As Black Impermanence Ghost Douluo finished asking for instructions, a brief silence fell over Fengdu Grand Hall.
Seated high upon the throne, Chen Yuan lowered his eyes and looked down. Netherworld divine light flowed across his pitch-black imperial robes, as though countless stars were being born and extinguished within their depths.
Chen Yuan did not give Black Impermanence's request much thought. He merely nodded slightly.
"Go."
"Establish an outpost on Douluo Star for our Underworld."
The words were simple, yet they seemed to carry an unquestionable majesty.
Black Impermanence Ghost Douluo immediately bowed and accepted the order.
"I shall obey Your Majesty's decree!"
As his voice fell, eerie ghostly Qi surged, and the entire Fengdu Grand Hall seemed to tremble slightly at the sound.
The ghosts and gods of the Underworld present all showed their approval.
Neither Qian Daoliu, once the Great Enshrined of Spirit Hall, nor Bibi Dong, the Pope who had once ruled Spirit Hall, had any objection.
On the contrary, a hint of anticipation appeared in both their eyes.
They had waited far too long for this day.
How glorious had Spirit Hall once been?
The Pope's Palace had stood in awe-inspiring majesty, the Elder Hall's experts had been as numerous as clouds, and countless Soul Masters had taken pride in joining Spirit Hall.
Back then, Spirit Hall had even possessed the power to change the balance of the entire Douluo Continent.
Unfortunately, with the conflicts of the past and the Divine Realm's interference, that glory had ultimately been reduced to ruins.
Spirit City had fallen into ruin, the Pope's Palace had been toppled, and the once-exalted experts of Spirit Hall could only continue their existence in another form within the Underworld.
Even so, they had never truly let go of Spirit Hall.
Now, the Underworld had displayed strength enough to make the Divine Realm wary.
If that was the case, why continue hiding in the Netherworld?
The Underworld needed a foothold in the mortal world.
And the former Spirit City could not have been a more fitting choice!
It held the old site of Spirit Hall, the foundation Spirit Hall had left behind, and the glory that countless Soul Masters still remembered to this day.
If they could use it as a starting point, the Underworld would truly be able to cross the boundary between yin and yang and extend its power to Douluo Star.
And Spirit Hall would also see a revival in the truest sense!
"Black and White Impermanence joining forces-that's something to look forward to."
Ning Lingxiao stood to one side of the hall, looking at Black Impermanence Ghost Douluo, a trace of emotion in his voice.
He knew full well that, after receiving the heavenly screen's rewards, Ghost Douluo was no longer the Titled Douluo who could only rely on his Ghost Martial Soul in battle.
His Soul Power had risen, the Soul-Summoning Banner had advanced, his body had been reconstructed, and he had gained the new talent of Soul Devouring.
The current Black Impermanence possessed power at the God King Level!
Even in the Divine Realm, someone like him was by no means a figure who could be casually ignored.
What was more, Black Impermanence held the Soul-Summoning Banner, which was made specifically to suppress evil souls.
What made this supreme treasure truly terrifying had never been merely its ability to capture souls and spirits.
It was that the evil souls suppressed by the Soul-Summoning Banner could become a source of power for Black Impermanence when he fought his enemies.
The stronger the evil souls, the more dangerous the Soul-Summoning Banner became.
If he could bring that power to its utmost, he might well be able to put up a fight even against a God King of the same level!
"With Black Impermanence personally holding the fort, those petty troublemakers on Douluo Star shouldn't be able to stir up much of a storm."
Bibi Dong spoke calmly, a trace of coldness in her eyes.
Hearing this, Qian Daoliu also nodded slowly.
"Indeed."
"Spirit Hall has been silent for too long."
"Now that we have a chance to rise again, there's no reason to keep waiting."
Their words were quiet, but they voiced what the gods of the Underworld were feeling at that moment.
The Douluo Star of today was no longer the Douluo Star of old.
The Divine Realm stood high above, while Tang San and the others relied on their status as gods, vainly seeking to use divine power to control the mortal world.
Under such circumstances, if the Underworld never truly set foot in the mortal world, those people would inevitably mistake it for nothing more than a power hiding in the shadows.
If so, then let everyone on Douluo Star see with their own eyes.
Let them see just what kind of power the Underworld possessed!
At that thought, Chen Yuan raised a finger and lightly tapped the armrest of his throne.
"Go."
"I shall be waiting to see how you perform."
