Yes, this world had never been beautiful.
Reality was that cruel.
There were countless people like me in this world.
They all lived amid deep waters and raging fire.
This was everything I had seen and felt while following him during this time.
But then I heard him say:
"But the world has always been this ugly. Does having always been so make it right?"
"The world is such a muddle. It is neither fair nor reasonable. It persecutes heroes and nurtures villains. Ugliness is everywhere, and beauty nowhere... but must we bow to it?"
"No, never!"
"Of course the world isn't beautiful enough. But someone also taught me never to give up. I should make the world into what I hope it can be!"
As he spoke, he raised his head toward the night sky. In that moment, I saw a flame in his eyes.
Back then, I thought he was such a strange person.
Yet, without realizing it, my heart began to beat in time with the fire in his eyes.
Afterward, he spent five years studying the relationship between Soul Masters and Soul Beasts.
He failed countless times, and persevered countless times.
After every failure, he merely opened his notes again and started from the beginning.
I did not understand any of it, but I stayed by his side, passing him his notes, grinding ink for him, organizing his drafts...
Finally, in the fifth year, he succeeded.
That day, he met Xiao Wu in the Star Dou Great Forest and successfully verified his research together with Da Ming and Er Ming.
He had developed an entirely new system.
Soul Beasts would coexist with human Soul Masters in their original forms. Based on the resonance of their Soul Power, both parties would voluntarily enter a contract that could be dissolved at any time.
He gave this system a name.
Soul Bonding!
It was the first time I had seen him smile so happily.
I felt that everything I had done over those five years had been worth it.
Later, he took me back to Spirit City. Only then did I learn that he was the Holy Son of Spirit Hall, and that he had already become a Soul Douluo.
When Pope Bibi Dong saw him return, she immediately abdicated and passed the position of pope to him.
As for Qian Renxue, her infiltration plan in the Heaven Dou Empire had failed, so she withdrew to Spirit City and began the Angel God Trial.
After succeeding as pope of Spirit Hall, he began establishing the Spirit Hall Empire, determined to do everything he could to change this imperfect world.
I stayed by his side, watching him issue decree after decree, watching him reform Spirit Hall, watching the Spirit Hall Empire develop day by day.
A year later, he enacted a new policy, abolishing the old system in which hunting Soul Beasts for Soul Rings was the sole path to advancement and promoting the Soul Bonding system.
He established the first Soul Bonding pilot programs within the territories controlled by Spirit Hall.
Low-ranking Soul Masters entered equal contracts with ten-year and hundred-year Soul Beasts. The results were stable, and their rate of Soul Power growth was no slower than with traditional Soul Hunting.
Through his efforts, contracted Soul Beasts and Soul Masters gradually formed cooperative relationships in which their combat abilities complemented one another.
I was always his aide.
Others who helped him alongside me included Xiao Wu, a Soul Beast who had taken human form, Zhu Zhuqing and her sister, Ning Rongrong and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Skywater Academy, Blazing Fire Academy...
The Spirit Hall Empire flourished. Those were his happiest days, and the happiest, most fulfilling days of my life.
But later, Tang San returned from Sea God Island, and everything changed.
His Soul Power broke through Level 90, and he became a Titled Douluo.
The Tang Sect rapidly rose to prominence on the Douluo Continent.
Under the banner of "the Soul Bonding system merely enslaves Soul Beasts in the name of contracts," he allied with the nobles and sects of the Heaven Dou Empire and the Star Luo Empire, forming a coalition army to wage war against the Spirit Hall Empire!
At Jialing Pass, he stood upon the walls, watching the distant coalition army with a calm expression.
He seemed to have known all along that this day would come.
Yet he showed not a trace of fear.
At last, the decisive battle began!
Bibi Dong confronted Tang San as the Rakshasa God, while Qian Renxue attacked his flank as the Angel God.
The battle of three gods tore the heavens apart, reducing everything within a hundred li of Jialing Pass to scorched earth.
But in the end, Bibi Dong's Rakshasa Godhood shattered, and she fell onto the battlements. Qian Renxue's Angel God divinity was cleaved apart by the Asura Blood Sword; her holy light dispersed, and she plummeted from the sky!
Chrysanthemum Douluo, Ghost Douluo, and several other Douluos fell one after another. Young disciples such as Hu Liena and Xie Yue also perished amid the chaotic fighting.
Ning Rongrong used the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda to shield him from a fatal blow, dying after exhausting her Soul Power.
Zhu Zhuqing and her sister were surrounded and killed while attempting to assassinate Dai Mubai.
Xiao Wu was surrounded. Rather than let Tang San capture and exploit her, she chose to detonate her own origin.
I watched the people around him die one by one, yet could do nothing.
But he still did not retreat.
"Aren't you going to run?"
But he said:
"Behind me are the lights of every home I cherish. I cannot retreat!"
"But you'll die."
Yet he smiled:
"So what if he's a God King? For the future I hope for, even if my bones are ground to dust and my body torn apart, I'll spare nothing!"
"Then I'll stay with you."
The moment I said that, he frowned.
"No, you cannot stay."
As he spoke, he transferred all his knowledge of the Soul Bonding system into my mind.
Then he pushed me out of the battlefield.
"Go, as far as you can! I may not die in this battle, but you must take it away from here and carry this spark farther!"
Then I watched him charge out of Jialing Pass alone, leaving me with one final sentence:
"We will meet again someday. When that time comes, tell me everything."
I wanted to rush out, but I could not get through. He had sealed off every path of retreat, leaving only a thick barrier of energy before Jialing Pass.
I watched Tang San's Sea God Trident pierce his chest. I watched him slowly fall.
"Get up... please, get up..."
He did not answer. He only gazed in my direction, but the light in his eyes was already gone.
He was nearing the end of his life, and his thoughts had already shattered ahead of him.
Yet even at the very end, he had not forgotten one name, or one plea:
"Na... er... live... on..."
At that very moment, the power sealed within me shattered without warning.
Memories from the depths surged into my mind.
I was the Silver Dragon King, one half of the Dragon God, sovereign of all Soul Beasts.
But what difference did knowing that make?
The person I loved most had already gone to the battlefield of his ideals, never to return.
But how could I accept that?
He had loved this world so deeply, devoting himself from beginning to end to making it what he hoped it could be.
Yet in the end, all the world gave him in return was a cruel death.
I raised my head and looked at Tang San, at the cheering coalition army.
A fire unlike any I had ever known ignited in my heart.
It was fury at this old world.
Then I transformed into a great dragon and roared at the heavens, pouring out all my grief and rage, burning through every last ounce of my power as I charged toward the source of all those sins.
When I opened my eyes again, I discovered that I was back in the lake in the Star Dou Great Forest.
I remembered everything.
Soul Bonding, the Spirit Hall Empire, Jialing Pass...
And the person I cherished.
"Shi Meng, I'm back. This time, I will reclaim everything that belongs to us and carry our ideals into every last corner of this old world!"
Before you continue