"Now do you understand why I hit you?"
Qiangu Dongfeng set down his teacup. "If you'd really touched that child today, tomorrow the Blood God Legion's fury would have come crashing down on the Spirit Pagoda. Do you think we could withstand the revenge of nine Blood Gods?"
Qiangu Zhangting opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"More importantly—" Qiangu Dongfeng rose and walked over to him. "The Blood God Legion sent someone specifically to escort that child here. His identity is definitely no ordinary matter. Leng Yaozhu received him personally, and was even willing to fall out with us over him... There's a lot more to this than meets the eye."
"Zhangting, you're the future hope of the Qiangu Family. You have to learn to be patient. That child... Don't provoke him for now."
"So we're just going to let this go?!" Qiangu Zhangting gritted his teeth. "I got beaten on my own turf, and I'm supposed to swallow it?!"
"We're not letting it go." Qiangu Dongfeng's gaze grew profound. "We're waiting. Waiting to learn that child's background, waiting to figure out the Blood God Legion's intentions. Until then—"
He stared into Qiangu Zhangting's eyes and enunciated every word. "If you see him, give him a wide berth. That's an order."
Qiangu Zhangting clenched his fists until his knuckles cracked.
Give him a wide berth?
Here, in the Spirit Pagoda, he had to make way for an outsider?
What a disgrace!
But under his grandfather's gaze, he finally lowered his head and forced a single word through his teeth.
"...Yes."
Qiangu Dongfeng nodded in satisfaction and turned toward the inner room. "Go rest. Put some ice on your face."
After the door closed, Qiangu Zhangting slowly raised his head.
There was no obedience in his eyes, only resentment suppressed to the breaking point.
Give him a wide berth?
As if.
This wasn't over!!
Night deepened.
Luo Yang sat cross-legged, Soul Power flowing around him.
Thanks to the Plane Blessing, his cultivation speed was astonishing. Soul Power poured into his meridians like rivers flowing into the sea, with almost no bottlenecks or resistance.
At this rate, becoming a Limit Douluo before twenty was no pipe dream.
"Now this is what you call a cheat code..."
Luo Yang opened his eyes and felt the surging power within him, sighing softly.
In his previous life, when he read novels, he'd always thought Huo Yuhao and Tang Wulin's speed of advancement was absurd.
Only after experiencing it himself did he understand—with the buff of being the "world's darling," cultivating really was as easy as breathing.
Just then, someone knocked.
"Luo Yang, are you asleep?"
Before he could answer, the door opened.
Leng Yaozhu walked in wearing a silk nightgown.
Her wine-red hair spilled over her shoulders. The neckline of her gown fell just right, revealing her delicate collarbones and a hint of snowy skin. The thin fabric faintly outlined her graceful curves in the lamplight.
Luo Yang: "...?"
"I was worried you wouldn't be used to sleeping alone on your first night," Leng Yaozhu said, walking naturally over to sit on the bed. "Aunt Leng came to keep you company."
Wait, what wouldn't I be used to about sleeping alone?
Luo Yang was full of questions.
And dressed like that... Who was keeping whom company?
"Aunt Leng, I'll be fine on my own." He tried to keep his voice steady.
"Really?" Leng Yaozhu tilted her head, her red eyes looking especially alluring in the light.
"Really." Luo Yang nodded firmly.
"All right." Leng Yaozhu stood and walked to the door.
Luo Yang breathed a sigh of relief.
Then he heard her say:
"Then I'll come again tomorrow night."
The door closed.
Luo Yang: "..."
He sat still for a few seconds, then raised a hand and rubbed his brow.
He really did feel like he'd awakened a Succubus Martial Soul...
Shaking his head, he gathered his thoughts and stirred his mind.
"Come out."
In the shadows in the corner of the room, space rippled.
A graceful figure in purple slowly appeared.
Bibi Dong.
So beautiful it took your breath away.
Her purple hair cascaded like a waterfall, her eyes sparkled like stars, and her violet gown made her skin look as white as snow.
Most dangerous of all was her aura: the majesty of an empress and the fatal allure of a woman, perfectly fused into a suffocating charm.
