The self-destruction of a Soul Saint was incredibly destructive.
Fortunately, apart from Ma Hongjun, Grandmaster, and Liu Erlong, the others were not seriously injured.
Ye Lingling quickly summoned the Nine-Hearted Begonia to heal the three.
Grandmaster and Liu Erlong had already fainted; Liu Erlong had faced the self-destructing Grand Elder head-on, and it was a miracle she survived.
Grandmaster's martial soul was injured, and he was also seriously wounded.
Ma Hongjun, thanks to his Flood Dragon Scales and the Jianmu torso soul bone, recovered quickly.
The Jianmu torso bone could greatly enhance vitality. In other words, Ma Hongjun had a very high health bar.
Therefore, under Ye Lingling's treatment, he recovered quickly, as he was only affected by the aftershocks.
At this moment, the sound from below the abyss continued unabated, a huge roar echoing.
Now everyone knew that this sound was caused by the self-destruction
of Soul Masters. So how many Soul Masters had self-destructed below?
That even two Title Douluos couldn't escape.
"You can't kill me, hahaha!
The evil god will soon descend upon the mortal realm, and you will all die!"
A deep, mad voice echoed through the air.
Then came another loud bang, followed by silence.
Sword Douluo and Poison Douluo flew up from the abyss.
Their nine spirit rings shone brightly, illuminating the area.
Sword Douluo was alright, his clothes were slightly torn, but Poison Douluo looked rather disheveled.
"Are you alright?" Sword Douluo quickly asked.
"Master and Teacher Erlong have fainted, but everyone else is fine." "
Let's go back to Soto City!" Ma Hongjun suggested.
Bai Baoshan and the others were still in Soto City. He was worried that the Gan and Bei families would notice their actions after their plans were exposed.
The group rushed back that very night.
Back in the city, Bai Baoshan and the others were unharmed, which relieved Ma Hongjun and the others.
However, their fears came true.
After discovering they had left the city, the Gan and Bei families fled overnight, their key members all gone.
The enemy had seven Soul Saints; Bai Baoshan wanted to stop them but was powerless, and ultimately let them go.
After all, the seven Soul Saints were determined to escape, and Bai Baoshan couldn't stop them. Moreover, the Shuang'er sisters and Di Xin were also there; if the other side fought him, they might not survive.
"This is a new organization called the Evil God Cult,"
Sword Douluo recounted what they had seen at the bottom of the Burial Abyss.
They entered the Burial Abyss and saw a group of people performing a ritual, worshipping an evil god.
This was their faith.
The leader, a man in black robes, didn't know what his martial soul was, but he was a Soul Douluo powerhouse, surrounded by black energy.
Besides the black-robed man, there was another Soul Douluo powerhouse whose martial soul was a tombstone; he was likely the head of the Wei family.
Among that group, only Wei Sen, Xiang Chengsheng, and Xiang Chengwang were normal; the others were controlled.
Most of them had tombstone and black tiger martial souls, indicating they were members of the Wei and Xiang families; the others with different martial souls were likely vassals of those families.
In total, there were two Soul Douluos and more than ten Soul Saints.
The other hundred-plus people, ranging in strength from Soul Venerable to Soul Emperor, all shared a common trait: their martial souls contained black energy.
During the battle against Poison Douluo and Sword Douluo, those Soul Masters who weren't using the Tombstone or Black Tiger martial souls were the first to self-destruct, attempting to stop the two.
However, the two Douluos were too powerful; the self-destruction of those below the Soul Saint level had no effect on them.
Finally, it was the self-destruction of the Soul Saints and the Soul Douluo with the Tombstone martial soul that stopped the two.
The black-robed man escaped with the remaining few dozen people.
The Xiang family's Black Tiger martial soul was inherently imbued with malevolent energy; the Soul Emperor had always been their limit.
But tonight, all the former Soul Emperors of the Xiang family had advanced to Soul Saint.
This was undoubtedly due to the influence of the Evil God Sect.
Grandmaster and Liu Erlong didn't wake up until dawn. Their martial souls were injured, requiring a period of rest and recuperation.
Fortunately, the Xiang family's Grand Elder had only recently broken through to Soul Saint, and the combined strength of their dual dragon martial souls allowed them to withstand the self-destruction.
"I think we can give these people a new name.
They shouldn't be called Soul Masters anymore, but Evil Soul Masters,"
Ma Hongjun said calmly.
He hadn't expected Evil Soul Masters to appear so suddenly.
Were they appearing a little too early?
And there was the Evil God—that was a major villain!
It seemed he needed to be careful from now on; the appearance of Evil Soul Masters would inevitably lead to chaos.
The situation on the entire continent is deteriorating. Qian Renxue is still plotting to seize power from the Heaven Dou Empire, while the Spirit Hall is secretly consolidating its strength, preparing to unify the continent.
Now, the Evil Spirit Master organization has risen again, and the continent is truly in turmoil.
The Evil Spirit Masters' evil cultivation methods and control techniques will allow this force to rise rapidly.
If we count from Wei Sen's appearance, it has only been three years, yet the Evil God Cult has already developed to this point, its strength surpassing the Lower Four Sects.
It has become the seventh largest force, second only to Heaven Dou, Star Luo, Spirit Hall, and the Upper Three Sects.
However, tonight, it was severely injured by Poison Douluo and Sword Douluo, with many deaths. But
this method of self-destruction is too brutal; if this force truly grows stronger, it will also be a problem.
"It would be best to expose the Evil God Cult's affairs so that everyone is on guard. Otherwise, with their method of controlling Spirit Masters, they will plunge the Spirit Master world into chaos, which would be a disaster for the entire Spirit Master world."
Grandmaster frowned deeply; the Evil Spirit Masters were beyond his research scope.
The eerie black aura and the methods used to control Soul Masters made him suspect the existence of an evil god.
Ning Huahua quickly wrote a letter to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, reporting the matter of the evil god cult to Ning Fengzhi.
Ma Hongjun also had Bai Baoshan send someone to deliver a message to Qian Renxue.
Now Ma Hongjun had a general understanding of the entire Douluo Continent.
The Douluo Continent was actually just one continent, not as large as imagined.
In fact, the unification of the entire continent wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
At least, if the forces on the continent were unified, dealing with something like the evil god cult would be much simpler.
Ma Hongjun didn't see any problem with the Spirit Hall wanting to unify the continent, but the nature of the Spirit Hall was too different from that of an empire.
It was more like a religion, or simply a Soul Master organization.
Unification wasn't just about Soul Masters; the vast majority of ordinary people were the foundation.
Therefore, unification in the form of an empire was the best.
Now, Ma Hongjun felt the best way was for the two great empires to unify into one.
All sects would become families or academies, and the Spirit Hall would become the Soul Master Association, like the Ministry of Education.
Turn the entire continent into one empire.
On the Star Luo Empire side, Dai Mubai has ascended to the throne;
on the Heaven Dou Empire side, without Tang San's interference, Qian Renxue will surely rise to power smoothly.
How can these two empires be unified without causing war?
One is a brother, the other a benefactor.
Ma Hongjun can't side with either, nor does he want them to become adversaries.
"Right now, let's focus on increasing our strength!"
Ma Hongjun muttered to himself.
Thinking too far ahead gives him a headache.
(End of Chapter)