Chapter 108: Invincible Among Peers

Attracting attention in the Soul Fighting Arena inevitably brings the gaze of many major powers; Ning Feiliu knows this is unavoidable.

But one cannot simply choose not to complete a task because of such fears, right?

To put it bluntly, in Ning Feiliu's eyes, strength is the fundamental thing.

Being afraid of this and that, delaying the improvement of one's strength, that would be like giving up eating for fear of choking.

But fortunately, the Spirit Hall in the original story is not the kind of villainous faction that acts completely despicably and uses any means necessary.

They do not use unscrupulous means to recruit every talented Spirit Master who has a strong background and great talent, nor do they hold the mindset of "if I can't have them, I will destroy them."

At least that is how it was in the original story; Feng Xiaotian, a talented Spirit Master with Innate Full Spirit Power, lived perfectly well before the Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament.

Of course, the Spirit Hall is not that kind-hearted either.

Later on, they forced the Four Elements Academies to join the Spirit Hall and destroyed two major sects; would you call the Spirit Hall kind-hearted?

That would be a bit too naive.

One can only say that the Spirit Hall has not yet reached the point of being so base and shameless as to openly threaten and snatch people.

This is also one of the rules that major powers must abide by—one cannot be that shameless.

Otherwise, the whole world would despise you and stand against you, which would inevitably hinder the development of a major power.

Even the country of Ning Feiliu's past life still tries to maintain a shred of face, claiming other countries are researching weapons of mass destruction before taking action.

This is what is called having a legitimate excuse, using a fig leaf to cover things up.

But if that major power's strength has already developed to the point where the whole world is no match for it, then naturally it no longer needs to follow any rules or maintain any face.

It is very clear that the Spirit Hall in the later stages of the original story is in exactly this situation—what need is there for face? The number of Title Douluo in the Spirit Hall exceeds the total of the entire continent, so what face is there left to consider?

But for now... the Spirit Hall has not yet reached the point of completely tearing off its mask.

Regardless, one must always be on guard; Ning Feiliu will not tie his own safety to the question of whether the current Spirit Hall wants to maintain its face or not.

He plans to start forging special offensive Soul Guidance Devices using the Sun Destruction Power absorbed through the Sunlight Breathing Method once this period passes.

Before that, he also needs to be more careful.

Meanwhile, in Heaven Dou City, at the Wuhun Holy Hall.

"Did he refuse?" Salas listened to the full report from his subordinate Bishop, his aged face showing no change at all.

"Yes, my lord," the red-robed Bishop replied with his head bowed.

In truth... he hadn't necessarily felt before that Ning Feiliu, this student of Dugu Bo, would definitely betray Dugu Bo and join the Spirit Hall.

To put it bluntly, he was just testing the waters.

Tempting Ning Feiliu with benefits.

But Ning Feiliu refusing the invitation to join the Spirit Hall is also understandable.

After all, his teacher Dugu Bo is also a Title Douluo; trying to poach someone from a Title Douluo...

That is indeed quite difficult.

However...

The Spirit Hall is not dependent on a single talented Spirit Master, and although Ning Feiliu's martial soul is rare and his talent is strong, it has not reached the point where the Spirit Hall would be fanatical about him.

If Ning Feiliu had Twin Spirits... that would be a different story.

But a single martial soul holder is not enough to make the Spirit Hall use any means necessary.

"Then let it be; collect his information and keep it for future needs," Salas said indifferently.

And with that, he set the matter of Ning Feiliu aside.

As the saying goes, given the power of the Spirit Hall, a single top-tier talented Spirit Master is not something they take to heart.

Moreover, even if Ning Feiliu is a genius, it will take a long time for him to grow up.

Even a standout among Title Douluo like the Sword Douluo still needed decades of effort to break through to the Title Douluo realm.

A talent as brilliant as Tang Hao, combined with the sacrifice of a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Beast, was only able to break through to Title Douluo at the age of forty-four.

But how many Tang Haos can there be on this Douluo Continent? How many Hundred Thousand Year Soul Beasts?

Therefore, the Spirit Hall truly does not take so-called talented Spirit Masters to heart.

Salas also just paid a little attention, and then stopped worrying about this matter.

On the other side, at the Heaven Dou Great Auction House.

"Master Dugu..." the manager of the Heaven Dou Great Auction House said respectfully, "Are you here again this time to..."

Recently, Dugu Bo has come to the Heaven Dou Great Auction House three times.

It is just that these last three visits were not to buy things, but to auction items.

And the items being auctioned are Soul Guidance Devices, which are only slightly inferior to soul bones on the current Douluo Continent!

