Shrek City, Spirit Pagoda Headquarters.
A towering platinum-white structure soared into the clouds: the tallest building on the continent.
Federation regulations explicitly prohibited any new building from surpassing its height. It was the most direct acknowledgment of the Spirit Pagoda's standing.
At that moment, at the top of the tower.
A vast, open-plan office occupied the entire floor. Its enormous floor-to-ceiling windows offered an unobstructed view of all Shrek City, with the clouds seemingly close enough to touch.
A tall, graceful figure stood quietly before the window.
Sunlight streamed through the glass, gilding her in gold.
She wore a long gown as dazzling as a blaze, its contours tracing a breathtaking figure. Even without seeing her face, one could tell from her graceful form alone that she was an incomparable beauty.
"Lady Heavenly Phoenix."
Two twin sisters entered after knocking and stopped five paces from the woman, bowing respectfully.
The woman turned around slowly.
The sunlight fell just right, illuminating her face.
Her beauty took one's breath away.
Her features were as exquisite as if carved by a divine artisan. Her brows and eyes held both classical gentleness and the authority of one long accustomed to power.
Most striking were her crimson eyes, deep and fiery as molten jewels.
The Spirit Pagoda's Vice Pagoda Master, head of the Leng Family, and a Level 98 Super Douluo.
Leng Yaozhu.
"How is the progress on Artificial Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Spirits?" she asked, her voice cool as jade.
"Slow," Bai Haoze replied. "We're currently stuck at the 'intelligence generation' stage. We still haven't found a breakthrough in how to give Artificial Soul Spirits the self-awareness of Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts..."
The twin sisters looked almost identical, both as delicate as fairies from a storybook. But Bai Haoze, the elder sister, had sky-blue eyes, while her younger sister, Bai Zhicen, had forest-green ones.
"Just as expected." Leng Yaozhu's red lips parted.
Once a Soul Beast reached ten thousand years, it developed rudimentary intelligence. The same was true of a Soul Spirit.
But Artificial Soul Spirits were different. With existing Soul Guidance Technology, those below a thousand years could be mass-produced. The ten-thousand-year level, however, remained purely theoretical.
The greatest obstacle was how to endow them with "consciousness."
It was tantamount to making a soul emerge from Soul Guidance Technology.
If they could make that breakthrough, Soul Masters might no longer need to rely on Soul Beasts. After all, the Soul Beasts on the continent were now on the brink of extinction, and every living one was precious.
Bai Zhicen hesitated, as if she wanted to speak.
"Go on." Leng Yaozhu's gaze swept over her.
"Lady Heavenly Phoenix..." Bai Zhicen bit her lip. "The various research teams... urgently need Soul Beast specimens."
Leng Yaozhu's lovely brows knitted slightly. "I remember we replenished our supply just last month, from the protected area on the edge of Star Dou Forest. How could they have been used up so quickly?"
Bai Haoze and Bai Zhicen exchanged a glance.
"Those..." Bai Zhicen lowered her head. "They were all taken away by Pagoda Master Qiangu. Not just last month, either. Over the past six months, he's taken seventy percent of the Soul Beasts stored at headquarters under the pretext of 'special research.' Their whereabouts are unknown."
The elder sister, Bai Haoze, was indignant. "The vast majority of those Soul Beasts were taken away by Pagoda Master Qiangu under the pretext of 'urgent needs for a special project.' It wasn't just that last time. Over the past six months, more than seventy percent of the living Soul Beasts in the headquarters' reserves have gone to unknown destinations. We can't even look up what they're being used for."
Bai Zhicen also couldn't help murmuring, "Lady Heavenly Phoenix, if this goes on... people are privately saying that the Spirit Pagoda is about to become the Qiangu Family's private property. They make every decision about resource allocation."
Leng Yaozhu fell silent.
When the Spirit Pagoda was first established, it had been jointly governed by more than a dozen families, each keeping the others in check. But over a thousand years, some families had declined and others had died out. Now only the Leng and Qiangu families remained.
The Qiangu Family, meanwhile, had flourished, with children aplenty and one talented member after another.
The Leng Family, by contrast...
A shadow passed through Leng Yaozhu's eyes.
The once-famous "Leng Family's Twin Beauties": her younger sister, Leng Yulai, had fallen to the dark side and become an Evil Soul Master, while she... stood alone, still unmarried.
