Douluo Continent: Starting with controlling Ning Rongrong and establishing the Holy Cult

"There could be many reasons. Such as destroying evidence or hunting down Ning Rongrong, these could all be reasons."

Flander rested his chin on his hand.

"This monster was obviously created by those Holy Spirit Cult members, wasn't it? Those people, they actually used humans for experiments, what do they think of life!"

"Or, if we broaden our perspective, perhaps Ning Rongrong's encounter with danger on the Soul Arena was truly an accident."

"Charm?"

"Uncle Bone, do you remember why we came out? After the last evil spirit master incident, I thought about it and was still worried. What if they set their sights on Rongrong? So I started the investigation..."

Ning Fengzhi clenched his fist.

"Then we found out about Soto City, and by chance, we found out about the ritual in Soto City. Unfortunately, we only found out roughly that the ritual was inside Soto City, and we didn't know the specific details or location of the ritual. So Uncle Bone and I decided to go and find out for ourselves."

"So what was the result?"

Ning Fengzhi shook his head and said, "We searched the entire city of Soto but couldn't find the location of the ceremony. We only found that someone in this Great Soul Arena might be closely related to the ceremony, so we started watching the matches. But we didn't expect that on the first day, we would see Shrek Academy here too!"

Although he was still smiling, you could vaguely see the veins bulging on his face.

"Haha, isn't this letting the kids get used to combat in advance?"

Flander scratched his head a little embarrassedly.

"It's okay, I'm not angry."

Ning Fengzhi said calmly,

"Ning Rongrong must have volunteered to play, right?"

"That's right. This morning she went to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt down a three-thousand-year-old human-faced demon spider. I believe she has the ability to participate in the competition. Originally, I didn't plan to let her participate, and it was indeed Ning Rongrong's own idea."

"A three-thousand-year-old human-faced demon spider... Feng Zhi, I remember that three thousand years seems to exceed the limit of the third soul ring, right?"

"It doesn't matter, then the theory is wrong. Rongrong is right. Besides, since Rongrong was able to defeat this monster, it means that her martial soul may have undergone some changes. None of that matters. Speaking of which, this contestant should be the one related to the ritual, what a coincidence."

"Let's make a bold assumption. If the original plot continues, our opponent... Liu Jiayi, is one of the test subjects for the evil soul master's ritual. He was supposed to become very powerful with the help of the evil soul master, but today, when he faced Ning Rongrong, Ning Rongrong's strength stimulated him, causing him to turn into a monster. This also alerted the evil soul master, so the evil soul master appeared... This means that the ritual is not yet fully completed, and we still have time to stop this ritual!"

Ning Fengzhi became more and more excited as he spoke.

"Um, excuse me for interrupting. Although I know that this evil spirit master's ritual is definitely something bad, what would be the consequences if this ritual were to take place?"

Ning Fengzhi looked at the bewildered Flander, then calmed down and said:

"I don't know the specifics, but I do know that it's best to avoid the ritual from happening. That's what the Spirit Hall said. There are three recorded rituals of the Holy Spirit Cult so far, all called the Holy Maiden Ritual."

The details of the first ceremony were kept strictly secret by the Spirit Hall. It is said that the ceremony was successful, and the Spirit Hall and the Heaven Dou Empire suffered heavy losses, but we do not know exactly what happened.

The second ceremony was about a week ago, near the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School. The previous Saintess ceremony failed because of Ning Rongrong's presence, and we discovered a Saintess candidate who is now at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School. She is a kind-hearted girl with an evil martial spirit. She revealed to us that the purpose of the Saintess ceremony is to cultivate a Saintess, communicate with the Holy God, and allow the Holy God to return.

The third ceremony will likely take place in Soto City within the next few days; that's all the information we have.

"Can I interpret this as the ritual being a means to bring about the return of the Holy Spirit and achieve the goal of world domination?"

Flanders was still completely confused, but he came to this conclusion.

Ning Fengzhi thought for a moment and nodded: "Yes, that's pretty much the idea."

"The Third Ceremony of the Holy Maiden... Soto City..."

A clear, melodious female voice suddenly rang out. It was Ning Rongrong. She suddenly moved and came to the side of the doppelganger on the ground, who was dead beyond any hope of survival.

"Aren't you going to check what's on him?"

Ning Rongrong questioned.

"Something..."

The three of them slapped their foreheads. Indeed, they had been so focused on rescuing Ning Rongrong that they hadn't checked what was on the clone's body.

Ning Rongrong fumbled around for a while and, to her great disappointment, pulled out a slip of paper.

This is all he has left.

At first glance, she thought there were words on it, but upon closer inspection, there was nothing there.

Chapter 25 The Return Journey

"Rongrong, what does it say on it?"

Gu Rong approached Ning Rongrong, and Ning Fengzhi and Flander followed suit.

They also saw this blank note.

"Hey, I feel like there were words on it at first glance."

Gu Rong was somewhat puzzled. Ning Rongrong looked at Gu Rong with surprise, then at the other two. Although they didn't speak, it was almost certain that they felt the same way.

Ning Rongrong handed the note to Gu Rong, who then glanced at it and passed it to Ning Fengzhi. Ning Fengzhi glanced at it and passed it to Flander, who glanced at it, shook his head, and returned the note to Ning Rongrong.

"Maybe we're overthinking it. I can't sense any soul power on it. There shouldn't have been any writing on it to begin with. We just subconsciously thought that this thing was dropped by the evil soul master leader's clone, which is why we thought there were writing on it."

