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"The entanglement of fate between the Abyss and me is vague and uncertain—it seems to be in an indeterminate state."
Through his perception of the power of destiny, Su Yu could sense a mysterious feeling from the void—at times intense, at others faint, and sometimes disappearing altogether.
Su Yu speculated that this was due to the uncertainty surrounding whether he would eventually devour the Abyss in return, whether the Abyss would truly collide with Douluo Continent, or whether a dimensional passage between them would ever come into existence.
"For now, it can be preliminarily determined that the region where Douluo Continent is closest to the Abyss is right here."
Su Yu marked a rough area within the core region of the Extreme North.
Half a month passed. While Su Yu delineated the area, Huo Yuhao also finished consolidating his current cultivation level.
"Let's go. Since we plan to promote the soul spirit system, it naturally can't be limited to just the Sun Moon Empire or the Extreme North—it must spread to the Great Star Dou Forest as well," Su Yu said.
"Snow Empress, we'll need your help again to communicate with Di Tian this time."
"No problem." Snow Empress nodded, showing she had no objections.
The promotion of the soul spirit cultivation system carried extraordinary significance for soul beasts.
By spreading it and drawing more powerful soul beasts into alignment with the cause, integrating them with human soul master society, and forming a new supply-demand ecosystem, she had no resistance to the idea.
Moreover, Su Yu had explained the existence of faith power to her many times.
Snow Empress possessed an immense amount of faith, accumulated over countless years. Even though she had never sensed or controlled this power, the sheer volume of faith had undoubtedly played a major role in her growth.
The remaining faith power within her definitely still existed.
Su Yu also tried to help Snow Empress sense this power of faith. His purpose in emphasizing its importance was the same—to have Snow Empress gather faith and prepare to become a god in the future.
Whether the Ice God's divine position still existed remained unclear, but it was certainly incomplete or unable to be properly inherited.
At this point, faith power had become the key to helping Snow Empress complete the divine inheritance.
"Hmm?"
Before the three of them could set out, Su Yu suddenly sensed something different.
The "Calamity" rune suddenly became unprecedentedly calm.
"This is…" Su Yu immediately used his power of destiny to divine the situation and, through a mix of deduction and intuition, arrived at the answer.
"The connection between the Divine Realm and Douluo Continent has weakened."
No, it couldn't exactly be called weakened.
At this point, it would be more accurate to say it had returned to a truly normal state.
While the Divine Realm and its subordinate worlds were closely connected, the Divine Realm generally did not interfere with the operation of those worlds. At most, gods would descend trials when passing on divine positions.
Strictly speaking, whether it was the original Sea God, the Asura God, or even the current Sea God, all of them were in violation.
Their actions had severely interfered with the workings of Douluo Continent, and this interference had gradually led to the continent's decline.
Ten thousand years ago, Douluo Continent could withstand the full-force clash of three primary gods. Even the shattering of divine positions couldn't bring about its destruction.
However, the present Douluo Continent had significantly weakened in terms of spatial integrity and other aspects.
Su Yu was certain that if two primary gods were to fully battle on Douluo Continent now, they could cause irreversible damage to it.
The interference of gods had already weakened the plane's will and its control over itself.
Especially the Sea God—after becoming a god, he had remained on Douluo Continent for a full ten years, laying plans during that decade. Later, as he assumed central management of the Divine Realm, his surveillance and adjustment of Douluo Continent never ceased.
This had caused the plane's will to lose its grip almost completely.
"Now, it seems the God of Destruction and the Sea God have had a dispute. Whether the Sea God's authority over the Divine Realm's central control has been revoked is uncertain, but at the very least, he can no longer use it to influence Douluo Continent in the short term."
As Su Yu pondered, a voice suddenly echoed in his mind—it was the voice of the God of Destruction.
"Release the Shrek group and demand enlightenment slots from the Golden Ancient Tree."
At the same time, the fifth trial from the Goddess of Life was finally issued.
"Fifth Trial: Meditate beneath the Golden Ancient Tree, commune with the will of the plane. Reward: A portion of the Tree of Life's source power."
As the God of Destruction's reminder came, the Goddess of Life's trial followed soon after. Su Yu understood their intention.
"This isn't just a trial for me—it also seems to be a compromise reached after negotiations with that Sea God."
Su Yu believed that even if his goal was to gain enlightenment beneath the Golden Ancient Tree, he didn't necessarily need to release those Shrek geniuses. He could obtain the slots through direct negotiation.
With absolute strength, he could forcibly comprehend the mysteries—it wasn't impossible.
Ten level-nine soul cannon arrays outside Shrek City—would they still dare deny him entry?
However, the God of Destruction's request likely had to do with Wang Dong.
