"Fine, fine, Dai Hao, just you wait!"The Super Douluo from Dou Ling snarled, but didn't dare act too recklessly in front of the Poison Douluo. He could only snort coldly and storm off.
Dai Hao had clearly made a deal with Dou Ling, yet now he was going back on it at the last minute.
Whether the Body Sect was interfering behind the scenes, he couldn't be sure. But if he didn't return soon, leaving the imperial capital without a strong guardian could be dangerous...
His figure flashed and vanished on the spot.
"Report~!"
A voice rang out from outside the tent.
A messenger hurried in and knelt on one knee. "Reporting to the Commander, there is an update from the frontlines."
"Oh?" Dai Hao took the dispatch.
After reading it in silence for a while, he handed it over to the Poison Douluo with a blank expression.
"Heh heh…" The Poison Douluo chuckled as he took it. Now that they were more or less on the same side, he didn't bother being polite.
"Xu Jiawei has withdrawn his troops… a wise choice. But the Sun-Moon Empire has reinforced its forces. Could it be that brat anticipated I was here?" He frowned slightly and casually rubbed the paper between his fingers—turning the dispatch into powder that scattered over the table.
It wasn't just the reinforcements that surprised him, but the names on that list.
"The Phoenix Legion has added a battalion to the two already stationed. Four more battalions from the Royal Dragon Soul Engineer Regiment are en route under the command of their captain. Even the Fourth Battalion of the Royal Soul Engineer Regiment is going, led by none other than their top commander, Xu Jiangnian. Such a lavish deployment only happens when nations are truly at war."
The Poison Douluo tapped the table lightly, his eyes narrowing.
"No wonder it's that brat…" After a while, he shook his head with a laugh.
So far, since the two armies hadn't clashed head-on and the Sun-Moon Empire hadn't shown its overwhelming might like in the original timeline, the Body Sect hadn't considered an all-out war. Nor were they acting desperately, using underhanded tricks to stall or weaken the Sun-Moon Empire.
They were still hoping for peace. As long as the Sun-Moon Empire didn't fire the first shot, they wouldn't act either.
"Poison Elder, you—" Dai Hao began.
"Don't even think about it." The Poison Douluo sneered. "Take advantage of the Sun-Moon Empire's temporarily weak front line? Launch a raid to snatch that girl? I may have some personal interest entangled with that brat, but we're far from mortal enemies."
"If I really kidnapped her and handed her over to you… she'd be better off dead."
"Oh? Even you have someone you fear?" Dai Hao said flatly.
"Trying to provoke me? Too childish." The Poison Douluo grinned. "Dai Hao, I'll admit you're clever. But compared to Xu Cheng, you're still lacking by more than a few leagues. Let's put it this way—if he wanted you dead, you'd be dead already. The only reason you're still breathing is because you're still useful. And now you want to steal his woman? What a joke…"
"His… woman?" Dai Hao looked up in shock.
"Tch. You're the commander of an army, yet you didn't know this?" The Poison Douluo clicked his tongue, glancing at him with a touch of pity.
"So that's how it is!"
Dai Hao's eyes turned red, soul power surging around him.
He suddenly remembered that basket of oranges—that was such an insult!He had spoken so confidently before… now it felt like someone had slapped a red clown nose on his face.
"Enough. Do your job and make your tribute on time. The Body Sect's experts will keep the Sun-Moon Empire from advancing an inch. But don't provoke them either. If war breaks out, that brat could just launch a missile and blow your base to pieces." The Poison Douluo chuckled and turned to leave.
"Hm? Feels like something's missing?" As he rose into the air and glanced around, he suddenly realized, "Huh? Looks like those Shrek guys haven't shown up?"
Shrek Academy.
Sea God Pavilion Meeting.
Things were chaotic in the Star Luo Empire. Yan Shaozhe had originally planned to go to the frontlines to bleed Dai Hao dry. But then a letter from Fan Yu arrived, throwing all his plans into disarray. He quickly called a Sea God Pavilion meeting.
"Elder Mu, it was you who brought Le Xuan back to us. Is what He Caitou said true? Is she really of Sun-Moon Imperial blood?" Xian Lin'er asked anxiously.
Zhang Lexuan's importance was undeniable. She was the future of Shrek—its very foundation. If something happened to her...
Then they might as well pack up and go home.
Ma Xiaotao getting taken was a shame, sure—Yan Shaozhe was particularly upset—but it didn't shake their foundation. Zhang Lexuan, though? If she was lost, the entire Sea God Pavilion would be turned upside down.
