[On an official road in the Heaven Dou Empire, a carriage raced along the highway.]
["Hehe..."]
["...Were Yu Tiansheng's books really that appealing to young girls?"]
[Watching the previously hot-tempered girl happily leaf through the novel in her hands, Li Shaobai could hardly believe it.]
["I thought taming that Little Demoness Rongrong was already the limit, but..."]
[Xiao Wu was clearly the sort of fiery girl who loved bouncing around, who would never walk when she could run, never lie down when she could jump.]
[Yet she could actually read a book this calmly?]
["Rumor has it Yu Tiansheng has countless girlfriends... judging by this, it seems to be true?"]
[Li Shaobai glanced at the cover: "My Martial Soul Is Blue Silver Grass, but I'm Actually Everyone's Heartthrob."]
[Someone who could write books that soothed young girls presumably did well with women. The book he had given him had really helped this time, too.]
[Looking at Xiao Wu, whose anger had clearly subsided, Li Shaobai slowly asked:]
["Xiao Wu, I heard you mention Nuoding City earlier. Were you also a firsthand witness to that plague back then?"]
["I don't know much about that plague. Could you tell me about it?"]
[The doting grin at the corners of Xiao Wu's mouth instantly froze, and her hands slowed a little as she turned the pages.]
["Nuoding City..."]
[The girl's voice trembled slightly.]
["I was lucky."]
["Back then, some family matters delayed my arrival to register by several days."]
["When I finished dealing with things and finally reached Nuoding City, everyone was... sick."]
["Soul Masters from Spirit Hall and the city lord's residence stopped me several hundred li outside the city gates."]
["But... I still saw... saw those patients."]
[Xiao Wu's face was a little pale, but she continued.]
["Some of the patients were no different from corpses even while alive. The flesh on their bodies had already rotted away."]
["But that rotten flesh not only still hung from their bones, it was even covered in festering sores."]
["You could clearly see yellow pus hanging from that rotten flesh, stretching in strings that connected it to the bones."]
["The main reason you could say these people were still alive was that they were still conscious. They could even speak like normal people, and... eat... urgh!"]
[As though she had remembered some horrible sight, Xiao Wu's deathly pale face twisted with nausea, and she wanted to vomit.]
["Never mind, never mind! Don't say any more."]
[Seeing Xiao Wu's expression, Li Shaobai took a bottle of honey water from his Soul Tool, gentlemanly opened it, and offered it to her.]
[Then...]
["Get that water away from me!"]
[The instant she smelled that sweetness, Xiao Wu reacted as though triggered. Her little face twisted with nausea, and she slapped the bottle out of the carriage.]
["Those patients either smelled sickeningly sweet or stank so much it smelled fragrant. I haven't eaten sweet pastries in years!"]
[Li Shaobai had not expected the plague back then to have been so horrifying.]
[Even though six years had already passed, Xiao Wu, who had witnessed it firsthand, was still haunted by it.]
[Six years ago, Li Shaobai had not yet joined the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile.]
[He had only learned about this far-reaching plague through word of mouth among some Soul Masters.]
[Even after he later became Sword Douluo's disciple and asked about it out of curiosity, his Master had merely answered with the words, "A world-ending threat."]
[But merely reading the articles recording the plague was enough for Li Shaobai to imagine the "bustle" back then.]
[Under the pressure of the plague, the two great powers, the Heaven Dou Empire and Spirit Hall, had joined forces to call upon healing Soul Masters across the world.]
[The world had been shaken.]
[Powerful figures skilled in unusual poisons and pharmacology, such as Poison Douluo Dugu Bo, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan, and Yang Wudi, chief of the Breaking Clan, had intervened one after another, yet none had been able to cure the plague.]
[In fact, upon reaching the edge of the disaster zone, Dugu Bo had merely glanced at its conditions from afar before refusing to go to Nuoding City, no matter what anyone said.]
[Later, even Dugu Feng's Master, Angel Douluo Qian Daoliu, had personally intervened, attempting to purify the plague with Angel's Light, but he had still failed.]
[It was said that a reclusive healing Soul Douluo had also emerged in his old age, attempting to save the world, but ultimately vanished into the disaster zone, his whereabouts unknown.]
[Left with no other choice, the Heaven Dou Empire had ordered a lockdown and built high walls, sealing all the Infected within them.]
[Fortunately, the disaster's reach had been very limited, affecting only the entirety of Nuoding City and part of West Sea City.]
[But from then on, the Heaven Dou Empire had completely lost control over these areas.]
[It even had to expend national resources to station soldiers and officers permanently along the high walls, preventing the Infected from escaping.]
[Nuoding City, formerly part of the Heaven Dou Empire, was no longer a city humans could depend on for their livelihoods, but an outright forbidden zone for humanity.]
[As for what had caused this plague.]
[And why this ferocious plague had lost its terrifying infectiousness before it could spread beyond Phanos Province.]
[These had all become mysteries human Soul Masters could not comprehend.]
["Achoo!"]
[On an official road fifty li outside Star Dou Great Forest, a green-haired boy wiped his nose beside a wooden sign warning travelers.]
[The boy held a portrait with ragged edges, clearly torn from some unknown book.]
["Emerald Swan... Does Grandfather want me to use this kind of Soul Beast as my new Soul Ring?"]
In reality, this succession of information was rather overwhelming.
The conflict between sea and land Soul Masters.
The World-Ending Plague.
These two pieces of information, which could practically influence the continent's landscape for a hundred years, had actually been glossed over just like that?
"That person is... Ye Wuhen?!"
Inside Yu Xiaogang's library at Nuoding Academy, Tang San, who had a guilty conscience, recognized the person on the Celestial Screen at a glance.
Tang San stood beside the window, staring fixedly at the boy on the Celestial Screen who was turning a Swan portrait over and over, and a little more fear suddenly appeared in his eyes.
As he watched the fleeting images of the plague on the Celestial Screen, the articles recording the plague that had flashed through Li Shaobai's mind echoed in his own.
"Could it be... that this is the power of the god behind Ye Wuhen?"
Tang San knew that the appearance of the Celestial Screen was an opportunity.
It had allowed a child like him, who had grown up in a village, to learn of the world's broader situation in advance and discover the wonders of the Soul Masters' world ahead of time.
To put it bluntly, the appearance of the Celestial Screen had changed many of Tang San's original plans.
"Could it be that, along the original course of events, something I did enraged the god behind Ye Wuhen, causing that god to send down divine punishment?"
Tang San's face turned deathly pale. In his previous life, he had already known the saying that gods watched from three feet above one's head.
If he truly enraged a god, wouldn't he be beyond redemption even after death?
"Luckily, I never actually obtained those Seven Seeds. Let that thief whose son died face the divine punishment."
Tang San suddenly felt relieved that he had not obtained the seeds ahead of time, while inwardly cursing.
Although not obtaining them was a good thing, it still could not change Tang San's hatred for that thief.
"I'm done for!"
At that moment, Tang Hao, who was hiding in the shadows, instantly turned pale.
The mighty Clear Sky Douluo suddenly felt that he had caused another enormous disaster.
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