Douluo Dalu

Chapter 244

Challenge, Sea Star Sacred Pillar

(TL by Armored Raven)

Glaring red light suddenly shot out from the forehead of Xiao Wu in the scene, turning into a circle and spread out. Wherever the red light reached, everything turned red, and everything stayed still at this moment.

Watching this part, Tang San’s body was also trembling. Feeling Xiao Wu who was convulsign in his embrace, the golden trident brand on his forehead let out a golden light. He screamed with all of his might, “EEEE------- NOOOUUUGGGHH-------”

When the trident brand’s light came out, Tang San’s eyes shot two beams of terrifying red light simultaneously, merging with that blue light. In just an instant, everything around the scene melted away like ice and snow. Blue and red, two lights mixing with each other, turning into a single dual colored halo which widened and swept everything clean. The scenery turned into blue mist, and the blue mist turned into clean air. Everything vanished.

When everything became clear again, Tang San and Xiao Wu stood on a hexagon platform. At its center was a pillar about 15 metres tall, straightened with six sides. The brand on it was illusionary and uncertain, giving away that it was Sea’s Illusion Sacred Pillar.

In front of the sacred pillar, stood an astonished middle aged man who appeared to be in his fifties with rather handsome looks, but now his face was pale. On his body were two yellow, two purple, five black, nine neatly arranged spirit rings. Wearing a black long garb, he had a light belt floating around him like a snake. It was evidently his battle spirit, which was extremely unique.

Tang San of course wouldn’t know that Sea Illusion Douluo’s spirit was a type of extremely mythical and rare sea spirit beast called Illusionary Snake, which was between beast spirit and tool spirit, so what was on Sea Illusion Douluo was not something extra, but projected on him.

But all this did not matter to Tang San anymore. All his eyes could see were red.

Sea Illusion Douluo was shocked to the core. He clearly saw that in his domain, he took complete control of Tang San and Xiao Wu’s emotions, so if things developed from there, these two trial takers would surely lose. But now, the dual colored halo which Tang San projected, not only destroyed the illusion, but also his entire domain, and inflicted a powerful mental shock towards him. It was to the point that even he as a Title Douluo class individual would not be able to catch a breath.

Tang San’s initial judgement was correct in that Sea Illusion Douluo was one of the two out of seven sacred pillar protectors who had domains, and his strength was ranked second, greater than Sealance Douluo. And his strength was in his own domain. Comparing the domains which Tang San had seen before with the Douluo’s, they were like child’s play. Sea Illusion Douluo’s domain illusion could become a real situation instead of mere confusion. The attacks taken in the illusion were totally real, which was like a brand new world was created. Once lost or gravely injured inside the illusion without any recovery, then death in reality would ensue, making it very oppressive. Even the strongest of the pillar protectors, Sea Dragon Douluo, would not want to spar with him.

Holding Xiao Wu tightly, Tang San’s cold and bloody red eyed stare was cast on Sea Illusion Douluo, “You shouldn’t have used that scene to provoke me. No one can harm my Xiao Wu. Not even on a mental level.”

Tang San’s voice which was filled with invasiveness and dense murderous tone sounded extremely ear piercing. Sea Illusion Douluo spat coldly, “Dredging the most painful memory in the hearts of enemies and attack them is my domain’s trait. Don’t think that you can talk to me like that just because you have the Seagod Nine Trials. You still haven’t passed all the tests yet.”

Tang San spoke no further. He used action to reply to Sea Illusion Douluo. Blinding white flash instantly enveloped the Sea Illusion Sacred Pillar.

Sea Illusion Douluo only felt that all his surroundings had already been turned into the color of blood. Tangible killing intent was blasted at him like sharpened blades. Ear deafening screams were drowning him from multiple directions.

A domain? Sea Illusion Douluo thought with a fright. Now, his own domain was destroyed by Tang San’s seagod’s light and purple demon eye, and could not be used for a while. As a domain expert like him, he knew what to make of his power. His body shook and it swiftly rotated and fused with the Illusionary Snake, releasing his own spirit avatar.

The great illusionary snake was up to ten metres long with nine spirit rings shining in turns. When it was the sixth spirit ring’s turn, black light was unleashed and coated his illusory body in black. The way he wriggled and moved made it look like he was oozing out killing intent. His surroundings were distorted from his movement. Cracks after cracks were fusing together like a spatial fissure was being made.

