At the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's cafeteria, students occasionally cast glances in a certain direction.
There, Huo Yuhao, Gu Yuena, Xu Xiaoyan, and the others were chatting.
As Gu Yuena had thought, Yuanen Yehui wanted to apologize. However, being introverted by nature and new to Mingdu, she was not very familiar with the place. Ultimately, she chose to express her apology at the academy cafeteria.
"I'm really sorry for dragging you into that before."
Yuanen Yehui looked toward Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena. "I don't know Mingdu very well, so I can only host you all here."
Huo Yuhao shook his head. "It's fine."
Xie Xie asked curiously, "Since you came to register at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, didn't you learn about Mingdu in advance?"
"No. I didn't originally plan to attend the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. If not for that accident, I would have already gone to register at Shrek Academy."
Yuanen Yehui shook her head.
If not for the evil spirit masters' actions, which had led the Dark Department to place her under protection, she would have already registered at Shrek Academy.
But she had run into the evil spirit master incident. In the end, under Nanaly's arrangement, she had joined the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.
There was no helping it. The benefits Nanaly had offered her were too good, plus the life-saving favor. She could only comply.
So that was it. Nanaly had approached Yuanen Yehui to poach her too. If she hadn't encountered the evil spirit master higher-ups, bringing back a possessor of the Fallen Angel and Titan Giant Ape twin martial souls would have been a huge gain. A good plan.
Huo Yuhao silently quipped, then thought of another matter.
Because he had not joined Tang Sect, Tang San had personally taken action to revive it. Among those who had put in great effort were Tang Wutong, Shrek, and Haotian Sect.
However, even so, because the powers of the original three Douluo nations had never matched the Sun Moon Empire in soul tools, and Tang Sect had to start from scratch and lacked talent, they ultimately merged with Shrek Academy to replenish their personnel and increase their foundation.
But because of this, Shrek Academy and Haotian Sect had established a relationship ten thousand years ago. Their relationship was deep.
In the original development, because the spirit beasts on the continent had been persecuted by the Spirit Transmission Tower and spirit masters, Da Ming and Er Ming had grown to hate humans, left Haotian Sect, created a half-plane to preserve a spark for the spirit beasts, and ultimately sided with Gu Yuena.
But now that the spirit beasts' situation was good, their stance might be different.
And the Yuanen Clan, to which Yuanen Yehui belonged, was a hidden family descended from Er Ming and a human. The clan itself also possessed a Limit Douluo.
In the original timeline, Er Ming had remained within the half-plane, cut off from outside information and completely unaware that he even had descendants. But what about now?
If Er Ming already knew of their existence and had established contact with the Yuanen clan, then caution would be necessary. After all, with the essence blood provided by Er Ming, the Yuanen clan had eventually produced two Limit Douluos, one of whom even reached the level of a quasi-divine being.
Among the powers connected to Shrek, the number of Limit Douluos was truly high. Already more than ten. In the original, the Spirit Transmission Tower's Qiangku clan had lost without a fair fight.
Without a good teammate, and with Chen Xinjie switching sides midway, the Spirit Transmission Tower could only throw in the towel.
While Huo Yuhao was thinking, Xie Xie's eyes widened. He looked utterly shocked.
"So, you originally planned to register at Shrek?"
"What about it?"
Yuanen Yehui frowned. "Shrek is indeed the number one academy on the continent, home to the continent's strongest individual. Many on the Junior Genius Rankings take pride in joining it. There's nothing wrong with that, is there?"
"...Some things have nothing to do with strength or resources." Xie Xie curled his lip. "Do you know how we came into conflict with Shrek Academy two years ago?"
Yuanen Yehui shook her head. "I don't know. There are too many rumors online. I can't believe those outrageous rumors."
Things like Shrek stealing military soul-powered aircraft. Those were obviously fake slander, weren't they?
"Very simple. Because of arrogance."
Xie Xie began recounting the events of two years ago in detail. Yuanen Yehui's brow gradually furrowed.
In her impression, Shrek Academy's image had been fairly decent. That had to do with her childhood experiences. If the person saying these things had not been a companion of Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena, she might not have listened.
After talking for a while, Xie Xie noticed that Yuanen Yehui was just listening, not offering any opinions. He stopped, thought for a moment, and said, "Since you originally wanted to join Shrek Academy, you won't go easy on them in the match, will you?"
"You're overthinking it. I am now a student of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Enginer Academy." Yuanen Yehui rolled her eyes. "You're from the Spirit Transmission Tower, aren't you? You seem to really like it here. So, if before you joined the Spirit Transmission Tower, it had arranged an exchange match with this academy, would you have gone easy?"
"No."
Xie Xie thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement.
If he had been facing the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy back when he joined the Spirit Transmission Tower, he would not have gone easy either.
And through this question, he also confirmed that Yuanen Yehui was a normal person.
Having not experienced that kind of thing, there was nothing wrong with having some positive impressions of Shrek Academy. As long as she wasn't like Ye Xinglan.
While the "guys" were chatting, the girls were also chatting animatedly.
For this gathering, Xu Xiaoyan had also brought Shen Xing along. She looked at Shen Xing, then at Gu Yuena, comparing them. She noticed that Gu Yuena's expression today was softer, not as cold as before, more approachable. She asked curiously, "Na'er, you seem very happy. Did something good happen?"
"Yuhao helped me complete my One-Word Battle Armor." Gu Yuena smiled faintly.
Xu Xiaoyan's eyes widened at this. "Na'er, you're only at four rings, and you're already a One-Word Battle Armor Master?"
To become a Battle Armor Master at twelve years old. That was an unprecedented record, wasn't it?
Gu Yuena nodded reservedly. "Yes."
Hearing this, a ripple also appeared on Shen Xing's cold face. She narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze sweeping toward Huo Yuhao. Although her expression remained calm and emotionless, her clenched fingertips betrayed the shock within.
Gu Yuena was a One-Word Battle Armor Master. Then surely Huo Yuhao, who was stronger than her, was also one.
So this was the next leader of the Spirit Transmission Tower?
Truly extraordinary.
Shen Xing quickly looked away, but her brow furrowed.
As a core disciple groomed by her family, a future high-ranking officer of the North Sea Legion, she had heard quite a bit about the Federation's internal politics from her older sister.
Among the four great military families, two families belonged to the hawkish faction, supporting foreign and foreign wars.
Her Shen family belonged to the dovish faction and did not support the war against the Xingluo and Tiandou Continents.
Another family, the Yue family, remained neutral.
Among the Federation's four major powers, although Shrek had always purported to be neutral, serving as the standard-bearer of the neutral faction, they now also did not support external war. They stood on the same battle line as her Shen family, leading many neutral council members to also follow the dovish faction.
Mingde Hall had not expressed an opinion. However, the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy had a good relationship with their Shen family, lending indirect support.
The War Temple supported the hawkish faction.
Although the Spirit Transmission Tower had many internal factions, Qiangku Dongfeng, who sat in Mingdu, was its Tower Master. The Spirit Transmission Tower's council members had to listen to his voice when they spoke. And he stood with the hawkish faction.
Political struggle was different from personal grudges. An enemy's enemy was not necessarily a friend, and a temporary ally could become a future rival.
It was because of this pattern that the external war had never been fought. However, the hawkish faction had already gained a certain advantage, so her Shen family was very worried and wanted to fight for more strength.
Huo Yuhao was very likely to become the next Tower Master of the Spirit Transmission Tower. If they could win him over and get him to support the dovish faction...
Shen Xing's thoughts were interrupted by a burst of exclamation.
"Student Yuena... you're a girl?!"
***
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