Meanwhile, at Shrek Academy.
Seeing the scene on the Sky Screen, Tang San, Douluo's Child of Destiny, could not help swallowing.
He had pushed his Purple Demon Eye to its limits, afraid of missing a single detail.
In the image, Qian Renxue followed the white-robed maid onto a Teleportation Array radiating ancient spatial fluctuations.
Light flashed, and the scenery before them changed in an instant.
When Qian Renxue saw the sight before her clearly, she involuntarily sucked in a cold breath and froze on the spot.
This was a solitary cliff suspended amid endless chaos.
Before the cliff face, there were no mountains or rivers.
There was only a vast, boundless expanse of stars.
And in the deepest reaches of that starry expanse, countless enormous, blazing stars slowly revolved around a bottomless abyss.
"Where... where is the mount we're supposed to feed?"
Qian Renxue looked around. The surroundings of the solitary cliff were utterly empty, without so much as the shadow of a beast.
The white-robed maid said nothing. She merely took an enormous white jade basin from the Storage Bag at her waist.
Then she reached into the Storage Bag.
"Clatter..."
With a series of crisp sounds, glowing spheres with flames burning across their surfaces poured into the white jade basin.
Those spheres were only fist-sized, but each seemed to contain enough power to destroy heaven and earth.
Qian Renxue took a closer look, and her mind went blank with a boom.
Those were no ordinary spheres!
They looked far more like solar cores that some mighty being had forcibly refined and compressed to the size of fists through supreme divine powers!
Refining suns into feed?
Just as Qian Renxue felt her understanding of the world about to collapse.
A long, drawn-out sound of breathing suddenly came from the abyss ahead.
"Whoosh-"
With just a single breath, the dozens of enormous stars surrounding the abyss flickered violently like candle flames in the wind, nearly blown out on the spot!
Immediately afterward, under the eyes of everyone on the Douluo Continent, two incomparably enormous slit-pupiled eyes slowly opened.
"Rumble..."
Before long, a head so enormous that words could not describe its size slowly emerged from the abyss.
Its entire body was covered in enormous scales, and it was incomparably imposing.
Qian Renxue even discovered that every scale on the monster's body was larger than the entire territory of the Heaven Dou Empire!
Nine sharp dragon claws rested casually in the void, and even space groaned beneath them, unable to bear the burden.
An Ancient Ferocious Beast, the Nine-Clawed Chaos Ancestral Dragon!
The instant he saw this monster, Di Tian, in the Star Dou Great Forest on the Douluo Continent, was so terrified that he fell straight onto his backside in the Lake of Life, gasping for breath, unable to muster even a trace of resistance.
This was the true progenitor of the Dragon Clan!
Even the legendary Dragon God would probably pale beside this Nine-Clawed Chaos Ancestral Dragon.
Yet such a supreme creature was actually that lord's mount???
After appearing, the Divine Lord's mount snorted and moved slightly closer to the two women.
Seeing this, the white-robed maid lifted the white jade basin filled with solar cores and casually tipped its contents into the abyss below.
"Eat. The Divine Lord is in a good mood today and specially rewarded you with these Starfruits."
Hearing this, the Primordial Chaos Ancestral Dragon opened its abyssal maw, large enough to swallow several planes, and gulped down those compressed solar cores in one bite.
At the end, it even smacked its lips, still wanting more.
Watching this from the side, Qian Renxue could not help swallowing, her voice trembling.
"Yun Gugu, is... is this also a Divine Beast?"
Hearing this, the white-robed maid cast a bland glance at the Ancestral Dragon chewing on suns.
"Of course."
"Back then, this fellow wreaked havoc in the Lower Plane, swallowing over a hundred small worlds rich in spiritual energy in one go. It proclaimed itself the progenitor of all dragons, and no one could stop it."
"Later, not knowing what was good for it, it actually dared challenge the Divine Lord after ascending."
"In the end, the Divine Lord struck and suppressed it!"
"This Primordial Chaos Ancestral Dragon, which claimed its flesh was invincible, had its spine broken into thirty-six pieces on the spot. Even the Inner Core it had painstakingly cultivated for a million years was shattered halfway apart by the force."
"If the Divine Lord hadn't thought it pulled a carriage fairly steadily, there would have been no Ancestral Dragon left in this world long ago."
One finger had crushed the spine of an Ancestral Dragon that had devoured over a hundred worlds?
Its life had only been spared because it pulled a carriage steadily?
This seemingly offhand recollection sent the entire Douluo Continent into an uproar, with people scarcely able to believe their ears.
Spirit City, Worship Hall.
Qian Daoliu felt as though his breathing was about to stop.
He tilted his head back, looking at the enormous Primordial Chaos Ancestral Dragon on the Sky Screen.
"Swallowing over a hundred worlds in one bite..."
