Tang Lie hurriedly took them and quickly read the letter. The instant he extended his Soul Power into the ring, his expression changed drastically. Without stopping to explain, he rushed up to Tang Xiao. "Sect Master! Little Feng has rendered an unparalleled service to the sect!"
The letter and ring passed through the elders' hands. Once everyone had finished reading, their eyes lit up.
The second elder drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his excitement. "Sect Master, Feng'er made it clear in his letter that this whale rubber can improve one's constitution! Many of our core disciples are at the crucial Soul Elder and Soul Ancestor stages. If they could use this to build their foundations..."
Tang Xiao naturally understood its significance. He rose abruptly, his voice like thunder. "Pass down my order! Everyone with Soul Power above rank twenty and a stable foundation is to assemble in the forbidden grounds behind the mountain immediately!"
The news spread swiftly, shaking the entire sect.
Within the forbidden grounds behind the mountain, more than twenty young core disciples sat cross-legged.
After Tang Xiao explained the circumstances, even the usually composed Tang Long and Tang Hu could not hide their excitement.
Tang Jian clenched his fists and whispered to the companion beside him, "Little Feng really is blessed with great fortune and a strong life. Not only did he escape Spirit Hall's pursuit, but he kept thinking of us all along and secured this heaven-defying opportunity for us."
Tang Xiao personally distributed the thousand-year whale rubber, one piece per person. A short while later, the disciples methodically followed the instructions Tang Feng had left behind. Adjusting for their different constitutions, they first melted it, swallowed it directly, then sat in ice-filled barrels and closed their eyes to refine it.
In an instant, Soul Power surged through the forbidden grounds like a tide.
Tang Jian grunted under the impact of the medicinal power. His bones cracked explosively, and his meridians rapidly widened. It truly was pain and pleasure together.
Six hours later, when everyone emerged from the water, the barrels gleamed with an oily black sheen and gave off a foul, fishy stench. These were the impurities expelled from their bodies.
Their constitutions had improved greatly, their meridians had become as tough as steel, and their Soul Power had grown several times more condensed. Their aptitude had visibly improved, and their foundations were more stable.
Several disciples stuck at the Soul Ancestor bottleneck even broke through in one leap with the whale rubber's aid, weeping with joy.
Tang Xiao and the five elders exchanged glances, each seeing delighted surprise in the others' eyes. The strength of these disciples' bones and meridians had actually risen an entire level across the board!
"Little Feng has rendered such a service to the sect. I propose we reward him with that thirty-thousand-year strength-type Soul Bone in the sect's treasury." After speaking, Tang Xiao looked at everyone.
Everyone nodded, without the slightest objection.
Next, Tang Xiao took ten pieces of ten-thousand-year whale glue from Tang Feng's ring and distributed them among himself, the five elders, and four second-generation disciples who were already Soul Douluos.
The elders each began taking theirs. Two hours later, they finished refining it. Everyone felt light in body, as though they had become more than ten years younger. Even the wrinkles of several older elders had faded somewhat.
Although their Soul Power cultivation had not increased much, their muscles and bones had been remolded, and the road ahead had suddenly opened wide. Tang Lie's Soul Power surged, shattering the bottleneck that had held him at the peak of rank eighty-eight. He successfully broke through to rank eighty-nine, drawing a chorus of congratulations.
At this rate, it would probably take only three years for all five elders of the Clear Sky Sect to enter the Titled Douluo realm.
Those four second-generation Soul Douluo disciples also felt a transformation that remade them down to their bones. The threshold of Titled Douluo, which had seemed beyond their reach for their entire lives, was no longer an unattainable dream.
Six Douluos in one sect, or even seven, eight... When that time came, the Clear Sky Sect could stride forward with heads held high, no longer needing to hide its head and show its tail, and could even return to the Soul Master World.
While everyone in the Clear Sky Sect was immersed in the joy of their improvements, Tang Feng and Dugu Bo had already entered the Balak Kingdom on the border of the Heaven Dou Empire.
The wind howled high in the sky, but Tang Feng stood steadily within Dugu Bo's Soul Power barrier, looking down at the land, where cities were scattered like stars across a chessboard.
This was Tang Feng's first time seeing the full panorama of the Douluo Continent so directly. He could not help marveling at its vastness and the sheer number of cities.
The one blemish in Tang Feng's otherwise satisfactory departure from Heaven Dou was that he had not met Ning Fengzhi, the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Back then, when the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan received the Clear Sky Sect's plea for aid, they had not hesitated. Both sect masters had personally gone to help. Clearly, although the Upper Three Sects normally competed to some extent, they were indeed branches of the same tree when it came to opposing Spirit Hall.
However, with the Clear Sky Sect retreating into seclusion in recent years, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had become the strongest sect in the public eye. Although it had to confront Spirit Hall directly, its strength had also increased tremendously.
