Three dignified Evil Soul Masters of the Soul Douluo rank, capable of even contending with ordinary Title Douluo when working together, were as insignificant as ants before a true Divine-level combatant, instantly annihilated.
This terrifying scene caused the Second Elder Nangong Wan, Fifth Elder Myriad Souls Douluo, and others, who were also about to rush forward, to freeze instantly, their bodies rigid with shock and terror.
Even the Evil Phoenix Douluo, Feng Ling, a powerhouse of Rank 97, was drenched in cold sweat.
This was because even she had not clearly seen how Xiao Wu had struck.
This implied that if Xiao Wu's target had been her, she would likely have suffered the same fate—an instant kill.
Absolute force brought absolute deterrence.
Huo Yuhao was expressionless, as if he had merely done something trivial.
He stepped over Zhongli Wu's still-warm corpse, ascended the steps one by one, and finally took his seat on the Patriarch's throne, symbolizing the supreme authority of the Holy Spirit Sect.
His cold gaze swept over the silent crowd below, and Huo Yuhao's deep, oppressive voice echoed through the hall:
"From this moment forth, I am the Patriarch of the Holy Spirit Sect."
He paused slightly, dangerous light flickering in his scarlet eyes,
"Who agrees? Who objects?"
The silence in the hall was deafening. The air was thick with the scent of blood and a suffocating sense of pressure.
"Greetings, Patriarch!"
After a brief silence, the Third Enshrined One, Scarlet Douluo Fei Yan, was the first to step forward, bowing to Huo Yuhao on the throne, her voice clear and firm.
With her taking the lead, the Sixth Enshrined One, Scorpion Tiger Douluo Zhang Peng, and the Fifth Enshrined One, Evil Moon Douluo Yue Ming, also stepped out one after another, bowing their heads in submission:
"We salute the Patriarch."
Seeing this, the Great Enshrined One of the Holy Spirit Sect, Blood Scythe Douluo Chi Yue, who had been observing with cold detachment and whose cultivation was as high as Rank 98, curved his lips into an amused smile, chuckling softly:
"Interesting."
He then slowly walked over to Fei Yan and the others, and likewise bowed to Huo Yuhao:
"We salute the Patriarch."
Since even the strongest and highest-ranking Great Enshrined One had chosen to submit, the remaining Enshrined Ones no longer hesitated.
Second Enshrined Blood Bat Douluo, Fourth Enshrined Plague Douluo, Seventh Enshrined Demonic Spirit Douluo, Eighth Enshrined Evil Cloud Douluo, Ninth Enshrined Spider Sovereign Douluo, Tenth Enshrined Blood Lion Douluo, Eleventh Enshrined Lamentation Douluo, and Twelfth Enshrined Raven Douluo Wu Yun all stepped forward, bowing in unison, their voices rising and falling:
"We salute the Patriarch."
The Enshrined faction had completely thrown its weight behind Huo Yuhao.
At this moment, all eyes were fixed on the Elder faction, led by Evil Phoenix Douluo Feng Ling and Great Elder Demonic Voice Douluo.
Second Elder Heavenly Centipede Douluo Nangong Wan, Fifth Elder Myriad Souls Douluo, Sixth Elder Abomination Douluo, Eighth Elder Nightmare Douluo, and others looked at Feng Ling and Demonic Voice Douluo with ashen faces, awaiting their decision.
Feng Ling's face was livid, her fingernails digging deeply into her palms, drawing blood unnoticed.
With her husband brutally killed before her eyes and the enemy sitting on the throne, her heart was filled with anger and hatred.
Yet, reality was cruel.
The opponent possessed terrifying combat power capable of instantly killing her, an unfathomable new Patriarch, and the complete submission of the entire Enshrined group... Resistance meant only death.
Just as Evil Phoenix Douluo Feng Ling was pale, struggling internally and preparing to kneel in submission to preserve her life and the remnants of the Elder faction, the Great Elder Demonic Voice Douluo, who had been silent all along, suddenly took a step forward, channeling his Soul Power, and cried out loudly:
"Your Majesty the Demon Empress, if not now, when will you appear?!"
This shout was like a clap of thunder, exploding in the dead silence of the great hall.
As his voice faded, the space in the center of the hall warped, and two figures appeared without warning.
Leading the way was an exquisitely enchanting woman with a beautiful face but a cold, murderous aura. Faint purple lightning of destruction snaked around her body like small snakes. She was none other than the Demon Empress.
Beside her followed a blue-haired girl whose eyes held curiosity and a touch of helplessness—her daughter, Lan Fozi.
"You've certainly given me quite the show to watch."
The Demon Empress slightly parted her red lips, letting out a cold sneer.
Simultaneously, a terrifying, Divine-level pressure, no less potent than Xiao Wu's, spread out like a tide, instantly enveloping the entire great hall.
