Tang Hailan knew that she was severely outmatched, but when she realized that the person in front of her was from the Spirit Hall, she realized that this could be a heaven-sent opportunity.
She needed to awaken her Martial Soul and obtain backing in this world. She didn't doubt her skills and abilities, as she was once a prodigy in the Tang Sect, even though many Elders thought that Tang San's talent was higher than hers.
Something that was engaging her to no end.
Maybe his talent in the Hidden Weapons and Tang Sect's techniques was slightly above her own, but his personality was...
Trash.
"What do you propose?"
She asked calmly, because she wasn't in a position to negotiate. She knew that if she didn't agree, her head would roll. Fellow killers could easily recognize each other, and it was clear to her that Hun Tiandi wouldn't hesitate to end her the moment she refused.
It was understandable, because in a certain sense, she was a threat to the Spirit Hall.
The moment he realized that she was someone who was also reincarnated, he had no idea what type of knowledge she came to this world with. If she were in his position, she would do the same thing.
"Join the Spirit Hall. Someone with the skills of a professional assassin would be invaluable to the Spirit Hall, and you would get all the resources and backing that you can get. If you want, you can even revive your old sect within the Spirit Hall as one of its Halls."
Hun Tiandi's original intention was to recruit her to the Spirit Hall, because if she was indeed the bearer of the knowledge of the different world, it would be an immense help. Just the knowledge of the Dou Qi Continent made a tremendous advancement to the Spirit Hall and the overall Douluo Continent.
If she disagreed, he planned to kill her and take her Soul with him. He could extract all the necessary information from her Soul and then devour her Soul with the Soul Devour Skill to increase his latent talent.
He was sure that if she were indeed a reincarnator like him, then she must be a really extraordinary person in her past life. Such a person must either join the Spirit Hall or die because they would be an obstacle.
Hun Tiandi sometimes pondered that if he had personally acted when he first heard about that fire brat of Xiao Clan, then everything would have ended much differently.
Though...
When he thought about that, he had to admit that this life was much better than the one in the Dou Qi Continent. This life was much more satisfying and fulfilling than the previous one, while pursuing strength and power was something that he devoted most of his life to, it wasn't everything.
"Obviously, this would only happen once the basic foundation of trust is established between us, and we would sign a Soul Binding Contract to be sure."
Hun Tiandi stated that because the Soul Binding Contract was primarily aimed at constraining her, not him. With his expertise in the Souls and Spiritual Realm, it would be relatively easy to breach the Soul Binding Contract without the consequences or anything.
But that was something that he was keeping for himself.
Meanwhile, hearing the conditions proposed, Tang Hailan pondered over them for some time, because this was already better than she had expected. She knew that the Spirit Hall was the only faction on the continent that was "commoner-friendly" and that even many of their highest leadership were originally commoners.
Obviously, she wouldn't join just anyone and abhorred the idea of joining one of the Aristocratic Families of the Heaven Dou Empire just for the opportunity to awaken her Martial Soul and become a Spirit Master.
With other Sects on the Douluo Continent, it was rather pretty similar, but the problem was, she didn't even know where to find any, and the closest Spirit Master Academy was several hundred kilometers away from the Rising Dragon City.
A long and arduous journey that she wouldn't have really survived if she had gone there.
Tang Hailan obviously wanted to join the most powerful faction in the world, because she believed that only the best resources in the world could be worthy of her and that, once she showed her talent, she would quickly rise through the ranks of the organization.
Now the opportunity presented itself, but her greatest secret was being exposed... though, despite that, Tang Hailan was very pragmatic and knew that in her current situation, there was no other choice aside from accepting the situation in front of her.
"I have two friends here, I want to take them with me to the Spirit Hall."
Tang Hailan stated that during the time that she was living on the streets, she wasn't living alone in this hideous way, as she was living here with two other orphans, Zhang Peng and Feng Ling.
All three were orphans of the Rising Dragon City who were surviving on the streets by stealing from the people and just passing by. Their original goal was to amass enough money to board one of the merchant caravans heading toward the different cities with the Spirit Hall Branch.
"That's not a problem, Spirit Hall welcomes all. When we return to the closest Spirit Hall Temple, we conduct a Martial Soul Awakening for the three of you. Now, should we proceed to the signing of the contract?"
Hun Tiandi asks, and when he saw Tang Hailan nodding to his question as he prepared the Soul Binding Contract for the two of them, he let Tang Hailan read it. He knew that she was very cautious and would read every single clause, but it was also true that the contract was clean.
There were no hidden traps, vague clauses, or sentences that could have even a few interpretations.
There was nothing.
He didn't need to do that because if he really wanted to, he could easily bypass the conditions with his knowledge of the Souls. Fortunately enough, his knowledge on the topic of Souls needed just minimal adjustments to the conditions of the Douluo Continent, and it became one of his strongest cards in this life.
In the end, she couldn't find anything that was suspicious in the contract and decided to sign it as the Soul Binding Contract, then dispersed into the white particles. Those particles were then divided into the two groups, one of them fusing with Tang Hailan and Hun Tiandi.
