Half a Year!

In the end, Na'er was still kept there, with Golden Crocodile Douluo as her main teacher and Lion Douluo assisting in her instruction.

Even if Qian Renxue had more objections, they served no purpose now.

The Golden Dragon martial soul was enough to dispel every doubt.

From then on, Hu Liena and the others discovered that Jiang Yuan had gained a little tail behind him.

Very soon, that little tail once again let everyone taste despair.

In just three days, Jiang Yuan's bodyguard, Na'er, swept through the entire Talent Training Camp.

Only Xie Yue and Hu Liena's martial soul fusion skill had the strength to put up a fight.

With two overpowered monsters appearing one after another, the students of this year's Talent Training Camp all began cultivating as if they had been injected with chicken blood.

The students wanted to break through to rank thirty as quickly as possible and leave this heartbreaking place.

Meanwhile, everyone in the Consecrated Hall was practically walking on air, constantly shouting that Spirit Hall was about to usher in a great rise.

Qian Xunji had been endlessly excited these past few days. In his hands, Spirit Hall was about to complete a grand undertaking that would last for ages.

Below, there was the Golden Generation trio; above, there were Jiang Yuan and the other two. In less than twenty years, Spirit Hall would be able to sweep across the entire continent.

Qian Xunji was so excited that these past few days, he had needed to seek out Bibi Dong every day to vent his fire. When Jiang Yuan happened to see Bibi Dong, he could sense from her that cold, sinister aura, as if it might erupt at any moment.

Time passed.

In the blink of an eye, half a year had passed since Jiang Yuan's martial soul awakening.

Life over the past half year had been somewhat monotonous.

In the mornings, he took turns receiving instruction from several of the Consecrated.

In the afternoons, he and Na'er went to the Talent Training Camp to critically strike Spirit Hall's younger generation of geniuses, while also teasing Na'er a little and farming favorability.

By farming favorability, if Gu Yue ever went mad, he might still be able to save his dog life.

However, Jiang Yuan felt the odds of that were not high.

At night, he devoted himself fully to meditation and cultivated his soul power.

With no restrictions on resources, Jiang Yuan's cultivation rose rapidly, and he had already broken through to rank sixteen.

This cultivation speed was not the slightest bit inferior to Qian Renxue, who had innate rank twenty soul power.

There was even less need to mention Na'er's cultivation. Whenever Jiang Yuan broke through, she broke through as well, with no more than three days between them.

That day, just as Jiang Yuan and Na'er returned from class, he saw Qian Renxue in the courtyard, whom he had not seen for several days.

Only, today's Qian Renxue was somewhat different. A few traces of worry showed between her brows.

"Sister Xue'er, I haven't seen you for several days. Did you break through in closed-door cultivation?"

Half a year ago, Qian Renxue's cultivation had been rank forty-seven. Perhaps stimulated by Jiang Yuan and Na'er, she had cultivated much harder than before over the past half year, and a few days ago, she had touched the bottleneck of rank fifty.

She had been in seclusion these past few days, attacking that bottleneck.

Seeing Qian Renxue again, he did not see the joy of a breakthrough on her. Instead, there was a kind of sorrow of parting.

"I broke through!"

Qian Renxue turned to look at Jiang Yuan and Na'er, who were standing together as a pair, and the sorrow in her heart deepened even further.

At that moment, she secretly hated herself for being born so early, missing out on so many wonderful times together with Jiang Yuan.

"Na'er, you go back first. There are some things I want to say to Xiao Yuan alone."

Na'er did not leave immediately. Instead, she turned to look at Jiang Yuan. Only after seeing him nod did she call out in acknowledgment and run toward her own room.

At this sight, Qian Renxue's brows twitched violently, but when she thought of the plans that came next, she took a deep breath and looked at Jiang Yuan seriously.

"Xiao Yuan, I'm going to leave Spirit Hall for a period of time."

Jiang Yuan froze, his brows furrowing slightly.

"Where are you going?"

"The Heaven Dou Empire!"

