At that moment, deep in the Star Dou Forest.
It was the forbidden land known as Life Lake.
The lake water was as clear as a mirror, and the air was thick with an exceptionally rich aura of life.
After Da Ming and Er Ming returned here, they did not stop to rest at all. They went straight to a secluded stone platform by the lake.
"Er Ming, let's begin."
Da Ming took a deep breath, then pulled out the jade slip and placed it between them.
As Da Ming infused it with Soul Power, the Bone Script on the jade slip lit up at once. Countless incomparably profound runes danced and arranged themselves in midair like fireflies.
Da Ming and Er Ming held their breath and focused, following the method recorded in the jade slip as they tried to trace their first Origin Rune.
Boom!
The instant the two of them began circulating the method,
Life Lake, which had been calm moments ago, suddenly seemed to boil.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth within hundreds of miles formed a massive funnel, pouring furiously into Da Ming and Er Ming!
Their Soul Beast bodies began to rumble like rolling thunder.
Their bones were being reforged, their bloodlines elevated!
An ancient aura, never before seen on this continent, was rapidly growing stronger.
The commotion was simply too great.
It was enough to rouse the monsters that had long been sleeping deep in the Star Dou Forest.
The surface of Life Lake suddenly split down the middle.
A pitch-black wave of Soul Power instantly enveloped the entire lake.
Immediately afterward, a middle-aged man clad in black armor slowly emerged from the lakebed and stepped ashore.
With every step he took, the space around him warped and collapsed.
He was none other than the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, Di Tian!
Di Tian's brows were furrowed as he stared fixedly at Da Ming and Er Ming, who were cultivating.
"What's going on?"
Di Tian asked in a low voice.
"Da Ming, Er Ming, where did you get this strange cultivation technique?"
"How can this method let you evade the suppression of this world's laws?"
At a glance, Di Tian saw that Da Ming and Er Ming's cultivation no longer relied on Soul Rings at all. Even their Soul Power was undergoing some kind of qualitative transformation!
The aura made him feel as though it came from an ancient age—one far more distant than his own eight hundred thousand years of cultivation.
When this oppressive force roused Da Ming and Er Ming from their cultivation, both of them were drenched in cold sweat.
"Lord Di Tian..."
Da Ming did not dare hide anything. He quickly recounted everything he had seen and heard at Listening Rain Pavilion, as well as the matter of Su Chen granting them the precious technique.
After hearing Da Ming's account, Di Tian's expression changed as well.
"Suppressing Tang Hao with one hand, and a Unique Cave Heaven impervious to all laws..."
"And this Bone Text Precious Technique of a Ferocious Beast?"
Di Tian gazed at the glowing jade slip, his heart surging like a storm-tossed sea.
As the most loyal subordinate of the Lord, he wanted more than anyone for the Soul Beast Clan to escape its fate.
But he had never dared imagine that such a method could truly exist.
"I'll report this to the Lord first. Tomorrow, I'll go with you!"
The next day.
The sky had only just begun to brighten.
The streets in the southern part of Heaven Dou Imperial City were already completely packed with people.
There was no clamor, nor any pushing or shoving.
Thousands upon thousands of Spirit Masters crowded the entire long street. Some were unaffiliated cultivators dressed in coarse clothes, while others were elite members of the various sects.
Enemies who would normally draw their blades the moment they met now stood shoulder to shoulder, yet did not dare utter a single threat.
Everyone remembered the rules Su Chen had set the day before.
Whoever dared cause trouble outside Listening Rain Pavilion would become the enemy of every Spirit Master on the continent.
At the very front of the long street, the Heaven Dou Imperial Family's carriage stood quietly.
Xue Ye had changed out of his conspicuous dragon robe and put on an ordinary silk robe.
He had brought Xue Qinghe and arrived early, waiting outside the entrance. The Royal Knights behind him had all changed into plain clothes as well.
Across the street,
Bibi Dong wore an elegant, pale-purple dress and carried no Pope Scepter.
Golden Crocodile Douluo and the others followed behind her, concealing every trace of their Titled Douluo auras.
They looked like ordinary listeners, standing obediently in line below the steps.
Suddenly, the sound of hoofbeats came from the rear of the crowd.
A troop of armored cavalry dressed in the uniforms of the Star Luo Empire stopped outside the street.
Dai Tianfeng wore a cloak and strode into the crowd with Dai Mubai.
The Spirit Masters along the way recognized the Star Luo Great Emperor and hurriedly stepped aside, making way for him.
Dai Mubai followed behind his father with his head lowered, looking extremely nervous.
Dai Tianfeng reached Listening Rain Pavilion and glanced at Xue Ye and Bibi Dong across from him.
He did not greet them. He simply found a spot near the front and stood there.
