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

Chapter 353 Di Tian's Guilt and Pain
In the past, no one would have thought of carrying out a large-scale hunt for soul beasts.

After all, no one wants to sever their own foundation and completely stifle the future of the Soul Master civilization.

But now, times have changed.

The emergence and rapid popularization of the Sacred Mark system has provided Soul Masters with a brand-new path to power, eliminating the need to hunt Soul Beasts to obtain Soul Rings.

The explosive advancements in Soul Guidance Technology have led to the development of special devices capable of preserving Soul Ring energy, as well as revolutionary technologies that allow non-killers to absorb Soul Rings.

This means that even without living soul beasts, humans can continue to cultivate a new generation of soul masters using the soul rings left over from the past.

Humanity's dependence on spirit beasts has reached its lowest point in history.

This is a good thing in relieving the survival pressure of soul beasts, but it also sows the seeds of huge hidden dangers.

The bad thing is that humans will no longer have any scruples about spirit beasts.

When soul beasts transformed from essential strategic resources into pure threats to the continent's security, the complete annihilation of the Star Dou Great Forest changed from a wild fantasy into a practical strategic option that could be solemnly placed on the table of the Empire's highest military conference.

Xu Jiawei picked up the detailed military map of the Star Luo Empire on the imperial table, and his slender fingers slowly slid across the areas marked with Star Dou Great Forest and Mingdu.

The fall of Shrek City, the chaos in Mingdu, and the inexplicable outbreak of the beast tide.

This series of earth-shattering events, seemingly chaotic and disorderly, subtly points in the same direction.

The Douluo Continent is undergoing an unprecedented upheaval, a massive storm that will completely reshape the landscape.

The Star Luo Empire must find its place in this storm, stand firm, and even rise with the wind.

He sighed softly, unfolded the map again, and his gaze became incredibly profound.

The sunlight outside the window was still bright and shining, illuminating this land that had prospered for thousands of years, but Xu Jiawei knew perfectly well that the old peace of the Douluo Continent had come to an end.

A storm far more violent and massive than the chaos in Mingdu and the destruction of Shrek Academy is quietly descending and sweeping across the world, with these two events serving as its prelude and catalyst.

He and his Star Luo Empire were already at the very center of the storm, with no choice but to go with the flow and sail step by step toward an unknown and unpredictable future.

If the three great empires are truly determined to wipe out the Star Dou Great Forest at all costs, then for ordinary soul beasts other than those ferocious beasts, it will undoubtedly be a true catastrophe of annihilation, a genocide.

The three great empires had a long history and profound cultural heritage.

If we only consider the titled Douluo powerhouses who are officially supported by the royal family, the total number across the three kingdoms exceeds thirty.

Once the war escalates to a matter of racial survival, powerful figures such as the elders of major sects, deans of top academies, and rogue cultivators who usually live in seclusion and are detached from worldly affairs will inevitably be invited out of seclusion, whether for fame, profit, or for the greater good of humanity.

Including these hidden top-tier forces, the number of Title Douluo-level combatants that humanity can mobilize can definitely exceed fifty, or even approach an astonishing three digits.

In this era, humanity has long been the undisputed master of the Douluo Continent, and there is no doubt about that.

Soul beasts may have advantages in individual physical strength and innate abilities, but under the absolute difference in numbers and the overwhelming force of rapidly advancing soul guidance technology, they have no chance of winning.

Although the ferocious beasts are powerful, the Star Dou Great Forest has only a handful of soul beasts at the 100,000-year level. In terms of peak combat strength and quantity, they are absolutely incomparable to the vast group of Title Douluo on the human side.

On the human side, there are various powerful fixed-mounted soul-guided cannons, linked soul-guided devices deployed in the soul master legions, and soul-guided armor for individual combat, among other technological advantages.

The heavy soul-guided cannon array, which can be operated by ordinary soldiers after training, is enough to cause devastating damage to thousand-year-old and ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts when fired in unison.

The crossfire network composed of thousands upon thousands of soul-guided rays can form a death barrier without any blind spots, reaping all low-level soul beasts that dare to charge.

From any rational military perspective, soul beasts are at a complete and absolute disadvantage.

Of course, all these cruel deductions and comparisons are based on the premise that the Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena does not take action.

Unfortunately, the three great empires were unaware of the Silver Dragon King's existence from beginning to end, and even less aware that this soul beast overlord, who had slept for countless years and controlled creation and elements, was the last and strongest trump card upon which the Star Dou Great Forest depended for its survival.

It must be said that the scheme of the Great Lord Huanlong was perfectly ruthless.

She used Di Tian's hand to launch a beast tide, destroying Shrek Academy, the holy land of human soul masters, and successfully planting the seeds of extreme fear and hatred towards soul beasts in the hearts of humans.

On the other hand, the soul beasts, witnessing the tragic scene of their kin lying dead and suffering heavy casualties, naturally reached the peak of their resentment towards humans.

