Word Count: 3,451 Words
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The Sun Moon Empire's army stretched for a hundred miles before Jialing Pass. At Ye Xishui's single command, thunderous war drums shook the land, and the vast host surged toward the fortress in a murderous tide.
Jialing Pass was indeed a natural stronghold, but times had changed. The Evileye Tyrant and Terror Claw, the two Beast King-class Spirit Guidance Legions, activated their Multi-Person Linked Spirit Guidance Devices and gathered the collective power of entire legions to hammer the walls.
The ordinary Spirit Guidance Legions brought out every kind of high-explosive Spirit Guidance Device they had, and shells poured down without pause for a single instant. All fear is born of insufficient firepower. Shielded behind that relentless barrage, the corps of common soldiers charged without a shred of hesitation!
This was the Sun Moon Empire's way of war, grinding all resistance flat beneath the wheels of advanced Spirit Guidance technology. In another timeline, the Body Sect had fought until their young master Long Aotian fell, Sect Master Du Busi was gravely wounded, and numerous Titled Douluo perished, and even so they had failed to hold Heaven Dou City. That alone said everything about the Sun Moon Empire's military might.
Little wonder the Heavenly Soul soldiers had lost all will to fight. Primitives were a joke in front of a higher civilization. Had the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and Shrek Academy not intervened, the Heavenly Soul Empire would have walked the same old road to total collapse.
BOOM—
A radiant pillar of golden light shot into the sky. Even in broad daylight, every soldier on the field could see that sacred, brilliant beam clearly. The Seraphim, holy and aloof, unfurled its angelic wings, and one majestic Radiant Spirit Array after another spread across the sky to block the first wave of attacks for the Heavenly Soul army.
Four great gates faced the front of Jialing Pass. Massive drawbridges dropped with the groan of winches, and armored heavy infantry poured out of the city in a clamor of steel.
Spirit Master experts stood high above the host. Ge Peng commanded the Heavenly Soul forces while Ling Bai released his Radiant Spirit Array to shield the legion, and his gaze swept across every face beside him one by one.
"War is no game, and the Heavenly Soul Empire stands at an absolute disadvantage. Protect yourselves. Your lives come first."
"Bai-ge, don't you dare underestimate us." Ning Tian offered him a bright smile.
"Nine Treasure Legion, meet the enemy!"
The Nine Treasure Spirit Guidance Legion erupted in dazzling brilliance. Ning Fengya had never been stingy with coin, and the equipment she had furnished her own legion with was no less than that of a Beast King-class Spirit Guidance Legion. Most striking of all were the hundred gleaming Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagodas.
Streams of jewel-like radiance pierced the clouds. Amplification after amplification poured down upon the allied Spirit Masters, and their momentum soared in an instant. That sudden surge of power sparked a fresh sliver of hope in the dispirited Heavenly Soul soldiers. They lifted their weapons and threw themselves into savage combat with the Sun Moon Empire's vanguard.
Treasure light shimmered around Ning Tian as the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda hovered above her palm. Her sapphire-blue eyes fixed on the distant battlefield, while Wu Feng, transformed into a fire dragon, guarded her flank. Ling Luochen, Ji Juechen, Yu Mengdi, Na Na, and the other geniuses of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan released their Martial Spirit Avatars and plunged straight into the fray, tearing through the Sun Moon formations like so many daggers.
Ma Xiaotao instantly felt overshadowed by Ning Tian's display. With her pride, how could she stand for it? She passed command of the Shrek Legion to Han Ruoruo and shot headlong into the Sun Moon ranks. The searing heat of Ultimate Fire reduced the soldiers around her to drifting ash in a heartbeat.
"You're courting death!"
A Class 9 Spirit Guidance Master roared and brought a battle axe cleaving down toward her.
The Heavenly Soul Empire possessed the strongest Spirit Masters on the continent. To show due 'respect,' the Sun Moon Empire had sent not only two Limit Douluo and the commanders of its two Beast King-class legions, but also a full eight pill-reared Class 9 Spirit Guidance Masters.
Though Class 9 Spirit Guidance Masters stacked up out of mountains of secret medicine were far weaker than the genuine article, their Titled Douluo cultivation still allowed them to draw out the full might of Class 9 Spirit Guidance Devices. Xu Tianran had judged them well worth the price.
"Holy... Evil... Dou... Luo!"
A maddened, hoarse roar rolled across the sky. When sworn enemies met, their eyes burned all the redder. Ye Xishui tore through the air like a vengeful ghost, and Long Xiaoyao followed close behind her in silence.
Ling Bai's eyes turned to ice as he regarded Demonic Phoenix Douluo Ye Xishui, whose spirit power had grown even more formidable than before. The evil intent roiling around her was so vast and tangled that he could no longer calculate how many innocent lives she had devoured in the days since!
