Bibidong not only failed to gain strength from the Godhood Trial but was instead forced to suppress her own power.
In this back-and-forth, Tang San and Qian Renxue were the chosen ones, while Bibidong seemed to be suffering divine retribution.
Why was this the case?
Was the Rakshasa God being stingy?
Not at all.
Helping an heir to grow stronger indeed required consuming one's own divine power, but Bibidong was already strong enough. Even if the Rakshasa God were to elevate all of Bibidong's spirit rings to the hundred-thousand-year level, the divine power required for a powerful first-level god would not be a significant burden.
In a sense, this predicament was self-inflicted by Bibidong.
The Rakshasa God was not unwilling to support Bibidong; however, as a highly twisted and evil deity, she could not possibly be like the Sea God, wishing for a harmonious relationship with her heir. Instead, she wanted to see Bibidong become more depraved and distorted, rather than turning into another neutral Asura God.
Thus, during each Godhood Trial, she would tempt Bibidong to descend further into depravity, drawing her closer to her own direction.
In this process, the first emotion the Rakshasa God aimed to distort was, of course, the one she despised the most—love.
Even among the many idealistic forces, love was an extremely powerful one. If it weren't, there wouldn't be so many literary works celebrating it.
In the eyes of the Rakshasa God, Bibidong was perfect in every way, except for one glaring flaw: she had fallen in love with that useless Yu Xiaogang! And even in her depravity and distortion, she still retained that love!
Damn it, even a normal person would find it hard to understand why Bibidong would fall for such a thing.
For the Rakshasa God, this was undoubtedly a flaw that needed to be erased!
Her heir was hopelessly in love with a useless person who could only boast, and if this were to be known in the divine realm, she would be ridiculed!
She was not like the Asura, who was emotionless and cold! She had her pride too!
The Rakshasa God could already imagine that scene.
...
As soon as the Rakshasa God arrived at the gathering of the gods, all the drinking gods turned to her and laughed, some calling out, "Rakshasa, your heir has gone to grovel before that useless mortal again!"
The Rakshasa did not respond but said to the counter, "Warm two bowls of Azure Jade Nectar Wine, and bring a plate of Magic Beans." She then dispelled nine crystallized divine powers.
The gods continued to mock her loudly, "I saw your heir going to steal things for her lover again!"
The Rakshasa widened her eyes and said, "How can you slander someone without evidence?"
One god replied, "What innocence? I saw that Yu Xiaogang sneaking around in front of the Asura God's door the day before yesterday, seemingly asking about some theories of becoming a god, and he was caught and beaten by the Asura! Wasn't it your heir who went to rescue him?"
The Rakshasa's face flushed red, veins bulging on her forehead as she argued, "It must be that Asura targeting me! Even my heir is being targeted; the Asura is not treating me like a person!"
...
Things were going poorly.
So, during the first task of the Godhood Trial, the Rakshasa directly gave Bibidong a choice.
She could either kill Yu Xiaogang and then enter the Rakshasa Realm or directly enter the Rakshasa Realm.
Choosing the former would lower the difficulty of the Rakshasa Realm by a level.
In addition, there would be extra rewards, and the difficulty of subsequent assessments would also decrease, while the latter would not offer any rewards.
The Rakshasa Realm had five secret realms corresponding to the negative emotions of anger, hatred, suffering, sorrow, and doubt.
There were only three levels of difficulty: Cage, Purgatory, Abyss, and Despair.
The first realm of anger was at the Purgatory level.
The lowest level, Cage level, did not correspond to any specific secret realm and could only lower the difficulty of the secret realm through other Godhood Trials.
Even the Purgatory level was a life-and-death situation for normal Soul Masters, and for those qualified to activate the Godhood Trial, it was fraught with danger and risk of death.
The Abyss level was extremely cruel and dangerous, even for those undergoing the Godhood Trial, while the final Despair level… was essentially telling you it was impossible to complete; without lowering the difficulty through previous trials, entering was tantamount to seeking death.
As for the lowest difficulty, the Cage level…
Not only was there no risk of death, but relying on the characteristic of dying within it being merely a fragment of consciousness, one could also train combat awareness and accumulate combat experience.
Originally, the last realm of doubt was set at the Despair level, but the Rakshasa God lowering the difficulty for Bibidong at the very start of the first Godhood Trial was already a significant concession. If she lowered the difficulty again, it would drop directly to the Purgatory level, and by that time, Bibidong, who was already incredibly close to godhood after passing four consecutive assessments, would definitely be able to succeed.
Moreover, lowering the first secret realm to the Cage level also directly prevented Bibidong from failing miserably.
But for Bibidong, the devoted follower, did she even need to choose such an option?
She completely ignored the prominent prompt about lowering the difficulty and stubbornly began to enter the secret realm.
