I've also recently started a new translation, please check it out and show your support! Douluo: AFKing to Become a God
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The stroke that determines life and death.
At this moment, the Heavenly Origin Brush in Xu Yuan's hand seemed to govern the trials of life and death for others.
Around the pen's shaft, the forces of life and destruction swirled. At its tip, thunder power erupted, and the aura of heavenly tribulation spread, as if supported by the power of an entire universe, giving off immense pressure.
Holding the Heavenly Origin Brush, Xu Yuan took a deep breath.
"My previous development of the Heavenly Origin Brush was too narrow-minded."
Five-element attributes?
No, the most fundamental talent of the Heavenly Origin Brush lay in controlling primordial energy.
The five-element attributes were originally chosen so that Xu Yuan could learn the spear techniques of Xu Shengqun by fusing with Jue, thereby giving the Heavenly Origin Brush a foundation in controlling the five elements.
In reality, the ultimate advancement of the Heavenly Origin Brush should be to control primordial energy and even manipulate the forces of heaven and earth. Back then, Xu Yuan, driven by greed, thought that using one soul ring to grant the Heavenly Origin Brush control over elemental forces was sufficient, and the remaining soul rings should develop other abilities.
As a result, the most fundamental talent of the Heavenly Origin Brush wasn't fully developed.
Now, with Shan He opening up the scroll world and Xu Yuan using the fusion of the scroll world and the Heavenly Origin Brush to form the seventh soul ring, it triggered a change in the first soul ring. The five elements gave rise to all things, successfully gaining control over the forces of heaven and earth.
This force of heaven and earth could be external or within the scroll world.
On this basis, Xu Yuan also used Shan He's accumulation during the tribulation to condense new laws within the scroll world, thereby obtaining a new rune.
Tribulation!
A single word, yet it sent shivers down one's spine.
This was something everyone avoided.
"After this enhancement, the strength of the Heavenly Origin Brush has caught up. What I need to do now is to integrate all powers."
Once integrated, the Heavenly Origin Brush would meet the conditions required for Xu Yuan to achieve his limits.
"The three martial souls have all been set on the right path."
What remained now were the soul rings of the Heavenly Origin Brush and the Five Elements Spear. The Heavenly Origin Brush lacked just one more soul ring, while the Five Elements Spear lacked two.
Holding the Heavenly Origin Brush, Xu Yuan looked at the pillar of light at the center of the valley.
"I still can't take away the essences of destruction and life. After I become a god, I should be able to take them away and integrate them into the scroll world and dream space."
The essences of destruction and life were undoubtedly most suited for Shan He and Yao Yao. Yao Yao's dream space was illusory, while Shan He's scroll world was a real world.
At that time, Xu Yuan would extract these two essences from two perspectives, maximizing their utility.
"For now, I can only use the energy converted from these two essences to train."
It had been five and a half months since arriving at Devil Island. The improvement of the soul spirits was now complete, and finally, it was his turn.
Life and destruction.
Xu Yuan sat cross-legged near the two essences, directly absorbing the two newly converted energies, letting them circulate within his body.
He had already comprehended enough before, so naturally, he proceeded directly to absorption.
Great Devouring Heaven and Earth Technique!
Within Xu Yuan's body, the five-element forces rotated, transforming into thunder power, devouring the two energies of destruction and life.
The Tribulation Rune wasn't purely heavenly tribulation; it also contained lightning tribulation power, thus incorporating some mechanisms of the lightning tribulation itself.
This was natural evolution, not entirely under Xu Yuan's control.
Now, he was mastering the power of this rune.
With the help of the rune, he gained many insights. What remained was practice. The five-element divine thunder devoured the energies of destruction and life, evolving within Xu Yuan's body, penetrating deep into his bones, tempering every cell in his body.
Time passed.
In the blink of an eye, half a year had gone by.
Above Devil Island.
Xu Yuan showed no trace of lingering, disappearing as a streak of blood-red light.
An intangible force permeated the heavens and earth. Xu Yuan continuously traversed within this range of force, teleporting repeatedly. In just moments, he crossed a vast distance, returning from Devil Island to Shrek City.
Sea God Island.
Xu Yuan sensed a familiar presence.
This was Na'er's soul power fluctuation.
"It seems Na'er has completed her envisioned cultivation."
Xu Yuan sensed Na'er's soul power, and naturally, Na'er also discovered him.
Na'er, Ya Li, and Feng Wuyu gathered outside the Sea God Pavilion.
"How did it go? Did you bring back the seven old devils?" Feng Wuyu asked.