Black Impermanence Ghost Douluo bowed once more.
The next moment, pitch-black ghostly Qi soared into the sky.
With a low ghostly howl, Black Impermanence's figure turned into a streak of dim light, shooting through Fengdu Grand Hall and racing toward the boundary between yin and yang!
At the same time, the image on the heavenly screen abruptly changed.
The deep, solemn Fengdu Grand Hall gradually faded away, replaced by ruins shrouded beneath dark clouds.
Broken stone pillars lay across the ground, only charred walls remained of the ruined palaces, and the once-glorious buildings were long gone.
This was the site of Spirit City!
The place that had once symbolized Spirit Hall's supreme authority was now a desolate wasteland.
And amid those ruins, a figure in white stood silently.
White Impermanence Yue Guan wore a plain white robe, its hems snapping in the chill wind.
The tall white hat on his head was particularly conspicuous. The Mourning Staff in his hand gleamed with a faint, cold light, and the yin Qi flowing along it was utterly at odds with the world around him.
Yet Yue Guan felt no discomfort whatsoever.
To Yue Guan as he was now, these ruins were no ill-omened place.
On the contrary, they held his memories of the past.
Here stood the Spirit Hall he had served, and here lay the years he had spent fighting shoulder to shoulder with so many old friends.
Now those old friends remained, but Spirit Hall had fallen into ruin.
No matter what, Yue Guan hoped to see this land come back to life with his own eyes.
Just then, the sky suddenly darkened.
The clouds that had hung on the horizon began to churn wildly, as though drawn by some force.
Immediately afterward, a deep black fissure tore open the heavens.
Endless Netherworld Qi poured from the fissure, turning into a roiling black tide that swept across the entire sky in an instant!
A figure slowly emerged from the center of the black tide.
Clad in black robes, wreathed in ghostly Qi.
The face that had once made countless Soul Masters feel oppressed now bore an even more heart-stirring majesty.
Black Impermanence Ghost Douluo.
When the two figures looked at each other across the distance, some ancient echo seemed to ring out between heaven and earth.
One white, one black.
One wielded a Mourning Staff, the other held a Soul-Summoning Banner.
The chill wind howled, and ghostly Qi soared into the sky.
Two utterly different Netherworld presences, yet born from the same source, answered one another at that moment!
Before the heavenly screen, countless people of Douluo Star involuntarily held their breath.
"Wait! Look at his presence!"
"Heavens, that power... Could he have broken through to the God King level?"
As cries of astonishment rang out one after another, more and more people noticed that something was different.
The Ghost Douluo before them now was a completely different person from the one they remembered.
Though the Ghost Douluo of old had been powerful, he had ultimately still fallen within the bounds of a Soul Master.
But now, the pressure emanating from him was so great that many high-level Soul Masters could not even look directly at him!
It was as though the figure standing before them was no longer a mortal expert, but a true Netherworld deity walking the earth!
And among the ruins of Spirit City, Qian Renxue's eyes had long since filled with tears.
Looking at the two figures, one black and one white, on the heavenly screen, Qian Renxue clenched her hands tightly.
The two elders who had once protected Spirit Hall were finally standing side by side again!
Qian Renxue knew better than anyone what this scene meant.
When Spirit Hall had fallen, Qian Renxue had lost too much.
Family had departed, old friends had fallen, and the glory of the past had shattered with them.
Even now that she knew Qian Daoliu and Bibi Dong still existed in the Underworld, the regret in Qian Renxue's heart had never truly disappeared.
Because what she wanted had never been merely for her old friends to survive.
She wanted those who had once fought shoulder to shoulder to gather together again.
Now, that wish finally had a chance of coming true!
"Grandfather..."
Qian Renxue looked at the heavenly screen, her voice trembling slightly.
"Mother..."
"Can you see this?"
"Spirit Hall... really does still have hope!"
Tears slid down her cheeks.
But this time, there was no despair in Qian Renxue's eyes, only irrepressible excitement.
She had seen it.
That dawn, once impossibly distant, was gradually illuminating Spirit Hall's shattered future!
Meanwhile, Ghost Douluo slowly raised his head in the image on the heavenly screen.
His gaze swept over his surroundings before finally settling on the ruined site of Spirit City.
Memories of the past welled up in his heart.
He had once fought alongside his companions here, and he had witnessed Spirit Hall's glory here as well.
And now, he had returned.
