Yu Xiaogang pressed the stinky jade fragment tightly against his chest, tilted his head back, and laughed soundlessly.
He had spent his whole life studying Martial Soul Theory, and his whole life had been trapped at rank twenty-nine by Luo Sanpao, whose mutation had failed.
Now, a brand-new door had opened before him in this stinking pigsty.
At this moment.
The entire Douluo Continent had erupted.
On the grounds of Shrek Academy.
Tang San abruptly stood up, his hands clenched tight.
Watching the teacher on the Sky Screen looking overjoyed, his mind raced.
"Qi Condensation and breathing... drawing qi into the body..."
Tang San murmured to himself, recalling the Mysterious Heaven Skill of the Tang Sect in his previous life.
The Mysterious Heaven Skill was exquisite, but it was still only a mundane martial art. On Douluo Continent, it could only be converted into Soul Power.
But the cultivation technique from the Renegade Immortal World absorbed spiritual energy capable of moving mountains and filling seas!
Flender and Zhao Wuji exchanged a glance, both seeing the same deep shock in each other's eyes.
"Xiaogang actually turned misfortune into fortune and found the cultivation method of that world?"
Flender swallowed, his voice trembling.
Inside the main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect in the Heaven Dou Empire.
The teacup in Ning Fengzhi's hands had been suspended in midair for quite some time, yet he still hadn't put it down.
The usually mild-mannered sect master was breathing heavily.
"This is a truly priceless treasure."
Ning Fengzhi turned to Sword Douluo Chen Xin, his eyes burning with an unprecedented fervor.
"Uncle Jian, if that Yu Xiaogang can return alive and bring this cultivation technique back to Douluo Continent..."
"Wouldn't the direct disciples of our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect no longer be restricted by having support-type Martial Souls?"
"As long as they can cultivate that spiritual energy, everyone will be able to protect themselves!"
All across the continent, those whose Innate Soul Power was low or who had awakened a Trash Martial Soul and could only live as commoners had seen hope of turning their lives around.
As long as they could learn that cultivation technique, they could rewrite their fates!
And just as the people of Douluo were swept up in a frenzy over that broken Jade Slip...
The other half of the Sky Screen showed a scene like a basin of bone-chilling ice water splashed straight over everyone's heads.
Inside the dark red main hall on Vermilion Bird Mountain.
Liu Mei, dressed in red, was crouched before Gui Mei.
She reached out a slender, fair finger and gently pressed it against the center of Gui Mei's brow.
At that moment, Gui Mei was like a heap of mud, sprawled across the jade floor.
His eyes had rolled back, saliva dribbled from the corner of his mouth, and his body twitched now and then.
After being tormented by illusions conjured through the Thousand Illusions Heartless Path, this once fearsome Titled Douluo's will had completely collapsed.
Now, he was less intelligent than a three-year-old child.
Liu Mei closed her eyes, a faint white glow rising from her fingertip.
She was performing the Cultivation World's most brutal soul-searching technique.
It was a method of forcibly rifling through another person's memories. Anyone subjected to a soul search would suffer irreversible damage to their brain.
Fragments of memory, bit by bit, flowed endlessly along the white glow at her fingertip and into Liu Mei's mind.
A full half hour passed.
Liu Mei slowly withdrew her finger.
She stood up, her long red dress trailing across the floor.
When she opened her eyes, the gaze that was usually as cold as ice was now filled with curiosity and astonishment.
"How interesting."
Liu Mei picked up the feather fan beside her and chuckled behind her red lips.
She turned toward Vermilion Bird Master, seated high upon the Fire Lotus Throne, and curtsied.
"Master, I've finished searching this man's soul."
"What I found in his mind certainly opened my eyes."
Vermilion Bird Master leaned back against his throne without even opening his eyes, and asked casually, "Oh? What could be so remarkable about a good-for-nothing who doesn't even have spiritual energy?"
The smile on Liu Mei's face deepened.
"Master, you may not know this."
"This man isn't a native of Vermilion Bird Planet. He isn't even from this Cultivation World star region."
"He came from a place called 'Douluo Continent.'"
At this, Gan Feng, the young man in golden robes standing to one side, gave a disdainful snort.
"Just some remote planet whose name I've never even heard. It's probably not even as good as a lower-grade cultivation nation."
Liu Mei shook her head, gently waving her feather fan.
"Senior Brother Gan Feng, you're mistaken."
"That Douluo Continent is extremely strange."
Liu Mei raised her head to look at Vermilion Bird Master, her tone turning serious.
"There isn't a trace of spiritual energy in that world."
