"Tch, this again." More than Chen Xin, Qian Xunji felt aggrieved. Every time it was like this—whether Tang Hao or Chen Xin—he held an absolute edge in cultivation, yet could never gain the upper hand.
Was his combat ability truly that poor?
He glanced over at Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue.
Mother and daughter were locked in a fierce duel. Bibi Dong had lost her mind, so Qian Renxue wasted no words and went straight in with her sword. Both were God King level; Bibi Dong's cultivation was deeper, but Qian Renxue—having learned Chen Xin and Tianlin's sword paths—outmatched the puppet tenfold in technique.
"Damn it. I didn't expect Lord Evil Sword Immortal's plan to be obstructed at the outset. But Lord Evil Sword Immortal said you have a fatal weakness—soft-hearted compassion." Qian Xunji's eerie smile made hearts sink. He suddenly commanded the Divine Guard army, "Split up. Kill everyone on Douluo Continent."
Two hundred of the four hundred Divine Guards immediately scattered in all directions.
An open-scheme. Qian Xunji was using a blatant ploy. These level-100 Divine Guards might be nothing to first-rank gods like Ma Hongjun and Ning Rongrong, but to ordinary soul masters they were a dimensionality reduction strike. Any one of them could bring extinction-level disaster.
If Ma Hongjun and Ning Rongrong gave chase, they would each have to go a separate way. Then the remaining two hundred-plus would surround Chen Xin and Qian Renxue.
Two hundred-plus level-100s—without god seats still a terrifying force. Even a first-rank god would feel stretched fighting so many at once.
But if they didn't stop the other two hundred, they would plunge the continent into chaos. Even if they later beat the Evil Sword Immortal, what would it matter?
"Bastard!" Ma Hongjun roared and chose to chase. He couldn't watch them butcher the innocent.
"Hongjun, stand down! Protect Uncle Sword and Qian Renxue. Don't let anyone interfere in their fights. Leave those to us." At that moment, silhouettes packed the peaks around Seven Treasures Mountain, forming a ring that encircled the hundreds of foes.
Led by Ning Fengzhi, they were elite soul masters of Douluo Continent—from Spirit Hall and the Seven Great Sects alike.
"Sect Master!" Ma Hongjun froze. The plan had never called for them to confront gods head-on; even a Title Douluo pales before a god.
"Hongjun, don't worry. Their move was exactly as I expected. Such a crude trick—who would it fool? Qian Xunji, after all these years, even revived you're the same dimwit." Ning Fengzhi mocked.
He had prepared for this.
"Ning Fengzhi, you? On this battlefield? A bunch of Title Douluo, Soul Douluo, Soul Saints, and Soul Emperors—ants before level-100s. With your mere nine rings, why seek death?" Qian Xunji was disdainful.
"Heh. Qian Xunji, even ants have their pride. Even facing gods, we humans have things we can do." For the first time, Ning Fengzhi roared out of character. "All-Continent High-Rank Soul Master Joint Army—form up!"
Thousands of elite soul masters stepped forward. Their martial souls were all the same: seven-string guqin.
At the same time, a fairy-like figure hovered in the sky, a divine seven-string zither in hand—the Music God, Huan Yin. She wasn't strong in direct combat and would lose head-on to these Divine Guards.
But she had an advantage: in group battles, what stands unrivaled like Dugu Bo's poison fog? Soundwave skills.
"Sixth Soul Skill—Mind-Controlling Melody!" Huan Yin plucked the strings, playing her sixth soul skill, now a divine skill after her apotheosis.
But alone, how could she control so many level-100 foes?
Zither-type skills have a trait: if others have the same skill, they can cooperate to amplify it—an ensemble.
"Sixth Soul Skill—Mind-Controlling Melody!" thousands of soul masters intoned together, playing the same piece as Huan Yin.
With the thousandfold ensemble, Huan Yin's divine melody was empowered to a terrifying degree, instantly controlling hundreds of Divine Guards.
"Impossible! How can there be so many high-level soul masters with identical martial souls and skills?" Qian Xunji couldn't believe it.
If such a guqin clan existed, they would have long since replaced the Upper Three Sects; how could they be unknown?
"Heh. In theory, impossible. But there are always exceptions. Humanity's infinite potential surpasses theory." Ning Fengzhi smiled.
Only one soul skill could achieve this miracle: Oscar's Mirror-Image Sausage.
That skill consumes an enormous amount of soul power. Even as a newly minted Title Douluo, Oscar could only make a dozen at a time—nowhere near thousands.
But the most frightening part of the Mirror-Image Sausage, leveraged by Ning Fengzhi, is this: Oscar makes a dozen, drips a drop of his blood on each, then others eat them to gain Oscar's Sausage martial soul and can then make their own Mirror-Image Sausages.
And so on, leveraging many soul masters, quickly producing thousands.
Then drip Huan Yin's blood on those thousands of sausages, and a battalion of identical zither users with identical skills appears.
This plan had been three years in the making. Normally it's impractical: after mass-producing sausages, those soul masters have little soul power left; even after eating a Mirror-Image Sausage, they can't fight. Over three years, Huan Yin and Oscar periodically donated massive amounts of blood—nearly to the point of exsanguination.
But no problem—the blood left by Tianlin before becoming a god. After a Soul Douluo ate a Mirror-Image Sausage imbued with Tianlin's blood and cast a large-area group recovery, Extreme Curse: Return Yin and Yang, everyone—those drained of soul power or near death from blood loss—instantly returned to peak state.
While Qian Renxue was sealing the portal, Ning Fengzhi had already prepared the army.
He had conceived this plan three years ago. In those three years, while Huan Yin taught them to play, every soul master practiced with utmost seriousness—life and death were at stake. No one would miss a note.
Now the effort bore fruit: the thousandfold Mind-Controlling Melody, combined with Huan Yin's Music God power, instantly seized control of roughly two hundred level-100 Divine Guards.