As a guest elder of the Heaven Dou Empire, Dugu Bo had little trouble arranging an audience with a prince or an imperial son.
The Heaven Dou Empire's imperial palace.
Crown Prince Xue Qinghe scrutinized the invitation several times, his expression shifting between light and shadow.
"An invitation from that old poisoner Dugu Bo. Interesting. Very interesting."
Watching Xue Qinghe, whose thoughts they could not fathom, the two guards beside him looked indignant.
Who in Heaven Dou City did not know of Dugu Bo's ties to Prince Xue Xing?
And Prince Xue Xing secretly supported the fourth prince, Xue Beng, who competed for the throne with the crown prince they served.
The two sides naturally stood in opposing camps.
Dugu Bo had never had much contact with Crown Prince Xue Qinghe, yet now he had suddenly reached out to them.
Something was strange about this. Anyone would suspect a trap.
"If that old poisoner is so eager to court death..."
"Then let us brothers send him on his way."
Snake Lance Douluo and Porcupinefish Douluo both had great confidence in themselves.
At the same level, either of them was confident he could defeat Dugu Bo.
Spirit Hall had specifically selected these two Titled Douluos for their unusual martial souls, which could counter Dugu Bo's Jade Phosphorous Serpent Emperor martial soul.
A private room in the Moonlight Pavilion Restaurant.
The five met in secret.
Xue Qinghe studied the handsome youth accompanying Dugu Bo.
"Your Eminence Dugu Bo, you aren't the one who wants to see me. He is, isn't he?" Qian Renxue, who was posing as Xue Qinghe, asked with a smile.
Although she was in the Heaven Dou Empire, she still kept an eye on news from Spirit City.
That included Chen Zhuo, who stood before her.
Truth be told.
She was rather curious about this gifted youth with innate full soul power, yet a defect in his martial soul.
Why had he sought out the crown prince of the Heaven Dou Empire?
"I did indeed come specifically to find you, Your Highness Qian Renxue."
The moment Chen Zhuo said this, not only did Xue Qinghe's expression change drastically, but murderous intent flashed in the eyes of the two guards beside him.
Was he serious? What had he just called me?
For a moment, countless thoughts raced through Qian Renxue's mind.
Fewer than ten people in all of Spirit Hall knew her identity.
The seven grandfathers in the Worship Hall would never reveal the secret of her infiltration into Heaven Dou and her attempt to seize the empire.
Then who could it be?
That woman in the Pope's Hall? Or was there a traitor among my own people?
Under the pressure of the spiritual power from two Titled Douluos who had reached the fourth stage, the spirit abyss realm.
Cracks spread across the soul guide barrier overhead.
Dugu Bo gave a cold snort at the sight.
A sliver of his soul power as a level 95 Super Douluo leaked out, instantly erasing Snake Lance and Pufferfish's murderous intent.
Otherwise, the entire Moonlight Pavilion Restaurant would have been reduced to rubble.
"Your soul power-"
Snake Lance Douluo and Porcupinefish Douluo both turned deathly pale.
The aura Dugu Bo had just revealed towered completely above their own.
This was nothing like the laughable weakest Titled Douluo they remembered, who could not even control his own ninth soul skill freely!
"Don't get worked up, Your Highness. I chose not to stay in Spirit City and settled here in Heaven Dou City instead precisely because I came to help you."
Chen Zhuo took a seat.
He looked at Qian Renxue, who wore Xue Qinghe's appearance.
His gaze then swept seemingly casually over Snake Lance and Pufferfish behind her.
When Chen Zhuo's eyes met Snake Lance Douluo's, his smile deepened.
"Help me... you?"
"Besides, my plan is progressing very smoothly."
"I need anyone interfering!"
Qian Renxue brought her extraordinary intelligence to bear on the situation, becoming increasingly convinced that Chen Zhuo had already sided with Bibi Dong.
And that woman had never looked kindly upon her.
She had probably sent someone to trip her up.
"Oh, well, if you think so little of me, forget it."
"But I've admired Snake Lance Douluo for a long time."
"I'd like to ask His Eminence Snake Lance for guidance on a few cultivation questions. Surely that's acceptable?"
With that.
