On the Sky Screen, the image of the Spirit Pagoda ancestral shrine ten thousand years later slowly faded away.
Across the entire Douluo Continent, in both time periods, an eerie, suffocating silence fell.
[Douluo II Era]
The Body Sect.
A look of undisguised disdain crossed Sect Master Du Busi's usually gloomy face.
"Hmph."
Du Busi snorted coldly.
"He's nothing but a gutless rat who hides in the shadows, manipulating people and scheming!"
"A true powerhouse crushes every enemy head-on with overwhelming strength!"
"Qiangu Wangyan is nothing but a gutter rat, unfit to show his face!"
He revered absolute power and despised schemers who hid behind the scenes.
The Sun Moon Empire, Ming Capital.
Inside the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace.
Xu Tianran, the Crown Prince, had watched everything in silence. Now, he suddenly chuckled under his breath.
His laugh was soft, but it sent an inexplicable chill down Ju Zi's spine.
"Qiangu Wangyan... How interesting. Truly interesting."
Xu Tianran's legs had been crippled, leaving him confined to a wheelchair, but that did nothing to diminish the unsettling authority he exuded.
He clapped softly, as though applauding the finale of an extraordinary play.
"Now that is a true hero!"
"He could endure what ordinary people could not, and do what ordinary people would not."
"He entered the game himself, treated the whole world as a chessboard and everyone in it as a piece, patiently laying his plans until he finally turned the tables in one stroke!"
"Such courage, such skill—I have to admit I fall short!"
Ju Zi looked at him in confusion.
"Your Highness, he's calculating and despicable. He's nothing but a hypocrite who rose to power through schemes and deceit..."
At her words, Xu Tianran's smile grew wider—and colder.
He slowly shook his head.
"A hypocrite? No."
His gaze seemed to pierce through the palace, overlapping with the figure on the Sky Screen, a man bearing a blood feud.
"He's my kindred spirit."
Ju Zi shuddered.
"Only someone like him is worthy of being my opponent!"
He tapped the armrest of his wheelchair gently and said, each word deliberate:
"If I ever get the chance to meet him... I'll have to personally..."
He paused, a startling brilliance flashing in his eyes.
"Personally kill him!"
"Only then will I do justice to this opponent heaven has given me—and to my ambition to unite the continent!"
Shrek Academy.
Xuanzi, Yan Shaozhe, Lin'er, and all the other Sea God Pavilion Elders looked utterly ashen.
They no longer dared to meet the students' eyes—their gazes mingled with disappointment, suspicion, and fury.
A reputation built over ten thousand years, ruined in a single day!
Today, before the whole continent, Shrek's golden name had been trampled into the dirt!
Just as the atmosphere grew unbearably oppressive, every image of Qiangu Wangyan vanished from the Sky Screen.
In their place appeared new golden characters, radiating an air of judgment.
[The Top Ten Hypocrites List: Number Ten, Qiangu Wangyan. The revelation of all his deeds is complete.]
[Final evaluation and reward-and-punishment settlement will now begin.]
It was here!
Everyone's heart leaped into their throat.
What kind of judgment and reward or punishment would the Sky Screen give this "hypocrite" who had overturned everything they believed?
Under the gaze of the masses, four lines of verse slowly appeared on the Sky Screen.
[Evaluation:]
[With a blood feud, he entered his enemies' halls, enduring humiliation and bearing burdens for a hundred years.]
[He stole the Spirit Pagoda's secrets beneath the heavens' very eyes; once his plans succeeded, the world was overturned!]
Just four lines, twenty-eight characters, yet they seemed to sum up Qiangu Wangyan's entire life!
[Douluo I Era]
The Worship Hall.
Qianjun Douluo and Demon Subduing Douluo recited the verses, tears in their tiger-like eyes. A wave of tragic emotion surged through their chests.
"Excellent!"
"Well said! Qiangu Wangyan!"
The deep, sonorous voice of Second Worship Golden Crocodile Douluo brimmed with barely restrained excitement.
The veins stood out on his burly arms, a testament to the turmoil inside him.
"Sixth Brother, Seventh Brother, you have a fine descendant!"
Qian Daoliu gazed up at the Sky Screen, his eyes filled with boundless emotion.
"Once his plans succeeded, the world was overturned..."
"The Spirit Hall has a worthy successor..."
Suddenly, Qian Daoliu sighed.
"But what a shame..."
At his sigh, the other Worshippers turned to him, their expressions puzzled.
"Have you still not understood?"
"If Qiangu Wangyan had already accomplished all this, that would be one thing."
"But what if he hasn't succeeded yet?"
His words doused them like a bucket of ice water.
The excitement on Golden Crocodile's face instantly turned to shock.
"Great Enshrined, do you mean... his plan has been exposed ahead of time?"
Qian Daoliu slowly nodded.
"If Qiangu Wangyan hasn't succeeded yet, then this Sky Screen is a death sentence!"
Qianjun Douluo and Demon Subduing Douluo, who had been caught up in their excitement and sorrow, exchanged a glance. Their faces turned deathly pale.
"It's over..."
Another Worshipper looked ashen.
"After learning of a plan this monumental, they'll never spare him!"
"They'll do whatever it takes to snuff him out before he can succeed!"
Demon Subduing Douluo clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms.
"Does heaven mean to destroy the Spirit Hall?"
Qian Daoliu's eyes were full of the weariness of age.
"Let's keep watching..."
"Let's see what the Sky Screen will do to him."
Inside the Pope's Palace.
Bibi Dong's eyes widened, and her breath caught.
She, too, had realized what this meant.
"Damn it!"
She cursed under her breath, frantic with worry.
Qiangu Wangyan's plan for revenge had made her see something of herself in him, and she felt a powerful sense of kinship with him.
But now, that plan—and the hope of restoring the Spirit Hall's glory in the future—might have been exposed to every enemy's blade!
Inside Shrek Academy.
Yu Xiaogang's face turned from green to purple, and he trembled with rage.
"Rebel! Traitor! You've defied all order!"
"Thief! Bandit!"
"Men like him deserve to be nailed to history's pillar of shame!"
The Sky Screen paid no heed to the many reactions below.
Beneath the verses, several more characters appeared:
[Title awarded: Gravedigger!]
[Douluo II Era]
Everyone at Shrek Academy felt a chilling, bone-deep humiliation.
Whose grave had he dug?
It went without saying!
[Comprehensive evaluation complete. Determining rewards and punishments.]
[After evaluation, Qiangu Wangyan's actions greatly altered the course of the era. His intentions are deserving of death, and his crimes must be punished.]
[The decision is to impose—]
[Punishment!]
[Douluo II Period]
"Good!!"
"Kill him! Cripple him! Tear him limb from limb!"
Inside Shrek Academy, countless people shouted in excitement. At last, the moment of judgment had come!
[Douluo I Period]
The Worship Hall.
Qian Daoliu and the others felt their hearts sink completely.
It was over.
In the end, the Sky Screen would uphold justice and punish him.
Meanwhile, inside Shrek Academy.
Yu Xiaogang cheered wildly, his face flushed with excitement.
"Good! Excellent!"
"See? Heaven's justice is vast, and no one can escape it!"
"This is the righteous path! This is justice!"
"A shameless villain like him deserves to be punished severely, until not a trace of him remains!"
He could almost see Qiangu Wangyan reduced to ashes beneath heaven's punishment, and the thought filled him with unbridled satisfaction!
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