DD Spiritual Sword [393-395] (Patreon)

Chapter 393: Ning Rongrong VS Flame Lord, Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice

“Just a mere human with some skills? Take two more of my moves!” The Flame Lord was hot-tempered and didn’t give Tianlin any chance to explain.

If it had been before, Tianlin really had the sinister intention of turning the Flame Lord into his soul ring. But now that he’d obtained his eighth ring, he had no more killing intent—he was only here to uncover the truth.

But with not even a chance to speak, Tianlin could only sigh helplessly. He summoned his magic sword, preparing to face his opponent seriously.

The Flame Lord unleashed a barrage of Flame Bombs—countless high-temperature fireballs filling the sky so densely that not even a drop of air could pass through. Tianlin had seen this move from Yan before, but Yan could only summon six fireballs at his limit. The Flame Lord, however, was making it look like a meteor shower.

“Tianlin, be careful. This move is extremely powerful. Last time I fought it, I only survived with my Ice Empress body shield in the far north, but here, in this scorching place, the power is several times stronger. Even at my peak, I’d need to go all out.” The Ice Empress warned. She had fought the Flame Lord before and knew how formidable it was.

That’s why the Ice Empress was so wary and once asserted that if she and the Snow Empress were away, no one in the Far North could stand against the Flame Lord.

“It’s fine. Eighth soul skill: Spiral Radiance Swallows Sun and Moon!” Tianlin smiled calmly. When it came to attack range, few could surpass his eighth soul skill.

With a single move, Tianlin tore open space, forming a massive black hole. Instantly, all the fireballs were sucked in. Tianlin didn’t stop, continuing to swing his sword and expand the black hole. All the fire in the Flame Valley was absorbed, and the temperature around them began to drop.

“Without your flames, let’s see how you, the Flame Lord, can be reborn from fire.” Tianlin pointed his sword at the Flame Lord. This guy had attacked him repeatedly—did it really think he had no temper?

The Flame Lord was stunned at this moment. “Impossible! The flames of this Scorching Hell were bestowed by my master himself. Not even the extreme water attribute could extinguish them, but now they’re all gone?”

“Master?” Hearing this, Tianlin realized his suspicions were correct. There had to be some incredible existence here—otherwise, just the Flame Lord alone couldn’t have created such a vast and stable space.

“Flame Lord, do you still remember me?” While the Flame Lord was dazed, the Ice Empress sent a soul message.

The Flame Lord had stayed in this valley for over a hundred thousand years, rarely meeting anyone except its master. The only other memory it had was of the time when the Angel God and Sea God ascended—two gods appearing in a short span destabilized the Douluo Continent’s lower plane, creating a rift. It was during a trip through this rift that the Flame Lord encountered the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion.

That was its first opponent outside, and unexpectedly, it lost immediately. The terrifyingly strong Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion drove it straight back to Scorching Hell.

“Flame soul beast, get out of the Far North!” The Ice Empress’s furious roar from back then still echoed in its mind. After that, the space slowly healed, and it never left again.

“You... you’re that scorpion from back then?” The Flame Lord looked at Ning Rongrong’s side. Though it couldn’t see the now-spiritual Ice Empress, it could sense her presence.

The Ice Empress nodded. “That’s right, it’s me. Long time no see. I didn’t expect your cultivation to surpass 250,000 years already. It seems cultivating in this valley has truly benefitted you.”

“Hmph, I get it. You’re here to finish me off. Back then, I only accidentally entered your Far North and was endlessly attacked by you. Now you trespass on my territory and expect me to be a pushover?” The Flame Lord was furious, abandoning Tianlin and attacking Ning Rongrong instead.

“Rongrong, be careful!”

Tianlin rushed forward to protect her but didn’t expect Ning Rongrong to make the first move.

“Sword brother, don’t worry!”

The Snow Empress’s soul ring flashed. Ning Rongrong chose to face the Flame Lord’s attack head-on. This was her first battle as a battle soul master, and she was facing such a strong opponent, but she was unafraid.

In the past, whenever she was in danger, she’d always been behind Tianlin or her grandfathers. But not anymore. She wanted to become stronger and move forward alongside them.

“Empress' Palm!”

The freezing palm collided with a scorching punch. Fire and ice clashed violently in this strange space. Since all the surrounding fire had been sucked away by Tianlin’s black hole, neither side had an environmental advantage—it was a fair duel.

However, the strength gap remained. Before long, Ning Rongrong was at a disadvantage. Her situation was much like Tianlin’s during his soul hunt; both had twin martial souls and freakishly strong soul rings, but Tianlin’s were both battle types, while Ning Rongrong’s Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was a support type, giving her far less power.

