Poison kill

Time, within the twisted space-time of the Soul-Devouring Undercurrent, seemed stretched to infinity, then compressed to a pinpoint.

The pale golden streak Xiao Bai had become was the sole, inviolable trail of a miracle in this Chaotic Sea Area. It tore brutally through every obstacle, hurtling straight toward the Energy Subsidence Zone. She moved so fast that the surrounding energy vortices had no time to react before they were purified and forced aside, forming a fleeting vacuum passage.

Yet just as her speed reached its peak, in that infinitely brief, almost imperceptible instant when locking onto the few "ants" in the subsidence zone and Mo Yuan's provocation stirred a ripple in her mind—her absolute instinct for mortal danger, engraved deep in her soul as a hundred-thousand-year soul beast and the Sea God's mount, suddenly screamed wildly!

Something was there!

Unbelievably fast!

Indescribably venomous!

From... above and to the side?! In the shadows of those chaotic vortices?!

She did not even have time to think. The terrifying instincts granted by a hundred thousand years of cultivation had already driven her body into action. Her pale golden divine light abruptly drew inward and condensed, forming an absolute shield over her body, solid as divine crystal and flowing with arcane Sea God runes! At the same time, her perfectly streamlined figure forcibly executed a bizarre, almost right-angled turn in midair that defied the laws of physics!

This was her last-resort life-saving movement technique—Sea God Flash! Borrowing the Sea God's power, she shifted heaven and earth within a handspan!

But it was too late.

Or rather, Jingtian's prediction had been too precise, too vicious.

That infinitely refined and compressed Armor-Piercing Dan-Devour, imbued with all of Jingtian's Po Jing intent, had not been aimed at her position at the time. Instead, it had precisely anticipated her start, her acceleration, and that almost nonexistent inertia in her straight-line charge that anger might induce! It shot toward a "point" she would inevitably pass through in the next instant!

"Hiss—!"

There was no earth-shaking collision, only a sound so faint it seemed an illusion, like a red-hot branding iron pressed against ice.

That deep, murky Armor-Piercing Dan-Devour, seemingly capable of devouring souls, struck squarely at Xiao Bai's left rear shoulder blade—just after she had completed her turn with Sea God Flash, when her old momentum was spent and new strength had yet to arise, and the sudden change of direction had created an exceedingly tiny, almost negligible gap in the energy flow of her divine crystal shield!

It did not penetrate. That divine crystal shield's defenses were stronger than imagination allowed.

But Dan-Devour was not a physical attack. It was a poison of rules, an infinitely refined black hole of venom born specifically to contaminate, corrode, and still "sanctity" and "purification"!

"Urgh—!"

Xiao Bai's figure abruptly faltered! For the first time, clearly visible, incredulous shock appeared on her perfect, impassive face, along with... an exceedingly faint trace of pain!

She felt a strange force, cold and deathly still, bearing boundless malice and Po Jing intent, burrowing and seeping madly through that imperceptible gap in her shield! The vast, pure soul power within her, infused with the Sea God's aura, actually gave faint, sizzling cries upon contact, as though being corroded and dissolved! An exceedingly slight sluggishness appeared in its circulation! More terrifying still, the qualities of "stilling" and "contamination" contained in that force clung like maggots to bone, beginning to infect her Sea God origin and making her feel a cold sense of "uncleanness" and "weakness" rising from the depths of her soul!

What poison is this?! It can actually... corrode the Sea God's power?! Xiao Bai was horrified. This went completely beyond her understanding of poison! This was no mortal poison. This was... a curse!

Almost at the same instant she was struck—

Below, within the Vortex Heart Death Grind, Baiji, the shark king's deputy with nearly a hundred thousand years of cultivation, had been locked in fierce combat with Tieshan and had just sent him tumbling with a halberd strike. His enormous body suddenly stiffened as well!

The second Explosive Dan-Devour struck like a phantom. At the instant he was wholly focused on attacking Tieshan, his perception disrupted by the Vortex Heart Death Grind and the sudden upheaval of Xiao Bai being attacked above, it precisely hit his relatively vulnerable flank!

"Aooo—!!!"

A shrill, agonized roar, filled with the terror of life rapidly draining away, erupted from Baiji's mouth! Unlike Xiao Bai's sense of corrosion and sluggishness, what he felt was his own tremendous life origin "burning" and "withering" madly and uncontrollably, like ice and snow cast into magma! His vitality poured out like floodwater through a breached dam. The silver light over his body visibly dimmed and withered, and even his muscles began to show signs of wasting away! A bone-deep weakness and cold instantly engulfed him!