Chen Zhuo released his soul power, and three soul rings appeared beneath his feet.
A level 40 Quasi-Soul Ancestor!
Three Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings!
Qian Renxue, Snake Lance Douluo, and Porcupinefish Douluo were all shocked by Chen Zhuo's cultivation and soul ring configuration.
If their information was correct, the youth before them was only twelve.
"Twelve years old and level 40? What kind of monster is he?"
Qian Renxue had always believed her talent was the greatest under heaven!
Yet comparing them at the same age, she remembered that her soul power had only reached level 38 when she was twelve.
How had this fellow managed it?
After all, hers was a god-bestowed martial soul that surpassed every other martial soul in the world.
Level 20 innate soul power!
She was on an entirely different plane from ordinary mortals.
Even geniuses with innate full soul power or twin martial souls could only look up to her and feel ashamed of their own inadequacy.
Chen Zhuo had deliberately drawn their attention.
He also wanted to increase his importance and bargaining power.
That would keep this little girl Qian Renxue from blindly puffing herself up and looking down on him.
Little did they know that, in the time it took him to summon and dismiss his martial soul, he had already obtained the fourth soul ring he wanted.
Snake Lance Douluo's strongest soul skill, his ninth soul skill-Snake Lance Soul-Extinguishing Kill.
Chen Zhuo's third soul skill, Netherdark Death Ray, could only inflict physical damage.
But this newly copied fourth soul skill, Snake Lance Soul-Extinguishing Kill, could inflict damage on both the body and the spirit.
It completely filled the gap in his offensive abilities.
"Of course, I'm not asking to learn for free."
"Here's a small token of my sincerity."
From the Wishful Hundred-Treasure Pouch, Chen Zhuo took out the immortal herbs he had prepared long ago for Snake Lance Douluo, She Long.
Everything he had done.
Was merely to put on a perfectly plausible show before Qian Renxue.
Speaking of which, Snake Lance Douluo was a rare talent whose potential had been held back.
His Snake Lance martial soul possessed the dual attributes of a tool martial soul and a beast martial soul, a rarity in this world.
When using his seventh soul skill, Martial Soul Avatar, he could not only manifest the avatar of his Snake Lance tool martial soul, but also transform himself into a two-headed purple-and-cyan serpent that spat lightning and venom, displaying traits unique to beast martial souls.
With his talent, becoming a Super Douluo should not have been difficult.
The reason he had only barely reached level 92.
Was that his background had dragged him down.
Snake Lance Douluo had not been born into nobility.
On the contrary, his parents were both commoners, and even sending him to an Elementary Soul Master Academy had been a struggle.
In his youth, like all young people, he had been far too proud.
Especially as an outstanding son of a humble family.
Such people often carried both an inferiority complex and an overweening pride.
Snake Lance Douluo had refused an offer of recruitment from a noble in a small town.
That had led to his parents dying in the ensuing conflict.
Before he had even attended an Advanced Soul Master Academy, he had been forced to flee for his life and become an Independent Cultivator.
Without a major power supporting him, he had been at a severe disadvantage under this world's soul master cultivation system.
Everyone else had yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black-the soul ring configuration universally recognized as optimal in the Soul Master World.
But his martial soul's configuration had been yellow, yellow, purple, purple, purple.
His fifth soul ring had been a Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
In the early stages, it might have seemed perfectly fine, with little apparent impact.
But once he cultivated to the Titled Douluo level, he realized he was in trouble.
He had reached the end of the road!
After slaughtering the small-town noble's entire household that had murdered his parents, Snake Lance Douluo had joined Spirit Hall.
He had become a Direct Elder.
To obtain cultivation resources. And to have a home.
In the original timeline, this fellow's ending had actually been one of the more fortunate ones.
After Spirit City fell and Bibi Dong died, Snake Lance Douluo had survived by sheer luck.
He had vanished into the boundless sea of people beneath the tides of the era, never to be heard from again.
But now that Snake Lance Douluo had formed a bond with him.
Chen Zhuo would not let him follow the same doomed path again.
These two immortal herbs, singular velvet sky chrysanthemum and crystal blood dragon ginseng.
Were meant to remedy the deficiencies in Snake Lance Douluo's foundations from his early years.
Before you continue