The Body Sect and the Sun Moon Empire's Offering Hall

"Damn it, that brat really was playing us!"

Before Xu Yan finished counting down, the three assassins tossed down their storage rings without another word, turned, and fled at full speed.

In an instant, they vanished into the dark pipes.

Their decision was swift and decisive.

What a joke. Why risk their lives for such measly pay?

The three Patrol Soldiers inwardly cursed their shamelessness.

Yet they dared not linger either and hurriedly begged for mercy:

"Spare us, Second Prince! We were only following orders! We had no choice!"

"One."

Xu Yan ignored them and calmly continued his countdown.

Terror nearly sent their souls flying out of their bodies, and they dared not stay another moment.

Leaving their Soul Cannons and rings behind, they fled in panic as though their soles had been greased.

They did not even have time to retrieve their captain's corpse.

The clamor faded, and silence returned to the underground passage.

Only the rushing sewage continued to surge.

Xu Yan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, looking slightly dazed.

The flames on his body vanished as well.

He turned toward Xu He and said quietly:

"Give me a smoke."

Xu He understood at once, and the first soul ring beneath his feet lit up.

"First Soul Skill: Spirit-Invigorating Thick Cigar!"

With that low cry,

a thumb-thick cigar appeared out of thin air.

Xu Yan reached out, took the cigar, and held it between his lips.

A small flame formed at his fingertip, and he lit it.

He took a deep drag.

Rich smoke flowed down his throat, slowly soothing the tension and violence churning in his chest.

He had faced seven Soul Ancestors and a Soul King at once. It would have been a lie to say he had not been nervous.

Had his opponents been a little more cautious and a little less dismissive, none of them would have escaped alive tonight.

Though the Blazing Sun Gun possessed terrifying power, it had a fatal weakness.

It was a shell-type Soul Tool, and firing it required a precise lock with spiritual power.

Xu Yan was currently only a rank-23 Soul Grandmaster, and his Body Martial Soul had yet to undergo its second awakening.

As the saying went, a Body Martial Soul without a second awakening was trash.

That held true even for his perfect version of the body.

Apart from slightly greater strength, slightly better stamina, and slightly stronger recovery,

it had no other abilities.

His physical reflexes alone could not possibly track a Soul King's extreme speed.

Even if they could, his lousy marksmanship would have made it utterly pointless.

Both lethal strikes earlier had exploited openings in his opponents' minds.

Only instantaneous shots at close range had allowed him to kill opponents above his rank.

"Yan, why didn't you kill them all?"

Watching the others leave, Yan Feng asked in confusion:

"Those bastards will definitely report to their superiors once they get away.

"If we don't cut the weeds out by their roots, we'll soon be hunted again."

Xu Yan drew his thoughts back and slowly exhaled a smoke ring.

He glanced at Yan Feng and said helplessly, "You think I didn't want to kill them all?"

As he spoke, Xu Yan pulled the magazine straight out of Blazing Sun.

Of its ten chambers, only three still held bullets.

The bullets were purple throughout, with pointed, conical tips.

They looked somewhat like the twelve-millimeter bullets on Blue Star.

At the sight, everyone immediately understood.

"Xuan Ziwen only developed this Soul Tool pistol last week.

"In such a short time, he only made five bullets.

"And they're all armor-piercing rounds.

"They can only hit individual targets, not groups."

Fortunately, when he went to see Xuan Ziwen after returning from soul hunting today, Xuan Ziwen had happened to hand him this pistol.

Otherwise, tonight's outcome would have been impossible to predict.

As for the difficulty of manufacturing the Blazing Sun pistol,

ordinary shell-type Soul Cannons of the same level could not even compare.

Though it was a Level 6 Soul Tool, the actual difficulty rivaled Level 7.

It was one of the works Xuan Ziwen had prepared for his Level 7 Soul Engineer assessment.

The bullets, in particular, were even harder to manufacture.

To shrink the projectiles' size, he had selected only the finest ores.

Only those could withstand the linked arrays.

Every bullet was a Level 6 Soul Tool round.

"Oh, right!"

Xu He's eyes suddenly lit up, and he said:

"I remember Teacher Xuan lives in the eastern part of the city. We could hide at his place for a while.

"With his status as a core disciple of the Illustrious Virtue Hall, no one should search his home, right?"

"Absolutely not!"

Xu Yan shook his head, his tone stern:

"Xuan Ziwen is extremely important to me. Our connection to him absolutely cannot be exposed right now."

He took another deep drag of his cigar, suppressed all his restless emotions, and said gravely:

"If you've rested enough, let's go! We can't stay here. Their reinforcements will arrive soon."

"Understood!"

