-----
-----
In Meteor's memory, back in the Douluo Continent ten thousand years ago, there weren't any Evil Soul Masters—at least not from what he remembered. He didn't even recall seeing the term "Evil Soul Master" anywhere.
Same with the whole thing about Angel Spirits purifying evil to grow stronger. That wasn't something anyone had talked about back then either—it was something he'd only read in books. So naturally, he was a bit curious. Was that really a thing?
"You're right. My spirit can actually grow stronger by purifying evil," Ye Guyi said, looking a bit regretful. "But these days it's super hard to find any Evil Soul Masters. If I could, my cultivation would shoot way ahead of you guys."
Before she even awakened her spirit, Ye Guyi had already done some digging into the existence of Evil Soul Masters. After all, her mother had an Angel Spirit. Her father's spirit was also a high-level one, but nowhere near the level of the Angel Spirit. So, unsurprisingly, she inherited the Angel Spirit too.
And not just any Angel Spirit—she awakened the Holy Angel, one of the most powerful forms of the Angel Spirit, and her innate soul power was even higher than her mother's. She was born with full soul power.
Sadly, both of her parents were killed by soul beasts during a hunt, and she was adopted by her mother's close friend, Shangguan Wei'er. That meant no one was around to witness the moment she awakened her Holy Angel Spirit.
"Yeah, that really is a shame," Meteor nodded in agreement.
He still didn't understand how Evil Soul Masters had suddenly appeared after not existing ten thousand years ago, but he knew one thing for sure: in these ten thousand years, they'd done some seriously messed-up things and were now wanted across the entire continent.
That said, for the past few hundred years, Evil Soul Masters had been popping up only briefly. They'd commit some evil deed, get hunted down, and then vanish without a trace. No one could tell whether they'd been killed in secret or just went into hiding.
But based on what Meteor had read, it was probably the latter. In fact, the main character of this world—and the major villain he'd face in the future—was likely an Evil Soul Master too.
Meteor had his own theory about where Evil Soul Masters came from. Back in his day, there was a place called the City of Slaughter. Everyone in that city was a killing-obsessed lunatic. The vibes were very Evil Soul Master-ish.
The City of Slaughter was a place you could enter, but never leave. It attracted all the most twisted and depraved soul masters. Even the Spirit Hall used to throw criminals in there.
Maybe that was why Evil Soul Masters didn't exist back then—because all the crazies were locked up in the City of Slaughter.
But then the previous protagonist destroyed the city. That prison with no exit was wiped out, and all those maniacs escaped and started running wild across the continent.
Those lunatics… were probably the origin of the Evil Soul Masters.
Of course, the Evil Soul Masters didn't rise unchecked—they only went rampant after their natural enemies disappeared. Evil Soul Masters are naturally stronger than regular soul masters. Even those with top-tier spirits might not be able to beat one of the same level, let alone an average soul master.
And who were their natural enemies? The Angel clan of the Spirit Hall—the ones who once ruled the continent ten thousand years ago.
The original chaos and evil on the continent were also suppressed by the God of Angels.
But ever since the Spirit Hall lost the war ten thousand years ago, the Angel clan was hunted down by all the major factions. The once-dominant Angel clan ended up shattered and scattered, vanishing from the sight of every major power.
Even so, they didn't go extinct. The Angel clan managed to survive, though they had to lay low. They couldn't reveal themselves openly—not just because of the old enemies and the two great empires hunting them, but also because the Evil Soul Masters were now out for them too.
It wasn't until this era, ten thousand years later, that things started to calm down. Most of the sects that had once been enemies of the Angel clan had moved on or forgotten the old grudges. The Heaven Dou Empire had even split into two: the Heaven Soul Empire and the Dou Ling Empire.
As for the Evil Soul Masters, they'd gone into hiding too. With the threat easing, the Angel clan finally began to show their faces again.
Ye Guyi's dream? To restore the glory of the Angel clan, to make the name "Angel" resound across the land again. She wanted to wipe out the Evil Soul Masters and bring peace back to the Douluo Continent. You could say her ambition was sky-high.
The major sects of the original Three Kingdoms were no longer targeting the Angel clan, and with Ye Guyi's talent, it wasn't impossible for her to pull it off.
"Killing Evil Soul Masters makes you stronger? Man, that's awesome!" Xu Tianzhen looked at Ye Guyi with envy.
Her own Sun Spirit was also super powerful, but she had to rely on grinding through training to get stronger. There were no shortcuts. And for someone like her who hated sitting still, that was torture. No wonder she envied Ye Guyi's path.
Luan Yu just shook her head with a smile. "It's not that simple. Evil Soul Masters are ridiculously strong—way above average soul masters. A Soul Douluo-level Evil Soul Master can even take on a regular Titled Douluo. And their techniques are twisted and unpredictable. One wrong move and you're dead. Hunting Evil Soul Masters to train up? Sounds nice, but in reality, you might be the one getting hunted."
What she said made sense. But Meteor felt that if Ye Guyi had someone protecting her, she might really stand a chance. After all, the Holy Angel Spirit naturally counters Evil Soul Masters. If Evil Soul Masters could punch above their weight against regular soul masters, then Ye Guyi should be able to do the same to them.
As long as the level gap wasn't too big, she could probably take down someone a full rank above her. The key was having someone strong to keep her safe and help her escape if things went south.
That was probably how the old Spirit Hall trained the next generation of Angel clan members—by hunting Evil Soul Masters together.
Luan Yu activated a small soul tool detector to scout ahead and quietly released a bit of her Titled Douluo aura. That little burst of pressure was enough to scare off all the nearby soul beasts that had started creeping closer when they arrived.
These days, there were way fewer soul beasts than before. Soul masters were getting more numerous and more powerful, while soul beasts were on the decline. At this rate, some people were starting to wonder if soul masters would eventually disappear too—after all, their power depended on soul beasts.
But that was a problem for the future. For now, no one was going to stop hunting soul beasts just because of a maybe.
Luan Yu understood that too. She couldn't change the rules of the world, but at least she could avoid unnecessary killing. If she didn't need a soul beast, she usually let it go.
As they moved forward, every soul beast within a kilometer retreated like the plague. The weaker ones even collapsed to the ground, frozen in fear.
To low-level beasts with no intelligence, the aura of a Titled Douluo was as terrifying as a hundred-thousand-year-old soul beast.
Luan Yu held a mirror-shaped soul tool in her hand, its surface displaying all sorts of moving images—feeds from her deployed detection tools. She scanned the footage carefully, looking for the soul beasts that Meteor and the others needed.
"....."