After learning the name Disguise, you felt deeply unsettled.
You hurriedly asked Xue Ke about Disguise's performance at the selection gathering of the Upper Three Sects and Lower Four Sects.
From Xue Ke you learned that Disguise had arrived with the current Clear Sky Sect Master Tang Xiao and several Clear Sky Sect youths.
Because the Clear Sky Sect had lived in seclusion for years, members of the Sacred Dragon Sect and Elephant Armored Academy openly mocked them.
If you choose to be a turtle hiding in its shell, then stay inside—why crawl out now?
At that moment, Disguise attacked. His Spirit seemed to have evolved into a Blue Silver Grass Spirit that resembled blue crystal, and he battered the Sacred Dragon and Elephant Armored groups until they couldn't raise their heads.
Even several Spirit Saints from the Sacred Dragon Sect and Elephant Armored Academy couldn't handle him.
The blue-crystal Blue Silver Grass in his hand was incomparably tough, could transform into a sharp, overbearing spear, and grew at tremendous speed—extremely powerful.
And this Disguise was only a Spirit King!
That made no sense!
Discovering that in the simulation Tang San, at Spirit King rank, had left several Spirit Saints helpless, Qian Renxue grew anxious.
She had ordered Tang Hao's early assassination, forcing Tang San to flee.
Even if Tang San later reached the Clear Sky Sect, and even if Tang Hao had stuffed everything he needed to teach into a storage spirit tool and passed it to Tang San,
this time Tang San lacked the Immortal Grade herbs from Dugu Bo's Medicinal Garden and the sacrifice of the hundred-thousand-year Soft Bones Rabbit—so many Opportunities gone.
How had he become even stronger?
Of course, Qian Renxue knew these Spirit Saints were far weaker than she was as a Spirit Saint,
yet in the previous simulation Tang San had been a Spirit Emperor and had to unleash his second Spirit—the Clear Sky Hammer—to barely defeat her.
Now he was only a Spirit King and hadn't even used the Clear Sky Hammer!
A trace of unease stirred in her heart.
After unexpectedly discovering Tang San masquerading as Disguise, you desperately wanted Grandfather to act again and wipe out both the Clear Sky Sect and Tang San.
But when you wrote to Grandfather claiming the Clear Sky Sect was a threat and begged him to destroy it,
he replied that he had once dueled Tang Chen and lost.
Per their agreement, neither he nor any of Spirit Hall's forces could set foot on the Clear Sky Sect's ancestral Peak.
Unfortunately, the sect's current reclusive refuge lay on that very Peak.
After reading Grandfather's reply you felt the world go dark, despair filling your heart; for the first time you realized how stubborn the old man could be.
But there was no choice—you refused to seek help from that woman for now, and could only hope your interference would stop Tang San from attaining godhood.
Grandfather is so inflexible!
Finding in the simulator that Grandfather, bound by an old promise, refused to eliminate the Clear Sky Sect threat, Qian Renxue felt a splitting headache.
Yet she could not truly object.
Raised by Grandfather, she believed one must keep one's word and hold a moral bottom line.
She couldn't say he was wrong.
More than a year passed in the blink of an eye.
Through your deliberate schemes and planted evidence, the Star Luo Empire was framed as the culprit who poisoned Emperor Xue Ye.
Using public opinion, you raised the banner of avenging your father, declared an alliance with Spirit Hall, and vowed to destroy the Star Luo Empire to avenge Emperor Xue Ye.
At first the nobles and ministers strongly opposed, calling it courting a tiger for its skin.
But under your insistence—and after revealing a signed covenant witnessed by the angelic Douluo Qian Daoliu that the Heaven Dou Empire would govern the secular world while Spirit Hall governed the Spirit Master's world—they finally acquiesced.
Soon after, you mustered the army, and with Spirit Hall's Spirit Master legions first reclaimed the breakaway kingdoms and duchies—Balak Kingdom, Silves Kingdom, Hagendas Kingdom, and others.
These realms had originally split from Heaven Dou only with Spirit Hall's help, so with Spirit Hall's aid they offered little resistance, and you quickly restored Heaven Dou to its Peak borders.
Then, combining Heaven Dou's forces with Spirit Hall's legions, you launched an assault on the Star Luo Empire and its vassal kingdoms.
Against the Heaven Dou army and the Spirit Hall legions led by mighty Elders and consecrators, Star Luo collapsed step by step, its territories falling one after another.
Yet Star Luo did not give up.
After war began, word soon arrived that Clear Sky Sect Spirit Masters and those of the four subordinate clans were fighting among Star Luo's Spirit Masters.
Star Luo soldiers and Spirit Masters were also wielding strange weapons—concealable yet devastating, allowing low-rank Spirit Masters to ambush and slay Advanced Spirit Masters.
These caused heavy casualties for both the Heaven Dou army and Spirit Hall's legions.
You knew they had to be Tang San's Hidden Weapons.
What are these Hidden Weapons? How can they be so powerful?
Seeing in the simulator the devastation Tang San's Hidden Weapons inflicted on her forces, Qian Renxue's brows knitted tightly.
She recalled earlier simulations in which she had tried repeatedly to recruit Tang San, believing his worth exceeded Ye Luo's—chiefly because of these Hidden Weapons.
In her view Tang San's value was indeed higher; after all, he could become a god.
Yet he would achieve the Dual God Integration, while Ye Luo would likely claim only a single God Position.
Moreover, Tang San could craft these mysterious, formidable Hidden Weapons—his value was undeniable.
Unfortunately, Spirit Hall's previous strike against the Clear Sky Sect made it nearly impossible to turn him from foe to friend.
Thinking of this, Qian Renxue sighed wistfully.
If only Tang San could set aside his hatred and join her out of sincerity!
But she quickly shook her head with a bitter smile.
What am I thinking?
Trying to recruit him again?
In several previous simulations her constant attempts to win him over—and the soft-hearted mercy that came with it—had let him escape repeatedly and ultimately turn the tables.
She must not repeat that mistake.
Yet even she, armed with the simulator and foreknowledge, couldn't help such thoughts; no wonder her future selves had shown mercy and allowed Tang San to survive.
The simulation continued.
Although Star Luo had gained support from the Clear Sky Sect and Tang San's Hidden Weapons,
they still retreated step by step under the combined assault of Heaven Dou's army and Spirit Hall's Spirit Master legions; border kingdoms and duchies fell in rapid succession.
Several Star Luo provinces were occupied,
and the front line pressed to Tiger Might Pass, one of the key mountain barriers protecting Star Luo's provinces.
Just then Star Luo received another reinforcement—an extraordinary one.
Leading them were the seven Sea God Pillar Douluo of Sea God Island, commanding a legion of over ten thousand Sea Soul Masters!