"Yeah, this big brother is pretty great. Other than flaunting his relationship in front of us, everything else is perfect." Every time Yang Tian saw Nan Xuan and Bibi Dong being all lovey-dovey in front of them, he felt twice as hurt.
That was right. Nan Xuan and Bibi Dong had confirmed their relationship when they were eleven. This world really was open-minded.
"They already told you: if you've got the ability, go find one yourself. Otherwise, endure it on your own." Yang Fei held his forehead as he looked at his younger brother, speechless.
Yang Tian said nothing. He had absolutely nothing left to say.
"Hey, you two are here too? Going to find Nan Xuan? No need. He and Bibi Dong already went to Momo Treasure Appraisal House. Let's head over too." The moment Chen Gao stepped outside and saw the Yang brothers, he guessed their intentions.
"Eh? Then why didn't you go?" Yang Tian deliberately asked.
"Wasn't I waiting for you guys?" With a lollipop in his mouth and both hands resting behind his head, Chen Gao answered with a grin.
Yang Tian wore an expression that clearly said he would believe that only if he were a ghost.
"What, you don't believe me? Then next time I go out, I won't bring you any local specialties." Seeing Yang Tian's expression, Chen Gao bit down and shattered the lollipop in his mouth, speaking with a meaningful look.
"Hey, don't do that, Brother Chen. You know that's my only hobby. You can't cut me off." Yang Tian looked miserably at Chen Gao, practically ready to kneel.
"Let's go. We need to discuss getting our Soul Rings with Nan Xuan." Yang Fei shook his head at the two of them.
"Yeah. We reached level thirty yesterday, and we've stabilized it today. We should hurry up and get our Soul Rings. Running around alone is exhausting."
On the road to Momo Treasure Appraisal House, two figures cast long shadows beneath the lingering glow of dusk.
"Xuan, are you planning to stay in Spirit City forever?" Bibi Dong leaned against Nan Xuan's shoulder and asked softly.
"That depends on what you choose, Dong'er. I'm all alone—well, now I have you—so it depends on you." Nan Xuan stroked Bibi Dong's head fondly.
Although Nan Xuan said that, he could already sense the ambition Bibi Dong had revealed. She was a strong-willed girl. While she could lean into his arms now, that was because she loved him and held him in her heart. But that could not stop the seeds of ambition from sprouting within her.
"Alright, my Dong'er. Stop overthinking it. Whatever you do, I'll support you. I told you before: you can become Pope, and I'll just be the man behind the Pope." Nan Xuan wore a lecherous grin.
"Tch, look at you showing off. You'd better cultivate properly too, or be careful—I might dump you someday." Bibi Dong waved her fist and glared fiercely at Nan Xuan.
"Got it, Dong'er. The venture I'm going to build will begin soon. Just wait, I'll definitely leave you stunned." Thinking of his third soul skill, Nan Xuan grew happier and happier.
Because his era was not far away. Even the Haotian Twin Stars, who already had some small fame, would eventually be beneath his feet.
"Tch, you won't tell me again. So stingy." Bibi Dong knew Nan Xuan's ambitions were no smaller than hers, but he only wanted to fulfill them from behind the scenes. Even the people who came to appraise treasures only knew Chen Gao, the assistant manager, and had no idea what Nan Xuan, the manager, looked like.
"I told you, I'm going to be the man behind you. Of course I can't tell you now. I'll surprise you later." Nan Xuan hoisted Bibi Dong onto his back and ran toward Momo Treasure Appraisal House.
Bibi Dong was not angry on Nan Xuan's back. Instead, she felt secretly delighted.
Feeling the soft little bumps on his back constantly rubbing against him, Nan Xuan's running motions grew wider and wider.
Night fell.
After Nan Xuan escorted Bibi Dong home, Chen Gao and the others arrived.
"Brother Xuan," they called.
"Mm, sit. We've been friends for six years already, so why be polite?" Nan Xuan said casually.
The group did not waste more words. Getting straight to the point, they said, "Brother Xuan, we want to obtain our Third Soul Rings tomorrow, so we came to ask for your advice."
"That works. Your First and Second Soul Skills respectively increase your own speed and the piercing power of your martial souls. For your third soul skill, I suggest obtaining one that improves armor-breaking power. Combined with your Second Soul Skill, your attacks will become much more powerful. Later, you should get a differentiation-type Soul Skill, allowing your Silver Needles to turn from one into many. That might be Ten Thousand Needles Return to Origin." Nan Xuan searched the martial souls and Soul Skills of forty percent of the people nearby and reached this conclusion.
