The day eventually arrived.
With the destruction of the Imperial Snow family, the entire Heaven Dou Empire would fall into a state of disarray with no one at the helm.
To stabilize the empire, a competition would ensue among the nobility to determine the next imperial family.
Among the entire nobility of the Heaven Dou Empire, only ten noble families held the right to compete for the imperial throne; those with hereditary titles ranked above marquises, specifically:
The Three Hereditary Dukes:
Lin Family (Dragon Soul Vine)
Bai Family (Heavenly Star Furnace)
Shi Family (Black Tortoise)
The Seven Hereditary Marquises:
Ye Family (Nine Heart Begonia)
Osi Family (Ghost Leopard)
Yu Family (Wind Bell Bird)
Wei Family (Snow Lotus)
Lü Family (Heavenly Martial)
Zhi Family (Sky Blue Vine)
Du Family (Thousand-leaf Banyan)
While the Heaven Dou Empire had more than three dukes and seven marquises, only these ten families had hereditary titles that could not be passed down through other means. Other nobles' titles were hereditary but could be downgraded.
The five title ranks were: Duke, Marquis, Earl, Viscount, and Baron.
Once a noble's title dropped to the baron rank, it could no longer be downgraded, and the noble would be stripped of their status, becoming a commoner.
Non-hereditary nobles had to meet a certain soul power threshold to avoid their titles being downgraded.
For instance:
A duke's title would require soul power at least at the level of a 70th-ranked Soul Sage.
A marquis's title would require soul power at least at the level of a 60th-ranked Soul Emperor.
An earl's title would require soul power at least at the level of a 50th-ranked Soul King.
Of the ten noble families qualified to compete for the imperial throne, most had thriving populations, with the Lin and Ye families being the exceptions.
The Ye family, due to the nature of their inherited martial soul, the Nine Heart Begonia, could only have two soul masters with the same martial soul at any given time. So, whenever the next generation awakened their martial soul, the eldest elder of the family would die. If the elder was unwilling, the younger generation would die instead due to the curse on the martial soul.
Because of this curse, the Ye family had always struggled with their population being sparse.
As for the Lin family, it had always been a single-line inheritance, with no exceptions.
A long time ago, the ancestor of the Lin family, born to commoners, awakened his mutated martial soul, Dragon Soul Jade Plate, at the age of six. His mother, from the hereditary Zhi family, had the Sky Blue Vine martial soul.
When the Lin ancestor awakened his martial soul at the age of six, the two inherited martial souls fused and mutated, resulting in the Lin family's signature martial soul: the Dragon Soul Vine.
This deep connection between the Lin and Zhi families meant that they had long been allies. Moreover, one of the seven hereditary marquises, the Du family, was the maternal family of Lin Rong, the current Duke of the Lin family.
As such, when Lin Rong competed for the throne in the future, the Zhi and Du families would become powerful allies.
By the time Lin Rong contended for the throne, he could easily suppress any opposition in the Heaven Dou Empire through his martial force, having established his military prowess. Still, alliances were always valuable.
Inside the Tent:
Lin Rong sat beside General Ge Long and said:
"Ge Uncle, I will leave Red Jun in your care. My guard will be placed beside him to protect him."
"There are some matters back in the Imperial City that need to be handled by Uncle Yu, so I won't stay too long here."
With that, he stood up to take his leave.
Ge Long understood that Lin Rong's words were just an excuse, but he also knew that, according to the empire's laws, hereditary nobles were forbidden from meddling with military affairs. As a hereditary duke, Lin Rong could not linger at a military post like Jia Ling Pass.
Thus, Ge Long did not try to persuade him otherwise. Instead, he rose to escort Lin Rong and his old butler out of the camp.
Outside the Gates:
Ge Long stood and saw them off, watching until Lin Rong's carriage disappeared before he turned back into the camp.
Inside the Carriage:
Lin Rong gazed at Jia Ling Pass growing smaller through the window. He ordered:
"Grandfather Yu, tell the coachman to change the route. We're heading to Thunder Gorge."
"Understood," the old butler did not question the reason behind the decision, but simply relayed the command.
Once back inside the carriage, Lin Rong entered a meditative state.
Since Ma Hongjun broke through to level 30, Lin Rong's soul power had reached its peak at level 38. The day after Ma Hongjun acquired his third soul ring, Lin Rong had taken him to Jia Ling Pass.
By the time they reached Jia Ling Pass, Lin Rong's soul power had advanced to level 39, just one level short of level 40.
At the time, Lin Rong was only eight years and ten months old, just two months shy of turning nine.
"One more level of soul power; two months of training is enough. By then, I'll be nine years old."
