Douluo: Founding the Heavenly Court from the Holy Spirit Cult

"Boss, I think the name Toad Technique needs a change. Something like Golden Toad Divine Technique sounds much more imposing."

Xiao Hongchen strongly suggested a name change; Toad Technique sounded far too low-class.

"Are you trying to teach me how to do things?"

Yang Hao cast a sidelong glance at him. Who is the boss here, you or me?

"No, absolutely not!"

Xiao Hongchen felt helpless.

"You two may practice these two techniques, but you must never pass them on to others. Otherwise, it will be treated as betrayal of the sect, and you will be hunted down by my sect until the end of time—my Teacher might even take action himself."

Yang Hao gave a stern warning. Although he had created these techniques on a whim, they still needed to be kept secret. This was the rule, and it also served to elevate the perceived importance of the techniques.

"We will definitely keep it secret, even from Grandfather."

Meng Hongchen promised decisively, using her own grandfather as an example.

"Boss, I heard from Grandfather that you have something good here called Soul Armor."

After following up with his own promise, Xiao Hongchen brought up the existence of the Soul Armor.

His grandfather hadn't said much, but he had placed great importance on it, which proved it was definitely a good thing.

"You are the Dean's immediate family and members of the academy's reserve team, so you meet the criteria to obtain Soul Armor."

Yang Hao nodded slightly in approval, then immediately stimulated the Deep Silver Mother within his body, manifesting it into the form of Soul Armor on his skin.

Seeing the cool, stylish Soul Armor, Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen couldn't take their eyes off it, their hearts filled with intense longing.

"This is a deep-level development of rare metals. You use your body's vital energy, soul power, and spiritual power to successively infect and refine them, achieving further control.

Once the Blood Refinement is complete, the rare metal can be integrated into the body. When expanded, it can form this Soul Armor shape. You can also engrave numerous soul guidance arrays onto it to add special effects. Its potential is not a bit inferior to a Soul Bone..."

Yang Hao explained the essential mysteries of the Soul Armor and the Three Refinements Method for rare metals. Since he had brought this out for trade, he naturally intended to expand its use, limiting the number of people only in the initial stages to prevent outsiders from stealing the techniques.

The first batch of users was the current team members, and substitute team members like Xiao Hongchen were the second batch.

"Soul Armor is quite special; the rare metal chosen must be compatible with your Martial Soul. Only then can you better complete the Soul Refinement, and perhaps even fuse it with your Martial Soul in the future to form a Life-Bound Soul Armor.

Xiao, your range of choices is quite broad; you can choose according to your needs.

Little Meng, your Martial Soul has both ice and fire attributes, so it is best to choose rare metals with ice and fire attributes, such as Cold Iron—preferably Cold Heart Iron Essence—or the fire-attributed Flame Sun Iron..."

The initial defensive power of the Soul Armor mainly relies on the strength of the material; the higher the strength, the stronger the defense, which can be understood as physical resistance.

Soul guidance arrays further enhance this strength, as well as defense against energy-attribute attacks; simply put, magic resistance.

Meng Hongchen listened attentively, while inwardly thinking about checking her grandfather's small treasury once she returned.

Xiao Hongchen also set his sights on his grandfather's small treasury, which contained quite a collection of precious materials.

"Alright, that's all for today. It's getting late, you two should head back."

After drinking a cup of sweetened coffee brewed by Meng Hongchen, Yang Hao signaled that the two could leave.

"Didn't Grandfather tell you? This villa will be our team's collective dormitory from now on, and you are the captain of our reserve team."

Meng Hongchen blinked her eyes, indicating that she would be living here from now on.

In her heart, she couldn't help but feel a bit shy, mainly due to her grandfather's previous words.

"Ah?"

Yang Hao was stunned. Wasn't this villa his private property?

"Living together like this makes it easier to coordinate as a team and improve our tacit understanding."

Xiao Hongchen claimed it was all for the victory of the team and the academy, while inwardly sneering.

Once my sister captures you, you'll have to call me brother-in-law. Then I'll let you know who the real boss is.

He was very satisfied with this prospective brother-in-law; he was powerful and had terrifying potential, making him worthy of his sister.

"I see!"

Yang Hao was unaware of his subordinate's sinister thoughts and agreed with that reasoning.

Tacit cooperation within a team is indeed very important. In the soul master tournament ten thousand years ago, the Martial Soul Hall team was defeated by the Shrek team precisely because they lacked sufficient tacit cooperation, allowing the weaker side to overcome the stronger.

With that lesson from the past, he naturally had to be steady.

One must refer to the experience of winners, but the experience of losers must also be taken seriously to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

"Now that our substitute team has me as captain, plus the two of you, that makes three. We still need four more, preferably those with powerful Martial Souls."

Yang Hao pondered the selection of team members. Those in the original work were too poor; he needed to build a perfect team.

Hmm, Tang Ya should be fine, though she would need some time to be trained.

Three more to go.

"By the way, I wonder if there are any suitable talents over at the Holy Spirit Cult."

