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As for the problem of mental strength, Bai Chen didn't need to worry.
Based on his experience from absorbing soul rings before, the Heroic Domain had an extremely terrifying suppressive effect on the resentment of soul beasts. It could effectively protect his mind from being affected.
Thinking about it, even the Golden Dragon King's bloodline couldn't break through the effects of the Heroic Domain, let alone ordinary soul beasts.
"Alright. But after we return to the sect, I'll first test your strength."
"Okay."
Seeing Bai Chen so confident, Hua Tianyu said nothing more. The carriage carrying them entered the Heaven Dou Empire and arrived at the territory of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect in Heaven Dou City.
Here, Bai Chen received an unprecedentedly warm welcome.
Clearly, the entire Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect already knew that Bai Chen and Ning Tian were about to sign an engagement agreement.
Besides members of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, quite a few people from other factions also came.
Although the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's position in the soul master world was no longer as high as it had been ten thousand years ago, it was still a top-tier sect, second only to the true super sects. Among all sects in the Heaven Dou Empire, it could firmly rank within the top three or five.
Moreover, the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had one fundamental difference from other forces: outsiders could genuinely climb to high positions through marriage alliances.
In many other sects, core martial spirits possessed strong combat power, so the requirements for marriage partners were not particularly high—but those who married in rarely gained much authority within the sect.
However, because of the special nature of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile martial spirit, not only were their standards for partners extremely high, but the partner often received excellent treatment within the sect.
Because of this, many forces within the Heaven Dou Empire had been paying attention to Ning Tian's situation.
What they didn't expect was that this time the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect chose an extremely rare internal solution—instead of searching for talent outside the sect, they selected someone from inside to become the future heir's fiancé.
And the engagement was arranged so quickly, as if they feared someone might snatch him away overnight.
This made many people very curious about this mysterious fiancé.
But none of this had much to do with Bai Chen for now.
Unlike his first life, the Bai Chen of this era didn't need to involve himself in high-level conflicts yet. He only needed to live his life peacefully as a student.
At the engagement ceremony, he also saw Wu Feng among the crowd.
Compared to a year ago, Wu Feng looked much more haggard. After noticing Bai Chen's gaze, she quickly turned her head away and didn't dare meet his eyes again.
Bai Chen had neither hatred nor goodwill toward this "completely weakened version of Ma Xiaotao." To him, she was simply someone who would no longer play any role in his life.
That day, the celebrations within the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect continued until late at night.
Through this opportunity, Bai Chen also met many high-level figures from the Heaven Dou Empire.
Among them was the Heaven Dou princess, Xue Wei Na. He wondered whether she had already become engaged to Long Aotian.
Although the original story never stated it clearly, it was basically certain that the Heaven Dou Empire could cooperate with the Body Sect largely because of Xue Wei Na's existence.
At this time, the Body Sect was an extremely exclusive sect. Because they were at their peak during this era, they didn't recruit soul masters with non-body martial spirits like they did in the era of Douluo III.
Their second awakening method also only worked for body martial spirits. Naturally, they only recruited body-soul masters.
In fact, when they noticed Huo Yuhao in the original story, they weren't interested in his Ultimate Ice martial spirit—the Ice Jade Scorpion—but rather his top-tier body martial spirit: Spirit Eyes.
Their confidence came from the fact that the Body Sect's secret techniques were incredibly powerful. As long as a body martial spirit successfully completed its second awakening, it would certainly become a super martial spirit.
Even if someone awakened a weak body martial spirit like hair, after completing the second awakening it could still be classified as a super martial spirit.
More importantly, this wasn't a case like the Six-Winged Angel, where the title was stronger than the actual performance. Body Sect soul masters genuinely had combat strength worthy of their exaggerated reputation.
A Bronze-level Body Sect Soul King's full-power attack was stronger than the martial spirit true body of an ordinary Soul Emperor.
A Bronze-level Soul Emperor could even touch the threshold of a Titled Douluo's power.
And that was just Bronze rank—Silver rank was even more terrifying. People like Long Aotian, Huo Yuhao, and Gu Tong all displayed astonishing strength.
Therefore, the Body Sect truly had the capital to be arrogant.
However, they also had their own troubles.
Because they only recruited body-soul masters, their number of members was extremely small.
Every year they sent people across the continent searching for soul masters with body martial spirits. Once discovered, they would immediately bring them back to the sect and give them the best treatment.
For them, the importance of someone with a Silver-level body martial spirit was self-evident.
They were even willing to publicly challenge Shrek Academy just to bring Huo Yuhao into the sect, and cooperating with the Heaven Dou Empire after ending their hidden existence was completely normal.
Based on age, Xue Wei Na had already awakened her martial spirit for several years. If the Heaven Dou Empire had contacted the Body Sect since then, they should already have established relations by now.
Unfortunately, even if Bai Chen asked about it, she probably wouldn't answer directly, so he didn't bother asking.
The next day, after the guests gradually left, Bai Chen finally had some free time.
From that day on, his identity officially changed—from an orphan adopted by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect to the fiancé of the sect master's heir.
However, for Bai Chen himself, life didn't change much. Aside from the people around him treating him with more respect, he continued living as before.
For example, right now, Hua Tianyu had dragged him to a training arena to spar.
"Bai Chen, are you really planning to suppress your soul power to the level of a Soul Grandmaster? Shouldn't you lower it a bit more?"
Until the fight began, Hua Tianyu kept confirming this question.
After all, he was a Level 94 Titled Douluo. Even if he suppressed his cultivation to four rings, he would still be stronger than most Soul Kings.
Meanwhile, Bai Chen didn't even have two soul rings yet. Fighting him like this was already a bit exaggerated.
Bai Chen's reply was simple:
"If I can't even do this, how would I ever qualify to attempt absorbing a ten-thousand-year soul ring?"
"…True."
Hearing this, Hua Tianyu sighed and raised his hand.
"Then get ready. I'm going to attack."
"Come."
Several dark-gold claws extended from Bai Chen's fingertips.
The battle officially began.