As soon as the words left his mouth, the Mourning Staff swept out!
In an instant, Yin Qi filled the sky and exploded.
The black-and-white divine light that Tang San had suppressed suddenly surged against the tide, transforming into a shadowy nether domain that blotted out the sky and sun!
Countless ghostly souls emerged from the void.
Some had disheveled hair, some had livid faces, and others dragged broken bodies behind them as they let out mournful wails.
Wherever the ghostly souls passed, the blood-red divine power crumbled.
The smugness had yet to fade from Tang San's face when he found himself surrounded by endless Yin Qi.
"This is bad!"
Alarm bells rang wildly in his mind. He hurriedly swung the Asura Sacred Sword, trying to cut through the ghostly souls before him.
But those souls seemed endless.
A single slash destroyed dozens, only for hundreds more to gather anew from the void in the blink of an eye, lunging at him through gaps in his divine power.
They were no ordinary departed souls, but Yin spirits summoned by the Underworld's divine authority.
Asura Divine Power could destroy their forms, but it could not easily halt the invasion of nether power.
To Tang San's even greater horror, he discovered that his divine power was being consumed at an astonishing rate.
That icy force clung to him like maggots on bone, steadily weakening the circulation of his divine power. Even his God King-level divine body felt a faint, piercing pain.
The next moment, Yue Guan suddenly appeared before him.
The Mourning Staff came crashing down straight at him!
Bang!
Tang San felt a heavy blow strike his chest, and he was sent flying backward.
Blood spilled from the corner of his mouth, and the Asura Sacred Sword nearly slipped from his grasp.
His imposing display of divine might vanished in an instant.
"How is this possible?!"
Tang San stared at Yue Guan in disbelief.
He had clearly driven his opponent into a desperate corner, so how could Yue Guan unleash such terrifying power in the blink of an eye?
Could everything before this have been an act?
The moment that thought surfaced, a chill shot straight through Tang San's mind.
He had been toyed with!
From beginning to end, Yue Guan had never truly been at a disadvantage.
His supposed retreat at every step had been nothing more than a deliberate show of weakness, luring Tang San into continually consuming his divine power before suddenly counterattacking when he attacked with all his strength and exposed an opening!
Realizing this, Tang San's expression turned exceptionally ugly.
Meanwhile, in the Divine Realm, the other four God Kings could no longer remain calm.
The Destruction God King stared at the sky screen, a grave look appearing on his usually stern face.
"A single White Impermanence of the Underworld can actually suppress the Asura God King?"
The Goddess of Life frowned slightly, her gaze falling on the strange nether domain.
"Moreover, the power he commands is entirely different from that of the Divine Realm. It isn't simply divine power, but seems more like a law independent of the Divine Realm's system."
The God King of Goodness and the Evil God King exchanged a glance, each seeing the barely concealed shock in the other's eyes.
Although they had noticed the Underworld's existence before, they had never truly placed it on equal footing with the Divine Realm.
After all, throughout their long lives, the Divine Realm had always ruled over the many planes.
But now, a former elder of Spirit Hall had driven Tang San into such a predicament in a direct confrontation!
What did this mean?
It meant that the Underworld not only possessed a means of resurrecting the dead, but also had powerful combatants capable of contending with the Divine Realm!
"It seems we must reassess this Underworld."
The Destruction God King spoke in a low voice.
The Life God King nodded slowly, her expression more serious than ever.
"If there are more beings like him in the Underworld, I'm afraid things won't be as simple as we imagined."
Inside the Asura Sacred Hall.
The Shrek Seven Devils were even more shocked by the scene before them, rendered speechless.
Tang San was being beaten to a pulp!
Their Third Brother, who had once led them as they grew stronger and ultimately ascended to the position of God King, was being suppressed by a White Impermanence, unable to fight back!
Dai Mubai's face went pale. Ma Hongjun opened his mouth, but for a long time, he could not say a word.
Ning Rongrong and Oscar exchanged glances, their eyes full of terror.
They knew Tang San's strength well.
Precisely because they knew, they found the reality before them all the harder to accept.
Xiao Wu was so anxious that her eyes turned red.
"Third Brother! How could this happen? How could Third Brother be suppressed?"
She instinctively stepped forward, as though merely getting closer to the sky screen would let her shield Tang San from that fatal blow.
But she soon realized that she could not intervene in this battle between God Kings at all.
Even lending Tang San her Sea God Divine Power had done nothing to change the situation.
Instead, it had put Tang San at an even greater disadvantage!
"No! This can't go on!"
Xiao Wu bit her lip and cried out urgently.
"Third Brother, go! Get out of there, quickly!"
