The Plot Begins

Time on the Douluo Continent has always moved faster than one might imagine.

Two hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.

For soul beasts and deities who live for hundreds of thousands of years, two centuries are but a fleeting moment, yet for the mortal-dominated Douluo Continent, it is enough to turn the world upside down and reshape the entire landscape.

Two hundred years ago, Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue walked out of the Star Dou Forest with the immortal herbs and resources bestowed upon them by Gu Yuan, planting their first chess piece in the northern border city of the Heaven Dou Empire under the name of "Douluo Hall."

No one expected this obscure little force to stir up a storm that would sweep across the entire continent in just two hundred years.

They strictly followed the layout set by Gu Yuan, and from the very first branch hall, they carved "free martial soul awakening for commoners" into the foundation of Douluo Hall.

Regardless of wealth or status, regardless of family background, anyone could receive a free martial soul awakening at Douluo Hall; those with outstanding talent would even receive full funding from the hall, gaining access to cultivation techniques and soul ring resources.

This rule spread like a wildfire, instantly consuming the entire Douluo Continent.

Initially, Douluo Hall was suppressed for threatening the interests of major powers, but in the face of absolute strength, such obstacles were brushed aside in an instant.

Those short-sighted fools were dealt with by Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue with a wave of their hands, and from then on, no one dared to openly trouble Douluo Hall.

Ever since the fall of Martial Soul Hall, commoner soul masters had remained at the bottom of the continent for ten thousand years, never even having the chance to awaken their martial souls, let alone obtain cultivation resources.

Shrek Academy only accepted monsters, and the major sects and nobles held a tight grip on soul master resources; for a commoner soul master to rise was as difficult as ascending to the heavens.

The emergence of Douluo Hall gave them their only light.

In just fifty years, branches of Douluo Hall spread to every city in the Heavenly Soul, Dou Ling, and Star Luo empires, and even remote villages had awakening masters stationed there.

Countless buried commoner geniuses were discovered and cultivated by Douluo Hall, growing step by step into powerful soul masters; their loyalty to Douluo Hall was etched into their very marrow.

By the one-hundred-year mark, Douluo Hall already possessed tens of thousands of registered soul masters, and the number of Title Douluo was a terrifying figure, with countless Soul Douluo and Soul Saints among them.

The remnants of the old Martial Soul Hall, having operated in the shadows for ten thousand years, all surfaced; the military and courts of the three empires were filled with the presence of Douluo Hall, and even Mingde Hall of the Star Luo Empire had reached a partnership with them.

At the one-hundred-fifty-year mark, the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect officially announced its affiliation with Douluo Hall.

The Aromatic Silk Beauty broke the shackles of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda that had been passed down for generations, and two successive sect masters, nourished by the immortal herb, evolved their Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda into the true Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda, doubling their support capabilities and even allowing them to boost Limit Douluo across ranks.

The addition of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect was like giving Douluo Hall a pair of wings; countless sects ostracized by Shrek Academy flocked to them, and the influence of Douluo Hall saw explosive growth.

Two hundred years later, Douluo Hall is no longer the small border-town force it once was.

It stands on equal footing with Shrek Academy, having become one of the continent's recognized giants, with a reputation among the common people that far exceeds the high-and-mighty Shrek.

In the hearts of commoner soul masters, Douluo Hall is their holy land and their only sanctuary; the name "Douluo Hall" has long since surpassed the old Martial Soul Hall, becoming a faith carved into the hearts of countless people.

Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue, who created all of this, never interfered in worldly affairs thereafter.

A century ago, the two had already handed over the daily operations of Douluo Hall to a carefully cultivated core elder group, only descending their divine senses from afar to steer the direction when the continent's landscape underwent drastic changes.

At this moment, they are deep within the Temple of Eternal Annihilation at the core of the Douluo Hall headquarters, in closed-door meditation to stabilize their God King foundations.

Qian Renxue fused with the God Core of the God of Eternity, using the origin of the Angel God as her base and the laws of eternity as her bones to achieve a true God King foundation.

She pioneered her own path to divinity, and her Twelve-Winged Eternal Angel wings, when unfurled, are enough to illuminate the entire Douluo Continent.

She is using the faith of the billions of commoners across the continent to temper her godhood bit by bit, perfecting every detail of the eternal laws, ensuring her God King realm is completely flawless.

Bibi Dong mastered the Annihilation God Core; two hundred years of settling smoothed out the paranoia and hostility in her heart, making her mind even more unfathomable and her decisiveness even sharper than before.

Deep within the temple, she uses the power of endless faith to nourish the origin of annihilation, allowing the laws of annihilation to fuse completely with her soul as she moves steadily toward the future.

