A Titled Douluo Arrives

By now, Liu Hao's martial soul was no longer the withered wooden staff it had originally been.

Instead, it was the Azure Nether Staff, transformed and evolved by the simplification system.

And this was not the limit of his martial soul's evolution. He had simply chosen not to evolve it further for now, to be on the safe side.

That was because Liu Hao evolved his martial soul through a method simplified by the system.

The original method-absorbing all kinds of heavenly treasures and the soul rings of powerful soul beasts of the same kind as his martial soul-had been simplified to: devour life-forms of the same kind. In other words, devouring trees was enough to evolve it.

The first evolution required only ten small trees, roughly as thick as an arm, each with a life value of 100.

Liu Hao's current martial soul was the product of that first evolution.

It was as hard as steel, possessed powerful vitality, and consumed very little soul power. Even if his martial soul was shattered in combat, it could quickly recover to its original state. It was exceptionally formidable.

The second evolution, however, required thirty large trees, each with a life value of 1,000.

Liu Hao had barely scraped together even those ten small trees with 100 life value, let alone large trees with 1,000 life value.

Of course, that was also because he did not yet dare cut down trees indiscriminately, fearing that someone with ulterior motives might notice. Otherwise, he would have completed the second evolution long ago.

Still, the Azure Nether Staff was strong enough for the time being. He could wait a few years and evolve it in a great forest.

A great forest had plenty of towering trees. Not only would suitable trees be easy to find, their disappearance would also be less likely to attract attention.

It was unlike the area around an inhabited village like this, where there were few large trees. Even one or two suddenly disappearing might draw notice.

Although Liu Hao already had some ability to protect himself, he did not want to invite trouble. After all, unexpected things could always happen. However small the odds, there was always that dreaded possibility.

Since Liu Hao could become invincible in a few years, there was naturally no reason to take that risk.

With the system strengthening his physique, Liu Hao's physical condition had already reached the level of a rank-30 Soul Elder when he was only a rank-10 soul master.

Thus, his first soul ring was a Thousand-Year Soul Ring-roughly 1,300 years old, to be precise.

The soul skill he obtained was [Sweep Across a Thousand Armies].

Once activated, his martial soul became three times as long, extending from its original two meters to six meters and greatly increasing his attack range.

The staff's weight also increased threefold, from three hundred jin to nine hundred jin.

The change in his martial soul's weight had no effect on Liu Hao. It was his martial soul, after all. Even if it weighed ten thousand jin, it would still feel as light as a feather to him and obey as readily as his own arm.

This was essentially a privilege of the martial soul's owner.

Aside from the changes to his martial soul's form and weight, his first soul skill also incorporated a fixed accompanying motion: a sweeping strike.

This sweep was not to be underestimated. Under the rules governing his first soul skill, the strike received a 100% speed boost.

In other words, if Liu Hao could swing the Azure Nether Staff in a sweep at one hundred meters per second without the skill, then after activating his first soul skill, his sweeping speed would reach two hundred meters per second.

After all, the greater the kinetic energy, the more powerful the impact.

And this increase in power was not a simple matter of one plus one.

Given that kinetic energy equaled one-half times mass times velocity squared, while the wooden staff's mass, m, remained constant:

Without the soul skill, the speed was 100 meters per second.

Kinetic energy = 0.5 × m × 100 × 100 = 5,000m

With the first soul skill activated, the speed was 200 meters per second.

Kinetic energy = 0.5 × m × 200 × 200 = 20,000m

A full fourfold difference! Terrifying indeed!

And the second soul ring he had just obtained was 8,000 years old.

Its soul skill was called [Sky-Piercing Strike].

Its effect was to grant a 150% speed boost when he used his martial soul to perform a vertical chop, fifty percentage points stronger than the boost from his first soul skill.

Plugging that into the kinetic energy formula showed that, after activating his second soul skill, the power generated by a vertical chop would be 6.25 times what it was without the skill.

As expected of a soul ring approaching ten thousand years in age. It was truly frightening.

Liu Hao was delighted, and he looked forward even more eagerly to the soul skills he would obtain in the future.

