Douluo Continent: The Peerless Tang Sect, Angels and Rakshasa Return

Chapter 354 397398—Qian Renxue joyfully receives double divine examinations from His Majesty and the Empress…

When she woke up again, it was already the afternoon of the next day. No one knew what Qian Lingyun had suffered between last night and noon today.

In any case, the emperor did not attend the morning court session today.

Because at that time of the morning court session, Qian Renxue was still working hard and burying herself in her work!

With unsteady steps, Qian Lingyun leaned against the wall and walked out of the palace. With her right hand on her hip, she called for a carriage in her hoarse voice and set off on the road to the sea.

Some might ask, doesn't she know how to fly?!

Don't forget, she needs to hold onto the wall to walk now, so do you think she has the strength to fly?

Qian Renxue truly lived up to her reputation as a master of technique. After her intervention, even with Qian Lingyun's abnormally fast recovery speed, it took her until noon on the third day to fully recover.

Stepping down from the carriage, Qian Lingyun gazed at the bright midday sun, a slight smile playing on her lips. She thought to herself, "My back finally doesn't hurt anymore! Okay, let's take off!"

With just a simple flapping of its wings, all Qian Lingyun could hear was the whistling wind.

Confident in her strength, Qian Lingyun didn't even linger at the beach, but went straight into the depths of the ocean.

As we all know, the number of spirit beasts living in the sea is at least ten times that on land. Apart from some sea spirit masters who live by the sea, few people dare to venture into the sea without understanding the habits of sea spirit beasts.

As someone who has some experience with fishing, Qian Lingyun knows very well that in order to catch fish, the first thing to do is to bait the area!

The same principle should apply to the ocean.

Thinking of this, Qian Lingyun's wings lit up, and a dim purple light fell from the sky, bringing a peaceful and serene scene to the vast sea as night fell.

Of course, these are all just superficial phenomena. The true nature of this purple radiance floating above the sea is actually poison hidden beneath the honey, a veneer covering a trap...

Fish love places with light, and in no time, you could see signs of fish moving around in the seawater at your feet.

A shimmering sea, schools of fish, the bright moon over the water, and...flowers on the water?!

Yes, it was a flower blooming on the sea! The eccentric flower, obsessed with showing off her food, eagerly emerged from the undead demiplane upon hearing that she could eat whatever she wanted.

"You decide! Eat as much as you can!" Qian Lingyun floated in mid-air, looking at herself inside the flower with interest, and gestured, "You're not going to be unable to eat, are you?"

"That's it? I wouldn't even bother eating these lowly creatures that aren't even worth mentioning to a spirit beast! Let's just use them as bait!"

At the very center of the flower, Huanhua Qinghui's hand, bearing a face identical to Qian Lingyun's, aimed the blooming flower at the school of fish migrating beneath the sea.

In the next instant, countless sharp plant tendrils burst forth from the petals, piercing through the shimmering sea surface and shredding any creatures that stood in their way into large pieces of minced meat!

It's a pity that the night is still dark, otherwise Qian Lingyun would definitely be able to see that this sea area has changed from deep blue to dark red.

The scent of blood, carried by the undercurrents in the ocean, quickly attracted a large number of low-level soul beasts. Huanhua, using the same trick as before, turned these small fish and shrimp into part of the bait.

Another ten minutes or so later, the "big fish" arrived!

This is a ferocious school of fish, feeding on scraps of flesh carried by the ocean currents in waters thick with the pungent smell of blood.

"Several thousand-year-old soul beasts and dozens of hundred-year and ten-year-old soul beasts... can be eaten!" Huanhua wiped away non-existent drool and threw countless vines as thick as a normal person's waist from her thick plant roots.

These vines sway like sea serpents as soon as they enter the water. At their tips is a cross-shaped slit. Once they encounter prey that can be swallowed, the cross-shaped slit will open, revealing a terrifying meat grinder-like structure inside that will tear apart all food.

"If I let you eat without any restrictions, how much can you eat!" Qian Lingyun asked, her heart pounding, as she watched a shark-like spirit beast being torn in half by two vines.

"I'll eat as much as I can, and I'll eat non-stop! Everything I eat will become energy for my growth!" Huanhua proudly raised her head and said playfully.

"How about that? Pretty impressive, huh!"

"Great! Go ahead and eat! There's such a huge ocean, eat as much as you want. I always thought you'd eat until you were stuffed, but it seems there's no need to worry about that!"

