Looking around, this was the administrative area of the Spirit Hall Academy campus.
Chrysanthemum Douluo proceeded unhindered, found the red-robed bishop on duty that week, and handed over the work and orders.
Meanwhile, Xu Zi clutched the Heaven Prison Pope Token in his hand, considering how to handle the Dragon Scale Fruit and when to absorb his third ring...
"I'm rather surprised His Holiness would give you this token." Yue Guan's soft, feminine voice brought Xu Zi back to reality.
Faced with the question, Xu Zi repeated his words exactly:
"Hehe, it is a legendary tale of its era, after all. I was just hoping to make it my goal and have my own Martial Soul engraved on a new Pope Token as well."
"Then work hard." Having finished his business, Chrysanthemum Douluo sounded somewhat perfunctory as he prepared to leave.
Now that he had obtained the new cultivation method, he was eager to spare a few quarters of an hour to study it before the setting sun vanished completely.
"But..." Xu Zi rubbed the Pope Token in his hand, his thumb brushing over the Martial Soul emblem on the right side of its designs, and asked, "I'm very curious. Which family's flood dragon Martial Soul does this pitch-black, horned and winged emblem represent?"
"Or is it His Excellency Ghost Douluo's Ghost Martial Soul?"
This was the last mystery among the six Martial Souls on the Pope Token, and one of the two great mysteries that had inspired all manner of conflicting theories in reality.
An account from the foremost plant Soul Master of the present day would carry unquestionable authority.
"Flood dragon? Ghost?" Chrysanthemum Douluo looked astonished. "Here on our Douluo Continent, there have only ever been two dragon Martial Souls to date: the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon and the White Armored Earth Dragon."
"And Old Ghost's 'Ghost' Martial Soul only awakened through a chance coincidence because he died in the womb. He could also be considered the person who awakened his Martial Soul earliest in our continent's history."
"But he hadn't even been born over a hundred years ago."
Xu Zi pressed, "Then could it have been an elder from His Excellency Ghost Douluo's family...?"
After all, amid all the conflicting theories among readers in reality, the Ghost Martial Soul explanation had the most support.
But before he finished speaking, Xu Zi felt a little stupid.
"Hahaha!" Chrysanthemum Douluo covered his mouth and laughed. "If Old Ghost were here, he'd probably be so furious smoke would pour from all seven orifices. Hahaha!"
"Since there's only a tiny chance of awakening a Ghost Martial Soul after dying in the womb, surely Old Ghost's entire family couldn't have died in the womb generation after generation? Hahaha-"
"Uh..." Xu Zi scratched his head. "Forgive my foolishness."
"Where did you hear that legend?" Chrysanthemum Douluo could not help asking once his laughter subsided.
But a moment later, Chrysanthemum Douluo remembered that the youth before him was a visitor from overseas and did not yet know much about the situation on the Douluo Continent.
Thus, he mustered some patience and said, "During the handover just now, the bishop on duty said you lived in Heaven Dou Imperial City for a while before gradually finding your way to our Spirit Hall, correct?"
"Yes. I was a stranger in an unfamiliar land. Please forgive me, Your Excellency." Xu Zi did not deny it.
Understanding dawned on Chrysanthemum Douluo. "Then it's perfectly normal that you don't know who this Beast Martial Soul belonged to, because that Super Douluo was actually from Star Luo Imperial City."
"Both her title and her Martial Soul were inherited through her family. Moreover, among the six Titled Douluo on the Pope Token, her family alone had the most favorable system of inheritance."
The moment they reached the crucial point, Xu Zi pricked up his ears.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan spoke at ease. "That senior was the only female Super Douluo on the Pope Token. However, owing to her age, she passed away over a decade ago."
"Only after she passed away did Star Crown Douluo, Old Freak Xu, lead the Star Crown Xu Family out of our Holy City and travel all the way to Star Luo Imperial City to establish their own sect."
"Oh, right." Ending his recollections, Chrysanthemum Douluo returned to the subject. "That female senior's surname was Cheng. Her family's Martial Soul was the 'Ton Ant,' and their hereditary title was Giant Strength Douluo."
