Meanwhile, in the Endless Mountain Range.
Luo Yang had been busy these past few days.
Although the last Abyss Tide had been repelled, the assault from the other side of the passage had not stopped. On the contrary, Abyss creatures were appearing nearly three times as often as before.
The Blood God Legion had fought bitterly for days, and many soldiers had fallen.
Those souls, freshly departed, were exactly what Luo Yang needed.
The first ability of the Calamity Domain, "Undead Summoning," required enough "Undead Power" to accumulate before it could summon anyone.
The heroic spirits of fallen soldiers provided far more energy than ordinary undead.
At last, he had gathered enough for his first summon.
In a secluded chamber.
Luo Yang sat cross-legged and took a deep breath.
The Calamity Domain unfolded in an instant.
Invisible ripples spread out from him. Gray-white energy filled the chamber, and the temperature plummeted. Frost even formed on the walls.
Then, the familiar scene appeared again.
The powerful figures who had fallen over the past ten thousand years on Douluo Continent flashed through Luo Yang's mind like images from a revolving lantern. There was a golden-armored God of War, a mage who commanded the elements, an assassin who lurked in the shadows...
His awareness swept through this "River of Heroic Spirits," searching, sensing.
At last, a powerful attraction and resonance came from one direction. An image was seized by an invisible force, enlarged, and fixed in place!
Within that image, a noble purple-gold radiance seemed to blaze forth!
The light was so pure that Luo Yang could almost feel the divine majesty it contained.
"Did I get a gold?!"
Luo Yang was so excited he nearly cried out.
In his previous life, he'd had the worst luck imaginable with gacha games, hitting hard pity every single time. Could it be that after transmigrating, his luck had turned around and he'd become a lucky draw god?!
His first summon had brought up a high-quality figure!!
"Give me a Limit Douluo... preferably a neutral one..." he prayed silently.
In a few days, he would be heading to the Spirit Pagoda.
The place looked glittering on the surface, but it had countless hidden ties to the Holy Spirit Cult. The Qiangu Family were no saints either. He needed a bodyguard powerful enough to put his mind at ease.
Ideally, it would be someone who'd had no ties holding them back in life and whose last wish was simple, like "I want to see the ocean" or "I want to taste every delicacy in the world."
Easy to do, not much trouble.
As he let his imagination run wild—
"Bzzzz—"
The space in front of him suddenly twisted.
A pitch-black portal appeared out of nowhere, its edges flowing with dark purple runes. If the Calamity Domain hadn't sealed off the aura, the commotion would have alerted the entire base.
The door opened.
A jade foot wrapped in black stockings slowly stepped out.
Its ankle was slender, its curves perfect, and the arch of the foot impossible to look away from. Then came the calf, the knee, the thigh... A violet skirt fell like water, concealing what lay further up while giving tantalizing glimpses as she moved.
Finally, a tall, voluptuous figure, radiating authority and deadly allure, stepped out of the portal.
She was a woman of breathtaking, almost aggressive beauty.
Her purple hair poured down like a waterfall, and her eyes seemed carved from amethyst. Her features were so exquisite they were nearly flawless. She stood there, naturally emanating an aura of authority, like an empress reigning over the world, someone no one dared look directly at.
An oppressive presence.
It wasn't the pressure of released Soul Power, but the aura of someone long accustomed to high office and the power of life and death. The air seemed to freeze, and even the Soul Guidance Lamp dimmed by three shades.
Luo Yang's expression changed.
Those eyes, that face, that aura... He thought he recognized her.
At that moment, the violet-clad woman's amethyst eyes settled on Luo Yang. She looked down at him from on high, her red lips parting as she spoke in a voice that brooked no argument.
"I am Bibi Dong, the Pope of Spirit Hall and the second-generation Rakshasa God."
"Mortal, did you awaken me?"
So it really was her!
Luo Yang thought to himself.
That aura, that introduction, that gaze that regarded all living beings as grass...
No wonder she was the mad pope who had led Spirit Hall to its peak, only to personally drive it to ruin.
But that "I'm the greatest under heaven" attitude of yours is pretty annoying... especially since I'm the "summoner" here, okay?
"Get on your knees before you speak," Luo Yang said calmly.
Bibi Dong smiled.
It was a cold, cruel smile. The curve of her lips was breathtakingly beautiful, but her eyes were frozen for a thousand miles.
"You have courage," she said softly. "The bones of the last person who dared speak to me like that have already turned to ash."
Before the words had even left her mouth—
Boom!
Divine-level pressure erupted like a tsunami!
The tables and chairs in the chamber instantly crumbled to dust. The walls cracked, the Soul Guidance Lamp burst with a pop, and the entire room plunged into darkness.
It was the killing intent of the Rakshasa God. Even a mere wisp escaping from her remnant soul was enough to make a Titled Douluo's spirit tremble.
Yet the darkness lasted only an instant.
Gray-white light blossomed from within Luo Yang.
The Calamity Domain activated on its own.
The light wasn't intense, but it carried the power of some absolute "rule."
Bibi Dong's pressure crashed against that halo like a wave against a reef, shattered with a roar, and scattered into nothing.
"What?!" Bibi Dong's pupils contracted.
The next second, agony exploded from the depths of her soul!
It was a pain beyond description, as if countless red-hot needles were stabbing into every fragment of her consciousness at once, as if her soul were being torn to pieces while she was still alive.
Bibi Dong groaned, her noble body trembling slightly as she dropped to one knee.
"What... did you do?!" she gritted out, looking up, her violet eyes full of shock and fury.
Luo Yang walked up to her and crouched down.
At last, their eyes were level.
"Rules," Luo Yang said calmly. "One of the rules of the Calamity Domain: the life and death of anyone I summon are in my hands. You can think of it as... a contract."
He reached out and lightly brushed his fingertips across Bibi Dong's cheek.
His touch was gentle, as if he were stroking a piece of precious porcelain, but every muscle in Bibi Dong's body tensed.
"Now." Luo Yang drew his hand back. "Kneel on both knees and touch your forehead to the floor. This is the first time. I'm teaching you the rules."
"Never!!!"
Bibi Dong forced the two words through clenched teeth, fury blazing in her violet eyes.
She was Bibi Dong! The Pope of Spirit Hall! The Rakshasa God!
How could she kneel before a child?!
But her body betrayed her will.
Her other knee slowly bent and touched the cold floor.
Then her waist lowered, inch by inch.
At last, her forehead pressed against the floor.
Prostration.
The most abject posture of submission.
Silence.
Only the two of them breathing softly could be heard in the chamber.
Bibi Dong lay facedown on the floor, her purple hair spread messily around her, her body trembling slightly with humiliation and rage.
She could feel that this wasn't control by a Soul Skill or mental manipulation. It was something more fundamental, a restraint that touched the very rules of the world.
"I'm going to... kill you..." Her voice was terrifyingly hoarse.
Luo Yang wasn't angry.
Instead, he smiled again. This time, he was genuinely amused.
"You know what?"
Luo Yang stood up again and looked down at the woman on the floor.
"I think you're both especially pitiful and ridiculous."