Douluo: What the hell is the academic master development system?

Chapter 376 Make the Holy Spirit Cult Great Again
"I'm willing, I'm willing to do anything."

Without the slightest hesitation, Nana stood in front of Chen Ping.

Chen Ping nodded, and the vertical pupil between his eyebrows opened, then changed from its original rose gold color to gray.

The next moment, Nana's delicate body trembled involuntarily. She could clearly sense that Chen Ping's gray vertical pupils were scrutinizing her soul from top to bottom, without missing a single detail.

Chen Ping raised his right hand, and strange runes danced in his palm before slowly merging into her body. Soon, she felt her soul begin to connect with the man before her.

False threads of soul appeared out of thin air and linked the two together, thus establishing a connection between them.

But on the other hand, it also means that if Nana betrays him, Chen Ping only needs to pull the soul threads in his hand to cut Nana's soul into pieces.

At this moment, if Nana had even the slightest resistance, these soul threads would not be able to fully connect with her. But Nana just waited quietly for Chen Ping to complete all of this.

"Don't worry that I will go back on my word. You and your parents have suffered persecution from evil spirit masters, as have I and my family."

Chen Ping looked at Nana, whose brow was trembling slightly, and said in a gentle tone, "I come from the Panlong Sect. A few days after my martial soul awakened at the age of six, the sect was attacked by evil soul masters."

"Of the hundreds of people in the entire clan, not a single one survived except for me."

"When I crawled out from the pile of corpses of my sect members, I was already mortal enemies with these evil spirit masters."

"After that, I wandered around the Douluo Continent for many years until I finally reached level 10 at the age of 11 and obtained my first spirit ring. Only then did I join Shrek Academy by chance."

"Now you should understand what my attitude should be towards evil spirit masters, right?"

Nana had no idea that Chen Ping carried such a heavy burden of blood debt and a weighty past.

In her imagination, people like Chen Ping should have a smooth life from birth, never experiencing trouble or hardship.

But the man before her had endured just as much suffering as she had.

"All right."

Chen Ping snapped his fingers. Although he didn't say anything, Nana heard Chen Ping's voice resounding from the depths of her heart.

"What, what's going on?"

The thought flashed through Nana's mind subconsciously, and then she saw Chen Ping's gaze fall on her.

"This is the soul contract. From now on, you are mine. I can use the contract to enable us to communicate through our mental energy, and this communication is not affected by distance."

"Only in this way can I use your soul as a coordinate to unleash many abilities that I couldn't show before, which you will gradually witness in the future."

Nana didn't understand what Chen Ping meant after that; all she could remember was his initial statement, "From now on, you are mine."

"Owner?"

Nana subconsciously had this thought in her mind, and then she saw a hint of unease flash across Chen Ping's originally calm face.

He quickly snapped his fingers again, and this time the connection between the two thoughts was finally broken, and the fleeting thoughts that passed between them would no longer reach the other's mind in detail.

This is a technique that Electrolux used to frequently employ, but unlike Chen Ping, who used it terribly, Electrolux's mind was completely transparent when he used this trick to control his undead subordinates.

At his peak, Electrolux could divide his divine sense into ten thousand parts, precisely controlling tens of thousands of high-level undead on the field.

By controlling lower-level undead through higher-level undead, one can precisely manage an army of millions of undead to wage war.

Nana was still feeling a little embarrassed because Chen Ping could hear her thoughts earlier. Seeing that Chen Ping had turned off the effect, she continued to speak.

"From what I understand, the Holy Spirit Cult is a very mysterious organization. I have only ever had contact with this one branch, which is located in this Mingdu."

"There are probably more than twenty of them, but there are only three true core members. Most of the rest are just peripheral members. But even these peripheral members have at least the cultivation level of Soul Master."

"What's strange is that although the Holy Spirit Cult is located within the Sun Moon Empire, there are very few Soul Masters among them; almost all of them are Soul Masters. The most powerful core member I've ever seen is probably at the level of a Seven-Ring Soul Saint."

