Haiyuan City.
Outside the city, on the great martial drill grounds, elite troops stood arrayed in neat formations: the imposing Night-Return Army in full gear, the oddly dressed Fools, the armored and perfectly disciplined Golden Guard, and the Lava Knights wrapped in silver-white mecha suits…
Every elite unit was already on standby, blades gleaming, merely awaiting the word to march.
But that order had not yet come.
On Lu Jingming's blueprint, the time for Haiyuan City to reveal itself was still far off.
Only once Heavenly Soul and Fighting Spirit were on the brink of collapse, once the Star Luo Empire had fallen into chaos and the people's hearts sank into despair, would it be the perfect moment for Haiyuan to move.
This was a cold calculation, a grand piece of stagecraft.
Lu Jingming needed the old order of the three empires to be completely trampled under the iron hooves of the Sun and Moon. Only terror and despair could strip away their deep-rooted pride and tenacity.
At that time, the pieces he had already placed—the remnant forces of Shrek Academy, represented by Ma Xiaotao—could step forth under the most righteous and inspiring banner, raise their arms, and rally the last remnants of resistance from the three kingdoms.
And then Haiyuan City would descend as the savior.
With overwhelming might, they would defeat the seemingly invincible Sun and Moon legions, banish the Doomsday Beasts and his Anti-Matter Legion, and drag the continent back from the brink of annihilation.
When that moment came, with the unmatched deterrence of his military power and the great achievement of "saving the homeland," Lu Jingming would naturally become the one and only hope and leader among all survivors.
He would unify the remnants of the three empires, forge a new alliance with himself as the core, and then suppress the Sun and Moon Empire—which might by then be weakened by the war—finally completing the de facto unification of Douluo Continent.
Drive out the foreign invaders. Unify within. Advance with the flow of history.
It was the path with the lowest cost and the least resistance.
As for all those who would die along the way…
In his eyes, they were merely the necessary pain before a new world could be born.
From the floor-to-ceiling windows of the top-floor office of Haiyuan City's skyscraper, one could see the cityscape shrouded in overcast mist, and beyond that, the expanse of blue sea.
Lu Jingming lounged lazily in a wide office chair, rolling a flickering data crystal between his fingers.
On the light screen projected by the crystal, maps of the Sun and Moon Empire's military deployments were displayed, along with the hasty counter-deployments of the three empires, and long-ago-encoded messages:
"The Star Crown bloodline is ready and awaits your arrival."
All the information pointed to one conclusion.
The continental chessboard was moving step by step along the trajectory he himself had laid out, heading toward the predetermined endgame.
The corners of his lips curled upward, and Lu Jingming's mood was very good.
His free hand absentmindedly, indulgently stroked the head of the violet-haired catgirl buried in his lap, her mouth wrapped around his cock as he teased her.
"Cough… cough!"
A bout of choking coughs broke the silence.
Keqing abruptly raised her head. Her violet eyes were misty, full of water vapor, and she glared at Lu Jingming with a mixture of shyness and complaint. Her fair, beautiful face was flushed crimson, even the roots of her ears glowing red.
Seeing Keqing's embarrassment, a wicked amusement surged in Lu Jingming's heart. He said softly:
"Be good. Swallow my cum."
Keqing tried to hold his gaze for a few seconds, but in the end she lost. As though accepting her fate, her throat moved with difficulty. A faint gulp could be heard as she swallowed his semen.
She immediately raised a hand to cover her mouth, her eyes even more flustered and ashamed, as if she had just done something terribly indecent.
"You…! You couldn't have reminded me… earlier?!"
Her voice, hoarse from sucking his dick, carried an extra sultry quality.
Lu Jingming arched a brow and smirked.
"Oh? Remind you of what? That you… swallowed my load?"
"You—!"
Keqing's face turned scarlet in an instant, as though it might start bleeding. She hurriedly averted her gaze.
"Wh-what nonsense are you talking about…"
Watching her shy, incapable-of-loudly-retorting appearance, Lu Jingming felt the malicious little devil in his heart thoroughly satisfied.
"Alright, stop bullying Keqing. She still has things to do."
A playful, teasing voice sounded from outside the door.
At some point, Changli had already appeared, leaning casually against the doorframe. She wore a well-tailored uniform that accentuated her exquisite figure, and her legs, wrapped in black stockings, were long and straight.
Her eyes swept over the redness at the corners of Keqing's eyes and the way she unconsciously wiped the corner of her mouth. The smile on Changli's lips grew even more mischievous.
