Qian Daoliu's Wild Speculation

Take this Sky Screen, for instance. Without it, who would have known Spirit Hall ranked only fourth on the continent?

Who would have known that beyond hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts, there were even Million-Year Soul Beasts?

How could ordinary Soul Masters have known it was possible to become a god?

The Soul Beasts, too, had learned the source of this entire curse.

The ranking continued. After all, it had only introduced Pope Bibi Dong. There was still an even more terrifying Great Enshrined.

[Great Enshrined of the Worship Hall, Judgment Elder: Qian Daoliu]

[Martial Soul: Six-Winged Angel]

[Soul Rings: black, black, black, black, black, black, black, black, red]

[Soul Power: Level 99 Limit Douluo.]

[Second Elder of the Worship Hall: Golden Crocodile Douluo]

[...]

After that lengthy introduction, everyone finally understood why Spirit Hall was so powerful.

Every member of the Worship Hall was a Titled Douluo of level 95 or above, and every elder of the Pope's Hall was a Titled Douluo too.

And with strength like that, it still ranked only fourth.

The Clear Sky Sect's strength had now become a mystery.

But to Dugu Yan and the others, Teyvat Academy was even more baffling.

They had never heard of this academy.

Last night, Xue Beng had searched through every book in the royal collection; Dugu Bo had even knocked out the master of Spirit Hall's Heaven Dou City branch and rummaged through its records.

Neither had found a scrap of information about Teyvat Academy.

The academy seemed to have sprung out of thin air. Then there was that inexplicable Merchants' Guild, which even the continent's leading guild, the Seven Treasure Chamber of Commerce, was struggling to withstand.

The Seven Treasure Chamber of Commerce was holding on only because of its vast holdings.

And judging by what its headmaster, Su Yun, had said, the academy was quite possibly stronger than the Clear Sky Sect.

In other words, Teyvat Academy definitely had a god behind it.

Next, the Sky Screen began showing Bibi Dong's Character Records.

Back then, Bibi Dong was still the Holy Maiden, proud as a flower blooming high on a mountain peak.

No one of her generation had a higher cultivation level.

Then she met Yu Xiaogang. That relationship was laid bare before every living being on the continent, bloody as a wound torn open.

Bibi Dong had actually fallen in love with that good-for-nothing Yu Xiaogang. It was the sort of plot that belonged only in a novel.

If the God of Love had fallen on Douluo Continent, then Bibi Dong must have been under that god's influence.

But no such thing had happened. The only conclusion was that Bibi Dong was stupid.

Everyone was baffled: how had a true genius, a future Titled Douluo and Spirit Hall's next pope, fallen for Yu Xiaogang, whose Innate Soul Power was a mere 0.5, whose Martial Soul ability was farting, and who loved putting on airs?

Was it because his farts smelled worse?

Then came an even more absurd scene. Qian Xunji violated Bibi Dong, and Tang Hao hammered Qian Xunji until he was gravely injured.

Bibi Dong devoured Qian Xunji, and then she went mad...

The real question was why Qian Daoliu did nothing. She had devoured his son!

Then there was the Angel God, whose thinking was even more bizarre. Everyone had assumed the violation must have been something else. It turned out Bibi Dong had fallen in love with Yu Xiaogang and refused to listen to Qian Xunji.

She talked back to Qian Xunji, and in a fit of anger, he forced himself on her...

Forcing himself on her was wrong, of course. But Spirit Hall had nurtured her for so long, and she turned around and wanted to leave with a good-for-nothing.

Did she think Spirit Hall's resources were hers by right?

As for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan... they couldn't quite understand the outrage. Wasn't this just forcing someone to do what they didn't want?

The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had always snatched outstanding women from across the continent and brought them back to bear children.

A sect like theirs could be revered as one of the Upper Three Sects, yet Spirit Hall was to be judged by its own ancestor.

So resources just didn't count for anything, huh?

By now, no one knew how to look Qian Daoliu in the eye.

Even some of Spirit Hall's elders and enshrined members wondered whether Qian Daoliu had a screw loose.

He could hold back after that?

What a character...

How could one describe Spirit Hall after Qian Xunji's death?

It was like a carriage on fire: Qian Renxue sat inside, pretending to be calm; Bibi Dong, holding the reins, had gone mad; and Qian Daoliu, the only one who could have pulled them back, was playing dead.

That was Spirit Hall's current state.

What followed was much like the records of the earlier figures, until the final Battle of the Two Gods.

Bibi Dong killed Sea God Tang San with a single strike. Then Rongrong and Oscar used a Martial Soul Fusion Skill to revive Tang San...

They revived Tang San! They brought a First-Level God back to life!

Then things became outright ridiculous. Damn it, Tang San came back as the Asura God!

This wasn't cheating anymore. The cheat had never been switched off.

And the Asura God's explanation was... Tang Chen had completed eight trials for Tang San...

Could he at least have put on a show? You could take a Divine Trial for someone else now?

Qian Daoliu's whiskers nearly twisted sideways. Damn it, someone else could take the trials for you?

So a Divine Trial was just a formality? What did that make the eight trials he had taken?

Why did Xiao Xue still have to take hers from the beginning?

Qian Daoliu was starting to think his ancestral god was an idiot, and that he had been a bit of an idiot himself.

He should have killed Bibi Dong and put Qian Renxue in her place.

He could simply have said her parents were gone. Qian Renxue had been little back then anyway.

"I regret it!!!!"

Qian Daoliu paced the Worship Hall in frustration.

The other enshrined members exchanged looks. At last, Golden Crocodile stepped forward and spoke.

"Big brother, what do you regret? It's come to this. Why don't we kill that woman Bibi Dong and make Xiao Xue pope?"

Qian Daoliu ran a hand through his long hair.

"Why did I send Xiao Xue to Heaven Dou City to play crown prince? If I'd known that old bastard Tang Chen was hiding in Slaughter City, I'd have sent Xiao Xue there to train."

Golden Crocodile grew ever more convinced that something was wrong with Qian Daoliu's head.

"Wait, big brother. Xiao Xue's Martial Soul is an angel. If she dared set foot in Slaughter City, she'd be the first one they went after."

But Qian Daoliu had his own interpretation.

"Didn't the Asura God say Tang Chen took eight trials on Tang San's behalf? Then couldn't anyone with Divine Slaughter's Domain who hasn't received another Divine Trial inherit the Asura God's position?"

Golden Crocodile nodded, then abruptly shook his head.

"No, big brother. Tang Hao has Divine Slaughter's Domain too. Why didn't the Asura God choose him?"

Qian Daoliu slapped the arm of his chair.

"Because the Asura Demon Sword was in Tang San's hands, of course! So all we have to do is kill Tang Hao, then have someone with Divine Slaughter's Domain take the Asura Demon Sword. That person can inherit the Asura God's position!"

"Then why didn't Tang Chen inherit the Asura God's position himself?"

That one question left the entire Worship Hall dumbstruck.

Right. The Ninth Trial was the inheritance of the divine position. What had Tang Chen gone looking for Bo Saixi with a hammer in hand for?

Qian Daoliu thought for a moment. By all rights, inheriting a divine position would improve one's body and soul.

"Maybe his broken body couldn't withstand the transformation that followed. So... the Sky Screen restored his body, and that old bastard is the Asura God now?"

Qian Daoliu slapped his forehead. No wonder. No wonder the Clear Sky Sect had stayed hidden for so long.

So Tang Chen had inherited the Asura God's position. That was a God King's position.

Qian Daoliu burned with anger and envy.

Not only had Tang Chen won the woman of his dreams, he had gained a God King's position too.

Did that old bastard have to get every good thing?