With a gesture, he activated his soul skill "Third soul skill: Connection."
A web of sinister light shot out from the spider skull, threading from the evil soul master to Qian Xunji, then branching toward a terrified villager. The old man screamed as the threads pierced his chest, binding a connection to Qian Xunji's.
"This," the soul master said, his voice dripping with sadistic pride, "is a niche ability of mine. It allows me to share the suffering of my prey. Watch closely, angel boy. When they feel pain, you feel pain. When they despair, you despair. And when they die…" he leaned close, whispering like a demon, "…you live their death."
Then the slaughter began.
One by one, villagers were dragged forward. The Evil Soul Master used cruel methods—slashing tendons, burning limbs, making them scream for mercy. Each cry, each pulse of agony, traveled down the web into Qian Xunji's soul.
A woman's despair when her child was torn in her arms flooded into him like poison.A boy's terror as his father was beheaded made Qian Xunji's own heart pound with fear.An elder's final curses against Spirit Hall carved themselves into his bones.
The worst were not the screams—but the curses.
"Where is Spirit Hall?!""Didn't the Angels promise to protect us?!""Liars! Spirit Hall are Liars.!"
Bound and broken, Qian Xunji trembled. He wanted to shut it out, but the Connection skill allowed no escape. Their curses and feelings during the moment of death for Spirit Hall, flowed into him like venom.
Yet still he whispered, again and again, clinging to a single phrase:"Cleanse you… cleanse you…"
The evil soul master laughed, intoxicated by his torment. "You hear them, don't you? Even those you claim to protect curse your name. You angels cleanse us, but we, in turn, cleanse them. This world is filthy—and filth is all it will ever be."
When the Angel Corps finally broke through and captured the enemy, they found Qian Xunji barely conscious, muttering words like a broken chant.
One rescuer lowered him gently and heard, not "cleanse you," but something far darker.
"The world is filthy… it must be cleansed."
Then Qian Xunji fainted, his eyes rolling back.
----
Inside Qian Xunji's Mindscape
Darkness.
In the void of his mind, the voices of the villagers echoed endlessly, cursing, screaming, blaming. The threads of the Connection skill still lingered, their agony branded into his soul.
From that abyss rose a murky purple aura, coiling like smoke. Within it, a thought not entirely his own whispered:
"They curse their saviors. They curse their protectors."
"These weaklings are unworthy of justice."
"They cry for gods when their world collapses. Then let it be gods who answer."
Qian Xunji's young heart twisted. He clenched phantom fists as the conclusion surfaced, cold and unshakable:
"Only a god can cleanse this world of its filth."
And so the seed of obsession was planted.
From that day, Qian Xunji was no longer the same.
When he finally awoke from his injuries, his face wore the same refined smile, his voice carried the same calm poise, and his courtesy seemed unchanged. To the unknowing, he was still the Pope's heir, still the prodigy of the Angel Clan.
But beneath that mask, something twisted had taken root.
He relished in cruelty, not openly, but in subtle ways.
Fifteen years passed.
The once impulsive youth of the Angel Corps was now a man of prestige, cloaked in the authority of Spirit Hall. Yet the obsession that had been planted in his heart still burned: the world was filthy, and only gods could cleanse it.
It was during one of Spirit Hall's routine tours, in a remote border village, that fate intervened. The annual awakening ceremony was being conducted. Dozens of children lined up, nervous yet excited, placing their hands upon the awakening crystal to summon the martial spirits hidden in their blood.
Most spirits were ordinary. A hoe, a chicken, a weak wolf. The crowd murmured in half-bored silence.
Then came her.
The crystal flared with a dark radiance. From the girl's delicate body emerged not one, but two spider phantoms, each oppressive, each refined to the extreme. The air thickened, and several Soul Masters present gasped aloud.
Twin martial spirits, which were both top-grade. And as the crystal tested her soul power, the needle shot instantly to the maximum.
"Innate full soul power."
The awakening master's voice trembled, and a hush fell over the hall.
Qian Xunji's gaze sharpened, his heartbeat echoing like a drum. He stepped forward, staring at the young girl—her eyes filled with both confusion and pride.
"You," he said softly, his voice calm but carrying an authority that silenced the entire village, "with your potential, you are eligible to surpass every genius I have ever seen."
His mind raced.
'Two martial souls… one body strong enough to bear them both. If she begins attaching rings to her second martial soul… after she reaches Titled Douluo…'
'Wouldn't that be no different from a being born with innate ninety levels of soul power? A vessel that could withstand 9 hundred-thousand-year soul ring?'
A dangerous light flickered in his eyes, though he hid it quickly behind his practiced, gentle smile.
That day, Qian Xunji extended his hand.That day, he took the girl as his disciple.
Her name was Bibi Dong.
And though she would one day curse his existence, though their bond would rot into hatred and vengeance, at that moment, Qian Xunji believed he had found the cornerstone of his dream, a soulmaster talented enough to become a god that might truly cleanse the world.