DD Black White [361-362]

Chapter 361: Apotheosis

Raiden Makoto slowly extended her arms and gently embraced Lu Jingming from behind. In the next instant, her entire body turned into a beam of impossibly pure, resplendent lightning suffused with an eternal will—and tenderly merged into Lu Jingming's body.

Boom—!

The brand-space of thunder deep in Lu Jingming's consciousness shuddered violently.

High above the center of his inner cosmos, the supreme god-seat symbolizing eternity and thunder erupted with unprecedented brilliance, unleashing billions of blinding bolts.

A vast, liquid-starry-river-like violet divine power of thunder surged forth more fiercely than ever, scouring his limbs, bones, and very soul.

Outside, razor-sharp purple arcs burst like tangible blades from the corners of Lu Jingming's eyes. Wild and sacred thunder divine power wrapped him completely like a cocoon.

On his body, those originally eerie scarlet hundred-thousand-year spirit rings suddenly shifted color.

As though baptized and tempered by a supreme power, they all transformed into a noble, dazzling gold—like pure thunder condensed into metal.

Upon the rings, profound purple thunder patterns naturally surfaced and flowed, exuding a heart-stilling pressure.

"That's right, Makoto. As long as we stand together, even a God-King can be our foe. Apotheosis—open!"

With Lu Jingming's low, god-imbued utterance, his long white hair seemed to lose material form in an instant, turning into countless leaping, scintillating blue-violet ions—brilliant beyond compare.

From within him rang the clear chime of glassy jade striking. His bones, meridians, flesh, even every cell underwent a fundamental metamorphosis under the infusion of eternal thunder's divinity—racing from mortal flesh toward a higher, divine body.

More astonishing still, space twisted above the eight golden thunder-pattern spirit rings circling him. Infinite divine power and laws converged, and a ninth golden god-ring—more radiant, solid, and weighty than the other eight—condensed and emerged.

At the very instant his apotheosis completed, bolstered by the vast might of the god-seat and the blessing of laws, his soul power naturally broke the bottleneck of level ninety, stepping into the realm of Titled Douluo.

And this was far from the end.

The Black Abyss White Flower silently appeared in his now-divinized palm. The umbral force symbolizing death began a dangerous fusion with the annihilating power of eternal thunder within him.

The blue-violet lightning shrouding him was visibly dyed by a deep black and ominous dark red, finally becoming a black-red that seemed to swallow all light. The aura of destruction climbed by several tiers.

Ever since the Holy Grail War began, the Grail, as an energy nexus, had accumulated a veritable ocean of power. The entire Douluo planetary plane, stirred by this high-concentration energy, had been nudged into a slow evolution.

As the initiator of the Holy Grail War, Lu Jingming naturally received the deepest feedback and empowerment from the will of Douluo Star. This was also one of the key reasons his Eternal and Thunder god-seat could condense so swiftly.

It was under the full blessing of this complete god-seat that he, still a Soul Douluo in cultivation, could forcibly activate a brief apotheosis, pre-experiencing and grasping the might of a divine body and divine sense.

Of course, Lu Jingming knew all too well this was a short-lived sublimation under a god-seat's empowerment—it could not last.

His true cultivation had only just used this apotheosis to break through to level ninety.

Yet under the extreme amplification of the apotheosis, the second soul core—which would normally take a Titled Douluo an age of accumulation to barely condense by absorbing massive soul power—was to him as easy as turning a hand.

The vast divine power, the most obedient of tools, guided by his will, almost instantly constructed within his dantian a second soul core whose attribute was the polar opposite of the first—yet perfectly complementary.

No difficulties, no obstacles. The supreme realm of Yin–Yang complementary twin soul cores, something countless Titled Douluo dreamed of and many were stymied by for life—he achieved it the moment he stepped into the Titled realm.

Within him, two soul cores imbued with the intents of creation and death rotated slowly in opposite directions. Not only did they not conflict, they formed a powerful attraction at their center, perfectly fusing two kindred yet divergent powers, giving rise to a terrifying might far beyond simple addition—a qualitative leap.

More wondrous still, at the center of those two rotating cores, faint and sacred phantoms could be seen—the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata and Raiden Makoto.

With their personal divinities and soul force as the heart, they helped Lu Jingming perfectly harmonize and command these two mighty powers, rendering a soul-core conflict that would make other Super Douluo explode into nothing as docile as lambs within him.

A Titled Douluo with Yin–Yang complementary twin soul cores, stacked with the perfect apotheosis mode under the God-King-level Eternal and Thunder god-seat.

