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The first round of the Soul Emperor matches passed without major incident—yet a minor controversy stirred new tensions.
A Soul Emperor from the Federation Representative Team, under intense pressure during battle, broke through to Level 70 mid-fight—his spirit soul instantly coalesced a seventh soul ring, ascending to Soul Saint status.
The Federation immediately demanded he be allowed to continue competing in the Soul Emperor category, arguing he had registered as such.
All other factions protested vehemently. This, they argued, was blatant exploitation of the rules—a newly promoted Soul Saint, even if barely elevated, held overwhelming advantages in soul power quality and quantity over true Soul Emperors. It was grossly unfair.
After a tense and unpleasant negotiation, a compromise was reached: the newly promoted Soul Saint could continue competing—but was strictly forbidden from using his seventh soul skill: Martial Soul True Body.
Thus, while he retained his enhanced soul power, his combat potential remained constrained—his advantage was contained within a "reasonable" margin.
The Federation grumbled, but accepted the solution.
On the third day, the Soul Saint matches began.
At this level, Martial Soul True Body was practically mandatory.
The arena erupted with towering, monstrous, sacred, or grotesque manifestations—each clash shook the earth, each soul skill blotted out the sky with radiant light. The destruction and spectacle dwarfed anything seen in the prior days. It was awe-inspiring.
Gu La sat among the spectators, watching those colossal True Bodies rise like titans.
His mind turned inward.
Groudon's True Body… will unlock immense potential. It's time to prepare for his third spirit soul. The Sun Saint Angel is powerful—but its age is a fatal flaw. It has yet to breach the hundred-thousand-year threshold. This third spirit soul must be close to a million years.
The thought made him shake his head slightly.
The only two known million-year soul beasts—the Deep Sea Demon Whale King and Tianmeng Ice Worm—were Water and Ice types, utterly incompatible with his Earth and Fire attributes.
Perhaps… travel back to the era before the Dragon God's death? Back when divine soul beasts were plentiful…
But he dismissed it instantly.
The Dragon God himself surpassed ordinary God Kings. That era was far too dangerous—too many variables.
He settled for a compromise: search the annals of history for powerful Fire or Light-type Fierce Beasts born after the Dragon God's fall.
He turned to Gu Yue beside him, whispering quietly.
She glanced at him—already guessing his intent—and replied coolly:
"I fell to Douluo Star tens of thousands of years ago. Most of that time, I slept, healing. I know little of which powerful soul beasts were born on this continent."
Gu La then used a hidden method to contact Di Tian, still in the Great Star Dou Forest. He had Di Tian's communication coordinates—he'd simply never used them.
Soon, a list arrived: a compilation of legendary Fire and Earth-type Fierce Beasts from history.
Gu La scanned it swiftly—and his frown deepened.
The soul beasts on Di Tian's list had indeed ruled their domains. But to Gu La's critical eye, each had fatal flaws—insufficient potential, impure attributes.
Worse: before Di Tian invented the Soul Core cultivation method, most ancient Fierce Beasts could not survive the cataclysmic changes in the world's laws. Their divine bloodlines had long since gone extinct.
"No worthy candidates," Gu La muttered, tossing the list aside. "Fine. For now, I'll use the Celeb martial soul to break through. When I'm strong enough, I'll simply travel to other dimensions or timelines and find a true ancient dragon or elemental spirit as my spirit soul."
The Soul Saint matches concluded.
The Spirit Pagoda's Soul Saint representative, long sheltered in comfort and privilege, lacked the brutal battlefield experience of warriors forged in the War God Hall's blood and fire—or the meticulously trained monsters of Shrek Academy. His performance was underwhelming.
Yet Gu La gained something valuable: he studied every martial soul on display.
One Soul Master, Ning Xi, caught his attention.
Her martial soul was the Star Tracking Compass—capable of subtly predicting an opponent's attack trajectory and soul skill transitions.
