A level five Abyssal Tide surged forward, and countless abyssal creatures were pouring out endlessly from the abyssal passage.
After crawling out of the abyss, the first thing they faced was the long-range artillery fire of the Blood God Legion. Only those who survived the barrage would encounter the legion's battle armor masters.
Behind the battle armor masters stood mech pilots, who had retracted their shields and were now unleashing a barrage of long-range soul weapon fire.
With the powerful battle armor masters, there was no way these abyssal creatures could break through this defense line.
Although the scale of this Abyssal Tide had reached level five, the casualties it caused were far fewer than last time.
The main reason was that—up to this point—aside from the Black Emperor, no other Abyssal Kings had taken the field.
All of this was due to the deterrence from Leng Yaozhu collapsing two layers of the Abyss.
Not a single Abyssal King dared to take the risk.
On the battlefield, Xia Yi and Ice Heart fought side by side. The Ice God's Heart was originally his soul spirit, and the two coordinated flawlessly. Empowered by battle armor and mecha, the endless abyssal creatures charging at them stood no chance of getting close.
All the abyssal creatures that died around them had their energy completely absorbed by the Cauldron of Earth—none of it flowed back to the Abyss.
"A mere human Soul Emperor? Courting death." A tall female figure suddenly flew straight toward Xia Yi from the abyssal passage. Her entire body was covered in dark purple scales, with wings on her back and bone claws at their tips. Her eyes glowed with a deep black light.
She looked very similar to the Black Emperor—though the Black Emperor looked more human-like.
Numerous soul weapon energy attacks landed on her, but the moment they entered within three meters of her body, they simply dissolved without even exploding.
"Black Empress! One of the Black Emperor's kind! Xia Yi, fall back! Battle armor masters, intercept her!" the front-line commander of the Blood God Legion shouted. She was even harder to deal with than an adult Guardian Iron Bull.
Under normal circumstances, if a Black Empress appeared, it would require the Blood God Battalion to step in.
Ten two-word battle armor masters flew in from the rear, charging straight toward the Black Empress.
But in the next moment, ten more Black Empresses appeared one after another. Behind them followed a group of powerful Abyssal Succubi, who moved in to block the ten battle armor masters.
The ten Black Empresses raised their heads and looked toward the sky.
That was where Leng Yula and the Black Emperor were locked in combat.
These eleven Black Empresses had come for the Black Emperor. Not long ago, they had lost all trace of the Black Emperor's aura in the Abyss.
One of them had secretly scouted the entrance to the abyss and discovered that the Black Emperor was trapped midair by Leng Yula. She had immediately returned to the Abyss, gathered the elites of their kind, and come to the rescue.
The Succubi, vassals of the Black Empress clan, had been brought along as well.
Fortunately, the Succubus Queen—fearing the collapse of her plane seed—did not come.
Otherwise, the consequences could've been far worse.
It's important to note that the Succubi were only vassals of the Black Empress clan because they were both humanoid abyssal races that had allied. The Succubus Queen's strength was only slightly below the Black Emperor's.
As a major clan from the upper thirty-six layers, the Succubus Queen herself had half-god-level strength.
At present, the Blood God Legion had no strong combatants left capable of handling enemies like these.
And yet, so many Black Empresses and Succubi posed a major problem.
"Damn it, even Dark Phoenix Douluo is here. When are the others going to arrive?" Zhang Huanyun's face was gloomy. If this kept up, the Blood God Legion would no longer be able to hold the line.
He couldn't help but glance at Leng Yaozhu. Ever since she left the Blood God Battalion, the Legion's strength had dropped significantly. But the Blood God Battalion dared not stop maintaining the Blood God Grand Formation.
Otherwise, once the seal on the abyssal passage broke, high-level abyssal creatures would pour out in even greater numbers.
"Exorcism Style One!" Xia Yi ignored the chaos elsewhere. All he focused on was dealing with the Black Empress charging at him.
"Xia Yi, no! Retreat! This Black Empress is stronger than many Titled Douluo!" Even Zhang Huanyun broke out in a cold sweat at Xia Yi's move.
"He can't retreat now. What kind of weakling dares fight me?" The Black Empress snorted disdainfully, seeing Xia Yi's all-out punch. She did not hesitate, pulled her right fist back, and punched forward!