This destructive and violent pressure caused the faces of Great Enshrined Chi Yue and the others, who had just chosen to side with Huo Yuhao, to change dramatically, regretting their decision bitterly.
They had just placed their bet on the new Patriarch, and who would have thought that the Great Elder was still hiding such a trump card capable of overturning the situation?
Another Divine-level expert.
This made their earlier submission seem both ridiculous and dangerous.
It wasn't just the Enshrined Ones; even Evil Phoenix Douluo Feng Ling and the other Title Douluo Elders looked at Great Elder Demonic Voice Douluo in disbelief.
They, too, had been completely unaware of when the Great Elder had connected with a Divine-level expert, and that he had kept it so deeply hidden.
"Your Majesty the Demon Empress, please take action. The Holy Spirit Sect will submit to you as our master afterward."
Great Elder Demonic Voice Douluo quickly stated, his tone carrying a sense of relief.
His acquaintance with the Demon Empress was purely coincidental. At the time, the Demon Empress had not yet joined World Serpent and had not obtained the Herrscher Core; she was merely a powerful deep-sea ferocious beast.
The two had exchanged blows in a chance encounter overseas. Demonic Voice Douluo, recognizing her strength, attempted to invite her to join the Holy Spirit Sect.
The Demon Empress, being cautious, did not agree immediately, but in order to accumulate strength for revenge against the Sea God, she accepted the goodwill and left a method of contact.
She had come today intending to formally take over the force of the Holy Spirit Sect, but she unexpectedly stumbled upon this internal power struggle.
The Demon Empress's appearance caused Huo Yuhao, sitting on the Patriarch's throne, to suddenly change his expression as well.
This was completely outside his plan.
However, he quickly forced himself to calm down, his mind working rapidly.
He proactively activated the Herrscher of Sentience Core within him, and a faint, purplish light of Honkai Energy, different from Soul Power and carrying an air of the uncanny and inauspicious, appeared around him, forming a subtle halo.
"Demon Empress."
Huo Yuhao's voice regained its steadiness, even carrying a peculiar cadence.
"The Third Throne of World Serpent, the King of Conquest. I know you."
He paused, his scarlet eyes meeting the Demon Empress's oppressive gaze directly.
"I believe we share a common enemy."
The Demon Empress knew Huo Yuhao, and Huo Yuhao also knew the Demon Empress. After all, during the battle in the parallel world, Huo Yuhao had personally witnessed the Demon Empress suddenly appear and launch a sneak attack on the Rakshasa God, Bibi Dong.
But what gave Huo Yuhao greater insight into the Demon Empress was not that battle.
Following that, his surrounding spiritual power and Honkai Energy became even more active, as if manifesting a shared source of power, and he spoke in a low, chanting voice:
"The Divine has granted me wings, allowing me to command the minds of all beings, to shift between illusion and reality. King of the Mind, Demon Empress, this power should be quite familiar to you."
Hearing Huo Yuhao's words, especially the keywords "World Serpent" a sudden realization flashed in the Demon Empress's eyes.
She recalled that the information Mei was had previously transmitted to her seemed to have mentioned the joining of a new member to the organization, who controlled the authority over the mind.
"So that's it…"
The sneer on the Demon Empress's face deepened.
"You are the Eighth Throne, the King of the Mind. In that case, are we considered one of our own?"
She spoke of being "one of their own," but the savage aura of the Herrscher of Thunder on her body did not subside at all; instead, it surged even more fiercely, colliding and squeezing violently with the Divine Power pressure emanating from Xiao Wu, producing an invisible sonic boom that caused the space of the entire hall to slightly warp. Soul Masters with weaker cultivation even found it difficult to breathe.
Clearly, even belonging to the same World Serpent did not make her show any restraint.
Moreover, World Serpent had never stipulated that the Thrones were forbidden from fighting among themselves.
Strength and profit were the only rules here.
Great Elder Demonic Voice Douluo, whose heart had tightened upon realizing that the Demon Empress and Huo Yuhao knew each other, immediately relaxed when he sensed that the Demon Empress showed no intention of reducing her hostility, and a spark of hope reappeared on his face.
It seemed this Demon Empress was not here to help Huo Yuhao.
Due to the Demon Empress's intervention, the atmosphere in the hall shifted instantly from Huo Yuhao's unilateral suppression to a complex and dangerous standoff between two Divine-level experts, with two factions harboring different intentions.
The moment of stability was once again filled with immense variables.
Everyone's eyes darted between Huo Yuhao, Xiao Wu, and the Demon Empress, waiting for the conflict that would decide life, death, and allegiance, which might erupt at any moment.
Huo Yuhao endured the Divine-level pressure from the Demon Empress, which felt like a raging tide. His bones were emitting faint cracking sounds, but he still stood straight, speaking in a deep voice. His words were like a sharp sword, piercing the deepest wound in the Demon Empress's heart:
"Demon Empress, I know your purpose is to seek revenge on that… high and mighty Sea God, isn't it?"
