Do not make those who love you sad, because in this world, although there are very few people you love, the people who love you will absolutely not be many.
Xu Sanshi only felt that his heart was about to explode. He panted heavily, feeling that he would lose control at any moment and plunge down from the sky.
The apocalyptic anomalies of the Douluo Continent entered his sight, but he did not care about any of this. In the unseen world, it was as if someone was strangling his throat. That desperate feeling of suffocation made him completely unable to spare any attention to care about other things.
"Damn it! Even after becoming a god, he could not perform ultra-long-distance teleportation…"
Traversing the panicked and uneasy territory of the Sun Moon Empire, traversing the silent mountains, flying forward against the rainstorm and fierce winds, he only prayed to make it in time!
Today, he finally understood. He understood why only he felt that Tang Wutong looked like Jiang Nannan. Because although she was beautiful, she was not the person deep in his heart. Most of the time, when he interacted with Tang Wutong, there would be an inexplicable sense of fragmentation.
Only when looking at Jiang Nannan did his heart seem to come alive like a dragon being painted with its eyes. In those moments when their eyes met, the part deep in Xu Sanshi's soul that was truly himself was alive.
At this time, the sky of the Douluo Continent was shrouded by thick, ink-like dark clouds, as if it were the angry face of heaven. Fierce winds howled, rolling up dust and crushed stones. The entire world fell into a state of chaos.
Those once prosperous cities were now ruined walls, and the streets were filled with an aura of despair. People looked up at the sky in horror, their hearts filled with endless fear.
The territories of various sects, the Body Sect, the Earth Dragon Gate, the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect... all suffered unprecedented heavy losses. Buildings collapsed, and the sect protection arrays were tottering.
In the Star Dou Great Forest, the powerful soul beasts also felt the arrival of the apocalypse. They roared uneasily, but could not change this impending doom.
The ocean set off terrifying waves, submerging large areas of land. The originally beautiful coastline was now only a vast expanse of water.
The earth trembled, mountains collapsed, and the ground cracked. Magma spewed out from under the ground, as if wanting to swallow the entire world.
The laws of the Douluo Continent began to collapse, and the flow of soul power became disordered and chaotic. Countless soul masters in this chaos desperately tried to unleash their martial souls, only to find that the power of their martial souls was also gradually disappearing.
In the sky, huge spatial rifts appeared one after another, like the dark giant mouths of the universe, wanting to swallow the entire Douluo Continent.
Some white-haired elders looked at this apocalyptic scene, tears streaming down their old faces: "Is the Douluo Continent really going to be destroyed?"
The mountains in this area were silvery-white, and the stones were also silvery-white. As far as the eye could see, there were withered trees. Xu Sanshi saw some corpses hanging on the trees, and the initial fear could vaguely be seen from their withered expressions.
What exactly happened here? And how was Jiang Nannan?
He tightly gripped the Sea God Trident in his hand, resisting the torrential rain pouring over his head. At the moment he was about to arrive at that mine, he noticed a figure ahead.
Huo Yuhao stood by the mine, wearing black mourning clothes and holding a large black umbrella. He was obviously waiting for Xu Sanshi, seeming to have waited for a very, very long time.
This demon king who shook the continent was surprisingly quiet. This was the first time Xu Sanshi had seen such an expression on his face.
Indifferent and regretful, like going to attend the funeral of a distant relative.
The two looked at each other from a distance, the rainwater pattering against Huo Yuhao's umbrella.
"Senior Sanshi, you are late. The performance has already ended," Huo Yuhao said faintly, the sea of stars seemingly revolving in his eyes.
"Spiritual clone?" After Xu Sanshi inherited the Sea God position, his eyesight was naturally different from before, but he still did not dare to underestimate Huo Yuhao. At least for a long time before, he had never placed himself and the other party on the two sides of the same scale.
"Come with me, I will take you to understand the truth. Since you have become a god, you should know the concept of thought concretization." Huo Yuhao chuckled. Regardless of whether Xu Sanshi would follow, he took the lead and walked into the mine entrance.
Xu Sanshi had now become a deity. Although he had not yet completely mastered the abilities of the Sea God, he would not be too apprehensive facing a spiritual body of Huo Yuhao. Thus, he followed inside with slight vigilance.