Xia Yi suddenly felt a giant black vortex appear before him, devouring his strength wildly. His whole body froze in place. Then a surge of despair-inducing destructive energy exploded out, spiraling toward his body.
Xia Yi didn't retreat in the slightest. Exorcism Style One charged forward unflinchingly. To the Black Empress's surprise, his punch forcefully broke through her destruction vortex and collided with her fist.
BOOM!Energy surged violently. Xia Yi was blasted into the air. But the Black Empress also staggered back over ten meters before she could stabilize herself.
From just one clash, Xia Yi had only slightly fallen behind.
"You've angered me." Furious that she hadn't dominated the exchange, the Black Empress shrieked and charged again.
That punch had left her right hand burning with pain—it felt like it was about to fall apart.
"I know her limit now. This time, we end it. Bing'er, let's go!" Xia Yi shouted. His battle armor wings flared behind him, and he summoned his long-unused Yin-Yang Wine Gourd.
As he drank deeply from it, nine unawakened fox tails suddenly emerged behind him, clearly visible.
His fifth, second, and third soul rings lit up all at once.
The Black Empress, charging in rage, suddenly felt her mind go heavy—she couldn't help but feel drowsy.
"No!" The Black Empress howled at the sky, using her powerful spiritual strength to forcibly stabilize her mind. But at that moment, a powerful mental force had already bound her.
Just as she began to struggle, a terrifying chill surged up from beneath her feet.
Before she could react, she was completely frozen.
Not only the Black Empress—the surrounding low temperature spread rapidly across the battlefield. In moments, a large section of the abyssal battlefield had frozen over, with countless abyssal creatures sealed in ice.
Controlling the mecha, the Ice God's Heart mimicked humans and took a deep breath, then casually snapped its fingers.
Snap!
A crisp sound echoed across the entire battlefield. Everyone heard the Ice God's Heart's finger snap.
And because they heard it—they were stunned.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!The whole abyssal battlefield exploded like it had been lined with countless soul bombs. The terrifying explosions could be heard all across the Endless Mountain Range.
Amid the deafening roars, the ice unleashed by Xia Yi's nine tails transformed into the deadliest bombs. Shards of ice flew in all directions, and the explosive force left no abyssal creature alive in its path.
Dense, almost liquefied gray energy flowed endlessly into the Cauldron of Earth.
The sudden explosion left everyone stunned. Even the five Guardian Iron Bulls stopped struggling against Zhang Huanyun and stared blankly at the scene.
Even with all the depth of the Abyss Plane's forces—it couldn't afford to take losses like this.
"All combat units fall back, retreat to the rear to meditate and recover. Second wave, rotate in!" the front-line commander immediately ordered. Most of the Blood God Legion's front-line warriors had exhausted their soul power.
The battle had been fierce and continuous, and they couldn't pull back. The commander had even considered using multiple level-nine soul cannon shells to cover a retreat.
He hadn't expected Xia Yi to give him this perfect opportunity.
"Retreat!" The Blood God Legion's training paid off. They quickly recovered from the explosion shock and withdrew in an orderly fashion.
The Ice God's Heart also retreated quickly with the soul-power-drained Xia Yi.
Once in the rear, Xia Yi noticed that Wujin was actually in the second wave's melee unit and now stood at the front.
He hadn't noticed before due to the chaos.
He'd missed the chance to greet him during the rotation—now it wasn't the time.
After storing Little Ice back into his soul device, Xia Yi simply closed his eyes and began meditating. The recent battle had consumed him greatly, especially that final strike. Even someone as strong as the Black Empress had been blown apart.
Just as he sat down, a dark red light descended from the sky. Leng Yula appeared beside him and sat cross-legged, meditating to recover as well.
Zhang Huanyun glanced at the sky, where ten Black Empresses had exploded. He was momentarily stunned, unsure what had happened.
He wanted to approach Leng Yula to ask, but seeing her in meditation, he didn't dare disturb her.
Abyssal Plane!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! All of the Abyss's 106 layers trembled violently.
The ninth layer of the Abyss had collapsed!
All abyssal creatures, all Black Empresses, and all other species living on that level—were obliterated in an instant.
"The Black Emperor's plane seed is gone. Everyone, even someone as powerful as the Black Emperor only held out for this long. We have no retreat left—we must break the seal and charge out with everything we have!" The Abyssal Saint Monarch's furious voice echoed throughout the entire Abyss.
(End of Chapter)