Sea Illusion Douluo had his own ways of dealing with domains as a watchman who used them. The sixth spirit skill before him was called Illusion Breaker, which specialized in breaking through various kinds of illusionary and domain powers. With the strength as Title Douluo, unless the opponent also had Title Douluo class domain and moreover whose overall strength was above his, it would be very difficult to restrain Sea Illusion Douluo.

But right when he thought that he might be able to break free of the Deathgod Domain, a powerful wave of blue light appeared before him in a sudden fashion. It made his heart chill while in the domain. The saturation of the cold air took away his strength. Facing that blue light, he had no option but to stop his movements. With a low grunt, the snake eyes let loose two beams of brilliant blue light.

Sea Illusion Douluo had decided that if he were to break through Tang San’s domain, he would immediately vault into the center of the sea, waiting for his own domain to be restored. It should be noted that his domain could even use seawater to create illusions. The reason he didn’t do so earlier was because he didn’t think that Tang San had what it took to withstand his most powerful domain skill. But now things were different. Facing an opponent with a domain as well, he had to respond with greatest force.

Unfortunately, he already had no chances.

BOOM——, fierce collision erupted, and the nearby Asura Hell’s blood color darkened even further. Sea Illusion Douluo could only feel that his brain was pounded by a heavy hammer. His Illusionary Snake spirit avatar form spasmed greatly inside the Deathgod Domain. With each spasm, the body would shrink slightly. The deep pain coming from the mental world made him moan out uncontrollably.

With the shrinking of the body, the spirit avatar was undone and the real body was shown.

Even Tang San himself didn’t think that the Purple God Light was so powerful after reaching the Boundless level. Confronting a Title Douluo who specialized in using spiritual force joined with a domain to attack, even though the Deathgod Domain was used to weaken him and his mind was impacted so he couldn’t use his domain, from being able to directly break open the opponent’s spirit avatar, the power of the Purple God Light could be seen.

In fact, Tang San’s spirit power was the strongest type out of his powers so far. In his rage, the spirit power released an even greater lethal force. Sea Illusion Douluo didn’t know that Tang San’s spirit power had reached such a terrifying state and chose to face it head on, so the loss was inevitable.

Tang San wouldn’t give his opponents any chances. This was an edict from Tang Sect in his previous life, which was also one he upheld after coming to this world. Especially when he confirmed that the opponent was his enemy.

Now the eighth spirit ring’s light spread out once more. Within this blood colored Deathgod Domain, the energy which became one with the domain seemed to converge on Sea Illusion Douluo in an instant.

Eighth spirit ring second skill, active control technique, Blue Silver Orca Devil’s Absorption, release.

Skull-splitting headache and head bleeding (from eyes, nostrils, ears and mouth) inflicted Sea Illusion Douluo had no way to resist it whatsoever. His entire being was trapped in three seconds of dizziness. When the eighth spirit skill was activated, Tang San teleported to mid-air. Left leg turned into a red light which looked like a scythe of death, and like it was meant to split skies and shatter earth, swinged straight down. It was none other than Evil Left Leg Bone’s Orca Evil Spirit Axe.

The pain that the illusion brought, Xiao Wu’s sadness, became powerful catalysts. As soon as Sea Illusion Douluo’s illusion was broken, Tang San’s mind was full of killing intent. Even though the opponent in front of him was one of the seven sacred pillars’ Guardian Douluos, he didn’t care in the slightest. Xiao Wu’s sacrifice was his heart’s lifelong pain. There was no way he could be calm in this situation.

The stronger the mind’s killing intent, the more horrifying the Deathgod Domain’s power. Tang San’s left leg could be said to have his entire strength within it. How could Sea Illusion Douluo, who wasn’t famous as such for defense, protect himself against this strike when in a state of dizziness? Tang San’s attack wasn’t even inferior to Title Douluos. Especially when it was full of rage and abandon.

Just when Sea Illusion Douluo was about to take the hatred-filled Orca Evil Spirit Axe strike, Tang San suddenly felt his body tighten and his whole being was restrained. The Evil Left Leg Bone’s power dropped massively, and his body was lit in gold like it was being chained by the light.

