Boom boom boom boom—four thunderous detonations that made all of Jialing Pass tremble erupted once more. Seizing the opportunity created as the Netherwhite Tiger tore into the Spirit Empire's Soul Master army and sowed chaos, the Tang Sect's city-breaking squad launched yet another charge. This time their preparation was more thorough—their run-up distance longer. With the massive upheaval atop the walls, disciples of the Steward Hall had freed up some hands to help the Strength Hall disciples drive that enormous battering ram toward the city gate, unleashing the terrifying force of five hundred thousand jin with even greater fury.
A massive dent appeared on the city gate. Accompanied by that violent impact, the Tian Dou Empire's million-strong army roared in unison, their voices becoming the greatest source of motivation for the Strength Hall and Steward Hall disciples. The squad retreated swiftly, and the third impact came hard on its heels.
Cracks began spreading across the walls connected to the city gate. Though the cast-iron gate was thick enough and sturdy enough, that did not mean the city wall it was set in could endure. The enormous iron gate had already begun to deform under the repeated collisions, and the surrounding wall could support it less and less.
Atop Jialing Pass, the Golden Crocodile Douluo's eyes had turned red with fury. He knew perfectly well what would happen if the gate was breached. "Bastards! Fight back! Stop them! Even if it kills you, hold the line!" His furious roar was undoubtedly directed at the Soul Master army. After the succession of disturbances, the army's ten thousand Soul Masters had finally steadied their nerves.
The Netherwhite Tiger was formidable, but it was facing an army of tens of thousands of Soul Masters. Soul Masters possessed physical far beyond ordinary people, and while the tiger had slain several hundred enemies, it had also consumed a tremendous amount of energy. The panicked Spirit Empire Soul Masters unleashed every manner of Soul Skill upon it—the sheer volume of attacks was so overwhelming that the tiger's overall energy was draining even faster than when it had previously faced the Fourth and Fifth Enforcers.
Facing the siege of so many Soul Masters, though each of the Netherwhite Tiger's attacks claimed dozens of lives, the light radiating from its body made clear that it could not sustain its assault for much longer. The Spirit Empire's Soul Masters had mostly recovered their senses; the majority continued pouring attacks at the Netherwhite Tiger, while a smaller number had already freed themselves to launch fresh attacks on the Tang Sect's city-breaking squad below. They knew that if Jialing Pass fell, they would not fare well either.
"Boss Dai, pull back!" Ma Hongjun, who was still entangled with the Sixth Enforcer, kept launching diving attacks from the air. Being airborne, he had the clearest view of the battlefield. The Spirit Empire forces had not paid much attention to the Emerald Serpent Emperor lying limply on the ground, but he had seen it clearly. Especially since the Soul Masters around Dai Mubai had already readjusted, with large numbers gathering their power to bombard the Netherwhite Tiger. If this continued, then no matter how strong Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing were, they would be ground down. After all, their More-Than-Half Diamond Sausage had already been consumed—they could not possibly fully restore their Soul Power again. As the saying went, enough ants could kill an elephant, and these were army-grade Soul Masters.
Dai Mubai knew he could not keep this up any longer. Hearing Ma Hongjun's warning, the Netherwhite Tiger once again erupted with terrifying explosive force. An enormous wave of white energy swept outward, sending over a hundred Soul Masters flying. This blocked the barrage of Soul Skills aimed at the tiger, and the Netherwhite Tiger used the opening to leap backward—not returning to the battlefield among the powerhouses, but jumping straight off the wall. Their mission was complete, their Soul Power nearly spent. They needed to reach a safe location to recover. While still in midair, the Netherwhite Tiger dissipated, splitting back into Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing. Though their expressions were utterly exhausted, the excitement on their faces was unmistakable. From the start of the siege until now, their battle record was unquestionably the most brilliant of any combatants.
Atop Jialing Pass, in the battle between the two sides' powerhouses, the Tian Dou Empire had gained a clear advantage. Bolstered by the support of Ning Fengzhi and Ning Rongrong from below, and having already inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy, the Spirit Empire now needed its eighty-plus-level Soul Masters to fight at full power just to coordinate with the Enforcers and Titled Douluo in barely holding off the attacks. But the number of Soul Douluo was rapidly dwindling. Xiao Wu's ghost-like figure flickered through continuous teleportation as she used her powerful Soft Technique to claim their lives one by one. With each enemy that fell, the resistance they faced diminished proportionally. It could be foretold that the powerhouses of the Tian Dou Empire would at the very least not lose this battle. After all, Xiao Wu, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar had yet to use their More-Than-Half Diamond Sausage. They could burst forth with their full strength and join the fight at any moment. Ning Rongrong, who also possessed the More-Than-Half Diamond Sausage, could sustain her continuous amplification long enough to last until the battle's end.
