[Ten thousand years ago, the Star Luo Empire and the Heaven Dou Empire supported the Outer Realm Demonic Devil, defeating Spirit Hall, the Spirit Hall Empire, and the Guardian God of the Douluo Continent world... the age belonging to empires, the powerful, nobles, and Soul Master clans... arrived in full!] [After Spirit Hall was destroyed, ten thousand years later, no one awakened martial souls or tested soul power for ordinary people free of charge anymore. Empires, nobles... monopolized martial soul awakening, tightly restricted commoner Soul Masters, and controlled their numbers...]
Scenes from Mosheng Fei's experiences over the past few days flashed by at incredible speed.
The path by which ordinary people could rise to become Soul Masters had been completely monopolized. No one awakened their martial souls; no one tested their soul power.
More than ninety percent of ordinary people on the continent went their entire lives without awakening their martial souls.
The instant these scenes were projected across the Three Realms, thunderous shock reverberated through everyone's minds.
The Dragon King Era
"That's impossible... people ten thousand years ago even had to pay for martial soul awakening?"
"Didn't the Spirit Pagoda established by Senior Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao awaken martial souls for everyone free of charge??"
"Dad, why didn't they go to the Spirit Pagoda???"
Hearing his son's innocent question, Tang Ziran gave a bitter smile.
"Wulin, why do you think they didn't go to the Spirit Pagoda ten thousand years ago?"
Tang Ziran gently picked Tang Wulin up.
"Back in the twelve-thousand-something year of the Douluo Calendar, Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao hadn't even been born yet."
"If Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao hadn't been born, then the founder of the Spirit Pagoda hadn't been born. Naturally, the Spirit Pagoda wouldn't exist."
"As for that part of history... I don't understand it particularly well either. But that feudal era wasn't like our present Federation. I imagine it was a way for the empires and the powerful to restrict ordinary people from becoming Soul Masters, to prevent a second Spirit Hall from appearing."
Tang Wulin's brows knitted tightly together.
"Those empires were truly despicable. If I'd been born ten thousand years ago, I probably wouldn't even have had a chance to awaken my martial soul."
The budding sense of justice in his heart gradually took root and sprouted, while his favorable impression of Sea God Tang San vanished without a trace.
Compared with Sea God Tang San, who advocated the sect system and the noble system... Tang Wulin found that Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao's path of soul spirits for everyone was far easier to follow.
At least free martial soul awakening gave people a chance to become Soul Masters. After awakening their martial souls, they could find ways to earn money and buy soul spirits.
Meanwhile, in the Douluo I World
Spirit Hall and the common populace erupted into an uproar.
"We failed... how could that be!"
Bibi Dong clenched her fists, her eyes wide with disbelief.
She had never imagined that her plan to unify the continent would fail.
And the consequence of that failure was that every ordinary person lost their chance to become a Soul Master.
Bang~!!!
The Angel Temple
A streak of golden light instantly blazed across heaven and earth, and an enraged roar resounded throughout Spirit City.
"Damn it!"
"Bastard!!"
"That evil brat from the Clear Sky Sect, that Outer Realm Demonic Devil, that Beastman Tang San! How dare he sever my angel inheritance and shatter Xue'er's Angel Godhood!!!"
Qian Daoliu's eyes were bloodshot, his chest heaving rapidly. He wanted nothing more than to tear Tang San into ten thousand pieces.
Among the common people of the Douluo I World
"Spirit Hall will be destroyed!"
"We won't even have a chance to awaken our martial souls ten thousand years later!!"
"That damned Outer Realm Demonic Devil, that Beastman... Tang San got his way in the end!!!"
Just as everyone was terrified that Spirit Hall would be destroyed in the future and that their descendants would lose even the chance to awaken their martial souls-
An even crueler revelation appeared in an instant. Everyone felt as though they had plunged into an ice cavern, their faces filled with despair.
[[Evil Soul Masters Wreak Havoc Upon the World]: The Outer Realm Demonic Devil Tang San destroyed Slaughter City, the prison that held wicked Soul Masters, fallen Soul Masters, and Evil Soul Masters. Without Spirit Hall to suppress them, Evil Soul Masters formally emerged and began spreading rapidly across the continent, secretly gathering strength and establishing themselves everywhere... they sold addictive drugs and cultivated using blood, souls, soul beasts... and, above all, ordinary people.]
Originally, Mosheng Fei had intended to expose directly that Evil Soul Masters had run rampant because Tang San destroyed Slaughter City and allowed them to escape, compounded by Spirit Hall's destruction, the severing of the angel inheritance, and the disappearance of those possessing angel martial souls ten thousand years later...
But on reflection, he had not yet visited the period when Tang San blew up Slaughter City.
Then he thought it over more carefully. His martial soul was the Shengfei Pen! Wasn't turning black into white and ruining reputations something he could do with a flick of his hand?
Although Mosheng Fei did not know whether the proliferation and rise of Evil Soul Masters actually had any direct connection to Tang San-
Tang San had destroyed Spirit Hall and severed the inheritance of the Douluo World Guardian God, the Angel God. The number of angel martial soul possessors had plummeted, which was no different from their disappearing altogether. That chain of cause and effect lay squarely on Tang San.
