Poison Jiao Devours Zhao Wuji!

In the scene, when the giant turtle saw the poison clouds filling the sky, a light of survival burst forth in its once-desperate eyes.

It weakly raised its head and let out a hoarse roar.

"Poison Jiao, save me!"

Along with the giant turtle's cry.

A burst of deafening laughter suddenly rang out from within the pitch-black poisonous miasma.

"Hahaha, old turtle, I told you to practice your innate divine ability more often, but you just wouldn't listen."

"Today, you nearly had your shell stripped by a human brat at the Core Formation stage, didn't you?"

When this voice first appeared, it was still thousands of miles away.

But by the time the last word fell.

A terrifying jiao head a hundred zhang long, covered in scales and crowned with a single horn, had already pierced through the clouds and appeared directly above the young man in white!

An eighth-rank great demon, the Poison Jiao!

That enormous jiao head was like a black mountain floating in the sky.

Its pair of scarlet eyes, like two blood moons, looked coldly down upon the tiny human below.

Under the gaze of those eyes, the young man in white felt the blood throughout his body freeze solid.

How could he still possess the arrogant air of someone who viewed all living things as mere grass and dogs?

His instinct to survive made him bite through his tongue without hesitation, spraying out a mouthful of his lifeblood essence.

The blood essence transformed into a crimson talisman in midair.

"Blood Shadow Escape!"

The young man in white roared, preparing to use this life-saving secret technique that would cost him a hundred years of lifespan to instantly flee a thousand miles away.

Red light flickered, and his body was just about to become incorporeal and vanish.

Yet the Poison Jiao in the air revealed a human-like sneer.

"Using spatial escape techniques before this ancestor?"

"Do you think a Nascent Soul-stage spatial lock is child's play?"

The Poison Jiao merely opened its mouth slightly, and an invisible ripple of law spread outward.

"Buzz."

The space around the young man in white instantly became as solid as an iron plate.

The blood light that had nearly taken shape struck an invisible wall of bronze and iron and was forcibly rebounded.

"Pfft!"

His escape technique was interrupted, and the young man in white suffered severe spiritual backlash, coughing up a large mouthful of blood.

He fell from the air and crashed heavily onto the shattered reef where Zhao Wuji had lain moments ago.

This despairing scene made every powerhouse from the Star Luo Empire, Spirit Hall, and Shrek Academy feel their scalps go numb.

One moment earlier, he had stood high above all others, a Core Formation-stage powerhouse who had casually split apart the giant turtle's defenses with a single sword strike.

The next moment, before a Nascent Soul-stage great demon, even his right to flee had been mercilessly stripped away.

He could not even unleash a single move before becoming a lamb awaiting slaughter.

Big fish ate small fish, and small fish ate shrimp.

The food-chain law of this cultivation world was displayed in all its brutal glory.

The Poison Jiao's enormous body flickered in and out of view amid the clouds.

Its scarlet eyes first glanced at the young man in white sprawled limply atop the reef, then shifted their gaze.

Its eyes fell upon Zhao Wuji, who had resurfaced in the distance as the waves churned, still unconscious.

"Hm?"

The Poison Jiao let out a soft sound of surprise, its massive nostrils twitching as it sniffed.

"That human has no spiritual power in his body at all. He is sustained entirely by a strange, primordial vitality and blood."

"Interesting. I happen to be tired of eating the primordial spirits of Core Formation-stage cultivators lately."

"A change of flavor—pure flesh and blood like this should be quite nice."

With that, the Poison Jiao opened its abyss-like maw.

A mass of black poisonous mist reeking of rot slowly gathered in its mouth, aimed directly at the reef and sea below...

The mass of black poisonous mist, reeking of rot, suddenly burst apart in midair like a living thing.

It then transformed into a black poisonous net that blotted out the sky and descended upon the reef below.

"Ah!"

The first to bear the brunt of it was the young man in white, who had been desperately begging for mercy only moments ago.

He did not even have a chance to deploy a magical artifact in defense before the protective spiritual light around him dissolved with a hiss.

A dignified Star Palace sword cultivator at the Core Formation stage was reduced by that mouthful of poisonous breath, along with the golden core within his body.

Directly into a puddle of pus that emitted pungent yellow smoke, which flowed down the reef into the dark green sea. Not even a trace of his soul managed to escape.

Stirred by the violent commotion, Zhao Wuji, who had been soaking in the freezing seawater, finally struggled to open his eyes.

The salty, bitter seawater mixed with blood made him cough violently.

"Cough, cough... Where is this...?"

Zhao Wuji felt as though every bone in his body had been shattered, while his arms were so limp that he could not muster even the slightest strength.

He instinctively raised his head, wanting to find the sea turtle that had severely injured him earlier.

However, the moment his vision fully cleared.

The Immovable Bright King, renowned across the Douluo Continent, froze completely in the seawater.

Night had fallen.

What blocked out the sky was not a dark cloud, but a terrifyingly enormous head, vast enough to inspire despair.

