Back when the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring was completed by Wu Ling, and because the tiger itself was special, it had produced only the Evil God Pearl and no Spirit Bone. So when Wu Ling saw this Spirit Bone, he almost thought the true Angra Mainyu had come again.
Angra Mainyu later explained that the Spirit Bone was formed by refining and condensing the power the true Angra Mainyu had strengthened inside him while modifying the Spirit Ring. The true Angra Mainyu had not come over this time.
As for why Angra Mainyu did not want that power from the true Angra Mainyu, his explanation had been simple.
"Ah, I am the weakest Servant, after all. If Master is super strong, then Master can just go personally. So after I lend Master a hand, please do not summon me out. The Servants beside me are all super strong too, you know."
After hearing Angra Mainyu's excuse, Wu Ling expressed his gratitude by immediately promising that future suicide missions would be handled by the sixth clone and absolutely not by him.
After absorbing the left arm bone, Wu Ling learned its abilities: devouring and strengthening. By touching a person or object with his left hand, he could devour its energy and use it to strengthen his own body. The ability was simple, easy to understand, and extremely practical.
As for the left leg bone from the Fiery Sun Unicorn, its two abilities were flight and recovery.
With it, Wu Ling could fly or attack by releasing fire from beneath his feet. Under sunlight, the Spirit Bone could also continuously absorb solar energy and transform it into Spirit Power to replenish him. Flying under the sun could create a self-sustaining energy cycle. It was a must-have travel tool and a very good helper for fleeing the scene after killing someone. Even Conan would be dumbfounded.
Time came to the third day. When Serena Ivory and the others came to Wu Ling's residence again, they were greeted by Azure and Ember. Wu Ling himself had already disappeared.
The Balak Kingdom lay south of the Polaris Empire, bordering Fasno Province and part of the Star Stripe Empire. It was one of the four great kingdoms within Polaris territory, and it was also a key piece in the Polaris Empire's resistance against Star Stripe.
Within Balak, the two most important cities were Balak City, the capital, and Soto City, known as Balak's granary. Because of that, Soto City had a Spirit Hall main temple.
At sunrise, a handsome man wearing sunglasses drove a soul-powered car all the way to the Spirit Hall main temple in Soto City. The bishop of Soto City's Spirit Hall and the attending officials had already been waiting there and hurried forward to receive him.
Inside the office of the Soto City Spirit Hall main temple, all senior administrators, including the bishop, came to meet Wu Ling, the Saint from Spirit City.
"Greetings, Your Highness."
Indeed, after finishing his preparations in Spirit City, Wu Ling had flown all the way to the outskirts of Soto City using his Spirit Bone, then driven the car here.
"No need for ceremony. I originally came today for a small personal matter."
Wu Ling sat in the main seat and swept his gaze across the room. Then his tone changed and deepened.
"But I heard that someone outside Soto City is running a private Spirit Master academy. And there are even people from Spirit Hall recommending students to it."
As Wu Ling spoke, his eyes remained fixed on the red-robed bishop of the Soto City main temple. Sweat poured down the bishop's face. Even a blind person could see that he had a problem.
The Spirit Master academy outside Soto City was naturally the so-called Shrek Academy that accepted only monsters.
By itself, establishing a private academy was not necessarily a major issue. But Spirit Hall employees recommending outstanding graduates from junior Spirit Master academies to Shrek was a serious problem. A very serious problem.
First of all, Shrek Academy was a completely unlicensed backwater school with no official qualifications at all. Its graduates did not receive formal academy diplomas. Put bluntly, it was a pit.
However, the people who ran it were indeed experts. Flender and Barrett Knox were both seventh-ring Spirit Masters, and the remaining teachers were mostly sixth-ring Spirit Masters. Such powerhouses naturally attracted the attention of certain factions, including the Balak royal family.
The Balak royal family had always tried to recruit Flender and the others. It had privately signed agreements with Shrek Academy, such as allowing graduates to take posts in Spirit Hall. Even the matter of Spirit Hall personnel recommending outstanding Balak graduates to Shrek carried royal influence.
Otherwise, with Shrek Academy's size and reputation, how could it attract so many outstanding graduates above level 20 year after year?
The red-robed bishop hurriedly explained, "Your Highness, this matter is connected to His Majesty of Balak. The Supreme Pontiff previously ordered us to win over the Balak Kingdom, so when he made certain requests, I..."
"It is not only that, is it?"
Wu Ling turned his wrist and threw a dossier in front of the bishop.
"Over the years, the royal family has given you plenty of benefits, correct? You should know that some mistakes cannot be made. Those outstanding junior academy graduates are all targets Spirit Hall should be recruiting. Yet you, a bishop, helped the Balak royal family recruit them instead."
His voice turned cold.
"You should know, the thing I hate most is someone who eats from the inside and sells to the outside."
"Saint, what are you trying to do? You cannot..."
The red-robed bishop sensed Wu Ling's intent and released his Martial Soul at once. Unfortunately, he had underestimated Wu Ling's strength. His six Spirit Rings had only just appeared when a fist appeared before his eye. Then his head shattered like a watermelon.
"What I hate most is a traitor."
Wu Ling remained seated in the main position and spoke calmly. The other high-level Spirit Hall personnel around him had all fallen to their knees. None of them had expected Wu Ling to act so decisively and kill a red-robed bishop on the spot.
"As for all of you, I assume you were only following the bishop's orders, so I will not pursue anyone else this time."
He looked at the kneeling personnel before him and continued.
"Send word to every Spirit Hall branch in Balak territory. Let the red-robed bishop of Soto City's main temple serve as a warning. If anyone damages Spirit Hall's interests again, punishment will be severe."
The incident naturally caused a great shock throughout the Balak Kingdom, and it also created a rift between the Balak royal family and Spirit Hall.
In order to weaken the influence of the two great imperial families, Spirit Hall had repeatedly supported the high nobles of the kingdoms and duchies. In truth, that behavior was little more than raising tigers that would later become a problem.
According to the original course of events, these kingdoms and duchies ultimately provided little help. Most of them became unwieldy and troublesome.
Since Wu Ling had already planned and begun his strategy, he would not tolerate interference from those nobles. He currently lacked the strength to move against the two great empires directly, but dealing with the kingdoms and duchies was far too easy.
As for whether these actions would push the nobles closer to the imperial families and strengthen them, Wu Ling was not worried at all.
With the massive amount of soulcraft device data he now possessed, raising Spirit Hall's overall level of soulcraft research by an entire grade would be effortless.
At most, in a few years, Spirit Hall's soulcraft device level would reach the average standard of the Sun Moon Empire ten thousand years later. When that time came, ordinary armies and nobles would become meaningless.