"Brilliant insight, Brother Cheng!"
Nana applauded excitedly beside him, clapping until her little hands turned red.
She fully filled the vacancy in the cheering squad.
In the girl's eyes, Xu Cheng was like a god. Whatever he said or did, she trusted him blindly and supported him with all her might.
Only Aunt Qing looked worried.
Throughout history, what succession struggle had not been fraught with peril and unexpected twists? Even with victory seemingly assured, popping the champagne before the dust settled was ultimately ill-advised...
"..."
Seeing that the atmosphere had grown somewhat awkward, Xu Cheng coughed twice and put away his hollow grandstanding.
"Aunt Qing, have you found any leads on the person I asked you to look for?"
"Not yet..."
At his question, Huo Qing spoke with an apologetic expression.
"I used my connections in the military to inquire about the Ju Zi you mentioned-a girl around eleven or twelve, with an orange martial soul. But so far, there hasn't been the slightest lead. We haven't even found a little girl whose martial soul is an orange."
"..."
Hearing this, Xu Cheng nodded slightly.
The original story had only mentioned that Ju Zi came from a small town on the Sun Moon Empire's border. Her father was a chef who died on the battlefield after being conscripted, leaving her to wander...
There was simply too little information. After all, the stretch of the Sun Moon Empire's border adjoining the Star Luo Empire was vast, spanning at least several thousand kilometers.
Finding someone there was no different from fishing a needle out of the sea.
Of course, when all was said and done, Huo Qing's influence was still somewhat limited. If Fire Phoenix, a Level 9 Soul Engineer, handled it, the chances of success would undoubtedly be much higher.
Xu Cheng pondered for a moment.
Two points.
First, improve Huo Qing's strength. Once she advanced to Level 9 Soul Engineer, even if she did not replace Fire Phoenix, her standing would at least rise another step, and her influence over the Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Corps would inevitably continue to expand.
Second, win over Fire Phoenix. As long as this Level 9 Soul Engineer was willing to stand on Xu Cheng's side, the entire Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Corps would naturally follow. But the difficulty was easy to imagine.
None of the four beast-themed Soul Engineer corps would lightly involve themselves in the succession struggle.
In the original story, Fire Phoenix had been an extremely neutral figure, discussing only military affairs and never politics...
After a long while, Xu Cheng spoke again.
"Aunt Qing, how are things looking for you right now? If you wanted to break through to Level 9 Soul Engineer, how much longer would you need?"
"More than fifty years..."
Huo Qing spoke bitterly.
"And even that is an optimistic estimate. Under normal circumstances, I'm afraid I'll never break through in this lifetime."
"Is it because you can't advance to Titled Douluo?"
Xu Cheng asked softly, his expression unchanged.
"Yes. Breaking through to Soul Douluo practically exhausted my potential. I also took quite a few drugs before, leaving the soul power inside me unstable. If I hadn't fought constantly over the past few years and forcibly compressed that unstable soul power, I'm afraid..."
Huo Qing said.
"So that's how it is."
Xu Cheng nodded slightly. It was within his expectations.
In his view, Aunt Qing had good talent, but in earlier years, she had eagerly taken pills to raise her soul power for military merit-or rather, for his sake. Although the results had been decent, she had also cut off her own path forward.
The fact that she had become a Level 8 Soul Engineer in her thirties spoke volumes about her talent...
But this predicament was not without a solution.
In the original story, once a Soul Master cultivated their soul power to a certain realm, it would change from liquid to solid. After that transformation, they would reach the level 90 bottleneck, then obtain a soul ring before they could be considered a Titled Douluo.
The reason cultivation was so difficult for Titled Douluo was that solid soul power circulated more slowly than liquid soul power. To mobilize it, they had to shatter it first, then move it in granular form.
For Super Douluo, gaseous, liquid, and solid soul power coexisted and could circulate freely, allowing them to unleash even greater strength...
Another classic example of Third Young Master's physics (doge).
