Ye Xishui Appears!

To Long Xiaoyao, he knew full well the sins he bore.

Proud by nature, he had remained trapped in a mire for all these years because of love.

It had left him confused and tormented.

Now, faced with Gu Yuena's almost head-on, crushing outburst—

he suddenly felt that perhaps being freed from everything like this

would not be so bad.

With that thought, though he could have burned his blood essence and fought desperately, he suddenly looked toward the nine-colored power descending like a fallen sun. Within those complicated eyes, amid those brilliant colors, his life seemed to be reflected.

But in the next moment, a bloody light transformed into a hand and forcefully tore open space.

As a figure abruptly descended, that bloody light instantly condensed into a shield.

At the sight of that figure's arrival, Long Xiaoyao froze for an instant.

After all his tangled emotions turned into a sigh,

his soul rings flashed, and he raised a hand.

Heavy dark dragon scales condensed into a massive shield, offering ultimate defense.

As the blood shield was instantly torn apart beneath the nine-colored force, it collided with the black dragon-scale shield.

Boom!

Under that thunderous blast, although Lin Yuan was gritting his teeth and defending himself, he felt as if his ears were about to bleed from the shock, leaving him slightly dizzy.

That was after he had immediately retreated nearly ten kilometers upon seeing the battle and gathered soul power to defend himself.

A gray spatial force swiftly condensed into a protective barrier.

It could be said that anyone even slightly weaker—or if Gu Yuena's support had arrived a little later—would likely have been reduced to a bloody mist on the spot.

After breathing a sigh of relief, as the dust dispersed, the depths of the Jingyang Mountain Range seemed to have completely collapsed.

As it turned into a basin, the dissipating smoke revealed—

on the ground, Long Xiaoyao's clothes had been torn apart by more than half. He looked utterly disheveled. Though Ye Xishui had come to save him, he had still borne most of the attack's power, damaging even his origin.

Another figure also revealed her true appearance.

A broad dark-red cloak was slowly lifted by the wind, revealing a dazzlingly beautiful face. Her skin was deathly pale and bloodless, her crimson eyes slightly narrowed. She appeared to be a beautiful middle-aged woman.

Yet two traces of blood, seemingly wiped away, still lingered at the corners of her lips.

It was none other than Ye Xishui.

It was precisely because of her that Long Xiaoyao's desire to die had been forcibly halted. Since she had come, he could not possibly watch her fall before his eyes.

Meanwhile, Ye Xishui subconsciously glanced at Long Xiaoyao. Their eyes met.

But Long Xiaoyao merely looked away instinctively.

This caused a trace of gloom to flash through Ye Xishui's eyes, along with a momentary mixture of conflicted, agonized emotions.

Very quickly, both of them turned their gazes toward Gu Yuena, who still stood high in the sky.

Ye Xishui's eyes held even more bewilderment and confusion.

She had thought Long Xiaoyao would be able to complete this task with ease, but who could have expected the other party to be so powerful?

It was no exaggeration to say that, in Ye Xishui's eyes, the current Gu Yuena could even rival the Beast God.

"Who are you?"

Ye Xishui spoke in confusion. In her memory, there had never been any inherited clan or power like this on the continent.

A peerless powerhouse like this should at least have revealed her name before, or there should have been some rumors concerning her.

Yet Ye Xishui had never seen her before, nor did she possess even the slightest impression of her.

At this moment, Gu Yuena casually condensed space and summoned Lin Yuan to her side. Holding the Silver Dragon Spear in her hand,

she looked at Ye Xishui and asked indifferently,

"Does that matter?"

At those words, a flash of gloom passed through Ye Xishui's eyes.

How many years had it been? She did not know how many years it had been since anyone had dared speak to her like that.

Yet Gu Yuena had done exactly that.

"He is mine. You tried to kill him, so you must pay the price."

As Ye Xishui's hoarse voice fell, Gu Yuena did not refute her. Instead, she simply nodded.

"You're right."

As those words fell, her gaze also turned toward Lin Yuan.

The meaning she conveyed was obvious.

You touched Lin Yuan, so I will kill you. Perfectly reasonable.

This made Ye Xishui's expression darken somewhat. For the first time, she properly examined Lin Yuan, the so-called greatest genius of this era.

A Soul Ancestor who had once unleashed an attack at the level of a Soul Douluo.

Was there another monster standing behind this monster?

Then her gaze went blank for an instant as she looked at Long Xiaoyao with disbelief. Clearly, Long Xiaoyao had told her about Gu Yuena before and after she donned the Four-Word Battle Armor.

If Gu Yuena had not worn the Four-Word Battle Armor, Long Xiaoyao would still have been confident that, relying on his ultimate power or spatial control, he could suppress her by a slight margin even under such pressure—and perhaps even take Lin Yuan away.

But after she put on the Four-Word Battle Armor, with Gu Yuena unleashing such a crushing outburst and no longer possessing a cultivation advantage, what could he use to fight her?

However, after that brief daze, Ye Xishui's resolve seemed unchanged.

Ye Xishui was no fool. Although Gu Yuena's soul power now surpassed hers by a margin,

she did not have the slightest thought of retreating.

Her martial soul was not a dragon. Gu Yuena had no authority over her.

As the Martial Soul Avatar of the Blood God Demon Puppet emerged,

Ye Xishui raised a hand, and the Reaper Tower—said to be the closest thing to a tenth-rank Soul Guidance Device—floated into the air.

The tower, dozens of meters tall, was covered in black undead patterns, while countless resentful souls roiled and howled within it.

Blood-red light surged from the Reaper Tower as Ye Xishui poured all the origin power of her Blood Soul Demon Puppet into this forbidden Soul Guidance Device.

Hum—!

The massive black tower shook violently. Thousands upon thousands of wraiths wailed and churned within, and a thick dark-red beam suddenly blasted from the tower's peak. It was the Reaper Tower's full-powered attack—Death God's Light.

The beam streaked across the sky, its deathly pressure blanketing everything. This strike was not merely an eruption of soul power; countless resentful souls crashed madly along the beam. It could shatter physical defenses and pierce directly into an opponent's sea of spirit. Even a Limit Douluo, if struck by this light, would suffer severe damage to both soul power and spirit.

She refused to believe that this temporarily enhanced power, after having already suppressed Long Xiaoyao once, could still wield much strength against her strongest attack.

Faced with this grand, hell-descending strike,

Lin Yuan could barely hold back a smile.

That was right, Gu Yuena's martial soul did not counter yours.

But her exclusive weapon did.

At the same time, Gu Yuena directly gripped the Silver Dragon Spear. As the dragon scales along its shaft flickered,

"Silver Dragon Spear—Spirit Devour!"

The Silver Dragon Spear seemed to come alive. As the phantom of a true silver dragon abruptly appeared,

its jaws opened wide enough to devour everything, facing that overwhelming attack.

After Gu Yuena casually condensed an Elemental Tide and neutralized part of its power,

the phantom of the Silver Dragon Spear swallowed all that so-called resentful spirit power.

In merely a dozen breaths,

that massive attack, which could even severely injure a Limit Douluo, vanished without a trace...