Movements on All Sides
Under the leadership of Du Busi, many Soul Douluo and above experts from the Body Sect have already been gathered.
At the same time, they have also formed a loose alliance with the forces that covet this wealth and the True Dragon Egg, because the Star Luo Empire secretly spent 100 million Gold Soul Coin to issue the Mingde Hall treasure hunt mission in the continental Adventurer's Guild's guild.
While the members of the alliance were wary of each other and concealed their identities, this group of forces, each with their own ulterior motives, were already preparing to test the waters against the Mingde Hall.
"Sect Master, are these misfits really useful?" a Titled Douluo from the Body Sect asked, somewhat puzzled.
Du Busi sneered and said, "A bunch of chickens and dogs. Although they are of no use, we can let them harass those guys in the Mingde Hall and cause them some trouble."
"Even if most of them think like us, hoping that others can first probe the layout of the Mingde Hall, or force out more of the Mingde Hall's trump cards, there are always fools willing to be scapegoats."
"Let them make a fuss first, muddy the waters, then we can make our move."
The members of the Body Sect nodded repeatedly and went to make preparations according to Du Busi's arrangements.
However, although this so-called Treasure-Snatching Alliance has taken shape, it will probably be quite some time before it is actually implemented into a real operation and all-out attack on the Mingde Hall.
After all, the various forces still need to work together, reach a tacit understanding with each other, and at the same time, wear down the power of the Mingde Hall.
This period of time also provided the members of the Body Sect with an opportunity to feign one move while secretly making another.
Because the fundamental goals of the Body Sect are different from those of other forces, their true objective is to take away as many basic Soul Tool systems as possible from the Mingde Hall and to abduct the low-level Soul Engineer researchers within.
Advanced Soul Engineer are inherently highly skilled and difficult to control or influence through various means. Furthermore, the Soul Tool system possessed by the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Body Sect is so weak as to be almost non-existent that it cannot support the work and research of Advanced Soul Engineer.
However, low-level Soul Engineer are different; the Body Sect has many Body Soul Master who are skilled in Spiritual Power.
As for those relatively weak Soul Engineer, the strength of the Body Sect Soul Master can be described as a dimensional reduction attack. As long as they can brainwash and control these kidnapped low-level Soul Engineer.
Furthermore, by utilizing and refining the basic Soul Tool system, it will be put to use in a short time, allowing the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Body Sect to cultivate their own Soul Engineer.
As for high-level Soul Tool of level seven and above, they cannot be replicated simply by forcibly seizing blueprints or possessing theoretical knowledge.
Each Soul Engineer of Level 7 or above requires a large amount of rare metals and time to cultivate from a young age.
Therefore, the Body Sect's goal for Soul Tool of level seven and above is not to look at the blueprints, but to develop the Soul Tool themselves.
In short, the core idea Body Sect's operation this time is to seize blueprints and Soul Master at a low level, thereby building its own military industrial system.
High-level Soul Tool can be forcibly seized. The more you take, the fewer there will be for the Sun Moon Empire. Just use them directly.
And in the Far North.
Since last year, Ice Empress has spent significantly less time in its own territory and spends most of its time in Snow Empress's territory.
Although his clansmen were puzzled by this behavior, no one dared to ask Ice Empress any questions.
As the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North, the Snow Empress, the Ice Empress, and the Titan Snow Demon King do not have equal territories; in fact, their territories are inversely proportional to their strength.
The weakest Titan Snow Demon King actually occupies the largest territory in the Far North, but his territory is also the furthest from the Far North Core Region, almost on the edge of the Far North Core Region.
This is because the massive Titan Snow Demon Clan needs the vastest territories to sustain its people.
The territory occupied by Ice Empress is located in the middle section of the Far North Core Region.
The Ice Jade Scorpions abandoned the venomous abilities of typical scorpion-type Soul Beast and embraced the power of Ultimate Ice.
Each Ice Jade Scorpion needs to be in an extremely low temperature to move and grow normally; otherwise, lower-level Ice Jade Scorpion may even experience maladaptation.
The territory possessed by the Snow Empress is located in the most central Far North, but it is also the smallest in terms of overall area.
The most central place in the Far North is not an Ice Seal wasteland like other areas of the Far North, devoid of life, but a lake.
