Ten thousand soldiers from the Tang family army were hardly enough to decide the outcome of this war, but they had undeniably thrown open a gap for the Tian Dou Empire's main force to charge through. More and more Tian Dou soldiers surged into Jialing Pass. When the defenses behind all four city gates were shattered beyond recovery, accompanied by thunderous rumbling, the Tian Dou heavy cavalry corps poured into the city in one decisive push.
Soul Masters were undeniably powerful, but facing a charge by tens of thousands of heavy cavalry, how many could they truly cut down without adequate preparation? Especially since all the top-tier Soul Masters were already locked in combat atop the ramparts. By this stage, the general assault had evolved from a siege into a melee engagement. And the Tian Dou Empire's million-strong army had already surged up to Jialing Pass like an unstoppable tide, crushing everything in its path.
The Tian Dou Empire's new emperor, Xue Beng, understood perfectly well that once over a fifth of his forces had entered Jialing Pass, this war could be called to a close. At that point, the enemy would have nothing left to resist with.
Even Bibi Dong, standing atop the ramparts and growing increasingly hard-pressed under Tang San's steady yet ferocious barrage of attacks, now felt a sense that the tide had turned against her. She hesitated, wondering whether to issue the order to retreat. But if she abandoned Jialing Pass, the Spirit Empire would be completely exposed before the Tian Dou Empire's army with nothing but open ground between them. Once the Tian Dou forces cooperated with the Xing Luo Empire to seize the pass on the other side and the two empires combined their armies, the Spirit Empire would truly be finished. No matter how powerful or numerous Soul Masters were, they could never match a million-strong army on an open battlefield!
At this critical moment for the Spirit Empire—when the forces inside the city were already being driven back step by step, and the two Soul Master legions could barely hold against that tide of steel—suddenly, several piercing howls rang out from behind Jialing Pass.
The howls were distant yet vigorous, like a rolling flood of sound that seized the soul. On this battlefield measured in tens of thousands, the moment these howls appeared, they seemed to suppress the momentum of the entire Tian Dou army. The waves of sound crashed through the air like a series of rolling thunderclaps.
Hearing this sound, Tang San—who had just shaken off the exhausted Bibi Dong with a sweep of his trident—felt his expression turn grave. To others' ears, these howls might have been indistinguishable, but with his spiritual power, he immediately sensed the immense threat they carried.
It was a howl composed of six voices. Yes, six people. And they were still ten li away from Jialing Pass, yet their howls had already reached the city with such terrifying force. They were approaching at an astonishing speed—for such beings, ten li was nothing more than a dozen or so breaths. And anyone capable of producing such an effect was no ordinary powerhouse. Though Tang San was reluctant to admit it, he could already roughly estimate their level of strength.
What was even more alarming was that these six were not coming alone. Behind them trailed a group of several thousand, their breathing deep and measured, their speed equally swift. What shocked Tang San most was that the combined howl of these six had actually caused even his level of spiritual power to waver for an instant. He had only managed to pick up these details—further probing was impossible. The howls had disrupted his spiritual awareness. It was worth noting that since his return from Sea God Island to the continent, only two individuals had ever achieved this. One was his own ancestor, the Asura King, who had been consumed by inner demons. The other was Bibi Dong at the height of her power.
And these voices had appeared from the other side of Jialing Pass—deep within Spirit Empire territory. Without question, they belonged to the Spirit Empire's faction. Two words immediately surfaced in Tang San's mind: Grand Elders. The Grand Elders from the Spirit Empire's Elder Hall.
He had anticipated their arrival, particularly the First Grand Elder Qian Daoliu, but he had never expected them to appear at such a critical juncture—and in a group of six, no less. Fortunately, Tang San had not detected among those six howls a presence at Bibi Dong's level of power. That meant the Elder Hall's master, First Grand Elder Qian Daoliu, was not among them. But paradoxically, that only underscored just how formidable the Spirit Empire truly was.
However, Tang San quickly noticed something odd. Upon hearing those six howls, even Bibi Dong had frozen for a moment. Clearly, she had not known about these six Grand Elders, nor did she understand why they had come at this particular time.
Gritting his teeth, Tang San's eyes blazed with sharp light. He had to kill Bibi Dong before those six arrived—every second counted. Once she was dead, even if the Spirit Empire still had many powerful fighters, the war to come would become far easier.
