Time Flies

"Wind!"

"Fire!"

"Thunder!"

"Water!"

On the open ground before Qin Chuan, wind fed the flames, and water carried thunder and lightning within it.

Ever since absorbing the Silver Dragon King's claw that day, after these past days of excavating this External Soul Bone, Qin Chuan's control over the elements had grown increasingly effortless.

"Fall!"

Two attacks struck out, and the rock before him instantly shattered and crumbled.

Soon, the one-month vacation passed in the blink of an eye.

The development of Martial Soul Hall's Soul Tools had fully entered the right track. With Thunder Nether Douluo, a ninth-rank Soul Tool Master, overseeing the teaching, he had indeed unearthed quite a few talents skilled in Soul Tool crafting.

This time, the group of four returning to the main world—the Peerless Tang Sect era ten thousand years later—had grown by two: Yue Guan and Ghost, commonly known as the Haha and Heng Duo, Bibi Dong's trusted confidants.

After Qin Chuan spent ten thousand Snow Hatred Value to exchange for two Sky-Covering Cloud Jades and handed them over, he left the current world under Qian Daoliu's watchful gaze.

Academy life was always dull and tedious, far less exciting than Bibi Dong's trio roaming outside.

Ever since the recent Evil Soul Master incident, the Douluo Continent had been peaceful for a while.

But good times never lasted long. Bibi Dong was about to stir up trouble again, and she had brought two helpers along.

This time, she no longer disguised herself as the Holy Spirit Cult. Her main goal: plundering rare metals.

Ghost's martial soul was very special, not easily detected. Bibi Dong and Yue Guan were responsible for drawing the enemy's attention, while Ghost infiltrated the target points to collect the rare metals.

This tactic worked time and again. The three empires' stockpiles of rare metals were already scarce, especially with the pressure from the Sun Moon Empire at the Mingdou Mountains front line.

After Bibi Dong's antics, the three empires found themselves even more exhausted trying to cope.

On one hand, they secretly relocated rare metals; on the other, the three empires joined forces to hunt down the metal thieves.

Yet after a whole year, not only had they failed to catch the metal thieves, but their own rare metal reserves were running dangerously low. This situation caused the value of rare metals within their borders to skyrocket several times over.

Just as the three empires were at their wits' end over this, a kind-hearted person stepped forward. He voluntarily offered rare metals to the three empires at twice the price before the price hike, and the quantity was enormous.

At first, the three empires suspected he was stealing their own rare metals and then selling them back. But with rare metals in short supply everywhere, and their Soul Tools already inferior to the Sun Moon Empire's, they would surely be annihilated if this continued.

Though their hearts bled, and they wished nothing more than to tear the metal thieves limb from limb, with domestic supplies about to run dry, they had no choice but to accept the offer.

Bibi Dong sold Heaven Dou Empire's rare metals to Star Luo, Star Luo's to Dou Ling, and Dou Ling's to Heavenly Soul.

The three empires secretly investigated, and only after confirming that the metals weren't their own did they breathe a sigh of relief. The next day, they decisively increased their purchases.

After a long stretch of time, Bibi Dong felt it was about time to reel in the net.

The next day, the three empires' representatives went to allocate the rare metals, only to find that the mountains of rare metals had been stolen clean again.

And a note was left at the scene.

"Idiots. Falling for this twice."

This enraged the three empires beyond measure. Not only had their years of stored rare metals been stolen clean, but the money used to buy the metals had come from the national treasury. Worse still... they had been played for fools from start to finish.

Even more critically, the Sun Moon Empire took the opportunity to jack up the value of rare metals, causing a shortage across the Douluo Continent. Even Shrek Academy's Soul Tool Department was nearly out of rare metals.

With no other choice, the three empires formed exploration teams. Fortunately, they discovered quite a few rare metal storage mines, barely managing to weather the crisis.

"Got it all down?"

"Your Holiness the Pope, I've recorded the locations of all those rare metal mines."

"Good. Another year has passed. Let's go—back to the Sun Moon Empire to meet up with Xiao Chuan and the others."

Returning to Martial Soul Hall after a year, it had already undergone a massive transformation.

The ground was laid with crisscrossing Soul Tool rail lines, each stop reaching a designated location. Even Martial Soul City's scale had more than tripled compared to before, with more and more buildings rising from the ground.

The existence of Soul Tools quickly caught the attention of the Heavenly Dou and Star Luo empires. But in their eyes, these were mere tricks and gimmicks; Soul Masters placed greater emphasis on their own cultivation.

This year, Qin Chuan turned eight. His soul power broke through to Soul Elder, and he obtained his third soul ring—a ten-thousand-five-hundred-year black soul ring exchanged from the system. He had also grown into a quasi-fifth-rank Soul Tool Master.

A month passed quickly, and a new year of academy life began.

This year, Bibi Dong stepped up her troublemaking. Qin Chuan had to exchange a full twenty Sky-Covering Cloud Jades for it.

Two years ago, she disguised herself as the Holy Spirit Cult and went on a killing spree. Last year, she posed as a rare metal bandit, inflicting heavy losses on the three empires.

Bibi Dong planned to go even bigger. She orchestrated an unprecedented plundering of the three empires' newly mined rare metal mines.

By the time the three empires' reinforcements arrived, the mines were empty of metal, deserted, and in utter chaos.

At the critical moment, Bibi Dong stepped forward again, annihilating the invading enemies with unstoppable force.

When the three empires arrived, Bibi Dong was standing atop some underworld strongmen she had subdued, cutting off their heads, delivering a fearsome deterrence to the entire continent.

From then on, no one dared to steal from the three empires' metal mines again.

This act not only won Bibi Dong praise and acclaim from the three empires, but also led to the establishment of the "Soul Hall" organization in Shrek City.

Bibi Dong took on the role of Soul Hall's master, and under the watchful eyes of Shrek Academy's high-ranking officials and the three empires, she swore an oath: for the rest of her life, she would make combating Evil Soul Masters her lifelong goal, bringing complete peace to the Douluo Continent.

The impassioned speech moved everyone present, and Bibi Dong's "Soul Hall" instantly became a top-tier force on Douluo Continent.

When word of this reached the Sun Moon Empire, Holy Spirit Cult leader Zhong Liwu completely lost his composure, cursing at the empty air.

"What a fine case of the thief crying 'stop thief'! This Soul Hall has quite the appetite!"

"Damn it! In the first year, they disguised themselves as my Holy Spirit Cult disciples and went on a killing spree, pinning the blame on my sect. I didn't even hold it against them—I sent Sleep Nightmare Douluo to offer them surrender terms. And what happens? Sleep Nightmare Douluo gets beaten to death."

"Now your Soul Hall dares to raise the banner of purging Evil Soul Masters, while who knows what filthy deeds you're doing behind the scenes. I have every reason to suspect that the ones who disguised themselves as Holy Spirit Cult and massacred people back then were none other than your Soul Hall."

"Fine! Since you have the nerve to do this, let's see who destroys whom first!"

As it turned out, the establishment of the Soul Hall had a significant positive effect on the peace and stability of Douluo Continent.

Three years passed, and Douluo Continent remained calm and tranquil—a stark contrast to the turbulent situation of the previous two years. All of this was thanks to the founding of the Soul Hall.

What no one realized, however, was that the continent hadn't truly become peaceful. Rather, the real culprit had successfully restructured and taken their company public.