After bidding farewell to Scarlet Spider, Lu Yuan headed to the agreed-upon death arena to find Mad Rhino.
Lu Yuan’s principle was simple: if you’ve offended someone and can’t resolve the conflict, don’t leave yourself loose ends.
After waiting at the registration desk for a while, Lu Yuan never saw Mad Rhino show up.
Helpless, he went to the regular battle area and asked around.
Only then did he learn that the coward Mad Rhino had fled after witnessing Lu Yuan’s terrifying strength.
Apparently, before Lu Yuan’s spirit battle had even ended, Mad Rhino had already hailed a carriage and headed straight for Suoto City.
“Dammit—I’ll deal with you if we ever cross paths again.”
With Mad Rhino’s sudden escape, Lu Yuan couldn’t settle this score for the time being.
Resigned, Lu Yuan collected his winnings from the betting area and left the Spirit Fighting Arena.
After all, the rules of the Great Spirit Fighting Arena allowed only one form of battle per person per day.
Lu Yuan, alone, could only sign up for one-on-one matches—and he had already used up his daily quota.
As for two-on-two or seven-on-seven, Lu Yuan couldn’t participate.
Seeing that it was still early, Lu Yuan wandered around the nearby area, bought some snacks that kids would enjoy, and also picked up some tonic for the old village chief.
There was no way Lu Yuan could make it back today—the journey was long and traveling at night was unsafe.
So he found an inn in Heaven Dou City and checked in for the night.
Back in his room, Lu Yuan locked the doors and windows, took a shower, then lay on the bed, mentally reviewing the day’s events.
“Why do I feel like something’s changed about me since I got my first spirit ring?”
“I wouldn’t say I’m murderous, but I’ve definitely become more indifferent to life.”
“Maybe it’s the rapid increase in strength that’s made me a bit arrogant.”
“I’ll have to pay more attention during training—I don’t want to end up as some evil spirit master.”
“Evil spirit masters in this era aren’t like in Douluo Two or Three.
This continent is still under the Spirit Hall’s watch.”
“Speaking of the Spirit Hall—their recent moves seem off.”
Recalling the information he’d gotten from chatting with Scarlet Spider, combined with what he’d dug up on his own today, the Spirit Hall had actually been secretly sending people out for months—they’d only started making it public recently.
Thinking about this, Lu Yuan’s heart grew uneasy.
He sat up and tried to analyze something useful from the information he had.
“The talent-recruitment plan started months ago, but they only began searching on a large scale recently.”
“Could it be a butterfly effect from my reincarnation?”
It wasn’t unreasonable for Lu Yuan to think this way—the Spirit Hall’s recent actions were just too frequent.
In his memory, the Spirit Hall at this stage was still planning the Soul Hunting Operation—how could they be wasting time recruiting talent?
“No—maybe the Spirit Hall isn’t as clever as I think.
Maybe they really do act on a whim.”
They had more than a dozen Titled Douluo at their disposal, yet they kept making baffling decisions.
Even after losing Ghost Douluo, Chrysanthemum Douluo was still a Titled Douluo—surely there was no need to marginalize him to the point of utter despair.
And then there were Qian Daoliu and Qian Renxue.
Those two were something else.
Lu Yuan really didn’t want to talk about them.
The word ‘stupid’ wasn’t even enough to describe them.
Lu Yuan didn’t want to associate with these people—he was afraid their stupidity might rub off on him.
“Apart from the Spirit Hall acting foolishly, there’s another possibility.”
“That is—the gods in the Divine Realm might have intervened.”
“Otherwise, why would Bibi Dong risk exposing her plans just to search for this so-called ‘genius’?”
“Wait—genius?”
With that thought, a bold idea struck Lu Yuan.
“Could it be that the person the Spirit Hall is looking for…
is me?”
‘Months ago,’ ‘genius,’ ‘special abilities’—
Putting all the clues together, Lu Yuan discovered an astonishing secret.
“Holy crap—the Spirit Hall really is looking for me.”