The difference was that this time, he was no longer the Titled Douluo who could only walk in the shadows.
He was Black Impermanence of the Underworld! The Netherworld God King who wielded the Soul-Summoning Banner!
And a ghost god who had come on the Great Emperor of Fengdu's orders to establish an outpost in the mortal world for the Underworld!
"Since I'm here..."
Ghost Douluo slowly raised his right hand, and pitch-black ghostly Qi immediately gathered in his palm.
"Then let this world remember the name of Black Impermanence first!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a terrifying presence erupted.
The black clouds in the sky spun wildly, and the already gloomy heavens transformed in an instant into a boundless abyss of darkness!
Countless ghostly wails came from the depths of the abyss.
It was as though tens of millions of evil ghosts were awakening, or as though some long-silent Netherworld gate was about to be forced open!
Yue Guan stood nearby, a trace of surprise flashing in his eyes.
"Old Ghost, you're making a much bigger commotion than you used to."
Hearing this, Ghost Douluo turned his head and glanced at Yue Guan.
"What?"
"Scared?"
"What a joke!"
Yue Guan gave a soft snort and lightly tapped the Mourning Staff in his hand against the ground.
"I'd like to see just what could get a fellow like you so excited!"
The two exchanged a look, then laughed at the same time.
In that moment, their old understanding seemed to return.
The black and white duo stood side by side once more!
And the instant Yue Guan's words fell, Ghost Douluo suddenly looked up, an eerie light blazing in his eyes.
"Banner, come!"
The thunderous shout shook the heavens!
In an instant, wind and clouds surged backward across the heavenly screen.
An enormous Soul-Summoning Banner, black as ink, emerged with a rumble from the boundless darkness!
Compared with before, the Soul-Summoning Banner had clearly undergone an astonishing transformation.
The banner was no longer merely an illusion formed from condensed yin Qi. Instead, it seemed to be woven from countless Netherworld Laws.
On the pitch-black banner, strange patterns slowly lit up, one after another.
Each pattern resembled a road leading into the depths of the Netherworld.
And across the banner, the illusory forms of countless evil souls flickered in and out of sight.
Some had savage faces, some were shaped like withered skeletons, some had incomplete bodies, and others were wrapped from head to toe in blood-colored chains.
At a glance, it was as though the entire Soul-Summoning Banner had become an endless purgatory!
Terrifying yin Qi swept out from the banner.
Wherever it passed, the clouds in the sky instantly froze an eerie black.
Even the broken stones among the ruins of Spirit City trembled ceaselessly under the pressure of that power!
Immediately afterward, a scene that made everyone's scalp tingle appeared.
The moment the Soul-Summoning Banner appeared, the whole of Douluo Star seemed to answer some kind of summons.
Whether in remote mountain ranges, desolate ancient lands, or dark corners seldom visited by anyone, strange changes occurred at that very moment!
Eerie black shadows emerged from beneath the earth, one after another.
Clouds of pitch-black mist rose from abandoned graveyards.
Some evil souls that had lain hidden in dark places, existing by devouring the resentment of living beings, also snapped their eyes open!
They instinctively sensed the presence of the Soul-Summoning Banner.
It was a pressure that came from the depths of their souls.
And a threat they could not endure!
To these evil souls, the Soul-Summoning Banner was no ordinary artifact.
It was a terrifying existence that could forcibly suppress them, strip them of their freedom, and even send them into the Eighteen Levels of Hell!
They were unwilling to be bound.
Still less were they willing to lose the freedom they had finally managed to obtain!
Thus, after a brief commotion, countless evil souls let out piercing shrieks in unison.
The next moment, ten thousand ghosts surged into motion!
Rumble!
A black tide of souls converged from every direction.
They turned into black mist that blotted out the sky, carrying a suffocating, chilling presence as they surged madly toward the ruins of Spirit City!
Across the sky, ghostly figures crowded upon one another.
Beneath the ground, Yin Qi churned.
Countless evil souls gathered together, forming a black wave with no end in sight!
The scene was like the end of the world!
Beyond the heavenly screen, the people of Douluo Star stared in utter disbelief.
"What... what on earth is that?"
"Why are there so many evil souls?"
"Are they all charging at Ghost Douluo?!"
"That's insane! With that many evil souls, even a Titled Douluo would be gnawed down to the last bone if he went in!"
A Soul Master gazed at the scene on the heavenly screen, his face as white as paper.
