Defense

Bei Bei wandered aimlessly for half the day without finding any trace of Tang Ya.

He even went to where the Iron Fist Gorilla had been, but still found no sign of her.

"Where did she go? Could that man have attacked Tang Ya?"

The more Bei Bei thought about it, the darker his expression became. How could he have let Tang Ya leave alone? Her level was not high to begin with.

With that personality, if someone took advantage of her...

Heart-wrenching—Bei Bei was experiencing that feeling now, and his killing intent toward Jiang Mu rose considerably again!

If not for that man appearing, how could things between him and Tang Ya have become like this? Perhaps their feelings could even have deepened because he had saved her life?

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became!

His teeth ground together, but he said nothing.

Just as he was about to leave, the ground suddenly began to shake.

Rumble, rumble!!!

The tremors were no small matter, and Bei Bei's expression changed slightly. Such a huge disturbance—could some ten-thousand-year soul beast have appeared?

His face, already pale, was now completely bloodless. If there really was a soul beast, he would undoubtedly die!

However, the rumbling ground did not continue for long before gradually settling down.

"Haha~"

Bei Bei gulped in great breaths. Could some rare treasure have descended into the world?

Driven by curiosity, he somehow felt the urge to go take a look. Even though it was clearly dangerous, he still moved toward it.

Before long, he entered the part of the forest where the sound had come from.

"Yuhao?"

Bei Bei was stunned as he looked over there.

That was right—the source of the sound was Huo Yuhao and Tianmeng Ice Silkworm.

The moment Bei Bei saw them, he quickly ran over.

Meanwhile, after leaving the Star Dou Forest, Jiang Mu and the other two rented a carriage and headed for Shrek City.

Jiang Mu looked at the revenge list. That Bei Bei's hatred value had increased again, reaching 85.

"I didn't even offend him, did I?"

Jiang Mu did not consider himself a good person. He was the sort who repaid every slight and could not tolerate even the smallest offense.

But he would not simply choose a path to death from the start. He would make good use of the system. Anyone who made it onto the list would suffer his frenzied retaliation.

Still, he could not help feeling puzzled. He had not done anything to Bei Bei, so why did Bei Bei hate him so much?

Could it be the protagonist's halo?

He did not understand. Whatever—at least he would have someone helping provide spiritual power for his future cultivation.

Jiang Mu had checked just now. Once someone appeared on this list, their hatred value could only increase and never decrease.

Even if they truly no longer held killing intent, their killing intent value would remain at its highest point.

It was quite an overbearing cheat. Even amnesia would not allow these clues to be discovered by clever people, nor would sealing all memories cause him to lose his means of revenge.

It could even inspect statuses. Sure enough, no transmigrator's cheat was ordinary.

Naturally, they could not remain silent the entire time in the carriage.

Tang Ya was being carried on Jiang Nannan's back. Although Jiang Nannan clearly disliked her, Tang Ya was still very grateful and took the initiative to talk quite a bit.

They had some simple exchanges. Unable to hold back, Jiang Nannan asked about Tang Ya's sect, the Tang Sect.

Tang Ya muttered, and sorrow immediately appeared on her face.

"I wasn't lying to you. The Tang Sect was founded by the Sea God ten thousand years ago. It has merely declined now, but it still possesses the techniques passed down by the Tang Sect, the Mysterious Jade Hand and Purple Demon Eyes..."

"It has only declined. My parents were killed by people from the Iron Blood Sect. Under my parents' protection, I barely managed to escape."

As Tang Ya spoke, her eyes gradually grew moist.

"After my parents died, I begged the sects that had once been friendly with the Tang Sect—the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the Clear Sky Sect, and Shrek Academy—but they all refused my request. They only needed to send an ordinary elder to help me take revenge, yet they still refused."

After hearing this, much of the coldness faded from Jiang Nannan's face. Looking at Tang Ya across from her, she said, "Then you really are quite pitiful."

Tang Ya pursed her lips and sighed softly.

"Sigh, what use is being pitiful? It only makes others look down on you."

Jiang Nannan stroked her chin and asked curiously, "Then why did you say it was because of soul tools?"

Hearing this, Tang Ya raised her head and met Jiang Nannan's gaze, speaking with great seriousness.

"It was because soul tools stole the market for our hidden weapons. Without sufficient funds to nurture experts, we gradually declined."

"Heh, why not use something more convenient? You can't force old customers to buy hidden weapons that are weaker for the same price, can you?"

Jiang Mu came back to his senses just in time to hear this, and he smiled as he refuted her.

"Sometimes, you need to make changes. In a competitive relationship, if you refuse to improve or change, yet claim that your opponent's products are too useful and ruined the market, that's a bit shameless."

It was a powerful rebuttal, and Jiang Nannan nodded as well. Tang Ya was pitiful, but she could not just make things up with her eyes open.

"Mm, exactly. Besides, soul tools grew stronger four thousand years ago, right? Xiao Ya, you said the Tang Sect was destroyed only a few years ago. In all those years, did no one ever think about improving the hidden weapons or changing the sect's condition?"

"Were all the previous sect masters useless? Did they have no foresight at all?"

The historical records of Douluo clearly stated that the Sun Moon Continent and Douluo Continent had once collided. A great war erupted then, and during that war, soul tools held an advantage far beyond hidden weapons.

An advantage far beyond them, in fact, though it was not as though hidden weapons had no advantages at all.

Since they were essentially selling the same type of product, why not draw on each other's strengths? Why not use the strengths of soul tools to compensate for the weaknesses of hidden weapons?

Being questioned like this by two friends she had only just met, Tang Ya's expression visibly worsened.

"Our Tang Sect's sect masters chose their successors in pursuit of Sect Master Tang San. Only those with Blue Silver Grass martial souls could become sect masters, but they could never close the gap with Sea God Tang San. They never considered that aspect and only focused on cultivation."

Jiang Mu frowned after hearing this.

To put it simply, all the Tang Sect masters had Blue Silver Grass martial souls. How could they have had so much time to make decisions when they devoted themselves wholeheartedly to cultivation?

That was why soul tools had surpassed them.

No matter what, wasn't that the reason?

"This Tang Sect practically committed suicide. They did not combine soul tools with research into new hidden weapons, chose Blue Silver Grass instead of strong martial souls for their sect masters, and stubbornly refused to use soul tools. It would be strange if they could survive."

Jiang Mu quickly sorted out the reasons for their decline. They were simple—three reasons laid bare in plain sight.

Even if they did not want to develop anything, they could at least buy some and use them, right?

Yet they refused to use them.

Besides, there was one most important point: the Xuantian Treasure Record was incomplete.

The Mysterious Heaven Technique Tang San possessed could be cultivated from childhood. After reaching its peak, it resulted in innately full soul power during testing. A technique capable of increasing innate soul power had to be top-tier no matter what.

If it had been passed down intact, even without a Titled Douluo, the Tang Sect should at least have had a Soul Douluo. It certainly would not have been exterminated.

"How could that be? It was all soul tools' fault. If they didn't exist, our hidden weapons would never have declined."

Tang Ya spoke up excitedly in rebuttal.