How Could He Be a Ruler?

"Perhaps that man once believed he could exploit the Evil Soul Masters backing the Fourth Prince's maternal family. So, with their help, he overthrew the Previous Emperor."

"Do you remember? Only a year after ascending the throne, before his position had even fully stabilized, he urgently ordered the Sun Moon Empire's armies to launch an attack on Douluo Continent."

"The two sides fought along the border for years, suffering devastating casualties, yet not an inch of territory changed hands. All the world saw was a meaningless war of attrition, with blood flowing without end."

"Back then, everyone thought it was a way to purge the opposition and secure his authority. But looking at it now, that bloody war may have been the first gift the current ruler promised those Evil Soul Masters."

"Blood, life, resentment, souls—those are all great nourishment to Evil Soul Masters. What a pity... what a pity for those loyal soldiers..."

"Whether they were from Douluo or Sun Moon, none of them should have ended up with their souls falling into the hands of Evil Soul Masters after death, enduring endless torment."

"Can someone like that be called a ruler?"

Chen Li hated Shrek Academy because Shrek and the Dragon Elephant Sect had a personal grudge. The hatred between them ran as deep as the sea.

Chen Li hated Evil Soul Masters because any normal person hated Evil Soul Masters. It was not merely morality instilled through education, but an instinct inherent to all living beings.

If someone from Shrek stood together with an Evil Soul Master... no, if they really stood together, Chen Li would kill them both.

More accurately, if a Shrek Soul Master happened to pass by, Chen Li would definitely strike and kill them.

But if Chen Li found that person fighting an Evil Soul Master, he would absolutely kill the Evil Soul Master first, then consider whether to kill the Shrek Soul Master.

"Brother Chen, watch your words." Jing Hongchen, usually as crafty as an old fox, found his legs trembling slightly at this moment.

The current emperor was a puppet of Evil Soul Masters...

No, even if he was merely using Evil Soul Masters, trading the lives of Sun Moon Empire citizens for their power, saying such things aloud could still cause internal chaos—or even a split within the Sun Moon Empire.

The people of Douluo Continent and those of the Four Great Empires across the two continents might differ in many of their views, but one thing was undoubtedly the same: their fear and loathing of Evil Soul Masters.

People had different tastes, and their inherited customs and traditions could differ as well.

But no matter what environment one grew up in, or what sort of person one became, it could not change the fact that humans were creatures capable of pain, fear, death, and terror.

Nor was it limited to humans. Even Soul Beasts with intelligence included, nearly all intelligent life feared and despised Evil Soul Masters who toyed with life and souls, driven by instinct.

His hierarchy of contempt was obvious: stray dogs by the roadside > Shrek Soul Masters > Evil Soul Masters.

If there happened to be an Evil Soul Master from Shrek Academy, they would naturally be at the very bottom of that hierarchy.

"Do you think anyone can still stay out of this now? Fine, perhaps some can, but you clearly can't." Chen Li pointed at the abnormal Qian Hongchen, and Jing Hongchen fell silent.

"Who knows how many people in all of Mingdu have already been controlled? Who knows whether old acquaintances who appear no different from before have secretly become Evil Soul Masters?"

"Evil Soul Masters are like cockroaches. When you see one, it means there are already countless more lurking in corners and shadows. That cockroach in the sunlight was only exposed by chance because things had become too crowded."

"And now, not only has our emperor become the shadow that conceals those cockroaches, he may even have become the nest in which they dwell."

"Blood Medicine is an Evil Soul Master method. But Blood Medicine is meant for ordinary Soul Masters, not Evil Soul Masters."

"Because creating Blood Medicine requires immense quantities of blood and life as materials for a ritual. Compared to the medicinal power of a completed Blood Medicine, the resources and effort consumed during its refinement are actually worth more to Evil Soul Masters than the Blood Medicine itself."

"And the secret method for refining Blood Medicine has a success rate. Once a batch is ruined, not only are the losses enormous, but ordinary Soul Masters can recognize it at a glance, and it loses its intended effect."

"Even Evil Soul Masters suffer certain side effects when consuming Blood Medicine because the auras within it are too impure and mixed."

"Ordinary Evil Soul Masters simply do not possess the means to refine such an evil substance as Blood Medicine. Even if they did, they could not afford the cost or possess the ability to create genuine Blood Medicine."

"Behind every perfect Blood Medicine lies even more conspiracy. The appearance of Blood Medicine in large quantities can mean only one thing: behind it stands an organized, disciplined, and planned Evil Soul Master organization."

"For those who consume Blood Medicine, being led by it into becoming Evil Soul Masters is already the best possible outcome."

"At least after becoming Evil Soul Masters, the evil nature within the Blood Medicine would be controlled by the Soul Masters and become part of their own power."

"If the medicinal power of the Blood Medicine is not controlled, or is not even sensed by the Soul Master, then the problem is often far more serious."

"A Soul Master's body is a small world of its own. After Titled Douluo condense a Soul Core, they can establish an internal cycle and directly distort space to draw in Soul Power. External forces find it difficult to invade them; even techniques such as curses are greatly weakened as a result."

"But the medicinal power of Blood Medicine is itself a special foreign substance. If the evil nature hidden within that power is not absorbed and instead sinks into the body, it is equivalent to driving a one-way wedge into the body."

"Through that wedge, Evil Soul Masters can directly bypass the Soul Master's own resistance and cast all manner of special evil arts upon anyone who has used Blood Medicine."

"Whether curses, life-force extraction, or evil arts that twist the mind, they can all produce their most direct and genuine effects through that wedge. It is said that unless an expert at the level of a Peerless Douluo intervenes, it is difficult to erase that connection."

"The current one has clearly fallen out with the Evil Soul Masters and was stabbed in the back through the wedge in the Blood Medicine."

Chen Li spoke for a long while, revealing all that he had deduced.

After a long silence, Jing Hongchen sighed. There was some confusion in the way he looked at Chen Li.

"I understand everything you said, Brother Chen. But how do you know so much about the evil arts of Evil Soul Masters?"

Jing Hongchen could not be blamed for his suspicion. Chen Li's description of Blood Medicine's characteristics and effects was simply too detailed. He even knew things ordinary Soul Masters should never have encountered, such as Blood Medicine's low utilization rate and low success rate for Evil Soul Masters.

Jing Hongchen was now even wondering whether Chen Li possessed the technique for refining Blood Medicine.

"When I was very young, in the year I had just awakened my Martial Soul, the Sun Moon Empire had a conflict with the Heaven Dou Empire. Our Dragon Elephant Sect's Dragon Elephant Soul Engineer Regiment also participated in the battle and lost dozens of men."

"You know that such losses were enormous for our Dragon Elephant Sect. So the old Sect Master personally led people to retrieve the bodies, intending to bury our brothers within the sect."

"But after arriving, we found that the numbers did not match. Someone had stolen the bodies of several powerful experts. Further investigation revealed traces of blood essence having been extracted from the remaining corpses. After specialists searched the area, they found traces of Evil Soul Masters, just as expected."

"The old Sect Master led people in pursuit for a month. Outside the Demonic Forest, they killed an Evil Soul Master Soul Douluo with the surname Zhongli. Among his belongings, they found many things related to Evil Soul Masters, greatly increasing our Dragon Elephant Sect's understanding of them."

Chen Li's words did not frighten Jing Hongchen, but they truly startled Chen Ming.

The Demonic Forest—what kind of place was that?

The world believed its only threat was the Evil Emperor, but Chen Ming knew that it was also a nest of Evil Soul Masters. The surname Zhongli, moreover, was the inherited surname of the lineage belonging to the Holy Spirit Cult's Cult Master.

The current Cult Master, Zhongli Wu; the previous Holy Spirit Cult Master, Old Ghost Zhongli, as Ye Xishui called him; and the three brothers Zhongli Tian, Zhongli Di, and Zhongli Ren, who had appeared in the Original Work—all of them were members of the Evil Soul Master family known as the Zhongli Family.