The transition of power within the Heaven Dou Empire was an event of staggering efficiency. Following the shocking, unceremonious abdication of Emperor Xue Ye, the entire capital held its breath, waiting for the inevitable chaos of a succession crisis. Yet, the chaos never came. Xue Qinghe, operating as the undisputed Regent with the complete, unwavering backing of the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect and the terrifying Marquis of the North, seized the reins of the empire with a grip of iron. The Ministry of Rites hastily selected an auspicious date merely two weeks away for the formal enthronement, but Liam did not waste a single day waiting for a crown to be placed upon his head. The cleansing of the empire began immediately.
Operating from the shadows, Zhang Tian provided the necessary, overwhelming force to execute this grand purge. He generated multiple Blood Silver Mirage Clones, dispatching them to different, highly volatile territories simultaneously. These clones possessed a fraction of his terrifying intellect and raw power, making them perfectly suited to lead the coordinated strikes against the deeply entrenched, corrupt nobility scattered across the provinces.
The project was massive in scale. It was not merely about arresting greedy lords; it was about entirely dismantling the archaic, parasitic infrastructure of the empire and replacing it with a modernized, unshakeable system of governance.
Ning Fengzhi, operating flawlessly in tandem with his son-in-law, mobilized a staggering number of elite disciples from the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect. These highly trained Spirit Masters acted as the swift, incorruptible enforcement arm of the new regime. They marched into provincial capitals, affluent estates, and border towns, carrying thick ledgers of evidence compiled by the Spirit Hall's intelligence network.
The raids were swift and completely merciless. Noble families who had spent generations hoarding cultivation resources, stealing military taxes, or secretly fraternizing with Fallen Spirit Masters suddenly found their ancestral estates surrounded.
In the affluent eastern province, the notorious Duke Lin, a man who had built his fortune by heavily taxing commoner academies and selling the surplus to black-market dealers, attempted to summon his private army of Spirit Kings to resist the arrest. A single clone of Zhang Tian stepped through the gates of the estate, a crimson spear manifesting in his hand. The private army was entirely incapacitated within three breaths, pinned to the courtyard paving stones by unbreakable vines, while Duke Lin was dragged out of his opulent bedchambers in chains.
For those noble families who sensed the shifting winds and attempted to frantically flee toward the Star Luo Empire with their hoarded wealth, they found the southern borders completely sealed. The fleeing carriages were intercepted by Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect patrols. The fleeing nobles were permitted to cross the border if they wished, but they were forced to leave every single gold coin, spirit bone, and scrap of property behind. Zhang Tian systematically swallowed up the vast foundations of these ousted families, immediately removing any and all individuals related to their bloodlines from their positions in the civic administration, replacing them with highly competent, rigorously tested commoners.
To ensure this new, purified administration remained secure, Zhang Tian introduced his most ambitious technological marvel to the empire's infrastructure.
Across major cities, bustling trade hubs, and vulnerable border towns, specialized engineering teams began installing thousands of advanced Spirit Tools known as Shadow-Retaining Crystal Eyes. These devices, cleverly disguised as ornate, glowing crystal streetlamps or decorative fixtures on public buildings, were not mere optical cameras. They were deeply complex spirit formations designed by Zhang Tian's flawless intellect.
The Shadow-Retaining Crystal Eyes continuously scanned their surroundings, recording not just visual light, but the distinct, highly specific wavelength of every individual's spirit power. If a disguised criminal or a cloaked Fallen Spirit Master attempted to use their abilities within the monitored zones, the arrays would instantly capture and record their unique spirit signature, immediately alerting the local City Lord's investigation bureau. The arrays were heavily encrypted and fitted with self-repairing defensive formations, making them impossible to cheat, tamper with, or magically blind. The era of shadowy, unaccountable crimes in the Heaven Dou Empire was rapidly drawing to a close.
Naturally, the purge of the elite class was not entirely devoid of friction. As three or four months passed by and the reality of the new regime truly settled in, the desperate remnants of the ousted gentry attempted to fight back.