Ning Fengzhi guessed,

"I don't think anyone would leave valuables on a clone. In my opinion, these are the original owner's belongings, and we don't know what they were used for. It's a pity we didn't get any clues about the location of the ritual from this clone. It's getting late, Dean Flander. Please take my daughter back to school. Uncle Bone and I still need to continue investigating this ritual. The children must be tired after going through so much."

"Sect Leader Ning is right." Flander nodded, looked around and found the six people, then waved to them, signaling them to return.

After spending a brief time with Ning Fengzhi, Ning Rongrong was pushed back to Flanders' side, which clearly meant that what followed was dangerous and not something Ning Rongrong could get involved in.

Is this okay?

That won't work, of course. Following the two of them might allow us to enter the third Saintess Ritual instance, where we could potentially snag some rewards; if not, we can always reload our save...

Right! Speaking of saving, Lu Ma suddenly realized he hadn't saved his game yet, so he quickly made a save.

[Save file overwrite successful!]

Upon seeing this line of text on the screen, Lu Ma nodded in satisfaction and attempted to communicate with Ning Fengzhi and the other person.

Unexpectedly, after shoving Ning Rongrong, the two disappeared immediately, as if they were relentlessly pursuing her.

"What does this mean?"

Lu Ma was speechless. Now, he had no choice but to go back with Flander.

I never imagined that after missing the first Saintess Ceremony, I would miss the third one too. Lu Ma's heart was bleeding.

"Rongrong, come here quickly."

The sound came from her right rear. Lu Ma adjusted her view and found that Zhu Zhuqing was waving at her.

"coming."

After giving a brief reply, Ning Rongrong put on her usual formulaic smile and jogged towards Zhu Zhuqing.

Once they were close, Zhu Zhuqing grabbed Ning Rongrong's wrist.

"Rongrong, are you alright?"

"It's alright. Look how neatly the bandages are wrapped."

Ning Rongrong rolled her eyes at Zhu Zhuqing.

Zhu Zhuqing realized she had said the wrong thing and chuckled twice.

But Ning Rongrong's gaze towards her was becoming increasingly strange.

Did I do something wrong?

Zhu Zhuqing was puzzled. In her memory, she didn't seem to have done anything too outrageous to Ning Rongrong. These past few days, they had only communicated verbally, even if it was a bit too much.

Little did Lu Ma know that it was this frequent interaction that made him feel strange, which in turn caused Ning Rongrong's body to react accordingly.

Why does Zhu Zhuqing talk so much?

In Lu Ma's memory, Zhu Zhuqing was the type who rarely spoke, especially at this time. But based on his observation, Zhu Zhuqing was only acting strangely towards him; she remained indifferent to others.

So... is it my own problem?

Lu Ma didn't think he had done anything wrong.

After thinking for a long time, Lu Ma still couldn't figure it out, so he could only attribute the problem to the production company.

The night was very quiet.

It was so quiet that you could hear the rustling of leaves, the footsteps of people, and their breathing.

Not a word was spoken. It was unclear whether they had argued earlier, were simply too tired, or were afraid to argue because Flander was leading the way.

The events I remember, such as Zhu Zhuqing getting angry because Dai Mubai told Tang San to go easy on her, Ning Rongrong asking Tang San to kill Dai Mubai, and Oscar being disappointed in Ning Rongrong... none of these happened. Of course, the latter two wouldn't happen because Ning Rongrong is currently being manipulated by him.

"Relax and have a chat."

Flanders couldn't stand it anymore. He really didn't want his students to be such a lifeless, ghostly place.

The silence of the night was broken by Flander's suggestion, but the air didn't truly liven up. Oscar tried to tell a lame joke about soul beasts, but the only response was Dai Mubai's perfunctory dry laugh and Ma Hongjun's symbolic hum. Tang San and Xiao Wu walked side by side, whispering about the terrifying moment they had just experienced, but their voices were kept extremely low.

It was Zhu Zhuqing's words that brought the atmosphere back on track.

"Rongrong, you said earlier that you would tell us about the new soul skill. Can you tell us now?"

That one sentence drew the attention of the other five people, even Flander, whose ears perked up. He was also eager to hear Ning Rongrong tell them about her third soul skill—the soul skill given to her by a soul beast that wasn't compatible with her martial soul.

"Oh, I see."

Lu Ma responded briefly, then began to consider whether or not to tell them. There would be no punishment for not telling them, and no reward for telling them…

Perhaps because Lu Ma was more inclined to keep his promise, Ning Rongrong in the game still spoke up.

"My third soul skill is poison amplification, which can add 60% poison damage to attacks and apply a poison immunity buff to the target."

"As expected, it has a poisoning effect, but it can also purify the poison."

Ning Rongrong's words confirmed Tang San's guess. The reason the other party was poisoned when Ning Rongrong returned the spikes was because of Ning Rongrong, not because the spikes themselves were poisonous.

Hearing this, Tang San inexplicably felt that Ning Rongrong was a bit of an eyesore. If Ning Rongrong weren't an ally, he would have already shot her with a hidden arrow.

"How much? 60%?"

Different people have different focuses. While Tang San was concerned about the effects of the poisoning and detoxification, Oscar was more concerned about the numerical increase.

As a fellow support-type Soul Master, he knew all too well what a 60% damage-related buff meant; that was a value that only a five-ring Soul King could possess.

"This isn't right..." he muttered, somewhat doubting his own existence.