Qian Lingyun lowered her eyes to gaze at the now-silent sea, raised an eyebrow and said, "Let's go, this place is gone, let's find somewhere else to eat!"

And so, this person and the flower ravaged the deep sea like locusts, leaving almost no sea spirit beasts in their wake.

Under the extremely self-disciplined leadership of Qian Lingyun, they kill for a full fourteen hours every day before resting.

Poor Huanhua had to devour more than five-figure numbers of soul beasts, and her already enormous body, which was a hundred meters long, grew longer and stronger at a visible speed.

If it encounters a large group of soul beasts, Huanhua will weave her extended vines into a large net, trapping them in a small space so they can slowly eat.

The powerful 100,000-year-old sea spirit beasts were severely injured by Qian Lingyun and then fed to Huanhua.

Initially, Qian Lingyun planned to ask Huanhua for those precious 100,000-year-old soul bones.

But Huanhua chuckled awkwardly, lowering her eyes to explain, "I can obtain a soul skill from a 100,000-year-old soul bone by consuming it!"

Since things had already come to this point, Qian Lingyun didn't care anymore. Anyway, her soul bones were already complete, so if she didn't have them, so be it.

Let's leave aside the secret soul bones formed by the fusion of soul rings.

In just over a year, Qian Lingyun has collected more ordinary soul bones than the Holy Spirit Sect has collected in thousands of years combined.

You should know that Huanhua eats five figures worth of sea spirit beasts every day!

Leaving aside the ten-year and hundred-year soul beasts that account for 80% of the daily consumption, soul beasts over a thousand years old also account for 20%.

Even with a one in a thousand chance, how many soul bones have been produced in the past year or so?

Moreover, the proportion of soul bones found among ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts is much higher.

Over the course of more than a year, thanks to the massive energy intake, Huanhua, in her soul beast form, broke through the third, fourth, and fifth Heavenly Tribulations in the demiplane, reaching a level that many ferocious beasts could only dream of.

The legendary 60,000-year-old soul beast, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, said this:

"I only regret being born tens of thousands of years too early. If I had met someone as hardworking as Qian Lingyun and shared her devouring talent, then the Beast God of the Star Dou Great Forest might not have been that foolish dragon Di Tian!"

The former angelic goddess Qian Renxue said, "My Yun'er is a workaholic. When I learned that she had set a goal of killing five-figure numbers of sea spirit beasts in a single day, I knew! The sea spirit beasts' calamity was coming!"

Three months later.

Today, Mingdu has a noticeably more somber and heavy atmosphere.

Early in the morning, the usually bustling city became very quiet.

Aside from some daily necessities, almost all shops chose to close on this day, because it was the day of the sacrificial ceremony to heaven.

His Majesty Emperor Xu Tianran of the Sun and Moon Empire will hold a grand ceremony to worship Heaven and Earth and his ancestors outside the capital of Ming.

Although the altar looks brand new, it has actually always had an ancient prototype.

It was an oddly shaped platform, with a circle on the left and a crescent-shaped neighbor on the right.

Symbolizing the sun and moon, it is a emblem of the Sun and Moon Empire. The circular altar covers an area of ​​over 10,000 square meters and is ten zhang high, entirely constructed of granite.

Above the platform, there are six more platforms, each with the same shape but decreasing in size. The top platform is only one thousand square meters in size.

The seven-tiered platform, from bottom to top, is colored red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple, symbolizing the colors of the rainbow. It encompasses all that the heavens and earth possess. There are eight stone steps surrounding the altar, each leading to the top.

The ceremony to worship Heaven was held when the sun was high in the sky.

At that time, the yang energy was just beginning to rise, symbolizing prosperity and growth. Far away, from the direction of Mingdu, a procession entirely composed of people dressed in bright yellow slowly approached the Sun and Moon Altar.

As the procession passed, armored soldiers cleared the way. At the very front was a massive dragon chariot carried by 1,024 men.

The bright yellow silk brocade on the dragon carriage features a pattern of ten thousand dragons galloping, but in all the important and central positions, there is a pattern of the sun and moon shining brightly.

That's right, this is the imperial carriage of the Sun and Moon Empire's emperor.

At this moment, on the dragon carriage, Qian Renxue sat upright, wearing a purple-gold crown with nine dragons holding a pearl, and a magnificent imperial robe with dragons reflecting the sun and moon.

"Long live! Long live! Long live!"