Ning Rongrong could easily handle a Soul Douluo now and perhaps scrape by against a weaker Titled Douluo, but against a top-tier opponent like the Flame Lord, she was completely outmatched.

“Snow Empress, Ice Empress, please grant me strength.” Ning Rongrong gritted her teeth, unwilling to always rely on Tianlin. She wanted to fight alongside him in the future.

Seeing her determination, Tianlin didn’t rush to help. He still had second skill of the eight ring: Extreme Curse Returns Yin and Yang, so he wasn’t worried about Rongrong’s safety.

He planned to have Ning Rongrong go to Seagod Island for training, and since he wouldn’t be going with her, he wanted to nurture her combat ability now.

“Rongrong, open my Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice and the Ice Empress’s Eternal Freeze Domain at the same time,” the Snow Empress said.

Ning Rongrong didn’t hesitate and activated both her trunk bone and the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion’s soul ring.

“Ice Sky Snow Empress Soul Bone Skill—Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice!”

“Second Soul Skill—Eternal Freeze Domain!”

The two most powerful ice domains spread out, making the Flame Lord extremely uncomfortable.

Not only that, the two domains slowly began to merge. This was the unprecedented domain fusion skill of the two Ice-Snow domain.

Once activated, this domain would increase ice-type soul masters’ strength exponentially, far surpassing martial soul true bodies, comparable to soul bone armor. At the same time, non-ice soul masters or beasts, especially fire-types, would have all attributes weakened by over 80%.

Gradually, Ning Rongrong not only regained her advantage but even pushed the Flame Lord’s fire back.

Just as victory seemed within reach, a sudden “bang” shattered the domain. The Flame Lord’s fire, now unstoppable, was about to strike Ning Rongrong.

At the critical moment, Tianlin teleported in front of her, cutting the flames apart with a single sword swing.

Chapter 394: Land of the Fire God’s Legacy (1)

“Sword brother, I’m sorry. I still lost.” Once again standing behind Tianlin, Ning Rongrong looked very aggrieved.

Tianlin tapped her pouting lips with his finger, smiling. “Silly girl, what are you thinking? You did more than enough. If it were an average Soul Sage getting grazed by the Flame Lord, even their bones would have been melted by now.”

“Exactly, Rongrong. Don’t mind it. The Snowy Dance of Ultimate Ice is the strongest domain of the Far North, even surpassing the innate domains of god-level martial souls. It’s normal that you can’t fully control it yet,” the Snow Empress comforted.

The Ice Empress nodded. “Snow Empress is right. And if you look at the outcome, you actually won.”

The Ice Empress didn’t bother hiding her words from the Flame Lord—they reached its ears word for word.

The Flame Lord was instantly enraged. “Nonsense! That little girl beat me? Even if she barely mastered that domain and hit me, it’d only hurt me slightly. If I went all out, she’d be dead within the time of a single incense stick!”

“Heh, a fearsome beast over 200,000 years old, injured by a mere seventy-ranked Soul Sage—a little girl at that—isn’t that even more humiliating than death? Don’t you agree, Bingbing?” Skydream Iceworm chided, sucking up to the Ice Empress.

“Exactly, even Skydream, that useless bug, understands this. And you still have the face to argue? You’re even worse than trash.” The Ice Empress didn’t spare Skydream either, scolding both at once.

“Bingbing is always right! Bingbing is the best!” Skydream, shameless as ever, even cheered.

The Snow Empress looked at Little White. “Xiaobai, let me ask: if you fought a seventy-level little girl and got hurt, would you be embarrassed?”

“How strong is level seventy?” Xiaobai looked confused. Having never met humans before Tianlin and Ning Rongrong, he didn’t know soul master rankings.

The Snow Empress thought for a moment and explained, “Seventy is about the same as a fifty or sixty-thousand-year-old cub from your Ice Bear clan—oh, and a female cub!”

“So weak? No way, Xiaobai would never lose like that. Mother, you have to believe me!” Xiaobai, feeling wronged, tried to explain. But with no body left, all he could do was act cute.

“You… you bunch of bastards!” The Flame Lord’s veins bulged. Although it couldn’t see the four soul bodies, their soul talk was meant for it to hear—clearly mocking it!

Tianlin broke out in a cold sweat. He hadn’t realized that some of the strongest soul beasts in Douluo Continent were so sharp-tongued. They weren’t trying to kill the Flame Lord but to anger it to death.

Only Xiaobai wasn’t intentional, but its natural tone was the most hurtful.