"Need a hand, City Lord?"
Keqing reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, springing up at once. She hastily straightened her messy clothes and hair, not even daring to look in Changli's direction.
"I-I still have a lot of documents to sort out. You two go ahead and talk, I'll… I'll head out first!"
Before she even finished, she almost bolted from the office in a panic, forgetting to close the door behind her.
Watching her purple figure flee in such a fluster, Lu Jingming couldn't help laughing out loud.
At last, he rose slowly, took an unhurried step forward, and walked toward the smiling "culprit."
Seeing him approach, Changli did not retreat; instead she met his eyes directly, gaze full of provocation. She lightly licked her red lips, her expression dripping with temptation.
However, Lu Jingming moved faster. With one hand he slammed the door shut with a bang, and with the other he snaked an arm around Changli's waist, gently pulling her in and pinning her back against the cold wall.
He leaned in at once, deftly lifting her slender leg wrapped in black silk, resting it in the crook of his arm, forcing her into a very ambiguous, enclosed posture.
"You scared poor Keqing away…"
Lu Jingming lowered his head until the tips of their noses were almost touching, his hot breath tickling her sensitive ear.
"Shouldn't you pay some compensation?"
Before she could answer, he captured her enticing red lips with unmistakable dominance—and at the same time, pressed his entire weight against her.
"Mm—"
Changli made a token attempt to resist, but quickly went limp, her arms winding around his neck like a soft water snake, responding with equal enthusiasm.
The teasing in her eyes dissolved into a muddle of emotion, rippling like a spring.
In the office, the tension of looming war in the air swiftly thickened into a hazy, intoxicating atmosphere.
…
Just as Lu Jingming was calmly scheming within the serene Haiyuan City, the fatal blade that the Sun and Moon Empire had long prepared had already plunged deeply into the territory of the still-stable Heavenly Soul Empire.
The long coastline that had once been Heavenly Soul's natural barrier had now become its most deadly breach.
When the massive floating battleships, the torrent of steel mechs, and the Anti-Matter Legion appeared like ghosts within sight of the coastal strongholds, the wail of alarm sirens tore through the sky—but it was already too late.
No declaration of war. No warning.
War arrived in the most direct way.
Along the sides of the high-altitude battleships, dense arrays of gunports lit up with the light of destruction.
In the next instant, thousands of Soul Tool beams poured down like a storm of light, blanketing every bunker, watchtower, and garrison of the coastal defense line.
Flames from the explosions merged together. The once-solid defensive positions were shredded like paper and crumbled under the dense bombardment, each blast equivalent to the attack of a seventh or eighth-rank Soul Tool.
The defenders barely had time to form effective defensive formations before suffering horrific casualties from the first volley.
Immediately afterward, colossal landing capsules streaked down like meteors and slammed into the beaches. Their hatches blew open, and new-model Soul Tool mechs over ten meters tall strode heavily onto Heavenly Soul soil.
The heavy cannons on their shoulders spat tongues of fire, while the high-speed rotary chainsaws that replaced some arms effortlessly shredded hastily constructed makeshift bunkers.
In the shadow of these steel giants, the monsters of the Anti-Matter Legion spread silently, leaving nothing but devastation in their wake.
The Heavenly Soul Empire's coastal defense line collapsed in just a few hours.
When the news reached the capital, the entire nation shook.
No one had imagined that the military blade of the Sun and Moon Empire would be so deadly and so swift—that it would completely bypass the main battlefield against Star Luo and deliver a killing strike from the direction least expected.
Princess Weina and Du Busi, who had just led the Body Sect elites and the Qingqiu army to reinforce Star Luo, were struck as though by lightning when they received the urgent report from the homeland.
"We have to go back. Immediately return to Heaven Dou City!"
Weina almost didn't hesitate. Her beautiful features were stained with blood, her eyes filled with terror at the thought of her family and country's destruction.
Star Luo was important. But Heavenly Soul was her root.
Du Busi's face turned deathly pale. He roared in fury:
"Those damned Sun and Moon bastards!"
He immediately ordered all Body Sect members and the entire Qingqiu Corps to reverse course at once, rushing back to the Heavenly Soul Empire as quickly as possible to intercept the enemy that had already penetrated deep into the empire's heartland.
The two sides finally clashed head-on on a vast plain—the Emerald Plains.
Once, this had been a vital grain production area of the Heavenly Soul Empire: fertile land, endless green crops swaying in waves under the wind, and the clear Feidai River meandering through, nourishing the fields like a band of jade.
