Elder Wei and Elder Zhao brought six disciples and rushed back to the Sect’s settlement overnight.
When they arrived at the canyon entrance, the sky was already turning pale.
Jin Peng was guarding the entrance, and seeing eight figures sweep out from the morning mist, he immediately went up to meet them.
“Why are you back so soon?”
Elder Wei did not answer.
Instead, he said urgently, “Is the Sect Master here?
Something major has happened!”
“In the discussion hall.”
They were old friends of many years, so Jin Peng, Elder Wei, and Elder Zhao skipped the formalities and directly led the two Elders toward the discussion hall.
When the three pushed open the doors, Du Busi was sitting in the main seat with a blank map spread out before him.
Hearing the footsteps, he raised his head, and seeing the serious expressions of Elder Wei and Elder Zhao, his eyelids twitched.
“Speak.”
Elder Wei took a deep breath and recounted everything he had seen and heard on this trip from beginning to end.
The clothing in Qingshi Town, Wulan City, the Heaven Dou Empire, Spirit Hall awakening Martial Souls for commoners for free, and furthermore, the Supreme Pontiff was named Bibi Dong.
After saying the last name, the discussion hall remained quiet for more than a dozen breaths.
Bibi Dong.
This name could be said to have left a notorious legacy for ten thousand years, and Du Busi was naturally extremely familiar with it.
“Bibi Dong…
What about the Sea God?
Did you find out any information about him?”
“No.”
“No?”
Du Busi frowned.
Elder Zhao replied first, “When Lao Wei and I gathered intelligence, we dropped hints several times, but not a single person knew the name ‘Tang San’!”
“What about Shrek?”
“We didn’t find out anything about Shrek Academy either.
It probably hasn’t become famous yet.”
Hearing this, Du Busi nodded, roughly understanding the current timeline.
They had arrived ten thousand years ago, long before Tang San’s name had shaken the continent and before the Sea God’s legend had become known throughout the world.
This information was extremely important, because it meant that they had a tremendous amount of room to maneuver.
Du Busi sat in the main seat, his fingers tapping against the armrest one by one for a long time.
Then he raised his hand and said, “Jin Peng, go call the other Elders over.
Meeting!”
“Understood.”
Jin Peng turned around and walked out.
In less than the time it took to drink half a cup of tea, all ten Titled Douluos had arrived and sat down on both sides.
Du Busi’s gaze swept over everyone, and he had Elder Wei repeat the intelligence he had brought back.
“Did you all hear it?
We have arrived ten thousand years ago.
The Heaven Dou Empire is still here, Spirit Hall is still here, Bibi Dong is the reigning Supreme Pontiff, and Shrek is still a lousy academy with no reputation at all!”
Du Busi stood up from his seat.
“On the current continent, there is no Spirit Tool revolution, nor is there a Tang Sect!”
There was a commotion in the discussion hall.
Jin Peng frowned.
“Sect Master, in our era, Spirit Hall was an evil force that started wars and slaughtered Sects, but right now, the public opinion among the common people is completely the opposite.
This…”
“This is precisely what I want to talk about.”
Du Busi raised his hand to press everyone down.
“What Lao Wei and Lao Zhao figured out about Spirit Hall’s background is only skin-deep.
I need a more detailed distribution of forces, especially Spirit Hall’s true strength and its relationship with the major powers.”
“Everyone will take turns going out, in groups of two, heading separately to various surrounding cities to investigate.
Figure out the strength of the two Empires, all the major Sects, and Spirit Hall completely for me!”
“Remember, only investigate and do not fight.
Go quickly and return quickly.”
The ten Elders acknowledged in unison.
That morning, the five groups of people successively left the canyon and sped off in different directions.
Over the next three days, intelligence poured back into the Body Sect like flowing water.
Jin Peng and Elder Wei went to Heaven Dou City and found out that the Heaven Dou Empire had no direct Titled Douluo under its command, and its strongest publicly known imperial powerhouse was only a Spirit Douluo.
The Empire’s high-tier combat strength support came mainly from its imperial guest Elder, Dugu Bo.
It also had the support of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, which were among the Upper Three Sects, but these two major Sects did not take direct orders from the imperial family.
The Star Luo Empire’s military strength was stronger than Heaven Dou’s, and the imperial family possessed a powerful Martial Soul Fusion Skill passed down through the generations.
Although the Star Luo imperial family did not have a publicly known Titled Douluo, the power of its Martial Soul Fusion Skill definitely possessed combat strength at the Titled Douluo level, and there was no way to rule out the possibility that the Star Luo Empire possessed other hidden powerhouses.
The Clear Sky Sect, the head of the Upper Three Sects, had sealed its mountain and lived in seclusion for over a decade.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School had two Titled Douluos, Sword Douluo Chen Xin and Bone Douluo Gu Rong, who were both illustrious powerhouses on the continent.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan only had one Titled Douluo, Yu Yuanzhen.
The Lower Four Sects, the Elephant Armored Sect, Black Tiger Sect, Wind Sword Sect, and Fire Leopard Sect, had strongest members who were only Spirit Douluos, and their strength was far inferior to that of the Upper Three Sects.
Compared to the Body Sect, these forces were much weaker.