With the Netherwhite Tiger having left the wall, the commanding Golden Crocodile Douluo was able to breathe a temporary sigh of relief. Though the Netherwhite Tiger had killed nearly a thousand Soul Masters from the army in that brief time, there were still vast numbers of Soul Masters on the wall. As long as they held their ground, even if the Tian Dou Empire held the upper hand among the powerhouses, the Spirit Empire could still defend Jialing Pass for quite some time with such overwhelming manpower. At his command, the archers within the city had already ascended the wall under the protection of shield-bearer infantry, taking their positions and unleashing a rain of arrows downward. Giant crossbows were also being assembled and fired—weapons so powerful that even the tower shields wielded by heavy-armored infantry could not hope to block them.
But before the Golden Crocodile Douluo could even catch his breath, he suddenly spotted a pale-faced old man slowly rising to his feet on the wall. The dark green robes and that distinctive dark green hair made the Golden Crocodile Douluo's heart plummet.
He certainly knew this man. Back when he had traveled to Spirit Hall's Douluo Hall for his Titled Douluo ceremony, it had been the Golden Crocodile Douluo who presided. In the past, the Golden Crocodile Douluo would never have given him a second thought, but this man, placed on a battlefield, was the most terrifying existence imaginable. It was none other than Dugu Bo.
Dugu Bo seemed to sense the Golden Crocodile Douluo's gaze and turned his head toward him, baring his teeth in a grin that revealed stark white fangs. His complexion looked ghastly—pale as paper, clearly the picture of exhaustion. But the Golden Crocodile Douluo remembered distinctly that this Poison Douluo had not appeared in any of the earlier fighting. A chill of ice shot through him, and his limbs went cold. His entire body began to tremble, and his mind went blank.
As if to confirm his worst fears, Dugu Bo's eyes suddenly turned green. An expression of sinister, almost blissful enjoyment crossed his face as both hands rose in a slow, upward pressing motion.
There was no thunderous roar nor any spectacular explosion. Accompanying Dugu Bo's gesture, a hazy, pale green mist began rising from the city wall. Everywhere except the stretch where the powerhouses were clashing, the pale green gas spread to virtually every corner of Jialing Pass's battlements. The sight was deeply unsettling.
At first, the mist was faint enough that the Spirit Empire's soldiers took little notice. But when the first scream rang out, a far greater panic erupted—even more violent than when the Netherwhite Tiger had charged into the Soul Master army.
The first to scream was an archer. As he drew his bow, he suddenly realized his hands had turned green at some point. A bone-chilling cold surged inward from his heart. His scream burst forth in utter terror. In the next instant, his entire body turned dark green. A mouthful of blood the same hue sprayed from his lips, and he collapsed silently to the ground.
It had to be said that Dugu Bo's Emerald Serpent Emperor poison, though terrifying, did not inflict prolonged suffering. By the time the cold reached the brain, the lethal toxin had already struck the heart. Within no more than three breaths, one would perish.
Of course, this was for ordinary people. Soul Masters possessed far greater physical resistance than commoners, so they could hold on somewhat longer. But that extra time was measured in seconds. For Soul Masters below the seventieth level, each additional rank bought only one additional second. During the process of that dark green light flooding their entire bodies, all they could feel was ever-deepening terror.
Over eighty percent of the Spirit Empire's Soul Masters were on the wall. When the hazy green mist blanketed the battlements, they discovered that parts of their bodies had already begun turning green. Those who had sustained injuries in the earlier fighting succumbed to the poison almost immediately. Even those with higher Soul Power could clearly feel the icy chill spreading through their bodies.
There was simply no way to resist it with Soul Power. The harder one pushed their energy, the faster their blood circulated, and the faster they died. A layer of greenish sheen covered the entire top of Jialing Pass.
Not only the Spirit Empire's Soul Masters within the city—even the Tian Dou Empire's soldiers below were stricken with horror. Their battle cries dropped to a murmur.
Xue Beng and Marshal Gelong exchanged a glance, both feeling the same profound terror. Xue Beng and his uncle, Prince Xuexing, had always been close to the Poison Douluo. However, since Xue Beng's ascension to the throne, he had encountered increasingly powerful individuals—top-tier experts like Tang San and his father—and they had gradually come to overlook Dugu Bo's existence. After all, Dugu Bo's direct combat ability was unremarkable among Titled Douluo. Even the Golden Sacred Dragon formed by the current Golden Iron Triangle could defeat him with ease.
Yet now, on the battlefield, they suddenly realized that among all Soul Masters, the true weapon of mass destruction was not those Titled Douluo whose Soul Power exceeded the ninety-fifth level, nor even the Blue Hao King Tang San dueling the enemy's god-tier opponent high in the sky, but rather this Poison Douluo who had shown nothing in the previous battles—staying silent, hidden within their own ranks.
At this critical moment, Dugu Bo had unleashed his true ability, bringing a nightmarish terror to the Spirit Empire that none could escape.
The truth was, it was not that Dugu Bo had not wanted to display his power in earlier battles. The Spirit Empire had deliberately targeted him, preventing him from fully exercising his abilities. Among the Spirit Empire, there were two Titled Douluo who could reliably counter him. One was the Porcupinefish Douluo, who had once fought him and suppressed him completely. The other was even more formidable—the Spirit Empire's reigning Empress, Bibi Dong. Bibi Dong's twin Martial Souls both possessed lethal poison abilities. Dugu Bo's Emerald Serpent Emperor poison was simply no match for her twin spider toxins, and Bibi Dong's domain could suppress him utterly.
