A lingering Intent could be sensed from all the swords, each Intent a little different than the others. From the entrance, a round of swords acted as a carpet leading over the center of the Steel Dump. At the center stood a throne made of over 50 swords, each one exuding a strong Intent incomparable to the surrounding swords. Sat on the throne, Hei Qi was with his black armor in the form of a dragon, playing with a black sword at his hands. Bai stepped forward the carpet, the entrance closing behind him, locking him inside. Slowly and calmly walking towards Hei Qi. Hei Qi lifted his head directly looking at Bai. He stood up an opened his arms wide, all the swords inside the Steel Dump started shivering with expectation "Welcome to the Steel Dump!" Chapter 231 - Elementals vs Physical "Thanks for your warm welcome" Said Bai sarcastically, invoking his twin swords over his hands. "You deserve it" Hei Qi answered with a dead voice without minding Bai''s tone "For you to directly come here looking for your death." "Oh? You''re too full of yourself." Bai glanced at Hei Qi. "You had grown a lot stronger than I thought. My plan was to wait until you achieve an appropriate level, having that body formed by swords good enough" Hei Qi explained "For you to know, I am very limited, my life is always at stake to be lost, needing the Sword God Fragments to stabilize. Your body making it perfect for this." "However, you are very lucky. Just as you were ready to reap, the ants'' plague started, forcing me to stay confined here" Hei Qi explained "Once the ants'' plague was stopped by you, it was already too late. Not only you gained the other spirit beasts'' trust and help, but even your strength had increased becoming stronger than mine. Understand my surprise when you decided to come here when I had just decided to forget about you. I might lose outside, but here..." All the swords around him started trembling, unsheathing from the ground, floating in the sky "I am invincible." "You talk too much" Bai said coldly "I preferred when the only noises that left your mouth were growlings" Bai kicked the ground dashing towards Hei Qi. "You won''t listen to me anymore as you will be DEAD!" All the swords reacted, the ground deformed, the ceiling fell... All the swords shooting towards Bai, seemingly Bai trapped in raging waves from all sides. There were countless swords, all of them containing some intent in them, being impossible to simply ignore them. Bai didn''t stop seeing the swords coming close to him, he jumped to the air continuing forwards ignoring the swords approaching him. Eight spirit rings appeared surrounding Bai''s swords, the 7th shining brightly with a gray glow "<7th skill: Sword God Arena>!". From Bai''s swords surged a gray light, encompassing him and Hei Qi. The air around them cracked and twisted, their surroundings changing. Just as the swords were about to reach Bai, they disappeared. No, it would be better explained that the one that disappeared was Bai and Hei Qi, the swords piercing where Bai stood before. However, Bai and Hei Qi were no longer at the Steel Dump. They stood over an infinite gray space formed only by swords piercing the ground, these swords not under the control of any of them. This was Bai''s plan. It didn''t matter that Hei Qi was a spirit beast, he was also someone who had Sword God Fragments in him. As such, he would be affected by the Sword God Arena. Being able to force him outside the Steel Dump. Bai would lose his spirit skills of both spirits, but Hei Qi''s loses would be much higher. "!" Multicolored aura exploded from Bai''s swords, surrounding him. With two different colored swords at hand, Bai swung them towards Hei Qi, wanting to finish the fight quickly "!" Pillars of different elements sword qis shot from Bai''s swords, crossing slashing at Hei Qi. Hei Qi was a little surprised by the change in their surroundings, but quickly recovered his cool. Hei Qi clenched his black sword that changed its color become gray "" Hei Qi''s sword shined with a gray color and contorted, becoming a wide broad sword, two meters long and a half meter wide. Hei Qi pierced the broadsword on the ground in front of him and used it as a shield. Bai''s swords clashed with it "Clack!" Bai''s swords were unable to slice over the broadsword that it seemed like an immobile giant mountain, Bai being rebounded by it. "Not yet!" Bai kicked the ground, swinging open his swords "!" Bai''s swords'' blade opened, each color separating from each other. Each part exploded with sword qi, twisting in the air like being alive snakes, evading Hei Qi''s broadsword, slashing towards him. "Hm!" Hei Qi scoffed "". Hei Qi''s broadsword changed its form again, this time becoming two short swords that seemed daggers. Hei Qi held them, his aura and posture changed. Seeing the attack like-snakes slashing at him, his feet started moving erratically. His movements become impossible to foresee, he precisely evaded each attack, almost without moving, only with the minimum required movement. Twisting his body, he deflected one attack with his short swords, creating an opening towards Bai "" Hei Qi''s swords fused forming a rapier. His posture changed again taking the rapier with one hand, he stepped forward thrusting his rapier towards Bai, Hei Qi''s speed much faster than before. Bai not expecting such speed, he hurriedly focused Protection Intent over him, creating a gray steel shield in front of him. Seeing the shield, without stopping Hei Qi held his rapier with both hands "" With a gray glow the rapier became a heavy greatsword. His speed was reduced, but his strength increased to a new level, Hei Qi''s greatsword easily piercing over Bai''s shield, destroying it. Bai hurriedly focused his swords again, crossing them to protect himself at the same time that he stepped back. "Boom!" Hei Qi''s greatsword clashed Bai''s swords that were b?r?ly able to resist the great strength, Bai''s body being shot over. It took over 100 meters and some rebound to Bai to finally stabilizing, safely landing on the ground. His hands were trembling even when he had discharged most of the strength all over the body an air. Hei Qi''s strength was enormous, receiving a direct hit from him could mean death. "You''re not bad, boy" Hei Qi said slowly approaching Bai, dragging his greatsword "For someone so young to achieve that strength, you can be proud." Hei Qi looked at his sword "I had collected Sword God Fragments for over 200.000 years. Did you know it? When someone is accepted by the Sword God and pass over his trials, he is able to obtain a glimpse of his power, the peak of the swords, while maturing his own Sword God Fragment. I had collected such m?tur? fragments, being able to use the peak. I am the strongest!" Bai had absorbed his share of fragments so of course, he knew about that effect. Killing and absorbing another person''s fragment, he had received some of his comprehension over their element, even a technique from the m?tur? ones. Even if those techniques seemed strong, they had a great problem. They couldn''t be used together, they transformed your own sword and made it impossible for other intents to be used, making them impossible to be reinforced and making them overall weak. These weren''t your own powers, they were taken from others without making them your own. For Hei Qi to have based his combat style in them, always changing them, it was very peculiar and time-consuming, focusing on the peaks of physical attributes. "So this is what you want" Bai said clenching his teeth "I can also play this game!" Bai''s swords shined with a gray glow, becoming a gray-blue single sword. Bai let it fell to the ground "!" The sword seemed to dive into the ground, disappearing in it. Starting over Bai''s feet, ice expanded covering all the Arena, sharp icicles shooting from the ground as the temperature continued descending. The ice had already reached Hei Qi, clinging over his feet trying to freeze him "Did you think this is so easy?" Hei Qi scoffed "To master other swords? Dream on!" Hei Qi swung his greatsword, cutting over the ice and creating an area around him devoid of it. Just as Hei Qi was about to dash towards Bai, all the ice disappeared. Over Bai''s hands, there were two half-moon blades "!" Bai''s blades multiplied and shot towards Hei Qi, filling the air of round blades. "Useless!" Hei Qi shouted angrily. He pierced his sword over the ground "" It became a broadsword blocking all the incoming blades. Once the round blades disappeared, Bai had disappeared, not even his presence could be sensed. Bai had used the blades as a smokescreen to enter stealth after it. Hei Qi lifted his sword "!" The broadsword became two thin and long swords. Hei Qi clapped both of them "Clink!" Both swords started trembling, sound waves expanding all over the Arena. Hei turned his head towards a side "There you are! !" Hei Qi''s sword became a katana, he positioning over his hip, holding it like if it was sheathed. With a quick movement difficult to perceive, Hei Qi unsheathed and sheathed his sword with a swift movement, a shock blade shooting from his sword. The blade cut over the air, Bai appearing in its path, his body sliced in half. However, Bai''s body dispersed in black particles showing that it was only a shadow. "So you were there" Hei Qi turned towards his back unsheathing his sword shooting another blade. Bai appeared over Hei Qi, he twisted his body evading the shock blade dashing towards Hei Qi. On his hand, a single sword covered by shadows Seeing Bai reaching him, Hei Qi reacted "" His sword became a broadsword as he pierced the ground. However, he saw Bai''s smirk in his face, the shadows over his sword increasing and becoming more threatening. Bai''s sword not directed towards him, instead towards his shadow. "Sword: Shadow Butcher!" Hei Qi had spied Bai all these years thanks to his Sword God Fragment until he reached titled douluo and became too difficult. He saw him fighting Bi Ying, and knew about Bi Ying''s power to cut shadow. He quickly reacted, before the sword was about to complete its change and pierced the ground "" it shined with a gray light, becoming a pair of daggers. Boosting his agility, preparing to move his shadow from Bai''s sword. "You feel for it!" Bai said coldly. Bai twisted his ankle, changing the target and thrusting his sword directly at Hei Qi. The shadow over his sword dispersed revealing a bright colorful sword qi formed by all his intents. "!" A powerful pillar of energy shot from Bai''s sword, all his strength and comprehension over it. Hei Qi found himself against such a powerful attack with the daggers at his hands. The attack was too wide for his agility to avoid it. He could have stopped with Defense, but he had forced a transformation in the last moment, making it impossible to change to it so quickly. Hei Qi could only cross his daggers, being swallowed by the full might of Bai''s attack. Once the attack disappeared, Hei Qi was 500 meters from his previous position. His armor cracked all over. "You! Tricking me!" Hei Qi shouted in fury. If Hei Qi had fought normally, it might not fall to the trap. But he was too confident in his knowledge about Bai. Bai used it in his favor to use the shadow made it seem like the Shadow Butcher when the truth was that they were only hiding the true attack, an all powered Sword Heart. "You forced me, boy!" Hei Qi said angrily. He put his arm over his helmet, taking it off, revealing his true face. Black hair and black golden eyes with a su?k?d face like someone that hadn''t eaten in years, he seemed more like a cranium than another thing. On the other hand, there wasn''t that resembled a dragon from it, it was a completely human face. "Boom!" Black aura shot from his head, expanding all over the body, destroying all his armor revealing a slender human body that was at the boundary of death. The aura around him was incredibly thick and powerful. It was Death! Seeing him you couldn''t think another thing, it was a condensation of Death, the strongest that Bai had seen before, even more than him or Bibi Dong. "Let''s stop with the games" a death and croaked voice left his lips, a complete black sword in his hands that shined with a deathly glow. Hei Qi swung his sword in the air "Crack!" "Crack!" "Crack!" Just like this, Bai''s technique was destroyed. The Sword God Arena was completely destroyed by his single swing. No! It would be more correct to say that he had killed it, forcing his Death concept into it causing the Arena to disappear. Bai and Hei Qi returning to the full of swords Steel Dump. "Only Death waits for you" Hei Qi said pointing at Bai. Chapter 232 - Death Eyes Ba''s body unconsciously started trembling under Hei Qi''s presence, especially for his eyes. Black iris with a gold-red ring over them. Being looked by them, made Bai sensed as if he was completely opened to the enemy, escape being impossible. Hei Qi lifted his black sword, swing it towards Bai. Bai''s instinct ran like mad, Life Intent shot all over his body, his Life Core revolving madly supplying with the Life energy. "Hg!" Bai clenched his teeth, all his body tensing up. Hei Qi''s attack only provoked a cold air to pass through Bai''s body, but this simple air had extinguished a great deal of Bai''s Life Intent. If Bai hadn''t put up his defense, he might have died there. Hei Qi''s eyes glinted "You can close the nodes with your Life Intent. I useless last struggle." "What are you saying?" Bai asked clenching his teeth. Even if Hei Qi''s aura had completely changed becoming much more intimidating, the air around him seemed calmer like if everything was in his control "Of course you don''t know about. Let me explain what are we, the ''Dragon'' Swordmasters." Under Bai''s fearful eyes, Hei Qi calmly sat over his throne "We are a little different than other spirit beasts. We cultivate one sword art, that will define our future. Once we have a great grasp of the concept, we finally evolve becoming 100.000 years old beasts. The Dragon part becomes our carcass while our core is our sword concept. We became pure sword concepts, not much different than sword souls, protected by our carcasses to avoid dispersing us all over the world, becoming a simple part of the world''s concept. At the same time, our armor doesn''t let our power flow, diminishing it greatly" "Once we are able to control completely our concept, we can discard our armor and show our true strength" Hei Qi explained "As you must already experiment, my concept is Death. Death is one of the most powerful concepts, however, it came with a great price. My attainment is so great in it that even I am affected by it. Discarding my armor will mean my death." "It''s even worse for me. My comprehension had become some powerful than even my own armor couldn''t resist" Hei Qi ??r?ssed one sword over his throne "This is were the Sword God Fragments helped me. Collecting them and incorporating them into my armor, let me improve it and being able to keep up with my evergrowing power. I spent hundreds of thousands of years collecting them." "So that was the reason for your invincibility" Reasoned Bai "The Steel Dump had all your swords collected during these years. You had transformed into your own armor. Your strength doesn''t reside in the number of swords, instead, it''s about being able to unleash all your progress inside the Steel Dump that keeps you alive acting like the armor." "Correct" Hei Qi clapped "Other Death Areas of Star Duo Forest had a treasure core in them, however, my Steel Dump''s core is myself. All reinforced by countless swords. Do you know the best? Once I kill you and absorb your body, I would be able to forge the Sword God''s Body. With it, I will never need to worry about my armor again. I would be able to ?ssimilate myself with the Steel Dump, being able to keep it always with me and unleashing any moment that I want, being able to always use my full power. The world will fall under me! Hahaha!" Hei Qi started laughing. "In all of this, what about the nodes that you said before?" Bai asked without letting his guard down. "Oh, the nodes? They are how my comprehension manifested" Hei Qi touched his eyes "As I look all around, I could see the Death of all, it doesn''t matter life or animated objects, everything has a Death in them, being focused over his Death Node. Cutting the node would mean the death of it. It''s not a physical attack so there''s no possible defense from it" Hei Qi stopped a moment "Except for a greater Death comprehension, annulling my attack, overcoming it, or Life comprehension. Your case is the second one as your Death Intent falls too low to face me. Overcharging your Death Nodes with Life Intent, making them disappear. Of course, you''ll need to use a great deal of energy while my expense is minimum" Hei Qi grinned "How much could you last? It would be an entertaining game to find it out." Hei Qi clenched his black sword and stood up from his throne, his eyes locked at Bai. "Why did you explain all of this to me?" Seeing Hei Qi finally reacted, Bai said his last question. "For my own diversion" Hei Qi answered "Everyone knows that death is there, waiting for its moment to take lives. Knowing it, it doesn''t change the outcome at all, you can''t escape from Death. Show me your useless struggle becoming despair, knowing that you won''t be able to do anything against me." Bai pointed his left sword towards Hei Qi "I will kill you!" 17 spirit rings appeared all over Bai "Crunch!" He ate his Oreos focusing on Mayi, an ant armor appearing over his body. His spirit rings shined, Bai''s attributes shooting towards his peak as a multicolored aura surrounded him. "<5th skill: Sword Rain>!" Countless swords manifested around Bai, each one full charged with a powerful intent over it, everyone shooting towards Hei Qi. Hei Qi slowly walked towards Bai "Thinking that numbers can help you stopping death" without even stopping, Hei Qi swung his sword upwards. The sword cut over the air. "Crack!" Bai turned his head with a shocked expression, his 5th spirit ring shattered and dispersed. Following it, all the invoked swords dispersing before reaching Hei Qi "Unfortunately for you, I can simply kill the technique." "Fuck!" Bai jumped backward trying to create distance when his ant''s antennas twitched. Bai eyes open widely, lighting covered his right leg as he kicked the air at the same time focusing Life Intent over his back. "Crack" Behind Bai, the ground cracked, crumbling into nothingness only leaving an abysm behind Bai. Even having evaded in the last moment, Bai''s Life Intent and energy had been consumed, stopping the aftermath of the attack. "I like to see struggles, but I don''t enjoy seeing my prey running away" Hei Qi said with a cold voice slowly approaching Bai, his sword was down indicating that he had made another attack. Cold sweat started falling from Bai''s neck. Hei Qi was simply too powerful. Bai didn''t doubt that being able to unleash all his strength, Hei Qi would be the strongest being under god. However, it wasn''t like Hei Qi would be able to face a god like Renxue. God''s divinity was immortal, Bai doubted that Hei Qi could do anything to such gods. The existence of gods, attack and defense, surpassing his own Death comprehension. However, this didn''t help Bai. He needed to kill the one in front of him to be able to become a god. Bai revolved his cores at maximum, all the spirit rings shining brightly. "" Bai''s aura exploded tinting his surroundings. Bai clenched his swords "!" Sword qi''s pillar shot from both sword, Bai crossing slashing at Hei Qi. Hei Qi grinned "Continue struggling!" He swung his sword, his eyes and sword glinting with a black light. (Mayi, be ready!) The sword cut over Bai''s attack, ''killing'' it, instantly dispersing it. Hei Qi tilted his sword and quickly stabbed forward three times in the air. [Take my strength, big brother!] Mayi shouted inside Bai''s mind space, her body shining as she was bursting herself, giving her energy to Bai. "Crack!" "Crack!" "Crack!" Three spirit rings of Bai cracked and dispersed by Hei Qi''s attack "Hahaha! Useless!" Hei Qi said stepped forward only for his face to twist in shock and fright. A giant sword over 100 meters had formed over Bai''s hands. It was white and green, trees grew all over the blade making it seem like it contained a full forest in it. The Life energy from it was incredible. "Thanks for the advice. I will overcharge you with Life" Bai clenched the sword "Take this!", swinging it towards Hei Qi "!" As Hei Qi saw the sword fell over him, he could sense the great Life energy from it, Death Nodes disappearing at its trail, even threatening his own existence. "Bastard!" Hei Qi stepped forward, the ground cracking under his feet. He swung his sword forward with a great black aura. He disappeared from his position and appeared next to Bai. Before Bai''s attack could completely affect him, Hei Qi had ''killed'' the distance between them. Even a concept as the distance could be killed under his sword. Before the shocked face of Bai, Hei Qi thrust his sword, piercing Bai''s forehead. [Sorry, big brother!] Mayi said crying, despaired tears falling at her cheeks. Her body and energy being killed by Hei Qi, disappearing from Bai''s mind space. "Boom!" Bai''s Divine Soul couldn''t keep without Mayi finishing her sacrifice, uncontrollably exploding filling all the space with thick Life energy, "Bastard!" Hei Qi shouted furiously. He twisted his hip, kicking Bai''s stomach, shooting Bai 100 meters away, crashing to the ground while vomiting blood. "How gross is this" Hei Qi swung several times his sword all over the place. The Life energy was quickly dispersed, disappearing as if never existed before. Then, Hei Qi walked towards Bai with a deadly glint in his eyes. Bai felt pain all over his body, having to keep his mental strength to avoid his own cells to die. His body was incredibly weak due to the backslash of the technique. He didn''t expect to Hei Qi being able to avoid the attack, targetting Mayi. Bai had tried to take advantage of Hei Qi underestimating him, but it finished with Hei Qi overwhelming strength. Bai knew that he was only alive because Hei Qi wanted, Hei Qi being capable of killing him instead of Mayi. "You make me furious. It''s time for your punishment." As Hei Qi walked, he continuously slashed all over. "Crack!" "Crack!" Bai''s all spirit rings cracked and dispersing, his energy greatly diminishing with it. Bai stood up invoking his swords. Hei Qi slashed at Bai. His attack seemed to ignore every of Bai defenses, even blocking his sword, wounds surged all over Bai''s body. Bai could only focus his Life energy to b?r?ly avoid death, but his energy was starting to lack. Hei Qi was simply playing with him Hei Qi swung his sword. Bai lifted his swords trying to stop it. However, this time, Hei Qi''s sword sliced over Bai''s sword, slashing over Bai''s body. "Ahhhh!" Bai shouted in pain, a great pain surged from his eyes as his sight was lost. His eyes had died, disappearing leaving only blood leaking from their holes. Bai couldn''t see anything, he could only sense Death all around "AHHHH!" Hei Qi continued playing with him, the wounds over Bai increased, enjoying Bai''s pain. After 10 minutes, Bai was b?r?ly standing with the help of his swords. His face reflected pain and fright "I''m getting bored" Hei Qi said "Let''s finish this farce" Hei Qi lifted his sword emitting a powerful Death Intent. His eyes glinted, seeing all of Bai''s Death Nodes. He targetted one of the primary ones over his forehead. "Die!" Hei Qi''s sword fell over Bai. Chapter 233 - Negating Death Looking from Hei Qi''s eyes, the world was full of lines that converged in death nodes signaling the path to kill all, even himself wasn''t an exemption to the rule. It was a sight that would cause a headache to most people, but Hei Qi was already used. Object, beast, or person, it didn''t matter what his rival was, Hei was was sure that he could kill anything. He was Death impersonnated and nothing could escape death. Hei Qi''s eyes glinted observing Bai in front of him. Hei Qi''s sword started following the line that would bring Bai''s death. Bai shuddered as cold air surrounded him, he couldn''t even sense where the attack would come, but he could sense its lethality. Bai b?r?ly lifted his swords, crossing them and unleashing his aura to put a defense, changing the lines around him. Bai''s actions only gained Hei Qi''s scoff. It didn''t matter any defense, the game had finished. Hei Qi''s sword followed the new lines, the Death intent around his sword increasing as it reached his objective, Bai''s Death Node where countless lines of death interlaced between. Hei Qi''s sword slicing in half the Death Node. "Agh!" Bai gapped seemingly making his last breath, closing his eyes. Hei Qi closed his eyes, Bai''s death was sure, there wasn''t any need to check as he never failed. "Ahhh!" To Hei Qi''s surprise, Bai breathed loudly. Hei Qi opened his eyes again completely shocked "H-how could it be?" Hei Qi''s mind worked at full speed, he reviewed his sword cutting across Bai''s lines. He was sure that he had cut Bai''s Death Nodes, how could it be alive? Hei Qi shook his head, calming himself "It might have been an error, a miscalculation" He lifted his sword, slicing again towards Bai, following his death lines. This time, he completely focused on them, he wouldn''t permit another error like the one before. "Swing!" Hei Qi sword sliced over, cutting Bai''s Death Node over his forehead, just as the black sword was about to cut the node, Hei Qi could see a gray glint. Nevertheless, the sword sliced the node apart, the lines around it crumbling. "Hahahahahaha!" Bai laughed madly, completely ignoring Hei Qi''s attack. Bai slowly stood up, his eyes glinting madly. Seeing Bai standing up unscathed, Hei Qi unconsciously flinched back, fright written over his face. He was Death, how could Death fail to kill?! "So it was this" Bai realized while smiling. Sensing the incoming death, Bai tried the last struggle in the last moment, fusing all his sword intents. There wasn''t time or strength to calmly try it, so he simply made them collided, letting each comprehension made his own. Even if he died, he would try at least to take Hei Qi with him. "If two elements can''t fuse neatly, it''s as simple to make them join chaotically" Bai laughed at the fact. Of course, it was simple at all. The great mental progress and comprehension needed to comprehend it and try to control not letting himself be consumed by it were immensurable. It required great strength and even greater luck. That instant, created chaos all over his body making his own Death Node chaotic, Hei Qi cutting them being negligible. Bai lifted both his swords pointing at the sky. "Bastard!" Hei Qi recovered his shock. He jumped towards Bai thrusting his sword. He could let Bai continue! "Clank!" Bai''s swords collided with each other. From them, a strong gray light surged swallowing all the space around, blinding everyone. {Congratulation} The voices of the Sword God could be heard over the space by Bai and Hei Qi {The Sword way is about making the impossible possible. You fuse Death and Life, breaking a taboo, creating a new intent. We will consider this as your 8th trial. Your reward is Time} Bai grinned. The time all around him seemed to have stopped. Hei Qi was all frozen in time, his sword only inches before Bai''s heart. It wouldn''t be a good reward for another time. But now, it was perfect. Bai''s Life and Death cores started revolving at full speed "Burgh!" Bai vomited blood while grinning. Bai''s Life core changed its turning sense, making both cored running counter-clockwise. Like when he was trying to break through titled douluo both torrent, Life and Death, crashing between each other. If this were before, they would explode and kill Bai in the process. However, Bai now had touched chaos comprehension. Both torrents crashed each other, all the elements behind fighting chaotically over Bai''s dantian. "Boom!" A flash of gray light surged over, revealing Bai''s dantian. It wasn''t like the other two. There wasn''t a stable round condensation of energy. Instead, there was a gray concentrated cloud where elements were chaotically and eternally fighting between each other, creating a chaotic order that was an opposition itself. Raging powers always in movement, making it seem like an asteroid belt. This was Bai''s third core, the Chaos Core. With it, Bai''s spirit energy quickly increased reaching rank 99 limit douluo. His comprehension pushing him, reaching the state of quasi-god. "Clank!" The time started again, Hei Qi being pushed over 100 meters away by a strange force. Hei Qi looked confused and furiously in front of him. The death lines twisted each other, slicing in the middle to appear far away, doing such a chaotic puzzle that it was impossible to follow them. Where the twisting originated, Bai stood there. He still had his rugged robes and bloody body that seemed to be near death, his eyes closed hiding the black holes where the eyes stood before. However, the aura around him had completely changed, making it difficult to recognize him as the same as before. Not only it was much stronger, but the foundation of him had also changed. Hei Qi couldn''t control himself to shudder before his presence. Held with both of his hands stood a single sword. Different colors twisted in each other, always in movement, making it similar to Bai''s core. A thin but thick gray chaotic aura exuded from around the sword. Bai pointed the sword to Hei Qi "I will negate your Death! Then, I will bring chaos to even destiny!" Chapter 234 - Chaos vs Death "Don''t fu?k with me!" Shouted Hei Qi furiously clenching his sword "So what if you fused Life and Death? You only just comprehend them and you are gravely injured." Hei Qi opened his eyes fully, shining with a black glint. He slashed all over the place, the surrounding swords crumbling away as he shot black sword qi blade towards Bai. However, Bai didn''t need to avoid them, he walked forward Hei Qi. Just as the blades approached him, they twisted in themselves, their trajectory becoming erratic and changing, failing to hit Bai. The blades dispersed all away, one of them even returning to hit Hei Qi who simply swung his sword again dissipating it. "I fought all this time, I won''t lose against you. Death won''t take me!" Hei Qi shouted panicked. Black aura shot from Hei Qi''s sword, it was accumulating all around it forming what it seemed to be an ominous skull. "Die!!" Hei Qi swung his sword, the sword falling over Bai leaving a black trail. It was a silent sword, it killed everything in its path, not even light or sound could exist there. This was the peak of the sword intent Death, not even Bai had reached this state. Seeing the silent skull that approaching resembling an unavoidable dead, Bai remained calm. A thin gray aura glowed over his sword. It seemed strong and weak, fast and slow, big and small... It was impossible to sense by normal ways, an everchanging aura in which common sense couldn''t be applied. A light swing. This was the only act of Bai. His sword slashed over the skull lightly, seemingly with no strength at all. There was no clash, Bai''s sword passed through the skull as if it cut over the air. Before being able to move forward, the skull started twisting, exploding and scattering its death aura all over. The strangest was that it wasn''t uniformly, the aura twisted over all the place. One little drop of the aura fell over Bai''s left shoulder, tainting black it. Bai could sense how this part had died, his left arm hanging down motionless. Not only this part, but it also seemed that the Death Aura was even trying to expand all over his body, clinging it and never let him go. Bai clenched his sword with his right hand, swinging it, causing a small cut over the black area. Bai''s skin convulsed, lumps started growing all over the cut as Bai''s cells were affected, duplicating and dying in an insane manner, exploding leaving blood behind. Bai forced his chaotic aura to stop, only letting a gravely injured shoulder. Bai was unable to move his arm, but at least the black aura disappeared. "Hahahaha!" Hei Qi laughed "It was this! You can even alter reality and causality. However, your power is too strong, you are not able to control it. The results being completely aleatory even for you." Hei Qi was right. Chaos was too strong and unpredictable, it was too unstable. Bai was able to decide the time to use it, but not how it would react. Creating an aura around him, it made improbable that attack would pass through, but there was the possibility, even a failing attack could hit. It was like making every attack a strawn arrow, but even strawn arrows could hit. Bai didn''t know if in the future could it be controlled somehow, but just having comprehended Chaos, it was impossible for now. Moreover, he had been greatly injured previously, his body b?r?ly hanging, his energy almost exhausted. The little attack that he was capable to do would be useless against Hei Qi, his only possibility was using Chaos. "Die!" A gaseous black aura shot from Hei Qi''s body, it extended all over the Steel Dump, tainting it in black color. Inside the smoke, darker lines appeared all around, seemingly to interlace everything inside, from swords to even the ground and air. In some places, the lines were connected forming nodes and over Bai, they twisted erratically. "Die!" "Die!" "Die!" "Die!" Hei Qi started madly slashing the lines, his surroundings were crumbling. The Death energy over the place was increasing and with it the aura over his sword was reaching a new level. "Hahahaha!" Hei Qi seemed completely mad, with his eyes twitching. Denying Death was like denying himself, he won''t accept it. In his head the only thing that matter was killing Bai. Hei Qi lifted his sword, a giant black pillar shot from it, it was 30 meters wide and it even reached the Steel Dump''s ceiling. "!" Hei Qi swung his sword towards Bai, the black pillar falling. The pillar seemed to be formed by countless black threads that slashed all around with a thick Death aura. Bai put all his weight over his feet and dashed forward with the maximum speed that he could use. Hei Qi''s attack was chaotic, enclosing all the aura randomly targetting him. What an irony to be such a chaotic attack the counter of his Chaos. "!" Without stopping, gray aura started covering all over the body. "Boom!" Hei''s Qi''s attack fell over Bai, all the surrounding perishing with it. Death was all around clashing with Bai''s Chaos, unable to slice over it while Bai continued going forward. It was like a little gray meteor was cutting over the infinite black space. Bai couldn''t see or sense anything, his surroundings too chaotic for that. It was like finding himself floating around, no sight, smell, touch... nothing could be sensed. He clenched his sword and went forward, his only guide his own instinct and sword that pushed him forward. "Die!" Hei Qi shouted the Death Aura continuously slashed over Bai. Bai wasn''t affected by it thanks to his Chaos, however, he was affected by this Chaos itself. It was Bai''s bet, betting his body to last enough to reach Bai, his possibilities completely depending on his luck. His own skin started twisting, inflating and corroding, veins popped over as blood didn''t stop surging from his orifices. "Splash!" Bai''s right leg affected by Chaos exploded, leaving a useless lump of meat. Bai almost fell over, but with his last strength, Bai kicked the ground with his left leg, throwing his body forward, guided by his intent. Seeing Bai continuing forward, Hei Qi''s body started trembling before Bai''s aura. Hei Qi jumped back avoiding Bai''s sword b?r?ly some centimeters. However, in the last moment, Bai let go his sword opening his hand. He bent his wrist, hitting with his palm open the hilt of his sword, pushing it forward before falling to the ground. Seeing the thrown sword reaching him, Hei Qi''s face twisted in fright. He unconsciously positioned his sword over him trying to block it. It was useless. Bai''s sword pierced forward, obliterating Hei Qi''s sword who was unable to resist its Chaos. Bai''s sword continued forward piercing Hei Qi''s ?h?st, it was a shallow cut, made with very little strength, but, its Chaos aura invaded Hei Qi. Even Bai as the owner and controlling it only affecting him the minimum, the Chaos Intent had almost killed him. How could Hei Qi resist it? "Boom" Hei Qi''s body twisted, his upper body exploding in lumps of meat and blood, leaving a bloody and messy corpse. Bai didn''t know the outcome of the fight as he couldn''t sense anything, his movements completely relying on instinct. For him, he could have even died and not know about it. His Chaos Intent reached his limit and disappearing, continuing would cause Bai''s own death. Expanding his sense over the place, Bai smiled. The risky bet had paid off. In front of him, he could sense a big lump of meat that it was difficult to think of it as a corpse. Over it, a red spirit ring over 100.000 years old stood floating, emitting his energy. He was gravely injured, very close to death, but he had won. His body was b?r?ly hanging, it would be difficult to even stand up. He stood there panting loudly, exhausted "I will need to bother Lili to heal me. She would be angry at me" Bai joked to himself. "You!!!!!!!!!" Black aura shot from what was before Hei Qi. The aura gathered together forming a gaseous black specter, purely made by Death black aura except for his eyes that were Hei Qi''s golden black eyes. The eyes showed fury as they look towards Bai "Death shall fall under you!" Chapter 235 - Fragments Rain "I am Death! Death is under my control! As such, I can''t die." Hei Qi''s specter stated. "If your attack had last a little more, I would have been affected by your Chaos and disappear. However..." The specter of Hei Qi said "You were too weak to finish me." The specter lifted his undefined arms, a black sword appearing over them "You can go to the otherworld proud of having really injured me" He said calmly like his all his previous madness had disappeared "I''ll need to use your body to reconstruct my armor, all my plans destroyed. It was a bad match for both, you die while I would need thousands of years to return to the same stage." With difficulty, Bai invoked his sword spirit, piercing it to the ground and using it as a support, kneeling on the ground with his remaining leg. "You fought great. Better than I thought it was possible. Now..." Hei Qi said in cold voice "Die." Hei Qi swung his sword towards Bai. Bai lifted his head, turning to Hei Qi, smirking "Enough time had passed" Hei Qi''s gaseous body shuddered, stopping still, his sword a meter over Bai. His eyes were full of shock and terror "What did you do?!" "You had said it before. You can use your true strength without dissipating inside the Steel Dump that acts as your armor. I simply took the Steel Dump from you!" Gray light shined from Bai''s body illuminating all the Steel Dump. "I already had listened about your Death''s powers from Di Tian" Bai explained weakly "Since the start, I didn''t have any thought of fighting you head-on. I was only stalling for time, expanding my aura and making all the swords over the Steel Dump as my own. My use of the Sword God Arena was simply for you to start using your true strength and forget about controlling the Steel Dump''s sword for you to not realize my plan. But I must say that comprehending Chaos and my strength increasing, even unexpected, were great surprises." "Now, cease your existence!" Bai commanded "Come!" Bai could absorb swords increasing his strength, unlike with the Asura Sword, he wouldn''t have much problem as he already had made them his own. "" A great suction strength came from Bai''s body. All the floating swords shoot over Bai''s body, being absorbed by it. Countless of swords shot towards Bai. "Nooooooo!" Hei Qi shouted as his conscience was fading. Without his armor, he couldn''t do anything to keep himself from dispersing, he already having lost control over his body. The lumps of meat that before constituted his body were swallowed by the torrent of swords, being attracted to Bai. Finally, Hei Qi couldn''t resist more, he was devoured by his own Death understanding, his mind dying, him becoming nothing more than a concept. His gaseous form dispersed and was absorbed by the red spirit ring that formed from his body, the red ring acquiring a darker tone, becoming dark-red. The suction force increased, everything in the surroundings quickly being shot towards Bai. "Shinx!" A blindly gray light shined brightly. Once the light was dispersed it revealed Bai''s body completely healed, surrounding him nothing except a barren land where the Steel Dump was before. He stood still, he slowly opened his eyes, showing not his previous black and golden heterochromia eyes. Instead, a pair of ominous dark golden eyes appeared. They were Hei Qi''s eyes! [Congratulation] The Sword God voices resounded [We are greatly surprised by your progress. You are able to start the inheritance] Bai extended his arms, 18 spirit rings around his arms, with the new red-black spirit ring shining brightly, his body glowing with a powerful gray light "Ahhhh!" Aura exploded all over Bai, his peak strength exploding around the area. Bai''s sword aura being boosted by the Sword God expanded all over the continent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the Far North, I handsome blue-haired man was swinging an ice-blue sword, practicing with it. He stopped still as his sword started shuddering and looked to the south, towards where Star Duo Forest stood. "Hm!" He smiled "I don''t have it much time, but I suppose it was never meant to be mine. Take it, master." He lifted his sword, a little ice blue sword fragment surged from it. The fragment shot towards the sky. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A beautiful pink-haired woman laid weakly over a big bed. She looked up to the sky and a trembling red greatsword appeared over her delicate hands "Without any sacrifice" She made a beautiful smile "You''ve done it. I''m very proud, son!" The woman lifted the greatsword, a red-brown fragment left from it shooting to the sky. All over the continent, similar phenomenons occurred, sword spirit masters, forcefully lifting their swords, sword fragments leaving from them and shooting to the sky. That day, different colored sword fragments crossed the sky shining brightly, all of them towards Star Duo Forest, making it seem a beautiful rain of asteroids. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that Bai had most of the Sword God Fragments, he recalled all the others, summiting him to return to him, obtaining the full fragments. A rain of fragments started to fall over, easily being absorbed by his body, his body starting glowing in a beautiful multi-colored light. Once the rain finish, lightly scattered all over Bai, the space around him twisting and changing, different swords surging from the ground and started appearing all over the sky. Bai found himself surrounded by sword, similar as his Sword God Arena or when he had talked in the mind space with the Sword God. However, now it seemed more real, the ethereal air of it having been lost, making it seem all more physical, the aura from the swords much more powerful and defined. Between all the swords a human figure appeared, without a doubt it was the Sword God. This time, he wasn''t a silhouette. He was an androgynous person, with a strange, special, and awe-inspiring air around him. His features were strange, making it impossible to say if he was old or young, or even if he was a man or a woman. [Congratulations, our inheritor] The Sword God said. He lifted his hand "Brooom!" All the swords over the places started trembling. The ground in front of Bai opened, surging from it, Bai''s sword. Bai stepped forward taking his sword. He could sense that it was his spirit, a combination of his intents with a light Chaos over it. Bai breathed profoundly. Then, he thrust it towards his forehead. Chapter 236 - Sword God Inheritance? Bai''s sword stopped just an inch from his forehead. "Hm!" Bai scoffed. Bai twisted his sword pointing towards the Sword God "I won''t fall for your trick, impostor." The Sword God lifted an eyebrow, calming saying "So you had discovered it, eh?" "Of course. Your sole existence negates divinity. It''s impossible for me to attain godhood following you, I will defeat you and continue forward. You''re not a true god! I " Bai stated squinting his eyes. "Ho?" The Sword God smiled lightly, not an ounce of surprise as he observed Bai. Bai squinted his eyes "I see you''re too calm for the situation." "It is not like it change anything. Also, you are not the first one to grasp ourself" The Sword God calmly answered "Could we know when you started you suspect us? For curiosity." "Your form to communicate and your trial of the sword fragments were highly suspicious. However, it could be that you are a strange god." Bai explained "The first important clue was my time with Tao Yi. He had given all his life to the sword attaining the supreme peak, but even him was constrained. Then, the main clue was when I fused with Mayi. Instead of us becoming stronger, it caused a great weakening, Mayi totally unable to use her divinity. Finally, Renxue''s reaction seeing me after she became a goddess made it clear that she learned about you, that I would be unable to become a god following you. Once I met Lingling, I was completely sure of it." "It was since then, eh?" The Sword God though over "Normal that you did not want to sacrifice your mother for me, having so many doubts about me. With so many hints, of course, you will doubt us." "It is all the fault of those gods, too many interactions with this lower world" the Sword God grumbled "Seeing the comparison, it is easy to sense that something is wrong. If you and we had been faster." "What is your plan?" Bai squinted his eyes. "Now that we are discovered, there is no need to hide it. We are the God Sword" the God Sword stated "Of course, we are not the god. We are the weapon formed by countless sword souls. We are a weapon able to absorb divinity, absorbing it from any sword user using our fragments. Like this, our fragments made it impossible for other people to ascend while our strength grows absorbing their comprehension and selves. The game of the fragments is only for this, a method to grow stronger." "To keep up us becoming stronger from time to time we find a talented body, you in this case." The God Sword smirked "We make him or her collect the fragments and complete our true body. Once we are completed, we take control of his body. With our enormous strength and an apt body, we take control of the continent, showing the full might of the sword arts and making them popular again for the next generations. Then, we simply broke down in fragments and continue this cycle. Only for the sake of becoming stronger." "You''re mad" Bai said with contempt. "We are a combination of countless swords souls, every soul that touched our fragments and died with them. Madness might be normal for us. Hehehe!" The God Sword''s face twisted laughing. "Even with all this time, we are not able to face true gods," the God Sword said "At most, we could be able to fight a 2nd rank god, but 1st class or god-kings are too strong from us. That is why our plan was to kill the inheritors before the could reach that state." "Why? Why? Why?..." the God Sword trembled, bending his body in a madly way "Why so many gods are moving in this age?" He calmed down "We did not expect Gluttony, someone whose only interest is food to act, that let you doubt our existence. If it were not for him moving, you would have killed your own mother and we would have taken control of your body, killing all the other god''s inheritors." "Hahaha!" the God Sword started maniacally laughing "It is not like it would have been the first time. Gods hate us, but there is nothing that they could do, always limited by their stupid laws" He laughed loudlier "While we do not affect the overall equilibrium, causing the destruction of the world, they are unable to do anything". His face twisted in anger, seemingly a demon that surged from hell as his body contorted "Why could you not be quicker? Kill! Kill! Kill all of them, showing our strength!" Suddenly, his body fell, hanging like if he was dead. He slowly stood up, his face was impassive and cold, no emotion reflected in it "That is more or less the summary. Take it as a reward for you to obtain the Asure Sword making us stronger" He answered calmly. "Do not think it would help you with anything. Once a fragment is located inside you, it is game over. You are ours. It does not matter how strong you become as the fragment would grow with you. Knowing our identity or not, fighting against us or running away. The result is the same, being part of us" The God Sword stated " You are unable to cultivate any divinity, making it unable to escape from us. It was your destiny since the day that the sword fragment fell into your hands." "If it''s so, I will change my destiny" Bai clenched tightly his sword "Gods might be unable to kill you, but I will do it. I will kill you from the interior and make you my own power!" A multicolored aura surged from Bai. The God Sword''s face became furious "Blasphemy!" "hehehehe!" He started laughing madly "You think that you are able to face us, what a joke!" His face turned cold "Face millions of years of sword arts" "Brrrr!" The swords all over the space started shining brightly. Hundred of thousands of swords congregated forming two round blocks over 1 kilometer wide. One exploded with powerful raging flames while the other with calm and imperturbable water waves The God Sword''s face became hideous "Fire and Water. Die!" Both balls shot towards Bai, fusing each other in mid-air, their strength multiplicating. "BOOOM!" A great explosion occurred, devasting over 10 kilometers. "Swing!" A sword sliced over the explosion, revealing Bai with his sword at hand with Chaos intent all over him. Bai charged towards the God Sword, erratically swinging his sword and moving his body like if he was dancing, his eyes glinting with gray light. Before, he was completely unable to resist his own Chaos Intent. However, now this changed thanks to Hei Qi''s eyes. Hei Qi''s Death Eyes could see Death all over, manifesting like lines and nodes showing the Death of anything. Once Bai absorbed them, they had evolved to Chaotic Eyes. He was able to perceive and adapt to the Chaos. While he was unable to perfectly control it, relying too much in them, he didn''t need to worry much for auto injuring himself. He could see how the world opened before him, being able to grasp its own foundation. Nothing could escape his eyes. Bai kicked the ground dashing at great speed towards the God Sword. Countless swords were dancing all over him, trying to pierce his aura but they were unable. Reaching the God Sword, Bai lifted his sword "Fall into madness! " a pure gray pillar of chaotic sword qi exploding from his sword. He swung it downwards towards the God Sword who didn''t have even moved yet. "Ha!" the God Sword sighed, his face seemed old and tired, his gaze was like an old man looking at a child. Over his hand, a gray sword appeared. The God Sword swung it meeting Bai''s attack. Both swords clashed and Bai''s attack was dispersed, Bai was even pushed away. "There have been countless of genius. You''re not the first one to comprehend Chaos, boy" The God Sword twisted his body, kicking at Bai''s stomach. His leg opened, 4 swords surging from it. As he kicked Bai, the four swords pierced over Bai''s body, even piercing his heart. Bai was shot like a missile 2 kilometers away, crashing to the ground. Bai recuperated his equilibrium, quickly standing up. The holes over his body completely closed without a trace. However, a lingering pain ran over his head. Even if it was far more real, this continued being a mind space, wounds or death only momentary. The God Sword lifted his index finger, pointing up, countless swords floating around. The God Sword''s face twisted making a devilishly grin "Die!" Lowering his finger, all the swords shot towards Bai. Bai kicked the ground "Boom!" "Boom!" Each sword exploded as it touched the ground. Bai jumping around trying to stop them, reflecting the ones that would hit him. Bai clenched his teeth as he continued avoiding them, keeping the distance from God Sword while trying to find an opening. This was a battle of mental resistance. Bai against the countless soul swords. It didn''t look good for Bai as he was forced defend. Chapter 237 - Sword Talent Lightning flowed around Bai''s body, boosting his speed while Slaughter and Retaliation aura twisted over his sword. Bai swinging it, reflecting or killing every sword that came towards him. Now that his Chaos was possible to stop, it wasn''t much worst in this fight. While it was Bai''s most powerful intent, he hadn''t time to perfectly comprehend. Every time that he used, it required a great deal of mental strength, much more than the others. In a mental fight like this one, using the Chaos Intent was even more exhausting than dying. Once his mental strength ran out, it would be game over and be absorbed as part of the God Sword. The God Sword hadn''t moved from his initial position. He was now, with his arms crossed and eyes closed, calming commanding all the swords around. It would be extremely exhausting to control many and different swords. However, Bai could see the truth. Each sword had its own conscience, all together forming the true God Sword. The silhouette in the middle seemed to act more of a core, ordering the others without exhausting his mental strength at all. "Boom!" A sword exploded with raging flamed in front of Bai. Bai kicked the ground changing directions, launching towards the God Sword. It was like entering a cloud of swords. Swords all around covering Bai''s sight, dancing everywhere trying to stop him. Bai continued advancing avoiding most of them, however, as it advanced the concentration and strength of the swords increased. Bai swung his sword, creating an opening, but this was quickly closed by more sword, the only that accomplished was exhausting himself. When he was 50 meters from the God Sword, swords started congregating, forming a giant sword thrust towards Bai. Bai clenched his sword, white Protection Intent shooting from it, creating a shield in front of him. The giant sword didn''t directly clash with the shield, countless swords clashed with it, the giant sword was like a river, swords being its water. Bai was swallowed by the torrent and pushed away, returning to the 2 km distance before he could land safely. Back to the start, but this time more tired. The God Sword didn''t let Bai take breathe, more swords coming towards him "I won''t go anywhere fighting like this." Seeing the swords coming towards him, Bai opened his arm, letting go his sword that disappeared before touching the ground. Five swords pierced over Bai''s body, Bai only b?r?ly moving to avoid any deadly area. Bai made a thoughtful look "I have started badly this fight. I don''t need to destroy all of you." Bai held one of the sword pierced over his shoulder, taking it out of his body. A powerful lightning intent exploded around the sword. This wasn''t Bai''s intent, it was the own will of that sword. Bai could sense the sword, learn from it, and make it his own. "" Bai swung the sword, four lightning dragons were launched from the sword, pushing the other swords aside. Bai turned to the God Sword "I''ll make you mine!" The God Sword grinned with passionate flames in his eyes "Try it!" He extended his arms, hundreds of thousands of swords launching towards Bai. "All my body is my sword" Bai smirked taking the swords from his body, clenching another with his left hand, another one with his teeth, and the last two throwing at the air in front of him. Bai twisted his body quickly double kicked both sword at the air "" "" The swords shot over the cloud of swords approaching, one of them dividing in multiple flaming meteors and the other exploding in black aura. "Boom!" Both attacks clashed with the cloud dispersing it. Nevertheless, it was only for a moment, as they continued chasing after Bai. Bai dashed forward, completely entering the cloud. With such a distance from the God Sword, his control over the swords was minimum, the swords only moving by pure instinct. "Boom!" "Boom!" Explosions occurred everywhere as Bai unleashed the Sword Hearts of every sword, his barrage never stopping. Continuously being replacing the swords at his hands, kicking others and swinging and thrusting his swords, making countless of swords as his own. Bai moved by pure instinct, he found himself extremely calm and collected. He could instantly know the element and power of the swords around him, precisely choosing the perfect one for each situation, even taking into account the strongest ones that would take more time to make his own, deflecting them to take before. This pure instinct was due to great facts, completely necessaries for Bai to try this method. One was Bai experience, he had spent all his life fighting with and against swords, creating a familiarity. The other one that even was unknown to Bai was due to a characteristic of his spirit, not simply his spirit, but also from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Each possessor had a specialized talent. Bai''s father, Ning Fengzhi, it focused on spirit objects while his sister''s focused on gems, being able to discern their properties and quality. Bai had thought that he didn''t have this talent due to his mutation, but the truth was that he simply didn''t have the opportunity to show it off as treasured swords were rare. Yes, Bai''s talent was to recognize and analyze, discerning the quality of every sword. Now, this talent shining the brightest, becoming indispensable in his situation. "Boom!" Some swords exploded and Bai''s body was pushed over, crossing over the smoke and somersaulting, recovering in the air and landing with his four extremities. Bai lifted his face, glancing at the God Sword "Now, both can play this game" Around Bai countless swords laid on the ground, having been deflected and used by him previously. "Dance!" The swords started floating all around Bai, following his will, dancing around him creating a tornado around him. Bai directly charged towards the God Sword. There was no need to hide or search for an opening, he would create it, he would take the full control of him. Bai put aside the headache over his head and dashed forward. His tornado crashed with the cloud of swords, regulating the swords coming towards Bai. As Bai advanced, more and more swords were becoming his, the tornado of swords around him increasing. Even with Bai only using the minimum mental strength to make the swords summit, then simply made a command and let them act on their own, he was getting tired. He decided to finish this in an all-out attack. The God Sword body started shimmering "Good! Struggle! Fight! My blood is boiling! Make this fight worth it!" The God Sword said with a big, battle maniac grin. Even more sword shooting towards Bai. Bai continued charging, his control over the swords closest to the God Sword. Bai no more than 50 meters from the God Sword. "You are underestimating me, fu?ker!" The God Sword twisted in pure rage. More sword surged from the ground, creating a 10 meters wide wall between each of them. "Die" The Sword God said coldly. Bai found himself completely surrounded. A strong wall in front, while sword floating all around him. "Explode!" Bai commanded to all his swords that started shining brightly, burning their own souls. "BOOOOOM!" All the swords that Bai had made his own caused a great explosion of multiples elements and intent, pushing aside all the swords and even cracking the sword wall, smoke filling all the space. "Hg!" The God Sword put his hand over his head, so many swords souls lost had lowered his mental strength. His expression was continuously changing, everchanging between rage, calmness, enjoyment... Making him seem like a deformed monster with all the skin moving over. A gray light crossed over the smoke, slicing and completely cracking the wall over. Bai completely surrounded by Chaos Intent quickly dashed towards the God Sword. The aura around him extremely strong with his eyes glinting brightly while his sword stood over his hands. Bai clenched his sword and dashed stabbing the air"!" The aura around Bai increased, surrounding all his body and even creating a stale behind him. He thrust his sword toward the God Sword. "It... I...s uSe...lEs...S, BA...sTar...D.!" The God Sword shouted in different and unlike before not at the same time voices, making it difficult t even understand. A gray sword appeared over the God Sword''s hand. He swung it over, a gray aura surrounding it as it was swung towards Bai. The sword crashed with Bai''s meteor. Sword against sword. The clash was so powerful that space cracked and twisted around them, all the space threatening to be destroyed. Suddenly, the pressure over the God Sword disappeared, his sword cutting over the meteor, easily slicing in half Bai''s body. Bai had let go his sword, leaned his body forward, letting the God Sword slice him. Bai''s bottom half flying away while the top half was pushed forward. "Ahhhhhh!" Bai shouted accumulating all his strength as he extended right hand, chaos aura exploding from it. Seeing the hand coming to him, the God Sword''s face froze in shock, not being capable of stopping him. "I will make you mine!" Bai thrust his hand over the God Sword. Opening his hand and gripping the God Sword''s forehead. "Ahhhhhhhhhh!" Shouts of pain surged from the God Sword as a Bai was trying to take control of him. "Haaaaaaa!" Bai shouted focusing all his strength, trying to push his will over while stopping his great headache, his head seeming to explode at any moment. Bai''s palm started closing, the God Sword''s body changing becoming a gray long sword, Bai gripping his hilt. "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" "Haaaaaaaaaa!" Both shouts resounded all over the space as a great gray light swallowed them, completely blinding the space. Chapter 238 - Sword God Inheritance Opening his eyes, Bai found himself in a different place. A full gray space where the only things that existed were 7 swords, a black one, a red-blood one, an orange one, a gray one, a red one, a blue one, and at the center of all an old chipped sword. Even with only 7, the aura that they exuded was enormous, in a completely new level comparing with the one before. Bai could recognize the red one as the Asura Sword. "It has been a long time since anyone reached here" Bai turned to the voice, clenching his sword tightly, preparing to fight. "There is no need for any more fight, boy. You can lower your sword" The 7 swords glowed over with their own characteristic intent, their aura even increasing. Over each sword, a phantasm appeared. It would be best explained as a manifestation of a sword soul appeared, the form of them being the latter owners of them, all of them wearing an armor following the color of the sword. With the exemption of the Asura Sword where only dark-red aura exuded from it. Over the black sword, the man had a calm but deadly face. Over the gray sword, a young man who had a cool but kind face. Over the red sword was a red-haired woman, her eyes reflecting killing intent and madness. Over the orange sword, a man with big muscled stood, his face showed passion and d?s?r? to fight. Over the blue sword, another woman stood with a calm, relaxed and apathetic face. Finally, over the old sword, a very old man full of wrinkles with his hair being full white due to the age with a long beard, he had a light smile in his face and had a grandfatherly look in his eyes. They simply stood there looking at the distance, ignoring Bai. All of them with the exemption of the old man who was directly looking at Bai and was the one that had talked before. "What''s this place?" Bai asked without lowering his guard. "This place is us." All the other sword souls answered at the same time "Us are this place. We are the God Sword." "Ignore them, boy" The old man said to Bai "Souls are not different of people, they tend to become a little crazy after spending an infinity of time alone in the same place." The old man swung his hands and the sword souls retracted inside their swords "Answering your question, we are at the core of the God Sword." "Counting the new fragment" The old man looked at the Asura Sword "And you, we are the 8 that form the core sword." "You don''t need to count me, I will take control of all you and leave this place." Bai interjected. "Ho, ho, ho" He laughed like Santa Claus "Young boys always so full of energy and eagerness" He cleaned a tear of his eyes "We are the ones that affect the most to the will of the God Sword. This place" He opened his arms signaling all the space "It is like a Hall of Fame where the strongest swordmaster souls rest. And you are part of this." "I was very surprised of you coming here" the old man murmured "To reach the core, you will need to pass the countless wills reunited. Having exist for almost an eternity, the great strength of them is real. It was far easier to reach here before. With more than a million years without anyone coming, I starting doubting anyone reaching this place again." "Cut the crap" Bai said glancing at the old man, pointing him with his sword "I will beat all of you if necessary, I will take this sword!" "You are too impatient. You have eternity in front of you, you should treasure these little moments and enjoy them" advised the old man "Like I said before, there no need for more fight, you can see from the others than none fighting spirit are left from them. There is only one trial left and then you will be a complete part of us." "What is the trial?" Bai asked a little pissed off about the calm old man. "It is simple, you need to accept all of us, accept our feeling and existence. Exactly the same that you did before, but this time without our resistance" The old man answered "However, before that let me explain mine and the God Sword''s story." Bai tried to rebound but the old man ignored him and continued talking "Unlike all of you" He said signaling the other sword souls and Bai "I was not a spirit master. I was a simple and weak man with a simple hoe spirit an 0 spirit energy, unable to ever cultivate." "I was a simple farmer, calmly living my life with my wife and my little baby daughter. However, all changed when a big war started. It did not matter your side or your strength. If you wanted to keep your life you must fight. I was forced to enlist in an army, fighting for my life and keeping my family away from it." The old man explained. "They gave me a simple sword and without preparation or teaching me anything, they threw to the battlefield. To die like cannon fodder, in battles full of spirit master," He said with a little angry voice "I do not know exactly how I survived, but by pure luck I accomplished. After that day, the battle did not stop. I spent all my time practicing, swinging my sword, if it was only to increase a little my possibility of leaving alive the next battle and someday met my family again." "After b?r?ly surviving many battles, my talent bloomed. It was not luck anymore, instead, it was my technique. I continued being a weak person, but with the sword in my hand, I killed even spirit masters. An intent was being created from it." "After that, I was promoted. No longer a normal soldier, I was even able to see my family again" He said with a longing face "I returned to my village only to see it raced over, becoming a barren land without any trace of, without even any reminder of my family" He had a pained face. "I discovered that it was caused by the enemy army that started attacking our villages. With my head full of fury and revenge, I threw myself to the battlefield, madly killing every enemy that I found" He closed his eyes. "At that time, the people started recognizing me, a weak normal human that killed spirit masters, even killing a spirit king enemy commander. With my bloody sword at hand, full of hate and resentment, I gained some nicknames. Sword Demon, Blood Revenge... And my favorite and the important one of all this God Killer. Only with a sword, I was able to face that godly figures that were spirit masters." "That was the start of all. My name resounded from all the world, creating faith towards me. The problem was that it did not matter how much faith came to me, I was a weak normal human, I could not absorb. Instead, the one that started absorbing it was my sword. My sword became sharper and more robust, gaining strange abilities that even boosted me physically. After every battle, my sword became stronger and with it myself." "Finally, it reached the point that I was able to kill the enemy general who was a god, that how titled douluos were called before. Since that day I was known as the Sword God, people like if they did not remember that I was weak, they called me as another spirit master" He made a sad face "After so many battles, I discovered that it did not matter. My thrill for revenge had completely disappeared, I did not have anything important to fight for, nothing to thrive to become stronger. I let go of my sword. Without its power I simply turned to dust, dying and disappearing from old age." "However, my name and legend perdured. The faith of all the swords, faith enough to be able to create a True God continued accumulating over my sword, making it impossible to any swordmaster to cultivate it. With only my will left behind, my strong but yet weak sword it was impossible to ascend and become a True God. My sword continued absorbing the faith of every swordmaster. Every sword soul had different feelings and characteristics, but all of them search to become stronger. Motivated by this great d?s?r?, after many years, it finally created the actual God Sword with its fragments system." The old man finished telling his story. The old man signaled the other swords "All of you, everyone strong enough to reach this place, are sons of Heaven. Great spirit masters with a great talent. How can such strong people accept someone like me? I am weak" The old man paused a moment, smiling lightly "I am the reason that passing this trial is impossible. To pass this trial, you should accept me, weakness itself." He made a weak laugh blaming himself Bai withdrew his sword and with a calm and collect face walked towards the old chipped sword. Lifting his hand to take it. "Are you ready to be part of us forever?" The old man looked at Bai with a sad smile. "No" Bai said calmly "I already said I would make your power mine. I am one that keeps his promises." Bai gripped the old sword handle, a gray light flowing over his body. "There''s no rejection!" The old man said shockingly "H-how could it be?" "It might have been different for the previous Bai, but I had experimented a full lifetime of weakness. I never like it, but like everyone, I had long since accepted it." Bai sneered "Just as Paul accepted his weakness, I would accept yours. You can rest" Bai took the old sword from the ground, lifting it. A gray pillar of light was liberated from it, it was pure divinity. The other 6 swords reacted, pillars of light shooting from them and cracking the space "Thanks" It could be heard from them before they dispersed. The old man had smile in his face and his eyes full of tears "After all these years, we are finally free. Truly thank you. You will be a great Sword God" The old man started dispersing in light particles "Make a name of yourself, but never forget the most important" he said before disappearing swallowed in the pillar. All the energy focused over the sword at Bai''s hand. Flowing from it towards Bai. Receiving such a great quantity of faith and divinity, Bai''s body started transforming. He had obtained a god tablet and was advancing towards godhood! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside the Star Duo Forest, where the Steel Dump had stood before, there was a gray cocoon seemingly made from steel. From inside the cocoon, a gray blade surged. It sliced over the cocoon, revealing the man that was holding it. A very otherworldly handsome young man appeared. He seemed to have 22 years old with long gray hair. His body was slender but full of compacted muscles. He had m?tur? and sharp facial features. The most remarkable being his gray eyes that seemed to contain universes in them that attracted the view of anyone. They were so strong and sharp that in combination with his aura, a single look was enough to cut in half a person. At his hand, the sword that had cut the cocoon stood. It was a simple and slender sword. However, it had a great and majestic aura around it and was extremely sharp, cutting the air even still. Over its handle, there were some different colored patterns, resembling a little pagoda. Of course, he was Bai. "Ahhh!" Bai shouted, energy exploding around him. 10 spirit rings appeared under him, 9 of them were red wrapped with a gray aura, all of them crowned by the 10th pure gray ring that exuded a strong primal energy. Bai lifted his sword, a gray pillar of energy shot cutting over the sky. Chapter 239 - End of volume With this Bai reaches godhood, becoming the first true Sword God. The final battle to accomplish it being easily won thanks to his previous life memories, having experimented the weakness that the other always lacked. With this the volume end. The next volume would be the final! So near the end of this novel. The next volume would only have two battle so I suppose that it would be shorter than the last. This month, I will finish the novel. Thanks for staying all this time reading this. Look forward to the final volume of this novel! Chapter 240 - Holy Plain Bai could feel his body brimming with energy. He had surpassed the limits of human, as such he even could feel the will of the world trying to push him away. The world opened before his gaze, a new way in front of him. If he d?s?r?d, he could ascend to the Divine Realm now. However, there were somethings to do before that. Bai turned towards his sword, resting it over his forehead with his eyes closed. The sword instantly disappeared being absorbed, only leaving a mark like cut over Bai''s forehead. Somehow, Bai''s spirit sword had completely fused with the God Sword, birthing a new sword. This one had the faith and experience collected by the God Sword, but at the same time had the familiarity of Bai''s own sword. After the fuse, the sword had evolved taking all these experiences, strength and faith, becoming an ultra divine weapon. One exclusively for Bai and the Sword God. Bai simply named it Godly Sword, there wasn''t need to something complicated, as the Sword God, the sword was part of himself. Two wings unfolded over Bai''s back. They were gray-colored and were sharp like blade. Flapping them, space was cut over them, Bai disappearing from his position. Bai directly appeared over the actual core of Star Duo Forest, over Lingling''s Tree. Sensing his presence, all the spirit beasts could do anything to stop him even if they wanted, they backed up with some fright in their face. Next to the tree, Lingling looked up at Bai. "You have done it" Lingling smiled brightly, even some joy tears in her face. Bai''s body flashed, appearing just next to Lingling. He tightly embraced her with a warm hug "I won''t leave any of you. We will be always together. I keep my promises". "Yes!" Lingling smiled even brightly. Both leaned over the other, interlacing in a warm kiss. They stood there, calming embracing like without worries about the world for half an hour until Lingling broke the hug. "Whity. You must go" Lingling said with a serious face as she leaned over her tree "You must do what you should do." "Lili" Bai said a little worried. "I can sense and communicate with any plant over the continent." Lingling leaned her forehead over her tree, closing her eyes "Spirit Empire is starting its counterattack. You need to stop them before its too late." Bai nodded with a determined look "I will stop this useless war" Bai was ready to leave, but just before he was about to go "Whity" Lingling stopped him. She had a sad look in his face with some doubt "You must save her." "What are you saying" "She is suffering, trapped in her own feeling, negating them, going against er true d?s?r?s. You are the only one that can save her" Lingling said with a determined look in her face "I will always accept you. I will always love you, Bai" Bai understood what Lingling was saying. Bai leaned over Lingling, lightly kissing her "You''re too good for me, Lili" Bai said warmly ??r?ssing her hair "I''m the luckiest man having you with me. I might not deserve you, but I promise you. I will always love you." Lingling smiled brightly, throwing herself towards Bai''s arms. "Shing!" A great green light surged from both ?h?st, expanding all over the place. The place was full boosted of vitality, different colored flowers growing under them, petals dancing in the air. The giant tree shined with great green light, its height increasing even more. The only beautiful pink flower growing with it, metamorphosing and his interior glowing, preparing to bear fruit. Lingling ??r?ssed Bai''s ?h?st "Nature is with you, Whity" The flowery symbol over Bai''s ?h?st shining brightly. Suddenly, Lingling stopped still. She frowned her beautiful brows with a mix of fright and doubt "Whity, you must go. Quickly save her!" She said urgently. "Lili?" Bai was surprised, but seeing Lingling''s face, he knew what he should do. He prepared to leave. "I will also be getting ready. You can trust me" Lingling said with confidence before turning serious "Be aware of darkness" Lingling warned, "Don''t let shadows hide the truth." Bai didn''t quite understand Lingling but he nodded nevertheless. He flapped his wings disappearing from the place. "Good luck" Lingling joined her hands in prayer "You''re the only one that can do it" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Passing through Jialing Pass, before reaching Spirit City, laid a great plain called Holy Plain that now had become a massive battleground. There, the remaining Spirit Empire''s army was b?r?ly holding against the allied forces of Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire. The allied forces were overwhelming the Spirit Empire with their sheer numbers and the superiority of their armament thanks to the Tang Sect''s weapons. Even the strongest forces of high ranked spirit masters were suppressed by the combined forces of the Seven Treasure Glassed Tile Pagoda Clan, the Tang Sect and the Clear Sky Clan, greatly limiting their scope. These 6 were all very young titled douluos, all of them less than 30 years, making them great genius, all of them surpassing the previous youngest titled douluo record. Even if their overall strength and cultivation fell behind the elder priests'' might, they overcame it with their great teamwork and quality, all of them possessing red spirit rings. Locking and avoiding the elder priests to participate in the war, attacking the armies and causing great havoc. They were Shrek Eight Devils, only lacking Tang San and Bai Chenxiang. They had passed their trials at the God of Sea Island, reaching the rank 90 and being each one conferred with a 100.000 years old spirit ring, all of them attaining the titled douluo rank. Their cultivations went from the rank 96 Dai Mubai to the rank 92 Oscar. It was clear that the Spirit Empire was in the loose end, completely surrounded. Only a matter of time before they fell. Just as the allied forces were about to break the Spirit Empire''s defenses, a tremendous pressure fell over everyone at the battlefield. Both suns over the sky started glowing brighter, their rays intensifying, followed by an increase of the temperature. From the sky, a figure started descending. 12 wings at her back and surrounded by a golden holy aura, she was the Angel Goddess, Qian Renxue. Before her holy presence, everyone stopped fighting. The stronger ones looked up at her with fright and awe while the weaker ones were forced to kneel on the ground, not even daring to lift their heads. Renxue batted her wings extending her golden aura all over the battlefield. It was an incredibly pure and holy aura that seemed to calm the heart, it greatly contrasted with Renxue''s face that coldly stared at the people behind her with contempt and killing intent in her eyes. Renxue''s Truth instantly made effect. The spirit Empire''s forces found themselves revitalized, their injuries healing while their powers were boosted. On the other hand, the allied forces found themselves greatly suppressed, the weaker ones unable to move their body at all, feeling like their body was burned by the holy aura. Renxue lifted her index finger towards the suns, turning the suns golden red. She lowered her finger commanding the attack. "" The sunlight intensified and concentrated forming golden spears formed by flames. Like rain, countless spears fell all over the allied army. There wasn''t time to even shout, the unfortunate people standing under the rain were instantly evaporated not leaving behind any trace. With a simple flick of her finger, Renxue had shown her godly might, transforming over 5 kilometers area into a scorching land devoid of any life. "All hail her holiness!" "All hail the Angel Goddes!" The Spirit Empire''s forces started reverencing Renxue. With their new strength and morale at maximum, they charged towards the allied forces with a fanatic might, pushing and killing them. This was the power of gods. Their simple presence had changed the result of this battle. Spirit Empire gaining great momentum. Taking advantage of the initial chaos and boost, two Spirit Empire elders made their move. They were Porcupine Fish Douluo, Ci Xue, and Grimoire Douluo, Jiang Long. They had escaped from the Clear Sky lock and charged towards Shrek Eight Devils who were already busy facing the elder priests. Killing them would cause the morale of the allied forces to plumb down. "Rongrong!" "Xiao Wu!" Someone shouted, warning them, both Spirit Empire''s titled douluos charging at them. Ci Xue''s body expanded, becoming a giant porcupine fish "I''ll have rabbit for lunch!" He shouted opening his mouth towards Xiao Wu, his sharp like blade and poisonous teeth closing towards her. "You will make a beautiful picture!" Jiang Long passed the pages of his grimoire, tens of animals shooting towards the unprepared Rongrong "I will call it Nine Colored Gem!" He laughed waiting for the outcome. On the other hand, Renxue stared coldly as countless people lose their lives. She found some pressure at her heart but completely ignored it, making up her might to finish her worldly affairs "Let''s finish this war" she said coldly as she started descending, preparing to destroy the allied army herself. She put her hands over her ?h?st, taking her Angelic Saber from it, her aura becoming sharper and deadlier. Sunlight was concentrating all over her saber, powerful golden flames surging from it. She lifted her saber preparing to transform the battlefield in a scorching hell. Suddenly, a gray light flashed over the battlefield, cutting over the sky. Like a gray comet, it quickly passed over Ci Xue and Jiang Long. Ci Xue''s teeth were all cut over, falling in smithereens, while Jiang Long''s paper animals dispersed without leaving a trace, the pages over his grimoire falling apart, cut in little pieces. ""W-what?"" Both titled douluos said shocked. A red line appeared crossing all over their body ""Ahhhhh!"" They shouted in pain as their body split in two, a source of blood exploding from them as they died. The gray comet didn''t stop and charged towards Renxue. Having sensed the gray comet, Renxue stopped her attack. Her face twisted in pure rage looking at it "Sword!" she shouted in fury, swinging her saber to it. The gray comet clashed with the saber, flames exploding everywhere. However, taking advantage of the momentum, the gray comet started pushing Renxue. Renxue tried to push over but found her saber being suppressed by a strong force, not having other option than letting herself be pushed, keeping the damage at the minimum. Both gray and golden aura twisted together as both flew away over the battlefield, landing over Jialing Mountain Range. Jialing Mountain Range was very difficult to travel place, full of spirit beasts. However, all the spirit beasts ran away sensing both presence. Even the ground under them was pushed, the rugged terrain becoming plain. Renxue was finally able to release herself from the gray comet, floating over, creating a distance. Finally, the gray comet dispersed, revealing a man wearing a shining and awe-inspiring gray armor with a sword at his hand. It was Bai. Golden aura exploded around Renxue, the air turning golden as she exuded killing intent "Die!" She swung her saber towards Bai. Chapter 241 - Overwhelming Strength Seeing the powerful saber slashing at him, Bai was incredibly calm. Bai''s eyes glinted, the world opening in front of him. He could sense the saber in its totality, it was divine, strong, and even seemed to have its own intelligence. However, it continued being a kind of sword. Bai exerted his domain over, gray aura mixing with Renxue''s golden. Bai exerted his will over Renxue''s saber. Thanks to the torso spirit bone, Bai was able to make any sword his. Now that he had become the Sword this ability was boosted, increasing the suppression to any kind of sword, swords not daring to even injury him. In the end, Renxue''s saber was a divine weapon, bonded to her god position and power, making a complete control impossible. But Bai was able to stop it for an instant. That instant was enough. Renxue''s saber lost its strength and aura, being easily parried by Bai. Bai thrusting his sword at her. Renxue''s face showed surprise but quickly twisted in anger. She thrust her left palm over Bai''s sword, a sphere of concentrated energy over her palm. "Boom!" Renxue''s attack exploded as was cut by Bai''s sword. However, Renxue flapped her wings, taking advantage of the recoil, she flew back away, creating distance between both. "You!" Renxue shouted furiously "You do not only dare to taint and use Bai, now you even try to dirt my precious saber, my memories!" The aura around Renxue raged. "I already warned you about what would happen if you appeared in front of me. You could have hidden quietly, at least for me to disappear from this world," Renxue said "I couldn''t kill him" Some tears fell from her eyes "Even when I knew that you would take control. In the last moment, I couldn''t." She said with a sad tone. "Like I warned you" Renxue returned to her furious look "I will kill you, faker!" (Wait a moment! She thinks that I am being in control over the God Sword) Bai realized. "Renxue, I-" "Shut up!" Bai tried to explain but was quickly interrupted by Renxue''s angry shout "Don''t you dare to call me with his voice! I won''t let you continue tarnishing him, not even cinders will be left when I finish with you!" Renxue looked at her saber "You might be able to affect my saber as it was forged using your place. But you know?" The saber disappeared in her ?h?st "I don''t need it against you!" Renxue''s mark at her forehead shined brightly. From the suns, sunlight fell bathing Renxue with a golden-red light. "!" The golden halo over her head burning brightly. Renxue''s armor started shining brightly, flames surging an enveloping her, turning her body lava-red in color, greatly boosting her attack and defense power. Holy flames started to accumulate over her hands, her hands shining with raging flames. Renxue''s body flashed, instantly appearing over Bai at a far greater speed than before, thrusting her punch over Bai. Bai was only able to react thanks to his eyes which have seen the essence over her attack. Gray Chaos aura exploded from his sword "!" Using the primordial energy of Chaos, Bai boosted his strength to the maximum, slashing at Renxue''s hands. "Clank!" Bai''s eyes opened widely shocked. Renxue had opened her right hand, gripping Bai''s blade completely unharmed. Without stopping, Renxue was already punching with her left hand. Renxue''s flames pierced over Bai''s aura, unperturbable even by Bai''s Chaos "Boom!" The punch hit over Bai''s stomach, exploding in flames, shooting Bai''s body over a kilometer before Bai could stop, piercing his sword over the ground. Bai''s armor was all scorched, the raging flames didn''t extinguish, even now threatening him to burn him alive. Bai needed to keep focussed over them, avoiding them to expand. Renxue approached Bai "You use strange energy, instead of divine power, it something more primal, just like Angel said" Renxue stated "However, it didn''t change the fact that you are too weak. Lacking power and divine techniques, all depending on your own strength." "You could disturb a third class god and maybe draw against a second class, but I am too powerful and stable for you to affect me." Renxue deducted "I reborned as a God King!" Divine energy surged from Renxue''s body, it was so powerful than Bai could feel himself suppressed by it, almost falling to his knees. "Renxue!" Bai shouted gritting his teeth "I am Bai! I had absorbed the God Sword becoming a god myself." "Don''t use his voice!" Renxue shouted angrily "Your lies are useless" Renxue looked down coldly at Bai "Your meager divinity mixed with primal energy won''t trick anyone. I will finish this now!" Renxue started floating, a golden holy aura exuding from her. She extended both hands over the suns "Purify Heaven and Earth!" A golden light fell from the suns over Renxue''s body, her lava-red armor, exploding in flames. These flames changing its red color, becoming a dignified golden. More than fire, they were condensed holyness in flame form. The golden flames started growing, forming a giant angel with Renxue form around her "" Renxue thrust her arms forward, shooting the flames around her, a angel made of flames descending over Bai. Bai found his hand unconsciously trembling in front of such attack. Before his eyes, the attack erased all existence, lines and chaos disappeared being purified in front of it, only a holy aura leaving from its trail. Fear started invading Bai''s mind, Renxue was too overwhelming. Even having ascended to a god strength, he was only a recently created one. Without any legacy nor train, he was far weaker and unfamiliar with divine powers than Renxue who had been guided and taught about her powers by a previous god''s experience, without talking about her King God level of power. Bai''s position had a great potential of growth due to the all experience and faith recollected. However, potential didn''t matter if it couldn''t be exploited. He needed time. Bai twirled his sword"!" The gray aura started spinning over Bai''s sword, countless flocks of Chaos energy orbited around, creating something like an asteroid ring around his sword. Bai stabbed forward, the Chaos Storm shooting towards the descending golden flamed angel. Both attacks clashed, golden and gray aura exploding everywhere. However, it wasn''t an even match. Renxue''s attack was only stopped for an instant before it started descending again, completely purifying it. Even with all his strength, Bai was unable to stop it, even knowing that Renxue hadn''t used all of her. Bai couldn''t continue, the grip over his sword slipping away, the angel approaching him. "Boom!" Just as the angel was about to hit Bai, black aura exploded in front of him, clashing with the golden aura from the angel and momentarily stopping it. Two figures had appeared, at the left a cute little boy with a furred black and white coat covering his body and at his right a cute little girl with a black gothic dress. Both of them about 6 years old and were holding each other hands. "Quite the pitiful side here. Giving up so quickly and quietly dying here. Don''t fall so low, Bai" One of them said with a proud and overbearing voice that created a great contrast with his cute image. "Rinrin, don''t be a meanie with big brother!" The little girl puffed her cheeks reprimanding at the little boy. Bai blinked his eyes in surprise "Mayi. Fenrir" These two were, of course, Bai''s pseudo spirit souls, the Million Catties Ant Empress, Mayi, and the World Devourer Wolf, Fenrir. "We will let you our strength, big brother!" Mayi shouted excited. "Whatever" Fenrir said with a little disdain "Be thankful towards us and don''t dare to die." Mayi glanced with a little of killing intent at Fenrir who retracted a little before her gaze. ""Beat her!"" Both of them clenched their hand, turning themselves black aura and returning inside Bai. Bai could feel immense energy from his inside, Mayi and Fenrir''s powers invading all his body. "AHHHHHH!" Black aura exploded from Bai''s body, clashing with the angel which refused to fell back. "!" "Shinx!" A slash came from the black aura, absorbing it and everything around it. "Boom!" The angel was cut in half exploding in golden aura. The explosion couldn''t expand much before it returned, flapping over himself, being absorbed again by the sword that created the same slash that destroyed the angel, a figure standing over there. Complete black armor with a slender black sword over his hands. 10 spirit rings raised over him, 9 red wrapped in a black glow and a pitch-black one that exuded a powerful divine aura from it. His rings and armor all surrounded by a thick black aura that exuded a great d?s?r? to eat, of hunger. It was the descend of a new god, Gluttony God Bai had appeared! Chapter 242 - Misunderstandings Mayi had already become the Gluttony Goddess sometime before. However, due to her connection with Bai and fusing with him, her divinity was absorbed and canceled by the God Sword. Losing her godhood state and being restringed to her by the God Sword. After Bai had absorbed the God Sword, he not only had absorbed its faith becoming the God Sword. But he also broke the God Sword restrictions, his body being able to receive faith and in consequence Mayi. In her fight against Bai and Fenrir in the mental world, her body was shredded by Fenrir who unconsciously absorbed some of the restricted faith of her, making Fenrir part of the Gluttony legacy. Both together being able to use the Gluttony power. This divinity plus the Life aura invoked by Bai and Lingling''s encounter not only recover their form that was damaged when they sacrificed for Bai to use the forbidden Divine Soul Sword, but they even had an evolution. Mayi''s race evolved to a Milion Cattied Ant Empress, the complete peak of the ants'' spirits that could almost call Ant Goddess. While Fenrir could finally control his absorption powers and the energy behind them, consolidating his body and even being able to ?ssume human form. About the form of children that they took? Mayi liked to be the cute little sister of his big brother Bai and Fenrir, even if he won''t directly say and grumble about it, wanted to be closer to Mayi, his form following her. However, without a physical body and only being pseudo spirit souls, even with their new evolutions, they were highly restricted. To unleash their divinity, they used themselves as transmitters, using Bai''s Oreo spirit as the conductor, transmitting their divinity and position to Bai, making him the next Gluttony God. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bai could sense the strength running all over his body. His hair shortening and becoming pure black with his eyes. Thinking of resembling a little at Paul''s form, gave a small chuckle at Bai. Unlike with his Sword God position that was completely new, Gluttony had a long history and experience behind. Divine energy ran across Bai''s body following a preset path, teaching him the use, power, techniques, and experiences of the Gluttony God. Bai found himself with great luck as even his Godly Sword reacted. Thanks to his sword spirit main property being absorption, his comprehension about it was enormous. Gluttony in a sense was very similar, much more extreme, kind of absorption, making Bai''s sword which its base was Bai''s sword spirit, greatly compatible with the Gluttony''s divine energy, making it an almost perfect conductor. It couldn''t compare with an ultra divine weapon specifically for the Gluttony God, but it was much better than a casual, even if specified, divine weapon. With his new power and weapon, Bai would be able to face the God King but weaponless Renxue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Renxue was slowly blinking her eyes surprised, her mind running at full speed. Her attack being destroyed didn''t shock her. She didn''t exactly know the strange techniques or hidden strength of his rival and that wasn''t even she using all her strength. What surprised her was his change of aura. Over Renxue''s mind replayed her conversation with the previous Angel Goddess, the explanation of the God Sword. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Ning Bai is already taken by the False Sword God..." "Who is the False Sword God?" Renxue asked. "He is the immortal accumulation of countless sword souls during millions of years" Angel said "He is not good or evil as he is formed by too many minds to be able to be described by a sole word. The only thing that pushes him forward is becoming stronger. Accumulating even more swordmaster''s essence to do it. We cannot act against him as he never goes against the world order" "Once someone is chosen, his destiny is fixed. He would never be able to absorb any faith, being impossible for him to become a god" Angel told. "I will bring with me!" shouted Renxue with some hopes "He doesn''t need to be a god, I had the power of a God King, I will bring with me to the Divine Realm!" "It is impossible" Angel looked at her with pity and sadness at her face "That false god goes against our divinity. That boy will not be able to leave his influence, never being able to cross the path over the Divine Realm, without mattering how strong is your divinity." "You tricked me!" Renxue shouted in tears "You always knew it, you used Bai for your own gain. You hid it from me to create the so important feelings for my advance. But so what?!" Renxue shouted angrily "You made me aware that I love him, only to know that I can''t be with him." Renxue made a sad face "I know him, he won''t give up, he will continue forward to his end." Renxue clenched her hands in fury "I will get my vengeance for him." "Do not let yourself be blind by fury and grief" Angel tried to calm her "I hid it for your own good, but I will accept my fault. Once you ascend, I will accept any punishment that you see convenient" Angel said before disappearing. "I will exterminate every swordmaster in the continent, forbidding even naming the word ''sword''. I will make that faker suffer!" she said in fury. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Renxue knew without any doubt, that in front of her was a god. The divine aura around Bai was unmistakable of a god, not like the one before where it was mixed with primal. The evilness from Bai''s aura should be from a 1st class Sin God, the hunger that could be sensed, making him the Gluttony God. "How could it be possible?" Renxue slowly said with her mouth wide opened. "It could be?" "Bai!!!!" For the first time in the fight, Renxue called Bai for his name. Bai looked up towards Renxue a little shocked and confused. The holy around her had become much more powerful than before, but the furious look in her face had disappeared, being replaced by a beautiful smile, happiness in her voice. "You''re Bai!" Renxue stated "You became a god" He quickly realized that most probably Renxue''s misunderstanding about the God Sword had been solved. He didn''t know why but now Renxue seemed to trust him. Bai didn''t know how to react now "Of course, who do you take me for?" Finally, he answered with a smirk in a mocking tone. "Of course" Renxue smiled even brighter "You won''t lose against that faker" There was a moment of silence, any of them knowing how they should react now. Renxue''s fury had disappeared with her will to kill Bai, but they were in mid of war, each one in a different side, their fight possibly being able to decide the outcome. What they should do now, stop? Continue fighting? "Bai" It was Renxue the first to break the silence "Do you remember what you asked me to do the first time we met?" Bai thought about it, realizing Renxue''s intention "Rather than having a pleasant talk while drinking tea what will you say of a little spar?" Renxue smiled at Bai remembering even the exact words from that day "Let''s finish this as we started. Let''s fight. Just like last time, the loser must do whatever the other says" Renxue''s wings extended, exuding a strong holy aura as she charmingly smiled "Of course, this time I won''t restrain myself!" A grin appeared over Bai''s face "Bring it on!" Black aura exploding from his body. Chapter 243 - Renxue vs Bai Renxue spread her wings, the sky turning golden around her "Take this!" Over the golden sky, tens of golden red suns appeared. "!" The suns started brighter, scorching flames surging from them, each one of them falling towards Bai. "I will devour it" Bai calmly clenched his sword, black aura surging from it. However this time, the aura seemed more viscous "!" Bai swung his sword upwards, the sword letting a trail of dense black water, creating something like a black water veil over Bai. From every direction, the suns clashed to Bai''s veil, exploding in flames. However, they couldn''t penetrate over it, all the flames being absorbed by that viscous ''soup''. Bai tilted his sword, twisting changing its direction, pointing to the ground, Bai stabbed his sword on it "!" Black aura surged from Bai''s sword, transmitting over the ground. "Crack!" Black spikes cracked open the ground surging upwards. They continuously grew over, more spines surging from the other as they climb their way towards Renxue. In an instant, 500 square meters of black forest of ''fishbones'' was created trying to pierce over Renxue. Seeing the spikes approaching, Renxue smiled placing her hands over her ?h?st "I accept my feelings" A radiant golden light surged from her ?h?st, her Angelic Saber appearing at her right hand. Absorbing Renxue''s holy aura, the saber trembled in joy, seemingly to be celebrating. Bai instantly could feel it. The saber was far stronger than before. Before, there had been some kind of rejection between Renxue and her saber, Bai exploding that weakness to take control of the sword. However, now thanks to Renxue''s change of feelings, abandoning her anger and taking over the good feeling that let her past the last angel trial, the saber was completely in resonance with her. That wasn''t a sword that Bai even in his Sword God state could control, that saber was one with her. The saber started eagerly absorbing sunlight, golden flames surging from it "Purify Heavens" Renxue slowly spun her body, tracing a single line around her with her saber. "!" From the traced line, golden flames surged, exploding all over the sky in a scorching zone. All the oxygen was transformed into golden flames. The black spikes couldn''t resist the golden fire that started purifying them of their divine energy, disintegrating them. A black ray crossed over the golden flames. Bai didn''t wait for his attack to finish. Just as he unleashed Fish Dish, he directly charged against Renxue flapping his black wings that again resembled bat ones, all his body exuding a great black aura that tried to devour heavens. "" Bai''s sword started growing, becoming 5 meters long, a great d?s?r? of devouring all over it. The sword eagerly devoured the golden flames around Bai not letting any burn him. "Renxue!" Bai swung his giant sword over Renxue, unstoppable by the golden flames. A light grin unconsciously appeared over Renxue''s lips, her eyes shined brightly "!" For an instant, the golden flames that covered the sky stopped still. Then, instantly all of them disappeared, absorbed by Renxue''s saber. The saber started shining brightly with golden flames, growing becoming 2 meters long, its power reaching a new level. Renxue swung her saber over Bai. "Boom!" Both swords clashed, golden and black aura surging in every direction. None of them being able to push over the other. Both tilted their swords "Clank!" "Clank!" "Clank!" In an instant, more than tens of strikes were interchanged. After each strike, the quickly prepared for the next, each strike stronger than the one before. Bai''s sword continued devouring the energy of his surroundings while Renxue saber was continuously being nourished by both suns. The sky and earth trembled before their divine power, seemingly to the world collapsing around them. Bai''s eyes glinted, he blocked one of Renxue''s slash, he twisted his wrist making Renxue''s saber follow his blade, at the same time that he positioned in a stab guard. Over Bai''s vision, a black line appeared, an opening! Bai''s sword exploded in black aura, that was stopped by Renxue''s golden flames, returning to his usual form. Bai stabbed forward following the line "!" Bai''s black sword shot forward, becoming a thin black torrent of liquid. Renxue smiled seeing the attack "!" Before the torrent could hit her, tens of golden-red suns appeared all around her. The torrent pierced over, but instead of piercing Renxue''s body, a golden-red sun had replaced her, being devoured by Bai''s torrent. "Jumping towards the 8th dish. I thought you will go in order" Renxue joked smiling brightly as her body flickered, appearing and disappearing over the tens of suns, each sun was a possible teleport spot. While continuously throwing golden fireballs towards Bai. "The order is important when eating, but it''s most important to choose according to the needs. I will show you my menu, you!" Black aura surged from Bai''s sword that starting cracking all over. "!" Bai''s sword broke down in thousand of shreds shooting all around him. The black pieces danced all around Bai, seemingly beautiful sakura petals. It made a beautiful and lethal stamp, and slowly black dance that devoured even the air. Renxue''s fireballs were instantly devoured by them. Renxue''s eyes shined with joy, she flicked all over the suns, avoiding Bai''s attack. However, Bai''s ''Salad'' was quickly devouring all the suns, quickly leaving her without escape. Just as the last sun was devoured and the attack was about to reach Renxue "You ate too much, Bai. Be aware to not have indigestion" Renxue grinned. "My energy is not so easily devoured" A golden light started surging from the interior of the black dancing fragments. "Oh, fu?k!" Bai cursed while grinning. "I dare you to eat it. !" Renxue snapped her fingers. From each fragment, the suns that weren''t completely absorbed, expanded over with a great shining, becoming enormous suns. "BOOOM!" All the fragments exploded causing a great explosion, swallowing over 5 kilometers area completely avoiding Renxue''s position. "You won''t die for something so weak. Eh? Bai." Renxue smiled, she flapped her wings, creating a great burst of air that dispersed all the smoke from the explosions, revealing a black cocoon floating over the sky. The black cocoon seemed hard yet soft and a cold aura was emitted from it. "Crack!" The cocoon collapse revealing an almost uninjured Bai. "How could I die for that? Who do you take me for?" Bai grinned. In the last moment, Bai had recovered a part of his ultra divine weapon and unleashed his , creating a protecting cocoon around him that absorbed all the attacks from every direction. The truth was that Bai had been in a dangerous situation. If Bai had not recovered enough fragments or he had taken one affected by Renxue''s suns, he would have been greatly injured. He was able to precisely take the b?r?ly enough to withstand the attack. "Great!" Renxue brimmed in happiness "The warm-up had finished. Let''s get serious!" Renxue lifted her saber, a translucent golden light column descending over it from both suns. The saber started shined brighter, a great strength accumulating over it. "This is in honor of you, Bai" Renxue smiled spreading her wings that curled around her saber. "Shing!" A blindly light surged from it. Then, revealing an over 500 meters long golden saber over Renxue''s hands. It exuded an incredible holy and fire power, enough to instantly purified a 5-kilometer aura around her. "!" Renxue swung her saber, descending it towards Bai. Bai gulped sensing the attack approaching him. This wasn''t simply divine energy, it also contained a great qi. It was an incredible sword attack that had reached a peak. Even if the divine energy was taken from it, Bai couldn''t equal this holy intent, even with all the experience obtained after becoming the Sword God. Renxue had undoubtedly surpassed Bai in Holy Sword comprehension. Bai focused all his Devour will over his sword, a strong black aura shooting from it, absorbing all his surroundings and creating a complete void over 5 kilometers around him. Bai backed the sword, a black pillar shooting from it, the sword growing, creating a giant pitch-black sword over 500 meters long, great hunger and devouring strength could be sense from it. "!" Bai swung upwards his sword. Both swords crashed. Heaven and Earth shook over them, the mountains were evaporated over their clash, nothing being able to exist near them. "Ahhh!" "Ahhh!" Both shouted focusing their strength over their swords, pushing forward, increasing even further the energy from the swords. "BOOOOOOOM!" A great explosion flashed, non of the sword being able to last more against the other, destabilizing and exploding. Bai and Renxue being shot over opposite directions. In mid-air, both of them recovered from the impact, spreading their wings finally stopping. Their armors were somewhat dented, their hair a little burned, but none grave injure could be found in their body. Even the damaged parts were quickly recovering at a visible speed. Renxue recovering under the sunlight while Bai using the devouring energy to recover. "Great!" Renxue shouted happily "You''re great, Bai. I always liked fighting against you. You are the one that pushes me forward" Golden aura exploded over Renxue "Take my strongest attack!" Renxue clenched her saber that started shining brightly. Then, she threw it towards the sky, more specifically towards the new secondary sun. The saber flashed in golden flames disappearing over the sky. "Receive my own divinity, Bai!" The second sun seemed to have absorbed the saber, it grew to double its size and becoming pure gold in color, bathing all the continent with a thick holy light. "Brrrrrr!" The air started trembling. The second sun quickly increasing its size, his aura strengthening. No! It wasn''t growing, it was getting nearer, it was descending! Renxue swung her arms, pointing at Bai "!" The immense golden sun started falling over Bai. Looking at the sun, it was so big that it was even difficult to see its size, but it was over 10 kilometers. Over 10 kilometers of pure holy divinity fell over Bai. This was a God-King rank power, this was Renxue''s evolved strength, her sense completely controlling nature. Chapter 244 - Clash of Feelings Sensing the attack approaching him, Bai knew that no normal attack of the Gluttony God could stop it. "It''s not like it matters to me, but somehow it would affect my pride" Bai said for himself "Gluttony Forbidden Technique!" "Buah!" Bai vomited a little of black blood, forcing his divine energy to flow inversely. A monstrous quantity of black aura surged from Bai''s body, all of it concentrating all of it over his sword. Bai quickly sliced multiple times the air in front of him, drawing a mysterious pattern "!" From the pattern, a big mouth surged over it, following by a strange body a mix of ant, wold and a round strange beast. Only its mouth was over a kilometer long with sharp teeth, all of it formed by a black aura. The aura of it was incredibly strong, hunger, anger, and immense energy could feel from it. However, it somewhat lacked the absorption of the Gluttony usual techniques. That was it. wasn''t a forbidden technique due to damaging the user in any way. It was because it used the previous devoured energy, using it plus the Gluttony''s energy, to unleash the strongest attack towards the enemy. Throwing up all that he ate was for Gluttony the greatest of the losses, giving up his own sin. As such, he banned this technique considering it as forbidden, even doubting to use in a life and death situation. Bai didn''t matter too much using the stored energy, but somehow it was like tainting the name of the Gluttony God. Nevertheless, he decided to use, his mind all focused on destroying Renxue''s attack. The black beast climbed over to the sun opening his mouth widely, the strength over it becoming monstrous. Not only Bai had put all the Gluttony divine energy into it, but it was also formed by Renxue''s absorbed energy and all the energy ate and collected by Mayi and Fenrir. The black beast and the golden sun collided "GRRRRRRRRRR!" The black beast shouted in hunger, parts of his body exploding and pushing him forward, slowly pushing the golden sun up, winning over it. "I really enjoy fighting you, Bai" Renxue smiled "You always push me forward to greater heights. But-" her wings extended "I won''t surrender so easily!" She flapped her wings charging against her own sun. Renxue easily pierced over the sun, cutting through it with her saber forward. As she was advancing, her armor and saber were shining brighter and more powerful, becoming blindly. Renxue was absorbing all the energy from the sun over her own body, boosting her strength to the maximum. "!>" All the sun was absorbed inside Renxue''s armor and saber, evolving it and making it now more resplendent, dignify and beautiful. She charged like if a mini sun towards the black beast and Bai. Seeing Renxue charging forward, Bai clenched his sword, he focused absolutely all his Gluttony strength over it "Devour!" He stabbed forward towards, throwing all the energy towards the black beast that started growing even more. Without the golden sun, the black beast charged madly towards Renxue wanting to shred her to pieces. "Vanish!" Renxue dashed forward, multiple times stabbing forward. She pierced over the black beast body, completely passing through it. "Grrrr!" Behind her, the black beast contorted falling to the ground surrounded by golden flames, its body consumed by them. Renxue continued charging forward, her eyes focused over Bai. Gray aura exploded from Bai''s sword enveloping him, Bai''s armor turning gray and his hair becoming longer and of gray color, returning to his Sword God. Bai had recovered his full energy, only having spent all of the Gluttony God. Both, Bai and Renxue, knew that this would be the last attack, both using all their strength. For it Bai decided to face her as the Sword God. Previously, he couldn''t even face Renxue when she wasn''t even using her weapon, making the Gluttony God far stronger. However, in the end, Bai preferred the Sword God position. It was newer, limitless and especially for him. It showed all his hard work over all these years, all the training and fightings while the Gluttony God was most about his luck and the true owners of it were Mayi and Fenrir. Bai clenched his sword, powerful gray energy flew over Bai''s sword."I''m not the same as before" It was true. Bai was too ignorant of godly or primordial powers before, too encased in the idea of human even when he had broken through it. For him, having become the Gluttony God and using its powers had become an invaluable experience to familiarize with his new power, his own comprehension reaching a new level. "Chaos will fall!" Bai''s sword twisted, it seemed to open itself and at the same time engulf itself. The material like steel disappeared, being replaced by an impossible blade. It was extremely difficult to describe. It was like an ethereal blade formed by a storm, an abysm opened from it that seemed to contain strange energy, familiar and completely unfamiliar at the same time. Like all elements put together in one place, but at the same time, none of them. It was pure Chaos. The energy that governed before the creation of the universe, an energy that laws and concepts couldn''t restrict. It contained all Bai and God Sword''s experiences. "!" Bai''s sword was released, unleashed pure Chaos everywhere, seemingly to alter matter itself. "Renxue!!!!!!!" Bai charged forward with his sword at hand, surrounded by pure Chaos over him, as he stabbed forward to Renxue. "Bai!!!!!!!" Renxue burst with holy power, further increasing her speed as she dashed towards Bai, stabbing toward him, leaving a trail of golden energy behind her. Both of their eyes shined brightly, smiles surging from their lips. For them now, they were simply fighting. It didn''t matter the situation where they stood or the future that will occur. They only focused on the fight that had evolved going beyond of spar, becoming an all-out battle. The only thing in their minds was to win. ""AHHHHHH!"" Both shouted focusing all their strength. They clashed each other, each stabbing forward the other. Both bodies flashed, crossing each other and passing through the other. Appearing with their backs looking at each other with a distance of 10 meters between each other. ""Buffff!"" Each of them expired air profoundly. "CLANK!" A great sound of sword clashing resounded everywhere. Bai and Renxue''s strength and speed were so great that time and space took a delay to show their effect. "BOOOOOM!" The space collapsed, the ground and air disappearing. In front of Bai and Renxue, a great slash was created cutting kilometers over the horizon, slicing the Douluo Continent in two, only leaving intact the area between each other. "BRRRRRR!" The earth trembled, rock and water filling the holes created by both cuts. However, their intent and aura perdured in them. "Hg!" Golden flames exploded over Bai''s body. Having reached his limit, Bai fell backward falling to the ground. "Ghr!" At the same time, Renxue vomited blood, Chaos having invaded all over her body. Her wings automatically folded, her armament lost completely its shine. Without any strength, she fell backward to the ground. "Puf!" Both fell over, landing in the same place only distanced by few centimeters, both of them without any energy with the sound of the aftermath of their attack as the background. In both faces, a happy smiled appeared, having truly enjoyed the fight. "Hahahahaha!" Bai started laughing, due to his injuries it was painful, but he couldn''t stop. "Hahaha!" Renxue reacted also laughing charmingly, tears falling her eyes with a mix of joy and pain. "S-stop!" She tried to say between laughs. Bai lifted his face and looked to the sky "At the end, we truly finished as we started" "True" Renxue smiled cleaning her tears "At that time, both of us lost. You lost the fight and I lost due to unleashing my Seraphim. This time it seems that any of us can''t continue, without winners, there''s only losers." "Yeah" Bai smiled tenderly remembering that time, and looking back at all the times with Renxue. Even the bad moments, trying to kill each other, he couldn''t avoid thinking as precious and tender memories, showing their relationship. "Bai" Renxue called him serious "As you lost, you must do whatever I say" Bai smirked "Following it, I can also command you whatever I want." "I don''t mind" Renxue said seriously "Bai. I want you to always be with me. I don''t mind what will happen, I will be always with you, stay at your side, and live eternity together. Even following the other death" Renxue breathed in "I love you, Bai. We had our moments, we fought against each other, I lied to you and even to myself. With you I always had doubts, but I am sure now. I love you, Bai. Is the only feeling that I don''t have any doubt" "I hate you" Bai said seriously "You lied to me for 10 years, tried to injury my family and kill me. You are my greatest enemy" Renxue made a sad but understanding face (Of course, how could he loves me too. I always lied to him) She though. "So my order for you is..." Bai stated "If you want to be always together, nNever hide anything from me." Bai smiled while Renxue blinked in surprise. "I liked all the time I spent with you. That time were one of my most precious memories, the only ones that I truly could experiment a normal youth and happy moments without minding anything. I feel kind of silly for not realizing that you were always a woman. I thought about it many times and negated it, but somehow I truly wanted you to be and be always together with you as much more than friends." "Yeah" Bai scoffed "I am silly. Even when I hate you FOR WHAT YOU DID, I never could hate you. My heart ached when thinking about you, making it painful when I tried to kill you. I also love you" Bai said "I love you, Renxue!" Tears of joy started filling Renxue''s eyes, falling uncontrollably over her checks. "Let''s always be together, Xuexue" Bai said. "Yes!" Renxue smiled brightly. Both of them let their head fell, leaning over each other and closing their eyes, simply sleeping like this while their energy recovered, to tired to move. Chapter 245 - Renxues Desires Two hours passed before Bai and Renxue opened again their eyes and stood up. Their armors were almost repaired, with their energy nearing their peak. Perks of being a god and being able to freely use your element to recover your own energy. "Xuexue" Bai said seriously, holding Renxue''s both hands "Before completely accepting me, you must know that I have other women that I love and I want to be with them. I know that I am a bastard that don''t deserve any of you, but I love you all, I can''t abandon or negate any of you." Renxue glanced at Bai, some killing intent was in her eyes, but it wasn''t directed at him "One is the light girl, who are the others?" She asked with a cold voice. "Apart from Bai Chenxiang, you never met the other one. She is called Xie Lingling, is a very sweet and warm woman, I will introduce you later" Bai explained "But never forget it, Xuexue. I love you and this will never change even if I love the other. But you must promise me that you won''t try to injure them." Renxue kept her cold air, but finally she nodded "While you are always with me and love me, I will let those two be around. I won''t injure them" (At least permanently. I''ll need to show them who is the first in Bai''s heart) She thought with devil thought crossing her mind while in the exterior she was making a holy smile. "Thanks, Xuexue. You''re the best" Bai leaned over Renxue, lightly lifting her chin and kissing her. It was a slow, tender and warm kiss, nothing like the forced one that was their first. Before Bai''s tongue invasion, Renxue felt that she was about to melt, her legs started trembling as a little m??n left her mouth. Breaking the kiss, Renxue was panting finding air, showing how inexperienced she was in love. Her face was deep red. "You''re truly beautiful" Bai smiled ??r?ssing her cheek gaining a deeper shade of red from her "Don''t laugh at me, Bai" Bai was stunned, that red and pitiful look in her eyes with the holy nature of her form, plus the contrast with her usual character, created a powerful impression that made Bai''s heart skip a beat. His inner self shouting to take her in this instant. Bai breathed profoundly, calming himself, saying to himself that it was no time for this. "Xuexue" Bai looked directly at Renxue''s eyes with a serious face "What is your d?s?r? for this war?" "My d?s?r??" Renxue made a doubt face. "I will say it, this war is nothing important for me. Before, I thought about the implications of the war and searching for the peace of the continent, but I found what is important for me. I want to protect my family, making sure that they strive forward without being suppressed" Bai stated "I don''t really care who is the winner. If your d?s?r? is for the Spirit Empire to win and take over the continent, I will help with it. As I promised, I will be always at your side." Renxue made a thoughtful look and stayed quietly thinking for a minute. Renxue lifted her face looking at the sky "The only reason that I participated in this war is due to my grandfather. He was the only that showed me familiar love when I was little and I always respected him. His dream was to extend our name and the Angel Goddess to all the continent, for this purpose, he decided to invade and unify all the continent." "If it is what you want, I don''t mind making you the empress of all" Bai took Renxue''s hands, warmly ??r?ssing them. Renxue smiled warmly but shook her head "No. My grandfather was wrong with his methods" Renxue said "Angel will not be happy with it. We had abandoned the true purpose of the angels, to fight evil forces and warmly illuminated this world with our holy light." She made a very determined look "I want to stop the war, disband the Spirit Empire, creating a new organization. One that will make the world a better and brighter place where the people can''t forget the suffering or at least lowering it." "It might be a silly dream, but it is what I really d?s?r?" Renxue smiled lightly. Bai nodded "Let''s do it. Together, who would dare to stop us" Renxue nodded smiling brightly "Yes!" Suddenly, Renxue thought of something else and made a downcast expression "Bai, one last thing. I want to talk with my mother. She always avoided looking at me, the only few times, only looking me with contempt. I want to resolve it, I want to listen to her reason, learning why she did it. After grandfather and you, she is the only mind demon that I need to clean." Bai could explain Bibi Dong''s reasons due to his previous life memories, but he decided to not do it. This was something about Renxue and her mother, not some novel''s characters. The only that had the right to tell Renxue should be her own mother. "I''ll help you" Bai stated "I will make sure that you are able to talk with your mother alone." "Thanks, Bai" Renxue smiled "Let''s go to finish this senseless war." Both spread their wings, flapping them flying towards the battleground. In front of Spirit City, at the Holy plain the battle started again at full strength. Once Renxue had left the battlefield by the mysterious gray flash, a great intense strength could be felt as they fight, making everyone to know that the gray flash was in true another god. With the intense battle of two gods, humans were frightened to even fight. In the end, a god could easily turn the side of any battle, the winner of the battle of gods would undoubtedly be the final winner. However, after half an hour without any divine energy detected, the allied forced started pushing forward, attacking the Spirit Empire while they were without their goddess. Even if their goddess didn''t die, it was clear that at least it should be injured. They must take advantage of this fact to decimate the rival army. Without Renxue''s Truth, the Spirit Empire found the tables had turned again, against them. Finding themselves highly suppressed by the allied forces. Golden Crocodile Douluo seeing the situation it wasn''t in their favor was about to command withdraw, escaping towards Spirit City. He wanted to minimize the damage at the City as after the loss of Qian Daoliu, the holy and divine protection that surrounded the city had been erased, making the city almost unprotected without tall walls and fortifications. But, at least, they would gain a little time for Renxue to return. Just as he was about to command, two figures appeared over the horizon, a gray and a golden one. They had such a great speed that instantly appeared over the battlefield, showing their faces and divines aura across the battlefield. They were Bai and Renxue, each one next to the other. Their presence was strong that the soldiers instantly stopped fighting. Golden Crocrodile Douluo''s face illuminated with hope seeing the golden figure. With the older elder priests alive, he bowed towards her "Young mistress!" "Elder Yin" Renxue nodded at him. She turned to all the priests and the soldiers fighting in the battle, holy aura extending over her. Making "There''s no need for more sacrifices, this war shall stop now!" She commanded with great dignity, her voice resounding all over the battlefield. "You want to stop it just like this, you are too naive Renxue" A powerful and evil voice resounded scoffing, clashing with Renxue''s holiness. Her aura started covering all the battlefield, causing people to tremble in fright, it was like a evil god had surged from hell. Looking at her, Renxue unconsciously said in shock and surprise "Mother?!" She was, in fact, Renxue''s mother, Bibi Dong. She had broken through, reaching godhood, becoming the Rakshasa Goddess. Bibi Dong looked with contempt at Renxue, coldly saying "Never call me that, Renxue" "What are you doing here, Bibi Dong?!" Yin Eyu asked, not being able to discern her intentions. "Like Renxue, I will stop this battle. However" She smiled with a devilish and charming smile "No one will leave alive from here!" "Agh!" "Hgrr!" Shouts and cries came from the 4 remaining elder priests, except Golden Crocodile Douluo, all of them being impaled by dark spikes at their heart, instantly dying. "What''s this?!" Golden Crocodile shouted in fury and confused. "Cr!" Like appearing from nowhere, a hand covered by black gloves surged from Golden Crocodile''s ?h?st, holding his heart. An arm had completely empaled Golden Crocodile''s body, taking his heart. He was an average tall but handsome man with shining short black hair and eyes that were hidden by black glasses, his facial features were cold and sharp, not showing any emotion in them. He was wearing a long black coat that covered all his body, his hands were covered by black leather gloves and over his feet, he was wearing black leather boots. Surrounding him, there were 10 spirit rings, the 10th one pure black that shadowed his other 10.000 spirit rings. Even when it showed that he was a god, no aura could be felt from him, closing your eyes was enough to think that there was no one there. "Y-you!" Golden Crocodile cursed with his last strength "I should have known it, I should have killed you before, Xiaogang!" The black-coated man was in true, Yu Xiaogang who had become the Darkness God. "You are right" Xiaogang coldly said squeezing the heart in his hands, destroying it. The light in Golden Crocodile''s eyes was lost. Xiaogang pushed away the corpse that like a rock fell to the ground creating a little crater, completely dead. Darkness covered Xiaogang''s arm, not a single trace of blood remaining over it. "What are you doing!?" Shouted Renxue stunned. "You don''t understand it yet?" Bibi Dong scoffed "All of you will die now. Xiaogang!" "Of course" Xiaogang nodded at Bibi Dong. Darkness appeared in front of him, Xiaogang extended his right hand over the darkness, extracting a dark book from it. The book shined with a dark light, strange runes formed by pure darkness were written all over it. At the cover, it could be read "10 Great Core Spirit Competencies". Xiaogang opened the book or grimoire would be a better name to describe it. In the first page, it was written "1st edition." Followed by a dedicatory "To Bibi Dong. This is all my knowledge, but it would never surpass my love for you." This was in truth Xiaogang''s divine tool. Taking as a base the most important for him and absorbing the powers of the Darkness God to be created. It was a combination of his ambition of knowledge and his love towards Bibi dong, being the first book that he wrote and gifted to her. Xiaogang extended the grimoire over his palm, its pages passing away by an invisible force as the darkness around it grew "No light shall exist. World. Fall to darkness!" The grimoire started shining brightly with black color. The black lines patters around the grimoire extended over the book towards outside, expanding and covering all the sky. "" The pure darkness lines shined brightly, activating a divine formation. Black clouds of pure darkness accumulated over them, covering Heaven and Earth, the sun disappearing and any light being swallowed by them, making it difficult to even see your surroundings. This day, the continent fell in pure darkness, this day would be remember as the day that darkness swallowed the world, the Darkest Day. Chapter 246 - Darkest Night "There''s no escape. All of you will die here!" Bibi Dong stated as purple aura surged from her scythe. "Xuexue" Bai called Renxue "I will take care of Xiaogang, I will keep him busy while you fight and talk with your mother." Renxue nodded, her sight fixed over Bibi Dong. Bai clenched his sword, he flapped his wings dashing towards Xiaogang. Bai stabbed forward with his sword, drawing little circles with the tip "" An enormous gray tornado formed purely by sword qi shot towards Xiaogang. It didn''t clash against him, instead is encased him inside, in the eye of the storm, blocking Xiaogang''s escape routes. Without stopping, Bai lifted his sword, a multicolored aura shooting from it as it condensed all the sword intents at the same time "!" Bai''s sword will condensed, 30 giant sword, each one with a completely different intent, appeared at his back. Bai swung downwards his sword, all the giant swords slashing at Xiaogang like a giant claw towards him. Looking at the attack, Xiaogang was calm. He closed his grimoire, taking it with her left hand. He lifted his right hand clashing with the swords. Just as the swords were about to hit the hand, a shield of pure darkness danced over Xiaogang stopping the attack. Bai kicked the air, cutting the distance between them, appearing over Xiaogang. Bai stabbed forward, spinning his sword, all the ethereal swords twisting and being absorbed by it "". Like a multicolored tornado, Bai charged towards Xiaogang. Xiaogang crossed his hand, encasing himself in darkness, waiting for the clash. He was swallowed by the storm, pushing both away distancing from the battlefield. When they were over 50 kilometers, the storm finally broke down, releasing both of them. Bai glanced at Xiaogang "You let yourself be pushed" It had been too easy, almost without any resistance for his part. Xiaogang smirked "I promised Dong''Er the girl only for her. With both of us thinking the same why I would negate a ride." Bai turned his face towards Renxue''s position with a worried look. If they wanted this, they must be prepared for it, knowing that they can win. Even when Renxue was stronger than Bai, Bai couldn''t help to worry about her "Be safe, Xuexue." Bai turned towards Xiaogang with a determined look, determined to finish him quickly to be able to support Renxue if necessary. Both of them kicked the ground, dashing forward the other, swords and darkness clashing each other. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Floating over the dark sky, Renxue and Bibi Dong glanced at each other, the golden aura from Renxue and the purple aura from Bibi Dongs, the only flames illuminating the darkness. Renxue pointed her saber at Bibi Dong "Surrender now. There''s no meaning in this fight, there''s no way for you to win." Bibi Dong scoffed "I see you too proud of yourself. I wouldn''t be so sure if I were you." "I know about you, about the Rakshasa God. The evil Death God. Our forces are complete opposites, making the stronger one highly suppress the other. I had advanced my godhood to the God-King level, there''s no way for you as a 1st class god to win over me!" Renxue stated confidently. "It might be, but you didn''t take into account our surroundings" Bibi Dong lectured. "Mere darkness won''t shadow my holiness" Renxue lifted her sword towards the sky. Suddenly, her face contorted in shock, discovering that her divine sense was blocked, unable to reach her source, the Sun. "H-how could it be?" "Shocked? Little girl" Bibi Dong grinned devilishly "What you said is true. However, this is not a simple darkness. It forms a divine formation previously prepared all across the continent, enough powerful of completely block any divine sense from it, not even the Divine Realm can see us now. We were lucky to casually find inside Star Duo Forest inside some rune of the Dragon God." "It won''t be too effective against other gods that obtain their power from the earth, but against you who need the light of a faraway sun, it''s perfect" Bibi Dong smiled "Moreover, look down at us" She said signaling at the soldiers under them. Both armies had started fighting again. However, it wasn''t orderly with formations like before, instead, it was a full chaotic fight of all against all, people of the same side madly trying to kill the others. All of them, with blood-red eyes that shined with a low purple glow. The darkness not only contained Xiaogang''s darkness, but it also contained Rakshasa''s madness. "With all this death, madness and resentment, I am bathed in my own element. Here I am the strongest" Bibi Dong lifted her scythe, the purple aura around it strengthening absorbing the evil energy of the surroundings "You''re the one that doesn''t have any chance!" Purple sickles surged from Bibi Dong''s back, simulating something like wings. She flapped her wings, instantly appearing over Renxue, swinging her scythe against her. Without being able to access to the sun''s power, Renxue''s strength was highly limited, only being able to rely on her own divine energy, clearly, insufficient facing against Bibi Dong. The darkness around her was so powerful that even extending her Angelic Truth needed a great deal of energy. Renxue focused her divine energy and sword qi over her saber, surrounding with the maximum holy aura that she could. She twisted her saber blocking Bibi Dong''s saber. "Booom!" Purple aura exploded in sharp knives, Renxue surrounded by a golden light shot away crashing to the ground under her. With all the elements in Bibi Dong''s favor, their strengths were too disparate. Renxue found a little gash with blood over her hand, over it Rakshasa''s power tried to invade her. This was the special quality of Rakshasa. The wounds made by her will never close, moreover, Rakshasa''s aura had the nature of invading and contaminating the body internally, not even gods could easily free from it. Renxue focused her own aura, slowly purifying and extracting from her body Rakshasa''s energy, but not being able to heal it. She was lucky that it was a little wound, if it was bigger, she won''t be able to stop it. "Are you going to surrender so easily, Renxue?" Bibi Dong coldly stared at the ground "I expected more from my mistake" Renxue clenched her saber. "I will never surrender!" Holy aura exploded from her as she shot towards the sky again. "What can you do without your sun?" Bibi Dong scoffed. "Even at the end, I must thank you, Bai" Renxue whispered to herself. Renxue''s armor started shining brightly, the holy aura around her expanding, the air around her swallowing the darkness and turning gold, a big golden sun appearing at her back. "How can it be?" Bibi Dong was shocked at the appearance of the sun, Renxue shouldn''t have enough to create something so powerful that even caused her to feel fright. However, due to Renxue fighting against Bai, she had invoked her second sun over the continent, finally absorbing it over her armament. The sun had lost some strength in the fight against Bai, so Renxue had decided to keep it with her, feeding it with her own divine energy until it completely recovered, before releasing it again into the sky. This lucky action had permitted her to have access to the second sun as like Bibi Dong had told her, the darkness would only affect her senses outside the continent, not at all affecting at the sun in her armor. Even if Renxue wouldn''t be able to use her all strength, she was able to use a great deal. "You won''t stop me, mother!" Renxue shouted determined as the sun behind her shined brighter. Bibi Dong started trembling, her face twisting with pure rage "Never call me mother, mistake!" She charged swinging her scythe towards Renxue. Chapter 247 - Battle of Gods "You don''t have the right to call me that!" Bibi Dong sliced towards Renxue, her scythe surrounded by a lethal purple aura. Renxue lowered her body, backing up her saber. She thrust her saber hitting the scythe "Clank!" Even with her boost, Bibi Dong''s scythe was stronger, the saber unable to push over it. However, Renxue was already prepared, she quickly twisted her saber, slashing again the scythe. "Clank!" In an instant, Renxue had made two hits, the add of their strength surpassing Bibi Dong, pushing her scythe and creating an opening. "Why do you hate me so much?!" Renxue stabbed forward, her saber shining brightly as holy aura surged from the bottom increasing its speed. Dong spun her scythe with both hands, precisely blocking the tip of Renxue''s saber with the shaft. "Do you want to know?!" Bibi Dong supported her body over the scythe, twisting her h?ps and kicking Renxue''s right side. Unable to block it with her saber, Renxue folded her wings, using them as a shield to block the kick. Nevertheless, even blocking it and stopping the aura behind the kick, Renxue received the full blunt being pushed away more than 100 meters. Renxue spread her wings quickly recovering in mid-air, lifting his saber towards Bibi Dong, preparing for the next attack. "I will tell you!" Bibi Dong said coldly looking at Renxue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Shing!" "Clank!" "Shing!" Countless swords danced all over the battlefield, slicing towards Xiaogang. However, they were unable to pierce over the darkness surrounding him. Bai charged over, his sword shining with a bright gray light "" Bai swung his sword at an incredible speed, slicing the air, a net of unavoidable cuts enclosing over Xiaogang. "Clank!" "Clank!" Shadows formed over Xiaogang''s darkness claws, afterimages appeared all over as Xiaogang stopped each cut that could threaten him, all the others being consumed by darkness. Bai lifted his sword "Fuse!" Bai swung his sword downwards, all the swords at the surrounding fusing with it, forming a giant sword that slashed towards Xiaogang. Xiaogang lifted his arms, crossing them. Bai'' sword crashed with both dark claws, the sword breaking apart in thousands of sword, each one of them shooting towards Xiaogang''s openings. "Ahhhhh!" Darkness shot all over Xiaogang, a mass of darkness swallowing all the swords approaching towards him. Seeing it Bai, glanced over Xiaogang inquiring "What are you planning?" Xiaogang made a devil grin "This world would fall to darkness. Death and Darkness will reign over the continent, half of the population dying while the other half venerates and fear us!" Xiaogang''s black aura extended, it started condensing around him, forming multiple dark spears that glinted with consciousness and power "All will start with the sacrifice of that little angel!" The darkness spears shot towards Bai. Seeing the spears coming towards him, Bai kept a cool face, positioning his sword over his hip in an unsheathing stance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You, Renxue, are nothing towards me. Nothing more than a useless tool that had long its purpose. How could I considered you as my daughter?!" Bibi Dong said with contempt "Do you know why I approached that idiot of Qian Xunji? Only for power!" "I only loved two things in all my life. One is power and the other is Xiaogang." Bibi Dong explained "I sacrificed the latter for the former. With my talent, it was easy to become his student. Then, I only need to use my charms to quickly make that idiot fell in love with. He was so idiot, a little fawning and cutely act was enough to do it" Bibi Dong laughed "I never loved him, but he was the surest way to power, with him I have full access over Spirit Hall!" Renxue clenched her teeth in fury. Her father had always been a somehow holy presence in her memories, she couldn''t tolerate someone badmouth him and taint his image. "Then, suddenly, you appeared" Bibi Dong said coldly "I had all kind of methods to avoid pregnancy, but you somehow I got pregnant with you. Thinking that I had to keep something from him inside me for 9 months made me want to puke" She said with disgust "I never wanted you, but at least it completely cemented my position inside Spirit Hall. However..." She made a pause. "After 4 years, all your worth disappeared with a present from the gods" Bibi Dong explained with a small "That bastard went against Tang Hao and was greatly injured. In such state, the idiot wanted, from all the people, me at his side during his recovering. Seeing him so vulnerable and weak, I knew that it was the perfect opportunity" Bibi Dong grinned devilish "I killed him!" Renxue was completely stunned "Y-you killed father?" "Who else? Tang Hao had only advanced, and if that bastard was good at something is was running away" Bibi Dong made a bigger grin "Even now, I perfectly remember the poor bastard face contorting in pain and dying due to my poison, killed by my own hands." "With his death, I acquired all his power and position at Spirit Hall, not long before becoming the Supreme Pontiff" Bibi Dong explained "By that time, you were completely useless to me. Why I need a child of that bastard? A memory of the time with him that even now made me want to puke?" Bibi Dong face turned cold and serious "I would have killed you at that moment if it weren''t for that old geezer of Daoliu." Bibi Dong said with some anger in her voice "He had suspected me since then, keeping you closer to him, far from my fangs, protecting you." "Then, when you grew and decided that idiot plan of infiltration, I couldn''t help to laugh" Bibi Dong scoffed "You must have inherited the stupidity of your progenitor, who in their right mind would choose to abandon all the perks from Spirit Hall, to waste their life impersonating another. That''s a work for expendables pawns. I suppose that the old bastard accepted your silly idea, to put more distance between us. My strength was growing and it wouldn''t be long before I had the power to go against him, and decided to kill you." "B-bitch!" Renxue shouted furiously, clenching her teeth as her aura flared "Don''t badmouth dad or grandpa! They were much better than you!" "Hahahaha!" Listening to Renxue, Bibi Dong started laughing madly, even tears fell from her eyes "What a joke!?" She cleaned some tears of her face "Better than me you say? They are dead while I am the peak!" Purple aura shot over her "I have a supreme strength and even recovered my long lost love, Xiaogang. I have it all!" Bibi Dong glanced coldly at Renxue whose fury was reaching her peak "You know? I only have three regrets in my life. The first one is being away from Xiaogang all these years, but now that he is with me, it doesn''t really matter much as before" Bibi Dong explained "The second one is not killing with my own hands that old bastard of Qian Daoliu. Unfortunately, I would never be able to change it and it would remain forever as my regret. However, the second one I would repay it now" Killing Intent exploded over Bibi Dong, purple aura shooting from her scythe "You! You are my second regret and I will finish it here today. Die!" Bibi Dong charged towards Renxue, her scythe growing becoming 5 meters long, deathly sickles shooting over her back towards Renxue. Renxue clenched her saber tightly, even blood started surging from it by her strength, holy aura exploded around her "Bibi Dong!!!!" She shouted with fury, the golden-red sun behind her flashing brightly. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At his side, the other one was an extremely beautiful girl, seemingly 20 years old. She had a pair of beautiful shining brown eyes and a perfectly chiseled fair and white face. Her most distinctive features were her long hair and 4 big wings at her back, each of them shined brightly in multiple light like reflecting the light around her. More than a girl, she seemed a perfect statue formed by gems. She was surrounded by a yellow aura, that was changing to colder tones as she advanced, a pure light could be felt from it. Both of them had 10 spirit rings surrounding their body, the boy a shining blue one while the girl a shining yellow for their 10th ring. Both their faces were dead serious as they could sense the gods battling in front of them, increasing their speed to reach them. They were Sea God, Tang San, and Light Goddess, Bai Chenxiang. Due to some misunderstandings, they were greatly delayed, forced to fight against a furious Bo Saixi who wanted answers. In the end, they forced to kill her who faced death with tears and cries calling to Tang Chen. After that unfortunate and sad moment, Tang San was able to start his last trial, becoming the God Sea. Reaching the nearest battle, the could see a man surrounded by darkness facing against a young man with a sword, both of them fighting an intense fight, keeping the other cheek. Tang San and Chenxiang quickly realized who they were, Ning Bai and Yu Xiaogang. "Bai!!!" Chenxiang shouted in joy seeing again his lover and that he seemed to be fine. Listening to the voice, Bai turned towards her "Xiang?" he said with doubt. For an instant, distracting from his battle. This distraction proof to be fatal. "You shouldn''t distract in the middle of a battle" Someone whispered behind Bai. From the shadows, another Xiaogang had appeared. This one wore a grin in his face and held the Dark Grimoire, the divine weapon. The grimoire shined brightly opening at one of his pages" A dark pattern surged from the book surrounding Bai, darkness exploding from it covering Bai in a black sphere. The black sphere that completely encompassed Bai, started compressing, becoming smaller, finally disappearing with a silent *puff*, Bai and his presence disappearing without any trail. "Bai!!!!!!!!!!" Renxue shouted again, this time her voice was full of sadness and despair. Chapter 248 - Teacher and disciple The Xiaogang surrounded by darkness in front of Bai looked at the one holding the grimoire "Good job, Pao." The truth behind the second Xiaogang was that he was his spirit San Luo Pao. After Xiaogang reached godhood, San Luo Pao had transformed becoming his shadow, being able to imitate his powers and even use his divine tool. "I thought that he would never fall for it" Pao holding the grimoire turned towards Chenxiang and Tang San, grinning at them showing triangular sharp teeth of a predator "I need to thank at the little lady. Hahahaha" "Bastard!" Chenxiang charged against, her body flashed, the yellow aura around her instantly turning violet, a translucent rapier appearing over her hands, shining brightly. Seeing her approaching, Pao''s grin became even wider. Pao opened the grimoire to a specific page "!" Black smoke surged from the grimoire, completely surrounding Pao''s body. Chenxiang thrust her rapier"" Chenxiang''s body flashed, instantly appearing 10 meters pass Pao''s position, turning to look at Pao''s state with a face full of anger. "Ahhh!" Pao shouted in pain a half meter hole appearing over his stomach, divining his body in two. Having reach godhood, Chenxiang''s techniques could finally show their true power. Speed, power and control had reached a completely new level, Chenxiang capable of absolutely controlling it. "Ahhh!" Pao contorted in pain "Ahh! Ah! Ha! Ha! Hahahahahah" Pao couldn''t resist it more and started laughing madly, using his hands to hold his vanished stomach "I can''t, I can''t keep it more. Hahaha!" He continued laughing, the darkness around his body twirled, accumulating over him, his body completely regenerating "Such a pitiful attack, what a good method to tarnish a god''s name." He laughed at Chenxiang. "Pao. Stop it, there is no need to laugh" Xiaogang scolded Pao. "Always so serious, Gg! You should learn to enjoy these little moments" Pao said waving his arms "I''ll take care of the little lady, you can take the other" The pages of the grimoire started passing "!" A formation started expanding from the grimoire, surrounding both Pao and Chenxiang in it, darkness started closing inside of them. "Oh, before I forgot. You might need this. I surely won''t" With a final grin, Pao closed the grimoire and hid it inside his black coat, before the darkness completely swallowed them, creating a black cocoon around Pao and Chenxiang where not even sense could go through it. "Do not play too much" Xiaogang lastly warned. He put his hand inside his coat and took the exact same grimoire. Xiaogang turned towards Tang San and hid the grimoire again "It seems like an eternity had passed since we saw last time. You have grown Tang San." Tang San kept a cool face, glancing at Xiaogang "What''s the meaning of this, master?" "Master?" Xiaogang smiled like remembering the past, before turning serious "There is no need for that word anymore. I am no longer in need of you. You can stop calling me master, as you are no longer my disciple." "How can you said this?!" Shouted Tang San shocked "All the time that we passed together, all that knowledge that you taught me. I wouldn''t be able to reach where I am today without your help. I consider you as a father. Teacher for a day, father for life." he emotionally said. "Very emotive and even with some truth in it" Answered Xiaogang "Both, fathers and teachers, teach for their experience and dreams, passing them to the next generation. My relation with you it never went more than that." Said coldly "I had a dream, the dream of making my name known and respectable to all the continent, my own clan regretting kicking me off. It was an impossible dream for myself, and I was about to give up when I met you." Xiaogang scoffed "You were so talented and quickly accepted me as a master. Seeing your talent, I knew what I should do, you could be used. I would make you the strongest of the world following my knowledge." "This is what I was for you? A mere tool to your ambitions?!" Shouted Tang San with a sad and angry face. "Of course, you were nothing more." Answered coldly Xiaogang "Once you reached the peak, I would be known across the world as your master, respected to be able to teach such a monstrous talent. It wasn''t the best end, but at least it was at my reach." "However, all of this changed. I obtained power, true power." Xiaogang said clenching his hand with a smile "With it, I accomplish it all my ambitions. I got my own revenge, recover my lost and true love, and reach the peak. My name will be remembered eternally!" "You want to be remembered like this?!" Tang San shouted swinging his arms, indicating the darkness and death that surrounded them "As an evil tyrant that killed countless people." "The end justifies the means" Xiaogang smiled "Especially when the means did not matter at all for me" Xiaogang extended his arms "This world, this death, this resentment is what Dong''Er d?s?r?. I already obtained all that I wanted. Now, I will use all in my power to make Dong''Er''s dreams true." Xiaogang turned cold "Now, tell me, Tang San. Why should I need you as my disciple? For me, you are useless now." "It''s like this" Tang San breathed, recovering his calm, his trident appearing from his forehead, Tang San taking it with both hands "It doesn''t matter if it''s for revenge, power or even love, you already succumbed to evilness. I will stop you!" San twisted his trident, pointing at Xiaogang. Waves "Ah!" Xiaogang sighed "You could simply run away and hide, wait until this formation disappears and quietly ascend to the Divine Realm, even with some company seeing you are a 1st class god. Why are you fighting, Tang San?" Xiaogang asked curiously. "For peace! To revenge all that had suffered under Spirit Hall! To avoid countless death!" Tang San stated. Blue torrents of light particles surging from him, expanding over his surroundings, turning it again to a blue sky. San thrust his trident, waves of water surging from it towards Xiaogang "Hum!" Xiaogang scoffed "Peace? In our darkness, there won''t be more wars" Xiaogang lifted his right hand, a twirl of darkness creating a shield in front of him, blocking the water "Spirit Hall is no more. All of killed by Dong''Er''s and my hands!" The darkness started swallowing San''s water. "Bibi Dong is alive, I will get my parent''s revenge against her!" Tang San pushed his trident, the water crashing against the darkness in a stand-still. "Really? Dong''Er is the one that killed the last Supreme Pontiff, it was her not your father who killed the culprit of your mother''s sacrifice. All over the continent, there is no other person that helped more in Spirit Hall''s destruction than Dong''Er" Xiaogang''s darkness swallowed all the water, extinguishing San''s attack. "Your resolve is too shallow!" Xiaogang darkness expanded, black spears forming around him "About avoiding death, what sophistry to say as the head of a sect that mainly produces weapons to kill. Also, if you love Xiao Wu, you must be aware of how much damage humans are doing at the spirit beasts, after us cleaning half of the human population, the spirits beasts would finally be able to take a breath!" The black spears shot towards San. Tang San tried to block them, but he found himself being slowed down by dark shackles that were stealthily produced by Xiaogang''s last attack. San twisted his body, swinging his trident at the same time cutting the shackles. He avoided most of the spears, but one of them pierced over him, breaking his left side armament. "It does not matter if is evil, good or greedy, you need a conviction to fight in this battle of gods!" Xiaogang shouted "I put all myself for Dong''Er, Dong''Er to her dream world, Renxue to discover her mother''s feelings, Bai to make Renxue''s d?s?r? true, Xiaogang to protect and get revenge for Bai. All of them are fighting with their conviction and d?s?r?s in line. You are the only one that hides your own with excuses like good or evil. While you are not accepting your own resolution, you do not have the right to fight here!" Darkness exploded over Xiaogang, like a wave it crashed with San''s domain, slowly swallowing his blue sky. Tang San tried to struggle against it, but his mind was in turmoil due to Xiaogang''s words, especially because they were true. San couldn''t focus his divine sensed, his strength not enough to break through the darkness. (Why am I fighting?) Tang San asked himself as the darkness closed over him. Chapter 249 - Light vs Darkness "We are finally alone, little lady" Pao said with a joking tone while grinning. Chenxiang looked furiously at him "What did you do to Bai?!" "The sword boy? I didn''t know that you were also blind. I was sure that you were there when I extinguished his existence" Pao scoffed. "Bai won''t die for something like this!" Chenxiang said clenching her teeth. "Negating the reality, eh?" Pao smiles with a teasing smile "Could it be that your mind broke down after being the one at fault?" "Die!" Chenxiang quickly stabbed the air, causing afterimages in her trail. With each stab a concentration of light was shot towards Pao. Pao lifted his right hand, using his coat to cover himself, the coat covering itself with the surrounding darkness. "Boom!" The light came in contact with Pao''s coat exploding. However, Pao was reveled completely unscathed, not a single damage. "I won''t be hurt by something that weak, little lady" Pao grinned. Chenxiang clenched her rapier with a doubtful look over her face, realizing the lack of power behind her attack. "You finally realized, eh?" Pao said "Darkness and Light can be considered two sides of the same coin, completely opposing each other and with similar strength. However, this is normal situation" Pao extended his hands "In this Dark World, with a complete absence of light, what can you do? You''re nothing that a fickle light trying to survive against the dark night!" Dark aura shot around Pao, his nails started growing becoming long and sharp claws "Your power might be weakened, but mine is at its peak! Let''s have some fun together." Pao smiled before being swallowed by darkness, his presence completely disappearing. Chenxiang started looking at her surroundings, searching for Pao in vain, his aura had completely disappeared over the thick darkness. Chenxiang breathed loudly trying to calm herself, her angry state of mind wouldn''t help her. "Shing!" A cut appeared over Chenxiang arm as Pao''s claws slashed her, piercing over her armament. Chenxiang could only detect the attack when it was already at her, being too late to avoid it. Darkness tried to invade her inside, but while outside darkness held an immense advantage, but inside her, it was quickly destroyed by her light. "Where it would be next?" A voice resounded over the darkness without giving away Pao''s position. "It would be the right leg" Chenxiang spun her body, stabbing her rapier downwards over her right leg "Hg!" Blood surged from Chenxiang''s dominant arm, Pao having sliced it. "Oh? Sorry. As a beast, I get confused about arms and leg as most of my life I only had paws." Pao laughed at Chenxiang trying to disturb her. "Let''s go now for the left arm. This time a little..." "Hg!" "deeper! Hahahaha!" Before he even finish the phrase, a wide gush was sliced over Chenxiang''s left arm. "Let''s continue playing!" Pao laughed. More and more injuries started appearing over Chenxiang''s body. Pao sometimes lied and sometimes said the truth without any seemingly pattern, being nothing more than molesting for Chenxiang. Chenxiang decided to close her eyes, calmly breathing, keeping her calm and not letting herself disturb, even when her body was injured. "I am getting bored about this, how good is to hit a doll that doesn''t contort against me? You are forcing me to finish this!" Pao stated, a killing intent spreading all over the darkness. At that moment, Chenxiang finally slowly opened her eyes "You committed three error that would cause your downfall." "Three errors?" Over the darkness, Pao eyes shined with curiosity "My downfall?" Pao scoffed "You have been unable to even touch me, what can you do?" Chenxiang breathed loudly lifting 1 finger with her left hand "You gave me time, underestimating me. You should have finished me when you can." "This is a game for me, where it would be fun? You are only that for me, a plaything. I never see you as an opponent" Pao laughed. Chenxiang breathed out, lifting one more finger "You enclosed me in a small space!" Chenxiang quickly lifted her rapier, the tip of this was shining brightly. A blindly light flashed from the rapier covering all the space "". Pao who had his eyes locked at Chenxiang couldn''t react in time, fully receiving the light directly. He felt a burning sensation over his eyes and his mind went black, his body couldn''t move out all. Chenxiang attack targetted the optic nerves, overworking the brain and producing an overall paralysis to her enemies. It was especially effective against Pao who had all his attention at her and due to the thick darkness surrounding them, the light was even brighter in contrast, Pao''s eyes having got used to darkness and being unfamiliar with light. Chenxiang''s rapier shined brightly, yellow light surrounding all her body as she was turning light particles "!" Chenxiang like a flash of light shot forward, she clashed with the wall of the dark cocoon that surrounded them, rebounding and changing her direction at great speed while keeping her trail. She seemed like a ball of pinball, rebounding all over the place, covering all the space without letting any hole left. After 3 seconds "GRRRRRR!" Pao howled in pain, his body appearing from the shadows as his body finally being able to move. He had wounds all over the body, black darkness over them swallowing the light element inflicted "Bitch!" Black aura exploded around him as he slashed widely. With Chenxiang''s speed it was like she was everywhere, making for Pao unnecessary to even aim as she would hit it herself. Seeing Pao recovered, Chenxiang stopped her attack, appearing at a distance from Pao, his attack failing to hit. Pao looked furiously at Chenxiang "I will kill you, bitch. Now that I know the trick, you won''t be able to do it again. You lost when you failed to kill me in that time." Pao''s body was swallowed by darkness, disappearing "Next time, it would be the last, it would be your end!" his voice resounded over. Chenxiang breathed in and out, her light aura vanished, her hair shined brightly with a myriad of colors. No, it didn''t vanish, it simply disappeared to what the eye could perceive. The blue sky appeared over her as darkness was unable to swallow it. "It''s useless!" Pao shouted "In this darkness, I am impossible to find. Your light before didn''t help and that trick of you would also be useless!" Pao had a determined look over his eyes. He charged towards Chenxiang who stood still in the same place. Pao targetted Chenxiang''s heart, thrusting his claws to her back, trying to impale her. Just as Pao''s claws grazed Chenxiang''s armor, Chenxiang''s eyes glowed brightly, instantly her body reacted. She twisted her body, avoiding Pao''s claws who were now cutting only air, thrusting her left arm towards Pao''s position, gripping her hand over Pao''s neck. Pao was unable to do anything, completely overwhelmed by Chenxiang''s speed. Being completely caught, Pao''s stealth lost its meaning, his body appearing "H-how?" Pao asked with difficulty as his neck was pressed. "Third." Chenxiang said backing up her rapier over her right hand "You underestimated me. I am not a normal Light God. Thanks to Bai, my comprehension went to a new level, my speed reaching a completely new level, even surpassing wind or space." "F-fuck!" Pao said in pain, however in his mind there was a slight grin. Over Chenxiang''s head, an invisible dark spear was thrusting towards her. He might not have the grimoire or Xiaogang''s great control over darkness at a distance, but controlling a single one was in his powers. The best time to attack someone is when they are hunting when they are sure of their victory! The spear was thrust over Chenxiang. Just as the spear grazed her, Chenxiang''s eyes shined with surprised, she twisted her neck, the spear grazing her, but being able to avoid it. "I-impossible" Pao shouted stunned "Such a speed reaction". . This was Chenxiang''s technique. Bai taught her, his mother''s breathing routine when she was trying to break through over the 38 rank as it would help. Even if she accomplished the break trough thanks to Bai''s Oreo, she didn''t stop the breathing technique as it was something precious that Bai had given her. After years, she finally had discovered how monstrous that breathing technique was. It improved her cultivation speed and mental strength, even her element was better adapting to her body, it improved her overall talent! After many years, Chenxiang had developed the breathed technique making it her own way, completely adapted to her spirit and powers, and even godhood she discovered. Thanks to this technique, once she could enter in a deep trance with it, her nerves worked at full power, the information around her body traveling instantly, reducing her reaction speed to 0. Thanks to Pao giving her time, Chenxiang was able to reach that state, her power and reaction speed reaching her peak. She might not be able to sense Pao''s attack before they hit, but she was fast enough to once she detected the attack as it grazed her, to evade it. Pao had lost due to his great vanity and playful nature, giving Chenxiang time to calm herself. "Die!" Chenxiang stabbed forward her rapier becoming like a flash of light towards Pao''s body "Nooooo!" shouted Pao in fright. Chapter 250 - Trident, Saber and Spear "This is all you can attain, Tang San?" Xiaogang said looking down at the mass of darkness started compacting over Tang San. Suddenly, the darkness started contorting, being pushed from the inside, holes started appearing over it where a blue light surged. "Boom!" A water whirlpool surged from inside the darkness, rising up to the sky destroying the darkness surrounding it. Inside of the whirlpool, Tang San''s figure could be seen. He swung his trident, the whirlpool transforming into a raging torrent that started flowing all over his trident, finally revealing him. Tang San had a determined look at his face. Both his wings and armor had gained a golden color and the power exuded from him was much stronger than before. "That is a better look" Xiaogang said looking at Tang San "Why are you fighting?" Tang San furiously glanced at Xiaogang but decided to answer "I decided to fight you. I want to protect the nature of the world, I want to honor my sect making it known all over the world, even for future generations, I want to avoid innocent losing their life. However" He made a serious face "I fight for myself. I want to show all my strength, show that I am stronger and make the world as I want. I want to stop you, master" Tang San stopped and shook his head "No. I''ll stop you, Yu Xiaogang!" "This is your answer?" Xiaogang said thoughtfully "Great. There is no need for grand reasons like good or evil, you must always fight for yourself without mattering how vain it is." Xiaogang grinned "We are gods! The world must fall under us and does not have other options that follow our whims." Xiaogang took out his grimoire, opening it, a great dark aura shooting from it "Now you are worth to increase my fame!" The dark over him condensing forming dark spears. "Crack!" From the dark cocoon, cracks started to appear every, a blindly light surging from it. "Grrrrrrr!" A painful growl could be heard from Pao that was shot from the cocoon by a sword made of light, the cocoon completely collapsing behind them, revealing a shining Chenxiang, her sense at maximum. The sword of light finally couldn''t continue over the dark world disappearing, releasing Pao from its grip. Pao was a bloody mess, blood everywhere with his left arm looking the other way. His black coat was completely destroyed and the aura around him was at a minimum. Darkness around him started converging to him, trying to heal his wounds, but they were too serious and were affected by Chenxiang''s Light making it impossible a fast recovery. Xiaogang looked at Pao "What a shabby look. And you were the one that said it would be easy." Xiaogang sighed "Even after using two spells, turning yourself darkness and caging you two in it, you lost." "I didn''t expect her to be so strange" Pao said holding his wounds, even talking was difficult as blood leaked over his mouths "That''s not how a Light God is" "I already told you that she is special and goes for speed, but you ignored me." Xiaogang shook his head " You were surely thinking about other things and did not concentrate on my explanation. Anyway, return. You are useless in this state". Pao growled in fury, but finally accepted, knowing that it was purely due to his playful nature that he lost. Pao turned black smoke shooting towards Xiaogang, being absorbed inside him. "Now is your turn, Xiaogang!" Chenxiang said glancing furiously at Xiaogang as she approached Tang San. "Fighting against two gods, mmh?" He said thoughtfully as he looked over Chenxiang and Tang San. He turned over his grimoire and sighed regrettably "If only Bai had not forced to me waste so many spells." Xiaogang''s main strength laid over his grimoire. However, his grimoire wasn''t the usual divine tool. He had worked very hard all these years as he tried to become the Darkness God, writing over it all sort of lost knowledge and myriads of formations obtained during his travels, converting them to spells. The spells were concentrations of power and were extremely powerful, making him do acts like would be impossible otherwise, as the Dark World over the continent. However, the flaws were big and apparent, all the spells were a single-use, needing to prepare them again after their use. Moreover, it was a great work and time only to prepare them and making them able to be used with the Darkness God''s power, that without counting the time that he spent learning them. After using all the spells, becoming the worst divine tool that mostly didn''t increase his output. "I will need to resort to my trump card" Xiaogang said regrettably. He bit his own finger, with his own blood writing over his grimoire, the grimoire started shining and floating. "Boom!" Darkness exploded from the grimoire. The darkness quickly stopped and started returning towards Xiaogang, concentrating all over his body. "" Dark scales were formed around his body, a 1-meter long tail appeared and two wide wings. Finally, a dragon head condensed over his head, hiding his face. Transforming him in a humanoid dark dragon. The grimoire didn''t stay still, the pages were continuously passing as more darkness was released from them- The grimoire started spinning over itself, becoming thinner and larger, finally transforming into a two meters long black spear. Xiaogang gripped the spear with both hands, the aura around him becoming much stronger and threatening, the surrounding darkness continuously being absorbed by him. "!" Xiaogang swung downwards his spear, the sky broke apart, a mass of darkness falling towards Tang San and Chenxiang. They revolved their auras, yellow and blue light climbing over the falling darkness. However, they passed through it like nothing, piercing over the sky. The darkness dispersed all over, falling like an unavoidable rain. Falling over their bodies, Tang San and Chenxiang could feel their movements becoming more sluggish, making it difficult to move as it debuffed their overall abilities. Xiaogang dashed towards them. Over his spear, a twirl of darkness was formed, attracting Tang San and Chenxiang towards it. Tang San didn''t back, he thrust his trident, a whirlpool of water spinning over it. Chenxiang''s body flashed with a blindly light, multiples copies appearing around Xiaogang. The copy at Xiaogang''s back blinked and dashed over, stabbing forward with her rapier whose blade disappeared becoming high-frequency light. Being surrounded by both side, Xiaogang lowered his body, resting his spear over his neck. He stopped still, he released his right hand from the spear, pushing the lower half with his left hand, letting it spin over. "!" The swirl of darkness expanding all over Xiaogang, creating dark waves that hit them, locking them down. He gripped again with his right hand, thrusting the spear over Tang San, shooting a dark ray. Tang San''s trident shined brightly with a blue glow, waves of water sureged from it crashing with the black waves, releasing him from the lock. Tang San tilted his trident, he thrust it forward, spinning it by the lower half. The waves started being attracted by the trident, forming a whirlpool surrounding it, shooting it towards Xiaogang''s spear. Spear and trident met, water and darkness surging all around, any of them being unable to push the other. But for Tang San, there wasn''t any need. Xiaogang twisted his body to the left, b?r?ly evading a light ray to stab his back. Chenxiang had released from the lock, stabbing Xiaogang''s back. Thanks to his last instant action, Xiaogang had avoided most of the damage, but the rapier had stabbed over one of his wings, dispersing it completely. Chenxiang attack didn''t stop there, a bright light shined from her rapier, as she quickly stabbed over Xiaogang, 10 stabs were thrust over Xiaogang. With a strange position full of openings surrounded by both attacks, Xiaogang tilted his spear upwards, releasing Tang San''s attack, his trident thrusting over him. Xiaogang let his body fall to the left, gripping his spear over his body. The spear shined with a black ?uster, darkness flowing over it. "Boom!" The three attacks hit each other shooting Xiaogangs away from the other two. Xiaogang had instantly calculated the strength and angles of the attack, counterstriking with his, accurately making the three cancel each other, only causing enough force to push him away. However, he had paid a price for it, exploding his own energy so near him, had caused some burns over his arms. Moreover, a crack appeared over his spear. Looking at the crack, Xiaogang had a resigned face "This is how much last a written consciousness." The truth was that Xiaogang never had great control over the spears, not enough at least to be able to attain a consciousness from them. He had created a spell, robing