The battle in the Heavenly Screen between Huo Yuhao and the Fallen Mages led by Kaecilius had been absolutely spectacular. The earth-shattering set pieces and dazzling magical duels had been too much to take in all at once.
In particular, when Huo Yuhao and Kaecilius faced off directly, the power they displayed had completely reshaped the audience's understanding of the destructive force of the Mage Power System!
"Destroying heaven and earth" was simply a statement of fact about their battle, not an exaggeration.
But while the audience had feasted their eyes, they had also paid close attention to the exchange between Huo Yuhao and Kaecilius.
Especially when Huo Yuhao asked why Kaecilius hadn't chosen to Become God and live forever, Kaecilius's answer had shattered countless people's faith.
Gods weren't immortal. They could live for only ten thousand years, and they were forbidden from leaving the Divine Realm at will.
The Divine Realm's resources were desperately scarce, utterly unlike the wonderful place people had imagined. Things were so bad that even a single meal was nearly an unattainable luxury for the gods, and they had to fight and struggle just to get a little clean water!
Was this really the Divine Realm everyone on the continent longed for?
Earlier, when the Heavenly Screen showed Huo Yuhao meeting the Guardian Mages for the first time in the Extreme North, they'd looked down on the gods and called them prisoners who lacked freedom. It turned out that hadn't been an exaggeration!
At that moment, even many criminals imprisoned for their crimes or other reasons felt their lives were better than those of the so-called God Realm Gods. At least they had food to eat and water to drink.
Many people's Worldviews had been completely overturned!
The audience now understood why Kaecilius would rather embrace the Dark Dimension and become something neither human nor ghost than attempt to Ascend to Godhood and gain ten thousand years of life in the Divine Realm.
Meanwhile, the great powers that had gods backing them, along with the many Prodigies and strong warriors who had spent their lives striving to become gods, were stunned.
So their Ancestors had spent ten thousand years living miserable lives in the Divine Realm?
In the Nine Treasure Glazed Sect, the Current Sect Master and several elders sat together, exchanging bewildered looks. After a moment of silence, one of them suggested, "Why don't we... find a way to burn some food for Ancestor Ning Rongrong?"
"What about drinks?"
"We can't burn drinks... Besides, burning offerings is for people who've passed on. Our Ancestor did ascend, but not in the usual way. She probably wouldn't receive them..."
"Sigh. We descendants used to occasionally blame our Ancestor for neglecting us. Now it seems we were the ones at fault. She had nothing to eat or drink in the Divine Realm—no wonder she couldn't look after us..."
"Why are you calling her Old Man? You're making our Ancestor sound old. Didn't the Heavenly Screen say that a day in the Divine Realm was a year in the Mortal World? By that reckoning, Ancestor Ning Rongrong probably isn't even as old as your daughter. Aren't you afraid she'll be upset if she hears you?"
At the Star Luo Empire Border, Dai Hao gazed at the Heavenly Screen, the corners of his mouth twitching.
Good grief. Ancestor Dai Mubai had spent ten thousand years living in hardship in the Divine Realm? No wonder he'd treated the Dai Family in the lower world with such indifference.
Since Dai Mubai hadn't left behind any descendants before ascending, the White Tiger Duke Mansion's line actually descended from Dai Weisi.
And the Dai Family's tradition from ten thousand years ago had been that brothers felt no affection for one another. So their descendants had always assumed that Dai Mubai disliked their branch because of Dai Weisi, and that was why he'd ignored them after becoming a god.
Now it seemed that might not have been the reason at all.
Ten thousand years ago, Dai Mubai had ascended early, while Dai Weisi inherited the Imperial Throne and ruled as emperor his entire life.
People had once envied Dai Mubai more, since he'd ascended to godhood and supposedly gained eternal life. But now that the Heavenly Screen had stripped away the Divine Realm's halo, Dai Mubai's hasty ascent was hard to explain.
Even accounting for the difference in the flow of time, ten thousand years in the lower world still meant twenty-seven years in the Divine Realm!
Just imagine Dai Mubai ascending, learning the truth, then spending his days digging in the dirt and growing vegetables, fighting for a mouthful of water while watching Dai Weisi feast on fine food and wine as emperor in the lower world. His tiger teeth must have been ground to dust!
At that thought, Dai Hao fell into deep reflection. If the Divine Realm was such a rip-off, should he still try to patch things up with Huo Yuhao and have him take him along when he ascended?
Or should he wait until Huo Yuhao grew stronger, then ask him to lend his support so he could reclaim the Star Luo Imperial Throne from the Xu Family and live out his days as a comfortable emperor?
After thinking it over, Dai Hao decided that he was a grown man—he wanted both!
First, he'd borrow Huo Yuhao's strength to reclaim the throne. Then he'd let Huo Yuhao go make a name for himself in the Divine Realm, and ascend only when he was close to dying of old age, so he could enjoy ten thousand years of life! The best of both worlds!
Dai Hao gave his own wisdom a mental pat on the back! If he'd been born ten thousand years ago, his strategic brilliance would surely have been no worse than Tang San's, who had come up with the age-old stratagem of Cutting Off Grain Route!
Even Yu Xiaogang, the Horn of Wisdom who had taught Tang San all his wisdom, would probably have praised him: "This man's wisdom is second to none!"
While White Tiger Duke Dai Hao was lost in his fantasies, several figures lounged on the grass inside the Clear Sky Sect, watching the Heavenly Screen and chatting idly.
One of them scratched his belly and chuckled. "Heh. The Divine Realm really isn't a good place. Thank goodness Mom was kind enough to arrange for us to enjoy ourselves in the lower world."
"Exactly. Being a Soul Beast is much more comfortable than ascending. Sure, we grow stronger more slowly, but we live longer." A burly, scar-faced man who looked like bad news chimed in. "Back then, Mom said Tang San could become a god, so she had us Sacrifice ourselves. We thought we'd ascend to the Divine Realm and enjoy ourselves together..."
"But when we were revived in the Divine Realm, we found it wasn't what we'd imagined... What a dump. The only thing we could drink was water from the Divine Beast Forest, and the only thing we could eat was Oscar's sausage."
The scar-faced man laughed. "It's a good thing that after we were revived, we were still Soul Beasts and could return to Douluo Star. After living in the Divine Realm, we finally understood how comfortable the Mortal World is. Seventh and Eighth used to envy us for being able to ascend, too. Hmph..."
The man beside him, who was a little less burly, turned his head. "You know what Eighth likes to eat. Why bother holding it against him?"
"Oh, right, boss. With the Heavenly Screen exposing so many things, what are we supposed to do about our mission?" Scarface asked.
The burly man they called Boss folded his arms and snorted. "We do what we have to do. Keep a close eye on that little girl, Wang Dong'er... That piece of trash Tang San still wants to secretly take the Son of Destiny under his wing as a lapdog. He's probably doing it to deal with Mom, so we absolutely can't let him get his way!"
"Does Tang San really think no one knows he's secretly stirring up trouble on Douluo Continent?"
"Hmph. Too bad for him—Mom knows everything. She saw him send the Hammer Wielder and the Dark Blue Silver King down to the lower world, and she's got her eye on that little girl, too. She's just waiting for the day she can settle the score with him!"
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