Spirit City, the Papal Hall.
The atmosphere in the cavernous hall had turned ice-cold.
Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back, his spine ramrod straight.
Even before the exalted pope of Spirit Hall, his eyes still held that stubborn pride.
"Bibi Dong, I came here today for one reason alone."
Yu Xiaogang drew a deep breath. "If you dare lay a hand on Little San, I will use everything I have to destroy your Spirit Hall!"
On her throne, Bibi Dong rested her cheek against one hand.
There was no anger in her deep, beautiful eyes, only a trace of mockery she could not conceal.
Use everything he had? Destroy Spirit Hall?
A useless fool who had passed fifty while still stuck at level 29.
Standing at the heart of the continent's strongest power, shamelessly threatening a Peak Douluo.
Bibi Dong laughed.
She could not even be bothered to refute him. All she felt was that the man before her was an utter idiot.
If not for that laughable shred of affection left from their past, the Titled Douluos outside would have chopped him to pieces long ago.
Just as Bibi Dong tightened her grip on her scepter, ready to order this eyesore thrown out-
Something suddenly changed.
An enormous screen of light appeared in the heavens, visible from every corner of the Douluo Continent.
Whether in Spirit City, the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace, or remote Holy Soul Village, everyone could clearly see the sky screen blotting out the sun simply by looking up.
Then an icy, emotionless mechanical voice thundered through the minds of every living being on the continent.
[Planar coordinates successfully locked.] [Connected realm: Mysterious Revival.] [Survival trial livestream officially launched.] [Rules announcement: the sky screen will randomly select living beings from the Douluo Continent and send them into the Mysterious Revival plane.] [Survive for one year in the Mysterious Revival plane, and you may return with every opportunity and reward you have obtained.] [Reward settlement: martial soul evolution, increased soul power, and law fragments capable of breaking the level-100 restriction on attaining godhood!]
The entire Douluo Continent fell briefly silent.
But mere seconds later, an uproar erupted!
"Breaking the level-100 restriction on attaining godhood?!"
Inside the Papal Hall, Bibi Dong sprang up from her throne.
She slammed her scepter into the floor, sending out a visible ring of air.
Her normally unruffled eyes blazed with unprecedented fervor.
She was stuck at a crucial stage of the Rakshasa God Trial and knew all too well how difficult attaining godhood was.
And now, surviving just one year in some unknown plane would directly grant her law fragments for attaining godhood?
Yu Xiaogang, standing below the throne, froze as well. Then a gleam flashed through his eyes.
"Otherworld? It must be an untapped treasure trove!"
Yu Xiaogang clenched his fists, silently calculating. If I can go there and study the Otherworld's cultivation system, could my martial soul evolve too?!
At the same time.
The Heaven Dou Empire, Shrek Academy.
Tang San stood on the training grounds, staring fixedly at the sky screen overhead as his hands unconsciously brushed the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges at his waist.
"An opportunity. An incredible opportunity."
Tang San's heartbeat quickened.
As someone who had transmigrated, he understood the value of a new world better than anyone.
"My hidden weapons, combined with the Mysterious Heaven Skill, will surely be top-tier means of self-defense even in the Otherworld."
"As long as I can plunder resources there, what will Spirit Hall amount to?"
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Sword Douluo Chen Xin gazed skyward with his hands behind his back, sword intent surging in his eyes. "An unknown world? Perfect. It has been a long time since my sword drank its fill of blood."
Ning Fengzhi turned the thumb ring on his hand, a shrewd look appearing on his gentle face.
"Notify everyone in the sect to be ready for the sky screen's selection at any moment. This is a chance for our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect to rise decisively above Spirit Hall."
Greed instantly blinded every powerful figure to reason.
Accustomed to standing above others, the people of Douluo carried the Soul Master World's distinctive arrogance in their bones.
To their minds, an unknown world was simply an unexploited forest of soul beasts.
