Within the vast palace of Guangyan, Ducat’s spirit was merging with Xiao’s.

Suddenly, a negative spiritual shockwave, like a celestial river crashing down, slammed into Xiao. Xiao’s will, like a tiny boat in a raging sea, struggled briefly on the crest of the waves before being overturned by the giant surge. Ducat, who was intrinsically merged with Xiao’s spirit, had no time to react; he was swept into the violent spiritual torrent as well.

Countless faces flashed before his eyes, and the agonizing screams of fallen soldiers assaulted his ears. The surging resentment fiercely tore at Ducat’s outwardly projected spiritual energy. Wave after wave of negative spiritual impact relentlessly hammered at Ducat’s mental direction, attempting to burrow into his brain, infiltrate his body, and subsequently crush his soul, thereby pulverizing the physical form that had completely fused with his spirit.

The collective negative emotions of billions of slain soldiers at the moment of their death, magnified nearly a hundredfold by the demonic patterns etched on the surfaces of the eleven Mother God-level fortresses, created a terrifying spiritual impact that no being of this realm could withstand. Viscous blood spurted from Ducat’s seven orifices. His mouth gaped open, tilted toward the sky, as if letting out a silent, resounding roar. Every muscle in his body tensed, and large patches of foul blood seeped from within him. The dark blood dripped onto the throne, flowed down the legs of the seat, and pooled on the floor, gradually spreading across nearly a hundred square meters. The viscous plasma was over an inch deep; it was impossible to know where such a vast quantity of blood originated within him.

Lili watched Ducat in absolute horror. She continuously channeled the innate Azure Wood Qi into Ducat’s body, yet she could not stop the resentment from relentlessly destroying his body and soul. Gradually, thick black scales began to push out from beneath Ducat’s skin. His skull grotesquely twisted, transforming into a massive dragon’s head. His tongue, three feet long and forked at the tip, shot out straight from his mouth, emitting wisps of black vapor from its very tip.

“Xiao, Xiao, Xiao—”

Lili shrieked his name again and again, desperately shaking Ducat’s body, but Ducat remained utterly unresponsive. His eyes were wide open, fixed like a machine controlled by a central processing unit, emitting two beams of dead, lifeless red light that held no spark of sentience.

Nankte and the others waiting for Ducat’s orders in the great hall froze, retreating rapidly in sheer panic. They pressed themselves against the walls, carefully observing every movement Ducat made, fearful that he was plotting some insidious scheme or employing some evil artifice to manipulate them. Polukin and Yakjin secretly donned the armor inherited by them, cautiously utilizing specific functions on the armor to scan Ducat’s physical condition.

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Spiritual fluctuation frequency: zero. Spiritual intensity: zero. Vitality index: near zero!

Polukin and Yakjin exchanged horrified glances, their bodies trembling. Could Ducat be dead?

Gritting his teeth, Polukin drew a lightsaber in a swift motion, preparing to strike Ducat. If he truly was dead, this damned, base mongrel would no longer control the Roman Empire.

The massive doors of the hall suddenly burst open. Borbort flew in, suspended in mid-air, with the Ascended following closely behind. The two emitted sharp whistles and lunged toward Ducat with all their might and speed. Borbort held a gleaming Knight’s longsword, thrusting it through the air toward Ducat’s heart. The Ascended was covered in intricate demonic patterns, enveloped in strands of light-flame. Ten razor-sharp cold lights coalesced at his fingertips, ready to slash at Ducat’s vital head.

Holly, who was desperately treating Ducat, suddenly startled, letting out a sharp cry. She coiled her body, blocking Borbort and the Ascended. Vast sheets of green vines shot out from around her, weaving into layers of thick shields that firmly protected herself and Ducat behind her. Fine demonic patterns flowed between the vines, each one exquisitely beautiful and lovely with its pale jade glow. Delicate streams of light coiled around the edges of the patterns, and rich Azure Wood spiritual energy saturated the entire hall.

“Kill!” Borbort roared, enraged that even the tiny Spirit Race woman, Holly, dared to stand in his way. “Kill them! Quickly, that mongrel is defenseless now!”

As the roar echoed through the hall, Polukin and Yakjin erupted into action.

