A God-Given Opportunity, Yet Missed

"Let's go. I'd also like to see how Qian Daoliu plans to handle his family's affairs."

Lin Haosheng spoke slowly, but the moment he opened his mouth, Chrysanthemum Douluo jolted in fright and hurriedly shut up, then led them toward Spirit Hall's council chamber.

As they left, Lin Haosheng discreetly swept his gaze toward a corner, the corner of his lips curling into a scornful smile.

After they departed, several figures slowly emerged from that corner, exchanging grim looks.

They were Yu Yuanzhen, Chen Xin, Gu Rong, and Tang Zhen. Having sensed that powerful fluctuation of soul power, they had come here.

"A Rank 98 Super Douluo, with two hundred-thousand-year soul rings—and judging from his aura, he's still in his prime."

Chen Xin spoke in a low voice, his gaze solemn. The others felt their hearts sink at his words.

The group remained silent. After a long while, they all vanished from where they stood. They needed to reassess Spirit Hall's strategic standing.

After arriving at Spirit Hall's council chamber, Lin Haosheng's appearance turned old once more. He did not maintain his younger appearance again.

"Cough, cough... I really am getting old..."

Lin Haosheng sat in a nearby chair and raised a hand to stop Lin Mo, who wanted to come over and support him. He shook his head with a bitter smile.

His condition was worsening by the day. He probably had only six or seven years left to live. Looking at Lin Mo beside him, his heart was filled with emotion.

Six or seven years would be enough for this child to grow up.

To be honest, the Qian family and the people of Spirit Hall truly treated this child well. But after all, they were not related by blood, and the Qian family's own affairs were still a mess.

Lin Haosheng was afraid that this would delay Lin Mo's future.

Lin Mo sat in his chair and let out a long sigh. Qian Renxue was still curled up in his arms, unwilling to come out, sobbing softly between hiccups.

With a screech, the doors were shoved open. Qian Daoliu strode in with a gloomy expression, his face terrifyingly dark.

"Brother Haosheng, I will give you an explanation for what happened today."

When Qian Daoliu said this, his eyes seemed as though they wanted to kill someone, sending chills down one's spine. Lin Haosheng merely snorted coldly and spoke without hesitation.

"What is wrong with your Qian family? You can't even handle something this trivial?"

"Your Qian family's daughter-in-law wanted to kill her own daughter and another genius of Spirit Hall in the street?"

"And that Yu Xiaogang... Hmph..."

Lin Haosheng stopped there and said no more, but Qian Daoliu understood what he meant.

What was this supposed to be? His family's daughter-in-law had worked with her lover outside the family to murder her own biological daughter? Heh... interesting.

Qian Daoliu sighed softly and did not respond, which surprised Lin Haosheng somewhat. Qian Daoliu gave Lin Mo one last look, and his meaning was obvious.

"Take good care of Xue'er for me."

Lin Mo nodded without saying much, merely continuing to comfort Xue'er in his arms.

Lin Haosheng sighed. Giving Qian Daoliu one final look, he spoke slowly.

"You don't need to explain anything to me. Explain it to these two children. This is an internal matter of your Qian family, so it is not my place to say much."

"But this matter involves Lin Mo, so I cannot ignore it. How you handle it is up to you, Qian Daoliu."

"It is not for me to decide."

"Just like how you insisted on letting Tang Chen go back then..."

"You truly are the Angel God's finest servant, but you never grasped the Angel God's true meaning. The Angel God's mercy was never weak concession—it was the reshaping of order through killing. Only with the heart of a bodhisattva and the methods of a vajra could one be called an angel."

As Lin Haosheng said this, he looked at Qian Daoliu with a complicated expression. Before Tang Chen had reached the rank of Titled Douluo, he had already fought Qian Daoliu, who was one.

At that time, Lin Haosheng was already a Titled Douluo. He understood Tang Chen's future potential, and for the sake of Spirit Hall's rule and the overall structure and order of the continent, he had once proposed killing Tang Chen outright.

But because of his gentlemanly friendship with Tang Chen, Qian Daoliu had rejected that proposal.

That was what ultimately led to the continent's current state.

In other words, Spirit Hall in that era had possessed the greatest chance of directly unifying the continent.

Above, there were Golden Crocodile and Lin Haosheng himself; below, there were Demon Subduing, Thousand Jun, Guang Ling, and the others who had grown alongside Qian Daoliu.

If they had killed Tang Chen and spent another dozen years building their strength, Spirit Hall would have possessed more than twenty Titled Douluo, including an Ultimate Douluo and several Super Douluo.

It could be said that since Spirit Hall's founding, aside from the era when the Angel God first walked the world, Spirit Hall had never enjoyed such prosperity.

More importantly, among all the major powers outside Spirit Hall, the total number of Titled Douluo could not even fill one hand.

It had been a heaven-sent opportunity!

Spirit Hall had spared no expense, investing enormous manpower and resources to awaken martial souls in every commoner, all for this very moment.

Spirit Hall had poured in countless resources, selecting those capable of awakening martial souls from an almost negligible possibility, then nurturing them and arranging marriages for them so that their bloodlines could stabilize.

In the past, martial soul awakenings had been the exclusive privilege of nobles, which was why soul masters were generally organized around families.

And those nobles would naturally never join Spirit Hall. They ruled like kings within their own territories, living as local tyrants in comfort—why would they bow and scrape before Spirit Hall?

The Angel God was not even around anymore.

Thus, after the Angel God's departure, Spirit Hall was merely a stronger sect. Of course, because it had participated in the construction of city-states, the manpower and resources under Spirit Hall's control were still quite formidable.

(Note: The author explained this in their notes.)

This had almost created a situation similar to the Zhou dynasty on Blue Star.

Later, who knew which pope had come up with a clever idea: since you nobles couldn't serve us wholeheartedly, why not win over the commoners instead? There was no need for many—just one or two geniuses, or even lowborn soul masters. Spirit Hall could invest resources into training them.

Then have them marry and bear children. Their children would surely have better talent. Wouldn't that mean Spirit Hall could cultivate its own nobility?

After long years of development, Spirit Hall finally reached its peak during Qian Daoliu's era.

At that time, they could have used the Angel God's divine decree as an excuse to directly purge every force on the continent, achieving absolute unification and allowing the people to truly live peaceful, stable lives.

Upon hearing this, Qian Daoliu merely lowered his head in silence. He did not respond to Lin Haosheng. Or rather, perhaps he did not know how to respond.

Indeed, it had been his momentary softheartedness that caused them to miss that heaven-sent opportunity, reducing Spirit Hall's efforts over thousands of years to nothing.

Of course, Qian Daoliu soon recovered and turned his gaze toward Lin Mo and Qian Renxue.

Heh. Spirit Hall is destined to rise after all. So what if I missed one opportunity? Isn't there still another?

One possesses top-tier twin martial souls and has hope of reaching godhood.

The other is my granddaughter, practically the Angel God chosen by fate.

Heaven truly favors Spirit Hall!

Seeing the smile spread across Qian Daoliu's face, Lin Haosheng understood what he was thinking. He sighed softly, but his thoughts were no different from Qian Daoliu's.