The Rakshasa God thought the temptation was not strong enough; however, as the difficulty of the subsequent secret realm assessments gradually increased and the risk of death significantly rose, Bibidong remained unmoved.
Once the Godhood Trial was announced, even the gods themselves were not allowed to change it, as that would be a blatant violation of divine law.
Regarding the Godhood Trial, the gods had a high degree of autonomy; aside from not being able to completely neglect their duties and hand over divine positions, such behavior was not permitted, but there was still considerable room for maneuver. For example, the Rakshasa God's adjustments to the assessment difficulty were still within the bounds of divine law.
Thus, the Godhood Trial was both an assessment and an opportunity for dialogue between the gods and the candidates.
It was also for this reason that when the Sea God communicated with Tang San through the Sea God's Heart, which he had left behind, subtly conveying ways to pass the trial, he was directly warned by the Asura. Otherwise, even with the competition for candidates, given the Asura's character, he would not joke about his own position.
However, the gods were all arrogant, and the Rakshasa God, projecting her own thoughts onto Bibidong, a love-struck fool, failed to consider this situation, resulting in a waste of many dialogue opportunities due to insufficient design when issuing the task.
But would the Rakshasa God think she was wrong?
Clearly not.
Instead, she increased the task difficulty as much as possible within the allowable range and directly informed Bibidong that the final task difficulty, given her current condition, was ten deaths without life.
Implying that Bibidong needed to kill Yu Xiaogang to lower the task difficulty.
There was an implicit coercion.
Could Bibidong agree to that?
Absolutely not!
She stubbornly pushed through one difficult Godhood Trial task after another, along with the five secret realms necessary to inherit the divine position, even without any rewards.
What was the Rakshasa God's reaction?
Seeing her successor perform so excellently, would she feel admiration?
She could not be happy!
Clearly, killing a worthless piece of trash like Yu Xiaogang, with Bibidong's qualifications and her current strength after passing several assessments, would be a piece of cake, yet she insisted on facing numerous risks and forcibly completing tasks that exceeded her initial expectations!
The Rakshasa God cursed Bibidong as a fool more than once.
Thus, she became increasingly ruthless, even starting to set additional traps to disgust Bibidong during the Godhood Trials.
A normal god seeking a successor would not do such things, but for the Rakshasa God, who was just as twisted as Bibidong, it was a different story.
In this way, the Rakshasa God and Bibidong clashed without ever having a direct conversation.
After several covert confrontations, Bibidong ultimately lost her calculations, becoming tainted by the madness within the Rakshasa God's power during one secret realm expedition, having to expend most of her soul power to counter the uncontrollable Rakshasa God power, resulting in her soul power level visibly dropping to 98.
In the Pope's Hall, after venting her frustrations, Bibidong felt a sense of fear for her earlier thoughts.
'How could I have such thoughts!?'
She understood the reason behind it, but even so, she could not accept it.
Due to the previous public opinion incident, the Rakshasa God's power within her had gone out of control once. If it weren't for Qian Daoliu's intervention, she might have completely lost her mind and become a mindless monster.
That would naturally mean losing her qualification for the Godhood Trial and failing the assessment, similar to Tang Chen's situation.
Although she had once again suppressed the madness within her heart, that restraint was loosening.
Even maintaining her previous level of suppression, Bibidong would occasionally fall into an uncontrollable state.
This was a dire situation.
At any moment, she could become a mindless madwoman, and the terrifying feeling of being chased by an invisible monster made Bibidong's nerves fray, leading her to develop a mental illness akin to bipolar disorder.
Moreover, to pass the final realm of doubt, one needed a relatively rational mindset.
Although the Rakshasa Realm was fraught with danger, death within it was real, but it was not the case that once you chose to start, you had to pass it all at once.
Some secret realms had time limits, allowing one to choose to return after a certain period; others had specific one-time save points to preserve progress and exit for adjustments, continuing from the same spot next time… and so on.
Aside from the initial realm of anger, which was both the first secret realm and the first Godhood Trial content, the other secret realms only differed in difficulty, with no requirements for the order of攻略.
Bibidong's strength was already nearing its peak; even if she completed the subsequent spirit rings for her second martial soul, it would only add a few powerful soul skills and slightly increase her attributes.
Considering her increasingly dire situation, she had already entered the realm of doubt once for preliminary exploration.
Thus, she confirmed that the most important thing within that secret realm was to maintain a clear mind.
Bibidong's original strategy for clearing the trials was to pass through the other secret realms in order, increasing the Rakshasa God's affinity, thereby suppressing the Rakshasa God power.
Through numerous Godhood Trials, she had indeed lowered the difficulty of the realm of doubt to the Abyss level without reducing the difficulty of the other secret realms, using all those "rewards" to lower the difficulty of the realm of doubt. However, the realm of doubt was still the most challenging among the many Abyss-level secret realms.