“What are you people really here for?” The Flame Lord forced himself to calm down. He could see that these people weren’t here to cause trouble.

If they’d wanted to, the two humans could easily defeat him together. With all the flames in the valley absorbed, he couldn’t resurrect. If they meant to kill him, he’d already be dead.

“We mean no harm. We only came to find out why this space exists, and whether you’ll threaten the Far North. Your answers will determine our attitude,” Tianlin said as he stepped forward.

“Hmph, and if I did pose a threat, what would you do? Kill me here? Let me tell you, the Far North is nothing to me. If I want to go, I will; the soul beasts there, I can kill as I please. What can you do?” the Flame Lord blustered. In truth, he had no interest in the Far North. He only went there by accident and got beaten. He never planned to return.

Still, as a top fire-type soul beast, he had a rebellious streak. The more he was threatened, the more stubborn he became.

Hearing this, the Ice Empress’s face darkened. “In that case, Tianlin, don’t be polite. Kill him. Even if you don’t absorb his soul ring, there’s still a 200,000-year soul bone to take.”

The Ice Empress was hot-tempered too and didn’t care what the Flame Lord really thought. If he was unreasonable, he deserved to die.

“In that case, there’s no other way. Come, let’s fight!”

Tianlin grasped the hilt of his magic sword, sword aura rising. The Flame Lord’s body ignited in flames, the sea of fire boiling—they were on the verge of another fierce battle.

Suddenly, a majestic voice rang out. “Stop, Ah Huo, and you, inheritor of the Asura God and the prospective inheritor of the Sea God.”

This voice carried boundless power. Just its tone dispersed both Tianlin’s sword aura and the Flame Lord’s raging flames.

Tianlin was slightly stunned. Even an Ultimate Douluo couldn’t do this. There was only one possibility—the newcomer was a god!

In the sky, a red-haired man slowly descended. It wasn’t his true body, but a projection, similar to what the Asura God and Sword God had shown before.

When the Flame Lord saw the man, all its previous bluster vanished. It prostrated humbly. “Greetings, Lord Fire God! My lord, why have you descended in person?”

Hearing the title, everyone except Tianlin was shocked—the man before them was actually a first-rank god from the Divine Realm, the Fire God!

Tianlin had already guessed. Only a god could create such a stable space. He just hadn’t expected it to be a first-rank god.

If he was right, this was the Fire God’s legacy land. No wonder Ma Hongjun found it later—it was indeed on Douluo Continent.

Only, hidden in a different space, so it wasn’t as obvious as other gods’ inheritances.

“If I hadn’t come, you’d probably have died today, Ah Huo. I’ve known you for almost two hundred thousand years. When will you fix that temper?” The Fire God chided the Flame Lord.

It seemed the Flame Lord, like Xiaobai on Seagod Island, was a guardian soul beast of this Scorching Hell, and had been friends with the Fire God since before he ascended.

“Lord Fire God, they intruded…”

The Flame Lord tried to defend itself, but the Fire God cut him off. “Enough. I know exactly what happened. As kings of the Far North, the Ice Empress and Snow Empress are responsible for handling matters before leaving. These people only came to find out the truth. You didn’t even give them a chance to explain and attacked first. What am I to do with you?”

The Fire God’s tone was full of helplessness. He’d known the Flame Lord for many years—not really intending to punish it, just to scold it lightly.

Chapter 395: Land of the Fire God’s Legacy (2)

“Lord Fire God, it was we who intruded this time.” Tianlin cupped his hands in salute. “We just didn’t expect this to be your legacy land. It seems our worries were unnecessary.”

“Haha, no matter. I was just copying Seagod and Asura God, setting up a legacy land on the Douluo Continent. It’s been countless millennia. You and this girl are the first humans to enter. Pity, one’s the Asura God’s inheritor, and one’s passed the Sea God’s test—a prospective inheritor. Both have nothing to do with me.” The Fire God sighed, a bit disappointed.

Perhaps because this god didn’t seem fierce, Ning Rongrong mustered her courage. “Lord Fire God, I don’t understand. Since you’re the god of fire, why put your legacy in the freezing Far North?”

“For selection,” the Fire God said, “Just like the prerequisite for Seagod’s legacy is to withstand the Seagod’s Light, and Asura God’s is to pass Hell Road and obtain the Deathgod Domain, to take my test, one must first match my godhood in attribute and then reach this place.”

“I see. This is the Far North’s deepest part—only two types of people can survive here. First, those who adapt, like Rongrong now, with powerful ice martial souls, fully resistant to the cold. Second, those who resist, meaning those with attributes that oppose cold—fire!”