Yan Feng moved deftly.

He swiftly collected the storage rings and Soul Cannons left on the ground,

along with the Level 5 close-combat Soul Tool longsword, then followed close behind Xu Yan.

The four lingered no longer, swiftly withdrawing through the sewer's tangled network of hidden passages.

What they did not know was that, in the shadows a thousand meters above their heads,

three burly, black-robed old men stood silently.

They gazed down over the entire underground passage.

They had witnessed every moment of the fierce battle.

The old man on the left looked in the direction the four had gone, his body trembling slightly.

Excitement and disbelief mingled in his eyes, and his voice shook:

"Sect Master, did you see that?"

The black-robed old man in the middle drew a deep breath, his eyes, as large as a bull's, gleaming.

His normally steady voice could not conceal his surging emotions:

"I did."

"Is this... real?"

The old man on the right spoke in a trembling voice. Even the soul power within him stirred faintly out of control, betraying his shock.

"Beyond any doubt!"

The middle old man's gaze burned, and his tone was utterly certain.

Then he abruptly broke into a low laugh. "Hahaha! Heaven truly favors our Body Sect!

"I never imagined that coming to the Sun Moon Empire to buy medicinal herbs would not only let us witness the Sun Moon Imperial Family's farcical coup,

"but also bring us face-to-face with the peerless rising star our sect has awaited for a hundred years!"

This man was none other than the Sect Master of the Body Sect.

The level-98 Super Douluo—Body Douluo Du Busi.

On his right stood the level-96 Golden Body Douluo, the sect's First Elder, Jin Peng.

On his left was the level-95 Jade-Eyed Douluo, Second Elder Mo Yuan.

These three were the strongest individual combatants underpinning the Body Sect's standing on the continent.

They had originally only been passing through, planning to take advantage of the unrest in the Imperial City to squeeze a few nobles for some spoils.

They intended to plunder a haul of medicinal herbs.

Instead, they had unexpectedly witnessed that scene.

Jin Peng suppressed the storm raging in his heart and said gravely:

"Not only has this boy awakened the same perfect body as the Sect Master, but his first two soul rings are both Thousand-Year Soul Rings.

"Talent like this is seen once in ten thousand years.

"Even Ao Tian, whom the sect has spared no effort to nurture, only barely managed to absorb a Thousand-Year Soul Ring for his second soul ring. He falls far short of this boy."

"Hahaha! That's not all!"

Du Busi laughed heartily, his eyes brimming with joy:

"This boy possesses an ultimate attribute, and the vitality within him is so abundant that it defies all reason.

"He is simply the most flawless successor Heaven could have bestowed upon our Body Sect!"

Seeing this, Mo Yuan hurriedly reminded him in a low voice, "Sect Master, please restrain yourself.

"This is the Sun Moon Imperial Capital. Powerful experts gather here. We should not draw attention."

"Hmph, so what if it's the imperial capital?"

Du Busi's face filled with disdain, his tone contemptuous:

"They're nothing but a pack of useless fools who fiddle with toys."

He had always rejected external aids such as Soul Tools.

He firmly believed that cultivation lay in tempering oneself and uncovering the limits of the human body.

"Come, follow me and bring our sect's disciple home!"

Du Busi spoke urgently, unable to wait any longer.

"Sect Master, from their conversation earlier, this boy is a prince of the Sun Moon Imperial Family..."

"I don't give a damn whether he's a prince or the crown prince!"

Du Busi swept his sleeve, radiating domineering authority:

"If he has a Body Martial Soul, he belongs to our Body Sect!

"It's not that I look down on them, but if they dare cause trouble, I wouldn't mind flattening the Imperial City."

"You are absolutely right, Sect Master."

Jin Peng shook his head with a chuckle, his voice carrying a hint of mockery:

"The Sun Moon Imperial Family has a peerless genius in its grasp, yet fails to recognize its treasure. Instead, its members butcher their own flesh and blood and carry out sweeping purges. Utterly laughable.

"With such narrow vision and such methods of nurturing talent, it is only a matter of time before the great ship of the Sun Moon Empire capsizes."

"Haha, who cares?"

Du Busi grinned broadly. "I ought to thank them for this internal strife!

"If they hadn't turned their weapons on their own family and driven him to this point,

"how could we have picked up this peerless genius who appears once in ten thousand years?"

As the three chatted and laughed, their figures turned into three blurred afterimages.

Following the traces of their presence, they swiftly pursued the direction in which Xu Yan and the other three had departed.

Meanwhile, in the deepest reaches of the imperial palace,

an ancient, solemn hall stood quietly.

Above its eaves were engraved bold, majestic words—the Worship Hall.