Anger, hatred, suffering, sorrow, doubt… with this in mind, she had successfully cleared the first three.
As for the second most difficult realm of sorrow, which remained at Abyss level without any reduction in difficulty, she originally planned to maintain her strength at level 98 while attempting to pass the preliminary stages, and when facing the final boss, temporarily release her soul power restrictions to unleash her full strength and clear it.
Based on her initial estimates, it was just a matter of a divine power rampage, and she still hoped to regain clarity, not to become a monster.
The increased affinity from the fourth secret realm would not only allow her to regain clarity, but in her calculations, it would also provide another opportunity to unlock her soul power restrictions, thus giving her hope to pass the fifth secret realm.
But now, she had lost that trump card.
This meant she had almost no chance of passing the remaining two secret realms to complete the Godhood Trial.
'If I don't increase the Rakshasa God's affinity, I'll go insane before continuing with the subsequent secret realm trials…' Bibidong thought, her face filled with pain and distortion.
Clearly still herself, yet transformed into a completely different monster, such a result was more painful than death.
If it weren't for this, Bibidong, the love-struck fool, wouldn't have suddenly developed malicious thoughts towards Yu Xiaogang.
But a devoted follower was still a devoted follower; even amidst the pain of distorting herself, Bibidong managed to endure it.
'No, there's still hope.'
With the obsession of not wanting to harm her beloved, Bibidong finally thought of a solution.
'My second martial soul still has two spirit ring slots left. If I can find two hundred-thousand-year spirit beasts… no, two hundred-thousand-year spirit beasts are not enough; they must be legendary ferocious beasts! If I can hunt two ferocious beasts as my spirit rings, forcibly increasing my soul power to truly reach the limit below the gods, with extra soul power to suppress the Rakshasa God power, I can restore my ultimate combat power! Plus, with the enhancement of the two ferocious beast spirit rings, I might even surpass that old man Qian Daoliu!'
Then, the question arose…
Where to find ferocious beasts?
'The sea!'
A fierce light flashed in Bibidong's eyes.
Once, Qianxunji, overly ambitious, led thousands of elite Soul Masters to Seagod Island without informing Qian Daoliu, ultimately returning in defeat.
It was only because Qian Daoliu, this ultimate powerhouse, intervened that a full-scale war between the Spirit Hall and Seagod Island was averted.
Since then, a peace treaty of non-aggression had been established between the Spirit Hall and Seagod Island.
Bibidong searching for traces of ferocious beasts on the sea was impossible for her to do personally in her current condition, so she naturally had to send out a large number of people to search.
This would undoubtedly violate the previous agreement.
One could imagine how furious Qian Daoliu would be.
But…
'I can't care about that anymore.'
Bibidong smiled coldly.
If a conflict truly erupted between the Spirit Hall and Seagod Island, causing the High Priestess of the Sea God, Bo Saixi, to appear, and she was unable to intervene, Qian Daoliu would have no choice but to act, no matter how unwilling he was.
With Qian Daoliu's stubborn character, he could not possibly stand by and watch a large number of Spirit Hall Soul Masters die.
...
In the Chaos Mountain Range, within the Beast Soul Alliance's headquarters, in a newly constructed underground cave over the past month.
This place had been transformed by skilled craftsmen into a sealed underground prison.
A disheveled man, exuding a foul odor, was bound at the limbs, his tendons severed, imprisoned here.
"Are you back again? Heh, a dignified Titled Douluo, and you engage in such filthy deeds; don't you feel ashamed!?"
Hearing the footsteps, the man suddenly raised his head and glared angrily at the newcomer.
But upon seeing the visitor, the anger in his eyes turned to shock.
"A Yin?" Tang Hao looked at the gentle woman standing obediently beside You Chen, unable to believe his eyes.
The Blue Silver Emperor, Ling Xian, felt a bit frightened under Tang Hao's fiery gaze and shrank behind You Chen, replying, "Sorry, my name is Ling Xian; you've mistaken me for someone else."
Tang Hao was dumbfounded.
After more than a month of torment and humiliation, this sudden shock made him forget his anger for a moment.
"Ling Xian, this is my prisoner, a heinous villain; you don't need to be polite to him."
At that moment, You Chen gently educated the bewildered Ling Xian.
"Oh, I understand, Master." Ling Xian smiled brightly at You Chen, nodded, and rubbed against him like a small animal.
After a month of education, You Chen had basically completed the indoctrination of Ling Xian's worldview, and she had completely become his master both mentally and physically.
It was for this reason that he brought Ling Xian before Tang Hao.
No other reason, just to provoke Tang Hao further and gain higher rewards.
After countless experiments on others—referring to Bo Saixi—You Chen had become a master at manipulating others' emotions.
However, while Douluo people did not cultivate their minds, reaching the level of Titled Douluo meant a true leap in the level of life, which meant— as extraordinary beings, their adaptability to pain was far greater than that of normal people.
