Every nonliving thing within the domain rang out with an exceedingly fine barrage of slashing sounds at the same instant.
"Crack, crack, crack..."
The sounds were as dense as ten million blades grinding together, as shrill as metal scraping across glass.
The skeleton saber in the Soul Saint's hand, the bone fragments scattered across the ground, the vine remnants floating on the water-everything without Cursed Energy or Soul Power coating it was struck by countless invisible Slashes at the same instant, then reduced to dust.
The skeleton saber shattered into bone chips, the bone fragments into powder, and the vine remnants into fibers.
Every nonliving thing was utterly erased in the torrent of Slashes, leaving not even a trace behind.
Immediately afterward, the Slashes landed on the Soul Saint.
Countless slash marks invisible to the naked eye descended at once, like maggots clinging to bone.
From his skull to his spine, from his ribs to his limbs, every inch of bone was precisely targeted by the Slashes.
Under the assault of these countless Slashes, there was no possibility of dodging, nor any room for defense.
Malevolent Shrine's sure-hit effect made every slash strike its target precisely.
There was no need to aim, no need to track, no need to consider the target's trajectory. Within this domain, the sure-hit nature of the Slashes was itself a rule.
Once that rule took effect, it could not be defied.
Unless his opponent could use Domain Expansion to override the domain's sure-hit effect, defending against it was impossible.
"Aaaaah!"
Under the endless Slashes, the Soul Saint let out an utterly piercing scream.
His once incomparably hard skeletal frame shattered inch by inch under the endless Slashes, as though made of paper.
First came his arms. His saber-gripping hands were reduced to fragments by the Slashes. From fingertips to the backs of his hands, from wrist bones to forearms, his bones peeled away layer by layer, as though being carved apart by a thousand cuts from invisible blades.
Then came his legs. The Slashes cut in through the soles of his feet and spread upward along his shins. His knees shattered, his thigh bones snapped, and he crashed to his knees amid his screams, sending up a great splash.
Next came his torso. His ribs were severed one after another, and his spine groaned beneath the unbearable burden of the dense Slashes. Cracks spread outward from the center of every vertebra, covering his entire spinal column like a spiderweb.
Last came his skull.
Within the skeleton's eye sockets, those two points of ghostly green flame flickered wildly, reflecting countless Slashes closing in at once.
"No! Stop! I don't want to die!"
The Soul Saint frantically drove his Martial Soul Avatar, trying to condense a shield of Soul Power over the surface of his bones.
But the shield was sliced apart the instant it formed, unable to hold out for even a moment.
He wanted to escape the domain, throwing himself toward its boundary with all his strength, but whichever direction he charged, all that greeted him was a sky-blotting deluge of Slashes.
The domain's boundary was not a wall, but a curtain of death formed from countless Slashes. Anything that tried to pass through would instantly be sliced to pieces.
He had nowhere to flee.
Because the Slashes never stopped.
Every second before Malevolent Shrine disappeared, new Slashes formed. The Soul Saint's skeletal body kept shrinking within the torrent of Slashes, from five meters to four, from four meters to three. Layers of bone peeled away, layers of fragments scattered, as though a pair of invisible hands were stripping him apart layer by layer.
His screams went from piercing to hoarse, from hoarse to faint, until they finally vanished completely within the roar of the Slashes.
The skeleton's very last bone was sliced into powder.
Black, sinister Soul Power gushed from the shattered bones like a fountain of blood, trying to condense into human form, trying to make one last struggle.
But the Slashes did not spare even that mass of Soul Power.
Countless slash marks fell at once, cutting that mass of black Soul Power into countless tiny fragments, then into smaller fragments, then into particles invisible to the naked eye.
In the end, it was utterly reduced to ash drifting through the air.
Not even a wisp of his remnant soul remained.
Every trace of the Soul Saint's existence-his bones, his Soul Power, his consciousness, even his soul-was utterly sliced into powder by Malevolent Shrine's Slashes.
Lu Ren withdrew his hands, releasing the hand seal.
Malevolent Shrine's domain receded like the tide.
The platform of white bones slowly sank, the blood-colored clouds gradually dispersed, and the vermilion shrine seemed to be pressed back into the void by an invisible hand, vanishing without a trace.
The courtyard returned to its original appearance.