The reason Tang San had been holding back was to continuously drain Bibi Dong's spiritual power and Soul Power. Her personal strength was simply too great, and he had no intention of pushing her too far. If cornered, her death throes would be devastating. By maintaining steady but not overwhelming pressure—pressure she could still endure—he prevented her from unleashing that kind of suicidal counterattack. After all, who wouldn't want to live? Especially when Bibi Dong still had her ninth Soul Skill, the Undying Body. Bibi Dong understood Tang San's strategy perfectly well, but she too was waiting for her moment—waiting for the Angel Legion below to gain the upper hand so she could turn the tide on the ramparts.
With the Tian Dou army now pouring into Jialing Pass and her hopes crumbling, Bibi Dong had already been preparing to fight to the death and considering escape routes when those six howls arrived at precisely the right moment. And it was at that exact instant that Tang San's attacks suddenly became terrifying.
Golden light erupted from the Sea God Trident with twice its previous intensity. Both Bibi Dong's true body and her clone felt their movements seize up. Tang San's first Soul Skill—Entanglement—and his second Soul Skill, Parasitism, from the Blue Silver Emperor both took effect nearly simultaneously. These two skills, elevated to over fifty thousand years in power, were enough to make even a fighter of Bibi Dong's caliber falter. She activated her Death Domain at full power, corrosive energy surging wildly while clusters of sharp barbs erupted from her carapace, shredding the Blue Silver Emperor vines to pieces.
But that brief moment of hesitation was all Tang San needed. He launched himself into the air, his left hand thrusting toward Bibi Dong. Intense yellow light coalesced into a dome-shaped field that descended upon her body. Bibi Dong felt her entire weight multiply tenfold, as though she had become ten times heavier in an instant.
This was the Soul Skill attached to his Titan Giant Ape left arm bone—Gravity Control. The reason Soul Bones were so precious, beyond providing an extra ability, was that most Soul Bone skills could be activated instantaneously. The sudden increase in gravity further slowed Bibi Dong's efforts to break free from the Entanglement and Parasitism.
The unprecedented pressure nearly took her breath away, but Bibi Dong was not so easily broken. Tang San had been holding back, but she too had her final trump card. Gritting her teeth, a blazing layer of crimson light erupted from her chest, spreading instantly across her entire torso. The red light was strangely beautiful, as though Bibi Dong's own skeleton were surfacing from within her body. This effect could only mean one thing—the most critical of her six Soul Bones, the Body Soul Bone. The color alone revealed that it was a hundred-thousand-year soul bone.
A hundred-thousand-year full-body bone. As the crimson light blazed, the carapace on Bibi Dong's chest split open to both sides, revealing a concentrated mass of intense red light within. The sensation was as if a colossal eye had sprouted from her chest. And what made it truly terrifying was that this was not the action of a single body—under the field of Tang San's Gravity Control, both copies of Bibi Dong displayed the identical phenomenon. The crimson light within resonated so powerfully that even Tang San's soul shuddered.
Yet Tang San, hovering in midair, showed no intention of retreating. He knew with perfect clarity that if he backed down now, he would lose any chance of killing Bibi Dong. Those six howlers were drawing closer by the second. The moment they sensed Bibi Dong's peril, they would rush to her aid without hesitation.
A golden apparition materialized behind Tang San. Though it was hazy and indistinct, the majesty radiating from that towering figure, combined with the sudden blinding radiance of the Sea God Heart on the trident, elevated Tang San's aura to an unprecedented level.
His left hand maintained Gravity Control without releasing its grip. His right hand swept the Sea God Trident through the air, tracing a peculiar golden circle—large enough to encompass his entire body. At that precise moment, two beams of thick crimson light, each nearly a foot in diameter, blasted toward him.
Hummm—
The Indefinite Storm's defensive halo met the twin beams of crimson energy. In that instant, the Sea God Trident in Tang San's hands let out a string of humming vibrations. Tang San clearly felt the golden halo before him shattering rapidly, and the trident in his grip was being suppressed so heavily that he could not lift it to launch a counterattack.
Bibi Dong's eyes gleamed with a ruthless, venomous light. She had waited a long time for this opportunity. Her spiritual power had been damaged, yes, but her reserves were unfathomably deep. She understood perfectly why Tang San had suddenly launched his full-power assault, and she had seized upon his momentary impatience to spring this trap. This strike had been planned long in advance—a fully committed attack. She had poured every last remnant of her spiritual power into it.
Bibi Dong recognized that Tang San was the spiritual pillar of the Tian Dou Empire's army. Just as he wanted to kill her, if she could kill him, the blow to Tian Dou's forces would be immeasurable. Having both her true body and clone simultaneously unleash a Soul Bone skill should have been impossible, but Bibi Dong possessed another Soul Bone similar to Oscar's Mirror Image Bone—except where Oscar's replicated the body, hers replicated Soul Skills.