For the two of them, the faith of billions is the spark to temper their god positions; only by completely absorbing the two god cores can they have the confidence to confront Tang San head-on in the final battle of the God Realm.

During these two hundred years, the Star Dou Forest has also undergone earth-shaking changes.

Gu Yuan sits at the Life Lake, using the Dragon God Heart to nourish the entire Star Dou, and the soul beast clan has ushered in an unprecedented period of prosperity.

Di Tian broke through the nine-hundred-thousand-year bottleneck, achieving the body of a true god, only one step away from the realm of a true divine beast.

Bi Ji, Bear Lord, Ten Thousand Demon King, and other fierce beasts have all broken their own shackles, their strength surging several times over.

The Star Dou Forest, once nibbled away by humans step by step, has redrawn its boundaries; human soul-hunting teams no longer dare to step into the core area at will, and even those in the outer-middle regions must weigh their own lives carefully.

More importantly, Gu Yuena has fully recovered from her injuries by relying on the Dragon God Heart.

This Silver Dragon King not only repaired all the injuries inflicted upon her by the Five Great God Kings back then, but also broke through the shackles of her realm after her soul split, achieving the status of a half-step God King.

She and Gu Yuan sit together in Star Dou, using the Dragon God's laws of creation and destruction to nourish this land, not only supporting the heavens for the soul beast clan but also turning the entire Star Dou Forest into an absolute forbidden zone that even the divine sense of the God Realm cannot easily probe.

On this day, inside the Crystal Palace at the bottom of the Life Lake, two figures sit facing each other.

On the main seat, Gu Yuan wears a black brocade robe, his ink-colored hair draped down, and his body is surrounded by faint nine-colored dragon patterns; his deep eyes seem to contain the universe and stars, the vicissitudes and majesty of eons settling ever more heavily upon him.

Sitting opposite him is Gu Yuena in a long silver-white dress.

Her silver hair flows like moonlight, her purple-gold dragon pupils are clear and majestic, and she is surrounded by the vast and boundless aura of life and creation, which echoes the dragon might on Gu Yuan, shrouding the entire palace in a supreme dragon pressure.

"After two hundred years of layout, Douluo Hall has established a firm foundation, Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue are about to fully refine their god cores, and the vitality of the soul beast clan has been fully restored," Gu Yuena spoke first, her voice as clear as a spring, carrying the unique majesty of the dragon race.

"According to the future trajectory you saw, the timeline has arrived, hasn't it?"

"That's right, the time has come." Gu Yuan nodded slowly, his fingertips tapping lightly on the crystal stone table in front of him, and a light screen instantly unfolded before them.

The screen clearly displayed a small forest path leading to the Star Dou Forest at the border between the Star Luo Empire and the Heaven Dou Empire.

A small figure is carrying a simple pack, walking step by step toward the Star Dou Forest.

It is a boy of about ten years old, thin and frail, wearing coarse cloth clothes washed until they are white, with unhealed bruises on his face, clearly having been bullied not long ago.

Yet his eyes were startlingly bright; within those pale blue pupils lay a resilience and stubbornness that belied his age. Even with the peril-ridden Star Dou Forest lying ahead, he did not show the slightest sign of retreat.

"His name is Huo Yuhao, the Child of Destiny for the Douluo Continent," Gu Yuan's voice rang out slowly, carrying the calm of one who sees through the future.

"He is the one I told you about back then—the person who, in the original trajectory of fate, would inherit the position of God of Emotions in the God Realm, become the son-in-law of Tang San, and thoroughly solidify his rule over the God Realm. According to the timeline, he will step into the Star Dou Forest today, beginning the legend of his life."

Gu Yuena's purple-gold dragon pupils fell upon the youth in the light screen. She studied him for a moment, her brows slightly furrowed: "His Innate Soul Power is only level one. Although his Spirit Eye martial soul is a rare mental type, it is far too weak. Without a miraculous encounter, he will never achieve anything great in his lifetime."

Gu Yuena sighed that this so-called Child of Destiny had a poor starting point; one could even call it miserable.

But the blanker the slate, the easier it was to carve a mark upon it. In the end, Huo Yuhao would naturally become Tang San's most obedient pawn.

She paused, lifting her eyes to look at Gu Yuan, her tone tinged with a hint of coldness: "Since he is Tang San's pawn, wouldn't killing him outright be the simplest solution? With our current power, even if Tang San were to descend his divine sense across the plane, he wouldn't perceive a thing."

"Kill him, and there will be a second or third Huo Yuhao," Gu Yuan shook his head, rejecting the idea.

