Douluo Continent, Heaven Dou Empire, Shrek Academy.
On the training grounds, sunlight shone warmly, and a breeze rustled the leaves of the trees along the edge.
It was the preparation period just before the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament began.
Tang San, Dai Mubai, and the other Shrek Seven Devils were working up a sweat in their daily sparring drills.
Suddenly, ripples like those on water spread across the previously clear sky.
The ripples expanded so quickly that, within just a few breaths, an enormous screen of light abruptly stretched across the heavens above the entire Douluo Continent.
No matter which corner of the continent someone stood in, they could see the screen clearly simply by looking up.
"Teacher, what is that in the sky?" At the sight, Tang San stopped practicing with his hidden weapons, a shimmering purple glow rising in his eyes.
He drove his Purple Demon Eye to its fullest, trying to discern what lay behind the screen.
But no matter how he looked, he felt he could not see through it.
Worse still, a sharp pain shot through his eyes.
Hearing his beloved disciple's question, Yu Xiaogang stood at the edge of the grounds with his hands behind his back and frowned slightly.
After a moment's thought, he cleared his throat and said with certainty, "Little San, stay calm when something happens."
"Soul skills come in countless strange forms. In my opinion, this phenomenon in the sky is most likely an enormous illusion cast by some illusion-type Titled Douluo skilled at creating mirages, drawing on the power of heaven and earth."
"Such tricks look frightening, but as long as you steady your mind and refuse to be deceived, they have no power to harm you."
After hearing Grandmaster's analysis, everyone from Shrek breathed a sigh of relief.
In their minds, Grandmaster's theoretical knowledge had always been beyond dispute.
Meanwhile, in the Pope Palace in Spirit City.
Sensing the strange change in the sky, Bibi Dong abruptly rose to her feet, unable to remain seated any longer.
With a jewel-encrusted scepter in her hand and a purple-and-gold crown on her head, she carried herself like an empress.
"What terrifying pressure..."
Looking at the enormous screen that had suddenly appeared in the sky, Bibi Dong could not help murmuring to herself.
She was already a level ninety-nine Peerless Douluo, just one final step away from becoming a god.
Yet before the aura radiating from that screen, she felt as insignificant as an ant gazing up at the radiant moon.
Meanwhile, just as the screen plunged the entire Douluo Continent into panic, a majestic voice suddenly rang out in the ears of every living being on the continent.
[Higher-dimensional world Sky Screen livestream activated.] [The Sky Screen will randomly select five living beings from Douluo Continent to undergo trials in the world of Tales of Herding Gods.] [Fortune lies everywhere within the Great Ruins.] [Heavenly treasures capable of allowing people to surpass level one hundred and break the shackles of mortality abound.] [Rule: After surviving in the Great Ruins for one full year, selected participants may choose to return to Douluo Continent, taking all the opportunities and rewards they have obtained with them.] [Should a participant perish during the trials, their soul and spirit will be annihilated, never to be reborn.] [Random selection of the first five participants in progress...] [Selection complete.]
As the majestic voice faded, five names shimmering with golden light slowly appeared on the enormous screen in the sky, along with their basic information.
[Star Luo Empire, collateral branch of the Zhu Family, Zhu Dazhi, level forty-two Battle Soul Ancestor.] [Spirit Hall, guard to Cardinal Salas, Wang Xiu, level sixty-three Battle Soul Emperor.] [Heaven Dou Empire, ordinary blacksmith, Chen Aniu, no soul power.] [Member of a soul hunting group on the outskirts of Star Dou Forest, Liu Dao, level thirty-five Battle Soul Elder.] [Fasinuo Province, impoverished noble, Li Ziyang, level twenty-one Soul Grandmaster.]
Among these five were a Soul Emperor, a Soul Ancestor, and even an ordinary blacksmith with no soul power whatsoever.
At the sight of their information, the entire Douluo Continent instantly erupted.
"Surpass level one hundred? Doesn't that mean becoming a god?!"
"What kind of place is this Great Ruins? You can bring back divine treasures just by staying there for a year?"
"Why the hell does that blacksmith Chen Aniu get to go? I'm a bona fide Soul Grandmaster! Why didn't they pick me?"
In an instant, countless soul masters' eyes turned red with envy. Driven mad by jealousy, they wished they could take those participants' places immediately.
The temptation of eternal life and godhood was enough to drive anyone on the continent insane.
Back at Shrek Academy, Ma Hongjun swallowed enviously and could not help asking a question.
"Grandmaster, if that place in the sky really exists, wouldn't that Soul Emperor from Spirit Hall have hit the jackpot?"
Hearing this, Yu Xiaogang snorted, his hands still held confidently behind his back.
Then he turned toward the others and spoke in an instructive tone.
"Fatty, don't tell me even you believe this nonsense?"
"I already told you, this is nothing more than some method of creating illusions."
