Outside Mingdu.
On a steep mountain peak, Lin Yi stood in a green robe with his hands behind his back. His gaze was as deep as a starry sky, mysterious and unfathomable.
He gazed at the valley shrouded in mist ahead.
Qiankun Asking Love Valley!
"The place where the God of Love fell. I wonder if the God of Love's godhood is there?"
The thought surfaced in Lin Yi's mind.
But he quickly snuffed it out.
Throughout his cultivation journey, he had paid no heed to worldly affairs and devoted himself to the Dao. He was no match for the God of Love's godhood.
"Sigh, if I won't be a dog, I can't even get a Second-Level God's godhood."
Thinking back on his experiences over the past ten years, Lin Yi's eyes flashed with a faint chill.
He had broken through to Limit Douluo at just thirty, yet had been turned away time and again!
"Since no one will pass a godhood on to me, I can only rely on myself."
"A man has to rely on himself after all!"
The idea that had long been taking root in his heart finally became a firm resolve, and Lin Yi withdrew his gaze from Qiankun Asking Love Valley.
His green robes moved with the wind, fluttering fiercely.
He stepped forward, walking through the air. With every step, faint ripples spread beneath his feet like lotuses blooming.
As though strolling through a courtyard, he headed toward Mingdu.
Lin Yi was a transmigrator who had come to the Douluo Continent forty years ago.
When he awakened his Martial Soul, the Tang Sect had yet to be taken over by the insignificant Iron Blood Sect, and the child of destiny had yet to be born.
His Martial Soul was chess, and he had Innate Full Soul Power.
Armed with his memories of some fortuitous opportunities from the original story, Lin Yi had advanced by leaps and bounds, becoming a Titled Douluo at twenty and charging into the Limit realm at thirty.
Had he not lacked the aid of a Godhood Inheritance, he might have managed it five or six years sooner.
After reaching the Limit, Lin Yi had searched the continent for ten years. More than once, he had found traces of divine inheritances, only to be turned away again and again.
Now, he had no intention of wasting any more time, because-
The child of destiny had been born!
His birth had not been affected by Lin Yi.
And the corresponding God King Tang's plans for this child of destiny would unfold accordingly.
"If you won't let me become a god, I'll forge my own godhood."
"From today onward, I'll make heaven and earth my chessboard and all living beings my pieces, and play a game against you, God King!"
This was the ritual for becoming a god that Lin Yi had devised long ago.
He could not follow the path of gathering faith over countless years.
Nor would that path lead anywhere.
He could only take this step.
"If I win, I'll use my victory over a God King and ride the momentum of the world to ascend to godhood!"
"If I lose..."
Lin Yi stood in the air above Mingdu's walls.
The countless Soul Cannon shells guarding Mingdu and its various detection methods all seemed to have failed, unable to detect his presence at all.
Lin Yi's gaze was dark.
Lose?
The corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
"I've chosen the Sun Moon side. I won't lose!"
The only possibility of defeat was if Tang San personally intervened and overturned the chessboard.
In that case, strictly speaking, Lin Yi would have won the game as well.
Just as Lin Yi made his decision, a voice sounded by his ear.
[Heavenly Screen projection commencing!]
At the sound of the voice, Lin Yi halted the step he had just been about to take.
The Heavenly Screen?
[Heaven and earth as the chessboard, all living beings as the pieces, witnessed by past and future!]
Lin Yi immediately laughed.
"Interesting. Witnessed by past and future? Doesn't that mean this ritual of mine spans time itself?"
If the projected eras of Douluo I and Douluo Dalu III: The Legend of the Dragon King were on the same timeline as the era he was currently in, then it would span the entire river of time!
Even if they were not on the same timeline, but separate, independent worlds, it could only benefit him.
With Douluo I and Douluo Dalu III: The Legend of the Dragon King both bearing witness, Lin Yi's ritual would become more complete at no cost to him!
Standing in midair, Lin Yi felt, for reasons he could not explain, that his Martial Soul had merged with heaven and earth.
