After the opening ceremony of Shrek Academy ended, Zhu Ziyang stayed at the academy for three months.
During these three months, apart from occasionally guiding Zhu Ziguang in his cultivation, he spent most of his time on the Eternal Spirit Pagoda and the Spirit Soul system.
The Eternal Spirit Pagoda had been established for nearly two years. In these two years, more than five hundred soul masters had obtained spirit souls from the Eternal Spirit Pagoda, and the same number of newborn spirit souls had been created. The spirit soul system was gradually spreading across the continent along with these soul masters who possessed spirit souls. Many powerful individuals and sect forces keenly sensed the development potential of spirit souls and had sent cooperation requests to Shrek Academy, but all were shelved by the Tianyuan Pavilion.
At present, the conditions for fully promoting spirit souls are not yet mature. Even if Shrek Academy was willing, the Star Dou Great Forest would oppose it.
In these two years, under Di Tian's purposeful management, most of the soul beast gathering places on the Douluo Continent had been incorporated under the Star Dou Great Forest, becoming subjects under Di Tian's rule. The day when Di Tian truly lived up to the title of Beast God seemed to be getting closer.
However, there were still several soul beast gathering places on the Douluo Continent that had not submitted to Di Tian. The most prominent among them were naturally the Extreme North and the Evil Demon Forest.
Due to its special geographical location and the fact that the Snow Empress, who had become Zhu Ziyang's spirit soul, was the ruler of the Extreme North, Di Tian selectively gave up on it and did not send beast kings from the Star Dou Great Forest to take over.
The reason for the Evil Demon Forest was simple: it was the territory of the Evil Eye Tyrant clan, where the second fiercest beast on the continent, the Evil Emperor, resided. Di Tian currently had no confidence in killing the Evil Emperor, so naturally, he could not conquer the Evil Demon Forest.
However, speaking of the Evil Demon Forest, Zhu Ziyang thought of the news that Qian Lingyi, who had recently returned to the academy, told him. While travelling the continent and exterminating evil soul masters, this girl accidentally discovered that the Holy Spirit Cult's lair was located underground in the Evil Demon Forest. She originally wanted to directly uproot this evil soul master's nest, but due to the presence of Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao, she had to abandon this bold idea, turn around, return to the academy, and tell Zhu Ziyang about it.
Qian Lingyi's idea was simple: as long as the Holy Spirit Cult was wiped out in one fell swoop, no matter how the evil soul masters on the continent jumped around, they would not be able to cause much trouble. For this, she looked eager to try.
Zhu Ziyang naturally did not oppose the girl's idea, but he was not in a hurry to act and instead proposed his own thoughts.
Qian Lingyi had been travelling the continent for nearly three years, eliminating countless evil soul masters and saving countless lives. Objective faith power had already accumulated on her body—these were heartfelt prayers from the beings she saved. Although Qian Lingyi could not currently absorb or use this faith power, it did exist objectively and would only increase over time. When Qian Lingyi truly inherited the Angel God position, this faith power might have unexpected effects.
Therefore, Zhu Ziyang's idea was simple: let Qian Lingyi not rush to act against the Holy Spirit Cult's main base. She should first spread her angelic reputation across the continent. After eliminating all the evil soul masters jumping around outside, it would not be too late to act against the Holy Spirit Cult under the Evil Demon Forest.
In recent years, due to consecutive losses against Zhu Ziyang and the Sun Moon Empire, the Holy Spirit Cult had chosen to lie dormant, and its main members had not appeared much. As long as they did not alert the enemy, the Holy Spirit Cult was eighty per cent likely not to leave the Evil Demon Forest. This gave Qian Lingyi time. She could completely raise her soul power to level 99 and then go to annihilate the Holy Spirit Cult. After completing this merit, she could smoothly inherit the Angel God position, which would inevitably maximise her gains.
After listening to Zhu Ziyang's suggestion, Qian Lingyi immediately agreed. Her current soul power had reached level 97, and reaching level 99 was only a matter of time. She had plenty of time. So, after resting at the academy for half a month, she set off again.
The night before Zhu Ziyang prepared to go to Mingdu of the Sun Moon Empire, while sitting in the Tianyuan Pavilion hall studying a new God-Locking Pillar array diagram, he sensed a scorching divine power coming from below the Golden Ancient Tree.
"This is..." Zhu Ziyang immediately understood what was happening, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes. With a flash of his figure, he arrived in the underground world of the Golden Ancient Tree and saw Ma Xiaotao, valiantly dressed in red-gold armour and holding black and white twin swords.
"Sister Xiaotao, congratulations!" Zhu Ziyang said with a smile in his eyes.
"Ziyang!" Upon seeing Zhu Ziyang, Ma Xiaotao immediately rushed forward, hugged him, and eagerly shared his joy with him. She said coquettishly, "I succeeded. I am now the new Fire God!"
