Since the collision between the Sun Moon Continent and the Douluo Continent more than four thousand years ago, the thousands of years of conflict on the continent finally came to an end.
Under the leadership of the God of Time and Space, Xu Zihuang, the Sun Moon Empire unified the Douluo Continent. The Heavenly Soul, Dou Ling, and Star Luo empires completely vanished into the long river of history.
The advanced soul guidance technology of the Sun Moon Empire was thus popularized, greatly improving the lives of the continent's people. The original resistance of the Douluo Continent's inhabitants toward the Sun Moon Empire was gradually disappearing under various influences. The continent presented a scene of thriving prosperity.
The Shrek Academy, renamed the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, also began recruiting its first batch of students from across the entire continent. Zhang Lexuan, who possessed half the bloodline of the Sun Moon Empire's imperial family, served as the first dean of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy.
Coupled with Shrek Academy's former reputation as the continent's number one academy, it became a place that countless young soul masters flocked to.
The Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy and the Sun Moon Royal Soul Guidance Master Academy became the two most elite academies on the continent, or rather, within the Sun Moon Empire. Due to historical reasons, the two maintained a competitive relationship just like before. Of course, it was now a healthy competition.
However, what had an even greater impact on the continent was the establishment of the Angel Temple and the Sun Moon Temple by the Sun Moon Empire several years later.
Every city had an Angel Temple. Depending on the size of the city, the scale and level of the Angel Temples also varied. The Angel Temples widely recruited special soul masters with outstanding combat strength from across the continent, particularly those with abilities that countered evil soul masters.
In addition to searching for and eliminating evil soul masters, the Angel Temples were also responsible for maintaining public security in their respective cities. The Angel Temples became a special force independent of the Sun Moon Empire's military. Every soul master who joined the Angel Temple enjoyed extremely generous treatment and held a lofty status.
The Sun Moon Temple was similar. However, unlike the Angel Temple, the Sun Moon Temple itself did not control particularly powerful combat forces; it was only responsible for the promotion and fusion of soul spirits.
The massive impact on the continent mainly came from this soul spirit fusion method. The appearance of soul spirits had almost completely changed the entire soul master cultivation system.
Powerful soul spirits could not only grant soul masters multiple soul rings but could also assist soul masters in battle. Soul masters who had fused with soul spirits held a natural advantage when facing conventional soul masters.
As long as one was a soul master, they would desire to become stronger. The emergence of soul spirits naturally received fervent pursuit.
Ten years passed like a fleeting cloud of smoke.
During these ten years, the systems of the Angel Temple and the Sun Moon Temple also became increasingly perfected.
With the Angel Temple's suppression, there were no longer any large-scale instances of evil soul masters ravaging the continent. Even the few fish that slipped through the net were so thoroughly suppressed that they did not dare show their faces.
The Sun Moon Temple's popularization of soul spirits across the continent greatly alleviated the conflict between soul masters and soul beasts. Not long ago, the high-level officials of the Sun Moon Temple even released news that research into allowing soul spirits to continue being inherited after a soul master's death had entered its final stages and would likely be realized soon.
If soul spirits could be passed down forever, it would be excellent news for both soul masters and soul beasts.
Soul beasts, by attaching themselves as soul spirits to soul masters, would essentially obtain another form of immortality.
The number of soul spirits could accumulate steadily, and sooner or later, they would fully meet the needs of human soul masters. After all, the overall number of human soul masters grew quite slowly, while there was no shortage of soul beasts nearing the end of their lives who were willing to voluntarily transform into soul spirits.
By then, with more choices available, human soul masters would most likely no longer take risky trips to soul beast habitats in the wild to hunt them. This was a completely win-win situation.
The method for soul spirits to be inherited forever came from Electrolux.
Xu Zihuang had long moved the Dragon Valley space near Mingdu. His urgent desire to obtain the method for permanent soul spirit inheritance was precisely to turn the dragon souls within the Dragon Valley space into soul spirits, establishing them as the foundation of the Sun Moon Empire's imperial family.
The number of true dragons that had fallen in the Dragon Valley space was at least in the thousands. Adding in the various sub-dragons, flying dragons, and earth dragons, this was already a terrifying number. It was no exaggeration to say that if all the dragon souls in the Dragon Valley space could be made into soul spirits, the top powerhouses of the Sun Moon Empire for the next tens of thousands of years would never again have to worry about soul rings.