“Any fire soul master who can reach here is a top-tier fire user.”

Tianlin fully understood the Fire God’s reasoning. Even the rumor of hidden flames in the Far North was probably spread by the Fire God himself to attract fire soul masters.

The path through the Far North was, like the Slaughter City’s Hell Road, the Fire God’s first test for inheritors.

The Fire God nodded. “Exactly. As long as a sufficiently talented fire soul master comes here, I’ll open the space and bring them in. You’re Tianlin, right? I heard Asura mention you. Actually, you have ultimate fire within you. You could have opened the space yourself, you didn’t need to forcibly tear it with a soul skill. But, first, you already have a god’s inheritance; second, your fire, though high in quality, is too little in quantity. If you hadn’t entered, I wouldn’t have noticed.”

Tianlin smiled wryly—what could he do? The fire attribute in his body came only from a thousand-year-old Purple Fire Golden-Eyed Beast. Without his external soul bone, he probably couldn’t use even half the power of ultimate fire.

The Fire God stared at Tianlin for a moment. He’d already noticed the severe elemental imbalance in Tianlin’s magic sword; though the sword had reached a god-level martial soul, its power couldn’t be fully realized. No wonder Asura had gathered the elemental gods to create a special god-bestowed soul ring for his inheritor.

“Lord Fire God, now that we’ve confirmed this is your legacy and poses no threat to the Far North, our goal is achieved. We’ll take our leave,” Tianlin said, drawing his magic sword.

“Wait. No need for you to tear space. I can open a portal for you. Asura inheritor, that space skill of yours—don’t use it unless in crisis. And even if you must, don’t use it at full strength. A black hole is a terrifying power in the universe. If you keep tearing space, the Douluo Continent’s dimensional barrier will weaken, making it susceptible to attacks from other realms,” the Fire God warned.

Tianlin was shocked. He hadn’t known his powerful eighth soul skill had such a side effect. Fortunately, the Fire God warned him—otherwise, he might have caused a disaster.

Space skills were common in many fantasy worlds, but those worlds had much stronger dimensional stability. Douluo Continent’s space couldn’t withstand the full power of a magic sword from the Immortal Sword World.

“Thank you for the warning, Lord Fire God. I’ll be careful in the future.” Tianlin was grateful. “One more thing: I have a brother with a top-grade Fire Phoenix martial soul. He’s eaten the Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower, so his fire is vast and pure, close to ultimate fire. Would you be interested in seeing him? If you agree, I’ll bring him to meet you.”

The Fire God looked intrigued. “Oh? Fire Phoenix, and he’s eaten an immortal herb? Not bad. Worth a look. But inheriting my godhood isn’t easy. I’m a first-rank god in the Divine Realm. Besides talent and potential, the foundation is crucial. If your friend isn’t as promising as you or this girl, even if he passes my test, his chances of success are slim.”

The Fire God laid out the facts. Tianlin frowned with concern. The Fire God was blunt but truthful.

Ning Rongrong qualified for the Sea God’s inheritance thanks to two divine-grade pills, twin martial souls, and the ultimate ice attributes of Ice and Snow Empress.

Compared to her, Ma Hongjun was far behind. His not-fully-transformed Fire Phoenix martial soul was already somewhat inferior to Ning Rongrong’s Ice Snow Maiden, let alone in other aspects.

In the original story, Ma Hongjun went to Seagod Island for the auxiliary test before coming here, reaching the Titled Douluo level, and still failed. Coming now would be suicide.

Even though the current Ma Hongjun was stronger and more diligent than in the original, Tianlin decided he should still train at Seagod Island first.

“Lord Fire God, you’re right. I’ll have him follow Rongrong for the Sea God’s auxiliary test and bring him here after he earns his title.”

At this, the Fire God’s face turned odd. “Asura inheritor, are you joking? Letting a fire soul master take the Sea God’s test?”

“The Sea God is the god of the ocean. His control over water isn’t inferior to my wife, the Water God. If your friend takes his test, receives his energy to level up, and absorbs the god-bestowed soul ring, he’ll be ruined. Do you think a Sea God’s ring will be free of water attributes?”

“If his Phoenix fire gets tainted, he’ll never achieve ultimate fire. That’s just ruining his potential.”

Tianlin froze. He’d never thought of that. His own five elements coexisted perfectly in his body, so he had overlooked that not everyone’s martial soul was as special as his magic sword.

The Sea God’s test could make Ma Hongjun stronger quickly but at the cost of his potential.