Tang San sending his daughter to the mortal world served both as part of his larger plans and, naturally, to secure opportunities for Tang Wutong.
Now that trouble had arisen on Huo Yuhao's side, though they still had a final trump card, the situation was no longer as stable as before. Tang Wutong could not afford to be delayed because of this.
Being imprisoned by Sun-Moon Hall meant all her soul power would be suppressed, even to the point of being unable to recover it. If this continued for half a year or more, not only would her soul power stagnate, but her internal meridians would suffer deterioration, and her cultivation level might drop.
And that's not even counting the resources Tang San could have arranged for her during that time.
The combined loss was no small matter.
Moreover, although the God of Destruction had conflicts with Tang San, he seemed to treat Tang Wutong quite well.
"Hmm, one hundred soul bones plus a year of cultivation inside Sea God's Pavilion. Maybe we can even arrange something for Yuhao?"
Su Yu felt this was a completely reasonable condition.
After all, the God of Destruction only said to release them. To Su Yu, that simply meant giving up his earlier stance of never letting them go.
As for how to release them—releasing them directly was obviously out of the question.
A trade.
"Hmm. Since I have to release them, then the previous two approaches are no longer suitable. If I can't use the battlefield to influence Shrek, then I'll use the trade itself as leverage to create division between Shrek and the other powers of the three Douluo nations."
Su Yu quickly formulated a new strategy.
Wait.
Wait until Shrek was on the verge of uniting with the Star Luo Empire's royal family and other major sects to pressure the Sun Moon Empire—then release Shrek's people.
As for the other factions' prodigies?
Not releasing them.
"Yu-ge, what's going on?" Huo Yuhao couldn't help but ask after watching Su Yu deep in thought for a long time.
"Nothing much. My fifth trial just came in."
"Let's go. We'll head to the Great Star Dou Forest first—then it's time for you to return to the Sun Moon Empire."
Xu Tiannan's summons for Huo Yuhao had been issued right after the conclusion of the Soul Dueling Tournament. However, Jing Hongchen had delayed his departure until now, citing Huo Yuhao's critical role in the development of the soul spirit cultivation system.
Half a month later.
Su Yu and his companions descended upon the Star Dou Forest.
They landed directly within the mixed zone of the forest, a region where most of the soul beasts had reached the ten-thousand-year level, and occasionally, even beasts over fifty-thousand years old could be encountered.
Of course, compared to the outer regions, the beast density here was noticeably lower.
However, for Su Yu and his companions, ten-thousand-year soul beasts posed no threat whatsoever.
All three possessed immense bloodline power that exerted an overwhelming pressure. No soul beast of that level dared approach them; in fact, even sensing their presence caused the surrounding beasts to retreat far away.
"We've arrived."
Deeper beyond the mixed zone lay the core zone of the Star Dou Forest—the territory of the hundred-thousand-year soul beasts.
At the very heart of the core zone was a place of great danger, the location of the Lake of Life, home to the forest's most fearsome soul beasts, including Di Tian and his followers, who cultivated there.
As the trio entered the mixed zone, Di Tian immediately sensed their arrival.
As they drew closer, Di Tian and the other fearsome beasts gathered at the Lake of Life to welcome them.
"This purity of ice elemental energy..."
The absolute chill emanating from that pure bloodline power led Di Tian and the others to a conclusion.
"Snow Empress."
"Di Tian."
As both sides met, Di Tian and Snow Empress greeted each other.
"You've taken human form!"
Di Tian's pupils contracted as he sensed Snow Empress's current condition.
"These two—are they human soul masters?" Di Tian turned his gaze toward Su Yu and Huo Yuhao, speaking with a trace of suspicion.
He was unsure why Snow Empress had brought two humans to see him.
In all the endless years past, the two sides had never had contact. Yet now, their first meeting occurred with Snow Empress arriving accompanied by humans.
Moreover, Snow Empress herself had taken on human form.
"Di Tian, these are two soul masters from the Sun Moon Empire—Su Yu and Huo Yuhao," Snow Empress introduced.
"Both are prodigies from Sun-Moon Hall."
Di Tian nodded. He was familiar with the existence of Sun-Moon Hall. "So, why did you bring two humans to see me?"
The tension between the Star Dou Forest and human soul masters centered around their conflict with the Three Nations of Douluo. Although the Sun Moon Empire didn't have deep-seated resentment with the forest, as the Beast God, Di Tian focused on the broader conflict between soul beasts and soul masters.
Regardless of their origin, humans were still humans—and Di Tian harbored dislike for them all the same.
"It's to ease the conflict between soul beasts and human soul masters," Snow Empress replied.
Di Tian's golden eyes narrowed, but he didn't sneer or mock her.