"And yet, that world is home to tens of billions of mortals."
"Most miraculous of all, each of those mortals is born with something called a 'Martial Soul.'"
"Blades and swords, birds and beasts, even a blade of grass can become their Martial Soul."
As soon as she said this.
Vermilion Bird Master, seated high upon the throne, suddenly opened his eyes.
Ascending Peak, late-stage perfection!
A terrifying pressure—he stood just a hair's breadth from the next realm—escaped his body, uncontrollably, for an instant.
It was only a trace of pressure.
The entire dark red hall seemed to be clenched suddenly by an invisible giant hand.
The air around them groaned with a series of explosive cracks.
Gan Feng and Liu Mei's expressions changed dramatically. They stumbled back three or four steps before barely regaining their balance.
It was the indifference and terror of one who had truly seen through the laws of heaven and earth, regarding all living beings as ants.
Vermilion Bird Master sat upright, his eyes as if they held two blazing fires fixed fiercely on Liu Mei.
"What did you say?"
Vermilion Bird Master's voice was low, as though he were suppressing a volcano on the verge of eruption.
"Hundreds of billions of mortals? Every one of them born with an accompanying soul object?"
Liu Mei braced herself against the pressure and nodded with difficulty.
"Y-yes, Master."
"My soul-searching technique cannot be mistaken. Although the beings of that world are physically frail, their souls are far more resilient than those of ordinary mortals here, thanks to their Martial Souls."
Vermilion Bird Master took a deep breath.
The oppressive force in the hall vanished in an instant, as if everything that had just happened were an illusion.
But his expression grew intensely excited, even somewhat twisted.
"Good! What a Douluo Continent!"
Vermilion Bird Master rose and paced back and forth before his throne.
"No cultivators, no Nascent Soul, no Spirit Transformation."
"Just a bunch of natives wielding their accompanying souls as weapons."
Vermilion Bird Master stopped and threw his head back, laughing.
His laughter was filled with greed and cruelty that made one's hair stand on end.
"This is simply a natural treasure vault bestowed upon me by the heavens!"
"So what if the Soul Refining Sect has a Billion Soul Banner?"
"As long as I can find the spatial coordinates of Douluo Continent and open a passage there..."
"If I extract the accompanying Martial Souls from those hundreds of billions of beings, I'll be able to refine a hundred-billion-soul banner!"
"When that happens, let alone the Soul Refining Sect—who on the entire Vermilion Bird Planet would dare defy me!"
Boom!
Vermilion Bird Master's words exploded in the minds of every person on Douluo Continent through the Sky Screen.
Spirit City, the Pope Palace.
The world spun before Bibi Dong's eyes. She gripped the armrests of her throne with both hands to keep from fainting.
Qian Daoliu's lips had gone bloodless.
He stared at the old man on the Sky Screen, consumed by frenzy, and felt the blood in his entire body freeze.
Just moments ago, they had been relieved that Yu Xiaogang had found a cultivation technique.
They had even imagined that if he returned alive, Douluo Continent could usher in an age of immortal cultivation.
But now, reality had slapped them hard across the face.
The other side hadn't been playing some kind of exploration game with them at all.
In the eyes of that Ascending Peak monster, Douluo Continent was the perfect "soul-ingredient farm"!
Hundreds of billions of lives.
In Vermilion Bird Master's mouth, they were nothing but materials for refining a magical treasure!
On the grounds of Shrek Academy.
Tang San was ice-cold, as if he had fallen into an icy abyss.
He finally understood. The Sky Screen had brought not only an opportunity, but also a one-sided exposure that left them utterly outclassed.
"He wants to find the spatial coordinates of our world..."
Tang San's voice trembled, deep despair welling in his eyes.
"Once he finds them, we won't even have a chance to fight back. We'll all become vengeful souls trapped inside that banner."
On the screen.
Vermilion Bird Master forcibly suppressed the elation in his heart.
He sat back down on his throne and stared intently at Gui Mei on the ground.
"Since he was transported here from that world, he must bear the karmic aura of that world."
Vermilion Bird Master's tone turned cold and decisive.
"Gan Feng, Liu Mei, step back."
"I will personally perform the 'Seeking the Source of Ascendance' technique. By following the karmic thread on this worthless body, I'll work backward to deduce the spatial coordinates of Douluo Continent!"
Gan Feng and Liu Mei exchanged a glance, then hurriedly retreated to the edge of the hall.
Vermilion Bird Master closed his eyes.
He raised his right hand and traced an arcane pattern through the air with his index finger.
His Ascending Peak, late-stage perfection cultivation erupted without reservation.