The Leng Family's main line was on the verge of dying out. With no fresh blood and no promising successors among the top talents, its influence in the game of power was naturally dwindling.
Her position as Vice Pagoda Master looked prestigious, but much of her real authority had already been hollowed out.
If only the Leng Family could produce a single genius, things would never have come to this.
"I understand."
She withdrew her gaze, her tone revealing nothing of her feelings. "Since the experiments need them, find another way. Apply to the Federation's Soul Beast Protection Bureau for a special quota in my name, then capture some more."
"Yes!"
The Bai sisters answered in unison, understanding that this was the greatest effort Leng Yaozhu could make within the limits of her current authority.
"There's one more matter, my lady." Bai Haoze took a letter from her robe. It looked archaic and bore no modern postmarks. The envelope carried only an insignia like a long sword dripping with blood.
"We received a coded letter today. The sender is listed as...the Blood God Legion."
"The Blood God Legion?"
Leng Yaozhu's beautiful eyes suddenly narrowed.
To most Federation citizens and even Soul Masters of the lower and middle ranks, that name was exceedingly unfamiliar. It was the ultimate line of defense, guarding the continent's darkest reaches.
She reached out with her slender hand and took the letter.
The moment her fingertips touched the insignia, a faint yet incomparably pure aura of iron and blood flickered and vanished. It was genuine, without a doubt.
Bai Zhicen couldn't help asking, "Lady Heavenly Phoenix, what exactly is the Blood God Legion? We searched the Federation's public database, but couldn't find any detailed records."
Leng Yaozhu didn't answer right away. Instead, she gently broke the wax seal and took out the letter inside.
The paper was specially made, firm to the touch and faintly rippling with energy to prevent anyone from prying.
Her gaze quickly swept over it.
At first, she was calm.
Then her brows lifted slightly, and surprise appeared in her eyes.
Next, a look of disbelief flashed across her face.
By the time she reached the end, the crimson lips on her usually cool, breathtakingly beautiful face had slowly curved into a smile.
Bai Haoze and Bai Zhicen stared, dumbstruck.
They had served Leng Yaozhu for years and knew that ever since her younger sister, Leng Yulai, had fallen to the dark side and the two had turned against each other, their lady's temperament had changed. She was cold as frost year-round, and smiles were rare.
In private, the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters called her the "Ice Phoenix"—beautiful, but cold to the bone.
But now, when she smiled, it was as if the snow had just begun to melt. Even the two women were momentarily spellbound.
What could the letter say to make Lady Heavenly Phoenix so delighted?
Their curiosity clawed at them like a cat's, but Leng Yaozhu offered no explanation, and they didn't dare ask.
"Lady Heavenly Phoenix, if there's nothing else, we'll take our leave," Bai Haoze said respectfully.
"Mm. Go ahead. See to the Soul Beasts as soon as possible." Leng Yaozhu nodded slightly, her gaze still resting on the letter.
After the sisters gently closed the door behind them, silence returned to the office.
Leng Yaozhu walked to the window. A wisp of crimson-gold flame kindled at her fingertip, and the letter from the Endless Mountain Range turned to ash in its glow, leaving no trace.
She looked north, her gaze seeming to cross an endless distance and fall upon the mountains frozen all year round.
"The Blood God Legion... Zhang Huanyun... and Luo Yang..."
She murmured to herself, the smile deepening.
"Could this be fate... seeing how the Leng Family is fading day by day, and deliberately sending us a peerless uncut jade?"
"His Martial Soul awakened on its own, drawing a Plane Blessing. Possibly divine in level, with an innate domain, and even able to draw forth the Plane Master..."
Every word in the letter was enough to shake the entire Soul Master World.
And all of it was concentrated in a six-year-old child—the son of an old friend.
"Both parents dead, bearing the Black Empress Clan's curse, needing to stay away from the Abyss front line... entrusted to me..."
Leng Yaozhu clenched her fist lightly, feeling the faint resonance and longing from the Heavenly Phoenix Martial Soul within her.
The Leng Family had lain dormant for too long, so long that it had nearly been forgotten.
And this child's arrival might be the turning point.
"Qiangu Dongfeng..." A cold light flashed in Leng Yaozhu's eyes. "Did you think the Leng Family truly had no successors?"
She turned around, her crimson gown drawing a blazing arc through the air.
"Luo Yang, I'm looking forward to the surprises you'll bring me—and the Leng Family."