When Hun Tiandi finished the talks with the Grand Worship Elder, he turned to his quarters within the Douluo Consecration Hall to cultivate for a bit. He had three months to achieve the Spirit Rank 49 and then reach the Spirit Rank 50 and become the Spirit King.
At the same time, he would need the Star Dou Forest to hunt for another Spirit Beast to become his Spirit Ring. The Spirit Hall had already invested a lot of resources into locating and searching for the Spirit Beast that was to become his next Spirit Ring.
For his 3rd Spirit Ring, when he reached the Spirit Rank 30 Spirit Elder, he obtained the Spirit Ring that was around 30,000 Years Old and a Spirit Skill called Fel Chaos Slash that allowed him to use a huge amount of the Fel from activating the 1st Spirit Ring and congregate it into his sword and create imaginary slash of the Fel Energy that obliterated everything in it's path.
And even if something had survived, then the corrosive force of the tremendous amount of Fel would destroy everything that remained. With the destructive power of the Fel Chaos, Slash was able to kill even the peak Spirit Emperor at the Spirit Rank 69 if Hun Tiandi overcharged the ability with the Fel Energy.
For his 4th Spirit Skill, he chose something really peculiar. It was a very old Spirit Beast called Spiritual Jade Rabbit. These Spirit Beasts had an inherent ability called Psy Guard, which gave them passive protection over their Minds and Souls.
It was like having raised a shield around their mind and soul, drastically lessening the chances of someone using a Mental Attack or a Soul Attack. Hun Tiandi was greatly interested in this ability because he knew that this was one of the most vulnerable parts of the cultivators, and he was rather surprised that even in the Douluo Continent, barely anyone cared to protect their Minds, much less being said about protecting their Souls.
Having a passive ability like this was a tremendous advantage for him because he would give a certain sort of protection against possible sneak attacks that were either aimed at his Soul or Mind.
Even though he was rather confident in his Soul Defense due to his Soul Cultivation, which was very right, practically at the limit of the Mortal Cultivation in the Douluo Continent according to the standards of the Spirit Energy Cultivation System, he wasn't going to bet everything on it.
His last defeat and death due to his overconfidence in his own invincibility have left him dead at the hands of some random junior from the long-decaying and dying Xiao Clan. In this life, he wasn't leaving anything to the accident, and he had taken every single precaution possible to prevent any failure.
The Spirit Beast that he had chosen for now, Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent, was almost 80,000 years old, and it had one particular Skill, which was called Worthless. When the Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent reached adulthood, it developed its racial Skill Worthless, which allowed the Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent to invalidate things.
Mainly the Spirit Skills and other kinds of special abilities, while some of the oldest Abyssal Pit Sea Serpents were able to invalidate the Spirit Energy in the body of the Spirit Master, rendering the Spirit Masters useless.
Despite Worthless's potency, it does have several weaknesses.
The Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent must understand the properties of the objects they intend to nullify in order to render it "Worthless", as demonstrated by one of the oldest Abyssal Pit Sea Serpents that was ever recorded as the Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent needed a lot of time to analyze the Spirit Skills of one of the previous Supreme Pontiffs of the Spirit Hall.
On top of that, apparently, the Worthless Skill couldn't invalidate some very special abilities and things that have reached the God-Level.
This was to be expected, and then, there were also some other minor weaknesses that could be most addressed with proper training and development of the Spirit Skill, and some others could be covered by the different abilities of his that he had developed or obtained.
The only real problem with the Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent was that it was a very rare Spirit Beast and exceedingly rare to find one. Somehow, one of the Abyssal Pit Sea Serpents has ended up in the Star Dou Forest, and they were going to catch that one.
The real fun came, in fact, when the Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent ended in the deeper parts of the Great Star Dou Forest, and he would need to go with a few Titled Douluos who would carry him there.
Not to mention, the Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent made its nest in a rather well-defendable location, so fighting it there would be a very hard thing to do.
***
Three Weeks Later, Spirit City, Spirit Hall, Douluo Consecration Hall.
Since the discussion with Qian Daoliu about the impending war that was awaiting them, Hun Tian decided to spend the rest of his time cultivating as he needed to reach the Spirit King Realm as soon as possible.
One week ago, he managed to increase his Spirit Rank from Rank 45 to Spirit Rank 46, and now he was feeling that he was once again on the verge of a breakthrough once again, this time he was just a tad away from reaching the Spirit Rank 47 as he was approaching the peak of the Spirit Ancestor Realm very fast.
The peak of the Spirit Ancestor was at the Spirit Rank 49, so he was very close to achieving his goal of reaching the peak of the Spirit Ancestor Rank as soon as possible. Once he had reached Spirit Rank 49, he went to the Great Star Dou Forest to hunt for the Abyssal Pit Sea Serpent and obtain his 5th Spirit Ring.
Just thinking about obtaining such a powerful Spirit Skill as Worthless was making him impatient due to the power and potential of such a Spirit Skill. With the Worthless, he would have a very strong edge over the other Spirit Masters and would be able to render countless Spirit Skills entirely useless.
