What Hun Tiandi was doing right now was essential, taking a page from Xiao Yan's book because he knew that even some of the strongest could be brought low due to the sheer numbers.
The fate of the Hall of Souls and the Hun Clan showed something to him. While it was the undeniable truth that the Spirit Hall was indeed a very powerful faction, there were plenty of other facts across the Douluo Continent.
If a widespread alliance was created against the Spirit Hall, it would be highly problematic to deal with, especially if it was something like the Sky Mansion Alliance against the Hall of Souls and Hun Clan.
No.
He knew that the Spirit Hall either needed allies or to assimilate some of the other factions that showed promise and had strong potential, and were open to working with the Spirit Hall.
Ironically, though, it wasn't actually as problematic as Hun Tiandi had initially anticipated.
After very careful consideration and discussions with Bibi Dong, they chose the White Armored Elephant Clan and Sacred Dragon Clan as their primary choices, either for assimilation into the Spirit Hall or to be allies.
However, in the cases of these two Clans, they would most probably go for direct assimilation because they were relatively weak and didn't have enough power to become allies.
Hun Tiandi had to admit that Bibi Dong was very ambitious, probably as much as he was in his old life and even in this new one.
"So what do you think of them, Tiandi?"
Bibi Dong already had more than enough ideas on how to obtain allegiance to the Armored Elephant Clan and Sacred Dragon Clan, but at the same time, she wanted to hear Hun Tiandi's honest opinion about them.
Within the Spirit Hall, there were not many people who were this good with elaborate schemes and plots. Even among the older generation of the Worship Elders from the Douluo Consecration Hall, most preferred to solve the problems with their fists first and talk later.
Hun Tiandi, on the other hand, was always a viper... in the end, he wouldn't have survived and thrived in an environment like the Hun Clan, where even your immediate family members or closest friends could betray you at any given moment, for a meager benefit.
"Huyan Zhen, the Patriarch of the Armored Elephant Clan, is a man blinded by fame and glory; it would be rather easy to recruit him and obtain his allegiance to make his Clan members of the Spirit Hall. But down from the hill, I would suggest replacing him as Patriarch later on by his son, Huyan Li. The younger one is much smarter and not blinded by greed like his father, which could lead to dangerous consequences for us."
Hun Tiandi put his honest opinion on the Armored Elephant Clan and its Patriarch, which was in correlation with Bibi Dong's own opinion about the man and the clan itself. She knew that Hyuan Zhen was a fool who was easily bought by the promises of glory, which was rather plus if they wanted to assimilate the Elephant Armored Clan, but it was rather bad if he was supposed to lead the clan under the banners of the Spirit Hall.
"I am thinking the same. Perhaps after a few years, after we mold Huyan Li, we can install him as the Patriarch of the Elephant Armored Clan. And of the Sacred Dragon Clan?"
Sacred Dragon Clan was another of their primary targets for assimilation into the Spirit Hall, mainly due to their numbers and the potential of their Martial Soul, the White Armored Dragon, which was one of the very powerful Beast-Type Martial Souls.
Even though it wasn't on the level of the Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon Clan, it was still a very powerful Martial Soul that just needed to be properly developed. According to the reports of the Spirit Hall, the main reason why the Four Lower Sects were so "weak" was the lack of resources for cultivation.
Most of the top-grade resources were monopolized by the Clear Sky Clan, Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon Clan, and Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect.
"More complicated than the Elephant Armored Clan because they are more powerful, and their Patriarch is already Titled Douluo of Spirit Rank 91. According to the reports, he is probably as ambitious as Huyan Zhen, but he is also more cool-headed and intelligent. Proper negotiations would be needed, but with the promise of resources and a pathway to higher cultivation, it would be enough to obtain their allegiance."
Sacred Dragon Clan needed a slightly different approach compared to the Elephant Armored Clan because, for starters, they were stronger and had more members than the Elephant Armored Clan.
At the same time, their foundation was deeper because, in the past, the Sacred Dragon Clan was a very prominent clan on the Douluo Continent. The Sacred Dragon Clan reminded Hun Tiandi of the Xiao Clan in many regards, albeit they were in a much better situation.
In the records that Hun Tiandi read about the Sacred Dragon Clan in the past, meaning many millennia ago, around three or three and a half thousand years ago, they were probably as powerful as the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
Unfortunately for the Clan, their decline started with the rapid rise of the Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon Clan because both of them actually used very similar cultivation resources due to the close nature of their Martial Souls.
With the death of several of their prominent Elders, they lost many of their Titled Douluos, and the younger generation from the Titled Douluo wasn't strong enough to contend with the Titled Douluos of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan.
In one-on-one fights between Spirit Masters in these Clans, if the Spirit Masters were of the same rank, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan would win one nine out of ten fights due to the superiority of their Martial Soul.
And thus, the rather inevitable decline of the Sacred Dragon Clan started, and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan was suppressing them more and more until they became shallow of what they once were.
