Chapter 1088: Chaotic Battle, a Bunch of Annoying Flies, I've Been Too Kind to You—Golden Ao Island!!

.......But without explicit confirmation, she clung to a sliver of hope.

Now, though.

Lu Ding's words had practically shattered that hope completely!

Her brother was dead, her daughter was dead, her kingdom was gone, the royal capital was in ruins.

Everything—all of it—was because of Lu Ding!!!!!!

The Empress of Baoji completely snapped. Her helmet fell off, her black hair whipping wildly in the air.

With a sweep of her war spear, she roared: "KILL!!!!"

Tens of thousands of imperial guards surged toward Lu Ding in a siege.

Each and every one was a master compared to ordinary Qi Refiners.

But when quantity wasn't enough, they were just flies beneath Lu Ding's hand—easily swatted to death.

Oh no, not even that big!

White Blaze burned; the Hatchet Sword hacked wildly.

With the Empress of Baoji revealing herself here, coupled with Lu Ding's conspicuous presence,

Before long,

More and more experts from various factions joined the battlefield.

They besieged Lu Ding, besieged the Great Han, besieged Baoji Kingdom!!!

Divine light exploded wildly, shattering heaven and earth in the chaos.

Gongyang Qingrou shielded Wang Qingge, hovering flat at waist-height beside Lu Ding. Her entire form was bathed in cyan radiance, her demeanor sacred and dazzling like a living immortal—jade skin and icy bones. With a wave of her hand, spells flew forth as she coordinated attacks with Lu Ding.

Wang Qingge, too, had gone all out.

At some point, strange patterns resembling living things had crept across her face. Within her eye sockets, her two eyeballs spun wildly in an eerie manner. Her hands never stopped moving, constantly brandishing her small wooden sign, which had transformed into a soul-banner that summoned and wielded darkness.

With every move she made, colossal, ten-thousand-meter-long dark tentacles lashed out and slaughtered indiscriminately.

It was precisely because of Wang Qingge's presence

That the battlefield had descended into even greater chaos.

The already hot-headed masses,

With Wang Qingge's interference, went completely berserk. Their minds were addled to the point where they didn't even care who was on whose side anymore.

FIGHT!!!!!!

Even the four Great Han experts found it difficult to withstand Wang Qingge's passive influence that gradually infected their thoughts and perceptions.

Cao Lie subconsciously threw a punch at his teammate beside him.

That punch hit the other female God-Sealing realm expert from the Great Han so hard that she gasped—"Ouch!"—and nearly had her gall bladder knocked right out of her.

Lu Ding saw this.

Hell no!!!!!

Wang Qingge was useful, sure—extremely useful—but when she got serious, she became indiscriminate, friend and foe alike.

Gongyang Qingrou had the stats to handle it. She could withstand the influence without any issues. And his own mechanics allowed him to resist completely, unaffected.

But his allies couldn't.

There were four Great Han experts here too.

And now, seeing Lu Ding besieged, Wang Qingge was clearly pissed off.

Her aura was leaking out, each wave more ferocious than the last.

At this point in the battle, few people were still clear-headed. But if any of them had managed to snap out of it and see the state of the royal capital, they'd probably be scared shitless.

Nearly half the royal capital had been dyed in darkness.

Those who had died in the battle crawled out from the darkness one by one, in forms that resembled monsters yet retained their human essence—but maddened, mutilated, twisted. They launched blind, chaotic, equal-opportunity attacks on everything around them, regardless of existence.

Even inanimate objects like rocks

They'd take a couple bites out of.

Seeing this, Lu Ding

Turned around and slapped Cao Lie and the other three, sending them flying out of Wang Qingge's area of influence. He watched as the four tumbled through the air, crashing heavily into a cliff face an unknown distance away.

"Don't come close!!!! You guys watch the battlefield. Don't let a single straggler escape!!!!"

Today, he was going to settle accounts here!!!

Kill as many as he could. Every one dead was a reduction of the enemy's effective strength.

The four Great Han experts, thrown out of the royal capital, instantly snapped awake,

Regaining their senses.

But their ears, noses, eyes, and even their throats had been filled, at some point, with viscous black wriggling liquid.

Cao Lie reached in, bit by bit, pulling the black liquid from his mouth.

Then from what covered his eyeballs, what had burrowed into his ears.

Only after he'd pulled it all out

Did he take deep, ragged breaths, looking back at the royal capital battlefield with lingering fear.

The sight was comparable to a living hell.

Not the carnage of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, but a bizarre, horrifying black atmosphere.

Everyone was being influenced.