"The Cheng family's Ton Ant, Giant Strength Douluo?" Hearing those two pieces of information, Xu Zi immediately thought of that Guardian Douluo of the Star Luo Empire from ten thousand years later, during the Peerless Tang Sect era: Giant Strength Douluo-Cheng Gang.
The Titled Douluo whom the Holy Spirit Cult's grand elder had sent flying with a single palm strike.
Their showing ten thousand years later was so pathetic, yet the Cheng family had actually enjoyed such glory ten thousand years earlier?!
"Then... was that female Super Douluo's Martial Soul also a Ton Ant Emperor?" Xu Zi asked instinctively.
Chrysanthemum Douluo shook his head. "No. That senior's Martial Soul was a Ton Ant Queen. Like the Ton Ant Emperor, it ranked among the very finest Martial Souls. She was a rare dual-type Soul Master specializing in both power attack and defense."
"Wait, that's not right!" Suddenly remembering something, Xu Zi raised the Pope Token in his hand and pointed at the emblem opposite the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. "Your Excellency Yue Guan, this emblem clearly shows a dragon-like Martial Soul with horns and wings. How could it possibly be that Ton Ant?"
"Oh, those aren't horns," Chrysanthemum Douluo explained patiently. "They're the pair of large mouthparts, the great pincer-like mandibles, that both the Ton Ant Emperor and Ton Ant Queen possess. It's just that after Martial Soul Possession, they become a pair of long exoskeletal horns on the Soul Master's forehead."
"As for that pair of large, thin wings, both the Ton Ant Emperor and Ton Ant Queen possess them. Never mind Martial Souls-even ant emperor and ant queen Soul Beasts have pitch-black wings."
"Pitch-black?" Xu Zi voiced his final question. "But aren't Ton Ants all yellow...?"
"That's the Ton Ant Martial Soul, a Trash Martial Soul." As Chrysanthemum Douluo spoke, he took out the Soul Beast Encyclopedia and quickly flipped through it, showing Xu Zi the composition of the Ton Ant race.
"Here-"
"The Ton Ant race includes newly grown juvenile ants, worker ants, soldier ants, ant kings, ant queens, and ant emperors."
"As Martial Souls, their corresponding grades are Trash Martial Soul, ordinary Martial Soul, high-grade Martial Soul, top-grade Martial Soul, and the very finest Martial Souls, which are engraved on the Pope Token."
Chrysanthemum Douluo turned the pages again, revealing two distinctly different large, pitch-black ants with a golden sheen before Xu Zi.
On the left was an ant queen with a bulging abdomen; on the right, an ant emperor with six sturdy limbs. Although these two Soul Beasts differed in the details of their builds, both had a pair of curved-horn-like pincer mandibles at their mouths and a pair of thin insect wings growing from their backs.
The ant queen on the left, in particular, was practically identical to the Martial Soul emblem on the right side of the Pope Token.
Of the two great mysteries surrounding the six Super Titled Douluo on the Pope Token, the final one had now been fully revealed. Both answers had been unexpected.
"I almost forgot. Ton Ant Emperors and Ton Ant Queens both have wings," Xu Zi murmured.
Chrysanthemum Douluo put away the Soul Beast Encyclopedia. "Perhaps the Soul Beast resources where you come from are poor, so no winged Ton Ants have appeared there. Quite a few Ton Ant colonies live in the inner reaches of our Star Dou Great Forest, and there's no shortage of ant queens among them."
"Wait until the next Holy Maiden of our Pope Hall takes her position. His Holiness will order a Soul Hunting Operation organized. When the time comes, Old Ghost and I will take you along and tear open a few ant nests to broaden your horizons."
With that, the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum true form sprouted beneath Yue Guan's feet once more, carrying him slowly into the air and away.
"Then thank you, Elder Yue Guan."
Xu Zi performed the ecclesiastical salute and bade him farewell. "Safe travels, Your Excellency."