Chapter 117: The Stolen Soul – The Sovereign's Mirror
The Jialing Pass felt as though the entire battlefield was being held in the palm of a giant. The combined presence of the God of Destruction and the Goddess of Life had turned the area into a zone filled with raw, primordial power. Even the wind seemed hesitant, moving carefully around the two supreme beings who now stood among mortals.
Hui Mei, the God of Destruction, was a towering figure wrapped in crackling violet lightning. He looked at Lakan not with hostility, but with the sharp gaze of someone examining a genuine possibility. For countless ages, Hui Mei had grown tired of the stagnation that plagued the Divine Realm. Since the ancient war against the Dragon God, their fourth-dimensional home had shrunk dramatically — now less than a tenth of its former scale. He wanted true expansion, not for personal pride, but to prevent the eventual collapse of a realm that could no longer support the birth of new Gods.
Lakan did not rely on simple words. He channeled his voice through Seven-Tone Harmony, sending a clear and detailed vision directly into the minds of the two God-Kings — and then expanded it so that every person on the battlefield could see it clearly.
He showed them the Phoenix God Star in its full glory: a vast fifth-dimensional realm with a core spanning a billion kilometers, its borders stretching infinitely outward. He demonstrated how its dense, pure Immortal Qi could merge with the existing Divine Realm, serving as a new foundational spine that would allow the entire God Realm to evolve and ascend into a true sixth-dimensional Divine Planet.
"You have longed to restore the former glory of the Divine Realm, Hui Mei," Lakan said, his voice calm yet carrying undeniable weight. "I am offering you something much greater — a future that makes the old days seem small and limited. No more stagnation. No more artificial ceilings holding back growth."
Hui Mei's violet eyes widened. The logic was flawless and compelling. This was not a conquest or a takeover. It was a genuine evolution that could benefit the entire system.
"It's a lie!" Tang San's voice suddenly shattered the heavy silence like broken glass. He stepped forward, the Asura Sword shaking violently in his grip. "He is an anomaly! He appeared out of nowhere, changed the laws of our world, and now he wants to trick the God-Kings into surrendering their authority! You cannot trust someone who has no history in our records!"
Lakan paused for a moment. He slowly turned his head, his Origin God Eyes locking directly onto Tang San. Beside Tang San stood Tang Hao and a woman of ethereal, breathtaking beauty — Ah Yin, the Blue Silver Empress. Her long blue hair flowed like a gentle river, and her gaze carried the fierce protectiveness of a mother.
Lakan felt a flicker of genuine pity.
"An anomaly, Tang San?" Lakan said, his tone calm but carrying a sharp edge. "That's the third time you've used that word. It seems you've forgotten that people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones."
A confident, slightly teasing smile appeared on Lakan's face. "You want to talk about history? Then let's look at yours. Not the version you told your friends and followers. The real one."
Lakan raised his hand. The Phoenix Heart God Core in his chest pulsed with deep violet-gold light. Instead of simply telling a story, he performed a full Causal Manifestation. A massive, translucent screen of light formed high above Jialing Pass, visible to every soldier, every Titled Douluo, every God, and every soul present on the battlefield.
The vision began, clear and undeniable.
The battlefield saw a completely different world — ancient pagodas shrouded in mist-covered mountains. They witnessed the birth and rise of a powerful sect known as the Tang Sect.
They watched as a baby was adopted into the sect and named Tang San. They saw him grow up, learning the basic outer sect techniques. The members of the Shrek Seven Devils gasped in recognition — the Ghost Perplexing Track, Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon, and many other skills were exactly the same techniques Tang San had proudly claimed to create on the Douluo Continent.
The vision continued without mercy. It showed the young Tang San growing increasingly dissatisfied with his low status as an outer sect disciple. Instead of working hard to earn advancement, he chose a shortcut. The audience watched in stunned silence as he sneaked into the forbidden library and stole the Xuan-Tian Treasure Record — the inner sect's most guarded and powerful teachings.
They saw Tang San spend years in hiding, secretly practicing these stolen arts instead of serving his sect honestly. They witnessed the moment the elders discovered the theft and chased him all the way to Hell's Peak, the legendary cliff where many desperate cultivators had ended their lives.
