Awakening Day

Another ten thousand years passed.

Over those ten thousand years, the Sun Moon Empire unified the continent and established the Federation. The rapid advancement of Soul Guidance Technology greatly liberated and developed productivity, and the common people's standard of living visibly improved.

As both living standards and technological levels rose, the Federation's population exploded. There were more children who needed to awaken Martial Souls, and more Soul Masters who needed Soul Spirits.

As a result, the status of the Holy Spirit Cult and Spirit Pagoda rose accordingly.

Because Martial Souls and Soul Spirits were inseparably connected, the branches of the Holy Spirit Cult and Spirit Pagoda throughout the Federation were built right beside one another.

Eastsea City.

A coastal city that vigorously developed its marine economy, it was also one of the largest cities in the entire Douluo Federation.

For this reason, even though Eastsea City's Soul Master forces were far inferior to those of the major inland cities, the Spirit Pagoda branch established here still ranked among the Spirit Pagoda's Eighteen Heavenly Pillars, becoming one of Eastsea City's landmark buildings.

The other landmark building was naturally the Holy Spirit Cult branch beside the Spirit Pagoda—a solemn and majestic church known as the Holy East Sea Church.

Like the Spirit Pagoda's Eighteen Heavenly Pillars, there were only eighteen churches in the entire Federation honored with the title "Holy."

At this moment, the Holy East Sea Church was bustling with people, adults and children as far as the eye could see.

Today was the annual Awakening Day. Civilian families living near a Holy Spirit Cult branch would bring their children to the church to awaken their Martial Souls.

For civilian families living farther away, the Holy Spirit Cult would send clergy to temporary stations in cities, countryside, towns, and villages, awakening the Martial Souls of those families' children free of charge.

Outside the awakening room, the cleric in charge of registration had just sent a family of three inside when he saw a lone little boy standing at the very front of the line.

"What a handsome kid. He was even better-looking than I was as a child."

That was his first reaction. Then he came to his senses and asked in confusion, "Little one, why are you here alone? Didn't anyone from your family come with you?"

Since orphanages had dedicated clergy who came to awaken the children's Martial Souls, even though the little boy had come alone, he did not consider the possibility that he was an orphan. He merely assumed the child had quarreled with his family.

"Big brother, I don't have a home or any family. I came alone today."

The little boy spoke calmly and handed over the identification papers in his hand.

The worker's expression tightened as his gaze swiftly swept across the information on the documents. In that instant, many thoughts ran through his mind.

An orphan had passed up the cleric who would come to the orphanage and run all the way to the Holy East Sea Church alone to awaken his Martial Soul. It was obvious just how severely this child had been excluded and bullied at the orphanage.

He himself had grown up in an orphanage. Because of his good looks, he had suffered relentless exclusion and bullying there, until he awakened a light-attribute Martial Soul and was able to join the Holy Spirit Cult, changing his circumstances.

Because they shared similar childhood experiences, the worker looked at the little boy as though he were seeing his former self. His gaze became especially gentle, and his tone was full of warmth.

"Little Meng Xinghe, come. Big brother will take you to awaken your Martial Soul."

He sincerely hoped the child would awaken a sacred or light Martial Soul with Soul Power. That way, the Holy Spirit Cult could give the little boy a warm home.

Meng Xinghe only needed one look at the worker to roughly know what he was thinking.

With twenty thousand years of experience and wisdom, he did not need mind-reading to figure out what most people in this world were thinking when faced with different matters.

His Martial Soul did indeed contain the powers of sacredness and light, but the Holy Spirit Cult was not his choice. The Spirit Pagoda was.

Of the Holy Spirit Cult and Spirit Pagoda, one was a force he had supported directly, while the other was one he had supported indirectly.

Among them, the Holy Spirit Cult recruited only Soul Masters with sacred or light attributes. Even after twenty thousand years, it remained generally inclined toward the light. Though it had its flaws, they were not serious enough to matter.

The Spirit Pagoda was different. Its recruitment had no such strict restrictions, and because it controlled Soul Spirit technology, it attracted a great many talented people. Members of every faction and every major family could be found within it, leaving its internal forces deeply intertwined and its open and covert struggles unending.

All things considered, Meng Xinghe chose the Spirit Pagoda over the Holy Spirit Cult because the Holy Spirit Cult's very nature made it unsuitable as his stepping stone. The mixed and complicated Spirit Pagoda, on the other hand, was perfect.

And he had arranged everything long ago.

Throughout these twenty thousand years, Meng Xinghe had never truly emerged into the world. He had always remained within it, and his shadow lay behind every major event in history.

As for Meng Xinghe himself, he had already become a Million-Year Soul Beast ten thousand years ago.

Unlike Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, a Million-Year Soul Beast that had never even passed a single Heavenly Tribulation, his million-year cultivation had been earned by surviving nine Heavenly Tribulations.

From two hundred thousand years, to three hundred thousand years... all the way to one million years, Meng Xinghe had safely endured all nine Heavenly Tribulations.

Heavenly Tribulations came from the sky, while he possessed the original bloodline of Uranus, the Sky God King.

The Heavenly Tribulations other Soul Beasts avoided like the plague felt to him like soaking in hot springs. Nine Heavenly Tribulations meant nine trips to the hot springs.

Yet only after truly reaching the realm of a Million-Year Soul Beast did he sense the restriction within the laws of heaven and earth that prevented Soul Beasts from becoming gods.

Meng Xinghe felt like the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, except he was the Great Sage Equal to Heaven pinned beneath Five-Finger Mountain. No matter how great his abilities were, he could not break free of its restraints.

At that moment, his thoughts were filled with all manner of colorful curses as he cursed the Dragon God's ancestors for eighteen generations.

You only knew how much pain hurt once it stabbed you personally!

Although he had long known of the Dragon God's earth-shattering wisdom, only after experiencing it himself could he truly understand just how defiant of heaven the Dragon God had been.

Damn it, had the Dragon God grown up drinking poisoned milk powder or something?

Sure enough, without a god granting pardon and allowing Soul Beasts to inherit Divine Positions, as Da Ming and Er Ming had done, the only path for Soul Beasts to become gods was to take human form and start cultivating anew.

Leaving Douluo Planet was useless as well. Once a Soul Beast, always a Soul Beast.

Even in Douluo Four, Di Tian had already left Douluo Planet, yet he still could not avoid the million-year Heavenly Tribulation.

This showed that the laws set down by the Dragon God applied throughout the entire universe.

Any nonhuman life that came to Douluo Planet could possibly be transformed into a Soul Beast. And once it became a Soul Beast, unless it took human form, it could never shed its identity as a Soul Beast for the rest of its life.

Innate spirits born of heaven and earth like Snow Empress and himself would at least be naturally sacred Holy Spirits in other worlds, but on Douluo Continent, Snow Empress and he could only be Soul Beasts.

If Soul Beasts had been able to become gods, who would have been willing to abandon a million years of cultivation to take human form and start over?

He could choose not to give it up and wait for the Little Dragon God to be born... wait my ass!

If he truly waited until then, Tang San's family would already have become an unstoppable force.

If he wanted to turn the tables and become the master, it would be impossible unless the true Heavenly God Uranus descended upon the Douluo universe with his twelve Titan god-children like a deus ex machina.