In the Name of Love

Following the agreed-upon plan, the Silver Dragon King quietly left the independent space, altered her appearance, and infiltrated the human world.

On the surface, this was to gather intelligence, but in reality, she was simply afraid that a deliberate appearance would be too obvious, leading the God Realm to suspect they were drawing the snake out of its hole.

Only by letting the God Realm discover and track the spatial fluctuations themselves, following the trail to find clues, would the God Kings not doubt their motives.

However, she did indeed collect a great deal of information.

First and foremost, the soul beast population was hurtling toward extinction at a rate ten to a hundred times faster than she had imagined.

In just over thirty thousand years, the Star Dou Forest had shrunk to a mere speck of land; aside from the portion Di Tian had protected with his life, everything else had been turned into cities and farmland.

Though it was still called a forest, it was effectively no different from a zoo for rare species, and there were even those bold enough to venture deep inside for exploration.

Across the entire Douluo Planet, only the depths of the ocean still held relatively large populations of soul beasts, yet they dared not approach the shores or islands.

Seeing this alone caused Gu Yuena to turn pale with shock, her expression becoming incomparably grave.

Beyond the near-extinction of the soul beasts, the human world was faring no better.

The Silver Dragon King learned from Di Tian that the God Realm had spent a full millennium utilizing countless methods to completely erase the influence of Huang Tian.

The major events that occurred during that period, in chronological order, were as follows:

[Martial Soul Hall was destroyed; the main forces of the Martial Soul Hall legions and the Spirit Pagoda were wiped out. With the divine power of Tang San, Dugu Bo unleashed his ninth soul skill in the center of Martial Soul City, turning the city into a domain of death.]

[Yu Xiaogang publicly declared that all of Huang Tian's research findings were plagiarized from his own work, publishing a new version of martial soul theory that included more detailed classifications, soul ring limits, the advantages of soul spirits, and theories on the compatibility between soul rings and martial souls.]

[Mysterious figures destroyed Slaughter City, allowing Evil Soul Masters to escape and poison the world, plunging the continent into endless war.]

[Policies such as free martial soul awakening by Martial Soul Hall, subsidies for low-level soul masters, and the merit-based recruitment policies of soul master academies were all abolished. Commoners who gathered at the ruins of Martial Soul Hall to petition were reportedly attacked by Evil Soul Masters, with no survivors.]

[The Spirit Pagoda, originally founded by Huang Tian to bridge the relationship between soul beasts and humans, to create and grant soul spirits, and to restrict the abuse of soul spirits, was seized by the Clear Sky Sect.]

[Newspapers originally founded by Huang Tian were filled with reports on the evil deeds of Martial Soul Hall and Huang Tian. Major sects and noble families took turns coming forward to provide testimonials, listing a vast array of evidence and examples. Evil Soul Masters were characterized as the remnants of Huang Tian's conspiracies and Martial Soul Hall, and in a very short time, both became public enemies of humanity.]

[Tang San, the successor of the Sea God and the Asura God, called for a large-scale purge against Huang Tian and Martial Soul Hall. He personally led the Tang Sect and the direct descendants of the Upper Three Sects to destroy a massive number of books on Huang Tian's martial soul theories, hunted down soul masters and commoners who practiced martial arts techniques, and labeled them as evil Huang Tian elements.]

[The policies of the Spirit Pagoda aimed at protecting the soul beast population from extinction—such as the strict prohibition against the wanton slaughter of soul beasts for soul spirits, and the restriction against super-geniuses adding new soul spirits if they could still condense soul rings—were all abolished by the new Pagoda Master.]

[The Sea God and the Asura God announced the total eradication of Martial Soul Hall remnants and Huang Tian elements, with their glorious achievements reported in the papers for seven consecutive days. Aside from a few top-tier sects and families that still possessed the techniques Huang Tian had once published, they were essentially extinct among the common folk.]

[A massive influx of soul masters flooded into the Star Dou Forest to slaughter soul beasts for soul spirits to sell, accelerating the extinction of the soul beasts.]

[The two great empires and three great sects issued a joint order strictly prohibiting free martial soul awakening; violators were to be treated as remnants of Martial Soul Hall, and anyone could kill them without consequence.]

[Soul master academies began implementing a recommendation letter system. Students were required to hold a recommendation letter issued by a noble to join an academy for study. The higher the level of the academy, the higher the requirements for the status and power of the person issuing the letter, and high tuition fees were required.]

Once Huang Tian's influence was erased, the Douluo Continent gradually returned to the dark age that existed before the rise of the Angel God: order collapsed, Evil Soul Masters ran rampant, wars never ceased, and the common people had no hope of ever rising up.

About twenty thousand years later, as the Soul Hunting Forests disappeared one by one and most of the soul beast population went extinct, artificial soul rings and artificial soul spirits were born.

If an ordinary person lacked sufficient background or wealth, they could not awaken their martial soul, could not enter a soul master academy, and now, they could not even obtain a soul ring.

Even though the theoretical world had updated the soul ring limit theory—stating that if one's physique was sufficient and the martial soul and soul ring were compatible, a thousand-year first ring was not impossible—ten-year soul rings were still ubiquitous on the streets.

The great families and sects were nominally under the command of the two empires, but in reality, they were no different from local warlords; they took whatever they wanted from not only the local commoners but even from small and medium-sized soul master families.

Beyond daily bullying, they made the hunting of geniuses outside their own families a top priority.

Yet, in history books and official propaganda, the modern era was described as the happiest time for the common people, and Martial Soul Hall was depicted as a demonic organization that fed on humans.

As for Huang Tian, whether for good or bad, the mention of his existence was strictly forbidden.

Even though she had anticipated that many of the policies Huang Tian spearheaded would be abolished after his disappearance—as they had caused too much damage to the interests of the great sects and families—the Silver Dragon King was still particularly shocked and horrified upon receiving this information.

She could understand Tang San's methods; the more chaotic the world, the more developed and powerful the faith in dark deities became, allowing the Asura God to draw sufficient nourishment from it.

But she could not accept that her lover's dreams, reputation, and life's work had been so poisoned.

Walking through the human world, she saw the cruelty of war with her own eyes, how the nobility bullied and even wantonly tortured and killed commoners, and how Evil Soul Masters created carnage village by village.

Meanwhile, the great families and sects lived in luxury and debauchery, their gates filled with the stench of meat and wine.

The nobility of the Martial Soul Hall era was completely insignificant compared to the present; those so-called evil deeds were not even worth mentioning.

The Silver Dragon King was heartbroken. What pained her was not only the tragic plight of the commoners but also the thought of how angry and pained Huang Tian would be if he saw this, given how altruistic he was.

Hours passed, and the God Realm still had not discovered her presence. Just as the Silver Dragon King was secretly rejoicing, thinking perhaps the God Realm had long since relaxed its surveillance and that both she and Huang Tian might be able to escape, The version of her in her memories suddenly looked up, a massive shock exploding across her plain, unremarkable face, her pupils contracting violently.

Her heart tightened.

Her body stiffened, then began to tremble violently, her vision quickly blurring with tears.

In that instant, she received two messages.

The first was a delayed message left by Huang Tian: "Run. While you still can, run as far as you can. Leave the radiation range of the Douluo God Realm and go explore the vast universe and starry sky."

The second was the clear sensation of an intense battle taking place on the periphery of the Douluo Planet.

Huang Tian had nominally used her as bait to draw the snake out of its hole, but in reality, he had charged toward the God Realm himself, never looking back.