Xu Qingjia's attitude toward Ha Luosa, or any Evil Soul Master, was simple:
Kill them. Once the Eighteen Levels of Hell were established, he would throw them in there. Or refine them into Ghost Soldiers to command and use as cannon fodder. That would at least make full use of them.
They would not even qualify to become Netherworld Soldiers.
Netherworld Soldiers were officially registered, with authorized positions.
Xu Qingjia had never encountered an Evil Soul Master, but he had watched documentaries with real footage: babies refined into Blood Infants, children drained of blood, young people stripped of their skin and bones, and defenseless people tortured to death and refined into Vengeful Spirits.
Calling them a pack of beasts was already painting them in a flattering light.
"But that happened a hundred years ago," Shen Xi said.
"With three Limit Douluos joining forces, Ha Luosa should have been killed, even if his abilities could reach the heavens."
That was not the case.
Xu Qingjia remembered that this fellow was still alive in the original story.
To break through to godhood, he had joined the Holy Spirit Cult.
But Xu Qingjia did not say it aloud. First, he had never even left Mingdu. Who would believe him?
Second, the Federation's upper echelons all knew that the Holy Spirit Cult had one Sovereign, two Emperors, and four Heavenly Kings.
One of them, the Nether Emperor, was even a Quasi-God powerhouse.
The other "Emperor" who stood alongside him surely had to be a Quasi-God powerhouse as well.
But that knowledge was useless. They could not catch them, nor could they even guard against them. Quasi-Gods already represented the highest combat strength in the world. Even those four Heavenly Kings who were Super Douluos had yet to be captured and brought to justice.
"I'm not familiar with Ha Luosa."
"But Yama is absolutely a righteous god."
Xu Qingjia said, "He is a Nether God who governs life and death and oversees reincarnation throughout the world."
He had a rough idea why his father had mentioned divinity.
King Yama was a Nether God. Of course he possessed divinity.
However, what his father had sensed earlier should have been the divinity released during the Book of Life and Death's investiture. Having only just awakened his martial soul, Xu Qingjia did not yet have the ability to display divinity himself.
"A god..." Xu Ye pondered.
He did not care about righteous gods or evil gods.
So what if his precious son had awakened a Fallen Angel!
Who would dare call the young master of his Xu Family an Evil Soul Master?!
What he cared about was his son's safety and growth.
"Besides that," Xu Qingjia said, "as a god-level martial soul, Yama possesses his own innate domain."
As that triply echoing voice-mingling a boy's clear tones, inhuman calm, and divine indifference-fell silent, a speck of black that seemed to devour all light and sound descended. Like a drop of ink falling into clear water, it spread rapidly in every direction like the waters of the River Styx.
Netherworld qi churned and surged. It was death itself, something every living creature would shun like snakes and scorpions. Its terrifying pressure made the surrounding air thicker and heavier, locking onto Xu Ye and Shen Xi.
When Xu Qingjia actively released his innate domain for the first time, the couple truly experienced its power. Their intense discomfort made them instinctively release protective soul power.
Even their powerful Spirit Domain Realm spiritual power grew considerably sluggish within the impenetrably dense black mist. Their perception of space and time became extremely blurred, as though they were no longer sitting where they had been, but had crossed through space and time into another realm.
Behind the young King Yama stood a towering, ancient Ghost Gate, radiating endless desolation and deathly silence.
"This is my domain. I call it the netherworld divine domain, or the Underworld." The triply layered voice rang through the dim world, and death's chill arrived upon the wind.
"First, the level of existence of all beings not native to the Netherworld-the Underworld-will be greatly suppressed. Every ability, whether offensive, defensive, or enhancing, suffers a base reduction of twenty percent. Those weaker than me or with little lifespan remaining will suffer greater reductions. I receive a base ten-percent enhancement to all attributes, with an additional one percent for every level I gain."
As for beings from the Netherworld, as long as their standing was lower than Yama's, the suppression would be overwhelming.
"Second, all the netherworld qi within the domain can rapidly replenish my soul power and heal my injuries. As long as the Netherworld endures, Yama cannot die. As long as the Netherworld does not run dry, Yama cannot fall."
"Third, as faith accumulates, I can create more Netherworld structures. For example, this Ghost Gate behind me."
Xu Qingjia stood and looked at the Ghost Gate, heavy with the weight of ages and solitude. "This is the Land at the Boundary of Yin and Yang."
"In other words, it is the gate connecting this domain of mine to the Netherworld."
"The Netherworld?!" Curiosity appeared in Shen Xi's eyes.
"Can you go to the Netherworld if you open it?"
"Yes." Xu Qingjia nodded earnestly.
The boy explained in a calm voice, as though describing something utterly trivial. "Once it opens, the Netherworld's qi will overwhelm all of Mingdu within a minute. Every living being except me will die on the spot. Then the entire Douluo Continent will follow. Once the Netherworld's aura occupies half of Douluo Star, the whole planet will be dragged down into the boundless Netherworld."
The curiosity on Shen Xi's face instantly froze.
"Really?"
"Of course." Xu Qingjia's expression was perfectly serious.
But that did not mean the Ghost Gate could not be used.
His domain was actually his prototype divine domain.
The first ability was the divine domain's enhancement of him, its chief god, and its suppression of outsiders.
The second ability was the function of the divine domain itself.
It was similar to a divine kingdom.
The third was the expansion of the divine domain.