In a corner of the crowd,
three tall men in black robes stood together.
The middle-aged man in the center had a sharp gaze. He was Di Tian, who had hurried here from the Star Dou Forest overnight.
Da Ming and Er Ming kept their heads lowered beneath their hoods, obediently standing on either side of him.
Looking at the top experts of the human world gathered before the entrance, Di Tian knew that Da Ming had not lied the day before.
The moment the Chen hour arrived,
the ordinary wooden door of Listening Rain Pavilion was pulled open from within.
A young attendant in blue poked his head out, then stepped aside.
The people outside immediately streamed into the hall.
No one fought for seats. No one argued.
Everyone tacitly found a place to sit in order, while those without seats stood along the walls, packing the hall until it was bursting at the seams.
Xue Ye, Bibi Dong, Dai Tianfeng, Di Tian, and the others all took seats in the front row.
A moment later, Su Chen walked out from backstage in his trademark white robe.
He sat down behind the table.
Then he picked up his teacup and took a sip.
Hundreds upon hundreds of eyes below were fixed on him. Even their breathing was as quiet as they could make it.
Smack!
The Gavel came down.
"Yesterday, I spoke of the Sacrificial Spirit of Stone Village—the Willow Deity."
Su Chen's tone was calm. He did not raise his voice, yet every person in the audience heard him clearly.
"Many people think that no matter how powerful a tree is, there's only so powerful it can be."
"But what you don't know is that she didn't belong to the Eight Regions of the Lower Realm at all."
Su Chen set the folding fan in his hand on the table.
"In the distant Immortal Ancient Era, Great Sects stood throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, and Immortal Kings rose one after another."
"The Willow Deity was the supreme Sacrificial Spirit worshipped by all races of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths."
"She was known as the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit, and was also one of the greatest powerhouses of the Immortal Ancient Era."
At those words, everyone in the audience felt a jolt in their hearts.
Worshipped by all races?
A top powerhouse of the Immortal Ancient Era?
Di Tian sat in a corner, his hands clenching tightly.
He was a member of the Dragon Clan himself and knew full well just how terrifying a foundation a Sacrificial Spirit needed to bear the fortunes of all races.
"Later, the Foreign Realm breached the pass."
Su Chen's gaze swept across the audience.
"The Foreign Realm's strength far surpassed that of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths."
"In that battle, the experts of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths were slaughtered, and Immortal Kings bled."
"The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths stood on the brink of utter destruction."
"The Willow Deity stepped forward."
Su Chen's voice gradually sank.
"A willow tree charged into the Foreign Realm alone."
"She faced the Foreign Realm's supreme beings: the Immortal Kings."
At the words "Immortal Kings,"
Dai Tianfeng could not help leaning forward, his expression grave.
Bibi Dong's brows knitted as well.
Su Chen glanced at Bibi Dong and said calmly:
"The gods of your Douluo Continent wouldn't even count as mortals before her."
"As for those so-called Immortal Kings, a single drop of blood could crush the ages, and a single strand of hair could cut down the stars."
"They were monsters who had endured countless calamities without perishing."
Everyone in the audience held their breath.
A drop of blood could crush the ages?
Xue Ye opened his mouth, but not a sound came out.
As far as they knew, splitting a river with a wave of one's hand was already a miracle.
What did it even mean to cut down the stars?
"The Willow Deity fought several Immortal Kings alone."
Su Chen continued his tale.
"She tore the Foreign Realm apart, fighting her way in and out nine times."
"But even two fists could not withstand four hands, let alone several supreme beings of the same level."
"In the end, she was gravely wounded and on the verge of death. She underwent nirvana, turning into a seed that fell into Stone Village in the Great Wilderness of the Lower Realm."
"She became a charred piece of Lightning-Struck Wood and fell into a long slumber."
For a time, the hall was utterly silent.
An image of that charred dead tree, with only a single willow branch remaining, rose in everyone's mind.
Who could have imagined that this seemingly ordinary dead tree had once single-handedly carved a bloody path through the Foreign Realm?
"And just as she slumbered and underwent nirvana..."
Su Chen picked up the folding fan from the table and gently tapped it against his palm.
"The great figures of the Upper Realm, who styled themselves as members of orthodox sects, took advantage of her weakened state to finish her off."
"They feared the Willow Deity's former renown and were afraid she might one day awaken."
"So several great figures of the Upper Realm joined forces to unleash a calamity upon her."
"They wanted to completely erase the supreme Sacrificial Spirit who had once protected them and shed her very last drop of blood for the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths."
At this point, the Spirit Masters in the audience all looked furious.
She had fought for them with everything she had, only to be gravely wounded—and instead of saving her, those people had turned around and struck her from behind?