Even if the Upper Three Sects and Lower Four Sects were added together, they still could not compare to their Body Sect!
This greatly boosted the confidence of Du Busi and the Elders.
However, Spirit Hall’s strength made all the Elders gasp in a breath of cold air.
Supreme Pontiff Bibi Dong’s exact strength was difficult to determine from the information available, but she was unquestionably a terrifying powerhouse, while the Elder Hall of Spirit Hall contained numerous Titled Douluos.
When the information gathered from different cities was pieced together, it became clear that Spirit Hall’s foundation was far deeper than any of the other forces they had investigated.
Even more shocking was another piece of information.
The Great Consecration of Spirit Hall, Qian Daoliu, was a rank 99 Limit Douluo with a Seraphim Martial Soul, hailed as an existence who was “invincible in the sky.” He was not the Supreme Pontiff, but rather the supreme powerhouse who commanded the Elder Hall and possessed an extremely terrifying influence within Spirit Hall.
The exact words Jin Peng brought back were, “People in Heaven Dou City said that Qian Daoliu was already rank 99 decades ago.”
After listening to the report, Du Busi fell silent for a long time.
“Rank 99.
He is definitely still alive.”
Du Busi himself was rank 98, and with his secondary awakening of the golden-grade Body Martial Soul, when he erupted with his full strength, he could briefly touch the threshold of rank 99.
But he knew clearly in his heart that briefly touching it and being truly rank 99 were two completely different things.
Qian Daoliu was a genuine rank 99 Limit Douluo, and Spirit Hall even possessed the inheritance of the Angel God, very likely possessing other unknown means.
As proud as Du Busi was, he had to admit that in terms of individual strength, he was no match for Qian Daoliu.
The current Body Sect was likewise no match for Spirit Hall.
This realization caused the atmosphere in the discussion hall to become noticeably heavier, but it also made Du Busi understand just how valuable the ten thousand years of advance they possessed truly were.
They could not challenge Spirit Hall head-on yet, but they had time to develop, accumulate strength, and change the future before those terrifying events recorded in history ever occurred.
Elder Zhao and another Elder went to the Suotuo City area and found out more detailed circumstances.
There were almost no medicinal pills circulating on the continent.
Common people and Spirit Masters relied entirely on herbs and healing-type Spirit Masters when they were injured or sick, while medicinal pills that assisted cultivation were even unheard of.
Spirit Tools were also extremely scarce.
There were mainly storage-type Spirit Tools, and even those were extremely rare, occasionally unearthed only from ancient ruins.
At this point in history, there was no established Spirit Tool manufacturing system capable of mass-producing powerful Spirit Tools, and almost no one could independently create new Spirit Tools comparable to those that would appear in later eras.
After listening, Du Busi raised an eyebrow.
“No medicinal pills circulating?”
He looked at Elder Wei, who was organizing the inventory list of medicinal pills in the storeroom nearby.
Du Busi reached out and took the list, his gaze scanning from top to bottom.
Two hundred and seventy-eight bottles of Body Cleansing Pills, forty-two boxes of Soul Condensing Powder, one hundred and fifty jars of Foundation-Nourishing Paste, and over a hundred bottles of Meridian-Nurturing Pills.
These were nothing more than ordinary middle-grade medicinal pills to the Body Sect, but placed in this era, where Spirit Masters had almost no knowledge of pill refinement and cultivation-assisting pills were virtually nonexistent, they might sell for a sky-high price.
The most crucial thing was that their Body Sect could refine medicinal pills themselves!
“Put the matter of Spirit Tools aside for now.” Du Busi folded the list and put it away.
“But this matter of medicinal pills can be utilized.
We have to be careful, though.
If we reveal too much too quickly, we may attract unnecessary attention.”
…
Three days’ time passed in the blink of an eye.
Long Aoyu locked himself in the side hall’s cultivation room, not stepping out even a single step.
The Concentration Pill given by Wei Na had already been consumed, its medicinal power dissolving within his meridians, gentle yet powerful, continuously rushing toward the bottleneck of level 50 Spirit Power.
The medicinal effect of the pill was indeed extraordinary.
Under its assistance, the originally firm bottleneck gradually began to loosen, while the pure physical strength of his Body Martial Soul continued to temper his body and strengthen his foundation.
The next afternoon, the system panel automatically popped up a line of text before his eyes.
[Novice Quest Progress: Investigate Intelligence, Completed.
Reward: Sect-Protecting Array Blueprint × 1, Sect Contribution Value × 500.]
Long Aoyu did not open his eyes, merely moving the corners of his mouth slightly.
The Sect-Protecting Array Blueprint was already in hand, and the five hundred Sect Contribution Points had also been credited, but the most important thing right now was to break through the bottleneck.
Once he reached level 50, he would only need to obtain a suitable fifth Spirit Ring to officially become a Spirit King.
Until then, he could be considered a 50th-rank Quasi Spirit King.
At nightfall on the third day, a muffled, resonant sound came from within the cultivation room, like something shattering and then reassembling.
The surrounding Spirit Power suddenly surged toward Long Aoyu’s body, and the invisible pressure spreading from him became noticeably stronger.
Long Aoyu abruptly opened his eyes, his chest rising and falling a few times before he slowly exhaled a long breath of foul air.
“It’s done!”