Gangzi's True Colors! Another Clown's Declaration! Douluo's Method of Spiritual Victory! (1 / 2)

In the Heaven Dou Empire, the palace's great hall was heavy with oppressive silence.

Xue Ye was drenched in cold sweat. Only after seeing Qian Daoliu's verdict did a trace of color finally return to his deathly pale face.

"Whew..."

Xue Ye let out a long breath, his voice trembling slightly, as though he had seized the only life-saving straw amid raging waves of despair:

"The Great Enshrined... the Great Enshrined truly is the pillar that steadies the seas of our Douluo Continent!"

"Exactly! How could a world-destroying weapon capable of reducing everything within ten thousand miles to absolute nothingness possibly be easy to manufacture?

If they could really toss them out in batches whenever they pleased, they would have unified the plane long ago. Why would they still be drifting out at sea?!"

Deep in his bones, Xue Ye was wary and distrustful of Spirit Hall.

Especially in recent years, the current pope, Bibi Dong, had grown increasingly erratic and domineering, showing faint ambitions of devouring the empire piece by piece. The Heaven Dou Imperial Family had long regarded her as a dire threat.

But at this moment, facing that unknown continent across the ocean, which might swallow the entire Douluo Plane, skin and bones, at any time, Xue Ye had to admit that the name Qian Daoliu carried the weight of a pillar holding up heaven and earth.

During the years when the Qian Family ruled Spirit Hall, they had at least observed some aristocratic dignity and ancient principles. On the surface, they had merely maintained their lofty bearing as the sacred ground of all Soul Masters on the continent, unlike Bibi Dong's madness.

More importantly, Qian Daoliu was a living level ninety-nine demigod! He was the last pinnacle of martial might on this ancient continent!

"The Great Enshrined is absolutely right. This must be a one-off trump card that the sky screen deliberately revealed to intimidate everyone. A unique specimen! There is nothing to worry about! Most likely, they have already used it up!"

Beside him, Ning Fengzhi, the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, finally regained his warm, composed demeanor:

"The sudden sight of such a killing weapon nearly threw me off balance as well. Now that I think it over, the Great Enshrined's judgment is truly that of a seasoned statesman."

Below the steps, Marshal Ge Long and the assembled civil and military officials applauded and voiced their agreement. The atmosphere in the hall immediately lightened considerably, as though the suffocating clouds of apocalypse from moments earlier had been nothing but a false alarm.

Standing behind this relieved crowd was none other than Yu Xiaogang.

At that moment, Yu Xiaogang's face alternated between ashen and flushed. His lips were cracked, and he looked utterly drained, as though he had just been hauled up from ten thousand fathoms underwater.

When the sky screen's bullet comments had opened earlier, billions of living beings across the entire plane had frantically tagged his name!

The Sun Moon Empire's chief Soul Engineer had practically pointed straight at his nose and mocked his theories for failing to scratch even the surface. Those invisible slaps delivered from afar had nearly shattered him on the spot.

What did he care about most in his life?

Not power, not wealth, not even family or love!

It was his book, Martial Soul Core Competitiveness, which he claimed could "rewrite the history of Soul Masters" and "reach straight to the ultimate nature of Martial Souls"!

As a failure whose Soul Power would remain stuck at level twenty-nine for his entire life, that was his sole spiritual pillar for maintaining his dignity and styling himself "Grandmaster" on this continent where strength reigned supreme!

If Martial Souls were no longer the foundation, if external objects truly could slay gods, would the so-called "truths" Yu Xiaogang had spent his entire life compiling not become the greatest joke under heaven?!

Precisely for that reason, when he saw Qian Daoliu condemn external objects as "ultimately illusory" and declare that "without a divine inheritance, they could never enter the halls of true greatness" on the sky screen, Yu Xiaogang's entire body trembled violently as though an electric current had surged through him!

By all rights, he had a blood feud with Spirit Hall carved deep into his bones.

Back then, it had been Qian Daoliu's own son, the former pope Qian Xunji, who had brutally driven him away from Bibi Dong like a homeless dog, trampling his dignity into the mire;

Later, Spirit Hall's iron hooves had crushed his clan. The entire Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had been slaughtered, their corpses strewn across the land!

Whether for stealing his love or exterminating his family, he should have hated the surname "Qian" to the marrow of his bones.

And yet—

At this moment, trapped in the despair of watching the towering edifice of his theories about to be blasted into ruins by the sky screen's revelations, he actually cast all those blood-deep grudges beyond the highest heavens!

