A familiar courtyard, warm lights. After finishing his conversation with the elders, Chen Yi returned home with his parents. The house was filled with a faint fragrance—his mother's favorite incense—which brought a long-lost sense of peace and comfort to Chen Yi, who had just awakened from deep meditation.
Chen Yi sat at the table, listening distractedly as his father, Chen Zhen, animatedly recounted the major events that had happened in the sect over the past year. Nearly a year of deep meditation had passed in the outside world like the blink of an eye, but for Chen Yi, it felt like only a brief interval between closing and opening his eyes. He felt he had missed so much—the silence, the shocking emergence of the Body Sect, and all its grand events.
Noticing her son's slight regret and sudden expression, Mu Xi smiled gently, handed him a cup of warm tea, and said softly, "Xiao Yi, don't overthink it. Actually, much of what the sect has done in the past half year is based on years of accumulation and groundwork. It's all just the natural course now."
"There was little need for sudden decisions or fierce fighting. Most things followed the tone set long ago. In the later stages, there was no need for much extra effort to participate."
Her words, like a spring breeze, quietly swept away Chen Yi's faint feelings of "absence." Hearing this, warmth filled his heart. He took a sip of tea and asked with interest, "Father, Mother, what exactly happened in the sect during this time? I heard several elders achieved the rank of Douluo?"
His words snapped Chen Zhen to attention. Straightening his back, his face lit up and he began preparing a dramatic tale, just as he'd done in the secret room.
"Haha! Son, you have no idea! That scene was—" He unconsciously raised his voice, gesturing grandly.
But before he could continue, a soft cough came from the side. Mu Xi shot him a sidelong glance, her gaze full of clear meaning: Speak properly, stick to the facts, don't exaggerate.
Chen Zhen's urge for theatrics deflated like a pricked balloon. He scratched his nose, suppressed his exaggerated expression, and tried to sound calm—though the pride in his voice was impossible to hide.
"Well… right after your deep meditation, your aunt and I broke through the bottleneck of level 90 together."
He tried to summarize what had happened. "After that, the sect leader took Hong Yue deep into the northern icefields. After several months, they successfully hunted the Snow Fox Emperor with a hundred thousand years of cultivation as her ninth soul ring."
"Then, with Dugu Bo's help, the Grand Elder took me deep into Sunset Forest, where we found and defeated a hundred-thousand-year-old Tai Tan Python, granting me a ninth soul ring as well."
His tone was flat, but the flash in his eyes when mentioning the "hundred-thousand-year Tai Tan Python" betrayed his inner excitement.
At this point, two new titled Douluos—Chen Zhen and Hong Yue—now possessed the soul bones and rings that could shake the entire world of soul masters.
"There were others as well," Chen Zhen continued. "With the help of the sect's refined elixirs, Jiang Wu, Huang Qiyi, Zhang Tao, and the Eighth Elder also broke through the bottleneck at level eighty-nine. They then retreated to condense their soul cores, stepped into level ninety, and became quasi-titled Douluos."
"Afterward, under the guidance of the sect leader and Grand Elder, they went to both the Star Dou Great Forest and the northern icefields to seek their ninth soul rings."
"By the way, your Seventh Aunt, Xie Xiaoqing, is among them." Mentioning her brought a genuine smile and relief to Chen Zhen's face. "After her martial soul underwent nirvana, it advanced greatly, with a positive mutation. Her strength soared, and she reached the level of Soul Sage as soon as she recovered."
"She then received a spirit medicine from the sect, broke through the eightieth rank, and is now a powerful Soul Douluo."
Listening to this series of breakthroughs and promotions, Chen Yi was sincerely happy for the sect, but he also sensed a sharp doubt and couldn't help but ask, "Father, since the Fifth and Sixth Elders just ascended, why didn't they hunt the Azure Bull Python and the Tai Tan Giant Ape in the core of the Star Dou Great Forest? Their soul rings and bones would be a perfect fit for our main martial souls."
This question was real—given the current strength of the sect, was it possible that they hadn't targeted the famous two hundred-thousand-year-old soul beasts?
Mu Xi took over, shaking her head slightly and speaking with a hint of puzzlement. "It's strange. The sect's original plan was indeed to hunt them, but when we rushed to the core of the Star Dou Great Forest, for some reason, the two soul beasts with a hundred-thousand-year history suddenly left their long-established territory."
"Moreover, judging from the traces and energy fluctuations left behind, the Spirit Hall seems to have fought a brief but fierce battle in the core area. It's highly likely the two soul beasts' departure was related to this."
Mu Xi took another sip of tea and continued, "After that, the sect leader and their group searched the area for a long time, but couldn't find any trace of them. In the end, Jiang Wu and the others had no choice but to hunt three Thousand Army Ant Emperors with nearly ninety-five thousand years of cultivation on the periphery and obtained their soul rings."
"They left the core area? Three Thousand-Pound Ant Emperors?" Chen Yi repeated, his eyes freezing. Instantly, he recalled the original storyline and secretly thought: "It seems Bibi Dong did go to hunt the Rabbit as in the original fate, and the beasts fled."
His heart burned with excitement, though he remained calm on the surface. He knew that if the Grand Elder and Sect Master Chu Shanhe joined forces, and even if Bibi Dong herself—or the Grand Worship Qian Daoliu from Spirit Hall—showed up, the Body Sect's current strength would certainly dare to "snatch the head."
After absorbing this information, another question came to Chen Yi. "By the way, Father, Mother, I've heard there are several other titled Douluo elders in the sect, but I haven't seen them around lately?"
Chen Zhen explained, "Yes. Since the sect's formal debut, we needed to build and expand outposts among the surrounding forces. Many powerful elders were dispatched to oversee these projects and take charge of initial operations."
"Building outposts?" Chen Yi was momentarily stunned, but quickly understood. For a hidden sect to truly integrate into the mainland, it wasn't enough to have top combat strength—they also needed support networks everywhere. It seemed several elders were working hard on this.
Chen Yi shook his head lightly and said with a touch of regret, "I guess we won't see those elders for a while."
Establishing new forces from scratch to meet the Body Sect's scale and standards was a time- and energy-consuming project for anyone.
Mu Xi smiled at his words. "Not necessarily…"
"Hm?" Chen Yi looked at his mother curiously.
Mu Xi took another sip of tea, speaking slowly, "It's always hard to start from scratch. But..."
She set down her cup, her gaze on Chen Yi's curious face, her smile deepening. "What if there's a ready-made framework and foundation you can use directly?"
"Ready-made?" Chen Yi was completely baffled, not immediately grasping the deeper meaning of her words.
…
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