The first joint cooperation between humans and soul beasts had officially begun.
The emergence of Soul Contract Masters held tremendous significance.
It marked the beginning of a brand-new chapter in the history of the Douluo Continent.
The soul beasts selected by the Silver Dragon King to participate in this event varied in strength, but all shared one trait: exceptional bloodlines and immense potential.
After all, this was the first collaboration between humans and soul beasts—it wasn't a one-time deal. There would be many future opportunities to work together, so they had to make this first event a success.
As long as the beginning was handled well, things would be much easier moving forward.
Whether it was to resist the coming Abyss invasion or to secure the soul beasts' future, continuing to oppose humans would bring no benefits. Only by uniting could both sides achieve mutual gain.
This was exactly what Ye Cheng hoped to see. Although due to his system upgrade he no longer had to fear anyone in this world, he was still far from reaching the realm of omnipotence where he could do whatever he wanted without restraint.
More importantly, in Ye Cheng's eyes, using his own strategies and insight to reshape this distorted world step by step into the shape he envisioned was far more interesting than using brute force to destroy and rebuild everything.
If reality were a story-based game, then for a player, experiencing the story was far more meaningful than skipping straight to the ending. A game without the journey had no soul.
…
After some time of careful selection—
The people Ye Cheng had brought eventually chose soul beasts they favored. Then, using the Contract Stones he had given them, they infused their soul power into the crystal. In a flash of mystical radiance, they successfully formed equal contracts with the soul beasts.
With that, the mission for coming to the Star Dou Great Forest was complete.
The first cooperation between humans and soul beasts had drawn to a close.
Among the group Ye Cheng brought were the high-level members of Baiyun City, representatives from Spirit Hall, and several promising students from Baiyun Academy.
Some of those students were actually "exchange students" from other factions. These individuals hadn't yet been fully indoctrinated and still held loyalty to their original powers. Ye Cheng was well aware of this but brought them anyway. His goal was to showcase Baiyun City's strength and send them a clear message: Baiyun City is the future of humanity. If they didn't want to be cast aside in the coming era of great change, befriending or even joining Baiyun City would be their best option.
This strategy was essentially a form of psychological indoctrination. The principle was similar to how, in the late Qing dynasty, the ignorant and backward Chinese—faced with the overwhelming power and advancement of the West—eagerly imitated Western culture and belittled their own.
After this event, the world entered a period of relative "stability."
All the major powers began laying low, focusing on development.
During this time, artifacts from the "future" continued to appear sporadically across the world, discovered by various lucky individuals.
Some of these artifacts were beneficial—such as the remains of gods, fragments of divine weapons, or advanced soul tools.
Others, however, were malevolent—demonic corpses and corrupted tools that often carried infectious and corrosive properties.
When these objects appeared, they typically brought disaster. That said, some people willingly embraced corruption and fell into darkness, becoming demons themselves.
Some people, after all, were born to be demons.
And just like that, six more years passed.
Though the Abyss had yet to launch its official invasion, the very appearance of these "future" artifacts drastically accelerated the Douluo Continent's energy level. In fact, the growth rate far exceeded what had been shown in the videos.
This manifested in a dramatic increase in children born with innate soul power, and a surge in the number of powerful soul masters.
Additionally, in these recent years, more and more people from other continents began smuggling their way into Douluo, seeking to learn its advanced knowledge so they could return and serve their own nations.
In these six years, Baiyun City had firmly established itself as the undisputed number one power—
The sacred ground of soul masters!
…
[Roleplaying System 2.0—Create a character. The more people believe in and are emotionally moved by this fictional persona—whether by awe, longing, fear…—the more it will become real!
Current Roles:
"Daughter of the Sun – Klee" (100%)
"Golden-Horned Beast" (65%)
"Lord of the Abyss" (20%)
Previously Played Roles:
Twin-Spirit Soul Master – Ye Cheng
Master of Water – Neptune
Medicine King – Sun Zhongjing
Divine Ring Master – Ye Cheng
Soul Guide Master – Xuanji
External Plugin: Livestream Spoiler System – 58.4% (Currently insufficient absorption progress; only has low-level permissions, such as asking questions, fabricating/modifying videos, and setting quiz rewards/punishments. Unable to receive rewards. Full control of the system is only possible at 100% synchronization.)]
This was the result of Ye Cheng's efforts over the past six years.
Looking at the character "Daughter of the Sun – Klee," which had reached 100% completion, Ye Cheng suddenly realized he had likely fallen into a misconception all this time.
The "Acknowledgment Power" needed to complete a persona wasn't merely about belief and emotional resonance from others. There had to be something more—
Perhaps… real-world impact?
Ye Cheng couldn't fully explain the logic behind it. What he did know was that once Klee had been manifested into reality, she began taking action. Over these past six years, she had appeared in countless people's lives and made a name for herself.
She was now a household name.
The result? Her completion rate had soared!
In just six short years, her persona had reached 100%.
This made Ye Cheng realize that this was likely the system's true intended method of operation. By roleplaying a persona and creating actual influence in the real world, the system could draw from the world's origin—possibly a mysterious cosmic force—and give that character form.
All his prior efforts using only fabricated videos had been shortcuts. Because those personas lacked real-world influence, even if the entire world believed in them, their completion percentages remained pitifully low.
Had it not been for the system's upgrade to Version 2.0, allowing for the physical manifestation of personas, Ye Cheng might never have uncovered this truth.
Still, he couldn't blame himself.
After all, absorbing the Spoiler System plugin was a lucky accident to begin with. It was precisely because of the video fabrication function that he had been able to acquire tremendous strength in the early stages.
If he had to do it all over again, Ye Cheng would still choose to fabricate videos for his first "bucket of gold."
Back then, he was powerless.
Personally roleplaying in such a state would have been incredibly risky, and potentially life-threatening.
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