The Star Dou Continent.
"Mommy, Mommy, what's that red light over there?"
"Red light?"
The mother froze, released her daughter's hand, and cautiously leaned out. In an instant, a fierce beam of red light pierced her skull, tearing her in half from top to bottom.
"Huh?"
An unintelligible howl escaped the mother's mouth. The two halves of her body on the ground remained connected like the clinging fibers of a severed lotus root, joining together into "another mother."
"Xiaoxi... run..."
"Mommy!?"
The little girl's pupils contracted sharply at the grotesque sight before her. She stumbled half a step backward and fell to the ground.
Her mouth hung open, but she could not make a sound.
The monster could no longer restrain the desire within her. She crawled forward and opened her gaping, bloody maw toward her own daughter.
And the little girl watched with her own eyes as her mother tore her apart and gnawed on her...
"Hmm? These two specimens are worth studying... That lord is very interested in these things..." Upon seeing this, a middle-aged man in a Spirit Pagoda uniform instructed the person beside him, "Transport them back to the Spirit Pagoda."
"Yes!"
Dark red clouds shrouded the entire sky over the Star Dou Continent. The sickly sweet stench of blood surged across the heavens, and the earth shook violently as countless scarlet fissures suddenly tore through mountains, rivers, and land.
The Demon Empress hovered in the air in pitch-black imperial robes, her long hair dancing wildly in the gale. Her uncanny purple-gold eyes looked down upon the myriad living beings beneath her.
She slowly raised her fair hand. A shrill incantation resounded through heaven and earth, and the Blood River Great Array roared into action.
In an instant, blood as crimson as molten lava erupted from the fissures, converging into a boundless, roaring river of blood that swept through villages, towns, and cities.
The blood-colored river was not flowing water, but a condensation of countless vengeful souls and the power of slaughter. Any mortal or Soul Master it touched had their flesh instantly dissolved, their blood essence and soul devoured entirely by the array.
Cries and wails rang out in every direction as town after town vanished beneath the bloody torrent in an instant.
Houses collapsed, and trees turned to charred ash. Countless civilians fled in all directions, but the blood river spread far faster than their fleeing footsteps. Soul Masters unleashed Soul Skills with all their might to resist, but when those skills struck the blood river, they were like ice and snow meeting raging fire. Their soul light was extinguished inch by inch, and even their Soul Rings were forcibly stripped away by the array.
Blood stained the earth dark red. The river surged and roared, absorbing an unending stream of lives, and its scale continued to expand.
Countless souls wailed and struggled within the bloody torrent, becoming nourishment for the array.
The Demon Empress stood above the blood river, her expression cold, without a trace of pity.
"Lowly humans, suffer the vengeance of ten thousand years of hatred."
As her words fell, the blood river suddenly swelled, its rolling red waves sweeping toward more distant lands.
Everywhere across the Star Dou Continent had become a purgatory on earth. The surviving Soul Master organizations rose in resistance, but before the destructive power of this array, their resistance was as feeble as a dying candle in the wind. Lives continued to fall, and shrill cries of anguish echoed between heaven and earth long afterward.
The imperial capital.
"What is going on? What is going on? How could the Holy Spirit Cult be slaughtering people on my land!?"
"En Ci, explain!" The reigning emperor of the Star Luo Empire flew into a towering rage.
En Ci trembled as he knelt on one knee. "Your Majesty, the Holy Spirit Cult has come out in full force this time. I fear our Star Luo Empire faces destruction."
"This... What about the Spirit Pagoda? Have them help me repel the invaders! And the Tang Sect-where have they all gone at this critical moment!"
"Your Majesty, the Tang Sect's main forces have already slipped into their underground base. As for the Spirit Pagoda... I fear they, too, will watch from behind their walls until we put a bargaining chip on the table."
"They've gone too far!"
Dai Tianling sat on the throne, raging helplessly, unable to think of a single solution. He felt a surge of lust flare within him, abruptly grabbed the empress dowager, Zhu Lingxi, beside him, and headed into the bedchamber.
After venting, he composed himself and summoned En Ci to his bedside. "My loyal minister, how is Monster Academy?"
"The Eight Heavenly Kings are each fighting their own battles. With my protective talismans, they are safe."
"Good... Let us ask Shrek for aid."
En Ci stiffened, then could only nod. "There is no other choice now."
A deafening blast ripped through the heavy darkness of night as the Federation Seventh Soul Guidance Research Laboratory exploded.
Dazzling orange-red flames shot into the sky, piercing the thick curtain of night. A violent shock wave swept outward from the laboratory's main building.
Reinforced concrete walls shattered and tore apart like fragile sheets of paper. Heavy alloy doors were hurled away by the blast, hurtling outward amid rubble and the wreckage of instruments.
Boom-!
Floor after floor collapsed in succession. Scorching flames devoured laboratory after laboratory, and precision soul guidance instruments spat blinding arcs of electricity. Tanks storing Soul Power potions burst one after another, and multicolored Soul Power flames surged wildly through the sea of fire.
Shattered metal components flew everywhere, and every window disintegrated into fragments that filled the air.
The researchers and Soul Master guards inside had no time to react. Some were buried beneath collapsing beams and pillars; others were hurled away by the violent shock wave. Shrill cries mingled with the roar of explosions, soon swallowed by the raging flames.
Billowing black smoke blotted out the sky as it rose into the night. The acrid stench of charred matter and burning metal spread in every direction.
The ground shook violently, and the surrounding watchtowers teetered on the verge of collapse. Under the impact of the explosion, the outer soul guidance defensive barrier cracked inch by inch. Vast, cobweb-like fractures spread across the screen of light before it finally disintegrated completely.
The surviving Soul Master guards hurriedly activated their Soul Skills, their Soul Power shields barely holding back the flying debris. As they stared at the laboratory, now reduced to a sea of flames, only horror remained on their faces.
Most of the classified research materials and experimental specimens were buried beneath the blazing, collapsed ruins in that earth-shaking explosion.
The fire still raged. Now and then, surviving soul guidance devices set off small secondary explosions, and muffled blasts continued to sound from deep within the ruins. The lights of the distant city were cast crimson by the towering flames.
A little girl burst out of the fire, her face and clothes covered in soot and dirt, yet she held back her tears-her father had perished in the flames to save her. She ran desperately, her legs already numb and her vision blurred, but the scene of her father pushing her away to save her filled her mind. The image spurred her on again and again, driving her forward, determined to escape this hell...
After an unknown length of time-perhaps one or two minutes, perhaps as long as a century-the little girl finally reached her limit. Her legs gave way, but she fell into a warm embrace.
"What a pitiful child..."
"Your name is Ling Zichen, isn't it?"
"Your father gave his life for his country, and I am deeply saddened. But one must not remain trapped in the past. Lift your head and keep moving forward. The road of scientific research has no end. Advance tirelessly..."
"May the Benevolent Father bless you..."