He wasted no words on her. Toward Evil Spirit Masters, Ling Bai's stance had always come down to a single word.
KILL!
Angelic Domain, Angel Avatar, Great Sun Angel, and Holy Heart erupted in unison. The sacred radiance of the Seraphim enveloped the battlefield, and a pressure beyond compare descended!
Both Limit Douluo leaned back ever so slightly. Ye Xishui let out a shrill, beastlike shriek. After her second fall into evil, her Bright Phoenix had not degenerated into an Evil Phoenix or a Black Phoenix, but into something the continent had never before witnessed. It had become a Demonic Phoenix, whose resistance to holy energy far surpassed that of any other Evil Martial Spirit!
Long Xiaoyao's features twisted in pain. The darkness of his Darkness Holy Dragon had never reached the ultimate level, and the Seraphim's Ultimate Holy and Ultimate Light were its perfect bane. He buckled first, and his seventh spirit ring blazed to life.
Darkness Holy Dragon Avatar!
The Silent Darkness Domain clung to the surface of his body. Within that boundless, fathomless night, the Darkness Holy Dragon surged into the air. Deep, heavy black scales sheathed its form, each one glinting with a dim, sullen light, and its outspread wings stirred up a howling tempest of shadow.
"ROAR—"
The Darkness Holy Dragon threw back its head and bellowed, its dragon eyes like two bottomless black voids.
Long Xiaoyao had no wish to help evil flourish, nor did he want Ye Xishui to sink deeper into ruin, yet he had no choice. The proud, spirited Dragon Emperor Douluo of old had died long ago, on the day he joined the Holy Spirit Cult. What remained now was only a walking corpse!
"Xiaoyao, I knew you still loved me. Help me kill him!"
Ye Xishui laughed with crazed delight, binding Long Xiaoyao once more in the name of love. That move had never once failed her. With the Demonic Phoenix and the Darkness Holy Dragon together, she refused to believe they could not cut down a single Seraphim!
Her blood-red seventh spirit ring flared wide. The sky took on a strange crimson hue, like a curtain of blood drawn across the firmament, heralding the arrival of the Demonic Phoenix.
Its feathers were blood-red and burned like fire, yet they were no ordinary flames. They were incarnations of hellfire itself, radiating a deep, scorching power that seemed capable of devouring all light.
Ten thousand miles above the earth, Angel battled Dragon and Phoenix!
On the ground, the steel legions slammed into one another. In moments the Sun Moon Empire had overwhelmed the Heavenly Soul army, and the battlefield tilted into a brutally one-sided rout.
The two Spirit Guidance Legions of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and Shrek Academy could not withstand firepower several times their own. Their brief early advantage faded, and Titled Douluo such as Ma Xiaotao and Han Ruoruo gradually found themselves besieged, worn down in mind and body alike by the Sun Moon Empire's Class 9 Spirit Guidance Masters and the nightmare array of Spirit Guidance Devices at their disposal.
Even the most skilled hands cannot conjure something from nothing. Ge Peng could shout himself hoarse, but the Heavenly Soul army still suffered catastrophic casualties. Before long, the entire line at Jialing Pass would crumble.
Just as despair began to creep across every eye on the field, an angel with six pure white wings rose into the sky. Ye Guyi pressed her palms together before her chest. Her exquisite face shone with sacred, reverent light, and her cool, clear voice fell across the land:
"Heroic spirits of the Spirit Empire, in the name of the Angel God, fight for the angels once more!"
"The Spirit Empire?!"
A flicker of blank confusion crossed the faces of Wang Yiheng, commander of the Evileye Tyrant Legion, and Liao Mengkai, commander of the Terror Claw Legion. The Sun Moon Continent had only collided with the Douluo Continent several thousand years after the Battle of the Gods. To the vast majority of the Sun Moon Empire's people, the Spirit Empire was little more than an unfamiliar name out of a forgotten age.
Hooong—
Then the howls came. They were distant and ancient, vast as a rolling flood. On a battlefield measured in the tens of thousands, those cries alone were enough to suppress the surging momentum of the Sun Moon Empire's host.
The expressions of both Beast King commanders turned grave in an instant. Lesser men might not have been able to identify what those sounds truly were, but with their Titled Douluo strength, they sensed the monumental threat hidden within them at once!
Six figures swept across the sky in broad arcs, their spirit power auras so dreadful that the combined pressure left both commanders struggling to breathe. This was beyond anything ordinary Titled Douluo could produce. In a single instant, the two commanders judged that all six of these newcomers possessed spirit power of at least Rank 96.
Every last one of them was a Super Douluo!
