The God Realm suffered enormous losses in divine seats during the Evil Sword Immortal turmoil.
At the time, besides the Evil God King and the Seven Deadly Sins, deities like the God of Strength, who resisted to the bitter end, were also slain. Fortunately, thanks to Douluo Continent's rapid development, numerous prodigies have emerged in recent years, gradually filling in the vacant divine seats.
Although the Evil God King was devoured, the true spirit of the Evil Sword Immortal did not fully dissipate after his death. It flew out of his body and drifted off to some unknown corner of the cosmos. Sensing this, the Good God King chose Tianlin's daughter Jun Liuli and passed a god position to her. Then, like the God of Asura, she flew into the universe to search for the scattered shards of the Evil God King's true spirit.
Knowing the current situation was entirely his fault, the God of Destruction, seeking atonement, did not pass on his god position. Instead, he took up the divine duties of the fallen gods alone to ensure the world could continue to operate.
He has hardly rested for nearly ten thousand years. Even the God of Asura back then would likely feel admiration seeing the God of Destruction now. Though the Goddess of Life felt distressed by her husband's unending toil, she did not stop him. She knew only by throwing himself completely into work could the God of Destruction temporarily forget the past and not be consumed by guilt.
As soon as Tianlin arrived in the God Realm, he began assisting the God of Destruction with the realm expansion plan. Black holes and space storms that once worried other god-kings were nothing to a God-Emperor-class Tianlin; he could easily disperse them. This invisibly saved Lei Xiang, Hai Long, and the others, though it also cost them their opportunity to enter the great gods' circle, leaving them to serve as local god-kings in their own planes.
With Tianlin's help, the God Realm expanded hundreds and thousands of times, and the power of the planes grew tremendously, allowing it to accommodate many more god-kings and even supreme god-kings.
Thus the God Realm Committee relaxed the quota for bringing family members. A second-rank god could bring one family member; first-rank, two; god-kings, three; supreme god-kings, four; and so on, up to a maximum of five for a God Emperor.
At that time, Tianlin and Ning Rongrong together held the first-rank Sea God position, the supreme God of Asura position, the supreme Holy Empress position, and the God-Emperor Holy Emperor position—allowing a total of fifteen family members.
That number was enough to bring all their most cherished kin: Tianlin's parents, Yin Yang, Dugu Bo, Gu Rong, and others. Ning Fengzhi and Chen Xin each held their own god positions, so they didn't need spots, which freed up slots to bring Ning Rongrong's elder brother and sister-in-law, and so on—not to be wasted.
Chen Xin ultimately fell to the God of Lust's pursuit. After all, you can guard against a thief for a thousand days, but a thief only needs one day. The God of Lust tried a new trick every day to drug Chen Xin; one misstep, and he stumbled.
Still, even tempered steel can be softened. Perhaps he was ensnared because he chose to compromise. Who could ignore the allure of the God of Lust?
There was an upside: Chen Xin was even stricter with his son than his disciples, sending him to temper himself on Douluo Continent. His son later joined the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, married, and had children there. The Seven Kill Sword did not vanish as in the original tale; it finally had an inheritor.
Thanks to the rule that even second-rank gods could bring family, those unable to become gods—like Meng Yiran and the wives of the Shi brothers—were also brought up. Cleverly, they didn't have children in the human realm but waited until the God Realm, since children born below couldn't be brought up, while those born above didn't have to be sent back. Tianlin couldn't help but admire their stratagem.
As for Qian Renxue, now a supreme god-king, she had four slots. She used one to resurrect her grandfather Qian Daoliu, and the other three to bring her second grandfather, Golden Crocodile Douluo; her sworn younger sister, Princess Xue Ke, who would be left alone if she departed; and Bibi Dong's disciple, Hu Liena.
To Bibi Dong, Hu Liena was also a daughter—cherished from the bottom of her heart.
Hu Liena's mind control had been removed. Remembering everything from the time she was controlled, she neither blamed Tianlin nor dared to. They were enemies then, and she had struck first to kill. No matter how Tianlin retaliated would not have been too much. Besides, he merely made her work; he did not defile her.
