DD Black White [262-263] (Patreon)

Chapter 262: Foul Art, Whale-Devouring Annihilation!

"Then forget it. Go find someone else."

A Black Abyss spear flashed into Lu Jingming's hand. With a flick of his wrist, several razor gun-lights shot out like stars, precisely blasting apart the incoming water arrows one by one.

Lu Jingming had no interest in currying favor with Childe. That guy only had one thing on his mind—how good fighting felt. If they got friendly, he'd probably pester him for a match every day. Then where would Lu Jingming find time to dote on his girls?

"You use a spear too, brother? Perfect—I happen to know a thing or two about it!"

Childe's figure darted; the water blade in his hand shifted shape again and, in the blink of an eye, became a long spear. He heaved and hurled it hard at Lu Jingming.

Lu Jingming flipped his left hand, condensing a thunder spear that crackled with lightning. He threw without hesitation.

The two spears collided midair with a thunderous bang. In an instant, surging waves and flashing thunder interwove, and the powerful elemental forces swept a radius of dozens of meters.

At the same time, lightning crackled around Lu Jingming as he shot skyward like a hunting hawk.

Then, countless bolts of lightning crashed down on the training ground like a torrential storm, forming an all-range bombardment.

Ever since condensing his soul core, his soul power recovered at an astonishing pace—no worse than a Titled Douluo. He could squander soul power at will without any burden.

With the Stigmata of Thunder's amplification, and the true divine authority of thunder he held, his energy cost when using lightning was already minimal; add in the soul core's passive absorption of ambient energy for recovery, and every expenditure bounced back to peak in short order.

This way, even if he had to fight like this for three days and three nights, he'd feel no pressure.

Childe was much the same. Born of negative energy, he could absorb negativity to restore himself, and the Hydro Vision on him also helped him draw in water-element power—equivalent to having a Titled Douluo's soul core.

Waves surged; a massive sphere of water formed in a heartbeat, stably blocking all the descending bolts.

Afterward, Childe burst from the storm of elements unscathed.

Under his control, water condensed into several long swords, flying out like blades with biting sword intent, slashing toward Lu Jingming.

In the stands, Ji Juechen's pupils shrank sharply.

From the start, Childe had skillfully wielded multiple weapons—and each with masterful proficiency.

Now he was controlling flying swords that even carried sword intent, which meant his swordsmanship was not weak by any means.

Ji Juechen's eyes lit with interest. He loved fighting strong foes, and he had a special fondness for sword masters.

Lu Jingming naturally wasn't about to fall behind. He raised his right hand in a sword-finger; several lightning swords slowly floated up behind him, their thunderous sword intent spearing into the sky.

Lightning swords and water swords weaved and collided in midair—dozens of flying blades shuttling and clashing so fast it dazzled the eyes.

"Hahaha—now that's a thrill!" Childe laughed aloud in excitement, then hewed a high-pressure water blade tens of meters long at Lu Jingming.

"Good one!" 

The fire of battle was catching in Lu Jingming as well. The black spear in his hand exuded the aura of death as he thrust sharply forward.

The instant spear met high-pressure blade, ripples spread outward from the point of contact, shaving a whole layer off the supposedly indestructible training ground.

Within the wide field, lightning and water interlaced like a dreamscape of light and shadow, flashing and crossing in madness.

The spectators bulged their eyes—but could scarcely even see the figures of Lu Jingming and Childe anymore.

Their speed had far surpassed the limit of ordinary sight. They were like two formless phantoms, hidden within the gorgeous yet violent elemental tempest.

Even the wind and waves raised by their movements alone held jaw-dropping destructive power. Marble as hard as iron was torn apart like paper under that turbulence.

Fortunately, both Lu Jingming and Childe were beings of extraordinary power. With exquisite control, they reined in their strength perfectly, not letting excess spill out. Otherwise, the destruction would have been far worse—the entire training ground might have become a ruin in an instant.

True masters' exchanges are often not the earth-shaking spectacles people imagine.

Their duels show their edge in subtlety—precise blade-on-blade contact, an all-around ultimate contest of strength, speed, reaction, and technique.

Every clash encapsulated deep understanding of combat and perfect command of their own abilities.

At this moment, Miyabi and Durandal had just finished their daily training. They came to the edge of the field, fully absorbed in the brilliant bout before them.

