The night had already deepened, pitch black like ink, enveloping the entire World.
Outside the valley, the wind howled, but inside, with everyone gathered, it felt steady and peaceful.
After the fierce battle, everyone had consumed a significant amount of energy; whether it was spirit power, mental force, or physical strength, they all needed time to recover.
Xu Tianhao looked around and said, "The night is late. We will set up camp here and rest for the night."
"Tomorrow morning, we will go hunt for Guyi's fourth soul ring."
No one objected, and they all nodded in agreement.
Immediately, Long Aotian, The Hongchen Siblings, and the others began to clear a clean area and simply set up a temporary camp.
Ye Guyi found a quiet spot, sat cross-legged, closed her eyes to regulate her breathing, and focused on fully digesting the massive surge of holy light energy in her body to adapt to her skyrocketing spirit power.
Once the camp was set up, everyone sat together, roasting meat and drinking wine.
Xu Tianhao shared the information he had just extracted from the soul memories of Blood River and Furious Fiend with everyone.
As he spoke, the expressions on everyone's faces shifted from initial calm to surprise, then to anger, and finally into an intense, extreme disgust and killing intent.
Everyone's face turned incredibly ugly; even Xu Tianzhen, usually a lady, couldn't help but grit her teeth and curse at those insane Evil Soul Masters.
The truth Xu Tianhao revealed was simply too appalling.
This group of Evil Soul Masters, led by Blood River, had been entrenched here for a long time and had secretly set up more than one evil altar.
Their purpose was to collect a large number of living souls for sacrifice, either to awaken some even more terrifying existence or to cultivate evil techniques.
And those they had secretly used for sacrifice totaled tens of thousands of innocent people.
Tens of thousands of living lives.
The old, the weak, women, children, and commoners—all defenseless—had become sacrifices for the Evil Soul Masters to increase their strength.
"They are worse than beasts!" Xu Tianzhen spoke with righteous indignation, her fists clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white, and the True Fire of the Sun rose slightly around her, uncontrolled.
"When we get back, I'll go find Big Brother immediately and have him send troops to completely wipe out all the Evil Soul Master strongholds in this area!"
"That Holy Spirit Cult Eighth Elder—even if he's dead, we should skin him alive to appease those innocent souls!"
Xiao Hongchen also had a solemn expression and said in a heavy voice, "Those altars absolutely cannot remain; they must be destroyed as soon as possible."
"We must quickly send the news back to Bright Capital and have the Inspection Team and the military send people for a comprehensive purge. We can't give them any chance to rise from the ashes."
Xu Tianhao nodded calmly, his tone steady: "Don't worry, I've already sent the message back."
As he spoke, he flipped his hand and took out a uniquely styled rectangular object from his storage spirit tool.
The device was a faint silver color throughout with smooth edges, and the front was a flat surface of spirit tool material that glowed faintly in the night.
Xu Tianhao held it in his hand and waved it gently before everyone's eyes.
Everyone stared at the strange object in Xu Tianhao's hand—something they had never seen or heard of before—and were momentarily stunned, filled with curiosity.
"Tianhao, what is this?" Long Aotian was the first to ask.
"It doesn't look like an offensive spirit tool, nor does it look like a defensive one."
"Could it be some kind of special detection spirit tool?" Xiao Hongchen guessed with a frown.
Xu Tianhao smiled slightly, his tone carrying a hint of pride: "This is a new type of spirit tool that Master recently developed. I personally gave it a name: the mobile phone."
mobile phone.
Everyone repeated the novel name in their minds, their curiosity growing even stronger.
Xu Tianhao continued to explain: "It is currently still in the experimental stage, so its functions aren't perfect. For now, it can only transmit messages via text."
"However, the communication distance is very long. Under the same pair of mobile phone signals, even if separated by hundreds or thousands of miles, a message can be instantly delivered to the designated phone."
Hearing this, everyone gasped in shock.
Long-distance message transmission, and delivered instantly?
One must know that currently on the continent, transmitting information relied either on messenger birds, which were slow and risky,
Or on specialized communication spirit tools, which were not only bulky but also expensive to build, limited in range, and extremely inconvenient.
This little thing in Xu Tianhao's hand called a mobile phone could actually achieve instant communication from hundreds or thousands of miles away?
If this were true, it would be enough to subvert the entire continent's method of communication.
Looking at everyone's shocked expressions, Xu Tianhao continued, "This is only the beginning."
"When the technology is refined in the future, the mobile phone won't just send messages; it will also be able to conduct long-distance video calls, just like talking face-to-face, convenient and fast."
Everyone was completely blown away.
Long-distance video?
What kind of heaven-defying function was that?
In an instant, everyone developed an intense interest and gathered around, carefully taking the mobile phone from Xu Tianhao's hand.
Several people curiously observed, touched, and studied it, asking about how to use it one after another, their eyes full of wonder and anticipation.
While the others were busy studying the phone, Xu Tianhao turned around and walked slowly to the side of Poison Immortal, who was standing alone nearby.
Poison Immortal stood with his hands behind his back, gazing out at the pitch-black night outside the valley, his entire body radiating a chilling aura that warned others not to approach.
His expression looked somewhat displeased, and there was a hint of suppressed gloom between his brows.
Xu Tianhao walked up and asked softly, "Master, what are you thinking about?"
Poison Immortal slowly withdrew his gaze, looked at his disciple, and after a moment of silence, spoke in a tone tinged with heaviness and hatred:
"These Evil Soul Masters are truly detestable. Kill one batch, and another comes; destroy one group, and another is born."
"Evil Soul Masters emerge endlessly and cannot be banned. They treat human life like grass and lose their conscience for the sake of power. This World... indeed needs to change."
Hearing Poison Immortal's words, Xu Tianhao was slightly startled.
He could hear that in Poison Immortal's voice, it wasn't just simple anger, but a kind of helplessness and hope after seeing through the continent's structure and the struggles between good and evil.
In recent years, the Empire had been fighting against forces like the Holy Spirit Cult, but they had never been able to completely uproot them.
The root cause lay in the fact that the rules, order, and power system of this entire World all had flaws that could not be ignored.
Xu Tianhao was silent for a moment, then smiled helplessly but frankly: "Change must happen."
"It's just that this isn't something that happens overnight. It takes time, it takes a generation, or even several generations of effort."
Poison Immortal looked deeply at him, his cloudy yet sharp eyes containing an unhidden trust and expectation.
He raised his hand and heavily patted Xu Tianhao's shoulder: "Master believes in the ability of your generation."
"Aotian, the Fourth Princess, The Hongchen Siblings, Ye Guyi, Nana... and you."
"As long as you all grow up, with the Crown Prince in front and you all behind him, I believe that day will not be far away."
Xu Tianhao looked up at the horizon where a faint light was beginning to show through the night.
Then he looked back at his companions gathered together, full of vitality and fighting spirit.
A sense of determination slowly rose in his heart.
That day would not be too far off.