Target: Body Sect!

The God of Destruction looked at the boy before him, barely twelve years old. He looked at the bottomless darkness in those eyes, and the tiny spark deep within that darkness that refused to go out. Then he suddenly burst into laughter.

"Good! Good! Good!"

He said "good" three times in a row, purple light blazing in his eyes. "That's how it should be! A divine inheritance isn't about finding an obedient puppet. It's about finding an heir capable of forging his own path! Kid, I'm liking you more and more!"

The Goddess of Life sighed softly, but she did not object. She merely walked up to Dai Tu, raised her hand, and gently touched his forehead with her fingertip.

"In the name of the Goddess of Life, I bestow upon you the Mark of Life."

A speck of emerald light bloomed from her fingertip and entered the space between Dai Tu's brows.

Warm, gentle vitality swept through Dai Tu's entire body like spring water. The Tree of Life Martial Soul in his left hand emerged on its own, its branches and leaves swaying happily as though it had seen its mother tree.

The God of Destruction stepped forward as well, extending his hand to touch Dai Tu's forehead beside the Mark of Life.

"In the name of the God of Destruction, I bestow upon you the Mark of Destruction."

Deep-purple light exploded outward as wild, domineering power filled with destructive intent surged into Dai Tu's body. The Mangekyō Sharingan in his eyes spun frantically, scarlet light blazing as though it would devour everything.

The two powers met and clashed between Dai Tu's brows before ultimately reaching a delicate balance. They became two marks side by side: an emerald leaf on the left and a deep-purple lightning bolt on the right.

"These are our Inheritance Marks," the Goddess of Life said warmly as she withdrew her hand.

"From this moment onward, you are the dual inheritor of life and destruction. You will undergo nine God Trials. Every time you break through a Soul Power realm, you must complete one trial. You must complete at least one within a year, or the marks will backlash against your soul."

The God of Destruction took over, his tone sharp. "We will release the contents of the God Trials according to your growth. You may have to hunt soul beasts, overcome inner demons, or face any number of other trials. Remember this: there is no turning back in a God Trial—pass, or die."

Dai Tu raised a hand and touched the two slightly heated marks between his brows.

One was warm, and one was cold.

One symbolized life, and one symbolized death.

Just like his life now.

"Kid, live well. Don't disappoint me."

As his words fell, the God of Destruction's figure began to fade. By the time his final words reached Dai Tu, he had completely vanished into the air.

The Goddess of Life remained until the end. She looked at Dai Tu with a complicated expression, filled with tenderness, expectation, and faint worry.

"Child," she said softly, her voice as gentle as a mother seeing off a child on a long journey.

"Remember, the meaning of life lies not in its length, but in how you live it. Destruction is not the end either. It is merely... another kind of beginning."

"No matter how far you go in the future, no matter what you become, do not forget who you are standing here today. Do not forget why you live, or why you fight."

She raised her hand as though she wanted to pat Dai Tu's head, but halfway through, she stopped.

In the end, she only smiled faintly. Her figure, too, became specks of emerald light and scattered into the morning glow.

The frozen world began moving again.

Leaves continued to drift down, insects flapped their wings and flew away, and the wind began to blow once more, carrying the fresh scent unique to a forest after rain.

It was as though everything that had just happened had only been a dream.

But Dai Tu knew it was not a dream.

He raised his hand, palm facing upward. With a thought, the phantom of the Tree of Life appeared, emerald light illuminating his pale face. With another thought, the Mangekyō spun in his eyes, scarlet and emerald light intertwining to cast an eerie radiance.

The two marks between his brows glowed faintly, reminding him of everything that had just happened.

A divine inheritance.

Nine God Trials.

One unfamiliar term after another churned through his mind. In the end, only two things remained.

First, he had a chance to revive everyone in Konoha. Though the possibility was slim and unimaginably distant, the Goddess of Life had said it was possible.

Second, he had to become stronger—strong enough to overturn the White Tiger Duke Mansion, strong enough to complete those nine God Trials, strong enough to... reach the end of life and destruction, and touch that elusive boundary between life and death.

Deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, the light grew dim.

Dai Tu leaned against an ancient tree so large that three people could barely encircle it, then slowly sat down.

He closed his eyes, sank his consciousness into his body, and began sorting through his current situation.

A divine inheritance sounded wonderful.

The Goddess of Life and the God of Destruction were first-class gods, rulers of cosmic laws. Their inheritor was destined to ascend to the God Realm in the future and stand shoulder to shoulder with those legendary beings.

But that was the future.

Right now, he was merely a soul master who had just broken through level twenty and did not even possess a second soul ring.

In the world of soul masters, he could barely be considered beyond the level of an apprentice and at the threshold of becoming a Soul Grandmaster—provided he successfully obtained his second soul ring.

"Still too weak..."

Dai Tu murmured to himself, his voice especially clear amid the silent forest.

The White Tiger Duchess would not let this go.

Zhu Ye was dead, and fifty elite White Tiger Army soldiers were dead. Although Dai Tu had erased Zhu Ye's corpse with Kamui and burned away most of the traces with Amaterasu, those had still been more than fifty lives—and the Duchess's own younger brother.

The duke mansion would sooner or later find some clues, follow the trail, and locate him, the "illegitimate child who should not exist."

When that happened, they would not send someone like Zhu Ye, a four-ringed Soul Ancestor.

They might send a Soul King, a Soul Emperor, or even... a Soul Sage or Soul Douluo.

Before true experts, his current self would not even have a chance to escape.

No matter how powerful the Mangekyō Sharingan was, it still needed Soul Power to sustain it, and it still needed time to grow. Before absolute rank suppression, every technique was a joke.

"I need protection," Dai Tu muttered, his brain racing.

On Douluo Continent, there were only a handful of factions capable of opposing the White Tiger Duke Mansion of the Star Luo Empire.

Shrek Academy was the first choice. The continent's number one academy had existed for ten thousand years, and its foundations were unfathomable. If he became a Shrek student, even the emperor of the Star Luo Empire would have to think twice.

But Dai Tu almost immediately rejected that option.

Shrek Academy's training methods were too absurd!

No, that would not work.

"Training by running?" Dai Tu curled his lips into a mocking smile. "My cultivation needs to be watered with blood."

Then, joining another empire?

The Heaven Dou Empire or the Dou Ling Empire might be willing to offend the Star Luo Empire for a Twin Martial Souls genius, but Dai Tu did not dare gamble on it.

The Star Luo Empire was the strongest of the three great empires, and Dai Hao, the Duke of White Tiger, was the symbol of its military.

Would the Heaven Dou or Dou Ling royal families truly be willing to risk an all-out war with Star Luo for an illegitimate child of unknown origins like him?

More likely, they would "politely send" him back in exchange for political benefits.

"No... none of them will work..."

Dai Tu frowned, unconsciously rubbing the two marks between his brows.

One cold and one hot, one destruction and one life, as though reminding him that he had already embarked upon a path completely different from that of ordinary people.

Just then, a name suddenly surfaced in his mind.

The Body Sect.

The most mysterious, most exclusionary, and most protective sect on Douluo Continent.

Every member possessed a Body Martial Soul—eyes, arms, bones, blood... any body part, so long as it awakened as a martial soul, fell within the category of a "Body Martial Soul."

And the Body Sect's creed was simple: Body Martial Souls are the strongest in the world.

They looked down on all external martial souls, believing that only one's own body was the strongest weapon. They acted unpredictably, neither wholly righteous nor wholly evil, doing whatever pleased them.

They had once clashed head-on with Shrek Academy and had even suppressed Shrek for a time, forcing Shrek Academy's headmaster at the time to bow his head and compromise.