Chapter 1131: Revisiting Mingdu City
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Tang Wulin had once come to this city with his companions before.
After a brief moment of rest, their unit went their way. Bear Lord did not reappear before them. They did not know if it went to nurse its wounds or was afraid of them.
Before entering the range of the military radars they removed their black mechas and replaced them with more ordinary equipment. They rented a few cross-country vehicles and drove towards Mingdu City.
The army had already settled issues with their identities beforehand. The Blood God Army had quotas for a number of retirees each year. It was a piece of cake for the army to settle a few identities. Other than Tang Wulin, there was no need to cover up identities for the others. The current name on Tang Wulin’s ID was Long Yue!
Tang Wulin sat on the co-driver’s seat and looked at the passing scenery outside the window. However, his brain was working overtime. Leaving the Blood God Army was equivalent to losing his most powerful protection.
Tang Wulin believed that his ability was still very obvious. As long as someone was persistent enough, there was a possibility that his identity would be found out. Fortunately, when Shrek Academy was under attack, the final rank-9 fixed soul ammunition had covered him very well. Most of the people had thought that he was dead from the explosion. Moreover, he was not overly popular on the continent.
The people from Shrek Academy that were truly under the spotlight were of the Sea God Pavilion. His popularity on Star Luo Continent was greater than on Douluo Continent. This was especially true since they were still learning on Demon Island.
Of course, it would certainly be insufficient to restore Shrek Academy to its former glory by just relying on their strengths alone. Even Tang Sect was still being suppressed at the current moment. The first thing he had to do was to gather all the forces he could. At the very least, when he raised Shrek Academy’s flag again, it would not be instantly overturned.
When he reminisced about his teachers and fellow schoolmates from Shrek Academy, his heart throbbed with pain.
Not long ago they were still learning and growing together. He had only truly felt the pain of losing his home in Shrek. However, he even lost his great stable family in the end.
It seemed that his cultivation base had been improving at a quicker pace in these recent years. He was finally a high-ranking soul master. However, his heart hoped to be with his family and friends! He sought greater strength to better protect them. However, he seemed to be losing even the people whom he could protect right now.
He shook his head lightly as he cleared his mind of these negative emotions. He clenched his fists. Happiness must be fought for by himself.
He closed his eyes and organized his thoughts. He wanted to restore Shrek and find his parents. All of this had to be done from scratch.
The weariness of the journey was nothing for high-ranking soul masters such as them. Two days later they finally arrived at the federal capital, Mingdu City.
When they entered Mingdu City’s boundary, the first thing they felt was extreme modernization. All kinds of soul cars sped past them on the streets which were lined with tall buildings on both sides.
The tall buildings presented a pleasant sight. They could occasionally catch glimpses of patrolling mechas in the skies. Their silhouettes looked dazzling.
In truth, Mingdu City’s security was very good. There was no real need for patrolling. These mechas served more to inspire interest in the younger generation toward all military things.
Ever since the Hawk Faction gained the upper hand after the federal parliament’s re-election, the influence of the military in the federation grew greatly. It seemed as if war could break out at any time.
Although he had been spending his time within the Blood God Army, Tang Wulin had immersed himself in researching the federation’s current state before he departed on the way here. Currently, negative reports of the Star Luo Continent and Douluo Continent were the main topics of interest in the federation. The media even dug up old hates that were thousands of years old.
Without a doubt, this was a tactic to instill hatred toward Star Luo Continent and Douluo Continent by spreading rumors.
It appeared that it was highly likely that the federation would go to war at any time.
Tang Wulin was opposed to war, he detested it. However, he could not deny that if war truly broke out it might be an opportunity for him.
The three continents were far away from each other. If the Douluo Federation wanted to wage war with the other two continents it would certainly tire its troops on a long expedition. Even though soul planes had been developed right now, air space control by airplanes alone could not settle a war. Moreover, even if the Star Luo Empire and Dou Spirit Empire were not as powerful as the federation, they would not be much weaker. Once a war starts, it was not something that could be settled in a short amount of time.
This would also inevitably lead to the weakening of the military forces within Douluo Federation. The other great forces would even join in the war efforts to obtain greater benefits in the future.
Wars were waged to fight for benefits. The various resources in the Douluo Federation were slowly drying up. If it were not for Star Luo Continent’s and Dou Spirit Continent’s richer resources, why would the federation be publicly preparing to start a war?
Since there were benefits to be reaped, there was no reason that the great clans and forces would just sit around and continue looking. This was especially true for great forces such as Spirit Pagoda which had a presence on all three continents.
To improve its combat strength, the spirit ascension platform’s business would inevitably improve. The prices of the soul spirits would only soar. It was also worth mentioning that the number of soul masters Spirit Pagoda controlled was great as well.
Recently, there was another piece of information that piqued Tang Wulin’s interest. It seemed that Spirit Pagoda had developed manmade thousand-years and ten-thousand-years spirit souls. The success in developing ten-thousand-years spirit souls had substantially improved Spirit Pagoda’s standing on the continent once again.
Ten thousand years spirit souls meant that the soul master’s strength could be improved substantially. They could even reduce the general demand for their spiritual power. After all, a ten-thousand-years spirit soul could bring a soul master four soul skills at most. This way they could reduce the need to absorb more soul spirits.
Naturally, it was said that the prices for ten-thousand-soul spirits were very high. Ever since they were promoted among the high-ranking soul masters, it quickly filled Spirit Pagoda’s coffers. The Spirit Pagoda even lowered the prices of their latest successfully developed thousand-year spirit souls. For the time their business was flourishing. It would not be exaggerating to describe their wealth as being comparable to a country’s.
It was said that the winds would damage the flourishing trees in a forest. However, judging by Spirit Pagoda’s current situation it did not seem to have such problems. They even became the great founder behind the military’s Hawk Faction.
This information was the fruits of Tang Wulin’s research throughout these few days.
Without a doubt, the greatest benefactor from Shrek Academy’s destruction and Tang Sect’s demise was Spirit Pagoda. Now it had truly become the greatest force on the continent.
Of course, it had been a great force all along. But back then its influence was still balanced off and restricted by Shrek Academy with its high social standing and Tang Sect. However, this restriction was now nonexistent. Spirit Pagoda could accumulate wealth by unfair means without any care and do whatever they want to do.
When he thought about this a name naturally appeared in Tang Wulin’s mind, the Holy Spirit Cult!
Ever since his first encounter with the evil soul master, he had lost count of the times he had crossed paths with evil soul masters. The feelings that the evil soul masters gave him were cruel, vicious, evil, and mysterious.
That was right. Up until now, he and the other great forces of the continent had no idea where these evil soul masters came from, where they were, and what structure their organization took. Nobody knew anything about them.
This led to the situation where they could appear anywhere on the continent. Even the recent abyssal plane’s disturbance was related to them.
This was cracking their brains! If the abyssal plane invaded their world, who knew how many people would lose their lives. However, the Holy Spirit Cult had done exactly that. They did it cold-bloodedly.