Chapter 02 :- Surging undercurrents (1)

Wuhan City occupies the most central position on the Douluo Continent and it is the most populous city with various trading halls, guilds, mercenary halls, sect headquarters, and shops.

Merchants from various parts of the continent bring various rare goods that are hard to find. Such items seldomly appear on shops and auction sites of Spirit City.

Being the economic hub and cultural Center of the entire Douluo continent, Wuhun city is very prosperous.

Spirit masters are like clouds here, as it is considered the Holy Land of every soul master in the continent.

The Spirit Hall is a giant behemoth whose strength far surpasses both the empires, the Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire.

It has the largest number of Soul masters on the continent.

The Spirit Hall is mainly divided into six levels. The lowest rank is the Spirit Hall. Then is the Branch Hall and Second Level Sub-hall. Second level Sub-halls are generally established in more developed cities, such as Soto City in the Barak Kingdom.

The next higher level is the Main Hall. There is one in every province of the empire. Above it is Supreme Hall. There are only two Supreme Halls. Each is present in the Imperial city of Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire.

And the last Pope Palace and Douluo Palace are present in Wuhun City. Only the strong above Soul Douluo level in power are eligible to enter Douluo Place.

The papal place is the office of the Supreme Pontiff that rules and oversees the Spirit Hall. And only those loyal to the pope and appointed by the pope of the Spirit Hall are eligible to enter.

It is in the minds of all Spirit Masters in the mainland, "The Holy Land".

According to the different levels of the spirit halls, the strength of the spirit masters is also different in different branches of the Spirit Hall.

For the lowest level of the temple, the strength of the hall master is only of the soul sect level, and the backbone is mainly the big soul master.

They are mainly responsible for each village and help the civilians to awaken their Martial Spirit and appraise their soul power.

In the higher sub-hall, the strength of the person in charge is at the level of the soul king or the soul emperor.

It is mainly determined by the specific developmental level of the city where the branch is located.

The backbone of such branch is the soul master and the great soul master level strongmen, who are mainly responsible for maintaining the rules and regulation, Orders and conducts of soul master and their appraisal."

There is at least one cardinal present in every main hall, that is, strongmen at the level of soul sage.

In some cities, there are even several strong soul sages in the main hall. The Soul Sect and Soul Sovereign are mainly responsible for maintaining the order of the Soul Master and conducting the Soul Master Appraisal in those halls.

And the Supreme Hall is guarded by platinum bishops, who are generally Contra-level powerhouses. There are also many cardinals.

The position of the temple master in Supreme Hall is second to that of the Pope and the Elders who worship Douluo Hall and Supreme Pontiff Hall.

Even if it is within any empire, its status can only be a bit lower compared to the emperor.

As for the legendary Pope Hall, it is naturally managed by the Pope of Wuhun Hall. There are also many elders and bishops.

It is the highest power centre in the whole of Wuhun Hall and the mainland.

The Supreme Pontiff of the Spirit Hall, Pope Bibi Dong, a rank 98 super Douluo, with twin martial spirits, is famous across the continent for her reforms, which helped commoners have great respect for Spirit Temple.

She is the ideal and belief of every spirit master of the continent.

Coupled with her beauty and strength she was idolised by many and regarded as the first genius of the mainland.

There were also countless powerhouses in Spirit Hall.

It is also rumoured that the Great Worship of Wuhan Temple is ranked 99 Limit Douluo, the highest level any human has ever reached. But he has not appeared before the public eyes for hundreds of years.

So people entering the Spirit City whether they are of high status, strength or noble background always behave prudently after entering the City.

It is said that Spirit Hall has more than 15 Title Douluos Guarding it's the town, with 6 of them being the Super Douluo class powerhouse, this deters most of the forces in the mainland from having any crooked thoughts about Spirit Hall.

The Strongest of the Upper three Sects "The Houtian Sect" had to close their gate and were forced into hiding by Spirit Hall. Even both the Empires

feared this display of strength by Wuhun Hall

Papal knights appointed by the Papal place are responsible for the safety, security and constant monitoring of Spirit City.

