Poisonous Execution

Time, within the twisted spacetime of the "Soul-Devouring Undercurrent," seemed to stretch infinitely before being compressed to a needlepoint.

The pale golden streak Xiaobai had become was the sole sacred trail in this Chaotic Sea Area, inviolable and divine. It violently tore through every obstacle as it shot straight toward the "Energy Subsidence Zone." She was so fast that the surrounding energy vortices were purified and shoved aside before they could react, forming a fleeting vacuum passage.

Yet just as her speed climbed to its peak, in that infinitesimal, nearly imperceptible instant when her mind was fixed on those "ants" in the Subsidence Zone and Moyuan's provocation caused the slightest ripple in her emotions—the absolute instinct for lethal danger engraved deep into the soul of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and the Sea God's mount suddenly shrieked madly!

Something was there!

Inconceivably fast!

Indescribably vicious!

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

She did not even have time to think. The terrifying instinct honed by a hundred thousand years of cultivation had already driven her body into motion. The pale golden divine light abruptly contracted and condensed, forming an absolute shield around her body, solid as divine crystal and flowing with profound Sea God runes! At the same time, her perfectly streamlined figure forcibly made a bizarre near-right-angle turn in midair, one that defied all physical laws!

This was her ultimate life-saving movement technique—Sea God Flash! Borrowing the Sea God's Power to shift heaven and earth within an inch!

But she was too late.

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

The "Armor-Piercing Dan-Devour," condensed from all of Jingtian's will to "Po Jing" and purified and compressed to the utmost limit, had not targeted her current position. Instead, it had precisely anticipated the almost nonexistent inertia of her activation, acceleration, and possible straight-line charge driven by anger! It was aimed at a "point" she was bound to pass through in the next instant!

"Hiss—!"

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

That deep, murky Armor-Piercing Dan-Devour, as if capable of devouring souls, struck Xiaobai squarely on the rear of her left shoulder blade just after she used Sea God Flash and completed her turn—at the moment when her new force had yet to arise, her old force had already been exhausted, and a minuscule, nearly negligible gap had appeared in the flow of energy within her divine-crystal shield due to the sudden change of direction!

It did not penetrate. The defense of that divine-crystal shield was unimaginably strong.

But Dan-Devour was not a physical attack. It was poison of rules, an infinitely purified black hole of venom born specifically to contaminate, corrode, and Silence the sacred and the pure!

"Urgh—!"

Xiaobai's body abruptly froze! For the first time, clear and unmistakable shock—and... the faintest trace of pain—appeared on her flawless, cold face!

She felt a bizarre force, icy, deathly still, and filled with endless malice and the will to Po Jing, crazily drilling through and seeping into the imperceptible gap in her shield! The vast, pure Soul Power within her, bearing the Sea God's aura, let out a faint sizzling wail the instant it touched that force, as if it were being corroded and dissolved! The circulation of her Soul Power slowed by the slightest degree! Even more terrifyingly, the Silence and contamination within that force clung to her like maggots on bone, attempting to infect her Sea God source. It gave her an icy sense of impurity and weakness that rose from the depths of her soul!

What poison is this?! It can... corrode the Sea God's Power?! Xiaobai was horrified. This completely surpassed everything she knew about poison! This was not mortal poison. This was... a curse!

Almost at the exact moment she was struck—

Within the "Vortex Heart Death Grind" below, Baiji, the nearly Hundred-Thousand-Year shark king's lieutenant, had been fiercely battling Tieshan and had just sent him tumbling away with a halberd strike. His massive body suddenly stiffened as well!

The second "Explosive Dan-Devour" appeared like a ghost. At the very instant his attention was wholly focused on attacking Tieshan and his senses were disrupted by the Vortex Heart Death Grind and the sudden upheaval of Xiaobai being attacked above, it precisely struck his relatively vulnerable flank!

"Awooo—!!!"

A shrill, agonized howl filled with the terror of life rapidly draining away erupted from Baiji's mouth! Unlike Xiaobai's corroded, sluggish sensation, what he felt was his immense life source crazily and uncontrollably "burning" and "Withering" like ice and snow thrown into magma! His vitality poured away like floodwaters through a broken dam. The silver light over his body dimmed and withered at a visible rate, while even his muscles began showing signs of atrophy! Bone-deep weakness and cold instantly overwhelmed him!

