In the original novel, before Elder Mu had passed away, he had established Elder Xuan as his own successor. In fact, within the Sea God Pavilion, there had once been a dispute.
That's right. In terms of strength, Elder Xuan was the strongest besides Elder Mu. But he was addicted to wine and was unkempt. In terms of the academy's management, he was far inferior to Elder Song. Therefore, several elders had once suggested that the position of the Sea God Pavilion Master should be inherited by Elder Song, to control the academy.
However, Elder Mu had used one reason to go against all opinions and had in the end confirmed Elder Xuan's identity as the Sea God Pavilion Master. And that was the bloodline of Elder Xuan's martial soul's inheritance.
A hundred years ago, after Elder Mu had been defeated at the hands of the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, Di Tian, he had once thought deeply. With Di Tian's strength above that of a Limit Douluo, having already stepped into the demigod domain, what on earth kind of a way could be used to restrain it?
The Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King's bloodline had already placed Di Tian at the very top of the Douluo Continent's food chain. To want to surpass it in terms of bloodline was almost impossible. Di Tian's own ability was the ultimate darkness. Even the ultimate light that Mu En could only briefly possess by burning his life could not restrain it.
From that time on, Elder Mu had begun to cultivate Elder Xuan with all his might. To want to restrain and deal with Di Tian, there was only one way, and that was to start with its bloodline.
No matter how strong Di Tian's bloodline was, it still belonged to the dragon clan's lineage. And within the dragon clan, those whose bloodline could still be above its were only the Gold, the Silver, as well as the nine great dragon kings and the nine sons of the dragon.
Within Elder Xuan's martial soul—the Taotie Divine Ox—was contained a part of the bloodline of the Dragon God's fifth son, the Taotie. It was just that this bloodline was not pure. Although it was already very strong, compared to Di Tian, it was still far off.
Mu En, with his Limit Douluo's spiritual power plus his own powerful soul power, in the situation where he had no physical body after his death, could enter Elder Xuan's body, forcefully suppress the part of his martial soul that belonged to an ox, and with all his might, stimulate the bloodline of the Taotie, thus completing the advent of the Taotie.
This was also the final way for Mu En to guard Shrek.
But how could he have ever expected that there would be unforeseen circumstances in the sky? The Elder Xuan whom he had cultivated with all his might would actually, in a turn of his body, become the Supreme Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult?
Let alone that Long Xiaoyao was puzzled. Even Huo Yuhao was full of puzzles. Wasn't this old fellow said to have died in the Ming Dou Mountain Range?
Could it be that after Elder Xuan had been defeated, he had been captured by the Holy Spirit Cult and had been brainwashed?
"Long Xiaoyao, I know you are very puzzled. But I have not been controlled. On the contrary, I have obtained a new life."
Elder Xuan opened his two arms and laughed. Nine soul rings floated up from under his feet one by one. And the color of his soul rings made this Dragon Emperor Douluo's pupils suddenly shrink.
Black, Black, Black, Black, Red, Red, Red, Red, Red!
Five hundred-thousand-year soul rings!
Huo Yuhao could not see the color of the soul rings on Elder Xuan's body. But just through his spiritual perception, he could also feel Elder Xuan's soul power pressure, which was not the same as in the past.
In an era where the soul spirit system had not yet been proposed, there were only two ways to improve the age limit of an existing soul ring. One was to obtain the reward of a god's inheritance to improve the soul ring's age limit. The second was that the martial soul itself was an evil martial soul, and one could use the unique advancement method of an evil soul master to improve the age limit.
The time was slightly turned back to a few months ago.
In the Ming Dou Mountain Range.
Elder Xuan's entire body was bathed in blood. His old pupils were full of an unwilling look. Facing a group of experts from the Holy Spirit Cult, if he had insisted on escaping, the Holy Spirit Cult would also not have been able to stop him. However, behind him were still the children, the children who were representing Shrek to participate in the tournament.
