Ancient Times in Progress (End)

Decades slipped quietly by. The once-innocent girl had become a white-haired old woman, with one foot in the grave.

Her end was near, and she knew she had little time left to live.

Before the entire tribe, the old woman named a young girl of steadfast character to succeed her as high priestess. She also established a rule: after she passed into eternal sleep, each high priestess had to personally choose her successor. The successor had to be a pure and intelligent maiden and must not lose her virginity, lest she defile Lord Holy Spirit's sanctity. Thus the rule would be passed down from generation to generation, never to be changed.

After establishing the rule, the old woman knelt before the altar, clasped her hands, and prayed with all her heart. She wished only to see the Holy Spirit Envoy once more at the very end of her life.

A gentle breeze stirred within the temple, and a strand of divine sense quietly sounded in the old woman's heart.

The old woman shakily took up her wooden staff and prepared to set out.

Seeing how faint her breathing was and how unsteady her steps were, the tribespeople guarding the temple anxiously tried to dissuade her, while others sought to support and escort her.

But the old woman gently shook her head. Ignoring their pleas, she insisted on setting out alone.

The wilderness, usually fraught with danger and overrun by wild beasts, was strangely peaceful that day.

A breeze swept through the Blue Silver Grass covering the hills and fields, and she encountered no obstacles along the way.

But even without dangers from the outside, the journey remained immensely arduous for an elderly woman whose life was a candle flickering in the wind.

Every step came with heavy gasps, but the conviction in her heart carried her onward. Step by step, she finally reached the cliff from those years ago.

She had set out at dawn, and by the time she arrived, dusk was falling.

Just as when they had first met, the setting sun was red as blood, illuminating the entire wind-worn cliff face.

A figure stood quietly at the cliff's edge.

Time had left no trace on Ah Yin. She still wore a long dress, and her expression was gentle and calm.

The old woman dropped her wooden staff and trembled as she knelt on the ground. Looking at the deity she had known so long ago, she asked in a quavering voice as tears slid down her cheeks:

"Lord Holy Spirit Envoy, we have gained power, but it is far too weak. The tribespeople who received the baptism are still weak... On this earth, do we still have a future?"

Ah Yin lowered her eyes to the silver-haired old woman before her, an indescribably complicated look in her eyes. Gently, she said:

"Haven't you already created a future?"

The calm words reached the old woman's ears, and her gaunt body trembled.

Tears welled in her clouded eyes. Memories of the decades she had spent leading her people in their struggle to survive and kindling the faint light of civilization surged through her heart like a tide.

It was as though she had finally laid down the heavy burden on her shoulders. The tension left a face that had been taut for a lifetime, and a relieved smile appeared.

She slowly closed her eyes. In the place where she had first gained a new life, she peacefully stopped breathing.

The next morning, sunlight filled the stone hall.

The tribespeople, who had waited all night without seeing the high priestess return, were astonished to find that her aged body lay peacefully on the altar in the Holy Spirit Hall. No one knew when it had appeared there.

They all bowed deeply and repeatedly, crying out that Lord Holy Spirit had manifested.

Time flowed like water, and a thousand years passed in the blink of an eye.

Gu Yue stood beneath the Ancient Tree of Life, sweeping the outside continent with his divine sense.

Over those thousand years, humanity had not experienced the explosive growth he had anticipated.

And he still spent his days working out teaching materials centered on nine thousand years of compulsory education, five thousand years of practice exams, and thirty thousand years of college entrance examinations.

It was a whole project, and with only him, the Goddess of Life, and little Gu Yuena, who often slept soundly, it truly took a great deal of time.

As for Di Tian, he was currently devoting himself to recultivation while holding the dragon egg, so Gu Yue naturally did not expect him to be of much help.

Though the Holy Spirit Hall had been passed down through the generations and high priestesses had succeeded one another, the wilderness remained harsh. At Gu Yue's direction, Ah Yin had maintained her protection in secret, preventing the tribe that served as his foothold from truly dying out.

Over the thousand years, apart from this tribe, the other human tribes scattered across the land had still failed to produce any Soul Masters.

Feeling one's way out of ignorance and opening up an entirely new cultivation system was a long and arduous process to begin with, and Gu Yue had expected as much.

The Holy Spirit Hall had continued to grow, yet the current high priestess, the strongest member of the entire tribe, was still only at rank nineteen.

