"A mere half-god dares challenge me? Are you looking to die?" Faced with the black flames covering her, the Black Emperor was enraged. Although she ranked lowest among the over ten Abyssal Emperors, she still had her pride.
The Ox Emperor had managed to curry favor with the Abyssal Holy Lord and became his mount, which greatly elevated his status. Even the Spirit Emperor of the second layer would now show him some respect.
Yet she, the Emperor of the ninth layer, was clearly more powerful than the Ox Emperor, but her status was actually lower.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have been the one sent out as the vanguard this time.
The Abyss Plane still held a degree of fear toward the Douluo Plane. Just as they had made full preparations for a major offensive, the suppression from the Douluo Plane suddenly vanished—this made it hard not to suspect a trap.
Let's not forget, humanity now possessed the power to shatter the Seed of the Plane.
Now, even for the quasi-god Abyssal Emperors, stepping into the Douluo Plane could mean risking not only their own lives but the complete annihilation of their race and entire Abyssal layer.
With stakes so high, even quasi-gods dared not enter lightly.
Since Leng Yaozhu was occupied setting up the Blood God Grand Array, a powerful entity needed to be sent to probe whether anyone else in the Douluo Plane possessed means similar to hers.
Thus, the Black Emperor—being the lowest in status—was reluctantly chosen.
The bloody lessons of the 35th and 86th Abyssal layers were still fresh. The Black Emperor had already decided: if she encountered an unbeatable opponent, she would immediately retreat.
With her quasi-god strength, if she truly intended to flee, even the Douluo Plane would struggle to stop her.
Of course, that only applied to someone like Leng Yaozhu, a peak quasi-god.
But the aura of the owner of these black flames? Only a mere half-god.
If a half-god could drive her back, how could she show her face back in the Abyss?
Already resentful about being pushed to the front by the other Emperors, the Black Emperor was furious at this half-god's provocation.
With a forceful flap of her wings, she broke free of the black flames.
Then, with both hands, she clawed at the flames, tearing them to shreds with brute force.
Zhang Huanyun broke out in cold sweat watching this—Flames can be torn apart?
As expected of a quasi-god. Her combat style was truly extraordinary.
As the black flames dispersed, a figure slowly emerged into view.
It was a woman—graceful, radiating an exotic beauty, with six black and three red spirit rings encircling her body.
Her entire body was covered in armor—her battle armor. The armor was pitch-black, but at the seams between the plates, a purple glow leaked out, casting an otherworldly sheen over her magnificent armor.
It didn't look metallic, but rather crystalline, each black segment faintly glowing dark purple in the sunlight.
Atop her head was a crown of the same color. At its center stood a sculpture of a phoenix, its eyes glowing bright purple, matching her mask-covered face, from which only a pair of gleaming violet eyes could be seen.
Her grand, majestic wings drooped behind her. Where they bent at the shoulder, they extended down, trailing through the air.
Between each feather flowed lines of purple light, drawing glowing patterns through the sky. Beneath her feet was a massive halo over 20 meters in diameter, inscribed with dazzling patterns that looked like a purple phoenix flying freely.
"Dark Phoenix, Your Excellency!" Zhang Huanyun was overjoyed. He hadn't expected the first to respond would be Leng Yulai, the younger sister of Blood One Leng Yaozhu, known as the Dark Phoenix Douluo.
But wasn't this three-word battle armor of hers a bit too stunning?
"You all hold off the abyssal creatures below. I'll take care of the one above. Give me the time it takes to burn one stick of incense," Leng Yulai said lightly. Her Dark Phoenix Feather appeared in her hand with a wave.
"Take care of me? Hahaha! Little girl, it's not that I'm looking down on you—you're just thinking far too highly of yourself." The Black Emperor burst out laughing. A half-god claiming she would defeat a quasi-god?
Could she really not understand the difference in power between the two?
"Then I'll leave it to you, Dark Phoenix Douluo." Zhang Huanyun led the Blood God Legion's experts into battle against the five-headed guardian Ox.
Leng Yulai didn't conceal her aura. Zhang Huanyun could clearly sense she was only a half-god. At present, the Blood God Legion had no other quasi-gods to spare, so he had no choice but to trust her.
He didn't expect her to defeat the Black Emperor—just hold her off and keep her from interfering in the battle below.
Leng Yulai didn't care what others thought. She glanced down at Xia Yi, flashed him a radiant smile, and charged at the Black Emperor again.
Xia Yi's face twitched hard. He clearly heard her say: "Heehee, watch my performance!"
To face a quasi-god and still act so carefree… Leng Yulai clearly wasn't putting the Black Emperor in her eyes at all.
"You want to die? I'll oblige." The Black Emperor snorted coldly and rushed at her.