This was the true pinnacle of power in the Sun Moon Empire.

It was also the core foundation protecting the entire empire.

A long rectangular table stood in the center of the hall.

Sixteen seats surrounded it, corresponding to the empire's sixteen consecrated experts.

Unlike the other three nations of Douluo,

the Sun Moon Empire's consecrated experts were not only Titled Douluos, but also Level 9 Soul Engineers.

Their combat prowess was formidable!

At that moment, six people sat within the hall: five men and one woman.

Vast, steady soul power surrounded them, and every one of them possessed genuine Titled Douluo cultivation.

The elder in the seat of honor possessed soul power as vast and mighty as the sea, and an overwhelming aura surged around him.

A mere glance from him left all the other Titled Douluo looking constrained, their bearing deferential.

This man was the Sun Moon Empire's strongest expert, a Rank 94 Titled Douluo.

The continent's first Level 10 Soul Engineer—Kong Deming.

"Dawn is approaching. Attend to your duties. You are dismissed."

Kong Deming swept his gaze over the gathering, his voice even and unruffled.

It was as though he knew nothing of the bloody coup that had taken place that night.

As his words fell, a figure on the left finally lost patience, rose, and spoke.

The speaker was none other than Liao Mengkai.

A Rank 93 Titled Douluo whose title was Blade Soul.

"Elder Kong, I still cannot understand why the Offering Hall stood by and watched this coup unfold without lifting a finger.

"His Majesty Xu Jingyao may have been somewhat conservative, but it was precisely his policy of recuperation that allowed the empire's people to live and work in peace.

"To gradually recover from the previous war!"

Kong Deming cast him an indifferent glance and said calmly:

"This has always been the Offering Hall's rule."

"Does a rule have to be right?"

Liao Mengkai immediately retorted, a stubborn edge in his voice.

He had risen from the lowest ranks, climbing step by step through his military achievements before finally becoming an imperial offering.

That was why he could not understand Kong Deming's indifference.

"Silence!"

Seated opposite him, Ye Yulin rebuked him sharply, cutting him off before anyone else could.

Ye Yulin stole a glance at Kong Deming in the seat of honor.

Only after seeing that Kong Deming was not angered did he turn toward Liao Mengkai, his expression cold and stern.

"At every stage of the empire's development, it needs a leader suited to that stage.

"This coup was the inevitable tide of the court, a choice made by everyone with one heart.

"The will of the collective cannot change for the sake of one person.

"Xu Jingyao's conservative national policy has already fulfilled its historical purpose.

"If the empire is to advance further and expand its territory, it needs a more aggressive ruler at the helm of the court."

"Utter nonsense!"

Liao Mengkai slammed the table, his eyes wide as he fixed Ye Yulin with a furious stare.

"I came from the bottom! I fought my way out of the mud, unlike you, born into high station with fine clothes and sumptuous food!

"You have no idea how hard ordinary people struggle just to fill their bellies!"

"Only when the people prosper can the nation grow strong! The people have barely managed to catch their breath after the flames of war and live in peace.

"And now you want to reignite the fighting and launch great campaigns of conquest!

"Is this for the empire? For its people?

"As far as I can see, it is merely for your selfish desires and ambitions, and those of the privileged nobility!"

"How dare you! That is pure slander!"

Ye Yulin flew into a rage, slammed the table, and sprang to his feet.

The soul power around him began to stir restlessly.

"Enough."

Kong Deming spoke slowly, a single word suppressing the drawn-sword tension within the hall.

"If you disagree, debate your principles. The Worship Hall is not a place for venting your emotions at will."

Both men snorted coldly, resentment on their faces, then took their seats one after the other.

At that moment, an elder seated farther down from Ye Yulin slowly spoke.

His gaze settled on Liao Mengkai with a trace of scrutiny.

"Liao Mengkai, you have never cared for court disputes. You have always concerned yourself solely with training troops and waging war.

"Why have you become so angry over this matter today?

"Could it be because of that boy Xu Yan?"

At those words, everyone else in the hall turned their eyes toward Liao Mengkai, confusion filling their gazes.

Liao Mengkai commanded the empire's spearhead—the Terror Claw Soul Engineer Legion.

He had always valued combat strength alone and ignored politics, famously a soldier through and through.

Someone chuckled and spoke with a teasing edge.

"Could it be that, while leading the escort for Xu Yan to hunt for soul rings, you ended up drinking that boy's bewitching potion instead?"

[PS: My new book is still getting started. Please, all you handsome, wealthy big shots, lend me some support.

"Spare me a few recommendation votes and monthly votes so I can get a taste.

"If that's too much, even keeping up with the book will do. I bow in thanks!]