The intense divine fire ignited by the Divine Position burst forth, enveloping the Emotion God King. He was now situated right in the center of the Spatiotemporal Turbulence and the Reincarnation Hurricane; he had no choice but to risk everything.
But unfortunately, it still wasn't enough.
Endless silver-gray strips of spatiotemporal light acted like tentacles, stripping away the divine power shield the Emotion God King used to protect himself like peeling silk from a cocoon. His entire being was like a small boat tossing in a Category 12 tsunami, facing shipwreck and death at any moment. Once the Emotion God King's divine power was exhausted, his divine soul and body would be utterly annihilated within the Spatiotemporal Turbulence and the Samsara Hurricane.
Some people choose not to live, but no one is unafraid of death.
Gritting his teeth, he slapped his hand against his lower abdomen. Large swaths of silver halo radiated out, forcibly pulling the surrounding spatiotemporal light strips that were attacking him into his own body.
Why did the Emotion God King, or the Spirit Ice Douluo, earn the title of the strongest Limit Douluo in the history of the Douluo Continent?
Lan Xuanyu doesn't count—that guy is a pure cheater.
It was because of his Yin-Yang Complementary Triple Soul Core.
Since his era, thanks to the advancement of cultivation methods and the leap in plane energy, Soul Masters were generally able to condense a Soul Core at the Soul Saint stage using simple methods. When advancing to Limit Douluo, most used the method of "In-situ Resonance" to condense a third Soul Core.
But few Limit Douluos had a third Soul Core with a high-level attribute like Space.
The Emotion God King was out of options; this was his last resort.
He burned the mental power of his Spiritual Soul Core to forcibly control the surrounding spatiotemporal light strips and the winds of the Reincarnation Hurricane. He stopped resisting their erosion and instead forcibly sealed them into his body for suppression.
The Spatiotemporal Turbulence and the Reincarnation Hurricane did not betray their reputation as cosmic catastrophes. Under their influence, the entire world began to change.
People who had previously been disintegrated into nothing were resurrected, while the living died. The timeline was whipped into a chaotic mess at this moment.
It was unknown how much time had passed, but amidst the mutual reflection of black and white, the exhausted Emotion God King finally saw a sliver of color before his consciousness completely faded.
...
After an unknown amount of time, the Emotion God King felt a familiar softness and elasticity behind his head, accompanied by a cool, pleasant fragrance. He struggled to move his eyelids, which felt as heavy as a thousand pounds, and his blurred vision gradually cleared.
What met his eyes was the Snow Emperor's cool and moving face, wearing a concerned smile with traces of tears.
Held tightly by the Snow Emperor, he heard her sobbing in his ear, "You're finally awake... you scared us to death."
He was lying on the Snow Emperor's lap. Although his wife's lap pillow was comfortable, every part of his body ached, and his Sea of Divine Consciousness was nearly dry.
His cultivation...
After inspecting his internal body, the Emotion God King smiled bitterly repeatedly. He had dropped from a Half-step Supreme God King to a Second-rank God.
Regardless, he had survived.
With the Snow Emperor's help, the Emotion God King finally propped himself up and said with a wry smile, "It's a miracle to be alive... by the way, where is this? Why does it look familiar?"
The other several Soul Spirits also gathered around. They looked at each other, not knowing how to speak.
"Forget it, I'll say it first," the Ice Emperor spoke up, her voice excited. "Yuhao, we've investigated from many angles for a long time. We can confirm that this is the Douluo Continent, and the timeline is your era!"
"What?!"
Then the Emotion God King scanned his surroundings.
It was a very familiar place—a small hill not far from the Duke's Mansion. It was the place where he often ran to secretly shed tears when he felt wronged as a child, and the place where he eventually buried his mother. Skydream excitedly grabbed the Emotion God King's shoulders. "That means we can start everything over here!"
The tragedy of Huo Yuhao's life was all because of that Tang San!
Now he could recultivate with the status of a God King, regain his Divine Position in the shortest time possible, and drag that high-and-mighty guy who controlled everything down!
"...Forget it."
After a long time, the Emotion God King retracted his gaze from the Duke's Mansion. He hadn't expected there to be another "him" at this point in time.
In that case... was there still a need for him to recultivate?
He gave a long sigh, his voice full of melancholy and the weight of ages.
"Youthful spirit is a non-renewable resource. I am already old. Rather than retracing the path I've already walked, I would rather guide my younger self to blaze a brand-new trail."
Li Ya instinctively asked, "Then what about you?"
The Emotion God King pursed his lips, his face turning grim. "As for me? Naturally, I'm going to cause some trouble for my dear father-in-law, to repay the 'care' he showed me for all those years."
