Chapter 2016 September 15th

In 2016, September 15th.

As students once again stepped into schools, starting a new academic year, the entire global and human world structure began to rapidly change with the increase in the places where humans set foot.

Among them, the students of the three extraordinary academies of Zheng Country were the first to sense this change.

As for the reason, it was because, starting this year, all past practical lessons and new student enrollment training would no longer be held on Earth, but in the Beast God Realm, at the 'Two-World Base' belonging to Zheng Country.

Whether it was wilderness survival, combat drills, or simulated relic exploration, these training steps, which were extremely difficult to carry out on Earth, would cost a lot of money and waste countless resources, but were essential for cultivating outstanding extraordinary individuals. It was indeed difficult to find relevant venues on Earth, and each construction was exceptionally labor-intensive and costly.

But in the vast world of the Beast God Realm, almost every primitive and undeveloped area was a natural training ground, a holy land for cultivation.

Whether it was the gloomy swamps filled with primitive, uneducated beasts, or the dense,瘴气-filled primeval forests, or even the various giant, blood-sucking insects, several times larger than those on Earth, were enough to make the new recruits, who considered themselves the pride of heaven, cry for their parents and scream for help.

And the old students, who thought they had escaped a disaster and laughed at the miserable state of the many new students on the screen, also received the news of going to the Beast God Realm for 're-training' with pale faces.

Their opponents, in addition to the natural environment, also included various spirit beasts from the Beast God Realm that cooperated with the human side for experiments and training.

"My training partner is an ostrich spirit beast. When I first got this news, I didn't take it seriously."

A certain Li student, who wished to remain anonymous, did not speak during the interview, but replied with lingering fear via WeChat: "An ostrich, just a bird that can't fly, nothing to fear—that's what I wanted to say, but it's just too big."

According to Mr. Li's description, his training partner was an extraordinary-level ostrich proficient in Eagle Claw Kung Fu and Thirty-Six Leg Kicks, a full nine meters tall, with knotted muscles all over its body, standing there like an angry Vajra.

In addition, this spirit beast ostrich was also skilled in Crane Style Boxing, having practiced it to perfection, only a step away from reaching the indestructible stage—after all, this was the Beast God Realm, which had received the inheritance and teachings of immortals and gods. It was perfectly normal for spirit beasts to know martial arts, and because they had cultivated for hundreds of years, their realm was high.

As for why the ostrich knew Crane Style Boxing, perhaps one would have to ask its ancestors if there were any untold stories—after all, bloodline inheritance proved that there was definitely a spirit crane among its ancestors.

Training and sparring with spirit beasts from the Beast God Realm shattered the stereotype that 'spirit beasts only rely on instinctual divine powers'... In fact, just as the divine bird Peacock would also study its own divine powers, and the Water Kirin was proficient in other profound Yin spiritual techniques besides spraying water, one should not underestimate the strength of the Beast God Realm.

"It's all Professor Su's fault!"

A certain Miss Jin, who wished to remain anonymous, said so confidently: "We've all seen his combat videos, so we were left with the wrong stereotype—the divine beasts and spirit beasts he fought never used many abilities before being slaughtered, let alone any martial arts, making us think that the spirit beasts and divine beasts of the Beast God Realm were all like that!"

"Yes, yes." Another Miss Li, who also wished to remain anonymous, also added fuel to the fire and said: "He kills a divine beast with one punch, making me think that I can do it too... It's all Professor Su's fault!"

This kind of language that shifts blame onto others and doesn't reflect on one's own strength is naturally undesirable.

Soon, Miss Jin and Miss Li received a WeChat message, and after leaving the pale-faced message 'I'm going to train...' they disappeared without a trace.

As the human side began to explore and build in the Beast God Realm, the two-world communication bridge, 'Concord City,' nominally established by the Water Kirin An Tuo, had taken initial shape after several months of intense construction.

The first batch of city facilities had been completed, and the first batch of student residents from the Mao and Yu tribes had begun to move in.

In addition to promoting a large number of jobs in basic infrastructure construction within Zheng Country, after repeated consideration and meetings, the Zheng Country government finally decided that after March 2017, it would officially open a 'tourist' channel, allowing a portion of ordinary people to apply to go to the Beast God Realm for sightseeing.