In order to as much as possible delay until the rescue arrived, Elder Xuan had, with his own strength, held back more than ten Titled Douluo-level evil soul masters, among whom were even Super Douluo-level evil soul masters.
After a day's fierce battle, Elder Xuan was already exhausted. He didn't know how far Dai Yueheng and the others had escaped. He had already fulfilled his own responsibility and had done his best.
"Elder Mu, I have let down your cultivation..." Elder Xuan stood up, trembling. His brow was full of a resolute look. In front of him, the more than ten evil soul masters were also all covered in injuries.
The most miserable was the vice pontiff, Feng Ling, who was lying on the ground, a mouthful of blood, not looking like a human. For Zhongli Wu, Feng Ling was very important. Not only was she his right-hand man, but she was also his most beloved wife.
An evil soul master was not without feelings. Although all along, the means by which Zhongli Wu had controlled Feng Ling were not feelings!
Although Feng Ling was in name the vice pontiff of the Holy Spirit Cult, in reality, she had always been controlled by Zhongli Wu. For Zhongli Wu, she was even willing to burn her own soul and martial soul to deal with Elder Xuan, even if it was not necessarily of her own will.
A brownish-yellow, blazing flame was burning on Elder Xuan's body. That was his fire of life. To have reached this step meant that Elder Xuan was going to, at all costs, and was even preparing to self-destruct here.
"Gluttony—Taotie's Feast!"
Elder Xuan's eyes were wide with anger. A terrifying suction force came from his body. He was going to suck dry the worldly primordial energy in a radius of ten li and all of it would be turned into his self-destruction energy.
"Now!" Zhongli Wu let out a loud roar. The evil soul master Titled Douluo on his left side immediately understood and raised his right hand. On his body suddenly lit up two yellow, two purple, five black, nine soul rings. A large banner that was as black as ink then appeared in his hand.
This large banner, from its flagpole to its flag, was entirely black. On the flag, there was vaguely the appearance of countless purple-black resentful souls flashing.
A Myriad Soul Banner! The title of this evil soul master was precisely Myriad Soul. He was just a level ninety-one evil soul master Titled Douluo, named the Myriad Soul Douluo.
The Myriad Soul Banner unfurled in the wind. Under his wave, the shrill, miserable cries of the resentful spirits, with a countless number of a sinister wind, swept out and were all sucked into the body by Elder Xuan's Taotie Divine Ox's true body.
Even if Elder Xuan had the intention to stop it, it was too late. Countless resentful spirits rushed into his soul core and dantian. Vicious, irritable, bloodthirsty, and other evil thoughts instantly occupied his consciousness.
A shrill roar immediately followed. It was the roar of the Myriad Soul Douluo. How could he not be heartbroken? To want to gather resentful spirits in the Myriad Soul Banner was not an easy matter. Not everyone would produce a resentful spirit after they died. Only those who had a strong resentment in their hearts, and had died an incomparably tragic death, a person or a soul beast, would turn into a resentful spirit.
He had thought that Elder Xuan would absorb a lot of the resentful spirits that he had nurtured in his Myriad Soul Banner. But he had not expected that Elder Xuan, in one breath, had almost directly emptied him. The Myriad Soul Douluo, even if he had the intention to stop it now, it was too late.
Probably at a certain critical point, Elder Xuan's two eyes were blood-red. He descended straight down from the air, his entire body coiled with a black airflow. His two hands were continuously scratching at his body, looking extremely uncomfortable.
Elder Xuan had directly swallowed the resentful spirits that a Titled Douluo evil soul master had cultivated for nearly a hundred years! In just this short while's time, he had purified several thousand of his resentful spirits. That was a complete devouring, with simply no possibility of resurrection. His Myriad Soul Banner, having lost its resentful spirits, its power would continuously decrease. Although there were over ten thousand resentful spirits on it, it also could not withstand such a loss!
And just at this time, the body of Elder Xuan's martial soul's true body, the Taotie Divine Ox, began to have a strange change. The original earth-attribute yellow had gradually turned into a bright gold. The earth attribute and the light attribute were extremely perfectly fused. A large number of golden scales had grown out from his body. The spiral-shaped ox horns on his head had also begun to become curved, presenting the form of a deer's antlers.