A few organized protests and small, localized revolts sparked in various provincial towns. Initially, Zhang Tian simply ignored them, allowing the new civic administrators to handle peaceful dissent. However, when these protests morphed into violent riots—when thugs secretly paid by exiled nobles began to deliberately harm the general populace, burning merchant stalls and attacking the newly appointed commoner officials—the response from the capital was swift and terrifying.
The instigators and violent participants were swiftly apprehended by the city guards, bolstered by the ever-watchful Shadow-Retaining Crystal Eyes. They were not given comfortable cells in the capital. Instead, the ones who had committed grave crimes against the populace were stripped of their belongings, loaded into heavily warded carriages, and transported far into the freezing north.
Their destination was the newly constructed Rakshasa City, hidden deep within the desolate, icy tundra of the Frostfall Province.
Zhang Tian had built this subterranean penal colony explicitly based on the grim, unforgiving model of the Slaughter City. However, it was not merely a prison for Fallen Spirit Masters; it was a permanent, inescapable abyss for all sorts of irredeemable criminals, corrupt nobles, and violent thugs whose actions had proven they possessed no chance of societal redemption.
He had established a massive, overarching restriction formation that completely nullified the usage of any spirit power within the city walls. The disgraced nobles, who had spent their entire lives relying on their martial spirits and inherited power to subjugate others, suddenly found themselves reduced to fragile mortals, forced to survive in a brutal, lightless environment relying only on raw, physical cunning.
At the very center of this dark metropolis stood the imposing, jagged architecture of the Rakshasa Shrine. Zhang Tian had explicitly built this city and its shrine to fulfill his promise to the dark deity residing in his wife's mind. It was entirely under her divine control, acting as the foundation for her religion.
And currently, the Rakshasa Goddess was quite delighted.
Deep within the luxurious, quiet meditation chambers of the crimson mansion in Frostfall City, Bibi Dong sat cross-legged, her eyes closed. The Supreme Pontiff's spiritual sea was a vast, swirling ocean of violet and green energy.
"Your young lover certainly knows how to fulfill a promise, my dear," the raspy, echoing voice of the Rakshasa Goddess purred within Bibi Dong's mind, her tone dripping with deep, sadistic satisfaction. "This new city... it is a masterpiece of despair."
Through the medium of the shrine, the Rakshasa Goddess was wantonly toying with the thousands of desperate souls trapped within the penal colony. With the strict restriction of spirit power in place, the inhabitants were stripped of their pride and plunged into constant, grinding fear. The Goddess used her insidious, subtle schemes to spread her divine malevolence, paranoia, and deep resentment among the mixed population of ordinary criminals and fallen masters. She nurtured their hatred, letting it grow like a dark, blooming flower in their hearts, only to continuously, greedily siphon that pure, concentrated malice back into herself.
This continuous influx of suffering drastically increased her foundational strength and bolstered her Divine Energy. It was her specific, dark method of elevating the overarching power of her God Position.
"He is a man of his word," Bibi Dong replied calmly within her mind, a faint, proud smile touching her physical lips. She naturally knew her husband was an unparalleled genius, but hearing the dark deity praise him brought her a unique sense of satisfaction.
"You will deeply enjoy the profound advantages of this city when you finally ascend and fully take my Rakshasa God Position in the future," the Goddess promised, her laughter resembling the scraping of dry bones. "The reservoir of malice we are building here will make your divine power truly fearsome."
"Then you should ensure I am perfectly prepared to wield it," Bibi Dong countered smoothly, seizing the opportunity. "Teach me more of your hidden techniques. I require advanced methods to efficiently manipulate and condense this Rakshasa Divine Energy within my own meridians without letting the malice cloud my judgment."
"Gladly," the Rakshasa Goddess agreed readily, her mood incredibly buoyant due to the steady feast of suffering provided by Zhang Tian. "Listen closely, my successor..."
While the empire underwent its rigorous cleansing and the dark deity feasted in the north, Zhang Tian's true, physical body had been residing far away from the political turmoil.
He had traveled with Ah Yin to the vibrant, highly energetic basin of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
The hidden valley was as breathtaking as ever. The massive, swirling pool of milky-white freezing spring and crimson-red boiling spring created an environment saturated with profound, opposing energies. The air was thick with the scent of countless rare, thriving Immortal Herbs that continued to grow along the rocky banks.