Similarly, the Dragon King of Tianchi's hometown, the Tianchi Realm, would also gradually open to the public in one or two years. At that time, the government would also begin to delegate power to the private sector, opening up the authority to explore other worlds to some private enterprises or independent individuals.

Civilian public opinion is better guided than suppressed. Now that the public already knows about other worlds, instead of constantly blocking them, it is better to open up some channels, let some people go to other worlds to see and satisfy their curiosity, and gradually guide the power of the private sector to prepare for a larger scale 'other world development' in the future.

And all of this, for Su Zhou, meant only one thing.

The wheat ear that was pregnant with the 'True Soul' was completed, as the new order was thoroughly rooted in the Beast God Realm.

Since Su Zhou advanced to the leader rank, he hadn't obtained an evil soul for a long time.

After deterring the Litany Society, Su Zhou had been traveling around the country recently, arresting or killing some criminal extraordinary individuals, including some old bandits who had already begun to cultivate before the revival of spiritual energy and had been doing evil for many years.

These evildoers, who were either hiding in the deep mountains and old forests or concealed around the border of the country, had originally disappeared long ago, but relying on the 'Curse Detection' that Su Zhou had developed some time ago, some old patrol officers who had obtained permission to practice this technique quickly tracked down the related curses and found their hiding places.

Then, Su Zhou accompanied these old patrol officers and arrested them all, and some who attempted to resist were killed on the spot.

These old bandits were all extremely heinous, with more than dozens of lives on their hands. In the past, some of them had smuggled drugs, and some of them had the profession of selling arms, but no matter who they were, the concentration of curses on their bodies was so red that it was black. The obvious malice was different from the curses on the bodies of evildoers who had no lives on their hands, which could be distinguished at a glance.

Su Zhou felt that even the demon generals of the Divine Wood World might not have more curses on their bodies than these old bandits.

However, Su Zhou did not obtain evil souls after killing these evil people.

Of course, this didn't matter—after all, Su Zhou wasn't doing good deeds everywhere for the sake of evil souls, but he also discovered the law of his divine power Evil Soul Condensation.

"At the very least, the evil person must be in the same major realm as me to be worthy of becoming an evil soul in front of me after death—otherwise, that bit of residual power will even be erased by my own spiritual pressure."

After testing it, Su Zhou realized that this was indeed the case—the divine power of the Devouring Evil Demon Lord wanted to be activated, so the enemy had to be strong enough.

West Capital Diligence Academy, Su Zhou was in his academy office, contemplating the wheat ear on the palm of his hand: "So, if it wasn't for those divine beasts of the Beast God Realm using the remains of the ancestor in the end, they wouldn't even be worthy of becoming evil souls for me to eat? That's too miserable..."

"Thinking about it carefully, a transcendent-level spiritual power residue is really almost nothing to a leader-level being like me."

If an ordinary Awakened has about five thousand spiritual power, then an ordinary Transcendent has more than one hundred thousand, with a basic difference of more than twenty times.

And the high-level Transcendent, the peak Transcendent, can even exceed one million points, several million points—this is another ten times, dozens of times the difference.

Among them, some who are exceptionally talented, such as practitioners with the bloodline and true form of divine beasts, such as Jin Qiong, the Golden-Winged Bird, can easily exceed five million spiritual power before transforming into her true form, and after transforming, she can even reach fifteen million points, equivalent to three thousand Awakened, one hundred and fifty practitioners who have just entered the Transcendent realm.

And Su Zhou's spiritual power in the leader rank is only more than hers.

After advancing to the leader, his body and soul began to merge with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and his thoughts could affect the weather. The amount of spiritual energy was simply unmeasurable.

For him, even the spiritual power remaining after a high-level Transcendent monster was killed was not even as much as the spiritual power he obtained from breathing for a few seconds.

"As my strength improves, obtaining evil souls will become more and more difficult."

Su Zhou had long realized this—ordinary evildoers can be very, very weak, but an evildoer who can cultivate to the leader rank must have his own unique strengths. Otherwise, it is impossible to cultivate to this realm while being disliked everywhere.

For example, the survival ability of ordinary insects can be very, very weak, and they may even die when exposed to light, but to be as annoying as a cockroach and not go extinct, one must have excellent vitality, escape ability, and reproductive ability.

In any case, the higher one cultivates, the fewer the number of evil souls will inevitably be.

But there is also a benefit to this—although there are no other numerous ordinary evil souls, after that, every evil soul Su Zhou harvests is likely to be a top-quality soul with an inner inheritance.

