Word Count: 3,109 Words
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The natural order had been turned on its head!
The very originator of 'path to death' now had someone pointing at his head and hurling those words back at him. Tang San finally understood just how nauseating those three words truly were!
The Eight Sea God Wings burst from his back, and the Sea God Armor settled over him. Blue-gold radiance blazed to life as Tang San gripped the Sea God Trident, transformed into a streak of light, and shot straight down toward the sea of the Douluo Continent!
The Sea God ruled the ocean. Above the waters, he could draw on the sea's power to amplify his own. Tang San was a clever man, and he knew exactly how to push his strength to its absolute limit!
Countless sea spirit beasts lurked in the depths. The enormous overlords that once roamed the ocean unchecked now trembled like chaff in a sieve. Brilliant gold and blue-gold stood in stark contrast across the sky and the sea.
The divine senses of the two Gods crushed against one another. One was the Sea God, backed by the ocean, his face cold with fury. The other was the Angel God, blazing sunlight pouring around him, his expression indifferent.
As the Angel God descended upon the mortal world, the burning sun above shone with overwhelming brilliance. With every flicker of its light, the sea's aura weakened a fraction more.
The Angel Sword drank in the sun's power as though it meant to cleave the ocean in two. Dazzling golden radiance stirred the winged cloud patterns on the Angel Divine Armor into rhythmic motion. Both suits of armor had been forged from spirit bones, yet Ling Bai's Angel Divine Armor was the more resplendent of the two, standing utterly above Tang San's Sea God Armor!
The sea had failed to serve its purpose. Tang San's expression darkened. Ling Bai seemed to see straight through his thoughts and spoke lightly:
"Tang San, clumsy little tricks are useless.
The sky will always stand above the sea."
BOOM—
For three thousand miles in every direction, the sky boiled in an instant and became a sacred golden domain. Within its bounds, every living creature was swept farther into the heights by the Angel God's power. This god-level domain targeted only one person. It locked onto the Sea God, Tang San!
Angelic Domain!
Blue-gold light erupted as Tang San was forced to release the Sea God Domain, barely carving out a foothold beneath the Angelic Domain's oppression. Like an eternal, unchanging law of the world, the battlefield of the two Gods stretched across the vast ocean and the boundless sky alike, yet even a wave thirty thousand feet high could never break past the limit of the sky!
"Golden Thirteen Halberds, First Form, Unfixed Storm!"
Tang San understood that the Sea God Domain could not contend with the Angelic Domain. If he let this continue, utter defeat was inevitable. He seized the initiative and struck first. The Sea God Trident traced a wide arc, gathering the water elements still lingering in the depths that the Angelic Domain had not yet purified. A massive blue-gold halo appeared from thin air.
Unfixed Storm was renowned as the foremost control skill in the entire Divine Realm. Tang San was confident that even the God of Destruction, struck by it, would be forced to remain locked in place for several seconds!
"Too slow."
Angels excelled in aerial combat. In the sky, the Twelve-Winged Angel God was the one and only sovereign!
Tang San watched in disbelief as Unfixed Storm failed to catch so much as a single angel feather. He refused to accept it. The Sea God Trident moved again and again, sending one Unfixed Storm after another sweeping outward.
The brilliant golden Angelic Holy Fire drew inward, condensing into the Angel Sword and transforming in an instant into near-transparent flame-glass of purest gold. One diagonal slash, and the Unfixed Storms shattered into ten thousand motes of light. A magnificent blue-gold downpour rained across the sky!
The vast sun became the Angel God's backdrop. A sacred golden silhouette emerged behind him, while twelve angelic wings blotted out the sky. Three cold words fell from Ling Bai's lips:
"Divine Skill, Eradication!"
Incomparable scorching heat enveloped all things, and a fierce sense of crisis seized Tang San in the same instant. The Eight Sea God Wings spread wide behind him, their intense blue-gold radiance resisting the invasion of angelic divine power, yet his body was still forced downward. The divine power inside him scattered like ice and snow melting beneath the sun!
