A month had passed.
Over the past month, the entire Soul Master World of the Douluo Continent had felt like it was watching the drama of the year.
The stars of the show were Mingde Hall of the Sun Moon Empire and the Body Sect, which had entrenched itself in the western reaches of the Star Luo Empire.
In the name of Hall Master Jing Hongchen, Mingde Hall issued an extremely stern statement to the entire continent.
In it, they condemned the Body Sect as despicable and shameless, accusing them of taking advantage of the chaos to launch a brazen attack on a research sanctuary representing the future of human Soul Guidance Technology, and of stealing the empire's most closely guarded secret, the result of countless years of painstaking effort.
From that moment on, Mingde Hall designated the Body Sect as its highest-level enemy, vowing to fight them to the death.
The Body Sect's response, however, left everyone dumbfounded.
They flatly denied it.
Their sect master, Du Busi, even came forward in person to proclaim their innocence to the entire continent.
He claimed that they had indeed gone to Mingde Hall, but they hadn't taken anything at all. The so-called "imperial secret" had been a hoax from beginning to end!
Mingde Hall had staged the whole thing and framed them!
For a time, both sides stuck to their stories, unleashing a storm of insults across the continent.
But hardly anyone believed the Body Sect.
After all, everyone had seen it with their own eyes: that Soul Douluo had shouted, "Sect Master, I got it!"
And it was precisely this "irrefutable evidence" that had kept Jing Hongchen from investigating Mingde Hall's own ranks too thoroughly.
After all, the thief had practically confessed on the spot. Naturally, he had directed all his