Bibi Dong gripped the brilliant golden scepter tightly, her long fingers clenched so hard that her knuckles had turned white.
At the foot of the steps, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei knelt on one knee, a fine sheen of sweat already beading on their foreheads.
"Elders, did you clearly see that young man's movements?" Bibi Dong's voice echoed through the great hall, carrying an oppressive authority that brooked no disrespect.
Yue Guan swallowed and boldly raised his head. His shrill voice sounded a little unsteady. "Your Holiness the Pope, this subordinate... this subordinate saw everything clearly."
"That disciple of the Hengyue Sect truly didn't have the slightest trace of Soul Power inside him."
"The wooden sword was able to fly, apparently driven entirely by an energy inside him that we've never seen before."
"Moreover..." Yue Guan paused, his tone growing even more reverent.
"Su Yuntao was at least a Soul Grandmaster. His body's defenses weren't weak after Martial Soul Possession."
"Yet that wooden sword, which didn't even have an edge, pierced through his skull as easily as if it were slicing tofu."
"Such penetrating power is truly unbelievable."
Hearing this, Gui Mei beside him chimed in as well. "Your Holiness the Pope, the Sky Screen gave his cause of death as having his soul pierced by a flying sword."
"My Martial Soul is already inclined toward cold, yin souls. I could feel that Su Yuntao's spiritual world had completely collapsed the instant he was struck."
"The methods of that Cultivation World are simply impossible to guard against."
At this, Bibi Dong slowly descended the steps, the hem of her luxurious gown trailing across the polished marble floor.
"What a Cultivation World. What a Hengyue Sect."
"They don't need to hunt Soul Beasts for Soul Rings, nor do they have to endure the backlash from a Soul Ring's age. They can kill people from a distance just by absorbing that so-called spiritual energy."
"Such cultivation methods are simply terrifying."
"But I wonder whether the strongest beings in that world can surpass the Titled Douluo of ours."
With that, she stopped and fixed her gaze on the two Titled Douluo, her eyes bright as torches.
"Carry out my decree!"
"Immediately gather every ancient text and record in Spirit Hall and search for any information about cultivation, flying swords, and Qi Condensation."
"Even the slightest fragment from a myth or legend—bring it to me!"
"Beyond Douluo Continent, such a vast, higher-dimensional world is hidden."
"If we can master the power known as cultivation, then what would the Divine Realm amount to?"
Heaven Dou Empire, Shrek Academy.
The atmosphere on the training field was especially absurd at that moment.
The setting sun cast its glow over everyone, but it couldn't dispel the chill in their hearts.
Dai Mubai, who had just scoffed at the Sky Screen world, now wore an expression as stiff as a dried orange peel.
He opened his mouth, only to find his throat so dry that he couldn't make a sound.
Ma Hongjun was even more frightened. He fell flat on his backside, every bit of fat on his body trembling uncontrollably.
"This... how is this possible?" Oscar rubbed his eyes, his voice trembling.
"That was a Soul Grandmaster! He hadn't even had time to use his Martial Soul properly, and he was killed by a lousy wooden sword that could fly by itself?"
Standing amid the crowd, Tang San discreetly reached for the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges at his waist.
"Controlling objects from a distance? Even the most advanced technique recorded in the Hidden Weapon Compendium requires specially made Qian Jun threads to guide the weapon."
"But that young man controlled the wooden sword out of thin air."
"It was so fast that even my Purple Demon Eye could only catch a blur."
Tang San silently compared their abilities in his mind.
"If that sword had come for me, could I have dodged it?"
"The answer is... no."
"Unless I can cultivate Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track to the utmost, I might have a sliver of a chance to survive."
Just as the students were sinking into panic and self-doubt, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang suddenly gave a couple of heavy coughs, breaking the tense silence.
With his hands clasped behind his back, he forcibly suppressed the panic in his heart and once again assumed an air of unfathomable wisdom.
"What are you panicking for? Losing your heads at the sight of something unfamiliar is a great taboo for Soul Masters."
Then Yu Xiaogang strolled unhurriedly to the front of the group and rapped his knuckles against a nearby wooden post to draw everyone's attention.
"You've only seen the surface. You haven't looked past appearances to see the truth."
Hearing this, Flender beside him pushed up the crystal glasses on his nose and looked at his old friend helplessly. "Xiaogang, you call that the surface?"
"He killed a Soul Grandmaster with a flick of his finger. That power system is clearly far stronger than ours."
"Flender, you're still too impetuous." Yu Xiaogang shook his head slightly, a trace of disdainful amusement on his face.
"The Sky Screen said that young man was at the fourth layer of Qi Condensation. This so-called Cultivation World clearly just uses different terms from us."
"In my view, the fourth layer of Qi Condensation corresponds exactly to the Soul Ancestor realm at level forty on Douluo Continent!"
"He might even be a Soul King at level fifty!"
The more Yu Xiaogang spoke, the more flawless his reasoning seemed to him, and his voice grew louder.