“Supreme Imperial Authority over all things, the power of Rome rules the entire universe.”

“The light of wisdom envelops everything; under the spiritual radiance of wisdom, no mystery in the universe shall remain!”

Polukin waved his hand, unleashing an invisible shockwave. More than a dozen layers of Holly’s vine shields exploded instantly. Yakjin glared, and countless tiny sparks, like nascent fires, adhered to the vines in the void. In the blink of an eye, fierce flames erupted; purple flames rapidly scorched the vines controlled by Lili, turning the green foliage swiftly into charcoal.

“Spirit Race scum!” The Ascended laughed ferociously. “A logic lock is embedded deep within your genes; you are fundamentally incapable of becoming our enemy!”

A demonic pattern shaped like a green leaf flickered at the Ascended’s fingertip. Lili suddenly let out a piercing scream as immense quantities of Azure Wood spiritual energy rushed out of her body. She had no control over the dissipation of her true energy. Her small body slumped to the floor, twitching violently like a tender sprout unable to withstand the wind. Every cell in Lili’s body was burning, every meridian convulsing, every bone fragmenting, every muscle tearing apart. Boundless pain enveloped her, a pain from the very depths of her soul that nearly caused her to faint.

Ahead lay a pitch-black, bottomless abyss. Lili felt as if she stood on the edge of this abyss they called “Death.” She screamed in terror, struggling and roaring desperately, clutching her lower abdomen in panic. She looked despairingly at the charging Borbort and the others, crying out, “Our child!”

“Mongrels shouldn’t have children! Especially not with a slave like you!”

Borbort sneered and lightly swung his longsword. Lili’s small, beautiful head flew high into the air, releasing a plume of green blood that shot up several meters from her severed neck. Polukin and Yakjin lunged forward, stomping heavily onto Lili’s abdomen. The savage energy instantly annihilated the nascent life that had been gestating within her womb for several years. The Polukin brothers struck with such force that Lili’s body was blasted into a wisp of golden smoke and dissipated.

“Pitiable brother! You damned mongrel!”

Borbort, flushed with triumph, glanced at Lili, who had turned to smoke, and swung his sword back, stabbing toward Ducat’s heart.

Clang! The treasured sword Borbort inherited from the previous commander of the Roman Knights clashed against Ducat’s body and was repelled. The sharp blade only left a nearly negligible, faint white scratch on Ducat’s scales. Borbort staggered back several steps, staring in terror at the motionless Ducat.

“Are you kidding me?”

The Ascended swooped down with a ferocious expression. The cold lights gathered on his ten fingers generated a sizzling, air-tearing sound as they struck Ducat’s face repeatedly. Sparks flew; the grating cutting noise forced everyone present to instinctively cover their ears. The cold lights on the Ascended’s fingers shattered, leaving only a few faint marks on Ducat’s massive dragon head. Only a single, small dragon scale, about the size of a thumb, was sliced away.

“The power of Imperial Authority!”

“The light of wisdom!”

Polukin and Yakjin unleashed their combined attacks upon Ducat. The tyrannical power representing kingship only caused Ducat’s body to tremble slightly, but the undiminished force of the attack pulverized the massive throne behind him. The subtle lights representing wisdom circled and intertwined around Ducat. Tiny glimmers of light seeped into his scales. Suddenly, his heavy armor erupted in bright radiance, and within this strange light, the scales became transparent.

The Ascended stared intently at Ducat’s now-transparent scales and suddenly cried out in delight, “So this is the weakness in his armor!”

With a wave of his hands, the Ascended’s energy-formed arms disintegrated, transforming into countless fine motes of starlight that whistled down upon the scales covering Ducat’s heart. Tens of thousands of high-frequency attacks struck Ducat’s armor every second. In just a few breaths, the armor vibrated violently due to the high-frequency assault. After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the resonance between Ducat’s entire set of scales and the fragmented starlight reached a peak, producing a deafening, ringing clamor from every single scale.

Crack! Ducat’s scales shattered simultaneously, revealing skin covered in wounds and bloodstains. The Xuan-Du Ducat lay half-reclining, his pale skin stretched taut over his robust musculature. Thousands of crisscrossing blood grooves covered his skin, from which thick, black blood continuously jetted out. A layer of plasma nearly a foot thick had already accumulated beneath him. The viscous blood kept spreading outward, blackening nearly half the great hall.

