"Damn it! Blood River Great Array, hold steady!!"
The Demon Empress roared.
Thick blood mist sealed off the sky completely. The surging Blood River Great Array churned and roared, countless blood-red runes roaming between earth and sky like living things. Every crashing blood wave sent ripples through space.
The Demon Empress stood at the heart of the blood river, her black robes snapping in the raging demonic energy. She raised her eyes toward the majestic Imperial City in the distance, a sickly fanaticism churning in her gaze.
"Qian Gu Fenfeng, powerful as you are, no strength in this world is absolutely invincible. Today, I will sacrifice the entire Imperial City and use the souls, flesh, and blood of countless lives to break my shackles and ascend to god level!"
Qian Gu Fenfeng froze for a moment and gave the Demon Empress a long look, but did not stop her.
With that, the Star Dou Imperial Clan was destroyed.
The Demon Empress's hands abruptly formed sinister demonic seals, and the channels of the Blood River Great Array suddenly reversed. Scarlet veins pierced the clouds like monstrous serpents, coiling tightly around the Imperial City's walls and buildings.
Piercing wails rose one after another within the city. The array brutally drained the vital essence of countless commoners, tearing living souls free and stripping them away, turning them into a searing torrent of blood that poured ceaselessly into the Demon Empress.
The Imperial City's bricks and tiles shattered layer by layer, its towers collapsing. Beneath the power of the sacrifice, the prosperous city swiftly became a purgatory on earth.
En Ci looked bewildered as he watched Dai Tianling and the Monster Academy students gradually turn to dust. In the end, he collapsed to the ground, his eyes still open in death.
The demonic energy around the Demon Empress swelled wildly. A translucent divine halo appeared around her, leaving her only one step away from true god level.
"Die!"
With a roar from the Demon Empress, the Blood River Great Array erupted in full. Blood waves filled the sky and tore through the heavens. Countless blood blades, laden with the resentment of dead souls, poured down like a rainstorm, densely sealing off the entire airspace.
Qian Gu Fenfeng stood in the void, faint divine light flowing over his Ancient Gold Battle Armor.
His right hand jerked, and his Martial Soul, the Coiling Dragon Staff, manifested with a thunderous rumble. Its shaft was ancient and weighty, its coiling golden dragon patterns shining brilliantly. Dragon cries reverberated from within it, its imposing draconic might suppressing the churning demonic energy around him.
Clang-!
He held the Coiling Dragon Staff across his body, and the densely packed blood-red demonic blades hacked viciously against its shaft. A grating metallic clash exploded outward as countless blood blades shattered into a skyful of bloody spray, yet some demonic blades still pierced through the offensive and slashed toward his body.
With the power gained from sacrificing the Imperial City, the Demon Empress's strength already surpassed that of ordinary peak experts.
She stepped upon the blood waves, her figure becoming a blood-red afterimage as she closed in instantly. A massive blood-red Demon Scythe condensed in her hand, its blade carrying the resentful malice of countless dead souls as she brought it down savagely toward Qian Gu Fenfeng's head.
Qian Gu Fenfeng did not retreat. He drove his god-level body to its fullest, every inch of his sinews and bones rumbling deeply as golden origin divine light shone out through his flesh. Rather than relying on his Martial Soul to withstand the strike, he met the Demon Scythe's slash directly with his body.
Rip!
The Demon Scythe tore through his armor, its keen demonic blade cutting open his outer flesh. A wound deep enough to expose bone appeared on his shoulder, and searing golden divine blood gushed out, spilling into the blood river below. Yet his god-level body's resilience was terrifying. The flesh around the wound kept writhing, suffering no further erosion from the demonic energy.
"Strength bought by sacrificing the living is nothing but a castle in the air!"
Qian Gu Fenfeng shouted furiously, his foot stamping a vast web of collapsing cracks into the void beneath him. He tightened his grip on the Coiling Dragon Staff, a golden dragon phantom soaring from its shaft. Using the recoil from the Demon Scythe's slash, he abruptly surged forward, the staff sweeping out like a dragon.
The wind of the staff carried the tremendous brute force of his god-level body as it smashed viciously toward the Demon Empress's side. She hastily raised a hand, demonic flames condensing into a thick blood shield to block it.
Boom!!
A tremendous blast shook the clouds apart. The blood shield instantly cracked and shattered, violent shock waves sweeping in every direction and pulverizing vast swathes of the surrounding blood river runes.
The blow sent the Demon Empress flying backward, demonic blood seeping from the corner of her mouth. Yet the power obtained by sacrificing the Imperial City continued nourishing her without end, and the half-formed god-level halo still had not dissipated.
The madness in her eyes intensified. She knew she was only one final instant away from god level. Raising both arms high, she drove the entire core power of the Blood River Great Array, wringing dry every remaining dead soul and all the life force in the Imperial City.
"Break through-for me!"
