Ning Fengzhi's scheme: Twin Martial Souls of Seven Treasure and Clear Sky

Thud!

A dull, heavy crash erupted on the top floor of the library pavilion.

Qian Renxue had delivered that kick in anger. How could Hu Liena's meager cultivation possibly withstand it?

Only half a scream escaped before her petite body flew backward, smashed through the carved wooden railing, and plunged straight out of the seven-story building!

The wind howled, and the sudden weightlessness frightened her soul out of her body.

As the ground rapidly swelled in her vision, she desperately channeled her Soul Power. A pale pink phantom of a bewitching fox appeared behind her, barely protecting her vital meridians and head before she landed.

A tremendous crash rang out!

Hu Liena slammed heavily onto the bluestone plaza and rolled several times before crashing to a stop against the steps.

The two Soul Saints guarding the entrance jumped in fright. Looking closely, they realized it was His Holiness the Pope's newly accepted personal disciple.

The two exchanged glances. Neither stepped forward to help her.

The fall had left Hu Liena utterly dazed.

Her pretty face had suffered the worst. It had scraped hard against the bluestone paving, stripping a large patch of skin from her right cheek and leaving bloody abrasions.

Her brocade dress was torn and covered in dust.

Where was even a trace of her swagger now?

At the breach on the library pavilion's top floor, Qian Renxue slowly approached the broken railing and stood with her hands behind her back, looking down from above.

Ever since Hu Liena had entered Spirit Hall, everything she ate and used, her cultivation resources, and her meditation methods had all been provided by Spirit Hall.

An outside disciple who had survived on the Hall's generosity-setting aside the ungrateful wolf she would become, biting the hand that fed her-already dared to climb onto Qian Renxue's face when given an inch!

That kick had merely been a small lesson.

In the plaza, Hu Liena covered her burning cheek and struggled to her feet.

She glared venomously up at the seventh floor and opened her mouth, ready to invoke Bibi Dong's name and make threats.

But when her gaze met Qian Renxue's utterly cold golden eyes, a terrifying pressure born of bloodline and superior standing chilled her entire body.

Hu Liena shuddered. The curses on the tip of her tongue lodged forcibly in her throat, and a wave of fear swept through her heart.

Not daring to say anything more, she clenched her teeth and gave a loud snort.

Covering her face, she limped off toward Pope Hall in a sorry state, evidently going to complain.

Hu Liena was not the only one to fall from a height that day.

On the mountain's front slope, outside Pope Hall's main entrance.

A flight of nine hundred and ninety-nine white marble steps stretched from the summit all the way down to Spirit City's main street at the foot of the mountain, a magnificent sight.

Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan and Ghost Douluo Gui Mei emerged from Pope Hall, supporting Tang Xiao between them, his eyes tightly shut and blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

At the very top of the steps, Yue Guan brushed disdainfully at the bloodstains on his sleeve. Holding his fingers in an orchid gesture, he said with distaste:

"Old Ghost, His Holiness the Pope only told us to see the guest out, not carry him all the way down the mountain. Let's leave him here!"

Gui Mei replied sinisterly:

"Just what I had in mind."

As the words fell, both Titled Douluos jerked their arms at once. Showing not the slightest consideration, they grabbed Tang Xiao's shoulders and tossed him straight down the steps!

The defenses of Tang Xiao's sea of consciousness had already been shattered, and his Soul Power was now scattered. His massive body tumbled down the steep stone steps!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Heavy impacts echoed along the entire mountain path.

Tang Xiao rolled down hundreds of steps before finally crashing to a halt on the stone-paved road at the foot of the mountain.

Instead, the agonizing knocks along the way brought him out of his stupor.

The Howling Sky Douluo's hair crown was shattered, his face bruised and swollen.

His sect master's robes had been scraped to tatters. He looked exactly as though he had just crawled out of a mass grave.

The foot of the mountain was already Spirit City's busiest district, with streams of people passing through.

The sight of a living man rolling down Pope Mountain sent the onlookers into an uproar as they pointed and commented:

"Look, look! Who's that? Why did he roll down the steps from Pope Hall?"

"The fabric of his clothes looks pretty good. Could he have gone to Pope Hall to cause trouble and been thrown out by the important people up there?"

"Tsk, tsk. At his age, daring to run wild in Spirit Hall!"

Grating chatter and mocking laughter rose all around him.

Tang Xiao pushed himself up from the ground, his old face burning.

He was the sect master of the Clear Sky Sect. When had he ever suffered such humiliation in public?

If someone recognized his face and word of today's scene spread through the Soul Master World, the Clear Sky Sect would lose its last shred of dignity!

Overwhelmed with shame and fury, he could not even spare time to tend his injuries. Raising his tattered sleeve to cover his face tightly, he lowered his head, barged through the crowd, and hurriedly fled Spirit City.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

After Tang San was brought to the sect, he moved into a secluded private courtyard.