"Even though he only had seven rings, he still gave me a feeling of unfathomable depth, as if he could wipe me out with a flick of his wrist."

"In this branch, this seven-ring Soul Saint is called an elder. Every time I see him, he wears a black hood over his head, with only his eyes showing."

“Besides him, the other core members are called disciples of the Holy Spirit or saints, while the peripheral members are called servants of the Holy Spirit. I am now a servant of the Holy Spirit.”

“Every time we go to a branch, we need to cover our faces, so we servants of the saints basically don’t know each other. Only the elders know each of us.”

“That elder told me that as long as my cultivation level reaches the sixth ring, he would like to apply to the main altar to make me a disciple of the Holy Spirit and to ascend my spirit.”

Chen Ping immediately noticed the key phrase: "Spirit Ascension?"

Nana shook her head and said, "I don't understand what Ascension means either. I asked the elder once. He said it's a sacred ritual that makes us holy servants incredibly powerful."

Soon, Nana continued, "I can feel that if I really go through that ritual, I'm afraid I won't be myself anymore."

Chen Ping nodded and said, "You're right, this Spirit Ascension Ritual is no good."

"After completing the ritual, if you have enough potential, you might have the opportunity to become a trainee of the Holy Spirit Cult and be trained into the best killing machine. If you don't have enough potential, you might just become a high-level material for one of the elders in the cult to refine corpses."

As Chen Ping spoke, he secretly pondered for a moment. This Spirit Ascension Ritual was probably a means for Ye Xishui or Zhong Liwu, as leaders of the Holy Spirit Cult, to strengthen their own control.

He remembered very clearly that all high-ranking members of the Holy Spirit Cult had a restriction placed on their bodies by Ye Xishui, a method of secrecy that caused instant death to any member who revealed secrets of the Holy Spirit Cult. Chen Ping guessed that Nana's ascension ceremony after reaching level 60 would probably consist of two steps: first, someone from the main altar would come to examine the talents of those undergoing ascension and determine whether the disciples recruited were worth nurturing.

Then we'll consider whether to send them to Ye Xishui and either place restrictions or brainwash these promising evil soul master talents, or directly use them as rare high-level materials for soul refining and corpse refining.

Looking at it this way, the Holy Spirit Cult really does have a clear division of labor; they're practically determined to devour everyone completely before they'll stop!

Just like Nana, not only were her parents exploited and persecuted by the Holy Spirit Cult for their entire lives, turning them into wronged souls that could be put into the Soul Sail at any time, but in the end, Nana herself also stepped back into the cycle of hell woven by the Holy Spirit Cult.

In Chen Ping's eyes, the so-called "sucking the marrow from the bone" was nothing more than this.

Seeing Chen Ping nod, Nana continued, "The doctrine of the Holy Spirit Church is something we, the servants of the Holy Spirit, have to recite every day. It's roughly these two sentences: 'Let the Holy Light shine on the world, let the Holy Spirit descend upon the world.'"

"Although that's what we say, we don't know what the Holy Light and the Holy Spirit are. We only know that the elders have always told us to find the Holy Son and Holy Daughter, because this is the best way to make the Holy Church great again."

Before Nana could finish speaking, Chen Ping chuckled.

"To make the Holy Spirit Church great again?"

"What kind of terrorist organization, made of clay and earth, has the nerve to call itself a cult?"

"I'll smear the holy fire on their faces tomorrow and see if they're still stubborn and can withstand the descent of this true Holy Spirit."

As he spoke, a huge white six-pointed star lit up on Chen Ping's right hand, with silver-white magic circuits weaving across it.

A black and white holy fire, powerful enough to burn all the wronged souls to ashes, appeared on the six-pointed star. It was the same holy flame that burned Zhong Litian to death when Electrolux was playing as a substitute player.

Just sensing the holy flame nearby, Nana instinctively wanted to get a little closer.

On the one hand, one can feel the reassuring warmth of the sacred flame, but on the other hand, one subconsciously keeps a distance from the sacred flame.

