The high-speed train rolled along at a leisurely pace, and the distance between the two places was considerable.
Fortunately, there was the Soul Guidance High-Speed Rail. It took only a few hours to reach Shrek City.
It was a city even larger and more magnificent than Ming Capital, home to the headquarters of three super-organizations.
The place was incredibly prosperous. As soon as they entered, they could see plenty of people milling about, including no shortage of experts and prodigies.
Chen Zhou looked at the city, both familiar and strange to him, his expression barely changing.
He had lived here since childhood, always within the Qiangu Clan's residence.
Though he had always lived in Shrek City, he rarely had the chance to wander outside. Usually, he would be brought out for a look around, then told to return.
But if he didn't want to go back now, no one could make him.
Seeing Chen Zhou stop and begin picking out hairpins, the young man in black furrowed his brow.
He fell silent for a moment, but in the end, didn't stop Chen Zhou.
The hairpins were cheap, but it was obvious that most of them had been handmade.
Chen Zhou planned to pick one out for Na'er to wear in her hair.
The little girl's hair had grown long enough, and he could even comb it for her himself, then braid it.
After looking around, though, he liked several of them, probably because they were so finely made.
So he waved his hand and pointed out seven or eight in a row.
"I like all of these. I'll take them. I want every one of these."
Seeing the young man spend so freely on her wares, the old woman selling them smiled as she carefully wrapped them up.
"That'll be 250 Federal Coins."
"Okay."
Chen Zhou took the package, pulled a card from his pocket, and paid. Then he followed the young man in black toward the Qiangu Clan.
The young man in black glanced at the young master known as Qiangu Qingzhou.
When they had first set off together for Eastsea City, the other boy had still been quiet and taciturn.
Now, after a month apart, he not only treated him with near indifference but showed him no respect whatsoever.
They were both guards of the Qiangu Clan, and most of them had the strength of a Soul Ancestor or even a Soul King.
They wouldn't dare provoke the true direct-line heirs, but they didn't pay much attention to collateral-line descendants like these. After all, there were far too many of them in the Qiangu Clan.
Thousands of years of accumulation had made the Qiangu Clan grow larger and larger.
The direct line had only one branch, but the collateral line had dozens.
In these circumstances, many descendants from collateral branches ended up joining the Spirit Pagoda and becoming ordinary workers, with no distinguished status to speak of.
Even knowing all that, he felt an inexplicable sense of awe toward Chen Zhou—or perhaps it was a strange feeling of pressure.
It was as if the young man before him possessed an indescribable presence.
He couldn't understand it, but he felt an instinctive reverence all the same.
That was what puzzled the young man most. Chen Zhou, however, didn't care in the slightest what he thought.
Even if he knew, he wouldn't care.
His Martial Soul had already advanced to the Water Dragon King, and it was still evolving.
After the Water Dragon King, it could advance directly to the Primordial Dragon.
According to Douluo's original evolutionary path, the Water Dragon King might have been followed by the bloodline of the Water Dragon King's lineage, one of the ten great god kings under the Dragon God.
But Chen Zhou's Martial Soul was changing directly toward the Primordial Dragon.
The Primordial Dragon was undoubtedly powerful.
As the primordial divine dragon of that world, it was still somewhat weaker than the Water Dragon King among the Source Dragons, but it was already an utterly terrifying power.
Now that he had reached the Water Dragon King, Chen Zhou could clearly feel that he had a powerful suppressive effect on every beast-type Martial Soul.
Once he reached the Primordial Dragon, the strength of his Martial Soul would break through to the god level—and it wouldn't be an ordinary god-level Martial Soul, either.
Thinking of this put Chen Zhou in a much better mood.
When they returned to the Qiangu Clan's residence, the young man in black bowed respectfully to him, then turned and left.
Chen Zhou ignored him too and headed straight for his room.
Among the collateral-line descendants of their generation, not one had awakened the Coiling Dragon Staff.
And since none of them belonged to the main branch of the collateral line, they had all been sent to various places to train.
For someone like him to be sent to a nearby Spirit Pagoda and become the pagoda master's disciple was already an excellent outcome.
The brothers from his branch who had returned around the same time were all very respectful toward him.
After putting away his luggage, Chen Zhou loosened up his arms and legs, ready to get to work.
These days, if someone bullied you, it wasn't enough for them to simply stop bullying you the next time you met.
If they bullied you and you had the strength, then you naturally had to bully them right back.
Chen Zhou walked slowly, but with firm steps, heading farther inside.
That was where the main residence of the collateral line was.
It belonged to the main branch among the collateral branches, whose status was a little higher than that of collateral branches like his.
But as far as the Qiangu Clan was concerned, they were all collateral branches.
Chen Zhou kicked the gate open. An old man in a long robe standing at the entrance glared at him angrily.
The old man was the chief steward of their collateral branch, responsible for their daily lives. He was also a four-ring Soul Ancestor.
But the old man was very good at treating people according to their standing. Then again, servants in great clans were all good at that.
Chen Zhou had no backing, and his parents were both dead. Although he lived like a young master, the old man skimmed off the money allotted to him every day and every month, the charcoal meant to heat his room in winter, and all sorts of other little things. The amounts he took were considerable.
Those old bastards with a little power bullied Chen Zhou because they thought he had no one backing him.
But now, he was his own backing.
Facing the old man, Chen Zhou released two purple Soul Rings, and his Second Soul Ring suddenly lit up.
The attack came without warning, and Chen Zhou showed no mercy.
Raindrops pelted down from the sky.
Every time a raindrop struck the ground, it landed with a thunderous boom, leaving a small crater behind.
As the raindrops fell, the old man froze for a moment.
Then, in the next second, one of them struck his shoulder.
The Water of Destruction burst across his body, and his shoulder was instantly blown to a bloody pulp.
In the very next moment, Chen Zhou charged without pausing.
His figure drifted and spun freely among the droplets.
He appeared beside the old man one instant and vanished the next, and every time he appeared, he carved another cut into the old man.