"By all rights, that Devil Emperor was arrogant by nature. To break through our ranks of Titled Douluo, it had no choice but to exhaust its essence and flee."
"In the end, it ran out of strength in the southwest of Star Dou and blew its body apart, releasing a terrifying poison miasma. It died near that girl. It all sounds reasonable."
"But I can't shake the feeling that something's wrong."
Chrysanthemum Douluo said.
"Could it have been a sacrifice?"
Hu Liena asked thoughtfully.
At her words, Chrysanthemum Douluo dispelled the Chrysanthemum Martial Soul in his hand. He paced around twice before slowly speaking.
"That was the first possibility we thought of at the time, but we dismissed it immediately."
"Do you know what that Devil Emperor was?"
"It was an utterly evil and wicked creature. It slaughtered countless human Soul Masters, and it didn't spare its own kind, either."
"The two Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts His Holiness the Pope had set his sights on—the Death Spider Emperor and the Purple Wing Spider Emperor—were both devoured by it."
"It devoured its own kind?"
A look of astonishment flashed through Hu Liena's eyes.
She had long heard of the Devil Emperor's infamy, but she hadn't known it was so savage.
No wonder human Soul Masters and Star Dou Great Forest had joined forces to hunt it down.
"That's only what we know. Its cruelty goes far beyond that."
Chrysanthemum Douluo sneered. "How could a creature like that willingly sacrifice its essence to a little human girl and become her Soul Ring?"
"Then what if it was a contract?"
Hu Liena continued. "For instance, what if it made an agreement with Zhu Zhuqing to sacrifice itself and help her grow, so she could avenge it later? Is that possible?"
"Absolutely not."
Chrysanthemum Douluo rejected the idea outright. "If it was a sacrifice or a contract, why would it blow its body apart at the very end, releasing poison so potent that even Titled Douluo had to fear it?"
"If we hadn't arrived in time, with that Old Poison Dugu Bo there too, the little girl would have already melted into a puddle of poison."
"What kind of sense would it make to have someone avenge you by first driving them to the brink of death?"
"But you still insisted on bringing her back. You still suspect her, don't you?"
Hu Liena said with certainty.
Chrysanthemum Douluo raised an eyebrow, making no effort to hide his admiration.
"Saintess, you really are clever as snow and ice. No wonder His Holiness the Pope values you above all his disciples."
Chrysanthemum Douluo made no secret of his praise.
"Elder Ju, you flatter me. I'm not the Saintess yet."
Hu Liena replied with great modesty.
"Don't worry. His Holiness the Pope thinks very highly of you. Your appointment as Saintess is only a matter of time."
As he spoke, Chrysanthemum Douluo returned to the point. "As you said, we elders of Spirit Hall would never act without caution."
"Of course we had to bring the girl back and rule out every possibility."
"Now she's conveniently lost her memory, too. It's hard not to be suspicious."
"I've already made arrangements."
Hu Liena nodded. "We'll test her Soul Power in a little while. If it was a sacrifice, a simple examination will give it away."
With that, the two turned and walked slowly down the corridor.
They had never cared whether the girl had lost her memory. From beginning to end, all they cared about was the whereabouts of the Demon Spider Emperor, which had vanished into thin air three days ago.
In the room, Zhu Zhuqing confirmed through Gu Chensha that Chrysanthemum Douluo and Hu Liena had gone far away.
At last, she let out a breath of relief.
From within her sea of consciousness, Gu Chensha teased her.
"Honestly, I'm impressed by your acting."
"Good thing the Douluo World doesn't have an entertainment industry. Otherwise, you'd have proved yourself an acting emperor."
"Huh, really?"
Zhu Zhuqing didn't understand what "entertainment industry" or "acting emperor" meant, but she could hear the praise in his words. Delight immediately filled her face.
Ever since she was young, she had lived in the shadow of her sister's brilliance and under the weight of her family's expectations. No one had ever affirmed her so directly.
Without thinking, she said softly,
"Thank you, senior."
"...Tsk. How many times have I told you not to call me senior?"
Gu Chensha clicked his tongue helplessly. "Looks like I'll have to remind you every day."
"Sorry..."
Zhu Zhuqing's voice sank at once, like a kitten that had done something wrong.
"Forget it. It's fine."
Seeing her like that, Gu Chensha couldn't bring himself to get angry.
He had lived for five hundred years, accustomed to keeping to himself. Normally, aside from snapping "Get lost" at foolish Soul Beasts and Soul Masters, he had barely spoken civilly to anyone, let alone patiently taught a young girl what to do.
But as he recalled the life-or-death sacrifice from three days ago, a glint passed through Gu Chensha's eyes.
The moment the sacrifice ended that day, the smell of blood in the wind had been so thick it seemed impossible to disperse.
Along with the lingering aura of his Demon Spider Emperor blood, several powerful Titled Douluo auras—strong enough to warp the air—were hurtling toward them at astonishing speed.
The people who had pursued him for days wouldn't let a single chance to confirm his death slip by.
Within moments, several figures halted in unison above the forest.
The pressure of their Titled Douluo auras merged, crushing the trees and grass across the dense woods until they rustled and shook.
Before his sacrifice, Gu Chensha had deliberately concealed the fluctuations of his core. But the trail of blood he had left while fleeing was the clearest of signposts.
The sacrifice had been perilous, but the true test of life and death had always come after it.
If he couldn't survive this calamity, his soul would be scattered and his spirit destroyed!
The two figures at the front were Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei of Spirit Hall.
Yue Guan rolled a golden chrysanthemum between his fingers. He glanced down at the area shrouded in dense, black poison miasma, his brows knitting slightly.
"Is it already dead? I can't sense a trace of life."
Beside him, Gui Mei was half-hidden in shadow, ghostly energy surging around him as he spoke in a hoarse, chilly voice.
"Could it have been a clone? Did its true body escape while we were right under its nose?"
"If that was only a clone, the poison miasma it released when it died was astonishingly potent."
A tall, thin elder with hair and beard both as dark green as ink shook his head.
His emerald eyes glinted like gemstones. He was none other than Poison Douluo Dugu Bo.
Staring at the poison miasma below, he showed no fear. Instead, a competitive spark stirred within him.
"In my opinion, this is the corpse of that invincible Devil Emperor itself."
At his words, the Titled Douluo present exchanged glances, but none of them moved first.
Everyone knew that even in death, the Devil Emperor's body was a priceless treasure!
Even if it hadn't been hunted down and thus hadn't formed a Soul Ring, a Demon Spider Emperor over a hundred thousand years old might still have left behind a top-grade Soul Bone.
But no one dared to be the first to descend.
The dense black poison miasma continued to roil. Though they were dozens of yards away, they could still sense its terrifying poison, which could corrode both flesh and soul.
Though each of them had ways to protect themselves, the Devil Emperor's savagery had been etched into everyone's bones. No one knew whether it had left behind a final trap to take them all down with it.
As everyone remained locked in a stalemate, Dugu Bo suddenly snorted. Purple mist billowed from his body.
Before you continue