Longcang Was This Advanced! Bibi Dong's Covetous Ambitions! The New Continent Was a Huge, Juicy Prize!

Spirit City, Papal Hall.

Deep within the grand, solemn hall, Bibi Dong sat upon the supreme Papal Throne.

Her breathtakingly beautiful face, lovely enough to topple cities and kingdoms, was now veiled in frost.

Below her, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei stood with their heads bowed.

The two exchanged glances, doubt on their faces and something faintly peculiar in their expressions.

"Your Holiness..."

Chrysanthemum Douluo held his fingers in an orchid-like gesture and broke the silence with a soft sigh.

"This 'Longcang Continent' actually surpassed the Sun Moon Continent, and even our Douluo Continent, to take first place...

"From the images I just saw on the sky screen, its grandeur really was rather frightening."

"Frightening? Nothing but an empty show meant to bluff others."

Bibi Dong spoke coolly, cutting Yue Guan off.

She slowly rose and walked with measured steps to the edge of the raised platform. Looking down over the bustling yet solemn Spirit City below, she curled her lips into an almost imperceptible sneer.

"Yue Guan, have even you been dazzled by those flashy sights on the sky screen, just like the common fools of this world?"

"When the Sun Moon Continent appeared on the rankings earlier, the sky screen showed a Fixed-Installation Soul Cannon shattering a mountain with one shot. That certainly had some power. But this Longcang Continent?"

Bibi Dong turned, her beautiful eyes gleaming coldly in the sunlight above.

"The sky screen unrolled such a lengthy panorama, but what did it show the world? Crystal towers piercing the clouds? Youngsters zipping about on boards beneath their feet? Or those enormous Ironclad Airships blotting out the sky?"

"A 'God-Level Soul Guidance Battleship'... Built so ridiculously large, it's nothing more than a flying iron box!"

"Did the sky screen ever show it unleashing some heaven-destroying, earth-annihilating soul skill? Did it ever demonstrate that it could kill a Titled Douluo? From beginning to end, there wasn't a single display of actual combat!"

From the shadows, Ghost Douluo Gui Mei spoke in a hoarse voice. "Your Holiness means... this Longcang Continent doesn't live up to its reputation?"

"It's not that it fails to live up to its reputation. It has taken the wrong path!"

Bibi Dong slowly turned back, a rare trace of gravity flashing through her beautiful eyes.

"I must admit... this Longcang Continent is astonishingly advanced!"

"Suspended Passageways, urban construction, soul tools available across the entire continent..."

"In governance and the development of secular civilization, they truly have moved ahead of every other continent, even far beyond what we imagined."

"But that only makes them all the more foolish!"

Bibi Dong slammed her scepter against the floor, and a dull crash echoed through the cavernous hall.

"In this world where the strong devour the weak, a soul master's absolute individual strength is the foundation of everything! Abundant supplies do not mean great strength!

"Without supreme experts and divine legacies to safeguard them, even the most dazzling civilization and the richest wealth are nothing but a juicy slab of meat on the chopping board! They appear prosperous, but beneath that gilded exterior, ruin festers!"

"The sky screen praised them as 'rich in resources, unrivaled among the five great continents,' grossly exaggerating the importance of those external trifles!

"Its judgment is no different from that of fools obsessed with external things!"

"They've spent all their effort enjoying life and building enormous toys. I am certain their internal defenses must be hollow."

"Our Spirit Hall has a legacy spanning ten thousand years, dozens of Titled Douluo, and an army of two hundred thousand Elite Soul Masters! We also have the deep reserves of the Worship Hall and divine protection! Who can rival us in supreme combat power and divine legacies?!"

"What does it matter if they're advanced? What does it matter if they're wealthy?"

"When the passage across the sea opens in the future, this vast, wealthy, technologically advanced 'new continent,' lacking only the iron-and-blood strength to slaughter its enemies..."

"Will be the finest juicy prize and supply treasury prepared for Spirit Hall—for my enduring conquest to unite the entire plane!"

After hearing her analysis, Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo exchanged a glance below her. Their eyes instantly lit up, and the gloom in their hearts was swept away.

Exactly!

So what if it was a battleship? Could even the largest sheet-metal ship withstand a blow from a level ninety-nine Peerless Douluo?

Having never demonstrated any destructive power, Longcang was nothing but an enormous target in the eyes of Douluo soul masters, who were accustomed to "individual might determining everything"!

Unlike the grim, oppressive atmosphere within Spirit City...

Deep within the boundless ocean, the atmosphere in the purple-and-gold grand hall of the Longcang Imperial Capital was almost eerily relaxed.

The Golden Crocodile King rubbed his forehead and chuckled as he watched the panorama of Longcang projected on the sky screen.

"This sky screen certainly knows how to choose its shots. All city scenery and civilian airships.

"But its assessment is fair. Our Longcang Empire really is number one across the entire plane!"

