Xuan Zi's mental state shattered once again.
He simply could not accept that he—a dignified Level 98 Super Douluo, one of Shrek Academy's pillars—had been played to this extent by a mere youth.
What terrified him even more was the fact that the Snow Empress, the Ruler of the Far North whom countless human experts had once coveted yet never dared to provoke, was now standing by Liu Yuan's side like his most loyal guardian.
That realization delivered the final blow to his sanity.
"Then try it!" Xuan Zi roared hysterically, his eyes turning completely dark yellow. "I refuse to believe I can't erase even a northern prodigy like you today!"
The spirit power within him surged like a bursting dam. His Gravity Field intensified severalfold in an instant, crushing what little remained of the Duke Mansion's main building into dust.
"Ninth Soul Skill—Taotie Divine Ox: Devouring Heaven and Earth!"
Xuan Zi opened his mouth wide. Behind him, a massive illusory black hole formed, its terrifying suction devouring the surrounding space.
This was his strongest control-and-destruction technique, meant to completely crush both the Snow Empress and Liu Yuan through extreme spatial compression.
Yet in the face of this heaven-shaking Ninth Soul Skill, the Snow Empress showed no trace of panic.
She slowly raised her right hand. A deep-blue longsword condensed from pure Extreme Ice Origin appeared in her palm.
"Emperor Sword: Ice Ultimate—Peerless."
With a soft cry, her figure turned into an ice-blue phantom. Instead of retreating, she advanced straight into the gravitational black hole, her ice sword slicing through the Void Realm and leaving behind a trail of cold light that seemed capable of freezing even the Laws themselves.
Boom!
The deep-blue sword light collided head-on with the dark yellow devouring vortex.
In that instant, the sky above the Duke Mansion was split into two distinct colors.
Extreme cold and crushing gravity clashed violently. The resulting shockwave shattered every glass window within a thousand-meter radius.
When the raging energy finally dispersed, the Snow Empress's slender body trembled slightly as she drifted back several dozen meters.
At the same time, Xuan Zi's massive Taotie Divine Ox true body was forced backward as well, his thick hooves carving deep grooves into the ground.
That exchange ended in a draw.
Watching from the side, Ye Yulin was utterly shaken.
He stared at the beautiful woman wielding her sword in front of Liu Yuan, wave after wave of astonishment crashing through his heart.
He naturally recognized her as the Snow Empress, but he had never imagined that Liu Yuan had actually subdued the Ruler of the Far North.
That was the Snow Empress—a Great Calamity Beast that had existed for hundreds of thousands of years. Even a Level 99 Limit Douluo might not find it difficult to defeat her, but making her willingly take human form and acknowledge a master was nothing short of a miracle.
Just as Ye Yulin was lost in thought, Liu Yuan's slightly urgent shout rang out.
"Senior Ye, don't just stand there! Help me now!"
Ye Yulin snapped back to his senses. This was clearly not the time to be stunned.
Xuan Zi had already fallen into madness. If they failed to keep him here today, the Sun Moon Empire would face endless retaliation once this Level 98 Super Douluo escaped.
"Understood! Leave it to me, Duke Liu Yuan!"
Ye Yulin took a deep breath. The starlight wings on his back erupted with dazzling brilliance. Instead of charging in, he exploited his advantage as a top-tier Soul Engineer, rapidly pulling back and locking multiple long-range ninth-rank soul tools onto Xuan Zi's vital points.
"Starry Sky Death Ray—continuous fire!"
Countless thin, highly penetrative star-blue beams poured down like rain, sealing off all of Xuan Zi's escape routes from the flank.
Xuan Zi grew increasingly frantic under the barrage.
He wanted to rely on teleportation or extreme speed to break through the Snow Empress's defense and strike directly at Liu Yuan behind her—but every attempt was intercepted by the Snow Empress's almost prophetic Extreme Ice techniques.
He tried to turn around and deal with Ye Yulin, who was constantly sniping from afar, yet the Snow Empress's emperor sword would immediately descend, its bone-chilling cold damaging his foundation and locking him firmly in place.
Under this relentless pressure, Xuan Zi's mind finally collapsed.
"Damn it! Damn it! You despicable cowards!"
He roared in fury, feeling the spirit power within him draining rapidly.
Caught in this two-sided onslaught, he had completely lost the initiative. Xuan Zi realized with dread that if he continued to stall until further reinforcements from the Bright Capital arrived, he truly would die here today.
"You forced my hand!"
With a crazed howl, Xuan Zi began burning his blood essence without hesitation.
His originally dark yellow spirit power was instantly stained a terrifying blood-red. Empowered by that violent energy, his strength surged explosively.
He slammed out a massive palm, forcibly dispersing several of Ye Yulin's death rays, then followed with a brutal collision that knocked the Snow Empress backward.
"Go!"
Xuan Zi did not linger. Turning into a streak of blood-red light, he fled desperately toward the darkness beyond the Duke Mansion, sacrificing his foundation for speed.
But just as he thought he was about to escape, a silver light deeper than starlight suddenly illuminated the sky around the Duke Mansion.
"Xuan Zi, since you're already here, why the hurry to leave?"
A cold, familiar voice echoed through the night.
Immediately afterward, a massive dark-silver cylindrical spirit tool descended from the sky with a piercing whistle. As it fell, it emitted an overwhelming gravitational wave that locked down the entire space around Xuan Zi.
Exhausted from burning his blood essence, Xuan Zi reacted half a beat too slow.
Bang!
With a deafening crash, his massive Taotie Divine Ox true body was smashed from midair straight into the ground, blasting out a deep crater amid flying dust and debris.
Xuan Zi struggled to crawl out of the pit in a wretched state, about to roar again—when he suddenly froze.
Because right in front of him, two figures radiating overwhelming pressure were calmly walking through the air.
On the left was a white-haired man whose cold gaze seemed to command the entire battlefield—the head of the Sun Moon Empire's Hall of Worship and its strongest Soul Engineer, Kong Deming.
On the right was Jing Hongchen, who had arrived after settling matters on his end.
Staring at the two of them and feeling their merciless gazes, Xuan Zi finally understood.
His plan had not merely failed.
He had walked straight into a dead end—with absolutely no path of escape.