Several moments later, he felt a slight burst in the Spirit Energy from within his body and noticed that his Spirit Rank had increased from Level 46 to Level 47. Now, he was just two ranks away from the peak of the Spirit Ancestor Realm, but that would be easily crossed with the help of the Alchemy Pills that he was producing right now en masse.
"I need more pills. Though right now, I am probably rather too lazy to refine them by myself, so it's better to go bother Poison or Chrysanthemum."
In the Spirit Hall, after teen years of development, there were two top-notch Alchemists, Dugu Bu the Poison Douluo and Yue Guan Chrysanthemum Douluo. Both of them were already very proficient in Alchemy to create a high-grade pill, so if he was feeling lazy, he would go and bother them to make him some pills for cultivation.
Hopefully, one of them will be present within the Spirit City because they have been rather busy for the past few months. Hun Tiandi knew that Dugu Bu was right now overseeing the Immortal Herb cultivation plantages and gardens in the Sunset Forest.
And Yue Guan was right now in seclusion as he was attempting to reach the Hyper Douluo Realm, or was?
The advancement of Alchemy was providing a way out for many of the Titled Douluos or pinnacle Soul Douluos that were stuck at the Spirit Rank 89 and didn't know how to advance further on their cultivation journey.
To speed up his cultivation speed, he used a lot of pills to increase the concentration of the Spirit Energy within his body and also increase the speed of the Spirit Energy gathering within his body.
This was the fastest way of cultivation, even though a lot of the Spirit Energy was assimilated by the Nihility Devouring Flame Bloodline. During the past ten years, he attempted to use the Nihility Devouring Flame in the realm of combat, but the results were not particularly good.
The Nihility Devouring Flame Bloodline was very powerful, and the Nihility Devouring Flame was just exactly like it was in his past life, where it was extremely troublesome to control, and as Hun Tiandi's strength was growing, so was the strength of the Nihility Devouring Flame Bloodline in his body.
He predicted that he would need to reach the Titled Douluo so he could use the Nihility Devouring Flame freely in the battle as much as he wished. He thus left the Douluo Consecration Hall and aimed for the Immortal Herb Garden that was located within the Spirit Hall.
It took him twenty minutes to arrive at the Immortal Herb Garden because it was pretty far from the Douluo Consecration Hall, as the main temple of the Spirit Hall was tremendously huge.
In the past ten years, this place has been expanded several times, and one needs to know that it was very big even before the expansions, but after the expansions, the size was really ridiculous.
The expansions were really needed because there was a need for a specialized Immortal Herb Garden for the Alchemy Ingredients, and then for the places to process and store the processed herbs. Places to refine pills and store them, including new vaults for rare Immortal Herbs and Alchemy Pills.
And this was just a small part of everything that was needed.
The Spirit Hall controlled several Immortal Herb Gardens, with the most important and biggest ones being the Spirit City and Sunset Forest. Both of them were managed by the Chrysanthemum Douluo and Poison Douluo, respectively.
Within the Spirit City, the Immortal Herb Garden was located in a secluded location that was being constantly protected by a Titled Douluo and the entire contingent of the Knights Templar and other high-ranking Spirit Masters.
The air was thick with spiritual energy, and the surroundings were vibrant with glowing flora, sparkling waterfalls, and misty mountains. The ground was covered in a mixture of crystalline soil and jade-like rocks, which enhanced the growth of spiritual plants.
The Immortal Herb Garden was filled with countless Immortal Herbs, ranging from the Thousand-Year Gingseng, a human-shaped ginseng root that grants longevity and boosts cultivation, to even rarer things like Nine Revolutions Spirit Grass, a glowing plant that aids in breaking through cultivation realms, or Dragon Blood Orchid, a crimson flower said to contain the essence of a dragon and enhance physical strength.
One of the rarest things in the entire Immortal Herb Garden was the Phoenix Feather Fern, which was a fiery plant attributed to the mythical phoenixes that could heal even the most severe injuries.
Hun Tiandi looked around the Immortal Herb Garden for a bit as Hao Yue, the ever-curious Austin Griffin, ran around it curiously. Hao Yue spent most of his time in the Immortal Herb Garden because the concentration of Spirit Energy was much higher there than in the other places.
At the same time, it was also the fact that the little lizard was bored rather quickly, but for the past few weeks, he had been creating mischief together with Fenrir. Even though Hao Yue was technically speaking a Martial Soul, an Independent Martial Soul, he was still a Spirit Beast in his very own fundamental nature.
Now, both the lizard and wolf cub were running across the entire Supreme Pontiff Palace and Douluo Consecration Hall, sealing food, creating a mess, and destroying random things in their play slash fights.
Since the invention of Alchemy, or rather, the codification of the already existing Alchemy and improvement with the Alchemy of the Dou Qi Continent, the Douluo Continent was undergoing a massive overhaul in terms of Professions.
Be it the Alchemists, Poison Masters, Blacksmiths, or other newly burgeoning Professionals that the Spirit Masters were practicing.
Now, everyone has seen how much money one Alchemist can make, so it has ignited the interest of people in the so-called supplement professions that were regarded as unimportant before.