Under unified command, the soldiers raised their weapons and shouted "Long live the Emperor!" Instantly, millions of people prostrated themselves in the direction of the imperial carriage, like wheat being harvested.

I haven't been to this place much before!

Qian Renxue closed her eyes, sensing the faint spiritual power around her. She looked at the altar in the distance again, and with just one glance, the broken angel emblem on her forehead showed a slight change.

This feeling is absolutely right!

Qian Renxue stared wide-eyed at the high platform, her hands gripping the armrests of the dragon throne beside her with excitement.

Amidst the watchful eyes of the crowd, the imperial carriage finally arrived at the altar for the worship of the sun and moon.

Qian Renxue stood up and slowly walked down from the dragon carriage. Then she walked towards the sacrificial altar.

At this moment, the lower level of the sacrificial altar was already filled with people. Those who could stand on the sixth level below the sacrificial altar were all important figures in the Sun Moon Empire.

For them, being able to stand here was an absolute honor. The cheers of the crowd rose like waves, a true roar! A wave of sound from millions of people, carrying far and wide like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing.

The higher Qian Renxue climbed on the platform, the more horrified she became. There must be something related to the gods beneath this Sun and Moon Altar.

Moreover, they must have some connection with the angels.

On the seventh floor of the 1,000-square-meter Sun and Moon Altar, numerous ornate patterns are engraved, and a huge six-pointed star gleams with a faint golden light under the sunlight.

At the center of the six-pointed star, the sun and moon patterns are even more dazzling. The sun is gold, and the moon is silver, with the two colors shining brightly together.

As she walked step by step to the center of the seventh floor, Qian Renxue was enveloped in a golden and silver glow when she stepped onto the sun and moon pattern.

Qian Renxue narrowed his eyes slightly and frowned slightly, but he continued his sacrificial ceremony.

She slowly knelt down, bowing three times and kowtowing nine times towards the sky. Next, she should rise again and recite the sacrificial text. After the text, there would be a series of elaborate rituals to worship Heaven.

As the series of procedures were completed, just as Qian Renxue was about to turn and leave, a semi-transparent halo froze everything within a hundred miles of the altar in place. Only Qian Renxue looked at the small golden and silver door that suddenly appeared in the center of the altar and laughed coldly.

Stepping through the small door, one is met with endless darkness. In this darkness, only a metal chain as thick as an arm emits a faint light, connecting the small door to the platform, a distance of several hundred feet.

What lies beneath the chains? No one knows, but the most likely possibility is a bottomless abyss.

Qian Renxue frowned, and with a light wave of her right arm, the Angelic Holy Sword, radiating a dazzling golden light, dispelled the surrounding darkness.

Slowly walking across the slender chains, Qian Renxue stood on the platform, calmly gazing at the two giant stone sculptures standing on either side of the platform, and carefully pondering what these two stone sculptures represented.

Fortunately, Qian Renxue didn't have to wait too long. When she walked to the front of the male statue on the left, a clear, slightly hoarse female voice suddenly rang out.

"This aura is... that of an angel!"

Looking back, a phantom female figure suddenly materialized in front of the female stone sculpture behind me.

The pure white light was as gentle as the moon.

"Who are you!?" Qian Renxue stared blankly at the figure of light, lost in thought.

Although she was certain she had never seen this woman before, the aura emanating from her gave her a sense of peace.

It was as if they had known each other for many years.

"I am the moon goddess!"

The face, blurred by white light and shadow, seemed to be smiling, but she walked straight past Qian Renxue and stood in front of the male stone sculpture, raising her hand to touch the dull, cold rock.

"A first-level god, the Moon God? A first-level god, the Sun God!" Qian Renxue pondered for a moment, her purple pupils slightly contracting, and murmured softly, "I never imagined that there would be two first-level gods like you on the Sun and Moon Continent!"

"Yes! We never imagined that the Angel God, who ranks among the top-tier gods, would one day suffer the same fate as us two bottom-tier gods, with our divine positions damaged!"

The projection of the Moon Goddess chuckled and casually placed her hand on Qian Renxue's shoulder, asking solemnly, "Tell me honestly, was your divine position shattered because of any deity?"

"What, you..." Qian Renxue pointed at the Moon Goddess, then pointed at the Sun God, her eyes filled with disbelief.

"Yes, it's similar to what you thought. My husband and I have had similar experiences to you, except that I still have some lingering resentment, while he completely dissipated in the process of maintaining this secret realm!"