"Mm-hmm, I know, I know!" Zhu Ziyang hugged Ma Xiaotao, nodding repeatedly, indulging in her joy and delight.
After a long while, when Ma Xiaotao had calmed down, the two left the underground world and returned to the Sea God Pavilion hall. Before they could catch up, they heard a knock on the door from outside, followed by Cai Mei'er's voice, "Ziyang, are you there?"
"Sister, what's wrong?" Zhu Ziyang looked puzzled, exchanged a glance with Ma Xiaotao, and then spoke.
"Something happened." Cai Mei'er pushed the door open and entered, followed by Xian Lin'er. Their faces looked somewhat anxious, and the anxiety was mixed with a bit of strangeness. However, when they saw Ma Xiaotao, they were clearly stunned. "Xiaotao? You're out of seclusion?"
"Teacher's wife, teacher's aunt, I'm out of seclusion." Ma Xiaotao smiled and said to the two deans.
"Then you..." Both knew the purpose of Ma Xiaotao's seclusion. Now that she was out, did this mean she had succeeded? Shrek Academy had given birth to another god?
"Humph!" Ma Xiaotao nodded with a bit of pride.
"Great, this is really great!" Xian Lin'er and Cai Mei'er exclaimed in joy as expected, completely forgetting what they wanted to say.
"Two senior sisters, let's talk about the matter first. There's plenty of time for celebration." Zhu Ziyang was reminded helplessly.
"Oh, oh, almost forgot the main business!" The two then remembered that they had come with a task. So Xian Lin'er quickly organised her words and told Zhu Ziyang about the matter. She said, "Just last night, the Sun Moon Empire suddenly launched a decapitation operation against the Dou Ling Empire. The five great nobles of the Dou Ling Empire were all wiped out, and the Dou Ling Emperor and other members of the royal family were all captured. The Dou Ling Empire directly fell into a state of leaderlessness.
So, this morning, the Sun Moon Empire's army entered the Dou Ling Empire's territory without any obstruction and very smoothly occupied several border heavy towns. According to this momentum, if the Dou Ling Empire cannot mount effective resistance, the Sun Moon Empire will be able to occupy the entire Dou Ling Empire in less than half a month!"
As Xian Lin'er spoke, she couldn't help but laugh. Obviously, this news was good news for Shrek Academy, meaning that the unification of the Douluo Continent was just one last step away.
"This is really good news!" Zhu Ziyang's eyes also lit up, and then he said, "Sister Lexuan and the others acted really quickly. According to their previous arrangements and deployments, the time needed to digest the Dou Ling Empire will even be shorter than the time needed to digest the Tian Hun Empire. This means that at least a year later, the continent may usher in unification!"
"This, this, I just secluded for two or three years, and the continent is about to be unified?" Ma Xiaotao was a bit confused at this moment, completely not understanding what had happened.
"Sister Xiaotao, I'll tell you the specifics later. Eldest sister, there should be more, right?" Zhu Ziyang first comforted Ma Xiaotao, then said to Xian Lin'er.
"Indeed." Xian Lin'er's expression became strange. She said, "Just now, the eldest princess of the Dou Ling Empire, Xue Lingxun, arrived in Shrek City under the escort of two royal consecrators of the Dou Ling Empire. She found the academy, hoping that the academy could support her son to become the emperor of the Dou Ling Empire."
"Ah?" Zhu Ziyang was stunned for a moment.
"This eldest princess of the Dou Ling Empire, Xue Lingxun, has another identity: she is the wife of the Xuanshui Sect's sect master." Cai Mei'er said, her face holding back a laugh.
"In other words, she is Xu Sanshi's mother? Xu Sanshi is her son?" Zhu Ziyang immediately understood, somewhat crying and laughing, and said, "Does Xu Sanshi know?"
"That silly kid is interesting. After meeting his mother, he directly disappeared. No matter how we look, we can't find him." Xian Lin'er covered her mouth and said with a smile.
"Understood." Zhu Ziyang nodded with a smile. He understood Xu Sanshi's choice very well, but his behaviour was a bit hard to maintain. However, no matter what, his method was quite useful. As long as he couldn't be found, his mother's wishful thinking would fail.
Of course, if Xue Lingxun knew that her actions had actually touched the bottom line of Shrek Academy, she would definitely give up immediately, then go home directly to be her sect master's wife, and stop thinking about these unnecessary things.
"Two senior sisters, just lay it out straight with this Madam Xu. As long as her mind is not confused, she will definitely make the right choice." Zhu Ziyang said.
"Okay!" Xian Lin'er and Cai Mei'er nodded, then left together.
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Here are the chapters for today (づ￣3￣)づ╭～
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