it from She Long, an elder of Spirit Hall. But it wouldn''t last much, especially using with his divine powers. "Come!" shouted Xiaogang, Tang San and Chenxiang dashing towards him, thrusting their weapons (I cannot last much more time, Dong''Er) Xiaogang said for himself as he clenched his spear, pointing at Tang San and Chenxiang. Chapter 251 - Renxue vs Bibi Dong Golden and purple aura crashed each other, scattering all over the sky as Bibi Dong and Renxue exchanged blows. Holiness against Death and Resentment, Good against Evil. Both auras clashed creating a great contrast between them. Bibi Dong clenched her scythe, a great killing intent exuding from it, swinging it towards Renxue. Behind Renxue, the golden-red Sun shined brightly "!" A pillar of flames like lava shot from the Sun, being immediately absorbed by Renxue''s saber, powerful golden flames surging from it. Renxue swung her saber, scythe and saber clashing each other. Golden flames swallowed Bibi Dong while purple aura invaded Renxue. Both of them being pushed 50 meters away. Even if it seemed a draw, it wasn''t. The strength was similar, but no the energy used, Renxue having used much more in her technique. Renxue stood floating panting loudly, keeping most of her senses to avoid the purple aura like poison to invade her, continuously purifying it. On the other hand, Bibi Dong calmly stood, purple aura shot over her body extinguishing the golden flames around her. This was mostly due to the circumstances. Renxue''s combat style relied mostly on divine techniques that were highly restricted not having access at the principal Sun. On the other hand, Bibi Dong style was based in her strength, using her sharp and highly poisonous aura to attack, simply but lethal nevertheless. Bibi Dong''s style was less tiring as she wasted less energy. Not like she had the need to save strength. With all the resentment and madness around them, Bibi Dong could replenish her energy continuously while Renxue''s source was decreasing its strength. As the battle continued, Bibi Dong was gaining more advantage, little by little pushing more Renxue. Renxue gripped tightly her saber, the golden flames around it becoming stronger "I will revenge dad!" From the golden-red sun powerful torrents of lava were continuously being shot, twirling all across Renxue, dancing around her. Renxue''s armament shined with a bright golden light, her saber transformed becoming pure golden flames while the golden-red Sun behind Renxue was losing most of its energy, its shine dimming. Renxue lifted her saber, her twelves wings hugging around it. The saber flames rised, becoming a 500-meters long saber "Die, Bibi Dong! !" Renxue swung her saber towards Bibi Dong. Bibi Dong clenched her scythe and lifted it "Absorb all the resentment!" The scythe pulsed shooting purple aura all across the battlefield "I will become Death!" From the battlefield under them where thousands of soldiers were attacking each other in a madly all against all, purple aura formed around them, all of it flowing over Bibi Dong. Bibi Dong''s armor shined with a bright purple light. Bibi Dong''s face became paler and greener, her eyes shining with a bright purple glow, blood like tears started falling from her eyes and mouth. Her face became even more vicious, the sickles at her back became sharper, her claws became longer and her scythe grew in size becoming over 4 meters long. She became even more diabolical, resembling a devil that surged from a mountain of corpses, the purple aura around her was much thicker and stronger than before. Bibi Dong backed her scythe "Disappear, mistake!" with both hand, Bibi Dong swung her scythe upwards like reaping souls. "Crack!" Before Bibi Dong''s scythe, Renxue''s saber instantly fell weak, cracking and shattering in pieces, completely erased by Bibi Dong''s scythe that shot a powerful purple aura towards Renxue. Once the purple aura disappeared, Renxue fell to the ground, crashing with a silent *stump*. Renxue with difficulty was b?r?ly able to stand up. She panted loudly, her face was extremely pale as she was in an extremely bad state. Her armament had lost all of its glow and divinity, becoming not much different from normal steel, her saber had lost its golden color becoming completely gray. The worst was her wings, purple aura was clinging over them, corroding them. The corrosion was so strong that it was quickly spreading over Renxue''s wings, even slowly invading Renxue''s body, were patches of purple could be seen. Renxue was too exhausted and weak, no longer being able to even keep control of her holy energy, making it completely unable to purify the vicious Rakshasa'' aura from her body. "This is the maximum of your capabilities? Show me your despaired look as you die!" Bibi Dong lifted her scythe charging towards Renxue. "I won''t surrender." Renxue said clenching her teeth "You were never my mother, you were the person that destroyed my childhood. I will fight you even with my last breath. I will get revenge. I will kill you, Bibi Dong!" Even as weak as she felt, she lifted her saber, fire shined from her eyes due to her strong feelings, never surrender, especially against the woman in front of her. Like answering to her feeling, a little golden glow appeared at the center of the golden-red sun that was mostly dark by now. "Die!" Bibi Dong swung her scythe towards Renxue. Just as it was about to hit, the golden-red Sun''s glow expanded all over it. "Boom!" The golden-red sun exploded, an immense quantity of holy aura, much stronger than before, spreading everywhere. Bibi Dong found herself surrounded by such pure aura, her powers starting to decrease. She couldn''t continue forward, forcing her to back up, flying over 1 kilometer away. The holy energy created a dome, swirling all around Renxue. Under the holy energy, Bibi Dong''s vicious aura couldn''t last, disappearing. Renxue''s wound healed, the corroded part over her body, pealing away, showing a completely healed white skin. All that holy energy was absorbed by Renxue, her armament shining with a blindly golden light, recovering all her strength and even going over. Renxue spread her wings, flapping them and shooting towards the sky "" In her lowest moment, Renxue was able to break through, creating a new technique. Unconsciously, exploding her Sun, creating much more energy than could ever be obtained. A powerful holy and divine aura surrounded Renxue. Without any doubt, it was the power of a God King. The actual Renxue was even stronger than the one before the Dark World. Renxue lifted her saber, pointing to the sky "Boom!" A bright golden pillar shot from her, piercing all over the sky, the darkness scattering around it. All the area around Renxue and Bibi Dong had its darkness extinguished, returning to the usual blue sky. With it, the Sun appeared over the sky, sunlight descending over them, Renxue''s armor shining even brighter. With a flap of her wings, golden aura spread all over the battlefield, the soldiers fighting in it, losing the purple glow and madness in their eyes, falling over their knees exhausted. All the soldier turned their heads over the sky, looking at the two goddesses over them. "I-impossible!" Bibi Dong clenched her teeth, cold sweet fell from her forehead, feeling suppressed by Renxue''s aura, the opposite of her. "Why don''t you die!" Bibi Dong shouted lifting her saber Renxue looked furiously at Bibi Dong, she flapped her wings, instantly appearing over Bibi Dong who made a shocked face due to her speed. Renxue swung her saber, an arc of golden light over it. Bibi Dong twisted her scythe, blocking the saber with its shaft. However, Renxue was too strong, Bibi Dong was shot over vomiting blood. Her scythe power was decreasing as golden flames were starting to purify it. Renxue''s body flashed, slashing towards Bibi Dong. Bibi Dong was unable to even react, completely forced to defend facing the overwhelming Renxue, becoming weaker with each clash. "Ahhhhh!" Purple aura shot over Bibi Dong. Renxue looked coldly at it, she swung her saber, slicing over the purple aura and extinguishing it. However, that instant lost attack, Bibi Dong took advantage of it, purple aura exploding over her feet as she shot towards the ground. Bibi Dong swung her scythe killing countless of soldiers that died even at the minimum touch of her aura. " Come right here, killing them all!" Bibi Dong grinned "Each dead becomes my power." "I won''t let you continue causing suffering. I will finish you here, Bibi Dong!" Renxue spread her wings, golden aura shooting all over her body. Renxue lifted her saber, lowering her body pointing it towards Bibi Dong. Renxue flapped her wings charging towards Bibi Dong. She started shining brighter than ever "!" "BOOOOOM!" An explosion occurred, it was so strong that it could even affect reality. Shooting it towards Bibi Dong, without any doubt, would pulverize her, the land, and all the people there. However, she didn''t shoot it down towards them. Instead, Renxue used behind her, shooting it towards the sky. The energy and strength of the explosion pushed Renxue, shooting her with incredible strength and speed towards Bibi Dong. "Ahhhhhh!" Renxue thrust her saber toward Bibi Dong. Bibi Dong was stunned by the attack''s might. Barely being able to lift her scythe. But, it was all for naught. Renxue''s saber crashed over the scythe''s blade, breaking it into pieces. It continued forward, breaking the shaft, halving it in two. Finally, it easily pierced over Bibi Dong''s armor and body, piercing over her heart. The strength was so high, that Renxue dug over 500 meters before stopped. Turning over her saber, she could see it pierced over Bibi Dong''s ?h?st. Bibi Dong''s armor completely shattered, blood surging everywhere. With the last strength, Bibi Dong turned towards Renxue, looking directly as her eyes "I-i H-hate y-you!" She shouted vomiting blood, the life over her eyes finally disappearing. Renxue fell over her bu??, panting exhaustedly. Even killing the woman that had tormented her and killed her dad, Renxue wasn''t happy to have got revenge. Instead a sad feeling washed over her body. She looked up to the sky with a cold face, unconsciously, a single tear falling from her eyes. Chapter 252 - Dragon of the End "Clank!" Xiaogang was pushed away by Tang San and Chenxiang''s strikes. His aura had become much weaker, his robes were all in tatters and his spear was about to collapse, cracks everywhere. Xiaogang was preparing to receive their next attack when he turned his head to a side. It wasn''t only him, the other two gods also looked at the same direction. "At the end, you died, Rong''Er" Xiaogang said with a sad voice. Having detected a great boost from Renxue''s holiness followed by the erasing of Bibi Dong''s aura, he was sure of her death. Xiaogang breathed loudly, taking a vial of blood from his coat. Looking at it, Xiaogang made a sad smile. Xiaogang''s spear returned to the grimoire form. Like as the spear, the grimoire was badly damaged, most pages shattered. "I will make our dream come true." Xiaogang opened the blood vial, pouring the content over his grimoire. Just as the blood touched the grimoire, an ominous purple flame started from it, burning the grimoire while a strange pattern over the cover shined with a dark light, pulsing like if alive. "We won''t let you!" Chenxiang and Tang San could feel an ominous feeling from it, they must stop him before it''s too late! They dashed towards Xiaogang, a water torrent flowing by Tang San''s trident while Chenxiang''s rapier shined brightly. "It''s too late, children" Xiaogang said with a sad tone, leaning the burning grimoire over his body and started being absorbed inside his ?h?st "Let''s all fall over madness and darkness. " Four horizontal strange formations appeared over him. They seemed to react with the darkness at its surrounding, absorbing it, instantly expanding and becoming huge. "Boom!" Black aura shot over Xiaogang. Tang San and Chenxiang tried to push over it, but it was too strong, forcing them to back up. All the darkness had disappeared, the Dark World vanished just like this, letting the blue sky again shine. Tang San and Chenxiang looked up, seeing an over 1-kilometer enormous black dragon, with dark scales that glowed alternately between black and purple. Veins could be seen all over the dragon pulsing in purple and dark color, all of them converging over a cocoon at the giant dragon''s ?h?st, where Xiaogang''s figure could be seen inside it. This wasn''t like the ones used by Xiaogang before, it seemed completely real, not merely formed by darkness. It was a true living dragon with overwhelming divine power. This was Xiaogang''s last trump card, offering the darkness, himself and Bibi Dong''s blood and divinity over San Luo Pao, causing a forced evolution of his power. At the end, San Luo Pao best characteristic didn''t change, it continued being the capavity to absorb and ?ssimilate huge quantities of energy. Even when he was trash, a spirit at rank 29 was able to absorb the spirit power of two spirit sages, being able to form the Holy Dragon. Now that he absorbed the power of two gods, the transformation was far more real and powerful, his aura and strength capable of drawing against God Kings. The Dragon of the End opened his eyes, showing ones unfocused and purple shining pupils "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The dragon roared powerfully, the air trembling. Chenxiang and Tang San vomited blood. Just its roar was enough to completely suppress them. They were forced to unleash all their aura to release from its binds. Completely ignoring the two gods, the dragon turned his head to one side, opening wide his mouth, dark-purple aura seemingly to surge from inside him. "GRRRRRR!" A purple ray shot from its mouth, turning its head to the other side, drawing a line over the mountainous terrain. "Boom!" "Boom!" The purple ray exploded, over 50 kilometers of mountains evaporated by it. Its nose flared, detecting the life from its surroundings, turning its head over where both armies had been fighting "Grrrrr!" It growled spreading widely its wings, flapping them, directing its enormous body forward. Each time that it flapped its wings, a purple smoke similar to Xiaogang''s darkness, surged from its wings, spreading all over his surroundings. This smoke was highly corrosive and lethal, killing any life form. "We need to stop him!" Tang San shouted to Chenxiang "If we don''t, I doubt that it would stop merely at the battlefield, he would continue, erasing all the life in the continent." Tang San clenched his trident tightly, water waves flowing all around it, condensing over it, acquiring a golden glow. Chenxiang nodded, unleashing all her aura around her. Now that the Dark World had been erased, she was finally able to use her full strength. She lifted her rapier, commanding all the light towards her. For an instant the world around her turned black, completely absent of any light source, the only being the shining tip of her rapier. Tang San thrust his saber towards the dragon "!" A half-illusory golden light shot from his trident, cutting over the sky, obliterating everything in its path. Chenxiang stabbed with her rapier "!" A multicolored light ray shot towards the dragon, burning the sky at its trail. Both attacks clashed, fusing together and shooting as an even stronger multicolored ray towards the dragon. "Boooom!" The ray clashed with the dragon causing a great explosion at the dragon''s side, pushing him and knocking him. "GRRRRRRRR!" The dragon flapped its wings recovering his stability. Over where the attack had hit, there were charred and damaged scales. However, as the veins around the dragon pulsed, the scales were healing. Not only that, but they seemed to become stronger. "It''s becoming stronger" Chenxiang realized. It wasn''t only that scales, but the overall scales and body that were becoming stronger. With each breath, the strength of the Dragon of the End grew, the veins over its body becoming less prominent as the physical form of the dragon was stabilizing. The dragon continued again its destruction path. Without even looking at them, it swung its giant arm towards them, similar to shooing flies. Immense dark-purple claws piercing over the sky. "Avoid!" Warned Tang San. Both of them flapping their wings, shooting towards opposite directions. A strong gravity could be felt over the claws as they deformed even space, trying to pull them over it. From the trail of the claw, only darkness was left. All the other elements were twisted and ripped, only a dark trail leaving behind. Tang San and Chenxiang exerted their maximum strength, covering themselves in powerful auras and flapping their wings to leave the area of effect, b?r?ly escaping from it. The dragon''s might was enormous, a simple movement for his part was enough to force them to go all-out for simply avoiding it. If they were to be hit by it, there won''t be any corpse to bury. "We need to kill him before it reaches its maximum strength!" Realized Chenxiang "If he reaches completion, it would be unstoppable, the continent is ruined." Chenxiang shot towards the dragon. Due to its corrosion smoke, even approaching was difficult, needing to focus on her own aura to prevent the corrosion from spreading. Chenxiang backed her rapier "!" Chenxiang became a ray of light, quickly stabbing the dragon all over its body, rebounding all across it, trying to pierce over it, stabbing everywhere. It seemed a light stale orbiting all around the dragon. It didn''t matter how much Chenxiang hit, she was unable to pierce over the scales, the most was damaging a little and were rapidly recovered. Each time that passed, the scales were becoming harder. Even if no true damage was done, the dragon was starting to be pissed. The scales all around Chenxiang started shining just as she was about to pierce. The scales opened a way, Chenxiang''s rapier stabbing over its meat. However, it was a trap. All the scales around her shot over the dragon''s body, completely encasing her in them. The scales twisted, pointing their sharp like blades side to Chenxiang. All of them shooting towards her. Completely surrounded by scales, with her speed useless and her strength insufficient, she was unable to escape from them. Just as they were about to hit her "Boom!" An attack hit the scales, some scales being destroyed by it. Chenxiang didn''t wait, shooting over the opening created at full speed. Her body flashed, appearing outside the scales, having avoided the attack. "Than-" Turning towards where the attack was shot, Chenxiang was stunned to see the one that had saved her life. With twuelve wings at er back and surrounded by a golden holy light, the Angel Goddess, Qian Renxue, stood floating over her. Renxue was the one who had shot her golden flames, destroying the scale cage over Chenxiang, saving her life. "Y-you!" Shouted Chenxiang pointing at Renxue "What are you doing here? Why did you save me?" Renxue''s sight was over the dragon, feeling the familiar purple aura of Bibi Dong over it, made her even angrier. Listening to Chenxiang, she turned to her "Bai would be sad if something were to happen to you. Moreover..." Her view returned again towards the dragon that continued dashing forward unstoppable "If we want to stop that monster, we will need to cooperate together." Just as Renxue finished talking, Tang San appeared next to them. "Sea God" Renxue said coldly, recognizing his existence. "Angel Goddess" Tang San nodded at her "I suppose that we will have your collaboration against the Dragon of the End." "That monster must be stopped at all cost" Renxue said determined "If let alone, it would destroy all the planet. We must kill him before he attains its complete form. Once it completed its formation, his power would be overwhelming even for me at my peak, it''s energy stronger with a body far superior to mine." Renxue turned to Tang San "Do you have any plan? I will say it, but I am in an incredibly weak state, at most I will be able to use a 1st god power for 3 minutes." "We have a big advantage. I don''t know if it''s only rampaging around or is thinking but it doesn''t consider us as enemies, mostly ignoring us, only acting by instinct" Tang San explained as he looked at the dragon "And it''s quite evident that the weak point is the dark cocoon over its heart, even if it''s slowly disappearing. We must finish him before it''s completely ?ssimilated." "All of this doesn''t matter as long as we are not able to pierce through its defense" Renxue said "Do you have the ability to pierce him?" "I might have" Tang San stated. Renxue opened her eyes remembering something "Are you referring to that drop of water?" Tang San nodded "It certainly had a great piercing power and counting that the dragon won''t react..." She said thoughtfully before shaking her head "No. It''s not strong enough, even after you had become a god, I doubt that it would be able to pierce over the scales and 200 meters of meat." "Normally, I can''t." Tang San said "Guanyin''s Tear is its name. It consisted of drawing pure water from my own blood, condensing all my body, soul and divine energy into it, shooting it to the enemy. I am not enough to do it, but if we cooperate it might be possible." "Joining our blood and powers?" Renxue asked with a doubtful face "We are too different, you won''t be able to control our powers, they would clash auto destroying before you could even shot them." "It might be" Tang San answered serious "It''s never been tried and it had I high probability of backfiring, losing our last strength, not being able to continue fighting. But is the only way that I could think about it. If you have another idea, please let me know it." Renxue made an angrily look for Tang San''s cheekiness, but she sighed, lifting her hands in surrender "Let''s go with your plan." Tang San nodded "Renxue, Chenxiang, extract some of your blood infusing most of your divine energy left. I will take it and extract the water from it." "Buah!" Renxue and Chenxiang vomited a single drop of blood, using their divine sense they made it float over their hands. Having been infused with all their strength, Renxue''s drop shined with a bright golden light while Chenxiang had a multicolored light changing over her drop. Both of them offered their drop towards Tang San. Tang San''s hands became pure blue using Mysterious Jade Hand that had reached the highest level, both hands becoming incredibly tough and tensile. With extreme care, he used his Controlling Crane Catching Dragon using his divine sense to take control of both drops, each drop approaching each hand. Sweet started to fall from Tang San''s forehead, using all his concentration to control the drops. It could be considered the easy part, but taking control of so powerful drops was incredibly exhausting. Tang San started making strange movements with his fingers, lightly grazing the drops. With each touch, red mist surged from the drop, each drop becoming more translucent. Two minutes passed with Tang San exerting all his control, both drops over his hand were completely clear, transparent water drops with a divine aura, obtaining two Guanyin''s Tears. Tang San slowly started joining both hands. This was the most difficult step, joining both tears and , at the same time, extracting his own tear, using it as the core to fuse the three so characteristics tears. A simple alteration or error would cause them to go havoc, exploding. And even if it all goes accordingly, Tang San wasn''t sure of being able to fuse the three so different auras, but there wasn''t any other option. As he was joining them, Tang San''s body trembled but his hands were stable. A tremendous force ran across him as he pushed both tears together, each power attacking the other. Suddenly, a spark surged between the clash, forcing Tang San to use all his divine sense to avoid them to rampage. Stopping still, finally, being able to stabilize them. "Run!" Warned Chenxiang looking at the giant dragon who had turned its head towards them. Due to the clash of divine powers, the dragon''s instinct had acted, detecting that it could be dangerous. Like a whip, the over 300 meters dragon''s tail was swung towards them. For the three gods, they felt locked by the pressure from the tail, it was like an unstoppable mountain was charging at them. With their weakened self, it was impossible to stop or avoid, Tang San''s Guanyin''s Tear not even prepared, they could only accept their fate. As the tail crashed with the gray twisted space "Swinx!" Purple and black blood and smoke surged as the tail was sliced in pieces, forming a bloody mess, the dragon tail completely eviscerated. In front of the three gods, a gray-armored man stood floating with a strange sword at it hands whose blade wasn''t physical, it was formed by pure chaos! ""Bai!"" Shouted with joy Chenxiang and Renxue at the same time. Bai smiled "Did you miss me?" "Idiot" Renxue said in low voice at Bai cheekiness turning her head to a side. "I thought that you were dead!" Chenxiang said with some tears over her eyes "You must pay me later for worrying me." "I won''t be so easily killed, especially in so chaotic battleground" Bai stated, then he turned completely serious "Let''s talk about it later, we must kill a dragon before that." Both women nodded at his word. Bai turned at Tang San "When it''s time, throw me that." Tang San realized what was the plan and nodded at Bai. For the first time, the dragon had stopped, it turned its body around, directly facing at Bai. It could sense something strange around Bai, something dangerous that could put it in danger. He wasn''t a fly, he was dangerous. Even if its tail was already being healed, no more than 10 seconds to be reconstructed, Bai was extremely dangerous to him. As an incomplete being, not fully ?ssimilated, the dragon''s body even if extremely strong it lacked stability. For Bai, it was far easier to affect the powerful dragon rather than the stable gods. Bai''s Chaos was the perfect counter to it. "GRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The dragon roared angrily at its tail being cut. Its roar suppressing them. However, Bai stood still, completely immune to its effect as chaos intent surrounded him. Without waiting, the dragon swung its right claw, targetting all the four gods. Even if Bai decided to avoid it, the dragon would kill the other three gods. Before the approaching claws, Bai clenched his sword, the blade becoming more chaotic as he lowered it, positioning with an unsheathed stance "!" Bai swung his sword multiple times at a speed impossible to see with the eye, leaving a gray trail behind, only blurred images could be seen around him. A net of cuts was formed in front of Bai, the sky in front becoming gray. After so much fighting and thanks to his Gluttonity''s experience, Bai had created his own style, maximizing his sword and chaos. As the claw reached the gray sky, there wasn''t any resistance. It passed through, however, after crossing it became mist, completely eviscerating. Bai''s attack was so sharp for him that the claw was cut in microscopic substances, only leaving a mist behind. "Grrrrrrrrr!" The dragon shouted in pain retiring his arm, knowing that it was impossible to go through it. It opened its mouths, purple darkness surging from it "GRRRR!" It shot a ray of darkness towards Bai''s group. Bai grinned "I needed some strength to recover" Black aura surged from Bai''s body, his armor and sword tainting with black color, the aura around him completely changing as using his Gluttony God mode. Bai lifted his black sword "Devour!" Two children appeared in front of Bai holding each other hand, a little girl with a big plushy helmet with the form of a ant''s head over her head and a little boy with a big wolf''s head plushy helmet over his head. They were Fenrir and Mayi. "!" A black torrent shot from Bai''s sword while both Fenrir''s and Mayi''s head grew becoming 100 meters wide. Bai swung his sword towards the darkness ray while Mayi and Fenrir bit over the attack with their sharp teeth. Under the three attacks, the darkness ray was weakened while a powerful black aura was surging over Bai as he was devouring and absorbing the energy of the attack. However, the ray didn''t stop, pushing over them and starting to destroy them. "It''s enough. Good work" Bai said. "Good luck!" Mayi happily waved her hand while Fenrir simply nodded, before disappearing. Bai''s attack dispersed, his form changing returning to the Sword God, but the black aura recollected by Gluttony, remained surrounding him. Instead of absorbing inside him, making part of the Gluttony energy, Bai decided to store it outside. Bai swung his sword around him, light cutting the dark aura around him, that instantly turned gray, becoming part of his Chaos energy. The energy recollected continued being part of Bai and if something characterized Sword God BAi was the ability to use any kind of energy. Bai lifted his sword "" Bais swung downwards his sword, gray aura surrounding it as it cut over the darkness ray that being sliced in two, instantly disappeared like if it was never there before. Regression was a technique that converged the surrounded energy, forcing him to return as before the universe was created, when only chaos existed as energy. This attack wasn''t much strong as it won''t affect living beings, but it was perfect to neutralize any elemental attack. In Chaos, no element would survive. Bai kicked the air, flapping his wings, shooting towards the dragon''s body. "GRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" All the scales over the dragon shined brightly. All of them detaching from the dragon and shooting towards Bai, chasing towards him. Bai continuously kicked the air, maneuvering over the sky, avoiding most of the scales, swinging his sword reflecting them. However, they were too much and quickly Bai found himself completely surrounded. Bai clenched his sword, flicking it "!" Bai spun around, spinning and slicing the air around, creating a tornado of pure chaos that pushed away the scales, piercing through the encirclement. Finally reaching the place nearest to the dragon''s heart. "Tang San!" Shouted Bai. Tang San was already prepared, quickly reacting. He swung his both arms, shooting Chenxiang''s and Renxue''s Guanyin''s Tears towards Bai. Without stopping, he formed another one, this one concentring all his strength, quickly throwing it towards Bai. Each of them flying towards Bai, however, they weren''t as sharp as usual, with their penetration power reduced. Seeing the three rainbow drops flying towards him, Bai smiled. He swung his sword, cutting the three tears "Boom!" the aura around Bai exploded, a great and strong Chaos aura surrounding him. Bai had instantly fused the three drops, using the three gods'' power to his Chaos. Fusing different energy, it might be difficult to Tang San, but Bai was extremely familiar with, his power mostly based in it, Chaos was the fusion of all! Bai lifted his sword, twisting and lowering his body, pointing his sword towards the dragon''s heart. All the Chaos aura around him, started being absorbed by his sword, a chaotic storm forming in its blade. "!" "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!" Energy exploded from Bai''s sword, Bai shooting forward wielding it. The energy of the explosion was able to affect causality and reality, it was the energy surged from chaos, enough to even create a new universe. It didn''t matter how many scales were in his path. In Bai''s path, everything was evaporated, ceasing his existence. Bai pierced over the Dragon of the End''s body. The walls inside the dragon tried to push him but were unable to approach him before being disintegrated. Finally, Bai pierced over the heart. Gray light expanded all over the dragon''s body, over its veins and muscles, making it shine with a bright light. "BOOOOM!" All the dragon''s body exploded with a big explosion that burned all the sky before the stunned gazes of everyone. Over the sky, surrounded by the dark bloody mess of the dragons remains, two figures stood. One was Bai whose aura had weakened a great deal after such a great attack, the other one was Yu Xiaogang who was the dragon''s heart. His body was all charred, his legs no existence. He had his eyes half-open, glancing angrily at Bai as the remained darkness around his body, even now, was trying to recover, commanding the remains of the dragon, trying to reconstruct it again. "Like I''ll let you!" Bai kicked the air, with all his strength he thrust his sword, dashing towards Xiaogang who was unable to move "Die!" Xiaogang with a mix of shock and anger moved his mouth like cursing Bai as Bai pierced over Xiaogangs''s body with his sword, launching both of them to the ground, like a gray comet falling to the ground. Falling inside a crater and crashing to the ground, Bai could see his sword embedded over Xiaogang''s heart, no darkness or energy could be felt from Xiaogang whose eyes were already closed. Bai retired his sword, Xiaogang''s dead body falling lifeless to the ground. Coincendiatelly, next to another corpse there that Bai could recognize as Bibi Dong''s. "Even in the end, you would be together" Bai said with a somewhat sad voice looking at both dead lovers, before turning away, flapping his wings and slowly climbing the crater. Just as he left, Bai was clashed by two strong forces. Renxue and Chenxiang tightly hugging him. Bai reciprocated the hug with a warm smile over his face "It finished" He said hugging them tightly. After some minutes, Bai broke the hug. He seriously looked at Renxue "You must do a last thing, Xuexue. I will help you." Bai said holding Renxue''s hand, green and white aura flowing from his body towards Renxue, infusing her with his Life intent using his last strength. Renxue nodded. She did a last look over the crater, letting escape a last tear seeing her mother''s corpse. Renxue gripped tightly Bai''s hands as started floating. Countless people, the remaining soldiers of the three empires, Heaven Dou, Star Luo, and Spirit, that had experimented all that godly fight looked at the gods with fright, awe and stunned faces. Renxue spread her wings, golden aura surged over her expanding all over the people. With great Life and Holy energy with Bai at her hands, this holy image was etched in their minds. Under the holy aura, the soldiers'' wounds healed, recovering most of their strength. "I, Angel Goddess, Qian Renxue declare the disband of Spirit Empire!" Her powerful and holy voice sounded all over the place, resounding inside of every soldier, moving their hearts "The war had ended!" "Poof!" The sound of countless people kneeling down, bowing towards the goddess echoed, no one daring even doubting going against their words after having spectated such power. The war had ended. Chapter 253 - Epilogue "Clap" Sounds of footsteps resounded over, steps clapping over the marble floor. They were stables, strong and calm, in contrast, with the face of the one producing them. Bai walked over the halls inside his mansion at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Clan headquarters, his face reflected how nervous and worried he was, sweat falling over his neck. Finally, by finished walking, stopping before a big double door made of oak. He breather profoundly, calming his nerves before leaning forward and knocking the door "Tock, tock!" """You can enter""" Three melodic voices surged from inside the room, letting him pass. Bai gulped one last time, leaning over the doorknob, turning it and pushing the door open. Under his sight, three extremely beautiful young women stood sitting over luxurious chairs around a round table. Their beauty was so otherworldly that it wouldn''t be an exaggeration calling them the most beautiful in the world. Over the table, a set of tea was present, with a cup in front of every girl and some tea pastes. In front of Bai, a blue-haired beauty sat in the middle, at her sides sat a golden-haired beauty and translucent-haired beauty whose hair shined with multiple colors. They were, of course, Xie Lingling, Qian Renxue and Bai Chenxiang, respectively. Qian Renxue had a cold look in her face as her gaze changed from Bai and Chenxiang. Chenxiang had a fiery look in her as she looked at Renxue and Bai. Finally, Lingling was smiling warmly at Bai, seemingly completely ignoring the other two. Strong auras surged from the three young women, the crash between them was enough to kill any weak people near them. It was a miracle that they had it controlled inside the room! The three young women signaled the chair in front of Lingling for Bai to sit. He walked towards them, sitting over the chair, trying his most to hide his nervousness. This was a tea meeting between the three of them. The three of them greatly loved Bai and wouldn''t give up him, so they need to ''talk'' somethings alone, knowing each other, deciding how they would act in the future. Bai was incredibly scared. If something wrong happened, with their divine strength, it wouldn''t be impossible for them to destroy the continent in their fight! His only relief was that Lingling was there, luckily, she would be able to smooth them. "So?" Bai asked with uncertainty "How did it go? Aura flashed from Renxue and Chenxiang as they looked at each other with killing intent. Bai quickly reacted, pushing the chair behind standing up, extending his arms at both young women "Please, calm down!" said Bai with a nervous face. Both of them turned towards Bai with furious looks. "Puff!" the angrily look of their faces broke down "Hahahahaha!" The three girls started laughing over Bai, even tears falling from their eyes "You need to see your face, Bai. Truly hilarious!" Laughed Chenxiang. Bai realized that he was tricked, his face becoming serious "What''s happening here?" He asked coldly. "It was a simple joke, Whity" Lingling said with lightly giggling "We have talked to each other and had accorded to plan this joke. We wanted to see your reaction." Lingling took the teapot and poured tea to a new teacup, pushing it over, presenting it towards Bai. Bai sighed "It seems that you all get along well" Bai sat again on the chair, taking a sip of the tea. It was truly delicious and seemed to warm his all body. Bai looked at Lingling "Your tea is always insuperable." Receiving a big smile from Lingling. "So, now the truth. How did it go?" Bai asked now far calmer than before. "There''s no need to worry. After talking with each other, we found that we have a lot in common. I really like Rere like my own sister" Chenxiang stated looking at Renxue. "Chenxiang is a little childish sometimes but has a good character. I do not mind Chenxiang being your wife. I would cope with it" Renxue said coldly as she sipped over her tea. "How cold of you, Rere!" Chenxiang giggled at her, gaining a smile from Renxue. "And about Lingling?" Asked Bai without any worried. Lingling was warm, it could be cheerful, she would enchant anyone that looked at her, it was almost impossible to hate her. "I always thought Lingling as my sister, so there''s no problem" Chenxiang answered. "I cannot say anything bad about her, she is perfect. I could not d?s?r? a better sister" Renxue clammed. "I''m glad that you all get along" Bai smiled at them "I was really worried about you all." "Don''t worry, don''t worry" said Chenxiang "We will get along fine. I, as your first wife, can accept them as your wives. But never choose an-" "WAIT A MOMENT!" The coldness around Renxue broke down, golden aura flashed over her as she hit over the table, completely destroying it. However, all things over the tables stood floating around, floating by a green aura coming from Lingling. Renxue calmed a little and returned to her cold face, but not completely "I think that I listened it wrongly because it seemed to me that you said that you will be Bai''s first wife?" "Oh? You listened it well "Chenxiang as nothing happened answered without minding anything "I will be the first one to marry Bai, becoming Bai first wife. You can be the second or the third, you should talk about it with Lingling." Renxue''s golden aura flashed shooting towards Chenxiang "I will be the first wife! You are the one that must fall behind! If you follow my words, I might let you live!" she shouted angrily. Chenxiang stood up, her light aura pushing forward clashing with Renxue''s. The only avoiding the complete destruction of the mansion was Lingling aura surrounding them and soothing their effect, keeping them inside the room. "Hah!" Shouted indignant Chenxiang "I was the first one that Bai declared his love. I must be the first one!" "If it''s about the order, I must be the first one" Renxue declared, her aura trying to push over Chenxiang "I was the one that first met Bai. I would have been declared long ago if it wasn''t for me hiding my gender. Our feelings bloomed after a fierce enmity and a long friendship, they are much stronger." "Stronger?" Chenxiang lifted one eyebrow "I took Bai first time while you continue being a v?r??n. How could be compared?" Renxue turned deep red shy "I-i''m waiting after the marriage. I want it to be special" Looking at Chenxiang''s face who was giggling, the red of her face changed to an angry one "You were too easy! How could Bai have a s?ut that most likely jumped to his bed as his first one? My pureness would be much better for his first wife." "Don''t call me that you, v?r??n!" Chenxiang shouted angrily the aura around her exploding. "I must have hit the nail on the head" Renxue made a triumphant smile. "There''s nothing more to talk, I would be the first one!" "You almost killed him! You might even have some ideas now." Chenxiang incriminated "I won''t be surprised, if you start trying to kill all of us!" "Retire that!" Shouted Renxue "I love Bai and even if the one thing that I wanted to the most now will be killing you, I will refrain from him. But, be careful from it, my mood is very changing!" Renxue threatened. "Y-you!" Shouted Chenxiang furiously. ""I will be the first wife!"" Shouted both at the same time, their auras flaring around, clashing between each other and evaporating their surroundings. A battle was immenent. "Girls. I love you all" Bai tried to calm them "Why don''t we have a ceremony all together, without any first, second or third. All of us the same." Both turned towards Bai, glancing at him with a murderous look ""Shut up. Bai!"" The auras and killing intent pushing over Bai ""You don''t understand anything!"" "Y-yes!" Bai was forced to back, lowering his head towards them. Renxue and Chenxiang turned to each other, their auras clashing again. A hand patted Bai''s depressed back, it was Lingling who had appeared next to Bai. She smiled at Bai "Let them decide it. I would stop them if they go too far." Bai smiled at Lingling "You''re truly my healing factor, Lily." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Passing the mostly destroyed Heaven Spirit mountain range was the resplendent Spirit City. After the war, it was mostly abandoned as Spirit Empire dispersed. Today, not a single soul could be seen from their streets or inside the buildings. Over the City, two figures stood floating facing each other with threatening divine auras. They were Chenxiang and Renxue. "As we decided the winner would be Bai''s first wife!" Renxue stated "We can fight with all our strength. Anyway, I decided to destroy Spirit City as a symbol of Spirit Hall''s fall. What would be a better place to fight?" "I will crush you!" Chenxiang dashed towards Renxue wielding her rapier, Renxue chasing towards her gripping her saber. Both started rampaging around as they exchanged blows all around the city, the building collapsing in their way. Both fought without keeping anything, using their maximum strength towards the other, knowing that Lingling would stop them before its too late. Their strength was incredibly similar, making almost impossible knowing the result of the fight. Normally, Renxue as a God-King would be far stronger than Chenxiang, however, after using Supernova and demolishing her sign of God-King in the Douluo Continent, her power regressed to a 1st class god, drawing against Chenxiang''s divinity. While it won''t affect Renxue once she ascended to the Divine Real where it would obtain all the power of a God-King, it would take some thousands of years before Renxue''s Sun would recover itself. ""It''s my win!!!!"" Both shouted at the same unleashing their strongest attack, thrusting their weapons. The world turned completely dark, as a light ray shot from Chenxiang''s rapier while Renxue used her divinity over the Sun, commanding a mini Sun to fall over Chenxiang. "BOOOOOOM!" Both attacks clashed, completely obliterating Spirit City, light swallowing all its surroundings. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- {AN: The wedding would be short and it might be a mix of easter and western, don''t focus too much in it} In a beautiful white church near the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, there was an important wedding ceremony. Why it was important? It was because it was the wedding between two who reached the peak, two gods! Beautiful flowers decorated all around, even if it was considered a little wedding with only the closest friends and family attending, dignity, money and good taste could be sensed from it. Inside the church, in a room, the bride was making her last preparations. She had a white long wedding dress, with her wings at her back, created a mystic and ephemeral image, making her stunningly beautiful. "Tock, tock!" Someone knocked the door before entering. It was a seemingly average man, he had a very average face with short brown hair. It was the typical man that had so little presence that you would ignore in a crown, never remembering him. "Are you ready, Renxue?" The man asked steeping forward. Turning around, her long golden hair swirling, she smiled at the man "Yes, dad!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "All will start with the sacrifice of that little angel!" Darkness spears shot towards Bai. Seeing the spears coming towards him, Bai kept a cool face, positioning his sword over his hip in an unsheathing stance. His sword opened, revealing a Chaos blade. "Cut the crap!" Bai swung his sword, completely destroying the darkness spears, chaos the complete counter of any element. "What are you both planning?!" Bai shouted demanding "I saw Bibi Dong''s face when thinking about Renxue. It wasn''t an angry face or murderous look. It was love and worry for her own daughter! Why are you doing all of this?!" Xiaogang was stunned as Bai''s declaration, for an instant, his control over the darkness wavered, unconsciously avoiding Bai''s gaze. Bai opened his eyes in shock realizing the truth "You are trying to die" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Xiaogang, I committed too many sins" Bibi Dong said looking sadly at Xiaogang "Reaching the point of no return. This time together, remembering the past, I would treasure always. But I don''t deserve a happy life with you. I made too many mistakes, hurt too many people. Especially my poor daughter, negating her infancy, my love." Tears fell over Bibi Dong''s eyes "I couldn''t see her without remembering that bastard who r?p?d me. I realized it too late, but she never was at fault, I shouldn''t have treated her so bad, pushing her to the monster of her grandfather who only was interested in power." "Xiaogang, she is my greatest regret, never showing her my love" Bibi Dong said with a sad expression. "Dong''Er" Xiaogang said quietly "You can change. If you tell her your story she might forget you, you could start again you-" "It''s too late" Bibi Dong interjected "Renxue already hate me too much. I wasted all the time with her, I don''t deserve even dreaming of being her mother. I hate myself" She laughed with a sad smile "I would pay for what I did to her, for all my sins." "Xiaogang" She looked seriously at him "The only way to pay for my crimes is death. I will become the enemy of the world, attaining all the hate of the world. Finally being killed by Renxue. She would be forgotten of all her crimes, become a great hero while I would be always remembered as the cruelest enemy. She never!" She put emphasis "never must know this. I should die as her enemy, never even once recognized as her mother." Bibi Dong turned away "Thank you for this time together, Xiaogang. Abandon me, you can return with your friends. You don''t need to follow my path." Bibi Dong tried to go away, but was stopped by Xiaogang who had gripped her arm "I won''t let you alone, Dong''Er" Xiaogang warmly smiled at her, some sadness in it "I already told you. I accepted all your sins, our destiny is bond together. I would follow you everywhere. So" He smiled at her "Let''s be together even at death, we will repay our sins." Bibi Dong''s body collapsed leaning over Xiaogang as she broke in tears over his arms "Sorry" She said between sobs "Thank you" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "You never stop surprising me, Bai" Xiaogang said with a sad smile "You even discovered our plan. It''s true, all of this is our plan. We become the enemy of the world, both sides of war joining against us and when we are near to destroy the world, Renxue appears destroying the darkness" "You both think that it would be the best for Renxue?" Bai asked glancing seriously at Xiaogang. "It''s all too late." Xiaogang said with a sad tone "We are too dark, too tainted, we would offer our lives for her. Paying our sins, cleaning Renxue''s sins at the same time. Please Bai" supplicated Xiaogang bowing his head "Don''t tell anything to Renxue. She must live happily in ignorance, killing evilness. Dong''Er had already resigned her life, don''t make her sacrifice useless." Bai clenched his hands tightly angrily "I am against, but" He turned his gaze away "I don''t have the right to tell it, its Renxue''s and her mother''s talk. Even if I hate, I would play this twisted game of yours" "Thanks, truly thanks" Xiaogang thanked Bai. At that moment both of them turned their faces to a direction, having detected two divine beings approaching them. Xiaogang quickly acted, his dark aura raging around, clashing with Bai, making it seems in the distance that they were fighting. "You want another play?" Bai asked coldly. Xiaogang smiled sadly "Make it a last wish of a dying man. I love Tang San as a son and I know that he thinks about me as a teacher and father. I had already decided to die with Bibi Dong, paying for our sins. I want Tang San to hate me, to want to kill me. But at the same time, I don''t want him to kill me, he is sometimes too good for his own good. If he kills me, it would always be over his mind, blaming himself. Can you-?" "Once Tang San is decided on killing you. Kill you myself" Bai interjected. "Yes" Xiaogang smiled "I would make it to force him to want to stop me, even killing me without any way to save my life. In the end, please, finish me" Xiaogang bowed again "Together with Renxue, become the heroes of this war" "Ahhh!" Bai rubbed his hair "I hate being played around. Tch!" He clicked his tongue "I would do it for your last wish. Make it as I disappear, fight alone against Tang San and Chenxiang. Knowing you, you must have something prepared." Xiaogang made a forced smile nodding "Thanks Bai" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "!" Darkness surrounded Bai. He could feel how it gripped around him, not a single killing intent from them, only trying to hide his presence. "Bai, please" Xiaogang words resounded over the darkness "Take care of Renxue" Before Bai was surrounded by the darkness, hiding within it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Die!" Bai shouted as he thrust his sword one last time towards the weakened Xiaogang, making the decisive blow. Seeing the sword approach, Xiaogang made a look full of anger. But inside, he was happy that their plan was a success and sad about the end of all. He looked at Bai''s eyes and whispered only to Bai to listen "Thank you" The sword piercing over his heart, Bai having the gesture to bring him next to Bibi Dong, dying in the same place at her, what more he could d?s?r?? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside Star Duo Forest, near the core, there was a group of people walking towards the core. Bai at the lead, guiding Renxue, Tang San, Xiao Wu and Renxue all over the forest. Bai hadn''t explained the reason, but he convinced them to follow him, saying that it was incredibly important, letting the mystery do the rest, all of them accepting to follow him. Traveling over the forest, they finally arrived over Lingling''s tree that had grown becoming enormous and was very close to giving fruit. Lingling''s already waiting for them in front of her tree, next to her stood Di Tian at one side and Mei at the other. "You''re ready, Lily?" Bai asked turning to Lingling. Lingling smiled nodding "I only need the last ingredients, Whity" Bai approached her, taking out a jade box from his storage, giving it to Lingling. Lingling opened the box, extracting a Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng "Xiangxiang, would you give me your dowry?" Chenxiang who instantly recognized what it was quickly nodded "I don''t mind giving it to you if you need it" Lingling turned to Xiao Wu "Xiao Wu" Xiao Wu looked with some doubts, a little indecisive, but at the end nodded. She took out a beautiful flower that shined with bright light and strong aura, it was the Yearning Heartbroken Red "As we promised" Lingling lifted her hand, the Yearning Heartbroken Red being attracted to her. Once it was completely over her sense, the Yearning Heartbroken Red started withered, having left Xiao Wu and her love that made it bloom. Lingling bite her finger, letting a drop of blood over the Yearning Heartbroken Red as she thought about Bai. The Yearning Heartbroken Red instantly bloomed, recovering its strength, detecting her strong and unwavering love for Bai "Thanks" She turned around returning to her tree with both immortal herbs. "I''m ready" She lifted her arms, both herbs floating around the tree. "Shing!" a blindly light surged as both herbs fused with the tree and immense Life force surging from it. The tree started growing even taller, the fruit started developing, becoming a perfectly round green apple over 1 meter wide. "Crack!" The joined part with the tree broke, the apple slowly falling to the ground, landing over Lingling''s hands, the aura from incredible pure and strong. "My inheritance" Lingling said looking at the apple. She turned to Di Tian "As we promised fro your help, I would give it to the spirit beasts". Di Tian extended his arm, preparing to receive the apple that would certainly improve the quality and strength of the spirit beasts over ages. However, the apple never came. Instead, Lingling turned to the other side, giving the apple towards Mei "Take care of it, Mei" Lingling smiled at her. "You!" Di Tian shouted in fury, letting his aura out. All the human gods around instantly reacted to the aura, preparing to kill Di Tian. However, they were stopped by Lingling lifting her arm. Di Tian couldn''t even move, thorned vines all over her body "If you try to even touch Lili, I''ll kill you!" Mei glanced with killing intent at Di Tian. Her strength incredibly strong, much stronger than before as green Life aura of the apple flowing inside her body, Mei''s roots wrapping all over the apple slowly ?ssimilating with it. "I would make sure to plant it and take care of it, Lili" Mei said seriously. "I completed our promise. Mei is part of the spirit beasts of the forest, she would make the forest flourish" Lingling said to Di Tian "You can leave now." Di Tian clenched his teeth in fury, but he knew when he had lost. Looking furiously one last time at the humans, he turned around leaving them alone. There was nothing that he could do here. Lingling leaned over her tree "Ancient Tree of Life" She stated its true name and the tree started shining brightly with a blindly light, once the light was gone, the giant tree was no longer there, leaving only a big hole in its place. Lingling turned to Bai''s group and smiled "I am ready, let''s go" Without knowing where they were going, all of them followed Lingling, arriving at a near shelter made of vines. Entering, Renxue was shocked "What''s the meaning of this, Bai?!" she said with an angry tone as she pointed two corpse laying there surrounded by pink flowers. "What is Bibi Dong and Xiaogang''s bodies here?!" Indeed, they were the corpse of Yu Xiaogang and Bibi Dong, they had a peaceful expression in their face and even with so much time had passed not a sign of rotting could be seen. Thanks to the vitality of the flowers surrounding them, they kept the bodies in perfect condition, even reconstructing the missing parts, it seemed that they were sleeping and at any moment they would stand up. "You should learn the truth, Xuexue" Bai said seriously "But, I don''t have the qualifications to explain so I would bring someone that have." Bai turned to Lingling "Lily, you can start" Lingling approached the corpses, kneeling in the ground between them, extending her hands towards each other. Green aura surrounded Lingling, a magnificent ethereal tree appeared behind her. Ultimately, the Ancient Tree of Life that she had taken care and had grown it was her spirit. Now that it had m?tur?d, the tree returned to her body. Now that she had recovered her spirit her cultivation had shot, the spirit energy around her was unmistakable of a rank 99 titled douluo. Just in a moment, she had became Life Douluo Xie Lingling. The aura around her was incredibly strong, the vitality started filling all the room. Even at rank 99, Lingling''s life aura was greater than Bai''s own Life Intent even as a god. It was inconceivable, a human surpassing a god. Green aura continuously flowed from Lingling hands towards the bodies, their bodies slowly recovering their color, losing their pale skin. It was exhausting using such powerful energy just as she recovered her spirit, but Lingling''s will didn''t waver, pushing herself to her limits. "" Finally, from Lingling a green aura expanded, pulsing over the corpses. "Badump! Badump!" Two hearts loudly beat again after to much time. Xiaogang and Bibi Dong slowly opened their eyes with difficulty, the minimum light was fatal for their unaccustomed eyes. Both looked at their surrounding and at each other with a shocked and stunned face "H-how could it be? We were dead." Said Xiaogang shocked. Bai approached at Xiaogang "I already told you. I hate playing other games. So now, you will play mine." Bai looked at both of them, then, turning towards Renxue who had tears on her eyes, close to break "You already paid your sins with your life" He turned to Bibi Dong "Don''t run away again, she deserves to know the truth." Bibi Dong broke in tears, putting her hands over her eyes in a futile intent to hide. Seeing it Bai knew that she wouldn''t run, she was ready to confess. Bai turned around towards Renxue "Xuexue, go with your mother. You need to talk about it" "She had never been my mother!" She shouted in fury "Why did you revive her again? Why hurt me again, after I decide myself to forget about her!?" Renxue cried with tears. Bai leaned over Renxue, hugging her tightly, patting her head "I would never make you sad. Your mother had some twisted reasons, listen to her." Bai broke the hug, lightly pushing Renxue towards Bibi Dong "Go." Renxue was full of doubt, but finally, she breathed profoundly and stepped forward towards Bibi Dong, wanting to know the truth. Every other people seeing this, decided to let the pair of mother and daughter alone, leaving the shelter. Outside Xiaogang approached Tang San and explained his circumstances, he didn''t try to win his approval or his forgiveness, but he should explain him. "Your mad if you think that was the best for me!" Tang San shouted angrily, turning away with Xiao Wu, preparing to leave the forest. Before leaving, he turned to Xiaogang one last time "I won''t forget you so easily" he made a small pause "master" and flew away. Listening Tang San calling him master again, Xiaogang made a light smile. He turned over Bai "You got me." "I only did it for Renxue" Bai answered. "Our most awesome feats are done for love" Xiaogang said smiling, disappearing between darkness. Bai turned to Lingling "Thanks, Lily. I re-" He was silenced by Lingling kissing him, her tongue invading his mouth. Breaking the kiss, Lingling smiled "There''s no need to thank me. It''s normal to help your love. Moreover-" she made a pause extending her hands to the sky. A green aura surged around her, shooting a green pillar that pierced the sky "Reviving to gods is enough qualification." 9 spirit rings raised over Lingling, all of them being green and exuding great Life energy. The pillar of energy continuously increasing, the energy around here becoming richer and stronger. Over Lingling''s forehead, an arrow pointing upwards appeared, her features smoothen, her smile became more radiant, her body slender and perfect with a strong green aura of Life over her body. She had become extremely beautiful. Over her head a 10th spirit ring materialized with a golden green light, her power much stronger than any previous god. She had inherited one full God-King position. She had become the Life Goddess! "Congratulations, Lily" Bai congratulated. Lingling smiled "Now, I am stronger than you" She giggled. She turned serious "Now, I will repay it to the forest" Lingling extended her hands, her divine sense extending all over the forest, sensing all the life inside the forest, the breath of the forest. Lingling''s hands started shining with green aura "!" Like a dome, a green aura expanded all over it, that seemed to beat with Life. Even if similar to before, the scale was too different, this time it wasn''t a small area, instead, it quickly expanded all over the forest. All over the forest, plants and spirit beasts could feel the great vitality healing them and making them strong, all of them bowing to the ground before the coming of the Life Goddess. The effect was especially apparent over the plants that started growing at an incredible speed, quickly covering and filling the previous barren area left by the ants'' attacks. With such a high vitality, the barren land became full of life and nutrients again. It wouldn''t take much time for the death line to be filled with the previous or even stronger abundant life. Lingling approached Bai and flicked his forehead, a wave of life surged all around his body, a warm feeling spread at his inside. "They also have the right to be revived" Lingling said with a smile, observing as Bai''s arms started shining, his two spirit bones reacting with a blindly light. Over Bai, two young figures appeared. They were Fenrir and Mayi seemingly to have 11 years old. This wasn''t an illusion or a projection. They had a real body, being fully revived, they didn''t need to be bound with Bai anymore. Mayi and Fenrir looked around surprised, touching their bodies, making sure that it was real. Fenrir bowed to Lingling "Thanks!" Mayi, on the other hand, jumped towards Lingling hugging her and Bai in a tight hug "Thanks, big brother, big sister!" Sweat fell over Lingling''s forehead, but she had a radiant smile over her face. After some time, all of them returned towards the shelter, they could see the pair of mother and daughter leaning over each other crying in each other shoulders. Having told the truth and let the feeling known, it seems that Renxue had given her mother an opportunity. There''s need of some work, but for the first time, they recognized each other for what they truly were, a mother and a daughter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xiaogang made a difficult expression "You shouldn''t call me that, Renxue" "You are mum''s husband and I like you. I wouldn''t choose anyone other as my dad. Especially that bastard r?p?r of my s?m?n donor" She said the last part gritting her teeth in fury. Renxue shook her head forgetting about the bastard, smiling brightly again, it was the happiest moment of her life, she would marry Bai today, the love of her life. Renxue leaned over Xiaogang, taking his arm "The father must guide the bride" she said smiling. "I can''t win against you and Dong''Er" Xiaogang smiled at her, guiding her out of the room, opening the door, entering the big hall with little guests, Renxue wanted an intimate ceremony, with a golden carpet guiding to the alter. In the alter, Bai stood handsomely wearing a black tuxedo, waiting for her with a smile. At his side as the best man was Yu Tiangeng. Bai was a little embarrassed but he truly didn''t have many males friends, choosing Tiangeng as the best man. At the other side, stood the bride''s maid, being Lingling, Chenxiang, Rongrong and Mayi, wearing a pink long dress to not eclipse the bride. Today was Renxue''s day and she wouldn''t let anyone take the focus! Xiaogang slowly guided Renxue over the alter, her beauty blinding everyone. Leaving her at the alter, Xiaogang retired to the first row of seatings, sitting near a black-haired average woman who had a happy smile full of joy as she looked at Renxue. She was in truth, Bibi Dong, similar as Xiagang, she also was hiding her identity, changing her external form. It would need some God to break over her illusion. At the other side seats, sat Bai''s family with Fenrir, all of them with smiles looking at the ceremony. Behind them, there were little people, the little friends made over their adventures. Finally, as the priest who was going to do the ceremony, it was Xue Beng. Renxue had chosen him because he was the emperor of Heaven Dou Empire, one of the highest-ranking people over the continent excluding gods and it was a reminder of her time as Xue Qinghe, even if it was strange moments, full of lies, she treasured them as only for them she was able to meet Bai. Xue Beng had some feelings against Renxue for being the cause of his family''s death but he didn''t dare to go against the gods'' will, so he didn''t have other option than to accept. Xue Beng started the ceremony "... Bow to the parents" Bai and Renxue turned to the first round, bowing towards Bai''s family and Xiaogang and Bibi Dong. There wasn''t any bow to Heaven, Earth or the emperor. They were gods who would dare to make them bow, Heaven and Earth bow before them! The only qualified were their parents. "Qian Renxue. Do you take Ning Bai as your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish for all eternity?" "Yes! I do!" Renxue said smiling. "Ning Bai. Do you take Qian Renxue as your lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish for all eternity?" "Yes, I do!" Bai said smiling. They interchanged their rings both saying "I take this ring as a sign of my love" "I declare you wife and husband. You can kiss the bride" Xue Beng declared. Both of them leaning to each other and warmly kissing before the applause of all the guest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the banquet, with all the people drinking, eating and dancing celebrating the wedding, Renxue and Bai leading the dance at the center of the dance floor. A woman brought a little girl to a corner, gaining a little of privacy, they were Rongrong and Mayi. "At the end, you let it happen. I always thought you would act" Rongrong said to Mayi. Mayi tilted her head and made a cute gesture smiling brightly "What are you saying, big sister Rong?" "Cut the crap. Bai might have fallen for your act, but I am not so dense. You remember it all" Rongrong stated. Mayi smile disappeared, glancing at Rongrong with an extremely strong killing intent causing her to flinch in fright. It was the power of a Goddess! After being revived, she had kept her qualification, with Fenrir, becoming the Gluttony God. However, Mayi''s killing intent only last an instant "You got me" quickly replaced by a sad smile "But Once Bai became a god, I recovered all my memories, but I discovered that I might have to pushy towards Bai. I love him and madly attack anyone in his surroundings making him sad. Seeing him with Renxue, Lingling and Chenxiang, I found that he truly loves them. I only forced him to me, more than love it was an obsession for my part" she said with a sad tone. "Rongrong, you know..." She made a brightly smile "I love being his and your little sister, I can be together with him without hurting him, I prefer it like this. It''s more than enough" Mayi clapped her hands and lowered her head towards Rongrong "Please, don''t say anything to big brother!" Rongrong could sense that it was the truth. She sighed "Okay, I will let you. You are family now, little sister" Rongrong smiled at her. Mayi jumped at Rongrong tightly hugging her "Thanks, big sister Rong!" Breaking the hug, Mayi had a big smile over her face "And you know, big sister? I might have found another person that I love being with" Mayi smiled turning around leaving towards a young boy sat in a corner. She took him by the arm, bringing him to the dance floor "Let''s dance, Fenrir!" Fenrir grumpily accepting. Both of them starting dancing next to Bai and Renxue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Bai Chenxiang. Do you take Ning Bai as your lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish for all eternity?" Chenxiang wedding was familiarly similar to Renxue''s, her maids this time had the addition of Xiao Wu and Zhu Zhuqing, guiding her to the alter being her grandfather, Bai He. There was also the addition of a great teasing from Renxue''s part to her ''second sister'', Renxue being the first and bigger one. Even with the anger of having lost towards Renxue in the first wife for Bai, all was forgotten looking at Bai''s eyes this day. She was to marry the love of her life, she couldn''t be happier. "I do!" Chenxiang said without any doubt. "Ning Bai. Do you take Bai Chenxiang as your lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and cherish for all eternity?" "I do!" Bai said smiling. After exchanging rings "I declare you wife and husband. You can kiss the bride" Xue Beng declared. Chenxiang launched towards Bai, giving him a passionately kiss. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside Star Duo Forest, close to its core, a wedding was occuring. It was the wedding of Bai and Lingling. Lingling didn''t mind being the third wife, the most important for her was to be with Bai, not the order. She had decided that she wanted a more natural wedding celebrating it inside the forest. From Bai''s side, there were the same as the last wedding. On the other hand, on Lingling''s side there was a very peculiar bunch of beings. Thousands of beasts and plants ?ssisted wanting to see their goddess of Life''s wedding, even Bi Ji and Zi Ji attended, Bi Ji being one of her maid with her other new sisters. The only great absence was Di Tian who was too angry at them. Presiding the ceremony, Mei stood at the alter in an ?du?t form. She could be now considered as the queen of the forest, so who could be better to do Lingling''s wedding? At least it what Mei told every, threatening to kill anyone that tried to take her place. At the same time, Mei in his little girl form appeared, Mei standing in two places at the same time. The little Mei was the girl of the flowers, throwing petals at Lingling''s path. "Of course, I will do it. The best flower girl should be a flower!" Mei stated when they were talking about. This time instead of a white long dress, Lingling was wearing a green dress made full of natural elements, leaves and flowers. She truly seemed a goddess of life with her beautiful dress and radiant aura and smile. Bai neither wore his usual tuxedo, being replaced by a more natural green tuxedo made of vines. This time, the one guiding Lingling was Bai''s father, Ning Fengzhi. Lingling''s blood family not being in the wedding, Lingling completely hating them for caging her and only seeing her as a tool. "I declare you wife and husband. You can kiss the bride" Mei finally declared, glancing with a little of killing intent at Bai at the kiss part and threatening him if he was to hurt Lingling. Bai and Lingling kissed in a long and warm kiss full of applauses. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 years had passed since the end of the war. Over the sky near the border between Star Luo and Heaven Dou Empires, floated a handsome gray-haired man with his eyes closed. Of course, he was Bai. Under him a giant hole stood. This was precisely the place where the Giant Sword Mountain, Bai''s Torso spirit bone stood before. "I''m finally ready" Bai whispered slowly opening his eyes that shined with a strong myriad of lights. Looking at them could cause people to be sliced apart. Bai lifted his hand, 50 enormous swords appeared all over him. They had different colors, intents, and size, the smaller being over a kilometer long. He swung his hands, the sword raining to the ground. The biggest ones, one black sword and a white one, each one over 10 kilometers, pierced over the hole, the other ones piercing the ground surrounding it. All of the sword, exuded a great intent, creating a multicolored aura all around. All of them covered by a thin film of gray aura that kept them from dispersing. "You finally finished, Bai" Three figures appeared behind him. They were Bai''s most important people, his three wives Renxue, Chenxiang and Lingling. The one that had talked was Lingling with a smile. "It took you too much time, we are almost at our limit!" Chenxiang complained. It was true they were at their limit, from the sky, divine light bashed over the three, almost ignoring Bai. This was the way to ascend to the Divine Ream. After being so much time in the mortal world, the World''s Will started attacking them, forcing them outside, needing their full concentration as they waited for Bai. They were reaching the limit. "Come Bai!" Renxue smiled. The three extremely beautiful goddesses extended their hands towards Bai. Bai nodded and smiled at them, taking their hands. The light over the sky became stronger, the four of them being pushed over the Divine Realm. Bai looked with a happy yet sad smile under him, remembering the good and bad moments of his life. "Good bye, Douluo Continent" Chapter 254 - Author Aftermath Here the author! I am happy and proud of finishing this novel. It had been a long 10 months with almost an average of 1 chapter a day and I am happy to say that both my writing and writing speed had improved a lot, making it close to Spanish, my main language, there''s that first chapters that made the eyes hurt. For those people that followed my work and reached this point, thank you. I know it was a difficult novel, the start was fast speed without much thinking, something that could be entertaining to read quickly over while the last chapters were more story and description, becoming more serious and clean. This caused for the people that started for that type of novel to stop reading and for the people that liked the seriousness for never start reading it. I can understand both people. The fact of the multiple personalities didn''t help, that it was when I got the most complaints. At that time, I was writing day by day without thinking about the future (That I didn''t expect to reach the end of the story) writing whatever I though. When it reached the point that I really didn''t find any use of previous memories, preferring interactions without any previous knowledge, I thought about the multiple personalities. Even now, I don''t think that it was so bad, I like how it finished and what it contributed to the story, but the problem was its implementation. If I would write it now, I would make it more fluid, something like never presenting Paul or only the prologue, letting know about the other personalities with previous knowledge, later on, not letting a void unexplained. For all of these people that follow me. (I bow to you) Thank you. Some of you are the main reason that I continued with this novel, together with my superpower of ignoring toxic commentaries, XD! Let''s forget about the past and talk about the future. As I already had commented sometimes, the first thing that I would do is a side chapter for this story. The story is already finished and this chapter would only give another perspective. It would be about the gods, the previous ones, interactions at the Divine Realm while Bai and company''s adventures. Then, I plan to edit, without making a rewrite, the first chapters of this novel. I want to finish with at least being a readable novel, so I shall at least edit the first 60 chapters, were my English and writing su?k?d. Once a finish this, the novel would be updated as completed! I would love to receive your reviews now that the novel is truly finished. Now about the waited part of my new work. Most of you would already know but I had another fanfiction, also about douluo dalu with only 4 chapters. They were written at that period when I wasn''t convinced about what to write. For the people that liked that prologue (That it didn''t even finish, there was the need for one more chapter) sorry, but I decided to not continue. I thought about that story and I really liked what I thought (even better than this story). However, spending much time in another story about douluo dalu, needing to think about the filling it was exhausting. So I decided to write some of those ideas with Yu Xiaogang''s chapters, closing that novel and deciding to never continue. Most likely, like with chapter 141, I would make a quick review of my ideas in the novel, to share it to you, my readers. I will write in that other novel, warning people from this novel. About my next novel, it would be explained in the next chapter of this. Chapter 255 - New novel For the next novel, I decided to write a sequel of this story (The final timeline of the epilogue, the after 30 years, is some glimpse about that). The new novel like Douluo Dalu, there won''t be any need to read the previous ones (This novel) but it''s highly recommended. About what would be, it would be a fanfic in Tang Wulin''s time life, jumping over Huo Yuhao (It''s my least favorite of all Douluo Dalu''s novels, never having read the end of it, thinking that it lacks respect the others). Even so, there would have been some (little) changes at Huo Yuhao''s time, talking about them and letting them know as the novel advance. (Warning! I am now reading the Legend of the Dragon King, and I am about chapter 1100, so I don''t have a full grasp of all the story, even if I saw a lot of spoilers) I made a raw draw of the overall of the novel with a lot to improve, develop and change, fining it and putting it somewhat together. The overall points, or guidelines that I would follow are this. -Sword cultivation is incredible important -MC is Bai''s son -As Bai, the MC would have at most 3 lovers that somehow they should be important in the story not only for being MC''s lover. -Gu Yue won''t be the MC lover. I like to respect the author in this matter and even if, technically, is not a cuckold, I don''t like it. So she won''t be a lover. -MC won''t be part of the Tang Sect I would be very glad of any help or advice respecting these guidelines. Any help and idea would be appreciated, say your opinions! Especially, I would need help about OC and changes that could be produced by the afteraffects of Bai. What changed in the future because of him. Also, i would extremelly glad if someone helps me with the names, I am very bad at them! :( About when I would write it. I don''t know. I might get bored and start writing it someday, some chapters, but not expect like these last weeks of me trying to finish this novel with 1 or 2 chapters every day. Thanks for all, author is out! Chapter 256 - Side Story: Gods Bet Over the Divine Realm, a realm full of different places, resident of gods in charge to control and keep safe lowers realm, two figures stood looking at each. One was a beautiful golden-haired girl with 6 golden wings at her back. Surrounding her there were 7 divine rings, showing that she was a 1st class goddess. Around her, a strong aura of holiness surged. On the other hand, the other was a young man quiet the opposite. Purple short hair, with a sharp, vicious and full of killing intent eyes, with a green pale face. His 7 divine rings showed that he was also a 1st class god. His aura was full of resentment and evilness. They both seemed like lofty sacred beings. Both auras clashed as they gazed each other seriously. It seemed that an incredible fight was about to occur at any moment, an angel against a devil. Or not. "Big brother!" The golden-haired girl shot towards the man hugging him tightly, all the aura of seriousness disappearing completely as the girl rubbed her head over the man''s ?h?st, clinging it him. "Tsk!" The man clicked his tongue "Let me go, Angel" He put his hands over the girl''s face, pushing her trying to get free of her grip. "You''re too cold, big brother!" the girl tightly gripped the man not letting him go. They were the 1st class gods, Angel Goddess and Rakshasa God, the evil and holy pair of brother and sister, known over the Divine Realm as the clinging sister and the pissed brother. After 2 hours, Angel was happy enough and let him go, both of them sitting over some chairs and a table, some tea and desserts being there. "Why did you come to see me, Angel?" Rakshasa asked coldly. "Why can''t a cute little sister visit her big brother?" asked Angel playing dumb. "Remember the deal, Angel. I would let to cuddle me, but you won''t visit more than 1 time every year. This year''s visit had already passed" He said glancing at her seriously "If it is not something important, I will take it as a break of the deal, you losing that privilege." Angel puffed her cheeks "It has nothing to do with it." Her face turned serious, exuding the dignity of a goddess "I came for a bet" "A bet?" Rakshasa looked bored "It would be again about your successor? How many times had you failed? They always failing in the last trial." Rakshasa grinned at Angel "I stopped counting when it surpassed the 666th." "And who do you think is the fault?!" Angel shouted angrily "If you didn''t descend to the lower realm and taint my descendants, they wouldn''t have become such cold bastards! They need to be pure and good to pass the last trial" Rakshasa smiled remembering how he pampered one grandgrandgrandgrand...grandnephew, he becoming obsessed with power and control, killing anyone. If it weren''t for being part of her sister''s family, having inherited her seraphim spirit, he would have been perfect to be his inheritor. "They simply choose the best way to live, it''s their fault to not want to follow your self-sacrificing philosophy. Anyway" Rakshasa changed the subject "Another bet? You want to give me again other of your toys." "This time would be different!" She said smiling, like a kid completely forgetting about the previous anger "She had distanced from the family, so there''s a big opportunity that she won''t grow as a cold bastard like you, big brother" Rakshasa rolled his eyes "And she is very talented. The bet would be who of our inheritors extend more their fame over the Douluo continent, becoming its ruler!" Rakshasa was surprised "How does the airheaded of my little sister know that I am preparing an inheritor?" "Mu!" Angel puffed her cheeks "I can read your mind easily, big brother" she said patting her ?h?st. "Was it Asura?" he said coldly. Angel looking away "It was Asura!" "Big brother Sura might have helped a little, complaining about you taking his toy and trying to create some new one for you" Angel said shily. "That bastard!" Rakshasa hit the table angrily "He promised me not telling anyone" "Ah! You called Sura bastard, I will tell it to him!" Angel said with a grin. Rakshasa''s face became even paler, she kneeled over the ground "Please no. Anything but that. I won''t survive another training regime with that monster. My arm still hurts and it was 1000 years ago!" "2 hours patting my head!" She said smiling. Rakshasa clenched his teeth, but in the end resigned "O-kay!" "Great!" Angel smiled brightly "About the bet. This time it would be special!" She said with a mysterious smile "We will betting that!" she said taking out a golden pear. Rakshasa opened his eyes widely "Really?" he then grinned "If you are in so hurry to give it, I would accept it" He said taking out a purple pear. They were called the Holy Pear and the Poison Pear respectively. The Holy Pear had a nauseating and long taste, is one of the worst things that could be eaten. There wasn''t enough soap in the Divine Realm to eliminate its lingering taste. On the other hand, the Poison Pear taste was also horrible, even if a level far lower than the Holy Pear, the problem is that would cause diarrhea for 2 years! As it was incredibly difficult to digest. Individually, they were considered the worst food that you wouldn''t even gift to your worst enemy. However, when they were together, their taste changes, becoming one of the best delicacies over the Divine Realm. Even without containing divine energy, it was very appreciated by gods. These two pears only grew over Rakshasa and Angel''s territories and only once every thousand years, so it was a rare treasure. "This time I would surely win!" Angel stated. Both of them turned serious and extended their hands, holding each other tightly "The inheritor whose power extends more over the Douluo Continent would be the winner" Both shouted at the same time ""It''s a bet!"". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Fuck, fu?k, fu?k!" Rakshasa was cursing alone as he contemplated the Douluo Continent "Why the fu?k Angel''s inheritor became so strong to even evolve her spirit. Now her talent is even better than Angel, she might be able to take Angel''s position without any fighting, easily winning mine." He started bitting his nails nervously "I can''t let Angel won. I don''t mind the fruits, but it would be a pure eternity of "I win against big brother!" that girl won''t lose the opportunity to eternally tease me. I need to do something!" He looked one last time over the Douluo Continent "That bastard of Sword why he interferes in godly matters, always taking the outstandings possible inheritors from us. Now why he had to make Angel''s inheritor stronger? He should have killed her." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the same tea table of before, Angel was waiting for Rakshasa to come and talk about to the bet. She was looking forward to show off her cute Renxue who had become much stronger, evolving her spirit. However, she was shocked when she saw his brother coming with another god. Wearing a dark coat and glasses, it was a friend of her brother, the Darkness God. "What is he doing here?" Angel glanced at Darkness. "Oh, you''re talking about Darkness?" Rakshasa grinned "He would also participate in the bet. He was looking for a good inheritor, so why not? If he found a good one, why not join the our bet? It would be more interesting, the more the merrier." "It''s not fair, he is your friend!" Angel puffed her cheeks pissed. "Sorry, but the bet said inheritors, not specifically that only ours count, so any inheritor can work, opening the bet to other gods" He said grinning. "Darkness" Darkness coldly nodded, taking out some blackberries, a delicacy of his place. "Muuuu!" Angel''s cheeks puffed even bigger. Just as that moment, a shadow pierced the sky, charging directly over the table where the three fruits of the bet stood. Rakshasa was the first one to react, invoking a scythe between his hands and throwing it away. "Clank!" The scythe impacted with the one who was approaching and pushed him from the table. Landing on the ground and standing up, it revealed who it was. "Gluttony!" Angel shouted surprised, her eyes shining brightly with joy. With a little body of a small beast and a stuffed head, it was the considered mascot of the sins, the Plushie G-sorry the Gluttony God. "That glutton!" Rakshasa complained, preparing another scythe. "I have-" Angel''s body flashed appearing behind Gluttony hugging him tightly, "YOU!" rubbing her head over him "You''re the best Gluttony" Gluttony seemed to ignore her, as he continued walking towards the table "Hungry!" his gaze focused. "Gluttony, bad!" Angel made a hit over his head "They are the prize of a bet. You can''t touch it" "Bet?" Gluttony paused. Even for him bets were sacred. In the Divine Realm with immortality, the gods were sometimes very bored, bets being used to entertain them. After countless years, the bets became sacred at the Divine Realm, it didn''t matter the prize, the bet or the integrants, not even God-King would dare to affect a bet. Gluttony though for a moment "I participate. Burgh!" Gluttony vomited over the table, throwing a gold piece of metal. "T-this is-?" Rakshasa was shocked. "Life Metal!" Darkness said shocked. Life Metal was incredible precious even at the Divine Realm, it could even be used to upgrade divine weapons to ultra divine weapons. "Glut this is too much!" Angel said shocked. "No food" Gluttony said "Can''t it. My bet" For Gluttony the valor of the things was due to their taste not the power. For him, the fruits on the table were far more important than the Life Metal. "Glut, you need to find an inheritor at the Douluo continent to participate. You inheritor must take the most control over the continent" Angel explained the rules. "I search" Gluttony nodded and left, focusing over the Douluo continent to find an inheritor. After some hours he returned "Found. She strong, she eats a lot" Just like this, another god joined the bet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I am surprised by how much you resembled myself. Your wits, intelligence and your enormous love, had really moved me. You shall be my inheritor, commander and god of darkness..." Darkness was making a speech full of dignity towards Yu Xiaogang, deciding as Rakshasa had convinced him, to make Xiaogang his inheritor that would help Bibi Dong, Rakshasa''s inheritor, to win the bet. Once it finished, he turned to look at the other people at the table who had strange faces. "Puff!" They couldn''t resist more, Angel and Rakshasa broke in laughing "Hahahahaha!" "You guys!" Darkness said with a little of anger. "Sorry, Darkness. But it was too much. Intelligence? With? You? All that air of dignity around you? Truly hilarious! hahaha" Rakshasa laughed more. "Hahaha" Angel giggles without stopping "The only truth was about the love. And it would be more that you are terribly submissive with Light, always clinging to her" "I am not submissive to her, I can be without her whatever time needed!" "T-that''s what you thing about me?" Darkness slowly, sweating a lot, turned his head over, finding in the form of a round ball of light, his wife, the Ligh Goddess "You are all playing here and don''t even invite me. I hate you Darkness!" Light said crying flashing with light and disappearing. "Wify!" Darkness collapse to the ground crying "Don''t leave me wide, it''s all a mistake. Please return, wify" he sobbed. "Hahaha. Now you have returned to your usual self" Laughed Rakshasa. "If Light doesn''t forget me about this, I will make you pay this, Rak" Darkness said in fury but with a tearful and uncleaned face. Angel approached him and patted Darkness''s back "You know how airheaded sister Light can be. Once her attention is taken to other things, she would completely forget her anger and be like nothing." After 10 minutes of trying to comfort Darkness, it was all in vain. Light appeared again before them with a smile over her face. She took out some strange strawberries "I''m in! I found a perfect inheritor. She is a little strange but I like her different way of using the light element" She sat next to Darkness as nothing had happened before, Darkness sighing in relieve, forgiving Rakshasa. They started seeing what was happening over the Douluo continent while Gluttony was devouring all the prepared desserts for the party, Angel enjoying giving from time to time something to eat him. "What are you doing so many reunited here?" A melodic woman voice full of vitality resounded asking curiously. "Big sis Green! Big bro Purple!" Angel waved her hand happily, greeting at the newcomers. They were another incredible famous pair of the Divine Realm, they were the God-Kings of Life and destruction. "We are making a bet" Rakshasa then explained to the newcomers all that happened. "What a coincidence!" Life smiled "I found a descendant of a best friend of mine with an incredible talent for Life. I was thinking about giving her my position to help Little Purple with his work and pass more time together." "It''s decided!" jumped Angel "Big sis Green is participating!" Angel approached Life and pointed at Darkness and Rakshasa "They tricked me and are acting together against me, let''s join against them!" Life smiled at angel''s antics "Let''s the bet be fair and without tricks of our part, please" All the other nodded, being kind of impossible to go against her and her husband. "I will bet a cup of my tea" "LIFE TEA!" shouted Gluttony, tones of saliva surging from his mouth. "Gluttony you should win if you want to take it" Smiled Life, Gluttony nodding and for the first time stopping eating and focusing over the Douluo continent. "Oh? This seems quite interesting" From thin air, a new pair appeared. A pure white girl of transcendent beauty, with pure white hair and exquisite white skin that was wearing a white dress. She had a gentle aura that induced goodwill to everyone that looked at her. Her iris had the form of stars that shined from time to time. Even with so much white, it simply fitted her, being impossible to imagine her in another color as it would taint her divinity. The other was a black-haired boy, with two half meters long horns over his head. His eyes were didn''t have any iris, only a black mass was there. He was grinning diabolically, giving a dangerous aura around him. He seemed to be the embodiment of every evil of the universe. "Evil! Goodness!" shouted all the other gods in shock. They were the strongest God Kings of the Divine Realm, considered as the Supreme Gods, the Evil God and the Goodness Goddess. "What a big party that you prepared!" Goodness smiled brightly. "Let us participate! In our case, we will become judges. With both of us, I doubt that there would be any fight" Under her aura, the other gods automatically started slowly nodding. "You don''t have any problem, no?" Evil glanced at them, the nods increasing their speed becoming tens of time faster and with a look of fright. "And here''s the other player!" He waved his hand, a blue-haired man appearing gripped over his hand. "Sea is also going to participate?" asked Light. Poseidon, the Sea God, was usually calmed and collected, having the dignity of a true god. However, under the Evil God''s grasp, he was trembling, his usually calm face was full of terror as he nodded quickly, throwing some type of very delicious seaweed over the table. "You can let him go, Evil" Goodness ordered with a smile at Evil, Evil releasing his grip "The more the merrier!" Her aura extended all over, calming everyone. If you asked over the Divine Realm who they respected more, without a doubt the most voted would be Goodness. If not for her, they would have already died by a heart attack due to Evil! "Can I be also a judge?" Destruction asked standing up, lifting his hand shyly. He was usually very overbearing, but he didn''t dare to be under the watch of Evil. "No!" Evil said bluntly, shutting him up. "It can''t be, Destruction" Goodness explained "Life is also participating, you opinion would be biased for her" Destruction nodded in understanding returning to his seat. "Now that we are all here. Let''s see how it goes" Goodness waved her hands, a big screen appearing over them. In the screen, images of the Douluo continent were being transmitted to them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Over the screen, images of Bai and Renxue fighting each other at Heaven Dou Palace could be seen. "Renxue, win!" Angel cheered moving some pompons that somehow reach their hands. (I hate you sword bastard, but please, kill her!) Rakshasa prayed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Images of ants devouring the forest could be seen. "Why did we let Gluttony participate?" complained Rakshasa "It''s always the same, he or his inheritor going too far and devouring the realm, causing a lot of works for us!" "Don''t complain to Glut, big brother" Angel said hugging Gluttony, who was eating snacks, tightly "It was your fault that his inheritor became crazy, that madness of you always provoke problems." "And now you are pushing the fault at me?" Rakshasa said offended "In the end, if it weren''t for that sword bastard''s interference, Gluttony''s inheritor would have died, being a game over for him. Do you know how much hard work I lost? Tones of blood absorbed by that ant due to the sword bastard!" Gluttony stopped eating for a second. He looked at the others "I win" black aura leaving his body, the divinity around him lowering. At that moment, over the screen, it could be seen Mayi becoming the Gluttony Goddess, the first god to appear. "Woaw, good job Gluttony" Goodness congratulations "You are the earliest by difference. If you inheritor devour some of the forest and some big cities the win is already yours" "Why?" Seeing the fight and Mayi losing her divinity when being absorbed by Bai, Gluttony was shocked. "Who would have thought that they could do a god-level fusion?" The Sea God said. "Yeah, joined with the sword bastard''s inheritor impossibility to collect faith, she lost her qualifications" Darkness said. "Sorry for you, but" Rakshasa grinned "You have lost, little glutton!" Gluttony looked one last time to the prizes at the table, all his body trembling from anger "AAAAAAH!" "Puf!" Gluttony fell to the ground unconscious, Evil at his back having hit him "Didn''t Goodness said that there would be no fights? If someone flares again, you should be prepared for some torture" Evil grinned diabolically, shaking chills ran across everyone body, quickly nodding towards him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Seeing the battle of Bai against Xiaogang and Bibi Dong. "Ah! It was that bastard fault!" Rakshasa stood up hitting the table, quickly returning to his seat when Evil shot him a gaze "My poor scythe that I had cultivated over thousands of years. Finally, putting it inside a girl''s body and let her adjust to perfectly absorb all my essence and blood at Slaughter City, disappearing. And it was all the fault of that bastard." Seeing Bai using his torso spirit bone over the scythe, making able to use sword intent over "Don''t touch my precious scythe with your shit, bastard!" "Even if it''s your divine weapon" Angel shook her head "Your obsession with the scythe is too much, big brother." Rakshasa looked at her angrily "Your obsession with me is what is too much, Angel!" Angel avoided his gaze. Seeing the end of the battle, Bibi Dong obtaining the scythe "Finally, my inheritor takes it. There''s nothing better than the touch of a true scythe!" Rakshasa celebrated. Seeing Bai absorbing the Asura Sword to the God Sword "Hahaha!" Rakshasa laughed celebrating "Suck that, crazy bastard. All your work in that weak sword to the wc" "Big brother" Angel said shyly. "I already promised 2 hours, you won''t take more. Let me enjoy this moment. I would like to see the bastard''s face when he learns about it" "Big brother" This time Angel covered her eyes, pointing behind Rakshasa, a red angry aura started clinging Rakshasa''s back. Rakshasa started trembling as he slowly turned around, seeing a handsome man with long white hair and sharp blood-red eyes. His face was cold, his eyes showing his anger and killing intent. "Are you talking about me?" He asked coldly. "A-a-a-a-a-sura" Rakshasa stuttered full of terror. "Did you not said you wanted to see my face? The crazy bastard?" Asura sad with a threatening voice. "H-how could I insult big brother Asura? I was talking about" He pointed someone at random, falling at Destruction "About Destruction. Yeah, Destruction. He is a crazy bastard, if it weren''t for Life, we all have beaten him countless of times" Changing one God King for another God King might not seems a very bright idea. But for Rakshasa there wasn''t anyone more terrible than the crazy battle junkie of Asura. He would even prefer being punished by Evil himself with Goodness complete absence! Destruction looked angrily at Rakshasa "Don''t get me into your mess. I don''t have anything to do, brother Asura" He said with respect. Everyone respected Asura, the most neutral of the gods and the strongest in pure combat, being specialized in it. Asura gripped tightly at Rakshasa''s shoulders "We will pass a lot of time together" he said with a light smile, his eyes bloodshot. "Noooo!" Shouted in pain. "Big brother Sura, could you let big brother go" Angel lifted from her seat and blinked her eyes cutely asking to Asura. "Angel!" Rakshasa was moved, his eyes showing hope. If there was someone that could save him it would be his sister. Asura always had a soft spot for her, treating her as a little sister. "Let him until the bet is over." Angel smiled "After that, you can take him whenever you want. But respect my time with him" Asura nodded leaning over Rakshasa''s ear and whispering "Enjoy your time left" Then, he sat over a seat next to Rakshasa. Without saying anything, the bet had gained another judge. "Angel!" Rakshasa pointed angrily at his sister. However, he couldn''t continue under the watchful gaze of Asura, forcing him to stay quiet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Thanks, sword bastard!" Angel beamed in joy as she sensed her goddess''s position being taken away, Renxue becoming the next Angel Goddess "If it weren''t for you, Renxue would have died like the ones before. Truly thanks to interfering!" This only caused more anger to Rakshasa whose killing intent towards Bai increased "That sword bastard!" he clenched his teeth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Why the fu?k you decided that as the last trial, Light?" Rakshasa turned to Light who was trembling in fright as she watched Chenxiang running away from Renxue. "S-she is Angel''s inheritor. I thought that she would be very warm and happy, becoming a friendly spar between both, letting Chenxiang improve her control" Light explained trembling as Renxue tried to kill Chenxiang. "hahaha. You couldn''t think it worst" Rakshasa turned to the screen "She might have some of me in her" he said proudly. "Don''t laugh at wify, it''s not her fault that Angel''s inheritor became so vicious" Darkness stepped forward to protect his wife "If you don''t apologize, I won''t help you anymore" Rakshasa clenched his hands, but in the end, bowed towards Light "Sorry, Light" Now that Renxue had become someone close to a God-King, Darkness''s cooperation was the only thing that could create an opportunity for his victory. Light smiled "Don''t worry, we are all friends. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "It took too much time" Rakshasa said as his and Darkness''s divinity left their body, Bibi Dong and Xiaogang becoming gods "the probability are against me". -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Impressive" Said Goodness, all the gods agreeing with her "For that boy to be able to take control over that old sword. I thought that it would be impossible" "That power of him, even if too weak, it has the power to defy faith" Evil deducted, a black sword materializing at his hands, his ultra divine weapon, Evilness. He looked carefully as Sword God Bai was fighting Renxue "Sword God? I don''t think it suits him, rather than be loved by swords, I''ll say that he is feared by them. He wasn''t able to go further over the peak, so he changed it to a new one." He said sighing. "It doesn''t matter!" Shouted Angel "Renren is much more powerful, she would easily win!" From a mountain of food, Gluttony''s face surged, stopping eating "It returned" He stated, just at the moment, Bai showed himself as the Gluttony God. "Wait a moment!" Shouted Rakshasa "Is that even legal. Using the sword bastard as inheritor should be against some rule" "I don''t think that there''s any problem" said Goodness "He released the old sword curse, and by absorbing the little ant, took Gluttony''s position. I will permit it" she stated. "But-" "Shut up and sat quiet!" Evil shouted "Goodness had already talk" "O-of course" Rakshasa nodded returning to his seat. "I don''t have any problem with him" Angel said "Renren is in love with him. In the end, they might be both winners" Angel hugged Gluttony tightly "I don''t mind sharing with Glut!" she rubbed her head over him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just as Bibi Dong and Xiaogang appeared over the battlefield. "Kill them all, Bibi Dong!" Rakshasa shouted cheering "Show the might of Rakshasa!" "I won''t be too enthusiastic, Rakshasa" Goodness said. "Why?" asked Rakshasa confused. "Both your inheritor, have too goodness in their insides to decide a total destruction" Goodness explained. "Their evilness is lacking" Evil said. Over the screen, Xiaogang opened his grimoire "". Suddenly, the image over the screen disappeared, indicating no signal. "What had happened?" Rakshasa asked confused with the loss of signal "Darkness, what is that technique?" "I don''t know!" Darkness said confused "It had a base of my Darkness, but the power is very different. It''s a very powerful formation even capable of sealing us" "Wait a moment" Evil said "That wasn''t-" "Yes" Goodness affirmed "It''s your formation" "Big sister Goodness, could you explain it?" Angel asked. Goodness nodded "You remember the fight against the Dragon God" All the gods shuddered. It was pure hell, a lot of gods dying and the Divine Realm almost being destroyed. "At the end of the fight, Asura with our support cut in half the Dragon God, separating it in the Golden Dragon King and the Silver Dragon King. I quickly sealed the Golden Dragon here at the Divine Realm while the one in charge of the Silver Dragon" She said pointing at Evil who avoided her gaze "Do a very sloppy work, making a half-assed formation that only sealed most of the Silver Dragon''s powers, letting it scape even if very weakened. This World of Darkness is based in that half-assed formation." "How could Darkness''s inheritor get it and be able to use it" Angel asked. "The seal must be over the Douluo continent" Rakshasa deducted. "You''ve gotten a great inheritor, Darkness" Goodness congratulated at Darkness "He must be very intelligent to be able to decipher and use Evil''s formation, even if it was only a half-assed, congratulations." "Big sis" Angel asked "Could you return the signal?" "If it was a complete formation, it couldn''t be done without directly messing with the realm, but with that flaw..." Goodness extended her palms over the screen. She smiled brightly "I found a backdoor" The signal returning, seeing the new gods fighting between each other, no sign of Bai. "Where had that sword bastard gone?" Rakshasa asked confused "If he is dead, I would have liked to see his death. I pray that it was painful." His words were ignored by the other gods who were focused over the screen. "Poor Renren" Angel let a tear as Renxue killed her mother "At least you have lost big brother, it''s my wi-" "Don''t go so fast, Angel" Interjected Rakshasa "I might have lost. But it doesn''t mean that you have won. They might have a trump card, Darkness''s inheritor is alive after all" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What the fu?k?!" Shouted everyone seeing the appearance of the Dragon of the End "We didn''t exterminate that dragon long ago, I thought that we even destroy its possibility to reincarnate" Rakshasa said. "The Dragon of the End. The only brother of the Dragon God, with a power similar to him, but fully focused over the ending. Before him even Destruction or Evil would be erased" Goodness said. "It was an easy battle, because even the Dragon God cooperate with us at that time, stopping most of his blows. Who could have thought that it would appear here?" Destruction said. "He is not the real one" Evil realized "His power and potential is lower. But, he could become very dangerous if let him grow and ran rampart" "We need to act!" Rakshasa shouted "This is a clear world order danger, we can act upon. Let''s descend and quickly finish him before he is even completed" "We can''t" Goodness said "Unless it is specified the contrary, we are not able to infer in a bet" "To hell with the bet!" Rakshasa shouted "I don''t want to win like this, they must be stopped" "I understand you" Said Evil "But the rules are rules, we can''t interfere. We will need over 100 years to change this rule, you know how sacred are the bets" Rakshasa and everyone clenched their hands tightly impotent before the situation in front of them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "How could it be!?" Someone shouted seeing Bai appearing and hurting the Dragon of the End. "Of course, Chaos" Evil said with a hint of hostility "The dragon is incomplete, being perfectly counter by him" Then, they saw how Bai and the others fought and kill the dragon. Finally finishing the video with Lingling''s resurrections and becoming the Life Goddess. "That''s my nephew!" Life said proudly seeing Lingling''s actions. "I got tricked by that bastard of my inheritor, never wanting to win" Rakshasa discovered "Someone would need a good punishment" Then, everyone turned towards Goodness, Evil and Asure "Who won at the end?" The three looked at each other and nodded, Goodness stepping forward "The bet was about not the strongest, it was the one with greater influence and fame over. Taking into account this, I would declare the winner to" A drumroll sounded "Angel and Life!" "Why?" Interjected Gluttony "My inheritor won. Life didn''t do anything" "Sorry, Gluttony" said Goodness with a sad smile "You were very close as we considered that Bai one of the winners. However, he is recognized as the Sword God not the Gluttony God making you invalid. For the others, Angel was clearly the winner, the Angel Goddess name resounding all over the continent. Finally, about Life, is the same as Angel, but with the Spirit Beasts. Lingling is clearly the more famous over the spirit beasts, making her the second winner" Gluttony started trembling, tears fell from his big eyes as he was about to cry, a lot! "Calm down, Glut" Angel approached him "Take it" After having it talk about with Life, Angel gave him all the edible prizes, Gluttony''s eyes shining delightful looking at the delicacies "The fun and knowing that I won is more than enough" Angel smiled. "Thank!" Gluttony bowed, before jumping towards the prizes, eating all of them instantly, letting go a satisfied blurp that made the air tremble. Angel turned to Rakshasa "I won, I won, I won" She started giggling, dancing around and overall bothering Rakshas "You lost, you lost. Big brother you remember that time when we did a bet? How did it finishes? Of course, I won!" she giggled. Rakshasa started headbutting the table in despair, long centuries of his sister bragging were waiting him. "It''s time" Asura informed, gripping Rakshasa and dragging him away. "No! Save me!" Rakshasa supplicated full of despair unable to escape from Asura''s grasp. "Now that a new God-King had appeared, it doesn''t matter that she didn''t have my position, I will give her all my job" Asura explained to Rakshasa "You don''t have to worry, you will have all my time" He said grinning. "Be careful!" Renxue shouted as they were walking away, waving her hand "Don''t go overboard, at least made sure that he doesn''t die!" Asura lifted his arm, making an okay''s sign. Angel turned away looking and poking at Gluttony who continued eating. She made a big smile "You are so cute!" For his part, Rakshasa''s face was full of fury "It''s all that sword bastard fault!" he cursed "I will be waiting for you over the Divine Realm. I would torture you to madness! Not even supplicating for your death would save you, bastard!" Chapter 256 - New novel I created the new novel, the sequel of this one. It is called Douluo Dalu: Sword Legacy. Now it only had a little prologue, but I will be posting more chapters these days before my holidays {Let''s hope that COVID doesn''t cancel them} You can see it in my profile. Just in case, I will leave you the link under here {Even when I know that most, like me, will not use it as it''s impossible to copy} /book/17519034106381805 Chapter 75 - Against Spirit Hall 1 Having all the other matches finished, now there were only 10 teams in the tournament. Before closing the competition from today, it will be decided the next day matches. "I want the next opponents to be strong" said Mayi. "Calm down, Mayi. There are only 10 teams left. More or less we have 50% of a possibility to go against a strong one" I reassured Mayi. "The best will be fighting against another weak team, hiding and keeping our strength" said Yan. "There are 4 teams left with at least all team at spirit ancestor. I only want that we won''t fight against Spirit Hall. There''s very little information about them and I would have preferred to see one of his matches" Tianheng commented. It seemed that Tianheng jinxed it, our rivals were decided to be the favorite winners of the tournament, Spirit Hall team. This third round was very messed, two seeded teams against each other and the other seeded versus the first ranked team, Shrek vs Star Luo. This will permit to weak teams to pass the round, it will be a joke if some of these teams arrived at the finals. It was a little funny to see the contrast between Mayi and Tianheng''s faces, Mayi smiling brightly while Tianheng had a look of despair. "Tianheng, they are the same, they won''t have information about us. A difference of 1 spirit king is not a lot in a team fight. Trust a little in your training!" I encouraged. "I wanted to hide you as a support system, disconcerting the rivals. But it seems that we should go full strength" Sighed Tianheng. "We are unlucky, but the same goes for the other team. We will finish the tournament in this round" I told. Lingling smiled and lifted her hand. We all joined hand and we lifted high shouting "For victory!" We had a good rest and we prepared for tomorrow. The next day we went to the stadium. "This match is one of the most expected ones, two seeded teams, the strongest representative of Heaven Dou against the representative of Spirit Hall. Not only that, it will be a fight between the only spirit kings in the tournament. Both teams the favorites to win this. Without more preambles let''s cheer for both teams and expect a great match!" the announcer shouted "First enter Heaven Dou Imperial team!" We entered the ring, our formation was Mayi and Shi M¨® at the front as defender, after them was Tianheng as a heavy hitter who would take advantage of the people blocked by Mayi and Shi M¨®, behind him, Yan, supporting with her poison, and Osler, who will attack with speed, then me, debuffing the contrary team and protecting mine. and behind all of us was Lingling responsible for healing. "On the other hand, Spirit Hall enters!" shouted the announcer, this time with more passion, it was simple to see great favoritism for Spirit Hall, normal taking place in their capital. Spirit Hall team entered, they have a formation of 2-1-4. For the information I could gather, the important ones are the three at the front, all of them spirit kings with less than 25 years, they are named the golden generation. The two at the front were Xie Yue and Yan, both the power attack system. Xie Yue was a tall man, with black spiked like needles hair, he had a serene look at his face. He was the captain of the team, I knew that his spirit was a sword type, but I didn''t know exactly what or his attainment in the sword arts. Yan was also a tall man, with long straight red hair and eyes, he exuded an intangible temperament. His spirit was some fire-related one. Hu Liena was a girl with long black hair, at first she didn''t seem especially beautiful, but she exuded some special charm that would inadvertently attract you. She was the control master of their team, her spirit being a fox. For the four people at the rear all seemed average, with different hair colors and styles, they didn''t make any powerful impression. All four were supporting the other three. This year Spirit Hall team was focused on the 4 at the front, the other only for support. "So you are the best of this tournament" Hu Liena said with a charming voice smiling "It will be fun to play with you" "Ignore her" Tianheng said. I noticed Mayi trembling, I was worried until I saw her face, she was grinning looking forward to the battle. I positioned myself waiting for the start. "Show your spirits!" shouted the announcers. This time we all activated our spirits. I could see their spirit closer. Yan''s spirit was a beast spirit, improving his strength and gaining flames. Hu Lienas grew a pair of fox ears, and a charming aura surrounded her. For Xie Yue, he invoked two curved red blood swords that resembled a half-moon, being a duel wielding sword. From Xie Yue''s sword, I could sense I powerful intent, that will improve its sharpness and power, but it didn''t go further than that. It was no near domain realm. It seemed that he favored his spirit cultivation over his sword, the normal path. I could keep up only thanks to the Normal Oreo, and the help of Paul who only could focus on the sword, not being accessible to cultivate energy. "Start!" The announcer shouted. Xie Yue and Yan charged forward, against Mayi and M¨° respectively. Mayi and M¨° looked at each other and nodded. They charged to stop their opponents, but they charged diagonally, creating a cross and changing their opponent. "<2nd skill: Flame Hand>" Yan''s yellow ring shined and the flames of his right arm grew, forming a two meters long hand made out of flames. Mayi punched it, causing it to explode in flames that engulfed Mayi while Yan retreated. After 2 seconds the flames vanished and it could be seen a completely fine Mayi, without any burn mark in her. "<1st skill: Shining Moon>" Xie Yue attacked Shi M¨®, his blades leaving a light afterglow. "<2nd skill: Shield Form>" M¨® invoked a big shield in front of him that stopped Xie Yue''s attack but was being pushed by him "<1st skill: Electrick Shock>" his shield produced electricity that stroked toward Xie Yue who retracted evading it. Xie Yue and Yan retracted at the same place "You''re not bad, but how could you cope with this" Yue and Yan joined their hand, both of their spirits fused "" the fusion of both spirits formed a huge over 10 m sword, it was a dark red sword surrounded by powerful flames, it power was like a top spirit emperor. They swung the sword, trying to sweep our front. I knew that M¨® didn''t have any change to stop it "M¨®, change!" I shouted. M¨®''s purple ring shined "<4th skill: Swapping>", just like that M¨® and I changed our positions. I hold Mayi''s hand using some of her spirit power, a fusion technique, don''t mistake it for a spirit fusion, a simple fusion it was a lot less powerful. If a fusion was an adding, a spirit fusion was a multiplication. My sword shined red and gray, activating my first and fourth skills, improving my power and defense, while lowering their. I white light exuded from my sword , boosting, even more, my defense. A black ring shined "<5th skill: Infinity Swords>" I pierced the air, it seems like if a was passing through the water creating a ripple. From the ripple shot a white sword, this one without any type of edge. My white sword collided with their red sword. The clash produces sparks, flames surged in every direction, but were stopped by a white aura surrounding the white sword. After a second my sword overpowered the other one which dissipated. The white sword continued forward and was evaded by Yan and Xie Yue. It continued forward hitting one of the 4 support who couldn''t react in time, he was pushed outside the ring crashing to a wall. He seemed fine thanks to the close to 0 piercing an attack power of it, only injured by the crash against the wall, but was nevertheless eliminated for abandoning the combat grounds. I could see the shocked faces of Spirit Hall team, surprised that I not only could stop their spirit fusion but it didn''t even stop my attack. Their shocked faces gradually changed for fury ones. "How you dare!" Shouted Xie Yue. "Calm down, brother" Hu Liena tried to appease Xie Yue. Hu Liena turned to me who was smiling at them "You will see what it means to be impotent against absolute power" she joined Yan and Yue. The three of them hugged and started shining, Hu Liena in pink, Yue in white and Yan in red. I opened my eyes shocked "3 spirit fusion?!" I couldn''t help to shout surprised. Their auras started fusing until there was only one violet aura. It was a perfect fusion between their spirits, not like that half-ass attack of before that was only one attack with a partial fusion. In the place were they stood previously, now there was only one person. He had a kitsune mask hiding his face, a long platinum hair with white and red robes, he exuded strength, if I must calculate, I could sense a power of a spirit sage using their avatar form. Knowing that it is a spirit fusion, they couldn''t use any spirit ring technique, causing them to be weaker than an actual spirit sage, but their strength will be on part of one in avatar form, with their most strength. Chapter 75 - Against Spirit Hall 2 "" He said in a powerful voice. The other three left people activated all their spirits, one excelled over the other, a type of balance, a golden balance with two platforms to put weight comparing each other. The balance person rings all shined "" spirit power started to surge from the three of them to the Devil Monster. "So it''s this. 3 of them fused while the other keep them sharing spirit power" I analyzed. The Devil monster invoked two half-moon swords, one on each hand. One of them was shining silver while the other one was surrounded by flames. He pointed the flame sword to us "Try to futilely resist under the absolute power" he said "" from his flaming sword started to shot little purple flames, each one containing a tremendous power in it. I swung my sword, creating an arc in front of me, leaving a white aura as a trail that formed a white wall. The fireballs were all stopped by the wall, but they were tiring me out with every hit. I could keep thanks to Mayi, my domain and my skills activated. Lingling activated her spirit skill healing continuously me, recharging a little my physical strength spent. "While Bai stops him, attack the supports" commanded Tianheng. Yan used her poison skills on the other members improving their strength. M¨®, Tianheng and Osler charged toward the supports, going from the sides were the Devil Monster attack didn''t arrive. "Like I''ll let you so easily" the Devil Monster said, he lowered his flame sword and lifted the silver one "" a pink smoke surged from the sword engulfing all the ring. I could stop with my domain, but doing it I would expend a great deal of physical energy, not lasting more than half a minute so I let it, not detecting any type of physical damage from it. When the smoke arrived at my teammates they fell to the ground, they were doing strange movements, for their faces they seemed to use a lot of effort but they could stand. When the pink smoke arrived at me a finally comprehended. It was a mental attack, it affected our coordination. I tried to move my right hand, but instead, I moved my left foot. The worst part was that it wasn''t a constant, it was always changing. After some seconds the previous right-hand movement will provoke the right shoulder to lift. Doing little movements, the best that I could keep was maintaining my standing. "Fuck they''re preventing us from using our strength" I swore. The Devil Monster then threw both of his swords, they were spinning causing and image of being round, towards Tianen and M¨®, they were incapable of evading due to their condition and were pushed outside the ring, eliminated. The swords like being a boomerang returned to the Devil Monster hands. He did the same again, this time eliminating Yan and Osler. "You dared to stop my attack, stop this!" shouted him. Throwing another time both swords. The flame one pushed Lingling outside the ring. The other one was approaching me. I was trying to recover my sense but it was near impossible. It was a completely, changing in all of them, I wasn''t even sure if my own position. It was Mayi, she stopped the sword concentrating spirit energy in her knee, that was black now, and used that knee to stop the sword. I looked at Mayi shocked "How could you move?" "It was not too difficult to get used" said Mayi like nothing, Mayi and her great fighting instinct. Mayi charged towards the Devil Monster. Her punches turned black and started doing blows to the Devil Monster who could only block them, too shocked with Mayi''s movements in his ability. "H-how could you fight?!" shouted him. After some changing blows, he finally calmed down "It doesn''t matter, I''m stronger" He slowly started pushing Mayi. Each strike was incredibly powerful. Mayi was maintaining well the ground, but she was tiring herself with each blow. Mayi usually didn''t expend any spirit energy, as she only used internally. She will only concentrate her spirit energy in some parts of her body, gaining strength in them. The problem is when the opponent''s attacks were strong enough to dent Mayi''s armor, then Mayi will automatically expend spirit energy fixing her armor, it was a passive that she couldn''t even stop. Both, Mayi and the Devil Monster, were only fighting with pure strength. Mayi not having the capabilities to use spirit skills, and the Devil Monster busy using his demon charm. Mayi''s strength was lower than him, but her senses and skill were better. If they continued fighting like this in 1vs1 maybe Mayi could win, Mayi lasting enough to tire them, breaking the spirit fusion. The problem was that the Devil Monster was supported by 3 spirit ancestors who shared their spirit energy, so he will last more than Mayi. After 2 minuted of hitting, Mayi took to react and received a hit on her stomach, she retracted toward my position. Her stomach''s armor was broken falling into pieces, without any sign to regenerated, showing that her spirit power run out. She was panting exhausted, but even tired, she had a smile in her face, enjoining the fight. She took my left hand and looked at my eyes. I could give her my spirit power and let her continue fighting, but seeing the fight until now, and seeing the opponents state, we will surely lose if we continue like that. Incapable of even talking I used our mind connection to communicate (Mayi, let''s fusion). She looked shocked, and she had a good motive to doubt. I couldn''t move correctly and our spirit fusion maybe it was a powerful attack that could defeat the Devil Monster, it wasn''t sure. The worst of it that I was the one controlling the spirit fusion, so I will be the one so swung it. In my state, it will be very difficult, so I will go for the luck, trying with all my power in one improbable chance. Mayi smiled and nodded "I let it to you". She approached me and kissed me in my mouth, her tongue invading my mouth. "Spirit fusion! Like I''ll let you" The Devil Monster shot both swords towards us. I could sense our spirit starting to fuse, suddenly I heard a voice [3 spirit fusion, this is interesting. Let''s copy it] it was Paul''s voice. I could sense another aura from it, instead of opposing ours, it even helps to fuse even better. The three auras started fusing, my body and Mayi body shining brightly, the light was so bright that even was blinding the audience. The Devil Monster two swords ignored the light and continued towards their objective "Clang" "Clang" two sound were made at the same time and both swords were rebounded landing in his hands. When the light finally stopped it could be seen as a figure. It was a handsome man, with long white hair, sharp facial features and piercing eyes that seemed to cut. He had a black armor covering all his body, with a helmet in an ant form, similar to what Mayi was wearing, but it could be easily seen that it was stronger than her. The armored man made a death glance towards the Devil Monster, causing the Monster to flinch back in fright. The Monster recuperated "This changes nothing, seeing your form, the boy is the one controlling it, you can''t win against our technique" The armored man''s body trembled, he made a strange movement that seemed a kind of comical dance, moving every muscle of his body. Then a dark gray long-sword appeared in his left hand and he grinned "It wasn''t too difficult to get used, a little alternation of the sense with a periodic change, too easy!" said the armored man laughing "You can call me Antman, but I could ?ssure than I won''t become small" Antman said gaining the strange look of everyone. "Like hell I would trust you" Monster shouted throwing his swords. When the sword arrived in Antman, Antman holds his sword with both hands and swung up-down. The speed was so fast and strong, that in truth two attacks were made, leaving two trails that even left and afterimages 3 seconds after. Each trail collided with one of the throwing swords, breaking them in the process. "How can it be possible?" Monster couldn''t hide the shock on his face. He shook his head and manifested another two swords on his hands, he also broke the Charm Demon technique who seemed now useless. Now free of pink smoke Antman happily said "It''s annoying to get used to a body, especially with so much strength and more with that ability of yours. Thanks for stopping it" making Monster angry. Monster lift both his swords that started shining, they fused together creating a bigger one, similar at the previous two-man spirit fusion was undoubtedly stronger. Monster threw the sword towards Antman "". "Really? This didn''t work against that good for nothing except shield, you really think it will work now?" Antman ridiculed. Antman lifted his sword and swung it down, colliding towards the throwing sword, easily breaking in the process. A spirit fusion is a combination of the major characteristics of spirits, gaining at least one technique. The most common one is between two, for example, Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing Hell White Tiger used both strength and speed, to increase in a very short attack with powerful strength. In a three people fusion this change. Like they are three people more than one possible combination is possible. The Devil Monster is controlled by Xie Yue and had shown 3 abilities, corresponding to the different dual fusing. Continuously Flame Bullets, the fusion from Hu Liena and Yan spirits. Charm Demon, the fusion of Hu Liena and Xie Yue spirits. And Devil Monster Lord Sword was a fusion of Yan and Xie Yue spirits. Maybe they could even have a technique fusing all three. In the case of Antman, is the fusion of Mayi''s Ant spirit, Bai''s Nine Treasure Sword and Paul''s Oreo. All three spirits, in contrast to their opponents, have something in common, they all increase the strength of the user, discarding the sword debuffing all of them worked very similar. So Antman was simple this a stack of improvement, he didn''t have any spirit skill, but his strength is enormous. Having the physical strength to go against douluos. Being so overwhelmed by his opponent, Monster shouted toward the 3 supports "Give all your energy". All the rings of the 3 started shining giving all their energy to Monster. "!" Monster starting shining "I won''t let you live, this will be an all-out attack" He charged toward Antman, both sword in front, his aura started twisting, spinning at high speed, he seemed to have formed a meteorite. When the meteorite approached Antman, "Tsubame Gaeshi" said Antman swinging his sword, one time, two times, three times! The strike seemed impossible and in a seemingly one swiftly swing he created 3. The three attacks in one, impossible to evade stroke the meteorite. One of them broke the flame sword, the other one broke and the last one cut the meteorite in half, breaking the spirit fusion, the three Spirit Hall member was pushed in a different direction while vomiting blood, heavily injured, unable to fight. The attack didn''t finish it there, the swings were so strong and fast that they created 3 wind blades due to their wind pressure. Each blade shot toward the 3 support members of Spirit Hall, each one cutting one arm of them and pushing them aside. The stadium was in complete silence for 10 seconds until the announcers finally said "Spirit Hall Academy team is unable to continue. Heaven Dou Imperial Academy team win!" causing great shouts and cheers from the audience. Antman grinned and dispersed in light particles leaving in his trail Mayi and I panting, completely exhausted unable to even move. Healers came from every side and attended every injured one. I could see dad with a worried face helping. Seeing the battle finish a let me fall to the ground (Too tired, I''ll sleep a little), falling asleep. Chapter 76 - Pre-Final I opened my eyes finding me on a bed in a room that I didn''t recognize. Looking around I could see Mayi on a bed next to mine. She was sleeping with a calm expression. "You finally wake up" I listened to a voice. I turned seeing who was "Dad" Dad smiled "You surprised everyone in that match, nobody will tell that it was a fight of spirits kings. How are you?" I stretched a little my body "All''s fine, it was only spirit exhaustion" "What was that spirit fusion?" Dad asked I looked at my surroundings "This is a private room, the only people here are the three of us" Dad said signaling to Mayi. "It was a 3 spirits fusion technique, both my spirits plus Mayi. It was possible thanks to that our fusion compatibility is 100%. That was the first time that I used it, this was the main reason that was so exhausting" I explained, "How are my other teammates?" "They are all fine, it was only light injures, nothing to worry about. Rest, tomorrow you have another match, it is already decided that it will be against Star Luo''s second-ranked team" Said dad "I will let you, I have some important matters to attend" Dad then left the room, just as he left, Rongrong entered the room. Rongrong hugged me "Are you well, big brother?" I hugged her tightly "Of course, who do you take me for? It was only a little spirit energy exhaustion, nothing serious. How was your match against the Star Luo Imperial team?" "We won!" She shouted excited "How could I lose the first match that I fight? It was easy! Even without sister Xiang, we fought well" "Congratulations. Luckily, our team won''t meet until the Final" I smiled at her "Why Xiang didn''t participate? Is something wrong?" "She isn''t here now, just as we have arrived at Spirit City some people of her clan took her. She said that we don''t need to worry and that she will be there for the Finals" Rongrong explained. "Maybe she got herself in some problem, if she isn''t here for the Final, I would search for her" I said thoughtfully. Listening to me Rongrong smiled "You''re very caring of sister Xiang" "She is my precious friend, and please don''t start with all about Mayi and Xiang" "As your on a bed, I will let you for today. Rest well" Said Rongrong giggling while she was leaving the room. "Ahhhh" I turned to Mayi who had woken up and was stretching her arms while yawning "Hi, Bai" I stood up and approached her and kiss her "Thanks, if not for you I would be eliminated in the match and we would lost" Mayi shook her head "You don''t need to thank me, we are One, it''s normal to help" She blushed a little "But I don''t mind the kissing" Then Mayi turned serious "We finally achieved a perfect fusion, but, who was that? The one controlling the fusion wasn''t me or you" "I have a special mental technique that made me have multiple personalities, he is one of them, his name is Paul" I explained. Mayi hugged my arm and looked at me with big round eyes "I don''t like him! I sensed a cold and depraved aura from him, even a death sensation. It will affect you?" Asked Mayi concerned. "From now, we are separated minds, and I am in control, you don''t need to worry, I will always be the one controlling the body" I calmed her down. Mayi nodded and rubbed her head in my ?h?st "I want to be always with you, don''t lose to him. However, I will follow you, even if you change, while it''s you I don''t mind who are you or what are you. You don''t need to run away from me" I realized that Mayi knew more than what I thought, maybe she even knew more of Paul self than me. When I was about to ask I saw that she was sleeping. [A 100.000 years old spirit beast it''s really dangerous, to think that in such little time she already analyzed our condition. I think that she already knows what will happen in the future] (Mayi always had good instincts) [This goes further than mere instincts, she is more intelligent than what she appears. Be wary of her] (Why I must listen to you? I more wary of you!) (And what will happen in the future? Following dad''s word, we will fuse, but he said that there won''t be much of change in me) [That ant in a minute discover more than you in all your life, learn it for yourself! Ah, and I won''t let you use my spirit again in the tournament, this time was an exemption. I wanted to prove the power of the fusion, it won''t be repeated. But I will advise you, learn about these combats, compare yourself with others and when the tournament finish let me know what did you discover, think for yourself for one time] Paul finished saying. The next day I reunited with all my teammates, they asked how Mayi and I were and congratulated us for winning. "Winning against the strongest Spirit Hall we are now the favorites, it almost a fact that we will win this tournament," Yan said proudly. "Don''t be too proud of yourself Yan. We only won thanks to Mayi and Bai who did it all. We need to put more effort" Tianheng reprimanded. Yan nodded a little regretful. "The only competent team is Shrek and the didn''t even have one spirit king, how could they win over us?" Osler said. After some laughing and argument Tianheng turned serious and said "We won against Spirit Hall in their city, be alert of any attack from them for this offense. I don''t think they will be daring enough to attack as in the tournament, but then, I won''t find it strange for them to try to kill us to low their shame" We all serious nodded knowing that Tianheng is right, with Spirit Hall power, they could attack us even with our backgrounds. "Let''s concentrate on winning today match, they only have 3 spirit ancestor, all the others being spirits elders, so it won''t be difficult, but don''t let your guard down" "Hi" we all nod. The Final was between 3 teams, finishing the day matches, the other two teams were Shrek Academy and Godwing Academy. It seems that in this tournament the bigger winner was Heaven Dou Empire, all 3 teams from it, including us as a seeded team. The Final consist in the first round of 1vs1 combats where one person of one team fight versus another team, the loser will be eliminated while the winner will continue fighting, this time one member from the other team. This will continue until only one academy left. The academy winner will pass directly to the next round. The 2 loser academies will fight a 7vs7 team fight, the winner passing to the final match versus the winner of the last round. Then it will be the final match between both academies, a 7vs7 match that will decide the winner. The Final will start in 3 days, so we have time to rest a little, then all the matches will be in only two days, being necessary to be very wary of any wounds in the first fights. I took these 3 days for resting, putting aside any kind of training. Looking around in the city I could sense a lot of gazes in me. Some of them were of awe and respect, while hostile. While I was peacefully walking I noticed a familiar presence from my back, 2 seconds later someone blocked my view with her hands. "Who I am?" said, obviously a girl. Without even any movement or doubt I answered "It''s good to see your fine, Xiang. I didn''t see you while the tournament" Chenxiang free my sight and with a spin move in front of me. She inclined her body with both of her hand at her back and winked at me "Correct, it''s the most beautiful girl, Bai Chenxiang!" I couldn''t help to smile at her antics "It seems that my worries were unrequited, you seem fine. What were you doing these days? You weren''t in any fight" I glanced at her, trying to analyze her for any change, but I was stopped by Chenxiang kissing my lips. It was only a light peck without any tongue, she broke it "Don''t peek at me, Bai. I want it to be a surprise" She said smiling, I blushed "My family had the best scouting spirit masters and I asked my granddad for their help, there wasn''t any problem at all" "Rongrong already told me about your family taking you, I was worried about they forcing you in something" I said concerned. Chenxiang smile grew bigger "Thanks for the worry, Bai. But the clan is completely in granddad control and I am the apple of his eyes, he won''t let me anything happen" she turned serious "Tomorrow is our match, I will fight with all my power, be ready" She then grinned "Let''s make a bet, the loser will have to follow one request of the winner" "Xiang, I don''t thin-" I was stopped by Chenxiang who pushed her finger on my lips, she smiled "It''s a bet" she then ran away not letting me answer, leaving me sighing. Chapter 77 - Punch vs self-created technique Today was the start of the Final three, deciding what will be the two teams who will fight in the final match. We went to the stadium. Once there we entered the ring accompanied by the other finalist, Shrek Academy, and Godwind Academy. Today, as a special occasion the matches will be seen by the Supreme Pontiff. All the teams positioned confronting the entrance of the Supreme Pontiff Palace''s main gates. Once we were all positioned, people started exiting from the main gates. First, it was the Supreme Pontiff, she was wearing a white ceremonial dress and she had a staff made with gold and multiple precious gems. Looking at her it was difficult to see if she was beautiful or not. Her face exuded coldness and dignity and her red eyes and aura created an oppressive sensation that it was difficult to not prostate. There''s also the fact that it was impossible to detect her cultivation, but her strength was undoubtedly. After she entered 4 people, all of them wearing red robes with golden patterns, showing that all of them were titled douluos. I recognized three of them, one of them was uncle Sword, the other two were Ghost Douluo who attacked us in the trip and Chrysanthemum Douluo who stopped him. The last one was an old man with gray hair and a long beard that I didn''t recognize. The main gates could only be used by the Supreme Pontiff herself, spirit douluos and Spirit Hall''s elders, even platinum bishops like Salas wouldn''t have the honor. After the titled douluos entered dad, who hid the fact that he broke through douluo rank, thanks to his influence as the schoolmaster of one of the most strong school he was named as an honorary elder of Spirit Hall, but even with it, he could only go behind the other, representing how Spirit Hall veneered the strong. After dad came a man with ceremonial black robes with golden patterns. Everyone that knew him was very shocked, he was Grandmaster, Yu Xiaogang. Being there meant that he was recognized as Spirit Hall''s member, that was shocking but what was even more shocking was his robes, this type of robes were only worn by spirit douluos, being impossible that Spirit Hall would permit to wear the robes unless he arrived at douluo rank. This was never seen, how could someone go from a spirit elder to a spirit douluo in only 3 months. Even more, he was situated in this group, representing his importance in Spirit Hall''s eyes. In front of this team Godwind Academy''s members knelt. Our Academy, all with great backgrounds didn''t have the need to kneel so we only bowed to them showing our respect. In my case I looked at the Supreme Pontiff and bowed, then I knelt directed and uncle and dad. In Shrek''s case, they were too shocked and they took a while to react. After they recuperated they knelt, but I could see their eyes directed more at Grandmaster rather than the Supreme Pontiff. When the Supreme Pontiff group arrived at the VIP lounge prepared for them, the Supreme Pontiff waved her staff. With this movement 3 shining things appeared, looking at them they were 3 spirit bones, all of them of great quality, shocking everyone that didn''t know beforehand. "This will be the prizes for the champion. Three spirit bones, all of them of 10.000 years old beast. One left legged focusing in speed, one burst incineration right hand and one skull bones focused in wisdom. The skull one it was personally obtained by the Supreme Pontiff from a 50.000 years old beast, it''s quality only lower than external or 100.000 years old bones" announced Ghost Douluo with a little pissed tone. It was obvious that these three bones were prepared for Spirit Hall team, the skull for Hu Liena, the right hand for Yan and the left leg for Xie Yue, all of them perfectly compatible with them. Spirit Hall must have been very pissed when their team didn''t even arrive at the top three. "There can only be one winner. Consequently, these three bones will be for the winner. I expect all of you to fight for this honor" announced the Supreme Pontiff. It could see the eagerness of not only all the teams, but there''s also of the majority of the spectators. If it weren''t for the Supreme Pontiff and titled douluos, an all-out battle will occur training to obtain them. "This morning is a knockout competition for the seven members of all your three teams. The team remaining, in the end, will hold a decisive opportunity, directly entering the fight for the championship tomorrow. The two defeated teams will fight over the other place in the finals in the afternoon. You can now dispatch your first members to the stage" Announced the Supreme Pontiff. From the 3 teams stepped one member of each one. From our Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, the first one was Mayi. From Godwind Academy was its captain, Feng Xiaotian. And from Shrek, it came Chenxiang. This round was very important, the winner having a big advantage of resting while the other team will have to have another fight in the afternoon. Once the 3 had stepped they took some paper to decide who will go first. It was decided that the first to fight will be Mayi and Xiaotian. Both of them stayed at the ring while Chenxiang returned with her team. The usual flying spirit master announcer came "The first battle will be Tai Mayi from Heaven Dou Imperial Academy against Feng Xiaotian from Godwing Academy. Start!" Both of them activated their spirits, Mayi her armor appeared at her body with her 5 rings and from Xiaotian a two-headed wind wolf appeared at his back with 4 rings, yellow, yellow, purple, purple. Xiaotian signaled at Mayi "You can''t hide it. Your spirit is the Fifteen Ton Ant which it''s known for its incapability to use spirit skills, even with you spirit king strength you only have that" he said like the discover of the century. Mayi looked at him like looking trash "Yes, so what? I am much stronger than you" "Did you know? Ants can''t fly!" Xiaotian purple ring shined and wind made wings appeared and his back, he then flew up escaping distancing from Mayi. His yellow ring shined and he shot 10 half-crescent wind blades towards Mayi. Mayi didn''t even move, the blades simple dispersing in the air when they made contact with her armor. Mayi yawned "Boring" She turned glancing at Chenxiang, then returned to Xiaotian and shouted" I don''t have time for you, my opponent is the next one, come here or run away!" Xiaotian was angry "How you dare!?" One yellow ring illuminated plus both purple ones, he gained more wolf-like features, his winds became even sharper and wind claws appeared between his fingers "Try my self-made spirit technique. " He started moving around slashing the air, with each slash, his speed and strength increased. After some time he completed 35 slashed and went toward Mayi, by now he became something close to a tornado. Mayi clenched her right punch "" her right-hand armor became black, increasing her power and defense. She punched at the tornado approaching her, the tornado stopped and dispersed being cut by Mayi punch. Her punch went through the wind, breaking the wind claws and connecting with Xiaotian cheek. Xiaotian was shot spinning creating another wind tornado while he spat blood. He crashed outside the ring unconscious. "Winner Tai Mayi" said the announcer. Mayi turned to Chenxiang who was stepping to the ring. Mayi glared at Chenxiang "I will show you your place!". Chenxiang snorted "This time will be different. It will be my win". Both girls were deathly glancing each other, both auras increased, for one second and the illusion of a giant ant and a giant white eagle seemed to appear, both clashing with thunder around. "Tai Mayi from Heaven Dou Imperial Academy vs Bai Chenxiang from Shrek Academy. Start!" Chapter 78 - Mayi vs Chenxiang "Start!" shouted the announcer. "I will show you my new strength" shouted Chenxiang, from her back appeared a kind of white eagle and translucent wings grew at her back, surrounding her were 5 rings, yellow, purple, purple, black, black. "Spirit King!" shouted the audience "Woaw, Shrek also has a spirit king, maybe they have a chance to win" Mayi continued glancing Chenxiang "Did you think that this will change anything? For me, you will always be the poor little sparrow who couldn''t hit. I will show you that you should have stayed like that, you only can run away" Mayi launched toward Chenxiang, cracking the floor under her. Chenxiang for her part used her first skill, surrounding her by a yellow aura increasing her speed and attack power. She evaded Mayi flying up the sky. "See, you can only fly away!" Shouted Mayi. Chenxiang seemed calm and was circling around Mayi trying to find some opening. Mayi stood still in her place, her antennas were twitching detecting Chenxiang position without relaying insight. After some time, when Chenxiang was situated at Mayi''s back, Chenxiang''s purple ring shined, her yellow aura became brighter and she dispersed in yellow light particles. In an instant, she appeared at Mayi''s back with another purple ring shining, kicking Mayi. Mayi didn''t even turn, she put her right hand at her back stopping Chenxiang''s kick and holding Chenxing foot. Mayi quickly turned around bending her right back while she kept holding Chenxiang''s foot. Mayi extended her left hand and pierced towards Chenxiang''s head. Chenxiang reacted quickly, she kicked Mayi''s right arm with her free leg, forcing Mayi to free her. Mayi left hand pierced to Chenxiang, but Chenxiang used her 2nd skill dispersing in light particles, Mayi''s attack passing through, and appearing 10 meters away from Mayi. Mayi grinned holding something on her left hand. She was holding golden blond hair, most concretely Chenxiang''s hair "I always preferred Yu Feng. She was a funny idiot who didn''t try to touch my things!" Chenxiang became angry, she extended her right hand and with a quick and smooth movement she cut her hair, evenly cut at shoulder weight, flocks of golden hair flying around "I won''t return. I am myself!" shouted Chenxiang. "I always knew that you were a monster, Mayi. Your speed, defense, and strength are tremendous, but the scariest is your reaction time. Your clearly the counter of any speed type. I always know that with a normal configuration I would be incapable of winning against you" Calmly said Chenxiang. Mayi smiled "True, it''s impossible that you win me". Chenxiang also smiled "This is only in normal conditions. I will show all my efforts". Chenxiang''s black ring shined "<4th skill: Diffraction>" Chenxiang shined blinding. "I already know that trick. Even the real one couldn''t damage me, what could possibly do weaker one" Mayi smiled, but her smile broke looking at Chenxiang''s technique results, in her place appeared 10 Chenxiang. 9 of them flew away surrounding Mayi. "Are you joking with me?" said Mayi angry "These are nothing than illusion. They didn''t have any ounce of strength". The authentic Chenxiang smiled "True. My skill permit to separate myself in different copies, increasing the copies means lowering their power. However, they could use still use one of my skills" Chenxiang''s rings started to shine, with the exception of one purple. She turned light particles that shot towards one copy. From the copy a black ring shined, Chenxiang turned light rebounded the copy, changing her direction and shooting towards another copy. "<5th skill: Reflection>" this was Chenxiang 5th skill. It permits to reflect the light changing the light direction. It must be said that Chenxiang second skill, it permitted her to become light, increasing her speed to the limit, but she couldn''t control it, only deciding in what direction and when to stop, she also couldn''t attack while activated, as light alone didn''t have mass it couldn''t cause any damage even when going through someone. It has also the big flaw of its cooldown to use it again which it was 3 second. However, her 5th skill permitted her to change direction, moving around maintaining her light condition, without any need to break it. Mayi was overwhelmed by Chenxiang speed and couldn''t detect her anymore "This change nothing! You''re only flying around when you appeared, I will finish you" Chenxiang ignored and continued rebounding, it could be seen light rays, impossible to distinguish even the number, even if I knew that there was only one, moving around. One strange thing happened, the light ray color was little by little changing. At first, was yellow, but it became green and now it was blue. Little by little the color changed, to a darker blue, then it was turning violet. "Auch" Cried Mayi. There was a little burn mark in her arm. (What did you mean? What is Xiang doing?) [I don''t know if is her idea or if it''s a struck of luck, but she is really impressed. The light is not formed by one color. It has multiple of them, we only perceive some of them, depending on the absorption of materials. Chenxiang turned light and with each reflection, it changes her wavelength, decreasing it. I shorter wavelength light has more energy, becoming hotter and I suppose in this world it became stronger. If she can continue decreasing it we will not be capable to see her with our normal eyes, becoming ultraviolet or even X-rays, with much power] I listened confused (What the fu?k are you talking about?!) Paul sighed [It''s physics, you wouldn''t understand. Take it as Chenxiang light becoming stronger with each rebound. But for her to find the right angles of reflection, she must have worked really hard] Mayi burned marks were increasing, but it wasn''t enough to do any real damage. Chenxiang appeared herself. She was now surrounded by violet light, she smiled "This is for what I worked so hard, my self-created technique, . Try to stop it" Chenxiang black rings weren''t shining anymore, but her one yellow and one purple were shining. She shot toward Mayi, much more quickly than before. She punched Mayi''s stomach, Mayi without time to react. The strike was so strong that Mayi''s armor dented and Mayi was pushed away. Mayi pierced her hand in the ring stopping her momentum. She finally could stop just half a meter away from the ring. Half a meter more and she would have been eliminated! Mayi''s face showed her shock, anger, and fright. "I can''t lose. I am stronger" she said in a low voice while she was trembling "Bai is mine! I won''t lose it! AHHHHH!" she shouted madly, I could see her eyes clouding. The floor under her started cracking, her armor started becoming more black and robuster, her ant features more provident, her helmet previously leaving her face free, started to grow now encompassed all her head, seemingly to have an ant''s head. She fell to the ground on her four extremities, her two ant leg grew stronger and pierced the ground. Standing with 6 extremities she resembled an ant. I could sense it, she was out of control, her mind non-existing, only moving for instinct. "Xiang, don''t fight! Mayi is out of control!" I warned Chenxiang. Chenxiang ignored me and shot towards Mayi. Chenxiang kicked Mayi''s face, but he couldn''t force her even an inch. Mayi pushed Chenxiang''s foot away shaking her head and at a very high speed opened her mouth, with sharp teeth and bit Chenxiang''s leg, causing her to cry. Holding her leg with her mouth, Mayi started shaking her crashing her to the ground. Chenxiang became all blooded, her mind and body couldn''t endure more and she fell unconscious withdrawing her spirit. Looking at that the announcer shouted scared "W-wi-winner Tai Mayi" I charged to them, stepping on the ring ignoring everyone. I invoked my sword and used all of my skills. Mayi seemed to ignore me completely, maybe it has some relation to being One. I activated my domain and focusing all my intent I pierced towards them. My intent surrounded Chenxiang''s leg, protecting her. I swung my sword pushing Mayi away. Then I took Chenxiang in a princess carry. She opened a little her eyes and she was crying. In a low voice crying she said "I wasn''t good enough" before closing her eyes. I brought her to Lingling. "Ling, heal her" Lingling nodding. Now without Chenxiang in my arm, I turned to Shrek team and Godwind Academy "There''s someone who would dare to fight her" I said pointing at the crazy Mayi. Both teams unconsciously shook their heads. Xiaotian said "Godwind Academy gives up this round". "Shrek Academy gives up this round" said Dai Mubai. I nodded and approached Mayi. She was in a guarding position, prepared to attack anyone that approached her. When I arrived at her, I knelt to be at her height. Mayi rubbed her head to my arm I using my sword''s hilt, hit Mayi''s neck, causing her to fall unconscious. I took her in my arms and left the ring and the stadium listening "Heaven Dou Imperial Academy wins!" Chapter 79 - Emperors and Monsters I brought Mayi to our site and let her rest on the bed. In the afternoon Shrek''s won their match against the Godwing Academy, for what I was explained, they already knew their rival strength and habits and they swiftly won. Thanks to Lingling, Chenxiang was completely cured without any tray of injured, but due to her spirit and mental exhaustion, she didn''t participate in this match, resting for tomorrow. In the evening Mayi finally woke up. She looked up to me and jumped at my arms hugging me hiding her face in my ?h?st while crying "I lost. Please don''t leave me, Bai" I took a handkerchief and cleaned her tears "Don''t cry, Mayi it will soil your beautiful face. You don''t need to worry, I''m not with you because of your strength, it changes nothing if you lose" She looked up to me, with round eyes that attempt to start to cry again "Really? You continue to love me?" she asked hopefully. I bent down, leaning my lips to her and lightly kissed her. Breaking the kiss "I really love you, Mayi" she seemed a little reassured and stopped crying. Seeing her more calm I said "Anyway, you didn''t lose the match" Mayi looked at me strangely and expected me to continue "You lost your control in the match, becoming stronger and moving by pure instincts. You seemed an ant fighting" Mayi lifted her hands punching the air while smiling "Yeah! How could I lose to Chenxiang? Mayi is the strongest" It made me a little angry, I glanced at her who froze in her place "Mayi, this is not something to be happy. You lost control and started attacking Xiang. If I didn''t stop you, you would have killed her. I was lucky that you didn''t go against me" I reprimanded. Mayi made a downcast expression "Sorry, bai. I never would attack you, for Chenxiang..." I lifted my eyebrows. She shook her hands apologizing "I will apologize to her in the future. I suppose that my beast instinct took control. Next time, I''ll control it better" "I trust you" I said. Mayi then turned to one side and said in low voice "Anyway, it won''t be funny if I didn''t remember myself beating her" I glanced at her "What did you say?" Mayi was a little nervous, she shook her head "Nothing!" she then hugged my arm and pushed me standing up "Let''s have dinner and rest for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the final!" I sighed and let Mayi guide me to have dinner. The next day we woke up, had breakfast with the team and Mayi and I headed down to Shrek''s residence. I was worried about Chenxiang and wanted to see how was she, Mayi came to apologize to her and it was evident that she came to control me. At Shrek''s place, we were well received by all. For their states the seemed to be in great form, completely recovered from yesterday fights. I was glad, it wouldn''t be interesting fighting against a tired Shrek. I greeted all of them and patted Rongrong''s head. When I looked at Chenxiang I couldn''t help to be a little depressed, faulting myself for what had happened. If not for myself, Mayi and she won''t have this rivalry. I long-breathed and smiled at Chenxiang "How are you?" I asked with concern. "Don''t worry, your friend heal me to top condition. I''m perfectly fine!" Chenxiang said. I glanced at Mayi and signaled her to say something. Mayi stepped forward, a little ashamed and in low and awkward voice, she said "Chenxiang, for the last battle..." Chenxiang grinned "Oh? The battle were you became crazy. I don''t really understand why they let you win. It was clearly my win as you were unconscious. Next time this beauty will win over you easily" Mayi was becoming angry, I could see her clenching her hands. I touched her shoulder, she clenched her teeth and said in low voice "So-sorry" "What did you say? I didn''t listen" Chenxiang was smiling. "Sorry!" shouted Mayi "I am sorry for injuring you yesterday" "I accept your sincerity. I know that your very regretful" said Chenxiang sarcastically. "Paf!" I clapped my hand "Enough. Mayi your too insincere and Xiang stop laughing to Mayi. Both, shake your hands. A little grumbling they shook their hand, Mayi glanced and Chenxiang "Next time, I will destroy you" said in low voice only for Chenxiang to listen. "Be careful, next time it won''t be as easy" said Chenxiang smiling. I said goodbye to Shrek, leaving them to prepare for today''s match and I brought Mayi with our team. When it was time to go, we went towards the stadium. We were guided to a waiting room until the start of the match. In the waiting room, we all sat in sofas. Tianheng stood up "Today is the last match, winning meaning becoming the champion. Showing that we are the best on the continent. Shrek is surely strong and we even lost before against them. But this time will be different, we will gain and proclaim us as the strongest!" tried to courage us. "Of course it will be our win, we are the favorites. Our strength is far superior. That time we only lost because Mayi and Bai weren''t there" Yan said. I shook my head "Yan, trust in yourself. You can''t always rely on us. Anyways, Shrek also has a spirit king. And if I must say, they have better coordination than us. Don''t underestimate them" "At worst we can rely on Mayi and you spirit fusion like against Spirit Hall. There''s no way to go against it" Osler said. "This was a one-time thing, it is impossible for us to do it again. Act as if Mayi and I didn''t have a spirit fusion" I explained. "Are you fine, Bai? Something bad happened when you used it before?" Asked Lingling with concern. "It''s not that. We couldn''t relay in this, in today''s match we won''t use it, even if it means our defeat" I said. "Today the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Elite Tournament will finally have the closure match that will decide the strongest academy of the continent, winning the honor of that title and 3 10.000 years spirit bones. On one side we have... Shrek Academy!" The announcer shouted, announcing Shrek to enter the ring. Shrek positioned Dai Mubai and Xiao Wu at the front, at the side Zhuqing and Chenxiang, beside them Tang San, then Hongjun and Rongrong at the rear. A 2-2-1-1-1 formation. "Shrek had become the dark horse of this tournament. And unknown academy that little by little made a name in the tournament, their coordination is one the best overall the team, especially its control master, capable of control all the field. Not only that, they are the youngest of the tournament, all of them less than 17 years, 6 spirit ancestors and 1 spirit king. Let''s cheer for them!" Explained the announcer, the audience cheered aloud. "On the other side, we have one of the favorite teams to win the tournament, the seeded team of Heaven Dou Empire... Heaven Dou Imperial Academy!" We entered the ring, our formation was Mayi and M¨° at the front, I just behind and between them, then was Osler and Tianheng followed by Yan with Lingling at the back. A 2-1-2-1-1 formation. "They were always on the favorite teams to win this tournament. They already showed their great strength overwhelming the enemies. Especially in the fight against Spirit Hall and the Spirit fusion showed there. They have 5 spirit ancestors with 2 spirit kings. Let''s cheer for them!" The audience became even more fervent. Seeing both teams in their places the announcer shouted "Activated your spirits!" Chapter 80 - Emperors vs Monsters At the voice of the announcer, we all activated our spirits, showing all our rings. It was a big light display in were 6 black rings shined more brightly than the others. "Start!" The announcer shouted. Shrek started acting oddly, instead of charging forward they grouped themselves, forming a circle surrounding Rongrong. They started spinning around her. Nothing good for us will come from this, I could sense energy twirling between them. I gestured to our front line to attack. Before M¨° and Mayi started charging, a black ring shined from Shrek''s side, it was from Chenxiang. A Chenxiang charged toward us, while Shrek continued circling around Rongrong. It was clear that this Chenxiang was a copy, but, even if it was I could sense spirit energy from it, so I suspected that it would explode. "Let me stop it!" I commanded my team. I charged forward my sword in front, passing between Mayi and M¨°. I lifted my sword and swung it down creating an intent shield clashing with Chenxiang''s copy, trying to block the explosion. The copy grinned, clashing to the shield it started shining brightly. Instead of exploding as I expected, it exploded in brightly light . This light didn''t have any attack power, but it was so bright that blinded me and my team. My Protection Intent would stop or at least try to stop any attack. But it has to be considered an attack, something as light without any power in it, incapable of physical damage me it won''t be stopped. If not I wouldn''t be able to see through my shield, incapable of any light to pass through. This was the reason that the copy light wasn''t stopped by my shield and blinded us. I activated my Mind Eye, and I could sense my teammates becoming worried about their inability to see. "Calm down! I would defend you, try to recover as soon as possible" I shouted at them. I made a guarding position, prepared to stop any of Shrek''s attacks, not leaving my position in fright of any sneak attack to my blinded team. After some seconds we could finally open our eyes. Shrek didn''t move of their position, just as we were about to charge to them, they broke their circling formation and formed a straight line. Tang San was at the front, followed by Dai Mubai, Hongjun, Xiao Wu, Chenxiang, Zhuqing and the back of them there was Rongrong. Rongrong clapped her hand, it could be seen in her face that she was struggling. Her 4 rings started shining and started joining. It was a ring merging. The ring merging was a specialty of our clan, boosting the power of each ability, producing a great supporting skill. The main problem is that its spirit consumption was insane. It was a one-use technique, after using you will be unable to use any other, having run out of spirit power. Over Rongrong, shining a black ring was formed. From her 9 light rays of different colors were shot towards Zhuqing. Zhuqing accepted the lights, her rings started shining and the 9 lights grew a little brighter. Zhuqing put her hands to Chenxiang''s back and passed the light to her. Chenxiang did the same as Zhuqing passing the lights to Xiao Wu. This was repeated, the light becoming brighter as they passed trough every member of Shrek. The lights finally arrived at Tang San. Tang San started trembling having received great pressure. It was clear what Shrek had done, it was a Seven Fusion Technique! I turned to the VIP lounge, looking at Grandmaster who was grinning. I wasn''t the only one, the Supreme Pontiff was also looking at him, even if there wasn''t any change at her face, and dad was also looking at him with a shocked expression. All of us know that he was one who created this fusion. How could it be expected from a grandmaster and best theorist of the continent! A Seven Fusion Technique with spirits so different between them was unknown to be possible. It was clear that the origin was Rongrong''s Pagoda, but even with that, this was extremely difficult. A Fusion Technique was, when two or more people share their spirit power to one person, concentrating all their spirit power in one. It mustn''t be confused with a Spirit Fusion Technique. A Spirit Fusion Technique is more potent, was not only the energy are combined, but the spirits themselves are also, gaining the power of both combination. A Fusion Technique it was easier to do and less potent. If a Spirit Fusion was a multiplication of powers, a Fusion was an adding. But a 7 man Spirit Fusion Technique it will surpass in raw power to any Spirit Fusion between two, only for their sheer numbers. For people like me and Mayi, 100% compatible, it was as easy as to make some contact and share our energy. But for others, everyone has a different spirit energy, even people with the same spirits have their differences. Combine 7 different spirit energy was impossible. Clearly, it has been possible thanks to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, capable of supporting every spirit master. Rongrong support was amplified by each of Shrek''s strength arriving at Tang San. The Hammer started glowing and started to grow in size until it became 3 meters long, making a bizarre image of Tang San holding a hammer bigger than him. "Spirit Avatar!" I shouted. A Spirit Avatar it was a skill exclusively for spirit sages. Spirit sages obtained this skill from their 7th ring. It was considered the strongest attack, increasing the strength of the spirit to the limit, manifesting the real form of the spirit. For beast spirits, the user will become the beast or invoke it. For tool spirit, it was considered to be even stronger, manifesting their true form, maximizing their skills. Its attack power more powerful, even if the duration was lower. All Shrek''s members except Tang San were laying in the ground exhausted having expended their spirit power in the fusion. Chenxiang looked at me and smiled "It seems I really know more you than you know me" Tang San clenched his teeth, easily seen the difficulty to move the Hammer. He started to spin, swinging his Hammer, gaining momentum, easing moving the Hammer. After a circle, he jumped and swung down his Hammer toward us. Sensing the Hammer approaching us I could sense an attracting force pushing me towards it. I remembered dad telling me of the Clear Sky Hammer strength, the most powerful and tyrannical tool spirit. It was considered as unavoidable due to its own gravity created by its pure power. Tianheng activated his rings and shot lighting toward Tang San, M¨° used his 3rd skill, diving his shield in fragments and creating a tornado from them who shot towards Tang San. Both attacks became useless, they were attracted by the Hammer, deviating them and then destroyed not causing the Hammer to even slow a little. Looking at the Hammer I knew that it will sweep all of us, even Mayi will be unable to stop it. I lifted my sword held by both of my hands, I turned to look at an exhausted Rongrong "You''re not the only one that could merge rings, Rongrong" From my sword, its 5 rings started shining, they starting converging together. A blinding 9 colored light shined brightly. When the light faded, my sword 9 colors weren''t anywhere, replaced by a black light. Only doing it, it almost exhausted me. I couldn''t even keep my Stealth Treasure passive. Now over my sword was red ring shining brightly. Unconsciously, my sword absorbed the energy of my teammates who now were laying to the ground exhausted, all of them except Mayi who seemed unaffected. Tang San pressure was so strong that was difficult to even absorb any energy from him. The black light grew and manifested a giant phantasm sword. I activated my Sword Domain and insert my maximum Sword Intent in it and I swung to Tang San''s Hammer, both of them clashing. Both, Hammer and Sword, clashed, causing a thunderous sound. The impact was so powerful that a shock wave was created pushing outside the ring, all the contestants that were too exhausted from even to stand, leaving only Tang San, Mayi and I on the ring, Mayi pierced the ring and was b?r?ly standing in there. Against the huge force of the Hammer, I clenched my teeth. I pushed my arm and sword forward, It wasn''t only the Hammer, only moving my sword was difficult. My muscles were stretching overcapacity, being ripped in the process. This wasn''t a fight between Tang San and me. It was a fight between teams, especially my sister and me. She used all her team to support Tang San and I used my team''s energy to support myself. Tang San had the advantage of having started the attack, he had more momentum and the gravity force helping him thanks to his height advantage. Even with that, my body was stronger than him, both improved by poisons, but my body went beyond thanks to my terrifying training. "Haaaaa!" I shouted, busting my strength. My sword gaining ground and pushing Tang San''s Hammer. I could finally do a full swing pushing Tang San aside. Tang San was pushed away, dragging his giant Hammer. He clenched his hand and lowered his Hammer to the ground, it cracked the ring and moving along Tang San it was destroying the ground, stones were flying everywhere, leaving a destroyed trail, Tang San was decreasing his speed. Before mere 10 cm of the limit of the arena, he could finally stop. He turned to me with a smile in his face, even if he was suffering, even if his whole body was trembling, he stopped and was capable of continue fighting, still with his giant Hammer in his hands, now resting on the ground. Even after winning the clash, I could keep it up. My spirit energy was exhausted, my body was trembling, ignoring any order to move. My arm and leg muscles were overworked and were now a bloodied mess. The light of my sword dissipated and even the rings disappeared, my sword becoming like a normal one "Fuck!" I cursed myself. Tang San was almost exhausted, his strength having been lowered, but even with this, he could maintain his Avatar state. It seems that even if my strength was greater, my sister''s skill last longer. Tang San stepped forward, creating a crack with her right foot. He busted his muscles, with his both hands, he held the Hammer and with his final strength, he threw the Hammer towards me. The sword spin in circles in the air until a hand reached, holding it from the hilt, it was Mayi. Looking at Mayi holding the sword a smiled, my legs gave out and as my body fell to the ground my consciousness faded with it. Before falling I could listen "Leave it to me" from Mayi. Mayi took the sword. She stood up, both of her legs together. She lifted the sword, without any resembled of any sword stance, if someone a little knowledge saw her, he would think that she was more holding an ax preparing to cut a trunk, and even that position was wrong! It was neither beautiful or dignified, it was clear that she was a rookie who maybe didn''t hold a sword in her life. Around Mayi appeared 5 shining rings, yellow, purple, purple, black, black. From the sword appeared another 5 rings, purple, purple, black, black, black. Mayi surrounded by 10 rings all of them shining pushing her strength to the limit that her body could sustain. "10 rings!" The audience shouted shocked. The throwing Hammer approaching her, she swung the sword clashing to it. Even with the lack of technique, the power of the sword was enormous. Both weapons clashing, Mayi''s sword pushed the Hammer that crashed to the ground, causing a great crack that covert all the ring destroying it completely. Mayi grinning didn''t stop at that and continued pushing the Hammer. In the Hammer, cracks started appearing, little by little more crack were made, when the crack connected themselves and surrounded all the Hammer. Tha Hammer broke in pieces and dispersed in the wind. Tang San vomited blood and fell unconscious. Mayi fell to the earth''s ground now that the ring was destroyed and stood kneeling in her right knee while the sword dispersed. In the arena, complete silence was made. It could be seen Mayi kneeling in the center of the now destroyed ring, surrounded by the traces of the destruction, Tang San laying on one side and Bai laying next to Mayi. The other teammates were sat around the previous ring. The announcer approached the ring, checking the state of the participants and seeing that only Mayi was awake he shouted "Shrek team is unable to battle. The winners of this match and the winner of the tournament is Heaven Dou Spirit Academy!" "Woaaaaaaaaah!" Shocked voiced and exited one could be hearing from the audience, incredulously of the match that they saw. Chapter 81 - Spirit Beast Just as Shrek used their Seven Fusion technique, in the VIP lounge, the Supreme Pontiff, Bibi Dong, turned to Grandmaster "You''re the cause?" Even if asked, her voice seemed to have the certainty of being right. Grandmaster smiled and nodded "Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, there''s no doubt that they are strong, Shrek couldn''t be measured against them. I decided to keep that trump card against them, absolute power against absolute power" Grandmaster frowned a little "But even with this, I''m not really sure they can contend against the spirit fusion that they showed against Spirit Hall Academy" "To create a 7 Fusion Technique, truly impressive! As expected of Grandmaster" Ning Fengzhi said. "It all thanks to Rongrong, she is the core. I must really thank schoolmaster Ning to permit her to stay in our academy" Grandmaster thanked. "I am the one who must thank you. My daughter improved greatly thanks to your lessons" Fengzhi said. "If I not overstepping, could I ask a question about your son, Ning Bai?" Asked Grandmaster. Fengzhi lifted his eyebrows "What would it be?" "I''m really interested in his Spirit Fusion, to be able to fuse perfectly 3 spirits is unknown. I would like to study his case more" Grandmaster requested "Of course, I would give all the information obtained and help in anything that I will find" "How did you kn..." Fengzhi was a little shocked, but he quickly recuperated from his shock "It will depend on my son. You should ask him about. Can I know how you discovered my son''s second spirit?" Bibi Dong didn''t seem any surprised about, seeming to have listened before. Grandmaster smiled "It''s all about power and characteristics. That Spirit Fusion will be impossible with only 2 spirits. If my theory is correct your son''s second spirit should be a supporting type, improving strength, if not the fusion will show more characteristics. For the girl, she has a Fifteen Ton Ant spirit, her body is completely spirit insulating, she is impossible that she has another spirit" Fengzhi nodded. At that moment Tang San showed his pseudo-Spirit Avatar "Spirit Avatar" said Bibi Dong silently. "When someone is overcharged by spirit energy, it could break through his limits showing impossible techniques like a Spirit Avatar state" Explained Grandmaster "However, it mustn''t be confused with one, this is only a materialization of power thank Tang San comprehension and progress, it won''t be able to show the true might of the tool, it''s an external power amplified by the tool" At that moment Bai showed his ring merging "Talent follows blood" said Bibi Dong "Your must be proud of your son" The clash between both weapons was so strong that even affected the people in the lounge, moving their hairs. The clash pushed aside the majority of the contestants, at this time Bibi Dong''s eyes and the 4 titled douluos'' eyes made a predator look towards Xiao Wu. Looking at Xiao Wu, Grandmaster sighed and turned to Bibi Dong "Your Holiness..." "Don''t try to stop me, Xiaogang!" Bibi Dong said smiling "I already promised your disciple''s live. Don''t interfere in this" Grandmaster knowing that there was more witness of Xiao Wu''s condition, knew that he couldn''t convince Bibi Dong who will not permit a 100.000 years humanized spirit beast to fall on another hand. A long-time passed since Grandmaster doubted Xiao Wu humanity, and some weeks ago, having attained the douluo rank he could finally confirm his hypothesis. He also discovered the stealth property of the Yearning Heartbroken Red, hiding her condition. Even with that he already had a conversation with her, advising her so give up the tournament, hiding away of powerful eyes, without any result. Without any other choice, Grandmaster resigned "At least make it painless" he said continuing watching the match, worried about how this will affect his disciple. Continuing the match, they were surprised by the use of two-spirit at the same time, but all their minds were concentrated in Xiao Wu. Mayi winning over Tang San and Tang San falling unconscious, was the signal for all the healers to come to the ring healing the injured people. Looking at her disciple''s state Grandmaster turned to Bibi Dong and requested "Do it now" Bibi Dong lifted her eyebrows "Really?" "I know that Tang San will try to protect her, I don''t want him dying futilely, even if he will blame himself for not being able to protect her, I think that the pain will be lower if it''s now when he is unconscious" Explained Grandmaster with a sad voice. Bibi Dong nodded "Elder Gui, elder Yue, seize that girl" Bibi Dong ordered. "What is this meaning?" asked Fengzhi standing up. Chen Xin stopped him "Don''t interfere, Xiao Wu is a spirit beast" Fengzhi was shocked but knowing the implication of a fight with Spirit Hall sat on his place. Just as both douluos were about to take Xiao Wu something slammed between them. It smashed the ground producing a thunderous sound and a cloud of powder. The impact was so strong that both titled doluos stopped and they were even pushed a little away for the shock wave created. Ghost Douluo moved his hands producing winds that dispersed the cloud, finally being possible to see the cause of the attack. A big hammer was there smashed on the ground, it created a crater over 10 meters wide. It has 2 meters long-handled, black color and some patterns, undoubtedly being a Clear Sky Hammer. The Hammer disappeared and both titled douluo turned to the sky. In that direction, there was a floating figure. He was with a hooded brown cape that hid his face, he was holding the previous hammer in his right hand. "T-Tang Hao!" Shouted Ghost Douluo recognizing the weapon that injured him 14 years ago. Tang Hao took off his hood revealing his face with his messy black hair and beard "It''s not Gui Mei? Are you recovering from your injured yet?" "He will attack us again," the mini-ghost said fearfully. "Die" Ghost Douluo shouted, his black ring shining. Countless shadow started appearing at his surroundings, each shadow gained matter and started floating, they were purple blobs, resembling faces only with eyes and mouth that expressed resentment. Each blob shot towards Tang Hao. Tang Hao rings appeared, 9 rings, yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black and an especially brightly red. His hammer started to grow in size until it became a 30 meters long. It was his Spirit Avatar, unlike Tang San''s this one was truly a complete one and with his great strength, Tang Hao completely could control it. Tang Hao lifted his giant hammer, he crashed to the air with great strength that even created cracks in the air. The cracks started spreading until a *crack* sound was heard, a great force was created and pushed towards Ghost Douluo. All the purple blobs when in contact with that immense strength couldn''t resist and dispersed in nothingness. The force hit Ghost Douluo who was shot crashing to the rings wall while vomiting blood. By the posture of his arms and legs, it was clear that some of his bones were broken. "How you dare!" Bibi Dong stood up shouting, she was trembling in fury "Did you think that you could come here and do whatever you want?!" Pure power started irradiating from her, even without her spirit released, her pressure was immense, enough to make some of the low spirit masters in the audience lose their consciousness. Tang Hao smiled "It may be true that you can win me" He paused a moment, he extended his arms and spin one circle "How great would be the damage of our fight?" He clenched his hand on the hammer, his rings shining "I could ?ssure that I won''t be going alone!" Bibi Dong gritted her teeth while showing a furious look. A fight between them will cause great destruction, damaging the people around and especially damaging Spirit Hall reputation, as a host of the Tournament, it will look bad that they can protect the people in there. There was also the truth of her not truly hating Tang Hao and even considered indebted with him, all her reactions being completely fake. Considering her option she decided the best option will be to let Tang Hao leave with his son and the beast, considering her debt paid. Chrysanthemum Douluo and another hooded titled douluo turned to Bibi Dong waiting for her answer, they were prepared to fight against Tang Hao. Both of them invoked their spirits showing their spirit rings, 2 yellows, 2 purples, and 5 blacks. "Stop!" Shouted Bibi Dong causing both titles douluos to withdraw their spirits, she glared at Tang Hao "I will let you go this time. However, next time we meet, it will be the day of your death" Tang internally sighed in relieve, he took his son in his arm. Then he approached Xiao Wu who was even now trembling with a scarred face. Tang Hao took her and quickly flew away. A little time passed and Tang Hao could be seen anymore. All the audience started gossiping about what happened, the result of the Tournament long ignored in favor of what happened now. Chapter 82 - Reviewing When I woke up, I was on a bed in a white room. Inside I could see dad. Dad explained the result of the tournament with our win and the events that followed involving Tang Hao. He also explained to me that the winner ceremony where we would receive the prizes would be tomorrow. After explaining all he left me alone, advising me to rest. For what dad explained, our victory was overshadowed by Tang Hao''s event, so there won''t be too much repercussion and the ceremony would finish quickly. I looked at the ceiling and sighed. All my effort seems a little futile now, but how could my actions be more important than the appearance of one of the strongest people in the continent who disappeared more than a decade ago. [The conclusion of this arc is the same. It''s a little sad that we couldn''t make any big change] Paul said. I entered the Oreo mind space. Arriving at the black and white world I saw Paul standing at its center (You already knew what would happen?) I asked curiously. [I knew what would have happened in the case that Xiao Wu would be discovered, but with the change in the final match, I thought that maybe it will be different. It seems that you don''t have enough power to change what is written] Paul sighed [If only I would in control, I would make a bigger impact. The only thing that changed is Shrek lose of the three spirit bones, and I really don''t remember them using them, only Tang San a little and almost any other skull bone will be good for him, with his luck he surely will find another] (Your too full of yourself, what could have you done instead of me? We''re not strong enough to make big impacts) [We have the backing of the richest clan of the continent, 3 titles douluos to help us, you really think that you lack power? You may be right about it better to do the things for oneself and not depend on anyone, but if you have I good start you must make good use of it] (You didn''t answer my question) I said irritated. [Hahaha. For start, I wouldn''t have helped "Xue Qinghe"] Paul flexed his middle and middle fingers making a quotation mark [giving her the Golden Oreo. Who will make the final boss strongest?] Paul paused a little and said in low voice like for himself [Thinking about there''s a lot of masochism in the world that like increase the difficulty in games, playing some insane games] Paul shook his head and continued like normal [This is reality, so there''s nothing good in that] (I already explained that Qinghe is my friend, I trust him) Paul rolled his eyes [You''re too naive. Even in my society you will be eaten alive, you''re like to have the protection of your family and your talent] This time I was the one rolling my eyes, Paul always with the same. [If I were you, I would have made our clan capture Xiao Wu secretly, even before Rongrong met her. Even if Tang San at the moment would have been sad, he wouldn''t resent us because it will be impossible to link it with us. You could have kept her caged until your father arrive at rank 90. I red ring of a humanized spirit is a little easier to absorb and it will be easy for Fengzhi, gaining another titled douluo with a hundred thousand ring, not only that we could have gained a hundred thousand spirit bone] This made me angry (Xiao Wu didn''t attack us in any way, why we should have killed her? Are you saying that we should kill Mayi?) Paul snorted [You''re too hot-blooded, you should try to have a cold and more objective perspective. It simply about gaining. We are compatible with Mayi, we can fuse with her and our cultivation is boosted with her. Moreover, she is in love with you, it always good to have a blindly loving spirit beast near, you''ll never know when a good implosion for us, us gaining her hundred thousand ring] I charged toward Paul and holding him from his neck I lifting him (Don''t talk about Mayi like and object!) I shouted madly. Paul grinned and disappeared, only to reappear some meter away [Calm down. I''m only speaking objectively. And don''t think for even a moment that you can cause me some damage here, you will need to affect my mind, physical attacks are useless] I cliched my tongue calming myself a little [I only accept your relation with Mayi, in your case, I would make the same thing, you can be proud of that. On the other hand, what about Xiao Wu, what are we gaining with her free and alive?] He paused a little [Nothing! Absolutely nothing! What is she to you? She is only a friend of our sister, even that we could have changed. She is not important, taking her out of the map early, even Tang San would have overcome her lose. The truth is that without her I think that Tang San will have finish with our sister, making easier for him to help us. And to be subjective for one time, I will prefer Rongrong dating him rather than the joke of the team, the food spirit master Oscar. You''re only waiting for someone ripe the treasure that Xiao Wu is, in that case, why wouldn''t us be the ones] (You''re not having the feeling of the people in consideration, there wasn''t any negative about her, it wasn''t important) [Both, my world and in this, have something in common if you want to step at the top of the pyramid you should step in other to do so, or at least had someone who does for you. This is a savage world on only the strong rule, obtain it, without minding anything else] I glared at him (We must differentiate between enemies, allies and others. We became monsters if we injure everyone for our gain) [Said the one that to become stronger kill poor spirit beast that didn''t make anything wrong] (That''s normal! How can you cultivate if not...)