"Baiji?!" Sea Ghost Douluo, who had been assisting nearby and waiting for a chance to restrain Tieshan, was utterly shocked. He had not seen where the attack had come from at all! He only saw his companion suddenly scream as his aura plummeted!

"Now! Tieshan, kill him!" Jingtian's cold intent exploded in Tieshan's mind like a battle horn!

Tieshan, who had been sent rolling and appeared utterly miserable, instantly burst with savage light from his eyes! Enduring the pain, he used the momentum of his tumble to twist his huge body and whip his tail with unnatural agility! A tail hammer strike he had long prepared, containing all his rage and power and carrying the chaotic force of the Vortex Heart Death Grind, smashed viciously into Baiji's head as Life Wither left him stiff and drastically weakened his defenses!

"Bang—!!!"

A dull impact that made one's scalp crawl. Baiji's enormous head snapped sharply to one side, and the sound of his skull shattering was clearly audible! He let out half a scream before it was abruptly cut off. The light in his eyes rapidly faded as his huge body sank like a torn sack toward the depths of the Vortex Heart Death Grind, his life force swiftly extinguishing.

Baiji, lieutenant of the nearly Hundred-Thousand-Year Demon Soul Great White Shark king, had fallen!

"Bastard!!" Sea Ghost Douluo's eyes nearly split with rage. Shocked and furious, he frantically tried to attack Tieshan, but after landing that blow, Tieshan did not pause in the slightest. He immediately fled for his life toward the deeper reaches of the Vortex Heart Death Grind, in the direction of Moyuan's Subsidence Zone, while stirring up even more chaotic energy currents to block his pursuers.

Above, Xiaobai, who had just forcibly suppressed the bizarre corrosion and sluggishness inside her body after being hit by the Armor-Piercing Dan-Devour, saw Baiji being seized and killed by Tieshan.

An unprecedented terror surged like a volcano through her chest, mixed with shock, fury, and a trace of dread that even she refused to acknowledge...

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

"Poisonous Entity! You deserve to die!!" Xiaobai flew into a complete rage, losing all her former calm and indifference. She no longer charged toward the Subsidence Zone. Her pale golden eyes instantly locked onto the direction from which the Armor-Piercing Dan-Devour had come—the shadowy crevice above the Vortex Heart Death Grind!

She no longer cared about the bizarre power that was still slowly corroding her from within. Driving the Sea God's Power to its limit, divine light exploded around her as she transformed into a destructive meteor burning with pale golden fury. Carrying the terrifying might to purify and tear apart everything, she rammed headlong toward Jingtian's hiding place!

Space itself seemed to wail in her wake, while the chaotic energy currents were directly vaporized and annihilated!

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

Yet just as Xiaobai erupted in fury and charged toward Jingtian's hiding place—

Moyuan, who had been lurking within the Energy Subsidence Zone and waiting for an opportunity according to Jingtian's final order, flashed with determination in his eyes. He raised his enormous head and looked at the pale golden meteor rushing toward Master with world-destroying force. Then he looked at the terrified Yinyi, Lijia, and the other clansmen around him, as well as the Young Whale Yinyi was desperately shielding beneath her body.

"Master bought us time... now it is our turn!" Moyuan's intent spread forth with an unquestionable command. "Yinyi, Lijia, Wojiao, Xiliu! Hear my order! Target the boundary between the stable zone and the chaotic zone ahead—the group of Demon Soul Great White Sharks panicking over their king being attacked! Use your strongest and widest-range breaths to cover that area! Create the greatest possible chaos, relieve Master's pressure, and open a retreat route for Tieshan!"

"Yes!" Though Yinyi and the other Demon Whales were afraid, seeing Master severely wound the enemy leader and kill his lieutenant with a single strike, and seeing their elder act so decisively, they gathered their courage.

