Gu Yue felt that she had a completely new idea for the revival of the soul beast race.
Xu Yuan was right. If they couldn't solve the problem of soul beasts not being able to ascend to godhood, then under the environment of Douluo Planet, the soul beast race was destined to decline.
Now that Douluo Planet was about to evolve and divine-level soul masters were no longer gods who couldn't interfere with human affairs, humanity had figures like Yun Ming and Xu Yuan holding the fort. Even if she returned to her peak strength, she wouldn't dare claim that she alone could carry the banner of the soul beast race.
Therefore, the revival of the soul beast race still depended on the collective strength of the soul beast race itself.
However, for this collective to exert its power, it must break through that restriction.
Xu Yuan's promise wasn't the perfect answer in her heart, as Xu Yuan was, after all, an outsider.
Compared to Xu Yuan's offer to help the soul beast race resolve the heavenly tribulation, Gu Yue still trusted herself more.
In the past, she didn't dare believe that the one who set the heavenly tribulation was him. But now that Xu Yuan had pointed it out, she no longer deceived herself.
If it was indeed set by him, then there must be a way to lift the restriction. The question was how.
"Will I succeed if I attempt to remove this restriction at my peak strength?" Gu Yue narrowed her eyes, pondering. "If even my full-strength self can't do it, then the only solution might be the return of the Dragon God."
Given Gu Yue's situation of reincarnation and re-cultivation, the chances of her returning to her peak strength were slim. After all, she had only reached God King level by inheriting the Dragon God's power, and after suffering severe injuries, she abandoned the God King realm. Reaching that level again through cultivation was almost impossible. However, the current situation—with the martial soul medium method and the God King diagrams—gave her a chance. Therefore, she could say she had the qualifications to return to her peak strength.
The Return of the Dragon God.
"The power of the Golden Dragon King has appeared. Could this be the opportunity the Dragon God planned?"
Gu Yue waved her hand, dismissing Di Tian and the others, and remained in place, deep in thought.
She closed her eyes, recalling everything since her existence.
A God King possessed a certain ability to glimpse the future, but only a fragment of it—and only one possible trajectory of future development. They couldn't interfere with it, nor could they fully see the past, merely deduce traces from the laws.
Even so, this gave God Kings the qualification to plan and scheme for the future.
Ordinary God Kings could already lay out plans—what about the Dragon God?
How did he end up defeated in battle?
Gu Yue continued to recall the memory of that great battle in her mind.
Was everything in that battle truly real?
"After waiting for so long, the Golden Dragon King has finally appeared on Douluo Planet."
Gu Yue had never imagined this.
How did the Golden Dragon King escape the shackles of the divine realm? How was he sealed into Tang Wulin's body?
The return of his power source to Douluo Planet—was it all just a coincidence?
Numerous thoughts flashed through Gu Yue's mind, bringing her closer to the truth.
---
After leaving the Spirit Pagoda, Xu Yuan returned to the Sea God Pavilion.
"Elder Tree, Huan Xing plans to directly face the hundred-thousand-year lightning tribulation and the subsequent first heavenly tribulation."
Xu Yuan's consciousness was pulled into a vast starry sea by Elder Tree.
Elder Tree looked at Xu Yuan, his gaze filled with pride.
This foundation was truly unprecedented.
Even he couldn't imagine that a soul master could have such a robust foundation.
Xu Yuan was simply too well-rounded. By relying on his bloodline martial soul, he solved the issue of lacking innate qualifications for blood essence cultivation. With each transformation of Jue, his blood essence kept advancing without limit, surpassing even Ah Ruheng in terms of physical body cultivation.
There was no other way—his bloodline-turned-divine artifact directly provided him with divine-level qualifications for physical martial soul cultivation.
As for spiritual power, there was no need to say more. His Brain Martial Soul was already excellent, and due to his status as a transmigrator, his innate spiritual power was exceptionally strong, growing several times faster than others.
His soul power had always been among the top of his peers.
In terms of overall strength, he perfectly integrated all his advantages.
"Huan Xing is about to break through as well?" Elder Tree shifted his gaze to Huan Xing, who was also pulled into this space.
Huan Xing, visiting this place for the first time, immediately looked around curiously.
Elder Tree observed Huan Xing, falling into deep thought.
"I understand your meaning now. During his evolution, his origin will be restructured—that's your greatest concern."
Xu Yuan nodded.
