Word Count: 3,157 Words
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Time flowed onward. Winters gave way to summers, and three years slipped past in quiet succession.
The Angel Empire had burst into being. From the moment the two continents collided, thousands of years of conflict came to an end at last. Both continents now shared a single name, the Douluo Continent, and Heaven Dou City had been renamed Angel Holy City and established as the imperial capital.
The Angel Empress governed with diligence and resolve, devoting herself to building this magnificent empire. Every city, great or small, now possessed an Angelic Sanctuary.
The scale of each Angelic Sanctuary varied according to the city's rank. The Angel Empire was anchored by five great cities, namely Angel Holy City, Shrek City, Mingdu, Star Luo City, and Dou Spirit City. They were the former capitals of the four great empires, joined by Shrek, which stood at the crossroads of the three Douluo nations.
The Angelic Sanctuaries continuously recruited outstanding Spirit Masters from across the continent and served three primary purposes. The first was to help Spirit Masters obtain Heaven-Bestowed Spirit Rings. The second was to maintain peace within the cities, punishing evil and eradicating the wicked. The third was to erect a Seraphim statue before each main hall, helping the Empire's founder, Holy Evil Monarch and Holy Evil Douluo Ling Bai, gather the power of faith.
It was not only the Angelic Sanctuaries. Squares of every size bore Seraphim statues as well, and the Angel Empire ceaselessly encouraged its people to place their faith in Holy Evil Douluo.
Under the iron-blooded suppression of the Angelic Sanctuaries, no Evil Spirit Master dared poison the continent at will any longer. The few fish that had slipped through the net spent their days hiding in every shadow they could find, far too afraid to show themselves and stir up trouble.
The Evil Spirit Masters understood the Angel Empire's eternal principle with perfect clarity. Once evil, evil forever. Even if those rotten oranges knelt and begged the angels for mercy, the angels would never let them go.
Aside from its unmatched peak strength, the reason the Angel Empire had so swiftly taken control of both continents lay in the Heaven-Bestowed Spirit Ring, which had transformed the entire cultivation system for Spirit Masters.
The first generation of Heaven-Bestowed Spirit Rings had been derived from God-Bestowed Spirit Rings. The second generation incorporated spirit beast attributes. Now, after three years, the Heaven-Bestowed Spirit Ring had reached an entirely new breakthrough.
According to legend, an old man had walked out of Holy Evil Douluo's Spiritual Sea. He called himself Electrolux, the Necromancer Sacred Law God, and he had succeeded in extracting spirit beast genes from their fur, scales, and hides.
The Empire erupted in sensation. Heaven-Bestowed Spirit Rings no longer required a spirit beast at all. Spirit power combined with spirit beast genes was enough.
Humans no longer needed to risk their lives venturing into the spirit beast forests, nor spend a fortune securing a spirit ring suitable for their Martial Spirit. Spirit beasts no longer suffered senseless slaughter, and their casualties decreased dramatically.
The Star Dou Forest rejoiced. To spirit beasts, it made no difference whether humans created Spirit Souls or Heaven-Bestowed Spirit Rings. Those were merely different forms. What truly mattered was that the fundamental logic forcing Spirit Masters to hunt spirit beasts for spirit rings had finally been overturned.
Humans could now obtain spirit rings without harm, and the overall strength of human Spirit Masters would swell by leaps and bounds. Spirit Guidance Technology advanced at terrifying speed in parallel. Sooner or later, humanity would surpass spirit beasts entirely and devour their spirit bones and flesh.
As a human himself, Holy Evil Douluo understood humanity's irrepressible ambition. He proposed a migration plan to the Star Dou Forest, the Extreme North, the Ice Sea, and every other gathering place of spirit beasts. He would find them a pristine planet with a beautiful environment and allow the spirit beast clans to govern themselves.
The lord of the spirit beasts gladly agreed. Then, before a single detail had been settled, they began arguing over territory.
Relying on the Dragon God's half-body, the Silver Dragon King, as well as the Emperor Destiny Beast and the seven Great Beasts, the Star Dou Forest strongly demanded the vast majority of the landmass.
The Extreme North scoffed. A certain Ice Jade Scorpion Empress charged straight into the Star Dou Forest to argue with Beast God Di Tian.