[Normal? If everyone does it, it became right. I''m with you. I will tell you one thing, everyone in that stadium, if they had the capability will have attacked the girl, to take her. Everyone kill others to be stronger you only need to follow this philosophy, balance pro, and con and decide the best direction] I didn''t know how to answer. Spirit Hall nearly capture here, in that case, it would have been much better to my clan to have her. No! I must maintain my humanity, some lines shouldn''t be crossed. Paul grinned at my indecision, then he sighed [Putting all that aside. Do you remember my request?] (Of what I learned in this combats?) Paul nodded. I thought about the combats, the easier one didn''t really matter, but in the two difficult ones, there was something in common (I didn''t win the matches) I said thoughtfully. [Correct. All the matches were won by Mayi. It didn''t mean that you didn''t make an important part in them, but clearly, you can finish them] (I am a control system, it''s normal to...) [Tang San is also one. And it''s very easy to see that he is the core of his team, only because of him they won the majority of the matches] (I am also a defense system, what have it wrong protect the other teammates. Mayi is much stronger than any of Shrek, so it''s normal for her to shine in attack matters. Anyway, what did it matter to you my fight style? We won at final) [Of course, anyone is free to follow their own path, but I don''t like when it will affect my own future] (You''re talking like you will control the body, I won''t let you. And what it matter how I fight, in the cases of you taking control you used your own style) Paul sighed [You''re really an idiot. The spirit follows its master path. Take a look at your sword] I looked strangely at Paul, not knowing what he is referring to. I invoked my sword at my right hand and looked attentively. It didn''t seem strange to me, the same familiar sword of always. (I don''t know what are you trying to show. The sword is normal) Paul shook his head [You''re really blind. But I guess that is normal to not find so much change in something that you live every time with it. Invoke your spirit bone spirit] [You really don''t use that sword so it gained more influence in me, following my style even when using your own energy. Compare both sword] (How can I compare both of them? The only thing that they have in common is that they''re both swords. My Nine Sword is like made by glass, shining like a treasure it emits a strong spirit energy, while the other one seems like an ordinary sword, it only utility is that improves a little the sword intent as it flows easier in it) [Your look is too broad, you need to analyze better the details. Let''s make it easier] Paul snapped his fingers. Between us appeared two, at least seemingly identical, black trees. [Cut them both, each one with one sword. You didn''t need to worry the trees are exactly the same, there''s no trick] I doubted him, but even with that, I decided to follow his command. The external bone is it linked with my left hand, as I''m much worse with my left hand it will be easier to use my usual sword. I positioned in guard between both trees, preparing to slash both of them at the same time each one with a different sword. Looking at Paul, he nodded. With a swift movement, I slashed both trees. I was prepared to meet some trick, resistance or counter-attack from them. But to my surprise it didn''t happen any of that I cut both of them easily as if there were made of bu??er, even using my left hand, easily seen with less strength it didn''t make any more difficult to cut it than with my right. I cut both trees, two tree trunk falling to the ground with a loud *trump!*. I looked strangely at Paul, not knowing what he was trying to demonstrate. Paul snapped his fingers again, this time appearing two trees near him. He then lifted his right hand invoking a sword that resembled my Nine Treasure Sword, but this one seemed like turned off, without colors or spirit energy flowing in it. [I can invoke your spirit, but I can''t control it, so it''s like a useless piece of metal or crystal. To tell you the truth I don''t know what is the material that is made. Of course, I can''t use the spirit skills in it] For him it was like a normal sword that could be bought everywhere. Paul passed the sword to his left hand. He made a swiftly diagonal cut to one of the trees. He chopped the tree in one swing, its trunk falling to the ground with a loud *trump!*. He withdrew the sword, he then invoked the external bone sword, in his case, it was black instead of white. I couldn''t detect any intent in it, he was using it as a normal sword. He swung his sword, slashing diagonally at the other tree. This time the tree seemed intact, he seemed to not having chopped it. But it was clear that he already cut it. With Paul dexterity with the sword, it will be easy to cut that tree, he wouldn''t fail. Paul approached at the tree and blow a little of air, this caused the diagonal slash to finally appear, causing the top trunk to start sliding from it bottom part, and finally falling to the ground with a *trump!* [I used the same strength and technique, so there''s no doubt about] Looking at the tree remain, I fully opened my eyes, realizing what had happened, shocked. Chapter 83 - New path I looked at the tree remains and at my swords at hand alternately. Seeing the difference between them. (The cut of the spirit bone are cleaner) There wasn''t almost none splinters in the cases of that cut, Paul both cuts were cleaner than mine, but the one with the Nine Treasure had residues. [It seems that you finally realize] I passed my index fingers along the edges of both swords (My Nine Treasure Sword is losing its edge) Paul grinned extending both arms [Correct! You''re following a pure defensive path, so it''s normal for your spirit to follow along, becoming easier to use. The edge of a sword are concentrations of forces, becoming some weakness of the sword. Of course, if you want to cut with it, they''re the most essential part of it. But, in your case, you that go for a full defensive path, they''re only for ornament, it will be more practice if they were round. This is the cause, that you''re losing the edge, rounding with time. If this continue, you will have a bat instead of a sword. Of course, it will be more resilient with a greater defense and the cost of it cutting power] (I will lose most of my attack power if I continue like this) [Yeah, this is the cause that when you clashed with Tang San, even if you won the clash, you could only push him away. Your sword it isn''t made for cutting. You must change this, if not that spirit will be useless in the future for me] I glanced Paul (Maybe it will be best to do so, it will make more difficult for you to control) Paul shrugged his shoulders [You can, of course, but did you really aspire to that? Not having any attack power, always a support depending on other. For this destiny you worked to hard] I looked at the ground, clenching my hand. Fuck. Paul was right, even if I wanted to protect my loved one, I didn''t wanted to follow dad''s path as a support. I was happy to break the clan customs, becoming a fighter, if I continue like this I will make a mere supporting shield, overshadowed by Mayi and even Chenxiang power. Paul grinned [Now, are you asking for my advice?] (This also affects you. And please and not stupid enough to give you control, even knowing that is will surely give edge if you take control) [Taking the control it will be the easier and more effective method, there''s no doubt. With my death intent, I would only need a year to return the sword at its original edge, even going further, much further away] I glanced at him [Of course, I know that you won''t accept it. As this also will affect my future, I will help you in this. The method it''s simple, but being simple doesn''t mean that it''s easy. If your own path of protection, lacks attack power, change it. Develop another intent, a more offensive one] (I can''t access the other personalities and their intent until I arrive at spirit sage, at that time it will be too late) [I''m not talking about them, I''m talking about another, completely different intent, develop another one] (You''re crazy!) I shouted (Start from zero, it will be like throwing away all my comprehension, all my hard work of this year) [You already took advantage of my comprehension, I new development won''t cost much time, it may help you in later time, creating a new path] (Don''t laugh at me! The Protection is the path that I follow and the one for me, the best one for me to follow and the easiest one. Starting to find another intent it will take time, and even with that it will be very hard to improve it) [Sometimes you are not so idiot] Paul smiled causing me to glance him [But what will you think if there was a perfect place to develop a new intent. A place full of it, with only staying there your intent will grow, not only that, this intent is one of the most offensive one, the perfect one to contrast your own protection. And it doesn''t mean that you should discard your Protection, you can follow both path, as in this world both path are perfectly compatible] (How can be such a place? The best mimicry environment to develop an intent? What are you talking about?) [Slaughter City] (I never listened about it) [In that case, we should find information about it. In that place you must kill to stay alive, killing is as normal as breathing, it will easy to obtain the Sword Killing Intent in there. If you go there, I''m sure than in less than a month you will have the intent. It won''t take much to develop it to a domain] (Do you think that I would kill innocents for my own gain, I''m not a monster!) I said indignantly. [They''re are all except innocent. Is place where the scum of the world reunite, where ?ssassin, rapist... the worst class of people escape when they don''t have any other way to go. Killing them is not wrong, you will greatly increase your power only killing rubbish] I thought of it. I hadn''t killed any human yet and I know that in the martial path it''s impossible to continue without killing anyone. If Paul is right this place will be the best place to start without too much damage in my conscience. [Ah, I forgot the most important part] I looked at him curiously. He grinned [In that place there''s the key, the path to godhood] I fully opened my eyes shocked. Godhood! The famous level 100, there''s not any record of some arriving at it, only mere legends of some people ascending. I thought that it would only be rumors, it didn''t matter how talented someone was, the limit will be extreme douluo, rank 99. And even them are very scarce, and are like god-beings. [For one alone it is almost impossible, you will need to follow the path of a previous god. One that left his inheritance to find someone to take their god position. Slaughter City is that place, a god inheritance, if you can complete it, you will be have the possibility to obtain his inheritance and reach godhood. It''s also the only way to quickly grow in strength and be possible to fight future risks. Without help of a god, you will require to create your own understanding and obtain faith to reach, something that it will require countless of years] The temptation was very strong. Not only I could improve my strength, it may be the only path to reach god, arriving at the apex of the world and obtaining immortality. I decided, I will trust Paul in this, I don''t think it would be a trap, as it would also be very helpful for him in the case he took control. Paul usually is very cold, but he prioritize our survival and strength. I looked at Paul (Okay, I will follow you advice. I will go, obtain my new intent obtaining both the best defense and offense, even trying to follow the path to godhood) [Good. Finally your sword will become useful] (Where is it that city?) [I don''t really know the exact position. As an unruly place, hided from the empires, it should be aside from them. I suppose that it would be in some place of Star Duo Forest. You should try find some information for your own] I nodded [Keep in mind that every opportunity goes with an according danger. That place has the spirit skills sealed. But with your sword skills, you should be able to survive] (To restange the use of spirit skills, there must be a very powerful domain. I''ll need to improve) [One last thing. You should go alone] [I have my doubts of that place, but maybe it will force you to kill the people with you, so it''s best to go alone. Anyway, this trip will be to you to improve, it would better to go alone and not depend on anyone] (You''re right. I will need to abandon everyone, at least for a time, but it will be necessary if I want to protect them at the future. I decided! I will go now! It''s not like the tournament matters a lot now that was overshadowed by Tang Hao, and with my injuries dad will make some excuse for not being there. Anyone will expect me from leaving now, I will take advantage from the chaos and leave unnoticed. I will only leave some letters. Do you know how much time it will require?) Paul shrugged his shoulders [No idea. At least a year, but I don''t really know] I nodded, having decided my future path I left the mind space leaving Paul there alone. Paul stood there alone and started talking for himself [I can only pray that it would follow the novel and not the manga. I never understand the manga part, really too fast]. Paul then grinned, the biggest grin from date [If it goes all according the plan this will change all. HAHAHAHA] and started laughing like a madman. Chapter 84 - Entrance to Slaughter 6 months. It was the time that it took me to find the correct location of Slaughter City or at least what I thought it was. After leaving without warning anyone, only leaving a note for my family and teammates telling that I discovered my flaws and I would be training on my own for more or less 3 years, that please don''t try to search for me. Following Paul''s little information, I searched for territories that weren''t in control by any of both empires, especially Star Duo Forest suburb, knowing that it would be impossible to find a city at the central part because it''s dangerous. Finally, I could find it by a struck of luck. I found 3 people that seemed thugs, all of them being spirit grandmaster of some 30 years old. For their way of moving, they seemed running away, always attend of their surroundings. I subjugated them, easily immobilizing them. After some talk, I learned that they were wanted criminals and they were running away from justice, escaping to Slaughter City. In exchange for the information about the City, I promised them to let them free. They quickly accepted telling me all that they knew. Thanks to them I learned more about Slaughter City, as Paul really didn''t have very concrete information about. For what they told, it''s the usual place were criminals escape. It''s a place without any law, where no empire dares to attack due to the impossibility of using spirit techniques there. They also said, that it was like a paradise of corruption, where you can do anything you want without anyone stopping you as there''s no law. I contrasted this information with Paul''s. For the combination of both Paul''s seems more real, the thugs'' knowledge was very idealized. According to Paul, it is a place where you can die at any time if you''re not cautious, where blood is used as money and it can survive thanks at its monarch, a titled douluo capable of using spirit skills. A place that for most people once they enter, it''s impossible to leave, but Paul explained that there''s a method to leave. I don''t think that Paul would like being trapped there, so I trust him in that there may be an exit. Following the direction, I finally arrived at a little town, maybe called it town it will be too much as there''s was only 5 old wooden houses. It was strange for in the forest, 100 km away from any other village to be that houses, it must be difficult to leave her. I approached the biggest house that seemed more of a pub. Approaching it a could smell a disgusting reek, a combination of alcohol, dirt, shit with a touch of blood. I resolved myself and entered the pub, trying hard to not pinch my nose, tolerating the smell. Inside there was a waiter who was scrubbing some glass with a cloth. It can''t be called cleaning as it was difficult to know what was dirtier, the glass of the cloth. Without any doubt, the dirtiest would be the own waiter. He was bald, blind in one eye, full of wrinkles, all surrounded with a black layer of dirt and ash. With his looks and smells, I wouldn''t be surprised if in truth it was a corpse instead of being alive. There were also 10 more clients, all of them with the same air around them, seeming that a low breeze would make them fall. I was wearing a hooded brown cape, hiding my face and body. I approached the bar holding my hood not showing my face. The waiter seeing me grinned, showing his crooked teeth, more than half absence and being completely rotten yellow "I don''t think that this is a place for you" the waiter smelled the air "I don''t serve babies" causing all the people in the pub to start laughing. It made me angry, but I calmed down, ignoring their comments. I looked around, not finding anything that seemed the entrance of a city, the thugs here weren''t even spirit masters. (Are you sure this is the place, Paul?) I asked Paul. [It seems. Try to request to the waiter a Bloody Mary] "I want a Bloody Mary" I said. This caused the waiter to open his eyes shocked and for everyone in the pub to shut up, creating a complete silence. The waiter glanced at me and grinned "Of course". He prepared a glass, this, in contrast with all the others, seemed clean. He then took a bottle and poured its content in the glass. It was a red liquid, a denser than water "I pray that it follows your tastes" he said grinning. I took the glass, approaching at my mouth I could sense a thick smell of blood. Knowing that I should drink it, I convinced myself and drank it all in one gulp. Having drunk it all I started coughing. This wasn''t any drink! It was blood, I could sense something flowing from my body, and my body started to ache a lot. The ache became pain and I fell to the ground shouting and twisting in pain. "Hahaha" the waiter laughed "To think that someone tried to enter without any killing intent at all, how many years was that a baby tried it," he said looking down on me. Something was flowing in my body, it concentrated in my head and it seemed to scratch my brain, the pain was insufferable, I thought that I will die here my consciousness leaving my body. <3rd POV> "That was quick. To have such a low resistance, I bet that he never killed someone. Hahaha" One client said. "How can a naive as himself arrive? This place is lowering its prestige" Said another shaking his head. Another hand punched that one on the shoulder "Let it be, occasionally it''s funny to see this act, did you see how he was crawling, he shouldn''t have had the hood, I would have paid to see his face. "Yeah, very funny" A powerful voice that rebounded everywhere and seemed to penetrate their souls was listened, causing all of them to be quiet. Then a pressure force all the people there to kneel, slamming to the ground. The pressure came from the hooded person on the ground. The hooded person started standing up, once standing he inclined his head backward, causing his hood to fall. A black hair, even darker than night that seemed to swallow all the light, black and powerful piercing eyes that seemed to attract them to their death. The black-haired person grinned causing all the people there to start trembling, they couldn''t do anything else as their bodies refuse to move. "To think that idiot trust me. Hahahaa" he extended his arms and started laughing. Like from mere air a complete black sword appeared in his left hand. He looked around "Be proud, you will be the first of many to die under my sword" A black aura started exuding from the sword, the black-haired man quickly swung his sword, it was so quick that it was difficult to calculate how many times he moved it around. It took 1 second having stopped his swings that all people''s head rolled to the ground, followed by fountains of blood from their bodies. The black-haired mind started laughing while surrounded by blood. At that moment on the back part of the bar, alcohol shelves started to move aside showing an entrance with stairs going down. I black-haired woman left from the stairs, he wasn''t especially pretty, with a very common face, but with a good body. She looked around, seemingly not surprised in the situation, like being accustomed to it. She bowed to the black-haired man "It''s a p???sur? to welcome you Slaughter City. Can I know your name?" The black-haired man grinned "Blanch, Paul Blanch" Chapter 84 - Hell Slaughter Arena 1st fight All the other fighter charged at me with blood-shot eyes, they had a big myriad of weapons some with daggers, others with swords there was even one that stood aside with a bow. Seeing them approaching me I smirked. I closed my eyes. analyzing my surroundings. The first person to arrive was charging with a lance and pierced forward, it was a very simple move, without any style only using his own strength. I only needed to tilt my body a little, the minimum movement causing the tip of his lance to only graze me. I turned my body kicking him to his stomach, he was pushed towards a man with a sword and was impaled by his sword. I took his lance, held by my left hand and used the impulse of the kick jumping up. With a somersault a landed safely outside the encirclement. The other competitors losing his first objective there crashed with each other, most of them injured in the process. Only two were intact, and counting the guy that I kicked there were 3 that couldn''t continue fighting. Looking at them I shook my head "I lamentable spectacle" I lifted my left hand catching an arrow shot by the archer one "Really?! A simple arrow when I was alone, you take me for a fool?". I step with my right foot, putting force in it and threw the lance at the archer. He seemed too shocked and couldn''t react in time being impaled by it, having his head pierced. I turned to the others "I will tell you a secret. I am too merciful. My style is killing swift and effective, it''s not a bad style but I want to experiment with others, improving my own comprehension broadening my view. You will help me there" I told grinning. I invoked my black sword in my left hand. I charged at them, they were more but with 0 teamwork and even some of them injured, plus my sword technique and their lack of any style at all, it was too easy, even without using an ounce of intent. With every swing, and the attack was redirected, a body part was cut. After 1 minute I found myself surrounded by bodies laying on the ground, under them a pool of blood. I looked down at them knowing that I controlled to not kill some of them. Concretely 4 of them were still alive, even it was b?r?ly. I cut their tendons, limiting at minimum the blood loss while making sure that they couldn''t move. They only part that they could use would be their heads. I approached them grinning, I started slashing, making very thin cuts, peeling their skins little by little. I was breathing the surrounding air, letting the blood, killing, depravity to drench my self, letting, my even new instinct to act, to cause the greater damage. After 20 minutes passed even the voices pleading for their death stopped, unable for them to talk. "HHAAAAHAHAHAHAH" I laughed madly. I lifted my sword blood-like aura appeared around it, I swung it precisely cutting them in their brain. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" They shouted in pain, finally dying. "Winner, number 9397, Blanch" shouted someone. I left the ring, dragging myself my mind not having recovered yet. Somehow, a Bloody Mary was put in my hand, I drank it in one gulp, sensing my killing intent growing, but at the same time, a calming effect was created. Leaving the Arena I found myself surrounded by 14 grunts smirking "Don''t try to leave alive, rookie!" One of them said. "Nh!" I smirked "HAHAHAHAHA" a red aura surrounded my sword and I charged madly at them. My vision was completely red, I was being led by my instinct, as swung my sword only the sensation of cutting entering my brain, until I felt a pain at my left leg. Looking at it I could see I grunt had pierced my quadriceps with a sword. This pain made me recovered my sanity, observing the injured it didn''t seem too important, 3 days of rest will be enough. Looking at my surrounding I could see 5 grunts alive, all of them trembling a little, full of cuts. And one who was pointing a sword at me smiling while saying "I-I-I hit him. Let''s finish him" Having calmed myself I looked at them like trash "Better luck in the next life" the aura around my sword changed from red to black and a domain extended myself at the center. I swung my sword shooting aura, all the grunts dyed instantly. I looked around "Guide!" I shouted. The previous black-masked woman appeared "Participating at the Hell Slaughter Arena is canceling your own rookie protection" "I don''t mind. Guide me to a place to rest, some bandages would be great" I requested. "Of course" she guided me to some kind of dormitories. Inside she showed me a room and gave me a key "This would be your private room. Don''t get confident, even if it''s difficult to force the entry, it''s not impossible. Take care" she said and left. I entered the room. It was a red room, it had a bed big enough to sleep 4 people in there, I smirked at the indirect. It didn''t have any windows. For what it seemed the walls were very robust, seemingly impossible to break them without the use of spirit skills, the only weak point will be the door. "I suppose that is a kind of a test, at least they only left one route. I don''t think there will be any problem reacting if someone breaks the door" I said for myself. I looked around the room and it had a closet with drinks and some food that could remain fresh. There was also a first aid kit "It seems that they think" I opened the kit, throwing disinfectant to my injure and making a light cure, finally bending in bandages. I heard a knock on the door. I went toward the door dragging my left leg and I invoked my sword, preparing to kill at the minimum movement. Lifting the sword pointing at the door I quickly opened the door piercing forward at the same time, putting the tip of my sword at the person''s neck. Looking at him, he was a man with a black mask, he seemed not preoccupied with my sword "I see that you are getting used to the place, good" he said coldly. Then he presented me a cup filled with a red liquid "This is a welcome gift. Of course, if you win enough at the Arena the supply will be limitless" I took it and drank it one gulp "Welcome to Slaughter City, I pray for you to have an enjoyable time" he said before leaving. This Bloody Marys seemed specials, comparing to simply blood, even if they were undoubtedly blood. They seemed to increase my killing intent and at the same time keeping me more cool and calm. I went to bed and let my back fell on it. Looking at the ceiling I found a mirror "Really a fu?k?n? love hotel" I blamed. I calmed myself looking at my reflection "I''m lucky of knowing the poison inside of the Bloody Mary, it is kind of a drug if I wasn''t prepared I would really become addicted to it" From my storage I took a cookie, it was two red cookie part and white cream between each cookie, it was a Red Velvet Oreo previously created. Even if in this place spirit skills are restricted to use, it didn''t mean that it would disappear if a created before. I ate the cookie, its effects this time wasn''t very apparent, but thanks to it now my body will become immune at the poison part of the Bloody Marys while I obtain all the benefits. I extended my left arm that was holding my sword, a red aura surged from it. I smirked "Not even a day to create an intent, truly the best place, worth it" I withdraw the sword and sighed "I need to learn to control it and later on fuse with my death intent. Killing and Death are extremely compatible, combined will form the ultimate offense. In the case of defense..." I smirked "I already had Bai''s". Chapter 85 - Entering Hell Looking at the woman beside me I could sense that she wasn''t normal. The aura surrounding her was very dangerous, having the uncertainty of even winning against her. I imitated her doing an also a light bow "Can I have the honor to knew your name?" "Black" she answered coldly "I will guide you inside the city, follow me" she turned around going down the stairs without a second look at me. I decided to follow her. Going down I started to feel a strange pressure, a kind of domain that seemed to block my spirit energy. Probing a little, I ?sserted that it will be impossible to use any spirit skill, by my knowledge spirit bones can be used. After walking down 300 m the stairs landed in a plain. Looking around I could see the true City, made by houses and building of stone all painted in black or red colors, the air was very cold and a great killing and death intend could be sensed, is the perfect place to cultivate my intent. The City was surrounded by a high wall. As we were approaching near the wall a group of people approached us. There were 10 people, they were wearing black armor and one of them was riding a kind of horse beast and his armor seemed a lot better. From their presence, they didn''t seem especially strong. The rider looked down at me and turned to the black-haired woman. He jumped from his horse and kneeled down "I pay my respect to countess Black". He looked at me "A newbie. Had he received permission to enter the city?" "By his aura, I already permit him," Black said. "Countess, you know the little rules to enter the city. Let me test him" The rider said, Black simply ignored him, the rider accepting like an okay. The rider rode his horse and unsheathed a black lance "I am knight Steve, if you defeat me, you can enter the city" I looked at him like an idiot, I turned to Black "Can I kill him?" Black looked at my eyes "As he challenged you, there won''t be any problem" I grinned, it would be the perfect moment to experiment how Slaughter City affects me. I invoked my black sword in my left hand. Steve seeing me hit the horse, commanding it to charge. They charged while Steve held the lance forward pointing at me. I held my sword with both arms and position in a guarding stance. Steve pierced forward to hit me, I tilted my sword and made it follow the lance, changing its direction. The pure force gained by the horse speed pushed me 2 meters and even without any damage in me, it made impossible any counter-attack. Steve continues forward 10 more meters and turned around facing me again. "You''re not bad. But, I''m not going to be happy until I hit you!" he shouted angrily, charging towards me again. "Sadly, I can''t say the same. You''re trash, do you really think that we are in the medieval?" I laughed at him. With the previous attack, I already discovered that the pressure that blocked spirit skill, is even capable of blocking sword intent, I don''t know how but it was impossible to manifest your will. However, this only in the cases of fire, wood, steel... intents. In my death intent the thing change. I glanced at Steve and my domain manifested, the horse couldn''t keep with it and died instantly, falling to the ground 2 meters away from me, bringing its rider with him. I lightly swung my sword horizontally. In this situation I didn''t even require a physical attack, that was enough to extinguish his life. When he finally crashed to the ground, he was already dead. I withdraw my domain and intent and I looked at the other soldier and smiled "I think I pass, no?" The quickly nodded while trembling. Black looked at me for a moment, then she continued towards the wall, I followed her. Arriving at the wall, Black talked with a woman that wore a black mask and then left the place. The black-masked woman approached me and bowed "I will be your guide in Slaughter City" She gave me a card with a symbol of a skull in it, it had a number, the 9397. "This will be your ID in the city, it will make a record of your kills. In this place blood and corpse function as money, the food is completely free" "I will be named by my ID number?" I asked her. "There are some people that prefer so, but you can decide your own name, as in not very important" she answered. "Okay, where is the Colosseum?" I asked. She blinked her eyes "You must be referring to the Hell Slaughter Arena. It''s really unusual for someone to start asking it, they usually ask about the city. The Arena is in the Inner Area. The City is divided into Outer and Inner. You can live in the Outer City by giving two Bloody Mary each month, there are some rules there and it''s prohibited the indiscriminate killing. Inner City, it the true city, where there aren''t any rules, a paradise of crime. As a newbie you have 12 hours of protection, being near me, nobody will there to attack you, me being an envoy of the Slaughter King" "In that case guide me to the Arena" I commanded. We arrived at around building, not much different from the spirit arena of Silvers City. There was a line of people waiting to enter, all of them holding a cup with a blood liquid. "This is the Hell Slaughter Arena. To gain permission to stay at the Inner City you need to participate in one match here at least once a year. The matches are one against all, entering 10 people, only leaving 1 winner alive, all the others dead" [So the same as the novel it seems] I thought. "I recommend you to stay some time adapting in the Outer City before staying in the Inner City. You have one month without the need to participate in the Arena" she informed. "For what it seems, I need a Bloody Mary to enter the Arena, no?" I asked. She nodded "To enter a Bloody Mary is required, there''s no need for your blood, of course, it doesn''t matter if you enter to participate or to watch" I approached a big guy. He was 2,2 meters tall and very fat. Before he could even react I already pierced my sword to his heart killing him. I turned to the black-masked woman "Do you have some cup?" She gave me one cup. I pulled out the sword causing a lot of blood to erupt from the hole that was his heart, I used some blood to fill the cup. We entered the Arena. I was guided to the audience, sitting on a chair. The match started when 10 people entered the Arena, just as they entered the combat start. 9 of the contestant charged towards the same person. That person was a man of some 30 years old, he had long brown hair and stood there holding a katana, blue in color with a strange patter wrote in it. The 9 vs 1 finished quickly, the brown-haired man killed all the other in less than 5 minutes. He didn''t have a very remarkable strength or speed, but his movements were very precise, he didn''t stop and all his movement flowed like water, with his swings he eviscerated the rivals, cutting each extremity of every one of the 9, leaving on the ring a pool of blood with the part of his rivals in different places. If we were outside of this city, I''m sure that his intent will show as water. His cultivation seemed to be a spirit emperor, without a doubt it will be a strong rival. I turned to my guide "Who is he?" "He is Ripper the Painter, he is the top in the arena, with that he has a record of 93 victories. It''s almost true that he would become a champion arriving at 100 victories, obtaining the permit to live here eternally" She informed. Of course, being a top-ranked it was normal for all the other start attacking him. "Sign for me. I want to participate in the next match" I requested. "Are you sure? You have a month before you need to sign, it will better to get used to the city. You do not only need to be alert in the match, but others will also be waiting outside in the case you won"¡ä "I already decided, don''t make me repeat" I glanced at her causing her to flinch. She bowed and went to a counter, I suppose signing for me. She returned "If there''s a next time, you can show your ID at the counter to inscribe in the matches". It seems that I had luck and 10 people were grouped quickly only needing to wait for 2 hours before having a match. When it was time I entered the ring. Another 9 people entered, all of them from different doors in a different direction. We all positioned creating a circle, I looked at my rivals. They weren''t the big thing, the strongest only being a spirit king like me, useless without the ability to use spirit skills. All of them were cautiously looking around at each other, guarding against any attack. I started walking until I arrived at the middle of the circle "Trash like you is better to be disposed at the same time" I signaled them to come "Come to your death" I laughed at them. They became angry and charged madly towards me shouting "FUCKER!!" Chapter 88 - 3 months {AN: As I never read any fanfic about Slaughter City I will at least finish this arc. In this there will also be another plot twist, that I really don''t know if it would like to people} 3 months passed and I only participated four more times in the Hell Slaughter Arena, they were rather easy, knowing that there wasn''t any enemy that needed to take into a count I let myself go wild, further improving my Killing Intent. In my third match, I tried to control it a little and tried to use both, Killing and Death, at the same time. The result was not what I was waiting, the Death Intent swallowed the other one due to being more powerful. There was also a recoil for trying to use both at the same time that almost cost me my left arm. That recoil caused an explosion that killed all my rivals, that day I almost died after the match. It seems that a better equilibrium between both will be required. I couldn''t use my left arm and my intent was unstable and unusable, so it took all myself and a lot of almost lethal injuries to crawl to my room. This caused not trying to enter again at the Arena for one month. It wasn''t so bad, I learned from the experience and I was alive. I also really wasn''t to finish the 100 victories very quickly, my idea now was slowly improving my strength, it will be bad if the Slaughter King take notice of me. Now is not the time to meet him. For my intents they improved, simply living here, surrounded by depravity, where death is as common as breathing my comprehension grew every day, making this the perfect mimicry environment. For my room''s door, it was broken 3 times, I reacted quickly killing the ?ssailants without much problem. After little time one brown-masked man came substituting the door for a new one. The rule of no rules was not entirely correct. The truth was that the City wasn''t too different from the outside world looking at the broad picture. It was simply that outside people will try to hide their actions and here it''s all more open. As the monarch, you should respect the Slaughter King. And don''t think of this City as a place where the weak die, the truth is that the weakest is the one that died less. Like every society, you need work labor to maintain a bit, so there are slaves with brown masks who are responsible to maintain a minimum of comfort and hygiene in the city, if not for them this will become in a landfill in no time. They were protected by the Slaughter King and it was punished injuring them. Of course, you could kill anyone that looked bad at you without much of a reason, but it was only because the King permits you. Like outside, the strong make the rules. If you were strong enough to kill the Slaughter King you could do whatever you want, at the same time, if you have the power to subjugate every one in the outside world, the power of a god, you will also have the right to do everything you want. So not much different, it''s simply that in here, nobody cares to hide it. Some women literally threw at my feet asking to be fu?k?d, but really, they aren''t my style, even if some had a great body, all of them were too bitches for me, too dirty. I prefer the cleaner and bashful type and I really doubt that I would find it in this place. There''s also the fact that a lot of death occurred while you are in the act, and it''s not my idea of s?x, needing to be aware that your partner doesn''t try to stab you when you climax. I was fed up with them, so to discourage them from even tried I started cutting the head of everyone who asked or tried. After the 4th one, they completely stopping showing themselves. I signed for another match and today was when it would occur. I went to the Arena, I started to know the people near me, the majority didn''t dare to even look at my eyes in fright of their death, but there was a lot that continued daring, it seems that only 5 victories in the Arena are too little. I entered the ring from one of the 10 doors while another 9 people also entered, stepping on the ring I observed all my opponents. At the sight of one, I couldn''t help to open my eyes widely, it was the same for the other participants. He had long brown hair, was wearing a blue kimono and held a katana in his left side. The fu?k?n? Ripper the Painter! I turned my head to a special part of the audience, it was a place with a throne, only used by the own Slaughter King. Yeah. It was occupied by him, a tall and slim man covered by a scarlet coat, he had a very pale face with shining blood-colored eyes. [Fuck! Fuck! I don''t know if he already took notice of me or it was a causality. But this goes against my plan] Before starting the match, came a black-masked woman. It was strange for these matches to have an announcer, but with the Slaughter King presence, it may be the usual. "Today is a very special match!" Shouted the black-masked woman "We have the great honor to the great and matchless, monarch of the city, the Slaughter King!" She bowed turning to the Slaughter King and then continued her speech "Today Ripper the Painter will have his 100 matches, if he wins this match, he will be crowned champion of the Arena, obtaining the permission to live in the City all his life as a guest of the King or deciding to try luck leaving the City opening the Hell Road. Let''s cheer for him!" The audience cheered madly. Now that I noticed it, the audience was the greatest, surely to see his 100 victory. Even if Ripper is strong I don''t think that I will have any problem against him, he is suppressed by the domain of Slaughter City while I am buffed by it, even if he is has higher cultivation or comprehension it won''t matter here. The problem is the Slaughter King, it too soon and I am not ready to meet him if it comes to the worst he might kill me. I decided I would act as mad as possible using only killing intent, trying to finish my rivals showing the less possible. When we were all at the ring forming a circle the masked woman shouted "Start the Onslaught!" I charged to the Ripper like the other 8 people. With a powerful opponent like him, it was normal for all to join forces to kill him, thinking later about killing the others, knowing that the possibility to kill him alone it was 0. "Finally this test will finish" said the Ripper positioning in an unsheathing position. I invoked my black sword, even infusing the killing intent, its black color perdure. Ripped unsheath his sword, this simple act decapitated one person, he continued with light and swift swings he started killing all the other participants, unlike his other match, he was killing them with effectively, without cutting extremities, the majority cutting the neck. Surrounded by the other people that limited my movement, I stopped and parried one of his swings letting myself being pushed away. After 10 seconds he finally stopped and the only people alive were him and me. He looked at me "You''re not bad, but really unlucky to fight against me" He charged to me, his katana in front. "Maybe you''re the unlucky one, so near to victory and you died here" I grinned surrounding my sword by red aura full of Killing Intent and charged toward him. Looking at my manifestation of intent he was shocked, but this didn''t change even for a moment his movement, showing his great experience. Both of us swung our sword, him upwards while I cut downwards. Both clashed with great force, he tried to parry my sword following its blade, but my intent blocked him, receiving all the impact. A katana was a long and thin sword, focused on quick and swift attacks, but it''s not the best sword to defend. My sword with the Killing Intent was more powerful, he was pushed 10 meters away, with some blood leaving from his mouth. It seems that his katana is his own spirit, if not I''m sure that I would have broken in that clash. I grinned at him "You continue thinking that you could win?". He had a shocked face, but kept his calm and cleaned his blood. As I was about to charge forward my sword trembled. It was a light tremble, it became even greater and seemed to resonance with something, the direction was where Ripper stood. Looking at Ripper he also looked at his katana and was also trembling. Ripper pointed his katana at me and smiled "It seems that I''m lucky. To think that you were another tester. My strength will increase again" "WTF are you talking?!" I shouted at him. "I fight of swords to dictate who is the best. The winner taking the loser" He opened his eyes. Then an impossible thing happened, from his sword started emerging waves, surging water started to flow around his sword. He clenched his sword with both arms and like strong waves surged from him, coming towards me. "Fuck! A domain" I cursed. It was a domain, how could he activated his intent and domain in Slaughter City. It seems that if I want to survive I should use all my strength here, without hiding anything. A black aura extended from me . Both, my black aura and the waves, clashed. It didn''t pass too much time that they started fusing forming a dark blue domain around us. It seemed that I was underwater but it didn''t seem to affect my movement. "Let''s start a battle honoring our God!" Ripper shouted charging towards me. Chapter 89 - Water Dance With waves surging from his sword he charged towards me. His movements became really strange, it seemed that he was surfing, following waves of the domain that changed at his order, he was riding them, obtaining a great speed. He was surfing forming multiples S, the waves from his sword increasing its size and strength "" He swung his katana to me. I concentrated intent at my sword and clashed with him. The water following his katana tried to push me, but my intent canceled it, dispersing the water in nothingness. "Oh, it''s really strange to have a death intent or a devouring one" a wave formed in his feet and he rode it, twisting his body until he was head down, he freed his katana from my sword and swung it downwards, for me seeming upwards "". I noticed somewhat at my feet, I quickly jumped backward. At my previous position surged a powerful torrent from the ground. The torrent was wide enough that I couldn''t completely evade, I blocked it with my sword, nevertheless, I was pushed away. Landing safely I looked at my opponent. He smirked "You have a powerful concept, but it''s obvious that you''re not used to sword fights. You have talent, but talent not always win against experience" He was accumulating waves in his sword, he swung it "" and three water dragons manifested and charged to me. My sword exuded black aura, with a swing I extinguished the three dragons. I twisted my body turning around and I parried a slash. The dragons were simply a decoy, he surfed to my back while being hidden by the dragons. He continued surfing around, slashing me from time to time, blocking me in my position. He didn''t stop, each slash was swift and quick, only grazing me, each time he attacked was faster and stronger than the last. "". [Fuck! Even if my intent is powerful, it can be used in great quantity due to it even affecting me, nearing me to death. A great contrast with his water one that has great quantity] I calmed myself. a little black drop, seeming water, left the tip of my sword. He continued with his dance, I having difficulty to keep it up. Only guarding, I could see how the slashed that cut me increase, blooding me. "Hahaha. This is my win!" he laughed. Suddenly, he opened his eyes shocked, the Water Dance stopped, he banged in nothing noticeable and crashed to the ground, he reacted in time swinging his katana creating a wave that slowed his crash. He stood up and touched his right knee, then turned to me shouting "How you dare!?" Having discovered my attack I grinned "It may be difficult to attack you, but with how much you move around there''s no need" I black drop dropped from my sword ". Leaving in your course, I didn''t need to much time for you to receive it. One-touch at your knee and it''s dead" He clenched his teeth, he sheathed his katana and positioned in an unsheathed stance "You''re really unlucky. If it were another match, using this will make me unable to fight causing my death when I leave the Arena, but being my last match I don''t have that worry. In all this time I couldn''t control it, take it!" All the waves from the domain started surging toward his katana, his domain was dispersing, only leaving mine, while a thing blue layer was around him. I could sense a great power from his sword. In less than a second, there wasn''t any trace of waves, but even with that, my domain couldn''t penetrate him. He held tightly the handle of his katana and unsheathed it quickly. As the blade was leaving the sheathed, powerful waves, much more than anything before were surging in every direction. He finally finished unsheathing and shouted "Sword Heart: WATER!". A sword made by countless waves shot to me, the pressure was so strong that it would be impossible to try to evade it. Looking at the sword I couldn''t help to smile, I knew that it could kill, but fighting my first true opponent, my first true life and death fight, it exited me "I may lack true opponents. I will walk over you and eat you alive!" I shouted. It was no time to try to evade or block it like normal, my usual intent will be useless against it. I put all my strength in my sword, it didn''t matter Death or Killing I put it together. "If I''m gonna die what importance have dying exploding!" I laughed. Red and black aura surged from my sword, at my command they were clashing between them. It will be easy to use them at the same time as sword energy coexist like the cause of different domains. But this won''t change anything, I needed to fuse them. The auras clashed, the blood vessels of my arms were exploding and I was losing the sensation from my fingers. I gritted my teeth, with all my strength I swung my sword toward the water sword. Even without fusing yet I didn''t have time My sword clashed with the water one. I knew that I couldn''t resist even a second of it, the moment they clashed, a tremendous force tried to smash my body, uncountable cuts were made on my body by the mere collateral energy of the sword. I looked at both my aura and my sword, finally realizing [Of course, the Killing was a mere imitation of the City, it wasn''t mine] At that moment the red color turned black, the sensation was wilder than the usual cold and peaceful one, this one was my own Killing Intent! Both black auras fused together. This was cold, but warm, raging and calm, this was Death and Killing! The aura resultant was incredible stronger than the one before, clashing with the water sword it caused an explosion. I was pushed like drag, by its aftermath. Crashing multiples time to ground, without being able to stop, until my own speed lowered by each crash. With my only strength, I unconsciously grip my sword. I was exhausted my body refused to move. My face fell directed at Ripper. He was laying on the ground, a lot of blood around his mouth and seemed immobilized. The most probable due to the exhaustion of the attack plus the backslash of the destruction of his technique. "Both contenders are very injured. But we detect that both are alive. Who will be the first one to stand up and kill the other!" Shouted the black-masked man "Following the rules of the Arena, if in 20 minutes they didn''t move we will dispose of them. This is to prevent people from resting" [Fuck! Move!] I ordered my body that refuses to even the minimum movement, to busy keeping my heart beating. I clenched my teeth vomiting blood, putting all my strength in moving my body. Little by little my body finally reacting. I used my sword as a support to finally standing. Slowly I approach Ripper, step by step, all my body weight at my sword. Each step was torture and my mind seemed to fly away with each one. After I didn''t know how much time I arrived at Ripper who didn''t move at all. I was too tired to even listen to the voices of the audience. I lifted my sword like if I was doing another step, this time instead of the ground a put it on Ripper''s neck. Letting my body fall, the sword pierced his neck by the force of my weight, killing him. I collapse on the ground exhausted "The contestant Blanch had finished the winning favorite with 99 victories! Let''s congratulate him! This is the first time in the history of Slaughter City!" The black-masked woman announced causing the audience to shout. [Fuck! I won''t leave alive in this state] I though. Suddenly Ripper''s body started shining, with a sea blue color. After a blinding light, he disappeared only leaving his katana there. The katana that was shining started dispersing in blue dots of light. The dots were attracted to me, especially to my sword. As they were going, their blue color changed to black and was absorbed by my sword. Once the dots were absorbed and unknown strength surged in me. I was still injured, having difficult to move, but with this new energy at least I could keep standing. This wasn''t normal energy, as it was absorbed I could sense my comprehension in my intent improving. I looked shocked, like everyone there, not knowing what had happened [WTF is that!?] I put it aside having more important things to worry about like being alive. I dragged myself to the exit, I took a Bloody Mary that made me feel better. I need to hurry. One thing that I learned from the Arena is that to the audience, they have time to leave the Arena, greater than the participants. So the audience usually didn''t attack the winner. Being today a 100 victory match I don''t think that there will be many people waiting for me. If I was fast enough I could evade the people that knew my condition at the Arena. Leaving the Arena while using my sword as support demonstrated that my theory was wrong, more than 30 scavengers were waiting for the winner to leave. "Oh, we''re lucky, it seems that an almost death was the winner" One the grunts said grinning. If it weren''t for that strange energy, I would undoubtedly die here. I breathed very profoundly. A black, raging aura surged from me creating a Killing Domain! I looked at them grinning "Let luck and my instinct act" I blackout, sensing my body charging to them swinging my sword moved by my pure killing instinct feed by my domain. Chapter 90 - Fox When I woke up, I found myself in my room. I tried to stand up but a terrible pain traveled around all my body that stopped me to do so. Looking around I could see that I was coated in blood, there was even a tray of blood coming from the door. Due to the sheer quantity of blood, it was obvious that was more of my enemies rather than mine. I looked at the ceiling "At least, I''m alive" my muscles inched, I could sense some of my ribs broken, with cuts and holes everywhere of my body. At that moment I sensed someone near my door. I was exhausted to stand up, but it didn''t mean that I couldn''t move. I didn''t even wait to see who it was, I invoked my sword and coated in Death Intent. A little push from my part and the sword shot to the door, the sword destroyed the door leaving my vision. I could listen to the sound of something crashing. I reinvoked my sword, pointing to the door prepared for another shot. From the door entered Black, she had a scythe in her arms and 7 rings around her. I looked at her "The Slaughter King send you here to kill me?" She looked at me coldly and her scythe disappeared "We are only permitted to attack with spirit skills to people trying to run away, if I broke the contract, it will mean my death" She threw me a glass with some red liquid, for some reason the content didn''t fall. I received and drank it knowing it was a Bloody Mary "You only came to serve me a drink?" I said grinned. Her cold look didn''t change "The Slaughter King was impressed for your display yesterday and looks forward to your next participation in the Hell Slaughter Arena" After saying this she left, behind her a brown-masked man started repairing the door. After 2 minutes, I was alone again "Of course the Slaughter King would have an interest in me. I need to play well with my cards if I want him not to kill me. Unlike Tang San and Hu Liena I don''t have a Deathgod backing me. But now is not the time. I will take advantage of my injures and don''t participate anymore for the time being" I concentrated on healing my injuries, some brown-masked woman came calling herself a nurse that helped to heal me the basic. The truth is that being near anyone in this City is mentally exhausting, you need always to be alert for an attack. Even if black and brown masks represent the Slaughter King''s men and are prohibited to be were by anyone. It won''t be the first time that someone tries to deceive another one with the mask and killed another. If the Slaughter King finds it you will be dead, but if there are no witnesses there''s no crime. I needed a month to return to perfect condition. It was too soon, so I decided to not participate in the Arena for the time being. I kept practicing my intents, they finally stabilized. I could completely fuse the Killing and Death Intent, without much problem. The fusion of domains was impossible, but at least my new Killing Domain was complete. The energy absorbed from Ripper really help in my comprehension. I also sensed myself closer to the Death Sword Heart, having clashed with a Sword Heart really helped, especially as it has the intention to kill me in life and death battle if it was simple spar the results will be worse. I spent my time with some meditation and killing some idiot that tried to attack me, you won''t image how leaving a blood tray to one room would attract people to attack, really a too easy to trap people, not that there was any meaning but I liked to play with people. It''s surprising how with only a little time without appearing in public, people seemed to have completely forgotten about me. Maybe, they suspected I was dead. With this routine, another 2 months passed. I was walking around when I listened to some grunts "Oh, a newcomer, what a beauty! Do you want to play with daddy?". I looked watching 3 men surrounding a girl, I shook my head, this is part of the daily life here. I looked more attentively at the girl and a grin could help to be made [Finally! She is here!]. The girls had a long black hair combed in a ponytail, she was wearing black clothes that couldn''t hide her perfect figure. Her most characteristic feature was her eyes that shined with a pink charming light. She was neat and charming, a great contrast with the women leaving her. It was Hu Liena, part of the Golden Generation of Spirit Hall that participated in the last Continental Tournament. To tell the truth, she was my type, I wouldn''t mind fu?k?n? her, but there were more important things. Liena took out a dagger, and with swiftly swung around, with precise cuts at the men''s neck she killed them all. Her movement wasn''t bad at all, it was normal for her in the original story to become the champion of the Arena, and that was considering she was now a rookie in the city. After killing the three men she spun turning towards me and shot her dagger to me. I looked at the dagger movement and lifted my left hand. I only needed two-finger to take hold of the dagger between my fingers. Liena charged to me taking out another dagger. With a swift movement of my wrist, I shot the dagger to her. She easily deflected with her dagger sending the throwing dagger away. Just as she arrived near me and was about to thrust forward. I showed my Killing Intent, this wasn''t my sword one that could kill, it was simply a pressure gained by killing people. This sudden intent made her flinch for an instant. I took advantage of that instant jumping at her, holding her wrist and throwing her to the ground, me on top of her. Being immobilized by my weight, she couldn''t move anymore. I grinned at her, I just said that the mix of anger and terror in the look of her eyes was really cute. I leaned to her, ?h?st with ?h?st, I approached my mouth to her, stealing a kiss. My tongue invading her mouth and playing around rudely. I really liked how she struggled to be free some tears even falling her eyes. After 20 seconds, breaking the kiss I could see her red face, blushing a lot while tears were falling her eyes, the anger in her eyes had disappeared. I stood at up, licked my lips and looked at her "Tasty. I won''t mind another time. Enjoy your time here, welcome to Slaughter City" I left the place while laughing. Liena recovered from her shock, she blushed a lot and stood up and cleaned herself, her angry look returned looking at the direction the boy who ashamed her left. She clenched her teeth and shouted with a murderous look "I''ll kill you scum!" not forgetting the boy''s black hair and eyes and his handsome face. After leaving Hu Liena I went to the Hell Slaughter Arena. I went to the desk and signed for the next match, the match was prepared for 2 hours later. When the match started I invoked my sword and started slicing my rivals little by little completely enjoying the moment. [Today was a good day, relieving myself a little]. It didn''t take more than 5 minutes for or my rivals to die at my sword. Leaving the Arena a black-masked young woman was waiting for me "The Slaughter King invites you to a meeting. Follow me" She turned around without waiting for my answer, knowing that the words of the Slaughter King were law here. I followed her, letting myself be guided. Chapter 91 - Slaughter King I was guided to the Slaughter King castle. Once inside, the guards showed me the way to a room. The room was very long, red in color, with little decorations in it, only some banners and statues at the side. At the extreme of the room stood a big throne, the throne was black with some red patterns around it. These patterns shined and seemed to move around, like blood flowing in a black body. Sat on it there was the Slaughter King who was waving a glass with Bloody Mary in his right hand. He wore the same scarlet coat as the last time. As I entered, a black-masked young woman dressed as a maid bowed excusing herself and left the throne room closing the door. I started walking towards the Slaughter King, his red eyes followed every of my step, when I was 10 meters away I listened "Kneel" his voice was powerful and contained a hided pressure that pushed you to follow him. I stopped in place and knelt to him "I pay my respect to the Slaughter King" He lifted an eyebrow "It''s strange to find someone with manner here. Not that I like manners" he glanced at me, a pressure pushed me almost crashing to the floor. Suddenly it stopped "I was very interested in your matches, you have great talent, especially in this city" "It''s my honor to receive your praise" I said. "Let''s cut the chat. Looking at my city it''s easy to know that I don''t like formalities. Do you know why you are here?" he asked. [This may be the most dangerous situation of my life, I wrong step could mean my death. And the worst is that I need to make a wrong one] I thought. "I would say that it was to recruit me" I answered. "Intelligent one, I like it. I would give you a great position that will make all your dreams true, power, women I offer you all, it as simple as be my man, defending the City. What do you say?" He said. "I refuse. I..." before I could even answer a great pressure, much greater than before, hit me, this time a crashed to the floor vomiting blood. The Slaughter King stood up from his throne and threw his glass away. He started walking towards me each step putting more pressure on my body. Arriving near me bent lifted my head grabbing my hair "You''re too boring. The moment I invited here it was the moment that your death was sentenced, it didn''t matter if you''re answer was yes, but I would have enjoyed your looks of despair when I killed you even with your answer. Do you know why?" he smirked "You''re a cancer of this city, even with depravity your not letting it control you, you are making it your own power. I know that with your power it would be easy to win 100 matches. But I know your kind, you will never stay here. Did you really think that I will permit the birth of a new Deathgod, kid?" I could sense my blood veins exploding [Fuck, he didn''t let me talk. If this continues I will die] "Do you have some last words? Of course, if you''re able to talk" he said laughing. [Even if I had something to negotiate, I did not predict him reacting so forceful at the start, the words that I could tell in my state it wouldn''t be enough to convince him. For now, I needed to take his attention, this will be my only chance to live] "Some last words, kid?" My throat seemed to be on fire, but I pushed with all my strength saying "Ta-Tang C-Chen". These two words made the Slaughter King open fully his eyes and stood up staying still. His pressure disappeared and he freed my head from his grip, my head slamming to the ground. "How do you know?" He said with a mix of anger, curiosity, and shock. The Slaughter King realizing that in my state I couldn''t answer, he snapped his fingers. With the snap, the pool of blood under me started giggling, like if it gained conscience it started moving and returned to mine, once all returned the injures healed themselves. Even if I had some aches and some pain, I could move my body without any problem now, having recovered my strength. I sat and breathed profoundly. "Don''t stay too comfortable, I can kill you at any moment. Now tell me, how did you know that name?" He asked me. His eyes penetrating me and seemed to see all of myself, not being able to deceive him "Tang Chen, an Ultimate Douluo, Clear Sky Douluo, strongest of the Clear Sky School, Asura successor candidate and now Slaughter King of Slaughter City" Each word seemed to make him angrier, his eyes were even twitching. Then he caught my left arm, his nails extended and pierced my forearm "AAAAh" I shouted in pain, without from my consent my spirit bone sword was invoked, now resting in my left hand. The Slaughter King''s eyes turned to the sword "I know that we have a deal, but how you dare to tell about my previous life. If you dare to do it again, I will catch your little playthings and torture them for eternity, never letting them die, always alive" He then held my sword with both hands and broke it in half. Looking at half my sword falling to the door and I sensed an incredible headache, I put my hand on my head trying to lower the pain, it was like having worms crawling inside my head "This is the punishment for you audacity" he then smirked "Don''t make that face, at least you''re left with one" After 1 minute the pain left and I could sense that my sword comprehension even was lowered, from my half the sword seemed to have been rebuild itself, returning to normal. The Slaughter King returned to his throne, sat down and sighed "At your kind, I usually warn them like this, showing that they should respect me. Don''t take it personally. Like the other before you, I will let you live here and participate in 100 matches, gaining the title apparent of Deathgod, letting you live the city without passing the Hell Road" He looked with contempt at my sword "Like accorded" He turned to me "Something to say, kid?" [WTF! What was that? A deal with my sword? This doesn''t follow my plans, but for his demeanor, it seems that I''m safe. If I ask something about it may lead to my death] I knelt "Thanks for your generosity. I had only thought that as thanks I could help your highness" He tilted his head leaning it to his left hand "Help? How can you help me?" "I know how dangerous would be a Deathgod. I offer you my services to try to stop the birth of one" This seemed too interested him, he lifted his eyebrow "Continue" "The disciple of one Deathgod had entered the town, leaving her alone will lead to the birth of another Deathgod, I already checked that she had the capabilities to perdure. Two Deathgods allies will be a great danger to Slaughter City. I recommend making a match between her and me in the Hell Slaughter Arena. If she dies in the Arena against myself, someone who only had 6 victories, there''s no reason for the Deathgod to blame your highness, it was only that she wasn''t good enough" I offered. "Interesting. Another one Deathgod will indeed be fatal, and like you said how could be blamed in me if she is not good enough" He smirked, then he turned serious "What do you want? I already let you live, what do you want offering me this?" "I only want the permission to enter and leave the City as I like, being able to live here even after the 100 matches" I answered. "Your kind don''t usually want to stay here more than necessary," he said. [For the conversation it seems that kind, refers to swordmasters, this will explain how Ripper was nearly able to become a champion of the Arena] "I am different, as you know already could have observed, my intent is Death and Killing, making this City the best mimicry environment for my growth" I explained. "I will permit. I will let for the girl to compete for 5 matches, getting used to the Arena, her 6th will be against you. In your case, until she participates in her 6th match, you should participate once every month without using your intent" He ordered. "I accept," I said maintaining my head lowered. "You can now leave" he said snapping his fingers. The door at my back opened and the previous black-masked maid brought me outside the castle. Once outside I went to my room. When I entered my room I jumped at my bed, not only I was physically tired due to my injuries, having a long chat that was more like a death-life situation and exhausted me mentally. "Ignoring that I almost died, today was I great day. I don''t know what was all that about but at last it followed my intention accomplishing my objectives, so all good." I invoked my black sword "I''ll need to find more about you in the future". I withdrew it and fell asleep. In the throne room, just as Paul left. Once the Slaughter King was alone, he stood up and went to a corner of the room. In that corner, there was half of the broken sword of Paul. The Slaughter King took it "Your play is funny. Seeing how idiots believe that they are climbing to greatness when the truth is that they are only descending to hell" The laughs of the Slaughter Kings sounded in all the castle. Chapter 92 - Against Bewitching Fox After my meeting with the Slaughter King, I followed his orders, I participated from time to time at the Hell Slaughter Arena and I concentrated on stabilizing my domain, that was chaotic after my sword snapped. Hu Liena needed 3 months to win 5 matches at the Arena, the truth was that I was worried about her. Her first matches even against weakling, she didn''t overpower them, receiving some injures, when their rivals decided to play with her instead of fighting. I suppose that if you don''t have much living expectancy, it will be best to die having a good time, her rivals may be the ones forced to participate, being near a year without participating. I couldn''t do anything in the Arena, so I followed her outside making sure that she survived. She seemed lucky enough and my help wasn''t truly required, there was only one time that I brought her to her room after blacking out having killed all her enemies. After her 4th match, she improved greatly and got used to how things worked in the City, having an easier time fighting, most of the men stopped trying something when she cut some, let''s say, noble parts and let the men there suffering, ridiculing them. In a place like Slaughter City where death is common, you''ll need to have a good imagination to make people scared, killing not good enough. There was a time that I thought she turned crazy, letting herself be deranged by the City. She entered in a killing spree, killing anyone that entered her vision, in one day killing more than 200 people, truly a massacre. The strangest thing was the next day she seemed normal again, she was calm but had gained sharper facial features, with a tint of red in her beautiful eyes. Today was finally the day, I had 8 victories at the Hell Slaughter Arena and I will face Hu Liena in there. Whenever I see her tight ?ss I couldn''t help think it was a pity, but it was the safest way to gain the Slaughter King trust and my way to power. In the Slaughter King''s meeting, her death hadn''t seemed necessary, but I like safety and anyway it is not like she was very important in the big picture. I walked to the Hell Slaughter Arena, after showing my ID, they let me through one of the entrances to the ring. Entering the ring I could see the other 9 people, effectively, one of them was Hu Liena, except her the only other that would require some precaution was a spirit king man. Starting the match, there wasn''t any clear objective as none of us was known enough to be cautious, nor we have a nickname at the Arena. This caused the match to be a true battle royale where the people attacked at the opponent nearer them. Two foolish people tried to attack me, there was one that even did it without weapon [Really? In a place without spirit skills and you go for the hand to hand combat, how can someone be so stupid in a life and death situation?] I swift swing of my sword was enough to cut both heads. It didn''t pass a lot of time until all the opponents died, only leaving me and Hu Liena alive. She can be considered as the MVP, she with one dagger moved like an ?ssassin, taking advantage of any opening from the opponent to kill him with the least of effort. Once we were alone, Liena and I distanced 10 meters away, Liena looked straight at my eyes with an angry look "I will get my revenge for that time, you will die here. Don''t think I am the same as that time" I could see a killing intent in her eyes, the same trick of that day won''t work again, whatever, it wasn''t like I need trick, in this place my sword and Intent was a complete cheat. I simply couldn''t lose against her. "How cute, the little fox grew claws" I teased her. She was a little mad, clenching her teeth, she started using her spirit. Her eyes starting shining with a pink glow and her hair turned red, the aura around her changed, becoming more dangerous. Considering the people in the City she was really great, as she is now, she would be able to kill a spirit douluo in 1vs1 situation, of course, she will need to use all of her power, and if there were more I don''t think that she will survive, she would need to use her wits. I lifted my left hand signaling her to come. She charged to me while I stayed in my place invoking my black sword. With one dagger in her right hand, she thrust at me. With a lot of precision, I turned my sword and stopped her dagger clashing to the center of my sword''s side. She didn''t try to push forward, instead, she made a quick move with her left wrist that caused for another dagger to come from her sleeve, placing it in her left hand, she thrust the new dagger to my stomach. At less than a centimeter to hit, I lifted right leg, my knee hitting her left hand causing her left hand to be pushed up, failing the attack. She didn''t seem worried, leaning one her left leg, she twisted her body lifting her right leg and trying to kick my left side. [Not bad, even with a free hand, my own body is blocking me to stop her kick] I put force on my left leg and lightly jumped back, her foot grazing me. I landed on my right foot, with a swift change of feet I pierced forward, she took the momentum of her kick, twisting her hip leaning to her left, blocking with her dagger my sword and parry it helping in her evasion. She did and flip like doing a flying kick stabilizing her position, landing with both of her feet, she then backed creating distance between us "For a lecherous bastard, you''re not so bad" she said with a calm face. I smiled at her "If I was truly a bastard, I would have fu?k?d silly that day. You''re not bad neither" This making her blush. She charged again to me, she tried to pierce me, thrusting her right dagger, but I dodged leaning to the right, slashing at her right arm. She quickly retracted her right arm, at the same time thrusting her left dagger to my right side. With my right hand I caught her wrist stopping her attack, she kicked with her right leg, under her shoe appearing a blade. I turned my sword blocking her hidden blade. She started slashing and thrusting with her right dagger while we were blocked in that position. In a closed position like this, the dagger showed its better progress rather than a sword, blocking the movement of my sword and its power only being able to block and evade her attacks. Finally, I freed her left hand and jumped back trying to create distance. She knew my intention followed me, maintaining her advantage at close distance. She started quickly slashing with both daggers at great speed. For a rookie, it may have seemed like an uncontrolled barrage of attack, but all her attacks were very swift and precise not letting any opening for me to attack while keeping close distance. I was pushed to a defensive position only evading and blocking. This continued for some while, until I got used to her style, and started to see opportunities to attack, but at the same time, she also was learning from me, blocking my attacks and counter-attacking. A smile appeared in both of our mouths, enjoying the thrill of the fight, risin'' up to the challenge of our rival. I was really enjoying this time and she was really I good spar partner, however, this wasn''t a spar, this was a death battle were only one of us could leave alive. It was time to be a little more serious, the truth was that I lowered my basic strength at her level, she had a very good flexibility, battle scene, and strength, thanks to her beast spirit and talent, even with that it couldn''t be compared with my physique, this body had years of training, adding Tang San fire and ice poison the strength of this body was close to the douluo rank, while Liena was close a spirit sage. I put all my strength on my left arm, veins popping doing the tension and slashed upwards to Liena, she noticed something different, her smile disappearing from her face, she quickly crossed both daggers trying to block the slash. She couldn''t receive completely the new strength of the attack and even if my slash failed to cut her it was enough to push away both of her hands, being unable to answer to my next attack. I flicked my sword and thrust it to her heart. The waited piercing didn''t come, instead, my sword was stopped by a furry white thing that stood between Liena and me. I decided to back jumping a few meters. The furry thing, surged from Liena''s back, specifically from her hip, it was a long fox tail of 3 meters long. By its defense, it didn''t seem to be part of her spirit, it was an external spirit bone. "You can be proud of yourself, you pushed me to use my trump card. I was trying to keep it a secret. You don''t have any chance to win now" She said confidently. "You finally show you''re true power, I was starting to be bored. But! Don''t think for a moment that this is all my strength!" I shouted. I decided to use only my Killing Intent, this specialized in killing using multiple attacks with great speed and power, while my Death Intent focused on swift and devouring attacks, eliminating all. A raging black aura started surrounding my sword. "Sword intent? How can you be capable of using it in this City? It''s impossible!" She said shocked. It didn''t surprise me her knowledge of sword intent, as the disciple of Bibi Dong she had access to a lot of information, moreover, her brother has a sword spirit and had some attainments in sword comprehension. I charged to her, both my hands holding my sword. At a much greater speed than before, I started slashing at her, her daggers weren''t strong enough to stand my attack, she discovered when one of her daggers was broken by my sword, she started using her tail as a shield to block the attack. My attack was so strong and quick that she was pushed to a defensive position without any mean to counter-attack. After some slashed I finally saw an opening, piercing forward my sword I aimed to that opening, but I was stopped by her tail, somehow her reaction increased and she could close that opening, at the same time she threw me a dagger, forcing me to jump away, stopping my attack to evade. Observing her, she had two new daggers in her hands, it seems that she had prepared substitutes. There was also a strange pattern in the form of a black eye on her forehead. "To force me so much" She sighed "I withdraw what I said before about you being a bastard. You gained my respect, you''re the 3rd mam to accomplish it, you can be proud. I would like our meeting to be in other circumstances, we could have been friends. I will honor you with my full strength" She said very seriously. I put my right hand on my face "Nht!" I started laughing "Hahahaha. You really think for even a moment that you can win over me, don''t be naive. I never took you seriously, you''re only enjoyment for me. I could have finished this any time" I grinned "Let me show you what is true strength" I position in a piercing stance, holding my sword with both hands, a black aura emanating from it. The aura extended around me arriving at Liena "" the combination of both Killing and Death, now condensed as one domain. The shocked face of Liena was priceless, she was scared shitless. She started trembling, her legs giving up and falling to the floor. "This is my true power" I said grinning at her. "D-d-don''t kill me. I-i-I''m part of Sp-Spirit Hall. I will give you anything that you want" Facing my domain, she couldn''t think straight, her mentality to weak to endure. She was someone that couldn''t surpass Hell''s Road alone, even after staying 3 years in the City and 100 victories in the Arena, now she can''t be compared to her future self, how could she endure my full might. "In the Arena, there are no losers, only winners or dead. I already knew you, Hu Liena, part of the Golden Generation of Spirit Hall" She opened her eyes shocked about me knowing her identity "Thanks for all, your sacrifice is appreciated" I finished my words and slashed at Liena, the cut was so fast that it was difficult to even follow, the light in Liena''s eyes disappearing. I approached her dead body and with a swift swing, I cut her head. I took her head and left the Ring as the winner, with 9 victories. This day I gained my nickname, the people in Slaughter City started fearing the Slaughter Sword. Chapter 93 - Double Room After finishing the match, I left the Arena. Outside there were only 8 people, seeing me leaving the Arena, almost intact without any signal of fatigue, they decided not to attack me [Ha! Like I''ll let them. With how much power I showed today, I doubt that there would be another time when someone tried to take advantage of me leaving the Arena after a match] I thought. I activated my domain blocking the 8 people in their place, their legs trembling so much that didn''t follow their commands. A raging black aura in my sword and 2 minutes after, they were nothing more than blood pools with bits of meat. I sliced them all in tiny cubs. [It was more enjoyable fighting with Liena, what a pity!] I returned to my room and threw Liena''s head at the floor, I invoked my sword and started slicing her head little by little until the only thing left, was a little black ball, so hard that I couldn''t cut it. This was the reason I took Hu Liena''s head, this was a skull spirit bone, one of the most precious, specially gifted by Bibi Dong to Liena. I took it on my hand and I started analyzing, putting spirit power in it. I discovered why Liena could face against my speed. This skull bone, it was a spirit bone from Three Eyes Tiger, about 60.000 years old. This skull bone had different effects, its main one was a passive increase of the owner wisdom, it also improved the eyesight. Then it had an active ability, it was a great improvement on the eyesight and reaction time of the body, speeding the neuronal activity. In simple terms, it was like in films where the bullets are seen slowly, the famous bullet-time. The problem is that it couldn''t be used for a long time due to stress at the brain, so it was better using carefully. Being a great spirit bone, I decided to absorb it. Taking it and approaching my forehead, it started dissolving and little by little was being absorbed. I sensed a cutting intense pain in my head that was increasing as I was absorbing the bone. Maybe it was for that day when my sword broke or simply my mental resistance increased a lot but it wasn''t unbearable. After an hour I completely absorb. Just as I absorbed it, I could sense the world around me different, it wasn''t only my eyesight that had improved enough to see little dust spots. The world around me seemed to have changed, if I focused enough I could see multiple light particles everywhere, black and red being the predominant one. Sensing them I could sense Killing and Death from them, for a little blue one I could sense some water sensation. [Maybe this is the essence of the world. Now, I could differentiate, this will surely be helpful for my cultivation] I sat cross-legged and started cultivating. As I was cultivating I could sense these particles moving around, the black one especially attracted to me, even more to my left hand. For some reason, I knew that my sword comprehension and when I would leave outside my spirit cultivation will increase by leaps and bounds. While cultivating, thoughtful of the way of the sword, I entered in a trance, like a lightning crossing my body, an idea appeared, with a *click* I could sense a new broad world opening beside me. Sword Intent was the manifestation of your own will to the world with the sword as intermediate. Sword Domain was pushing your will to the world affecting its rules, changing them to your favor. With this trance-like state, my sword appeared in my hands, my domain activating on its own, black particles in the room attracted to it "Condense!" the attraction increasing, now I even saw my own domain as light particles rather than an aura. All black particles started concentrating in my sword like mad, a very concentrated black aura forming around my sword, my own domain disappearing in it. My sword started pulsating, it seemed like it was increasing in size, the black aura becoming the metal of the sword and expanding quickly [Too much power!]. It was too much, I was losing the control of it, I swung my sword trying to stop its power, shooting it away. Like thunder, black aura started discharging everywhere of the room, destroying all the furniture, even if most of it concentrated in the direction that I swung, I couldn''t help to be injured by its recoil. I had some cuts around my body and my hands were trembling madly, my sword even withdrew itself. Even in my injured state, I couldn''t help for a smile to appear at my face "Sword Heart, this is Sword Heart! Even if not complete, I''m near it" I looked at the direction that I swung, I could see my neighbor room, completely destroyed with a corpse full of cuts on the destroyed bed. This day in Slaughter City it was known as the first time in more than 10.000 years that the walls of a room were destroyed, at least without the use of spirit energy. This destruction created a big problem for the brown-masked slaves, they were used to repair doors, all days have at least one repair, they had a storage full of doors, so there wasn''t any problem. But this was their first time, seeing a wall destroyed. The walls were created by an ancient method and were incredible sturdy, these slaves didn''t have the knowledge to repair it, anything done by them would be easily destroyed by others. After some struggle, a black-masked young woman came and announced that as a prize or reward of being able to destroy this ancient wall, I was gifted with both rooms. It wasn''t really a reward, who will they dare to give someone the only room with two weak entrances. So it was the normal and easier thing to do. I was warned to don''t destroy any other. Of course, I accepted, it wasn''t on purpose and with that strength, there wasn''t any need to break a wall I could easily enter from a door and kill anyone inside. From this experience, I was the first competitor in the Arena, that even with less than 10 victories I had a double room. Good for me! Of course, they repaired the room changing its furniture. Other titles: Sword Heart, Skull Spirit Bone, Ops! I broke a wall! Chapter 94 - Sword God Even having stepped on the Sword Heart, it was only half-step I would need to continue practicing and improving my comprehension in the future. With my new comprehension, I learned how lucky I was when I fought against Ripper. His Sword Heart was incomplete, very similar to what I did before. But, the difference between both powers couldn''t be compared, mine being several times stronger. If he had even a quarter of my strength, I would have died there. Sword Heart used the own user domain and the will of the world similar to the user as a fuel of power. This technique will greatly be influenced by the place where you are. In this place, the Killing is so strong that inhibited all other energy, the water-energy of Ripper being negligible. He couldn''t really use the will of the world and was simply a concentration of his domain, and even with that, there was a lot of waste as he didn''t control it properly. This will mean that if we were outside were water element is more abundant his strength would have increased substantially. This also meant, that in my case, Slaughter City will be the place were my Sword Heart could obtain its greatest power. In a battle between Sword Heart, it impossible for me to lose in this place, this first considering that they''re being able to even use like Ripper, as other than Death and Killing others element were suppressed here. With that happened today I was very exhausted, fighting Hu Liena that really didn''t tire me a lot, absorbing the spirit bone and the half-step into a new realm. All of this exhausted me as physically as mentally. So when I laid on my new bed it didn''t pass a lot of time before I fell asleep. Opening my eyes and looked around "An unknown ceiling" I said crossing in mind one of the cliche words when reincarnation "Now, really. What the fu?k is that place? Where I am?" Standing up, I found myself in a strange place, it was an empty world that even the floor wasn''t recognized, at least by sight, the only proof of its existence is that I was standing up. It was empty with the exception of countless swords, is was a land, without any land, of swords that continue until the horizon. Each sword was different from each other, all having a little characteristic, this created a big variety of swords, from great-sword to short-swords and curve-swords The most strange was the color of this world, it wasn''t a constant color, it was a combination of different colors that seemed to flow around changing every moment, the strange was that this flow of color didn''t look bad, all colors seemed to harmonize with each other creating a perfect combination. "At last we can talk" I listened to a voice, a voice maybe was a wrong reference, because it sounded like multiple people talking at the same time, all saying the same. All voices seemed to overlap without creating any cacophony, being a very clear voice with an excellent overlapping. I turned to the voice and saw a humanoid silhouette, it had the same color as the world and seemed part of the background if not for the outline of her/his body and mouth. "Who are you? And where I am?" "I am the Sword God. This is simply a space created by me" he said his voice was cold and warm at the same time, angry and calm, a combination of every feeling joined in one, impossible to know how was his state of mind. [This is a god? It may be somehow a god inheritance. I''ll need more information] "Why I am here?" I asked. "As Sword God, I respect all ways of swords. I know how talented are you. I sent swords fragments all over the world, you have obtained one of them. Obtaining one and activating it, it will make you capable of receiving my favor, participating in my test. Each fragment activates according to the people, higher talent someone had, means a much difficult condition for its activation, at the same time meaning a long way with more tests. In your case, it has been activated when you accomplished the Sword Heart Realm. I am here, to give you my test. You will win my power becoming my follower, do you accept my grace?" "What? Your follower?" I asked a little pissed. "Yes, with your talent, you could arrive to even be at the top of my followers, being my high priest. I will give you the power that you couldn''t even dream. I can promise that in 5 years, I will make you what you refer to as Titled Douluo and beyond" God offered. "I refuse" I refused. "Can I know why?" God''s voice didn''t change at all at my negative. "My objective is beyond that. I want to stand at the top of this world and go beyond, becoming a god. I know that it''s impossible to obtain godhood when following a god. There''s other inheritance I won''t accept your deal. Of course, if you accept me as inheritor my mind can change" "Trying to bargain with a God, I do not know if you are too brave or an idiot," he said with exactly the same voice that it started to piss me "Anyway, your talent is not enough. If you accept to be my follow I can solve your little problem, I can destroy your other self, gaining the complete control of your body" God offered. "This is my problem and I will deal with it, especially if it will affect my future, I can endure Bai for a while, at final I will be the winner! So if you''re only offering to be your follower you can return from where you came" "You have a good resolve. As you are now, you are not good enough to inherit my position, but it may change in the future. I will give you a test, it will determine my decision. Your first test will be to become complete. Complete yourself" "So I only need to follow my way. I will make you recognize me!" I said. "I look forward to seeing it. Before leaving you" God pointed my left arm, my black sword withdrawing "This is your fragment, losing it will mean that you are not good enough, losing your position. However, every risk goes with an opportunity, obtain more fragments and you will be rewarded by my power" God said and my vision blackout before I could say anything. Opening my eyes again I found myself in my room of Slaughter City, I invoked my black sword and looked at it "So you''re part of god power. I suppose that a piece of divinity. Now, Ripper''s words of tester gained meaning. I need to be more aware of other owners of fragments. And if they are weaker than me try to take them. It seems that at the Sword God likes to see fights. For what it seems, this inheritance it will be based in reuniting the divinity from others. Hahaha" I laughed "This will become a battle royale! And I will be its winner!" "First thing first, I''ll finish my affairs in Slaughter City and then go out to the world. Anyway, the first test I will pass it even if I don''t want" I grinned "It seems that a new path is created before me. I will follow it, I won''t be stopped by anyone, becoming a god! If you reincarnate, it''s common sense to aim high!" I said before returning to sleep. Chapter 95 - 99 victories Putting aside the matters with the Sword God, as now there wasn''t anything that I could do. If my knowledge was true, there were 9 months until Tang San entered to Slaughter City, meaning that to follow my plan I needed to finish my 100 victory before that. As I showed my progress against Hu Liena and when I destroyed the room''s wall, I really didn''t have any reason to go slow, so I decided to finish the sooner the better. After resting for 1 week stabilizing my comprehension and getting used at the new wisdom gained by the Skull Bone, it really was a big headache all week along, I went to the Hell Slaughter Arena to sign for a match. I was blocked at at my half-step in Sword Heart and the best way to advance will be by combat, in this environment seemed specially made for me, I don''t really need live and death battle, continuing increasing my Killing and Death Intent will be enough. Arriving at the Arena I went to the desk to sign. Seeing me coming, the black-masked woman at the desk stood up and bowed to me "It''s a p???sur? to see Mr. Slaughter Sword again in the Hell Slaughter Arena" "Slaughter Sword?" I asked confused, they usual referred to me as Blanch or my ID number and it was strange for black-masked to bow. "For your record of 9 victories at the Arena and your strength, it''s the nickname that was decided for you. Of course, If you don''t like it, we will try our most in changing it" She explained. "I don''t mind. Now, for what I am here. I want to participate in the next match" I demanded. "Of course. With you, there will only 1 person left so the match will start shortly" She said. "Can I request something?" I asked. "What would it be?" She tilted her head. "I want to finish this quickly, I want to be signed for all the matches, without any stop, every time that there''s a match I want to be there, I don''t want for other to have the opportunity to run away from me" I grinned. "I don''t know if it''s possible. In the case of your death, it will have to change matches time and turns" She said with doubt. "You already know that there aren''t that many matches, rarely finding before one match the next one already prepared. At worst it will be a little change that won''t have any real impact" I argued. "I''ll need to ask to around, when a decision is made, we will communicate you" she said. I flashed a smile "Thank you" and left the desk. After 3 hours I was told that my next match will be tomorrow at 10, they also communicated me that my request was accepted, causing my a grin that scared the messenger who had difficulty to even leave due to his trebling legs. This request was very important to maximize my speed. In Slaughter City, there''s a very little number of people that try to achieve the 100 victory, most being happy to only staying and enjoying all the p???sur? and depravity of the Inner City. This caused that most of the participants at the Arena, only participate when they don''t have any other option. Each victory in the Arena, it will permit stay in the Inner City for 1 year, the people usually expending this year before being forced to participated again. Theoretically, if there hadn''t been limit of victories in the Arena, always being able to participate, with my request, after a year of continuous winning, I would have cleaned all the Inner City, leaving only a pitiful number of people who had more victories than needed to stay. As I fought, surely my infamy would grow, to the point that people would try to evade me. The rules of the City prevent people running away from the Arena, but some enough intelligent people will try to evade fighting me. How can it be done? It was easy, it was as simple as taking advantage when I already was signed in a match to prepare the next match without me being able to participate as I couldn''t have signed before finishing my match. In a extreme, with only the sacrifice of 9 people, all the other people could sign for a match, creating a year without any combat at the Arena instead for rookies. Of course, this was a very improbable and extreme situation, but surely there would be some cases that slowed my victories. Thanks to my request, this problem is resolved. Any person that his year is finishing would need to die under my sword without any possible escape other than die before, thus maximizing my speed, even if people try to spend most of his time before participating a constant flow of competitors will be created. Of course, this request didn''t go without risk. As it was accepted, I would be forced to participated in any match, without any rest. If people are enough intelligent they would sign all at the same time, creating a never ending matches against me, trying to tired me out. There will be a lot of sacrifices, sure, but they may be some possibility for me to die. I didn''t really think that this would be much of a problem, humans only see for their own interest, they wouldn''t sacrifice themselves for others. The next day was my match, I easily swept my rivals, not needing even a minute to finish the match as the strongest was a spirit ancestor. It continue as normal, but little by little, the people started realizing that I was participating in all matches, at my 17 victory for the first time I had 2 matches at the same time. It was funny seeing the grin faces ,of the people that thought they were so intelligent, disappearing replaced by despair faces. There''s not need to explain that all of them died. With 20 victories I was voted, yeah there''s ranking by votes, the most feared person in the Arena, capable of attacks close to spirit skills, the number 1 person you didn''t want to face at the Arena. The people who were trying to obtain 100 victories stopped participating, as the have time to live in the City to spare, they decided that it wasn''t worth and that they will wait until I finish my 100 victories or in the case of the people who had more than 50 victories, that there were 2 people, they decided waiting until my 50 victory. Even with my request, the little rules of the Arena were kept, people with more than 50 victories being impossible to face each against the other. So for the people forced to participate in the Arena before I complete my 100 victories, their only option to not face against me, would be when I had won 50 victories, facing against one of the other two with more than 50 victories. Of course, that was if that two wanted, a lot improbable, as I may let it fall, that something like that would make me very mad. Even if it was impossible to face against each other in the Arena, they didn''t have this protection in the City. Of course I only do it to see the face of despair of the people and ridicule that two not daring to face me. It was funny walking around the City looking how the people opened space for me with terror in their faces. I felt myself as Moises with people being water, opening at my path. It didn''t pass a lot of time until I was bored about it. In my way for the 100 victories I had only one problem. A group of strong people, formed by 5 spirit douluos, decided that it was enough, the called themselves Sword Breakers, and decided killing me. They forced other people to participate in the Arena, I also thought of that option forcing people to participate, letting them choose a kick death or a painful one, but if there''s no need I prefer to not do it, I liked seeing how people faces gained despair, knowing that little by little they hour to die approached without stop, rather than "Hey, I''m gonna kill you", it''s a difference with manners. 1 day of unstopping fighting and 144 dead bodies later I obtained my 41 victory. The truth was that they didn''t ave any opportunity of victory. One of the most important facts about breaking throug the Sword Heart Domain was being able to use the World''s Will, this really lowered the consumption of mental and physic energy when using intent and domain, of course there weren''t anyone strong enough to make me try my Sword Heart, that would have really exhausted me. And even if I tired with any match, I could always incapacite all my rivals and using the time to rest, there''s the rule that it can''t pass 20 minutes without any death, with 9 people to kill, it was close to 3 hours of resting if I wanted, not that I needed. The funniest thing was that the called 5 Sword Breakers were so scared that decided not to sign for themselves, that after making known to everyone that wanted to listen, and some that we''re forced, of their plan. They really thought for a minute that I would let them live after that, they really underestimating me, what I am thinking of they were, and a complete idiots. After my 16 matches I hunted them down. It was incredible easy to find them, when everyone that face you spat all their information in fright of you, this is called respect! Thanks to different people I found them all together in a room. At least, they were enough intelligent for that room not being any of them. I used my not complete Sword Heart killing them instantly, the practice made the master. After that little problem, the next matches starting happening little by little, against people who was forced by Slaughter City rules, little by little winning my matches, most of them against weak people. It took me 5 months to win 99 matches, today being my last. With my 16 months spent, If I win this match I will be ranked the 13th fastest in the story of Slaughter City. Chapter 96 - Hell Slaughter Arena Champion I had stayed more than a year in the City, improving a lot. At first, I was a little influenced by the City with some episodes of madly killing, but little by little I started gaining control of it. The truth was that it never was my intention to hold back my actions, for whatever it would be, sinking me in the madness of this City, making its power my own. People like Tang San may fight against his pure instinct, winning over their own Killing Intent and not letting be controlled by it, but my way was to let my Killing Intent increase, instead of fighting to control it, I would make it mine, changing it to my own way. The same as Bai, I would accept him, devouring him, making me stronger. Today was my last match at the Hell Slaughter Arena, finishing my 100 matches I will be crowned as a Champion of the Arena and thanks to the deal with the Slaughter King, I would be free to leave and enter the City as I please. I entered the ring like all the other times. I could my rivals, the last unlucky ones who would die for my victory. They were all of them kind of weak the strongest being a spirit sage and for his body, he wasn''t even power-oriented. It was kind of a pity, I would have preferred a more epic battle to close my victories, like the one against Ripper or even a Hu Liena wouldn''t be so bad, of course, with how much I improved these months, they wouldn''t even my rivals. My opponents, all had vacant eyes, already accepting their fate, knowing that today they would die. It was easily seen that they had already given up, without an ounce of fighting spirit. It wasn''t my first match like that, as I keep winning more people stopped resisting. It arrived at a point that I needed to claim that all my kills would be clean and painless, preventing the people from suicide before even enter the arena, delaying my matches. I kept my words, killing them painless, this made people prefer to die under my sword rather than of their own, at least, they would be part of my legend. If not, I should have to force people to participate and not die, leaving them incapacitated and throwing them to the ring. My Intent was truly a cheat in this place. Starting the match, all my opponent threw away their weapon and knelt to me, presenting me their next open. I swift swing with a little of Killing Intent enough was enough to kill them all, all their head falling on the floor. "With this victory, we may great a new champion of the Hell Slaughter Arena, Slaughter Sword! Congratulations" said one young black-masked woman. The Slaughter King was also here, with a bored look watching the match. The Slaughter King stood up "Congratulations, Slaughter Sword" he said coldly "I announce you as a new champion of the Arena, giving you the title of Deathgod, permitting you to leave Slaughter City. However, I might ask you, do you want to open the Hell Road?" he said sending a death glance full of Killing Intent Suddenly, I felt different, my comprehension of Slaughter increased, easing the sensing of energy around me, I could sense a thin layer kept around me, I could also sense Killing and Death energy being attracted under my feet, they were forming a strange pattern, somewhat like a beast and at the same time a sword. At that moment I realized, If I wanted I could open the Hell Road on my own, there''s no need for the Slaughter King to open. Of course, Slaughter City was a place created by Asura God to find his inheritor a long time ago. How many years may the Slaughter King have? I don''t think that he had even more than 200 years, this place stood here much before he appeared, and it was possible to access at Asura''s test without his need. By completing 100 victories and obtaining enough Killing Intent, in that instant I could activate the Hell Road. I decided to not do it, before the look of the Slaughter King I didn''t dare, it may need some time to activate, even a moment was enough for him to kill me if he used all his might. I looked at his eyes "I will not open the Hell Road" the sensation of being able to open the Hell Road disappearing from me "I thank your Highness for this honor" I then left the ring and Arena, always followed by the Slaughter King''s eyes, deciding that tomorrow I would leave the city. Leaving the City wasn''t as easy as entering. In my time here, I discovered that there were multiple entrances at Slaughter City, there was even one that resembled a teleport. The problem was that these entrances weren''t exits if you tried to leave there was some barrier that blocked your way, trying to force out would result in your own blood escaping your body. As always, Slaughter City and its blood obsession. Having already made my decision known, the next day I was woken by a black-haired young woman, surprisingly she was Black. Without much of a talk, keeping her cold face she guided me outside the City''s wall. Then we walked to one extreme of the area that formed Slaughter City, there were two big stones. A little crack, imperceptible if not looking close, was between both stones, we walked through the crack arriving a little cave, it was formed by the typical red stone, with a red wooden door with an image of a three-headed bat at the bottom of the cave. Once inside, Black stayed still only saying "Wait". After some time, the Slaughter King entered followed by 20 some people. "Good that you are here" He snapped his fingers. Suddenly the 20 some people fell to the ground struggling, shouts of agony left their mouth. I concentrated, using my Skull Bone at maximum without activating Bullet Time, meaning that there wasn''t any trace of me using it. I could see particles around the people flowing madly around their body, shaking trying to leave outside. After 3 seconds, blood started pouring from all their orifices attracted by the red door. I could see that particles leaving their bodies with their blood to be swallowed by the door, for some reason the same red layer as yesterday when I won the 100 matches appeared around me and the attraction force seemed to not affect me at the slightness, I also noticed the same as me happened to Black, she also had a thin red layer surrounding her. Once all people died, the door started opening, pass the door only pure darkness could be seen. "You have your exit. As you helped me, I would let you leave the city one more time. After that, if you want to return it will be to stay" said the Slaughter King coldly before leaving, only leaving Black and me there. For an instant I seemed to see Black glancing angry at the Slaughter King''s back when he left, but it was so quickly that I wasn''t sure about. I walked to the door, before passing through I turned to Black with a strange look at my face. She kept her cool "I am waiting for your return" she said when I Passed through the door. Passing through was a strange sensation that gave me some headache and forced me to close my eyes. When I opened my eyes again I was in another place. I was surrounded by trees. If I must say, I would say that I was in Star Duo Forest, because of the big trees and vegetation around. I breathed profoundly, pure air entering from my nose "It''s pleasant to breath pure air, how much time since last time" "Crack!" sound was heart. I turned quickly to it, already with my sword at hand I swung it to the sound. The swing cut some brushes and what appeared to be a small squirrel, now a white ring floating over it. "hararar" "grr" "danfw" multiple noises of different beasts were being listened, they sounded afraid and the noises were becoming more distant, they were running away. I looked around me "Of course, inside the City, it may be not so noticeable but outside it, this uncontrolled Killing Intent is too much" Maybe I should find some method to hide it away, but on the other hand this much pressure would keep in check Bai to return in control, it may better to let it be. I expended close to 2 years in that City, my strength, no doubt had increase incredibly, the problem is about my spirit rank. As I entered the City, my spirit rank was 53, after this time I only gained 2 ranks, becoming rank 55. This is caused due to the low spirit energy in the City, normal considering that is a place known to block spirit skills. In that kind of place, unless you cultivate some bizarre cultivation method with blood and death, it will be impossible to greatly improve your rank. In my case, my sword art followed that path, but my spirits don''t so I can''t now change my cultivation. Now it was the time to focus on cultivation, thanks to my new comprehension and my new vision thanks to the skull bone, I don''t think that it would take much more than 8 months to arrive at rank 60. Chapter 97 - Outside the City 2 months passed since I left Slaughter City and the prevision of the 8 months I crossed it in my mind. In these 2 months, my spirit rank didn''t increase any rank, not only that I couldn''t sense notable increase, meaning that a wasn''t even getting closer, I was cultivation too slowly! The reason? The truth was that there was more than one. First, staying in the forest su?k?d. I need to waste a lot of time to find food, water, shelter... There''s also that my diet consisted mostly of plant and herb due to how difficult it was to hunt some beast when they always try running away from you, keeping at least 1-kilometer distance, all due to my Killing Intent. My Oreo cookies being the best food available. Second, I wasn''t really used to cultivate the spirit. It''s not like I didn''t have any knowledge, as before the 6 years I learned how to cultivate in the future. But I suspect, as people grow, they learn about their spirit, changing even unconscionably their cultivation, adapting to them, making it more efficient. With a spirit already cultivated, adapted to Bai, it was incredibly difficult for my cultivation, more difficult that cultivation from 0. It was like starting a game at the maximum difficulty in the middle of the story, it will be difficult to adapt. In this case, it was even more difficult, like if even the language was different. Third, I wasn''t really in the best state of mind to cultivate. Leaking Killing Intent, in constant alert, was the worst to enter the ideal trance state to cultivate. Lastly, the spirit leading the cultivation was Bai''s Sword, not my cookie. Bai concentrated in it to spirit cultivate, the Oreo and Fenrir followed the sword. There''s also the fact that I sensed that Fenrir won''t be able to create another ring, 5 being the maximum possible to it. Of course, it didn''t mean that the previous rings were unable to age, with his last evolution and answering at my own increase of comprehension, Fenrir was able to even eat souls and it was fed by all my kills, a lot of them of high ranking spirit masters. Now, Fenrir was 60.000 years old, with old its rings that age, greatly improving its effects. Fenrir won''t create another ring and it won''t be easy to find a ring compatible with the Oreo and Fenrir at the same time, as only being compatible with one will create a rejection from the other. With this problem my attainments in spirit cultivation were pitiful, it would be better for me to continue cultivating the spirit at Slaughter City, even with limited spirit power, my cultivation speed was greater because of the familiarity. Another option would be forcing the change of my cultivation, making it mine. Even if it could permit me to cultivate, I would need some time to change it, at least a year. This would also have negative effects on my further cultivation unless I decided to cultivate from 0, not a chance! This option was simple crossed, I wanted to become the strongest. For this I need my strong foundation, this method would weaken it. And knowing the canonical story, I didn''t really have a lot of time before the appearance of gods, even if I could stop Renxue, I wasn''t sure of being able so it is best to be prepared. This left me with my last resort, I didn''t really want to use it, but thinking logically, it was the easiest, the quickest and the safest to gain spirit ranks. This option was asking for help from Bai. He was the most familiar with the body and was the one who cultivated spirit energy all these years. Resigning myself, I invoked the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sword on my right side. It continued without the nine color lights, seeming like turned off, clouded by a black fog. I leaned my head on the sword with my eyes closed, making contact with my forehead. Then I concentrated my mind power in it, entering its mind space. Opening my eyes finding in my mind realm, of course, it was only a part of it. The mind realm of this body is very vast, it was divided into two spaces, each for one spirit, and then further divided the sword one for each personality. Each mind division more extensive than a normal spirit master of our rank. This was the main reason, for Bai to be able to absorb more aged rings. I found myself in a space surrounded by a black fog, this was simply a condensation of my Slaughter Intent, I used it to keep Bai away of interfering. I invoked my Black Sword at my left hand and lifted it. The fog started being attracted to the sword and my sword started absorbing it, it didn''t pass a lot of time before the fog almost disappeared. The world around me now illuminated with the 9 colored lights of the Nine Treasure Sword. At the center of this world, stood Bai, I let some fog around him trying to immobilize him, but for what it seemed there wasn''t much meaning as Bai was surrounded by a white aura preventing the fog to touch him. I dispersed the last fog and waved my hand "Long time not seeing you, Bai" He looked at me with an angry look, he had his sword on his right hand. He stepped forward and charged to me with his sword at hand shouting "Bastard!" he swung his sword at me. Seeing the sword coming, I simply ignored and let it cut me. Bai''s sword slashed through me cutting me in half. After a second both of my parts connected again returning to normal. I shook my head "You continue being an idiot, Bai. We''re only mind-bodies, these attacks are useless". "You! Bastard, return my body!" He shouted. "It''s also the mine, you only had the usufruct for some time, now it''s my turn. Can you calm yourself? I want to talk, it''s the only reason I let you free" I said He clenched his teeth but knowing it was useless fighting he decided to listen "What do you want?" he spatted. "I want your help, I want you to spirit cultivated, due to you being the principal personality and who started, it is very difficult for me to cultivate" I explained. "So the great Paul needs the help of me now?" he said sarcastically "In your dreams!" "Be reasonable. It''s for the best of our strength. I''ll let you free, of course, keeping you out of control, similar to I was after the attack of Shi Nian. You have experimented with how is to be caged, you will be able to see the outside world." I reasoned. "I will say the same as you, if you want the best for the body, give me the control!" he shouted "Or are you too scared to not being able to have the control again, losing over me?" "Haha" I laughed "Really? The little naive Bai is teasing me trying to trick me to accept that, how cute" I teased him "I really won''t mind, but it''s not the time, I''ll need to be in control to obtained the greatest strength, you won''t be able, even with my help" He clenched his hand "My answer is still no, you will stuck in your rank until you return me the control!" "Really? You didn''t really think the things that I could do, no? Maybe I will go to your friend, family, and little girlfriend. I don''t think it would be to difficult to kill them all, it won''t be too difficult to appear as you lowering their defenses" I threaten him. Of course, I wouldn''t touch my family. I never had one in my last life. Remembering the 6 first years of this life I wanted to consider them as my own, never wanting them to be harmed. However, Bai didn''t need to know it. For his friend, yeah, I really didn''t mind killing them. "Bastard!" he was really mad, white light started gathering at his sword, an incredible amount "I will free me myself!" He swung his sword to me shooting a powerful white light ray "Even now you''re taking advantage of my comprehension. Nevertheless, congratulations for half-stepping in the Sword Heart Realm. Let me show you, I really one" A huge amount of black aura concentrated in my sword, forming a giant black pillar of black light, I swung my sword, my black aura easily swallowing Bai''s white. His attack couldn''t be compared with mine, mine was a controlled concentration while he was scattering. If necessary, I could even maintain my sword''s state. The despair look of Bai''s was priceless "What''s your decision?" I asked while the result of my attack was little by little filling the area with black fog again. He clenched his hand and teeth and seemed to start growling, thinking that he couldn''t do anything. Suddenly he calmed. I looked at his eyes, even with resentment in them, they were a lot calmer. "I accept. Let me free, even without controlling the body I would cultivate. In exchange, don''t dare to touch any of my loved ones" "Good for me. Glad that you started to cooperate, this is for the good of our body" I said. I grinned in my mind, knowing that Bai couldn''t accept that, he must have thought something to recuperate the control. Anyway, with being free he would have more opportunities, I didn''t really mind-destroying his hopes. I absorbed all the black fog, leaving the mind space completely free of it, the nine colors returning shining brightly. I then left the mind space leaving Bai there. Once Bai was alone "I will return, it''s just a matter of time, with that I''m sure that I could take back the control" I opened my eyes finding me outside. Now I only needed to wait. Chapter 98 - Here we go again My calculation wasn''t so off, once Bai was free and able to cultivate our spirit energy, I spent 8 months finally, attaining rank 60. I used this time, especially making me more familiar with spirit energy, learning from Bai, even if he didn''t want to. In this time, I learned to use spirit energy more effectively, wasting less and powering my attack thanks to it. It wasn''t very important as my fighting style relied on in my sword arts, as my spirit was only supported. Even now, I couldn''t use Bai''s sword, I''d need to wait until I can devour himself, being the only true personality in the body. As I already completed my objective of rank 60 I decided to return to Slaughter City finishing my matters there. With my position, I decided to enter the nearest entrance. This one was situated at the graveyard of a little town. For it to enter, it was necessary a thick Killing Intent, it would be impossible to enter at first, but now it wasn''t a problem at all. Once I arrived at the graveyard Bai said (What are you doing here? As we are now rank 60, you should search for a spirit beast, you will waste time if not) [Oh? True, I didn''t explain to you, Bai. And you really don''t know what is this] I told I was approaching a statue of a death angel with a scythe. I let my Slaughter Intent free, as being formed by Killing Intent, it was completely valid. The statue trembled and starting moving back, showing that down it there was a stair leading down. I grinned [This is another entrance to Slaughter City. I will return] I said entering the entrance. (What? This wasn''t part of the deal!) He said surprised (Return!) he ordered (Or I won''t help you again!) [I don''t need anything more for you, you whatever you want, or better said whatever you can] I said descending the stairs. (Bastard!) Bai started cursing me, but as I was descending his voice grew weaker, being suppressed by Slaughter City domain. Even if he had grown in strength, that didn''t change the fact that he didn''t even kill someone, being extremely weak against Killing Intent, letting himself be suppressed by Slaughter City. Once the stairs finished I could see the familiar wall of Slaughter City "Welcome again, Slaughter Sword" I listened, I quickly turned to the voice to find Black. "You have taken more time than what I expect, I''m glad for your return" she said. "What are you doing here, Black?" I asked looking at her warily. "I had my eyes on you" she turned around "I expect you to not cause PROBLEMS" she maid emphasizing in the problems word, and left towards the city. "This woman is mad" I said shaking my head, before returning to the city. As I was now a champion of the Hell Slaughter Arena, I was considered as a guest of the Slaughter King. I house at the Inner City was prepared as my residence, with some brown-masked men as my slaves. I simply ignored them letting them maintain the house. As 10 months passed I started to recollect information about what had happened this time. Slaughter City wasn''t really a place that changed a lot and even when I was there and people were afraid of me, it was considered normal, the strong are always awe and feared. The only remarkable change, and the interesting for me, was Tang San. Asking people ''politely'' with only a few broken bones I learned about him. Of course, he didn''t use his real name, instead, he was one of the people who used their ID number. He had spent 8 months here, with a total of 53 victories at the Hell Slaughter Arena he already received his nickname as Asura King. I had the luck that today he had a match and I decided to watch it. As a guest, I couldn''t participate in any match but watching wasn''t any problem, with the exception of a 100 winning match, in that cases, it was prohibited by the Slaughter King under death penalty. Watching the match, Tang San easily won over. I must say that his movements, technique, and awareness were impressive, better than mine. It may have helped to have a near 30 years old past memories in a world where combat was normal and he had somewhat of an ?ssassin training. Of course, in a fight, I could easily overpower him, even if her powerful hidden weapons were kind of a cheat. After a week of recollecting information, I created my plan. I learned that I couldn''t open the Hell Road, it may be a temporal right, completing the 100 victories in the Arena, now it was impossible so I should need the follow the first plan. I''d need to wait until Tang San complete them, enter the Arena stealthy and enter the Hell Road with him, I''d need to be very precise, as if the time is wrong, I would give time to the Slaughter King to kill me. For what it seemed Tang San had already got completely used to the City, only having some difficulties if he fought multiples spirits douluos. If I remember correctly and the story didn''t change, he would need 16 more months to finish his 100 matches, the double he spent in the first half of the matches, this first half more difficult as he had to get used. This was due that his rivals were already wary of him, so it would take a lot of time to fill matches when he decided to participate. 16 months were too much, so I decide to make it quicker. As I couldn''t go directly to the Slaughter King and ask for the same as me to Tang San, this time I didn''t have another option except forcing participants to enter the Arena to fight when I knew that Tang San was going to participate, making he spent a lot less time. 6 months passed, I just spent them training and having some fun. For the training, I complete my Sword Heart, now without any flaw stabilizing the realm completely, with the Slaughter Intent, the combination of Killing and Death. I continued practicing trying to get even a glimpse of the All Sword Realm, without any gain. Somehow I sensed that this wasn''t the correct place if I wanted to attain the All Sword Realm, but at least my strength was increasing little by little. Tang San continued participating in the Arena and is now 91 victories, making the 100 very near. A strange thing, is that I was seeing Black more, she really was a woman of few words, but I could convince her to have a drink one time. For some reason, she decided to take it to her house, which was a lot grander than mine. The strange thing was that there wasn''t anyone in there, she prepared the drinks, while I was futilely trying to create a conversation. There weren''t any brown-masked slaves in her house, unlike mine that I had 2 always in there. After drinking, she quickly got me out of her house. I really didn''t know what she was thinking. Today I was walking around the town, trying to find something to expend my time, listening to the usual sounds of depravity of Slaughter City when I heard someone shouting "Baiiiiiiiii!" I quickly turned to the voice, finding an extremely beautiful girl, she seemed to be 18 years old, with long straight brown hair that arrived at her h?ps, with a rosy face with brown eyes and very long legs. Her facial features were soft, with gleaming eyes and a neat outfit, she really stood up in Slaughter City, not seeming to fir in. It had passed almost 3 years, but I recognized her, it was Bai''s girlfriend, the ant beast, Mayi. She ran towards me with a smile in her face, even with some tears falling from her eyes "Baiiiii" She jumped to me with the arms open, trying to hug me. When she was 2 meters from me her expression changed to a warily one, she stopped her charge stomping at the ground, it was so strong that even cracked the ground, she then jumped back creating distance between us. "You''re not Bai!" she shouted angrily. "Oh? It''s not the little ant, to even stalked me here, you''re really a yandere. Mayi, no?" I said making her even angrier. "Shut up! Give up the control! Return Bai!" She shouted. "You really know a lot, a little glimpse to me and you already know our condition, eh?" I said surprised. "Of course, Bai and I are one" She said puffing her ?h?st. "You think to forget about me, I think that I''m also part of this one" I said grinning. "You''re only a little part of him, you shouldn''t be in control. Return Bai, if not...?" "If not, what?" I asked teasing her. "I will force you" the air around her changed completely, I always saw her as a little stupid, cute girl following Bai like a dog while shaking her tail. I would have said that a dog spirit will be best for her, or at least, one that had a tail to show her happiness. Now that image was completely crushed, the air around her gained pressure and a thick Killing Intent only gained after countless killing. The girl that didn''t seem to fit in Slaughter City, now seemed to perfect for this place, becoming a Deathgod of it. I smile escape my lips. I was attracted to that girl, her incredible aura much like mind, our spirit completely compatible, it even made me think if this was love. Of course, that thought quickly disappeared when a brown armor appeared, all around her body and she jumped to me with her punch at front. I invoked my Black Sword on my left hand, black aura surging from it. I left stepped to not receive all the blunt strength of the hit. I blocked it with my sword deflecting her attack, causing her to be launched and crashing to a near dormitory. The dormitory walls were created by an ancient method and were extremely resilient, almost impossible to destroy without the use of a very powerful spirit skill, but they couldn''t even resist one punch of Mayi who destroyed one wall entering the building. I smiled "This will be funny. Come!" Chapter 98 - Naive Ant My heart started beating madly, I was really excited. I calmed a little and looked around, seeing the commotion created. If this continued, the City wouldn''t last and we would be stopped by the Slaughter King, so I decided to move the fight outside the walls. Mayi charged at me. I made a guard stance. She punched me with her right hand, I blocked it with my sword always surrounded by Intent, while jumping backward weakening the strength and at the same time being pushed away. Mayi continued chasing me, while I was letting me be pushed, leading her outside. After some broken streets, minor damage and an unlucky passerby that was hit by Mayi making his body a bloody mess, I finally arrived at outside the City''s walls. Once outside I was facing Mayi who was 20 meters away. She coldly looked at me "Are you happy now that you guided me here?" "So you knew it. I think that you''re too good for Bai" I teased her. Mayi really was a cheat in this City. As her use of spirit energy in internal, without any spirit skill, she wasn''t affected by the domain of Slaughter City, being able to use the full force of her spirit. I suppose that we could be considered to be in a draw. Both of us were rank 60, she could use her spirit as usual, and I while I couldn''t use my spirit, my intent and domain was increased fighting here. Black aura surged from me surrounding both of us . This domain, increased my speed, reaction and made my Intent more powerful. It also affected the opponents, making them slower and in the case that they couldn''t endure it mentally, they will unable to move. Mayi dashed to me, for what it seemed she really wasn''t affected by the domain at all, if she was like Bai, she would be unable to move around. Arriving at me, she punched toward my face with her right hand, I leaned my body to the left side. She leaned her body forward, putting strength in her right leg, she lifted her left leg and flipped her body kicking me with her left leg. I little unbalanced due to evading her punch I couldn''t evade it, so I lifted my sword with both hands blocking her kick. Blocking her kick, I could feel Mayi''s strength, the ground under my feet cracking. Focusing intent and putting strength in my arm I swung my sword. Mayi was pushed away, but she gracefully landed on the ground. I lifted my sword with both hands "" multiples black spheres were formed around my sword, I swung the sword making a guard stance causing the black spheres to slowly move to Mayi. Mayi jumped to me completely ignoring them "These tricks won''t do". The black spheres in contact with May weren''t able to affect her, unable to cross her armor. Mayi started hitting me, changing between kicks and punches, always deciding the best at any interchange of blows. After a barrage of hits, each of us hitting, blocking or evading, I couldn''t find any opening, she had a really good battle sense and she adapted at every situation quickly. Her armor also was very strong, I wasn''t able to damage it without a direct hit, while she could strengthen temporary one part of it, having the capability of taking a hit while she attacked me, being very difficult for me to try to attack her. I could always try to use my Sword Heart, but there were two big problems to do it. First, she wouldn''t let me time to prepare it, even if I only needed 1 second, it was enough time for her to counter-attack. Second, my Sword Heart is Slaughter, its only power killing the enemy, or I kill her or I fail and I didn''t really want to kill her. Why don''t kill her? There were some reasons. First, Bai liked her, considering family. I was blocking Bai to come outside, but after freeing him, he gained enough strength to keep my intent away from him, so he could sense what happened outside. Killing Mayi would create some reaction in him, he could fade away, being engulfed by my intent or could break through it, increasing a lot his strength, even forcing the control to him. I also didn''t really want to kill her, having a spirit fusion it''s always good. And my main reason was that she was a 100.000 years old spirit beast, killing one would make a 100.000 years old ring to appear, plus a 100.000 spirit bone. I doubt that the Slaughter King didn''t sense it, not doubting for a moment, he killing me to obtain the spirit bone at least. Not only it would be a waste for her, but it may also cost my life, not worth! Comparing her state and mine, I could already see that she had more stamina, quirks of having a beast spirit, and maybe being a spirit beast also helps. A long battle would finish tiring me out. I decided to finish it quickly. Mayi was launching a left punch at me. I lifted my right hand, I would block her attack even at the cost of my right arm, then I would counter-attack focusing all my Intent in my sword. Just as her punch was to break my hand, she hurriedly stopped her hit, making very easy for me to thrust my sword to her. The sword pierced her armor for the first time, Intent entering her body. It won''t kill her but surely will weaken her. She was pushed 10 meters away but could recuperate in air landing safely. I shook my head "So it''s that" I sighed "It seems it''s my win" She jumped to me. Seeing her approaching, I opened my arms, leaving myself completely open to her attack. Seeing me not trying to defend, she made a shocked face and couldn''t hide her worry. She tried to stop so forced that she broke her posture, creating multiple openings for me to attack. Approaching me, now more like a ball than an attack. I put all my strength in my right foot and kicked her on her ?h?st, the same place where my sword pierced early. My kick imbued in intent, broke Mayi armor completely, forming cracks everywhere and some pieces so even fell. She was shot away, crashing multiple times to the ground while vomiting blood. "To not even dare to damage me. I was wrong, Bai and you are the same, a pair of naive little children. What a pity" I walked to her. She was laying on the ground her face facing up, unable to move. I took from my storage a Red Velvet Oreo, I put in my mouth and chew it. Then, I leaned toward Mayi, I lifted her chin and kissed her. I invaded her mouth with my tongue and I pushed the chewed Oreo to her, after some fighting with her tongue I could finally win over her, making her swallowing, causing her to cough. I broke free the kiss, she was crying, with a look with a mix of sadness and shock with vacant eyes. Licked my lips " With this opportunity that I gave you, try to survive" I said before leaving Mayi there alone crying. It would take some time for her to completely heal as she was affected by my Intent. I would ignore her while she didn''t act, if I was lucky, maybe Tang San finish the matches before she recuperated. One month passed, finally, Tang San had won 99 matches and today would be his 100. For Mayi, she seemed to have some shock, I saw her wandering around with a vacant look, completely ignoring me. But later, she participated in the Hell Slaughter Arena with a more powerful glace showing resolution, luckily she didn''t face Tang San, luckily for Tang San, in a 1vs1 in Slaughter City I would root for Mayi. Today, the Hell Road would be opened, but I had other plans that needed to be made at the same time of the match, I could only pray that Tang San match last and I had enough time. I wanted to enter the Slaughter King''s castle. However, there was a problem, it was considered a prohibited area except when you''re being invited by him. There was also the problem that the Slaughter King was always in there, I didn''t have the certainty to enter and leave the castle under the Slaughter King eyes. So I needed the Slaughter King to go out, being Tang San''s 100 matches a date that I was sure he would be out. I went to the castle, carefully to not being watched by anyone. Once in its surrounding, I invoked the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sword on my right hand, even now it was clouded by my Slaughter Intent, blocking Bai to act, but it had a little shine in it. Even now, I couldn''t use its spirit abilities, but this sword would permit me to do a special technique, Stealth Treasure. Stealth Treasure was a family technique of the Seven Pagoda Clan, it usually used to hide your cultivation, being impossible for others to detect. This was made concentrating your spirit in your spirit, encasing it there, and the Pagoda, or the sword, in that case, would block it. It was as simple as using the spirit as a container, the spirit being impossible to detect. However, spirit power wasn''t the only thing that could be stored in the sword, I could also store my intent, this in combination with the spirit power would make me almost undetectable, at least for large searching, if someone directly saw me would be all for naught. I concentrated all my power, intent in the sword making my presence difficult to detect. Then I entered the castle through a window, just at the same time the Slaughter King left the castle towards the Hell Slaughter Arena. Once inside I lifted my left hand, concentrating at it, I could sense a pull in some direction. I followed that direction. Just as I turned a corner, a black-masked man was there standing. Our eyes met "In-INT..." before he could even finish I already invoked my sword and threw at him, coated in Death intent, that was silent, cold and lethal, it easily pierced his neck, silencing him forever. Looking and listened around, it seemed that nobody discovered me. I continued my way. I invoked my sword with Death Intent and cut the bookshelf in two, showing an entrance behind. I entered and walked until I was stopped by a stone door with an image of a three-headed golden bat. Touching it I could sense that it was really strong. "I can only pray, that the Slaughter King doesn''t come. " I powerful black aura surrounded my sword, creating the image of my sword tripling its size. This was something that I created thanks to my comprehension of the Sword Heart. The Sword Heart use the world''s will similar at your own to attack, shooting it all in one attack, One Point Domain technique was a combination of domain and intent, focusing my domain at my sword I could increase my attack power a lot without much waste of power, as I could absorb it after using it. I slashed the door cutting it in pieces that fall apart. Entering I looked around finding a glittering room, full of gold and different treasures, this was the Slaughter King''s treasure room. I continued following the pull, finally arriving at a corner, there stood what I was searching, the broken half of my sword. With a simple touch by my sword, it became liquid and was absorbed by my sword. I looked around the room "Being in the Slaughter King''s treasure room already branded me as a criminal to him, so as I am here" I grinned putting all the treasures at my storage. There would be time later to see what I found. As I left the room, my sensed shouted me of danger. I quickly jumped back "xinx!" a big weapon slashed my previous position, cutting the floor down. "I always knew that you will break the rules, Blanch" Besides me, wearing black clothes stood Black, a 2-meter long red scythe in her hands, and her 7 spirits ring hovering around her scythe. Chapter 99 - Sword vs Scythe There stood Black, looking down to me "You will die now, Blanch" a powerful red aura emanated from her scythe and slashed at me, creating a wind blade that cut the air I invoked my sword, directly coating in Slaughter Intent, I cut downward, slicing the wind blade in two, both halves continued marking the wall. [Fuck! If we fight here, more people will detect. If the Slaughter King or some spirit douluo capable of using spirit skill came, I''m finished. I''ll need to try not to fight] I thought. "Black. There''s no need to kill me. I know that you work for the Slaughter King, however, you hate him" I said putting my hopes in that angry glance that they when I left the City. "Oh? You know about that. You''re sharp, Blanch. I always wanted to kill the Slaughter King" she confessed. I was a little surprised by her honesty but I hide my surprise "I can help you. In the future I would be able to kill him easily, you only need to let me leave now and I can promise that I would kill him" I tried to convince her. She snorted "Blanch, do you know about the brown-masked?" "The slaves?" I answered confused. "Yeah. Did you never ask where they came from? In this depraved city, how could someone enter and choose to be a slave? No, of course, no, why worry about them?" She said shaking her head. "They were the children born in the city, once growth they are slaved by the Slaughter King, the only way to take away the mask is to participate in the Hell Slaughter Arena, no different than a suicide for a person born in this city lacking spirit power" "Where do you wanna go?" I asked a little impatient. "I was a brown-masked. I took away my mask and became the champion of the Arena. We aren''t cared for by anyone, this problem I will solve it myself. I will kill the Slaughter King myself and destroy this putrid city!" she shouted dashing to me slashing with her scythe. I blocked with my sword "If you want to kill the Slaughter King, what do you win killing me?" She smiled "All!" two yellow rings started shining, her strength suddenly increased pushing me crashing to a wall "How can someone cultivate in this place?" She extended her arm "I had a revelation, a voice in my head that created a path for me. If there''s no spirit energy in the air, I''ll only need to take it off from inside the bodies of others. I always waited for you to give me the excuse to kill you breaking the rules. To cultivate, I devoured souls. I am a dark soul cultivator" She swung her scythe creating a cross that sliced the air to me. I cut the air blade, the aftermath cutting the wall behind me opening a hole to the outside "However, there''s a problem with my cultivation. It grew extremely quick at first, but little by little was stalling. My surprise when I detected a strong death aura when I was walking. I followed it meeting you. In that instant I know it, you will be the key to breakthrough. I will cultivate your soul attaining the spirit douluo realm and the titled douluo, then, I will kill the Slaughter King" I grinned "I don''t drink your bullshit. How could someone cultivate in this place? Even if you could cultivate souls, there are no spirit beasts to take spirit rings" "Of course, there are. They appear every time I need them and sacrifice for me. The golden bats" All her rings started shining, except a black one. "1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th spirit skill: Blood Boost" A powerful red aura started surrounding her scythe increasing her aura and power to a new weight. Over the scythe appeared a black shadow of a demon, the scythe started transforming, its edges were enlarged and its black color changed to a purple one, the red aura also following and turning purple. She swung around her scythe while twisting her body seeming to dance along with it "crack!" cuts were created all around, slicing the room, not only the room, the entire castle was sliced, the upper floors falling in pieces, creating now a bigger room where it could be seen Slaughter City''s sky. She glanced at me and lifted her scythe and she prepared to charge to me. In an instant she appeared beside me, it was so much quicker compared to before, I couldn''t try to evade, I b?r?ly could block it lifting my sword, more of an instinct that a conscious act. Even blocked the blow was so strong that I was shot like a ball, I continue falling even leaving the castle area and arriving outside the walls. I could see the ground approaching me at a scary speed. Just before crashing "" I swung my sword to the ground, the power behind stopping my fall enough for me to recuperate, with some flips landing with both feet. I turned to the castle seeing Black standing there. She jumped "Boom!" she landed 50 meters away from me, creating a crater with a dust cloud. She swung her scythe completely dispersing the dust. "Impudent! How you dare to destroy his Highness castle!?" Two black-masked men came toward us and shouted. Black deathly glanced at them making them flinch "Apologize us countess Black, we didn''t know th-" they tried to say but Black already swung her scythe slicing the head of both men. "You''re the impudent" She then turned to me "You are not strong enough, but I respect your strength and potential" She said while starting floating "I will kill you painless" Her last ring started shining. The purple aura around her scythe increased, it started madly moving, cries of lament could be heard from it "" her scythe became giant and swung it to me. I closed eyes and lifted my sword sensing my surroundings, black energy from the surroundings being absorbed by my sword. "" black aura shot around my sword. I opened my eyes stepping forward "EX-" a pillar of black light surged from my sword "-CALIBUR! Morgan!" I swung my sword to Black, and incredible powerful black ray of pure Slaughter energy shot to Black. Both attacks clashed, the mere energy of its clash destroying all the surrounding areas. I clenched my teeth, being pushed by Black''s attack digging me on the ground creating a crater. I put all my strength, all my soul, in my sword trying to push forward, however little by little a was being pushed. Black attack was pushing mine, coming nearer mine. "Crack" was listened and I could see a crack forming in my Black Sword [It seems that it too much for it to endure, fu?k!] I ignored it, continuing pushing. Black was pushing me, nearing her victory. Black''s technique was boosting her abilities using the souls of the people that she devoured, gaining an incredible boost for a short time. So strong that her scythe was overcharged, a little crack appeared at the blade, it wasn''t relevant, even if it broke she could repair later on with more souls, however, she noticed a pull from her scythe, the crack repairing at the expense of her own souls. Black attack suddenly tripled its size, my attack couldn''t endure it at all, Black''s scythe cutting through it and dissipated it. She could finish her swing, but her attack was so strong that she couldn''t even control it. Her scythe cut forward "BOOOOOOM!" a trail of a cutting an area 5 kilometers long, followed by a loud explosion. The cut failed to hit me, cutting 20 meters away from me. I was shot around, crashing multiples times with the ground, dragged by the aftermath of Black''s attack, being dragged like rubbish, unable to even stop tired after using my strongest attack. I finally stopped smashing the ground, my body wounded all around. I dug my sword to the ground, helping me to stand up. In this condition, even if I could move around it won''t be enough to continue fighting. I turned to Black, waiting for the final attack. She was still hovering, she had a despairing face, tears falling her face. She looked at the distant with vacant eyes that turned full of anger "You used me! You told me I will be the strongest!" she shouted. Then her face distorted in sadness and with a low voice said "I was only your weapon". Cracks started forming all over Black''s body until "crack" Black body broke in pieces, no much different than a mirror breaking, these pieces were absorbed to her scythe that now without a wielder fell to the ground. "WTF!" I involuntarily shouted. I approached the purple scythe, looking at it, I murmured "Maybe her body couldn''t resist the power and broke apart. But for a Tool Weapon to be formed. It''s strange" Tool Weapons were crystallization of tool spirits, in cases when a spirit master with a tool spirit died, his spirit could remain. This only happened in extremely powerhouses, never recorded of someone less than a super douluo. This Too Weapons are very strong, but they are extremely difficult to use, as there''s no master for it, rejecting any holder. Of course, they lost their spirit rings, being unable to use spirit skills. Becoming somewhat a trash weapon, not useful enough for the people that could really use it. Chapter 100 - Hell Road Entrance {AN: As a gift for the 100 chapter, breaking through the Short-novels becoming a novel, I will post this chapter today. It''s short but the next one is 2800 words long. Read the author not at the final please} In the Hell Slaughter Arena, Tang San was fighting his 100 matches, winning meaning becoming a champion, obtaining the possibility to open the Hell Road. Being a 100 match victory the Arena audience was full, everyone wanted to see the opening of the Hell Road, not being seen by anyone. The Slaughter King was sat on a throne in the Arena while he observed the match with a bored expression "It seems that Asura King will win" he said with a cold voice while he saw Tang San killing two opponents shooting with them in the face with some kind of needle shot from a hidden weapon. "Baaaam!" A sound of destruction was heard. The sound was distant but thanks to his powerful sensed the Slaughter King listened to it. The Slaughter King turned to the sound and realized that it was from his own castle. He snapped his fingers and two black-masked men appeared at his side "Investigate what happened. Kill the responsible" ordered, the two men nodded disappearing to the castle direction. The match continued as normal, its participant without having heard the sound. Tang San had killed another 3. "BOOOOM!" Just as Tang San killed 1 more opponent, a great explosion was heard, this time the sound was so loud that all the people at the Arena could hear. The people turned to the explosion direction, that it happened to be outside. Tang San took advantage of the opponents'' carelessness, looking to the explosion, and killed two more. "Black" The Slaughter King realized who was fighting but he didn''t discover against who. If he didn''t need to wait for the match to finish and open the Hell Road, he would have run to it and kill whoever it was. However, he needed to stay for him to open Hell Road. When opening himself, he created a method to use the blood of people as a catalyst to affect the poison inside the champion''s body, this would create a powerful bloodlust, making them crazy, a mad state which they would die with inside the Hell Road. Not opening himself, would make known that there''s no need for his presence, this wouldn''t be too important as he wouldn''t leave witnesses anyway. The problem would be that it would cause to greatly increase the probability of the Asura King surpassing the trial. So he decided to keep calm until the match finish. Once opening the Hell Road, he would take care of the other problem. With only one enemy, Tang San didn''t wait to kill him, he used his Clear Sky Hammer slamming the head of the opponent, the head exploding. "Congratulations, Asura King" the Slaughter stood from his place, is now seen for the audience that showed awe towards him who started shouting "Slaughter King!" even when their voice became hoarse. Slaughter King lifted his hand making the audience quiet "One hundred victories, very good. Your talent is great. In honor of your achievement, I would break the rules here giving you the title of Deathgod, you could leave and enter Slaughter City, without the need to cross the Hell Road". This declaration created even more furor from the degenerates at the audience. Tang San became thoughtful. Then looked directly at the Slaughter King''s eyes with eyes without any doubt "There''s no need, your highness. Breaking the rules just for my sake. My objective coming here was walking Hell Road. I appreciate your intentions, however, I wish to walk the Hell Road. Please, open the Hell Road" The Slaughter King made a pissed face, but it was only for an instant quickly replaced by his cold one "The Hell Road is a very dangerous place. I wish you luck. If you can pass the Hell Road, say thanks to your elder" He snapped his finger, a red aura surged from his body and expanded to all the Arena. The audience of degenerates started struggling, they became even madder, scratching their own skin with their nails. Finally, blood started surging from each of their pores, killing them in the process. All the blood was attracted by the ring and started forming an image of a three-headed bad under Tang San feet. Tang San was unaffected by that aura, with a shocked face looking at his surrounding deaths. "It''s their honor to die opening the Hell Road" said the Slaughter King. The image under Tang San feet started shining, a red light lighting its surroundings, little by little becoming brighter. At that moment, a figure from the audience jumped to the ring. He was a black-haired boy, his body was full of cuts and wounds, there was blood around him, but his injuries weren''t life-threatening. He was holding a strange sword seemingly made by crystal colored with 9 dark colors. The curious was that without watching him, the boy didn''t seem to be there, his aura and presence no-existing, he didn''t even make any sound. He landed at the ring and charged to the blood three-headed bad symbol. The Slaughter King''s face contorted, he became really furious "Slaughter Sword. How you dare?!" he shouted. The boy, was the Slaughter Sword, Paul Blanch. He jumped to the shining red symbol, he twisted his body turning to look at the angry Slaughter King. He grinned and lifted his right-hand middle finger. The light became blinding strong and made a great flash. After the flash, the red light disappeared and with it Tang San and Paul. Red Aura surged from the Slaughter King "I''ll Kill You!" A red flash forced me to close my eyes. Then I sensed like I was floating, an aura inside me started struggling and a red layer of intent manifested around me, this wasn''t my Slaughter Intent, it was a simpler Killing. That seemed to protect me from the surroundings. But even with this, I sensed a big pressure from the surroundings. "Like Hell this will affect me!" black aura surged from my body, this aura engulfed the thin red layer and even was absorbing energy from its surroundings, this black aura being Slaughter Intent. Finally, I sensed my feet touching the ground. Opening my eyes I found myself in what it seemed a cave, all the rocks were red, of course. I was on a high platform, the only exit was a narrow road of 30 centimeters wide, for some reason was floating there, without any support. Looking under it, there was a big abyss, at the bottom of it, blood. An uncountable amount of blood that seemed to surge like a river all along, a powerful Killing Intent coming from it. Then, I turned to Tang San who was laying with his eyes closed near me on the platform. I could see him surrounded by a thin red layer and even more protected by thick blue energy, this energy was the opposite of Killing, it was Life, strong life energy around him. "This is the way for you to fight? Fighting it with opposite energy, trying to take control" I shook my head. Tang San''s eyes finally opened, he looked around stopping at my gaze. He made a shocked face, pointed me with his finger "B-Blanch!" "Hello, Asura god. Or I should say Tan Sang" Me knowing him even with his body and face changes shocked him even more "Long time no see" I opened my arms "Welcome to the Hell Road" Chapter 101 - Hell Road "What are you doing here, Blanch?" San asked me with suspicion. "I''m also an Arena champion, I simply took advantage of you opening the Hell Road and came along with you" I answered. "Why?" "Let''s say that not all people have the luck to be backed by a Deathgod" I explained. San made a thoughtful face and then seemed to realize what I was talking about. He looked at me "Why are you injured?" "It''s nothing important, but not everyone has easy opponents like you to fight" I teased him. "As we are both here, we can travel together this Hell Road, it would be a pity for you to die here" I said smiling. "Do you really think that I would let you? You almost killed me!" He accused. "Yeah, and that ''almost'' is the most important. If I wanted I could have easily killed you, but I didn''t. Don''t worry I don''t plan to kill you, at least now" I grinned "Let''s gain both the Deathgod Domain. He watched warily at me before nodding "Don''t try anything strange" I smiled "The same for you" I then signaled the narrow road "This is the only way to go. Of course, unless you decided to jump to the abyss, I don''t really recommend" San looked around confirming that what I said was true. San invoked his Blue Silver Grass Emperor, a blue with golden veins vine grabbed around my hip, bounding San and me together "With this our survival will increase" "Or one will drag the other to his death," I said smiling. I starting walking to the narrow road "Let''s go" We walked following the narrow road, even if it was narrow it wouldn''t pose any problem for us to even fight here as our equilibrium long surpassed what a normal human is capable. Tang San always followed behind me, with a warily look not looking away from me. After walking for some time, the blood abyss under us seemed nearer, this road had a small, almost imperceptible, inclination, this caused to descend little by little. As we were approaching the blood I could feel the Killing Intent becoming richer. In this place I wouldn''t have lost the clash against Black, not that I could complain, I resisted thanks to be in Slaughter City, if we were outside, even with the use of Oreos, maybe, it wouldn''t be enough to surpass the increase in the Heart Sword caused by Slaughter City. The Hell Road is explained to have 3 tests, each one more difficult of the previous one. After walking some time, I finally saw the start of the first test. A Golden Bat appeared beside us, following it, appeared a countless amount of Golden Bats. I turned to San "I will let you the ranged attacks, I won''t attack this trash unless they came near" San shot a needle from his sleeve, however, it was evaded by the Golden Bats. Bats have one of the best sensory systems thanks to their radar, the Golden Bats are no different, it would be difficult to hit them with weak weapons. From San, a blue aura surged forming blue domain. "tsk!" I clicked my tongue, this high vitality domain made want to puke, it was against my own. If there wasn''t that he used to take care of the bothersome bats, I would have destroyed it immediately. With the domain activated, the bats started moving erratically, losing their good perception. San shot some needles this time hitting multiple enemies. The Golden Bats seeing that the situation wasn''t good, kept distance from San, a distance that San''s domain couldn''t reach. They started batting their wings creating a wind force, trying to throw us from the narrow road. I ignored them, continuing walking. Once we walked some kilometer more, while being annoyed by the Golden Bat, it finally appeared the boss the first test. A giant Three-headed Golden Bat King, with ten meters long wingspan, faced us. I turned to Tang "Let this to me". He looked at me warily but accepted wanting to know what I would do. The Three-headed Golden Bat King charged toward us, it opened one of his mouth trying to swallow us. "It seems that being here, make him hungry" I invoked my Black Sword, the little crack already repaired, on my left hand. As the Bat approached us "" Black aura surged from my sword creating the domain, pushing San''s once that could only go back protecting San. The wind blades dispersed in contact with my domain. "Graaaaaaaaaaaaa!" the Bat shouted. At its shout, all the little bats reacted, they came to the Three-headed Golden Bat King. The Bat King started eating them with its remaining heads. It shined red and its beheaded head started to grow again. It didn''t stop there and continued eating more bat, seeming to become stronger with each kill. "Perfect! I didn''t kill you before, because it would have been a hassle taking care of the little ones, but now that you''re together..." I grinned. I held my sword with both hands and backed it at my right side "Sword Heart!" black aura surged from it, brightening the surroundings. I stepped my right leg forward "EX-" I swung it upward diagonally "-CALIBUR! Morgan!" shooting a powerful pillar of black light. The Bat King commanded to its minions to stay beside him, making a barrier to protect it. This was completely useless, the pillar passed through them, not stopping for even an instant, disintegrating them. The light pillar continued arriving at the Bat King who faced the same fate as his minions, dying without any resistance. The light pillar continued until it crashed to the ceiling "BOOOOM!" creating a loud and huge explosion that made all the Hell Road tremble, multiple rocks falling from the sky, we were lucky enough that these rocks didn''t fall on the narrow road. I looked at Tang San and couldn''t help to smirk at his shocked face. At that moment a sensed something, I turned to the place where the Bat King stood and see that something remained falling to the blood abyss. Seeing what it was my eyes opened shocked, then I grinned. I jumped out of the narrow road, slicing Tang San''s vine with a light swing. "What are you doing?!" shouted Tang San surprised. Lightning started forming around my right leg forming what it seemed a wolf''s paw. . I hit the air under my right foot jumping towards the Bat King''s remains. Before it approached the blood too much I caught it, it was a pair of giant bat''s wings, over them stood a shining black ring "It seems I''m really lucky, how much despair had you felt, Bat King" I said to myself smiled. I touched my bracelet storing the wings, the black ring with them, in my storage bracelet. Then, I kicked the air again returning to the narrow road. Landing on it safely, I withdrew my spirit bone, the lightning disappearing. I turned to San "I was the one helping you, do not think for even a moment that is the other way around" San glanced at me warily and nodded, not even daring to ask about the bat''s remains. After this brief interruption, we continued walking following the narrow road. We continued walking until we face against a kind of a serpent that was coiled around the narrow road, it was 10 meters long with a characteristic 9 things like-mushrooms over its back, if it wanted, it could break the road instantly putting a little pressure. It wasn''t any problem, with my spirit bone, there wasn''t any need for the road, a little part destroyed wouldn''t pose any problem. If I remember correctly, this was an ancient beast, it didn''t cultivate based spirit energy, so it wouldn''t form any spirit ring. A very strange beast to be in this world. I turned to San "Your turn" I could have killed it alone, it wasn''t like it had any problem with it. Its strength wasn''t so much, its strongest force was its poison and that wasn''t really much of a problem. But, I wanted to see what Tan San is capable of. San stepped over me facing the serpent. The serpent detecting our presence hissed showing its long and thin tongue and crawled towards San. Its mushrooms started shining with a red light, it opened its mouth and spat a red flame, the flame surrounded by a red fog that was poison. In San''s hands appeared his Clear Sky Hammer, he twisted hitting the flame, dispersing it. He then touched belt storage and sprayed some liquid around that neutralized the poisonous red fog. San continued towards the serpent trying to hit it with his hammer. Surprisingly, or not so much if you already know it like me, the serpent evaded the attack tilting its body to the abyss, spinning around the road, its body following is. If it continued doing it, maybe it would have some hypnotic effect spiraling like that. San jumped back gaining distance. He started running to the serpent, swinging his hammer and flipping his body around, little by little gaining more momentum, black winds starting appearing around him, a terrifying power condensing in his sword that grew with each swing. The Serpent seemed frightening by San''s strength, all its mushrooms started shining. "Perfect, now is the time" I jumped in diagonal outside the narrow road, I activated my spirit bone I kicked the air, jumping to the road landing some meters in front of Tang San. The Serpent didn''t have time to react at my new presence, its mushrooms opened and from them, it shot different colored fog, they didn''t target San directly, they were converging a little behind me. I opened my arms, receiving the gases, that passed through me and converged behind me, condensing in a ball that was shot to Tang San. I could notice the different poison entering my body, altogether the may have created a poison impossible to stop, I vomited some blood. Tang San, stopped his charge, and swirl around the poison ball, the wings flowed around it causing it to change its direction shooting up. He continued without stop towards the Serpent, he passed me without stepping over me and crashed his hammer to the serpent. The serpent tried to evade it like before, but the hammer was so strong that it even had its own gravity that attracted the serpent not letting it evade. San hit it "", destroying it in a gore scene of serpent''s remains raining. San turned towards me with a confused face. I smiled, took out from my storage a Red Velvet Oreo and ate it. Controlling the Red Velvet energy I made it flow around my body, pushing the different poisons around my body, making them converged in one. The combination of the 9 poison was considered the strongest snake''s poisons, taking them separately, and making me immune to them thanks to the Oreo and then fusion them in the strongest it was a safer way that directly taking the condensing form of it. After 15 minutes, I was completely healed. Having gained an even bigger resistance to poison and complete immunity to snake related. The ball created by the serpent was kind of its external core, with a big destructive power that left the body very weak having it threw it out. Tang San continued looking at me strangely, surprised of my survival. I smiled at him "As I took the bat remain, I will let you keep that" I said signaling the ball, the core of the serpent "I don''t really have any use for it, as I didn''t know how to use it. But something tells me that you do" I smirked. He nodded only coldly saying "Thanks". With these two of the three tests were finished, it was very easy in my case. The truth was that in Hell Road the biggest problem was the narrow road, all the monsters trying to break it would make you difficult to continue. However, with my spirit bone, this didn''t pose any problem as I could simply jump around. I could have even skipped killing the serpent simply jumping around it. In this place, having the possibility of flying was a cheat, only having to worry about the Killing Intent. We continued following the road, we didn''t encounter anything else, but it was becoming hotter and the Killing Intent was rising exponentially, little by little nearing to the blood river. I let the Killing Intent permeate me, I could sense my Slaughter Intent growing, becoming stronger and in the same case more uncontrollable. After walking some time, we were very near the blood river, only 50 meters under us. Tang San stopped still and took out in his hand some strange mushroom and threw it at the blood river. I opened my eyes shocked [Oh, fu?k! Mayi is dead]. San turned to me "This was a very special herb. I don''t think that you are a degenerate like the people living in Slaughter City, that herb can increase the effectiveness of a poison 4000 times. This blood river goes to the City, with the herb in it, it would kill all the degenerated there, destroying the Slaughter City" I looked at him coldly "You really think yourself as a righteous God, with the right to choose the fate over the life of others. You never knew their circumstanced" I thought about Mayi and the killed by myself Black "I won''t blame you, you had the power to do it, and use it. But, don''t think for even a moment that you did the righteous thing, it was only your selfish act. Let''s continue I want to finish this" I continued walking. San stopped there looking thoughtfully, after some time he ran catching me. When we were over 20 meters of the blood river, my eyes turned red. I couldn''t control it more, the Killing Intent was so strong that it was affecting my mind. I could try to control it, lowering its effect, but that will cause my strength to not increase. I let me being invaded by it. I turned to Tang San "Hahahahah" I started laughing madly. I charged to him invoking my Black Sword and slashed to him. San hurriedly invoked his hammer and blocked my strike. I pushed him at the ground and jumped over him landing at his back. I put my sword at over his neck and smirked. I swung my sword. San closed his eyes in fright, but not feeling the strike he opened again. Finding me 5 meters at his back, the road between us broken by my sword. I looked at him "If this continued, I would kill you. Run, I will let you 10 minutes of advantage" He looked at my red eyes realizing what happened, he nodded and ran to the exit. I fall to the ground and laid there, my Slaughter Intent becoming uncontrollable "hahahaha!" After what I thought was 10 minutes, I stood up and continued walking. Each stepped my Slaughter King increased, a chaotic black aura surging endlessly from my sword and myself. I continued walking while slashing at my back destroying the road with each step. I feeling of killing anything growing in me. Finally, I saw a light 100 meters away, it was the exit from Hell Road. Between us, the narrow road dived into the blood river. Being needed to step into the river if you wanted to go walking. My rationality was nowhere to think about, but detecting live on the other side. A starving feeling pushed me to that place, killing all there. I charged to the light, to life, running wasn''t fast enough. I activated my spirit bone jumping multiple times kicking the air I passed over the blood river. I looked around finding myself surrounded by trees. I unleashed all my accumulated aura in all directions "" the black aura expanding around the area, all the trees rotting and dying in few seconds. I breathed profoundly and expired the air "It''s good to be outside" I said smiling. Chapter 102 - Aftermath Analyzing my body, I did some stretched and some swings around "It seems all is fine. The new domain even helped to stabilize my other one, making it easier to control" Looking around at the aftermath of my domain unleashed I couldn''t help to smirk "It''s lucky that Tang San appeared in another place. Better leave this place quickly, I don''t want to attract unwanted people or beast" I quickly ran without any direction in mind. Finally finding a quiet and calm area. I took from my storage a powder and placed it all around, this powder being the typical one to mask my essence, odor... to spirits beast. I placed my hand in my bracelet, in front of me appeared the wings of the Golden Three-headed Bat King, over them there was a black ring hovering "Perfect! The spirit ring lasted, maybe putting it in the storage cause for it to last longer, it makes sense as in an enclosed space would be more difficult to disperse" I said for myself "And for the bat to form a spirit bone, the mental state of the beast affect at its probability, being easier when it willingly dies or dies with a lot of anger. It was very easily killed, I could suppose that it made it angrier than if Tang San and Liena killed it" I sat cross-legged, the wings on my hands. I infused spirit energy to them, this was to adjust the new spirit bone to mine, making suitable to be absorbed. The wings of 10 meters of wingspan, quickly reduced to be over 2,5 meters long. I invoked the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda in my right hand. I concentrated, making the black ring attracted to the sword. The ring started being absorbed by the sword while the wings moved towards my back "Now! !" My domain was unleashed, black aura surged and surrounded me, permeating both the ring and wings "More!" I started absorbing all the Death and Killing intent from the surrounding, concentrating it in the sword. It was a Sword Heart state without unleashing any attack. Previously, it would be impossible with the Nine Treasure sword, as wasn''t recognized by it, however, now thanks to my new domain, my comprehension skyrocket, being possible to us it with almost any sword. My idea was absorbing the spirit ring and the wings spirit bone at the same time, both influenced by my comprehension in the Slaughter. Looking at the novels or other cases, when one is absorbing a spirit ring, was the moment when the spirit is more easily influenced, being possible to even mutate the spirit. I would take advantage of the sword trying to absorb the spirit ring and made it to absorb my Slaughter Energy, making it more suitable for me. Not only that, the spirit ring when absorbed was also the moment when it was more influenciable, lots of cases were it even the ring could grow older in that instant, I expected it to grew older and obtain a skill more suitable for my style. Little by little the ring was being absorbed. The wings changed its golden color for a black one, but some golden color lingered, in the form of golden veins over the wings. The wings bent forming a V, then shot toward my back, piercing my thoracic vertebrae, between the scapulas. "Son of a bitch!" I shouted due to the pain. You know when you have a blood analysis and the medics pierced you with a needle to find a vein, but they don''t find it easily and the bastards starts moving the needle a little around. It was similar, but you must change the needle for a fu?k?n? sword at your back! And the movements were a lot more aggressive. I could notice my bones merging with the wings, crawling around trying to merge. After half an hour the wings completely merged, having obtained an external spirit bone, wings type, considered the most wanted. Even if you could fly when attained the spirit douluo rank it wasn''t at a speed comparable with running, an it agility, movement midair su?k?d, so even if the could fly, when they use all their power they usually are on ground. However, with a wing spirit bone when controlled would improve a lot your flying capabilities. Finally, I could concentrate on the ring, that was slowly being absorbed by the sword, being very compatible it was influenced by my insights in Slaughter and the wings bone spirit, it grew stronger and older, now it would be over 60.000 years old in power at least, this was a comparison with Fenrir''s rings. I closed my eyes and started absorbing it, combate, dissolute and finally internalization it, completing it after 3 hours. <3rd POV> The young man had a peculiar sword on his hand, surrounding it, there was a black ring. The most peculiar of the boy was his black hair, black that resembled an abyss with no escape. The most peculiar was that little by little white strands appeared which were white like the snow, making a quiet contrast between black and white, this white strands increased, more black hair turning white. After some time, the previous black-haired boy was white-haired now. The boy opened his eyes, beautiful golden eyes shining like stars. He stood up wandered some time without aim and approached a big tree. He put both of his hand at the tree and hit in strongly with his head, tears filling his eyes. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" I blamed while hitting the tree while crying. After 10 hit the tree finally broke, falling down. I had some blood on my head. Tired, I fell back on the ground. I looked at my left hand and concentrated in it, entering its mind space. I found myself in the black and white space, for some reason the black seemed to shine brighter now. In the middle of it stood my black-haired self, Paul. He smirked and said "Congratulations taking the control back" I clenched my hands angry "Bastard! Mayi had died because of you!" "Really?" Paul made a shocked face, surely a sarcastic one "If I remember correctly, the one that killed her was Tang San, he was so full of himself that decided to act like a god, deciding the fate over all the people living in Slaughter City, when he didn''t even try meeting them" "It''s your fault! Mayi wouldn''t have come if I wasn''t there, this wouldn''t have happened if you didn''t take the control! Moreover, you! With your so-called future knowledge, should already know what would happen, you could have stopped him" I blamed Paul. "It may be true, I already knew, but you think that I was at the best state of mind there? I couldn''t think properly at that time" He said with a little of lament "Whatever. What is done, is done, look to the future" "You!" I signaled at him "You would never take the control again. Thanks to the new ring, I new personality permitted me to push you away, I learned more about the other personalities, they would block you!" "I know and I don''t mind," Paul said smirking "You really thought that I wouldn''t know that when I absorb a ring, you would return. I always knew it. I waited until finishing all my matter to give you the control" He started laughing "You really thought that you tricked me. Hilarious!" "If you knew about, why return the control?" I spatted. Paul opened his arms "Because I want to be the strongest. If I had stayed in the spirit king realm, I could have stayed in control, but I won''t be stronger. I gave the control because I don''t need it. I made all the preparations" A powerful black aura surged from him. I flinched at that aura feeling scared to it "When we arrived at rank 70, we will fight. Struggle, try to attain my level, it doesn''t matter, I would be the winner! There''s no need to be wary of you. I would stay out from now own, try whatever you like" His black aura shot towards me, it was pushing me outside the mind space, I was completely blocked by it, unable to force staying there "I would let you use the Oreo, use it well" he said smirking, finally pushing me outside. Opening my eyes outside, I was laying on the ground. I punched the ground "Fuck!". My eyes fully opened shocked seeing my left hand that had punched the ground, a black faint aura surrounding it. It wasn''t only the hand, all my body emitted this aura. "How can it be?" I said shocked. I invoked my sword in my right hand "" White light surged from me pushing the black aura aside "Fuck! My own domain is weaker, Paul''s aura is so strong that suppressed mine. How could he have influenced me so much? I looked at my sword, its colors became darker and its edges were a lot sharper than before, being influenced by Paul. I sat cross-legged and cultivate focusing in my sword. 6 rings appeared around the sword. After some time I opened my eyes "I can''t use the six skill, it has Paul energy in it, using it would influence me towards his path" A pair of black bat''s wing grew of my back "He even obtained an external spirit bone, the lucky bastard! I''ll need to clean it before using it" "Before, the difference between us wasn''t too much, I could win over him thanks to my spirit, but now, he is much stronger than me. I don''t have any chance to win him" I clenched my teeth "Fuck the offensive intent. If I want to go against Paul, I will need to focus on my Protection comprehension, I''ll need to weaken Paul. I need to be much stronger if I want to win" I said resolutely. Chapter 103 - Sea of Tranquility I ran towards the entrance of Slaughter City, even if the possibility of Mayi being alive was tiny, she was very strong and may have survived. As I was approaching the little town, I could already sense that something was wrong. The little town always had the essence of blood in the air, and a little of Killing Intent could be sensed, but this time it was much greater. The Killing Intent had even condensed in the air, the little town was surrounded by what it seemed a reddish dome, this had already surpassed mere Killing Intent, creating a powerful domain. I invoked my Nine Treasure Sword and covered all myself in Protection Intent, trying to not be affected. As I was walking around the town, I could see some corpses, all of the brutally killed, with body pieces all around. By their wounds, they were deemed to have died by hand, some had nail mark on their eyes. Arriving at the pub, I needed to activate my own domain to keep there. I entered the pub "Where was the entrance?" I looked around . Using the Mind Eye I realized that it had a powerful improvement, now it couldn''t only detect the presence, it could even detect the essence. I could sense the energy around, resembling little particles, making even more clear how huge was the Killing Essence here, being most of them. Detecting where the essence was more concentrated, it took me to an alcohol shelf. I swung my sword breaking it apart. Just as it broke a wave of pure Killing Intent crashed me. I concentrated all my power on my sword, focusing on my Protection Domain. After 5 seconds, the wave seemed to have stopped and I get used to the new increase on Killing Intent. On the other side, there was an entrance with stone stairs going down. Poking out I was shocked by what I saw. This wasn''t Slaughter City anymore, the previous entrance to the City was now a blood pool, the pool extending at my maximum detection range. This was more similar to the Hell Road, there''s no possibility of entering now and I doubted that someone could leave. Noticing that the Killing Intent was little by little corroding my own domain I ran outside the Killing Domain. I approached a tree "FUCK!" I said hitting it with my head. Then I made a resolute look "I will win, for me, Mayi and all my friend, I won''t let all go as you planned, Paul!" I made a thoughtful look"Normal training won''t be enough to surpass Paul" I even could sense a Killing Intent from myself "First, I''ll need to lower this Killing Intent" When I was searching for ways to find Slaughter City, I learned that it would make the Killing Intent uncontrollable so I also searched for methods to keep it under control. There were different methods, some were short-term and other long-term. For example, I already had it under control, due to my comprehension going to a completely different path, changing Paul to me was a very effective way. I learned about a special place, it was called the Sea of Tranquility, it was a lake inside Star Duo Forest, it is said that the calm area would help to control the Killing Intent quicker. If this place would help in lower the Killing Intent, surely it could also make my Protection Intent grow stronger. It took me one weak to arrive at the Sea of Tranquility, it was a lake that extended over 8''76 kilometers. I traveled always hiding my essence and cultivation trying to evade any unnecessary fight. Breathing I could smell very clean air with very high vitality. It was a very quiet place, only the sound of some insects could listen. Looking around the lake I could see that some spirit beasts were drinking. My presence there seemed to not bother them who simply ignored me continuing their things. I took off my clothes, leaving only my inner clothes and slowly walked to the water. I lay on the water floating and started breathing slowly. (It''s true, this place would help to keep a calm mind. It would be a good place to cultivate) I thought, the Killing Intent inside me easier to suppress (However, I don''t think this is good enough to surpass Paul. Slaughter City was much more extreme than this calm place). While thinking around, I perceived some presences. Those weren''t any spirit beasts, they were humans. Looking around I found one man and a boy. The man was tall, with strong muscles, messy black hair, and beard. The young boy had a more effeminate face and was more handsome, he had blue hair and a striking blue hair. I instantly recognized them, Tang San and his father, Tang Hao. Looking at Tang San made me angry, I clenched my teeth and I couldn''t help to leak some Killing Intent, remembering that he was the cause of Mayi''s death. This Killing Intent caused to not only both detect my presence, even the spirit beast around turned wary of me and glanced at me. I breathed, returning to my calm state, knowing that both Tangs already discovered me, it would be better to go myself before they think I was an enemy. I approached both of them, they glanced at me warily, signaling to nor approach further keeping my distance. I made a little bow "It''s an honor to meet you, Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao and also you, Tang San" Tang San finally realized who I was and calmed "You''re Rongrong''s brother, Bai. What are you doing here?" He asked He seemed to not relate me with Paul, I don''t blame him as the aura and features changed when he was in control. Looking at him, I could see that he had changed a lot, not only physically with a complete change of hair color and face, before he had his father face, now it seemed like that of a girl, his aura also changed, becoming more powerful and dominant with a thick Killing Intent, surrounding him, but he seemed to have under control. "I had a little problem with Killing Intent and I listened this is one of the best places to solve it. For what I could see, you came for a similar problem" I explained. Tang San nodded. "Is that really true?" said Tang Hao "For what I could see, you don''t really have any problem. I could sense somewhat similar to Killing Intent inside you, but you seem to keep it good enough in check. What are you planning?" Tang Hao accused me, even putting so the pressure on me. "It is true that I can keep it in check, but that is not enough. I''ll need to find a way to completely suppress, even eliminating it if possible" I explained. "Killing Intent is a powerful power why would you want to eliminate?" asked Tang San. Tang Hao glanced at me (I hate powerful masters, always forcing you to answer. Where are my uncles when necessary?) I stopped my Protection Intent, completely retracting it. Without it, Paul''s Slaughter Intent started leaking over my body, surging as a thin but powerful black aura. "This is my enemy, I''ll need to eliminate this Killing Intent". Both of them were shocked seeing the intent. Tang Hao for the nature of it, even if it wasn''t strong as his own Killing Intent, the nature of it was stronger, for a young man to have such a dangerous Intent, it was a lot more powerful than his son intent. Tang San for another reason "Blanch?!" Tang San realized "This aura, even if it isn''t as strong as his is very similar. You''re him!" "I am Ning Bai" I said retracting the black aura They looked me with an accusatory look "I won''t forgive Blanch''s aura, yours is the same. And I really doubt for you to attain it without stepping Slaughter City. 3 years before you didn''t have it, so comparing dates, the only answer is that you''re him" "Blanch can be considered part of myself. But I am me!" I said "You can consider me as being possessed by his ghost. Don''t take it wrong, we are one and it''s not like I could eliminate him, but I need to win over him, if not he will control me in the future. I came here trying to become stronger and lowering his strength" I explained. Both, father and son, looked at each other and nodded "We believe in your story, and knowing that you have special matters, we won''t ask more about it" Said San. I sighed "Thanks. Please don''t tell anyone, especially Rongrong" I requested, they nodded. "You know" said Hao "Your problem is too much. That black intent is much strong than normal Killing Intent. This place could help you a little, but it won''t be enough to win over it" "I already know. I will stay some days here, trying to stabilize a little. Then I will need to find a better place" I sighed "I don''t really know another one. I''ll need to become stronger". Again, both of them looked at each other "Dad, as he is Rongrong''s brother, we should help him. Do you know some way to help him" asked San. Hao thought for a little "There are other places where you could lower your dark intent influence. This Sea of Tranquility is only the safer one, this is why I took my son here" he turned to me "For your case, the others won''t be enough. It must be that place" "What place?" I said expectantly to find a way to beat Paul. "There''s a place where you could greatly lower any dark influence, maybe even eliminating it. For what I saw in the tournament three years ago, it would be the best place for you to grow your white intent. But it''s a very dangerous place, you''re not strong enough to go there. Going without being invited is almost a suicide, even I could die going there. You will need help to get there" He said thoughtfully. "Where is that place? I''ll do everything that I can, even put my life in line" I said resolutely. "It''s the Star Lake" he said. (Oh? FUCK!) I thought. Chapter 104 - Forest Portal The Star Lake was a large lake inside Star Duo Forest. It''s one of the places with the highest spirit energy concentration, making it one of the 5 Death Area of Star Duo Forest. Being one of the Death Area meant that it was warded by a spirit beast of more than 200.000 years old, with the possibility of even more beasts. The truth was that even as a Death Area, it was the one that more information had been recollected, as more than one person survived after visiting there. This was due to its King, or better said, Queen. Its Queen was the Emerald Swan. It was considered the kindest spirit beast, having let a lot of people alive, even permitting to enter its area as long as they didn''t have any ill intention. This spirit beast didn''t have offensive capabilities, it mostly focus on support and healing, this didn''t make it less frightening, her abilities were incredible and it always followed by a big army of spirit beast that were its guardians. These guardians were powerful beast, at least 5 of them older than 100.000 years. In theory, if you obtained its permission, you would be able to enter the Star Lake. The problem was how to obtain it. "Star Lake? One of the Five Death Areas?" I asked incredulously. Hao nodded "This Sea of Tranquility is nothing more than a tributary of the Star Lake, a subterranean water of it that emerged here. In its way, it greatly lost most of its properties and being in a low spirit energy concentration zone lowered them even more. You can easily think of its true effects" "Ok, it may be the perfect place, but, how do you expect me to enter there? I would be instantly killed by hordes of spirits beast. I don''t think that they would let me walk like nothing" I said. "That is the problem. You should obtain the recognition of spirit beasts, then be helped by them" Hao made a sad look "Years ago I could go there thanks to her" (If only Mayi was alive. She could have helped me) I thought, making my eyes teary thinking about Mayi''s death. "So the only solution is walking around searching for one spirit beast in need and intelligent enough to be reasonable. All to luck. It will take a lot of time" I said for myself. "I doubt that that method would work" said San "Most spirit beast would attack you just seeing you. Anyway, some random spirit beast recognition would at most make the King there leave alive, but I doubt that it would permit you to stay there" "I''ll need to find another way, I can cross out the Star Lake for now" I decided. "You can try one method" said Hao. I turned to them waiting to continue "The Forest Portal" "The Forest Portal?" I asked doubtfully. Hao nodded "The Queen of the Star Lake, the Emerald Swan, is the kindest of the spirit beasts, she rarely orders any killing, she only wants to keep the calm of its place and live in harmony. Her dream is for humans and spirit beast to friendly coexist, for this matter, she created an opportunity for humans to show their sincerity. There''s a sanctuary where you won''t be attacked by any spirit beast. There some spirit beasts will receive you and test your goodwill towards them. The opportunity for them to let you stay in Star Lake is very remote, but at least there''s a chance" "I friendly approach would be a good opportunity rather than walking around" I said for myself, I turned to Hao "Do you know how they test your goodwill?" Hao shook his head "I don''t have any idea of what test could it be" "At least is something. Could you tell me where that place is?" I asked. Hao took out a map, signaling our position he marked the place of the Forest Portal and how to get there. For what it seemed it was just before the Central Area of Star Duo Forest. Having received the indications to arrive, I lightly bowed to them giving my thanks and left towards my destination. The way to the Portal Forest was without much problem, thanks to my hided cultivation most of the beasts didn''t detect me and I evaded any confrontation with them. I doubt that killing spirit beasts would be the best in these circumstances. Following Hao''s indications, I finally arrived at my destination. It was a hill, on the foot of it there were two big rocks. Approaching them, I could see a little space between them which a person could easily pass through. Passing through the way, there were 10 meters of a narrow way that opened in a very spacious cavern. The cavern has a half-sphere form with a diameter of 500 meters. The peculiarity of this cavern was that all its rocky walls were covered by a green moss that for some reason shined with a low-intensity green light, that illuminated the cave, it wasn''t like a well-illuminated room, but there wasn''t any problem to see your surroundings. At the center of the cave, there was a statue of what resembled a human figure with some kind of bird beast. Under the statue, there was a plate where it was written "Those human seeking for acceptance, shall submit their strength and show goodwill" I actively used my skull bone plus my Mind Eye analyzing all the cave around, especially the statue and the plate. In the statue, there was some kind of formation that would absorb the spirit energy given and sent it in another place. I couldn''t help to be a little suspicious. I closed place, only with a little exit, there were also some formation that I couldn''t know what they could do. Sending my spirit energy would warn of my presence and actual strength, this could be a trap. Knowing in what realm I was it would be easy to send some spirit beasts to kill me, without any chance to escape in this reclusive space. This could be a trap to kill whoever activated it. After some time thinking, I decided that I would risk it. Anyways, why would someone created all of this only for a simple trap, there were better and easier ways to kill someone. There''s also the fact that the one who informed me was Tang Hao, he was a powerhouse in the Continent and I doubt that someone would trick him about this place, however, this created the problem that maybe it was Tang Hao tricking me, but why? Having decided it, I rested my hand over the statue and concentrate spirit energy in it. The statue absorbed some of my spirit energy and started glowing. Except for the glow, it didn''t seem to be any change. "I supposed that a signal to be received had some delay". 10 minutes later, suddenly the glow increased, green lines where illuminated, they went from the statue to all the walls of the cave. A rumble was heard and all the cave started trembling. All around the walls the rocks started moving, my previous entrance was blocked and holes started opening all around I could detect that none of the holes had an exit to the outside From each hole a spirit beasts stepped in, the holes closing after them, growling to me "GRRRR!" More than 100 spirit beasts started growling me. 10 of them were over 10.000 years old, one of them seemed their leader, a Black Gorilla of what it seemed to be 60.000 years old. The other spirit beast weren''t that strong, there were even some weaker one of less than 1000 years, but its sheer number in this closed space would make a difficult fight. "Groawwww!" the Black Gorilla shouted and the crowd of spirits beasts reacted charging towards me. I invoked my Nine Treasure Sword "" I invoked my domain, strengthening me. I dug my sword at the ground "" white light surged from my sword all around, creating a shield aura around me. The spirit beasts crashed towards the shield aura stopping their charge. "GROAWW!" shouted the Black Gorilla. The other nine 10.000 years old spirit beast ran toward me each one striking my shield from a different direction. This was too much for my Intent to endure, breaking. I lifted my sword and activated my first, second, third and fourth skills. 4 colors shining brightly, weakening my opponent and strengthen me. I pierced my sword to the ground "". A new wave, this time more powerful, was created pushing all the beast aside. (Fuck! There''s too many, I won''t last much defending) I looked at the spirit beast crashing toward the aura, trying to break it. [Don''t defend. Kill them. You have the power] A whisper entered my mind, it was similar to Paul''s voice but for some reason, I knew that it wasn''t him. At my sword, a black light started shining, its 6th spirit ring shining with it. I could sense a new increase of power, my suppressed Killing Intent surging again [Kill. Kill] The white shield aura changed to a black one "graaah" the spirit beast cried scared, retracting their attack in fright. "How easy it would be to kill them" I said in a low voice. "NO!" I shook my head "I don''t need this power, I would surpass it. You won''t win, Paul!" the 6th black ring stopped shining, my sword returning to the usual colors. I turned to the Black Gorilla (Maybe winning against it, would cause the others to stop. Or at least to be confused). The spirit beast seeing that the black aura disappeared started attacking me again. I jumped up, lightning surging from my right foot "" I kicked the air jumping over the spirit beasts towards the alone Black Gorilla. I swung my sword coated in intent to him. The Black Gorilla crossed his arm to block my strike. My sword crashed to his hard skin pushing the Gorilla 5 meter away. From the Gorilla''s shadow a shadow-punch appeared and hit me at my side, I twisted my ankle moving my sword blocking the punch that in contact with my aura disappeared. This little collision wasted enough time for the other spirit beasts to surround me again. (Fuck. I can''t do anything. I''m only good at defending) I lamented. Just as the spirit beasts jumped at me "brrrrrrr" a rumble was heard. A new opening at the other was created and all the spirit beasts stopped and turned to it. From the new hole, a human figure appeared "Congratulations. For you to pass without killing and gravely injuring any of the spirit beasts, you showe-" the human figure suddenly stopped and looked at me attentively, it tilted its head and said "Bai?" Chapter 105 - Lingling In front of me stood a beautiful girl, she a blue shining hair with a tint of a light green color, her eyes the same color. Looking at her I said confused "Lingling?" She was my teammate at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, the support system Xie Lingling. She approached me and hugged me "Bai!" Then, she separated "Woaw, more than 3 years have passed since the last time. It''s nice meeting you again" she said smiling. "I''m happy to meet you again, Lingling. But, what are you doing here surrounded by spirit beasts?" I asked. "Oh? It may seem strange" she turned to the spirit beasts "This human is my friend, you wouldn''t need to worry about it, you can withdraw" she commanded making a signal with her hands. Like reacting to her, the previously closed entrance opened again and the spirit beasts followed her order leaving the cave. Once Lingling and I were alone, she turned to me "Now that we are alone, before anything else" she turned serious "What is your intention coming to the Forest Portal, Bai?" A powerful aura surrounded her and was pressuring me a little, it seemed that she really became more powerful, to make such pressure with a support spirit. I decided to answer truthfully. I stopped suppressing the Slaughter Intent, letting it leak from my body. This made Lingling made a step back, with an alert expression "What a nefarious aura. I never saw one like that before, even if not too powerful, its essence is truly dark" "This is my problem. I can''t really control this aura, I could only try to suppress. The problem is that this would be only a temporary solution, I need to become strong enough to surpass this power. I came to the Forest Portal trying to find an opportunity to be permitted to enter the Star Lake. I heard that it would be the best place to improve my Protection Intent, and maybe the only solution to be able to face against this dark aura" I explained "So it''s that. How could you obtain that dark aura?" she asked me, now calmer. I forced a smile "It''s a little problem of mine, I''ll prefer not to tell it. Don''t take it badly, I never told anyone about this, at least, before they discovered themselves" the last sentence I said in low voice. Lingling sighed "I trust you, Bai. However, this Forest Portal is a trial, if I can''t ?ssure your circumstances I won''t be able to accept you" "Wait a moment. Are you insinuating that you are able to permit me to enter Star Lake?" I asked. "I am not insinuating anything" Lingling smiled, "I said it directly. I could bring you to Star Lake. This last year I passed most of the time there, I am a friend with Bi Ji and I was even accepted by the Spirit Beast Linage" she said puffing her ?h?st. I tilted my head confused "Bi Ji? Spirit Beast Linage?" She shook her head "Of course you don''t know. Bi Ji is the Star Lake''s Queen''s name, it may be easier if I said she is the Emerald Swan. For the Spirit Beast Linage is an informal organization of the most powerful spirit beast of the forest, I already met some of the most powerful spirit beast, a wink of them powerful enough to kill me" I couldn''t help for my jaw to fall due to the shock "Wow!" "I know. I am great" she said smiling "If you won''t tell me your condition I won''t be able to accept you. Even though, I would be able to let you enter one of the purest water near the Star Lake" I made a thoughtfully face (Even in the best environment, it''s not sure that I could surpass Paul. I hate to admit it, but he is a genius. I would need all the help that I can get to surpass him. I''m really lucky to possible obtain the permission to enter thanks to Lingling. I thought that I would need to pass multiple tests to prove that I''m not a danger for them. And even with that, I doubt that they will let me enter the Star Lake. I trust Lingling, the best would be to explain her my problems). Having decided I started telling Lingling all about Paul. Explain all about him since I knew his presence to the happenings in Slaughter City, even explaining Paul had a previous life, only excluding Paul''s future knowledge. Lingling listened to me very attentively. Once I finished "So, due to a technique of yours, you have more than one personality. Usually, they are blocked and only act as a support of you, but somehow, one of them had lived a past life and is trying to increase the influence in you. Eventually, taking control of the body. I summarized correctly?" "Good enough. You would need to specify some details, but it''s good enough. Do you trust me?" I asked hopefully. She stood there thoughtfully some seconds, finally nodding "I always thought that something changed in you before the Continental Tournament. I could detect something dark hidden inside you, but I thought that I was wrong and was only due to my increase in my powers. All humanity had dark parts after all. I trust you, Bai. Before anything, can you ?ssure me that this Paul won''t be able to take control of you?" "I am now more familiar with his Intent, even if I was exposed by a powerful dark power I would be able to keep him in check. Unless I let him, Paul won''t be able to take the control. At least before I arrive at rank 70" I explained. She nodded "Promise me. While you stay here, you won''t let Paul take control, even if it could cost your life" She said seriously. "I vow to Heavens and Earth, while I am here I won''t let Paul take the control. I promised over my family" I vowed. "Clap!" she clapped "All fine then". She then approached the statue in the middle of the cave "The human passed the TRUE test. He showed his goodwill and I plead for him that he won''t become a seed of chaos for the spirit beast community" This caused the statue to shine even brighter than before and the cave to start trembling. The statue started deforming like it was made of clay. Little by little its form started changing. After 10 seconds, where a statue of a human and a bird stood, now there was some kind of door. It had an arc form, it was green in color and exuded a rich and fresh essence. Even the plate under it had changed now wrote "You, accepted by nature. Follow the path to the Stars" "Follow me, Bai" Lingling said crossing the door, disappearing just as she crossed it. I approach the portal "So this is the true Forest Portal. I suppose it would bring me to the Star Lake" I crossed the portal. After a strange sensation and a little headache, I found myself in another place. It was a rocky corridor 3 meters wide. In front of me stood Lingling waiting for me to come, while behind me there was an end of the road, a rocky wall. "Come, Bai. The Star Lake is a little beyond" Lingling informed started walking. We walked some time and I finally asked "Lingling?" "What?" she answered. "You don''t need to answer if you don''t want, but, what are you doing here? It''s strange for humans to come here and you said that you lived here for more than a year. Not only that, you were accepted by the spirit beasts and even have enough power to accept me" I asked. "It couldn''t be helped you to be curious" She sighed "I have something to do here. This is the best environment for my spirit and thanks to the evolution of my spirit I was easily accepted by the spirit beasts thanks that I healed a lot of them. For some reason since my spirit evolution, spirit beasts are never wary of me. The previous hostility was changed to respect" She stopped and turned to me "Bai, let that dark aura out. It won''t be permitted in the Star Lake". I accepted letting the Slaughter Intent free, a dark aura surrounding me. Lingling approached me, she closed her eyes and extended her arms, putting her hand over my ?h?st. A glow started appearing in her hand, she opened her eyes that now shined with a bright green glow instead of the previous blue one "Purify" she said in low voice. The glow of her hand extended over all my body. Looking at it a opened my eyes widely "This is..." This was a domain, a powerful one leagues over mine. Lingling''s previous one was uncontrolled and the essence of it was a lot weaker. This was a complete control domain, even controlling the form of it and its characteristics, transforming her comprehension in a kind of technique. "Buff" Lingling sighed, her domain dispersing and her eyes returning to their blue color "To think that a simple aftermath was so strong. You must work hard, Bai" It was easily seen that she was tired, dispersing the Slaughter Intent must have been difficult to her "Thanks, Lingling" She made a serious face "I only limited the dark intent for you. Like you explained, this intent is formed by your other personality. It would always there, ingrained in Paul. If you want to make it disappear, you would need to erase him or him to change his own intent" "Even with this, thanks Lingling. I''m really glad for your help. I''d have a need at least one year to arrive at this state" I thanked her. She smiled "Now, let''s go" Even with a lot more road in front of us, long enough to not see it final. She approached the wall. Extended her hand to the rocky wall a kind of a golden handle of a door. She pressed the handle, a door appearing over it. She pushed it, opening the door. A brightly light surged from the door blinding me "Welcome to the Star Lake" Chapter 106 - Star Lake Star Lake was a combination of a beautiful landscape with some phantom impression, making it more ethereal, like a dream. Unlike what I thought, Star Lake was a subterranean lake, it was under the ground level surrounded by a rocky wall with an open ceiling where you could see the sky. The lake was more than a kilometer long, had a mixture of blue and green color, it was so clean that you could see its profundity without any problem, being possible to even see the fauna that lived inside. Around the Lake grew a type of moss, similar to the ones at the Portal Forest cave, but this one was even more bright and shined in yellow and blue light over all the Lake. Some spirit beasts were laying around, all of them peacefully coexisting making a perfect picture. Breathing you could sense the rich and pure essence of the lake. Breathing was enough to calm your soul, all negative thought leaving your mind. I could sense the greatest vitality ever, a lot stronger than Lingling one. Looking at Lingling I could sense that her own aura had fused with the Lake. This was. This was the best place for any light intent. The perfect counter for Paul''s Slaughter. If was in this place, I may be able to improve my Intent even evolving to a greater one, making it possible to go against Paul''s. "For now on, always speak in a low voice. This is a sanctuary of peace and calmness. If you try to destroy it, you would become an enemy of not only the spirit beasts of the lake, you would become the enemy of every spirit beasts. If you disturb this calmness they will exile you and in the case of you making the minimum sign of fighting, it would mean your death. Be careful" Explained Lingling very calmly. Her tone remembered me of her previous one, before her spirit evolution, her melodic but empty voice, at least now it seems a little more lively. I looked around "So this is the Star Lake. I never thought that it would be under the ground. The records explained that it was inside the Inner Area of Star Luo Forest, surrounded by trees" "That would be the fake Star Forest. The water is the most similar to the original Star Lake and it is situated near here, but that lake is only a fake used to mislead humans off the true Star Lake. The people that have passed the Forest Portal Trial would be guided there. Only after most of its life and complete trust of the spirit beasts would they be permitted here. Of course, for this chosen one, it''s unthinkable that they would talk about the true Star Lake, they will always keep the secret. The false one is the greatest defense of the Star Lake" Lingling explained. "So it''s that. I would be able to use my sword here? Or it would be considered an offense?" I asked. "I know your intent, there won''t be any problem. It would even help you make the spirit beasts trust you. But in any case, show any hostility here. Only use your own Protection Intent, an ounce of some offensive intent will expulse you from here" Lingling explained "Another thing, can you see the waterfall there" Lingling signaled far away. Concentrating in the direction that Lingling signaled, I could see a little waterfall, not more than 2 meters tall, but more than 200 meters wide. The most strange was that the water drops were falling very slowly like if the gravity were a lot weaker, you could even see some drops floating. The water falling to the lake didn''t emit any sound. I turned to Lingling and nodded. "Never go over that waterfall, over it lives Bi Ji. She won''t take kind an invasion" Lingling explained. Suddenly, she seemed to have remembered something "Sorry, Bai. I need to do something important. Let''s talk again later. I look forward to your growth" She started walking to the upper side of the Lake, over the waterfall. She stopped and turned to me "One last thing. Swimming would greatly help you, but in case you do, don''t be too loud. And if you want to enter the water you would need to enter without any robes, never invoke your sword in there. Lastly, before entering clean yourself in one of the gorges outside" she said before continuing to walk. Now that I was alone I decided to see how the new environment could influence my cultivation, the spirit, and the sword. I sat cross-legged in lotus position closing my eyes. I breathed profoundly, sensing the rich vitality of the place. Thanks to the calmness of the area I entered the trance state the quickest, even without noticing it. After some time I opened my eyes. I don''t really know how much time it had passed, but somehow I found my body covered in moss. Just as I was about to move, the moss seemed to react at my intention and started moving, retracting from around my body and directing to a nearby wall. I stood up and stretched a little sensing the difference. It seems that more than a day passed, as the changes were too good. I noticed my Protection Intent improving, increasing its amount and quality. Now it was easier to move around and the previous pressure of Paul had disappeared. I invoked my sword and started making my sword routine, maintaining my Protection Intent all the time. I white aura surged from my sword surrounding the area "". I concentrated on my sword and surroundings. I activated my skull bone , seeing the white, green and blue particles that composed the majority of the place. I concentrated in the white one, the most similar to my Protection. The particles started being suctioned by my sword, followed by my own domain. A very bright white light shot from my sword, a pure concentration of my comprehension. I lifted the sword up "Sword Heart" I said slowly and quietly. The white light scattered in all directions, luckily, it didn''t seem to damage any place that hit it, but caused the moss hit by it to shine even brighter. "It''s closer, but I have a long way to completely control the Sword Heart" I analyzed. "It seems that you''re doing fine," a voice said. I turned to it, finding Lingling smiling at me. "Yeah" I nodded "This place is perfect. Do you know how much time I expend?" "You stood there in trance for a week. You should eat something, there''s a lot of fruit all around, you can take them, but ask for permission first" She answered. "Permission? To whom?" I asked. "To the plant. Who will be if not them?" She giggled. "Lingling, can I ask something". Lingling nodded. "I obtained an external spirit bone in the form of wings. The problem is that is tainted by Paul Slaughter Intent. Can I invoked it here and try to purify it" "No" She calmly said "Your lingering Slaughter Intent was strong enough that it was difficult to purify, for a tainted spirit bone, it would be like a dark spirit. You would break the peace of the lake so it won''t be permitted" "I understand" I nodded. "However" I looked at her hopefully "If you increase the comprehension of your Protection Intent, I could help you to purify it. Of course, it would be difficult and we should try it outside of the lake" I bowed to Lingling "Thanks Lingling. I owe you a big one" "Don''t bow, Bai. We are even. You already help in my spirit evolution. I will not be able to help you if not. Try to at least control the energy of before. I am not really knowledgeable about sword arts, but that energy was powerful but uncontrolled. Let''s wait until you can control it" "Okay," I nodded. My d?s?r? to become stronger growing even more. (I will win over you Paul!) "Don''t think that I would help you for free. When you improve your control I would require your help for something" She demanded. "Of course. Anything for you, Lingling" I said smiling. She giggles "If you excuse me. I have something to do, continue your hard work" She said before leaving. Sensing that she left, I decided to try to take a bath. I went to a near gorge, I took out my clothes and went under a torrent of water. The water was not hot if I must say I would say it was cold, however, the moment that the water touched my skin I felt a burn sensation. It seemed to burn all around my body. It wasn''t extremely painful but was annoying. For what it seemed this water was burning my impurities, not only the dirt of my body, it even cleaned little impurities inside my body. Even when you cultivate correctly, without any problem, the body little by little is becoming polluted by the impurities of the air, this water was cleaning them. There has been a lot of time that I didn''t look at my body attentively. As a boy in puberty, I had many changes in these 3 years. My muscles were strong but not overstimulated, they were finely defined. My facial features became sharper and even my hair grew a little. I also find a series of scars around my body, the most provident on my ?h?st "I lost years of my life" Once cleaned I went to the Star Lake, slowly walking entering it. Once inside I put myself face up and floated. I could sense the water affecting me, eliminating the most hided impurities and cleaning even my soul, making me a lot calmer. A warm and pleasant feeling permeating me "This is truly a treasure. This water vitality is so high that seems a concentration of pure life. My even sense my Protection Intent growing little by little" I stood there floating entering a trance state "All the organism had life. Life is the power to move around, strengthen ourselves. Not only serves as healing, life support us..." My comprehension seems to be growing "...We are life, life is all" Opening my eyes a green glint shined in my pupils. Chapter 107 - 1 year Life The green color quickly disappear, leaving my usual golden pupils. I left the lake putting my clothes again. Once outside I invoke my Nine Treasure Sword. I concentrated on it, at the same time remembering the sensation at the lake. A weak green aura started forming around the sword. It was a formless, uncontrolled aura, so weak that I needed my superior senses to even sensed it "Life Intent". But this wisp, it was the first step to a new completely different intent. Starting a new path is extremely difficult, especially when you already developed one. However, if you could comprehend another path, this would be influenced by your previous one. This made the first step more difficult while doing the next ones would be easier. This little wisp of life may seem weak, but it was the most difficult first step. If I concentrated on it, it wouldn''t need much time to improve it. Life Intent, it wasn''t one that I even considered. It a very esoteric intent, difficult to grasp. It was only possible for me to grasp a little of it thanks to this environment. It is mainly used as a healing factor or a support one, as such the best outcome would be to improve my own Protection Intent. This factor made me against the idea to develop it, making it rather tedious and being better focusing in my Protection Intent, as maybe it wouldn''t be difficult to accomplish a domain in life, but for a Sword Heart, it would be extremely difficult. The truth was that it only would be able to show its progress in the cases of me supporting others, in this case, it wouldn''t be any help against Paul. The other case would be if I accomplish fusion both Protection and Life in one, effective but extremely difficult. I stood there thoughtful concluding that it may be not an offensive intent, but, it''s the perfect counter against Paul''s one. Paul''s intent was a combination of Death and Killing, Life would be the perfect counter to Death while my Protection to Killing. I''ll need to develop both comprehensions, Life and Protection. Having decided my course, I started creating a routine of training, swimming and resting. In this high vitality place, I could notice day by day improvements in my comprehension. With this training routine, 1 year passed and I was 21 years old. As my main objective was increasing my comprehension to win against Paul, so I didn''t focus on spirit cultivation. Paul had 3 years of training in Slaughter City and I''m not up to him with only one year in Star Lake. Spirit cultivation would only make the date of our clash nearly, so it would be better to delay it until I am confident of winning against him. Even with all of this, my spirit cultivation experimented a growth, having attained the 66 rank. Even focusing on the foundation it seems that the speed of cultivation was high. 5 ranks a year was genius cultivation, more in the later realms, if this was a constant it would only take some 20 years for a spirit trainee rank 1 to become an ultimate douluo rank 99. This boost in cultivation had 2 causes. The first one was that Star Lake was truly a blessing to cultivate. High vitality, high spirit energy concentration, best mimicry environment for ''white'' spirits, without forgetting that the calmness here was perfect to cultivate. There was also the food that I ate here. In this place, it wasn''t allowed to hunt so meat was impossible to get. On the other hand, plants were abundant. In this time I learned why Lingling laughed at me asking who I need to ask permission. Thanks to the rich essence here, most of the plants are sentient, having at least I little self-awareness. If you want a fruit or a vegetable you should ask them very politely and with respect, praising them to make them happy enough to comply. My ignorance and little tact caused having no food for the first week. It cost time and effort to finally make a friendly relationship with the plants. The products of this plant were highly concentration of spirit energy, making that eating was like cultivation. The second was due to Paul, for some reason a could sense that he learned somehow to boost our cultivation. Even though Paul couldn''t even cultivate alone without my help at first, he learned from me and it didn''t take much time for him to learn. It seems that he had improved and now he could even boost my cultivation even without being in control. This created an unstoppable count-down for our clash. Of course, I could stop it damaging my own cultivation, however, I won''t do it. I always wanted to be strong, have the power to protect my loved ones, I won''t throw all my hard work in fright from Paul. For my sword cultivation, I made great improvements. Not only I condensed the Life Intent, I even accomplished attaining the Life Domain. The Life Intent effects were a boost in vitality, making my body stronger, plus the help of Star Lake atmosphere my body strength escalated to a new level, I could also increase the natural regeneration of someone else, causing for injuries to heal faster. If I focused all my power on it, I could even instantly head someone, at least from external injuries, I didn''t really try for severe internal ones. For Protection comprehension, it greatly improved. I could finally stabilize the Sword Heart Realm, I could focus all my will and the world''s will in my sword in one attack. The problem was that for now, I''m unable to even move after that attack, spending all my strength in one, powerful condensation of my heart. This Sword Heart kept the defensive nature of my Intent pushing away all that was considered harming. I have a long way to accomplish what Paul could do. Paul was able to control his Sword Heart in a continuous state, causing something similar to a Spirit Tool Avatar, being able to boost in one attack and even continue fighting. Even if this was thanks to the Deathgod Domain obtained after completing the Hell Road, there''s no doubt that Paul''s comprehension was a realm over mine. There was another important aspect. I could use both Life and Protection at the same time. The truth was that it was extremely simple, both Intent were related and worked fine together, the Life Intent boosting the effects of the Protection Intent. The Life Intent was known for its support capabilities making it easy to help others, similar to the Seven Treasure Pagoda, that was capable of supporting any other spirit. This also caused a problem, it was so easy for Life to support my Protection that trying to blend both only caused for Life to support Protection, without any clash between both. This makes extremely difficult to combine both intents in one. If I want to have a chance against Paul''s Slaughter, I''ll need to combine both Life and Protection. I''d need to work harder. For the spirit beasts, my relationship with them had improved. At first, they were way of me, only letting my presence thanks to Lingling. But with this year living with them and my goodwill manifesting in my own sword they started to be less alert, I even helped some of them, healing little injures or with some other problems. So now I was, at least, accepted by them. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I was in my usual training regime, I sensed someone coming closer to me, I realized that it was Lingling. I talked with her from time to time, but she was always a little distant and seemed very busy with something, so our conversations weren''t long, she was usually going from one place to another. "Hello, Bai" Lingling approached me "It seems that you really became stronger. Could you accompany me?" "Where?" I asked. "I have one of my duty near here. I usually accompanied by some 100.000 years beast, but I think that with you would be enough. It''s not like I have ever been attacked by any beast, the only that would attack me would be the low intelligent beast and my companions made a good deterrent. Don''t worry, it would be similar to a walk for the forest" She answered. "Okay. I stayed here a lot of time, even with this fresh air, some change of air would be good for me" I said doing some stretches. Lingling smiled "Great. It can be very monotonous and boring do the same things" she went to a nearby wall. From her hands a green glow was emitted, this caused the moss to react shining brighter. At the same time the rocks around started reconstructing forming a door, similar to the one at the Forest Portal "Let''s go, Bai" she said crossing the door. I followed her, crossing the hole I found myself surrounded by trees, by its vegetation there was no doubt that I was at Star Duo Forest, I would say at the Inner Area. Lingling started walking in one direction "Today it will be lake number 3" she mumbled. She turned to me "There may be a familiar face there. Although, I doubt you have a close relationship with her" She said before continuing walking. Chapter 108 - Lake number 3 "A familiar one?" I asked confused. "Yep. I met her from time to time, which is good for her. Let''s make it a surprise for you" She said smiling. Continuing walking, Lingling started humming, she was making light jumps while walking. For some reason, a green aura appeared around her that seemed to completely blend with her surroundings. For the places that she passed the vegetation grew stronger, and it could even be listened to spirit beast voices following Lingling humming. In all, it made a very beautiful picture, Lingling seemed to have become one with the forest making it stronger and the forest answered protecting her. As she walked the forest was moving, making a path for her, even at the extreme of always growing grass under her, her feet never touching the nude ground. I recuperated from my stupor "Lingling, where exactly are we going?" "You already know that there are subsidiaries of the Star Lake overall Star Duo Forest" Lingling started saying "We will go to Lake number 3. Like the Sea of Tranquility where you went. These places have traces of the water from Star Lake, making them purer. Of course, they cannot be compared with Star Lake, but they are imitations. The problem is that this pure state could not be maintained, year by year is weakening. The only reason that Star Lake could maintain its environment is thanks to Bi Yi. For other places, they are more suggestible to be contaminated. Once contaminated, the little water with impurities that came from Star Lake will not be enough" She paused for a moment "This is my duty, I visit this subsidiaries lakes and purify them, maintaining their properties" "So you and people or beasts capable of doing the same are the responsible to keep the lakes pure like the Sea of Tranquility" I summarized. "Half point" answered Lingling "What you said is true. However, the Sea of Tranquility is an untouched one, it''s never purified. In the near future, it will stop its function and become a completely normal lake. That lake was also a relatively new created one, originated by a little leak of the Star Lake" "I understand. But in this case, what is the condition for you to purify a lake? What difference are?" I asked. "100.000 years spirit beasts. Having attained that cultivation is a great achievement, the Spirit Beast Linage decides to give them something in exchange for them to fight against others and to help in case of a disaster to the Forest. This gift could be a treasure or place. I very sought place, are the subsidiaries of Star Lake, so they are gifted to them. For this reason, the properties of the lakes are to be maintained. And at the same, this makes that spirits less pushed to attack as they know that it would cause the loss of this privilege" Lingling explained. I nodded and we continued walking, arriving at a lake. The lake had a pure green and blue water, even if its size wasn''t very big, high and pure spirit energy coming from it. It wasn''t at the level of Star Lake, but it was much nearer than the Sea of Tranquility. Having detected our presence a huge figure approached us. The strangest of all was that even with a huge body it seemed to move nimble and it didn''t make any sound moving. Once near us, I could see what it was. It was a giant gorilla, with black fur, more than 7 meters tall, with all its body full of muscles. It was a Titan Giant Ape, for its size and presence there wasn''t any doubt that it was over 100.000 years. It must be known that Titan Giant Apes is considered one of the apex of spirit beast, with great attack and defense power, a 50.000 years old one could even fight against another 100.000 years old beast, not talking about this one that had 100.000. Seeing me, the Ape made a wary face and started analyzing. "He is with me, It is my friend. There is no need to be wary, Er Ming" Lingling said. The Titan Giant Ape, Er Ming, turned to her and made a light bow "I will trust you" Er Ming said turning to the lake. Bubbles started appearing from the lake, at that place a big snake-like beast emerged from the lake. It had a bull''s head over 4 meters of diameter, followed by a body of a snake, more than 30 meters long. I didn''t know what spirit beast was, but for its sheer pressure, I could analyze that it was stronger than Er Ming. Excluding the Kings of Star Duo Forest, I doubt it would have any rival, but not having attained the realm of Hei Qi. It inclined its head to Lingling "I welcome you, Embodiment of Life. Thanks for coming and please spent some time with Little Sister" "You are welcome and there is no need to thank, Da Ming" Lingling answered. Da Ming nodded again and returned inside the water. Lingling approached the lake and knelt on its coast. She joined both her hands like if praying, a green aura surrounded her, this caused for flowers to grow around her. This aura increased little by little. She stood in that position for an hour until the aura started moving to her hands. Once all the aura was focused on her hands, she brought her hands in the lake. Like a pulse, a ripple of green water traversed all the lake. Lingling fell back to the ground, laying exhausted. I approached her taking a handkerchief from my storage and offered her. She smiled at me and cleaned her sweet "Thanks, Bai" I looked at her a little worried "Lingling, why didn''t you use your spir-". "Lingling!" I shout interrupted me. Turning to the voice I saw a beautiful girl with long straight brown hair. This time a recognized her, she was the Soft Boned Rabbit humanized spirit beast, Xiao Wu. She jumped to Lingling hugging her "Long time not seeing you. It''s very boring here only with big brothers" Lingling forced a smile and signaled me with her face. This caused Xiao Wu to finally realize my presence. She glanced at me and tilted her head "You are...?" I sighed (I defeated her two times, my sister is one of her best friends and she didn''t remember me. What a hit for my pride. I must have a very low presence) "I am..." "I have at the tip of my tongue," Xiao Wu said "You are...Oh! I know! You''re Rongrong''s brother, Bai! What are you doing here?" "I cam..." just as I was about to talk she interrupted "Nevermind, let''s focus on the important. How is brother San? And Rongrong? And all Shrek''s members? How is..." This girl was really making me angry, I must thank my training at the Star Lake, easier controlling my feeling and keeping calm, if not I would have shouted her to shut up and hit her and ordered her to listen. Not a great plan when there are two 100.000 spirit beast around, surely her friends, or as they called themselves brothers, would help her, attacking me. "Breath, calm down, Xiao Wu" I said the most politely I could at the moment. She seemed to realize her euphoria and not letting me talk, she blushed a little ashamed "Sorry. Could you explain what you know about Shrek, please?" "I don''t really have information about them. I am in the same case as you, just after the tournament I left all of them behind and I passed this year in Star Duo Forest. I only met Tang San last year" Xiao Wu seemed to react to Tang San''s name, her eyes sparkled and opened widely. She was having difficulty to control herself to ask again, even knowing that it would only delay the information. "I only met him shortly, he was training with his father, Tang Hao. He seemed fine and his strength had increased. For what is he doing, no idea" I told her. She was glad knowing that Tang San was fine after their farewell, she also was sad about not being with him and at the same time, she was disappointed by my lack of knowledge. These feelings were easily seen on her face. She smiled looking at the sky "I''m glad that brother San is fine and continue growing" She clenched her hands "I''ll need to become stronger or I will be left behind" She then turned to me and Lingling "Can I follow both of you? It would be a great help!" she requested. "Why?" I asked with a strange face "I''m focusing on the sword path and Lingling is a support system, you would learn more with Er Ming" She made a serious face "It''s because you''re humans. Once a spirit beasts evolve to humans, they need human contact to grow and become stronger. This is the reason for them to go to the human society. If not they could stay in the forest protected until they entered the m?tur?d phase, when they are undetectable, after arriving at the 60 rank. You won''t be the same as being in human society but it would greatly help me. Please, let me follow you!" she said bowing. I looked at Lingling waiting for her to say something. Lingling smiles "It is your decision. I am busy, and there are places where she won''t be permitted, of course, Star Lake is not a problem for her" Looking at the expectant eyes of Xiao Wu I sighed in defeat "Okay, you can come. I suppose that having a sparring partner would be good" I glanced at Xiao Wu "But never annoy me when I''m training" She took my hands and waved them up and down "Thanks!" she shouted happily. "I already have finished the purification, we can return anytime," Lingling said "Wu, say goodbye to them," she said signaling the ape and the lake "And remember to never break the peace at Star Lake" Xiao Wu then ran towards her brothers and started talking with them, I suppose that explained the circumstances. As I was bored waiting, suddenly I sensed something strange and my left arm started trembling "Oh, fu?k!" Chapter 109 - Bais Sword Heart I instantly recognized this trembling, this seemingly resonance towards another. I turned to the other and shouted seriously "Be aware! Someone extremely powerful is approaching!" They all looked at me strangely, but it only took a moment for them to finally detect the presence that was getting near. Their expression changed to a serious one, preparing for a fight. It could be seen a tint of fright in their faces with cold sweet falling their neck. "brrrrrrr!" a great sound was heard, and it was quickly approaching. Finally, the cause of the noise arrived, a powerful black bullet, a concentration of power entered the lake''s open area, followed by destroyed trees. Er Ming reacted, he dashed quickly standing in front of the black bullet. Er Ming punched it. The clash caused shock waves, destroying the ground under Er Ming. Er Ming put more strength, bulging its arm''s muscles, finally stopping the projectile. As I predicted, the stopped projectile was a black sword. The black sword started going back while spinning until it was caught by a black armored figure with a helmet of a dragon, it was Hei Qi. (Fuck! Star Lake wasn''t supposed to be near the Steel Dump, maybe this lake is nearer. Fuck my luck!) With one step he seemed to have been teleport and was now standing at the other side of the lake. Hei Qi turned to me and his helmet opened its mouth "You returned more completed, good. Let''s take care of the flies" Four black sword appeared floating at his back. They were surrounded by a black aura, with a spin they aimed towards me, Lingling, Xiao Wu and Er Ming. The sword shot toward us, crossing the lake, cutting the water "Boooom!" a water pillar shot up from the lake diverting the swords. In the lake, with most of its body underwater, stood Da Ming. "A bigger fly has appeared" Spatted Hei Qi a black sword appearing in his hands. "Run! I will stop him" Da Ming said to us without breaking its view from Hei Qi. Er Ming stood in front of us and prepared to defend us, it turned to Xiao Wu "Escape" In both voices could be sense the hopelessness, they already knew that it would be impossible for them fighting against Hei Qi, the most would be gaining a little time. Hei Qi dashed to Da Ming lifting his sword. From Da Ming, a purple aura extended, it was a domain! For an instant Hei Qi movement seemed to slow down "Useless" Hei Qi said, without any movement the domain was shattered in pieces, dispersing like if it was never there. Hei Qi slashed with his sword, Da Ming twirled its giant body, evading the slash to hit its face, however, it couldn''t completely dodge and the attack caused a big gash on its body. "No!" Xiao shouted with tears in her eyes "I won''t leave you to your death. I won''t run away" she said crying, but she had a resolute look in her faces, never surrendering. "Graaaaaaaaah!" Da Ming roared, a powerful wind cannon was shot from its mouth. Hei Qi blocked it with his sword, only lightly being pushed away landing on the water safely. Seeing this combat between powerhouses my body wouldn''t stop trembling (It was impossible to fight them, they were too strong! How could I fight them? How much time I''ll need to arrive at their level? That supposing it was possible?) A wave of negative feelings started clinging me, a black aura surging from my left arm. [Don''t fight. Run] a heard a sinister voice [What are they for you? They are nothing, some spirit beasts that you didn''t even meet before, they are only spirit rings with feet] I shook my head (I can''t let them here, Lingling won''t be able to run away, being a support) [ The girl? what did she do? She was even useless in a little tournament. Friends are only disposable figures, lies and weakness] The fight continued, each attack of Hei Qi caused an injury in Da Ming, Er Ming jumped to the fight, emitting an aura that seemed to push down Hei Qi, somehow increasing the gravity around him. But all seemed futile, as Hei Qi''s attack didn''t even slow for a moment. [Run now! Let them die if it means your survival] (It''s my fault) Tears fell from my eyes (If it wasn''t for me Hei Qi won''t come. How could I let them sacrifice for me). The voice sneered [And it wasn''t Tang San fault for Mayi to die? Even when he didn''t have any need for it. This would be pay back, let the rabbit with her friend die, let Tang San suffer what losing someone loved. It''s normal to revenge] This shocked me, it was true that Tang San killed Mayi, it would be normal for Tang San''s lover to die for my fault, I was only paying back. I turned back from the battle running away. I was running away, it was the only that I could do. It was only their bad luck and that they were idiots, they could have run, letting me there. Hei Qi''s objective was me so it would have attacked me. Yeah, if they died, would be for being idiots "Hahaha" I started laughing. I stopped running "No!" I shouted "How could abandon the people that help me? They are fighting for my fault, how could not only ignore them, even laugh at their bravery" [You didn''t even know them much, it''s their idiocy that killed them. Abandon them] tried to convince me. "No! This is not my thoughts. If I start ignoring my surroundings, now it may be some unknown beast and a previous teammate, but if I continue there would be one day that it could be my family and loved ones. This is no my path!" I invoked my Nine Treasure Sword in my right, a bright white light shot from it. The black aura clinging in my left arm started retracting in panic, frightened by the new white aura [You would regret!] it shouted desperately. "I would regret even more leaving them to die" I quietly said the black aura disappearing. Finally, my mind seemed to have been cleaned and I could think properly, all the remains of the Slaughter Intent having disappeared from me. "I''ll need to help them". Lightning appeared from my right foot activating my spirit bone. I jumped, running towards the lake. After some time fighting, Hei Qi''s armor was completely intact. It couldn''t say the same about Da Ming and Er Ming that had all their bodies covered in slash wounds. "Enough" Black aura shot from Hei Qi''s sword, the sword changing to a greatsword "Sword: Strength" the sword increase in size, becoming 8 meters long. Hei Qi swung his powerful sword, it seemed to not only cut the air, it even cut the space. The joint defense of Da Ming and Er Ming wasn''t enough to stop the sword. Both of them were hit by the sword, a large slit over their body, a lot of blood spurting from their wound. They crashed to the lake, waves were created by their crash, and they were almost unable to even stand back again. I finally returned to the lake, Da Ming and Er Ming were gravely injured. In front of Hei Qi, two black sword appeared aimed at Er Ming and Da Ming''s neck. Xiao Wu was crying. A pink aura was surrounding here and was increasing in size and power. It was spirit immolation, she would sacrifice herself creating a miracle for an opportunity for her friends'' survival. "Stop! Xiao Wu!" causing Xiao Wu to flinch stopping her immolation for a second. I jumped toward Da Ming and Er Ming. Hei Qi turned to me and somewhat seemed to grin, he shot the two black swords toward them. "I won''t let them die. I would protect them!" I hold my sword with both hands, a concentrated light aura surrounding it. Until now, my Sword Heart was an attack, a formless concentration of will and energy shooting it to the enemy. The truth is that it was a copy of Paul, it was a light ray, but without its destructive power and Paul''s will. This imitation made it a lot less powerful than Paul, in a crash between both, Paul wouldn''t even need to use the combination of Killing and Death, one of them would be enough. It would have been enough even in the perpetual similar avatar-state, to face against it. However, why it was an attack? It would be a wasted shooting away the energy. I want to protect, not to damage. Finally, I could understand and my aura followed my will. Putting all my strength in my sword I lifted it, simultaneously activating all my ring''s skill. I swung my sword downwards "" A pure white shield was created in front of Da Ming and Er Ming. This shield was nothing like the previous one, this wasn''t simple aura, this was a solid shield, it would even be more powerful than a spirit avatar of a defense system. His defense power had escalated attaining the late spirit douluo realm. Hei Qi''s sword crashed the shield, a metallic sound was heard, the swords were trying to penetrate the shield, they slowly lowered their momentum, losing their black aura. Chapter 110 - Godly Fragments After the swords lost their black aura they fell to the lake powerless. Hei Qi''s gaze turned to me and charged towards me. I didn''t have any strength to fight, not that it would make any difference fighting against someone so powerful. Before arriving at me, Hei Qi collided with a white shield, it was my sword heart, Aegis. Detecting my own danger it had automatically reacted, appearing in front of me. Hei Qi lifted his left hand and extended over the shield, supporting himself. Sword at his right hand, he thrust forward, easily penetrating the shield which dispersed in air. Due to the backslash of my sword heart''s destruction, I vomited blood, making me even weaker than before. Then, Hei Qi appeared in front of me. His left arm shot to me, and he lifted me graving me by my neck. I could feel a suffocating sensation, not enough air entering my lungs. From Hei Qi''s helmet, his eyes part opened, proving that it was an armor and not his real body, showing a mesmerizing multicolored eyes. They seemed to scan myself, I sensed like I couldn''t hide anything, I couldn''t escape from him and my death was near. It wasn''t only his eyes, all his aura changed in that instant, if anything that I would be able to do will be only a futile struggle before, now I couldn''t even try that struggle. My body unconsciously started trembling "Interesting. Someone so tainted being able to create that pure light. You can be of help" Hei Qi said in a cold voice that even I sensed my heartbeat to stop. Suddenly, Hei Qi turned to his right and swung his sword "BAAAAAM!" Multiple different attacks targeted him, it was like a rain of fire, water, thunder... But was easily stopped by Hei Qi''s swing. From the direction of the attack a large group of spirit beasts appeared, there were more than 50 spirit beasts, some of them were even older than 100.000 years. On the center of them, seemingly be the most important of them, being protected by the other spirit beasts, stood a stunning beautiful woman. She had green jade hair and eyes that shined brightly, her figure was slender with a green dress that outlined her body perfectly. The most characteristic of her was a pair of green jade wings that seemed to have sculpted by gems, each feather extremely dazzling. Her wings exuded a captivating aura of life making her seem like a natural goddess. It created a strange picture, a beautiful woman surrounded by beasts. She lifted her head looking at Hei Qi without an ounce of fright "How you dare to attack the forest, Hei Qi!?" She looked at Er Ming, Da Ming, Xiao Wu, and Lingling "Not only that, you even attack some of my people. Leave immediately" "It''s you who is daring trying to order me. You aren''t my rival, swan" Hei Qi spatted. "I may not be, but I am enough to gain time until Tian''s appearance," She said glaring at him. "What a joke. How many beasts would be sacrificed to obtain that time? And it''s not a certainty that I can''t return to my lair before that old dragon appears" He looked down at her "Even when you shoulder countless necessaries sacrifices for you to stand where you are now, you continue being naive enough to try to keep everyone alive" This caused a look of rage, sadness, and worry to appear at the woman''s face "However, you don''t need to worry. I would leave now" His sword disappeared being replaced by a small dagger. He turned to me who was in his grasp yet, he swung the dagger piercing it in my left arm. Instead of pain, I sensed a strange sensation as the dagger entered my arm, instead of piercing it was like it was being absorbed. Once the dagger was totally absorbed he threw me to a side of the lake. I was shot like a cannon striking the ground, losing my consciousness, the figure of Hei Qi leaving the last that I saw. When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying on the ground. I was surrounded by the Lingling, Xiao Wu and the green-haired woman. The green-haired woman was kneeling beside me had her wings extended and glowing brightly and some green aura emitted from them towards me. Seeing me opening the eyes, the green-haired woman''s wings folded themselves stopping the green glow. She stood up and looked directly at my eyes "You showed your goodwill and heart to us. From now on and forever you will be a friend of us" She turned to Lingling "When he is ready, he can come to my quarters" Lingling made a low bow nodding. The green-haired woman then turned around and left the scene, being followed by all the spirit beasts, only leaving Lingling, Xiao Wu, Er Ming, Da Ming and me there. Xiao Wu jumped hugging me "Thanks for helping my brothers, they would be dead if not for you, from now own we all are brothers!" I looked at her strangely and turned to Da Ming and Er Ming, all their injured were healed as if they weren''t there in the first place. They sighed at Xiao Wu antics, but looked at me and lowered their heads a little nodding. I scratched my head "There''s no need to thanks. It was my fault that Hei Qi came, I was his target" Xiao Wu separated from the hug and shook her head "You could have escaped but you put your life in the line for us. I almost immolated myself. You would always have our thanks" she said seriously. "Okay, okay. Don''t be so formal it''s strange" I turned to Lingling who seemed to know more about "What''s all this about? Who was the woman and her entourage?" "She was the Emerald Swan, Queen of Star Lake, Bi Ji" She attentively looked at me and smiled "It seems that you had your problem resolved in this fight, the nefarious aura is completely focused and isn''t affecting you at all, condensed in a single point. For what she told, you have been recognized, now being able to enter the inner area of Star Lake where Bi Ji lives. Congratulations" "So I finally suppressed the Slaughter Intent. I am nearer to fight against Paul" I said for myself "To think that the woman was the Emerald Swan. What''s the difference between the inner area where she lives and the outer?" I asked Lingling. "It is not much. A little purer, but it would not make a big difference. The most important is that you are accepted by Bi Ji like I was before you. She would even accept training you, with her help your understanding of Life would soar to a new level" Lingling explained. (Increasing my Life comprehension would be a good step to go against Paul. I would at least made it similar as Protection before being able to fuse them) I clenched my hands in determination. I quickly stood up shouting "What are we waiting for. Let''s g-" A big headache forces me to stop talking and put a hand over my head. "Calm down, Bai" said Lingling "You need to rest to had a big fight, even with your injured healed by Bi Ji, your mental strength is at the lowest. There is also the problem of Hei Qi''s dagger. I do not know what that was all that about. For now, rest, Bai" I sighed and turned to my left hand. That sensation was similar as when Paul absorbed a sword fragment at the Slaughter King''s treasure stove (I know that it is important. But, what the fu?k is all this about? I hate that Paul knows more about it) I stayed thoughtfully (Now that I remembered I had a treasure worth inside my storage) I focused on my storage searching inside it, most of them were precious objects, but comparing with the wealth of my clan it wasn''t up to, so it didn''t impress me too much. For some reason one object attracted me, it was an old, all chimed sword. Almost like a reflex I took it out, my heartbeat increasing and my left arm trembling in resonance with it. Once outside it became light gray particles and was absorbed by my left hand. I wave of tiredness hit me and I fell to the ground listened anxious voices "BAI!" I closed my eyes falling sleep. Chapter 111 - Healing Heart Opening my eyes I found myself in a strange place, an empty world where it couldn''t be seen even the ground I was standing. The only thing that filled that world were countless number of swords, all of them having their own characteristics being impossible to find two equals. The strangest was the color of this world, it was a combination of colors that flowed around, it was strange but for some reason, the colors mixed well and didn''t create a bad combination. "There has been thousands of years since we do not see your case" Multiples voices sounded at the same time, they were all overlapped and expressed different feelings without creating any cacophony "It''s not extremely unusual for more than one style to coexist in the same person, however, cases so characteristic as yours, to even create other-selves. Moreover, two of them to accomplish so much and be recognized by us" Turning to the voices I could finally recognize the source. It was the outline of a human blended with the outside world. "Who are you? And what is this place?" I asked. "Similar question as the other one. We are the Sword God and this is our space, we used it to communicate with followers of the sword path" the Sword God said "You obtained our recognization, the same as your other self, even reuniting more God Sword Fragments. The God Sword Fragments are pieces of our divinity divided into swords. You obtained two more, each would impart you our knowledge and power, increasing your overall strength" I looked at my left arm, a sword shot from it and I held it. This time the sword was completely white like the first time I obtained not even a taint of Paul''s Slaughter could be found "So this sword is formed by your divinity" He nodded "Each fragment would help in increasing your strength, but do not be wrong. This power is as yours as your other self, this power will not help against yourself" "Even an improvement caused by it won''t help against Paul, I''ll need to continue focus in my training" I said to myself, then I turned to him "You did say two fragments. One would be the old sword. Could it be the other Hei Qi''s dagger?" "Correct. Hei Qi gift you one fragment, but it wasn''t an act of compassion. That fragment is marked by Hei Qi, he would be able to track you whenever you hide" He said. I was scared by the Sword God revelation "There is some way to destroy that tracking?" "We cannot act against Hei Qi, as a mortal, mortals should be the ones that take him. You would need your own strength to surpass him" Sword God informed. "I understand, thanks for the information. However, this is the only reason that you summoned me here?" I asked. "You acquired the requirement for it. I usually would have given a test for you, but, I already gave one to you. It will not change. Be complete, the result would obtain the necessary to go beyond" Sword God said his voices sounding as moving away, finally disappearing. My vision blackened, when it returned I had my eyes opened and I was lying on Lingling''s ??p near the Lake number 3 "Are you fine, Bai?" asked Lingling concerned. I stood up "Yeah, no problem I suddenly found myself very tired. There''s no problem now, you don''t need to worry" Lingling glanced me with a face that she didn''t trust me and that I was hiding something. "Let''s go to Star Lake I want to completely stabilize my new findings. Once I finish I would visit Bi Ji" I turned to Xiao Wu "You can also come it would help you in becoming stronger" I said before running to the Star Lake. Xiao Wu nodded while Lingling sighed, but both of them followed me. After 1 week I stabilized my realm and I was healed. This week, Xiao Wu stood near me training for herself when we weren''t sparring between us. On Lingling''s case, she continued with her goings and returnings. I decided to go to the inner part of Star Lake, Xiao Wu accompanying me. While traveling there Lingling appeared and joined the group. We approached the little waterfall, it won''t be difficult to jump it but was being guarded by a huge quantity of beast, even if they were only laying around I could expect for them to attack in case a intrude''s invasion. Lingling stepped forward and walked over the lake, it was like she was walking on the simple ground "Remember the way. There''s only one path if you not follow it accordingly, you won''t reach your destination" she was directed to the waterfall while doing a series of turns. I closely followed her remembering the way. As we reach the waterfall, it opened before us showing a long stair. The stair went up, a lot more than the height of the waterfall. Going up the stairs we were surrounded by water from both side, the waterfall must have been some kind of illusion hiding the true path. Crossing this road we arrived in front of Bi Ji. I bowed "You have my most gratitude to allow me here" Bi Ji shook her head "There is no need. You put yourself in danger for us being accepted. You are a friend of the spirit beasts" She turned to the object in star form "This is the core of the Star Lake. The life of the lake is connected with it, in case it dies the lake will follow it. There''s a powerful barrier around it impossible by a mortal being to penetrate so there is no real danger for it to be taken away" "Could I know why do you explain me this?" I asked. She lightly smiled "The youths always with their rush" she shook her head "This treasure is slowly drying, it only can continue it rol thanks to me. Without my influence, it won''t last even 5.000 years more" She turned to look at me "I want your help. The Star would help you increase your strength, in exchange, it would make use of yourself to keep its form" (This doesn''t seem good) I thought. Looking at my face she smiled kindly "Do not worry there will not be any side effect, it is completely a symbiosis effect. The Star would help you and by the mere fact of your increase in strength, it would be rewarded" She stopped for a moment "To receive the Star favor you must be able to support a fraction of its power. This can only be accomplished by 100.000 years old beasts or in your case, people with a great comprehension in Life Intent" She then approached the Star "Come near it and cultivate" "I am able to do it?" asked worriedly Xiao Wu. "Even if you reincarnated to a human, you have your spirit beast essence and with it, you have the requirement and the right to do it. Anyway, do not be surprised if your gains are not up to your expectations. I can detect that Life is not your focus, but you would gain at least a boost of vitality" Bi Ji informed. Xiao Wu and I stepped forward. I could sense powerful energy coming from the Star, seemingly limitless energy flow of Life. I turned to Lingling who stood in the same place "Linglin-" "I already did it. Do not worry" She said smiling. I nodded and sat in lotus position and started cultivating. I could sense external energy around me that influenced, pushing me to a new height in Life comprehension. Healing can be divided in different ways. Considering as closing of injured it can be obtained, by moving cells of the body to the affected area. Improving or pushing the natural regeneration of the injured. And even creating from nothingness a replacement for the injured part. Life is all of them. If there''s enough Life from even a minuscule part it can be regenerated a complete body. Life is what moves the body, what regenerates it and keep it breathing... I opened my eyes without even knowing how much time I expend in trance cultivating. Sensing my body I could feel a great boost in vitality, thanks to a bigger increase in Life Intent. I invoked my sword and focus on it. The rich Life energy around the place was little by little concentrating in my sword, my sword creating a pale green aura "Sword Heart: Healing Heart" like a beating, waves originated from the sword extended to every place, seemingly like ripple created on water by a stone. These waves were full of Life energy and were able to heal any external wound. "Impressive" Bi Ji who was not far said "To last 4 months" I turned to them and I could also see Lingling and Xiao Wu. Lingling didn''t have changed at all, but from Xiao Wu, a greater aura could be sensed, without any doubt, her strength had increased. "4 months. How much time is usually expended there?" I asked. "It depends on the compatibility" answered Bi Ji. Xiao Wu scratched her head "I only last 2 week" I turned to Lingling. Lingling looked away and said in a low voice "2 years" "So it greatly depends. Comparing with Lingling I''m not near the top" I analyzed. "4 months is incredibly long. In my case, it was 6 months, showing great talent towards Healing. That Life blessed girl is an exemption" Bi Ji said "Take it to account, that this new knowledge is only a minuscule part of Life and it''s focused on healing, but Life is more than only healing. I already talked with the Linage and they accepted to also help you" "Why will the help me?" I asked "Don''t take it wrong, I am very pleased but I can''t understand the reason" "In my case, I always wished for beasts and humans to live in harmony without any need to injure the others. I am glad to meet a human that treats beasts as their friend or family. For the others..." She stopped a moment "It will be Hei Qi. He did not kill you and even marked you. Following Tian''s word, you would be necessary to Hei Qi''s downfall. He is like a pest to this beautiful forest, he must be stopped" She shook her head "We are not asking your help. But at least we expect your goodwill in the future" "I will help in anything that I can, you have my word" I vowed. Bi Ji nodded smiling and turned to Lingling "I already talked with Sen Lin" She then looked to me and Xiao Wu "Guide them to there" "Of course" nodded Lingling. Lingling approached me, patted my back "Let''s go, Bai, Xiao Wu" and left towards outside. I was a little shocked without knowing what is this all about. I shook my head (I will know it later) and run following Lingling. Chapter 112 - Red-Violet Rose {AN: I changed the name said by Bi Ji who she already talked to her to Hua Mei. A little change of name that won''t change anything except that} "Bai, did you learn the Star''s name?" Lingling asked without stopping. "No, should I have?" I asked curiously. "No. It did not matter, let''s go" she said increasing the pace. Following Lingling we left the Star Lake crossing a portal "Where are we going, Lingling?" I asked without stopping. "We are traveling towards the Flowery Garden, another one of the 5 Death Areas" Lingling answered. "Why? Star Lake with its calm and full of vitality environment should be the best to train. I know that a change of the surrounding may help but it will be better to wait until I stabilize my intent" Lingling stopped and turned to me "Your actual Life Intent is focused on healing if you take your time to stabilize it would be extremely difficult for you to understand the other properties of Life. In the Flowery Garden, you should be able to quickly learn about support" "Support?" She nodded "With your comprehension on Life, the best outcome would be to make your Protection Intent support the Healing, now you should learn Life supporting Protection" "Wait a moment" I stopped her "Did you already know about this previously?" She blushed a little and looked down "Yes. I was the one who decided this order" I was in shock due to the new findings, Lingling was guiding me in my own way without any notice from me. Thinking it now (Life as support would have been a lot easier as my Protection was stronger. At the same time, this would mean that learning Healing would have been even more difficult after the support. First Healing and then Support would make the start more difficult, but the overall time would be lower) "Lingling" she lifted her face a little scared. I smiled at her "Thanks". I already could sense where the Flowery Garden was situated so I advanced her who was still shocked. "Let''s go!" Lingling quickly recuperated from her stupor and followed me, taking the guiding position again. As we went nearer the Flowery Garden the vegetation started to increase in size, becoming a lot leafier, the trees and plants were so huge that covered all the sky, making it seem like it became night. We continue walking until we were stopped by a kind of a wall made of what it resembled a root with thorns. Lingling approached the wall "Where was the entrance?" She mumbled. She started walking along the wall, suddenly, stopping "Here" She then hold some roots and started moving them showing a path behind them "Come" Lingling entered the path. I followed her. The path was 2 meters wide and it was surrounded by the thorny roots, it seemed more of a cave if not for the occasional movement of some roots. After walking over a kilometer, light could finally be seen showing the exit of the path. Leaving the path I closed my eyes, momentarily blinded by the sunlight. Recuperating my sight I was shocked due to the scenery. It was a great change from the path here. While the path was gloomy this place couldn''t be more warm and lively. It was a hill, all along it full of flowers, there were a lot of different types, all of them carefully positioned to not create a chaotic contrast of colors. It seemed a perfect colorful garden created with extreme attention and carefulness, the little insects and birds flying around only made the picture better. Most of the flowers I couldn''t even recognize, but I could even see some that were considered a treasure. We climbed up the little hill, as we climbed the flowers became less but their vitality aura exploded, easily seen that they were more precious. As we were near the top the only that persisted was the common Blue-Silver Grass, without any flower around, this Blue-Silver Grass couldn''t be compared to a normal one, I could sense powerful power from them and I was sure that it has sentinence. Reaching the top we found what it seemed a bud, with red and violet petals forming it. Lingling extended her hands, a green glow from them. Like reacting to it, the bud started opening letting us see a cute little girl. The girl seemed to be 13 years old, with a delicate, smooth, pink skin. She had short curly black hair adorned by a red rose on her left said, her red jewelry eyes shined with mischief. Her ?h?st was covered by a black thorny vine that hid her little mounts. The petals that formed the bud, rearranged themselves forming a skirt around her. For her legs, it couldn''t be seen as her lower half was rooted, hidden in the ground. The girl yawned and stretched her arms "A good sleep" her voice was melodic and high pitched voice, only strengthening her cute picture. She rubbed her eyes and looked at Lingling, her eyes wide open glinting in happiness, a smile appearing at her lips. She extended her arm and moved to Lingling who had knelt receiving her with a hug. The movement was strange, she continued rotted at the ground, so it would be more of a crawl, however, she didn''t make any sound nor any trace was left behind her. "Lingling! Mei missed you" said the girl rubbing Lingling''s ?h?st while Lingling reciprocated the hug with a warm smile "I also missed you, Mei, but it was only 8 days since we met before" After 30 seconds, the girl broke the hug. She looked around, turning to Xiao Wu and me, finally recognize our presence. She glanced at us with a wary and contempt and spatted "Who are they?" "Mei, don''t be mad" Lingling reprimanded the girl "It seems that introductions must be made" Lingling signaled to us "Mei, this are my friends, Xiao Wu and Ning Bai" She didn''t stop her glancing "You are that human" she grumbled. Lingling signaled the girl "She is Hua Mei, she is the Queen of the Flowery Garden" "No way!" shouted Xiao Wu shocked "I don''t sense any strength from her, how can be this little g-" Before she could finish 4 roots shot from the ground and grappled around Xiao Wu immobilizing her. The tips of the roots were very sharp and pointed at Xiao Wu''s neck. All of this happened in a blink of an eye, impossible for me to even react. I looked shocked at Hua Mei''s strength, her face was a furious one, she had her right arm lifted her palm opened "How you dare, dirty rabbit?!" Mei shouted madly "To disrespect the great Mei. The most beautiful and strong flower, the Red-Violet Rose!" She started closing her right hand, the sharp roots coming closer to Xiao Wu''s neck. "Humm!" Lingling coughed "Mei, you would never harm my friend, no?" Mei slowly turned to Lingling, her furious face changed to a scared one looking at Lingling who had a smile at her face, that seemed all except a smile, it was a little scary "If that happens I would never come again to meet you, Mei" Tears started falling from Mei''s eyes "N-no, no! Of course not, how could Mei harm your friends" she waved her hand and the roots returned underground "It was only a joke. Please forgive Mei" Lingling patted Mei''s head "That was what I thought" I stood there immobile seeing what happened, cold sweet over my body (The girl is strong and temperamental enough to sweep all of us if she is pissed. Luckily, it seems that Lingling had under control) "Continuing with the presentation" Lingling continued, "Hua Mei" signaling Mei ", "Xiao Wu" signaling Xiao Wu, "Ning Bai" signaling me. "Clap!" she clapped her hand "I expect all to be friends" Mei nodded quickly. She returned to a wary face looking at us Mei approached me "Not only a rabbit dirt Mei''s garden, for even permit a human" she sighed and got nearer and said in low voice only for me to listen "If it weren''t for Lingling, Mei would have killed you without even being able to step here" she threatening me, with the combination of her face and voice it wasn''t very intimidating, but knowing her power I was sure that she was telling the truth. Then, Mei started sniffing all around my body, smelling me. She lifted her head looking at my eyes "You have a fresh aura. If it weren''t for that rot, Mei would even like it" "I already explained his circumstances, Mei. Make an exemption" Lingling requested. "This didn''t change his roots, even only a little of taint would rot the flower later" She said "But as Lingling''s friend I would accept this request, but he must leave after" "Of course" Lingling smiled "Thanks, Mei, you are the best". Mei hummed puffing her ?h?st. Mei put her hand at the ground "Yohop!" she pushed a little causing her lower half to be uprooted. showing her slender and b?r? legs. Under her had appeared a hole, it was strange that the hole was 2 meters of diameter, a lot more than Mei, and it couldn''t be seen how profound it was. Mei glanced at me before jumping to the hole. "It is completely safe, go" Lingling said jumping to the hole. Xiao Wu and I looked it other and shrugged our shoulders, deciding to jump to the hole. It was a peculiar sensation, I was falling, but it was a controlled one, falling slowly. After 10 meters the hole opened to a big cavern illuminated by pink and red lights, caused by roots on the walls. Arriving at the ground, grass cushioned our fall, not taking any damage from it. I looked around, the ground was soft and rich, ideal for plants to grow, strangely there weren''t any all around the cavern, only roots at the walls and at the center of it stood Lingling Mei surrounding a little flower that seemed a dark rose. "Welcome to the core of the Flowery Garden" Lingling said. Chapter 113 - Black Rose I could feel a similar and at the same time a different sensation as the Star of Star Lake coming from that flower, pure heaven and earth energy coming from that black rose, with a green thin stem and 3 red leaves. "Wait are you waiting for? Don''t waste Mei''s time. Hurry!" Mei shouted puffing her cheeks. I turned to Lingling searching for an answer "This Flower is the core of the Garden, similar as Star it would help you increase your strength. However, you must be aware that the cores take from their protector. While the Star is very mild and open to accept others and would never try to injure like Bi Ji, the Flower follows Mei character, as such, it would test you, it may be painful. Try to do the same as with the Star" Lingling informed. I carefully approached the Flower (How can even a flower grow here without any sunlight?) I thought "Mei is its sun" Mei answered like reading my mind "Hurry up and start. Mei doesn''t want more than the necessary time for you to stay here" I sat in lotus position and start cultivating. Vines surged from the ground and they started wrapping around my body. They started for my right side, in no time my right arm was all wrapped without any spot to see my skin. It wasn''t painful at all, it only tickled a little. The vines continued crawling around my body, the problem was when they arrived at my back. From the vines long thorns grew, penetrating my skin. Even if painful it wasn''t enough to make me shout, I clenched my teeth resisting my pain. The thorns seemed to be alive and started crawling inside my skin and started slicing and penetrating around. Suddenly a pair of wings emerged from my back, the wings resembled a bat ones and have a gray color. The wings were surrounded by thorny vines that made the wings became all bloody, leaking black blood. The black blood seemed to be absorbed by the thorns that started transforming to black buds. The buds started opening flourishing in black colored roses that didn''t last long before their petals fell and the stems died, dispersing even before touching the ground. After repeating this action 2 more times it finally stopped, leaving the wings wrapped in green vines with redbuds growing along. Seemingly finished with the wings the vines started again spreading to my body. It continued only leaving my right arm free. I waited for the worst, expecting even a more brutal pain at my right arm. Against my thoughts, the vines didn''t even try wrapping around my left arm, they simply ignored it, leaving it the only part of my body not covered by them. At that moment the vines started shining with a green glow. "Tch!" clicked her tongue Mei "It seems that you are recognized. Now cultivate like normal" I followed Mei''s word and started cultivating, easily entering the trance state immediately I started meditating about Life. I could feel the vines helping in the comprehension. In that state, I couldn''t sense my surroundings at all, not even detecting the time that passed. As time passed the vines started increasing their size, redbuds started growing from them. The buds sprout, growing leaves from them. After some time red roses started flourishing all around Bai''s body. The red roses'' petals fell, creating what it seemed like a beautiful rain of petals. These petals started being attracted to the Black Rose, dissipating when they touched it. Once there weren''t any more flower the vines retracted from Bai''s body, making it free. The body seemed more robust, even the uncovered arm and a green aura exuded from Bai. The biggest change was his previously black wings, which became white. Opening my eyes, the first thing that I saw was the face of Mei who was glancing at me with an angry look and her cheeks puffed. She turned to one side without looking at me "It makes Mei angry but you did a good job. So many flowers would help it" "Thanks for this opportunity, Mei" I smiled at her. She turned hearing her name "Don''t call Mei, Mei! You don''t have that right, call Mei, her highness!" I shrugged my shoulders "As you want, your highness" I even made an overly extravagant bow "Where are Xiao Wu and Lingling?" "The rabbit couldn''t even start and was rejected, now had the entrance prohibited to the Flowery Garden. For Lingling, I''d have liked that she stayed with Mei, but she is busy, so she only comes from time to time. I already informed her of your awakening, so she will arrive shortly" Just saying it Lingling fell from the sky "I am glad that you finished. You lasted 6 months, impressive for someone who didn''t have a plant as his spirit" "I stayed for 1 year and I was accepted as a guardian. You even lasted for almost 2 years. He is nothing special!" Shouted Mei. Lingling smiled "Look attentively, Mei" Lingling signaled the Black Rose. Mei closely looked at the Black Rose and her eyes opened wide "No way. Four leaves!" Like she said a fourth leave had grown. Mei turned to me with a face of disbelief with her mouth open. She shook her head and blushed a little "You really helped it, thanks" she blushed even more "Anytime you want to stay here you can come" she shook her red face "Don''t take it wrong, you''re good for it, it''s not for me" After leaving the Black Rose''s lair we left the Flowery Garden, this time the root making a path as we advanced "Now that you are recognized, there''s no need for the other path, the root would open for you. However, this won''t work if you are bringing someone" Lingling explained. Lingling then guided me to a little open area inside the Star Duo Forest with a wooden cabin, the aura around couldn''t be compared to the Death Areas such as the Flowery Garden or the Star Lake. The cabin''s door opened and Xiao Wu left the cabin, seeing us she waved her hand and instantly teleported to our side "Long time not seeing you, Bai!" she cheery said "I was bored" I turned to Lingling "So you prepared this place for my training?" Lingling nodded "Thanks. I need to stabilize my Life concept on my sword, any powerful energy would influence me, changing it according to it, limiting other uses and weakening it" I turned to Xiao Wu and invoked my Nine Treasure Sword on my right hand "Let''s spar Xiao Wu" Chapter 114 - Time skip, Tree of Life <3rd Pov> 6 months passed. In Star Duo Forest, in a small cleaned space, free of any of the typical tall trees, two humans could be seen facing each other. One of them was a young man of 22 years old, he had a handsome face and his most characteristic feature were his golden eyes and snow-white hair. The other one was a beautiful girl with a rosy face who seemed to be around 20 years, she had her long brown hair braided in a scorpion tail and had a pair of charming and intelligent red eyes. Her most characteristic feature should be a pair of long rabbit''s ears and a rabbit''s tail. The young man had a strange sword in his hands that shined with 9 different colors, with a white aura covering it. Around him, 5 white spheres orbited around him. Suddenly, the girls disappeared and appeared at the young man back. She tried to kick him but one white sphere interposed between both, before crashing with the white sphere and without stopping her kick, the girl disappeared yet again appearing at the young man''s right side. The young man seemed to have read her as his sword already was on guard, the kick striking it. A short shine from the sword and the girl was pushed away by an invisible force. The girl recuperated in the air landing safely. "I hate your style! I want to hit you hard!" shouted the girl. The young man smirked "Try it" teased at the girl. From the girl, 6 spirit rings appeared surrounding her, showing that this young girl was a genius, a Spirit Emperor so young. The most shocking was her ring configuration, yellow, purple, purple, purple, black and the most shocking one, red. Her rings started shining as she dashed to the young man, increasing her overall speed and strength. From the young man''s sword 6 spirit rings appeared, purple, purple, black, black, black. The first 3 rings shined brightly and the girl movements turned slower. The girl clicked her tongue and started teleporting around the young man, making difficult to pinpoint her position. Just as the girl appeared at the young man''s back, she found herself surrounded by the five white spheres. The sphere shined and a white aura linked the 5 of them, this caused for a white sphere to be created around the girl, this was a domain! The spheres then shot toward the girl. One purple ring shined brightly and her body started shining with a pink glow. The sphere stroke to the girl without causing any damage to her. The pink aura around the girl exploded in the form of a pink rabbit pushing the spheres aside and breaking the domain. The girl then teleported again at the young man''s side. Her red ring shined brightly and a pink aura focused on her hands and feet. Just as she was about to hit the young man, a black ring of the young man shined and a white sword appeared from air stopping the girl. The young man moved at a tremendous speed, his sword piercing at the girl''s stomach without her being able to evade. Just as the sword was about to pierce the girl''s body turned a translucent pink and the sword pierced her without any damage. The girl tried to kick the young man, but before she could, a powerful white aura shot from his sword, coating it. The young man swung his sword upwards, cutting the translucent body of the girl from her stomach to her right shoulder. A bloody cut appeared at the girl''s shoulder that immediately healed itself. "Tch!" clicked her tongue the girl teleporting 5 meters away. The young man smiled "It''s my win again, Wu" The girl scratched her head pissed "It''s not fair! Your skills cancel mine, immobilizing you won''t stop your spheres and you could even damage Nullity! I want to fight other people! It''s not fair, Bai!" Of course, these pair were Ning Bai and Xiao Wu "Don''t be mad, Wu. You really become a lot stronger. I doubt there are other Spirits Emperors able to fight against me like you and you''re only at rank 61" These months Xiao Wu didn''t stop training and her effort produced great effects. Her spirit rank increased to rank 61, finally arriving at the m?tur? state of a spirit beast, ?ssimilating her own spirit ring. Being able to use her 100.000 years old ring had greatly increased her strength and affinity with her other skill, plus the fact that she was blessed by the Star and was trained by a lot of spirit beasts, she was able to use her spirit skills almost limitless, at least while she was at Star Dou Forest where could quickly absorb the spirit energy of her surroundings. Now that she is a m?tur?d spirit beast, she would be undetectable as such even when faced with a Titled Douluo, so there won''t be any problem while she hid her image, as was already recognized, and she didn''t use her spirit. From now on, she would need to obtain her new spirits from beast unable to self-create them. This could sound bad, a spirit beast killing other spirit beasts for its strength, but usually, there were a lot of spirit beasts close to dying for age so it''s not unusual for one to sacrifice for another spirit beast. For her new spirit rings, her 5 was 12.000 years old one that could lock down her opponent, the problem was that she was also unable to move and it was only a physical block, so useless against me that I could move my sword intent with my will. Her own spirit ring, and her 6th ring, was a 100.000 years old ring with 2 skills. The first one, Nullity, permit her to become an ethereal existence, blocking any physical damage and lowering spirit damage a lot. The second one was a chained attack of 8 attacks, each one with a stunning effect. If you received one it would be difficult to evade the others. I finally accomplished Paul''s weapons, I am sure that he would have improved and that I''m not in par with him, but at least I arrived at his level, obtaining a Sword Intent capable of facing against his Slaughter. I was rank 68 so no much time until I arrive at rank 70 and our fight. Having finished the spar I cleaned myself a little. Just as I finished I sensed someone coming, she was Lingling. Lingling approached us "Hello" she said with a smile and her eyes shined with a green glow "You both really have improved". "Of course. I''ll need to become stronger if I want to be with San" said Xiao Wu puffing her ?h?st. Lingling smiled at her, then turned serious "Xiao Wu, could you leave me a moment alone with Bai?" Xiao Wu realized that it was serious and nodded leaving us alone. "What will it be, Lingling?" I asked. "You asked me multiples times about my spirit and I always evade answering, I would explain it now," she said seriously "First of all, what do you think of my strength?" "It improved a little, but only in its quality and utility. It didn''t improve in strength, to tell you the truth is may be a little lower than at the Continental Tournament" I explained. "You have good sense. As it could be expected from the Seven Treasure Clan" she said, "Are you able to tell my spirit rank?" "No" I answered "I tried before but I was unable. It''s strange, there some powerful people that cultivate in a manner that it would be difficult for me to detect, but in your case is like something is missing" Lingling took a transparent sphere from her pocket, I immediately realized what it was, it was a spirit energy rank detector. She infused her spirit energy and showed it to me. "49?!" I opened my eyes wide "This is exactly the same as when the tournament, what happened to you" "Follow me" She turned around and started walking away. I decided to follow her. After some time walking, we were approaching the Star Lake. She guided me to one of the Portals, this time instead of entering the Star Lake we continued walking longer along the path. After walking some time more Lingling stopped, she turned to me and hugged me. I sensed a warm feeling coming off her and I noticed a little empowerment of my body. When she broke the hug I was surrounded by a green aura that I could recognize as Lingling''s. Lingling took my hand and brought me to cross a wall. We crossed like it didn''t exist in the first place, the wall opening as we passed without letting even a millimeter between us and the wall. Crossing the door I found myself in a small open space, sunlight illuminating it and a little river crossing across. At the center stood a small young tree, its trunk was white while his leaves were green, it was a meter and a half tall with two branches and 10 leaves. I was shocked at this place. The Life aura here was incomparable to any place I stayed, even greatly surpassing the Star Lake or the Flowery Garden. "What is this place?" I asked shocked. Lingling approached me, stood on tiptoed and joined her lips to mine, her tongue invading my mouth, my own tongue acted om reflex answering her. I closed my eyes while we kissed. It wasn''t my first kiss and I had experience with Mayi and Chenxiang, but this one was totally different. I sensed a warm feeling but it wasn''t the usual if I just said I would say that it was similar to when I was cultivating at the Star or Black Rose. After 10 minutes we separated, leaving a trace of saliva between us. "Don''t take it wrong, Bai" Lingling warmly smiled at me "You really become stronger" She then approached to the tree. She lifted her hand directly touching the trunk. Her hand glowed green and the tree seemed to be absorbing her aura. The tree reacted and started growing to be 2 meters tall. "Impressive, it is more than what I expected" She turned to me "Thanks, Bai" "What the meaning of all this?" I shouted bewildered. Lingling signaled the tree "This is my spirit. It''s an outside cultivating, making it grow with my own Life concept, making it purer. When it bears fruit, I will be able to return it as my spirit, until there, I do not have any spirit, my spirit rank locked at 49. Please, Bai." Before I could ask about she made a forced smile "Please, Bai. Do not ask any more question, it is a secret" "BOOOM!" I great sound interrupted our conversation followed by a great earthquake. Lingling made a scared face "Something bad happened" Both of us ran, Lingling first showing the exit. "Mei had a great problem, her energy is unstable," said Lingling worried. At that time the root started moving, they were shot towards the ground, crashing to it and causing great destruction. Then they started madly moving around, increasing the destruction. "I need to stop her," said Lingling resolutely. "I will hel-" Before I finish my storage bracelet started shining "This is..." This showed an alarm of my clan. Not an individual one, this was a danger to the clan, a crisis capable of destroying it. I stood a moment still, thinking about both problems. [IDIOT!] For 3 years it was the first time Paul talked [There''s no need to think. Hurry return to the clan! Spirit Hall is attacking! Our family is in danger!] shouted Paul with panic. Chapter 115 - Seven Treasure Clans crisis: Opening In Spirit Hall''s territory, inside one of the most important areas, the Supreme Pontiff Palace. A woman exited to the main balcony. The woman seemed to be 30 years old with long blonde hair and red ruthless eyes, a cold air surrounding her. She was wearing ceremonial white robes with black linings, with a crown over her head and a scepter full of jewelry in her hand. Outside under her vision stood a group of soldiers, all of them prepared for a battle. "It''s time to show Spirit Hall might. Let the world learn who is the owner of the continent!" this caused cheers from the soldiers "Let''s show what is the destiny of the ones that face against us. Start the attack to Heaven Dou''s upper clans!" The woman ordered the soldiers marching away. In another Spirit Hall''s characteristic areas, the Douluo Palace, stood a man seemed to be in his late thirties, early forties. He had white straight long hair and a mask that covered half of his face. He looked at the sky "It''s time. Start the attack" He ordered turning to a man kneeling, this one was wearing white robes with a hood that hid all his features, being unable to see his look. "Yes! Your holiness" the white-robed man answered disappearing from the place. In Heaven Dou''s territory, near Star Duo Forest there were multiple majestic buildings, all of them exuding an air of richness and power, at the center of them stood a big mansion. This was the inner quarters of one of the strongest and the richest clan of all Heaven Dou Empire, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Clan. On one of the clan''s door, a group of more than 50 hooded people with black capes could be seen. The door opened like receiving this group. As the group entered, some corpses were lying around, all of them wearing the badge of the Seven Treasure Clan. The hooded group entered the clan''s headquarters and moved stealthily. They efficiently moved around, silently killing in a surprise and swift attack any clan member that they found. Their movements were so precise and coordinated, always finding the perfect blind spot, evading the scouts, that seemed to have complete knowledge about the clan''s member movements. On another side, it could be seen as a clan member of the Seven Treasure Clan wearing white robes running towards the residential area. He was in a hurry due to having forgotten his own badge, showing his position as a scout of the clan. Once his companions informed him, he let his companions continue the patrol while he quickly returned to his quarters, trying to take the badge, before any high ranking found him. In his way, the white-robed man realized that it was too quiet. Suddenly, he listened to a low cry that was quickly subdued. His face turned serious, a spirit of some kind of dog appeared behind him, his nose got longer and the triangular dog''s ears appeared on top of his head. Then, he dashed towards the cry, only to find a black hooded person carrying the corpse of a clan member. The man showed his training and cold thinking, even it wasn''t enough to not forget his badge, in the important situation, was completely alert. He took some firework from his pocket before he could even activate a knife penetrated his back, piercing his heart. The white-robed man used his last strength before falling dead activating the firework that shot to the sky. The firework exploded showing the emblem of the clan in black colors, a Seven Treasure Pagoda. After 10 seconds like reacting to the firework, 3 more black colored fireworks exploded in the sky, followed by a bigger red one that exploded filling all the clan''s sky. This was a communication between the clan members, showing that there''s danger and once corroborated a red signal made know that the clan was in danger, ordering all clan members to return to the headquarters immediately to defend. "Tch!" One of the hooded people clicked his tongue "We are found" He turned to his companions "There''s no need to hide anymore. Unleash all your power and slaughter all the people on your way. The Seven Treasure Clan shall perish today!" The hooded group nodded and took off their capes and around them appeared spirit rings, all of them have between 5 or 7 spirit rings, ideal configuration. They charged different ways. The fireworks have different reactions. The Seven Treasure clan members started moving, changing their usual patrols, trying to find the intruders. Not only the Seven Treasure Clan reacted to it. From all around the clan a big army, all of them wearing clothes that identified them as people of Spirit Hall. They charged to the clan, without any tactic or stealth the charged with full power. There were a lot of initial casualties but thanks to the quick intervention they could reduce it at a minimum. It didn''t take much time for the Seven Treasure Clan to organize their army, clashing with the enemies one. All the members equipped with strange crossbows. The first shot of the crossbows created may casualties in Spirit Hall''s side, however, they acted quickly preventing another wave crashing to the enemy army creating a battlefield full of shout and cries, where every second someone died. "Spirit Hall, you went too far!" A powerful voice resounded to all the battlefield. People were attracted to the voice and couldn''t help to stop fighting and turning to it. Flying at the sky stood a white-robed old man with neatly combed silver hair. People instantly recognized him, the Seven Treasure''s members shouting "Elder Sword!" in praise. Chen Xin, also known as Sword Douluo stood flying, his face painted in fury. He lifted his right arm and lifted his index finger. From the battlefield hundreds of mini sword ascended to the sky, this was the previous arrows shot by the crossbows that had a form of a sword, permitting Chen Xin to control them. Sword Douluo made a swift movement downwards and all the little sword started falling like rain to Spirit Hall''s army. Just as it was about to hit, the earth under them was lifted over them creating an earth shield that stopped the projectiles. A man jumped over the earth''s shield. He had a spiky silver hair and a characteristic scar traversing his left eye, the only clothing that he wore was a short black pant. On his hand there was a long lance in the form of a snake, this lance surrounded by 9 spirit rings, 2 yellows, 3 purple, and 4 black, showing that he was a titled douluo. In fact, he was She Long, Snake Lance Douluo with a rank at 96, an elder of Spirit Hall. Sword Douluo looked down a She Long "Did you think that you have the necessary to be my rival?" 9 rings appeared around him, 2 yellows, 2 purple, and 5 blacks, followed by a golden glow pressuring She Long with the strength of a 97 rank titled douluo. She Long flinched a little but quickly recomposed. Sword Douluo moved his arms guiding the little swords. This time focusing them in one place and forming a giant sword. He swung like if an air sword was in his hand and the giant sword slashed to She Long. She Long was unable to move by its mere pressure, however, he didn''t need to move. "My role is only to protect the army," said smiling just as a hooded person appeared in front of She Long, he has a curved posture and wore a hooded white cape with golden patterns. The hooded person lifted his right hand, the giant sword clashing to it was abruptly stopped. A shock wave was emitted by the hooded man destroying the giant sword formation, little sword dispersing away, losing Sword Douluo influence. "Today is the day of your death" a powerful aura appeared around the hooded person opening the hood showing an old man with short white hair and a long white beard. 9 Rings started appearing around him, 2 yellows, 2 purples, 4 blacks, and a red one. A black ring shined "<6th spirit skill: Golden Roar> Graaaaaaa!" The old man shouted and a powerful blast of golden energy was shot. Detecting the powerful attack, Sword Douluo''s rings shined "<7th spirit skill: Seven Kill Sword Avatar>" 7 swords appearing around him "<8th spirit skill: Sword Formation: Mountain Shift>" the 7 swords moved in front of Sword Douluo and started running in circles, creating a tornado. The golden blast stroke the sword tornado, pushing Sword Douluo who used even more spirit energy, the sword spinning even faster finally stopping the blast, not without any injury, a trail of blood fell from his mouth showing signs of an internal injury. "Not bad," the old man said and straighten his posture, a Golden Cocodrile spirit appeared on his back and golden scales started creating an armor around him with long claws and sharp teeth. His aura exploded making it difficult for most of the people to even stand, showing the power of a rank 98 douluo. Chapter 116 - Seven Treasure Clans crisis: Treason Spirit Hall power is supposed to be focused on the title douluos elders, led by the Supreme Pontiff. However, the truth was that the true power behind Spirit Hall was the hidden priest elders. They were 7 people, all of them at least at rank 96. Should all the seven priest elders agree, they could even depose the Supreme Pontiff. They were the true power that decided the fate of Spirit Hall. The old man was the second elder priest of Spirit Hall, only receiving direct orders from Qian Daoliu, the supreme priest. He was considered one of the strongest people in the continent, his strength only losing to living legends at the ultimate douluo rank, rank 99. He was Jin Eyu, rank 98 power attack system, Golden Crocodile Douluo. "For even I to need to make a move, you really grow too much" Eyu said, a purple ring shining and golden scales shot from Eyu''s body, there were more than a hundred of them and surrounded Chen Xin. Once they surrounded him, the scales were shot towards him. Chen Xin controlled his sword around him, creating a sphere made of wind around him. Before the scales crashed, one of Eyu''s black rings shined and the scales became sharper and triplicate their thickness. The new reinforced scales penetrated through Chen Xin''s wind sphere. At that moment a black hole appeared over Chen Xin. From it, an extremely beautiful pink-haired woman crossed out. She had a red greatsword on her hands "" She swung her sword, raging flames emerged from her sword, they took the form of a snake. The flames started moving, quickly surrounded her and Chen Xin, forming a fire tornado around them. The most spectacular was that this snake seemed to be alive, coaling around them, focusing on the incoming scales, wasting the minimum energy, reflecting all the golden scales. This beautiful woman that appeared to be around 30 years when she was already over 55 was the wife of the Seven Treasure Clan master, Ning Xiangxie. She lifted her sword pointing at Eyu, nine rings surrounded her, 1 yellow, 2 purples, 5 blacks, and 1 red. The power of a rank 97 douluo being emitted by her. From the same black hole that Xiangxie appeared, two more people crossed out. This time they were two men, a seemingly late 30 wearing a white suit and a black-robed old man with a face that seemed a skull. They were the actual clan master and one elder of the Seven Treasure Clan respectively. Ning Fengzhi and Bone Douluo, Gu Rong. "It seems that we are being looked down, to only send one person to fight against us" Bone said. "Don''t be impudent!" Eyu shouted angrily "You pitiful ones, so full of yourself only having touched the moon. I will show you how big is the abysm between our strength. Experiment a destroying the moon power" Eyu''s rings started shining "!" Eyu roared, his body increasing in size. His muscles bulging, his arm grew becoming 10 meters long, crashing to the ground, destroying it. It wasn''t much time until all his body followed "GRRRRRRRR!" standing at its place a giant Golden Cocodrile roared. He was over 50 meters tall, standing over two feet, with golden scales covering all his body, a 9 meters long tail, with a 3 meter long claws. He see "Numbers won''t be enough to face me" One of Eyu''s ring shined "Graaaaaa!" he roared shooting a golden energy blast, this time incomparable at last time, more than twice more powerful. "The abysm between rank 97 and rank 98 is indeed deep, however, let''s reduce it" Over Fengzhi''s right hand a Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda appeared surrounded by 9 rings, 2 yellows, 2 purple, 4 blacks and a red one. The rings shined "" the pagoda started growing, encompassing Fengzhi in it, becoming three meters tall pagoda. Nine different colors shot from the pagoda towards Xin and Xiangxue, increasing their attributes. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was considered the best support spirit in all the continent, this was due to its own support potency, being able to increase the attributes more than similar spirits. Being possible to support any kind of spirit. Moreover, it could cross rank power that made it possible to be useful support even at titled douluo with their limit of spirit sage. This considering the difficulty of support type to grow to titled douluo Titled douluos have the biggest gaps between each rank, in each one increasing more than a 50% the spirit power, that it''s especially true for super douluos, more than rank 97, were each rank it''s a glimpse of godhood. Even the full support of a Seven Treasure Pagoda won''t be near enough to close the gap. However, this completely changes with the Nine Treasure Pagoda, with a higher rate of support and even the spirit power of a titled douluo, making the cross rank possible. On this day, it was the first time that it was showed to the world, without doubt, the strongest support of the continent, Ning Fengzhi, the Nine-Treasure Douluo. With their new empower, Xin and Xiangxie combined defense dissipated Eyu''s attack without much difficulty. Eyu''s face didn''t change, a black ring shined and he slammed his tail to the ground, the ground rose to form golden spikes that were shot towards the Seven Treasure Clan quartet. Like before, Xin and Xiangxie positioned themselves to guard the attack, lifting their swords that were surrounded by their own sword qi, creating a shield made by flames powered by wind. Rong was preparing one portal for a counter-attack. Just before the earth pieces clashed, a seven-colored light flew across the sky, seemingly like a rainbow. This light was followed by multiple similar ones, all of them raining to Eyu. Looking at its source, it was a group of white-robed people on their hand Seven Treasure Pagodas. They could have been confused as members of the Seven Treasure Clan, but, the badges that they carried were different ones. Their badges had the seven pagoda image, however, it has the symbol of an angel at it back, the symbol representing Spirit Hall. At the receiving end of the light, Eyu''s power grew stronger, his attack strengthening. Xin and Xiangxie were taken by surprised by the sudden growth in power, the spikes combined in a single one and pierced through their formation. As they positioned prepared to received the attack, they saw the attack pass between them, its objective always being Fengzhi. Before the attack hit, Gu Rong jumped forward, situating in front of Fengzhi. Without time to act, Rong was unable to put full defense, the little black scales surrounded him not enough to stop the attack that impaled him, piercing his stomach creating a 15 cm hole in him, to be able to stop it. Rong turned to Fengzhi and smiled, he then vomited blood and fell to the ground, unable to continue floating "Elder Bone" shouted Fengzhi shocked seeing one of his companions and friend shot down protecting him. "Tch!" Eyu clicked his tongue "I failed, but at least I took out a fly" He turned to the white-dressed group "Even if it can''t be compared to the Nine, I must say that the Seven Treasure Pagoda is great support, good job" The one at the front of the group, seemingly to be their leader bowed to Eyu "It is our honor to be able to help you, second elder priest" Fengzhi looked at the group and clenched his hand "Zhong! You bastard, how you dare to betray the clan!" he said furiously. The true identity of the white-robe group was the previous elder Zhong and his followers, having betrayed the clan, following Spirit Hall. Chapter 117 - Seven Treasure Clans crisis: Desperate battle "The Seven Treasure Clan had flourished all these years under Heaven Dou Empire''s protection, it''s not normal to follow the strong?" Ning Zhong rhetorically asked "The clan had grown too proud of himself under your leadership, Fengzhi. Causing the clan''s downfall" Zhong grinned "I am the clan''s savior!" he proclaimed. "Savior? Don''t joke around!" Spat elder Sword "You brought the destruction of the clan" "Spirit Hall power is limitless, even if you could win the battle, the war would be impossible" Zhong grinned "Don''t worry the clan will survive under my new leadership. I''d made a deal with Spirit Hall, the clan is too strong to be left uncontrolled, sacrificing the 90% of our clan, they would let the 10% remaining led by me to be part of Spirit Hall, even giving me the title of elder" "You''re scum!" shouted Xiangxie "You will sacrifice the clan, only for your own ambitious and power" "Think whatever you want, the reality won''t change. Elder Bone is down, now only you three are left to be exterminated" He turned to Fengzhi "It''s a pity that your son is not here. I would love to kill myself the little brat that dared to make a joke of myself. For your daughter..." He turned to the crowd of the Seven Treasure Clan''s army discovering a pink-haired beautiful girl who stood with a Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda supporting the fighters, she was the daughter of Ning Fengzhi and Xiangxie, Ning Rongrong "Spirit Hall would take good care of here. We won''t lose the opportunity of a Nine Colored Pagoda" Fengzhi, Xiangxie and Xin energy exploded in fury "If you dare to touch my children, there won''t be any place for you to hide. I will chase you even at the afterlife" shouted angrily Xiangxie, flames roaring around her sword. "Quit the chat" said Eyu, he turned to Spirit Hall''s army "What are you waiting for? Exterminate!" "Yesssssssssssss" shouted Spirit Hall''s army as they charged towards their enemies this time being illuminated by the light of Zhong''s group, little by little pushing the enemy gaining grounds. Eyu''s body started shining and a golden aura surged from him, encompassing the other 3. This was a pure strength domain, suppressing the others that could only passively cover themselves in their own domains trying to not be affected "Let this play end" a black ring shined "<8th spirit skill: Gigantification>" his own giant right arm that was over 20 meters long, increased its size, even more, becoming 100 meters long. Eyu''s swung his giant arm towards the 3, thrusting his giant claws. Not only its strength and power increased, but even gravity was also created blocking the objective in place, unable to evade the attack. Elder Sword turned to Xiangxie "Use your 100.000 years skill!" he urged. Xiangxie clenched her teeth "I can''t, I''m only able to use sword art, I have my ring skills sealed" she said a little desperately. Fire exploded from her greatsword, forming a huge sword over 10 meters, even with its huge size it seemed like a little toy against the giant arm. "Fuck!" Elder Sword''s seven swords started emitting a powerful sword qi "" they were swung in front of him, forming the symbol of death ËÀ, emitting a powerful death intent. Fengzhi red ring started shining and all the other rings followed "<9th spirit skill: Awakening>!" Nine colored lights shot from his pagoda towards Xiangxie and Xin, their potential exploding, increasing the quality of their energy, for an instant equalling not the spirit power of a rank 98, also it comprehension and quality. The claws crashed to their swords, shock waves were created, the air trembling at their strength. Using all their strength Xiangxie and Xin finally pushed Eyu''s arm away that returned to its previous side. Even with his spirit skill blocked, Eyu''s didn''t receive any important injure. On the other side, it couldn''t be said the same about the other three. Fengzhi had consumed a great deal of spirit power using his 9th skill that activates all the potential of his pagoda. For Xin and Xiangxie, they received the backslash of cross ranking, blood falling from their lips, not being able to cope with the sudden surge of power. This battle was quickly turning to Spirit Hall''s favor. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Receiving the clan plus Paul''s warnings, I needed to help my clan. I turned to Lingling with a sad face "Sorry, Lingling. I won''t be able to help you" She looked at me surprised, worried and in a hurry to help Mei "Why?" "My family needs me. Sorry" I apologized. Lingling shook her head "You already helped me. Take care of your problems, I am able to solve this. Run. They will need you" I nodded at her. White wings emerged from my back and my sword appeared on my right hand, six rings surrounding it. With a flap of the wings, I shot to the sky, the headquarters of my clan my destination. I activated my 3rd skill, my speed arriving at its maxim. (I pray that it won''t be anything too dangerous) I thought while flying. It didn''t take much time for me to arrive at the clan, situated near Star Duo Forest. As I enter the vicinities of the clan I sensed something coming to me. I twisted my body, taking advantage of my speed, I converted that speed in centrifugal force, started spinning over me without stopping. A huge rock reinforced with spirit energy was approaching to me, without stopping sping like if I was a circular saw a cut the rock from the middle, separating in two equal parts that fell behind me. More similar projectiles were shot towards me. I, without stopping, continued flying to the clan slicing every rock in my way until I was stopped by an invisible barrier. Somehow an invisible aura was surrounding the clan, I quickly realized that it was formed by wind and only blocked the airspace. I flew down following the barrier landing at the ground. Once landed I could see two men approaching me. One of them was a man with big muscles that was over 2,20 meters tall, the other one was a young man of average height, less than 30 years with short black hair. It took me some time, but I recognized the young man, he was Ning Fong, the previous elder Zhong''s grandson. For the big guy, I recognized the symbol of the Elephant Armored Clan in his clothes. He grinned at me "It''s not the little shit of Bai. Long time not seeing you" he said sarcastically. "Fong" I spatted "What are you doing here? What had happened at the clan?" "Like your father, you''re too idiot to see what happen" Fong laughed "The clan will be purged, your family tyranny would stop today and you as your family will pay with your death" "What did you do?" I asked angrily. "Take it as your last wish" he grinned "We allied with Spirit Hall. Spirit Hall''s army is already infiltrated at the clan thanks to our help. Now there must be countless death. I am here ensuring that no one scape. What luck to find you! I will be able to pay you for making me a joke these years ago. For making my grandfather lose his position. Die, Bai!" He signaled to the big guy next to him. The big guy stepped forward, a spirit of an Armored Elephant manifested at his back surrounded by 7 rings, 2 yellows, 2 purples, and 3 blacks, and armor appearing around him and increasing his size to 2,8 meters. "Let me present him to you. My partner in this mission, Huang Long. A spirit sage with the Elephant Armored spirit" He started laughing "I know about your weakness, your attack power is lacking. Even if you''re able to stop his attack, you won''t break through his defense. We only need to wait until you exhaust yourself" Over Fong''s hand, a Seven Treasure Pagoda appeared surrounded by 5 rings "That without taking into account the support of a genius like me, rank 51" Huang Long charged to me, his rings shining increasing his attack power and creating some kind of pressure around me that seemed to try to block my position. All of this supported by Fong''s spirit abilities. "You will pay for this!" I shouted angrily. I lifted my sword "Light Devour" the seven-colored light from Fong''s pagoda was reflected and charged to my sword until Fong''s pagoda''s light turned off. "H-how can it be possible?" said Fong nervously, he shook his head "I don''t know what trick you did, but you won''t be able to win against Long!" Long charged at me and tried to punch me. I moved my sword surrounded by white light meeting his punch. Long was stopped still, without being able to move me an inch. "I always wanted to protect the clan" I said seriously "However, scum like you don''t deserve Life!" I shouted furiously. My sword 4 first rings started shining, the started joining between them, forming a black with a tint of red colored one and started shining with intense white light. These years of training, increased a lot my comprehension of Life and Protection, focusing on defense and support, this didn''t mean that I didn''t have any means to attack. My sword nature had always been devouring the attributes of its surroundings and empowering myself. Now, plus my Life comprehension I was even able to not only absorb attributes, but I could also even absorb their Life''s energy. "" I sliced at Long who didn''t expect our strength difference and was unable to put some defense, my sword passing through him, cutting him in half. "Pam!" Long body fell to the ground immobile, he didn''t have any wound in his body, but most of his Life energy was absorbed by me, even if he wasn''t dead, he won''t be able to move in a while. I approached Fong, who started trembling scared, even falling to the ground, his legs unable to stand "Do-don''t kill me! I was following my grandfather. Young master, please! Don''t kill me" he supplicated. "Die" I calmly said. I swung my sword, this time without any technique, a simple swung, slicing Fong''s head that fell to the ground leaving a trail of blood. Chapter 118 - Seven Treasure Clans crisis: Counterattack As I arrived at the clan, I could see the battlefield that was created. On one side, there was a giant Golden Crocodile being fought by mum, dad and uncle Sword. The pressure emitted was so hight that it caused the sky and earth to tremble, without a doubt my family''s foe was incredibly powerful and they were being pushed by it. On the other side, two armies were fighting against each other. One of them was the clan''s men and the other was men wearing Spirit Hall''s uniforms. Our side was b?r?ly hanging, Spirit Hall''s men numbered 2 times more, the ground moved in a strange way, lifting Spirit Hall making their position advantageous and even protecting them from projectiles suddenly creating walls. I could see a lot of injured and dead people that were increasing each second. It seemed that Fong didn''t lie to me and we had some traitors at the clan, it could be seen a group of Seven Treasure Pagoda''s masters helping Spirit Hall''s side, both at the giant crocodile and at Spirit Hall''s army, this only made the fight more disadvantageous for the clan, this without considering the previous damage that the traitors could have made preparing for this battle, like killing people before the start or giving clan''s information. I turned to the Golden Crocodile, shaking my head knowing that it was impossible for me to fight against it, approaching it, meaning my death. I turned to my sword "It seems that they need our help" I may not be able to directly help against the crocodile but I would be able to stop the betrayals. White bat wings grew at my back, a flap and I dashed to the middle at the battlefield. As I approached a rain of rocks started to fall to the clan''s side. They weren''t very powerful weren''t aimed concretely at anyway, however, they would cause great damage out our men. I landed in the middle of my clan''s army. Previously, I couldn''t control it and I would have absorbed all the power of the Seven Treasure Pagodas, now thanks to my training, my control was at a new level, being able to choose and enough to cover this battlefield. I lifted my sword with both hands "LIGHT DEVOUR!", the lights coming from the traitors reflected being attracted to my sword, leaving their pagodas blackened and their users with shocked faces. I vomited blood. It was my first time absorbing so much spirit power, my abilities are usually limited preventing overworking my body, but I didn''t have this limit when faced against a pagoda I could absorb all its power. This rush of power caused some internals injures, only being able to manage thanks to my control and strong body, I even flowed Life Intent leasing the effects. Even with that, I needed to use the plus of power, Looking at the rocks falling like a perfect opportunity. I pierced my sword to the ground "!" a white-green aura extended from my sword covering me and all my clan''s army. Luminosit¨¦ Eternelle was the Sword Heart formed using the combination of Life and Protection, focusing in Life. It had a protection nature being able to protect a large group, but it was focused on Life, against a single powerful attack won''t be enough to stop it, however, it was perfect for this time. The aura no only protected the army from the rocks falling that were dispersed, it also permeated each of my clan''s men healing their wound and returning to their top state. It would be impossible for me to affect so many people, 30 being my limit, but this changed thanks to the light devoured. My action was enough to greatly affect the battle. The enemy army lost its support while our army was recharged with new strength. "It''s time to show Spirit Hall our strength!" I shouted my voice resounding to all the battlefield "We would make them regret attacking us and make them never try it again! Fight! For victory! For the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan!" "Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" The army''s morale skyrocket "For the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan! For the young master!". They charged to the enemy army like an unstoppable wave pushing at the shocked enemy''s army that was surprised by their lost support and by our new strength. Elder Zhong was trembling shocked looking at his pagoda which had lost its colors. He turned with a furious look to dad "It seems that you were hiding a monster. To be able to make us useless, he should have died a long time ago!" He turned looking directly at me "Kill that brat! He is the culprit of disabling our spirit, kill him!" Dad transformed into Nine Treasure Pagoda "<8th spirit skill: Overclock>" his nine-colored light becoming shinier and surely his support abilities increasing. Mum''s greatsword dispersed in red particles "!" the air in front of mum exploded, flames roaring transforming the air in hell, these flames started surrounding the Golden Crocodile. Uncle Sword''s seven swords started combining in one "!" a black and ominous aura surrounded it. Uncle threw the sword to the crocodile, even if the sword was unable to pierce its hard scales, the sword twisted and started spinning around all the crocodile body, even if it didn''t cause direct damage it was weakening it. The Golden Crocodile seemed pissed, having lost the support of the Seven Treasure Pagoda made the fight more difficult and his enemies seemed more eager now. Having listened to Zhong it ordered with a powerful voice "Long! Kill the brat!" From the ground at Spirit Hall''s army, a white spiked haired man surged, rocks surrounding him and a strength lance with snakes pattern. He jumped out of the ground and stood floating in the air. Then his gaze fixed at mine. "Like we''ll let you!" shouted mum as she charged toward my position. From the Golden Crocodile, two black rings shined as it slammed the ground with its tail. Earth staked surged from the ground and become giant blocking mum''s way "Don''t forget your enemy. Your son is already dead" grinned the crocodile. Chapter 119 - Seven Treasure Clans crisis: Sacrifice Looking at the spiked-haired man, I already knew that he was an incredibly strong man, stronger than low ranked titled douluos. If he attacked me now, the attack not only would injure me, it would cause great damage to our people. I flapped my wing shooting me to the sky, moving away from the clan''s people, She Long''s gaze never abandoning me. 9 spirit rings appeared surrounding She Long''s lance, one purple ring shining brightly. "<3rd skill: Rock Drill>!" rocks started accumulating over his lance tip until it formed a drill. She Long thrust his lance towards me while rotating his lance, the rock drill shot to me rotating at great speed with huge power. It must be known that even low aged spirit skills used by high ranked spirit masters can become very frightening. Not only are they powered by more spirit power, but they are also influenced by the spirit evolution and comprehension of the user. This only amplificated at the titled douluo rank where people understanding of his spirit became the most important and their comprehension increase a lot. So even this less than 3000 years old skill is nothing less than a full out attack of a spirit sage. Even with facing this attack I didn''t flinch, it seemed that I was being underestimated, this attack may be able to kill me 6 months ago, but I am a new me now. I held my sword with my right hands, putting my Mind Eye at maximum plus the help of the skull spirit bone, concentrating on the energy of my surroundings. Even in a battlefield where death is prevalent, emotions of wanting to protect your loved ones and wanting to keep alive bloom at their maximum brilliance. All of them focusing on my sword, I lifted my sword pointing at the drill, "!" a white flower formed by 6 petals blooms from my sword''s tip, creating a 6-layered barrier over it. If my Luminosit¨¦ Eternelle focused on Life and is supported by Protection, this one is focused on Protection being supported by Life. The Rock Drill crashed at the barriers, as an attack with its main property being penetration, it easily penetrated the first barrier that broke like glass, without lowering much the speed of the drill. The drill continues piercing layers, each one stronger than the last one, each layer destroyed pushing me who only could keep my defense flapping my wings like mad, causing me some light internal injuries. I could finally stop the drill with the last 2 remaining layers, the drill having lost its power dissolved in sand. "What are you playing?!" the Golden Crocodile shouted angrily while he faced multiples attacks "Finish him quickly!". She Long muscles bulged showing his veins, he looked at me with a furious look "To stop my attack. Die!" his rings started shining, the tip of his lance started deforming, taking the form of a snake''s head. She Long shot his lance towards me. The lance seemed to crawl the sky making a S movement while hissing. I gulped seeing the attack (For him to use his spirit avatar. I will put all to stop it!) I thought resolutely closing my eyes. Holding my sword with both hands, I lifted it pointing to the sky. "", all my previous aura given to my clan members was directed and absorbed by my sword that was being surrounded by a white and golden light. From my body, all my energy flowed towards my sword, healing all my wounds. "I will return all the damage done to my people" I said opening my eyes that shined with a calm golden light. "EX-" raging aura expanding from my sword "-CALIBUR!" I swung my sword, a white-golden pillar over 10 meters wide shooting towards She Long''s lance. "Haaaaaaaaaaa!" I put more strength on my sword, giving all my heart to it. "You''re too full of yourself" I listened a cold voice from She Long "There''s no way for you to win this. GRaaaaaa!" She Long shouted. The Snake Lance''s eyes shined with a red glow and started piercing my attack. It started slowly but it continued piercing forward my attack. My arms gave away, my sword dissipating due to low spirit energy and with it the Sword Heart dispersing in light particles. The Snake Lance coming for me, its power seemingly not lowered at all. I closed my eyes in fright waiting for a pain that I knew wouldn''t last much, death being near, only for the pain to never come. Opening my eyes I saw a warm smile with blood flowing from her mouth. I instantly recognized who she was, Maya stood in front of, around her eight spirit rings were floating around, showing that she was a spirit douluo. Her body wasn''t normal as it seemed to have become something like a red ghost, her body formed by something similar to black blood that flowed all around. This didn''t change the fact that She Long''s Snake Lance was penetrating her stomach, even if it wasn''t a mortal injury it would become one if not treated immediately. "M-Maya" I stuttered in fright, approaching my trembling hand to her. She only looked at me with a reassuring smile "Don''t worry, young master. I would protect you with my life" She turned around looking at She Long, even if she was trying to keep her cool self, I knew that she was experimenting an insufferable pain. "I lived my life full of resent, searching for my revenge until I was finally saved by the Seven Treasure Clan. I may be blocked at douluo rank or even father a son, never truly helping the clan. Today, I will finally repay my debt" She turned her head to me, showing the most brilliant smile "Young master, you have a bright future, I know that you would make great things. Don''t be blinded by little things and live a good life". Her rings started shining, the shiniest of what I never saw, powerful energy emitted by her. "Crrrr" A crack appeared on one of her rings, followed by multiple cracks expanding at all her rings "" each of her rings exploded one at a time, with each explosion, the aura around her increased, even more, her body made of blood flowing madly. "Be happy" were her last words before she exploded. "Maya!" my shout being silenced by the loud explosion that covering all the battlefield in a red mist. Even with so much power, the explosion didn''t damage me at all, quite the opposite, it seemed to hug me warmly, protecting me. The mist started moving away as I broke crying, cursing my own weakness. If only I was stronger, I could have protected my loved ones. Maya always stood there, observing me. She always scared me appeared from nowhere, but she always had a smile in her face and I could confide in her. After my family, she was the closest to me, never considering her as a normal maid. "That bitch!" My mourning was stopped by an angry shout. Cleaning my tears I saw She Long floating. He wasn''t unscathed, even having surrounded him with a rock armor, his armor had fallen all apart and his body was all bloody, however, it didn''t seem that he had any life-threatening injury. "A futile suicide to only delay the inevitable" She Long spatted "At least, the bitch had died" he smirked. "SHUT UP!" I shouted "Maya was more than a shit like you will arrive in all your life!". I was too exhausted to even use my spirit, not talking about blocking or evading. She Long clenched his teeth "You can reunite with her in hell!" He shouted swinging his lance, three rocks shooting to me. Chapter 120 - Seven Treasure Clans crisis: Closure Before the rocks could hit me, a black hole appeared in front of me. The rocks were engulfed by it. Suddenly, multiple black holes appeared around She Long, surrounding him in all directions. From each black hole, bone spears were shot towards She Long, countless spears, raining over him. "Fuck!" Long swore as one of his black rings shined "<6th skill: Rock Defense>!" He swung his lance around, spinning it. Rocks appeared of nowhere and started surrounding him, making a rock barrier. The lances clashed with the barrier and were rebounded by it, however, little by little, by each strike little cracks started appearing, the defense not keeping up with the offense. "Tch!" Long clicked his tongue as he took a little canteen and drink from it, liquor pouring in his mouth "20 years cultivating to the sewer!" he spatted. She Long seemed to have gained a new strength, the rock barrier repairing itself. "Haaah!" She Long shouted, destroying his own barrier pushing rocks to each direction. The rocks pushed aside each spear in their way and were shot towards the black holes. Before the rocks could reach the black holes, all of them disappeared, only replaced by one situated between me and She Long. From that black hole, uncle Bone left. Uncle Bone''s clothes were all tattered, especially a hole in his stomach, and was lightly injured. He was surrounded by a black-red mist that was focused on his injured. The mist seemed to be healing him, his wound closing at a visible speed. Uncle Bone had a furious look on his face with a mix of sadness "You will pay for all your deeds" he said coldly as he swung his arms redirecting the rocks that were coming to him. She Long seemed shocked at uncle Bone appearance, but he quickly shooked his head recovering from his stupor "If you were alive, you should have stayed hidden. Regret in your next life!" She Long held his lance with both hands pointing at uncle Bone. "Die!" Three black rings started shining "<7th skill: Snake Lance Avatar>" his lance double its size and its snake characteristics became more apparent, seemingly an alive snake. "<8th skill: Meteorite Cataclysme>" he charged to uncle, rocks appearing surrounding him, this time easily seen a lot stronger. A powerful aura surrounded She Long that was causing the air to tremble, the sheer resistance with the air created flames around him as he approached. "<9th skill: Rock Disaster>" All the rock surrounding him turned red, becoming harder and being prepared to explode. Uncle Bone coldly looked at She Long, Bone extended his right arm, his palm opened pointing at She Long. "<7th skill: Bone Dragon Avatar>" a little Black Boned Dragon that resembled the skeleton of a dragon appeared coiled in his right hand. "<9th skill: Black Hole>" the little dragon opened his mouth, the inside of the mouth was pitch black, with pressure so high that it created a gravity which not even the light could escape from it. Instead of the usual Worm Hole, this time it was an attack, focusing the strength in one point, creating a big mass of power. "BOOOOM!" She Long who resembled more a meteorite crashed to the dragon, all the rocks lightening and causing a big explosion, smoke covering them. The rocks'' debris started falling to the battle like a rain of meteorites. However, they were quickly stopped and returned towards She Long and uncle Bone''s position. Together with the smoke, they were being absorbed. It took 2 seconds for uncle Bone''s battlefield to be cleaned. Showing uncle Bone completely fine even less injured than before, while his dragon was biting She Long''s lance. It couldn''t say the same thing from She Long, he had light wounds around his body and he seemed exhausted. He had a shocked face "R-ra-rank 97" he stuttered in fright "H-how can it be possible?" Uncle Bone didn''t answer, his dragon increased his mandible strength, cracking She Long''s lance and finally breaking it in two, from every pour of She Long started pouring blood due to the backslash. The dragon opened his mouth again, this time a bone spear protruding from it. The spear was shot to She Long who was unable to put any defense, shooting him like a rag doll towards the Golden Crocodile. She Long crashed near Eyu who seeing his state learned that his mission had failed "It seems a fail. It''s time to retreat" he commanded not wanting to risk himself in this battle. "I won''t let you!" dad shouted his red ring shining brightly, blood falling from his mouth "<9th skill: Regression>!" his nine-colored light become completely black and was directed to Eyu. Dad''s pagoda became something similar to my sword, instead of supporting his allies, he was debuffing his enemies. Eyu''s power lowered, his aura of rank 98 becoming similar to one at rank 97. "Graaaaaa!" Eyu shouted in pain. Due to his lowered strength, his skin could no longer protect from the continuous attacks, flames started scorching him alive while uncle Sword''s sword was slicing him apart. "I''m surrounded by useless people, not being able to take down a spirit emperor" Eyu opened his mouth turning to She Long and charging to him. "N-no" She Long said with his last strength before being devoured by Eyu. Eyu swallowed She Long without even chewing. Eyu''s body started decreasing its size, the giant Golden Crocodile being replaced by an old man with 9 spirit rings floating around him, even now scorching flames were surrounding him. "I''m too old for this shit" Eyu blamed, his spirit rings shining, especially the red one. "<9th skill: Ultimate Strength>" a solid golden aura covered him. He punched the ground, golden spikes surging from the ground, these spikes were surrounded by the same golden aura, they extinguished the flames around him and pushed uncle''s sword aside. Eyu, he looked at dad, mum, and uncle "I will make you pay" he said before the spiked encompassed him, hiding from our view, his aura seemingly disappearing. Mum''s flames converged in her hands in her sword form. "Stop! Xiangxie!" She tried to charge to Eyu but was stopped by dad "This attack is not normal, protect the clan members" dad ordered to mum and uncle, he being too exhausted to help. "Seven Treasure Clan, do not try to fight the spikes, run away from them!" Dad''s voice sounded in all the battlefield. Recovering from their shock and realizing the situation, both nodded. Seeing that any kind of attack was useless against the spiked they dashed to the clan members, helping them to evacuate. Thanks to uncle Bone''s Warm Holes, most of the clan members escaped without injuries. It must be said that Eyu''s attack focused on his own protection, gaining time to escape if he targetted our army, the casualties would have been a lot more. For Spirit Hall''s army, seeing that their leader ran away, it broke in disorder, all of them scattering around, being easily subdued by our members, unable to face the power of titled douluos. With 80% of Spirit Hall''s army dead, 1 titled douluo rank killed, and a rank 98 injured, this could be called the worst lost of Spirit Hall''s history. However, the Seven Treasure Clan wasn''t intact, with over 60% of its clan members death and most injured. This battle would pass history as the start of the new era, an era of war. Chapter 121 - Aftermath With Spirit Hall''s retreat, most of its members subjugated, this battle finished. Even with our victory, we were left with a sour taste, 60% of the clan members were killed and a lot were gravely injured, without talking about Maya''s sacrifice. Even if the clan overall power didn''t lower much, as my parents and uncles who are the main force were without important injuries, with uncle Bone breakthrough, we are even stronger than before. This lost had affected at the clan''s foundation, it would greatly affect the future, we would need to strive to maintain the clan, little by little recuperating. In my case, I was so exhausted, absorbing and using all that spirit energy had really overexerted my body, causing all my muscles to tremble and being unable to move by myself, needing some clan members bringing me to the infirmary facility. There were a lot of casualties so the healers were at full work with their chambers full. As the son of the clan master, I was brought to an emptier room, instead of the crowdy ones like the others, inside finding dad laying on a bed, sleeping. He seemed to have exhausted all his spirit energy and he had some internal injuries, so I decided to not bother him and wait until he woke up. Looking at the ceiling I clenched my teeth, tears falling my eyes. If I were stronger, I could have helped more. I blamed myself for Maya''s sacrifice, even knowing that she had done on her own will, she wouldn''t have any problem to escape. "Bai" I listened a voice, I turned to dad with some tears in my eyes "You have always lived in a peaceful era, so you are a stranger to war, sacrifices are necessary and more common than you expect" "She died for me!" I shouted crying "If I was stronger she wouldn''t have needed to sacrifice for me" "True" said dad sadly "However, she decided for herself, deciding it was worth so safe you, she would not have wanted you to be sad about her, she wanted you to be happy, not to drown in pain" "B-but, it was my fault!" I cried. "Yes. And you should accept that fault" said dad with a sad and cold voice, shocking me who thought that he would try to comfort me. Seeing my face, dad sighed "If it were for me, I would have liked for you to never confront war. However, this battle will not be the last, Spirit Hall started openly moving, it will not stop in only that. Chaotic times are waiting, in your way to strength some sacrifices are necessary, for every strong person a path of death lay at his back" "So I need to accept! Be happy that I wasn''t me and continue like nothing!" I shouted angrily. "No" dad shook his head "You should be thankful for every person that let you stay alive, you should strive for your best not only for your sake, if not for theirs. Each death would be weight over your shoulders, you need to make that your strength and continue forward, Maya would have wanted that" Dad stood up with difficulty, his legs still trembling, he was tired and this light movement was very difficult for him. He slowly approached me and hugged me "It is normal to cry. Cry whatever you want and then stand up and continue. Do not be immersed in the past, do not forget what is important and protect it with all your strength" I reciprocated the hug, crying loudly while dad patted my head. After 10 minutes, breaking the hug I cleaned my tears, turned to dad and asked "Maya was always there, I always accepted and ignored. Could you explain more about her?" Dad warmly smiled and started telling me stories about Maya. She was from a clan that was destroyed by evil spirit masters. Her clan spirit was Blood Shadow, an extremely rare spirit with powerful healing and stealth power, this made her clan the target of an evil cult that refined all her family boosting their cultivation. She could escape the day of her clan''s destruction only thanks to the sacrifice of her family who died to help her escape. After that day, she vowed to herself to do everything in her hand to destroy the evil sect, living only for revenge. She did unnamed atrocities, boosting her cultivation, discarding her humanity, becoming a broken doll only living for revenge. Finally, she fought against the evil sect, even using a forbidden technique of her clan, boosting her power, only to attain her revenge sooner. She destroyed that sect alone, killing all the members, not letting any of them escape. Her price was to never advance in her cultivation and even not being able to birth children. Having accomplished her only objective, she was prepared to suicide, however, she was stopped by mum. Mum was traveling and sensed the fight, only to see how it finished. Mum convinced her to continue living, if she didn''t want to live for herself, she would live for mum. After a lot of time, she finally opened a little by little, becoming mum''s best friend, wanting to work as a maid to help in whatever she could. According to mum, Maya had always thought of mum as family, making also me and Rongrong, and that she vowed to protect all of us, so she would have been happy to save me, finally repaying the debt to mum. After finishing the story, some clan members came and dad left with them, leaving me alone in the room. "I will be stronger, for myself and all the people that trust me. Even if I couldn''t protect Maya now, I won''t waste her sacrifice and continue forward, protecting my loved one" I vowed "Paul, I won''t lose even to you" I said, my resolution stronger than ever. <3rd POV> In a room at the Seven Treasure Clan''s mansion, there were two people. One was Sword Douluo who was standing at a corner and the other was the clan master, Ning Fengzhi, who was lying on a bed. "You could have congratulated Bai" said Sword Douluo "If it weren''t for him, the clan would have perished today. You could have encouraged him, that this won''t happen again" "Bai needs to grow, this was a perfect moment for his growth. This era is changing and we will not be able to stop it, war is coming" Fengzhi said coldly "More casualties will come and he must be prepared for them, even if we are the one to fall, I want for him to continue" "He is only a boy, this war we would finish it" Sword Douluo said. Fengzhi shooked his head "He already is a man, we cannot protect him forever. At his age how many people had you killed?" "It''s different, we need to always fight before. Now, there''s n-" "There wasn''t need to fight, but all changed now. War is approaching, even more chaotic than before" Fengzhi interrupted and signaled at some files on the table. Sword Douluo lifted his hand and the files flew to his hand, reading them he made a shocked face "This?!" "Spirit Hall had become the Spirit Empire. Breaking its neutrality, making known their d?s?r? to invade all the continent. Their first attack targetted the most powerful clan. Our clan is almost devasted, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon clan had been completely destroyed, that old dragon killed. For all the minor clan, they are being forced to join Spirit Empire or being f?r??b?? disbanded, most schools were closed by the Spirit Empire" "They want to become the continent''s enemies," said Sword Douluo. "Overlord would be a better word. They will not stop there, due to their injuries, I suppose they would lay low for a time. However, their next objectives would be both empires, Heaven Dou and Star Luo. We will need to be prepared for it" Fengzhi paused a moment "What are Xiangxie and elder Bone doing?" "Rong is cultivating, trying to stabilize his new realm. It''s not easy to control a strength gained by external factors that without counting his injuries, even if healed his mental expense was great. For Xiangxie..." Sword frowned a little "I don''t really know about her. She explained that had something important to do and she quickly left without leaving more explanation" Fengzhi smiled "We all know how Xie is, she does not like to make explanation" then Fengzhi turned serious "However, at this time it must be extremely important for her to absent. Let her be. We will need her to be stronger" Sword Douluo nodded disappearing from the room. Once Fengzhi was alone a single tear fell from his eye. Chapter 123 - At Shrek <3rd POV> At Shrek''s grounds, two groups were fighting. On one side, there were Shrek''s members, Ma Hongjun, Oscar, and Rongrong. They were facing four people that were part of 3 of the elementary academies, they were the leaders of their respective academies at the previous tournament, the leader of the Skywater Academy, the leader of the Godwind Academy, and the siblings of the Blazing Academy. Even in a 3vs4, Shrek''s side had the advantage and was pushing the other side. It seemed that at this time they greatly improved, at least compared with their rivals. The most surprising was Oscar who was fighting against the man of the Blazing Academy, for a food spirit master to fight in equals grounds against and attack power it''s strange. Even with all of this, this match wasn''t anything more than entertainment, the truly powerful ones were staying out for now. The two powerful couples staying away. Just as Shrek''s side was about to win, Hongjun activating his 5th spirit skill causing a rain of meteorites. A rain of lightning fell destroying Hongjun''s attack. From a corner, a black-haired man followed by a charming purple-haired woman stepped in the fight, Lightning flowing from Tianheng right arm that was transformed in a dragon claw Tianheng directly ignored the people who were fighting and pointed to the other couple that was also observing, the couple was a handsome blue-haired young man and a beautiful brown-haired young woman, they were Tang San and Xiao Wu "Let''s decide it between us. If we win our academies would obtain Shrek''s grounds" Tang San seemed extremely calm "In the case of our victory, you all will become part of Shrek Academy. Will you accept?" "Of course" Lightning started surging from Tianheng''s body, followed by his spirit the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon surrounder by six rings, 2 yellows, 2 purple and 2 blacks. Yan followed Tianheng, activating her spirit, her legs becoming the tail of a snake, she was also with 6 spirit rings. Tang San and Xiao Wu answered activating their spirits, both of them with 6 spirits "Let''s beat them, third brother!" cheered Xiao Wu. Xiao Wu and Tianheng charged at the same time, Tang San and Yan stayed behind deciding starting supporting, blue-silver vines surrounded Xiao Wu while a green mist surrounded Tianheng. Rings shined, Tianghen''s claw grew bigger and Xiao Wu''s fits were surrounded by a pink aura. Just as both fists were to hit, a white shield appeared between them. Both of them hit it and were rebounded 2 meters away. "Humm" someone coughed causing everyone''s attention to the sky. A white-haired man was floating, he had a strange sword surrounded by a light aura on his right hand and two big white wings at his back. The combination of his handsome face and his warm aura created a holy feeling while he looked down at the others. Having obtained their attention, I started descending "So, anyone can explain to me the situation?" I asked. They were all shocked, surprised by my interruption, the different ones were Xiao Wu and Rongrong. Xiao Wu had a smile in her face, she must have detected me priorly. In Rongrong''s case, her face was a combination of shock, happiness, and fury. "It''s simple" Xiao Wu was the first to answer "Their academies are being torn apart by Spirit Hall, so they decided to take over Shrek as we are not being targetted". Xiao Wu explained helped the other to recover from their stupor. I turned to Tianheng and Yan "I don''t mind the others, but I thought that you wouldn''t crawl to attack others, what is the difference between you and Spirit Hall?" "You don''t understand, Bai!" Shouted Yan, however, she was stopped by Tianheng who clenching his hands said "My clan was exterminated by Spirit Hall and even the Thunderclap Academy had been destroyed, I will use all in my power to make my clan flourish again, I don''t mind the methods" I nodded "For what it seemed, you are fighting to obtain Shrek''s grounds for your academy in a struggle to resurrect your clan. Don''t do pointless things" "It''s not pointless, I must-" he said furiously. "It is, Spirit Hall is out there and can attack again. We shouldn''t be fighting between us, we must cooperate to face Spirit Hall. Your clan is already destroyed, it can''t go worst, wait until Spirit Hall''s problem had finished" I waved my hand "You can join Shrek for now. Anyway, you would have lost the fight" "What?!" said offended Tianheng "I''m a lot stronger than before" "I don''t doubt it, but I know Xiao Wu and I got a glimpse of Tang San, they are over your level" I turned to Tang San "Could you use your domain?" Tang San nodded, from him, black aura extended enclosing all of us in it, endless killing intent could be felt by it trying to suppress us "Hum!" I snickered, compared with Paul''s, this was leagues below, I would be able to completely destroy it. Sensing the aura Tianheng gulped and started cold sweating, but he didn''t seem to surrender, but when Tianheng looked at Tang San murderous and determined eyes, he lifted his hands "Okay. You win. I would join Shrek, at least for now". All the other academies also accepted joining Shrek, they were guided by a near teacher to the academy''s building. Being all in Shrek it would be more difficult for Spirit Hall to take them to their side so it was a good thing, we will need all our strength to fight against them. "Now that this is decided, let''s talk abo-" "Flap!" I was interrupted by someone slapping me. It was Rongrong, she had teary eyes and angrily looked at me "Why did you run away!? You left me alone, only with a little note, with all the weight of the clan to me. Not even contacting me once! You even lied! You said that you will return in 3 years!" "Sorry, Rongrong" I hugged her tightly while she was hitting me trying to escape, of course, her being a support spirit master she was unable to do any damage to me "I always thought about you and the family, but, I had important things to do, I needed to be alone, I couldn''t return" "What could it be so important?" she stopped hitting me and looked at my eyes. I cleaned her tears "Sorry, but I won''t explain it, at least now. I''m not finished with it, once I finish I would explain all to you" She stopped crying, but her angry face didn''t change "Flap!" she slapped me again, for the shock I even weaken the hug. She took advantage and pushed me away "Hum!" she turned around her cheeks puffed "If you ignore me, I would ignore you. When you''re ready try to find me" I sensed some warmth from the last words. She then took Oscar''s arm and left towards the academy''s building. Oscar looked at me with a mix of frightened and apologetic look. Looking at her leaving with Oscar, I decided to put him on my blacklist. Knowing Rongrong she would take time until she forgave me openly, but it seemed that it was momentarily resolved. I shook my head, focusing on other things. I turned to Tang San "Sorry for this" "Don''t worry, it''s normal for families" Tang San smiled. "I came here for my father and the Seven Treasure Clan. I listened about your clan''s foundation and I would like to help you" I explained. "It would be great you have your help, thanks Bai" He said, then he stopped thoughtfully for a second "I was prepared to leave tomorrow at dawn, you can join us. I am really busy now, let''s talk about later. Feel free to walk around, someone will show you where to sleep" He said before leaving followed by Xiao Wu who waved at me. "Ha" I sighed "He must be in a hurry to be so cutting". Then I went towards Tianheng and Yan, having been years since we met. After some pleasantries, we went to the cafeteria to talk while drinking tea. They told me what they did these years, they had taken seriously their training, becoming a lot stronger. They finally passed to the next level and were now fiances, however, with all Spirit Hall''s problem this passed to a second plane. Tianheng told me about his clan destruction and the death of his father and grandfather, making him the supposed clan head of a destroyed clan. He was only able to survive due to not being there. At that time, he was with Yan away, this caused him to blame himself for not being there, even when he knows that it would change anything. Yan had grown stronger, her poison improving a lot thanks to her grandfather who showed her a ''secret'' place, no doubt it was the same where I obtained my 5th ring, letting her refining her poison, becoming stronger. These days she was focused on Tianheng, trying to cheer him. They told me about the other Emperor''s members. The Shi brother''s clan had decided to hide away, waiting for the outcome keeping their strength, I could help for a laugh to escape from my mouth comparing the symbolism of a tortoise hiding. I suppose it is normal for them, I couldn''t blame them for their decision. Osler had decided to join Heaven Dou Empire''s army and is now preparing for war, trying to gain merits. An uncomfortable silence was created when they asked about Mayi. I finally told that she had died, that it was due to me being unable to protect her. Seeing my mood they decided to quickly change the subject, explained that they didn''t know anything about Lingling or Chenxiang, even if Chenxiang didn''t participate with us at the tournament, she would always be of our group. Hearing Lingling, I remembered Star Duo Forest''s attack, I should find Xiao Wu alone and ask her about it, as she had stayed there. For Chenxiang, my heart beat quickly, wanting to meet her again. Deciding to not concretely explain Lingling situation, I explained that Lingling was away training, that I found her fine and she was growing stronger, but that it didn''t seem that she would return shortly. After the talk, I left them alone to try to find Xiao Wu. Chapter 124 - Rabbit, apple and bird I finally found Xiao Wu walking around leisurely. "Xiao Wu" I called her who turned around "Hey, Bai" I approached her and looked around "Is Tang San near?" She shook her head "He is busy with some papers. I was bored and decided to leave him alone. Do you want to meet him?" "No, it was only to know it. Truth be told, I prefer to talk with you alone" I explained "It''s about what happened at Star Duo Forest. A big plant grew from the Flowery Garden and started destroying its surroundings, I needed to go and help my clan so I couldn''t help. Do you know anything about it?" Xiao Wu''s face turned serious "I had already planned a meeting with the other Shrek''s members so I only stayed 3 more days than you. I only listened a little about it, but I don''t really know the specifics" "What happened?" "Mei was attacked" She told. "Who in his right mind would attack one of Star Duo''s Kings in their territory, it''s almost a suicide" I thought loudly. "The culprit didn''t attack her, it took the Black Rose" I was shocked by this news, the Rose was the core of the Flowery Garden, without it the garden would lose its most important source and it would start rotting. "What happened?" I inquired. "The Rose was robbed and the culprit escaped. Mei was so furious that madly destroyed the forest trying to find the robber. For what I listened to, Mei was linked with the Rose and she depended on it. Losing the Rose almost cost her life. Finally, Lingling stopped her rampage and saved her life. Before I left them they were continually trying to find the culprit" Xiao Wu finished explaining. "For someone to still the Flowery Garden''s treasure and not being found, it must have been someone really powerful" I deducted "I don''t know what will happen if the other cores are targeted" "If this happens without catching the culprit, the spirit beast would start to rampage. It wouldn''t be strange for them to attack humans, as they are the usual greedy ones" "Are you saying that a war between humans and beast could start, even without any proof of the culprit being human?" I asked shocked by their rash behavior. "The cores are the foundation of the Forest, without them, the Forest would perish so it would be normal" Looking at my shocked face she waved her hand and changed the mood smiling "Don''t worry too much. This has nothing to do with you. Now the spirit beast is more alert, I doubt that it would be possible to rob another. Even Tian had started to move" she stopped a moment "Paf!" she clapped her hands "Oh! I forgot about that. Wait a moment" She then quickly left the place leaving me alone with a deadpan face. After 2 minutes, she returned with a letter in her hand "Take!" she gave me the letter "It''s from Lingling, she told me to give it to you if we met. Sorry for not remembering" she made a cute tehepero expression, hitting her head while showing her tongue. I opened the letter and read its content. "Dear Bai, Anyway, I wrote this letter to tell you that you do not need to worry about our problem. The Rose of the Flowery Garden was robbed, greatly injuring Mei. We already had a solution to the problem so your help is not needed. Knowing you, you may want to help, but I recommend you to not come to Star Duo Forest again. The first suspect is you, you being a human and having learned about the Flowery Garden little time ago, it was all a great coincidence. I already placated them, convincing of your innocence, that I was there with you there when it happened and that you would never do it. Even if they had accepted my opinion and they will not openly go against you. It will not stop some rash beast to try to attack you, thinking you are the culprit. So the best would be for you to not come here for a time, let time cold the tempers. I pray for your well being. Yours sincerely, Xie Lingling" "Really great, not only I must be wary of Hei Qi, now I even need to be wary of any spirit beast, all of them may be targeting me. Star Duo Forest is becoming a true death zone for me" I blamed "Anyway, I would let them be and solve their matters" I decided. Xiao Wu continued looking at me expectantly "What had Lingling write you?" "Nothing much. The same as you, plus that I may be persecuted by all the spirit beast who are thinking I was the one who robbed the Rose" I explained "For the time being, I won''t be able to return to the forest" I said shaking my head. "Don''t worry" Xiao Wu tried cheering me "Spirit beast can be old monsters who keep grudges, but, they would quickly find the culprit and apologize to you" "Ok" I answered, not that her phrase cheered me "Thanks for all Xiao Wu. Let''s talk again at another time" "We will meet tomorrow" she giggled "Third brother, I and Chenxiang are going all with you tomorrow to meet the single-attribute clans" "Chenxiang is coming?" I asked intrigued. "Of course" she answered, "As the heiress of one of the clans who would better negotiate than her?" I nodded, I was looking forward to meeting her again, even if some part of me wad frightened. Xiao Wu then leaned to me and softly said at my ear "Chenxiang would be alone in her room. You know? In case you want to make some night visit" she separated from me and smirked. "W-what are you saying?" I answered shyly blushing. "Her room is at the main building too floor, her name written outside" she said giggled leaving me alone. "That rabbit, always taking any opportunity to have fun at the cost of others" I sighted. Nevertheless, I wanted to meet Chenxiang so I went to her room. Following Xiao Wu directions, I arrived in front of Chenxiang''s room and I knocked on the door. After 5 seconds the door opened letting me saw Chenxiang. She was dressed only with a towel that hugged her body while drops of water fell from her hair, she must have left the shower. These years she had become even more beautiful. She had grown into an enchanting young woman, her h?ps are wider, her b??bs a size bigger, her face became even more charming with wide red lips and shining brown eyes. The water on her blonde hair like gold only made her image more charming causing me to blush a little. Looking at me, Chenxiang stayed still, she widely opened her eyes and blinked twice surprised. Her shocked face changed to a smiling one and she jumped hugging me, leaning over my neck I could sense her ?h?st leaning on my ?h?st, only making me blush harder "Bai! I missed you so much!" she shouted excited. "I missed you too, Xiang" I said recovering my stupor and hugging her, even when she was wet I could feel her warmth. We stood there without any move for 5 minutes, Chenxiang then broke the hug, took my arm and brought me inside the room. Once inside she freed me and looked down a little sad "I listened about Mayi. Sorry, Bai. I had my bad moment with her, but I never wanted this outcome and never wished her to die" This was like a wash of cold water, all ?ustful thought leaving me, replaced by sad ones. I couldn''t protect Mayi and she died due to my problem with Paul, if only she didn''t follow me. How could I even thought something about Chenxiang, I won''t force anyone with a relation with me until I finish with Paul. I f?r??b?? smiled at Chenxiang "Don''t worry, I am sure that she would have thought the same about you. It doesn''t have anything to do with you, it''s only my fault" "You shouldn''t blame yourself!" she shouted "I know how kind can you be. Don''t take all the blame. I am sure that you did everything to save her" she leaned to my ?h?st "It may be better if you talk about it, I am here for you" I pushed her aside "You know nothing!" I cried "I could have prevented her death, I could have stopped, but I did nothing! How different it is than having killed her myself?!" She stepped forward and lightly kissed me, breaking the kiss she said with a sad voice "We can''t change our mistakes from the past, we can only accept them as part of us and continue forward" She then looked at me decidedly "Bai, I love you!" she confessed "I always loved you, even before when I was Yu Feng, how much effort you put, you wanting to help the other, I like it, even I don''t mind your defects. Don''t take it as taking advantage of Mayi''s death, but I am here for you. Can you accept me?" I looked down thoughtfully. Lifting and looking at Chenxiang''s shining brown eyes it made my decision even clear, I didn''t want to hurt her. I was clear in love with her, this was even when I was with Mayi, I always liked her. It was only that I didn''t want to hurt Mayi, so I decided that staying separated would be the best. Even with these feelings, I couldn''t stay with her. If I reciprocated her feeling and Paul won over it would be a big hit for her. I can''t let her suffer. "Sorry, I can''t. I have something to do, I am unable to answer your feeling" but I didn''t want to lose her "However, I would answer you in the future. I can''t ask you to wait for me, but, I need more time" Chenxiang looked at me a little pissed, she then leaned to me. She tiptoed leaning kissing me, this time her tongue invaded my mouth, playing with mine. An explosion of warm occurred, it was much better than years before. I closed my eyes letting my body act, our tongues became one and my hand moved to her waist and started going down. Suddenly, I sensed some danger. It was so sudden that I could only try to focus a protection aura around my stomach. A powerful attack hit my stomach and throw me forward, crashing and destroying the room''s door and stumbling to the hall, finally landing with my legs and arms on the floor. I looked up seeing Chenxiang who had her right leg lifted, a pair of translucent wings at her back with seven spirit rings floating around her, 1 yellow, 2 purple, and 4 blacks. Clearly, she was the one that attacked me. Even though, I was more shocked at how it complimented her, rather than the fact that she was a spirit sage. She lowered her leg and looked down at me "This is what you might miss. I won''t wait forever" She then turned around, further to her room, before turning to me one last time "So quickly decide" she shyly said leaving my sight. I laid at the floor some minutes, my resolve to win over Paul growing even stronger "I won''t lose". Chapter 125 - 4 single-attribute clans The next day, Tang San, Xiao Wu, Lingling and me entered an already prepared carriage, there was also Tai Long accompanying us, as he was the grandson of the Strength Clanmaster. Due to Tai Tan''s relation with Tang Hao, Tai Tan already offered his clan''s support to Tang San, so we were informed that there would be a gathering of the 4 single-attribute clans. This gathering the perfect occasion to make all of them join. The gathering was to take at the Defense Clan headquarters. Before going to there, we passed to the Strength Clan, Tai Tan joining us. It took a total of 1 day to arrive at the Defense Clan. During the travel, we talked characteristics of the other clans and what would be the most effective way to make them join under the new sect of Tang San. For what it seemed, they continued respecting the Clear Sky Hammer but were mad at them for abandoning them and hiding away, having goodwill to Tang Hao. This wouldn''t make any problem to Tang San own sect, as they would want to follow Tang Hao''s son, there was also the fact of how could their power be increased with Tang San''s weapons. The only problem would be for them to accept Tang San as the sect master, as it is difficult to make people follow people weaker than them. In conclusion, Tang San should show his invention and his progress, showing that he is worthy of their loyalty. At final, all is reduced to power. So, the most probable is that the clan leaders decided to make a little spar to him. The difference is spirit rank is wide between them, so the clan masters won''t go full power, the most probable would be for them to prove Tang San with few moves. We finally arrived at the Defense Clan and left the carriage. Chenxiang was silent all the way, and it seemed to have opted to ignore me, not even looking at my eyes. For Tai Tan, it seemed that he already knew about Mayi and he simply glanced at me with a murderous look. I could only sigh, anyway, it''s not like he would gravely hurt me, he knew that my clan''s finance support was completely necessary for Tang San''s sect. Entering the Defense Clan, I was surprised as to how robust and well made were their constructions. It must be known that the Defense Clan specialized in architecture as a side job. We directly meet the clan leader Niu Gao. After some talk with Tai Tan, which seemed to have a very good relation between them, we told about Tang Sect. Niu Gao was against at first, but we were interrupted by Huyan Zhen, the clan master of the Elephant Armored Clan, one of the 5 elemental clans of Heaven Dou Empire. Huyan Zhen had affiliated his clan with the Spirit Empire and tried to make the Defense Clan join him as both clans specialized in defense. Niu Gao refused even when Huyan Zhen threatened with his clan destruction by Spirit Empire. Finally, after one punch between both, Huyan Zhen left letting Niu Gao time to thing about. During all Huyan Zhen stay, I was clenching my teeth, his clan had helped in the attack to mine. However, I couldn''t act, we couldn''t afford a fight against Spirit Empire starting now. After Huyan Zhen''s visit, Niu Gao knew that his clan couldn''t last alone, so he accepted Tang San''s proposition, with the condition that Tang San must be able to damage him, with 3 opportunities to do it. Tang San''s two first intents seemed very weak, but in truth he was only testing his defense. The last intent he went full out, even using his Deathgod Domain. As the Deathgod Domain was a soul attack rather than a physical one, focusing on weakening, he broke against Niu Gao''s defense and lightly injured him, the Defense Clan accepting joining the Tang Sect. The next clan that appeared at the meeting was the Speed Clan. This time was even easier than with the Defense Clan. Chenxiang was Bai He''s favorite and most talented granddaughter, and even Tang San was his grandnephew. Bai He accepted joining following Chenxiang''s decision With Chenxiang rank 71 at 20 years old, even being able to overcome the lack of attack power of their spirit, she was the clan''s idol and future clan mistress so her words were almost equal to Bai He. Thus, the Speed Clan joined the Tang Sect. Finally, it came the turn of the Breaking Clan, the last to arrive. The Breaking Clan, specialized in attack power, all their abilities improving the penetration power of their spear, making that even at the douluo rank they have an attack power equal as a titled douluo. Its clan master, Yang Wudi, came with the intention of uniting the four clans in one, only to be shocked by the news that they already decided to join Tang San''s sect. He then challenged Tang San to be able to survive one of his attacks, Tang San accepting it. Yang Wudi threw his Soul Breaking Spear to Tang San. Tang San used his strange movement evading the spear that chased him, slowly he used his Blue-Silver Grass Emperor stopping the spear momentum while using all his abilities, it seemed that his new 6th skill was some skill that caused his grass to grow, making all his other skills stronger. It finished, with Tang San invoking a Blue-Silver Grass spear facing Yang Wudi''s spear. Yang''s spear broke the grass spear, but Tang San answered with his Clear Sky Hammer in combination with the Deathgod Domain. Even with some internal injuries, Tang San stopped the spear, making the Breaking Clan part of his sect. With this, all the four single-attribute clans joined the Tang Sect. Tang San decided to reform them as part of his clan, focusing on their specialties. All four clans were known for their pure attribute system, but they were one of the best in the continent in their side jobs. The Strength Clan were specialists at blacksmithing. The Defense Clan in architecture, making them the managers of building the Tang Sect''s headquarters. The Speed Clan focused on intel gathering, so they would be the spies and the informants of the clan. Finally, the Breaking Clan were experts in poison, as poison could be also used as a medicine, they had a vast knowledge of it, and become the medical branch of the Sect. After forming the Sect, Tang San needed more people to create weapons, so it was decided that he would go to Metal City, a city where the most important industry was blacksmithing, with the biggest concentration of refineries, trying to gain some good blacksmiths and materials. For the trip, he was accompanied by the other of Shrek, I decided to stay where the Tang Sect''s headquarters were being built, at the past Defense Clan''s place that was greatly destroyed with all the fights, supervising the constructions. As part of the Seven Treasure Clan, I was educated to be its heir, so I have vast knowledge in finance. Needing me to control all the constructions. For Tang San''s money issues, Rongrong was with him, like me she was also trained by dad so there won''t be any problem. I was in an improvised office making some numbers when Bai He appeared. He came flying from the windows without making any noise. "So, you are Ning Bai?" He was an old man with a slim built with long snow-white hair, he wore white robes and an open fan in his hand I stopped my accounts and lifted my head looking at him. I lightly bowed my head "I am Ning Bai, son of the Seven Treasure Clan master" "Oh? You have manners?" he said closing a fan "I was expecting someone like my little beast" "Are you referring to Chenxiang?" I asked. "Of course, the little beast never followed my word, always doing whatever she wanted" he was complaining but he couldn''t hide a little smile "But seeing all that she accomplished, it not like I can blame her. She greatly surpassed me, she already is stronger than me and it''s only a matter of time until she even surpasses my speed" he stated proudly. Suddenly, he turned serious and looked straight at my eyes "What are your intention with her?" He asked putting some pressure on me, not that someone full focused in speed had a great pressure "I already know that my granddaughter is in love with you. I won''t like to interfere with her life, however, this would change if you want to hurt her" "I want her to be happy" I stated firmly "However, I don''t know if I can be the one who will make her happy. I love her, but before corresponding her and need to clear some important matter, until then I will stay away from her. If she decides to stay away from me and find someone else to love, I will accept and give my congratulations" "You didn''t seem a bad boy" He said taking out a wooden box and giving to me. I looked at him with doubt and opened the box, I was shocked finding a Crystal Blood Ginseng. This ginseng was an invaluable immortal herb, a complete treasure that could improve the body. I turned with an incredulous look at Bai He, it must be known that the speed clan was broken, not having almost any money, how could they have such a treasure and give it to me "What is the meaning of this?" "There''s no more talented person than my little beast, of course, her dowry must live to her" He proudly said. "D-dowry?" I stuttered. "I will accept her decisions, for now, you''re her. Keep it and never make her cry" he said quickly disappearing before I could even answer. I looked at the Ginseng and closed the box and sighed leaning to my chair "A dowry, eh?" "Brrrrrrr!" Only to be interrupted by a loud sound that was quickly approaching my position. I put the Ginseng at my storage and invoked my sword prepared for the one approaching. "BAAAAAM!" the door of the office exploded, Tai Tan entering the office "What are you do-?!" I was caught by the neck and was thrown to the windows, I twisted my body safely landing at the outside courtyard. Tai Tan then also jumped. He looked angrily at me "I was containing due to young master, but now that he left I can finally vent my wrath" he said stretching his knuckles. "So it''s about Mayi? I am very sorry about her. It was my faul-" He didn''t wait for me and threw a punch to me, I blocked it with my sword surrounded by Retaliation Intent only being pushed some meters. "I already told that her death wasn''t truly your fault, but is your fault don''t protect her!" He shouted angrily invoking his spirit, 8 spirit rings surrounding him, his already tall figure, growing taller, his muscles growing. He charged to me and punched me. This time I didn''t defend, I opened my hand wide and accept his attack. His punch hit my stomach. An attack of a spirit douluo it wasn''t any joke, the punch seemed like a giant boulder hitting me, breaking my bones, almost splitting me in half. I was shot 20 meters away, blood all over my body, until a crashed to a wall, that broke at my impact. Tai Tan slowly approached me. He looked down at me "I know your strength, you specialized in defense, that attack won''t be able to go against you. Why did you not defend?" My body was torn apart, being extremely difficult to speak. I put all my strength, focusing my Life aura in my vocal cords "I needed to accept" I slowly said while spitting blood "Mayi died because of me. I will take any retribution of you, I deserve every punishment from you" Tai Tan then shot another punch, this time at my head. As I saw the punch, I know that it could kill me, but I simply accepted it. The punch stopped an inch away from me, its wind pressure even hurting my wounds. Looking at Tai Tan, he had some tears in his eyes. "She wouldn''t have liked this. Don''t forget her, but, continue forward" He turned around left trying to hide his tears. I focused my Life intent around my body, slowly healing my wounds, that would take 3 days to heal "I won''t lose anyone more. I would protect them" I vowed to myself, thinking about Mayi''s death and Chenxiang. Chapter 126 - Old Serpent After a month, the construction of the main building of the Tang Sect was completed. To tell the truth, it was very tedious to control all the budget and logistics that are very important in any action, I hate people who didn''t think about it. At least, the Defense Hall were real professionals at this. The finishing of the work matched with Shrek Monsters''s return who were surprised by the detailed building, it was a Chinese style mansion, according to Niu Gao it was inspired in the previous Clear Sky headquarters, focused on defense against external foes. Shrek''s team seemed to have accomplished their quest, as they returned with some blacksmiths, some of them were the best of the best, and obtained a lot of rare treasures and materials. At the same moment, I sensed some moments from the Speed Hall, Bai He received a letter. Bai He convoked all of us to an important meeting. After Shrek''s members let all their things and were prepared we all were reunited at a meeting room. There were two meeting places at the sect. One was the outer one, for meetings with external people, that was a throne-like chair in a full ostentatious room, full of expensive ornaments, showing the power of the sect to the outside. The other one and where we reunited was the inner one. This was a simple room with the minimum decoration, in the middle of it there was a big long table with chairs surrounding it, at the head table there were the two grandest chairs and as the chairs further away they became smaller, representing the lower position. For this meeting, we were the Shrek Monsters, the hall heads of the single-attribute clans and me. Tang San and Xiao Wu sat at the head, it was strange seeing Xiao Wu who had dyed her hair black as I recommended. She had been exposed as a spirit beast at the Tournament so it''s better to evade any unnecessary fight of spirit master trying to take her. The others sad at the other chairs, Tang San''s friends at his side. I was with the hall heads, even if not part of the sect as the representative of the Seven Treasure Clan, the financial backer my standing couldn''t be low. Once we were sat, Bai He stood up "Since we moved to Heaven Dou Empire, the Speed Hall has been investigating and obtaining information about it. These last days there had been a lot of movements at Heaven Dou''s Palace, the security has tightened, more than 10 thousand soldiers mobilizing to the place, making it impossible to gain more information from it. I suspect that the emperor Xue Ye may not last long. The battle for the throne is imminent" "Spirit Hall would surely take advantage of it" Tai Tan said. I was thinking of their conversation until I sensed something, my gaze going to the exit door. For the reactions of the others, they didn''t seem to have detect it, with the exception of Tang San who was also fixed at the room. A powerful person was approaching. "Bam" the doors were opened by an invisible force causing everyone to stay become quiet. At the door stood an old man wearing simple green clothes, he had green long hair and beard with beryl eyes. For his presence, there was no doubt that he was a titled douluo, but at the same time I could sense some familiarity with him. "Old monster!" Tang San called him while standing up and received him with a handshake. "There''s no time, little monster! Emperor Xue Ye is at the verge of death" he informed confirming our theories "I need your help to treat the poison". "Wait a moment, old monster. You didn''t explain that you have it under control" Tang San said. "I used my own poison to treat him, fighting poison with poison. However, his poison is very tricky, changing its nature continuously with time, weather and temperature, this caused my poison to not be effective and his relapses becoming shorter. We need to hurry" he explained. Tang San turned to Yang Wudi "You know something about this poison?" Yang Wudi nodded "This seems to be the forbidden poison of my clan. It''s an extremely complex poison concocted by numerous precious herbs. It has 7 years of incubation before it could be activated, once activated the person is dead. It would continuously mutate, slowly weakening the host until killing him" "There''s some cure to it?" the man asked. Yang Wudi shook his head "It can only be delayed" The man clenched his teeth "Anyway, let''s go before the emperor dies, surely you could do something. Hurry!" The man''s eyes glowed and a green serpent appeared colliding around him. I instantly recognized the snake, it was a Jade Phosphor Serpent, the same spirit as Yan, so the most probable was that his man was Yan''s grandparent, Poison Douluo Dugu Bo. The serpent shot towards Tang San and Yang Wudi, it grew in size and take them with its tail. Then is shot towards outside, Dugu Bo jumping at its head. (If this about the emperor and the palace, Qinghe must be in all. If a battle for the throne starts, I''ll need to help him) I then looked at my left hand with a difficult gaze (And I could help with the poison). I stood up white wings growing from my back, revolving my spirit energy at them I shot flying in Dugu Bo direction. Even if I must use Paul''s spirit, I''ll need to help the emperor. His death will make a chaotic era and Spirit Empire would be the most beneficed of Heaven Dou weakening. It didn''t take me long to catch the three who were all sat on the serpent''s head. I was nearly shot down by Dugu Bo whose rings started shining, but fortunately, he was stopped by Tang San. I landed at the serpent''s head withdrawing my wings. I was shot a death glance by Dugu Bo "I saw you at the little monster''s sect, but, who are you?" I made a light bow "I am Ning Bai" "So you are Fengzhi''s son. Yanyan had talked about you. Nevertheless, as your father, I don''t trust you. Tell me your reason to be here, before I command my serpent to kill you" Bo ordered pushing me with his pressure. Even under his pressure, I stayed calm. Anyway, I doubted that he would really act "I can help with the poison. I may not be knowledgeable about poisons, but I have a contingency against them" At this moment I remembered Paul''s words, according to him his Oreo would be extremely beneficial to someone like Dugu Bo, giving one to him would sure gain his approval. I took out a Red Velvet Oreo from my storage "This food would cure any poison even making it beneficial for the one who ate. If the emperor''s poison is too complex it may not work, but there won''t be negative effects" "So this way you survived my eight spider lances poison" said Tang San. "Boy, I don''t trust you. If you are only a tenth of your father, you are a scheming bastard. Your family supports Xue Qinghe while I favored Xue Beng. This could be a trap to benefit Qinghe and I know that he is someone fishy" Dugu Bo explained. (Of course, he won''t trust me instantly, but...) I lifted my left hand, five blacks rings appeared around it, shocking them madly. One ring started shining and a Red Velvet Oreo appeared over my left palm. "You have twin spirits!" Tang San shouted surprised. "This is not important now" I said throwing the Oreo to Dugu Bo "Take it, it would be beneficial to you. After knowing its effect, you would let me use it in the emperor" It must be known that food spirits can''t be poisonous, even when absorbing a poisonous spirit beast, your skill will be cleaned of any poison, making them safe. Someone with a food spirit, with negatives effect, is unheard. Dugu Bo took the Oreo even with a dubious face. After some time and a nodding from Tang San, he finally ate it. He opened his eyes widely at the effect of the Oreo "Don''t disturb me!" he ordered before closing his eyes. The stood there in a cultivating position while the flying serpent continued flying to the palace. It didn''t take much time until he opened his eyes again. The Red Velvet Oreo acts quickly and he had lived with his poison all his life, so it would be simply to take control of it. In these 10 minutes, he had experimented some changed, he seemed more youthful, having lost 10, and his hair and beard changed color, the previous green one was replaced by brown. Even with that, the most important change wasn''t his external changes, it was his spirit energy. The aura around him grew stronger, now resembling a super douluo, if he wasn''t rank 95, he should be near it. "Hahaha" Dugu Bo laughed inspecting his body. He turned to Tang San "This is much better than you, little monster" "How could something make a titled douluo cultivation grow so much in such a short time" said Tang San incredulously. "I didn''t expect this. This should make the body get used to the poison, being possible to gain the benefits of the poison. But the increase in cultivation is new" I explained looking shocked at Dugu Bo. All three of them looked completely shocked at me, their jaws falling "How can such a heavenly defining spirit exist? In good quantities some poison can be used as a medicine, your spirit throws this out to the bin and makes any poison, any quantity medicine" "Even with the little monster method, I wasn''t completely healed as I need the poison to keep my strength. This at the same time, restricted my improvements as my body won''t be able to keep up with the new power, I already accepted being unable to breakthrough anymore. Now this is solved, I completely ?ssimilated the poison, making my body a lot stronger and shooting my rank to 95, it would be even possible to be beyond" Dugu Bo then bowed to me "Thanks, little freak" He then hit my back almost making me fall "Hahaha" "You''re welcome" I answered. "Don''t forget to give this to my granddaughter" he said just as the palace could be seen. We all turned serious "I will thank you accordingly later, now we need to save the emperor" Chapter 127 - Heaven Dous Palace Arriving near the place, Dugu Bo withdraw his serpent. The 4 of us slowly falling controlling spirit power, safely landing. We continued towards the palace without anyone stopping us, it must be one of the perks of being accompanied by Dugu Bo, a titled douluo and a known helper of the emperor. We continued approaching until we arrived at the courtyard in front of the palace. It seems that the Speed Hall information was true, there were a lot of soldiers and I could sense that they were not the usual ones, something strange was happening. The soldiers moved, pointing their lances to us stopping our advance. Dugu Bo took out a golden token with the emperor''s mark "Move away! We had urgent matters with his majesty" The soldiers seemed unaffected by it, not withdrawing their weapons "His majesty is resting. By orders of the crown prince, nobody is able to disturb him. Anyone that otherwise try it, will be killed at the moment" We all frowned, this wasn''t a natural reaction. These strange soldiers and not being permitted entrance to Dugu Bo who was a counselor, smelt fishy. I turned to Dugu Bo "Have you seen these soldiers before?" Dugu Bo shook his head "All of them are unfamiliar" "It seemed that the crown prince is up to something. I think that he is the one who poisoned the emperor" Tang San reasoned. "Qinghe wouldn''t try to kill his father" Without a doubt, something fishy was happening, but it didn''t mean that Qinghe was the culprit, Qinghe could be also a victim and his name being used. "Be prepared" warned Tang San "It must be known that we were to come. As experts in poison, they will try to stop us interfering with his majesty''s health" The aura around Dugu Bo started increasing, preparing to battle his way in. "Wait" I stopped them. I took out Qinghe''s coin token that he gave me years ago. This token was like a direct order of Qinghe, if they are acting on his behalf, I want to see how they will react. I turned to the soldiers "Can we pass now?" The soldiers froze in their place, by their alarmed faces it was evident that they didn''t know how to react. "Oh? It is not Tang San and Bai?" a warm voice came from the palace door, it was Qinghe. He approached us with an amiable smile followed by two hooded people "You could have warned me previously, I would have prepared a better reception" Seeing him so calm, it was clear that he knew about this "What is the meaning of this?" I asked signaling our surroundings. "My father is sick and I must focus on his protection. This number of soldiers are normal to make sure..." "Don''t joke with me!" I shouted angrily "What are you doing with Spirit Hall?!" "I do not know what are you referring to?" "Really?" I invoked my sword and slashed towards one soldier, shooting a white blade made of aura. The soldier in his shocked state, unconsciously activated his spirit, 4 spirit rings surrounding him and turning his skin black "How can you explain this sheer number of spirit masters? All the soldiers here were replaced by spirit masters. Not only that" I signaled at the two hooded people behind Qinghe "Heaven Dou Empire doesn''t have access to titled douluos, and even if they had, the normal would be for them to protect his sick majesty rather than you. Spirit Hall is the only one capable of dispatching two titled douluos like nothing! You allied with Spirit Hall and poisoned his majesty!" I accused. "Let''s not pretend anymore, I''m tired" Around Dugu Bo 9 spirit rings appeared, a green mist started twisting around him "Let''s try my new strength" From Dugu Bo a condensed green mist was shot towards our surroundings, targetting all the spirit masters and evading us. At the same time, Tang San reacted, shooting a firework, warning our allied to help us. The two hooded people reacted stepping in front of Qinghe. From one of them, 9 spirit rings appeared, 2 yellows, 3 purples, 4 blacks. With the shine of a black ring, the man started bulging "<7th skill: Porcupine Spirit Avatar>". He Broke his hood and becoming 5 meters wide purple spiked sphere, becoming the form of a porcupinefish. The porcupinefish opened his mouth and started suctioning, all the green mist of the surroundings being swallowed by him. This caused his spikes turning with a shade of green, clearly, he had absorbed Dugu Bo''s poison. He was Porcupinefish Douluo, Ci Xue. A rank 96 spirit douluo. It seemed that they were prepared to fight against Dugu Bo, as they had the best counter to him. Porcupinefish are highly venomous spirits capable of refining poison, the perfect one to stop Dugu Bo most feared poison while the other title douluo can attack him. The other hooded person took away his hood, showing a pale face man with white hair at shoulder length and some black tattoos over his eyes, that make him resemble a mime. Over his right hand, a purple book appeared surrounded by 9 rings, 2 yellows, 2 purples, and 5 blacks. He was Paper Douluo, Jian Long. A rank 96 spirit douluo with a Grimoire as his spirit. One of his black rings shined and the pages from the Grimore started passing, the pages left the Grimoire and started forming a 5 meters long elephant made from papers "<5th Skill: Big Elephant Talisman>". The elephant charging to us. I looked at Tang San and Yang Wudi who nodded. We all have experimented with many battles, gaining experience, so we acted accordingly. Tang San and I moved behind Yang Wudi while Yang Wudi invoked his spear, his eight rings surrounding it. I invoked my sword and lifted it, 4 rings shining brightly and 4 different colored lights shooting towards both enemies titled douluos. Due to the difference in the realm, the effect will be reduced, but I was able to restrict them to almost 10% of their attributes. At the same time, green waves started beating from my sword "", supporting Dugu Bo and Wudi at the same time, increasing their strength. Yang Wudi was considered the strongest of the 4 single-attribute clans, a pure power system, focused on penetration. As someone said, sometimes the best defense is an offense. Wudi thrust his spear, his spirit rings shining "<7th skill: Soul Piercing Spear Avatar>" his spear grew becoming 10 meters long and crashed with the elephant. Tang San used his Deathgod Domain on Wudi''s weapon, even increasing his power more. The elephant couldn''t resist, the spear piercing it, making the elephant disperse in papers. Seeing the attack destroy his skill, Jian Long was shocked. He didn''t expect for a spirit douluo to be able to overpower him, and for mere spirit emperors to be able to put any fight. He quickly activated another skill "<6th skill: Robust Tortoise Talisman>" like before pages left the Grimoire, this time forming in a tortoiseshell in front of him. Even with his defense, Wudi''s weapon pushed him to the ground, the Deathgod Domain''s energy permeating him. Even if Wudi''s attack couldn''t break his defense, he was blocked by his spirit avatar, being debilitated by my spirit and Tang San''s Deathgod Domain. With all the titled douluos blocked in their fights, I turned to Qinghe "Why?" Qinghe continued smiling "I might ally with Spirit Hall. With second uncle and fourth brother chasing after the throne, I need to secure it for me. A civil war will create a lot of chaos, weakening Heaven Dou Empire" he then extended his hand "I really appreciate both of your talents, especially yours, Bai. I am sure that I would be a lot weaker without your help. I considered you as my only true friend. Why don''t you join me? I can promise whatever you want" "How could we trust you?!" shouted Tang San "You even poisoned your own father for power. What would you not do for power?" "You may be right, some limits are necessaries," Qinghe said "I will be sincere with you. I am not Xue Qinghe. My real name is Qian Renxue. Xue Ye was never my father, my true father was the last Supreme Pontiff. I clenched tightly my sword, furiously looking at who now presented as Qian Renxue "You lied to me" I softly said "I trust you! And you lied to me!" I shouted angrily "I considered you as my friend, all these years I wouldn''t give a fu?k about you being part of Spirit Hall" some tears falling my eyes "I trusted you, I even would have helped you. You were my only friend while if it didn''t affect my clan, Heaven Dou Empire could be ignored" (Fuck. Paul was right) "But no! You lied to me and even your fu?k?n? Spirit Hall tried to destroy my clan" white aura started being absorbed by my sword, shotting a powerful white aura around it "How could I join you?!" Renxue flinched a little making a step back with a little depressed face with concern "I-I didn''t have anything to do with that attack, that was big sister and grandfather plan" he said slowly. He quickly recuperated his cool "I can repay your losses with whatever you want, Bai. I own you at least his much" "So, will you kill that fu?ker of a crocodile and the ones behind him?". Of course, he couldn''t, the Golden Crocodile Douluo was one of the highest-ranked, not even talking that the people behind him who were the rulers of Spirit Hall. "You are requesting too much!" he said pissed "This would be the same as destroying Spirit Hall!" "The death can''t be returned. I will pay Spirit Hall blood with blood!" I swung my sword towards him a white pillar of sword qi shot. Chapter 128 - White Three vs Angel At Renxue''s back, a pair of white wings with a golden glow appeared "You have been always good at defense, Bai" Renxue lifted his hand with his palm extended and stopped my attack. Golden light surged from his hand towards the white pillar which started dispersing "Sadly, it cannot be said the same thing for offense" he swung his hand and erased my attack completely "I already surpassed you long ago" Renxue might be right, I am not rival to him, however, I''m not alone. I turned to Tang San who nodded at me, then I charged forward. I activated my four first skills, focusing on him. I surrounded my sword in protection intent and slashed at her "Tch! Your skills were always a pain" spatted Renxue in her right hand, a sword appeared, instead of being made of metal it seemed to be a concentration of light and holy power, it was completely golden in color with fine ornaments that showed an image of dignity and power. Renxue swung his sword, crashing with mine. With this clash, I proved her power, I could coup with that. Even if similar, I doubt that he would have my technique. I twisted my wrist, my sword followed along with his sword, his sword cutting the air at my left side while my swung aimed at his left arm. A yellow ring shined, at Renxue''s left hand a golden sphere of energy concentrated, he used to stop my attack. "Boom!" at contact with my sword his energy exploded, as I was covered with my protection intent I wasn''t damaged, but I was pushed away. No problem as the real attack wasn''t mine. Tang San stood at Renxue''s back, having gained momentum with a twirl, his black Clear Sky Hammer at his hand. Sensing the attack coming, Renxue''s attack widely opened "Haaaaa!" I expansive wave surged from Renxue pushing Tang San away, I already was prepared and left a shield of protection aura around him, Tang San landed safely 10 meters away. "You will need more than that" Renxue acclaimed "Experiment the power of a god spirit" At Renxue''s back 3 more pairs of wings appeared followed by a spirit image of a golden 10 winged angel, surrounded by 7 rings, 2 yellows, 1 purple, 3 blacks, and one red. He extended both his hands and golden aura extended to all the battlefields. It was a domain, an incredibly powerful one that was even more powerful than mine. This domain main property was light and holiness, with an effect of purification. Helping allied and suppressing foes. I instantly activated mine "". As both domains were of similar nature, it won''t be too difficult to maintain mine, keeping the purification in check. At the same time, it meant that my domain would be completely ineffective against her. Not only that, I could sense that my absorption skills were infective against her, becoming useless as I couldn''t absorb her attributes. In Tang San''s case, it was even worst. He tried to maintain his Deathgod Domain, but couldn''t fight against. The most he could do was focus around his body to not be affected, this would cost him a lot of spirit energy and if he were to lose focus and Renxue''s Domain invaded him, he would be unable to activate his own domain again. On the other fights, Dugu Bo was little by little pushing Porcupinefish Douluo. With Dugu Bo''s new strength, his poison reached a new level. Moreover, he didn''t need to be wary of his poison effect on himself, permitting him to make more brutal attacks. Even if Porcupinefish had hight poison resistance, how could he resist a poison that was enough strong to even kill its user who had lived all his life with it? "Take it!" Dugu Bo who was riding his spirit serpent shouted. The serpent shotting a red laser of poison. Porcupinefish couldn''t do anything else that absorb it, but with each attack, it became more difficult to it, and he could already feel more struggle to move his body, the poison starting to affect him. Suddenly, Renxue''s Domain affected both of them. Even with the difference in rank, both douluo find themselves affected by it. Dugu Bo was suppressed, sensing his combat strength lowering. For Porcupinefish Douluo it was opposed, Dugu Bo''s poison lowered its strength and he started being able to cope against it. Not making difficult to stale time. On Paper Douluo and Wudi''s side, it was even worst for Wudi. He was only able to keep the other in check thanks to Paper Douluo being affected by the Deathgod Domain. Renxue''s Domain immediately extinguished the effects of the Deathgod Domain. "How can I mere spirit douluo shame me!" Recuperating his strength a black ring shined "<7th skill: Blood Grimoire>!" his grimoire''s pages started turning red, the stress of Wudi''s attack seemed to have lowered, now not being able to cause any damage to the tortoiseshell made by red papers. A purple ring shined "<4th skill: Sharp Bees Talisman>" without withdrawing the tortoiseshell, red papers started forming sharp stingers that shot toward Wudi. Making difficult for Wudi to cope them all. On Bai''s and Tang San side. "This Domain!" shouted shocked Tang San "It''s the Seraphim spirit!" "Close" stated Renxue "My spirit is the spirit representing Spirit Hall and the gods. I went beyond the Seraphim spirit, evolving it. My spirit is Arc-Seraphim with its Angellic Domain!" "Boom!" a light explosion was heard, suddenly, Renxue appearing in front of me. Both hand at his sword, he swung it to me shining brightly "Even if you surpassed me in technique, I will destroy you with pure power" I focused Retalation intent at my sword, moving the sword without wasting movements only to b?r?ly being able to block him "BOOOM!" Renxue''s sword exploded, my sword was repelled not being able to stop if he were to attack again. Before Renxue attacked again, vines swirled around my h?ps, Tang San''s Blue-Silver Grass had gripped me and moved me away from Renxue. "Boom!" Another light explosion. However this time, I wasn''t the target "You''re too predictable. How would you able to face me with your weak Blue-Silver Grass" Renxue had changed the target, Tang San was always been his target, attacking me only a decoy. Tang San''s rings shined, a robust wall made of vines grew in front of him. Renxue''s yellow ring shined "<2nd skill: Angel Descent>!" his body glow golden and passed through the vines'' wall like if it wasn''t there "I don''t need you" Renxue grinned "<5th skill: Heavenly Slash>!", the wings at his back grew and closed surrounding her sword which started glowing even shinier "Die" she shouted swinging his Angelic Sword. Tang San revolved his spirit power and invoked his 5th skill supported by his 6th, creating a Blue-Silver Grass Spear. Renxue''s sword sliced the spear like bu??er and continued unstoppable forward aiming at Tang San''s neck. Chapter 129 - Angel Punishment Just as Renxue was about to cut there was a pink glow. "Shing!" Renxue''s slash was like a giant pillar of light and flames, the cut had gone over 100 meters away cutting all in its way, even cutting Heaven Dou''s Palace that was recognized by its great defense, a spirit douluo full attack necessary to destroy it. It was a cut so clean that it didn''t seem to have cut anything. Renxue stepped back and flew away batting his wings. The low wing was enough to show his attack''s might. One wing of Heaven Dou''s Palace falling by its own weight falling the sign of the cut. Renxue then glanced down with interest. Tang San stood at the same place, completely fine. In front of him, a young woman stood surrounded by a pink glow "<4th skill: Paragon Immortal Body>!" she was Xiao Wu. "Who dares to face me?!" Renxue shouted. Then he seemed to recognize Xiao Wu "How could you arrive here?" Renxue said thoughtfully "We have Shrek Academy and the Seven Treasure Clan completely surrounded, not talking about this palace" He shook his head and signaled at Xiao Wu "For you to come alone here. Nevermind, I will make good use of your 100.000 ring" "I won''t let put a finger on Xiao Wu!" shouted Tang San. Xiao Wu hugged Tang San arm and grinned at Renxue "Who says that I am alone?" Like a purple flash, an incredible purple comet cut through the sky crashing to Renxue. Renxue was unable to react accordingly at the comet speed, only being able to cover with 4 of his wings. Renxue was shot down, slamming to the ground, buried by debris. At Renxue''s previous position, a young woman stood, with two translucent wings at her back and glowing with a purple light, 7 rings around her. She was Bai Chenxiang "Xiang!" I shouted happy to gain some support. Chenxiang winked at me "It seems that you need some help. Let this beautiful me give you a hand" "Bang!" from the debris, 5 golden energy spheres were shot to Chenxiang. Chenxiang grinned "Too slow" her body flashed, appearing to another place, but the spheres seemed to had locked her and continued following her. Chenxiang grinned, she calculatedly flashed "Boom!" finally causing the spheres to crash between them causing an explosion, she appeared meters away, not at all affected by the explosion''s radius. From the debris, Renxue left pushing the debris away "You!" he shouted madly. "Don''t try to touch Bai!" Chenxiang shouted, one of her black rings started shining. Chenxiang lifted her right hand that had the finger positioned like a gun "<6th skill: Photon Laser>!". The light seemed to be absorbed from her surroundings, focusing on the tip of her fingers. She pointed at Renxue "Bang!" she shouted making like she pulled the trigger. One meter of diameter laser of purple light shot from Chenxiang''s finger to Renxue. Renxue seeing the upcoming attack, sensing its great strength, he lifted his left hand that started shining with golden light, something similar to a gauntlet appeared at his left hand. "BOOOM!" The laser impacted Renxue, causing an explosion over 50 meters, smoke hiding the effects. Once the smoke cleared, we could see Renxue standing there like nothing happened. How could someone receive that attack from a spirit sage without any damage! Renxue even took more damage with the purple comet, no way near the power of this one. Renxue started flying up "Sorry for you but I am immune to light" He stated signaling his gauntlet. I opened my eyes widely recognized what it was "A spirit bone!" "Not a normal one, Bai. This is part of my Divine Angelic Raiment, granting me completely immunity to light and holy attacks" He told "I am tired of this much flies flying around me. I need to finish this quickly or the work of more than 10 years impersonating Qinghe will go to waste" His red spirit ring shined brightly "Feel grateful to contemplate my strength. I will show the power of gods" The spirit of his back started ?ssimilating with him. His clothes disappeared being replaced by the spirit golden robes, his wings turned completely golden in color, becoming a copy of his spirit shining with a golden glow. Even all his spirit rings became golden. "<7th skill: Arc-Seraphim Avatar>" The spirit avatar is obtained at the spirit sage realm, at rank 71. The power growth of the spirit is so much that it is considered one of the big abyss in power with the titled douluo realm. It wasn''t only an increase in strength, it was an increase in quality, comprehension... Becoming someone different. This difference in strength it''s even bigger depending on the quality of the spirit, making the difference between spirits even bigger, there was no doubt that Renxue''s spirit was of the highest potential and quality, even the Clear Sky Hammer, number one spirit tool could be short to compare with it. Renxue''s power had increased tremendously, it wasn''t any different to a titled douluo one, being able to fight in equal grounds with them, that even without putting her domain at use. "Recieve divine punishment" Renxue pointed at the sky, a golden ring shining brightly "<6th skill: Angelic Punishment>" A huge sphere shot from his hand. The sphere seemed to stop at the sky, for only to break-in pieces, falling to the ground, golden drops that resembled golden angels started falling resembling rain. As I was seeing the attack fall, I sensed its great power. It wasn''t a simple attack, it was a combination of a physical and mental. Each drop had an incredibly powerful explosive power combined with a mental attack. For people with low mental strength, it would shatter their mind and even strong ones wouldn''t be able to evade being stunned some time. Moreover, this attack didn''t target only us, it was all over, wanting to clean all the witnesses. Even if I couldn''t save everyone "Regroup!" I at least needed to protect us. Tang San''s vines grabbed me, Chenxiang and Xiao Wu and brought all at the same place. I focused on my sword, trying to detect the will around me, absorbing making it mine. Even in a so holy ground like this, it was very difficult due to being under Renxue''s control. I focus it all on my sword that started shining with a bright white light. I thrust it upwards "" a 6-petalled flower bloomed over the tip of my sword, created a 6 layered barrier. Renxue''s rain fell, hitting my barrier "BOOM!" multiples explosion sounded over the barrier. It must be known that this technique focused on physical attacks so mental attacks will pass through. Nevertheless, my protection property was effective against mental attacks, so after passing each layer the power behind would reduce. After a rain of 5 seconds, the grounds around me were completely intact, 4 of my layers last the attack, even with that a great pressure was put on me, sensing like my head was going to explode, stunning me for 3 seconds. Our surroundings weren''t so lucky as us. Most of Heaven Dou''s people had died, by a combination of Renxue''s explosions and what it seemed heads that boosted due to the mental attack. Renxue started descending "This is what happens to Spirit Hall enemies" landing he looked at me "As I expected, you were able to stop my attack, congratulations" "Shing!" A flash of light and where Renxue''s stood there was now a beautiful young woman, she had snow-white skin, slightly slender phoenix golden eyes, with a long straight golden blond hair, dignity could be sensed for her. Renxue''s previous undoubtedly man''s body became a very beautiful young woman of some 20 years old, if it weren''t for the power emitted by her, I could think it was another person. Renxue smiled at me and extended her hand to me "I want you at my side, Bai. Let''s return as before. I promise that no damage will fall on your family, they will only need to kneel under Spirit Hall. I will permit them to freely live. Please, Bai" She said smiling expectantly "Join me" Chapter 130 - Truth Seeing her beautiful smile, I remember the time I spent with her. Even if she was impersonating another person, I enjoyed the time with her. We sparred, we went out and enjoyed our time, eating, talking... I really thought of her as my best friend. And her smile seemed real, I doubt that she is trying to lie me. I tentatively approached her, Renxue''s smile growing bigger. Then, I remembered all my other friends, the Emperor teammates, especially Lingling, Xiao Wu, Chenxiang, my family, all the times that they smiled at me. I always wanted to protect everyone, maybe the best way would be accepting Renxue''s deal. Suddenly, images of my clan''s attack crossed my mind, all the people dying by Spirit Hall''s hands. Maya receiving the attack that targetted me and sacrificing for us, her last word "Be happy". It changed to Qinghe''s reassured smile saying "Nothing to worry about". I didn''t know what to do, Renxue had lied to me, I even gave her opportunities, she could have told me and even make sure that I didn''t tell to anyone, but she decided to lie to me and thought of me as a fool when I always trusted her. I slowly stopped and looked at Renxue''s golden eyes "I would have undoubtedly accepted you if you were shown your true self before. However, you waited until you were exposed. I can''t trust you" I sadly said. Renxue''s face formed to an angry one "You will regret this!" Spirit Hall and Renxue''s strength was unfathomable, only growing in the future. Even a 4vs1 was in her favor, how could a face her? At that moment, I remembered a beautiful girl of brown eyes, Mayi smiling with her arms opened "We are one! We are the strongest!". "Hm!" I hummed (Yeah, even if you aren''t here. I will continue to be the strongest). This time I looked with decided eyes at Renxue "I will defeat you!" I shouted as I stepped back towards my allies who had been a little surprised by Renxue''s offer, but their eyes showed that they would also fight her. Renxue''s face turned cold exuding great dignity, not a single emotion could be seen from it "I would have preferred to do it with your own will, but it seems that I must force you" she looked down at me "Bai, the truth is that your sword power is negligible, even strong, it won''t reach the level when it can face me. I am more interested in your other spirit. I will take you to Spirit Hall using force" Suddenly, her domain that played low, started being actively used suppressing us again. This time, I extended my own intent around us, my intent the best protection against her purification. "She is too strong, we will need to defeat her with a powerful attack" I deducted. "Give me time" said Tang San "I have an attack but it required time, protect me until I am prepared" We all nodded. Tang San invoked his Clear Sky Hammer and started hitting the air, his angles were calculated and each hit carried the momentum of the previous one, becoming stronger. "Useless" spatted Renxue "For you to try the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer against me. Even if my father fell under its might I won''t let you finish it" A golden ring shined and at Renxue''s hand appeared her Angelic Sword and she charged to us. "We need to stop her!" I shouted. "Close your eyes," said Chenxiang in low voice. She joined approached her hands, creating a ball of yellow light between both. Once charged, she shot it to Renxue. Renxue seeing the attack coming, she didn''t even try to evade "Light is useless against me!" Just as the ball was about to hit Renxue "Self-created technique " the ball burst open, exploding in a blinding light. Even with our eyes closed, I could sense the intense light pressuring my vision. For Renxue who had her eyes opened and unprotected, she became almost blind forcing her to stop. "Even if light attacks don''t affect you, it didn''t mean that you are completely resistance at any type of light, indirectly it can affect you!" Chenxiang shouted proudly. Tang San had accumulated 23 hits. Xiao Wu teleported to Renxue, her red ring shining brightly and a pink glow at her extremities. Sensing the attack coming and without having recuperated her sight, one of Renxue golden rings shined, her body becoming transparent "<2nd skill: Angel Descent>" Even if her skill was mostly oriented to attack, going through defenses, it could also be used as a defense. Unfortunately for her, Xiao Wu had a similar skill. Xiao Wu''s red ring shined even brighter "<6th skill: Instant Kill Eight Stage Drop + Nullify>" her body turning a translucent pink shade. Nullify was a similar kind of ethereal form as the Angel Descent, making both of them cancel each other. Xiao Wu then punched at Renxue who even if she defended using her wings, she was already trapped by Xiao Wu''s technique, eight attacks, each one with stunning effect. Renxue was shot forward by Xiao Wu''s punch, flying over the ground. Xiao Wu teleported under her, with an already prepared kick. She kicked at Renxue''s back throwing her upwards. Then, Xiao Wu made 5 rapid-fire teleported kicks, using Renxue as a football''s ball, making her float still stunned at the sky prepared for Xiao Wu last hit. Xiao Wu teleported above Renxue and lifted her right leg, that shined with a bright pink glow. A yellow ring shined "<1st skill: Waist Bow>" improving forward her strength. Xiao Wu shot towards Renxue, her right leg kicking Renxue''s unprotected stomach without Renxue''s defense due to the previous hits. The kick was so strong that even a shock wave was created when it hit, shot Renxue like a cannon, crashing to the ground, cracking it and forming a crater, dust flying around. Tang San was at his 46th hit. Xiao Wu returned to our side breathing loudly, it was clear that using her 100.000 years old ring at full power had expent a deal to her, her spirit energy running out. "Shing!" a cut dispersed all the debris and dust showing Renxue standing in the crater previously created. She had some injuries over her body, but nothing life-threatening. Even now, golden aura was surrounding her, continuously healing herself. Her eyes were completely healed now. "For you to injure me!" Renxue said trembling "How you dare dirty rabbit!?" she shouted angrily as she charged sword at hand. She landed her right foot at the ground, make a twirl, stopping but keeping her momentum and thrust her sword at us. One of her golden rings shined "<6th skill: Angelic Punishement>" a golden angel being shot to us. This time was completely different than before. Even if it was the same technique, Renxue seemed to have great control over it and was able to focus all the might of the skill in one place. Even if the area wouldn''t be as wide as the other, its power was several times greater. Even at this time, she didn''t lose her cool, her attack targetting Tang San, forcing us to defend. I thrust my sword forward "" a 6-petalled flower blooming over the tip of my sword, creating a 6 layered barrier. As the attack hit my barrier, it instantly destroyed the first layer, the mental attack was already affecting me, pressure affecting my head. "crack" Another layer was destroyed, the golden angel continued forward without lowering its might, golden energy surrounding hit attacking all my barrier''s surface. "crack" and another layer broke like glass. If this continued, I won''t last long. After a pink glow, Xiao Wu had teleported in front of my layer, her purple ring shining "<4th skill: Paragon Golde Body>". Even with her technique that made her immune to any damage, she could only stop part of the attack, its aftermath still crashing my barrier. Nevertheless, it was a great help, reducing my stress. After 3 seconds Xiao Wu''s technique was around to finish, so she teleported back at me. Renxue''s attack crashed with all her power at my barrier, without a doubt a little weaker. "crack, crack, crack" 3 more layers were destroyed in barrier''s shards, only leaving one. The attack was much weaker, a little more and would stop. I focused my aura on my sword "crack!" the attack broke the last layer. Focusing my aura at my sword, the broken shards of the barrier were absorbed by my sword. Using the damage absorbed by the barrier, I empowered my Retaliation, coating my sword in it and creating a permanent pseudo-Sword Heart "" even if not powerful as one, this would keep better my energy. I swung my sword at the golden angel. Even now, I could sense it incredibly power, putting all my strength at my arms, finally cutting through it, the golden angel dispersing. Tang San was at his 62nd hit. Before I could even sigh in relief, I sensed an attack from my right side. Renxue wasn''t wasting her time, while I was stopping the attack she approached to. Renxue''s leg started shined and she kicked my right side. I was unable to cope with her attack, only being able to focus Protection Intent over my right arm, trying to block her attack. "BOOM!" Renxue used her first skill, her kick exploding. The explosion destroyed my protection, broke my arm''s bones and I was shot 30 meters away, crashing multiple times to the ground. "Bai!" shouted Chenxiang "You would pay" a black ring shined "<7th skill: Needle-Tailed Flash Avatar>!" feathers cover her body, a bird''s peak replaced her mouth. She became a white-translucent bird, with a slender body and wide wings. Chenxiang charged to Renxue and started hitting her. With Renxue''s immunity to light, Chenxiang''s attacks were lacking power, similar to her clan pure speed strength. However, her speed had increased two-folds, making difficult to catch, even if she was unable to damage Renxue, she was at least bothering her, forcing her to stop. "This fly!" Renxue shouted angrily. She lifted her left arm and opened her palm "!" her left-hand gauntlet shined and Chenxiang stopped still, completely blocked in her place "In my spirit avatar state it''s might is even greater, not only I am immune to light, the light is controlled by me. It was a bad idea using your spirit avatar" she swung her left hand and Chenxiang was shot away, unable to control her own body. Tang San was at his 72nd hit. Renxue flapped her wings, charging again towards Tang San. Xiao Wu interposed in her way, Xiao Wu waited at Renxue to approach. Xiao Wu''s black ring shined "<5th skill: Soft Boned Lock>" her hair extended and tried to block completely at Renxue, if effective she would be able to stop her until she ran out of spirit power. 74th hit. Renxue''s golden ring shined, she became translucent passing through Xiao Wu, ignoring her who was too tired to use her 6th skill, Nullity, again. 75th hit. Renxue continued approaching Tang San, now without any obstacle between both. 76th hit. Renxue finally reached Tang San. She invoked her Angelic Sword skill and slashed at him "Die!" Tang San without stopping his momentum, started using his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, his figure trembled and started moving erratically, making it difficult to know where he going to move, evading Renxue ''s slash back-stepping. Renxue''s attack leaving a scorched trail at the ground. 78th hit. As Renxue was about to charge again a wall of Blue-silver vines grew between them. Tang San, as normally, was unable to use both spirits at the same time, this wall was previously created thanks to his 6th skill, boosting simple blue-silver grass and create a trap that would react when he stepped back. Of course, this was only a strengthen Blue-Silver Grass, very weak compared with Tang San''s Emperor Grass. Renxue seeing the wall, ignored it completely, due to her Angelic Descent being active. This was a clear error and the cause of her not reaching Tang San on time, as she crashed to the wall rebound in it as the wall was covered by a weak Protection Intent infused by me that wouldn''t have resisted a single ?ssault but against her ethereal form, it was enough. 79th hit. "Shit!" she sliced easily through the grass wall. 80th hit. Tang San had complete all his hits, completely prepared for the last one. His momentum was so great that a gravity field was created around him, it was enough to even negate Renxue''s domain. Seeing Tang San''s momentum, Renxue''s jumped up flapping her wings, trying to fly away from him. Tang San jumped at her, activating his right leg spirit bone that permitted him to fly. "81! !" he swung his hammer carrying the power of a mountain. Renxue sensed herself being pulled by the gravity of the Clear Sky Hammer making impossible to evade it. She clenched her sword "What about your technique. I will crush it!" a golden ring shined "<6th skill: Heavenly Slash>" her wings converged in her sword incrementing her strength, now at her avatar state, the power being a lot more than before. Sword and Hammer clashed, sparks flying at their collision that seemed to no have a clear winner, each side trying to push the other. "Take all the damage that you imparted" I was flying over both, my wings extended at my back. After Renxue''s attacked me, I already prepared for this, keeping all the healing of all the fight, focusing on one attack "" I lifted my sword "EX-" a pillar of white light shot from it. As Tang San was also there, I couldn''t go all out, so this time I kept the aura of the attack at my sword, focusing on a single target attack in a swing, a similar power, but the attack would damage me internally "CALIBUR!" I swung my sword at her while leaving a trail of white aura. Renxue faced against both incredibly powerful attacks started despairing, her face showing her fear "I don''t want to lose" she said in low voice. "I won''t lose!" she shouted her eyes glowing with a strange glow. Suddenly, Renxue started shining even brighter and the air turned golden. Different from her domain, this time the air gained solidity, even denser than water. It wasn''t only that, I could sense being affected by it, losing the energy stored at my attack weakening it. On Tang San''s side, it was even worst. He was completely affected by it, his own Deathgod Domain being purified, his spirit bone withdrawing and his attack completely stopping, himself falling to the ground. Renxue at a speed greater than before twisted her body, turning to me swinging her sword at me. Both swords clashed, both techniques breaking. She abandoned her sword that dissipated in golden lights and extended her right hand her palm opened. Her right hand touched my face, catching my head. She then shot towards the ground while dragging me by my head, crashing me to the ground, dragging me over 30 meters. Finally, stopping she lifted me at her eyes weight, seeing my body completely bloody, wounds everywhere, I was unable to make any movement. "It''s true that a worth rival is the best to push your strength. Thanks to you, in this battle I evolved. My own domain evolved, not only affecting my surroundings but now bending them under my will. My Angelic Domain becoming Angelic Truth" she explained with a difficult face, that was a mix of happiness and fury "I already gave you many opportunities, consider my debt paid" she said releasing me who felt to the ground like a lifeless doll "I will let you live. Wait until I finish your companions" she said looking down at me. Then she turned to Tang San and the other and dashed toward them. Seeing her going away, I closed my eyes, my conscience fading away. Chapter 131 - Deal <3rd POV> After releasing Bai, Renxue started flying up. She turned to the others fighting "Uncle Xue, uncle Long" she said with a voice full of dignity that forced people to want to bow to her "Finish now!" she ordered. Renxue''s wings widely opened glowing brightly with a golden color "". The area surrounding became golden, gaining density making it something similar to water. Porcupinefish and Paper Douluo received a great boost of power, their injuries healing at a speed visible to the eye and even recuperating some spirit power. On the other hand, Wudi and Dugu Bo were suppressed by it, not being able to even use 50% of their power, making any technique consume a greater amount of spirit energy. Wudi was already being pushed by Paper Douluo, not being able to last a lot more time. With Renxue''s truth, Wudi''s spirit power was completely purified, bein unable to put any defense. He could only stare as an uncountable number of red paper stinger approached him. The stinger pierced his skin, causing his body to become full of bloody holes, finally, for one of them piercing his heart, killing him instantly. His lifeless body fell to the ground followed by the strings that were dissolved in papers, his blood and red papers forming a strange picture. "How beautiful!" Jiang Long said enthusiastically "It doesn''t matter how ugly one is in life, under my hand their death becomes art, you should be grateful. I will call it Breaking the Breaker" Jiang Long said laughing at Wudi''s dead body. On Dugu Bo''s side. Ci Xue was almost about to fall prey to Dugu Bo''s poison when Renxue''s Truth affected both. Dugu Bo''s poison was purified, Ci Xue quickly healing from it. Ci Xue grinned with his spiky teeth "It seems that the roles changed" Ci Xue started then furiously absorbing Dugu Bo''s poison, suctioned by the Porcupinefish mouth, with Renxue''s help he didn''t need to worry by its after-effect. Dugu Bo could only stare as his poison was being absorbed, any of his technique useful at all. Not only were ineffective, but his poison was also empowering his enemy who was becoming stronger at each second. Dugu Bo finally had all his spirit energy empty, his Serpent Avatar dispersing, falling to the ground exhausted. Ci Xue''s body started deflating, the porcupinefish becoming his usual human self covered with purple clothes. He cleaned his mouth "It was delicious" he turned to Renxue and bowed "Your highness, could I keep him as my prey? His poison would be very beneficial for my futures breakthroughs" he requested. Renxue withdrew her Truth and simply nodded "As you want. I expect you to keep him in check" Ci Xue''s bowed even more "Thanks for your generosity, your highness" his spirit power already covering Poison Douluo lifting him close her. Jiang Long turned to Tang San, Xiao Wu and Chenxiang who were laying exhausted and full of wounds, and grinned "You will make a perfect mural. Young talents are always the best material" he shuddered in anticipation, a purple spirit ring shining brightly. "Stop!" ordered Renxue, Jiang Long quickly stopping his skill and turned to Renxue with the face of a kid who someone took his candy. "I will let you have them, but I want her" Renxue extended her left arm that shined brightly pulling Chenxiang to her. Chenxiang tried to struggle but it was futile, slowly being dragged to Renxue. Standing in front of Renxue, Chenxiang rather than feel terror, she made a face full of fury, wanting to tear of Renxue. "You''re Bai Chenxiang?" Renxue asked without expecting any answer "I saw how you look at Bai" she then made a pissed face for an instant "And how he looked at you. You will be useful" "I-I w-won''t h-help y-you" Chenxiang said with a hoarse voice, being difficult to even talk. "It doesn''t matter if you''re willing. I will keep you alive a little more. I want for Bai to see you suffer and die, he would become more willing to follow my orders after being broken. Then, I would only to obtain her sister, he would follow my orders if he doesn''t want her to experiment the same" Renxue turned to Jiang Long "You can take the others" Jiang Long bowed "Thanks, your highness!". He turned to Xiao Wu and Tang San and licked his lips. "Become art!" a yellow ring shined "<2nd skill: Bull Talisman>" a bull was formed by his grimoire''s pages and charged to both of them "Be grateful, you will die together. I will call it Young Love!" The Bull charged to the helpless pair. Just as the Bull was about to hit Tang San and Xiao Wu "Swing!" one gray sword quickly crossed the sky like comets. It interposed, stopping the bull''s strike. "Crack!" near Renxue, the space broke like glass, a translucent sword was shot from the crack, it targetted between Renxue and Chenxiang. Renxue was shocked by it, evading the attack, unconsciously releasing Chenxiang. "Swing! Swing!" Two more swords crossed the sky, this time a red one and a green one. The red one was covered in powerful flames and was shot towards the stopped bull, piercing through it and dispersing it in papers. The green one caught Chenxiang who was falling and emitted a green aura, healing Chenxiang. "Renxue!" someone shouted causing all of them to turn to the voice. At the ground, stood a handsome young man, with short hair, half of it black and the other half white, with different colored eyes, his left eye was black while his right one was golden. One sword at each hand, one black and one white. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Opening my eyes, I found myself in the familiar black and white world. Paul stayed at the center looking down at me with a cold face devoid of any emotion. I clenched my teeth and crossed my right arm over my eyes, hiding my tears. After some time, Paul continued still, not a word leaving his mouth. I turned to him "Why don''t you laugh at me?!" I shouted with teary eyes. "Why should I laugh?" he answered coldly. "You were right!" I shouted, then I said in low voice "Qinghe wasn''t him, she was Renxue and had lied to me all this time. I was the little naive idiot who trusted her, even when the evidence pointed the opposite. Like always you were right" I punched the ground "I couldn''t win against her, she is too powerful" "Hum!" Paul hummed "At least you see your situation. You were an idiot, you have been always one, nothing to surprise here" "Yes, I can''t do anything for myself. Even when I trained all this time, trying with all my might, I couldn''t do a thing, I don''t have the power to protect anyone" I self-condemned "If this continues Renxue is going to kill everyone. I don''t want them to die" I cried. Paul grinned a little "What do you propose?" "I don''t mind what you do to me," I said resolutely "If you safe Xiang and the other, I will give you full control, complete control of my spirit, I don''t mind disappearing if, with it, I can protect my loved ones" "You always with you self-sacrifice hero''s act" Paul shook his head. "I will give all to you. However, you must promise that you won''t damage my family of friends. Save them now, stop Renxue and then disappear of their lives, you can do whatever you want then" I requested. Paul grinned and mockingly bowed to me, lifting his hand towards me "I accept your request, little boy" he paused a moment "It''s what I would like to say but..." he stood up with a cold face and turned to one side. There appeared a screen, showing Renxue''s attack and progress, my memories of the fight "I won''t be able to face her. You really create a monster" "What?!" I said shocked, standing up "How can you not win? You are always so sure, always framing my weakness. You already told that Renxue won''t be your match!" "I simply state the facts. It won''t be difficult to face against the Renxue that I have knowledge about, the truth is that even you could have been able to face her, even if not winning, at least stop her" He then signaled at the screen that showed Renxue''s 8-winged transformed "She was only supposed to have 4, her power, not even half of now. Even her fighting progress shouldn''t be so high with so little fighting experience, but she fought like someone with rich experience. It''s impossible for me to win" "How can it be?" I fell to my knees depressed "B-but your sword focus on offense, your Sword Heart is stronger than mine. You should be able to destroy her defense" "In normal conditions, of course, but..." he stood thoughtfully "She is my complete counter. In her presence, I won''t be able to even use a tenth of my strength. My domain and techniques canceled by her Truth, similar to Tang Sang whose domain was extinguished" "So, there''s no way to win" I collapse cried. "Truth be told, you should have accepted her offer. As now, she has the power of a titled douluo, and it would only increase in the future. It''s even possible that she would become a stronger god, combined with her mother and Spirit Hall''s power, I doubt that it would be possible winning agains them" Paul explained "Renxue had a good opinion of you, take advantage. As you rejected her, even if you change your mind, she would punish you. Anyway, you should accept her and try to safe whatever you can" "So I need to take away my words and lowered my head to her for a mere opportunity, supplicating my family survival," I said sadly. "You already lowered your head to me, what''s the difference?" Paul laughed. "It''s completely different!" I shouted "She lied to me! I thought we were friends. You always exposed yourself as my enemy, I can accept lies from you. I always thought Qinghe as my best friend, thinking that the feeling was reciprocated" "People like Renxue didn''t gain these feelings easily. She had suffered a loveless infancy, her mother always showing contempt to her, even when she always tried to strive for her acceptance. She only is able to see people for their value. As now your importance lays in my spirit, she won''t let us free when my spirit had the power of evolving her. However, this way she would always think you as someone lower than her, only useful in being used. You must surpass her in strength" He shook his head "Now being ''almost'' impossible to do, thanks to your power-up her" he said putting emphasis in the almost. "Almost?" I looked at him with doubt. "The easy thing would be go with her rather than fight, but..." A powerful Slaughter Intent shot from his eyes "I don''t want to lose to that bitch! Leaving under one would be a disgrace" his intent disappeared and he turned his cold face "I would be truthful with you for one time as if you are not fully with me it would impossible" "Tell" I said with curiosity. "1st option, you lower your head, your survival is 100% secure. You shouldn''t even worry about me, under her influence, you will win against me easily, only being at her side would make our fight pointless in your favor. Your friends here would most likely die as Renxue is really pissed. The most probable is that your family is killed as they obtained too much power, I suppose that she would let your sister live as she isn''t truly any danger alone" Paul explained. (I will be alive and win my fight against Paul. However. this would be throwing all that I worked hard for, trying to keep whatever scraps Spirit Hall let me, never lifting my head. Paul was right, the most probable was that they keep Rongrong as blackmail material against me, forcing me to use the Golden Oreos and the others for them) I thought. "And the other option?" I asked hopefully. "Fight, of course. Fight to the limit, putting our life in line" Paul said opening his hand grinning. "You already said that it''s impossible to win over her" I denegated him. "It''s impossible for me, it''s impossible for you. But, if we work together, we might create an opportunity" he said "I despised working for you, but it''s the only option to fight her. This option doesn''t secure anything. It''s an all-out. We could win, keeping your loved ones safe or we could lose all, dying in the process" Paul turned to his cold self "Now, decide. I can''t force you" Looking at Paul''s eyes, I knew without any doubt that he was telling the truth. My survival vs an insecure future. There was also the fact, that Paul could take advantage of gaining more option to win over me, even winning against Renxue it could mean my demise. I turned to Paul decidedly "Your decision is clearly towards the second, as is the only one with a possibility to your survival. Paul, promise me what I requested before. If you win over me, don''t injure my loved ones" "You have my word" Paulaccepted, this time not even an ounce of mockery in his voice. I nodded "Let''s go with the second option. We will fight, together" "Focus on using your spirit, use your intent to protect us against her. Death and Life are incompatible, but, at the same time the absence of one, will make the other stronger, focus on creating a free place for my own intent" he said lifting his hand. I lifted mine, doing a handshake, a blinding white and black light shined at our contact. Chapter 132 - Sword vs Angel Bai laid unconscious on the ground, he was tainted red due to his own blood, wounds covering all his body. Over him, a trail of destruction following him. Suddenly, he completely opened his eyes. Both eyes shined brightly, his left one completely black while his right one was golden with a white glow. As reacting, his hair started changing according to the eyes, his left side becoming night-black and his right side snow-white. He slowly stood up and did some stretches "[You really took a beating]" he said coldly "[Focus on healing, I would extract Death from us]" a black aura condensed around him, it was a vicious aura that resembled pure death. This aura wasn''t in contact with his body, instead a white and warm aura was between the black aura and his skin. Under both auras, the wound at Bai''s body started healing at a speed visible by the eye. Bai then lifted his left hand putting it over his mouth. [mmssm] a black ring shined around his left hand as he murmured something, 4 Doble Stuff Oreos appeared inside his mouth and were quickly devoured, his healing speed even increasing. He turned to one side and glanced over "(We need to help them, they''re going to die)" he said this time with a more warm and melodic voice. "[Now that we are working together we finally can use the outmost of the other personalities. Take care of Protection, I will attack]" he said for himself. His Nine Treasure Sword appeared at his right hand, surrounded by 6 rings. One black ring shined "[I will take Fire, Space, and Blood, use the others]". He lifted his sword that shined with a translucent light "(<5th skill: Sword Rain>)". Around him 4 swords manifested, they were exact copies of the Nine Treasure Sword, the only difference was their colors. The two of the left were red and translucent while at the right were gray and green. "[Trace on!]". The swords were shot toward his gaze direction at different speeds. The translucent one broke the sky disappearing, the gray one doubled its size and shot forwards. Both of them followed, by the other two, the red one spitting powerful flames while the green one exuded a calm and healing aura. The four swords were shot towards a group of people, the gray stopped the bull created by Jiang Long while the red pierced the bull which was dissipated in burning papers. The translucent sword broke the sky again suddenly targeting Renxue, forcing her to free Chenxiang, while the green sword caught Chenxiang with its aura and started healing her. "([Let''s win])" Bai said in a low voice that showed cold and warm at the same time. A rude seemingly normal black sword appeared at his left hand, a vicious black Slaughter Intent aura surrounding it. At the same, his Nine Treasure Sword started emitting a white aura. "([Renxue!])" Bai shouted. his voice resounding at a great distance. Renxue, Jiang Long and Ci Xue were shocked seeing Bai standing after the beating, but quickly recuperated from their stupor. Jiang Long grinned at him "I thought you as dead. I will make you a beautiful picture!" he opened his Grimoire a purple ring shining, he put his right hand over his grimoire "Take this <4th skill: St-" he was interrupted by someone slicing his right hand and shouted in pain "Haaaaa!" Renxue stood with a golden sword at her hands, she had cut Jiang Long''s hand. She turned to Jiang long with a murderous look "He is mine! If you dare to touch him, the next time would be your head" Renxue turned to Bai and flew approaching him. She stood flying 50 meters over him, looking down at him "I didn''t expect for you to be able to stand again so quickly. I might have underestimated you, Bai. But-" She smiled "You should have stayed still" She lifted her left hand that started shining "I evolved in this battle, take a taste of it" Renxue used her Light Control, creating countless light balls surrounding her. A golden ring shined and all the balls started shining with a golden glow. "A combination of my first skill and my spirit bone " Facing the rain Bai stood calmy. He lifted his black sword "Fenrir. !" a black aura in the form of a giant wolf was emitted by the sword. The aura wolf engulfed all the rain and returned to the sword, not leaving any trail of any attack. A pair of bat''s wings appeared at Ba''s back, the left one was red and black while the right one was green and white. "[Let''s fight with all]" Bai revolved his spirit energy at maximum, 11 spirit ring shined around him. One black shined brightly, Bai''s right sword shining with a blood-red color "[<6th skill: Soul and Blood Collector>]" From all soldiers that died at the battlefield, their blood started emerging and being attracted by the blood-red sword, absorbed by it. Bai grinned "[Burn!]". The red-blood color disappeared only to be followed by two pillars of black and white light shooting from both his swords, this time so powerful that even at a simple intent, they were close to a Heart Sword. Renxue looked confused at this. She then glances dubiously at Bai "Who are you? There''s no way for this power to be him. Bai grin became even wider "[I am my true-self]". Bai''s wings flapped and he flew towards Renxue. Renxue seeing him coming didn''t falter. A golden sword appeared at her hands "Take this!" she shouted swinging her sword down, a slash shooting towards Bai. Bai''s black ringed at his left hand approached his mouth. He murmured something and munched, the white aura surrounding his right hands increasing to a new limit "(Sword Heart)" he said "()" a seven petaled flower formed by the white energy at the top of his sword, creating a seven-layered barrier. Bai continued flying forward his white sword at the front, clashing towards the golden slash. The slash crashed to the first barrier, Bai without stopping swung his left black sword, cutting through the slash that dissipated. Only to be met by other slashes that came to him. Bai continued forward, using his white sword with the seven petalled flowed as a shield stopping each before destroying them with his black sword. At each strike, the barriers grew weaker, being destroyed and lowering its layers. Nevertheless, he was approaching Renxue. Seeing him coming nearer, Renxue lifted her sword. A golden ring shined and her wings started closing, hugging her sword. "!" she swung her sword, a golden pillar of light shooting towards Bai. Bai seeing the incoming attack, knew that he won''t be able to stop like the others. He stopped and crossed his swords "<([Sword Heart])>" both of his swords shot a powerful pillar of aura "([Cros EX-])" he swung them in a cross "([-CALIBUR])" both pillars didn''t touch between them, but somehow each one was absorbing the impurities of the other, making both of them stronger. As the Cross Excalibur and the Heavenly Slash crashed, thunder broke between both, even the air started trembling. But, little by little the Heavenly Slash was pushing over. Bai clenched his sword and a black ring shined, he munched again. The Cross Excalibur increased its strength and started pushing over the Slash, as it was about to cut it, the Slash shined brightly and exploded, vanishing both attacks. "You surprised me again, Bai. But when you decided to come to the sky to fight me, your fail was secure" explained Renxue "Arch-Seraphim is the supreme spirit in the air. I am a god-like existence!" her sword disappeared and she opened her arm. Renxue focused energy around her and in combination with her Domain and Light Control shot them towards Bai "Fall!" shooting countless bullets. A smile couldn''t help to scape Bai''s lips, he truly enjoying the fight "[It''s all or nothing!]" Bai extended his arms "(<5th skill: Sword Rain>)" and 6 swords of different colors manifested surrounding him, Red, Green, Yellow, Gray, Translucent and Blood-red, all of them shining with their own attribute. Bai charged to her, his swords rotating around him "[]" a red aura covered his wings boosting his speed. Black rings shined and he munched multiples times. Bai''s forehead shined, a third eye like image appearing over it "([])". Bai charged to the bullets, seeing them approaching at slow speed. The sword around him charged to them, reflecting the bullets at the cost of being pushed. Bai twirled his wings, spinning to one side evading one, deflecting another one with his right sword, slicing another with his left sword. Each one, making him nearer to Renxue. Lightning surged from his right leg "([])" stepping at the sky, abruptly changing his direction, evading two bullets. Renxue seeing him coming nearer, a light smile escaped her lips. She was also enjoying this fight. After more of 10 years hiding her true power, wasting the best years of her life, she was finally to open her wings and fight with all her might "Great, truly great. I always liked you Bai, strive more" she said grinning. Her wings opened fully and started shining very brightly "Experiment the true despair facing against gods " the area around Renxue turned golden gaining solidity. Bai could sense the suppression of Renxue''s Truth. But, he continued forward, both his sword piercing forward. Renxue grinned "It''s useless, I bent reality to my will. Accept the Truth, Bai!" she shouted focusing her power at her Truth. "([Bending to your will, eh?])" at that moment, thanks to fighting Renxue, experimenting her truth, pushing him to the limit, combining all his mentalities, Bai was enlightened, his sword reaching a new realm "([We only need to bend it!])" he shouted "()" his white Nine Treasure Sword dispersed and the area around him became white and gained solidity Clashing with Renxue''s Truth, both of them started combining due to the similar holy nature. This caused, both Truth and All Sword to keep their positive effects, but their suppression towards the other banished. "[]" Instead of dispersing, Bai''s black sword absorbed all the black aura of its surroundings, all focused in one point leaving seemingly a normal black sword, but that sword was Slaughter condensed. Without the suppression, Bai''s black sword pierced forward, penetrating Renxue''s Truth. Renxue''s face distorted, she clenched her teeth and focus all her power on her Truth trying to stop Bai. Even more than Bai, she was continuously improving at her first all-out fight. All her golden rings shined even brighter. Then, Renxue grinned "You pushed me, making me stronger, Bai. I would like to continue, but this must finish" her golden rings position in line in front of her "<7th skill: Arch-Seraphim Punishment>" a incredibly powerful golden light passed through all the rings, each time becoming stronger and shot towards Bai "Take the power of a god!" Seeing the incoming attack, Bai new that he couldn''t stop, erase or evade it. It already reached the level that a normal common titled douluo wouldn''t reach, this was far stronger than anything he faced. Suddenly the time seemed to stop for Bai, he could see Renxue''s smiling face full of enjoyment, the attack coming over. All had stopped still, even his own body "[Is this what happens when you''re about to die. I am gonna revive my shitty life]" "Congratulations" multiples voices resounded inside Bai''s head that he quickly recognized as the Sword God "You completed your All Sword. You passed your second test. Here is your reward" The time seemed to return and Bai looked at the incoming attack "[You told yourself as I god]" he grinned "[That... is also good]" at his right hand condensed his usual Nine Treasure Swords, a new black spirit ring started forming surrounding Bai''s sword "[The evocation is the breath of the planet. I will walk together with the humans.]" the ring shined brightly with a gray glow surrounding it. <7th skill: Sword Avatar>. All Bai''s rings started turning gray. He extended both of his arms and started spinning, both white and black aura twirling between them, leaving a trail behind them. With each spin, Bai was pushing both swords forward, finally creating a twister of black and white aura, each one boosting the other. "([Therefore ¨D !])" The twister condensed together forming an imposing half-white, half-black sword, each twist incredibly sharp. Bai transformed sword, shot toward crashing Renxue''s attack "AAAAAAAAAAAA!" Bai shouted putting all his strength. Renxue''s focused all her strength in her attack "AHHHHHHHH!" Bai pushed the attack forward crashing both to the attack and Renxue''s Truth. "crack" Renxue''s Truth for the first time started cracking "CRACK!" Renxue''s fell in pieces, completely destroyed. Not only her Truth but her Spirit Avatar also broke, exhausting all her power forcing her to withdraw her spirit, becoming powerless, she closed her eyes exhausted. Bai''s Sword Avatar dissipated, showing Bai with both of his swords at hand. He lifted his left hand "[Die!]" Bai slashed forward targeting Renxue''s unprotected neck. "Clank!" only to be stopped by his own right white sword that somehow moved stopped the black one. "[Really?]" Bai shouted angrily "[Even now you want her alive. Your truly stupid!]". Bai left hand clenched his left hand but seemed to be unable to move "[As you will]" he said clenching his teeth "[You will regret this]". Bai''s swords were withdrawn, and she approached at Renxue catching her in a princess carry. Just at this moment, Renxue slowly opened her eyes, putting all her strength even when she was exhausted. Finding herself in Bai''s hands, she couldn''t help to blush highly "W-what ar-" before she could speak. Bai lifted her chin and leaned to her, kissing her. Bai''s tongue invading her, forcing her to play along. After 10 seconds and a little m??n of Renxue, Bai finally broke the kiss. He looked at the blushing and panting Renxue and grinned. "Wha-" Renxue was again interrupted by Bai touching her lips with his index finger "[You continue owing me one. Don''t forget it]" Bai said releasing Renxue from his grip, Renxue without spirit energy falling to the ground. "We need to save her highness!" Jiang Long and Ci Xue reacted, they knew that Renxue was even more important than this mission, her survival the most important. If she were to die, they won''t last long before they follow her. They didn''t doubt for even a minute choosing escaping with her rather than fight, every wasted second would be an opportunity for a new player to appear. Jiang Long black ring shined "<9th skill: Giant Dragon Talisman>" forming a dragon with his Grimoire, he mounted over it, followed by Ci Xue. The dragon charged to the falling Renxue, Ci Xue carefully and safely picking her. Then, the dragon speed up and quickly left, disappearing at the horizon. Bai who was floating with his wings, suddenly fell a great pain in his head "(What happened? This is not normal exhaustion)" he said holding his head. "[71th. The trial will finally start. And I will win!]" Bai said coldly, his eyes going blank, becoming unconscious, and falling to the ground. "Bai!" as he was falling, Chenxiang flew at him, all her rings shining, even reaching a speed never able to her, she catches Bai a few meters over the ground. Chenxiang looking at Bai, started crying and hugged him "Bai!" Chapter 133 - Xiangxies sword At the Seven Treasure Clan''s headquarters, a strange scene was created. It could be seen how thousands of Spirit Empire''s soldiers, recognized by their uniforms were trying to run away. Fear could be seen at their faces as they ran without looking behind. Screams were heard all around as earth spikes that resembled blades shot from the ground impaling another victim. These spikes were the cause of a thousand deaths and increasing. The sky, if it could be called that, had become a complete sea of fire, with scorching flames raging furiously. At it, only 6 people could be seen floating, being able to resist the flames. Five of them were facing a beautiful woman with long pink hair, all of them with shock and fear in their eyes facing the woman. Two of them, a masked man wearing black robes and a beautiful slender feminine man that resembled more a woman, held their hand together, both of them had 9 spirit rings, showing that they were titled douluos. All their rings shined "!" a golden and silver light fell over the pink-haired woman, encompassing her and trapping her in a spirit cage. "Run!" Just as they made their spirit fusion, the five people turned away, they revolved their spirit energy showing all of them bright 9 rings, and tried to run away. "Shing!" a sound of cutting air was heard and the golden and silver cage was destroyed, cut in multiples pieces and falling apart, freeing the pink-haired woman, now a red-brown greatsword at her hand. The woman swung her sword in the air, all the flames in the air extinguished, and the heads of the masked and the feminine men, who were the ones nearest due to using their spirit fusion, fell from their necks. As the heads fell, the heads and their bodies silently became ashes. "Tch!" the pink-haired woman clicked her tongue and glanced coldly at the three people who were disappearing at the distance "3 escaped". The woman then turned to one side "I doubt this is a single attack. Elder Bone, let''s go" a wormhole appearing at her side and she stepped in. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heaven Dou''s Palace was a lot damaged due to the fight before, over the debris Chenxiang was holding Bai who was unconscious "Bai!" she cried worriedly. He was all bloody, cut and burn covered his body that and all the dirt made even difficult to recognize him. Chenxiang took his pulse, confirming that he was alive. The strange thing was that even when he was unconscious his pulse was loud and fast, not the usual when one was unconscious. Chenxiang not knowing what to do, she brought him over Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Dugu Bo. All three were exhausted and used this time to recuperate to the minimum state for being able to move. "Cousin, you need to treat Bai. I don''t know what happened to him" Chenxiang requested Tang San. Tang San took Bai''s pulse and was surprised by it, they weren''t the signs of someone who was tired after a fight. Tang San gave Bai some medical herbs and quickly bandaged him, at least for him to not bleed out. "We need to go over the emperor. If more soldiers come, we would have a problem explaining them" Dugu Bo turned to the dead body of Yang Wudi and lamented "Even if he is dead, you should be able to treat him, little monster" Tang San nodded and all five went towards the emperor''s room unmolested, Chenxiang carrying Bai. Just before arriving at the emperor''s room, they found two men standing over the door. Both men reacted at their presence activating their spirits. 6 spirit rings appeared to surround each of them, their bodies grew bigger, a scaled armor appearing over them "Stop! Nobody is permitted entrance" Usually, two spirit Emperors wouldn''t suppose any problem against them, especially a titled douluo like Dugu Bo, but they were all too exhausted after the fight, Dugu Bo even unable to use his spirit. As they were prepared for an all-out fight, Tang San preparing his hidden weapons while Chenxiang and Xiao Wu''s rings shined, a worm-hole appeared at one side of the hall. From the worm-hole left an elegant pair followed by an old man wearing black robes. The pair was a handsome black-haired man wearing a white suit with a beautiful pink-haired woman wearing an elegant amethyst dress, they were Ning Fengzhi and Ning Xiangxie, followed by Gu Rong. The air around Xiangxie twisted and without doing any move, spikes surged from the wall impaling both spirit emperor. Even when the spiked pierced through their stomachs, they showed great resilience, surviving to them. However, they couldn''t survive over two wing blades that decapitated them, both heads flying over and strangely, not a single blood was splashed, all of it evaporating before even leaving their body. Xiangxie crossed her arms "I expected something to happen, but I didn''t think of anything of this size. Titled douluos might have fought" She then looked at the others, her gaze stopping at Bai, becoming worried one. She ran towards Bai taking him from Chenxiang''s arms. Xiangxie put her hand over his head. She closed her eyes her analyzing Bai. After some second she opened her eyes and sighed "So is time" "What happened to him?" Chenxiang requested worried, her eyes showing how much concern and her affection to Bai. Xiangxie looking at her, couldn''t help to giggle a little and gave her a warmly smile "Don''t worry. Bai is fine. You did a good first-aid. And for his unconsciousness, it didn''t have anything to do with the fight. He is actually fighting in his mind" Xiangxie patted Bai''s hair with fondness "The one who will awake would be his new self" she said in low voice. "What are you referring?" Asked with doubt Chenxiang. "It would better for him to explain when he wakes up" Xiangxie turned to Fengzhi who nodded. "Let Xie take care of Bai" said Fengzhi "For what it seems, you need to treat his majesty. You also need to explain what had happened" Fengzhi opened the emperor''s room doors. Entering the emperor''s quarters, the emperor laid on a king-sized bed. He was unconscious with an erratic breath. Tang San and Dugu Bo quickly went to him and quickly started to analyze him, trying to finding the best treatment, now that they lost Yang Wudi who was the one most knowledgeable about the poison and even Bai was unable to use his Oreo. Xiao Wu started to explain what had happened in the fight, while Chenxiang stood near Bai who Xiangxie held in her hands, white flames covering him and slowly healing his wounds. After half an hour, Dugu Bo and Tang San finished. Tang San stepped forward "His majesty''s condition is critical, it''s too late for saving his life. The only that we can do, it treating the poison with another poison. But, he is too weak, at most he will survive 3 months" Fengzhi rubbed his hand over his chin "We will need to make sure that Xue Beng inherit the throne without any power struggle. And that Star Luo Empire accept it. With his majesty awake it would be possible" he said thoughtfully before nodding "Give me the poison. I will be the one who treats him. If something goes wrong, it would be better if the responsibility falls under my shoulders" Tang San looked at Fengzhi with appreciation. Tang San took a green bead from his pouch and gave it to Fenzhi. As Fengzhi approached the emperor, Xiangxie reacted. She quickly pushed Bai to Chenxiang, who hurried tried to catch him, and charged toward Fengzhi. She invoked her Greatsword swinging it. Just as she swung, a golden projectile pierced the wall and crashed to her sword, golden flames scattering around. Bone Douluo quickly reacted, worm-holes appearing around Xiangxie, protecting the people inside from the aftermath. Xiangxie turned to Bone "Take care of them" She jumped following the spear that returned to a grey-robed man who was floating at the sky. Xiangxie stopped 100 meters over the man. She stood floating and pointed her sword at the man "Qian Daoliu!" she said angrily. Chapter 134 - Battle of Extremes The man who stood there was indeed Qian Daoliu. He was a handsome man that seemed to be 30 or 40 years old when the truth was that he was over 150. He had long snow-white hair with black eyes, 6 white wings at his back. He gave a peaceful and tranquil aura, exuding a pleasant feeling, nothing near the truth, as countless death laid under him. His control of spirit energy was so impeccable that he didn''t even exude a little of it, resembling a normal human. He was one of the strongest of all the continent, a extreme douluo rank 99, Angel Douluo. With his great power, he was considered the backing of Spirit Hall, being the first priest who controlled the Elder Hall. "To be able to stop my attack" he hummed "Not bad. It seems that the youths are growing" He looked down at Xiangxie "To even know my name" he turned to the group inside Heaven Dou''s Palace "I suppose the little Chen child told it" Xiangxie clenched her sword an pointed at Daoliu "Before I kill you, were are you the one that ordered the attack to our clan?" she asked with a calm voice but with fury in her eyes. "Oh? The attack to the Seven Treasure Clan" he said scratching his chin "I sent old crocodile to test the waters, I was curious about you. Not that such lowly fight matters me. I let Bibi Dong decide" "So you were one of the culprits" From Xiangxie''s sword intense red fire started surging "I will kill you!" "Ho, ho" he laughed "The youths always so rash". Suddenly, he opened his eyes widely, 9 spirit rings appearing surrounding him, 8 blacks and 1 red. The power of a limit douluo suppressing not only Xiangxie, but even the people at the palace. "I didn''t come to fight, I will evade a bloodbath if possible. I would rather ignore worldly matters" Daoliu said calmly, but without stopping his suppression "I came for the one named Ning Bai. Give him to me and I would retire without any casualties" "Not only you attack our clan, now you even dare to ask for my son" Xiangxie''s eyes started glowing "You''re dead!" she shouted revolving her spirit power. 9 spirit rings appeared surrounding her, 8 blacks and 1 red. The pressure of Xiangxie didn''t falter against Daoliu, both of them clashing, sparks flying between both. Daoliu opened his eyes shocked "Extreme douluo?". It only was for an instant, quickly reverting to his calm self, he quickly analyzed Xiangxie, looking her up and down, his gaze finally settling at her sword "Of course. That dammed Sword" He said a little pissed "For someone so young to arrive at that level by following it, you should have great talent, but..." Daoliu aura exploded, three long spears appeared surrounding him, covered by golden flames "I am a follower of the true god. I would let you experience our difference in power and experience" Golden aura exuded from Daoliu, the sky started turning golden "". Daoliu''s domain showed a greater pressure than Renxue''s Truth, almost 3 times greater it was enough to block low level titled douluo, being able to purify spirit energy instantly. Xiangxie stood there impassible, a red aura surrounded her, not letting the golden aura affected her. Even when she was furious, she stayed quiet, analytically observing her rival. "Experiment a god power" Daoliu''s rings started shining, from the three spears, golden flames exploded "". The truth was that these three spears were all 99.999 years old spirit bones, they were right leg, left leg, and right arm, respectively. These bones having been affected by Qian Daoliu''s aura, took the best form for him, spears. Being spirit bones with the divinity of the Angel God, made them powerful weapons, wielded by a limit douluo, made them even more frightening. The spears shot towards Xiangxie "BOOM!" the air in front Xiangxie exploded, the sky turning Hell. The flames against the golden aura, made it seems a picture of Heaven and Hell clashing between them. "Useless! Flames are under my control" Qian Daoliu stated, Xiangxie''s flames started revolving around the spears, the spears seemingly seemed to make that flames their own, gaining power from them. The spears passed through the hell even stronger than before. Xiangxie stood still seeing the spears approaching and she smiled, her sword started shining. Just as the spears were about to pierce her "boom!" the flames at the tip of the spears changed from golden to red and exploded, diverting their trajectory, b?r?ly grazing Xiangxie. "You really thought you could make my flames yours?" spatted Xiangxie. "Tch!" clicked his tongue Daoliu "Ultimate flames". Daolui snapped his fingers, the spears stopped and flipped 180o pointing at Xiangxie again. They started spinning, Xiangxie''s flamed started being released from them, letting only pure golden flames. Daolui snapped his fingers, and the spears were shot towards her. Xiangxie seeing the three spears coming, she sidestepped, wind and flames roaring from her sword. She swung her sword, parrying one spear, flames shooting around due to their clash. She continued moving around with the minimum movement, she started evading the spears, clashing only one at a time. Xiangxie continued retreating while surrounded by flames, not even for a moment trying to fight back, focusing all her strength in protecting herself. "YOU!" Daoliu was furious "You know about it, that fake told you!" The spears returned to Daoliu, he took one with both hands, while the others floated around him. "!" Golden flames, surrounded his body as he charged towards Xiangxie, his body resembling a meteorite. Xiangxie remained calm, even when she was angry, and she started going back "<10.000 Hell Cuts>!" At the same time as she retreated, she swung her sword so fast that it was almost impossible to know how many time she slashed, one seemingly swung causing 50 slashed. Flames slashes flying towards him, these weren''t strong enough to break his defense, but each of them bothered him, slowing him a little. The sheer number also blocked Daoliu''s sight and their energy affected his sensing, making very difficult to pinpoint Xiangxie''s position. After chasing for one minute, Daoliu stopped having learned the futility of his attack. Xiangxie only focused on escaping, even when she received some damage from Daolui, it was almost collateral damage, not any direct attack, white flames slowly healing her from any light injury caused by Daoliu. It was easily seen that Xiangxie didn''t have the slightest intention to fight, only retreating maintaining a distance, wanting to waste time. "Knowing that you couldn''t win, you resorted to this, eh?" Daoliu tried to say calmly, but fury could be sense at his voice "Unfortunately for you, you have people to protect" Daoliu pointed at the sun, his three spears shot upwards, disappearing at the distance. "You forced me to this" Daoliu said, all his rings shining "!" From the Sun a powerful ray of light and flames resembling a spear was shot downwards. Instead of targetting Xiangxie who could try to evade it, its target was Heaven Dou''s palace "Would you let your family and friend die?" Daoliu murderously grinned "Even if a pity for Bai not being under us, I won''t let someone with his power help your clan. All the people facing against Spirit Empire shall die!" "Fucking senile" Xiangxie''s legs started shining, a seemingly armored boots appearing in them "!" She moved so quickly that she almost seemed to have teleported, appearing between the Solar Sacred Spears and Heaven Dou''s palace. Xiangxie held her sword with both hand and closed her eyes and focused on her sword. All the flames around her disappeared and her aura seemed to have dispersed, making her seems like a non-spirit master. Her sword started to change, losing its red color, becoming gray instead, starting to resemble a normal greatsword. Xiangxie slowly opened her eyes "Sword Skill" she said calmly, a powerful aura started exuding from her sword, all her strength focused in it "!" She swung her sword at Daoliu''s attack, a tornado of 7 different colored flames roared rising up. Each color represented one element. Even though they had the form of flames, their nature couldn''t be any more distant to it. Water, Fire, Earth, Wind, Light, Darkness and Space, each element condensed in flame form, all of them combined, boosting each other for an extremely powerful attack, even with a trace of divinity in it. Both attacks crashed, the sky trembled and even started cracking, even at the distant Heaven Dou''s Palace couldn''t stand and started collapsing. Both attacks were the most powerful one of each limit douluo, each attack with divinity, having used even a trace of their god''s strength. Any of the attacks could win against the other when "BOOOOM!" both attacks caused a huge explosion. It was lucky that they were fighting in the sky if they would have crashed on the ground their damage would have been much greater. Even with this, the landscape changed, the sky turned dark, thunder sounding from it, smoke hiding the results of it. In Heaven Dou''s Palace, only thanks to the combined work, of Bone Douluo and Fengzhi they were able to resist the aftermath. As the smoke and dust dispersed, it could be seen Xiangxie b?r?ly floating with her normal Fire Volcano Greatsword at hand. Her body was charred and full of injured having received most of the aftermath of both attacks. Even if both attacks had mostly the same strength, she started her attack after him, plus she needed to protect her back, this caused the attack to hit nearer her, receiving the full might, while Daoliu was far from it. Even with her injuries, Xiangxie''s eyes were determined to look at Daoliu without any speck of doubt while white flames covered her body, trying to heal her "It''s my win" she statted "You may be stronger, but..." her gaze focused at Daoliu''s figure "You''re too old" Even when Qian Daoliu wasn''t affected by the explosion, his body had experimented some changes. If before he seemed in his 30 or 40, now he seemed to have grown older at the 70s, his white hair, now was the burn-out hair of an old man. Qian Daoliu looked at her with a furious look. "You already surrendered, deciding not to become stronger, discarding even your spirit bones for the creation of a new successor. You''re b?r?ly alive, without your god grace, you won''t be standing" Xiangxie statted. "You!" Daoliu clenched his teeth "Since the start, you only gained time, you always knew that I can''t leave Douluo Palace" he started trembling furiously, but he stopped and sighed "It''s your win. I would retire from now, but this won''t finish. I would pay you for this disgrace" he spatted turning away with the intention of running away. "Like I''ll let you!" shouted Xiangxie, countless swords appeared surrounding her and Daoliu forming a sphere around them. From each sword, different colored flames surged, creating a dome made of flames encompassing both of them in it "It''s not like I wasn''t doing anything while I was running away from your attacks. I won''t let you run away so easily" she said grinning and pointing her sword at him. "I can''t die" Seeing himself trapped he said fearfully. He started trembling and glanced at Xiangxie with a murderous look "I will create a God and God will purify all of you" Then, he vomited blood. He used his last blood essence, sacrificing almost all his life energy to obtain a momentary boost "!" Golden flames resembling lava started surging from his body, they were so strong that even started scorching him "You all will die under God''s wrath" he said before shooting towards the flames'' dome, piercing through it and escaping at the horizon. Xiangxie sighed exhausted withdrawing her spirit, all the flames disappearing. She landed at the ground and laid down "At least he won''t be any more problem. But, we should be wary of his god" she said closing her eyes resting. Chapter 135 - Aftermath Fengzhi approached at Xiangxie and landed near her. He looked at her with a worried and lovingly face "How are you, Xie''Er?" Xiangxie opened her eyes tiredly and smiled "I had better moments" she turned serious "Even when we were both at the same rank, I couldn''t fight properly against him, he was too strong." "You did it great, you won against him" Fengzhi said "When do you think he would be able to attack again?" "Never" Xiangxie answered calmly "He is too old. Moreover, he extracted his own spirit bones of his body. In a normal case, he would have lost his cultivation, he is only able to keep it up with the protection of his god" "Now that Spirit Hall most powerful person is out of the board, maybe it''s time to prepare for a preventive attack" Fengzhi thought carefully "We don''t have much data about the Supreme Pontiff, but you should be able to at least stall her with my help" "It''s not a good idea to directly attack Spirit Hall" Xiangxie said "I hadn''t consolidated my rank properly yet. And even when I attain my full strength, it won''t be a good idea" "Why?" asked Fengzhi curiously. "Qian Daoliu had used almost all his vital strength to escape from me, he won''t be able to attack us. However, this change when he is in Spirit Hall''s domains. Spirit Hall is protected by the Angel God" "Angel God?" Fengzhi asked seriously listening about god. "There Daoliu would be supported by its power, being able to fight at full strength without risk of his life essence. He can''t step outside of his god protection now, but under it, he would be an even greater rival" Explain Xiangxie "Even when I hadn''t consolidated my rank, I only won by stalling time" "At least, it seems that we pushed Spirit Hall to a corner, they would be quiet for a time, trying to increase their strength" Fengzhi said thoughtfully. "We need to be wary of them. Daoliu is trying to create a god. If one god is going to appear, our resistance would be futile. And for what I know, they have the perfect candidate" Xiangxie told. Fengzhi thought for a little "Renxue" Xiangxie nodded "For what the boys had told us, she surely would have the potential to ascend to godhood. With her Arc-Seraphim spirit, she would be able to take the Angel God''s inheritance. I am frightened that even she can become stronger than the true Angel God" "So we have two options" said Fengzhi "We could try to stop Renxue reaching godhood or..." "One at our side becomes a god who can faze her" finished Xiangxie. "She would be protected with Spirit Hall''s full strength, it would be difficult the first one. For the second option..." he stopped "I am only the one that could become one, but I would need to reach rank 99 with my own strength, to have an opportunity" Xiangxie shook her head "Even if you become the Nine-Colored God, it won''t be enough. Even the gods had great strength differences, the Nine-Colored God is a second class god while the Angel God is a first class. Not only that, with Renxue''s evolved spirit she could even reach a higher strength" Xiangxie stopped and looked down "Sorry, for no being able to attain godhood" Fengzhi kneeled and leaned to Xiangxie, kissing her tenderly "Don''t worry about. We needed your quick power upgrade, today we would have lost Bai without it. Moreover, becoming a priest of the god, you had obtained a lot of knowledge. If it weren''t for you, we would be blind about their plans" Fengzhi looked at the sky "I don''t want to, but it seems that we''ll need to rely on the kids" Xiangxie made a sad look "Bai and Rong''Er have greater talent than us. With their friends, if are them, they may have an opportunity. We will need to protect them meanwhile" Fengzhi shook his head slowly and sadly "We will need to push them even stronger" Fengzhi turned to look at Heaven Dou''s Palace "Let''s wait for how Bai will turn when he finish his trial" Xiangxie smiled sadly "It doesn''t matter, he would always be our son. I will protect him with my life even if he turns a monster" Chapter 136 - Battle of self - 1 Opening my eyes, I found myself in a completely black space. I couldn''t see or sense anything at all, not even my own body that seemed to have disappeared, and seemed like I was floating there, slowly falling down. "Where I am?" I thought aloud. My question was ignored as I continued falling. After a long time, I couldn''t really tell how much time passed as it was difficult in such space without anything to orientate, I could finally see some light glowing at the distance, slowly approaching to me. Approaching it, I could finally sense my own arms. I held the light with both hands, finally revealing my Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sword, but instead, of the usual 9 colors, this one was completely white. Holding it with my hands, I could sense a strange feeling, it seemed to miss something, corresponding with the lack of colors and lack of spirit rings. The sword started shining. After its blindly light turned off, I could finally sense all my body, I could even sense that land was under me. I landed with a quiet sound, looking at my body, all seemed normal. For the space, it continued being black, even if I could walk, there wasn''t any trace of ground. "Shinx!" suddenly a green glow shined, under my feet grass started growing, followed by multiple types of plants. In a matter of seconds, the scenery changed from a dark place to a garden. Green particles flew around and started converging 10 meters away from me. The green particles started condensing, gradually making a human silhouette. Finally, in front of me stood a copy of me, the difference was his light-green hair. He stood there, facing me with his eyes closed. He opened his eyes, showing beautiful light-green eyes, the same as his hair. He gazed at my eyes and smiled brightly, with a very kind expression that couldn''t help you to trust him. "Thumb!" I could listen to his heartbeat, each beat a green wave was emitted by his sword. The green wave was full of vitality and quickly affected its surroundings, the grass started growing and becoming shrubbery, from the ground trees started appearing, they were so quick that it seemed that they were always under the earth and were only digging their way out. The previous forest became a greenery jungle resembling Star Dou Forest. My green counterpart smiled one last time and kneeled before me, prostrating while holding the sword with both palms, offering his sword to me. I couldn''t sense any danger from him so I decided to approach. Only doing one step, he turned green particles again. However, this time the particles were attracted to me, being absorbed by my sword. My sword shined green for a second before finally the second layer of my sword recovering his green color, followed by a black ring surrounding it. At that moment, I understood it. I reached the rank 71, I was a spirit sage and all of this was the merge that dad told me about. Once the green counterpart was absorbed I could sense my understanding of Life deepen a little, and at the same time gaining a greater understanding of the wood element. I received all the knowledge of this personality, making it my own. Not only that, it seemed that his own understanding had influenced the spirit ring that manifested am aging process, becoming close to 50.000 years old. As his intent was very similar to my Life and Protection, I hadn''t learned much from it, my own understanding being greater than him. But, at the same time, he must give himself to me without putting any fight, due to my own understanding of him. I doubt all the others wouldn''t put a fight, especially Paul. If all the other personalities are the same, I''ll need to gain most of them before facing Paul. Just as I convinced myself, the green scenery changed. It dispersed like dust and was followed by a gray rain. Steel drops started falling evading me, changing the scenery to a simple space with a floor made of steel. The liquid drops started converging, slowly the mass of liquid condensed in another clone of me. This time it had an ash-colored hair and eyes. His face seemed devoid of any emotion. He extended his right hand, an ash-colored Nine Treasure Sword with a black ring surrounding it. His sword started melting, becoming liquid. The liquid started flowing changing its figure and forming a big and robust shield in front of him, it had 3 ends, with a triangular form and round body. Clouds started forming in the sky "Zap" Lightnings started falling from the clouds, destroying the ground under me, all the steel disappearing. "ZAP!" a powerful and blindly lightning fell, in its position a blonde copy of me appeared. A yellow Nine Treasure Sword appeared in his hands. He bent his knees and pointed his sword at me in a charging position. He grinned as lightning started raging from his sword followed by a black spirit ring shining brightly. The lightning covered all his body. He kicked the ground charging towards me "The first to hit, is the one who wins!". I side-stepped, his quickly stab grazing me. The sheer electricity running across him forced me to use a little of Protection Intent around me. He passed through me, without a moment stopping, he used his feet as breaks, tracing the ground under him and kicked the ground, quickly changing his direction, charging towards me again. I pointed my sword at him, the sword started shining in white color, creating a shield of aura in front of me. He crashed with the shield, sparks leaving his sword. Seeing his attack blocked, he started slashing madly at the shield, trying to break it. Sensing his strength, I was sure that he would be unable to destroy it. Only staying still here, would be enough for me to win as he would tire before me. He was very rash and wasted a lot of energy. If I used my second spirit skill, his loss would be even before. Having made up my mind. I release the shield, meeting his slash with my own sword "You finally stop hiding!" he shouted swinging his sword at me. I twisted my sword stopping each of his swings. His speed and quantity of slashed were far greater than me, but they were all unfocused, with open movements. With light moves, I could parry most of his attacks and my protection was enough to withstand his lightning. "Take this!" he shouted "" sparks surged from him surrounding an area about 20 meters wide. His body was completely surrounded by sparks and seemed to have become lightning itself. At a speed difficult to perceive by normal eyes, he turned a spark and quickly appeared at my back, condensing his human figure "Speed is power!" Without turning around, I lifted my sword putting at my back, effectively stopping his strike. "Tch!" he turned sparks again. Again he condensed, this time at my left side. I twisted my ankle, swinging my sword at him, stopping his slash again. He continued with this tactic, trying to tire me, trying that I show some opening when in truth the one that was getting tired was him. He had great speed but used incorrectly, as a complete newbie. I supposed that never fighting anyone had this effect, even great power without experience means nothing. It was easy to read his next attack and his lag between condensing and attacking was a great flaw. He condensed 20 meters away from me, retrieving his domain. Then, he closed his eyes and as the first time, he pointed his sword at me with a posture of charging. "Rumble!" Thunder could be heard from the sky, lightning started to fall, all of it to his sword, the aura around him becoming greater. "Sword Heart!" He opened his eyes, powerful lightning running across himself, his black ring shining brightly, causing my own speed to fall "" he became lightning itself, a sword made of pure lightning was shot towards me. I was shocked by its sheer speed "Bloom!" a four-petaled flower flourished over my sword, with so little time to react, this was the best defense that I could put, clearly I underestimated him. The Lightning sword crashed towards the 4-layered barrier, lightning exploded covering all the barriers, attacking all the surface at the same time. The first two layers didn''t last much before being smitten to cracks. Sensing his strength, I already knew that it won''t be enough. A black ring shined from my sword "<4th skill: Steel Defense>". The petals of my barrier changed from white to ash color, increasing its defense tremendously. Facing the new upgraded defense, the personality rebounded from the barrier, losing all his momentum. I thrust my sword towards him, piercing my flower that wrapped around my sword, increasing its power. Without putting any defense my sword pierced the Lightning Sword, the copy materializing. He vomited some sparks and looked at my eyes "Be the fastest!" he shouted before turning particles and being absorbed by my sword, its 4th layer being illuminated and a new black ring appearing surrounding it. Once absorbed, the clouds dispersed and the ground disappeared, once again returning to a black world. Looking around I could sense anything "Crack!" a crack appeared at the air, the edge of a sword appearing from thin air at my back, targetting my neck. Chapter 137 - Battle of self - 2 I jumped to the right at the same time focusing Protection Intent over my neck. The blade was diverted by my protection, but it skillfully followed my protection, finally piercing my left shoulder. After tumbling, I turned to where the blade came, finding a crack in the air. The crack started propagating becoming bigger until it broke, another personality of mine coming from it, this time his hair and eye color was really strange, with a fusion of different colors that seemed to blur. He was holding a translucent Nine Treasure Sword. I took my sword with my mouth and using my right hand I extracted the blade on my shoulder, blood leaking from the injury. Only to find what it seemed to be a glass fragment that quickly disappeared on my hands. I focused my Life Intent on my wound stopping the bleeding. I would need some time before I could use my left arm again. "So you evaded my attack, eh? I should have gone for the heart" he said with a cold and analytical voice. He slashed the air and more glass-like objects shot towards me. For what it seemed he would be the one formed by space, this fragment would be a type of attack form of him, attacking with fragments of space. These fragments may be dangerous to face with physical attacks, but with my intent, there shouldn''t be any problem. I easily deflected all the fragments coming towards me, to only find that he had disappeared. It seemed that he focused on ?ssassination, now that I was ready, let''s see how he react. Suddenly, I sensed the air around me strange, it seemed to have twisted "So a domain" "crack!" I turned to the crack slashing my sword at it, reflecting a glass-like fragment. I sensed something wrong and side-stepped "Buaa!" I vomited blood, finding his Nine Treasure Sword pierced at my stomach. The Space personality appeared 10 meters away from me. He scratched his chin thoughtfully "If you trick to your rival, you have half the victory. For you to think that cracks are needed for my attacks, in my domain is not necessary" He swung his sword multiple times, cracks started appearing around me, some made a sound while others don''t. I closed my eyes, Life Intent focusing on my wounds, and using my Mind Eye at maximum. I could detect all the attack, each of them produced a tiny discord in the space, easily detectable by my sense. I invoked a shield made of aura around me stopping all the projectiles "Fuck" I quickly twisted my ankle swinging my sword at my back, stopping a fragment. It seems that he could even make them appear inside my shield. "Defense types are the worst enemy for my sneaky attacks" he said coldly "Time would be bad for me, as he would be able to heal himself. I will finish now with my strongest attack". His domain disappeared. He lifted his sword upwards, a lot of cracks extended from the tip, breaking the sky over him. He then positioned in a sheathed position. (I won''t let be surprised again) I thought focusing will at my sword preparing to unleash my defense at any moment. "Sword Heart!" he shouted, the space fragments started being absorbed by his sword, that started shining with a strange light. "!" He unsheathed his sword shooting a large blade of space energy. This attack was the condensation of Space, it would go over every defense, rather than break through it, it would cut the space around it, completely ignoring any defense. However, this would different facing my Protection, with my own understanding it would be able to stop it, becoming a fight of pure strength, like when facing the nullity of Renxue or Xiao Wu. I clenched my sword with my right hand and pointed it at the attack "Bloom!" a seven-petalled flower grew at the tip "" a seven-layered barrier was created. The Dimensional Slash crashed to my shield, but somehow its power didn''t seem too much. "Crack!" While I was focused on the attack in front, Space personality appeared at my back "People always think too much of the strongest attack, but they can become mere distractions" he thrust his shining sword toward my heart. "Fuck!" Seeing the sword coming I knew that I could react to stop it, at least normally. A black ring shined, my sword started emitting Lightning. With my new speed, a twisted my body that seemed to have become sparks, Space only gracing me. I slashed at him, he b?r?ly could parry it "You suck at close combat" after two more swings, his sword left his hand and I thrust my sword at his heart. All the cracks around disappeared, even the Dimensional Slash that had destroyed 5 layers. Space was slowly dissolving in particles "It is my loss. I did not put Lightning in the equation, it was my own ignorance" his particles were absorbed by my sword, its 5th layer becoming illuminated and gaining another black spirit ring. "Rumble!" ground appeared at my feet followed by a thunderous sound. The ground started trembling and mountains started emerging from it. Each mountain starter spitting lava and flames, they were volcanos. The space had turned hell, a rain of fire eternally falling, rivers of lava everywhere. In a river of lava, I figure emerged, he was another personalty. This time, he had fiery red hair that undulated with the wind resembling flames. Fire seemed to burn in his red eyes. He turned to me with an angry and pissed face "You are the useless main one. For you to focus on defense is such idiocy. Power!" he opened his arms, the volcanos becoming more active "Defense, technique, resources. It doesn''t matter when faced with absolute power!" A red Nine Treasure Sword appeared at his hand. He held it with both of his hand and lifted pointed to the sky, a black ring shining brightly "Turn all to ashes!" he shouted angrily. All the rivers and rain converged at his sword that exploded with powerful flames "!" he swung his sword towards me, a pillar of fire approaching towards me. Its power was comparable with Paul''s Sword Heart, but it was only power, it lacked understanding, it won''t be able to burn ideas. My sword shined with a translucent "" I slashed at the air, appearing 50 meters away with a crack. His attack passed through my previous position, explosions occurred across its path, not even flames stood there having been blasted away, only ashes remained. I turned to the red-headed "It doesn''t matter the power if it can''t hit" "Fucker!" he shouted trembling "How you dare to escape!?" he swung his sword again, dragging a river of lava with it, shooting it towards me. Like before I warped away from his attack, evading its destructive nature. He continued madly attacking like a berserker, however, each attack consumed a great deal of power. He quickly started getting tired, each attack becoming weaker. "I won''t let such a coward live!" he lifted his sword and pierced his own heart "Hahahahaah" he laughed vomiting blood, powerful fire energy was emitting from his body, much stronger than any attack, a suicide technique being capable of skipping ranks "Take a taste of m-" He took too long. Before he finished I activated my speed ring, with lightning speed reaching him and with a simple swung I cut his head. I wasn''t enough familiar with Space to warp in a chaotic space like around him. "Rumble!" the ground started trembling, the lava of the rivers seemed to become more liquid, and the ground around me started crumbling leaving me over a ground platform surrounded by the new lava. "Haaaaaa!" different cries could be heard from the river, some were of pain, other of resentment, some were furious, all of them carrying negative feelings. This new lava wasn''t lava at all, it was blood! From the blood, a bloody figure surged. He had red-dark hair with black dead eyes. He looked at me "Another one for the collection". He grinned viciously. Chapter 138 - Battle of Self - 3 In his right hand, a blood-colored Nine Treasure Sword appeared. He pointed his sword at me "Show your grudge!". All the blood around seemed to react, multiple amorphous human figures made of blood rose from the river. "Aaahhhhhh!" The figures shouted in pain and resentment. The personality thrust his sword at me and the figures followed his command. They started floating and shot towards me like angry wraiths. I covered my sword in Protection Intent and faced them. Maximizing my Mind Eye, I could sense each of their movements. I started slashing them while jumping around evading the others. The wraith when slashed became splats of blood but they didn''t need much time until they recover their form and started charging again. Even if they were week with low attack power, they seemed immortal, trying to get me tired. I could sense their sadness and death from them every time I cut one. Rather than try to destroy them, the most effective way would purify them, destroying their dark feelings. My sword glowed with green color, I held it with both hands "" and leaned to my ?h?st "". A wave of Life and vitality was emitted from my sword and washed all the wraiths. Facing such a pure Life they couldn''t keep their form, being released from their grudges and purified, turning blood puddle that wouldn''t rise again. When they wave hit the Blood personality, his grin disappeared from his face replaced by a disgusted face "What a gross power" he spatted. He jumped from the blood river landing at the platform facing me "It seems they are useless. I''ll kill you myself". He lifted his sword pointing up, an ominous aura exuded from his sword followed by a black ring that started shining, blood seemed to flow around it "Raise!". Like before the blood around reacted, this time jets of blood resembling snakes shot from the river, all of them were attracted by his sword. "!". All the blood was absorbed by his sword. A red aura surged around him, his muscles grew, his veins bulging making his blood flow visible, his eyes became pitch black with blood-shot pupils. "Perish!" He charged towards me, he swung his sword sidely. I held my sword with both hands and lifted my arms, making a guarding stance with my sword pointing down. The swords meet"ch!" his strength was so great that it made me flinch, my hands trembled due to the recoil. He didn''t stop and quickly chained his attack, thrusting at me. From my sword white flames surged, increasing my strength. I twisted my sword, the side of my sword perfectly stopping the tip of his sword. He backed his sword and made consecutive thrusts at me, his speed was so great that it seemed that he was using a rapier rather than a sword. White Lightning exuded from my sword in combination with the flames, increasing my speed. I continued blocking his barrage of attack. With his skill, he experimented a great increase in all his attributes, forcing me to use my newly obtained comprehension to keep up with him. Of course, I could try pushing him aside and face him with my strongest skills at a distance as he lacked in that aspect, however, this was a perfect training to familiarize me with the absorbed personalities'' strength, facing a strong enemy. It didn''t pass a long time until Blood''s lack of experience showed up, creating an opening. I thrust my sword at the opening, targetting his heart, forcing him to hurriedly, for the first time, trying to block my attack. "Wrong move!" the flames and lightning disappeared "crack!" the air cracked, the tip of my sword passing through the crack and appearing at his side completely unprotected. My sword pierced through him, but it couldn''t go beyond a centimeter before being stopped. Blood used the momentum of my sword and backed, creating distance between us. From his wound, blood surged, creating threads and keeping the wound closed. This injury wouldn''t affect him at all, good for me. I am not familiar with this new power, especially flames and space. Lightning is easy to use and I won''t need too much training. Flames were easy to use, but I was too unfamiliar with offense strength, not being able to use most of its power, in this fight little by little I could improve my strength. On the other hand, Space was truly difficult to use and deepen, intent the most I was capable of it now, and even with it I needed my full attention, not being able to use others, but I will improve. As I was prepared to charge again, a voice was heard "Let''s stop this bullshit" the voice contained power, it reverted to all the space and was cold and deadly. Blood stopped still "Haaaaaaa!" he started contorting, his bones cracking while he shouted in pain. I looked shocked as his upper body fell like death. Then, he slowly started standing becoming stiff, his eyes fixed at mine. His pupil focused, becoming smaller, and he made a little movement, I could see it as in slow motion, a strange momentum was created by this little movement, as he passed his sword to his left hand. "BOOOOM!" black aura exploded, forcing me to cover me in Protection Intent to block it. The black aura was vicious, death and killing mixed in it. Cracks appeared around Blood "crack!" Blood skin broke in pieces, being replaces by a similar one, without so developed muscles. His hair was pitch black, death could be reflected in his black eyes. It was Paul. Paul grinned "Did you miss me?" Chapter 139 - Paul and Bai <3rd POV> "Paul" Bai growled. Paul simply grinned "Did you enjoy this farce?" "Farce?" asked Bai suspiciously. "Of course!" Paul opened his arms wide "All these fights are nothing more than a farce, a creation from your sword. It creates multiple entities who focus on different areas, becoming stronger and even aging their own based spirit ring, only to finish by you absorbing them all, gaining all their progress b?r?ly being affected by them" "It''s a death fight, Paul. If I were to lose, they could take me, and even I need to fight you" Paul laughed "How could you lose? It''s all in your favor, the more subservient ones, the one more familiar to you appeared first, letting themselves being absorbed. Once you have some spirit skills, you finally fight the others who even when they try to put a fight, they are in a clear disadvantage, facing someone that already have the others" "In my case?" Paul paused a moment "It''s even worst! I am only being used as another one to increase your strength. Do you know how this farce should have finished?!" he shouted "You would have won over all the other personalities, even of your own 7th spirit ring. I am lucky enough o have control over the Oreo spirit, but I would find myself with a food spirit facing a powered up you even capable of using your Spirit Avatar. Not only that, but the ability to affect this space is also done by the spirit ring influence, so even you will have the ground advantage. How could I win against all this?" Bai listening Paul recognized that he was telling the truth, all the previous battles weren''t difficult if he would have decided to go all out, they would have become very simple. "However" Paul coldly said "All my work paid off. Not only I strengthened me, I even took control of one of your spirit rings. With this, you''re not the only one that can change the terrain" The ground started trembling, ripples surging from the blood river. Quickly, the surroundings started changing, black trees and vegetation grew, the blood was absorbed by the ground and a white river appeared. The surrounding became the familiar black and white world of the Oreo. "And it''s even greater!" Paul said grinning "Your Spirit Avatar was obtained thanks to our cooperation, without both of us together, it''s completely blocked. I don''t know if you realized, but we are unable to repeat the All Sword, we could only complete working together. It''s a pity, but it goes well for myself, I will win over you, absorb you and obtain your strength" "I prepared myself for this moment!" Black aura exploded from Paul. Paul swung lightly his black Nine Treasure Sword shooting a blade of dark aura to Bai. Bai seemed nervous, he lifted his sword, white aura covering it, and guarded Paul''s attack. White and Black aura seemed to fight between each, corroding the other. Even when Bai could resist the attack, the aura of his sword dimmed a little and he received the strength of the attack, being pushed 5 meters. "Paul, stop!" shouted Bai "I have another plan". Paul answered lifting one eyebrow, but let him talk. "Since the first day that I knew of your existence, I thought about it. You have suffered a lot, being caged all these years and having a bad past life. We fight together, even helping me protect my loved ones. I might have been a pitiful boy who blamed all my faults to you, but they were mine. The truth is that you had never done anything especially wrong against me" White aura exploded from Bai as he pointed his sword to Paul "I am not the weak weak crying boy of before. Even with all your plans, I can fight!" The surroundings around Bai started changing, the ground disappeared and was replaced by a nine-colored space, with a glass feeling, a representation of a 9 Treasure Sword Pagoda. Bai''s white aura and Paul''s black aura clashed at the same time as the world of both of them crashed. Spark shot from their crash, continuous thunderous sounds were listened, with little explosions occurring, each side trying to win against the other, causing an unstable equilibrium, creating an apparent draw. "If you choose to fight, know that I will fight!" Bai said "It won''t be so easy for you to win. However, I don''t want to fight, there is another possibility" "What are you thinking?" asked a little curious. "If we work together, I think that we could finish this trail, leaving both of us as always" "Your idea is to keep it like nothing while I am caged?" Paul said with contempt. "No!" Bai negated "I learned to respect you, and you have the same right as me to live. I think it''s possible for us to live at the same time in different bodies. My 5th skill is a manifestation of my comprehension, if we obtain some materials like immortal herb, it would be able to create another body for you or even I to habit. I already talked with Lingling and the spirit beast, and there''s a big probability to accomplish it, if we can upgrade my 5th skill to 100.000 years, it would be 100% truth" "So your idea, is that we live together, trying to create another body to finally live like two different beings?" "Yes, I know you. You wouldn''t have accepted working with someone weak, I trained so hard to be able to face you. Now that we are on equal grounds, I ask you to accept my proposition. It won''t take much time until we could become two different people, I don''t mind changing time to time who controls the body until then" Bai withdrew his sword, he lifted his right arm, extending his hand "Would you work with me?" Chapter 140 - notice Last chapter make a divergent point in the story. The truth is that I thought about both path, accepting Bais offer and not. Both path had their points. I let the chapter there to know your opinions about and thinking what i will choose. I will wait this weekend to decide and maybe I will make a little summary of the descarted path. Thanks for your support. Chapter 141 - Intermission: what would happen if... separated? {I decided to make both Paul and Bai fuse but as I already thought of how will go the novel if they separate, I will write a little summary in this chapter. THIS IS NOT PART OF THE ORIGINAL STORY, it''s an alternative ending} With bai''s offer Paul will not directly accept, wanting to experiment Bai''s resolution. Both will use their strongest techniques, Paul''s will win the clash, but he will accept Bai''s resolution. The Sword God won''t be happy about it, as a possible loss of his successor that would need to control all the sword types. The Sword God would influence the ritual, he would take control of Bai''s sword, manifesting a rainbow Bai''s in control of his spirits rings and a combination of the other personalities. With Bai and Paul cooperation they would win against the controlled rainbow Bai, finally controlling each of them their All Sword, destroying their 7th ring and the God influence. Sword God would left saying that they will pay for it and regret. After that they would try to find some way to accomplish their separation. After some chat with the other, Bai''s mother having disappeared,They return to Star Duo Forest. Not before Xiao Wu gift them her immortal herb, saying that she already have San, she didn''t need something as a proof of her love and that it would help them. The Immortal Herb instantly withering under Paul''s influence, nevertheless, they keep it. They will meet Lingling again and different spirit beast. Thanks to to their knowledge they would discover the ingredients needed. After some time, switching who was in control from time to time, they would travel obtaining the herbs, some of them thanks to their relation with Dugu Bo. In all this time, it would be created a special relation between Paul and Lingling, both of them attracting the other, Lingling liking Paul''s self more than the goody two shoes of Bai, and Paul being attracted by her who was able to stop his craving for death. After obtaining all the materials, they would create a new body, only to realize that is not working. Paul was a creation of the Nine Sword, a ?umulative of memories as such even if he is able to control the new body, he can''t leave Bai''s influence, the new body nothing different than a controlled sword by him, needing the main body near, not a true resurrection. With Paul depression, he would Bai again this time the final one. In their fight they would be stopped by Lingling''s aura. She will confess her feelings, not wanting neither her friend or loved to die. Paul would be moved by Lingling, he also confessing his feeling towards her and at the same the Yearning Heartbroken Red would bloom accepting Pau as its master, accepting his love to Lingling. Thanks to the herb a miracle would occur completing Paul''s body, becoming completely independent of Bai''s, a true being. After that, Bai and Paul will accept each other as true brothers, they will decide to separate each one searching for a way to become strong to face the powered Spirit Hall. Bai would obtain the legacy of the lost Elemental God. Needing to gain control of the 7 elements, he will travel completing his trials. Paul will return to Slaughter City, now empty but even more chaotic. He would cross it again, this time even more difficult, each step like a mental attack and finally he would be accepted by the Asura God and ordered to retrieve the Asura Sword. Bai''s last test, previous to take the Elemental God''s legacy would be help Paul in his test. Both of them would go together to face against the Slaughter King, killing him without much problem. The problem was that when Paul touch the Asura Sword that was corrupted by the Sword God who would try to take over Paul, destroying his mind. Paul will win thanks to the final intervention of Bai as previous one, they can connect their mind spaces helping him win over the Sword God attack. After that, Hei Qi would appear and take the Asura Sword. He would present himself as the Sword God, Hei Qi was only a doll controlled by him to manifest in this realm. Not only that, Hei Qi was only the armor and needed a body to sustain. Revealing that now under the armor stood Bai''s mother, completely under control of the Sword God. Forcing himself, Hei Qi is able to draw the Sword God divinity, becoming a god while Xiangxie''s body could keep without being destroyed. Paul and Bai would fight a hopeless battle where they didn''t want to kill the rival and the rival was a lot stronger than them. After almost dying, both of them made a spirit fusion with an only technique permitting to cut Xiangxie and Hei Qi''s union. Then, both killing Hei Qi and destroying the Sword God''s tablets and legacy, destroying the Sword God position. Both of them will then face their last test of each god, succeeding their positions, Bai becoming a 1st class god and Paul a god king. They will quickly travel to Heaven Dou Empire where a bloody Sea God Tang San stood under three gods, 1st class gods Bibi Dong and Yu Xiaogang and Qian Renxue who could cultivate her Angel God position to a King God. Under Bai''s insistence, Bai face a more powerful Renxue, while Paul with some Tang San help, face agains the other two. In the fight, Bai improved his strength, upgrading to a King God and winning over Renxue, confessing his love feeling towards her and found them reciprocated. On Paul''s side, he win over them, but just before he was to kill them, he changed his aim only destroying their divinity and cultivation. Finishing the battle and with Spirit Hall complete destruction. Bai weds Renxue, while Paul weds Lingling after some years they all ascend to the god realm, followed by Bai and Paul''s family (They all have accepted Paul as part) and Tang San''s friends. END And that finish what would happen if they have decided to keep separated. What do you think? This chapter was written with the mobile to sorry for some error that might be due to that. And there are some plot holes that are to be keep in the original novel, so better not tell anything. Thanks for reading, tomorrow I will try to continue the novel. Chapter 142 - Round 1 "Hum!" Paul looked up "Hahahahaa!" Paul started laughing loudly. "You really are still too naive. Did you really think for a moment that I would take your hand and that we both will happily cooperate like two good brothers? That we will advance with the power of friendship?" Paul said in mockery. "Don''t joke around!" Paul shouted angrily. "You don''t know a thing! You don''t know anything about me! How could you dare to try to change me?" Black aura shot from Paul pushing Bai away. Bai hurriedly invoked his sword again, covered in white aura protecting him from Paul''s aura. "I hate you" Paul said calmly, his aura started flowing slowly but continued being powerful "And of course I hate myself" "How could you even hate yourself?" asked Paul surprised. "I am not a true person, Bai. When you had all these memories" Paul signaled his forehead two times "Even if it was unconsciously, you decided to discard them to maintain your happiness, in fright of being find by your loved ones. How could I not hate everything? I am born from it, all your negative feelings pushed away with past life memories to preserve your own happiness" "Even if this was your birth, you have grown, Paul. In the future, you could also find your own happiness" Bai tried to convince him "If we work together, we could accomplish" "Shut up!" shouted Paul "Your thoughts are impossible to accomplish. I was borned by your negative feelings, your wrath, self-contempt, sadness... Do you know what I enjoy?" asked Paul. Bai shooked his head and lowly said "No" "I enjoy slaughter!" Paul said opening his arms "Only by killing I experiment the thrill that can be confused as enjoyment. I don''t mind what the other thought, I don''t love anyone, I don''t have friends and continuing normally this won''t change. I am a fu?k?n? sociopath!" "B-but" Bai said hesitant "You care about my family, Rongrong, dad and mum" "Being sincere, I don''t give a fu?k about them, their death or suffering won''t cause any feeling in me" He clutched "If the fell under my sword maybe a smirk from my part but..." he paused "...nothing else. It was only an act" "Then why did you tried and help them?" "It''s because I am intelligent enough to know that I will have a bad ending. Continuing like that, I have two endings. Or someone kills me or I will everyone, trying to experiment the thrill and even in that case I suppose that even I will become bored of all the slaughter, the only p???sur? of my life disappearing, I might finish suiciding" Paul calmly explained. "But!" Paul signaled at Bai "You are the solution! Absorbing you, I will obtain your feelings and maybe even learn empathy, being capable of living, becoming a complete human being!" he shouted "In that case, it would have been a pity if after absorbing you, I started to worry for your family only for them to be already dead. The true Paul, the one who lived in another world, never had a family, I''ll like to experiment one and feel something for them" "You''re mad!" Bai said in contempt. Bai pointed his sword at Paul "Someone like you should never exist. I will destroy you! I won''t try to even absorb you!" "Haaahahaha" laughed Paul "This is how it should be since the day of my creation we were destined to fight to the death. You''re one light being, it''s normal for you to try to extinguish darkness, while darkness try to take your warm" Both charged at the same time. Swords met each other, sparks flying from their contact. After some clashing between both swords, they found themselves equals in technique. Paul stepped back "You did well trying to keep up with my power" He grinned "Let''s upgrade this fight". From Paul, a vicious black aura was emitted "" The aura covered all their surroundings, suppressing Bai at the same time that increasing Paul''s power. Cracks started forming around Paul, expanding all around the white and black world. From the cracks exuded grudge, sadness, and fury. The world started contorting, becoming one completely different. The colors didn''t change, keeping its black and white, but the greeny forest was replaced by asphalt streets with tall rectangular and uniform buildings with many floors that Bai could recognize from the time against Shi Nian, where he took a glimpse of Paul''s memories. The world exuded sadness and death, with human silhouettes made of blood walking around. "This really reflects better my mind space" Paul said looking around "That fu?k?n? society" he spatted. Bai sensing he was suppressed, he lifted his sword "!" White aura exuded from his sword. Bai''s white domain clashed with Paul''s domain, a very unusual situation forming. Instead of both domain fusing, creating a pseudo-combination where both domains are active, both domains crashed and broke apart, forming a strange space were pieces of each domain were scattered around. It must be known, that sword domains are very compatible, whereas two sword domain clash, they will join, becoming for both swordmaster possible to use their own domain, creating a co-existence. Like when Paul fought against the water sword user Ripper at Slaughter City, both domains overlapping. Bai''s and Paul''s domain were so different, each the complete opposite of the other, that they were unable to join, both domains breaking apart. Even when both domains broke, it could be seen more black fragments, Paul''s domain being stronger thanks to the god-given domain. Nevertheless, Bai could protect himself from the suppression. "I can also influence my surroundings!" shouted Bai. Cracks started forming around him, this exuded a warm and calm feeling. They expanded around the sky, the sky changing to a multicolored one with a glassy feeling. Bai and Paul comprehension clash created a white and black city with a multicolored aura at the sky. Creating for both, the perfect condition to maximize their power. Paul and Bai pointed at each other, powerful aura from their sword, much greater than before "Round 2" grinned Paul. Both charging to the other. Chapter 143 - Round 2 and 3 As Bai charged, lightning started flowing around his sword, his speed increasing a level. For his part, Paul answered calmly, a torrent of blood formed around his sword creating a whirlwind. Both swords clashed, Bai''s lightning being absorbed by the blood whirlwind, not being able to pass through it. Bai took advantage of his greater speed, swinging more times his sword trying to stop Paul''s momentum that was increasing. While Bai''s sword seemed a blur of movements due to his speed, Paul''s sword flowed calmly, seemingly to move at a slow speed, but somehow stopping Bai''s barrage, each time with flowing and efficient movement without stopping. It seemed an attack of a raging beast against some dancer. As Paul''s momentum grew stronger, Bai started being pushed by him, his speed being unable to cope with it. White flames surged from Bai''s sword in combination with the lightning. Bai swung his sword downwards. Paul twisted his sword blocking the slash, the powerful blood torrent reflected Bai''s sword and at the same time pushing himself gaining distance. Bai chased again thrusting his sword, but each time was countered by Paul who was retracting. However, with each hit Paul was pushed less and less, his strength slowly surpassing Bai''s. Knowing that he couldn''t keep this, Bai''s sword roared, exploding in lightning and flames. Bai thrusted his sword more powerful and fast than before. Paul made a step back positioning in a guard position preparing to block Bai''s attack. As Bai''s sword was approaching, suddenly, the flames and lightning disappeared, replaced by a transparent glow. A crack appeared in the space, Bai''s sword tip passing through it and reappearing at Paul''s back. "Idiot" Paul whispered with scorn. Paul changed his hands position holding the sword, twisting his sword, forcing the flow of blood to invert its direction. "" All the accumulative momentum exploded, a raging tornado made of blood-covered Paul as he thrust his sword at Bai, completely ignoring Bai''s attack. Bai''s widely opened his eyes shocked, receiving Paul''s power attack while Paul only faced his weak and sneaky attack due to his low experience with Space, it was clear who would finish worst. Bai quickly retreated his sword, in his position he couldn''t effectively block Paul, so he focused on his sword. Bai pushed the debris aside showing his figure. He had a dense white aura covering him, he had used his Protection Intent in the last moment to stop the attack. Even with it, he had some light wound due to cuts from the blood, but they weren''t much important as it won''t affect his fighting progress. White aura surged from his wounds that instantly started closing. "You''re an idiot, Bai" Paul said looking down at Bai "You were never good at attacking, this won''t instantly change even when you received some knowledge of the other personalities" "Tch!" Bai clicked his tongue, how could he possible though of facing Paul like this. His new comprehension of the elements was powerful and in the future, it could become a great strength of him, but for now, he was too unfamiliar with it, he couldn''t face someone like Bai with it. White aura started covering Bai''s sword "I hate it but you''re correct" Bai''s second ring shined as he positioned at a guard position, due to Paul''s domain, he was unable to absorb his attributes but was able to take from the surrounding space "It would be a battle of attrition". Paul''s sword was covered by a black aura "Let''s start round 3!". Black aura started condensing around his sword which became sharper. Paul dashed towards Bai, thrusting at him. Paul''s sword lost its gentle and refined style from the water style being replaced by powerful and precise thrusts with sick killing intent. Bai was pushed completely at defense. While Paul barrage of attacks didn''t make any opening to attack, Bai''s perfect defense blocked each attack. Even if Bai''s speed had decreased, his precision, technique, and sturdiness had improved leaps and bounds. Paul''s black ring started shining, his muscles bulged. He slashed at Bai shooting a black sword qi towards him, this being increased by his skill. Bai''s rings shined, increasing his strength and defense. Instead of diverting the attack, he let himself be pushed by arriving at a near building, increasing the distance between both. In this fight, Bai strategy was made it last, if he couldn''t damage his opponent, he would tire him out. Bai focused spirit energy on his feet and started climbing the building. "You!" Paul cursed "Stop running little shit!" Around Paul multiple black spheres appeared, each of it a condensation of Slaughter with high destructive strength. Paul swung his sword shooting all the black spheres towards Bai''s position. "Booom! Boooom! Boooom!" The black spheres exploded in contact with the building. Over Bai, a black ring was shining, increasing his speed, he quickly evaded each sphere as he climbed to the top. "Like, it will be so easy!" shouted Paul as Bai found himself completely surrounded by black spheres, impossible to escape from their explosion''s reach. Bai focused on his Mind Eye, grasping each information from his surroundings. He put strength on his feet, jumping to the sky. White aura covered his sword as he swung to a black sphere that instead of exploding, he deflected it upwards. "BOOM!" The black sphere crashed with others, causing an explosion and an opening from the cage of black spheres. He didn''t know if it was due to Paul''s influence or simply due to characteristics of this space, but he was unable to use his spirit bones. However, this didn''t mean that he couldn''t ''fly''. A black ring shined and under his feet, a plain sword appeared. He put strength at his feet, stepping at the sword white flames surged from his feet. He jumped over spinning his body gaining momentum, he escaped Paul''s attack and landed safely at the top of the building that kept standing even with its half-destroyed structure. Even if Bai had used multiples skills, he kept it uses at the minimum, consuming the less energy possible. Comparing with Paul wasting with attack and his skill, Bai''s expense was lower. "So you''re trying to tire me out, eh?" murmured Paul "Useless!". 