The terrifying commotion that had shaken the earth and mountains gradually subsided.
Dongyang City, which had once stood on the coastline, had been utterly destroyed by the tsunami Lijing summoned. Broken walls, severed limbs, and scraps of flesh filled the view.
A vast crater had appeared in the shallows just offshore. The terrifying destructive power of the Class 8 Fixed Soul Cannon Shell, a weapon capable of reshaping the terrain, had left the beach looking as though it had been struck by a meteor.
The seawater had yet to clear, and countless severed limbs and scraps of flesh still floated in it. Blood, mud, sand, and stone fragments had turned the water as murky as slop, and a pungent, nauseating stench rose from it.
On the surface of the sea, countless Soul Rings of every color occupied every inch of space, like stars filling the sky.
Dongyang City had been wiped out. Not one of its hundreds of thousands of inhabitants had survived the tsunami.
The Sea Soul Beasts had suffered crippling losses. Of the tens of thousands of them, fewer than five percent were still alive. Under the impact of the Class 8 Fixed Soul Cannon Shell, only those at the edges had been pushed into the sea and escaped serious harm. The rest had been ground to scraps in the Soul Power storm.
"Boom!"
The filthy surface of the water exploded, and Lijing burst out of the sea and floated above it, her body covered in charred black patches that gave her a broken sort of beauty.
Her face was grim, and pale blue blood flowed from her mouth. The once-translucent scales on her long, beautiful fishtail had shattered in great numbers, exposing charred, mangled flesh.
Her presence had weakened to the very limit.
A Class 8 Fixed Soul Cannon Shell was equivalent to a full-power strike from a Titled Douluo. As a member of the Mermaid Clan, Lijing had never possessed a particularly strong body, nor did she have any powerful defensive Soul Skills.
Having exhausted herself creating the tsunami, Lijing should have been grievously wounded and knocked unconscious on the spot after taking such a blow head-on.
But the shrimp soldier and crab general that subsequently rose from the seawater explained why Lijing's injuries were not as severe as expected.
The lobster's shell was covered in cracks, and its lightly cooked flesh gave off a fresh, meaty aroma that brought sad tears to the corners of the crab's mouth beside it. One of its two enormous claws had broken clean off, and blue blood similar to Lijing's flowed from the cracks in its shell.
The crab was not as badly injured as the lobster. Though great patches of its shell were charred black and its underlying color had turned somewhat red, as if it had been cooked, the shell had not cracked. Its worst injury was the loss of three of its eight legs.
"I, the thickest crab!"
The crab shell put in the work!
Compared with the wretched lobster, the crab could even be described as unscathed if one ignored its three missing legs.
It was thanks to the shrimp soldier and crab general's protection that Lijing's injuries were much lighter than expected.
Though the two of them were far inferior to Lijing, a Ferocious Beast, in strength and cultivation, when it came to defense, Lijing could not have caught up with them even on horseback.
But Lijing and the shrimp soldier and crab general were all feeling somewhat downcast.
Looking at the Soul Rings of every color stretching across the sea as far as the eye could see, Lijing shed two hot tears from her reddened eyes.
"Little sister... I've avenged you," Lijing said, her voice trembling and her words filled with profound sorrow. "But the price our Ice Sea paid was far too great."
"Let's go!"
After gathering the surviving Sea Soul Beasts, Lijing turned and departed with the shrimp soldier and crab general.
Only after Lijing and the other Soul Beasts had vanished into the depths of the Ice Sea did the Red and White Colliding Calamities Domain, which covered the entire battlefield, reveal its true face.
A hundred ghosts crawled out of every shadowy corner and excitedly began to plunder the battlefield, feasting on the negative emotions and soul power left behind by countless dead beings.
A feast!
This was a true feast!
The hundreds of thousands of dead beings had left a layer of resentment so thick it had nearly taken physical form above the ruins of Dongyang City. The gray-black mist all but blotted out the sunlight, and souls unwilling to accept death turned into resentful spirits in their fear, floating within the clouds of resentment and shrieking shrilly.
They were not just the resentful spirits of humans and Soul Masters, but also those of countless Sea Soul Beasts.
In life, they had fought to the death at the cost of their lives, and in death, they had not forgotten their hatred. They longed to rip out one another's sinews, flay one another alive, eat one another's flesh raw, and drink one another's blood while it still flowed.
Their souls tore and fought at one another in the clouds formed from resentment, endlessly venting the resentment, anger, and fear within their souls on their opponents.
But the battle was one-sided, with the human souls holding the advantage, even though the Sea Soul Beasts had been stronger, every one of them comparable to a Soul Master, and their spiritual power had far exceeded that of the ordinary people in Dongyang City.
Their souls, however, were inferior to those of the more intelligent humans.
Humans thought more and were more clever, so when faced with death, their negative emotions naturally exceeded those of the simple-minded Sea Soul Beasts.
What was more, hundreds of thousands of humans had died in Dongyang City. Even if only one percent became resentful spirits, there would still be thousands of them.
The brutal, mindless resentful spirits would tirelessly rush forward and bite, unafraid of destruction, even when faced with the soul of a dead Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
The resentful spirit of Dongyang City's lord was the most savage and vicious of them all. He grabbed a Sea Soul Beast's soul in each hand and stuffed them into his mouth, refining them in an instant after swallowing them.
But once Ming Zhao's hundred ghosts were summoned, all the souls of the dead that had been fighting one another became nourishment for the ghosts, who tore them apart and devoured every last scrap of their pure soul power and negative emotions.
Even the lord of Dongyang City had his chest pierced by Zhang Lexuan's sharp fingernails, painted blood red, and she gulped down the power of his soul like an ox drinking water.
The moment before he vanished completely, the lord of Dongyang City seemed to come to his senses and understand a few things. He turned his head and looked with venomous eyes at the indifferent young man overlooking the feast of devouring from midair.
In the next instant, the city lord died completely, his soul scattered and destroyed.
Lijing could not bear to see these dead souls denied peace even after death, yet she was powerless to solve the problem. She could only flee with the Sea Soul Beasts, eager to avoid it.
Ming Zhao, however, had no such feelings.
This natural gu-breeding ground was the result of his guidance, step by step. In this slaughterhouse, he intended to raise a true malevolent ghost, a true gu king!
After this "scavenger" had devoured every scrap of flesh, every soul, and all the negative emotions in the ruins of Dongyang City, the terrifying sight of resentment soaring to the heavens and corpses carpeting the ground vanished from the area.
Only the ruins left by the great battle still spoke of everything that had happened here.
He, Ming Zhao, had made an unimaginable contribution to purifying the Douluo Continent and delivering resentful spirits and malevolent ghosts!
And the increase in his cultivation was the reward he deserved as a scavenger!
"Hahahahaha..."
Looking at the hundred evil ghosts before him, all radiating dense primordial purple Qi and emanating a sinister, chilling presence, Ming Zhao burst into exhilarated laughter.
The hundred ghosts were all Soul Saints!