Awakening

The Firmament spacetime, the new capital of the Martial Soul Federation.

Night fell, and the grand founding ceremony ushered in its absolute climax.

Resplendent fireworks burst across the night sky with a deafening roar, illuminating the holy city—which had just undergone a thunderous reshuffle and a change of dynasties—until it was as bright as day.

The roar of revelry surged through every corner of the capital like a tsunami.

Commoners, low-ranking deacons, the new army, everyone was cheering frantically for their new speaker, for that founding Sage who bestowed truth and cannons upon them.

At the very top of the grand parade platform.

Lin Fan rested one hand on the white jade-carved railing.

The sweeping wind whipped at the hem of his black trench coat. Against the backdrop of fireworks filling the sky, his sharply chiseled face was regarded by all of humanity as the sacred, unapproachable peak.

Beneath this peerless posture that caused the entire era to worship him in awe, golden streams of data flickered frantically right before Lin Fan's eyes, visible only to him.

It was the clearance settlement panel!

[Current spacetime timeline is detected to have undergone an irreversible, ultimate deviation!]

[The first roleplay character, young Yu Xiaogang, has achieved an epic, perfectly sacred true ending under the host's ultimate operations!]

[The host discarded the outdated fantasy system of the original work, forcibly pioneered the Soul Power Compression Path with modern science, and laid the foundation for physically slaying gods! Published the "Declaration of Equality", destroying the class jurisprudence of the old era! Crafted steam engines and bolt-action rifles by hand, detonating a heavy industrial revolution!]

[The host has successfully rewritten the million-year historical trajectory of Bibi Dong (becoming the first speaker), Qian Daoliu (forced to back down and endure), the Spirit Hall (reformed into a federation), and even the entire human race! Act I of the instance has ended perfectly!]

[Synchronizing spacetime anchor for you... Beginning to calculate the final comparison voting rate of the entire continent outside the firmament (reality spacetime)!]

Looking at this succession of glowing golden prompts, Lin Fan finally could not hold back his expression.

The corners of his mouth curled up wildly, and his heart bloomed with joy; he was completely immersed in the thrill of a speedrunner.

Tsk tsk, the clearance effects and plot rendering of this single-player roleplaying game really are made to the absolute pinnacle of realism.

Lin Fan stroked his chin with the air of an expert: I originally thought that with a hell-difficulty start like this, burning high incense just to scrape together an A-grade rating would be lucky! Who would have expected that I would flip the table and race up the tech tree, actually pulling off an epic, perfectly true ending? With this SSS-grade rating settlement, the points awarded will definitely empty out the shop, right?

Hurry up, hurry up, once the settlement is done I can draw cards! For the next instance, I must switch to an even more thrilling character and break the numerical system of this lousy game!

Inside the firmament, Lin Fan kept dwelling obsessively on his "game points" and "card draws".

He had no idea what kind of heavenly dao punishment that overturned the Divine Realm and what kind of comprehensive endowment subverting species evolution his self-righteous single-player operations and perfectly passed system settlement were bringing to the real world outside the firmament.

The exact same second.

Outside the firmament, in reality spacetime.

The entire Douluo Continent seemed to have been pressed with the pause button of absolute stillness at this very moment.

There was no sound of wind, no sound of rain, and even the clashing sounds of swords and blades killing each other across the wasteland were forcibly erased under an irresistible cosmic mighty force.

Following closely.

The pitch-black night sky was suddenly torn apart by a boundless sea of light and rain!

That was a heavenly dao judgment from a higher dimension!

The system's sacred pronouncement voice transformed into supreme thunderous sounds that no living creature dared to defy, wrapping around world-destroying, brilliant divine might as it exploded violently deep within the souls of billions of soul masters and mortals across the entire real continent!

[First instance! True and False Yu Xiaogang Comparison, total continent-wide vote, officially closed!]

[Firmament roleplayer Lin Fan: obtained continent-wide approval votes — 99.9%!]

[Reality counterpart Yu Xiaogang: obtained continent-wide approval votes — 0.1%!]

As soon as these three cold pieces of data came out, the entire continent fell dead silent.

That mere 0.1% consisted of only an extremely small fraction of stubborn old nobles and royalty who voted desperately to preserve their own rule.

Meanwhile, the 99.9% representing Lin Fan was the ultimate submission welling up from the deepest parts of the souls of the entire human race after witnessing the cannons of truth and the iron torrent!

Without the slightest pause, the thunderous voice of the heavenly dao read out the final death sentence:

[Execution judgment takes effect!]

[Because reality counterpart Yu Xiaogang's vote rate has fallen below the extreme boundary, and throughout his life his virtue did not match his position, he stole fame through deceit, and was cowardly and hypocritical. Not only did he fail to lead the era, but he also stole the wisdom of others for personal gain.]

[Heavenly Dao ruling: strip him of all remaining Fate Mandates! Strip him of the right of Reincarnation! His physical body, his soul, and even every trace of him existing in this realm shall be turned into historical fly ash and permanently obliterated!!!]

Boom—!!!

In the Heaven Dou Imperial City, the royal death prison had long since been reduced to a ruin.

Yu Xiaogang, who was already half-crazy and foolish, was currently curled up in the dark, damp corner of the wall, dramatically gnawing on a moldy straw with his mouth.

The moment that thunderous voice of the heavenly dao pierced through the strata and struck his soul.