As a trace of Soul Power emerged within them, these Soul Masters who had crossed the threshold of cultivation instead became choice morsels in the eyes of Soul Beasts, which could more easily advance their cultivation by devouring them.

In this cruel situation, where one side waxed as the other waned, survival and reproduction became even more perilous for the Holy Spirit Hall and the entire human race caught up in it.

With Ah Yin ensuring that his foothold would not die out, Gu Yue felt that, after a thousand years of human exploration, they should have reached rank twenty-nine at the very least to make the grade.

At rank twenty-nine, they would have a relatively reliable means of protecting themselves, yet would not realize they could absorb stronger Thousand-Year Soul Rings. They would remain perfectly within a range the Soul Beast population could safely control.

At present, even the strongest Soul Beast on the entire continent had only a few thousand years of cultivation. Such a restriction would naturally keep thousand-year Soul Beasts from coming to harm at this stage.

A thought even flashed through Gu Yue's mind: should he stir up a few small beast tides to put some pressure on them, forcing them to awaken while shouting "friendship, love, and bonds"?

But on second thought, with their puny bodies, a real beast tide would probably finish them off in a single encounter. He could only shake his head and abandon the idea.

Besides, for humans facing the beast tribes of the entire continent, was that not another kind of beast tide?

He had not made many changes. He had merely planted the spark of the Holy Spirit Hall and gone with the flow, guiding it into the most rudimentary path of exploration for Soul Masters.

If the human race truly developed beyond his expectations in the future, he would secretly erase any early signs of things slipping out of control.

Was he cruel to do this?

Compared with Little Scumbag of later generations, who had a ten-thousand-year grand plan and toyed with the entire Douluo Continent as though it were his own back garden, Gu Yue considered his own methods exceedingly gentle.

A little calculation was all it took to see that, even without his intervention, humans might have been worse off than they were now, perhaps even still struggling desperately to escape ordinary wild beasts and Soul Beasts.

Suddenly, Gu Yue's mind jolted.

In his Sea of Consciousness, the Time-Reversal Trajectory, which had lain dormant for two thousand years, finally began to emit fluctuations.

He knew the time had come. What he most needed to verify now was how much his present actions would affect the future.

For example, just how much of the future could be shifted by a few words, a single thought, instructions given to someone else, or the Holy Spirit Hall itself?

He sent out a message through his divine sense:

"Ah Yin, I am about to fall into a long sleep. Leave the humans to carry on the Holy Spirit Hall themselves. Do not interfere unless its legacy is in danger of being completely severed."

Gu Yue knew that, with the Time-Reversal Trajectory carrying him back and forth, only an instant might pass in reality.

He used long sleep as an excuse only because, after his last arrival in Douluo I, he had appeared to others to be asleep the whole time.

"If Soul Tools appear in the outside world, secretly make copies and bring them back. Also, you must never expose your identity as a Soul Beast. If there is a risk of exposure, abandon the pieces outside and retreat here. If necessary, you may call on Di Tian for help. Do you understand?"

Over the years, Ah Yin and Di Tian had met. Although Di Tian was recultivating, the two were colleagues of a sort.

Still, Soul Tools might not appear until tens or even a hundred thousand years later. By then, Di Tian's combat power would be far beyond Ah Yin's.

By then, after Asura God and the other three God Kings had taken complete control of the Divine Realm, they, knowing the truth behind the Dragon God's madness, would only turn a blind eye to the dragon race.

Gu Yue also sent a message to remind Di Tian.

The grass and the dragon accepted their orders at the same time.

Having settled matters outside, Gu Yue sank his divine sense into his Sea of Consciousness.

He woke little Gu Yuena from her deep sleep and rubbed her little head.

"Nana, once our injuries have mostly healed, you and Xiao Lu should use the Dragon God Core to open up a small plane and move the finest beast-tribe bloodlines into it. Lead the Soul Beasts who have gained intelligence in studying the teaching materials we compiled. Understand?"

"If those beast tribes disagree, then speak to them according to our beast tribes' rules." Gu Yue raised a fist as he spoke.

Little Gu Yuena raised her face and nodded seriously.

"Don't worry, Daddy. Nana remembers it all. When the time comes, I'll make sure the 'General Principles of the Way to Death' is the first required course."

Gu Yue chuckled and withdrew his attention.

He activated the Time-Reversal Trajectory with a thought. The next moment, his consciousness sank into darkness.