Flender closed his eyes. Two cloudy tears welled at their corners as he turned his head away, unable to watch any longer.
Zhao Wuji let out a long sigh and patted Tang San on the shoulder with a hand as broad as a fan, but he couldn't find a single word of comfort.
Meanwhile, in Spirit City, at the Pope Palace.
The great hall blazed with light, yet the atmosphere was as cold as ice.
Bibi Dong sat on the Pope's throne, her stunning face dark with anger.
She watched the man on the Sky Screen, sprawled beside a dung heap as a giant troll of a man kicked him around like livestock.
Her heart was a tangle of conflicting emotions.
There was anger at his failure to live up to his potential, a faint ache of sympathy, but above all, a sorrow as deep as the abyss.
"Yu Xiaogang..."
Bibi Dong's red lips parted slightly, weariness in her voice.
"You were proud all your life, yet in the end, reality still defeated you."
She had always thought Yu Xiaogang was a coward, but deep down, a clever man who would rather break than bend.
But only after watching the Sky Screen today did she understand.
His vaunted refusal to bend was only because the torment of Douluo Continent had never been cruel enough.
In the Cultivation World, where even breathing was difficult, the instinct to survive could grind every shred of a person's dignity into dust.
While the people of Douluo Continent were still reeling from what had happened to Yu Xiaogang,
the scene on the Sky Screen began shifting to the second screen beside it.
It showed the perspective of Qian Baiwan, a wealthy merchant from the Heaven Dou Empire.
Qian Baiwan had been transported to a muddy swamp shrouded year-round in gray fog.
The air was damp, and black weeds half a person's height grew all around him. Every so often, murky bubbles rose from the pools of water.
This was a Poisonous Miasma Forest on the outskirts of the Demon Cultivation Sea.
Qian Baiwan's fine silk clothes had long since been soiled by the muddy water.
He clutched a heavy cloth sack in both hands. It was filled with the gold coins he had brought from his vault.
"Anyone there? Somebody, come help me!"
Qian Baiwan's chubby face was full of terror as he trudged through the swamp, sinking ankle-deep with each step. After only a couple of paces, his bulky body was already panting.
"If anyone can get me out of here, I'll give them a thousand... no, ten thousand Gold Soul Coins!"
He shouted, trying to buy his way out of danger with the method that had always worked best for him on Douluo Continent.
But in this silent Poisonous Miasma Forest, his voice didn't carry far before the thick fog swallowed it.
Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the black weeds ahead.
Qian Baiwan stopped and swallowed. He hugged his money sack tightly to his chest.
A gigantic centipede, as thick as a barrel and covered in red-and-black markings, slowly crawled out of the weeds.
Two sharp black venomous fangs jutted from its head, and its compound eyes glimmered with a cold, eerie light.
It was a first-tier venomous insect that hadn't even cultivated a core. In the Demon Cultivation Sea, it was little more than bottom-tier vermin.
But to an ordinary mortal, it was the grim reaper come to claim him.
Qian Baiwan collapsed into the muddy water.
In a panic, he fumbled open his sack, grabbed a handful of gleaming gold coins, and flung them at the giant centipede.
"Take them! Take them all!"
"Don't eat me! I have money—I have lots of money!"
The coins clinked against the centipede's hard shell, then fell into the muddy water.
The centipede didn't even glance at them.
To it, a mortal's gold and silver were worth less than a scrap of a low-grade spirit stone—utterly worthless.
What truly interested it was the fresh, meaty scent coming from the fat man.
"Hiss!"
The giant centipede let out a shrill hiss and reared up.
Then, it became a streak of red and black and lunged straight at Qian Baiwan.
"Ah!"
A brief, piercing scream echoed through the Poisonous Miasma Forest.
The scene instantly went dark.
A line of blood-red text appeared in midair.
[Explorer Qian Baiwan, wealthy merchant of the Heaven Dou Empire, was devoured by a poisonous insect on the outskirts of the Demon Cultivation Sea. Death confirmed.]
The commoners and merchants of Douluo Continent felt their blood run cold as they watched the gold coins lying scattered and ignored in the muddy water.
They had always believed that money could make even ghosts turn a millstone.
But in the Renegade Immortal World, mortal gold and silver were no better than mud on the ground.
It was a brutal killing ground that recognized strength alone, not wealth.
Next, the third screen lit up.
The Heaven Dou Empire's Prince Xue Beng.
The pampered prince was now standing in the middle of a bustling street.
It was the capital of a mortal kingdom somewhere on Vermilion Bird Planet.
Taverns and inns lined the streets, while carriages and pedestrians streamed past.
Wearing a loose silk nightrobe and barefoot on the flagstones, Xue Beng looked like a lunatic who had just escaped from an asylum.
