Two groups faced off in the sky, while problems emerged on the Star Luo Empire's defensive line.
The brief confrontation just now had too great an impact on the low-level Soul Masters and soldiers. From an ordinary person's perspective, it seemed as if a deity had descended to mete out punishment.
Although many knew it was merely a Martial Soul Skill, most were ignorant and superstitious.
After all, this world truly had gods, and faith existed.
Many, struck by the earlier scene, involuntarily knelt and kowtowed in Li Xun's direction, begging for divine forgiveness.
Others took advantage of the chaos to retreat, fleeing the area as if for their lives.
Morale on Antonio's defensive line had collapsed!
"Sect Leader, what should we do?" Tang Ming asked, watching the soldiers scurrying like ants below, his face clouded with worry.
The Clear Sky Sect had not only sacrificed an elder and a powerful in-law, but the soldiers had also suffered a major rout. This war could no longer be fought.
And what about those promising talents of the Clear Sky Sect!
Tang Ming felt heartache and frustration whenever he thought of the younger generation who had died.
Unlike the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, which could freely intermarry, the Clear Sky Sect needed to maintain pure bloodlines at all times to ensure their descendants always awakened the Clear Sky Hammer, securing their position as the continent's top sect.
Currently, there were just over three hundred direct descendants, and those who could participate in the battle here were all children with some talent. Losing more than a dozen at once was a significant loss for the Clear Sky Sect.
"First, retreat to Antonio City to regroup the scattered soldiers and gather Star Luo's experts. Then, withdraw the defensive line to Gengxin City. Our forces are too dispersed now."
Tang Xiao exchanged a distant glance with Li Xun, his mood heavy. "This child has such strength just at level 80, with the boost of three hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings. I dare not imagine the consequences if he breaks through to level 90.
If we cannot eliminate him during this period, the Clear Sky Sect will have to go into seclusion again."
"At this point, reputation no longer matters. Ensuring the sect's survival is the top priority."
"Sect Leader, we are not without the power to fight."
The Seventh Elder, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke. "I've finally realized that although this kid's skills are powerful, they consume a lot and lack mobility. As long as we stay out of his attack range when he uses them, we'll be fine."
"Difficult..."
Tang Xiao slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. "The Clear Sky Sect was originally evenly matched with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School. Now, with the Fifth Elder fallen and Li Xun appearing on their side, it's hard for us to gain an advantage in combat power..."
Hearing this, the elders fell silent.
Indeed, apart from Tang Ming, who was a level 95 Title Douluo, the highest cultivation among the remaining three had just reached level 94.
"I remember when he appeared, he seemed to have two hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings, and his Martial Soul wasn't the current one. Do you think he might have Twin Spirits, like Xiao San?"
"..."
Tang Xiao raised a hand to stop the elders' discussion and slowly retreated backward, facing Li Xun and Sword Douluo.
The results achieved this time were sufficient.
With Bai He's death, Star Luo would no longer have means of rapid communication, and the death of a Clear Sky Sect elder had also inflicted significant losses on the enemy.
Maintaining a Spirit Avatar over five hundred meters tall consumed too much energy, and Li Xun's Soul Power was nearly depleted.
Li Xun and Sword Douluo exchanged a glance and slowly descended from the sky.
Unlimited chakra is truly Hashirama Senju's real strength, Li Xun thought to himself.
It seems Sage Art still needs development - never put all your eggs in one basket.
Although the Sea God's Godhood appears within easy reach, it's ultimately only a first-class deity, far inferior to the Asura God King.
With the situation still uncertain, he only dared to fantasize about dual Godhood, as the final outcome depends on the whims of those two above. Besides, if he died, no one would resurrect him - unless Zhu Zhuqing came to do it.
Li Xun looked up at the sky: there had been no news about the Asura God Trial either.
Tang San once said the God of Slaughter Domain was the Asura God Trial, but even he himself was quite confused about it.