A lake imbued with the richest World Spiritual Energy of the Far North, its shimmering blue waters seem to radiate a unique vitality, while wind and snow gather around it, like spirits frolicking there.
In the center of the lake is a small island formed of ice.
The temperature here has reached the Ultimate Ice, even colder and harsher than Ultimate Ice. Therefore, even in the Far North, few creatures dare to venture here.
Even for the Ice Empress, who was previously one of the Three Heavenly Kings of the Far North and Ferocious Beast, this place was hardly a suitable place to live.
Besides the extremely low temperature, only those beings favored by the Far North can be nourished by the spiritual energy of this place.
Otherwise, anyone who comes here will only suffer in vain. But the past is the past, and the present is the present.
Having previously received a portion of the Snow Empress's Origin Energy, the Ice Empress can now nourish herself with the spiritual energy of this place.
Besides using the spiritual energy of this place to nourish themselves, hoping to recover from their injuries and enhance their strength, thus increasing their chances of passing the next tribulation.
The most important purpose of Ice Empress's arrival here is to protect Snow Empress, who has now transformed into a human.
At this time, a year had passed since the Snow Empress took human form. Even though she used the Hundred-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus to forcibly seal her own Origin Power to take human form.
This allowed the Snow Empress to retain some of her Origin Power after transforming into human form, enabling her to rebuild herself.
Therefore, even without relying on human energy, the Snow Empress can cultivate without violating the laws of heaven Far North. She can also rapidly improve her cultivation level by drawing upon the Origin Power.
However, the current Snow Empress only possesses the strength equivalent to Soul Sage, a level of Soul Master in the human realm.
Although Snow Empress possesses the Ultimate Attributes, as a Soul Sage, her strength is vastly different from that of the previous Snow Empress.
Many things that she could have done herself before now require the help of Ice Empress to avoid revealing any flaws and thus prevent the situation in the Far North from being shaken.
Therefore, in order to prevent any accidents from happening during the Snow Empress's reconstruction, or to help her at any time, the Ice Empress has been guarding her side during this period.
Moreover, this protection was necessary, because if it weren't for the Ice Empress's protection, the Snow Empress would have been interrupted by a human Level 9 Soul Engineer when she was transforming.
Fortunately, the enraged Ice Empress was present and immediately killed her, preventing the Ice Empress Snow Empress from suffering any further mishaps and allowing her to successfully complete her transformation.
Even with the Origin Power Ferocious Beast, the Snow Empress's rebuilding has its limits.
To help Ice Empress survive the next great calamity, Snow Empress also gave her a portion of her own essence to absorb.
In addition to the constraints imposed by the rules of heaven and earth, a portion of the Snow Empress's own Origin Power had already returned to the Far North when she took human form.
Therefore, at present, she is sealed within her body, and the Origin Power she possesses is only about three or four tenths of what it was at its peak. This portion of Origin Power is only enough for the Snow Empress to reach the bottleneck of Level 90.
When Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast undergoes a major transformation, after acquiring its Seventh Soul Ring as its Martial Soul Avatar, Origin Power it had previously accumulated will be exhausted. It will then need to acquire its Eighth Soul Ring and ninth Soul Ring on its own.
As for the Snow Empress, Ferocious Beast, even if she were to rebuild her power, half of her original Origin Power would return to the Far North.
However, the remaining half was enough for him to condense his ninth Soul Ring, but in order to increase the success rate of Ice Empress's tribulation.
After Snow Empress split her own Origin Power again, the remaining Origin Power was no longer enough to help her condense a ninth Soul Ring.
Because there are different levels of strength among reborn Soul Beast, the Snow Empress, as Ferocious Beast with the Ultimate Attribute, requires far more energy to condense each Soul Ring and to advance each realm than an ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
Therefore, even though she used the Hundred-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus to seal her own origin and complete her reconstruction, the current Snow Empress, after reaching the Level 90 bottleneck, must enter human society like an ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
Unless she receives God-Bestowed Soul Ring, or is replenished by extremely pure and powerful ice-attribute Origin Power, the Snow Empress can not condense her ninth Soul Ring on her own.