The sky above Vermilion Bird Mountain instantly darkened.
Layer upon layer of dense red clouds churned across the sky, as if doomsday had arrived.
An immense divine sense, beyond description, spread out from Vermilion Bird Master like an invisible net. In an instant, it covered the entire Vermilion Bird Planet and reached into the depths of the endless starry sky.
Following the aura on Gui Mei, this divine sense frantically searched for the connection hidden in the unseen.
Back on Douluo Continent.
Everyone held their breath. Some even closed their eyes, despairingly awaiting the arrival of their death sentence.
With the methods of an almighty being of such terrifying power, tracking Douluo Continent by following the trail seemed like a simple matter.
One second, two seconds...
Time grew unbearably long.
Inside the main hall on Vermilion Bird Mountain, Vermilion Bird Master's brow gradually furrowed.
A fine sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his finger trembled more and more violently in midair.
Another half an incense stick of time passed.
"Hmm?"
Vermilion Bird Master suddenly let out a muffled groan.
He opened his eyes abruptly, stunned and incredulous.
He had just used all his cultivation, even drawing upon a trace of the laws of heaven and earth to make his deduction.
But when his divine sense followed Gui Mei's karmic thread and tried to cross the void...
It struck a wall.
A wall that was invisible and untouchable, yet indestructible.
Beyond that wall lay absolute nothingness.
It was as if the power that had sent this man here had severed every karmic connection completely.
Before that power, even his Ascending Peak, late-stage perfection cultivation was no more than a drop in the vast ocean, not even worthy of stirring up a single wave.
"I can't find it..."
Vermilion Bird Master slowly lowered his arms, and the oppressive force in the great hall receded like a tide.
He lifted his head and gazed at the vaulted ceiling, his expression complex beyond words.
"No coordinates, no causality."
"This place called Douluo Continent seems not to exist in this starry sky at all."
Vermilion Bird Master gripped the armrests of his throne tightly, his knuckles turning white.
"What kind of power is this?"
"It can ignore this old man's Ascending Peak divine sense, and even disregard the Heavenly Dao's laws of deduction."
The instant he struck that invisible wall, he had clearly felt a profound sense of helplessness.
That was the awe one felt only when facing a great power of the Second Step—or no, an existence countless levels above even the Second Step.
Beyond the Sky Screen.
Seeing the dejected look on Vermilion Bird Master's face, everyone on Douluo Continent let out a long sigh of relief.
On the grounds of Shrek Academy, Oscar dropped onto the ground and gasped for breath.
"That scared the life out of me... I thought we'd all be turned into soul banners tomorrow."
Tang San wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and looked up at the enormous screen in the sky.
"It's the Sky Screen."
Tang San sounded certain.
"The power behind the Sky Screen is far stronger than that Vermilion Bird Master fellow."
"Since it set the rule that we can return after surviving for a year, it absolutely won't let people from the Renegade Immortal World climb through the internet and get here."
Tang San's words put everyone somewhat at ease.
But in the Pope Palace, Bibi Dong's brows remained tightly furrowed.
Her beautiful eyes stayed fixed on the screen, and her voice carried an irrepressible worry.
"The Sky Screen did indeed protect Douluo Continent's coordinates."
"But that also means that the only way Vermilion Bird Master and the others can obtain the souls of the people from Douluo Continent now is to keep a close watch on those who were transported there."
Bibi Dong's words sent a chill through all the elders and worshippers in the hall.
That was true.
Vermilion Bird Master couldn't find Douluo Continent.
But he knew it was a treasure trove.
If more people were transported there in the future and their identities were exposed, their fate would be even more miserable than Gui Mei's.
And if someone survived the year and tried to return with their treasures, would the great cultivators lurking in the shadows lay a vast net and forcibly intercept them?
The scene on the Sky Screen gradually darkened beneath Vermilion Bird Master's grave gaze.
Who would be chosen next time?
And could the Jade Slip in Yu Xiaogang's hands truly give Douluo Continent hope of embarking on the path of cultivation?
Meanwhile, elsewhere on the Sky Screen.
In the Cultivation World, three days passed in the blink of an eye.
But for the people on Douluo Continent who watched the Sky Screen every day, those three days felt longer than three years.
On Vermilion Bird Mountain, inside a red cave dwelling carved into the mountainside.
Several luminous pearls were embedded in the cave walls, bathing the interior in gentle light.
A faint fragrance drifted through the air.
Wearing her fiery red gown, Liu Mei lounged against a soft couch covered in white animal hide.
She held a feather fan and waved it gently, her gaze resting ahead.