Currently, the manufacturing methods for Soul Guidance Devices on the Douluo Continent have been lost.

Things like Soul Guidance Devices, apart from those passed down directly from ancient times, are basically dug out from ruins or ancient tombs.

For example, the Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges that Yu Xiaogang gave to Tang San was obtained from ruins when he was traveling the continent with Flender and Liu Erlong in his early years.

However, this talk of "ruins"...

It feels like it should actually be ancient tombs, which is why in the early years, the profession of grave robbing was very popular on the Douluo Continent.

And because the power of Spirit Masters is not something that the ordinary grave robbers of Ning Feiliu's past life could compare to, the existing ancient tombs and ruins on the Douluo Continent have already been dug clean.

But it is not that they are truly completely gone.

There are still some inaccessible places, such as the Extreme North, which humans had not even fully stepped into during the era of Douluo II.

It is possible that there are still some ancient ruins and tombs of ancient Title Douluo in these places.

Therefore, the manager thinks that Dugu Bo must have found another such ancient ruin or tomb recently, which is how he found so many Soul Guidance Devices.

"Hmph!" Dugu Bo cast a faint glance at him at this moment; the pressure from a Title Douluo and an invisible fear instantly made the supervisor break out in a cold sweat.

The next moment, Dugu Bo flicked his large sleeve, and an earthy-yellow bracer appeared in his hand.

"This is a Soul Guidance Device, the Crystal Bracer. You may ask what should be asked, but do not ask what should not be asked."

"Yes..." the supervisor said hurriedly and fearfully.

Soon, Dugu Bo walked into the Heaven Dou Great Auction House, and the appraiser of the Heaven Dou Great Auction House came out to appraise the Crystal Bracer cautiously and with trepidation.

"This... the storage space inside actually has a full ten cubic meters!" the appraiser said, somewhat shocked.

Ten cubic meters of storage space is not considered large, but if this is a single, integrated storage space, then it is extraordinary.

This is even larger than the previous eight cubic meters of storage space.

"Can it be taken for auction now?" Dugu Bo said faintly at this moment.

"Na... naturally it is possible. This Soul Guidance Device, the Crystal Bracer... how about setting the starting price at 150,000?" the appraiser said.

"Agreed." Dugu Bo waved his hand, then turned and headed toward the auction center.

After all, even if the Heaven Dou Great Auction House had the courage of a giant, they would not dare to take advantage of Dugu Bo.

After seeing Dugu Bo leave, the appraiser and the supervisor finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Just then, the appraiser looked at the supervisor and said, "Supervisor Li... actually, I have some suspicions that I want to tell you."

"What suspicions?" the supervisor was stunned for a moment and asked.

The appraiser hesitated, but still said, "The Soul Guidance Devices that Mr. Dugu has brought recently... actually, I have always had a doubt, and that is... they seem too new, and their appearance is closer to the style of our current era."

It was obvious that when Ning Feiliu made the Soul Guidance Devices, he had no intention of making them look old.

And there is a clear difference between antiques just unearthed and newly made Soul Guidance Devices.

Especially the workmanship and decorations on them, because Ning Feiliu only made the core gems and metal of the Soul Guidance Devices, while the appearance of the entire item was bought directly as an external handicraft.

So, of course, the workmanship and decorations were the craftsmanship of this current era of the Douluo Dalu.

This was immediately noticed by the appraiser.

Actually, regarding craftsmanship, since it is passed down in one continuous line, and plus the fact that trends go in circles, it is possible to happen upon an ancient Soul Guidance Device similar to modern craftsmanship.

But this is already the fourth Soul Guidance Device like this.

One is a coincidence, two is a coincidence, but three or four is definitely not a coincidence.

"Could it be that..." an incredible thought flashed through Supervisor Li's mind.

He looked at the appraiser, and the appraiser also confirmed his thought and nodded.

Seeing the appraiser nod, the supervisor immediately confirmed one thing in his heart...

It is very likely that Dugu Bo did not simply excavate a new ancient civilization ruin and obtain a few Soul Guidance Devices, but rather...

He obtained the complete method for making Soul Guidance Devices!

This is too lucky!

One must know that although so many ruins and ancient tombs have been excavated in the Douluo Dalu, the methods for making Soul Guidance Devices from the ancient period have never been dug up.

What they speculate now is that this is probably because the ancients did not expect that in the later generations of the Douluo Dalu, the methods for making Soul Guidance Devices would be severed and become exceptionally precious.

In the ancient period, the methods for making Soul Guidance Devices were likely not precious items, so they had no value to be brought into tombs as burial objects.

However, if Ning Feiliu knew, he would definitely think it unlikely to be the case.