That was even more shameless than the royal power struggles of the Star Luo Empire!
Su Chen lifted his teacup and looked at the pairs of furious eyes in the hall. Unhurriedly, he took a sip.
He paid no mind to the listeners, who were so enraged they could not recover for a long while. Instead, he calmly continued.
"I just said that the Willow Deity was the Ancestral Sacrificial Spirit, worshipped by all races."
"But you may not fully understand what it means to be worshipped."
Su Chen waved his folding fan, and the image in the sky grew solid once more.
Above the charred Lightning-Struck Wood, where there had originally been only a single emerald-green willow branch, countless specks of light now appeared around it.
Magnified, each speck turned out to be a vast expanse of land, teeming with countless living beings and overflowing with incense offerings.
"When the Willow Deity was at her peak, each of her leaves upheld a divine kingdom."
"Three Thousand Divine Kingdoms, Three Thousand Worlds."
"Countless gods prostrated beneath her leaves, chanting her true name day and night."
"The divine radiance formed by the intertwining power of their worship was enough to make the laws of this universe revolve around her."
Bibi Dong, seated in the front row, abruptly stood up. She stared at the three thousand specks of light, her lips moving soundlessly.
She had always believed her nine Soul Rings and Twin Martial Souls were the greatest gifts this world could offer.
But compared to this—
A single willow leaf was a world?
What did a so-called Pope of Spirit Hall amount to before the countless living beings of those Three Thousand Divine Kingdoms?
She was probably not even as significant as a speck of dust.
Su Chen looked at the audience's utterly shocked expressions, his voice as calm as water.
"In the Willow Deity's eyes, the barriers between levels were not impossible to cross."
"In the distant past, there was an extremely ordinary little peacock beneath Willow Deity."
"Here in your world, it might have been nothing more than an unremarkable wild bird, or perhaps a low-ranking Soul Beast at best."
Su Chen paused, his tone turning faintly amused.
"That peacock happened to meet Willow Deity, and she casually bestowed upon it a single drop of dew from one of her leaves."
"The very next moment, the bloodline within the peacock reverted directly to its ancestral form. It leapt across countless ranks in an instant, and eventually became a sect master-level figure, revered by the Upper Realm as the Peacock God Lord."
"In that world, a single spread of its wings could blot out an entire star."
Hearing this, Dai Tianfeng's teacup wobbled in his hand. Tea spilled onto his clothes, but he didn't even bother to wipe it away.
A single drop of dew, bestowed casually, could turn an ordinary bird into a being capable of blotting out a star?
If a Spirit Master drank even a sip of that dew, would they become a god on the spot?
Among the trio in black robes in the corner, Di Tian could no longer sit still.
His breathing grew ragged, and his golden eyes were fixed on Su Chen.
As the ruler of the Star Dou Forest, he had guarded Life Lake—and the gravely wounded Lord—for far, far too long.
The Lord's injuries had been inflicted by a God King of the Divine Realm. They were wounds on the level of laws.
All these years, no matter how rich the energy in Life Lake grew, it had only barely kept her alive.
But what had Su Chen just said?
A single drop of dew could alter a bloodline, even reshape someone into a God Lord?
"Mr. Su!"
Di Tian stood up, unable to hold back his question.
"May I ask, Mr. Su, could the liquid bestowed by Willow Deity..."
"Or, rather, her power of nirvana—could it heal a life-form with extremely severe injuries, even wounds inflicted by the highest laws?"
At this, the people in the hall all turned to look at the black-robed man.
Bibi Dong and Emperor Xue Ye also glanced his way. They could sense that his aura was exceptionally strange and powerful. He was clearly no ordinary man.
At that, Su Chen raised his eyelids and gave Di Tian a calm look.
He knew exactly what Di Tian was asking.
"Wounds inflicted by laws?"
Su Chen gave a derisive chuckle and leaned back.
"The highest laws you speak of are no more than child's play before the giants of Perfect World."
"Back then, Willow Deity charged alone into the Foreign Realm and fought the Immortal Kings—beings capable of forcibly altering the laws of heaven and earth."
"If she wanted to save a life, even if that life had been reduced to a wisp of remnant soul, even if it had been buried at the end of Samsara, Willow Deity would need only a thought to pull it back from the River of Time."
"As for the injuries you mentioned..."
Su Chen pointed at the charred tree trunk hanging in midair.
"She herself is enduring the most terrifying killing calamity in this world. She is undergoing nirvana."
"If she were to awaken, there would be no wound she couldn't heal, no life she couldn't save."
"Of course, if she bestowed even a single drop of divine liquid upon the person you speak of, not only would their injuries heal completely—they would evolve into the most powerful being on all of Douluo Continent!"
Before you continue