"Why did you come along?" Tang Mo looked at Hu Liena beside him with a somewhat peculiar expression.
"Ahem..." Hu Liena cleared her throat and imitated Bibi Dong's tone as she repeated her instructions. "By order of the Pope: you must go out more, see the world, and broaden your horizons."
"Your Eminences, aren't you going to do anything about this?" At her words, Tang Mo turned his gaze toward Yue Guan, who was suppressing a laugh nearby, and Gui Mei, who remained silent.
"This is a matter for you youngsters. It's not my place to interfere." Yue Guan restrained his smile and spouted nonsense with a perfectly straight face.
"Your Eminence, do you think I believe that?" Tang Mo countered.
"Whether you believe it or not, boy, I certainly do." Yue Guan spread his hands, then took pastries and water from the Storage Soul Tool at his waist and distributed them to Tang Mo and Hu Liena. "It's a long journey. Have something to tide you over."
Spirit City stood in the northern Heaven Dou Empire, on its border with the Star Luo Empire, while Vast Sea City lay in the western Heaven Dou Empire. In a sense, then, Tang Mo's party needed to cross half the Heaven Dou Empire.
However, the beasts pulling their carriage were domesticated hundred-year soul beasts, and the carriage itself was a high-end product of Gengxin City, the Metal Capital, so they could reach Vast Sea City in roughly half a month.
Ordinary soul beasts developed intelligence at ten thousand years, gaining roughly the intelligence of a seven-year-old human.
Only special soul beasts such as dragons, or thousand-year soul beasts that had encountered certain fortuitous opportunities, had a chance of developing intelligence.
Most soul beasts under ten thousand years old were not much different from wild animals.
Logically, as Titled Douluos, Yue Guan and Gui Mei were certainly qualified to requisition domesticated thousand-year soul beasts.
For one thing, however, thousand-year soul beasts still retained some wildness. Soul masters generally rode them individually and occasionally even needed to suppress their rebellions when they became disgruntled, making them entirely unsuitable for pulling carriages.
For another, having matching soul beasts pull a carriage was a greater display of status.
For the same task of pulling a carriage, several hundred-year soul beasts of matching appearance and age conveyed greater grandeur than a single thousand-year soul beast.
Simply put, even a carriage pulled by an elephant could not compare to one drawn by four tall, fine horses of matching appearance, moving in perfect step.
While Tang Mo was on the road, the fleet dispatched by Vast Sea City's Spirit Hall had already driven the Azure Sea Killer Whale into the Shallow Sea Region.
Stationed across the five large ships were one Seven-Ring Soul Sage, four Six-Ring Soul Emperors, and fifteen Five-Ring Soul Kings.
Evil Spirit Orcas were a special species in the sea, powerful creatures whose thousand-year individuals could rival ten-thousand-year beasts.
Although they could not fight hundred-thousand-year beasts after reaching ten thousand years, they could still hold their own against soul beasts around thirty thousand years old.
Even though the Azure Sea Killer Whale was not as fierce or battle-hardened as her father, the Evil Orca King, ordinary Soul Emperors were still no match for her.
Had their leader not been a rank-seventy-eight Soul Saint of Cardinal standing, the Azure Sea Killer Whale would long since have plunged into the deep sea and vanished without a trace.
Spirit Hall's ranks covered rather broad ranges of strength. Five-Ring Soul Kings and Six-Ring Soul Emperors served as purple-robed bishops, overseeing Martial Soul Sub-Halls in somewhat larger cities.
Six-Ring Soul Emperors and Seven-Ring Soul Sages served as black-robed bishops, overseeing Spirit Hall Main Halls in provincial capitals.
Seven-Ring Soul Sages and Eight-Ring Soul Douluos were all Cardinals, serving in important cities and the Pope Hall.
Li Songnian, Tang Mo's publicly acknowledged instructor, was a Cardinal.
The four Soul Douluos who were close to becoming Titled Douluos could attain the rank of Platinum Bishop.
