This strike pierces the stars
Sword light and ice rained down from the sky.
Vast swaths of Abundance plants shattered.
Yet the golden-green light on the Ebon Deer still had not been completely extinguished.
Farther away.
Life force continued to converge.
Lin Yuan held the bowstring taut.
The starlight on the arrowhead had grown so brilliant it was almost blinding.
He could not delay any longer.
"Teacher!"
He suddenly shouted.
"Hold it in place!"
Guang Ling did not even turn his head.
They had been master and disciple for years.
That single sentence was enough for him to understand what Lin Yuan intended to do.
"All right!"
The ice-blue divine bow was drawn in an instant.
Soul Power erupted.
An arrow of ice condensed on the bowstring.
Guang Ling's gaze locked firmly onto the Ebon Deer.
"For this old man-"
"Stay put!"
Thrum!
The arrow left the string!
It did not fly toward the Ebon Deer's vitals.
Instead, it slammed straight into the ground beneath its feet!
Boom-!
Freezing cold erupted!
Ice-blue light spread wildly upward along the Ebon Deer's four hooves.
The ground froze.
The vines froze.
Even the Ebon Deer's enormous body was once again covered in a thick layer of ice.
"Yooo-!!"
The Ebon Deer struggled frantically.
Crack!
The ice began to fracture.
Yet at that very instant.
Chen Xin had already raised his right hand.
He pressed two fingers together.
His sword fingers pointed skyward.
The Seven Kill Sword hovered before him.
"Might that shakes-"
Sword intent surged into the heavens!
"The eight directions!"
Thrum-!
A sword rang out.
Then came.
A second.
A third!
Several enormous phantoms of the Seven Kill Sword instantly condensed around the Ebon Deer.
East.
West.
South.
North!
The sword points fell together!
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
The giant swords plunged fiercely into the earth!
Sword Qi swept in all directions.
Forcibly trapping the Ebon Deer in their midst!
The Ebon Deer threw back its head and roared.
Golden light surged wildly over its antlers.
Yet the Seven Kill Sword Qi surrounding it formed a cage, sealing off every last route of retreat.
Ice bound its body.
The sword formation blocked its path.
It had nowhere left to flee.
Chen Xin sharply turned toward Lin Yuan.
"Now!"
Lin Yuan did not answer.
Because at that moment.
There were no other sounds left in his world.
The wind fell silent.
The explosions fell silent.
The deer's cries fell silent.
Even the terrifying Soul Power fluctuations of the surrounding Titled Douluo seemed to recede at that moment.
In his eyes.
Only the Ebon Deer remained.
And-
The arrow.
The Imperial Bow had already been drawn to its limit.
An azure-blue arrow rested on the string.
Starlight flowed ceaselessly.
And behind Lin Yuan.
That phantom that could not be looked upon directly had likewise drawn its bowstring fully taut.
He stood in a distant sea of stars.
The direction of His arrowhead.
Aligned perfectly with Lin Yuan's.
The Ebon Deer.
Was the prey.
Lin Yuan slowly exhaled.
The hand holding the string.
Grew completely steady.
He spoke softly.
His voice was very quiet.
Yet it seemed to pass across the entire battlefield.
"This strike..."
The starlight suddenly blazed.
"Pierces the stars."
He released.
Thrum-!
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
Only an exceptionally clear note from the bowstring.
The next moment.
The sky-blue arrow-
Vanished.
It was too fast.
So fast that the Titled Douluo present saw only a slender blue line flash between heaven and earth.
The Ebon Deer abruptly raised its head.
Within its pupils.
Blue light flashed.
Pfft.
The arrow pierced the space between its brows.
And emerged from the back of its head.
Time seemed to freeze for an instant.
The Ebon Deer's enormous body stiffened where it stood.
On its forehead.
A tiny hole was clearly visible.
No blood gushed out.
No flesh exploded.
Only a wisp of azure-blue light slowly brightened within the wound.
The next moment-
Boom!
The terrifying power of The Hunt erupted fully within the Ebon Deer!
It threw back its head and let out an utterly heartrending cry.
"Yooo-!!!"
The sound cut off abruptly.
Azure-blue cracks instantly spread across its entire head.
Its antlers.
Its eyes.
Its neck.
They spread all the way down its enormous body.
