Douluo Continent: Martial Soul Clay, the Creator of All Things

As he spoke, Shi Yue took out a black card from his storage soul tool.

"Heh," the enforcement captain laughed in anger. What did they take him for? Where did they put the prestige of the Spirit Hall?

A mere three thousand gold soul coins, who are you insulting?

"Ten thousand gold soul coins." A cold voice came from the captain of the enforcement team.

“But sir…” Shi Yue opened his mouth, but before he could finish speaking, the cold voice of the law enforcement captain entered his ears again.

"Twenty thousand gold soul coins."

"Here you go." Shi Yue shut up, afraid the enforcement captain would raise the price further. "I accept the penalty, thank you, sir!"

Subsequently, Shi Yue paid the fine to the enforcement team leader.

Twenty thousand gold soul coins is enough to cover the income of his small baronial territory for four or five years. Even for him, it hurts!

The only option is to make those lowly people under the territory suffer even more.

With a quick thought, Shi Yue had an idea.

But the voice of the enforcement captain continued to come through.

"Given that you have violated the original intention of the Spirit Hall and the Empire in establishing the Soul Hunting Forest, which was to provide convenience for low-level Soul Masters to hunt souls."

Instead, they used their strength to forcibly seize other Soul Masters' prey, and even launched sneak attacks and killed them in front of the law enforcement team, seriously disrupting the Soul Hunting Order in the Soul Hunting Forest.

"You are hereby ordered to hand over the Soul Hunting Token and leave immediately. You are forbidden from ever setting foot in the Soul Hunting Forest again, and you are forbidden from hunting any soul beasts."

After collecting the money, the enforcement captain looked at Shi Yue and his group with a smile and spoke in the official tone of a Spirit Hall enforcement officer.

Then, his expression turned cold, and the four spirit rings on his body fluctuated up and down, his spirit power surged, and he exuded a murderous aura.

"Anyone who disobeys will be executed without mercy!"

His voice was filled with cold ruthlessness and an unassailable authority.

"Ah, sir, this... this..." Shi Yue was speechless upon hearing this. They took the money and then kicked him out. They were so heartless!

Moreover, Shi Yue could hear the murderous intent in the other party's tone.

They're probably just waiting for us to disobey their orders so they can openly and legitimately execute us all on the spot!

But his son's first spirit ring was still nowhere to be found!

Even if you give up this rock lizard, there will be another one.

However, if one cannot hunt souls in this Soul Hunting Forest, it will take a long time.

Just obtaining information about suitable types and ages of soul beasts takes a lot of time, not to mention that going to other places to hunt soul beasts will definitely take a lot of time along the way.

He would never allow his son to settle for a spirit ring from an ordinary spirit beast.

At this moment, Shi Yue even felt a little regretful, regretting that he had acted too late. If he had discovered Lu Yan and his group earlier...

They acted immediately to drive away or kill Lu Yan and his group, without coveting the benefits of Lu Yan and his group's soul-hunting achievements.

How did we get to this point?

As for giving the rock lizards that Lu Yan and the others had discovered first to them, Shi Yue had no such intention.

Since currying favor with the powerful and wealthy, he has become addicted to the pleasure of bullying others and taking advantage of the weak.

The strong rule is respected; this is an ironclad law on the Douluo Continent.

But now, when he is once again the one being "oppressed," his mindset has changed again.

The mere Soul Sect dares to humiliate me like this today. When my son grows up, he will repay this shame a thousandfold in the future!

"Let's go!" Shi Yue squeezed out these three words through gritted teeth to the people around him. At this moment, he no longer cared about being respectful and humble to the law enforcement captain.

He realized that there was something he was wary of in this enforcement team leader.

At least now there is no reason to attack him anymore, after all, he is backed by an Imperial Earl, a Soul Saint level being!

In fact, the enforcement captain was indeed somewhat wary.

But what he feared was not the so-called Imperial Earl, nor the Soul Saint powerhouse.

He's just a Soul Saint; not to mention the Spirit Hall, even within his own family, there are quite a few.

The strongest member of the family is even a titled Douluo who is listed in the Hall of Worship.

Although he was just an insignificant member of the family, he was not someone that a mere Soul Saint could easily control.

What he truly feared were those people in the papacy!

A year ago, he was caught red-handed precisely because he dealt with a noble soul master who had colluded with the papal faction.

He was targeted and ostracized by the Papal faction, and forced to come to this Soul Hunting Forest to "watch the forest".

Otherwise, the little baron's act of launching a sneak attack while taking advantage of his own appearance was already a death sentence.

With a cold face, Shi Yue turned around and prepared to leave with the people around him.

But one person stood still without making any move.

It was Shi Yue's beloved son.