About half a month later, You Chen discovered that ordinary infliction of pain, even with the daily first task being easier to trigger, had become very difficult to trigger Tang Hao's tasks even once a day.
However, You Chen had long anticipated this situation.
He knew that for beings above Titled Douluo, mental pain was far more intense than physical torment.
Taking Bo Saixi as an example.
The pain of a severed arm was something Bo Saixi could endure; what she could not bear was the fact that she had become incomplete.
On the other hand, mating was not painful for Bo Saixi's body; one could even say it was enjoyable, but the humiliation and pain of losing her purity and becoming a female beast far outweighed the pain of losing an arm.
Moreover, this mental pain could not be eliminated unless Bo Saixi was completely tamed by You Chen.
Furthermore, Tang Hao had always been plagued by illness, and his tolerance for pain was definitely higher than that of most Titled Douluos.
So, anticipating Tang Hao's growing tolerance to physical pain, which led to a lack of tasks to refresh, You Chen had already prepared a plan to inflict mental torment on Tang Hao.
He certainly could not do to Tang Hao what he did to Bo Saixi; not only would he not personally intervene, but even finding someone to do it would be a bit hard for him to accept—this confirmed his humanity and reminded him how far he was from the divine realm he envisioned.
Thus, his approach was simple and direct…
He chose to feed Tang Hao feces.
From force-feeding to using mental power to hypnotize Tang Hao, making him unable to control himself from eating feces while remaining conscious…
Considering that Tang Hao had maintained a high task refresh rate over the past half month, You Chen did not bring out the subsequent self-circulation system.
Well, to be honest, even You Chen found it a bit disgusting.
But for the sake of rewards, You Chen was willing to lower his standards as much as possible.
And now that Ling Xian's training was complete, such troublesome and disgusting methods were no longer necessary.
"Beast, what have you done to A Yin!? What have you done!? I will kill you ah ah ah!!!"
Seeing Tang Hao erupt into a rage in an instant, and hearing the pleasant system notification sound in his mind, You Chen revealed a joyful expression.
Look, he hadn't even done anything yet, and Tang Hao was already automatically refreshing tasks like a qualified task refresh machine.
This was much easier than generating new tasks with Bo Saixi.
"At this rate, I reckon it won't be a problem to keep this up for a month. But if things continue like this, the ultimate humiliation of making Tang Hao eat feces in front of Ling Xian might have to be scheduled for a year or two later."
You Chen glanced indifferently at Tang Hao, who was constantly cursing him. In You Chen's eyes, Tang Hao was no longer an individual "person," but merely a tool.
"Criminal, how dare you insult your master!"
Before You Chen could react, the gentle Ling Xian beside him was already seething with killing intent.
But before Ling Xian could teach Tang Hao a lesson, Tang Hao, upon seeing the murderous intent in Ling Xian's eyes, widened his eyes, spat out blood, and fainted.
Ling Xian was puzzled: "Huh? Why did he just vomit blood on his own?"
[Ding, mission completed.]
You Chen: "..."
You Chen fell silent for a moment, then, under Ling Xian's expectant gaze, patted her head as if soothing a small animal, and said, "You did well, but don't do it again next time. Without my orders, don't initiate any conversation or action with him."
"Huh? Why not?"
Ling Xian was confused.
You Chen glanced at Tang Hao, whose shackled body was still twitching, and explained, "I'm afraid he won't make it through the year, and that would mean a lot less fun (tasks) for us."
Although Ling Xian didn't fully understand, as long as it was You Chen's command, she naturally had no choice but to obey.
You Chen looked at the rewards Tang Hao had dropped this time and nodded silently.
Except for the first few big drops, most of the rewards Tang Hao had given out later were basic resource-type rewards. Today, however, he had dropped some rare resources like the Flash of Inspiration.
Those Buff Pills and the like, You Chen no longer had much need for, and the number of Top-Tier Experience Pills, which corresponded to ordinary Titled Douluo, had already begun to surpass the other levels of experience pills.
However, after You Chen unexpectedly had Sea Princess Lina perform a Soul Sacrifice, his soul power had surged beyond normal limits, and he no longer had any need for Top-Tier Experience Pills.
What he now valued were the Top-Tier Nutrient Pills and the intermittent Special-Grade Nutrient Pills that Tang Hao dropped.
Some people might have already forgotten about Nutrient Pills, but to put it simply, they are a versatile cultivation resource that can completely replace Soul Beast Meat and even some Natural Treasures.
The cultivation resources provided by Tang Hao alone in the form of Nutrient Pills were comparable to at least one-tenth of the supply from the entire North Sea during this period, which was utterly terrifying.
But sheer "quantity" was only secondary; the greatest characteristic of Nutrient Pills was their digestion speed.
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