Unification

[You declined tactfully, telling Tang San you did not have long to live, though you might reconsider later.]

[Tang San did not press you, partly to save face. He could tell you were not lying and believed you would probably submit to him eventually, so he left behind a trace of Sea God Divine Power to make contact easier.]

[In the twenty-ninth year of the Simulation, your daughter Su Yiner awakened her Wood Spirit Martial Soul. Strictly speaking, your Martial Soul was the Wind Spirit. As your child with Ah Yin, she had inherited your Foundation and Ah Yin's talent, transforming the Wind Spirit into a Wood Spirit.]

[Under Dugu Yan and Ah Yin's guidance, Su Yiner had not grown into a spoiled, headstrong little princess.]

[Neither woman had had an easy past. When raising a child, they were all the more diligent because they wanted to keep her from following in their footsteps.]

[At that same moment, as Su Yiner awakened her Martial Soul, the aura of the Child of Nature poured out of her.]

[You and Dugu Yan were largely unaffected, but Ah Yin had taken human form as a Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor. If she had not been Su Yiner's mother, she probably could not have endured it.]

[Ah Yin's transformation was unusual. She had neither transformed as a Ferocious Beast nor started over in human form. She had taken human form after consuming a special Immortal Herb in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. She retained her Soul Beast strength and true form, yet carried none of a Soul Beast's aura and was indistinguishable from an ordinary person.]

[Su Yiner immediately withdrew the aura of the Child of Nature after awakening her Martial Soul. Then she hugged Ah Yin's leg, wheedling and apologizing.]

[You examined Su Yiner's Martial Soul and confirmed that, like yours, it did not require Soul Beasts. You then asked whether she felt a sense of emptiness.]

[Su Yiner answered honestly that she felt nothing of the sort.]

[You fell silent, wondering where the problem lay.]

[Meanwhile, beneath the Lake of Life, the sleeping Silver Dragon King opened her eyes. She sensed the fortunes of the Soul Beast Clan, Douluo Star, and humanity converging in the same direction.]

[She awakened Di Tian in the spatial layer above and ordered him to head in that direction to investigate.]

[Di Tian left the Lake of Life in a daze and followed the direction the Silver Dragon King had given him, searching for something.]

[The Silver Dragon King was hopelessly unreliable. She had given Di Tian a direction, but had not told him what to look for.]

"Wow. Leave it to the Silver Dragon King to dodge every bit of pressure and dump it all on Di Tian," Su Ming muttered. He really could not take it anymore.

[Some time later, Qian Renxue came to see you again. Her clothes were tattered and she was covered in dirt, but the news she brought stunned you.]

[Dugu Bo had been killed by Tang San. Tang San had needed a left leg bone and a right leg bone to complete his divine trial. After receiving guidance from a god, he had found an opportunity to kill Dugu Bo and obtain the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone and the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft-Boned Enchanting Rabbit Left Leg Bone.]

[You said nothing. The news hit you hard. You had spent nearly thirty years in this world, yet had known few people, and fewer still had been close to you. Dugu Bo had been your confidant and family. The terrible news left you devastated.]

[You settled Qian Renxue at the Dugu Residence, then said goodbye to Ah Yin and the others. Tang San had already ascended, and the rest of the Shrek Seven Devils would follow over the next few years. You intended to begin gathering faith in earnest, working toward revenge in your next Simulation.]

[In a short time, you brought the Heaven Dou Empire, the Star Luo Empire, the Sun Moon Empire, and the other powers across Douluo Star under a single rule. You did so even though it would earn you many enemies, especially Dai Mubai, the Star Luo Empire's reigning emperor, who was on the verge of becoming a god.]

[But you had grown somewhat unhinged. Even when Dai Mubai invoked Tang San's name, you did not abandon your unification of Douluo Star.]

[Word of your actions soon reached Tang San in the Divine Realm, but there was nothing he could do. Unification posed no threat to the continent's safety. You had overwhelmed your opponents through sheer strength, and few people had died. Under the Divine Realm's rules, he had no grounds to attack you.]

[In the end, Tang San told Dai Mubai that if he wanted the Star Luo Empire back, he could reclaim it after becoming a god.]

[After uniting several continents, you began promoting trade between regions and drafting new laws.]

[Under your rule, the West Wind Church formally became the West Wind Federation. The power of faith flowed steadily toward you, but you were running out of time. To become a god through faith in just three hundred years, you would need the faith of virtually every Soul Beast and human.]

[Three hundred-odd years was far too short. For some, it would pass in the time it took to roll over and blink.]

[In the fortieth year of the Simulation, you occasionally returned to spend time with your wife and daughter, only to go straight back to governing.]

[To ordinary people, your achievements made you a true founding emperor. But many nobles wanted to kill you, flay you, and tear out your tendons. They often joined forces with powerful Soul Masters to attack you, only to end up dead or fleeing. You were an autocrat. You ruled the entire West Wind Federation alone, dispatching and reassigning thousands of your clones. Single-handedly, you kept every branch of government running for a nation of tens of billions.]

[You were a wise ruler, but also a tyrant. You tolerated no opposition. Those who resisted or betrayed you met only death.]

[The remaining members of the Shrek Seven Devils disapproved of your methods. You had stripped them of their power and wealth. As they ascended to godhood one after another, they sought to fight you.]

[But when they finally faced you, they learned that a slight advantage in cultivation could not bridge the gulf between people.]

[Your Foundation had reached 395%. Your normal combat strength was that of a Pseudo-God, and your body, mind, and Soul Power had all reached the Divine Level. The Pseudo-God realm stood above Quasi-God and below Divine Official. All you needed was a Divine Seat to become a god on the spot.]

[With your Foundation at 395%, your combat strength was multiplied by 3.95. You alone were roughly equal to four Pseudo-Gods.]

[You saw no need to kill the remaining Shrek Seven Devils, so you spared them.]

[They were thoroughly frightened of you. Unwilling to linger or cause you any more trouble, they ascended straight to the Divine Realm.]

[You left Shrek Academy alone after that. You believed attacking Shrek would mean attacking Tang San's faith. Cutting off his source of faith might feel satisfying for a moment, but it would probably provoke him into striking back. It was not worth it.]

[Your daughter was seventeen now, and would soon come of age.]