On the sky screen, after blocking another of Yue Guan's attacks, Tang San staggered backward.
He looked at the ghostly souls closing in around him, then at White Impermanence, who still wore a smile as he held the Mourning Staff. At last, he realized a fact he could scarcely accept.
If he kept fighting, he might really die here!
As the Divine Realm's Asura God King, when had he ever been reduced to such a sorry state?
But now, Tang San could no longer afford to care about his pride.
Facing White Impermanence Yue Guan, who pressed him at every step, he had only one thought left.
Run!
I have to get out of here immediately!
As Tang San fled in a sorry state, the blood-red divine light that had shrouded the sky above Spirit City's ruins finally began to crumble.
Mourning Staff in hand, White Impermanence Yue Guan looked in the direction Tang San had fled, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes.
Seeing that the Asura God King was about to be stopped for good, he had intended to continue the pursuit and teach him a proper lesson.
But before Yue Guan could act, several powerful fluctuations of divine power came from the distant void in quick succession.
The next moment, the Shrek Seven Devils suddenly appeared!
Xiao Wu, Dai Mubai, Zhu Zhuqing, Oscar, Ning Rongrong, and Ma Hongjun charged straight toward Tang San with scarcely a moment's hesitation.
In the end, they could not stand by and watch Tang San die here.
That was their Third Brother!
He was also the central figure who had led them as they grew stronger and ultimately ascended to the Divine Realm!
Although the Shrek Seven Devils had each held different views when faced with the Underworld before, they still could not stand aside and do nothing when Tang San truly faced a life-or-death crisis.
"Quick! Save Third Brother first!"
Xiao Wu's anxious voice rang through the void.
They all channeled their divine power at once, forming protective barriers around the gravely wounded Tang San.
Faced with this formation, White Impermanence Yue Guan did not continue his pursuit.
He merely stood where he was, a smile that was not quite a smile playing at his lips, as though everything happening before him was just as he had expected.
Tang San was rescued.
But that did not mean Yue Guan had lost.
On the contrary, in this confrontation, Tang San was the one who had been utterly toyed with!
The sky screen also clearly displayed this scene to the various factions across the Douluo Continent.
The kings and nobles who had been shouting so loudly all wore stiff expressions, as though someone had slapped them hard across the face.
They had thought Tang San could easily kill Yue Guan, but who would have imagined that the Shrek Seven Devils would have to personally intervene to save him in the end!
Even the Asura God King had to flee in a sorry state.
Just what was the origin of this Underworld?
Even more unsettling was that the strength Yue Guan had displayed was clearly not the full extent of the Underworld's foundation.
If the Underworld had more experts like him, what were factions like theirs, which had once relied on the Divine Realm's backing to bully others, supposed to do?
For a time, a pall of gloom settled over countless hearts.
In stark contrast, the Underworld's Fengdu Hall was already filled with laughter and cheer.
Chen Yuan sat upright on his lofty throne, watching Tang San flee in a sorry state on the sky screen, his face full of undisguised delight.
"Tsk, tsk."
"Even Little Scumbag has seen a day like this. Now that's a rare sight."
That casually delivered remark immediately made the gods in the hall struggle to hold back their laughter.
Bibi Dong raised a hand to cover her smile, her face full of satisfaction.
In the past, Tang San had driven her into a desperate corner, leaving her unable even to hold her own life in her hands.
Now, however, Tang San's lofty status as the Asura God King had become a joke before Yue Guan.
How could such a contrast not be satisfying?
Qian Daoliu likewise stroked his beard and smiled.
In his view, Tang San had brought this outcome entirely upon himself.
When Spirit Hall had fallen, how many experts had perished, and how many Soul Masters had been left without a home?
And now, not only had the former members of Spirit Hall not truly perished, they had regained divine positions in the Underworld and could even turn the tables and hunt down a God King of the Divine Realm!
This cycle of cause and effect could not have been more satisfying.
Besides, White Impermanence Yue Guan was a god of their Underworld.
One of their own had sent a God King of the Divine Realm fleeing in panic. This was not merely Yue Guan's victory, but the glory of the entire Underworld!
"Hahaha! So much for the Asura God King!"
"Let's see whether those so-called experts of the Divine Realm can still sit still when Black Impermanence appears on the sky screen too!"
"With the Great Emperor of Fengdu presiding here, what does a mere Divine Realm amount to?"
For a time, laughter rang through Fengdu Hall.
Chen Yuan did not stop them.
He simply watched the sky screen with interest, as though he had already begun to look forward to what would appear next.
And before the gods' laughter had died down, a vast, icy voice suddenly rang out once more from the sky screen.
[Ninth place, Black Impermanence Ghost Douluo!]