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Heaven Dou Empire, Element City
Qian Xunji accepted Godwind Academy's forfeit, winning without a fight.
Then he checked the Heroes' skyrocketing reputation points.
Rubbing his hands together, he began his consecutive ten-pulls.
Coins +10.
Coins +9, Double EXP Card +1.
Coins +10.
When his reputation points hit zero, Qian Xunji stared blankly as he made his final ten-pull.
What the hell?
Why was it all this junk?
He wanted divine gear! He wanted Heroes!
He had an Angel Martial Soul, so why was his luck so terrible?
Just then, the last ten-pull suddenly flashed with golden light.
Coins +9, Hero Burning Nether Scorching Sun—Donghuang Taiyi!
Qian Xunji stared intently at the detailed introduction for Burning Nether Scorching Sun, Donghuang Taiyi.
The entry for his species left Qian Xunji dumbstruck.
Species: Dragon Clan (Soul Beast).
This was the first Soul Beast Hero Qian Xunji had drawn. Even more astonishing, Donghuang Taiyi's stats, given his background as a Soul Beast, were several times higher than those of the other Heroes.
"Another stat monster!"
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Chapter 88: Dragon Egg
He summoned Burning Nether Scorching Sun—Donghuang Taiyi, whom he had just drawn.
It was unexpected, yet somehow made perfect sense.
Donghuang Taiyi, in his juvenile form, was actually an egg!
A huge egg, half a meter tall, with a mostly white shell covered in golden-red flame patterns.
Although it was only an egg, it emanated a faint dragon might. It looked extraordinary.
Qian Xunji, however, looked troubled. With Donghuang Taiyi being a Soul Beast, how was he supposed to raise him from birth?
Tang Hao, who had been involved in a human-beast romance, was still being hunted across the continent. Shouldn't Qian Xunji keep things a little more discreet?
And another thing...
How was he supposed to hatch this egg?
Qian Xunji decided to go back and ask Bian Que, the professional doctor.
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Back in Spirit City
Qian Xunji dumped the four little brats at Spirit Hall Academy, then headed to Alchemy Hall to find Bian Que.
He happened to find Bian Que taking a break. "Since you're free, come take a look and tell me how to hatch this egg."
As he spoke, Qian Xunji pulled out Donghuang Taiyi's egg. The enormous golden-red egg looked dazzlingly beautiful. When Qian Xunji touched it, it felt warm, like a giant heating pad.
Bian Que had a sharp eye and recognized his old Rift companion, Donghuang Taiyi, at a glance.
But Bian Que wasn't very familiar with the Donghuang Taiyi from Yunmengze, so he had no idea how to hatch a dragon egg.
He glanced at Qian Xunji, who clearly intended to dump Donghuang Taiyi on him to hatch, and his expression darkened.
What kind of cursed Summoner was this?
Still, this time he didn't refuse. Bian Que loved research, and now a rare specimen had landed right in his lap. He accepted it without hesitation.
A Soul Beast's age in years didn't refer to its actual age, but to its cultivation.
Take the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, for example. Its actual age was only three hundred thousand years.
In other words, thanks to its talent, the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King had cultivated, in just three hundred thousand years, what would normally take a Soul Beast a million years to achieve.
In Bian Que's estimation, Burning Nether Scorching Sun—Donghuang Taiyi had an exceptionally strong innate talent. It might not take him ten thousand years to become a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
Even so, that was still slow compared with the growth rate of ordinary human Heroes.
Even with Qian Xunji's Double EXP Card, Donghuang Taiyi would still progress far too slowly.
At the rate Xiang Yu and the others were going, they could become gods within fifty years. Donghuang Taiyi, on the other hand, would probably still only have the cultivation of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
"A dragon egg?" Bian Que narrowed his eyes, deep in thought.
He remembered the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. According to the Summoner, it had formed from the remains of two Divine King-level Dragon Kings.
The extremely hot and cold spring water had been created from the essence of the two Dragon Kings. It would be a huge tonic for Donghuang Taiyi, who belonged to the same Dragon Clan.
At the thought, Bian Que's eyes lit up, inspiration bubbling up like a spring.
He planned to take his newly acquired colleague with him to Sunset Forest.
Before leaving, though, Bian Que decided to find Chrysanthemum Douluo and brief him on Alchemy Hall's affairs.
As it happened, he ran into Poison Douluo Dugu Bo, who was discussing Immortal Pills with Chrysanthemum Douluo.