"Baiji?!" Sea Ghost Douluo, who had been assisting nearby and waiting for an opportunity to restrain Tieshan, turned pale with shock. He had not even seen where the attack came from! All he saw was his partner suddenly screaming as his aura plummeted!

"Now! Tieshan, kill!" Jingtian's icy thought exploded in Tieshan's consciousness like a horn sounding the charge!

Tieshan, who had been sent tumbling and appeared utterly battered, suddenly blazed with ferocity in his eyes! Enduring his wounds, he used the momentum of his tumble to twist his enormous body and swing his tail with flexibility that defied all reason! A heavy tail hammer, long held in readiness and infused with all his fury and strength, carried the chaotic, immense force of the Vortex Heart Death Grind as it smashed brutally onto Baiji's head, whose movements had stiffened and defenses had greatly weakened under Life Wither!

"Thud—!!!"

A chilling, muffled impact rang out. Baiji's enormous head snapped sideways, the cracking of his skull clearly audible! He gave half a scream before it was abruptly cut short. The light rapidly faded from his eyes, and his massive body sank like a torn sack into the depths of the Vortex Heart Death Grind below, his life swiftly extinguished.

Baiji, the Demon Soul Great White Shark deputy with nearly a hundred thousand years of cultivation, had fallen!

"Bastard!!" Sea Ghost Douluo's eyes nearly split with fury. Shocked and enraged, he frantically tried to attack Tieshan, but Tieshan did not linger after landing his blow. He immediately fled for his life deeper into the Vortex Heart Death Grind, toward Mo Yuan's subsidence zone, churning up more chaotic energy currents to obstruct pursuit.

Above, Xiao Bai had only just forcibly suppressed the strange corrosion and sluggishness inside her after being struck by Armor-Piercing Dan-Devour when she saw Tieshan seize the opportunity to smash her deputy Baiji to death.

An unprecedented, terrifying emotion, mingling shock, rage, and a trace of... dread that even she refused to acknowledge, erupted in her chest like a volcano!

Poison! That strange poison again! It could wound her and instantly cripple one of her great generals?!

"Venomous vermin! You deserve to die!!" Xiao Bai flew into an utter rage, all her former composure and indifference gone. She no longer charged toward the subsidence zone. Her pale golden eyes instantly locked onto the direction from which Armor-Piercing Dan-Devour had come—the shadowed crevice above the Vortex Heart Death Grind!

She no longer even spared a thought for the strange force still slowly corroding her from within. Driving the Sea God's power to its utmost, she erupted with divine light and became a destructive meteor burning with pale golden flames of fury. Bearing the terrifying might to purify everything and tear everything apart, she hurled herself straight at Jingtian's hiding place!

Wherever she passed, space itself seemed to wail, and the chaotic energy currents were directly vaporized and annihilated!

This was the wrath of a true king, sworn to erase the venomous insect lurking in the shadows, along with that entire patch of space, from the world!

Yet at the very moment Xiao Bai erupted in fury and charged toward Jingtian's hiding place—

Mo Yuan, who had been lurking in the Energy Subsidence Zone and following Jingtian's final order to "wait for an opening," flashed with resolve in his eyes. He raised his enormous head and looked toward the pale golden meteor hurtling at his Master with world-destroying force, then glanced at the frightened Yinyi, Lijia, and the others around him, as well as the young whales Yinyi was fiercely sheltering beneath her body.

"Master bought us time... now it's our turn!" Mo Yuan transmitted his thoughts, bearing an unquestionable command. "Yinyi, Lijia, Wojiao, Xiliu! On my command! Target the Demon Soul Great White Sharks at the boundary between the stable and chaotic zones ahead, the ones panicking because their king was attacked! Cover that area with your strongest, widest-ranging breath attacks! Create as much chaos as possible, relieve the pressure on Master, and open a retreat route for Tieshan!"

"Yes!" Though Yinyi and the other demon whales were afraid, seeing their Master gravely wound the enemy leader and kill her deputy the moment he struck, then witnessing their elder's determination, gave them courage.

The next instant, several immensely thick demon whale breath attacks of different attributes—frost, high-pressure water cannons, storms of water blades, and soul power shockwaves—suddenly erupted from the chaotic backdrop of the Energy Subsidence Zone like roaring deep-sea dragons. Holding nothing back, they blanketed the elite Demon Soul Great White Sharks, whose formation had fallen into slight disarray after Xiao Bai's injury and Baiji's death, and who were wavering between pursuing Tieshan and returning to aid their king!