Back to the point.
The attempt to condense a soul core stopped the vast majority of Soul Douluo in their tracks. Countless Soul Masters could not accomplish it through their own strength.
But the original story did offer a way.
If they could not accomplish it themselves, they could draw on outside help.
Xuan Ziwen, for example.
With help from several powerful figures at Shrek Academy, he had successfully achieved Soul Core Condensation and attained the rank of Level 9 Soul Engineer.
More importantly, Aunt Qing was not a traditional Soul Master. She relied very little on her martial soul and was instead a modern, new-style Soul Engineer-what the Sun Moon Empire called the Practical Control Soul Tool Department.
Like Nana, her martial soul served more of a supporting role. Her main damage output came from Soul Tools.
Unstable soul power?
Did it matter?
Would it stop me from firing a cannon?
Would it stop me from taking a Melee Soul Guidance Tool and hacking people apart?
As for powerful experts...
What a joke.
He was the Holy Son of the Holy Spirit Cult, Cheng Baiqing's disciple, and a student favored by Jing Hongchen. There was no way he would be short of people, all right!
The Holy Spirit Cult was poor, but its experts were as plentiful as clouds.
He was confident that he could call on Wu Yun, Zhang Peng, and Feng Ling. Even inviting Zhongli Wu, the Holy Spirit Cult's Cult Leader, was not out of the question.
Speaking of the Holy Spirit Cult...
Of its twelve worships, he was acquainted with five and had good relationships with them all.
His relationships with the eight elders, however, were somewhat weaker.
The current Holy Spirit Cult was by no means as stable as outsiders believed. It merely had two towering Buddhas holding things down from above, forcing a pack of notorious killing gods to behave and obey.
But thinking about it carefully, could a bunch of Evil Soul Masters-infamous outside the cult, slaughtering people at the slightest disagreement, each bearing enough blood debts to pile into a mound of severed heads-really unite as one loving family?
Dream on.
There were factions among Evil Soul Masters, too.
The eight elders shared the same foul tastes and gathered together to run gray-market businesses.
The worships, a rank above them, were all rather aloof and proud. They fought alone and never grouped up.
Zhongli Wu was passionate about cultivating talent and quietly building his strength. Though Feng Ling was his wife, they shared a bed but dreamed different dreams, with Yan Shaozhe secretly occupying her heart.
The old Dragon King had spent his whole life fawning over a goddess he had slept with only once, yet never tired of it. Ye Xishui maintained that their feelings were actually mutual, all while playing a grand game behind the scenes.
So, on the surface, Xu Cheng's chances of winning the succession struggle looked excellent.
In reality, however, just as Elder Cheng had said, the Holy Spirit Cult was a double-edged blade. Even as its Holy Son, he was most likely a piece in Ye Xishui's game.
She only allowed him to run amok with his "charity" in the Holy Spirit Cult because she valued his importance.
Having the Holy Spirit Cult's Holy Son also become the Sun Moon Empire's emperor would greatly benefit the entire cult. But whether Xu Cheng remained a pawn in Ye Xishui's hand or stepped outside the game to become a player depended on how much strength the cards in his own hand held...
That was also why he was so eager to improve Huo Qing's strength.
His current forces were rather "hollow." They looked flourishing, but there were not many truly "his own" people among them...
A Level 9 Soul Engineer was stronger than an ordinary Titled Douluo, because their strength came not from their martial soul, but from the Soul Tools they were equipped with.
If Jing Hongchen or Elder Cheng provided top-tier Level 9 Soul Tools, Huo Qing's combat strength might leap straight to the level of a Super Douluo...
And the true power of Soul Engineers lay not in individual combat, but in fighting as a unit.
With the entire Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Corps working together, even Xuan Zi would have to give them a wide berth.
"Don't worry, Aunt Qing. Just leave your breakthrough to me."
Xu Cheng smiled.
"I can invite several Super Douluo to help you with Soul Core Condensation."
Before you continue