Cornered at the edge of the cliff by the very elders he had betrayed, Tang San chose to jump rather than face the consequences of his actions.
"He didn't die," Lakan's voice cut clearly through the growing shock and murmurs. "His soul, stained by the theft of his own family's secrets, drifted across the void until it found a dying infant in a small hut in Holy Spirit Village."
The vision showed the painful moment of reincarnation in vivid detail. Tang Hao still grieving over the lose of his wife, unaware that his newborn child whose soul had just departed, only for the foreign soul — the thief from another world — to seize the empty vessel.
The vision kept unfolding, revealing Tang San's life on the Douluo Continent in full. It showed him meeting Yu Xiaogang — two so-called scholars who both built their reputations by claiming other people's work as their own. It showed how Tang San taught his friends the Tang Sect techniques, but deliberately left out the most important mentalities, principles, and core steps so that none of them could ever truly surpass him or challenge his position.
"You call me an anomaly?" Lakan asked, his voice turning cold and steady. "You are the soul-thief. You took a father's son and a mother's child, then replaced them with a greedy ghost from another world. You claimed to create techniques that you simply stole from a library in your previous life. You are the ultimate hypocrite."
Ah Yin was trembling violently, both hands covering her mouth as tears streamed freely down her face. She stared at Tang San — the person she had believed was her beloved son — with growing horror and heartbreak.
"Is it true?" she whispered, her voice breaking. "My… my baby… did you take him from us?"
Tang San's face had gone deathly pale. His eyes darted around desperately like a cornered animal. "It's a trick! It's all a hallucination! I am Tang San! I am the Sea God!"
But the Shrek Seven Devils were already stepping back in disbelief. They looked at their leader and saw the undeniable truth reflected in his panicked eyes. The godhood they had received — handed down by Asura and built upon Tang San's teachings — suddenly felt cheap, hollow, and false.
Tang San's mind finally snapped under the overwhelming weight of shame, exposure, and the loss of his carefully constructed destiny.
"DIE!"
With a desperate, rage-filled roar, he launched a sudden sneak attack. He ignored the Sea God's power and poured everything into the Asura Sword's bloodlust, aiming straight for Lakan's heart while he appeared distracted by maintaining the vision.
Lakan didn't even blink. He had already foreseen this exact path ten thousand times through his Probability Cloud.
He simply tilted his head slightly. The Asura Sword hissed past his ear, cutting nothing but empty air. In one smooth, effortless motion, Lakan reached out and caught Tang San's wrist in a grip that felt like an entire mountain closing around it.
"Typical," Lakan said quietly, his voice carrying a mix of disappointment and dry amusement. "When the argument is lost, the thief always resorts to murder."
The God of Destruction stepped forward, his face showing clear disdain. As a fifth-dimensional being who embodied absolute law, he could sense the undeniable truth in Lakan's vision. He no longer looked at Tang San as a potential successor, but as a stain on the very concept of divinity.
"Asura," Hui Mei's voice thundered toward the sky. "You chose a thief as your successor. You have insulted the dignity of the God-Kings."
He then turned to Lakan, his purple aura becoming steady and calm. "Lakan Diwa. I see the truth in your realm. However, I cannot simply hand over control of the universe. I propose a Trial of Resonance."
Hui Mei raised his hand, and a massive crystalline bell formed from purple thunder appeared in the sky above the pass. "Show me the true depth of your Creation Power. If your Phoenix Heart can resonate with the core of the Divine Realm and prove its stability, I will support the merging of our realms. If not… then we will see whether your fifth-dimensional realm can withstand the full force of my Destruction."
Lakan released Tang San's wrist and casually tossed the so-called Sea God aside like a piece of garbage. He looked at the massive Trial Bell, then back at the God of Destruction with a confident, slightly playful smile.
"A Trial of Resonance?" Lakan said, his tone light but carrying unmistakable power. "Fine. But let's make it interesting, Hui Mei. I won't just ring your bell. I'll rewrite the entire song it plays."
Tang San lay sprawled in the dirt of Jialing Pass, his mother's heartbroken weeping echoing in his ears, while the Supreme God-King prepared to demonstrate what true Creation really meant.