Bearing the Ashes, Returning to the Ruins of Time and Space

The dust filling the sky had yet to settle, and the earth still trembled without end.

Pavilion Master Yun Ming had burned away his quasi-god body, crushed the power of two twelfth-level Godslayer Cannon shells, and given everything to protect Shrek's last spark. Yet the Federation and Spirit Pagoda's murderous intent had never weakened in the slightest.

What they wanted had never been merely to cripple Shrek.

They wanted to uproot it completely, leaving not even a blade of grass behind.

Above the shattered, dim sky, a cold streak of light suddenly tore through the rolling black mist.

There was no earth-shaking spectacle, no dazzling radiance—only a restrained, deathly gray-white beam filled with lethal intent, precisely locking onto the remnants of the Shrek Seven Monsters in the center of the ruins.

It was a Seventh-Level Fixed Soul-Conducting Cannon Shell!

A high-level fixed soul-conducting weapon, requiring neither charging nor guidance, created solely to finish off surviving enemies.

The twelfth-level Godslayer Cannon was destruction capable of toppling a city, while this seventh-level shell was a lethal blade specifically meant to deliver the final blow and clear the field.

After enduring two rounds of ultimate explosions, the defenses throughout the entire area had already been completely shattered. Shrek's city-protecting formation no longer existed, the Tang Sect's barriers had become rubble, and everyone's soul power shields had nearly run dry in the previous catastrophe.

At this moment, they were utterly defenseless.

"Not good! There's another shell!"

Xie Xie's hoarse roar suddenly rang out, his voice filled with bone-deep despair.

He had reacted the fastest, but his utterly depleted soul power was nowhere near enough to activate a teleportation soul skill. He could only watch helplessly as that streak of death descended at high speed.

Xu Xiaoyan's face was deathly pale. With her spiritual power exhausted, she could no longer provide group enhancements or warnings.

Yue Zhengyu, Ye Xinglan, Xu Lizhi, and Yuanen Yehui were all gravely wounded, their bones shattered and meridians damaged. Even standing was extremely difficult for them, much less resisting a seventh-level soul-conducting cannon shell designed for killing.

The six who had just barely survived the brink of destruction were already at the end of their strength.

Death was right before them.

The destructive power of a seventh-level fixed cannon shell was enough to instantly erase a group of Peak Soul Saints. In their current battered state, if they were struck head-on, they would undoubtedly be reduced to nothing, with not even their bones remaining.

Despair instantly engulfed everyone's hearts.

They had survived the destruction of their sect and the martyrdom of their elders by fighting with everything they had, only to finally fall beneath this last finishing blow.

The wind howled through the ruins like a mournful song.

Just as the shell was about to hit the ground, a bloodstained golden figure suddenly stepped forward!

With one step, he stood in front of all his companions.

It was Tang Wulin.

He was already severely injured, his dragon scales shattered, his meridians cracked, and Dragon God's Origin violently trembling. The blood and qi throughout his body had nearly been exhausted. Witnessing the collapse of the sacred ground and the Pavilion Master's death had almost crushed his soul beneath boundless grief.

Yet at that moment, all weakness and all grief and fury were forced deep into his heart.

Only absolute determination and resolve remained in his eyes.

He was the leader of the Shrek Seven Monsters. He was their big brother.

From the day they formed their team, he had never once considered letting the companions behind him block any danger in his place.

If we live, we live together.

If we die, I'll die in your place.

"Get back!"

His low shout was hoarse yet forceful, resounding through the shattered ruins.

Before the six behind him could react, an incomparably brilliant golden radiance suddenly surged from Tang Wulin's body!

His battered, mottled Golden Dragon Body was driven to its limit. His nearly depleted dragon power erupted without restraint, and an ancient, vast power of protection poured forth from the depths of Dragon God's Origin.

Layer upon layer of golden dragon scales solidified anew. Crisscrossing golden dragon patterns covered his entire body as ancient, tyrannical dragon might burst forth.

There was no piling up of soul skills, no flashy eruption of soul power.

He merely straightened his back and spread his arms, using the body of a mortal dragon to block the killing shell.

Using his own flesh to protect all the brothers and sisters behind him.

"Wulin! Don't!"

"Captain! Get out of the way!"

His companions' heart-rending cries came from behind him, filled with terror and unwillingness.

They knew far too well the power of a seventh-level shell, and they knew far too well Tang Wulin's current condition.

Blocking it meant a near-certain death. It meant sacrificing his life!