“Damn it, he forcibly swallowed the Holy Artifact!”

Borbort viciously plunged his sword toward Ducat’s body. But this time, the tip only penetrated less than two inches deep before it could advance no further. As soon as Borbort pulled the sword out, the wound healed rapidly, leaving only a nearly imperceptible blood mark. The gashes left by the shed scales were also mending quickly. Polukin and Yakjin could even hear the faint hissing sound of the muscles regenerating.

Polukin and Yakjin drew their laser swords and hacked repeatedly at Ducat’s neck. But with every strike, they only managed to cut less than half an inch into his body. The moment the laser sword left his body, the wound would swiftly recover. As Polukin and Yakjin continued their assault, the speed of Ducat’s wound repair increased until, finally, the wound was healing even as the laser sword was still in contact, forcibly pushing the blade out of his flesh.

“Damn it, what can we do to kill him? Think of something, quickly! While he hasn't woken up yet!” Borbort shrieked in panic, cursing Ducat in fury. He couldn't understand why Ducat, clearly immobilized, remained unkillable!

“He merged with the Holy Artifact; the artifact possesses infinite power and an inconceivable life force. Killing him is nearly impossible! Unless we separate him from the artifact!” The Ascended roared in anger through gritted teeth. He had shattered Ducat’s scales, only to find the physical body a hundred times more tenacious. How could this not infuriate him?

The Ascended gritted his teeth, reciting the incantations passed down by the High Priest for manipulating the Holy Artifact. Demonic patterns materialized before him one after another, which he rapidly drove into Ducat’s body, attempting to wrench the artifact free from Ducat’s interior. The artifact was too powerful; Ducat couldn't have fully integrated it yet—he could, at best, borrow its power temporarily.

Once the artifact was separated, Ducat was certainly doomed, just as the tenacious Lili had been easily dispatched moments before!

Ducat’s soul remained immersed in boundless negative emotion. His spirit roared in fury amidst the limitless resentment, fighting desperately to consolidate itself against the onslaught. Every second, a portion of his soul was infiltrated by the resentment. His spirit grew weaker, his original will diminishing. He was on the verge of being assimilated by the boundless rage.

Xiao, who seemed to have vanished, suddenly transmitted a faint spiritual fluctuation: “Xiao, I’m done for! This spiritual shockwave destroyed my core body! I’m finished. How did they manage this? My core body was hidden in the storage ring on you, yet this spiritual shockwave actually breached the spatial barrier and destroyed it!”

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“I can’t hold on, I really can’t! I’m too severely damaged; I can only save you! Quickly, accept all my remaining spiritual energy. Get out of this damned place! Wake up, wake up! The detectors I placed outside have been nearly destroyed by a strange force. In the remaining detectors, I can no longer sense Lili’s presence!”

“Wake up, Xiao! Get out!”

A massive influx of electronic signals flooded into Ducat’s soul, instantly merging with him. Ducat was intimately familiar with these signals and naturally accepted them, claiming the immense power they contained as his own. His soul roared madly within the boundless resentment, transforming into a streak of light and retreating disgracefully from the rage! A gigantic explosion erupted in the space of consciousness. Xiao’s core body was destroyed; his peculiar electronic soul imprint was utterly ruined. He expended all his energy to detonate himself, blasting open the terrifyingly dense resentment and tearing open an escape path for Ducat’s soul.

With a roar directed at the heavens, Ducat clawed and shattered Polukin’s larynx, then smashed Yakjin’s head with a punch. He leaped up from the ground, carrying the chilling, terrifying aura of a primeval behemoth. A cloud of clinging resentment suddenly dispersed outward, forcing Borbort and the Ascended back several paces, their faces etched with abject fear as they looked at Ducat. Nankte, Heisuojin, and the others hiding in the corner of the hall were even more fragile; they were directly knocked unconscious by the blast of resentment.

“You all deserve to die! Where is Lili?” Ducat’s massive dragon head swept around. He couldn't find Lili’s figure and roared.

