Douluo: Emerald Poison King

Chapter 510 The Root of All Evil
The Heaven Dou Empire's royal treasury is indeed difficult to open, but it is also quite easy to open.

Just like a long time ago, Qian Renxue didn't even go through the accounts before giving Chen Ming the Azure Jade Dragon Pearl from the treasury as a gift. In fact, as the source of power, the emperor and the crown prince inherently possess certain privileges.

If it's just one or two simple items, unless it's a treasure like a 100,000-year-old soul bone, it's perfectly acceptable to act first and ask for permission later, taking everything away or even using it all before continuing the process.

Moreover, since the Heaven Dou Empire itself does not possess any 100,000-year-old soul bones or anything of equivalent value in the eyes of the Heaven Dou Empire's royal family, everything is negotiable unless a large quantity is moved away at once.

While Xueye was going through the procedures, Qian Renxue immediately used her own methods to secretly open the royal treasury of the Heaven Dou Empire, ordered her soul masters to take the Vast Ocean Universe Cover from the treasury, and then replaced it with an Invincible Golden Body Shield that she had purchased privately from Chen Ming.

In the Heaven Dou Empire's understanding, the Vast Ocean Universe Cover is an extremely powerful soul tool, but few people can actually use it. Its most effective function is simply to create a formidable barrier. To put it roughly, it's similar to the Invincible Golden Body soul tool.

As for what Tang Chen will think after he gets his hands on it.
What does that have to do with Qian Renxue?

Qian Renxue, considering Xue Ye's final intention to fight to the death (Xue Ye: Is it possible, if possible, I also want to live?), will at most protect her younger sister Xue Ke and some other members of the Xue family who are at least presentable, so as to leave a seed for the Heaven Dou Empire in the future.
This is the largest number.

To be honest, over the years, with the continuous growth of her personality and a deeper understanding of the inner workings of the Heaven Dou Empire, Qian Renxue sometimes really had the urge to just kill Xue Ye.

He didn't directly commit many bad deeds, but he condoned far too many. Tax evasion, tax avoidance, private recruitment of soldiers, hiding people, black market transactions—there were many things Xueye didn't actively participate in, but he was still a beneficiary.

In Qian Renxue's opinion, Xue Ye was not so much a tyrant as a ruler, but he was not even worthy of being called a ruler who maintained the status quo. He was just a fig leaf, barely keeping the Heavenly Dou Empire together.

If Qian Renxue were to take the stage, not only would she not give Xue Ye a public trial, but she also wouldn't be able to get him off easily. However, if Xue Ye really wanted to make one last desperate attempt, then Qian Renxue would have to consider slightly beautifying Xue Ye's image in the future.

Several days later, Xue Ye's procedure was completed as expected, and the doors to the Heaven Dou Imperial Treasury were officially opened. Xue Ye, alone or perhaps forced by Tang Chen who was hiding in the shadows, entered the Heaven Dou Empire's Imperial Treasury without any guards.

After entering, Tang Chen was slightly shocked by the various treasures inside.

The most exquisite treasures are stored deep within the treasury, and even the Heavenly Dou Empire hasn't amassed many over thousands of years. However, mid-grade and upper-middle-grade treasures are worthless in this treasury. As long as the Heavenly Dou Empire can produce them stably within its borders, regardless of the annual output, the treasury will always be stockpiled with them.

As for the precious materials produced from soul beasts, there are even more.

The head of a true dragon soul beast, the skeleton of a dark gold dinosaur, the wings and feathers of a bird soul beast with phoenix blood, the skeleton of a tiger soul beast, and tiger penis wine.
Most of these materials were taken from high-age soul beasts with precious bloodlines, while a small portion came from soul beasts believed to be extinct. Even Tang Chen, a powerful figure over a hundred years old, had only heard of a significant portion of them but had never seen them. Some of these materials were completely unheard of.

Even if the original owners of these things came back to life, they wouldn't be enough for Tang Chen to fight with one hand, but that doesn't stop Tang Chen, as a human, from having never seen so many soul beasts before.

Although he knew that this wasn't the time to focus on these things, Tang Chen still opened his storage soul tool and took out some materials he had obtained from high-age, high-quality soul beasts, putting them into his pocket.

These things were useless to him, but for the vast majority of disciples of the Clear Sky Sect, they were invaluable items that could enhance their cultivation speed and personal strength. If it weren't for the inconvenience at the moment, Tang Chen would have loved to simply take all these precious soul beast materials, along with the boxes and boxes of herbs piled up, and bring them back to cultivate the Clear Sky Sect.

