"I can-reforge your spear soul!"
When Qianjun Douluo said this, Yang Chang'an did not immediately break into wild delight. Instead, he sank into thought.
Reforge my spear soul?
Yang Chang'an knew better than anyone what those words meant.
His greatest problem now was that no one was guiding him down the right path. What his grandfather had taught him was not wrong, but it clashed with the Soul Breaking Spear's nature. The more he practiced, the farther he strayed.
Qianjun Douluo's willingness to help him reforge his spear soul made his intentions abundantly clear-this Enshrined wanted to take him as a disciple!
The problem was that Yang Chang'an simply could not understand why such an important figure had taken an interest in him.
He did not doubt his talent. With innate rank-nine soul power and the Soul Breaking Spear martial soul, he stood among the very finest of the younger generation.
But his background was far too sensitive.
His surname was Yang. He belonged to the Breaking Clan, and tracing his roots further back, he also came from the Upper Three Sects.
Although the Yang Family had now joined Spirit Hall, many of Spirit Hall's higher-ups still saw them as outsiders, descendants of former enemies.
By rights, no matter how unselective Spirit Hall might be, it should never have allowed someone from the Upper Three Sects to become the direct disciple of a Douluo from the Worship Hall.
The risks involved were simply too great. Even he had never dared hope for such a thing. He had only hoped to demonstrate his worth so that the Yang and Niu families could survive in peace.
Yang Chang'an raised his head and looked at the imposing, powerfully built Qianjun Douluo, whose presence loomed like a mountain. After a moment of silence, he finally asked bluntly:
"Lord Enshrined, my surname is Yang."
The meaning was plain the moment he spoke-I belong to the Breaking Clan. Are you sure you want to take me as your disciple?
Qianjun Douluo paused in surprise, then burst into hearty laughter.
His laughter was bold and commanding, echoing beside the waterfall and making the surrounding leaves rustle.
Only after laughing for a good while did he slowly stop. Looking at the solemn-faced Yang Chang'an, he said calmly:
"Then do you know that within Spirit Hall, there are two Elders whose families were wiped out by Spirit Hall itself?"
Yang Chang'an's brows drew together sharply.
But Qianjun Douluo gave him no time to digest that before continuing in the same calm tone:
"One of those families was exterminated less than fifty years ago."
Yang Chang'an's heart jolted at those words, and he instantly understood what Qianjun Douluo meant.
Spirit Hall's confidence far exceeded anything he could imagine.
Never mind that he was only a lowly Soul Master now. Even if he truly became a Titled Douluo someday, he would be nothing more than a slightly stronger ant in the eyes of Spirit Hall's true leaders.
They did not care whether he descended from former enemies. They feared neither his grudges nor his revenge.
If he was strong, they would use him.
If he disobeyed, they could crush him with a casual pinch.
As for worrying whether he might harbor resentment? They did not care at all!
Qianjun Douluo did not press Yang Chang'an as he stood there in silence.
This was also a deliberate warning to Yang Chang'an.
Innate rank-nine soul power certainly sounded formidable, and his talent was impressive.
But so what?
Compared with Qian Renxue, a born child of the divine whose terrifying talent had destined her from birth to press the entire continent down until it could not lift its head, Yang Chang'an's little brilliance was no more than the glow of a grain of rice.
Yang Chang'an was, after all, the disciple he had chosen. He hoped the boy would recognize how the winds were blowing rather than seek his own death.
Yang Chang'an took a deep breath, and everything immediately became clear.
He understood that this was not merely Qianjun Douluo's personal view. Most likely, all of Spirit Hall's higher-ups shared that attitude.
Otherwise, with Qian Renxue's absurdly terrifying talent, how could Spirit Hall have borne to send her to the Heaven Dou Empire as an undercover agent?
This was the confidence of the true ruler of the Douluo Continent.
Truthfully, if a few of Spirit Hall's leaders had not made a string of outrageous blunders late in the original story, its strength and accumulated foundations would have left no one on the entire continent capable of stopping it.
Once he had thought all this through, Yang Chang'an no longer hesitated.
He bent his knees and dropped to the ground with a thud, respectfully kowtowing to Qianjun Douluo as he declared in a steady, powerful voice:
"Your disciple, Yang Chang'an, pays his respects to you, Master!"
He knew perfectly well just how worthwhile becoming Qianjun Douluo's disciple would be.
Qianjun Douluo's martial soul was the Coiling Dragon Staff. The staff was the ancestor of all weapons, fierce and domineering, advancing without retreat.
The Coiling Dragon Staff's will was already extremely similar to that of the Soul Breaking Spear.
It could be said that no one in all of Spirit City was better suited to be his master than Qianjun Douluo.
More importantly-
Once he became the disciple of the Worship Hall's Sixth Enshrined, he would no longer have to worry about that madwoman Bibi Dong targeting and persecuting the Yang and Niu families.
Even the higher-ups of the Worship Hall faction who had been secretly watching the two families and making trouble for them at every turn would have to restrain themselves from now on.
In this bow, he acknowledged a master and sought a path to survival, a future, and a chance to change his fate.
Seeing Yang Chang'an perform the ceremony without hesitation, Qianjun Douluo finally revealed a heartfelt smile on his rugged face.
He strode forward, reached out, and pulled Yang Chang'an to his feet, unable to keep himself from laughing aloud:
"Good! Wonderful! After waiting all these years, I finally have a worthy successor!"
Qianjun Douluo had plans of his own.
Since his and his younger brother Demon Subduing Douluo's generation, their branch of the family had never produced another genius worth showing off.
The younger children had reasonably good talent, but compared with a monster like Yang Chang'an, who possessed innate rank-nine soul power and exceptional comprehension, the gap was far from small.
Spirit Hall had developed over tens of thousands of years. Its interior was already crowded with factions and tangled relationships.
Their branch held firmly to vast resources and status only because he and his younger brother were both Enshrined.
But once their generation was gone, without a sufficiently powerful junior to hold things up, their family would sooner or later be swallowed piece by piece.
That was why he urgently needed a truly suitable successor, someone capable of shouldering the future.
And Yang Chang'an was the one he favored most.
Qianjun Douluo gave Yang Chang'an's shoulder a firm pat, his eyes full of admiration and expectation, and said in a ringing voice:
"Chang'an, since you have become my disciple, today I will teach you the method for reforging your spear soul!"
At those words, unconcealable delight immediately appeared on Yang Chang'an's face. His eyes lit up, fixing intently on Qianjun Douluo.
When he had first learned that his cultivation path had gone astray at its very root, his heart had truly plunged into the depths.
On the surface, the world of the Douluo Continent seemed to revolve around martial souls and talent. But in the later stages, reaching Titled Douluo or even higher realms without the right mindset and martial soul will was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Unless one possessed twin martial souls or had a divine trial, the time and price required to advance step by step were simply beyond measure.
Even Yun Ming, who would be known in later generations as the strongest man on the continent, had spent a full eight years advancing from a newly ascended Titled Douluo to a Limit Douluo.
And that was in an era when the Soul Master system was already extremely well developed.
In the present era, taking the wrong path could very well mean being stuck at a certain rank for life, unable to advance another inch.
Now that Qianjun Douluo was willing to teach him the method for reforging his spear soul directly, it was equivalent to pulling him off that crooked path and setting him right in one step, paving a broad road toward his future!
Suppressing his excitement, Yang Chang'an said respectfully:
"Please teach me the method, Master!"