After all, it was Snow Empress who said this, not some reckless fool with no sense of their place.
Moreover, Di Tian had just received a telepathic message from the Master, which only deepened his curiosity about Snow Empress's proposed method of resolving the soul beast–human conflict.
"This is Su Yu. The solution I'm presenting today was developed by him—the soul spirit cultivation system."
"Soul spirits?" Di Tian's brows furrowed.
"The soul spirit cultivation system," Su Yu clarified.
"Soul spirits themselves are part of it, but this system refines and optimizes that foundation, creating an entirely new method for soul masters to cultivate."
Su Yu summoned his Blue Silver Emperor soul spirit.
"Hmm?"
Di Tian's gaze locked onto the Blue Silver Emperor, narrowing his eyes as he examined it closely.
"Soul spirit..."
Su Yu briefly explained the concept of soul spirits before proceeding to introduce the soul spirit cultivation system.
"Yuhao, release your second martial soul."
"Yes!"
Huo Yuhao's second martial soul manifested, and seven soul rings floated around him, one by one.
The overwhelming arrangement of soul rings made Di Tian's heart tremble.
Huo Yuhao... With so many hundred-thousand-year soul rings, and the orange soul ring glowing with golden lines—how many hundred-thousand-year soul beasts and ferocious beasts had he hunted?
Di Tian immediately felt an urge to take action against Huo Yuhao.
However, he managed to suppress this impulse.
"My first six soul rings were all granted by the three great soul spirits," Huo Yuhao seemed to sense Di Tian's hostility and released the three soul spirits to explain.
As expected, Di Tian's murderous intent withdrew.
It appeared that soul spirits involved some degree of voluntary participation from the soul beasts, which made Huo Yuhao's six soul rings, granted by three different soul spirits, more acceptable to Di Tian.
"As for my seventh soul ring, it was formed entirely by my own efforts, using the bloodline power of the Snow Empress."
Huo Yuhao spoke confidently.
Di Tian's gaze shifted to the seventh soul ring.
It had been self-condensed, without hunting soul beasts, nor did it require any similar sacrificial conditions as with the soul spirits!
At that moment, Di Tian began to understand what Snow Empress had initially meant about easing the conflict between human soul masters and soul beasts.
There was indeed hope for resolving this.
However, for soul beasts, the biggest dilemma wasn't just the conflict with human soul masters; it was the limitation that they couldn't become gods!
The real tension between the two groups wasn't merely a matter of supply and demand—it was rooted in their nature.
"Non-human creatures, their hearts will always differ."
Even without the relationship of hunter and prey, there would still be other conflicts between human soul masters and soul beasts.
What truly dictated the fate of soul beasts was their inability to ascend to godhood.
Still, if the conflict could be alleviated, it would undoubtedly benefit the soul beasts overall.
Before new conflicts arose, the situation for soul beasts could indeed improve substantially.
"So, you've come here because you want me to lead the soul beasts of the Star Dou Forest in helping you promote this soul spirit cultivation system?"
"Exactly. But we will begin by introducing the soul spirit cultivation system within Sun-Moon Hall, gradually expanding from there."
The reason for this approach was simple—the current cultivation methods weren't yet refined enough for any soul master to easily adopt.
The method still needed substantial real-world examples to support its simplification and further refinement.
"Your Sun Moon Empire and my Star Dou Forest don't share a direct border. Won't there be difficulties?"
"That's not something you need to worry about, Beast God."
Within half a year, the Sun Moon Empire is expected to conquer the Heaven Soul Empire, and at that point, proximity will no longer be an issue.
The conversation with Di Tian proceeded surprisingly smoothly.
Snow Empress played a huge role in this, and Su Yu's previous fate entanglement with the Sacred Beast had a significant influence as well.
Additionally, the Silver Dragon King's intervention might very well be the real reason Di Tian was being so cooperative.
Of course, Su Yu had no knowledge of this.
"Old Xuan, you've finally returned."
With the return of Xuan Ziyan, Yan Shaozhe, and Qian Duoduo, the elders left behind at the Sea God Pavilion could finally relax.
But why had only the three of them returned?
Where were the others?
Where were all the other talented individuals?
"Ah..." Xuan Ziyan sighed. Despite receiving great rewards from the Qiankun Wenqing Valley and being in the best condition of his life, his body immediately slumped as if burdened with a heavy weight.
Shrek had effectively been crippled in this competition.
Then there was Yan Shaozhe.
His background was truly a headache.
Looking at the despondent Xuan Ziyan, Yan Shaozhe and Qian Duoduo exchanged glances. Their confused expressions made the others—Lin Lao, Song Lao, and the others—grow anxious.
Quickly, tell us what happened!
(End of Chapter)