Yu Xiaogang stiffened all over, and a fear that surpassed the extreme suddenly welled up in those foolish eyes.

He opened his mouth wide, wanting to scream, wanting to beg, wanting to argue for his ridiculous "Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul".

However, he could not even force out a single syllable.

Under the gaze of countless commoners across the continent through the projection.

Yu Xiaogang's body began to collapse.

There was no burning of fierce flames, no splashing of blood.

This was an eradication purely from a conceptual level.

Starting from his toes, that filthy flesh and fragile bone turned into fine black fly ash.

"No... Don't..."

Yu Xiaogang watched in despair as his legs turned to fly ash, watching his torso dissolve into the air.

This fear of watching oneself being erased with one's own eyes was ten thousand times crueler than any torture!

In a mere three short seconds.

That head which had once fancied itself the number-one theoretical master in the world disintegrated in midair like a sand sculpture.

A draft of cold wind swept through the death prison.

The black fly ash drifted everywhere, and in the end not even a trace of dust remained.

This false grandmaster, who had stolen fame and acted hypocritically and cowardly his entire life in the real world—relying on the plagiarism of Spirit Hall theories to bluff and deceive, and surviving on the protection of women—was permanently erased in this spacetime!

Left without a whole corpse! Soul scattered to the winds!

Inside the Papal Palace, Bibi Dong watched the scene of Yu Xiaogang turning into fly ash without even a shred of ripples at the bottom of her eyes, feeling only the indifference of one who had just swept away a pile of stinking garbage.

That coward who had once stained her youth had finally met the pathetic end that suited him best.

However.

For this world, the complete death and destruction of reality Yu Xiaogang was merely the appetizer for this Twilight of the Gods!

The next second!

The blood-red light and rain tearing through the dark night in the sky instantly underwent a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering qualitative change!

The blood-red light across the sky transformed into dazzling, sacred, sky-shrouding tens of thousands of paths of golden auspicious clouds! The golden light was so pure that it even surpassed the brilliance of the sun, illuminating the entire Douluo Continent until it looked like a glazed pure land!

The thunderous voice of the heavenly dao transformed into supreme gospel akin to the primordial creation of the universe:

[Because the firmament roleplayer's voting rate exceeded 99%! Triggered the ultimate heavenly dao divine feedback!]

[Heavenly Dao blessing: bestow upon the real world—all commoners and low-ranking soul masters who cast their votes for Firmament Sage Lin Fan—the "Mortal Energy Control Authority"!]

[All human bloodline fetters, thoroughly shattered! Species genetic locks, comprehensively lifted!]

Rrumblen—!!!!

The landing of this final sentence of pronouncement was like the thunder of creation, fiercely cleaving open the transcendent iron curtain of the entire Douluo Continent that had lasted for ten thousand years!

The golden auspicious clouds churned violently, transforming into a golden light and rain pouring down across the sky!

This light and rain ignored the obstructions of buildings, ignored the distances of space, and landed on those billions of the humblest mortals in the real Douluo Continent!

In the Heaven Dou Empire, at a slave mine outside Suotuo City.

A mortal boy only fourteen years old, with innate soul power at zero and a martial soul that was a decapitation hoe.

He was originally kneeling in the mud. The instant that drop of golden light rain merged into the space between his brows.

"Crack—!"

A crisp fracturing sound originating from deep within the soul rang out within the boy's body!

The shackles shattered!

The boy raised his head. He felt that his withered physical body had turned into a bottomless black hole, and the free-floating energy between the heaven and earth around him was surging into his limbs and bones!

No martial soul awakening ceremony was needed!

No innate soul power bestowed by gods was needed!

Not only that, but a vast ocean of knowledge was forcibly poured into the boy's mind!

Modern heavy industrial smelting theory!

High-energy explosive purification formulas!

The mechanical structures of internal combustion engines and steam engines!

The laws of ballistics and aerodynamics!

Those industrial science and technology tech trees that Lin Fan had battered his head against in the firmament were engraved by the heavenly dao into the genes of every mortal.

"Boom!"

The boy's right hand spread open, and that decapitation hoe of his, which was originally a trash martial soul, automatically shed its rust amidst the golden light.

Martial soul purification!

Under the reorganization of energy, that hoe actually transformed into a multi-functional military-industrial wrench!

"I understand... I understand it all..."

The boy stood up, his bones issuing cracking explosions.

He looked at his strength-filled hands, and as the perfect blueprints of a howitzer surfaced in his mind, tears welled up.

"Mortals... are no longer base commoners!"

This night.

The exact same scene played out frantically in every corner of the entire continent!

Countless commoners whose innate soul power was zero, and who had been treated as cattle, horses, and slaves by soul master nobles their entire lives.

Countless artisans who had hammered away at broken scrap metal in front of blacksmith furnaces for a lifetime.

Countless bottom-tier vagrants who could not even get enough to eat.

The instant they touched the golden light, they completed the ultimate leap in their life hierarchy!

They no longer needed to beg the Spirit Hall for an awakening, nor did they need to kneel and kowtow to high-and-mighty soul masters.

Relying on their own physical bodies and the perfect industry within their minds, they directly took charge of the energy authority of this realm!

"The Sage has manifested sanctity!!!"

"The gears of industry have turned! Truth and cannons exist side by side!!!"

"Guns in hand, follow me! Overturn those old nobles of the Two Great Empires! Slaughter those soul master old dogs who suck blood from our backs!!!"