Otherwise, the Snow Empress would also need to use the 'aura' of humans to wash away the part of herself that was originally Soul Beast, so as to integrate into human society and conform to the rules of heaven and earth before she could hunt other Soul Beast and fuse her ninth Soul Ring.
"Bing'er, how is your injury healing now?"
The Snow Empress, who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, gently stroked the crystal-clear, beautiful Emerald Diamond Carapace of the Giant Scorpion in front of her.
Ice Empress responded, "Although my injuries have begun to heal with the help of the energy of the Ice God Lake, it will probably take at least ten years to eliminate all the hidden dangers."
"But I have a premonition that my next great calamity will arrive in less than three years." As she said this, Ice Empress's tone became a little lower. The closer the calamity got, the greater the pressure in her heart became.
The Snow Empress remained silent for Jiujiu. Three years... there were still three years left.
Even if she absorbs all the Origin Power by then, she will not be able to break through the bottleneck. And no matter how the Origin Power is arranged, the remaining part will at most allow her to regain her former strength and make one more move.
However, the tribulation of Ferocious Beast is an obstacle set up by heaven and earth, and there can never be only one wave of tribulation. Even if she can help the Ice Empress block it once, it can only increase the success rate by half a percent at most.
"I only hope that the sacrifice of that Little Fox can truly bring you, Bing'er, a glimmer of hope." The Snow Empress sighed.
If it weren't for the fact that both she and the Ice Empress were Great Limit end of their lives, she wouldn't have risked starting over. Otherwise, with her cultivation level, as long as she existed, the status of the Far North would not be shaken.
Shrek Academy at this time.
After Huo Yuhao left, for some unknown reason, the Clear Sky Sect also summoned Wang Dong back to the sect.
Despite his reluctance, Mu En had no choice but to let him leave, though he had anticipated this beforehand.
Of the original Shrek Reserve Team, only Beibei, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, and Xiao Xiao remain at the school.
Ning Tian, like Wang Dong, was also recalled by her sect, effectively dropping out of school. It was said that something had happened in the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, which is why the Young Sect Master was recalled.
Nowadays, Mu En's main focus is on Beibei, Jiang Nannan, and Xiao Xiao.
Jiang Nannan, whose Martial Soul is the Soft Bone Rabbit, has only average potential for development, while Xu Sanshi, who has the royal bloodline of the Dou Ling Empire and the identity of the Profound Nether Sect, is a different story.
Mu En's main trainees are Beibei and Xiao Xiao. Beibei Bei is Mu En's great-grandson, and her bloodline and talent are the most compatible with him.
Xiao Xiao possesses a rare Twin Martial Souls, and if she can be nurtured, she could become a key member of the Shrek Academy.
In addition to the four of them, the Shrek Main Team this year also added three other promising Outer Court students, who were exceptionally allowed to join the Inner Court ahead of schedule and enjoy the Inner Court's resources for cultivation.
However, this was merely a public preparation by the Shrek Academy and Mu En for the next Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament to be held in the Sun Moon Empire.
In reality, apart from Beibei and Xiao Xiao, the student to whom Shrek Academy invested the most resources was not Zhang Lexuan, the Grandmaster of the Inner Court, but Ma Xiaotao.
The Dark Phoenix Martial Soul is so powerful that even at the Soul Sage level, it possesses combat strength comparable to Titled Douluo. Although the mutation in the Martial Soul is irreversible, it is intended to leave a trump card for the Shrek Academy in the future.
Mu En was still secretly training Ma Xiaotao, and now, according to his observation, Ma Xiaotao is under his control.
In addition, the three kingdoms that originally belonged to the Douluo Continent began to form a fragile alliance against the Sun Moon Empire through Mu En's and the elders of the Sea God Pavilion Elder's efforts.
After all, if we're talking about old grudges and new hatreds, the internal conflicts of the original Original Three Douluo Kingdoms, which fought for tens of thousands of years on the original Douluo Continent, are even greater than the hatred with the Sun Moon Empire.
The previous frictions between the Star Luo Empire and the Heaven Dou Empire, and the grudges between the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Dou Ling Empire, have long been so numerous that they are difficult to unravel, and each side is simply helpless against the other.
If it weren't for the emergence of the Sun Moon Empire, which can overturn the entire continent and reshuffle the original social system, the Original Three Douluo Kingdoms would probably be the first to fight.