Douluo Continent: Long Live the Spirit Hall

However, no one dared to recklessly provoke this Sword Douluo at this time. This powerful figure with the Seven Kill Sword Martial Soul was one of the world's top existences, especially in the area near Heaven Dou City, where he was basically invincible.

Sword Douluo Chen Xin rushed as fast as he could, sparing no effort to deplete his soul power, and finally returned to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School within half an hour. In his haste, he disregarded everything else and flew directly into the backyard of the school, leaving the soul beast he had brought back in the center of the courtyard.

"Bang!!!"

When Chen Xin returned, Ning Fengzhi's condition was already quite bad. Yan was comforting Ning Rongrong, who was constantly sobbing and crying, when he heard the noise and looked up.

The soul beast that Sword Douluo Chen Xin brought back was enormous, radiating an earthy yellow aura and a rich and powerful earth elemental aura. It was an earth-attribute soul beast, and its age was at least 50,000 years.

This spirit beast looked extremely strange, exceeding ten meters in length and five meters in height, its size was enormous, and it had two horns on its head, one longer and one shorter. Its entire body was covered in a thick, armor-like layer of keratin. Its eyes were scarlet.

"The Earth Demon Rhinoceros King has at least 50,000 years of cultivation."

Yan was able to identify the species of this soul beast from some obvious characteristics, then his eyes became a little strange, "I remember that soul beasts like the Earth Demon Rhinoceros should live and breed in grassland areas, so how come there is one outside Tiandou City?"

"I found it after entering Sunset Forest. It seems to have only recently entered the outer edge of the forest, so it must have migrated from another place."

Sword Douluo Chen Xin answered Yan casually, his gaze lingering slightly when it fell on Ning Rongrong beside Yan, before continuing, "Soul beast kings or emperors over 50,000 years old are no longer affected by factors such as climate, and can basically survive in any environment."

"That's true."

Yan nodded, watching Chen Xin drag the Earth Demon Rhinoceros King towards Ning Fengzhi's direction, and he couldn't help but take a few more glances.

This top-tier earth-attribute soul beast is one of the overlords of the grasslands. Although its status among soul beasts is not as high as that of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear in the forest, it is definitely an extremely powerful soul beast. It is especially unique among earth-attribute defensive soul beasts.

This soul beast's special defensive shock can deflect the opponent's attacks. The stronger the attack, the stronger the rebound. Unless you can break through its armor in one go, you risk being seriously injured by the rebound.

"Roar~~~"

As Chen Xin dragged the enormous creature to Ning Fengzhi and Gu Rong, the Earth Demon Rhinoceros suddenly let out a low roar and began to struggle wildly with its limbs, trying to escape its predicament.

It turns out that this soul beast had been pretending all along, feigning death because it couldn't fight against Sword Douluo, and now it was clearly looking for an opportunity to escape.

Bone Douluo Gu Rong said with considerable annoyance, "Old Sword, how can you be so unreliable? He's not even seriously injured yet, how is Feng Zhi supposed to kill him now?"

At this moment, he was circulating his soul power into Ning Fengzhi's body to help him suppress the problem of his martial soul and undergo transformation. The consumption was already great, and seeing that Chen Xin was still not doing a good job, he was furious.

"Old bones, stop talking nonsense. I'm not an eye that can see."

Sword Douluo Chen Xin replied with dissatisfaction, and then unleashed the Seven Kill Sword, piercing through the armor in several consecutive strikes, leaving the Earth Demon Rhinoceros King covered in blood.

"Hooho..."

The Earth Demon Rhinoceros's crimson eyes were filled with bloodlust. It struggled frantically and roared. It lowered its head and began to thrash wildly. Just then, Chen Xin thrust out his sword. The Earth Demon Rhinoceros seized the opportunity and charged its long horn toward the Seven Kill Sword.

Clang!

The Seven Kill Sword had easily pierced the armor just now, but it couldn't cut through the rhinoceros horn with a single strike, which shows how sturdy it was. What's even more surprising is that Chen Xin was actually knocked back by one move.

"The power and defense of this Earth Demon Rhino are truly well-deserved."