"Father, if I remember correctly, in the Soul Master's Soul Hunting, if a conflict occurs, the ownership of the Soul Beast can be decided by the Soul Battle, right?"

The young baron naturally knew that if they left the Soul Hunter Forest now, his first soul ring would take a long time to develop.

How could he possibly agree to that?

At this moment, he felt not only resentment towards Lu Yan and his group for daring to compete with him for the same first soul ring despite being of lowly birth.

He also harbored resentment towards the Spirit Hall's enforcement team; if it weren't for their interference, he would have already obtained his desired first spirit ring.

He even harbored a hint of resentment towards his own father, Baron Lingfeng Shi Yue.

If I had been taken in and raised by my maternal grandfather long ago, how could this have happened?

Thinking of how Shi Yue had openly and secretly hindered his mother's clan from contacting him, the young baron's resentment grew even stronger.

Shi Yue's actions, just like those of Lu Yan and the Spirit Hall, are stumbling blocks on his path to becoming a strongman.

Upon hearing his beloved son's words, Shi Yue's eyes lit up, and he looked at the enforcement captain with some hesitation.

"My lord, if we want to decide the ownership of the spirit ring through a battle of spirits, wouldn't that be in accordance with the rules of the spirit hunting?"

Normally, this rule of determining the ownership of a soul beast through a battle of souls applies when both sides have contributed to the capture of the soul beast.

So Shi Yue hadn't thought of this at all before, but now that his precious son had brought it up, he couldn't help but ask.

"Oh?" The captain of the enforcement team looked at the young baron, a playful smile on his face. "You want to fight him in a soul battle?"

As he spoke, the enforcement captain pointed in Lu Yan's direction.

"Yes." The young baron nodded with a cold and arrogant expression, unwilling to say a word more, while Shi Yue chimed in from the side.

"Please grant my request, Your Excellency!" he said, bowing respectfully and humbly to the captain of the law enforcement team.

"Hahaha!" The enforcement captain suddenly burst out laughing, but then he withdrew the four spirit rings floating around him and looked at Shi Yue and asked.

"Why?"

Seeing this, Shi Yue understood what the enforcement captain meant. "Sir, I am willing to offer ten thousand gold soul coins..."

“Alright, ten thousand gold soul coins, I agree.” The enforcement captain interrupted Shi Yue directly, “These ten thousand gold soul coins will be the stake for this soul battle.”

"Little friend, what do you think? If you're not willing, you can refuse directly, and the spirit ring is still yours." The enforcement captain said this to Lu Yan.

Having innate level one soul power and breaking through to level ten soul master in two years was not surprising to him; he had seen people do it even faster.

What truly impressed the enforcement captain was that Lu Yan, with his seemingly worthless "useless martial soul," possessed combat abilities comparable to some first-ring beginner soul masters.

The long-standing joke, "There are no useless martial spirits, only useless soul masters," was truly embodied in him.

He had witnessed Lu Yan's combat training along the way, which had indeed provided some amusement during the boring days he had been assigned to "guard the forest".

Similarly, he strongly agreed with their attitude of not killing indiscriminately.

From the perspective of the Spirit Hall, he could see much farther than ordinary spirit masters.

Therefore, he was happy to grant the young baron's request for a fighting spirit.

At the same time, he also wanted to see if Lu Yan had any other tricks up his sleeve that could impress him.

In any case, it can help him pass the time when he's bored.

Chapter 35 Weighing the Pros and Cons, Finalizing the First War

Lu Yan never expected that things would eventually come back to haunt him.

After seeing Shi Yue pay the fine and the enforcement captain issue the expulsion order, he thought the matter could be put to rest for the time being.

Even if there are any potential problems, we'll have to wait until he finishes absorbing his first spirit ring.

But to my utter surprise, things have taken another turn for the worse.

Fighting spirit?

That's definitely something you have to experience when you come to Douluo Continent.

But should we fight?

Lu Yan's mind raced as he weighed the pros and cons.

Just then, Wang Dachui's wife, Liu Yan, the only combat support-type Soul Master in the team, spoke up.

"Xiao Lu, refuse. Don't cause any unnecessary trouble." Liu Yan said this, naturally with her own considerations.

Have they now incurred the wrath of Shi Yue and his group?

That was inevitable. Given the nature of the nobility, even if they were the ones who forcibly seized and plundered the entire time, and even resorted to violence to kill, they would still be capable of such acts.

But if you don't offer up your spirit ring and just stand there waiting to die, then that's wrong of you.

Moreover, she was terrified by the other party's previous bow and apology.

Now, because of this incident, they have been punished and expelled by the Spirit Hall's enforcement team.

If Shi Yue doesn't dare to retaliate against the Spirit Hall, does he not dare to retaliate against these commoner spirit masters?

Retaliation is inevitable, but the extent of that retaliation is uncertain.