Ironically, that left her a bit unwilling. With such a perfect opportunity, Tianlin remained unmoved—was she really so unattractive?
Years later, when Bibi Dong, having endured hardship, returned as a god, holding two daughters and smiling with pure happiness, Qian Renxue knew everything she had done was worth it. Now Bibi Dong's heart held no hatred, only love. Even as the Rakshasa God, she controlled the evil thoughts rather than being controlled by them.
…
In the Holy Emperor Palace, Tianlin hadn't been idle either. He diligently performed the Holy Emperor's duties and led his companion divine beasts—Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena, Snow Empress, Skydream Iceworm, Xiao Bai, Ice Empress, and others—to explore a path for coexistence between humans and soul beasts.
By now, Gu Yuena had fully fused the Golden Dragon King's power and, after passing the Dragon God's grand trial, had become the new Dragon God, ranking alongside the Holy Empress Ning Rongrong and the Twelve-Winged Holy Seraph Qian Renxue as the three strongest supreme god-kings under the Holy Emperor of the God Realm.
After tireless effort, Tianlin fulfilled his promise to Gu Yuena. He first found another habitable planet as in the original story, transferred all soul beasts from Douluo Star there, and put Di Tian in charge of protection and management, separating them from humans so they would no longer be hunted.
As for human soul masters' spirit ring needs, Tianlin combined the gods' technique of granting god-bestowed spirit rings with the later Spirit Ascension Platform method from the original story, and, using the Holy Emperor's power of creation, forged a large virtual plane. Within it lived countless virtual soul beasts—possessing vitality and soul power but no souls or thoughts. As long as soul masters slew them, they could obtain spirit rings; the probability of soul bone drops matched that of ordinary soul beasts.
The virtual soul beasts' age limits were divided by region—white, yellow, purple, black, and red—with sharply different danger levels. Soul masters could use myriad portals across the continent to enter the virtual plane.
To keep the virtual plane running, it needed to continuously generate vitality and divine power. Virtual soul beasts don't cultivate, so the plane's divine power had to remain sufficient at all times. One unit of divine power could convert to a thousand units of soul power for virtual soul beasts to absorb, allowing them to produce rings and bones. That part was easy—there were so many gods in the God Realm that they could inject divine power anytime, and the spent amount could be recovered with a few days of meditative cultivation.
Vitality was different. Even for gods, vitality is limited. Their immortality comes from the God Realm's central system supplying vitality and preventing its loss, not from endless personal reserves.
In the end, the Goddess of Life made a contribution by planting the repaired super-artifact, the Ancient Tree of Life, within Tianlin's virtual plane. With it, the virtual plane could generate its own vitality.
After virtual soul beasts were slain, the plane would spawn new ones to ensure an endless supply. As long as the Ancient Tree of Life stood, the virtual soul beasts would never be wiped out.
Tianlin drew this inspiration from online games: isn't soul master cultivation just like grinding levels?
In the human realm, the gates to the virtual plane were entrusted to plane lord Gu Ran and life core Ye Lingling—Ye Lingling leading, Gu Ran assisting.
Not that Tianlin distrusted Gu Ran, but Gu Ran, born of the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and later the second emperor of the Douluo Empire, might be partial in his conduct—unfair to people of other continents and factions.
Ye Lingling was better at impartiality.
Gu Yuena was appointed manager of the plane, with the Snow Empress and other soul beasts assisting. After all, the plane was created to protect soul beasts. If it wasn't managed well, once humans invented soul tools capable of exploring space, they would inevitably reach the true soul beasts' planet and hunt them for cultivation.
Gu Yuena could not preemptively wipe out humanity while they were still unable to reach that level. Tianlin would never allow it.
Besides, with Tianlin going to such lengths for her, she had long put down her hatred of humans and gods. In their daily closeness, she even developed a faint affection for Tianlin. But she understood that Tianlin already had Qian Renxue and Ning Rongrong in his heart, so she didn't force anything. As a companion divine beast, her cultivation grounds in the God Realm were together with his, both in the Holy Emperor Palace—seeing him every day was enough.