Lingyuan Douluo

Meanwhile, several miles from the battlefield.

Nebula Douluo Manyi, who had just protected Xu Jiujiu as she successfully absorbed the Thousand-Year Starlight Scorpion Soul Ring, was preparing to leave with the two of them when her brows suddenly furrowed. She abruptly turned to look in a certain direction within the forest.

"Such powerful energy fluctuations... Are two Title Douluo-level experts fighting?"

A trace of confusion flashed through her cloudy old eyes.

"In this Mixed Area, Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts rarely appear. Who would be fighting so fiercely here?"

She sensed the area carefully for a moment, then a hint of surprise appeared on her face.

"One aura is bright and blazing, brimming with vitality. It feels familiar... It should be Yan Shaozhe of Shrek Academy, the Bright Phoenix Martial Soul. The other... cold, lifeless, and filled with evil... What the hell is that?"

"Dean Yan Shaozhe?"

Xu Jiujiu, who had just obtained her third Soul Ring and stabilized her Soul Power at rank thirty-one, immediately brightened at those words.

She immediately thought of her elder brother Xu Jiawei's long-standing desire to befriend and win over Shrek Academy.

Shrek Academy's dean appeared to be locked in a fierce battle. If they appeared now, even if they merely stood by to support him or offered aid at a crucial moment, it would undoubtedly earn them an enormous favor.

"Grandma Manyi, let's go take a look."

Xu Jiujiu immediately suggested, her tone carrying a trace of urgency and anticipation.

"If we can use this opportunity to form a good relationship with Dean Yan, it will greatly benefit the Empire."

Manyi frowned slightly. She glanced at Xu Jiujiu and Yin Chen beside her, who was merely a Soul Master, and hesitated.

"Your Highness, a battle between Title Douluo is no trivial matter. Even the aftershocks could injure you. Taking you there would be far too risky."

"Grandma Manyi, we only need to watch from afar and act according to the situation. With you here, our safety should be assured."

Xu Jiujiu insisted, shrewd light flickering in her eyes.

Manyi pondered for a moment. In her senses, Yan Shaozhe's bright aura was steadily suppressing that lifeless, evil aura. Coupled with her confidence in her own strength, she finally nodded.

"Very well, but you must stay close to me and not act rashly."

"Wonderful."

Xu Jiujiu said joyfully.

Yin Chen, meanwhile, was silently groaning inwardly.

Though he could not sense the precise fluctuations of the battle, he could figure out with his toes who could be fighting Yan Shaozhe besides that Nirvana Corpse that had just been born in the Star Dou Great Forest.

After all, the direction was correct. The direction Manyi was looking toward was precisely where the Nirvana Corpse had been born.

Just my luck...

Yin Chen's mouth twitched slightly. All he wanted was to lie low and grow steadily; he had no desire whatsoever to get involved in trouble of this level.

Especially a battle between Title Douluo. Even watching from the sidelines could get him caught in the aftershocks and killed by some unexplained area-of-effect attack.

However, his words carried little weight. Xu Jiujiu had already made up her mind, and Manyi had agreed as well. He had no room to object.

"Ah, just let things take their course..."

Yin Chen sighed helplessly in his heart. He could only remain fully alert as he followed Nebula Douluo Manyi and the eager Xu Jiujiu, cautiously approaching the battlefield where those terrifying energy fluctuations originated.

Under Nebula Douluo Manyi's protection, the three of them quietly reached the edge of the battlefield.

The sight before them was terrifying—a white-robed middle-aged man wreathed in dazzling golden flames was repeatedly blasting away a black figure that radiated dense death energy with overwhelming force.

That man in white was naturally Bright Phoenix Douluo Yan Shaozhe. Every one of his attacks contained the fire of light; wind and thunder surged between his fists and kicks, while Phoenix Flame scorched the air until it warped.

Yet his opponent, the woman in black with a terrifying face and only stark white teeth and bone remaining below her nose, displayed unimaginable tenacity.

Yan Shaozhe's mountain-shattering attacks landed upon her with dull booms, smashing her brutally into the ground and leaving enormous craters, or sending her flying through the air to snap dozens of towering ancient trees in succession.

Yet regardless of what seemingly fatal injury she suffered, the woman in black would struggle back to her feet the next instant at a speed that utterly defied the laws of life. As death energy surged around her, more than half her wounds would already be healed.

Her body was simply inhumanly durable, as if it were not made of flesh and blood, but forged from some kind of immortal divine metal.

Even more astonishingly, although this woman in black was also a Title Douluo, the Soul Power fluctuations she currently emitted were far inferior to Yan Shaozhe's—indeed, she was even inferior to Nebula Douluo Manyi standing nearby.

Yet this weak Soul Power, combined with her undying body, had somehow allowed her to remain locked in battle with the rank ninety-five Yan Shaozhe until now.

"Th-this... What kind of monster is that?"

Xu Jiujiu's pretty face turned pale as she cried out softly. The scene before her had surpassed her understanding.

Manyi's expression was also incomparably grave. She knew that if she faced this strange existence herself, she would likely find it difficult to defeat her in a short time. She might even be dragged into danger by her undying nature.

Yet Yin Chen's heart was currently churning like a stormy sea.

A female Title Douluo, fallen in the Star Dou Great Forest, whose Martial Soul was the Blazing Spirit Kite... Combined, these clues gave him a powerful sense of familiarity.

He rapidly searched through fragments of memories from his previous life, information about Douluo Continent from ten thousand years ago.

It's her!

A flash of insight struck Yin Chen's mind, and a name along with a piece of information surfaced.

An elder of Spirit Hall—Lingyuan Douluo.

Ten thousand years ago, she had followed the then-Pope Bibi Dong to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt the Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape, the two kings of the forest. Yet, eager to claim credit, she had unfortunately fallen at the hands of the two great Soul Beasts.

Her gender, Martial Soul, and place of death all matched the Nirvana Corpse before them.

At the very moment Yin Chen guessed her identity, a subtle change occurred in the battle.

The Nirvana Corpse, which had previously attacked like a wild beast driven only by madness and a thirst for life force, saw the chaos and savagery in her scarlet eyes recede like the tide, replaced by clarity and reason.

She abruptly retreated some distance and ceased attacking. The roiling death energy around her also calmed slightly.

Yan Shaozhe immediately noticed the abnormality in his opponent as well. He halted his offensive, though the flames of light around him continued to burn fiercely as he watched her warily.

He could clearly sense that her aura had changed. She had gone from a vicious beast that only knew how to devour into a... being capable of communication?

The instant Lingyuan Douluo recovered all her intelligence and memories, she understood her own condition.

She had been awakened from eternal slumber by an incomprehensible, great, and bizarre power. Her body had been reshaped, but the price was that she was no longer among the living. She had become a dead being corresponding to the living—a Nirvana Corpse.

She did not understand why she had been chosen, nor did she know what form that great being hidden in the unseen truly took, but none of that mattered to her.

At this moment, her heart was filled only with bewilderment and a longing for life force.