Douluo Unrivaled: The Beginning Materializes the Black Abyss and White Flowers

Chapter 119 The Five Commanders, Lu Qingluan
Severely injured, Gu Yuena could only cautiously hide in the alternate dimension of the Star Dou Great Forest, daring not to make the slightest move, because the Douluo Continent was right under the nose of the God Realm.

In the original story, Gu Yue awakens after ten thousand years, by which time the soul beast race has been nearly extinct.

If the divine realm hadn't been swept away by the spatial-temporal turbulence, she probably wouldn't have even had the chance to take revenge on humanity.

The Douluo Continent has three major gathering places for soul beasts: the Star Dou Great Forest, the Far North, and the Demon Forest.

The fortune of the Starry Sky Forest is concentrated in the Emperor Beast, the fortune of the far north is centered on the Snow Emperor, and the fortune of the Demon Forest revolves around the Evil Emperor.

In the end, however, the Imperial Beast sacrificed itself to Huo Yuhao, and the Snow Empress and the Evil Emperor also became Huo Yuhao's soul spirits, which he took to the God Realm.

The fact that most of the fortune of a race was harvested and taken to the God Realm shows that the Soul Beast race was not completely wiped out after ten thousand years. The Beast God Di Tian has done everything in his power.

The first ruler of the soul beast race on the Douluo Continent was the Dragon God, and the Douluo Continent, as the Dragon God's homeland, bears witness to the origin and rise and fall of the soul beast race.

However, when the Dragon God fell, he set a strict rule in this vast star system: no soul beast was allowed to become a god until the next Dragon God returned.

This regulation is like an invisible shackle, tightly binding the development of the Soul Beast race. Even powerful beings like Di Tian, ​​who once followed the Dragon God, have had their path to godhood blocked by this prohibition. This is the root cause of the Soul Beast race's current predicament.

Soul beasts are born with long lifespans, and in the distant past, there was no such thing as a 100,000-year heavenly tribulation.

But the Dragon God's decision before his death plunged the entire Soul Beast race into utter ruin.

After that, every time a soul beast broke through its cultivation level, it would face a terrifying heavenly tribulation, and becoming a god was even more difficult than ascending to heaven.

With his profound accumulation and powerful strength, the Beast God Di Tian already possessed the conditions to become a god, yet he was still rejected from the door to godhood countless times.

The rise of human soul masters has made the survival of the soul beast race even more precarious.

Human Soul Masters must hunt Soul Beasts to obtain Soul Rings in order to break through their cultivation level. This is undoubtedly a cruel rule specifically designed for the Soul Beast race.

Under these circumstances, the number of soul beasts has decreased dramatically, and their living space has been continuously compressed.

In fact, Lu Jingming does possess a method that allows human soul masters to obtain soul rings and achieve breakthroughs without hunting soul beasts.

However, this method is neither the Fusion Warrior surgery—this technique is too special for him to disclose to the public casually.

It is not the Soul Spirit Technique. The core of the Soul Spirit Technique is the master-servant contract created by Elex. On the surface, the Soul Spirit Technique seems to have brought some benefits to Soul Beasts, such as giving them another way to exist.

However, in reality, it further fueled humanity's greed for soul beasts, causing humans to hunt soul beasts even more relentlessly to create soul spirits, causing even deeper harm to the soul beast race.

Lu Jingming's method is completely different from that of the spirits, but he is not in a hurry to make it public because the time is not yet ripe.

At dawn, the first rays of sunlight gently fell like silk threads between the skyscrapers of Haiyuan City, bathing this modern city in a warm glow.

On this day, the highly anticipated 2024 All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Battle Tournament is about to officially begin.

For a time, the skies above Haiyuan City were bustling with activity, with countless soul-guided airships shuttling among them, their hulls covered with colorful promotional posters, creating a frenzy of hype for this grand event.

The posters featured portraits of contestants from various colleges, drawing crowds below who stopped to look up, their eyes filled with anticipation.

The atmosphere was equally lively at the entrance of the Daydream Hotel.

A row of city guards, clad in gleaming soul-guided armor and wielding advanced soul-guided devices, stood ramrod straight.

They formed an impenetrable human wall, keeping countless enthusiastic people outside and carefully clearing a wide, straight road leading directly to the competition venue for the teams about to enter.

Crowds crowded outside the blockade, eagerly anticipating the arrival of these talented Soul Masters from all over the continent.

This year's Soul Master Competition is unprecedented in scale, with more than one hundred participating teams.

Each team consists of at least fifteen members, including the main players, reserve members, and the team leader. This means that the total number of participants can reach over a thousand.

To ensure the smooth running of the event and the orderly entry of participants, the teams were divided into multiple batches and proceeded to the competition venue in turn.

Just as everyone was eagerly anticipating the arrival of the general, a female general dressed in black soul-guided light armor strode in with a vigorous and heroic air.

She wore a bright red cloak that fluttered with her steps, like a burning flame.

This person is none other than Lu Qingluan, one of the five commanders of the Golden Guard of Haiyuan City.

Behind her stood hundreds of Golden Guards, also clad in black Soul Guidance Armor, standing in neat rows, exuding an imposing aura.

The powerful aura emanating from them shook the surrounding crowd, and the noise subsided.

