A few days later.
In Heaven Dou City, at Xue Qinghe's mansion.
Receiving a personal letter from Snake Lance Douluo, Qian Renxue frowned deeply.
The situation described in the letter was dire—so much so that she could no longer continue impersonating Xue Qinghe.
But what she had always wanted was a bloodless coup, allowing the Heaven Dou Empire to peacefully acknowledge the authority of the Spirit Hall (soon to be the Spirit Empire), and thereby unifying the continent under Spirit Hall's rule.
If her plan succeeded, at least the people of Heaven Dou would not have to suffer through war.
And without large-scale war, there would naturally be an abundance of faith energy to harvest.
She had given up fast cultivation and chosen to stay hidden here precisely to gather faith in vast quantities.
Setting aside Xiao Lin and Tang San, Qian Renxue was the true child of destiny, the genuine prodigy—born with innate level 20 spirit power, no weaker than those with twin spirits.
So what if someone had twin martial spirits? They could only ever use one at a time.
But a divine-level spirit followed no such logic.
Everything had been planned out perfectly.
Yet given the current circumstances, she now had no choice but to grow stronger as quickly as possible—to become a god before Bibi Dong did.
"Two years. Only two years left."
Qian Renxue felt immense pressure. With only two years remaining, it would be impossible for her to ascend the throne.
Fortunately, her years of infiltration hadn't been for nothing—she still had a backup plan: her younger sister, Xue Ke.
Xue Ke was not only obedient but also held deep admiration for her.
When the time came, she could easily make Xue Ke a puppet empress.
As long as the Heaven Dou Empire didn't resist, the Spirit Empire could still unify the continent with ease.
However, Xue Ke alone wasn't enough of a safeguard.
She needed to give her sister powerful allies—and her target was none other than the Emperor Team.
More precisely, Xiao Lin and his companions.
With Xiao Lin and the others joining them, it would also mean that Master Xiao Yan would be on their side.
Now, the question was whether Xue Ke would accept her true identity—and whether Xiao Lin's group would be willing to join them.
"Your Highness, how should we respond?"
After a long silence, She Long finally spoke up.
Qian Renxue said firmly, her tone leaving no room for doubt:"Tell grandfather—I will never let that madwoman succeed. Just give me two more years."
Meanwhile—
In the Sunset Forest, near the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Xiao Lin and Tang San stared excitedly at a bright silver, fan-shaped soul device made of steel.
"It worked, Brother Lin!"
"Yeah."
Xiao Lin looked at the Spirit-Gathering Soul Device and silently placed two soul bones into it, fixing them as the fan's blades.
"Once we infuse it with spirit power, the two soul bones will spin continuously, channeling the spirit energy from above into the area below."
"Then, with your Chaos Domain assisting, that spirit energy will instantly be broken down to its most basic form—perfect for us to absorb and convert."
Tang San frowned slightly as he explained the function of the Spirit-Gathering Device, still feeling that something was off.
But using spirit power to make it spin… wasn't that wasting time and energy?
Whoever provided the spirit power would be at a disadvantage.
Even if the four of them took turns operating the device, it wouldn't make cultivation that much faster.
Let's say the array doubled the speed of cultivation.
That would mean three people benefited twice as much—but one person would get a negative return.
After everyone took a turn, it'd just balance out: everyone experiences a slowdown once, then speeds up six times total.
Especially for Xiao Lin—he already had to use his Chaos Domain to help others absorb energy, which cost him huge amounts of spirit power.
After a while, Tang San voiced his doubts directly.
Xiao Lin just smiled:"The soul bones themselves contain ice and fire energy—they don't need anyone to manually power the device."
But Tang San's question reminded him of something he had overlooked.
He had designed this array based on his own body's capacity.
And his body could absorb as much energy as it wanted—his Chaos Right Leg Bone automatically converted excess spiritual energy into nourishment to strengthen him.
But the others were different—even Tang San couldn't absorb six times the normal amount of spirit energy in a day.
When he thought about it that way, this Spirit-Gathering Array did seem a bit useless for them.
Not because the array itself was flawed—but because when shared among several people, the sixfold increase would be evenly distributed.
That way, no one's body would be overwhelmed by excess energy.
However, once the boost was divided, it might not even outperform regular environmental cultivation.
"We really invented something useless?"
Xiao Lin scratched his head—if he'd known this would happen, he wouldn't have bothered.
Besides, the core of the array required two ten-thousand-year soul bones—what kind of faction could afford to waste that?
Tang San chuckled, "Not exactly. This still broadened my understanding.
If I use Blue Silver Grass to set up a similar array and replace the soul bones with treasures of equal quality, I might be able to construct a huge formation."
Hearing that, Xiao Lin's eyes lit up."If that's the case, why not take it further? Let's make the entire continent the core of a massive formation—then everyone on the Douluo Continent could benefit from it!"
"Maybe someday, everyone could become a soul master."
Xiao Lin's eyes gleamed—this way, the faith energy needed for godhood would come naturally.
Even if not everyone could become a soul master, the number of people awakening spirit power would skyrocket.
Even ordinary farmers from Holy Spirit Village—if they awakened a simple sickle spirit with some spirit power—they'd harvest crops faster.
That would be a great act of merit!
Xiao Lin quickly explained to Tang San about the vast faith energy required for godhood and the other potential conditions for ascension.
Tang San's eyes lit up as he listened.
Although they had discussed becoming gods before, this was the first time it truly felt achievable.
Meanwhile, Xiao Lin's thoughts went even further.
The Douluo Continent was a weak world, but within the Douluo Universe, it supposedly had the potential to become a divine realm.
So… was there a way to upgrade the entire Douluo planet into a divine or semi-divine world?
If that were possible, mastering the Douluo Continent would mean that becoming a main god one day would be inevitable.
"Incredible… Xiao Lin, you actually came up with something like this."
Within Xiao Lin's consciousness space, even the Ice Dragon King was utterly shocked by his insane idea.
Using a spirit-gathering formation to upgrade an entire planet—such a thought was beyond imagination.
"Xiao Lin, if you only want the continent itself to grow stronger, your array might work. But if you aim to upgrade the whole planet, you'll need resources from beyond the world itself."
The Fire Dragon King shook his head. "It's not that simple. Energy cannot appear out of nothing. Even after ten thousand years, success wouldn't be guaranteed."
"Whether it works or not, I'll try."
Xiao Lin's eyes blazed with determination.
It wasn't that he was some noble hero seeking to save the world—It was simply because this concerned his own future, and he intended to give it everything he had.
(End of Chapter)