It was as if they knew that if they got too close to the holy flame, they might become moths drawn to it.

She blurted out instinctively, "Master, is this the Holy Light? Are you the Holy Son, no, the Holy Spirit, as described in the doctrine?"

Seeing that Nana couldn't even figure out what the Holy Spirit or the Holy Child was, Chen Ping couldn't help but laugh.

"Me? I am the Holy Emperor, the Holy Son, and the Holy Spirit Trinity, the sole Holy Father of the Holy Spirit Cult."

"Tomorrow, I will let them taste the power of the divine iron fist and know what it means for the Heavenly Father to kill the Heavenly Brother."

Chen Ping's words made Nana both excited and worried: "Master, please don't act rashly."

"The seven-ring Soul Saint of the Holy Spirit Cult is quite powerful. I heard that he even has the strength to rival that of an eight-ring Soul Douluo."

"If my information is correct, that elder recently received a transfer order from the main altar. It seems he's being summoned to do something. Should we wait until he leaves before making any decisions?"

“There are only two Holy Spirit disciples stationed at our branch altar. It’s almost time for me to meet my parents’ souls every two months, so they usually don’t guard against me too much.”

"At that time, the branch altars were probably the most vulnerable in terms of defense."

"Wait a minute," Chen Ping interrupted Nana with a raised hand, speaking thoughtfully, "You said that the evil spirit elders of your branch altar are there to perform duties as summons, rather than routinely returning to the sacred altar?"

Nana nodded: "Yes, I heard that a prospective elder is coming down from the main altar to do something with the elders from our branch altar, and all the disciples in our branch altar, including the Holy Altar, are required to stay put."

"It was only because I knew one or two other holy servants from the academy who were on guard duty outside that I was able to find out about this matter from them. Otherwise, it would have been difficult for me to get out after I returned to the altar."

After listening to Nana's account of the situation at the Holy Spirit Church's branch altar, Chen Ping tapped his knuckles lightly on the lab table, a thoughtful look in his eyes.

Logically speaking, the time when Nana is now asking him to destroy the Holy Spirit Cult branch is slightly earlier than the timeline in the original story, so it's normal that the branch elders' behavior is different.

Jing Hongchen, who had destroyed both the Level 9 fixed-position soul-guided cannon shell and the No. 1 experimental subject, was simply unable to suppress these matters.

Naturally, there was no intention to have Shrek Academy and the Royal Academy fight each other in order to divert attention.

At this moment, if Jing Hongchen wanted to divert his attention, he could only pray that the Sun Moon Empire would suddenly produce an event of a magnitude no less significant than the attack on Mingde Hall.

For example, the death of a level nine soul master, or even the death of an old emperor, is far too much for the children's fights to match.

Nana, who had already met him before, naturally skipped many prerequisite tasks and approached him with the gamble that Shrek Academy's inspection team would really go after the evil spirit masters.

At this point in time, it's perfectly normal for the branch altars of the Holy Spirit Church to be doing whatever they want.

"No, we have to make our move tomorrow. We not only have to deal with that branch elder, but we may also have to deal with that prospective elder of the main altar."

"what?"

Nana was shocked: "Master, in the Holy Spirit Cult, only branch elders whose cultivation has reached the level of level 80 Soul Douluo are qualified to go to the main altar to become prospective elders."

"Although I don't know exactly how strong the prospective elders of the main altar are, if the branch altar elders, with their Soul Saint cultivation, can possess the combat power of an eight-ring Soul Douluo, then the prospective elders of the main altar might even be capable of fighting against a Title Douluo!"

Chen Ping nodded upon hearing this: "Of course I understand that, but you need to understand one thing: the level of strength of a Soul Master that one can deal with in a direct confrontation is different from the level of a Soul Master that one can deal with after some preparation and calculation."

"Besides, have you forgotten that Shrek Academy has also sent a Super Douluo this time? He's my teacher, so you can put your mind at ease."

"This time, we're going to be flexible and adaptable. Whether we go straight to the end or scout ahead first, we'll have to act according to the situation."

(End of this chapter)