In a large explosion, Sea Illusion Douluo was blown away hard and slammed heavily against the Sea’s Illusion Sacred Pillar before bouncing back and hitting the ground. Now he went straight into unconsciousness for a long time. His blood even stained the magic pattern on the pillar red.

Touching down on the ground, Tang San looked at Xiao Wu in front of him in a daze, who squeezed him tightly and locked his limbs. It was Xiao Wu’s fifth spirit skill back then, the Soft Bone Lock.

“Xiao Wu, why?” Tang San looked at his lover incomprehensibly.

“Ge, you can’t kill him. I can understand your feelings. But this is Seagod Island. We can’t kill people. If you kill him, how can we survive on the island? Ge, calm down. Don’t do such a silly thing!”

In order to stop Tang San, Xiao Wu used all her strength. Even though her body was quite durable, Tang San’s strike just now used too much power, to the point that even Xiao Wu was affected from stopping him. A trail of blood came down from her lips.

Watching Xiao Wu’s blood coming from the lips, Tang San was scared straight and put a restoration sausage into her mouth hurriedly. He asked urgently, “Xiao Wu, how are you now? It’s all my fault that I hurt you.

You get down first and let me look at your wounds. I’ll listen to whatever you say. I won’t kill him.” Compared to Xiao Wu, what would Sea Illusion Douluo’s life matter?

Xiao Wu relaxed when she saw Tang San calm down. She stood on the ground after disengaging her lock, “Ge, I’m fine. I’m not as frail as before.” Xiao Wu smiled at Tang San while chewing down the restoration sausage. Tang San calmed down only after using his spirit power to check her body and found no pressing issues with it.

The Sea’s Illusion Sacred Pillar’s brand enveloped the two of them at the same time. They had finally defeated the third Title Douluo. But this obstacle didn’t cost as little as planned. Whether it was spirit power or spiritual force, Tang San’s consumption was far greater than when facing Seahorse Douluo. After calming down now, he felt a tinge of weakness.

Using spirit bone skills twice, using eighth spirit skill twice, and on top of that, using Purple God Light twice plus the effects of the illusion, easily made Tang San display a look of fatigue.

Fearing that he himself would once again have murderous thoughts, Tang San didn’t lay his eyes on Sea Illusion Douluo again. He took Xiao Wu and got up on shore to rendezvous with their companions. He knew he must take a rest. It was fortunate that the time spent before was little. He greeted everyone, ate a large restoration sausage and sat with his feet crossed to meditate.

Meanwhile, Ning Rongrong, Oscar, Zhu Zhuqing and Ma Hongjun were also in a state of meditation as Dai Mubai was watching over them.

The yellow garbed and purple garbed sea spirit masters who were protecting the Sea Illusion Sacred Pillar could not help but look at Tang San with fear in their eyes. They could observe the battle between Tang San and Sea Illusion Douluo in the Deathgod Domain without being in it. When they saw how violent Tang San appeared with the final leg strike that carried such terrifying strength, their hearts beat cold. Only after Tang San entered meditation did a few of them they rush towards and bring Sea Illusion Douluo back to Sea Illusion City to heal his injuries.

Tang San opened his eyes after meditating for a whole four hours. He advanced towards the next destination guided by Bai Chenxiang.

Meanwhile, almost 10 hours had passed since they started the fifth trial. The lights in the sky had decreased by almost one seventh. This was the trial’s time. From what can be seen, the fifth trial was going smoothly.

The one to be tested next was Ma Hongjun. Fatty had complete confidence in himself as he had every reason to believe that the opponent he had to face next was definitely not stronger than Sealance Douluo who Dai Mubai faced. Though he regarded his own strength to be less than that of Dai Mubai’s, he was still above in burst power. Dai Mubai could pass his own test comparatively easily, so Fatty wouldn’t be a problem.

And his point was indeed proven when Ma Hongjun and Ning Rongrong faced Sea Ghost Douluo who had a Devil Ray spirit, in which Tang San’s spirit detection and strategy, Oscar’s buffing sausages, plus a meal’s work, led them to victory. Tang San and Xiao Wu’s turn after that, was over without a hitch in the test of the fourth Title Douluo.

Sea Ghost Douluo left people the deepest impression, and that was his peerlessly ugly face, fitting for his name.