But today, this plain that symbolized vitality and abundance was destined to be dyed red with blood and war.
There were no wasted cries or empty posturing. The moment the vanguard forces of both armies came into sight, battle erupted.
The Sun and Moon's floating battleship fleet struck first, raining down fire from above. Soul Tool bombardment plowed across the forward positions of the Body Sect and the Qingqiu Corps.
Earth was blasted dozens of meters into the air. Flames devoured the emerald sea of crops. Smoke billowed upward, darkening the sky.
"Body Sect! Kill with me!"
Du Busi bellowed. A fierce green soul power soared skyward as he hurled himself at a new-model mech like a verdant meteor.
Terrifying power condensed around his fist. With a single punch, the mech's heavy breastplate caved in. The giant body staggered backward while the shriek of shattering components sounded from within.
Spurred by their sect master, the Body Sect experts unleashed their might.
They relied on no external devices, instead pushing their martial souls to the absolute limit—some becoming titanic beings of raw power, some moving like ghosts at impossible speeds, some whose skin was harder than steel, some whose soul power made even soul beams struggle to pierce.
They were like a line of razor-sharp blades, slicing into the mech legions of the Sun and Moon, engaging these steel behemoths in the most primitive and tragic hand-to-hand combat.
The rending of metal, soul power detonations, roars and screams mixed into a single cacophony.
On the other side, Princess Weina led the Qingqiu Corps in confronting the terrifying Anti-Matter Legion.
The soldiers of the Qingqiu Corps were battle-hardened, equipped with special Soul Tool armor, and strove to fight these abominations with sheer speed and coordinated maneuvers.
Though the time they'd had to train under Feixiao was short, every one of them was an elite, risking everything to halt the Anti-Matter advance.
But they were vastly outnumbered. Two fists could not beat four hands. One after another, Qingqiu soldiers fell.
The aerial battle was just as fierce.
The Heavenly Soul Empire's aerial soul masters and their tamed flying soul beasts tried to harass the floating battleship fleet, but were quickly intercepted by the Doomsday Beasts.
These gigantic bio-weapons roared with ear-splitting fury. Dark-red beams of energy scythed through the sky, turning several soul masters and their mounts to ash in an instant.
Titled Douluo-level powerhouses had no choice but to take to the air to confront these Doomsday Beasts.
Soul rings blazed. All manner of powerful soul skills clashed and exploded in midair, sending ripples of energy surging out again and again.
One Titled Douluo elder of the Body Sect managed to use his formidable ontological martial soul to rip a Doomsday Beast's wing in half—but in the next second, he was engulfed from the side by the breath of another Doomsday Beast and plummeted from the sky with a desperate scream.
On the ground, the young leader of the Body Sect's new generation, Long Aotian, never left Princess Weina's side.
He had already entered the "Unity of Heaven and Man" state of the Body martial soul's second awakening. His power was close to that of a Titled Douluo. Wherever his fists reached, ordinary soul masters and mecha-soul-tool-equipped officers alike were swept aside.
He was like an unbreakable shield, blocking most of the direct attacks aimed at Weina.
But the cruelty of war lay precisely in its unpredictability.
A thick ninth-rank Soul Tool beam fired from a distant battleship was originally aimed at Du Busi, to intimidate the battlefield. Du Busi evaded at the last instant; the beam, wreathed in an aura of annihilation, shot past and streaked straight toward Princess Weina's command chariot.
The speed was too fast, the distance too great. Weina had no time to dodge. For the first time, pure despair appeared in her eyes.
"Your Highness, look out!"
At that critical moment, Long Aotian roared in fury. Without the slightest hesitation, he poured all his soul power into his limbs, shoved Weina aside, and threw himself into the path of the deathly light.
"BOOM—!!!"
Blinding white radiance swallowed his figure.
When the light faded, only a massive charred crater remained.
The Body Sect's young master, Weina's childhood friend and guardian—Long Aotian—was gone without even bones left behind.
"Aotian—!!!"
Weina screamed, her heart as if torn apart. Her body nearly collapsed.
Du Busi saw it all from the distance. His eyes nearly split open. He roared like a wounded beast.
Long Aotian's death completely ignited Du Busi's fury and madness.
"Bastards of the Sun and Moon Empire—die for me!!"
He threw his head back and howled. His body swelled in an instant, green light engulfing him. In a heartbeat he transformed into a hundred-meter-tall green giant—towering, heavily muscled, and monstrous of face.
This was his true Martial Soul Avatar.