On the arena, the projection of a divine weapon was, after all, more powerful. Even the Spirit Fusion Skill of the two Evil Soul Master Spirit Douluo was no match. This scene deeply shocked every spectator present.
There were naturally many reasons for this, such as the Angel Spirit suppressing Evil Soul Masters, the Angelic Sacred Sword containing the Power of Judgment, and Qian Lingyi inheriting a God Position. But the spectators couldn't think of so much; they only knew that this Angel maiden, whose cultivation was only at the Spirit Saint level, had defeated two Evil Soul Masters at the Spirit Douluo level with her own strength. She was truly too powerful!
On the arena, Qian Lingyi prepared to deliver the final blow to the Wu Yun and Wu Yu sisters. Although the two sisters could support each other to stand at this moment, their bodies were being ravaged by sacred power, forcing them to use their remaining strength to maintain internal safety, with no energy left to deal with Qian Lingyi's killing move.
"We surrender—" To survive, they unhesitatingly chose to surrender, but Qian Lingyi's Sacred Sword ignored them. As the two shouted their last word, it directly pierced one of their hearts.
"Stop!" Zheng Zhan spoke to stop her.
The Sacred Sword did not stop and pierced the other's heart again. The sisters' faces were filled with unwillingness and disbelief. The flames ignited by sacred power immediately enveloped the two, and in just a few seconds, Wu Yun and Wu Yu completely disappeared.
"I told you to stop, why didn't you stop?" Zheng Zhan began to demand an explanation, but he clearly had a chance to save one of the sisters just now.
"Hmph!" Qian Lingyi snorted coldly and said, "I already said it, there is never a path for Evil Soul Masters to live under an Angel's sword!"
Qian Lingyi's words were resolute and unyielding, spreading throughout the entire venue. Immediately, an unprecedented cheer erupted in the stands. All the spectators shouted the name of "Angel." At this moment, Qian Lingyi's prestige reached its highest point in this competition.
"Jie jie jie..." Just then, a sinister laugh rang out. All the spectators present felt as if their throats were being choked. All cheers came to an abrupt halt. In the vast venue, only the sinister laughter remained, along with the gradually intensifying atmosphere. An indescribable pressure appeared on everyone.
"Good, good, good, very good!" Under everyone's gaze, the Black-Robed Imperial Teacher on the main platform stood up. No emotion could be seen on his face, but his words were full of killing intent. "Truly worthy of the Six-Winged Angel Spirit. Good, very good!"
As his voice fell, a dense black mist slowly rose behind the Black-Robed Imperial Teacher, and a bloody, chilling evil aura spread throughout the entire venue.
"Evil, Evil Soul Master!"
"The person next to His Highness is actually an Evil Soul Master!"
"Oh my! Imperial Preceptor Zhongli is actually an Evil Soul Master. Could it be that the Holy Spirit Sect is his Sect?"
"..."
The spectators were incredibly shocked because they had not expected that this Imperial Preceptor, personally appointed by the Crown Prince and Regent, was actually an Evil Soul Master! This fact was too shocking to their understanding, as they had never thought that the imperial family would accept an Evil Soul Master. Wasn't this defying the World's condemnation?
Xu Tianran's face was also exceptionally grim at this moment, because the actions of the Black-Robed Imperial Teacher, Zhongli Wu, would completely expose his collusion with Evil Soul Masters. Wasn't this just causing him more trouble? Sure enough, Evil Soul Masters were all a bunch of ungrateful ingrates!
Zhongli Wu couldn't care less at this moment. Qian Lingyi's series of actions had deeply provoked him. He absolutely could not let this menace with the Six-Winged Angel Spirit live. From her performance today, once she became a Titled Douluo, it would be the end of all Evil Soul Masters in the World. Perhaps, she would become another Angel God!
It was not easy for them, Evil Soul Masters, to escape the suppression of the Angel God. They did not want to experience the suffocating situation of ancient Evil Soul Masters again. Therefore, they must kill this maiden with the Six-Winged Angel Spirit before she fully matured!
Otherwise, they wouldn't have a new Sea God to help them kill a new Angel God!
