Dawn had barely broken, and Spirit City was still shrouded in a peaceful veil of mist.
Early-rising shopkeepers had only just propped open their doors. The streets held nothing but a handful of patrolling Soul Masters, whose footsteps rang unusually clear through the empty lanes.
Suddenly, along the eastern horizon, where the pale sky met the first light of dawn, a dense mass of purple qi surged into being without warning.
At first, it was only a wisp, spreading across the horizon like the finest silk.
But in the very next instant, the purple qi expanded with almost savage force, like ten thousand galloping horses, like an angry sea bursting its banks, sweeping across the entire sky!
In little more than a dozen breaths, the vast, surging purple qi had covered the entire sky above Spirit City, swallowing every trace of the light that had just begun to break.
The whole magnificent city was bathed in a gorgeous yet oppressive purple-gold glow.
The fear felt by the Soul Masters within the city was even more immediate.
The pressure contained in the purple qi was not directed at Soul Masters like it had been last time. Instead, it carried a far more ancient and boundless quality, like the primordial chaos from the dawn of creation, leaving their Soul Power sluggish and their breathing labored.
The whole city instantly erupted into unprecedented turmoil.
The top-floor terrace of Pope Palace.
Bibi Dong stood by the railing, her purple-black papal robes snapping in the morning breeze.
She paid no attention to the panicked crowds below. Her violet eyes were fixed on the endless purple sea of clouds overhead.
For the first time, unmistakable gravity and astonishment colored her usually cold, proud features.
"This aura..."
She spoke slowly, her voice touched by a dryness she herself had not noticed:
"It's at least a hundred times more terrifying than when the Primordial Spirit Bead descended."
Hu Liena stood half a step away at her side.
She, too, stared up at the purple qi that seemed ready to crush the sky. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest, as though it would burst free.
Only when the cool morning breeze brushed past did she realize that her palms were already soaked with a fine sheen of cold sweat.
Seven days ago, the first betrothal gift, the Primordial Spirit Bead, had transformed her completely. Her Martial Soul had evolved, her Soul Power had surged through fifteen levels, and she had entered the Soul Douluo realm, a level countless Soul Masters dreamed of reaching.
A miracle like that had already been enough to overturn the entire continent's understanding of the world.
But now, the second betrothal gift had yet to appear, and the omens of its arrival alone far surpassed the first in might.
That man... Shen Yichen. What exactly was he trying to do?
Just how unfathomable were his resources?
"Y-Your Holiness..."
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan staggered forward a step. The color had drained from his exceptionally well-kept face, and his voice trembled uncontrollably.
"W-What kind of power is this? It can make heaven and earth change color to this extent! Th-this can't be explained by divine power!"
As a Titled Douluo, he could clearly sense that the nature of this power was utterly different from every energy system he knew.
It did not belong to Soul Power, nor did it belong to divine power. It was far more ancient, far more fundamental, as though it were the very rules that formed the bedrock of the world.
Before this power, the Titled Douluo cultivation he had always prided himself on was as insignificant as a speck of dust.
Bibi Dong slowly shook her head, her gaze still fixed on the surging purple qi.
For the first time, a note of bewilderment and helplessness entered her voice.
"I don't know."
Those four words left Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo stiff with shock.
In their hearts, Pope Bibi Dong was omnipotent, a being on the verge of godhood, and the unshakable pillar of Spirit Hall.
Yet now, she had admitted herself that she could not understand what she was seeing.
That fact made them even more uneasy than the oppressive sight of the purple qi filling the sky.
Just then, faint, ethereal chants echoed between heaven and earth.
The sound was distant and grand. It did not seem to come from any direction, but rang directly within the depths of every person's soul.
It was as though some supreme being, on the other side of the world, was preparing to set an earth-shattering event in motion.
Amid the chants came the roars of dragons and phoenixes, and the howls of qilin. The sounds rang out again and again, striking at everyone's spirit.
Hu Liena gazed at the purple qi, her fingertips curling slightly as she murmured to herself.
"Shen Yichen... what astonishing thing are you sending this time...?"
Her voice was so quiet that only she could hear it. The anger and resistance she had felt seven days ago were long gone, replaced by complicated emotions she herself found strange: nervousness, curiosity, and... a faint, secret anticipation.
It was as if the heavens were answering her question.
Rumble—!
A deep, thunderous boom rang down from the highest reaches of the sky!
The purple qi that filled the heavens abruptly stopped expanding. Centered directly above Spirit City, it began to spin wildly!
The sea of clouds rolled backward, and purple qi surged!
A vortex of unimaginable size slowly took shape before everyone's eyes.
Its center was an unfathomable black, as though it could swallow even light.
Along its edges, rapidly spinning purple-gold clouds scraped against the air, stirring up muffled peals of thunder.
The vortex spun faster and pressed ever lower, its enormous shadow engulfing all of Spirit City.
A terrifying force of suction descended from the sky, as if it would swallow the continent's greatest city—and the millions of living beings within it—whole in the next instant!
The enormous purple-qi vortex above Spirit City suddenly began to spin faster!
Rumble, rumble—
Muffled thunder rolled out from the heart of the vortex, one peal after another, as though some giant beast asleep for countless ages was awakening.
Something sank slowly from the pitch-black center of the vortex, bearing a weight that seemed capable of crushing the everlasting blue heavens as it broke through the rushing clouds.
First to appear were three ancient, massive legs of a cauldron.
Then a gigantic cauldron, its entire body gleaming with a dark, greenish bronze light, broke free of the black vortex!
It was a Bronze Giant Cauldron!
It was so enormous that just part of its body obscured the entire plaza before Pope Palace. Its shadow instantly turned day into dusk.
The cauldron was engraved with countless totems. Looking closely, they depicted a vivid scene of Ten Thousand Beasts Worship the Heavens!
Whether it was a galloping qilin, a soaring true dragon, or a phoenix wreathed in flames, every ancient beast seemed to have been brought to life. They roamed slowly across the cauldron's surface, their eyes gleaming with awe-inspiring light.
Nine ferocious five-clawed golden dragons coiled around the rim of the enormous cauldron. Their heads touched, their mouths gaped wide, as though silently roaring while breathing out wisps of pale green qi visible to the naked eye.
The instant the giant cauldron fully emerged from the vortex, an invisible force of suppression swept down, blotting out the sky and covering the earth!
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