"If you ask me, we never should've let her go in the first place," Yan Shaozhe muttered. "That Sun-Moon Empire is crawling with evil soul masters. Who knows what kind of nonsense they've been feeding her."
He'd never liked this exchange program, and now that things were going south, his complaints naturally surfaced.
"Shut up, Yan Shaozhe. You've got some nerve!" Xian Lin'er snapped. "Elder Mu told you to punish Zhou Yi, but what did you do? You protected her! Is that how you uphold Shrek's dignity? Thanks to you, the hidden clans got angry and withdrew all their disciples. You've dug up Shrek's roots!"
Xian Lin'er had always been fiery, and recent events had only added fuel to her anger.
After all, everyone at Shrek was from noble families, and news like this couldn't be hidden. With several major clans pulling their investments and students, word had spread fast.
Now everyone was jittery, wondering whether they should take sides.
"Enough…" Elder Mu, frail as a dried leaf, sat quietly in his wheelchair.
He knew this disciple of his was blaming him. After all, it had been his decision to let Zhang Lexuan make her own choice…
The room went silent.
All eyes turned to Elder Mu.
He gave a light cough, looked around, and his old eyes flickered with disappointment.
Once he was gone, no one here could truly lead.
Though the other Pavilion Elders were old friends, even Xuanzi couldn't control everyone. When faced with crises, they scattered like headless flies.
They only blamed each other instead of finding solutions.
What future could such a Shrek possibly have?
"Shaozhe, what do you suggest?" Elder Mu asked quietly.
"I think we should send a secret message to Fan Yu, asking him to call Le Xuan back," Yan Shaozhe said quickly. "Just say… you're gravely ill. She's a filial child—she'll surely come rushing back. No matter what her situation with that Xu Cheng is… once she returns to Shrek, we'll know everything."
It was clear he'd already thought this through.
The room fell silent again.
It might be deceptive, but desperate times called for desperate measures. In their eyes, there was no way Zhang Lexuan would ever betray Shrek. If something was wrong, the only explanation was Xu Cheng.
"In that case, let's proceed with Shaozhe's plan." Elder Mu didn't argue. He slowly closed his eyes and wheeled himself away toward the Golden Tree.
Once Elder Mu was gone—
The meeting room became livelier.
Yan Shaozhe and Xian Lin'er discussed how to write the letter. The other elders stood and left. Only Cai Mei'er lingered, glancing hesitantly at Elder Mu's lonely figure disappearing into the depths of the grove.
--------------------------
"There are two directions for future research: one, integrated coordination; two, information reconnaissance."
Xu Cheng wore a white lab coat, overlooking from above a transparent tiered platform. Below him, procedures were being carried out one after another—data detection, experimentation, reporting, consolidation—everything progressing in an orderly manner by the Mingdetang research personnel.
This was the true core of Mingdetang.
The mecha lab, missile project team, and the all-terrain mobile turret group led by Xuan Ziwen were all located here.
Xu Cheng looked around and raised two fingers.
"Integrated coordination refers to integrated attacks. One of the major differences between Soul Engineers and the traditional Soul Master system is that the latter is highly inefficient when it comes to integration. In cross-rank combat, fighters of the same rank often need several times the numbers to match a higher-level combatant. This is called energy dissipation..."
"What's more serious is that in the traditional Soul Master system, low-level Soul Masters are almost entirely discarded. Even if there are ten thousand, a hundred thousand, or a million of them, they would hardly be able to injure a high-ranking Soul Master—due to attack range limitations and the inability to converge energy."
"Soul Engineers have some advantage in this aspect. They can concentrate the power of lower-level Soul Engineers to deliver focused damage. But... it's not enough."
Xu Cheng said calmly.
"Ultimately, what people call the advantage of Soul Engineers is just relying on milk bottles (energy storage devices), swappable weapons, and one Soul Engineer simultaneously using multiple soul tools. It's not real integration!"
To truly gather the power of all Soul Engineers and unleash a terrifying force—
That would be absolutely horrifying.
After all, when dispersed, they are like grains of sand. But gathered—they become a monstrous beast.
Soul Masters cannot achieve this, but Soul Engineers might.
"Indeed, the Sun Moon Empire is moving in that direction," an elderly white-haired man nodded slightly.
Coordinated defense and coordinated offense had long been one of the secondary key research directions for the Sun Moon Empire—especially the former. At present, their coordinated defense was already nearing 70% efficiency. It was estimated that before long, it could be deployed in actual combat.
In the original story, with energy supply from milk bottles, the entire army coordinated to even withstand the attacks of a rank-99 Limit Douluo. Coordinated defense became the fundamental reason for the Sun Moon Empire's eventual success.