Golden Crocodile Douluo stood at the forefront. He nodded toward Ye Guyi from afar, then split his mouth in a grin that bared a row of stark white teeth:
"Brothers, ten thousand years ago we failed to hold Jialing Pass for the Spirit Empire. This time, we can't afford to lose face in front of the angel!"
"Understood, Second Brother!"
The Worships of Spirit Hall rolled their shoulders and cracked their knuckles, and spirit rings rose from beneath their feet one after another. They could no longer contain the hunger for slaughter burning in their chests!
"Soldiers of the Spirit Empire, the angel's descendant needs our aid. Show yourselves!"
Endless black shadows surged up from the earth. The Angel Legion. The Holy Dragon Legion. The Mammoth Legion... All the storied legions of old awakened after ten thousand years of slumber. Tens of thousands of Spirit Masters released their Martial Spirits as one, and the sheer glory of that sight dragged the mind back in a dream to the age when the Spirit Empire had commanded seven-tenths of the continent's Spirit Masters.
Countless spirit rings flashed in four colors: white, yellow, purple, and black. The terror of that rising aura made the breath of the Sun Moon army seize in their throats!
Hidden instance activated!
The Watch of Jialing Pass!
"For the glory of the Angel Clan, Spirit Empire, kill!"
Revived by Rakshasa evil power, the soldiers of the Spirit Empire charged into the battlefield utterly without fear of death. Ten thousand years on, the Sun Moon Empire's Spirit Guidance Devices had surpassed Tang Sect hidden weapons by unfathomable measures. But the Spirit Empire had been born of Spirit Hall. Its Spirit Masters vastly outnumbered the Sun Moon army, and they feared neither life nor death, with nothing in their hearts but slaughter!
In terms of raw battle strength, the Spirit Empire was not something the Heavenly Soul Empire could even pretend to stand beside. Diamond Mammoths held the vanguard, the White Armored Dragons of the Holy Dragon Legion surged close behind, and the Angel Legion reigned supreme in the skies. With more Spirit Masters and fiercer spirit skills, they rolled over the Sun Moon Empire's forces without mercy!
"Ancestors, I'm coming!"
Yu Mengdi's eyes lit up at the awe-inspiring sight of the Angel Legion, and she leapt to join them on the spot. The others found themselves freed at last. Ma Xiaotao's phoenix flames swallowed a Class 9 Spirit Guidance Master whole, while the Dazzling Golden Ropes danced through the air as Han Ruoruo singled out the elite experts within the enemy Spirit Guidance Legions and bound them fast.
On the Nine Treasure Legion's flank, Ling Luochen wielded the Ultimate Ice element in concert with her ice explosions, growing fiercer with every exchange. Ji Juechen's Judgement Sword was peerless in its cut. Neither Spirit Barrier nor Spirit Guidance Armor could stop that edge, and of every fighter on the field, his kill count climbed the highest.
"Damn it, we'll lose at this rate!"
The two Beast King commanders steeled their hearts and snapped out a cold order. "Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shells, fire!"
The moment the words left their mouths, the two of them and several Class 8 Spirit Guidance Masters hoisted Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannons onto their shoulders and loaded shells at blinding speed. The pitch-black muzzles swung toward the great legions below and the walls of Jialing Pass!
Before setting out, the Sun Moon Empire had foreseen that the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and Shrek Academy would come to the Heavenly Soul Empire's aid, and had prepared accordingly. The two Beast King-class Spirit Guidance Legions had been allotted twenty Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shells between them. Men who stood in the way would be slain, and gods who stood in the way would be slaughtered!
A double-digit count of Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shells was threat enough to be felt even by the six great Worships of Spirit Hall. The Sun Moon Empire truly had the power to drag everyone on the field down into mutual annihilation!
The battle, so hard-won and only just turning in their favor, seemed on the brink of overturning again. As those Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannons drank in their gathering energy, a shiver ran through every heart on the allied side. Only Ning Tian's expression never changed as she drew out the blood-red Storage Spirit Guidance Device Lin Jiaran had pressed into her hands before they departed!
A war fortress rose from the ground, towering into the clouds. Its structure was intricate and unyielding, its outer layer sheathed in blood-red armor. A massive energy core sat at its heart, feeding endless power through every inch of it!
Quasi-Class 10 Spirit Guidance Device, Crimson Dawn!
As a warfare-focused Spirit Guidance Master, Lin Jiaran had devoted her entire life to creating one comprehensive Spirit Guidance Device, complete in every respect, equal in offense and defense, and capable of deciding the outcome of a war.
Crimson Dawn carried the Sun Moon Empire's core Spirit Guidance technologies: High-Energy Compression, Sealed Milk Bottles, spiritual attack systems, and more. Were it not for the flaws left by Lin Jiaran's own strength falling short of Super Douluo, Crimson Dawn would have been a true Class 10 Spirit Guidance Device!
