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**
Although it seemed as if Ling Xiao had pondered deeply, only a few breaths of time had passed. After listening to the young girl's words, Ling Xiao smiled gently.
"It seems you carry a heavy burden on your shoulders as well. In that case, miss, I wish you the best in finding the person you are looking for. May we meet again, if fate allows."
"I am Ling Xiao. Until we meet again."
The young girl nodded slightly, offering her own name. Looking at Ling Xiao, she spoke with a serious tone, "Zhu Zhuqing. I will surely repay the kindness of your rescue today in the future. Farewell."
With that, Zhu Zhuqing turned around and departed, intending to leave Nuoding City to continue searching for the person she had been looking for all this time.
"It is obvious that she is no ordinary person."
After Zhu Zhuqing had walked far into the distance, Ling Xiao and his companion did not leave immediately. Watching her retreating figure, Ling Xiao could not help but contemplate how he should view the rest of the Shrek Seven Devils in the future, excluding Tang San and Xiao Wu.
However, before he could thoroughly think it through or decide whether to alter his original plan, Yan's voice suddenly echoed beside his ear.
Hearing this, Ling Xiao let out a gentle laugh.
"Of course. As a direct descendant of the Hell Spirit Cat Clan, one of the four great clans of the Star Luo Empire, how could she possibly be an ordinary person?"
Seeing Ling Xiao speak with such certainty, Yan frowned slightly and said, "You are that certain? It is the Hell Spirit Cat martial soul?"
"Just based on her name? If I remember correctly, you have never encountered a Soul Master with the Hell Spirit Cat martial soul before. Moreover, when this kind of martial soul possesses the body, it does not fully manifest, making it quite difficult to recognize."
Seeing that Ling Xiao remained silent, Yan stopped pressing the matter and instead said, "But if she truly belongs to the Zhu Clan, to possess a cultivation level of Rank 25 at such a young age means her martial soul aptitude is extraordinary."
"Why then would she travel alone to the Heaven Dou Empire with such a weak cultivation level? Just like this time, if she hadn't run into the two of us, she would have been in serious trouble."
Withdrawing his gaze, Ling Xiao turned to look at Yan and said reflectively, "Perhaps she isn't actually alone?"
Facing Yan's doubts, Ling Xiao elaborated further, "Her status within the Zhu Clan should be quite high."
"Traveling across nearly half the territory of the Star Luo Empire to reach Heaven Dou with only a two-ring cultivation level is extremely risky. I don't believe the Zhu Clan would be so reckless as to truly let a young girl travel alone.
"The fact that we didn't detect anyone else might just be because, with our current cultivation levels, we simply cannot detect the people following her in the shadows."
"After all, you know that the people of the Hell Spirit Cat Clan are the most skilled at concealment and assassination. If they want to hide their aura, even high-stage experts of the same rank would find it difficult to notice, let alone the two of us."
"However, if the Zhu Clan really dispatched a high-stage expert to follow her in secret, she probably doesn't even know it herself and truly believes she is all alone."
"Otherwise, she wouldn't have placed so much weight on my intervention today, saying things like she would surely repay the kindness of this rescue in the future. It is highly likely that the guardian accompanying her has never intervened.
"The dangers along this journey were truly faced and resisted by her alone, putting forth her utmost effort. To be honest, though this girl is young and her talent cannot be considered truly unparalleled, her inner conviction and resilience are admirable. I respect that."
After listening to Ling Xiao's words, Yan thought about it and nodded in agreement.
"If it truly is as you say, she is indeed remarkable. It's a pity she is too young; otherwise, we might have been able to experience the power of the Hell Spirit Cat martial soul firsthand."
"Hehe, don't be in such a hurry. From what I know of the current younger generation in the Zhu Clan, even if the legitimate daughter of the current Clan Leader hasn't reached the Soul Ancestor realm, she should at least be a high-rank Soul Elder."
"That would be more than enough for us to witness the true power of the Hell Spirit Cat martial soul. However, our current targets are the major Soul Master Factions and clans within the Heaven Dou Empire. The Star Luo Empire is still a long way off."
"Let's go. There's nothing interesting left here. We need to prepare for tomorrow's journey. Let's head back and get some good rest. It shouldn't take too long before we arrive at the Elephant Armored Sect."
