Touring Mingdu, an Uninvited Guest

Xiao Hongchen lay on the ground, the muscles all over his body torn on a massive scale, and felt that sometimes, perhaps the gap in physical ability between humans was no different from the gap between Soul Beasts.

Just as Soul Beasts were a collective term for nonhuman creatures possessing Soul Power, they could be further divided into countless categories, with the strong and weak differing by tens of millions of times. Xiao Hongchen felt that Chen Ming ought to be some special subspecies beneath the broader category of humans.

Though it was rather presumptuous, Xiao Hongchen was actually not wrong.

After all, the Dragon Elephant Sect had genuinely bred for more than ten thousand years and hundreds of generations under the stimulation of Soul Power and Martial Souls.

Over that time, individuals without Soul Power had long since been weeded out. Those who were weak, those who could fight but not well enough, and those whose innate talent was insufficient and whose growth was too slow had all been eliminated long ago.

After wandering for thousands of years and fighting for thousands more, the Dragon Elephant Sect's base attributes had already been raised to an extremely high level. Otherwise, every member would not possess Heavenly Godly Strength when placed outside, nor would nearly every child have Innate Soul Power at rank seven.

In a sense, if one insisted on saying so, the Dragon Elephant Sect could indeed be categorized as "subhumans." But if that was the standard, then there would be far too many subhumans.

The Dragon Elephant Sect's specialization was not an isolated case, but something quite widespread. The sect merely stood out more because of its extreme physical specialization and its inheritance from generation to generation.

As the average strength of Soul Masters rose, with each generation of bloodlines undergoing continual optimization and selection, the average talent and foundational qualities of Soul Masters in this era were indeed a level above the general standard of Ten Thousand Years Ago.

Those long-inherited families, especially families like the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect that had existed Ten Thousand Years Ago, once flourished, and continued on until now, also had a higher average level of Innate Soul Power than normal.

Though humanity's upper limit remained unchanged, many people's average attributes and lower limits had risen considerably.

It might sound somewhat strange, but through this generation-by-generation elimination, even though the Douluo World had suffered planar imbalance and begun losing its origin due to the battle of the Three Gods since Douluo Dalu 1—

By the time Douluo Dalu 3 collided with the Abyss Plane, although the Douluo World's Soul Beasts had continually weakened with time, humanity's talents had indeed grown stronger.

Perhaps only when Soul Master technology achieved a breakthrough on a new level would the average gap between Soul Masters gradually shrink.

After training like this for two days, Xiao Hongchen had become much more composed. The arrogant air of looking down on everyone from two days ago could no longer be seen.

During his spare time, he no longer mindlessly improved himself by absorbing the Soul Power within metals and consuming Pills. Instead, he had rarely begun calmly refining himself. Although the change had only lasted a short time and its effects were not yet obvious.

Xiao Hongchen's newly steady attitude alone moved Jing Hongchen to tears. At the same time, his gaze toward Meng Hongchen gained a hint of resolve.

In his mind, even though Meng Hongchen was his granddaughter and could not undergo the same life-and-death brutal training as his grandson, perhaps learning a little from it and improving her physical conditioning could make Meng even more outstanding.

Jing Hongchen subtly probed Meng Hongchen's attitude. When she realized that she too might be trained to the brink of death like that, Meng Hongchen was instantly terrified.

She was happy to stand beside the Arena and watch her brother get beaten up, watch him train until he was half-dead.

But if she were made to join them, wearing only one or two scraps of cloth as she began tempering her body like that...

Meng Hongchen felt that she would definitely grow taller than her grandfather when she grew up. But at the same time, her build would probably surpass the bounds of a normal woman.

To keep herself from being dragged in to die with them, Meng Hongchen racked her brains and came up with a solution.

After relentlessly pestering him, Meng Hongchen finally got Jing Hongchen to relent somewhat and grant Chen Ming and Xiao Hongchen a holiday from training, allowing them to properly enjoy the might of the Sun Moon Empire in Mingdu.

The liberated Xiao Hongchen thanked his sister Meng Hongchen, completely unaware that she was actually harboring an "evil" little scheme.

How could my brother be this determined? He must just be enthusiastic for three minutes. Once the excitement fades, he won't keep this up. I'll lure him out and distract him. When he goes back later, he won't be able to adapt anymore.

Then, when Grandpa sees that Xiao isn't performing as well as before, he'll definitely get angry and put most of his attention on Xiao, watching him even more strictly. That way, he'll pay less attention to me...

Mm, at worst, I'll just work a little harder at cultivation and put more effort into Soul Tools.

Under such circumstances, Xiao Hongchen played host, taking his sister Meng Hongchen and Chen Ming around Mingdu, introducing the sights and everything else in Mingdu to Chen Ming, who had come from the "countryside."

"This is the Sun Moon Empire's Royal Auction House. Let me tell you, this place is... Usually, it's... Meng and I are... And I've been here..."

"I'll bring you here next time an auction starts."

"See that restaurant over there? Its ancestors were once imperial chefs of the Imperial Family and powerful Food System Soul Masters. But an ancestor of that branch suffered a malignant Martial Soul mutation and lost all Soul Power, so they came out here..."

"Although that branch ultimately still had no Soul Power, their cooking was recognized as surpassing the branch still serving as imperial chefs within the Imperial Family. It is one of the finest restaurants in all of Mingdu."

"And that street over there, listen to me..."

Just as Xiao Hongchen chattered away in his proud voice, explaining everything he knew, a disturbance arose from the street in the distance.

A large number of vendors hurriedly packed up their stalls. Many panicked people even abandoned their stalls where they stood and fled. The women on the street began scattering in all directions, especially those fair-skinned and beautiful women, who fled the scene without any regard for their appearance as if Soul Beasts were chasing them.

Looking toward the source of the commotion, they saw a man dressed in luxurious robes, with dark skin, thick lips, a bloated figure, and dirty dreadlocks atop his head. He looked as though he had stepped straight out of an advertisement poster for the most popular commodity of the eighteenth century. He held his head high with pride as he walked toward them.

The man, whose skin alone made it clear that he held no low position within the Sun Moon Empire, stared at them without concealment. His burning gaze carried intense aggression.

The heated stare even interrupted their thoughts about what was happening. They all turned their eyes toward the dark-skinned, thick-lipped man in luxurious robes, frowning.

"Xiao, are there people in Mingdu who harass decent women?"

"I've heard there are, but I've never seen it. Surely not, though. With the clothes we're wearing..." Hearing Chen Ming's words, Xiao Hongchen answered with a lack of confidence. That burning gaze made him feel intensely uncomfortable all over.

Just as Xiao Hongchen wondered whether that thing was here to harass decent women or was targeting him and Chen Ming, two decent men, Meng Hongchen spoke hesitantly.

"Xiao, I think I've seen this person before. He was the Prince who came to our house to see Grandpa that day..."