5 black rings appeared surrounding his left hand. He approached his left hand at his mouth and murmured something while one spirit ring shined, two Double Stuff Oreos appearing in his mouth. He munched, swallowing them, instantly recovering his spirit energy. Not only that, but blood around the abandoned city was also being absorbed due to the Nine Treasure Sword 6th skill, recovering stamina, and even mental power, making Paul had greater energy. A pillar of black aura surged from Paul''s sword "Mmmm" Paul munched a White Fudge Oreo, the pillar becoming even bigger and stronger. Paul swung his sword sidely at the foot of the building "BOOOM!" the pillar over 10 meters wide cut through the building, a tail of explosions for is trajectory. The building couldn''t keep up and started crumbling, falling towards Paul''s position. Bai''s found himself falling with the building, surrounded by debris, making difficult to move. "You''re dead!" Paul held his sword with both hands and drawn it back, focusing all his might in it, an ominous black aura surged from him "Mmmm!" he munched two different Oreos, his aura becoming stronger "" the aura around his sword started raging "!" an incredible powerful pillar of energy shot towards Bai. This attack wasn''t like the previous ones, it was a lot stronger, it was what was Paul capable after all his training and with the surrounding in his favor. The black pillar cut the air, all the debris in contact with it, disintegrating when they came in contact. Seeing the attack coming towards him, instead of being shocked or scared, Bai smiled "I never expect to win over you by attrition. I will show you all my strength" White aura formed around Paul and started converging in the tip of his sword "Height favor, your destruction, and your strongest attack, I have it all" A 7-petalled flower bloom from the tip of his sword "Embrace!" the flower instead of forming the usual shield, it grew bigger and embraced Paul''s attack "Take all your damage! For the revenge is mine! " the petals started rotating while encompassing completely Paul''s attack, stopping it. Bai thrust his sword forward "!" A powerful white pillar of energy, it impacted with Paul''s energy and made it his own. This attack was the ?umulative destruction that Bai had protected from all this fight, plus his own power and Paul''s technique, creating his strongest technique, capable of obliterating all of its surroundings, it was so strong that even crack started forming in the mind space. Paul opened his eyes widely shocked seeing the incredible attack approaching him. Chapter 144 - Finale Clash Paul''s surprise quickly morphed becoming a grin "Fenrir!". In front of Paul, a giant black and red wolf appeared. It was over 5 meters tall with menacing eyes, a spiky fur like blade and teeth sharp enough to cut bones like bu??er. "Devour!" Fenrir opened his mouth, its insides were like a black hole, absorbing its surrounding, even light couldn''t escape from its grasp. As Bai''s attack approached, it was affected by the own gravity of Fenrir''s mouth, Fenrir completely swallowing it. There wasn''t even any aftermath, the attack disappeared like it never existed before. Fenrir made a satisfied face and started fading, disappearing over Paul''s sword. Bai was shocked by how easy was to stop his strongest attack. Bai even when he wasn''t sure if Fenrir could act in this mind space, he never thought his technique would be so strong, he must have evolved. "You really thought that I didn''t expect your attack?" Paul sneered "I always knew your strongest attack was using the accumulative damage, I was always prepared for it. Nevertheless, congratulations for your new skill, I didn''t expect to be so strong" He grinned "Let me show you my new skill" The air started trembling, from all the abandoned city, dark aura started accumulating at Paul''s sword tip, the city started crumbling apart, the vicious aura around the city disappeared, only leaving desolation. Paul lifted his sword, held it with both hands, and pointed at Paul. "This is a combination of all my intents. My intent focused on extinguishing life, the true form of it was never destruction, it is a cold and silent killing technique" The tip of Paul''s sword shined with a black tint "Take it. A skill compared to an All Sword" He jumped thrusting his sword at Bai who was falling. Bai saw the attack coming towards him, for strangers, it didn''t seem too powerful, it was a light thrust without any destruction at it, comparing it with the striking Excalibur Morgan, it seemed very weak. However, this attack was a concentration of Paul''s full comprehension. This was death, killing and even something over them. The space over Bai has completely blocked off any element, Paul had created a zone where nothing can live. Bai was blocked in his position, not only he couldn''t evade, he couldn''t put any defense, his aura scattering before forming, being impossible to even move an inch. Bai saw the attack, it was like an inescapable deathgod was approaching him, he knew that he would die when the sword hit him. (No!) shouted Bai in his head (I don''t want to die. Even if Paul win and decide to protect my family, I want to live). At this moment, Bai experimented all his life. His happy moment with family, Chenxiang, Lingling, his friends, their smiles, he could even saw the time with Qinghe but replaced but her true persona. He also experimented with the sorrow of the people who died, Maya, Mayi, and all the clan members. Bai embraced these memories, it didn''t matter if they were good or bad, they had influenced him and made him who he was now. (I won''t die! I''ll protect everyone) Bai''s sword started shining and started dispersing in white particles "Shing" a blindly light exploded. "H-how could it be?" Paul said in shock as the light started invading him, his own intent being suppressed by it, his technique was broken and he was pushed away. Paul safely landed, but the white aura continued clinging to him, making extremely difficult to focus any intent, that was instantly dispersed by the white light. He looked up towards Bai who was glowing brightly "All Sword" he spatted. In the last second, Bai was able to breakthrough. In the fight against Renxue, it was only a pseudo All Sword, only a little stronger than Paul''s attack, and that was only possible due to the cooperation of Paul and Bai. But, facing death, Bai''s potential exploded, making possible to create a true All Sword, forcing his own will to the world. The space around both was affected by it. It was no longer an abandoned city, Paul''s influence had disappeared completely, replacing the abandoned city for places of Bai''s memory, the mansion at the clan, Heaven Dou Academy, Star Duo Forest... All combined making it seems like a manifestation of Bai''s memories. Bai lifted his right hand, over it the aura around him focused forming an over 10 meters white sword. Bai looked down at Paul "I will use your strength to protect my loved one" He swung his right arm, the giant sword at Paul. "Fuck!" shouted Paul angrily trying to focus his intent. Paul approached his left hand at his mouth, multiple Oreos manifested at his mouth "Mmmm" he munched all of them. A black aura was emitted from his sword thanks to boosting his power at maximum, but it was so little and Paul needed all his strength to keep it up under Bai''s All Sword. This was the suppression caused for different realms of swords. Seeing the attack coming towards him, Paul though in despair [I will cease my existence here, never being able to receive love, always drowned in despair] Paul clenched his teeth "Fuck!" he shook his head "FUCK IT ALL!" he shouted his face contorting "I don''t fu?k?n? care about anything! Kill! I only need to kill. I will kill without stopping. I will kill your happiness, DIE BAI!" he shouted madly and furiously. From his sword, an ominous black aura appeared "DIE!" All Sword is the top of the sword realm registered, it''s a technique with a power equivalent at the strongest attack of a titled douluo. It usually manifested with a huge range, forcing the will of the world to yours, being able to ''control'' the world. However, it isn''t always like this, some people had experimented with peculiars All Swords, their comprehension differs from others making a different technique. Bai''s case was the usual but in Paul''s case, it manifested as a concentration of his thought, his sword becoming his intent itself, turning to nothingness everything that it touches. Paul thrust his sword forward, instead of the expected clash, Bai''s giant sword disappeared just as it was touched by Paul''s sword. Paul continued dashed forward towards Bai. Bai felt terror observing Paul''s sword, he focused all his strength on his All Sword, creating a barrier from it. Paul pierced forward, his sword crashed to Bai''s All Sword "Booom!" continued explosions were formed by the crash, ground and sky trembled, cracking the mind space reality that couldn''t keep up. "I will return with my loved ones!" shouted Bai. "DIE!" shouted Paul. "BOOOOOOM!" The space around them was greatly affected, it was all cracked with white and black fragments around, without nothing in its horizon. "Buaag!" Both of them vomited more blood, they were tired, almost run out of spirit, mental and physical energy. Not only they overworked their bodies forming for the first time their All Sword, they even received the backslash of them being destroyed. Both pierced their sword at the invisible ground. Supporting with their swords, they slowly stood up, b?r?ly being able to keep it. Both looked at each other eyes, that shined with determination rather than tiredness. The overexerted their bodies, their determination giving them new strength. Both walked to the other. When they were near enough, both lifted their swords with difficulty. Their swords were nothing like before, they were all chipped, completely dull without any color at each, being easy for them being mistaken as rubbish. "Clink" Both swords crashed, their arms trembling. They clenched their teeth, tightening their sword grip and swung again their sword "Clink". The continued clashing, all of them were nothing like before, they were slow, full of innecessary movement, leaving them completely opened, not like they could take advantage of it. Even a non-spirit master will be able to see their movements and counter them. With each clash, something strange started happening. Maybe it was due to their connection or due to the instability of their mind space, but with each clash, they could sense the other feelings and memories, the history that they experimented with. Bai could feel Paul despair and sorrow, an empty life without family nor friends, needing to run away to fictional world to try to escape from his shitty life, even if it was only for little time, permitting him to keep it up. Even when he found himself in the world of his dreams, he couldn''t live long before being caged in even more despair, an eternal torture reviving his nightmares. All of it exploding in a mad rage and hate against the world. Tears fell from Bai with each strike, experimenting Paul''s sorrow Paul could feel Bai''s d?s?r? to protect his loved ones, his happy memories and the sad ones. They seemed all very childish, but Paul couldn''t help to want them, this was what he dreamed forever, maybe pure strength without any aim wasn''t the most important after all. Tears started falling from his eyes, but this didn''t make him stop, his d?s?r? to approach them forcing him to continue. "Clink" Both swords made contact and were rebound. As Paul thrust his sword at Bai. Bai looked sadly at Paul''s eyes and backed his sword. Bai pushed his body forward to Paul, Paul''s sword piercing his ?h?st, completely passing through his body, leaving to the other side. Bai leaned towards Paul, blood leaving his mouths, he embraced Paul with his left arm "I accept your pain and sorrows. Sorry" he whispered at Paul''s ear. Supporting on Paul, Bai with his last strength thrust forward his sword, piercing Paul''s ?h?st. Both of them separated, holding the other sword still pierced in their body, vomiting blood. With a light smile in their mouths "It''s a draw" they whispered before both became light particles. Chapter 145 - Bai Bai and Paul dispersed in different colored light particles, white and black being the predominant colors. The particles started converging in a single position, but the black ones crashed with the white ones, repelling each other. The particles then started spinning around, creating a tornado made of them, it seemed like they wanted to mix together. The tornado was spinning faster and slowly becoming smaller and concentrating forming a human figure. Then, I blindly light shined. The cracks around the mindscape started repairing themselves, creating a multi-colored space, stronger than before. In the middle of it, a young man stood there with his eyes closed. He was similar to Bai and his copies, but his facial features were more defined, making him feel more m?tur?, he grew taller becoming 1,90 meter tall, with muscles more defined and his hair had changed. He had long hair without any restrain that reached to his hip, with long bang hair that almost covered his eyes. His hair started with a gray-silvery color at the top and as it approached to his hair tips, the color slowly changed. The most peculiar was that for his left changed the silver color turned darker becoming black and on its right side turned brighter until it became white. Creating a strange contrast where the color of his hair seemed to blur in different colors, differentiating one side from the other. He opened his eyes, both glowing with a catching light. He had heterochromia, his left eye being black while his right one was golden. With his eyes opened, his sharp features were accentuated even more, looking at his eyes seemed that it could cut you. Making him a kind of exotic and handsome young man with a mysterious and dangerous aura around him. He opened his eyes widely, black and white aura exploded revolving around him. Both colors were very distinguishable, not mixing together, but somehow each empowered the other, this simple show of his intent was enough to clarify that his intent was a lot stronger than Bai and Paul separated. The young man looked at his hands, opening and closing them, feeling how they reacted "Shing" A flash of light and a sword appeared at each hand. They weren''t the usual Nine Treasure Swords, these ones kept their crystalline sensation, but it didn''t have horizontal layers, it had 7 vertical layers that twisted upwards resembling a tornado, each layer different colored, red, green, yellow, gray, a transparent one, blood red and silverly. There were some differences between both swords, the one that stood at his right hand was wider and more robust, it was a double-edged sword with a rounded side, with a crystalline white handle. It seemed focused on blocking and parry. The one at his left hand was thinner and sharper, with a slight curvature, and had a black handle. It was more effective for quick and deadly slashes. "So my spirit mutated in two sword" said with a powerful voice that resounded in the space "And even evolved from my Nine Treasure Sword, reflecting better my attributes and preference. I will call them Twin Colored Glazed Swords" {AN: I''m bad with names. If you thought of a better one (it won''t be too difficult), I will gladly change, please comment ad thank you} He started swinging both swords around, the moves seemed little irregulars with some erratic movements and even sometimes the swords affected the other trajectory. He continued swinging and after an hour that uncomfortable feeling of discomfort had completely disappeared, his sword style was refined, without any unnecessary movement or opening. It was clear that he was ambidextrous and seemed to have trained all his life with two sword styles. He stopped and breathed loudly. He turned his face to one side "How much time are you going to keep watching?" At the direction that he was looking, the outline of a human silhouette appeared, he had the same colors as the space behind him, a black ring wrapped with gray color over him "We didn''t want to disturb your meditation, the first sensations are usually the most important" the outline said with his usual multi-voice. "Congratulations on passing our first trial" the ring over him dissolved in particles that were absorbed by the young man twin swords. With this, he had finished the fusing of personalities trial, obtaining the control of all his spirit rings. Not only that, but his seventh ring was also formed by the Sword God after completing his second trial, the reward for the first trial was a boost in cultivation, having reached rank 75. "The ways of the sword are multiple and dispart, inheriting my position means that you reach the top of all these ways. Now that you are completed, you have control of different element, you are talented enough to try to reach this top" Told the Sword God "We accept you as our successor. You will have to surpass seven more trials, growing stronger, becoming able to inherit our title" "I''m honored" the young man said "I will strive to the top and I will become a god, I will become the strongest and protect my loved ones. The Sword God nodded and started disappearing "Your third trial will be..." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Opening my eyes, I found myself laying over a bed. I lifted the top half of my body and looked around, instantly recognizing that I stood in my room. I could feel my body sore, like if a lot of time passed without moving. I fell back, resting my head at the pillow. I had some light head-ache due to the movement. I held my head "I am Paul, but at the same time I am Bai" I said looking at both hands, it was truly strange to have two memories of different people in one mind, even more, when these two people had interacted between each other and had really dispart personalities. Your own self becoming a mix of both "At least one thing is sure, I love my family, love for one side and longing for other. As they choose my name, I would rather continue being named Bai rather than I name given by someone unknown" The headache continued, my memories continued being a little unstable, needed some reorganization "I would need some time before all is normal" Sensing my surroundings, I could detect some servants at the mansion, but I couldn''t sense mother, father or the uncles. I sat over my bed in a lotus position. I closed my eyes and focused on organizing my own self. After some time, I opened my eyes, the headache vastly lowered "Better do it slowly" I stood up and focused on my mind "!" information of 10 km of my surrounding entering my mind, this was my maximum range and somehow limited, only receiving basic information of my surrounding, not fit for fighting. I turned my head looking at one side, sensing some individuals fighting. I approached the window and opened it. I did some light stretches, warming up. "It''s time to move a little my body" I grinned jumping over the window. Chapter 146 - End of volume Now that Bai and Paul have merged this means the end of this volume *Clap* *Clap*. 6 volumes finished who would have thought it. The next volume would start with the Sword God Trials. I already thought of most of them, with some impacts on the overall novel, but I have space for two of them. If you have some idea of a possible trial I will be very grateful. Look forward to the next volume (I suppose it would start tomorrow). Thank you!. Chapter 122 - To Shrek I overexerted my body in the last fight, even without direct wounds, using the power absorbed by so many spirit master really made a toll on my body. In total, it took 1 week to return to my optimum condition. This was a very boring week. The clan must be in disarray with all that happened, however, dad forgave me to help, forcing me to rest until I was recuperated. Unfortunately, Rongrong visited me while I was sleeping, according to dad she was now reuniting with her school companions and that she would return shortly. On one hand, I missed her a lot and I want to meet her. On the other, I''m a little fearful of her reaction, I didn''t contact anyone for 7 years, knowing her, she would be mad with me. I doubt that it would be like dad who accepted it only with a light reprimand to write to him sooner and that it was normal to travel. For some reason, dad didn''t ask anything about this years, some part of me suspects that he knows more than he shows. Nevertheless, I was glad for not explaining my situation, it''s difficult to explain and I don''t want them to worry. I would solve it myself. Moreover, I want to distance a little from them, I don''t know how Paul''s problem will result. If Paul won, I don''t know what would he do. So I''d try to keep a distance until that moment. But, this battle changed it all, my priority would always be my family. I would help with whatever I can. Now that I recovered, I decided to visit dad in his office, I wanted to know all the details. Nocking the door I was immediately answered to enter Entering his office, dad was sat on his chair, mounts of papers stacked on his desk. He had his elbows on the desk and signaled me to sit in a chair in front of me. As I sat "I see you are better, great" said dad "However, do not you think that you would need more time t-" "Stop, dad. I''m already recovered" I looked at him "I would say that even better than you are, you are the one that should rest more" "I could not hide it from you, your observation improved son," he said "I am resting the necessary, there is a lot of work to do, I cannot simply rest on the bed" "For this reason, I''m here, I want to help you. Explain to me the details" I said "I doubt that this would have been an isolated attack from Spirit Hall" "True" Dad sighed and tiredly scratched his forehead "Spirit Hall had broken his neutrality, not only it attacked to us, but it also attacked the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan which, unlike us, couldn''t defend against them and was destroyed. Spirit Hall also changed its name to Spirit Empire and had made known its d?s?r? to conquer the continent" "If Spirit Hall started moving is that they are already prepared, its strength can be considered fathomless. The strength of the empire may not be enough to face them" I thought loudly. Then I turned to dad "An alliance is necessary" "I am already working on it. We are the main pillar of Heaven Dou Empire, so it will not take much for them to cooperate. For Star Luo Empire, I am starting talking with them. I suppose it would be easy for them to cooperate as they surely would be the next objective. The problem is the clans under the empires. Lots of them are already under Spirit Empire, not knowing exactly which is the true danger. At least, we will need to secure the help of the strongest ones, we will not be able to resist an internal and external war at the same time" Dad explained. "I could help there. Attending Heaven Dou Academy, I met a lot of heirs of clans. It would be easier for me to make deals with them" I proposed. "There is no need for the little clan, we already know most clan''s orientation, the ones allied to Spirit Empire will be destroyed. I would like to secure some others" he stopped for a second "Do you remember Tang San?" I frowned a little "Of course" "I already talked with him and Rongrong. Tang San is forming his own sect, completely independent of the Clear Sky Clan, our clan will sponsor him" Dad explained. "Why? I would understand to sponsor him if he joins our clan, but, why help him with his sect?" "To obtain the cooperation of the Clear Sky Clan. Even if his sect is independent, he had strong ties with the clan, the Clear Sky Clan will not throw away someone so talented. Moreover, being independent had its advantages, it will not be difficult for the four one-attribute clans to join him as they surely will not rejoin the Clear Sky Clan" Dad explained "The Strength Clan is already under him, knowing the Defense Clan''s master he would follow the old orangutan eventually. For the Speed Clan, he is the grandnephew of its master. The only dubious it would be the Breaking Clan, but I suppose that they would follow the others" "What are our gains? I doubt you make a deal with only possible cooperation to win" I asked. "Of course. He must provide, not only our army, but also to Heaven Dou''s army, full armament. There is no one in the continent capable of creating more powerful weapons than him, our army''s strength would skyrocket with his weapons" Dad explained. "So, what is your plan for me?" I asked. "Go with him. Follow him and make sure that all goes according to the plan. Help him to accomplish his objectives" he answered. "I don''t really like him" I complained. "We would need all the help that we can have to fight against Spirit Empire. And it would be better for him to make the sacrifices rather than us" dad said coldly. "So the first line to fight" I sighed "Ok, I''ll help him, at least, for now" Dad smiled and started writing something "Great. Tang San and Rongrong are at Shrek Academy. I carriage would be prepared for you outsi-" "I don''t need carriage" wings appeared at my back "I will hurry there before they start moving," I said turning to leave. I turned to leave, but before leaving "Son, do not forget your cultivation" that made me shudder remembering Paul "There are times when one can only rely on himself" I nodded without turning around "Bye, dad" "Take care, son" dad said goodbye. Once I left the mansion, I extended my wings. A flapped the wings, creating a gush of air, starting to fly towards Shrek Academy. It only took 40 minutes to see Shrek Academy, arriving there I could sense some people fighting. Chapter 147 - Devils Training At 4 km from the Seven Treasure Clan headquarters, there was a wide plain side, this was usually used as a training area. In there, there was a group of people, 8 young men and women that were near 20 years old and 4 ?du?ts. They were Shrek''s 8 Devils plus the titled douluos of the Seven Treasure Clan. One month had passed since Heaven Dou''s palace battle. Shrek''s group was able to save the emperor even if it was only to the extent of living 4 months more, enough time to prepare for Xue Beng inheritance of the throne. In this month, Heaven Dou''s side was preparing for the future battle against the Spirit Empire. It was decided that for the highly talented Shrek''s devils, it would be more productive for then to focus on their personal strength rather than political affairs, with Renxue following the road to become a god, they will need a god for their part to face her. For this, the Seven Treasure Clan had prepared a mock battle against one of its titled douluos, to open their eyes. It was decided that Sword Douluo would be the one fighting as he is the one with a better experience and a clear mind. From the Seven Treasure Clan, he is the one that attained his actual strength only purely relying on his strength. At the plain, Sword Douluo sat cross-legged with a cup of tea in his hands. He was calmly drinking while the Shrek''s devils surrounded him, preparing to face against him. As Shrek''s group charged, seven swords manifested around Sword Douluo, they were exquisites swords that showed the high attainment in the sword path. The swords started swinging around exuding a powerful strength that broke Shrek''s formation. More swords appeared, each of them targeted one of Shrek. Shrek was able to keep up at first with their good teamwork, but each time the swords'' momentum grew, becoming stronger and faster than the last, pushing Shrek''s members. Once they gained good momentum, the swords pierced the ground forming the Chinese character of kill. From it, it was emitted a powerful aura that suppressed Shrek''s members causing them to flinch. This was simply the activation of his All Sword, without any technique, if Sword Douluo decided to prepare an attack, some of Shrek would vomit blood, even if the attack won''t be targeted at them. Shrek''s members'' eyes shined with an unwillingness to give up, trying to move their body when suddenly, a silver-haired young man jumped into the fight. He crossed the sky with one sword at each hand. He had both swords lifted, a twirl of black and white auras surrounding them. "Boom!" the young man slashed at Sword Douluo''s formation, breaking it, the suppression of Shrek''s devils disappearing. All the group stared at the young man with wide shocked eyes, this was due to 2 reasons. One was due to the fact that someone so young was able to destroy the formation, showing an incredible power. The other was that they recognized the young man, some shocked stares changing to joy. "Bai!" Chenxiang was the first to react with some tears of happiness in her eyes. All this month, that Bai had been in a coma, she had been very worried about him. Finally releasing that weight, her feeling exploded. He tried to dash towards Bai, but she was stopped by Bai lifting his arm, with his palm opened. "How much time did I expend sleeping?" Bai asked to all of them. "Son" Xiangxie was the one who talked "You were in coma 1 month" Bai nodded "Normal that I am so sore" he did some stretching "I know you may have some questions and that I need to answer them, but" he stopped for a moment "I want to move a little first. If I''m not wrong you..." he said turning towards Shrek''s group "Should be having a mock battle versus uncle. Let''s change it!" he said signaling Shrek "The 8 of you against me. Anyway, facing someone with so wide gap of strength won''t be too much of help, if you face a super Douluo, the best should be trying to run away". "I will explain my circumstances later. For now..." A multicolored aura extended from Bai, encompassing all of them in a sword domain. This sword domain was the combination of every sword domain that he comprehended thanks to his absorbed personalities. As Bai wasn''t familiar with it, this was the maximum that he was able as swords domains were easy to join. For joining Sword Hearts? He wasn''t on that level yet "... let''s fight!" Chapter 148 - Swords vs Devils Shrek''s members were a little hesitant, but sensing Bai''s domain suppression, they looked between each other and nodded, quickly preparing to battle. Phantasmal spirits appeared at their back, all of them surrounded by their respective spirit rings, all of them being spirit emperors with the exception of Honjung who was a spirit king and Chenxian who attained the spirit sage realm. Even if he was strong, it wasn''t at the level of facing a titled douluo, in an 8vs1 they have almost the certainty to be able to win against him who was only one realm higher than them. "Come" Bai signaled, Shrek''s member reacting. Oscar quickly chanted something and threw a sausage to the others. They ate the sausage, wings sprouting from their backs, increasing their speed and being able to fly. They orbited around Bai while he stood still sensing them with his Mind Eye. Mubai punched the air towards Bai, a purple ring shining, innumerable light bullets were shot towards Bai. At the same time, the black ring of Hongjun shined, a meteor shower was formed targetting a wide area around Bai. Bai looked at both attacks calmly, he held both of his swords and a black ring shined "<5th skill: Sword Rain>". 10 swords appeared around Bai, a gray glow appeared in them changing their form becoming shields. Mubai and Hongjun''s attack crashed to the shield "Booom!" both attacks exploded at the shield. Even though they were capable of destroying them, Bai was unscratched, showing that Bai''s great control, only using the minimum energy to stop the attack. Shrek didn''t stay without doing anything, Zhuqing and Xiao Wu were already near Bai, each one attacking from opposite sides. Zhuqing''s rings shined, her speed was doubled and she thrust her hand that became a blade. Xiao Wu''s leg glowed with a pink aura and she kicked Bai. At the same time, a nine-colored light fell over them, increasing their attack power, strength and spirit power. Of course, this light was the supporting skills of Rongrong. Bai sensing both attacks targetting his side, he extended his arms, both swords took a gray glow as they blocked the girls'' attack. "You will need something stronger to break my defense" Bai quickly sensed an attack from his back. At his back, Mubai roared, a golden ray light shot from his mouth towards Bai. Bai clenched his hand and spun 180o, throwing off Xiao Wu and Zhuqing at the same time. Bai''s sword glowed with a transparent light as he slashed the air. Following his slash, a crack was formed in the sky. Mubai''s attack crashed with the crack and disappeared being absorbed by it. Bai didn''t waste time, lightning formed around his sword as he charged towards Mubai. Mubai jumped backward followed by Bai whose around his sword flames exploded as he slashed him. Just as the swords were about to hit him, a Blue-Silver Grass vine bound around his hip and was pushed back by Tang San. Failing his attack, Bai looked at his feet, a fire formation stood under him. The formation shined brightly and a powerful pillar of fire shot from it, engulfing Bai. This was all prepared, they calculated Bai''s movements causing him to fall for their trap, making him stepping on their strongest attack. Even when Hongjun had the weakest cultivation, it was a fact that he had the strongest attack power of them, his strongest technique being necessary to lock the enemy as it could be easily evaded. With their teamwork, they forced Bai to receive Hongjun''s strongest technique fully supported by Rongrong skills and Oscar''s sausages. From the fire pillar, two swords showed their tips, one of them glowed with a gray light while on the other red flames roared. Both swords were swung making a cross, completely cutting and extinguishing the fire pillar. Bai stood there, his clothes a little charred. "We''re not finished!" 6 Chenxiangs stood over Bai, all of them with their rings shining pointing their fingers like a gun at Bai "Photon Ray!" The 6 Chenxiangs shot concentrated light rays. A black ring shined, 6 transparent swords with a hight reflective grade appeared. They had an angle that when the light rays impacted them, the rays were all reflected over Bai were 4 swords stood rotating. The rays were reflected again by the swords, causing them to disperse as a rain of light bullets that fell around Bai, targetting the Shrek''s members. Tang San quickly reacted dragging the already bounded companions outside the attack range. He didn''t stop at that, 8 spider legs surged from his back and he charged forward, impulsing with the spider legs and with bizarre footsteps, he crossed the light rain arriving at Bai. At Tang San''s hands a Blue-Silver Spear was formed and he thrust it towards Bai. "It would have been better to use your hammer" Bai said as he swung his right sword, that with a gray glow it had increased its size, blocking all Tang San''s legs. Flames surged from Bai''s left sword and pierced towards Tang San when suddenly Xiao Wu teleported between the sword''s trajectory. All her body glowed with pink light and the sword was rebound from her. At the same, Xiao Wu''s braided hair was released and extended trying to cover Bai. This was Xiao Wu''s 5th skill and had the power to block the rival until she ran out of spirit energy and would leave Bai completely open to any attack. As Lightning formed at Bai''s swords, Bai trying to quickly evade Xiao Wu, he realized that Silver-Blue vines were bound around his legs, locking him there, it won''t be difficult to break with little time, unfortunately, he didn''t have this little time. "Fuck!" Bai spatted. His eyes opened widely as he focused his aura. Just before Xiao Wu was about to lock him, a white aura surged from Bai''s swords. "Badum" Like the heart beating, waves of white aura shot from the swords, pushing Xiao Wu and Tang San over. They quickly retreated, grouping with the others of Shreks. "" Bai had a calm face that quickly distorted "TCh!" Bai had a pissed look. He scratched his head "I wanted this to be a training for my new styles, but it seems that I underestimated all of you. You didn''t even use most of your skills. As my plan failed, let me vent my frustration". 7 black rings appeared surrounding Bai as he revolved his spirit power, from his right sword a white calm aura shot while his left sword was covered by a black ominous aura "You forced me" he said looking down at Shrek''s members, suppressing them with his presence. Chapter 149 - Swords vs Devils 2 Sensing my suppression, Tang San quickly reacted, a light blue aura was emitted by him covering all Shrek. "There''s too much difference between us, in comprehension and spirit rank" Bai''s domain quickly started dispersing Tang San''s domain, easily showing that Bai''s was far superior. Tang San could only retract his domain and try to defend only himself. Mubai''s rings shined, his muscles grew bigger and white fur covered him "Roarrr!" He roared emitting white light and lowering Bai''s suppression, even if it was only a little. All the others revolted their soul energy trying to resist. Bai''s left sword disappeared while he lifted his right sword, pointing it at the sky. The sword started shining "!" the sword dissolved in particles, 50 meters around Bai the air turned white, covering all Shrek''s members. Shrek''s members prepared themselves and looked cautiously at Bai. In contrast to what they expected, this new seemingly domain didn''t affect them at all, the truth was that the previous elemental domain had lowered its intensify and it was easier for them to stand up. Knowing that something was wrong, they became even more cautious. "Sigh" Bai shook his head seeing his rivals not moving "It seems that I''ll need to start". Lightning surged all around his body. This lightning was stronger than before being boosted by the All Sword, being formed by Life, it has great support abilities. Bai dashed towards Mubai who was the nearest, flames exploding from his left hand as he punched towards him. Mubai''s rings shined "<5th skill: White Tiger Devilgod Transformation>" his muscles bulged, fur started growing around his body, his hand became claws and all his hair became white. He crossed his hands, blocking Bai''s strike. Thanks to his skill boost of strength and defense power, supported by Rongrong, he could stop Bai''s attack relatively easy, realizing that it was weaker than his swords attack. Mubai didn''t lose time, two figures appeared at Bai''s side. They were over 3 meters humans that resembled bipedal tigers, they were the guardian mode of Mubai''s skills, thanks to his 6th skill he was able to create avatars from his White Tiger Devilgod and White Tiger Vajra. Both tigers jumped at Bai trying to lock him. Bai simply grinned and opened his hands accepting the attacks, both tigers blocking his position. Zhuqing charged at Bai while her rings shined, her claws grew and nine shadows of her appeared behind her. She unleashed a barrage of attacks, slashing not stop at the immobile Bai, each attack was followed by the nine attacks of her shadows, but her attacks were unable to damage Bai. It was very strange, she couldn''t feel any resistance from Bai''s body, it was like cutting the air but he was undoubtedly there as her claws couldn''t go over. Over Bai, Xiao Wu appeared teleporting. She lifted her right leg that started glowing with a pink aura. She fell over Bai kicking Bai''s head, even with her monstrous strength, the most that could he do was move Bai''s head 2 centimeters. Xiao Wu had the same feeling as Zhuqing, her attack seeming to hit almost without any resistance. "Let''s see if you can ignore this, Bai!" Chenxiang said smiling. Her rings shined and crystal feathers started forming all around her, a long beak grew at her mouth as her wings doubled their size, this was Chenxiang''s Spirit Avatar "Crrrr!" She munched some pink sausage at the same time that a nine-colored light fell over her, increasing her spirit energy and overall attributes. Her wings shined brightly, and the light started focusing as more than 20 little dots " !" Each dot became light rays that shot to Bai, using her Spirit Avatar, each ray was twice as powerful that without it, this without taking account of the increase in numbers. Mubai''s guardians stepped back at the same time that a Silver-Blue Grass Cage grew around Bai, locking him. Bai ignored it as he looked at Chenxiang''s attack curiously "This could become a problem" he said before being engulfed by the rain. The Photon rain fell with a blindly light making difficult to see what happened inside. Once the rain stopped, Bai stood there with the right arm lifted. His right hand was all black with burns as it had received the blunt force of the attack. He turned to Chenxiang and warmly smiled "Congratulations. You really worked hard" he sighed "To be able to go over my All Sword" He looked at his hand and shooked it, dead burn skin fell showing a completely cured hand. Then, he turned to Shrek''s members "Let me teach you something. It''s elemental physic, all action at a body creates a reaction with equal strength and opposite direction from that body" A white sword formed at his right hand "You created the actions, experiment the reactions" In a blink of an eye, he crossed all Shrek''s members, appearing at Rongrong''s side. He lifted his sword and lightly pocked at his sister''s forehead with the sword handle. He smiled at his sister "I think that this is one down". Rongrong fell to her knees as she touched her forehead with a surprised face. All Shrek was flabbergasted, his speed was so incredible that they were unable to react, in the blink of an eye he had passed all of them and was able to attack their support. Even Xiao Wu teleporting had a lag between her attacks so that it could be countered and suppose her position, but Bai''s was simply a high speed and swift dash. Bai turned to the others "Of course, strength can become speed" He charged again, this time even if it was very fast, it could at least be seen. "Mubai!" shouted Tang San. Mubai swiftly reacted, he with his two guardians jumping at Bai. Bai made a circular slash at the guardians, even when they were prepared and crossed their arms trying to stop the attack, it was a futile intent. Bai''s slash cut through them, slicing both in two. He put his weight to his right foot as he twisted his body, spinning 180o and kicking Mubai with his left foot "With this, two downs" Mubai was shot away while vomiting blood crashing to the ground more than 30 meters away. Suddenly, Bai found himself surrounded by 4 Zhuqings, each from one side. Each Zhuqing''s claws grew as they charged to Bai. Bai swung swiftly his sword stopping each claw, his movements were precise and seemed like he was dancing. He stepped forward, letting the 4 Zhuqings behind, without even turning behind, he hit with the hilt of his sword at one of the Zhuqing''s neck. The one hit fell down unconscious while the other disappeared "And this makes three" "Burn!" a fire blast was shot to Bai by Hongjun who was flying with his wings. Bai looked at the fire completely unimpressive "Such a weak fire" Bai said "Normal that he would never become the fire god" this last part for himself". At Bai''s left hand appeared one of his Twin Colored Treasure Sword, this one shined with a red color. The fire blast was instantly absorbed by this sword, it circled around the sword forming a fire tornado, not only that, it became brighter and stronger. Bai pointed the sword at Hongjun returning his attack now empowered "Your fire comprehension lacks too much". Hongjun was engulfed by the flames and fell to the ground surrounded by it, even with his great fire resistance he was being burned. Bai''s own fire comprehension was stronger than Hongjun, even Hongjun''s flames seemed to reveal against him. The biggest counter to one element is not an opposite one, it''s the same but stronger. "Four down" At Bai''s back, some feathers were shot. The feathers were shot by Chenxiang, however, they were unable to pierce Bai''s defense and slowly fell to the ground. Bai twisted his body, his left sword glowing with a transparent color "!>" he slashed towards Chenxiang. From the sword, a blade was shot, it seemed to cut the space around it. Chenxiang twisted her body, closing her wings and spinning to her right side evading the slash. However, as the slash passed next to her, Bai left from it. He had disappeared from his previous position and suddenly appeared from his attack. He opened his arms and caught Chenxiang who due to her evade was unable to resist. He caught her in his arms, carrying her in a princess carry. Having locked her, he slowly fell. Landing to the ground, his eyes pierced her, he leaned to her and lightly kissed her lips "We will need to talk alone later" Bai said letting her standing. He turned to San "And five down". As he was approaching San, Xiao Wu teleported at his back and kicked him. Bai twisted his body, blocking Xiao Wu''s attack with his sword. Bai pushed her aside and thrust his sword at her. Xiao Wu tried to teleport again, but found herself unable to do, in Bai''s All Sword she only was able to teleport because he let her. Before the sword was about to pierce her, Bai twisted his ankle, the tip of the sword changing its trajectory, piercing between her legs. The sword that continued with a transparent glow, let a physical afterimage, a true sword at its place as it retreated. Bai made 5 more quick stabs, encasing Xiao Wu between swords, completely locking her movements "6". All Swords had the power to influence the world around them, forcing the will of the world to the user, being capable of controlling the world and changing its laws. In Bai''s case, his All Sword, let him control the action and reaction. He was protected from any attack while everyone inside the All Sword found themselves without any resistance, not even the air. They could sense themselves even stronger than usual. Bai''s would accumulate all these force reactions and then used them when and how he seems more convenient. Of course, even if it was a very strong skill, it wasn''t like it was without flaws. If someone had high control over the world as Renxue''s Truth, he wouldn''t be affected by it, his attack being normal. There was also the case of one attack so strong that overpowered Bai''s defense. In that case, the attack would be able to overcharged the All Sword and make some damage to Bai, but even in this case, Bai''s would obtain the maximum reaction from his All Sword, only receiving the leftovers while he could use its strength. So for an attack to truly be able to damage a prepared Bai, it should be at least twice strong as the All Sword''s defense. Having charged his All Sword with Shrek Eight Devils''s attacks, Bai had won over 6 of them in less than 15 seconds, with shocking speed, strength, and technique. Bai looked at Tang San''s eyes as the white area retracted to him, returning and forming his other twin sword at Bai''s right hand. "Tang San" he said slowly "You really pissed me off" his face contorted "Always doing what you think is better and forcing it to the others, thinking that you''re always right and do the best" he rambled "Do you know why I didn''t hit you before?" he paused for a moment "I was always wary for your father, but if I''m right now he won''t be in any condition to fight" seeing Tang San''s shocked face, Bai knew that he was right "I will take revenge of you now. And I will not stop until a beat you into a pulp" Bai signaled at Mubai and Hongjun "They will seem perfectly fine comparing with you" Bai grinned "Finally, I would act as my heart content" "Try it!" Tang San glanced at Bai with a decisive, powerful look, the Deathgod Domain surrounding him, making his impression even stronger. While Tang San and Bai glanced at each other prepared to fight, Oscar was far of them, slowly retracting himself from both, trying to escape from their fight. Suddenly, Bai turned his head towards Oscar "Don''t think that I forgot about you. I''m not so idiot to not realize your and my sister''s looks. If you like her, show your bravery. You will need to pass over me if you want something with my sister" Bai turned again to Tang San "You even have a helper" Oscar seems to doubt for a second, but he quickly made up his mind and decisively looked at Bai, prepared to fight. He looked at Tang San and received a nod from him, he returned to Bai "I will show all my determination!" he shouted. Bai grinned viciously "Let''s see how many bones I will break". Chapter 150 - Revenge Tang San lowered his body, putting his hands at the ground, around him vines were shot towards Bai. "I''m a little bored with your plants" From Bai''s left sword a vicious black aura was emitted. With a simple swing of Bai all the vines wittered even when the sword didn''t make any contact, Bai''s Slaughter was enough to it. "Oscar!" shouted Tang San "We will need to use all our strength, let''s go all out" Oscar nodded and his rings started shining. At his hands appeared 4 sausages, 2 pinks and 2 dark brown, he threw one of each towards San while he ate the other two. San received and ate them, obtaining a boost of all his attributes and a powerful boost of spirit energy, making his spirit energy no much different than a spirit sage. At San''s hands, his Clear Sky Hammer appeared, surrounded by his own Deathgod Domain. He charged towards Bai, while hitting multiple times the air, spinning his body, gaining momentum. Oscar invoked and ate a red sausage, turning his hair red and feathers appearing around his body. Having obtained the powers of Hongjun, he shot a fire blast towards Bai, even if he knew that it won''t cause much damage, it would enough to gain a little time. For Bai, even Hongjun own flames were a joke, not talking about this imitation that could at most copy 70% of the power. He stayed still and the fire extinguished even before making contact with him. Oscar didn''t waste time, he ate another sausage. His feathers were gone, replaced by cat ears and tail. Using Zhuqing''s skills, he charged towards Bai at an incredible speed. He jumped at Bai at his peak speed, at the same time that he ate an already prepared sausage inside his mouth. Without stopping his speed gained thanks to Zhuqing''s skills, his cat characteristics disappeared and at his hands Tang San''s Clear Sky Hammer appeared. He swung the hammer towards Bai, even if the hammer was too heavy for him, he took advantage of his momentum to swung it around. At the same time, Tang San arrived at Bai and swung his hammer towards him. Bai finding himself being attacked by both hammers from two different sides, he lifted his left sword. With this small gesture, Tang San''s Deathgod Domain was instantly dissolved. Bai''s own comprehension int he domain was many times stronger than Tang San, being even able to fuse it with his others domains. This difference, created a high suppression, making San unable to maintain his domain. Without his domain, he was unprotected from by influence. 7 black rings appeared surrounding Bai''s sword, 5 of them started shining. Oscar and San found themselves weakened, Bai''s debuff not only made Oscar support non-existence, but it went over it, reducing a lot their attributes at the same time that Bai''s increased a big deal, widening the abysm of their strength. With his new speed, Bai jumped back evading both attacks that simply hit the air. At the same time, the preparations of his 5th skill were activated, at Oscar and San''s position, swords'' tips surged from the ground, there were more than 50 and each of it was surrounded by a colored aura, increasing their strength, speed... Tang San had one sword piercing his right shoulder. Oscar was even worst, three swords continued pierced in him, one at each leg and another at his left arm. Bai approached at the groaning Oscar and lifted him by his shirt "Food spirits are only good to support. If you think that copying some little abilities you will arrive at their level, you''re wrong" Bai said looking down at Oscar "I won''t recognize you, with this little strength you won''t be able to protect my sister" Bai threw Oscar at the other Shrek''s members, the swords that were piercing him, disappearing at mid-flight "My sister loves you, be stronger next time". The Bai turned to San who stood up while pushing his injury, stopping the bleeding. "Hum!" Bai sneered "Fall!" black aura shot from Bai''s sword, it concentrated in a single attack and was shot to San. This was at the same time a physical and mental attack. In his state, San couldn''t resist and vomited blood, falling again at the ground. Bai approached at San who was laying at the ground, withdrawing his swords "You don''t know how much I suppressed myself" Bai lifted his leg and kicked San at the stomach, shooting him spinning crashing multiple times to the ground falling 10 meters over. "Third brother!" Xiao Wu cried, tears falling her eyes "Stop Bai! Please, stop!" Bai turned to the still caged Xiao Wu "I already expected your reaction. This why I caged you in contrast with your friends, you will jump over me to protect him" Bai said coldly "But!" he sounded a little warmer "I consider you as my friend and I won''t like to injure you" Bai returned to San looking down at him with cold, dead eyes. He bend down and lifted San''s head holding him by his hair "Now that you have lost your backing, you are completely unprotected. You''re too weak and your enemy too strong. I don''t think even for a moment that I''m afraid of your little Tang Sect, even with Shrek''s help, I am sure to at least be able to run" Bai lifted again his leg "With your sophistry of destroying Slaughter City, you killed Mayi who was there, she didn''t do anything to deserve that end" a little tear fell from Bai''s eye while Tang San''s eyes shot open in surprise "This is for Mayi" He kicked San again, this time his back crashing to a tree 20 meters away. San dented the tree and fall, his back supported by the tree with his legs laying at the ground. Bai approached San, one sword appearing at each hand. Once he arrived, he lowered both sword piercing San''s tights. A red aura was emitted by the sword that crawled inside San''s body, increasing his sensibility to pain. "Ahhhhh!" shouted San in pain with a bloody form. Bai lowered his body, a sword appeared at his hand. He positioned backing his sword, preparing to thrust it forward. "Big brother!" shouted Rongrong crying "St-!" she was about to run towards him but was stopped by Xiangxie who shook her head "Rongrong, let him act. He was suppressing his feelings all this time if this continued, it would become a mental demon, preventing him to advance further. Trust your brother, he would stop before it''s too late". Rongrong looked at her mother with glassy eyes and nodded while she tried to clean her eyes. Bai thrust his sword forward, the sword cut the air and easily penetrated San''s skin, piercing his heart. He stood up and stretched his arms "A big weight left my shoulders. It feels good when I finally discharge what I kept for myself. What a relief!" Bai said smiling at the same time turning towards the spectators'' group who all had shocked or devasted looks, with the exception of the titled douluos who stayed completely calm and nodded at Bai. "Third brother!" Shrek''s member cried "H-how could you kill him?!" they blamed. Their faces became furious and they were prepared to charge towards Bai even putting their life in line. Bai looked at them strangely "He is not dead. As I said, I only was going to beat him" He signaled at San "Look at the sword closely" Attentively looking at the sword, they finally saw a green glow being emitted by it. Green aura was permeating San''s body and slowly healing his wounds. Bai approached at the group. Arriving near Oscar, he invoked another green sword and thrust towards his heart before any could react. As with San, the sword easily pierced him without any blood trace, it was like it was passing through the air. The sword then pulsed green aura that started healing Oscar wounds "Don''t doubt me so much. After all this time, I am able to control myself" Bai backed some steps making the distance from the group and turned to his family "I changed, I am not the same Bai as before and he would never return" "Clap!" Fengzhi clapped his hands taking the attention "Let''s talk about this in a more comfortable place while taking a tea" He then snapped his fingers, a group of white robbed people with the Seven Treasure Clan''s insignia came from the Clan. Fengzhi turned to the Shrek''s members "They will treat your wound. If you excuse us, we will have a family reunion" All the titled douluos nodded and with Bai and Rongrong, they returned the clan while Shrek''s members were being healed. Chapter 151 - Family reunion Bai and his family went to a room inside their mansion. The room consisted of two long sofas facing each other, with a table between. It had a desk and a chair to one side of the room, behind it a window stood, sunlight entering from it. Entering the room, Bai sat on one sofa while his family sat on the other. A servant came with cups on a plate. The servant prepared meticulously six cups of teas, skillfully grinding the tea leaves. Once he served the teas, he left taking the plate with him, making a bow and excusing himself. Now that they were alone, Bai took his cup and slowly relished in his tea before the gaze of the others. "You seems very calm, Bai" Fengzhi hummed "I expected you to be nervous" "I already made up my mind" Bai said calmly "Even if I am afraid of the result, I would explain it to you all. My course of action will depend on how you react" Bai took another sip of tea. "Don''t joke around!" shouted Rongrong clashing her hand to the table "You injured Oscar seriously and to San was even worst, you beat him into a pulp, he almost died!" she said angrily "What happened to you? You would never have done something like this before" "I already told that I changed I will explain why now" Bai answered neutrally to his sister "For Tang San, he can be considered lucky. If it weren''t for you, Chenxiang and Xiao Wu, I would have killed him before" "Why? San never did anything bad to you" asked Rongrong. "Did Tang san explain to you his travel around Slaughter City?" answered Bai with a question. "He explained little from it, only that he trained there and obtained a new domain in it" "At least he kept his word and didn''t tell that I was there" Murmurred Bai, Rongrong listening it. "You went there?" asked surprised Rongrong "That place is full of depravity and death, you must kill in order to survive" "And I killed" answered Bai "Lots of people, I was named Slaughter Sword. Anyway, we left the city at the same time, both obtaining the Deathgod Domain. The important there was that Tang San in his glory kindness decided to poison Slaughter City before leaving, killing all the people there" "People living there would deserve it, they surely killed countless people to live there" Rongrong answered. "You might be right, but there was someone there that I knew" Bai explained "Mayi was there. I already told that it was my fault, but the truth is that I didn''t stop Tang San, he was the one who killed her. Even when he didn''t do it on purpose, he was at fault" "A little beating is nothing much for my revenge, but I felt a little better after" Bai said "If it weren''t that I would make you, Chenxiang and Xiao Wu experiment the pain of losing someone loved, I would have killed there now that his father is out of the game" "You should have injured him" Rongrong said lifting her gaze, she was a little frightened looking at his brother cold eyes "You should have talked about him, he would have apologized" "This beating was his apology and me not killing him was me forgiving him" Bai answered "Anyway, let''s talk about the important. It''s clearly as the day that I changed, the usual Bai would never have act like this. It all started here" He said signaling his head "I had multiples personalities co-existing in my mind space. Most of them were controlled and subdued they didn''t have much importance. However, there was one that could face against the previous Bai, he had a lot of experience, even his own memories. He had quietly acted before and started a more active role when I turned 16, during the Continental Tournament" "What crap are you spo-!" Rongrong shouted before being stopped by his father. Fengzhi turned to Bai "Do you continue being named Bai and considered us as your family?" she asked with decisive eyes. Bai was a little shocked by how calm was his mother "Yes" Bai nodded "I love you all as my family and I will protect you with all my strength. As you gave me my name, of course, I will keep being called Bai" This gained a sigh of relieve from his parents and uncles while Rongrong looked at her surroundings without knowing what they were talking about. "So, what was the result? Did you ate the others or something strange happened?" asked Xiangxie with a curious smile. "What?!" Bai was shocked "Did you really knew about it before?" "Of course!" answered Xiangxie "I am your mother, it''s a maternal instinct to know that something goes wrong with their children" she looked away for a moment and said in low voice "It also helps the fact that I am a titled douluo sword expert and I detected the dark aura inside your mind" "How much time did you know about it?" asked Bai sighing. "Let me think" Xiangxie held her chin in a thoughtful posture "You were always a peculiar boy since your birth. Since you were 6 years old, after your spirit awakening, we already knew that something was happening in your mind space. Following your father''s advice, we decided that as it was part of your spirit and nothing was wrong, in the future it would make you stronger, so we would let it be. At the age of 12, the dark part started growing, finally blooming when you were 16" At each word Bai''s mouth opened a little more, surprised with shocked eyes. "And after your journey, you became a lot stronger, at the same time that dark aura was a lot bigger and was almost equal to your usual state, so it was part of you" "You always knew it!" shouted Bai standing back. He sat back again and looked at the ceiling sighing "And I suffering all this time, not knowing how would you react" "We knew about it" Fengzhi said "But, we thought that the best would be for you to face it, they were always part of you, it would be wrong to affect them with external force. If there was truly a problem, we thought that you would explain to us. The truth was that we expected you to tell us before this" "I had a devil personality with memories of a previous life that tried to take control of the body" Bai shooked his head "Thinking again, I could ask for advice. I was too afraid of you not loving me, discarding me as your son because having another life memories, so I tried to keep it all for myself" "I''m not getting anything!" interrupted Rongrong "Could someone explain it properly?" "Our fault, sorry sister" Bai smiled at Rongrong "All started when..." Then Bai explained his sword peculiarities and a briefing of his interaction with Paul and the other personalities, explained some of Paul''s experiences "... Finally, after the battle with Renxue, all the personalities fought for sovereignty. Most of them were easily absorbed by the previous Bai, finishing the fight with Paul and the previous Bai fighting and ending in a draw, both of them combined in how I am now" Bai finished. "Are you saying that you are a combination of the brother that lived all my life with and some stranger that had lived in another world?" asked Rongrong glancing at Bai. "Summarizing, yep!" nodded Bai "I might become a little more extreme and violent, the truth it that Bai and Paul became something like opposites, one dark and crazy while the other was too kind. Even with that, somethings didn''t change, I always would love you!" Bai said lifting his arms smiling "How could someone not love the cutest sister of the world?!" Rongrong stood up and approached Bai. She glanced at his eyes suspiciously. Looking at the different colored eyes and how clear they were, she knew that he was his brother. She jumped hugging his brother "You''re my big brother" she said in a low voice rubbing his ?h?st "Next time trust me a little" "Of course, I will tell you if something happens" answered Bai hugging her. "And I already grew, I am not the cute little sister" she pouted. "Of course. You became a charming and beautiful young woman" said Bai. Both continued hugged before the warm gaze of their family. After some time they broke the hug and sat at the sofa, this time Rongrong next to Bai. "I had one more thing to explain" said Bai lifting his hands, appearing his twin swords on them. Over them, a ring hovered, it was a black ring with a tint of red color and was surrounded by a gray color "In my journeys, I came with the inheritance of the Sword God" Bai then explained all his interactions with the Sword God "Somehow I am now with his tests" "So that was that strange sword, it was never a spirit bone" Sword Douluo said. "You didn''t see me fighting because you were unconscious. But I became a lot stronger, attaining the limit douluo rank" said Xiangxie 9 rings appearing under her, 8 black and 1 red "I obtained completing his tests. They are different depending on talent and position. I am considered the Sword God High Priestess" At his Bai''s eyes opened wide shocked, remembering what a high priest position means, worried about her "What is your position?" asked Xiangxie with a smile. Paul froze for a moment but shook his head, now he needed strength and the Sword Gods Tests would be the best for his growth, he could always change in the future, but not even for a moment passed through his mind to sacrifice his mother. "I-I am his inheritor" "Woaw" Xiangxie said "You might become a god! By its shown power in this realm, a really strong one. I am very proud of you, son" Xiangxie said hugging Bai. "Mum, let me free!" demanded Bai "I not a little boy anymore" Xiangxie continued hugging him "You will always be my little boy" she took Rongrong taking her at the hug "And you my little girl" After 5 minutes, Fengzhi finally acted, forcing his wife to release their children "About the test, can we help in something?" Bai shook his head "I''ll need to face them alone. I will expend some time here consolidating my comprehension. Once prepared, I will leave to complete the tests" "Ask anything that you want, you have the full support of the clan" Fengzhi said, Bone and Sword nodding. Bai smiled "Thanks". Then, he stood up "Sorry, but I have someone else to talk with. As I will stay here we would talk later" Bai went to the door and opened, just as he was about to leave Xiangxie said "If it''s about that charming little bird. I wouldn''t mind her as a daughter-in-law" she giggled. Bai blushed a little and quickly left closing the door. Chapter 152 - Confession Leaving the room, Bai started searching around. He finally stopping seeing a beautiful young woman with long blond hair. She was sat on a bench outside, looking at the horizon with a thoughtful expression. Bai slowly approached her, his hands were sweating and he was unable to hide his nervous, even more than when he met his family. Bai already had decided that in the case of his family hating him, he would have run away, even if it broke his heart, he would escape and not met them again. At final, it wasn''t necessary and in Bai''s opinion all finished a little anti-climatic, it was too quickly and his parents were already knowledgeable about it, so a less worry he thought. With Chenxiang it was strange, the previous Bai loved her, but he suppressed his feelings due to first Mayi and later on the problem with Paul. Now that he was his true self, his mind was clearer than ever and he was completely decided to confess and share his feelings. Paul''s personality only increased his feelings, Chenxiang''s love was like a shining sun for the dark world of him. The problem was that he knew that Chenxiang was in love with the previous Bai. Love is a strange feeling, difficult to quantify. Now that he was a different person, it wouldn''t be too strange for her not to love him. In the case that she refused, it''s not like I could abandon my life to never see her again as she was a friend with my sister, it would create uncomfortable moments when they see. And even in the case that she continued loving him, how will they act later? In any case, their relation won''t be the same. Bai liked being with her, and he had enjoyed and treasured every moment with her, and these moments would change. Anyway, Bai already decided that he had run away from her with excuses too long. He was prepared to explain all to her. He would cope with the results later. "Xiang" Bai lowly called her. Chenxiang turned to him. She stood up and looked at him with a strange expression, different feeling flowing from her face, finally settling to a furious one "What the fu?k were you doing, Bai!?" she shouted angrily "You almost killed cousin. What were you thinking?!" Looking at her intense brown eyes, Bai turned a little nervous. He breathed loudly calming himself "Sorry, Chenxiang" "Of course you must be sorry, you nearly killed him!" Chenxiang scolded him pointing her right hand at him. "It''s not for that. I am not really regretful for Tang San. I am sorry to you for keeping you waiting all this time" Bai explained. Chenxiang''s face contorted and glared suspiciously at Bai. "Tell me" wings sprouted from her back, 7 rings revolving around her. Her spirit energy falling over Bai "Who are you?" she said prepared to fight "Bai would never have done that and even if he went out of control, he would be very regretful and quickly apologize. Not only that, I saw your smile when you beat him, you were also enjoying it. Bai could enjoy a good fight, but would never bask in the impotence of his rivals" her pressure increased "Who are you and what you do with Bai? If needed, I would use all my strength to force you to answer" Under her pressure, Bai was unaffected. Both of them were Spirit Sages and the pressure of someone in the same realm is not that great to suppress another, with how strong Bai''s body and mind were after his merge, it became even more ineffective. If someone was to be suppressed and pushed down, it would be Chenxiang. Using all his pressure in combination with his intents, he would be able to create a great suppressing attack. Anyway, it wasn''t something that he wanted to do. Bai looked at Chenxiang and smiled warmly "I always loved your fiery temper" This only gained a light ray from Chenxiang to graze Bai''s ear, an unfortunate tree behind him, received the attack and burned to ashes. "Don''t joke around!" shouted Chenxiang with a murderous face. "Okay, okay. Sorry, it''s completely my fault" Bai apologized "You deserve to know the truth. I am not longer the Bai that you knew, he had disappeared" Chenxiang prepared to attack "But it''s not like his existence extinguished. I continue being your Bai and at the same a completely different person" Then Bai started telling all his story like when he explained to his family, in her case she stood there listening to the story never relaxing "I''m the true Bai and the previous one will never return. In some way, I can be considered to have killed him" Chenxiang looked intensively at him "How could I know that you''re telling the truth? For your story, you could even be that Paul and devoured Bai, only using his memories to pretend to be him" "I can''t. It doesn''t matter what I tell, I won''t be able to ensure that I was telling the truth. If you want to gain more comfort, my family accepted me like I am now". He diverted his gaze and said in a low voice "Too quickly. Those manipulators" he sighed. He turned to Chenxiang and with firm eyes stated "Even if my personality and I changed, even if my feeling for you evolved, I wanted to tell you that" he clenched his sweaty hands "I love you!" he confessed "I loved you all this time, but I was too afraid to confront you, but this doesn''t change my feelings!" Chenxiang flinched back at his confession with a red and shocked face. She shook her head and calmed down "Do you remember what I said to you last time?" "That I must hurry, you won''t wait forever" Bai answered nervously. He looked down, sadness in his eyes "I am too late. The previous one should have confessed before" he sighed in resignation. Chenxiang shook her head "No" she said in low voice "I am telling that now, it''s your time to wait for me" Bai looked up seeing her red cheeks "I''ll need to ask your family to confirm your story and heard their thoughts". For her tone of voice, Bai already knew that she believed in his story, it was a simple confirmation "Anyway, you''re not the same, so I can''t say that I would love you. We will need to spend more time to know each other better, we need to start over" Chenxiang breathed loudly calming herself. She looked at Bai''s eyes and grinned "I am the most beautiful, charming and talented, the unmatched Bai Chenxiang" She extended her arm offering to Bai "Nice to meet you" Bai was surprised at first but quickly smiled. He took Chenxiang''s hand "It''s my complete honor to meet you, my lady. I am Ning Bai" he lightly kissed Chenxiang''s palm and his smile grew looking at her "Nice to meet you" Chapter 153 - Training After explaining his situation to Chenxiang, there was only one person left, Xiao Wu. Bai intentionally left her for last due to two reasons. He chose his order in order of importance, and what it would affect more at his future, and even if in the last years Xiao Wu was the person with he had expended more time, their relation couldn''t be compared with the other, as she was a simple training partner and a good friend. The second reason was her infatuation with Tang San, Bai knew that she would be furious, so the more time passed, it was more time for her to cold down. Bai was right. After two days, he finally met Xiao Wu who even when Chenxiang had already informed of Bai''s circumstances about Mayi and Paul, she continued being furious. After a little ''spar'' between both where Xiao Wu charged at Bai while Bai only defended, the truth was that it was similar to their training at Star Dou Forest, Xiao Wu accepted forgiving Bai in exchange for one hit. Respect the initial Instant Kill Eight Stage Drop, Bai considered that only a hit was his win. When Xiao Wu decided to hit some ''noble'' parts, Bai couldn''t be happier that he had cultivated Protection and Life as his intent, keeping at the b?r? minimum Xiao Wu''s hit effect, after 1 sore hour was like he was never hit. For Tang San, he recuperated from his wounds after one week. And Oscar only needed 2 days as they were mostly healed and were never infected by Bai''s Slaughter Intent, which made them difficult to close. After being all recuperated, Tang San and Bai decided that it was better to not interact, opting to simply evade each other, Bai''s hate wasn''t forgotten while San felt a little of remorse. It was also decided that Shrek''s members would prepare for 1 month before directing towards Deep Sea City in search of the Sea God Island. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 kilometers over the Seven Treasure Clan''s headquarter, two people could be seen fighting. There was a black-white haired young man facing against a white-haired old man, they were Bai and Sword Douluo. Both were continuously clashing at high speed that was impossible to normal people to even see their movements, Bai effectively switched between defense and offense, his both sword moving in asymmetry, but greatly cooperating between them, making a strange style where two people seemed to fight, but effectively enough to not create any opening. Chen Xin parried Bai''s swords with the minimum movement, his movements so precise and lethal that Bai was mostly forced to defend. Around them, countless swords were flying, clashing with each other. Before any could hit Bai or Sword, they were stopped by others. The flying swords skillfully flew around forming sword formations that exuded a certain beauty, it was clear that they had great comprehension under them. These swords were controlled by Bai and Sword, they were, at the same time, fighting in close combat while they controlled the rain of swords. Bai''s swords were imbued with differents intent and interacted between them to increase their power while Xin''s swords danced around leaking a thick killing intent. This was considered a spar between them, however, little people would call it that looking at how intense was their fight and the collateral damage to their surroundings, creating a barren land over a kilometer around them. ""All Sword!"" shouted both, all the flying swords were absorbed by them, the air around turned white and two condensations of deathly energy formed a sword in Bai and Sword''s hands. Xin''s sword had a condensed purple glow as he thrust forward to Bai. Bai with a black sword thrust forward. Xin''s might was greater and faster, but as he pierced forward, a robust white sword intercepted him. Xin''s sword destroyed it, but not without losing strength and momentum. Both deathly swords clashed with each other, their thrust so calculated that the tips perfectly clashed. Both used their all their strength piercing forward, black and purple aura exploding. Finally, both were deflected, however, the winner of the clash was Xin. Bai''s left arm was pushed aside, his sword even continuing forward would fail its target, while Xin''s sword even when deflected would hit Bai''s side, with his All Sword it was enough to kill him. As Xin''s sword was approaching, Bai extended his right hand, the concentration of all the energy stored, his Retaliation formed a white sword. Just before both were to pierce the other, they stopped still. Bai''s white sword was an inch over Sword''s neck, while Sword''s sword was half an inch from Bai''s right lung. Both auras dispersed and Bai fell to the ground sweating and panting while Sword seemed completely untired. "It''s a draw. Good work" Congratulated Xin at Bai "You have already consolidated your All Swords, even when your All Swords are weaker, being able to use both at the same time really gives you an edge. Without using spirit energy you can already face me as an equal. If you continue training, it won''t be long until each of your All Sword surpass mine" Xin sighed "The youth would surpass the old" "Thanks!" Bai said smiling. He sat down in a lotus position, his twin swords resting on his legs. 7 rings appeared surrounding, all of them were black, except one of them that was half red surrounded by a gray glow, since 1 week ago it had turned redder. Bai closed his eyes and started meditating, ?ssimilating what he had learned in this fight. Little by little as Bai meditated, the red color of that strange ring started growing, the black of it disappearing until it became completely red surrounded by the gray glow. "You''re truly gifted, now even in your sword you have an evolving ring" said Xin. "Yeah, this ring is one granted by the Sword God, it would age with my attainment in the sword arts, now that I finally consolidated my All Swords, it finally evolved to 100.000 years old" explained Bai (I can''t fall behind Renxue, she had a 100.000 years old ring as her seventh and if all goes like the story, even Tang San will obtain one as his 7th) Bai thought. "Let''s return to the clan, you need to rest" said Xin leaving, Bai nodded following him. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arriving at the clan, Bai searched for Chenxiang, finding her training with Zhuqing. For what it seemed to Bai, Chenxiang could overpower Zhuqing in speed and strength, but Chenxiang''s awareness at high speed wasn''t that great and she was practicing fighting multiples enemies, that in this case were Zhuqing''s copies. Bai waited until they finished and he called for Chenxiang "Xiang!". Chenxiang, who had already detected Bai''s presence, turned to Bai and frowned "Xiang? You take too much familiarity with someone who you just met 1 week ago" she said with a very serious face that it didn''t take long before she broke giggling "What''s up, Bai?" Bai smiled at her "I saw you fighting, and even when you are strong, it could be improved, I have some ideas to do it. And as you have 1 month until you left, I thought of training together. What do you think?" "Great!" Chenxiang brimmed "It would be great spar with another spirit sage" she stopped a moment and clapped her head "Oh? I forgot about that" she turned to Bai "Let me go to my room a moment, I have something for you. It would only be an instant" without waiting for an answer, she disappeared with a flash. After 20 seconds, she returned, this time holding a black box. She held it carefully and gave it to Bai. Bai opened it, finding a black bone similar to a foot. It was a spirit bone, specifically, a left leg spirit bone, for its energy it was older than 10.000 years. Bai looked with shock at Chenxiang "This is too precious, I can''t accept it" "It''s not mine, silly" stated Chenxiang "It was the price of winning the Continental Tournament. Tianheng gave it to me. The team considered that you and Mayi were the ones that deserved so they didn''t want to absorb. After all this time, I met Tianheng, knowing that you already had a skull bone and that a fire attribute one won''t be useful, he gave me this, considering that I will have more probabilities to meet you again" explained Chenxiang "And he was right!" Bai looked at the bone again with a strange face, to tell the truth, if he was in their skin, he would have kept the bone. He considered the Emperor Team more like teammates rather than friends, they had been too prideful in their weakness, so of that time, he only considered Chenxiang, Mayi, Lingling and even if he regretted Renxue as his true friends. Bai''s image of the Emperor Team members grew in his heart, he decided that in the future if he had the opportunity, he would help them. "Thanks for giving to me, Xiang" Bai bowed a little. "I was merely a delivery, and don''t be so formal!" shouted Chenxiang. "Okay, let''s go to your training" Bai then guided Chenxiang. The strange thing was that instead of some outdoor training ground, he brought her inside. Finally, bringing her to an empty room at the second floor. The room was very simple, a desk with a chair in the middle of it, a window on one side and a blackboard to write on a wall. There was also a table full of some mirrors and strange round glasses. Chenxiang looked at Bai confused "I thought that we were going to train" "I will make you stronger" Bai stated "In the sword path, your power is highly related with your comprehension on the element that you''re following, this could be extrapolated to any spirit. Your light comprehension is very lacking, mostly relaying in pure instinct and enlightenment" "It''s the normal" Chenxiang answered "Each one create his own path" "Of course, each one must create his own path, that would differ from others. But, the foundation is very important and can be learned. I will teach you" Bai smiled and approached the blackboard and wrote Ning Bai, and Light Physics "I am your professor Ning Bai, and I would be teaching you Light Physics during this month" "What are you sayin-?!" Chenxiang tried to rebuke, but was stopped by Bai whose aura started suppressing her "Miss Bai, you should sit on the chair and for questions please raise your hand" Chenxiang looked a little hateful at Bai, but she already realized that Bai had prepared a class to teach her some knowledge. Seeing her under his pressure, she decided to follow him and sat down. "Light is a type of electromagnetic radiation..." Chenxiang face contorted in horror, not even entirely knowing what a hell waited for this month. Chapter 154 - Notice Sorry for this week without chapter, but I was to tired physical and mentally IRL to write. Now I overcome them and stabilize. The next chapter will be posted in one hour and I will try to write more around this week. Thanks for your support. Chapter 155 - Declaration Bai continued teaching theoric knowledge to Chenxiang. Of course, Bai knew that was impossible to get her to learn all of it as her foundation was too poor compared with Earth, and there wasn''t enough time to deepen. So Bai''s solution was explaining the fundamentals, about waves, particles, energy... All of them helped with practical uses. Bai prepared all sorts of practices with the uses of mirrors and lens to show her the effects of them. Chenxiang showed her wits and a high-speed procession of information, even when she started very confused and tried to ran away, needing to be stopped by Bai, and sometimes it seemed that there was smoke coming from her ears, she quickly started putting all her effort to it, showing incredible results. Only two weeks after starting the classes, Chenxiang found her comprehension of light greatly enhanced and a boost of her strength and quality accordingly, making her even more eager to continue with it. In these two weeks, Bai and Chenxiang became closer and her relation was approaching as before, joking all around with smiles. This was when there wasn''t class, in class Bai became a demon that didn''t let Chenxiang to even refute, super controller. "...And with this, we finish today''s class" stated Bai to Chenxiang, finishing the class "We had finished studying the fundamentals and the geometrical optics were we considered the light as a rays, its law of reflection and refraction in superficies and lens. Tomorrow, we will start the study of the physical optics, were we will study the light as a wave and its properties and reactions." Finished the class, Bai left the room. Chenxiang, instead of leaving, stood there more time, furiously quickly writing in her papers her new knowledge and her thoughts about it. Time to time, near the table where they had the experiments, to practice with them using her powers. "Tock, tock!" Someone knocked on the door, but Chenxiang didn''t even realize too immersed in her thoughts. Bai knowing that the most probable was that she wouldn''t open, he entered the room without permission, while holding two cups. Bai approached Chenxiang and carefully touched Chenxiang''s shoulder. "What!?" Chenxiang jumped surprised at the contact, seeing Bai, she quickly realized her problem "Sorry, Bai. I was too immersed in it" she rubbed her head a little embarrassed. "It''s good to put effort and have passion for learning and training. But" Bai said looking at Chenxiang''s papers "Too much is not always good. You should take some rest and let the information soak." Bai gave a cup to Chenxiang "Take. Have some rest." Chenxiang took the cup with a smile and both of them left to the balcony and sat on a bench there seeing the landscape. Chenxiang took a sip and smiled "Pomelo juice." "I thought that you would like it" Bai explained "You usually took it for breakfast when we were at Heaven Dou Academy and sometimes after training." "Yeah" Chenxiang nodded "It''s my favorite. For you to remember that even after so many years, I''m surprised." She made a thoughtful face "Thinking about it, I always left a big impression to everyone. I should have been offended if you didn''t remember" She teased Bai giggling. Bai smiled at her antics and let his body backward "I like it. A long time had passed since I can relax without being in fright to disappear if I lowered my guard. Even if I knew it won''t last much." Bai said with some yearning and sad voice. "Bai" Chenxiang listening Bai''s tone was a little worried. "Don''t mind it, Xiang" He waved his hand "At final, it was true that that ''Bai'' had disappeared," Bai said laughing "I truly like it, being with you here, like before calmy staying together and talking. Our classes might be the best of the day. It''s always funny seeing your blank face as you don''t understand anything." "Hey!" Chenxiang puffed her cheeks "How did you expect something to react before that incredible and sudden information? If someone must be criticized, should it be you as the teacher to start so suddenly" She blamed "In my opinion, I attained some familiarity fairly quickly, not all can be as intelligent and talented as me as their student, you''re lucky" "Without any doubt you''re must best student" Bai stated with some proud "And the worst, the laziest and hardworking... Summarizing my only one!" This caused both of them to laugh. "Xiang" Bai stopped laughing and turned serious "What are your feeling for me?" he asked. "It''s not like a want to force you or anything. Even if you deny me, I will continue this teaching and we can forget about each other and don''t meet again." "I have mixed feelings about it" Chenxiang turned serious "On one hand, you continue being Bai, sometimes seemed that nothing really changed. On the other hand, you also are the one that tormented him. There''s also the fact that Mayi''s death and the reaction with you" She said thoughtfully. "So?" Bai asked with a mix of worry and eagerness. "I hate myself" Bai opened his eyes surprised. Chenxiang breathed loudly and shouted "I love you! I love you even more than before. You are much free and relaxed now, before you also seemed to have a lot of weight under your shoulder and tried to keep it all for yourself, hiding your true self and being always stressed. I much prefer you as now" Chenxiang made a forced smile at Bai "Even a part of me is happy about Mayi''s death, you would always be with her and I am glad that finally my feelings are reciprocated without her being in the middle" Chenxiang confessed. "Even when I should hate you, even when I must be sad about Mayi, I can''t force myself to think it" Some tears started falling from her eyes "I am a horrible person." Bai leaned towards Chenxiang and cleaned her tears with his hands "You''re not" Bai comforted her "There''s nothing wrong trying to find your own happiness. I love you, Xiang. And I will always love you." Chenxiang lifted her head looking at Bai''s warmly and full of love eyes and stopped crying and leaned to Bai, the lips of both meeting in a sweet kiss that didn''t pass long before they started intertwining their tongues and hugging each other in a passionately kiss. After some minutes, they finally separated. Both of them were panting a little with red faces. Bai smiled "Xiang. Would you be my girlfriend?" Chenxiang smirked and lifted her eyebrow "Only girlfriend? You aren''t wetting your hands in it" she teased. Bai touched his inventory bracelet, on his hand appearing a jade box, inside it a Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng. Chenxiang was shocked, realizing what that means. "I was already accepted by your grandfather, but even so" The box disappeared and Bai kneeled "Bai Chenxiang. Would you do the honor to accept me as your fiancee?" Chenxiang stopped still, quickly changing to glaring him "Don''t be so formal!". She jumped at Bai''s arms and hugged him leaning on his ?h?st, both of them falling to the bench "Of course, I''ll accept!" She kissed her again "I love you, Bai." "I love you, Xiang." Both of them stood warmly hugging each other until the sunset. Chapter 156 - First time (H-Scene) {AN: Here''s the H-scene that I told. It''s completely optional and won''t affect the story. If you don''t like this type of chapter, you can simply skip over it. It was my first time (Pun) writing this type of scenes and I''m bad writing this type of character. I expend a long time writing this! I doubt that I will write more of them, but here you have it as promised. Enjoy it!} --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bai was laying on his king-sized bed wearing a white pajama consisted of trousers and a shirt. After all the daily routine, he was a little tired so he was prepared to sleep. Suddenly "Tock, tock" someone knocked on the door. Bai stood up and approached to the door while yawned sleepily "I''ll open." Opening the door he could help to open his eyes widely, his tiredness and sleep completely vanishing. There, Chenxiang stood leaning over the door''s framework. She was a little wet, like having left a shower, even some waterdrops fell from the tips of her sraight blonde hair. She was wearing a white nightgown, due to the water it hugged her curves, reveling all her figure leaving very little to the imagination. Since the merge, they have increased their contact little by little, culminating in becoming fiancees. After that, they had some more intimate moments, like kissing and hugging, but never to the level of meeting at the other bedroom at night hours, Bai becoming a little shocked by this. "X-xiang!" "Shhh!"Quickly he was stopped by Chenxiang who silenced him putting her finger over the mouth. She entered the room closing the door and dragging Bai inside while wearing a charmingly smile. "I was bored tonight and I couldn''t sleep" Chenxiang said playing with her hair "Maybe we can expend time together." Bai recuperated from his stupor "Xiang, you should come at a young man''s room at this hour or you might be eaten" he teased grinning. Chenxiang leaned over Bai "Maybe I want to be eaten" she s?xily whispered at his ear, causing for Bai''s blood to go down, Bai''s ???k quickly standing. "You shouldn''t joke about this, Xiang." Chenxiang quickly answered with a grin and leaning forward her hands at Bai''s ?h?st and passionately kissing him. Both tongues started wrestling with each other. Bai''s arms instinctively moved to surround her slender body, his hand started at her back and slowly started going down, tracing Chenxiang''s slender body. Breaking the kiss, both of them were flushed, Bai''s ???k was hard-rock while Chenxiang''s were hardened "It''s hot here" said Chenxiang waving her nightgown, letting Bai see her t?ts. "You shouldn''t have pushed me" a sharp air formed from Bai and went towards Chenxiang, passing through her and leaving her intact, but her clothes were cut to pieces falling to the ground. Leaving Chenxiang only covered by a white bra and p?nt??s. Chenxiang made a playful smile. She put her hand behind untying her bra, letting her br??sts free. Her br??sts almost not fell at all, only making a little jiggle. "You can try them." Bai''s leaned over her, his hand on her br??st and gently ??r?ssing them. Round and firm, neither too big nor too small, the perfect size for Bai''s hands. In Bai''s opinion, they were perfects. Bai lowered his head, his lips kissing her br??sts, slowly ???k?n? them and su?k?n? her n?pp??s. Trying to bite her n?pp?? "Ng!" Chenxiang made a little m??n, putting her hand over her mouth silencing it. Bai looked up at Chengxiang''s face that was completely red "Did it hurt you?". Chenxiang shook her letting him continue. After changing from br??st and some m??ning, Chenxiang pushed Bai still "It''s no good that I am the only one being played" She traced circles with her finger over Bai''s ?h?st. Instantly, Bai''s clothes disappeared showing his perfect and firm muscles and his completely erect member. "So big" stated Chenxiang looking at Bai''s ???k, while it was anything gigantic, it was over the average. Chenxiang kneeled and approached her lips towards Bai''s ???k. She started su?k?n? his balls and slowly going along, kissing Bai''s rot. Arriving at the tip, Chenxiang opened her mouth swallowing it all and starting su?k?n?, breathing with her nose. Bai sensed his ???k entering her wet and warm mouth, rhythmically moving at her sound. This wasn''t anything like his previous masturbation, Bai sensed him in paradise "I am about!" it wasn''t long until Bai was reading, suddenly ?um splashing to Chenxiang''s mouth. Chenxiang coughed a little surprised but swallowed all of it "Salty". "Are you fine, Xiang?" asked Bai worried. Chenxiang smiled looking Bai''s ???k that was still hard-rock "It seems that you''re ready to continue." She stood up to put her hand over her p?nt??s slowly taking them off while giggling her legs, finally kicking them aside, letting her puss? at the open. A beautiful wet slit with a minimum of blond hair over it, even when it wasn''t completely shaved, she must be shaved not long ago. Bai jumped at her pushing her over his bed. Both rebounding over the bed, Bai on top of Chenxiang, with her shoulders between his arms. Bai leaned over her, kissing her again, starting another tongue match between them. Chenxiang''s legs unconsciously opening themselves, not completely but letting Bai''s knees between them. Bai continued kissing her, his ???k rubbing at Chenxiang''s puss?''s lips that became wetter and wetter. "Stop!" shouted Chenxiang causing Bai to stop "Do you want to stop?" "Stop teasing me. I want you in!" shouted a little desperate and with a blushed and horny face. Bai grinned and whispered "Sure." He aligned his ???k to Chenxiang''s puss?. "Be gentle." Chenxiang said in low shy voice. Bai couldn''t help to be surprised by Chenxiang''s looks. Instead of his usual confident and witty self, she was all red and seemed very helpess and pitiful, only making Bai more aroused, his ???k growing even more erect. Bai slowly and gently started pushing, Chenxiang''s lips parting and letting Bai''s ???k enter her tight, wet puss?. Chenxiang''s puss? warmly hugged Bai''s throbbing ???k, a lot greater than her mouth. "Ngg!" Chenxiang straightened her arms and clenched her hands. Bai sensed some kind of resistance, knowing that it was her h?m?n. He looked at her beautiful brown eyes. Chenxiang nodded "Continue." Bai pushed his hip, breaking Chenxiang''s h?m?n "Haaa!" shouted Chenxiang in pain before quickly be silenced by Bai kissing her. Bai stood still "Warn me when you''re ready". He waited until Chenxiang nodded at him. Bai pushed all over gaining a gasp from Chenxiang. He let his instincts took over, sliding out and back, slowly thrusting forward. "Bai!!!!" Chenxiang''s pain and discomfort quickly became extasis and p???sur?. Her arms that didn''t know how too act, instinctively interlaced between Bai hugging him. Bai started increasing his thrusts'' rhythm. Slowly a sensation was building over Chenxiang, taking over her body "Baiiii. More!!" She started m??ning loudly sensing herself near her limit. Her n?pp??s turning hard-rock and her puss?''s walls clenched Bai''s ???k pushing him towards his limit. "I can''t hold more!" "Don''t keep it!" Bai shouted nearing his limit. Chenxiang puss? tightened even more, her reaching the ?r??sm "Baiiiii!" Bai couldn''t last more Chenxiang''s puss? "Xiang!" Instantly following her ?r??sm, his ???k ?umm?n? over all over, painting Chenxiang''s insides. "This was fantastic!" panted Chenxiang. Both of them separated falling over the bed exhausted. Both turned to look the other and smiled, both eyes full of love "I love you, Xiang." "I love you too, Bai" Both leaned over the other making a warmly kiss. They hugged each other and fell asleep. Chapter 157 - Breathing Three weeks passed and Bai continued with his training regime, stabilizing his new comprehension and realm. The morning was divided between meditating and teaching Chenxiang and the evenings he trained sword arts, usually with his uncle Sword, but sometimes with her mother. And some nights, he made some night ''training'' with Chenxiang, since their special night they started sleeping together, causing all sorts of teasing from his family and friends. Today, he was training with his mother. Both exchanged blows, each sword shining red and fire running amok as they clashed. Today, they focused on the fire intent that was one that they have in common. Even when they didn''t use spirit skills and spirit energy, Xiangxie was far superior, her fire comprehension having achieved the human limit. So like usual, the training was more a beating, Bai trying to keep up while learning to increase his comprehension. Nevertheless, it was good training for Bai. One can''t grow without facing stronger opponents. And even when the intent was something personal and couldn''t be copied, there were a lot of things to learn about each other. Finishing the training, Bai was all sweat and exhausted. Xiangxie had closely analyzed Bai while fighting and she had a frown in her face "Bai, do you have some problem with your spirit energy?" Bai looked at her with a dubious face "No that I know. What''s the matter, something abnormal?" "It''s not abnormal per se. But your spirit energy is too neutral." Stated Xiangxie. "Neutral?" asked confused. "Yeah. The spirit energy of low-level spirit master is usually similar, but as they grow it started gaining specific characteristics following their own spirits, making it easier to use spirit skills with less wasted energy." Xiangxie explained "This is especially true when attaining the spirit sage realm that is when the spirit energy usually transforms. Even when you have a lot of intents and elements mixed together making it more difficult to change, you should have already transformed by using my breathing technique." Bai made a little shy look rubbing his head "I stopped long ago using your breathing technique. As my own comprehension and realm grew, I could sense becoming more inefficient, even becoming counterproductive as it didn''t follow my own path." Xiangxie opened her mouth, her face reflected a mix of shock, sadness, and anger. Xiangxie approached Bai "I know that I don''t usually say this, but..." Xiangxie''s full pressure was released, even her 9 rings appeared shining brightly "YOU''RE AN IDIOT!" Bai sensed as his own bones were going to turn into a pulp, her pressure stopping when someone touched her shoulder, it was Chen Xin "If you continue, you are going to cause some important injure. Calm down." Xin calmed Xiangxie and looked around "What had happened? It is strange for you to be angry when training." Xiangxie signaled at Bai "This son of mine completely discarded my breathing technique. I expended 5 years!" she shouted "5 years creating since his birth wasted changing my own technique to being compatible with him. Even Rongrong had already almost mastered, greatly improving herself." Xin looked at Bai disappointed, putting his hand over his face as he shook his head. "What wrong with it. Not all cultivation techniques are fit to everyone, what''s so important?" asked Bai disconcerted. "We may have some fault at it, he was so talented always that we did not need to directly teach him, learning him instinctively," said Xin "I thought that it was very simple to see its effects." "Only with a little training, he quickly learned it" Xiangxie nodded "For him to ignore this." "Someone can tell me what''s all this about?" asked Bai a little pissed. "Okay, I will explain" Xin stated "Of all the technique taught you, that breathing was considered the most important. Is a technique created by your own mother, it permits to refine your body, soul, and energy, increasing the talent overall." "Maybe it is, but what can I do if it not fit me" Bai excused. "Transform it!" Xiangxie shouted angry "Of course, it won''t follow you without changing it as you grew. I spent 5 years changing my own technique to make it neutral as it could be only be used by me. I even changed accordingly to you to make it perfect. And you!" She signaled Bai "You ignored! You should have understood its importance and slowly adapt to you. I also did the same for Rongrong, she worked hard to it, changing to her own technique. Now she would have far easier to absorb spirit energy and to breakthrough to titled douluo." "It''s so magnificent?" asked Bai shily. Xin nodded "Completing it for you, the creating of a soul core, meaning the breakthrough to titled douluo became very simple as you are spirit energy is already prepared to it. It''s important in the first level, but in titled douluos it became an even greater boost." Xin explained "The main reason your mother is considered a genius is for it. You know what is your mother spirit?" "The Fire Volcano Sword." Bai said with certainty. "It might be now. However, when she awakened her spirit was a simple wood sword, almost a trash spirit. It''s only for her technique and effort that she achieved to awakening her spirit two more times, becoming what is now, considered one of the best attack power of the continent. She put much effort to adapt this technique to you, so understand her feelings." Bai opened his eyes shocked realizing the importance of it. He kneeled in front of her mother "Sorry!" Xiangxie seeing him like that, she couldn''t help to light smile and forgive him "I would like you to make use of it and creating your own, but it''s not like you really needed. You''ve always been a genius." Xin nodded seeing the scene "Bai, people don''t usually cultivate the sword, due to the time needed for it, lagging your own spirit cultivation. That''s true even for sword spirit users who have it a lot easier. Xiangxie''s method fuses them. Do you know what is the usual relation with sword cultivation and spirit rank?" Bai thought that it was strange this question "Spirit Master to One with the Sword. Spirit Elder with Sword Intent. Spirit King with Sword Domain. Spirit Sage with Sword Heart. And Titled Douluo with All Sword." "Yeah, this is what we explained" said Xin "But the truth is that this is only for the most genius. I was considered a prodigy and I was only able to follow it. For people that cultivate the sword, it usually laggs two realms, achieving One with the Sword at Spirit Elder and following it. You are a monster to achieve them so early. Even so, you have too many intents. This could become counterproductive, making very difficult your future path as your forces will crash between each. You didn''t have much problems due to your personalities, but now that you have merged..." "So, later on, there will be problems" Bai said for himself. "It would make difficult to breakthrough titled douluo, as it would be very difficult to create a soul core with so crashing intents and energy. Breaking to limit douluo almost impossible." Explained Xin. "What can I do?" asked Bai. "There''s three ways" Xiangxie lifted three fingers "The worst but secure, destroy your own path and start again. If I''m not wrong the clan of my daughter-in-law is their specialty, you can ask her." "This would dismiss a lot my power and I doubt that I will be able to achieve great height with it." "Of course, it completely useless. It''s only that I thought of it so I want it to tell" Xiangxie stated. She lowered one finger "Two, rely in the Sword God. Gods had truly incredible powers, I experimented some of his might and I can say that following his path, he would take care of it. Of course, it won''t be by your own true strength, if it would affect, later on, I don''t have any idea." ''This would be the reason for the Sword God to not explain anything, the stabilize of elements in the future could easily be one of his rewards'' Bai thought. "And the third?" Asked curious. "The third is to do it yourself" Xiangxie lowered another finger "I recommend you to start using the breathing technique again. It''s almost useless to try to use it in high ranks, but you might be an exemption. Thank your personalities, your spirit had completely transformed like resetting, this followed by your high mental energy, could make it possible for you to make the technique evolve with your spirit, completing it before attaining titled douluo. Of course, this one will need you to spend time in it and work harder." Bai silently thought for 5 minutes his option, the first was discarded, so it was mostly the other two. The third would be better, but if his mother spent 5 years to make it able to him to use, he might spent something similar, and there wasn''t much time until gods started appearing. Not deciding her opted to ask "Mother, you think that I am able to follow the third option?" Xiangxie smiled "Of course. You''re more talented than me. Obtain power by your own strength" Bai nodded "I don''t know why I doubt. You prepared all this act when you already know what I will choose. I don''t have much of a choice, truly." "So we were discovered" Xiangxie rubbed her head "You can achieve whatever you propose. I trust you, fight for it." "Thanks, mum." Bai smiled "Thank you also, uncle" "Let''s start now!" Xiangxie said stretching her muscles "We won''t stop until we adapted again to you" Bai looked at his mother full of terror "Don''t be afraid, I would let you sleep 4 hours and 10 minutes to eat and even I will let you continue teaching my daughte-in-law until she leaves with the others of Shrek" Xiangxie grinned approaching Bai while he started nervously sweating. Chapter 158 - Parting Bai sensed as his body was crumbling. His mother was slowly carving the right path of the air and spirit power. This carving was meticulous, with each breath and spirit revolution, Xiangxie used her own spirit power infecting Bai''s own and b?r?ly changing its path. For Bai it was like thousands of worm were crawling all around his body while wearing burning rocks. The pain was so high that he couldn''t even lose his conscience. It didn''t take long of this torture for him to lose his ability to breathe correctly and Xin needed to use his own spirit power in combination with Xiangxie to f?r??b?? make it. When he was a child, Xiangxie already made it optimal for Bai, plus the low development of him, make teaching it relatively easy. Now, Bai''s body and spirit was stronger and more fixed making it very difficult to change, needing strength and precision, one wrong move could greatly affect his future, even making him unable to cultivate. If before was a blank slate ready to carve, now he was an already written slate that must be rewritten. The truth was that it would be impossible normally. For people over spirit elder, it would be almost impossible, not needing to even talk about spirit sages. However, Bai was a special case. Due to already had cultivated the breathe, even when he had discarded, there were some traces of it, making it easier. But the most important part would be his merge. After the merge, his spirit, personality, strength... his self had changed with it and his spirit power had become in a neutral state waiting to follow his new path and opening the possibility to relearn the breathing technique. It would be much better if he had cultivated it since he was little, but at least it was something. Due to the intense pain and torture that became his new regime, Bai felt even more in love with Chenxiang. She was the only lull from his hellish training, every lesson an irreplaceable memory for Bai, and seeing Chenxiang smiles and growth one reason to continue with it. Finally, after one week they had finished. Bai could revolution his spirit energy at the unison of his breathing, following the path of his mother technique, the Raising Breath. At Bai''s level, it wasn''t very useful, but as it would adapt to him, becoming a completely new and personal technique it would create great benefits, especially to someone with such odd spirit and mental energy. This date casually coincided with the Shrek Eight Monster departure. A carriage was already prepared for them to go towards Deep Sea City to search about Sea God Island. The carriage was prepared by Fengzhi so it was very luxurious equipped with all comfort in the thought. Shrek''s member was saying their goodbyes and thanks for the Seven Treasure Clan''s hospitality, Bai, Fengzhi, Xiangxie, Gu Rong, and Chen Xin were there to say their goodbyes. The truth was that most of the talk was made by Fengzhi while the other was pestering Rongrong. Chenxiang was hugging Rongrong, Xiao Wu and Zhuqing "Wait a week for me. I am sure that I would reach for you" Thanks to her new comprehension due to Bai''s classes, she sensed herself very near to a breakthrough so she decided to stay a little more until it happened. The other Shrek''s member didn''t mind and offered to stay a little more as it didn''t come from some days. But they were convinced by Chenxiang to start the travel without her, that she would prefer like this as it won''t be much time and they were ready and leaving her a good reason for her to go full speed chasing them after. Bai hugged Rongrong "I will miss you, sister" as he patted her head for the shame of her "Take care of the travel and don''t be too naughty" leaving Rongrong a little angry to him. Even so, she hugged him "Don''t play too much with sister Xiang" She giggled "I could hear you some nights". Bai rubbed his neck a little ashamed. When it was the turn of his parents and uncles, Bai made distance and approached towards Shrek group. He then dragged Tang San and Oscar to a corner where they wouldn''t be listened. Bai put his hand over the boys'' shoulder and smiled at them "If something happens to Rongrong, Death will be the least of your problems" he calmly said, even when his mouth was smiling, his eyes were full of slaughter intent. Tang San and Oscar shivered under Bai''s pressure. "O-of course. I will put my life in line for her!" Oscar quickly nodded trembling. San could control himself better and even with cold sweat, he calmly nodded at Bai. "Great!" Bai''s intent disappeared "Have a safe trip." He said leaving them alone. Oscar looked towards San "I love Rongrong, but his brother is dreadful!" "Work harder. You will need to accept him as your family" San patted Oscar''s back "Good luck" as he returned with the others, Oscar following after a second. Leaving with the carriage, it could be seen Rongrong waving her hand in goodbye, her family reciprocating it. It would be a long time for them to meet again. Chenxiang opened her eyes, her brown eyes reflecting a multi-colored light. She slowly blinked returning to her usual state. She slowly stood up and looked around her body. "Congratulations" Bai who was hiding in a corner to not bother her said "It seemed that you really evolved" Chenxiang jumped hugging Bai "Yeah, finally, I could consolidate all my new knowledge, with a big qualitative leap in spirit power and strength. It''s all thanks to you. Thanks, Bai" She passionately kissed him. "It thanks your hard work and talent. I only created an opportunity, you''re the one that took it" Bai smiled at her. "Next time, I will be the one that beat that Renxue bitch" she stated her aura glowing all around and covering her and Bai. Bai instantly recognized it, it was a Domain. Chenxiang could create an innate domain without external help using her own understanding. Thanks to it, it would be stronger than a typical Light Sword Domain, but at this level it wasn''t able to face Renxue''s Truth, not that it couldn''t evolve in the future. Bai made a difficult face as he hugged her "Don''t worry about her. I will be the one who will stop her." Sensing the tone of his mouth, Chenxiang frowned her nose "Do you feel something for her?" Bai sighed "I considered her as my best friend, but it was all her lie, so even if I have some mixed feelings, be sure that I will kill her coming to the worse" He patted her head "Don''t worry, you know how strong I am and I already won over her before the merge." He kissed her "Never doubt that I love you, Xiang." Even with some doubts about Renxue, Chenxiang knew that Bai''s feelings for her were real and that he would protect her even with his life if necessary. Chenxiang nodded at Bai. After some time hugging, Chenxiang made a sad face "One week had passed, I should go with them to Deep Sea City. We won''t be able to see again for some time." Bai even sad about the farewell, he tried to cheer her "We surely will see again. There would be the best place for you to grow and with the turbulent times that are approaching, you will need any strength for it. Don''t worry too much, we will see later" he hugged her tightly. "Let''s make this night a memorable one." grinned Chenxiang. That night they ''sleep'' together, having a very memorable night were any of them sleep much. The next day, both stood outside at the Clan''s gates. They were looking at each other with forced smiles. Chenxiang already said goodbye to Bai''s family who had warmly looked after her this time, she and them already accepting as family. Bai also having said his goodbyes to them. After a hug and a kiss, the looked at each other. All words already said, they decided to make it quick, both smiled ""Until next time!"" they said at the same time. Two pairs of wings, one big and one small appeared at Chenxiang''s back surrounded by 7 spirit rings, 1 yellow, 2 purple, and 4 blacks. She turned around and started flying. She made one last look at Bai before she started glowing and shot forward at an incredible speed towards the horizon. Bai stood 10 minuted contemplating Chenxiang''s departure direction, thinking about her. He closed his eyes. Opening them again, all the love and warmth disappeared from them, replaced by cold and sharp eyes that could cut only by seeing them. His twin swords appeared at his hands surrounded by 7 spirit rings, 6 blacks and 1 red with a gray glow. The red one started shining, its gray aura expanding it "I am ready to start the test!" Chapter 159 - Third Trial: Start "Your third trial will be..." said the Sword God "... collect 9 of our fragments. With the first trials, you showed that you had the potential to be our successor, now you should need the obtain the qualifications, collecting my divinity." Bai frowned "So, I''ll need to travel around, trying to find five more fragments?" The Sword God nodded "This trial won''t be only for the collection of divinity, we want for you to improve your sword comprehension, especially of your other Swords Intent rather than your Retaliation and Slaughter. For this, we will seal your spirit power in exchange for the ability to sense the Sword Fragments." "What will happen if who I found is a titled douluo?" Bai asked. "Luck is also part of your strength." Bai thought it carefully. Having attained the All Sword Realm, his attack and defense strength could rival an average titled douluo even without the use of his spirit abilities, he would be pushed, but he would be able to at least fight. The problem would be facing against a super douluo, not that there''s a lot of them, and Bai didn''t know any titled douluo with a sword spirit with the exemption of his family. Finally, Bai decided "I will accept, but could you wait until I am ready to start? I would like to consolidate my realm and talk with my family before starting." "There is no problem. When you are ready activate your 7th skill." The Sword God''s voice seemed to become further away as I was being pushed out of my mind world. .................................................... "I am ready to start the test!" Bai shouted. Suddenly, a powerful pressure started pushing him down, suppressing him, the spirit rings surrounding his sword disappearing. Bai felt himself like when he entered Slaughter City, a strange feeling all over his body that seemed to freeze his blood, affecting his spirit power''s flow, making him unable to use any spirit skill. The problem would be that this time, he would be the only affected, so instead of having the advantage, he would be in a disadvantage. "Anyway, it''s not like my style is based in my spirit rings abilities, they are more of a support." He rubbed his head. Bai sat in a lotus position and started sensing his own body. His spirit power didn''t flow like normal, but strangely, his mother''s breathing technique worked even better! He could feel easier to absorb the energy of his surroundings and making it flow around his body, he could even sense a little change! It might be easier for him to evolve in these conditions. Focusing on his swords, Bai could feel an attraction from them. Recognizing at something similar to his meetings with Hei Qi, it should be the nearest fragment. He could sense the direction of multiple Sword Fragments in all directions, it was a simple direction so he was unable to determine the total number. Bai stood up looking back at his clan''s headquarters, he could feel the Sword Fragment that should belong to his mother. He turned around, black and white bat''s wings appearing at his back. He was unable to even use the spirit skill of his spirit bones, but at least he was able to use their raw power. He flapped his wing and started flying towards an aleatory direction "Let''s try my luck!" .................................................... After some weeks traveling, Bai had arrived at the Far North of the continent and landed near small city. In his way here, he had sensed different Sword Fragments, sensing different strength from them, Bai didn''t know if that strength was due to the number of Sword Fragments or the strength from them. From his mother, he felt an incredible strength, but he didn''t know what was her case. Bai''s detection had a large range but a little precision. So he was able to detect a fragment in a radius of 20 kilometers, inside this 20 kilometers, he would need to search for them. Once he would be close enough, both swords would be attracted and Bai and his enemy would know each other position. In his travel, Bai had detected a total of 3 big concentrations that he instantly scratched off his list. These three had we could feel a greater pull than all the other joined. These three being his mother, that of course, he won''t kill her. Spirit Hall''s land, Spirit Hall had the greatest force of the continent, with a big number of titled douluos, even if he was lucky and kill a weak one, He might be surrounded by its forces. Lastly, it was inside Star Duo Forest. Bai was sure that it was Hei Qi, the strength of his fragments was far greater than the other two. Bai had the feeling that he would have to face against him someday, but he was not prepared now. He knew that even Beast God Di Tian was wary about him, what possibilities would have Bai to beat him when he could face someone who could win against two limit douluos at the same time? Nevertheless, he decided to start for a relatively weak one, for someone strong it should be easier to have more fragments, so it would be most likely weaker someone with fewer fragments. This brought him towards this city of the Far North where he could feel a relatively low pull. Bai covered himself with a hood and walked towards the city. Chapter 160 - Third Trial: Sharing Walking towards the city, Bai sensed a chill over his body. Around the village, some strange domain was laid. Bai quickly realized that it was a sword-based one, but he couldn''t grasp what it exactly was, a lot of elements were mixed in it and it didn''t seem to suppress people, but for the compression behind it, he could clearly know that was weak. As Bai arrived nearly the city''s walls, two seemingly guards reacted. Bai already sensed them for a far, but rather than cross the wall stealthily, he was curious about the guards'' reaction. A lot can be learned from a city, based on their reaction to external sources. The guards were wearing blue robes with an emblem of two crossed sword, they had a sword hanging in their h?ps. Both guards unsheathed their swords. "What the...!?" Bai was shocked as from the guards'' swords auras surged, one of the guards was blue while the other was green, forming a domain, this time trying to suppress Bai. Of course, those domains were pitiful and completely ignorable. With Bai''s mental power and comprehension, normal domains were useless against him, not needing to say about these two that were the weakest that he had experienced. Nevertheless, for people as weak as the guards to be capable of forming a domain it was impossible, at least, by normal methods. "Bow to us, stranger!" They ordered pushing their domains forward. Bai was pissed about being ordered, especially so prepotent and weak. At Bai''s hands, his twin swords appeared. Bai looked at the guards as if they were already dead, black aura starting surging from his sword. Just as Bai was about to move "Stop!" A boy who came from a near forest shouted while he was running towards me. He seemed to be about Bai''s age. He was handsome, tall with refined features, and he had long blue hair. He exuded a cold feeling from his body, that contrasted with his red face as he was panting trying to recover his breath. Seeing his aura plus the calluses and wound around his body, especially his hands, Bai realized that he was someone who cultivated the Sword Arts. "Oh, it''s not little Wu?" One guard said mockingly. "Continuing your futile training?" Both guards started laughing. Bai couldn''t detect any bad intent from the boy, so he let him approach while withdrawing his Slaughter Intent, waiting for what would happen. Once the boy was near him "It''s not futile." He said grinding his teeth. "You should accept the Lord''s favor if you want to become stronger. The Lord even was generous to let you keep living, you should be grateful!" The boy clenched his hands even more "Quickly leave, we have matters to attend with the foreigner." The guards pushed their domains towards the boy. He shuddered a little, but this made the boy calm down, his face turning calm and collected "Don''t you see what''s in his hands, he even showed Intent. What would you ''Lord'' say, if you wound someone who wants to join?" The guards were taken back by him and quickly retracted their domains "So you were here to take the Lord''s teaching." Bai seeing the interaction, decided to go with the flow, simply nodding. One of the guards shouted something and the wall''s door started opening. The boy started walking towards the door, Bai following him. "You should hurry and accept the Lord''s offer, it won''t take long before it expires, and you already know what will happen them" One guard grinned as they passed through the door. "Follow me." whispered the boy to Bai. Bai nodded while observing the city. It was a beautiful city with a classic touch on it, all formed by small houses made by brown stones with blue roofs that were covered by snow. However, there were strange things that broke this beautiful image, a lot of houses were destroyed or damaged, cuts could be seen in some. The strange was that they seemed to have already some time, enough for had been repaired. There was also a lot of people patrolling while dressed like the guards before, all of them exuding strange sword energy. The boy guided Bai towards a damaged house, at least, its outside. Bai could sense that the interior extended underground. "Oh? A stronghold" said Bai with surprise. A stronghold was a place were one had input great quantities of energy during a lot of time, this changed the place energy, making more compatible with the causer. The boy was a little taken back by Bai discovering the secret of his house so quickly "Who are you? And why did you come here?" the boy asked. Bai smirked, the air started trembling as he released his pressure over the boy. The boy gulped as he found himself trembling, his body ignoring his orders "I am the one asking the questions first. Start presenting yourself and then explain me the situation of this city, all about those strange blue dressed people." Bai said lifting his pressure. The boy breathed again in his eyes rather than fright, there was awe "I am Wu Shuang. I am 25 years old, rank 48 spirit ancestor..." He then explained what had happened to the city. This city was called Bluesun City, it had only a remarkable place respect similar-sized cities, his academy, the Advanced Bingyian Academy. This academy focused on the Sword Cultivation, Shuang was considered the most talented in it, rank 48, his sword at the peak of Intent at the age of 25. One day, a person that called himself Sword Lord came with his blue dressed followers challenging them. The academy accepted and lost. All the Sword Lord''s followers, without mattering their age used Sword Domains and trampled over the academy''s disciples, Shuang was outside training so he wasn''t there. The principal who was also Shuang''s master, was over 90 years old, a rank 81 spirit douluo, even at the Sword Heart Realm. He fought directly with the Sword Lord and was killed under his sword. The Sword Lord made the academy as his own, accepting and giving his favor to the most talented. Shuang when learned the situation charged madly over the now Sword Lord Sect, only to be stopped and beaten by a former student, She Niang, who had never win against him, but he easily did it this time showing a Sword Domain. The Sword Lord offered him to join, but he negated it, swearing that he would avenge his master. The Sword Lord laughed at him and let him time to rethink, showing his grace. After that, it wasn''t long before he took control of the city. "...Now he tries to increase the people of his sect. There''s a lot of people that came attracted to his promised strength." Finished explain. "So someone took control of this city, and somehow had the power to make people attain a Sword Domain." Bai said thoughtfully, thinking that the most probable was that this Sword Lord was the owner of the fragment "Why did you try to help me before?" Shuang looked decisively at Bai with respect "I sensed your pure Intent. It awed me his might and profundity. It was nothing similar to this fakes domain that lacks substance. I doubt that someone like you would join them, so I decided to save you before more people started surrounding you." Bai couldn''t detect any lie from him and looking at his eyes, he seemed to have told the truth. Bai stood up and charged to the door "Let''s go!" He commanded. "W-where?" Shuang said surprised at the sudden motion. Bai grinned opening the door "To kill some bastard." Chapter 161 - Third Trial: Sharing 2 Bai was almost sure that the Sword Lord was the possessor of the Sword Fragment, and if not him, it would someone controlling him at the shadows. Bai hypothesized that the Sword Lord had as his intent, the power of sharing his comprehension. There''s an infinite amount of Sword Intents, some of them could be very peculiar so he wouldn''t be surprised by it. Moreover, Bai calculated that he shouldn''t be too strong. If he was sharing his power, he should gain something with or simply to increase his army strength. But he wanted and showed mercy to Shuang, meaning that the initial strength was important. However, he killed Shuang''s master, why? The best would be to make him join him, taking all the academy as a hostage it wouldn''t have been difficult to force him, and even if he negated, he could have been captured and used to force Shuang. The most probable was that he was unable to control Shuang''s master, so his strength was similar to him. Or that he was an idiot that doesn''t think too much about the big picture. Anyway, not someone that Bai should fear. The previous Bingyian Academy laid over a little hill in the north of the city. Bai calmly walked towards it, followed by a hurried Shuang. "Stop!" Shuang tried to stop Bai "They had great numbers and are very strong. We should accumulate strength and improve our strength before. I know that you''re strong but they are too many, going there is a suicide." Bai ignored Shuang''s pleading and continued walking. He arrived at the Sword Lord''s headquarters. "Stop! Why are your intention?!" two blue-dressed guards stopped Bai, they unsheathed their swords, sword domains surrounding Bai. Bai ignored them turning towards Shuang "You know what happens when such a weakminded people face Death?" At Shuang strange and scared look, Bai answered invoking his twin swords. Slaughter Intent covering them, Bai slashed the towards the guards. The guards'' heads were cleanly sliced falling to the ground "They run like headless chickens." The guards'' body fell to the ground forming a pool of blood "Not like headless humans can run." Bai smirked. Sensing the attack, it didn''t take long for them to be surrounded by 50 guards. "How you dare!?"All 50 unleashing their own Sword Domains towards Bai "Die!" Bai didn''t even move, black aura started surrounding him "" Black aura exploded from Bai''s sword engulfing all the others domain and covering all the guards that sensed as if they were killed countless of times, their minds being destroyed and dying. For the lucky ones who weren''t inside the domain, they fell to the ground scared about the domain''s might. They pointed as Bai "Monster!" before running away with trembling legs "I don''t want to die!" Leaving all the surroundings empty. "See?" Bai said to Shuang. Bai started walking towards the big building, now without any disturbance Shuang''s eyes were shining and he hurriedly followed Bai. For him, this was true Sword Arts, not the fake of the others. If he must die anyway, why don''t die seeing more of this true Sword? Entering the headquarters'' building, 6 people stood in front of Bai. 5 of them were old men and one might be only a little older than Bai. "You finally came to die, little Wu." the younger said "Even bringing a companion to Hell." He smirked. "Niang!" Shuang clenched his hands in fury. Bai looked down at all 6 and yawned "More trash to eliminate." "You think you have the power to face us?" One old man ??r?ssed his beard "Young boys are truly unruly and impetuous now." Another said."They never respect their elders." Another said furiously "We''ll teach you a lesson. It only will cost your life!" Another At the five elders'' hands, swords appeared. They lifted their swords "Sword Heart!" They swung downwards, 5 pillars of different colored aura shooting towards Bai. "" White aura surrounded Bai and Shuang, followed by the formation of a shield over them. "Boooom!" the Sword Heart exploded clashing Bai''s domain. Seeing the result, the 6 of them were shocked "H-how could it be?" Bai was completely unharmed, his domain completely intact "It''s impossible. How can a mere domain face against the might of a Sword Heart, more to 5 of them!" shouted one incredulous. Bai''s domain dispersed, over his swords black lightning started crackling. At a speed difficult to perceive, Bai appeared at the elders'' backs "To call this trash Heart is an insult towards the Sword." "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" All five elders shouted while being electrocuted, falling to the ground crisped and dead, only leaving Niang alive. "Take care of it," Bai said to Shuang without turning, walking over the inner part of the building. Niang was scared shitless, falling to the ground trembling. But once, he saw that he was sparred and that Bai left, he recuperated his spirit. He stood up and invoked his spirit. A blue sword that seemed to be made of ice, under his feet 4 spirit rings appearing, 2 yellows, and 2 purples "He won''t be able to defeat the Lord, he is invincible. Now that the elders are death. I will become the number one, gaining even more strength from the Lord." Niang pointed his sword at Shuang "I''ll only need to beat you again!" From Niang''s sword, a pale blue aura extended "". Shuang invoked his spirit, a long blue sword appeared at his hand, it was a beautiful blue that emitted a cold aura around, it was his Frost Sword spirit, surrounded by 4 spirit rings, two yellows, and two purples. Shuang closed his eyes thoughtfully, sensing his rival''s domain. "This is not a true domain." He clenched his sword and slowly opened his eyes, glowing with a blue light and full of determination "I''ll show my ideal!" He pointed the sword to Niang "!" cold aura surging from his sword. Both domains fused together, creating a blue sphere over them, its limit started freezing trapping both inside an ice dome. Shuang dashed towards his shocked enemy. Niang recuperated and swung his sword, blocking Shuang, but being pushed a little. Shuang started thrusting, completely forcing Niang towards defense. With each clash, Shuang showed his superiority, not only his comprehension was greater, but also his technique, wounds stacking over Niang''s body. At each block, the weakness of Niang became more apparent, his domain slowly disappearing being swallowed by Shuang''s. "I always been second to you!" shouted Niang "Even if I must injure myself, I won''t lose again!" he vomited blood over his sword, his face turning pale as his sword shined brighter, the ice around them starting being attracted towards it "!". A giant sword over 10 meters long made of ice, slashed towards Shuang. Even if it was a fake Heart, even if it was necessary a blood sacrifice to accomplish, for the new promoted Sword Domain Realm, Shuang, it was too much to face. Anyway, he didn''t surrender, he put all his strength, mental, spirit skills, comprehension... in his sword, a strong cold aura surrounding it, slashing towards the giant sword. Ice Sword vs Frost Sword, Heart vs Domain. Both attacks clashing, it was clear that the Sword Heart was stronger, Shuang arms trembled, his sword being pushed. He moved his right hand, pushing it over the blade, trying to resist the mightiness of the attack, at the cost of being cut by his own sword. Just when Shuang was about to arrive at his limit, the Ice Sword completely dispersed, like it was never there "Why?" Niang looked at his hand with a shocked and fearful face, his strength completely abandoning his body. At the same time, the frost energy of Shuang''s domain started affecting him, freezing him. "Nooooo!" he shouted before becoming an ice statue. Shuang''s body was trembling, all sore about stopping the attack. He breathed making up his mind, his face turning cold. He advanced towards Niang "You''re not worthy of the Sword." The ice statue crumbled in pieces as Shuang''s domain dispersed. Shuang looked towards the inner building, sensing some clash. He made a decisive look and ran towards it. He wanted to see the boy, who he didn''t even know his name, true Sword. *** Bai arrived at the core of the building, a big training ground with an open ceiling and a little lake. There, a man wearing dark blue clothes stood like he was already waiting for him. A sword was at his hands, it was a crude sword, that seemed to be formed by multiples patches of different colored clothes. Rather than a sword, it seemed a toy. Bai sensed his own sword resonating with his, instantly recognizing him as his target, a Sword Fragment. "For another Fragment Owner to come here." The man glanced at Bai "Not even a complete one, only a tester, eh?" "Let''s finish this quickly," Bai said. "A young impatient one, eh?" the man laughed "You killed some of my followers, not that it really matters as they are easily replaceable. It''s a pity that you are also an owner, I could have used you. Anyway, another fragment would increase my range. For you to know, I am a support spirit master, my strength is based on sharing powers between allies, but this changed thanks to a Sword Fragment. I trained in the sword gaining true attack power that I can charge to my followers." He lifted his sword "Don''t think that I am trash like the disposable tools" a strange aura started merging from his sword in the form of 3 tentacles, one went towards the lake, another touched the ground, and the last floated still "" A powerful burst of wind shot towards Bai, followed by a torrent of water from the lake, and earth spikes from the ground. All of them twisting between each other, improving their strength and shooting towards Bai. "Sharing your own power to the elements, to improve them and gain a little of control. At least, you''re decent. But not near enough to face me." Bai lifted his right sword "Bloom!" the sword shined with a white light "" a seven-petaled flower made by aura flowed, creating a seven-layered aura. The Sword Lord''s attack was not even enough to breakthrough the second layer. "The spirit masters always looking down at the supports. But I changed thanks to God! My skills may be support and unable to support me, but, now I am able to gain power! All thanks to God fulfilling my dream!" He lifted his sword, for an instant shined with gray light. After that multiples colored particles came from outside and were absorbed by his sword. "As I can share my power with my followers, I can absorb them. Face all the power of the city, all my work all these years!" His sword shined brightly. "". His sword disappeared, the air became denser and multicolored, it seemed the energy of my body was trying to force its way out. "Pam!" a body fell to the ground. Bai turned, to see Shuang laying at the ground. He couldn''t resist the All Sword at all, his energy leaving his body. Even so, by sheer willpower he stood awake with his eyes open, trying to see all the fight. "Good eyes" Bai smiled "Look closely and try to learn about it" his both swords disappeared "" the air around Bai and Shuang turned white, freeing them from the Sword Lord''s All Sword, at the same time Shuang sensed his energy returning his body. "Impossible!" shouted Sword Lord incredulously "How can someone so young and without completing his trials, be able to achieve one All Sword?!" "I have two sword, idiot" Bai smirked "" the Sword Lord found himself being pierced by a black sword, his life energy running out "H-how...?" was the most that he could say before dying. Bai approached the lifeless corpse "You''re Sword Heart was not bad, but the All Sword was like that fakes that you shared. Even if you use other''s energies, you should have made them your own before using" The corpse started turning to multiple colored lights particles that were absorbed by his sword. Bai reinvoked his swords and approached them, the Sharing Sword being absorbed by it "One less." "Incredible!" Shuang jumped excited "Such a beautiful and pure power! And you should be about my age, truly incredible!" He seemed to be too much excited, he realized and coughed calming himself "Can I at least know your name?" Bai liked the determination of the boy and it wasn''t like he would be losing anything "Bai, Ning Bai." "Ning Bai" Shuang repeated "Lord Ning, please be my master!" he kneeled to Bai "You''re my benefactor" "I don''t want a student nor I have time to teach. Take the battle that you saw as my only teaching" Bai stated. "But I want to learn from you! I will follow you anyway, I don''t mind sacrificing my life for you, or do any kind of chore!" he quickly returned to his excited state. Bai smirked "Try to follow me" wings appeared at his back. Without stopping to listen Shuang, he flapped his wings creating a burst of wind and flew up, leaving the building and it didn''t take long before leaving the city "5 more to finish." Shuang looked with gleaming eyes towards the sky "I will show what I am able to reach next time, we see!" he clenched his hand in determination. Chapter 162 - Third Trial: Final A gray shine "!" All the temperature of the place swooped down, freezing all the land surrounding a blue-haired old man who was panting with a pale face. Bai charged forward with his left sword, dark flames roaring from it "!", his sword disappeared as the air combusted in black flames. The colliding of such extremes temperature created a great quantity of dense vapor that covered all the battleground. "Shinx!" the vapor was cut as Bai charged forward with a dark red sword. His flames not only were able to incinerate matter, with the combination of fire and slaughter, they also burned life itself. The blue-haired old man''s face became even paler, not being able to stop his life energy being burned. He was so weak that he was unable to put any defense towards Bai, Bai''s sword piercing the man''s heart. "It was a good fight, even if I wasn''t a worthy opponent." The old man closed his eyes falling to the ground, dying while wearing a smile in his face. Touching the ground, the man became dark blue particles and was absorbed by his double-edge, ice made sword. Bai approached his swords at the ice sword, this being absorbed by Bai''s swords. Bai made a solemn face "It was a good fight." He sat in a lotus position and started meditating closing his eyes and breathing profoundly in the middle of the fire and ice hell after the battle. Each Fragment gave an increase in mental power and perception but as an external source, it wasn''t truly his. He needed to ?ssimilate them and making them their own before being able to consider his. There was also another peculiarity, he didn''t know if it was normal or a special case for him as a possible inheritor, but he was able to resonate with the fragment, learning about the owner''s own style. Like with the strength, he needed to train and make it his own before being able to use them effectively, it was the example of the Water Intent that he had learned from the guy at Slaughter City. Opening his eyes, Bai could see that a new ice blue part, appeared in his swords "Only one fragment left". During his travel, Bai had obtained 5 new fragments, counting this. Most of them weren''t too much difficult, of people at most spirit sage with Sword Hearts, this last considered the strongest of them. With his spirit skills and sword arts, he would have been able to push Bai into a corner, but Bai had improved a lot in this little months. His breathing technique had improved by leaps and bounds, his spirit energy gaining unique characteristics, with his spirit energy stalled it was much easier to do. After the improvement of his breathing technique, his comprehension speed shot up, being able to reach All Sword in his other Intents, even being able to fuse some of them at the cost of great mental exhaustion. He was able to fuse Retaliation with the more defensive nature ones and Slaughter with the offensive, for being able to fuse these two, there was a long road ahead, they were simply too opposed themselves, not even the sword domains that are easily fused could. Bai stood up and flew to his next destination. He finally arrived at a tall mountain, its top couldn''t be seen hidden over the clouds. He could sense the fragment somewhere in it, and his instinct told him that it would be at the top. At the foot of the mountain, there was some vegetation and weak spirit beasts roaming, but as it ascended, the fauna became scarcer finally disappearing, leaving barren rocks. Bai'' sword slashed the air, cracking it, Bai''s disappearing from his spot. For so desolated places, he would be easily seen and there might even be some trap around, so he used his Space Intent to hide himself. Bai started climbing the mountain carefully. He could feel the oxygen''s quantity and atmospheric pressure dropping at an unnatural level, especially when he crossed the clouds. There was also a sharp wind that threatened to cut him. "There''s no need to hide." A calm voice entered Bai''s ears and resounded all around his body. "Crack!" Bai''s Space technique was instantly broken, forcing him to leave. Bai started looking at his surroundings with concern. He couldn''t sense anyone, this showed that the other was a higher level than him. He instantly decided his next step, scape! He was no rival for that unknown master, it would be better to escape now before it was too late. The problem was that it was already too late. As Bai stepped back to start running away, he collided with an invisible barrier and he found the mountain completely surrounded by powerful tornados. He could sense it, this was an All Sword! And he could feel that the level was even higher than his uncle Sword. "Continue forwards" The same voice resounded "Please, don''t do any stupid act." Bai gulped and starting climbing the mountain again, somehow much easier than before, like being pushed by an invisible force. Arriving at the top, Bai found a complete plane peak. It was over 100 meters wide and the ground was smooth and clean, someone had cleanly cut the mountain top creating this platform. In the middle of it, an old man sat with his eyes closed. He had long white hair that fell to the ground covering all his body. He was extremely old, it seemed that with the minimum movement, he would crumble in dust. More than an old man, he seemed a skeleton with hair. What Bai was more surprised was that he couldn''t sense the man at all! He was able to see him, but if he were to close his eyes, it would be like he wasn''t there. The old man had completely blended with his surroundings, this feat was only possible if he was least a super douluo, and not even all super douluos could arrive that far. The old man opened his eyes, that in contrast with his body were full of strength "A young one. Oh, oh, oh!" the wind carried his voice, but he kept being immobile, his dry lips not even moving. "Fush!" Suddenly, powerful tornados formed from nothing and charged towards Bai. (I''m screwed) Bai could only think. Chapter 163 - Third Trial: Final 2 Bai quickly reacted, his right sword disappeared, the sky turning white "Tch!" Bai realized that his opponent''s comprehension was over him, the tornados were breaking the Retaliation All Sword, not letting Bai save energy, making it the same as Protection. As Retaliation was useless, he quickly fused Metal to Protection, at the same time his left sword disappeared being replaced by a black one. Bai manifested a gray shield over him, the tornados violently slammed towards it, easily breaking over. At Bai right hand a gray sword appeared, he crossed his swords trying to stop the tornados. Slaughter invaded the tornados, weakening a little while he resisted with his Protection. Bai clenched his teeth, focusing all his strength on it to b?r?ly stop the tornados. However, the tornados didn''t stop, they continued spinning pushing Bai, if something they even seemed to became stronger as time passed. The sharp wind of the aftermath of blocking the tornados was like tiny knives that pierced towards him, making him all bloody. Making easy to know what will happen if the tornados broke his defense. (If only I had my spirit power!) Bai lamented as he quickly arrived at his limit, cracks could be seen over the white sky and his swords "Fuck! If I must die, it won''t be without trying all!" Life and Death were complete opposites, the absence of one means the other. They were too opposed that combining them would go against the world''s natural law. In his desperate situation, he put it all in this impossible chance. He clenched his swords, that in their All Sword state were more concepts rather than objects, and he joined his hands transforming the swords in aura, forcing them to join. "Bluah!" Bai vomited blood, the mere forcing them to join was already overexerting his body. He clenched his bloody teeth, both auras touching, concentring all his mental strength in one point, trying to fuse his Slaughter and Retaliation "Boom!" Bai''s aura lost control, causing a little explosion, before dispersing. The explosion wasn''t big, but the comprehension behind was extremely strong, it was a taboo. He not only injured greatly his body, that was completely burned, but even his mind-space had received great damage due to the backslash. For the tornados, they were dispersed, but it didn''t even take a second before for being recreated. However, they weren''t sharp as before and carefully pushed Bai away of the mountain''s top. "Such a daring and ominous move." the wind carried the voice "I only was testing him." The tornados dispersed and a warm breeze passed ??r?ssing Bai "His body is not gravely injured, but his mind." the wind seemed to frown "As he is a tester, it might help him." From the sky, a 1-meter long object started falling. Looking at it nearly, it could be seen that it was a sword. The sword kept falling at a great speed, directed towards Bai''s head. Just as was about to pierce Bai, it stopped still for an instant, then it seemed to be entering Bai''s forehead, Bai was absorbing it "Let''s see if this is enough." Bai found himself in his mind-space that was slowly crumbling, being destroyed "You tried to touch the realm of the impossible, your mind is the price" the Sword God''s voice could be listened "Even your own soul could have been destroyed." Cracks were spreading every, warning that it wouldn''t be much time before its collapse "What can I do?" "Nothing but wait for your demise. Even we are unable to help you as it would be against the laws." "Shinx!" a sword cut through the sky, it arrived in front of Bai, before dispersing in particles. Bai quickly realized what it was, a Sword Fragment! "Congratulations. You are lucky" The Sword God said "You pass your third trial, as a reward we would prevent your mind-scape from collapsing" A blindly light of multicolored light shined, the cracks of the mind-space closing "You should not force it again." It didn''t take long before the mind-space was returned to his normal state "For your fourth trial, escape from Tao Yi. You are able to use your spirit power again, use every method at your disposition. We recommend killing him." Bai was pushed outside his own mind-space, forcing awaking him. Opening his eyes, Bai found himself floating in the air. Under him, there was a mass of air that kept him floating. The mass of air slowly went down, carefully letting him on the hard ground "You''re awake. You''re lucky to have survived that." Bai sensed his body all sore, but there were some remains of having been healed. He focused his Life Intent healing his body to top condition "Who are you?" "I am the wind." the wind sounded "If you ask about who I was, I was called Tao Yi, you can call me uncle Yi." (Of course, he would be the target of the 4th test. But somehow, he didn''t seem to try to attack me) Bai thought "What are your intentions? You attacked me before, almost killing me and now you cared about me." "Oh? That''s my test. For everyone capable of arriving at the top, I make the same test. You took it wrong and forced a taboo, damaging your mind. It was never my intention to kill you, the tornados would have simply pushed you out of the top of the mountain when you stop resisting." "So it was my fault" Bai bowed a little "Thanks, senior for giving away a Sword Fragment. I am Ning Bai, it is my honor meeting someone with your strength and experiences." "Some manners, it''s very strange for people that came here" the wind said "Don''t worry about that fragment, one visitor left it here, and I don''t have any use for it. It''s not my loss if I will be able to talk with someone." "Thanks anyway, senior. Could I know if I am able to leave this place? I have important matters to do." Bai asked as he was uncertain that he was able to simply leave, that would be a too easy Sword Trial. "Just waking up and the first thing is leaving" a breeze of wind spun "If you want to leave, it''s simple. You only need to pass my test." Laughs could be heard. "And this test in which consists?" Bai asked warily. "It''s simple, Tao Yi must die!" the wind said "Tao Yi is who I was and the body that stood on the top. If he dies, you pass. Simple, eh?" Bai frowned remembering the recommendation of the Sword God "There are rules?" "I will try to stop you, of course. For other rules, I will never try to intentionally kill you, always stopping when you or your body surrender, if you die forcing you too much, it''s your fault. For you, the only rule is not trying to escape. Breaking it, would let me break mine and I will decide to kill you" The wind said. (So that''s why the recommendation. Escaping would be easier than attacking him, as his control would be greater around his body. However, you have infinite opportunities to attack him, but only one to escape) Bai thought (Anyway, Tao Yi seemed almost dead, there''s the possibility that he dies from old age if we fight enough) "Oh! One last thing! I won''t recommend waiting for Tao Yi''s death" The air trembled. Bai turned his head up, sensing something falling over "Bamm!" in front of Bai more than 100 skulls landed "It didn''t work for them" laughs could be heard. "How much time did you stayed here?" Bai asked a little afraid. "I don''t know. I stopped counting after 300 years" (oh, Fuck!) Bai blamed. Chapter 164 - 4th Trial 1 (Let''s try it without entering) Bai approached the top of the mountain, stopping just without stepping in. On Bai''s hands, his twin swords appeared, his 7 spirits rings under him, the 5th ring shining. 