Douluo Continent: Building a Divine Kingdom Starting from the Spirit Hall

His voice was even colder, forcing Xueye to look up and meet his father's icy, heartless eyes, causing her to tremble involuntarily.

"What if I allow you to surpass me?"

"Your subject wouldn't dare!"

His mind went blank for a moment, and he was so frightened that he knelt on the ground. His mind raced through the snowy night as he pondered the deeper meaning of his father's words, but he couldn't understand them for a while.

His father had already changed quite a bit during this period, but the current changes made him feel even more unfamiliar and fearful, and he really couldn't figure it out.

Is this what they mean by the unpredictability of a ruler's heart?

"I told you to dare, and you must dare, otherwise don't even think about this position."

The cold, ruthless expression vanished, and Emperor Xuesheng revealed a tired and aged appearance, as if he had aged twenty years in an instant, giving off a sense of impending doom.

"Father?"

Xueye was even more puzzled; what exactly did her father mean?

"Get up and sit here."

With a benevolent father emoji, Emperor Xuesheng patted the person next to him, gesturing for his son to sit down.

As an emperor, acting skills are an essential skill, not to mention that there are genuine emotions revealed in the performance, making it a natural acting style.

Although she was puzzled, Xueye did not hesitate and carefully got up and sat down next to her father.

"You are excellent, no less so than I was in my youth, and the most suitable successor to the throne."

Unfortunately, times have changed, and even I am terrified and confused about the future. If you want to sit on this throne and hold onto it, you must surpass me. Do you understand?

Speaking with a kind expression, Emperor Xuesheng's mind was incredibly clear and lucid at that moment.

His previous actions were a test for his eldest son, to help him grow into someone more outstanding, even perfect, so that he could lead the empire to the end.

It was absolutely not because he wanted to continue holding imperial power; it was absolutely not.

"Father!"

Deeply shaken, Xueye finally understood.

My previous guess was correct; what happened earlier was indeed my father's test of me, wanting me to grow into someone even better.

Once I understood this, I was deeply moved, and my eyes even welled up with tears.

Who says there's no true affection in imperial families?

It's just that the way we express our true feelings is different.

"My time is running out. I can only use the last of my time to guide you to grow into a better person. Unfortunately, your recent performance has disappointed me greatly."

Even now, you haven't grasped the changing landscape of the future, and you're still using outdated perspectives to view and solve problems. You cannot lead the empire into the future like this.

His tone shifted, and he adopted a disappointed expression, for Emperor Xuesheng was indeed disappointed with his son's recent actions.

"Your subject and Yuehua are truly in love, and the marriage alliance with Haotian Sect is for the sake of the empire's future."

Feeling apprehensive, he hurriedly explained in the snowy night.

"If you want to sit in this position, you cannot have love in your heart, because it will affect your judgment. As an emperor, you cannot be bound by anything."

Emperor Xuesheng reverted to his previous cold and ruthless demeanor and reprimanded him.

"Your subject knows his mistake!"

That cold and ruthless attitude almost made Xue Ye kneel down in fear, and she hurriedly admitted her mistake, not daring to refute her father in such a manner.

"You don't truly understand yet, but I hope you will in the future."

With a sigh, Emperor Xuesheng continued, "Your decision to propose marriage to the Haotian Sect at this time is a major blunder. It's not worth paying such a high price for the sake of inheriting the throne."

The Spirit Hall has already set its sights on the Clear Sky Sect, and will definitely continue to find excuses to suppress and weaken it. You just need to wait patiently, and you can form an alliance with them without paying any price, and take the lead in the alliance.

Moreover, the Haotian Sect is too powerful now; it's beyond our control.

Uncontrollable forces will eventually backfire, which is more terrifying than an enemy.

In addition, in the highly likely major changes that may occur in the future, the Haotian Sect may become our competitor, or even our enemy.

Your assessment of them was wrong from the very beginning. You think that when the world is truly in chaos, the people of the Clear Sky Sect won't think about establishing an empire, unifying the Douluo Continent, and becoming the supreme rulers...

Emperor Xuesheng continued his analysis, making Xue Ye's face grow paler and cold sweat pour down her back.

"Go back now. I will be watching your performance. I hope that you can take the throne from me in the end with a perfect demeanor, lead the empire into the future, and complete the great cause that our ancestors did not finish."

Emperor Xuesheng patted his son's shoulder affectionately, placing high hopes on him.

He will guard this position for his son until he grows old, until his son reaches a perfect state.

"Your Majesty, I will never let you down."

Wiping away her tears, Xueye knelt before her elderly father and solemnly made a promise.

After saying that, he stood up and walked out of the secret room with a resolute expression.

After his son left the secret chamber, Emperor Xuesheng closed the door, took out a page of paper from his storage soul tool, tapped his hand on his knee, and recalled the melody the boy had hummed in the military camp tent earlier.

"...I hold tightly to the rotation of the sun and moon, wishing for peace and happiness in the mortal world. I really want to live another five hundred years..."