"The key is that every one of your Soul Skills can form a fused-ring Soul Skill. That's your secret weapon. As for the soul beast for your third soul skill, I suggest a Desolate Breaking Bull around 1,700 years old." Looking at the twin brothers, Nan Xuan sometimes truly envied them. Still, he had no desire for either a younger or older brother.
"Then we'll do as Brother Xuan says. We trust that big data thing you mentioned. After all, Chen Gao is the best example." Yang Fei smiled as he looked at Chen Gao, who was drinking a beverage.
"Pfft. So I'm just the pathfinder for you two brothers?" Chen Gao said helplessly.
"Hey, don't put it like that. You should trust Brother Xuan's Soul Skills." Yang Fei would never admit what he had just meant.
Nan Xuan did not join their conversation. Instead, he thought about the paths he and Chen Gao's group would take in the future.
After fooling around for a while, they saw Nan Xuan deep in thought. Taking the hint, they returned to their rooms to begin cultivating.
They knew that most of what they had now had been given by Nan Xuan. Other than having a little talent, they truly had nothing. If they did not cultivate diligently, they would be unable to help Nan Xuan in the future.
Nan Xuan sat at the table, recording his Soul Rings and Soul Skills with a pen.
"My First Soul Ring skill is Network Interconnection, obtained from a 430-year-old Ice Silkworm. It radiates outward from me, connecting with or interlinking other people's spirits to detect information. It consumes no Soul Power and little spiritual power, so it can remain active for long periods."
"My Second Soul Ring skill is Data Coverage, obtained from an 800-year-old Blue Silver Grass. Using the tenacious Blue Silver Grass as a medium, it senses the surroundings, attaches spiritual power to it, expands the range of Network Interconnection, and uses the Blue Silver Grass to establish spiritual nodes."
Naturally, this Blue Silver Grass had been cultivated by Nan Xuan after being nourished with Soul Power and spiritual power. He had begun cultivating and reproducing it from the moment he gained his Second Soul Skill, and now the entire Spirit City was covered by his spiritual network.
"My Third Soul Ring skill is Network Space, obtained from a 2,000-year-old Spatial Meow Beast. Using the spiritual nodes established by Blue Silver Grass and the information extracted through Network Interconnection, it uses the digitization properties of my martial soul and the spatial attribute of my third soul skill to create a Network Space—or, in other words, a Network World."
As Nan Xuan wrote, he explained why the age of his Soul Rings always exceeded the maximum limit in Yu Xiaogang's original theory.
The soul beasts for his first two Soul Rings had been too weak, and his martial soul possessed the trait of Spirit Amplification. Thus, he had absorbed slightly higher-year Soul Rings for the first two, strengthening his physique a little. That allowed him to absorb slightly higher-year Soul Rings for his Third Soul Ring and even future ones.
"Ah, who would've thought that I, Nan Xuan, worked in electromechanics in my previous life, yet could become a scholar in another world? Life truly is unpredictable." Nan Xuan stretched and laughed wistfully.
"Next, let's look at Chen Gao's Soul Ring and Soul Skill arrangements. His Soul-Eater Spear is a combination of his father's Soul-Breaking Spear from the Breaking Clan and his mother's Soul-Eater Staff. But when this guy was born and awakened his Soul Power, he didn't have an innate Soul Ring. His father left without even testing his Soul Power, and he was raised by his mother."
"Damn it, with this martial soul and this background, I thought he was the protagonist."
Nan Xuan shook his head and mocked himself.
"I'll use the Breaking Clan's arrangements as reference, and incidentally have the Yang brothers imitate that clan's route as well. But Yang Fei and Yang Tian's martial souls are too small, so they'll follow the agility-attack path. As for Chen Gao, he'll follow the Soul-Breaking Spear route at first, then later combine it with the strongest move of the Soul-Eater martial soul. He'll be absolutely unbeatable in one-on-one fights." Looking at this information, Nan Xuan became more and more envious of Chen Gao. Under his arrangements, those two brothers definitely would not fare badly either.
"I'm the only one who has to explore step by step. Why hadn't anyone before me awakened a router as their martial soul?" Nan Xuan closed his notebook, sighed emotionally, and activated his third soul skill.
"Network Space, activate."
An invisible black gleam flickered, after which a spiritual network spread across the Blue Silver Grass throughout Spirit City. Combined with the effects of his Soul Skill, a spiritual space covering the entire city took shape.
"Hehe, as long as I have Detection and Concealment, no one can discover it. As for those gods, they don't have time to bother with me right now."
"But if I want everyone to enter the Network Space, I'll still need the interconnection from my First Soul Skill. I can't let them enter yet. This world is still unstable and has no defensive measures. Anyone with higher Soul Power than mine can damage this world. If I fail to protect someone's spiritual body, this will lose its reputation. One careless mistake could even cause a backlash against me. I still need to wait."
