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Everyone was striving to grow stronger. Under Lan Minghua's guidance, Oscar's sword cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.
The technique "Twin Sleeves of Green Serpents" was notoriously difficult, yet with exceptional talent and perseverance, Oscar began to grasp its fundamentals after several months.
Day after day, on the back mountain, Oscar swung his sword relentlessly. From time to time, he could now unleash two cyan sword auras that coiled like swimming dragons—the very essence of the technique. Though far from the earth-shaking power Lan Minghua could display, it already surpassed soul skills from many ten-thousand-year soul rings by several tiers.
Just as Oscar began to think about asking Lan Minghua for the next technique, a sandal came flying straight at his face.
Smack!
It hit him square in the nose, the force sending him flying backward. A scarlet shoeprint immediately bloomed on his face where he lay.
"Don't come pestering me the moment you make a sliver of progress. Until you have cultivated Twin Sleeves of Green Serpents to my satisfaction, I will not teach you the next move."
Lounging lazily on a tree branch, Lan Minghua had thrown the sandal purely to knock Oscar down a peg.
Oscar touched the shoeprint, and a sharp spike of pain made him suck in a breath. "Hiss— Master, you hit too hard. Any more force and your disciple would have exploded!"
"If your mind is not still, what sword can you practice? If you find my methods too strict, I can always teach someone else."
Lan Minghua had barely finished speaking when Oscar scrambled to apologize. "No, no, Master! I was just venting. I'll practice, I'll get right back to it!"
"Then get to it! If you can't even defeat Tang San later on, we'll see if I don't tan your hide!"
At the same time, Zhu Zhuqing's strength was also skyrocketing. Assassination was already her specialty, and under Qi's tutelage, she became a true master of the art. When Lan Minghua took the time to assess her progress, he found she now moved with the refined grace of a top-tier assassin, her strikes as swift as a comet and as precise as a diving eagle. After all, when it came to the path of the assassin, no one on the continent could compare to Qi.
As for Feng Xiaotian, he was cultivating alongside Yunshan. He had always enjoyed creating his own soul skills, but it was only by Yunshan's side that he understood what it meant to be a firefly before the bright moon. This only further convinced him that he had chosen the right mentor.
When Lan Minghua found Feng Xiaotian once again tinkering with his shoddy "Gale Thirty-Six Consecutive Slashes," his temper flared. He immediately dragged the boy out for a sound thrashing and warned him to focus on proper cultivation, reminding him that raising his soul power was paramount.
Although an immortal herb had boosted Feng Xiaotian's rank to around forty-eight or forty-nine, if he continued to neglect his training, it wouldn't be long before Oscar and the others surpassed him again. To prevent this, Lan Minghua set strict soul power milestones for him to achieve within specific timeframes. If he failed, he was forbidden from working on his self-created skills.
Feng Xiaotian had no choice. He knew well how he had previously wasted his cultivation time on these creations. Otherwise, with his innate full soul power as described in the original tale, he wouldn't have been stuck at only rank forty-five in his early twenties. Thus, increasing his soul power became his top priority, with his "broken" homemade skills taking a distant second.
As for Dugu Yan and the others, they had no lack of teachers. The Heavenly Dragon Gang had over a dozen Titled Douluo; if they had a question, they could ask any one of them. Lan Minghua didn't play favorites, either. Whenever he had free time after instructing Oscar, he would teach the others techniques to enhance their strength. The collective power of his disciples was rising at a steady and solid pace.
Of course, they were not the only ones. On Seagod Island, Tang San and Dai Mubai, and in Spirit Hall, Qian Renxue and Bibi Dong, were all advancing rapidly. With the return of Tang Chen, the forces opposing the Heavenly Dragon Gang grew even stronger. Including Tang Chen, their side now had three Limit Douluo, a perfect match for Yunshan, Wu Song, and Qi.
In addition to them, Tang San, Qian Renxue, and Bibi Dong were all progressing swiftly through their divine trials. The gods had lowered the difficulty of their inheritances, allowing the three of them to advance with almost unnatural ease.
In truth, besides the three who were openly undergoing divine trials, many second and third-tier gods, under pressure from the Five God-Kings, were leaving their inheritances across the continent. While these inheritances were not enough to grant godhood upon completion, they could elevate their recipients to the level of Super Douluo.
For a time, Titled Douluo began to spring up across the continent like bamboo shoots after a spring rain. Humanity's collective strength reached an unprecedented peak.
As a direct result, the soul beast clans suffered a devastating blow. The second and third-tier gods had been forced to leave their inheritances, which meant there were no god-gifted soul rings. The inheritors had to hunt for the rings themselves.
This, too, was part of the Five God-Kings' plan. They wanted to determine if Lan Minghua was truly the reincarnation of the Dragon God. If he was, they could find his weakness and destroy him. If not, they could at least put their suspicions to rest.
Lan Minghua saw through the God-Kings' scheme, though he didn't understand why they connected him to the soul beasts. Still, the soul beast clans represented a formidable power worth saving. He was not blind; he knew what was happening on the continent. In the last few months alone, the number of Titled Douluo had increased by no less than ten.
To put this in perspective, in the original storyline, the total number of Titled Douluo never exceeded sixty, with most belonging to Spirit Hall, Seagod Island, and the Shrek Seven Devils. Among the other powers, only the Clear Sky Sect had several, while the rest had one or two at most. So, when over a dozen new Titled Douluo suddenly appeared, Lan Minghua knew someone was pulling the strings.
Of course, he couldn't protect the soul beasts from all harm. Instead, he had Di Tian awaken the other great ferocious beasts and gather all soul beasts of fifty-thousand-year cultivation or higher. This was to prevent them from being picked off individually to become soul rings that would further empower humans. Yet, there were always soul beasts that cherished their freedom and rushed toward their own demise. Lan Minghua did not stop them.
His actions left the Asura God and the others deeply puzzled, unable to determine if he truly had a connection to the Dragon God. But they did not dwell on it. No matter who Lan Minghua was, he was marked for death. Anyone whose power threatened their own had to be eliminated.
For now, however, with his true strength still unknown, they could not unleash their full power in the mortal realm. Their only option was to use the new inheritors to kill everyone Lan Minghua cared about, forcing him to ascend to the Divine Realm.
The Divine Realm was their domain. There, they could wield their full power, and Lan Minghua's strength would likely be suppressed by the realm's laws. Without a divine seat, one could not stand firm in the Divine Realm and would be crushed by its rules. This was precisely why all Five God-Kings had approved of the Sea God's plan to force Lan Minghua to ascend.
Time flew. Two years passed in the blink of an eye. In that short period, no fewer than fifty new Titled Douluo had emerged on the continent. The Star Luo Empire, in particular, gained thirty new Titled Douluo, making it the most powerful force for a time.
This surge in power also gave birth to ambition in the heart of Emperor Dai Yutian—the ambition to unify the continent. It wasn't entirely his fault. For two years, both Spirit Hall and the rising Heavenly Dragon Empire had remained completely quiet. Previously, Dai Yutian had kept his ambitions in check because his empire lacked the strength. But with numerous "fortuitous encounters" strengthening Star Luo's national power, ambition naturally took root.
At this very moment, inside the Star Luo imperial palace, a man who appeared to be in his prime sat upon the dragon throne, laughing wildly. He was none other than the Emperor of the Star Luo Empire, Dai Yutian.
"Hahaha! My soul power has reached Rank 95! Truly, Heaven intends to exalt my Star Luo Empire!"
(End of Chapter)