"Back when Tang Chen was young, the Clear Sky Sect was still just a small clan. He even joined the Spirit Hall for a time and served as an elder."
"Although he later completely severed ties, he still retained the title of an honorary elder. His relationship with the Grand Worship could be described as both friend and rival. He left behind notes here, and in turn, the Clear Sky Sect also holds notes left by the Grand Worship. There's nothing strange about that."
"Throughout history, many powerful figures have held the nominal title of Spirit Hall elders. Even if some of them had poor relations with Spirit Hall, that title still existed in name."
"They weren't truly part of Spirit Hall, but there was a certain mutual courtesy. Even now, the Sect Master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Fengzhi, is nominally an honorary elder of Spirit Hall—though no one really takes it seriously."
"When you receive your honorary elder title, it'll be much the same. You won't be a true member of Spirit Hall, but you'll be connected to it. If you want to mobilize its resources or influence, you'll still need to go through me."
"Of course, there are advantages to that as well. As long as you don't commit unforgivable crimes or become an evil Spirit Master, Spirit Hall cannot act against you, nor can it order you around. Even the Pope only outranks you in name—there's no authority to force commands upon you."
"If the Sect Master of a powerful clan is willing to maintain a good relationship with the Spirit Hall, they can also receive this honorary elder title. If relations are particularly close, they may even hold a ceremonial position."
"And sometimes, Spirit Master families originally within the Spirit Hall choose to leave and establish their own sects. That's happened many times throughout history."
Chen Ming found nothing surprising in Golden Crocodile Douluo's explanation. After all, the Douluo Continent was a peculiar blend, something like a fusion of ancient Eastern and Western systems from his previous life.
The Spirit Hall functioned much like a sacred church of light. As long as divine authority remained intact and no one openly tore away the facade, whether one truly believed or not, everyone maintained an outward show of piety and faith.
Much like how scholars in the medieval era often bore the title of theologians.
An "honorary elder" was essentially equivalent to titles like "honorary alumnus," "honorary professor," or "honorary principal."
As for Spirit Master families leaving the Spirit Hall to establish independent sects, that was easy enough to understand. Even in the original story, the Sacred Dragon Sect had come into existence in this way—the Tuoba family had once been Spirit Masters under the Spirit Hall, and even now, the future Sect Master still held a position as an elder within the Spirit Hall.
Golden Crocodile Douluo seemed quite familiar with that cultivation notes and explained it with practiced ease:
"Although relations between the Spirit Hall and the Clear Sky Sect are quite poor now, there was a time when they were actually on good terms."
"Tang Chen's son was named Tang Zhen. While he had talent for cultivation, he fell far short of his father—but he was exceptionally sharp-minded, with remarkable foresight. He had both the vision and the ability to grow the Clear Sky Sect into a thousand-year power."
"During his time as Sect Master, the Clear Sky Sect developed rapidly, advancing at a pace no less impressive than the expansion Tang Chen once achieved through sheer strength. He brought in a large number of affiliated families, and the younger generation of the sect flourished. Relations with the Spirit Hall were also quite good at the time."
"The previous Pope of the Spirit Hall, Qian Xunji, was nominally of the same generation as Tang Zhen, but in reality, he was closer in age to Tang Zhen's eldest son, Tang Xiao. When the Grand Worship Elder and Tang Chen went into seclusion and handed down their burdens, the two sides still got along reasonably well."
"Although the Clear Sky Sect can be arrogant, Tang Zhen was able to keep it under control and prevent its Spirit Masters from running wild."
"But that Tang Hao…" When Golden Crocodile Douluo reached this point, a strong look of disgust crossed his face, mixed with a trace of hesitation. "That was when the relationship between the two sides completely collapsed. The previous Pope was beaten to death, and Tang Zhen was literally angered to death by his own unfilial son."
Chen Ming blinked, his curiosity piqued.
He didn't know much about that period. In truth, the Clear Sky Sect itself hadn't existed for very long. Before Tang Chen's rise, the Clear Sky Hammer lineage had only been a minor clan.
It was only after Tang Chen rose to prominence—sheltering his kin through sheer strength and allowing them to grow and multiply—that it became a true sect. The once-small Clear Sky Hammer clan had, through Tang Chen's power, ascended to become the number one sect in the world.
