Tang Hao's voice was hoarse beyond recognition as he laughed and cried.
At that moment, this once-insufferably arrogant Clear Sky Douluo's heart was filled with self-reproach.
He remembered being surrounded and attacked by Qian Xunji of Spirit Hall all those years ago.
He had prided himself on being the Douluo Continent's greatest genius, its youngest Titled Douluo.
Yet in the end, he could not even protect the woman he loved most. He could only watch helplessly as Ah Yin sacrificed that blood-red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring to him to save him and their newborn son.
That day, Ah Yin's blood had stained the grass red, and her heartbreakingly beautiful smile had become a nightmare that haunted the rest of his life.
On the Douluo Continent, Soul Beasts were destined to be hunted down, to serve as stepping stones for humanity's advancement.
Hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were lambs condemned for the treasures they carried; once exposed, they would attract countless greedy gazes.
Tang Hao had thought that after being transported to the Great Thousand World, where heaven and earth were destroyed at the slightest provocation, Ah Yin would surely meet a miserable end.
But what had he seen?
He had seen that supreme titan called the Western Heaven War Emperor.
That Immortal Grade Heavenly Sovereign before whom even Earthly Sovereigns knelt, that deity whose aura was ten thousand times more terrifying than the Angel God's!
After seeing Ah Yin's true form, not only had he refrained from ruthlessly killing her like those beasts from Spirit Hall.
Instead, he had gently helped her up.
Not only had he granted her an immortal flower garden ten thousand times more luxurious than the Divine Realm, but he had also promised her countless heavenly treasures and earthly precious materials, and would even personally send someone to teach her cultivation!
"This is a true deity..."
"He covets nothing from the lower realms and does not slaughter the innocent. He possesses absolute power, yet also the compassionate heart of a king."
Tang Hao lifted his head and watched the Western Heaven War Emperor's departing figure in the Sky Screen, his eyes actually filled with gratitude.
Then, seemingly to express the gratitude in his heart, he glanced around to make sure no one was there and began kowtowing toward the Western Heaven Continent in the Sky Screen.
Thud!
Once, twice, three times...
"Thank you, Lord War Emperor! Thank you for saving her life!"
"You saved my wife and bestowed supreme fortune upon her. I, Tang Hao, kowtow to you!"
After finishing his kowtows, he turned toward the distant Shrek Academy.
"Little San, did you see that?"
"Your mother is safe. She's somewhere ten thousand times better than the Douluo Continent."
"She met a truly good man. She'll never have to live in fear again..."
Tang Hao murmured to himself, the great stone that had weighed on his heart for over a decade finally lifting completely.
That Lord Western Heaven War Emperor was such a good man!
Just a little water could reconstruct Ah Yin's physical body.
Yet he, Tang Hao, could only guard a blade of grass, hiding like a coward in a sunless valley for half his life.
"As long as Ah Yin is well, I'm satisfied..."
"Or if I'm fortunate enough to be transported there, Ah Yin and I could be together, like paired birds sharing a nest and taking flight."
"Once again, my gratitude to my emperor, Western Heaven."
Tang Hao closed his eyes, letting the cold spray from the waterfall strike his face, yet his lips were full of smiles.
Meanwhile.
Spirit City, the Pope's Hall.
Bibi Dong sat upright on the papal throne inlaid with countless gemstones.
She said nothing, merely staring with a complicated gaze at Ah Yin, who stood in the flower garden on the Sky Screen, her face full of gratitude.
After a long while, Bibi Dong released her scepter and leaned back against her chair, somewhat drained.
"Heh..."
Her laughter echoed through the Main Hall, sending chills down the elders' spines below.
"Your Holiness?"
Ghost Douluo Gui Mei cautiously stepped forward and called softly.
Bibi Dong waved her hand, indicating that she was all right?
"I merely find the workings of fate in this world utterly laughable."
Bibi Dong looked at the Sky Screen, her voice somewhat bitter.
