Heaven Dou City, Blue Tyrant Academy.
Elder Mo walked through the academy in an ordinary gray robe.
He closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings for a moment, then followed the aura of a Martial Soul of the same origin, passing the sports field and teaching buildings and heading straight toward a training room.
The door was open.
Inside was only a tall, thin youth of seventeen or eighteen, practicing punches and kicks against a Wooden Training Dummy.
"Train like that, and you'll never become strong in your lifetime."
Elder Mo watched from the doorway for a moment before suddenly speaking. "The skeleton is merely the outward form. The root lies within you. Your Martial Soul is your bones."
Jing Ling whipped around and saw an old man in a gray robe standing at the door.
"Who are you?"
Jing Ling instinctively took a step back.
Elder Mo entered the training room and closed the door behind him. "The Body Sect, Skeleton Bone Douluo. My surname is Mo. Your Martial Soul is a bone-type Body Martial Soul, not an ordinary skeleton."
"After training for all these years, haven't you ever felt something was wrong?"
Jing Ling froze.
He lowered his head to look at his hands, then looked back at Elder Mo.
Elder Mo continued, "The Body Sect is home to all those who possess Body Martial Souls. We have complete secret arts and inheritances. In the Body Sect, your Martial Soul can receive the cultivation method best suited to it."
"How old are you?"
"...Seventeen."
"Seventeen years old, rank 32. Too slow."
Elder Mo's tone was flat, as though he were stating a fact. "But it's not too late. Come back to the Body Sect with me. I'll take you as my personal disciple and have you break through to Soul King within four years."
Jing Ling's pupils contracted, and he looked up at Elder Mo. "Senior... can you really help me break through to Soul King in four years?"
Elder Mo glanced at him.
"I always keep my word."
"All right!"
Jing Ling took a deep breath, dropped straight to his knees before Elder Mo, and bowed. "Master."
"Hahaha, good boy."
Elder Mo laughed heartily, helped Jing Ling up, and handed him a storage ring. "This is your apprenticeship gift. Inside is a top-grade spirit medicine and other resources suited to you."
"Thank you, Master!"
Jing Ling accepted the storage ring and bowed again. "Master, I'll go pack my things."
"Mm."
Jing Ling returned to his dormitory and simply packed a few changes of clothes and his important belongings.
On their way out, the two encountered a middle-aged man in a dark blue uniform, with a nameplate reading "Director of Academic Affairs" on his chest.
The man frowned when he saw Jing Ling. "Jing Ling, what are you doing?"
Jing Ling stopped.
"Director, I'm joining a sect, so I'm withdrawing from the academy."
"Withdrawing?"
The director's expression changed instantly, his voice carrying displeasure. "Jing Ling, you've studied at Blue Tyrant Academy for so many years. How much painstaking effort has the academy invested in you? And now you think you can just leave?"
As he spoke, his gaze swept over Elder Mo beside Jing Ling, and his tone grew harsher.
"Have you been tricked by some trash sect? Jing Ling, you'd better think this through. Don't let those bottom-tier sects-"
Before the director could finish, his vision went black.
Boom!
Elder Mo appeared before him in an instant, reached out with one hand, seized his neck, and lifted his entire body off the ground.
The director's feet left the floor, and his face instantly flushed crimson.
"Mmph..."
The director instinctively clawed at the hand clamped around his neck, but it was like trying to pry apart iron pincers. It did not budge.
"A trash sect?"
Elder Mo looked at him, his voice frighteningly cold. "Say that again."
"Ghk..."
The director opened his mouth but could make no sound. He could only stare at Elder Mo in terror.
Bang!
Elder Mo suddenly exerted force and slammed the director's body straight into the floor.
"Aaaah!"
The director felt as though his body were falling apart. Every part of him hurt unbearably.
It was not over yet.
Elder Mo raised his right hand, his fingers curling around empty air.
An immensely powerful surge of Soul Power dragged the director off the floor and suspended him in midair, leaving him completely unable to move.
The director panicked utterly, his lips trembling as he spoke. "Spare... spare my life!"
Elder Mo remained expressionless.
"My disciple, this is your master's first lesson for you-those who insult our Body Sect die!"
Jing Ling swallowed. Seeing Elder Mo look toward him, he hurriedly nodded. "Huh? Yes, I'll remember it."
Elder Mo gave a gentle smile.
"Good disciple."
As his words fell, his right hand clenched sharply.
Strands of Soul Power wound around the director's limbs, and the sound of shattering bones pierced their eardrums.
"Aah!!"
The director's limbs twisted into braided shapes at grotesque angles. His entire body convulsed once in midair, then fell silent.
His body dropped onto the corridor floor. He was thoroughly dead.
"Let's go."
Elder Mo withdrew his hand with a smile, then turned toward Jing Ling, his smile still gentle. "Let's go. Come back to the sect with your master."
Looking at Elder Mo's kindly smile and thinking of his savage methods, Jing Ling was on the verge of crying from fright.
Was the Body Sect a proper sect?
If I backed out now, surely I wouldn't be chopped into mincemeat...
Jing Ling abruptly shuddered, suppressed the thoughts in his heart, and nodded obediently to Elder Mo. "Yes, Master."
He followed behind Elder Mo, walking out of the dormitory building step by step.
No one inside the building dared come out. People peered out from behind the windows of a distant office, but no one dared come out to stop them either.
Liu Erlong, the dean of Blue Tyrant Academy, happened to be away from the academy.
Although the other teachers had heard the commotion, none dared approach. No one wanted to become the second person twisted into a braid.
"The sect is far from Heaven Dou City. I'll fly you back."
With that, Elder Mo took Jing Ling high into the air, flew over Blue Tyrant Academy's perimeter wall, and headed out of Heaven Dou City.
Only after a long while did anyone at Blue Tyrant Academy dare emerge from a classroom. They glanced at the corpse with its twisted limbs in the corridor, then shrank back inside, their faces deathly pale.
News that the director of academic affairs had been brutally killed by a Titled Douluo for insulting the Body Sect soon spread throughout the academy.
Then it spread through the streets and alleys of Heaven Dou City!
Heaven Dou City, the Imperial Palace.
Xue Ye sat in the imperial study, lightly tapping the desk twice with his fingers.
"Another Titled Douluo?"
"Just how powerful is this Body Sect that suddenly appeared? If they could support our Heaven Dou Empire, swallowing up the Star Luo Empire would be just around the corner!"
The Crown Prince's Residence.
Xue Qinghe, who was in fact Qian Renxue, sat in the study, with two figures standing before her.
Snake Lance Douluo spoke first, his tone somewhat grave. "Young miss, the people of the Body Sect are a little too overbearing in how they act."
"And they're completely different from other factions. The Body Sect's Titled Douluo are capable of doing anything!"
Qian Renxue pondered for a while, then slowly said, "From what we can see right now, the Body Sect has no conflict of interest with us."
"Besides-"
"Our Spirit Hall has already reached a cooperative agreement with the Body Sect. As long as we don't provoke them, they probably won't interfere with our plans."
At that.
Porcupinefish Douluo asked, "Young miss, should we try to win over the Body Sect, then?"
"Not for now."
Qian Renxue shook her head. "We'll discuss it when an opportunity arises. At present, 'Xue Qinghe' still has no bargaining chips that could tempt the Body Sect."