"Then wouldn't our Douluo Continent be too little to even fill the gaps between its teeth?"
And that legendary Divine Lord, who could stand alongside the Flame Emperor and Martial Ancestor, had actually used just one finger to beat such a monster into a carriage-pulling laborer?
How blood-stirring was that!
Elsewhere, at Shrek Academy.
Tang San sat slumped on the ground, looking at those so-called peerless hidden weapons in the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges at his waist.
Yama's Invitation?
Buddha's Fury Tang Lotus?
What a joke. These things were fine for dealing with people on the Douluo Continent, but would they work against monsters that could devour suns?
A chilly autumn wind swirled across the training ground, sweeping up a few withered yellow leaves and lending the scene a desolate air.
The entire training ground of Shrek Academy was silent as the grave.
Oscar stood among the crowd, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
Looking at the recovery Big Sausage he had just made in his hand, he suddenly felt that it was utterly unfit to be shown in respectable company.
"A monster that can swallow even a sun in one bite is actually just a mount used to pull a carriage..."
Oscar swallowed, his voice trembling as he turned to Flender beside him.
"Dean, what... what does our Douluo Continent even amount to?"
At that moment, Flender did not even have the strength to adjust his glasses. His trademark shoehorn-shaped face was ashen.
As one of the Golden Iron Triangle, he had once dreamed of making his name resound across the continent someday.
But now, the Sky Screen had not only crushed his pride, but trampled the dignity of the entire Douluo Continent into the dirt.
"What does it amount to?"
Flender gave a bitter laugh, his voice as hoarse as two pieces of rough bark scraping together.
"In the eyes of beings like that, our place probably doesn't even count as a pond. At most, it's just a little puddle filled with muddy water."
Meanwhile, Yu Xiaogang, slumped on the ground, had fallen into a state bordering on madness.
He clutched his already sparse hair tightly with both hands, clawing the disheveled strands into a bird's nest.
"Impossible! This absolutely violates the Law of Conservation of Energy for Martial Souls!"
"If it devours over a hundred worlds in one bite, how does its energy core function? How could it possibly withstand the collapse of that much mass?"
Yu Xiaogang stared with bloodshot eyes, muttering incessantly like a neurotic.
The Ten Core Competencies he took such pride in were like a sheet of scrap paper covered in nonsense before the common knowledge of that higher-dimensional world.
He could not understand it, much less accept this utterly unreasonable dimensional gulf.
"Teacher, stop deceiving yourself."
Tang San slowly stood up from the ground and, for once, argued back.
"The people of that world don't need Martial Souls or Soul Rings, much less our complicated hidden weapon mechanisms."
"What they pursue is their own mighty power that stands above heaven and earth!"
"So your theories simply cannot measure it, and they're utterly useless."
Having said this, Tang San continued looking up into the sky.
In his previous life, he had been a disciple of the Tang Sect's Outer Sect. Only by secretly learning the Inner Sect's supreme arts had he gained the foundation he possessed in this life.
He had always believed he was a Child of Destiny, a favored son of heaven reborn with countless cheats.
But now, before another, even more powerful world, what use were these things?
If...
If I could go to that Great Thousand World, if I could obtain the methods of that cultivation system too...
With my soul spanning two lifetimes, with my comprehension, I, Tang San, would absolutely be no worse than that so-called Divine Lord!
One day, I'll make a sun-devouring monster like that obediently lie at my feet and serve as my mount too!
Heaven Dou Empire, Imperial City.
The great hall symbolizing Heaven Dou's supreme imperial authority was now unbearably oppressive.
Xue Ye had just slowly regained consciousness after several imperial physicians' emergency treatment.
He seemed to have been drained of all vitality in an instant. His formerly sturdy body was now hunched upon the spacious dragon throne, his face as pale as gold paper.
"Your Majesty, please take care of your imperial health..."
Below, several white-haired elderly ministers knelt on the floor, offering comfort with mournful expressions.
"The Great Thousand World may be terrifying, but a Plane Barrier separates it from us, after all. So long as we do not provoke it, the Heaven Dou Empire's reign will remain as steady as a mountain."
Hearing the old minister's words, Xue Ye waved weakly, his lips curling into a wretched smile uglier than tears.
"As steady as a mountain?"
"Before this Sky Screen appeared, I too believed our Heaven Dou Empire was powerful and prosperous. Although our Soul Masters were inferior to Spirit Hall's, our million-strong army was enough to defend our borders and keep our people safe."
A trace of profound weariness flashed through Xue Ye's clouded eyes.
He slowly straightened on the dragon throne, sweeping his gaze over the civil and military officials kneeling below, then suddenly seized the jade cup beside him and smashed it viciously onto the floor.
"But you pack of useless fools!"
