Elder Wei and Elder Zhao brought back six disciples to the sect stronghold in the middle of the night.
When they reached the mouth of the canyon, the sky was already turning pale. Jin Peng was guarding the entrance. Seeing eight figures sweep out from the morning mist, he stepped forward to meet them. "Why are you back so soon?"
Elder Wei did not answer, saying in a rush, "Is the sect master here? Something big has happened!"
"In the discussion hall."
As they were old friends of many years, Jin Peng did not exchange pleasantries with Elder Wei and Elder Zhao, directly leading the two toward the discussion hall.
When the three pushed open the doors of the discussion hall, Du Busi was sitting in the main seat.
A blank map was spread out before him. Hearing footsteps, he looked up and saw the expressions of Elder Wei and Elder Zhao, his eyelids twitching.
"Speak."
Elder Wei took a deep breath and recounted everything he had seen and heard on this trip from beginning to start.
The clothing in Greenstone Town, Wulan City, the Heaven Dou Empire, and Spirit Hall awakening martial souls for commoners for free... and, the pope was named Bibi Dong!
When the last word was spoken, the discussion hall fell silent for more than ten breaths.
Bibi Dong-this name could be said to have stunk for ten thousand years.
Du Busi was naturally extremely familiar with it.
"Bibi Dong... What about the Sea God? Did you pick up any news of him?"
"No."
"No?"
Du Busi furrowed his brows.
Elder Zhao was the first to reply, "When old Wei and I were gathering intelligence, we probed sideways several times, and not a single person knew the name 'Tang San'!"
"What about Shrek?"
"We didn't hear anything about Shrek Academy either; it probably hasn't made a name for itself yet."
Hearing this, Du Busi nodded, roughly figuring out the current timeline-
Ten thousand years ago, before the Sea God Tang San became famous.
This piece of information was very important, meaning they had a great deal of maneuvering room.
Du Busi sat in the main seat, tapping his fingers against the armrest one by one. After tapping for a long time, he raised his hand. "Jin Peng, go call all the other elders over. Meeting!"
"Understood."
Jin Peng turned and went out.
In less than the time it took to make half a cup of tea, all ten Titled Douluos had arrived, taking their seats in two rows on either side.
Du Busi's gaze swept over the crowd, having Elder Wei repeat the intelligence he had brought back.
"You all heard it? We've arrived in ten thousand years ago. The Heaven Dou Empire still exists, Spirit Hall still exists, Bibi Dong is the reigning pope, and Shrek is still a nameless, rotten academy!"
Du Busi stood up from his seat.
"Right now on this continent, there is neither a soul tool revolution nor the Tang Sect!"
A commotion broke out in the discussion hall.
Jin Peng frowned. "Sect Master, in our era, Spirit Hall was an evil force that launched wars and slaughtered sects, but right now the common folk's public opinion of them is the complete opposite. This..."
"This is precisely what I want to talk about."
Du Busi raised a hand to press downward. "Old Wei and old Zhao only scratched the surface of Spirit Hall's details. I need a more detailed distribution of forces."
"Everyone move out in rotation, in pairs of two, and head out separately to scout the major surrounding cities. Get the strengths of the two empires, the major sects, and Spirit Hall all figured out for me!"
"Remember, scout only, do not fight. Go quickly and return quickly."
The ten elders gave a joint assent.
That very morning, the five groups of people left the canyon one after another, sweeping off in different directions.
Over the next three days, intelligence flowed back to the Body Sect like running water.
Jin Peng and Elder Wei went to Heaven Dou City and learned that the Heaven Dou Empire had no direct Titled Douluos, with its strongest being merely a Soul Douluo.
The empire's high-tier combat strength pillar came from the imperial guest elder Dugu Bo.
As well as the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan among the Upper Three Sects, but these two major sects did not take orders from the imperial family.
The Star Luo Empire's military strength surpassed Heaven Dou's, and its imperial family had passed down a martial soul fusion skill for generations.
Although it had no true Titled Douluos, it definitely possessed combat strength of this tier, and perhaps even more than one or two!
