This matter planted a sharp thorn in her heart.
After that, Hua Qiang's methods were no longer as sharp; instead, she meticulously sought the reasons for the emergence of Evil Soul Masters.
He Hua's words inspired Hua Qiang. At Shrek Academy, she saw how, due to Shrek's strict rules and the supremacy of instructors, many instructors, in their excessive pursuit of the term "monster," used tyrannical methods to expel numerous students who did not meet their requirements from Shrek Academy.
In the Two Great Empires, she witnessed the nobility's annexation of land. Countless commoners' livelihoods depended on land that did not belong to them. Every year, regardless of whether it was a year of abundance or famine, they had to pay a certain tax to the local lord from their harvest.
Profligate noble scions rode their horses through busy streets, trampling many lives in their wake. Yet, in their eyes, it was merely the death of a few lowlifes.
Slave hunting groups constantly searched the Douluo Continent for beautiful servants to cater to the nobles' demands. Girls with beautiful appearances, men with delicate features, or girls who had unexpectedly awakened a Spirit with some characteristics of a Beast Spirit, all became their prey, hunted by slave organizations and sold in auction houses.
Originally, she thought Evil Soul Masters deserved to die, but seeing the birth and catalysis of one Evil Soul Master after another, she realized how ridiculous and naive she had once been!
Was the emergence of Evil Soul Masters not due to this extreme, distorted, unjust, and twisted society?
In this society filled with solidified classes, suppressed by those high-and-mighty noble Spirit Masters, commoners had almost no room to breathe.
This World had accumulated a resentment, and it was this resentment that continuously created Evil Soul Masters.
As long as these Evil Soul Masters did not threaten their rule or their status, they could tolerate the growth of Evil Soul Masters. When necessary, they would harvest a wave of Evil Soul Masters to gain public support, making the people love their rule even more and believe more in the gods promoted by the nobles.
Only when Evil Soul Masters truly grew to threaten their status would they, without hesitation or mercy, use the swords in their hands to eradicate these Evil Soul Masters.
During an accident, Hua Qiang found the ruins of a Spirit Hall from the Dark Era buried deep underground. In these ruins, she saw a description of past history.
What was the Dark Era?
People took the War of Three Gods as a turning point. Before the War of Three Gods, the Douluo Continent was subjugated under the dark and filthy rule of the Spirit. The evil Spirit Hall Pope, through generations of accumulation, attempted to annex the entire Douluo Continent and enslave all living beings.
Their evil conspiracy was discovered by the kind and great Shrek Seven Devils. The great Sea God Tang San united the Upper Three Sects and the Two Great Empires, and established the Tang Sect, combining various forces to defeat the Spirit Hall, and in the War of Three Gods, he defeated the two Evil Gods of the Spirit Hall.
Ultimately, he ushered in an era of peace and prosperity for the Douluo Continent.
The Dark Era thus ended.
In this era, in the propaganda of Shrek, the major Sects, and the Two Great Empires, the Dark Era was undoubtedly a man-eating, ugly, and evil era. However, in the current era, under the radiant glow of the Sea God, the people lived in peace and contentment. The entire Douluo Continent emphasized morality, intelligence, physical fitness, aesthetics, and labor, as well as benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. It was a harmonious era, with no major issues except for a group of evil Spirit Masters occasionally appearing on a certain day of a certain month.
Of course, even if these Evil Soul Masters caused chaos, the benevolent Sea God would dispatch Shrek's enforcement team to help the common people resolve the Evil Soul Master rebellion, allowing the people to live in peace and contentment once again.
This was the people's understanding of the present and the Dark Era.
However, during her excavation of the underground ruins, Hua Qiang saw some records of the Spirit Hall and the Dark Era.
A map of the Angel Suppressing Evil represented the origin of the Spirit.
The Spirit Hall was established in a chaotic era of conflict between Evil Soul Masters and righteous Spirit Masters. A young Angel God Ancestor suppressed all kinds of evil, truly bringing light to the entire Douluo Continent and pacifying many Evil Soul Master rebellions. She, therefore, ascended to godhood based on these great achievements.
Before ascending to godhood, she left behind a Spirit Hall in the World. The Spirit Hall, spread across the entire Douluo Continent, provided free Spirit awakening to the people of the Douluo Continent year after year. And under the checks and balances of the Spirit Hall, the Two Great Empires and the Spirit Hall each contributed money to provide monthly stipends to Spirit Masters, giving them time to rise and develop.
Eight or nine out of ten commoner Spirit Masters in the World emerged due to the existence of the Spirit Hall. Therefore, the Spirit Hall encompassed six or seven tenths of the Spirit Masters in the Douluo Continent.
For truly evil Evil Soul Masters, the Spirit Hall adopted suppressive measures, but for those with Evil Spirits who had not committed evil, the Spirit Hall treated them equally.
Although the Spirit Hall was viewed with hostility and caution by the Upper Three Sects and the Two Great Empires of that era, its existence gave a breath of fresh air to the common people who were oppressed by the nobility.
In every village and city across the Douluo Continent, countless families eagerly awaited the day of Spirit awakening.
There, the Spirit Hall would send a deacon to help them awaken their Spirit. Some villagers had Spirits like hoes, some sickles, some carrots. Even without spirit power, these Spirits, though they couldn't make them Spirit Masters, could still change their lives. And if a person became a Spirit Master, their destiny would be transformed.
This is why, in that Dark Era, so many Spirit Masters supported and upheld the Spirit Hall of that time.
In that era, Evil Soul Masters were not as rampant as they are now, nor were slave hunting groups as prevalent.
The Spirit Hall was like a great mountain, deeply and heavily pressing down on the Two Great Empires and the Upper Three Sects. They created a system that was more enlightened than the current one, but this system was hated and resented by the nobles who already controlled resources.
Because of the Spirit Hall's awakenings, many commoner Spirit Masters and emerging forces would inevitably arise among the vast number of common people on the Douluo Continent, challenging the nobles' status. These old nobles, though hating their reliance on the Spirit Hall, could do nothing about it.
However, such an enlightened era, in Hua Qiang's eyes, ended with the War of Three Gods.
The Dark Era concluded with the fall of the two Evil Gods and the destruction of the Spirit Hall. After that came the Sea God Era, an order established by the Tang Sect, the Clear Sky Sect, Shrek Academy, and the Two Great Empires.