Chapter 302: The Passage of Time

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"Sea God, it's time we settled the matters between us."

Although he was merely a first-level god after ascending, Huo Yuhao showed no trace of fear.

Back in the lower realm, he had repeatedly received subtle hints from Su Yu. Coupled with his own speculations throughout his cultivation journey, he had long suspected that this Sea God had been watching him since birth—or even before he was born.

Fate.

In the past, he could only vaguely grasp the concept through Su Yu's words. But at the moment of his ascension, by a twist of fate, he truly sensed the force of destiny.

And in that moment, he understood what made him different.

"With my comprehension and my faith alone, it would have been difficult to truly condense the divine position of Order, even with its rudimentary framework. Yet, influenced by my destiny and through my breakthrough on Douluo Continent, I gained tremendous benefits," Huo Yuhao thought.

Connecting everything together, he came to understand many past events.

From the very beginning, Tang San had been manipulating him.

The Tang Sect—a sect that had declined for thousands of years—was but a shadow of its former glory. And yet, he had happened to encounter its only two successors.

And then there was Wang Dong.

Now, Huo Yuhao had finally learned the truth about this so-called "brother."

The trident mark on his forehead was exactly the same as the one between Tang San's eyebrows.

"Oh? And how do you plan to settle this?" Tang San stepped forward, showing no sign of guilt, and looked at Huo Yuhao as he spoke.

"You successfully absorbed the Ice Empress's soul ring only with the help of my divine power. I even planned the divine beast opportunity for you and displayed your talent to the God of Emotions, allowing you to inherit his divine position. In what way have I ever treated you unfairly?"

Rong Nianbing frowned.

He had long suspected that Tang San had a hand in Huo Yuhao's development.

Still, he hadn't expected Tang San to admit it so openly now.

In truth, even if he did admit it, it didn't change much.

Tang San assumed that Rong Nianbing had already suspected the truth. Saying it aloud only made things clearer. Rong Nianbing had mentally prepared for this and had chosen to grant Huo Yuhao the god trial of his own will. Tang San revealing the truth wouldn't change that or provoke resentment.

Huo Yuhao listened to Tang San's self-righteous claims, frowning silently.

"Do you realize," Tang San continued, "that even this God of the Undead was part of your fortune? His broken divine consciousness once had a chance to enter your spiritual sea, but Su Yu intercepted it." Tang San pointed at Su Yu as he spoke to Huo Yuhao.

"The power of fate from the divine beast was also seized by him."

"I even prepared the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well for you, but it was taken over by him instead. He gave you the immortal herbs, and you actually took it as a favor from him."

"Because of Su Yu, you missed out on many opportunities. And now, you stand here speaking of resolving grudges with me?" Tang San looked amused, almost laughing in exasperation.

Huo Yuhao looked at him and, after a long silence, said, "I am not a puppet."

I have my own will. I deserve to walk my own path.

A life mapped out by someone else is truly suffocating.

Driven by immense fortune, Huo Yuhao had never lacked opportunities. So even without Tang San's intervention, his achievements would still have been significant.

Yet after all Tang San had said, it sounded as if everything he did had been for Huo Yuhao's benefit.

Su Yu, on the other hand, had always respected Huo Yuhao's choices—from the very first time they met in the Star Dou Forest.

The only time Su Yu ever made a decision for him was during their second encounter in the extreme north.

After that, Su Yu never interfered in his cultivation again.

Compared to Tang San's constant manipulation, Huo Yuhao found Su Yu's approach far more agreeable.

"You learned my Tang Sect's secret techniques, then turned your back on the sect. I haven't even held you accountable for that!" Tang San shouted, his divine majesty on full display.

Rong Nianbing frowned and stepped in front of Huo Yuhao, facing Tang San. "Sea God, you know full well how those techniques ended up in Yuhao's hands. Why hold onto that now?"

If not for your manipulation, Yuhao would have been better suited for Sun-Moon Hall or the Body Sect. Yet you steered him into joining the Tang Sect.

Didn't you practically push him into it yourself?

Tang San looked at Rong Nianbing with a cold, expressionless face. "God of Emotions, I ask that you not interfere in my dispute with the God of Order. He learned my techniques and betrayed the sect. By the oath he swore, I have the right to reclaim everything he gained from the Tang Sect."

Su Yu stepped forward and confronted Tang San, sighing. "Tang San, enough with the nonsense. You know your own intentions better than anyone. Don't pretend to stand on principle here."

