Chapter 159: You're Silent, I'm Silent, Everyone Is Silent!
Everyone fell silent once more.
One single line—"I became a Titled Douluo, that's all"—
and no one knew what to say anymore.
One-shotting a Titled Douluo-level Evil Soul Master…
Just stringing those words together made everyone's eyes hurt.
From now on, they would have to address him as "Your Majesty."
Question him?
How?
In this world, fists were the only real argument.
Even if he really had been "given special treatment," nobody dared complain.
Sima Jinchi: I really didn't cheat!
He wanted to explain that the class he was leading was packed with monsters.
As the Dragon-Slaying Blade and Di Tian's personal disciple,
how could he not know his lord's identity—
or the fact that Jiang Chen was a million-year soul beast who had switched to human cultivation,
or that the other girl beside him was the Snow Empress?
They were all old monsters, tens of thousands of years old,
pretending to be naive students.
What was the difference between this and a college student beating up primary schoolers?
It was just fishing in a pond with dynamite.
Sima Jinchi was helpless.
How could a group like this possibly need him to cheat for them?
Everyone: Your Majesty is right!
Still, no one truly believed that a mission this dependent on luck—
the second assessment—
had been completed by randomly picking a direction and just happening to find traces of a phoenix.
Why not simply admit they'd found the actual phoenix while they were at it?
Mo Zihong had his suspicions, but the Evil Soul Masters' testimonies didn't seem fabricated.
It wasn't as if the Holy Spirit Cult and the Spirit Transferring Tower had joined hands.
That was impossible.
So he could only chalk it up to sheer, absurd good fortune.
He reported the matter up the chain, then entered his mecha and personally led a squad to capture the Evil Soul Masters.
In this era, Evil Soul Masters were enemies of the world.
With the Spirit Transferring Tower offering free martial soul awakening, and proactively recruiting those with potential to become Evil Soul Masters in order to guide them away from that path,
and with the harmony now mostly established between humans and soul beasts—
no more hunting soul beasts for rings, except for sea soul beasts
(which, as everyone "knew," didn't really count as soul beasts anyway)—
Most people obtained their soul rings through the soul spirit system.
For Evil Soul Masters, survival had become much harder.
Six thousand years ago, the Holy Spirit Cult had opened the passage for the Abyssal Plane's descent onto Douluo.
That was the last straw.
The Federation, unable to tolerate it any longer, bypassed Shrek Academy's "Shrek Monitoring Group,"
and directly launched a continent-wide purge.
They started a full-scale census of all soul masters.
Anyone who hadn't acquired their rings through the soul spirit system
was placed under strict surveillance and interrogation.
Under this process, Evil Soul Masters had nowhere to hide.
They were nearly wiped out within the Federation.
True, the former Sun Moon Empire's collusion with the Holy Spirit Cult was a massive stain on history—
one Shrek Academy still invoked constantly to publicly oppose federal policy.
By bypassing Shrek's monitoring force, the Federation had slapped them in the face.
But the Federation had no choice.
The Sun Moon Empire had already paid its price.
The old royal family was overthrown by descendants of the Ice Spirit Douluo, who then inherited the empire.
They also inherited his Spirit Eyes martial soul and the Three-Eyed Golden Lion lineage,
granting them sensitivity to Evil Soul Masters comparable to that of a Holy Angel.
The Holy Spirit Cult had been forced into hiding.
The third martial soul, Elecs, had also sparked countless mutations.
To appease Shrek, the Federation later proposed:
Since the Shrek Monitoring Group was responsible for overseeing the continent, and Evil Soul Masters still existed abroad—
especially since, with the Cult expelled, their base would likely move to the other two continents—
For the sake of justice,
Shrek Academy expanded its monitoring responsibilities to Star Luo and Heaven Dou.
Thus, when Mo Zihong realized he had captured a "big fish" among the Evil Soul Masters, he was thrilled.
On Douluo, strength was everything.
He couldn't expect a promotion just from this—but rewards were another matter.
With a great merit like this, he might earn a sizable resource grant—
enough to break his bottleneck.
From level 91 onward, each small step in Titled Douluo cultivation required both talent and an enormous pile of resources.
He was still young, yes, but who didn't want to grow stronger?
And he had a partner with whom he could use a martial soul fusion skill—
he was sick of being the weaker one holding them back.
However…
Mo Zihong glanced at Sima Jinchi.
Technically, this was Sima Jinchi's achievement.
He wasn't the kind to try and steal all the credit.
"Si—uh… Your…"
Mo Zihong trailed off.
He didn't even know how to address Sima Jinchi anymore.
Until recently, he'd clapped him on the shoulder and called him "Little Jin."
Now that Sima Jinchi had stepped into Titled Douluo, those casual days were over.
He should address him as "Your Majesty."
But he didn't even know Sima Jinchi's title.
"Chief Instructor, there's no need to say more. Leave this matter to you," Sima Jinchi replied calmly.
To him, it was nothing.
As Di Tian's direct disciple, he lacked nothing—
he'd accepted the role of instructor at Douluo University primarily as a show of goodwill on behalf of the Spirit Transferring Tower's soul beast faction.
And, of course, mainly because of his lord.
"Great favors need no thanks," Mo Zihong said solemnly.
Knowing Sima Jinchi's situation, he didn't act modest.
He immediately ordered the Evil Soul Masters escorted away.
Interrogation wasn't his responsibility.
The real problem now was the trial itself.
How should this mission be judged?
Two assessment phases completed in five days.
The original three-month training plan was now in shambles.
Other classes hadn't even found their footing, and Class One was already on the verge of clearing everything.
What were the others supposed to do?
Even if Douluo University could claim not to care,
this was still the institution's very first freshman class.
They had promised fairness—and it truly had been fair.
But if one class completed everything in record time while the rest struggled at step one,
how would that look?
Especially with the Spirit Transferring Tower's young master in that very class.
Would people think they'd given Class One special treatment?
Such doubts were dangerous.
Hearts were hard to read, and rumors impossible to stop.
Mo Zihong sighed.
Though he was Chief Instructor, he too had superiors.
The matter was too delicate; he'd pass it up the chain.
He opened a communication channel and sent a message to Ao Rui:
"Class One has completed their assessment. They've found information on the phoenix and captured members of the Holy Spirit Cult."
"According to preliminary interrogation, the Cult's goal was to capture the phoenix and sacrifice it to the slumbering Demon Emperor—
in order to awaken her."
(END CHAPTER)
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