"Our Spirit Hall exhausted every scheme and turned out in full force. How many experts died before we forced that hundred-thousand-year soul beast to sacrifice herself?"
"On our Douluo Continent, a hundred-thousand-year soul beast is the highest treasure."
"But that Great Thousand World!"
"Why is even a casually plucked blade of grass more precious than a hundred-thousand-year soul beast?"
"And that man called the Western Heaven War Emperor commands such terrifying resources and possesses supreme power to summon clouds with one turn of his hand and rain with another."
"Yet he acts like this?"
"Is our world truly the one that's wrong?"
At that thought, the pitch-black secret chamber from all those years ago involuntarily surfaced in Bibi Dong's mind.
She remembered Qian Xunji, that beast of a teacher who had used the vilest methods to steal her chastity and destroy her life.
She also remembered Yu Xiaogang, that useless man who had cowardly chosen to run away when she was most helpless, daring only to curse heaven and blame others from the shadows.
These men who stood high above others on the Douluo Continent, or thought themselves extraordinary, were all selfish, utterly hypocritical trash!
And what about that Western Heaven War Emperor on the Sky Screen?
He wore imperial robes, his handsome features like a heavenly god descended to earth.
He clearly had the strength to crush Ah Yin with a single finger, and could clearly have claimed her for himself, refined her, and absorbed her.
But he had not.
He had merely helped her up gently, granted her the best cultivation environment, and even thoughtfully sent someone to teach her.
What breadth of heart was this? What kingly bearing?
"Compared with this Lord War Emperor, those so-called geniuses and overlords of our Douluo Continent aren't even worth the vermin in a sewer."
Thinking of all this filled Bibi Dong with hatred, and after the hatred came jealousy.
It was not Ah Yin's hundred thousand years of cultivation that she envied.
She envied how Ah Yin could possibly be so lucky!
Why could a weed trampled underfoot go to the Great Thousand World and encounter such a compassionate, peerless king who asked for nothing in return?
Yet she, Bibi Dong, possessed the greatest twin martial souls talent in the Douluo Continent's history and breathtaking beauty.
Why did she have to endure those disgusting men's schemes and betrayals here?
"If the men I met back then had possessed even one ten-thousandth of this Lord War Emperor's bearing..."
Bibi Dong closed her eyes, and despite herself, began imagining that imposing figure dressed in golden imperial robes.
"If I could have been born in that Great Thousand World."
"Even if I went to the War Emperor Palace as a maid, even if I could only watch this Lord War Emperor from afar."
"Wouldn't that still be ten thousand times better than being pope of this foul, smoke-choked Douluo Continent?"
Below in the Main Hall, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan watched the pope's complicated expression and could not help sighing.
"Your Holiness, that Soul Beast's luck truly is enough to drive anyone mad."
"Who could have imagined that in a higher-dimensional world with danger at every step, there would actually be such a supremely powerful being who pitied all living things?"
"This Ah Yin has truly ascended to heaven in a single step."
Hearing this, Bibi Dong silently nodded and said no more.
And this discussion about the Great Thousand World's "great philanthropist" was not confined to the human Soul Master World.
The Far North.
Deep within this forbidden zone of life, where ice and snow covered the land year-round and even the air could freeze.
Blizzards howled across the sky, and multicolored auroras wove a magnificent painting through the night.
Two peerlessly graceful figures stood quietly atop a ten-thousand-year-old glacier that towered into the clouds.
The woman on the left had long hair as white as snow that danced in the wind, and translucent, crystalline skin, as though she had been carved from the purest ice and snow in the world.
She was the Snow Empress, foremost of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North, possessing seven hundred thousand years of cultivation!
Beside her stood a petite girl who nevertheless exuded a fiery, wild air.
The girl had long jade-green hair, with twin ponytails swaying playfully behind her head, while ice-crystal-like scale patterns faintly appeared and disappeared on her fair skin.
She was the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, the Ice Empress, ranked second among the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North and possessing four-hundred-thousand-year cultivation!