His divine domain lay between life and death.
Simply put, half of it was in the Douluo Plane, and half in the Netherworld.
As long as he continued expanding his divine domain beyond the Ghost Gate, it would be equivalent to carving out a separate little space in the Netherworld. That would leave a buffer between the Netherworld and the Douluo Plane, allowing him to effectively control the influx of the Netherworld's aura, rather than having it pour into the Douluo Plane all at once as it would if he opened the Ghost Gate now.
It would function like a sluice gate, controlling the flow rate of the water-the Netherworld's aura.
Xu Qingjia withdrew his divine domain.
"A very powerful domain," Xu Ye remarked.
And from the sound of it, it could evolve continuously.
Throughout the entire history of the Douluo Continent, there had never been a domain that could compare.
Should I say it lives up to being a god-level martial soul?
As for the Ghost Gate, Xu Ye felt it resembled the Fallen Angel's Ninth Soul Skill recorded in the Federation's classified files. That soul skill connected to a world called the Demon Plane. However, the Ghost Gate offered much greater control than that soul skill.
"Is the Netherworld dangerous?" Xu Ye asked with concern.
Xu Qingjia nodded, then shook his head. "I'm not sure, but I have Yama's-the Book of Life and Death's-protection."
"What about that Underworld King's Divine Envoy?"
"I only met him once, and then I couldn't find him anymore. He seemed like a pretty good person."
Xu Qingjia was talking about Electrolux.
"Don't trust others too easily." Xu Ye frowned slightly, then slowly relaxed his brow. "If the person who received the divine inheritance weren't my child, I would certainly harbor ulterior motives."
The temptation of eternal life was simply too great.
"That's right." Shen Xi nodded gently.
They had never imagined that, thousands of years after the Divine Realm disappeared, a divine inheritance would fall into their child's hands!
Stop their child from continuing to communicate with that Underworld King's Envoy?
Even they could not resist the temptation of eternal life.
For the first time, this couple whose power had reached the pinnacle of the Douluo Continent felt somewhat helpless in the face of this unknown being.
"Qingjia." Xu Ye still felt uneasy. "Repeat your conversation with the Underworld King's Envoy for us."
Their child was clever, but he was still very young.
"There really wasn't much to it." Xu Qingjia blinked.
One lie needed more lies to patch it up.
Fortunately, his story was half true and half false. After all, he really did not know how to bring up his transmigration.
"He just gave me the thing, then told me to gather the power of faith to build a path to godhood and cultivate diligently. I was to figure out the rest myself. That was all."
"That's it?"
"That's it."
Xu Qingjia said, "I don't know anything else, either. Everything I just explained was information the Yama martial soul fed back to me, but that's all the information there was."
"Then just cultivate normally for now." Xu Ye let out a relieved breath.
Even as a Limit Douluo, all the information he had received today left his head feeling swollen.
"But you still need to gather the power of faith?"
"Yes." Xu Qingjia nodded earnestly.
"According to ancient records," Shen Xi said, "the First Generation Sea God and the First Generation Angel God of ancient times gathered faith from the oceans and the continent respectively, and ultimately ascended to godhood."
"Everyone who ascended to godhood afterward did so by inheriting another deity's divine position."
"But no one knows how the First Generation Sea God and the Angel God used faith to forge their divine positions. Since the Divine Realm disappeared, some Quasi-God powerhouses have tried as well, but every single one failed. It's speculated that their inability to forge divine positions is connected to the absence of the Divine Realm."
"That Nether God's envoy might know." Xu Qingjia was laying the groundwork for his ability to invest Nether Gods and ghost officers. "The Yama martial soul is my divine seed. All I need to do now is keep watering it with the power of faith, and it will continue to grow."
Restraint showed in Xu Ye's eyes. "Focus on your own cultivation first."
The child was still young.
As a father, Xu Ye did not want his child taking risks for their sake.
"Your mother and I will handle the matter of faith."
"That's right," Shen Xi said.
In their eyes, no matter how much intelligence and composure Xu Qingjia displayed beyond others his age, he was still a little child.
"Do we need to make statues of you, Qingjia, and use your real name?"
"No." Xu Qingjia shook his head. "We can establish a religious order and tell people that a deity who governs life and death, judgment, and reincarnation has awakened from his slumber. His name is the Yanluo Heavenly Son."
He was the Yanluo Heavenly Son, bearing the nether god divine position.
Life and death, judgment, and reincarnation corresponded to his authorities.
That description referred to him.
"The doctrine is that doing good deeds and accumulating virtue can bring blessings to your descendants. After death..."
Xu Qingjia directly drew upon relevant knowledge from his previous life.
He would need to refine it before putting it out there.
Xu Ye and Shen Xi listened attentively. After all, this concerned their dear son's future.
"The main aim is to attract ordinary people. We can hand out things like rice, flour, oil, meat, and eggs." His parents should be more familiar with this sort of thing than he was.
These days, as technology advanced, people's thinking and knowledge had improved. If they encountered anything strange, their first reaction probably would not be to pray to some deity, but to report it directly to the City Guard as a suspected trace of Evil Soul Masters. If you wanted people to do something, you had to offer some benefits.
Otherwise, surely he could not be expected to debut as an idol.
Granted, with Xu Qingjia's looks and the Xu Family's wealth and power, venturing into that field really could make him an instant sensation throughout the Federation.
But his divine position was Yama, not the God of Song!