Douluo: From Internal Martial Arts to the Law of Heaven and Earth

"Thank you, Grandpa."

Having successfully persuaded Qian Daoliu, Qian Renxue's tightly clenched lips finally curved into a gentle smile. That smile was like an iceberg melting, instantly dispelling the chill around her, and was breathtakingly beautiful.

Qian Daoliu, who was in the ancestral hall, was about to say goodbye and hang up the call when he heard a clear and pleasant voice from the other end, filled with curiosity: "By the way, Grandpa, what is the relationship between Yu Xiaogang and that woman? Could he be a pawn that woman planted in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan? I haven't had time to investigate since I received the news yesterday. Do you know anything about it, Grandpa?"

"If she's a chess piece, then it means she's not completely stupid."

Qian Renxue changed the subject, her tone carrying a hint of confident arrogance, "I'll leave the rest of the plan aside, but I fully support the first half."

"We lured the master out, then invited him to join our Spirit Hall."

Qian Renxue had clearly planned out her future prospects long ago, her voice full of confidence: "That master is so knowledgeable, I can definitely become his disciple. Once he learns about my future identity and potential achievements, he should be able to get rid of his resentment towards our Spirit Hall forcibly luring him out."

She paused, a cold glint in her eyes: "If all else fails, that imposter Yu Xiaogang who impersonated the master could also be sacrificed. After all, he's just a pawn. Once his mission is complete, he'll be of no use to that woman. He'll be perfect as the master's punching bag."

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Chapter 52: Qian Renxue, surprisingly calm after learning part of the truth.

Before the angel statue, Qian Daoliu's fingertips trembled suddenly, and the pendant in his palm almost flew out of his hand.

His lips twitched uncontrollably, his expression extremely strange, yet he remained silent, forcing himself to continue listening to his granddaughter's "outrageous" ramblings.

"If all else fails, given that master's theoretical expertise, offering a soul bone over 50,000 years old to win him over would be acceptable. Using such a soul bone to bribe the master's heart would surely add another top-tier combatant to our Spirit Hall. After all, being able to help the two grandfathers break through their bottlenecks solely through theory, no one can fathom the true depth of this master's cultivation."

The subtle movements around him caught Qian Daoliu's attention. He saw that the other elders, including the Second Elder Golden Crocodile Douluo, were looking at him with a mixture of pity and sympathy. Even the two titled Douluos, Qian Jun and Jiang Mo, had a hint of barely concealed schadenfreude in their eyes.

"Grandpa, Grandpa, what do you think of this idea?"

Qian Renxue's voice came from the pendant, carrying a hint of barely perceptible suspicion.

“Xiaoxue, Yu Xiaogang is a special person. He is the son of the current Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan Chief. He should not be killed casually.”

Qian Daoliu still wanted to fool them. At this moment, his appearance was somewhat similar to that of Salas when he reported the news to Qian Renxue.

"What is his current soul power level?"

Qian Renxue's tone was one of surprise, but she still pressed for an answer.

"It seems to be level 29 now."

"In other words, he's still a good-for-nothing. I didn't expect that woman to be so clever, managing to control Yu Xiaogang."

Qian Renxue's voice came from the pendant, clearly praising her imagined "Bibi Dong".

“Bibi Dong is manipulating Yu Xiaogang…” Qian Daoliu fell silent again. Faced with such a complicated relationship, he really didn’t know how to explain it to his granddaughter.

"However, I think it's well worth sacrificing the life of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan Chief's son to gain the Master's favor. After all, once the Spirit Empire truly unifies the continent, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School has little offensive power. As long as they surrender, some of their direct bloodlines can be spared. As for the Clear Sky School and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, their direct bloodlines must be completely wiped out. We must not give them a chance to rise again."

Qian Renxue made a clear and concise decision, weighing the pros and cons with ease.

"Yu Xiaogang is a direct descendant of the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Rex, and he will inevitably be eliminated sooner or later. It's better to leave him as a punching bag for the master."

I even think that, to show the importance of this matter, it would be best if the Pope himself intervened and voluntarily abandoned Yu Xiaogang; although our Spirit Hall is temporarily divided into two factions, we should demonstrate our shared respect for the Grandmaster. In this way, the Grandmaster will receive both the courtesy of the Hall of Worship and the respect of the Pope, and will surely stand sincerely on the side of our Spirit Hall.”

Good heavens, Qian Daoliu was completely dumbfounded. He seriously suspected that his granddaughter already knew about Yu Xiaogang and her mother's past, otherwise these schemes would have precisely targeted Yu Xiaogang's sore spot.

"Xiaoxue, do you know something?"

Qian Daoliu asked cautiously.

