After a cautious yet meticulous investigation, the top-ranked Titled Douluo from the three great empires used their vast experience and powerful perception to roughly reconstruct the remnants of this brutal battlefield.
The conclusion was suffocating—the city that had stood for ten thousand years and was hailed as the continent's greatest was, in the physical sense, completely erased.
At the same time, they discovered numerous traces left by soul beasts as they fled in panic toward the Star Dou Forest, along with countless soul beast corpses along the way. This undeniably confirmed the reality of the beast tide and the catastrophic losses it had suffered.
"The only thing we can't determine now is whether Bright Phoenix Douluo Yan Shaozhe, Martial God Douluo Xian Lin'er, Black Dragon Douluo Qian Duoduo and the others… are alive or dead."
Skyhawk Douluo's voice carried a faint, hard-to-detect weariness and regret.
"And then… how exactly was this apocalyptic scene created?"
Sunward Douluo's brows knit tightly, his expression extremely grave. He crouched and scooped up a handful of charred soil imbued with bizarre energy. After sensing it carefully, he let it trickle through his fingers.
"Could it be… a rank-nine fixed-mounted soul-guided shell? But that doesn't make sense! Aside from the Sun–Moon Empire, our three empires simply don't possess such strategic superweapons—and the soul beasts of Star Dou Forest are even less likely to."
He stood and swept his gaze over the limitless expanse of devastation, his voice growing heavier.
"Moreover, look at the scope and the eerie calm of the destruction… To so thoroughly wipe Shrek City and its defenses off the map, leaving nothing alive and producing this… this near-annihilative effect—it would likely take over fifty rank-nine fixed-mounted soul-guided shells detonating simultaneously at a single point. That's simply impossible."
"Heh…"
A Titled Douluo from the Dou Ling Empire let out an involuntary dry chuckle, trying to cut through the suffocating heaviness.
"It couldn't be that Shrek Academy used fifty rank-nine shells on itself, right?"
His joke drew no response. Silence persisted, broken only by the wind howling over the abyss.
Awkward, the man rubbed his nose and wisely shut up.
Everyone present felt the same crushing weight; nobody had the mind for levity.
At that moment, a Titled Douluo of the Heavenly Soul Empire seemed to recall something and said, "On our way here, we encountered several caravans of civilians retreating from the direction of Shrek City. When questioned, they said they received an emergency notice from Shrek Academy and were ordered to evacuate. As for what happened later in the city, they knew nothing—only that alarms were wailing and the energy fluctuations in the distance were terrifying."
Hearing this, Sunward Douluo rubbed his chin, thoughtful.
"Evacuating civilians… That suggests the upper echelons of Shrek Academy anticipated the city might not hold and made the worst preparations and personnel withdrawals in advance. If so, they must have had a backhand plan—the academy's core forces… there may be survivors."
A glint flashed in his eyes.
"If we can find survivors, perhaps we can unravel the mystery of what happened here."
"Search more carefully."
Skyhawk Douluo spoke in a deep voice. His gaze, sharp as an eagle's, probed every lingering trace of energy in the air.
"And pay attention to the residual auras around us… extremely domineering, suffused with pure destruction—and… exceptionally strange."
As the strongest cultivator present and the keenest sensor, his feelings were the most acute.
He extended his hand; a faint halo of soul power gathered at his fingertips as he carefully touched the subtle ripples of energy still not fully dissipated. Confusion and dread spread across his face.
"This doesn't resemble the residual energy of any known soul tool explosion… It lacks that violent, mixed turbulence. Instead, it feels more like an… ultimate, destruction-laden force. If I had to say…"
Skyhawk Douluo lifted his head toward the deep sky, incredulity thick in his tone.
"…it's more like the impact of a colossal meteor falling from the heavens, carrying a will to destroy."
"How is that possible?!"
Sunward Douluo blurted, frowning, shaking his head vigorously, unwilling to accept the notion.
"Even if a meteor fell from the sky, how could it be so coincidental—striking Shrek City dead-on? And if it really was a meteor strike, where are the fragments? Even the most ordinary meteoritic iron should have left traces, right?"
He pointed to the glossy, abyssal black chasm below—bottomless—and to the surrounding expanse of lifeless, charred ground that seemed drained of all vital essence, his tone ever more certain.