At first, she was just humming softly, but as the melody and rhythm progressed, she involuntarily stood up, her originally cloudy eyes revealing boundless longing, her emotions surging violently.

He loves this song so much!

Chapter 177 I Am the Emperor

The Soul Master Tournament officially began the day after the opening ceremony.

The rules are slightly different from those of Tang San's generation. Although the location is still the Heaven Dou Great Soul Arena, there is only one competition venue, and only one match can be held at a time.

There's no way around it; due to the changes in the world, Soul Masters are able to unleash increasingly greater power, and even breaking through their bottlenecks is becoming easier and easier.

This has led to increasingly larger-scale battles, making it impossible to divide the arena. If a division were forced, the smaller arena would not be enough to allow for effective play, and the players might be affected by battles on the other side, or even have their soul skills attacking the audience.

So it would be better to just make it a huge competition venue, at most making the competition last a little longer.

Anyway, there's plenty of time, no rush!

"Miss, please don't make things difficult for us. You've already promised the clan leader."

Tang Ye felt helpless. They had rushed over from Tianyin City overnight to continue protecting Tang Yuehua, but this young lady was still restless.

"The 'color embryo' will definitely win the championship and make you all look at it with new eyes."

Tang Yuehua, dressed in a large cloak that covered her entire body, sat down, puffing out her cheeks in anger.

She wanted to persuade her father to accept the lecherous woman, but her father was very stubborn. In the end, her father proposed that if the lecherous woman could win the championship in this Soul Master Competition, he would allow them to be together.

Although it was almost impossible, she still had great confidence in that lecherous man.

I hope we can win the championship!

Meanwhile, Tang Xue, who had also arrived in Tiandou City, was delivering a letter to her young mistress.

"This is a letter from Miss. You must already know who Miss is. She's not someone someone like you can associate with. Separating now is better for both of you."

Arriving at the stands of the Illusionary Sound Academy, Tang Xue tossed the envelope over and coldly warned them.

She initially thought highly of the young man, but unfortunately the clan leader chose Crown Prince Xueye. As a member of the Haotian Sect, she naturally firmly supported the clan leader's will.

Moreover, this young man is quite talented, but this world values ​​the strong above all else. As the weak, one should be aware of one's limitations. If things continue to escalate, it will not benefit either party.

"Go back and tell Yue'er that I will give her the prize money for winning the championship."

After reading the contents of the letter, Tian Hao put it into his storage soul tool and asked Tang Xue to pass on a message.

"Stubborn to the end!"

With an even colder expression, Tang Xue didn't bother to persuade her any further and turned to leave.

"Still twenty-eight."

As his gaze swept across the stands of all the academies, Tian Hao couldn't help but think of the preliminary rounds of the Soul Master Competition in Tang San's future year.

At that time, there were 28 teams participating in the Tiandou competition, one of which was the Blue Tyrant Academy founded by Liu Erlong, which later became Shrek Academy.

However, there is no Blue Tyrant Academy yet, so strictly speaking, there are only twenty-seven teams.

However, their Huanyin Academy was specially invited to compete in the Tiandou region, bringing the number of participating teams to twenty-eight.

What a coincidence!

Tian Hao was looking around at the stands of other college teams. The other college team members were also very curious about him. After all, it was the first time in history that a team had been specially invited from another region, not to mention that it was a college they had never even heard of.

They knew about Tianyin Academy, but this was the first time they had heard of Huanyin Academy.

"Why is there only one person from the Illusionary Sound Academy? Where are the other team members? Are they hiding in the shadows?"

"What's the point of hiding now?"

"Why is he wearing a mask? Aren't you supposed to wear masks to cover your face during a competition?"

"It feels weird."

Everyone was very curious about Tian Hao. The main players and substitutes from other colleges in the stands numbered more than ten, not to mention the team leaders and college teachers from each team.

There was only one person from the Illusionary Sound Academy, without even a teacher or leader to accompany them. It was too shabby.

“Mr. Gai, His Highness invites you to take a seat in the main stands.”

At this moment, a guard walked quickly over and invited Tian Hao to the main stands.

Tian Hao glanced at Xue Zhan, who was sitting in the main seat in the main grandstand, and saw that Xue Zhan was also looking at him and even waving. Tian Hao didn't say anything and followed the guard to the main grandstand.

"sit!"

Xue Zhan, who was sitting on the sofa, waved to Tian Hao, gesturing for him to come and sit down.

Tian Hao did not refuse, and sat down next to Xue Zhan with ease, once again attracting everyone's attention and immediately becoming the most eye-catching person in the entire arena.

"Snow battle!"

Xue Ye rebuked him in dissatisfaction. Although his mindset had changed a lot after communicating with his father in the secret room, Xue Zhan had gone too far.

Replacing the main stone throne with a sofa wasn't enough; they even let that lowly commoner sit on it. Where did you place the imperial dignity?

And don't think I don't know that you invited that lowly commoner to the Tiandou competition area, and now you've brought him here even more, aren't you disgusting me?