Exposing the Last King of Soul Beasts! Apep Fought Alone for Ten Thousand Years, Tore Away the Heavenly Principles' Disguise, and Made Tang San Doubt Himself

A'Dai, once the God of Death and now the God King of Light, looked as though the pain on his face was about to overflow. He understood the weight of death better than anyone, but he had never imagined that the world he inhabited itself bore the burden of so many departed souls.

The Guqin in Ye Yinzhu's hands let out a mournful cry. Its strings moved without wind, as if grieving for those vanished "Old Days."

Tang San remained silent. He could not refute Zhou Weiqing's question, because he himself had begun to harbor the same doubts. The victor became king, the loser became outlaw. They had won, so they became gods and defined the "Heavenly Principles." Was that... truly right?

Just as the oppressive atmosphere of self-denial was about to consume everyone, the Light Screen floating in the air changed once more.

Golden light flowed across it as the previous words slowly faded away. New text appeared, deeply branded into everyone's sight.

[The world should have a 'Shell of Protection.']

The abrupt, contextless sentence brought everyone's thoughts to a halt.

What did that mean?

A Shell of Protection?

Immediately afterward, more words emerged.

[Grass Dragon King, Apep.]

[He had not given up. Through endless ages, He had continued searching in the darkness for a power capable of opposing the Heavenly Principles—the Forbidden Knowledge isolated beyond the eggshell.]

After a brief silence came an even fiercer storm.

If the previous revelation had uncovered a bloody history buried beneath the surface, plunging everyone into doubts about their own "legitimacy,"

then this passage was telling them—this war was not over!

There were still beings resisting!

Beyond the order of the "Heavenly Principles" that they believed to be impregnable, there existed an entirely different system of power!

"Forbidden Knowledge..." Zhou Weiqing's laughter abruptly stopped. The usual roguishness vanished from his eyes, leaving only the sharp glint of a beast. "Separated beyond the eggshell...? Ha, interesting. Fucking interesting!"

This discovery excited him far more than being a "villain" ever could.

The rulers of the God Realm Committee—the Goddess of Goodness and the Goddess of Evil, Hai Long, Tian Hen, Ji Dong, Lie Yan, Rong Nianbing... Every deity wore an expression of utter shock.

They had always believed that the God Realm stood at the peak of this universe, that the Heavenly Principles were the ultimate laws.

Yet now, the Light Screen was telling them that beyond the world they knew, there was another "shell," and beyond that shell lay Forbidden Knowledge capable of opposing the Heavenly Principles!

Tang San's pupils suddenly contracted.

He thought of even more.

Who had created this "shell"? Was it the so-called "Heavenly Principles"? Was it meant to "protect" the stability of the world inside the shell, or to imprison everything within it and prevent them from coming into contact with that so-called "forbidden"?

Was this Grass Dragon King named Apep one of the remnants of the Old Days? After searching for endless ages, had He found it?

Questions sprang up like bamboo shoots after rain, throwing the heart of this God Realm enforcer into unprecedented turmoil.

Meanwhile, on the Douluo Continent.

Shrek Academy.

"Power capable of opposing the Heavenly Principles... Forbidden Knowledge?" Bei Bei read the words on the Light Screen one by one, the color draining completely from his face.

As the successor of Dragon God Douluo Mu En's legacy, he understood the weight behind the words "Dragon Clan" better than anyone. And now, he had seen the name of another Dragon King.

A Dragon King who had continued resisting in the darkness even after the Dragon Clan's defeat!

Xu Sanshi's Black Tortoise Shell Shield clattered to the ground, yet he did not notice at all. He muttered, "So it wasn't survival of the fittest... It never ended... It has been going on all along?"

Xiao Xiao tightly gripped the Nine Phoenixes Auspicious Flute, her knuckles turning white from the force.

Tang Ya's body trembled slightly. She recalled the days when she had been controlled by Evil Soul Masters, recalling that darkness and despair. But now, it seemed that the foundation of the entire world might have been built upon similar darkness.

He Caitou pushed up his glasses, his gaze beneath the lenses incomparably complex. He was someone focused on researching Soul Tools, someone who pursued knowledge and truth. Yet the five words "Forbidden Knowledge" sent a shiver straight through his soul.

What kind of knowledge needed to be forbidden?

On another distant continent.

Tang Wulin could feel the Golden Dragon King Bloodline within him stirring. It was an emotion mixed with grief, indignation, unwillingness, and savagery, nearly swallowing his reason whole.

At that moment, Gu Yuena beside him suddenly stiffened.

The words on the Light Screen struck her far harder than anyone else present.

"Apep..."

She unconsciously spoke the name, her voice hoarse and dry, as though it had drifted over from ancient time.

The next second, an indescribably vast silver radiance erupted from her body! Space around her violently twisted and shattered, forming terrifying black cracks. The divine might belonging to the Silver Dragon King was unleashed without reservation at that moment, causing the entire sky to lose its color.

"Gu Yue!" Tang Wulin cried out in alarm and immediately stepped forward, intending to hold her, only to be pushed away by a gentle yet irresistible force.

He saw two trails of tears slide down from the corners of Gu Yuena's eyes.

Her consciousness seemed to have crossed the barriers of time and space, seeing an endless darkness.

In that darkness, there was an Emerald Green Dragon so vast it defied imagination. His body was already battered beyond recognition, his Dragon Scales covered in withered gray traces left by the erosion of the "Heavenly Principles." Yet he still stubbornly felt his way forward through the darkness, searching for that final sliver of hope cut off beyond the "Eggshell."

They were kin of the Dragon Clan, an ancient Dragon King from the same era as the Dragon God!

He was still alive!

He was still fighting!

The resonance and sorrow rising from the depths of her bloodline instantly shattered Gu Yuena's emotional defenses. She had always believed herself to be the last king of the Dragon Clan, bearing the hope of her entire race's revival. But only now did she learn that, in a dark corner even she had never known of, there was still an elder who had fought alone for endless ages.

Clear Sky Sect.

The two Divine Beasts, Niu Tian and Titan Giant Ape, had long since fallen to their knees.

They were not kneeling to anyone. They had been crushed down by the tragedy and unyielding will that originated from the source of their bloodline, unable to straighten their backs.

"Dragon King... Apep..." For the first time, tears flowed from the Titan Giant Ape's Tiger Eyes. "So it turns out... our Soul Beast clan still has a king fighting..."

This belated truth brought them no joy, only endless sorrow and self-reproach. Their king had pressed onward alone in the darkness, while they, his Descendants, had been trapped within the cage drawn by the "Heavenly Principles," slaughtering one another and barely clinging to life over a Spirit Ring or a Spirit Bone.

This was the deepest "Original Sin"!