And that arrow-
Had not stopped.
After piercing through the Ebon Deer.
It continued forward.
In an instant, it crossed Heaven Dou City.
In the next instant.
It had already vanished at the farthest reach of everyone's sight.
Guang Ling looked up.
Chen Xin looked up.
Qian Jun, Jiang Mo, Pufferfish, and even Snake Lance, who was fighting Yao Kurong, instinctively looked into the distance.
Across the horizon.
Only a straight azure-blue trail remained.
Extending all the way to the limits of sight.
That arrow was still flying.
Past Heaven Dou City.
Past the plains.
Past the mountains.
Its speed had not diminished in the slightest.
Countless Soul Masters along its path felt only that the sky had suddenly lit up.
When he raised his head-
He saw a sky-blue "meteor" streak across the heavens.
It flashed over the Heaven Dou Empire.
Trailing a long streak of starlight.
All the way toward the far reaches of the Douluo Continent-
It raced away.
The arrow's light streaked across the heavens.
Its speed reached the absolute limit.
Heaven Dou City rapidly receded behind it.
Mountains.
Rivers.
Towns.
All were left behind by that sky-blue streak of light.
There was no thunderous roar.
Only a long, thin trail of starlight, cleaving the entire sky in two.
Star Dou Great Forest.
The core region.
The Lake of Life was as still as a mirror.
By the lake.
A black-clad figure suddenly opened his eyes.
Di Tian.
He abruptly looked up.
High in the heavens.
A sky-blue meteor streaked past!
In that single instant.
Its presence made his pupils contract slightly.
Sharp.
Cold.
Unwavering.
Without the slightest hesitation.
Without even the faintest intention of turning back.
That was not a power of the Douluo Continent.
But Di Tian knew where it came from.
Many years ago.
That will, suspended high above the sea of stars, had briefly descended upon this world.
The Ancient Tree of Abundance had been obliterated by a single arrow.
Amid the stars.
That being had also left His gaze upon them.
Di Tian would not forget.
Much less mistake it for anything else.
This was-
The Hunt.
The sky-blue arrow's light had already swept past Star Dou Great Forest.
It continued flying toward the edge of the continent.
Higher and higher.
Farther and farther.
In the end, it even broke free of the clouds.
Charging toward the higher heavens.
Di Tian stood beside the Lake of Life.
Silently watching that starlight recede.
Until it vanished entirely beyond the horizon.
As though, from the very beginning, that arrow's target had not been merely the Douluo Continent.
But it meant to fly all the way off this planet.
Di Tian gazed at the empty heavens.
He remained silent for a long time.
At last.
A voice so low that almost only he could hear it slowly sounded.
"The Hunt..."
The Lake of Life returned to stillness.
Yet Di Tian's gaze.
Still had not shifted from that stretch of sky.
Heaven Dou City.
At the center of the battlefield.
Time seemed to stand still for an instant.
The Ebon Deer of Abundance still held its head high.
At the center of its forehead.
The hole pierced by the arrow had not healed.
A wisp of sky-blue light slowly lit up within it.
The next moment.
Crack.
A faint sound.
A blue fissure spread outward from between its brows.
Immediately afterward.
A second.
A third.
In the blink of an eye-
Densely packed cyan-blue cracks had covered the Ebon Deer's entire head!
Then came its antlers.
Its neck.
Its chest and abdomen.
Its limbs.
Countless blue cracks pierced completely through that mountain-sized body.
The golden-green power of Abundance surged wildly inside the Ebon Deer.
Its flesh tried to heal.
Its bones tried to regenerate.
Rich vitality rushed toward those cracks again and again.
But it was useless.
Whenever the power of Abundance drew near.
The cyan-blue light instantly tore it apart.
Recovery.
For the first time, it had lost its meaning.
"Yoo..."
The Ebon Deer let out one final low cry.
The sound was no longer deafening.
Instead, it was so faint as to be almost inaudible.
The next moment.
Its forelegs buckled.
Boom!
Its enormous body collapsed heavily to the ground.
The impact sent the rubble covering the ground bouncing.
Everyone stared fixedly at it.
No one made a sound.
Crack.
The fissures finally spread through its entire body.
The Ebon Deer's body began to disintegrate.
