"Tang Wulin pays his respects to his seniors!" Tang Wulin's voice was trembling with excitement.

Holy Spirit Douluo Yali seemed to have become a lot calmer than before, and she gently nodded in acknowledgment. However, Light Dark Douluo Long Yeyue's eyes abruptly lit up at the sight of him, as if she had discovered something.

Immediately thereafter, the air around Tang Wulin suddenly congealed. It wasn't that time had stopped; instead, he could sense that all of the elemental particles in the air had suddenly faltered in that instant.

These elemental particles then surged toward him in unison, and Tang Wulin reflexively instructed them to stop. As a result, the elements in the air became quite chaotic, and to everyone else, it felt as if the surrounding air had become more viscous and that energy fluctuations had suddenly appeared.

A hint of surprise flashed through Yali's soulless eyes, and a faint smile appeared on Zang Xin's face as he stood a half-step behind Tang Wulin.

The energy fluctuations in the air only lingered for a very short time before returning to normal, and Light Dark Douluo Long Yeyue gave Tang Wulin a nod of approval. "Very good! You've done very well and you certainly haven't let Yun Ming down!"

At this moment, it was quite clear to Tang Wulin that the elemental changes in the air were a test from Long Yeyue.

It was undoubtedly the case that Long Yeyue also possessed Spirit Domain realm spiritual power, but her spiritual power was clearly far more immense than his, and she had instantly detected his current level of spiritual power.

During this past period of cultivation, Tang Wulin's Spirit Domain realm spiritual power had already been fortified, but he still didn't know just how far he could go in the Spirit Domain realm in the future. After all, he hadn't had a chance to learn about this at Shrek Academy, and he had only reached this level not too long ago.

Lan Muzi and Tang Yinmeng strode over to him, and the former smiled, and said, "Welcome back, Wulin."

Tang Wulin immediately replied, "It's so good to be able to see all of you again!"

Lan Muzi and Tang Yinmeng exchanged a smile, but a hint of sorrow also flashed through their eyes in unison.

Long Yeyue asked, "What have you come here for, Wulin?"

Tang Wulin replied, "I was going to take Her Majesty, the Holy Spirit Douluo, elsewhere, but I didn't think this would be the situation at the Tang Sect." The Tang Sect's underground world boasted far better conditions than that Sea God's Lake sanctuary, so it was definitely a better choice for her to stay here. Furthermore, she had the Light Dark Douluo and so many senior disciples for company, so there was even less reason to transfer her elsewhere.

"Where do you want to take her? To where Wu Zhangkong is?" Long Yeyue asked.

Tang Wulin faltered slightly upon hearing this. "You know about Teacher Wu's situation?"

Long Yeyue replied, "How could I not know of the sanctuary when I'm the oldest living member of Shrek Academy? We've been keeping an eye on them the entire time, and Wu Zhangkong has done very well. We didn't ask them to come here right away as we were concerned that some of the outer court disciples could prove to be volatile factors, but it's been over a year, so it's time to bring them here."

Indeed, this was a far better place for the Shrek Academy disciples to stay than at the sanctuary. The Tang Sect had a vast abundance of resources that would greatly benefit them in their cultivation.

Tang Wulin was ecstatic. "That's great! I'll get Teacher Wu and the others to come here right away!"

Long Yeyue waved a hand in response. "There's no hurry. Come with me."

She then rose to her feet and walked into another room while Holy Spirit Douluo Yali gave him an encouraging nod.

After Tang Wulin walked into the room behind Long Yeyue, the door of the room closed on its own.

"Tell me how you reached the Spirit Domain realm." Long Yeyue cut straight to the chase.

Tang Wulin replied, "I made the breakthrough over at the Blood God Legion..."

Thus, he gave her a brief recount of his experiences over at the Blood God Legion, but refrained from mentioning the seed of life. After all, the seed of life was far too important an entity, and he had to keep this secret before the tree of life truly flourished.

A hint of surprise appeared on Long Yeyue's face upon hearing his recount. "I see. It's no wonder, then..."

"What are you referring to?" Tang Wulin asked in a perplexed manner.

A faint smile appeared on Long Yeyue's face, and she explained, "It's no wonder that Zang Xin told me that he was going to make you the Tang Sect Master. He and Cao Dezhi are a pair of stingy bastards, and I was wondering why they were suddenly being so generous by handing all of the resources over to you; it turns out that they've given you everything because you've received the approval of the entire plane."

Tang Wulin faltered slightly upon hearing this. "Why would that convince them to hand over the reins to me?"

Long Yeyue explained, "Looks like you still don't know what it means to receive the approval of the plane. Any plane is an individual entity in itself, and even the Divine Realm is also a plane. There is a hierarchy of planes, and planes with highly intelligent life forms are known as high-grade planes, while planes that rule over three or more high-grade planes are known as Divine Realms."

Tang Wulin's heart stirred slightly as he listened to Long Yeyue's words with rapt focus.

As the oldest living member of Shrek Academy and perhaps one of the oldest seniors in the entire Soul Master world, Long Yeyue had been a Limit Douluo for countless years, and it was undoubtedly the case that she had the greatest level of understanding of the higher planes. Listening to her explanation would allow him to develop a target for his future cultivation!

"Every single plane exists as a result of energy division in space. A myriad of things could happen to the parts of energy that are split up; some of them will simply slowly wane over time and fade out of existence, while others could transform into planets like our Douluo Star. This transformation process takes billions of years to complete, and only after a plane begins to develop its own sentience will it be possible for it to be elevated into a high-grade plane. As I just said, the defining trait of a high-grade plane is the presence of highly intelligent life forms.

"During the process of developing such life forms, the plane must also develop a certain level of intelligence for itself. This process is known as evolution, and our Douluo Star underwent a constant process of evolution, and given rise to soul beasts, humans, and all other life forms. The ruler of this plane is the entire Douluo Star, and the Douluo Star is a high-grade plane. Not only has it given rise to life and intelligence, it even created a set of laws that were unique to itself.

"What I'm referring to here is the existence of martial souls. The martial souls that we humans possess and all of the powers that soul beasts attain are affected by the laws of this plane. These laws control the intelligence of the entire planet and fuel its development. Under normal circumstances, humans will continue to evolve, and once we evolve to a certain point, we'll ascend to the Divine Realm. In fact, it's even possible that countless years into the future, if the humans that ascended to the Divine Realm from the Douluo Star could take over control of the Divine Realm, they could elevate the Douluo Star to make it a part of the Divine Realm.

"That's the direction that our Douluo Star plane has chosen to evolve toward, but no one could've envisioned what had happened around 10,000 years ago. The Divine Realm had suddenly disappeared, and no one knows why or how. All we know is that the disappearance of the Divine Realm has had a huge impact on our Douluo plane as well. If you look back in history, you'll realize that the human race has produced far more Limit Douluos in the past 10,000 years than in the 10,000 years before that. It's undoubtedly the case that the human race has become more powerful, but at the same time, resources are quickly dwindling due to the rapid development in soul technology.

"It can be said that all of these changes have something to do with the ruler of this plane. The human race has only been able to develop so quickly as the power of the plane is supporting this rate of development. In particular, in the past millennium, soul aircraft and mecha technology have completely matured, and humans have begun to set their sights on outer space and other inhabitable planets. All of this is being set into motion by the ruler of the plane."