50 swords appeared surrounding the platform, following Bai''s order, they were shot towards Tao Yi. "Clink!" Just as they were to enter the platform of the top they were reflected by an invisible force, dispersing in the process. "This is useless" The wind said "My stronghold can be considered another realm. For attacks to pass through, you will need a space comprehension at limit. Let alone this pitiful attacks." Bai sighed knowing that he was right, it wasn''t like his sword didn''t cut through, it was like he lost them. "I will go with all" Bai stepped forward entering the platform, tornados suddenly appeared and charged towards him. (I could sense Death all over it, with only a breath of life keeping in his body. A little influx of my Slaughter should do the trick.) Bai crossed his sword, Protection Intent covering them. The tornados hit him, slowly pushing him as he was blocking. Bai''s 5th ring shined, 10 black swords appeared outside the tornados'' area. "Go!" The swords shot towards Tao Yi. These swords were nothing like the ones before, these ones were imbued with Slaughter Intent, making incomparable stronger, faster, sharp... than the normal ones before. The swords didn''t move even 2 meters before new tornados appeared stopping them. Bai seeing the result, stepped outside the platform, the tornados disappeared. "So you''re trying out" the wind said "People usually tries to break them at first. After they fail, they start trying to find out some weaknesses. I can already say that there''s no weakness, you pass it with your strength or not, there no other method besides facing me." "It''s not like I don''t trust you, but..." Bai explained "Our Weaknesses are usually ignored by ourselves, and as it could be something that takes time, better know the characteristics of it, for better preparation." "Step by step" wind said "Trying to know your enemy and make oneself develop to win him. Not a bad method to win one battle, but in the long run, it''s not very feasible towards every new opponent." (Now, I will go try an all-out) Bai stepped forward. "Another try, eh?" Tornados appeared and charged towards Bai. Bai''s rings shined as he used all his skills, spirit energy, mental energy, and physical strength. After his merge, Bai discovered that his sword spirit had second awakened, with it not only it became two swords and stronger, but his absorption greatly improved. The quantity absorbed to the enemies was the same, but the increase of his attributes was greatly increased. The actual limit was Bai''s own body. If there were enough to absorb, Bai could increase his attributes as much as his body could afford. Of course, reaching his limit would cause a great burden towards his body, receiving a great backslash, even not being able to move for days. So Bai needed to be wary about the amount used. For some reason, even when he was unable to absorb any strength from Tao Yi, he could absorb them from his surroundings that were very rich in Heaven and Earth energy only with his physique as the limit, the air here was like a breathing creature. This time was he decided to go for his limit to find the power of Tao Yi. It wasn''t like he''ll need to worry about what will happen after. Bai''s eyes started shining at the same time that his muscles bulged, the veins all over his body making them visible. A powerful, black and white energy started covering his swords as they started growing, becoming 10 meters long swords. His All Swords couldn''t affect his opponent''s domain, so he focused it all his sword qi at his swords. Bai crossed his swords "Take this! " Bai swung his swords forming two arcs, a powerful sword aura was shot forward. White and Black energy twisted together never mixing, forming their own tornado, the white absorbed Life while the black absorbed Death, at the same time purifying each other and making them stronger. The black and white tornado sliced the wind tornados apart without much difficulty "Oh? Not bad!" As the attack continued forward, more wind started accumulating over its way trying to stop it. It was like a powerful sword cutting a green world. The black and white tornado continued without stopping, it could even absorb the strength of the wind cut, so it was only slowed a little. When it was 20 meters away from Tao Yi, the attack stopped for a mere instant. After that, the might of the attack was quickly lowering with each meter away, at 15 meters away it was completely extinguished. "So this is the limit" Bai withdrew his spirit as he fell backward powerless, exhausted from the attack. The roaring tornados, that were about to engulf and shredded Bai, dispersed becoming calm breeze that carefully pushed Bai outside the platform, slowly letting him rest at the ground. "Not bad at all." The wind twirled "For someone so young to achieve this kind of strength" it started spinning quickly "Let''s see how much he can walk forward after surpassing his flaws" the wind completely stopped "And find a meaning." A light green breeze covered Bai''s body. This wind started nourishing Bai''s exhausted body, healing the burdened muscles at the same time that recovering his spirit energy. "I have high hopes in you!" the wind twirled before dispering. Chapter 165 - 4th Trial 2 Even Bai''s strongest attack didn''t work, not like he expected to it. It was more of a test of his strength, as he already knew that there would be better tactics rather than throwing his strongest attack. After that, Bai did some tries, all of them pointing the same thing. He couldn''t complete this test. At least, as he was now. So he decided to take the maximum of his situation to train himself and try to complete the trial in the least time possible. Bai didn''t remember when the war started or Renxue reached godhood, he thought that it would have been 3 years later. Anyway, canon changed with his interference, so he couldn''t rely on his knowledge about it, so he pushed himself in reaching the fastest he could, always keeping in mind not damaging his foundation. Bai started his hellish training absence of any p???sur?, completely focused on cultivating his strength. He would step on the platform and let his body resist the strong wind, slowly forging it, increasing his endurance. He would finish all bloodied, but he had discovered that thanks to the rich energy of the air, his Life Intent worked even better, severe injuries healing faster. He also realized that while absorbing the air''s energy, he didn''t need to eat or drink as it was enough to nourish all his body better than any food could have done. After he arrived at his body''s limit, he would then meditate. Developing his breathing technique that was very close to the next level and meditating about his own intents, trying to increase his own comprehension and discovering a more effective fusion of them. Then, he would train his swords arts fighting against the wind, steadily swinging his swords, slowly breaking through the wind and approaching nearer Tao Yi. It could be said that he expended all his time cultivating, even without sleeping. The only break was some talk with the wind. ....................................................................................................... "Twisting your different Intents to accomplish a fusion is not a bad start, but..." the wind said "If you want to truly accomplish it, you can force it. It should be something natural and swift. That way you would show the true strength of them, rather than the sum of them." Bai laid on the ground vomiting blood, a wind blade had pierced his lung and only resisting focusing his Life Intent on the injury. A breeze passed across him, entering for his mouth and nose, traveling for all his respiratory system, healing it in the process. "Also, your opponent is only one and you already realized that there wasn''t any hole in his defense. Why do you continue doing such big attacks and wasting so much energy?" the wind said "You should focus more your power, adapting it to the situation before you." ....................................................................................................... Bai swung his swords cutting wind, all his rings were shining together with his swords that became 5 meters long. "Focus!" Bai shouted as the swords bulged and tried to compress themselves. "Boooom!" Bai''s spirit energy went out of control and exploded, shooting Bai outside the platform. Bai had all his body covered in blood but his face didn''t reflect, any surprise at all. He simply sighed "5 hours of recovery" he sat down and started meditating. ....................................................................................................... Bai was laying cultivating. He opened his eyes, turning towards where Tao Yi stood "How did you end up here?" "Ho, ho!" the wind said "Finally interested in this old man''s story?" "It could be more about the boredom, but yes" Bai answered. The wind ignored his offensive remark and talked "I lived all my life as I wanted. I thought that the best was being free, not being tied to anyone or anything. I traveled always doing whatever my heart wanted, not letting myself be restrained by anyone. I won''t gonna lie, this caused me countless beatings and near-death experience. Ho, ho" the wind laughed "What a good time." "As someone who treasured his freedom more than anything, why did you finish here?" Bai interjected, "Alone in an inhospitable place, tied to a dead body and taking fun with the people who had the bad luck to fall as your prey like me?" "I traveled unrestrained, flying what I thought was the open sky. But, I discovered the truth" the wind paused. "What truth?" Bai asked curiously. "I was never free. Yeah, I made some decisions, but at final, I was only a little bird who is permitted to move as he wants inside a cage." The wind said "It was only that all these years, I didn''t discover how huge was the cage before crashing to it. I tried to continue my path, but I was always stopped by this truth, never able to break the huge cage. We all caged, it might be different cages and some may not be able to see theirs, but we are all restrained. I tried to break mine, going beyond to only discover that I was unable to go forward. I already achieved my limit, of strength and life." "What makes you keep up?" Bai asked "You lived countless years like this" Bai signaled his surroundings "If you can''t escape from here, for why do you continue fighting?" "It may only be the last wish of an old one, but I wanted my end to have some meaning" the wind answered "Even if it''s only increasing someone''s strength and comprehension. I want to die by someone other hands, be forced to die rather than extinguish me like a flame. And who would be a better person to cease my existence than someone who walked a similar path?" "I am not like you." Bai said "I have important people that I want to protect. I want to escape from you the shorter the better, as I can''t have the luxury of waste my time." "You are not wasting it." the wind talked "I have faith in you, your strength is increasing. Until you stagnate, you''re not wasting time" the wind explained "There won''t be a lot of better places better to train you. My specialty is the wind that you are starting to learn, impressive comprehension speed about the elements, I must say. There''s also the huge quantity of Life here, followed by the Death energy around Tao Yi." "You might be right. However..." Bai pointed a sword at Tao Yi "I''ll finish you quickly." "Ho, ho" the wind laughed "It''s the only thing that I want. Anyway, for what we are similar is for the strength that we put to break ours restrains" the wind explained "You might be tied by loved ones that you like to be tied with, but for the others, you will fight them as I do. And more importantly, you are also in the big cage known as Sword. You won''t be able to enter my domain if you won''t have a high comprehension in the Sword Cultivation. I reached the summit of this world, not being possible to go beyond." Bai stayed thoughtful "You know the Sword God?" "Of course!" the wind answered, "He wanted that I was his follower, but like always I denied it, not wanting anyone to make my path." "Even if you could have attained godhood and the ultimate strength, living forever?" Bai asked. "Even so. After all these years, I discovered that the sword path is blocked, I doubt that ''God'' would guide me beyond." After a silence, the wind started talking again "I already told you some of my stories and experiences. Now it is your turn to talk about you. Entertain me!" Bai then started talking about himself. ....................................................................................................... Some time had passed. Without knowing the date and immersed in his training routine, he couldn''t know how much time truly had passed. His strength had increased in all this time, his spirit rank breaking through rank 76, but this was important as his improvement in his swords art. Now he had truly attained the All Sword Realm perfection, he was confident in winning a 1vs1 against his uncle Sword. Moreover, his body reached a new complete level, being refined by the wind and healed by the rich energy. When he arrived here, he had great difficulties to even standing on the top platform, now he could even cultivate surrounded by the strong winds of the limits. With all this time, he had discovered the true strength of the platform. The area started 50 meters away from Tao Yi and as he approached him, the difficulty increased. From 50 to 30 meters, it didn''t change much, only an increase in the strength of the tornados. From 30-20 meters, the winds covered all the space. More than wind, it seemed gravity, pushing you away from every direction. From 20-10 meters, a void it''s created. A space absent of any kind of energy were your own energy seemed to leak out, trying to escape from this void. From 10-5 meters, it''s similar to the first 20 meters. However, the strength of the tornados couldn''t be compared, the comprehension and pure energy behind them is completely at a different level. Finally, the last that Bai had reached. After crossing the 5 meters line, the space inside seemed to expand, this 5 meters becoming 100. There, the wind forms an avatar of a person that charged towards him. Bai couldn''t last more than 3 seconds fighting it at first. Not only it was incredibly strong, but the exhaustion of arriving there also influenced. If beyond that 5 meters line there was another increase in difficulty, Bai didn''t know. But, seeing that he could finally sense Tao Yi''s energy when he was inside that mark, he deduced that there wasn''t. Today, Bai stepped over the platform like many times before, tornados charging towards him. Bai had decisive strong eyes as he opened his arms "Break!" a strong wind surged from Bai direction extinguishing the tornados. Yeah, today was different. Today wasn''t training, today he was decided to finish his test. Chapter 166 - 4th Trial Final Bai stepped forwards, new tornados were created charging towards him. Having faced them countless of times, he was already used to them. He lifted his swords and walked forward cutting the best path between the tornados, wasting the minimum effort and strength. His passive All Sword Protection covering him like an armor being enough to pass through them. Without much difficulty, Bai reached the 30 meters mark. The air surrounding Bai turned a light green color, transforming all the air in wind knives that attacked Bai''s body at all directions, breathing was like swallowing little knives. Bai''s 7th ring shined, his swords grew over 5 meters long. He crossed them, a white aura covered his body, and over that white aura stood a black one, the auras seemed to cut the air keeping Bai''s body outside the light green domain. His Retaliation increased the defense of his body and natural healing while his Slaughter weakened the winds. Bai''s 4th ring shined, increasing even more his defense. Just as he passed through the 20 meters mark, Bai''s rings disappeared as he exhaled all his air. Walking through the void, caused all the spirit energy of Bai''s body to leave his body, filling that void. Not only was his spirit energy, even his blood and inside air was affected by the difference in pressure. Bai focused all his might in keeping them in check to not leave him. After his tries, he discovered that the best way was to disconnect any external emission. This part was to be quickly passed, even not having any air inside oneself that could expanse. If Bai couldn''t cross it in 2 seconds, he wouldn''t pass it. Not that it was easy, as the 10 meters seemed an eternity with each step more dangerous than the last. Rather than a proof of strength, it was one of adaptability. Finally leaving the void and arriving at the 10 meters mark, Bai closed his eyes and breathed loudly, recovering all his air and top condition. The true test started now, the one before was only a tutorial. The wind started spinning, creating giant tornados with a light green glow in them. The high comprehension behind them was clear. Bai breathed one more time as his spirit rings appeared under him. Strength, stamina, speed, and defense, Bai''s 4 rings shined increasing his attributes. Bai''s 7th ring shined illuminating his surroundings in red. Bai''s swords grew becoming 5 meters long "Condense!" Bai''s 7th ring shined even brighter and Bai''s swords started resonating, they seemed like if the were alive, beating like hearts. With each beating, their size lowered until they return to their usual size. Bai didn''t need to destroy the tornados, he needed to pass through them. So it was much efficient to focus his power, rather than big areas attacks. After all his training, Bai learned to control his Spirit Avatar, controlling its size and power. Bai opened his eyes "!" Bai''s aura exploded but quickly focused all around him. He stepped forward putting all his weight at his left foot and jumped towards the tornados. Bai advanced while swinging his swords cutting the tornados in front of him. For untrained people, it could seem like Bai was madly swinging his swords at an incredible speed, making difficult to even see them. However, Bai''s every swing was perfect, a big comprehension behind it as it sliced the right place followed by the next swing. Bai''s right sword beautifully and calmly shined in white, green, yellow, and light gray, while it flowed like dancing. On the other hand, Bai''s left sword was more erratic and madly swung, more aggressive cuts while shining in black, red, translucent, and dark red. Both swords complemented the other, trying to not create any opening. Even so, the wind was so strong that Bai knew that he couldn''t pass intact. He focused his attack, protecting his most important parts of the body while letting himself being cut lightly. With each step, more wounds appeared in his body, each one worst than the latter, but anyone that would cause him to lower his pace. "Ahhhh!" Bai sliced one last time, finally broke through the 5 meters line. Suddenly, the tornados disappeared and Bai almost fell to the ground due to the sudden disappearance of any resistance. All the winds attacking him were extinguished, space around him seemed to have opened, Tao Yi''s body who should have been 5 meters away, it could be seen more than 50 meters away, but this time Bai could sense his strong aura. The only thing interposed between Bai and Tao Yi was a man''s body made of wind. He had two wings at his back and a katana at his hands. All his body and weapon was made of an unstoppable wind, that spun fast and powerful. The man took his katana with both hands and lowered his body pointing the katana to Bai, prepared to charge. "I lost some times before, but this one would be the last." Bai''s rings shined maximizing his attributes, bai''s muscles bulged as his face blushed. Both charged at the same time. Bai''s 5th ring started shining. 9 swords, red, green, yellow, light gray, translucent, dark red, blue, light blue, and green, appeared floating around Bai. Each of them was the condensation of his own comprehension in every element, each with different strengths and characteristics. Bai charging with his right white sword and black left sword crossed, followed by the other colored swords, seemed like a rainbow charging forward. It was incredible powerful but also have some kind of beautiful charm. With each step, the man accumulated more wind around his sword. All the air around was being absorbed by him, creating a vortex with powerful winds over him. Just as the rainbow and the wind vortex were about to clash ""!"". Both auras exploded, their strength reaching a totally new level as they painted the sky with multiple colors, light green being a majority. Both clashed "Boom!" a powerful rain of colored energy shot as the aftermath. The man stepped back, twisted his ankle as he stepped forward again, his sword twisting like python attacking Bai''s right side. Bai leaned towards his right side while lifting his left sword stopping, spark running across it blade as the man sword passed over it. At the same time, Bai swung his right sword towards the man. It wasn''t the best using his right sword to attack and left to defend, but the wind exploded this weakness, not letting Bai use his maximum strengths. The man put his weights over his right foot. He leaned to the right his body as he contorted his body, lifting his left leg. Bai''s sword grazed the man''s body, white aura failing to hit him and shooting 30 meters away. The man took his momentum to the right and spun his body 360o with his right foot, kicking Bai with his left leg surrounded by a strong tornado. "BOOOM!" Bai was pushed away by the strong winds of the kick as the man used the strength of the kick to jump back, creating distance to prepare himself for another attack. Bai reacted quickly, commanding his swords to attack. The swords shot forward toward the still in the air man. Wind condensed at the man''s feet creating a footstep for him. He easily evaded the swords with weird footwork while flapping his wings, needing to reflect with his katana a yellow sword, and a dark red sword. Bai''s ring shined brightly, 8 swords reappearing floating around him. Bai lifted his two swords "Take this!" the other swords moved towards the two swords, aura exploding from them. With the world under his will due to all the All Swords, Bai unleashed his strongest technique, a Sword Heart that was the condensation of all the will. Instead of a rainbow pillar of light, the colored auras joined Bai''s white and black, increasing their strength, but reducing the size to a small aura surrounding both swords. "Die!" Bai swung his swords downwards like if it was one. It wasn''t an energy attack like before, Bai''s swords simply ''cut'', air, wind, space, everything. Bai''s strongest technique took the form of a simple 1cm wide cut that sliced all in his path. "Not bad" the wind sounded for the first time in the fight "However, it''s too slow to create in a close fight" The man flapped his wings twisting his body doing a somersault, Bai''s cut only slicing one of his wings "And easily evaded in long distance." "Hm!" Bai hummed grinning "There was never the need to ''kill'' this windman". "Crack!" Bai disappeared from his position appearing 50 meters away near Tao Yi''s body. "Of course, 8 swords." The wind said. Bai''s attack wasn''t to cut his rival, instead, it was to cut his own domain. In that instant that the domain was cut, he was able to twist the space. We wouldn''t be able to warp far without a medium, but he already had it prepared, condensed as his sword. Bai had recalled all his swords for the final attack except his Space Sword. This one was shot, especially in a place for the windman to evade it rather than reflect, arriving near Tao Yi. Bai looked at Tao Yi''s body. A half-assed attack won''t be able to cross the aura around him, but with Bai''s full strength he thought he would be enough to alternate the weak state of Tao Yi, breaking his equilibrium and simply dying of old age. Bai''s sword shined as he swung them in a cross towards Tao Yi. Just as Bai''s swords were about to cut Tao Yi, Tao Yi''s eyes opened. Tao Yi''s eyes were light green, Bai could sense himself being absorbed by them. These weren''t the eyes of someone dying, they were full of strength Bai stopped still, he couldn''t move his body at all. A beautiful katana appeared on his hands. The handle was black with green patters resembling birds while the curved blade was light-green, long and slender, beautifully shining. 9 spirit rings under him, 2 yellows, 2 purples, 2 blacks, and 3 reds. The aura of Tao Yi changed completely, from a dying corpse to a man at the summit of the world "You arrived" A powerful voice sounded as Tao Yi moved his lips while he had a serious face, his aura expanding over his surroundings. Bai started trembling. At that moment, he discovered the reality, there was no way for him to escape here. There''s no way to win or escape from this man. His power and presence were over the human limit, it was closer to a god rather than a mortal. Bai couldn''t comprehend the limit of him, but something was sure, even comparing with his mother when she showed her full strength, Tao Yi was stronger. This trial was impossible. Bai''s fate was sentenced when he stepped here. "Ho, ho, ho" Tao Yi''s aura collapse as he laughed "Good job" Tao Yi''s legs became dust, his body slowly disintegrating in dust "Even a little movement was enough to cause my death" Tao Yi smiled warmly at Bai "Thanks. With this my end it seems to have some meaning" Tao Yi''s body had collapsed, only his head resisting. "Can I consider you as my disciple?" he laughed. Once the aura disappeared, Bai was able to move again. Bai withdraw his swords realizing that it was only the last strength of a dead man. Tao Yi was going to die now. "You taught me a lot. My strength won''t have reached this level without you." Bai nodded "I will glad to be considered your disciple." Tao Yi smiled "Take this as a graduation gift" Tao Yi''s remains started shining brightly with a light-green light. His aura exploded in a cloud of spirit energy that charged towards Bai. Bai couldn''t detect any malice from it, so he let the spirit energy surround him. The spirit energy entered Bai''s body, nourishing it, making it stronger. Finally, Bai realized what was the last act of Tao Yi. Spirit Beast immolation, Tao Wi had always been a spirit beast reincarnated as a human. Bai sat in a lotus position with his eyes closed and started cultivating. 76, 77, 78, 79. Bai could sense his spirit rank quickly increasing under Tao Yi''s spirit energy, finally achieving the 80 rank. A bright red ring appeared over Bai''s head, it started decreasing its size as it was approaching Bai, easily being absorbed by him. After 10 minutes, Bai opened his eyes. He invoked his swords, 8 spirits ring under him, his right arm glowing with a green color. He clenched his swords and stood up. A gush of wind seemed to pat him, thanking him before flying up towards the endless sky. Bai breathed loudly and bowed "Thanks, master." Chapter 167 - 5th Trial "Congratulations." Bai found himself in the usual Sword God mental space. "You passed your test in 18 months, with great achievement in sword art and body refining." A wave of energy surged towards Bai. He could feel an increase in his mental strength, increasing his sword comprehension a little bit. Moreover, his spirit rank increased becoming a rank 83 spirit douluo. "You already demonstrated being a worthy successor of us." the Sword God said "Now it''s time, for you to adapt your body to our power." A gray-colored light fell over Bai "This is your 5th Trial." Bai closet his eyes ?ssimilating the new information, at the same time was pushed outside the mind space. Bai was again on the platform at the top of the mountain. The rich energy around had completely disappeared following Tao Yi''s death. The only proof that Tao Yi had been there being the perfect plain platform created. Bai sat and started meditating about what he learned in his last fight, at the same time indulging in his new spirit ring. This spirit ring was different than others, it had a spirit skill, but also the accumulative experiences of Tao Yi, making Bai able to use some of his techniques, and directly stepping in the All Sword realm of Wind. Nevertheless, this was part of Tao Yi''s strength, it would require time and practice before Bai could make it his own. "You must control the power, not the power control you." Bai continued meditating some days before opening his eyes. These shining with a light-green glow. Bai stood up, wind was created with each of his movements, even helping to do them more swiftly. Bai slowly blinked, his eyes returning to his usual color, his right golden and his left black. Bai inspected his body, stretching it "I already consolidated my new realm, at least mentally. I will need some actual fighting before I get used to my new strength." Bai turned to the south, looking at the distance. His next trial was the first one to have a specific location as he supposed that Tao Yi''s trial was more of a special case, one not prepared. He should go towards Giant Sword Mountain. Bai already had known about it, it was a mountain situated at the frontier of Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire that had a form similar to a sword, resembling a giant sword piercing the ground. There were some rumors about it, of a weapon left by gods or the aftermath of some powerhouse battle. Nevertheless, never had been discovered anything special or important about it, but it seemed that it was wrong. To go to Giant Sword Mountain, Bai would need to cross all Heaven Dou Empire, more than 2000 km. "It would be another long trip." Bai sighed, wings surged from his back. His wings had transformed, they grew bigger and stronger, with an eternal visible flow running across them. Rather than the previous bat''s wings, now resembled more to an eagle''s ones, similar to the windman of the 5 meters mark of Tao Yi. It seems that Tao Yi''s ring evolved his external spirit bone. The wings glowed with yellow and light-green light as he flapped them, quickly flying to the south. His speed was faster than before, but the best improvement was his agility. Bai could feel his body lighter, being able to move better around, change directions, and maneuver, making it a great increase in his aerial fighting. As Bai flew crossing the sky, the wind and air were reflected for him, almost reducing the air resistance to zero, increasing his speed and reducing his energy consumption. Even with his great velocity, there wasn''t any shock wave, he swiftly crossed the sky. After some days of traveling, he finally reached the vicinity of Giant Sword Mountain. Just as he could see the mountain at the distance, Bai stopped still. He quickly changed direction landing on the ground. He had sensed some weird sword qi from the mountain. Because the great distance, he wasn''t able to detect what was or the power behind it, but he could sense his spirit resonating to it. It could be something normal about the trial, but his intuition said it wasn''t. Bai preferred to play it safe, slowly approaching and investigate the situation before acting. Bai invoked his twin swords at each hand, the left one took a translucent glow while the right one a light-green. Bai swung crossing his swords. The Wind Intent eliminated any sound or scent from him and the Space Intent hid his presence. Once in stealth, Bai carefully ran towards the foot of the Giant Sword Mountain as stealthily as possible. Finally seeing the situation around the mountain, Bai knew that his intuition had been correct. More than 1000 people stood near the mountain, all of them wearing combat clothes with the medal identity showing that they were part of Spirit Hall''s combat force Bai carefully observed Spirit Hall''s army, his eyes unconsciously going a leading figure. Due to the distance, he could only see a blond woman wearing a white dress, but he instantly recognized who she was, Qian Renxue. "Fuck!" Bai couldn''t help to curse. Chapter 168 - Angel Trial Around Giant Sword Mountain, stood more than a thousand Spirit Hall''s soldiers. Leading them, there were two people, Qian Renxue and Qian Daoliu. Behind them, there were a group of 5 titled douluos, led by a hooded man. Then, followed by all the normal soldiers. They stood here for Renxue''s trial. After Heaven Dou Palace battle, she had returned to Spirit Hall. Following the guidance of her grandfather, she was tested at the Angel Goddess Shrine and was chosen worthy to inherit the Angel Goddess''s position. To achieve godhood, she should pass the goddess nine trials, absorbing the holy 6 spirit bones. She had already absorbed 2 of them before, and in this time she already absorbed another two while passing 6 trials. Now she would be tested for her 7th trial. The army was necessary because due to the low number of Angel Clan''s members and hiding for ages, the faith on the Angel Goddess lowered, making new faith absolutely necessary to start the trials, forcing to move a great number of believers every time they undertook a trial. Not a problem with Spirit Hall''s strength to congregate thousand of spirit masters, and even some titled douluos. Renxue suddenly turned to one side "Something had happened, Xue''Er?" at her side stood Qian Daoliu. He didn''t recuperate his youthful appearance, instead, he looked even older than two years before. However, a strong aura was emitted around him showing his incredible power that he was now unable to completely control. Renxue turned to his grandfather "No, nothing, grandfather." She turned again towards distance "I thought that someone was observing me." "Xue''Er" Daoliu said "You are the greatest genius. All eyes are fixated in you." Daoliu extended his arms showing the thousands of people around them. Renxue nodded "I know, grandfather." She lifted her head looking at the mountain with sword form. "Let''s start" Daoliu stated to the crowd of soldiers. Daoliu started chanting in some unknown language. Around him, two golden spears appeared shining, as the chant continued the glow became brighter. Renxue lifted her right arm "Glorious, merciful, and wise god. Allow your devoted people to accept your trial." The spears form changed becoming swords that started vibrating. "Crumble!" All the place started trembling, an earthquake happening. The Giant Sword Mountain started shining with a golden and gray light. Behind Renxue, her 10-winged Seraphim appeared. 9 rings appeared under Renxue, 2 purples, 4 blacks, and 3 reds. The Arch-Seraphim hugged her, fusing with her body, 10 wings appearing at her back. She started floating over the mountain. "Crumble!" Rocks started falling from the mountain, each rock taking the form of a sword and shooting forwards. The rock swords seemed to evade Renxue, shooting towards Spirit Hall''s army. A hooded person from the army stepped forward. 9 spirit rings appeared under him, 1 yellow, 3 purples, 4 blacks, and a red. His seventh and eighth ring shined and he disappeared from the view. Just as the rock swords were to fall over the army, from each people''s shadow a sword was shot towards the rocks. The swords were pitch black and seemed to be made by the very shadow. Most rock swords were destroyed by the attack, having diminished the number, the soldiers reacted unleashing their spirit and fighting to stop the rain of rocks. Renxue ignored what happened at her back as she was floating towards the mountain that showed his true form. Under the rock exterior, laid a metal interior. It was a gray blade made of a beautiful unknown metal that was glowing golden. It seemed like a beautiful 2 kilometers meters long sword piercing the ground. "Crumble!" Liberating from most of the rocks around it, the entire mountain started floating, like if some enormous force was unsheathing it. Finally, it stopped floating 100 meters over the ground, letting a profound hole on the ground where it couldn''t be seen the bottom. Renxue increased her speed arriving at the top of the Giant Sword, landing on one of the two cross-guards. Looking closer now, Renxue could see that were she stood was formed by countless jade-like swords, all joined forming the cross-guard of the Giant Sword. Renxue bent over, her hand touching the crystal-like material of her grounds. The area around her started shining "Clink!" the swords under her hand started flinching, they slowly fell back, revealing under them an entrance with stairs going down. Renxue looked at the profundity of the stair before stepping. She stepped 4 steps down before stopping. She lifted her face, looking at what it would be the other side of the Giant Sword''s grip. She couldn''t sense anything with her energy, but somehow her instincts told her that there was someone familiar there. The stairs ended in a long corridor. It was 4 meters of side square corridor, with smooth gray walls, dimly illuminated by different colored swords embedded in the walls. Renxue started walking the corridor, suddenly stopping still. She could feel multiple killing intents towards her! She quickly prepared for the imminent attack. From the walls, sword''s tips started surging, all of them pointing at her. All the swords were differents and Renxue could feel different faint intents from them. The strangest was that each of them seemed to have its own soul, like if each one was a living being. All the swords shot towards her. Renxue seeing them wasn''t worried at all. Her red 8th ring shined " !" a golden aura extended from her. The aura was completely under her control and was an extension of her Truth, improving its power and controlling the form of it. The swords that came in contact with it, lost all their strength before falling to the ground, now as mere rocks. Renxue''s skill could purify from spirit energy to souls. Not only that, but Renxue could also make the purified energy her own, replenishing her own energy and creating a never-ending technique. With each sword being alive, it was simply to easy to keep her perfect defense forever, making the possible exhausting trial like a walk around the garden. Renxue continued walked while all the swords were purified before reaching her. <2 people have entered the trial. Increasing the difficulty> Renxue grimaced as a suppression crossed over her body. Her spirit rings stopped shining and disappeared. She was unable to use any of her spirit skills! Renxue had enormous strength and talent, a fact that usually made her relay too much in the strength of her spirit and spirit skills rather than techniques. Being suppressed the use of them greatly affected her overall strength. She would be able to use her Truth and domain, but she knew that she couldn''t depend on them for it. They consumed too much spirit and mental power, making them impossible to keep for a long time, and unsuitable for this trial. Renxue activated her own storage, a ring gifted by her grandfather. On her right hand a saber appeared, it was a completely normal-looking saber, if it wasn''t for its golden blade. This wasn''t any spirit bone, it was a simple saber, the only special was that after having it all this time, the metal of it mutated with her holy energy, becoming able to conduct her spirit energy. It was sharp and strong, but it lacked when compared with her 4th skill Holy Sword. She had it more like an ornament and keepsake. Renxue clenched the saber. At that moment, in her mind appeared the image of a handsome white-haired man "Bai" it escaped from her mouth. This sword was the one used when they started sparring. She didn''t have her 4th skill, so Bai gifted her sword to spar between both. Renxue had kept it all these years, not wanting to get rid of it. Her reminder of that time with her sword arts'' improvement. If it weren''t for Bai, her sword technique would be null, only rely on her great strength and speed. It was thanks to him that she had trained greatly improving her foundation and control. If it wasn''t for him, she was sure that she would be much weaker. Renxue shooked her head, putting aside her nostalgic memories. She clenched her saber and prepared. Golden Aura surged from her saber, it was Sword Intent! Due to her overpowered spirit, she never had the need to practice the arts of the sword, as her own Truth could rival the strongest All Sword. Nevertheless, all the training with Bai made what she thought were unnecessary improvements, achieving even a Holy Sword Domain. Renxue jumped forward, she ran across the corridor, her sword flowed exquisitely, each swung was perfected followed by another, reflecting all the swords that shoot towards her. With the sheer number of swords at all directions, it was impossible to evade them all with her technique, but she chose the best path, crossing by the rain swords, only letting them slice weak cuts that were instantly healed by her Holy Intent. As she continued running, she was getting used to them. The swords followed an orderly pattern, they had cooperated to make not openings for their attacks, making it difficult for Renxue, but once she detected it, it became their weakness. She continued advancing, it would have been great that it had been easier but as she was getting used, more swords were accumulating and chasing against her creating an unstable equilibrium. She also discovered that unless she cut them, killing them, they would chase after her. "Shing!" As she continued running, she could listen swords clashing beyond her position, the sound coming closer. This caused her to be worried, she must continue forwards, stopping would be the same as giving up, but at the same time, if in front of her there more swords that attacked her, she would be in trouble. Finally, she saw a difference in the corridor, the corridor continued but there was some kind of door on one side. At the same time, from the other side of the corridor, she could see someone approaching her, for what it seemed he was also being chased by swords and was the cause of the clashing sounds. For what it seemed, they would arrive at the door at the same time. Renxue continued running, finally recognizing the other person. "Bai!" shouted Renxue surprised, she had a difficult face, not knowing if she should show anger or joy, both emotions mixing in her mind. For his part, Bai also had a difficult face, some conflicts in him, but he wasn''t surprised by Renxue''s presence. He already knew of her, seeing her surrounded by Spirit Hall''s forces Knowing that they were in a difficult situation, both decided to put their feeling aside. They looked at each other with determined eyes and nodded. They continued running forward, Renxue focused her intent over her sword, a great golden aura surging from her as she thrust her sword forward. From Bai''s swords Retaliation and Slaughter furiously surged. He crossed his swords and openly swung them. Bai and Renxue crossed each other. Renxue''s sword exploded in a golden aura, killing and reflecting the swords that were chasing Bai. Bai crossed his sword, a white and black tornado swallowing the swords chasing Renxue. They looked at the door and instantly knew that before opening they should deal with the other swords. At this time all the years training together showed their rapport, they stepped back at the same time, back with back. After both attacks, it didn''t pass much time before the swords resumed their attack. ""Truce"" They said at the same time, a light smile escaping from their lips as both prepared to fight, their swords shining brightly. Chapter 169 - Angel and Sword Dance Bai had taken advantage of the start of the trial to sneak out inside the Giant Sword Mountain. Due to the great Sword Intent all around, his own Space was hidden, being able to pass through the Spirit Hall''s powerhouses'' senses. Landing on top of the Giant Sword and opening an entrance, he was sure that Renxue would also be there. Entering, he could feel a familiar suppression of his spirit energy, it was the same as during his 3rd trial. When he found himself being attacked by swords, he couldn''t help to click her tongue. If he was able to use his spirit skills, he wouldn''t have any problem at all. His 5th skill could destroy them while his 6th replenished his overall energy. There was also the fact that the swords seemed to have some intelligence and didn''t attack at the same time. If they were to group, Bai could get rid of them with one All Sword or Sword Heart, but using them to destroy the little number that attacked him at the same while the others waited their opportunity would be a waste of energy. Bai continued forward, trying to find the exit. Efficiently using his energy to pass through all the swords that we''re unable to cross his defenses. Nevertheless, he was continuedly being attacked, putting pressure on him. Finally, he found that his supposition was right. Renxue was affecting his own trial. Moreover, he realized that to open the door, he would need to take care of all the swords. Bai looked at Renxue''s golden eyes. She seemed confused by his presence, not knowing how to react, but looking at her eyes Bai knew that she wouldn''t directly attack him. Bai nodded at her at the same time that she nodded. He focused his intents on his swords and crossed them, charging forwards, crossing Renxue''s side. Bai swung his swords exploding the intents and destroying the swords that were chasing after Renxue. At the same time, Bai sensed Renxue doing the same. Bai stepped back, touching Renxue''s back with her back ""Truce"" Both said. Now it wasn''t time to fight between them, they have better thing to do. Both prepared for the upcoming battle. Both focused their Intents over their swords, Renxue''s saber was covered by golden aura while Bai with black and white. Both stepped forward, the unleashed their might, slicing all the swords that came from their direction. "7 o''clock!" shouted Renxue. Bai quickly reacted, twisting her left arm, his black sword clashing with a rocky one, this one had passed Renxue who instanly warned Bai from the direction of the attack. Both of them continued slicing the swords apart, rotating in the little space, keeping their backs facing each other. It was easily seen that Bai encompassed a greater space, destroying a 50% more than Renxue. Nevertheless, she was a big help. In a state with spirit energy blocked, Bai was unmistakable much stronger than Renxue as his skills were used as support, not affecting much at the overall style. On the other hand, Renxue''s combat style relied on her powerful spirit power with the purification effect and her skills. Even though, it was clear that in this battle the one that was improving was Renxue rather than Bai, each minute her movements became swifter and stronger. After an hour, their combination had become perfect, not letting any opening between them. The swords stopped coming. Instead, they started grouping for a final attack. All the swords melted, the liquid metal of different colors started merging, creating a huge greatsword at Renxue''s side. It was 30 meters long, and 4 meters wide, occupying all the corridor. The greatsword shot towards Renxue. Seeing that there were no more swords, Bai spun 180o, facing the greatsword at Renxue''s left side. "Die!" Black aura exploded from Bai''s left sword as he lifted ! Renxue reacted at Bai''s aura. The black aura was like an enemy for her spirit, like complete opposites. Her wings started shining as she lifted her saber, golden flames exploded from it. It wasn''t her Truth, her spirit was the pinnacle of holiness, it reacted strongly against the black aura, being pushed and showed its potential, never under it. Renxue stepped over the Sword Heart Realm! "EXCALIBUR morgan!" "PURIFICATION!" Both swung their swords. A golden and black pillar of sword qi shooting towards the greatsword. Both attacks reached the greatsword and pulverized it "BOOOOM!" A great explosion occurred, all the corridor trembled by its aftermath. The explosion wasn''t due to the greatsword that was simply an accumulation of weak intents, nothing comparable with the true comprehension of a Sword Heart, it was due to the clash of both Sword Hearths. Now that there wasn''t any more sword attacking them, they quickly reacted. They turned to each other thrusting their swords at the other. Now that there were no more enemies, the actual enemy was the other! Unfortunately for Renxue, her saber was stopped by Bai''s left sword while his right one was an inch over her neck, a little movement would be enough to kill her. "Not bad, Renxue" Bai said truly amazed by Renxue''s strength while suppressed. "Rumble!" The door next to them started opening. Bai opened his eyes shocked and quickly stepped back. At the same time, a powerful light exploded from Renxue''s body. Bai crossed both his swords blocking the attack, being pushed more than 10 meters before landing. "Tsk! It could have last more." Bai lifted his head looking at Renxue whose saber was substituted by one made of golden flames and under her were 9 spirits rings, her 4th and 8th were shining. The energy spirit suppression was lifted once the door opened and with it, Bai''s advantage. Chapter 170 - Renxues thoughts Bai had a big problem. It was clear that Renxue had become much stronger, already having achieved the Titled Douluo realm while he was only at rank 83. Not only that, but Bai could also sense her presence and power stronger at a fundamental level, more than simple soul cultivation. The normal taking into account that she had arrived at her strength while hiding herself, not be possible to train accordingly. Her power would have exploded within these years free of restrictions. There was also the problem that Bai stood to lose. Even if he fought and won, he would need to face Spirit Hall''s forces outside. He might have had it easy to enter due to them being busy with the trial, but the most probable was that they knew if something was wrong for Renxue and they would be fully prepared outside. Bai''s actual strength wasn''t enough. After much thinking, even when it only was a second spent, Bai withdrew his swords "I want to make a deal, Renxue." Renxue lifted an eyebrow but continued pointing her sword at Bai "What deal?" "Both of us had a trial here. Surely for you would also be going down." Bai reasoned "Why tired ourselves fighting between us? The trial had an increase in difficulty due to both of us being here, why don''t we work together to face it?" "It can be negotiated." Renxue lowered her sword "We can work together to complete this trial. However, it would cost you my favor. I won''t owe you anything after that." "It''s a win-win situation. Why it would setter our matters?" Asked Bai shamelessly, his worry completely hid, train to obtain the best deal. "Bai, you won''t able to trick me. I''m in a much higher position than you. I have an army outside that you won''t be able to escape from." Renxue was already familiar with Bai thinking, even when he had changed somewhat these years, she had spent 10 years as his friend, even if it was a lie. She knew exactly the situation and where Bai wanted to go "I will help you this time. Even making sure that Spirit Hall retires and doesn''t attack you. In return, all the ties of us will be cut, I won''t owe you anything." Bai stood thoughtful. He had passed a lot of years with Renxue as his best friend, even if she was lying, he could understand some of her character. She was talented and intelligent, moreover, she knew already him, so she wouldn''t be tricked. She was someone who was very proud of herself, Bai knew that she would keep her words. Even when she was impersonating as Qinghe, she could be trusted except when she promised for Qinghe''s family. It was a little childish like crossing the finger when promising. After contemplating his option, Bai decided. He was lied by her for more than 10 years, but some part of him said that she could be trusted, that she was truly sincere when she made that promise and that she would keep it. And it wasn''t like there was another possibility to escape alive. It would be great to keep the favor but not at the cost of his life. "Okay." Bai accepted Renxue''s offer "We will work together for now. After we finish our trials, all our ties would be cut." Renxue nodded with a cold face, her holy sword dispersed "We have a deal. Let''s go." Both of them stepped forwards, crossing the door. On the other side, a long spiral staircase went down. The bottom was impossible to be seen. Both started going down, each one having something in their mind. Renxue knew that Bai was a problem for her, which could greatly affect her future. Bai was one of her obsessions. Obsession could make one strive to greater strength, but at the same, they could become a mind demon, becoming one weakness. Renxue had a total of three obsessions. Bai, Bibi Dong, and Qian Daoliu. She hated her mother who never gave her an ounce of affection, only contempt came from her, it didn''t matter how hard she worked for her. But at the final, Bibi Dong was her mother, she would force her mother to recognize her attaining a great height than her, not letting her any other option. Qian Daoliu was her grandfather. It was the only person that showed her the warmth of family in her childhood and cared for her, guiding her while growing up, and Renxue loved him for it. She only had him while growing up, her father died when she was 4 years old, so she couldn''t remember much from him, only a smile. She didn''t know if it was a memory or a dream, but she remembered the white smiled of her father looking at her. Her grandfather had always told her that her father would be very proud of her. Her father had always been a sacred person in her mind, making her completely hate Tang Hao for killing him. Yeah, her grandfather was one obsession, but it wasn''t a bad one, he was incredibly strong, if something she would become his weakness rather than the other way around. The last one was Bai. He was the most uncertain one and Renxue didn''t know what to think about him. She had spent more than 10 years, the best and more important 10 years in the life of a girl impersonating as the prince of Heaven Dou Empire. All of it to be wasted due to the intrusion of Bai. If it hadn''t been for him, she would have taken control of Heaven Dou Empire by now, having control over all the Douluo Continent. She should hate him for that, but Renxue couldn''t put her mind to truly hate him. Not only in these 10 years but in all her life, Bai was the only one that could be considered her friend. Even if she was lying about her identity, she treasured her friendship with Bai, thinking about it as a real one. In these years, her feeling for him grew even bigger, taking a part in her heart. She didn''t know what truly was love, but her feeling for Bai would be the only ones that made her doubt that they were. Renxue clenched her hands and looked Bai at her side (After this trial. I will have kept my promise. All our ties would be broken. Next time...) She though decidedly (I will kill him myself!) Chapter 171 - Sword Will Bai and Renxue started going down. There were some traps along the way, but it didn''t cause any problem for them. There were two types of traps, the strong ones and the crafty ones. The strong ones were openly seen and were at the level of an all-out Sword Heart, for the crafty they were weak but sneaky attacks, sometimes both of them at the same time. With their level, Bai and Renxue didn''t even tire facing such weak attacks while Renxue''s spirit sense and Bai''s Mind Eye made sneaky attacks futile. Finally, the stairs ended in a huge 500 meters radius round room. There were swords all around pierced at the ground, they glowed with pale colors, illuminating the room. In the middle of them, there was an area without any swords. Bai and Renxue looked around, as they didn''t see any door or anything similar to an exit they decided to go to the center. Just they stepped forward, the stairs behind disappeared. They carefully walked towards it, completely prepared against the swords, thinking that the most probable was that they would attack them. Once the arrived at the center, all the swords turned off, leaving the room completely dark. Bai prepared his swords while Renxue expanded her sensed. "You made it quite quick." Both turned to the new voice. It was a big man, he was 2,5 meters tall, with arms full of muscle, wide like Bai''s head. All his body was covered by a gray scaled armor that should weight a tone, only leaving his head exposed, black hair with a rough face, and unkempt beard. With his right hand, he held what should be the helmet of the armor, it was also gray and had the form of a dragon, sharp teeth with two big horns at each side. Renxue quickly reacted, her 2nd spirit ring shined, all her body emitted a golden glow as she charged towards the man "". Before arriving at the man, her 4th ring shined, at her hand, a sword made by golden flames appeared. Renxue held her sword with both hands and slashed sidely at the man. The man stood still, not reacting at all at the attack. Renxue''s sword sliced the man in two over his hip, leaving golden flames as its trail. However, she couldn''t feel any resistance, it was like cutting air. Seeing her attack ineffective, she flapped her wings jumping back. Renxue thought that she could finish it quickly, but seeing that he was someone''s strength, she opted to back up and observe him. "It''s usele..." the man stopped at mid sentence, Renxue''s golden flames were burning him. He should be immune to physical attacks but weak against energy ones. The man''s helmet fell to the ground as he hurried started patting the fire, trying to extinguish it, the swords lighting again the room "Dammit! Purification!" Renxue prepared to attack again, but the man hurried put his hands forward "Please, stop" his arms were trembling "I''m not here to attack you, I didn''t even have a body!" Seeing the frightened man, Renxue didn''t know how to react. She looked at Bai who only shrugged his shoulders, neither knowing what''s all about. "What are you then?" Bai asked. "I am a Sword Will. Trapped here until I accomplish my task that it''s to guide the Sword God successor." the man said "Now that you finally come, I will be free of my confinement and truly disappear." The man was finally able to extinguish Renxue''s flames "huff!" he sighed relieved. "If you want to disappear, why didn''t you let her, "Bai said signaling Renxue "Kill you. Her flames seem to do the trick." The man turned serious "You underestimate the Sword God power. As a Sword Will, I am able to be purified or overcome by a stronger comprehension, but they would only momentary deaths. After not long, I will be formed again." he explained "I can be considered immortal, but eternally trapped here. This didn''t mean that I don''t sense anything, dying is extremely painful. But now! With you, I will finally be free!" "So what are you to guide me?" Bai asked. "This trial is to improve your body constitution, to make it suitable to inherit the divinity of the Sword God. Before the actual test, you will need to get used or you will die horribly. Not like the horribly will change" he said the last in low voice "Oh? Before I forget." He turned towards Renxue "You''re for that scavenger who takes advantage of us. As you are here for a completely different matter, you can skip this." "Rumble!" The floor under Renxue opened showing a different room "Continue, your trial is down." Renxue stood floating over the opening. She turned to the Sword Will "Can I also do this trial?" The Sword Will looked at her strangely "Do you really want to do it? It''s not like it would affect your trial and you already have the permit to be here, so theoretically there''s no problem And as it''s about the body, there''s no need for high comprehension. But, Are you really sure?" Renxue turned towards Bai "I promised you that we will work together to complete this trial. I won''t continue if it could be helped." She turned to the Sword Will "If Bai can do it. It will be a walk in the park." "Thanks for your high esteem, Renxue" Bai sarcastically said. "I suppose that there''s always some m?s??h?st." Said the Sword Will in a low voice "Let''s start! I''ll need to refine your bodies." Two swords floated and approached him, the swords were completely normal without any ornament, a simple metal blade "Let''s start!" the blades started turning red as they were being heated. Bubbles started appearing all over the sword, liquid metal drops started falling across the blade. The swords were being heated to their fusion point until they became two completely liquid metal, the heat over it easily sense by Bai and Renxue "Let''s start by the legs as they are less painful." Bai and Renxue opened their eyes widely, realizing what would happen. "M-maybe, I should continue. This is not my trial after all." Even with her usual cold front, Renxue had passed all her life in comfort, living as the princess of Spirit Hall and as the prince of Heaven Dou. Not prepared for what was to come, not like Bai wasn''t to feel pain. "That train already left" The Sword Will grinned (This happen for attacking me without warning!) Each liquid shot towards Bai and Renxue. The metal liquid pierced their right legs "AHHHHHHHH!" Both shouted at the unison, the metal burning as it entered their body. It invaded their blood vessels and continued along, burning all in its path. This rather than a test was torture! Chapter 172 - Familiar enemy Some people think that when one is under some kind of pain or torture the best way to face it is to put a strong front and keep it inside. "AHHHH!" Bai wasn''t one of these people, for him the best way was quickly start shouting or in the case of fighting, putting even more strength and effort in the fight. This way more adrenaline is created and dismiss the chemical reaction know like pain, making able to endure more and last more before breaking. This test was nothing short of torture. The Sword Will would input the melted ablaze metal in their bodies, it would burn their skin and then penetrate inside, reaching all their bodies. Forcing themselves to use their spirit energy to make it controllable and not too harmful for their body, quickly followed by quick healing from Renxue''s holy powers and Bai''s Life Intent. Slowly, their bodies were being tempered acquiring a new level of defense. "Finally, I am not the only one in pain!" The Sword Will laughed at their misfortune "It''s. Just now, Bai was completely unable to even shout, the metal was invading his throat, his vocal chords completely burned. Bai''s left sword appeared surrounded by a black ominous aura. He dashed towards the immobile Sword Will and slashed in two. "HAAAAA!" Now was the Sword Will turn to feel pain. As a Will, he was highly weak against intents. A normal Sword Will could have died by Bai''s Slaughter Intent that maximized the pain and high Death comprehension, but this Sword Will was immortal. Due to him being trapped here by the Sword God, while there was sword qi inside the mountain, he would be immortal. So the received the full brunt force of Bai''s comprehension, knowing that the sweet death would never arrive, suffering even more than Bai and Renxue who he must be wary to keep it to an acceptable level, not their problem. Bai wouldn''t let him free after laughing at him. At the same time, it was a way to let off steam, so it was killing two birds with one stone. It wasn''t long before, Renxue also joined Bai letting off steam with the poor Sword Will. Her Purification wasn''t painful as Bai''s intent, but at least would be similar to their pain. This way, causing pain to the Sword Will became their way to enjoy and make it easier to endure the pain. The Sword Will could only cry. If he could go back in time, he would be extremely respectful with these two psychos! After some time, they finally started getting used to it, enduring not being a problem anymore. In their state of mind, they couldn''t know how much time had passed as every second seemed at eternity. "Clap!" the Sword Will clapped his hands "You have already finished this training, good sir and lady" After this time, the Sword Will had become very respectful to them, subservient it would be a better word. He was completely afraid of any retaliation. They had continued bullying it, but with greater care, compared with before it was far better for the Sword Will. "Rumble" The floor under them started showing an entrance "I cannot prepare more for the test to come. If you pass the next room, I will guide you both in the final part of the Trial. I wish you good luck." Bai and Renxue looked at each other and grinned. After so much time suffering together, it was normal to have some conversations. Even if they kept their distances, everyone keeping their feeling for themselves, they had regained the reading thought of when they were best friends. They slowly approached the Sword Will who couldn''t help to tremble seeing their grins. Both put a hand over his shoulders. The Sword Will paused still, all colors leaving from his face due to the fright. Their grins became smiles "Thanks for your ''guide''!" They said at the same time, before turned 180o and crossing the entrance, leaving the room. Once they left, the Sword Will could finally breathe again. He sighed relieved "Finally, I''m free of these fu?k?n? psychos!" He spat at the ground "I wish you die there!" At this moment, a black sword stabbed him. The sword was previously prepared by Bai using his 5th skill. The aura around the sword invading his self "Ahhhhh!" all the suffering and pain overcame him again. He fell to the ground crying "Sorry! sorry" weakly saying it. ................................................................................. Bai and Renxue crossed the entrance and started going down. Renxue turned to Bai "Did he said something bad about us?" Bai nodded "You were right. Something about us dying. He is already being punished." Renxue made a light smile. For a second Bai was enchanted by it, flushing a little. (Focus, Bai. She always had lied to you and the most probable is that we finish killing each other) Bai said for himself. "You really had changed, Bai." Renxue statted "The you before, would never have done that. You were too good boy for it. Not talking about that black aura around you." Bai lightly laughed, his smile was devilish enchanting and at the same time shined like a saint "Scared?" Renxue stopped for an instant, she was enchanted by Bai''s handsome smile. But listening his teasing, she quickly recovered "Before, you wouldn''t have dared to kill me. At least now, I won''t feel bad killing a helpless child." (Yeah, focus, Renxue! It didn''t matter, I must follow grandpa''s teachings. At last, I''ll need to kill Bai.) Renxue tried to make up her mind. Both continued going down until a big door stood under them. It was an enormous 10 meters high gate with a gray color. Instead of knobs, it had two little daggers. It seemed very robust and impossible to cut. Over it, it was written "Those who must pass, I blood sacrifice shall offer." It was obvious that the daggers were prepared for them to cut themselves, giving their own blood to open the door. "Ladies first?" Bai bowed a little. Renxue glanced down at him who quickly shook his head and stepped forward. Bai cut the palm of his hand over the dagger. The dagger quickly absorbed the blood, Bai quickly realized that it wasn''t only the blood, he could feel his intent unconsciously activating and flowing towards the dagger. His body seemed connected to the dagger, making it unable to free himself. After 5 seconds, the suction finally finished and Bai pulled out his hand. The dagger started shining with a white and black light, that flowed over the door, tainting half of the door with its color, keeping the other half with its normal gray color. They waited a minute, but the door didn''t make any more strange phenomenon or signal to opening. As it only was one-half door, Bai approached the other dagger, doing the same as the one before. This time, nothing happened, the blood was absorbed, but he didn''t feel that suction''s force nor the activation of his intent. "You should try, Renxue." Bai retired to a side. As they were two people and there were two dagger knobs, the most probable was that it required both their blood. The try before was only to ?ssert that one was insufficient. Renxue stepped forward and like Bai before, she cut herself with the dagger. The exact phenomenon happened to her, her blood and intent was absorbed, the only difference was the golden color instead of the black and white. "Rumble!" Once the half door was completely tainted, the gate started opening. As it slowly opened, it could be seen how much difficulty it had to open. The gate seemed too heavy and old, like if there were eons since it had been opened. The gates revealed a complete darkroom. As Bai and Renxue stepped in, a round of light turned on, illuminating all the room. Bai couldn''t help to open his eyes wide with a mix of surprise and fright looking inside. Dark armor like the night, a big black greatsword at his hand with several black swords at his back. The unmistakable helmet in the form of a dragon "Hei Qi!" shouted Bai. Chapter 173 - Dragon Swordmasters Bai quickly recovered from his stupor. It was clear that it wasn''t Hei Qi. Even if he had a similar image, it lacked Hei Qi''s aura and strength. More lights were illuminated and two more figures appeared in the room. They looked exactly the same as the other one with the only difference in their color. One was white while the other golden. They weren''t Hei Qi, but they seemed to be of the same race, Dragon Swordmasters. Each of them an over 100.000 years old spirit beast. "Wahhh!" They shouted as they charged towards us. Bai invoked his twin swords, eight rings appeared under him, the first 4 shining brightly. Bai quickly discovered that it didn''t work lowering their attributes, with the exemption of the golden one that found himself weaker. Behind Renxue, her Arch-seraphim appeared followed by 9 spirit rings. Her 7th ring shined illuminating all the room in red. The Arch-seraphim fused with her body, gaining 10 wings and a golden glow, all her rings becoming golden. She flapped her wings, a golden aura extended to all the room. It was Renxue''s Truth! It was capable of immediately purify her enemies'' spirit energy while invigorating and healing her allies, even being capable of surpassing the might of an All Sword. Renxue charged forward without waiting for Bai "I''ll finish this!" her 4th and 5th spirit ring shined, her golden flamed sword appearing in her hands. Her wings hugged the sword fusing with it, the blade started shining brightly. She swung her sword downwards "" a light pillar of energy was shot towards the three. This power was far superior to the last time Bai saw her, achieving the titled douluo rank, she had made a qualitative leap, finally being able to show the full might of her Arch-seraphim, seen as she now had its 10 wings. "Wahhhhhhhhhh!" the golden one shouted, "Crack!" To Renxue''s surprise, her Angellic Truth was destroyed like that with a simple shout, her slash clashed with the golden one without damaging it at all. "Eh?" Renxue was too shocked at how easy was to destroy her techniques. She was unable to answer at the black and white one, each swinging their swords attacking her for each side. Renxue could only powerless see both black and white sword approaching her "Clank!" Just as the swords were about to slice her, two swords blocked each one. It was Bai, he stood behind Renxue with his both swords extended blocking the two incoming ones. Bai wasn''t in a good position, not only stopping two enemies but even with a bad position, but he was already prepared. Just as he charged forwards to help Renxue, his legs hugged over Renxue''s hip. He used the strength of his rivals to let him be pushed away, dragging Renxue between his legs. Bai''s swords disappeared as he put both hands on the ground. Putting all his weight in them, he jumped with his hands, he twisted his body mid-air, releasing Renxue at the same time. He somersaulted finally safely landing with both feet, invoking his twin swords again over his hands "Be wary next time and wait for me. You could have died." Bai scolded. Renxue flapped her wings stabilizing on the air, floating around "Sorry" She couldn''t hide a little blush of her beautiful face, a mix of shame for the position and her fail, needing to be rescued by Bai. Bai had observed their three enemies and sensed their power behind, it was a much similar one as their. "Renxue. Take care of the golden one for a minute. There''s no need to win over him. " He said "I will take care of the others." Renxue nodded. She flapped her wings and moved away from Bai. She planned to create a distance and bait the golden one to follow her while Bai attacked the other two, but it seemed that it was unnecessary as the golden one directly charged towards her. Renxue didn''t clash with him, instead tried to keep the distance, only attacking from afar, disturbing his rival while she floated around the room. Bai found himself with the other two charging towards him. Bai light stepped the ground, an air ripple was created under him. His feet started moving strangely. Bai''s body moved at high speed with strange and difficult to read movements while leaving wind in his trace. This was , a movement technique that Bai learned thanks to his new comprehension of the Wind thanks to Tao Yi. Bai stepped at a side as a black sword cut his previous position. He looked at the white dragon who was standing again, not being much affected, Bai could see one cut at his armor and penetrating his body, that area was glowing with white aura trying to close it. Bai''s left sword was covered by a little black aura as he thrust it forward towards the black dragon "Clink" The sword was rebound in its armor not causing any damage. The black dragon struggled to swing his sword sidely towards Bai who simply stepped back leaving a tornado behind him. Bai looked at his sword, remembering the sensation of hitting him, then looked at the two dragon swordmasters that were approaching him. "So it was that. What a useless test." Bai turned towards Renxue "Renxue, regroup!" Renxue 1st and 2nd ring shined, her body shined with a golden glow increasing her speed and strength. She flapped her wing returning to Bai''s side while letting a trace of energy bombs behind. "It seems that my attacks are ineffective against it" Renxue explained "It''s like it had the same power like me." She said thoughtfully. Bai smiled "You''re right." Bai''s 5th ring shined "Let''s proof one last time." 50 swords appeared surrounding Bai, each one had a different intent behind it and different intensities from them. "" The invoked swords rained over the three who focused on stopping them. Once the rain finished, the three of them were almost intact, without any wound, only light chips over their armors. "One last thing." Bai''s right sword disappeared "" the room becoming white. "WAHHHHHH!" the white dragon shouted and Bai''s all sword was broken. "Confirmed!" "What did you confirm, Bai?" asked Renxue curiously. "It''s simple. They aren''t true Dragon Swordmasters, their simply their scabbards." "It was clear that something was wrong with them. They had a incredible strength, speed, and defense. But awful coordination and control" Renxue stated "They were void bodies, filled with this." Bai pointing his palm. Renxue opened her eyes realizing "Of course, the blood. They had our powers and strength, but they don''t have experience to control it, they are like dolls with our power." "They had as a constant our maximum strength achievable, but" Bai explained "Only related with our Sword Intent. This way the white one was only to mimic the power achievable with my right sword while the black one with my left sword." (It''s similar as one me being controlled by Paul and the other by the previous Bai) Bai hummed for himself. "They are Sword Wills, created from us and forced to control some bodies." "So to win over them. The best should be to swap each other opponents." said Renxue "They won''t be immune to them and at the same time, they aren''t skillful enough to damage us." "Said the one that almost dies" said Bai only to receive Renxue''s death stare. "If it was only one of us. It could have been difficult, facing someone immune to your power." Renxue said thinking. "You will require some breakthrough in the battle, becoming stronger than your previous self." Bai statted "Not that there was any problem for me. They are unable to copy all my intents, only copies of my strongest ones. I could use my Slaughter to kill the white one and slowly kill the black one with Retaliation." Renxue prepared to fight "I will take care of yours. Quickly finish the golden one." "There''s no need" Bai grinned "I can simply overpower them." Bai''s swords disappeared and he extended his left hand pointing at the white dragon "!" A black and white wolf shot from Bai''s left hand and pounced over the white dragon. Fenrir''s sharp teeth pierced its armor and stared devouring him, letting only an immobile body before disappearing. "Sword Wills might be immune to physical attacks, but are easily absorbed." Renxue remembered her battle against Bai at Heaven Dou Palace, he had also used this wolf-like attack, absorbing one of her attacks. "?Wonder If I gave a White Fudge Oreo?" Bai chanted as a black spirit ring shined over his left hand. Two White Fudge Oreo appeared on his hand and Bai threw one to Renxue. "Take care of the golden one." Bai turned to the black dragon as he put the Oreo in his mouth. "Wahhhh!" shouted the dark dragon as it charged towards Bai swinging his sword. Bai looked coldly at it. He invoked his sword at his left hand, all his spirit rings shined with the exemption of the 5th,"!" his sword exploding with a black aura. "Munch!" Bai swallowed the Oreo, the black aura becoming even stronger. "<8th Skill: Void Cut>!" Bai swung his sword towards the black dragon. As Bai''s sword cut the air, all the elements in its surrounding disappeared, becoming a complete void where only his own intent could stay, being amplified more than 100%. As Bai''s sword met the black sword, it cut through it like bu??er, it continued forward slicing the black dragon in two, the Sword Will being destroyed by the attack. Renxue''s eyes shined seeing Bai''s power. But she wasn''t less than him! Renxue''s floated as her 9th ring shined, a gauntlet appearing at each arm that shined brightly. The temperature of the room shot up, Bai could even feel difficult to breathe, needing to protect himself with spirit power for the water inside him to not evaporate while the golden dragon seemed to ignore it. Golden flames enveloped Renxue, engulfing her in a hell of flames. She had become a golden-red sun! "Munch!" Renxue ate Oreo, her flames increasing, even more, the temperature and strength. "!" the sun started falling towards the golden dragon who was immobile at its place due to the sun''s own gravity. As the sun clashed with the golden dragon, there wasn''t even resistance or explosion, it passed that if there was nothing and stopped at the ground. The flames dispersed showing the figure of Renxue, the halo of flames slowly dispersing around her She was over a dome created scorching hole, the temperature incredible high. About the golden dragon? Not even a trace was left of him. Bai was stunned, she truly seemed a goddess of the sun, she was truly radiant and beautiful. If this attack targetted hit him, he would be helpless against it, unable to put any defense. Bai shook his head and looked decidedly at Renxue (Even if there''s no way to stop it, it didn''t mean it can''t be evaded, even if it would be incredibly difficult.) Bai clenched his hands (In the future, I will win her. I will be stronger). Having destroyed the enemies, Bai and Renxue withdrew their spirits. At the same time, a gray patter illuminated on the floor. Bai and Renxue stepped on it "Rumble!" After a little ratter, a round platform of 3 meters of diameter, started bringing them down like an elevator. Chapter 174 - Angel Trial Final The platform started slowly going down through a dark tunnel. After some meters, Bai and Renxue finally saw a glimpse of the final of the tunned, they were outside. It was dark night with a beautiful full moon illuminating the night. The platform continued going down, the imposing Giant Sword Mountain pointing over their heads. The platform had created some safe area, in its surroundings, it could be sensed some strange energy, it was a sharp intent. Bai knew that he wouldn''t be able to last much time outside. As the continued going down, Renxue turned towards Bai "Thanks, Bai." she shyly said, quickly looking away as Bai turned to her "There''s no need" Bai said trying to sound cold "We are working together during this trial. It''s normal to help each other." "Anyway, thanks." Renxue said, creating a silence between them that somehow it didn''t seem uncomfortable, it was right for them. The platform passed the ground level as it started to descend over the hole pierced by the Giant Sword Mountain. Bai and Renxue could see multiple swords marks all around the walls like slashed made by swords, each one was different and a great comprehension could be seen from them. Finally, the platform landed, leaving no trace as it fused with the ground below it. Bai touched the ground that was the platform and compared with the one outside, it was the same. It seemed to rock, but its touch was cold, like some metal. Bai could sense how easy was to conduct his intent over it. Even without the form of a familiar sword, this metal was only second to his own twin swords spirit. "Congratulations on arriving here, lord and lady" At a side, the Sword Will of the torture chamber appeared, his voice was full of respect with an ounce of fright. The only thing that Bai knew about his 5th trial was that he needed to pass through the Giant Sword Mountain, nothing else. He didn''t know why or there was something later on. However, at that moment, in his mind appeared the information of what he must do next. Bai stood thoughtfully, looking at Renxue sneakily. Bai sighed (Better not do it. We worked all this time together, let''s finish this test as allies. We will fight later on). "You should go first, Renxue." Renxue turned to Bai and looked with intrigue. She could detect Bai serious tone, it wasn''t a joke of ladies first. Bai was saying that she should be first. This could have two meanings, the first one was that he wanted to take advantage while she was completing her trial, what advantage would be, she had no idea as it could be from killing her to find some hidden treasure nearly, the options were limitless. The second option was that she needed to do first. Meaning that if she started doing after Bai, she would have some problem, difficulty, or simple impossibility. Renxue thought for a moment before deciding to trust Bai. They passed a lot of things together, even with him changing and she lying, Renxue doubted that Bai would be the kind of a man that stabbed in the back. "Okay" Renxue nodded "I will start." It was her decision to trust Bai. She wouldn''t blame Bai even if he broke her trust as she would be the one that made the mistake of trusting him. If her conviction cost her life, she would accept it, without repenting from it. Renxue kneeled on the ground, closed her eyes, and joined her hands as if she was praying. She entered a deep concentration, devoid of any outside distraction while muttered something in a language that Bai couldn''t tell. After a minute, at Renxue''s back appeared her Arch-seraphim spirit while Renxue''s body started glowing with a golden light "Bang!" a light ray shot up from Renxue and collided with the Giant Sword Mountain. "Rumble!" the Giant Sword started shuddering and quickly it started glowing with the same glow as Renxue "Bang!" From the tip of the Giant Sword, it shot down a golden ray, it was similar to Renxue''s but stronger. This ray impacted with the ground and rebounded all around the floor and wall, illuminating all the hole and dying the walls and floor with a golden color. A powerful holy and fire element was emitted by them. Bai could sense that the material had experiment a transformation, becoming a completely different material, one completely specialized for her, never returning to its previous state. Renxue''s spirit hugged her "You did it great, my child." a warm voice that only Renxue was capable of listening surged from Renxue''s spirit "You truly have the strength to surpass me. Take your dearest object and create your weapon. It does not matter the strength of it, what matters is your feeling behind it." Renxue, while she was in a trance state, stood up and started floating. She lifted her hand, her palms pointing up like offering something. Over her palms a saber appeared, the same one that she used when she entered the Giant Sword. Before, they had been busy fighting so Bai didn''t focus on her weapon, but now, Bai quickly realized what was that saber. It was the one he gifted her, when they started being friends, to have some sword fighting spars. He always thought that a saber was the best weapon for her. He had kept all this time. "That your feelings protect you and make you stronger." her spirit said, the glow of the surrounding increased 10 folds as the walls and floor started trembling. Golden dust started being emitted by the walls and floor and being attracted to Renxue''s saber. All the metal around becoming dust and twirling around Renxue. Bai was charmed by the image. Renxue''s beauty was highlighted at night while illuminated by the golden dust. It wasn''t difficult to imaging her like a goddess. Bai couldn''t look away from her. All the dust was being absorbed by her saber, each second the quantity and speed increasing, the glow over the saber increasing. "Shing!" A blindly light shot from the saber, forcing Bai to close his eyes for an instant. After the flash, Renxue''s eyes were opened and focused on her saber. Its form didn''t change much, but now it was extremely beautiful, its lightly curved blade shined with a golden glow, with a golden pattern, and could be used as a mirror, Renxue''s face reflecting in it. The handle changed in the form of a white angel, its 10 golden wings wide opened forming the cross-guard. It had a holy, sacred, and divine feeling around it. Rather than a weapon, it seemed more like an ornament. But Bai wasn''t fouled, he could feel the incredible strength of that saber. If he should say something, he would consider even stronger than his swords, sharper and more robust. Renxue hands reached the saber as she took it, a flame pattern forming around the blade. She held it with both her hands and light swung it "Shinx!" a perfect cut was sliced over the walls, crossing all over the wall, an incredible comprehension behind the attack. Finally, Renxue hugged her saber and was absorbed inside her heart, completely disappearing. Then, she safely landed at the ground and smiled at Bai, a smile that illuminated the dark night "Thanks." Bai continued following each of her movements, charmed by her "Now it''s your turn, Bai." Listening his name, Bai blinked. Finally recovering his cool "S-sure!" Bai breathed loudly focusing on his part, decidedly glancing at the Giant Sword Mountain over them. Chapter 175 - Completing 5th Trial Bai walked to the middle of the hole as he invoked his twin swords, eight rings under him. Then, he lifted both swords pointing at the Giant Sword Mountain, his 7th spirit shined brightly, a gray glow over it. "Finally, I am to be free of this hell," the Sword Will said, his body became spectral without legs. He started twirling around Bai''s swords, before shooting himself up towards the Giant Sword. As the Sword Will was absorbed by the Giant Sword, the Mountain started trembling. Its tremors expanded, affecting the air and earth. Its reaction was many times greater than with Renxue. Renxue''s golden color instantly extinguished being replaced by a gray glow. Bai turned towards Renxue "Stay aside. Don''t try anything" He quickly returned to observe the Giant Sword. "RUMBLE!" The Giant Sword stopped floating and started falling towards the hole. The air pressure was so high that Bai was b?r?ly able to move, the gravity of the Giant Sword pushing him, cracks extending at Bai''s feet. Bai let himself being pushed, he leaned his body backward and fall to the ground. He was laying on the ground facing the Giant Sword coming towards him, completely still. Renxue opened her eyes widely, realizing what would happen next "Bai!" She shouted before the Giant Sword fell, impaling Bai. 2 kilometers of an unknown weight sword pierced Bai. However, there was no blood, the tip of the Giant Sword turned liquid and was absorbed by Bai''s body, the following blade twisting itself as it reached Bai, becoming a 1 cm wide but concentrated metal liquid that was inserted in Bai''s body. "Haaaaaaa!" Bai started shouting as the pain was almost insufferable, Bai required all his will force, mental, and physical strength to keep conscious. This was the truth of the torture trial by the Sword Will. It was simply impossible for someone who wasn''t used to be able to endure this kind of pain. The torture trial improved a little the strength and resistance of the body, but the true aim was making Bai''s body able to receive the last part of the trial. This was also the reason why Renxue didn''t have the need to take it, as for her own trial of creating her own divine weapon wasn''t necessary. Bai''s blood vessels started exploiting, the pressure too much for them to endure, making Bai all bloody. Bai''s strength was focused all on keeping with the process, he was even unable to use any intent to keep up with his wounds. Finally, the Giant Sword showed its true form, its core, a long gray sword of only 2 meters long. Observing the aura of it, Renxue instantly knew what it was. It was a torso spirit bone, by its power it should be older than 100.000 years old, but how much? She didn''t know it. The long sword pierced over Bai "HAAAAAAAAAAA!" Bai''s body convulsed as this time the sword pierced his ?h?st, spraying blood all around. His consciousness was hanging from a thread, his eyes blurring, he was near to pass out. If this happened, he should be unable to control the absorption and would die in the process. "Bai" Renxue said slowly. Seeing Bai''s contorting in pain, she was truly worried about him, some tears threatening to fall. Some pressure prevented her to even move, not being able to act anyway. Sadness and worry painted Renxue''s face as she looked at Bai. She shook her head and gazed resolutely at Bai. She extended her hands, her palms pointing at him "With this my debt is paid" She made up her mind to help him, even when she knew that the best should be letting him die, that it wasn''t worth affecting herself. Renxue went against the pressure, revolved her spirit energy at maximum strength, a shining golden light, the shiniest of all her life, was emitting from her hands. It was , her strongest holy power, activating she would be weakened during a month, losing her vitality and years of life. The holy power slowly clung around Bai, whose face instantly calmed, his pain reducing considerably, even healing his wounded body. "Haaaaaaaa!" This time his shout was not from pain, it was for resolution. Just before he was about to pass out, he felt some holy power healing him. He wouldn''t die here. He used all his strength, he didn''t know how much he could last so he decided to make it the fastest possible. The absorption increased its speed, his ribs were ground, replaced by metal ones, followed by his organs that were replaced and improved. After a time that seemed an eternity, Bai shouted one last time "HAAAAAAAAAAA!" All his strength leave his body as his head fell back. He was exhausted, all his body was sore, pain all around that evade him to even fall asleep, he couldn''t move even a finger, but he achieved absorbing the spirit bone. He panted erratically as he looked at the blue sky, the sun already at its peak. ""Congratulations"" Bai listened the voiced of the Sword God "You accomplished absorbing the 1.000.000 years old, making your body strong enough to receive our power." A wave of spirit energy surged from his body, dying all around. As it passed, his wounds were instantly healed and his energy recovered, even his mind was refreshing. Moreover, his cultivation reached rank 87. Bai stood up. His body was all sore, but he was able to move around without any problem. His body now was nothing different than his swords that he sensed were also reinforced when absorbing the spirit bone. His body strength soaring and intent and spirit energy flowing much better. Instead of calmly cultivate to experiment the actual changed. Bai quickly turned his view to a side. Renxue was there, she looked exhausted and was panting loudly. Bai knew that she had helped to complete the trial, that she was the source of that thick holy energy, by her state, she must have paid a price using it. If it weren''t for her, he could have died there. Bai was touched by her actions, not really knowing how he should react, his feeling for her blooming with a mix of confusion "Renxue..." "There''s no need" Renxue slowly stood up and tried to put a strong front "We promised to help each other pass this trial. It''s only normal for me to help." she said panting. Renxue turned around "Now that you finished, wait some time here. I will make Spirit Hall''s forces retire. They won''t be able to find you here, there''s too much energy there." At Renxue''s back grew 5 pairs of wings, just as she was about to start flying, a refreshing wind full of vitality surrounded her body, it was warm and fresh, and Renxue could sense the aftereffect of sacrifice lowering. "Thank you, Renxue" Bai slowly said, all his body glowing with a light green light. Renxue flapped her wings and started floating. Just before leaving, she turned to Bai "Don''t die, Bai. I will be the one finishing you" She flapped her wings one last time disappearing into the distance. Bai looked at her leaving and said for himself "I would prefer that not. BUT..." he made a resolute face "I will be prepared to face you!" Chapter 176 - Death Renxue went towards Spirit Hall''s camp. 6 months had passed since she started the trial, so Spirit Hall''s forces camped surrounding the Giant Sword Mountain waiting for her to return or act if something unexpected happened. As she landed, there was already a group of titled douluos, including his grandfather, waiting for her. They had seen the reaction of the Giant Sword Mountain, followed by its disappearance. So they knew that the trial must have finished, and were prepared to receive her. Qian Daoliu saw his granddaughter''s state and frowned. He could sense that she had become stronger but at the same time, he sensed a decrease in her vitality. He instantly knew that she used the Sacrifice technique. Qian Daoliu approached his granddaughter "Are you fine, Xue''Er?" He asked worriedly. Renxue couldn''t hide her exhaustion, only being able to force smile "It is fine. I completed the trial. It was only that it became harder than what I expected" She explained "I will need to rest some days." Qian Daoliu nodded "Can you show your results?" Renxue nodded slowly. She put her hand over her heart, her Angelic Saber surging from. "Incredible sword, young mistress" a hooded person said, the young mistress part a little sarcastically. Renxue glanced at the hooded man "Thanks, uncle Bi" He was Bi Ying, one of the elder priests that controlled Spirit Hall''s Elder Hall, the 4th. Renxue didn''t know much of him, but she didn''t have a good feeling from him. "I''m surprised by the disappearance of the Sword Mountain. Could you enlighten me about it?" he asked with a hidden grin. "It was a simply aftereffect of the trial completion." Renxue tried to quickly change the subject "I am tired. Let''s return, there''s nothing more to do here." Bi Ying turned to where the Sword Mountain stood "Are you sure it was only that? That last glow wasn''t holy." He inquired. "Ying." Qian Daoliu said sternly "Could it be you doubt my granddaughter?" "How could I?" Bi Ying answered humbly "It was only my curiosity. Sorry for disturb you" He bowed lightly as all his body turned black. He crouched to the ground and disappeared fusing with his shadow, not letting any trace of his existence. "Return!" Ordered Qian Daoliu. All Spirit Hall''s soldiers quickly packed and prepared for their trip to Spirit City. Renxue followed his grandfather towards a luxurious carriage. A soldier opened the doors for them, both entering it. The carriage started moving instantly. Renxue turned her view towards the hole (Let''s meet again, Bai). ********************************************************************** Very far away, at a world where gods resided, at the Divine Realm. Stood a beautiful woman who seemed no more than 30 years old. She had 6 pairs of wings at her back and a halo over her head. She was the 1st class goddess Angel Goddess. Her senses instead of observing her surrounding were observing a very far place, a beautiful girl laying in a carriage "Poor child. You will suffer because of him in the future, as his fate is already sealed" she made a sorrowful face, a tear falling at her cheek "These feelings will hurt you, but at the same, they would make you stronger, and you would need this strength to face the future." ********************************************************************** After 3 days of meditation, Bai opened his eyes at the dark night. He had learned more about his new spirit bone. His body had completely changed, like being reborn, so he needed to be used to it again. It was strange for him, his body was incredible strong and robust, capable of stopping swords with it, but at the same time it kept its flexibility. Making the getting used relatively easy. The energy around him had lowered in this time due to losing its main source, but at the same time, it became a permanent one. It won''t be strong as before but would last even without the spirit bone. Having waited for 3 days, he was ready to leave. Spirit Hall should have already left the place. At least, if Renxue had kept her promise, but he doubted that she didn''t. Wings appeared at Bai''s back, he flapped them as he started to fly away from the hole. He quickly left the hole area and landed. "So...? Who are you?" Bai had already detected that someone was waiting him outside. In front of him stood a hooded man wearing a cape. However, he wasn''t worried, by what he could detect, he wasn''t his rival at all. "I knew that something was wrong with that trial." The hooded man took away his hood showing his face. He was quite the handsome man, about 30 years old, with black spiked like needles hair "I am lucky to be able to pay for my disgrace. I will kill you, Ning Bai." Bai made a strange face as he signaled him, not alerted at all "Who do you said you were?" He seemed to know Bai from before and Bai had the feeling that he had met him, but he couldn''t remember where. The black-haired man clenched his teeth with fury "Y-you!" he shouted angrily "I am Xie Yue!" "I need more information. That name doesn''t make a ring" Bai said resting his hands over his head. "How could you laugh at me!?" he shouted indignantly "I was part of Spirit Hall team! Part of the Golden Generation!" "Ah!" Bai finally remembered who he was "You are Hu Liena''s brother. You came here to die today?" "I am not the same as before" Yue said "After my sister''s disappearance, I became the more talented of my generation. I trained under one elder priest and even qualify for the Sword God''s trials." This finally made Bai react, he glanced at him. It was true, he had a fragment of the Sword God. It wasn''t like he needed them more, but it won''t be a bad thing obtaining more. "I completed all my trials. I will show you my new power!" Two curved half-moon blades appeared at his hands, under him 7 spirit rings appeared, optimal configuration. All his rings shined and started overlapping between each other, forming a bright black one, a tint of gray could be seen from it. Bai knew that this wasn''t a natural skill overlapping, it was forced by the Sword God''s powers. "!" He threw at Bai his blades "Die!" These shined with silver light as spun, they started dividing forming countless blades. The blades spinning created a beautiful picture, it seemed as Bai was targetted by countless mini-moons that were leaving a silver trace. "Hahahaha! You''re nothing much without that fu?k?n? ant." Now this made Bai angry. His calm face became a furious one. For trash like him to dare to laugh calling Mayi. Bai dashed forward, he didn''t invoke his spirit, he simply charged at the countless blades targetting him. "You lost your mind before my power!" Xie Yue grinned. That grin didn''t last much, it quickly became a shocked face that transformed in terror as his strongest attack was ignored by Bai. Bai''s body glowed with white light as the blades that hit him were reflected without leaving any wound. "H-how could it b-?!" Xie Yue was silenced vomiting blood. Bai already had reached him. Xie Yue was too shocked to even react as Bai''s left hand pierced his heart, piercing all his body and surging to the other side. "I killed your sister and I can say that she was more talented than what you could even aspire" Xie Yue''s eyes lost its colors, falling to the ground dying. Bai swung his left hands like if a sword was, the blood around it, shooting to the ground, leaving Bai''s hand completely cleaned from any blood. Xie Yue''s body disappeared turning silver particles, only leaving his two blades behind that became liquid and were quickly absorbed by Bai''s body "It seems that a new fragment won''t produce any change." Bai sighed. Bai''s face turned serious as he turned to one side "Now to the next trial. Star Dou For-" Bai vomited blood. He could see a dagger piercing his heart, surging from his front. Bai tried to turn his head over. "W-wh-?" A hooded man was behind him, he had two black daggers at his hands, one of them piercing him. Bai could see the lips under the hood forming a grin "Good night" The hooded man swung his dagger, cleanly cutting Bai''s neck, his head falling to the ground, his eyes contorted in shock slowly lost their colors. Chapter 177 - Immortality "Hahahaha!" The hooded man started laughing seeing Bai''s corpse "I knew that bitch was lying. This time I win the lottery. I wasted my time training that Xie child and giving a God Fragment, my plan was to let him refine his fragment and kill him, taking his power to be able to break through to rank 98. However" He laughed even more "This guy is far superior. Only with him, I will be able to become a limit douluo." He grinned "With that old geezer weakened, I will be able to control Spirit Hall. Only those two would be able to face me." After a moment of flooding in his delusions, he stopped "Something is wrong." he looked at Bai''s body "Why he isn''t dissolving?" Bai''s ?h?st started glowing with a gray color "Fuck!" Under the hooded man, 9 spirit rings appeared, 1 yellow, 3 purple, 4 black, and 1 red. His 7th and 4th shined, his two daggers increasing their size, becoming short swords, a black aura emitting from them. "!" He charged towards Bai''s body, crossing his dagger while swing them madly trying to slice him. However, around Bai''s body, the gray aura took the form of a spectral sword, and the hooded man couldn''t pierce through it. "Shinx!" the aura flashed pushing the hooded man away, taking out his hood and showing his face. He seemed a boy about 20 years, dark short hair with black eyes with big eye bags. He had a pale face that made him have a sickly image with the exemption of his sharp eyes. The truth was that he was Bi Ying, the Shadow Dagger Douluo. A rank 97 super douluo and the 4th elder priest of Spirit Hall. Around Bai''s body, his 8 spirit rings appeared, his 5th ring shining brightly. Countless swords appeared floating around Bai. Suddenly, all of them were shot towards him, piercing all his body "Shinx!" A strong gray light shined, blinding its surrounding. After the light vanished, Bai could see standing over. His head was over his shoulder and the hole in his ?h?st had completely disappeared. Physically, he was completely fine. . That was one of the skill gained with the 1.000.000 years old spirit bone. The spirit bone not only increased the strength of his body, but it also gave him some skills. Immortality, like the name said, could save Bai from death. It didn''t matter how hurt was his body, once he died, the spirit bone would be activated, taking him from death and restoring his body using swords. In Bai''s case, it even improved his 5th skill, using it to the restoration. Of course, all go with limitations and a heavenly defining effect it also had. He could only use it once a month. Moreover, it would consume a great deal of spirit energy and mental strength. So against a powerful opponent, it wasn''t very helpful, only gaining time. Bai sighed in his mind. Who would have thought he would need it to use so soon? He glanced at Bi Ying. Bi Ying had recuperated his calm long ago and was calmly observing Bai "Clap!" he clapped his hands "Good trick there. But this changes nothing" he stated "I doubt you are able to push that trick again. And I can see your spirit energy running low" He grinned "You weren''t my rival at full strength. How could you be able to face me now?" Bai lifted his left hand, 5 black rings appeared around it, the second ring shining "?Wonder If I gave a Double Stuff Oreo?" Bai chanted, his cheeks inflated as 8 Oreos were manifested inside his mouth "Munch, munch, munch, munch, munch, munch, munch, munch! Glup" Bai munched and swallowed the Oreo, recuperating all his spirit energy. Bi Ying''s eyes opened widely shocked. He didn''t know that he had twin spirits, and even one of them was one strange food spirit capable of restoring spirit energy! "This changes nothing!" Ying roared angrily, his 2nd, 3rd and 8th rings shined ", , " his shadow twisted dividing in 50, it seemed like some roots. From each tip, surged a copy from Bi Ying, they were all black and resembled his shadow. Then from each clone, a short sword surged from it, pointing at Bai. Ying cracked his teeth madly "You''re dead!" his 9th ring shined. He lifted his daggers that fused creating a long dagger, all the shadows were absorbed by his long dagger, that started emitting an ominous aura "!". He took the dagger with both hands and put it at his ?h?st weight. He thrust forward, a black ray shooting towards Bai "Die!" Ying''s abilities used his shadow or the shadows of the people near him, being limited in 1vs1. Nevertheless, the power of an all-out attack of a rank 97 titled douluo was enormous. Not only this, he already knew that Bai was able to use a defensive All Sword, but it would be useless. He was waiting for the moment he used it for him to use his own All Sword. His would create more shadow, greatly empowering his attack. He wanted to see Bai''s despair when he realized that he couldn''t stop. Unfortunately for him, he wasn''t prepared for Bai''s action. Bai''s 4 rings stopped shined. He crossed both swords, his right sword surrounded by 4 rings, his left sword by 3, and his 7th red ring in the middle of both. Bai''s 7th ring started shining, its color turning grayish red "!" he separated his hands, all his rings disappearing as the space around him contorted. The contorted air expanded, engulfing Ying in it. Ying''s long dagger shined and his rings disappeared, followed by his attack extinguishing before reaching Bai. Bai sensed that his rival was the owner of a Sword God Fragment, someone capable of an All Sword, and a super douluo. With all of this, he knew that he couldn''t win normally, at least he would need to be a titled douluo to it. But, at the same time, he met perfectly the conditions for his skill. Once Bai upgraded his 7th skill to 100.000 years old, he obtained another skill aside the Spirit Avatar. This was Sword God Ring, a privilege as the Sword God candidate. He could create a field where anyone with a Sword God Fragment would be suppressed, not being able to use any force outside his own sword comprehension, this included spirit skills. The skill created something like a trial to face each other swords, meaning that Bai was also suppressed by his own spirit skill. Summarizing, it was similar to when he faced the water style guy at Slaughter City. Even though, Bai did it. If he was confident in something was in his sword arts. The air around Bai and Ying twisted even more. Both of them found themselves in an enclosed fighting ring surrounded by swords, isolated from the exterior. Chapter 178 - Swords vs Shadow "Shitty brat!" spatted Bi Ying with a young and high-pitched voice who clearly realized the effects of Bai''s skill. He dropped his daggers that fell to the ground, disappearing in Bi Ying''s shadow "!". His shadow shuddered and started multiplying and extending itself, swallowing all the ring in a black space formed by Bi Ying''s silhouettes. Then, Bi Ying''s body started sinking in the ground, completely disappearing, not only his image, even his presence disappeared. Bai couldn''t detect him even with his Mind Eye. However, this time was incomparable to before when he was ''killed''. Knowing that there''s an enemy even if it''s not seen makes a big difference. Bai only invoked his right sword that disappeared "!". A white aura surged from by and expanded from all the area, turning the shadow a lighter shade. Bai''s defense increased and he closed his eyes trying to better sense his surroundings, Bi Ying''s presence keeping being hidden. A light smile appeared at Bai, he extended his right a white sword appearing at his hand "Clink!" At the same time that the sword appeared, a dagger manifested from the shadow and impacted with the sword. Bai twisted his body turning to the left side. On his right hand, his left sword appeared surrounded by an ominous black aura "" The sword became pure dark aura, it flashed for an instant as it pierced the air. After Tao Yi training, Bai finally got over his habit of using Retaliation with his right hand and Slaughter with his left. He did it because of his different memories of Paul and Bai who each had a different dominant hand. But after his training, he now didn''t have any problem with switching them. From where he pierced a drop of blood appeared, followed by Bi Ying appearance who jumped back creating distance. He held his other dagger over his ?h?st, he diverted Bai''s attack from piercing his heart and dying, however, he was unable to stop the attack to hit him at his side. The Slaughter energy had invaded his body, he could feel his blood flux reversing and slowly weakening himself. "Fucker!" He swiftly spun his right dagger and thrust to himself, expertly cutting where Bai had pierced. Blood flew from the wound but was quickly stopped by Bi Ying covering it with shadow "Fuck!" Even with this, he could sense Bai''s ominous aura clinging to his body. He glanced at Bai with a mad and murderous look. He should kill him quickly before it''s too late. "I am a bad match for you, Shadow" Bai was right. Bi Ying intent was Shadows, this was a subtype of the Darkness element. Shadows lost most of the powerful attack power of Darkness, to further increase the natural stealth of it. If his stealth was discovered, his strongest point was lost. Bai wasn''t able to detect his presence but he could detect the resistance inside his All Sword Retaliation. It might be different with only Protection as he could only be able to protect at the last moment, but with Retaliation, he was able to detect where the actions occurred and pinpoint Bi Ying''s position. With this and Bi Ying''s surprise, it had become incredibly easy to injure him. Now that he is even marked with his Slaughter, it became even easier to detect. "You''re too full of yourself, brat!" This time Bi Ying didn''t hide, he jumped to his right side as he slashed the air, shadow dagger shooting towards Bai. Bai charged as a white shield appeared over him, blocking each dagger. Bai thrust his black sword at him. Bi Ying crossed his dagger, blocking the thrust, but not without a price. He vomited blood and was pushed over, Slaughter even invading more of his body, the defense was never his forte. He recuperated in mid-air, landing with his right hand while his left hand flashed for an instance . "Clink!" At Bai''s left side a shield appeared, just stopping an invisible attack "It''s useless!" Even Bi Ying Sword Heart specialized in stealth and was detected by Bai''s Retaliation. The power behind was so lucking that he didn''t even need to use his stored energy. Bi Ying bent his right arm, leaning his forearm to the ground. He twisted his body rolling on the ground to the right, just evading Bai''s sword. He jumped landing with his both feet, at the same time that he threw one of his daggers to Bai. The dagger shined with a black ?uster and divided into 10, all of them stopped by Bai''s shields. Bai dashed towards him swinging the dark sword that was blocked by him. However, this time Bai twisted his hip kicking him at the stomach. He was shot forwards while leaving a trace of blood, Bi Ying, bouncing several times to the ground before stopping. He was b?r?ly able to lift his body with difficulty to sat on the ground. Suddenly, from Bi Ying''s dagger, there was a gray glow. He swung his dagger at the ground. Bi Ying''s furious face disappeared, replaced by a calm one, his black eyes full of experience "Young people. When they are focused is when the easiest things to discover are overlooked." Seeing Bi Ying''s dagger falling to the ground, Bai''s alarms rung like mad. He finally realized what Bi Ying was targetting was Bai''s shadow. Since he was injured, he moved around the ring, changing the position of the two to gain access at Bai''s shadow that started at Bai''s back. Bi Ying''s dagger was about to cut the ground "!". Bai quickly reacted. He didn''t have time to use powerful techniques, he used his most used technique that was most used to it and could activate in the minimum time. Bai used his most familiar intents, Slaughter and Retailation, Life and Death, forcing them to join at his right side, flowing from his body that thanks to the spirit bone, now could conduct perfectly the intents. "BOOOOM!" The uncontrolled intents clashed between each other, the impact causing a big explosion, as it was only an instant without forcing too much, the mental damage was minimum comparing with his time with Tao Yi. Bai''s right side was all bloody, a 5 cm hole having formed by the explosion. However, it was worthy. Bai''s body was pushed to the left by the explosion, at the same time that Bi Ying slashed the ground, moving Bai and his shadow just for Bi Ying slash to cut Bai''s shadow''s right arm instead of his body in half. As it following the shadow, Bai''s right arm was cleanly cut, dropping the ground. Shadow Butcher was the technique that Bi Ying obtained from the Sword God when he completed all his 6 trials. It permitted him to cut the shadows as if the person was, the cuts from the shadow being transmitted to the owner. The most frightening of his technique was that there was no way to block it. Unfortunately for him, Bai evaded it in the last moment by injuring himself. Bi Ying closed his eyes, knowing that he lost. He resigned to death as he couldn''t put any more fight. It was his bad luck "Indeed a bad match." Were his last sword before a black sword pierced his head, instantly killing him. Bi Ying body became black particles and was absorbed by his shadows that were then absorbed by Bai''s sword. The Sword God Ring disappeared and Bai found himself near were the Giant Sword Mountain stood before. Bai withdrew his swords "Dammit!" He didn''t get tired in this fight, it could be considered an easy fight, with him at an advantage, but he almost died. Bai bent over, taking his fallen right arm. He connected it with his shoulder as his left hand glowed with a green light full of vitality. It didn''t take even 1 minute to completely connect again, the cut was so clean that it was incredibly easy to reattach. But if it were to have cut another region, he would have died. Once, he rejoined his arm, he stretched his arm, ensuring that there wasn''t any wrong. Then, his injured right side started glowing green. This injured was more serious, needing more time to heal. At least, Bai didn''t feel any pain from them. After absorbing the torso spirit bone, his pain resistance skyrocket. He could feel he injures and the seriousness of these, but the pain didn''t affect his fighting. Losing the feeling of pain will be counterproductive when fighting. Bai''s wings appeared at his back. He flapped them, flying away, leaving this place before other people came. For now, he would rest far away from there. Chapter 179 - Devoid Bai hid away for one week. Because of the use of his Immortality, his body had weakened so he needed this week to return to his top condition. Moreover, Bai didn''t waste this week, he started meditating, ?ssimilating his new spirit bone and spirit rank. It was great to have a sudden increase in strength, but if he didn''t want to affect his foundation, he needed some time to adapt to it, in comparison, with natural cultivation. His spirit energy became more specialized, now taking different colors as his intents. It wouldn''t be much before he completely changed his spirit energy, masters his breathing technique, and be ready to break through titled douluo creating his soul core. About his torso spirit bone, he discovered that in addition to Immortality and the transformation of his body, it had another skill. However, to make use of this skill, he would need to be at least a normal titled douluo, so it was unusable for now. Now that Bai was recuperated and at full strength, he was ready for the next Sword God Trial. The truth was that this one a special one and Bai was nervous and impatient to start it. Following the Sword God words, Bai''s talent, sword comprehension, qualifications, and body were ready to receive his position. The only things that he lacked were the mind and the spirit power, his 6th Trial focusing on spirit power. The trial was to solve Star Duo Forest crisis. Bai didn''t know what if it was something related with the Sword God, the only thing that he could learn was that it wasn''t about Hei Qi. Bai didn''t know what exactly was the crisis of Star Duo Forest, so he was doubtful of it. The last time that Bai was there, it was just before the first attack of Spirit Hall to his clan. It seemed to be something wrong with Hua Mei who seemed to go on a rampage, but Lingling said that she would take care. Now that he thought, Bai was feeling bad about not thinking about her all this time, but he was truly too busy these last years with Spirit Hall and the trials. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bai landed near Star Duo Forest. He chose one of the less crowded sides, not controlled neither for the empires or Spirit Hall. It wasn''t as safe as the entrance controlled, but Bai didn''t have any problem with it, it was long since he might be warry of the weak spirit beast of the forest and the strong ones to put him in danger, it wasn''t like they would be stopped by simples guards. Something was wrong. Approaching the forest, Bai could see small villages destroyed. The culprits being young spirit beasts. A big quantity of them seemed to have left the forest and attack near villages. For what Bai could see, it didn''t seem anything planned, the attacks were scattered and all the beasts were too young to have great intelligence. Bai decided to not act, it was too late for the villages and it might be related to the crisis. It would be better to act after he learned more about the crisis and he doubted that he would learn anything from these weak spirit beasts. Bai entered the outer area of Star Duo Forest. He extended his Mind Eye over 10 km, detecting his surrounding, he wouldn''t be able to greatly analyze with his maximum radium, but it was enough to a first impression. What he discovered surprised him, the forest was too quiet. There were almost no spirit beasts and he could detect some young 10.000 spirit beast running away. This was very strange, the spirit energy of the outer part was very low, causing to be inhabited mostly by beasts younger than 1.000 years. If Bai was surprised by this, he became shocked when he arrived in the inner forest. As he was approaching the center forest, the spirit beast became less until they disappeared completely. Not only the spirit beast but even the grass, tree, plants... Once he arrived in the central forest, he could only see a barren land, devoid of any life. It couldn''t be called a forest anymore! Bai bent over, touching the ground. It had become an arid ground, there weren''t any nutrients in it, becoming more similar to a dessert than anything else. In a place like this, it would be impossible for any plant to grow. But how could the leafy and full of life forest become like this in so little time? What surprised most at Bai was that he couldn''t detect any aura from it. It was normal to not detect Life, but if some destruction had occurred, he should be able to detect Death. But, he didn''t sense anything, it was a completely blank place devoid of any type of energy, nor spirit energy nor any elemental one, becoming the worst place to cultivate anything. "This is not normal." Bai said for himself "What could have happened here?" "Rumble!" Suddenly the ground started trembling as if an earthquake occurred. Bai quickly could sense three people near his position, quickly approaching him. Bai instantly recognized who they were, so he quickly ran to meet them. The earthquake became stronger and a sound like of a stampede approaching him could be heart, the strangest was that Bai was unable to sense anything except the three people. It wasn''t long before he could finally see their figures, they were Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Bai Chenxiang. Tang San and Xiao Wu were running away at full speed while Chenxiang was floating over them. She was looking behind them and shooting some light spheres that exploded at the distance. Chenxiang turned for a moment detecting Bai''s presence. She like Tang San and Xiao Wu had a tired and a little fearful look in his faces "Bai! Run!" she shouted. Bai titled his head confused "W-what?" Just as Xiao Wu passed next to him, she took Bai from the arm dragging him forward. Bai quickly stabilized, starting running along with them "What happened?!" he shouted shocked. "No time to tell, we need to run away from them!" Xiao Wu shouted. Bai followed them running. He turned his head at his back. He couldn''t sense anything with his Mind Eye, but he could hear a loud sound and a dust cloud approaching. Focusing his sight, Bai could see thousands of silhouettes in the cloud charging towards them, slowly cutting the distance with them. Finally, he could see what they were. Thousands of ants were charging towards them! Chapter 180 - Plague It was an ant plague, thousands of ants were charging towards them. There were ants from all the sizes, from 10 cm to 3 meters, meaning that there were from 10 years to 10.000 years old in the plague. Specifically, they seemed to be Fifteen Ton Ants, considered as the most numerous spirit beast, at the same time that the one with more predators. However, they had some peculiarities that the usual Fifteen Ton Ants didn''t have. Some of them had wings in their back and were flying, this was only supposed to be for the queens. Moreover, their eyes were purple instead of the usual brown or black, and they were surrounded by a dark aura. Being Fifteen Ton Ants explained some of Bai''s incapacity to detect them as these ants had a hard shell and cultivated internally, not being able to let even an ounce of spirit power outside. This caused them to have great strength but a lack of spirit skills. Even though, there was something wrong with them. Even without spirit energy, Bai could have been able to detect their vitality, but he couldn''t. It was like his senses were absorbed by them. Individually, it wouldn''t cause any problem from Bai''s group to fight them. But with such sheer number, once they became surrounded, they would tire themselves to death, before being swallowed by the plague. Bai''s group continued running "Why don''t we attack them? Most of them are young, working together it won''t be impossible to take care of them" Bai said without stopping. "It''s useless!" Xiao Wu shouted. "They are not normal. They are stronger and normal attacks can''t damage them. And the worst it that it didn''t matter how much you kill, more will come after you." Tang San explained "We only met 10 of them and in less than 5 minutes became a plague-like that." Now that Bai took a closer look fixated, Chenxiang attack never directly targetted them. She threw a light explosion at the ground in front of them to delay them. Moreover, she focused on the quickest flying ones, stopping them. If it were for her, she couldn''t have any problem to run away from them, but Xiao Wu and Tang San couldn''t. At first, they were faster than them, escaping without problems, but they seemed tireless. They continued chasing them without stopping, it seemed like they could detect their position, their numbers increasing with time. After running for 3 days, Chenxiang, Xiao Wu, and Tang San were tired. Bai''s group arrived at an area with trees, leaving the barren land. There wasn''t much spirit energy but there was some. "Crrrrrrrrrrr!" The ants'' mandible sounded hitting each other. As the plague passed through the tree area, they left it devoid of any energy, exactly the same as the barren land before, answering Bai''s question of who the culprit was. "Crrrrrrrrrrr!" More ants could be heard, this time in front of them. Bai''s group found themselves surrounded by all sides, running away was impossible, forcing them to fight, Chenxiang landing to the group. It was an interesting picture, seeing at the barren land, a little oasis with three trees and 4 people surrounded by a black see of ants. "It seems that we can''t run away more" Bai said invoking his twin sword, 8 spirit rings appearing under him. Bai threw at the other 3 two Double Stuff Oreos. He already knew that they were tired, his Oreos at least would help them a little recharging their spirit power. "CRRRRRRRRRRR!" Suddenly the ants seemed to become even madder as the charged towards the group. Bai lifted his swords preparing to fight, a light smile in his face. Even after so many combats, most of them against powerhouses, Bai was sure that his specialty was fighting against a great number of enemies. Making this situation a perfect opportunity to truly shine. Bai''s 5th ring shined "". Bai started invoking 100 normal looking swords that were shot towards the plague. Bai was shocked by their reaction, they ignored them as the swords instantly dissolved when in contact with them, it seemed that they absorbed. "I already told you!" Tang San said "They are immune to normal attacks, you need to use strong ones even for the 10 years old." Tang San 4th and 6th ring shined. From Tang San hands, blue vines shot around them, creating a 2 meters wall surrounded the group of 4. This time, around Bai appeared 100 more swords, they had different colors as they were imbued with different intent. Infusing to 100 it wasn''t a joke of his expending of sword qi, but he would recuperate. The 100 swords were shot towards them, this time it wasn''t absorbed. The swords pierced through the plague killing more than 200 ants in the process. Bai''s 6th ring shined brightly, with each kill, he absorbed their spirit power, mental strength, and stamina, making Bai able to fight continuously without tiring him out. However, each absorption was strength for Bai like some familiar feeling from them, but he put it aside from the time being. . With each kill, more swords appeared on Bai''s side and was shot. Bai continuously shot swords in 1000 every 5 seconds. But, Bai quickly realized that it was useless. The ants were too much, killing 10.000 seemed to not cause any important impact. It was like shooting at the sea. The black plague continued marching towards them unstoppable, devouring every in their path. "CRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Tang San''s Blue-Silver Grass''s barrier didn''t even last a second before being devoured by countless ants. "Prepare all!" Bai shouted "I would try to cut through them, follow me closely!" The only option was trying to cut through them with their strongest attack, trying to create a path. However, even Bai wasn''t so sure if it would work. With the ants numbers, any path would close quickly and he didn''t know even at what direction, they must escape or where there wasn''t antes. Anyway, Bai focused on his swords as he prepared to unleash his All Swords "Hurry! Come here!" A warm voice shouted from Bai''s back. The last trees that were there, had joined between each other creating some kind of gate. Bai and Xiao Wu quickly knew that it was one of the portals used to travel around the forest. They quickly reacted. Bai turned around, he took Chenxiang in a princess carry and jumped towards the gate while Xiao Wu did exactly the same with Tang San. The crossed the gate finding themselves in a green corridor. In front of them, a beautiful blue-haired young woman had her arm extended over the gate, her palms glowing with a green light full of vitality. It was Xie Lingling. Lingling stopped giving energy to the gate that started closing. Just before closing, from the gate a two meters long arm shot towards Lingling who was unable to put any defense. Just as the ant mandibles were about to bite Lingling, a sword pierced the ant''s head, it was Bai. "CRRRRRRRRRRR!" even with the head pierced, the ant showed his high vitality, swinging its right leg towards Lingling, its claws threatening to cut Lingling apart. This time, Tang San was the one who reacted, swinging his black Clear Sky Hammer smashing the leg to shreds. Keeping the momentum, he continued swinging his hammer to the ant''s thorax, destroying the ant''s body that leaked a black liquid, not moving again. All of them fell to the ground, sitting on it with mental and physical fatigue. "Thanks, Lingling" Bai said. "Thanks!" Said Xiao Wu and Chenxiang. "No problem" Lingling smiled at Bai "Thanks for the ant" "Without you, we would have there. Truly thank you, miss Xie" Tang San said. She simply nodded at Tang San saying a low "Thank you too." "What the fu?k was that about?" Bai asked Lingling recuperated her emotions at her face as she made a worried and sad face "Something happened. Star Duo Forest, no, maybe even all the continent could be destroyed by it. And it had some relation with you Bai." Lingling stood up and cleaned her green dress that was made what it seemed to be flower petals. "I will tell you later with the others. Follow me" She turned walking along the corridor. "What are you referring to that it had to do with me?" Bai stopped her taking her arm. Lingling made a difficult face, worry, pain, uneasy mixed in it. She looked at Bai''s eyes "It''s about Mayi" Chapter 181 - Mayis Diary I am Tai Mayi. I was an ant before but when I reached 100.000 years of cultivation I reincarnated as a human. According to grandfather, it would be good to write about my life to practice my writing and to learn from my errors, experiences, and personal relationships so I started this diary. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX/XXXX] Today, grandfather brought me to his anthill. I do not really understand how people can live in these ''houses'', as they called. Where are the holes, the labyrinths making difficult for enemies to track you? There are even little humans that did not help at all, only laying sleeping when they are not even queens. Humans are very strange. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+5/XX/XXXX] After some days of staying here, I discovered that the little humans are called kids and it is normal for them to be cared for until they grow. I do not really understand why they do not throw them away to their death if they are useless and put more eggs to create a greater number. If they continue like this the colony will perish. Rare. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+1/XXXX] I am getting used to living with humans, not that matter much as my disguise is perfect and humans are too weak and silly to find out. Humans have good things. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+3/XXXX] I asked grandfather about the white-haired kid. He told me that if he is strong, I only need to also be strong and in the future, we will meet. If he is weak, there is no need to never meet him, so I do not need to worry. I want him to be strong. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+3/XX+3/XXXX] I fought against the other kids as I discovered I was also a kid. They are all very weak, even the bigger ones are weak, it should not be the biggest is the strongest? My brothers were the biggest and the strongest. About the normal-sized humans, they are a little stronger than me, but it would only me little years to surpass them. Grandfather was the strongest and he is only around the level of my brothers, in the forest any of my brothers will win. Humans are overall weeks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX/XXXX+2] I am mostly adapted to grandfather''s clans. Human colonies are called like this, in my grandfather''s case is called Strength Clan. There is nothing to do except to try to increase my strength, eat, and sleep. Very calms days without any predator. Even now, I do not understand why most of the ?du?ts (It is like normal-sized humans are called) are hitting some metals to make forms. They said it is for fighting, but it is not my own carcass the best attack and defense? Humans continued to be strange. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+7/XXXX+2] I need to find a way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+8/XXXX+2] After observing for a month, I found different kids that not only played (play is going around without working) together, then even stay together when they go to sleep. I want this with the white-haired kid. Asking I learned that the male and female kid in question were brother and sister. As the white-haired kid should be bigger than me, I will be a little sister and him a big brother. I need to find more about little sisters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+9/XXXX+2] I asked the grandchild of my grandfather about how little sisters are. He puffed his ?h?st (I do not know why) and smiled at me. He told that little sister must be cute, very respectful with their big brothers, and stay with their big brother to be protected while showing their care. I will become the cute little sister of big brother. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+11/XXXX+2] Mayi here! Mayi finally learned more about being cute! Mayi need to talk as herself in third person, be very clinky and make a pitiful face with my big round eyes. Mayi tried with some ?du?ts and Mayi received a lot of sweets! Yatah! Mayi will continue being the cutest, Mayi will be always together with big brother. Mayi doesn''t know why Mayi is being followed by Long (Grandpa''s grandson). He asked Mayi to call him big brother! How he dares?! Mayi is only big brother''s little sister! Mayi doesn''t want to be always with Long. Mayi must beat Long. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+6/XXXX+3] Today Mayi will go to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. Mayi is looking forward to meeting big brother. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+1/XX+6/XXXX+3] Mayi entered the academy after beating some kids. They were very week. Mayi doesn''t understand why humans looked at Mayi with big eyes when Mayi show her rings. Humans are supposed to have rings, so Mayi is like a normal human, no? *tilting Mayi''s head, blinking cutely* :) It''s another super cutely move that I learned. Mayi will be the best little sister and be with big brother forever! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+6/XX+6/XXXX+3] Adults said that Mayi is strong. Of course, how could Mayi not be?! They said that they will prepare me a test to be with other strong kids. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+10/XX+6/XXXX+3] After beating a kid with a cat spirit, the ?du?ts were surprised again. They said that Mayi passed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+12/XX+6/XXXX+3] Mayi is dad. Big brother is not here. But there are some good things. The people there are a bit strong, letting Mayi tired. They at least don''t run away. Mayi won''t be their little sister, but at least Mayi will learn their names. Mayi need to be cold with them or they might confuse Mayi as their little sister. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+9/XXXX+3] Shi brothers, Tianheng, Yan, Feng, Osler, and Lingling, 4 males and 3 females. Finally, Mayi remembered their names. If it weren''t for big brother, Mayi won''t mind being Lingling''s little sister, she smells very good. Mayi wants to try eating her spirit! Mayi is happy here, beating them until Mayi is tired. The best is the food! There''s no limit and it''s delicious. If only big brother was here. *Mayi puffed her cheeks* Another cute technique that Mayi learned! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+1/XXXX+4] Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BIG BROTHER IS HERE! Mayi finally found big brother! He is called Bai! Big brother came to the academy to stay. Mayi used all her cute techniques against him so Mayi is his little sister now. Mayi will be always with big brother! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+2/XX+1/XXXX+4] Big brother found that Mayi was an ant and he.... Accepted me! Yatah! Mayi is his little sister! Mayi loves big brother and big brothers love Mayi. Big brother cookies are the best and kisses (Joining lips together) are very warm and sweet, Mayi likes them! Not only that but Mayi and big brother spirits are compatible. We can fusion! And it''s very near to become one! Big brother had something dark inside him, but it seems to be sleeping so no problem. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+6/XXXX+4] Mayi wants to have a better relationship with big brother so Mayi asked Yan about it. She is always with Tiangheng so she should be his little sister and they will be always together. Mayi was wrong, Yan and Tianheng were lovers, not brother and sister. Mayi wanted to ask but Yan became angry and left. Mayi don''t know why. Mayi need to ask another female. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+8/XXXX+4] Mayi asked Feng because Lingling liked to be alone and Feng was the only female that Mayi knows. She told me that lovers are people that liked each other and wanted to be always together. When Mayi asked the difference about little sisters and lovers, Feng answered that sisters were family or people that liked very much each other as friends. Sister usually stays a lot of time with brother when they are young but as they grow they live in different places, but lovers are always together, becoming fiancees and later wife and husband. That someone can have many sister, but usually only one lover the person most important to them. Mayi doesn''t want to be big broth-Bai''s sister. Mayi will be forever with Bai, Mayi is his lover! Mayi won''t let any other female approach Bai! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX/XXXX+5] Bai continued calling me sister, why? Finally, I asked Yan again. She told me that it wasn''t bad to be cute, but that I should slowly change to become s?xy and do more things of lovers. I don''t really know what it means, but I stopped some of the cute speech with Bai. I will imitate Yan interactions with Tianheng. I am no longer his cute little sister, since today I am his lover! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX/XXXX+6] The academy team started fighting other humans'' teams. They were all very weak and didn''t keep up much from a beating so Bai and I quickly stopped participating. The others need to become stronger or I won''t enjoy anymore beating them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+9/XXXX+6] I''m in Suotuo City. The academy team participating in more matches. I am a little angry because they had an interesting match against Shrek Academy and I wasn''t allowed to participate :( After the match, Bai and I met Shrek''s team. I became very angry when a cute pink-haired girl (Taller female kid) called Rongrong hugged Bai and tried to attack her. I won''t let any girl approach Bai! But I was wrong, the girl was Bai''s little sister so I win. It doesn''t matter how cute she is, at final, Bai will only be with me together, the sister is not an enemy. I don''t know why but we did a beauty contest, the result didn''t matter, but Bai chose me! Making me very happy. It is normal as I was his lover. Bai''s sister became angry, especially at me. She told me that she will try to separate Bai and me. Should I kill her? She can''t be Bai''s lover, but if she can prevent me from being, I should stop her. I don''t know how Bai will react, better ask Yan before doing anything. Then, Bai said that he loved me and that he wants to be my lover. We weren''t lovers before? We loved each other and passed all the time together, wanting to be always with him. We are boyfriend and girlfriend and Bai should take responsibility of me. Anyway, I was happy for him to tell me. Summarizing, it was a great day :) Chapter 182 - Mayis Diary 2 [XX+15/XX+10/XXXX+6] Bai and I went hunting a spirit beast for Bai. I was hurt in the fight against a white dragon and fell asleep, but Bai rescued me. Then, Bai absorbed the spirit ring and we cultivated together, I created my own spirit ring, both spirit rings increasing in age! We are the best! We will always be together. I also met Bai''s family, all of them are very strong! I am happy that they accepted me as Bai''s lover and that they didn''t mind that I was a spirit beast. Thanks goddess for it, or I would have been killed by them. The darkness inside Bai seemed to have grown and its more active, but I doubt that it would do something so it''s not important, anyone has dark inside them! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+11/XXXX+6] Buahhh! Master (Bai''s mother) is terryfying, I am very afraid of her. She is very strong, much more than my brother and her training is more like beatings. Is that what people feel when I fight with them? Ahhhh! It doesn''t matter. Next time I fought against someone weak, I will beat him even more, I''ll need to vent my frustration and I learned some techniques from master. Knowing master better, I really like her! She even taught me techniques to keep other girls from approaching Bai, and she is so strong, I really respect her, but... I don''t want to train again with her, especially etiquette. I hate etiquette, etiquette die! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/X+12/XXXX+6] Today, I met Bai''s first and best friend, the prince of the empire, Qinghe. I don''t like him. There''s something wrong with him, he seemed too friendly and he approached too much towards Bai. Bai is the only mine! He had some hidden intentions, and somehow his smell tells me he is male, but my instinct tell that not. That he is dangerous, an obstacle to keep Bai always with me. As I didn''t talk with Yan about it, I stopped from trying to hurt him, it might don''t like to Bai. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX/XXXX+7] I was scolded by Yan. She said that I am crazy, how could someone think to attack the people that his lover loves? She said. Now that I think it has sense, but I don''t really like to think too much, especially about human relations. Yan told me that it didn''t matter to scary unknown flies (That is how Yan called people that approach your lover), but it is better if I hid from Bai, and that it was better if I don''t leave any lasting injury in them. But for people close to him, it must be more subtle, putting your dominance over the others. I don''t really know what she is referring to, but I will try to stop them without using my fists. It will be difficult. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+1/XXXX+7] Hahaha! Finally, I was able to impart master''s teaching to others. As long as I don''t cripple the other teammates, I was able to tortu-train them as much as I wanted. It was very entertaining to train them, especially Feng. My instinct told me that she was approaching closer to Bai, she might become something dangerous in the future, but at least she kept her distance. I can sleep well again, without master''s nightmares. The best solution was showing it to others :) [XX/XX+3/XXXX+7] Bai didn''t come. He promised me that he will return before the afternoon and he didn''t return yet and it''s night. Maybe something happened to him. What will I do if something happens to Bai? I''ll need to rescue him! Thank goodness, that I already put some pheromones to Bai so that I can track him for this cases. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+1/XX+3/XXXX+7] Bai was angry at me :( I was forced to tell him about the pheromones and about me attacking flies. It''s Yan''s fault! Not mine! After supplicating, Bai forgive me but I should stop doing it. I will keep the pheromones as my secret, I like to know Bai''s position, I''ll need to protect him! For the flies, I''ll need to be more subtle about them. We also met grandpa today, he seems to have a bad relationship with Bai''s father, calling him a calculative monster. I discovered that grandpa always had known that I was a spirit beast. Grandpa accepted me and took care of me all these years, never thinking about taking advantage of me. It makes me happy, I love grandpa. I won''t be his lover as I already had Bai, but I don''t mind being his little sister. Grandpa is my family and I suppose that I can also accept Long, even if he is silly. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+10/XX+3/XXXX+7] Grrrrrr! Feng became more beautiful. She was always dressed as a boy (I don''t understand why even when she told me)but now dressed like a girl. Not only that, but she approached even more at Bai! My instincts went mad, she is dangerous, very dangerous. I''ll need to show her my dominance! Fortunately or unfortunately, I couldn''t show her place. She was expelled from the academy, I don''t know why because if it were for her strength I will kick out Osler before her. Yesterday, we had a party to say goodbye to her. Someone must put some poison at my drink because I fell very quickly asleep without remembering anything of the night before. When we wake up, I could feel Chenxiang (The true name of Feng) even closer to Bai. Something must have happened at night, Chenxiang must be the one who poisoned me! She is very dangerous! Before leaving she whispered something at Bai''s ears that I couldn''t listen, but Bai blushed a little. AAAAHHHHHH! I must kill that bitch! (bitches are bigger and more dangerous flies according to Yan). I preferred Feng over Chenxiang. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+6/XXXX+7] Scary, very scary! Bai, master and I went to Star Duo Forest for Bai''s 5th ring. I always liked the forest as I remembered when I lived there, but we were attacked by Hei Qi! The hateful Hei Qi! The most hated spirit beast of the forest. I thought that I was going to die at this moment, even my brothers couldn''t do anything against him and this wouldn''t change no matter how they cultivate. Thankfully, we escaped from him thanks to master and Bai''s uncles. I really like Bai''s family, they accepted me and saved me, like grandpa they are also my family! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+8/XXXX+7] We went to another forest to hunt for Bai''s spirit ring and Grrrrrrrrr! We had to find Chenxiang there, she even dared to flirt with Bai, she is a big bitch, I need to get rid of her! She had joined Bai''s sister''s academy, Shrek Academy. The problem was that Chenxiang and Rongrong seemed to have joined forces to take me out of Bai''s position as his most important. Yan said that having the family''s support is very important. I''ll need to do something. Why I can''t simply beat her! Buahhhh! :( Bai obtained his 5th spirit and we cultivated together, creating my own 5th ring. For this I''m the best for Bai, our spirits are one, not like Chenxiang or any fly or bitch around! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+3/XXXX+8] The Continental Tournament started. It''s a pity that we can''t participate. So much people waiting to be beaten :( Something happened to Bai. Bai''s darkness awakening, I could see movement of it, but I didn''t know if it was a good or bad thing. The black aura exuded death, but it wasn''t like all death was bad. Hopefully, that darkness kills or at least make run away Chenxiang. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+6/XXXX+8] It was a good thing! Bai''s darkness awakening was good. After an unfulfillment match against a weak school, we fought against the favorites, Spirit Hall. Bai and I became one! Our spirits fusion perfectly, the strongest possible, the even so-called god rank fusion! All thanks to the darkness that regulated Bai''s spirits making it possible. Now I could feel Bai''s spirit, I can feel Bai nearer. We are a match made by Heavens. That darkness seemed to have his own mind, but as he was always part of Bai and he helped us become one, I suppose that I can accept him. After all, he is part of Bai and I love Bai! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+3/XX+6/XXXX+8] That bitch of Chenxiang! How could have she become so strong?! I fought against her and almost lost. I even lost my consciousness, it was only by sheer force that I win, losing my sense and letting my instincts to act. I can''t lose Bai. Bai is my life. What I can do without him? I won''t let Chenxiang have him! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! Never! I would have like to have killed her. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+4/XX+6/XXXX+8] We won the tournament, all thanks to Bai and me. I defeated Tang San using Bai''s sword. I like his sword it''s warm, like being hugging him. If we are together we are unstoppable! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+5/XX+6/XXXX+8] Sniff*Sniff* Bai had left! Buahhhh! Why? Why he left me alone? We are one, he should bring me there with him! At least, I know that he didn''t leave with Chenxiang. He left me a letter explaining that he needed to do an important and necessary thing, that he loved me and that it would take him 3 years to return. I don''t know what I will do without Bai. All this time, I spent it with him or searching for him. I will trust him and don''t be too pushy. I''ll need to be strong and wait three years. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+7/XXXX+8] I left Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. There was nothing there for me to stay, and somehow it seemed that for the others were also the same. All of them returning to their clan, even Lingling left. I could have kept a little more smelling her, I really liked Lingling''s aura full of vitality. I''m waiting for you, Bai. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+9/XXXX+8] I passed the time at the Strength Clan, but I don''t really know what to do, I didn''t have much too do other than eating. It was even worst than before. Last time I was searching for Bai, someone that I didn''t know. Now, there''s a void in my heart. I want to see you, Bai. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+3/XXXX+9] I broke through rank 60. I should be happy, now that I was at this rank I could use my own spirit ring, greatly boosting my strength, making me even more difficult to find my identity as a spirit beast, most spirit beasts die before achieving this rank. But without Bai, it''s like it didn''t matter. I will wait for him to materialize my ring, he should be also waiting for me like the rings before. I want to touch you, Bai. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+7/XXXX+9] There''s no need to be with humans as I reached my rank 60, there no need to interact with them to cultivate and all human-related makes me remember Bai. I will run away. I want to hug you, Bai. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+3/XXXX+10] I had abandoned anything human-related, staying in the interior of Star Duo Foret. Feeling the wind, trees, beast around me, remember me the time before meeting Bai, the time with my brothers. Somehow the pain of my hearth lowers a little, but every time I remember Bai it returns. Is this so painful called love? Are you also thinking about me, Bai? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX/XXXX+11] I met my three brothers again. They were very happy meeting me again as they thought that I had died at that time. They were shocked when they found that I cultivated to 100.000 years. They are still at 90.000 maybe if Bai was here, he could have help them like me. I found them planning their revenge against the ape and snake. I really smiled at their antics, but they were my antics before. Now I realized how much I changed, I was really influenced by humans. It made me a little sad having worried my brothers living them so long, but I was more pained missing Bai. Is this the difference between little sister and lover? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+5/XX+6/XXXX+11] 3 years had finally passed. I will be able to see Bai again! I''ll need to find him or he would find me? I want to saw him, hug him, kiss him. Be always with him. I miss you so much. Bai, did you miss me? Chapter 183 - Mayis Diary 3 [XX/XX+7/XXXX+11] Why didn''t you come, Bai? I looked all around, at the academy, at my clan, at your clan. No one knows where are you or what you did these 3 years. Did you run away from me? Did you hate me? Why? Why? Why? Bai, liar! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+3/XX+7/XXXX+11] Maybe something bad had happened to Bai or he wants to abandon me. I won''t let you escape Bai! We will always be together! I promised that I won''t track using pheromones, but you also break your promise. You should forgive me for this. I will find you, Bai! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+2/XXXX+12] Following Bai''s tracking, I found a little village. I don''t like being here, the place and its people smells really bad, all the food is also bad. Just as I entered a bar I was ?ssaulted by lots of people. I killed them all. How can so weak and rotten people stop me from meeting Bai? I went down some long stairs, there a strange aura in the air but it didn''t affect me so I let it be. I beat every people that dared to stop me, lot of masked people wanting to talk. Leave! I have more important things to do! I can sense Bai is near. I am near, Bai! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don''t know what to do. I found Bai, but he wasn''t Bai. The darkness in his interior expanded and now was dominating him. Now it was a white aura that was constricted, it was awake but restricted by the darkness. I think that the aura around this place it helps his darkness. I fought him and I lost. The darkness is named Paul. He is stronger than Bai, but he only won using dirty tricks! Not like I can blame him as in a fight anything goes. But, I don''t want to hurt Bai. Paul kissed me, his kiss was sweet and warm, but a little forceful. I like it, it a little different than the normal Bai but I liked. I should accept Paul as Bai? He was always part of himself, we are one so it will normal to also accept him. But somehow my heart pains me, saying that is wrong. AH!!!! I don''t know what to do. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+5/XX+2/XXXX+12] AHHHHHHH! I don''t know what to do, I don''t want to think about. I''ll beat him, drag him outside this place, returning both to the academy. There we will have a conversation between the three. It''s decided! There''s no need to think about, I''ll use the power of my punches to find an answer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+15/XX+2/XXXX+12] I can''t drag Bai and Paul without knowing how to leave this place so I tried finding some exit, but the place from where I entered is closed, impossible to get out from there. I think that is due to the strange aura, forcing people to stay inside. Finally, I discovered how to leave this place. I was informed by a masked person that I need to beat people 100 times in some arena. They are too weak, so it will be easy. Wait for me Bai, I will drag you out from here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+3/XXXX+12] The arena''s fights are boring. People here never use spirit rings, I don''t know why. They are very easy to beat. Even when I left the arena, a group of more than 30 humans attacked me. Why they don''t use spirit skills? They are spirit masters. I also learned that humans here are really mad. They were very weak but always try to attack Mayi with bloodshot eyes that it had something else in addition to bloodlust that I don''t know, why would they? It became meaningless to count how many people I had killed. I doubt that Bai will be angry at me. I found that Tang San is here. His smell became nicer, especially compared with humans here. But it can''t be compared with my Bai. Tang San is important for Rongrong that is important for Bai. It should be okay if I kill him? I need to remember to ask Yan or Lingling when I met them. Better don''t risk it. I will evade fighting him in the arena just in case. Bai, it won''t be long before we are together again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX/XX+4/XXXX+12] Something very strange is happening. Human are becoming even crazier. Their eyes became bloodshot and started attacking each other. Some even are self-injuring themselves and others'' bodies are exploding in a red mist. A lot of people are attacking me without thinking. They are very weak so I killed everyone, but all of this is very strange. What is happening, Bai? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [XX+1/XX+5/XXXX+12] There''s no one alive except me. There no trace of Bai or Tang San, even my pheromones can''t track Bai, they disappear at the arena. The same as the other humans happened to Bai. No! No! Bai is strong, he should be fine. Where are you, Bai? I don''t know what to do ;( W-what''s that approaching? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [??/??/????] Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! I big red tsunami swallowed me and all the city. I can somehow breathe sunken in it. Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! I can heart hundred of thousands of voices in my head. It''s painful! I am scared! I want to stop them. I want to be with Bai! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [??/??/????] Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! The red liquid disappeared but it''s becoming worst. The voices are increasing. STOP! STOP! Sniff, sniff. I want them to stop. I want to leave. I didn''t eat anything at all. I''m hungry. Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [??/??/????] Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! SHUT UP! Buahhhhhh! I found a red door, it opened letting me outside. But, the voices didn''t stop, they are becoming even stronger. Even hitting my head didn''t work. I want them to stop. I am turning crazy. Bai, I want to die. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [??/??/????] Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! I smelt something yummy, it resembled Bai. I want to eat it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [??/??/????] Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Kill! Die! Hate! Why?! Death! Torture! Suffer! Resent! Hahahahahahahahaha! Delicious it''s delicious Hahahahahahahahaah! I want more. Even the voices lowered being replaced but a more powerful one EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!! I want more! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [??/??/????] EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! Kill! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! Resent! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!! Resent! EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! Kill! DEVOUR!!!!!!!!EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!!!! I could feel all the forest, tiny living specs at my orders. Hahahahaahhahaha! I order EAT!!!! DEVOUR!!!! Kill! Die! EAT!!!!!! DEVOUR!!!!!! I am hungry! Bring me food! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [??/??