Quantity exchanged for quality.

Thinking like this, Su Zhou stared at the wheat ear in his hand and couldn't help but sigh: "Thinking that this is likely to be the last time I eat a soul for a long time, I can't help but feel a little reluctant."

"You're just greedy, aren't you."

Yala, who was next to him, reading the news on Su Zhou's phone, shook her head and complained.

"So what if I'm greedy? I'm honest, worthy of praise!"

Su Zhou didn't care. After closing his eyes and concentrating for a moment, he acted and extracted the 'True Souls of those who wanted to change' from that small wheat ear.

Black and white light rose.

As the order of the Beast God Realm, where the strong preyed on the weak and divine beasts occupied all resources and means of production, was broken by the entry of humans.

Before the vast majority of the power of wishing for change dissipated, they condensed the most essential part of themselves along the karmic connection between Su Zhou and the spirit beasts of the Beast God Realm, fused with the evil souls of many divine beasts, and transformed into an even more mysterious and powerful 'True Soul.'

"The True Soul of those who ask for change... I truly hope that one day, there will be no more supplicants in this world, nor will there be any more cursers."

"What is the true taste of your souls?"

Neither impatiently looking forward to it, nor completely indifferent, Su Zhou stared at this True Soul, which was half curse and half wish, like chaotic stardust, for a moment, and then simply put it into his mouth.

Upon entering, it felt like swallowing cold, clear liquor.

Black and white, chaotic spiritual power spread from Su Zhou's throat to his entire body—instantly, a vast, pure, and incredibly mellow gentle force permeated Su Zhou's body and soul in an instant.

The first thing he felt was the stinging pain of the curse.

In the Beast God Realm, the blood-colored curses formed by the countless spirit beasts that were devoured were so dense that they became almost black clouds. Like the thickest of liquors, it stimulated Su Zhou's soul in all directions.

Su Zhou seemed to be able to see the painful wails of one intelligent spirit beast after another, which were used as food, as tools of pleasure, devoured, abused, sacrificed, and torn apart. In their final moments, their illusions of cursing the divine beasts were twisted.

——Those were pitiful and pathetic illusions, who had never tried to resist, revolt, or find other ways of self-help, and had no choice but to curse.

Next was the cold, clear, pure, and bright, but seemingly illusory power of wishing.

——Those were the illusions of countless intelligent spirit beasts who were brainwashed, transformed, and ultimately had no other means of resistance than to pray in their hearts, wanting to change but unable to do so.

The illusions flickered in an alternating pattern, with light and darkness rotating.

Supporting all of this was a real, fire-like burning sin.

That was karmic fire.

——Legend has it that this is the fire that burns endlessly in hell, which can burn all the sins of the human world and punish all the evil doers.

A tearing pain came from the depths of Su Zhou's soul, but he did not make any sound.

Infinite curses and powers of wishing surged within Su Zhou, and the black and white vast spiritual powers collided with each other. They blended together and collided with each other, but did not cancel each other out—and in the very center of the collision, this existence called 'Fire of Karma' was generated.

Like a silhouette smeared with a black pencil, the black and white eerie cold flames began to burn in the depths of Su Zhou's body and mind—all the residue of evil souls that he had swallowed in the past became the initial fuel for this karmic fire, allowing it to gradually grow, and finally, transform into a 'Divine Power.'

——As soon as sins arise, karmic fire blazes, non-humans burn you, but you burn yourself.

Karmic fire has always been born from the heart... Those who have not witnessed true sins can never possess such divine power.

If it were not for demon slayers and demon subjugators who have made subjugating demons and monsters a part of their lives, or for demons who are deeply sinful but choose to turn over a new leaf and atone for their sins, even if they were lucky enough to obtain the seed of karmic fire, they would not be able to nurture and strengthen it, let alone transform it into a divine power.

The soul pain caused by the conflict between the curse and the power of wishing gradually subsided, and a more gentle and warm force began to repair all the wounds left behind when the divine power was awakened.

"Ah..."

After a long sigh, Su Zhou opened his eyes.

At this moment, behind the dragon pupils, what flickered was not the blue-purple spiritual light, but the raging black and white cold flames.

Three minutes and twenty-seven seconds after swallowing the True Soul.

Su Zhou cultivated the 'Fire of Karma.'