"What do I know?"

Qian Renxue, who was leaning against the soft couch, looked blank and subconsciously sat up. Although she was only ten years old, she had already shown a graceful figure and it was not hard to see her stunning figure in the future.

"Grandpa, what could I possibly know?"

Upon hearing his granddaughter's question, Qian Daoliu coughed twice and mumbled, "It's nothing, it's nothing."

As he replied, he winked at the worshippers, signaling them to quickly come up with a solution.

The worshippers in the offering hall exchanged glances, then shrugged at Qian Daoliu, clearly indicating that they were unable to help.

Left with no other choice, Qian Daoliu had to bite the bullet and say, "Xiaoxue, how about... we cancel the plan to win over the master? Now that I think about it, it does seem a bit unreliable. If all else fails, we can order the Spirit Halls in various regions to send people to search for the master."

At this moment, Qian Renxue had already sat up straight, her delicate brows furrowed, feeling that something was not right. Why would such a perfectly good plan be abandoned so easily? There was clearly nothing wrong with the plan.

"Alright, Xiaoxue, Grandpa still has some..."

Qian Daoliu was about to forcibly hang up the call when he was interrupted again by Qian Renxue.

In his mind, a series of messages flew by—his conversations with Salas, his dialogue with his grandfather, they all seemed to be deliberately concealing something; and then there was this plan that started inexplicably and was inexplicably canceled, and the true instigator of the plan…

"What exactly is the relationship between Yu Xiaogang and that woman?"

Qian Renxue's words were unusually calm, but anyone could feel a chilling coldness deep within her tone.

Finally, he could no longer keep it a secret. Qian Daoliu sighed and said, "Hey! Xiaoxue, I'll tell you the truth, but please don't be angry."

Qian Renxue's tone remained calm: "Grandpa, please speak."

“That Yu Xiaogang is your mother…”

"She is not my mother."

Qian Daoliu's words were abruptly interrupted by Qian Renxue's icy voice.

“Alright.” Qian Daoliu paused for a moment before continuing, “That Yu Xiaogang was the current Pope’s former lover. They originally planned to elope, but your father found out and forcibly separated them. Later, the Pope and your father got together.”

Qian Daoliu still selectively concealed part of the truth, after all, the events of that time were so complicated that it was really difficult to say who was right and who was wrong.

Upon hearing this news, Qian Renxue did not erupt in fury as expected; instead, she remained unusually calm. She let out a cold laugh: "Heh! So, the current Pope was adopted by the Spirit Hall, his talent discovered, and he was nurtured with all his resources, even being made a Saintess. And in the end, he actually wanted to elope with a good-for-nothing disciple of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, the enemy of the Spirit Hall?"

Qian Daoliu could only give a muffled "hmm" in agreement.

"She's an orphan who consumed so many resources from the Spirit Hall, yet she almost defected in the end. Where does she get her confidence?"

Qian Renxue's words were full of sarcasm, and a long-held image in her mind gradually crumbled at this moment.

She was, after all, her mother. Even with a thousand grievances in her heart, she had comforted herself: perhaps she had some unspeakable secrets, and she should understand her. Even though Qian Renxue often saw the complex look in her eyes and the disgust that could never be concealed, she still told herself this.

Perhaps I am not good enough. After all, the other party has twin martial souls. Even if I have a full soul power of level 20 innate, I will probably be slightly inferior to the other party if I really grow up.

After all, having high innate soul power only means faster cultivation speed. If it weren't for the blessing of the divine test and the theoretical guidance of a master, one's own soul rings would inevitably still include a hundred-year soul ring. On the other hand, the opponent only needs to cultivate one martial soul to the titled Douluo level, and the other martial soul can be equipped with at least a full ten-thousand-year soul ring. If one dares to dream big, a full one-hundred-thousand-year soul ring is not impossible.

Since she might not be able to satisfy her in terms of cultivation, she would make her look at her with new eyes in terms of external achievements. With this in mind, Qian Renxue replaced the eldest prince of the Tiandou Empire and carried out the grand plan of "Tiandou Empire", just to make the Pope look at her in a different light.

But now I realize that the Pope may never have cared about these things; the only person she cared about was probably her Yu Xiaogang.

The image of a loving mother in her heart quietly shattered. Qian Renxue felt an emptiness in her heart, as if she had lost some extremely important spiritual support.

As the saying goes, a woman is most vulnerable when she is at her weakest, and that is when she is most easily taken advantage of by external forces. Recalling her previous praise for the "Bibi Dong Plan," Qian Renxue felt like she had made a huge joke.