At that moment, these two peerless ferocious beasts, whose stomps could trigger avalanches on the Douluo Continent.
Were looking up at the Sky Screen high in the heavens without blinking.
The swirling snow fell toward them, only to be frozen into nothingness by their terrifying power of extreme cold before it could approach.
"Sister Snow, look!"
The Ice Empress swallowed a nonexistent mouthful of saliva, her jade-green eyes filled with disbelief.
"That Blue Silver Grass called Ah Yin took human form."
"Without a transformation tribulation, without the vulnerable period of restarting her cultivation, just because of a single drop of dew that fell from a tree!"
The Ice Empress's voice carried profound bitterness.
She turned to look at the Snow Empress beside her.
"Sister Snow, you spent a full seven hundred thousand years cultivating bitterly in this freezing Far North."
"I've endured four hundred thousand years in this world of ice and snow too."
"We live in terror every day, afraid that damned tribulation lightning will strike someday and blast both our bodies and divine souls into oblivion."
The Ice Empress's eyes reddened slightly, her little fists tightly clenched.
"Every heavenly tribulation is a brush with death, stripping away our skin and snapping our bones."
"But what about that Blue Silver Grass with only a hundred thousand years of cultivation?"
"Why is she so lucky? Why did she get to meet that compassionate Lord War Emperor?"
Hearing the Ice Empress's complaints as she verged on breaking down.
Even the Snow Empress's eternally frozen face showed a rare trace of bitterness.
"Bing'er, this is fate."
The Snow Empress raised her head, her profound gaze fixed on the vast Great Thousand World in the Sky Screen.
"In our world, those so-called laws of the Divine Realm give us Soul Beasts no way to survive."
"They treat us like penned livestock, allowing humans to kill us for our rings while using tribulation lightning to seal off our path to godhood."
A trace of sorrow flashed through the Snow Empress's eyes.
"But that Great Thousand World is different."
"Didn't you see the look in that Western Heaven War Emperor's eyes?"
"In his eyes, plants and living beings aren't materials to be slaughtered, but seeds of cultivation that can be treated as equals and carefully nurtured."
The Snow Empress recalled the Western Heaven War Emperor's gentle smile and his gifts that asked for nothing in return.
An unprecedented sense of submission actually arose in the heart of this queen of the Far North.
"That Lord War Emperor's terrifying cultivation has long surpassed the God Kings as we understand them."
"Yet he can be so magnanimous toward a weak little plant."
"If-if we sisters could also be fortunate enough to go to that world..."
The Snow Empress turned toward the Ice Empress, whose face was likewise full of longing, and a faint blush actually appeared on her pure, flawless cheeks.
"Bing'er, tell me."
"If we were willing to abandon our empty titles as rulers of the Far North."
"And willingly went to the War Emperor Palace to become two maids serving tea and water at Lord War Emperor's side."
"Or took our true forms and became his carriage-pulling mounts."
"Would that venerable Lord War Emperor take us in?"
Hearing the Snow Empress's words.
Had this been a day earlier, the Ice Empress would surely have thought the Snow Empress mad. How could a magnificent seven-hundred-thousand-year ferocious beast become someone else's slave?
But now, the Ice Empress nodded without hesitation.
"He certainly would!"
"Lord War Emperor is so compassionate. He's willing to take in even a hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Grass."
"We sisters are top-tier ice-attribute spirits of heaven and earth!"
"As long as we can leave this damned place shrouded in tribulation lightning, as long as we can follow such a great philanthropist."
"Never mind being a maid, even if I had to toil like his ox or horse, I'd willingly do it!"
For a time, both peerless ferocious beasts of the Far North fell completely under the spell of the Western Heaven War Emperor's hypocritical "radiant image."
They dreamed of being chosen by the Sky Screen and going to the Great Thousand World to seek refuge with that "great philanthropist."
Little did they know that if they truly went, given the Western Heaven War Emperor's habit of being unable to move his feet whenever he saw an exquisite beauty.
