Peerless Genius

["I think I do." Qian Daoliu straightened his back, utterly confident.]

[As though worried the child before him would not believe him, Qian Daoliu added:]

["Although my martial soul is not purely a sword, when it comes to the way of the sword, few can surpass me, even among soul masters with sword martial souls."]

["All right, I'm willing to take you as my master."]

[No sooner had Qian Daoliu finished speaking than the child before him nodded in ready agreement.]

[Qian Daoliu was immediately delighted. He had originally come to investigate some unusual activity he had sensed in the Star Dou Great Forest. Though he had discovered nothing, he had never expected to encounter such a promising seedling.]

[The boy looked no older than ten, yet had already attained the cultivation of a Soul Elder. Moreover, he could hunt thousand-year soul beasts alone, and had even killed this thousand-year Gale Demon Wolf through swordsmanship alone, without using a single soul skill.]

["Hahaha! Good! My fine disciple, what's your name? What's your martial soul called? Next, I will personally hunt an even better soul beast for you!"]

[Although Qian Daoliu had watched the child slay a thousand-year soul beast with his sword, all he knew was that the boy's martial soul was an entirely azure-blue sword.]

["Dugu Feng. Martial soul: Frost-Cold Nine Provinces. Rank thirty Soul Grandmaster." The child casually summoned his martial soul, a longsword forged entirely of ice-blue crystalline jade. Cold light flowed along its blade, reflecting the child's face, whose lingering immaturity could not conceal its handsome features.]

[Qian Daoliu took a liking to this sword martial soul at once. Although he had already paid attention to it earlier, a closer look still left him awestruck.]

["A top-level martial soul? This feeling... even the Seven Kill Sword seems somewhat inferior beside this sword."]

[Qian Daoliu was, after all, a veteran of the soul master world. He had seen plenty of sword martial souls, but almost none could stand shoulder to shoulder with the one before him.]

[Even Chen Jianjun's Seven Kill Sword, once the strongest sword martial soul, seemed somewhat inadequate to Qian Daoliu.]

["It seems to possess an ice attribute? No, the ice attribute seems incidental. What truly matters about this sword is its unparalleled edge."]

[After drawing some conclusions from experience about this sword martial soul named Frost-Cold Nine Provinces, Qian Daoliu grew ever more delighted.]

[This was unquestionably peerless talent!]

"Wait, can that old bastard even teach him properly?! And he just takes him in?!"

In a pavilion in a quiet garden of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Sword Douluo Chen Xin shattered the stone table before him with a slap.

"A rank thirty Soul Grandmaster at that age, just one soul ring away from becoming a Soul Elder, capable of killing a thousand-year soul beast through swordsmanship alone-can Qian Daoliu even teach him properly?!"

The more Chen Xin thought about it, the more he felt his heart bleeding.

One glance at Frost-Cold Nine Provinces was enough to tell that it was a martial soul of extremely high quality. Chen Xin could see at once that its quality far surpassed the Seven Kill Sword.

Such a genius, and Spirit Hall had found him first-Qian Daoliu, that old bastard, no less!

Then he thought again: Qian Daoliu really could teach him properly.

His heart hurt even more!

"What a shame..."

Ning Fengzhi also felt some regret as he watched the Celestial Screen, but he noticed more details.

Venturing alone into the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for a soul ring, with clearly no guardian protecting him-he was unquestionably of common birth!

Moreover...

"Uncle Jian, Spirit Hall has yet to announce Dugu Feng's name. Either Qian Daoliu has deliberately kept him hidden, or..." Ning Fengzhi's eyes flickered. "Or this takes place in the future!"

"You mean... this scene belongs to the future we've been speculating about?" Bone Douluo Gu Rong understood Ning Fengzhi's meaning.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect possessed wealth unrivaled under heaven. Ever since the Celestial Screen appeared, it would occasionally show scenes of soul masters obtaining fortuitous opportunities in certain places.

With a willingness to give it a try, and wanting to verify the Celestial Screen's authenticity, Ning Fengzhi had naturally sent his followers to seek out both the locations of those opportunities and the people who obtained them.

Unexpectedly, quite a few of those people had yet to visit those locations or obtain their opportunities.