"With this, you are a member of the Spirit Hall. Go and bring your friends so that we can leave this place... these smells are disgusting."
Hun Tiandi said as Tang Hailan went to collect her two friends, Zhang Peng and Feng Li, while Hun Tiandi stood in the slums, still donned in his armor, and looked at the passing people.
Due to the lesser importance of the Bloodlines and their existence within the Douluo Continent compared to his past life, it wasn't that hard for the commoners to reach even Titled Douluos.
Hun Tiandi knew that many of the Spirit Hall were commoners and countless Spirit Masters across the entire continent were able to become Spirit Masters only due to the Spirit Hall in the first place.
Soon enough, Tang Hailan returned with two people who were around a similar age to her, though they looked equally shabby and pitiful.
One of them was a boy with purple hair and red eyes, and another was a girl with very short silver hair and gray eyes. When Hun Tiandi looked at them, neither of them looked away, which was actually a rather good sign, and he could see the look of defiance in their eyes.
"Come on, we should get going..."
***
Across the Rising Dragon City, the Headquarters of the Breaking Clan
"It seems that we have picked up several people along the way..."
Jin Eyu said as he looked at the group of three children that the Holy Son picked up, as they planned to stop by the Heaven Dou Imperial City to visit the Grand Cathedral of the Spirit Hall to conduct the Spirit Awakening Ceremony on the three orphans.
Both Feng Li and Zhang Peng were rather reserved and didn't speak that much; only Tang Hailan spent most of the time speaking on their behalf. Hun Tiandi sensed the power of their Souls and knew that if they awakened the Martial Souls, it would be a huge surprise.
He thought that in the future, they would be a powerhouse to reckon with.
"We are already here... so everyone be on their best behavior."
Hun Tiandi said as he looked specifically at the people behind him.
Xuan Ziwen, Xu Tianzhen, Tang Hailan, Feng Li, and Zhang Peng.
These words were primarily aimed at Xu Tianzhen, as the girl was a rather troublesome.
Since they entered the Rising Dragon City, Xu Tianzhen was nonstop causing trouble and running away from their group, as she looked at everything in wonder. Though, nobody blamed her for that, because compared to the Sun Moon Empire, the society in the Douluo Continent was just too backward.
Xuan Ziwen stated that the Sun Moon Empire used to look like this several thousand years ago, before the development of the Soul Tools. Yet despite that, he didn't dare to underestimate the Douluo Continent's natives, because, in terms of Spirit Masters, they were clearly superior.
As Titled Douluo, he could easily sense the Spirit Energy of the people around him, and he was rather surprised by the qualitative difference in the Spirit Masters between the Sun Moon Continent and the Douluo Continent.
Not to mention, the Douluo Continent had a much larger number of high-ranking Spirit Masters compared to the Sun Moon Empire, and this was just one peripheral city in the Heaven Dou Empire.
In his head, he was already thinking that if he managed to uplift the society of the Douluo Continent, then his prestige on the continent wouldn't be any less than that of his teacher Kong Deming back home.
He could even become the second Father of Soul Tools.
Just like Kong Deming was considered the Father of Soul Tools in the Sun Moon Continent, he, Xuan Ziwen, would be the Father of Soul Tools on the Douluo Continent.
Soon enough, their group arrived in front of the Headquarters of the Breaking Clan as Hun Tiandi and Jin Eyu looked at the place with certain... sadness and pity?
Once upon a time, the Breaking Clan was one of the major Clans on the Douluo Continent, and they were filthy rich and powerful. Now, after being abandoned by the Clear Sky Clan, their coffers were drained, and many of their experts were killed in the struggle to survive.
"Halt! Who goes to the Breaking Clan?!"
As they neared the headquarters of the Breaking Clan, two Spirit Sages apeapred, each holding the Soul Breaking Spear Martial Soul in their hands. Soul Breaking Spear was categorized as one of the strongest Tool-type Martial Souls with extremely high offensive power.
Jin Eyu instantly unleashed the pressure of Limit Douluo on them, as the two froze in their tracks.
"Golden Crocodile Douluo of the Spirit Hall wishes to see Patriarch Yang."
When Jin Eyu introduced himself, both Soul Sages were filled with deep fear because they knew very well who this man was. 2nd Worship Elder of the Douluo Consecration Hall, and his mere presence was frightening for several reasons.
Primarily because the Douluo Consecration Hall of the Spirit Hall never involved itself with the mundane affairs, and yet, his presence told that perhaps they had started adjusting this stance of theirs.
Which would make everything even more challenging.
Spirit Hall had grown much stronger in the past years, and the release of the Spirit Energy Cultivation Method was a testament to it.
Everyone knew that if the Spirit Hall had dared to release something like this, then it was clear that they had much better techniques and manuals for themselves. Since then, many of their Cardinals started appearing more often, and even the strength of their clergy was being increased.
