"Crack."
A faint snap rang out.
The sturdy iron door of the cell, forged from refined iron, was like a stale, brittle cracker. Someone casually pushed it from the outside, and it collapsed into a heap of scrap.
A gentle breeze blew into the dark, damp death cell, carrying the faint aroma of cheap rice wine.
Then,
a warm yet faintly imposing voice rang through the cell.
"A mere rogue cultivator in the early Foundation Establishment stage, who ought to have found a place to await death, dares to use such a despicable possession technique in a city of mortals."
As the voice spoke,
a man in a gray robe ambled in through the doorway.
He looked to be in his thirties, with a refined appearance and a short tuft of beard on his chin.
He carried an earthen-gray wine jug in his hand. His steps were steady, and he exuded the noble air of someone long accustomed to holding a position of power.
This man was Zhou Wutai, a cultivator from the White Cloud Sect who had taken on a mortal identity in the secular world to experience mortal life!
Zhou Wutai enjoyed traveling through mortal kingdoms, and he was also the hidden guardian of this city.
Today, he had happened to be out buying wine when he sensed a faint wave of yin energy belonging to a cultivator coming from the death cell, so he had stopped by to take a look.
Zhou Wutai burped after a drink, then looked down at Xue Beng, who was still writhing on the ground.
He didn't even take out a magic treasure.
He simply extended two fingers and made a pinching gesture in the air toward Xue Beng's forehead.
"Come out."
A mighty, irresistible surge of Core Formation Stage spiritual energy pierced straight through Xue Beng's flesh.
"Eek!"
A scream of utter terror rang out.
The green soul that had just burrowed into Xue Beng's mind was like a loach caught in iron pincers. Zhou Wutai forcibly pulled it out through the space between Xue Beng's brows.
The green soul struggled desperately between Zhou Wutai's fingers, crying out in despair.
"Spare me, senior! Please, spare me!"
"This junior failed to recognize Mount Tai! I didn't know you were cultivating in seclusion here. Please, senior, show mercy and let me live!"
The old man's soul was nearly scared out of him.
He could clearly feel that the spiritual energy of the gray-robed man carrying the wine jug was like a towering mountain, crushing him so thoroughly he could barely breathe.
Nascent Soul!
This was definitely a senior in the Nascent Soul stage!
Zhou Wutai looked at the stinking green soul between his fingertips, a trace of disgust flashing in his eyes.
"The rules of the Cultivation World forbid wanton slaughter in cities of mortals."
Zhou Wutai's tone was mild, without a hint of killing intent.
"Since you've broken the rules, you'll stay here."
With that,
Zhou Wutai tightened his two fingers slightly.
A soft pop sounded.
The green soul didn't even have time to let out a final scream before it was crushed into specks of light. Then it turned into a wisp of green smoke and vanished completely into the air of the cell.
He had casually crushed the soul of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Zhou Wutai acted as if he had swatted a mosquito, barely sparing it another glance.
He lifted the wine jug, tilted his head back, and took a gulp of rice wine, smacking his lips in satisfaction.
Outside the Sky Screen.
The spectators of Douluo Continent were all dumbfounded.
The sudden reversal made everyone's hearts pound a few times.
"Th-this is over?"
Oscar swallowed, unable to believe his eyes.
"That old man was so terrifying just now. How come he couldn't fight back at all against the man with the wine jug?"
Looking at the refined man on the screen, Dai Mubai secretly clenched his fists.
"He's too strong."
Dai Mubai said in a low voice.
"Have you noticed? In this world, when the strong kill the weak, they never need any flashy clashes between Soul Skills."
"A crushing difference in cultivation is a pure, instant kill."
Spirit City, Pope Palace.
Bibi Dong looked at Zhou Wutai's calm, unruffled expression and was momentarily stunned.
She realized that the Renegade Immortal World was truly full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers.
Even in the death cell of some ordinary mortal city, one could encounter a master concealing his true strength.
In this world, you never knew whether the ordinary person standing before you might become a living King of Hell capable of killing you in an instant.
Inside the cell,
with the threat of possession resolved, Xue Beng gasped for breath. He felt as though he had just returned from the gates of hell, and his clothes were soaked through with sweat.
Drenched in sweat, he crawled up from the pile of dry straw.
Looking at the savior before him, wine jug in hand, Xue Beng's eyes brimmed with gratitude and elation.
He felt that he had encountered the legendary peerless master!
"Thank you, old immortal, for saving my life!"
