Lin Xiao walked into Dark Lightning Douluo's room and sat down. Beside him, Dark Lightning Douluo was still chattering away with "complaints".
From the moment they met this time, Lin Xiao could already feel that Dark Lightning Douluo's attitude had slightly changed, probably because he finally possessed strength worthy of the position of Elder.
If their previous relationship was still based on Zhongli Wu's face, now it was truly earned by his own strength.
Recalling when he had just entered the Holy Spirit Cult and was treated as a sacrifice, although he had only seen Dark Lightning Douluo's attitude change, he had already understood the benefits that strength could bring.
"Thanks for the hard work, Third Brother." Lin Xiao smiled. "By chance, during this period, I received some rare metals from the Illustrious Virtue Hall. Could you help me sell them? I only want the market price; anything extra can be considered thanks to Third Brother's help."
Dark Lightning Douluo's voice suddenly stopped.
He knew very well that the price of rare metals in the underground market could reach several times that of the surface market. Lin Xiao's words clearly meant he was giving most of the profit to Dark Lightning Douluo.
"This..." Dark Lightning Douluo smiled, looking at the storage soul tool Lin Xiao handed over, his face showing some embarrassment. "Between us brothers, there's no need to talk business. I'll help with this favor."
After putting away the soul tool, Dark Lightning Douluo's expression finally became a bit more serious.
"Old Eight, you've just returned. Do you know about the Elite Tournament?"
Lin Xiao nodded.
"Right, after all, you're still from Illustrious Virtue Hall. Then I'll be direct: this Elite Tournament is far larger in scale than before. The Common Alliance people discussed with me about holding an underground soul engineer tournament alongside this competition."
"Seeing how aggressive Shangguan Wei'er looks, I'm afraid it won't be easy to deal with this time. If you hadn't come back, I would have had to bite the bullet and refuse them."
Speaking to this point, Dark Lightning Douluo let out a slight sigh of relief.
"Seeing you today has finally relieved the worry in my heart."
"What do you think?" Dark Lightning Douluo suddenly leaned forward and lowered his voice slightly. "While you're back this time, should we completely swallow the Common Alliance?"
Dark Lightning Douluo suddenly showed a strange smile.
"With your current strength, even if Shangguan Wei'er manages to bring Jing Hongchen over, it's not certain she can win."
"What do you say? Shall we do it?"
Looking at Dark Lightning Douluo's somewhat excited eyes, Lin Xiao gave a slight nod.
Honestly speaking, leaving aside his cultivation level, just with his current identity as a seventh-rank soul engineer, this soul engineer tournament was already without any suspense, not to mention that the final judgment of soul tools in the tournament was decided through actual combat.
If Lin Xiao went on stage now, it would be no different from going to beat up a group of children.
"Still, we shouldn't be too ruthless, otherwise Shangguan Wei'er and her side might refuse to pay."
"Heh heh, you don't have to worry about that." Dark Lightning Douluo sat back again, seemingly confident of victory. "The current situation is different from the past. His Highness the Crown Prince holds all the power alone and is worried about not having leverage over certain people. Neither Shangguan Wei'er nor the people behind her dares to offend the Duskwater Alliance."
"If they're willing to hand it over obediently, we can still leave them some overt business. Otherwise, the Common Alliance will disappear from Mingdu forever."
"Good, then Third Brother can make the arrangements." Lin Xiao stood up. "I'm going to see those disciples."
"By the way, there's one more thing."
Dark Lightning Douluo suddenly spoke. Lin Xiao turned around upon hearing this.
"Do you still have a branch under you?"
"Yes, did something happen?" Lin Xiao frowned slightly.
After becoming an Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult, he had taken over that branch. Later, he ordered the disciples not to reveal their evil soul master identities.
Although he didn't know how effective his words would be, at the very least, they would make them commit fewer evil deeds.
"Nothing happened." Dark Lightning Douluo waved his hand. "I have to say, you manage a branch very well. If it weren't for this time, I wouldn't have even known you still had such a branch under you."
Since Lin Xiao didn't let those evil soul master disciples go out causing trouble, naturally, they wouldn't be discovered. But these things didn't need to be told to Dark Lightning Douluo.
"Third Brother, what happened this time?"
"There's a saint servant from your branch who, for some reason, was looking for you. Since you were nowhere to be found, she followed the trail all the way here."
"I see that her cultivation is almost there; it seems about time to hold the Soul Ascension ceremony."
Lin Xiao nodded, already understanding who Dark Lightning Douluo was referring to.
In that branch of his, the only saint servant whose cultivation had reached the level suitable for the Soul Ascension ceremony was Nana.
As for why she was looking for him, considering the timing, he could more or less guess.
"Okay, thank you, Third Brother. I'll go find her later."
"Hey, no problem, no problem." Dark Lightning Douluo also stood up. "But for the Soul Ascension ceremony, we still need Old Eight to make another trip. I have suitable soul beasts here, do you want to..."
Lin Xiao turned his head and looked at Dark Lightning Douluo, his eyes narrowing slightly.
In truth, he didn't want to see anyone else go through what he had experienced back then, especially since Nana herself wasn't really an evil soul master.
But now that Dark Lightning Douluo already knew about her situation, any further delay would only increase suspicion.
And moreover...
A faint flicker passed through Lin Xiao's eyes.
If there was any place in the Holy Spirit Cult most likely to preserve Electrolux's divine sense fragments, one that Lin Xiao could think of was the statue behind Zhongli Wu's seat; the other was the statue in the stone chamber where the Soul Ascension ceremony was held.
That stone chamber didn't even have an obvious entrance. Back when he underwent the Soul Ascension ceremony, it was Long Xiaoyao who helped open the stone chamber door.
He didn't quite understand it back then, but now it seemed that Long Xiaoyao must have used spatial power; that door was probably hidden in some secret spatial crevice.
Lin Xiao didn't believe that a place guarded by a Limit Douluo would only contain an ordinary statue.
Helping Nana perform the Soul Ascension ceremony might very well be an excellent opportunity to come into contact with that statue.
As for how exactly Nana's Soul Ascension ceremony would be conducted... wouldn't he be the one controlling it?
Thinking of this, Lin Xiao touched his clothes again and took out another storage soul tool.
"Look at my memory, I still have some rare metals I forgot to take out earlier. Third Brother, please help sell these as well."
A brilliant smile appeared on Dark Lightning Douluo's face.
"No problem, no problem. Then, shall we go pick the soul beasts now?"
"Sure, sorry to trouble Third Brother to lead the way." Lin Xiao nodded. "By the way, Third Brother, these few days while I'm back at headquarters, the disciples here..."
"Hey, don't mention these things. More than two years have already passed; what's a few short days?"
"Thank you, Third Brother."
Lin Xiao and Dark Lightning Douluo continued talking as they left the room, their footsteps gradually fading into the distance. As for what each of them was truly thinking in their hearts, only they themselves knew.
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