Compared to ordinary students, their own power and rich combat experience let them see much deeper.

In their eyes, Lu Jingming and Childe were undoubtedly master-level in martial arts and weaponry.

Childe's martial skill needed no explanation. As for Lu Jingming, he had been carefully taught by Jingliu since childhood.

One could imagine: even someone less gifted would achieve results under Jingliu's tireless, repeated, devoted instruction—let alone someone as talented as Lu Jingming.

Though in breadth of weapon familiarity Lu Jingming couldn't match Childe's versatility—freely playing every weapon at will—he was in no way inferior in the use of spear and sword.

The spear in Lu Jingming's hand moved like a living flood dragon, splitting into afterimages; cold gleams of spear-light flickered one after another.

With every motion, that black-red lightning of withering power precisely dismantled the water-condensed weapons in Childe's hands again and again.

If not for Childe's control over water allowing him to reconstruct weapons on the fly, he would have struggled under a style so specialized in breaking the opponent's arms.

In brutal battle, there is no such thing as a cheap method. Crippling the foe's weapon is a unique and effective path—it just happens to tilt the opponent's mentality.

"Brother, your power really is dangerous! Looks like I can't hold back anymore."

Childe's figure flashed, narrowly dodging a spear thrust as swift as lightning.

Even so, a shallow cut appeared on his face.

It was from being grazed by that lightning of decay. On his cheek, black cracks spread like a spiderweb, and wisps of black negative energy seeped out.

Yet he didn't seem to mind the wound at all. Instead, he showed an excited, faintly feral grin.

In a heartbeat, raging waters swept the field like a storming tide, lifting Childe steadily into the air.

"Foul Art, Whale-Devouring Annihilation!" Childe's shout boomed across the training ground like thunder.

At last, he unveiled the Foul Art he'd learned from Skirk.

That Foul Art was born of the greatest calamity in the cosmos—the Foul Knight Surtalogi, who was Skirk's teacher.

At his cry, the violent water instantly took the shape of a colossal whale, bursting up from the ground.

The water-whale came on with a savage aura, pouncing at Lu Jingming like a starving beast, as if it would swallow all creation.

"Focus to a point; at the very peak—Annihilation!"

Lu Jingming's expression tightened. One hand gripped his spear; at its tip, black-red lightning compressed and gathered, as if the world's entire power of destruction had been drawn into a single point.

Even for him, this was the first time using this self-created soul skill.

Chapter 263: Annihilation and Foul Legacy

As Lu Jingming moved, the Black Abyss spear leveled toward Childe.

Death, ruin, withering, and lightning intertwined, forming a pitch-dark dot at the tip.

That dot was like a tiny black hole, exuding a terror that would unmake all things—as if it could swallow the world.

Lu Jingming lunged. For a moment, the entire world seemed to sink into endless darkness.

The black spear intent of annihilation tore the void like a peerless blade, as if carving a shocking black line across a pristine white sheet.

Under that razor intent, the massive whale was sliced cleanly in two in an instant.

Powerful water that had held force moments ago seemed to lose its vitality, the water-element itself, in that instant, endowed with the concept of death—reduced to ordinary, powerless water.

This was true death's power. In its face, nothing could be spared—not even elemental water.

Childe stared at the sight, a fine sheen of sweat beading on his forehead. His gaze flicked, almost reflexively, to the deep black fissure beside him.

Had his body not twisted away by instinct at the last moment, he would be in two pieces now.

That single thrust not only pierced his proudest Foul Art with ease, it split the entire training ground in two, leaving a bottomless black crack in the floor, like a hideous wound telling of the cataclysmic strike just now.

Silence fell. 

Every student stared in terror at Lu Jingming, spear in hand.

The shock of that thrust made it feel as if, for a split second, they had each seen their own death. The bone-deep fear made their hearts feel like they stopped.

"Heh… hehehe… hahahahaha!" After a brief daze, Childe erupted into ecstatic laughter.

Laughing, he pulled down the red mask at his temple and fixed it over his face.

"Brother, forgive me—I underestimated you. Let's slaughter each other! Foul Legacy Transformation!"

At his shout, tides surged through the arena, and purple lightning leapt and flashed.

Water and lightning mingled like intimate partners, interweaving to produce a wondrous electro-charged reaction.

Empowered by it, Childe's aura skyrocketed tenfold or more.

