The Third Instance-No Dog of the God-King!

Firmament-Time Space, outside Nuoding City.

The sunset burned red as blood, stretching Lin Fan's young, carefree silhouette far down the dirt road.

The six-year-old walked with a spring in his step, hands tucked into the pockets of his coarse clothes.

Behind him, Nuoding City—and all of Douluo Continent—was being swept into upheaval because he had publicly released the Mysterious Heaven Skill and a map to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Yet the "peerless Saint" who had single-handedly set this age-old order on its head merely hummed an unfamiliar tune from Blue Star. Walking into the sunset, he gradually vanished from sight.

As his silhouette faded completely, the Firmament that had blotted out the sky finally rang with a crisp sound like shattering glass.

Crack—

Light peeled away and became a rain of pure white, spilling over the parched mortal world.

But though the Firmament had disappeared, the world-ending tsunami of collapsing faith in reality was only now reaching its most violent peak!

Ten thousand years later, in the real timeline: the era of the Peerless Tang Sect.

Shrek City, revered across the continent as sacred ground for Soul Masters, was enduring its darkest hour since its founding ten thousand years ago!

BOOM—!!!

A deafening explosion erupted at the heart of Shrek Square!

There stood a hundred-zhang-tall statue of Sea God Tang San, carved from Supreme Sea God Crystal and worshipped across the continent for ten thousand years.

After the Firmament exposed his true nature—"utterly selfish, denying the world its opportunities"—the statue finally faced the common people's ultimate judgment!

Tens of thousands of independent Soul Masters from the lower classes, crushed all their lives beneath a rigid hierarchy, surged forward. Among them were ordinary Shrek Outer Court students who had long suffered at the hands of noble students.

Their eyes blazing red, they broke through Shrek City's guards.

Armed with pickaxes, Soul Guidance Ray Guns, and even crude torches, they struck the battered statue again and again!

Stone crumbled. The head that had symbolized supreme glory crashed onto the cold paving stones and shattered into countless pitiful pieces!

"Smash it! Smash that hypocrite who kept the whole feast for himself!"

"He treated us like crops to harvest for ten thousand years! And he still expects us to worship him as a god?!"

Not far away, inside the gates of Shrek Academy.

Sea God Pavilion Master Mu En, Martial Soul Department dean Yan Shaozhe, and the other elders stared at the fallen statue, their faces ashen.

They made no move to suppress the crowd. They knew Shrek's elite lie—that it "only accepted monsters"—had been shattered by the true Saint's radiance and his promise to teach all without distinction, until everyone could rise like a dragon.

Intervening would only ignite a fiercer uprising across the continent.

At the edge of the chaotic crowd.

Tang Ya, the current leader of the Tang Sect, sat dazed in the mud.

The dark-gold plaque that had stood for ten thousand years of Tang Sect glory lay under the angry crowd's feet, broken into pieces.

Senior Brother Bei Bei stared blankly at the sky. The foundation of the Tang Sect's wartime profits—its monopoly on Hidden Weapons—had died the moment the full Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record was made public.

Eleven-year-old Huo Yuhao stood by the window of the boys' dormitory.

He had been at Shrek Academy for only a year.

In the original course of history, the Soul Fighting Tournament would be held next year, his second year at the academy.

He should have spent the days ahead fighting tooth and nail for Shrek's glory and devoting himself wholly to the Tang Sect's revival.

But now, as Huo Yuhao looked at the Sea God's head lying in the mud, nothing remained in his Spirit Eyes but coldness.

"So much of the suffering I endured, my mother's death, the despair of every commoner in this world... came from you people perched above us, guarding what you already had and barring every path by which we might rise."

"The Tang Sect? Shrek? The Sea God? From this day on, I, Huo Yuhao, will never again be a piece on your board!"

Meanwhile, at the other end of the continent.

The Sun Moon Empire's Level 9 Fixed Soul Guidance Artillery Corps had set out in force.

Personally led by Jing Hongchen, master of Illustrious Virtue Hall, the steel tide ignored the remaining protests from Heaven Dou and the Star Luo Empire. It crushed through Sunset Forest's poisonous miasma and charged toward the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well!

The Divine Realm's blockade had been torn apart by commoners' technology and blueprints. That night, an age belonging not to the gods but to the will of ordinary people began!

