A New Era

For a long time, the strongest person on Douluo Planet, Heaven-Propping Douluo, had been hailed as the god of a new era.

Compared with Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao from ten thousand years ago,

and Thousand-Hand Douluo Tang San, founder of the Tang Sect twenty thousand years ago,

he was surely every bit their equal.

Many people felt that these three were like kings who would never meet.

If the Divine Realm had not disappeared, perhaps Heaven-Propping Douluo Yun Ming would have become a god long ago.

But now, that title had passed to someone else.

The greatest genius of this era was no longer the Sea God Pavilion Master, Heaven-Propping Douluo Yun Ming,

but Mu Han, who had reached the demigod level at the age of just fifteen.

Yun Ming had become a Titled Douluo at twenty-three, a Super Douluo at twenty-six, and a Limit Douluo at thirty-one.

He had worked a miracle and become a legend of his era.

But now, one legend had been eclipsed by another:

At just fifteen, Mu Han had not only reached the level of a Titled Douluo, but had ascended straight to the rank of a Limit Douluo demigod!

More importantly, not long after he returned to the Federation, the Blacksmith Association announced that he was a Divine Craftsman.

After extensive confirmation, he had officially become the second person capable of Heaven Forging, after Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua.

And shortly after the Blacksmith Association confirmed it, Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua cited health reasons and announced his formal retirement,

saying he would no longer accept any Heaven Forging requests and would devote most of his time to teaching.

This meant that Mu Han was now the only person capable of Heaven Forging and making Four-Word Battle Armor.

But Mu Han was not Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua.

Divine Craftsman Zhen Hua had only the Blacksmith Association behind him.

Mu Han, on the other hand, also had the Fatui behind him—or rather, he had founded the Fatui himself.

Heavenly Phoenix Douluo Leng Yaozhu had already been a Four-Word Battle Armor Master.

But Emperor Sword Douluo Long Tianwu and Divine Sword Douluo Su Mengjun had originally only been Three-Word Battle Armor Masters.

Now they had both reached the Four-Word Battle Armor level, and their cultivation had risen another tier as well.

It could be said that the Fatui's high-level combat strength was already the strongest in the entire Federation.

Shrek Academy had only two Limit Douluos: Heaven-Propping Douluo and Light and Dark Douluo.

Light and Dark Douluo, moreover, remained hidden. Most people probably thought he was dead, right?

The Spirit Pagoda had a full four Limit Douluos, three of whom came from the Qiangu Family.

But it had only two Four-Word Battle Armor Masters.

The War God Temple likewise had only two Limit Douluos: Vast Sea Douluo and Surpassing Heaven Douluo.

The Tang Sect was no different.

It could be said that the Fatui's high-level combat strength now surpassed that of the Federation's four major powers.

And though its foundations were a little weaker, it was still undeniably a nouveau riche.

Mass-produced One-Word Battle Armor made from Spirit Alloy.

Thunder Hell Vine Soul Rings and Soul Bones,

as well as the Beast Soul Weaponization Project, which could mass-produce Soul Saints.

At the Soul Saint level, one's status was already comparable to that of an administrative head of a second-tier city.

And one had to remember that Soul Saints could wear Three-Word Battle Armor.

Moreover, "mass-produced One-Word Battle Armor made from Spirit Alloy" also had the ability to upgrade directly.

Could Mu Han mass-produce Three-Word Battle Armor Masters, then?

After all, most of the War Gods in the War God Temple,

and the elders of the Sea God Pavilion,

as well as the Spirit Pagoda's four Spirit Envoys and even its vice tower master, were all Three-Word Battle Armor Masters!

If the Fatui could mass-produce Three-Word Battle Armor Masters, wouldn't that be defying the heavens?

And if they also added all those ten-thousand-year Thunder Hell Vine Soul Rings and Soul Bones,

wouldn't they be able to mass-produce Titled Douluos, or even Four-Word Battle Armor Masters?

In fact, Mu Han really did have such a plan.