Next, it was Tang San’s turn alone to face Sea Star Douluo. When they arrived at Sea Star Sacred Pillar, the overall challenge time had just passed 14 hours.

Tang San knew that for him, this would surely be an ugly battle. Probably even more than the previous two. Sea Star Douluo’s strength might not be that of Sealance Douluo’s and Sea Illusion Douluo’s, but it was just in relative terms. How were there weaklings among Title Douluos? The reason Tang San thought of this battle to be of great difficulty was simple. It was because he determined that that Sea Star Douluo’s spirit type would be the same as his own, control type.

Seastar Sacred Pillar’s platform was like a gigantic Sea Star lying on the seabed. The right angled five pointed star form was well made, and the tall sacred pillar itself was like a pentagon. The brand on it was even a star in shape, like it was a shining star in the sky itself.

On top of the platform there was a strange person, clad in similar black garb, but appearing somewhat worn and torn. The most surprising part was his

fearsome long hair that was draped all the way to the ground, Xiao Wu’s hair was the longest Tang San had ever seen. But this strange person before him had hair that was even longer than Xiao Wu’s, and might have to be around three metres in length.

After resting, Tang San’s mental state had somewhat recovered, and his emotions went from rage at Sea Illusion Douluo’s place, to calm.

He faced the Sea Star Sacred Pillar in a distance and bowed down, “Please, Senior. Humble Tang San taking Seagod Nine Trial’s fifth trial, I’ve come to challenge.”

The strange person on the platform glanced at Tang San and waved.

Tang San now vaulted and flew towards the sacred pillar. While in mid-air, a blue light was released and a mirage behind him appeared for a split second. It was the activation of the Vast Sea Barrier ability. Xiao Wu hiding behind him pulled by a blue silver grass. Because Xiao Wu’s strength was improved, her soul became more durable. The duration which it could combine with the body was increased to four hours and not limited to a single time. There would be no problems if the time spent were not to exceed four hours. In previous battles, whenever Tang San didn’t face opponents alone, her soul would only appear momentarily. By now it was just a little under an hour. Hiding in Tang San’s back, she would fight with him silently.

Right when Tang San was about to touchdown on the platform, the weird Sea Star Douluo suddenly shined, and nine well matched spirit rings had come out. The Douluo’s body also showed an extremely bizarre change. If Sea Ghost Douluo’s looks were peerlessly ugly, then Sea Star Douluo would be especially disgusting.

His limbs extended instantly and transformed into gigantic feelers. Every feeler had countless white round suckers. While the limbs were his four feelers, the fifth was actually his long hair. His messy looking long hair tangled instantly and turned into something a tentacle. He appeared to be as freakish as how much one wanted him to be.

Five tentacles lashed out almost simultaneously towards Tang San in mid-air, this Sea Star Douluo wasn’t a bit concerned with his status as a Title Douluo, and actually launched a surprise attack. Of course, to him, this was tactics, and it was a helpless move.

Although Sea Star Douluo didn’t know what happened in Tang San and others’ challenges, but evidently, four of his partners were defeated as the seven lights in the sky had disappeared by four. And among the four, there would surely be a powerful attacker like Sea Spear Douluo, or a domain user just like Sea Illusion Douluo. Sea Star Douluo thought that his strength could not be like those two. How could he be careless against Tang San? In order to get ahead, he chose to just make preemptive attacks.

What happened also proved his point. When he saw Tang San releasing spirit power, there were actually three Hundred Thousand Year class spirit rings. He couldn’t help but lose his breath. He was very clear that the youngster before him would have an extremely terrifying strength after having such fearsome spirit ring classes. What are three Hundred Thousand Year spirit rings? He would like to have three Hundred Thousand Year spirit bones as well! The three spirit bones which added to Tang San’s attributes would be enough to close their gap in class.

Facing Sea Star Douluo’s five gigantic tentacles, Tang San released his spirit while also doing so with five Blue Silver Emperors, the latter of which were surrounding Sea Star Douluo’s tentacles. He must try and test the tentacles’ power. In some meaning, Sea Star Douluo’s power and those of his own were somewhat alike as Control Types, and the best way to fight against high level Control types was to fight control with control, so Tang San could feel the difficulty of this battle.

