Riding a Super Douluo's Martial Soul Avatar to school, being received by a cardinal, and carrying a Pope Token...
Xu Zi was naturally assigned to the premium residential area and given a small villa all to himself.
In the small sitting room on the first floor.
Xu Zi mixed two packets of drink powder with water, then pushed one cup across the porcelain tabletop.
"Please, Bishop. This is a specialty of our Sun Moon-milk tea."
After taking a sip, the cardinal nodded sincerely. "Mm, it certainly is unique."
Xu Zi raised his cup slightly. "Bishop, you're the first person from Douluo to drink this milk tea."
"Oh? Am I going into the history books, then? Hahaha." The cardinal had never expected the person he recommended to receive such favor from the Pope, and he had become considerably more relaxed in his speech and manner.
"However..."
An awkward expression crossed the cardinal's face. "Spirit Hall Academy's first team has ten members in total: seven starters and three reserves. Every spot already has an occupant. Arbitrarily replacing one of them..."
"His Holiness's instruction really is difficult to carry out."
Xu Zi's eyebrows rose slightly. "Even His Holiness the Pope's verbal order can't change this team?"
"It can, but you don't understand." The cardinal shook his head. "When an order reaches this level, the person carrying it out has the hardest time."
"To put it plainly, the factions within our Spirit Hall are tangled and complex. Remove any member of the team, and you'll provoke the displeasure of the large family behind them."
Xu Zi already had a deep appreciation of the tangled factions within Spirit Hall. After all, readers in the real world had criticized the fact that Spirit Hall's Pope could not mobilize the Hall's Peak Douluos with a great war looming countless times.
"That's why I wanted to ask for your cooperation and help, Young Master Xu." The cardinal finally stated the purpose of his visit.
Xu Zi smiled and waved a hand. "There's no need to be so polite, Bishop. I only gained an audience with His Holiness today thanks to your recommendation, so by rights, I owe you a favor."
"All right, then I'll be direct." The cardinal stopped beating around the bush.
Glancing at the Pope Token beside Xu Zi's hand, he got straight to the point. "The day after tomorrow, then. I'll find a way to gather every available member of the academy's first and second teams at the Soul Fighting Plaza."
"When the time comes, with you holding the Pope Token and being from a friendly nation overseas, your standing will be entirely legitimate. Let's see whether those old fellows behind these youngsters still dare use this as a pretext to make trouble for the academy."
"Certainly." Xu Zi agreed without hesitation. "We'll do as you say."
After a little more conversation and a finished cup of milk tea, Xu Zi saw off the bishop on duty that week.
The little villa was not small-at least for one or two people.
The third floor was one large room, without any sitting rooms or terraces of any size. An enormous bed occupied half the floor.
After spending the day running around, Xu Zi could finally rest properly. But as a guest in a foreign land, he did not let his guard down. Instead, he removed the gold bracelet from his wrist.
Spiritual power flowed out from between his brows and sank into the golden crystal of the bracelet.
As far as his "eyes" could see, there was nothing but a pitch-black space.
A gilded crocodile over four meters long lay bound at the bottom of that dark space.
Its shape and color were not enough to determine that this was the twenty-one-hundred-year Soul Beast the Golden Crocodile family had given him as a "meeting gift."
The overlord Soul Beast clan of the Golden Forest-the Golden Crocodile.
One of the top Soul Beasts, it cultivated both the metal element and the strength attribute, giving it both offense and defense!
But as a third ring...
"Not quite good enough." Xu Zi shook his head.
His Martial Soul was a fusion of two Martial Souls, after all. A mere twenty-one-hundred-year Soul Beast was not worthy of it.
The physical and spiritual enhancement that the God-Level Martial Soul, the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon, had given Xu Zi upon awakening alone far surpassed the effects of ten-thousand-year whale glue.
And the Soul Beast for his second ring had already been a Devouring Dragon with two thousand years of cultivation.