During this time, Ning Fengzhi personally visited him almost every few days.

Through subtle probing and questioning over this period, Ning Fengzhi had gained a fairly comprehensive understanding of Tang San's vast and intricate system of hidden weapons.

To verify its authenticity, he had even allocated a dedicated forging workshop, providing superior refined iron and every condition needed for their manufacture.

When he personally watched an inner disciple without any offensive Soul Skills wield a Godly Zhuge Crossbow and instantly turn a pig-iron target fifty paces away into a sieve, Ning Fengzhi was overjoyed!

These hidden weapons were nothing short of divine sect-protecting tools tailor-made for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect!

The headache, however, was that whenever Tang San crafted the most crucial mechanical components, he drove every craftsman out of the workshop and worked alone behind closed doors.

The sect had obtained several finished pieces, but lacked precisely the core blueprints and the methods for forging their components.

Even after taking the finished pieces apart, the sect's master blacksmiths could not reproduce them.

This gave Ning Fengzhi no end of headaches.

The council hall.

Ning Fengzhi, Chen Xin, and Gu Rong sat together drinking tea.

Ning Fengzhi set down his teacup and let out a long, helpless sigh:

"Alas, I've racked my brains over those hidden weapon blueprints. But no matter how I combine persuasion and pressure,

"that child Tang San keeps saying how grateful he is that the sect took him in, yet he just respectfully deflects everything I say."

He shook his head, an odd expression crossing his face:

"He doesn't leave a single crack for water to seep through. Is this really the mind of a five-year-old?"

Sword Chen Xin said thoughtfully:

"That child has suffered alongside Tang Hao since he was little. He certainly has more wiles than ordinary children.

"But Fengzhi, from what I've observed, although he guards against others, he gets along particularly well with our Rongrong.

"The two little ones stick together every day, inseparable as a body and its shadow."

At the mention of Ning Rongrong, Gu Rong's old face immediately lengthened, and he interjected sourly:

"Exactly! Ever since that brat moved into the sect, Rongrong has been running to his courtyard first thing every morning.

"Now she doesn't even pay attention to me anymore. She doesn't want her Grandpa Gu!"

Sword Chen Xin pondered briefly, then turned to Ning Fengzhi and proposed seriously:

"Fengzhi, this child responds to a soft touch, not force, and he happens to get along so well with Rongrong.

"In my view, why not steer the boat with the current and start bringing the two of them together while they're young?

"If he becomes the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's prized son-in-law and we all become family, could he still keep those hidden weapon blueprints tucked away?"

"Bring Rongrong and Tang San together?"

Ning Fengzhi paused slightly. His tightly knitted brows slowly relaxed, sharp gleams flashing in his eyes as he rapidly followed Chen Xin's line of thought.

Uncle Jian's proposal is by no means as simple as obtaining a few hidden weapon blueprints!

Others saw only the hidden weapons in Tang San's hands, but Ning Fengzhi saw the bloodline within him!

Who was Tang San?

The biological son of Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao!

In a few more months, when he turned six and awakened his Martial Soul, what he inherited would surely be that Clear Sky Hammer, renowned across the continent as the world's greatest tool Martial Soul!

At the thought of the Clear Sky Hammer, Ning Fengzhi's breathing quickened.

According to the rules of Martial Soul inheritance passed down on the Douluo Continent for a thousand years, the Martial Soul awakened by a descendant generally came from whichever parent possessed the higher-quality Martial Soul.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda held the honored position of the world's greatest support-type Martial Soul, yet this was precisely the sect's greatest sore point!

For hundreds of years, to compensate for their direct descendants' lack of offensive power, the sect had vigorously recruited powerful outsiders to marry into the family, ensuring the sect's fighting strength.

But because those outsiders' Martial Souls were far inferior in quality to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, every descendant born still possessed the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda!

But if Rongrong and Tang San were to marry, things would be entirely different!

The Clear Sky Hammer was one of the finest Power Attack System tool Martial Souls in existence, its quality no lower than the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's!

Once the two had children, the Martial Soul genes the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had carried for a thousand years might well be completely rewritten starting with Rongrong's generation!

Their direct bloodline descendants would very likely awaken the Clear Sky Hammer.

They might even produce the legendary one-in-ten-thousand Twin Martial Souls, since both parents' Martial Souls were of comparable quality!

A Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda in one hand providing support, a Clear Sky Hammer in the other sweeping across the world, and Tang San's unfathomable Hundred Solutions to Hidden Weapon on top of that...

An unprecedented, magnificent blueprint slowly unfolded. The more Ning Fengzhi thought, the more his heart surged.

He slapped the armrest, his face radiant as a spring breeze:

"Brilliant! Uncle Jian, this plan is brilliant. It's entirely feasible!"