Passersby eyed him strangely and hurried to give him a wide berth.
Xue Beng looked around. Seeing no cultivators flying through the sky, he relaxed a little.
Backed by his thirty-first-level Soul Elder cultivation, he gradually grew bolder.
"What are you looking at?!"
Xue Beng pointed at an old man in common clothes passing by and shouted arrogantly, "I'm the rightful heir to the Heaven Dou Empire!"
"You commoners, get down on your knees and bow to me!"
His shouting immediately caught the attention of several patrol constables nearby.
Three burly constables with steel sabers at their waists strode over.
The lead constable looked Xue Beng up and down, then sneered.
"What madman is this, blathering in the street and pretending to be a royal?"
"Seize him and take him back to the yamen. We'll give him a few dozen strokes first!"
At his words, the other two constables stepped forward and reached for Xue Beng's shoulders.
A sharp glint flashed in Xue Beng's eyes.
He wouldn't dare make trouble in front of those cultivators, but surely he could handle a few mortal constables?
"You're asking for death!"
Xue Beng shouted. Soul Power surged through his body, and the phantom of a white swan appeared behind him.
Yellow, yellow, purple.
Three Soul Rings rose from beneath his feet.
He clenched his fist and swung it at the lead constable with a rush of wind behind the blow.
But just as his fist was about to hit,
the constable's eyes turned cold. He didn't panic.
He didn't even draw his saber. He simply shifted to the side, dodging the punch with footwork of astonishing precision.
Then the constable brought his right palm down with a forceful burst of inner energy, striking Xue Beng hard in the back of the neck.
There was a soft crack.
Xue Beng's eyes rolled back. Before he could make a second move, he crumpled to the ground like a broken sack.
The Swan Martial Soul and Soul Rings behind him vanished at once.
The audience of Douluo Continent stared in shock.
A thirty-first-level Battle Soul Elder had actually been knocked unconscious by one blow from a mortal constable?
Inside Spirit Hall, even the elders serving as attendants exchanged stunned looks.
"That mortal didn't use Soul Power. He used the inner energy of worldly martial arts."
Qian Daoliu had spotted the truth at a glance, and his voice was grave.
"The mortals of that world have been nourished by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for years. Their bodies are already far stronger than ours."
"On top of that, their external martial arts are exquisitely refined."
"A useless Soul Elder like Xue Beng, raised in a hothouse, might have Soul Rings, but he can't bring his true combat strength to bear. It's no surprise a mortal martial artist took him down in an instant."
On the screen, two constables dragged the unconscious Xue Beng away like a dead dog, heading for the yamen.
Though the Sky Screen didn't show him dying, everyone knew
the Heaven Dou Empire's prince would suffer a beating in that mortal yamen, and would probably spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The scenes on one screen after another shifted, and the people of Douluo Continent grew increasingly troubled.
At last, the view settled on the fourth screen.
The king of the Star Dou Great Forest, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Titan Giant Ape, Er Ming!
Er Ming had been transported to an ancient, boundless forest.
The trees towered into the clouds, and even a single branch was thicker than a century-old tree on Douluo Continent.
The air was thick with a primordial aura.
Er Ming's mountain-sized body crashed to the ground, crushing several trees around it.
It shook its dizzy head and climbed back to its feet.
Feeling the vast, unfamiliar surroundings, Er Ming didn't grow afraid. Instead, a fierce fighting spirit surged within it.
It was the overlord of the Star Dou Great Forest!
As long as it didn't run into those strange old monsters who flew around, it was certain its hundred-thousand-year-old body would let it dominate this place.
"Roar!"
Er Ming straightened and hammered its fists against its sturdy chest.
The tremendous force sent a string of sonic booms rippling through the air.
It raised its head and let out a heaven-shaking roar, declaring its claim to the territory.
The sound waves turned into a gale, sweeping through the forest for miles around.
In the Star Dou Great Forest,
the Sky Azure Bull Python, Da Ming, watched the Sky Screen, so frantic that its tail slapped the lake and sent water thundering into the air.
"That idiot! He's in a new place and doesn't know to keep his head down, yet there he is, roaring away!"
Da Ming knew its brother's temperament all too well. Relying on brute strength, he had never known the meaning of keeping a low profile.
Sure enough, as soon as Er Ming's roar faded,
a bone-chilling rustling sound suddenly came from deep within the ancient forest.
It didn't sound like wind blowing through leaves. It sounded more like some enormous many-legged creature scurrying across the treetops.
Er Ming stopped pounding its chest. Its bell-like eyes warily fixed on the direction of the sound.
Among the towering ancient trees ahead, an enormous head slowly emerged.
It was a purplish-black head with sharp mandibles.
But this was nothing like the ordinary venomous insect Qian Baiwan had encountered.
