Confrontation

The speed of a Titled Douluo far exceeded Jingtian's estimates.

Just as he slipped into the edge of the core forbidden zone of Guixu, and the violent energy turbulence and spatial folds—fierce enough to tear a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast apart—had only just begun to thicken, a majestic, imposing terror aura that seemed to merge with the entire deep sea swept over from behind like an invisible giant net. It vaguely cast its perception and the embryonic form of its domain over the surrounding hundred-li expanse of Guixu!

It was here! And it came alone!

Jingtian confirmed in an instant that only this single Titled Douluo's aura was pursuing him. There were no fluctuations from other Soul Douluos or Soul Saints. Was the opponent overly confident, or did he think that deep within Guixu, a larger crowd would only complicate matters?

Just in time... Inside Jingtian, icy killing intent intertwined with surging battle intent. Let me see exactly how great the gap is between a seventy-thousand-year poison and a human Titled Douluo!

He made no further attempt to push deeper into the more dangerous absolute forbidden zone where even he could perish in an instant. Instead, he slowly came to a halt in a region that was relatively "open" (relative to the core of Guixu) yet saturated with countless dense spatial rifts and violent energy whirlpools. His massive form loomed vaguely within the murky turbulence, and the dark purple ring markings in the absolute darkness resembled cold eyes opening in the abyss.

He no longer deliberately concealed all his aura, instead slowly releasing the majestic pressure of a seventy-thousand-year Soul Beast alongside that poisonous-source aura—which had grown even more treacherous and profound after fifteen years of tempering in Guixu. Like a lighthouse in the dark, he clearly signaled his own existence.

"Hum—!"

Almost the moment he released his aura, the terrifying aura pursuing him from behind suddenly accelerated! The seawater was shoved aside by an irresistible force. A figure entirely shrouded in a deep blue halo, features indistinct but posture as straight as the abyss, crossed the final several li like a teleportation and appeared about a thousand meters ahead of Jingtian.

A thousand meters, for entities of this caliber, was practically face-to-face.

The deep blue halo receded slightly to reveal the face of a middle-aged man who looked to be in his forties or fifties, with ancient, unadorned features, eyes as bright and profound as the sea, and a pale-gold trident pattern between his eyebrows. He wore simple blue martial attire without excessive adornments, yet standing there, he seemed like the master of the entire deep sea. An invisible domain force field had already spread outward, suppressing and calming the violent Guixu energy around him.

Sea God Island, a Titled Douluo! Furthermore, judging from his aura and that unique trident pattern, he was by no means an ordinary Titled Douluo; he likely held a lofty status within Sea God Island, and his spirit was closely tied to the Sea God Inheritance!

"It really is you." The Titled Douluo spoke, his voice calm yet carrying a majesty that reached straight to the soul. Piercing through the heavy turbulence, it rang out clearly in Jingtian's consciousness. "Fifteen years ago, in the Storm Sea Abyss, you were the foul beast that ambushed and killed Mo Lin, a deacon of our Sea God Island, and heavily battered the Raging Waves Team."

His gaze was like a physical entity, sweeping over Jingtian's massive, ferocious yet strangely aesthetic body, lingering for a fraction of a second on those dark-purple, gold-edged ring markings. A trace of gravity and probing flashed in his eyes. "Seventy thousand years of cultivation... In a mere fifteen years, you actually grew from an initial ten-thousand-year beast to this point. And this bizarre toxic power alongside that defense-ignoring, vicious method... What on earth are you? Where did you come from?"

He did not strike immediately, seeming to observe, evaluate, and... probe Jingtian's foundations in some manner.

Jingtian did not reply, nor could he respond in human language. He merely hovered quietly, his eight tentacles swaying slightly in the turbulence. The soul power and poison source within his body had already quietly surged to their peak, and his perception was elevated to the limit, locking onto every subtle movement and energy fluctuation of his opponent.

He was evaluating. Evaluating the strength and characteristics of the opponent's domain, evaluating the quality and quantity of the opponent's soul power, and evaluating... how many chances he would have to plant the Dan-Devour if he launched a sudden, violent strike before the opponent could react.

The Titled Douluo did not seem surprised by Jingtian's silence. He slowly raised one hand, palm facing upward. No soul rings appeared (Titled Douluos could already freely conceal their soul rings), but the deep-sea water elements around him began to converge toward his palm as though paying homage to a monarch. They condensed into a crystal-clear trident phantom composed entirely of seawater and soul power compressed to the absolute extreme, yet radiating a razor-sharp aura that threatened to tear everything apart!

