The Great Stage of Douluo, My Name is Qian Xunji

Qian Xunji flipped through the system profile once more, finally confirming that this was a Hero Summoning System. The method for obtaining hero character cards was also quite infuriating; aside from the gift pack provided upon the first login, the only way was through gacha.

The prize pool contained weapons, equipment, inscriptions, experience cards, hero character cards, and gold coins, but as for the odds—well, those who know, know.

The currency required for the draw was not Gold Soul Coins, but rather prestige points.

It cost 10 prestige points for a single draw.

Fortunately, Qian Xunji still held the title of Pope of Martial Soul Hall and possessed the strength of a Titled Douluo. Although his prestige had declined during his nine-year coma, he still had 18,609 points remaining.

Qian Xunji looked at the various hero character cards and equipment in the prize pool, feeling a bit itchy. He rubbed his hands together, intending to test the waters.

The result was [Gold Soul Coin x9, Experience Card x1]. It was indeed the same old routine.

However, this prize pool and the heroes were almost entirely copied from a certain game!

The designer of this system was truly lazy!

After grumbling to himself, Qian Xunji began to think about how to acquire more prestige.

As a Titled Douluo and the Pope of Martial Soul Hall, his prestige was, in a sense, already maxed out. Unless Martial Soul Hall conquered the entire continent or he ascended to godhood, it would be difficult to increase it further.

But these heroes were different. By starting them as infants, he could grant them entirely new identities to shine and flourish in this world, thereby harvesting a massive amount of prestige points.

Qian Xunji began to understand how this system was meant to be played.

Lionheart King Arthur's martial soul was the Twin Martial Souls of the Holy Sword and Holy Shield; Ice Waltz Zhen Ji's martial soul was the Mystic Ice Water; Qingqiu Nine-Tailed Daji's martial soul was the Nine-Tailed Sky Fox; and Light of the Firmament Xiang Yu's martial soul was the Six-Winged Angel.

Among them, the attributes of Arthur and Xiang Yu were exceptionally compatible with Martial Soul Hall, and Zhen Ji's attributes matched well with Skywater Academy. Daji, however, was a different story; Qian Xunji was well aware of her charm-based attributes and feared she might be sold off to an auction house before she could even display her talent.

He decided not to rush activating Daji just yet; he would save her until he could gather a few teammates for her, otherwise, she wouldn't be able to develop properly in the early stages on her own!

Having made his decision, Qian Xunji activated the hero character cards for Arthur and Xiang Yu. Suddenly, two wailing infants appeared out of thin air, and Qian Xunji quickly caught them.

He then looked helplessly at the two babies. Well, it seemed heroes had an infancy stage as well.

But fortunately, Qian Xunji was the Pope, and Martial Soul Hall had plenty of maids, which was more than enough to take care of two infants.

With the trouble of raising children settled, Qian Xunji also had to take over the various affairs of the Pope from Qian Daoliu. At the same time, having disappeared for nine years, he truly needed to make an appearance and walk among the people to prove he was still alive and to stabilize the hearts of his followers.

"What is the deal with those two children?" Qian Daoliu inquired about Arthur and Xiang Yu.

Qian Xunji had intended to bluff his way through with a wise look, but after glancing at the staff prepared nearby, he spoke rationally, "This is related to a divine trial."

If one interpreted the system as a divine trial, then this explanation was technically correct.

Qian Daoliu sighed and said nothing more. Although the two children were still infants, the aura of light within them was extremely rich. With Qian Daoliu's level of cultivation, a slight perception was enough to realize the extraordinary nature of these children. To what extent were they extraordinary?

Children of the gods! This was Qian Daoliu's first reaction upon sensing that rich aura of light and feeling the Angel God trial stir within him. One had to realize, these were still infants! They hadn't even awakened their martial souls yet, and they had already triggered a divine trial. As descendants of the Angel God, the entire Qian family had no similar records.

He did not know what his son, who had suddenly received a divine trial and become deranged, had actually experienced, and he dared not guess.

First, he drove away Bibi Dong and Yu Xiaogang, soured relations with the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, and then was inexplicably struck by lightning that appeared out of nowhere for nine full years.

He had inquired of the Angel God but received no reply, and now, two such peculiar children had suddenly appeared.

Qian Daoliu felt a sense of inexplicable dread, like the prelude to a storm.

When it came to the gods, mortals were like ants, possessing no ability to resist.

The more he knew, the more powerless he felt.

Qian Daoliu stopped pursuing the matter, tacitly skipping over it to move on to the next topic.

