Chapter 75: Anomaly in Spirit Hall City, Fan Chen's Suspicion
"The match is over. Qian Renxue and Meng Xiaoyan are the winners."
Guang Ling stood to the side and loudly announced the result of the match.
The Reverse-Edge Demon Armor on Fan Chen's body dissipated. With a helpless expression, he looked toward Meng Xiaoyan standing opposite him.
"You're really shameless!"
He glanced down at where he was standing—only to realize that he was already outside the arena.
The area that should have marked the boundary of the stage had completely vanished. In its place were countless craters and uneven pits scattered everywhere.
Fan Chen had simply failed to notice it for a moment and stepped out of bounds, resulting in his elimination.
With his defeat, Di Yue was also unable to withstand the combined assault of Qian Renxue and Meng Xiaoyan, and she soon admitted defeat as well.
"All's fair in war, right? I learned that from you, you know."
Meng Xiaoyan made a face at Fan Chen and spoke provocatively.
In response, Fan Chen could only smile bitterly and accept the outcome.
If this had been any other time, there was no way he would have fallen for such a trick.
Unfortunately, Qian Renxue's offensive had been far too relentless, leaving him no room to pay attention to anything else. In the end, he ended up losing to Meng Xiaoyan's scheme.
That said, the coordination between Meng Xiaoyan and Qian Renxue was undeniably excellent.
If Meng Xiaoyan's personal combat strength had been a bit higher, she would have posed an even greater threat to him.
The interference abilities of Meng Xiaoyan's mutated Spirit Eye Martial Soul had very little effect on either him or Di Yue.
The only thing that could actually deal damage was the demon-weapon longbow Fan Chen had crafted for her.
But that weapon couldn't hurt Fan Chen at all—it could at most knock him back.
As for Di Yue, it was even less effective. After all, she wielded a divine artifact—the Golden Dragon Spear—making blocking those attacks effortless for her.
Still, just because Meng Xiaoyan couldn't deal significant damage didn't mean she was useless.
Compared to Qian Renxue's sheer level suppression, Fan Chen would always prioritize taking Meng Xiaoyan out first.
She was simply too annoying. With the reconnaissance ability of her Spirit Eye Martial Soul combined with long-range archery support, even the slightest misstep by Fan Chen or Di Yue would allow her to seize the opportunity and disrupt them.
The greatest weakness of bows was accuracy, and Meng Xiaoyan perfectly made up for that flaw.
The arrows she fired seemed as if they had eyes of their own, locking onto targets with uncanny precision, even predicting the opponent's next move.
If she weren't facing natural counters like Fan Chen and Di Yue, any Soul Master of the same level would be defeated swiftly by her.
Guang Ling had once arranged for Soul Masters of the same level from Spirit Hall to spar with her. Although their soul power was clearly higher than Meng Xiaoyan's, and they were even agility-type attackers, she still nailed them to the wall with just three arrows—so effectively that they were scared nearly to the point of panic.
And the most crucial point was that she had been using an ordinary longbow. If it were one of Fan Chen's demon weapons, a single arrow would likely have taken their lives.
Currently, Meng Xiaoyan's soul power had reached rank 19, and she would soon break through to rank 20 to obtain her second soul ring.
When that happened, her strength would increase dramatically once again.
However, among the four of them, Meng Xiaoyan still had the lowest soul power.
Qian Renxue had the highest—she had already broken through to the Soul Elder realm, reaching rank 31.
Fan Chen followed closely behind, currently at rank 26, having skyrocketed by ten levels in just over two years.
If the two levels he had previously lost were counted as well, it would actually be twelve levels.
And all of this was thanks to Di Yue's appearance.
Di Tian had been right—so long as the two of them stayed together, both sides would reap tremendous benefits.
Not only would their own cultivation speed increase, but everyone within a certain range around them would also receive the same boost.
As a result, Qian Renxue and Meng Xiaoyan's cultivation speed had far surpassed what it once was.
Meanwhile, Di Yue's soul power had now reached rank 24—only two levels below Fan Chen.