Upon their arrival, the dense foliage near the edge of the well parted. A massive, truly majestic tree manifested before them. Its trunk was as wide as a carriage, composed of a striking, interwoven pattern of deep crimson and shining silver bark. The long, blade-like leaves shimmered with a metallic luster, gently swaying even though there was no wind.
This was the Blood Silver King, originally the Blue Silver King. Through Zhang Tian's previous intervention and the staggering, ambient nourishment provided by the roots of the Immortal Herbs and the Yin Yang energies over the years, the ancient plant had experienced explosive growth.
A holographic, faintly humanoid face projected from the center of the massive trunk, its expression filled with profound, ancient reverence.
"My Emperor. My Empress," the Blood Silver King rumbled, its voice echoing telepathically through the valley. The massive tree bowed its upper branches low to the ground.
"It is good to see you thriving, Ah Ba," Zhang Tian greeted the ancient plant with a warm, casual smile, using the affectionate nickname he had bestowed upon it.
Ah Ba was currently standing exactly at the 99,000-year-old cultivation threshold. He possessed a vast, deep reservoir of spirit power, yet he was completely stuck. The ancient king simply could not cross the final, monumental hurdle to become a Hundred Thousand Year Old Spirit Beast. This was primarily due to the stringent, unyielding limits of his foundational bloodline. Furthermore, even if he could somehow force a breakthrough, the natural laws of their species dictated that reaching that level would be conceptually akin to seizing the ultimate authority over the Blood Silver Grass clan directly from Ah Yin, who currently held the undisputed throne as the Blood Silver Empress. Ah Ba's immense loyalty completely forbade him from even attempting such an usurpation.
"Your foundation is remarkably stable, Ah Ba," Ah Yin praised, stepping forward to gently rest her delicate hand against the thick, crimson bark. A warm pulse of pure, resonant energy passed between them. "You have guarded this sanctuary perfectly."
"I merely bask in the glory of your reign, Empress," Ah Ba replied humbly. "Though I admit, the stagnation of my cultivation weighs heavily on my roots. I can feel the threshold, yet the door remains sealed."
Zhang Tian walked up beside Ah Yin, his icy blue eyes gleaming with confidence. He placed a hand on the trunk next to his wife's.
"You need not worry about that locked door much longer, Ah Ba," Zhang Tian assured the ancient king smoothly. "It will be very soon that Ah Yin takes the final step and advances. When her bloodline and her spirit are fully upgraded to the supreme level of a God Tree, she will become the true Blood Silver Goddess of the clan. Once she ascends and vacates the mortal throne, the suppression on your lineage will vanish. You just need to patiently wait for a few more years before you can seamlessly cross the threshold and officially become the new generation's Blood Silver Emperor."
Ah Ba's projection shimmered with intense, profound joy upon hearing his Emperor's words. The ancient plant rustled its metallic leaves in a display of deep, genuine gratitude. "I shall wait for eternity if required, My Emperor. Your words are the sun to my leaves."
"I am glad you are prepared," Zhang Tian smiled, stepping back slightly. "Because starting today, I require your full, undivided assistance for a rather monumental endeavor. I am not here merely to check on your progress."
Ah Yin looked at him, her beautiful face tilting slightly in curiosity. "What do you plan to do, Husband?"
Zhang Tian swept his gaze over the sprawling, vibrant patches of Blood Silver Grass that blanketed the valley floor, thriving under the glow of the Yin Yang Well.
"I want to play creator," Zhang Tian declared, his voice carrying a thrilling, ambitious weight. "I intend to create a brand new, unprecedented generation of seeds for the Blood Silver Grass clan. These will not be ordinary variants. I want to cultivate specific, highly concentrated lineages. I want to forge seeds that inherently possess single, dominating elemental attributes—some born with only the Flame Attribute, some with only the Ice Attribute, some with the pure Holy Attribute, and so on, covering all the major worldly elements."
He looked back at Ah Yin, his eyes burning with intellectual fire. "And ultimately, I want to successfully forge the pure Life Attribute Blood Silver Grass, and the pure Death Attribute Blood Silver Grass."