Harboring the thought of definitely killing Qian Lingyi, Zhongli Wu made his move. Six black and three red spirit rings appeared behind him, instantly silencing the chattering sounds in the venue. Then he raised his hand, and a large hand made of black mist appeared, pressing down towards Qian Lingyi on the arena.
When the true intentions were revealed, Zhu Ziyang could not stand by. With a thought, he instantly appeared on the arena, protecting Qian Lingyi behind him. Then he raised his hand and struck out with a palm, and the dense light instantly shattered Zhongli Wu's large black mist hand.
"Which one are you? How dare you touch my people!" After shattering Zhongli Wu's attack with a single palm, the Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe appeared in Zhu Ziyang's hand. He held the golden scythe and asked in a calm tone.
"Good! Very good!" Zhongli Wu narrowed his eyes. He had expected that attacking Qian Lingyi would attract a strong expert from Shrek Academy to appear, but he didn't expect that instead of a Shrek Academy expert, Zhu Ziyang, whom he also wanted to kill, appeared. Moreover, he could break his attack with a single palm. He was very surprised.
However, he was also very happy, because in his opinion, he could just deal with Zhu Ziyang as well. So he said, "This Venerable will let you die clearly today. This Venerable is Zhongli Wu, Titled God of Death!"
"God of Death?" Zhu Ziyang raised an eyebrow upon hearing this, looking at Zhongli Wu with a half-smile, and said, "Does this count as an impostor meeting the real deal?"
"Go to hell!" Zhongli Wu didn't understand the meaning of Zhu Ziyang's words, but that didn't stop him from directly attacking Zhu Ziyang. Dense Death Qi converged into slender needle-like objects, each three meters long, each imbued with a bloody aura of Death. Together, there were hundreds of them, filling the entire venue with a suffocating atmosphere that made it hard to breathe. All the needles, with a wave of Zhongli Wu's large hand, poured down like raindrops towards the arena where Zhu Ziyang and Qian Lingyi were.
This was Zhongli Wu's eighth Spirit Ability, Death God's Needles!
Facing Zhongli Wu's attack, Zhu Ziyang was unhurried. The Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe in his hand gently tapped the ground, and then a golden radiance immediately rose from Zhu Ziyang's feet, forming a golden shield that protected both him and Qian Lingyi. Zhu Ziyang's application of the light element had now reached a level of complete freedom and responsiveness to his will. One more step forward, and he could ascend to the level of laws.
This Light Shield originated from that.
All of Zhongli Wu's Death God's Needles struck the Light Shield that Zhu Ziyang casually raised. However, to everyone's astonishment, all the Death God's Needles immediately turned into black smoke and disappeared after touching the Light Shield. In contrast, the Light Shield remained completely unharmed, looking exactly as it did before.
Zhongli Wu was stunned, completely unable to understand why. One must know, this was his eighth Spirit Ability, the eighth Spirit Ability of a Level 98 Super Douluo, and it was a 100,000-year Spirit Ability! Yet, it couldn't even break a shield casually conjured by a young boy. What, what was wrong with this World? Was he old? Was Ultimate Light so terrifying? He was already in disarray.
"It's rude not to return a favor. You take a move from me too!" Zhu Ziyang said.
The nine spirit rings of the Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe appeared behind him, the nine red spirit rings shocking everyone's senses. However, the move Zhu Ziyang was about to unleash was not any of the nine spirit rings; his purpose in showing his spirit rings was merely for deterrence. He placed the Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe in front of his chest, and the Power of Light transformed this scythe into the most dazzling existence between heaven and earth in the blink of an eye. With the scythe's handle as the vertical axis and its blade as the horizontal axis, heaven and earth were divided into four.
Then, Zhu Ziyang spoke.
"I say, Light is Eternal!"
As soon as the words fell, everyone felt their vision consumed by golden light.
No matter where they looked, there was only light; they couldn't see their own forms, nor anyone else's, only hearing a glorious, god-like voice declare, "Xiuming!"