“That lowly slave? She’s dead!” Despite being awed by the despair-inducing, formidable aura emanating from Ducat, Borbort still snarled through clenched teeth, “I heard she was carrying your child? You damned mongrel, you actually mixed the bloodline of our Holsom family with a Spirit Race woman!”

A mouthful of clotted blood sprayed far away from Ducat’s jaws. Viscous tears of blood streamed from his eyes. He jumped up and down almost maniacally, howling, “Dead? Lili is dead? No! You’re lying to me!”

The Ascended rapidly retreated a step, sneering, “Lying? Why would I? She died protecting you!”

Ducat’s body stiffened, and fine black scales rapidly erupted beneath his skin again. He stared coldly and ruthlessly at Borbort and the Ascended, then suddenly erupted into a strange, mocking laughter after a long pause: “Lili is dead? You really killed her? Then why are you still alive?”

Although he had barely escaped the vortex formed by the resentment, Ducat’s sanity, like Xiao’s just before, had been severely impacted; he had become utterly deranged. The deaths of Lili and Xiao acted as a catalyst named “Grief,” driving his madness to an immediate peak.

“If they died, you cannot live! The Holsom family, the Romans! You all shall perish with them!”

With a violent sweep of his hands, the palace, spanning several square kilometers, vanished in a surge of black tempest. A crater nearly a hundred kilometers in diameter appeared on the planet’s surface. Faintly visible below, the red magma churned. Ducat’s casual strike had pierced the planet’s crust, reaching directly down to the magma layer.

“Die, all of you, die, die, die! Holsom family, Romans! And you cursed Star Alliance descendants, die along with Holly, Xiao, and my child!”

“Perish! Destruction is the most fundamental form of this universe. All things vanish, space and time are utterly annihilated. From that infinite abyss of destruction, a new being capable of ruling all shall be born. This is I, Magic Dragon Long Gen.”

“No—I am Ducat. No… I am Magic Dragon Long Gen. No… I am Xiao…”

“Whoever I am, when final destruction arrives, only I can rebuild everything in the abyss of the universe!”

“Shatter!”

Ducat’s eyes narrowed, and he pointed a finger fiercely toward the Mother God-level fortresses far out in space, which were currently engaged in a brutal battle against several hundred Star Alliance cultivators.

The Mother God-level fortress, which had been firing salvos of flame like flinging cannonballs to chase the Star Alliance cultivators, suddenly lit up entirely. The God Crystals constituting the fortress body completely exploded.

Then followed the explosion of the other ten Mother God-level fortresses! Eleven Mother God-level fortresses detonated simultaneously, an event equivalent to fifty Third-Grade Golden Immortals unleashing their full power at once.

The starry sky overturned, space and time shattered. Centered around that stellar system, the void within a radius of five hundred light-seconds suddenly collapsed. The remaining Star Alliance warships, Star Alliance cultivators, all Roman warships, Roman production lines, all Romans—everything within that volume of space—was devoured by the collapsing black hole.

A newborn, colossal black hole gradually took shape. A long, sorrowful laugh echoed from the depths of the black hole. This sound was less a laugh and more a cry.

Accompanied by this hysterical crying-laughter, a tattered figure staggered out of the black hole. Both hands were missing; one leg was blasted down to a single bone; holes riddled his chest and abdomen, exposing vast swathes of damaged internal organs. Ducat staggered through the void.

Ducat was clearly insane. As he flew, he wailed incoherently for Lili and Xiao. As he wailed, he cursed everyone he could recall. Vile insults and malicious curses erupted from Ducat’s mouth like a tide. Large amounts of blood and broken organs continuously fell from his body. His flesh writhed rapidly; his damaged body was regenerating, and shattered limbs were growing back swiftly.

Gu Xiechen sighed deeply. He shot out of the warship and instantly appeared behind the raving Ducat.

Hovering behind Ducat for a moment, the curse-shouting Ducat failed entirely to notice Gu Xiechen’s presence. Gu Xiechen remained silent for a moment, then suddenly pointed a finger. A sword condensed from intensely hot holy light pierced Ducat’s heart, instantly destroying his core.

With a tragic howl, Ducat turned back toward Gu Xiechen in despair, roaring in shock, “Why is it you? I never imagined you would be the one to kill me, and from behind!”

