Back at the dormitory entrance, Gu Yuena looked at Huo Yuhao. Rather than discussing the motive behind the Evil Soul Master's ambush, she remarked, "The Enforcement Department will probably be handling this matter."
Leaving aside her relationship with Di Tian and the others, her teacher was Dark Phoenix Douluo's elder sister, so she was well-acquainted with the Enforcement Department.
Supervision was their primary duty, and hunting down Evil Soul Masters was among their responsibilities.
Now that she had been attacked by an Evil Soul Master, it was only natural and proper that Unrestrained Douluo would inform Dark Phoenix Douluo's side.
"Yeah."
Huo Yuhao nodded. Like Gu Yuena, he tacitly bypassed the ambush itself; Hua Yichen would handle that properly.
Pondering for a moment, he asked, "I'm not very familiar with how the Enforcement Department is organized. Could you tell me a bit about it?"
Regarding the department, he only knew the purpose behind its founding and was largely ignorant of its staffing details, something Hua Yichen wouldn't casually bring up without reason. But judging from what he knew of Evil Soul Masters, there wouldn't be many powerhouses among them.
One only had to look at Miss Tang Ya to understand: before using her devouring talent compared to after using it, her rate of improvement had been worlds apart.
The reason Evil Soul Masters were so powerful was the bizarre abilities brought by their Martial Souls. Without employing them—barring Martial Souls like Ma Xiaotao's that could achieve greatness even without succumbing to evil—they differed little from ordinary Soul Masters.
Securing the right to live under the sun meant renouncing the ability to grow at breakneck speed.
It could be considered an inevitable trade-off.
Furthermore, when it came to oversight, the Spirit Pagoda had not monopolized the process. They cooperated with the Federation, which also dispatched personnel to conduct joint reviews.
Because of this, quite a few children with the potential to become Evil Soul Masters developed a strong sense of belonging to the Federation. Many grew up to work in federal branches, which naturally made the emergence of formidable powerhouses within the Enforcement Department even less likely.
In Huo Yuhao's eyes, however, this was a good thing. It showed that the Spirit Pagoda had not been blinded by power.
Setting aside political implications, collaborating with the Federation meant they could drag the Federation along to share the blame whenever problems arose. What was not to like?
Upon hearing his question, Gu Yuena gave it some thought and said, "The Spirit Pagoda requires the Enforcement Department's members to develop along the path of normal Soul Masters. On top of that, many leave the department once their screening period ends. Consequently, up to now, there are only two powerhouses at or above the rank of Titled Douluo. My teacher's younger sister, Dark Phoenix Douluo, is one of them.
"The other bears the title... Soul Quieting. He is quite unique within the department—one of the rare few permitted by the Spirit Pagoda's upper echelon to utilize his Martial Soul's ability to cultivate, and also one of the hidden trump cards concealed by the organization. Only those at the rank of Deputy Pagoda Master or higher are authorized to know about him. His ability is tied to souls; he must devour soul energy to advance his cultivation, as ordinary meditation has no effect..."
The corner of Huo Yuhao's eye twitched. Even before Gu Yuena finished, he had already guessed who that person was.
Good grief. The Spirit Pagoda had practically turned into a branch of the Holy Spirit Cult.
Was the orthodox lineage of the Holy Spirit Cult housed in the Spirit Pagoda all along?
Only after Gu Yuena provided a general overview of Soul Quieting Douluo's traits did Huo Yuhao ask, "If I'm not mistaken, did he cultivate his way up by taking Ascension Spirit Pills?"
"Indeed. Or rather, the Ascension Spirit Pill only came into existence because of him." As Gu Yuena spoke, her expression grew rather peculiar as well. "He was the first person to reach Ultimate Douluo purely by consuming medicinal pills, as well as the strongest civilian Soul Master unearthed by the Spirit Pagoda over the past century."
Needing to devour souls to advance cultivation would have marked such a Soul Master for execution as an Evil Soul Master in the eyes of other factions. But the Spirit Pagoda was different—they had even invented artificial Soul Spirits!
Of course, the Spirit Pagoda hadn't fed actual Soul Spirits to Soul Quieting Douluo. They merely fed him the energy used to manufacture Soul Spirits, since what he absorbed was only the energy residing in souls.
