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**
"I..."
Hu Liena's words faltered as her mind raced, quickly grasping Ling Xiao's intention.
Her mood shifted from its previous gloom, a smile blooming in her beautiful eyes. With a touch of playful indignation, she said, "Thank you, Ling Xiao. But I'm being serious with you; can you please be a bit more earnest?"
Seeing Hu Liena return to her usual self, Ling Xiao chuckled softly and replied, "Alright, alright, I'll stop joking."
The smile gradually faded from his face as Ling Xiao thought it over and spoke seriously: "I know you aren't someone who craves power. However, what if Her Holiness the Pope wants you to serve as the future Saintess of Spirit Hall?"
Pursing her lips, Hu Liena spoke with a firm tone, "If Teacher wants me to do it, I will do it. I definitely won't let her down."
"It's just..."
"Just what, Nana? What are you trying to say?" Ling Xiao looked at her, suddenly feeling that Hu Liena seemed particularly weighed down by her thoughts today.
Her eyes flickered slightly as she looked at Ling Xiao. As if having made up her mind, she said, "Ling Xiao, I think you should know that the most powerful Soul Master clan in Spirit Hall is the Angel Clan. Spirit Hall was founded with the Angel Clan as its core."
"Aside from Teacher, the Popes of every generation have been members of the Angel Clan. The same goes for the Holy Sons and Saintesses of the past; that position was never given to an outsider. Teacher can be considered an exception."
"But if Teacher establishes me as the Saintess, wouldn't that mean... at that time, our relationship with the Angel Clan would become..."
At this point, Ling Xiao interrupted before Hu Liena could finish.
"Alright, Nana, you don't need to continue. I understand what you're trying to say."
Looking at the young girl before him—who had already grown into a graceful beauty and was no shorter than an average adult woman despite her age—Ling Xiao said with a hint of surprise, "Nana, you've grown up. I didn't expect you to see through to this point."
Upon hearing this, Hu Liena couldn't help but roll her eyes at him.
"I am fifteen years old, after all. It's just that you and my brother always treat me like a little girl who understands nothing."
Ling Xiao shook his head with a faint smile.
He hadn't expected Hu Liena to notice this dynamic as well. In truth, he had sensed it years ago: today's Spirit Hall was faintly divided into the lineage of Pope Bibi Dong and the lineage of the Angel Clan.
The power of the Pope's lineage was mostly on the surface, including the many branch halls directly under the Pope Hall and the Spirit Halls distributed throughout the continent.
Among them, the Judgment Hall served as the core high-end force, while the seven Elders in the Elder Hall acted as the peak power. The Douluo Consecration Hall, however, was not under the Pope's control; she could not directly command the Worship Elders.
Even so, Her Holiness the Pope did not fully control all the forces in Spirit Hall outside of the Douluo Consecration Hall. After all, the strongest individual in Spirit Hall was still Qian Daoliu of the Angel Clan, and Spirit Hall had originally been established because of that clan.
The main reason Bibi Dong was able to serve as Pope despite not being a member of the Angel Clan was due to Qian Daoliu's support.
There were seven Elders in the Elder Hall, led by the Chrysanthemum and Ghost Elders. However, only those two could be considered truly affiliated with Pope Bibi Dong's lineage, rather than being loyal to the Angel Clan.
Among the remaining Elders, three of them—including the Snake Lance Douluo She Long and the Porcupinefish Douluo Ci Xue—were truly loyal to the Angel Clan. They only followed the Pope's orders because of Qian Daoliu's support for Bibi Dong's position.
It was precisely because the Snake Lance and Porcupinefish Douluos followed the Angel Clan that they were selected to serve as Qian Renxue's guardians.
In other words, should a conflict ever arise between the Angel Clan and the Pope, at least three Elders within the Elder Hall would cease to obey Bibi Dong's commands.
The other two Elders remained neutral—or rather, they were loyal to Spirit Hall itself, not solely following Bibi Dong or the Angel Clan. This was the case for the vast majority of people within Spirit Hall.
However, because those two had stepped into the Titled Douluo realm and joined the Elder Hall many years ago, they were inevitably influenced by the Angel Clan during the era of Qian Xunji. Consequently, they obeyed the commands of both the Angel Clan and the Pope.
As for the personnel below the Titled Douluo rank, aside from commoner Soul Masters from all over the continent, a portion consisted of Soul Masters who had been with Spirit Hall for a long time and had formed established clan heritages within the organization.
These clans and the commoner Soul Masters constituted the core of Spirit Hall's backbone.
Since the Angel Clan had gradually retreated behind the scenes after founding Spirit Hall, these members were not heavily influenced by them; they followed Spirit Hall as an institution and obeyed the orders of the Pope.
However, aside from the Angel Clan, there were the three most powerful Soul Master clans within Spirit Hall: the Golden Crocodile Clan, the Sacred Dragon Clan, and the Nie Clan of the Snow Drinker Blade Clan.
These three clans were not only extremely powerful and close to the Angel Clan, but with the exception of the Nie Clan, the Golden Crocodile and Sacred Dragon Clans had ancient heritages that had followed the Angel Clan since before Spirit Hall was even established.
They were essentially the Angel Clan's direct forces. Among the seven Chief Judges of the Judgment Hall, two hailed from these three Guardian Clans.
Although only the Sacred Dragon Clan among the three possessed a large number of clan members—the other two being passed down through a single line of descent—their strength allowed them to control many subordinate Soul Masters and lesser clans within Spirit Hall.
Currently, the forces below the Titled Douluo level controlled by these three clans also obeyed the Pope's orders, but only because they had the tacit approval of Qian Daoliu.
Should a conflict arise between the Pope's lineage and the Angel Clan, they would likewise cease to follow the Pope's commands.
One could say that in the current Spirit Hall, Pope Bibi Dong held the advantage in mid-to-high-level forces below the Titled Douluo rank, but at the level of Titled Douluo and above, the Angel Clan still maintained the upper hand.
In the world of Soul Masters, where the strength of high-ranking masters far exceeds those of low-to-mid ranks and "human wave" tactics lose their effectiveness, it appeared as though the power Bibi Dong controlled could not compare to the Angel Clan lurking behind the scenes.
However, this was without factoring in Bibi Dong's own strength—which remained a mystery to this day. Bibi Dong's recorded battle achievements were all staggering, making her peerless among those of the same rank.
Among her contemporaries, only Ning Fengzhi, the current Sect Master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, could barely be considered her equal. Yet, those records were all from before she was thirty.
At that time, Bibi Dong's cultivation had already reached the Soul Douluo realm. Shortly thereafter, she suddenly assumed the position of Pope of Spirit Hall and had not seen combat since.
When Ling Xiao was twelve, he had asked his teacher, Mu Chen, about Bibi Dong's strength. Mu Chen had not said much, only remarking that her cultivation was no longer something the Elders of the Elder Hall could compare to.
Furthermore, Ling Xiao knew that Bibi Dong had discovered the Rakshasa Secret Realm and was undergoing the Rakshasa God Trials. Therefore, even if Bibi Dong's overall control of Spirit Hall's power lay primarily in scale and quantity—
She could not yet match the Angel Clan in terms of top-tier powerhouses—he still believed that as her cultivation progressed and the Rakshasa God Trials neared completion, she would inevitably be capable of contending with the Angel Clan.
This was the biggest reason why he was unwilling to see Spirit Hall pursue the path of unifying the continent. He knew that even if he prevented Tang San from destroying Spirit Hall, and Spirit Hall eventually established the Spirit Empire, defeated the two Great Empires, and unified the continent—that would not be the end.
Instead, it would be the beginning of an even greater catastrophe.
**
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