Ah Ba hummed thoughtfully, processing the request. "Manipulating the elemental affinities of our offspring is difficult, My Emperor, but entirely possible within this valley. The extreme energies of the springs and the lingering essence of the Immortal Herbs provide the perfect forging ground for elemental mutation."
"The physical creation of elemental grass is merely the first, simplest step," Zhang Tian corrected him, raising a single finger. "The true, monumental problem lies in the soul. If we merely mutate the grass, it remains just that—unintelligent flora driven only by base instinct and raw life force. I do not want special grass. I want to birth a new generation of true Spirit Beasts."
Ah Yin gasped softly, her hand flying to her mouth. She instantly understood the staggering difficulty of his proposal. In the natural order of the Douluo Continent, plant-type spirit beasts required tens of thousands of years of slow, passive accumulation just to develop a rudimentary, baseline consciousness, whereas animal-type beasts could achieve true sentience in a fraction of that time.
"You want to artificially infuse them with spiritual intelligence from the moment they sprout," Ah Yin whispered, staring at him in awe.
"Exactly," Zhang Tian nodded. "We are going to forcefully ignite the spark of a soul within the seeds. For this highly dangerous experiment, I require the absolute, synchronized support from you, Ah Yin, and from Ah Ba. I will also draw upon the collective, resonant connection of all the Blood Silver Grass planted within a dozen kilometers of this valley."
He detailed the grueling mechanics of the process. "We will utilize the pure, unextracted essence of the Immortal Herbs resting in the soil. We will siphon the highly volatile, opposing energies of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang springs, carefully balancing them to generate a faint, localized trace of the primordial energy of creation. I will channel my pure Life Attribute Spirit Power to construct the flawless biological vessels for the seeds."
Zhang Tian's expression turned remarkably solemn. "But the true cost will be paid by our minds. We will have to endure a massive, continuous consumption of our own mental force, weaving our combined spiritual power together to artificially force spiritual intelligence into the dormant seeds."
Ah Ba's branches stiffened, realizing the immense peril. "To forcefully bestow intelligence upon flora is to directly challenge the fundamental laws of the world's natural order. The heavens will not make this easy, My Emperor."
"I have never asked the heavens for permission," Zhang Tian replied simply. "Let us begin."
What followed was a grueling, agonizingly tedious process that consumed their days and nights for the next several months.
The trio established a profound, triangular spiritual formation near the edge of the springs. Zhang Tian sat in the center, his hands hovering over a small patch of highly enriched, fertile soil. Ah Yin sat to his right, her hands glowing with her Empress authority, while Ah Ba's massive root system acted as the earthly anchor to their left.
They could only safely attempt the ignition process once a day. The sheer, overwhelming volume of mental power required from Zhang Tian, Ah Ba, Ah Yin, and the sprawling network of surrounding grass was staggering. To push beyond one attempt risked permanently fracturing their spiritual seas.
They failed repeatedly.
For the first few weeks, the seeds would sprout rapidly under the influx of Life Energy, taking on brilliant crimson and fiery orange hues, but they remained completely, frustratingly dormant in terms of consciousness. They were merely highly energetic, very pretty weeds. Sometimes, the conflicting elemental energies of the springs would violently reject the mental infusion, causing the sprouts to instantly wither into ash or freeze into brittle, shattered glass.
But Zhang Tian was a man of infinite, terrifying patience. He meticulously analyzed every single failure, endlessly adjusting the microscopic ratios of Yin and Yang energies, refining the exact frequency of their combined mental pulse. He understood that the law restricting plant intelligence was not some unbreakable, iron-clad edict of the universe; it was simply a matter of incredibly low probability. With enough highly calculated, perfectly executed tries, that probability could be forcefully conquered.
Finally, after months of exhausting, repetitive effort, a breakthrough occurred.
Zhang Tian sat with his eyes closed, sweat dripping from his chin. Ah Yin held his shoulder, her breathing ragged as she poured her Empress authority into the soil. A tiny, incredibly vibrant seed rested in the dirt, infused heavily with the searing, ambient energy of a nearby Star Anise Fiery Precious herb.
"Now," Zhang Tian whispered, his voice hoarse.
The trio unleashed a perfectly synchronized, highly compressed spike of pure mental force directly into the seed. The Yin and Yang energies of the nearby springs flared, acting as a chaotic, creative catalyst.
