Leng Yaozhu was certainly not a crazy person. Her posture just now—with her aura surging and the Heavenly Phoenix True Fire shooting into the sky—was less about actually wanting to attack and more about a carefully calculated performance.
She simply wanted to use this opportunity to make her stance crystal clear.
Huo Yuhao could not be touched; whoever dared to touch him, she would not let it go.
The experts who rushed up to intervene around her didn't need to expend much effort to hold her back.
The scene looked lively, but in reality, everyone knew that a fight wouldn't break out.
Qiangu Dongfeng stood a few steps away, his brows knitted together.
The reasons he was able to become the Tower Master of the Spirit Pagoda, aside from his talent and strength, were two other advantages: first, his decisive nature, and second, his considerable intelligence.
Thus, he naturally saw that Leng Yaozhu was only putting on an act, and the anger in her eyes was not worth paying much attention to.
What truly made his heart sink was the reaction of the others around them.
The number of Spirit Beasts on the continent had been plummeting at a visible rate over the past hundred years, and the once vast forests were now becoming desolate, patch by patch.
Although the appearance of Spirit Souls had alleviated the Spirit Master's world's reliance on spirit rings, the source of Spirit Souls still depended on the transformation of Spirit Beasts.
As there were fewer and fewer Spirit Beasts, there were naturally fewer and fewer Spirit Souls.
This problem was like a slowly tightening noose around the neck of the future of the Spirit Master's world. Most ordinary Spirit Masters were still oblivious to it; only those high-ranking figures at the top of the major factions truly felt this anxiety weighing on their hearts.
Now, the message released by the Spirit Pagoda was like a thunderbolt that split those heavy clouds.
Ten Thousand Years level artificial Spirit Souls had been successfully researched!
Ten Thousand Years Spirit Souls were enough to satisfy the Spirit Soul needs of the vast majority of high-ranking Spirit Masters, which meant that the Spirit Master's world would no longer have to watch helplessly as the source of Spirit Souls dried up along with the extinction of Spirit Beasts.
For the sustainability of the entire Spirit Master system, this achievement was undoubtedly a shot in the arm.
And the Legacy Spirit Soul technology had triggered another, even more widespread, heated discussion across the continent.
For the major factions, the Breakthrough in artificial Ten Thousand Years Spirit Souls was a strategic guarantee.
But for those individual ordinary Spirit Masters, Legacy Spirit Souls were what truly tied closely to their personal interests.
The prices of Spirit Souls at the Spirit Pagoda had never been cheap; for an ordinary Spirit Master to buy a Spirit Soul of acceptable quality, they often had to scrimp and save for several years.
But now that Spirit Souls could be inherited and used, when an elder in the family became old and frail and unable to fight, they could pass the Spirit Soul to a descendant by only paying a small fee to the Spirit Pagoda. This fee was far cheaper than buying a new Spirit Soul.
The response this news triggered among the ordinary Spirit Master population was even more enthusiastic than that of the artificial Ten Thousand Years Spirit Souls.
After the two messages were officially released by the Spirit Pagoda, whether it was the major factions or ordinary Spirit Masters, the response was almost entirely positive.
Everyone realized the importance of the Spirit Pagoda even more clearly; the reputation of the Spirit Pagoda rose across the entire continent, and its influence climbed significantly along with it.
And the root of all this was the research done by Huo Yuhao and Gu Yue.
Although one of them was currently a Spirit Envoy and the other was only a reserve Spirit Envoy, their rankings in the official hierarchy were not high.
But within the Spirit Pagoda, their weight had quietly surpassed most council members, second only to the Tower Master and the Vice Tower Master.
Qiangu Dongfeng could clearly feel at this moment that although these people had put on a show of "breaking up a fight," their attitude of biased intervention was really not very clever.
They blocked loosely and persuaded softly; the arms blocking in front of Leng Yaozhu looked more like they were just going through the motions, while they had surrounded him tightly instead.
His heart sank lower and lower; in the final analysis, there was only one reason.
Huo Yuhao and Gu Yue were both Leng Yaozhu's Disciple, and these two people were now the lifeblood of the Spirit Pagoda.