Tang San's feet pressed flat against the surface of the sea. His long blue hair hung in disarray behind his head, and only by beating the Eight Sea God Wings without pause did he steady himself.
He looked up at the Twelve-Winged Angel God who stood proudly in the sky, and for a moment his awareness blurred. It was as if he had been carried ten thousand years into the past, high above the sea, where the Sea God once fought the Angel God. Yet the outcome of those two battles stood entirely reversed!
In the next breath, Tang San truly saw that familiar figure. A peerlessly beautiful woman stepped forth from the Angel Sword and laid her hand upon the blade beside Ling Bai. Two voices, different yet bound by the same unshakable will, rang out as one:
"The world's path is my path. One sword passes judgment. One life opens heaven's light!"
The sky blazed gold, broken only by the sun-like ninefold halos behind the two great Angel Gods. True sunlight itself was eclipsed by holy radiance in that moment. Countless Ling Bais appeared across the sky, each raising the Angel Sword high overhead. The ninefold halos illuminated sky and sea alike, and every blade pointed toward Tang San!
Divine Skill, Heaven's Punishment!
Tang San's body felt as though it weighed a million pounds. The Sea God Armor groaned beneath the unbearable burden. Above the ocean, the Sea God himself was crushed until he could barely breathe.
"Golden Thirteen Halberds as One, Sea God Afterglow!"
Tang San threw back his head and roared in fury. The Golden Thirteen Halberds merged into one, becoming the strongest divine skill the previous Sea God had left to his inheritor!
A tornado-shaped vortex of white mist erupted skyward. The Angelic Holy Fire and the Sea God's holy water, two utterly opposed energies, detonated together. The Sea God Trident seemed to ignite the entire ocean. Blue-gold divine power surged upward as pure water elements peeled away from the sea, and monstrous waves lifted the Sea God into the air!
"Confess your sins!"
Countless Ling Bais bellowed in unison. Sound waves rolled across the sky, and the sea around Tang San shattered inch by inch like a mirror. The moment the Angel God brought Heaven's Punishment crashing down, the ocean split open into millions of fissures, baring the earth long hidden beneath the waters!
Tang San clenched his teeth. Sea God Afterglow erupted at almost the same instant. Brilliant gold and blue-gold collided, and the terrifying impact of two divine skills clashing made even the distant Douluo Continent tremble. The island closest to the battlefield was the former Silver Whale Island, and its fishermen looked on as the eruption of a battle between Gods unfolded in the distance.
Sea God Afterglow ultimately failed to withstand the Angel Sword's edge. Sword light that blotted out sky and earth cleaved the ocean apart, carving ravines across the waters and leaving devastation in every direction. Under the influence of angelic divine power, the seawater could not fill those fissures for a long, long time.
Tang San knelt on one knee upon the sea torn open by the Angel Sword. The ocean crystal at the chest of his Sea God Armor burst apart. The twin arm bracers condensed from his Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape spirit bones vanished, and golden divine blood flowed from him without end.
The Sea God was indeed a top-tier 1st Class God of the Divine Realm, wielding the Sea God Trident, an Ultra Divine Weapon that even certain God Kings did not possess. But his opponent was the Twelve-Winged Angel God, who bore an Ultra Divine Weapon of his own. That Tang San had withstood the divine skill Heaven's Punishment and survived was already cause for pride!
Ling Bai had no intention of holding back. His divine power shifted, and a purple-gold halo flowed across the Angel Divine Armor. An impassioned dragon roar split the air as a colossal purple-gold dragon surged forth from the Dragon King's Crown. Its body stretched nearly twenty miles, every inch covered in thick, heavy purple-gold scales. It carried the wrath of the Water Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King against the Divine Realm, and the might of the Dragon Kings shook sea and sky!
Dragon King's Descent, Holy Wrath Reverse Scale!
Now that he had ascended as the Angel God, Ling Bai possessed the divine power to unleash Holy Wrath Reverse Scale at will. The purple-gold dragon locked onto its old friend Tang San in an instant, and its incomparably massive body plunged from the sky!