If Tang Chen could be likened to a founding emperor, a figure of almost ancestral stature, then Tang Zhen was more like a wise civil ruler. If the collective intelligence of the entire Clear Sky Sect weighed a hundred pounds, Tang Zhen alone would account for eighty of them.
Through steady and measured methods, he made the sect more prosperous and its legacy more stable. He worked tirelessly to maintain good relations with all sides, gathered numerous affiliated forces under the sect, and nurtured younger talents—ensuring that even without Tang Chen, the Clear Sky Sect could continue to develop in a stable and powerful manner.
Originally, that amicable relationship might have endured. But with a single hammer strike from Tang Hao, the two sides—once on decent terms—were driven into open conflict. In the end, without Tang Chen, the Clear Sky Sect could not uphold its title as the number one sect. It was beaten into retreat, forced to seal its mountain and withdraw from the world. Had it not been for an old agreement between Qian Daoliu and Tang Chen, the sect might have been completely annihilated.
To put it bluntly, before the sacrifice, Tang Hao was only a Level 89 Spirit Douluo, and Ah Yin's strength hadn't even reached the level of a Spirit Saint.
Meanwhile, Qian Xunji was a level 95 Spirit Master with the Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul, accompanied by two Titled Douluo.
If Qian Xunji hadn't hesitated at the beginning—unwilling to kill Tang Hao and only seeking Ah Yin, the hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast—Tang Hao wouldn't have had any chance to escape at all.
If any of the Spirit Hall's Worship Elders had acted, even if Tang Hao shattered all his Spirit Rings, there would have been absolutely no way out.
But in truth, that single hammer strike from Tang Hao had indeed left a sliver of possibility. Even in the face of his wife's death, he hesitated at the crucial moment and did not dare to truly kill Qian Xunji, fearing that everything would spiral completely out of control.
It was only after Bibi Dong devoured Qian Xunji's soul that he truly died. Forced into a corner, Qian Daoliu had no choice but to announce that Qian Xunji had died from grievous injuries, and only then did the Spirit Hall fully unleash its power.
What followed was a rapid and devastating purge that annihilated most of the Clear Sky Sect's living strength and affiliated families.
All the achievements Tang Zhen had painstakingly built over his lifetime were destroyed in an instant because of Tang Hao's actions, to the point where Tang Zhen, a Titled Douluo, was so enraged that he vomited blood and died.
After listening to Golden Crocodile Douluo's account of the past, Chen Ming nodded thoughtfully before opening Tang Chen's cultivation notes left within the Spirit Hall.
This notebook did not record the inherited techniques of the Clear Sky Sect—there were no "Clear Sky Nine Absolute," no "Great Sumeru Hammer," none of that.
Instead, it contained explanations on how to wield a Martial Soul, how to coordinate force with Spirit Power, how to distribute strength optimally, and how to integrate technique with raw power. Tang Chen had described and elaborated on all of these aspects in considerable detail.
He did not directly provide answers. Rather, he laid out the general framework and methods of application. Anyone with true insight could follow these ideas, continue to think independently, and gradually refine their own techniques through experimentation.
Tang Chen's strength did not come from possessing the Clear Sky Hammer, the so-called strongest tool-type Martial Soul in the world. Instead, it was because the Clear Sky Hammer clan had produced Tang Chen that the hammer itself came to be regarded as the strongest.
Though his Martial Soul was a hammer, Tang Chen was, in truth, a highly technical fighter—a legendary master of combat mechanics. By contrast, Qian Daoliu, who appeared refined and divine, was the one who relied more heavily on overwhelming attributes and brute force.
As Chen Ming read through Tang Chen's cultivation notes, he kept nodding. Though the insights were only a few thousand words long, they were far more valuable and effective than the tens of thousands of words left behind by ordinary Spirit Masters.
What surprised him most, however, was this:
Despite being a tool-type Martial Soul user, Tang Chen possessed an extraordinary sensitivity to vitality and blood essence. His control over strength and internal energy was so refined that he could merge Spirit Power with bodily force, layering them together for explosive output.
And if willpower were further integrated into that…
Then every strike would become a true combat technique in the purest sense.
It could only be said—he truly deserved his reputation as one of the two great peaks of Spirit Masters, a man who had single-handedly stood at the very summit of the world.