At the same time, looking at these precious materials, Tang Chen was also somewhat puzzled. After all, in his opinion, even if only one-tenth of these materials were taken out, given the size of the Heaven Dou Empire itself, it would be enough to cultivate at least two or three Title Douluos.

In fact, the Heaven Dou Empire doesn't have a single titled Douluo-level retainer on the surface. They'd rather lock these things in a vault than let anyone use them, which is quite baffling.

How could a force that doesn't even have a Title Douluo have the resources to mass-produce Title Douluos?

Having been accustomed to the existence of imperial power since birth, Tang Chen thought about this question for the first time in his life. Looking at Xue Ye, who was hunched over in front of him with a smile on his face, as if afraid that he would kill him with a punch, Tang Chen suddenly couldn't understand why such a person could become an emperor, while his Haotian Sect was just a sect.
"When Xiao San grows up, I will definitely make him develop his strength, preferably to directly control a country and make the Haotian Sect the royal family. Only in this way can my number one weapon spirit in the world grow strong. These unworthy guys can just die somewhere else."

"With the backing of the gods, the Haotian Sect will surely become the number one sect in the world for all eternity, and may even cultivate more gods to control the entire Douluo Continent!"

While Tang Chen was thinking aggressively, he casually put all sorts of things that caught his eye from the shelf into his storage soul tool. Xue Ye in front of him dared not speak out in anger, and could only watch with blood streaming down his face as Tang Chen carried away the wealth that the Heavenly Dou Empire had accumulated over thousands of years with the strength of the whole country, as if he were carrying eggs.

Finally, guided by Xueye, Tang Chen saw the box containing the so-called Vast Ocean Universe Cover.

It's unclear whether it's because the box is so effective, but even though Tang Chen is a demigod, he couldn't directly sense even a fraction of the aura that a divine artifact should have from outside the box.

He opened the box and looked inside. A bright blue crown was quietly placed inside, but after a closer look, Tang Chen's face showed a puzzled expression.

Tang Chen took out the azure crown and subconsciously poured his soul power into it. As the soul power was absorbed, the golden gems on the crown lit up, and a barrier that could block the attack of a Title Douluo appeared, but not a trace of the Sea God's divine power overflowed.

Tang Chen frowned and tapped the protective barrier beside him. After only a few blows, the originally indestructible barrier shattered into countless fragments of soul power in an instant. The structure inside the crown collapsed instantly, and the golden gem at the top lost its luster and shattered into golden dust.

Tang Chen remained silent for a long time after witnessing this scene.

"Is this a divine artifact?" Tang Chen stared in disbelief at the discarded metal crown in his hand, utterly speechless. Not only had Tang Chen never seen a true Heart of the Sea God, but Sea God Island itself hadn't seen one in thousands of years.

From the limited information available, the Heart of the Sea God is described as a very precious artifact. Once activated, it can release a powerful protective shield capable of withstanding attacks from Title Douluo. In addition, it may possess various other abilities, making it appear to be a special soul tool.

Tang Chen wasn't sure if the thing in his hand was the Heart of the Sea God. If it was, then he had been damaged by the divine artifact. If not, then where could the Heart of the Sea God be?

Moreover, I myself came from
"Who did I obtain the Heart of the Sea God from? The Heavenly Dou Empire calls it the Vast Ocean Universe Cover and keeps it in its treasury. Why do I feel that the Heart of the Sea God must be in the Heavenly Dou Empire?"

Tang Chen covered her face, a look of confusion and pain flashing in her eyes.

In reality, he had no idea where the Vast Ocean Universe Cover was. It was a piece of information that the Asura God had added to his mind, making him believe that he had accidentally obtained a clue about one of the inherited artifacts of Seagod Island.

If Tang Chen hadn't thought about it carefully and obtained the genuine product, he would have naturally let the matter slide, mentioning it only as "accidental knowledge." But now that Tang Chen has discovered that what he has is not what was described and has begun to question the accuracy of the source of the information, the issue of his memory immediately arises.

Tang Chen's chaotic thoughts pounded into his mind like a sledgehammer, abruptly waking the slumbering Asura God's divine sense. Sensing Tang Chen's thoughts and the problem he was facing, the Asura God's divine sense skillfully condensed a large wooden table in the illusory mental space, and then suddenly overturned the table.