A jiao dragon's head was looking down at him from above.

Before such a colossal creature, Zhao Wuji felt that he did not even count as a slightly larger insect.

A fear that rose from the depths of his soul instantly robbed him of all ability to think.

"This two-legged beast is actually awake."

The Poison Jiao's voice, like muffled thunder, echoed over the sea, carrying hints of laziness and cruelty.

"Good. The meat is firmer when it's alive."

Zhao Wuji understood its words, and every hair on his body stood on end.

His instinct to survive made him want to roar, to squeeze out the last trace of soul power in his body and activate his Martial Soul True Body.

But the absolute crushing gap between dimensions gave him no room to resist.

The Poison Jiao could not even be bothered to use a divine ability. It merely lowered its head slightly, opened its abyss-like bloody maw, and inhaled sharply.

Boom!

The surrounding seawater instantly surged upward in reverse, forming a massive waterspout.

Before that irresistible suction, Zhao Wuji's burly body was like a weightless fallen leaf, swept directly into the air.

"No!"

Zhao Wuji roared, but he could not fight back at all.

Crack.

A scalp-numbing crisp sound spread across the sea.

The fangs of the Poison Jiao's upper and lower jaws snapped shut, severing Zhao Wuji's body at the waist in midair.

Before the scalding blood could even splash onto the sea, the Poison Jiao swallowed it all in one gulp.

"Pah. It tastes like dirt. Not even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth."

The Poison Jiao flicked out its tongue in distaste. Its enormous body rolled once through the clouds before plunging fiercely into the dark green ocean below.

In the blink of an eye, that terrifying beast of the Chaotic Star Sea vanished without a trace.

Only the churning waves and the poisonous miasma gradually dispersing in the sky remained, as though everything that had just happened had been nothing but an illusion.

Outside the light screen, the Douluo Continent fell into a long, deathly silence.

In the Balak Kingdom, on the training field of Shrek Academy.

A cold wind swept past, carrying several withered yellow leaves that struck everyone's faces.

Thud.

Flender's legs gave out, and he dropped to his knees on the cold earth.

The crystal glasses he wore on the bridge of his nose year-round fell to the ground, cracks spreading across their lenses.

"Old Zhao..."

Flender's voice was hoarse beyond recognition. Covering his weathered face with both hands, his shoulders began to tremble uncontrollably.

Scalding tears streamed in large drops through the gaps between his fingers.

How many years had he known Zhao Wuji?

They had struggled together across the Douluo Continent, built this shabby Shrek Academy together, and evaded Spirit Hall's pursuit together to protect their students.

In Flender's memories, Zhao Wuji had always been that hot-tempered, fearless Immovable Bright King.

Even when facing an enemy a whole major realm above him, Zhao Wuji had dared to bare the claws of the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear and rely on his powerful body to fight to the bitter end.

But today, he had watched with his own eyes as the good brother who had been by his side for half his life.

Like a helpless insect, he was bitten cleanly in two by that black monster.

There had been no earth-shaking battle, no glorious fall—not even a chance to unleash a single soul skill.

He had simply become a snack that disliked the "earthy smell."

"How could this happen? Why did this happen...?"

Flender desperately pounded the ground, smashing deep pits into the earth.

Beside him, Dai Mubai clenched his fists so tightly that the bones throughout his body crackled.

He had always been proud of his identity as a prince of the Star Luo Empire and of his top-tier White Tiger martial soul. He had believed that as long as he cultivated diligently, he would one day stand at the pinnacle of the continent.

But the scene on the light screen had crushed all his pride to dust.

Teacher Zhao was a level seventy-six Soul Sage!

The defensive power of his martial soul avatar had been astonishing, yet before that giant turtle, he could not even withstand a single retaliatory shock.

Not to mention that Poison Jiao, whose mere exposed head had been enough to blot out the sky.

What was a Soul Elder in his thirties before such higher-dimensional power?

He probably was not even worthy of filling that monster's teeth.

Oscar and Ning Rongrong had long since collapsed onto the ground in terror.

Ning Rongrong buried her head in her knees and burst into loud sobs.

She had grown up in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, spoiled endlessly by Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo. The strongest people she had ever seen were the sect's two Titled Douluo.

She had once thought Titled Douluo were synonymous with invincibility—that as long as Grandpa Sword and Grandpa Bone were there, they could go anywhere in the world.

But today, she finally understood.

In this universe, there were far too many beings capable of crushing Titled Douluo like ants.

Tang San stood quietly where he was, his eyes bloodshot.

His mind was in complete chaos. His experiences from two lifetimes seemed so pale and powerless before this cultivation world.

The Tang Sect's ultimate arts he had always been proud of, the Hidden Weapon Hundred Solutions he had studied day and night—

They had been utterly shattered in that brief clash just now.

The sword-splitting technique used by that inner disciple of Star Palace far surpassed his understanding of hidden weapons, both in speed and destructive power.