"Whether we head back to Heaven Dou City or divert to Thunder Gorge, it will take about a month. By the time we reach Thunder Gorge, I may not have broken through to level 40, but I'll only need one more month of training."
"However, while I can wait a month, my fourth soul ring may not be so patient."
"According to the intel I received from my spies, the Thunder Thunder Hell Vine in Thunder Gorge is struggling to control its destructive power. It's about to erupt."
"That Thunder Thunder Hell Vine is useless! It's forcing me to personally visit Thunder Gorge to suppress its destructive power."
"After all, it's my fourth soul ring. I can't let it destroy itself before I reach level 40."
"However, looking at it from another angle, the Thunder Thunder Hell Vine being unable to control its destructive power might be a good thing."
"As the theory in the original story goes, the greater the pain a soul beast suffers just before death, the higher the chance of it dropping a soul bone."
"The Thunder Thunder Hell Vine has been suffering extreme pain for some time now, which increases the likelihood of it dropping a soul bone, and there's a strong chance it will inherit the power of lightning it absorbed."
"I just hope my luck is good, and that the soul bone dropped is not from the head or right leg, but from the other four parts. Even the torso bone would be fine."
"After all, the Sky Blue Bull Python, as a 100,000-year soul beast, can selectively drop fixed-position soul bones. Even if it's not the torso bone I hope for, I'll accept the other parts."
"But if the Thunder Thunder Hell Vine does drop a head or right leg bone, I'll have to accept it. If that happens, I'll let Grandfather Yu absorb it."
"If that happens, my six pre-selected soul bones will be missing one, and it won't be so easy to find another that fits."
Having already acquired the Sky Blue Bamboo head soul bone, Lin Rong had pre-selected six regular soul bones. Apart from the right leg bone of the 100,000-year-old Blue Silver Emperor, the other soul bones would come from:
Crystal Blood Dragon Ginseng
Heartbroken Red
Sky Blue Bull Python
Thunder Thunder Hell Vine
The first three soul bones would drop and could be selected according to Lin Rong's wishes. Only the Thunder Thunder Hell Vine's soul bone was not guaranteed to drop, and its position would be random.
Thus, there was a two-thirds chance that the Thunder Thunder Hell Vine's soul bone would match Lin Rong's pre-selected spots.
"My luck has always been good. I hope it's the same this time."
With that thought in mind, Lin Rong focused on his training and the cultivation of his Washing Marrow Sutra.
In the northeast region of the Heaven Dou Empire, there was a huge gorge perpetually covered in dark clouds, where lightning constantly flashed.
The unique geography of this place meant it was rich in lightning elements and was the largest concentration of lightning-attribute soul beasts on the continent.
This gorge was known as Thunder Gorge, and it was regarded as a holy land for lightning-type soul masters seeking soul rings.
Moreover, among the Seven Great Sects of the continent, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, ranked last, had its headquarters near Thunder Gorge, in Long City.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul could only absorb soul rings from dragon-type or sub-dragon-type soul beasts to unlock its dragon transformation ability.
Naturally, the soul beasts best suited for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul were lightning-attribute dragon or sub-dragon beasts. Nearly seventy percent of the lightning-attribute dragon soul beasts in the entire continent lived in Thunder Gorge.
For this reason, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect once tried to monopolize the entire Thunder Gorge, turning it into their personal property and banning any soul masters from entering.
Such tyrannical actions, to the detriment of all soul masters, naturally caught the attention of the Spirit Hall.
At that time, the Spirit Hall was still under the leadership of Qian Daoliu, and its members were not as corrupt and incompetent as they were in the future.
Upon learning of these actions, the Pope personally led three Title Douluos to confront the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect.
Faced with the pressure of four powerful Title Douluos, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect had no choice but to swear an oath:
"As the Sect Master of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect, I swear that Thunder Gorge belongs to all soul masters, not just the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect."
After hearing the oath, the Pope, along with his three Title Douluos, left in style.
This incident was recorded in history and became an indelible black mark on the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect.
One month later:
Lin Rong stood outside Thunder Gorge, reading an ancient text that chronicled this event, commenting:
"The Spirit Hall under Qian Daoliu's leadership and the one under Bibi Dong are like two completely different entities."
"They say that large powers inevitably breed some corrupt elements, but during Qian Daoliu's tenure as Pope, the corruption in the Spirit Hall was much less compared to Bibi Dong's reign."
"There's no denying that the Spirit Hall exists to benefit common soul masters, giving every soul master an opportunity to rise from poverty. That's an irrefutable fact."
"But since I'm not one of the Spirit Hall's beneficiaries, if they block my path, I have no choice but to overthrow them!"