Through Huo Yuhao's spiritual simulation, the interior of this mine was deliberately transformed into a medium-sized theater with three levels of audience seats. The seats were all pure red, revealing a royal-like grace and elegance. The stage was also brightly lit. The set was a golden well, but the bottom of the well was blood-red, with various demons and ghosts crawling on the walls, seemingly symbolizing hell.
"You always manage to come up with some tricks." Such a scene made Xu Sanshi click his tongue in wonder. He had never seen these novel sets anywhere on the Douluo Continent.
The audience seats were completely empty, as if Huo Yuhao had booked the entire venue. However, the sound of instruments tuning came from backstage, as if the actors were making final preparations. The sound of a bronze bell rang outside the theater. Xu Sanshi understood this. He had been to the opera house in Heaven Dou; there, before the performance started, waiters would also ring bronze bells to urge guests to take their seats, indicating the performance would begin at any time.
"The performance hasn't started yet." Xu Sanshi let out an inexplicable sigh of relief.
Huo Yuhao did not speak, leading him to sit in the seat right in the center of the audience. Looking out in all directions, there were red seatbacks; they seemed to be sitting in the center of a red sea.
The lights dimmed. In the darkness, the stage became increasingly bright. With the sound of a snare drum, the performance officially began. The first to appear was an old man wearing a tailcoat and a bright purple shirt. He made his debut dancing strange steps. When the dance ended, the light hit his face, revealing Herzog's face.
Xu Sanshi didn't know Herzog at all. He looked curiously at Huo Yuhao beside him, not knowing what trick he planned to play. Huo Yuhao didn't respond, just focusing attentively on this mash-up kabuki play.
Fortunately, the introduction to this performance was placed right next to the seat. Xu Sanshi read the introduction by the light on the stage. The identities of the actors were all clearly written on it, including the first half of Elder Herzog's life.
Next to appear were Yu Tianlong and the disciples of the Sky Dragon Gate. The scene of sudden conflict between the two sides was also extremely explosive, which could be called flesh and blood flying, making Xu Sanshi feel a bit uncomfortable but still acceptable. If it was just a performance, no matter how bloody or violent, it was only fake.
However, Jiang Nannan's appearance surprised him greatly. The limited-edition dress she was wearing was clearly the one he bought in the noble market in the center of Shrek City in order to pursue her. He still remembered when he bought it, the clerk said it was a limited-edition item, the only one on the entire continent.
But the plot quickly drew his attention away. This was truly a grippingly good play, completely beyond Xu Sanshi's expectations. He had no time to think of anything else, completely engrossed in the development of the plot, just like Huo Yuhao.
When Jiang Nan suddenly awakened from her deep slumber, her majestic gaze swept across the entire stage. The grand background music announced the awakening of a king, and both Herzog and Yu Tianlong trembled under her gaze.
Xu Sanshi also couldn't help but tremble. He looked around in surprise and doubt, realizing something was wrong with all of this. The light on the stage illuminated Huo Yuhao's face; that wicked and charming face was half-bright and half-dark, expressionless.
When he looked at the stage again, he happened to see the scene of Herzog holding Jiang Nan tightly in his arms. As the suspense was revealed one by one, that massive conspiracy was displayed on the stage, leaving him no time to think of anything else.
"Are you saying, she... is the container?"
On the stage, Yu Tianlong muttered. The scene sometimes emitted the roar of a giant dragon, and sometimes the sorrowful cries of a girl. Her soul was firmly imprisoned in the evil thoughts of the Golden Dragon King, crying lonely...
Xu Sanshi jumped up abruptly, charging hysterically towards the stage.
He suddenly woke up, and then went completely mad. He understood the first sentence Huo Yuhao said when he saw him: he came too late, and the final performance had already ended.
What Huo Yuhao showed him was not a performance at all, but a reenactment of that tragedy.
Everything was now clear. The tragedy had already happened. Xu Sanshi wanted to stop it, but he was late.
He wanted to jump onto the stage and interrupt this damn tragedy, but his body passed right through the screen of thought concretization. There was an invisible wall on the stage that isolated everything. He could only lie on the carpet, watching helplessly as this tragedy moved toward its end.
"No! No! No! Don't! Bastard! Herzog, I'll kill you!" Xu Sanshi pounded and roared, like a madman.
But it was useless. Herzog couldn't hear him speaking at all. Taking a huge petri dish from his storage soul tool, he placed the struggling Jiang Nan inside and continued to slowly speak his cannibalistic theory: "Think it's cruel? The history of Douluo has always been this cruel. Do you know about Shrek's artificial soul bones?"