When the light dissipated and the World returned to tranquility, everyone discovered that Zhongli Wu, the Black-Robed Imperial Teacher who had been on the main platform, was now slumped on the arena, less than five meters from Zhu Ziyang.
Imperial Preceptor Zhongli was extremely disheveled at this moment; blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, his eyes filled with terror, the black mist behind him was gone, his spirit rings had vanished, and even the spirit power within his body seemed to have disappeared.
He seemed to have become an ordinary person.
"You, what kind of method is this?"
"Why?"
"Why is my Power of Death gone?"
"Why can't I feel my Spirit anymore?" Zhongli Wu's voice was filled with fear, because the ability Zhu Ziyang displayed had exceeded his comprehension, and how helpless people are when facing the unknown!
"Those who usurp the name of the God of Death shall be executed without mercy!" Zhu Ziyang had no desire to explain to Zhongli Wu; instead, he spoke indifferently, then swung the Pacifying Life-Reaping Scythe, unleashing a blade of qi.
"No!"
"No!"
"You can't kill me!"
"My mother is a Limit Douluo!"
"You can't kill..." His voice abruptly cut off; his head, after falling to the ground, rolled to Zheng Zhan's feet, his terrified eyes staring straight at Zheng Zhan.
"Gulp!" Zheng Zhan was paralyzed with fear, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
He probably never wanted to be a referee again in his life; it was too dangerous.
The competition venue was as quiet as ever; the sound of a single drop of sweat hitting the ground could be heard throughout the entire hall.
Everyone was immersed in what had just happened, unable to break free from it for a time.
To be honest, what happened in these short few minutes was more exciting than what many people experienced in their entire lives.
First, the Angel Spirit Saint killed two Evil Soul Master Spirit Douluo alone, then the Imperial Preceptor personally appointed by the Crown Prince exposed his identity as an Evil Soul Master, attempting to kill the Angel Spirit Saint, and then the Shrek Academy captain entered the arena, shattering the Imperial Preceptor's attack with a single blow.
Finally, and most surreal, the Imperial Preceptor's full-power attack was blocked by a shield casually deployed by the Shrek Academy captain.
A shield with no technical sophistication blocked the eighth Spirit Ability of a Super Douluo's full-power attack.
This had already exceeded common sense, so calling it surreal was perfectly fine.
However, in everyone's eyes, the Light Shield blocking the eighth Spirit Ability was merely surreal.
The Shrek Academy captain's subsequent actions could be directly called mythical.
Leaving aside a twenty-year-old Titled Douluo, just the nine dazzling red spirit rings were enough to drive everyone mad.
Normally, only a Titled Douluo's ninth spirit ring might be red, yet this Shrek Academy captain actually had nine of them.
Rounding up, didn't this mean he possessed nine ninth spirit rings?
How were other Titled Douluo supposed to compete with that?
Perhaps because the abilities Zhu Ziyang displayed were too heaven-defying, everyone felt that his killing of Zhongli Wu was as natural as killing a dog.
After killing Zhongli Wu, Zhu Ziyang's heart was calm.
He looked up at Xu Tianran on the main platform, and coincidentally, Xu Tianran was also looking at him.
Xu Tianran's face showed an incredibly respectful, even somewhat fawning smile; it was clear he was very flustered.
Xu Tianran was indeed very flustered.
He knew Zhongli Wu's strength all too well; that was a level 98 Super Douluo, just one step away from the level 99 true god of the human World, yet he was so easily annihilated by this Zhu Ziyang.
How could this not make him feel fear, dread, and panic?
If Zhu Ziyang wanted to kill him, no one present could save him.
Therefore, Xu Tianran understood the principle of knowing when to yield and when to assert himself.
When he saw Zhu Ziyang look over, a respectful, fawning smile immediately appeared on his face.
No matter how unwilling or resentful he felt inside, he absolutely could not show it on his face.
"Regent Your Highness, are you aware that your Imperial Preceptor is an Evil Soul Master?" Zhu Ziyang asked with a smile.
"This..." Xu Tianran was momentarily stunned, and anger immediately flared in his heart.
He knew that Zhu Ziyang was absolutely deliberate, bringing an obvious matter to the table; wasn't this intentionally trying to embarrass him?