He looked at Leng Yaozhu; the Heavenly Phoenix True Fire on her body had mostly receded, but that face still carried lingering anger.
Qiangu Dongfeng was silent for a moment, and finally said in a deep voice, "Those two people have nothing to do with me."
This time, it really had nothing to do with him.
While feeling angry, he even felt a sense of grievance in his heart.
Throughout his life, he had acted decisively and was skilled in power politics; now, being publicly labeled like this by Leng Yaozhu, the feeling of being wronged was truly hard to bear.
Upon hearing this, Leng Yaozhu only gave a cold snort, "Whether it has to do with you or not, you know best."
After finishing, she turned her head to look at Huo Yuhao, her tone softening slightly, "Yuhao, let's go."
Huo Yuhao nodded and followed at Leng Yaozhu's side; the two walked one after the other toward the direction of the Spirit Pagoda.
The surrounding Spirit Pagoda experts consciously made way, their gazes falling on the backs of the two, their expressions varied.
Qiangu Dongfeng stood in place, watching the two turn the corner before slowly withdrawing his gaze.
His complexion gradually returned to calm, but the fingers hanging at his side clenched unconsciously, then slowly relaxed again.
...
Gu Yue, who had been immersed in the research lab, only pushed the door open to come out when night had shrouded the entire city.
She rubbed her slightly sore neck and originally intended to go rest for a bit, but she heard a piece of news that made her heart sink abruptly.
Huo Yuhao had actually been attacked again today, and the one who made the move was a Quasi-God level expert.
Gu Yue could not bother with resting and immediately sought out Huo Yuhao.
Under her detailed questioning, Huo Yuhao told her everything that had happened in the afternoon.
Huo Yuhao recounted it in detail, and Gu Yue listened even more carefully.
She sat opposite Huo Yuhao, nodding and responding occasionally, looking completely normal.
But when Huo Yuhao mentioned the opponent's facial features and fighting style, the fingers Gu Yue was using to hold the teacup tightened imperceptibly for a moment, and a flash of strange color streaked through the depths of her eyes.
But that ripple came and went quickly, so fast that even Huo Yuhao did not notice it, and her expression had already returned to its usual state.
Afterwards, she chatted with Huo Yuhao for a few more sentences before getting up to take her leave.
The moment she walked out of Huo Yuhao's room, the peace on her face faded away completely as if a veil had been lifted, replaced by a layer of heavy coldness.
She returned to her room, closed the door behind her, did not turn on the lights, and walked straight to the bedside to take out that special Spirit Guidance communication device, quickly dialing a number.
The call connected quickly, but there was only silence on the other end; there was not a sound.
Gu Yue held the communication device and coldly spat out two words: "Speak."
The other end of the communication device was quiet for two breaths, then Di Tian's slightly trembling voice came through: "Master... you know?"
Gu Yue's voice was not loud, but it carried a deep rage that made one's spine chill: "Now you don't even listen to my words, is that it?"
These days she had been burying herself in the laboratory, working day and night to advance the research on the Myriad Beast Platform, just to produce results as soon as possible to shut the mouths of Di Tian and the others.
She had already conceded to this extent, yet she had not expected that only a few days had passed before Di Tian dared to bypass her and act on his own.
Di Tian was silent on the other end of the communication device, a thin layer of sweat seeping from his forehead.
In the Soul Beast Clan, the strong are respected, and in the Dragon Clan, Bloodline is king.
As the other half of the Dragon God, the Silver Dragon King had near-absolute suppression over all dragons.
Even though he was called the Beast God, at this moment in front of Gu Yue, he was like an apprentice who had made a mistake, unable to even speak a proper word of defense.
He was silent for a good while, his mind racing to think of how to answer, and finally found that there were really no good excuses to use.
He had no choice but to grit his teeth and say in a low voice, "Master, this was... Master Na'er's idea."
Driven to a dead end, he ultimately sold out Na'er.
Although both were Masters, in Di Tian's heart, Gu Yue's aura of authority was clearly stronger.
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A/N:
I hope all of you are enjoying this story so far. I would appreciate some Power Stones if you can spare any. Leave a review if you like the story. Thank you.