After several spatial jumps, Ning Rongrong returned to Vast Sea City.
Vast Sea City was still in a state of extreme tension and alarm.
The enormous spatial rift that had previously torn across the sky had left everyone on edge, swords drawn and bows bent.
Ning Rongrong walked aimlessly through the streets.
Not long after, at the docks, she spotted three familiar figures.
"Ning Rongrong!"
Xue Di noticed Ning Rongrong approaching. "You really caused a huge incident this time!"
"It's nothing. The crisis has been resolved anyway." Ning Rongrong walked up to the three of them. "Sister Yan, are you alright?"
Dugu Yan shook her head, but the pallor on her face made her look as if she had just recovered from a serious illness.
"It's the aftereffects of the slaughter," Xue Di sighed.
Killing over a hundred thousand soul beasts—let alone a soul master in her early twenties, even a Soul Douluo or the evil soul masters from the Slaughter City might not be able to adjust to it.
"So that's how it is…" Ning Rongrong touched her chin in thought. After Xue Di's reminder, she also realized that Dugu Yan was different from herself and certainly not like the steady and experienced Title Douluo Dugu Bo. In the end, she simply lacked experience.
"You should return to the sect and stay for a while. Don't force yourself too much. And… I'm truly sorry for making you do it."
If those hundred thousand soul beasts had truly gone berserk, the entire Vast Sea City would have been in danger.
If there had been any other way, Ning Rongrong would never have wanted Dugu Yan to stain her hands with so much blood in one go.
"Mm, I will."
Dugu Yan nodded without arguing.
Ning Rongrong separated a clone of herself, returned to the Nine Treasure Merchant Association together with Dugu Yan, and on the way informed Ning Fengzhi that a meeting would be held soon.
After the clone left with Dugu Yan, only Ning Rongrong, Bing Di, and Xue Di remained.
"Pay close attention to Dugu Yan," Xue Di said. "She may not be able to walk out of this on her own."
As someone who had raised Bing Di like a daughter, Xue Di's several hundred thousand years of experience allowed her to see Dugu Yan's mental state at a glance. She needed psychological guidance.
"I know. After things here are settled, I'll probably stay at the sect for a longer time as well."
"Do as you see fit." Xue Di nodded. "In any case, if you don't handle Dugu Yan's situation properly, she might become a disaster for the entire continent."
"Mm." Ning Rongrong did not refute her. "By the way, you two seem to have returned a little late."
She had cultivated for a full day and night on the island in the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King's territory.
Logically, with Bing Di and Xue Di's speed, they should have arrived in Vast Sea City long ago.
"We were a bit curious about the distribution of soul beasts in the ocean, so Bing Di and I wandered around a bit."
"Even if we came back earlier, there would have been nothing to do, right?"
Hearing this, Ning Rongrong smiled.
Xue Di and Bing Di simply did not trust the people on Ning Fengzhi's side—just like the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King.
After seeing that she could severely injure Bo Saixi and Tang Chen, the whale did not even dare sleep to recover, afraid he would never wake up again.
"Rongrong, you met Poseidon before, didn't you?" Xue Di asked curiously.
"Yes." Ning Rongrong had no intention of hiding it. "I negotiated peace with him."
"Negotiated peace." Before Xue Di could speak, Bing Di's beautiful eyebrows furrowed.
"That's right." Ning Rongrong sighed. "Sea God Island has the Sea God backing them. With the current situation, our Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School cannot afford to offend them."
"You don't seem like someone who compromises so easily. Is it because Ning Fengzhi luckily survived?"
Xue Di blinked, truly unable to understand Ning Rongrong's thinking. She had clearly looked ready to take revenge earlier.
"The wise adapt to the times. I can't drag the entire Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School into the abyss just for some personal grudges."
As Ning Rongrong spoke, her voice paused slightly. "This time's intimidation was already enough. The Sea God himself came out to vouch for it, Bo Saixi and Tang Chen are injured, and in the short term we already hold the advantage."
"There's no need to be overly fixated. I need time."
