The Great Stage of Douluo, My Name is Qian Xunji

Following that feeling, she looked over and saw a boy with short, silver hair swept back, wearing a high-collared undershirt and a black mask embroidered with silver. His amber eyes looked somewhat pale under the sunlight, yet they were incredibly striking at this moment.

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Chapter 80: Allegiance

Qian Renxue looked at the boy. Having been raised to be cheerful and lively, she asked directly whenever she had a question.

"Why have you been staring at me?"

A direct approach is the most effective way to break through defenses. Hearing Qian Renxue's question, the boy, who had been craning his neck to sneak peeks, suddenly became nervous.

His hands flailed, having nowhere to rest. He wanted to explain but didn't know how to phrase it. His masked face looked cold, but the tips of his ears were already red.

"I... little sister, I just wanted to get to know you. No, wait—my name is Feng Xiaotian. Can I be friends with you?" His words were jumbled, but that didn't stop others from understanding his general intent.

He really liked this little sister and wanted to be with her.

However...

Looking at the girl wearing a beautiful platinum dress, her soft golden hair draped over her shoulders to her waist, her skin flawless and fair, with a faint pink blush on her cheeks.

The words "I like you, please be with me" never managed to leave his lips.

Love can make a person confident and brave, but it can also make them feel inferior and cautious.

Feng Xiaotian did not yet understand what love was.

But he did know what status and gaps were. If the person he liked had a background and strength similar to his own, or even slightly worse, he would bravely pursue them.

Yet, facing this golden-haired angel who held his gaze, he—who had always been called a genius and was the pride of his family—felt his own insignificance for the first time.

Qian Renxue burst into laughter at his clumsy attempt at making friends.

"Hahaha, my name is Qian Renxue. It's nice to meet you. Your name is Feng Xiaotian, right?" Qian Renxue felt that this silly guy was quite interesting and meant no harm.

"Xiaoxue, we're leaving!" Xiang Yu, who was walking in the lead, called out when he saw Qian Renxue lagging behind.

"Got it, coming!" After saying that, Qian Renxue looked at her new friend. "My home is in Martial Soul City. You can come find me to play in the future. Bye-bye!"

With that, she waved her hand to say goodbye and jogged to catch up with her teammates ahead.

"Goodbye! I will come to Martial Soul City to see you!" The boy's amber eyes followed the girl's lighthearted back as he shouted loudly.

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Hidden in the shadows, Qian Daoliu frowned and glared at the little white-haired boy who had taken a liking to his granddaughter.

Qian Daoliu was not opposed to his granddaughter falling in love; the Six-Winged Angel martial soul had to be passed down.

As the possessor of a god-level martial soul on the Douluo Continent, Xiaoxue would be "downward compatible" regardless of who she was with. Qian Daoliu didn't have high requirements for the man's status; in any case, none would be higher than Xiaoxue's.

What he worried about was whether falling in love at such a young age would affect Xiaoxue's cultivation, her state of mind, or even delay her god trials.

The Douluo Continent had seen many exceptionally talented female soul masters, yet very few grew up to become Title Douluo.

Either their family background was too low, leading them to be captured and sold at auctions as playthings, or they married and had children midway, causing their state of mind to shift, losing focus on cultivation and wasting their time and energy on family.

Bibi Dong was a living example of this. She was at the golden age of cultivation, the best time to focus on breaking through and obtaining god trials.

She had the Martial Soul Hall providing her with cultivation resources, with no worries at all, yet she fell off the path midway to fall in love and wanted to get married—and that was while holding the status of Martial Soul Hall Saintess (the potential successor).

To be honest, when Qian Daoliu first learned the cause of that incident, his mind had gone blank for a moment.

Now, he did not want his granddaughter to follow in Bibi Dong's footsteps.

Noting Feng Xiaotian's appearance, Qian Daoliu planned to investigate the background of this little brat. If he turned out to be a fickle, soft-rice-eating man like Yu Xiaogang who would hinder her cultivation, Qian Daoliu would nip the danger in the bud.

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When Qian Xunji returned with the hall masters of Martial Soul Hall and the others, everyone had a visible smile on their faces.

The Martial Soul Hall Academy had won, and they had crushed their opponents with absolute strength, so they were naturally happy.

Although the "one-versus-seven" strategy might have seemed a bit disrespectful.

But there was no need to talk about respect between Martial Soul Hall and Skywater Academy.

Among the Four Element Academies, only the Feng Clan of Godwind Academy had quietly approached Martial Soul Hall to express their desire to become an affiliate.

The other three academies were arrogant, believing that Martial Soul Hall was wary of the Heaven Dou Empire and the Upper Three Sects, and would not dare to do anything out of line.

Despite not having a single Title Douluo and never having won the Advanced Soul Master Tournament before, they were full of confidence.

The old hall master didn't quite understand their mindset. Constrained by the rules of Martial Soul Hall and his own strength, he couldn't act directly, so he finally chose to find the Elephant Armor Sect to pressure them.

By evening, the old hall master received a secret letter sealed with wax. After reading it, he immediately went to find Qian Xunji with a smile.

Inside the temporarily prepared guest room of Martial Soul Hall.

The old hall master stroked his graying beard and introduced Feng Yang. "Feng Yang, the current patriarch of the Feng Clan. The family martial soul is the Gale Demon Wolf. He is an eighty-third-level Soul Douluo and also the Dean of Godwind Academy. He has been in contact with our Martial Soul Hall for some time and has shown signs of wanting to align with us. It's just that, due to the Four Element Academies, he has never formally pledged his allegiance."