Thus, the Seven Treasure disciples had naturally seized those opportunities first. Unfortunately, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was not alone in thinking this way, so it had not obtained every opportunity shown on the Celestial Screen.

"If this scene truly belongs to the future... doesn't that mean this child might not even have awakened his martial soul yet?"

Hearing this, Chen Xin immediately grew somewhat excited.

A good successor was not easy to find. Although Chen Xin was in his prime, he very much hoped to find a worthy heir to his legacy.

All the more so an heir with peerless talent.

Whether for the sect or for himself, such a prospect was immensely tantalizing!

"Don't get worked up, you old bastard. Our most pressing task is to find a way to locate this child. Once we've found him, everything else can be discussed!"

"But the one concern is, if this child has already become Qian Daoliu's disciple, as the Celestial Screen shows, then..."

Gu Rong soothed Chen Xin's excitement while also raising a rather crucial question.

"If that's truly the case, then naturally, we must cut out the weeds by the roots."

If they could not have him, they would destroy him.

Chen Xin was, after all, a Titled Douluo, over fifty and rich in experience. Naturally, he understood that in this world, the strong devoured the weak.

Although he cherished talent, he would not go so far as to show mercy to a genius from a hostile faction.

"But Qian Daoliu isn't a soft persimmon to be squeezed, either. If that old bastard has taken him as a disciple, we'll probably struggle to find a chance to strike."

Chen Xin sighed.

Even before the Celestial Screen appeared, Tang Chen of the Clear Sky Sect and Qian Daoliu of Spirit Hall had already been hailed as the strongest in the world.

["Good boy, what about your soul rings? You're already half a step from becoming a Soul Elder. How old are your first two soul rings? Do they suit your martial soul?"]

[Judging by how Gu Dufeng had hunted his third ring alone in the Star Dou Great Forest, Qian Daoliu knew the child was probably of common birth.]

[Still, his surname was Dugu. He wondered whether the boy was related to Poison Douluo Dugu Bo, who had recently become a Titled Douluo in the soul master world.]

[Even if he was, it did not matter much. Qian Daoliu was not particularly concerned. After all, the child had already agreed to become his disciple. As his master, he would naturally resolve everything else.]

[More than that, Qian Daoliu worried that Dugu Feng's first two soul rings were too young, or that the soul beasts he had absorbed did not suit his martial soul.]

[For instance, choosing to absorb some ice-attribute soul beast merely because his martial soul carried a hint of frost would be putting the branches before the roots for a martial soul like Frost-Cold Nine Provinces.]

["..."]

[Gu Dufeng said nothing in response, merely summoning his two soul rings in silence. In an instant, one yellow and one purple ring shone, particularly dazzling within this stretch of forest.]

["A Thousand-Year Second Soul Ring?!"]

[A God-Given Soul Ring? Or had a divine trial increased its age?]

[Instinctively, Qian Daoliu thought of several concepts related to gods.]

[After all, even he had never seen a Thousand-Year Second Soul Ring on an ordinary soul master.]

[His second ring was already a thousand-year one.]

[This could be called a departure from the standard soul ring configuration for soul masters that Spirit Hall had established over a thousand years.]

["How did you dare absorb this soul ring?" Amid his astonishment, Qian Daoliu could not help asking.]

[An ordinary soul master would never even consider attempting a Thousand-Year Second Soul Ring. After all, it was no different from taking a trip through the gates of death.]

[One careless move, and their body would explode, killing them.]

[How had he done it?]

[Even Qian Daoliu himself had never dared take such a gamble in his youth. At most, he had merely thought about it.]

["Because I beat it," Dugu Feng pointed at his purple thousand-year soul ring, then at the corpse of the slain soul beast, his expression entirely unmoved. "It was an evenly matched fight."]

[Qian Daoliu's eyelid twitched at his words.]

["You mean you hunted your first two soul rings yourself too, and your standard for absorbing a soul ring is whether the soul beast can fight you on equal terms?"]

["When absorbing a soul ring, aren't you supposed to find something you can beat?" Holding Frost-Cold Nine Provinces, Dugu Feng tilted his head and gave Qian Daoliu a somewhat odd look.]

["If you can't beat it, won't you die? How would you absorb its soul ring then? And why should a soul beast I can easily defeat qualify to become my soul ring?"]