Tang San gnashed his teeth in hatred for this technique. Had the divine skill of the two great Dragon Kings not left him gravely wounded, he never would have allowed Ling Bai to ascend as the Angel God!
He bit savagely into the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of heart's blood onto the Sea God Trident. His divine might surged, and driven by consuming hatred, the Sea God Armor shattered apart, sweeping into a torrent of oceanic power.
The divine energy released by the broken armor gathered into a blue-gold water dragon, fangs bared and claws brandished. Tang San stood atop its head, the Sea God Trident gleaming with razor sharpness as he rose to meet the colossal purple-gold dragon born from the fusion of the two great Dragon Kings!
The two dragons crossed in midair. A muffled detonation rolled outward as the purple-gold dragon sank its teeth into the blue-gold water dragon. Its claws raked Tang San's waist, leaving a gash so deep that bone showed through. The divine body that Gods took such pride in proved as fragile as a sheet of paper!
The purple-gold dragon drove the water dragon down toward the Douluo Continent, ripping savagely at Tang San's flesh. Plumes of golden blood sprayed outward and nourished the natural world along their path.
"The Angel God... is so powerful." The Goddess of Life covered her red lips in surprise.
There was never any shortage of onlookers eager for a spectacle. The Divine Realm had been peaceful for too long, and most of its Gods had never witnessed a battle at the God King level. One after another, they gathered at the edge of the Divine Realm, craning their necks to peer down at the battle of two Gods upon the Douluo Continent.
The God of Destruction's eyes flickered. "There are two ways to become a God. The first is to break through one's shackles and ascend, and gathering the power of faith is one such method. The second is to inherit the God Position of a previous God.
Generally speaking, those who ascend by the first method possess higher combat power than those who use the second. An inheritor may not be perfectly compatible with every ability of the previous God.
Take Tang San. Before he became a God, his abilities were said to be tied to plants. The God Position most suited to him was actually the Wood God among the Elemental Gods. But he inherited the water-attribute Sea God Position, which meant discarding those plant-based powers and adapting to the previous Sea God's trident and oceanic power. That is the price of taking a shortcut.
The Angel God Position shattered long ago. For the Angel God to repair and advance it is no different from walking the first-generation Angel God's path to godhood all over again. He hardly needs any period of adaptation. And if he is a bloodline descendant of the original Angel God, then the position was practically tailor-made for him. Absorbing it makes him a God King at once."
"So you think the Angel God will win?" the God of Evil asked curiously.
"Tang San carries two Gods in one body. He still bears a God King level Asura God Position within him," the God of Destruction said with a shrug. "It was inherited from the previous Asura God, but it is still a God King's position. Certainly better than pitting a 1st Class Sea God against the Angel God. Whether he can turn defeat into victory depends on how deeply he has fused with the Asura's divine power over the years."
"Destruction. If the two of them insist on fighting to the death, who will you help?"
Tang San's wife, Xiao Wu, the scabbard of the Asura Sword, asked softly.
Without a moment's hesitation, the God of Destruction answered with righteous severity. "The Asura God violated divine law by sending his divine soul into the lower realm to ambush a God Position's inheritor. Now that the Angel God has come to settle the score, neither reason nor sentiment permits this God to interfere. Nor should any God of the Divine Realm interfere."
As the representative of the radical faction, the God of Destruction had long sought to develop the Divine Realm and had endured the conservative Tang San far too long. Sitting atop the mountain to watch the tigers fight violated no divine rule, and it forced him to openly commit to no side.
If Tang San lived, the Divine Realm would remain as it was. If Ling Bai lived, the God of Destruction would welcome him with open arms. He simply refused to believe that a newly ascended God King could prove any worse than Tang San!
Xiao Wu snorted coldly. She exchanged glances with several old companions at her side, all 2nd Class Gods, and they silently reached an understanding.
