"I understand, Dean!"
Dai Mubai snapped to attention and immediately led the other five away from the Soul Fighting Arena. Though they were curious, they managed to hold back.
Something big had just happened here.
From their perspective, the big events were simply that an outsider Soul Master had fought Dean Flender and something strange had happened in the Soul Fighting Arena. But Zhu Zhuqing's instincts told her there was more to it than that.
For instance, why had the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect appeared here at this moment?
Only the three members of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and Flender remained near the Soul Fighting Arena.
"Rongrong... are you going to tell her, Fengzhi?"
Gu Rong looked at Ning Rongrong again, hesitating.
Ning Fengzhi patted the mechanical girl on the shoulder and sighed, looking quite helpless.
"We have no choice but to tell her, don't we? She's been caught up in Evil Soul Master incidents twice now. I don't know what our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect did to deserve this."
"Twice?"
Flender was surprised. He knew this was an Evil Soul Master incident, but he hadn't known there had been another one before. After all, he was only a small academy dean, with no ties to Spirit Hall, the Upper Three Sects, or either of the two empires. His understanding of Evil Soul Masters was still rooted in the theories from the era when the Holy God had just fallen silent. Back then, Evil Soul Masters were only a concept, a general term for people with evil Martial Souls and evil behavior. The Holy Spirit Cult had yet to rise... In fact, even now, the Holy Spirit Cult still felt unfamiliar to him.
"That's right. One of the reasons that girl Rongrong ran away from home and came to your Shrek Academy was an Evil Soul Master incident about a week ago—the incident near the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect."
Ning Fengzhi looked at Flender, his expression grave.
"That time, there was a White Mist Barrier too, and someone outside had stopped others from approaching the White Mist Space. And that time, it was a Titled Douluo, though the old Sword guy cut him down... Thinking back on it now, perhaps that was a clone too."
Gu Rong added as he walked around every corner of the Soul Fighting Arena.
"But I'm curious. A ritual was being held inside the White Mist Space that time, while this time there was nothing inside. Why did this man, who called himself the Seventh Elder of the Holy Spirit Sect, come to stop us?"
"There could be many reasons. Destroying the body and erasing the evidence, or hunting down Ning Rongrong, for example. Either could explain it."
Flender rested his chin on his hand.
"That monster was obviously made by those people from the Holy Spirit Cult, wasn't it? Those bastards actually used people for experiments. What do they think life is?"
"Or, looking at it from a broader perspective, perhaps Ning Rongrong really was in danger on the Soul Fighting Arena by accident."
"Fengzhi?"
"Uncle Bone, do you remember why we came here? After the last Evil Soul Master incident, I thought it over and still couldn't put my mind at ease. What if they were targeting Rongrong? So I started investigating..."
Ning Fengzhi clenched his fists.
"Then I traced it to Suotuo City. By chance, I learned about a ritual in the city. Unfortunately, we only found out that it was somewhere inside Suotuo City. We didn't know the details or its location. So Uncle Bone and I decided to investigate in person."
"And what did you find?"
Ning Fengzhi shook his head. "We searched all of Suotuo City and couldn't find where the ritual was being held. We only found out that someone at this Great Soul Arena might be closely connected to it, so we started watching the matches. I never expected that on the very first day, we'd see Shrek Academy here too!"
He was still smiling, but the veins on his forehead were faintly visible.
"Haha, I just wanted the kids to get used to fighting early."
Flender scratched his head awkwardly.
"It's fine. I'm not angry," Ning Fengzhi said calmly. "Ning Rongrong must have asked to compete herself, right?"
"That's right. This morning, she went to the Star Dou Great Forest and hunted a three-thousand-year-old Man Faced Demon Spider. I thought she was strong enough to compete. I hadn't planned to let her take part, but it was Ning Rongrong's own decision."
"A three-thousand-year-old Man Faced Demon Spider... Fengzhi, if I remember correctly, three thousand years exceeds the limit for a third Soul Ring, doesn't it?"
"That doesn't matter. It just means the theory was wrong. Rongrong was right. And since Rongrong was able to deal with that monster, her Martial Soul may have changed somehow. None of that matters. Anyway, this contestant should be connected to the ritual. What a coincidence."
"Let's make a bold assumption. If things had gone according to the original plan, the opponent—Liu Jiayi—was one of the experimental subjects in the Evil Soul Master ritual and should have grown powerful with their help. But today, when he faced Ning Rongrong, her strength provoked him and turned him into a monster, which also alerted the Evil Soul Masters, so they showed up... That means the ritual isn't complete yet. We still have time to stop it!"
Ning Fengzhi grew more and more excited as he spoke.
"Um, let me interrupt. I understand that this Evil Soul Master ritual must be something bad, but what would happen if it took place?"
Looking at Flender's confusion, Ning Fengzhi calmed down and said:
"I don't know the specifics either. I only know that we must prevent the ritual from happening—that's what Spirit Hall said. The Holy Spirit Cult's rituals have been recorded three times so far, and all were called Saintess Rituals.
"The details of the first ritual were kept strictly confidential by Spirit Hall. They say it succeeded, and that Spirit Hall and the Heaven Dou Empire suffered heavy losses, but we don't know exactly what happened.
"The second ritual was about a week ago, near the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. That Saintess Ritual failed because of Ning Rongrong. We found a Saintess candidate, who is now at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. She's a kindhearted girl with an Evil Martial Soul. She told us that the purpose of the Saintess Ritual was to cultivate a Saintess, communicate with the Holy God, and bring the Holy God back.
"The third ritual is supposed to happen in Suotuo City sometime in the next few days. That's all we know."
"Can I understand it as the ritual being meant to bring the Holy God back and achieve the goal of ruling the world?"
Flender was still completely confused, but he managed to sum it up.
Ning Fengzhi considered it, then nodded. "Yes, more or less."
"The Third Saintess Ritual... Suotuo City..."
A quiet female voice suddenly spoke. It was Ning Rongrong. She suddenly moved and went over to the clone lying dead on the ground.
"Shouldn't you check what he has on him?"
Ning Rongrong questioned them.
"What he has on him..."
The three of them slapped their foreheads. They really had been so focused on saving Ning Rongrong that they hadn't checked what the clone had on him.
Ning Rongrong searched him and, to her great disappointment, pulled out a slip of paper.
It was the only thing on him.
At first glance, she thought there was writing on it. But when she looked closely, she saw nothing at all.
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