Ignoring the mud smeared over his body, Xue Beng dropped to his knees and kowtowed to Zhou Wutai three times, each thud loud and clear.
"I am Xue Beng, a prince of the Heaven Dou Empire!"
"If you're willing to take me in, I'll gladly serve you like an ox or a horse. Once I return to the empire, I'll have a longevity tablet made in your honor and send you countless gold, silver, and jewels!"
Xue Beng laid all his cards on the table in one breath, hoping to cling to this mighty patron.
But when Zhou Wutai heard him, he merely lowered the wine jug at an unhurried pace.
He looked down at Xue Beng, kneeling on the ground, his gaze calm.
"Heaven Dou Empire? Prince?"
Zhou Wutai gave a slight shake of his head, amusement in his tone.
"I've traveled through Zhao State for many years and know a fair number of mortal kingdoms, large and small. I've never heard of any Heaven Dou Empire."
He stepped forward and took a close look at Xue Beng.
"You have no spiritual roots whatsoever. You simply can't cultivate immortality."
"The fact that you've managed to keep your life is already a tremendous blessing. And you still hope to follow me?"
Zhou Wutai sighed and turned toward the cell's exit.
"I saved you only to uphold the rules of this mortal city and keep evil cultivators from causing trouble here."
"As for you, take care of yourself."
With that, Zhou Wutai paid the mortal no further attention.
He carried his wine jug and walked out of the death cell with steady steps.
The thick fragments of the iron door crunched beneath his feet.
Zhou Wutai's figure slowly receded, then vanished completely at the end of the corridor.
Only Xue Beng remained, kneeling in a daze on the cold, filthy cell floor.
The spectators outside the Sky Screen watched this dramatic scene.
Their feelings were complicated.
Though this senior master was far gentler than those demonic cultivators from before, the coldness in his bones was exactly the same.
To them, mortals were weeds by the roadside.
Even if they saved your life in passing, they wouldn't spare you a second glance.
Still, the weight on everyone's hearts had lifted.
At least the prince had managed to keep his life.
Just as the mood across Douluo Continent had begun to ease,
the enormous light screen in the sky
suddenly
burst into a blood-red radiance, more intense and dazzling than any before it.
The entire sky above Douluo Continent seemed to be instantly painted with a thick layer of fresh blood.
That vast, cold voice, devoid of any emotion,
crashed into the depths of every living being's mind like thunder from the heavens.
[Warning.] [The survival rate among the first five batches of explorers is too low, severely hindering the collection of information on the world's laws.] [The sixth selection will begin immediately!] [Number of people selected this time: three.]
As these lines of blood-red text appeared,
it was as though the air had been sucked out of the entire Douluo Continent.
The terror that had only just subsided swept through everyone's hearts like a tsunami, even more violently than before.
It was starting again!
And this time, the Sky Screen didn't even give them the slightest time to catch their breath. It announced the start of the sixth round of teleportation outright.
The billions of living beings across the continent prayed frantically, begging not to be chosen, begging for their loved ones not to be chosen.
The blood-red light on the Sky Screen began churning violently.
The screen slowly split in midair, turning into three enormous scrolls.
It even skipped the countdown, as if the unseen hand behind it had already lost patience.
On the first screen, strokes appeared one by one, as if written in blood, their sight enough to make one's heart quake.
[First: Spirit Hall Second Worship, Level 98 Peak Douluo, Golden Crocodile!]
Boom!
As soon as the name appeared, Spirit City seemed to be struck by a magnitude-ten earthquake.
Inside the Pope Palace, the already oppressive atmosphere instantly plunged to freezing point.
It was so quiet that even a pin dropping to the floor would have been clearly heard.
Golden Crocodile Douluo himself was standing in the middle of the hall.
A moment earlier, he had still been fuming over the fact that Great Enshrined Qian Daoliu had been stuffed into a Black Wood Coffin, cursing and grumbling about the cruelty of those cultivators.
The next moment, the expression on his face froze completely.
His bell-like eyes widened as he stared at his name on the light screen in utter disbelief.
"Me?"
Golden Crocodile Douluo pointed at himself, his voice cracking from sheer shock.
The several Worship elders standing nearby all instinctively took half a step back, looking at him with complicated expressions.
There was sympathy, relief, and the bleak sorrow of a hare mourning the death of a fellow creature.
Great Enshrined Qian Daoliu had only just suffered a crushing defeat in that world, captured as material by an old monster who refined corpses. His fate was unknown.