If Tang Feng wanted to oppose Spirit Hall in the future, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would be powerful allies, and he needed to establish ties with them in advance. Once he had the strength and opportunity, he would need to pay them a personal visit.
There was also another person: "Xue Qinghe," who was Qian Renxue, the one who had spent twenty years undercover in the Heaven Dou Empire in the original story. At this moment, she should have been in the Heaven Dou Imperial Palace playing the gentle, refined crown prince.
But his strength was still low, and it was not yet time to lay his cards on the table. If he told Dugu Bo the truth outright and offended the Worship Hall, he feared it would bring death upon both Dugu Bo and himself.
There was no rush now, so Tang Feng chose to leave it alone for the time being and wait until he had the strength to catch them all in one net.
Their destination this time was a very important city in the Star Luo Empire called Longxing City, where the Breaking Clan lived.
Longxing City lay in the southeastern part of the Star Luo Empire, separated from Heaven Dou City by almost the entire Douluo Continent. It was over six thousand kilometers from Heaven Dou City. Traveling by carriage would probably take more than two months, and even at a Titled Douluo's speed, it would take ten days to half a month.
Tang Feng and Dugu Bo were in no hurry, stopping along the way. They planned to rest in Suotuo City, the largest city in the Balak Kingdom. After all, even oxen and horses grew tired and needed to eat "grass."
The moment he heard Suotuo City, Tang Feng remembered that Shrek Academy was located there. However, there probably were not many people at Shrek yet. After all, Tang San was not even ten, and there were still more than two years before he would arrive at Shrek.
Moreover, Tang San's greatest opportunity, the immortal herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, had already fallen into Tang Feng's hands. It was truly hard to say now what heights Tang San would ultimately reach.
Tang Feng and Dugu Bo casually found a decent hotel to stay in. After booking their rooms, they instructed the attendant to deliver dinner to their rooms, then went back to rest separately.
Back in his room with nothing to do, Tang Feng began using a staff in place of a hammer. Taking the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer as his foundation and referring to its force-generating techniques, he combined them with the Golden Cudgel's characteristics to consider creating his own staff techniques.
At present, Tang Feng already had ideas for three staff forms. He would discard the hammer technique's dull heaviness while retaining its core essence of "borrowing force and stacking power," then incorporate the staff's "agility, speed, and unpredictability."
The first form, "Thousandfold Waves," was a single-target burst technique extremely similar to the Chaotic Cloak's eighty-one hammer strikes, and it did not consume much Soul Power. If the enemy blocked, the staff would rebound using the recoil, allowing him to swing out the next strike with its momentum.
Every subsequent strike would be powered by the recoil of the previous one. His waist, legs, and arms would rotate like spinning tops, layering staff shadows upon one another.
The Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer emphasized "one overwhelming force subdues ten techniques," while this form adapted that into "one staff draws forth a thousand waves." Each additional layer increased the Golden Cudgel's force by ten percent, with nine strikes forming one cycle.
On the final strike, all the force would concentrate at a single point on the staff's tip, increasing its power to five times the initial strike, enough to smash through the defenses of a defense-type Soul Master of the same rank.
Its weakness was that if the enemy was far faster than Tang Feng, they could meet speed with speed and disrupt the stacking rhythm.
The second form, "Break Formation," provided area control and consumed more Soul Power. When the staff's tip touched the ground, he would unleash the vibrating force of the Chaotic Cloak and smash down fiercely. The ground within a fifteen-meter radius of the impact would crack, and Soul Power would turn into lava and erupt through the fissures, weakening the enemy's physical defense by thirty percent while inflicting "burning" and "slowing" effects.
The third form, "Protect Mountains and Rivers," was a defensive counterattack technique with the highest Soul Power consumption. With the Golden Cudgel's butt planted on the ground and both hands gripping its middle, he would pour Soul Power into it like a vortex. The staff would spin rapidly like a helicopter's blades, forming a dark-gold round shield.
"Protect Mountains and Rivers" could block all hidden weapons, arrows, and energy attacks. Thanks to its dual immunity to ice and fire, it also provided protection against poison. Unfortunately, it consumed an enormous amount of Soul Power, so he would need to improve it to reduce that consumption later.
These three forms-"Thousandfold Waves" to force the enemy to reposition, "Break Formation" to control them and reduce their defenses, and "Protect Mountains and Rivers" to hold firm-covered attack, control, and defense.
Of course, this was only a rough concept of Tang Feng's at present. He was still developing the first form. Fully working it out and bringing it to maturity would require years upon years of practice.
Ten days later, the two arrived in Longxing City, travel-worn and dusty.
Even the air of this important southeastern city of the Star Luo Empire carried a distinctive scent mingling metal and medicinal herbs.
After entering the city, Tang Feng searched along the streets and asked around, soon learning the Breaking Clan's exact location.