The five Blue Silver Emperor swiftly tangled with the five tentacles. When they touched, both Tang San and Sea Star Douluo felt their hearts shake.

Tang San clearly felt that even though his Blue Silver Emperor tangled with Sea Star Douluo’s tentacles, they were immediately wrapped up by the thick tentacles. The little white suckers on the tentacles were stuck on the Blue Silver Emperor. It was actually an ability Tang San was very familiar with when the powerful suction force could be felt through the grasses. It was devourment. A devouring through battle spirits.

What Sea Star Douluo was surprised about was the blue silver grass’ trait. His tentacles’ suckers had firmly latched onto the smooth surfaces of the grasses, but then he immediately felt that these grasses were filled with massive life force. When his third spirit skill ‘Devourment’ was activated, the blue silver grasses themselves were seemingly sealed off. No matter what, the devouring effect could not take place.

Tang San’s spirit was Blue Silver Emperor, but it wasn’t the Blue Silver Emperor, but himself who possessed the essence devouring ability, so he wouldn’t fall for such an attack. He forcefully sealed off the opponent’s devouring effect by using his spiritual force and the Blue Silver Domain.

Sea Star Douluo’s limbs moved and pulled the airborne Tang San straight towards the platform with great force. His ‘five limbs’ power was so shocking, not even Tang San could counter it.

Nothing good would come out of being pulled by the opponent, so Tang San used his seventh spirit skill directly----- Blue Silver Avatar.

In reality, in a fight with a Title Douluo, spirit form transformations were mandatory. The deciding factors would commonly be a fight between seventh spirit skills and beyond.

Sea Star Douluo’s movements weren’t even a little slower than Tang San’s. He took the higher ground after launching the first preemptive attack and he had no intention of letting Tang San break free. When Tang San unleashed his spirit form transformation, Sea Star Douluo also unleashed his own spirit form transformation. His whole body became extremely flexible, turning into a giant brown colored Sea Star which crawled along the sacred pillar platform. The strength of his five limbs increased even further.

Tang San let the other party pull him was only for controlling his own posture in the air so that he wouldn’t be pulled over completely. At the same time, he raised his right arm and blue golden rays started to solidify around there in a frantic pace. A giant spear started to form in Tang San’s grasp.

With the rise of his strength and limits, Tang San could discover that his fifth spirit skill Blue Silver Overlord Spear was increasingly different. Though its power didn’t have a remarkable growth, Tang San always had a kind of illusion whenever he used it right after using Blue Silver Transformation. It seemed that this was the skill with the greatest attack power among others. Only he had not yet developed it to its full potential. From the method of attack, he could tell that, if the attack energies were identical, then in Tang San’s single target attacks, while Orca Evil Spirit Axe was a linear attack as well, only Blue Silver Overlord Javelin was a focal point attack.

Right now, facing Sea Star Douluo’s massive body, Tang San chose to break through with a focal point. Blue Silver Overlord Spear’s energies were rising frantically. The light of the fifth spirit ring was flowing rapidly, and unnoticeably, this black spirit ring had a trace of red shade.

The attack was not yet unleashed, the sharp aura was already pointing at Sea Star Douluo’s spirit form’s center, causing the latter’s skin to cramp up. But, at this moment, Sea Star Douluo’s spirit form’s already gigantic body suddenly expanded to several tens of times larger in size. So large

, the body’s diameter had exceeded fifteen meters. Even the sacred pillar platform could not fully support it and thus it slipped down to the sea. Massive pulling force caused Tang San to lose further control. The enlarged suckers’ devouring power had also increased by several times. Tang San couldn’t hold them back and his body’s spirit power started to leak out through the blue silver grasses.

Mercury colored spiritual force coated Sea Star Douluo’s massive body, yet Tang San had a shocking discovery, that he couldn’t pinpoint Sea Star Douluo’s weakness even after a detailed scanning with his spirit power. In other words, Sea Star Douluo’s body had no practical weak points. Even its dead center was just slightly more important in comparison.

The Blue Silver Overlord Spear which took form would not go away so blue golden light shot forth. But to Tang San’s shock yet again, despite the speed of the Javelin’s launch, Sea Star Douluo’s massive body shifted slightly and swept with a thick tentacle that was devouring the blue silver grass, blocking the path of travel in that very instant.