And Poison Jiao could directly lock down space, leaving even a Core Formation cultivator with an advanced escape technique like Blood Shadow Escape unable to flee.

If I were facing that Poison Jiao...

Tang San made the desperate assumption in his heart.

If he used every hidden weapon he possessed, even the most supreme Buddha Fury Tang Lotus from his previous life, could he injure even a single scale of that monster?

The answer was despairing.

One of Poison Jiao's scales was probably countless times harder than hundred-forged refined steel.

Before a monster that could turn an entire ocean into a poisonous marsh, his poisons were simply a joke.

The "challenging opponents above one's rank" that he had always believed in simply did not exist in a world with such a rigid power system and such vast dimensional gaps.

Yu Xiaogang stood nearby, his face pale as paper and his body swaying unsteadily.

He had always believed that there were no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters. As long as one's theories were powerful enough, even an ordinary martial soul could display astonishing strength.

But Zhao Wuji's death had dealt him a savage slap across the face, wiping away every trace of his pride.

Zhao Wuji's martial soul had been powerful enough, hadn't it? His combat experience had been rich enough, hadn't it?

Before an absolute gap in strength, all skill and theory were futile.

The entire Shrek Academy was steeped in an atmosphere of bottomless despair.

They had finally recognized reality.

The sky over Douluo Continent was simply far, far too small.

Meanwhile, at the northernmost edge of Douluo Continent.

The Extreme North Land, blanketed in wind and snow year-round, where there were scarcely any signs of life.

Gales swept snow through the skies, and the cold was so severe that it could make steel brittle in an instant. Even Titled Douluo did not dare venture here lightly.

Deep within this forbidden zone of life, two graceful figures silently watched the light screen in the air.

One was a woman clad in emerald-green armor, breathtakingly beautiful yet radiating endless frostiness and pride.

Her emerald eyes usually carried a cold gleam that scorned everything, but at this moment, they were filled with shock.

She was Ice Empress, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion with nearly four hundred thousand years of cultivation, one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North.

Beside her stood a cool and aloof woman in a pure white gown, her bare feet resting on ten-thousand-year mystical ice.

She seemed to be the sovereign of this blizzard. Her snow-white hair danced in the wind, and her aura was ethereal and profound, like a deity untouched by the mortal world.

This was the true ruler of the Extreme North Land, the Snow Emperor, whose cultivation had reached seven hundred thousand years.

"That dark green seawater..."

Ice Empress's voice was somewhat hoarse as she pointed at the poisonous domain left behind by the Poison Jiao within the screen of light.

"That jiao was said on the heavenly screen to be a rank-eight great demon. Converted to the cultivation standards of our world, it had only just crossed the threshold of one hundred thousand years at most."

Ice Empress swallowed, a deep wariness flashing through her eyes.

"Yet the poison it released could contaminate such a vast expanse of ocean in an instant. It could even corrode the thousand-year iceberg created by that sea turtle."

As an Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, Ice Empress not only controlled ultimate ice, but the deadly poison contained in her scorpion tail could kill even a Titled Douluo upon contact.

She had always taken great pride in her venom, believing that no one on Douluo Continent could surpass her in that regard.

But after witnessing the Poison Jiao's methods, she felt an intense sense of defeat.

"If I were to contaminate that stretch of sea, I'm afraid it would take me over a hundred years."

"And the toxicity definitely wouldn't be enough to melt an iceberg in an instant."

Ice Empress bit her red lip, her eyes gleaming with unwillingness.

Snow Emperor silently watched the screen of light. In her deep eyes, like frigid pools, lay the weathered insight of one who had seen through the vicissitudes of the world.

"Ice, you saw only its poison, not its control over the laws of heaven and earth."

Snow Emperor's voice was like an orchid blooming in an empty valley, carrying a calming magic, yet her tone was incomparably grave.

"When that jiao prevented the human cultivators from fleeing, it used spatial lockdown."

"That was a method of integrating the laws of heaven and earth into one's bloodline instinct."

"On our Douluo Continent, only those who have reached the demigod realm, or peak soul beasts like Di Tian who possess the Dragon God's bloodline, can barely touch upon the rudiments of space."

Snow Emperor raised her head and gazed at the gray, murky sky, endless sorrow in her eyes.

"The cultivation system of that world is far more complete and vast than ours."

"Here, we soul beasts are tightly suppressed by the rules of the Divine Realm. Not only can we not become gods, but every hundred thousand years, we must also face a heavenly tribulation with only a slim chance of survival."

"We struggle with everything we have, barely clinging to life for hundreds of thousands of years."

"Yet we can only remain trapped in this frozen land, forever unable to see any hope of reaching a higher level."

Snow Emperor let out a soft sigh. The chill she exhaled condensed into beautiful ice crystals in the air, drifting away with the wind.

"But in that world of immortal cultivation, they have their own inheritances for demon clans, lightning tribulations for taking human form, and supreme cultivation arts capable of reaching higher dimensions."