The first rays of morning sunlight pierced through the branches and leaves of the Star Dou Great Forest, casting mottled shadows across the ground. The air was filled with the damp scent of grass and trees, and clear birdsong drifted from afar. It should have been a peaceful, tranquil moment, yet Wang Dong'er felt nothing but turmoil in her heart.
She lowered her head, her fingers unconsciously twisting at the mud stains on her pale blue skirt. Lu Jing's question still echoed in her ears. Follow him? Go face the world from ten thousand years ago that existed only in history books?
"I'm only doing this because you spoke up for me just now."
Lu Jing's voice broke the silence. His tone was calm, yet carried a trace of sincerity that was hard to detect. "If it were anyone else, I couldn't be bothered. If you want to stay here, I won't force you."
Wang Dong'er suddenly looked up. Shock still lingered in her pale blue eyes. "We... really came to ten thousand years ago?"
Even now, she still felt as though it were some absurd dream. One moment, she had been fighting Lu Jing and Beibei; the next, she had run into Qian Daoliu and Yu Yuanzhen, figures recorded in the history books. She had even watched Beibei die before her eyes... None of it was within her understanding.
Leaning against an ancient tree, Lu Jing looked up at the sunlight filtering through gaps in the leaves and nodded. "Unless Qian Daoliu and Yu Yuanzhen had nothing better to do than put on an act, then... it should be real."
He paused, then suddenly asked, "Aren't you curious? What was Spirit Hall, the force described in history books as ambitious and ruthless, really like? Was the way they did things truly as cold-blooded and merciless as the records claimed?"
Wang Dong'er froze.
Yes, she was curious.
As a new student of Shrek Academy and the young sect master of the Clear Sky Sect, she had grown up learning that Spirit Hall was synonymous with "evil." Yet Qian Daoliu's words and actions had overturned everything she thought she knew—this Limit Douluo, said to be cold and bloodthirsty, had not judged good and evil based solely on martial souls. He had even spared Lu Jing because of a single sentence from his granddaughter.
Was such a man truly the Great Enshrined from the history books, the one who would stop at nothing for power?
"Besides,"
Lu Jing added, "we have nowhere else to go except with them. Do you know how to get back?"
Wang Dong'er fell silent. She did not know. The temporal rift had appeared by accident in the first place, and the way back was even more uncertain.
After thinking for a moment, she took a deep breath as if making up her mind, then looked up at Lu Jing. "I'll go with you."
At the very least, she had to find out what was really going on.
Lu Jing raised an eyebrow but said no more. He turned and headed toward the edge of the forest. Wang Dong'er hesitated briefly before quickly following him, and the two soon vanished into the dense forest beneath the morning light.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the forest.
Yu Tianheng clutched his grandfather's robe, his little face full of confusion. Yu Yuanzhen had shielded him behind his back earlier. Though he had not seen the fight clearly, he had felt that suffocating pressure, as well as fragments of Lu Jing and the others' conversation afterward.
"Grandfather, those people just now... what exactly was going on?"
He tilted up his little face and asked.
Yu Yuanzhen held his grandson's hand, his brows drawn tight. He glanced back in the direction Lu Jing had left, his expression complicated. "Don't ask."
He could sense that beneath what seemed like a chance encounter lay a secret capable of shaking the entire Douluo Continent. Several people of unknown origin, the words "Spirit Hall has been destroyed," and the grave expression that had flashed across Qian Daoliu's face... It was all like a massive stone dropped into his Heart Lake, stirring wave after wave of ripples.
"We won't concern ourselves with that. Once we find a suitable Soul Ring for you, we'll leave."
Yu Yuanzhen patted his grandson's head, his tone turning heavy. "But one thing is certain: the Douluo Continent... is afraid to change."
The child named Lu Jing was hiding secrets too astonishing to comprehend. The destruction of Spirit Hall, and those names even Qian Daoliu did not know... All of it might become the fulcrum that pried history off its course.
Yu Tianheng nodded, half understanding and half confused. Though curious, he sensibly did not ask any more questions. He merely sighed like a little adult and followed his grandfather deeper into the forest.
Elsewhere, in a clearing among the trees, Qian Daoliu stood with his hands behind his back, watching the eastern sky gradually brighten. Qian Renxue stood beside him, her golden eyes full of worry.
"Grandfather, are they... really people from ten thousand years in the future?" she asked softly, her voice carrying a faint tremble she could not conceal.
In the end, she had actually become a god? But if she had become one, why had Spirit Hall still lost?
Qian Daoliu slowly nodded. His fingers unconsciously rubbed the cuff of his gray robe, and his brows remained tightly furrowed. "Judging from their reactions, it should be true. Especially that youngest child. The shock he showed when he mentioned you and me did not seem feigned."
What he could not understand most was this: if Qian Renxue had ultimately inherited the Angel God, then how could Spirit Hall have lost with the power of a god? Could it be... that other gods had appeared over the ten thousand years?
Gods of the Douluo Continent were scarce to begin with, and the Angel God was an apex deity whose inheritance had endured for ten thousand years. If Qian Renxue had become a god, Spirit Hall had no reason to lose to two empires. Unless... the other side had gods supporting them as well.
"What should we do?" Qian Renxue asked, her small hand tightly gripping the corner of her clothes. The future ended with Spirit Hall's destruction and her own unknown fate. It left her inexplicably uneasy.
Qian Daoliu was just about to answer when, from the corner of his eye, he spotted two figures approaching. They were Lu Jing and Wang Dong'er.
He immediately cut himself off. His golden eyes shifted to the two of them, and his expression returned to its previous calm, as though his deep thoughts from moments ago had never existed.
Lu Jing did not beat around the bush. He led Wang Dong'er before them and got straight to the point. "We're here. Ask whatever you want to know."
He could tell that Qian Daoliu had deliberately avoided Yu Yuanzhen. Clearly, he did not want too many people learning about the future. That cautious attitude did match the shrewd image described in the history books.
Wang Dong'er stood half a step behind Lu Jing with her head lowered, doing her best to make herself inconspicuous. Yet she could not stop herself from secretly studying Qian Renxue—the future Angel God looked to be around her own age now. Her golden hair glowed softly beneath the morning light, with none of the majesty of a legendary god. Instead, she carried the innocence of a young girl.
Qian Daoliu's gaze swept across Wang Dong'er. Seeing that her aura was pure and that her martial soul seemed to be some sort of bird, he did not pay her much attention. He turned to stare directly at Lu Jing, his tone grave. "First tell me: how exactly was Spirit Hall destroyed?"
The question was like a stone cast into a placid lake, instantly making the air around them turn heavy.
Lu Jing met Qian Daoliu's gaze without retreating in the slightest. He knew that from the moment he chose to reveal the truth, he was destined to stir up the winds and clouds of ten thousand years ago.
"Because of one person." Lu Jing spoke slowly, uttering the name mentioned time and again in the history books. "Tang San."
Qian Daoliu and Qian Renxue frowned at the same time—this name again.
"Who is he?" Qian Daoliu pressed, a sharp glint flashing through his golden eyes. Anyone capable of destroying Spirit Hall even when it possessed a god was certainly no ordinary person.
Before you continue