He just kept devouring through his Eight Spider Lances, and his Domain gradually evolved - especially the last evolution occurred after he absorbed the Deep Sea Demon Whale King's energy.
Do I need to devour too?
Although Wood Release can absorb others' energy, it merely borrows their power to maintain skill stability without providing any self-Amplification.
Li Xun dismissed this thought from his mind.
His future was bright enough that he didn't need to stoop to unscrupulous means.
First, he would try to see if comprehension alone could evolve his God of Slaughter Domain, and he also needed to find a way to retrieve the Asura God Sword.
As for Sage Art... Li Xun suddenly thought of shadow clones while planning.
He had previously analyzed the origin of Martial Souls.
He suspected they were targeted evolutionary adaptations humans developed after the Dragon God era war contaminated the original ecology of Douluo, allowing humans to adapt to the environment.
Martial Souls act like filters, blocking harmful external energies while diluting certain characteristics of heaven and earth's energy.
This explains why, although he could sense Natural Energy, he could never absorb it.
Back then, Li Xun was still too weak to bypass his Martial Soul and let Natural Energy freely enter his body - just a trace of energy had nearly caused accidents in his body.
And when shadow clones disperse, their energy inevitably returns to the main body...
But with his current strength, he could try it now.
After all, whether in terms of physical constitution or energy control, his present self was incomparable to his former self.
...
Poison Douluo and Bone Douluo arrived very late, but by then they were no longer needed.
With Li Xun winning the first battle and the Star Luo battle line collapsing, the Heavenly Dou army began advancing.
This time, however, they divided into three routes.
One followed Li Xun's group toward Antonio City, another directly entered Longyan Province passing through Slaughter City toward Longyan City.
The third route consisted of Heavenly Dou's newly reinforced troops targeting the Hadrian Kingdom.
They only needed Li Xun's group to capture Antonio City before jointly attacking Gengxin City, thus securing one-quarter of the Star Luo Empire's territory.
This territory conveniently connected completely with Heavenly Dou's lands.
Hundreds of thousands of troops couldn't teleport instantly. During the waiting period, Li Xun began his research.
For safety, he first created three shadow clones - one to develop Martial Soul shielding for Natural Energy absorption, and two to research new Meditation Methods.
Li Xun had long criticized Yu Xiaogang about this.
Stuck at level 29 for half his life without innovating cultivation techniques, always looking for ready-made solutions - even a Ninth Grade Purple Ganoderma only barely helped him break through to level 30. What a waste.
Even if his favored Tang San achieved Godhood, what good did it do? Didn't he still fail to bring him to the God Realm for enjoyment?
Rather than compiling all these materials about the ten core competencies of Martial Souls and techniques for training disciples, it would be better to focus on researching how to improve cultivation speed.
Even if he couldn't succeed himself, passing such knowledge down would earn him eternal fame.
As for the risks of modifying cultivation methods... with only twenty-nine levels of Soul Power anyway, even if his cultivation were ruined, it wouldn't be much loss. After all, he couldn't defeat those with higher levels and could only bully ordinary people.
Truthfully, Li Xun missed him quite a bit, wondering how the Grandmaster had been doing.
Star Dou Great Forest.
Tang San pretended to look terrified at Bi Ji while inwardly sneering.
He had no idea what this Soul Beast was thinking, actually trying to use his bloodline as leverage.
Anyone who knew him was aware of his origins.
Originally, he held quite favorable feelings toward these Soul Beasts, since his own mother was a transformed Soul Beast, and Xiao Wu...
Thinking of Xiao Wu, Tang San quickly lowered his head, a flash of killing intent in his eyes.
It seemed not all Soul Beasts were reasonable creatures.
But this was fine too - since it was mutual exploitation anyway, he wouldn't have any psychological burden.
Let these Soul Beasts keep thinking they had the upper hand.
After calming his emotions, Tang San raised his head again, his expression appearing quite aggrieved, as if afraid these Soul Beasts would reveal his secret of possessing Soul Beast bloodline.
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