Time flew by.

On the evening two days later, someone Liu Hao had never expected appeared.

Under the dim candlelight, Su Yuntao and a mysterious man clad entirely in black robes suddenly appeared in the living room.

They startled everyone eating around the square table-except Li Zhaodi, of course. She could not see, so she was not startled.

"Brother Liu Jun, don't be afraid. It's me, Su Yuntao," Su Yuntao hurriedly said with a somewhat bitter smile.

In truth, he had not expected the eminent figure beside him to bring him straight into someone else's living room either. This was rather too impatient.

"Oh, it's Deacon Su Yuntao. Have you come to take Yao'er to the Spirit Hall?"

After recognizing the visitor, Liu Jun secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then continued, "We've already discussed it with Yao'er and packed his things. Are you leaving right now?"

"A family should naturally stay together. All of you will come with me to Spirit City as well."

The black-robed man suddenly spoke. His voice was hoarse and his tone flat, yet it carried an unquestionable authority.

"Huh? Well..."

Thinking of the fields he had worked so hard to cultivate, Liu Jun hesitated.

It was not that he did not want to go. After all, Spirit City was the sacred land every soul master yearned for.

He simply found it hard to part with the land over which he had shed so much sweat.

The grain and vegetables were all the fruits of his daily toil. He had poured so much of his heart into them that every plant was like his own child.

"Even with such preferential treatment, you still don't want to go?" The black-robed man snorted coldly. Black vapor suddenly swirled around him, making him look especially sinister beneath the dim candlelight.

Two yellow, two purple, and five black soul rings-nine in total-appeared beneath him one after another.

A terrifying pressure instantly spread through the room, and even the wooden roof began to creak.

Unable to withstand the pressure, Li Zhaodi, Liu Yao, Liu Jun, and Liu Hao fell to their knees one after another.

"A... a Titled Douluo!" The sudden turn of events left Liu Jun drenched in cold sweat. He hurriedly said, "We'll go! We'll go! Please calm your anger, Your Eminence."

As soon as he finished speaking, the black-robed man's pressure vanished, and the nine soul rings withdrew into his body.

"Wouldn't it have been better to agree so readily from the start? I'm taking you to Spirit City to enjoy a good life, not to suffer. What's there to hesitate about?" the black-robed man said blandly.

"You're right, Your Eminence. We'll pack our things right away and leave with you."

"Fine. You have one incense stick's worth of time." After a moment's thought, the black-robed man agreed to let them pack.

After all, he had already put them in their place. This was a child His Holiness the Pope had taken an interest in, along with his family. He could not go too far.

With that, the black-robed man turned into black mist and vanished.

Seeing the Titled Douluo leave, Liu Jun hurriedly helped his wife and children up and urged them to pack. There was no time even to finish dinner.

Liu Hao, who had remained silent throughout, had already quietly marked down a little grudge against the black-robed man in his heart.

Judging by the man's martial soul and soul rings, he guessed that this was most likely one of the Titled Douluos serving under Bibi Dong of the Spirit Hall: Ghost Douluo!

Releasing his soul rings and pressure had clearly been intended to intimidate their family into obediently following him to Spirit City.

The central purpose was probably to use Liu Yao's family to secretly keep this genius in check.

They would take him back to Spirit City to train and teach him from childhood, strengthening his sense of belonging. At the same time, they would bring his family there under the pretext of looking after a genius's loved ones.

Not only would this keep Liu Yao's family from being unexpectedly murdered by villains, securing his loyalty, but it would also continue deepening his bond with his family. That way, once his wings were fully grown, he would not be free of ties holding him back and thus more likely to defect.

He had to admit that Bibi Dong was indeed a seasoned schemer. He just wondered whether those old shoulders of hers were equally slippery.

As for this little ghost, he would put up with him for now.

A gentleman could wait ten years to settle a score!

And he only needed to wait another five years, didn't he?

You made my whole family kneel for twenty seconds, did you? Then someday, I'll make you kneel for twenty days-and you'll have to do it in front of your colleagues from the Spirit Hall!