"My life force is essentially inherited by you. The effects I can provide are not much different from the effects of the Life Gold within you. If you want a greater assurance, you'll need to seek higher-quality life energy." Elder Tree said.
Xu Yuan sighed.
After leaving Elder Tree's consciousness space, Xu Yuan awoke in the Sea God Pavilion.
He wasn't overly disappointed.
Indeed, ensuring safety for Huan Xing's situation would be difficult.
Huan Xing was undergoing a complete restructuring of his race.
This wasn't a mutation or genetic alteration during the incubation period—it was a transformation of the foundation after already maturing.
The risks involved were obvious.
Xu Yuan had ample vitality to support himself, but he could only guarantee that he wouldn't die. Whether Huan Xing would suffer catastrophic damage during the tribulation due to changes in his origin, Xu Yuan couldn't be sure.
"Higher-quality life energy, it seems I'll have to go there."
In fact, if Huan Xing broke through directly, the success rate wouldn't be low.
Not only not low, but quite high.
But since it was evolution, a mutation, Xu Yuan hoped for a more perfect transformation.
If evolution was divided into catastrophic failure, failure, success, excellent evolution, and perfect evolution, Huan Xing would most likely achieve success, have a chance at excellent evolution, and a small chance of failure.
With sufficient external assistance, Huan Xing's evolution could reach perfection, securing his path to godhood and saving Xu Yuan some effort later on.
As for where to find higher-quality life energy, Xu Yuan already had an idea.
He sought out Ya Li to inquire about Devil Island.
"Teacher's wife, this time I plan to bring back all seven individuals from Devil Island. Whether it's the Sea God Pavilion or the Demon Plane, I'll create a space where we can communicate directly with them."
"Your idea is good, but their condition isn't stable—they rely entirely on the environment there to exist." Ya Li hesitated. "If anything goes wrong, those seven..."
Though she had been pranked by those seven old-timers in her youth, Ya Li also knew their significance to Shrek and the sacrifices and contributions they had made.
"Don't worry, Teacher's wife, I won't act rashly." Xu Yuan reassured her. "The question now is, how can I communicate with them directly when I go there?"
Genuine communication.
Xu Yuan didn't want his conversation with the seven elders to be treated as a prank.
Ya Li smiled.
"Based on the logic we've established with them over the years, there's no way."
No way?
So all students sent to Devil Island would be treated like military training?
Xu Yuan was speechless.
This was probably to deal with federal probes, right?
"But there's still a loophole. For example, if you go there, you can use overwhelming strength to suppress all seven of them." Ya Li offered a straightforward solution.
Xu Yuan blinked.
He was too kind-hearted.
When dealing with his own elders, he hadn't immediately thought of using force as leverage.
---
"Young man, don't rush off just yet," Feng Wuyu said.
Xu Yuan, having obtained a solution, was about to leave when Feng Wuyu stopped him.
"Elder Feng, what's the matter?"
Feng Wuyu asked, "Do you remember a classmate named Xie Xie from your time in the outer court?"
Hearing Xie Xie's name again, Xu Yuan was somewhat surprised.
For a moment, he felt a bit dazed.
Because of his influence, Xie Xie hadn't joined the original Shrek Seven Monsters, and his development had diverged from theirs.
To be honest, Xu Yuan rarely heard about Xie Xie in recent years.
"I remember him. Did something happen to him?"
"No, Tang Wulin entrusted me to take care of Xie Xie. His original martial soul also contained some dragon lineage, so I agreed. However, Xie Xie chose the path of shedding his dragon lineage, and I couldn't teach him much. He's been cultivating on his own ever since."
Feng Wuyu briefly recounted Xie Xie's story.
In short, although Xie Xie initially lagged behind the Shrek Seven Monsters, over time, his path became smoother. With the opportunities of the Demon Plane, he successfully mutated his metal spirit soul, achieving a normal-state spirit fusion skill by using it as a bonding agent to fuse his two martial souls.
"Normal-state spirit fusion skill?"
"Yes, his twin martial souls weren't fully separated—they were entangled. Following some ideas you gave him, he used his metal spirit soul as a medium to connect his two martial souls. Now, he's fused them again, transforming from twin martial souls into a single martial soul."
Xu Yuan clicked his tongue.
Xie Xie was bold and daring.
Truthfully, his talent was only average—it didn't compare to the original Shrek Seven Monsters. But with Tang Wulin's guidance and his own efforts, he achieved great success.