As expected, the wisdom of our Silver Dragon King is still too shocking, Gu Yuan could not help but sigh inwardly.

"What Tang San can calculate is his original trajectory of fate. But now, his fate shall be written by us. Killing him would be too much of a waste."

Gu Yuena raised an eyebrow, instantly understanding his intention, and a flash of realization crossed her purple-gold eyes: "You mean?"

Gu Yuan smiled, a depth of strategic mastery flickering in the depths of his eyes.

"Tang San wants to cultivate him into his own pawn, so we will turn him into our person. We will pave a wider and higher path for him, giving him the strength to break free from Tang San's control and become the sharpest blade we have to oppose the God Realm and Tang San."

"This is the God-Making Plan I have been plotting for two hundred years."

As the words fell, Gu Yuan snapped his fingers. A streak of white light flew in from outside the palace, landing before the two and transforming into a chubby, round white worm—none other than the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.

In the two hundred years that had passed, under the dual nourishment of Gu Yuan's Dragon God origin and Gu Yuena's laws of life, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm was no longer the fat worm of the past that could only run away, possessing a million years of mental power but not a shred of combat ability.

His body was wreathed in a brilliant ice-blue halo; his million-year cultivation was incredibly solid, and his mental power was vast and boundless, even faintly touching the threshold of the god level.

His once-hollow origin had been completely restored, and his eight short legs were engraved with ice-attribute law patterns. His strength had skyrocketed hundreds of times over compared to two hundred years ago.

"Greetings, my two Sovereigns!" The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm shook his chubby body, bowing respectfully to Gu Yuan and Gu Yuena, his tone filled with heartfelt reverence.

Two hundred years ago, it was Gu Yuan who gave him a new life and true dignity, sparing him from being treated as mere nourishment. He had remembered this kindness for two full centuries.

"Tian Meng, the opportunity I spoke to you about back then has arrived," Gu Yuan said, looking at him.

"I need you to become this youth's first soul ring, becoming the first cornerstone of his growth."

Upon hearing this, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm did not show the slightest resistance; instead, his small eyes lit up instantly, and he shook his body in excitement: "Lord Dragon God! Your plan is exactly the same as what I had originally intended!"

Even Gu Yuena revealed a look of surprise at these words.

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm hurriedly explained: "My Sovereign may not know, but although I relied on the Extreme North Ice Marrow to lie my way to a million years of cultivation, I ultimately took a shortcut. Even with Lord Dragon God helping me restore my origin, the talent of my Ice Silkworm clan dictates that I can never truly become a god."

As he said this, Tian Meng began to fidget shyly; after all, he was admitting he was a beast who only knew how to win by lying down, which was quite embarrassing.

"So I had long since decided: rather than waiting for the heavenly tribulation to arrive and have my soul destroyed, it would be better to find a host with excellent talent and a resilient nature to sacrifice my million years of cultivation and become his intelligent soul ring. In this way, I can borrow the host's growth, and when the host becomes a god in the future, I can follow him to truly enter the God Realm and obtain eternal life!"

Speaking of this, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm looked at Huo Yuhao in the light screen, his eyes shining even brighter: "This youth's martial soul is the mental-type Spirit Eye, which perfectly matches my mental power!"

Gu Yuan looked at him and smiled faintly. He had long known of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's original choice from his memories of the future; all of this was already within his calculations.

"It is best that you have thought it through." Gu Yuan raised his hand, and a brilliant nine-colored dragon power flew out. Gu Yuena's fingertips also moved, and a wisp of the ultimate law of life merged into it, both forces flowing into the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's body.

"These two forces will accompany you into that youth's body; let us make our person even more of a genius! Once the future plan succeeds, I will personally help you restore your physical body."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm trembled violently and bowed deeply to the two: "Thank you, Sovereigns! I will certainly not fail your trust and will cultivate this youth into the top powerhouse of the continent!"

His original plan had been merely to survive by clinging to a host; being able to preserve his soul would have been a stroke of great luck.

Yet Gu Yuan and Gu Yuena had actually given him a chance at physical resurrection. This kindness was heavier than the heavens.

"No time to lose, we leave now," Gu Yuan stood up, his gaze fixed on the outer reaches of the Star Dou Forest.

"He has already stepped into the territory of the Star Dou Forest; any later and we will miss the best opportunity."

As the words fell, the three figures instantly vanished from the Crystal Palace.

Without any earth-shattering spatial fluctuations, Gu Yuan wrapped Gu Yuena and the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm in his Dragon God laws, crossing a distance of hundreds of miles in a single flash and appearing in the outer region of the Star Dou Forest.