"That divine light that kept blocking my attacks came from this avatar, right? In that case, I'll get rid of her first." The Deep Sea Demon Whale King, in human form, moved with astonishing speed.
That speed applied not just to movement, but to attacks as well.
Nine Treasures Invincible Divine Light still had three blocks left, but the Demon Whale King could unleash three attacks in a single second, each strong enough to cancel a block.
If it were ordinary skills, he could even strike hundreds or thousands of times in an instant.
At this moment, the Ice Sky Snow Maiden and the Snow Demon did not come to assist. The Snow Maiden was charging up, preparing a fatal blow for the Demon Whale King, while the Snow Demon protected her.
But the Demon Whale King didn't care. Without that invincible divine light, these two were no match for him.
Boom boom boom!
The Demon Whale King raised his right hand, condensing in the blink of an eye three purple spheres a hundred meters in diameter, slamming them all onto the Nine Treasure Glazed Pagoda. The triple strike completely dispersed the avatar's pagoda.
Smirking coldly, he gathered power again—still the same orbs, now much smaller in diameter, but numbering in the tens of thousands. The vast energy ripples dyed the sky purple and even distorted space itself.
A shrill tearing of the air rang out. From condensing to release took but a single breath; then those myriad purple orbs fell like a meteor shower toward Ning Rongrong, the Ice Sky Snow Maiden, and the Snow Demon. It was a wide-area, full-party attack, so fast it could only be described as lightning-quick.
Three parts water, seven parts lightning—that was the attribute of this move. Each purple orb was a fusion of two energies, a composite-attribute attack.
They were like beads of thunder: on impact they exploded with terrifying force. With such a large-area, locking attack, dodging was impossible.
But Ning Rongrong had no intention of dodging. It was only an avatar anyway. After unleashing this move, the Demon Whale King's body would be in a brief empty state—prime time for a counterattack.
Ning Rongrong drove the avatar straight at the Demon Whale King. He didn't even deign to look. His physical defense might have been weakened, but as his body shrank, his energy grew more condensed; the energy armor he formed was in no way inferior to that of his true body.
Under the bombardment of the thunder beads, Ning Rongrong's amethyst avatar dispersed. The Snow Demon, who had used her own body as a shield for the Snow Maiden, was also blasted apart by the Demon Whale King and needed time to re-form.
"Heh. The Sea God's successor—so that's all."
Just as the Demon Whale King reveled, a fearsome sword aura lanced out from within the smoke—from the very spot where the amethyst avatar had just vanished.
In the final second before the avatar dissipated, Ning Rongrong had used the talisman left by Tianlin: Demonic Flame Flashing Void Slash.
The terrifying sword light streaked toward the Demon Whale King like a meteor. He was unfazed, hardening his energy armor even further.
Unfortunately for him, no armor could avail. Forged by the Demon Sword, the Demonic Flame Flashing Void Slash fully inherited the sword's properties—every strike dealt true damage.
Before the Demon Whale King's disbelieving eyes, his energy armor was pierced in an instant; along with it, his heart.
"How is this possible?" He clutched the gaping wound in his chest. Even the Sea God's Trident couldn't pierce his energy armor—yet a single sword aura had shattered it outright.
Worse, he could feel that sword aura rampaging within him, wreaking havoc throughout his body.
An Ultimate Douluo? No—this was divine. The power of this strike had fully reached the godly level.
At that moment, another trident stabbed through his chest—the Ice Sky Snow Maiden, who had been charging all along.
Gone and Not to Return—one of the Golden Thirteen Tridents. This was the form Ning Rongrong had practiced the most diligently; with charge-up, its power was astonishing. Perhaps it could not have broken the energy armor before, but after the armor had been shattered by the Demon Sword's true-damage sword aura, piercing the human-form body was child's play.
The Snow Maiden's body gradually faded, revealing Ning Rongrong's true self—brown hair and green dress. The final blow, of course, had to be delivered by her own hand.
"Deep Sea Demon Whale King, this battle—I win!" Ning Rongrong channeled all the divine power of the trident and ripped it free in one pull.
At last, the mighty million-year soul beast could no longer support his body. Three meters tall, bleeding, he fell from the sky toward the sea.
Deprived of energy, he could no longer maintain human form. While still midair, he reverted to his whale body, two hundred meters long, and crashed into the ocean with a thunderous impact, a massive wound yawning in the middle of his torso.
As the colossal body plunged into the water, the sea was instantly dyed red with his blood. A surging wave of energy burst out, spawning yet another tsunami.
"Yes, you win. I lose." The Demon Whale King showed a strange smile. He looked utterly dead; even his soul ring and bone, bearing nine golden lines, had begun to surface.
Ning Rongrong only smiled calmly. "Senior Demon Whale King, to trick a young girl like this—you're not worried about losing face?"
She didn't rush to absorb the soul ring. She first pulled in the soul bone, and at the same time, employed the power of Ultimate Ice.
Freezing matter with light was nothing. True absolute zero could freeze even formless things like time and space. Ning Rongrong couldn't reach that level yet, but freezing a damaged soul was child's play.
Hidden within the soul bone, a pitch-black soul was frozen in a block of ice and forcibly yanked out by Ning Rongrong—the Demon Whale King's soul.
He was filled with despair, but frozen as he was, he couldn't utter a single word.
Seeing this, the Ice Empress sighed from the heart. "Wow, Rongrong, your husband really is a prophet. He even anticipated the Demon Whale King hiding his soul and waiting to possess you when you absorbed the bone, to usurp the Sea God's position."
Ning Rongrong grinned proudly. "Of course. My Sword Brother is the best!"
"All right, Rongrong, now isn't the time to brag about your husband. Shatter that soul, then absorb the ring and bone," the Snow Empress urged.
"Okay." Ning Rongrong gathered soul power and struck with one palm, shattering the ice into a rain of crystals. This time, the Demon Whale King was dead beyond all doubt.
Ning Rongrong descended to the sea, drew over the ninety-plus-thousand-year ring, and began to absorb the Ice Sky Snow Maiden's ninth ring.
With this ring, and later the bone, Ning Rongrong's level would be at least 97–98. The higher her rank before sacrificial apotheosis, the more divine power she could receive, and the stronger she would become.