Faced with such a formal invitation, Zhu Zhuqing fell silent.
She was the daughter of the head of the Zhu Clan in the Star Luo Empire, and her mind had already been filled with ingrained notions.
Her impression of Spirit Hall wasn't a good one. Although the other party had made it sound wonderful, for some reason she still felt some resistance.
Seeing her hesitation and inner conflict, Lin Chuan explained:
"Seeing is believing; hearing is hearsay."
"The tension between factions, even their becoming enemies, is simply the result of their differing positions."
"If Spirit Hall were truly as evil as could be, the people of the world wouldn't live in peace. Spirit Hall officials wouldn't appear in villages to awaken children's martial souls for free, and Spirit City wouldn't exist to maintain the peace between the two empires."
Spirit Hall had been founded with the aim of preserving peace.
Otherwise, a power as massive as this would have seized the opportunity to join in when the Heaven Dou Empire was being battered by the Star Luo Empire.
Instead, it had helped the Heaven Dou Empire negotiate a peace agreement with the Star Luo Empire.
And in the future, most of Bibi Dong's reasons for launching a campaign to unify the continent would be for her own sake.
Beyond that, there was the simple fact that only unification could bring development and progress to this continent, allowing it to achieve a peace better than the one it had now.
Had the continent been unified sooner, Soul Guidance Technology might already have been close to fully developed.
"Fine. I'll join!"
Zhu Zhuqing's cool, distant voice carried clearly to everyone's ears.
Then she walked toward Lin Chuan.
Watching her walk away toward another man, Dai Mubai's eyes turned bloodshot. He panted like a bull, Soul Power surging through his body.
"Bastard!"
Flender's expression turned utterly grim as he released the pressure of a Spirit Saint without restraint.
"You're poaching my student right in front of me. Do you think I don't exist?!"
Lin Chuan didn't react at all. He looked at Flender as if he were a dead man, spitting out his resentment in his final moments.
Just like a powerless husband.
"You think far too highly of yourself. You really believe being a Spirit Saint makes you invincible?"
Lin Chuan was still pleased to have recruited another genius with Innate Soul Power at level seven or eight into Spirit Hall.
With the first matter settled, Lin Chuan waited a little longer.
After a long silence, he still couldn't sense the slightest sign of anything.
No matter how patient Tang Hao was, he should have erupted in fury as soon as he heard that Lin Chuan was the Holy Son of Spirit Hall. There should have been some fluctuation in his spiritual power.
Lin Chuan had already prepared for that.
He'd been ready to use the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone Skill to escape at any moment. But in the end, not even a peep.
That meant Tang Hao wasn't here!
With his final test over, Lin Chuan stopped holding back.
His formidable spiritual power erupted. The pressure of a Soul Douluo's spiritual power began to push back against his opponent's.
The other party's Soul Power pressure hit an invisible wall of solid copper and iron, unable to advance even an inch.
Once Zhu Zhuqing had safely reached his side, Lin Chuan looked her in the eye for the first time.
The determination and unwillingness in her eyes burned so fiercely.
Perhaps he was a good person, too, but the title didn't matter much to him.
"Go wait in the back. I still have a second matter to deal with."
Zhu Zhuqing obediently nodded and walked outside, only stopping after she'd gone quite a distance.
She didn't know why she was being so well-behaved, like a soldier who'd been trained for years, drilled to perfection, and taught to follow orders and obey her superior without question.
Perhaps that first glance had made her feel a certain obedience toward the true genius standing before her.
She knew Flender was a Spirit Saint, yet the boy had easily resisted his pressure.
That young man was only fifteen or sixteen, and he was already this strong.
Standing on the road by the courtyard gate, far from the training grounds, Zhu Zhuqing stared at the black-clad youth in the center of the field. For no particular reason, she engraved his image in her heart.
"The second matter is...
"As the Holy Son of Spirit Hall, I'm here to apprehend Tang San and Xiao Wu."
