The Silver-Haired Little Girl

Eastsea City was approaching the Federation's annual Martial Soul Awakening Day.

There were far more people on the streets than usual. Parents with children could be seen everywhere, all eagerly awaiting their Martial Soul awakenings. This was their only chance to defy fate and change their lives.

Yin Hongye's group of four entered the city. He looked at the familiar streets without much change in expression.

It seemed everything had changed, yet it also seemed nothing had.

One could buy osmanthus blossoms and share wine once more, but it would never be like traveling in youth.

"Returning to your old stomping grounds—how do you feel?" Mu Hongchen asked casually as he walked beside him.

"I don't feel anything. This place is still the same." Yin Hongye did not slow down as he continued forward.

"Stubborn." Mu Hongchen chuckled and did not press further.

Qian Renxue walked behind them, studying the streets of the small city. Compared to Heaven Dou City twenty thousand years ago, this place was clearly more advanced. Yet compared to Heaven Dou City of this era, it possessed an extra measure of leisure and ease.

She watched uniformed employees heading toward various parts of the city.

"Those people seem to be Spirit Pagoda employees. What are they going to do?"

Qian Renxue watched the group, confusion flashing through her beautiful eyes.

"They're responsible for awakening Martial Souls at primary academies. Much like Spirit Hall twenty thousand years ago, after Spirit Hall disappeared and another ten thousand years of emptiness passed, Spirit Pagoda became the second organization to awaken Martial Souls for commoners free of charge."

Mu Hongchen explained, "Not everyone has the means to come to the city center, and one location alone cannot handle so many Martial Soul awakenings."

"It sounds like quite a good organization." Qian Renxue did not hold much ill will toward it.

"That's because their profits are closely tied to the number of Soul Masters, which is why they do this." Yin Hongye was unconcerned. "Without Soul Masters, they can't sell Soul Spirits. They can't exactly sell Soul Spirits to ordinary people who haven't even awakened their Martial Souls."

"But a gentleman judges deeds, not motives. At least they're good to commoners. Of course, from another perspective... not so much."

"Indeed. The Spirit Hall of twenty thousand years ago at least paid Soul Ancestors below the fourth ring." Mu Hongchen picked up the thread. "Though that money was extracted by oppressing the two great empires, who cared where it came from? Without Spirit Hall, look at the ten thousand years after Spirit Hall disappeared—there were no subsidies, and Martial Soul awakening was no longer an obligation. Whether you could awaken your Martial Soul depended on the awakener's mood."

He spoke calmly, displaying a certain understanding of history.

But a different light flashed in the eyes of the common people from twenty thousand years ago...

Martial Soul awakenings were gone...

This was their only chance to defy fate and change their lives, and it would be gone for a full ten thousand years.

They could not imagine such a hopeless life.

They had children in the hope that their children would amount to something. If not, it was fine—they still had plenty of strength and could survive by farming.

Someday, they would turn things around. Someday, one of their descendants would become a Soul Master, a noble Soul Master who stood above others.

And now they were being told that after the Sea God overthrew Spirit Hall, their chance would be gone.

The generals of the Star Luo Empire and Heaven Dou Empire also noticed the declining morale of their troops. It was the despair of having their hopes snuffed out.

They wanted to stop that atmosphere from spreading, but ultimately, there was nothing they could do.

Qian Daoliu watched the heavenly curtain in silence. Behind him, however, the angel statue shone with incomparable brilliance. Vast amounts of faith gathered there, radiating golden holy light.

"Such dense power of faith... what exactly happened?" Qian Daoliu turned around, with nothing but astonishment in his eyes.

It was the sincere hope of all the people of Douluo Continent, knowing that Spirit Hall would lose and that there would be no Martial Soul awakenings in the future, that Spirit Hall would win.

They did not want Spirit Hall to lose. If it lost, they would not even have the chance to awaken their Martial Souls.

Above the heavenly curtain, the scene shifted. Yin Hongye's group had already reached the shore.

The morning sunlight was still thin, and a layer of pale golden shimmer rippled across the sea. Waves rustled as they crashed onto the beach again and again, then receded once more.

Mu Hongchen stood at the edge of the tide line with his hands behind his back, gazing into the distance. He suddenly said, "Hongye, you said the sea voyage in a few days wouldn't be peaceful. We won't get dragged in as conscripts, will we?"

Yin Hongye's voice was calm. "So what if we do? We'll just provide aid out of kindness. What are the odds of that happening?"

Yet his gaze had already crossed the sea and settled on the East Sea coast. There, in his eyes, was an extremely heavy mass of karmic sin. It seemed to have attacked quite a number of living beings.

He could not determine whether it was an Evil Soul Master or a soul beast, but he could be certain that it had killed many lives.

Mu Hongchen followed his gaze but saw nothing.

The sea breeze swept over them, carrying a salty, fishy scent. Yuanen Yehui stood not far away, curiously walking across the beach.

"So this is the sea? It's my first time here."

Qian Renxue stood to one side, her golden hair lifted by the sea breeze. "You're really not going to do anything?"

"If they need us for support, that proves the Eastsea Legion is useless. How could there be so many sea soul beasts by the shore?"

Yin Hongye had a sliver of barely perceptible confidence in the Federation's military strength, even though they could not even handle unregistered Shrek Academy final exam candidates.

He looked at Mu Hongchen beside him. "Hong Chen, did you hack into the Eastsea Legion database? See what happened?"

Mu Hongchen answered directly, "I hacked in ages ago. It seems an ocean-going Federation vessel bound for Dou Ling encountered an attack from sea soul beasts within Federation waters."

"That's all?" Yin Hongye had thought it was something serious. "What soul beast?"

"It seems to be a Sea Dragon."

Yin Hongye lowered his head and glanced at his belt, looking thoughtful. "I think it's time to replace my belt."

Qian Renxue was puzzled. "You two don't care about looking at military secrets?"

"Doesn't matter. The combined prison terms for what we've done in the Federation are longer than the Federation's history." Yin Hongye truly did not care. This was trivial work, not even worth calling a problem.

"Exactly. We're just looking at a little information. It's no big deal." Mu Hongchen was equally unconcerned.

Qian Renxue's expression stiffened. The Federation's sky was awfully dark.

As they spoke, a group of people appeared not far away.

Judging from their clothes and manner, they looked like local thugs. Seven or eight of them loosely formed a circle, blocking something in the middle.

The one they had surrounded was a silver-haired little girl with purple eyes.

She looked no more than five or six years old, small in stature, with fear in her eyes.

"This little girl will fetch a good price at a glance." The thug at the head grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "The black market is short on this kind of merchandise. Those noble lords like this sort of look."

The little girl was cornered with nowhere left to retreat. She looked up at the people before her, each more than half a head taller than her, her purple pupils filled with bewilderment.

When Qian Renxue saw this, her sense of justice surged forth. She walked straight over and stood in front of the silver-haired girl.

"What are you doing?"

Yin Hongye, meanwhile, looked at the little girl's head. So this is Gu Yuena, the Silver Dragon King. She has quite a lot of karmic sin. It probably belongs to the leader of a race, or was inherited from the Dragon God.

She looked far more dangerous than those few thugs.