"Are you Mu En?"
Mu En, who had fallen into Sea God Lake, slowly opened his eyes. The agonizing pain coursing through him made his brows draw tightly together.
But what shook him even more was the shattering of the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud.
The divine artifact left behind by their ancestor Tang San had actually been destroyed!
Had the Divine Realm stopped favoring Shrek Academy?
Yet in the next instant, Mu En froze.
A golden figure appeared before him, three pairs of Angel Wings beating behind his back.
With the Angel God Sword in hand, Qian Daoliu cut through the lingering force of the Level-Twelve Fixed Soul Cannon Shell, protecting the dying Mu En.
"When I was little, my teacher once told me..."
At this sight, a smile suddenly appeared on Mu En's aged face.
"He said that when someone died, they would become a star in the sky, and an angel would come to take them to heaven."
"So after my teacher passed away, I sometimes looked up at the stars, wanting to know whether he was still watching me gently, just as he had when I was little."
"But I imagine you aren't an angel here to take me away, are you?"
"The Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul should have died out ten thousand years ago. And its last inheritor was Qian Renxue, the Angel God defeated by our ancestor Tang San, not a man."
"Are you... Qian Daoliu, the Angel Douluo from ten thousand years ago?"
Qian Daoliu chuckled and nodded calmly.
"Shrek Academy's descendants aren't worthless like Flender and his lot, after all!"
"Indeed, I am Qian Daoliu!"
The expression on Mu En's face instantly turned to utter astonishment.
Truthfully, even after arriving at that conclusion, he could hardly believe it himself.
Yet Qian Daoliu, standing before him, had simply admitted it.
"Why would someone like you... appear ten thousand years later?"
Hearing this, Qian Daoliu chuckled and said with considerable pride.
"Naturally, because I have such a wonderful granddaughter!"
After saying this, he turned his gaze toward Mu En.
"You have a fine great-grandson, too. He begged me to intervene and save your life."
"Would you be willing to join Spirit Hall? I can guarantee you an Enshrined Position and find a way to heal the hidden injuries in your body."
"In fact, if you truly contribute to the Spirit Hall Empire in the future, even ascending to godhood isn't entirely impossible!"
Qian Daoliu was supremely confident when he said this.
After all, even the Divine Realm was run by his own grandson-in-law. Wouldn't making a mortal into a god take no more than an instant?
"Godhood?"
A look of yearning appeared in Mu En's eyes.
But a moment later, he shook his head with a bitter smile.
"I'm sorry, Senior Qian Daoliu."
"My teacher entrusted Shrek Academy and the Sea God Pavilion to me. I promised him I would protect everything belonging to Shrek Academy."
"But now the Spirit Hall Empire's army is pressing down upon us, and the power of the Level-Twelve Fixed Soul Cannon Shell far exceeded my imagination."
"Green mountains cannot stem the surging flood; only flesh and blood can build a dam!"
"I, Mu En, am powerless. Though I can no longer protect Shrek, I am willing to live and die with Shrek Academy!"
Qian Daoliu watched Mu En for a long time, then suddenly smiled.
"Actually, I intervened to save you because you remind me so much of who I once was."
"Shrek Academy truly deserves to be another sacred ground for Soul Masters after Spirit Hall. With a descendant like you, that useless Yu Xiaogang can rest with his eyes closed in the underworld!"
The next instant, Mu En took a pearl as white as jade from inside his robe and offered it to Qian Daoliu.
"Senior, please give this Dragon Core to Bei Bei."
"My oil has run dry, and my lamp is guttering. I can no longer unlock the Light Sacred Dragon Martial Soul's inheritance for him."
"But with this, perhaps the Light Sacred Dragon Martial Soul can appear on the Douluo Continent once more."
Qian Daoliu fell silent for a moment, then nodded and accepted the Dragon Core.
"You have my word!"
He could tell that Mu En was now sustaining his life solely through his powerful spiritual strength.
In truth, Mu En's life was already like a candle in the wind, on the verge of going out.
Scenes from Mu En's life had already begun flashing through his mind.
The joys and sorrows, meetings and partings, loves and hatreds of his lifetime swept before his eyes, one after another.
"Life is like a mayfly, born at dawn and dead by dusk. But at least my conscience is clear."
"Ancestors of Shrek, Mu En is coming!"
The next instant, brilliant golden light suddenly erupted from Mu En's body.
Nine Soul Rings-two yellow, one purple, three black, and three red-circled his body as an extraordinarily resounding dragon's roar suddenly rang out.
The entirety of Sea God Lake turned a dazzling gold, and an enormous golden pillar of light shot into the sky.
Mu En's aged face grew younger at an astonishing speed, and even his withered body gradually filled out.
At last, his features returned to the handsome appearance of his youth.
Mu En transformed into a golden radiant sacred dragon and leaped out of Sea God Lake.
Yet just as the radiant sacred dragon was about to dissolve into a sky full of luminous rain...
A powerful suction suddenly emanated from the Golden Ancient Tree, dragging the radiant sacred dragon toward it.
Qian Daoliu leaped out of Sea God Lake, three pairs of Angel Wings beating behind him as he stared grimly toward the Golden Ancient Tree.
The Golden Ancient Tree, which had once represented vitality, now resembled a starving wild dog, intent on forcibly devouring Mu En's lingering soul.
Qian Daoliu suddenly recalled what Feng Xuanyuan had told him earlier.
The next instant, he aimed the Angel God Sword in his hand at the distant Golden Ancient Tree and spoke coldly.
"Devouring souls without restraint-how is such behavior any different from that of an Evil Soul Master?!"
"Tang Hao, Ah Yin, you shameless pair! Get out here at once!!!"
High in the sky.
Piloting the god-level Mecha Golden Crow, Xu Yi raised the Divine Flame Xuanyuan Sword high and brought it down with all his strength.
The crimson Phoenix True Fire on the blade transformed into a true phoenix that lifted its head and cried out, diving from the heavens.
Below, Qian Daoliu stood upon the azure waters of Sea God Lake, the Angel God Sword in his hand blazing with dazzling sacred light.
"Angel Fire Dragon Formation!"
As the former Great Enshrined of Spirit Hall and High Priest of the Angel Temple, Qian Daoliu, wielding the Angel God Sword, possessed genuine demigod-level cultivation.
Moreover, when Feng Xuanyuan had reconstructed his body and soul, he had used the concentrated energy of the Immortal Spirit Pool in the Phoenix God Realm.
Thus, Immortal Spirit Qi now existed naturally within Qian Daoliu's body.
And now, he used that Immortal Spirit Qi to directly unleash the Angel God Sword's true power.
A golden ray of sunlight shone down from the heavens, falling upon Qian Daoliu.
The sunlight merged with the sacred light blooming from the Angel God Sword and its burning golden divine flames, becoming a scorching golden fire dragon that slashed toward the Golden Ancient Tree.
A crimson true phoenix and a golden fire dragon; the Divine Flame Xuanyuan Sword and the Angel God Sword.
The attacks unleashed by the two divine artifacts struck the Golden Ancient Tree almost simultaneously.
Crack, crack, crack...
Roaring golden-red flames engulfed the Golden Ancient Tree. Severed through its middle, it collapsed in an instant.
At the same time, two figures emerged from within the Golden Ancient Tree.
Within the Douluo God Realm.
The expressions of the War God Dai Mubai, the God of Speed Zhu Zhuqing, the Nine-Colored Goddess Ning Rongrong, and the God of Food Oscar all changed drastically.
"Tang San, what's going on?!"
Before you continue