Xu Tianran's cultivation of composure was excellent; with a conciliatory smile, he said, "I also did not expect that Imperial Preceptor Zhongli would actually be an Evil Soul Master.
I, too, was deceived by him!"
"Is that so?" Zhu Ziyang chuckled lightly and said, "Then it seems Regent Your Highness was indeed deceived by cunning Evil Soul Masters.
Evil Soul Masters are truly hateful, daring to deceive Regent Your Highness; they are unforgivable!"
"Exactly!"
"Exactly!" Xu Tianran immediately echoed, relieved.
No matter what, Zhu Ziyang was from Shrek Academy and would not truly attack him, the Crown Prince of the Sun Moon Empire.
He probably just needed to go through the motions and put on a show.
"Then, Regent Your Highness, how do you plan to retaliate against these hateful Evil Soul Masters?
After all, the crime of deceiving the monarch is unforgivable!" Zhu Ziyang said with a smirk.
"Wh-what?" Xu Tianran was stunned, completely unprepared for Zhu Ziyang's move.
"I said, how does Your Highness plan to punish these Evil Soul Masters?
Or does Your Highness not intend to punish Evil Soul Masters, and plans to pardon them for their crime of deceiving the monarch?" Zhu Ziyang said seriously and earnestly.
"This..." Xu Tianran paused, then said, "This is an internal affair of my Empire, so I won't trouble Your Excellency with it."
"Exterminating Evil Soul Masters is the duty of my Shrek Academy, and we naturally have an obligation to urge all nations to launch extermination efforts against Evil Soul Masters.
Could it be that Your Highness actually does not intend to pursue the crimes of Evil Soul Masters?" Zhu Ziyang said indifferently.
"How could that be!" Xu Tianran immediately denied.
"Well, in that case, Your Highness might as well take this opportunity to issue an order for the execution of Evil Soul Masters, to show the people of your Empire and the various nations of the continent your Imperial Family's resolute stance against Evil Soul Masters!" Zhu Ziyang said with a smile, a particularly happy smile.
"Good!"
"Good!"
"Thank you for Your Excellency's suggestion." Xu Tianran gritted his teeth, forcing a smile, and said, "By my Imperial decree, all citizens of my Sun Moon Empire have the responsibility to slay Evil Soul Masters.
May all my subjects strive diligently!"
"By your decree!" All those from the Sun Moon Empire present stood up and shouted.
Xu Tianran looked at the subjects receiving the decree, a supremely satisfied smile on his face, but in his heart, he began to ponder how to apologize to the other members of the Holy Spirit Church tonight.
Although Zhongli Wu was dead, the Holy Spirit Church still had two Limit Douluo, and these two Limit Douluo were his reliance against Shrek Academy.
Therefore, he absolutely could not let the two esteemed individuals of the Holy Spirit Church misunderstand!
At the same time, Xu Tianran completely hated Zhu Ziyang.
"Thank you, Regent Your Highness, for your understanding and cooperation!" Zhu Ziyang's face also showed a satisfied smile, he said.
Regardless of the outcome, Xu Tianran's authority was completely swept away today.
Whether it was colluding with Evil Soul Masters or being forced by Shrek Academy to issue an edict, any of these matters was fatal to an emperor.
Zhu Ziyang was truly grateful to Zhongli Wu from the bottom of his heart.
If it weren't for Zhongli Wu's selfless sacrifice of his life, he wouldn't have found such a good opportunity to undermine Xu Tianran's prestige.
It was foreseeable that the people of Mingdu's disappointment with Xu Tianran and the Imperial Sun Lineage he represented had reached a critical point.
Only one last blow remained to make the Sun Lineage completely abandoned by the people of the Sun Moon Empire, and Zhu Ziyang had already prepared that final blow for him!
Zhu Ziyang waved his hand, taking Zhongli Wu's corpse, then pulled Qian Lingyi off the arena.
Xu Tianran also left in a hurry, his face dark.
On the arena, only a somewhat dazed Zheng Zhan remained, announcing the results of the match:
"Shrek Academy wins!"