To avoid widespread casualties and unnecessary destruction, Lu Ren had changed the conditions of his Barrier Technique while expanding his domain, strictly confining Malevolent Shrine's effective range to the space between himself and that Soul Saint.
Within the domain, everything had turned to dust.
Outside the domain, every blade of grass and every tree remained unharmed.
Lu Ren stood where he was. Before him, only a cloud of slowly dispersing blood mist remained.
It was the final trace of the Soul Saint's existence in this world.
"Looks like even a Soul Saint can't withstand Domain Expansion."
"Although he used his Martial Soul Avatar and could resist the Slashes for a while, that was still because the gap between our cultivation levels was too great. If we were at the same level, he probably wouldn't have lasted even a second."
Lu Ren spoke unhurriedly, his tone calm.
He looked down at his hands, then at the dispersing cloud of blood mist, his expression barely changing.
"I already told you not to put pressure on me."
He sighed, a faint hint of innocence in his voice.
"See? The moment I get stressed, I can't help unleashing an ultimate move."
He sensed the Soul Saint's lingering presence. Rank seventy-one-he had only recently crossed the threshold into the Soul Saint realm.
Out in the wider world, he would have counted as a formidable figure in his own right.
But before Malevolent Shrine, he had not even had room to resist.
All one could say was that the concept of a "sure hit" was far too overpowered.
Unless someone possessed a domain of the same caliber to counter it, or a rule-based defensive ability, all defenses were futile before Malevolent Shrine.
One could say that a powerful fighter with a domain could crush those without one at will.
After all, the gap between having a domain and not having one was simply too great.
Not to mention that on the Douluo Continent, hardly anyone had a domain at all. Even those who did possessed, at most, something equivalent to a Simple Domain in Jujutsu Kaisen, capable only of neutralizing the sure-hit effect for a while. They could not hold out for long at all.
Thus, on the Douluo Continent, once Domain Expansion was unleashed, it could practically wipe out everyone, and even killing opponents above one's level was no problem.
Lu Ren gathered his thoughts and turned to look toward the other side.
Ji Juechen was still fighting.
The silvery-white longsword became a streak of flowing light in his hand, every strike carrying Sword Intent of the utmost sharpness.
That Sword Intent remained condensed without dispersing, forming a faint gray domain within three feet of him. It was "Loneliness," the domain he had created himself and comprehended during his battles with Lu Ren.
Though it was only an embryonic form, though its range was only three feet, for a swordsman, three feet was enough.
One of the Soul Emperors had already fallen to his sword.
That three-meter-tall skeleton had been cleaved from the crown of its skull to its pelvis in a single strike, neatly split into two halves.
Black, sinister Soul Power gushed from the severed surfaces, yet could not fuse the two halves of its body back together.
Because Ji Juechen's Sword Intent had already utterly destroyed the Soul Power structure inside the skeleton.
The other Soul Emperor was still desperately holding on. Most of the bone armor on his arms had been shaved away, exposing the ashen flesh beneath.
His blood-red eyes stared fixedly at Ji Juechen, filled with terror and unwillingness.
He wanted to fight back, but Ji Juechen's sword was too fast-so fast that he could not even make out the path of its edge and could only block again and again on instinct.
"Need a hand?"
Lu Ren's voice drifted over from the side.
"No need."
Ji Juechen coldly uttered those words.
His wrist turned, and his silvery-white longsword slipped into a gap in the Soul Emperor's defenses from a bizarre angle.
First, the blade flicked upward, knocking aside the arms crossed before his chest. Then it thrust.
The sword tip plunged precisely into the skeleton's eye socket, piercing that mass of ghostly green flame.
The Soul Emperor's scream cut off abruptly.
Ji Juechen withdrew his sword and slashed across.
The sword light was like a crescent moon, cutting into the side of the Soul Emperor's neck and cleaving diagonally downward, splitting his entire skeletal body in two.
His upper body slowly slid off along the cut and crashed onto the water, sending up a great splash.
Black Soul Power surged wildly from the severed surfaces, spreading through the air and dissipating.
Without the support of Soul Power, the skeleton's bones rapidly weathered away, turning into grayish-white powder that mingled with the water below.
Both Soul Emperors had been slain.
Ji Juechen sheathed his sword with crisp, decisive movements.
His clothes were covered in black bloodstains, and there were several small cuts on his face, but his breathing remained steady, his gaze still focused.
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