The Ascension Spirit Pill was developed precisely for this reason. The spiritual energy inside it was the very energy used to craft artificial Soul Spirits, which was why it could elevate a Soul Spirit's cultivation.
"According to Soul Quieting Douluo himself, in order to become an Ultimate Douluo, he ate pills until he threw up," Gu Yuena added.
Huo Yuhao and the Soul Beasts residing in his Sea of Spirit: "..."
Reaching Ultimate Douluo through popping pills... Soul Engineers from ten thousand years ago would have wept with envy, yet he still wasn't satisfied?
Was that something a human would even say?
"Still, the cost was staggering," Gu Yuena continued. "In that era, the majority of the spiritual energy in the Ascension Platform was channeled into crafting Ascension Spirit Pills. Only a tiny fraction of slots were distributed to other factions, which sparked quite a few conflicts and took several decades to settle.
"In a certain sense, he was cultivated using resources sufficient to nurture dozens of hundred-thousand-year Soul Spirits."
Of course, compared to an Ultimate Douluo who possessed bizarre abilities and could serve as an ultimate trump card, none of that mattered.
With that thought, Gu Yuena turned toward Huo Yuhao. "The reason the Spirit Pagoda values him isn't just his strength. He can generate his own Spirit Rings. Whenever he absorbs enough spiritual energy, his Martial Soul coalesces a Spirit Ring for him. If not for the need to maintain some Soul Spirits for oversight, all nine of his Spirit Rings would have been self-generated. He holds immense research value."
Huo Yuhao nodded inwardly upon hearing this.
A Soul Master capable of producing his own Spirit Rings was hardly any different from a Soul Beast taking Human Form. Among the Soul Masters of this era, this former leader of the Holy Spirit Cult's Four Heavenly Kings was certainly someone who piqued his interest.
Given the chance, he would love to study the man's abilities—and casually ask whether it felt comfortable to reach Ultimate Douluo solely by gorging on pills!
Inside the Sea of Spirit, the Ice Empress was utterly speechless.
Her past musings had actually come true. There really was a human who produced his own Spirit Rings...
Watching the silent Huo Yuhao before her, Gu Yuena suddenly asked, "Today, Soul Beasts hold seats both among the Pagoda Masters of the Eighteen Heavenly Pillars and within the federal parliament. As seen in the Enforcement Department, the number of Evil Soul Masters has also begun to decline thanks to the Soul Spirit Contract. The Spirit Pagoda fulfilled its original promise and went even further. Are you satisfied with this?"
Huo Yuhao started, then smiled. "Whether people are satisfied or not should be answered by the humans and Soul Beasts living in this era. I've only just returned; I have no right to speak on behalf of the Spirit Pagoda. This question is one you should ask yourself."
"..."
Gu Yuena's spirited black eyes gazed into Huo Yuhao's. After a brief silence, her face lit up in a radiant smile. "I don't dislike this era, but I hope to see it become better."
Huo Yuhao chuckled softly and turned toward the forging room. "The prerequisite to making it better is participating in the process yourself, right? Are you ready to try the new forging method?"
"Yes, I am." Gu Yuena quickened her brisk steps to catch up.
The prerequisite for improvement was, of course, taking part herself.
She, the Silver Dragon King, had no intention of riding along on someone else's coattails!
...
The ground floor of this dormitory building contained rooms dedicated to various secondary professions. The two arrived at a forging room, and Huo Yuhao took out several ingots of rare metal.
"You can start by trying to purge impurities from the metal using elemental power. I understand the fundamentals of purification and can offer some guidance."
Gu Yuena nodded. Taking an ingot of metal, she bypassed the forging table entirely and lifted it into the air directly with wind elements. At the same time, vibrant lights of diverse elements began to swirl around her body, resplendent and multicolored, as though every elemental force between heaven and earth were answering her call.
Compared to her earlier combat, her aura at this moment was unprecedentedly formidable.
Watching the scene unfold, Huo Yuhao recalled his past impressions of Gu Yuena, and six words suddenly popped into his head.
*Spirit Word: The World as a Crucible?*
Could Your Excellency truly be Teacher Xiami?
Chapter 48