Huo Qiqiang

Douluo Continent, Extreme North, Eternal Forbidden Land, Frozen Cave.

The ice quietly melted. A man who had been sealed in ice for tens of thousands of years slowly opened his eyes. He stretched, drew a deep breath of icy mist, and smiled for the first time in ages.

"Finally, I'm back on Douluo Continent. Experiencing this world firsthand might mean more than watching it from the Divine Realm," he said softly.

"Yuhao, you're back." The Snow Empress, who had kept watch over the Eternal Frozen Cave, sounded relieved.

Huo Yuhao nodded. "This body is called Huo Qiqiang. It's the identity I'll use on Douluo Continent from now on."

"How has the resource gathering gone over the years, Snow Empress?" Huo Yuhao asked.

"Everything has been stockpiled in the Eternal Forbidden Land, ready whenever you need it," she replied.

Huo Yuhao nodded and inspected the storerooms one by one. There were precious ingredients for making Profound Water Pills and Soul Ascension Pills, Whale Rubber for strengthening the body, and valuable materials for crafting Soul Tools. The Eternal Forbidden Land held enough resources to build several powers on the scale of the Clear Sky Sect.

Huo Yuhao had been born ten thousand years later and had learned of the continent's next ten thousand years of development in the Divine Realm. Any one of the techniques he possessed—even the cultivation method he had developed from the Mysterious Heaven Skill—could bring sweeping change to this era. Soul Tools alone would be enough to plunge Tang San, who aspired to establish the Tang Sect and restore its glory, into despair.

Yet Huo Yuhao had made few changes to this era. When Tang San returned, he wanted him to find it just as he remembered: familiar, warm, and welcoming. Then, at the crucial moment, Huo Yuhao would bring out these treasures.

Just as the treasures had drawn Huo Qiqiang's attention, a rough voice boomed from the direction of the Divine Temple. "Who dares trespass in the Eternal Forbidden Land?"

The voice came with a surge of Soul Power. As its owner was about to reach Huo Qiqiang, the Snow Empress stepped forward and raised a pale hand, blocking the massive hammer of Soul Power hurtling toward him.

"How dare you! Stand down!" the Snow Empress barked, driving the attacker back.

Huo Qiqiang got a clear look at him. He was a muscular giant with bronze skin and hair that stood up like steel needles. He held a huge hammer, and nine Soul Rings circled him: eight black and one red.

His name was Tang Chen. He was now the Great Enshrined of Eternal God, charged with guarding the Eternal Forbidden Land.

At that moment, he stared at the Snow Empress in alarm and confusion.

"Tang Chen, do you know whom you just attacked?" the Snow Empress demanded.

"I didn't reveal anything that would identify me. I can hardly blame the Great Enshrined for mistaking me for an intruder." Huo Yuhao gave Tang Chen an amused look. "If anything, it shows how devoted our Great Enshrined is to the Eternal Forbidden Land. Let him go."

Seeing that Huo Qiqiang had no intention of punishing Tang Chen, the Snow Empress let the matter drop. "You heard him. Go back and guard the core of the Eternal Tower."

"Yes." Tang Chen bowed respectfully to the Snow Empress. He cast Huo Qiqiang one last puzzled glance, then withdrew.

"Next, I plan to travel openly across the continent." Huo Qiqiang snapped his fingers. His Soul Power soared to the very limit beneath godhood, and nine blood-red God-Bestowed Spirit Rings circled his body. "Do you think this is too conspicuous?"

"Do you want the truth?" the Snow Empress asked.

"Of course," Huo Qiqiang said.

"Yes," the Snow Empress said bluntly.

"Fair enough. Better not draw too much attention." Huo Qiqiang snapped his fingers again. His imposing aura collapsed, his strength dropping from a Level 99 Limit Douluo to a Level 97 Super Douluo. His Soul Rings changed as well, becoming yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, red, red, and red.

"That should do it," Huo Yuhao said. "Continue the continent-wide resource collection plan. I'll leave the Eternal Forbidden Land in your care."

The Snow Empress nodded. "As you command."

After bidding the Snow Empress farewell, Huo Yuhao left the Extreme North and began traveling across the Douluo Continent of this era. He could clearly feel how different it was from the continent ten thousand years later.

Comparing the two eras, Huo Yuhao would have called this one backward but civilized, and the later one advanced but savage.

This was still a primitive age. Without a tradition of Soul Tools, it lagged far behind the Douluo Continent of ten thousand years later. Yet its social order was relatively stable. The later era was a corrupt mess.

Spirit Hall was cast as the villain of Douluo's first era, but its existence did not harm commoners. It was the nobles who saw it as an enemy. The villains of the second era were the Holy Spirit Cult, a group of outright Evil Spirit Masters. They left devastation wherever they went, growing stronger through slaughter and bloodshed.

It was not that Evil Spirit Masters did not exist in the first era. They simply had to hide in the shadows. In the second era, Huo Yuhao had seen firsthand how thoroughly the Angel Martial Soul suppressed them. On reflection, while each successive Pope was an Angel, Evil Spirit Masters had no room to operate. They flocked to the City of Slaughter in search of freedom.

But given a choice, would those criminals have preferred to walk openly across Douluo Continent, or accept the freedom of being confined within the City of Slaughter?

That era soon came to an end. Tang San destroyed the City of Slaughter on the grounds that he was eliminating a den of evil. But destroying a city was easy. Could the evil in people's hearts be rooted out so easily? No.

After Spirit Hall's destruction, not one of the powers Tang San left behind—the Clear Sky Sect, Shrek, or the Tang Sect—could replace it as a force capable of decisively suppressing Evil Spirit Masters.

What people saw of Douluo's second era was noble sons and daughters living their school lives and saving the world. What they did not see were the remote villages and towns massacred by Evil Spirit Masters. Having lived through that era, Huo Yuhao knew that the truth of the Peerless Tang Sect era went far deeper than the novels' surface-level portrayal.

Martial Soul awakenings differed between the two eras, too. Setting aside Spirit Hall's Angel Inheritance and Bibi Dong's later founding of a nation, Spirit Hall was more like a public service than a religion. It awakened Martial Souls for free. Even those with Talent who did not want to join were not forced to, and they could still collect a monthly stipend. In the second era, that would have been unimaginable.

People still performed Martial Soul awakenings in the second era, but things were different from Spirit Hall's day. The awakenings were controlled by nobles and Sects, who charged the people on their lands for the service. This gave them access to the most basic records on newly awakened Soul Masters: who had Talent, and who was willing to serve them. Talented Soul Masters who pledged themselves to a noble family received training. As for those who refused, the family had ways to change their minds—or ruin their prospects, squander their Talent, and leave them with nothing to show for their lives.

The recommendation-letter system was a class barrier designed by the nobles. Only those with a letter could enroll, allowing nobles and schools to monopolize educational resources. Schools made admission easy for the nobles, while talented Soul Masters willing to pledge loyalty received letters to attend advanced Soul Master Academies such as Shrek Academy. Once admitted through such a letter, a Soul Master was bound to that power for life—just as Huo Yuhao had been bound to the Tang Sect when he enrolled through it.