The red mask was majestic and mysterious. Black armor gleamed with icy luster, and the cloak behind him snapped in the lightning's glare.

Only now, in Foul Legacy Transformation, did Childe show his full-power form.

"Come then—Sacred Spear, Reversion!"

Lu Jingming grinned, just as exhilarated, immersed now in the sheer joy of battle.

On the Douluo Continent, there weren't many who could let him fight so freely. Childe was undoubtedly one of them.

Black mist surged to wrap him, swiftly condensing into armor as black as night.

Black-red charge particles danced behind him like living ribbons. Beside Childe's domineering armament, Lu Jingming's gear was just as maxed-out on effects—handsome to the extreme.

Black and purple thunder exploded. Two dazzling bolts blazed and clashed in the air.

Each contact of their spears seemed to strike up a rousing war anthem in the void, leaving streaks of resplendent, searing afterimages.

Clad in black armor, spears in hand, thunder at their command, showing the extremes of strength and speed—the two were too alike. Just like Jingliu and Skirk, they shared many parallels.

Yet beneath the outward resemblance, their martial styles differed markedly.

Childe's Foul Arts leaned on elemental power, pushing the fusion of lightning and water to the limit to unleash explosive, crushing blows.

Lu Jingming's spearwork, however, evolved from the sword arts Jingliu had drilled into him. It emphasized the expression of intent, pursuing spear intent that unmade all things—an invisible yet overwhelming force that delivered the killing strike.

"So strong! I've decided—tomorrow I'm definitely going to ask them for an all-out training match!"

Miyabi stared, rapt. Her cute fox ears twitched as if feeling her excitement, playful and perky; her eyes shone with the thrill of the hunt.

Her gaze tracked Lu Jingming and Childe closely, as if to carve each of their moves into her heart.

"Black Abyss White Flower—his usage is completely different from mine," Durandal focused mostly on Lu Jingming.

As a fellow wielder of Black Abyss White Flower, she was deeply curious about how he used it.

Lu Jingming had clearly developed the weapon's withering-decay power far more deeply than she had.

There was a reason. To Durandal, Black Abyss White Flower was a weapon. To Lu Jingming, it was his martial soul.

A weapon is ultimately an external tool; a martial soul is an extension of oneself. The concepts are not the same.

It wasn't that Durandal's talent fell short—it was that her focus lay elsewhere.

Compared to digging into Black Abyss White Flower's power, Durandal prioritized elevating her own strength.

Even without Black Abyss White Flower, she was still Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie. So she hadn't invested as much into developing the weapon's powers.

Lu Jingming was different. As his martial soul, Black Abyss White Flower was his own power extended. He would naturally delve without reservation.

Take that Annihilating Thrust he just used. It possessed the power to impart the concept of death to its target—making even water-element, which shouldn't have such a concept, carry death.

You could say he was developing Black Abyss's withering-disassembly toward the occult domain of death's concept.

From the physical plane of disassembling all things to the mystical plane of granting death to all things—Lu Jingming's progress was obvious.

In his hands, Black Abyss White Flower was unveiling a look distinct from its original archetype.

On this point, as a fellow user, Durandal had the most to say.

At least with her current ability, she could not bestow death on water-element. At most she could use Black Abyss's power to disassemble it.

The final results might look similar, but the underlying meaning was worlds apart.

Because of this, her eyes sparkled as she watched Lu Jingming. She loved the feeling of getting stronger. She wanted to grow stronger—so she wanted to learn.

"Brother, don't you die on me now—Foul Art, Angelic Extinction!" After another fierce clash, Childe suddenly shouted.

A colossal whale's cry rang through the void, as if to shatter the space itself.

Destructive energy welled up like an undercurrent from the massive scar on the whale's body.

Childe rapidly drew that violent power onto his spear. Purple lightning and water wove madly together, and then he swung with all his might—a world-ending strike.

This blow contained everything he had—the pinnacle of what a human could reach.

One more step, and he would stand in the realm of gods.

In other words, his full-force strike rivaled an Ultimate Douluo's all-out attack—akin to the terrifying force at the ground zero of a Grade-9 stationary soul-guided artillery shell.

"That bastard…"

Xiao Hongchen's face went chalk-white. He'd only wanted to see Lu Jingming take a little punishment; he never expected things to spiral this far out of control. He didn't actually want the guy dead!