"Back then, after I tricked the emperor of the Heaven Dou Empire into intercepting and killing the high priest of Seagod Island, I put the Vast Ocean Universe Cover in the Heaven Dou Empire's treasury. Logically speaking, not only did I tamper with that thing, but it also doesn't have much compatibility with land-based soul masters, so no one should be able to use it, right?"

"Where is my Vast Ocean Universe Cover? Where is my cover?"

Even though he didn't have that part, the Asura God's divine sense was still extremely aching at this moment.

Why was he asleep just now?
That's because he didn't want to arouse the alertness of the sea god's divine sense within the Vast Ocean Universe Cover.

The fact that the High Priest of the Asura God collected the Vast Ocean Universe Cover due to his personal relationship with the High Priest of Seagod Island is entirely different from the fact that the Asura God instructed the High Priest to collect the Vast Ocean Universe Cover. The former deepened the relationship, while the latter could easily raise suspicion.

However, Tang Chen's act of smashing the object still forcibly woke him up. After waking up, the Asura God carefully examined the object in his hand through Tang Chen's eyes and immediately noticed that something was wrong.

Although this thing, like the Heart of the Sea God, is a top-tier soul tool, its quality is several levels lower than the real Heart of the Sea God, and it doesn't possess the Sea God's divine power; it's just a decent soul tool.

"Didn't I use the excuse of wiping out the remnants of the Dragon God to destroy the Soul Tool Civilization back then? Logically speaking, it should be a matter of good fortune that only one top-tier Soul Tool was left to be used by the Sea God to make the Heart of the Sea God. Why would such a Soul Tool still exist in this world?"

The Asura God was extremely agitated.

Humans actually existed in Douluo Continent a long time ago, but the earliest group of humans in Douluo Continent were not Douluo people. They were actually people who ascended from other planes to the Dragon God Realm and then settled in Douluo Continent by taking advantage of the special nature of the God Realm.

At that time, Douluo Continent, as an important hub of the God Realm, underwent many adjustments and became a special plane that could accommodate various energy systems from different worlds.

Magic, martial arts, internal energy, sorcery.
These things did indeed exist on the Douluo Continent at that time. However, because these people were not native to the Douluo Continent, the energy they used was not soul power, nor were they compatible with soul power. The offspring born from the union of these people with 100,000-year-old soul beasts and ferocious beasts that had transformed into human form were the first Douluo humans capable of using soul power.

Some of these people chose to inherit their ancestors' energy system, while others adapted to the Douluo Continent and used soul power and martial souls for their own development.

The Soul Guidance Device Civilization developed at that time by combining different creation abilities and systems from many planes. It is a kind of device driven by soul power.

Back then, the martial souls in the Douluo Continent weren't as clearly defined as they are now. Human martial souls, like the martial souls of 100,000-year-old soul beasts that had taken human form, were manifestations of bloodline.

Human Soul Masters didn't break through to higher levels as quickly as they do now, but they also didn't have the restriction of needing to absorb Soul Rings to break through bottlenecks. This is because the rule that Soul Beasts would drop Soul Rings and Soul Bones upon death simply didn't exist in the Douluo World back then.

Soul power is a cultivation system of moderate to low strength, but it is quite universal and generally a normal one.

However, after the turmoil in the God Realm and the fall of the Dragon God, the dimensional rules of the Douluo World also changed, and a bottleneck appeared in the Douluo World.

Those from other dimensions are fine, but as long as they have bloodlines native to the Douluo world, they are inexplicably burdened with a special shackle, regardless of whether they originally used battle qi, magic, or soul power.

Because the actual Douluo humans are not creatures that evolved naturally, but rather are born from the union of humans from other planes and soul beasts that have transformed into humans in the Douluo world. They are born with the imprint of the Douluo world within their bodies, and also possess some characteristics of soul beasts.

In terms of life form, it is somewhat similar to the wolf bandits in the current Douluo Continent, but with a more perfect form and less ferocious nature. It possesses human intelligence and high growth potential while having a soul beast-level physique and long lifespan. It does not have clear limitations on soul power level and realm, but has soul power cultivation similar to that of soul beasts.

If we had to pinpoint it, the bloodline left behind by the union of a god-level being and a god-level divine beast. The very first batch of Douluo people, while far from being at the level of innate saints, were already quite perfect by ordinary standards, and their potential for growth was even higher than that of ordinary beings.

(End of this chapter)