DD Black White [252-253] (Patreon)

Chapter 252: Ju Zi's Servant

This Holy Grail War was, without a doubt, an excellent opportunity for Cerydra.

As long as she could win this war, she would be able to descend into this world in her true form and finally witness the otherworldly realm she had always longed for.

Of course, compared to direct clashes on the battlefield, she was more skilled at strategizing, treating the world as a chessboard and skillfully commanding armies.

However, this did not mean her strength in direct combat was weak.

In fact, her favorite strategy when playing chess was to move her king piece at the opening, demonstrating the charisma of a leader who leads from the front.

Due to her own abilities and personality, Cerydra highly valued Zhang Lexuan and sought to nurture her, making her a stronger Master and turning her into the most crucial and powerful piece on her chessboard.

Zhang Lexuan had no objections to this, since Cerydra's abilities were extremely helpful to her.

Moreover, in their daily interactions, she had come to like this uniquely charismatic Empress.

Although Cerydra was an empress, she had her own unique principles.

She disliked people taller than her lowering their heads below her crown; except for those close to her, no one else was allowed within five meters of her.

This combination of approachability and arrogance was extremely contradictory, just like her contrasting attire, leaving a deep impression.

At the same time, like her figure—clearly possessing the petite and cute appearance of a legal loli, she exuded a majestic imperial aura that commanded awe.

At this moment, there was at least a five-meter distance between Cerydra and Lu Jingming.

Although she had been summoned by Zhang Lexuan for some time, those she considered close numbered only a few, with Zhang Lexuan being almost the only one.

Unfortunately, Lu Jingming was not among them.

Actually, Lu Jingming was quite fond of this empress with a pseudo-loli appearance, but regrettably, he had yet to earn her approval.

Interestingly, Cerydra's relationship with Castorice was quite harmonious.

Though they hailed from different eras, Castorice deeply respected this first leader of the First Flame-Chase Journey.

Cerydra, too, was very fond of Castorice, who was also a demigod of golden blood.

After all, in this unfamiliar world, their similar backgrounds made it easier for them to resonate with each other.

As a demigod of law, Cerydra's legal decrees—formulated from her understanding of law and careful observation of Haiyuan City's realities—were naturally trustworthy.

Moreover, for Zhang Lexuan, learning and communicating with Cerydra was highly beneficial.

After all, Cerydra was an empress with rich experience in governance and exceptional leadership.

As for Zhang Lexuan, even though she herself was unaware of her own identity, it was not impossible for her to one day become the empress of an empire, even if only for a short time.

Lu Jingming watched as Cerydra and Zhang Lexuan walked further away, his thoughts drifting to the intelligence reported by Ji Yingying.

All this information had been provided by Ju Zi; the movements of the Sun-Moon Empire were completely under his control.

Ju Zi had already graduated successfully from the Sun-Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy and, with Xu Tiannan's careful arrangement, joined the military.

She seemed born for the military, naturally gifted in strategy. Not long after joining, she quickly made her mark and soon secured her position within the army.

Originally, even with Ju Zi's outstanding military talent and Xu Tiannan's support as crown prince, it should have taken her some time to establish herself among the powerhouses of the military.

However, things often take unexpected turns.

As expected, Ju Zi was also chosen by the Holy Grail and became a Master.

What surprised Lu Jingming the most was that the servant Ju Zi summoned was unimaginably powerful—far surpassing Skirk and Cerydra, and even Raiden Mei paled in comparison.

With the help, or rather under the control, of this powerful servant, Ju Zi not only firmly secured her position in the army, but her status also shifted from Xu Tiannan's most trusted subordinate to his best partner.

Initially, Xu Tiannan's plan was to grant Ju Zi the title of crown princess, using that position to help her better control the military.

But plans can't keep up with change. Due to the overwhelming power of Ju Zi's summoned servant, it wouldn't be long before the Sun-Moon Empire's military fell entirely under Ju Zi's control.