The two sides are now like two piles of dry tinder doused in oil; a mere spark is enough to ignite a full-scale war that would destroy the very foundations of civilization across the continent. While the three great empires are busily deploying troops to form a strategic encirclement of the Star Dou Great Forest, the atmosphere at the heart of the Star Dou Great Forest, by the Lake of Life, is oppressively tense, almost suffocating.

Di Tian, ​​who had been temporarily imprisoned by Gan Yu with extreme ice, has already broken free of the ice.

The moment Huanlong's consciousness left his body, the beast god used all his mental and willpower to frantically fight against the destructive imprint and manipulative techniques that Huanlong had left deep in his soul.

It took several hours before he finally managed to break free from the terrible mental restraints and regain control of his body.

But before leaving, Huanlong bestowed upon him an even more malevolent gift, planting it deep within his flesh and spirit.

At this moment, Di Tian had transformed into human form. His tattered black robe made his face appear as pale as paper, devoid of any color.

He knelt on one knee on the damp lakeside mud, his right hand pressing hard against his head, veins bulging on his forehead like twisted earthworms, his entire face contorted with extreme pain at the soul level.

Before him stood Gu Yuena, her long silver-white dress trailing on the ground, her figure graceful and serene, quietly by the shimmering lake. Her purple eyes were as deep as an ancient, cold pool, so calm that no emotion could be seen.

"My lord... it was my incompetence, my carelessness and underestimation of the enemy that led me to be controlled by external evil, resulting in... a colossal mistake..."

Di Tian's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper being rubbed, and every word he uttered was filled with pain and self-blame.

"Because of me, tens of thousands of my kinsmen have died tragically, and the vitality of our clan has been greatly damaged... I, the Emperor, deserve to die a thousand deaths. I beg you, my lord, to grant me death, so that my blood may... comfort the spirits of my kinsmen in heaven."

Bi Ji, the Demon King, Xiong Jun, and other ferocious beasts who had transformed into human form looked at Di Tian kneeling and begging for death with complex and indescribable expressions on their faces.

They had learned part of the truth from their master, understanding that the order to launch that devastating beast tide did not come from Gu Yuena, but was the result of Di Tian being tragically controlled.

Di Tian himself was an innocent victim, but the enormous losses suffered by the soul beast race were a bloody reality.

Brigitte's emerald eyes were filled with unbearable sorrow. She opened her mouth, wanting to plead for Di Tian, ​​but when she met Gu Yuena's cold, emotionless purple eyes, the words she was about to say were swallowed back down.

Before this supreme ruler of soul beasts, no one dared to utter a single word without her permission.

At this moment, Di Tian truly wanted to die.

As the guardian and manager of the Star Dou Great Forest for countless years, he personally pushed the race he was protecting to the brink of destruction, and this profound sense of guilt almost crushed his will.

However, even with such a strong will honed over hundreds of thousands of years, Di Tian would not completely collapse and seek death.

Rather than escaping through death, he is more likely to choose to atone for his sins by performing good deeds and spending the rest of his life in repentance.

The real reason he was driven to despair and even sought death was the destructive mark that Huanlong had deeply implanted in his body before Huanlong left, a mark that was like a malignant tumor clinging to his bones.

This brand has penetrated deep into his bones, corroded his soul core, and entangled his spirit.

After being possessed by Huanlong, he strangely gained a destructive attribute filled with deathly stillness and destruction, in addition to his original dark attribute, and his strength increased dramatically as a result.

But the price of gaining this power is that the soul is constantly subjected to the mad ravings and erosion of the will to destroy.

Those whispers, like billions of venomous snakes, hissed incessantly in his mind day and night, tempting him to give up resistance and completely embrace the path of destruction, utterly crushing the vibrant Douluo Continent civilization before him and reducing it to nothingness.

At this moment, he could still forcefully suppress it with the immense spiritual power and unwavering will accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years of arduous cultivation, but he didn't know how much longer his broken body could hold on.

Once his willpower defenses crumble and he falls into complete depravity, he will transform into the vanguard of the antimatter legion's destruction. What terrible disaster will that bring to the already severely damaged soul beast race?

Therefore, Di Tian would rather end his life than become a butcher's knife in the hands of his enemies again, wielded against his own compatriots.

The Soul Beast race can no longer withstand any internal attacks or storms.

"My lord, we have just received definite intelligence that the three great human empires have amassed a large number of elite troops and completely sealed off all known exit routes of the Star Dou Great Forest."

"Their Soul Master Legion is building defensive fortifications on the perimeter, and various large-caliber fixed-mount Soul Guidance Cannons have been set up, with their muzzles all pointing towards the core of the forest. Judging from their posture, they may launch a full-scale attack on us at any time."

Just then, the Demon King, who was in charge of perimeter security and intelligence, stepped forward, knelt on one knee, and reported in an extremely solemn tone.

"Damn humans, they've gone too far!"

The most violent of them all, Xiong Jun, slammed his fist into the ground with such force that the earth trembled. His eyes were bloodshot as he let out a deafening roar.

(End of this chapter)