"Many of the Sacred Dragon Clansmen have very deep resentment towards the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and they would do anything to reclaim their lost glory, so it would be easy to negotiate based on that."
Bibi Dong, too, read the details about the history of the Sacred Dragon Clan and knew that this would be the most possible method to obtain allegiance to the Sacred Dragon Clan.
Everyone among the higher leadership of the Spirit Hall was aware that there was no negotiation or anything with the Upper Three Sects. Neither the Clear Sky Clan, the Seven Treasure Glaze Tile Sect, nor the Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon Clan would even consider working with the Spirit Hall.
The Clear Sky Clan especially had deep animosity towards the Spirit Hall because of recent events and their decline. Most, if not all, of their members were blaming the Spirit Hall for their decline, even if the fault lay on Tang Hao's shoulders for being in cahoots with the Spirit Beasts.
On the Douluo Continent, humanity and Spirit Beasts were bitter enemies. Humans hunted the Spirit Beasts for their Spirit Rings, while the Spirit Beasts hated humans for that and for driving them to only small areas to live compared to the entire continent, which was under their rule in the ancient past.
Hun Tiandi could understand both sides, but he was also aware that it was plainly stupid. If everything went undisturbed, the Spirit Beasts would become extinct, which would destroy mankind's cultivation path.
He understood that something must be done about that situation to prevent a catastrophic scenario.
"From what I read, the Sacred Dragon Clan and Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan intermarried a lot in the long past, right?"
Hun Tiandi asked after a while as he was thinking about something.
"Yes, but that was in the past. Nowadays, such matches are rather rare, but there are still some."
Bibi Dong herself was curious about where this was going because she knew that he wouldn't be talking about this without a reason.
"So... there should still be remnants of Blue Lighting Tyrant Dragon Clan's Bloodline in the Sacred Dragon Clan. If we could... for example, facilitate something that would purify their Bloodline and cause mutation of their Martial Soul into the combination of the White Armored Dragon and Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, then we would be killing two flies with one stone."
The concept of Bloodlines was severely underdeveloped in the Douluo Continent, to the point that Hun Tiandi wanted to cry imaginary tears of pity. In the Dou Qi Continent, if there was one concept that was developed almost to the extremes, aside from Alchemy, it would be the study of Bloodlines.
Especially among the Eight Ancient Clans and various Beast Tribes, it was a must.
People of the Dou Qi Continent have developed the Bloodlines and everything around its concept to a very high degree, and Hun Tiandi, as the Patriarch of the Hun Clan and Hall of Souls, was most skilled in the study of the Bloodlines aside from the Souls.,
It wasn't that complicated for him to devise the method of refining someone's Bloodline, which became the Hun Clan and was doing the same thing for many, many millennia. This was also the reason why they were the strongest of the Eight Ancient Clans in the Dou Qi Continent.
Because the Hun Clan had the Nihility Devouring Flame, which was one of the few Heavenly Flames that was capable of refining someone's Bloodline. He was sure that with enough time, he would be able to replicate the same effects with the Nihility Devouring Flame Bloodline.
"Are you talking about the Second Martial Soul Awakening?"
Bibi Dong was aware of the Second Martial Soul Awakening or the Martial Soul Evolution because it was a widely accepted concept. Still, nobody really delved into its depths or researched artificially evolving the Martial Soul.
Most Spirit Masters thought the Martial Soul Evolution was an accident, so nobody really bothered giving it enough time to understand the phenomenon of the Second Martial Soul Awakening properly.
"Yes. Across the history of the Douluo Continent, there are plenty of examples, and even in the Spirit Hall itself, many of the Spirit Masters managed to evolve their Martial Souls and even pass them to future generations. Yet, nobody properly understands the reasons for the Martial Soul Evolution. Some Spirit Masters are already born with Evolved or Mutated Martial Souls, though not every time, it goes very well. I think that it should be possible to evolve some of the Martial Souls rather easily because it should be related to the Bloodlines. I even want to propose research on this topic at the Spirit Hall. It should be something that many of our Titlted Douluos and their Clans would immensely benefit from."
Bibi Dong nodded her head in agreement because she, too, saw the value of his proposal.
She, too, saw the unorthodox thinking of Hun Tiandi as something that was bringing many new and revolutionary ideas to the Spirit Masters. Be it his ideas for the Spirit Energy Cultivation itself or the creation of the proper Alchemy.
"I will allocate proper resources to this. With the increased revenue from the Alchemy that we are getting by selling Low-Grade Pills. Chrysanthemum Douluo and Poison Douluo are working very hard to teach new people about your Alchemy, and according to your proposal classification, there should already be a lot of Tier 1 to Tier 5 Alchemists."
Across the Douluo Continent, surprisingly or not, there were many people who delved into the concept of refining Immortal Herbs and Medicinal Herbs into Elixirs or Pills.
Unfortunately, it was like the Dou Qi Continent of the ancient past, where everyone kept what they knew and learned for themselves, and thus, there was no unified system for Alchemy.