Facing these circumstances, Xu Tiannan's attitude also changed drastically—from total trust to a mix of wariness and attempts to win her over, which was rather ironic.

Ju Zi had worked so hard to gain Xu Tiannan's trust and become his most valued subordinate, yet simply by summoning such a powerful servant, she made him wary.

Still, there are two sides to everything.

The downside was that she aroused Xu Tiannan's suspicion, but the upside was that Ju Zi's status rose from a mere subordinate to an equal partner.

After all, Ju Zi had always demonstrated utmost loyalty; even after summoning a powerful servant, she still treated Xu Tiannan with deep respect.

Given this, Xu Tiannan weighed the pros and cons and shifted his attitude, turning Ju Zi from a key subordinate into a trusted ally.

Xu Tiannan was no ordinary figure—he was a heroic schemer, able to tolerate and even use evil soul masters, so how could he easily give up such a powerful asset as Ju Zi?

The fact that he dared let Ju Zi control the Sun-Moon Empire's military without taking any countermeasures showed his confidence.

Even without using the Holy Grail's admin privileges, Lu Jingming could deduce from the situation that Xu Tiannan was likely also chosen by the Holy Grail and had drawn an equally powerful servant, which was why he wasn't afraid of Ju Zi's formidable ally.

It was precisely because of this that the Sun-Moon Empire so confidently chose Mingdu as the battlefield for the Holy Grail War.

Lu Jingming couldn't help but marvel at the Sun-Moon Empire's incredible luck.

Given the importance of Ju Zi and Xu Tiannan in this planet's fate, it was reasonable for them to be Masters.

But for both to summon such overwhelmingly powerful, top-tier servants was purely luck.

Despite gaining such powerful help, Ju Zi clearly had no intention of betraying Wuchang Division or Lu Jingming.

On the contrary, she secretly sent a call for help to Lu Jingming through encrypted channels.

From the brief message she sent, even though Lu Jingming didn't see her expression, the fear and helplessness in her words were palpable.

She was genuinely terrified by the servant she had summoned—far more than when she had witnessed Xu Tiannan's cruelty; the fear was dozens of times stronger.

When Lu Jingming learned the name of Ju Zi's servant, he nearly let out a curse.

He was speechless. Just how much negative energy had Douluo Continent accumulated over these ten thousand years, to be able to summon such a character?

For the first time, he felt a headache regarding his own memory bank.

After all, his memory bank contained quite a few problem characters that were extremely troublesome.

If these characters were summoned, Douluo Continent would plunge into unprecedented chaos.

However, despite his worries, he also felt a hint of excitement.

Perhaps that was why he hadn't placed restrictions on his memory bank.

He seemed to always be anticipating unexpected events, even though that was contradictory.

Many times, Lu Jingming himself felt conflicted—wanting to keep a low profile and develop steadily, yet occasionally craving major upheaval.

He wanted to control the direction of all developments, yet was also full of anticipation for unknown variables.

It was under this contradiction that he had long expected someone to summon troublesome characters, but he never restricted the memory bank, letting others summon randomly.

As for who Xu Tiannan had summoned, Lu Jingming, who had forbidden himself from using admin privileges, did not know.

But for Xu Tiannan to be unafraid of Ju Zi's powerful servant, his own servant must be formidable as well.

Either Xu Tiannan didn't realize how terrifying Ju Zi's servant was, or his own was equally strong.

Lu Jingming's intuition told him the latter was more likely.

After all, in the original work, Xu Tiannan was a major boss; with his luck and abilities, the servant he summoned would not be ordinary.

If the original Douluo Three Kingdoms and Shrek Academy failed to summon servants to match them, then at the upcoming Soul Master Tournament in Mingdu, everyone might be wiped out.

Just Ju Zi's servant alone could defeat them all, not to mention Xu Tiannan's hidden servant.

Moreover, Xu Tiannan's camp also had Huo Yuhao.

