The Soul Beasts' Faith

The Vampire sneered, his voice dripping with arrogance and contempt. "Do not lump me in with lowly creatures like you! In the ancient age, before Soul Power or Soul Beasts existed on this planet, my people followed the Evil God here. We multiplied and ruled these lands. The turmoil of the ages drove us into a long slumber, but now that we have awakened, we shall rule once more!"

His crimson eyes swept over the group as he offered them a tempting bargain. "It is your good fortune to have encountered me. Submit to me and become my Blood Slaves, and you will escape death and live forever!"

The Evil God?

Everyone's heart tightened at the words.

They knew that title all too well.

The Sky Curtain had called Evil God Gatanozoa the first of Douluo Star's ten great demon gods.

Was the Evil God this Vampire spoke of Gatanthor, or another of the ten?

"Hmph. Nothing comes free." Tang Chen gave a cold snort, his gaze sharp as a blade. "These so-called Blood Slaves are probably nothing more than livestock whose lives you can take whenever you please. Do you think us fools?"

"So what? You humans live such short lives. Don't you say even a miserable life is better than death? I'm offering you immortality."

A Titled Douluo beside him shouted coldly, "Arrogant fool! Several Titled Douluo stand before you, and Lord Tang Chen is a level ninety-nine Limit Douluo. How dare a mere Evil Creature run its mouth!"

"A Limit Douluo? Hahaha! Is that supposed to impress me?"

The Vampire laughed wildly, his tone thick with disdain.

"You have no idea what you're up against. I'll deal with you myself."

"Aaaah!"

A Titled Douluo had just stepped forward when a bloodcurdling scream rang out from the very back of the group!

Everyone whipped around, their pupils contracting!

A Vampire hovered behind the last Titled Douluo, his pale fangs buried deep in the man's neck as he drank his blood.

The moment the Vampire bit him, the Titled Douluo lost all his strength. He could not even summon his Soul Power.

"Damn it! There's another one!"

Everyone's expression changed.

"Hahaha..."

But just as the first Vampire gloated, a massive Clear Sky Hammer crashed down on him.

The next instant, the Vampire dissolved into a bloody mist. The Clear Sky Hammer passed straight through and struck the ground.

The bloody mist shot into the Vampire feeding on the Titled Douluo like a meteor.

Tang Chen's gaze darkened. "Damn it. They're the same person! He used a clone to draw our attention while his true body ambushed us. What a devious trick!"

"A mere Evil Creature that relies on cheap ambushes can't be strong in a head-on fight!" a Titled Douluo roared. "Everyone, attack together! Kill this monster here and now!"

"Right!"

"Kill him!"

The remaining four Titled Douluo immediately channeled their Soul Power. Their soul rings lit up, and a barrage of soul skills hurtled toward the Vampire.

Tang Chen remained where he stood and did not attack.

The night passed in the blink of an eye.

At dawn the next day, the Sky Curtain lit up across Douluo Star once more, right on schedule.

Su He took control of it again and played the second episode of Tiga's story: the appearance of Gakuma.

Su He had made subtle changes to Golza, Melba, and the later monsters, bringing their size, habits, and abilities closer to those of the demon gods' followers sealed in his Divine Kingdom.

He had altered the plot as well.

In the original story, both Gakuma died.

In the Sky Curtain's version, Tiga beat both Gakuma down and stopped only when neither could move.

Afterward, Yazumi of GUTS developed a Cross-Species Voice Translator, allowing humans to communicate with Gakuma.

Following a conversation, the two sides made peace.

Gakuma lifted the petrification of the Miners it had turned to stone.

The humans set aside a vast, barren, uninhabited area as Gakuma's territory. Later, when they undertook major construction projects—digging foundations, cutting through mountains, and clearing land—they invited the creatures to devour rock and level the ground, saving enormous amounts of labor and resources.

When they discovered that Gakuma excreted various high-quality ores after eating rock, they even built a large Steel Mill in its territory.

Only after living peacefully alongside humans for some time did the two rather dim Gakuma realize that they fed on underground rock. They had never needed to invade human territory and cause trouble; they could simply burrow tens of thousands of meters down to find food.

An annotation appeared along the side of the Sky Curtain: [Tiga, the Giant of Light, is a devout apostle of the Light God. Carrying out the Light God's will, he cherishes all living beings, loves all things, and upholds the divine principle that all life deserves love. He travels between worlds to destroy evil and save those who suffer!]

When that gentle, heartwarming episode ended, Su He clearly sensed that the number of Soul Beasts generating Faith Power had surged more than tenfold—and was still rising.

At the same time, a new Heavenly Dao Instance opened: [Rescue the Trapped Miners].

This time, the participants were chosen entirely at random. Every one of them was an ordinary human.

Su He watched the people beneath the Sky Curtain struggle through the challenge and fight to survive. A faint smile touched his lips.

He was gradually coming to enjoy this. Putting living beings through trials added a little amusement to his days.

The creatures of Douluo Star enjoyed these instance challenges too, and the games helped inspire more faith.

When the instance ended, Su He rewarded the participants with Martial Souls and Innate Soul Power according to their performance.

The commotion this caused was even greater than after the previous instance.

Clearly, stories about defying fate and changing one's destiny were among the most popular in any world.

Next, rather than play the Kyrieloid storyline, Su He chose the story of Vampire Monster Suranos.

Drawing on the setting of "The Final Battle! Ultraman 8 Brothers," he cast Suranos as an emissary of darkness and a subordinate of Gatanthor. Suranos's awakening would hasten Gatanthor's own.

Suranos's Vampire followers would use any means necessary to turn every living creature into a Vampire or a Blood Slave. They would use blood to awaken Vampire Monster Suranos, then present a world shrouded in darkness to Evil God Gatanozoa as a gift.

Episode four, "Goodbye, Earth," featured the monster Lizardon.

The composite monster Lizardon had arrived from space and devoured a spacecraft carrying Earthlings.

Su He's enhanced Lizardon gave Daigo's Tiga his first grueling battle.

When Shinjo discovered that the pilots from Earth had not completely lost consciousness, he fought desperately to rouse his companions. Working together, they finally defeated the monster.

Shinjo: "Daigo, we're losing kindness, gentleness, and compassion—the best things about being human."

Shinjo: "Let's live properly as humans again."

Daigo: "They've become light that transcends humanity."

Su He cut the episodes that explored humanity's relationship with nature, along with those whose central themes only modern people could understand.

And so Su He played two or three episodes on the Sky Curtain each day, opening Heavenly Dao Instances alongside them at irregular intervals.

From time to time, he also released creatures connected to upcoming episodes onto Douluo Continent, though most were sealed.

The people of Douluo Continent would have to find and unseal them themselves.

The more deeply they became involved, the more Faith Power they would contribute.