He didn't even address him as Sea God—just "Tang San."

"Besides, Yuhao long stopped practicing your Xuan Tian Art, and he never continued cultivating the Purple Demon Eye. Everything he's achieved has almost nothing to do with your techniques."

Reclaim it?

What's there to reclaim?

Tang San's brows finally furrowed. He looked at Su Yu and sensed a clear hostility.

They had clashed before, but now, facing Su Yu once more, he realized that the two of them might remain enemies from now on.

What's more, Su Yu had not only become a God King himself, but also had the powerful Electrolux—who also possessed God King strength—at his side. Even though Tang San held two God King positions, he couldn't offset the advantage of numbers.

After all, although his wife Xiao Wu could share the burden of the Shura God's power, allowing him to fight with both positions, the true controller of those powers was still him.

Until those two God King positions fully merged, he couldn't outmatch two separate God Kings.

"Oh, and Tang San," Su Yu said, "let Yuhao's mother go."

Huo Yuhao's head shot up, his eyes locked on Tang San with an unrelenting gaze.

Tang San frowned and looked at Su Yu, clearly growing weary of this man who always seemed to know a little too much.

How does this guy know so much?

"Hmph, just a mere mortal. I was kind enough to save her back then, and now her son turns around and acts so ungrateful," Tang San snorted coldly.

"Huo Yuhao, you're only a first-level god. At most, you're allowed to keep two non-divine lives in the Divine Realm."

With that, he turned and left without another word.

"Ancestor, I'm sorry. Yuhao really was too reckless and disrespectful," Huo Yun'er said apologetically, her face full of guilt and self-blame.

"Sigh... Go see Yuhao," Dai Mubai sighed and waved her away.

"Mother!"

Seeing his mother again, Huo Yuhao couldn't hold back his tears.

The moment Huo Yun'er saw him, the reprimanding words she had prepared were swallowed down. She stepped forward and pulled him into a tight embrace.

Su Yu paid no attention to how the mother and son reconnected or what they talked about afterward.

At that moment, he was already selecting a suitable location in the Divine Realm to establish the Palace of Reincarnation.

Boom—

The powers of life and death converged, and a grand palace began forming out of nothingness.

With the Divine Realm's central core in hand, Su Yu entered seclusion.

"This Divine Core is truly something special," he muttered.

It was even more effective for comprehension than cultivating in the Origin Lands.

It wasn't that the core itself directly manifested various laws and principles, but rather that it organized everything, making control and understanding of the Divine Realm much more systematic and macro-level.

Su Yu's previous insights had focused on dealing with fine details. But now, as the holder of the Divine Core, he could observe the entire structure and function of the Divine Realm from a grander perspective—not just microscopic elements, but the full, cohesive design.

One day passed quickly.

While Su Yu was in seclusion refining his comprehension, he occasionally diverted a portion of his consciousness to guide the spirit masters on Douluo Star, helping them prepare for the upcoming cosmic war.

The elves acted as intermediaries, responsible for purchasing starships for Douluo Star.

There were still many factions across the universe willing to give face to the Elven Race. Besides, with so many divine beings involved, buying warships below the divine level was not a major problem. The only real issues were funding and limited supply.

During this one day of seclusion, Su Yu used the Divine Core to unify and harmonize his own power.

"The spirit master army of Douluo Star is about to be deployed."

Su Yu focused a thread of consciousness on the situation on Douluo Star. Through his perception, he watched as massive warships rose from the surface, carrying numerous spirit masters as they departed the planet.

"Teacher."

Su Yu projected an energy body beside Kong Deming.

For Su Yu, only a single day had passed in the Divine Realm—but on Douluo Star, an entire year had gone by.

Each time he had taken a moment to direct Douluo Star's preparations, it had been separated by intervals of ten days to half a month.

Kong Deming looked at Su Yu's projection and asked, puzzled, "Is there something else we still need to prepare?"

Su Yu shook his head.

"No. Douluo Star's current development has already entered a stable phase. As long as they steadily digest their previous gains, their overall strength is bound to multiply several times over within twenty years."

"The cosmic war has only just begun and is still in the probing stage. It'll likely be quite a while before it reaches its peak."

In terms of cosmic time, twenty years is a long span—enough for one full era to end and another to begin.

But within the Divine Realm, twenty years in the universe amounted to only about twenty days—not even a full month.