He had once heard legends about evil souls.
Those souls that lingered in the world, weighed down by deep resentment, were often harder to deal with than ordinary Soul Masters.
Even if an ordinary Soul Master could defeat them, it was difficult to destroy them completely.
More frightening still, evil souls could often use dark surroundings to conceal themselves, waiting for a chance to devour the minds and souls of living beings.
If their numbers reached a certain point, they could even plunge an entire city into panic!
But what about now?
The evil souls on the heavenly screen numbered far more than hundreds or thousands!
They were simply beyond counting!
At such a terrifying number, not to mention ordinary Soul Masters, even some high-level Soul Masters felt a chill seep into their bones.
"Can Ghost Douluo... really hold them off?"
Someone could not help murmuring to himself.
No one answered.
Everyone was too shocked by the scene before them to speak.
Meanwhile, in the Divine Realm, the atmosphere had also become exceptionally grim.
Tang San sat in the Asura God Temple, his gaze fixed on the heavenly screen.
When he saw the evil souls blotting out the sky as they surged toward Ghost Douluo, his pupils abruptly contracted.
"So many?"
Even Tang San, as he was now, had to admit that such a scene was far beyond his expectations.
He had once thought that the so-called Soul-Summoning Banner was, at most, a special divine artifact capable of binding souls.
But from the looks of things now, its true purpose was probably far greater than that!
If all these evil souls possessed some degree of combat ability, then gathered together, they would form an extremely terrifying force.
Even a God King could not afford to take them lightly!
What made Tang San even more uneasy was that Ghost Douluo seemed to have no intention of avoiding them.
Faced with this mass of evil souls blotting out the sky, he had actually chosen to stand at the center of the storm!
What on earth is this guy trying to do?
Is he really planning to fight the evil souls of all Douluo Star by himself?
At that thought, Tang San's expression grew increasingly dark.
Beside him, Xiao Wu could not help tightening her grip on Tang San's arm.
"Brother..."
Xiao Wu looked at the heavenly screen, her voice trembling slightly.
"If we were faced with so many evil souls, what would we do?"
Dai Mubai, Zhu Zhuqing, and the others were silent as well.
They were all gods who had fought in countless battles.
Even so, faced with an evil soul tide of such magnitude, they still found it hard to remain calm.
This was no longer a simple matter of being overwhelmed by numbers.
It was a netherworld storm that could devour everything!
Yu Xiaogang stood beside them, his expression uglier than ever.
Not long ago, Yu Xiaogang had confidently insisted that as long as the gods of the Divine Realm joined forces, they would be able to find the Underworld's weakness.
But now, looking at the evil souls blotting out the sky on the heavenly screen, Yu Xiaogang felt a chill shoot straight to the top of his head.
The bold words he had spoken earlier were of no use whatsoever now.
He even began to wonder whether he was qualified to take part in a war of this level.
After all, even a God King like Tang San had been forced back again and again by the Underworld.
And now Ghost Douluo had displayed a power that defied belief.
If Black Impermanence could really use the Soul-Summoning Banner to suppress ten thousand ghosts, just how terrifying were the Underworld's foundations?
Yu Xiaogang did not dare think any further.
But the less he dared to think about it, the more vividly the Eighteen Levels of Hell appeared in his mind.
Those chilling punishments, those endless torments...
If the Underworld really considers me an evildoer, and I end up in a place like that...
Yu Xiaogang shuddered involuntarily.
Just then, Xiao Wu spoke again.
"Teacher, do you think we can really defeat a monster like that?"
At those words, everyone in the Asura God Temple turned to look at Yu Xiaogang.
They all wanted to know what answer this grandmaster of theory, who had just proposed uniting the Divine Realm to find the Underworld's weakness, would give.
The muscles in Yu Xiaogang's face twitched slightly.
Fear? Of course he felt it!
Who could face such power without fear?
But before Tang San and the Shrek Seven Devils, how could Yu Xiaogang so readily admit that he had lost confidence?
Besides, Ghost Douluo had yet to truly display his full strength.
What if?
What if those evil souls really could devour Ghost Douluo?
As long as Ghost Douluo fell, the Underworld would have one fewer God King Level powerhouse.
That would undoubtedly be good news for the Divine Realm!
At that thought, Yu Xiaogang forcibly suppressed his fear and gave a cold snort, pretending to be calm.
"Hmph!"
"Whether he can even survive is still uncertain!"