"Hmph! I told you earlier to return to the Abyss, but you wouldn't listen. Now, it's too late. Blazing Wings! Lightstream!" Leng Yulai shouted. With a flap of her wings, her speed skyrocketed—so fast that even the Black Emperor struggled to follow her.
"So fast! Could she be a pure agility-type Soul Master?" The Black Emperor's eyes narrowed.
In the 6,000 years since their conflict began, the Abyss had studied humans as well.
Leng Yulai's speed far exceeded that of any half-god they'd seen. Only pure agility-types could achieve this.
"If that's the case, all I need is one mistake. Catch her once, and it's over." The Black Emperor snorted to herself. From what she knew, human agility-types were fast—but that's all they had.
"It's not that I'm fast. You're just too slow," Leng Yulai's voice came from above.
Startled, the Black Emperor immediately punched toward the sky.
Boom!
A deafening explosion echoed through the heavens. The sky above the Endless Mountains rippled violently, as if about to collapse.
Such was the force of a full-powered punch from a quasi-god.
But… the punch missed.
The Black Emperor froze, then her expression turned disbelieving. "Impossible. I clearly locked onto your aura!"
"You? Lock onto me? Do you even have that ability?" Leng Yulai's mocking voice echoed behind her.
Her figure appeared behind the Black Emperor, flicking her fingers. Waves of phoenix flames surged forward once again.
"This fire… isn't right—AHH!" The Black Emperor screamed as the flames invaded her body through her mouth and nose, igniting her from within. Even for her, extinguishing them was extremely difficult.
The searing pain made her cry out in agony.
"You've successfully enraged me." Gritting her teeth, the Black Emperor quickly calmed herself. Thick black energy surged from her body, rapidly forming a suit of black armor that sealed every gap.
Seeing this, Leng Yulai's Dark Phoenix Feather split into over ten sword-like projections, each containing immense power, shooting at the Black Emperor from all directions.
"Mere tricks. Today, I'll show you the power of a quasi-god!" With her armor on, the Black Emperor ignored the phoenix feathers and flames. Her eyes glowed as terrifying spiritual power erupted.
Clang, clang, clang…
Feathers struck the armor, creating sparks—but couldn't penetrate.
Leng Yulai accelerated again—only to suddenly find herself trapped in a pitch-black world, completely void of light.
Even she couldn't see anything.
"Spiritual domain!" Leng Yulai's gaze grew serious. She unleashed her spiritual power completely, determined not to be caught off guard.
"I wonder what this domain can do…" she murmured.
"Abyssal Boil!" came a chilling voice from all directions. Suddenly, countless abyssal creatures surged toward her—each one as powerful as a Title Douluo.
Without hesitation, Leng Yulai charged in. Her phoenix flames roared in all directions, and for a time, none of the abyssal monsters could get near her.
"How much soul power do you have? Let's see how long you last. When it runs out—you'll die." The icy voice returned.
She ignored it and kept cutting through the endless abyssal tide. A massive abyssal raven dove at her, claws outstretched, but she blasted it apart with beams of flame from her eyes.
At that moment, a wolf and tiger pounced on her from front and back.
She sliced the wolf in half with her feather-blade. Behind her, she tried to knock the tiger away with her wings.
"You won't shake me off! Haha, didn't expect that, did you? Any one of these abyssal beasts can become me. I just need a single opening!" the black tiger laughed.
The next instant, it transformed into the Black Emperor, who swung a massive punch filled with terrifying energy.
Boom!
The punch shattered her own spiritual domain. In the skies above the Endless Mountains, Cold Rainlai's battle armor exploded, and she was sent flying, crashing hard into a snowy mountain.
The Black Emperor snorted. "Mere half-god. I gave you face—AHHH!"
Before she could gloat, she screamed again. The Dark Phoenix Feather had pierced her armor and sliced off her right arm from below.
"You… You… Impossible!" She teleported over a hundred meters away, clutching the wound.
"Nothing's impossible," Leng Yulai replied, sticking the feather into the severed arm. The arm dissolved into black mist and was fully absorbed.
Seeing this, the Black Emperor was stunned.
She remembered: that terrifying Blood One from the Blood God Legion had a sword that could absorb abyssal energy.
Leng Yulai can do that too?
If she could absorb abyssal power, could she also seal or destroy the Plane Seed?
A trace of fear entered the Black Emperor's eyes.
Still, she asked, "How… did you do that?"
Leng Yulai snapped her fingers. A phoenix feather flew out of the snowy mountain she had crashed into earlier.
"Impossible! Impossible!" the Black Emperor screamed. "In my spiritual domain, you couldn't possibly fool me!"