"When do you plan to get married?"

Qian Daoliu had truly been frightened by the recent events. With Qian Xunji constantly getting into trouble, he simply couldn't rest easy! It was better to leave an heir for the Qian family as soon as possible!

"I already have plans for that," Qian Xunji said, his gaze shifting toward the gacha card pool.

Chapter 3: If you dare to do it, don't be afraid of what people say.

Qian Xunji had resumed his duties as Pope, but he received news regarding that Yu Xiaogang.

Back then, when he and Bibi Dong were driven out of Martial Soul Hall, they had lost all face, but since he had abducted the Saintess of Martial Soul Hall, he was technically in the wrong.

After all, Qian Xunji had no children, and among the next generation, only Bibi Dong, the Saintess, was qualified to inherit the position of Pope.

Having abducted the next successor of Martial Soul Hall, they were lucky Martial Soul Hall hadn't caused them further trouble. Yet, to still try to take advantage of things using the Saintess Token was truly thick-skinned. Had they not seen that Bibi Dong had already incurred a massive debt?

After all, the logic was simple: if you want freedom, you can have it, but you must return the resources spent on you over the years.

Burdened with a massive debt, Bibi Dong's cultivation resources immediately became stretched thin.

Yu Xiaogang was an independent man who adamantly refused to seek help from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, so the two had no choice but to take on various missions to earn bounties.

During this process, the two also became acquainted with Liu Erlong and Flender.

At first, things were fine, and the four of them got along quite harmoniously, but as time passed, problems began to emerge.

First, regarding Bibi Dong's soul ring configuration: previously, Martial Soul Hall would dispatch Titled Douluo to obtain the best possible configuration, and the attributes were always a perfect match. Now, the strength of the four was uneven; Bibi Dong's strength far exceeded the others, making the danger of obtaining soul rings significantly greater for her than for the rest.

Yu Xiaogang did not approve of entering dangerous zones to obtain optimal soul rings. Never mind the attributes; even the age of the soul rings barely met the standard, which was truly a waste of Bibi Dong's talent.

Secondly, every time the team's profits were distributed, disagreements would arise. Bibi Dong had the highest strength and, coupled with her debts, naturally wanted a larger share. However, she was persuaded by Yu Xiaogang and had to step back, settling for an equal split of the earnings.

Finally, there was the matter of the Martial Soul Fusion Skill. The main conditions for forming such a skill included a high degree of compatibility between martial souls, a meeting of minds between the users, the soul power reaching a specific level, and a certain level of tacit understanding. Yu Xiaogang, Liu Erlong, and Flender successfully used a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, yet Bibi Dong, who was the lover of one of them, had no reaction at all. This undoubtedly caused Bibi Dong's inner balance to tilt even further.

Yu Xiaogang and Liu Erlong had indeed developed a bit of a romantic spark, but hindered by the presence of Bibi Dong, they restrained themselves and held back. In a four-person team, a love square formed, and with constant friction between them every day, there was no mood left to focus on cultivation.

When Bibi Dong left Martial Soul Hall at 19, she was already a Soul King. Now, nine years later, at 28, she was surprisingly only a Soul Saint, and was currently fretting over her next soul ring.

Within a four-person squad, a Soul Saint might already be considered quite formidable, but given Bibi Dong's talent, this was undoubtedly a miserable sight.

After all, in the original story, Bibi Dong was already a Soul Douluo at this stage, and Qian Xunji's later pursuit of the Blue Silver Emperor was specifically for Bibi Dong's level 90 soul ring.

The four-person squad had now disbanded. Bibi Dong had parted ways with the others due to the ambiguity between Liu Erlong and Yu Xiaogang, a split that turned extremely ugly. However, Qian Xunji suspected that this was also because Yu Xiaogang had achieved nothing over these years, exposing his core as nothing more than a gilded exterior with a rotten interior.

After all, theoretical research requires a massive amount of data to support it. Now that he no longer had Bibi Dong to facilitate things for him and Martial Soul Hall's archives were closed to him, he could only rely on some data from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan to conduct his research.

The data from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan was primarily focused on the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul. They would never go out to awaken martial souls for commoners, so it was impossible for them to have the vast amount of data that covered villages like Martial Soul Hall did.

The Ten Core Theories were now extremely sloppy.

Yu Xiaogang still refused to give up, and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan even came to negotiate, wanting to send people to Martial Soul Hall for exchange and study.

This made Qian Xunji laugh. Nine years ago, Yu Xiaogang came to exchange and study, only to abduct the Saintess of Martial Soul Hall and get kicked out. Now, nine years later, he was back—he really had no shame!