The Clear Sky Sect, head of the Upper Three Sects, had already closed its mountains and retired from the world for over ten years.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect possessed two Titled Douluos, Sword Douluo Chen Xin and Bone Douluo Gu Rong, both of whom were renowned powerhouses across the continent.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had only a single Titled Douluo, Yu Yuanzhen.
The Lower Four Sects-the Elephant Armor Sect, the Black Tiger Sect, the Wind Sword Sect, and the Fire Leopard Sect-had a strongest member who was merely a Soul Douluo, their strength falling far short of the Upper Three Sects.
Compared to the Body Sect, all these forces were far weaker.
Even,
the Upper Three Sects and Lower Four Sects combined could not match their Body Sect!
This greatly boosted the confidence of Du Busi and the elders.
However, Spirit Hall's strength made all the elders draw in a cold breath.
Pope Bibi Dong's strength was unknown, but at a baseline she was a Super Douluo; the Elder Hall and Worship Hall combined had at least a dozen-odd Titled Douluos!
Even more shocking was another piece of intelligence-
The previous supreme pontiff, Qian Daoliu, was a level 98 Peerless Douluo with a Six-Winged Angel martial soul, hailed as an existence "invincible in the sky"!
The original words Jin Peng brought back were: "The people in Heaven Dou City said that Qian Daoliu was already level 98 decades ago."
After listening to the report, Du Busi remained silent for a long time.
"Level 98-he is bound to still be alive."
Du Busi himself was level 98, with a gold-grade Body Martial Soul Second Awakening, capable of briefly touching the threshold of level 99 when he erupted.
Yet in his heart he knew clearly-
Briefly touching it and being truly level 99 were two different things!
Qian Daoliu was a solid level 99, and Spirit Hall furthermore held the inheritance of the Angel God, very likely possessing other unknown means.
Arrogant as Du Busi was, he had to admit he was no match for Qian Daoliu.
The present Body Sect was likewise no match for Spirit Hall.
Elder Zhao and another elder went to the area around Suotuo City, learning even more detailed conditions-
There was practically no circulation of medicinal pills on the continent, and commoners and soul masters who were injured or fell ill relied entirely on herbs and healing-type soul masters.
Pills that aided cultivation were something they had never even heard of!
Soul tools were also extremely scarce.
There were only storage soul tools, and they were exceedingly rare, only occasionally excavated from ancient ruins, with no one yet capable of independently crafting new soul tools.
Listening to this, Du Busi raised an eyebrow. "No circulation of medicinal pills?"
He looked toward Elder Wei, who was currently by the side organizing the storeroom's inventory list of pills.
Du Busi reached out and took that sheet, his gaze sweeping from top to bottom-two hundred seventy-eight bottles of Body Tempering Pills, forty-two boxes of Soul-Condensing Powder, one hundred fifty jars of Yuan-Nurturing Ointment, over a hundred bottles of Meridian-Nurturing Pills...
These were merely ordinary middle-grade medicinal pills in their view, but placed in this era, they might just sell for astronomical prices.
The most crucial point was,
their Body Sect could refine medicinal pills themselves!
"Put the matter of soul tools aside for now," Du Busi folded the inventory list and put it away. "But this matter of pills is something we can make use of."
Three days' time.
Long Aoyu had shut himself inside the side hall's cultivation room, not stepping out a single step.
The Concentration Pill given by Vina had already been consumed, its medicinal power dissolving within his meridians, gentle yet potent, charging toward the bottleneck of rank 50.
On the second afternoon, the system panel automatically popped up a line of text:
[Newbie Task Progress: Scout Intelligence - Completed. Reward: Mountain-Protecting Grand Formation Blueprint ×1, Sect Contribution Points 500.]
Long Aoyu did not open his eyes, merely moving the corners of his mouth slightly.
The Mountain-Protecting Grand Formation was in hand, but right now the most important thing was breaking through the bottleneck.
On the night of the third day, a muffled vibration echoed from within the cultivation room, as though something had shattered and then re-aggregated.
Long Aoyu abruptly opened his eyes, his chest rising and falling a few times, before he spat out a long breath of turbid air.
"Done!"
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