He felt that there might have been ancient books and the like buried in the ancient tombs.

But because the Spirit Masters of the Douluo Dalu had no awareness of protecting books and paper, it is very likely that the moment the ancient tombs were exposed, those ancient books recording the manufacturing methods were destroyed.

After all, Soul Guidance Devices, antiques, and gems might not decay after thousands or ten thousand years, but things like paper will erode and rot in just a hundred years.

Clearly, there is no such thing as a royal archaeological team in this era that would conduct protective and rescue excavations.

It is all about whoever grabs the treasures inside gets to keep them.

But anyway, when the Sun Moon Continent drifts over ten thousand years later, it will bring over the lost Soul Guidance Device technology that has already developed far beyond the ancient times.

So, actually, it is fine.

It is just that in this era, the number of Soul Guidance Devices is scarce.

But for ordinary people, ten thousand years is too long; one must seize the day.

Therefore, this matter of the manufacturing methods of Soul Guidance Devices... is indeed something that makes people covetous.

But unfortunately, the person who possesses this manufacturing method is Dugu Bo.

Everyone knows that the manufacturing method of Soul Guidance Devices would be a hen that lays golden eggs, and he certainly would not hand it over easily.

Like Dugu Bo, taking out a Soul Guidance Device to auction from time to time, and raking in hundreds of thousands of Gold Soul Coins in just a month...

Who wouldn't want to do such a highly profitable business?

Supervisor Li felt somewhat helpless, but he still planned to report it upward...

As for where to report it...

That would naturally be the imperial family.

Who do you think is running businesses like the Heaven Dou Great Auction House and the Heaven Dou Great Spirit Arena that are crowned with the name of the Heaven Dou Empire?

The imperial family of the Douluo Dalu has no taboo against competing with the people for profit.

Therefore, behind the Heaven Dou Great Auction House and the Heaven Dou Great Spirit Arena, it is the Heaven Dou Imperial Family and the current Emperor of the Heaven Dou Empire who are backing them!

Dugu Bo and Ning Feiliu were naturally completely unaware of this.

And others did not know that the Soul Guidance Devices that had appeared again and again in the Heaven Dou Great Auction House recently were all from the hands of Dugu Bo, and Dugu Bo had also earned a fortune because of this.

For example, this Crystal Bracer, which is easy to carry and has ten cubic meters of storage space, was auctioned off for the sky-high price of 185,000 Gold Soul Coins.

After deducting a portion of the handling fees for the Heaven Dou Great Auction House, Dugu Bo received 170,000 Gold Soul Coins.

It is just that he was not keeping this money for himself, but was preparing to give this money to Ning Feiliu later.

After all, he is a teacher; would a teacher embezzle his student's things?

Dugu Bo is not the type of person who can lower himself to do such a thing.

……

As time passed, over these two days, the Spirit Fighting Battle between Ning Feiliu and Yu Tianheng was advertised by the Heaven Dou Great Spirit Arena as becoming increasingly intense.

Even Dugu Bo inadvertently took notice of this matter.

On the night before the battle, Ning Feiliu was still patiently conducting a complete pharmacological test on the Essence Blood extract of a water-attribute Soul Beast, showing no signs of pre-battle anxiety.

"You brat." Just then, Dugu Bo finished his poison-expelling process for the day and came up behind Ning Feiliu.

"Teacher, what is it?" Ning Feiliu replied unhurriedly only after injecting the extract into the body of a white mouse.

"This is the Gold Soul Coin earned from auctioning your Crystal Bracer today." Dugu Bo first tossed a Gold Soul Card to Ning Feiliu.

Ning Feiliu caught the Gold Soul Card steadily and said with a smile, "Many thanks, Teacher."

"Are you really not worried about tomorrow's battle? That is the Young Sect Master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, after all." Dugu Bo glanced at him at this moment and said.

"Teacher, you mean this?" Ning Feiliu suddenly realized, but he shrugged and said, "He is not yet worth fearing; after all, his soul power level is currently about the same as mine."

"But his martial soul, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, is a top-tier, formidable martial soul on the Douluo Continent." Dugu Bo reminded him indifferently, "That is not a martial soul that can be easily ignored."

"Teacher, are you talking about that dragon that looks like a lizard?" Ning Feiliu laughed dumbly and said, "Though it is indeed a bit strong, their martial soul is merely imitating a true divine dragon."

"Moreover, my Crescent Moon Divine Weapon is no worse than any martial soul. If his soul power were far higher than mine, that would be one thing, but with the same level of soul power as me, he wants to defeat me?"

"That is just his wishful thinking, because I am... invincible among my peers!" Ning Feiliu said with a faint smile.

(End of chapter)