Blood-red light surged between heaven and earth. The divine halo around the Demon Empress abruptly solidified, and her demonic energy became a towering blood-red demonic pillar. Her entire body turned into a crimson meteor as she charged straight at Qian Gu Fenfeng with the power to destroy everything. This strike was a killing blow bought at the full price of the sacrifice, meant to crush her opponent at the instant she broke through to god level.
Qian Gu Fenfeng's expression grew grave. He could clearly sense the resentment of countless dead souls within this strike, its power already infinitely close to that of a true god. He did not dodge. He raised the Coiling Dragon Staff high over his head, the golden dragon phantom circling and roaring above it. Countless thoughts converged into a single intent as he poured all his strength into the shaft. Golden divine light shot skyward and collided thunderously with the blood-red sky.
Bang!!
The instant the two powers collided, space split open into a dense web of black fissures. Violent shock waves swept in every direction, leveling all the mountains on the ground.
The Demon Empress's blood-red demonic pillar slammed viciously against the Coiling Dragon Staff. The pillar kept disintegrating, but its remaining demonic force still traveled along the shaft into Qian Gu Fenfeng's body.
His Battle Armor split in multiple places, and the demonic force blasted a depression into his chest. Golden divine blood kept seeping from the corner of his mouth. Even his god-level body bore an immense burden beneath this terrifying clash, his bones giving muffled groans under the strain.
Yet Qian Gu Fenfeng did not retreat even half a step.
Amid the head-on clash, he seized the instant when the Demon Empress unleashed her strength and abruptly closed in. All the power of his god-level body erupted, and the Coiling Dragon Staff descended with a howling dragon cry, smashing toward her chest with all his might, straight at her newly formed divine origin.
"Today, I will shatter your illusory godhood with my own hands!"
Golden light burst from the shaft, and the coiling dragon phantom roared as it lunged to kill.
For a fleeting moment, Qian Gu Fenfeng seemed to touch that legendary realm. The profound meaning of the Unyielding Staff Technique's ninth form exploded in his mind.
"Hahaha... hahahahahahaha!"
The essence of the staff technique was "breaking," not delicate finesse. It was meeting force with force, breaking the enemy's defenses, breaking the shackles of laws, choosing to snap rather than bend, choosing injury over retreat.
The ninth form of the Unyielding Staff Technique: Break Through to Divinity!
Boom-!!
A dull, terrifying impact resounded through heaven and earth.
In that instant, Qian Gu Fenfeng clearly felt the level of his existence leap into a new realm.
So this was a god...
The god-level barrier the Demon Empress had forcibly built up through sacrifice shattered inch by inch beneath that blow. Her newly condensed divine origin was forcibly blasted apart by brute strength. A piercing crack rang from the Demon Core within her, and the power of countless sacrificed souls poured wildly out of her body.
The Demon Empress let out a shrill scream. Like a kite with its string cut, she slammed into the devastated earth, blasting out an enormous crater.
Her demonic energy scattered, and the god-level halo around her dimmed and vanished completely. Her limbs went limp, and black demonic blood kept pouring from her chest. Yet she still refused to accept it. Her remaining demon essence gathered in her palm as she tried to launch one final counterattack.
Qian Gu Fenfeng slowly walked across the blood-soaked ground, the Coiling Dragon Staff hanging at an angle toward the earth, golden divine blood dripping continuously down its shaft. His body was covered in injuries, savage wounds littering his shoulder and chest. Yet a divine aura flowed around him. Though he stood right there, the Demon Empress could not sense his presence.
The Demon Empress's pupils abruptly contracted. "You... you're not in the Douluo Continent's dimension..."
"You've become a god?!"
He lowered his head to look at the Demon Empress in the crater, without the slightest pity.
"You used countless living beings as sacrifices, deluding yourself that you could steal godhood. Even ten thousand deaths could not redeem this crime."
As his words fell, the Coiling Dragon Staff's golden radiance surged once more.
The staff came crashing down.
"You!"
"I... how could I!"
The Demon Empress's final Demon Core shattered completely, and her life was utterly extinguished.
Without its master to sustain it, the Blood River Great Array filling the sky slowly receded in bloody torrents. Countless blood-red runes turned to drifting ash. Only broken walls and ruins remained of the distant Imperial City, shrouded in deathly silence.
Qian Gu Fenfeng stood amid the wreckage, gripping his bloodstained Coiling Dragon Staff as he gazed across the ruins, yet his expression held barely suppressed ecstasy.
Qian Gu Fenfeng looked toward the morning glow on the horizon, and his taut face suddenly broke into a smile.
"Hahaha."
"Hahahahahahahahahaha!"
Then he could no longer hold himself back, and laughed wildly without stopping.
"I want this sky to never again obscure my eyes."
"I want this earth to never again bury my heart."
"I want all living beings to know my will."
"I want that Tang San to vanish like smoke and scattered clouds!"
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