They only needed to form groups, crush everything in their path, hunt monsters, and absorb soul rings. Every obstacle would turn to dust before their powerful soul skills.
Just as the entire continent eagerly prepared, wishing they could charge straight into the sky screen to hunt for treasure, the cold mechanical voice sounded again.
[The first batch of randomly selected participants has been confirmed.] [Participant one: Li Fugui, an ordinary villager from Holy Soul Village.] [Participant two: Mad Rhino, captain of the Mad Rhino Team (level-38 Power Attack System Battle Soul Elder).] [Participant three: Meng Shenji, chief of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy's Education Committee (level-86 control-type Soul Douluo).] [Teleportation commencing.]
Three dazzling pillars of light shot into the sky from three separate corners of the continent.
The next second, the sky screen lit up.
The previously pitch-black image grew clear, dividing into three different viewpoints.
It was an entirely different world.
There was no lush Star Dou Great Forest, nor any grand, magnificent Spirit City.
What appeared on the sky screen was a deathly silent modern urban complex, decay seeping from every corner: No. 7 Middle School in Dachang City.
A thick, blue-black haze weighed heavily over the school.
A lingering stench of corpses filled the air.
The surroundings were dim, as though even sunlight had been swallowed by some incomprehensible power.
The viewers on the Douluo Continent held their breath, their eyes fixed on the screen.
"Hahahaha! I got picked!"
On the screen, Mad Rhino roared excitedly from a corridor.
He rolled his neck, his bones cracking loudly, and looked at the gray buildings around him with utter disdain.
"So this is the so-called Otherworld? I can't even feel the pressure of a decent soul beast!"
Mad Rhino knocked his fists together, and the enormous phantom of a rhinoceros appeared behind him.
Three soul rings-yellow, yellow, and purple-bobbed around his feet.
Feeling that the abundant soul power within him had not been suppressed, he grew even more brazen.
"You spineless cowards on the Douluo Continent, watch closely! Watch me tear this place's monsters to shreds and bring back god-tier rewards!"
His arrogance immediately struck a chord with many commoner soul masters on the Douluo Continent.
"Brother Mad Rhino is mighty! Crush the other world!"
"Look how lifeless it is. It's probably a low-tier plane without even any soul power. Kill whatever you like!"
Meanwhile, in another view.
Meng Shenji stood inside an empty classroom.
The level-86 Soul Douluo closed his eyes, spreading his vast spiritual power and soul power outward to investigate his surroundings.
"Strange." Meng Shenji frowned slightly.
His soul power probe could not penetrate the walls of the school building, as though a layer of deep, viscous darkness had blocked it.
Still, he did not panic.
As chief of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy's Education Committee and a Soul Douluo-level expert, he possessed absolute confidence.
"An interesting place." Meng Shenji stroked his beard and smiled proudly.
"The atmosphere may be a little oppressive, but this dark-element aura is incredibly rich. This is practically a cultivation haven tailor-made for my black demon martial soul."
He did not even summon his martial soul, merely clasping his hands behind his back as he leisurely examined the classroom's furnishings.
The three men's reactions were broadcast in full to the entire continent through the sky screen.
No one thought anything was wrong.
Under the rules of the Douluo Continent, high soul power meant being able to do whatever one pleased.
Yet in this world called Mysterious Revival...
In the third view.
Li Fugui, an ordinary villager randomly teleported into another classroom, was trembling beneath a desk.
He was only a mortal without soul power. Suddenly finding himself in such a sinister, eerie place had already frightened him out of his wits, and he hardly dared breathe.
The whole of No. 7 Middle School was unnervingly quiet.
There was no sound of wind, no chirping of insects.
Only deathly silence.
Then, at that moment: "Knock, knock, knock."
A slightly muffled knocking suddenly rang out through the deathly silent campus.
The sound was not loud. Li Fugui froze for a moment.
Instinctively, he poked his head out from beneath the desk, trying to find where the sound had come from.
The knocking continued.