"I'm Tang San!" the divine sense of Tang San exclaimed, utterly confused.
"Then… why did he send down another divine sense?!" Da Ming's expression grew increasingly grim.
"How the hell would I know?" Tang San looked even more bewildered. He had been planning to take the opportunity to integrate with his original self, yet the original body completely ignored him and instead sent down another strand of divine sense.
"Big Brother, didn't Tang San send a strand of divine sense? Why don't we just ask him what's going on?" Er Ming pointed to the other "Tang San."
"Right, right…" Da Ming slapped his forehead.
"By all logic, this divine sense should carry the most recent memories of the God King. We'll know at a glance whether this Tang San is real or fake."
"What are you all talking about?" the other divine sense of Tang San frowned.
After Da Ming explained everything, the new Tang San's expression darkened:
"Useless! Two useless fools! You let a single teenager deceive you so completely—what's the point of having you as my divine envoys?!"
"Huh?!" Er Ming's eyes went wide. "But, God King, he knew almost all of the secrets of the Clear Sky Sect… He even knew about Little Qi! If he's not the real God King—"
"Even something as crucial as Little Qi descending to the mortal world was leaked by you two?" Tang San gritted his teeth in rage.
"What can I even count on you two for, huh?!"
Just as he was about to unleash his full power, all desire to do so was extinguished instantly.
"Take him away and lock him up—I'll interrogate him personally!"
The old divine sense began to struggle:
"I'm Tang San! I know secrets of the Divine Realm—mmf mmf mmf!"
But before he could finish speaking, the Titan Giant Ape lifted him up like a chick, covered his mouth, and he couldn't break free.
Once the Titan had left, the new divine sense turned to Da Ming:
"I just arrived. Bring me up to speed on the current state of the continent."
"It's like this…" Da Ming looked disheartened. He briefly explained the Sun-Moon Empire's meteoric rise, how the soul fragment of Little Qi hidden within the auspicious beast was discovered, and how the Continental Alliance had been recently devastated by the Sun-Moon Empire. The situation was in chaos—an excellent hand had been played into utter ruin.
Tang San's face darkened so much it seemed water could drip from it. He gritted his teeth:
"Then why didn't you report this to me earlier?"
"You didn't give us the chance…" Da Ming replied helplessly.
"…"
Tang San waved his hand dismissively:
"Forget it, forget it. Head to the back altar immediately and try to establish contact with my main body. I couldn't earlier because those two old monsters, Kindness and Evil, were keeping a close eye on me. If we let the Sun-Moon Empire keep developing like this, the whole continent might as well be renamed Xu!"
"But… before your main body left, it seems the connection between the back altar and the Divine Realm was sealed off. Now, only the Divine Realm can contact the back altar—"
"…"
"Goddammit!"
"Is there any other way?"
"Seems like… we'll just have to wait for your main body to contact us…" Da Ming said bitterly.
Divine Realm.
Inside the conference chamber.
The God of Destruction sneered at Tang San:
"Not only did you interfere in the mortal realm without authorization, you even elevated your entire clan with you—your parents: one devoured a continental plane, the other fused with the Golden Tree. I didn't pursue any of that. But you ignored the committee's warnings and got caught again. What do you have to say for yourself this time?"
The other three committee members all had grim expressions.
The truth was—
Intervening in the mortal realm wasn't inherently a big issue. If anything, only the God of Destruction had a clean conscience; even Kindness and Evil had gone down to pick successors, even reincarnating in the mortal realm themselves.
What truly alarmed the gods—
Was that ever since Tang San became God King, he swiftly revived a host of old rules and systems, enforcing them strictly across the Divine Realm. Even the most trivial matters became testable benchmarks. It was obvious: he was asserting authority—burning the "three fires" of a new official in charge.
He even burned one of those fires toward Destruction's faction, using it as an excuse to clean up his subordinates.
And now, this supposedly upright God King, Tang San, was acting with complete impunity, ignoring rules entirely.
Moreover, in recent days, he had been wooing the five elemental gods and undermining others—what was he planning? A dictatorship in the Divine Realm?
Why does the Divine Realm have a five-member committee?
To ensure fairness and balance. If one person's influence becomes too great, it poses a massive threat to the entire Divine Realm's order.
Even the usually carefree Kindness and Evil had been forced to return and now worked together to suppress Tang San. Their goal: cultivate a challenger strong enough to oppose him, to ensure at least two opposing factions in the Divine Realm.
Therefore, they would no longer allow Tang San to interfere in the Douluo Plane.
After all, Xu Cheng needed room to grow.
If Tang San discovered him too soon… never underestimate the methods of a God King.
Tang San remained expressionless.
He ignored Destruction's mockery.
What needed doing had already been done. Though Destruction discovered and disrupted his plan halfway, that divine strand had already been sent out. With his own oversight, it would definitely be more effective than leaving it to those two useless fools.
"Tang San, this is your final warning. If you interfere with the mortal realm again, even Kindness and I will not go easy on you." Evil narrowed his eyes, his overwhelming divine power crashing down on Tang San, causing his face to pale.
"Fine." Tang San gritted his teeth and spat out the word.
No matter how furious he was inside, he knew he had to lie low.
Now was not the time to turn the tables.
Once those two passed on their divine thrones and left, Tang San was confident in dealing with their successors. But as long as these two ancient monsters—superior in strength, tactics, and intellect—were still here, he could only endure…
"At least, you did something right…" the new divine sense of Tang San said as he flipped through the financial ledgers, forcing a smile.
"Seven hundred million gold soul coins in investment? And now a net profit of 1.2 billion? This compounding interest model is insane! I don't know which genius came up with this money-making scheme—hahaha!"
"Gold soul coins are everything. The era's dividends—seems like only the Sun-Moon Empire failed to cash in. Word is many soul tools have flooded the original continent's market at dirt-cheap prices. Not bad, not bad."
The divine sense of Tang San grinned.
As long as the Sun-Moon Empire was suffering, he was happy.
But his joy didn't last long before a figure burst in hurriedly. A senior elder knelt on the ground, face filled with sorrow:
"Patriarch, something terrible has happened! A massive deception by the Sun-Moon Empire! All our investments in gold soul coins—they're all gone!"
"Impossible?!" Da Ming roared, grabbing the elder's collar, spitting all over him.
The other's face was bleak:
"It's true, Patriarch. All our merchant guilds within the original continent vanished overnight. We sent people to investigate, but all we found were accounting ledgers near the Sun-Moon Empire's borders…"
"And I just did the math—achieving such high profits would require selling at least several million soul tools! That output would be hundreds of times what the Mingde Hall produced annually!"
Da Ming trembled, staggered back a step, and collapsed to the ground.
(End of Chapter)