The seed trembled. It cracked open, and a single, stunningly bright crimson and orange sprout pushed its way out of the soil.
Unlike the thousands of failures before it, this sprout did not simply sit still. The tiny, fiery leaves wiggled deliberately. It swayed toward Zhang Tian, its metallic surface glowing with a warm, internal light. Through his spiritual connection, Zhang Tian felt it—a faint, incredibly fragile, but undeniably present spark of pure, newborn consciousness. It possessed a rudimentary awareness, entirely separate from the hive mind. It was curious. It was alive.
"We did it," Ah Yin breathed, tears of sheer exhaustion and profound joy pricking her eyes. She leaned heavily against his arm. "It has a soul."
Ah Ba rustled his massive canopy in a silent, joyous celebration.
With the precise, highly complex formula finally cracked, their success rate slowly, steadily began to climb. Over the following weeks, Zhang Tian successfully created the first complete generation of these miraculous spirit beasts.
He cultivated brilliant, pure white Blood Silver Grass that radiated the Ultimate Ice attribute, and searing, golden-red grass that hummed with the Ultimate Flame attribute. He even managed to forge grass that glowed with a purifying, brilliant white light, possessing the pure Holy attribute.
The most incredible advantage of these newly birthed spirit beasts was their terrifying growth rate. Because they had been directly infused with Zhang Tian's supreme Life Spirit Energy during their conception, each sprout possessed an unimaginably high, almost ultimate affinity with their respective elements. They did not need to wait thousands of years to passively gather ambient energy; they could actively, rapidly absorb and refine the raw elemental attributes from their surroundings, growing stronger at a pace that defied all known botanical logic. It was a vastly accelerated, highly efficient form of the natural refining ability that ordinary spirit beasts possessed.
However, Zhang Tian's greatest, most monumental gain from these exhausting months was the successful creation of the two apex variants.
In a specialized, carefully isolated patch of soil, a vibrant, incredibly lush, bright emerald-green Blood Silver Grass swayed gently. It radiated an aura of pure, unadulterated Life Attribute, capable of instantly soothing the fatigue of anyone standing near it. A few feet away, secured within a containment array, rested a dark, intimidating pitch-black sprout laced with crimson veins. It exuded a heavy, terrifying aura of the pure Death Attribute, actively absorbing the decaying matter from the soil.
Zhang Tian stood over these two specific sprouts, a brilliant, visionary smile spreading across his handsome face. He was deeply, profoundly excited.
The grand, overarching vision he held of spreading his revolutionary Self-Condensing Spirit Ring technology across the entire world—even to distant continents where his own physical presence and his personal Life Spirit Core could not reach—was finally, realistically possible.
The ultimate, logistical bottleneck of his technology had always been the required energy source. To condense a spirit ring out of thin air, the specialized Spirit Tools needed a massive, pure influx of specific elemental or life energy to act as the forge. Previously, only Zhang Tian could provide that specific, high-tier energy.
But now, the solution lay at his feet.
'These intelligent, highly adaptive elemental grasses are the key,' Zhang Tian realized, his mind racing with the logistical rollout. 'The Life Attribute Blood Silver Grass and the Death Attribute Blood Silver Grass can act as the autonomous, self-sustaining batteries for the Spirit Tool arrays.'
His plan was flawless. As long as he could carefully cultivate and spread these intelligent grasses across the major cities, ensuring their specialized bloodlines multiplied and new fields of these attributed grasses grew within secured, government-controlled facilities, the requisite Life Energy or even the raw Death Energy required for condensing high-tier Spirit Rings could be endlessly, naturally provided by the flora itself.
Although he hadn't yet physically tested whether the raw Death Energy harvested from the black grass could be safely used to seamlessly condense Spirit Rings for dark-attribute Spirit Masters, his unparalleled understanding of the energy laws gave him a very strong, undeniable feeling that it would work perfectly. In fact, he reasoned that the pure energies passively generated by the Flame Attribute grass, the Wind Attribute grass, and the others could directly provide the foundational elemental fuel to generate highly customized spirit rings of their exact, corresponding elemental attributes.
