Chapter 323. The Soul Ring Blockade: (Part 1)
With the appearance of the divinely bestowed soul rings, the rebel faction found themselves in an awkward predicament.
Soul beasts had blocked their natural means of acquiring soul rings, and they had hoped the Spirit Hall could carve out a path for them. Instead, the Spirit Hall used the Angelic Miracle to obtain soul rings for their people.
Furthermore, the blacklist effectively placed them on a list, preventing them from receiving any benefit from the Spirit Hall's divinely bestowed soul rings.
An exposed elder of the Clear Sky Sect, wanting his child to obtain a soul ring, dared not directly charge the soul beast formation. Instead, he chose a remote, sparsely populated small town belonging to the Spirit Hall, attacking it in an attempt to obtain the miracle there to acquire soul rings for his disciples.
However, how could he control a miracle? When his child tried to enter the vortex of the miracle, he was forever prevented from doing so.
This elder of the Clear Sky Sect soon faced retaliation from the Spirit Hall. He, along with his children and entire clan, were forced by the Spirit Hall to be handed over by the Clear Sky Sect and executed by hanging!
His actions declared to the world that only the Spirit Hall could control the Spirit Hall's miracles; stealing spirit skills would not grant a blacklisted force a path to a spirit ring! Ning Feiyang of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School had waited for months, hoping that the Spirit Hall and the spirit beasts would fight, so he could happily re-enter the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt the Netherworld Leopard as his fifth spirit ring, advance to the Spirit King level, and at least not waste his talent.
However, the Spirit Hall and the spirit beasts made peace, even offering a divinely bestowed spirit ring, and crucially, they were blacklisted.
Ning Feiyang was completely dumbfounded. "You've reconciled, but I'm blacklisted? How am I supposed to get a spirit ring? Am I supposed to waste twenty-five years of my talent?"
Ning Feiyang's question was actually the question of many blacklisted noble spirit masters.
They were panicking, and their parents were even more anxious. Ning Fengzhi looked at Ning Feiyang and thought of his beloved daughter, Ning Rongrong.
Ning Fengzhi wasn't so heartbroken about Ning Feiyang's wasted talent, but Ning Rongrong possessed the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, a future potential title holder. Wasting twenty-five years of her talent would be futile, even with the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda as her spirit soul.
"Should I, Ning, submit to the Spirit Hall and beg them for a divinely bestowed spirit ring?" Ning Fengzhi's eyes reddened with anxiety.
"No, no way! I, Ning, will never submit! How can the Spirit Hall be so selfish? Divine gifts should be shared by all!"
Thus, Ning Fengzhi made a final, desperate struggle.
He incited everyone on the continent's blacklist to pressure the Spirit Hall, demanding equal opportunities and the sharing of divinely bestowed spirit rings.
However, they couldn't refute the Spirit Hall's response.
"This decision was made by the God Ancestor, and we cannot change it."
The anti-Spirit Hall forces fell silent. The divinely bestowed spirit rings belonged to the God Ancestor; he could give them away as he pleased, and not as he pleased. Did they really think they could force them?
These fools of the Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance instantly became a laughingstock among the Spirit Hall's converts.
Faced with the blockade by spirit beasts and the Spirit Hall itself, the Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance was completely crippled.
The Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance Conference was convened.
"Alliance Leader, what should we do next? This year, 32 members of our family have reached the level where they need spirit rings. Without them, they'll be stuck at that level for life," said a representative of one of the participating forces.
"Yes, yes, without spirit rings, our descendants will have no hope. In another twenty or thirty years, our families will be ruined, and our forces will have completely collapsed," said another representative.
Another faction bluntly stated, "I request to withdraw from the Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance."
Seeing the alliance on the verge of collapse, Yu Xiaogang quickly stepped forward, shaking the rows of large medals on his chest, and said, "Everyone, please calm down and listen to me before considering whether to withdraw from this alliance."
"The Spirit Hall's strength is only temporary. Don't forget, the Spirit Hall's miracles were given to them by the Angel God. Can't we also possess our own miracles?"
Hearing Yu Xiaogang's words, the faction that had just wanted to withdraw from the Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance frowned and asked, "Master, what do you mean?"
Yu Xiaogang put his hands behind his back and proudly said, "The Angel God is at most a first-level god in the God Realm, so why should we worry about the future of our Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance?"
"Everyone, don't forget where our Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance's confidence comes from," Yu Xiaogang said with a smirk, "Tang San."
"My disciple Tang San possesses the potential to become a god. The divine position he is currently inheriting is the Asura God position. The Asura God is a God-King position, even higher than the Angel God. If a Level One God can easily bring so many miracles to the continent, then the miracles brought by a God-King will only be more powerful than those of the Angel God."
Hearing Yu Xiaogang's words, the various forces immediately calmed down.
Indeed, the real reason they dared to come together and establish an anti-Spirit Hall alliance was because of Tang San. Tang San was going to inherit the Asura God-King position.