The centipede was absurdly huge. Its head alone was even larger than Er Ming's entire body!
Three pairs of transparent wings grew from its back, and a poisonous miasma poured from its body, potent enough to kill an ordinary cultivator on the spot.
The Six-Winged Centipede!
It was a true savage beast of the Renegade Immortal World, with strength comparable to a late Core Formation cultivator.
The Six-Winged Centipede stared at Er Ming with its cold compound eyes, as though it were a piece of fresh meat delivered right to its mouth.
Er Ming swallowed, feeling the terrifying pressure radiating from its opponent.
But the pride of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast wouldn't let it simply back down.
"Come on, you big bug!"
Er Ming roared and kicked off the ground, its enormous body leaping high into the air.
It focused all its Soul Power into its right fist, then brought it crashing down on the centipede's head with the force of a mountain bearing down from above.
"Titan Sky-Dome Breaker!"
This was Er Ming's strongest attack, powerful enough to flatten a small mountain.
The Six-Winged Centipede watched the monkey hurtling toward it, a mocking, almost human glint in its eyes.
It didn't even dodge.
Just as Er Ming's fist was about to land, the centipede thrust its head forward.
Its enormous, abyssal maw, bristling with fangs, opened wide and sprayed a torrent of purplish-black venom like a waterfall.
The venom was so corrosive that even the surrounding air sizzled.
Er Ming was in midair and couldn't dodge at all.
The venom splashed across its powerful body.
"Argh!"
Er Ming let out a shrill, agonized cry.
Its hide was hard enough to withstand attacks from a Titled Douluo, but the instant it touched the venom, thick white smoke billowed from it, and great patches of flesh melted away.
Its enormous body lost its balance and crashed heavily to the ground.
Before Er Ming could struggle to his feet,
the Six-Winged Centipede's massive body had already slithered over.
Hundreds of sharp limbs, like steel blades, pierced Er Ming's limbs in an instant, pinning him firmly to the ground.
Then the monster's enormous abyssal maw clamped down on Er Ming's neck.
Blood sprayed everywhere.
The king of the Star Dou Great Forest on the Douluo Continent had become a meal for a savage beast in the span of just a few breaths.
The Sky Screen went dark.
[Explorer Titan Giant Ape, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast of the Star Dou Great Forest, encountered a primeval Six-Winged Centipede. Death confirmed.]
The entire Star Dou Great Forest fell into deathly silence.
Then, all the beasts wailed in grief.
Da Ming buried his head deep in the lake. He couldn't even manage a sorrowful roar.
A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast—the pinnacle of combat power on the Douluo Continent.
In that world, it was still nothing more than a dish.
As the screen showing the Titan Giant Ape faded completely, despair spread across the sky above the Douluo Continent, almost tangible.
Everyone was panting heavily, their heartbeats thudding in their chests.
They didn't dare speak. Even swallowing became something they did with utmost care.
Slowly, everyone's gaze converged on the last screen.
It showed the perspective of Gui Mei, a Level 95 Titled Douluo of the Spirit Hall.
The image gradually brightened.
Gui Mei hadn't been transported to some desolate wilderness, nor had he fallen into a horde of monsters.
He had landed in a vast complex of dark-red buildings.
The ground here was paved with a kind of red jade, polished to a mirror sheen.
Towering dark-red palaces stood all around him, their eaves carved with lifelike images of birds in flight.
The air was frighteningly hot.
The moment Gui Mei landed, he felt as though he'd fallen into a blazing furnace.
The black robe he wore was instantly soaked with sweat.
Worse still, the air was saturated with a frenzied energy of the fire element.
This energy seemed to naturally counter his dark-attribute Martial Soul, suppressing the flow of Soul Power within him.
"What in the world is this place..."
Gui Mei wiped the sweat from his forehead, silently cursing his luck.
He didn't dare linger in the open plaza.
As a Titled Douluo who had spent years walking the knife's edge, he was far more sensitive to danger than ordinary people.
He could clearly sense that deep within this sprawling palace complex lurked a tremendous presence he didn't even dare look at directly.
That presence was like a primeval giant beast lying dormant. Even a wisp of its power, released unintentionally, would be enough to shatter his soul.
Gui Mei acted at once, urging the Soul Power within him.
"Martial Soul Possession!"
A cloud of black mist surged from his body and enveloped him.
Then his body twisted, transforming into a flat shadow.
The shadow slid swiftly along the ground and silently pressed itself against the back of a thick red jade pillar, blending perfectly into the shade it cast.
This was Gui Mei's most prized means of survival.
With this ability to become a shadow, he had escaped death countless times on the Douluo Continent.
As long as he remained motionless in the shadows, even a Peak Douluo above Level 97 would have a hard time detecting him without carefully searching with spiritual power.