Power surged to fill every inch of his body. Lu Jingming slowly clenched his fist, feeling a terror of might that seemed able to crush stars by hand and summon heaven's judgment by a single thought. A fierce confidence welled up.

At this moment, he even had the confidence to clash head-on with a true god-tier powerhouse.

Reason, however, quickly smothered the fleeting illusion brought by the spike in power.

He knew clearly that, however strong, apotheosis was temporary power.

His mortal foundation could not endure the backlash for long; his mind, in a state of heightened divinity, was being constantly scoured and assimilated. If it lasted, the human parts of him might be overwhelmed by divinity's absolute rationality and coldness.

That was not what Lu Jingming wanted.

Thus, the apotheosis state was his strongest trump card, a blade for god-slaying—not a norm.

Until he truly ascended the god-seat, it must be used with care.

He lifted his eyes. Black-red lightning flickered in his gaze as he looked toward that holy sea-blue figure. His battle intent rose to the heavens in palpable waves.

After apotheosis, Lu Jingming looked nothing like before. His white hair was long gone, replaced by innumerable wildly dancing tufts of ionized strands formed from the purest destructive thunder, their tips constantly spitting fine black-red sparks.

His features grew more perfect and sharply defined, as if carved by a divine artisan. His skin was jade-pale, faintly revealing destructive lightning flowing within.

His frame had grown a little taller, straighter, more perfect.

A set of extremely gorgeous, intricate, and imposing armor clothed him naturally.

The armor was a dark purple throughout, of neither metal nor jade—more like congealed thunder interwoven with shadow. Across its surface flowed black-red thunder patterns like living things.

At the center of the breastplate was set a massive rhombic gem ceaselessly bursting with black-red lightning—like an eternal thunder-core.

From each joint jutted sharp thunderous spikes—luxurious, yet full of lethal menace.

Behind him, a colossal god-ring woven entirely from black-red thunder rotated slowly, within which the rise and fall of countless worlds birthing and perishing in lightning seemed to drift.

This was the strongest form he could command at this stage.

Relying on the bond of fused souls with Raiden Makoto, he used a mortal vessel to forcibly bear the vast might of the Eternal and Thunder god-seat, pushing himself briefly into the divine domain.

He clearly sensed the power surging through every inch of his godly body—enough to rend continents—as well as the burden and assimilation this power pressed upon his mortal foundation.

But he felt no fear. In this form, he would battle a wisp of divine sense from Sea God Tang San.

A once-in-an-era trial.

Win or lose, the experience and insights from crossing blades with a God-King would pave the road to his future ascent to a true throne—of immeasurable value.

Besides… he was hardly fighting alone.

Thinking of Jingliu, who was ready to strike; Gu Yuena, who was on the way; and Acheron and The Herta, still in the shadows—Lu Jingming's lips curved in a barely perceptible arc.

With so many to catch him if he fell, what was there to fear? If he couldn't beat them, he'd call reinforcements. It wasn't only The Herta who loved to pull strings—Lu Jingming did too.

On that point, he and The Herta were two of a kind.

On the other side, as that familiar golden-blue radiance—deep and warm like an endless sea—surged from between her brows and condensed midair into a towering, majestic figure with a loving gaze, Tang Wutong went rigid. Her mind went blank.

After enormous shock came a flood-burst of rapture and grievance.

"Da… Daddy?!"

Her voice trembled with disbelief. Tears that had been welling in her pink-blue eyes spilled like strings of pearls, uncontrollable.

Her face, pale from bitter battle, wounds, and Titan's fall, flushed at once with a mix of excitement and pent-up hurt.

In those limpid pink-blue eyes, the helplessness and sorrow held back for far too long broke free like a bursting dam. Big, crystalline tears rolled down, tracing her dust-smeared cheeks.

All her strength, all her stubbornness, collapsed the instant her father appeared.

Before her dearest kin, she became, in a heartbeat, the little witch who could be endlessly embraced, who could act spoiled and seek shelter.

She wanted to throw herself into that figure's arms, but the lingering divine fluctuations around her and the utter weakness of her body tripped her. She stumbled, nearly collapsing to the ground.

"Daddy, it's really you. You're here—you finally came!"

Her voice was tight with sobs, full of post-calamity dependence and grievance, as if to pour out all her fear.

"They… they bullied me. They killed Second Uncle. They want to kill me. They… they…"

The rest was choked off by grief, hurt, and terror too intense for words—dissolving into an even greater, uncontrollable storm of tears.