The two words "Sea God" were like a spark igniting a powder keg.
Boom!
The Demon Empress's eyes instantly erupted with monstrous hatred and killing intent that was nearly solid.
The purple lightning coiling around her body suddenly flared, turning into countless dancing electric snakes. The terrifying pressure was no longer just pervasive; it swept out like a tsunami.
"Thump, thump…"
Under this purely Divine-level destructive pressure, all the Evil Soul Masters of the Holy Spirit Sect in the hall, including the Title Douluo Elders, felt as if they were being crushed by an invisible colossal mountain. They were unable to control themselves, collapsing to their knees, their faces pale and their bodies trembling.
Even Great Enshrined Chi Yue, whose cultivation was as high as Rank 98, only managed to hold on for one more breath before letting out a muffled groan and falling to one knee, the veins on his forehead bulging with shock.
Crack… crack…
The floor of the great hall, paved with hard obsidian, cracked like fragile glass under this terrifying pressure, radiating countless spiderweb-like fissures outward from the Demon Empress.
Such was the might of the Demon Empress.
Faced with this all-encompassing pressure, Xiao Wu frowned slightly, taking a step forward to discreetly shield Bei Bei and Tang Ya behind her.
A layer of gentle blue Divine Power halo unfolded, acting as the strongest dam, firmly blocking the Demon Empress's destructive aura and protecting the two people behind her, leaving them completely unharmed.
Huo Yuhao, at the center of the pressure, flashed a fierce look in his eyes.
He knew he absolutely could not show weakness at this moment.
"Ugh ah—!"
He roared softly, the Herrscher of Sentience Core in his body spinning furiously at an unprecedented speed. Majestic Honkai Energy, mixed with his mental power, gushed out.
Buzz—!
A dark purple energy beam shot up, centered on him, instantly dispersing the gloom at the top of the hall.
In the light, Huo Yuhao's form underwent a drastic change—
[Herrscher Armor: Mind-Sense Phantom]
Huo Yuhao's body was covered in a suit of armor based on deep, dark purple, punctuated by faint blue energy patterns resembling cracks in cold ice.
His face was covered by a dark metallic faceplate that concealed the upper half, shaped like an abstract skull combined with wings. The goggles over his eyes flashed with an unstable scarlet light.
His original hair seemed to have grown longer, the tips dyed with the spectral purple glow of Honkai Energy.
He wore a streamlined, dark purple biological light armor that hugged his body. The armor plates were not rigid but appeared like living nerve bundles interwoven with ice crystals, subtly pulsing with his breath, constantly absorbing and releasing mental energy.
Sharp, faint blue ice spikes jutted out from his joints, serving as both weapons and energy outlets.
Most uniquely, at the position of his shoulder blades were not solid wings, but translucent, dark purple energy light-wings composed of highly condensed Honkai Energy and mental power.
The edges of the light-wings continuously shed luminescence, their form fleeting and uncertain, at times stretching out like wings, and at others undulating like tentacles.
Clad in this [Herrscher Armor: Mind-Sense Phantom], Huo Yuhao's aura became incredibly strange, cold, and powerful.
He was surrounded by a mental force field that twisted reality and dreams, forcing open a territory belonging to himself amidst the Demon Empress's furious Divine might.
He hovered a foot above the ground, the dark purple energy light-wings slowly fanning behind him, scattering specks of mental light.
His scarlet gaze, seen through the goggles of the faceplate, met the Demon Empress's destructive stare without fear.
"Now."
Huo Yuhao's voice, filtered through the faceplate, carried a multi-layered echo, as if countless consciousnesses were whispering simultaneously.
"Can we discuss… the possibility of cooperation on equal terms?"
He had displayed his strength and identified their common enemy. At this moment, he had earned the right to speak with the Demon Empress.
In the great hall, one side was the King of Conquest, rampant with lightning and boiling with hatred.
The other was the King of the Mind, mysterious and unpredictable, with his mental domain spread wide.
The two Thrones of World Serpent formed a brief but dangerous standoff in the headquarters of the Holy Spirit Sect.
Everyone's life and death hinged on the outcome of their upcoming negotiation.
Sensing the authority of the Herrscher of Sentience on Huo Yuhao's body—a power system distinct from this world's yet containing undeniable potential—a flicker of acknowledgment crossed the Demon Empress's eyes.
Although Huo Yuhao's current strength was far inferior to hers, this potential and the significance it represented were enough to grant him the qualifications to speak with her.
Furthermore, he mentioned a "common enemy," which indeed piqued her interest.
"Hmph."
The Demon Empress let out a cold snort, and the suffocatingly terrifying pressure around her abruptly retracted like a tide.