Word Count: 3,025 Words
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Sun Moon Empire, Sunrise City.
"Wuuu—"
An impassioned bugle call rang out beyond Sunrise City. Atop the walls, the Sun Moon Empire's defending soldiers watched the golden torrent charging in from the horizon. Despair flickered through their eyes as they murmured:
"The Angel Empire... is descending..."
Ju Zi had stripped away every elite army the Sun Moon Empire possessed, only for them to meet total annihilation. From that moment onward, the Sun Moon Empire lost the strength to unify the two continents.
The Angel Empire consolidated the three great empires, and with the assistance of two Class 9 Spirit Guidance Masters, Lin Jiaran and Xuan Ziwen, its Spirit Guidance Technology advanced at a startling pace.
Of course, technological progress could not be achieved overnight. The Angel Empire's most terrifying asset remained its Spirit Masters, and in sheer numbers of Titled Douluo alone it utterly crushed the Sun Moon Empire.
United in purpose, their resolve sharp enough to cleave through iron, the Angel Empire raised a Holy Legion five hundred thousand strong, and Angel Empress Ye Guyi personally led the campaign. The grand army marched across the Ming Dou Mountain Range with heads held high and officially launched its counteroffensive.
Before hostilities began, the Angel Empress sent Xu Tianran three successive letters demanding his surrender. Yet Xu Tianran was the sort who would not give up until the Yellow River loomed before his eyes. This ambitious emperor refused to capitulate. He swiftly mustered every usable force within the Sun Moon Empire and frantically refined secret medicines to boost spirit power, propping up one Class 9 Spirit Guidance Master after another in a desperate attempt to halt the Holy Legion's iron advance.
Beneath supreme power, however, Xu Tianran's deathbed struggle was as laughable as a clown's performance.
Those hastily propped-up Class 9 Spirit Guidance Masters were nothing more than empty shells with Rank 90 spirit power and no substance to match. They collapsed and perished before the Angel Empire's Titled Douluo. Even the Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon Shells they had once taken such pride in were intercepted and destroyed by Crimson Dawn, which Lin Jiaran had elevated to a Class 10 Spirit Guidance Device.
In the span of a single month, the Angel Empire swept all the way to Sunrise City. The Sun Moon Empire's capital, Mingdu, possessed no walls of its own, and Sunrise City stood as the final major defensive line before it.
Once Sunrise City fell, Mingdu would be theirs for the taking.
Xu Tianran resolved to make a desperate final stand. He marshaled every remnant and routed soldier to defend Sunrise City, vainly hoping to emulate the Battle of Jialing Pass.
The final war began. The Angel Empire's five Spirit Guidance Legions mobilized as one. Led by the Angel Imperial Spirit Guidance Legion, the Extreme Ice Spirit Guidance Legion, the Specter Spirit Guidance Legion, the Judgement Spirit Guidance Legion, and the Sky-Shaking Spirit Guidance Legion rose into the air in succession. The Angel Empire's own five Hands That Protect the Nation arranged themselves into orderly formations and coldly faced Sunrise City from afar.
The five Legion Commanders stood at the very front. Behind the Commander of the Angel Imperial Spirit Guidance Legion, six pure white angelic wings beat softly. She was slender and beautiful, the angelic sword held in her hand. Nine spirit rings pulsed ceaselessly around her: yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, black, red. Her ninth ring was unmistakably a 100,000-year spirit ring!
Holy Benediction Douluo, Yu Mengdi!
After absorbing the essences of the Sky Azure Bull Python and the Titan Giant Ape, along with the pill refined by Jianmu Douluo, Yu Mengdi's spirit power had successfully broken through Rank 90. She took 'Holy Benediction' as her title, signifying the blessing and protection of Holy Evil Douluo!
The Commander of the Extreme Ice Spirit Guidance Legion was a woman of icy temperament. Her spirit ring configuration and spirit power fluctuations surpassed even those of Holy Benediction Douluo. An aura of Ultimate Ice radiated from her body, as though she could freeze the entire world solid.
Extreme Ice Douluo, Ling Luochen!
After fusing with the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, Ling Luochen's Ice Element had ascended to Ultimate Ice Element. In raw combat strength, she ranked first among the Angel Empire's five Legion Commanders. Yu Mengdi had earned command of the Angel Imperial Spirit Guidance Legion only because of the innate advantage her angelic bloodline granted, befitting the words 'Angel Imperial.'