Cardinal Kasait was an elderly man who appeared to be in his sixties, with graying hair and a pair of tortoiseshell glasses hanging around his neck.
At that moment, he had activated Martial Soul Possession. A pair of black wings grew from his back, and his nose and mouth somewhat resembled a sea eagle's beak. Evidently, his martial soul was probably some kind of soul beast resembling a sea eagle.
Because of his martial soul, he was farsighted. He could see distant objects with extreme clarity, but nearby objects were somewhat blurry, so he usually needed reading glasses to handle Spirit Hall's affairs.
His eyes had become a pair of eagle eyes, fixed intently on the Azure Sea Killer Whale beneath the surface, where she almost blended into the seawater.
He had originally imagined that finding the ten-thousand-year pure-water sea soul beast described in the Pope Token would take considerable effort. Yet some time earlier, amid the disruption caused by a Demon Soul Great White Shark, they had stumbled upon this special soul beast.
With her pure-water attribute and ten-thousand-year cultivation, she perfectly met the requirements on the Pope Token.
Alongside his unexpected delight, he also felt some concern. The Azure Sea Killer Whale's skin color was so close to that of seawater that even he could not keep track of her without activating Martial Soul Possession.
Thus, he could only take turns with two other Soul Emperors who had good eyesight to watch the Azure Sea Killer Whale. Strangely, however, she showed absolutely no intention of escaping.
Faced with this bizarre situation, Kasait had no idea what the reason was, but he could not abandon his surveillance assignment either, so he could only drive the Azure Sea Killer Whale toward shallower waters as best he could.
Because the Azure Sea Killer Whale could blend into seawater and disliked fighting, she generally did not protect her body with soul power and did not even actively swim.
After all, she only needed to lie in the seawater, and plankton, small fish and shrimp, and even some soul beasts would drift into her mouth with the currents and be swallowed as food.
Under these circumstances, apart from occasionally surfacing for air, she had no need to move at all.
As a result, some weak parasitic soul beasts resembling barnacles would attach themselves to her body.
Being parasitized by these weak soul beasts was hardly an issue for her. After all, they could not even breach her skin's defenses.
Once they attached themselves, however, she felt itchy and uncomfortable, like a person developing pimples. For someone too lazy to move, this was a great source of distress.
To prevent weak soul beasts such as barnacles from attaching themselves, Spirit Hall's five ships had several Soul Tools installed on their hull bottoms.
Although these Soul Tools had little offensive power, they could prevent weak soul beasts such as barnacles from remaining attached to the hulls.
As soon as the Azure Sea Killer Whale approached the ships, their Soul Tools drove the barnacles off her body.
To her, going without food for a few days was nothing. What truly mattered was getting rid of those barnacles, which were as unbearable as pimples.
That was the real reason she obediently followed the five ships. Kasait and the others were not driving her along; she was following the ships of her own accord.
As Vast Sea City's Spirit Hall made its major moves, an official in Vast Sea City's city lord's residence who had not yet been won over by Spirit Hall quietly sent word out.
Spirit Hall's infiltration of Vast Sea City was thorough. The vast majority of officials in the city lord's residence, including the city lord himself, had already been bought off.
Logically, no one would voluntarily pass information to the Heaven Dou Empire, but there were always exceptions.
The official responsible for compiling household registration information in the city lord's residence was the Heaven Dou Empire's most deeply embedded agent in Vast Sea City. Believing himself indebted to imperial grace, he had only pretended to be bought off and was, in truth, still a loyal subject of the Heaven Dou Empire.
Not long after he sent the message, the intelligence appeared on Xue Ye's desk.
As Xue Ye read the intelligence, a flicker of suspicion crossed his eyes. Spirit Hall's actions looked very much like a search for a sea soul beast suitable to serve as someone's soul ring.
The problem, however, was that each land's soil and water nurtured its own people. Sea soul beasts were better suited to becoming Sea Soul Masters' soul rings.
By the same reasoning, land soul beasts were better suited to land soul masters, so very few land soul masters chose sea soul beasts as their soul rings.
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