After all, true dragon soul spirits were definitely far more powerful than ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul spirits.
Because of these factors, the Sun Moon Empire's rule over the Douluo Continent had become increasingly stable over these ten years. However, during this period, three major heavenly phenomena had successively appeared on the continent. And all of them occurred this year.
The first was that the entire continent became dark. Thick, heavy black clouds covered the sky, and countless black thunderbolts rampaged across the heavens, like divine might. If these black thunderbolts converged and struck down, they would likely be enough to pierce through the continent.
The second phenomenon felt completely different from the oppressive feeling of the first. At that time, everyone on the continent saw a massive angelic phantom appear in the sky. The enormous angelic image seemed to cover the entire sky, blotting out the sun and the heavens. Within its vast oppressive force was a holy and warm aura. Bathing under that pale golden holy radiance, everyone felt as if their hearts had been cleansed.
Although the third phenomenon did not have the same vast momentum as the previous two, it was even more mystical. The heavens and earth inverted, the golden sun and silver moon fell to the mortal world at the same time, transforming into an illusory Sun Moon Lake. This illusory golden and silver Sun Moon Lake was like a transparent world overlapping with the Douluo Continent.
Unlike the ordinary people on the continent, existences like Mu Lao, who had once stood at the pinnacle of human soul masters, knew exactly what these three phenomena meant.
The heavens and earth changed color; it was three new gods emerging into the world! And it was obvious that all three gods had close connections with Xu Zihuang. Just like ten thousand years ago, because of Xu Zihuang's appearance, this era was destined to be a golden age of frequent gods.
...
Heaven Dou City.
In the past, the most magnificent building in Heaven Dou City was undoubtedly the Heavenly Soul Empire's imperial palace at the city center. But times had changed. The Angel Temple and the Sun Moon Temple, located respectively in the south and north of Heaven Dou City, had long replaced the Heavenly Soul Empire's imperial palace as the city's landmark buildings.
Heaven Dou City, as the former capital of the Heavenly Soul Empire, was one of the most prosperous cities on the continent. The Angel Temple and Sun Moon Temple within the city were both of the highest level. The white-walled, golden-domed buildings stood quietly, reaching straight into the clouds.
A young man and a woman stood side by side on a bustling street in Heaven Dou City, gazing with complicated expressions at the towering Angel Temple and Sun Moon Temple.
The young man and woman both appeared to be around twenty-five or twenty-six years old. The young man was handsome, with long deep blue hair and a gentle temperament. The woman wore a form-fitting black dress, and her black eyes still showed traces of their former liveliness. However, the experiences of these years had added some fatigue and dejection to those once clear and pure eyes.
"Beibei, have we finally come to this step?"
The two were none other than Beibei and Tang Ya. This year, Beibei and Tang Ya were actually already in their thirties. Because of their high soul power cultivation, their appearances had not changed much and still looked like they were in their twenties.
Back when they saw Tang San scheming against Xu Zihuang multiple times, Beibei and Tang Ya found it the hardest to accept. They were both disciples of the Tang Sect and had known about the deeds of the Tang Sect's first sect master, the Sea God Tang San, since childhood.
Tang San's vicious and despicable side had completely shattered his once great and majestic image in their hearts. Moreover, Xu Zihuang had helped them multiple times without holding any grudges.
It was because of this that Beibei and Tang Ya had been filled with shame at the time, not knowing how to face Xu Zihuang. When Beibei said he would take Tang Ya to stay in Shrek City to continue developing and strengthening the Tang Sect, it was actually to shoulder everything himself so that Tang Ya would feel better.
"Little Ya, no matter what decision you make, I will stay by your side." Beibei comforted her as he gently held her fair, jade-like hand and smiled faintly.
After the Sun Moon Empire unified the Douluo Continent, suppressing everything related to Tang San had become politically correct. Beibei and Tang Ya had tried hard in Shrek City to develop and strengthen the Tang Sect, but the results were unsatisfactory. The obstacles they encountered were even greater than they had anticipated.
Everything they had poured ten years of effort into ultimately came to nothing. In the end, they could only leave Shrek City and come to Heaven Dou City, the Tang Sect's former birthplace.
The only consolation for Tang Ya and Beibei was that the Tang Sect's mansion in Heaven Dou City remained intact. Because this was the one Xu Zihuang had helped Tang Ya reclaim from the Iron Blood Clan back then.
"Beibei, thank you."