"Look at that young man's age. He reached the Soul Ancestor level at fifteen or sixteen. He must be an exceedingly rare genius in that world as well."
"Su Yuntao was a useless nobody at level twenty-six. He picked a fight with a genius Soul Ancestor, so naturally he was killed in one blow."
Hearing this, the expressions of Dai Mubai and the others eased a little.
If their opponent really was a genius at the Soul Ancestor level, then killing a Soul Grandmaster in one blow made some sense.
"As for that flying sword..."
"It wasn't some miraculous cultivation technique at all. It was a special Spiritual-type External Soul Bone!"
"That young man used his spiritual power to control the Soul Bone, making it take the shape of a sword and launching an attack."
"Such a trick is utterly transparent to a true master of theory!"
Tang San listened beside them, his lips moving as if he wanted to object, but in the end he swallowed his words.
For some reason, he felt that his teacher's analysis was riddled with holes.
A young disciple they'd happened upon by chance on a mountain path was not only a genius corresponding to a Soul Ancestor, but also possessed a peerless External Soul Bone?
That was far too much of a coincidence.
Still, to preserve his teacher's dignity, Tang San nodded respectfully. "Teacher's insight is always so unique. It seems that world isn't as invincible as we imagined."
The light curtain in the sky didn't stop operating because Douluo Continent was in an uproar.
Of the three screens, two had already gone dark.
All the light and attention had gathered on the final screen.
It showed the Star Dou Great Forest, a thousand-year Soul Beast, the Man Faced Demon Spider!
With a flash of white light, a terrifying spider as large as two carriages slammed onto a patch of muddy, rotting leaves.
This was an unknown valley in the Renegade Immortal World.
A layer of gray mist drifted through the area all year round, so thick that not even sunlight could penetrate it.
The air was filled with a pungent stench of decay.
For ordinary people, this place was practically uninhabitable. One breath would probably leave them dizzy.
But for a deadly creature born with poison, like the Man Faced Demon Spider, this place was as comfortable as home.
The Man Faced Demon Spider's eight long legs were like sharp spears, planted firmly in the muddy ground.
The pale human face growing on its abdomen looked even more savage now.
It opened its mouth and greedily breathed in the air.
Although it was only a thousand-year Soul Beast and not very clever, its animal instincts told it that the air contained an energy that made its whole body feel at ease.
This energy was far denser than the aura in the Star Dou Great Forest.
It even had the illusion that if it stayed here a little longer and inhaled a few more mouthfuls of the white mist, it could easily break through to the ten-thousand-year level.
At the thought, the Man Faced Demon Spider excitedly swung its two front legs, slicing a boulder half as tall as a person cleanly in two.
At that very moment, in the deepest part of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The water of the Lake of Life was crystal clear, and not a single ripple disturbed its surface.
The area was unusually quiet. Even the hundred- and thousand-year Soul Beasts that usually lorded it over the forest's outskirts didn't dare breathe too loudly here.
On an open patch of shore sat a gigantic gorilla as large as a small mountain.
This was one of the forest's overlords, the hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast Titan Giant Ape, Er Ming.
Er Ming was gazing up at the Sky Screen, his enormous eyes as big as lanterns unblinking.
"Big Brother, did you see that?"
Er Ming suddenly opened his fanged maw. His voice rolled across the lake like thunder.
"This Sky Screen sure is fair. It didn't just choose those sly humans—it chose our Soul Beast Clan too."
The moment he finished speaking, the lake, still and calm just a second before, suddenly churned.
Immediately afterward, a huge bull's head emerged from the water, sending a spray of water high into the air.
Beneath the bull's head was a thick, snakelike body dozens of meters long, covered in blue-green scales.
It was Da Ming, the Sky Azure Bull Python.
Da Ming shook the water from his head and snorted a plume of white breath from his nostrils.
"I saw it." Da Ming's voice was low, carrying the weight of long years.
"Though the Man Faced Demon Spider is only a junior at the thousand-year level, it often slaughters its own kind in our forest and doesn't have a good reputation."
"But at a time like this, it represents our entire Soul Beast Clan."
As Da Ming spoke, he edged his massive body closer to the shore.
"We all saw what happened to those two humans just now."
"That world called Renegade Immortal is deep as the waters. Any young kid who comes out of it can kill a human Soul Grandmaster in one blow."
Hearing this, Er Ming snorted in some discontent.
"Big Brother, humans are weak by nature. That so-called Soul Grandmaster looked like a spineless weakling to me. He couldn't even take one slap from me."
"Our Soul Beasts are different."
"Though the Man Faced Demon Spider has only a little over two thousand years of cultivation, its hard shell and eight poisonous legs make it far stronger than a human of the same level."
"I reckon that little spider might live quite comfortably in that mist-filled valley."
Da Ming gave a slight nod, a glimmer of hope flashing through his enormous vertical pupils.
"Let's hope so."