The wars that once ravaged the Douluo Continent had lasted for years. Applying that scale to the entire universe, and considering that the true orchestrators of this war were divine factions, this battle would easily span several hundred years from the perspective of cosmic time, when translated to the Divine Realm's sense of time.

It was even possible that the war would last a thousand years.

"Teacher, this war is also a rare opportunity for you to push yourselves further," Su Yu said.

Though Kong Deming and Jing Hongchen had already broken through to the god level and, over the course of a year, quickly absorbed the feedback from Douluo Star to raise their spirit power beyond Level 105, they were still only ordinary gods.

Among them, Poison Undying advanced the fastest, rapidly increasing his spirit power to Level 109—but he, too, remained at the basic divine tier.

"You are the first batch of gods to benefit from Douluo Star's surge in destiny," Su Yu continued. "With the added power of belief and fate, your cultivation in the next few years will progress smoothly."

Kong Deming nodded. He had already felt how effortlessly his cultivation was advancing, and many of his long-held aspirations were becoming reality. He had successfully fused his dual spirits of Sun and Moon into a unified martial soul—Sun and Moon Radiance—and was currently trying to merge their respective soul rings. Following Su Yu's example, he planned to eventually fuse all nine rings into one.

At present, his martial soul was fully fused, but only six of the nine soul ring pairs had been successfully merged.

His current spirit power stood at Level 107, and based on his estimates, every successful ring fusion would push him up by one level.

His next goal was the complete fusion of all nine soul rings. Once that was achieved, he believed he could break into the Transcendent God Tier.

After that, by fully integrating the unified rings with both his body and martial soul—just as Su Yu had done—he could continue along the path toward peak Transcendent God.

Of course, this cultivation model was only viable for someone with twin martial souls like him.

For Jing Hongchen, only the latter two phases were available to pursue, and for now, his visible limit was the True God Stage Peak.

This structured, step-by-step approach had become a habit among spirit masters, a cultivation model often referred to as "foolproof progression".

Poison Undying was an exception. When he first broke through, he integrated everything into his own blood essence. Since blood energy could be fully merged into the body, his breakthrough was swift, reaching Level 109 in no time.

From this point onward, he would have to blaze his own trail.

Su Yu then discussed some soul ring fusion techniques with Kong Deming.

Even though the method was linear and formulaic, at least the direction was clear—so Su Yu didn't hold back on sharing his insights.

"Teacher, digest your gains as soon as possible. The frontlines on Douluo Star still need gods to anchor them."

Kong Deming nodded. "Don't worry. I'll head to the front once I reach Level 109. The pressure from the battlefield should help me break through."

Time passed.

Three days in the Divine Realm equaled three years in the universe.

Kong Deming reached Level 109, Jing Hongchen hit Level 108, and Poison Undying directly broke through to Level 110.

All three were now cultivating via full integration of their martial souls and selves. Even without fusing new soul rings, their powers continued to grow.

After Level 100, the soul masters were able to fully merge with their martial souls and begin nurturing their own soul rings, gradually increasing their ring age.

After reaching Level 110, Poison Undying awakened a life-bound soul skill, instantly propelling him to Level 111.

It seemed this would become the new norm for soul masters breaking into the god tier—awakening life-bound abilities post-breakthrough.

Poison Undying and Kong Deming headed to the front lines, while Jing Hongchen remained behind on Douluo Star to continue cultivating.

One year later, Jing Hongchen also reached Level 109 and joined the battlefield.

But with no god-level beings remaining on Douluo Star, the federal system began to waver. Power struggles and factionalism started to take root.

Three years later, the federal system was challenged for the first time. Opportunists began testing the limits of order.

At this critical moment, Bai Feng stepped forward. Using his status as the disciple of the God of Wisdom, he rooted out a vast number of corrupt officials, restored order, initiated sweeping reforms, and overhauled the federal monitoring system.

That same year, Xuan Ziwen also broke through to Level 100.

This marked the beginning of a god-level breakthrough surge across Douluo Star.

Among them, Xuanzi and Zhang Lexuan, both soul masters from Shrek Academy, reached god level. Qian Duoduo, however, was still stuck at Level 99.

Ye Yulin, the Galaxy Douluo, also broke through to god level.

Each of them, after their breakthroughs, left Douluo Star for the front lines.

Because by then, among the spirit masters on the battlefield, some had already risen from ordinary Titled Douluos to godhood in just ten years.

Kong Deming and Jing Hongchen also successfully advanced to the True God Tier.

At the front lines, the Douluo faction now had three True Gods holding the fort.

(End of Chapter)