"I hope you'll hand over Tang San and Xiao Wu peacefully. Anyone who doesn't want to get involved can leave now."
As he finished speaking, a chill spread from Lin Chuan.
Feeling the imposing aura rise from Lin Chuan, Flender's heart shuddered. He felt the pressure mount.
A... Spirit Saint?!
No, there was also the pressure of a Soul Douluo!
Flender fixed his eyes on Lin Chuan from behind his black-rimmed glasses. It was the first time in years that he'd looked at anyone so seriously.
As if he were looking at a monster, an unprecedented freak!
Could he be some old monster wearing a human-skin disguise?
But the sound of his voice and the vitality in his body didn't add up!
Flender tried hard to make sense of it, but no matter how he looked at him, Lin Chuan didn't seem like some old monster who'd lived for forty or fifty years.
He had the vitality of a young body, not the deathly air of an old fossil. Instead, it was his composed demeanor that made him seem so mature for his age.
"Young friend, you're certainly an impressive talent. At such a young age, you've already reached the same level as this old man."
How could the shrewd Flender do something foolish? Even when facing a Spirit Saint, he'd have to weigh his options.
And this opponent had introduced himself as the Holy Son!
At first, Flender hadn't believed it, since Spirit Hall had never held any so-called "Holy Son Investiture Ceremony."
But he didn't doubt that Spirit Hall might be hiding someone, secretly nurturing a peerless genius.
Seeing Lin Chuan's strength only made that possibility far more likely.
That was Spirit Hall, after all!
And what sort of status did the Holy Son hold?
Saying he was second to one and above ten thousand would hardly do him justice. He could one day inherit Spirit Hall!
But Flender couldn't afford to gamble on any of that. One careless mistake, and he'd be standing on the edge of an abyss.
"However... may I ask what Tang San and Xiao Wu have done?"
"After all, Tang San is the disciple of a friend of mine. I need to know what this is about."
Lin Chuan waved a hand, his expression indifferent.
"Tang San is innocent. He can get lost. Xiao Wu, will you come with me?"
He knew Tang San still had another opportunity waiting for him.
He wouldn't kill Tang San for now. Once Tang San reached level thirty, Lin Chuan could follow him and start searching near the Star Dou Forest.
He only needed to be certain of the timing.
As for whether Tang San would actually encounter a Man Faced Demon Spider, that was hard to say.
A situation shaped by something like fate wasn't something he could calculate.
He dared to come because, first, he wasn't afraid of losing the opportunity, and second, Tang San wasn't the only one who could claim it.
If one really wanted to talk about how fate was distributed, that piece of External Soul Bone from the Man Faced Demon Spider had originally belonged to Meng Yiran.
It was only because of the collision of their fates that Tang San, whose fate was stronger, devoured hers.
Fate wasn't assigned by force. It was an investment—an investment in all things.
Geniuses who stood out from the crowd would receive that investment. It was like a novel getting pushed to readers: the stronger its momentum, the more traffic the platform would give it. The more people read it, the more money the novel itself would bring in.
Of course, that was only Lin Chuan's guess.
Generally speaking, fate wasn't bound to anyone.
If it really were bound, he wouldn't have been able to claim the opportunities from the original story.
Perhaps those opportunities carried fate of their own. Once he took them, the world would naturally take notice of him, and it might invest even more in him.
Envy Huo Gua, understand Huo Gua, become Huo Gua, and finally... surpass Huo Gua!
To claim even more of the opportunities he remembered and grow stronger, Lin Chuan wasn't about to give up Xiao Wu, this hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring, now.
Once he finished absorbing the Spirit Ring, he could ask his master to keep an eye on Meng Yiran from the shadows.
He'd use her breakthrough timing to raid the place and snatch the opportunity. If he couldn't find anything, he'd run off to the Far North.
The Far North was a wonderful place. Tian Meng was a wonderful opportunity!