The Extreme North Empress had accompanied Holy Evil Douluo the longest. Her spirit ring and spirit bones had become part of his body. The Extreme North had been the first vassal to follow the dragon and deserved to stand above Star Dou by right!
The spirit beast kings of the deserts, grasslands, and mountain ranges rubbed their hands awkwardly, standing to one side with bitter faces as they waited for scraps. Star Dou had the bigger fist, and the Extreme North had the deeper affection. The meat would naturally belong to those two great factions. Spirit beasts like themselves, who had earned neither merit nor reproach, could only settle obediently for the soup.
Sea Princess had already conquered more than twenty sea regions. The two mermaid princesses had returned to the ocean, and the trio of mother and daughters led their sea spirit beast subordinates in lying flat without a care. Let the land beasts fight however they pleased. In any case, none of them could snatch away the sea.
While the spirit beast world spent its days quarreling without end, the human world remained a picture of peace.
The four great empires had been unified. Spirit Guidance Technology spread throughout the Angel Empire, bringing immense convenience to the people's daily lives. Under the influence of the Angel Empire's policies, the old Douluo Continent had cast aside its rejection of the Sun Moon Empire entirely and opened its arms to the future.
Over these three years, the Angel Empress devoted herself to carrying out the faith enshrined in Angel Empire law, resolving the deep-rooted conflicts between the Sun Moon Continent and the Douluo Continent and dissolving the racial hatred accumulated over a thousand years.
The Hongchen family, the foremost clan of the former Sun Moon Empire, was the first to step onto the public stage. Jing Hongchen, Dean of the Imperial Technology Academy, delivered a deeply moving speech before the people.
The gist of his words was that over the past four thousand years, although the two continents had seen occasional friction, they had also gradually absorbed one another's strengths. Many people of Sun Moon blood had migrated to Douluo, and many of Douluo blood had migrated to Sun Moon. They had long since become inseparable parts of one another.
The former Sun Moon Emperor, Xu Tianran, had been tyrannical and inhumane, bloodthirsty and cruel. Heaven, earth, ghosts, and gods had all forsaken him, and the Angel Empire had merely acted in Heaven's stead. The Angel lineage replacing the Xu family accorded with Heaven's will above and the people's hearts below. The Sun Moon Empire ought to release its hatred and accept the Angel Empire's rule.
The Angel Empire's officials gave Jing Hongchen a thumbs up. Spirit screens replayed the Hongchen Hall Master's impassioned cries on a daily loop, while the Empire used both firm and gentle methods to win over Sun Moon hearts.
The Angel Empire also introduced a series of policies, granting substantial rewards to citizens of the former Sun Moon Empire and the original Douluo Continent who chose to intermarry. To promote integration between the two sides, the Angel Empire's foremost figure, Holy Evil Douluo, led by personal example. He appeared hand in hand with the Hongchen Hall Master's granddaughter, Red Eyed Douluo Meng Hongchen, at the Imperial Technology Academy's renaming ceremony.
Three years earlier, when Meng Hongchen had assumed her post as Sanctuary Master of the Mingdu Angelic Sanctuary, Holy Evil Douluo had personally gifted her a 100,000-year ice-attribute sea spirit beast and given her elder brother, Xiao Hongchen, a 100,000-year spirit bone.
The gesture carried enormous political weight. It dissolved the Sun Moon Continent's resistance toward the Douluo Continent to the greatest possible extent, and the Sun Moon people grew far more willing to place their faith in the Seraphim. The price paid was merely Holy Evil Douluo accepting Red Eyed Douluo into his life.
All four sides were satisfied with this marriage-like union. The Sun Moon Empire saw the Angel Empire's sincerity. The Angel Empire won over a vast ocean of public support. Holy Evil Douluo gained Sun Moon's faith and a beautiful young lady. The Hongchen family smiled so widely they could not close their mouths, their direct bloodline now bound to the foremost figure in the world.
The Angel Empire developed steadily, though several earth-shaking events still punctuated those years. Chief among them was Holy Evil Douluo's grand wedding.