"What do you mean by seven old devils?" Old Demon Devour's dissatisfied voice rang out.
Beside Xu Yuan, the image of a fat old man condensed, looking very displeased at Feng Wuyu.
Noticing Feng Wuyu's soul power fluctuations, Old Demon Devour swallowed his next words.
Damn it, has this old madman also become a Limit Douluo?
"Isn't 'old devil' your own term?" Feng Wuyu saw Old Demon Devour's figure and knew that Xu Yuan's trip had been successful.
"I have brought back all seven elders and stabilized their souls. However, this isn't a long-term solution, so we still need to create a suitable environment for their survival."
"What do you plan to do, Xiao Yuan?" Ya Li asked.
She knew that Xu Yuan must already have a plan.
"I'll first communicate with Elder Tree."
Xu Yuan's will merged into Elder Tree's will space.
"You can enter by yourself now," Elder Tree sighed helplessly.
Being able to enter this space on his own proved that Xu Yuan's control over will had reached an extremely exaggerated level.
"Elder Tree, I plan to open a demi-plane above Sea God Lake and need the help of your power."
"It's possible, but there is a destructive force within them. My power isn't enough to sustain their current forms."
"Rest assured, Elder Tree. I already have a solution."
Xu Yuan exited the will space and addressed the elder devils waiting for his answer. "Elder Tree has agreed. I'll try to create the most suitable place for you."
Saying this, Xu Yuan flew into the air, arriving above Sea God Lake.
His right hand didn't hold the Five Elements Spear but instead conjured a brush.
This surprised Ya Li and Feng Wuyu.
They thought Xu Yuan would use spear techniques to achieve such a feat.
Why use the Heavenly Origin Brush?
Before they could ponder this confusion, the soul rings rising beneath Xu Yuan's feet made their eyes nearly pop out.
Orange-gold!
Everywhere they looked, all the soul rings were orange-gold!
Besides each soul ring having its unique imaginative colors, their base color was none other than orange-gold.
And upon careful counting, there were eight of them!
At this moment, Ya Li and Feng Wuyu finally confirmed that the heavenly tribulations at Devil Island were triggered by Xu Yuan, and those undergoing the tribulations were his soul spirits.
Old Demon Devour's eyes almost bulged out, looking at Xu Yuan's soul rings and swallowing saliva.
Even at just level ninety-eight, this kid was beyond what he could compare to in his previous life.
Unaware of everyone's shock, Xu Yuan held the Heavenly Origin Brush and tapped it on the air in front of him.
With the fall of the Heavenly Origin Brush, space tore apart. From the origin point of the brush tip, spatial power exploded, instantly creating a space.
Space creation technology was not uncommon on the Douluo continent. Even storage-type soul tools existed ten thousand years ago and were well-developed. Even milk bottles could be said to be based on this principle. Although they relied on the properties of special rare metals, the arrays within were genuinely used to create spaces.
Today's strong individuals with certain insights into space thoroughly researched storage-type soul tools and soul arrays.
From the brush tip, lines spread, and spatial power flooded into the nascent space at Xu Yuan's brush tip.
The range of this space rapidly expanded, quickly inflating from an initial square meter to ten meters, then a hundred meters...
"Enough, enough. We seven don't need such a large space!" Old Demon Devour exclaimed in surprise.
But Xu Yuan paid no heed.
You seven may not need it, but Shrek does.
The range inside the space continued to expand, finally stopping around ten kilometers.
"Whoa~"
At this moment, a massive vortex appeared where Xu Yuan's brush pointed, with intense spatial fluctuations within the vortex.
Extending perception through the vortex, it was like another small world inside.
"Elder Tree, I'll leave the rest to you." Xu Yuan contacted Elder Tree.
The Golden Ancient Tree shook.
Surging vitality poured into the vortex, beginning to connect the laws of Douluo Planet within the space Xu Yuan had created.
The demi-plane relied on Douluo Planet.
Of course, Elder Tree was also controlling the connected laws, trying to keep the control of the space in his hands—most of these laws pertained to Elder Tree's domain.
Life laws began to emerge within the space.
Xu Yuan also began his performance.
He waved the Heavenly Origin Brush, sketching within the space.
Stroke by stroke, a massive framework formed within the space, enveloping and binding the entire space while maintaining its operation.
The life laws found their root in this framework.
"This kid, he's worlds apart from ordinary soul masters." Elder Tree marveled.
Could an ordinary soul master have such insight?
Perhaps according to the division of the god-level path, even a 1st Class God might not have such rich insight, right?
