After the battle

"These aren't enough. We need more."

The voices of the Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King reached directly into Ah Yin's mind, carrying a sense of entitlement.

Of course Ah Yin heard the two Dragon Kings. She was directing the Blue Silver Grass, trying to drag Dugu Bo back to the Yin Yang Eyes to heal his injuries, and did not want to pay them any attention.

Their bargaining faces when she had just begged them for help were still vivid in her mind.

But the Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King had never been ignored like this. They unleashed voices that struck straight at her divine soul: "You dare ignore the great Dragon Kings!"

The Fire Dragon King's voice exploded directly inside Ah Yin's head.

The Ice Dragon King followed close behind. Though he showed a trace of restraint, his oppressive presence was no less intense as he added, "I said, this little bit isn't enough. Hurry and contact the person behind you first. We need more."

The greed of dragons was on full display in them.

With her divine soul already unstable, Ah Yin could no longer even control the Blue Silver Grass under the hammer blows of those two voices. The grass mat she had just woven around Dugu Bo abruptly fell apart, dropping him to the ground.

Her main stalk, more than half a meter tall, began swaying like a seedling that had just weathered wind and frost.

This gave the Fire Dragon King a bit of a fright. "This little Blue Silver Emperor isn't going to die, is she? If she dies, will that brother of hers who commands life divine power still resurrect us?"

"Let's check on her first!" The Ice Dragon King's voice also grew anxious.

The two consciousness forms approached Ah Yin's main stalk. Only upon discovering that she had merely fallen asleep from weakness did they relax a little.

"Say, if that brother of hers comes and finds out we treated his sister like this..." The Fire Dragon King felt a little guilty.

"I told you not to be so impatient, not to be so impatient! Day after day, you just can't change that explosive temper! How are we supposed to answer to her brother when the time comes?"

"You say that as if you didn't pour your consciousness into her head too! Don't think I don't know-you even wanted to leave a soul brand in there!"

The Ice Dragon King was momentarily speechless. His blue consciousness form abruptly contracted, as though evading some question.

"Hmph. After all these years, you're still the same old scheming bastard. A dog really can't stop eating you-know-what."

"What use is saying all this now? We'd be better off thinking about how to answer to her brother when he returns." The Ice Dragon King was somewhat irritated too, not knowing when the Fire Dragon King had wised up and discovered his covert actions.

"Answer to him? I'll just say you wanted to leave a soul mark to control his sister and force him to resurrect you, then join forces with him to destroy you first. Her brother surely knows whether resurrecting one or resurrecting two is easier." The Fire Dragon King chuckled.

"You! Aren't you afraid he won't resurrect you either then? Besides, this isn't the time to argue. Let's plant a small yin-yang formation in her divine soul now and help her recover first," the Ice Dragon King said.

The Fire Dragon King thought it over and felt that made sense. He would have helped his sister recover, and he would not conceal what the Ice Dragon King had done. When the time came, he could even expose this dragon with ulterior motives. That person who commanded life divine power would surely help resurrect him.

"Fine, then. But I'll be watching you. Don't try anything underhanded," the Fire Dragon King said with a nod.

"Hurry. Her divine sense has already begun to dissipate."

But what he thought was, I still have an even more concealed method. You think someone like you could spot it? Hmph. When I hold his sister's life in my hands, we'll see whether he agrees to my demands. I won't give you this chance at resurrection.

And so, each harboring his own designs, the two Dragon Kings each separated out a wisp of their origin power and carefully merged it into Ah Yin's divine soul.

The two strands of origin power met within Ah Yin's divine soul, merged, then separated again. Finally, they formed a Yin-Yang Disc similar to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Not only did it stabilize Ah Yin's divine soul, which was on the verge of dispersing, but it also slowly absorbed energy from between heaven and earth, replenishing what was consumed in restoring her divine soul.

After finishing all this, the Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King breathed a sigh of relief, then left guiltily like two people who had done something wrong.

Not long afterward, Lan Changsheng's anxious calls came through the link of the oath of protection.

"Ah Yin, Ah Yin, how are things on your end?"

"Ah Yin?"

"I'm rushing back. Wait for me!"

Lan Changsheng's repeated calls woke Ah Yin.

"I'm fine," she answered instinctively.

"Fine? I can feel how bad your condition is, and you went so long without answering me." Lan Changsheng's voice carried reproach.

"I just fainted, that's all. Oh, right, I fainted because of those two Dragon Kings! They went way too far. I deliberately saved a portion of life divine power for them, enough for them to act, but they bargained with me. After acting, they even came asking me for more. I didn't give it to them, so they knocked me unconscious with their voices."

At these words, Lan Changsheng, who was hurrying along, disregarded his own injuries. Soul power soared into the sky from his body, and the phantom image of the Blue Silver Imperial Emperor Grass flickered behind him.

[The host's anger level has been detected as excessively high. Please take care to regulate your mood.]

The system popped up again when it was not needed.

But those words did make Lan Changsheng calm down somewhat. "System, is anger the next emotion to disappear?"

And when it was needed, the system played dead again.

But this did indeed put Lan Changsheng on his guard, because if he no longer felt anger over losing Ah Yin...

He let out a long breath and said to Ah Yin, "Get some proper rest. I'm on my way back."

On her end, knowing Lan Changsheng would soon return, Ah Yin finally relaxed.

She continued directing the Blue Silver Grass, weaving it into a net to drag Dugu Bo toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, preparing to use the immortal herbs to heal his injuries.

As for Qin Zhen, who lay on the ground, she had already bound him securely and planted more than a dozen parasitic seeds inside his body. After binding him, she had also enclosed him in several tightly sealed cages of Blue Silver Grass.

"Heh, turning soft, are you? I'll seal you in completely. Let's see how you transform then." There was nothing else she could do. As she was now, Ah Yin had no way to kill even an unconscious Titled Douluo.

As for Dark Crow and the other two Titled Douluo, they had long since turned to spring soil to better nourish the Blue Silver Grass. By now, daylight had fully broken, and Sunset Forest welcomed its first quiet morning in days, because this time even the insects' chirping had dwindled, and no birdsong could be heard at all.

In Spirit City, farther away, that same Purple-Robed Bishop arrived before the Great Hall, clutching a scroll of the latest intelligence.

His fingers were clenched white, and he was already trembling all over before he even began to speak. According to observations from the front line, the aftershocks of the battle in Sunset Forest had subsided, but not a single person sent by Spirit Hall had appeared!

According to speculation from the front line, their prospects were likely grim, because the pressure that appeared at the end had left even those far from the battlefield trembling with fear.

If it was true, then Spirit Hall had lost four Titled Douluo in this battle, one of whom was Demon Subduing Douluo, who belonged to the strongest tier, along with a large number of Soul Douluo and Soul Saints...