It was really a piece of good fortune that the true power of the Spirit Hall still remained mainly a secret due to the invention of the Soul Seals that were given to every member of the Spirit Hall, which prevented them from saying things that they shouldn't.
Hun Tiandi also created a method that could conquer the true age of the Spirit Rings because they didn't want the other factions to catch the wind of this and possibly unite against them to put pressure on them over their development.
When this would become public knowledge, it would be too late.
Though, even now, one could say that it was too late, as the general strength of the Elders of the Spirit Halls has undergone a drastic shift. Among the Worship Elders of the Douluo Consecration Hall were two Level 99 Demigods, and the rest of the Worship Elders had already reached the Spirit Rank 97 or Spirit Rank 98.
Not to mention, they had an addition to the Douluo Consecration Hall in the form of Dugu Bo, who was also at the Hyper Douluo Spirit Rank 96, as the Spirit Hall invested a lot of resources into the cultivation of the Poison Douluo due to his now evolved Martial Soul and potential in the large-scale battles.
Aside from them, the strength of the Cardinals of the Supreme Pontiff Palace also went up by a considerable degree, and many of them reached the Hyper Douluo and were at the Spirit Rank 95.
The most notable cases were Yue Guan the Chrysanthemum Douluo and Gui Mei the Ghost Douluo. Surprisingly or not, he found the Chrysanthemum Douluo within the Immortal Herb Garden in the center of the Spirit Hall.
"Your Excellency, Little Lord, what has brought you to my humble abode together with those two menaces?"
Yue Guan looked pretty feminine in terms of appearance, and he even had a rather feminine voice, not to mention that extremely annoying habit of giving everyone nicknames was already getting on his nerves rather too much sometimes.
"Well, I need some pills for my cultivation, and I am too lazy to refine them by myself, so I came to bother Cardinal Chrysanthemum to do it for me."
Hun Tiandi tried to ignore the nicknames as he stated his requirements for one of the Saint Alchemists of the Spirit Hall. With the advent of the Professionals, Yue Guan, and Dugu Bo together, with a few other Alchemists, Blacksmiths, and other people, reworked the Professional Classification System from scratch.
The entire Professional Classification System was divided into Ten Classes, ranging from Class 1 as the lowest to Class 10 as the highest possible, even though in the current Douluo Continent, there were no Class 10 Professionals due to the lack of their own power.
To properly qualify as a Professional of a concrete Class, a person must fulfill three requirements: Spirit Energy Cultivation, Spiritual Power Cultivation, and Skill, as these were the fundamental aspects of Professional Occupations.
"Why didn't you want to bother that old snake? He is just lazing around and does nothing aside from playing with his Poisons."
Yue Guan was already annoyed with this because every single time someone from the core members of the Spirit Hall needed to refine some pills, they would come to him while Dugu Bo was left to do his thing, and anybody rarely bothered him.
However, that was mainly attributed to the fact that Dugu Bo was stationed in the Sunset Forest, which was rather far from the Spirit City. Nobody would go to the Sunset Forest to get a few pills when there was another Class 9 Alchemist in the Spirit City.
"It's just a few Spirit Energy Gathering Pills. I need to reach Spirit Rank 49 so I can break through to the Spirit King as soon as possible before we start the crusade against the Moonlight Principality and Stormlands Dukedom."
Seeing that this would be the only possible method to get rid of him and get back to tending his plants and also covering the mess that Fenrir and Hao Yue had created in the Immortal Herb Garden.
The little lizard and Silvermoon Wolf always created problems for the Immortal Herb Garden. They tended to play here a lot and destroy the plants. Another relatively common occurrence was that they outright ate the herbs that they wanted.
"So it's already starting, huh..."
Yue Guan knew that the Spirit Hall was going for some really huge movements, and they would be, for the first time in a thousand years or so, using raw military force to crush their foes instead of sending just a bunch of Titled Douluo as was their typical practice.
"Yes... Hopefully, it will go without bigger complications. Neither the Moonlight Principality nor the Stormlands Dukedom is particularly powerful, and neither has a publicly known Titled Douluo, so the operation should proceed without many complications. But one cannot be sure of everything, and it's highly possible that the two lordships actually have some Titled Douluo-level guardian protecting them from the shadows."
Hun Tiandi studied the intelligence reports on the state of the Moonlight Principality and Stormlands Dukedom, and neither of them seemed to be particularly powerful. He would have the support of the Knights Templar and also some Titled Douluos in case the enemy also had the Titled Douluos.
"The great age of the Spirit Hall..."
Spirit Hall was never known for its numbers en masse. They focused on quality rather than on quantity, and even though they had the highest number of Titled Douluos and also the strongest Titled Douluos, it wasn't enough.
"With those territorial expansions happening, the Spirit Hall would be able to create a proper standing military force and cultivate even more Titled Douluos in the long-term unification of the entire continent; this approach is inevitable."
Hun Tiandi didn't just want to unify the continent... he wanted to destroy everything and everyone in their path while rebuilding the rest of the continent according to their vision.