/????] Hahahahahahaha! I''m hungry! Continue eating! DEVOUR! EAT! Kill! DEVOUR! Resent! EAT! Who is Bai? Chapter 184 - Spirit Beast Lineage "What do you mean?" Bai asked very seriously. "You were wrong. She is alive" Lingling made a difficult face "She is the one behind this crisis. But I doubt that she is in his right state of mind. It''s difficult to explain." Bai was shocked about the news "Mayi is alive?" but quickly recuperated he needed more information "Where is she?!" Bai shouted "And what exactly happened to her?" Lingling looked down "It''s better that you see it with your eyes. I will explain it there" Just as Bai freed her, Lingling started walking along the corridor "Follow me." Chenxiang looked at the worried look of Bai''s face and held his hand. "Xiang" Bai looked at Chenxiang with unfocused eyes. Chenxiang smiled "Don''t worry, Bai. Mayi would be fine. We will do something about it." Bai took Chenxiang hugging her h?ps leaning towards him. Then, he warmly kissed her "Thanks, Xiang." Bai could sense the worry look in Chenxiang a little forced smile "It didn''t matter what happens, I will love you forever." Both holding hands started following Lingling. The group finally left the corridor crossing over a wall made of vines, arriving at a big open area. All the groups with the exception of Lingling were surprised by this place. The reason for their surprise was the high vitality and spirit energy here. It was a big beautiful prairie, full of plants with a little river. The vitality was so thick that the air around was green and it could even touch. It seemed a little paradise, cultivating here will make someone double their results, with half the effort. Bai''s surprise was because he recognized this place, especially the central tree. It was Lingling''s spirit that Lingling had show him before needing to leave. It had evolved so much that it was difficult to relate them as the same. For the people there, he could feel some familiarity from the woman. "Let''s bring you out here before they realize." Said Lingling. Just as she started walking, Lingling stopped still. She made a downcast expression "Too late." A black-purple comet quickly crossed the sky, reaching towards the group. The comet stopped just as it was about to the clash with the ground and gracefully landed showing that in fact was a woman. She was a middle-aged beautiful woman, with a slender body and long legs. She had black and purples scales around her body, with long purple-black hair and deep purple eyes. "How you dare to bring humans, Xie!?" The woman thrust her right arm trying to catch Lingling only to be stopped a sword and a hammer, Tang San and Bai had stepped forward protecting Lingling. They could sense that the woman was a spirit beast, a very strong one at that, more than 200.000 years old. But it wasn''t like they would retract, working all together they had a possibility of winning. The woman became more furious, her eyes slits like of a snake or dragon started shining and killing aura appeared around her body as she seemed to be prepared to charge at Bai''s group. "Stop!" A powerful voice resounded. Listening the voice, the woman fighting intent extinguished, she turned to the origin of the voice with a sorry look. Two people were calmly walking towards them, one man and a woman. Bai and Xiao Wu recognized the woman as the Emerald Swan, Bi Ji. The man was a handsome middle-aged man in a black robe with golden lines who possessed black hair with one golden strand hanging, sharp deep golden pupil eyes, with an at least 2 meters height body and broad shoulders. His right arm was hanging and unresponsive like he couldn''t be able to move, but the aura around him was incredibly dense, he was strong, very strong. If Bai''s group could have fought and won against the purple woman, the man was completely different, they would be crushed by him. "I will not let anyone fight here" The man said before approaching Lingling "If you leave your position again, risking your life, do not blame me for being ruthless." The man looked down at the other humans "I will let alive for Xie. One strange movement and you will be dead before you even know." He said calmly, even without exuding killing intent, Bai''s group didn''t have any doubt that he was serious "You are not permitted to stay here, leave immediately." Without waiting for any answer, he turned around and left, the black-purple woman following him. Bi Yi stood there and looked at Bai''s group sympatrically "Do not think bad about him. We are all very nervous and he is under too much pressure. I apologize from both" She bowed a little. Lifting her head she presented herself as not all of them had met her before "I am Bi Yi, an Emerald Swan spirit beast, second-in-command of the Spirit Beast Lineage. The man that left was our head, the Beast God, Di Tian. For the purple-haired, she was one of the commanders, she is called Zi Ji. They do not get along well with humans, try to not approach them." Then, Bai''s group present themselves to her. "Yiyi." Lingling said "Can you guide them to the Wall? I want them to see our reality and the seriousness of it." Bi Yi showed that she really didn''t want to do it "Please, Yiyi. I know that you don''t like it. But with you there, I''m sure that they won''t be attacked by the others." Bi Yi sighed and nodded turning to Bai''s group "Follow me. I will guide you" Bai''s group accepted, they had stayed very passively in all the conversation because they had too little information. They needed to know more about the situation, it was better to go with the flow before acting. Bai''s group followed Bi Yi towards a wall. Bai turned back seeing that Lingling was not following "You don''t come?" Lingling shook her head "I am not permitted to move from here" She made a forced smile "I already broke the rules leaving and creating a portal to rescue you. It''s better for me to not leave this place. Don''t worry, I have my methods to communicate, I will talk with you when you arrive there." Bai nodded calmly, but in his mind, he wanted to charge over and forcing answers. He with Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Chenxiang followed Bi Yi. Arriving at a wall, Bi Yi''s hand glowed with a green light. The wall opened revealing a similar corridor as the last. The corridor was narrow, enough for only one person to pass, it went over 1km until it finished in a round platform where all of them were able to fit. Once they were on the platform, they discovered that it was an elevator, quickly going up more than a km. Leaving the elevator, seeing what was happening at the exterior, all the group''s eyes opened wide in shock and fright, Bi Yi averted her gaze, some tears falling from her eyes. This was Hell! The ant plague that attacked them was nothing comparing what was there. There were so many ants there that numbers lost their meaning. It was like an infinite neverending black and purple sea, waves furiously crashing over the wall that they stood. At the feet of the wall, vines were slashing the ants, trunks were crashing, sharp leaves were cutting... Countless of plants were repelling with an endless attack at the countless ants that madly charged forward no mattering if for their life. In a second, more than the ants that chased over Bai''s group were killed, but the ants really seemed to have no end. Over the wall, a great number of spirit beast were shooting down throwing different skill to any ant that passed through the plant''s defense, trying to climb over. "T-this is...?" Bai was truly shocked by the image in front of him. "The last defense." Lingling had suddenly appeared next to them "The last fortress stopping them. If we were to fall here. The continent will perish." Chapter 185 - Ants Expansion "How is it that all the ants are being attracted here?" Tang San asked. "The outer part of the forest was mostly intact." "The ants aren''t very intelligent, they only eat everything in their path, focusing on the highest vitality that they can find" Lingling explained "All the spirit beast enough intelligent to be commanded had joined here. We are a big lamp attracting bugs as there''s no higher vitality that the reunite here. Keeping us here, we entered a stall, they are so focused on us that they don''t try to go out. At least for now as if their number were to grow enough they will expand their area of influence. As of now, they are focused on us and Hei Qi." "Hei Qi is also cooperating?" Bai asked surprised. "Not cooperating, but helping. He is staying in his domain, last time that we know of him, he was holding the ants." "How long can you keep up?" Bai asked worriedly. "It depends." Lingling answered "The number of ants is slowly increasing, but we can hold without matter the number of them. The problem is if they decided to attack with all their strength. In that case-" Lingling shook his head "I don''t know." "How could all of this happen?" asked Xiao Wu worriedly. "A fu?k?n? ant ate Mei''s Rose!" from the ground a red-violet rose sprouted, from it a woman surged, it was the one that stood next to the Life Tree. "M-mei?!" now that she was close, Bai could recognize who she was. She was Hua Mei the queen of the Flowery Garden "What happened to you?" "It''s the effects of losing the Black Rose" Bi Yi explained "She wasn''t only its guardian, her own life was linked to it. Once it disappeared her vitality dropped." "If it weren''t for Lili, Mei would have died!" Mei shouted "An ant dug its way towards Mei''s garden. It was so underground that Mei didn''t detect it before it was already too late. It had eaten the Rose and ran away." "This was when you left, Bai" Lingling explained "That attack to the forest was Mei trying to search for the ant. I used my powers to root her with me, Mei vitality was damaged but at least she is alive. Her change is due to her losing vitality. After that event, the Fifteen Ton Ant started mutating. They are the spirit beast with greater numbers, quickly affecting the forest''s life. They became stronger and their huge number increased even more along with their appetite. Before we could react, another great treasure was eaten, the one at the Gem Statue. This changed it all." "The ants became even stronger" Continued Lingling "A casual 10 years being able to easily devour any 100 years beast. They developed an aura like-domain that weakens any attack at them, absorbing part of it. Then Di Tian acted." "He was furious and wanted to do it alone." Bi Yi said with sad tears in her eyes "Tian attacked the anthill all alone, destroying all the ants in his path. The problem was their leader, Tian fought against 3 of them who were over 200.000 years old. He was stronger but fell under a surprise attack by a 4th and stronger ant. This ant bit his right arm, absorbing a great deal of his spirit energy. Even after separating Tian continued to lose energy so he was forced to retreat. His injury is special even me or Lingling can''t heal it. The most that we could do was stop the leaking of energy, he is unable to use his right arm now." "That dragon always too full of himself" Mei complained "If he would have reunited all the Lineage before, we could have vanished the ants all together." "After that, we lost the Venomous Swamp." Bi Yi sadly said "It was too late since then. Their numbers are too high and even if we use all our means to break through them, our strength might be insufficient with Tian weakened and they becoming stronger. Following Tian''s words, any beast under 100.000 years will only be devoured by them, against their leader it will only be useful beast older than 200.000. Only having 4 capable of fighting, we risk being swallowed by them. It''s too risky, even if we win, we might not be able to recuperate." "Only 4?" Asked Xiao Wu "There should be more beasts capable." "The only capable to fight against their leaders are Tian, Zi Ji, Duskgold, and Scarlet Mastiff. Plants spirits are very weakened without any near plant to control and Evil Eye''s mental attack do not work against them. Even create the opportunity of a fight, countless beasts shall die. So we decided to focus all our strength in one place that we were sure to be able to defend" Explained Bi Yi "We choose the one with the highest vitality, Lingling''s Life Tree, and abandoned the Star Lake to be devoured by the ants." "Thanks to Lili, Mei and Greeneye can continue forever fighting without tiring out and keeping most of the ants at bait" Mei said "Even if we can''t move from next to Lili''s tree. Not that it annoys Mei, Mei likes it." "Now I understand why are you are so important, Lingling" Bai said "You''re essential for them without you, this fortress will fall. Normal that Di Tian was so angry at you" Bai stopped for a second "Thanks, Lingling. Truly thank you. You risked all of this to save us, if you were to have died, it would have been the end." Lingling made a difficult smile "You''re my best friend, I can''t abandon at your death if I can do something to stop it." She made a downcast expression "Now I will be caged at praire. Before you ask, this body" She signaled herself "It''s only an avatar made of plants to communicate, I can use my power with it. The same is for Mei that her real body is near my spirit with Myriad." "Cough!" Bi Yi interrupted "If the ants'' leaders attack this place, we have high possibilities of winning them with all collaborating" Bi Yi explained "However, they didn''t seem to leave their anthill. If it passes enough time the ants will expand over the forest. If they absorb a lot of energy, we don''t know if we would be able to continue stopping them." "Humans won''t be able to defend against them" Tang San said. "They won''t cooperate with each other before it''s too late." "Gods" Bai said "It all reduces if a god will appear before it''s too late" Bai turned to San "How much time will you need to reach godhood?" San made a difficult face "I need to help to stop this crisis as a test, so it''s impossible to reach one before solving this" Bai made a thoughtful face (The safest should be to keep the ants in check and wait for someone to reach godhood. Renxue won''t need too much time before she ascends, but this way Mayi will die and the continent will be for Renxue to take.) Seeing his face, Lingling stepped forward "Bai, about Mayi. She is-" "The leader of the ants?" Bai interrupted "At least she is the one that controls all of them. Thinking about that she should be the one who started and the strongest ant." Lingling was surprised by Bai''s deductions "How did you know?" "Mayi and I were 100% spiritually compatibles, I can feel Mayi''s spirit from the ants. It''s very diffuse and strange, but I am sure that I can sense her" Bai explained "Maybe I can reason with her" Bai said for himself. (Why Mayi is acting like this? It must be something about Slaughter City. I need more time to decide a plan). "Now, you understand our crisis" Bi Yi said "As Lingling''s friend you can stay here, but better not do anything. Beasts are suspicious of humans by nature." She was right. Since Bai''s group appeared at the Wall, a great number of spirit beast didn''t stop observing them with anger or contempt. If it weren''t that they were with Bi Yi some of them would have already attack "If you excuse me" Bi Yi said returning inside, her legs were trembling. "Yi had grown always too protected" Mei explained "She isn''t good with death, so she suffers even seeing ants die." Bai''s group could understand her. Even for people used to killing, it wasn''t a place where you want to stay. Outside it was truly hell. Chapter 186 - Meis Anger "Since you''re here, let me taste your vitality" Mei said as vines grew under Bai, Chenxiang, and Tang San "Refrain from resisting, I won''t hurt you or Lili would be angry with me." The vines crawled around, extending all over their bodies. Mei wasn''t lying, she only took a little quantity of spirit energy that contained a part of their essence, if this essence was powerful and compatible enough it would help to improve her strength. Of course, if she wanted to obtain the maximum profit, she would capture them and slowly absorb all their strength and nutrients to finally die. For people without the correct compatibility, they would be useless for her. This was why she didn''t even try with Xiao Wu who wasn''t accepted by the Black Rose. She knew that if Bai had some improvements in his Life comprehension it would help her. For the other two, she noticed something special for them so she opted to try as she wouldn''t lose anything even if they are not compatible. Absorbing their essence Mei was greatly surprised in a good way. Bai''s Life comprehension had reached a completely different level, it was comparable to Lingling back then. Even if it was focused differently and not in plants, it was a great help for her. At Mei''s true body, some white strands recovered their shiny black color showing their increase in vitality. Mei retracted her vines releasing the group "You" Mei pointed at Chenxiang "Return to Lili''s place immediately" she commanded. "What?!" Chenxiang didn''t know how to react towards Mei''s bossy self. She didn''t want to follow such disrespectful behavior and they were banned from coming there before. "You didn''t have listened? Go. NOW!" She ordered, this time vines surged from the ground, their sharp ends staying an inch from Chenxiang''s neck. "Mei" Lingling said worriedly. "Calm down. Be a little more respectful if you want someone''s help" "This shitty humans didn''t reserve our respect." Another vine surged from the ground and slashed forward, this time attacking Tang San who quickly reacted invoking his hammer and smashing the vine with it. This seemed to not be taken well by the other spirit beasts who starting focusing their killing intent towards Bai''s group. "We should squeeze off all their worth and discard them" Something was happening to Mei, her eyes were bloodshot with a tint of purple in them "One related with the ants and another related with that traitor. How can they be so full of themselves? They should lower their heads and follow our orders!" Ten vines surged and attacked Bai''s group. Bai invoked his twin sword, a light green aura covered them. He casually swung his swords, multiple wind blades following it, and cutting the vines to pieces. "DIE! DIE! DIE!" Mei shouted madly, more thorned vines surging all around. "Calm down, everyone!" Lingling begged. Bai turned to Chenxiang, Tang San, and Xiao Wu "Prepare to run away" The three nodding. The four activated their own spirits, spirit rings shining under them. They prepared to fight their way out. Just as they were about to move "WHAT IS HAPPENING!?" a powerful growl, fell under them, suppressing them. It was Di Tian who had arrived at the Wall with Zi Ji. "Humans are already showing their true nature" Zi Ji said "How can they be trusted?" "Shut the fu?k up!" Mei shouted "Don''t disturb me!" The vines changed the objective and were shot towards Tian and Zi Ji. Both were shocked by Mei''s actions, but Tiand calmly acted. Around his left punch, absolute darkness surged. He swung his punch, all the vines disappeared before his darkness. "Mei is not right!" Lingling shouted "Something is happening to her. I can sense some darkness invading her." Di Tian glanced at the humans "Is this your doing?" "We don''t know what is happening!" Chenxiang shouted. "Are you mocking us?" Zi Ji exclaimed "Just as you came, this happens to Mei. You''re obviously trying to destroy us." "It''s the ants" Bai said "It''s not near the level of the ants, but Mei is being influenced by the same as the ants." "The brat is right" A new voice sounded from the ground, roots surged from it blocking Mei''s veins. "Myriad, what are you referring?" Di Tian asked, clearly realizing that the voice came from the Myriad Demon King. He was a Demoneye Tree. With Mei, they were the two spirit beasts plants that commanded the other plants, Mei controlled flowers and grass while Myriad trees and bushes. Without any doubt, both were the most important and essential at the defense from the ants, even more than the Beast God Di Tian. "I didn''t realize it before but it seems that as we kill the ants, we are slowly being affected by their aura. It was so progressive that it was difficult to detect" Myriad informed "Mei killed even more than me being affected more. Finding herself psychologically affected might have distorted her feelings, letting the aura take over and losing control of herself." he explained "The humans might be the culprits to cause some stir in Mei, but the main cause is the ants, it will have happened sooner or later. After some time, even I might fell like Mei." "How is the defense affected by Mei''s tantrum?" asked Tian prioritizing the well being of all the spirit beasts. "For now, there no problem. She even increased her speed and is killing more ants. However, it''s difficult to know when she will start attacking us" Explained Myriad. "Can you do something to calm her?" Zi Ji asked. "I''m also affected." Answered Myriad "The most that I could do would be trying to absorb some of the aura, but in the end, even if she recovers, we will fall later on. Also, I will be the only plant capable of it as the other will die trying it." "I can purify it. However..." Lingling said "My Life will be affected in it, decreasing. I will affect at the spirit beast that I help, especially the plants. At most, I will be able to do it one time before we are too weak to stop the ants." Tian made a thoughtful face. "Do it" he said after thinking a minute "We need to quickly resolve it before it became truly a problem. We will need to resolve before it repeated again." "Cough!" Bai coughed gaining the attention of the spirit beasts that had started ignoring them "I might have another solution" "Don''t meddle with our affai-!" Zi Ji was silenced by Tian who had lifted his left arm "Talk" Spirit beasts were in grave danger, Tian had long since made up his mind to keep them alive. For him, it didn''t matter even selling his soul to a demon if it were to save them all. He would put his hate for the humans aside for the greater good of the spirit beasts. For this, he never doubted cooperating with Lingling. "For what I see, the aura of the ants are about Death, Madness, and Devour while Mei''s aura is fundamentally Life and Growth" Bai explained "While I have different comprehension in them, I am able to wield all of them. I might be able to help her only absorbing the ants'' aura without affecting me. At worst, I will be killed. You don''t have anything to lose." "Do you think that we will trust you?" Zi Ji interrupted "What if your true intention is hurting Mei or Lingling?!" "They are friends of mine. Moreover, I don''t have anything to win with it" (Fuck) Just as the words leave his lips, Bai realized he should have it told better, it was too easy to counter with his relation with Mayi. "What if-" "I trust Bai" Lingling interrupted Zi Ji "Let him try it. Trust me about Bai, he won''t hurt me or Mei. Until you let Bai try it, I won''t purify Mei." This made the spirit beasts an ultimatum. For most spirit beasts, they had long accepted Lingling as one of them, even at the level of Bi Ji. Bi Ji was the most loved by spirit beast due to kindness and healing over the spirit beasts. Lingling not only had healed spirits beasts for over 6 years, but the plants considered her like something sacred. With this crisis, she even became more important becoming one of the three essential pillars with Mei and Myriad. Spirit beast trust her, so it was difficult to contradict her. "He will be allowed to try. But..." Tian stated "Myriad, the venom" In front of Tian a little branch grew from it, in it, a green round little fruit grew "He will need to swallow Myriad''s poison" Tian said throwing the green fruit to Bai who caught it "If you do try something strange, don''t think about living. This poison will be activated and corrode your whole body." More branches with fruits grew in front of Chenxiang, Xiao Wu, and Tang San. "I won''t risk it. All of you shall eat it." Bai turned to the others and nodded at them. One error could signify their death, but for them, it wasn''t like it changed anything having poison inside as with so much spirit beast, they won''t be able to escape. It was even more true with Bai''s 5th Oreo. Something suddenly prepared by Myriad it wouldn''t be his strongest poison, Bai was sure that his skill be enough to cure them of it if necessary. "Come alone, human" Tian said at Bai bringing him towards the elevator, descending towards Lingling''s lair. Chapter 187 - Healing Mei Bai followed closely by Di Tian, walked towards Lingling''s tree where Mei''s true body was. Approaching the tree, Bai could sense the great increase of vitality in the air, every breath seemed to improve his body. Bai reached Mei who had her eyes closed as she was focused on the outside. Next to her, stood Myriad in a similar position and Lingling who was standing with a worried face looking at Mei and Bai. "What are you planning, Bai?" asked Lingling "I know that face of yours, you are thinking about something else apart from healing Mei." "You know me well" Bai smiled at Lingling "My main objective is healing her, but I want to try something about the ants'' aura. Don''t worry it won''t affect Mei." "Hurry up" Myriad said "Mei is becoming worst. I won''t keep her in check much time before it affects the defense against the ants." "I will start" Bai approached Mei whose face was all tense, making a suffering expression, laying his right hand over Mei''s forehead. This was one of the times that Bai was thankful for his new torso spirit bone. If his body didn''t become like a sword, he would need to actually invoke his spirits, even piercing Mei with a Life focused one to increase his potency. Of course, doing this would have provoked Di Tian to attack him even if he didn''t mean anything bad. Once Bai''s palm touched Mei''s forehead, Bai focused his spirit and mental energy over Mei, adjusting covering with Life Intent to make it more similar to Mei, this way he won''t be attacked by the own Mei, only by the invading aura. (Devour! Death! Eat! Resent! Devour! Ear! Kill!) Bai''s mind was suddenly attacked by negative feelings, he stepping back unconsciously. Bai closed his eyes and focused on his own mind space. Even when he only was connected to Mei for an instant the negative feeling persisted, but they were so little and weak that it was easy to ignore them. When facing such influencing aura in your own body, there were mostly two methods to fight it to extinction, not affecting you. Fighting it with an opposite attribute, this was effective as both of them will cancel each other, the problem is that will weaken oneself and if it surpasses your power it would start to affect you. Bai supposed that this was the case for Mei even if she fought it unconsciously. The other was overpower with a similar attribute with a greater comprehension behind. In this case, the new invading aura will only make oneself stronger being devoured nourishing oneself. Of course, if the invading aura had a greater comprehension than yours, it didn''t matter if there very little of it, it could completely devour yours, almost instantly falling under its control. Bai wanted to try the second option. Trying with a very weak quantity at first to compare with his own Slaughter. Even if the ants'' aura was stronger than him, he was sure to stop such a little aura for affecting him. This was why he was the perfect one to heal Mei, his Life Intent would permit go over Mei''s defense while his Slaughter will devour the invading aura. Bai focused his Slaughter Intent over the tiny ants'' aura, seeing that even if the aura tried to fight it quickly fell pray from his Slaughter. Making sure that he could face against it, Bai opened his eyes decisive to try it on Mei. It wouldn''t be the same as fighting the high concentration aura would mean greater risk, but at least he was sure to be able to face it without instantly falling for it. Bai''s hand started glowing with warm green and white light, putting over Mei again. (DEVOUR! DEATH! EAT! RESENT! DEVOUR! EAT! KILL!DEVOUR! DEATH! EAT! RESENT! DEVOUR! EAT! KILL!DEVOUR! DEATH! EAT! RESENT! DEVOUR! EAT! KILL!) This time the effect was much greater but Bai didn''t step back. Bai put his left hand over Mei''s head, using both his Life and Death comprehensions, he pushed the ant''s aura with Life while encasing it with Slaughter. Bai''s left hand started glowing black and purple as the ants'' aura was slowly leaving Mei, being transmitted towards Bai. As the aura was leaving Mei, Mei''s face was relaxing while Bai''s was becoming tenser. Bai clenching his teeth trying to keep up with the new invading aura. After 30 minutes, Bai''s hands stopped glowing, separating from Mei. Mei opened her eyes that recuperated her usual shining jewelry red, not the bloodshot one. Her sight wasn''t clouded at all as she was completely free of the ants'' aura influence Mei looked at Bai with a worried and remorseful look "Sorry, Bai" Tears were filling her eyes "Sorry to all for attacking you. "Thank you so much Bai!" She said between sobs. "You''re welcome." Bai said with a painful expression forcing a smile "Can someone bring me out of here? I need to destroy the aura." Bai''s work didn''t have finished, he had healed Mei but now he needed to destroy the aura without affecting himself. If he achieved it, there wouldn''t be any more worry about Myriad and Mei accumulating more as Bai could take it over. If Bai fell under it, let''s say that for the beasts it was better him than Lingling, Mei, or Myriad. They would be thankful to have gained a little more time. Bai found himself being lifted by Di Tian who carried him like a potato sack. Di Tian brought him at a room near the limit of the spirit beasts fortress. If it was here even if Bai fell prey of the aura, it wouldn''t be difficult to throw him outside without affecting the plants. Tian let Bai over the ground. "Good work. Try to survive" Tian said with an arrogant tone, even with it, it was Tian accepting the human in front of him. It wouldn''t be like a spirit beast, but he developed some trust towards Bai, excluding him for his hate towards humans. Bai sat in a lotus position and started meditating. He quickly entered a trance state, entering his own mind space. Bai started fighting against the ants'' aura, however he didn''t try to overpower it with his Slaughter, devouring. He was trying to isolate it and control it. Since Bai had discovered Mei''s condition, he had thought of this plan. He had too little information about the ants, but he was sure that something terrible was happening to Mayi that she was not in her sanity. If he wanted to heal Mayi, he should be able to destroy what was controlling or at least affecting her, but seeing the power of controlling such a great number of ants, plus all the treasures that she ate, Bai wasn''t sure if his Slaughter could overpower what was affecting Mayi, the most probable being that not. He wanted to treat Mei for healing her and to obtain the refined ants'' aura as contrary to the own ants, Mei didn''t fuse as one with it, being able to obtain a more concentrated and pure one. Bai''s idea was to obtain the aura to learn about its characteristics and if possible find a weakness that would require less strength to face it. This was Bai''s second reason to treat Mei. Of course, trying to completely isolate the aura and control it, it was several levels more difficult and riskier than overpowering with his Slaughter. Bai was under great suffering due to this, but instead of crying a grin appeared in Bai''s face. Comparing when the pain of the torso absorption or losing Mayi, this was nothing. If there was a possibility to save Mayi, he would take it. Questions about what would happen after she is safe, like his relationship with Chenxiang, were ignored. The first was saving her. After 6 torturous hours, Bai opened his eyes, finishing taking control of the aura. Bai opened his left hand, over his palm a purple and black aura like-flame was floating, this was similar to the ants'' aura. "Now, what do I have here?" Chapter 188 - Meis Past "Did you finish?" Di Tian said looking down at Bai. "When will you be able to purify Myriad?" Bai closed his palm, the flame-like aura disappearing completely "I am a little tired now. But there won''t be any problem with doing it tomorrow. It would be far easier now that I am more familiar with it" Tian nodded "You can take this room as yours. I will come to find you tomorrow. Meanwhile, as a repayment, you''re free to roam around the fortress but evade going to Lingling''s area" He said before leaving. Now that he was alone, Bai finally observed the room that it seemed to have become his. Like all in the fortress, the walls and ceiling were formed by vines and trunks. The ground was formed by soft green grass. The room had two chairs and a table made from wood and a comfy bed made by what it seemed to be leaves "Plants spirit had it easy to make constructions" Bai smiled to himself. "It''s not so easy" From the ground a red and violet petalled rose sprouted, from it leaving Mei "It requires a lot of control and strength, followed by a gigantic and continuous source of vitality" Mei puffed her ?h?st "It''s only because of the incredible combination of Mei and Lili''s power. That Greeneye is unnecessary." "I''m glad that you''re like always" Bai chuckled "It seems that growing didn''t change you." "Don''t laugh at Mei, Bai!" Mei puffed her cheeks "Mei didn''t grow is only a weakening. When Mei recover Mei will return to my usual and beautiful form. Mei hates being like this." "I don''t think that it looks bad on you. It''s simply a more ?du?t figure, you are beautiful" Bai said smirking. Mei glanced at Bai with a death glare "Bai!" However, she quickly calmed down. She looked down and shily said "Sorry, Bai" "I already said that there''s no need. I even obtained benefits helping you, like this room" "Mei could have killed you all. Mei''s vision turned red and voices were whispering Mei to kill you" Mei said with a sad tone "If Mei wasn''t stopped by Greeneye, Mei would have lashed with all the others, even destroying the base. Truly thanks for stopping Mei even risking your life" Bai approached Mei. Then, he flickered his finger over Mei''s forehead "Ouch!" complained Mei putting her hands over her forehead, it was more an instinct act as in this avatar she wouldn''t be able to feel pain "What are you doing, brat?!" "This is more like Mei" Bai smiled "A Mei that don''t complain is not a real Mei, only try to not use the force" This gained Bai another death glare. "I see that you''re getting along" Lingling''s avatar had appeared from the wall "I''m glad." "Like Hell, Mei could get alone with a filthy human. Hum!" Mei looked away. From the door, a yellow light flashed, Chenxiang appearing over Bai. She launched towards Bai hugging him "I was so worried that anything could have happened, Bai" She leaned her head over Bai''s ?h?st with some tears in her eyes. "Tock! Tock!" Tang San and Xiao Wu knocked at the door that was already opened "Maybe we bother. Do you want some intimacy?" Bai broke the kiss, keeping Chenxiang in his arms "I doubt that it''s possible in this place" He said turning towards Mei and Lingling. This caused the at the room except the two to laugh. "You''re not wrong, but it''s for security" Lingling tried to explain only for more laughs to come. "Now that you are all here. Mei wants to also apologize to you" Mei interrupted seriously "Sorry for the outbursting, lashing towards all of you" Mei bowed a little. "You were controlled, so no problem at all. It wasn''t you" Xiao Wu said swinging her hand like if it didn''t matter at all. The others making similar answers. "Now that I think why did you get angry?" Bai asked "I know that it was for the ants'' aura but there should be something that upset you." "Oh, that?" Mei said her tone becoming a bit angrier "It was mostly due to him!" She glanced at Tang San "As I already knew youe relationshio with the ant, Bai" "What have I done that can upset you?" Tang San asked confused. "It''s not your actions. It''s Ah Yin, I can sense your resembled with her. What is your relation with her?" "She is my mother" Tang San answered "What did she wrong you?" "She is a traitor" Mei said "She was part of the Flowery Garden but run away. You know how difficult to cultivate grass is?" She said angrily "I put a lot of effort and resources to make her grow as for us flower spirits the grass under us is extremely important." She even became more furious "But when she reached 100.000 years and was time to repay the community, she decided to reincarnate as a human and run away! All the resources wasted!" Mayi complained. Tang San was shocked by the news. He hadn''t communicated much with her mother, not growing with her, so he never knew about her origins before becoming human. Listening to Mei''s story, it was normal for her to be angry at his mother. It might have some hidden reasons behind, but for Mei, it was clearly treason. Tang San kneeled on the ground facing Mei "I apologize for my mother. And I would receive any punishment that you considered fair in her name." "Mei already attacked you with the intention to kill you, there''s no need for more" Mei said coldly. "Anyway, I''m not a flower that will push the blames of parents to their sons. You had never done anything bad to Mei, so sorry for before." Then she looked at Tang San''s eyes and made a sad smile "I''m glad that at least she found happiness away from us, even having a child". Tears started filling Tang San''s eyes, even he didn''t know why "Could I at least help in anything?" Mei made a thoughtful look while looking up and down at Tang San "You are also a Blue-Silver Grass Emperor. You can help to grow and making stronger the grass from Lingling''s place." "It will be my honor!" Tang San finally stood up. "I will inform Tian and the other beasts and plans to let you enter. Don''t worry about" Mei stopped for a second and her face turned a little red and asked shily "Could you explain some stories about sis Yin?" Mei eyes open widely realized what she called Ah Yin "Nothing of sis, ignore it. Mei''s only a little curious about her, Mei''s not worried at all." she tried badly to justify gaining a chuckle from everyone "Don''t laugh?!" She shouted puffing her cheeks. "I don''t know much about mother, but I will explain it all" Tang San smiled "Would you explain stories about her with you?" Mei crossed her arms "If there no other option" Tang San smiled and left the room. Mei was about to disappear but she seemed to realize something as she turned towards Chenxiang and Bai "I will be glad if you would also help us, Light" She said referring to Chenxiang "Your light will be helpful for our growth, much better than the normal sun. I will also give you permission to enter Lingling''s place" She started sinking in the ground "For you Bai, Mei already obtained your intent, there''s no need for you to help so don''t came" Mei looked away "But I won''t complain if you want to talk with Mei." She said before disappearing underground "We are all tired, I will let you alone" Lingling winked at Bai and Chenxiang before disappearing leaving them alone. Chenxiang looked at Bai and charged at him kissing him, her tongue invading his mouth, both falling to the bed. She broke the kiss and looked at Bai''s eyes "Will you find it strange if I say that knowing that we could be seen makes me a little horny?" she said with a completely red face, very embarrassed. "It would only make you more special" Bai answered kissing her "I love you, with all of you. Moreover" Bai then whispered at her ear "I found it s?xy" Chenxiang became redder kissing him again. That night some m??ns could be heard from Bai''s room while at Lingling''s place, Lingling couldn''t sleep that night, her face completely red. Chapter 189 - Preparations In a wide room inside the spirit beasts'' last fortress, stood a young man. It was difficult to see who he was as there were 9 swords rapidly orbiting over him. They moved so precisely not touching between them and quickly that there wasn''t any opening to see the young man that seemed covered in a sphere twister. "Fuuuuu!" The young man exhaled. The swords broke the formation piercing the ground around the young man finally revealing him, a handsome black-white haired young man that of course, it was Bai. At his hands stood a long weapon surrounded by a purple aura that made it difficult to see through. The weapon disappeared as he fell to the ground sitting on it. He was all sweety and was panting but a smile was at his face. He lifted his right hand, clenching it "With this, I have an opportunity." Bai opened his hand a black aura appeared over it. This wasn''t his usual Slaughter, it was the refined result of the ants'' aura. From it, a great suction strength could be sensed, capable of absorbing both energy and physical objects. Somehow, Bai didn''t find affected by it at all. 1 month had passed since Bai''s group came to the spirit beasts'' fortress. In this time, Tang San and Chenxiang had helped at Lingling''s place that was continuously growing, its vitality aura growing stronger every day as the Life Tree increased its size. Moreover, they also trained themselves with the help of spirit beasts. Mei helping Tang San to strengthen his Blue-Silver Grass Emperor, and Chenxiang learning more about light manipulation from light attributes beasts. Experience was very important when fighting and there were little humans that could compare with long-aged spirit beasts that had lived hundreds of thousands of years. Xiao Wu focused on searching for her brothers Er Ming and Da Ming. Finally, she found them completely safe over the Wall, making Xiao Wu extremely relieved and happy that nothing had happened to her brothers. They were in charge of shooting down the flying ants. There were very few ants with wings but all of them were kinda strong, at least 10.000 years old. With the ants'' defense was very difficult to quickly kill them, but stopping their flight was much easier, so Er Ming and Da Ming mostly used their domains. Er Ming''s increase of gravity made them fall to the ground and Da Ming lowered the speed of their wings making it not enough to fly. Once they fell to the ground, it was Mei and Myriad''s job. Talking with her brothers, Xiao Wu also discovered that they almost die being attacked by what they thought was the leader of the ants. If it weren''t for Bi Yi''s subordinates helping them escape they would have been eaten by the ants. She also discovered that the anthill of the ants was situated where they lived, Lake number 3. After Da Ming and Er Ming were attacked, the ants made it their lair. For Bai''s part, after purified Myriad, he passed all his time training, especially in how to confront the incredible number of ants and some methods to stop Mayi. After this time analyzing the aura, Bai was 100% sure that Mayi was being affected by an external force and she was not in her right mind. He also deducted that it was improbable that she was controlled by someone, it was only that she was in an altered state due to Slaughter City as he could feel the familiar feeling from the City in the ants'' aura. Bai speculated that Mayi had turned mad at the City, then she started controlling other ants, infecting them with her madness and making them stronger. As Mayi was a Ten Thousands Catties Ant Empress, she wasn''t only strong, she kept the Fifteen Ton Ant Queen''s ability to control other ants. Being an empress, it should have even more power to control other ants, being able to even take control of the others queens, making control the ants of the forest an easy matter, Bai thought that Mayi''s state was his fault, so he decided to take care of it alone without the help of anyone. Bai waited for the night to come, as the ants were more active at night while the plants were less, the spirit beasts would be more busy facing them. Bai hid his presence and went up the Wall. Wings appeared at his back, he wouldn''t put anyone at risk, he would do it alone "Let''s start!" He said for himself. He flapped his wings, starting to flight towards the anthill. "Shinx!" Suddenly there was a flash of light, Chenxiang appeared in front of Bai blocking him "Don''t you dare to go alone!" Chenxiang said with an angry face. "Don''t take all the fun alone" Behind Bai stood Tang San and Xiao Wu. "It''s also part of our trial, so of course we will help you" Xiao Wu hummed. "Do you know that it mostly a suicide mission with only my suppositions as the base?" Bai said. "More for you not going alone" argued Chenxiang "The probability will increase with our help. And don''t think for a moment that you will able to free from me so easy." She glanced at Bai decided. Bai recognized that face from when she promised to chase him. Chenxiang had already made up her mind, making impossible to convince her against. "Okay, you can come." Bai sighed in resignation "Thank you" he said in low voice, truly glad to have people to trust and accompany him in this death and life situation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ At the Life Tree, Lingling had tried to also go and help Bai but she was stopped by Di Tian. It was also Lingling who warned Chenxiang, Tang San, and Xiao Wu about Bai''s plans as she had observed Bai all this time and was sure that he would try something alone. "Tian, pleas-" "Don''t force me to break your legs and plant you here" Di Tian threatened Lingling "You better than anyone know that you must stay here, you can''t help him, but" Di Tian said with a serious voice "While it didn''t condemn us, we will do something" He looked at Lingling''s worried face with a sad smile, even if he didn''t accept the other human and would never forgive him, Lingling was completely different and he could accept her as one more "Don''t worry" Chapter 190 - Operation Start "Let''s go!" Bai shouted. He took Tang San while Chenxiang took Xiao Wu. After reaching spirit sage, the spirit masters are able to fly using their own spirit energy, but both in speed and maneuverability it can''t be compared with actually possessing wings, flying spirit master being completely in advantage fighting in the air. Bai''s wings started glowing with a light green while lightning was flowing for them, maximizing his speed. Chenxiang''s 4 wings expanded reflecting a beautiful multicolored light. Both flapped their wings shooting to the sky. Even if the sky was not infested as the ground, there were a lot of ants flying, charging towards them "Don''t stop! Breakthrough!" Bai''s 8 spirit rings surrounded him, his 5th shining brightly. Hundreds of different colored swords appeared around Bai, they started spinning, orbiting around Bai''s group, creating a powerful tornado surrounding them. Any ant that charged towards them was indiscriminately sliced in pieces by the sharps blade running at high speed. Bai''s 5th skill coordination and power was greatly increased thanks to Bai''s 8th skill and the new comprehension of the wind element, the hard shells of the ants were cut like bu??er while Bai''s 6th ring shined, recovering his mental and spirit energy lost with any kill. To able to pass through the swords, the ants should be older than 50.000 years. There were some that were older but it was a great minority. In those cases, instead of crashing with it and risk destroying the formation, Bai precisely controlled his swords, creating for an instant an opening, letting the ant pass through, directly cutting it activating his first four skill and slaughter aura. While the ants were very strong, they only charged madly and were very easy to read and counterattack, the only problem was their great numbers. Bai''s group continued charging unstoppable to their objective. As they approached, the number of ants coming towards them increased, clouds of them charging towards them. Bai was forced to lower his speed, decrease the radium of his swords'' orbits, and focus more of his mental power and intent over them, increasing their spinning speed and power. Bai even activated his All Sword: Retaliation covering his sword formation. This time instead of killing the stronger ants, he stopped them diverting him from his way and leaving them behind. As he was approaching the anthill, slaughtering his way over the unlimited number of ants, Bai''s sword started trembling, they started resonating with each other. This made their power to increase another level and for Bai to start sweating cold. "You''re too green. I will wait a little more before I reap you" Hei Qi''s voice resounded in Bai''s mind. The anthill was near the Steel Dump where Hei Qi resided as its King. This was of the aspects that Bai was uncertain about, if Hei Qi made a move against him, he was finished. So Bai sighed in relief knowing that at least he wouldn''t be attacked by Hei Qi in this operation. On the contrary, it even was beneficial for him. The Steel Dump was the nearest Death Area from the anthill making it a principal objective to attack for the ants. Even if the spirit beasts fortress had a higher vitality, the Steel Dump was attacked by a similar number of ants due to its proximity. If it weren''t for it, the weight of the other spirit beasts would have been several times higher, maybe they wouldn''t be able to cope with it. For Bai, it made his intrusion easier, lowering the number of ants. Bai could precisely sense the might of the Steel Dump. Like his formation, swords danced around unstoppable. However, there were millions of swords, affecting a much greater area, killing a much greater number of ants with strength several levels greater. It was even more impressive knowing that he had lasted a year like this. Hei Qi''s power alone was enough to surpass the combination work of Lingling, Myriad, Mei, and the other spirit beasts, at least facing against the army of ants. Making Bai glad that he didn''t have to face him now, and a little frightened knowing that in the future waited a fight against him. Bai''s group finally arrived 1 kilometer over the anthill, a 100 meters tall hill made of ground elevated from where a lake had stood before, on top of it a hole to enter underground, heavily guarded by multiple and powerful ants. From now own, flying wouldn''t be an option to continue. "Prepare to descent" Bai released Tang San as his rings shined, maximizing his attributes. The sword formation exploded, the swords shooting everywhere creating an opening from the ants for an instant as it would take much time before the ants filled again. Bai''s 5th ring shined brightly, rounds of swords appeared surrounding him, forming eleven circles of swords, the swords of each circle with the same color and different from the others, creating a pillar with Bai in the middle. The swords pointed and the ground and the circles of swords slowly spun on itself. Bai''s 7th ring started shining "<7th skill: Colored Glazed Sword Avatar>!" The swords'' circles started spinning at great speed, their image defusing, only the color could be seen, even hiding Bai. All the circles started twisting around each other like a tornado was created. Finally, forming a 50 meters long sword similar to Bai''s swords, with a blade that continuously moved like a raging tornado. This was the maximum strength of Bai''s spirit avatar, Bai himself becoming the sword. It had great destructive power but lacked flexibility being possible to be evaded. It was more of a one time attack, especially effective against static constructions, perfect for this time. The sword descended, a powerful aura around it that twisted the air, decimating every ant in its way. "BOOOOOOOM!" The sword pierced through the anthill, disintegrating the ants guarding it and completely destroying the hill in a tornado of eleven colors. Leaving a giant sword piercing the ground, under it the hill had become a 300 meters wide and 1-kilometer deep crater completely absent of any ant, with some caverns around it. Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Chenxiang quickly landed near the sword before the confused ants regrouped. The giant sword dispersed, appearing Bai surrounded by swords. Bai extended both hands "Open!" Bai''s 8th ring shined "<8th skill: Void Formation Domain>"al l the swords started shining with a light green glow in addition to their previous intent. The sword formation expanded, cutting the air and forming a dome that covered the crater created by the sword. The swords didn''t spin around, instead, they stood still shrouded by the light green glow. Any ant that tried to pass them, started shuddering, it didn''t take many meters before they fell to the ground death. This area was similar to Tao Yi''s void area, but focused in lethality. Any ant would find itself unable to breathe and his spirit energy absorbed, finally dying. "How much will last?" asked Chenxiang. "10 minutes. Then we will be swallowed by ants" Bai answered. "This is too little!" Xiao Wu shouted. It might be different if Bai stayed there, but without him, the dome wouldn''t last before the ants'' aura devour it, breaking the void effect. This only gave a margin of 10 minutes to find Mayi and beat her. Bai knew that it was too little to go across the anthill''s labyrinth and fight Mayi, but it was the most that he would be able to put. "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" A powerful roar resounded over Bai''s group disorienting the ants. Over them an enormous dragon over 500 meters long whose body was covered with pitch-black scales that shone with a dark purple glow. The dragon landed killing countless ants. Then started thrashing around, around him pure darkness disintegrated any ants that dared to approach him. "GRRRRRRRR!" Another dragon descended, this was smaller, its aura was weaker, and its scales were purple. Around it, a purple-black aura extended creating an abysm under it, seemingly without a bottom. The ants sunk in the abysm dying inside it. "BAAAAM!" A giant bear with long claws came to the sky. It swung his long claws, cutting even the space around it, obliterating 500 meters of ants with every swing. More spirit beast came, showing their great strength against the ants. It was like a film of Godzilla thrashing buildings around. Nevertheless, it greatly stopped most of the ants of returning to their anthill, making Bai''s dome formation be able to last much more. The bigger black dragon gazed down at Bai with his big golden eyes "We will only delay them a little, ?ssuring our safety" Di Tian''s voice could be heard from it "Go!" He ordered. "Thank you" Bai bowed a little before he, Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Chenxiang started running, entering a cavern, entering the ant''s lair. Chapter 191 - Across the Labyrinth The interior of the anthill was similar to a labyrinth of underground caverns tunnels about 3 meters tall with many different paths that resembling branches twisted and diverged in more paths. Being underground, all the place completely equal made it incredibly difficult to oriented there and even more difficult to find a concrete place. Moreover, all the walls were imbued in the same aura as the ants that devoured energy. This forced to Bai''s group to keep absolute control of their own spirit energy to avoid leaving their body. It also caused it to be impossible to sense its intern structure as the mental energy would quickly diffuse, being impossible to sense more than 10 meters away from one, not helping in finding your correct path. Fortunately, Bai was very s?ns?t?v? to Mayi''s presence, being able to sense something like a pull from him. He didn''t know if this was actually the shortest path, a previously crossed path by Mayi or some dead end, but it was better following his instinct rather than running like headless chickens. Bai''s group formation was Bai at the front, followed by Chenxiang and Tang San with Xiao Wu at the back. Bai was at the front guiding and quickly killing the ants at the front. Tang San at the middle to control the battle if there was the need, Chenxiang at the middle to quickly react if anyone needed help and Xiao Wu at the back due to her greater instinct and defense than the others. The group advanced without stopping, compared with outside the ants were less here and with the limited space, it was difficult for the ants to use their numbers "Xiang, left!" Chenxiang quickly reacted, her wings glowed and turned sharper and collided with her hand. She thrust her wing at the wall just as the head of an ant was digging its way out. The wing penetrated the ant''s head instantly killing it. This was the most dangerous of the anthill. The ants not only attacked from the path, but they could also create new ones, surprising attacking the group as they sensed the invaders. Thankfully, Bai could detect them. He activated his Mind Eye the minimum only covering their surroundings without much precision. What he could detect wasn''t their presence, it was the degree of absorption. Bai''s mental strength was continuously being drained by the walls, however, the ants'' suction was stronger, so Bai focused on this difference. Detecting a place that absorbed more, meaning that an ant was about to attack from them. This method was possible thanks to two factors. The ants weren''t intelligent, always charging madly to them. If they were about to wait and follow them, Bai could know that they were near, but not when they would attack. The other factor was thanks to the number of ants, thanks to Bai''s 6th ring, each kill recovered him, this was essential to keep using his Mind Eye with such a great energy''s expense. As they continued advancing, strangely, the number of ants decreased instead of increasing "Be extremely aware. I will stop continuously searching" Bai warned. Due to the low number of ants, he couldn''t waste his mental strength like that as he needed to be fully prepared for the unknown that waited for them, keeping the Mind Eye becoming inviable. Now they could only depend on their physical senses, even so, the ants'' attack lowered a lot so they didn''t have much of a problem. For the number of ants decreasing, Bai could think of two hypotheses. He was wrong and it wasn''t going to the empress, making a wasted trip and forcing them to retreat. Or the actual empress didn''t create new ants and she only controlled the queens. This queen would be in another place, producing ants in great numbers. This way the numbers of ants passing through the empress'' way would be less, while if they directed towards a queen it would increase. Of course, this was only a hypothesis, they would need to reach an end to see their result. After advancing for 1 hour, they could see a light at the final of the tunnel, strange as they were undoubtedly underground and there''s no way to leave outside. The tunnel opened forming a huge cave. The cave was a kilometer long with a 20 meters tall. The light from the cave was formed by green and black crystals that shined all around the cave. Entering the cave, Bai''s group found themselves being oppressed by a strong aura, needing to revolve their spirit energy to keep up. Looking at the front, they could see the final of the cave, a little gate 2 meters tall. Guarding it and emitting the previous aura were three ants. Fifteen Ton Ants were around 10 cm long at 10 years old, 20 cm at 100 years old, 30 cm at 1.000 years old, and 70 cm at 10.000 years old. Finally, reaching 1 meter at 30.000 years old until being 3 meters long when they were 90.000 years olds. About what they became when reaching 100.000 years old, nobody knew it as it never had been documented an ant reaching that age. Even in Mayi''s case, she became human when reaching 100.000 years old and she didn''t invoke an astral projection of her spirit, as it only manifested as armor around her. Now, Bai''s group discovered how they were. Undoubtedly, the three ants in front were older than 100.000, maybe even surpassing 200.000. They were two meters tall, stood on the ground with two strong legs and they were a little curved, their heads lowering to 1,60 meters. Their body was formed by three parts, the head, a straight thorax, and a round and lifted abdomen that seemed more like a tail. All of it was covered by a golden red hard carcass that shined with a black glow. From the thorax 6 extremities surged, two used to keep them on standing on the ground while the others were hanging. Their 6 extremities were identical, they were wide as a human and ended with four 10cm sharp claws. Their head was round, two big eyes in the middle of it with 4 other little ones surrounding the bigs, all of them were compound eyes that shined with a purple glow. With four mandibles at the bottom of the head with a mouth that seemed a black hole. With 4 antennas resting over their head that seemed to twitch under Bai''s group''s presence. "CRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The three ants shrieked at Bai''s group presence. They leaned their body at the ground, putting two more arms on the ground. They disappeared, appearing in front of Bai''s group. They crossed the 1-kilometer distance in the blink of an eye. "!" Bai quickly reacted, the air around them turned white as white shields manifested in front of Xiao Wu, Tang San, and Chenxiang. The ants'' claws quickly pierced through them, but Bai''s group had gained enough time to activate their spirit and step back, evading the thrusting claws. "Crrrrrr" The ant''s'' body trembled and seemed that they were laughing "Wer srtrorng!" their mandibles vibrated and a penetrating and hoarse voice surged from it. They were strong, it was without a doubt that physically even Di Tian would lose against them, it was normal that they could keep him busy and injuring him. On Bai''s hand, his twin swords appeared, 8 rings surging under him. He prepared to charge to the ants "Bai. Continue!" Chenxiang shouted. "We will stop them" Tang San said. "3vs3 it won''t be a problem for us" Xiao Wu reasoned. "Bai you''re objective is healing Mayi and stopping all this shit" said Chenxiang "We will keep them here while you face Mayi. Trust us." Chenxiang''s 4 wings extended, All her body started shining with all the visible colors, the light focusing on her forehead, where a mark of a round object with wings appeared. From the mark, the light became solid, surging from it a shining blade. She took it with her right hand finally showing the form. It was a 1-meter long rapier, the blade was translucent, seemed to be made of crystal and shined with multiple colors. The guard seemed to be like Chenxiangs wings that curled around her hand with a round yellow pommel under the handle. Chenxiang lifted the rapier "Go!" the rapier flashed three times intermittent, a yellow glow attacking the ants. "" That technique not only blinded Chenxiang''s rival, but the light also entered their nerves over their eyes and affected their brains, forcing them to not move for 5 seconds, their strength affecting the hit rate. Bai seeing the confidence in their faces charged forward "Thank you. And don''t die!" lightning and wind covering his body, his 3rd ring shining, maximizing his speed. His wings appeared at his back, flapping them furiously, he passed through the ants, crossing the 1-kilometer cave and disappearing into the gate. Chenxiang pointed her saber to one ant. Xiao Wu''s body glowed with a pink aura as she looked at another ant. Finally, Tang San was holding a black colored trident and pointed to the last ant. All prepared to fight them. Chapter 192 - Battle of Speed Under Chenxiang 8 rings appeared, 1 purple, 6 blacks, and 1 red. Under Tang San 8 rings appeared, 6 blacks, and 2 reds. Under Xiao another 8 rings appeared, 2 yellow, 2 purple, 3 blacks, and 1 red. Showing that all three were spirit douluos at the age of 23 years. Looking at the ants, even if they were similar, they had subtle differences. One had slightly bigger wings, another had longer arms, and the last had a bit bigger body and his carcass seemed thicker. The ants quickly recovered from their paralysis "CRRRRRRRRR" they shouted angrily that they had let scape one towards their empress. They extended their wings and leaned forward putting on their weight on their feet, cracks appeared under them. "Booom!" The ants kicked the ground causing it to collapse. With the strength of an explosion, they shot towards the human. From Tang San a blue light surged forth . Tang San''s fourth, sixth, and seventh ring shined, strong blue silver grass surged from the ground, it curled around the ants, caging them. Chenxiang flapped her wings, from them a warm light extended all over the cave . The grass receiving the light acquired a golden color, becoming stronger. Tang San''s group quickly discovered the uselessly of their actions. The ants didn''t even need to stop, a black aura shot from them, instantly weakening the grass, then a simple swing from their claws was enough to shred them in pieces. Leaving at the human group shocked about them, this was the Blue-Silver Emperor boosted by skills and even two domains. Not only that, but they quickly realized the frightening about the ants'' aura. Comparing with the previous ants, these three were in a completely different league. Their aura quickly devoured any kind of energy around them without mattering the strength or comprehension behind, unlike the other ants that couldn''t cope with stronger attacks. Their owns domains were quickly being absorbed by them. Tang San''s group quickly realized that long-ranged attacks would be ineffective as they would be mostly devoured before damaging them. Also, the strength of the ants it was enough to make any trick useless. It was an absolute strength that crushed all in front of them. Chenxiang''s 2nd ring shined, her body flashed appearing 10 meters away. The bigger wings ants punching the place were she stood before. The strength was so high that the ground cracked under him, creating a crater over 20 meters. Chenxiang found herself affected by throwing rocks of the aftermath, even evading the bigger ones, she was hit by little ones that were incredibly hard. Tang San positioned his trident, guarding himself. The thicker ant thrust its claws towards him. San lifted his trident, stopping the ant''s hand, letting the claws only an inch of distance from his eyes. Even though he blocked the attack, dispersing most of the strength over his trident, he was pushed more than 50 meters away from the sheer force. The long-arms ant thrust its claws towards Xiao Wu. Xiao Wu''s third ring shined, teleported away from it. The long-arms ant''s antennas twitched, its claws closed forming a punch and punched the air at its left side. A powerful air blast was formed by its strength alone. Xiao Wu found herself appearing just in the air blast trajectory. The ant had completely read her! Xiao Wu''s 4th rings shined, around her body a golden light appeared, obtaining invulnerability for 3 seconds, the air blast dispersing as it made contact with her. The ant appeared in front of her and punched her. Thanks to her skill, she didn''t receive damage from it, but she was pushed more than 100 meters to a side "Crrrrrrr!" the ants started laughing. Without being able to avoid, the human trio fell under the ants'' rhythm, they were separated from each other, forcing them to fight each a 1 vs 1 with an ant, limiting their teamwork. Now that they were in 1 vs 1, the tremendous stats of the ants would be difficult to face. Chenxiang''s 7th ring shined, her bird spirit shined brightly at her back and closed its wings covering her. It hugged Chenxiang, becoming an armor surrounding her, translucent feathers covering her body, her wings grew and all her body started shining with rainbow light. Chenxiang''s body flashed and she flew away from the ant, trying to create a distance with the ant. The big-winged ant flapped its wings closely charging towards her, its speed even greater than Chenxiang. Multiple Chenxiang''s clones appeared surrounding her. These wouldn''t be able to trick the ant''s instinct, instead, Chenxiang used them clashing with them. She clashed with one and found herself reflected, abruptly changing direction and even her speed increased a little, the ant claw grazing her. She might be slower than the ant, but she had greater maneuverability. "CRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The big-winged ant shouted as its body shivered. Its wings opened and separated, revealing that its wings weren''t bigger than the other, instead, it was that it had 2 more wings than the other two. The ant flapped its 4 wings "Booom!" a shock wave was produced as its body flashed, effectively passing through Chenxiang''s attack. It flapped again, chasing for her, this time its speed much greater, afterimages were created at its path. Chenxiang was forced to continuously reflect with her clones to escape from it. Nevertheless, the 4-winged ant probed its extreme instinct, quickly getting used to Chenxiang and approaching her closer every time. If this continues, it wouldn''t pass much time before it caught her. Chenxiang decided to put all her strength to create one opportunity with her strongest attack. Chenxiang continued reflecting, her glow becoming stronger. Without stopping, more clones appeared around her that charged towards the ant, most of them were simple images while others were charged with spirit energy. The ant''s wings'' speed reached a new level, completely disappearing. Its body efficiently evaded the clones. Chenxiang snapped her fingers as light rays were shot from her body towards the copies. "BOOOM!" all the copies, without mattering the spirit energy in them exploded. The explosions engulfed the ant. "CRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" strong winds were created dispersing the smoke from the explosion. The 4-winged ant was completely intact, its carcass untouched. Nevertheless, that attack had pissed it. It madly charged towards Chenxiang, this time it didn''t try to evade the copies, letting them exploding at it. The ant''s body shivered as its wings were flapped madly, the air around them distorted by the air pressure and black aura, completely blocking any form of teleport in it. The ant leaned its body thrusting its arms forward as it started spinning over itself. The ant''s speed reached a new level, as it drilled across the air towards Chenxiang. Chenxiang smirked, a copy appearing in front of her, hitting it and rebounding 180o, shooting towards the ant. She was the heiress of the Speed Clan, even when she tried to go against its usual form, reaching attack power instead of pure speed, she never forgot them. She still pursued the ultimate speed, having surpassed even her grandfather long ago. Her 8th skill reflecting it. Chenxiang''s 8th ring shined brightly "<8th skill: God Speed>!" The time around Chenxiang seemed to slow down, the incredible fast ant seeming to go at low speed. She flapped her wings evading the drill-like ant, glazing it, her real speed was so great that not even the distorted space could affect her. The time seemed to return to normal and the ant shot forward 500 meters failing to hit her. This was what she was aiming, making the ant mad and that it reached his top speed to finally evade the attack. All of this, to gain a little time as the ant would need some time to change direction when going at full speed. She focused all her strength, all her rings shining brightly, focusing all on her rapier that started blindly shining. 4 clones appeared around her, up, down, left, and right, and 1 clone in front. Chenxiang stabbed forward, shooting a light ray towards the front clone. Hitting the clone, the light ray increased its frequency turning violet. It was reflected in 4 different rays each one of them hitting one of the other 4 clones. The rays clashed with the other clones, their energy increasing even more, their violet color becoming more radiant. Each ray was reflected shooting towards Chenxiang''s rapier that absorbed all of them, the light completely disappearing as Chenxiang''s body turned light hitting the clone in front of her. "CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" the ant shouted angrily having been evaded. Thousand Catties Ants Emperors, like normal Fifteen Ton Ants, excelled in strength, defense, and power. The 4-winged ant specialized in speed while its brothers in the other two. He was very confident in its speed, mostly playing with the slower girl in front of it as there was never any need to evade her weak attacks. However, the girl surpassed its full speed. How a lowly human dare to surpass its speed? The 4-winged ant hit a wall quickly changing its direction, instantly shooting at full speed towards Chenxiang with bloodshot eyes that shined with a very bright purple light. Chenxiang''s body rebounded in the last clone and her body seemed to disappear. She didn''t disappear as the ant could completely detect her coming towards it. It was that the frequency and energy of her light went completely our of the visual specter, normal eyes being unable to detect her light reaching the state of X-Rays. Chenxiang''s energy reached her maximum, this wasn''t only spirit energy anymore, this was the full power that she could exert of the light element, it was the might of nature, a state that only gods could grasp. The 4-winged ant''s antennas twitched and its face contorted, its instincts telling it to run away. It was the first time since its evolution that it sensed fright. Chenxiang''s focused all her strength at her rapier and charged forward. Her strongest technique, only capable of using with her rapier, needing to reach a speed and a state of energy normally impossible for her at spirit douluo rank. But with all her strength and preparing, she reached the minimum required to it. "!" Chenxiang''s body disappeared, no. It was simply that she surpassed the light speed, being impossible to even sense her, the neural nerves of even the ant not having the time to process her. Chenxiang appeared crashing to a wall, even she couldn''t control her speed and was injured being unable to stop before crashing. However, she had already protected herself for it and her injures weren''t so grave. Even in the last moment, the 4-winged ant showed its monstrous instinct and speed reaction, twisting its body to the left. Nevertheless, Chenxiang''s attack had been too quick, becoming impossible to evade. So much that even the ant''s body was late to react to it. 1 second passed before the ant''s right side was Chenxiang had stabbed through completely disintegrated, only leaving half head, 1 arm, and half thorax. The purple glow left from its eyes and the lifeless scraps fell down to the ground. "Buffff!" Chenxiang was exhausted, but she quickly turned her head seeing how the other two battle went, preparing to help them. Chapter 193 - Strength vs Defense Tang San''s hand trembled. The ant''s strength was immense even after being dissipated being pushed away. The ants separated the three of them, forcing them to fight 1vs1, worrying Tang San for his lover and cousin. He needed to finish this quickly and help them. Blue vines shot from Tang San. The vines curled around the ant, binding it. The ant stood in the same position looking at Tang San down, seemingly to smirk at him, completely ignoring the vines. "Crrr" a black aura curled around the ant, the grass instantly weakening and rotting. The ant flapped its wings and charged towards Tang San. However, it didn''t try to attack, it simply stood 3 meters away from him, its black aura slowly affecting Tang San. It seemed that the ant was playing with him. From Tang San''s back, 8 golden spider legs arms surged. It was his external spirit bone, Eight Spider Lances. Tang San thrust his lances towards the ant. Golden lances vs the ant''s golden carcass. "Clink!" It didn''t matter Tang San''s strength or multiple thrust, after a barrage, the lances were unable to even dent the ant''s carcass that seemed like new. "Crrrrrr!" The ant laughed. Like its brothers, it also specialized in an attribute, in his case being defense. Not only its carcass was the hardest of all of them, but even its aura confided by their sister was the strongest of the brothers. He was confident that the human in front of it couldn''t break its defense and it was sure that its brothers would win against the other humans. If that was the case, why not enjoy the moment and slowly enjoy it? It would let the human attack until he exhaust himself. Then, it would finish him when he was desperate, knowing that victory was impossible. Moreover, the ant could sense that the spider''s legs were from a Human-faced Demon Spider. They were the counter of all insect types, suppressing their strength. Since receiving her sister favor, the ant brother had long surpassed any meaning of suppression, even having won over the Beast God. But, winning against, surpassing that beast that suppressed them countless of times, showing them their weakness, the ant liked the feeling. Tang San''s lances didn''t stop, if they could make even a crack, its poison invading the ant, maybe it could create an opportunity to win. Tang San lifted his trident and thrust towards the ant. The Seagod Trident 54.000 Kg of weight crashed with the ant who simply crossed its arms seeing the trident approach. "Clink!" Like with the lances, the trident was rebounded, only being able to push the ant 1 meter away while Tang San was pushed 5. His hands were trembling, it might only weight 540 kg for him, but receiving the reaction of the ant''s body had numb his arms. Tang San could sense that Xiao Wu and Chenxiang wasn''t much better than him, he needed to help them. But even with the ant in front of him playing around, it wouldn''t let him ran away. Moreover, Tang San had the feeling that if the ants could cooperate well between them, even better than his group, joining them being a bad option. If it weren''t that the ants were mostly playing around, they could have quickly finished them. Tang San''s eyes shined with a blue glow, his eyes strong and decided. He wouldn''t last long with the ant''s aura devouring his strength, he would use his strongest attack. Tang San clenched his trident. He pointed towards the ground, water waves surged from the trident "" The waves went towards the ant surrounding it and blocking its movements in their torrent. Unfixed Storm could block the rival 8 seconds if affected, the strength of the rival only affected the hit rate, with a static ant who didn''t try how could the ant evade the attack? Tang San blocked the ant because he didn''t want it to change its mind and try to evade his attack. With this, he was sure that it would be unable. Blue aura shot from Tang San. Blue-silver Emperor Grass curling around his trident, its black color changing to a golden blue, boosting the weight and vitality of the weapon to a new level. This was the result of his train with Mei. She taught him to use the incredible vitality of his Blue-silver Emperor to empower himself, his strength doubling. In the case of his trident, the effects were even stronger, the trident being able to boost more the vitality, creating a reciprocating effect between both, its strength multiplying to 5. Tang San clenched his trident, focusing all his strength in swinging it. For the first time, the ant''s eyes showed worry, it tried to move evading Tang San, but it was unable due to being blocked by the waves. Tang San thrust his trident forward "!" A half-illusion golden-blue light shot from the trident towards the ant. It cut open the air, cutting across the waves, obliterating everything in its path. "CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The ant shouted madly, black and purple aura exploding from its body as its shell shined with a golden light, boosting its defense at maximum. The golden-blue light clashed with the ant, the ant trying to resist its might, both clashing and stopping in a stale. Tang San clenched his trident, more Blue-silver Emperor Grass curling around it, almost exhausting himself. Tang San''s attack glowed even brighter with strength. "Crack!" The ant''s shell started breaking. The ant was engulfed by the golden-blue light. The light dispersed leaving a shredded ant''s body, some extremities cut, the carcass all cracked and the light of its eyes gone. Tang San kneeled exhausted, using his trident as a support to keep standing. He used more spirit energy than he thought. However, he could rest, he needed to help Xiao Wu and Chenxiang. He turned towards the other fights seeing how they cope it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Xiao Wu knew that she would be unable to win against the ant. Its reaction speed, attack, defense, and speed were too overbearing for her. However, this didn''t mean that victory was impossible. She had complete faith in her companions, knowing that they were much stronger than her, they would have the opportunity to win against the ants. Xiao Wu made up her mind. She needed to keep busy the ant in front of her. Tang San and Chenxiang might be able to face an ant, but against two at the same time, it would be impossible even for them. Thankfully, Xiao Wu was confident in keeping it busy. The ant might be able to defend against her, but most of her skills were focused on diversion and defense. She would wait until help arrive from her companions. The long-arm ant jumped towards her flapping its wings, boosting even more its speed, with its claws charging at her. Xiao Wu''s body disappeared, just appearing behind the ant. The ant''s eyes glinted, it twisted one arm, punching it towards Xiao Wu''s new position, an air blast shotting at her Xiao Wu was already prepared for it, her legs glowing with a pink light. She hit the air blast. Instead of directly kick the blast, she opted to hit a side. She twisted her body running across the blast, effectively diverting the attack and evading it using the minimum energy possible. This attack was weaker than the one before. Even if the ant could attack at its back, the strength used couldn''t be the same. If she wanted to keep it busy, she couldn''t waste her spirit energy or spirit skills. Her Golden Paragon Body had a limit of uses, so she couldn''t calmly use it. Moreover, her teleportation was incredibly difficult, the ants'' aura and strength affected the space around it, making harder to teleport, needing much more spirit energy than usual. The ant turned towards Xiao Wu "CRRRRRRRRRRR!" Black aura shot around it, engulfing Xiao Wu. Fortunately, most of Xiao Wu''s skills were internal, so she was not greatly affected by the devouring nature of the aura, but she would have even more difficulties to teleport again. "CRRRRRR!" The ground under the ant cracked, its feet piercing the ground. Then, the ant started continuously hitting the air, its arms creating after images due to its speed, shooting a barrage of air blast towards Xiao Wu. Seeing the barrage, Xiao Wu kept her calm. Her 7th ring shined, 6 clones of Xiao Wu appearing surrounding her. This was Xiao Wu spirit avatar, 6 clones with the 70% of Xiao Wu''s strength, even able to use her under the 7th spirit skills. These clones weren''t controlled by Xiao Wu, they moved instinctually to protect her. The clones had their own limited spirit skill uses that didn''t affect Xiao Wu''s own skills. The clones shined with a pink glow as they positioned in front of the true Xiao Wu, protecting her from the attacks. Even if they were shot away from an airstrike, they would teleport again in front of Xiao Wu when the other clones needed a relay. Seeing that its attack was suppressed, the ant stopped its barrage and charged directly towards Xiao Wu. The clones reacted launching themselves towards the ant, trying to stop it. The ant punched at two clones, these clones shined with a golden light using their , stopping the attack while the other 4 clones glowed with pink light as they hugged the ant''s arms and feet, using their , locking down the ant. The two clones that blocked the attack charged towards the ant, immobilizing the two extremities left, completely blocking any movement from the ant. "Buff!" Xiao Wu panted. She was tired, she needed to keep using to keep in fight and due to the ants'' aura her consumption skyrocket. She knew that her attacks would be ineffective against the ant, even when it was locked down. Rather than futilely attack the ant, and risk breaking the lock, she decided to focus on recovering her strength while her clones spirit energy could keep the ant in check. "CRRRRRRRRRR!" The ant shouted madly, the black aura condensing around it, targetting Xiao Wu''s clones. In questions of seconds, the clones spirit energy ran out and they disappeared, releasing the ant. The ant flapped its wings and charged to Xiao Wu, instantly appearing in front of her. At this distance, Xiao Wu found it impossible to teleport due to the ant''s close aura. Her 6th red ring shined brightly, , her body becoming ethereal. The ant punched forward, its punch passing through Xiao Wu, her face turning paler. Nullity made her immune to physical strikes that should be perfect against the ants that didn''t have any spirit skills. However, she found herself affected by the ant''s aura, her spirit energy being drained by it. Xiao Wu''s 4th ring shined. Knowing that she couldn''t last with Nullity, she activated her Golden Paragon Body, stopping the ant''s next attack. "Crrrrrr!" The ant seemed to smirk. It lifted its right leg, standing with only one leg. All the right extremities combined, creating a thick and strong arm with long claws. The ant thrust its claws towards Xiao Wu. The claws clashed with Xiao Wu''s Golden Body, spark running along with the collision as the ant tried to thrust forward. "Crack!" For the first time, Xiao Wu''s Golden Paragon Body was broken, her invulnerability broken. The claws tore apart her flesh, piercing her stomach. This was the ant''s plan. It knew that she had the greatest defense of the humans'' groups. It wanted to show its incredible strength forcing her to defend and destroying her strongest defense. Having been impaled by the claw, Xiao Wu weakly lifted her hand resting over the ant''s ?h?st, her 8th ring shined brightly, her palms shining with a strong pink light "!". "BOOOM!" A shockwave surged from Xiao Wu''s body towards her hand, expanding over the ant''s body. The ant''s carcass cracked under the pressure, the ant''s body shooting 100 meters away, slamming towards a wall, black blood surging from its mouth. Xiao Wu fell to the ground. Her face was white, her body turning cold. She pressed her wound trying to stop the blood lost, but if this continued she would die. "CRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The ant shouted madly, destroying its surroundings in his awakening. Its shell was cracked all over, it was greatly injured by Xiao Wu, but at final, the attack wasn''t enough, not accomplishing killing it. The ant charged towards Xiao Wu thrusting its claws, its eyes bloodshot while glowing with a strong purple light. Seeing the attack coming, Xiao Wu closed her eyes knowing that she would be unable to put any defense "At least I will have gained some time for you. Xiangxiang, third brother, live" She said weakly waiting for the final attack. Chapter 194 - Ants Might The attack didn''t come. Xiao Wu found the ant''s claws blocked by black trident pierced at the ground. In the last moment, Tang San had thrown his trident, precisely stopping the ant. "Shinx!" A yellow light flashed and the ant was pushed away 30 meters. Chenxiang stood there, her rapier pointing at the ant. Both Chenxiang and Tang San were exhausted and injured, but even so, they quickly went to help Xiao Wu. Combining their strength, they were sure that would be able to win against the already hurt ant. Both position in front of Xiao Wu, protecting her and preparing to face the ant. The ant stood up. It looked around to the state of its brother "CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" It shouted madly "Humans! Die!" its body started shivering, purple and black aura exploding from its body. The crystal of the cave seemed to react, their glow becoming brighter. "CRRRRRRRRRRR!" "CRRRRRRRRRRRR!" The seeming corpses of its two brothers started shouting, even with their heads cut in half, they showed their brutal resilience, not dying yet. From the crystal, black and green aura surged towards the three ants, the ants absorbing it. The ants'' body started shining with a golden black color as their body started healing at an incredible speed. The bigger one''s cracks were repaired while the other two''s parts were being regrown under the shocked face of the human trio. In no more than 5 seconds, the light from the crystal dimmed, darkening the cave. The ants stood standing completely healed, their eyes shining with a bright purple light. It wasn''t only physically, even their strength was recovered, reaching the same state of before the battle, they might be even stronger now. Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Chenxiang''s faces showed their shock and despair. Even if that healing ability was a one-time skill, they would be unable to face against the three ants in their states, even more now than the ants were warry of them. "EAT!" "EAT!" "EAT!" the three ants charged towards them, their mandibles twitching of expectancy to eat. ------------------------------------------------------- Bai dashed across a corridor at maximum speed. Knowing that Chenxiang, Xiao Wu, and Tang San were facing strong enemies and let him escape, he needed to finish it quickly and help them. After 2 minutes, finally, it could be seen light at the end of the corridor. And over 1 km area stood in front of Bai, all full of trees and plants resembling a leafing forest. However, if someone went to look close enough, he would realize that they weren''t plants, they were a crystallization of pure vitality in the form of plants. Each plant was surrounded by a black aura that all converged to the center of the area where a figure stood. A human figure with a black armor with some golden lines across the helmet that resembled the ants from before, four antennas, 6 eyes, and two more ant''s extremities under its normal-looking arms. It was surrounded by a powerful purple and black aura Bai instantly recognized her, it was Mayi. There seemed to be something wrong with their connection as it seemed blurry, like if there were some external interference, but Bai was sure that she was her. "Mayi" Bai slowly said. Mayi had long discovered Bai''s presence, she was simply stood still, looking at him. Mayi''s brown eyes glowed with a purple light "CRRRRRRRRRR!" her helmet mandibles shivered. Suddenly, she disappeared. "Fuc-!" "BOOOM!" Bai was shot forward, crashing some trees and finally slamming towards the wall, a cloud of dust hiding his figure. Mayi now stood on where Bai was before. Her speed, defense, and strength were incredible, each one greater than her brothers''. It wouldn''t be wrong to say that she had reached the apex of the ant beasts, the ultimate power of attributes. Once the dust cleared, it showed Bai surrounded by eleven broken swords that were protecting in front of him, eight spirit rings under him, his 4th and 5th shining brightly. Bai could react at the last moment, invoking his spirit, covering in Protection Intent and b?r?ly blocking Mayi''s hit. A single hit from Mayi was enough to break all of Bai''s swords that were a condensation of his comprehension and even shooting him like a ball. Moreover, Bai was sure that she wasn''t showing her maximum strength. "I don''t think that we will be able to talk" With that hit, Bai learned that it would be impossible to normally win against Mayi, she was too strong. Also, it was impossible to reason with her. The purple aura around her was too thick, incomparable to any previous ant. A simple hit from Mayi caused the purple aura to invade Bai. That little aura was corroding Bai''s body and mind, resent and death trying to take him over. It was normal for Mayi to not be able to control herself with such a great aura. 5 black rings appeared around Bai''s left arm in combination with his 8 under him. The rings shined, another eleven swords appearing surrounding him, Bai''s attributes reaching his limit. "Crunch!" Bai ate two Oreos recovering the spirit energy of his 5th skill. If Bai wanted to fight against Mayi, he would need to go all out. Only with using his full strength without thinking of backslash or spirit power exhaustion would he be able to fight her. It would be only for a little time and it wasn''t sure that he would win, but it was the only way. "It seems that I need to do it the hard way" At Bai''s hand, a long purple weapon appeared. Bai slashed the air, the purple aura invading him completely disappearing inside the weapon "Let''s dance, Mayi" Chapter 195 - Attrition Battle 2 meters long shaft with countless spiraling patterns, 1 meter long curved blade with sharp tips, all with a deep purple color that exuded an evil and ominous aura. Bai was holding a purple scythe. Concretely, it was Black''s scythe that he took after Black''s death at Slaughter City, her previous spirit. "CRRRRRRRR!" Mayi''s purple aura exploded as her body shivered, somehow the purple aura reacted with Bai''s scythe. Bai spun the scythe, holding it with both hands, the shaft over his back, with the blade down, prepared to reap. Mayi kicked the ground, a big crater forming at her feet, instantly appearing in front of Bai. Thrusting her long claws towards Bai''s neck. "Crunch!" Bai ate a White Fudge Oreo, a white aura surrounding his body, increasing his spirit skills. At the same time, all his spirit rings shined, maximizing his attributes. Eleven different colored swords positioned in front of him, instantly being shattered by Mayi''s claws. Nevertheless, it lowered Mayi''s thrust'' strength. Bai spun his body, turning to his right side, changing the position of both hands while the blade met Mayi''s claws. "Crack!" cracks appeared all over the scythe, instantly showing its lower hardness respect Mayi''s claws. The blade couldn''t last, shattering to smithereens. Bai somersaulted using the already force of the spin plus Mayi''s, safely landing 5 meters away, while Mayi''s claws pierced across the wall. Even with the blade completely broken, the scythe purple aura seemed to grow, condensing it at the tip of the shaft and reforging a new blade. "Good" Bai sighed in relief. The truth was that it was Bai''s bet. Bai had discovered that somehow Black''s scythe had the property to absorb the ominous purple aura, even strengthening the scythe with it. He had proved with other ants, confirming that it would work, however, he had the doubts that it would work with Mayi, the one behind it all. If Mayi was able to absorb from the scythe, instead of the contrary, Bai only though of healing Mayi would be Tang San''s Seagod aura that could heal the Slaughter King of his madness. However, it would become extremely complicated, as the purple aura would run away from Sea God''s aura, being protected by the black devouring aura. Bai would have needed to completely beat Mayi before it happened, Bai having already made up his mind of even burning his own spirit and life energy with his clan secret technique to face and win Mayi. On the other hand, the scythe worked completely differently. Instead of destroying the vicious aura, it absorbed and strengthen itself. The purple aura wasn''t afraid of it, quite the opposite, purple aura was constantly flowing from Mayi towards the scythe, like the scythe was its right place. "CRRRRRRRRRRR!" Having failed the attack, Mayi seemed even madder. She dashed towards Bai, her mouth and mandibles opened pointing at him. Bai could feel a great pressure over his body, attracting towards Mayi''s mouth that seemed like a black hole. Black rings shined "Crunch!" "Crunch!" Bai ate two Double Stuff Oreo, plus a White Fudge Oreo. Moreover, Bai''s head shined, an image of a third eye appearing at his forehead as he activated his skull spirit bone. Bai could sense the time slowing down as his speed reaction increased, seeing the energy fluctuations around him, discovering the best path to escape from Mayi''s pressure. Bai''s legs shined, a yellow and gray greaves appearing at his legs. He leaned the scythe''s blade at the ground "ZIP!" With lightning and explosive speed, Bai jumped leaning his weight toward the scythe, impulsing with it to jump higher. Just as Mayi''s mouth was about to eat the scythe, the scythe disappeared, instantly appearing at Bai''s hands who spun his body swinging the scythe whose blade pierced Mayi''s back, pushing her towards the wall. Since Bai used the scythe to absorb the purple aura extracted from Mei, Bai couldn''t put the scythe in his storage, but somehow the scythe was linked to his Slaughter Domain, being able to keep it in his mind space, similar as to a spirit. As he didn''t know if Mayi was capable of devouring it with her black aura, it was better not to try it. "CRRRRRRRRRR!" shouted Mayi in fury, her armor was completely untouched while Bai''s scythe was all cracked from the collision. However, it wasn''t long before the purple aura around the scythe repaired the crack, becoming even stronger than before. Mayi madly charged at Bai. Bai''s body glowed with a gray color that focused over his scythe. "" His scythe and eleven swords were invaded by a strong dark aura. Thanks to Bai''s torso bone, he could make anything in contact with him as if it was his own sword, perfectly conducting his Sword Intent. Bai thought that it was a useless skill as he already had his swords, but now he thought differently from it. The only problem was that the scythe couldn''t be used to his Retaliation, Protection or Life intent, as they were repelled by it. Mayi swung her claws, Bai efficiently using his swords to divert them to finally hit them with his scythe, Mayi''s claws almost grazing him. "CRRRRR!" Mayi started charging madly towards Bai, piercing, punching, and kicking with incredible speed and strength. Bai continued backstepping, controlling the distance while slowly absorbing Mayi''s purple aura with his scythe, using his swords to protect him. With each hit, Bai''s swords broke and were instantly being replaced by new swords using his 5th skill. With each hit, Bai''s scythe cracked and quickly reformed itself. At first, the scythe would shatter in contact with Mayi, but as it became stronger, the scythe would last more. This was a one-sided battle where Bai defended from all Mayi''s attacks while strengthening his scythe. Even if he wanted, Bai was unable to counterattack, his attack not strong enough to pierce Mayi''s defense. After two minutes, even though Bai''s didn''t receive any direct hit, he looked all hazard and panted loudly while the only difference of Mayi was a decrease of her purple aura. Mayi had a power equivalent to a limit douluo while Bai was only a spirit douluo. Thanks to using all his spirit bones, spirit skill of both spirits and sword arts, he could push his strength up to a super douluo''s, enough to face Mayi who only attacked madly. However, Bai wouldn''t be able to last long. Keeping that strength was pushing Bai''s body to the limit, the consumption of spirit, mental, and physical energy was immense, he was unable to even focus on healing his wounds, completely focused on keeping his full strength. This was a fight against time, an attrition battle. Would Bai resist until his scythe absorb Mayi''s aura before reaching his limit? Bai was betting all his strength in this opportunity. "Boooom!" Mayi punched Bai. Bai blocked it with the scythe''s blade being pushed 10 meters. At the scythe only a little crack could be seen that quickly repaired itself. The purple around the scythe had grown a lot stronger while Mayi''s aura had weakened. Bai twisted his scythe reverse gripping it leaning over his back "Finally, it''s time to fight" Bai smiled. Chapter 196 - Mayis Transformation "Crunch!" Bai ate his last Double Stuff Oreo. Black aura exploded from Bai and Mayi, Bai''s scythe and Mayi''s eyes shining with a deep purple light. Mayi charged towards Bai thrusting her claws. Bai twisted his body as he spun his scythe, blocking Mayi''s claws and letting them go across the shaft. Bai changed his hands, twisting the scythe''s blade towards Mayi''s back. Then, he thrust the scythe backward, helped by Mayi''s strength. The blade hit Mayi, throwing her to the ground. Bai was unable to cut over Mayi''s armor yet, but it was the first time that he was able to dent the armor, even if it was quickly repaired by Mayi''s energy. Not a single crack appeared over the blade this time. "CRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Mayi stood up and seemed to become madder, her purple energy surging from her body. Bai grinned, this made it easier and faster absorbing Mayi''s aura. Bai knew that he didn''t have much time, his body was at his limit, all of it numb and trembling, he was unable to sense most of it. He couldn''t continue fighting intelligently against Mayi, his body was too exhausted for it, now only be able to move by sheer willpower. In this condition, it would be impossible to fight against the overpowered Mayi, so Bai decided to put all his strength in a last attack. If it didn''t work, not even his Immortality would save him as he would be left without any strength. After absorbing so much of the purple aura, the scythe had transformed, the blade becoming longer and sharper, the scythe pulsed, blood seemed to run along with its shaft, concentrating in its blade. The scythe had become much stronger, in sharpness, hardness and ominous and evil feeling of it. Even its weight had greatly increased, for him it weighed 1000 kg, but Bai knew that it was only due to his link with it thanks to his Slaughter Intent, if not it should weigh over 50.000 kg. Without a doubt, this scythe had become stronger than his own swords spirit and this was even without having absorbed all of Mayi''s aura. This was truly an incredible weapon. Bai held his scythe tightly with both hands, letting the blade drop to the ground pointing at Mayi. Bai focused all of his strength over it, the purple aura over it increasing "Crunch!" Bai ate his last White Fudge Oreo, the aura around the scythe exploding. The purple aura was so strong that it was even invading Bai''s mind with resent and killing intent. Bai grinned at it, fully immersing in the feelings. It wasn''t like it was his first time and if he was capable of saving Mayi, he wouldn''t mind being swallowed by it again, he was sure that he would make it his. Bai''s black aura tainted with the purple one, his eyes shining with a purple glow and his grin widening. The scythe seemed to be trembling cheerfully, absorbing Bai''s purple aura, the blade growing reaching over 3 meters long. Bai and Mayi charged at each other, leaving craters with each of their steps. Bai held tightly his scythe, dragging it across the ground that was being tainted by a purple glow "!" Purple aura exploded, the scythe increasing, even more, its size, becoming 5 meters long. Using his last strength, Bai lifted the scythe swinging it towards Mayi. There wasn''t any technique or style behind, it was pure power. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Mayi opened her mouth widely, her four mandibles shining with a powerful black and purple aura thrusting towards Bai as she wanted to swallow Bai''s all. "CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" "BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMM!" The clash of such great power caused an enormous explosion. All the cave trembled, rocks fell from the ceiling threatening the cave to collapse, all the forest was destroyed by the shock wave only leaving a giant crater covered by a big dust cloud. "Shin!" Something was shot out of the crater, spinning as it cut the sky finally being pierced at the ground. It was Bai''s scythe, its purple color seemed to even have increased, but it had lost its glow. Finally, the dust cleaned, revealing the two people standing at the bottom of the ground. No. They weren''t standing. Mayi stood holding Bai by his neck, Bai''s body was simply hanging almost death. Bai''s body was all bloody with lot of graves injures while Mayi''s only wound was a crack over her helmet. "Crack!" The cracks around her helmet grew and extended all over. The helmet broke down and fell to pieces, revealing Mayi''s beautiful face. She didn''t change at all these years, keeping her young face, even it seemed to have become younger, keeping the appearance of a 15 years old beautiful girl. Her blurred eyes were purple and reflected resentment and fury towards Bai. Mayi lifted her right claw, purple aura surrounding it, pointing it at Bai''s neck. Mayi thrust her claws forward. Bai weakly opened his eyes. He looked directly at Mayi''s eyes "M-m-mayi" Saying her name was the most that he could do in his weaken self, paying the price of overexerting his limits. Mayi''s claws stopped still, they just grazed Bai''s neck, a little blood drop leaking from it "N-no!" tears were falling from her clouded eyes. Her gaze seemed to fix at Bai''s eyes "B-b-bai" Her teary eyes seemed to focus, revealing her beautiful brown colored eyes. "NO!" Mayi shouted as she put her hands over her head, releasing Bai who felt to the ground. Bai supported with his arms, lifting his gaze to see Mayi. She was contorting in pain, purple aura shooting around her. "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Mayi shouted powerfully. She looked at Bai and smiled a little sad "Bai" she said silently. She jumped away, creating distance with Bai. Mayi hit her own head "Go away!" Black aura started shining brightly over her. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Black aura exploded from Mayi, 50 meters around her completely vanishing, keeping herself floating. The power behind the black aura surged with greater strength than ever. It seemed like if it was being suppressed a lot of time and now finally was able to show all its might, the devouring aura becoming much, much stronger. Mayi''s aura condensed around her body as she looked towards Bai "Bai" she had a difficult expression. She was very happy to be able to see him again, but she was in pain having almost killed him. About the destruction of all the forest, she couldn''t be worried less about it. Seeing that Mayi had freed from the control and seemed fine, even their link having somehow recovered, Bai smiled brightly at her trying to stand up "Mayi" Mayi smiled brightly wanting to approach and hug Bai. As she was approaching, suddenly, her face contorted in shock. Mayi looked frightened at Bai. "No! Run away!" She backstepped as black aura surged from the cave''s walls penetrating and being absorbed by her. It was like countless black threads were connecting with her. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Mayi shouted receiving the new energy. Over her back, her ant spirit appeared. This seemed different and stronger. Her spirit rings appeared surrounding her, surprising greatly Bai. 9 spirits ring rose over her, all of them with a deep red color. It didn''t stop there, as the black aura was being absorbed by her, the ant spirit fused with her body, a black aura surrounding her creating a cocoon around her. Inside it, it could be seen Mayi''s silhouette. Mayi was becoming smaller, her armor was perfectly fitting her new height, at the same time seeming to change becoming some kind of black robes that hugged Mayi''s body, however, even as robes their hardness was much greater. Somehow her head seemed to be growing. Finally, the black aura threads disappeared all in the cocoon. The cocoon shined brightly with a black light, breaking it revealing the new Mayi. A petite body, 1,45 meters, she seemed to have return to her 12 years old. She was dressed in a beautiful and cute black princess dress, adorned with two pink ribbons over her hip. Her head was hidden by what it seemed a big plushie helmet of an ant''s head, 1 meter wide, with a long tongue out of the slit that was the mouth. Bai was shocked. What was most surprising was her rings, 9 red rings and over them a shining black golden one that illuminated all the cave with its black ?uster. This meant that Mayi had become a goddess! "AHHHHHHH!" From Mayi a powerful black pillar showing her divine strength shot up, penetrating all the ground and surging towards the sky. At this moment every people and beast over the continent sensed a feeling of hunger. Mayi''s body stopped floating, she slowly and cutely landed at the ground. Even if it was cute, each of her movements carried dignified feeling. She looked around "MAYI''S HUNGRY!" She shouted destroying her surroundings. This tantrum breaking her dignified figure as she instantly jumped up towards the hole previously made, disappearing from the cave. Chapter 197 - Goddess descend The three ant emperors launched towards the wounded Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Chenxiang. Tang San stepped forward, his body shining with a deep blue sea color. "Xiangxiang, take Xiao Wu and run away!" Tang San ordered as his blue glow increased. He was about to burn his own spirit, putting his life in line to at least stop the ants and permit the girls scape. "T-third brother" Xiao Wu said weakly, her wounds being the most serious. Chenxiang clenched her hands. She didn''t know how to react, they couldn''t win against the ants, but she wouldn''t let his cousin sacrifice. Moreover, if the other ants chased after Bai, it would be a game over for him. Chenxiang clenched her rapier stepping forward forward "Shrek don''t abandon others. I will fight until the end." She smiled at Tang San "I won''t let you be the only hero, cousin" she said trying to calm herself. Tang San seeing her face and even Xiao Wu''s he knew that they wouldn''t leave him alone. He resigned himself and lifted his trident "We will fight together." Suddenly, as they waited for the ants'' attack, the ants stopped still "CRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Their body started shivering as a black aura shot out from them towards the end of the cave. Not only black aura shot from them, but even the crystals illuminating the cave behaved similarly. Once the black aura completely left their body, they collapse onto the ground without any energy, some legs b?r?ly twitching. The human trio was shocked about the event. It couldn''t be sensed any energy from the ants, like if it had all been absorbed. Just as the ants were about to beat them, the ants fell defeated. Tang San and Chenxiang turned serious as they lifted their faces "God!" They said at the same time, detecting a strong power manifesting near them corresponding to a god. "Bai!" Chenxiang quickly reacted running across the cave towards the exit previously crossed by Bai. She was sure that Bai was the cause of the ants'' defeat. She was very worried about him, sensing the previous aura, the most probable was that he would be facing a god now, an existance impossible to beat. She wouldn''t rest until she was sure that Bai is fine. And if she must die for it, she had made up her mind to die for him long ago. Chenxiang quickly crossed the corridor, arriving at a bigger cave. It was a barren land with craters everywhere, at the center of it an especially big one. Chenxiang found Bai laying on the ground, all his body bloody. "Bai!" She flew towards Bai. She landed next to Bai and carefully inspected him, he was gravely injured, all his muscles exploded with a lot of cracked bones, but thankfully, he was alive. Bai slowly opened his eyes to see Chenxiang''s worried face, tears falling from her eyes "X-xiang" Bai weakly smiled "Thank god that you''re fine." "Bai, you should rest" Chenxiang tried to clean her tears "We are all fine, the ants suddenly stopped. You did stop them. Rest for now, you can explain it later" Bai''s state was horrible, it would worsen his wounds making him talk. The most important now was that he was fine, the god manifestation could wait. "Is Bai fine?" Tang San arrived at the cave, he was carefully carrying Xiao Wu who had all her body wrapped by Blue-silver Grass Emperor. "Bai is gravely injured" Chenxiang look up, seeing a hole that would lead towards the outside "We should quickly leave this place. We don''t know the state of the other ants and we could be swallowed by them any moment. Are you able to fly, cousin?" "Barely" Answered Tang San "I will need your hel-" "What did you do?!" A shout resounded over the cave interrupting them. Searching from the sound, they found that it was from Bai''s body, concretely from his ?h?st. Over Bai''s left ?h?st where his heart was, a beautiful pink flower had bloomed. Chenxiang recognized the flower as Lingling spirit previous to her transformation, the voice also being Lingling. "We are even a greater crisis!" Lingling shouted worried, she stopped for a second "Are you all fine? Your vitality is very low, especially Bai and Wu. What happened?!" She asked concerned. "We are b?r?ly hanging, but for now we are okay" answered Chenxiang "Ling, what happens?" "Something very bad" Lingling stated "Come here, I will treat you" The flower over Bai''s ?h?st shined brightly, a vine surged from it piercing the ground. From the ground, more vines surged, intertwining between them creating a 2 meters tall portal. Being familiarized with it, they didn''t doubt. Chenxiang carefully took Bai''s body while Tang San carried Xiao Wu, the 4 of them crossing over the portal. --------------------------------------------------------- After close of an hour fighting the infinite ants'' army, the spirit beasts were becoming tired, the less powerful attaining some wound. Moreover, even Bai''s formation disappeared and multiples ants were ignoring the spirit beasts, returning to the anthill. "Retreat" Di Tian commanded knowing that any more battle would be pointless and even risk some of the beasts to die. They already helped them enough, if they died inside the anthill it was their problem. All the spirit beasts quickly followed his command, returning towards the fortress. They entered the fortress while being protected by Mei and Myriad who acutely protected them while attacking the countless ants. Once inside, Bi Ji started treating the wounded beasts while Di Tian went towards Lingling''s garden. As Di Tian entered the beautiful garden, he approached the blue-haired beauty who was meditating with her eyes close "Did they accomplish anything?" Lingling slowly opened her eyes "How could I know?" "Don''t try to hide it." Di Tian glanced at Lingling "I already know that you seeded him" Lingling''s eyes opened wide in shock and fright "It was obvious being able to detect them. But, I will let it be if you continue doing your job. How are they?" "They are alive, at least him" Lingling stated "But there''s too much interference and too low vegetation, it''s impossible to interact" Di Tian frowned when "WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!" Shouts of celebrations could be listened from the outside. Zi Ji quickly entered Lingling''s garden "The ants!" her face impossible to hide her joy "They stopped! The ants are dying." This statement shocked Di Tian and Lingling "It''s true" Myriad and Mei opened their eyes "We finally are able to rest" "Let''s go!" Di Tian ordered leaving towards the Wall followed by Lingling and Zi Ji, Mei and Myriad disappeared digging the ground. Arriving on top of the Wall, they finally were able to see the situation. A sea of ants were laying on the ground lifeless, only some shivering on some places and a lot spirit rings showing that they had indeed died. After a year, the plants finally stopped attacking. "They had succeeded" Di Tian said amazed. Lingling smiled "I knew that you would accomplish it." "BOOOOOM!" Suddenly a black pillar pierced over the sky. "How could it be?" Di Tian''s face tensed, twisting in a furious face while he clenched his hands, his own nails piercing his skin "GOD!" He growled in fury with bloodshot eyes. He hated humans, especially human gods, they were the culprits of the collapse of the dragons'' clans and the almost extinction of them. From the horizon, an incredible fast figure appeared covered in a black aura, charging towards the fortress, it was Mayi "EATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!" She shouted with unfocused eyes. The vines were destroyed under Di Tian''s body. Di Tian shot towards Mayi, his body transforming into a giant black dragon in the air "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" He growled, ultimate darkness surging from his teeth and claws. Mayi spun her body, her speed increasing as black aura wrapped around her as her momentum increased. She instantly appeared in front of Di Tian''s giant body, kicking his head, a black pillar shooting in the opposite direction. Di Tian''s body was shot down by a single kick! His enormous body crashing to the ground. Mayi stood floating and her long tongue licked over her mouth, salivating "Yummy!" Chapter 198 - Red-Violet Fire Bai''s group crossed the portal, finding themselves on the Wall at the spirit beasts'' fortress "Hurry up! Let Bai and Wu on the ground" Lingling ordered seeing their bad state. Chenxiang and Tang San quickly acted, carefully layin them on the ground. Lingling approached them, positioning between both. She kneeled, extending each hand towards one. A deep green aura full all life surged from her, covering 5 meters around her. Tang San and Chenxian were shocked by Lingling''s domain, even when it wasn''t focused on them, they could feel their injures and even their energy and constitution improving by the high vitality domain. From Lingling''s hands, pink petals appeared, slowly falling towards Xiao Wu and Bai. The petals were concentring in their wounds and when they made contact, they disappeared inside their body with a green glow. Instantly, color returned to their faces, their most dangerous wounds closing at a visible speed. After a minute, Lingling stopped. Her face was calm, but some sweat was falling from her forehead, showing that she was a little tired "They are safe now. I healed most of the wounds,. For the rest, it would better to naturally heal them." "Thanks, Ling!" Chenxiang jumped hugging Lingling and thanking her, gaining a smile from Lingling. Lingling broke the hug and her face turned serious "What happened at the anthill? How that god appeared?" She said pointing outside. Mayi was charging towards them clad in a black aura. She was beating every beast that stood in her way, never stopping her approach. Even a wounded Di Tian in his dragon form could be seen laying on the ground. If this continued, it wouldn''t take even two minutes for Mayi to arrive at them. "It''s Mayi. She had become a goddess" Bai had opened his eyes, even if his body hadn''t recovered yet, thanks to Lingling''s healing, he was able to at least talk. "Bai, you should rest" said worried Lingling, only for Bai to shook his head "I''m fine" "How could it be?!" Mei shouted "There was no indication of divinity from the ant. What did you there to create a god, bastard!?" "It''s only a hypothesis, but I think that Mayi was tainted by Rakshasa''s depravity, the god of killing and resent, being manifested as her and the ants'' purple aura." Explained Bai "At the same time, Mayi had been chosen as a god''s inheritor, carrying her divinity and manifesting it with the black aura. Due to being under Rakshasa''s influence, she couldn''t use her divinity." "In the anthill, I fought her and heal her from Rakshasa''s depravity, letting her own power awakened, being able to truly control all her divinity even the ones over the other ants and reaching godhood" Bai concluded. This was only his hypothesis, it was formed by his knowledge of the Slaughter King, Tang Chen. Tang Chen was infected by Rakshasa, his Asura''s power restringed by it. Once he was healed by Tang San''s Seagod''s light, recovering his sanity, his powers returned. The problem was that his body was too weak due to poison so he was unable to resist the awakening of his great powers, dying in the process. Mayi didn''t have this problem, her body was in perfect condition, never been affected by Slaughter City''s poison. "So why is attacking us?" Asked Mei "If you already healed her, she recovering her sanity, why she is madly charging to us?" "Wait a second" Bai closed his eyes. He had a strong connection with Mayi since they were able to made the three spirits fusion, being able to sense and even communicate with each other. It was only due to Rakshasa''s external interference that this connection was blurred. Now that she only had her own power, he might be able to communicate with Mayi and calm her. (EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!EAT! EAT! EAT! EAT!) "It can''t be reasoned with her" Bai stated "She had become the Gluttony Goddess. I suppose that her god powers were too sudden for her to control. After recovering her sanity and being exposed by such a power, her power is in an uncontrollable state. However, she is not so crazy as before, she won''t indiscriminately attack everyone anymore. You could see that she is not eating or killing the beasts trying to stop her, only pushing them aside." "So we must let her rampage around and will eventually calm down?" asked Lingling. "Yes" answered Bai "However, there''s a problem" Bai made a difficult face as he worriedly looked at Lingling "Lingling, what will happen if your tree is devoured?" Lingling''s face paled a little "I will die. It is my spirit, if I lose it, I will die. People can''t live without their spirit." "I need to stop Mayi" Bai clenched his teeth "Her only objective is the strongest source of life here, Lingling''s tree. She won''t stop until she ate it. After that, the most probable will be that she stop rampaging" Bai looked decisive at Lingling "Don''t worry I will protect you" he said trying to stand up, only for a great pain overcoming all his body, his wound threatening to open again. "Bai stop!" Lingling shouted worriedly "This is my problem, there''s no need for you to help. Mayi can''t be stopped. I don''t mind sacrificing myself for all of you to live" She forcefully smiled. A green glowed around Lingling, a new portal appearing next to her "We don''t know how would Mayi react, it would be better for you to leave. This portal will bring you to the outer forest." "Ling, no!" Chenxiang shouted, tears falling from her eyes, not wanting to lose one of her best friends, her best friend at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy. "I won''t let you sacrifice!" Bai shouted standing up, his wounds opened, his state deteriorating as blood leak constantly from them "I am the one capable of stopping Mayi" blood falling from his mouth "If there''s an opportunity for us to live, I will take it. I will force it!" he shouted as his two wings appeared over his back. Tears fell from Lingling''s eyes, her hands covering her mouth. She was moved by Bai. She warmly smiled at Bai "You really made the impossible possible" Then, her gaze turned decisive. She approached Bai, leaning carefully over his ?h?st, making sure that he didn''t fall. She easily broke Bai''s tattered shirt and approached her mouth over Bai''s right ?h?st. Her tongue left her mouth, ???k?n? over Bai''s ?h?st, a flowery pattern appearing over Bai''s ?h?st shining brightly with a green light. "Xiang?" Lingling looked towards Chenxiang. Chenxiang lowered her head with a difficult face. She lifted smiling warmly at Lingling "Go for it, Ling" Xiang nodded at her with a smile. Then she turned towards Mei "Can you keep Mayi busy some minutes?" Mei nodded "All plants will risk their life for Lili" Lingling smiled at her "Thanks" she said slowly. Then vines surged from the ground hiding Lingling and Bai, encompassing them in a 5 meters wide dome. "Myriad protect Lili''s spirit" Mei requested. Myriad shook his head "Another great tantrum. We will need time to recover. But, okay. I will protect it." Myriad disappeared underground. Mei stepped forward the Wall "ALL OF YOU WHO WANTS TO LIVE! RETIRE!" She shouted, all spirit beasts instantly turned pale and started running away, even the ones trying to stop Mayi, all of them creating a stampede as they ran away from the fortress. "BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" A great earthquake occurred, all the fortress started trembling. It wasn''t an earthquake, the fortress was moving, all the construction was being destroyed and approaching over Mei. Powerful red and violet flames surged around Mei, extending all over the vines that composed the fortress. Countless vines wrapped around Mei, the flames becoming even strong and Mei''s body started shrinking, turning what it seemed a cute 13 years old girl. Bai could have recognized her as her old figure. Mei grinned looking towards Mayi who was dashing towards her "Let''s have some burnt ant!" Flames exploded around her. Chapter 199 - Linglings Feelings (litte H-scene) Inside the vine''s dome, Lingling leaned over Bai, putting herself on tiptoes and kissing him. Her tongue entered his mouth, intertwining with Bai''s, becoming like one. Bai was shocked by her action and even if he unconsciously reciprocated the kiss, it didn''t take much time before he broke it "Lingling?" He said with a surprised tone seeing the scarlet blush over Lingling''s face, her beautiful and shining blue eyes full of affection and love. "You shouldn''t be doing this with me. It can be interpreted wrongly" "There''s nothing wrong with this!" Lingling shouted with her face deep red "I love you, Bai!" she declared even with a little shyness. "W-what?" Bai was surprised "Didn''t you have a crush for Tang San?" "Eh?" Lingling didn''t know how to react "How could you thought that?" "You were shy around him, changing your usual behavior, I thought..." "Of course not!" Lingling shouted offended "I never loved Tang San! He had a strong spirit and I could sense some connection with mine, there''s also his mother relation with Mei, but nothing more! How could I feel something for him? I almost don''t know him, only having speak very few times, never alone." "So, do you love me?" Bai asked with doubt. Lingling nodded "I didn''t know what was at first, but I am sure now. I was always treated like a beautiful and weak flower, always needing someone to take care of it. My family raised like this, I must stay at the sideline and use my spirit to heal people and win favors. The only reason that I entered Heaven Dou Imperial Academy was to show off my spirit, but..." "You changed me!" Lingling shouted pressing "You showed me that I could do a lot more, that I could fight my own way, that my efforts were useful. In the past, I was bad at expressing my feelings due to my family that raised me without any love, only coldness. You started seeing me as much more, rather than only a feeble girl who can only heal, I thought of you as my first and best friend" She said smiling lightly. "However, once you evolved my spirit and I returned to my clan this changed. My clan wanted me not to return to the academy, to cage me inside the clan, they even thought of making a breeding machine to obtain more of my spirit. At that time, knowing that I could never see you, I realized that I liked you, if it wasn''t love, it was very near to it." "I argued with my family, threatening to run away or suicide only to even be more confined. I think that you don''t know but the one who saved me was your mother. She had received your letters about how much you were worried about me and came to help" She explained "She forced her way, forcing my clan to let me return to the academy. Seeing you again, my heart fluttered, confirming how important you were for me. But you were already with Mayi. I didn''t mind, I wanted to be with you, to happily talk and train, it didn''t matter if I were aside, I was happy enough." "After coming to Star Dou Forest, not seeing you all these years and spending that time with you, i couldn''t negate any more, I loved you! I wanted to always be with you, not at the side, be with you as the most important to you." She made a sad face "I even gladden by Mayi''s disappearance, sometimes that girl was a little frightening, not that it improved now" She forced a smile "I wanted to be special, I even went against the deal with the spirit beasts and seeded you with my spirit" she said stroking the flower pattern at Bai''s ?h?st "With this you were my special one." "Lingling" Bai looked at Lingling with a strange look, not really knowing how to react "I didn''t know, I always liked you as one of my best friends, but something like love. I even already have Xiang and there''s even May-" Bai was silenced by a kiss from Lingling, both wet tongues fighting between them "I don''t mind the others, I even talked with Xiang and we accepted to share you, I thought her as my sister. I know you, Bai, even your twisted dark side. You can be completely indifferent to others, not minding them dying, but to the people you care, you will sacrifice all of you. You are not bothered by thinks like fairness or justice, you have your own ideas." Lingling smiled, her smiled so warm that seemed to illuminate the room "I''m very happy that you are fighting and risking your life." She easily pushed the injured Bai that landed over a soft leafy bed instantly create "As you''re fighting for me with your all, I will also give you my all" Her green dress feel to the ground, revealing her breathtaking figure causing Bai to gulp. She was extremely beautiful, her perfect figure, not even an ounce of fat, her perfect firm ?ss, her perky round br??sts. The warm aura around her that made it impossible to avoid the gaze from her, awakening the primal instincts of Bai wanting to take her. Lingling kneeled, leaning over Bai, kissing him, her br??sts touching Bai''s ?h?st "I love you." Bai couldn''t resist her. His weak and injured bod would only be an excuse, he wanted her. Bai had spent a lot of time with Lingling, the truth was that it was the person with whom he had spent more time and had a really deep relation with her. She had helped him a lot and without a doubt he wouldn''t be the same without her. In some way, she was the one that had influenced more him. Thinking about their relation, Bai couldn''t help to remember all the time with her. His trustworthy partner that always was there, even if she preferred to not be in the highlight, she was when it was necessary, it was only that she was too shy to show her feeling. Now that he knew it, Bai feeling for Lingling awakened. He might not have the same as with Chenxiang, but he really loved Lingling, it might be different than with the strong and direct Chenxiang, but he loved the shy, hard-working, and introvert Lingling. "I love you, Lingling" Lingling smiled with some tears of joy in her eyes "I didn''t really dream my first time, being like this" She said ???k?n? Bai''s wounds that were quickly closing under her aura "However, I always dreamed it with you. You''re my dream man." Bai''s blood rushed to his ???k, standing powerful and erect. Lingling took out Bai''s trousers and und?rw??r, revealing Bai''s erect ???k. She gulped shyly looking at it. She kissed Bai while alienating her wet puss? over Bai''s shaft. Bai hugged, ??r?ssing her curved arriving at her h?ps "I love you, Lingling" he whispered. "Call me Lily, Whity" she shyly requested. Bai strongly kissed her "I will protect you always, Lily. I love you" Bai pushed his h?ps up, his ???k penetrating Lingling''s puss?, hugging and stroking his ???k. "Ahhhhh!" Lingling m??n?d, she didn''t feel any pain or blood as Bai penetrated her h?m?n, instead, a rush of powerful energy ran across her body, multiplying her euphoria, pushing her at her climax. Lingling''s puss? tightened, even more, hugging Bai''s ???k and pushing him towards his limit. "More!" Lingling''s body glowed with a warm deep green light, the vitality aura around her reaching a completely new level. This aura focused over her nether regions, rushing toward Bai along with his hard ???k towards his ?h?st, where the flower pattern became even more lively, beautiful flowers growing from it. Lingling was reaching her limit, feeling something rushing over her "I''m about!" "Let''s do it together" Bai whispered to Lingling "I love you, Lily" "I love you, Whity" "Ahhhhhhh!" Both m??n?d at the same time reaching the ?r??sm, Bai''s ???k shooting sp?rm painting Lingling''s inside while Lingling squirmed. A powerful green aura surged from both, blinding all the dome "Yessssssssssss!" Chapter 200 - Rose vs Gluttony Red and Violet flames danced around Mei, all the previous enormous fortress had extinguished, becoming part of Mei''s power. The flames swirled around as they started to take form, forming blazing vines. From each vine, multiple red-violet roses bloomed, creating a beautiful flowery blazing garden. Nevertheless, the power around Mei was incredible. The roses started opening, their petals leaving their stems, slowly orbiting around her. The sky around them turned red, this was Mei''s own domain, capable of controlling the energy inside it, everlasting supplying Mei while the plants resist, burning everything into pure energy. ---------------------------------------------------- While Myriad Demon King obtained the ability to control plants when it breakthrough over the 200.000 years, Mei didn''t dispose of this ability. Instead, she made all the plants summit with sheer force and fear. It could be said that every plant spirit greatest fear was Mei, they were simple suppressed by her, their fear was so hight that they had the capability of even broke Myriad''s control. The truth was that comparing it with Myriad, Mei had a very different growth. Myriad didn''t have many enemies due to his specie and cultivated more or less calmy without interruptions. On the other hand, Mei as a spirit flower, a Crystal Rose, had a very weak power, mostly being able to support others, and was pursued by many spirit beasts trying to take her energy. She lived most of her life hiding, running away from her predators and slowly killing and eating the near fauna. Thanks to her resistance, she quickly obtained great intelligence and willpower, but even with them she knew that she wouldn''t be able to face strong spirit beasts, the best would be to run and hide. Her turning point came when two high cultivated spirit beasts locked her, making escape impossible. They were a highly poisonous Violet Dragon Cobra and a mutated Fire Monkey. Once Mei was captured, they fought each other for the right to devour her. The Fire Monkey won the match but was badly poisoned by the cobra. Mei took advantage, she absorbed the cobra, acquiring some of its poison and when the Monkey tried to absorb her, she boosted the poison inside it, killing him instantly. Mei absorbed both spirits and she mutated. From a Crystal Rose, she became a 10.000 years old Red-Violet Rose. The most important was that she obtained actual combat strength and a potent flame, she was able to burn any other plant or organism and made it pure energy, even boosting the effect with a potent poison. While spirit beasts could pose some resistance, any plant in contact with her poisonous flame disappeared instantly. Wanting revenge against every spirit beast that tried to take her life, she started burning her surroundings, quickly increasing her own cultivation. In less than a year, she broke through 100.000 years old, obtaining a body able to fight. When the truly powerful older than 100.000 spirit beasts discovered her existence. She already had grown too strong, reaching a cultivation over 300.000 years old, her own domain extending over a huge area. Her own domain continuously growing, taking more energy from her surrounding, threatening to swallow the forest. Finally, the one that stopped her was Myriad Demon King. He was unable to fight Mei directly, Mei''s fire countering him, so his plan was to retract the forest area. He commanded the surrounding plants to withdraw creating a barren area surrounding Mei. Once Mei''s fire arrived there, she couldn''t continue using her high consumption domain, forcing her to personally chase after Myriad. Outside of her domain, Mei was easily subjugated by Zi Ji who helped Myriad. She only survived thanks to the Black Rose choosing her as its guardian, Mei''s ability perfect for its growth. With a promise of not attacking again the forest, Mei was let alive at her own while taking care of one the pillars of Star Dou Forest. ------------------------------------------- "AHHHHHHHHH!" Mayi charged across Mei''s domain, each petal in contact with her was absorbed by Mayi''s aura, finding herself not affected at all. It didn''t matter how powerful was Mei''s domain, it wasn''t enough to affect a 1st class god like Gluttony. Mei extended her hands "!" Countless vines surrounding Mei were shot towards Mayi, from each vine surged sharp 1 meter long thorns. The vines slashed at Mayi shooting thorns, at the same time, more roses grew over the vines, spreading more petals everywhere. Mayi''s aura surged from her stuffed helmet. Without even stopping, she opened her big mouth, a great suction force surged from it. All the vines were attracted by Mayi''s mouth, quickly being devoured by it. Mei grinned "Take this!" she clapped her hands, all the petals shined brightly, most of them being near Mayi. While the petals should weight less than the vines and be easier to absorb, they had resisted better, not being indirectly absorbed. "" The shine of the petals increased, becoming blindly "BOOOOOM!" All the petals detonated creating a powerful explosion, creating a sea of fire surrounding Mayi, a poisonous violet cloud surrounding it. Even plants hundreds of kilometers away couldn''t help to shiver at its might, all the plants that couldn''t escape instantly dying. The cloud quickly disappeared, revealing an unwounded Mayi, only her dress was a little damaged, having a strip at her skirt. Mayi was mostly unhurt, but for the first time her divine armament was damaged and she was stopped from her chase. "Ahhhhhhh!" Mayi shouted in fury, her aura around her exploded, trying to devour every petal around her, not ignoring her instinct again in search of her hunger. Mei''s own domain could collapse anytime, devoured by Mayi. "I won''t let!" Mei shouted "I have grown from before!" Mei put her hands over the ground "Hop!" she jumped, digging herself up, revealing her short little legs. Instantly, all the petals stopped still, quickly reacting and converging towards Mei, even surpassing Mayi''s absorption, at last, the petals were part of Mei. "!" The petals accumulated around Mei, forming a beautiful blazing red and violet dress around her. The flames were in constant movement, creating everchanging flowery patterns. Mei''s eyes shined brightly, her left eye turning violet while her right kept its red jewelry color. Over her hands, flames extended creating a long red whip surrounded by a violet aura. This was Mei''s trump card, she had prepared in the case of the other beasts deciding to attack her some time. It increased Mei''s strength, defense, and power, eliminating the dependence of her own domain. The truth was that her Flowery Garden was a big preparation for it, if it hadn''t disappeared, it would have been a lot stronger this technique. Seeing the petals disappear, Mayi forgot about them. She already had identified Mei''s as an obstacle for her food, so she had decided to take care of her before. She charged towards Mei, opening her big mouth trying to swallow her. Mei spun her ankle, her whip started swirling. It created a strong tornado around it, the whip twirling and twisting, creating a somehow shield in front of her. "Bam!" Mayi clashed with the shield. Mei received the incredible strength of a god. To keep up with it, Mei dug her feet at the ground, dissipating a lot of force to the ground. Nevertheless, Mei was unable to stop being pushed by it, forming a trail under her feet, her whip twitching, threatening to break. Just as Mei was about to be unable to continue stopping Mayi, a shadow appeared behind Mayi. It was Di Tian! He had recovered and waited for the best time. His intervention would have weakened Mei''s domain but with Mei''s new technique there wasn''t this problem. Di Tian swung its enormous claws towards Mayi, focusing his great strength and ultimate darkness in it. Mayi''s instinct kicked, warning that the attack was dangerous. As she was about to evade, she found herself blocked by Mei''s whip curled around her right arm "Die, ant!" shouted Mei. Mayi was unable to evade, receiving the full strength of Di Tian''s attack, being shot over 10 kilometers away, crashing to the ground, creating an over 300 meters crater. In the crater, Mayi supported on the ground to lift herself. Her dress was very damaged, her left side all in shatters, mostly destroyed, her left arm hanging unresponsive. In the last moment by pure instinct, Mayi twisted her left hand, as she didn''t have time to put a defense by the surprise, she took the full attack, but she was able to focus most of it in her arm, being able to evade a possible deathly attack. Mayi looked at her dress and arms "GROWLLLLLLLL!" this wasn''t Mayi''s shout, it was her stomach sounding, demanding for food. Mayi turned to the culprit of her state, Mei and Di Tian"I''M HUNGRY!" A shock wave surged around Mayi, widening the crater. Mayi opened her mouth, letting her long tongue out. A powerful black aura surged from her, it started taking form. Like snakes, six strings of black aura surged from her mouth, crawling around. Black liquid leaked from them, the liquid disintegrating anything in contact with it. Finally, it revealed their true form, they were tongues. With her own, seven 3 meters long tongues creepy crawled around Mayi. Mayi jumped towards Mei and Di Tian. Her speed was even faster than before, instantly appearing in front of them. Mayi swung her tongues like whips, slashing at them. Mei quickly reacted twisting her ankle, ordering her whip to protect her and stopping the tongues. On the other hand, Di Tian changed to his human form as his dragon form even if stronger was too big to evade such attacks. Thanks to his instant decision, he was only lightly touched by one tongue, evading a sure death. "What!?" shouted Mei and Di Tian surprised. Black saliva was affecting Mei''s whip, quickly invading her. She jumped back, quickly discarding her Garden Dress that was being devoured, it didn''t take even three seconds to it. If she didn''t have discarded, she would have been devoured by it. However, doing this, even if she evaded death, she also lost her strongest power, now unable to put a fight against Mayi. Di Tian was shocked by Mayi''s power. A light touch had devoured most of his energy. He needed to use most of his energy to stop the black saliva from extending, with this only attack he had lost more than 60% of his strength. It was several levels stronger than when he was bitten by her. It didn''t end there. Mayi''s dress seemed to be repairing itself. Not only Mayi had attacked them, at the same time, she had absorbed their energy and made it her own, using to heal the injuries that they caused using their full strength, making all their efforts useless. With an attack, Mayi had defeated them, now not her rivals. This attack wasn''t simple, it was a divine technique unique of the Gluttony God that Mayi had awakened. For most gods, there''s a need to learn and study about their own comprehension and self, expanding their divines senses and control to become stronger and be able to use more powerful techniques, most need to be taught before. However, the deadly sins were somewhat different. Their power surged not from a physical element, if not a concept, a simple but very powerful concept. As such, they couldn''t learn from their concept in the usual manner, the truth was that they didn''t need to learn it. By pure instinct, wallowing in their sin, they could reach new levels. For Mayi''s case, it was her urge to eat. Her loss of energy and damage to her armament, making her hunger stronger and her d?s?r? and sin stronger following it, reaching a new level of strength and learning to truly use her godly powers. Showing what truly a first class god was capable of. Mayi''s tongues crawled towards Mei and Di Tian, trying to swallow them, they unable to put any defense. "BOOOM!" Suddenly, a green pillar of energy shot up some kilometers over them. The green pillar pierced the sky, spreading thick life energy from it. Mayi turned to the pillar, her tongues stopping and disappearing as she contemplated the pillar, completely forgetting about Mei and Di Tian for the new source of vitality. Her mouth was salivating madly, a rain of saliva falling and digging the ground as she licked her big mouth, her d?s?r? to eat it overshadowing anything else. From the green pillar, a figure appeared. Black and white eyes and hair wearing green and white robes made from leaves. Two wings at his back with two swords at his hand. It was Bai! He was completely unharmed! He was surrounded by 13 spirit rings, the energy around him surpassing a normal titled douluo. "MAYI!" Bai shouted launching towards Mayi. Chapter 201 - Gluttonys Hunger Lingling had made a miracle. Using her spirit and the essence of her first time, she had completely healed Bai who was unable to even move before. Lingling''s healing also went beyond the physical. Bai achieved his perfect state, recovering all his spirit energy and replenishing his mental and physical strength, even surpassing it and reaching a new strength. As now, even with Bai''s spirit douluo cultivation, there wasn''t any difference comparing it with a super douluo. That was by sheer body strength and spirit energy, adding Bai''s sword arts made him a top powerhouse. This state would be momentary, leaving with smaller improvement after some time. But now, he was able to face a limit douluo. Unfortunately, he was facing a god. Bai floated surrounded by a green glow sensing his surroundings, his gaze fixed at Mayi who had stopped from killing Mei and Di Tian. Lingling for her part, left the vine''s dome, hurriedly returning near her spirit, her looks and clothes were a little hazard and her face was deep red. charged at Mayi. Bai''s 2nd, 4th, and 8th first rings shined, boosting his attributes, followed by the 7th ring glow. Swords appeared surrounding, swirling around him. They approached him, after a glow, they seemed to fuse to Bai, Bai becoming a gigantic 15 meters long gray sword glowing with white and green light. From him, a very thick vitality and power could be felt, not an ounce of death or killing intent could be felt from him. The 5 rings of the Oreo shined brightly, different Oreos manifesting inside the sword that was now Bai. Seeing the immense Life energy approaching her, Mayi couldn''t help to salivate. Such a pure and concentrated Heaven and Earth Energy, one like she never ate before. The sweet essence coming from it only made him more appealing. She wanted to eat him! Since her sudden awakening as the Gluttony God, her divine energy ran amock and couldn''t control herself moving by pure instinct, letting her hunger take control. She instantly had locked the strongest and most delicious source, Lingling''s spirit, as her food. She completely ignored everything in her path, treating them as mere insects bothering her from eating. However, for the first time, she had changed her mind, changing her objective. The one in front of her was worth eating. Bai wasn''t an annoying insect, it was food. Black aura exploded around Mayi. Her urge to it Bai, increasing further her strength "FOOOOOOOOD!" The aura started accumulating at her helmet, this glowed with pink and black light, the size of it increasing, becoming a 2 meters wide giant stuffy ant head, round shining eyes shined as the form of Mayi''s head changed. Her long tongue hanged out of her mouth, madly salivating a pink liquid. Even if the sight was strange and could even be considered cute, the power and aura behind weren''t. The full might of the Gluttony God had manifested in this form, greatly surpassing even Mayi''s tongues. The giant sword cut through the sky thrusting forward the giant head, the space around it shivered, creating a void for where it cut. Its power was enormous capable to cut kilometers. Just as the sword was about to pierce Mayi, Mayi reacted. Her body was immobile, but a speed difficult to even perceive, Mayi''s head expanded. It widened and bit forward, adapting at the sword form and closing her mouth, swallowing the full sword. After 0,5 seconds, Mayi''s head retracted, returned to her normal, only slightly oversized, form. Mayi slightly opened her mouth "BRuuuuup!" she burped. Complete shock ran across the place. The few beasts that stayed were all greatly surprised, a powerhouse that could make shiver most of them was beaten like that, a simple move, swallowing it. There was no fight or resistance. ""BAI!!!!!!!"" shouted Lingling from her place and Chenxiang who saw the fight from afar. Both of her faces reflected shock, sadness, and anger. "Boooom!" Violet aura exploded around Chenxiang, she madly charging at Mayi like a violet comet, leaving a trail of light and tears, her eyes clouded by tears and fury. Chenxiang spat blood, igniting her own spirit power, boosting her strength and speed over her limits. She charged towards Mayi, her strength exponentially increasing while she glowed with myriad colors. "I will fu?k?n? kill you, MAYI!!!" Chenxiang thrust her rapier forward, light converged on it. The lights around her disappearing, creating a completely dark world as if light seize to exist. Chenxiang was prepared to use her strongest attack, the Light God 3rd Rapier. With her actual strength, it was impossible so she decided to implode herself to obtain the necessary power to at least try it. She already made up her mind, she didn''t want to live without Bai. She would try her best and try to kill Mayi. Even accomplishing the attack, the odds were against her beating Mayi. But it didn''t matter, she would reunite with Bai even if it meant in the afterlife. "" Just as Chenxiang was about to implode, Mayi''s body shuddered, shined and disappeared. Chenxiang felt a hit over her neck, her implosion was abruptly stopped as she started falling unconscious, tears and sadness at her eyes, as she fell on the ground unconscious. Next to Chenxiang, a tall handsome man stood. Long gray hair, sharp features, and piercing but vacant eyes, one gray and the other brown. All his body except his head was covered by armor. A knight''s armor, the armored parts were silver-gray in color, while the tunics were blacks. With a black hood attached to the back armor around his neck. The man made a pained expression, his body contorting as he staggered back, forcing to kneel at the ground with his left knee. He put his hand over his head with "AAAAAAAAAAAA!" He shouted leaning back his head with an expression of pain. Chapter 202 - Spirit Fusion Bai was sure that he was unable to beat Mayi who became a goddess in a normal confrontation. It didn''t matter if he was healed and boosted by Lingling, how could Bai win over someone that beat the strongest spirit beasts? So he went with another plan. Bai didn''t try to defeat Mayi, he wanted her to recover her sanity. Their mental connection still existed even when it was clouded by Mayi''s outburst, so Bai opted to make that connection greater and stronger, becoming one with Mayi. Bai decided to perform a spirit fusion with Mayi. There were some problems to even try it. The first one was that due to Mayi''s constitution the bond must be internal and Bai doubted that he was able to approach Mayi and kiss her like before. So Bai decided to try it in Mayi''s interior, forcing Mayi to eat him. For this, he focused all his skills to boost his vitality, dismissing any death intent. Plus Lingling''s energy, he became something that Mayi couldn''t ignore and would want to eat rather than avert. It was a very risky bet trying to be eaten by the Gluttony Goddes itself, only an instant to try to fuse with her before being devoured, with zero certainties that it could even work. Bai put his life in the line for that instant and his bet paid off. He didn''t expect to be swallowed all, but it made it easier. His spirit avatar didn''t last much. When it dissolved, reveling Bai''s form, Bai took that instant to connect with Mayi. Her becoming a goddess didn''t change the fact that they were 100% compatible, making them possible to fuse even at god level. Their spirits quickly fused being attracted to each other, completing the spirit fusion, Antman. It might be a little different and much stronger than when they fused at the Continental Tournament, but it was the fusion of their three spirits. Once fused, for an instant Bai''s instinct took over when he saw Chenxiang trying to implode herself, forcing the spirit fusion to knock over her. Once he accomplished his first thought, Bai''s mind was engulfed by Mayi''s burst, the spirit fusion not having anyone to control it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The spectators were surprised seeing the scene. Di Tian quickly reacted charging towards the spirit fusion. He didn''t know what exactly had happened here, but he was sure that the man in front of had the aura from Mayi and Bai, maybe a fusion of them. The man seemed wounded, his energy running amok. Di Tian couldn''t even sense any divinity coming from him, he being a lot weaker than Mayi. It was the perfect opportunity to kill or at least greatly wound her. Di Tian thrust his arm, black scales and long crawls surging in it. He thrust his claws trying to cut the spirit fusion''s head. "STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!" A sonorous shout resounded. It contained a powerful aura in it, but it didn''t have any suppression in it, instead, it was a very warm aura that could heal oneself. Di Tian stopped still, his claws an inch from the spirit fusion''s neck. He turned to the voice, seeing Lingling. Lingling stood holding a knife at her hands, pointing at her own neck. She was looking straight at Di Tian "If you kill Bai, I would kill myself. You might win the war, but what will you do if I die?" Her eyes were strong and decided, not an ounce of indecision in them, her grip at the knife completely still without trembling. "Bitch!" Di Tian growled clenching his teeth. Lingling''s survival was completely necessary, putting over his own survival. Even if the finish the Gluttony Goddess, with all the core treasures devoured, the forest would eventually run out of spirit energy, the spirit beast in it not being able to grow and finally perishing. Lingling''s spirit was their only solution, already becoming the core of Star Duo Forest. "Fuck!" Di Tian swung his claws, gracing the spirit fusion cutting the space next to him, leaving a crack on the ground. He glanced at Lingling "You win, I will stop" he growled "However, if I see the minimum hint of the ant taking over, I''d kill him!" Listening Di Tian, Lingling sighed in relief, her hands starting trembling. She looked at the spirit fusion and whispered "All depend on you, Bai. Don''t die" she prayed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bai opened his eyes finding himself in a forest. It had a lot of tall trees, shrubbery, and grass, all of them were black and white with a crystal-like touch. All of them glowing in different colors, green being the most numerous. Bai recognized it as his mind space. No! There was something different, even if the plants resembled his mental world, the distribution of them was exactly like in Star Duo Forest. His mind space shouldn''t resemble it. "Crrrrrrrrr!" A breaking sound was listened, quickly approached to him. Bai turned to the sound. A black and white shadow was shot from it like a cannonball, destroying the trees in his path. The shadow seemed to recover midair, somersaulting and safely landing nex to Bai. Bai instantly recognized as his pseudo spirit soul, to call it with a name, Fenrir. A black and white wolf over 5 meters long. "GRRRRRRRR!" Fenrir growled looking to the way that he was kicked. From the destroyed path, a figure appeared. A beautiful young woman in the low 20s, with long straight brown hair wearing a brown armor, her brown eyes were clouded. It was Mayi! Chapter 203 - World Devourer Fenrir In the mind space created fusing Bai and Mayi, somehow Mayi returned to her usual form, not the goddess one. Following her form, her own power seemed to have decreased, even if it was enormous and near-divine, it didn''t reach the power of a god. Nevertheless, Bai''s problem didn''t solve. Seeing Mayi''s eyes, it was clear that she was out of control, the spirit fusion not enough to broke her state. "She might need a good hit" At Bai''s hands a black and white sword appeared. Bai turned to Fenrir who only had a light wound, he was perfectly capable to continue fighting "Fenrir, attack!" "Grrrrrrrr!" Fenrir charged towards Mayi followed by Bai. Fenrir lifted his paw, swing his sharp claws towards Mayi. Mayi clenched her right hand, punching Fenrir''s claws. The clash was obvious, Mayi''s armor was far stronger, breaking Fenrir''s claws and punching him away. Hid behind Fenrir, Bai appeared slashing downwards, a trail of pure white light leaving behind it. Mayi simply lifted his left arm, her gauntlet stopping the slash. Bai quickly chained it, thrusting his left sword, a black pillar exploding from it. The black pillar was instantly extinguished by Mayi who twisted her right hand, her hand blocking the tip of the sword and gripping it. Mayi exerted her strength breaking Bai''s black sword, at the same time, twisting her right arm, thrusting her elbow towards Bai''s face. Before the elbow could connect, from Mayi''s right sharp teeth launched towards Mayi''s plackart. Fenrir had quickly recovered from the hit, launching himself again, bitting Mayi. Even Fenrir''s teeth couldn''t pierce Mayi''s armor. However, the force of the bite pushed Mayi a little, enough to make Mayi''s elbow fail to hit Bai''s face, only gracing his nose. "Crrrr!" Mayi seemed pissed. She twisted her h?ps, putting her weight over her left leg. Mayi''s right leg curved like a whip, kicking Fenrir stomach and throwing him, clashing towards Bai. Bai flicked his white sword, gripping in reverse, blocking Fenrir with the unedge part of the sword. Both, Bai and Fenrir, being pushed more than 50 meters away, Fenrir landing over Bai. Even with a 2vs1 the difference in strength was too great. It was normal, Mayi surpassed them in speed, strength, and defense. Mayi''s strength even without reaching her previous godhood state was near a limit douluo. On the other hand, Fenrir was much weaker, even if he was strong for his age, it didn''t change the fact that he hadn''t reach 100.000 years old cultivation. Moreover, in this mind space, like in spirit fusions, spirit skills were restricted and external factors like Lingling''s help boosted all of them including Mayi. Mayi never had the ability to use spirit skills and found herself being boosted by a strong vitality, it was difficult to face her. "Let''s do it" Bai said looking at Fenrir who was on top of him "Devour me!" The aura around Fenrir changed as his hair stood up. Fenrir lifted his head opening his mouth. A powerful attraction force surged from his mouth. Like if it were a black hole, all the surrounding energy and plants were being ravenously absorbed by it, creating a black and white tornado that disappeared inside Fenrir. Fenrir''s Devour only affected energy, being incapable of devouring physical beings. "CHT!" Veins popped from Bai''s head, a great pain rushed at his mind. What Fenrir was devouring was the mind space itself, affecting Bai''s own mind, producing him indescribable pain, greater than even when his mind space was collapsing against Tao Yi. However, it was necessary for Fenrir''s evolution. For a long time, Fenrir had stood at the peak of a 10.000 years old beast, not being capable to breakthrough to 100.000 years old. Not only that, but Fenrir even prevented Bai from acquiring other rings for his Oreo spirit, devouring any spirit ring that Bai tried to absorb. This had forced Bai to completely stop his Oreo spirit cultivation. When Bai''s mind space collapsed, Bai discovered what Fenrir needed to evolve, letting him eat Bai''s mind space forest. It wouldn''t be much important previous to the merge as each mind space was separated, but Bai discovered too late. Once the mind spaces joined becoming one, devouring a part from it would affect Bai''s mind, greatly reducing his mental strength. The truth was that it was an incognita, Bai didn''t know the result of it. It could be from nothing to his mind space collapse, dying, or becoming mentally retarded. Bai preferred to not risk it. It would be different if the Oreo was his only spirit, but having a second one completely independent of Fenrir''s influence, he could reach the top anyway, there''s no need to risk his life, so Bai decided to let ignore his Oreo spirit only using as a little support. However, in this situation, Bai couldn''t find another way to win. Outside, it would be a suicide trying it out, as the best would be a improvement of his Oreo skills. But in his mind space with Fenrir capable of directly fighting? His boost in power was worth to try it. Bai made up his mind betting in it. While Fenrir devoured, his body seemed to beat, with each beat, his body compacted reducing its size, his hair shining brightly. On the other hand, Bai was shivering in pain, shouting trying to keep his mind together, to not collapse. Mayi also seemed affected by it, but much less than Bai due to her high immunity against mental attacks. She had stopped and had one hand over her head. The light around Fenrir was increasing "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Bai shouted, his head threatening to burst. "Shing!" A black and white surged from Fenrir''s body as his devouring stop, blinding all the space. Bai''s pain finally was subdued, his arms falling to the ground powerless panting, he was too weak to even move his body. With his only strength, he tilted his head looking were Fenrir stood before. Where the 5 meters long Fenrir was, now stood a two meters tall werewolf. He stood with two feet, his back slightly curved as prepared to charge forward. His hair was all gray and seemed fluffy yet robust. His muscles were high defined, powerful muscles bursting from his arms and ?h?st. His head had changed, his nose had lengthened over his head. He had big and sharp dark eyes with pointy ears. In his mouth, there were three rows of teeth, each one extremely sharp and glowing with a dangerous shin. "AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Fenrir looked up howling. His howl made all the space tremble. Fenrir turned to Bai and seemed to grin "It took you long enough" Breaking through the 100.000 years old cultivation, Fenrir not only had obtained a more powerful and fit body, but his intelligence had also shot up, being even able to talk human language. Fenrir turned to Mayi "Let''s payback" He lifted his right paw, five 1 meter long claws surging from it. Fenrir''s body flashed, appearing in front of Mayi, thrusting his claws. Mayi quickly reacted, recovering from her mental damage, crossing both hands. Fenrir''s twisted his body, stopping still his right claws just before Mayi''s gauntlets, thrusting forward his left paw, punching Mayi''s stomach under her arms. Mayi was pushed forward 50 meters away, safely landing on the ground. Over her plackart, a crack had appeared. Fenrir looked down at Mayi "Next time would be a kick" Chapter 204 - Fenrir vs Mayi Fenrir dashed towards Mayi, continuously attacking her, slashing, kicking, punching... A blur of attacks rained at Mayi who was forced to go on defense. Fenrir was overwhelming. His speed was incredible, his strength enough to damage Mayi''s armor, and even if his defense wasn''t much greater, he didn''t have the need for it. By his aura, it was clear that Fenrir didn''t become a normal 100.000 years old, he directly passed that stage and broke through the 200.000 years old, having a strength similar to a peak super douluo. On the other hand, Mayi''s movements had become more sluggish, her overall strength decreasing. Even if she wasn''t much affected as Bai, the absorption of their shared mind space had greatly affected her, losing the vitality boost and a decrease of her speed reaction. Her strength also lowering to that a super douluo. For Bai''s case, he was completely out of combat, even if the damage at his mind had ended, the lingering pain of it not, he would need some time to recover his mind state and being able to fight. He could only lay there seeing Fenrir and Mayi fighting. It was clear that Fenrir had the advantage, but the final result was undecided. "Grrrr!" Fenrir swung both his arms, his claws slicing Mayi''s neck, decapitating her, her head flying away, leaving a trail of blood. A source of blood shot from her body. Mayi''s body flashed, her head appearing over it, her physical body completely fine. She punched forward. Her gauntlet became black and her speed increased. Fenrir couldn''t evade, he lifted his left arm blocking it. "Crack!" Mayi''s punch went over Fenrir''s arm, pushing him away, leaving Fenrir''s left arm dislocated in the other way. This was the main problem. Mayi''s body was only a mental image, every injury would affect her mind, but she couldn''t really die. However, too much damage would cause her mind to break down or something unexpected as the mind was truly a mysterious thing. On the other hand, this was Fenrir''s true body. As Bai''s spirit soul he wouldn''t die even if killed while Bai''s alive, but if he was killed, he would disperse, required a long time for Bai to recover him again. Bai was worried, even the shock of death was not enough for Mayi to recover her sanity. If this continued, the only result would be he or Mayi breaking down, and Bai didn''t really want this final. His love for Mayi had changed, realizing that it was something about his youth and first relationship. Now that he experimented with other loves of Chenxiang, Lingling, and... He had discovered that Mayi''s wasn''t a romantic one. Nevertheless, Bai loved Mayi very much, he had spent a lot of time with her, experimenting a lot with her, even life and death situation. She was someone irreplaceable in his heart, Mayi was like his family and best friend, she would always be his sweetheart. "Ahhhhhh!" Mayi''s all armor turned black, a black aura oozing from it. Mayi kicked the ground, instantly, appearing over Fenrir punching him. In an instant, the tables had been turned. May''s strength had boosted, divinity could be sensed from her, but it was very strange. It was power over human, resembling the Gluttony''s divinity, but the way that it affected Mayi was different than before. There was some kind of rejection. "Ahhhh!" Mayi shouted in pain as she continued pushing Fenrir, her strength was increasing, but it seemed that she was even more hurt than with Fenrir''s attacks. "Crack!" A crack appeared over Mayi''s ?h?st, a black smoke oozing from it. "Mayi!" Bai shouted worriedly. This wasn''t a physical crack, it was a mental and existential one, showing that Mayi''s was about to break down. This wasn''t due to Fenrir''s attack, it was due to Mayi''s own aura, not being able to control it. "Booom!" Black aura exploded from Mayi, her crack starting growing, expanding all over her body as more black smoke surged from her. "auuh!" Fenrir backed shivering to Bai''s side, Fenrir was frightened by the power in front. This was it. This long fight had finished like this. Mayi would auto destroy and cease to exist, being Bai''s win. Bai clenched his fists "You must be fu?k?n?!" he shouted in anger "I lost you a long time ago, swallowing myself in pain and sorrow. Now you return, my feeling and hopes returning, I wanting you at my side. For what? For only to leave again" Bai invoked a sword and pierced the ground, supporting to stand up "Don''t fu?k me! I won''t accept it!" Bai won''t surrender. Bai turned to Fenrir who was shrunken scaried at his side "You stop shivering! Aren''t you a great World Devourer Werewolf? Capable of devouring anything. Don''t show this pitiful side!" He kicked Fenrir. Bai being weakened, the kick as with so weak that it couldn''t injury Fenrir, but the hit and the shock was there "Take whatever you want. Devour all this place! If it might help. I would do anything, but go fu?k?n? there!" Bai said signaling Mayi "And stop her." Fenrir looked at Bai with a shocked face and big eyes. He was terrified by the black smoke''s power, but Bai''s words were affecting him, giving him courage. "DO IT!" Bai ordered. All Fenrir''s hair stood up, like a lightning running across his body. Of course, he was a World Devourer! Following Bai, he had become stronger, one of the strongest of the continent, all of this in less than 20 years, all of this when he was nothing else that a weak and fat hamster. Even if he was frightened by her, he would give it all for Bai. Bai was always with him, feeding him and making what he was today. At least, he owes this. "AUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" Fenrir howled, the sound expanding all over the space, the air around him trembling. He opened his arms, long claws surging from it. He clenched his teeth and growled "Grrrrrrrr!" A black ?uster appeared over his claws and teeth. A powerful suction force came from each, absorbing all its surroundings, being air, plants or even light. His sharp eyes glanced at Mayi. He could eat worlds, what could do a little pitiful ant!? If that black aura was killing her, he would devour it, saving her for Bai. "AUUUUUUUUUUU!" Fenrir charged forward the black smoke "!" An attack that was his own self. His own Devour had evolved at this moment, he no longer was restricted to energy, he would devour anything, not even concepts would be safe. He madly slashed his claws and teeth, crossing forward the black smoke, creating an opening, him reaching Mayi. The black smoke was incredibly powerful, even with most being absorbed, Fenrir was affected by it. His beautiful hair losing his ?uster, starting being corroded, dark patches appearing over his skin, even corroding his inside. Reaching Mayi, the black smoke was even stronger. At any moment, he could be consumed by it. Fenrir''s face became vicious "For BAI!" He started a barrage of attacks, slashing at Mayi. His claws pierced through Mayi''s body, not damaging her at all. Fenrir''s attack wasn''t directed at Mayi, it was at her uncontrolled energy. Fenrir''s eyes became bloodshot, the dark patches expanding over his body, he sensed himself being affected by the black aura, his body being consumed. But he didn''t stop, on the contrary, his speed was increased, a blur of claws piercing over Mayi, impossible to see by mere sight. "AHHHHHHH!" Mayi''s black aura exploded, cracks were over all her body, her body seemed to be expanding, just about to explode and die, dispersing without even a soul remaining. Fenrir''s claws were torn apart, completely corroded by the black aura "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" He leaned forward, thrusting his mouth towards Mayi. Opening his mouth, his sharp teeth shining with a black ?uster, bitting over Mayi, trying to tear her. "BOOOOOOOOM!" An incredible powerful explosion occurred, filling all the mind space with a cloud of dust, hiding Fenrir and Mayi''s result. Chapter 205 - Little wolf and little girl From the dust, Bai could sense Mayi''s divinity disappearing. He hurriedly dragged his body towards them, fright was written in his face as he was worried by Mayi and Fenrir. Bai walked forward, finally recognizing some silhouettes. He approached them, the dust enough dispersed to finally see what was in front of him. Before Bai there were two living beings. One was a little wolf laying on the ground soundly sleeping with a calm face. Most of his hair was black, with some white patches here and there, especially a bigger one that covered his right eye and ear. It was so little and seemed so calm and cute that rather than a wolf people would confuse him as a dog puppy. Bai instantly knew that it was Fenrir, somehow he had experimented an evolution, even if his image seemed docile, his aura had increased a lot, being stronger than a moment before. Bai was glad, he seemed tired but overall Fenrir was fine. Bai turned to the other being. There, stood a cute little girl about 6 years old. She had short straight brown hair at her shoulder height. She was wearing a black and pink dress with a frilly skirt that seemed like a gothic theme. On her hands, she was hugging a cute plushie doll of a black ant. The little girl furrowed her nose and stood up, seemingly having wakened up now. She opened her big round brown eyes, directly looking at Bai''s eyes. The little girl blinked thrice, lashing her long eyelashes. The little girl''s brown eyes shined brightly, her face changing to an excited and happy win. A big smile adorning it that seemed to illuminate all the space "Big brother!" The little girl jumped at Bai ?h?st, hugging him tightly. Bai was shocked, but unconsciously reciprocated the hug, his arms surrounding the little girl''s back. The little girl in Bai''s arms was Mayi. Her divinity had completely disappeared, her aura had greatly changed, now even not resembling a human. However, Bai was sure that she was Mayi. She was the perfect image of Mayi at 6 years old, plus he had the feeling inside him saying it. He trusted his instinct and, anyway, who could she be if not? Bai patted Mayi''s head, a smile surging from his lips "Thank god that you are fine, Mayi" Mayi tilted her head cutely "Who is Mayi?" "It''s your name." Bai answered "I am Bai. Do you remember me?" Mayi nodded "You are my big brother and I am your little sister!" She stated. "Do you remember anything about you?" Bai asked concerned. Mayi made a thoughtful face, like thinking a lot. But, quickly shook her head "Nothing!" she happily stated "I only know that I love big brother!" she said smiling happily. Bai wasn''t really surprised by it. After that strong and almost mind-destroying fight, a memory loss was the most expected. It was far stranger, Mayi''s and Fenrir''s transformation. Mayi made a worried face "It''s important?" Bai looked at her and shook his head, then, he hugged her tightly "It didn''t matter. The most important is that you''re fine." After having lost her so many years, thinking her as death. A little of amnesia wasn''t important. She was his Mayi, he could sense her. Even if she didn''t recover her memories, they would create new ones. If she thought as him as a big brother, he would become the perfect big brother for her, he would protect her, not letting her be hurt again. Bai vowed to himself. Bai took Mayi''s hand "Let''s go out" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At Star Duo Forest, the strongest spirit beasts could see as the struggling antman suddenly stood still, completely stopping. Di Tian lifted his arm, black claws surged from it, preparing to strike at the minimum glimpse of Mayi. Like if it were a layer of sand, light specks left the antman body, the wind taking them away and revealing a different person inside. The antman was completely gone, Bai standing in his place. Bai opened his eyes only to find Di Tian''s claws at an inch from him, causing Bai to quickly jump back, but the claws didn''t move. Di Tian couldn''t sense divinity from him, it was clear that Bai wasn''t a god so Di Tian didn''t have a reason to attack him. ""Bai!"" Chenxiang bringing Lingling along came flying towards Bai, jumping at his arms. It seemed that Lingling wasn''t permitted to approach Bai before and Chenxiang was brought to Lingling to heal. Tears of joy and concern ran across their cheeks. Bai hugged them smiling "All''s fine. Everything had finishe-" He couldn''t finish the sentence when his body shivered. His face was full of shock as he pushed Chenxiang and Lingling away "Run away!" Wings appeared on Bai''s back, he strongly flapped them, shooting himself away from Lingling and Chenxiang the sooner the better. He didn''t control the strength, causing him to crash and rebound to the ground, but he created a big distance. Mayi wasn''t with him in the outside world, after breaking the spirit fusion only his normal state remaining. Instead, Bai could sense her inside his own mind space, exactly the same as Fenrir who continued sleeping. This itself was a problem, it seemed that Mayi had become like something similar to a spirit soul like Fenrir, living inside Bai''s space. However, this wasn''t the big problem, he could think about later. The problem was... "AHHHHHH!" Bai shouted as a powerful aura exploded from him, thick vitality aura exuding from each of his pores. The problem was Mayi''s own energy, now in his body. She had previously absorbed most of the energy of Star Duo Forest, eating its cores. Before becoming a goddess, Mayi couldn''t even absorb it, letting it accumulate in the form of a forest in her lair. She was only able to absorb it once she recovered her mind and became a goddess. Now, that immense energy was inside Bai. It was so high that Bai''s body was about to explode. "AHHHHHHHHHHH!" Chapter 206 - Breakthrough It was a thick and powerful vitality that nourished all of Bai''s body and mind. His injures were healed and even his damaged mind space was repaired by it. It even directly shot his spirit energy, increasing his spirit rank to rank 89. The problem was that it was too much, like too much medicine could become poison. Bai focused his control over the energy, controlling it''s released speed to not burst him, but the pressure was too strong to even last. "I will help you, big brother!" In Bai''s mind space, the little Mayi started absorbing a great quantity of energy. Mayi started shining and Bai could sense a warm feeling over his left hand. Unconsciously, over Bai''s left hand, his spirit Oreo appeared. Somehow it had changed a little, over the black cookie it was drawn an ant and a wolf leaning in each other filling the round cookie. Surrounding the Oreo, 5 red rings appeared. "I will give you strength, big brother!" the energy inside Bai quickly was directed at the Oreo spirit, another red ring started forming, quickly followed by another two. Just like this, Bai''s Oreo equaled his sword spirit in the number of rings and it even surpassed in the quality of them. The creation of the spirit rings from Mayi had absorbed some of the surplus energy, but it was only a short relief. The energy quickly threatening him to explode. When it seemed that he couldn''t last more, Bai''s ?h?st shined with a pink and green light. His flowery pattern created by Lingling came alive, beautiful pink flowers blooming from it. "Bai!" Bai could listen Lingling''s voice in his mind, it was full of worry and concern, with a mix of fright. "I used our connection to help you with the energy. I am directing it towards my own spirit" Lingling was touching the big tree that was her spirit. A powerful thick green aura surged from her, directed at the tree. The tree shined as it was growing bigger, pink sprouts appearing over the green leaves, some of them blooming in beautiful pink flowers, exactly the same at Bai''s ?h?st. "The flux is too strong, I can''t keep with it much time. If this continues, you would die. Even if I can keep it up, you would be crippled all killed by the flux of energy" Lingling informed, she was clenching her teeth, her face twisting in pain, but even then her voice didn''t show it, not wanting to worry Bai of her health. "What could I do?" Bai''s body convulsed, even diverting his attention to ask a question it could cost his life. "You need to breakthrough to titled douluo. Then not only your body would become stronger and resist more, but you could even use the energy to nourish yourself, boosting your rank" Lingling explained. It was a plan, but Bai knew that it was impossible. Breaking through titled douluo was one of the most important stages of spirit cultivation, he needed to focus his own spirit energy and condense it, creating a soul core. This process was very difficult, it needed a great control, strength, and precision, something wrong could cost the life. In Bai''s state, needing to use all his mind strength to control the energy, he couldn''t focus on creating a soul core. He would explode immediately. "Lil-" Just as he was about to explain to Lingling, she interjected "I will take care. I will redirect all your energy to me, as it''s too much for me, I won''t last too much. In this time, you need to breakthrough!" "Lili, would you be fine?" Bai was really worried about her, even if her spirit could resist better the vitality energy, it was really too much. He was worried about her. "Don''t worry, I have a better endowment in Life energy" Lingling answered. "Okay" Bai finally accepted "But, at the minimum hint of overbust, you must stop!" "Okay. Be ready. I would start now" Lingling focused all her mind and strength over her tree, the aura around her becoming much thicker and powerful, unstoppably flowing to the tree. "BOOOM!" A green pillar shot from the tree, piercing the sky. Green particles came out from the pillar and rained all over the area, filling it with great spirit energy and vitality. Seeing the phenomenon, the spirit beasts couldn''t help to be awed by it. They all closed their eyes and started cultivating as this energy was highly effective for cultivation. Moreover, absorbing the energy it could lower a little the burden under Lingling. Bai found the pressure of the energy completely disappear. Most of the energy was hungrily absorbed by the flowers at his ?h?st, leaving him a easily controllable energy. Bai sat in lotus position entering deep meditation. He needed to create his core quickly before Lingling tired herself. Bai started circulating his spirit energy, increasing the speed at each revolution, trying to create a vortex, the previous step to the core''s creation. He quickly discovered that it wasn''t so easy. Normally, it about controlling your own energy, condensing to the core, the difficult part being the control. However, Bai found himself another big problem. Like most people in his realm, his spirit power had completely transformed following the characteristics of the user, Bai''s spirit power acquiring a myriad of different elements. To create a core, Bai should use all of it and joining when creating the core. The problem was Life and Death. He could join the others under one of them, but both of them wouldn''t join, forcing them would cause Bai''s mind and body to break as they were too incompatible. Bai had already thought about this problem long before and searched for a solution. After much thinking, talking with his family, and some tests, he concluded that creating one core was impossible for him, at least normally, even focusing only on one element would provoke the other to go rampant, affecting the core''s creation. For a special method to do it, he found none. There might be some treasure or strange technique to do it, and he planned to experiment more when he reached that state, but he didn''t expect to arrive so forcefully. Without any time to even think, Bai could only try the solution that he had thought before. Theoretically, it was possible, but it would be very difficult especially in his first try. His idea was that if creating one core with his spirit power was impossible, he would create two. At the same time and speed, he would create both his Death and Life cores, each one not affecting the other. Of course, controlling two opposed energies at the same time, creating two cores, increased the difficulty exponentially, it was close to suicide, but it was the only actual option. Bai started focusing on his energy, he joined Life, Protection, Steel, Wood, Ice, and Wind, separately joining Death, Blood, Fire, Lightning, Space, and Water. This part was easy, he was long used to use them at the same time, perfectly multitasking thanks to his Mind Separation Control at the perfection state. He started revolving both torrents, increasing their speed and slowly moving them to their position. Soul cores could be located in three positions, between the eyebrows, at the dantian or at the ?h?st. The easier place was the dantian, but creating it there would make it much difficult for a second core to be created, necessary if someone hopes to reach limit douluo. This let Bai with the only option of putting them between the eyebrows and ?h?st, he would create the Life core over his ?h?st and the Death between his eyebrows. The spirit power left their usual circulation, creating two different vortexes, one pitch black and the other all white, both greatly devouring the surrounding energy, each one absorbing their own elements. Increasing the speed, trying to condense them was incredibly difficult. Since the vortexes creation, each one was affecting the other, they seemed to be fighting between them trying to tear each other apart, it seemed impossible to create a core in this condition, even with thanks to Lingling''s help, the Life energy wasn''t overbearing and Bai could equal them. Bai clenched his teeth, he put all his strength in it "Condense!" Both vortexes increased their speed, becoming smaller. Suddenly, Bai shivered, each torrent of spirit energy was affected by the other. Fighting each other, the vortexes breaking. "BOOOOM!" The energy went out of control, expanding over Bai''s body and tearing his body apart in an explosion. Bai''s members flying apart and blood raining in a gore scene. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lingling''s face became pale, she clenched her teeth, her eyes bloodshot as blood leaked over her nose. She would last much more, she already had crossed her limit in mind and body, she was only lasting by sheer willpower. "Ling, stop!" Mei tried to approach Lingling, her voice full of concern, seeing the bad state of Lingling "You can''t last more, stop immediately!" She ordered more forcefully. "Mei, don''t try to stop me" Lingling said with blood over her mouth, staining her teeth "I would fight until my death. Bai is there fighting, I would accompany him. He had risked his life protecting me. This time, I would be the one protecting him." Seeing so decided, Mei stepped back, unconsciously "Dammit!" She extended her hands, vines surged from her hands surrounding Lingling, beautiful Red-Violet Roses growing around her, absorbing a great of the energy surging from Lingling. It wasn''t a great help because Bai''s energy was directly appearing over Lingling, then flowing to her spirit. Mei had some healing abilities like all roses, but in this case, what Lingling needed the less was healing as she had too much vitality. This way, Mei could only reduce the burden of Lingling''s spirit, not her body. Mei was injuring herself absorbing so much energy, but she needed to help Lingling, Lingling had long become the most important being for Mei, her irreplaceable best friend. "Bai, fu?ker!" Mei shouted "You better be alive for me to punish you!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A gray light glowed over the area, 8 spirit rings shining brightly at the sky. Countless swords manifested all over the place. All of them shot forward, piercing the same piece of ground. After a blindly light, over the stabbed place, stood Bai in the same position as before. His face was pure white, washed from any color, all his body sweaty. (Bye to the joker. Now only one opportunity) Bai truly didn''t have time. He started again the cores'' creation process. Reaching again the state of vortexes condensing. Bai focused his all, slowly doing, but it didn''t matter how much he was focused, both vortexes fought collided against the other, impossible to condense. (What could I do?) Moreover, his mental strength was draining and he knew that Lingling would overexert herself, even at the cost of her life. It was her hard work and kind character, always worrying about the others, it was one of the things that Bai loved about her. Bai could only accept this deal because he knew that Lingling would push herself, it didn''t mind what he told, he wouldn''t be able to stop her. So he would use most of it, both leaving alive from this. (Maybe...) suddenly an idea crossed his mind, it could work. It was a simple method (Why didn''t I tried before. I''m really silly sometimes) "Burg!" Bai vomited blood, he focused his strength over the black vortex, twisting it and reversing its rotation. For an instant, the vortex almost dispersed, affecting the white vortex, but Bai quickly took control of it, effectively, reversing his rotation. Now, the white vortex was spinning clockwise while the black vortex was counterclockwise. Bai found the pressure of both greatly decreasing. It was becoming much easier! Each one seemed to help the other vortex forming, almost automatically increasing their speed and starting to condense. It might be even easier than the creation of a normal core! It was a simple gears application. Each gear transmitted their strength to the other, but this caused them to have opposite spinning directions. If both were to spin the same direction, it would cause a shock in their point in contact, breaking at least one of them. Of course, this couldn''t be applied at other cores'' creations, it was only thanks to the complete opposition between Life and Death that made capable of them to help each other, never affecting the other, fusing them. Bai continued the process much easier now, both vortexes spinning faster and becoming smaller, each one helping the other. "CONDENSE!" Both vortexes shined blindly, revealing two perfect round cores, equals in size, one black and white the other, in their positions, each core spinning absorbing the surrounding energy, each core even helping each other. High comprehension laws written over them. "I had succeeded," he said in relief. He lifted his left hand, a ninth red spirit ring forming over it, affirming that it was true. Bai had become a Titled Douluo! Chapter 207 - Aftermath "Lili, you can stop. Leave it to me" Having reached the titled douluo realm, the pressure at Baik'' body decreased significantly. Lingling stopped diverting the full flow of the energy, but she kept a little of it to help Bai. This tiny amount wouldn''t cause her any damage. Lingling panted soundly, her body was all sore, her limits long surpassed. She lifted her head looking at the tree. It was all bloomed, pink flowers all over the crown, the vitality surrounding it had reached another level. Now even the green rain could be a perpetual phenomenon but in a smaller aura. Lingling leaned over her tree and smiled brightly "He did it" Then she patted the tree "It won''t be long before you are ready to reap. I thought it would take me 10 years." Once the torrent of energy returned to Bai, his body eagerly devoured it while letting some of it to the atmosphere. The advance over titled douluo ranks was very much related to the mind strength and comprehension of your spirit. This was what made it difficult to advance, especially over super douluo where the comprehension must reach a great profundity. In Bai''s case, this wasn''t a problem. His sword comprehension had always been much ahead of his spirit cultivation and he even was inheriting a god position. He had long accomplished the requirements of advancing, he only required the spirit energy for it and there was much available. 92, 93, 94, 95. Bai strength and spirit rank shot forward as he absorbed the thick energy, the previous pain becoming p???sur? and strength. It stopped at rank 95 for a moment but quickly broke through. 96, he had reached a realm that not even 15 people at the continent reached, he had become a super douluo. 97, finally stabilizing at rank 98. Even if there were energy to try to break through limit douluo, Bai knew that he couldn''t, he wasn''t ready now. He had b?r?ly created his cores and advanced to titled douluo now, he would need some time familiarizing with his strength and stabilizing his realm before trying to breakthrough. If not, he could cripple himself trying to create the third core and breaking through rank 99. At Bai''s right hand, one of his swords appeared. He tightly clenched it, canalizing the energy and his new strength to it. The sword started shining brightly with a white light. He positioned in an unsheathed position and swung his sword upwards. A spiralling white pillar of pure Life energy climbed the sky, exploding. All the sky around Star Duo Forest was painted white. White energy particles fell to the ground, filling the forest with beautiful and mystical light, like shining snow. Human, beasts, and plants started cultivating this new energy. The forest won''t return to his previous splendor, but this snow returning energy would help. Maybe, in thousands of years, they are able to recover. It was a hard path ahead for the spirit beasts, needing effort and strength to reconstruct the forest. Bai fell to the ground with a smile at his face. He did it. He had solved the crisis and even if Mayi''s state was strange, he saved her without sacrificing any of his loved ones. Bai''s body was full of strength, but he really was too mentally exhausted after the non-stopping fighting. He closed his eyes, instantly, falling sleep, a warm smile adorning his face. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In a world completely formed by swords, a silhouette stood there. "We didn''t expect it to happen so quickly." The silhouette said surprised with different tones at the same time "Luckily, he was able to eliminate it. He is talented and lucky." Suddenly, the swords around started shivering, giving an ominous vibe "We must hasten our plans as more will soon descend. Anyway, all the conditions have been completed." The silhouette said before disappearing in the space. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One week had passed since Mayi''s battle. Both, spirit beasts and humans, used this time to rest and recover from the long battle, especially the over a year war from the spirit beasts. They all need a little rest. Bai had spent this week, familiarizing himself with his new realm and power. The state of Mayi didn''t change at all, similar to Fenrir, she became something similar to a soul spirit. She formed Bai''s 4 rings, giving him abilities similar to her. Moreover, Bai could invoke Mayi for a little time. She didn''t consume Bai''s spirit energy, but she couldn''t last long outside Bai''s mind space. It was like a fluttering soul without a body. Bai could only sigh at the fact that he reached titled douluo by his Oreo spirit rather than the most used swords. Shall he call himself Oreo Douluo or Cookie Douluo? Bai decided to put it aside, a title was simply an honor reaching the titled douluo rank. Usually, one will go to the Douluo Temple at Spirit Hall to be recognized of the title, something that Bai really doubt he would do. Anyway, he didn''t plan to be remembered as a titled douluo, instead, it would be as a god or being forever forgotten. Bai also had received the Sword God Trial''s reward. In this case, all of Bai''s rings were linked to his own elements and intents, causing all of them to grow older. Having attained the All Sword Realm in all of the different intents, Bai''s all rings had become 100.000 years old. The actual Bai was a monster with 17 red spirit rings, everyone under limit douluo would be too easy for him to face. Even he was completely sure of winning a 1vs1 against a limit douluo, without mattering how close to god he was. Once he fully stabilized his realm, he had confidence even fighting against Di Tian, the strongest spirit beast. Chenxiang, Xiao Wu, and Tang San also had advanced to titled douluo. They took advantage of the thick vitality spirit energy to boost their own cultivations, achieving rank 90 and effectively creating their owns soul cores, much easier, slowlier, and with less pressure than Bai. With Bai, they all returned to where Mayi''s anthill stood. There they found Mayi''s brothers ants b?r?ly alive, with extremely slim and frail bodies that a simple breeze could kill them. Knowing that they didn''t have any option of survival, they finished being the trio''s 9th spirit ring, all three 100.000 years old. Chenxiang took the four-winged ant''s ring, becoming a titled douluo. Her titled was Light Speed, in honor of her spirit and clan, becoming Light Speed Douluo. Tang San took the bigger and more robust ant, he named himself, Thousand Hands Douluo. And Xiao Wu who took the longer arms ant''s ring named herself Soft Boned Douluo. Bai went to Mayi''s chamber and recovered his Scythe. The Scythe was truly exceptional and worth keeping. Moreover, Bai was a little worried of the power inside of it affecting other people''s sanity. It would be better keep it himself. Today, Bai, Chenxiang, Xiao Wu, and Tang San decided it was time to leave the forest. They had received information about the Spirit Empire. The war against was imminent and they were worried about their loved ones being injured or killed without they even able to help. Moreover, Bai had received his next trial, even if he didn''t know what it was, he was informed that to take it he must return to his clan. Bai''s group said goodbye to the group of beasts, fighting together a live and death battle, was the one of the best ways to create ties. Most of the beasts recognizing them as friend or comrades that could be trusted, not like most humans. Bai passed his last night intimately with Lingling. She was about to make an important breakthrough and was unable to move. She promising that in more or less a year she would ready to be with him always. Bai parted with her with a long, warm and profound kiss, promising to see again. Then, the quartet left towards Heaven Dou City, towards the palace. Chenxiang linking her arms over Bai, a little jealous of the time with Lingling, while Xiao Wu linked her arms with Tang San. Chapter 208 - Volume End With this another volume that finish. What do you think about this volume? I considered the less canon. Here''s a curious fact, I didn''t read the Legend of the Dragon King, a started 2 months ago, now being around chapter 950. This made me not know a lot about that novel and I found that a lot of things that I thought were similar to the actual third novel, like the zones of Star Duo Forest (I refer the areas, not the actual non-canon Death Area), some about the own sword arts and even maybe Bai''s merge? There also the fact that maybe my writing had formed, following more the actual author. Anyway, there are only two more volumes to finish. The next one would be named Road to Godhood. Look forward to it.