The matter was obviously a little uncanny.
Then the six senior elders, Chen Xun, and Chen Xiaojun followed after them.
In the Side Hall, which served as the meeting hall, there were two seats at the front of the head table. The main seat belonged to Clan Chief Chen Yu, while the seat just beside it, slightly forward, belonged to the Grand Elder. It was second only to the Clan Chief's seat, a mark of respect for a Title Douluo.
In other clans and sects, Title Douluo likewise sat at the head table. That was the established custom across the continent.
There were two rows of seats on either side below. The other elders and Chen Xun sat along the two sides. Chen Cong, Mu Lingyun, and Chen Hanxin sat on the left; Chen Wenchao and Ling Yunxiao sat on the right, along with Young Chief Chen Xun. They were arranged according to "civil officials on the left, military officials on the right." Chen Xiaojun stood in the middle.
A word should be said here about Chenlin Village. After more than two hundred years of development, although only dozens of people in the entire village inherited the Seven Kill Sword from the Chen Clan, everyone in the village was connected to the Chen Clan, whether as relatives or members of Retainer Families. It would be more fitting to call it Chen Clan Fortress.
As for the distribution of authority among the Chen Clan in the village, Chen Yu was the Clan Chief, overseeing the entire clan;
Chen Xun was the Young Chief. He assisted the Clan Chief and was mainly responsible for External Relations, representing the Chen Clan at certain events and meetings;
Chen Hong was the Grand Elder. He was responsible for punishments, the Ancestral Hall, and managing the most important Clan Treasury. If the Clan Chief was away, he also managed the entire clan;
Chen Cong was responsible for education and inheritance, and led research into Martial Soul Theory. He had several teachers and scholarly Soul Masters working under him;
Mu Lingyun was responsible for the village's economy and handled its finances;
Chen Wenchao was responsible for intelligence and had a group of people working under him;
Ling Yunxiao was responsible for the village's security and defense;
Chen Hanxin managed the village's elderly, the weak, women, and children, including Soul Masters, and was responsible for people's livelihoods and Logistics.
These seven could be considered the Chen Clan's decision-making circle. Of course, according to the rules, any other Soul Master who reached Soul Saint rank had the Right to Attend and was allowed to listen in and submit proposals. This included members of the Retainer Families.
That was how things were in the village. In fact, the Chen Clan also had assets elsewhere. For example, ten of Chen Yu's surviving brothers of the same generation, including four or five Soul Douluos, were stationed in various places outside the village.
The village's income only covered ordinary people's Clothing, Food, Housing, and Transportation. It did not provide cultivation resources; those depended entirely on the business operations of clan members living elsewhere.
Chen Hong hesitated and asked, "Old Taro, why are you doing this?"
"Mm, just in case." Chen Yu's face was grave as he slowly said, "The ancestors have blessed us. After our Intermediate Revival Ancestor, Chen Xili, and our Great Revival Ancestor, Chen Feiyi, we've now given birth to a second person with Innate Full Soul Power."
Chen Xun looked puzzled. "Father, people with Innate Full Soul Power may be rare in this world, but other powers have them too. They don't keep them hidden away. Why are you doing this?"
Chen Yu shook his head and said gravely, "They are them. The Chen Clan is the Chen Clan."
"Having someone with Innate Full Soul Power is no problem for other small and medium-sized powers, and it's not much of a problem for great sects either. But we're different: a family with a Top-Tier Martial Soul, yet not much power."
"If someone truly had designs on us, they might not even care about our revenge afterward. And whether we could find out who did it would be another question."
Chen Yu was being modest. However one looked at it, the Chen Clan was the foremost of the continent's Twenty-Four Eminent Families, the Number One Family Under Heaven, and a Top-Tier Power.
It was just a little short on people. The Chen Clan Main Lineage and its Retainer Families had only two Titled Douluos and a dozen or so Soul Douluos. They were simply recovering from a severe blow.
Of course, he was speaking in comparison with overlord-level Superpowers like Spirit Hall.
Chen Xun's face darkened. "How dare they!"
Chen Yu scolded him, "They do dare. What can you do about it?!"
Chen Hong asked, "Old Taro, do you mean that the ambush that caught Grandfather Duke Wen of Jin, my father, Fourth Uncle, and our people back then wasn't an accident? Wasn't the Crimson Church keeping an eye on us?"
Chen Wenchao's voice drifted over. "An accident? Heh. My father never believed that. We can't let everyone die without knowing why."
Chen Wenchao's younger sister, Chen Hanxin, continued in a low voice, "Brother Hong, back then, my father spent more than ten years and finally uncovered some clues."
"Although the Crimson Church carried out the attack, it had been a trap all along."
Everyone fell silent for a while.
At that moment, Chen Xiaojun's voice rang out. "Grandpa, why is Innate Full Soul Power so dangerous for our Chen Clan?"
Chen Yu said, "Then let me test you, grandson. What does Innate Soul Power mean?"