Behind the continent-wide celebration came the former God-King's most wretched cries.

The Divine Realm, the God-Demon Prison Abyss.

There was no light here, no divine power—only endless karmic flames capable of dissolving a Divine Core.

Sea God Tang San, who had once accounted for every possibility, hung from an abyssal pillar like a dead dog. Nine thick chains of Destruction Divine Thunder had pierced his Pipa Bones and held him fast.

His Sea God Divine Core had been riddled with holes by the backlash of poisoned faith from across the continent.

"Aaaagh—!!!" The karmic flames burned his Divine Soul, drawing a scream of utmost agony from Tang San.

His hair hung loose as he gazed in despair at the cold void above the abyss.

He could not understand it. He had schemed for ten thousand years and held Douluo Continent's destiny firmly in his hands. How had the appearance of an "overly selfless version of himself" on the Firmament left him abandoned by all and utterly disgraced?!

"I won't accept this... I am the ruler of Douluo Continent! I am justice!!!" The God-King's wails echoed through the abyss, but they won him not a shred of mercy.

The God of Destruction's icy seal nailed him to the pillar of shame for all eternity.

[Ding! The second instance, Young Tang San, has fully concluded!]

[Karmic backlash in the real timeline has reached its peak! The target God-King has lost his authority to enforce the law!]

Inside the pure-white system settlement space.

Lin Fan lounged comfortably on a genuine-leather sofa conjured by the system.

With one leg crossed over the other, he watched the settlement panel scroll wildly before him. His mood could hardly have been better.

[Calculating your overall rating for the second instance...]

[You perfectly portrayed a Saint of utmost selflessness who cultivated alongside all under heaven!]

[From an unassailable moral high ground, you successfully triggered the collapse of faith in the real world and achieved the ultimate feat: winning without shedding blood and striking at the Divine Realm's heart!]

[Congratulations, Host! You have earned an SSS+ super-divine mythic rating for the second instance!]

[Reward issued: 2,000,000 universal system points!]

[Reward issued: 1 random fragment of a Supreme God-level law!]

[Reward issued: 1 God-Level Designated Plane Draw Ticket!]

"Two million points? Beautiful!" Lin Fan sat up and snapped his fingers. "This game really knows how to treat a guy! All I did was play the good Samaritan and refuse to take so much as a needle or thread from the people. Not only did I screw the God-King in reality until he lost his last pair of underwear, I got all these resources for free!"

Lin Fan opened the system shop. The enormous balance of three million points in his account gave him plenty of confidence.

He did not rush to spend them, though.

As a veteran expert player, he knew good steel belonged on the blade's edge.

With enough points to handle whatever came next, his first priority was to start a more thrilling game!

"One round of heavy industrial revolution, then one round of moral blackmail as a saintly do-gooder." Lin Fan rubbed his chin, a troublemaking gleam lighting his eyes. "Two upstanding runs in a row felt great, sure, but the villainous soul in my bones is about to burst out!"

"System! Quit dragging your feet!" Lin Fan crushed the newly acquired [God-Level Designated Plane Draw Ticket] in his hand, his lips curling into an arrogant sneer. "Start the third instance draw already! This time, I want to play hard. Give me someone who defies convention and uses brains and political cunning to trample the world beneath his feet!"

[Command confirmed!]

[God-Level Designated Plane Draw Ticket activated! Locking onto the third instance character pool!]

Vmmm—!!!

Inside the pure-white space, temporal turbulence a hundred times more violent than either of the previous draws gathered in a frenzy.

Countless cards glowing in every color spun rapidly before Lin Fan. At last, all but one crumbled to dust. The lone ice-blue card radiated a cold so deep it seemed capable of freezing souls, then slowly came to rest in the void!

The card flipped over.

It showed a frail eleven-year-old boy in a worn, thin shirt, shivering amid wind and snow.

Beneath his feet lay the mud of the White Tiger Duke's Mansion. Above his head hovered the enormous phantom of an Ice Silkworm radiating million-year spiritual power!

[Ding! Third instance draw successful!]

[Parallel timeline locked: Peerless Tang Sect (the year the story begins)!]

[Character to portray: Child of Destiny, Spirit Eyes Asura—Huo Yuhao!]