Of course, 1st Class Gods don't necessarily require such high insight, nor are they without gods who favor this kind of insight.
Nevertheless, Xu Yuan was an extraordinarily exaggerated example.
His level of insight was too high.
With the support of the framework, the many laws Elder Tree connected also quickly left stable imprints within this demi-plane.
Without borrowing too much power from the Douluo plane, the influence received from Douluo Planet wasn't significant.
When Elder Tree was about to witness how Xu Yuan would create the most suitable environment for the seven elder devils, a scroll appeared behind Xu Yuan.
From the scroll, a real world projected out.
Lines emerged, sketching in the air, forming a rune.
The rune conveyed a sense of enlightenment.
Life and death!
"Life and death?"
Amidst everyone's astonishment, the life-death rune had already fallen into this newly created demi-plane, integrating as fine threads into the demi-plane.
"Elders, give a name to your future home?"
Xu Yuan looked at the seven elder devils, including Old Demon Devour.
"Hehehe, I've been thinking about this all year." Old Demon Loathe chuckled eerily. "What do you think of Seven Saint Paradise?"
Seven Saint Paradise?
(T/N: More like 'Seven Saints Abyss' from how they torture people lmao)
Xu Yuan was speechless, not expecting the original name from the novel.
But the original name seemed to be chosen by themselves, which was somewhat understandable.
Ya Li and Feng Wuyu's mouths twitched.
Xu Yuan's feelings weren't deep, but Ya Li and the others truly experienced military training. Hearing the seven elder devils call themselves the Seven Saints made them feel how shameless they were.
However, it didn't matter before—it was hard to refute—but now it was different.
Feng Wuyu coughed twice and said to Old Demon Loathe, "That, the title 'Saint' can't be casually called anymore."
"Huh?" Old Demon Loathe's face turned unfriendly.
The other six elder devils also glared at Feng Wuyu, clearly dissatisfied.
If you can't give a reasonable reason today, we seven will... expose your dark history in future military training.
Xu Yuan also looked at Feng Wuyu in surprise.
What happened in this past year?
"It's like this," Ya Li stepped forward. "Xiao Yuan probably doesn't know yet. Six months ago, the Federation decided on titles after reaching god-level."
"God-level?" The seven elder devils were dumbfounded.
"Didn't Xu Yuan tell you?" Ya Li looked surprised.
In a year, surely they could have discussed this, right?
Xu Yuan blinked.
It's not related to me, alright? To avoid these seven elder devils being affected while studying the essences of destruction and life, I locked them away—or rather, sent them to the dream space early on.
"The soul master world has now broken through the original limitations. Brother Ming was the first to break through god-level, consecutively breaking through three stages, directly leaping over god-level and true god-level into super god-level."
The seven elder devils stared wide-eyed, as if listening to a Heavenly Origin tale.
The changes in the Abyss situation, Yun Ming's breakthrough, the creation of the Underworld Realm, the arrival of a new era for soul masters—all sounded like fairy tales.
"In just a few short years, has the outside world changed so much?"
Devil Island had some connection with the outside world, but the frequency was measured in years. The last contact was ten years ago.
"Master, what did you say earlier about the titles after god-level?" Xu Yuan asked.
"Actually, it's just a respectful title. The Federal Parliament had been preparing for this for a long time but hadn't finalized it because they couldn't get unified opinions."
"Six months ago, the parliament announced a unified respectful title. God-level is now titled 'Honored One.'"
Titled Douluo were all referred to as Lord/Lady, a tradition in the soul master world.
Now, after god-level, they would be called 'Honored Ones.'
"God-level is Honored One, true god-level would be named plus 'Honorable,' such as Brother Ming being titled 'Ming Honorable.' They can also choose their own honorary title, similar to the titles of Titled Douluo. Super god-level would be 'Holy Honorable,' akin to the titles of Titled Douluo."
Xu Yuan was speechless.
Is this tradition?
The Federal Parliament really has nothing better to do, even making regulations for these.
However, this should also be to standardize the order of the soul master world, facilitating distinctions between different levels of god-level beings in the future. It's useful, but deciding these within just over a year of the god-level path shows that the Federal Parliament is indeed idle.
"The difference between honorary titles and Titled titles lies in the distribution of faith."
"Faith?" Xu Yuan's gaze became serious.
"That's right, faith." Ya Li's tone was solemn. "The Federal Parliament says god-level should correspond to deities. Since true god-level corresponds to the third-tier gods of the divine realm, true god-level can begin to attempt to access the power of faith."
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