Nan Xuan muttered to himself for a long time, his mind racing. He wanted to establish a spiritual Network World in Douluo, and there could not be even the slightest mistake. He had to proceed slowly.
Based on the traits of his martial soul, he had researched the characteristics of several later Soul Skills. By then, fleecing others would be basic procedure.
"I'll soon be entering the advanced Spirit Hall Soul Master Academy. In another three or four years, the Haotian Twin Stars will become famous across the continent. At the same time, Yu Xiaogang will begin traveling the continent, and the plot of Tang Hao's era will begin. I need to make more money and prepare to run."
Nan Xuan calculated the rough timing and direction of events. He thought that since Bibi Dong loved him now, there would be no Yu Xiaogang incident. Yet he still felt uneasy.
Even without Yu Xiaogang's entanglement, and even though only that final step remained before he and Bibi Dong truly became lovers, he did not believe their relationship could escape the notice of Qian Xunji, the current Pope of Spirit Hall.
"I just hope that guy doesn't compress the timeline too much. At the very least, he needs to wait until I absorb my Fourth Soul Ring before he starts. By then, it shouldn't be difficult to build another secret room for Secret Room Douluo." Looking at the schedule in his notebook, Nan Xuan felt for the first time that his cultivation speed was somewhat too slow.
"Ah." Nan Xuan lay back in his reclining chair, sighed, and slowly closed his eyes to rest.
Early the next morning, Nan Xuan called them all up.
"You two should go find your teacher and obtain your Soul Rings today. Be careful. Chen Gao and I will go take a look at the Stone Gambling Arena." Nan Xuan immediately assigned tasks to the three people before him.
"Mm, understood," Chen Gao and the other two answered.
Walking beside Nan Xuan, Chen Gao glanced at him and said enviously, "That face, that side profile... Even I'm jealous, and I'm a man."
Nan Xuan's face immediately darkened.
Still, he knew how good-looking he was. Smiling, he took a mask from the bracelet on his wrist. First, he was going to make money, so he did not want to reveal his identity. Second, he feared that being too handsome would bring unnecessary trouble.
Nan Xuan was currently 1.75 meters tall. His tousled black hair gave him a fresh, handsome look, while his white casual outfit highlighted his excellent physique.
"Whoa, a storage Soul Tool? Brother Xuan, when did you buy that?" Chen Gao asked in surprise as he looked at the bracelet on Nan Xuan's wrist.
"Buy it? Did you forget what we do? We appraise treasures." Nan Xuan was unsurprised by Chen Gao's reaction. After all, such items were indeed rare. He had found this one as a bargain at a stall during his previous trip.
"That's true. Next time, I'll buy a whole pile and have you take a look at them for me." Chen Gao looked toward the stalls around them, his eyes constantly darting about.
"Hurry up and stop looking. I already checked all of these—there's nothing here. You're the assistant manager of Momo Treasure Appraisal House, for goodness' sake. Can't you act a little more serious?" Nan Xuan held his face helplessly and called out to Chen Gao.
The moment Chen Gao heard there was nothing, he lost all interest. He immediately followed Nan Xuan toward the Stone Gambling Arena.
Spirit City, Southern District Stone Gambling Arena.
"Eh, that guy is here again." The instant Chen Gao entered the Stone Gambling Arena, he spotted a familiar face from last time.
"Who?" Nan Xuan asked.
Although Nan Xuan had completely grasped the information throughout Spirit City, he did not actively inspect it all every day. There was too much information, so he only searched the information database when necessary. Of course, the area he had grasped did not include Spirit Hall headquarters. He could not yet be sure they had no hidden trump cards, and as a mere Soul Elder, he did not dare act too recklessly.
"That black-haired youth over there." Chen Gao pointed toward the black-haired youth in the center of the Stone Gambling Arena, who looked to be around eighteen.
"Ning Fengzhi. I didn't expect to run into him here. So this is how the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect amassed its wealth. I have to say, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's ability is really useful." Nan Xuan looked at the youth Chen Gao had indicated and immediately knew who he was.
"You know him?" Chen Gao asked.
"No. My Soul Skill calculated it," Nan Xuan casually replied.
Chen Gao had long since stopped being surprised by such a Soul Skill.
At that moment, Ning Fengzhi in the center also noticed this pair of "Black and White Impermanence."
Of course, the one who caught his attention was the white-haired one, because he knew that person: Chen Gao, the assistant manager of Momo Treasure Appraisal House.
Seeing that Chen Gao had brought someone else with him this time, likely another treasure appraiser, the young and spirited Ning Fengzhi immediately became interested.
Nan Xuan had already noticed Ning Fengzhi's gaze and smiled at him.
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