Even though he had lost his Child of Destiny status and most of his luck had shifted to Lu Jingming, with his original importance in Douluo Star, he would surely be chosen as a Master, and the servant he summoned would certainly be powerful.

"How exciting! Things are getting more and more interesting." Lu Jingming looked up toward the direction of dawn, a smile unconsciously appearing on his lips.

For him, being invincible alone was too lonely; only now, with these developments, did he finally find some enjoyment.

Chapter 253: The Scheming Divine Son

At this moment, Lu Jingming, having broken through to Soul Sage and successfully condensed his soul core, was now unimaginably powerful.

He was full of anticipation for the journey to Mingdu a year from now.

Carrying two lunch boxes, he turned and headed toward Yae Miko's room.

As he turned, one could catch a glimpse of his seven soul rings—blood-red with streaks of golden lightning—flashing by.

With the steady growth of both Douluo Continents, he had also gained feedback in power.

During the process of condensing his god position, the residual power had raised the age of his soul rings to the limit.

Now, both his martial souls had maxed-out soul rings; even he didn't know just how powerful he could become when going all out.

Currently, among his peers on Douluo Continent, there was no one who could match him; only the older generation's powerhouses needed to be taken seriously.

But things were different now. With so many servants being summoned, there would surely be those who could give him a real fight.

At the very least, he wasn't confident he could beat Skirk, summoned by Bai Xiuxiu, nor Cerydra. He might not even be able to match them.

After all, he was just a Soul Sage right now, but Skirk and Cerydra were summoned at an extremely high starting point, with strength on par with Ultimate Douluo, even reaching demigod level.

That's why Lu Jingming found this situation so strange, quietly pondering how this planet could possess so much negative energy—where had things gone wrong?

He could barely accept the summoning of top servants like Skirk and Cerydra.

After all, in the era after the fall of the Spirit Hall, the commoners couldn't rise for thousands of years, and soul beasts had drastically declined, with many groups going extinct.

Over such a long time, the accumulated negative energy surpassed that of the other Douluo Continent, which made sense.

But the servant Ju Zi summoned was something else entirely—it meant the planet had an extraordinary amount of negative energy, far beyond what Lu Jingming could comprehend.

Where could a single planet get so much negative energy? Lu Jingming was full of doubt.

He didn't know the exact number of summoned servants, but he was certain it was more than ten.

So many servants, each powerful—especially the top ones—the amount of negative energy required was enormous.

Not only were there many, but their quality was extremely high. Where had this endless stream of negative emotions come from?

Lu Jingming thought and thought but couldn't figure it out. He sensed something was wrong but couldn't put his finger on it just yet.

Faced with this baffling issue, he decided not to keep overthinking.

After all, such brainwork was best left to professionals like Herta and Möbius.

As for himself, he might as well spend more time with his girls.

Otherwise, if he had to worry about everything, what was the point of summoning people like Herta? Was it just because they were beautiful?

"Little guy, you're quite considerate. Looks like I didn't lose out!" Yae Miko opened her mouth slightly, eating the rice porridge that Lu Jingming fed to her.

She lazily wrapped herself in a sheet, leaning against the bed, her eyes teasing and smiling.

At this moment, she was neither embarrassed nor shy, confidently displaying herself.

Only wrapped in a sheet, her graceful figure and smooth skin peeked out, giving off a unique charm.

Although Lu Jingming had forcefully taken her last night, in a sense, she had brought it upon herself, so she had no regrets.

Besides, she had enjoyed herself thoroughly last night.

What's more, she didn't dislike Lu Jingming. Even though their relationship had progressed rapidly, upon reflection, she realized she had even stolen those girls chances.

Yae Miko couldn't help but imagine the reactions of those little girls when they found out about this; just thinking about it made her show a scheming smile.

Although it wasn't intentional, she had indeed snatched Lu Jingming away from those girls who had their eyes on him.

She even wondered—if she challenged them face to face, would anyone break down on the spot?

While enjoying being fed by Lu Jingming, Yae Miko's mind wandered with these mischievous thoughts.

