On the vast plain, now resembling ground zero after a nuclear blast, only deathly silence remained.
Soul beast corpses were piled like mountains, but more common was the utter nothingness where even bodies had failed to remain.
Charred remains, fragmented viscera, blood-stained fur, and cold scales were scattered everywhere.
The heavily injured, but not yet dead, soul beasts let out agonizing, desperate wails, their cries particularly piercing and desolate in the silent battlefield.
The previously surging, unstoppable Beast Tide was now reduced to scattered, panic-stricken survivors clinging to the very edge of the battleground. They had lost all fighting spirit, their eyes reflecting only primal terror.
The core strength of the Star Dou Great Forest, accumulated over unknown years—the elites of countless soul beast clans—suffered catastrophic losses in this unprovoked disaster. Their vitality was severely damaged, the tragedy of which far surpassed the cumulative losses from the previous bloody battles with the Shrek city defense forces.
"Oh? A few slightly sturdier ants managed to escape being crushed, it seems."
Phantylia let out a lazy yawn, as if she had just completed a trivial chore.
She then carelessly extended a finger. On its tip, the chilling, purplish-black power of destruction once again condensed intensely, precisely locking onto the remaining fierce beasts below—Bi Ji, Xiong Jun—and the panic-stricken remnants of the soul beast army further away.
Her original intention was to completely erase this city and everything else that was an eyesore.
The self-sacrificing obstruction by Yan Shaozhe and the others just now, though heroic, was ultimately like a mantis trying to stop a chariot. It only infinitesimally weakened the power of the Star Destroyer, allowing fierce beasts like Bi Ji to barely cling to life and avoid instant annihilation.
In a sense, they might even have to thank the humans for their dying struggle.
Sensing the terrifying energy, which felt like the gaze of the God of Death, rapidly condensing and locking onto them, utter despair appeared in Bi Ji's eyes. Xiong Jun let out an unwilling roar but couldn't move. The Myriad Demon King's mental fluctuations were filled with fear. All remaining soul beasts froze in place, awaiting the final, unavoidable end.
The destructive fingertip was about to descend again.
Just as the soul beast race was about to face its ultimate demise—
"Voom—!!!"
In the distance, a terrifying aura, which had been forcibly suppressed for a long time and was in no way inferior to Phantylia's, erupted from the bottom of the Life Lake in the heart of the Star Dou Great Forest.
A dazzling column of silver-purple light violently pierced the lake surface and shot straight into the sky, dyeing the clouds with a magnificent and majestic color.
Within the light column, a stunning silver figure tore through the sky. The surrounding space was easily folded and traversed like a fragile curtain, covering thousands of miles in an instant. She suddenly appeared in the sky above the ruins of Shrek City, which had been transformed into an abyssal crater.
She wore a silver dress that shimmered with the clear brilliance of moonlight. Her figure was graceful yet contained supreme authority.
Her purple eyes were like the purest crystal, lucid and profound, but at this moment, they burned with endless rage and icy killing intent, enough to freeze the soul.
Her silver hair danced wildly without wind behind her, wreathed in the most primal seven elements: water, fire, wind, earth, light, darkness, and space. They obediently encircled her, as if she were the sovereign of all elements in this world.
Space slightly twisted and collapsed around her, showcasing the immense power she possessed.
It was the co-ruler of the soul beasts, the Silver Dragon King—Gu Yuena.
Finally, using her own formidable strength, she had forcibly broken through the bizarre seal Phantylia had set up using the unique environment of the Life Lake. The moment she broke free, she immediately tore space to rush to this tragic battlefield.
What met her gaze was the utterly annihilated area below, the former site of Shrek City, which was now nothing but a gigantic, black abyssal hole.
What she sensed mentally was Phantylia's evil aura, filled with cold stillness and the desire for destruction, as well as the tragic scene of Di Tian being frozen, fierce beasts like Bi Ji critically wounded, and the soul beast army reduced to less than a tenth of its original force.
All of this struck Gu Yuena's heart like a searing-hot branding iron, igniting her fury to the extreme.
"Manipulating Di Tian, using my subjects, trampling on life... You are guilty of a capital offense!"
Gu Yuena wasted no words. Her purple eyes locked onto Phantylia above, and she subtly raised her hand, casually waving it forward.
In an instant, the seven fundamental elements surrounding her frantically converged and merged at an unprecedented speed. They were no longer a simple superposition but transformed into a surging, roaring torrent of chaotic energy that seemed capable of resetting the land, water, fire, and wind.
This torrent, like a gigantic sword, carried the full force of Gu Yuena's rage, fiercely slashing toward the destructive light Phantylia was about to unleash upon Bi Ji and the other beasts.
"BOOM—!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Two genuinely God-tier forces collided head-on once more at this moment.
The sound was far louder than any previous one.
The sky seemed to be torn open by a massive, irreparable wound, revealing the churning, chaotic void behind it.
The ground, already violently undulating like waves, was savagely ravaged again. Gigantic fissures spread out wildly like a spiderweb, and the shockwave added several more shocking, deep scars to the already scarred land.
Phantylia's newly formed body, made of the Golden Tree, subtly swayed. A flicker of surprise crossed her eyes, but it immediately turned into a more intense look of playful amusement and excitement, as if she had discovered an unexpectedly interesting toy.