What did it mean to formally pledge allegiance?

It meant putting his entire family's fortune on the line to lean toward Martial Soul Hall, rather than being a fence-sitter playing both sides like this.

Take the Elephant Armor Sect, for example: not only did the sect master take orders from Martial Soul Hall, but the family also followed Martial Soul Hall's instructions to build the fifth element academy, the Elephant Armor Academy, in Element City. Many disciples of the family had also joined Martial Soul Hall to work for them.

It had taken the old hall master quite some effort to win over Feng Yang, but fortunately, the results were good.

"Then what is his sincerity in joining Martial Soul Hall this time?" Qian Xunji asked while working overtime to approve urgent official documents sent from Martial Soul City.

"He is willing to let his genius son, Feng Xiaotian, who possesses Innate Full Soul Power and a benignly mutated Gale Two-Headed Demon Wolf martial soul, join Martial Soul Hall Academy. At the same time, he is also willing to directly concede the upcoming exchange match for Godwind Academy."

This behavior was equivalent to publicly declaring his intention to join Martial Soul Hall.

Furthermore, Feng Xiaotian joining Martial Soul Hall would not only become a great asset to the organization in the future, but he could also serve as a hostage to threaten Feng Yang and the Feng Clan right now.

With Innate Full Soul Power and a benignly mutated martial soul, he could be considered the future hope of the clan, possessing the potential to become a Title Douluo.

No one would gamble with such a family hope.

This could already be considered full sincerity.

Qian Xunji sighed; one opportunity to show off had been lost since the opponent was conceding directly.

"Very well, you are responsible for the details of the negotiation."

The old hall master received the order and went off to write the reply letter with peace of mind.

The dark night passed, and dawn broke.

Qian Xunji finally finished reviewing the official business that had piled up over the past few days; the physical constitution of a Super Douluo left him with no sense of fatigue.

Today, according to the schedule, was the exchange match with Blazing Fire Academy.

After watching the Skywater Academy match yesterday, the students of Blazing Fire Academy had returned and spent a long time discussing tactics with their teachers to counter Martial Soul Hall Academy.

Due to the influence of their martial soul attributes, the students of Blazing Fire Academy were mostly strong-willed and irritable, and they did not develop a fear of fighting because of watching the previous match.

This made Dean Huo Rutian both happy and pained.

As a Soul Douluo, his vision was far beyond what these students could compare to.

The strength of Blazing Fire Academy and Skywater Academy was on par, with little difference between them.

Since Martial Soul Hall Academy could crush Skywater Academy to secure victory, defeating Blazing Fire Academy would not be a difficult task either.

Especially during yesterday's one-on-seven individual match, a mere Soul Grand Master had taken care of all seven members of the Skywater Academy team.

The twenty-nine-level Soul Grand Master boy with blond hair behind her and the two possessors of the Six-Winged Angel martial soul hadn't even made a move.

This was enough to prove the gap.

"However, at this point, the arrow is already on the string and must be fired," Huo Rutian lamented.

Blazing Fire Academy had already agreed to the exchange match with Martial Soul Hall; if they suddenly backed out, it would only make them look cowardly and avoidant, which would be shameful no matter how they looked at it.

It would also dampen the morale of the students at Blazing Fire Academy.

Sometimes, being defeated is one thing, but conceding and avoiding the fight without even trying is another.

Huo Rutian's own personality was also influenced by his martial soul—irritable and combative—so he could better empathize with the feelings of these students.

"Even if the opponent is very strong, you must fight well. You cannot lose the spirit of our Blazing Fire Academy. You are all the geniuses of our Blazing Fire Academy," Huo Rutian stood on the stage to encourage the Blazing Fire Academy team about to enter the fray.

"Yes!" the seven team members replied in unison.

At the entrance of Blazing Fire Academy.

Qian Xunji once again skillfully exchanged greetings and spoke some polite formalities.

Once the pleasantries were over, they got down to business and arrived at the Blazing Fire Academy arena.

The Blazing Fire Academy arena was dominated by red, making people feel passionate and uninhibited.

The first match was, as usual, a team battle.

Based on Skywater Academy's failure yesterday, Blazing Fire Academy had set up specialized tactics.

Members with flying soul skills were responsible for harassing the two Six-Winged Angel martial soul masters on the opposite side, preventing the terrifying, wide-range sword energy slashes they were capable of.

They had also discovered that, although it was very brief, Xiang Yu's Overlord Slash did indeed have a charging process.

As long as there were long-range soul masters or flying soul masters to harass and attack, disrupting the charge, they should be able to interrupt this soul skill.

As for the others, the two Huyan brothers from Elephant Armor Academy had strong defense, but their speed was too slow, and the two of them could not form a defensive circle, so they could be bypassed and dealt with last.

They had also collected intelligence on Dugu Yan: a thirty-second-level Soul Elder whose soul skills, once used, did not distinguish between friend and foe, so she was just making up the numbers and didn't need to be worried about.

Dongfang Jing's elusive nature and powerful attack power had indeed caused Blazing Fire Academy to deliberate for a long time.

They had considered using a control-type soul master to restrain her.

But the defeated control-type soul master from Skywater Academy had already provided them with a case of failure.

Given Dongfang Jing's speed and soul skills, it was too difficult to control her.

They could only shelve that idea for now, adapt to the situation on the field, and be careful to dodge her mirror clones and her main body.