Qian Renxue's gaze dimmed as she looked in the direction of the Heaven Dou Empire and said, "Spirit Hall has a plan there. I have to make a trip."

"How long will you be gone?"

"I'm not sure. At least ten years, I suppose."

Hearing this, Jiang Yuan's brows furrowed even deeper. He had not expected that, despite such huge changes, Qian Renxue's infiltration plan still had to proceed.

In the previous era, because of Tang Chen's rise, Spirit Hall's development had entered a stage of strategic stalemate with the Upper Three Sects, the Lower Four Sects, and the two great empires.

The Upper Three Sects were "bound by the same breath and branches," joining hands within the Heaven Dou Empire to suppress Spirit Hall.

The Star Luo imperial family had always been stronger than the Heaven Dou imperial family, and with the help of the Lower Four Sects within its borders, Spirit Hall's forces in Star Luo had already been developing very slowly.

And when this plan had first been formulated, Tang Chen had already been missing for many years.

Although the Clear Sky Sect had the Haotian Twin Stars and its power did not seem to have weakened much, it had ultimately still been affected to a certain degree.

Under such circumstances, in order to change Spirit Hall's stage of strategic stalemate, Qian Xunji had proposed the plan to steal the beams and replace the pillars.

By using the disguise soul skill of the Angel Set's soul bones, they would have Qian Renxue replace a certain prince of the Heaven Dou imperial family. After supporting this prince's ascension to the throne, they would then split the Upper Three Sects.

In this way, Spirit Hall's situation within the Heaven Dou Empire would be opened up.

But plans could not keep up with change. No one expected Spirit Hall to first discover Tang Hao traveling with the Blue Silver Emperor, this transformed soul beast.

Then what was there left to say? Take him down.

After that came Tang Hao being hunted down. The Clear Sky Sect was slow to make any move, which made Spirit Hall, which had been wary of Tang Chen and afraid to act recklessly, begin to suspect whether he was still alive or dead.

It was only later, when Tang Hao vanished without a trace and Spirit Hall fought the Clear Sky Sect until it sealed its mountain and withdrew from the world, that they finally confirmed it: something really had happened to Tang Chen.

It also tore away the fig leaf of the "Upper Three Sects standing together as one."

Now Tang Chen, the only Limit Douluo who could hold Qian Daoliu in check, was gone.

On top of that, Spirit Hall's strength had risen another level.

The soul master world ushered in another great reshuffling.

Among the Lower Four Sects, several were already faintly leaning toward Spirit Hall.

Their arrangements in the Star Luo Empire had basically reached this point; all they could do from here was slowly infiltrate.

As for the Heaven Dou Empire, the Upper Three Sects could never side with Spirit Hall, so Spirit Hall's target this time was the Heaven Dou Empire's throne—and even more so, the Heaven Dou Empire's million-strong army.

That could make up for Spirit Hall's final shortcoming.

But Spirit Hall was different now.

They could clearly just cultivate step by step and then sweep across the world, so why did they still have to pull these little schemes?

If they failed, all the resources Spirit Hall had invested in the early stage would be wasted.

It would also damage Spirit Hall's positive image in the soul master world.

"Ten years?"

"How much of your cultivation time would this delay?"

"And you're Spirit Hall's Holy Maiden, the Pope's daughter. Is there no one left in Spirit Hall? They actually need you to risk yourself and personally go plot in the Heaven Dou Empire?"

"I don't think there's anything there worth trading for ten years of your cultivation time, Sister Xue'er."

Jiang Yuan looked straight at Qian Renxue. He was clearly only a six-year-old child, but Qian Renxue did not dare meet Jiang Yuan's burning gaze.

"I have my own considerations. Besides, this won't delay my cultivation speed by much."

Qian Renxue spoke in a low voice, and there was also a hint of complicated emotion in her eyes.

She likewise did not want to leave Jiang Yuan, especially now that Na'er was in the picture.

She was afraid that as they grew up in the future, Na'er would gradually take her place in Jiang Yuan's heart.

However, there were some things she had to prove to a certain someone.