In fact, Cao Lie even wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him—he saw the Baoji Kingdom's royal palace STANDING UP!!!!

The Empress of Baoji, the very next second, was sent flying by Lu Ding. She crashed into the standing palace and merged with it, directly exchanging blows with Lu Ding, who had activated [Dharma Form]!!!!

The female God-Sealing realm expert who had just taken Cao Lie's punch asked,

"Should we go back in?"

Cao Lie shook his head. "The situation has gotten out of our control. Let's hold the perimeter first and make sure no one gets out alive. We'll deal with what comes after, later."

Suddenly, another BOOM!!!!

Snapped the four's attention back to the battlefield.

Inside the fray,

Though Lu Ding had activated [Dharma Form], fighting like an absolute war god, constantly absorbing the vitality of the surrounding area to replenish himself and maintain his combat strength,

He was still struggling a bit against the Empress of Baoji, who had merged with her royal palace. After all, this was her home ground. She was the empress, boosted by national fortune, empowered by arrays, with all the advantages of time, place, and circumstance.

But fortunately, Gongyang Qingrou made her move.

She leaped, landing a flying side kick with her high heels squarely on the front of the Baoji Kingdom's royal palace. Despite the seemingly immense size difference, the empress driving the palace was sent stumbling backward repeatedly by this single kick, finally landing on her ass with a heavy thud.

A large section of the palace's chest wall collapsed in a cave-in.

Lu Ding leaped up, clasped his hands together, and brought them down in a heavy overhead smash.

A precise hit—right on the strange palace's chest.

The force unloaded—BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM........

Causing the ground of the Baoji Kingdom's royal capital to cave in, ring after ring, downward.

But Lu Ding's body also took hit after hit from inexplicable attacks—all random strikes from God-Sealing realm experts of other kingdoms.

They left him bruised black and purple.

It hurt!!

It really hurt!!

He was made of flesh and blood, not a spiritual energy avatar. He had just proportionally increased in size with some special effects layered on. If not for the enhancement of [Four Fundamental Evil Aspects·Invulnerable Vajra Body], Lu Ding would probably have been left with bloody holes all over.

Gongyang Qingrou, too, was constantly blocking, occasionally missing one defense in a hundred.

Though the experts from other kingdoms were affected by Wang Qingge,

The two priorities—capturing the Empress of Baoji alive and besieging the Great Han—were still very high on their list.

Those who had been sent here for cross-border expert exchanges weren't slackers.

With their numbers increasing, Gongyang Qingrou also found it hard to hold on. And on top of that, everyone's condition was thrown off by Wang Qingge's influence.

Insane people with real strength were even more dangerous.

One could only say that Wang Qingge's presence was a double-edged sword.

She could make them tear each other apart, but she could also drive them to attack with full force, taking potshots at Lu Ding from time to time.

Still, Lu Ding could manage.

In an instant, with the intervention of [White Snake Shakes Scales], Lu Ding recovered immediately.

But the Spiritual Energy needed for recovery had to be drawn by [Refine Essence into Energy] by standing on the earth. At that moment, all the vitality of the royal capital had been drained dry by Lu Ding.

That feeling of desolation and barrenness brought by [Refine Essence into Energy] was spreading outward from the Baoji Kingdom's royal capital at a terrifying speed.

No matter how this battle ended today, one thing was certain—this area was basically ruined for good.

And judging by the current trend, the fight wouldn't be over anytime soon. If Lu Ding's [Refine Essence into Energy] was allowed to run rampant unchecked, conservative estimates suggested that after this battle was over, two-tenths to three-tenths of Baoji Kingdom would become a dead zone!!!!

That was far, far worse than the damage suffered by the Great Han's new city back then.

Cao Lie and the other three stared in stunned silence. The boundary line of the drained vitality had already reached their feet.

One of the four Great Han God-Sealing realm experts said, "This shouldn't be Lu Ding's Martial Path of the Fierce God technique, right? How does it look even more atrocious and inhumane than the Fierce God path or demonic cultivation methods?"

"I thought he was already brutal and terrifying enough before, but I didn't expect he had so many tricks he'd never fully used in the Great Han."

Cao Lie replied, "He can't use those in the Great Han. Every time he uses one, it wastes a piece of land. The cost is too great. If—"

Before he could finish,

Lu Ding's furious roar cut him off.

"A bunch of annoying flies, I've been too kind to you, dammit!!!"

He reached up and tore the sky, ripping through the celestial dome and tearing a gaping hole in the high-hanging vault!

"GOLDEN AO ISLAND!!!!!"