The Knights of Papal Knight Order is orderly distributed into teams, usually led by a captain having Soul king level personnel in his command. Each Captain reports to their Commanders. The Commanders work under the supervision of Generals. The generals have the Strength of Contra level.

Each of the generals directly reports to the Pope of the Spirit Hall and is under the Pope's command.

There are many such legions in the Papal Knight Order each under the supervision of a General.

Papal Knights are in every corner of the city, they patrol the streets to maintain law and order.

The prosperity of Spirit City is second to none in the entire Douluo Continent. Even the capital cities of Star Luo and Heaven Dou can't compare with it.

Under the direct jurisdiction of the papal place, Spirit City has seen a rapid boom in business and technology and living conditions in Spirit City are much better than in the Capitals of both Empires.

This can be seen if one visits the Spirit City. The city is clean, well planned with a good sewage system, wide roads, parks, playgrounds, academies. The city is also the most beautiful city on the mainland with a large number of flower gardens and trees, it even has soul guide devices like electric lights illuminating every corner of the city.

People living in Spirit City are exempt from paying taxes, only people who are involved in the business are required to pay taxes. The Tax is very less compared to the tax imposed by the Empires. This draws many civilians and businessmen to Spirit City.

Wuhan Temple is considered a godly existence among the world of Spirit Master due to its reforms which are focused on helping the spiritual masters from common family backgrounds.

Established in every corner of the continent in both the empires and even the remotest of the villages, it ensures that everyone gets a chance to awaken their martial spirits.

The Spirit Hall has made the awakening of spirits is cost-effective in consideration of the people from commoner backgrounds.

And they even provide a monthly allowance to spirit masters depending upon their ranks and strength.

This reform also helps spirit Hall collect extraordinary geniuses from every part and background of the continent and even compile data of everyone awakened.

The commoners aim to join spirit Hall after awakening their spirits.

This ensures them a good standard of living and status in a society where only a few people can awaken their martial spirit. Thus common folks highly appreciate the undertakings of Wuhan Temple towards the commoner backgrounds.

Before the establishment of Wuhan Hall, the methods of becoming soul masters were monopolized by both Empires.

After Wuhan Temple came to power they published the methods of becoming Soul Masters, thus gaining the momentum, support and praise of commoners as it focussed on helping the commoners unlike those nobles of both the empires.

This made Spirit Hall a thorn in the eye of both Empires.

( 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗗𝗼𝘂 𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲, 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗣𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲)

"Hateful! Spirit Hall is poaching away all the talented soul masters and Youngsters from our Empire for many Centuries, Yet we can't do anything other than just see them getting stronger and stronger. Hateful!" exclaimed Emperor Xue clenching his fists upon seeing the recent reports and statistics.

Seeing the emperor angry the council of ministers remained silent not daring to breathe, silently bowing their heads, afraid of his Majesty's wrath upon them.

Currently, Emperor Xue is in a joint meeting with the council of ministers, government officials, military generals and nobles that occupies important positions in the empire.

The Hall was in silence hearing Emperor Xue's angry remarks. His face was red with agony, veins in his face were protruding in anger, his teeth clenched tightly in his jaws.

After a couple of minutes, the Emperor calmed down and gulped a glass of wine. He retained his sanity and cool, controlled his emotions after taking a deep breath.

Though the emperor was so great in strength in comparison to those present in the court his position as the Emperor does not allow him to have poor performance in front of his subjects.

"Okay, Let me hear all You guys have to say!

You are all free to suggest any of your opinions on this matter in predicament to the current problem," asked the emperor to his ministers and officials calming his emotions regaining his majesty.

Seeing no one spoke anything Emperor Xu became frustrated.

While some people were wrecking their heads for solutions, the Knight Commander of Imperial Knight order Zhou Den cupped his fist and suggested "How about we declare war against Spirit Hall. We have countless soul masters in our army, even the Spirit Hall will have a hard to contending against our empire's army! "

The silent Hall started brustling with the noise of people upon the bold declaration of Zhou Den.

The people started discussing among themselves.

This led to heated debates among the court council members. They formed two factions - one against the proposal of Zhou Den headed by Prince Xue Xing and the other in favour of Zhou Den by his fraction.

Emperor Xue seated on the high throne nodded helplessly and sighed with disappointment.