"Rumble—!!!"

The already chaotic battlefield became even more violent and unpredictable under these long-planned, all-out breath attacks from the flank! The energy across a vast stretch of sea was thoroughly stirred up and detonated, creating a terrifying disaster zone of both soul power and physical force. At least a dozen elite Demon Soul Great White Sharks were swept into it, screams, roars, and explosions crashing together!

Because of Jingtian's surprise attack with two Dan-Devours, the entire Soul-Devouring Undercurrent battlefield instantly transformed from an encirclement into an all-out melee!

At that moment, facing Xiao Bai's furious, destructive collision, Jingtian remained hidden in the shadows. He felt the terrifying pressure crashing toward him, as though it would crush even his soul, yet his icy thoughts held no fear—only an almost ruthless calm, and... one final thread of frantic calculation.

The third one... your turn.

His ninth tentacle, which had remained concealed and poised like a venomous snake, rose once more. At its tip, the final Shotgun Pellet Dan-Devour flickered with dim light.

He did not shoot at Xiao Bai—that would be meaningless, and it could not stop her in her current fury.

His target was the relatively "clear" area behind Xiao Bai, temporarily "illuminated" by the overly dazzling divine light of her all-out eruption and stripped of the natural cover provided by the turbulent energy currents.

That was where Sea Ghost Douluo stood, along with several elite Demon Soul Great White Sharks that had just stumbled out of Mo Yuan's breath barrage, still badly shaken.

Go. Add one more "surprise"... to this feast.

"Hiss—!"

The third Dan-Devour shot forth like an arrow from a bow, silently entering that relatively "calm" stretch of sea. Then... it burst without a sound.

There was no earth-shaking explosion, only an extremely faint gray-purple mist, almost invisible to the naked eye. Like the gentlest tide, it instantly spread, quietly enveloping Sea Ghost Douluo and those elite sharks.

"Hmm? This mist..." Sea Ghost Douluo immediately sensed something wrong. As a Titled Douluo, he was exceptionally sensitive to changes in energy. He instantly held his breath and fully activated his protective soul power, trying to disperse it. Yet the mist seemed capable of seeping through his soul power shield, acting directly upon his skin, mouth, nose, and even... his soul.

A cold, clammy sensation struck him instantly, bringing intense dizziness, sluggish soul power, and faint stabbing pains in his soul! He felt as though he had been thrown into an icy mire full of thorns. His movements, thoughts, and soul power circulation all slowed by far more than a beat! The elite sharks fared even worse. They cried out in agony, the silver light over their bodies rapidly dimming, their eyes turning cloudy and frenzied. They even began uncontrollably colliding with and biting one another!

Soul-Dispersing Plague had taken effect!

With that, Jingtian had used all three Specialized Dan-Devours:

The first Dan-Devour struck Xiao Bai, causing corrosion and sluggishness, utterly enraging her and drawing her away.

The second Dan-Devour, in coordination with Tieshan, instantly killed Baiji, the deputy with nearly a hundred thousand years of cultivation.

The third Dan-Devour slowed, disrupted, and weakened Sea Ghost Douluo and some of the elite sharks.

The results were spectacular, but...

The price was the near-total depletion of his own origin and the complete exposure of his hiding place.

And before him stood Xiao Bai—the hundred-thousand-year favored servant of the Sea God, bearing heaven-scorching fury and sworn to grind his bones to dust and scatter his ashes!

There was nowhere to evade her. All that remained was...

A fight to the death, or... death!

Jingtian slowly emerged fully from the shadows. His nine tentacles, including the pitch-black Ninth Tentacle, slowly unfurled amid the violent energy turbulence, and the rings on his body lit with one last, resolute glow. He looked at the pale golden meteor of destruction now almost upon him. For the first time, he deliberately and clearly sent his icy thoughts into her rage-filled consciousness:

"Welcome to... my hunting ground, Xiao Bai."

Before his words had faded, his enormous body advanced rather than retreated, charging fearlessly straight into that world-destroying impact!

He was not seeking death. Behind him were Mo Yuan and the other whales, who had just finished their breath attacks and were withdrawing according to plan toward the designated rendezvous point deep within the Vortex Heart Death Grind. Below and to his side was Tieshan, desperately shaking off Sea Ghost and fleeing toward that same rendezvous point.

He had to block this deadliest blow for his "pod," even if only for an instant.

At this moment, the Deep Sea Poison Lord bared his final, and only...

Death-Defying Fangs, with his body as the shield and his life as the teeth.