After Xue Ling's Spirit underwent its second awakening, Qi Lin had Gu Yuena take her to the Extreme North to acquire spirit rings.
Everything was as Qi Lin had expected; after Xue Ling acquired her spirit rings, her spirit power actually directly broke through to rank twenty-seven.
Moreover, because she had consumed the Good Fortune Heaven Mending Pill, and Qi Lin had also refined a Body Strengthening Pill for her using whale glue combined with other medicinal ingredients, Xue Ling's physical strength was extremely high even before acquiring her spirit rings.
Her first spirit ring directly absorbed a nearly three-thousand-year-old spirit ring, while her second spirit ring reached six thousand years.
When she returned, everyone from the Heaven Dou Team and the Skywater Team felt nothing but envy for her.
However, Qi Lin didn't neglect anyone; Xiao Wu and the others each ate several pills.
With the Six Ding Creation, as long as there were medicinal ingredients, Qi Lin could directly refine Body Strengthening Pills for them to eat like candy.
Even Shi Mo and Shi Mo, the two brothers, as well as Yu Feng Oslo, had their families pay to purchase a pill from Qi Lin.
The medicinal ingredients for the Body Strengthening Pill were all common, except for the whale glue, which was more valuable because Qi Lin used a piece of ninety-thousand-year-old whale glue.
Of course, the ninety-thousand-year-old whale glue had too strong an aphrodisiac effect, so Qi Lin only used a tiny bit to refine the Body Strengthening Pill.
In addition, as time passed, the preliminaries of the Soul Master Competition were nearing their end.
Heaven Dou Academy and Blazing Academy met, and Xiao Wu personally entered the arena.
Although they knew they were no match, Blazing Academy still did not surrender.
After all, there had been no precedent among the Five Element Academies of surrendering directly without even fighting.
The result, of course, was still a loss.
However, out of consideration for Huo Wu being her best friend, Xiao Wu still showed mercy and did not seriously injure them.
Finally, there was Godwind Academy. This academy could be said to be the strongest among the Five Element Academies apart from Tianshui Academy, with four Spirit Ancestors alone.
Unfortunately, facing Heaven Dou Academy, such strength was still not enough.
Heaven Dou Academy sent Dugu Yan to the stage; with her appearance, merely releasing one Spirit Ability caused all seven members of Godwind Academy to be annihilated.
And when the preliminaries concluded, the top five teams that advanced to the promotion rounds were also announced.
They were Heaven Dou Academy, Tianshui Academy, Godwind Academy, Thunderclap Academy, and Blazing Academy.
As for Elephant Armor Academy and Shrek Academy, both were eliminated, becoming mere participants.
After the preliminaries, the promotion rounds began.
Unlike the preliminaries, the promotion rounds would no longer eliminate teams. In addition to the five teams from the Heaven Dou City division, there were a total of ten other teams participating in the promotion rounds.
These ten teams came from the four kingdoms and one duchy affiliated with Heaven Dou City.
Of course, the strength of these ten teams was weaker, not even comparable to the Five Element Academies.
The reason they were able to stand out from their respective divisions was entirely because there were no strong teams in the other divisions.
Even the eliminated Shrek Academy and Elephant Armor Academy might have stood out in the other five divisions just like these ten teams.
Furthermore, the format of the promotion rounds was different from the preliminaries.
The preliminaries were team battles, while the promotion rounds were one-on-one arena battles.
Teams would send out their members, who would then duel one by one.
This situation led to the Heaven Dou Academy team having no challengers at all.
Originally, one team couldn't even beat them, and now they had to fight one-on-one?
Who would still fight them!
They were there to compete, not to be abused.
The final outcome was that most of the teams the Heaven Dou Academy team encountered chose to forfeit.
Only Tianshui Academy and Blazing Academy symbolically competed. Shui Bing'er, relying on her personal strength, defeated the two Shi Mo brothers and Ye Lingling consecutively, before finally being defeated by Ning Rongrong.
The other members of Tianshui Academy chose to surrender.
As for Blazing Academy, Captain Huo Wushuang and Huo Wu successively entered the arena. The result was that Huo Wushuang was dealt with by Shi Mo in the first battle.
He was an attack system Spirit Ancestor, but he couldn't break through Shi Mo's defense at all.
Even Huo Wu, in a direct confrontation, was no match for Shi Mo. Fortunately, her battle IQ was relatively high; after forcing him to the edge of the arena using various methods, she directly pushed him out of the arena with her third Spirit Ability, Repulsion Fire Ring.
Shi Mo's younger brother, Shi Mo, was also defeated by the same method.
Huo Wu, due to continuously using Spirit Abilities, ran out of spirit power and was finally defeated by Ye Lingling.
The fourteen promotion rounds concluded with Heaven Dou Academy easily achieving fourteen consecutive victories.
During this period of the promotion rounds, Qi Lin occasionally traveled back and forth between the Dou Po World and the Douluo World.
However, due to the dense schedule of Heaven Dou Academy's matches during the Soul Master Competition, he did not leave, only going to the Dou Po World at night to chat with Xiao Xun'er.
Nevertheless, his relationship with Xiao Xun'er rapidly warmed during this time.
...
Meanwhile, Tang Yuehua dispatched many people across the continent to search for Tang San and Tang Hao's whereabouts, leaving Clear Sky Sect's unique secret signals in many places.
It wasn't until the end of the promotion rounds that their efforts finally paid off, and they found Tang Hao and his son in front of a waterfall in the Sunset Forest.
In the original work, he took Tang San to cultivate at the waterfall where Ah Yin was planted, but after learning that the waterfall's location was exposed and even the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor Spirit Bone was stolen, he decisively abandoned that place.
Tang Hao's eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the two men kneeling on one knee with clasped hands in front of him, and he said indifferently, "Speak, who sent you to find me?"
One of them lowered his head and respectfully said, "Reporting to Haotian Douluo, we were ordered by Moon Master to search for your whereabouts."
Tang Hao's eyebrows twitched slightly upon hearing this.
"Little sister?"
He continued, "My third sister sent you to find me, for what purpose?"
The man continued, "This humble one does not know. Moon Master only instructed that if Haotian Douluo is found, you must bring Tang San back to the Moon Pavilion, as this matter concerns Tang San's life and safety."
As soon as these words were spoken, Tang San, who was standing beside Tang Hao, was slightly stunned.
How did it involve him, and even his life and safety?
Tang Hao's brows furrowed even deeper upon hearing this.
Related to Little San's safety?
What on earth happened?
Tang Hao was puzzled, but he also knew that his little sister would never act without cause. So he said to the two, "I understand. You two go back and report first. I will return to the Moon Pavilion with Little San in a few days."
"Then this humble one will take his leave!"
With that, the two stood up, bowed, and turned to leave.
After they left, only Tang Hao and his son remained.
Tang San asked in confusion, "Dad, what does this message from Aunt mean? What life danger could I be in while I'm with Dad?"
Tang Hao shook his head and said, "Dad doesn't know what happened, but since it could make your aunt so concerned, she must have learned some important news that we don't know about."
"Alright, pack up. Tomorrow we'll return to Heaven Dou City!"
Tang San nodded upon hearing this; he wouldn't joke with his own life.