The Specter Spirit Guidance Legion served as the counterpart to the Sun Moon Empire's Evileye Tyrant Spirit Guidance Legion, and its Spirit Masters trained in the agility-attack style. Its commander stood beside Holy Benediction Douluo Yu Mengdi. The two had always been rivals as much as close friends. The Specter Legion Commander stood over six feet tall. Her toned abdomen radiated wild vitality, and the lines of her face carried a distinctly exotic allure.
Specter Douluo, Na Na!
Not far from Na Na stood the Commander of the Judgement Spirit Guidance Legion. He cradled a dual-colored longsword in his arms, eyes closed in repose. His features were exceptionally handsome, and a formless sword intent faintly tore at the space around him. A wisp of purple smoke trailed him like a shadow, never far from his side.
Sword Fanatic Douluo Ji Juechen, and Fog Douluo Jing Ziyan!
Compared to the others, the Commander of the Sky-Shaking Spirit Guidance Legion cut a rather unimpressive figure. He was so thin and small he resembled a scrawny monkey, and the three old companions beside him buried their faces in their hands and sighed, wondering how they had ever been blind enough to let him talk them into joining.
Sky-Shaking Douluo, Yao Haoxuan!
Yao Haoxuan let out a sly chuckle. His fifth, seventh, and ninth spirit rings lit up in succession, and his body instantly swelled into a green-faced, fang-baring giant!
"Attack!"
Yao Haoxuan released his Martial Spirit Avatar, the Ape, and hammered both fists against his chest. An earth-shaking roar burst from his throat, and wherever the sound passed, the combat strength of the Angel Empire's soldiers surged by at least twenty percent.
Shrek Academy's Mo Xuan was known as the controller of war, and his Martial Spirit's halo possessed a range large enough to envelop an area of several miles. The Ape's soundwaves were no less formidable. Where the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda could only bolster a limited number of people, Yao Haoxuan's group enhancement ability stood firmly in first place across the entire Angel Empire!
As Sky-Shaking Douluo Yao Haoxuan sounded the horn of attack, Multi-Person Linked Spirit Guidance Devices mobilized spirit power across the formation. Angelic light, howling cold winds, ghostly specters, crisscrossing sword energy, and sky-shaking roars erupted together as the five Legion Commanders surged into action.
Times had changed. War no longer required ordinary soldiers to charge into battle. Before powerful Titled Douluo and Class 9 Spirit Guidance Devices, breaching a city was nothing at all!
The Sun Moon Empire would not sit idle either. Spirit Guidance Devices across the city walls rapidly charged, Stationary Spirit Cannon Shells lay ready to fire, and Xu Tianran's newly assembled, threadbare imitation of the Hands That Protect the Nation gathered in grim silence. Their commanders led their troops skyward to meet the Angel Empire's five Spirit Guidance Legions, and the two sides hung in the air like mirror images of one another.
Boom, boom, boom—
The Spirit Guidance Legions clashed. Just as Sunrise City's defending general allowed himself the faintest breath of relief, a clear, cold shout echoed across the sky.
"Soldiers of the Angel Empire, follow your Empress. Charge!"
A Holy Angel silhouette towered more than three hundred feet above the battlefield. Its six angelic wings shone pure and flawless, and its final three 100,000-year spirit rings blazed with dazzling brilliance. That peerlessly beautiful face radiated holiness and fearlessness, and pure golden mist cleansed the hearts of all living beings. The Sun Moon Empire's soldiers fell into a daze the instant they laid eyes upon her.
The Angel Empress, Angel Douluo Ye Guyi!
"Roar—"
A clear, soaring dragon cry resounded through the sky, its waves rolling like thunder. A giant dragon suddenly surged into the air, its body stretching over three thousand feet long. Diamond-shaped golden scales reflected the sunlight, lending the great beast an overwhelming majesty.
The dragon looked down upon the terrified defenders, flicked its tail in disdain, and took the lead by crashing headlong into the heavy walls of Sunrise City, reinforced as they were with rare metals!
Golden Dragon Douluo, Ling Qiuxi!
Another wild dragon roar split the air. A fire dragon engulfed from head to tail in scarlet flames shot straight through the clouds. Countless dragon-shaped flames bloomed outward, transforming the scene into a magma hell, and a single strike reduced a great swath of defensive Spirit Guidance Devices to ruin.