"What about the Ice Sea? Did the Sea God abandon them?" Xue Di asked. "If there's no proper justification, in your human terms, there's no righteous cause. How do you end this farce?"
"The Ice Sea betrayed the Sea God, colluded with the Evil Spirit Orca King's group, and attempted to use a beast tide to attack Vast Sea City. They were repelled by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School with assistance from Sea God Island's sacred pillar guardians."
"Hmph, humans really are hypocritical." Bing Di curled her lip. "Poseidon clearly intends to abandon the Ice Sea clan. It's a good thing my sister and I never believed her nonsense back then."
"There always has to be someone sacrificed. Since Sea God Island failed to take down the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School, they have to pay a price."
"The main forces of the Ice Sea clan, including the Sea Princess, have already fallen. Pushing everything onto the dead perfectly serves the Sea God's interests."
"Tch!" Bing Di said disdainfully. "This is exactly why I hate humans. That's why I dislike you all—you act friendly on the surface, but in the dark you'll stab each other in the heart."
"The Sea God yielded, so… the benefits in your hands can now be considered legitimate, right!"
"The harvest was quite bountiful!"
"Why do I feel like you're always being sarcastic with me!" Ning Rongrong looked at Bing Di's green twin tails and couldn't help complaining. She subconsciously reached out to grab them, but Bing Di shivered and quickly hid behind Xue Di.
"You human, you really do have improper thoughts about me." Bing Di said viciously.
Ning Rongrong: "…"
Would you believe me if I said it was subconscious?
"There are quite a few soul bones. As for soul rings, I only brought back nine."
Soul bones are physical items, while soul rings are something akin to souls, so sealing them is troublesome.
Even the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda can only hold nine at a time.
"Besides the Sea Princess, how many other hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were there?" Xue Di asked.
She was already used to the fact that Ning Rongrong's Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda could store all sorts of strange things.
"I used the Sea Princess's soul ring as a battery and consumed it when I activated my skill."
"A 600,000-year soul ring, and you wasted it like that!" Bing Di poked her head out, her expression as if something precious had been ruined. "That was a 600,000-year soul ring!"
"It was half-god level, just like Xue Di!"
"You didn't save it for your ninth soul ring and just used it up? The kind that can't be recovered!"
"Did a donkey kick your head, or did a door clamp it?"
"You just wanted to say that last sentence, didn't you!" Ning Rongrong retorted.
You built up all that just to insult me once?
"What do you care?" Bing Di turned her head away.
"Was it that attack from before?"
That strike that pierced through the heavens was many times stronger than even her Emperor Sword.
It made sense that it required the consumption of a 600,000-year soul ring.
"Something like that." Ning Rongrong didn't deny it. "In any case, I now have five hundred-thousand-year soul rings and four soul rings over ninety thousand years in my hands."
"With these, the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School should be able to rise another tier!"
"You really do rack your brains for your sect," Xue Di sighed in admiration.
"Well, I suppose I just don't want to lose anything and regret it later."
"If you two have nothing else, I'll be leaving first."
With that, Ning Rongrong opened a portal and stepped inside.
Only after confirming that Ning Rongrong had completely left did Bing Di speak. "Why didn't you ask? Don't you want to know about Poseidon?"
Xue Di merely shook her head. "She probably reached some kind of agreement with the Sea God."
"I didn't see any malice in her eyes, so there's no need to worry about that."
"Let's go, Bing Di. Come stroll around with me."
"I don't want to disturb that little fox's spoils-sharing meeting with the elders."
"True." Bing Di nodded. "Whenever I stay in human places, hearing soul masters argue over soul bones until my scalp tingles is quite an… interesting feeling."
After one more spatial jump, Ning Rongrong finally arrived at the conference hall of the Nine Treasure Merchant Association.
Ning Fengzhi sat in the main seat, with Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo on either side of him. A little further down sat the Soul Douluo who had come to participate in this spoils-sharing meeting.
"I'm back."
This abrupt voice startled everyone around.
When Ning Fengzhi saw Ning Rongrong's face, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
Since Ning Rongrong was able to stand here, did that mean the beast tide was already over?