To Gu La, this martial soul was more than a prediction tool. It might also share that foresight with allies—akin to Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection Sharing, but weaker. Yet it simultaneously amplified her own awareness of danger. A peculiar, elegant design.
—
The fourth day brought a sudden acceleration.
The Beihai Fleet's engineering teams and vast mining equipment, along with hundreds of laborers, had already arrived. The Federation was desperate to conclude the tournament and begin resource extraction.
Thus, the Soul King, Soul Emperor, and Soul Saint competitions were held simultaneously.
Tang Wulin watched the construction crews—ordinary young men and women, not Soul Masters—setting up temporary shelters, and frowned.
He leaned toward Gu La and whispered:
"The Destruction energy on Demon Island may be gone, but its residual aura still harms the human body. These civilians mining here long-term… it's dangerous."
Gu La glanced at the bustling scene below, unbothered.
"Can't be helped. The island's energy field and magnetic resonance have evolved over a thousand years. No soul guidance device can fully purify it in a short time. The damage to precision Soul Mining equipment is catastrophic."
"Early extraction must rely on human labor, supplemented by heavy machinery resistant to interference. Besides, there are regions rich in Life energy. Rotate the workers—shouldn't be a problem."
He had full confidence in the efficiency of his own and Bai Yuan's energy absorption. The residual threat was negligible.
But he overlooked one detail: the rare metal ores buried deep underground—forged over millennia by the fusion of Destruction and Life energies—might themselves carry subtle, undetectable radiation.
That, of course, was the Federation's problem.
In the days that followed, the once-forbidden Demon Island became a cacophony of industry.
The thunder of soul skills was drowned out by the roar of explosives.
Massive mining machines, guarded by Soul Masters, rolled onto the island. The highest peak was drilled with deep shafts, filled with explosives.
With deafening blasts and towering dust clouds, the mountain was shattered open—revealing veins of colorful ore pulsing with strange, potent energy.
Humanity once again demonstrated its will to conquer nature.
The tournament continued amid the industrial din.
Tang Wulin faced one formidable opponent after another.
First, he met Gu Yue.
From the first moment, she showed no mercy.
Her spatial teleportation rendered her a phantom, effortlessly evading Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon Shocks the Heavens. Elemental fusions—wind fueling fire, earth smothering flame—struck from impossible angles, blanketing the entire arena.
Even with his fifth soul skill, Child of Nature, which drastically enhanced his environmental awareness and soul power recovery, he could not lock onto her true form. Instead, he was battered by relentless, devastating composite soul skills—dust-covered, blood essence surging, helpless.
He possessed overwhelming power—but nowhere to strike. Eventually, he conceded. Gu Yue's command of elements and battle wisdom completely overwhelmed him.
Next, he faced Qing Liuli.
This battle left him even more broken.
Qing Liuli's spiritual power was only slightly higher than Tang Wulin's nascent Spirit Abyss level. But her unique Mind-type Soul was a dimensional downgrade against a soul as pure, emotional, and bound by deep attachments as Tang Wulin's.
His parents' safety—Tang Ziran and Lang Yue.
His sister Na'er's whereabouts.
His quiet affection for his senior sister , Mu Xi.
His bonds with the Shrek Seven Monsters.
His reverence for his masters—Zhuo Shi, Feng Wuyu, Yun Ming.
His duty to Shrek Academy…
All became fissures in his soul—easily exploited.
Yet Qing Liuli, wary of Tang San's divine sense, did not directly torment him with these emotions.
Instead, she dragged his consciousness into a vast, endless desert—of scorching white sand beneath an eternal, blazing sun.
No sound. No life. No sense of time. Only infinite emptiness and solitude.
The purest psychological trial—confronting nothingness.
To Qing Liuli's faint surprise, Tang Wulin's mental resilience was extraordinary. He endured for over a month of external time—tired, restless, yearning for connection—yet never cracked.
"Hmph. You've got something after all. No wonder you're the protagonist," she murmured, smiling faintly. She increased her spiritual output, weaving in more surreal, hallucinatory torment from her past-life memories.
