Another Test, a Misleading Coincidence

The corridor outside the laboratory was long, and the bright lights were almost blinding.

When the elevator doors opened, Qian Renxue instinctively took a step back.

Yin Hongye reached out and pulled her inside. The metal compartment trembled as it descended. Curiosity and confusion filled Qian Renxue's eyes; she could not understand the principle behind it.

"This is an elevator." Yin Hongye watched the numbers change. "It's just an iron box that moves up and down."

When the doors opened again, light flooded in.

Qian Renxue narrowed her eyes. They had already left the laboratory.

This was Heaven Dou City. Qian Renxue could vaguely recognize its outline—the direction of its streets, the shadows of its buildings. But everything had changed.

The blue brick roads had become some kind of smooth black pavement. Horse-drawn carriages had become iron boxes with no horses, gliding silently along the road, their taillights trailing red streaks behind them.

"These are Soul Guidance vehicles."

Qian Renxue stood by the roadside as a black sedan swept past her, the wind it stirred lifting her long hair. She watched the faces flash by through the windows. Those faces were calm, exhausted, or numb. No one gave her a second glance.

"They... are..."

"This is Heaven Dou City. If you want to survive, you need money," Yin Hongye explained. "Without overtime, you simply can't survive."

"Is it really that miserable? How long do they work each day?"

"Sixteen hours of work a day, eight hours of rest."

"What's the difference between that and slavery?"

"Where would you even find slaves these days? They're called employees. Even slave markets are called talent markets now."

"Twenty thousand—no, ten thousand years ago, people were bought outright. In terms you can understand, now they rent people. When they're hungry, they buy their own food. When they're sick, they see their own doctors. It's more cost-effective."

"What?" Only then did Qian Renxue understand. She felt that this era treated people even less like people. The nobles of the past had treated people as goods to be bought and sold, while this era devoured people in a more subtle way.

"Don't be surprised. This is normal. Read through history, and you'll find the words 'eating people' written between every line. It has never changed."

Yin Hongye's voice was cold. "As long as life still exists, this sort of thing will keep happening."

"Come on. I'll take you around. There's nothing wrong with what you're wearing, but it draws too much attention."

As he spoke, he pressed his car key. In the parking lot, a flashy red sports car lit up.

The two got into the car. Yin Hongye kindly reminded Qian Renxue to fasten her seat belt, though for Soul Masters above Soul King rank, it made no difference whether they wore one or not.

"Can you tell me about history? What exactly happened?"

"What happened?"

"You said Spirit Hall was defeated and destroyed. Then Shrek City was built on the former site of Spirit City?"

"Shrek? The Shrek from Shrek Academy?" Qian Renxue no longer had the mood to care about history.

"That's right. Shrek Academy, where Sea God Tang San came from." Yin Hongye's voice remained calm. "If you ask me, Spirit Hall lost because of that Qian Renxue. She hesitated again and again. With such deep hatred between them, she still wanted to win him over."

"A perfectly good young mistress of Spirit Hall—was she really that desperate for a man? Just like her mother, as if she'd never seen a man before."

Qian Renxue looked thoroughly unconvinced upon hearing that. But after thinking it over carefully, she realized she really had had many chances to eliminate Tang San after he exposed himself.

Meanwhile, twenty thousand years ago, the smile that had just appeared on Bibi Dong's face froze in an instant.

They were clearly talking about Qian Renxue. Why did it sound as though she herself had been the source of their defeat? She was not taking the blame for that.

And what did he mean, she had never seen a man?

What was wrong with Xiaogang?!

Qian Daoliu and the others laughed awkwardly. They had not expected Xiaoxue to inherit that trait as well. It had to be said, her taste was not much better.

Qian Daoliu looked up at the Heavenly Screen. "Xiaoxue, I never expected you to be like this too. We shouldn't have carried out that plan back then."

At that moment, Qian Renxue in the Heavenly Screen continued, "You're saying my mother's taste in men wasn't much better either."

"Of course. In your era, a woman was formally wed as a wife, but ran away to become a concubine. Your mother herself was practically dying to become one." Yin Hongye's voice was calm. "You should know that the man your mother fell for later held a formal wedding with another woman."

Qian Renxue fell silent. Her mother had that kind of hobby? Her taste seemed even worse than hers.

"You know what concubines were in your era—playthings of great clans, things that could be bought and sold at will." Yin Hongye's voice remained even, utterly unaware of how spectacular the protagonist's expression had become because of his words.

Beneath the Heavenly Screen, Bibi Dong's fingers suddenly clenched, her nails nearly digging into her palm. Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but some illusion in her heart shattered.

She had actually once rushed to become...

Her shadow stretched long, cast lonely across the cold stone steps. For one brief moment, she felt completely hollow, as if the heart in her chest had been torn away, leaving only cold wind pouring through her with a hollow howl.

It wasn't like that.

Yu Xiaogang wasn't that kind of person.

She began denying herself again.

She closed her eyes. The image of that person in her memories was still the same, yet somehow it had become different.

"He wouldn't..." Bibi Dong spoke in a hoarse voice. She opened her eyes and stared fixedly at the Heavenly Screen. "He isn't that kind of person."

The other person involved felt nothing at all.

"Then, aside from Spirit Hall's defeat, what else happened on Douluo Continent?" Qian Renxue asked through gritted teeth.

"Let me think. What do you want to hear about? The changes brought by Soul Guidance Technology, or something else?"

"I want to know what the Federation is... Is it the current nation?"

Yin Hongye fell silent for a moment, then decided to begin with events ten thousand years ago. "Ten thousand years ago, the Sun Moon Empire had already annexed Dou Ling and Heaven Soul, the two great empires formed from the divided Heaven Dou Empire."

"Why are you specifically telling me that? Don't tell me there's still something involving the Heaven Dou Empire?"

Qian Renxue was speechless. Surely they could not turn the tables even after that?

"Afterward, when the Sun Moon Empire was preparing to annex the Star Luo Empire, Sea God Tang San intervened. The moment he did, there was no more Sun Moon Empire—only the Heaven Dou Empire."

Yin Hongye was completely testing her. Because of Tang San, the Sun Moon Empire had humiliatingly changed its name. Anyone from this era knew that.

"Then the Heaven Dou Empire became the current Federation?" Qian Renxue said directly.

"That's right, after annexing Star Luo Empire territory."

At that moment, Yin Hongye was certain. There was a ninety-eight percent chance that she really was Qian Renxue.

But he had absolutely no idea how Qian Renxue had traveled through time and encountered him. He was not skilled in using time either.

"Then what happened to the Star Luo imperial family?"

"Let's put it this way: the imperial bloodline is no longer on this continent."

The instant those words fell, the Star Luo Emperor from twenty thousand years ago spat out a mouthful of blood. "Impossible! My Star Luo Empire..."

"My descendants."