"Once, soul bones were what the soul master world dreamed of. One was only guaranteed after slaughtering a thousand soul beasts. The beast tide outside Shrek City in the past broke out precisely because the Body Sect sneaked into Star Dou."
"The so-called artificial soul bones involve directly transplanting soul beast skeletons onto human soul masters. After the soul beast skeletons are nourished by the human body, the beast souls weaken, so there won't be any problems when absorbing them later, and they can bring soul masters the same effects as a soul bone. This beautiful little girl of mine is the loveliest experimental human body. Her value is to filter out the toxicity of the Dragon King's blood for me."
"Come on, let's add some nutrition for the newborn Dragon King. The precious blood of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon clansman will definitely please the Dragon King. Your genes are a great tonic for the Dragon King." He placed the dying Yu Tianlong onto a small mine cart and pushed him towards the giant petri dish: "I must say, the help you and your sect provided me was quite substantial. Without you, it would have been really hard for me to complete those experiments alone, especially your first-generation Sect Master. When he abandoned me, he truly didn't have a trace of hesitation!"
"It's a pity no one can share this final and greatest moment with me," Herzog pretentiously bowed in all directions. "Ladies and gentlemen, next you will witness the arrival of a new era! An era... where the entire continent is enslaved by me!"
He was too smug and too overjoyed, thus completely exposing the ugly face of a villain, scratching his ears and cheeks, dancing around like a wind baboon.
Blood transfusion tubes were already inserted into the aorta in Jiang Nan's neck. Herzog inserted the other ends of these two tubes into his own neck. Under the guidance of soul power, the blood of both sides began to exchange. The fresh blood of the newborn Golden Dragon entered Herzog's body, and conversely, Herzog's aging blood flowed into Jiang Nan's body.
This was a rare surgery on the Douluo Continent. Using blood as a medium, the power of the Dragon King entered Herzog's body.
His pupils became brighter and brighter, and magma seemed to flow in the depths of his eyes. His skin gradually became smooth and moist, revealing a baby-like pinkness. He comfortably opened his arms, letting the absolute power flow through his body.
No one spoke anymore. Only one sound echoed on the stage. The girl trapped in the shackles sobbed softly. As the Golden Dragon King's bloodline was stripped away, her memory began to gradually recover.
She seemed to be chanting someone's name. Even after many years, that person could hardly forget the excitement when she called his name for the first time...
Xu Sanshi knelt before that screen, like a dog whose spine had been pulled out. In the very end, she thought of him, but he came too late.
When the crying finally disappeared, Herzog's arm first transformed into a sharp claw covered with golden scales. Then, he transformed into a perfectly proportioned creature, spreading golden membranous wings in the air, the reflection on the scales illuminating the darkness.
Fierce winds swept across the stage. Herzog soared into the sky, smashing through this long-abandoned mine, and disappeared into the gloomy sky.
"That's why I said, Senior Sanshi, you are late," Huo Yuhao said faintly. No wonder he had no smile on his face; right now, he was indeed here to attend a funeral.
What followed was the comical scene of Xie Huanyue crushing this conspirator with a single slap, but neither of the two present could laugh.
The thought concretization gradually dissipated. Xu Sanshi stood blankly in the deepest part of the mine. Around him was the shattered flesh and blood of the Sky Dragon Gate disciples, as if he had arrived at a demon's feast.
There was rain from the sky to the earth, the rainwater washing the blood on the ground. Not far from him, in the almost transparent culture fluid, the girl's form was faintly visible.
He dragged his heavy steps forward, forcefully broke open the petri dish with his hands, scooped out Jiang Nan whose flesh and blood had dried up, and took out an expensive coat to wrap around her body.
He hugged her tightly. A long, long time later, he began to weep silently in agony.
In Huo Yuhao's thought concretization, Xu Sanshi saw the ending of this tragedy. He was late. That true tragedy had finished playing out before he arrived; he couldn't change anything.
"Although I have always looked down on you guys and couldn't understand the feelings between the two of you, I think it's necessary for you to know the truth. So regret it; you came too late." Huo Yuhao's spiritual body leaned against the wall of the well, arms crossed, looking up at the rainy sky. "The Douluo Continent is about to collapse. Originally, before this continent was endangered, you still had a chance to save her, but you didn't grasp the opportunity."
