Douluo Continent.
Star Dou Great Forest.
As the largest of Douluo Continent's three Soul Beast habitats, this place teemed with countless kinds of Soul Beasts. It was a paradise for Soul Beasts, a heaven for Soul Masters, and the most dangerous place on Douluo Continent.
The towering trees of Star Dou Great Forest stretched as far as the eye could see, blotting out the sun and leaving the forest dark and cold.
On this day, a world-shaking roar suddenly rang out from Death Canyon, deep in the forest's core. The entire forest shuddered with a rustling tremor.
The sound was not only deafening but piercing, carrying an air of death and ill omen that could be heard hundreds of miles away. The Soul Beasts cowered on the ground, trembling.
"Hmm? What was that sound?"
More than a hundred miles away, a simple wooden hut stood in a secluded mountain hollow. Inside, a tall, burly middle-aged man abruptly turned toward the source of the sound, his eyes full of alarm and uncertainty.
A moment later, as if he had recognized something in the roar, he murmured, "That definitely wasn't a sound an ordinary Soul Beast could make. Could it be..."
His eyes suddenly blazed with excitement. He grabbed the woman beside him, whose face had also changed, and said in a trembling voice, "Ah Yin, come on. Let's go take a look. If it really is a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, that'd be wonderful. I happen to need a Soul Ring."
Shock filled the woman's eyes. Before she could say anything, the man had already pulled her into the depths of the forest.
Inside Death Canyon, a huge, pitch-black shadow suddenly shot out. It streaked through the sky like a black bolt of lightning, covering dozens of miles in the blink of an eye before landing beside a lake.
Under the sunlight, the shadow revealed its true form: a massive black spider as large as a house.
The spider's enormous, millstone-sized purplish-black eyes gazed at the lake. When it saw its own enormous, hideous reflection in the water, it couldn't help letting out another string of meaningless cries.
As its aura spread, clouds of black poisonous mist billowed from its body like smoke. Within a radius of several hundred meters, the flowers, trees, and countless small animals—including Soul Beasts—lost all signs of life in the blink of an eye.
The giant spider seemed not to notice at all. Its two enormous eyes were cold and lifeless, yet now they held a complicated look—disbelief, shock, and utter incredulity.
"Holy crap, I actually turned into a spider?"
Zhu Huang stared at his reflection in the water, struggling to accept it.
He'd only lost his footing on Kunlun Mountains and fallen into a bottomless pit. How had he suddenly turned into an animal?
And how could there be a spider this big on Earth? It'd have to be a monster. Had he been transmigrated?
Zhu Huang shook his head hard. His memories churned, and a flood of new information surged into his mind, making him let out another painful roar.
After a long while.
"So I really did transmigrate into the world of the novel Douluo Continent."
"Fine, I can accept being transmigrated. I had nothing tying me down in my previous life, after all. But you could've at least let me stay human. What's the point of turning me into a Soul Beast?"
In his previous life, Zhu Huang had read Douluo Continent. He remembered all too well how miserable the Soul Beasts' lot was.
In a word, their prospects were bleak.
First, Soul Beasts couldn't become gods. If they did, they were doomed to die.
Second, Soul Beasts were resources humans raised for cultivation. Every Soul Beast represented a Soul Ring, and a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was guaranteed to yield a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone as well. The vast majority of Soul Beasts couldn't escape being hunted by humans.
Finally, even if a Soul Beast was lucky enough to avoid being hunted and managed to survive until it was a hundred thousand years old, it still had to face a heavenly tribulation every hundred thousand years. Only a handful of Soul Beasts could survive one.
In short, Soul Beasts had no future and no way out. They were essentially fated to meet one of two deaths.
"Old heavens, are you messing with me?"
Zhu Huang sighed up at the sky.
"Forget it. I'm here now, so I'll make the best of it. At least I'm a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, already standing at the peak of the continent. If I'm careful, I can still live freely for a while."
But still...
The Hundred-Thousand-Year Death Spider Emperor—why did that Soul Beast sound so familiar? Had he seen it somewhere before?