The ox hooves of his four limbs had gradually turned into the appearance of a human hand. Under each of his armpits had grown a huge eye. His face, on the other hand, had become slender. Elder Xuan's face had appeared. But in his eyes, there was a dignity belonging to the dragon clan.
His body had shrunk a little. He no longer looked like an ox. On the contrary, he looked a bit like a sheep. His head had become extremely huge, especially his mouth, which was even more so strangely large. It was slightly open, revealing tiger teeth like sharp swords.
A sheep's body and a human's face, tiger teeth and human claws. At this moment, Elder Xuan was actually no longer the Taotie Divine Ox. When his martial soul had been activated in another way by tens of thousands of resentful spirits, the bloodline of the dragon had been purified. He at this time had already transformed into the fifth son among the nine sons of the dragon—the Taotie!
Before the Dragon God had split, he had once had nine sons. They had also inherited a part of the Dragon God's ability and bloodline. Among them, some were the ancestors of the earth dragons, some were the head of the flying dragons, some had entered the abyss, and some had been in a deep sleep in a volcano.
The nine sons of the dragon were unable to have any more descendants. But they had once been extremely strong for a time. When the Dragon God had been split into two and had become the Gold and Silver Dragon Kings, they had led the dragon clan to rule the Douluo Continent.
Later, the nine sons of the dragon had died one after another. Their bloodline, through inheritance, had been passed down to the later generations.
To this day, the power of the dragon clan has always been acknowledged by both humans and soul beasts. In the historical records of humans, historians have always believed that the reason why the rule of the dragon clan had ended was not because the soul beasts that had resisted them back then were so powerful, but because a problem had appeared in the bloodline inheritance of the dragon clan itself.
The purest of the dragon clan's bloodline had almost not been passed down. In addition, the extremely weak reproductive ability of the dragon clan, under the situation where they could not maintain a certain number, only then had they gradually withdrawn from the stage of history.
Despite this, the remnant bloodline of the dragon clan was still formidable. The Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, Di Tian, wasn't he just like this? He was neither a clone of the Dragon God like the Gold and Silver Dragon Kings, nor was he one of the nine sons that the Dragon God had nurtured. However, he was still able to become the number one ferocious beast under heaven today. The strength of the dragon clan in the ancient times can be imagined.
At this very moment, the appearance of this sheep's body and human's face, tiger teeth and human claws, that Elder Xuan had transformed into was precisely the fifth son among the nine sons of the Dragon God—the Taotie!
"This... this is..." Elder Xuan, feeling his own change, murmured.
"So, you've devoured the resentful spirits of our sect, and your martial soul has finally awakened, Xuan Zi." A sneer curled across Zhongli Wu's face. "Go on—feel that new power for yourself. The Taotie is no ordinary martial soul. It is a top-tier dragon clan martial soul, the very embodiment of the original sin—Gluttony!"
An endless emotion of slaughter quickly occupied Elder Xuan's consciousness. He let out an unwilling roar, trying to get rid of this state. But a martial soul's second awakening was originally a benign development. How could his body possibly refuse?
Subconsciously, in order to prevent himself from causing greater destruction, Elder Xuan had forcefully made himself faint.
The battle here had finally ended. Zhongli Wu and a group of evil soul masters were all injured. But everything was worth it. They had taken away the future stabilizing force of Shrek.
Zhongli Wu casually sent a few people to pursue the Shrek participating team. He himself, with a few Super Douluos, had then taken Feng Ling and Elder Xuan and had flown in the direction of the Evil Demon Forest...
By the time Elder Xuan had woken up, the desire of ultimate evil and gluttony had broken through the shackle of the glory of Shrek that had bound him. He had also, in several months of self-cognition, gradually acknowledged his new identity.
The Supreme Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult, the Taotie Douluo, a Limit Douluo, Xuan Zi!