Ever since they were caught in the aftershocks of that earlier clash, some of the Limit Douluos might not have felt much. At most, they thought those few moves were indeed decent, but believed their own full-strength strikes wouldn't pale in comparison. However, the various factions, clans, and martial souls that originally hadn't united now reformed their ranks to huddle together for warmth.
This also made these Limit Douluos realize that even among those at the Limit, there was still a gap. Just reaching Rank 99 only made one a Quasi-Demigod, representing nothing more than touching the threshold of God-level power. Above that were Demigods, Quasi-gods, and a certain Chen Xinjie who had quietly broken through to become a True God.
But they also quietly checked on the status of the others. Fortunately, the majority were Quasi-Demigod. The Demigods were mostly veteran Limit Douluos, such as En Ci, the headmaster of Monster Academy, and Qiangu Dongfeng of the Spirit Pagoda. While Qiangu Dieting's exact strength was unclear, he had resisted that sea dragon with ease, so he was likely just as formidable.
Look at that! Even Limit Douluos had to be graded into ranks, let alone when all these people were gathered together. Their standing positions were allocated strictly according to the strength of their power.
Initially, individuals like Qiangu Dongfeng were considered mere middle-aged men in this gathering. The veteran Limit Douluos stood together, constantly bickering and competing with each other.
"How can the continent have so many countless old monsters who refuse to die?"
Based on seniority, Qiangu Dongfeng was kicked out and pushed down to the second tier, becoming the leader of the second tier. Originally, he was supposed to join the first tier in utilizing Divine Origin Realm spiritual power to perform Spiritual Manifestation into the scroll, intending to pass it down as a family heirloom. Unfortunately...
"Dongfeng! Your manifestation is wrong! How can it only have the form but none of the intent? It has some charm, but focus more!! Look at what Yu Guanhua drew!!" Qiangu Dieting watched the scroll manifested by Qiangu Dongfeng and pointed out his dissatisfaction. This was meant to be the heirloom of their Qiangu Clan! A Spiritual Manifestation recording a divine war!! How could there be even a single flaw!
In the spirit of looking after the elderly, these organizations and clans generally had their contemporary leaders handle the Spiritual Manifestation. However, with the Divine Brush Douluo, Yu Guanzhi, who could paint all creation, setting a brilliant example before them, it hadn't felt like much when they weren't standing together. Now that they were gathered, one didn't even need to stare to notice the difference.
This ink cluster painted more than the others, and it was painted with even greater detail! He had even drawn the seawater!!
"Move aside!! You useless piece of trash! You can't even get Spiritual Manifestation right! What use are your eyes?" Qiangu Dongfeng was successfully kicked away by his father. As proud as he usually was, he truly had no way to argue back against his own dad. If this were back at the Spirit Pagoda, anyone else doing this wouldn't even know how they died.
Meanwhile, the exact same scenario was playing out across different organizations and clans!!
"I've fought more battles in my life than the pitfalls you've stepped on in your entire lifetime! Let me do it!"
"You still lack experience! You've seen far too little! It's no wonder you can't compare to him. Let me take over!"
After a few rounds of back-and-forth shuffling, those qualified to paint were the ones who had cultivated the longest and held the highest seniority! All the others were kicked down to the second tier, and after they faced opposition there, they were kicked down to the third tier--no non-direct descendants allowed! They could only serve these old seniors.
These hundred or so Titled Douluos were forcefully isolated by these dozen or so elders, and the best vantage points were gone.
Of course, who among those who could become a Titled Douluo didn't possess a few unique skills? They were all the cream of the crop!
These isolated "young people" all gathered around a man with a large turtle on his head.
This person was a Titled Douluo from the Xuanming Clan, which had a heritage spanning tens of thousands of years--Xu Yuntian!!
This master of unique skills had commanded the other Titled Douluos to capture a turtle with a hundred-thousand-year cultivation level. From winning it over with fine food to taming it until they were close enough to wear the same pair of pants, it took him only ten minutes!
Relying on his clan's tens of thousands of years of experience in raising turtles, this young man pulled out a book the moment he realized he couldn't make sense of the battlefield.
"Ten-Thousand-Year Tortoises, Hundred-Thousand-Year Turtles! -- Authored by successive heads of the Xuanming Clan"
Inside, it detailed various types of turtles in meticulous detail! The clan had even produced top-tier geniuses who raised ten-thousand-year tortoises! As a family that dealt with the ocean, they frequently went out to sea at irregular intervals to bond with turtles of different species!! Along the way, they would collect the aged turtle shells shed by them to make tortoise jelly and the like.