Even with just the phantom manifesting, the surrounding spatial rifts seemed stimulated, emitting faint cracking sounds, while the dark-purple ring markings on Jingtian's skin lit up automatically to resist that invisible, sharp pressure.

"Unwilling to speak? That is fine." The Titled Douluo's voice turned cold, carrying an unquestionable, judgment-laden tone. "Regardless of what you are, today, in this desolate Guixu wasteland, you shall pay the price for your past sins. The Sea God's Light brooks no desecration."

Before his words faded, the seawater trident phantom in his palm gently thrust forward!

There was no earth-shattering momentum, only a deep-blue waterline—condensed to the absolute extreme, as thin as a hair, yet seemingly harboring the weight and sharpness of an entire ocean—that tore through the seawater, ignored spatial distance, and appeared instantly in front of Jingtian! Wherever it passed, even the violent Guixu energy and tiny spatial rifts were easily sliced apart and smoothed away!

Fast! Accurate! Ruthless! Imbued with a trace of the cutting and penetration true intent of the water rule!

Jingtian had long been prepared. The moment the opponent raised his hand, he had driven his Poison Domain to the limit! Dark-purple toxic power instantly saturated a fifty-meter radius around him. The seawater grew thick and heavy, laden with intense mental interference and corrosive toxicity. Furthermore, employing the concept of Poison Erosion, he laid down overlapping, endlessly energy-dissolving invisible Poison Erosion barriers before himself!

However—

"Screech—!"

That deep-blue waterline, like a hot knife cutting through butter, breached at least seven layers of Poison Erosion barriers with unstoppable momentum! The neutralizing effect of the barriers was drastically diminished in the face of this rule-imbued attack. Its sharpness and speed were not noticeably weakened until it pierced the eighth barrier.

Yet the remaining might was still not to be underestimated!

One of Jingtian's long-prepared main tentacles lashed out fiercely like a giant whip. Dark-purple light flared blindingly on the tentacle, carrying the immense force to tear the seawater apart and condensed potent venom, slamming ruthlessly into the side of that weakened waterline!

"Boom—!!!"

A muffled explosion resounded in the deep sea! Violent energy turbulence mixed with virulent poison surged wildly in all directions, battering several nearby tiny spatial rifts until they warped and expanded!

Jingtian's main tentacle trembled violently, and an indescribable sharpness and heaviness struck him. The dark-purple ring markings on the surface of the tentacle flashed wildly, actually being carved open with a bone-deep wound! Blue-black toxic blood (its color already altered) sprayed out, but violet light swirled over the wound, writhing and healing at a speed visible to the naked eye. At the same time, an extremely stubborn, foreign soul power carrying the sea's purifying intent tried to invade along the wound, but was forcefully blocked and worn away by Jingtian's toxic power.

He blocked it! But barely! And he suffered a minor loss!

A mere casual, probing attack possessed such might! A Titled Douluo truly was terrifyingly formidable!

"Oh? Poison Domain? And this characteristic of neutralizing energy? Rather interesting." Surprise flashed across the Titled Douluo's eyes, but it instantly hardened into a deeper chill. "Still, if this is all you have, you will not escape death today."

He probed no further. His figure shifted slightly, seeming to fuse completely with the surrounding seawater, closing in on Jingtian at a speed that looked slow yet actually left afterimages in its wake! The seawater trident phantom in his hand flared brightly, instantly solidifying several times over, and pale-gold divine patterns even began to flow across the shaft of the halberd! An even greater, more vast, and terrifying pressure—as though about to suppress the entire sea area—descended with a crash!

Sea God's Domain—Boundless Vast Sea!

Centered on the Titled Douluo, deep-blue light spread like a tidal wave, instantly covering a radius of several thousand meters! Within this domain, the seawater ceased to be violent, turning instead "docile" yet "heavy," acting like the toughest shackles squeezing Jingtian from all directions! More frighteningly, the domain was saturated with the laws of purification, suppression, and cutting, frantically wearing away Jingtian's Poison Domain, suppressing the operation of his soul power, and even causing his massive body to feel sluggish in movement as though trapped in an invisible mire.

This was the true strength of a Titled Douluo! Within my domain, I am supreme!