The flesh pierced by the power of The Hunt turned into pale golden motes of light, bit by bit.
First came its antlers.
Then its head.
Its neck.
Its torso.
Finally, its limbs.
Countless golden specks of starlight slowly rose.
Scattering in the wind.
That colossal creature, which had nearly turned half of Heaven Dou City into a disaster zone of Abundance-
Vanished completely.
At the same time.
Another change occurred.
The plants of Abundance throughout the entire city district stopped growing at once.
The towering trees that had burst through houses began to turn transparent.
Vines disintegrated.
Flowers turned to light.
Roots vanished inch by inch.
Great swathes of golden motes rose from Heaven Dou City.
Like a golden blizzard flowing upward.
Within just a few breaths.
The plants directly brought forth by the Ebon Deer of Abundance had all dispersed.
Leaving only streets scarred with devastation.
And a Heaven Dou City with nearly half of it destroyed.
But-
Not everything had vanished.
On the street.
A noble who had long taken pills from the Hall of Relief raised his hand, trembling.
On his arm.
The tender twig that had pierced his skin was still there.
It had not dispersed.
It had only...
Stopped growing.
Elsewhere.
Those who had roots growing beneath their skin.
Those who had branches and leaves sprouting from their shoulders.
Those whose bodies had already begun to mutate.
The restless vitality within their bodies likewise gradually subsided.
The branches no longer grew wildly.
The wounds no longer writhed.
The mutations-
Had temporarily stopped.
But the traces they left behind had not vanished.
Lin Yuan saw this.
His body, taut all this time, finally relaxed.
"It stopped..."
The instant the words left his mouth.
The Imperial Bow abruptly dissolved into starlight.
Lin Yuan's legs gave out.
Thud.
He landed on his backside in the rubble.
"Lin Yuan!"
Golden light streaked across the battlefield in an instant.
Qian Renxue could not even spare a thought for anyone else around her.
Her six wings spread.
She landed beside Lin Yuan almost in the blink of an eye.
She crouched down.
First, she grabbed his shoulders.
Then she felt his arms.
His chest.
His back.
She checked him from head to toe.
Her movements were so quick that Lin Yuan had no time to stop her.
"Where are you hurt?"
"Did that arrow cause any backlash?"
"What about your meridians?"
"Is anything wrong with the Imperial Bow?"
"Say something."
Qian Renxue's brows were tightly knitted.
She pressed her palm against Lin Yuan's chest again, feeling his heartbeat.
Lin Yuan leaned against a piece of broken stone.
His face was so pale that almost no trace of color remained.
His forehead was covered in cold sweat.
The Soul Power within him was utterly depleted.
But watching Qian Renxue looking almost ready to turn him over for another inspection, he could not help speaking.
"Xue'er."
"Hmm?"
"If you keep feeling me up..."
Lin Yuan looked at her weakly.
"Even if nothing's wrong with me, you'll feel me up until something is."
Qian Renxue's movements paused.
Once she confirmed that he was still in the mood to say such things.
Her heart, which had been hanging in suspense, finally settled halfway.
The next second.
Smack!
She slapped Lin Yuan on the shoulder.
"Still in the mood to crack jokes."
Lin Yuan's face instantly went white.
"That hurt."
Qian Renxue: "..."
Her heart, which had just settled-
Rose again.
Qian Renxue was just about to continue checking Lin Yuan's injuries.
But Lin Yuan raised his hand and held her wrist.
"Xue'er."
His voice was still weak, but his expression had already grown calm again.
Qian Renxue looked at him.
"What is it?"
Lin Yuan's gaze passed over her.
He looked toward Heaven Dou City, riddled with devastation.
On the streets.
The branches and leaves on those who had taken the Hall of Relief's pills had stopped growing, but they still had not disappeared.
The Ebon Deer of Abundance was dead.
But what it had left inside these people-
Was still there.
"Pass down the order."
Lin Yuan said in a low voice:
"Everyone who has undergone a mutation."
"Quarantine them all."
Qian Renxue's expression grew grave.
Lin Yuan continued:
"Whether they're commoners."
"Nobles."
"Soul Masters."
"Or members of the imperial family."
He raised his head.
There was not the slightest room for negotiation in his eyes.
"As long as they've mutated-"
"Not a single one can be let out."