In this world, strength speaks for itself!

The Kingdom of Barak, the Plain of Lima, the City of Venice.

At the gate of the mansion, Jing Tianming jumped off the carriage and subconsciously looked up. The gate tower in front of him was tall, and the green tiles on the top were covered with moss.

"After going around in circles, I never expected to be back to where I started..." Returning to his old haunts, he found everything changed and people were no longer the same. Jing Tianming couldn't help but feel a little melancholy, his gaze unfocused.

Venice, situated between the royal city of Barak and Soto, known as the granary of Barak, was an important transit city on the way to both the royal city and the imperial capital.

The Jing family were originally grain merchants in the city, owning a large amount of farmland in the surrounding area as well as many properties and shops in the city.

When the Jing family was wiped out, many merchants in the city chose to temporarily relocate out of fear, and Venice declined for a period of time as a result.

But as the Spirit Hall wiped out all the forces that had destroyed the Jing family, the city gradually returned to its former prosperity.

At that time, the Spirit Hall's act of making an example of someone to deter others did indeed give the local merchants a great sense of security.

However, this also exacerbated the rift between them and the Barak Kingdom, and even the Tiandou Empire.

The reason was that many of the forces involved in the destruction of the Jing and Huliena families were supported by a marquis of the kingdom, who afterwards divided up all of the Jing family's farmland and most of the Huliena family's mines. It was precisely because of this marquis's influence that the royal family did not send anyone to investigate immediately after the two families were wiped out, and the matter was ultimately left unresolved.

Afterwards, the marquis was dragged out of his home by Ghost Douluo and publicly tried, and was hanged.

The Spirit Hall has the overt responsibility of supervising all spirit masters in the world and preventing the resurgence of corrupt spirit masters.

Such a horrific case involving the annihilation of an entire family of Soul Masters should, in principle, be open to direct investigation. However, the subsequent handling of the case must prioritize one's own interests.

Anyway, we didn't care at the time!

The reason she suddenly reappeared was undoubtedly because Hu Liena had become Pope Bibidon's personal disciple.

Bibi Dong did this not only to avenge her disciple, but also to establish the authority of the Spirit Hall and herself. After all, she had only recently assumed the position of Pope of the Spirit Hall.

This is precisely the time to establish one's authority.

I don't care if you, Marquis of the Barak Kingdom, want to set up other Soul Master factions, but it involves my disciple, Bibi Dong.

They must die!

"It's hard to say whether Bibi Dong took Hu Liena as her disciple because she valued her talent, or because she wanted to use her family's grudge to establish her own authority."

"So what if he's a marquis?"

"In this world, strength ultimately speaks!" Jing Tianming's gaze turned stern, filled with emotion. At the same time, he secretly made a vow in his heart.

I must work hard to cultivate until I reach the pinnacle of this world and be fearless of any enemy!

"Mr. Ji, let's go inside."

The two walked side by side into the house.

Behind them, the shadow stretched rapidly.

……

Two months passed quickly.

Jing Tianming's soul power successfully broke through to level 1.

A 0.5-level increase in two months—this cultivation speed can only be described as indescribable.

"My body was nourished with medicine by my teacher, so my aptitude should be quite good. I didn't expect my cultivation to be so slow. Without a doubt, the problem lies in my martial soul!" Jing Tianming thought of Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan, who had also had their bodies nourished with medicine by Chrysanthemum Douluo before their martial souls awakened. The fact that the three of them were able to break through to Soul King around the age of 20 must definitely be related to this.

It may not be as effective as the herbal remedy, but it will improve things to some extent.

Otherwise, why could these three break through to the Soul King level while others with innate soul power could not?

People like Huo Wu, Feng Xiaotian, and Shui Bing'er all possess considerable innate soul power. However, their achievements differ by almost an entire realm.

"This clearly demonstrates the importance of teachers!"

Cultivation resources like common medicinal herbs are generally not lacking in any major Soul Master faction. However, in his view, the extent to which they can be utilized depends on the user. And Chrysanthemum Douluo is undoubtedly a master who can maximize the effects of various medicinal herbs.

"But what has Bibi Dong ever given back to her teacher?" Jing Tianming felt sorry for his teacher.