She had therefore expended all her strength to copy this skill onto her clone. One purpose was to keep Tang San unable to distinguish her true body from the copy. The other was to annihilate him under this dual assault.
This was Bibi Dong's own killing technique. At her level of cultivation, two simultaneous full-power strikes could rival the power of a god.
The clone, while capable of wielding her abilities, was significantly weaker than the true body. Tang San also had various methods to undermine any combined force from both. Had it not been for Tang San's seemingly impatient attack, she would never have found this opportunity. More importantly, the skill she had copied carried identical power to the original.
The twin beams of crimson light were not both aimed at Tang San himself. One targeted the Sea God Trident in his right hand, while the other struck directly at his body.
Through their previous encounters, Bibi Dong had discovered that Tang San was heavily dependent on his Sea God Trident. She had long determined that it was a true divine artifact—one her current level of power could never destroy. But "could not destroy" did not mean "could not temporarily suppress."
With a full-power strike from her Body Soul Bone, she could pin down the Sea God Trident and prevent Tang San from wielding it. The second strike was the truly lethal one. Tang San's cultivation was inferior to hers; the only reason he could fight her to a standstill was the trident. Suppress the trident, then unleash the killing blow—Bibi Dong had held nothing in reserve. An attack of this magnitude, unless Tang San still had his former Invincible Golden Body defense, would be fatal. And Xiao Wu, who had shielded him from Bibi Dong's lethal strike last time, was still far away. Bibi Dong was far too close to Tang San for anyone to intervene in time.
Amid a piercing crack, the golden halo conjured by Indefinite Storm shattered in an instant. In that split second, red light flooded the space before Tang San.
"No—!"
"Teacher, please stop!"
Xiao Wu and Hu Liena's cries rang out almost simultaneously. But their worry, the ruthlessness in Bibi Dong's eyes, and the cruel, triumphant smile she wore—all vanished in the next heartbeat. The beam of crimson light that should have struck Tang San's chest was deflected skyward, carving a trail of red light a full kilometer long before disappearing like a brilliant meteor.
"Impossible." Though Bibi Dong could barely stand after expending everything in that attack, she could not help but cry out. She could not fathom why this had happened. Her Soul Power was still plentiful, but the spiritual power she had burned in that strike had blurred everything before her eyes. The last thing she saw with any clarity was a half-meter-wide disc of red crystal on Tang San's chest, pulverizing into dust.
Simultaneously, the Sea God Heart blazed with golden radiance, allowing the Sea God Trident to break free from the red light's suppression like a golden dragon. It spiraled once around Tang San's body as a ring of golden light, neutralizing every last trace of Bibi Dong's attack. Tang San looked slightly pale, but he had not sustained any serious injury.
Would Tang San ever carelessly expose a flaw? Then he wouldn't be Tang San. As a top-tier Control Type powerhouse, he reminded himself at every moment to remain calm. Bibi Dong had been waiting for her chance, but so had he. His earlier impatience had been nothing more than a façade designed to bait her. He understood perfectly that Bibi Dong would anticipate his strategy, so he had simply gone with the flow, drawing out her ultimate killing strike—while all along, he had been fully committed to defense with no intention of launching a serious attack of his own.
Yes, Bibi Dong's Body Soul Bone strike was extraordinarily powerful—even the Sea God Trident had been momentarily suppressed. But Tang San had his own methods. Did he not possess hundred-thousand-year Soul Bones and Soul Skills of his own?
Shrouded beneath the Sea God's Light, the eighth Soul Ring on Tang San's body blazed to life. What he activated was the eighth Soul Skill—Blue Silver Demonic Mirror Annihilation. But this time, he did not let it annihilate. Instead, he concentrated all of the skill's energy at the point of impact, forming a flat crystal mirror angled upward. A direct frontal block might not have withstood the attack, but deflecting it at an upward angle was far easier. The Indefinite Storm's halo had failed to stop the blow, but it had bought Tang San sufficient time to react. Bibi Dong's full-power strike had merely sent a tremor through his Soul Power—his formidable physique rendered such a minor impact insignificant. Bibi Dong, on the other hand, was in far worse shape after unleashing her everything.
Both her true body and clone flickered, growing translucent. The two figures drifted toward each other. Bibi Dong swayed violently, nearly collapsing to the ground. Tang San's eyes widened in sudden realization. No wonder he had been unable to tell which was the clone—her Soul Skill had literally divided her body into two parts. Both were real, and yet neither was the real one. Had he launched a full-power attack against either one, the clone would likely have dissolved into an illusion. But now, Bibi Dong had no chances left.