A bit of light returned to Tang Ya's eyes. She lightly pursed her red lips, and a playful, charming smile appeared on her pretty face, as if returning to twenty years ago when they first met at Shrek Academy.
"Actually, over these ten years, I've already thought things through. I won't obsessively try to develop and strengthen the Tang Sect anymore, doing something I know is impossible. I believe that if Mom and Dad were still here, they would definitely tell me the same. It's time to live in the present. Now, I only hope to pass on this Tang Sect mansion that Mom and Dad left me to our children. After that, let's go see Tianhuang one last time."
Beibei examined Tang Ya for a moment. A look of relief appeared in his smile, and then he muttered in a somewhat resentful tone:
"Tianhuang is three years younger than us, and his kids are already in their teens. Poor me is still a virgin."
"You— Beibei, what do you mean by that?! Are you saying that I'm not—" Tang Ya's almond eyes widened as she glared at him in annoyance.
Beibei quickly stopped Tang Ya before she could say those two words.
"Little Ya, watch the setting. How are you still so scatterbrained even now?"
Tang Ya snorted lightly, but she also knew that the problem over these years had been hers. She silently tightened her grip on Beibei's right hand, which was interlocked with hers.
At that moment, Tang Ya, who had turned her head, spotted a lame middle-aged man pushing a roasted fish cart just passing by them. From the middle-aged man's heavily wrinkled skin, he looked old and worn out. His messy black hair streaked with white covered part of his face, and his deep blue eyes appeared far more vicissitudinous than those of others of his age.
However, the roasted fish on the cart was very clean and emitted a rich aroma.
"Uncle, give me two roasted fish." Age had not changed Tang Ya's foodie nature. Having only eaten some dry rations on the way to Heaven Dou City, she could no longer hold back upon smelling the aroma of the roasted fish. Smiling, she stopped the lame middle-aged man, looking as if she were drooling with anticipation.
The lame middle-aged man subconsciously raised his head and looked at Tang Ya and Beibei. A ripple seemed to appear in his previously numb eyes. Beibei keenly noticed this and slightly furrowed his brows.
Tang Ya, however, had her attention entirely on the roasted fish and did not notice anything.
After taking two roasted fish and paying, Tang Ya, Beibei, and the lame middle-aged man passed each other.
Tang Ya handed one roasted fish to Beibei and immediately took a bite of the other.
"Delicious! Beibei, try it quickly. This roasted fish really tastes great!" Tang Ya's eyes lit up instantly as she ate with oil dripping from her mouth. Then she seemed to realize something and suddenly turned her head to look back. For some reason, she felt that the taste of this roasted fish was somewhat familiar.
But the lame middle-aged man pushing the roasted fish cart had already disappeared into the dense crowd.
Tang Ya withdrew her gaze and asked the Beibei beside her, "Beibei, don't you think this roasted fish tastes a bit familiar?"
"You've eaten countless delicacies over the years. Isn't it normal for some flavors to be similar?" Beibei's deep eyes regained their clarity as he teased.
Tang Ya's pretty face flushed slightly as she glared at Beibei.
"Annoying!"
Beibei smiled without saying anything and led Tang Ya away from the place.
On the other end of the street, the lame middle-aged man used the money earned from selling roasted fish to buy the cheapest bottle of barley wine. He lifted it and gulped down several mouthfuls. Under the numbing effect of the cheap alcohol, he alternated between crying and laughing. His figure looked dejected and desolate.
Once upon a time, he had also thought highly of himself, believing he could become a supreme powerhouse to avenge his mother. But after entering that so-called number one academy on the continent, he suffered repeated setbacks and began to lament the unfairness of fate.
He left the academy and betrayed his sect, all in pursuit of power. In the end, it was all just a joke.
When he returned home to pay respects to his mother, he had his martial soul crippled by his enemy. After barely surviving, he accidentally offended a lofty soul master and had one of his legs brutally broken.
His story began with roasted fish, and it would also end with roasted fish.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here are the chapters for today (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
"Don't forget there are chapters available on Patreon."
"Douluo: Sword of Judgment and Eternal Ice 30 Advance chapters"
"From Douluo to Godhood by Defying the Heavens 30 Advance chapters."
"Douluo: Far North Invincibledo 30 Advance chapters."
"Douluo Dalu 2:Peerless Tang Sect Dawn of Sun and Moon the novel is already finished on Patreon."
[email protected]/facficmax10--------(@→a)