Naturally, the raw grass could not accomplish this miracle out of thin air on its own. The process still absolutely required the complex, highly advanced Spirit Tools and intricate containment arrays that Zhang Tian had engineered to physically draw out, compress, and mold that ambient energy into a stable, absorbable ring for a human Spirit Master.
But still, removing himself as the sole, required battery for the entire continent was a monumentally significant achievement. Zhang Tian looked out over the glowing springs of the valley, seeing a bright, limitless future where humanity and spirit beasts no longer needed to slaughter one another to survive.
Meanwhile, deep within the ancient, shadowed canopy of the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest, another profound, world-altering revelation was taking shape.
Zhang Tian's Blood Silver Mirage Clone had spent the last several months accompanying his dear Jin Xi. They had peacefully traveled together, checking out the various, incredibly diverse beast clans and ancient races inhabiting the middle and core regions of the Great Forest. Everywhere they went, Jin Xi happily bestowed her auspicious blessings upon the young beasts, acting as the beloved, golden deity of the woods.
When he wasn't walking with Jin Xi, the clone was deeply immersed in his academic pursuits. He spent hours engaged in high-level, philosophical training regarding the absolute, microscopic control of Life Energy under the masterful, patient tutelage of Bi Ji.
However, his most groundbreaking work occurred within the secure, sprawling subterranean vaults belonging to Di Tian.
The Beast God had kept his word. The clone had been granted unrestricted access to a massive, sprawling collection of discarded Spirit Bones. These bones belonged to a vast, dizzying array of different spirit beasts, ranging from fragile, hundred-year-old luminous wolves to massive, terrifying fifty-thousand-year-old armored rhinos that had fallen in ancient territorial disputes.
For months, the clone of Zhang Tian had sat in the dim light of the vault, surrounded by piles of glowing, humming bones. He did not absorb them. Instead, he utilized his terrifyingly sharp spiritual perception to meticulously, surgically analyze the exact, microscopic crystalline structure of dozens of Spirit Bones of various different ages and elemental types.
He mapped the intricate, fossilized flow of spirit power within the marrow. He studied how the extreme, dying emotions of the beast acted as a sudden, intense catalyst, forcefully compressing their raw bloodline essence and their lifetime comprehension of elemental laws into a singular, indestructible physical object.
After meticulously dissecting and comparing hundreds of samples, a brilliant, paradigm-shifting idea finally crystallized within the clone's mind.
He realized that the creation of a Spirit Bone was not some exclusive, divine miracle restricted solely to the biology of Spirit Beasts. It was merely an extreme, highly condensed physical manifestation of energy and laws under pressure.
'Humans inherently possess a much more refined, complex, and highly conductive internal meridian system compared to the vast majority of spirit beasts,' the clone analyzed, his eyes glowing as he stared at a shimmering blue leg bone. 'If a beast can naturally, instinctively crystallize its essence into bone during a moment of extreme trauma upon death... then a human, wielding conscious, supreme control over their own internal energies, should theoretically be able to replicate the process while fully alive.'
It would absolutely not be right to call the resulting creations 'Artificial Spirit Bones'. That implied a lifeless, mechanical forgery.
What Zhang Tian had just conceptualized was a profound, revolutionary internal cultivation technique.
It was the Human Spirit Bone Condensation Method.
He hypothesized that if a human Spirit Master utilized a highly specific, painstakingly designed circulation technique, they could deliberately, slowly channel their own excess, highly compressed spirit power, their unique martial spirit essence, and their deep comprehension of elemental laws directly into their own skeletal structure. Over years of dedicated, focused cultivation, they could effectively forge and crystallize a personalized, perfectly compatible Spirit Bone directly within their own body, completely bypassing the need to ever hunt a beast for its remains.
The clone smiled, dropping the blue bone back onto the pile. The final piece of the puzzle to permanently sever the bloody cycle of the Douluo Continent had just fallen into place.
~~
A/N: Check out my other novels [Villain: Manipulating The Heroines Into Hating The Protagonist] and [Harem Master: Seduction System].
Also, check out 20 Chapters Ahead for this fanfic on my P.atreon. [Check Out Art Of Characters On My Patreon. It's Free To View btw.]
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