The scene of the Titan Giant Ape Er Ming's death flashed again before her, slicing her heart to ribbons. She sobbed so hard her whole body shook.

Chapter 362: Eightfold Thunder Interdict

That sea-blue figure—the divine-sense avatar of Sea God Tang San—slowly turned.

His majestic gaze, falling upon his daughter's rain-soaked face and wretched state, turned in an instant into indescribable heartache, tenderness—and boundless fury.

He stretched out his hand. A gentle yet vast divine power rose like the softest tide to catch the stumbling Tang Wutong and bring her to his side.

Warm golden-blue radiance enfolded her like the safest haven, shutting out every storm.

"Xiao Qi, my precious daughter…"

Tang San's voice remained steady, yet gentler than ever, carrying a soothing divine cadence that calmed Tang Wutong's shattered emotions.

"No more tears. Daddy's here. It's all right. It's over. With me here, no one will harm you by even a hair."

He reached out a hand—illusory but warm—and stroked her hair with utmost care, as if touching a priceless, fragile treasure.

"You've suffered. It's my fault. I came too late…"

His voice brimmed with guilt and love.

Though Tang San favored sons, Tang Wutong was still his flesh and blood. His darling daughter had been wronged; of course he burned with wrath and self-reproach.

Seeing her pear-blossom-in-rain face and sensing the weakness and fear trembling in her soul, the deep of his tender eyes gathered a thread of glacial fury.

He slowly raised his head. His gaze swept first across the hellscape of Mingdu's ruins below, then flicked to the battle raging high above between the Lord Ravager and the Xianzhou general. At last, that god-imbued, killing-cold gaze snapped toward—

The figure wreathed in black-red destructive thunder, radiant, resplendent, and overwhelmingly powerful, not far ahead.

From that figure, he clearly sensed the lingering aura of Titan Giant Ape Er Ming—the blood-reek smeared with rage and unwillingness.

He also saw the huge, lifeless ape corpse in the distance.

In an instant, all was clear.

"So it's you?"

Tang San's voice was no longer gentle but flat to the extreme—beneath which seethed a terrifying fire and killing intent.

"You killed Er Ming. You humiliated my daughter…"

"No matter who you are, what fortune you bear, or which power you hail from—today, you will pay with utter annihilation in body and soul."

Yet just as Tang San gathered his divinity to obliterate this insolent, damned insect and scour his soul from existence, his eyes froze.

He stared hard at the surging, shockingly high-quality black-red divine power around Lu Jingming and at the slowly turning thunder god-ring behind him—its structure perfect and complex, infused with the dual laws of thunder and death.

As one of the five God-Kings of the God Realm, holding two god-seats, how keen was his sense for divinity?

This was not the attribute of any known god of the God Realm, nor a counterfeit god-power simulated by artifacts, arrays, or special techniques.

It was a true, complete god-seat recognized by the laws of the universe.

Moreover, its tier and law-origin were so powerful they made even him—a God-King—feel an inexplicable jolt of apprehension.

"This… this is… a god-seat?!"

Tang San's pupils shrank violently. For the first time, disbelief and confusion cracked his face.

"Douluo Continent—how could it possibly—birth a new god-seat on its own?! Impossible!"

After all, at the God Realm Committee, he had single-handedly rejected the God of Destruction's proposal to expand the God Realm and add god-seats, under the banner of stability. This severed inheritance to the lower realm and choked the birth of new god-seats. For ten thousand years, no one on Douluo had been able to break limits to ascend.

By all logic, he himself had cut off the path to godhood in this world.

A new god-seat independent of the God Realm system should not—could not—exist.

Much less one so powerful, so complete it seemed able to rival his Sea God and Asura God seats.

The sight before him overturned his understanding, suppressing even the anger he felt on his daughter's behalf—plunging him into shock and doubt.

He knew Lu Jingming. Tang Wutong's awakening had been his own design; this divine-sense avatar shared that memory.

But never did he imagine that in such a short time, this mortal—supposed to be a mere piece on the board—would leap to possess strength enough to butcher the Titan Giant Ape, and would, in an absurd twist, hold a complete god-seat so powerful even he could not see its root.

This utterly exceeded his expectations—broke free of his control.

At that thought, the shock in Tang San's eyes was swiftly replaced by bone-piercing killing intent.

Setting aside the blood-debt of Er Ming and the humiliation of Xiao Qi, the mere existence of this improper, plan-wrecking force that could disrupt his millennial design meant the boy could not be allowed to live.