"Cultivation requires keeping your feet firmly on the ground. What higher-dimensional world could possibly be littered with heavenly treasures?"
"Just watch. Those five were probably teleported to some unknown corner of Star Dou Forest. Facing those vicious soul beasts, whether they can even survive is another question."
Hearing Grandmaster's words, the Shrek Seven Devils nodded, finding them quite reasonable.
Just then, five shafts of golden light shot down from the enormous screen overhead.
The next second, under the gaze of countless eyes across the continent, the five chosen participants vanished into thin air.
Immediately afterward, the image on the screen changed.
Rather than showing all five participants at once, the Sky Screen lit up with a single enormous image.
Clearly, the livestream displayed only one person's first-person perspective at a time.
The person appearing at the center of the screen was none other than Wang Xiu, the level sixty-three Battle Soul Emperor from Spirit Hall.
Once the image became clear, everyone on Douluo Continent widened their eyes, eager to see what this supposed higher-dimensional world actually looked like.
Wang Xiu had been transported to the edge of some exceedingly ancient, dilapidated ruins.
The surroundings looked utterly desolate.
Unknown weeds over half a person's height grew all around, and enormous fallen stone pillars littered the ground.
Several broken stone statues covered in moss lay scattered in the grass nearby.
In the Great Ruins, the sun hung low in the western sky, and it appeared to be nearing evening.
"So this is the supposed higher-dimensional world, the Great Ruins?"
Standing amid the ruins, Wang Xiu surveyed his surroundings warily.
First, he took a deep breath, but he sensed no particularly dense spiritual energy in the air.
Then he walked around the vicinity.
Aside from crumbling walls and a few ordinary insects crawling through the grass, he saw not even the shadow of a soul beast.
"Hmph. All smoke and mirrors."
Wang Xiu sneered, the wariness on his face gradually easing.
As an elite guard of Spirit Hall, what sort of situation had he not seen?
He planted his foot, and the soul power within him instantly surged.
Two yellow, three purple, one black.
Six gleaming soul rings instantly rose from beneath his feet, pulsing up and down around his body.
The powerful fluctuations of soul power pressed the surrounding weeds flat.
After Martial Soul Possession, Wang Xiu's hands transformed into sharp leopard claws covered in black fur, and a ferocious aura radiated from him.
"Who cares whether this is the Great Ruins or Star Dou Forest? As long as there aren't any hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, a level sixty-three Soul Emperor like me can swagger wherever he pleases."
"If Her Holiness the Pope learns I've found something here that can grant godhood, she'll definitely promote me to Platinum Bishop when I return!"
Muttering to himself with complete confidence, Wang Xiu strode along the edge of the ruins and headed out.
Meanwhile, everyone watching the screen on Douluo Continent began discussing what they saw.
"This place doesn't look all that special."
"Yeah, it feels no different from those abandoned ancient cities in our Heaven Dou Empire."
"That Soul Emperor from Spirit Hall is really lucky. There isn't even a ten-year soul beast where he landed."
On Shrek Academy's training grounds, Yu Xiaogang wore an expression that said everything had gone exactly as he expected.
Thoroughly satisfied for the moment, he curled his lips into a faint smile and pointed smugly at the Sky Screen.
"See, Little San?"
"The surroundings are so desolate, without even a decent soul beast. It's clearly a barren land."
"How could heavenly treasures capable of granting godhood exist in a place like this? Whoever created this illusion clearly exaggerated far too much."
Watching the Sky Screen, Tang San nodded in agreement.
As time passed, Wang Xiu had already spent nearly an hour walking outside the ruins.
He had indeed encountered no danger along the way.
He had not even seen a single decent medicinal herb.
But just as most of the sun sank beneath the western horizon and the sky began rapidly darkening.
A strange disturbance suddenly arose deep in the woods of the Great Ruins.
"Rustle, rustle, rustle..."
"Flap, flap, flap..."
A dense chorus of sounds came from every direction.
Wang Xiu stopped and looked ahead with a slight frown.
A huge swarm of bizarre animals suddenly burst out of the distant woods.
There were strange birds with four wings, enormous beasts shaped like cattle but covered in scales, and hundreds upon thousands of insects he could not name.
All these animals charged toward Wang Xiu from ahead as though they had gone mad.
"Could this be a beast tide?"
Everyone on Douluo Continent watched with their hearts in their throats.
Wang Xiu snorted, and his fifth soul ring instantly lit up as he prepared for battle.
But then something strange happened.
As the charging beasts and birds passed Wang Xiu, they did not spare him so much as a second glance.
They simply fled for their lives toward the area behind him.
And the direction they fled was precisely toward the ruins with the broken stone statues that Wang Xiu had left earlier.
"Hahaha!"
Seeing these monsters ignore him and detour around him as they fled, Wang Xiu could not help bursting into laughter.
"You're lucky you beasts ran so fast."
"Looks like my powerful Soul Emperor-level soul power scared you out of your wits."
Before you continue