But what was unknown to the general population of the Douluo Continent was that several years ago, Qian Daoliu met with the Beast God Di Tian and passed him the complete Spirit Energy Cultivation Method and also some of the more advanced version,s together with the research notes.
This was something that Hun Tiandi personally proposed, because he wanted to establish some kind of alliance with the Star Dou Forest and resolve the conflict between humanity and Spirit Beasts.
The first step was already done.
With the gifts of the Spirit Hall, perhaps they obtained at least some goodwill from the Star Dou Forest, but most importantly, the strength of the Spirit Beasts was increasing. This was something that many Spirit Masters across the continent noticed.
Scheme from Hun Tiandi's side, because he knew that if the humans were strengthened too much, they would hunt the Spirit Beasts to extinction in their pursuit of Spirit Rings.
Because the project of the Artificial Spirit Rings and Artificial Spirit Souls was far, far away in the future, Hun Tiandi created this method to stall the time.
Though the more Holy Son of the Spirit Hall listened about the Soul Tool Technology, the more convinced he was that this could perhaps help them to greatly accelerate the process of creating the Artificial Spirit Rings and Artificial Spirit Souls.
While some Worship Elders of the Spirit Hall were not really convinced by this approach, Qian Daoliu knew that if the development of the Spirit Masters was left unchecked, then it would lead to the total collapse of the entire system.
The collective strength of the Spirit Master was increasing at a drastic rate over the past ten years, especially those of the Spirit Hall.
Resource depletion could be a very serious problem if not prepared for beforehand.
Hun Tiandi knew that on the Dou Qi, this was never a problem because of the very rich Heaven and Earth Energy that was basically solving everything for them, but on the Douluo Continent, this wasn't the case.
Even before him, some generations of the Spirit Hall's elders were worried about this, which precisely led to the ban of large-scale Spirit Beast Hunts or massacring the Spirit Beasts, for which the Spirit Hall was punished by death.
"We will call the Patriarch straight away."
One of the Spirit Sages said as he was released by Jin Eyu and went to call their Patriarch, Yang Wudi.
It wasn't long before Patriarch of the Breaking Clan, Yang Wudi, arrived.
He was a rather tall man with slim black hair despite his advanced age. He was even gloomier than usual when he realized that someone from the Spirit Hall had come, but not just someone, but one of the Worship Elders.
'Accursed Clear Sky Clan... if not for them killing the previous pope, nothing would have happened... and when everything went to down, they just sealed themselves up in their mountains and left us all to rot.'
While Yang Wudi held a great disdain for the Spirit Hall due to the suppression that they suffered at their hands, he hated the cowardly Clear Sky Clan even more. He blamed Tang Hao and those dammed blockheaded hammer-wavers for this entire mess.
Not to mention, they even escaped and left them here to deal with the harshness of the new world just like that. Yang Wudi, despite everything, was a very pragmatic man and was aware of his limitations and his strengths.
He knew that the survival of the Breaking Clan came first, and he needed to ensure that the Breaking Clan survived and thrived. Even though the Spirit Hall was an enemy of the Clear Sky Clan, it never really acted against any of the former Auxiliary Clans of the Clear Sky Clan.
Aside from the fact that they banished them from the Heaven Dou Imperial Capital, they left the former Auxiliary Clans as they were.
"What brings the honorable Golden Crocodile Douluot ot the Breaking Clan?"
Yang Wudi looked at the groéup of the Spirit Hall, which seemed... most peculiar?
One pinnacle, Titled Douluo, whom Yang Wudi suspected, reached Limit Douluo, which, if true, would elevate the Spirit Hall to an entirely different level. Then there was another Titled Douluo clad in weird clothes, but his Spirit Rank was around 93.
Then there were three kids with no Spirit Energy, one young girl who was a Spirit Elder, and a young man who was standing closest to the Golden Crocodile Douluo. He looked like a teenager and was already the Spirit King.
If someone like Golden Crocodile Douluo was guarding him personally, it must mean that his status within the Spirit Hall was huge.
"Greetings Patriarch Yang. I am Hun Tiandi, current Holy Son of the Spirit Hall, and I would love to discuss something with you in private that concerns the future of the Breaking Clan. May we be allowed to go inside for a cup of tea?"
Hun Tiandi stepped forward as he asked with a smile, which was anything less than amiable, and even Yang Wudi shuddered at the thought. He was just a Spirit Rank 82 Soul Douluo, even though with his Soul Breaking Spear, he could fight higher-ranked Soul Douluos; in front of Jin Eyu, he would be killed with a single slap.
Just Golden Crocodile's physical strength was enough to kill Titled Douluos alone.
The testament that one of the Worship Elders and Holy Son came to meet him, implied that it was something very important for the Spirit Hall.
"Of course, please come inside..."
Yang Wudi gritted his teeth and invaded the people from the Spirit Hall into the Headquarters of the Breaking Clan. Hopefully, nothing bad would happen, but Yang Wudi knew that if the Spirit Hall harbored some hostility towards them, they would have exterminated them long ago.