[ TN : Previously I used Elephant Armoreded Clan but the direct translation should be Sect so I will use sect from now on. Thanks ]
With that, seeing the night deepening, the two of them lingered no longer. Leaving the area, they returned to the Spirit Hall branch to continue resting.
About ten days later, in the southwestern region of the Heaven Dou Empire, within a giant city located in the heart of the Fasinuo Province.
Aside from a massive influx of ordinary citizens coming and going, the city boasted a heavy presence of Soul Masters, with no shortage of mid-to-high-stage Soul Masters among them.
There were numerous specialized shops catering strictly to Soul Masters—whether one wanted to purchase medicinal pills, soul weapons, or various soul beast materials, they could all be found within this city.
Evidently, this city truly lived up to its status as a giant city.
The number of Soul Masters here was immense.
Within the entire Heaven Dou Empire, in terms of the quantity and density of Soul Masters, it was likely second only to Heaven Dou City, standing on equal footing with the core cities of the other major provinces and kingdoms.
People from the Soul Master world frequently gathered in large metropolises like this.
This city was precisely where the Elephant Armored Sect was located—Colossal Elephant City.
It was the largest city in the Fasinuo Province. Not only was the Elephant Armored Sect, one of the Lower Four Sects, situated here, but the Elephant Armored Academy founded by the sect was also established within its borders.
As one of the Five Elemental Academies of the Heaven Dou Empire, the Elephant Armored Academy was second only to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy in both fame and strength.
The students within the academy mostly possessed earth-attribute martial souls, as well as large beast martial souls that excelled in strength and defense. After all, these two types of martial souls usually granted astonishing defense, making them perfectly suited for the Defense System.
The Elephant Armored Sect was renowned as the sect with the strongest defense, so they naturally possessed the deepest insights regarding the Defense System.
Therefore, if a Soul Master possessing a defense-system martial soul had to choose a Soul Master academy, the Elephant Armored Academy was undoubtedly an excellent choice.
This appeal was not limited to Colossal Elephant City alone. Every year, many Soul Masters from across the Heaven Dou Empire entered the Elephant Armored Academy to study.
Furthermore, studying at the Elephant Armored Academy carried another benefit: if one's cultivation and strength were exceptional upon graduation, there was a very high probability of directly joining the Elephant Armored Sect.
Compared to foreign-surname Soul Masters recruited directly from the outside world by the Elephant Armored Sect, those who had studied at the Elephant Armored Academy for years and undergone the sect's nurturing would be far more trusted.
They could more easily grasp power and resources, rather than remaining just ordinary foreign-surname Soul Masters.
Over the years, there had been no lack of Elephant Armored Academy graduates who, after joining the Elephant Armored Sect, became high-ranking officials or even Elders, allowing them to deliberate on major sect matters alongside the powerhouses of the Huyan Clan—the master lineage of the Elephant Armored Sect.
In the world of Soul Masters, cultivation focused primarily on training the martial soul, and martial souls were inherently linked to bloodline inheritance. Consequently, Soul Masters had initially operated across the Continent in the form of clans.
Although foreign-surname Soul Masters existed back then, they were few and far between, and they were often looked down upon by the direct descendants of those clans.
However, two thousand years ago, after the Yun Clan perfected the Fusion Stream and founded the Sword Sect, their strength swelled rapidly. The staggering results caused the various great Soul Master clans across the Continent to copy them one after another.
They established their own clans as the master lineage while recruiting a massive number of sect disciples to expand their overall power. Because of this, the phenomenon gradually shifted, and the status of foreign-surname Soul Masters within sects improved slightly.
Granted, even in the sects of today, foreign-surname Soul Masters were still a head lower than the direct descendants of the sect. After all, the martial souls cultivated by Soul Masters fundamentally placed extreme weight on clan bloodline inheritance.
A powerful martial soul was inherently superior to a weak martial soul right from birth, unless the latter possessed an innate soul power significantly above the average level, allowing them to match those powerful martial souls after cultivating.
Yet, it could not be said that the situation hadn't changed noticeably.
The circumstances today were no longer the same as they were two thousand years ago.
**
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