"Let's see what you can do now!"
The words still echoed between the pillars of Sea God Hall, their lingering reverberations not yet faded.
Divine Realm. Asura God Hall.
Asura God's mouth twitched.
It wasn't a smile. It was the relaxed look of a chess player watching a piece move into just the right position.
Tang San's aura pierced through the Plane Barrier, surging up in waves of blue-gold divine power. He truly had begun to resemble the Sea God.
He had gone from mortal to this point in just a few short years.
"Not bad."
Asura God lightly tapped a finger against the armrest of his throne.
"My successor has finally grown up. My painstaking efforts haven't been wasted."
He stopped halfway through the sentence.
His finger never came down a second time.
It hung half an inch above the armrest, frozen in place.
Because he had seen it.
Tang San's fortune—from this side of the Plane Barrier, every mortal's fortune appeared as a pillar of light, thick or thin, stretching from the crown of their head straight into the heavens.
Tang San's pillar of fortune had once been the thickest Asura God had ever seen with his own eyes, gleaming with golden light as it shot straight into the ninth heaven.
And now?
The pillar was still there.
But a cauldron was pressing down on it.
The phantom of a bronze cauldron with three legs and two handles sat squarely atop Tang San's pillar of fortune.
The Ten Thousand Beasts Worship the Heavens totem on its body turned slowly. Dragons coiled around its rim, pinning the fortune that should have soared into the sky firmly within three feet of the ground.
Even after becoming a god, it was still pressing down on him.
Asura God's finger finally fell.
It struck the armrest with a crack, breaking off a corner.
He rose to his feet.
"That Fate-Suppressing Cauldron..."
The four words were ground out between his teeth, each one scraping like bone against bone.
"Truly is no simple thing."
What, an inferior artifact from the lower realm? A mere mortal treasure?
Before Tang San became a god, Asura God could have called it "a shackle for ants."
But now Tang San had become a god—a true Sea God, wielding the complete authority of the Sea God—and that cauldron still hadn't budged.
It could even suppress a god's fortune.
That had already gone beyond the bounds of an "inferior artifact from the lower realm."
Asura God's divine sense pierced through the Plane Barrier once more. This time, he didn't look at Tang San but swept his gaze north.
Spirit City. The rear courtyard of Pope Palace.
The Star River Map hung in midair, starlight pouring down. The Golden Toad patterns on the Tribulation-Avoiding Garment rose and fell.
Hu Liena sat cross-legged in the Cultivation Room, her five fox tails spread out.
The phantom of the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron was there too.
It was exactly like the cauldron pressing down on Tang San's fortune—but its orientation was reversed.
On Tang San's side, it pressed downward. On Hu Liena's, it lifted upward.
The Image of Mountains and Rivers on the cauldron's belly cradled Spirit Hall's fortune, steadily channeling it into this woman.
Press one down, lift the other up.
As one waned, the other waxed.
Asura God's jaw clenched to its limit. The muscles on either side bulged, and the skin over his cheekbones stretched taut and gleamed.
So this was the Celestial Master's arrangement.
The Fate-Suppressing Cauldron wasn't merely a defensive artifact, nor was it merely an offensive one.
It was a nail—driven into Tang San's fate—and, at the same time, a conduit, funneling the fortune it siphoned away to Hu Liena.
As long as Hu Liena lived, the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron had an owner.
As long as the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron had an owner, Tang San's fortune would remain suppressed forever.
Even becoming a god wouldn't help.
Asura God stood before his throne.
The Nine-Story Pagoda's killing patterns surged beneath his feet.
The game had changed.
The original plan had been to wait until Hu Liena was on the verge of reaching the Threshold of Godhood before making his move.
One bolt of Divine Punishment would crush her and her fortune to dust.
But he couldn't wait anymore.
Tang San had become a god, yet his fortune was still suppressed.
His godhood was unstable, his Godhead insubstantial, and the cracks in his Divine Soul—patched over with Asura's killing intent—could burst open at any moment.
The longer this dragged on, the worse Tang San's foundation would become.
"Since that's the case—"
Asura God raised his right hand.
A mass of purple-black light seeped out between his fingers.
It was different from the Divine Thunder he had gathered last time. That time, he had prepared a "threefold charge," storing it in the Asura Blade to save for when Hu Liena became a god.
This time, it was ready to use.
He drew the mass of Purple-Black Divine Thunder he had stored up for days from the Asura Blade, then layered newly condensed killing intent over it. The two forces twisted together, forming a ball of lightning so violent it was beyond compare.
The lightning ball swelled in his palm.
Purple-black light blasted between his fingers, striking the dome of Asura God Hall and scorching patches of black across it.
The Divine Officials standing guard on either side of the throne retreated three steps.
Not far enough. They retreated another three.
Even six steps away, their Godheads still trembled.
The aura of destruction radiating from the lightning ball wasn't aimed at the flesh—it was aimed at existence itself.
Anything it touched wouldn't be injured. It would be erased from the world altogether.
All nine levels of the Nine-Story Pagoda began to resonate.
From the base to the top, the killing patterns spun five times faster.
The entire pagoda hummed, and even the sky above the Divine Realm rippled in wave after wave.
Several Divine Temples in the distance sensed the commotion.
A Divine Official poked his head out of one of them, glanced toward Asura God Hall, then ducked back inside.
No one dared ask.
When Asura God wanted someone dead, the entire Divine Realm gave him a wide berth.
Asura God held the purple-black lightning ball above his right palm.
Its light flickered across his face.
With every flash, his features twisted a little more in the purple-black glow.
"As long as she dies—"
His index finger flexed. The lightning ball jolted, crackling with electricity.
"The Fate-Suppressing Cauldron will be left without an owner."
His middle finger curled. The lightning ball contracted, then swelled again.
"Then Tang San's fortune will naturally recover."
The whole chain of reasoning was clear to the point of cruelty:
Kill Hu Liena → the Fate-Suppressing Cauldron loses its owner → Tang San's fortune recovers → the Sea God Godhood stabilizes → he can charge into battle on Asura God's behalf.
Not one step out of place.
Asura God tossed the lightning ball into the air.
The purple-black sphere hovered for a moment beneath the dome of Asura God Hall. Then—it fell.
Not toward the ground.
It fell toward the Plane Barrier.
"I shall personally bring down Divine Punishment."
Asura God swung his right arm down.
The Asura Blade flew up from his knees. Its blood-red patterns met the lightning ball's purple-black light in midair, colliding with a low, muffled boom.
"Let's see how that Celestial Master can protect her now."
The lightning ball struck the Plane Barrier.
The Barrier split.
Not like the chopstick-thin little crack from last time—but a rift several feet wide, cleaved open down the middle to reveal the pitch-black passage between the two realms.
The purple-black Divine Thunder became a streak of light and forced its way through the rift.
Through the void.
Through the membrane between worlds.
It hurtled toward Douluo Continent with a thunderous crash.
Spirit City.
In less than half a breath, the clear sky above the rear courtyard was swallowed up.
Dark clouds surged in simultaneously from the southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest—not drifting over, but crashing down.
Heavy, suffocating clouds, glowing with purple-black light.
They rolled at a speed beyond belief.
Within three breaths, the light over the entire Spirit City shifted from daylight to dusk.
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