He decisively refused, and instead, turned around to send people to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan for exchange and study. Nine years ago, it was Yu Xiaogang coming to Martial Soul Hall to study, using his relationship with Bibi Dong to access core materials with the Saintess Token; nine years later, it was Martial Soul Hall's turn to visit the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.

Martial Soul Hall didn't mind small matters, but that didn't mean Martial Soul Hall was a big idiot that could be fleeced at will!

I'd like to see if you dare to bring out the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul data for me to see.

Then there was the data on this year's martial soul awakenings for Martial Soul Hall.

By casting a wide net, they had indeed found some children with decent talent, but apart from orphans with no one to rely on, very few people chose to come to the Martial Soul Academy to study.

Part of the reason was that parents couldn't bear to let their children leave; after all, six years old was simply too young, the school was too far away, and they feared they wouldn't be close in the future. Besides, there were soul master academies in nearby cities anyway.

Another part was being recruited and absorbed by other local martial soul clans.

Qian Xunji also got a headache seeing these reports, but this was an unavoidable issue.

Martial Soul Hall had been doing things this way for a long time, and these commoners had already grown accustomed to it.

They wouldn't consider whether Martial Soul Hall might abandon some villages or towns if it suffered from a shortage of manpower due to a lack of soul masters joining over a long period.

However, this wasn't without its benefits. Because of Martial Soul Hall's good reputation, most soul masters with average talent who weren't specifically recruited by other factions ended up joining Martial Soul Hall.

Qian Xunji checked the System Panel again. His reputation had been rising, reaching 19,606 so far, and it was still climbing steadily.

Looking at it this way, he could also farm a wave of reputation during the upcoming Advanced Soul Master Tournament.

With that thought, Qian Xunji put down the news regarding Tang Hao and the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

"Elder Chrysanthemum! Abandon the plan to capture the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast this time. Additionally, order people to secretly spread the news, saying... well... that Tang Hao of the Clear Sky Sect is having an illicit affair with a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and has fathered a human-beast hybrid."

"As you command!" The feminine-looking Elder Chrysanthemum departed.

Qian Xunji rested his chin on his hand, his slender fingers tapping against the tabletop as he watched the back of Chrysanthemum Douluo with great interest.

Tang Hao, let's see how you choose this time!

At this stage, Martial Soul Hall and the Clear Sky Sect were still in a friendly state due to the relationship between Qian Daoliu and Tang Chen. Furthermore, it was to facilitate the secret capture of the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast that the original Qian Xunji had chosen to suppress the news.

That was why later generations only knew that Martial Soul Hall had hunted down Tang Hao of the Clear Sky Sect and his wife, resulting in the latter being heavily wounded and dying, leading to a complete rupture between Martial Soul Hall and the Clear Sky Sect, but they didn't know the specific inside story.

Not many people knew about Tang San's background.

Once the news was spread, as long as Tang San admitted he was Tang Hao's son, it would be equivalent to admitting he was a human-beast hybrid, making his life in the human world extremely difficult.

Qian Xunji didn't think he had done anything wrong; he was merely stating a fact.

If you, Tang Hao, dare to do it, don't be afraid of people talking about it.

Being inexplicably wanted would make people sympathetic, but revealing the inside story would make everyone accept it willingly.

In this way, Tang Hao's enemy would no longer be just Martial Soul Hall, but all soul masters, including the Clear Sky Sect.

Bibi Dong had been driven away, and Martial Soul Hall currently had no Soul Douluo about to reach level 90 who needed a soul ring. Qian Xunji also lacked the patience to specifically raise a Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor ready to sacrifice itself at any moment; the success rate was too low, and it wasn't worth it.

However, he could think about the soul bone...

Chapter 4: The Disqualified Saintess

Qian Xunji didn't like to bicker. In the original story, didn't Tang Hao feel that Martial Soul Hall's pursuit of his wife, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, was detestable?

Then he would throw this problem to the masses and let everyone judge for themselves.

The result was self-evident.

As the news spread, soul masters across the entire continent were frantically searching for Tang Hao's whereabouts, and many factions also approached the Clear Sky Sect.

After all, this was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast that had taken human form and was in a weakened state during pregnancy! Who wouldn't be tempted?

Humans and soul beasts were inherently on opposite sides; soul masters needed to hunt soul beasts to obtain soul rings, and soul beasts themselves preyed upon each other and were mostly of low intelligence.

The two sides were irreconcilable.