A nine-year-old Soul Elder, a nine-year-old Soul Grandmaster, another nine-year-old on the verge of breaking through to the Soul Grandmaster realm, and an eight-year-old Soul Grandmaster.
Such a terrifying lineup—if outsiders found out, their eyes would probably pop out of their sockets.
"That's enough training for today. The rest of the time is free for you to do as you please."
"But don't wander outside. Spirit City has been a bit unstable lately."
After giving this instruction, Guang Ling left directly.
Watching him depart, Fan Chen felt a trace of confusion.
Lately, everyone seemed extremely busy—especially his master, Golden Crocodile Douluo. He hadn't seen him for several days now and had no idea where he had gone.
And it wasn't just Golden Crocodile Douluo. The other High Priests were the same.
Normally, at least three of them would be present at the training grounds, but now there was only Guang Ling.
And even he often left midway, letting them train on their own.
"Something doesn't feel right."
"I feel the same way. My master's complexion hasn't been great lately either. It seems like he's run into some trouble."
Meng Xiaoyan spoke up in agreement. Her ability to read people was no worse than Fan Chen's.
She had already noticed the strange situation and had even asked her master, Guang Ling, what was going on.
But he refused to tell her, only telling her not to worry about such things.
"How about letting Xiao Jin ask her master? She might be able to find something out."
Everyone knew how much Xiong Kuohai doted on Di Yue—the treatment she received was completely different from theirs.
It perfectly embodied the saying: afraid she'd break if held in his hands, afraid she'd melt if held in his mouth.
That said, it was also because Di Yue herself was outstanding. Whether it was what Xiong Kuohai, Qiangu Junhuai, or Qiangu Junyu taught her, she could grasp it extremely quickly.
Among the four, Di Yue had the strongest learning ability—Fan Chen and the other two combined might not even compare to her alone.
"My master hasn't been around lately either. I haven't seen him for several days."
Di Yue shook her head. She hadn't seen Xiong Kuohai for quite some time either. Even if she wanted to ask, she had no way to—after all, if the person isn't there, who is she supposed to ask?
With that last hope shattered, Meng Xiaoyan could only sigh helplessly.
"What on earth are they all doing? I really want to know!"
She let out a long howl toward the sky. The fact that Guang Ling and the others were deliberately keeping things from her only made her even more curious.
"Grandfather seems the same as usual, but Father has been going out a lot lately. I don't know what they're busy with either…"
Hearing this, Fan Chen frowned. Qian Renxue's words stirred something within him.
'Qian Xunji… could it be…?'
His expression changed slightly, and his gaze subconsciously drifted toward the direction of the Papal Palace.
'The timing matches up. Could it really be that incident?'
'No, I need to confirm it. If it really is, then things are going to be bad.'
After organizing his thoughts, Fan Chen turned to look at Qian Renxue.
"Xiao Xue, is your father still in the Pope's Palace right now?"
"He should be. I saw him there before I came over."
"Brother Fan Chen, do you need to see him for something?"
Qian Renxue looked at Fan Chen in confusion. After all, Fan Chen and her father had never really gotten along.
Though there was no open conflict, she could tell that her father disliked Fan Chen.
And Fan Chen, likewise, didn't like her father, Qian Xunji, very much either.
Now that Fan Chen was proactively asking about her father, there had to be something going on—otherwise, he wouldn't have brought it up.
"It's nothing. I was just asking casually. Since my master and the others have all disappeared, I wanted to see whether your father, the Pope, was still around. I suspect they might be helping him handle something."
"Oh, I see. That does sound possible."
After hearing Fan Chen's explanation, Qian Renxue nodded.
After all, her father was the Pope of Spirit Hall. Even though his seniority was lower than Golden Crocodile Douluo and the others, asking them for assistance was still reasonable.
And at present, this explanation was the most plausible one.
After all, the only thing that could mobilize Golden Crocodile Douluo and the others would be matters concerning Spirit Hall itself.
But just as Fan Chen successfully brushed off Qian Renxue, a strange glint flashed through Meng Xiaoyan's eyes.
"Something's off about this guy."
—
End of Chapter