Crack!
His neck bones gave a brittle snap under the strain.
Dugu Bo's charging figure abruptly froze in midair.
His Jade Phosphor Poison Claw was mere strands of hair from its target, but he could not advance another inch.
The vicious expression on his face froze.
Then it was replaced by unbearable pain and disbelief.
His eyes bulged from the choking and agony, nearly popping from their sockets.
Rumble!
Qian Renxue's hand around his neck didn't hesitate for a moment. She slammed him hard into the ground!
The solid rock shattered and caved in like an eggshell!
Webs of cracks spread wildly, covering an area several yards across in an instant.
Amid flying dust and rubble, a massive crater half a meter deep appeared.
Dugu Bo lay buried at its bottom like a broken sack, his limbs twisted out of shape.
Blood poured from beneath his torn clothes, quickly staining the hollow beneath him red.
He lay there, his body convulsing uncontrollably as broken, pained gasps escaped him.
Every ragged breath brought up a mouthful of bloody foam. He clearly couldn't get back up.
Dead silence.
Absolute silence descended over the entire Long Street.
The genial smile on Ning Fengzhi's face had completely frozen.
It was as if he were seeing his disciple for the very first time. His pupils contracted sharply.
A Titled Douluo... had been utterly defeated in a single move!
Bone Douluo Gu Rong stood on high alert, instinctively stepping in front of Ning Fengzhi.
Soul Power surged around him, forming an invisible barrier.
Sword Douluo Chen Xin's hand trembled slightly.
Even this Peak Douluo, whose mastery of the sword had reached the divine, had failed to fully follow the path of that attack!
Danger! His body's instincts were screaming a warning!
An indescribable terror spread through his heart.
The haughty look vanished from Salas's face.
The Soul Saint Guard behind him all took a step back in unison.
A few weaker Soul Masters went weak in the knees and dropped to the ground with a thump, trembling uncontrollably.
Tang Hao silently slid half a step backward.
For the first time, the heavy Clear Sky Hammer in his hand instinctively came up in front of him, shifting into a purely defensive stance.
His heart churned with shock.
Because he had clearly sensed the nature of that power—
Angel Divine Power!
Such a pure, powerful aura... Only the Angel God's descent could explain it!
Qian Renxue slowly lowered her arm. A pale golden glow flowed around her like water, making her seem like a Deity descended into the mortal world.
Her cold gaze swept over everyone, then settled on Su Ling and Gu Yuena.
When she saw Su Ling's chest, pierced through and still bleeding—
A terror and heartache that had crossed two lifetimes, born from an unfulfilled longing and bordering on obsession, swallowed her whole!
It was him! The tyrant who had once raised her to the heights, only to cast her into the Cold Palace with his own hands—the man she had hated to the bone, yet could never truly let go!
The man who had made her fall for him after she became a god, leaving her dressed in her finery and waiting, only to end in disappointment!
Why?! Why had he been cold and heartless toward her, yet risked his life to protect this Soul Beast who wanted to kill him?!
Then what did her obsession and waiting across time and space mean?!
Was it all just one enormous joke?!
"Ling! Hold on!"
Qian Renxue suppressed the surging murderous intent and jealousy she felt toward Gu Yuena, then flashed to Su Ling's side.
Life energy flowed through her hand, but her first impulse wasn't to heal him. It was to strike Gu Yuena down while she was off guard.
"Don't come any closer!"
Su Ling keenly caught that fleeting trace of murderous intent.
Just before Qian Renxue could touch his wound, he used the last of his strength to stumble backward with Gu Yuena in his arms!
That single step seemed to drain him of all his strength.
His body swayed violently. His knee could no longer support him, and with a heavy thud, he dropped to one knee!
His knee slammed against the cold rubble with a dull impact that made the heart skip a beat.
More blood gushed from his mouth and the wound in his chest, rapidly spreading into a widening, viscous pool of dark red beneath him.
He struggled to raise his head and looked at Qian Renxue warily.
"You... don't touch her..."
He gasped with difficulty. Every breath tugged at his ruined flesh, bringing a piercing pain.
"This is... between her and me..."
He clutched the cold, tense girl in his arms even tighter, like a cornered beast guarding its last, most precious treasure.
It looked as if he were protecting Gu Yuena, but in truth, he was protecting Qian Renxue too.
Even though Qian Renxue had been reborn, there was no way she could match Gu Yuena, the strongest fighter of this era.
"Why..."
A trembling voice, thick with a nasal quaver and choked with sobs, came muffled from within Su Ling's rigid embrace.
It was Gu Yue's voice, but no longer cold and ethereal, filled with divine majesty.
The voice held utter bewilderment and helplessness, and even... a faint, heartrending sob that she herself couldn't understand.
"Why... why did you save me?"
She slowly raised her head.
Her violet eyes, once disdainful of all living beings, were now completely veiled by a haze of tears.
Without warning, tears burst forth in a torrent, instantly blurring everything she saw.
What had just happened?
At the brink of death, he had used his battered back to shield her beneath him!
Why?!
He knew perfectly well that, with her strength, even while being tugged at by the Split Soul's will, Dugu Bo couldn't possibly hurt her!
He should have hated her to the bone!
So why? When death came, had his body's most instinctive response been to protect her?
Using his shattered life to protect an enemy who had just grievously wounded him?
Gu Yue felt a complete loss of control and a sense of collapse unlike anything she had ever experienced!
"This is what I owe you..." Su Ling murmured, his breath weak but his words unusually clear. "...It has nothing to do with anyone else."
His voice was terrifyingly calm. There was no hatred, no anger, not even the slightest attachment to life.
Only resignation and indifference, as if the wheels of fate had completely crushed him.
Inside Gu Yuena, the will of the Human Nature Incarnation surged the moment it heard the words "owe you"!
"Shut up! Don't think about him!"
Only then did Gu Yue abruptly realize that Su Ling wasn't protecting her at all. He was protecting that lowly, relentless Human Nature Incarnation!
She suddenly wrenched her arm free, channeling a mighty rush of divine power to break out of Su Ling's now-weak embrace.
"That's right, you owe me?!" Gu Yuena's voice rose sharply, turning piercing and shrill, as though she were trying to scream out every emotion in her chest.
But tears fell like pearls from a broken string, pouring uncontrollably and wildly from her shattered violet eyes.
"You think... that..."
She choked on her words. Her surging emotions made it almost impossible to speak, while a pain of unbearable sharpness tore through her heart!
"...will settle the debt?! Everything you've done isn't nearly... isn't nearly enough!"
Her voice climbed to its peak, then suddenly broke into trembling, stifled sobs.
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