"Fengzhi, how could you have recommended Yu Xiaogang to Emperor Xue Ye, and even said something like 'He who gains the Grandmaster gains the world'?"
"I don't know what happened either. Maybe... Yu Xiaogang isn't as useless as he says? Or maybe it was simply because of his identity?
Didn't the sky screen mention before that Yu Xiaogang was the teacher of Tang San, the protagonist of the book?
That's right, that must be why I said something like that."
Ning Fengzhi found a seemingly reasonable explanation, and Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo nodded too. They had known Ning Fengzhi for so long, and they didn't think he was an idiot.
Bibi Dong nodded. "Yu Xiaogang really is a useless Soul Master, and his Martial Soul is useless too."
"Actually, Yu Xiaogang's Martial Soul isn't useless at all. The main problem is that he's so useless he can't make it work."
"His Martial Soul isn't useless?"
"Mm. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul underwent an atavistic mutation. In essence, it's a Radiant Sacred Dragon. Unfortunately, Yu Xiaogang himself was too useless to withstand the bloodline's reversion to its ancestral form, so it became the Luo Sanpao it is now.
Yu Xiaogang complains that Luo Sanpao held him back, but in fact, he's the one who dragged Luo Sanpao down."
In the Worship Hall in Spirit City, a group of worshippers looked at Yu Xiaogang, who had been tossed aside like a dead dog and left unattended for the moment. Their expressions were quite something.
Just how useless did a person have to be to drag down his own Martial Soul? It was simply unheard of.
If Yu Xiaogang hadn't been so useless, the Radiant Sacred Dragon would probably have been a top-tier Martial Soul on par with the Six-Winged Angel.
Yu Yuanzhen would probably have laughed himself awake in his dreams. Unfortunately, there were no ifs in this world.
"Enough about Yu Xiaogang. Back to Ning Fengzhi. He's a pretty puzzling person too. In the book, his daughter was close to the protagonist Tang San, and they even ended up becoming sworn siblings. So there was nothing wrong with Ning Fengzhi going all in to support Tang San.
For that, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect paid a tremendous price. In the end, the sword broke, the bones shattered, and Fengzhi's hair turned white overnight."
Hearing this, Ning Fengzhi was startled and turned to look at Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo.
Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo were the two pillars of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. If those two pillars fell, what right would the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, a purely support-oriented sect, have to stand among the Upper Three Sects?
"Fengzhi, if we die protecting the sect, then our deaths will have served a worthy purpose."
"Exactly. If we die in a blaze of glory, it'll be worth it."
"Uncle Jian, Uncle Gu, that brat on the sky screen doesn't sound like he's saying anything good."
Bibi Dong also caught on. "Tang Fan, when you say the sword broke and the bones shattered, do you mean Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect?"
"Yes. Take a guess whose hands they died at."
Seeing Tang Fan's teasing look, Bibi Dong blinked and pointed at herself. "Mine?"
"That's right. In the end, after you became a god, you killed them both in a single move."
Hearing this, Bibi Dong felt rather conflicted.
At the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo seemed quite untroubled.
"To withstand a god's attack would be no disgrace to the name of my Seven Kill Sword."
"To face a god directly would give me enough to boast about for the rest of my life."
Ning Fengzhi's frown only deepened.
"Fengzhi, none of it has happened yet. There's no need to trouble yourself so much."
"Uncle Jian, I was thinking: I bet on the right protagonist, and my future daughter even became his sworn sister. You two paid such a terrible price as well, so why were his words still full of mockery?"
Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo couldn't quite understand it either. By all rights, Ning Fengzhi had made the right bet, yet from the sound of Tang Fan's words, it was as though he had lost everything.
Bibi Dong asked the question Ning Fengzhi wanted to ask.
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect sided with the protagonist, so weren't they the final winners? And they paid such a great price. When rewards were handed out according to merit afterward, they should have received substantial benefits, right?"
"That's where the problem lies. What did the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect get in the end? Aside from changing its name to the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, it seems they got nothing."
"Huh? That can't be, can it?"
"What Ning Fengzhi values most is the sect's inheritance. A large part of the reason he bet on Tang San was that Tang San helped his daughter upgrade her Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul into the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
But after the war ended, his daughter became a god and went to the Divine Realm with Tang San, without leaving the inheritance behind.
Although the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect changed its name to the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, its inherited Martial Soul was still the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Nothing had changed.
And with Tang San and his companions ascending to the Divine Realm, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect-or rather, the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect-lost its mainstays and was gradually pushed to the margins."
Ning Fengzhi was dumbfounded when he heard this. "How could this happen? Why would this happen?
My Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect paid such a great price, only to change its name in the end? And afterward, it was completely pushed to the margins?"
The contrast was more than Ning Fengzhi could bear.
Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo couldn't make sense of it either.
"Fengzhi, your daughter had already evolved her Martial Soul into the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, so why didn't she have children before becoming a god and pass down the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul?"
"I don't know either. Could it be that the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul simply can't be inherited? Then what's the point of pursuing the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda?"
"Even if the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda can't be inherited, we paid such a great price for Tang San. Shouldn't Tang San have told you how to evolve the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda?
That way, at least we could ensure that every generation had an inheritor of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul!
Otherwise, the sect changed its name to the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, but its inherited Martial Soul was still the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Wouldn't that invite ridicule?"
Naturally, no one answered Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo's questions. But Tang Fan's words made the others on the Douluo Continent who were considering investing in the future protagonist reconsider.
Could the future protagonist Tang San be someone who remembered grudges but forgot favors?
If so, it would be better to keep their distance from someone like that.
After hearing Tang Fan describe the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's future, Bibi Dong couldn't help feeling wistful.
"Then Ning Fengzhi had it pretty rough. He clearly backed the right person, but didn't get a single benefit out of it."
"You can't quite put it that way. At least his daughter really did become a god. Their Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect produced a god, which brought them prestige no matter how you look at it.
It's just that, compared with the sect, Ning Rongrong was more inclined toward Shrek Academy."
"Shrek Academy?"
"It's the academy Tang San and the protagonist's group graduated from. It was founded by Yu Xiaogang's good brother Flender. In the stories of the later installments, it took over Spirit Hall's niche.
I'll tell you more about it later. We've arrived. What's on display here are weapons that would make even the gods of your Douluo Continent tremble."
This was where the Rocket Force's exhibits were displayed, and all the exhibits were major weapons of the nation.
Bibi Dong, however, was somewhat puzzled. "Tang Fan, aren't these missiles too? How are they different from the missiles on the warships?"
"Of course they're different. First, let me show you this..."