"Oh? You actually broke through my seal? I underestimated you. You really are strong!"
Her voice carried a hint of lazy appreciation, yet it highlighted her condescending posture.
Gu Yuena's beautiful figure trembled slightly in the air, and a look of gravity appeared in her purple eyes.
With just one exchange, she clearly perceived how difficult the opponent was to deal with.
Phantylia's power attribute was extremely bizarre, filled with pure destructive will. Furthermore, by using the Golden Tree—the life core of the Douluo Star—as her physical body and energy source, she possessed a virtually inexhaustible capacity for recovery and life force.
And Gu Yuena herself had just forcibly broken through the seal, meaning her condition was not at its peak. If she engaged in a reckless fight to the death now, the outcome would be uncertain. Most importantly, the soul beast race under her command had suffered such grievous losses that they could not afford any further depletion.
After just one clash, the two God-level beings standing at the peak of this world had a perfectly clear understanding of each other's strength and situation.
Gu Yuena gazed deeply and coldly at the alluring, evil figure, then swiftly swept her eyes over the tragic, decimated soul beast army below and the fierce beasts who were terrified and heavily wounded by Phantylia.
The decision was made in an instant.
"All soul beasts, heed my command—"
Her voice was no longer loud, but it was incomparably clear and authoritative, resounding directly in the deepest part of every surviving soul beast's soul. It carried an absolute, unquestionable will, forcibly suppressing all their fear and confusion.
"Retreat! Return to the Star Dou Great Forest immediately!"
Simultaneously with issuing the command, she flashed her hand again. A soft silver light surged out like a bolt of silk, instantly enveloping the colossal, frozen body of Di Tian and the critically wounded, immobile fierce beasts like Xiong Jun, Bi Ji, and the Myriad Demon King.
At the same time, the vast and majestic Silver Dragon King's Divine Might spread out, instantly clearing the residual destructive aura from the air, shielding the terrified, surviving soul beasts below, and providing safe passage for their retreat.
Phantylia, suspended above the abyssal crater, did not move to stop them. She watched everything at her leisure, a teasing and playful smile on her enchanting face, as if enjoying a drama of escape that had nothing to do with her.
She had just acquired this new body with endless potential and needed time to slowly adapt and completely integrate it. Her primary goal had been perfectly achieved, so there was no need to fight to the death with this local powerhouse, whose condition was unclear but was obviously not to be trifled with.
The silver light violently flashed. Gu Yuena did not linger. Wrapping up the major fierce beasts, she transformed into a silver meteor that tore through the sky, quickly fleeing in the direction of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The remnants of the soul beast army below, who had miraculously survived the Star Destroyer but were utterly terrified of Phantylia, now clung to this as their only lifeline. They ignored their pain and fatigue, letting out panicked wails, and followed the silver light's guidance. Like a breached tide, they ran desperately toward the forest, leaving behind the corpses of their kin and endless devastation.
Phantylia did not pursue. She simply hovered in the void, contentedly feeling the oceanic life force within her new body and the destructive divine power that obeyed her every command.
She looked down at the gigantic black hole that had replaced the ancient, magnificent city, a crater that seemed to lead to the depths of hell, and a knowing, faint smile played on her lips.
"Shrek Academy destroyed by the Beast Tide... Heh heh, how interesting will that news be when it reaches the human world?"
She murmured softly, her gaze seemingly piercing the great distance, landing on the approaching reinforcements who were arriving from all directions, weak in aura but large in number.
The former number one academy on the continent, the iron fortress of human resistance against soul beasts, the city of ten thousand years of legacy—it had been completely reduced to historical dust, ruthlessly and utterly erased from the map of the Douluo Continent.
In the distance, Gu Yuena's icy, angry words faintly traveled back:
"Phantylia, the debt of this day will be repaid a hundredfold!"
Phantylia simply replied with a playful and disdainful soft laugh. Her figure slowly became illusory, eventually disappearing silently into the warped void, like ink dissolving in water, leaving behind only a deathly silent abyss and the great storm about to sweep the continent.
"What in the world... happened?!"
On the distant horizon, several streaks of light, various in color, tore through the sky at astonishing speed, abruptly pausing in the air where Shrek City had once been.
The light faded, revealing several powerful figures capable of standing in the air, their bodies radiating vast soul power fluctuations.
The leader, wearing a battle robe emblazoned with the unique Star Crown emblem of the Star Luo Empire's Imperial Worship Hall, was the Star Luo Great Worship, the Level 98 Super Douluo, Sky Kunpeng Douluo.
His hawk-like, sharp gaze was fixed on the ground below, his weather-beaten face filled with unprecedented horror and disbelief.
What met his eyes was not the magnificent city he had anticipated, alight with battle and in the heat of combat, but a gigantic, bottomless, black crater that seemed to lead straight to the abyss of hell.
The once towering city walls, the lofty buildings, the familiar streets... everything had vanished. All that remained was a terrifying depression, its edges smooth as glass, emanating wisps of black smoke and a deathly aura, and the rocks further away that had been melted into a bizarre glassy state by unimaginable heat.
A scene of absolute apocalypse, recounting the horrific events that had just transpired here.
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