The more Lu Yuan thought about it, the more he felt he had hit on the truth.
He was starting to panic.
Getting out of bed, he paced back and forth across the room, trying to calm himself.
Walking to the center of the living room, he poured himself cup after cup of water until the pitcher was completely empty.
“Good lord—the Papal Hall and the Worship Hall personally issued orders to search for me.”
“The Angel God in the Worship Hall is dead, so that order must have come from the Sea God.”
“As for Bibi Dong—that was probably the Asura God instructing the Rakshasa God to put out the order.”
“Damn—I really am something else!”
“A Great Spirit Master—no, at the time I was just a Spirit Scholar—and I’ve already caught the attention of the Divine Realm.”
“It seems staying away from the Spirit Hall was the right decision.”
Then, as if thinking of something else, Lu Yuan’s anxious heart settled back down.
“But I don’t need to worry too much right now.
After all, I only tested at innate level-eight spirit power—that shouldn’t draw the Spirit Hall’s attention.”
“Thank you, Brother Tao—Blind-Eyed Douluo really lives up to his reputation.”
“Looks like I’ll need to be cleaner with my actions from now on.”
“If I can hide my spirit rings, I’ll hide them.
If I can’t—then kill anyone who finds out.”
In that moment, Lu Yuan’s gaze grew resolute again.
As for all that talk about temperament and indifference to life—
Right now, Lu Yuan’s own life was hanging by a thread—how could he have the time to care about the lives of those who stood against him?
After resting for the night, Lu Yuan boarded a carriage back to Notting City early the next morning.
In the afternoon, he switched to another carriage heading to Dihun Village.
When Lu Yuan arrived at the village, it was close to evening.
The adults were busy cooking at home, while the children were playing and laughing in the village.
“Ah—it’s Brother Ayuan!”
A sturdy little boy with a round head stopped his game of tug-of-war with the other kids and looked joyfully at Lu Yuan.
Among the group of children, the little boy was the shortest.
To catch Lu Yuan’s attention, he had to jump up and down, waving.
“Brother Ayuan—I’m over here!”
The little boy’s name was Li Hu.
He was three years old, the youngest son of Li Erniu—the man who had driven Lu Yuan to school before.
Hearing the voice before seeing the face, Lu Yuan followed the sound and saw Li Hu squeezing through the crowd, running toward him with excitement shining on his little face.
“Oh—it’s Little Hu.”
Walking closer, Lu Yuan looked Li Hu over carefully and smiled approvingly.
“Not bad—you’ve grown taller recently.”
“Hehe—my dad said that if I get enough nutrition, I might have a chance to awaken spirit power.”
“So Dad and the other uncles from the village got together and decided to go into the mountains to hunt for game every now and then.”
“Stuff like wild boars and bears.”
When it came to food, Li Hu gesticulated animatedly, describing the scenes to Lu Yuan.
“Hehe!” Finally, Li Hu scratched his head and grinned sheepishly.
“I’ve been eating a lot lately, so I’ve grown a bit taller.”
Seeing this, the other children chimed in as well.
Lu Yuan listened patiently.
After Li Hu and the others had finished, he slowly spoke: “Mm-hmm—not bad.
The strength of a martial soul is determined by the soul itself, but if a spirit master’s own body isn’t up to par, their body might not be able to bear the martial soul.”
“Whether or not you all end up with spirit power in the future, getting enough nutrition as children is always beneficial.”
Li Hu and the others listened with vague understanding.
Though they didn’t fully grasp what Lu Yuan meant, they did remember the phrase “get enough nutrition.”
They planned to go home and tell their dads that this was what Brother Ayuan had said—that way, they’d get to eat more meat.
As the child closest to Lu Yuan, Li Hu tilted his head and asked cheerfully: “By the way, Brother Ayuan—I heard from my dad that you went off to school?”
“That’s right—I went to the spirit master academy to study.
But since there are still a few days before the semester starts, I came back to visit all of you.”
“Look—I brought some tasty treats for everyone.”