Relying on this highly illustrated, note-filled classic text, he successfully won over a crowd of Titled Douluos to act as his muscle!!
The Titled Douluos personally dove into the beast tide together. Amidst this million-strong beast tide, they captured a hundred-thousand-year Baxia Dragon Turtle. One had to understand that these were all Sea Soul Beasts with ten-thousand-year cultivations. The ocean, which occupied seventy percent of the Douluo Planet's surface, naturally nurtured endless Sea Soul Beasts, and those besieging the Sea God Island were the absolute elite among them.
"Hehe! This elegant, handsome, and heroic brother turtle! What's the situation? It's truly rare to see so many high-level Sea Soul Beasts! Why have you all come together?" Xu Yuntian asked flatteringly, looking up at the Baxia with a dragon's head and a turtle's body resting on his head.
Turtle Handling Rule Number One! -------- Never let an ancient turtle look down at you from above; they will think you disrespect them!!
"This young man has a good eye! You asked the right turtle! The granduncle of my third aunt's maternal grandfather is that very Heaven-Reaching Baxia! Back when the Ocean Turtle King Convention was held, I was able to enter the venue with my hundred-thousand-year cultivation!! I know everything."
The moment this Baxia finished speaking, all kinds of heavenly materials and earthly treasures surfaced around it, and there were even freshly squeezed drinks!!
Turtle Handling Rule Number Two! -------- When asking a turtle for information, entertain them well! They will tell you everything they know; they don't harbor malicious schemes.
The Baxia Dragon Turtle felt it was rare to encounter a human who knew how to behave! Lifting its head high, it began to introduce the situation in a clear, resonant voice.
"A few years ago, those few individuals visited the great experts of my clan! Among them, the one with the lowest cultivation, who was also the most bizarre, was that Sea God! The moment I saw her, I felt as if the Sea God was alive in the flesh. At least, that's how it felt to those of us who have never seen the Sea God, and the granduncle said she is uniquely blessed by heaven! A natural Sea God, and a distinguished guest of our sea turtle clan!" This sea turtle seemed to recall that day, when its first sight of her made it feel as though the ocean torrents were surging with excitement, before it took a fierce gulp of the juice!
"But! That alone wouldn't be enough to make us all come together to attack the Sea God Island! However, she said they are the 'We Many,' they are blood kin! They have already broken through the limitations of Sea Soul Beasts and are no longer threatened by heavenly tribulations! Of course! These are just minor details! What's truly powerful is the uniqueness of her dependents--the Seaborn!"
"The Seaborn are an extension of It! It is life naturally born from the ocean! 'Growth,' 'Survival,' 'Reproduction,' 'Migration'--these are the authorities granted to It by the ocean! By embracing the collective consciousness of We Many, one can leap out of the boundaries of Soul Beast! By becoming a Seaborn, one can continuously perfect their own genes! It activates our divine beast bloodlines, allowing us to achieve even greater divine beast status!"
"Of course, all of that is for the future! Right now, the most incredible thing is that through one's own bloodline aura, connected with We Many, one can feel the touch of the bloodline! We can obtain the inherited skills of other ancestors, changing the issue of ocean species' bloodlines becoming continuously diluted and purebloods ceasing to exist!"
"Take me, for example! Right now, I am a mixed-blood combination of a Heaven-Reaching Baxia and a Dragon Turtle. When I take a step further, I can choose my bloodline! Wash away the impurities! Become a pureblood! If my cultivation can surpass the granduncle's, I can even align myself toward the divine beast--the Xuanwu!"
The Dragon Turtle even patted Xu Yuntian's face beneath it!
"Kid! I can actually sense that you possess the bloodline of the divine beast--the Xuanwu, even though it's pitifully diluted! If I, your grandfather turtle, were to swallow you, it could count as obtaining a wisp of divine beast bloodline."
"How about it? Aren't the Seaborn miraculous?"
The Seaborn in Arknights were the sweeping robots of the precursor civilization! The kind that could alter a planet's ecology, transforming the entire planet into an environment suitable for human survival.
The reason why the Soul Beast of the Douluo Continent were so lackluster was because they actually couldn't evolve their bloodlines like in other fantasy novels! In other novels, a tiger with white fur could devour bloodlines to become the divine beast, the White Tiger, yet here they actually couldn't!
In a place where bloodline was paramount, dragon bloodlines could suppress all beast martial souls...
Yet their bloodlines actually could not be purified!! Or sublimated!