"Don't be fooled by the Spirit Hall's current power. In my eyes, they're nothing but withered bones in a tomb. Once my disciple Tang San returns as a god, it will be time to settle accounts with the Spirit Hall. Are the Angel God and the Cricket First-Level God a match for the Asura God King?"
With that, Yu Xiaogang lightly stroked the rows of medals on his chest, his gaze sweeping over the crowd. He said smugly, "Now, I've said everything I needed to say. Whether you stay or leave is up to you."
Hearing Yu Xiaogang's words, the forces that wanted to leave the anti-Spirit Hall alliance immediately calmed down.
On the surface, the Spirit Hall seemed to be at its peak, but in reality, Tang San could become a god at any moment. When God King Tang San returned, the Spirit Hall, no matter how powerful it was now, would be nothing but a castle in the air.
It was a case of: "We watched it rise to great heights, we watched it feast its guests, and we watched its tower crumble!"
Having figured this out, these opportunists were unwilling to leave the Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance, yet they also wanted the divine spirit rings bestowed by the Spirit Hall.
After all, who could say when Tang San would return as a god? The later he returned, the more useless their younger generation would become.
A representative of one faction said, "Master, we can actually choose to feign allegiance to the Spirit Hall and then defect later."
"Yes, yes," said the leader of another faction, "We can join the Spirit Hall and then betray them at the crucial moment!"
Yu Xiaogang spoke calmly, his words carrying a threatening yet oppressive weight: "Those who join the Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance and then withdraw will not be accepted back. Those who join the Spirit Hall, whether sincerely or feignedly, will be considered enemies by the Anti-Spirit Hall Alliance."
"Master, why is that?"
Yu Xiaogang said, "Loyalty that isn't absolute is absolutely disloyal. As Tang San's teacher, and as the future Asura God, I don't want any wavering members in his team. You can leave, but once you leave, be prepared to never join again."
Hearing Yu Xiaogang's words, the restless hearts of the various factions quieted down. Although they desperately wanted to obtain spirit rings from the Spirit Hall, considering Tang San's greater future, they could only endure it.
A certain sect leader cursed inwardly: "Yu Xiaogang, you just got lucky and took on a good disciple. What's so great about that? In the end, you're just a useless piece of trash forever stuck at level 34 with a pig-like spirit!"
Ning Fengzhi stepped forward and said, "Everyone, greed corrupts the heart. The Spirit Hall wants to use these benefits to lure us, the anti-Spirit Hall alliance, into disintegration from within. Therefore, we should strengthen our beliefs and unite as one."
"The Spirit Hall is only temporarily triumphant. Once Tang San returns as a god, everything will be better. Let's all be patient for now."
With the assurance that Tang San was destined to become a god, the anti-Spirit Hall alliance became more cohesive.
Shortly after introducing the God-Given Soul Ring, the Spirit Hall's godhood reached its third stage.
The Angel God bestowed the Awakening Ring upon the Spirit Hall, claiming that it could increase the innate age for awakening soul power in awakened soul masters and increase the possibility of the awakened Spirit Hall mutating in a positive direction!
This claim immediately caused a huge uproar in the soul master world.
Then, the Spirit Hall used its advanced media to showcase the awakening results of the Awakening Ring to the people of the continent.
One child, born to commoners whose parents possessed a carrot-like spirit with zero innate spirit power, unsurprisingly, awakened a carrot spirit with no spirit power.
However, under the influence of the Awakening Ring, this child's awakened carrot spirit directly possessed innate level 2 spirit power.
Don't underestimate this innate level 2 spirit power; it foreshadows that this child will be able to become a support-type spirit master in the future. Even if his potential never exceeds that of a Spirit Master, having it is better than having nothing, right? With innate level 2 spirit power, he is already a spirit master.
Another child's parents both possessed sickles, ordinary sickles without spirit power, only suitable for farming. They thus worked as tenant farmers under the local landlord.
Their child was chosen by the Spirit Hall to become a test subject. The Awakening Deacon awakened the child's spirit, and unexpectedly, this child awakened a mutated fighting spirit sickle with innate level 5 spirit power.
This spirit mutation directly rewrote the family's fate; innate level 5 spirit power, neither high nor low, at least enough to become an excellent spirit master.
After that, the Spirit Hall used commoner spirit masters for their awakening tests.
Their families were all without soul power, but the martial souls they awakened all possessed innate soul power to varying degrees.
Some had as little as 0.5, while others had at least level 4 innate soul power. This may seem small, but it reveals a startling fact to the soul master world: the landscape is about to change. Ordinary commoners' awakened innate soul power is inferior to that of the nobles, but a terrifying reality is that the number of soul masters will explode.
In the past, out of the continent's hundreds of millions of people, there were only tens of thousands of soul masters; in the future, this number will surge to millions, tens of millions, and perhaps even enter an era where everyone is a soul master.
(End of chapter)