In the heart of the Douluo Continent, Spirit City.
Inside the Pope Palace, Bibi Dong stood with her scepter in hand.
Before her, Chrysanthemum Douluo was reading out intelligence concerning Sunset Forest.
Several days had passed since Chen Zidian destroyed the camp and the two sides officially clashed.
There had been no further clashes since then. Everything seemed to have settled into calm, but neither the Heaven Dou Empire nor Spirit Hall dared to let their guard down.
At least six Titled Douluo-level experts were enough to keep anyone on constant alert. Bibi Dong received reports from that area almost every day, always feeling that something was amiss, though she still had no evidence.
"Is that all?"
She couldn't help frowning deeply.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan could only nod helplessly.
They'd had similar exchanges countless times lately, and he was getting numb to them.
"Your Holiness, I'm sorry for the trouble. We've made no progress so far. Those mysterious experts haven't made a move, and we haven't discovered their identities."
Bibi Dong wasn't surprised. She just found it increasingly strange. Six Titled Douluo wouldn't appear for no reason.
Even if Qian Renxue's guess was right, and they weren't Soul Masters who cultivated through the soul power system—or even natives of Douluo Continent—they still had to come from somewhere, didn't they?
As she muttered to herself, hurried footsteps sounded outside the hall.
A guard ran in and knelt respectfully.
"Report! Your Holiness, the observer from the City of Slaughter has sent word. Something seems to have happened there."
Ghost Douluo, who had been concealed in the shadows, appeared before them like a phantom and snatched the letter from the guard's hand.
He flashed upward, landed steadily beside Bibi Dong, and presented the letter with both hands. Together, they examined its contents.
"What! An earthquake in the City of Slaughter, with clear signs of a subterranean collapse? The specifics are unknown? How could this happen?"
Chrysanthemum Douluo cried out in his shrill voice, his expression changing dramatically.
Bibi Dong's expression darkened, but she wasn't blaming Yue Guan.
She was simply troubled. No sooner had one wave settled than another rose. They hadn't even dealt with the trouble in Sunset Forest, and now a new one had appeared?
The City of Slaughter and Spirit Hall maintained a secret cooperative relationship. The former imprisoned Evil Soul Masters, while the latter supplied it with necessary provisions.
Whatever one thought of the other aspects, Spirit Hall had done nothing wrong in this matter. Gathering evildoers in a "prison" was better than letting them run around committing atrocities.
The continent was in troubled times.
Had even that place suffered a calamity?
Bibi Dong frowned deeply, then suddenly felt something was off. Could the two incidents be connected?
"Elders, this is a serious matter. Go there at once and find out what happened!"
Bibi Dong immediately issued her order.
There were only a handful of observers outside the City of Slaughter.
If a large number of Evil Soul Masters escaped, they wouldn't be able to stop them.
Ghost and Chrysanthemum Douluo understood the gravity of the situation as well. They saluted to show they understood, then flew out of the hall.
Soon, Bibi Dong was alone in the Pope Palace. She glanced over the intelligence in her hand once more, worry appearing on her cool, beautiful face.
"The City of Slaughter has a long history, and there's never been an earthquake disaster. Why would one suddenly happen?"
"If this is like what happened in Sunset Forest, and was caused by that mysterious force, then things will be troublesome."
Bibi Dong murmured under her breath.
She had no idea that her guess was completely correct.
At that very moment, the City of Slaughter was in constant chaos—and Lin Feng was indeed behind it.
And just as she received the intelligence and dispatched Ghost and Chrysanthemum Douluo, the great battle had already begun in earnest.
The King of Slaughter, whose true form was the Blood-Red Nine-Headed Bat King, had encountered Hell Demon God Marbas and attacked him brutally without hesitation.
In a sense, the two had extremely similar attributes. Both were skilled in blood energy and killing intent, and both possessed related domains. It was as if they'd been taught by the same "master."
"Why do you have this power?"
Almost in unison, the two glared at each other and snarled.
After a brief exchange, they each stepped backward through the air, opening up some distance between them again.
An excited, bloodthirsty smile spread across Hell Demon God Marbas's face. He hadn't experienced a fight to the death of this intensity in a long time.
The King of Slaughter, by contrast, had no desire to fight just then. He looked around in alarm, his scalp prickling more and more with every glance. What the hell was going on?!
In an instant, one demon god after another from the Vanguard Army sensed the commotion and rushed over.
A full twenty of them appeared in the King of Slaughter's sight, leaving him trembling uncontrollably.
Where had so many powerful beings come from? Even Spirit Hall would probably struggle to gather so many!
And judging by their appearance, though they had human outlines, they looked more like some "crossbreed" between humans and Soul Beasts. He'd never heard of anything like it!
"Are you accomplices of Long Xingyu?"
The King of Slaughter gritted his teeth and demanded viciously.
Yet although the demon gods surrounded him, none of them spoke up to answer.
Samigina, the Necromancy Demon God and their commander, smiled and instead turned toward Marbas.
"Say, you two are getting pretty intense. Need a hand? I'd be happy to lend one."
Bringing it up only made the atmosphere more violent. Marbas immediately refused, brimming with fighting spirit as he faced his enemy.
Samigina wasn't surprised. He nodded casually and waved to the other eighteen demon gods, signaling them to continue their mission.
The King of Slaughter might have a few tricks, but at most he could hold his own against one of the two of them. His Majesty Lin Feng's orders mattered more. They couldn't lose sight of the main objective.
At once, the demon gods scattered again.
They vanished without a trace, and soon screams rang out once more.
The King of Slaughter's eyes turned crimson. His already pale face flushed with anger.
Layer upon layer of blood-colored light rippled out from his body, and corrosive energy shot through the air.
He wasn't stupid. He knew perfectly well that with his strength, he couldn't take on two opponents at once. So he left Samigina untouched and focused on Marbas.
"Slaughter Domain! Die!" This was the King of Slaughter's domain, said to be stronger than Divine Slaughter's Domain and to possess a similar "magic-suppressing" effect to this place. But it had no effect here.
"Tch, a firefly dares to rival the bright moon? Slaughter Hell Domain!" Marbas spat and summoned the power of his own domain. No wonder their attributes were the same—even the names were so similar.
The two clashed again, blood-colored light covering the sky and earth.
On the surface, they seemed evenly matched, locked in a stalemate for the moment.
As their strength was tested, the two energies swayed back and forth, and it seemed they could keep this up for a long time.
But right then, the King of Slaughter suddenly changed his tactics, a dark shadow appearing behind him.
It shot forward like a living creature, closing in on Marbas in a flash. It was about to strike a vital spot.
"If His Majesty finds out about your performance today, I doubt you'll have an easy time explaining yourself."
If this had truly been a pure one-on-one fight, Marbas, caught off guard, would have been doomed.
But that wasn't the case. Samigina was right there. He wasn't about to watch his comrade die.
He reacted at once. His dark-hued Necromancy Domain erupted, crashing into the black energy and intercepting it.
Then, a surging torrent of ninth-rank, sixth-step spiritual power swept toward the enemy. He had no intention of wasting any more time...
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