Two Honorary Elders

"Hell if I know." Nan Feng looked utterly speechless.

He'd only been out of Slaughter City for a little over a year, and he'd spent almost all that time in seclusion. Where would he have found the time to learn about any of this?

Still, during the war with the Clear Sky Sect, he'd passed through a few cities and looked around. He'd noticed that most people had a fairly consistent attitude toward Spirit Hall.

They revered it.

Mostly, they feared it.

Of course, that was only natural. To ordinary people, Spirit Hall was a violent organization made up of powerful Soul Masters.

The Two Great Empires had a mixed system of governance, run by both Soul Masters and ordinary people. The ruling class wasn't made up solely of Soul Masters; in fact, most of them had no Soul Power at all.

But Spirit Hall was made up entirely of Soul Masters.

People tended to band together with their own kind.

Since ordinary people were part of the ruling class in the Two Great Empires, commoners could relate to them and had ties with them, being ordinary people themselves. But there was no overlap at all between ordinary people and Spirit Hall, an organization made up entirely of Soul Masters.

As for commoner Soul Masters, there was a misconception about them.

The misconception was that if a family had even one Soul Master, it had left the world of ordinary people behind and joined the Spirit Master Class.

And as everyone knew, a golden phoenix that had flown out of a thatched nest would never return to it.

Just look at Holy Soul Village. Legend had it that a Soul Saint had once come from there.

And?

That didn't stop the village from being dirt poor.

All they had was a little pride in their supposed shared glory, something to brag about. But in truth, the Soul Saint they talked about probably didn't even know he'd had that kind of impact on the village.

When someone from a disadvantaged class had the chance to leave it behind, they weren't going to want even a trace of their old life clinging to them.

Unless those traces could bring them some benefit, they were nothing but a burden.

That was the reality of it.

Those who went from oxen and horses to Rome as new Romans didn't sympathize with the oxen and horses. They just plundered them even more brutally.

The same went for commoner Soul Masters.

The moment they awakened Soul Power and became capable of being Soul Masters, they were no longer commoners.

They became nobles who lived off the commoners.

How could noble lords ever relate to oxen and horses?

Only the oxen and horses foolishly believed they could relate to the noble lords.

"Aren't you an Honorary Elder of Spirit Hall?" Tang Yuehua asked, puzzled.

"Come on, I'm only thirteen. I've been in Spirit City for just over a year, and I only joined Pope Hall a few months ago. What could I possibly know?" Nan Feng grumbled.

Only after Bibi Dong became Pope had he landed a cushy position at Pope Hall. Then, after Spirit Hall went to war with the Clear Sky Sect, Bibi Dong appointed him Staff Officer, and he went to the front with Yue Guan and Gui Mei. It was only after distinguishing himself that he earned the title of Honorary Elder.

"Thirteen?" Tang Yuehua was taken aback.

"Are you serious?"

"If you insist on counting my previous life, then I'm almost thirty," Nan Feng said.

"Then why did you join Pope Hall?" Tang Yuehua asked, puzzled.

"Because the current Pope saved my life," Nan Feng replied.

If he hadn't spawned in Slaughter City, his first choice would definitely have been to go to Heaven Dou City and serve as Qian Renxue's strategist!

After all, Bibi Dong was far too difficult and dangerous to deal with. Without conditions as favorable as those in Slaughter City, where the timing, location, and people were all in his favor, it simply wouldn't have been feasible.

His choices depended on his position and circumstances, not his preferences.

If he'd been born into the Clear Sky Sect, the Heaven Dou Imperial Family, or the Star Luo Royal Family, then there'd have been no question about it: he would've fought Spirit Hall!

"..."

"Thirteen?"

Ning Fengzhi had heard that Spirit Hall's Honorary Elder was visiting Heaven Dou City, so he'd come there with Gu Rong to gather information.

Relying on the formidable Spiritual Power of a Titled Douluo, Gu Rong had eavesdropped on Nan Feng and Tang Yuehua's conversation and relayed it to him.

"Uncle Gu, are you sure you heard right?" Ning Fengzhi asked, puzzled.

"You didn't miss a word? Or did he say thirty?"

Gu Rong shot Ning Fengzhi an exasperated look. "I may be getting on in years, but I'm not so old that I can't hear something like that clearly."

Ning Fengzhi's eyelid twitched. "That's just too ridiculous."

He could've accepted thirty, but what was this thirteen supposed to mean?

You couldn't judge a Soul Master's age by their appearance. Some looked old when they were young, while others could keep a childlike appearance well into old age.

Nan Feng really did look like a young man in his teens. But he'd also met Spirit Hall's High Priest, Guang Ling Douluo. The man was an old codger, even older than Chen Xin and Gu Rong, yet he looked barely fifteen or sixteen.

Who knew if he was just some old monster pretending to be young?

"From what he said, he really doesn't know much about Spirit Hall," Gu Rong said.

"But the information I got from Heaven Dou Imperial Palace says this elder just extorted five million Gold Soul Coins from Xue Ye," Ning Fengzhi said.

"His way of doing things is exactly like Spirit Hall's—if anything, even worse!"

Spirit Hall's overbearing forcefulness was common knowledge throughout the Spirit Master World. After all, they had the strength to back it up. From the Pope and elders down to the local deacons, they all followed much the same pattern.

Apart from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, which had made its name in commerce, the other major sects mostly kept to their own territories and rarely went elsewhere. Spirit Hall, however, had branch halls in almost every small city. In terms of scale, its presence nearly matched the administrative offices of the Two Great Empires.

The difference was that Spirit Hall only managed Soul Masters, while the Two Great Empires managed everything.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was said to have eyes and ears everywhere, but that was just an exaggeration. Its intelligence network relied on commerce: wherever there was trade, the sect had eyes and ears.

"Why not test him and find out?" Gu Rong said.

"You're an Honorary Elder, and so is he. You're the only two Honorary Elders of this era. It'd be perfectly reasonable for two Honorary Elders to get acquainted, wouldn't it?"

"Then I can use a sudden urge to spar as an excuse to test him out."

"There's a strange fluctuation around him that blocks my Spiritual Power from probing him, and it's unlike anything I've sensed from other Titled Douluo. I suspect it's probably an ability of his Martial Soul. The only way to figure out what he's really like is to meet him in person."

Ning Fengzhi considered it, then nodded. "Uncle Gu, be careful. If he really is an old child like Guang Ling Douluo, this could get troublesome."

"Relax. You know what I can do." Gu Rong stood with a grin.

"Even if I can't beat him, I can run."

Ning Fengzhi gave a helpless smile and stood up. "You can run. I can't."

"Don't worry, Fengzhi. I'll take you with me." Gu Rong put an arm around Ning Fengzhi's shoulders.

"When have I ever run off without you?"

Ning Fengzhi's eyelid twitched. "But every time we've had to run, it was because you caused trouble. Uncle Jian and I were just dragged into it."

"Ahem." Gu Rong looked a little embarrassed.

"Let bygones be bygones. Let's not bring them up!"