Volume 30, Chapter 373.3: All Sides Making Their Moves

Once a soul beast broke through its bottleneck and reached a two hundred-thousand year cultivation level, its power could rival that of a Transcendent Douluo.

Every one hundred thousand years after that would be a matter of life and death to the soul beast. Undoubtedly, every time the soul beast overcame such a deadly test, its power would increase exponentially.

It was like when Huo Yuhao first met the Ice Empress. The terrifying power of the Ice Empress was enough to fight a Rank 97 Titled Douluo. In the extreme north, even someone as powerful as Elder Xuan might not have been able to defeat her. Among the Ten Great Savage Beasts, however, the Ice Empress was only ranked seventh.

As for the Snow Empress, the reason why she started to regress and almost self-destructed inside Huo Yuhao was because her own power was way too strong.

After a soul beast broke through the five hundred-thousand year barrier, it would be as powerful as an Ultimate Douluo. In other words, the Snow Empress was as powerful as the Dragon Emperor Douluo, Long Xiaoyao. If he met her in the Extreme North, Long Xiaoyao would not dare to fight her head-on.

In the world of soul beasts, including the Snow Empress, five of the Ten Great Savage Beasts were as powerful as Ultimate Douluo. They all held powerful positions. Naturally, they were the top five of the Ten Great Savage Beasts.

At this moment, in the core region of the Great Star Dou Forest, the Slaughtering Grounds, lived the first, fourth, fifth, sixth, and eighth of the Ten Great Savage Beasts. They ruled over all the other soul beasts.

To live in the Slaughtering Grounds, one had to have a cultivation of at least one hundred thousand years. Hence, this was the top place for Transcendent Douluo to seek adventures.

Once one reached the level of a Transcendent Douluo, he would not need soul rings anymore. However, it was important to remember that the killing of a hundred-thousand year old soul beast would not only spawn a hundred thousand year soul ring, but more importantly, it would produce a soul bone… a hundred-thousand year soul bone which carried two soul skills!

For soul masters, gold and riches were nothing. However, how many people could possess all six soul bones? Once a Transcendent Douluo had a hundred-thousand year soul beast’s soul bone, his power would experience a qualitative leap.

Hence, many Transcendent Douluo visited the Slaughtering Grounds. Some of them even killed a few hundred-thousand year soul beasts.

In the end, this enraged the leaders of the soul beasts in the Great Star Dou Forest. They launched an unprecedentedly terrifying beast wave, targeting Shrek City. It terrified all soul masters.

Even though Shrek City was able to halt the invading beast wave with the help of the many disciples from Shrek Academy, as well as the Body Sect, the humans eventually compromised.

Shrek Academy led a total of 27 Titled Douluo in promising, on behalf of all humans, that as long as a hundred-thousand year soul beast did not leave the Slaughtering Grounds, the humans would not enter it. Only then did the leaders of the soul beasts calm down and end their destructive beast wave, and the devastation it brought in its wake.

From that moment on, the Slaughtering Grounds in the Great Star Dou Forest became a forbidden zone for humans. Not a single human could be found there.

The beasts with more than a hundred-thousand year cultivation all fell into a deep slumber. They gathered their energy and prepared to break through their next calamity.

Under this backdrop, in the spiritual aura-filled Slaughter Grounds, sat a woman. How could this scene not be shocking? Could it mean that the promise between humans and beasts was broken?

Suddenly, the woman’s body started to tremble slightly. Following that, a strange scene appeared. A golden light shone in the center of her forehead. This golden light extended into a ray of light about one inch long. The golden ray then split into two, and turned into a golden eye, which looked up into the endless night sky.

When the eye shone, everything around it seemed to lose its color. The chirping of birds and insects suddenly stopped. It was as if the eye was the only thing that was alive, and was judging everything before it.

The eye looked into the distance, and gradually started to ripple clearly, a wave of gentle golden light starting to spread from the girl’s body.

Light flashed, and the girl started to move. She stood up, and the moment she did, her slim, slender body became even more alluring.

The golden eye on her forehead now closed, but her powdery-blue eyes, obscured slightly by her long lashes, opened instantly.

Her eyes seemed glazed as she mumbled to herself, “Why? Why can’t I forget him? I control the power of destiny, but I can’t control my own? What irony is this? His destiny, why will he…?”

