Courteous and Refined

Then there was Shrek Academy's motto, which had even bigger problems.

That line about how anyone who dared not stir up trouble was mediocre was sheer, outrageous boasting. They were all unbearably arrogant when they ran into Canghui Academy.

But when they met Dugu Bo, the weakest of the Titled Douluos, every last one of them turned into a sickly kitten. Classic bullies who preyed on the weak and feared the strong.

At this point, Qian Ling had basically given up hope that Third Brother would ever become an "upright and kind," "courteous and refined" gentleman who "repaid kindness."

After all, those who stayed near vermilion turned red, and those who stayed near ink turned black. Only two people around him were normal; the rest were all freaks. How was he supposed to change himself?

Still, Qian Ling patiently kept reading.

Next, the seven companions formed a team and entered the Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament, cutting through every obstacle and opponent along the way. They had a grand time fighting, of course, and their unbroken string of victories bred their confidence that they were invincible in team battles.

However, because of an opponent, Third Brother used his second martial soul, the Clear Sky Hammer, exposing his identity. Upon seeing this, Jade Mouth Cannon immediately went to the most vicious, evil organization in this world: Spirit Hall!

He went to see Spirit Hall's Supreme Pontiff, his former lover, Bibi Dong! He wanted to learn from her how to cultivate twin martial souls!

Who was Jade Mouth Cannon's disciple? Third Brother, Tang Hao's son, who possessed the twin martial souls Blue Silver Grass and the Clear Sky Hammer and bore an irreconcilable blood feud with Spirit Hall. Once he grew strong, he would surely smash Spirit Hall and scatter the ashes of the countless Titled Douluos in Douluo Hall.

Did Jade Mouth Cannon not know all this?

No, he knew. But even so, Jade Mouth Cannon still wanted Bibi Dong to pass the secrets of twin martial souls to Third Brother, making her strengthen her own enemy with her own hands!

Then, once he grew strong, he would personally destroy Spirit Hall and scatter her ashes?

Fortunately, Bibi Dong did not agree to Jade Mouth Cannon's request. He returned disappointed and told Third Brother that he had failed to obtain the secret technique.

Next, Jade Mouth Cannon's younger cousin, Liu Erlong, actually thought Bibi Dong had been wrong to withhold the secret technique and should have handed it over.

At this point, Qian Ling was questioning life itself. How could people be shameless and hypocritical to this extent?

All he could say was that these two truly deserved to be cousins. They were a match made in heaven!

This was like breaking up with your ex, then adopting a child who had a blood feud with your ex's family.

But you had no money to raise the kid, so you went to your ex and demanded money as though it were your right. When your ex refused, you actually thought she had changed!

The tournament continued, and the academy that called itself a bunch of monsters fought its way into the finals. Then, under utterly unreasonable circumstances, it defeated Spirit Hall's team and claimed the championship.

Then the shocks started all over again.

With Xiao Wu's identity exposed, Monster Academy descended into chaos. And so Third Brother's daddy, Tang Hao, made his grand entrance! Known as the Sun-Splitting Douluo, he actually had such peculiar tastes that he had screwed a blade of grass!

With one huge hammer and an overpowering aura leaking out everywhere, he simply took Xiao Wu and Third Brother away.

Good grief. Spirit Hall's previous Supreme Pontiff, Qian Xunji, had been severely wounded by Tang Hao before Bibi Dong finished him off. No matter how you looked at it, Tang Hao counted as an accomplice.

Yet Douluo Hall's several Revered Elders above level ninety-six just stood there dumbly, watching Tang Hao finish showing off and stroll away?

No matter how badly you, Qian Daoliu, got along with Bibi Dong, or how much you held each other in check, Tang Hao had come right to your doorstep to smash up your home! You could actually stomach that? Were you a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

Qian Xunji ought to write the word "tragic" on your thigh, his own father's!

Back to the plot. After Tang Hao rescued them, the old rabbit Xiao Wu returned to the forest, while Third Brother began training under Tang Hao. Then the other half of Third Brother's bloodline awakened.

The so-called blue silver emperor bloodline!

As it turned out, Third Brother was not even fully human. Half the blood flowing through his body belonged to a soul beast.

According to the theory of twin martial souls, a person could only inherit both parents' martial souls if they were of comparable quality. Otherwise, they would inevitably have just one martial soul. Therefore, more than half of Third Brother's bloodline came from the Blue Silver Emperor.

And don't give him that nonsense about hundred-thousand-year soul beasts becoming human after taking human form!

Human? Try sacrificing yourself, then! Human? Could a human drop a soul bone and a soul ring upon dying?

So a soul beast was a soul beast. A blade of grass could have a child with Tang Hao that was not entirely human? All he could say was that reproductive isolation in this world did not work very well.

After awakening his bloodline and looking as though he had undergone plastic surgery, Third Brother naturally questioned Tang Hao. He then learned the truth about his mother's death and began plotting his revenge.

In the Ancient Era, soul beasts ran rampant, and eating humans was an everyday occurrence. Not a single soul beast would stand up for humanity! In the Recent Ancient Era, humanity flourished, and hunting beasts for meat, stripping their hides, and searching for bones was perfectly normal too.

Spirit Hall had killed Third Brother's mother and wanted to kill his wife as well. Third Brother wanted revenge. That was perfectly reasonable!

Was Spirit Hall wrong? No! Was Third Brother wrong? No, he was not!

So this feud was not about allegiance or race. It was only about hatred. What he had not expected was for Spirit Hall to court death so eagerly.