"Look at this site. Does any of it resemble a meteor impact? Every meteor fall leaves a crater and scattered fragments, sometimes even birthing new mineral veins. But here? Nothing but destruction—so clean it's hair-raising."
The more he spoke, the more absurd it sounded, and even a touch of self-mockery crept into his voice.
"Don't tell me some being kneaded a meteor by hand, then hurled it down with perfect accuracy, and at the moment of impact unleashed all its power—annihilating the meteor along with Shrek City so thoroughly there wasn't even a speck left?"
Sunward Douluo looked around at the other Titled Douluo, whose faces were equally uncertain, and spread his hands.
"Power like that… frankly, even the so-called gods in legend might not achieve something so absolute and so… 'clean,' right? How could such an inconceivable existence be on the Douluo Continent?"
"Speculation in a vacuum is pointless."
Just then, Heavenfiend Douluo Huang Jinxu of the Star Luo Empire slowly lowered the communication soul device he'd been gripping. His face was unusually pale, his voice low and hoarse.
"News just in: our Third Soul Master Legion's vanguard encountered… a group of Shrek Academy survivors on the way here. Judging by their attire, they should be inner court disciples. They're being escorted this way."
"Found them!"
Sunward Douluo's brow lifted, a look of inevitability flashing in his eyes.
"I knew it. With Shrek Academy's ten-thousand-year foundation, it wouldn't be so easily exterminated. There must be embers left."
The news steadied him. If they could find survivors—especially core members like inner court disciples—perhaps all mysteries could be unraveled.
However, no one noticed that as Heavenfiend Douluo Huang Jinxu reported, his gaze involuntarily swept the pitch-black abyss again, and deep in his eyes flashed a terror he could barely suppress.
His martial soul was the exceptionally unique Lone Star of Heaven, granting him a sensitivity to star power far beyond ordinary people.
Moments ago, at the edge of that dead abyss, he had clearly sensed two interwoven auras that made the soul shudder.
One was an unknown power—ice-cold, sinister, imbued with a pure will of destruction. The other… was all too familiar to him.
It was the vast, desolate power of the stars that belonged to the heavens beyond.
In other words, the seemingly absurd conjecture of Skyhawk Douluo… was likely true!
The culprit behind Shrek City's utter disappearance might really have been a "meteor."
But precisely because he sensed this, Huang Jinxu felt a bone-deep chill.
There were no meteor fragments.
What did that imply?
It meant that at the instant the meteor fulfilled its mission of destruction, it too was simultaneously annihilated by some even more terrifying power.
This was no natural disaster.
The thought that there existed some unknown, terrifying being capable of manipulating—or even fabricating—falling stars and perfectly controlling their power made Huang Jinxu's blood feel like ice.
Such methods were entirely beyond his comprehension. In his understanding, perhaps only those nebulous, mythical gods… could accomplish such a feat?
No divine sign had appeared on the Douluo Continent for ten thousand years, and Huang Jinxu had no way of knowing how strong a god truly was.
But he was certain of one thing: even Di Tian, the so-called strongest on the continent and the first among the Ten Great Savage Beasts, could never wield such world-altering, city-ending might with a single thought.
If Di Tian had that power, why would the soul beasts still be huddled within the Star Dou Forest?
It wasn't long before a dense mass of figures appeared on the distant horizon—several thousand in number.
As they drew closer, it became clear that a Star Luo Empire soul master legion was escorting a group of young men and women. Their clothes were somewhat tattered, but their bearing was extraordinary.
At the forefront were the surviving Shrek inner court disciples: the Golden Crow Saintess Wu Ming, Chu Qingtian, Hua Yao, Mo Xuan, Ye Liu, and others.
"The Academy… the Academy… really… disappeared?!"
When Wu Ming and the others looked past their escorts and clearly saw the vast abyss of ominous death that had replaced the once-magnificent city, her legs gave way and she fell to her knees with a thud. The color drained from her pretty face, leaving only endless shock and blankness.
Not just her—Chu Qingtian, Hua Yao, Mo Xuan, Ye Liu… all the inner court disciples who had survived by chance felt as if struck by lightning when they saw their homeland utterly erased. Their faces were filled with a grief beyond words and disbelief that defied expression.
...
Bonus chapter at 100 PS