Upon seeing the exquisitely designed and technologically advanced soul-guided armor worn by the Golden Guard in front of them, Xiao Hongchen and the others from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy had their pupils shrink sharply, and their hearts were filled with shock.

Because they keenly perceived that the soul-guided armor worn by the Golden Guards far surpassed the soul-guided armor equipped by the five guardians of the Sun Moon Empire, both in terms of the quality of the materials and the exquisite details of the design. This undoubtedly demonstrated the powerful strength of Haiyuan City in the field of soul-guided technology.

"What a cool older sister!" In the Shrek team, Xiao Xiao's bright eyes sparkled with longing, expressing her admiration for Lu Qingluan without any attempt to hide it.

In her eyes, Lu Qingluan was like a female war goddess, majestic and awe-inspiring, inspiring admiration.

"So powerful!" Bei Bei and the others looked solemn. They could clearly feel the powerful aura emanating from Lu Qingluan and the Golden Guards behind her. This female general, who looked to be only in her early twenties, possessed unfathomable strength. What was even more shocking was that the aura of each of the Golden Guards behind her was in no way weaker than that of them, the elite students of Shrek Academy. This gave them a new understanding of the strength of Haiyuan City.

"It's a Soul Saint!" In the Shrek team, Ma Xiaotao's eyes were sharp, and with her profound cultivation, she keenly judged Lu Qingluan's strength level.

This discovery surprised his teammates.

On the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy side, Xiao Hongchen and the others also heard Ma Xiaotao's words, and their eyes all turned to the Shrek Academy team.

His eyes held both doubt and seriousness.

What's puzzling is that the Shrek team's personnel composition is clearly off. Apart from Wang Yan, who looks like the team leader, there are only three other players who, judging from their ages, seem to be regular members.

Among the other team members, the oldest, Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi, are only about the same age as Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen.

What made them uneasy was that Ma Rulong, the highest-ranking member of their team, failed to discern Lu Qingluan's strength, while Ma Xiaotao of the Shrek team saw through it at a glance. Such an obvious difference made them wary and take Shrek Academy seriously.

Lu Qingluan seemed oblivious to the subtle tension and hostility between the two academies.

With a calm expression, she turned around and addressed the participating teams behind her in a clear and powerful voice: "Greetings, fellow participants. I am Lu Qingluan, one of the five commanders of the Golden Guard of Haiyuan City. I will be escorting you to the competition venue this time. Please follow me."

After saying that, she walked steadily toward the outside of Haiyuan City.

Hundreds of guards quickly dispersed, surrounding the contestants tightly in the center, like stars surrounding the moon, escorting them toward the competition venue.

Along the way, outside the blockade formed by the city guards, countless enthusiastic spectators were curiously and excitedly observing the contestants.

When they saw the teams from Shrek Academy and Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, the atmosphere instantly reached a climax. The audience cheered excitedly, with shouts and screams rising and falling.

These two academies are renowned throughout the entire Douluo Continent and are widely recognized as the favorites to win this year's competition.

Even before the competition began, people were already discussing it heatedly, speculating whether St. Freya Academy would continue its legend, Shrek Academy would avenge its previous defeat and regain its former glory, or Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy would suddenly make a strong comeback as a dark horse.

At this time, the population of Haiyuan City had exceeded five million and was still increasing.

Such a massive flow of people has injected strong momentum into the city's economic development, and countless businessmen have seized this rare opportunity to make a fortune.

Hotels and restaurants, in particular, are booming with business, packed with people.

"Are we... going to the beach?" Meng Hongchen asked, puzzled, as she followed the group.

She keenly noticed that the road they were on was stretching all the way towards the sea.

Could the competition venue actually be by the sea? This guess filled her with curiosity and anticipation.

Huo Yuhao and the others exchanged bewildered glances, their eyes filled with confusion.

They never expected that Haiyuan City would not set the competition venue inside the city, but instead chose the seaside.

What deeper meaning lies behind this? Their hearts were filled with curiosity and confusion.

Lu Qingluan, who was leading the way, had a slight smile on her lips, revealing a mysterious and confident expression.

She secretly looked forward to it, eager to see the utterly shocked expressions on the faces of the contestants when they saw the competition venue; that would be very interesting.

"My God! What is this?"

"Brother, this isn't a hallucination, is it?"

"Don't ask me, I don't know!"

"I, this."

When the contestants finally arrived at the beach with Lu Qingluan, everyone stood there stunned, their faces filled with shock and disbelief.

They rubbed their eyes vigorously, afraid that what they were seeing was a hallucination.

What appeared before them was an unprecedentedly huge building on the sea, and a dense crowd of onlookers on the shore.

A rough estimate suggests that there were at least a million onlookers, who completely surrounded the coastline, creating a spectacular scene.

"Welcome to the Eye of the Abyss. This is the venue for this year's Soul Master Competition, and it is also the pinnacle of our Abyss City's Soul Guidance Technology."

Lu Qingluan turned around and faced the contestants behind her who were still in shock, and introduced them with pride and joy.

Her voice was clear and resonant, carrying an undisguised pride and arrogance.

At this moment, even Meng Hongchen and the others from the Sun Moon Empire, which had the most advanced soul guidance technology, were stunned, their jaws nearly dropping to the ground.

(End of this chapter)