Fire Dragon Douluo, Wu Feng!
A giant emerald-green serpent slithered onto the walls of Sunrise City. It opened its enormous maw and instinctively prepared to spew Ultimate Poison, only for her lover's parting words to surface in her mind. The continental war was destined for victory. There was no need for mass slaughter.
"If darling hadn't forbidden it, I'd have mashed you all into bean paste!"
The Jade Phosphor Serpent Emperor reluctantly closed its jaws. A slit parted the snake scales at the center of its brow, and a grayish-white ray swept outward. Soldiers too slow to flee were transformed where they stood into stone statues frozen in every imaginable posture.
Medusa's Gaze!
Poison Douluo Dugu Lin!
A phoenix cry rang through the sky. The Fire Phoenix soared wreathed in blazing phoenix flames, its gold-red eyes fixed on the cowering Class 9 Spirit Guidance Master before it. The king of all birds radiated overwhelming majesty!
The Master of the Holy Pavilion, Phoenix Douluo Ma Xiaotao!
Shrek Academy stood on the side of the Douluo Continent, and the Sun Moon Empire was their enemy. The moment the Angel Empire launched its counteroffensive, Ma Xiaotao rushed to lend her support without the slightest hesitation!
A woman's pitch-black eyes shone like stars, and her gaze flowed with boundless gentleness. Rings of gold and silver light bloomed one after another. These halos did not attack. Instead, they wove themselves into a curtain of gold-silver light that shielded the Holy Legion. The Spirit Guidance Cannon Shells fired from Sunrise City lost their force the instant they struck the halos, as though they had fallen into another space entirely.
Golden Fairy Douluo Han Ruoruo!
Behind these Titled Douluo, a nine-colored band of light remained connected at all times. The one hundred percent amplification to nine attributes, including strength, speed, attack, defense, and spirit power, served as everyone's confidence and wellspring of strength.
A woman held a nine-colored pagoda aloft above her palm. Platinum-blonde hair fell to her waist, and her sapphire-blue eyes flickered with moving radiance. Her figure was delicate and graceful, her bearing elegant and noble.
Glazed Douluo Ning Tian!
Yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, red, red, azure-gold. The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda erupted in full force, and Ning Tian's ninth spirit ring was an unprecedented azure-gold.
The Sky Azure Bull Python's ninth spirit ring!
After draining the last drop of blood and bone from the two spirit beasts, the moment had also come to reap their spirit rings and spirit bones.
The Titan Giant Ape was a top-tier strength-type spirit beast, and the person most suited to it was undoubtedly Ling Qiuxi, who possessed Ultimate Strength. Back then, she had been willing to give up her spirit beast destiny to preserve the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, earning everyone's recognition. No one had any objection to her absorbing the Titan Giant Ape.
Among all those close to Ling Bai, no one was especially compatible with the Sky Azure Bull Python. Moreover, after the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda reached seven rings, it no longer imposed attribute requirements on its spirit beasts. As the firmly established official wife, Ning Tian naturally deserved a measure of preferential treatment.
Today, they fully upheld the Angel Empire. The vast majority of them were under thirty, while the youngest, Ning Tian and Wu Feng, were only twenty. The glorious future of the Angel Empire could already be imagined.
The new generation served as the main force, yet the older generation of experts was likewise unwilling to fall behind. Jianmu Douluo Zhou Jiren, Nine Treasure Douluo Ning Fengya, Azure Emperor Douluo Ning Fengyu, Shadow Dragon Douluo Xie Qin, Demon Dragon Douluo Lin Jiaran... They led the ground army in dismantling the Sun Moon Empire forces that charged out of the city.
As the battle deepened, Sunrise City's defenses gradually crumbled toward collapse. Both empires possessed Multi-Person Linked Spirit Guidance Devices, but Yu Mengdi, Ling Luochen, and the others all possessed top-tier Martial Spirits and held the upper hand from beginning to end. The five great Angel Legions annihilated the bankrupt imitation of the Hand That Protects the Nation down to the last man.
The Golden Dragon was revered across the Douluo Continent as the Ancestor of Strength. Among Titled Douluo, Ling Qiuxi's physical body was second only to a certain bug. She gathered all her spirit power into her dragon head, and a thunderous crash resounded as the Golden Dragon smashed a gap into Sunrise City's walls with a rocket-like headbutt!