He had controlled the Great God Circle for many years and had maxed out his political struggle skills long ago. If not now, when?
Although his cultivation had dropped from Half-step Supreme God King to Second-rank God, the Emotion God King was confident. With his Ultra-Divine Artifact and his trump cards, dealing with the Tang San of this timeline would be no problem.
Admittedly, letting the current Emotion God King return to childhood and relive his history would be very simple. He would be rational enough to stay away from the Tang family, make the right choices, achieve God King status faster, and kill that grandson Tang San.
But... that wasn't what he wanted. He didn't have the face to see those partners... or to see Qiu'er.
Back then, he actually believed Tang San's nonsense—that Qiu'er was just a manifestation of a part of Tang Wutong's Divine Consciousness... he hadn't even tried to resurrect Qiu'er.
He could have brought them all into the God Realm, but he was blinded by lust and forgot his companions entirely, allowing them to turn into handfuls of yellow soil in the lower realm.
Instinctively, the Emotion God King's hand clenched, making the piercing sound of bones shifting, as he constantly questioned himself.
Is killing Tang San enough? Will everything be fine then?
No! Most importantly, none of this was supposed to be like this. The Spirit Transmission Pagoda deviated from his original intention and became the culprit behind the destruction of Soul Beasts. The Illustrious Virtue Hall, which represented the advanced productivity and technology of Soul Masters, was destroyed by his hand and replaced by the Tang Sect, a weapons monopoly. The Douluo Continent should have been unified long ago, but he obstructed it, causing ten thousand years of continuous conflict and suffering for the people... Tens of millions of people on the Douluo Continent shouldn't have paid with their lives for Tang San's idiotic Ten-Thousand-Year Plan! The two God Kings, Destruction and Life, shouldn't have become nutrients for the Tang family!
He was a native-born Son of the Plane! He enjoyed the privileges of a Son of the Plane, yet he never fulfilled the duties he owed.
It wasn't supposed to be like this!
Wearing a mask, the previously silent Evil Emperor spoke, "If that's what you're thinking, then there are two individuals named Huo Yuhao in this era. Don't you need to change your name?"
The Emotion God King blinked. Yes, he should change his name.
Though they were both Huo Yuhao, his current self could no longer go by that name. You could say Tang San was evil, but the guy wasn't stupid. If he continued to use that name, problems would surely be spotted.
After a moment of pondering, the Emotion God King spoke: "A thousand miles of the Forgotten River, a hundred miles of crossing... I shall be called Baili Du from now on."
He couldn't be called Huo Yuhao, much less Dai Yuhao or Tang Wu. After thinking it over, he gave himself this name.
Having made up his mind, Baili Du began his planning.
First, he would strengthen the "him" of this period—Huo Yuhao—giving him enough ability to deal with Tang San.
Suddenly remembering something, he quickly pulled out the Necromantic Heavenly Calamity Magic Staff.
Tang Xuanyu's soul was actually in there too!
Seeing Tang Xuanyu's soul, a extremely sinister idea sprouted in Baili Du's mind.
Few people knew the truth of the Dragon God War back then because the reason was so abstract that even the second-generation Dragon God, Tang Xuanyu, was unwilling to tell others.
Pardon me, but Baili Du knew.
His Ultra-Divine Artifact, the Eternal Eye, had little frontal combat power, but it possessed a very special ability: to see through all illusions and even look directly into the Sea of Consciousness. Of course, this required his own Divine Consciousness to exceed the opponent's or for the opponent to be in a poor state, and the ability consumed an immense amount of Divine Consciousness, so he wouldn't use it easily.
In other words, at that time, Baili Du was able to see what happened during Lan Xuanyu's trial!
To see more clearly, he had volunteered to go forward and fight Lan Xuanyu.
Did they really think he was always content being the Tang family's livestock, rushing to fight the testing Lan Xuanyu just to show loyalty to the Tang family?
But the level of stupidity of the Dragon God far exceeded Baili Du's expectations.
Though he said nothing at the time, he truly felt that whether it was Di Tian, Gu Yuena, or even Skydream and the Snow Emperor, they had truly become clowns...
I'd like to see if you, without the Dragon God bloodline, can still be as arrogant as you were before!
With a wave of the Necromantic Heavenly Calamity Magic Staff, he released the fragments of Lan Xuanyu's divine soul.
He was a former Supreme God King after all; even with only a sliver of soul left, it was slowly repairing itself.
However, the Douluo Continent of this era, after ten thousand years of blood-sucking by the vampires Tang Hao and Ah Yin, naturally lacked the energy to produce another Supreme God King.
