"Great-Grandmother, your Jade Clam Pearl Ointment is almost finished, isn't it? I've brought you a fresh supply."
Zhangting's voice was smooth, devoid of any child-like playfulness. He placed a pale green jade box on the wooden table where the zither sat. Through the translucent stone, a milky-white ointment—a luxury distilled from deep-sea pearls and rare spices—shimmered. It was an anti-aging treasure that even the wealthiest nobles would kill for.
In this world, no woman is immune to the lure of eternal beauty, no matter how high her cultivation.
Xia Zhengleng accepted the gift, a faint smile gracing her elegant features. "Is little Zhangting trying to compensate me? Ever since you proposed that Brain Domain Development project to your Great-Granduncle, Qingfeng has been... possessed. In all our years together, I've never seen him this dedicated. He barely spends time with me anymore."
She spoke with a mock resentment, but her eyes held a spark of pride. Before Zhangting could defend his "interference," a flustered voice drifted from the courtyard.
"Zhengleng..."
Qian Gu Qingfeng, the Purgatory Douluo, appeared in a blur. He ignored Zhangting completely, his focus solely on his wife as he leaned his head against her shoulder in a rare display of affection. "Wife, I was wrong."
The power-couple of the Spirit Pagoda didn't seem to care that a six-year-old was watching their intimate display. Qingfeng's voice, which held the authority of a god when speaking to others, was soft only for her.
"Does it look like Zhangting cares one bit?" Qingfeng muttered when his wife teased him about the boy's presence. "If the kid doesn't mind, why should we?"
Turning his gaze to Zhangting, the tenderness vanished, replaced by the crushing weight of a Limit Douluo's authority. "Kid, did you come here to show off your Innately Full Soul Power? If so, leave. Your grandfather already bored me with his boasting hours ago. Though, he did say one thing that made sense: you have the potential of a Limit Douluo. Don't waste it. If you have questions about cultivation, ask. Don't waste your time with toys."
Zhangting didn't flinch. "Great-Granduncle, I'm not here to show off. I'm here for the Brain Domain Development project."
The Forbidden Frontier
Qian Gu Qingfeng's expression shifted, turning complex and almost wary. "I really want to know how that little head of yours is wired, Zhangting. Where do these whimsical ideas come from?"
He sighed, his mind racing through the theories Zhangting had planted weeks ago. "Brain Domain Development is a feasible path. It can push mental force to a level where the Spiritual Sense transforms into Divine Sense. As far as I know, only Yun Ming has brushed against the Divine Origin Realm. But theoretical feasibility and reality are separated by a vast, lethal ocean."
Qian Gu Qingfeng paced the courtyard, his presence disturbing the very air. "The Federation's research is pathetic. Even our Spirit Pagoda has only scratched the surface. I plan to establish a Brain Science Research Institute at headquarters, but breakthroughs might take generations."
"We don't have generations," Zhangting interrupted, his voice dropping into a chilling register. "And we don't need to look at the Federation or the Tang Sect for answers."
Qian Gu Qingfeng raised an eyebrow, a cold wind swirling around his feet. "Then who? Shrek? You know our relationship with them is nothing more than a thin mask of civility."
"No," Zhangting replied, looking his Great-Granduncle directly in the eye. "The Holy Spirit Cult."
Dancing with Devils
The silence that followed was deafening. The hand holding Xia Zhengleng's waist subtly tightened before pulling away. Qingfeng's pupils shrank.
"The Holy Spirit Cult?" Qingfeng whispered, his voice like grinding stones.
"Who on this continent has more experience with the limits of the human brain than the Evil Soul Masters?" Zhangting continued, ignoring the danger radiating from the elder. "They are hated by everyone, which makes them the perfect 'experimental field' to plunder. Why reinvent the wheel when we can simply take their spoils?"
Zhangting knew the truth that others ignored. Ever since the Thousand-Hand Douluo crushed the Spirit Hall twenty thousand years ago, the rise of Evil Soul Masters had been a cancer that the "righteous" sects couldn't stop. They were no longer just a cult; they were a superpower led by Limit Douluos.
But Zhangting also knew something more sensitive—the secret connection between the three Limit Douluos of the Qiangu family and the Holy Spirit Cult. It was a line that, if crossed, would destroy the Spirit Pagoda's reputation forever.
Qian Gu Qingfeng's aura flickered. For a moment, the courtyard felt like it was shifting into the Purgatory Realm. He was afraid—not of the cult, but that his wife might sense the darkness already buried in the family's foundation.
"The connection between us and the Cult is a secret kept by only three people," Qingfeng thought, his gaze burning into Zhangting. "How does this boy... how does he know exactly where to strike?"
"Great-Granduncle," Zhangting said, a faint, knowing smile playing on his lips. "It's time we stop playing by the rules of those who want to see us fall. To defeat a monster like Shrek, we must understand the darkness better than anyone else."
As the Guzheng's final vibration died out, the path of the Qiangu family took a sharp turn into the shadows. Zhangting wasn't just planning for a research institute. He was planning a coup of the soul.