Sunrise City had fallen!
The Sun Moon Empire's morale collapsed into chaos. Angel Empress Ye Guyi's golden eyes shifted. She raised the Holy Sword high and called out in a deep, commanding voice:
"As the Angel Empire enters the city, no harm is to come to the civilians. Violators will be dealt with by military law!"
The Angel Empire surged into Sunrise City. Defending General Xu Zhanlong saw that the situation could no longer be salvaged. He lowered his head and drew out a piece of Starlight Sapphire, and the chilling words Sun Moon Emperor Xu Tianran had spoken before his departure echoed in his ears:
"Imperial Uncle, the Angel Empire is coming with overwhelming momentum. The Sun Moon Empire's military strength has been depleted by more than half because of that bitch Ju Zi. Sunrise City cannot possibly hold against the Angel Legion."
"Your Majesty, do you mean for the Empire to surrender to the Angel Empire?"
"The Sun Moon Empire will never be slaves. We still have one chance to turn defeat into victory!
Within this lies the Empire's ultimate trump card. The last fifty-two Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon Shells, along with the High-Energy Compression Array Spirit Guidance Devices dismantled from the four corners of the Imperial Palace!"
"I understand, Your Majesty. This minister bears the bloodline of the Sun Moon Empire's imperial family and is willing to brave fire and water for the Empire. But Sunrise City still holds hundreds of thousands of civilians, and there is simply no time to evacuate them..."
"Using one city as the price to drag every Titled Douluo and soldier of the Angel Empire into the grave alongside it is a bargain the Sun Moon Empire cannot lose!
Once that is done, the Sun Moon Empire will once again suppress the Angel Empire. We will conserve our strength for a few years, and when we launch another continental war, we shall be the sovereigns of the continent!
Imperial Uncle, this is our only chance to turn defeat into victory. Once I unify the two continents, I will erect a hero's statue in your honor. The citizens of future generations will forever remember your eternal achievements!"
"This minister obeys!"
Xu Zhanlong looked at the routed defending soldiers, and the last trace of warmth in his heart hardened into iron. As long as the Sun Moon Empire unified the continent, what did a mere Sunrise City matter?!
He poured his full Rank 90 spirit power into the Starlight Sapphire. The combined explosive force of fifty-two Class 9 Stationary Spirit Cannon Shells could blast all of Sunrise City into the sky, and the four-layered High-Energy Compression Array Spirit Guidance Devices would multiply that force a hundredfold. This strike was enough to threaten a God!
Xu Zhanlong unleashed the forbidden power and bore its price before anyone else. His body dissipated in an instant, evaporating without leaving even a speck of ash behind. Just before his end, he seemed to hear a soft sigh.
Space and time froze in that instant. Sunrise City was drawn into a resplendent golden holy world. Countless clear hymns rang out, and amid the sacred chanting, terrified and despairing souls found purification.
A Seraphim slowly descended, the edges of its radiant wings lightly brushing the ground. In the sky above, six golden pillars of light shone down, condensing into what seemed like six suns. Within each one, a figure took shape.
It was a translucent Seraphim, the Space-Time Sovereign Spirit Core rotating in silence at its core. From this moment onward, time and space had their master. The annihilation-level explosive force no longer spread. It remained confined within its original thirty-foot radius, like a black hole capable of devouring all things, black rifts flashing endlessly within.
The soldiers' gazes converged on the Seraphim as one. Every one of them understood, deep in their bones, that he was the faith of the Angel Empire's countless people, the Holy Evil Monarch who stood even above the Angel Empress.
Holy Evil Douluo, Ling Bai!
Six enormous Seraphim stepped out from the suns, their golden radiance nearly illuminating the entire horizon. In the eyes of humanity, Ling Bai stood in this moment as the Angel God descending into the mortal realm.
Beneath the Angelic Holy Light, the souls of the Angel Empire's soldiers were lifted to new heights. An intense sense of comfort welled up within them, and an indescribable wonder struck straight into their hearts.
The Seraphim spread its wings, and golden brilliance blotted out the sky. Threads of light drifted down upon the mortal world. Within the black hole pinned in place by the Space-Time Sovereign Spirit Core, divine gold supplanted the destructive black!
The Angelic Domain's ultimate form, Angel of Truth!