After speaking, the moon goddess's radiant form rose into the air, took a round shield from the sun god statue's palm, and carried her to Qian Renxue, loudly demanding:

"Angel God, tell me! What is your ambition? Is it to vow to illuminate all things with light and dispel darkness with brightness?!"

Gazing at the gleaming golden shield, Qian Renxue remained completely unmoved.

For some reason, she suddenly thought of Qian Lingyun and Qian Lingyu.

If she suddenly asked the two of them: What are your aspirations?

Qian Lingyu, that carefree little foodie, will lazily roll over in bed and then awkwardly say something like: "Don't ask me any of this nonsense, what are we having for lunch today!"

Qian Lingyun would stand there stunned, then close the doors and windows, sit on the edge of the bed, and ask her while removing her armor:

Why are you thinking about this all of a sudden? Is something bothering you? Or maybe we should take a good look at the next generation!

Thinking about it, Qian Renxue chuckled inappropriately, "Hehe!"

"What are you laughing at?" Moon Goddess looked at Qian Renxue with some confusion, her tone full of doubt.

"It's nothing!" Qian Renxue waved her hand, slowly straightened up, snatched the shield from the Moon Goddess's hand, placed the Angelic Holy Sword on the Moon Goddess's shoulder, and whispered:

"My ambition is revenge. The power of one sun god is far from enough. I want you to hand over your position as the moon god to me as well!"

"Huh?!" The Moon Goddess lightly flicked the holy sword off her shoulder with her finger, smiled meaningfully, and said calmly:

"Sure! Although your attitude wasn't great, I like your kind of desperate, crazy person, because people like you often surprise us!"

In an instant, a bright white light shone from the Moon Goddess's body, so dazzling that it even forced Qian Renxue to close her eyes.

When the light faded, Qian Renxue's arm was wrapped with a round shield and she was holding a crescent-shaped scimitar.

Beneath the shattered angel emblem on Qian Renxue's forehead, a gold and silver emblem pieced together from the sun and moon symbols is slowly merging with the heavenly emblem.

"With these two divine positions, Yun'er shouldn't be a match for me anymore!" Qian Renxue chuckled self-deprecatingly, inwardly cursing her own pettiness.

Why are you getting angry with your woman? You're really regressing as you get older...

……

It has been one year and seven months since Qian Lingyun went out to go beachcombing, and even Huo Zhongxian has been admitted to Mingdetang for seven months.

Over the past year, under Xuan Ziwen's guidance, Huo Zhongxian's understanding of soul tools has become increasingly profound.

Perhaps because he knew he couldn't steal Mingdetang's technology, he instead focused on learning it meticulously.

At least so far, Tuoba Xi hasn't noticed anything wrong...

Beneath the seemingly calm sea surface, two giant creatures, one large and one small, are entangled and tearing each other apart in the ocean currents.

One of them was a giant octopus that was over 100 meters long, although its tentacles made up more than half of its length.

But this does not prevent it from being an extremely dangerous sea monster.

The size of the 230,000-year-old ferocious beast was terrifying in the ocean, but compared to its opponent, it was like a small witch meeting a great witch.

The flower blooming at the top of the illusionary flower alone has a diameter of over 100 meters.

Not to mention the thick branches with countless forked vines.

With a playful attitude, many tentacles with the fusion of animal soul beasts hung from the branches of the Illusion Flower.

It used the manipulated half-soul beasts at the tips of its tentacles to tear at the octopus's tentacles, while emitting crisp laughter.

Click!Click!

A... well, half a giant shark opened its blood-red maw and viciously bit into the octopus's supple tentacles.

In just a few bites, the octopus's soft tentacles were gnawed to pieces.

Clearly, this shark was no less powerful than the giant octopus in its lifetime.

Judging from its size alone, it was at least a 100,000-year-old soul beast in its previous life.

However, such sharks are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the complex species of creatures manipulated by the magical tentacles!

You can find any powerful soul beast found in the sea that has the potential to be controlled on the tentacles of the Illusion Flower.

The giant octopus's severed and torn tentacles regrowed at a visible speed, and then most of its tentacles coiled towards the core of the Illusion Flower—the mandala flower with a diameter of 100 meters.

At that moment, a loud explosion was heard in the sky.

Immediately afterwards, thousands upon thousands of ice fragments rained down from the sky, landing on the giant octopus, exploding upon contact.

The giant octopus roared silently amidst the dense explosions, and even its tentacles, which were reaching for the Illusion Flower, twisted into a ball in mid-air!