Douluo Continent must remain under his absolute control. No variables outside the plan, no threats could be tolerated.

Lu Jingming must die!

Lu Jingming, for his part, keenly felt the unhidden, glacial killing intent from Tang San's wisp of divine sense.

He wasn't surprised—if anything, he felt a grim confirmation.

Just as he had always regarded the lofty Sea God and Asura God as his hypothetical enemy and final obstacle, once the other sensed the potential and threat in him—enough to overturn millennia of layout—the two were destined for a fight to the death.

Their core conflict was over who would steer Douluo's future. Their positions were fundamentally opposed, irreconcilable—unless one bowed completely.

With foreknowledge, Lu Jingming knew Tang San's nature and ambition—he would never bow. Thus, Lu Jingming held no illusions of subduing him or coexisting peacefully.

His goal had always been clear.

As for Tang San, God-King though he was, at first he could not see through Lu Jingming's true trump cards or the size of his fortunes.

In his initial judgment, Lu Jingming might be another fate-favored child like Huo Yuhao—someone to tame and use.

But when Lu Jingming displayed that complete and mighty god-seat—its power-tier and law-integrity utterly beyond Tang San's estimates or control—the situation slid beyond repair in an instant.

Peace? The most laughable of luxuries now.

Let alone that the blood debt of Er Ming lay between them.

"No need for words, Sea God Tang San. Fight!"

Lu Jingming's voice was icy, thunder-god might humming in it, cutting through the stagnant air of killing intent and shock.

He had no interest in wasting words on a mere wisp of Tang San's divine sense.

In his view, even Tang San's body in the God Realm had been driven to disgrace by his designs. A mere avatar was nothing more than a whetstone—to hone his newly gained divinity and verify his god-seat's might.

"Chidori cries, mad thunder weeps; when white night breaks, the blood of war never ends!"

A battle-chant spoken—law obeyed.

In an instant, the black-red destructive thunder around him boiled as if it had life.

Myriads of fine lightning bolts rose in a chorus like ten thousand keen thunder-birds, sharp and ruinous in rhythm, making space itself hum.

He became a streak of ultimate, rending dark-red lightning—so fast it seemed to outrun time.

Where he passed, space was savaged into long black gashes that would not heal, as he charged headlong at the sea-blue god.

Across the way, Tang San's brows knit tight.

Not because of the oncoming strike, but because, just before the other's divinity fully erupted, he sensed from afar a faint, familiar aura that made his soul palpitate.

It was so like Xiao Wu!

But before he could probe, that dark-red annihilating bolt was upon him.

The thunder-law within carried an intent of all-things-to-ruin—pure, overbearing—enough that even he, in this divine-sense avatar, felt a hint of threat.

Facing a ferocity already stepping into the divine—even if born of mortal roots—Tang San, though shaken by that familiar aura, had to shelve all distractions.

He snorted coldly. The pride of a God-King kept him from taking this upstart seriously, yet tactically he did not grow careless.

"Ants dare shake the sky? Boundless Sea!"

Golden light flashed in Tang San's hand. Behind him, endless sea-tide phantoms seemed to surge and converge. Vast divinity condensed into tangible Sea God radiance, like a world-drowning wave to smother this thunder that knew not its height.

Gods clashed—exploding in an instant!

Facing Lu Jingming's thunder strike suffused with the intent of returning all to dust, a shard of cold glinted in Tang San's eyes.

He did not move. He simply lifted his right hand and pushed his palm forward.

"Boundless Ocean Aegis."

In a heartbeat, the phantom of an infinite azure sea rose before him, billowing and immense.

It wasn't worldly water, but a bastion forged of the purest Sea God power, highly compressed—a defense of absolute softness-turned-steel, the Sea God's law of yielding to dissolve all force.

Boom—!!!

The dark-red thunder of ruin smashed into the cerulean bulwark.

A ring-shaped shockwave of horrific energy erupted, tearing more black fissures into the air. Below, another layer of Mingdu's ruins was ground to dust by the spillover.

A blow that could slay ordinary divine officials was held fast by what looked like gentle sea.

Black-red lightning gnawed at blue divine power with a violent sizzle, yet could not advance an inch.

"Is that all?"

Tang San's voice drifted, flat, tinged with a God-King's lofty critique.

"You have a god-seat, yet know nothing of the finesse of divine power—crude and vulgar."

Before he could finish, Lu Jingming used the rebound to pull back.