Yan nodded upon seeing this. It is said that among soul beasts of the same level, if ranked by strength, the Earth Demon Rhino would definitely be in the top three, and even stronger than the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear of the same level.

While the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear is powerful and ferocious, possessing formidable overall strength, its actual power only ranks within the top ten of its class. In contrast, the Earth Demon Rhino ranks among the top three, including exceptional beings like the Thousand-Jun Ant King, demonstrating its immense power.

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar, Chen Xin, who had been knocked back, once again drew his sword, this time aiming it at the neck of the Earth Demon Rhino, which was its weak point and one of its vulnerabilities.

The Earth Demon Rhino, its nose high and horns raised, struggled to get up and deliver another powerful blow. It's important to understand that the Earth Demon Rhino's terror lies mostly in its strength. Although Chen Xin is a powerful Title Douluo, he is known for his attacks, not his strength.

When Chen Xin stepped forward again, one of the Earth Demon Rhinoceros King's forelimbs released a dazzling yellow light. The terrifying power spread out to a diameter of fifty meters. Even Yan and Ning Rongrong, who were standing nearby, could feel the extraordinary nature of this move.

This move, called War Stomp, is a group attack soul skill of the Earth Demon Rhinoceros, with a strong stalemate effect. However, while this move is naturally effective against ordinary people, it has almost no effect on Qi Sha Jian Chen Xin.

Chen Xin didn't even draw his sword again; he simply shifted his body slightly and flashed to the side of the Earth Demon Rhinoceros King. With a flick of his sword, he turned the Earth Demon Rhinoceros King over, and the originally ferocious soul beast king was immediately plunged into a desperate situation.

Of all elemental attributes, earth is the best at defense and the most stable. Almost no other attribute can completely counter earth. That's why the Earth Demon Rhino King is so difficult to deal with; its defense is truly astonishing.

However, the difficulty in dealing with it is relative. For Chen Xin, who is good at breaking armor, killing a Great Earth Demon Rhinoceros King is not difficult. The difficulty lies in how to severely injure it at the right moment and then bring it back.

He originally thought that the soul beast had lost the ability to resist, but it turned out that it was just pretending. Fortunately, he was strong enough, and after a series of operations, he finally exhausted the soul beast's last bit of resistance.

With a slap from the Seven Kill Sword, which resembled a door panel in Chen Xin's palm, the enormous soul beast rolled to Ning Fengzhi's side.

"Uncle Sword, Uncle Bone, thank you for your help."

Ning Fengzhi was in a bad situation, but he still mustered his strength to thank them. With Gu Rong's help, he managed to raise his hand and deliver the final blow to the Earth Demon Rhinoceros King.

As the enormous soul beast breathed its last, a dense black soul light rapidly gathered and was drawn into Ning Fengzhi's body. Upon the influx of this soul light, Ning Fengzhi's pale face instantly regained its color, as if he had consumed some kind of tonic; his aura and overall condition improved considerably.

"Ding!"

A dense black soul light swept over his entire body, and finally a jet-black soul ring was placed next to Ning Fengzhi's other seven soul rings. With the help of this soul light, his Eight Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was truly stabilized.

Ning Fengzhi's aura began to stabilize, and his soul power cultivation also gradually stabilized. In the end, however, his soul power aura was not at level 89, but at level 84, meaning that he had lost about five levels of soul power.

Yan noticed these slight changes in soul power. A thoughtful look flashed across his eyes. He guessed that this was probably due to the loss of a layer of the glazed pagoda body during the reconstruction.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda was upgraded to the Eight Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda by creating a layer of glazed tile pagoda body out of thin air. According to the law of conservation of energy, this must require energy to be consumed. If no external power was consumed, then the most likely scenario is that the energy was consumed by the pagoda's own soul power cultivation.

It is obvious that Yan's deduction and Ning Fengzhi's practical refinement of this advancement method have two key difficulties.

One of them is that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul Saint who has reached the bottleneck of level 79 must have at least level 85 potential soul power in his body in order to cope with the level 5 soul power loss in shaping one layer of the pagoda.

