[I was naturally happy about that child's accomplishments. But without question, I could never acknowledge him. After all, I was the Holy Spirit Cult's leader, the Evil Soul Master King, while he was the dean of Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Department. We were natural enemies!]
[So be it. In any case, no one in this world besides me knew that Shao Zhe's true identity was as a descendant of Xiao Yao and me. It was best for this secret to remain hidden forever.]
Perhaps because Yan Shaozhe was a descendant of herself and Long Xiaoyao, Ye Xishui had retained a sliver of humanity. She had not laid a hand on him and had kept this secret all along.
In the original story, the first to know were Long Xiaoyao and the two present, Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong.
But things were different now. The Heavenly Curtain's monologue had unearthed this earth-shattering secret.
In a sense, the shock brought by this information far surpassed the tangled love and hatred between Mu En, Long Xiaoyao, and Ye Xishui.
After all, the three of them were relics of a bygone era. Most people no longer even knew they existed.
But Yan Shaozhe was different. Though he was already a hundred years old, he was still young for a Titled Douluo.
Moreover, he was the dean of Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Department and remained active in the world of Soul Masters.
There were simply far too many people who knew Yan Shaozhe!
And compared to the grave topic of the Holy Spirit Cult's true nature being exposed and the major powers beginning to devise countermeasures, such a shocking piece of gossip naturally attracted far more discussion among ordinary people.
[Time flew by. In the blink of an eye, I stepped down as leader of the Holy Spirit Cult and handed the position to my child with Old Ghost Zhongli—Zhong Liwu.]
[That child's martial soul, the Death God Demon Puppet, had mutated from my Blood Soul Demon Puppet. He also possessed great fortune, and might one day advance to Limit Douluo. Thus, I was quite at ease with him.]
[After stepping down, I became the Holy Spirit Cult's Supreme Leader, overseeing the entire organization!]
[The Holy Spirit Cult's development far exceeded my expectations. It had become incomparably stronger than when Old Ghost Zhongli controlled the Holy Spirit Cult.
[Yet even so, I and the Holy Spirit Cult remained dissatisfied with the current state of affairs.]
[Evil Soul Masters cultivated differently from ordinary Soul Masters. Their methods were exceptionally vile and cruel, requiring vast numbers of corpses, souls, terror, fear, and many other negative conditions as the "nourishment" needed for cultivation.
But in this relatively peaceful and stable era, it was nearly impossible to create fear through large-scale massacres, slaughtering cities, or destroying nations.]
[After all, the slightest major move risked discovery by other powers. When that happened, we would inevitably face a joint extermination by every force in the world.]
[Though the Holy Spirit Cult was powerful, it was fundamentally impossible for one cult to oppose all the powers across the continent. Thus, even after developing to this point, the Holy Spirit Cult still had to proceed with utmost caution and could not expose itself.]
[To change the Holy Spirit Cult's current situation, we had to ally with a powerful nation and use its strength and protection to gain legitimate status. Only then could the Holy Spirit Cult act openly, without having to hide in the shadows as before.]
[But whether it was the original Douluo Three Kingdoms or the Sun Moon Empire, they all ultimately regarded us Evil Soul Masters as venomous serpents and beasts, determined to exterminate us by every possible means.]
[So at the time, I thought: what did it matter even if the Holy Spirit Cult grew stronger? The status quo could not be changed. But what I had not expected was that this matter truly took a turn for the better:
The Sun Moon Empire's Crown Prince, Xu Tianran, was ambitious and capable. But his luck was abysmal. Not long after reaching adulthood, he was ambushed by imperial brothers plotting to seize the throne. On the day of the palace coup, he was severely wounded, and both his legs were permanently crippled.
Despite enduring the pain, he used thunderous methods to suppress all doubts. After successfully uncovering the true culprit behind the plot against him, he had the man slowly executed in his bedchamber.
Although no one in the Sun Moon Empire's court dared openly question Xu Tianran's disability afterward, and he remained first in line to the Sun Moon Empire's throne, his physical disability left him deeply insecure yet exceedingly arrogant. He began to exploit every force available to him.]
[It was then that I saw the possibility for the Holy Spirit Cult to advance even further!]
[And the result was indeed as I expected. When our Holy Spirit Cult revealed its formidable strength during our contact with Xu Tianran, even though we were an Evil Soul Master organization, he was still tempted and chose to cooperate with us.]
The Holy Spirit Cult actually cooperated with the Sun Moon Empire?!
Looking at the information on the Heavenly Curtain, Xuan Zi, who had just arrived in the Dou Ling Empire, felt his head swell with worry.
The Sun Moon Empire was absolutely an extraordinarily troublesome nation. It lacked historical foundations and top-tier experts, and its Soul Masters as a whole were not particularly strong.
But its highly advanced and immensely powerful Soul Tool Technology allowed it to wield far greater strength in war.
Several thousand years ago, when the Sun Moon Continent joined with the Douluo Continent, the Sun Moon Empire had relied on Soul Tool Technology to completely alter the continent's balance of power.
The Heaven Dou Empire had even split into the Heaven Dou Empire and the Dou Ling Empire at that time.
If not for Shrek Academy's dean of that era stepping forward, leading the academy to unite the powers of the original Douluo Continent and defeat the Sun Moon Empire,
then the Sun Moon Empire might have unified the entire continent several thousand years ago.
Now, several thousand years had passed, and Soul Tools had developed further still.
In terms of Soul Tool Technology, the Sun Moon Empire had undoubtedly become even more powerful.
If the Sun Moon Empire were now allowed to use the Holy Spirit Cult to make up for its shortage of high-level Soul Master combat power, that would truly be a terrible situation.
When the Heavenly Curtain previously showed a glimpse of the future, there were also scenes of an incomparably brutal war! Could it be...
Suddenly, Xuan Zi thought of something else, and his eyes widened.
An ambitious Crown Prince, supported by the Holy Spirit Cult—once he ascended the throne, combined with the scenes of war that had previously appeared in the Heavenly Curtain,
anyone who was not an idiot could basically understand the connection.
At that moment, the imperial families of the original Douluo Three Kingdoms began to panic.
After all, none of them wanted to face an invasion launched by the Sun Moon Empire.
Against the powerful Sun Moon Empire, their fate would likely be even more tragic than it had been several thousand years ago.
Within the Star Luo Imperial Palace, Emperor Xu Jiawei's expression was extremely grim.
He ordered a trusted minister, "Convey my decree: order the Western Group Army under White Tiger Duke Dai Hao to recruit new soldiers and fully expand a second regular army corps!"
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