So, Baili Du gave him a hand...
"Let's go! We're going to the Dragon Valley to have a good talk with that real Supreme God King!"
The seven Soul Spirits entered his body one by one. Then Baili Du expanded his Divine Consciousness, identified the location of the Dragon Valley, tore through space, and departed...
In the blink of an eye, he arrived at this burial ground of the Dragon Clan.
Baili Du ignored the massive dragon bones strewn everywhere, walking as if no one were around.
He was no moral paragon who would spend a thousand days burying dragons like Tang Wulin. As for why they died here, go ask that Dragon God.
Passing by two sets of dragon bones, he stopped his pace.
"Skull and torso bones of a First-rank God level Dragon of Dawn and Dead Black Dragon..."
He tapped his chin, wondering if he should also swap out his Soul Bones.
Touching his forehead, his previous hesitation vanished. He stepped forward and took the skull from the Dragon of Dawn and the torso bone produced by the Dead Black Dragon.
He remembered that the shark's attribute eventually evolved into the "Ice Devour" attribute, a rare mutated attribute capable of rivaling the Dragon God's elemental control.
To deal with Tang San, he would likely find it useful.
Continuing deep into the Dragon Valley, he finally saw his target—a massive dragon skeleton tens of thousands of meters long.
As expected of the original Dragon God, whether in terms of divine power or Divine Consciousness cultivation, he was the undisputed ceiling. Even after being split into the Gold Dragon King and Silver Dragon King, a wisp of divine soul remained... Plus, he could mobilize the power of the entire Dragon Valley plane. He feared his current self might truly have no way to deal with this remnant soul.
This was the true Dragon God, the once-strongest Supreme God King.
Even though he had been dead for countless years, his aura remained as imposing as a mountain, and his Divine Consciousness was incredibly condensed. It was nothing that Lan Xuanyu, that second-generation hybrid-grass Dragon God mixed with Blue Silver Saint blood, could compare to.
During the previous Tang family gathering, Tang Xuanyu had pretended to be humble, saying, "My strength is already extremely close to the peak of the Dragon God back then."
Looking at it now, he was just bragging. Catching up to the Dragon God... try practicing for another few tens of thousands of years.
"Let's make a deal, Lord Dragon God."
Baili Du spoke straightforwardly, "I will send you to reincarnate to find your wife and child, or I will call the reincarnated souls of your wife and child here. You just give me some of your dragon marrow and essence blood."
"..."
After a silence, a low and magnetic middle-aged male voice spoke.
"How can I trust you, counterpart from a different spacetime?"
Baili Du shrugged. With a wave of his hand, the Ultra-Divine Artifact Necromantic Heavenly Calamity Magic Staff appeared in his hand. Accompanied by the injection of divine power, a hazy gray halo began to spread outward.
Instantly, the dragon souls throughout the Dragon Valley began to hum abnormally.
Even Hebei (Heppen), the wife of the God of Heavenly Calamity who had been dead for hundreds of thousands of years, could be retrieved by him, let alone the reincarnation of the Dragon God's wife.
It was just a question of whether this person could still be considered his wife—much like Tang San searching for Xiao Wu's reincarnation on Falan Planet.
Another silence followed, and then a glob of nine-colored blood and paste-like crystals was levitated and delivered to Baili Du.
"Excellent! A pleasure doing business!"
Baili Du beckoned with his hand, and two souls that had been drifting for hundreds of thousands of years appeared on either side of the Dragon God's body.
It was fortunate that he possessed the Necromantic Holy Magic God Martial Soul bestowed by his mentor Electrolux, which controlled life, death, yin, and yang; otherwise, he wouldn't have survived the Reincarnation Hurricane where the rules of life and death were inverted.
It could be considered a blessing in disguise, as his comprehension of the two great rules of "Life" and "Death" was now greater than ever before.
As for whether these two could still be considered the Dragon God's former wife and child, he would leave that for the Dragon God to judge.
If stuffing the memories of their time together into that person's soul counts as her being the reincarnation of one's lover, that is truly a bit of a "hellish joke."
As for whether the Dragon God truly loved his wife as much as he claimed, Baili Du expressed doubt. Bai Xiuxiu, that shark, could be fed until she became a God King just by following Tang Xuanyu; could the original Dragon God, who was stronger than Tang Xuanyu, not feed his fellow dragon wife into a God King?
Even if a God King wasn't possible, she could have been a First-rank God. Even if her Life Force was drained, could a grand Supreme God King not even preserve a single soul?
But Baili Du didn't care about the Dragon God's relationship problems and had no interest in them. He needed to go back and prepare. Tang San, this time we are both chess players. Let's see who laughs last...