In any case, he just had to dump the blame on Tang San.
Tang San could not wash his hands of it.
After all, when Spirit Hall was around, everyone on the continent could awaken their martial souls, and for free at that. Evil Soul Masters had been beaten down like roadside dogs and did not dare show their faces.
Once Spirit Hall was destroyed and the angel inheritance severed, Evil Soul Masters began proliferating in vast numbers. By the Peerless Era ten thousand years later, they had even become a major power, an Imperial Divine Cult.
Twenty thousand years later, they had become the strongest force in the entire world, in the entire era. Even the Federation did not dare move against them lightly... Tang San deserved no small share of the credit.
"Tang San, I hope you can withstand this!"
"Spirit Hall's kill list, a furious Qian Daoliu... tsk, tsk, tsk. Keep it up! You can definitely survive!!"
"Once the next scenes are exposed, you'll truly be a rat crossing the street, with everyone shouting to beat you!!!"
The next instant, the Shengfei Pen danced in Mosheng Fei's hand.
His encounters with Evil Soul Masters over the past few days, those utterly inhumane experiences, were instantly projected across the Three Realms.
The terrifying attacks of Evil Soul Masters.
Murder, soul refinement, using people to refine medicine... Corpse Puppets.
In this era, ordinary people could barely awaken their martial souls, let alone acquire any means of protecting their lives. Merely surviving was already an extravagant hope.
Boom~!!!
The Douluo I Era and the Dragon King Era erupted completely after witnessing the lives ordinary people endured ten thousand years later.
They had thought being unable to awaken a martial soul was already despair enough.
An ordinary person's life consisted of being born, exploited, bullied by nobles, abused by Soul Masters...
In the age of noble Soul Masters, killing someone required only a small compensation in Gold Soul Coins. It was a thoroughly feudal era.
Did you think that was the limit?
Heh. The Evil Soul Masters that spawned at random would teach everyone that even staying alive was an extravagant hope.
They slaughtered villages and wiped out towns at the drop of a hat. There were even powerful Evil Soul Master Titled Douluos who cultivated using the people, blood, and souls of an entire city.
The empires wanted to deal with them... but could not beat them. They called in Soul Masters from Shrek Academy, only for three to be killed in a five-on-one fight.
Suppose you were lucky enough to escape all of the above, and even became that one person in a million who awakened their martial soul on their own under intense emotional turmoil.
Did you think awakening your martial soul meant everything would be fine?
Knowledge about Soul Masters was monopolized by the Two Great Empires. You wanted to enter an academy to study? Were you a noble, coming here like that?? Did you have status, coming here like that???
You wanted to enter Shrek Academy???
Become a Soul Grandmaster by the age of twelve first. Too difficult?
Suppose you were lucky enough to kill two hundred-year soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest and wanted to study at Shrek Academy.
Other assessments awaited you. The assessments were too difficult? Sorry, Shrek only accepted monsters.
You were a noble, and you had a recommendation letter from a city lord of the Two Great Empires?
Then Shrek welcomed you.
Truthfully, when Mosheng Fei saw Shrek's admissions standards ten thousand years later, he really could not keep a straight face.
Their standards for admitting students had dropped, and to an utterly outrageous degree.
But in this era, you could not even awaken your martial soul. If you somehow managed to awaken it, you still had to find a way to obtain soul rings, while knowledge about Soul Masters was monopolized.
Suppose you defied the heavens, your luck towering into the skies, and passed every assessment. You wanted to enter Shrek Academy? Fine. Then you needed a recommendation letter from someone of city-lord rank in the Two Great Empires.
Was that something an ordinary person could obtain?
If you could obtain a city-lord-level recommendation letter and have a city lord vouch for you, were you still an ordinary person??
So Mosheng Fei had neither written nor said anything wrong.
Ten thousand years later, it truly was the age of nobility.
Shrek's admission requirements looked more like a back door opened for nobles and Soul Master clans. There were always some disappointing noble offspring who failed to meet the standards...
After gilding themselves at Shrek Academy, they could return to the empire, receive a perfectly justified promotion, and then be parachuted into a position as... those who knew, knew.
Ten thousand years later, the systems of the Two Great Empires had long since sealed off every avenue through which ordinary people could rise.
Suppose you truly were that one lucky person in a million.
Under the empires' blockade and the nobles' monopoly, you would ultimately become... an Evil Soul Master.
Perhaps this was also why Evil Soul Masters proliferated so wildly.
Because in this era, ordinary people, blood, souls... might well have been the easiest cultivation resources to obtain.
What, you said you could cultivate using soul beast blood instead?
So you admitted you cultivated using blood??
Then the righteous Shrek Academy would show you what it meant to be a fallen genius.
There was no need to doubt Shrek Academy's righteousness. After all, declaring someone an Evil Soul Master because they cultivated using blood was already standard practice.
In the Peerless Era, someone had been hunted all the way to the Sun Moon Continent simply because his martial soul was a little black and gave off black mist. He even became a consecrated elder of the Holy Spirit Cult.
After becoming an Evil Soul Master, another cycle began...
[The Dark (Noble) Age!]
Before you continue