With their experience, Wang Yiheng and Liao Mengkai could see at once how extraordinary Crimson Dawn was. They were stunned that the Heavenly Soul Empire's side had developed a device of this caliber without so much as a whisper reaching them, but the arrow was already on the string, and they had no choice but to loose it!
The Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shells screamed through the air. Ning Tian activated Crimson Dawn, and the High-Energy Compression particle cannons mounted on its four corner turrets roared to life. High-Energy Compression Spirit Guidance Devices were rarer and more overbearing still than Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shells. All of Mingdu possessed only four of them, yet Lin Jiaran had been mad enough to mount them onto Crimson Dawn!
The particle cannons tore across the sky and poured down upon the incoming shells like a meteor storm. The aftershocks of the detonations bloomed into a sea of fire. The earth trembled and the sky burned, and yet only such ruinous force could stop the shells the world had come to call the destroyers of war!
Crimson Dawn operated through a spiritual link. Ning Tian closed her eyes. The High-Energy Compression particle cannons retracted, and in their place rose a massive, blood-red barrel. Both Beast King commanders knew that aura intimately, for they had wielded it themselves only moments ago. This was unmistakably a Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon!
Shell loaded. Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shell, Scarlet Storm!
You've spent all your Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shells? Then it's our turn now!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!
White smoke curled from the muzzle as four Scarlet Storm shells roared out one after another!
Ning Tian did not aim at the Evileye Tyrant or Terror Claw Beast King-class legions. Both were equipped with Linked Spirit Barriers, which gave them at least some chance of weathering a Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shell. So instead, she generously bestowed one shell apiece on each of the Sun Moon Empire's four ordinary Spirit Guidance Legions!
Corpses carpeted the plains, and blood ran in rivers!
The Scarlet Storm shells Lin Jiaran had crafted with her own hands carried the spiritual pressure amplification of a Terrifying Demon Dragon. Ordinary Spirit Guidance Legions had no means of resisting a spiritual attack of such magnitude. A single shell was nearly enough to annihilate an entire legion!
"This little girl from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan is ruthless enough..."
Golden Crocodile Douluo gave Ning Tian a long, deep look. Had those High-Energy Compression particle cannons not intercepted the Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon shells with such precision, they would likely have found themselves paying another visit to Rakshasa God Bibi Dong.
His savage gaze swung toward the two stunned Beast King-class Spirit Guidance Legions, and Golden Crocodile Douluo let out a thunderous roar:
"Brothers, charge!"
His seventh spirit ring flared alight and his body swelled against the wind. Amid an earth-shaking bellow, the Golden Crocodile King hurled itself at the Evileye Tyrant Spirit Guidance Legion, leading the charge.
A golden bloodline meant raw power. One claw strike from the Golden Crocodile King left the Linked Spirit Barrier shuddering on the verge of collapse. Wang Yiheng's face drained of color. Golden Crocodile Douluo stood only a hair's breadth from Limit Douluo!
"Second Brother, we're here!"
Fifteen Ton Douluo and Falling Devil Douluo grinned fiercely, their Coiling Dragon Staffs whirling with crushing force. Their eighth spirit rings lit in unison. One staff hammered down from above while the other swept up from below.
Fifteen Ton Strike!
Falling Devil Coiling Dragon Ring!
Mighty Lion Douluo launched himself at the Terror Claw Spirit Guidance Legion with unmatched ferocity. His lion's roar thundered across the field, and every beast Martial Spirit in the Sun Moon army spun out of its master's control. His forepaws crashed down upon the Spirit Barrier, and a single stomp gouged a deep crater into its surface.
Wild winds rose as Azure Luan Douluo slashed at the barrier again and again. Sparks scattered in every direction. The shield gave off a shrill whine that set teeth on edge, and then, with a crisp crack, a tiny hole split open across its face.
"A perfect chance..."
Glowing Feather Douluo drew his bow and nocked an arrow without a sound. The silent shaft of light took aim at Liao Mengkai, who was gritting his teeth and barely holding the line. His eighth spirit ring flickered quietly.
Eighth Spirit Skill, End!
"Grug!"
Liao Mengkai sprayed a mist of blood and plummeted to the earth. A minute, almost imperceptible puncture marked the center of his chest. Crimson stained the ground beneath him. One arrow through the heart!
"Old Liao!"
Wang Yiheng, commander of the Evileye Tyrant Spirit Guidance Legion, let out a grief-stricken howl. The Golden Crocodile King opened its cavernous jaws and clamped down on the barrier, and under Wang Yiheng's despairing gaze, the Linked Spirit Barrier that was the Sun Moon Empire's pride shattered with a deafening crash!
A single claw from the Golden Crocodile King swatted Wang Yiheng dead, and its savage roar rolled across the length and breadth of the battlefield:
"Spirit Empire, crush them!"