905: Temple Goddess

After securing the promise from this Supreme Soul Card Master of the Divine Hall, Du Xingchen finally relaxed a little.

With the backing of the Divine Hall and the preparatory items provided to him, his safety was at least guaranteed to a basic extent.

It was no wonder he had taken such measures.

Currently, Du Xingchen had already offended Moyun. Being hated by the protagonist meant he was in extreme danger!

Whether he would survive the trip to the Outer Domain as he had in the original story had become an unknown.

Having the power of the Divine Hall to call upon gave him more confidence to venture into the Outer Domain.

Of course, an even greater source of his confidence... was the System.

As he put away the token, Du Xingchen looked at the System panel before him.

Not long ago, after being favored by the Huipao Supreme of the Saint Healing Sect in place of the protagonist Moyun, the System had rewarded him with two draws from the six-thousand-year category.

Given his previous experiences with the draw System, Du Xingchen did not underestimate it in the slightest.

Just judging by the year level of this reward, it was enough to completely transform him, just like before!

"System, use one six-thousand-year draw."

He did, after all, have two draws.

This gave Du Xingchen the confidence to give it a try.

"Ding~ Host has used one six-thousand-year draw opportunity."

"Congratulations, Host. Your fourth Soul Card has unlocked a second skill."

Second Soul Card Skill: A single Soul Card can now unleash a skill different from its original one.

After this simple introduction, Du Xingchen snapped back to reality.

One Soul Card, two skills?!

For a Soul Card Master to use two different skills, they required two Soul Cards. The number of skills equaled the number of Soul Cards—this was a fundamental rule of the entire world!

Yet here, the System had directly shattered it?!

As he reached his hand towards the Void Realm, his fourth Soul Card, with its dark purple luster, appeared in his palm.

Glancing at the turtle design on the front, Du Xingchen flipped the card over to look at the back.

The originally plain back of the card now featured a large question mark!

Although this Soul Card could now have a second skill, what that second skill would actually be required him to hunt a spirit beast first and then integrate its card into this fourth Soul Card to manifest it.

And the upper limit for the year level of the fourth Soul Card's second skill was six thousand years.

All of Du Xingchen's current Soul Card skills were focused on defense and applying negative buffs to enemies.

He urgently needed an offensive-type skill.

Originally, to achieve this, he would have had to wait until he was searching for his fifth Soul Card.

Now, this was completely unexpected.

A hidden six-thousand-year Soul Card skill could fully match the full-powered strength of Wen Xiucheng from their protagonist team, delivering a sudden and unexpected blow.

Of course, the prerequisite was that the spirit beast yielding this six-thousand-year skill also belonged to the king-tier category among spirit beasts.

Having adjusted his mood, Du Xingchen checked the time.

Unfortunately, there was no time now for him to go find a suitable spirit beast to unlock his Soul Card's second skill.

Perhaps this trip to the Outer Domain would yield some good results.

After all, the terror of the spirit beasts in the Outer Domain was renowned throughout the entire Martial Soul World!

...

Night fell.

The outskirts of Shield City were plunged into darkness.

Yet the central roads within the city were brightly lit.

Walking along the street, Du Xingchen looked around at the various facilities with a sense of novelty.

There were street lamps and other lights lining the roads.

However, what illuminated these lamps was not electricity, but the Soul Power of Soul Card Masters.

As he walked, Du Xingchen also noticed some distinctive features of this central street.

Such as auction houses, spirit beast markets, Soul Card Master dueling arenas...

These were the specialties of Shield City.

Or rather, the specialties of most cities.

The reason was simple: these industries generated sufficiently high profits and were businesses that the citizens did not resent.

Of course.

The branch of the Divine Hall was also an entity that a city could not ignore.

According to the original story's description.

One could even say that when facing the manager of a Divine Hall branch, the city's ruler had to lower their head!

Coming to a stop on the street, Du Xingchen looked up at the magnificent castle-like structure before him.

Only the Divine Hall could erect such a large, luxurious building right on the main street.

In cities, such Divine Hall branches handled many matters.

For example, providing free Martial Soul Awakening for those without the means.

Offering a public bounty platform.

If a criminal couldn't be captured by the city's guards for a long time, and the victim couldn't accept it, they could place a bounty at the Divine Hall. Afterwards, the Divine Hall would send someone to assist.

The Divine Hall branch also acted as a communication bridge between the city's merchants, citizens, and officials. In simple terms, they upheld justice and prevented the strong from bullying the weak.

These functions actually touched upon the bottom line of a nation.

After all, oppressing the people and extracting wealth were internal matters of their own country.

For the Divine Hall, an external entity, to meddle and interfere shouldn't be justified.

But there was no choice.

Currently, the Divine Hall's power was immense. The five nations could only curse them in secret.

On the surface, they had to restrain themselves considerably, striving to maintain a positive image and prevent the public's sentiments from shifting towards the Divine Hall.

After walking into this splendid building.

Du Xingchen could see some busy staff moving about inside.

Before he could ask anyone.

A bespectacled middle-aged man approached and inquired, "Excuse me, are you Mr. Du?"

"Yes," Du Xingchen nodded slightly.

"Mr. Du, please follow me." This man had clearly received some notification earlier.

Now that he had found the right person, he naturally proceeded with his task to take Du Xingchen to a specific place.

Under his guidance.

Du Xingchen followed him, illuminated by the cool moonlight shining into the corridor, until they arrived at a side hall.

Standing at the door, the middle-aged man turned and said, "This is the place. You may enter, Mr. Du."

With that, he turned and left without hesitation, leaving Du Xingchen behind.

...

The door to the side hall was pushed open silently by Du Xingchen.

The first thing that met his eyes was the gentle glow of candlelight.

Then, what made Du Xingchen narrow his eyes slightly was the young woman sitting casually inside the side hall, flipping through a book.

The woman wore a pure white dress. A few strands of black hair fell from her forehead, adding a touch of laziness to her clean face.

Her beautiful eyes, devoid of much emotion, accentuated her capable and efficient demeanor.

Standing behind the woman, looking relatively respectful, was Mu Qianjun!

Almost instantly, combining this with the original story, Du Xingchen had a pretty accurate guess about this woman's identity!

He hadn't expected... to encounter this woman at this stage.

"This is the Divine Hall's Holy Maiden. She came here to get acquainted with you."

"Regarding your classmates at Yunyong Academy, the Holy Maiden is also very interested."

Mu Qianjun said the words Du Xingchen had anticipated.

Upon hearing this, he promptly put on an expression of shock, looked respectfully at the woman seated in the chair, and bowed. "Greetings, Holy Maiden."

Du Xingchen wasn't like some stubborn fool who made a point of not showing respect to superiors as a matter of style.

Showing respect was a trivial matter; there was no need to make a big deal out of it.