Another key point is that obtaining the spirit ring requires preparing the high-level spirit beasts to hunt for advancement in advance, which is where the real difficulty lies.

This time, it was Sword Douluo Chen Xin who personally took action, which is why Sect Master Ning Fengzhi received such treatment. If it were anyone else, it would be impossible for a Title Douluo to intervene every time a Soul Saint with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul is promoted.

Moreover, such promotions can fail. What happens to the half-dead soul beast if it fails? Kill it? Release it?

These chaotic problems are numerous and complicated, but they are issues that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School will need to deal with next. They are irrelevant to Yan, an outsider. Although he has some ideas, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School is not yet close to him, so he will leave them hanging for now.

Only after the little devil in his arms has grown up and he has taken her as his concubine will Yan consider helping the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School again. As for now, the two sides are just cooperating, and it would be good enough if Yan didn't take advantage of them.

"Sect Leader Ning, how are you feeling?"

Yan slowly walked up to Ning Fengzhi. The aura of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect Master in front of him gradually stabilized, and the Eight Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda in his palm, which shimmered with eight-colored light, contained a strange pressure.

"I feel great now, thank you, Your Highness."

Upon hearing his voice, Ning Fengzhi slowly opened his eyes and stood up, bowing deeply to Yan with sincere emotion. His face was still pale; he hadn't fully recovered from the blood loss, but his complexion had improved considerably.

"dad."

After breaking free from someone's embrace, Ning Rongrong rushed straight into Ning Fengzhi's arms, tears welling up in her eyes, releasing all the grievances and fear she had felt in an instant.

She was terrified just now. Of course, she knew she shouldn't disturb her father, but how could she bear to see him bleeding and his breath growing weak? How could she possibly stay calm?

"Thank you for taking care of Rongrong just now, Holy Son."

Ning Fengzhi thanked Yan again, but it was only for Ning Rongrong's sake. If Yan hadn't held and comforted Ning Rongrong earlier, the little girl might have been left with some psychological trauma. It's good that she cried now.

"Dad, why are you thanking this big bad guy? He's no good person at all."

Ning Rongrong wiped away her tears and pretended to be strong. She was unhappy when she heard Ning Fengzhi's words. In her opinion, Yan, who had stopped her earlier, was no good person and was really annoying.

"Rongrong, you can't do this."

Ning Fengzhi gently scolded his daughter, then smiled apologetically at Yan and said, "I'm sorry, Your Highness, Rongrong is still young and spoke a little too bluntly..."

"It's alright, Sect Leader Ning and Miss Ning are both fine, so everything is alright."

Yan responded with a smile. He naturally wouldn't argue with a little girl. There was no point in arguing about these things now. He would make this little devil know how good her brother was, and then he could take everything back.

After exchanging pleasantries with Ning Fengzhi and collecting some data, he came to the circular array plate and began to dismantle it, preparing to put it away again.

Seeing that he was about to take away the soul tool, Ning Fengzhi quickly said, "Your Highness, would you be willing to part with this soul tool and give it to my Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School?"

"Sect Master Ning, this soul tool requires special energy and techniques to operate, which involves the secrets of the Spirit Hall and cannot be leaked."

Yan replied with a smile, "How about this, I'll place it in the Spirit Temple in Heaven Dou City. When the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School needs to borrow it, they can contact His Highness Platinum Bishop Salas. I don't think he'll refuse."

"Thank you very much, Your Highness."

After thinking it over, Ning Fengzhi didn't insist. After all, it belonged to someone else. Although borrowing it would put the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's advancement in the hands of the Spirit Hall, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School needed their help, so this was the only option.

Chapter 220 The Mischievous Little Witch

In a courtyard garden of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, at the turn of spring and summer, hundreds of flowers were in full bloom, and the entire garden was filled with a vibrant atmosphere.

Inside the garden pavilion, Yan sat quietly reading a book, a pot of tea brewed on the stone table in front of him. He held the book in his right hand and the teacup in his left, taking small sips every now and then, appearing quite content.

After Yan helped Ning Fengzhi successfully break through, the attitude of the entire Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School towards him changed significantly. Although the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School had cooperated with the Spirit Hall before, they had always tried to do some underhanded things, but they had been very well-behaved lately.