Holy Evil Douluo Ling Bai took Glazed Douluo Ning Tian as his wife. The union between the Angel Empire's Holy Evil Monarch and the new-generation Master of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan was a perfect match in standing, a powerful alliance celebrated across the world.
The ceremony was held in Nine Treasure City. Experts from across the Douluo Continent clamored to attend, nearly trampling the gates in their eagerness, yet in the end only a small number of prominent figures received invitations.
Everyone else, like the common people, witnessed the wedding of the century through spirit screens scattered across the world. Necromancer Sacred Law God Electrolux served as the officiating witness, while Jianmu Douluo Zhou Jiren and Angel State Preceptor Ning Fengya stood as elders for the two families and received the newlyweds' ceremonial bows.
For a long time afterward, the continent spoke of the wedding with great relish. The two peak experts had been barely twenty when they married, childhood sweethearts who had grown up side by side and walked every step of the road together. Back when Glazed Douluo had traveled far to Sun Moon for her studies, Holy Evil Douluo had chased her all the way to Mingdu and single-handedly toppled every genius of the Sun Moon Imperial Academy. The dazzling fireworks that streaked across the night sky had declared his feelings for all to see.
That story became a cherished tale and even left a lasting mark. For many young people, the first choice for a confession of love became the night of the Holy Bright Festival, above the Ming River.
Of course, according to reliable rumor, Holy Evil Douluo was romantic by nature and fond of lingering among flowers. The Angel Empress and Angel Douluo; Phoenix Douluo, Master of the Shrek Holy Pavilion; Poison Douluo, Sanctuary Master of the Angel Holy City; Golden Fairy Douluo, Sanctuary Master of Shrek City; Fire Dragon Douluo, Worship of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan; Red Eyed Douluo, Sanctuary Master of Mingdu...
All of them shared a relationship with Holy Evil Douluo that ran far deeper than ordinary acquaintance.
The proof lay in what followed the wedding of the century. Each of those female experts standing at the pinnacle of the Douluo Continent found occasion, whether by design or by chance, to invite Holy Evil Douluo to one ceremony or another. Their words and gestures carried unmistakable warmth and sweetness whenever he was near.
Holy Evil Douluo tacitly indulged their little schemes, and the outside world grew bold enough to link their names with his. People came to believe that, although his wife was Glazed Douluo Ning Tian, the women who remained so close to him were also lovers he could not bear to part with.
It was simply that those women carried pride in their hearts. They would rather forgo any formal title and remain free as outside lovers than journey to Nine Treasure City as concubines, forced to spend their days beneath a Ning Tian who stood above them all.
Even more surprising, Holy Evil Douluo seemed to have left romantic debts in the spirit beast world as well. Both the Extreme North and the Star Dou Forest sent representatives to the wedding of the century.
The continent's third Great Beast, the Snow Empress, appeared in person. No spirit screen could veil the cold, peerless beauty of the Empress of the Extreme North. The Star Dou Forest's representative was the Emperor Destiny Beast, who looked as though she had been carved from the same mold as Holy Evil Douluo himself. Two pairs of beautiful eyes brimmed with quiet, plaintive resentment and never once strayed from him throughout the entire ceremony, until Holy Evil Douluo was drenched in cold sweat.
…
Angel Empire, Nine Treasure City.
Nine Treasure City belonged to the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and stood adjacent to the imperial capital, Angel Holy City.
Because of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan's special status as a Guardian Sect, Nine Treasure City had grown into one of the most prosperous cities on the continent. The Angelic Sanctuary within was the largest and most prestigious anywhere, and by imperial grace, every successive Master of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan also served as the city's Sanctuary Master.
The Angelic Sanctuary was a domed edifice of white walls and a golden roof that soared into the clouds. In the back garden, a hundred flowers bloomed in full splendor, their fragrance drifting softly through the air.
Two women were carefully tending the blossoms. One was graceful and regal, dressed in a pure white gown, her sapphire-blue eyes as deep and beautiful as an endless ocean. The other was radiantly striking, her waist-length hair like burning flame, her figure so voluptuous that its exaggerated curves left any onlooker quietly worried for the thin fabric straining to contain them.
Hum—
A spatial gate opened silently behind the two women. In the next instant, an arm slipped around each of their waists and drew them both into a familiar embrace. Neither panicked in the slightest. On the entire Douluo Continent, only one person could slip past the perception of two Super Douluo without a sound.