Jingtian's pressure spiked sharply! His Poison Domain's range was abruptly compressed, forced down from fifty meters to under twenty meters, and it teetered on the verge of collapse! His soul power circulation grew stagnant, and his movements slowed by at least thirty percent! He knew he could wait no longer! If he waited any further, once completely suppressed by the opponent's domain for close-quarters combat, he would undoubtedly suffer total defeat!

If I can't beat him... then it has to be Dan-Devour!

The exact moment the Titled Douluo, wielding the solidified trident, transformed into a blue-gold streak of light tearing through the deep sea to launch a fatal thrusting strike against the domain-suppressed Jingtian—

Jingtian's eight tentacles shook violently in a strange rhythm! He abandoned the maintenance of his crumbling Poison Domain, channeling and compressing all his soul power, poison source, and even a sliver of spirit energy to the absolute extreme!

His target was not the lunging trident, nor the opponent's body, but... locking onto the opponent's sea-vast life origin and soul core, which were completely integrated with the domain!

An invisible Dan-Devour—more condensed, obscure, and possessing the chaotic corrosive traits unique to Guixu than any previous attempt—roared within Jingtian's intent. Ignoring the "Boundless Vast Sea" domain that suppressed everything, it bypassed the boundaries of space and rules, ruthlessly "stamping" toward the core of that blue-gold stream of light!

This time, Jingtian clearly "sensed" the difference.

When the Dan-Devour penetrated the opponent's domain, it encountered unprecedented resistance! The domain seemed to possess life and will, automatically repelling and neutralizing all "heresy." The Dan-Devour's corrosive speed plummeted, yet it still penetrated toward the core imprint with difficulty and steadfastness.

The very instant the Dan-Devour "stamped" into the opponent's body, Jingtian "heard" an extremely faint muffled grunt, filled with shock and pain!

That blue-gold trident—which had lunged to within a hundred meters of Jingtian, radiating a destructive aura—came to an abrupt halt! The streaming light dispersed, revealing the Titled Douluo within, whose face bore a trace of startled anger and disbelief!

He felt as though his life origin and soul had been ruthlessly nailed through by a cold nail carrying toxic and decaying attributes! A sensation of frailty and "contamination" originating from the deepest depths spread wildly! The light of his domain flickered violently, growing unstable, and his suppression over Jingtian weakened drastically in an instant!

"This poison again?! How is it possible that even my domain..." The Titled Douluo was both alarmed and infuriated. Forcing his domain to stabilize, he drove his vast soul power alongside the purifying power originating from the Sea God Inheritance to frantically resist and expel the bizarre toxic power that had invaded his body. He could sense that while this venom was terrifying, completely eroding the origin of a Titled Douluo instantly was utterly impossible and would take time. Yet during this window, his strength would inevitably plummet, and this poison acted like maggots on rotting bones, proving exceptionally troublesome.

An opportunity!

The moment the Dan-Devour struck true, Jingtian broke free from the majority of the domain's suppression. His eight tentacles thrust fiercely into the surrounding chaotic Guixu energy and spatial rifts. Borrowing the recoil force, his massive body surged forward instead of retreating. Like a cannonball fired from a barrel, he violently slammed toward the Titled Douluo—whose form was slightly stalled as he combated the Dan-Devour! At the same time, the tips of all his tentacles condensed toxic sharpness infused with the traits of poison erosion, annihilation, and chaos, stabbing viciously like countless poisoned spears of death toward the weak points and vital areas of the opponent's surrounding domain!

"You courting death, beast!" the Titled Douluo roared. Though impacted by the Dan-Devour, how could a Titled Douluo's foundation and reaction be ordinary? The light on the trident in his hand flared anew, tracing an arcane trajectory like the parting of an ocean, instantly swatting away several incoming tentacle poison spears. Simultaneously, his domain power re-condensed, transforming into layers of water shields and cutting currents to parry Jingtian's charge.

"Boom boom boom—!!"

Deep within Guixu, the most violent collision since the battle's inception erupted! Dark-purple toxic power and blue-gold Sea God's Light intertwined and annihilated each other madly! Spatial rifts were torn open and expanded, and violent energy turbulence was triggered and detonated!

On one side was a Titled Douluo who, despite being poisoned by Dan-Devour and suffering impaired strength, possessed a terrifying foundation.

On the other side was a seventy-thousand-year supreme venomous ferocious beast going all out with a fearless-to-the-death resolve.

Who would live? Who would die?

Or perhaps... perish together, burying themselves within this Eternal Silence Return Ruins?