She conjured mirages of oases that vanished upon touch.
She plunged the desert into freezing night.
She whispered false, indistinguishable voices from deep within his mind…
In the end, Tang Wulin's soul power was utterly drained. His spiritual power, exhausted beyond measure, had no choice but to surrender.
Though defeated, his resilience and latent potential left an indelible impression on every observer.
Qing Liuli nodded inwardly. She acknowledged his spirit.
—
When it came time for Gu La's match, he remained seated in the spectator seats—casually sipping a glass of juice.
Under the curious stares of the crowd, his emerald sixth soul ring flickered faintly.
His shadow beneath him stirred like a living thing—elongating, writhing—then detached from the ground, rising into a solid, fully formed duplicate of Gu La himself.
It was the combined effect of his evolved spirit soul's abilities: Fourth soul skill — Forest Avatar, fused with Sixth soul skill — Origin of the Forest.
He could now not only summon avatars from plants, but directly manifest physical duplicates—each possessing half his combat power—using vegetation as a conduit. As long as his soul power lasted, the avatar persisted. Multiple avatars could coexist.
The avatar Gu La stood motionless, face blank, then stepped onto the arena.
His opponent: Gao Zhen, a Soul Emperor from the War God Hall.
Gao Zhen was a towering giant, his skin bronzed, his eyes sharp with battle-lust. His Soul was the Shocking Mountain Rhinoceros—a top-tier beast martial soul famed for its crushing power and seismic attacks.
Three purples, three blacks. His soul rings pulsed with depth.
He wore a Two-word Battle Armor—Vast Mountain—in earthy yellow, amplifying his heavy, immovable aura.
"What's this?" Gao Zhen boomed, voice like thunder. "You send a clone? Are you mocking me?!"
"Defeat me. Or be defeated."
The avatar replied calmly, gesturing with a simple "after you."
"Begin!" the referee confirmed Gu La was not on the field.
Gao Zhen roared and struck first.
First soul ring ignited—Earthshaker!
He slammed his foot down. His body became a rampaging giant rhino, charging with unstoppable fury.
Each step shattered the arena. Tremors radiated outward like physical waves, cracking the ground in jagged fissures.
This shockwave didn't merely cause physical damage—it pierced conventional soul power defenses, directly shaking the opponent's internal organs.
Faced with this unstoppable charge, the avatar remained calm.
He raised both hands slowly, pressing forward.
First soul skill — Endless Forest Realm—activated.
Buzz!
A wave of emerald light surged outward from him, flooding the entire arena.
Where the light passed, the hardened arena floor transformed into fertile soil. Strange plants erupted with impossible speed—sprouting, growing, choking the ground.
Mirror Trees with diamond-hard leaves that reflected energy.
Petrifying Vines—thick as serpents—that absorbed and nullified impact.
Sleeping Mandrakes that released paralyzing pollen.
Pillar Root Trees whose roots sank deep into the earth, stabilizing the ground and dispersing shockwaves.
All were plants whose seeds Gu La had absorbed during the Golden Tree's evolution—now perfectly recreated and accelerated by the realm.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Gao Zhen's violent charge slammed into the sudden jungle.
His seismic waves were instantly absorbed, scattered, and nullified by roots, vines, and leaves.
The force that could split mountains now struck an endless sea of elastic vegetation—its power drained, slowed, sapped.
He felt as if he'd charged into a giant, living net.
"Damn what is this?!"
Gao Zhen's eyes widened—but his experience was vast. He adapted instantly.
His third soul ring ignited—the air trembled.
He swung his fists in rapid succession—not targeting the plants, but the air itself.
Invisible shockwaves passed through the dense foliage, rippling like water toward the avatar.
This attack was weaker—but far more penetrating. Impossible to dodge!
The avatar shifted lightly, floating upward like a leaf carried by wind. A thick vine of Azure Dragon Vine rose beneath him, lifting him.