At this moment, the dazed look in her eyes turned into panic. Her entire mental state appeared different as she emitted a completely different aura!

She started to pace up and down, and the aura from her body became increasingly unstable. Her petite face was panicky, then angry, then resolute, and then it softened. The constant changes in her facial expression reflected the turmoil in her heart.

Finally, she grit her teeth and looked at the thick canopy above her head. She took in a deep breath and said, “I’ll go, I must go! I can’t be clouded by destiny. I want to help him change his destiny, and mine too. I… I want to fight for this one chance!”

She stopped mumbling to herself. Suddenly, she jumped and pierced through the thick foliage like a golden cannon shell. She flew into the air, leaving only a lingering fragrance in the forest.

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Sunrise City...

With the continual development of soul tools, more and more lower-level soul tools started to enter the daily lives of the common folk of the Sun Moon Empire. Perhaps the Sun Moon Empire’s higher-level soul engineers could not rival the soul masters from the original three countries of the Douluo Continent, but it had more low-level soul masters. This was a result of their advances in soul engineering.

On the Douluo Continent, everyone could Awaken their martial soul at the age of six. Regardless of what their martial soul was, they could all cultivate.

However, those who could truly make a name for themselves in the soul master world could not just rely on cultivation.

For many of them, even after they had awakened their martial soul, their soul power would only be between Rank 1 and Rank 3. This was a huge limitation on their future cultivation, which was not just limited to the first ten ranks. If they were not innately talented, they would get very little in return for their effort.

In particular, if their martial soul had no practical use, such as those which were hoes, cups, or plates, there was no need for them to continue cultivating.

Because of this, many of those who were not gifted in this aspect had no way of continuing their cultivation. Their lack of innate talent prevented them from receiving an education from an excellent academy, and often they could not afford the exorbitant fees of a soul master school. Very few were like Huo Yuhao, who was able to use make up for his lack of innate talent with hard work.

However, the situation over in the Sun Moon Empire was different. A few hundred years ago, with the development of soul engineering, this situation was greatly ameliorated. In the Sun Moon Empire, the Awakening of one’s martial soul would also mean that as long as one had soul power, he or she would qualify for free training subsidized by the empire. They would even be given medicines that could increase their soul power. While these medicines might have side-effects, it was glorious to become a soul master! Being a soul master meant that one was superior to his peers! Who would give up such a chance?

So what if your martial soul was useless? As long as you had soul power, you could use soul tools. With soul tools, it would not be hard to attack or defend yourself!

Perhaps it was a result of the medicines, but soul masters without innate talent could possess only two or three rings at most. However, as the numbers of this group of people grew, the overall situation changed.

Their existence was a strong foundation upon which the Sun Moon Empire built its soul engineer legions. At the same time, they allowed for more civilian soul tools to be used by the ordinary citizens of the Sun Moon Empire.

How was the Sun Moon Empire able to resist the three empires of the Douluo Continent? This was one of the major reasons!

Undoubtedly, in terms of soul engineering technology and the nurturing of soul engineers, the Sun Moon Empire had a very large lead.

Sunrise City was only a small-to-medium sized city in the Sun Moon Empire. It was not as huge as Radiant City, and in total, it had fewer than a hundred thousand permanent residents. Counting its non-permanent residents, it had about half a million inhabitants at any given time.

However, in the past few months, the city had undergone a complete change. Its fifteen-meter-tall city walls were now filled with a huge amount of searchlights and various surveillance tools. Outside Sunrise City were two soul engineering legions, each of which had five hundred men.

In the Sun Moon Empire, soul engineer legions were ranked differently. The most powerful one was the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Legion, which was the most powerful force in the empire. One’s soul power had to be at least Rank 50 to join it. In other words, only Soul Kings were qualified to enter it. In total, it had three hundred men. Among them were three legion commanders and three legion vice-commanders, all of whom were Class 9 soul engineers who were loyal only to the imperial family.

Only the Emperor of the Sun Moon Empire could use this powerful soul engineering legion. They were equipped with the top soul tools, and they received the best treatment among all the soldiers in the Sun Moon Empire. The upkeep for this one legion was equivalent to the tax revenue of two big cities.

This was the force which guarded Radiant City, and they were the most loyal and important fighting force of the emperor. Together with the Imperial Palace of Consecration, they were the two pillars of the monarchy.