But now on the battlefield, the Porcupinefish Douluo was too occupied to deal with him, and Bibi Dong had not appeared at all. Dugu Bo knew his moment had arrived—and he was as cautious as ever. The serpent was the embodiment of cunning. Strike not at all, or strike with everything. It was among the most patient of assassins. And so, at this very moment, as the Emerald Serpent Emperor poison spread across all of Jialing Pass's battlements, the turning point of this battle had arrived.
Screams rose like a tide across the wall. The archers who had just taken their positions had not even managed to loose three volleys before succumbing without question to the lethal toxin. The firepower raining from the wall vanished in an instant. The giant crossbow operators met the same fate. The Spirit Empire's Soul Master army descended into total chaos—at the slightest touch of that green mist, their bodies would be corroded by the poison, leaving no chance whatsoever. Panicked attempts to push their Soul Power only accelerated the toxin's spread. Amid one scream after another, more and more Soul Masters collapsed into the green fog.
Some Soul Masters, realizing the danger, immediately tried to flee down from the wall. Flee? How could they escape? No matter how fast their movements, they could not outrun the toxic mist that had lain hidden in the rock and surged upward without warning. The slightest contact turned them into carriers of poison. By the time they reached the base of the wall, the toxin had usually already struck their hearts, and they themselves had become new sources of poison—the mist emanating from their bodies spreading the toxin into the city even faster.
Even Dugu Bo himself found the sight staggering. Though he possessed this power, this was the first time he had deployed it on such a massive scale against an enemy. Watching lives that had been vibrant moments ago snuffed out by his own poison, he could not help but shudder. If the toxin continued to spread, Jialing Pass would likely become a dead zone without the Tian Dou Empire's army even needing to storm the walls. The most fearsome aspect of the Emerald Serpent Emperor poison was that it multiplied upon contact with blood—every corpse became a new source of poison, causing the toxin to grow ever denser.
When Dugu Bo had struck, his only thought had been to inflict maximum damage on the enemy, so he had poured his poison out across the widest possible area. But now, as tens of thousands died in succession and ever more people charged off the wall in their final moments, the poison had grown beyond anything he could control. Even he could never draw so much toxin back into his body.
This was a battlefield, and the war continued. No one had yet grasped the full scope of what was happening. With the threat from the wall's attacks eliminated, the battering ram struck the gates of Jialing Pass again and again with savage force. Those five-meter-thick gates had been hammered inward, each impact pushing them further back. Their breach was now only a matter of time.
The Golden Crocodile Douluo coughed up another mouthful of blood with a retching sound. It was over. Everything was over. The moment he had seen the Poison Douluo grin at him, he had known the war was lost. Even if Qian Renxue could return now, nothing could make up for such catastrophic losses. The combined kill count of every Tian Dou Empire powerhouse did not amount to even a tenth of what Dugu Bo had accomplished. Though the relatively higher-level Soul Masters were still struggling against the toxin, their death in the Emerald Serpent Emperor poison was only a matter of time. With each additional corpse, the poison on the wall grew thicker and thicker. It was a domain of death. Even the powerhouses on both sides had begun to feel the toxin's effects, forced to project their Soul Power outward to shield themselves.
Tang Hao's brow furrowed deeply at the sight of that sea of green. But Dugu Bo had done it for the sake of victory in the war, and Tang Hao could not say much. Still, an uneasy feeling lingered in his heart. Even if the Spirit Empire was the enemy, the combined total of soldiers and support troops in the city exceeded five hundred thousand. If they all perished to this poison, it would be a terrible affront to heaven. But who could stop it now?
Boom—the four gates of Jialing Pass finally burst open. But Xue Beng did not order an assault. At this moment, he simply could not give such a command. Once the gates were open, one could see that the green mist had already begun drifting inside the city. He could not send his soldiers charging into the jaws of poison.
Marshal Gelong proved worthy of his reputation as a legendary commander. Decisive as ever, he immediately issued orders: "Pass the word to the archer corps, the Soul Master army, and the Tang Family Army—concentrate all attacks on the opened gates. If any enemy charges out, kill them at range. Not a single one is to escape." What he could do now was prevent Dugu Bo's poison from spreading toward the Tian Dou Empire's main force. Otherwise, this battle would have no victor—and would become the bloodiest war in all of history.
Just as the war had fallen into an eerie atmosphere because of this sudden poison attack, ten thousand meters above the ground, the battle between Tang San and Qian Renxue had already reached a white-hot intensity.
Boom—scorching flames erupted like molten lava. Tens of thousands of fire arrows shot through the air, converging on the blue-robed figure from every direction. Qian Renxue's entire body had turned a deep crimson. To fight Tang San, she was pushing herself beyond all limits, absorbing energy from the sun at the cost of constant exposure to the risk of being annihilated by the Solar True Fire.
Compared to Qian Renxue's near-frenzied expression, Tang San remained composed as ever. The Sea God's Trident in his hand traced ring after ring of blue halos, steadily deflecting wave after wave of Qian Renxue's attacks.