Spirit City

[After a month of arduous travel, you finally reached Spirit City.]

[This vast city, hailed as "the holy land of all Soul Masters," straddled the border between the Heaven Dou and Star Luo Empires. Like a scepter forged from cold iron, it pierced straight into the continent's heart, an independent territory neither empire could lay a finger on.]

[The city formed a regular hexagon, its walls soaring into the clouds, built entirely from a special gray dark basalt. Sunlight poured over them, bringing out a cold, hard metallic sheen. The entire city resembled a slumbering steel behemoth, its oppressive presence weighing heavily.]

[Atop the walls, a stone watchtower stood every hundred paces. Soul Master guards in silvery-white armor stood on them, halberds in hand, their dark tips pointing diagonally toward the heavens, half-hidden amid the clouds and mist, silently proclaiming the city's majesty and inviolability.]

[You followed the crowd through the gates. The deeper you went, the more keenly you sensed how different this place was.]

[Its greatest difference from ordinary cities was that there were almost no "ordinary people" here.]

[Of those hurrying along the broad streets, eight or nine out of ten were registered Soul Masters clad in robes of various colors; even the commoners were mostly descendants of Soul Masters, with faint traces of Soul Power fluctuations lingering around them.]

[There was none of Heaven Dou City's gilded decadence here, nor Star Luo City's iron-blooded severity, only a pure, restrained sense of oppression. A barely perceptible pressure of Soul Power drifted through the air, invisible and traceless, yet it made every newcomer instinctively hold their breath.]

[You walked slowly along the broad central avenue, the buildings on either side uniform and solemn in style.]

[Towering spires and open plazas were everywhere. Reliefs of Spirit Hall's Six-Winged Angel adorned every stone pillar, looking down upon all living beings; golden wings gleamed in the sunlight, radiating an inviolable sanctity and majesty.]

[The shops lining the streets were different from those elsewhere, too-]

[There were no ordinary grain shops or cloth merchants here. In their place stood Soul Tool specialty stores, Soul Beast material exchanges, auction houses for advanced Meditation Methods...]

[A faint medicinal fragrance and the scent of metal drifted through the air. Occasionally, a barely perceptible wisp of Soul Power slipped past, a minute trace left by a passing high-ranking Soul Master.]

[You found a secluded inn in the outer city to stay at. Named the "Quiet Bamboo Residence," it had a small frontage, but its tranquility made up for that. A grove of bamboo grew in the rear courtyard, conveniently allowing you to sense your surroundings through Blue Silver Grass.]

[Your purpose for this journey was clear-to challenge Qian Renxue.]

[But only after actually entering Spirit City did you discover that this would be far harder than you had imagined.]

[Spirit City was divided into an outer and an inner city.]

[The outer city was where ordinary Soul Masters and commoners went about their lives. Streets crisscrossed it, shops stood in rows, and Soul Masters traded, rested, and accepted missions here. It was lively without losing its order.]

[The inner city was the heart of Spirit Hall. The Papal Hall, Douluo Hall, and Elder Hall stood side by side under stringent guard. Ordinary Soul Masters were not even qualified to approach.]

[A high wall sharply separated the two, with Soul Saint-level stewards taking turns guarding the gates, to say nothing of how many watchful eyes lurked in the shadows.]

[You lingered in the outer city for several days, yet heard not the slightest news of Qian Renxue.]

[You knew very well that she must be secluded deep within the inner city, surrounded by layer upon layer of guards, like a spark buried deep underground, its burning warmth beyond outsiders' perception.]

[You stood beneath the wall separating the inner and outer cities, gazing up at its towering height with tightly knitted brows.]

[With your current strength, forcing your way in would be no different from seeking your own death.]

[Over the next few days, you tried every method you could-]

[First, you used Dugu Bo's token to cast a stone and test the waters, hoping the name of this newly ascended Super Douluo would open the inner city's gates. But the token was soon returned untouched, accompanied by only a brief reply: "Poison Douluo has never had dealings with Spirit Hall."]

[You then sent Qian Renxue an anonymous letter challenging her to a duel, filling it with every provocation you could muster. But once delivered, the letter was like a clay ox entering the sea-not a word returned.]

[You even tried using the aura of Blue Silver Grass to communicate with the vegetation inside the inner city, hoping to peer into its true state through the eyes of the plants. But bathed in sacred Soul Power year-round, the plants within rejected your aura utterly. Before your Soul Power could extend beyond the walls, a scorching holy light burned it away completely.]

[You sat in a secluded teahouse in the outer city, watching the Soul Masters passing outside the window, your fingertips unconsciously rubbing the rough rim of your cup.]

[The tea was coarse, so astringent it stung your mouth, yet you sipped it little by little, as though trying to squeeze a measure of clarity from its bitterness.]

[You felt a helplessness you had not known in a long time. This was not a gap in strength, but a heavenly chasm of identity and status. In this city where Soul Power and authority were the only measures, you were merely an outsider without name or standing.]

[With the direct route blocked, you could only forge another path.]

[A name surfaced in your mind-Chrysanthemum Douluo, Yue Guan.]

[He was an elder of the Elder Hall, a level ninety-five Power Attack System Titled Douluo. His Martial Soul was an immortal-grade plant-the singular velvet sky chrysanthemum-which possessed a natural resonance with the immortal herbs of heaven and earth.]

[Most importantly, though he held a lofty position and employed subtle, insidious methods, he possessed a singular touch of the flower gentleman's obsession-]

[Throughout his life, he had neither coveted power nor admired empty fame. Only rare immortal herbs inspired in him an almost fanatical obsession.]

[And you happened to hold bargaining chips-]

[You had once consumed the infernal delicate apricot and octagonal mysterious ice grass, and your body naturally carried the unique, pure spiritual aura born of their fusion. To someone as obsessed with immortal herbs as Chrysanthemum Douluo, that aura alone was the perfect bait to lure him onto the hook.]

[Meanwhile, sealed within your Storage Soul Tool were two immortal herbs you had deliberately kept back years ago-a Lovesick Heartbreak Red and a Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew.]

[The former was because of its unique method of acknowledging a master: forcibly picking it would only destroy all its medicinal potency and could even provoke a backlash from its immortal spiritual power; the latter was because it greatly benefited the cultivation of eye techniques, and you intended to use it after creating a cultivation method for them.]

[You were confident that either one would be enough to move Chrysanthemum Douluo, persuade him to help you enter the inner city, and perhaps even save your life at a critical moment.]

[With that thought, you stopped suppressing your aura, allowing that unique blend of extreme cold and heat, tempered by the Zhou Tian Star Dou Art, to seep slowly from your meridians and drift toward the bamboo grove outside the window, seemingly by intent and yet seemingly not.]

[Deep in the bamboo grove, Blue Silver Grass quietly unfurled, spreading the aura farther, diluting it, blending it into the wind, and carrying it to more distant places.]

[For the next three days, you cultivated and drank tea each day, occasionally heading to the bamboo grove in the rear courtyard to practice your spear techniques.]

[The outer city remained calm, and the aura you released vanished like a stone sinking into the sea.]

[But you were in no hurry-when fishing, the worst mistake was pulling the line too taut.]

[The fourth day, dusk.]

[The setting sun soaked the bamboo grove in gold and crimson. You drew back your spear and stood still, sweat sliding down your jaw and dripping onto the leaf of a stalk of Blue Silver Grass at your feet.]

[The grass suddenly quivered gently.]

[Not because of the weight of the sweat, but because of a vast, subtly yielding fluctuation of Soul Power spreading from afar.]

[The corners of your mouth lifted slightly. The spear dissipated, and you turned and went back inside.]