Divine Ancestor

The torment went on for quite a while.

"All right, kill her. Check whether she has a Spirit Bone."

Gui Mei ended the Medusa Queen's life. In her final moment, relief showed in her eyes.

"Reporting to the Eighth Worshipper! There's a Spirit Bone! A Head Spirit Bone!"

Gui Mei was stunned. Qian Xunji's offhand remark had actually come true. A fifty-thousand-year Head Spirit Bone!

Qian Xunji turned to Bibi Dong.

"Do you want it?"

Bibi Dong shook her head. "A fifty-thousand-year Head Spirit Bone is good, but not quite good enough."

Qian Xunji looked at Gui Mei instead.

"You absorb it. Its ability is probably petrification, which should work well with your Twofold Stillness Domain. Yue Guan has taken the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, so this will even out your strength."

Qian Xunji liked things balanced. Giving Yue Guan a treasure but nothing to Gui Mei felt wrong. These two trusted lieutenants ought to be roughly equal in strength.

Besides, in the original story, the pair had worked tirelessly for Spirit Hall for years without receiving a single Spirit Bone. Even a thousand-year one would have done; it could always be recycled. Bibi Dong really had been rather stingy.

"Thank you, Eighth Worshipper! Thank you, Your Holiness! Yue Guan and I will give everything we have for Spirit Hall and serve it for the rest of our lives!"

"All right, get up."

After speaking, Qian Xunji quietly sent Bibi Dong a message.

"See? Such good kids. In your past life, you didn't even give them a Spirit Bone. What a miser."

Bibi Dong blushed. She did have to admit she might have been a little stingy.

"Shut up! What do you know?"

Embarrassed, Bibi Dong turned away. She couldn't bring herself to look at Qian Xunji, Yue Guan, or Gui Mei.

Gui Mei began absorbing the Spirit Bone at once. To escape the awkwardness, Bibi Dong went to cultivate beside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Cultivation beside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was at least three times faster than elsewhere. It deserved its place among the three great treasure troves.

Speaking of the three great treasure troves, he would have to visit the Sun-Moon Continent when he got the chance.

Of course, he had no intention of going inside. That disturbing episode in the original story had come about through God-King Tang's secret meddling, but Qian Xunji didn't even have a proper lover. Bibi Dong barely counted as half of one. If he went in with her, she might torment him to death.

But...

Qian Xunji glanced sideways at Yue Guan and Gui Mei, his gaze moving between them.

Hmm... worth considering.

One of his main reasons for visiting the Sun-Moon Continent was to see how far its Soul Tools had developed. He could then establish diplomatic ties with the Sun-Moon Empire and monopolize trade between the two continents.

That would make Spirit Hall far less dependent on the Two Great Empires. At heart, Spirit Hall was only an organization of spirit masters. The only territory it directly governed was little Spirit City, whose tax revenue could never fund all of Spirit Hall's operations. Even setting up its own chambers of commerce and trading independently would fall far short.

Spirit Hall's main source of funding was still the Two Great Empires. The stipends it paid spirit masters came from them.

Spirit Hall managed spirit masters on behalf of the Two Great Empires, and the empires provided it with financial support.

For countless years, Spirit Hall had enjoyed excellent relations with the Two Great Empires. Otherwise, they would never have entrusted it with distributing spirit-master stipends.

But starting in Qian Daoliu's time, Spirit Hall had grown increasingly hard-line toward the Two Great Empires and the various sects, straining those relationships. Qian Xunji had been even more hard-line during his earlier rule, and Spirit Hall's reputation in the empires had steadily declined.

The Two Great Empires and the Upper Three Sects had joined forces to curb Spirit Hall's influence, sometimes openly and sometimes quietly, and keep its power in check.

Still, the relationship had not broken down completely. Otherwise, the Two Great Empires would long since have stopped letting Spirit Hall distribute the stipends.

This operation against the Clear Sky Sect, however, would likely make the Two Great Empires and the other sects still more wary of Spirit Hall and more determined to suppress it.

Then again, his supposed death might cause the Two Great Empires to underestimate Spirit Hall.

"They'll underestimate us and fear us at the same time. That's a difficult relationship to manage..."

"We'll have to change our foreign policy. One of this novel's main themes is opposition to conquest and war. From now on, we need to maintain a workable relationship with them."

Qian Xunji was confident. Ever since gaining memories of another world, he had found that most people on Douluo Continent were practically fools. Even cutting off food supplies could be hailed as a brilliant, once-in-an-age stratagem.

Their military, diplomatic, and political methods lagged far behind Blue Star's.

His goal was to model Spirit Hall on certain Blue Star religions and turn it into a faith that could truly influence the empires' internal affairs, with the pope standing above emperors.

To do that, though, he would have to bring the Divine Ancestor back into the picture.

In ancient times, the Divine Ancestor had become a god through faith and founded the Angel Church. Almost the entire continent had believed in her, while the Qian Family had served as the Angel Church's High Priests throughout the ages.

But several thousand years ago, the Divine Ancestor had stopped answering the Qian Family. The divine power they could call upon as High Priests had suddenly dwindled. Rebellion broke out within the Angel Church, and the entire continent descended into war.

After decades of fighting, the Qian Family put down the rebellion. They remained the continent's most powerful family, but they were much weaker than before.

So the Qian Family compromised, reforming the Angel Church into Spirit Hall. The Divine Ancestor's renown gradually faded from the continent.

The Angel Divine Power the Qian Family could call upon grew scarcer still.

On today's Douluo Continent, almost no one believed in the Angel God anymore, even within Spirit Hall. Few of its elders were true believers. Those who genuinely worshipped her were largely confined to the Qian Family and a few old men in the Worship Hall.

If he wanted Spirit Hall to become an organization capable of deeply influencing secular politics, as religions on Blue Star could, he had to restore divine authority. He would spread the Divine Ancestor's renown across the continent once more, then draw on methods from his Blue Star memories to gradually bring the Two Great Empires and the sects under Spirit Hall's influence until they willingly accepted its rule.

Spirit Hall would become the faith of the entire continent.

It would also pave the way for Xue'er. An Angel God worshipped by the entire continent would surely be far stronger than Xue'er had been in the original story.

Douluo Continent had a much larger population now than in the Divine Ancestor's era. Add the people of the Sun-Moon Continent and, if the opportunity arose, take over the Sea God's worshippers, and the Angel God might even advance to the level of a God-King.

Even if she could not become a God-King, she would be the foremost god beneath them.

With his plans settled, Qian Xunji sat down to cultivate. The injuries Tang Hao had inflicted had yet to heal.

"I wonder how Haozi's doing. Is he having fun playing cat and mouse with Father? I hope the Asura God puts in some effort and doesn't let Great God King Tang's story end just as it begins."

"I've prepared so many surprises for Great God King Tang! Heh heh heh!"