Of course, it wasn’t enough to affect the power of the spear, however that massive feeler was not only rigid, but also constantly wriggling.

With a ‘POOF’, the Blue Silver Overlord Spear pierced through the feeler, but it couldn’t hit its mark. What made Tang San unable to comprehend the most was that after piercing through the gigantic feeler and drew brown colored sticky fluids, he also lost the link with the spear.

Meanwhile, Sea Star Douluo’s nine spirit rings were on the underside of the center of the body. One ring within another, the lower ranked rings were positioned more outwardly than the others. With the piercing caused by Blue Silver Overlord Spear, his body’s fifth spirit ring shined, forming a light which covered the pierced feeler. The wound on the feeler was clearly being healed at a rapid pace, the process was finished in the blink of an eye.

And in this process, Tang San’s body was tangled while he was being pulled by his own Blue Silver Emperor as it moved. All five giant tentacles were wrapped around him and every sucker was enlarged like different white round shields pressing on him. Sea Star Douluo’s spirit avatar form was also wriggling rapidly like he was going to devour Tang San this way.

A thick white mist was blasted out by the suckers. Tang San could only see vaguely, that when the toxic mist was being released, Sea Star Douluo’s second spirit ring was glowing.

He also uses poison? Tang San deduced after inhaling it slightly. It was an extremely corrosive tranquilizing toxic fluid that was turned to mist before attacking. Once stuck with it, the body would not only enter a state of paralysis, but also being corroded rapidly.

Tang San also discovered at the same time that Sea Star Douluo’s suckers were releasing mental waves. In other words, every single one of the suckers were like his eyes. It was no wonder Sea Star Douluo could make such accurate judgements.

Tang San did not struggle fiercely while being pulled because he wanted to be familiar with his opponent’s attacking style, for it was the only way to secure victory. But from the looks of things, Sea Star Douluo was harder to deal with than expected. Super powerful recovering ability, flexible fighting style. This Sea Star Douluo wouldn’t do things the hard way with his opponents, but instead used a persistent way of fighting to cut the strength down. Through devouring his opponent's’ energy, he could strengthen himself. As a Title Douluo of this strength, using this fighting style was extremely brilliant without a doubt.

Tang San har just about seen all that he had to see so he waited no further in launching his own direct attack. From the golden trident brand, the seagod’s light spread out. While Sea Star Douluo’s eyes were many in his spirit form, when Tang San used the seagod’s light, the amount of force he had to withstand was much greater than the opponents which Tang San faced.

The massive spirit avatar was convulsing fiercely. The devouring strength of the suckers were lost momentarily and even the toxic mist became disrupted.

Tang San glared coldly and thought, ‘Alright, you wanna fight in control? Then let’s see who’s better in control.’

The fourth spirit ring flashed, and Blue Silver Emperor’s fourth spirit skill, Blue Silver Prison’s evolved skill, Blue Silver Thrust Formation was activated.

Countless beams of blue and golden light rained down from the sacred pillar platform and even surged from the seawater, piercing Sea Star Douluo’s massive body, but it was indeed thick in skin and flesh. When Blue Silver Spikes were sent, it was like they struck hardened leather and merely managed to lift the body, though few did manage to pierce into the body. Most of them were countered by the numerous suckers and was then latched on to.

However, Tang San’s attack did not end there. His second spirit ring glowed as well. Don’t you want to devour? Then I’ll let you devour all you want.

Countless blue golden rays of light emanated rapidly from Sea Star Douluo’s massive body, which meant that Tang San’s second spirit skill’s parasitic effect was activated. In what seemed to be a swift moment, Sea Star Douluo’s body was covered in blue silver grass’ vines. His suckers were keeping the grasses in place, but likewise, the spikes from below and the grass which grew from the parasitic vines were wrapped around the body persistently.

Sea Star Douluo was both excited and confused. He was excited that in total contact, his devouring power would have the greatest effect. If he sucked Tang San’s spirit power dry, then this battle would be over and he wouldn’t have to continue on. What he was confused about, was that he didn’t understand why Tang San would choose to use his spirit form to engage in such close contact while the latter knew of his own devouring power. Was he looking to die? But, for someone who had passed four sacred pillars, how could he be this stupid?