Shrek City, Sea God Pavilion.
Yan Shaozhe, Xian Lin'er, and the other elders were all drenched in sweat, as if they had just been hauled out of water.
"So this is... what he would have become if he hadn't joined Shrek, if he had joined the Body Sect instead?" Yan Shaozhe's voice was painfully hoarse.
In the Sky Screen, Shrek Academy hadn't been destroyed outright, but it had become the Body Sect's "subsidiary academy." That humiliation was worse than death.
Especially when they saw the contract signed beneath the Sea God statue. It was as if Shrek's ten-thousand-year pride had been torn to shreds and tossed into a cesspit.
"No... This can't be real."
Ma Xiaotao covered her mouth, fighting back her tears.
In the first world, she had already looked forward to taking in such a "little brother" in reality, too. She had even been waiting for Yuhao to arrive.
Yet the cold, sinister Huo Yuhao in this world, who could wipe out entire legions at the drop of a hat, was a far cry from the gentle junior brother she had imagined. He had even destroyed Shrek Academy.
"Did you see how he controlled the undead?"
Xuan Zi's voice was filled with profound helplessness. "An Evil Soul Master—he's using the methods of an Evil Soul Master to rule the world. Yet he uses petty favors and despicable tricks to win over the ignorant masses, dressing the Body Sect in the robes of righteousness."
"The most terrifying thing is that the whole world is powerless against him. If our great ancestor, the Sea God, hadn't stepped in, that world would have been utterly finished..."
Mu En sat in his wheelchair, his eyes filled with the sorrow of one who had seen fate laid bare. "We spoke earlier of 'guiding' the Child of Destiny, yet we never considered whether we'd still have the right to sit there and pass judgment if the Child of Destiny chose to 'rule' this world... Perhaps we were wrong to use him that way in the first world."
"Shaozhe, do you understand now? That Huo Yuhao isn't taking revenge. He's rebuilding the order of the world. He doesn't need Shrek's theory of 'monsters,' because in front of him, everyone is an ant... That's how Huo Yuhao sees this world."
Mu En's voice grew detached, emptied of all emotion.
"Teacher, do you mean..."
Yan Shaozhe asked, his voice trembling faintly.
Unexpectedly, Mu En shook his head.
"Whatever we do now, it's already too late. The images in the Sky Screen have set the course of everything."
"Now... all we can do is hope. At the very least, there's still someone in this world who can deal with Huo Yuhao."
As he spoke, Mu En finally raised his head and looked toward the ceiling above.
At that moment, Xuan Zi, Yan Shaozhe, and the others exchanged another glance. They saw the same helplessness in one another's eyes, along with a faint chill.
Meanwhile, at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest, the Body Sect experts searching for Huo Yuhao had fallen into a frenzy of adoration.
"Hahahaha! Now that's the true emperor of my Body Sect!" Du Busi, who had rushed there in person, laughed up at the sky, his voice shattering the surrounding trees.
He gazed at the "Body" battle flag billowing in the Sky Screen, tears of joy in his eyes.
"Did you see that, Vina? Sun Moon technology, Shrek's glory—what are they compared to the absolute power of the Body Martial Soul? Make the self your world, wield the gods to rule the world! That is the highest realm of the Secret of the Body!"
Although Princess Vina had also gone pale at the sight of those bloody methods, a strange fervor flickered in her eyes.
As a member of the imperial family, she understood the taste of power better than anyone. The man who had ruled the entire continent and forced even a God King to yield exuded a suffocating allure.
"Sect Master, we must find him," Vina said firmly. "No matter which world's Huo Yuhao he is, he must belong to the Body Sect. If he falls into someone else's hands, the nightmare from the first world in the Sky Screen—the Body Sect's destruction and decline—will become reality!"
"Move out! Find him before anyone else does! Huo Yuhao, your master is coming!"
Du Busi laughed heartily. Soul Power swept up the group, and they plunged into the Star Dou Great Forest.
The images in the Sky Screen shifted once more.
Even after the Sun Moon Empire had bowed beneath the Body Sect's tyranny, Huo Yuhao didn't stop advancing. In the image, he stood atop the former imperial city of the Heavenly Soul Empire, with Vina at his side. Her pregnancy was showing, and her face radiated happiness, tempered by the bearing of someone accustomed to command.
"I told you I'd give you an empire."
Huo Yuhao spoke softly. He looked down at the old imperial capital, its streets ravaged by war. Countless construction Soul Tools rumbled amid the ruins, rebuilding the city.
In just a few short months, a grander capital than before rose from the ground. A long-lost flag flew above the imperial palace—not the banner of Heavenly Soul or Dou Ling, but the flag that had once united the Heaven Dou Empire!
In Heaven Dou City, countless old people gazed at that flag, their hearts overflowing with emotion and their eyes brimming with tears.
This was not the weak Heaven Dou of old. With the Body Sect as its anchor, it was a colossus that had swallowed up the former territories of the Heavenly Soul and Dou Ling Empires and was backed by the technology of the Sun Moon Empire! Huo Yuhao and Vina's eldest son was installed as the young emperor, while Huo Yuhao ruled half the continent in all but name as both "Regent" and "Sect Master of the Body Sect."
At that moment, beyond the Sky Screen, in the Star Luo Imperial Palace,
Xu Jiawei slumped on the dragon throne. As he watched the flag bearing a silver Spirit Eye and the words "Body" spread across the north, fear welled up inside him.
"The Heaven Dou Empire... has appeared again. And it's effectively formed an alliance with the Sun Moon Empire. In this world, I'm afraid both the Star Luo Empire and Shrek Academy are finished!"
Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao's gaze in the Sky Screen had already turned toward the distant western edge of the sea.
"The remnants of Star Luo think they can cling to life by fleeing to that barren new continent?"
Huo Yuhao sneered. "I'll show you what it means to pursue the fleeing enemy while you still have strength, and not stay your hand for the sake of a hollow reputation. I won't make the same mistake as the Great Elder of the Spirit Hall when he let the Clear Sky Sect go..."
The scene shifted. Across the sea, countless enormous, all-metal warships surged through the waves. They were the "Cross-Sea Conquerors," built by combining the Sun Moon Empire's finest power systems with the forging techniques passed down by Electrolux.
Huo Yuhao stood with his hands behind his back at the dragon-headed prow of the flagship. His black hair whipped wildly in the wind, and he looked like a demon god descending upon the world.
This could hardly even be called a war. It was a massacre.
The remnants of the Star Luo Empire's coastal defenses collapsed instantly beneath the Soul Nuclear Blast. The soldiers couldn't even cry out before their Sea of Consciousness shattered, turning them into walking corpses.