You Can Do It

Golden Crocodile Douluo looked at Mu Tian'en with a strange, complicated expression.

The cold air produced by melting the deep-sea black ice crystal had not hurt Mu Tian'en. Instead, it had stuffed his belly full.

To be honest, Golden Crocodile Douluo had received quite a few shocks today.

So many that he was starting to miss his son, who was far away in Spirit City and presumably lying like a corpse in the sun right now.

Given that fellow's tendency to lie flat, he could certainly have dispelled his father's gloom with a few words, then used his own body to test the strength of his father's fists.

But Jin Yuan wasn't here!

And before the ceremony to take Mu Tian'en as his disciple, Golden Crocodile Douluo couldn't very well discipline him directly.

Still, the thought that he had already accepted the task of taking the little fellow as his disciple left Golden Crocodile Douluo feeling helpless and gave him a headache.

These past few years, every family in Spirit Hall had its own difficult scripture to recite.

Big Brother's scripture was his granddaughter, his son, and his "daughter-in-law."

Golden Crocodile Douluo, however, had a different number of scriptures from the other worshippers.

He had a whole basketful of difficult scriptures to recite.

Some of his descendants were quite talented, but for some reason, not only did the Yellow Golden Crocodiles they awakened come in all sorts of strange varieties, some of the fellows also refused to take the road he had paved for them, insisting instead on purifying their crocodile bloodlines.

Although Jin Yuan, Jin Huang's father, had ultimately found a path, only Golden Crocodile Douluo and that fellow Jin Yuan knew just how much time and effort they had put into it.

And then, in the end, he, Golden Crocodile Douluo, actually had to take in a child with an extremely strong water attribute and other attributes whose existence was completely unknown.

All because the other worshippers knew far less about the relevant attributes than the Golden Crocodile Clan under his control.

But now...

Golden Crocodile Douluo no longer worried about his descendants' peculiar ideas.

He wasn't even all that worried about the son who was always making him angry.

He was more concerned about the little fellow before him, Mu Tian'en.

Even Golden Crocodile Douluo was uncertain about the little fellow's situation.

The way he ate up everything had clearly been inherited from his Martial Soul.

No, for the moment, even Golden Crocodile Douluo couldn't tell whether the Martial Soul had influenced Mu Tian'en or Mu Tian'en had influenced his Martial Soul.

However, one thing Golden Crocodile Douluo could be certain of was that the little fellow's Martial Soul might possess a devouring attribute that could very easily lead to corruption.

If it had been discovered in another faction, devouring would have been just devouring; it wouldn't have mattered much.

But Golden Crocodile Douluo belonged to Spirit Hall, a faction that loathed Fallen Soul Masters and had even marked them all for death.

If a poorly planned Soul Ring strengthened that nearly terrifying devouring ability, Golden Crocodile Douluo didn't want his disciple to cause divisions and an internal war within Spirit Hall.

Of course, Golden Crocodile Douluo had unconsciously overlooked the fact that Pope Hall and Worship Hall were already like fire and water.

At that thought, Golden Crocodile Douluo put on a serious expression and held Mu Tian'en back as he tried to approach Xiunuo.

"Little fellow, your Grandpa Xiunuo has only just recovered from a serious illness, so don't get close to him."

"Also, that cold air you just sucked in was what made your Grandpa Xiunuo sick. It isn't anything tasty, and you mustn't eat it."

Golden Crocodile Douluo had never worn such a gentle expression in front of his own grandchildren.

He was coaxing a child.

As Jin Huang stared at him as though he had seen a ghost, Golden Crocodile Douluo took a moment out of his busy schedule to shoot his grandson a sideways glance.

After warning his grandson to wipe that ghost-seeing expression off his face, he used Soul Power to compress his voice into a thread and send it into his grandson's ear, where it exploded.

"Hurry up and fetch that Soul Saint named Ma Chengyuan!"

"I'm taking the little fellow Soul Hunting at once!"

Hearing the roar explode beside his ear, briefly testing the strength of his eardrum, Jin Huang wiped the ghost-seeing expression off his face and shot off with a stride.

He, Jin Huang, had realized the moment his grandfather appeared that he had been used as a pretext from start to finish.

The person who had really wanted to come and assess the genius all along was his grandfather himself.

And the person who wanted to help the genius hunt for a Soul Ring had never been him, Jin Huang, but Golden Crocodile Douluo, Jin Huang's grandfather.

After watching his grandson dash away, Golden Crocodile Douluo looked at Little Tian'en's face, saliva still welling up in his mouth, an obscure light in his eyes.

Golden Crocodile Douluo had originally wanted to find a relatively powerful Soul Beast to help his final disciple complete his first Soul Hunt.

But now, seeing the little fellow's bottomless appetite, his requirements had changed somewhat.

And in the present Vast Sea City Spirit Hall, the only fellow capable of taking on his idea and thinking beyond it was that Boundless Book, Ma Chengyuan.

Meanwhile, as Golden Crocodile Douluo looked at Mu Tian'en and fell into deep thought, Mu Tian'en looked left and right. Finding that he couldn't get close to Grandpa Xiunuo even if he went around the old grandpa, he sat back down in a huff and continued eating the dishes, which, to him, smelled nowhere near as good as the scent coming from Grandpa Xiunuo.

A moment later...

Jin Huang brought Ma Chengyuan into the dining hall, his body covered in frost.

As soon as Ma Chengyuan entered the dining hall, his expression changed.

He had spotted the person who had driven him out of Spirit City back then.

"My lord, I've already left Spirit Hall. Why do you still insist on wiping me out?"

Hearing Ma Chengyuan's shriek, Golden Crocodile rolled his eyes.

Considering that Ma Chengyuan's brain had just been frozen and he hadn't recovered yet, he let it pass.

Jin Huang, however, stepped forward and sent a warm current of Bloodline Power into Ma Chengyuan's body, temporarily raising the temperature of the man who had only just awoken from being frozen in frost to an abnormal level.

This temporarily brought Ma Chengyuan's intelligence back within the normal human range.

Only then did Ma Chengyuan put aside his earlier panic and bow to Golden Crocodile Douluo. "Greetings, Golden Crocodile Douluo. Thank you for sparing my life back then."

Golden Crocodile Douluo looked at the man before him, whose intelligence had returned and whose head was clear again, and his eyes darkened slightly. "There's no need to thank me. I only permitted you to leave back then for my son's sake."

"You said earlier that you had chosen a suitable Soul Beast to contribute the little fellow's First Soul Ring. Now I have another requirement for you."

Golden Crocodile Douluo held up one finger.

"As long as you can do it, I'll let you return to Spirit Hall headquarters. I can also let Xiunuo go to Spirit Hall with Jin Huang."

"As long as you can do it!"

As Golden Crocodile Douluo spoke, a crocodile formed of golden-yellow lines roared wildly in his eyes.