But when I thought of the master, the hesitation in my heart inexplicably dissipated, and I felt a strange sense of goodwill towards him.

When a person loses a pillar of support, they will subconsciously seek a new one. The "Master" had a profound influence on Qian Renxue's cultivation path, and the Pope's true colors were also exposed because of the "Master." Instinctively, the "Master" became her new spiritual support.

This transformation happened so quietly that even Qian Renxue herself didn't notice it. Most of the time, our spiritual support is always there, but we often don't realize it.

Qian Renxue was naturally unaware that her mental world had undergone earth-shattering changes in a short period of time. She simply coldly examined the Pope's actions: "Since you have chosen to be with my father, you should sever all ties with the past, instead of playing this trick of resurrecting the dead before my father's body is even cold."

"Besides, how long has it been? My father's body isn't even cold yet, and she's already doing all this. Does this mean I'll have another 'father' in the future?"

Qian Daoliu could only listen silently to his granddaughter's words, unsure how to offer any words of comfort.

"And that scheme of hers to win over the master, I now see it all clearly. I really want to ask her, is her real purpose the master himself, or does she just want to firmly attach the title of 'master' to Yu Xiaogang?"

"Thinking about it this way, everything makes sense. No wonder she wanted to take the Grandmaster as a henchman, no wonder she set the rule of 'kill anyone who disobeys.' It turns out, she was afraid that the real Grandmaster would appear and ruin her little man's reputation! No wonder she seemed to be of sound mind most of the time, but this plan was full of flaws. It turns out, her real purpose was never to enhance the prestige of the Spirit Hall, nor was it to subdue the Grandmaster, but to forever bind the title of 'Grandmaster' to Yu Xiaogang!"

A clarity she had never felt before surged through Qian Renxue's mind. For the first time, she felt she had analyzed a plan so thoroughly. No wonder her grandfather had been so vague, no wonder Salas had looked so strange when he reported yesterday. All the doubts now had a reasonable explanation.

"That scheme to win over the master is completely canceled! Master, I'll find him myself; you don't need to interfere."

Upon hearing this, Qian Daoliu's heart stirred: It seemed that his granddaughter was completely disappointed in that woman. Could it be that the plan lurking in the Heavenly Dou Empire could also be abandoned?

"Xiaoxue, why don't you come back first? Anyway..."

Qian Daoliu paused for a moment, then quickly came up with a plausible excuse: "Master's cultivation is unfathomable, finding him will definitely not be easy. Why don't you come back first, cultivate while sending people to search everywhere? Wouldn't that be more efficient? After all, Master can't possibly come looking for you on his own, right?"

P.S.: I get so inspired when writing about the mother-daughter rift, sorry! I'll definitely meet the protagonist tomorrow. This chapter is also a product of my inspiration. How will Bibi Dong's daughter react when she finds out about someone outside who seems to be her mother's lover? It's unlikely she'll be kept in the dark forever, especially considering her status as the Crown Prince of Tiandou. Sooner or later, she'll find out the truth about what happened back then, besides the "Secret Chamber Douluo" and "eating her father."

Chapter 53: The treatment of Yu Xiaogang, a chance eye contact.

Listening to the old man's advice across the way and watching the scenery rushing past the window, Qian Renxue fell into a long silence.

After a long pause, she finally spoke slowly: "Grandpa, I'm not going back. The plan will proceed as scheduled, or rather, I must push this plan through to the end."

Her tone was calm and even, revealing no emotion whatsoever, yet her hands were already clenched into fists, and pale blue veins bulged on the backs of her fair, jade-like hands. "I'm not trying to prove anything, I just want to gradually strip her of her power and position. Isn't she the Pope? Then I'll destroy the Spirit Hall and let the entire continent gleam under the glory of the Spirit Empire."

Qian Daoliu opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

As for Qian Renxue's words about "annihilating the Spirit Hall," he didn't take them to heart. It wasn't that he didn't believe in his granddaughter's abilities, but in his view, as long as the unification of the continent could be achieved in the end, the winner would be their Angel Family. In the end, what difference would it make whether the Spirit Hall or the Heaven Dou Empire was left?

Besides, that woman has indeed been quite restless lately.

Recalling his recent unusual behavior, Qian Daoliu's eyes narrowed slightly.

When I first placed you on the papacy, it was with a touch of guilt—even after you killed Xunji with your own hands, that guilt never completely disappeared. But ultimately, the papacy of the Spirit Hall should, and inevitably should, belong to our Angel Family.

I can overlook your current position, but in the future, this seat must be reserved for Xiaoxue. I absolutely cannot allow you to act recklessly.