"Heh," Leng Yulai sneered.
In the next moment, her eyes suddenly gleamed—so radiant that time itself seemed to freeze. Everyone instinctively looked up and met her gaze.
Her dazzling eyes weren't just eyes—they were entire worlds.
The snowy mountains and sky reflected within them didn't seem like mere images—they felt real.
In that instant, Leng Yulai had merged with the very sky and mountains of the Endless Range.
"Divine… Divine… Divine Origin Realm!" The Black Emperor's expression went slack.
Only now did she realize how laughable her actions were. Her spiritual power had only just reached the later Domain Realm, and she had tried to trap someone who had already reached the Divine Origin Realm?
"Divine Origin spiritual power… Good heavens. Even Skycovering Douluo never reached this realm," Zhang Huanyun gasped. In the records of the Sun-Moon Federation, only Legendary Ice Spirit Douluo Huo Yuhao had achieved the Divine Origin Realm in the past 10,000 years—and above that, only the legendary Sea God Tang San.
And now, out of nowhere, Leng Yulai had revealed herself as one of them.
"Actually, the powerhouses of the Douluo Plane should envy you all," Leng Yulai looked up at the Black Emperor and said. "You're all striving to become gods, with clear goals and hope. But what about the Douluo Continent? People like me—once our spiritual power breaks through to the Divine Origin Realm—we're forced to seal part of it. Otherwise, if we alert the will of the Plane, we might die without even knowing how. The current laws of heaven and earth in the Douluo Continent simply don't allow gods to appear."
"I used to be very wary of that Plane Will," Leng Yulai continued, shaking her head in self-mockery. "I've always kept my spiritual power sealed at mid-level Spirit Domain Realm. I didn't expect to be forced into unsealing it completely because of you."
Then her gaze turned icy as she said coldly, "I want to see whether that so-called Plane Will, now that it's supposedly awakened, really has the time to deal with someone like me who possesses Divine Origin Realm spiritual power—or whether it has the time to deal with the Abyss Plane."
In truth, over the past ten thousand years, there have been many in the Douluo Plane who had the talent to become gods. Take this era, for instance—Chen Xinjie and the high-spirited Sky Douluo Yun Ming.
Both reached the rank of Ultimate Douluo at a young age. In terms of talent, they were no less exceptional than those geniuses of old who got spoon-fed divine power via god trials.
But those who painstakingly cultivated their spiritual power to the Divine Origin Realm realized that this level of power was not tolerated by the laws of the plane. Without sealing that power, they couldn't even survive.
So they were forced to quietly seal their spiritual power and slowly search for a path to godhood.
But anyone could figure out: is it easier to explore the path to godhood using Divine Origin Realm spiritual power, or using Spirit Domain?
Trying to become a god while suppressing one's Divine Origin Realm spiritual power was like sealing one's own mind.
Without that level of spiritual power to guide them, becoming a god became ten, a hundred, a thousand times harder...
That's why, even now, they were still stuck at the peak quasi-god level. Everyone still thought their spiritual power was only at the peak of the Spirit Domain Realm.
"Don't try to scare me with that Plane Will of yours," the Black Emperor snorted. "Let me tell you—even if you do have Divine Origin Realm spiritual power, your soul power is still only at the demigod level. If I want to leave, you won't be able to stop me."
She didn't believe what Leng Yulai had said. What a joke—what kind of Plane Will would forbid its inhabitants from growing stronger?
Especially when the Douluo Plane was facing the looming threat of the Abyss Plane.
Didn't the Douluo Plane's Plane Will want its inhabitants to grow stronger to seize the energy of the Abyss?
If the Douluo Continent could completely eliminate the Abyss, it could absorb that energy—and the Plane Will itself would evolve.
It just didn't make sense that the Plane Will would try to suppress growth.
Knowing she wasn't a match for Leng Yulai, the Black Emperor turned to flee toward the Abyss. But in the next moment, she slammed into an invisible wall.
"What's going on?" Her expression changed again.
"I told you—you can't escape," Leng Yulai said, flicking the black phoenix feather in her hand. Wisps of aura began to surface from the void, surrounding both her and the Black Emperor completely.
"What is this?" the Black Emperor asked coldly.
"Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand. But if you guess why I deliberately let myself get caught by your spiritual domain earlier, you might figure it out." Leng Yulai sneered. "Unless you kill me, don't even think about escaping."
"So that's it. You were distracting me so you could set this trap." The Black Emperor's gaze turned vicious. "Fine! Even if I die today, I'll make sure you suffer."
Since she couldn't escape, she had no choice but to fight to the death. She charged at Leng Yulai once more.
Maybe—just maybe—she could last until the other Abyss Emperors came to her rescue.