Ducat screamed in disbelief, his body convulsing. He cried out sharply, “Why did you have to kill me? Why did you strike me from behind?”

Gu Xiechen retracted the Holy Light blade and violently struck Ducat’s body with a cross of Holy Light, blasting half of his body into ash. Looking at Ducat’s twitching face, Gu Xiechen stated coldly, “I considered you a brother!”

Ducat snarled, “Then why are you like this now?”

Gu Xiechen clenched his jaw and replied, “But you didn't treat me as a brother! When Xiao killed so many of my compatriots, we ceased to be brothers!”

With another sweep of the Holy Light Sword in his right hand, Ducate’s massive dragon head flew high into the air. His entire body disintegrated into ash, leaving only the gargantuan head drifting slowly in the void, its enormous eyes filled with disbelief and sorrow. Two streams of bloody tears continuously tracked down from those eyes.

Gu Xichen’s eyes also streamed with bloody tears as he roared toward the heavens, “Must it always end this way?”

A faint glimmer flashed, and the Holy Artifact that Ducate had swallowed slowly drifted out of the dragon’s mouth. Gu Xichen, filled with furious grief, stared coldly at the artifact, showing no intention of moving to retrieve it.

A flash of white light and a flash of gold followed. Reinhart and Dora lunged forward greedily, their eyes fixed on the Holy Artifact, almost drooling in their eagerness.

“Child, hand over that precious Holy Artifact to me! You’ve done splendidly; these formidable brutes were eliminated without me even needing to intervene!”

Auntie Rhine licked his lips, stating with evident satisfaction, “You’ve done exceptionally well, truly superb! I shall report this to the Progenitor; you will be rewarded handsomely!”

Gu Xichen closed his eyes tightly, tears continuously seeping out, gradually accumulating at the corner of his mouth into a water-ball the size of a small fist.

Auntie Rhine continued his incessant, grating chatter, praising Gu Xichen’s immense contribution and brilliant scheme. Gu Xichen slightly opened his eyes, then let out a cold, slight scoff: “Seize them!”

From the surrounding void, ten streaks of immortal light ascended. The Ten Absolutes Formation instantly enveloped the entire space. Arriving concurrently with the Ten Absolutes Formation was the Heavenly Court’s ultimate defensive array, the Heaven’s Net and Earth’s Web formation!

Two beams of purple light erupted beside Gu Xichen. Erlang Shen, clad in golden armor and yellow robes and wielding his three-pointed, double-edged blade, charged out instantly, plunging his weapon straight through the unprepared Dora. Yang Jian’s newly reforged Demon-Subduing Rope flew from his hand, tightly binding Dora, whose energy core had just been pierced.

Before Hamline could even process what had happened, a coarse ape-like roar thundered into the sky. A monstrously large golden cudgel plummeted down directly toward Hamline’s head.

Poor Hamline, a dignified innate creature of the Second-Grade Golden Immortal level, stared blankly at the approaching staff, completely losing the impulse to even dodge. This single blow had already crushed every notion of the mortal world, shattered every surrounding existence; beneath this weapon, there was nothing left but to close one’s eyes and await annihilation!

A sharp crack, like Mount Tai crushing an eggshell, sounded as more than half of Hamline’s body shattered!

A large, furry hand burst forth from the purple light. A brutal voice bellowed, “Bird-man, I’ve never seen a monster like you. Let Grandpa have some fun!”

A great, ten-foot-tall monkey, its entire body covered in dazzling golden fur, emerged from the purple light. It grabbed Hamline’s mangled remains and proceeded to pummel him with a barrage of monkey-fists. The monkey laughed maniacally with extreme excitement; every punch weighed more than a star and had the power to shatter the void. Hamline wailed mournfully as his body was shattered again and again, only to be immediately repaired by the Holy Light. He suddenly grasped the realization: under this monkey’s fists, this place was hell!

Gu Xichen, still weeping, coldly raised his gaze to the heavens, his voice devoid of emotion, “Kill them all, except for those two-winged fellows!”

—Except for the Twelve-Winged Archangels, kill all the rest!

The Ten Absolutes Formation and the Heaven’s Net and Earth’s Web array descended with crushing force.

Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival; Pig Head takes the day off. This chapter is just a small taste to quench your thirst!