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At the same time Bai Chen and the others set foot in Heaven Dou City, a disturbance caused by him was quietly unfolding somewhere he didn't notice.
"Why has the cultivation speed of the soul masters in Heaven Dou City suddenly increased collectively?"
Inside the Heaven Dou imperial palace, Xue Qinghe couldn't help showing a hint of surprise.
The person reporting respectfully replied:
"Yes. According to our information, starting early this morning, the cultivation speed of soul masters within Heaven Dou City and the surrounding areas has increased by about one full time. Until now, this strange phenomenon still hasn't disappeared."
"Hmm…"
Xue Qinghe's expression gradually turned serious.
He said solemnly:
"Please invite my teacher over. Tell him I have something important to discuss with him."
"Yes!"
Watching the informant quickly leave, Xue Qinghe let out a long breath and leaned against the back of his chair.
The collective doubling of soul masters' cultivation speed in Heaven Dou City was truly a frightening matter. She couldn't afford to treat it lightly.
Soon the door opened again, and a tall, elegant middle-aged man walked in.
"Your Highness, I've arrived."
Xue Qinghe immediately stood up to greet him.
"Uncle Ning, you've finally come. How much do you know about this matter?"
She didn't ask whether he already knew about it. As the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Fengzhi's intelligence network was far from inferior to hers.
Ning Fengzhi took a deep breath and shook his head.
"Unfortunately, I have already asked the strong experts of my sect to investigate, but we found nothing. No matter whether it's the cause of this phenomenon, how long it will last, or how to stop it, everything is still completely unknown."
"I see…"
Xue Qinghe's expression grew more solemn.
As the capital of the Heaven Dou Empire, a collective doubling of cultivation speed for soul masters was naturally a good thing for the empire.
But as the crown prince, Xue Qinghe had to consider not only the direct benefits, but also the series of disturbances that might follow.
If this phenomenon truly continued, it would mean Heaven Dou City could become a sacred land of cultivation sought after by soul masters across the world.
A full double increase in cultivation efficiency.
What did that mean?
It meant the number of powerful soul masters could skyrocket!
When that time came, the entire balance of the world might change because of this phenomenon.
Needless to say, would the Star Luo Empire just watch the Heaven Dou Empire become the ultimate cultivation sanctuary?
It could be predicted that if this phenomenon continued, the Star Luo Empire might even launch a war to prevent Heaven Dou's power from rising drastically.
And aside from Star Luo, the various soul master factions would definitely not ignore such a matter.
Especially Spirit Hall.
Thinking of that woman, Xue Qinghe frowned slightly.
Her position was rather special. At least for now, she didn't want the situation to escalate too quickly.
After thinking for a moment, she asked:
"Then Uncle Ning, what do you plan to do?"
Ning Fengzhi sighed.
"I have already asked Sword Uncle and Bone Uncle to accelerate their investigations. But for now we still have no clues. Regardless, finding the source of this strange change is the most important thing."
"Yes, you're right."
Xue Qinghe nodded thoughtfully.
"I will also send my people to investigate. If this phenomenon was caused by some object, we must bring it under our control."
Not only Xue Qinghe and Ning Fengzhi were having such discussions.
Similar conversations were taking place in countless corners of Heaven Dou City.
For soul masters, this change was far too obvious. Anyone with a little sensitivity would notice it.
Yet the culprit behind all this turmoil — Bai Chen — was completely unaware.
At this moment he was still working in the blacksmith shop.
"Phew… finally finished."
Inside the private forging room the shop owner prepared for him, Bai Chen stretched lazily.
Various machines and tools were arranged before him — the basic equipment required to craft soul guidance devices.
He had long expected that such a day might come, so he had already learned how to create these tools. As expected, they were now useful.
In his hands were a pair of crimson-gold forging hammers.
These hammers were the result of a blood sacrifice he performed in this era.
Unexpectedly, they awakened a powerful trait related to his martial soul.
The trait was rather strange.
Every time he used the hammer to strike during forging, it would randomly trigger an effect — like flipping a coin — determining the next strike's special attribute.
Sometimes it increased strength by ten percent.
Sometimes it directly added his own elemental attributes to the strike.
Just like opening loot boxes, every hammer strike produced a random forging effect.
For most blacksmiths, such unstable forging traits would be extremely troublesome.
After all, forging emphasizes stability. Completely unpredictable effects could negatively affect the final result.
Without striking the hammer, there would be no way to know what the next strike's effect would be.
For any blacksmith, that would be a nightmare.
But Bai Chen was an exception.
With his future-prediction ability, the effect of the next strike was never truly unknown to him.
He also discovered that if he actively changed the future he intended, the attribute drawn by the next hammer strike would also change.
Perhaps because he himself was a gathering point of fortune, his luck was astonishingly good.
So far, he had only drawn an ordinary effect once.
All the others had been extremely powerful and useful effects.
Although the hammer's effects weren't very controllable, there was no doubt that its theoretical upper limit was extremely high.
"Clang! Clang!"
Even while Bai Chen was relaxing, the sound of metal striking continued in the room.
At another forging table behind him, Bai Yueqiu was swinging a forging hammer, striking the metal placed on the table.
Because people in this era didn't know about the Three-Eyed Golden Lion, Bai Yueqiu directly chose her race as her martial soul.
In other words, her martial soul was identical to Bai Chen's.
Logically speaking, her forging talent should also be excellent.
Bai Chen casually guided her for a while and quickly confirmed this.
Her forging speed was astonishing.
In just one day she had already gotten the hang of it.
Which was good.
In the future Bai Chen planned to establish his own power. Naturally, he couldn't be the only blacksmith within that force.
With Bai Yueqiu helping him forge things, many matters would become much easier.
Thinking of this, Bai Chen smiled and called out:
"Yueqiu."
"Clang! Clang!"
But Bai Yueqiu seemed not to hear him at all and continued hammering the metal in front of her.