Saintess Ritual and the Note

"Understood, Dean!"

Dai Mubai straightened up instantly and immediately led the other five away from the soul fighting arena. Even though the five of them were curious, they held back.

Something major had just happened here.

Although the "major event" from their perspective was merely the fight between that outsider soul master and Dean Flender, followed by the strange mutation on the arena, Zhuqing's intuition told her that this matter was far from simple.

For instance, why would the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect appear here at this moment?

Only the three members of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and Flender remained near the arena.

"Rongrong... do you want her to know, Fengzhi?"

Gu Rong looked at Ning Rongrong again, hesitating slightly.

Ning Fengzhi patted the mechanical-looking girl's shoulder and sighed, feeling quite helpless.

"We have no choice but to let her know, don't we? To be dragged into Evil Soul Master incidents twice in a row—I truly don't know what our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect has done to deserve this."

"Twice?"

Flender was somewhat surprised. He knew about this Evil Soul Master incident, but he was unaware of a previous one. After all, he was just a small academy dean with no ties to Martial Soul Hall, the Upper Three Sects, or the two great empires. His understanding of Evil Soul Masters remained stuck in the theories from the era when the Holy God had just gone silent. In that age, Evil Soul Masters were merely a concept, referring broadly to those with evil martial souls and evil conduct; the Holy Spirit Sect hadn't even risen to prominence yet... In truth, even now, he felt like a stranger to the Holy Spirit Sect.

"Yes, one of the reasons Rongrong ran away from home to join your Shrek Academy was the Evil Soul Master incident that occurred about a week ago—the one that took place in the vicinity of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."

Ning Fengzhi looked at Flender, his expression grave.

"That time, there was also a white fog barrier, and someone from the outside blocked others from approaching the white fog space. Furthermore, that person was a Titled Douluo, though he was slain by the old Sword... Thinking about it now, perhaps that was also a clone."

Gu Rong added, walking across every corner of the arena.

"However, I am curious. That time, a ritual was being held inside the white fog space, but this time, there was nothing inside the white fog. Why exactly did this person, who claimed to be the Seventh Elder of the Holy Spirit Sect, come to interfere?"

"There could be many reasons. Destroying evidence, covering tracks, or hunting down Ning Rongrong—any of these could be the cause."

Flender stroked his chin.

"This monster was clearly created by those people from the Holy Spirit Sect, wasn't it? Those bastards, actually using people for experiments! What do they take life for?"

"Or, if we broaden our perspective, perhaps Ning Rongrong encountering danger on the arena was truly an accident."

"Fengzhi?"

"Uncle Bone, do you remember why we came out? After the last Evil Soul Master incident, I thought about it and couldn't set my mind at ease. What if they had set their sights on Rongrong? So, I began an investigation..."

Ning Fengzhi clenched his fists.

"Then I tracked it to Suotuo City because, by a stroke of luck, I discovered the ritual in Suotuo City. Unfortunately, we only roughly determined that the ritual was within Suotuo City; we didn't know the specific circumstances or location. So, Uncle Bone and I decided to come in person to investigate."

"And the result?"

Ning Fengzhi shook his head and said, "We searched the entire Suotuo City but couldn't find the location where the ritual was being held. We only discovered that someone in this Great Soul Arena might have a significant connection to the ritual, so we started watching the matches. I just didn't expect that on the very first day—we would see Shrek Academy here too!"

Although he was still smiling, one could faintly see the veins bulging on his face.

"Haha, this is just to let the children adapt to combat in advance."

Flender scratched his head, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"It's fine, I'm not angry."

Ning Fengzhi said calmly.

"Ning Rongrong must have been the one who proposed to participate, right?"

"That is correct. She went to the Star Dou Great Forest this morning to hunt a three-thousand-year-old Man Faced Demon Spider. I personally believed she had the strength to participate in the competition. I hadn't intended for her to go up, but it was indeed Ning Rongrong's own idea."

"A three-thousand-year-old Man Faced Demon Spider... Fengzhi, I recall that three thousand years exceeds the limit for a third soul ring, doesn't it?"

"It doesn't matter; that theory was wrong. Rongrong is the one who is right. And since Rongrong could resolve this monster, it means her martial soul may have undergone some changes. None of that matters. Getting back to the point, this contestant should be the one related to the ritual; it's quite a coincidence."

"Let's make a bold assumption: following the original trajectory, the opponent... Liu Jiayi, was one of the test subjects for the Evil Soul Master ritual. He should have become very powerful with the help of the Evil Soul Master. However, today, when facing Ning Rongrong, her strength stimulated him, causing him to turn into a monster, which in turn alerted the Evil Soul Master, leading to their appearance... This means the ritual has not yet been fully completed, and we still have time to stop it!"

The more Ning Fengzhi spoke, the more agitated he became.

"Um, let me interrupt. Although I know that this Evil Soul Master's ritual must be a malevolent thing, what would be the consequences if this ritual were to occur?"

Ning Fengzhi looked at the bewildered Flender, calmed down, and said:

"I don't know the specifics, only that it is best not to let the ritual happen; that is what Martial Soul Hall says. There are three recorded instances of Holy Spirit Sect rituals, all named the Saintess Ritual.

The content of the first ritual was kept strictly confidential by Martial Soul Hall. It is said that the ritual succeeded, and Martial Soul Hall and the Heaven Dou Empire suffered heavy losses, but we do not know exactly what happened.

The second ritual was about a week ago, near the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Because of Ning Rongrong's presence, that Saintess Ritual failed, and we discovered a Saintess candidate who is now in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. She is a kind-hearted girl who possesses an evil martial soul. She revealed to us that the purpose of the Saintess Ritual is to cultivate a Saintess, communicate with the Holy God, and allow the Holy God to descend once more.

The third ritual is what will happen in Suotuo City in these next few days. That is all the information we have."

"Can I understand this as the ritual being intended to let the Holy God descend again to achieve the goal of ruling the world?"

Flender was still confused, but he summarized it with this sentence.

Ning Fengzhi thought for a moment and nodded: "Yes, that is roughly what it means."

"The third Saintess Ritual... Suotuo City..."

A clear, quiet female voice suddenly rang out. It was Ning Rongrong. She had suddenly moved and arrived beside the clone that lay dead on the ground.

"Aren't you going to check what he has on him?"

Ning Rongrong questioned skeptically.

"What could there be..."

The three of them slapped their foreheads; indeed, they had been so focused on saving Ning Rongrong that they hadn't checked the avatar for any items.

Ning Rongrong fumbled around for a moment, only to pull out a slip of paper with a look of deep disappointment.

This was the only thing on its body.

At first glance, she thought there was writing on it, but upon closer inspection, there was nothing there at all.