Tang Wulin did not turn around. His upright back stood firm as a mountain, shielding the six behind him.

A trace of bitterness flashed through his eyes, but there was not the slightest regret.

Shrek was gone.

The Pavilion Master was gone.

He could not lose these family members who had fought alongside him and shared life and death with him all this way.

Even if he were crushed to pieces, he would have no regrets.

Boom—!

The deathly gray-white streak of light slammed into the golden dragon body!

The seventh-level fixed soul-conducting cannon shell detonated instantly!

Compared to the previous Godslayer Cannons, this explosion did not cover a wide area, but it was condensed, tyrannical, and lethally destructive!

The destruction energy compressed to the extreme exploded in an instant, wildly battering and tearing apart Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Body.

Explosive force capable of crushing a Title Douluo was entirely borne by that slender yet resilient body!

Crack, crack, crack—!

Crisp shattering sounds echoed between heaven and earth.

The golden dragon scales covering his body shattered inch by inch and scattered in every direction. Crystalline dragon blood gushed from countless cracks like a fountain, staining the scorched earth beneath his feet red.

The extreme impact swept madly through his body along his bones and meridians. His internal organs were instantly shattered and displaced, while every inch of his meridians ruptured.

The Golden Dragon Body, that undefeated fleshly body, suffered devastating damage that brought it to the brink of collapse for the first time.

"Urgh—!"

The pain pierced into his marrow, making his soul tremble.

Tang Wulin let out an agonized roar, suppressed to the utmost limit. Mouthful after mouthful of golden essence blood sprayed from his lips, and his body shook violently, yet he never moved even an inch.

His arms remained spread wide, firmly blocking the way before his companions.

He did not retreat half a step! He did not yield an inch!

The blazing wave of destruction was forcibly sealed off by his dragon body, and all the lethal destructive force was borne by him alone.

The six Shrek Monsters behind him remained safe and sound, without a single injury.

Smoke and dust billowed as the flames gradually faded.

As the explosion's aftershocks slowly dispersed, the upright golden figure standing there was already covered in blood and ruin.

Tang Wulin swayed on the verge of collapse. His flesh was mangled, and his once-brilliant golden eyes had completely dimmed as his vision rapidly blurred.

His body was on the brink of breaking apart, his soul power was completely exhausted, Dragon God's Origin had weakened to the extreme, and his soul was nearly shattered by the agony and overexertion.

He had given everything to block that fatal strike.

But the price was that he himself had been utterly drained.

His consciousness gradually sank as darkness relentlessly invaded his mind.

Yet just as his body was about to collapse, his soul was at its weakest, and the destructive energy around him violently intertwined and collided with his dragon power—

A tiny, strange black fissure spanning eternity suddenly appeared in the spatial barrier of heaven and earth, which had been torn full of holes by several massive explosions!

The space Yun Ming had ripped apart by burning his godhood, the planar barrier destroyed by the Godslayer Cannon shells, the final lingering heat of destruction from the seventh-level shell, and the source of Tang Wulin's nearly shattered Dragon God body.

Four extreme powers resonated strangely at that instant, interweaving perfectly!

A temporal-spatial loophole with a one-in-a-hundred-million chance quietly formed before him.

Chaotic, vast currents of time and space spanning the ages poured from the fissure, instantly locking onto Tang Wulin, who was on the verge of death.

No one noticed this change.

The six Monsters behind him had yet to recover from their terror. Struggling to rise and support their captain, their eyes were filled with grief and despair.

But in the next second—

The black fissure suddenly expanded, and an ancient pulling force that could not be resisted descended with a roar.

Dust filled the sky, golden motes of dragon blood drifted in the wind, and Tang Wulin's broken body was uncontrollably dragged into the pitch-black spatial fissure in an instant.

There was no trace, no sound.

One moment, he had sacrificed himself for his friends, bearing the ashes of destruction.

The next, time and space overturned, and his body fell into the ruins of eternity.

Above Shrek's ruins, strewn with broken walls and rubble, only a sky full of drifting golden blood mist remained, along with the six frozen figures and their terrified, despairing faces.

The sacred ground had fallen; he had become a shield with his own body.

Time and space reversed, and the road ahead stretched boundlessly.

The youth from Legend of the Dragon King, carrying a body covered in wounds, a heart filled with blood-deep hatred, and a sincerity not yet cooled, fell into the peerless era of ten thousand years ago.

Thus, a redemption and rewriting that spanned eternity quietly began.