High above the countless voids lay the Divine Realm, and within it, the God Realm Committee.
Ruled by the five supreme gods, this was the Douluo God Realm's most central region and its highest governing body. Here, the words and deeds of the gods were judged, and the laws and rules of the Divine Realm were established. If the Douluo God Realm ruled far above the lower planes, then this place was the Divine Realm within the Divine Realm, ruling over the Douluo God Realm itself.
At this moment, five pillars of red, green, purple, black, and white light, each piercing straight through heaven and earth, stood within the God Realm Committee. All five Supreme God Kings were seated here. This was a rare occurrence; it seemed that since the birth of the Douluo God Realm, few matters had warranted all five of them attending together and devoting their full attention to deliberation and discussion.
The blood-red figure of the Asura God had just finished speaking. The other Supreme God Kings pondered his words in silence, their thoughts swirling.
"...So, you mean that the outsider you suppressed and cast into the lower plane of Douluo Star has made contact with the Golden Dragon King, the Divine Realm's great enemy?" asked a young man in black robes, hidden behind the pillar of black light. He was handsome, and his pair of wicked eyes seemed capable of stealing souls, lending him a strange radiance.
"...That's right. Evil, I'm afraid that outsider also has an extraordinary bloodline, one powerful enough to rival the Golden Dragon King's. Otherwise, even if he managed to connect with the Golden Dragon King, he wouldn't be able to bear his power." The Asura God paused for a moment before answering.
"An outsider... We shouldn't have treated him that way." A goddess as pure and lovely as a lotus, untouched by the slightest speck of dust, spoke from within the pillar of white light. She was the Godess of Kindness, one of the Supreme God Kings.
"He possessed supreme power no lesser than ours. A powerhouse like him could have brought our Divine Realm an opportunity to expand. Asura... suppressing him was your idea. I won't hold you accountable for ruining my grand plan, but now that lower plane is clearly no longer able to suppress his growth. If one day he fights his way back to the Divine Realm, can you stop him?" A voice came from the pillar of purple-black light. Within it was none other than the god who had played a board game against the Asura God that day, the God of Destruction.
"Little Zi, this isn't the time to be angry. We have more important matters to consider." At last, a gentle voice came from the final pillar of light. The emerald-green pillar belonged to the Goddess of Life, the God of Destruction's wife.
"Suppressing the outsider was my decision. If anything goes wrong in the future, I will naturally take responsibility," the Asura God said coldly. "However, all of you are at the God King realm. When I acted to suppress him, you must have sensed it as well. Without your tacit consent, I couldn't have mobilized all the Divine Realm's energy to catch the outsider off guard and wipe him out."
"What do you mean by that!" the God of Destruction said angrily. The Asura God was implying that he wanted to shift the responsibility onto every God King. If the outsider ever revived, he meant for them all to bear the blame together. After all, given the outsider's strength, not one of the God Kings could get the better of him in a one-on-one fight.
"Destruction, sit down first," the God of Evil said. "Asura, protecting the Divine Realm is our duty as God Kings. If the outsider returns for revenge, we won't stand by and do nothing. But you alone were responsible for suppressing him, so stop saying such pointless things."
Having received the answer he wanted-that all the God Kings would act-the Asura God nodded and said no more about responsibility.
That day, the outsider had appeared without warning, and the entire Divine Realm had been shaken by his world-destroying power. When the Asura God learned of it, he thought the Golden Dragon King had broken free of his seal. He arrived in an instant, only to discover an outsider of unknown origin.
His strength was so great that it shocked the world and defied all convention, and the Asura God's heart immediately pounded with fear. However, his power came from a different source than the power of this world. Here, the power within him could not be replenished, and under the Divine Realm's suppression, less than a tenth of it remained. Taking advantage of the interval before his soul awakened, the Asura God directly summoned his blood sword and fought the unconscious outsider.
For a time, the earth quaked and the mountains shook, as if the end of the world had come.
"Since you chose to suppress the outsider, why didn't you suppress all his power and leave him no chance of turning things around?" The God of Destruction, momentarily at a loss for words and somewhat exasperated, asked.
"Another world... Do you know where that other world is?"
The Asura God answered with a question. The gods were puzzled, but then they all sucked in a breath of cold air and said nothing more.
The Asura God pointed in a distant direction. They could sense an immensely powerful turbulence of space and time there, and from within it flowed a trace of strange power that protected the outsider. That was why the Asura God could only suppress the outsider to this extent. That trace of strange power was beyond their ability to resist. With it protecting the outsider's very essence, the Asura God could only rely on the rules of the world to barely hold back the outsider's return to the Divine Realm.
"The outsider's strength was already shocking enough to astound the world, and now he has the Golden Dragon King's help. I'm afraid..." the Goddess of Life analyzed calmly. The five God Kings together might be able to withstand the outsider's assault. But that outsider had only just arrived at the time, and his mind had not yet cleared. Even unconscious, he had been able to contend with the Asura God. Now that he had also connected with the Golden Dragon King's power, with one power added to another, she feared the outsider would surely become a great enemy of the Divine Realm.
"Asura, what do you think?"
"We gods cannot easily interfere with the lower realms... Back then, that strange power carried the outsider straight down to the lower realm. I'm afraid he knew this." The Asura God sighed and continued, "Fortunately, I have a place of inheritance on the lower plane of the Douluo Continent. My Super Divine Artifact was also left there for my inheritor to use."
"Whatever happens, that outsider must be slain."
"I will make this part of my Divine Examination. Whoever slays the outsider will have a chance to inherit my Asura God Position."
"Using your authority for personal gain. I'd wager you've long wanted to lay down that God Position and roam the heavens," the God of Destruction said with a piercing jab of sarcasm. But the Asura God acted as though he hadn't heard him. His gaze pierced through the myriad worlds of the heavens and fell directly upon a Great Soul Arena.
"...We killed people. The teacher said they were all vicious brutes whose deaths were no loss."
The seven youths had just experienced the first slaughter of their lives. They had killed the Fierce God Team, a team that took pleasure in killing people in Soul Fighting matches. For them, it was a necessary experience.
At this moment, six of the Shrek Seven Monsters were feeling somewhat nauseated after their first experience of killing. Only Tang San showed no particular reaction, watching them with an untroubled air.
The Asura God looked at the inheritor he had chosen from the very beginning. Facing slaughter, his heart was as still as water. He was just the person the Asura God needed.
Tang San had no way of knowing that, as fate had decreed, he had long since caught the Asura God's eye. His poor great-grandfather's lifelong wish could only come to nothing, because the Asura God had never chosen him.