'Your Holiness.' Inside the Pope's Palace, a guard respectfully approached Bibi Dong with an old-style desk telephone. The device was square and had only two buttons.
Bibi Dong stopped writing and glanced at the telephone. On the front, the two buttons were labeled Polaris and Star Stripe. The Polaris button was glowing faintly.
Bibi Dong picked up the telephone with practiced ease. From the other side, Salas, the platinum bishop of the Polaris Temple, spoke. 'Long live Your Holiness.'
'Mm. What is it, Salas?'
As she listened to Salas's report through the telephone, Bibi Dong narrowed her eyes slightly. 'Oh? Tang San. Blue Silver Grass with innate full Spirit Power.'
As she said that, Bibi Dong glanced toward the east. That was the direction of Wu Ling's home.
'I understand. Do not concern yourself with him. I have my own arrangements.'
'As you command, Your Holiness.'
After hanging up, Bibi Dong waved her hand. The guard carried the telephone back to its designated place.
Bibi Dong picked up her pen again, but this time she no longer had the mood to handle documents. She recalled a prediction Wu Ling had told her several days earlier, the innate full Spirit Power son of Clear Sky Sage. She murmured to herself, 'Wu Ling, just what else do you know?'
On Salas's side, he began calling the person in charge of the Spirit Hall main branch.
'The Pope said not to touch him. Her Holiness has her own arrangements.'
'Understood.'
Just before hanging up, Salas suddenly added, 'Wait. The person who reported it has no great merit, but he still worked for it. Give him something appropriate.'
'Yes. This subordinate understands.'
In this way, the Pope's command traveled from the Pope's Palace to the Spirit Hall temple in the Polaris Empire. The Spirit Hall temple then called the Spirit Hall main branch, and the order passed down level by level until it returned to the Notting City Spirit Hall branch.
The reason they used telephones this way was that Rose's Spirit Power telephone used Spirit Power in place of signal transmission. Before individual Spirit Power registrations could be entered, it could only function as this kind of fixed-line telephone.
For example, the telephone in the Pope's Palace could only receive calls from or make calls to the two major temples in Polaris and Star Stripe. The temples then had several other telephones that connected to the main branches below them. The message had to be passed down layer by layer.
In Wu Ling's view, this was still rather troublesome. But for Soul Land, which had previously relied on letters to transmit information, this kind of tool that could send words across a thousand li was absolutely unprecedented.
Rose later wanted to use Spirit Power blocks in place of mobile phone cards and create portable mobile telephones. Wu Ling stopped her with the words, 'Haste makes waste.' Compared with telephones, there were more important things for Rose to research.
Meanwhile, in Notting City, after the Spirit Hall branch master and Soichiro had waited anxiously, information finally came back from the Spirit Hall sub-branch.
The hall master's eyes first filled with disappointment, then quickly turned excited. Seeing that, Soichiro seemed to understand something. The pleasure of the dragon slayer becoming the dragon made him laugh as well.
Not many people knew the specific details. But after that year's Martial Soul awakening day, the Notting City Spirit Hall branch never saw that deacon again.
Back in Spirit City, bare-chested Wu Ling stopped his battle with Shade.
'What is it, Old Li?'
'Young Master, Her Holiness sent someone with a message. She said the person you mentioned a few days ago has appeared.'
Wu Ling was not excited after hearing this. He had calculated Tang San's awakening time long ago, and one mere Tang San was not worth changing his plan over.
'All right. I know.'
Then Wu Ling continued fighting Shade. Steward Li said nothing more. He simply fulfilled his duty as steward, bowed to Wu Ling, and quietly withdrew.
A few days later, Tang San entered Notting Academy as expected. After showing off his skill, he was accepted by Ethan Drake as a disciple.
'Since you have acknowledged me as your teacher, I will give you a meeting gift.' As he spoke, Ethan Drake took out a belt and a book.
'This belt is a spirit tool. I will give it to you. A spirit tool is... And this book is a cultivation method. It can slightly increase your Spirit Power cultivation speed.'
After Tang San named the belt Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges, his attention fell on the book.
'I wonder how this cultivation method compares with my Mysterious Heaven Skill.'
Then Tang San showed Ethan Drake his other Martial Soul. Ethan Drake was immediately shocked.
After arranging to go to the Soul Hunting Forest two days later, Ethan watched Tang San leave the room and finally exhaled as he sat down in his chair.
'Clear Sky Hammer. Innate full Spirit Power Clear Sky Hammer!' Ethan suppressed the wild joy in his heart and began thinking about his plans for Tang San.
'Tang San's talent is absolutely no worse than that fellow's. Since Bibi Dong can take that fellow as a disciple, I will take Tang San as mine!'
'The twin Martial Soul problem can wait. The important thing is cultivation methods. I heard that aside from the cultivation methods circulating outside, there are three other methods whose effects completely surpass these public versions.'
'If he is going to build a good foundation, those three cultivation methods are necessary. But if I ask directly, the Spirit Hall branch master definitely will not give them to me... Forget it. One step at a time. Since Spirit Hall can research cultivation methods, I can definitely research them too. When that happens, I will still prove my theory to the world!'
Although Spirit Hall publicly claimed that Wu Ling had invented the cultivation methods, Ethan Drake did not believe that a child could invent anything meaningful. The cultivation methods had to have been invented by Spirit Hall, then credited to Wu Ling to build momentum for him.
Two days later, Tang San followed Ethan Drake to the Soul Hunting Forest.
Seeing so many kinds of Soul Beasts for the first time, aside from Lyra, Tang San looked around and asked question after question.
Ethan Drake proudly explained everything to him. Then he announced the result of his calculations. 'Not too much, not too little. Four hundred and twenty-three years!'
'What a confident and precise number!' The inexperienced Tang San saw Ethan Drake's certainty and recognized him even more.
After passing a Snakevine Flower, Tang San was still thinking about the name Mandala Snake, which made his scalp tingle.
Suddenly, Ethan Drake stopped sharply. Luo Sanpao in front of him also took a battle stance.
'That is...! It seems your first Spirit Ring has been found.' As he spoke, Ethan pointed at a snake hanging from a tree.
'A three-hundred-and-ninety-nine-year Sharp-Scale Serpent. It is a few years short, but still within the suitable range.'