A seaside resort in the Unknown World.
A young man of about twenty-five or twenty-six lay on a lounge chair in garishly colorful shorts, lazily basking in the sun. With an exceedingly gentlemanly gaze, he admired the various balls on the beach ahead, letting out one exclamation after another.
"Those are C-sized balls. Now those are incredible-they must be F-sized."
Suddenly, his expression froze, and he said in disbelief, "What the hell? Isn't Old Qian usually slick as can be when he cheats at cards? How long has it been, and he's already nearly played himself to death?"
"No, I'd better go take a look, or a perfectly good tragedy will turn into a comedy. Everyone knows I hate comedies most."
Douluo Continent, Sunset Forest.
By the cliff, a hellish scene unfolded: severed hands and feet littered the ground, along with all sorts of garishly colored intestines.
Dressed in white and shrouded in black mist, Qian Chongling tilted his head, occasionally muttering to himself, "Your bodies are built just like ordinary people's, but you aren't human. So what species do you belong to?"
Beep, beep, beep! Abnormal fluctuations detected in the host's mental state. System temporarily assuming control of the body.
An unusually urgent series of electronic tones rang out in Qian Chongling's mind. The cold, mechanical voice restored a sliver of his awareness.
Qian Chongling's eyes slowly closed, then abruptly opened within a second. They were utterly calm, making it obvious that this was not his own consciousness.
"Qian Chongling" looked at the "beautiful" scene before him and smiled faintly. "You managed to turn an opening like this into such a mess. Old Qian, where did all your usual cleverness go?"
"Good thing you remembered that turning dark makes you three times stronger, while redemption weakens you by three degrees. Otherwise, this really would have turned into a comedy."
Suddenly, he sensed a faint, elusive aura being drawn from his body and channeled straight into the void.
"Damn it, I forgot to turn on his shielding. This world nearly sucked his luck dry. No wonder Old Qian was so unlucky-he stepped outside and walked straight into a nest of Evil Soul Masters."
As his words fell, his right palm became a blur of light. His fingers traced through the void, swiftly completing more than a dozen hand seals.
"Done. Now the Douluo World won't forcibly drain his luck. With the system here, it'll slowly replenish itself."
"Might as well turn on another shield while I'm at it."
After finishing the hand seals, "Qian Chongling" clapped his hands and smiled faintly.
When Qian Chongling's former self, Qian Ling, arrived on the Douluo Continent, he had effectively been an illegal immigrant. Normally, under the protection of Spirit Hall's luck, the Douluo World drained only a small amount from him, with little effect.
But once he went outside and lost that protective umbrella, it began draining him on a massive scale, until nothing remained and he ultimately met an untimely death.
After all, Third Brother had come to the Douluo Continent because the Asura God had chosen him as his successor. He had settled on the Douluo Continent openly and legitimately, rather than sneaking in.
"Hmm? Looks like Spirit Hall's people are here. Time for me to log off, then."
Three days later, in the deepest part of Spirit Hall's Elder Hall.
Qian Chongguang, the current Supreme Pontiff of Spirit Hall, wore a dark expression as he tossed the unconscious Qian Chongling beneath a towering Angel God Statue.
"Luckily, the Divine Ancestor left behind a pair of divine angel wings to keep her descendants from falling into darkness. Otherwise, I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to save you, brat."
With that, Qian Chongguang immediately merged with his six-winged angel martial soul. Nine soul rings appeared around him-two purple, five black, and two red-as he called out softly, "Ninth Soul Skill-Angel's Light!"
As his words fell, a brilliant light shone directly onto the lowest pair of wings on the Angel God Statue. Carved from white jade stone, the wings grew increasingly translucent and lustrous.
Under the light, the stone wings gradually became a real pair of golden wings.
With a gentle beckoning gesture from Qian Chongguang, the pure-white wings floated down from the air and entered Qian Chongling's body through his back.
"Now it's up to you." Qian Chongguang sighed and silently left the Elder Hall.
The next day, his expression grim and murderous, Qian Chongguang summoned every Titled Douluo in Spirit Hall and ordered the two great empires and the Upper Three Sects to assist them. Once again, they struck like thunder, sweeping the entire continent clean of Evil Soul Master forces. He also provided generous compensation to the Dugu Family, whose members possessed the Jade Phosphor Serpent martial soul.
In this era, Spirit Hall was an undisputed colossus. Qian Chongguang alone was enough to sweep aside the two great empires and the Upper Three Sects, never mind the eleven other Titled Douluos in Spirit Hall.
Qian Chongling, however, knew none of this. Within his sea of consciousness appeared a beautiful woman of noble bearing and graceful elegance, with six golden wings behind her.
The beautiful woman looked at Qian Chongling, who sat blankly in a corner of his sea of consciousness, hugging his knees, six ink-black wings behind him. She spoke earnestly.
"If you didn't carry such a strong Qian Family bloodline, I would truly doubt whether you were my descendant. Although I anticipated that some of my descendants might fall into darkness, you've gone far beyond anything I imagined."
"But whatever happened, the past is the past. Whether human or god, we all have to look ahead."
"Take me, for example. I'm only a strand of divine consciousness left behind by Qian Yuanxue, the Angel God, before she ascended. I haven't been able to contact my original self for a long time, and I'm almost ready to fade away. But I'll still make the most of every day I have left."
"Oh, right, let me tell you a secret. My original self never actually married or had children. She created the first ancestor of your Qian Family from her own bloodline."
As the Angel God's divine consciousness spoke, five of the six ink-black wings behind Qian Chongling had already turned golden. Three-quarters of the final black wing had turned golden as well, and soon it returned entirely to its original gold.
At that moment, Qian Chongling lifted his numb face, a flicker of life appearing in his hollow eyes. He murmured to himself, "So the Divine Ancestor isn't just a chatterbox-she's a virgin too?"
At his words, the Angel God's divine consciousness, which had been about to disappear, stumbled, her form flickering in and out. Unable to stand it any longer, she rapped Qian Chongling sharply on the head before vanishing.
Yet after the Angel God's divine consciousness disappeared, two golden wings suddenly sprouted from Qian Chongling's back. His martial soul had become an eight-winged angel.
But it was not over. Perhaps the darkness in his heart was not so easily dispelled, for eight pairs of ink-black wings grew from his back out of thin air.
In the end, light and darkness reached a stalemate, leaving eight golden wings on his right and eight pitch-black wings on his left, as sharply divided as two rivers that refused to mingle, utterly opposed.
Three days later, an exhausted Qian Chongguang came to the deepest part of the Elder Hall and found that his younger brother, Qian Chongling, had awakened.
But because Qian Chongling had not completely cast aside the darkness in his heart, Qian Chongguang had no choice but to confine him to the depths of the Elder Hall. Unless Qian Chongguang reached the natural end of his life, Qian Chongling would never be allowed to set foot outside the Elder Hall.
Qian Chongling did not resist his confinement. It was the perfect place to cultivate in peace.
What Qian Chongguang had not expected was that even with his soul rings' ages increased by passing the divine trials, granting him an immensely long lifespan, he still could not outlive Qian Chongling, who had never undertaken the Angel God's divine trials.
In the end, Qian Chongguang died of old age when he was over eight hundred, while Qian Chongling remained "hale and hearty."
Before you continue