"Xiaoxue... you must live well," she said, her hand trembling slightly as it gently stroked her cheek, before ultimately falling limp.
It seemed as though Heaven itself was playing a cruel joke on her. Her entire life had been shrouded in darkness, and it wasn't until the moment of her mother's death that she learned the truth. Yet, by then, it was already too late to undo the damage.
Her divine position was shattered, and her mother died at the hands of that sword. The city walls collapsed, smoke filled the air, and the legions of two great empires stormed into the Spirit Hall, looting at will. She witnessed the thousand-year legacy of the Spirit Hall destroyed in an instant.
Powerless and filled with regret, the pain in her heart was beyond description.
After burying her mother and the fallen predecessors of the war, she hid in the shadows, silently watching as her enemies celebrated their victory. The most heartbreaking thing wasn't seeing them dance on the ruins of the Spirit Hall and celebrate their triumph. No, it was—
In a village, a child timidly asked, "Grandpa, are the bad guys gone?"
The village elder comforted the child, "Don't worry, little one. The evil people from the Spirit Hall who tried to invade Tiandou will never come again."
"They've been defeated by Lord Sea God."
Grandpa, are these the people I vowed to protect?
Her mother was a criminal of the Spirit Hall; she led the Spirit Hall into ruin and made it a target for all. She tried to save the Spirit Hall, using her methods to control the continent, but she failed to spread the glory of the Angel God across the land. In the end, the Sea God, Tang San, became the faith of the continent.
Their era ended, and the tale of the Shrek Seven Devils became a legend. People marveled at the beauty of the Sea God Era, watching as they ascended, unaware that the demons had already been unleashed.
The old order had collapsed, yet the new order had not been established. The Sea God had ruled with his might during his era, but after he ascended, shadows quietly brewed in unseen corners.
The era of Spirit Hall was over, but the awakening of martial spirits continued. Policies varied by region, and lords only cared about the awakening of their own people, with each territory having its own system. Some areas even ignored the awakening process altogether, leaving many common people without the chance to awaken their martial spirits, stifling countless potential talents. Even where some commoners could awaken, their talents were often nothing more than cannon fodder in the hands of the nobility.
To those commoner soul masters who once opposed Spirit Hall, declaring they wanted to be free—are you truly free now?
Without the existence of Spirit Hall, the Sea God's truce ended. Once the Sea God ascended, wars between nations once again shadowed the world. Yet, even after thousands of years, the two great forces—Tiandou and Xingluo—maintained a strange balance, unable to overpower each other.
She witnessed Tang Sect sell hidden weapons, Shrek Academy producing talent, and the forces left by Tang San, such as the Haotian Clan, all above the world, secretly balancing the situation of the continent. For thousands of years, the situation remained a standoff between Tiandou and Xingluo until the Tiandou Empire split into two, and the three nations waged endless wars.
As for her—her life had long been extinguished. The broken divine seed merged with her soul, preventing her from entering reincarnation, leaving her to drift helplessly through the river of time. She witnessed everything that happened in the future.
She witnessed the first Evil Soul Master rebellion. They emerged from the shadows, and wherever they went, they brought destruction, leaving countless families broken. Evil Soul Masters cultivated by using blood and souls, and every powerful Evil Soul Master had a mountain of corpses behind them.
At this moment, people began to yearn for the arrival of angels.
Yes, her kind had a natural restraint against Evil Soul Masters. Once an ordinary Angel Soul Master reached the rank of Title Douluo, it was a disaster for Evil Soul Masters. A single Angel Title Soul Master could easily kill a Limit Evil Soul Master with their restraining power.
In the era of Spirit Hall, every Pope was an Angel, and there were even Angel Gods at their peak. Evil Soul Masters could never pose a real threat.
But after the war's defeat, her clan had long disappeared from the world. Occasionally, Angel Soul Masters appeared on the continent, but they were always hunted down and killed by the Evil Soul Masters. The Evil Soul Masters were cunning; they would never allow an Angel Soul Master to reach the rank of Title Douluo.
But the threat of Evil Soul Masters persisted. Shrek Academy, like a savior, intervened. They used the light of the Sea God to suppress the Evil Soul Masters. The survivors bathed in the Sea God's light, deeply grateful for the Sea God's salvation.
However, the Evil Soul Masters came like waves, one after another, continuously for tens of thousands of years.
Six thousand years later, she witnessed another continent drifting from across the sea. They came with ambitions similar to hers, launching wars and attempting to conquer this land. They established an advantage with soul tools, but their path to unification was thwarted by Shrek Academy's powerful influence. However, their soul tools weakened Tang Sect, which had been founded by the Sea God.
In four thousand years, the weakened Tang Sect was revived by a genius who emerged, similar to Tang San, reaching an entirely new peak.
In this era, the Sun-Moon Empire launched a war of unification, but just as they were about to succeed, they were stopped by Tang San, who had long since become a god. That young genius eventually achieved godhood, but he was nothing more than Tang San's puppet.
Several thousand years later, the continent was finally unified, but cracks in space appeared, and beings from alternate dimensions began to invade the world. Countless heroic deeds emerged in this era. They stood at the front lines of the dimensional rifts, preventing the invasion of interdimensional creatures.
What moving and tragic stories, but for some reason, they sent a shiver through her soul, for she knew more than these long-dead heroes.
She knew that Tang San's father had become the Lord of the Dimension, and his mother had seized the core of life. They had the power to stop the invasion, but they simply watched coldly as the calamity of the world unfolded.
Her consciousness began to wear away in the river of time, soon to dissipate.
She thought of that scene from twenty thousand years ago—the moment by the village gate—
"Grandpa, are the bad guys gone?"
"Don't worry, child. The evil ones from the Spirit Hall who tried to invade Tiandou will never come again."
The lambs and the wolves teamed up to drive away the fierce tiger. How ironic.
Finally, she felt her soul reaching its end, her consciousness crumbling...
"Mother, I'm coming to find you."
...
Qian Renxue slowly opened her eyes, bewildered as she scanned her surroundings. She found herself in a grand hall, with the air thick with an ethereal, immortal energy.
She didn't feel the drifting sensation of a soul after death; instead, she felt her body once more.
Instinctively, Qian Renxue summoned her martial soul.
The Fallen Angel.
Six black and three red—her configuration from before. The side effects of her broken divinity were gone, but the divine position had also been stripped from her. She was now a 99th-level Limit Douluo, with quasi-god strength.
"Welcome back, Qian Renxue."