"Do you understand now? Without the blessing of luck, you can accomplish nothing. You were supposed to go and be a prince of the Dou Spirit Empire, but you just had to be chosen by Sea God Tang San as his successor."
"From the moment Jiang Nannan, who had no background, obtained the Golden Dragon King bloodline, her fate of being researched and utilized by others was destined in the unseen world. Being completely possessed by the dragon bloodline or being used by someone with ulterior motives, which is a sadder ending?" Huo Yuhao seemed to be casually discussing life with him.
After speaking, he also threw out Herzog's corpse. The diluted Golden Dragon King bloodline on this guy had already been burned away by his Seven-Colored Lotus Flame, leaving only his strengthened physical body.
Xu Sanshi hugged Jiang Nan tightly, looking at Herzog. Gradually, his eyes looked as if they could drip blood.
Bang!
He finally put Jiang Nan down, took large strides towards Herzog's corpse, grabbed him, smashed him fiercely onto the ground, and pounced to smash him wildly with the Xuanwu Shield.
But his Xuanwu Shield seemed to have little effect on the dragon body, only splashing out a few sparks. He ran like a madman to grab the Sea God Trident to smash it, bombarded it with soul guide cannons, and fired repeatedly with soul guide rays, as if wanting to spend all the strength in his body on this corpse.
Huo Yuhao was very perceptive. Whether it was long-range or close-combat, whatever soul tool Xu Sanshi wanted, he would take it out from Elder Kong's warehouse. When Xu Sanshi swung the trident to smash wildly, he helped fix the corpse in place; when Xu Sanshi used high-pressure seawater to cut on this side, he prepared the Scarlet Gold Profound Flame to burn on that side, alternating high and low temperatures to torture it to death.
At this time, they looked like the Tang Sect martial brothers in the original timeline. One was crazy enough, and the other was ruthless enough, cooperating tacitly. Right now, it was truly too easy for the two of them to team up and kill someone.
Using eighteen different weapons together, Herzog's remains finally turned into a pile of powder. He was already dead, only Xu Sanshi really hoped he could resist somewhat, so that there would be a bit of the thrill of revenge. But his corpse really had no reaction. Naturally, a dead pig is not afraid of boiling water.
He threw down the Sea God Trident in his hand, walked back to pick up Jiang Nan, and remained silent, thinking, yet also seemingly with a completely blank mind.
"It's too late to get ruthless now. If you were half a day earlier, you could have changed the outcome of this story, but what were you doing then? Running away while hugging someone who wasn't your true love, and accepting the Sea God inheritance. But this is also a factor of force majeure. After all, you are too insignificant in front of a God King."
"Sigh, in this world, although there aren't many people you like, there won't be many people who like you either."
"Alright, now Tang San has already been taken care of by my main body. You can ascend to become a god and gain eternal life. At least you still have Tang Wutong to accompany you. Actually, Tang Wutong is a bit prettier than Jiang Nannan. Over time, maybe..." Huo Yuhao was still chattering away there.
Huo Yuhao's voice seemed to gradually become distant, sounding like a ballad sung by a bard by the fireplace.
"Shut up." Xu Sanshi said softly.
"You are the senior, you're the boss. If you tell me to shut up, I'll shut up." Huo Yuhao shrugged, casually kicking Jiang Nan's suitcase to Xu Sanshi's feet. "Don't just stare at the naked girl. She's already ugly; she's no longer the beautiful outer courtyard campus belle from back then. When she slept beside you so pure and innocently back then, you didn't think about taking the front door. What's the use of holding onto her so tightly now? Here, take a look at the things she left behind. I think there might be some things inside that were originally meant to be shared with you." [hol up, front door? Backdoor Douluo]
Xu Sanshi placed Jiang Nan on his lap and opened that shabby little leather suitcase. From Mingdu back to the northern borders of Heavenly Soul was so far; did she only bring this little luggage?
The suitcase was fully packed. The few dresses Xu Sanshi had bought for her were neatly folded. The academy uniform she used to wear wasn't inside. Aside from the high heels she wore out, there were also white strappy shoes, hair ties, hair clips, stockings, and an identity badge. Additionally, there was a photo album. Now that photography soul tools existed, things like photo albums had already appeared on the continent.
Thus, carrying an uneasy heart, Xu Sanshi opened that thick photo album.