"Huo Yuhao?!"

Lin Fan stared at the boy on the card. He froze, then broke into wild, uncontrollable laughter.

"Hahahahaha! You picked the ultimate, unbeatable bootlicker?! System, you really know how to choose them!!!"

Pointing at Huo Yuhao on the card, Lin Fan launched into a torrent of keyboard-warrior complaints:

"The original Huo Yuhao was the biggest joke in webnovel history! He started with a Million-Year Soul Ring, had the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North on his side, and carried Electrolux around as his personal old master. A necromantic demigod with Ultimate Ice—what kind of heaven-defying start was that?!"

"And what did he do with it?!"

Lin Fan slapped the virtual tabletop, his eyes full of furious contempt. "That idiot had 'servility' carved into his bones! The White Tiger Duke's Mansion drove his mother to her death, and he chose to forgive them in the end?!"

"Tang San toyed with him in the Divine Realm like a man walking a dog. He sliced up Huo Yuhao's soul, split his wife's soul into several pieces to test him, and even chained him to the Tang Sect's sinking ship as an unpaid enforcer! And instead of fighting back, he wagged his tail and called Tang San 'Father-in-law'? He willingly became Tang San's watchdog?!"

Lin Fan drew a deep breath, and his manic laughter slowly faded from his eyes.

"You want me to play Huo Yuhao?"

"Fine! Then today I'll show the whole universe how a Child of Destiny with a start this heaven-defying should play the game!"

Lin Fan clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking sharply. "Forgive the White Tiger Duke? I'll flip the Duke's Mansion's table the moment I arrive, then scatter his whole family's ashes as an offering to heaven!"

"Join the Tang Sect and be its dog? I'll take the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North straight to the Sun Moon Empire! I'll become the empire's supreme imperial preceptor! With Soul Guidance Technology and necromancy, I'll build an empire on which the sun never sets, one that sweeps across the entire continent!"

"Tang San wants to bait a hook and scheme against me from the Divine Realm?" Lin Fan gave a cold laugh, his killing intent surging skyward. "I'll cut his fishing lines one by one and blow his whole pond apart! I'll make the name Huo Yuhao a nightmare for every old power on the continent! I won't be the God-King's dog. If I'm going to be anything, I'll be the one and only ruler under heaven!!!"

[Ding! Powerful fluctuations of will detected from the Host!]

[Third instance main quest generated: Reject servility. Do not become the God-King's hound! Sweep across the continent as an emperor and shatter the old order!]

[Loading timeline... Countdown begins...]

RUMBLE—!!!

At the very moment Lin Fan made his arrogant vow inside the system space!

Outside the Firmament, in the real timeline of the Peerless Tang Sect era, inside a Shrek Academy freshman dormitory.

The real eleven-year-old Huo Yuhao had just witnessed the collapse of faith in the Sea God. He was lost and hurting.

He sat on his bed, staring blankly through the window at the statue's head lying in the mud.

The Soul Fighting Tournament was next year, yet he no longer knew what he was fighting for.

Suddenly!

The night sky, which had already gone dark, erupted once more with an ice-blue aurora that seemed to freeze the soul!

The blood-red Firmament, silent for hours, unfurled its sky-blotting panorama again!

The system's supreme voice rang through every corner of the real world:

[Projection of the Third Epoch officially begins!]

[Main quest: Be no god's hound—the emperor descends!]

[Current Firmament character—Huo Yuhao!]

"What?!" In the boys' dormitory, eleven-year-old Huo Yuhao heard his name and sprang from the bed!

He stared at the Firmament. In that instant, his mind short-circuited completely, leaving it blank!

For there, in the Firmament's image, sharp and unobscured.

At the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest, amid the wind and snow.

A boy with his exact face and the same worn, thin shirt stood there. But the eyes of "Firmament Huo Yuhao"—played by Lin Fan—were colder.

One foot rested on the corpse of a century-old Wind Baboon. He looked up at the enormous, million-year Sky Dream Ice Silkworm in the sky, an arrogant, defiant sneer curling his lips!

"Th-that's... me?!" In reality, Huo Yuhao's legs went weak. He nearly collapsed.

Across Shrek Academy and the Sun Moon Empire, everyone watched the boy on the Firmament who was about to open a new era—and held their breath once more!