This is actually determined by supply and demand. Although the muskets that Yan took out before were of great significance to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School as a whole, the ones who benefited more were the middle and lower-level support-type soul masters.

The true high-ranking members of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School are all experts above the Soul King level. Even support-type Soul Masters at this level possess considerable combat power, though they are relatively weak compared to other Soul Masters of the same level. They can still fight against lower-level opponents.

What Yan brought this time gave these high-ranking officials hope for a breakthrough and opened up endless possibilities for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, so their attitude was naturally different.

It was quite obvious that Yan only briefly mentioned the need to study the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's books, and Ning Fengzhi simply organized all the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's collection and put them in a room, giving him the key directly.

Knowledge is an extremely precious treasure in any era, especially in feudal times, when some important knowledge was completely blocked by the upper class.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School was able to rise and stand out among the many soul master forces in the Douluo Continent, becoming one of the top three sects after the Clear Sky Sect among the seven major sects. Its foundation was naturally extremely impressive. It even had records of some things that the Spirit Hall did not have.

This is not to say that the Spirit Hall's knowledge reserves are inferior to those of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, but rather that in terms of the inventory and depth of knowledge about soul masters, the Spirit Hall completely surpasses any other force in the world.

However, the Spirit Hall takes a broad and extensive approach, and in some specialized areas, it is still somewhat inferior to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, which focuses on in-depth research and specialization.

Ning Fengzhi was excessively generous this time. Apart from a few secret techniques that were only circulated among the upper echelons of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, he gave Yan almost all the other books to read. This was a great gift.

Yan has always been susceptible to ancient books and new knowledge, so he stayed at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School for a while. The circular array plate that assisted Ning Fengzhi in his breakthrough was also temporarily lent to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School after being recharged.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School has been quite lively lately. One by one, the direct lineage elders who were away were recalled, and every Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul cultivator who had reached the peak of level 79 Soul Saint was trying to break through.

Among them, there were successes and failures. Most of the failures were due to insufficient foundation and failure to accumulate enough soul power to condense the eighth layer of the tower.

Failure is the mother of success. Even if you fail, if you gain experience and don't die from the backlash, you'll have another chance. And as long as you accumulate enough soul power, the chances of success are high if you try again.

Of course, there were also some stubborn ones who tried to condense the eighth layer of the tower before their soul power had even reached level seventy-nine. The consequences were naturally very serious. The most serious one was almost killed by the backlash of his martial soul, and Ning Fengzhi had to personally ask Yan to save him.

After receiving the 10,000 gold coins, Yan warned them that there would be no second time. If anyone else acted so recklessly, he would not save them again and would take the array plate away to prevent the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School from blaming him if someone died.

After this incident, Ning Fengzhi personally came every day to protect the clansmen who were trying the Dharma. Those who did not meet the requirements were directly driven away, no matter how senior or high their rank. If they did not meet the requirements, they did not meet the requirements.

Having lived to such an old age and not even reaching level 79, not even reaching the limit of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, yet still thinking of breaking free of shackles? Are you kidding me?

While things were in turmoil at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, Yan was having a relatively comfortable time. He was stationed in Tiandou City, coordinating his forces and playing a game of suicide missions with Emperor Xueye for a while. While attracting the attention of the Tiandou royal family, he also mobilized his manpower to handle matters on Seagod Island on the west coast.

He planned to use the Earth to help Bibi Dong hunt down the Demon Orca King in the waters near Seagod Island. However, the Orca King was a sea spirit beast clan that possessed a 100,000-year-old spirit beast and many other 10,000-year-old spirit beasts. He needed to plan carefully to achieve his goal, and it couldn't be rushed.

Since it's still early, he'll stay in Tiandou City and play with the Tiandou royal family first. Although he's not very good at chess, it would be nice to play a couple of games occasionally for fun.

However, he had no intention of undermining the rule of the Heaven Dou royal family; he merely planned to cause them some trouble in the Soul Master world. Within the territory surrounding Heaven Dou City, there were several relatively powerful and influential Soul Master forces, namely the Four Great Sects and the Five Great Academies.