The Deep Sea Demonic Whale King folded his arms and sneered as well. "We're all continents that grew up on the same plane. We never intended to launch some Dimensionality-Reduction Strike. Who knew those natives on the Douluo Continent would be so hopeless? Tens of thousands of years, and they're still playing in the mud with cold weapons?"

On the right side of the hall, the Great Sage, a top-tier soul engineer, also smiled faintly.

"His Majesty often teaches us that those who fall behind will be beaten. We merely followed his wishes and did a little casual research into soul tools."

Upon the dragon throne...

Ye Canghai propped his temple against one hand. As he watched the sky screen's increasingly extravagant praise, the corners of his mouth twitched violently, while ten thousand horses thundered through his mind.

Keep boasting! Go on, keep boasting!

A sacred land of civilization, my ass... At the start, all I really wanted was a good night's sleep and a full stomach!

Who knew I'd accidentally sleep my way into a divine-level civilization? I really never meant to launch some Dimensionality-Reduction Strike!

Ye Canghai rolled his eyes inwardly so hard they might have reached the heavens, then took a rather speechless sip of tea.

Still...

As he sensed the immense "Plane Fortune" and "Divine-Level Rewards" beginning to pour down wildly from the sky screen, a sharp gleam flashed in Ye Canghai's eyes.

Fine. Dimensionality-Reduction Strike it is.

The power fed back by the Heavenly Dao... will make the perfect stepping stone for my final sprint toward Supreme God King!

Just as the great powers across the entire plane watched in secret, each harboring their own thoughts—

High above the heavens, the golden river of stars stretching ten thousand miles finally began to contract, gathering to its utmost limit!

Without any lengthy buildup, a crisp roar of laws, like glazed glass shattering, suddenly rang through the void.

At the center of the sky screen, blazing golden light erupted like an exploding sun. A majestic, impassive voice of the Great Dao thundered through the mind of every living being on Douluo Star.

[Ranking calculations complete! Blessings for the continents across the entire plane—officially announced and bestowed!]

[Third-place blessing: Douluo Continent!]

[Heavenly Dao reward: ambient spiritual energy and soul power concentration permanently increased by 10%! All living beings on the Douluo Continent gain increased blood and vital energy activity; low-ranking soul masters gain an increased chance of breakthrough! Growth speed of soul beasts across the entire continent increased by 5%!]

Boom—!

The instant the announcement ended, a pale golden pillar of light descended from the highest heavens all the way to the earth.

The pillar burst apart in midair, becoming an endless golden drizzle laden with intensely concentrated primal vitality, falling indiscriminately upon every corner of the Douluo Continent.

In an instant, the entire continent seemed to come alive!

Deep within the Star Dou Great Forest, grasses grew wildly and countless trees unfurled fresh green leaves. Innumerable hundred-year and thousand-year soul beasts threw back their heads and roared, greedily breathing in the pure soul power that had surged out of nowhere;

On the streets of bustling cities, countless low-ranking soul masters long trapped at bottlenecks abruptly opened their eyes. The soul power within them, once as stagnant as dead water, now seemed to boil, rumbling and bubbling!

"I broke through! I was stuck at level twenty-nine for five whole years, and now I've broken through!"

"This golden light... my old wounds feel so warm. My meridians are healing!"

Cries of astonishment and the fluctuations of soul power breakthroughs rose one after another through streets and alleys. For a time, the entire Douluo Continent was immersed in the wild joy and shock of this sweet rain from heaven.

At the open-air altar in the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace...

Dressed in magnificent robes, Xue Ye kept his eyes half closed, savoring the warmth brought by the thread of golden light entering his body. His blood and vital energy, once sluggish with age, now brimmed with renewed vigor, and even his vision had grown clearer.

"Hahahaha! An auspicious blessing from heaven! An auspicious blessing from heaven!"

Xue Ye abruptly opened his eyes, stroked his beard, and laughed.

"This is the Heavenly Dao's favor upon our Douluo Celestial Dynasty! Merely taking third place has increased the soul power of the entire plane by a tenth and cleansed the marrow of its living beings! This alone shows how profound our Douluo Continent's foundations are!"

He turned and waved spiritedly to Marshal Ge Long and the senior court officials behind him.

"Pass down my decree! Grant a general amnesty, and let all under heaven celebrate!"

Within the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Fengzhi held the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Scepter. Sensing several young disciples within the sect breaking through in succession, he smiled faintly, his voice carrying a measure of relief.

"A ten-percent increase in soul power concentration may not produce earth-shaking changes in the short term, but over ten years, a hundred years... the number of soul masters on our Douluo Continent will soar."

Beside him, Sword Douluo Chen Xin stood with his hands behind his back. Sensing the active Sword Intent in the breeze around him, he nodded slightly.

"The spiritual energy of heaven and earth has grown denser. My bottleneck has indeed loosened a little. It seems this sky screen's ranking is no illusion."

Within the Clear Sky Sect, delight also lit the faces of the reclusive elders. Much of their earlier gloom and wariness vanished; clearly, they were exceedingly pleased with this heaven-bestowed fortune.