…

In the vast, cold, and silent expanse of the universe, sound couldn't travel as it did within an atmosphere, but the light from a supernova explosion remained dazzling.

In utter silence, the black hole that had devoured everything, seemingly turning all into nothingness, was forcefully torn apart by a powerful force.

Six god realms collided, jointly simulating the shockwave of a big bang, plus the help from outside as Herta detonated a star; these six originally separate god realms, now merging through collision, used the chaos power born from the ripped black hole to break out and appear in this starry sky.

Herta reached out her hand, drawing in hundreds of strands of chaotic power.

This time, simulating the big bang to break open the black hole, the resulting chaos power was extremely scarce.

But even so, the hundreds of strands in Herta's hand could very well allow a first-level god to use them to elevate their god position and become a God King.

The six god realms, in breaking free from the black hole, also collected some chaos power.

However, to protect their realms from too much damage during the simulated big bang, they had to use all the chaos power they collected for defense.

Because of this, they managed to use the shockwave from the explosion to escape the black hole.

Although their god realms were heavily damaged, as long as the core of their realms and the gods themselves remained, recovery was only a matter of time.

Furthermore, with the six god realms merged into one, the foundation of the entire realm was enhanced; once restored, they had a chance to go even further and challenge the legendary God Star.

The instant the six god realms appeared in this galaxy, the actual controller of this star system—the Douluo God Realm's core—immediately sensed the presence of the other god realms.

There seemed to be a natural attraction between god realms; after all, devouring other god realms was a way to become stronger.

Just like these six god realms—not traditional devouring, but merging into one was essentially the same, just realized differently.

At this moment, the Goddess of Life, who was fully focused on using the super-artifact Tree of Life to protect the lives of the realm, was the first to sense the arrival of the six god realms.

In fact, she should have noticed when Herta detonated the star, but the battle within the god realm was so intense that the energy fluctuations completely masked the subtle changes from outside, causing her to miss it.

But when the six god realms entered the Douluo God Realm's jurisdiction, the god realm core had a strong reaction, finally alerting the Goddess of Life.

When she detected the six god realms, her expression became extremely serious.

She knew the gravity of the situation and immediately sent a divine message to the others—Destruction God and his group, who were battling the Golden Dragon King and Ma Hongjun.

At that moment, the God of Emotion Rong Nianbing, the Evil and Good God Kings, and the God of Destruction all instinctively stopped, the fierce battle rhythm coming to a halt.

Only Tang San, consumed by anger and hatred, was completely dominated by Asura's will, ignoring his teammates' withdrawal and continuing his frenzied assault on the Golden Dragon King and Ma Hongjun.

But without the help of the others, Tang San was instantly in trouble.

The Golden Dragon King and Ma Hongjun seized the opportunity to pummel him.

Annihilation flames and destructive force struck Tang San, the impact blasting him away, sending him crashing through several divine mountains and destroying multiple magnificent temples.

Tang San never imagined his teammates would suddenly stop fighting at such a critical moment, leaving him alone to bear the full brunt of the attack; he was completely dumbfounded.

"Sea God!" Evil God and Good God exchanged glances, both showing awkwardness.

But they had no choice; the news from the Goddess of Life was too shocking.

There were other god realms invading from outside—they had to respond, or with powerful enemies inside and six god realms eyeing them from outside, the Douluo God Realm would be in dire straits.

Meanwhile, the six god kings each brought their wives and surviving gods to stand before Herta.

Their faces were full of gratitude, sincerely thanking Herta.

They knew, if not for Herta's help, they could have tried simulating a big bang themselves to break out of the black hole, but the success rate would have been too low, and the losses suffered would have been much greater.

"Helping you was just a favor. If you really want to thank me, then go do what you want. For now, I don't mind handing over control of this star system to you."

Herta said this while playing with the little orb of chaotic light in her hand—the chaos power she had collected.

She was quite interested in this power born from the beginning of the universe.