BOOM—
The purple-gold dragon slammed Tang San into the earth before a towering, majestic pass, then slowly dissipated. Tang San braced the Sea God Trident against the ground and dragged himself upright, wounds covering him from head to toe. His gaze fell upon those ancient, weathered walls, and he murmured:
"Jialing Pass..."
"Jialing Pass. Battle of Two Gods. Does it stir any memories?"
Ling Bai flashed onto the wall of the pass, his brilliant golden eyes shining like stars. "This is the burial ground I have chosen for you. A 1st Class God against a God King has not the slightest chance. Release your Asura God Position and bring this battle to its end."
"You think your victory is certain?!"
Tang San felt the cut of tremendous humiliation. His eyes burned blood-red and his breath came as heavy as a bull's.
With his body as the center, Jialing Pass was swallowed by a horrifying crimson world. A slender sword blade appeared in his right palm, as if it contained a boundless sea of blood!
God Position Switch, Asura God!
Ultra Divine Weapon, Asura Sword!
Inside Jialing City, the mortals sensed the sudden shift in the crimson world and stepped out of their homes. They saw the Twelve-Winged Angel God standing atop the city wall with divine majesty blazing around him, and their expressions instantly turned fervent. They shouted in unison:
"Long live the Holy Evil Monarch! Long live the Angel God!"
Every shout was hoarse and raw, torn from straining throats with all their strength. The cries echoed through Jialing City like crashing mountains and roaring seas. They were only ordinary mortals, of course, and could not threaten the life of the Asura God. But the sheer momentum of countless hearts united as one drained the color from Tang San's face.
Once upon a time, the Douluo Continent had also resounded with cries of "Long live King Lan Hao! Long live the Sea God!"
This continent suddenly felt unfamiliar to him. The hand gripping the Asura Sword trembled without his realizing it.
The people had changed. The world had changed. Everything had changed!
He stood on the opposite side of the people's hearts and had become the target of every arrow!
BOOM—
Ling Bai's terrifying aura snapped Tang San back to his senses. The resplendent Angel Divine Armor dissolved, replaced by a suit of gray-gold divine armor. Scythe-like blades jutted from each shoulder, and sharp spikes protruded from every joint. In his hand, he held a gray-gold scythe whose curve was desolate and haunting. Death aura flooded the sky, and the Asura God's blood-colored world swiftly dimmed!
God Position Switch, Death God!
Ultra Divine Weapon, Death God Demon Scythe!
"The Rakshasa God Position evolved as well..."
Tang San and the Gods of the Divine Realm were shaken to their cores. Within the Death God's origin, they sensed the fluctuations of the Rakshasa God's divine power!
Two God Kings in one body. Tang San could not accept this reality.
Six years in the mortal realm had been only six days in the Divine Realm. With the Goddess of Life at his side healing the wounds of his divine soul, Tang San had had no time to attend to the lower world. He had believed that producing a single God King on the Douluo Continent was already its limit. Yet Electrolux, at the cost of sacrificing the Spectral Demiplane, had forcibly pushed the Rakshasa God Position to God King!
A bestial roar carried across Jialing Pass. The Asura God's blood-red light erupted and illuminated the Asura Sword. Tang San's eyes blazed pure crimson as the blade swept outward.
Divine Skill, Asura Trial!
"Slaughter is only the process. Death is the true end."
Ling Bai stared coldly at Tang San as rings of light unfurled and reflected against the sky.
Gray, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red, Purple-Gold, Red, Red-Gold, Gray-Gold!
Electrolux and the Spectral Demiplane had forged the Death God's tenth divine ring!
The Death God Demon Scythe cleaved through the empty space. Death's divine power fell from the heavens like torrential rain and hung suspended between earth and sky to form a sea of death. The scent of blood saturated the air. Countless spectral creatures tumbled and roamed within it as cruel, sinful, tyrannical auras of malice surged outward without restraint!
Gray-gold light flared. Countless leafless flowers burst from the soil and dyed the world around Tang San into a sea of blossoms, bewitching and brilliant!
Underworld · Death God · Flowers Bloom on the Far Shore!