The information he had gathered flashed through his mind, and Qian Daoliu's lips curled up slightly. A fox girl with innate full soul power—from now on, let her become a stepping stone on Xiaoxue's path to the top.

"Grandpa? Grandpa?"

Qian Renxue's questioning voice came from the pendant. Qian Daoliu quickly suppressed his thoughts and replied to his granddaughter with concern, "Don't worry, Xiaoxue. If you want to destroy the Spirit Hall, then your grandfathers can become worshippers of the Heaven Dou Empire. I won't stop you. But don't forget to cultivate."

"Power and influence are ultimately minor paths; profound cultivation and absolute power are the true path."

"Grandpa, don't worry, I won't slack off in my cultivation. After all, if I can't even catch up with that woman's cultivation, how will I ever take over her Spirit Hall?"

Qian Renxue accepted the request seriously, exchanged a few more pleasantries, and then hung up the call.

Gazing at the majestic angel sculptures in the hall, Qian Daoliu, the Extreme Douluo who had endured countless years, suddenly felt a sense of bewilderment: Was his choice right or wrong?

Inside the luxurious carriage, Qian Renxue quietly clutched the pendant in her hand, remaining motionless for a long time.

A myriad of thoughts swirled in her eyes, ultimately settling into the depths of her azure gaze.

"Yu Xiaogang, what a fine Yu Xiaogang. Don't worry, I won't kill him. That would be too easy for him, and too easy for you."

"Master... I want to find him, elevate him to godhood, and then expose Yu Xiaogang's deeds to the world, making him a laughingstock across the entire continent and a clown in the world of soul masters. At that time, as the Pope, you will only be able to watch him fall to the bottom. Wouldn't that be very interesting?"

Qian Renxue's clear and melodious voice came from inside the carriage and gradually dissipated into the blazing sun in the sky.

"Young Master, we have arrived at Ironwall City. The military commander of the city's defense forces has personally come out of the city to greet us." The voice of the Porcupine Douluo came from the front of the carriage.

"I'm getting off now."

As soon as she finished speaking, Qian Renxue activated the disguise ability of her soul bone again, transforming back into the dashing and heroic Crown Prince of Tiandou, her voice regaining its usual gentleness and humility.

……

"Why are the rooms in this Ironwall City like a military camp?"

Looking at the simply furnished room that exuded a clean and tidy feel, Su Yuntao couldn't help but make a comment.

"Perhaps it's because most people only stop by Ironwall City temporarily before heading directly to Heavenly Dou City, so it was designed this way." Tang Shan studied it for a moment, then suddenly pulled out a small bed from under the wooden plank bed.

"Look, this room wasn't originally intended for just two people. In case of war, it can easily accommodate many more soldiers."

"Forget it, let's not worry about it. Once we've defeated enough opponents in this Great Soul Arena, let's hurry to Heaven Dou City. There's definitely no shortage of strong opponents there."

Su Yuntao stretched, called out, and pushed open the door to go outside.

Tang Shan followed behind him, but found that his older brother suddenly stopped by the second-floor window and did not continue walking.

"Big brother, what's wrong?" Tang Shan asked curiously as he approached.

"Shanzi, look, that looks like the Imperial Guard." Su Yuntao squinted at the army that was rapidly approaching in the distance, its ranks perfectly aligned, her tone tinged with surprise.

"The Royal Guard?"

Tangshan also became interested and looked in the direction Su Yuntao pointed.

Rows of soldiers, impeccably dressed and exuding an imposing aura, marched down the wide street, emanating an invisible sense of oppression. In the center of the army, a carriage bore the swan emblem representing the Heavenly Dou royal family, undoubtedly highlighting the noble status of its occupants.

"People from the Heavenly Dou Royal Family, why are they in Iron Wall City?" Su Haichao had also walked up to the two of them at some point, looking at the army with a face full of doubt.

"Anyway, it definitely has little to do with us. Maybe they're here to inspect Ironwall City. After all, that city is their last line of defense, so they definitely need to check it frequently."

Tang Shan didn't pay much attention and turned to leave, but before leaving, he subconsciously glanced out the window again.

At the same time, the curtains on the carriage were gently lifted, revealing a slightly youthful face that already showed signs of handsome features. Although he possessed a youthful air, he couldn't hide the noble bearing in his bones. A gentle smile graced his face, making one unconsciously feel favorable towards him. The lines of his jaw were strong yet gentle, adding to his dashing appearance. His dark eyes were clear and deep, yet they didn't give off an uncomfortable feeling of being seen through.

Their eyes met suddenly, and they were both taken aback—neither of them had expected that a casual glance would lead to a stare-in from a stranger.

Tang Shan withdrew his gaze and didn't take the little incident to heart.