Now the Sky Screen's executioner had turned its blade on the Second Worship.
Was it going to drain Spirit Hall's foundations bit by bit?
Bibi Dong sat on the Pope's throne, her hand gripping the scepter that symbolized her power.
She looked at Golden Crocodile Douluo, frozen below, and an almost imperceptible flicker crossed her eyes.
Though she and the old men of the Worship Hall were at odds,
in the face of an external enemy threatening the survival of the entire world, Spirit Hall losing even one peak combatant would be a disaster for Douluo Continent.
"Second Worship..." Bibi Dong parted her lips, only to realize she didn't know what to say.
Offer comfort?
In the face of the Renegade Immortal World, where even a random passerby could kill a Peerless Douluo in an instant, any words of comfort would ring hollow.
Golden Crocodile Douluo was, after all, an old monster who had lived for over a hundred years. After a brief moment of panic, he forced down his fear.
He took a deep breath, and a domineering aura belonging to his Golden Crocodile King Martial Soul burst from him.
A golden, scale-like phantom shimmered faintly across his skin.
"Then I'll go!"
Golden Crocodile Douluo abruptly swept his sleeve and shouted.
"The Great Enshrined is in peril. As the Second Worship, it's only right that I go to that wretched place and help him!"
"I'd like to see if those cultivators who put on airs and play tricks can bite through my golden crocodile armor!"
His words rang out with conviction, his presence surging like a rainbow.
Yet everyone present could hear the faint lack of confidence in the voice of this usually hot-tempered Second Worship.
Who wasn't afraid of death?
Especially after seeing so many bizarre ways to die. Going to that world was like stepping halfway into the gates of hell.
Before the people in the hall could even absorb this shocking news,
the second screen in the sky began churning with dense blood mist once more.
One stroke at a time, another name appeared, tugging at the fragile nerves of Soul Masters across the continent.
[Second: Third Offering of Spirit Hall, a Level 97 Peak Douluo, Azure Luan!]
The entire Pope Palace erupted into chaos.
Light Feather Douluo's hand trembled around the Ice Bow, while Mighty Lion Douluo cried out in shock.
"Third Brother! How did you get picked too?"
This was madness!
Two consecutive slots, and both had gone to the Worship Hall of Spirit Hall.
Along with the Great Enshrined from before, Spirit Hall's three most central and powerful pillars of support had all been forcibly snatched away by the Sky Screen.
An old man standing beside Golden Crocodile Douluo slowly raised his head.
He wore a green robe, and his bearing was refined and cool.
His long green hair was casually tied back with a jade hairpin, and his eyes held a depth as vast as the heavens.
He was none other than Spirit Hall's Third Offering, Azure Luan Douluo.
Faced with the Sky Screen's death sentence, Azure Luan Douluo was far calmer than Golden Crocodile Douluo.
He only furrowed his brow slightly, then let out a soft sigh.
Green wind-attribute Soul Power swirled around him, taking the form of several tiny azure birds that trilled melodiously.
"It seems this is fate."
Azure Luan Douluo turned to look at Golden Crocodile Douluo, whose face was flushed red. A wry, helpless smile tugged at his lips.
"Second Brother, you won't have to be alone now."
"We old friends can venture into that world of cultivation together."
Golden Crocodile Douluo looked at his old friend of many years, his eyes growing hot.
He reached out his broad palm and gave Azure Luan Douluo's shoulder a heavy slap.
"Good brother!"
"Who cares what kind of world of cultivation it is, or what Nascent Soul and Soul Formation are."
"With us brothers standing together, as long as we can find the Great Enshrined, we'll tear a chunk of flesh from those monsters, even if it costs us our old lives!"
Watching the two Offerings bid each other farewell as if facing death, Bibi Dong closed her eyes.
Spirit Hall's strength had suffered an unprecedented blow that day.
Even if she unified the continent someday, without these Peak Douluo holding the fort, Spirit Hall's rule would be left teetering on the brink.
But faced with the will of that higher-dimensional world, she, the Pope, had no room to resist.
Just as Spirit Hall sank into a solemn, tragic atmosphere, the third screen on the Sky Screen finally lit up with a blood-red glow.
Everyone was guessing who the last unlucky one would be.
Would it be a powerful figure from the Heaven Dou Empire? Or a member of the Star Luo Empire's royal family?
Or perhaps one of the two guardian Douluo of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect?