Qian Renxue, living her third life!

Angel Douluo held a dossier recording every genius who had emerged on this year's awakening day.

And there, on its very first page, was Meng Xinghe.

At the sight of the photograph in the dossier, Angel Douluo trembled slightly. She slowly raised a hand and removed her Bronze Mask. Her hood slipped back with it, revealing her breathtaking beauty and a waterfall of long golden hair beneath the sunlight.

Her fingertips gently brushed the child in the photograph, and her exquisite face filled with nostalgia.

"Xinghe, it's been twenty thousand years. We... have both become human!"

"You saw what I looked like as a child. This is the first time I've seen what you looked like back then."

Indeed, this Angel Douluo was none other than the reborn Qian Renxue!

Twenty thousand years ago, Meng Xinghe, who had still been a soul beast at the time, had intervened to preserve Qian Renxue's soul intact.

Ten thousand years ago, Qian Renxue had awakened within the divine artifact, the Angel Sacred Sword, and, with Electrolux's help, transformed into a wraith-type soul beast.

In this era, Qian Renxue, a million-year wraith-type soul beast, had taken human form to cultivate anew. Having returned to humanity, she had joined the Holy Spirit Cult and become the head of its Inquisition.

Because she had taken human form as a million-year soul beast, Qian Renxue had gone from a soul master with a single martial soul to one with twin martial souls—twin angel martial souls, no less!

When she had transformed into a wraith-type soul beast, Qian Renxue had received the heavenly god bloodline Meng Xinghe had given her.

After Qian Renxue took human form to cultivate anew, that portion of the heavenly god bloodline had manifested when she awakened her martial souls.

Her angel martial soul's wings had changed from three pairs to six—from six wings to twelve.

The twelve-winged seraph!

The twelve-winged dark angel!

Twelve-winged angels of light and darkness: these were Qian Renxue's twin martial souls in this life.

With the reserves she had accumulated over ten thousand years as a soul beast, coupled with her cultivation experience as the Angel God, she could have advanced by leaps and bounds, becoming a Titled Douluo or even a Super Douluo before twenty, and a Limit Douluo before twenty-five.

Yet Qian Renxue had not blindly pursued rapid increases in soul power. Instead, she had advanced one step at a time, honing her foundation at every stage until there was no room left for improvement before breaking through to the next.

Back then, Meng Xinghe, who had yet to take human form and cultivate anew, had asked her why.

Even if she wanted a solid foundation, there was no need to be so obsessively exacting.

Qian Renxue's answer had been:

"Because of Tang San!"

Then Qian Renxue had recounted the events of that year.

Long, long ago, as the Angel God, she had lost to Tang San, who had only just inherited the Sea God's godhood.

Both had been gods, yet the Angel God had lost to the Sea God.

Tang San had told her that she had lost because she had advanced from Soul Saint to god rank in less than five years, relying heavily on external assistance to raise her cultivation along the way and leaving her foundation unstable.

He, on the other hand, had endured countless hardships and passed trial after trial during those same five years, raising his cultivation to god rank one step at a time and building an exceptionally solid foundation.

According to him, that was why she had lost despite the Angel God and the Sea God being deities of equal rank.

Meng Xinghe: ...

Tang San, you truly had no shame!

Did you seriously not know why Qian Renxue's Angel God couldn't beat your Sea God?

An unstable foundation? It was clearly a disparity in what you had accumulated before becoming gods.

Qian Renxue had only one martial soul, the seraphim, so her martial soul's reserves consisted of only nine soul rings. Tang San had twin martial souls, giving him eighteen soul rings.

Those eighteen soul rings had also benefited from one fortuitous encounter after another. Every one was over fifty thousand years old, and among them were the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's soul ring, numerous Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings, and a Million-Year Soul Ring.

The same held true for their soul bones.

The Angel God Armor Qian Renxue had inherited was certainly excellent. Every piece was a ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-year soul bone, and all had come from the same species of soul beast. Absorbing the entire set would even trigger a resonance that raised their ages to a hundred thousand years.

But that depended on what it was being compared to.

Among Tang San's soul bones, his head soul bone, the Spirit Condensation Wisdom Skull, was only around fifty thousand years old. Yet its fusion with the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud made it no worse than a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone.

His remaining soul bones consisted of four Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones, a Million-Year Soul Bone, and an external soul bone.

In other words, whether in soul rings or soul bones, Tang San outclassed Qian Renxue across the board.

That immense disparity in their pre-ascension reserves was the real reason Qian Renxue could not defeat Tang San.

As for all that talk of an unstable foundation, Tang San really had some nerve.

Yes, Qian Renxue had gone from Soul Saint to god rank in less than five years. But hadn't you done the same, Tang San?

You went from Soul Emperor to god rank in under five years. That was hardly any better.

If Qian Renxue's foundation was unstable, then wasn't yours even shakier?

Usually, it was the less guilty mocking the more guilty. Seeing the worse offender mock the lesser one was a rarity.

For that reason, after beginning her cultivation anew, Qian Renxue had progressed only a little faster than an ordinary genius with innate full soul power.

Still, Qian Renxue had no need to compete for the title of genius. Cultivating slowly made no difference to her. Instead, she immersed herself in the fresh insights of cultivating through another life and the pleasure of growing stronger.

That steady, step-by-step progress gave her a sense of assurance and composure she had never known in her previous life.

At the same rank, she was far stronger in this life than she had ever been before.

Thus, in her battle with Yun Ming all those years ago, she had defeated the seemingly invincible Atlas Douluo head-on, fair and square.

Qian Renxue acknowledged that Yun Ming surpassed her in talent alone.

But however gifted Yun Ming might be, he had only a single lifetime of accumulated experience, while she was already living her third.

In her first life, she had been the Angel God.

In her second, she had been a wraith-type soul beast.

In her third, she now possessed the twin powers of light and darkness.

If three lifetimes of accumulated strength still could not defeat Yun Ming, who had lived only once, she might as well bash her head against a block of tofu and die.

After all, thanks to her twelve-winged dark angel martial soul, she had inherited her mother's legacy.

Her own legacy as the Angel God, her mother's as the Rakshasa God—the legacies of two deities, combined with the accumulated strength of three lifetimes. With such profound reserves, how could she possibly lose to Yun Ming, who had lived only once?

If any humans remained worthy of her attention as opponents, they were Xinghe, who had taken human form to cultivate anew, and the Master of Soul Beasts, who had done the same.

Having spent her second life as a soul beast, Qian Renxue's views on soul beasts had changed enormously.

Previously, she had believed that soul beasts existed solely to provide human soul masters with soul rings and soul bones.

Now, after spending ten thousand years as one herself, she no longer thought that way.

With her heightened spiritual sight, Qian Renxue had discovered that soul masters could plunder the power of soul beasts to strengthen themselves, while soul beasts had to face heavenly tribulations to break through their lifespan limits.

Heaven would not be so unjust. Someone had deliberately made it this way.

And that someone could only be a deity—an exceptionally powerful one at that. This deity had altered the laws of heaven and earth on Douluo Planet, not only shackling the Soul Beast Clan but also making it possible for any nonhuman life here to be transformed into a soul beast.

Yet Xinghe had exploited that very fact, having Electrolux use those laws of heaven and earth to transform her from a human soul into a wraith-type soul beast.