A dark purple figure descended from the sky, falling through tentacles and seawater.

Anything that gets in her way will be torn to shreds by that invisible sword energy.

Qian Lingyun landed on the giant octopus's head, tore open its slippery, thick skin with her bare hands, and chopped up one of its hearts with a single stroke.

"Tsk! Another one tearing apart a 100,000-year-old soul beast? So boring, I'm tired of it!"

Huanhua lazily lay in the center of her petals, watching Qianlingyun's skillful movements and yawning.

"Please stop barking! Who am I working so hard for? Isn't it all so that your strength can improve further!" Qian Lingyun looked at the sprawling Huanhua with a pained expression and said earnestly:

"Look at you! You're already a 500,000-year-old soul beast! That's a force to be reckoned with, comparable to a Limit Douluo!"

"But what about you! I have to kill even this little bit of trash and feed it to you!"

"Oh! Then go ahead and kill me!"

Huanhua rolled over, scratched her lower back rather inelegantly, and teased, "Besides, take a look at your spirit rings!"

"What's wrong with my spirit rings! I still have eight, don't I?"

As she spoke, Qian Lingyun crushed another octopus heart!

"The Holy Spirit Cult's secret method of extracting the power of soul rings to increase the age of one's own soul rings: a hundred-year soul beast adds one year, a thousand-year soul beast adds ten years, and a ten-thousand-year soul beast adds one hundred years."

"Look at you, do you still have a black spirit ring on you?" Huanhua pointed to the eight spirit rings coiled around Qian Lingyun's body.

Among them, the first four were once black soul rings that had been there for ten thousand years, but Qian Lingyun, the workaholic, managed to paint them red by staying up all night.

"What's wrong? I earned all of this through my own skill, and in the end, these soul beasts still ended up in your mouth!" Qian Lingyun said angrily, breaking off an octopus tentacle and throwing it at Huanhua.

"Please! Let's go back! Let me eat something else!"

After taking a few bites of the octopus tentacles, Huanhua pretended to gag a few times and complained:

"I usually don't have much taste in my mouth, but now everything tastes salty. If I stay a few more days, it'll be fully pickled!"

"Alright, I haven't had palace food in ages! Let's clean it up and head back!"

Ignoring the giant octopus's final roar, Qian Lingyun dodged its dying counterattack and watched helplessly as the Illusion Flower opened its enormous bud and swallowed the octopus whole.

……

The Imperial Palace of the Sun and Moon, the Imperial Study…

Looking at the vibrant scenery outside the window, Qian Renxue couldn't help but sigh. It's been over a year. Do you know how she's been doing for the past year?

She spent every day alone in her empty room, longing for her daughter-in-law to end that boring deep-sea journey!

Every night, she felt like slapping herself. Why did she let Qian Lingyun go out?

As she sighed, a fragrant breeze carrying the scent of roses wafted from behind her... as if someone were carrying a steaming bowl of rose soup.

Wait, why does this fragrant aroma have a fishy, ​​salty smell?

Who puts salt in their rose petal soup?!

"Did you miss me?"

That familiar yet somewhat awkward, hoarse voice came from behind her. Qian Renxue hurriedly turned around and saw the figure she had been longing for day and night.

"Yes!" Qian Renxue pulled Qian Lingyun into a tight embrace and whispered, "I miss you, so do you miss me?"

"think!"

Having received the answer she expected, Qian Renxue's hands were no longer still.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and a long separation... is better than seven or eight weddings. With mutual consent, Qian Lingyun reluctantly began to attend to "state affairs" with Qian Renxue in the imperial study...

Unfortunately, fate is unpredictable...

Just as the two were deeply in love, several ministers rushed into the imperial study, panting, and witnessed their trembling state.

The Empress, with her hair disheveled, crawled out from under the table in front of His Majesty the Emperor.

His face was flushed and covered in beads of sweat.

His Majesty the Emperor was glaring at them with a dark face, his eyes fierce as if he wanted to devour them!

Oh hoo!

It's clear that their arrival was extremely untimely, and may even have disrupted the birth of the future crown prince!

The number of first-level gods is Schrödinger's number; sometimes there are more than thirty, and sometimes only eighteen. So it is reasonable to dig out two of these nameless first-level gods.

In Douluo Continent III, there's also the Thunderous Hell Vine, a lightning-type creature that grows after a first-level god dies.

This further illustrates that many first-level gods have died inexplicably.

(End of this chapter)