His thoughts quickly shifted to the Holy Spirit Cult. Yang Hao needed a true confidant to join the team to assist him in monitoring every single member.

"Here is the list of age-appropriate personnel from the academy; some of them are quite promising."

Xiao Hongchen produced a file folder. He had been planning to form a battle team for some time, after all, his previous positioning had always been that of a team leader.

Yang Hao took the file and flipped through it carefully. The number of candidates was not large, only twenty-two, all of whom were the elite of the elite. Among these twenty-two, he spotted a name and Martial Soul that he found somewhat familiar.

"Nana, Ghost Martial Soul."

He fell into deep thought. He remembered this person seemed to have some connection to their Holy Spirit Cult; her parents' souls had been harvested by members of the Holy Spirit Cult, and she had eventually defected to the Tang Sect, leaking intelligence about the Holy Spirit Cult to Huo Yuhao.

Moreover, this woman seemed quite talented and could be cultivated, though he would have to get his hands on her parents' souls first.

That still left two spots remaining.

Just as Yang Hao was fretting over the final two slots, someone delivered a teammate to him—brought personally by Crown Prince Xu Tianran.

Xu Tianran had walked here on his own this time; he was already able to control his prosthetic legs to walk, and following behind him was a lively young girl who kept glancing around.

"Luo Feng, this is my younger sister, Tian Zhen. Her natural talent is quite excellent."

Xu Tianran hoped to arrange for his sister to join, and ideally, to play matchmaker as well.

Jing Hongchen had already reported to him that this person had awakened an Ultimate Fire Domain. Possessing the Ultimate Fire attribute and having formed a domain, his potential could not be underestimated; becoming a Super Douluo was inevitable.

Furthermore, the Ultimate Fire was crucial for their imperial family's Sun Martial Soul. The Sun Martial Soul itself was close to the Ultimate Fire, but it was only close—it was not the real thing.

If he could use this person's Ultimate Fire power to push his sister's Martial Soul Evolution and help her acquire the Ultimate Fire attribute, it would be perfect.

This was not just for his sister's sake, but for his own as well.

Tian Zhen was his own biological sister. If Tian Zhen became powerful, it would provide excellent support for the stability of his own position, which was why he had brought her personally this time.

"Your Highness, if she misbehaves, am I allowed to beat her?"

Staring at the lively young girl, Yang Hao suddenly asked a bizarre question.

She looked like a restless soul, and he had no mood to play the role of a personal nanny.

These words left everyone present stunned, and Xu Tian Zhen was even more bewildered.

"You want to beat me?"

"How dare you!"

The young girl was incensed; this was the first time in her life anyone had dared to say they would beat her.

"During the process of cultivation, sparring is acceptable, but it is best not to cause any obvious external injuries, otherwise it will be difficult for Gu to explain it to the Emperor."

Xu Tianran's face twitched, and he ultimately limited the scope to sparring during cultivation.

Minor injuries and pains were inevitable in real combat sparring, and it was indeed necessary to find someone to grind down this girl's temperament; she had been spoiled rotten by the Emperor.

"I'll spar with you right now!"

Xu Tian Zhen glared at him, puffed up with anger, and wanted to duel him on the spot.

"Ah!"

"Why can't I move my body?"

Just as she was preparing to manifest her Martial Soul, she suddenly discovered that her soul power was blocked, her body was paralyzed, and there were stinging sensations in several places.

Standing to the side, Xu Tianran saw the hundreds of slender silver needles stuck into his sister and understood that she had already lost.

"Now you know that there is always someone better, and there is always a heaven beyond the heaven."

Tapping his sister on the forehead, Xu Tianran was quite satisfied with this result; it was necessary to find someone to cure this girl's lawless nature.

"Luo Feng, I leave Tian Zhen to you."

Having entrusted his sister to the youth, Xu Tianran took his leave.

He was very busy during this period, having to assist the Emperor in handling government affairs, leading the project on the Rare Metal Three Refinements Method, and simultaneously dealing with the small schemes his brothers were hatching now that he had regained the use of his legs.

He had squeezed this visit in during a very busy schedule and could not stay for long.

"Alright, now our reserve team has four members. We only need to find three more to be complete."

Surveying the still-pouting girl, Yang Hao was reasonably satisfied. This girl, if nothing else, had truly excellent Martial Soul talent, definitely no worse than Ma Xiaotao.

Of course, this girl would require long-term discipline; after all, she was a restless one.

"Aren't you going to release the Princess?"

Ju Zi, who had remained behind, offered a reminder. Princess Tian Zhen's body was still pinned by those silver needles.

"What Princess? In our team, there are no princesses, only teammates whose backs you can entrust to one another."

Yang Hao emphasized that in his team, there was only the identity of a teammate.

"I will release her when she forgets that she is a princess."

Ju Zi understood; she realized that he intended to use this to give Princess Tian Zhen a show of force.

This was indeed necessary, otherwise, given that princess's temperament, it would be difficult to get along with her in the future.