The fate of this pure and flawless pair of sisters from the Far North would probably be far more eventful than even Ah Yin's.
Just as the two peerless ferocious beasts of the Far North were still gazing at the Sky Screen, full of fantasies.
The image on the Sky Screen rippled like water, slowly switching perspectives.
The Great Thousand World, the Great Desolation Divine Realm.
Inside a Spirit Medicine Garden in the outer palace.
Qian Renxue wore that blue-green, waist-cinched maid's dress, her long golden tresses pinned up with a simple Jade Hairpin.
Without the elaborate, luxurious attire of Spirit Hall's Young Master, stripped of that proud disguise.
She now possessed an added, breathtaking air of simplicity restored, ethereal as an immortal.
Qian Renxue held a seemingly ordinary wooden bucket in her hand.
But if the material of that wooden bucket had been placed on the Douluo Continent, it would absolutely have driven countless Titled Douluo mad.
It was Million-Year Soul-Nourishing Wood, capable of nurturing the divine soul.
And what filled the wooden bucket was "Heavenly River Spirit Liquid," which gave off thick mist.
Holding a jade dipper, Qian Renxue carefully scooped up some spirit liquid and watered a seemingly unremarkable weed before her.
"Hiss!"
The instant the spirit liquid fell, mysterious patterns of Sword Qi actually emerged on the weed's leaves, as though it were breathing joyfully.
Watching this, Qian Renxue felt unusually calm.
She had only been in the Great Desolation Divine Realm for a single short day.
But she had already witnessed more terrifying things than in all her twenty-odd years on the Douluo Continent combined.
Compared with Dai Mubai, whose tongue had been pulled out before he was thrown into a brothel because he could not keep his lower half under control.
Qian Renxue now felt only that she was the luckiest person in the world.
To quietly serve as a maid watering flowers and sweeping floors in a place like this fairyland, breathing this pure spiritual energy every day and feeling the power within her constantly rise.
This was the true great path to the heavens.
Just as Qian Renxue finished watering this section of the Medicine Garden.
The white-robed maid who had shown her in slowly approached along the Cloud Corridor.
"Yun Gugu."
Qian Renxue hurriedly set down the wooden bucket and respectfully dipped into a bow.
She understood her own place very well. Here, where any menial servant could crush her, rules mattered more than anything.
The white-robed maid addressed as Yun Gugu nodded slightly, her gaze sweeping over Qian Renxue's increasingly pure spiritual body.
"The turbid energy of the lower realm has almost been washed away from you. This Light Spiritual Root of yours is even purer than I imagined."
Yun Gugu's voice remained even, but her next words made Qian Renxue's heart abruptly skip a beat.
"Set your work aside."
"Today is the day to feed the Divine Lord's mount. The aura of light you carry has something of a calming effect on it."
"Come with me to the Star-Pasturing Abyss."
The Divine Lord!
Hearing that name, Qian Renxue felt hot blood rush straight to her head, and even her fingertips could not help trembling slightly.
That peerless, ruthless man who had swept through the Great Thousand World, devouring the Phoenix Fate!
She actually had a chance to feed his mount?
Even merely seeing that supreme being's mount was an indescribable honor to Qian Renxue.
"Yes, Gugu."
Qian Renxue took a deep breath, striving to calm her excitement, and followed with light steps.
Meanwhile, beyond the Sky Screen.
Everyone on the Douluo Continent pricked up their ears, their eyes opened wide.
Within Spirit Hall, Qian Daoliu and Bibi Dong both straightened in their seats in unison.
That was the Great Desolation Divine Lord's mount!
Even when the Mistress of the Martial Realm traveled, super divine beasts such as the Sky Demon Marten and the Yin-Yang Saint Tiger secretly guarded her way.
Then what sort of world-shaking monster could the mount of this most ruthless man, whose name resounded throughout the Great Thousand World, possibly be?
Before you continue