The Soul Beast for his third ring had to be around five thousand years old at the very least. Otherwise, how could it justify all the time he had spent stuck at the level 30 bottleneck?
So...
Outside the soul tool's space, Xu Zi opened his eyes. A faint soul-tool glow lit up between his fingers, and an unusual sky-blue fruit appeared in his palm.
It was the Thousand-Year Dragon Scale Fruit Bibi Dong had bestowed on him not long ago, the very thing that had been key to Tuoba Xi of the Holy Dragon Sect reaching level 90.
Sensing that yearning will within his Purple Sun Martial Soul, Xu Zi's gaze instantly sharpened. Without hesitation, he stuffed the sky-blue Dragon Scale Fruit into the gold storage bracelet.
That was right. His final decision for this Dragon Scale Fruit was to use it as Soul Beast feed.
Such extravagance-if Tang Wulin saw it twenty thousand years later, surely he would curse him for squandering heaven's treasures!
But Xu Zi could not afford to wait. He had been stuck at the level 30 bottleneck for too long.
Before this, he could easily have hunted a four- or five-thousand-year White Armored Earth Dragon for the third ring of his two-in-one Martial Soul.
But compared to a White Armored Earth Dragon, a Golden Crocodile was of higher quality, had greater potential for induced Dragon Transformation, and better suited the strength-attribute Martial Soul-the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon.
At the bottom of the soul tool's space, the Golden Crocodile's gleaming golden hide stood out sharply against the darkness.
A blue arc descended from above and, guided by spiritual power, settled gently beside the Golden Crocodile's mouth.
As the wonderful scent stimulated its nostrils, its wide-set eyes lit up. Its bound, splayed body launched into a death roll-
Its fang-filled jaws opened, and it immediately swallowed the Thousand-Year Dragon Scale Fruit whole.
Xu Zi felt no heartache at all. Instead, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief, for as the Dragon Scale Fruit's scent disappeared, the strands of beguiling will within the Purple Sun fell silent as well.
The next moment, the spiritual power immersed in the gold bracelet's soul-tool space sensed a wave of heat spreading upward. Even Xu Zi's wrist outside could clearly feel a wave of energy expanding chaotically within the soul-tool space.
Blistering heat billowed from the four-meter Golden Crocodile's entire body. Violent energy surged through it, leaving it so uncomfortable that it instinctively rolled about without stopping.
This was normal after consuming a Dragon Scale Fruit, whether for humans, Soul Beasts, or even the half-beastman twenty thousand years later: Tang Wulin.
Xu Zi had consumed Dragon Scale Fruit before. He knew how potent it was, and that the transformation would not be over in mere moments.
He simply withdrew his spiritual power and left the Golden Crocodile to writhe within the soul-tool space.
Settling his back against the soft bed, Xu Zi let out a long breath.
Now, he had traveled all the way to the Douluo Continent to achieve his goals of shedding his old self and being reborn:
Activate the Sun Martial Soul's mutation;
Obtain dragon-type Soul Ring resources.
He had made considerable preparations for this. Before leaving, he had even stolen the sole Devouring Dragon raised by the imperial family.
Now, both major goals were halfway complete-
His Martial Soul's mutation was incomplete, stuck in a state where the sun and the Purple Brilliant Heaven Destroying Dragon coexisted; he hardly needed to worry about his first four rings, because Bibi Dong had already ordered a continent-wide search for traces of a Tyrant Dragon.
Next, he would join the academy team and face off against this plane's protagonists.
Looking back on his journey, he had never expended effort on anything unrelated to his own interests, but the Soul Master Tournament was an exception.
Even if he turned the tide in the finals and made Spirit Hall's higher-ups favor him with goodwill and resources, the actual benefits would not amount to much for him.
Because the disadvantages outweighed the advantages.
"Ah, I suppose it's for that illusory thing called fame."
His fingers brushed over the Heaven Prison Pope Token. Xu Zi closed his clear eyes and, as the last light of dusk faded outside the window, slipped into peaceful dreams.
Please send monthly tickets and recommendation votes.