Ning Tian's smile bloomed at once. She turned her head and pressed a soft kiss to his jaw. "You're back, Bai-ge."
"A full three hours! What did Ma Xiaotao want with you?"
Wu Feng folded her arms beneath her chest. The motion strained the silk a little further, and her cheeks puffed in displeasure. Still, she didn't swat away the hand resting on her slender waist.
Ling Bai chuckled. "Nothing important. Xiaotao was complaining that Shrek students keep leaning toward joining the Angelic Sanctuaries across the land. Far fewer are willing to remain at Shrek Academy than before."
"Is that so..."
Ning Tian tilted her head. The Angel Empire was at peace, and Shrek Academy had disbanded the Shrek Guardians to become an ordinary academy that cultivated talent for the Empire. There was no real need for so many experts to remain stationed there. Most likely Ma Xiaotao had simply missed Ling Bai and found a convenient excuse to call him over.
Besides, a faint soul-stealing fragrance lingered about Ling Bai, and pink kiss marks peeked from just beneath his collar. She hardly had to be sharp to guess what those two had just been doing.
Even so, she didn't mind Ma Xiaotao's illicit snacking. Ning Tian already possessed everything she wanted. The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Clan had reclaimed its glory, Ling Bai had taken her as his wife, and both her ambition and her love had come to full fruit.
Without Ling Bai's knowledge, she had quietly sought out the other women one by one for candid talks. Each queen now kept to her own court, and so long as their behavior did not go too far, she would not interfere.
Over these three years, Ning Tian had carried only one true worry. When would she finally conceive the crystallization of her and Ling Bai's love?
Ning Tian was anxious. Ye Guyi was anxious. Han Ruoruo was even more anxious. Among Ling Bai's human partners, this Elder Sister was the oldest, and her longing for a child had grown nearly unbearable. Every time she shared her sweetness with Ling Bai, she clung to him as though determined not to let a single drop go to waste.
Ling Bai drew the two women who had walked beside him since childhood closer against him. After a long, quiet moment, his voice came low and far away:
"Xiao Tian, Xiao Feng, I am going to take the final step."
A tremor ran through both women. They knew what the final step meant, and they understood what kind of enemy Ling Bai would face once he took it.
The Sea God, Tang San.
A soft sigh escaped him. "Over these three years, I have used my spirit power and the faith of all living beings to mend the God Position. The Angel God Position has recovered to the level of a five-winged angel. In a few more years, I could become the Angel God and ascend to the Divine Realm as a 1st Class God.
Unfortunately, our enemy is a God King. That means I must also become a God King.
One day in the Divine Realm is one year in the human world. I have already given him three extra days. The time is ripe, and I cannot delay any longer.
Xiao Tian, send word across the continent. Tomorrow, everyone is to rest and gather before the major Seraphim statues to await my guidance."
"Okay."
Ning Tian nodded firmly, though tears shimmered in her eyes. She and Wu Feng buried themselves against Ling Bai's chest together. They worried for him, yet neither dared say so aloud and risk unsettling his state of mind.
"Wait for me to come back."
Ling Bai stroked their soft hair and looked off toward the distant sky. Three years spent winning over the hearts of the people and unifying the Angel Empire's faith meant the curtain of the final battle was at last about to rise.
…
A silent night passed, and dawn broke.
Ling Bai opened a spatial passage straight to Jialing Pass, and his voice echoed across the land:
"Your Holiness the Supreme Pontiff, seniors, I have arrived."
Ripples spread through the empty air. The Spirit Hall illusion shattered with a roar and revealed its true face beneath.
At the Land of Godfall, the Spirit Empire army resurrected by Rakshasa evil power stood in deathly silence. The six great Worships stood before the army, watching the imposing figure of Ling Bai with complicated expressions, as though gratified to see a junior finally grown, yet relieved at the approach of an ending long overdue.
Bibi Dong remained peerlessly elegant. Even the true form revealed by the Asura Sword's piercing wound did not diminish her. She spoke slowly, her voice unhurried:
"Ling Bai, I have waited for you a very long time.
Are you ready for the God Position Inheritance..."