Zhu Huang tried to recall the novel from his previous life. His eyes suddenly widened.
One of Bibi Dong's Soul Beasts, more than ten years from now, was a Death Spider Emperor. Could that be me?
Zhu Huang thought it over carefully. Aside from him, there wasn't another Death Spider Emperor in Star Dou Great Forest.
His expression turned utterly grim. He was already planning to pack up and flee. Star Dou Great Forest was no place to stay. He planned to go to the Far North and seek refuge with Snow Empress. At least the Far North would be safe for the next ten thousand years.
Just then, a ball of light suddenly appeared in Zhu Huang's mind. It enveloped a palm-sized jade slip, which shone with a million rays of light. One by one, ancient seal-script characters emerged from it.
Zhu Huang had never studied this ancient script, yet, strangely enough, he could understand every character. Together, they formed a scripture.
"Heavenly Demon Creation Art!"
Zhu Huang murmured.
"The jade slip I fumbled into in that bottomless pit on Kunlun Mountains was actually a supreme treasure of the demon race?"
Zhu Huang was stunned.
The Heavenly Demon Creation Art had an extraordinary origin. It was the strongest cultivation art of the demon race, which had once pressed humanity to the brink of suffocation in the ancient, primordial era. Successive Demon Emperors had created and perfected this peerless divine art. Once mastered, it granted the supreme power to create a universe, open the heavens with a thought, or destroy the world with a thought.
Zhu Huang skimmed through it, getting a general idea. Every word of the art was a gem, profound and vast. He could only understand the tiniest fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction...the most basic of the basics of the basics...
"A Soul Beast's body can cultivate this art too. Soul Beasts and demonic beasts aren't all that different in essence; they simply follow different cultivation systems. But the Soul Beast system is far inferior to demonic cultivation. At the very least, a demonic beast doesn't lose its power after transforming into human form."
"But Soul Beasts have one advantage: as long as they aren't killed or struck dead by lightning, they have an infinite lifespan. Demonic beasts can't do that."
Zhu Huang regarded the jade slip as a priceless treasure. The greatest benefit of following the path of demonic cultivation was that after transforming, he wouldn't carry the aura of a Soul Beast. Even a god would have trouble recognizing him without coming down in person and facing him directly. He'd no longer have to fear being discovered by powerful humans and hunted without end.
Zhu Huang knew that his chance to defy fate had arrived. He carefully studied what he could understand in the jade slip.
"The Heavenly Demon Creation Art is a cultivation art for Demon Emperors. That supreme Demon Emperor also created a secret method to gather fortune and use it to aid cultivation."
"Ordinary cultivation is already very fast, of course. But if I can rule over countless demons and spirits and gather immense fortune, my cultivation will progress even faster. I can also wield that fortune against my enemies, raising my own power by several tenths or even several times out of thin air. The more living beings I rule, the greater the fortune I gather, the faster I'll cultivate, and the greater the boost to my strength."
Zhu Huang's eyes gleamed. "Fortune really is a wonderful thing. But I'm no Demon Emperor. I don't have any fortune at my disposal."
If fortune could help him cultivate and boost his strength, Zhu Huang naturally didn't want to let the opportunity pass. After all, his future enemies were most likely the gods filling the heavens. He wanted to raise his strength as quickly as possible—the stronger, the better.
This method of using fortune to aid cultivation showed him a shortcut to rising even faster.
"I'm already a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and there aren't many things in Star Dou Great Forest that I have to fear. In that case, I'll first become the emperor of the Soul Beasts and gather their fortune. Later, when conditions allow, I'll bring humanity under my rule too. If I can gather the fortune of all Douluo Continent, it should give me a huge boost."
Zhu Huang sorted out his plan and was about to return to his lair to begin cultivating the Heavenly Demon Creation Art when two auras rapidly approached from ahead.
"Another Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast? Why does it feel so weak?"
"This aura... Huh, it's the Blue Silver Emperor?"
Before you continue