Da Ji Reborn

Inside the towering, solemn Worship Hall, golden sunlight streamed through the glazed windows of the lofty colored dome, casting a mottled, shimmering glow across the floor.

The Six-Winged Angel God Statue stood silently, gleaming in the brilliant golden light.

Below the statue, the current Pope, Qian Xunji, knelt alone before it.

"Merciful Angel God... why has your compassion never been willing to fall upon me?"

Qian Xunji raised his head to look at the stone face, which showed neither sorrow nor joy. His low voice was filled with resentment and self-mockery.

In Spirit Hall's long history, he was the weakest Pope of all.

In talent, he fell far short of his father, Qian Daoliu, the previous Pope.

As for divine gifts, even his Innate Soul Power was the lowest among all inheritors of the Six-Winged Angel.

Even the Angel God Trial had never favored him.

In the eyes of the world, he was the Pope, a man wielding supreme power. Yet only he knew that he was nothing more than a mediocre stopgap, living under the shadow of his forebears' renown.

But no one would have guessed that he harbored a secret.

He had been reborn.

In his previous life, since the Angel God had never shown him favor, he had resolutely cast aside his faith in her.

To bring about a god, even if the person who ultimately broke through to God Level and inherited a godhood was not himself, he would continue to scheme until the end of his life.

All so that a god would be born by his hand. He wanted the Angel God to see with her own eyes that even someone who had never received divine favor could still create someone who stood on equal footing with her.

Thus, he secretly devised a grand scheme.

The moment he first laid eyes on Bibi Dong, he chose the girl.

It was not out of carnal desire, but because he had sensed the immense potential hidden within Bibi Dong: death, evil, and destruction.

This evil attribute was far beyond the reach of ordinary Evil Soul Masters. Only extreme resentment, hatred, and negative emotions could truly awaken it.

As it happened, he knew of the inheritance site of a god who presided over evil thoughts: the Rakshasa God.

From among countless people, he had chosen Bibi Dong. She was the ideal mother to bear a child with a perfect bloodline, and an excellent candidate to inherit the Rakshasa Godhood.

But Bibi Dong's potential was still far from being awakened. She needed extreme evil thoughts and hatred etched into her bones, not ordinary cultivation.

If she merely progressed step by step, she would at most become a genius Soul Master with Twin Martial Souls.

No matter how great her talent, she would remain mortal all her life, with no possibility of inheriting a godhood and breaking through level 100.

He also needed to combine Bibi Dong's fully awakened bloodline with his own, which had been left flawed because his mother was not strong enough. That would produce a descendant bearing the most perfect Six-Winged Angel bloodline and give his child the true potential to become a god.

For this, he betrayed the faith of the Angel Clan.

He secretly used a mental illusion to lure Bibi Dong, whose heart was just awakening to love, into falling for the level-29 piece of trash with a crew cut, Yu Xiaogang, weaving an innocent and beautiful illusory dream for her.

Just before Bibi Dong broke through to Soul Saint, at the crucial moment when the entire plan was nearing completion, he again used an illusion to secretly control Yu Xiaogang, prompting him to quickly fall in love with his paternal cousin Liu Erlong.

After Bibi Dong broke through to Soul Saint, he arranged for her to witness the love between Yu Xiaogang and Liu Erlong with her own eyes, and he ultimately became the Secret Chamber Douluo.

As Bibi Dong's heart shattered, he personally pushed his beloved disciple into an abyss of despair from which there was no redemption.

Bibi Dong, his father Qian Daoliu, and even those in later generations who learned the story all believed his lust, worse than that of a beast, had taken hold, and that the Pope had chosen the most despicable means of keeping her in a fit of shame and rage.

Yet no one knew that this was, in truth, a bloodline furnace fueled by evil thoughts, with himself as the catalyst.

When Qian Renxue was born and awakened her Martial Soul at the age of six, he had personally created a Six-Winged Angel descendant with Innate Level 20 Soul Power. At the same time, as he had wished, he had cultivated the conditions in Bibi Dong's heart for her to bear the Rakshasa Godhood's inheritance.

At that point, the grand game into which he had poured his life's work lacked only one final move.