But it wasn't to build up an army. He wanted to find suitable Battle Armor Domains.

No one could determine the final form of a Battle Armor Domain,

not even the Battle Armor Master or the person who forged the Battle Armor.

Only when a Soul Master fused with their own Battle Armor, at the moment the armor fully took shape,

would a Three-Word Battle Armor Domain condense according to the Soul Master's abilities and the Battle Armor's characteristics.

Mu Han intended to build upon the Sacred Dragon Domain, then gather four other domains that were relatively compatible with it.

After all, his Three-Word Battle Armor could fuse with five Battle Armor Domains.

But Battle Armor Domains weren't better just because they were stronger.

Compatibility was what mattered most.

His Three-Word Battle Armor was called the Mechanical Dragon; its Four-Word Battle Armor would be the Mechanical Dragon God.

So the foundation of its domain was the Sacred Dragon Domain of Holy Dragon Douluo En Ci.

On that foundation, he would fuse four more domains.

The more Three-Word Battle Armor Masters there were, the more options he would have.

As long as all five domains were compatible enough, his Battle Armor could rise to the Heaven Forging level on its own.

Then it would evolve into Four-Word Battle Armor by itself!

That was why he needed to forge so many Three-Word Battle Armor sets, and even Four-Word Battle Armor sets.

But the Fatui had also reached an extraordinary level of strength in a very short time.

Nothing like this had ever happened in the entire history of the Federation,

and the situation had filled the Federation from top to bottom with anxiety.

When a faction grew this powerful, it was already capable of shaking the foundations of the Federation's rule.

But the Federation truly had no way to deal with them.

Even Shrek, powerful as it was and supposedly isolated from the world,

was in truth merely indifferent to worldly affairs.

The Fatui, however, genuinely didn't care about anything.

They were somewhat like Sea God Island twenty thousand years ago.

Back then, Spirit Hall was the recognized orthodox power of the Soul Master World.

Then there were the two great empires, the Upper Three Sects, and the Lower Four Sects.

There were also plenty of hidden sects, but most of them had some dealings with Spirit Hall.

Sea God Island, however, was an exception.

As for the present day,

if the Federation was the equivalent of Spirit Hall,

then Shrek Academy, the Tang Sect, and the Spirit Pagoda were the Upper Three Sects.

The War God Temple, meanwhile, was the equivalent of the Lower Four Sects from twenty thousand years ago.

Just as the Lower Four Sects had been subordinate to Spirit Hall, the War God Temple was directly under the Federal Council.

There were also many hidden sects and hidden families.

But they all had some connection to the Federation—or rather, they were all part of the Federation, even if they didn't serve it.

The Fatui were different. Although they were part of the Federation, they weren't even a formal organization.

They had enormous influence, yet no fixed assets.

In the original story, the Federation had used the Spirit Pagoda, and the Spirit Pagoda had used the Holy Spirit Cult, to blow up Shrek City.

In a sense, the Federation had used someone else's knife to kill, blowing up Shrek Academy.

But what could the Federation do now to deal with the Fatui?

They didn't even know where to drop a bomb.

They could blow up Mu Han, sure. Then the Fatui would be left leaderless—and go completely berserk.

Besides, Mu Han wasn't so easy to blow up.

In the original story, if Heaven-Propping Douluo wanted to leave, no one could stop him.

Not even two God-Slaying missiles, let alone all three at once, would do the trick.

Mu Han was still no match for Yun Ming one-on-one, but if he wanted to leave, the others truly couldn't stop him.

If anything, Mu Han himself was like a human-shaped God-Slaying missile. A full-power strike could level a city in minutes.

What could the Federation do about him?

On the contrary, plenty of powerful people came seeking him out.

Some even brought their entire families along.

Four-Word Battle Armor was far too tempting to Titled Douluos,

and Holy Dragon Douluo En Ci was willing to sacrifice at least ten years of his life for it.

Compared to that, what was serving the Fatui?