Most of the "Alchemists" of the Douluo Continent, if they could even be called such, were capable of only very rudimentary creations and pill refining.
Obviously, once he introduced the basic elements of Alchemy to the Yue Guan and Dugu Bo, they were very intrigued by this, and with some assistance, the two of them managed something like the basics of Alchemy on the Douluo Continent.
Hun Tiandi was aware of another aspect of his inventions for the Douluo Continent, which was the concept of the Luck and Blessings of the Plane for the Spirit Hall, as the faction that was essentially strengthening the entire Douluo Continent.
"During the past two years, the Spirit Hall has been recruiting the Alchemists, Physicians, Blacksmiths, and Poison Master... or rather the people that fit these criteria, as you mentioned, and the business is blooming. I can't even remember when it was the last time since the Spirit Hall has been generating so much revenue."
While the Spirit Hall was always martially the strongest faction on the Douluo Continent, they were not the richest because they were not primarily doing business. That was the area of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Upon Hun Tiandi's instance, the Douluo Consecration Hall established the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce, which facilitated business on behalf of the Spirit Hall. They were primarily doing everything that the Spirit Hall has been doing till now, but also selling Pills, Elixirs, Medicines, Poisons, but lately also weapons and many other things.
Right now, they were expanding mainly in the Kingdoms and nations on the Douluo Continent, where the Spirit Hall was strongest. This means everywhere, aside from the Star Luo Empire and Heaven Dou Empire.
Not to mention, aside from generating a staggering amount of wealth, because well, the Spirit Hall backed the Celestial Trade Chamber of Commerce, it was expanding the influence and power of the Spirit Hall tremendously.
They were able to project their power in the areas where their influence was rather weak before. Money ruled even in the Douluo Continent and the one who had more money and wealth was the king.
"You should be focusing more on your own cultivation. I can see these months, you have been focusing more on your pet projects than your own cultivation. Even after one year, you are still Spirit Rank 29."
Indeed, during the past year, Hun Tiandi was working more on his projects than on the cultivation itself, but he knew that with his Spiritual Power, it was only a matter of time until he recovered his old power.
Even though he had been killed in his past life with the degree of his Soul Forging if he unsealed all of the limitations on his Soul, then he would probably be stronger than even Qian Daoliu, but the repercussions would be terrible.
Still, Hun Tiandi was someone who reached the Di Soul State, which would probably be the limit of the mortal cultivators of the Douluo Continent if translated here. Even right now, in the unsealed state, his Spiritual Power was far above any other cultivator, and just through the Spiritual Power, he was no weaker than Spirit Douluo.
Unfortunately, the toll on his body would be too much if he used that power.
Only due to his Di Soul State or the Emperor Realm, he was able to survive in some form and transmigrate into this new world after his death under Xiao Yan's hands.
On the Dou Qi Continent, it was rumored that if one advances to the legendary "Di State" or the "Emperor Realm", then one's Soul will be indestructible. Even if one's Soul is forcefully shattered, the lingering soul seed will gradually gather together, allowing one to be reborn.
Yet despite that, he was able to reach the peak of the Spirit Grandmaster in one year, which was already very fast, but no one knew how frightening Hun Tiandi's talent was and thought that he could do better.
"I will be more thoughtful in the future."
He knew that on the Dou Qi Continent, the best period to cultivate was during childhood, primarily because of how the Spirit Energy interacted with the cultivator's body at a younger age and made it easier to progress over.
Those with high talent could reach even higher Spirit Ranks on average, though Hun Tiandi knew that due to his Spiritual Power, which had remained untouched since birth, and had even increased since then, it was only a matter of time before he reached the Titled Douluo.
However, he had to admit that it would be rather wasteful to spend these years working if it was the best time for the cultivation. He wondered what Spirit Rank he would be able to reach after seriously cultivating.
It was rather common knowledge that when a Spirit Master reached the Spirit Rank 40 Spirit Ancestor, their advancement speed would greatly plummet. The main reason for that was the difficulty in compressing the Spirit Energy.
Which was something that Hun Tiandi wouldn't have a problem with due to the overwhelming strength of his Spiritual Power. The Soul Cultivation of his past life was the guarantee of that, so he didn't fear the decrease in his cultivation speed.
Still, Bibi Dong had a point on that, so he would put most of his time into the cultivation in the upcoming years while occasionally overseeing the projects of the Spirit Hall. In the end, everything was already on the go, so his interference was already minimal.
'In the future, when I am able to use the full might of my Soul Cultivation, it would be prudent to create comprehensive manuals for the Soul Cultivation in the Douluo Continent. There isn't even an official ranking for the Spiritual Power or even the methods on how to cultivate the Soul...'
This was another aspect where the Douluo Continent was far behind the Dou Qi Continent, where the cultivation system was more developed and refined, but he knew that with enough time, this would also be remedied.