In the original story, Bibi Dong gave three soul bones to Hu Liena and her two companions as a pretext, directly designating soul bones as rewards for the Soul Master Competition. Meanwhile, her teacher, Chrysanthemum Douluo, a veteran minister who had assisted Bibi Dong for many years and made outstanding contributions, did not even possess a decent soul bone.

Is this appropriate?

Jing Tianming then thought of Yu Xiaogang.

With an innate level 0.5 soul power, theoretically, it's absolutely impossible to cultivate to level 29. He had also reviewed the information of many soul masters registered with the Spirit Hall, and among commoner soul masters with similar backgrounds, very few had actually become soul masters. Even if they did, none of them could break through to the Great Soul Master level.

This clearly demonstrates the importance of innate soul power, or rather, the importance of the innate quality of a martial soul.

However, Yu Xiaogang achieved the rank of a level 29 Great Soul Master, and it is speculated that he most likely also used drugs to improve his physical condition.

It's unclear whether the Blue Lightning Palace's Tyrannosaurus Rex family provided the assistance, or whether Bibi Dong provided resources to get Chrysanthemum Douluo's help during the exchange with the Spirit Hall.

Chrysanthemum Douluo never mentioned this to him.

In the Spirit Hall, the past between Bibi Dong and Yu Xiaogang seems to be an absolute taboo that cannot be mentioned, and there are no records of it.

"Given Yu Xiaogang's background, he definitely had access to more cultivation resources than I did, and with his connection to Bibi Dong, his physical aptitude in his early years must have been better than mine." Jing Tianming brought his thoughts back to himself, "but I'm still stuck at level 29."

"It seems that if I don't find a way to improve my martial soul aptitude first, my cultivation speed will never improve."

"And we will also encounter bottlenecks later on."

This is no longer a matter of whether or not one tries hard enough; it's that the speed of cultivation has been fundamentally suppressed.

Moreover, his martial spirit carries the risk of backlash. His cultivation speed is already slow, and he's not allowed to absorb sunlight and moonlight for extended periods. If he exceeds this time limit even slightly, the backlash will strike, and if it's not balanced and suppressed in time, it will further slow down his cultivation speed.

That's pretty difficult!

Fortunately, he wasn't greedy.

For the past two months, I've almost never exceeded the absorption time limit, so this talent has been having a positive effect so far. It's just that my martial soul foundation is too poor, the time I can cultivate under moonlight and sunlight is still short, and the efficiency doesn't seem to be very good.

The resulting increase in cultivation speed is still very small for now.

"Fortunately, there is some good news as well." A smile finally appeared on Jing Tianming's face as he sat alone on the balcony, bathed in sunlight.

After two months of testing, he discovered that the Sun Wheel's absorption of sunlight could actually enhance his physical strength.

It was only a small change, and he only noticed the clue after practicing under the sunlight many times.

As for absorbing moonlight, it seems to enhance mental strength. The reason is that after finishing his cultivation one night, he tested it again and discovered that he could actually control the Moon Gold Wheel to fly and move. Furthermore, with each cultivation session, the distance he could control it also increased.

The improvement it brings each time is as small as absorbing sunlight.

Currently, he can only control the moon blade to fly in a one-meter radius around himself, and even that is quite strenuous. Each time he controls it to fly away from his palm, it feels like he is carrying a hundred-pound weight. Sudden acceleration or sudden impact with objects is completely impossible for him.

I couldn't muster any strength at all!

Furthermore, over time, he will also feel unusually mentally exhausted.

Therefore, even though he now dedicates time every day to control training, the duration he can sustain it is still very short.

But ultimately, there has been progress.

After practicing many times, it wasn't as strenuous as it was at the beginning.

That's why he persisted.

"Persistence is victory!"

Jing Tianming cheered himself up, then stopped thinking about it and closed his eyes to continue cultivating.

The key to spiritual practice is perseverance!

After a short while, feeling a burning sensation rising within his body, he stopped and got up to go inside.

As he walked, as if suddenly remembering something, he quickly went downstairs and found Old Master Ji immediately.

"Elder Ji, I would like to trouble you to make a trip to the Chamber of Commerce and ask the person in charge there to keep an eye out for a certain medicinal herb."

"Oh? What kind of medicinal herb?"

"Whale glue!" Jing Tianming replied.