Yan Shaozhe's farce had ended in a deeply humiliating fashion.
Everyone thought this judgment, which spanned two eras, would pause as it had last time, giving people enough time to digest and discuss what they had seen.
But this time, the Sky Screen didn't disappear. Instead, it blazed with golden light once more!
Hum—!
Ten thousand feet of golden radiance, like the light of divine punishment, pierced through the clouds of both eras in an instant, painting the sky as a majestic golden sea.
"It's not over?!"
"Good heavens! Is it going to expose them one after another?!"
"Look! New words are appearing!"
Whether in Douluo I or Douluo II, everyone was left with a tingling scalp by this sudden turn of events!
Every eye was fixed on the sky, unblinking.
Within the endless golden radiance, a new line of great gilded characters, bearing the weight of judgment, slowly emerged with undeniable authority!
[Top Ten Hypocrites List, eighth place...]
Here it came!
Again!
Countless people instinctively held their breath.
Who could it be?
Under the eyes of the crowd, amid golden light so brilliant that even the gods would turn to look, two ancient, weighty names slowly took shape.
[Dai Hao!]
[Douluo II Period]
When the name "Dai Hao" appeared, the entire Star Luo Empire erupted, from the court to the frontier, from the nobility to the common folk!
"What?!"
"Duke White Tiger?! Marshal Dai?! How is that possible!"
"Is this some kind of joke?! Marshal Dai is the soul of Star Luo's military! He's the empire's guardian deity! How could he possibly be a hypocrite?!"
Countless citizens of the Star Luo Empire cried out in disbelief.
Dai Hao, Duke White Tiger.
In the Star Luo Empire, that name represented more than power and status. It was a matter of faith!
At the empire's most desperate hour, he had turned the tide and kept the Sun Moon Empire's iron hooves beyond the borders!
Victory after victory, each one worthy of being called a miracle, had forged the Star Luo Empire's undefeated military spirit!
He was a god in the hearts of every soldier and a hero in the eyes of every citizen!
And now the Sky Screen was telling them that their hero was a hypocrite?
It was almost worse than killing them!
The Star Luo Empire, frontline military camp.
Facing the Sun Moon Empire, this place was constantly shrouded in blowing sand, steeped in an atmosphere of iron and blood.
Inside a heavily guarded command tent,
a middle-aged man in white armor stood before a huge sand-table map. He was broad-shouldered, with a resolute face and an imposing air even at rest. His brow was furrowed.
He was the Star Luo Empire's pillar of strength and cornerstone of stability, Duke White Tiger, Dai Hao!
Just then, an aide rushed in, panic written across his face. His voice trembled as he stammered, "D-Duke! You must come outside and see! The Sky Screen! It's the Sky Screen!"
"What are you panicking for?"
Dai Hao didn't even look up. His voice was as steady as a mountain.
"The sky isn't falling! How could some unknown Sky Screen throw our army into disarray?"
"N-No, Duke!"
The aide was close to tears with anxiety.
"I-It's your name! Your name is on the list!"
"What?"
Dai Hao jerked his head up. A terrifying glint blazed in his sharp, hawklike eyes.
He strode out of the tent and looked up at the sky.
When those two familiar, glaring names met his eyes, even this iron-blooded marshal, whose heart was as hard as steel, turned as dark as a storm cloud.
A terrifying killing aura spread uncontrollably from his body.
"Absurd!"
Star Luo Empire, the imperial palace.
When Emperor Xu Jiawei saw the name "Dai Hao," he, too, paused in surprise.
Then the corner of his mouth curled into an amused, gleeful smile.
Dai Hao?
That duke, whose accomplishments threatened to overshadow the throne and who commanded half the empire's military, was actually a hypocrite?
How interesting. This was very interesting.
He wanted to see what dirt the Sky Screen could dig up about him.
Shrek Academy.
The moment Dai Huabin saw his father's name, he felt as if he'd been struck by lightning and stood frozen in place.
"N-No! That's absolutely impossible!"
He roared in a broken voice, looking like a madman.
"My father is the empire's marshal, a hero who protects our country! How could he be a hypocrite?! This is slander! It has to be slander!"
At the other end of the crowd,
when the name "Dai Hao" appeared, a young man stiffened as if struck by lightning.
It was Huo Yuhao.
He slowly raised his head. His deep blue eyes fixed on the imposing figure on the Sky Screen, a figure as mighty as a god or demon.
Dai Hao.
That name was a wound that could never heal, branded in the deepest part of his soul.
That man was his father.
And he was also the source of every hardship his mother and he had endured!
As a child, in the cold side courtyard of Duke White Tiger Mansion, he had often heard his mother coughing and sobbing as she called out that name in the dead of night.
Yet that man had never once come to see them.
He'd let people in the mansion bully and abuse his wife and child, leaving them hungry and in rags.
Even when his mother coughed up blood and died, that man had never come to see her!
Huo Yuhao's body began to tremble despite himself.
But it wasn't fear. It was the most intense, long-suppressed feeling, buried for more than a decade—
Hatred!
An icy, complicated emotion no one could understand surged in his deep eyes.
Without realizing it, he clenched the hands at his sides into fists, driving his nails deep into his palms.
Blood dripped through his fingers, but he didn't notice.
Just then, golden light shifted across the Sky Screen as it began its "introduction" to Dai Hao.
As before, it praised him first, then brought him low.
[Dai Hao, hereditary Duke White Tiger of the Star Luo Empire, Grand Marshal of the Empire, a Rank 94 Power Attack System Titled Douluo, titled "White Tiger."]
The scene unfolded, showing one after another of Dai Hao's "glorious deeds."
[He is a pillar of Star Luo, a Great Wall protecting the empire.]
The scene showed a battlefield wreathed in flames. Dai Hao charged into battle at the head of his forces, transformed into his enormous White Tiger True Body, and tore the enemy commander to shreds with one swipe amid a sea of troops!
Behind him, Star Luo soldiers roared like a tidal wave!
[His military achievements are godlike; he protects the nation and its people.]
The scene showed Dai Hao at court, debating with the assembled officials and prevailing over their objections to devise a surprise attack. In the end, they routed the Sun Moon Empire's invading army and secured decades of peace along the border.
[His virtue is worthy of the praise "treats his soldiers as his own children and cares for his subordinates."]
The scene showed a snowy winter night. Dai Hao removed his marshal's cloak and draped it over a young sentry shivering in the cold. Then he handed him his own waterskin, his gaze gentle.
Every deed, great and small, showcased his nearly flawless image as a hero.
At the frontline camp, countless soldiers watched the Sky Screen, their eyes reddening.
"That's our duke!"
"The Sky Screen must be wrong! How could Duke White Tiger possibly be a hypocrite?!"
Inside the Star Luo Imperial Palace, Emperor Xu Jiawei watched the scenes. His smile gradually faded, replaced by a solemn expression.
Dai Hao was indeed an indispensable pillar of the Star Luo Empire.
Every word of praise the Sky Screen had given him was true.
But in the next instant, a line of text appeared on the Sky Screen, and Xu Jiawei's expression darkened at once!
[He is a descendant of the White Tiger, a true heir of Star Luo!]
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