The Royal Knights smashed all the boulders, allowing all the academies to continue their journey.
Although the enemy had retreated, things weren't looking great on their side either. Some needed to recover from injuries, like Qin Ming and Flender; some were restoring their soul power, like Tianlin and the Emperor Battle Team; and others were sulking, like Ning Rongrong.
Ironically, the main culprit behind this incident, Tang San, was perfectly fine. He was now sitting in Ning Fengzhi and Yu Yuanzhen's carriage, inquiring about the cause and effect of the whole incident.
Of course, Ning Fengzhi couldn't tell him everything. He only told him that this matter was related to his father and the Clear Sky Clan. Ning Fengzhi intended to use this father and son pair to drag out the Clear Sky Clan, which had been in hiding for over a decade.
With Ning Fengzhi's intelligence, how could he not sense the ambition of Spirit Hall, or rather, Bibi Dong? Spirit Hall was already stronger than the combined might of the upper three clans, and now all four lower clans had pledged allegiance to Spirit Hall. If they continued as before, they would likely be defeated one by one.
If Tianlin knew what Ning Fengzhi was thinking right now, he would certainly give him a thumbs up. In the original work, both the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan were destroyed in this way. Tianlin had foresight, so he had always been working hard to strengthen the sect and get through the calamity, but Ning Fengzhi was relying purely on guesswork.
The only pity was that Ning Fengzhi could never guess exactly when Bibi Dong would make her move. Even Tianlin wasn't certain, since with his arrival, the sect had grown much stronger. There was no guarantee that Spirit Hall wouldn't act ahead of time to avoid any unexpected variables.
Looks like after his future vision ability cools down, he'll need to use it again in the sect to confirm the exact time of the enemy's attack.
That night, the main group finally arrived at Spirit City. After getting off the carriage, Tianlin could sense that Tang San had become much more polite, probably because he had a good impression of Ning Fengzhi.
However, his intentions hadn't changed. He still planned to take over the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan in the future. At worst, he'd let Ning Fengzhi continue as the clan leader of the Tang Sect's affiliated clan, as a way to repay today's life-saving grace.
It was a pity Tianlin hadn't used soul reading on him; otherwise, if he had known about this plan, he would surely have been unable to resist slashing him with his demon sword. Only Tang San could repay kindness with betrayal and make it sound so fresh and unorthodox.
As the crown prince of Heaven Dou, Xue Qinghe's residence was different from the contestants, so she didn't keep Tianlin with her. Plus, Tianlin's soul power had almost fully recovered, so she could let him go with peace of mind.
Tianlin didn't plan to follow Qian Renxue either. After all, this was her home. Since it was rare for her to come back, she would surely take the chance to visit her grandfather.
Back at the Emperor Battle team, Tianlin helped Qin Ming back to rest. Qin Ming had been injured by Chrysanthemum Douluo's spirit skill today and was in bad shape.
"Xiao Tian, thank you for today. If you hadn't arrived in time, Dean Flender and I might have died in battle already," Qin Ming said gratefully.
"It's nothing, Teacher Qin. You risked your life for your teacher—why can't I do the same?" Tianlin replied with a smile.
Looking at Tianlin's still somewhat youthful face, Qin Ming was very moved. Such a child had stood in front of a titled Douluo when Qin Ming was injured, even telling a Title Douluo that if he hurt Qin Ming again, he'd kill him. What courage that took!
Thinking of this, Qin Ming blurted out, "Xiao Tian, do you remember? Back at the Titled Douluo Ceremony, you invited me to join your sect. Does that invitation still stand?"
If Tianlin's gift of the Purple Gold Pill had filled him with gratitude, today's act of life-risking rescue had truly shaken his heart, which originally only wanted to be a free spirit master.
"Of course! If Teacher Qin is willing to come, I'll always welcome you from the bottom of my heart," Tianlin said happily.
Unlike the previous times, where Tianlin had calculated to bring people like the Dragon Serpent Couple, Oscar, and Ma Hongjun into the sect step by step, today he hadn't thought about it at all. He simply wanted to protect his friends and teachers. Unexpectedly, his unintentional kindness had resulted in a great reward.
This must be what it means when people say, "Treat others with sincerity, and they will return it in kind."
After telling Qin Ming to rest well, Tianlin left the room. The other members of the Emperor Battle team were also anxiously waiting outside.
Tianlin smiled and comforted them, "Don't worry, Teacher Qin will be fine. Although he's injured, after taking my pill and recovering for a while, he'll be as good as new. However, he probably won't be able to direct our tactics in the first few matches of the finals. We'll have to rely on ourselves."
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at his words. Oslo shrugged, "So what? With our strength, even without tactics, we can crush the other academies."
"That's right! With Xiao Tian here, even if we face Spirit Hall Academy, they still can't beat us." Dugu Yan patted Tianlin on the shoulder. Although she always said she'd protect her little brother, she knew that Tianlin's true strength was greater than the rest of the Emperor Battle team combined.
"Yan'er, it's not just Xiao Tian, I'm here too. I'm the team captain and your fiancé. Can't you have a little more confidence in me?" Yu Tianheng said jealously.
Dugu Yan gave him a sidelong glance. "Wait till you become a Soul King. Even Gu Ran has surpassed you, not to mention Xiao Tian."
"Yan'er, don't worry. It won't be long before I surpass Gu Ran," Yu Tianheng said confidently. Although he had been upset for a long time after being overtaken by Gu Ran, after his life-and-death battle with a Soul Sage, he found his bottleneck loosening. He was confident he could break through to level fifty soon.
Unfortunately, since they were in Spirit City and the finals were approaching, even if he broke through, he wouldn't be able to hunt a soul beast and advance to Soul King.
What he didn't know was that inside Tianlin's belt, there was a big dinosaur prepared as a gift for either Yu Tianheng or Dugu Yan.
Looks like this gift would likely go to Yu Tianheng now.
...
Three days later, in front of the Pope's Palace, the grand finals' opening ceremony finally began.
Both Heaven Dou and Star Luo had fifteen teams each, plus the two empires' and Spirit Hall's seeded teams, for a total of thirty-three. All of them were the elite of the younger generation of the continent, symbolizing its future.
No team that reached the finals would be weak. From this point, Huan Yin would not appear again, and Dugu Yan would replace her as the control system soul master for the Emperor Battle team, who would now face their opponents with their full main lineup.
Bibi Dong did not attend the opening ceremony. She usually only appeared after the top three academies had been decided. This left Tianlin a bit disappointed, as he had wanted to see what the legendary female Pope from the original story looked like.