"Were you so busy laughing at Dai Mubai and fearing the Great Thousand World's power that you overlooked a piece of deadly information shown earlier on the Sky Screen?!"
At the emperor's sudden rebuke, the officials below exchanged bewildered glances, utterly confused.
Deadly information?
Aside from displaying the horrors of the Great Thousand World, had the Sky Screen shown anything else just now?
Seeing their reactions, Xue Ye grew even angrier, clutching his chest and coughing violently.
"Cough, cough, cough... think back carefully!"
"When the second batch of Explorers was announced, what exactly were the fifth person's name and titles?!"
The fifth person?
Hearing this, a minister responsible for gathering intelligence suddenly shuddered.
That dazzling line of golden words on the Sky Screen suddenly surfaced in his mind, and cold sweat instantly streamed down.
"Y-Your Majesty, I remember."
The minister stammered, his voice changing pitch.
"The Sky Screen said, the crown prince of the Heaven Dou Empire..."
"Also the Young Master of Spirit Hall, Qian Renxue..."
Sure enough, once those words had been repeated in full, the entire great hall of the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace was left utterly dumbfounded.
Every minister sucked in a cold breath, their eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets.
Spirit Hall's Young Master? Qian Renxue?
Xue Qinghe, their Heaven Dou Empire's gentle, refined, incomparably benevolent crown prince, was actually someone from Spirit Hall in disguise?
And not just anyone, but Spirit Hall's most exalted Young Master!
"Do you understand now?"
"I always believed my second and third sons had died sudden deaths. I even regarded Qinghe as the Heaven Dou Empire's future hope and personally taught him how to govern."
"But who could have imagined that over a decade ago, right beneath all our noses, Spirit Hall had already carried out an earth-shaking scheme to steal the heavens and replace the sun!"
"Those sons of mine were clearly murdered in secret by this Qian Renxue!"
Xue Ye's fingers dug fiercely into the dragon throne's armrests, breaking his fingernails.
"If the Sky Screen hadn't exposed this, once an old man like me died, the Heaven Dou Empire would have fallen legitimately into Spirit Hall's control."
"When that time came, the Heaven Dou Empire's vast lands would have become Spirit Hall's back garden!"
At these words, the ministers in the great hall felt as though they had plunged into an ice cavern, chills running down their spines.
The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it became!
Spirit Hall had played far too vast a game of chess, so vast that without a dimensional-crushing force like the Sky Screen forcibly exposing it, their Heaven Dou Empire would never have known how it had fallen, even at its demise.
"Your Majesty!"
The military commander, Marshal Ge Long, stepped forward, his face full of fury.
"Now that the conspiracy has been exposed, I will immediately mobilize the imperial guards, seal off the Eastern Palace so tightly that not even water can escape, and catch every one of Qian Renxue's accomplices in a single net!"
"It's too late..."
Xue Ye shook his head, his tone steeped in profound helplessness.
He extended a trembling finger, pointing toward the empty sky overhead.
"You only saw Spirit Hall's conspiracy exposed. Did you not see the fortune bestowed in return when the Sky Screen tallied the results?"
"That Young Master of Spirit Hall named Qian Renxue not only successfully entered the supreme power known as the Great Desolation Divine Realm as a maid, but even defied heaven and changed her fate by reshaping her spiritual root."
"Even a single drop of leftover spiritual liquid that spilled out of the Marrow-Washing Pool would be enough to bring about a qualitative leap in the strength of the entire Spirit Hall!"
Xue Ye slumped dejectedly in his chair, his gaze vacant.
"They received the baptism of the Great Thousand World's laws!"
"So what if we purge the Eastern Palace now? Before absolute power, all struggles are futile."
"Spirit Hall now has the resources of a higher-dimensional plane backing it. The balance of power on our Douluo Continent has already changed completely..."
In that instant, the aged emperor seemed to have lost all his lofty ambitions.
Meanwhile, within the Sky Screen's images, Qian Renxue's perspective continued.
The Great Thousand World, the Great Desolation Divine Realm.
After feeding the Divine Lord's mount, Qian Renxue withdrew her gaze. She hesitated for a moment, but still spoke up to ask.
"Yun Gugu."
"There is something Xue'er doesn't understand. I don't know whether I should ask."
Yun Gugu seemed to be in a good mood that day and waved her hand casually.
"Go ahead. You've only just arrived. It's normal not to understand the rules."
Hearing this, Qian Renxue took a deep breath before speaking:
"Since first arriving in this Great Thousand World, Xue'er has witnessed so much inconceivable might."
"In my homeland, reaching level one hundred in Soul Power means being titled a god, already at the pinnacle."
"But here, Xue'er doesn't even understand the most basic divisions between cultivation realms. Please enlighten me, Gugu. Just what is the cultivation system of this Great Thousand World like?"
Before you continue