First, it attacked contestants from soul master academies across the continent during the Soul Master Tournament. Then it launched the soul hunting operation, wiping out the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and crippling the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. It left the entire continent in a panic, ultimately prompting everyone to rise up against it.

It was like Third Brother wanted to sleep, and you delivered a pillow straight to him. Full marks for that move.

Of course, perhaps Bibi Dong hated the Qian Family so much that she resented Spirit Hall too and wanted it destroyed.

And the later plot made Qian Ling understand outright that this supposedly sincere, kind Third Brother, fully developed in morality, intellect, physique, aesthetics, and labor, existed only in dreams.

Third Brother destroyed Slaughter City!

Slaughter City itself was not actually evil. The evil ones were the degenerates inside it, some of whom were even evil soul masters!

But Slaughter City had nothing to do with those people's depravity. On the contrary, it was a place akin to a prison for them.

A prison held plenty of degenerates and evil soul masters. If you destroyed it, wouldn't its inmates take off on the spot and spread havoc everywhere?

With moves like that, he was clearly a promising seedling for a towering fiend of the dark path, yet he somehow became the successor to the fair, impartial Asura God, who upheld order. This continent was doomed sooner or later.

Having finished discussing this supposedly well-rounded Third Brother, it was time to talk about Jade Mouth Cannon and a few villains.

Jade Mouth Cannon, known as the Theory Grandmaster, even had "There are no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters" as his motto!

Leaving aside whether his so-called theories were right or wrong, Liu Erlong, one of the Golden Iron Triangle, and Jade Mouth Cannon had already gone beyond discussing marriage and reached the wedding ceremony itself. They must have spent at least three or four years together.

So here was the question: they were that intimate, and Liu Erlong's martial soul had even mutated from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul, the one Jade Mouth Cannon knew best.

Could Jade Mouth Cannon really not tell that her martial soul was a mutated Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon?

Did Jade Mouth Cannon only discover that Liu Erlong was his cousin on their wedding day?

Either Jade Mouth Cannon was a fraud who stole fame by deceiving the world, or he had done it deliberately!

His aim was to use the Golden Iron Triangle's name to build his own reputation, getting at least some people to accept his theories.

Then there was the top dog among Douluo's villains, Bibi Dong. He hardly had the strength left to criticize her. Not only did she fall for a good-for-nothing scumbag, she even wanted to elope with him.

Had she considered how many resources Spirit Hall had invested in her?

Had she considered the consequences of leaking Spirit Hall's texts?

Did she not know that Spirit Hall was hostile to the Three Upper Sects and the two great empires?

She knew it all, yet still resolutely threw herself into the enemy's arms!

What was that like? Like a daughter raised by a billionaire falling for his enemy's son, who was practically a beggar to boot. How was Qian Xunji supposed to stomach that?

Qian Xunji was another freak. His muddled thinking was bad enough, but he was also a weakling with a combat rating of five. With a God-Level Martial Soul and two Titled Douluos accompanying him, he was still beaten half-paralyzed by Tang Hao, who had only just become a Titled Douluo.

Why call his thinking muddled? If he could use Jade Mouth Cannon to force Bibi Dong to bear a child, couldn't he use Jade Mouth Cannon to force them not to meet?

If they dared meet, kill Jade Mouth Cannon! Failing that, he could have driven Jade Mouth Cannon away and imprisoned Bibi Dong! Anything would have been better than raping her!

If he had broken up the lovebirds, then for the sake of having raised her himself, she would at most have hated him. She would not have killed him.

Plainly put, Qian Xunji just lusted after her body. Despicable!

Next came villain number two, Hu Liena!

Good grief. This second villain enjoyed Spirit Hall's resources and had the best teacher instructing her. She learned nothing else, but somehow learned to act cute and spoiled with her own side while tipping off the enemy?

During the final showdown, Third Brother was ready to send Bibi Dong straight to heaven, but Bibi Dong pulled off perfect positioning and flawless offense, successfully turning the tables and killing Third Brother. Yet at that moment, you, Hu Liena, actually felt sorry for him? Full marks for that move!

Eating from your bowl while eyeing the pot-how could you face Bibi Dong, who had raised you like her own daughter? How could you face Spirit Hall, which had nurtured you into someone capable?

Finally came villain number three, Qian Xunji's daughter, Qian Renxue!

This girl was a coffee table covered in cups-nothing but one tragedy after another. From birth, neither grandmother nor mother loved her, and the grandfather who alone cared for her-her father had died early, after all-even sacrificed himself. How could the single word "tragic" possibly cover it?

And her heart was as broad as a valley. Faced with someone who was half responsible for killing her father, she actually wanted to recruit him?

You might be willing to abandon your hatred, but would kind, upright Third Brother agree? Why should Third Brother accept your offer? Because you were raising two giant pandas worthy of national-treasure status?

She showed mercy again and again, only to end up with her own mother sent to heaven, her divine position exploding, and the permanent achievement of never being able to reach level ninety.

In summary, to Qian Ling, Douluo Continent was the story of Third Brother, a courteous gentleman with normal intelligence who was ruthless yet kind and upright, the guardian of the continent's order, thrashing a bunch of villains with negative IQs and successfully taking revenge.

This story needed no logic and no intelligence. As long as it felt good, that was enough. So, to Qian Ling's picky tastes back then, it was simply...

Forget it. Judging by the generations, Qian Daoliu, Qian Renxue's grandfather, is still just a molecule right now, let alone Secret Chamber Douluo Qian Xunji. By then, even my ashes will probably be gone. Why worry so much? After ranting for quite some time, Qian Chongling thought this to himself.