"I saw everything that happened today." Bibi Dong walked to the window, her back to Luo Yang. "Would you like me to help you... wipe out the entire Qiangu Family?"
Truth be told, Luo Yang was tempted.
In the original story, the Qiangu Family had committed countless vile deeds: colluding with the Holy Spirit Cult, experimenting on living people, and even provoking beast tides for profit...
Calling them a cancer was putting it mildly.
Wiping them out would be a public service.
But in the end, he shook his head.
"What?" Bibi Dong turned around and raised an eyebrow. "Don't trust my strength?"
"No," Luo Yang said. "You can't reveal your identity yet. You'll be more useful staying in the shadows than stepping into the light."
Bibi Dong was his greatest trump card.
Even as nothing more than a remnant soul, a former god could wield power beyond imagination. He had to save that card for the most crucial moment.
More importantly, he didn't want to disrupt the plot too soon.
Ever since crossing into this world, he'd been able to plan every step thanks to his foreknowledge of the "original story."
If the butterfly effect spiraled out of control and the plot veered completely off course, he'd lose his advantage entirely.
"Let the Qiangu Family be for now," Luo Yang said. "They're still useful."
Bibi Dong looked at him deeply but didn't press the matter.
"There is something I need you to do, though." Luo Yang walked to the desk and spread out a map of the continent. "Find two people—no, two Soul Beasts."
"Who?"
"The Titan Giant Ape and the Sky Azure Bull Python." Luo Yang traced a finger over the map. "In other words... Daming and Erming."
Bibi Dong's pupils contracted sharply.
"Those two beasts... are still alive?!" For the first time, her voice betrayed a clear emotion: bone-deep hatred.
"They're alive, and doing quite well," Luo Yang said calmly. "After Tang San became a god, he brought them to the Divine Realm too. But they couldn't adjust to life there, so they returned to Douluo Continent and have been living in seclusion ever since."
Bibi Dong clenched her fists, her nails digging into her palms.
She hated everyone connected to Tang San.
Especially those two beasts—if they hadn't been there back then, she might not have ended up on that path...
"Capturing them is secondary," Luo Yang continued. "The most important thing is the 'small plane' they created."
"A small plane?"
"A space independent of the main world," Luo Yang explained. "At first, they used it as a refuge for endangered Soul Beasts. Later, it developed into the Ten Thousand Beast Platform. That place... will be very useful."
In the original story, the Ten Thousand Beast Platform expanded by absorbing Abyssal energy, eventually recovering to the scale of the Star Dou Forest and becoming the last sanctuary of the Soul Beasts.
But Luo Yang had no intention of using it to raise Soul Beasts.
He had bigger plans.
"How do we find them?" Bibi Dong asked.
In her current state, taking on two Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts wouldn't be difficult. The problem was that those two had been hiding for ten thousand years. Who knew what remote corner they were tucked away in?
"Simple." Luo Yang smiled.
Getting Daming and Erming to show themselves was actually easy.
They'd both once used the aliases "Niu Tian" and "Tai Tan" and served as sect masters of the Clear Sky Sect. Even though they were living in seclusion now, they would never stand by if the Clear Sky Sect were in danger.
"Go to the Clear Sky Sect," Luo Yang said. "Make a little trouble. Nothing too serious—just enough to make them feel threatened. Once they show themselves—"
He looked at Bibi Dong. "Capture them and bring them back."
The corner of Bibi Dong's mouth slowly curled upward.
Cold and cruel, it carried the hatred she had kept buried for ten thousand years.
"Good," she said. "I've waited... so long for this day."
A flash of purple light, and she vanished from the room.
Luo Yang walked to the window and gazed at the dazzling nightscape outside.
The lights of Shrek City stretched all the way to the horizon.
The Spirit Pagoda's shadow sprawled across the street like a colossal beast lying in wait.
He held out a hand, and the phantom of the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff Soul Spirit appeared in his palm. The little fellow rubbed against his fingers and let out a contented purr.
"It's begun," Luo Yang murmured.
The board was set.
Now it was time to move the pieces.