Not long afterward, when he returned gravely wounded by Tang Hao and was torn apart and devoured by a venomously resentful Bibi Dong, he smiled through it all.

He had succeeded.

Using his own life and infamy as firewood, he had single-handedly created an unrivaled golden age for Spirit Hall, with two gods from one house.

But fate delighted in playing tricks, and things ultimately did not go as he had wished.

Perhaps the Angel God had glimpsed his obsession through unseen means and finally felt a trace of belated compassion;

Or perhaps Bibi Dong, wanting him to witness his life's work come to nothing, had deliberately preserved a sliver of his true spirit when she devoured his soul.

He witnessed the final divine battle at Jialing Pass.

He watched with his own eyes as Qian Renxue inherited the Angel Godhood and Holy Light Illumination shone across the continent.

He also watched Bibi Dong finally become the God of Rakshasa.

With two gods descending from one house, Spirit Hall should have swept aside every enemy on the continent like dry weeds and rotten wood.

But the events that followed crushed the glory he had obtained at the cost of everything into a fleeting dream and bubbles.

Ten thousand meters above Jialing Pass, the divine battle erupted.

He watched Sea God Tang San, who had also broken through level 100.

But so what? He, Qian Xunji, had personally created two gods!

Tang San was just one measly Sea God. What right did he have to fight Spirit Hall? When Qian Xunji watched Tang San's heart shatter and his body fall limply from the sky, he felt that the schemes of his lifetime were flawless, and that he could finally close his eyes in peace.

Who could have imagined that, under the nine-colored light, that crew-cut piece of trash would shout, "Everyone, quick, pray for Xiao San!" and Sea God Tang San would unbelievably rise from the dead on the spot, even becoming two gods in one without any logic at all?

In the end, Qian Renxue's Angel Godhood shattered, Bibi Dong, the Rakshasa God, died, and Spirit Hall's foundation, passed down for ten thousand years, crumbled in raging flames.

Only at that moment did Qian Xunji, who had spent a lifetime scheming with painstaking care, awaken as if from a dream.

With the body of a mere mortal, he had schemed to create two gods, but in the end, it had all been a joke.

From the very beginning, the man named Tang San had been the Divine Realm's Asura God's personally appointed agent, as well as the heir favored by the Sea God.

No matter how a mere mortal racked his brains, how could he prevail against the players moving the pieces in the heavens?

"Why..."

Qian Xunji gazed up at the Angel God Statue and growled:

"Spirit Hall has revered you for generations, carrying out your will to sweep away evil from the world. Your descendants shed every last drop of blood to protect faith in you... why, when catastrophe descended upon them, were you unwilling to lend your own descendants a hand?"

In the vast, deserted hall, only his suppressed voice echoed for a long time.

The statue continued to stand in silence, its lifeless eyes seemingly mocking his absurdity and helplessness.

"Because she died long ago."

A cool, ethereal voice suddenly drifted down from the void.

"Who?!"

Qian Xunji's whole body tensed, and he sprang to his feet. The phantom of a Six-Winged Angel appeared behind him as if by instinct, its brilliant golden light illuminating the entire temple.

He stared warily at the empty space before the statue, where silver ripples spread in circles.

Immediately afterward, a woman emerged leisurely from the spatial ripples.

The woman's long silver hair hung loose down her back to her ankles. It was not only smooth and supple, but also had a texture like silver crystal.

Her beauty was beyond words; no description could do justice to her peerless face.

Her fair skin was slightly pale, her long eyelashes curled upward, and her purple eyes were clear and limpid.

Qian Xunji had seen many women, but neither Bibi Dong from his previous life nor his daughter Qian Renxue could compare to the woman before him.

He even had the illusion that applying any of the world's most gorgeous words to her would be a great profanation.

This figure was naturally Gu Yue, who had descended here.

P.S. Four updates burned me out...

P.S. 2.0: This chapter isn't trying to whitewash Qian Xunji. That's how the latest side story goes: besides being a complete beast, Da Ji has now gained a madman persona. Dongzi is still blinded by love, and as for Gangzi... he's been made hideous.

P.S. Plus: In this work, everyone outside the protagonist's camp is just a tool.