"Hall Master, you're here. Is something the matter?" Chrysanthemum Douluo asked, puzzled. The young Hall Master was always absorbed in research and alchemy, had no interest in power, and disliked managing Alchemy Hall's affairs. Now that he had shown up out of the blue, Chrysanthemum Douluo assumed it had to be urgent. He paused his discussion with Dugu Bo and asked why Bian Que had come.
Bian Que didn't beat around the bush. "The Pope has made a new request, so I need to visit the Herb Garden in Sunset Forest. I'll leave Alchemy Hall in your hands."
Chrysanthemum Douluo's face paled as he remembered the days and nights he had spent refining pills not long ago. "I might not be able to supply this many pills on my own."
"Besides, the materials for the elders' pills are nearly all gathered. They should come to you soon to refine Soul Power Breakthrough Pills. Hall Master, you should wait a little longer!"
Bian Que had already entrusted all the basic pills to Chrysanthemum Douluo. With his knowledge of pharmacology, and the innate advantage of his Immortal Herb Martial Soul, the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum Douluo had learned at an astonishing pace and quickly mastered them all.
Although Chrysanthemum Douluo was saying this to keep Bian Que from leaving, his other point was true. He had yet to learn how to refine Soul Power Breakthrough Pills. When the elders came, Bian Que would have to make them.
Bian Que considered how long it would take to reach Sunset Forest, then nodded. "All right. But I need to research a few things during this time, so I'll be making fewer pills. Have the apprentices you've been teaching graduated yet? If they have, you can divide my reduced quota among them."
At the mention of the pill-making apprentices, Chrysanthemum Douluo looked exhausted and miserable. He seemed much older, with plenty of new wrinkles on his forehead.
"I've done my best to teach them, but so far only five apprentices can barely manage to make pills successfully." Chrysanthemum Douluo felt that even cultivation hadn't been this difficult.
Bian Que's expression didn't change. He simply nodded calmly and continued making arrangements.
Inside, however, he breathed a sigh of relief. Thankfully, he'd passed all those headaches on to someone else.
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Pope Palace
Qian Xunji was also working overtime, catching up on paperwork.
When he came across anything interesting, he stopped to enjoy the spectacle.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan provided the biggest show of all.
Qian Xunji had rejected Yu Yuanting's offer to ransom the hostage. No matter how high the price, Qian Xunji ignored it.
This was for the sake of making a great contribution to the study of human Martial Souls.
Surely Yu Yuanzhen was "willing" to make certain necessary sacrifices.
This was for humanity, for the greater good!
We all had to put the bigger picture first.
When Qian Xunji said this to the "volunteer's" family member, Yu Yuanting, the other man looked confused, and had the deeply aggrieved expression of someone who had just eaten shit.
But Qian Xunji was the Pope, and considered himself a magnanimous man. He wouldn't hold their rudeness against them.
The letter from the Star Luo Empire was just a probe, testing Qian Xunji's attitude and whether he knew the truth.
The Star Luo Empress must have acted in secret behind her husband's back. The letter she sent to test the waters bore her personal seal.
There were also letters from various clans and factions.
Among them, Qian Xunji found two especially unusual letters: one from Tang Yuehua of Moonlight Pavilion, and the other from Ning Fengzhi of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Both letters had an ulterior motive!
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Chapter 89: A Ton of Pills
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Tang Yuehua was worried about Tang Xiao's disappearance.
Her standing in the Heaven Dou Empire was backed by Xue Ye. The main reason he was willing to help her was the Clear Sky Sect behind her.
But her position in the Clear Sky Sect depended entirely on her big brother, the sect master, Tang Xiao.
Now that Tang Xiao had gone missing, the elders had contacted Tang Yuehua. They weren't her brothers. They saw her only as a ninth-level Soul Scholar with a rare Martial Soul and an intelligence operative.
Tang Yuehua's position was somewhat like Yu Xiaogang's. In fact, before she established Moonlight Pavilion, a school for training noble etiquette, her standing had been even lower than Yu Xiaogang's.
Although Yu Xiaogang's Martial Soul had undergone a harmful mutation, he could at least keep cultivating. In the end, he had reached the Soul Grandmaster rank before hitting a wall.
When Tang Yuehua awakened her Martial Soul, she had been disappointed that it wasn't the Clear Sky Hammer, but excited by her innate Soul Power of rank nine. She believed she was no worse than her brothers.
But reality soon proved her wrong. No matter how hard she trained, she couldn't break through. She would spend her whole life as a ninth-level Soul Scholar.
In a sect and clan where everyone was a Soul Master, a ninth-level Soul Scholar who could never break through was an awkward presence—especially when Tang Yuehua had two talented older brothers. To her face, everyone respected her as the sect master's daughter and the Clear Sky Twins' younger sister, but behind her back, they looked down on her too.
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