In the unseen, it was as though he looked down upon the entire plane, holding the fate of all living beings in his hands.
[Barrage comments enabled] [Tipping function enabled]
?
Lin Yi: Have I become a streamer?
But on second thought, if the Heavenly Screen projected into the past and future and its content focused entirely on him, then he really was no different from a streamer.
Lin Yi accepted that readily enough.
Of course, he had no intention of putting on a show.
Just then, a barrage comment drifted across Lin Yi's vision.
[Yu Xiaogang: A Chess Martial Soul? It can't launch powerful attacks, it can't defend, it has no means of control, and the support system won't want it either. How can there be such a trash Martial Soul? What a waste of that Innate Full Soul Power.]
Lin Yi had not expected a barrage comment to appear as soon as the projection began, much less one from Yu Xiaogang.
He had not realized that trash Yu Xiaogang was a troll too.
Without even watching what happened afterward, he had made such a remark as soon as the footage of the Martial Soul awakening was projected.
That was right. Lin Yi could sense what was currently being projected of him.
The Heavenly Screen projection had only just begun. Rather than broadcasting him live right away, it had first shown key moments from his past cultivation.
Lin Yi saw all sorts of replies beneath Yu Xiaogang's comment.
[So it's the Grandmaster. That comment hit the nail on the head. I knew a Chess Martial Soul was neither one thing nor the other.] [...]
Lin Yi glanced at it and saw that Yu Xiaogang's barrage comment already had 99+ likes.
Meanwhile, in Douluo I.
At Nuoding Academy, Yu Xiaogang said earnestly to Tang San, who stood before him, "I've studied Martial Soul Theory for decades. I know the cultivation of every kind of Martial Soul like the back of my hand and can see its strengths and weaknesses at a glance. Look at how many likes and how much support I've received."
Tang San had also seen the Heavenly Screen projection and Yu Xiaogang's barrage comment.
Just moments ago, Yu Xiaogang had brought him into Nuoding Academy when golden light blossomed in the sky and the Heavenly Screen descended.
Seeing how many people praised the Grandmaster before him, and considering that the man had seen through his Twin Martial Souls at a glance, Tang San immediately fell to his knees and kowtowed, taking him as his master.
At the same time, the appearance of the Heavenly Screen drew the attention of countless Soul Masters across the continent.
"Scenes from ten thousand years in the future? Interesting. It's actually the cultivation journey of a future Soul Master. I wonder if I can glimpse any secret techniques from it."
At Spirit Hall, Qian Daoliu fell into thought, a sharp light flashing in his eyes.
His own path to godhood had already become elusive and uncertain. He could only place his hopes on his granddaughter.
In ten thousand years, seas could turn into mulberry fields; the entire Soul Master cultivation system might have undergone a transformation.
If he could glimpse the advanced cultivation secrets of the future, his granddaughter's path to godhood could become more secure.
As these thoughts crossed his mind, Qian Daoliu happened to see Yu Xiaogang's barrage comment as well.
"Idiot!"
He merely uttered the insult in an indifferent tone and paid it no further attention.
A mere clown who had stolen Spirit Hall's work was not worth his attention.
It was truly laughable to parade around with materials that Spirit Hall had gathered and studied, and had already intended to make public!
However, while people like Qian Daoliu looked down on Yu Xiaogang, plenty of others in the Soul Master World were singing his praises.
Nuoding City.
Having taken Tang San, who had Innate Full Soul Power and Twin Martial Souls, as his disciple, Yu Xiaogang felt comfortable all over.
From time to time, he looked up at the barrage comment he had posted on the Heavenly Screen.
Beneath the comment were densely packed words of flattery.
Reading one compliment after another put Yu Xiaogang in a wonderful mood.
At that moment, he felt like a god of theory, revered by all as he expounded on the affairs of the world!
Just then, however, another barrage comment caught his attention.
[Yun Ming: There are no trash Martial Souls, only trash Soul Masters. You don't even understand that? Where did this impostor come from? Strutting around and swindling people!]