In the next moment, several incomparably thick Demon Whale breaths of differing attributes—frost, high-pressure water cannons, water-blade storms, and Soul Power shockwaves—erupted from the chaotic backdrop of the Energy Subsidence Zone like roaring deep-sea dragons. Without holding anything back, they crashed down in an overwhelming torrent upon the elite Demon Soul Great White Shark group, whose formation had been slightly disrupted by Xiaobai's attack and Baiji's death as they hesitated between pursuing Tieshan and returning to aid their king!

"Rumble—!!!"

The already chaotic battlefield became even more violent and unpredictable under these premeditated, full-force breaths from the flank! The energy across a vast stretch of sea was thoroughly stirred up and detonated, forming a terrifying disaster zone of both Soul Power and physical destruction. At least a dozen elite Demon Soul Great White Sharks were swept into it, and screams, roars, and explosions blended together!

The entire Soul-Devouring Undercurrent battlefield had, due to Jingtian's surprise attack with two Dan-Devours, instantly transformed from an encirclement into all-out chaos!

At that moment, facing Xiaobai's furious, destructive charge, Jingtian, hidden in the shadows, felt the terrifying pressure rushing toward him as though it would crush even his soul. Yet within his cold consciousness, there was no fear—only near-cruel calm and... one final frenzied calculation.

"The third one... it is your turn."

His Ninth Tentacle, which had remained hidden and coiled like a venomous snake, rose once more. At its tip, the final "Shotgun Pellet Dan-Devour" flickered with dim light.

He did not fire at Xiaobai—that would have been meaningless, and it could not have stopped her raging charge.

His target was the relatively "clear" area behind Xiaobai, temporarily illuminated by her full-force eruption and glaring divine light, stripped of the natural cover provided by the chaotic energy currents.

There stood Sea Ghost Douluo, along with several elite Demon Soul Great White Sharks that had just struggled free of Moyuan's breath attack and were still badly shaken.

"Go. Add another 'surprise'... to this feast."

"Hiss—!"

The third Dan-Devour shot forth, silently entering that relatively "calm" sea before... exploding without a sound.

There was no earth-shaking blast. Only an almost invisible mist, an extremely faint grayish-purple haze, spread out like the gentlest tide in an instant, quietly enveloping Sea Ghost Douluo and those elite sharks.

"Hmm? This mist..." Sea Ghost Douluo immediately sensed that something was wrong. As a Title Douluo, he was extremely sensitive to changes in energy. He instantly held his breath and fully activated his Soul Power barrier, attempting to disperse it. Yet the mist seemed able to seep through Soul Power shields and act directly upon his skin, nose, mouth, and even... soul.

An icy, sticky sensation instantly struck him, accompanied by intense dizziness, sluggish Soul Power, and faint stabs of pain 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 had all slowed by more than a beat! Those elite sharks fared even worse. They let out pained cries, the silver light on their bodies rapidly dimming as their eyes turned muddy and crazed. They even began crashing into and biting one another uncontrollably!

The "Soul-Dispersing Plague" had taken effect!

By this point, Jingtian had used all three specialized Dan-Devours:

The first "Dan-Devour" struck Xiaobai, causing corrosion and sluggishness, completely enraging and drawing her away.

The second "Dan-Devour," working with Tieshan, instantly killed the nearly Hundred-Thousand-Year lieutenant, Baiji.

The third "Dan-Devour" slowed, disrupted, and weakened Sea Ghost Douluo and part of the elite shark pack.

The results were brilliant, but...

The price was that his own source power had nearly been exhausted, and his hiding place had been completely exposed.

And ahead was Xiaobai, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Sea God's retainer, carrying heaven-burning fury and sworn to grind him to dust and ashes!

There was nowhere to evade. There was only...

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

Jingtian slowly emerged completely from the shadows. His nine tentacles, including the pitch-black Ninth Tentacle, gradually unfurled amid the violent energy currents. The rings across his body lit with their final, resolute dim glow. Looking at the pale golden meteor of destruction now nearly upon him, his cold intent clearly and deliberately reached the consciousness overflowing with her rage for the first time:

"Welcome to... my hunting ground, Xiaobai."

Before his words had faded, his enormous body advanced rather than retreated, charging head-on toward that world-destroying impact!

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

He had to block this most lethal strike for his whale pod, even if only for an instant.

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

Death-Defying Fangs—using his body as a shield and his life as its teeth.