A soft halo of light, like a mother's hand, gently touched the delicate skin of the clouds, lending an intensely vivid reality to the illusory space. Indistinctly, not far away, a towering palace stood, rendered both ethereal and tangible by the caress of that gentle glow.
A figure stood quietly amidst the clouds, gazing out into the endless distance, lost in thought.
That figure had a cascade of water-blue hair as long as a waterfall, trailing all the way to his feet. Were it not for his imposing stature and broad shoulders, a mere glance from behind might have mistaken him for a woman. A luxurious blue robe seemed to ripple with water waves, marking the extraordinary status of its wearer.
In the night sky of the God Realm, countless bright stars hung high, radiating an unmatched clarity. The boundless celestial phenomena merged into a gigantic star map, as if foreshadowing something. Changes in the stars were mysteries that only astrologers on the mortal plane dared to peer into, but here in the God Realm, all secrets lay completely open to view.
"Sigh—" The man let out a soft sigh, a trace of faint sorrow lingering between his brows. His eyes were half-closed, as if comprehending the fundamental laws of heaven and earth.
"Third Brother." A soft call rang out. A figure stepped out from the illusion and came to the side of the man in blue.
It was a woman wearing a long pink dress, her long hair gathered into a long scorpion braid that hung gently down. From her side and back, one could see her delicate, slender, and fair neck. The cinched waist of her long dress accentuated her breathtaking figure to perfection.
"What's wrong, Third Brother? You seem so worried. Is it about Goodness and Evil?"
"Perhaps."
The figure did not answer the woman's question directly, merely raising his head to look at the boundless stars. Among those eternally revolving celestial bodies, three Class-D malevolent stars were revolving and pulling at each other according to a certain pattern.
Those were three baleful stars among the Class-D stars, and one of them—the brightest one—was blinking slowly, as if winking, which inevitably stirred a trace of anxiety in the man's heart.
That slowly blinking star was the Heavenly Destructive Star, or rather, the Heavenly Slaughter Star, representing disasters sent down from the heavens. Even when the first generation of Asura God descended and caused a star to twinkle, it was only one of the other two baleful stars, not the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
This was precisely the time when the man was plotting the launch of his ten-thousand-year grand plan for Dourol Continent, as well as the year the Son of Destiny's martial soul would awaken. At such a crucial juncture, the twinkling of the Heavenly Slaughter Star was by no means a good omen for the man. Yet, changes in the celestial phenomena were beyond even the power of the gods to alter.
"I hope all this has nothing to do with the Son of Destiny..."
The man muttered somewhat unwillingly, completely forgetting that the woman was still by his side.
"Nothing to do with whom? Third Brother, what has nothing to do with the Son of Destiny?"
The woman scratched her head curiously and asked.
The woman's words made the man's heart tighten. After making sure there was no one else behind him besides her, the man relaxed slightly. "It's nothing. After ten thousand years of changes, Dou Dou Continent has become somewhat chaotic. Especially the continental collision caused by the crustal movement over four thousand years ago—not only did it more than double the size of Douro Continent, but it also brought about many variables."
"Recently, a new star seems to have been born in response to fate on Douro Continent. I tried to see through his destiny, but it was shrouded in heavy fog. Perhaps the shift in the stars is related to this child, though I truly hope this has nothing to do with him."
"The things someone who can trigger changes in the celestial phenomena must bear are simply too heavy, not to mention that the other party is also the Son of Destiny. With the two combined, I'm afraid every faction in the world will want to place a bet on him. The child has no need to bear such immense pressure."
The man's words sounded somewhat insincere. Whether the woman could tell the awkwardness in his tone was hard to say; after all, it was obvious from his words that he harbored designs on the so-called Child of Destiny, or at the very least, paid close attention to him. Yet the man clearly hoped that he alone would pay attention to the Child of Destiny, rather than everyone else.
***
In Xingluo City, inside a shop on Elite Street, on the second floor.
"This is the evidence of Viscount Jack's wife manipulating the preliminary results of the Xingluo division of the Elite Tournament of Advanced Soul Masters across the entire continent."
"Viscount Jack's wife accepted a hefty sum from Count Ansel and bribed a chief official in the Xingluo division. During their private dealings, she even turned the man into her kept lover. That's precisely why the whole affair went as smoothly as a hot knife through butter."
A dwarf, short in stature and wrapped entirely in a burlap robe, spoke as he placed a recording bead on the table.
The dwarf's hoarse voice sounded once more: "I casually looked into that Count Ansel. His second son is serving as the captain at Kassel College this year, but I have to say, this year's Kassel team is a bunch of good-for-nothings. There are only three Soul Elders in the whole team, and the rest are just Great Soul Masters. If they didn't resort to underhanded tricks, getting an entry ticket to the mainland soul master tournament wouldn't be easy at all."
Sitting across the table was a chubby middle-aged man. He seemed to be in a good mood. He reached out a greasy, gleaming hand to take the recording bead pushed over by the dwarf and said:
"Naturally. Even the powerhouse teams that secured rankings in the last mainland soul master tournament have already qualified directly. The remaining slots are still fiercely contested. This sort of thing happens in the preliminaries before every single Elite Tournament of Advanced Soul Masters; it's not rare at all."
The middle-aged man stood up, pulled out a drawer from the cabinet behind him, and took out a small linen pouch from inside. The linen bag was bulging, stuffed with quite a few things. Then, facing the dwarf, a trace of sentimental emotion flashed in his eyes.
"The Ansel family has truly fallen on hard times. Back when the old lord of their family first rose to prominence, what kind of power did they wield? The Brave and Loyal Earl—what a glorious title."
"But the wheel of fortune turns. The Ansel family's influence grows weaker by the day, and now they hold nothing more than an empty earldom. Today, a fallen phoenix is worse than a chicken. Otherwise, even if Count Ansel couldn't manage to get a recommendation letter to send his son to Shrek for some prestige, he wouldn't be reduced to such a pathetic state that he can only send his son to some unknown, trashy academy."
At this, the middle-aged man clicked his tongue in wonder, placed the linen bag on the table, and pushed it toward the dwarf. "Here is what you wanted—the pungent, dark green medicinal herb that looks like a little mud ball. To get this bag of herbs, the team I sent to the Star Dou Great Forest to help a client hunt a soul ring had to roam around the forest for another half month and even lost a man before they could snatch this pouch from the jaws of a plant-type soul beast."