Chapter 156: Chapter 100: Soul Pearl

The powder drifting from the giant butterfly’s wings seemed to carry some kind of hallucinogenic power. The females, who had been screaming and resisting, lost consciousness in an instant. Their eyes turned devout and obsessed as they offered themselves up willingly.

The moment they reached the sacrificial altar, Sang Luo suddenly flashed forward, intending to snatch her child back.

Her reaction and speed were fast, but another attack was even faster. It instantly struck her abdomen, sending her flying more than ten meters to slam hard against the main gate.

Horrifying.

’I’m a True King, yet I was defeated in a single blow!?’

The giant black butterfly spoke in a deep, arrogant, and sinister voice,

“You actually have the Sea Emperor’s blessing on you. It saved your little life.”

“Go, now!”

Anubia suddenly appeared at the gate, grabbing her hand forcefully. His face was tense in a way she had never seen before. “That’s the Insect King, Di Mishi! His Talent Power is the Devouring Black Hole! If we don’t leave now, we won’t be able to!”

“I have to get my child!”

Anubia’s gaze swept over the little wolf cub on the sacrificial altar. He had played a part in helping the child grow so well.

’In a way, he was half my child.’

“Don’t worry about that! You go first. I’ll get the child to you,” Anubia said, shoving her out the gate.

“Anubia. To think I spent so many years meticulously training you. You truly disappoint me.”

As he spoke, the giant black butterfly on the altar transformed into a human. He was an exceptionally tall, imposing man with silver hair and bronze skin. His physique was massive and powerful, his lean, terrifying upper body left bare. A single piece of black cloth covered him below the abdomen. Intricate, silver-gray patterns were tattooed across his face and entire body, giving him a mysterious, powerful, and bizarre aura.

His narrow gray eyes, filled with ruthlessness and cruelty, shot toward the two at the gate as he let out a derisive, pitying laugh.

“Today, neither of you is leaving!”

Anubia had already teleported over, quickly snatching up the child and trying to flee. The next second, his body was sliced in two by a sharp blade—

Using the last of his strength, he teleported the child into Sang Luo’s hands.

“Take the child and run…”

Before he could finish, Di Mishi ripped the Crystal Core from his body. With a merciless stomp, his ravaged body was instantly torn to shreds.

A True King Rank Insect Beast… was killed by the Insect King in a single, fatal blow!

Sang Luo froze on the spot, so terrified her breathing stopped. She wanted to run, but she knew she couldn’t get away.

Even Anubia couldn’t escape.

She didn’t stand a chance of escaping.

The Soul mark had blocked one fatal attack, but it couldn’t block a second.

Di Mishi crushed the Crystal Core in his hand, absorbing all its power. He stepped into the void, and enormous wings unfurled behind him. A pitch-black, lightless vortex appeared in the air. Every living being in the vicinity was ground to dust—he didn’t even spare the members of his own Insect Clan within the Insect King Palace. All the power he devoured became nourishment for the giant butterfly’s growth.

Di Mishi’s power had long since broken through the King Beast Peak, reaching a new realm—

Emperor Rank!

Sang Luo dazedly clutched the cub in her arms, panicked as she had never been before. Just as she thought she too would be turned to ash, she fell into an embrace that was both strange and familiar. With silver hair, a blue robe, and unparalleled grace—who else could it be but Lou Xianyue?

He completely sheltered her within his wide, silver-patterned, dark-blue sleeves. His long, fair fingers gathered a soft, pale blue light, which he placed over the center of her brow. Instantly, Sang Luo was enveloped by another gentle yet powerful force, which immediately cut her off from the Insect King’s devouring power.

Sang Luo looked down at the cub in her arms. The scene of Anubia being sliced in two right before her eyes was still vivid in her mind. Her hands trembled uncontrollably as she murmured, “…Why didn’t you come sooner? If you had been here earlier, maybe Anu wouldn’t have had to die…”

Lou Xianyue looked at her, his gaze calm. “I am your mate. I have a responsibility to protect you. But others are not my responsibility.”

“…”

“This Insect Emperor’s power is beyond what you can resist. Sang, I’ll take you away from here first.”

Sang Luo gripped his sleeve tightly, her eyes red. “We can’t have come here for nothing! We can’t let Anu’s death be in vain! Ah Ze, now is the best chance to kill that Insect King!”

“Mm, I know. Many females from the Deep Sea have been captured by the Insect Clan. Among those who died tragic deaths were Beastmen from my South Sea. I came here this time precisely to eliminate him.”

Lou Xianyue placed a power barrier on Sang Luo, then his figure vanished. He reappeared in the void to engage the Insect King in battle.

The battle in the sky was extremely fierce. The fully formed giant black butterfly was several hundred meters long, almost blotting out the sky. It was monstrously powerful and terrifying!

Lou Xianyue also unleashed his full power. While the sky and land were not the main battlegrounds for the Merfolk, the power he released was still terrifying enough to make one tremble!

The two were almost evenly matched. The powerful and terrifying energy waves they generated flattened the entire Insect King Palace into rubble, and the aftershocks spread for miles around.

It was the first time Sang Luo had ever witnessed a battle above King Rank. Her heart was in turmoil, like a raging sea that could not be calmed.

Her King Rank, which she had always been so proud of, was like an ant before the Emperor Rank.

’I… I’m still too weak.’

Little Zhi Xin, in her arms, was startled awake by the commotion. He looked around in a daze, then pawed at her clothes in fear. Sang Luo’s attention was immediately drawn to him, her vision blurring with tears. “This is all your fault for running off!”

She raised her hand, wanting to properly punish this disobedient little cub, but in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Little Zhi Xin’s paw froze in mid-air, as if he knew he had done something wrong. He jumped down from her arms, and a wisp of gray-blue mist emerged from between his brows, shooting toward the Insect King.

A giant, butterfly-shaped phantom appeared behind the Insect King. Several faint lines appeared on the phantom—they were the weaknesses of his soul, exposed from beneath his indestructible beast-form flesh.

Lou Xianyue was also shocked. ’What is this power? It can perceive the soul’s weaknesses?’

He had no time to think. He immediately used his power to form countless prisms of extreme cold, launching them in an instant to pierce through the butterfly phantom.

Countless holes appeared on the giant Butterfly Wings, and it began to falter. Di Mishi’s expression changed drastically. He tried to escape, but a surrounding barrier rose up from all directions, trapping him completely. He couldn’t even use Space Jumping.

This kind of Boundary Array… Sang Luo had read about it in books. It was a top-tier Boundary Array that needed to be set up in advance.

Lou Xianyue hadn’t arrived in time earlier because he needed to set up the array in advance without alerting the enemy. That was why he had delayed his appearance. ’It wasn’t because he wanted to get rid of a love rival. I misunderstood him.’

After another vicious, drawn-out battle, Lou Xianyue killed the Insect King.

From the giant butterfly’s corpse, countless wisps of black-gray mist flew out.

Sang Luo saw them. They were all the soul remnants that Di Mishi had devoured. She found Anubia’s soul fragments. With a thought, the wisp of gray mist condensed into a Soul Pearl and fell into her palm.

A black and gold spider phantom flickered in and out of sight within the bead.

Sang Luo stared at it for a long time before storing it in her space.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep