Ning Zhiyuan couldn't help walking out from behind the main hall.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Lin Yuan looked back.
Faced with those golden eyes and black pupils, Ning Zhiyuan's heart missed a beat.
Out of long-standing habit, Ning Zhiyuan pushed up his glasses and revealed his usual approachable smile.
"Young friend, your Martial Soul is truly extraordinary." Ning Zhiyuan slowly walked toward Lin Yuan.
"May I ask who you are?" Lin Yuan asked, looking at the middle-aged man with puzzled eyes.
If anyone was extraordinary, it was this middle-aged man standing before him.
Although his clothes looked plain, anyone could tell at a glance that the fabric was so fine most people could never afford it.
His presence was steady and restrained, like that of the fabulously wealthy magnate Lin Yuan had once glimpsed in the city.
"My name is Ning Zhiyuan, and I'm the lord of Nine Treasures City," Ning Zhiyuan said with a beaming smile.
Lin Yuan couldn't help being startled. Wasn't Ning Zhiyuan Ning Tian's father, the sect master of the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect?
"Looks like you've heard of me, young brother. That saves us a bit of breath," Ning Zhiyuan said with a smile, watching Lin Yuan's reaction.
"This junior is Lin Yuan. Of course I've heard of Senior Ning's illustrious reputation." Lin Yuan withdrew his Martial Soul and hurriedly clasped his hands, bowing slightly to Ning Zhiyuan.
Even Tang San knew to wait until he could win before breathing fire at the Clear Sky Sect elders. And though Ning Zhiyuan was an auxiliary-type Soul Master, he was still a Soul Saint.
As a junior with little strength, Lin Yuan had to show proper respect to a senior with such profound cultivation.
Besides, Lin Yuan would be relying on the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's resources to cultivate. At the very least, Ning Zhiyuan would be his sect master for some time to come.
Ning Zhiyuan was pleased that Lin Yuan's manner wasn't excessively fawning. He turned to the Soul Awakening Master beside them and said, "Brother Hu, thanks for your hard work. Please continue awakening this child's Soul Power."
"Yes." The Soul Awakening Master, addressed as Brother Hu, bowed slightly to Ning Zhiyuan as well.
It was perfectly normal that Ning Zhiyuan knew him; Soul Awakening Masters were usually appointed personally by the sect master.
"Come, child. Place your hand on this crystal ball."
Lin Yuan nodded. The moment he put his hand on the crystal ball, a force of suction came from within it.
He felt the Soul Power inside him being drawn out, and the crystal ball suddenly shone brilliantly.
"Innate Full Soul Power! He actually has Innate Full Soul Power!" the Soul Awakening Master cried out.
Watching the crystal ball emit a gentle blue glow, Lin Yuan understood.
With two such powerful Martial Souls, it would've been strange if he didn't have Innate Full Soul Power.
Ning Zhiyuan nodded in satisfaction, then glanced behind him at Ning Tian and Wu Feng, who were watching.
His attention was mainly on Wu Feng. Though there was surprise in the girl's eyes, there wasn't much fear.
Before a dragon-type Martial Soul awakened, it would be suppressed by dragon-type Martial Souls with stronger bloodlines.
Wu Feng wasn't showing any signs of suppression. That meant there were only two possibilities.
Either Wu Feng wouldn't awaken a dragon-type Martial Soul, or the bloodline of the child's dragon-type Martial Soul wasn't very powerful.
Both possibilities seemed plausible, so Ning Zhiyuan leaned toward the latter—that Lin Yuan's dragon bloodline wasn't very strong.
But that didn't matter. Even if its bloodline wasn't strong, its Destruction attribute was undeniably close to the pinnacle.
A Martial Soul with such a terrifying attribute was already an enormous gain.
"Lin Yuan, you're very impressive. Would you be willing to join the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect as an inner sect disciple?" Ning Zhiyuan asked, extending a hand to him.
Ning Tian and Wu Feng, who had been watching all this, couldn't help being startled.
Even with Innate Full Soul Power, the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect would usually observe a newcomer for a while before inviting them to become an inner sect disciple.
But Ning Zhiyuan had directly asked Lin Yuan to join the inner sect. He'd practically been marked as a key talent for the sect to cultivate!
Wu Feng looked at Ning Tian's small face, flushed with shock and excitement...
She couldn't help feeling a little hostility toward Lin Yuan.
"Of course I'm willing to join the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect," Lin Yuan replied naturally.
"But there's another Martial Soul inside me..."
Ning Zhiyuan's eyes widened.
A gentle emerald light suddenly blazed from Lin Yuan's hand, and a jade sword of lush, verdant green appeared in his grasp.
Ning Zhiyuan could no longer keep calm. His Martial Soul's instincts were frantically sending him signals.
The Destruction Demon Dragon was a Beast Martial Soul, so the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda hadn't sensed it very clearly.
But this jade sword was an object-type Martial Soul, just like his own. His Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, which he had cultivated to the Soul Saint level, actually felt a sense of submission toward it.
In other words, this jade sword was a super Martial Soul whose rank was no lower than Lin Yuan's dragon-type Martial Soul.
Even Ning Zhiyuan couldn't help taking half a step back, his face full of shock. "Twin Martial Souls?"
"I suppose so?" Lin Yuan replied with an innocent smile, just like any ordinary child.
If revealing his Twin Martial Souls could help him gain more resources within the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect, why not do it?
As for keeping the secret, Lin Yuan believed Ning Zhiyuan was clever enough not to let the information about him spread openly across the continent.
"Twin Martial Souls, Innate Full Soul Power, a mysterious top-tier attribute..."
Ning Zhiyuan stroked his chin and paced excitedly across the platform, his leather shoes tapping against the floor.
With talent like this, he could easily be compared to Ning Zhiyuan's childhood idol, Dragon God Mu En.
This child was absolutely worth cultivating with care. In the future, he would surely become a Limit Douluo capable of suppressing an entire era.
But whenever the sect invested in someone like this, the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's master had to be especially cautious.
They'd simply been burned too many times.
Ten thousand years ago, after the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect fought alongside the dragon as a vassal and defeated Spirit Hall, they received no benefits at all.
After Spirit Hall was defeated, the allied forces disbanded.
Yes, they disbanded. Nothing else happened.
The Nine Treasures Glazed Sect had not only lost two Titled Douluo, its ancestral lands had lain in ruins for a long time.
Just restoring its foundations had taken three thousand years, bringing it back to the strength it had reached during Spirit Hall's era.
After the war, the sect had even been forced to accept restriction after restriction from Tang San, all to make way for the Tang Sect's development.
Shrek and the Tang Sect had divided up all of Spirit Hall's legacy, and even after swallowing up so much, the Tang Sect had declined four thousand years ago.
Ever since then, Ning Fengzhi, the sect master of that generation, had been nailed to the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's pillar of shame.
Lin Yuan and Tang San were different, but once bitten by a snake, one feared the rope for ten thousand years.
That was where the observation policy had come from. Even Soul Masters with Innate Full Soul Power had to spend several months as outer sect disciples in the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect.
But with a genius like Lin Yuan, if they didn't invest heavily from the start and win his loyalty, someone else could easily poach him...
Ning Zhiyuan couldn't help looking toward Ning Tian. A rush of passion he'd never felt before welled up inside him.
Right, he still had a daughter.
Ning Tian and Lin Yuan were the same age, and his daughter's talent was certainly no worse.
And Lin Yuan was all alone. If he let his daughter grow close to him from a young age, keeping him here wouldn't be a problem, would it?
Judging by Ning Tian's expression, she didn't seem to have a bad impression of Lin Yuan. (Ignoring Wu Feng beside her, who looked ready to breathe fire.)
Ning Zhiyuan, were you going to bet your daughter on this young man's future?