But compared to the original timeline, nearly ten years had passed—and with the butterfly effect from his actions, war might come much earlier than expected.
"Accelerate the progress on coordinated defense," Xu Cheng said with a wealthy, domineering tone.
He had previously siphoned nearly 400 million gold soul coins from the Star Luo imperial capital, and had spent less than 100 million so far.
Xu Cheng was thoroughly enjoying himself, while Xu Jiawei must be bleeding from the heart.
"I'll provide the funding. Resources, materials, lab access—whatever's needed. The faster, the better," Xu Cheng said.
"Second, is information reconnaissance."
The situation was changing rapidly.
The frontlines were increasingly tense. Who knew when a spark would ignite the powder keg...
The other nations hadn't acted yet only because they still saw a chance to win. But once that hope turned to despair, it would be the classic case of suicide attacks.
In the original story, several titled Douluos teamed up to slaughter civilians in the name of "justice," a reflection of just how low their moral bottom line was.
He couldn't afford to let his guard down and be caught off-guard.
Thus, they had to be able to detect enemy presence—even a rank-98 Super Douluo had to be sensed without fail.
This was the safeguard against the enemy going berserk.
Right now, they were like frogs in warming water—and he had to make sure that frog didn't suddenly jump out of the pot…
"How is the all-terrain mobile turret development coming along?" Xu Cheng turned to Xuan Ziwen.
"We've made an improved version. We removed some of the original flaws, such as soul tool core failures and limited turret weight capacity. Now it can carry about ten tons of soul cannons, accommodate ten personnel, and mount forty level-6 soul cannons. Its firing range reaches about a two-kilometer radius," Xuan Ziwen replied.
"Still a bit short on range—but that's a limitation of the soul cannons themselves. Not bad at all," Xu Cheng remarked with a bit of surprise.
After all, transforming from a reconnaissance type into a mobile turret and firepower-focused soul tool was no small feat. And to fix the past issues in such a short time—impressive.
This Xuan Ziwen truly lived up to his reputation from the original novel.
In fact, later on, he would invent a soul tool that could break through the Sun Moon Empire's coordinated defenses—the level-9 Interference Soul Tool.
But by keeping him in the Sun Moon Empire and giving him work—there would be no reason for him to betray the Empire.
"Yes, sir!"
Shrek Academy.
Inside the dormitory—
Tang San suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood, his face red like pig liver.
"Huff... huff..."
It took a long time before he slowly recovered.
That day when he stepped into the theater, the so-called Tang San Biography latched onto him like a heart demon. Ever since, it had haunted his cultivation, his mind consumed with those images—he couldn't calm down at all.
He circulated the Mysterious Jade Hand technique, and only then did the turbulence in his body begin to settle.
Then he sat there in a daze, as if lost in thought.
As a baby, perhaps due to assimilation with this world, he couldn't remember anything from that time. So all the vivid events shown in the drama—these things posed as "memories," real mixed with fake, fake laced with truth—tormenting him, making it impossible to discern reality.
"Could it be... is that really what Father was like?"
He muttered.
"Was Xiao Wu merely a tool to him? Including Mother—why did he hide her in the back mountains all those years, only retrieving her once he became powerful enough? Had she truly lived all those years in a damp, dark cave, unseen by sunlight, trembling in fear?"
Xu Cheng had embedded almost all conspiracy theories into the drama.
And the absurd part—these things weren't even banned in the three original nations of the continent!
He didn't know that the higher-ups of Shrek Academy were currently swamped with bigger issues and had no time to deal with this "nonsense." As for the Heaven Dou Empire and others—Star Luo was in chaos, and Heaven Soul and Dou Ling had long known about Tang San's past actions. Not only did they fail to stop him, they even allowed him to run rampant within their borders.
"No! What I should really be worried about now... is my public image!" Tang San clenched his fists tightly.
This wasn't a movie—it was a full drama series. He hadn't been able to resist and had gone on to watch several more episodes—and the more he watched, the more terrified he became.
The series knew everything about his past, even details he himself had forgotten until reminded by the show.
That sent chills down his spine.
"The person who filmed this series... must've witnessed my growth with their own eyes. They even know which divine positions the Seven Devils inherited, and that Xiao Wu sacrificed herself for me. Could they be someone close to me?" Tang San's breathing grew heavier.
"No—that's impossible. Even Oscar and Dai Mubai wouldn't know this much detail! Who could it be?!"
Tang San felt like he had fallen into a spider's web.
But this time—he wasn't the spider.
He was the moth…
(End of chapter)