Simultaneously, several Moonlight Grasses nearby swayed gently, emitting a calming field that neutralized the invisible vibrations.
"Impossible!"
Gao Zhen exploded in fury. This was just a clone!
Fourth soul ring erupted—Mountains Give Way!
His body swelled again. Muscles bulged like boulders. Strength and attack power surged.
His Vast Mountain Battle Armor blazed, merging perfectly with his martial soul. He crossed his arms before him, becoming a true mountain-rhino, and charged again—more violently, more ferociously.
This time, he ignored the vines. Pure, overwhelming force. Pure, amplified shockwaves. He would crush everything before him.
Where he passed, thick plants shattered into dust. The ground was gouged into deep trenches.
Yet the avatar merely watched.
This Endless Forest Realm… was far from finished.
The avatar lifted a finger.
Second soul skill—Myriad Forms of the Forest (1% Power)—activated subtly.
Gao Zhen's vision blurred.
The movement of the plants grew erratic, unpredictable. His sense of time wavered. His focus fractured.
Gu La did not activate the deeper time-warping capabilities—too boring. Too unfair.
Simultaneously, the avatar connected to the third soul skill of the Golden Tree spirit soul—Endless Forest Realm (Semi-Plane).
That semi-plane, now teeming with countless plants, continuously fed pure Life energy—not only nourishing the Golden Tree, but slowly elevating the age of every soul ring in Gu La's second Soul.
Now, the plants in the arena drew energy from this semi-plane.
The plants shattered by Gao Zhen regenerated instantly—stronger, tougher, more attuned to absorbing shockwaves.
Mirror Trees adjusted angles to reflect seismic waves.
Petrifying Vines wrapped around his limbs like ravenous serpents, draining his soul power and force.
Pillar Root Trees channeled the vibration through the arena floor, dispersing it deep into the earth…
Gao Zhen felt he was fighting not a man, but an entire living forest—an endless, regenerating, energy-draining entity.
His charge stalled. Every step became agony. His soul power bled away.
The avatar judged the test complete.
He raised his right hand, palm facing Gao Zhen, trapped within the thicket.
All the plants' energy surged into his palm.
Shhh! Shhh! Shhh!
A thousand emerald wood spikes—each tipped with Ultimate Life energy, razor-sharp—erupted like a storm, filling every escape route.
Gao Zhen roared, channeling maximum shockwaves into his fists, smashing the spikes.
Most shattered.
But a few pierced his armor.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
The spikes didn't rely on penetration. Upon contact, they exploded into thousands of resilient green threads—alive, writhing, wrapping.
Gao Zhen felt his body tighten. The binding force was immense. He thrashed, shattering many threads with his shockwaves—but more sprouted endlessly from the forest, replacing them.
In seconds, he was wrapped in a massive emerald light cocoon—only his head exposed, utterly immobilized.
His soul power was being siphoned away, calmed, neutralized.
Struggle? Futile.
The arena faded.
The forest receded. The ground returned to normal stone—as if the battle had been a dream.
Only the giant emerald cocoon proved it had happened.
The avatar glanced once at the helpless Gao Zhen.
Then his form dissolved, returning to a shadow that slithered back beneath Gu La's feet on the spectator bench—never having been.
The referee blinked, then shouted:
"Victory: Spirit Pagoda—Gu La!"
Silence.
All eyes turned to Gu La—the man still sipping his juice, calm as ever.
Fear flickered in their gazes.
A mere avatar. Not even moving. Had casually defeated a War God Hall Soul Emperor famed for raw strength and defense? This control over forests—unheard of.
Gu La ignored the stares. He was satisfied.
'Good. Endless Forest Realm combined with the semi-plane's energy, plus the unique properties of the exotic plants… effective. From now on, I won't need to fight such opponents myself.'
The Celebi martial soul had evolved into an unprecedented, supreme control-and-summoning system.
And that… was precisely what he wanted.
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