Chen Xiaojun answered without hesitation, "It means cultivation efficiency. The higher one's Innate Soul Power, the faster one cultivates. And because people are younger and their Qi-Blood is more vigorous, they advance faster and find it easier to break through bottlenecks."
Chen Yu nodded. "Right, but you left something out."
Chen Xiaojun asked, confused, "What did I leave out?"
Chen Yu stroked the armrest and said, "Innate Soul Power doesn't just determine a Soul Master's cultivation speed and how easily they break through bottlenecks. It also determines the upper limit of their potential."
Chen Xiaojun said, "Huh?"
Chen Yu said slowly, "People say that Innate Soul Power at Level Nine makes someone a Super Genius, while full Soul Power makes someone a Peerless Genius."
"Someone with Innate Soul Power at Level Nine might become a Super Douluo."
"The Soul Master World calls ranks 90 to 95 Conventional Douluo. From Level 96 onward, things are different. Although all of them can be called Super Douluos, there's a great difference in strength between each rank. So they're named by level: a Level 96 Super Douluo, a Level 97 Peak Douluo, a Level 98 Supreme Douluo, and a Level 99 Peerless Douluo, also called a Limit Douluo."
"'Super Genius' and 'Peerless Genius' aren't just adjectives. They mean exactly what they say: a Super Genius might grow into a Super Douluo, while a Peerless Genius has a sliver of potential to break through to Peerless Douluo."
"Also, Innate Soul Power is directly proportional to Martial Soul quality, and vice versa. The Martial Souls of those with Innate Full Soul Power are almost all Top-Tier Martial Souls. They might even ascend to Super Martial Souls in the future. Put the two together, and that's true Peerless Potential."
"Peerless! A Peerless Genius! That means Peerless Talent!"
Chen Xiaojun: "..."
Chen Yu watched the silent Chen Xiaojun and gave him a moment to absorb it before continuing in detail. "Do you know what circumstances might give rise to someone with Innate Full Soul Power?"
Chen Xiaojun leaned forward. "Please enlighten me, Grandpa."
Chen Yu said, "First, in a conventional Martial Soul inheritance family, someone may be born with full Soul Power. But there are only a few such people every hundred years. With so many families boasting Top-Tier Martial Souls, when would the odds ever fall to one of them?"
"For example, in our Chen Clan, including you, only four people have had full Soul Power in over a thousand years. Ancestor Xi Li and you don't even have the Seven-Kill Sword Martial Soul. You can see how low the ratio is: they're truly as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns."
"Second, a Beneficial Mutation can cause Innate Soul Power to rise sharply. But not every Beneficial Mutation raises it to the maximum and produces full Soul Power. Take Ma Hongjun, the chubby boy, and Qin Ming's Blazing Fire Wolf, for example. In fact, only an extremely small number of Beneficial Mutations produce Innate Full Soul Power."
"Moreover, this is the circumstance with the highest proportion of people born with Innate Full Soul Power. It accounts for over half the total."
"Third, those with God-Level Martial Souls are almost always born with Innate Full Soul Power. Even when they aren't, they have at least Level Nine Soul Power or more. Their Martial Souls truly are gifts from the heavens, bestowed by the gods."
"Fourth, Twin Martial Souls. This is an extremely rare situation, even rarer than Innate Full Soul Power."
"Twin Martial Souls can only possibly be born to Soul Masters whose parents have equally powerful Martial Souls, and those Martial Souls have to be Top-Tier. Even if both parents have Advanced Martial Souls, it's impossible."
Chen Xiaojun looked at him with interest. "Grandpa, why can't Twin Martial Souls be born when both parents have Advanced Martial Souls?"
Chen Yu spoke at length. "A Martial Soul is inherited from one parent. One parent's Martial Soul devours the other's. If there's a large difference between them, there's no problem. The closer the two Martial Souls are in strength, the greater the chance of a mutation."
"Only when the two sides are almost perfectly balanced, neither able to overpower the other, might both be inherited at the same time."
"According to Ancestor Chen Feiyi's research, when neither Martial Soul can devour the other, it leads to something like a mutation-and a Beneficial Mutation at that. You could even say Twin Martial Souls are one result of Beneficial Mutation, just so unusual that they're listed separately."
"Twin Martial Soul mutations have two characteristics:"
"First, the Martial Soul rises by one major tier, rather than just one grade."
"If both parents have Advanced Martial Souls, the more likely result is that a Beneficial Mutation will raise them to Top-Tier Martial Souls."
"Only if both are Top-Tier Martial Souls, yet unable to break through and become Super Martial Souls-even if they're both low-grade Top-Tier Martial Souls-can both be inherited, resulting in Twin Martial Souls."
"Second, as I said earlier, a Beneficial Mutation can cause Innate Soul Power to rise sharply."
"With Twin Martial Souls, both Martial Souls are already Top-Tier, so Innate Soul Power rises even more. The result is that Innate Full Soul Power is almost guaranteed."
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