He hovered in the air. The thunder around him did not diminish—if anything, it flowed in more obscure, profound circuits.

"Crude?"

His ionized locks lashed wildly. A flicker of mockery lit his thunder-lit eyes.

"Then behold what true technique is."

Tang San, god for countless years, still wielded Tang Sect skills and his predecessor's Golden Thirteen Halberd—no personal insight or creation.

You could say the times made this Sea God. In talent alone, many surpassed Tang San.

Whether the current era's Limit Douluo or those ten millennia hence like Yun Ming—judged purely on talent, they outshone Tang San before godhood.

Tang San was simply early—he seized the initiative and monopolized god-seat inheritance. Otherwise, how would Douluo be his to manipulate at will?

And such a man, lacking creativity and living on legacy, called his technique crude?

It amused Lu Jingming. He had only just begun to master divine power and hadn't yet fully adapted. Did Tang San really take him for a brute of raw force?

He wasted no more words. Lu Jingming's hands flashed into a complex seal at his chest. The surging thunder of destruction flocked to him madly.

The colossal black-red thunder god-ring behind him blazed—light like ten thousand suns.

"Eightfold Thunder Interdict!"

A godly edict rang through heaven and earth.

Borrowed from a lightning doctrine of another world, and for the first time driven by this realm's god-seat power, its terror was unveiled.

"First Interdict—Roaring Thunder!"

Lu Jingming opened his mouth—not with sound, but with a jet of extremely condensed, pitch-black sonic lightning, a beast's bellow unleashed in an instant.

The sonic thunder cannon ignored space itself, piercing straight through Tang San's Boundless Ocean Aegis to jar his divine sense at the root.

Tang San's avatar quivered slightly, surprise flickering in his eyes. He had not expected an attack that struck directly at divine sense.

"Second Interdict—Startling Thunder Palm!"

Before Tang San could react, Lu Jingming thrust out his right palm.

A colossal imprint, forged of billions of dancing black-red electric serpents, appeared out of thin air. Within the palm, countless thunder-hells rose and fell, bearing a tyrannical will to startle the hearts and break all evils. It slammed down upon Tang San.

Where the palm wind passed, even light bent and was devoured.

Tang San frowned, tapped a finger, and a highly condensed phantom of the Golden Trident shot forth. It collided with the Startling Thunder Palm—both vanished, erupting in searing brilliance.

"Third Interdict—Raging Thunder Darts!"

Lu Jingming drew his hands apart. The sky filled in an instant with dark-red javelins—long darts forged from hyper-compressed destructive thunder—pouring down like a storm.

Each dart carried triple properties of penetration, detonation, and annihilation—terrifying in power.

Sea God light spun around Tang San, becoming countless spiraling water-tornadoes that shredded and deflected most of the darts.

Even so, a few slipped through, bursting into glaring blooms upon his divine barrier. They didn't bite deep—but they rocked his figure a few steps.

"Fourth Interdict—Heaven-Thunder Execution!"

In the heavens, the dark-red thunderclouds, gathered by planar repulsion, now moved at Lu Jingming's command.

A thunderbolt thick as a mountain—black, red, and violet intertwined—descended like a blade of heavenly punishment, saturated with ultimate annihilation.

It fell straight for Tang San—an attack drawing upon a portion of heaven and earth's might.

Tang San finally shed his composure. He raised his hand; the true phantom of the Sea God Trident grew more solid. A pillar of brilliant gold-blue shot up to meet the Heaven-Thunder Execution.

Rrrraaaa—!!!

The blast boomed across the firmament, its light blinding creatures for hundreds of kilometers around.

"Fifth Interdict—Thunder-God Lash!"

As the afterglow lingered, a hundreds-meter-long whip of black-red lightning had already coalesced in Lu Jingming's hand.

He snapped it, rending space, angling past the Trident's guard to strike Tang San's flank.

Crack!

A crisp detonation rang.

Tang San's divine barrier shuddered violently, flickering under the blow. The whip's terrible force and the laws of thunder and death drove him sliding several steps to the side.

He wasn't truly hurt—but being driven back by one he deemed an insect was a humiliation beyond bearing for the Sea God.

His face went iron-dark; killing intent all but took form in his eyes.

"Very well… you've succeeded in angering me."

Tang San's voice was colder than ten millennia of ice.

"Behold the might of a God-King."

The phantom of the Sea God Trident in his hand burst with unprecedented radiance. Across Douluo Star, every ocean seemed to answer in thunder.