Now, having broken free from his dependence on Tang Wulin, had he truly carved out his own path?
Of course, if he hadn't let go of the title of twin martial souls, he absolutely wouldn't have taken this step.
"However, there are still some issues with his martial soul cultivation," Feng Wuyu said.
Listening to Feng Wuyu's explanation, Xu Yuan roughly understood Xie Xie's path.
His first spirit soul was a metal spirit soul—the foundation he decided to cultivate based on Xu Yuan's inspiration. At the three-ringed stage, he fused a second spirit soul, which also contained some dragon lineage.
This made his path of purifying his martial soul and shedding his dragon lineage much harder.
At the four-ringed stage, he completed the fusion of his metal spirit soul with the second spirit soul.
Metal spirit souls lacked intelligence, and since he had fused a second spirit soul, he naturally wouldn't abandon it.
Thus, he chose to fuse both spirit souls.
Both were artificially created spirit souls, and after fusing, they gained ten-thousand-year-level spirituality and initial wisdom.
As the fusion deepened, he also began attempting to shed his dragon lineage.
Pure metal was the foundation of his reborn spirit soul.
Although the fusion had already made his cultivation unique and given him opportunities, he had struggled for a while. Ultimately, he chose to follow the pure weapon martial soul path.
This was a truth Xu Yuan had proven.
A pure weapon martial soul, without relying on any lineage, could maximize the potential of one's martial soul.
Perhaps Xu Yuan carried too many other special traits, but setting aside cultivation speed and various secret techniques, his performance in weapon martial soul cultivation alone was highly convincing and representative.
"So Xie Xie doesn't know how to shed his dragon lineage?"
"That's right. Similarly, he's also confused about how to obtain his sixth soul ring." Feng Wuyu sighed.
Xie Xie's talent was undeniable. At only twenty-two, despite delays in his earlier cultivation, he had already reached the sixtieth level. His battle armor was nearly prepared for a two-word battle armor, pending only a breakthrough in soul power.
If he could resolve the issue of his sixth soul ring, he'd become a two-word battle armor master at twenty-two—one of the continent's top geniuses.
Back in the day, Feng Wuyu was around this level.
"The sixth soul ring."
Xu Yuan sighed.
The biggest problem with the metal spirit soul path was soul rings.
On his side, he kept adding new metals to Jue.
But what should Xie Xie do?
His first and second soul rings were innate to his metal spirit soul. His third and fourth soul rings came from before the fusion of his second spirit soul, and afterward, they belonged to the fused metal spirit soul. His fifth soul ring was condensed through the opportunity of martial soul normal-state fusion and also belonged to the fused metal spirit soul.
But this spirit soul already carried five soul rings. Normally, it couldn't produce any more.
Suddenly, an idea struck him.
"How many years is Xie Xie's metal spirit soul now?"
"It's reached ten thousand years." Feng Wuyu said. "His spirit soul is quite legendary. It seems he accidentally broke through the ten-thousand-year bottleneck. Over the years, as he absorbed sufficient spirit energy in the Spirit Ascension Platform, it directly broke through to ten thousand years."
"An Agility soul master capable of withstanding five ten-thousand-year soul rings—I wonder what that kid went through."
Xu Yuan felt a slight admiration for Xie Xie.
"He hoped this would solve the issue of his sixth soul ring, but although his spirit soul advanced, his sixth soul ring still couldn't form."
"I understand his situation now. To determine how to solve it, I'll need to examine his condition."
"He's in the inner court."
Without delay, Feng Wuyu brought Xu Yuan to Xie Xie's dormitory.
"Xu Yuan!" Xie Xie exclaimed, his surprise mixed with joy.
Finally, you're here.
"Elder Feng told me about your situation, so I'm here to help."
Xie Xie shot a grateful glance at Feng Wuyu, then turned to Xu Yuan. "How should I assist you?"
"I'll need to examine your martial soul and spirit soul."
"No problem."
With that, Xie Xie summoned his martial soul.
His presence suddenly turned sharp, like a finely honed dagger.
In his hand, a black-and-white dagger materialized silently.
Though its presence was extremely restrained, when Xu Yuan focused on the dagger, he noticed its uniqueness—all its power was concentrated at the tip.
Moreover, Xu Yuan realized that the dagger wasn't just restrained; its power had merged completely with Xie Xie.
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