However great his hatred was, could it possibly matter more than Yu Xiaogang's "Grandmaster reputation"?!

Qian Daoliu's remarks were nothing short of divine troops descending from heaven, handing him a life-saving crutch that would let him straighten his back before Ning Fengzhi and Xue Ye again!

Yu Xiaogang drew a deep breath and hurried out of the shadows with an almost obsequious urgency.

He forcibly steadied his trembling hands and clasped them behind his back again, striving to puff out his scrawny chest. His voice even rose and warped with excitement:

"Your Majesty! Sect Master Ning! The Great Enshrined's words... truly strike the mark and cut straight to the heart of the matter!"

The great hall fell briefly quiet, and several officials gave him surprised looks.

But Yu Xiaogang had no time to care about those strange gazes. His eyes shone with frenzied self-justification as spittle flew from his mouth:

"I already explained to everyone that Soul Tools are merely petty tricks left over from ancient times! Look, even the Great Enshrined, who stands at the very summit of Douluo, has independently reached the same conclusion as I have!"

"Soul Power follows the most primordial Way of Heaven, and Martial Souls alone are the divine conduit that connects us to the laws!..."

The more he spoke, the more smoothly the words flowed, as though the man the Sun Moon Empire's Soul Engineers had cursed until he nearly coughed blood in the bullet comments had not been him at all. That restrained arrogance of one who presumed to pronounce judgment on the world piled itself back onto his face:

"The Great Enshrined is absolutely correct—devoting oneself to external objects is nothing but chasing flowers in a mirror and the moon upon the water while digging one's own grave!

As long as the great tide of heaven and earth favors our Douluo, that savage continent overseas... will never stir up any waves before the orthodox inheritance of Martial Souls!"

This impassioned speech praised Qian Daoliu to the heavens while conveniently gilding his own theories anew.

Hearing this, Xue Ye nodded slightly, his expression easing somewhat, and gave it little further thought.

Only Sword Douluo Chen Xin, holding his sword against his chest, cast Yu Xiaogang a sidelong glance. An almost imperceptible trace of mockery and coldness curled at his lips. He simply closed his eyes, not bothering to offer even half a word in response.

Deep in Ning Fengzhi's eyes, a few nearly imperceptible traces of complicated emotion flickered,

...along with a faint thread of contempt.

Naturally, he knew of Yu Xiaogang's past grievances with Spirit Hall,

And now he had witnessed this "Grandmaster," who usually spoke endlessly of integrity and considered himself above the vulgar world,

Unhesitatingly grovel before the patriarch of the enemy who had exterminated his clan, all to preserve his own pride. Such a display secretly disgusted this leader of one of the Upper Three Sects.

Gangzi's clownish declaration was once again captured by the sky screen and broadcast across the entire plane!

With the endorsement of Limit Douluo Qian Daoliu, the supposed pinnacle of martial might on the Douluo Continent,

And the praise and approval of the Douluo Continent's foremost theoretical grandmaster!

For a time, the entire Douluo Continent's bullet-comment section seemed to become a massive exhibition of the "method of spiritual victory."

The venerable elders of the great sects, the scions of prominent families, and the pure-blooded Soul Masters who considered themselves noble.

They all frantically flooded the screen right behind Great Enshrined Qian Daoliu's golden message, their comments blotting out the sky:

[The Great Enshrined is absolutely right! Martial Souls are the foundation of all things!]

[A mere tin-shell projectile, slaying gods? What outrageous boasting. Could it even hit anyone?]

[Grandmaster and the Great Enshrined see eye to eye! Our Douluo Continent possesses divine inheritances. Why should we fear those crooked, unorthodox tricks!]

[That one nuclear bomb probably drained their entire continent dry, didn't it? They're just bluffing!]

Agreement and assent filled the screen, every word brimming with pride in traditional Soul Masters and blind fanaticism.

As though all they needed to do was close the logical loop of "expensive to build, impossible to mass-produce, clumsy iron shells" in the bullet comments.

And the Longcang Continent's thousands of cold, hovering battleships and underground launch silos would instantly evaporate into thin air in reality...

Spirit City, the Worship Hall.

Within the solemn, majestic temple, the statue of the six-winged angel radiated a soft, sacred golden light.

Qian Daoliu stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his snow-white robes stirring without a breeze.

He watched the support and praise from the Douluo Continent's conservative powerhouses in the sky screen's bullet-comment section,

And the corners of his mouth lifted slightly into a faint smile, as though everything were under his control.