Regent Princess Ju Zi

The opening ceremony of the Radiant City Elite Soul Master Tournament had arrived.

As the principal host, Xu Tianran made a grand entrance alongside numerous Sun Moon Empire officials.

Not bad—this current regent had put on quite an impressive display.

Half of the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Corps cleared the way for him. Riding in the dragon carriage that represented the emperor, he slowly emerged amid booming ceremonial cannon fire, looking every bit as imposing as could be.

However, Xia Yu did not pay much attention to Xu Tianran, the regent, and merely glanced past him.

Instead, it was Ju Zi, the regent princess pushing Xu Tianran's wheelchair, who drew his gaze.

She had been quite famous in the original story. Setting aside all the outrageous things she had done involving Huo Yuhao, the fact that she later became the empress of the Sun Moon Empire and nearly led its army to wipe out the Three Douluo Kingdoms was worthy of praise in itself.

Without real ability, even with the Sun Moon Empire's military strength crushing that of the Three Douluo Kingdoms, such an achievement would not have come easily.

For Ju Zi to accomplish that, whatever she had relied on, was enough to leave her name in history and make her a symbol of the era.

What Xia Yu could not understand was why, despite possessing such exceptional talent and intelligence, Ju Zi had failed to uncover Huo Yuhao's background and still loved him so crazily, even pathologically.

If this had happened before she got involved with Xu Tianran, when her capabilities had been limited and she could not investigate Huo Yuhao's origins, then that would have been understandable.

But now, she was the regent princess and controlled as much as one-third of the Sun Moon Empire's military power.

With the intelligence capabilities of the Sun Moon Empire's military, along with the other forces she now secretly controlled, it was absolutely impossible for her to be unable to investigate Huo Yuhao's background.

If she truly wanted to look into it, how could she possibly fail to discover that Huo Yuhao came from the White Tiger Duke's lineage?

If Xia Yu remembered correctly, Ju Zi deeply hated the Star Luo Empire and even wished to erase it entirely from the continent.

The White Tiger Duke's lineage in particular was her foremost enemy, one she longed to eliminate as quickly as possible.

After all, the war that had destroyed Ju Zi's family had been led on the Star Luo Empire's side by the military giant that was the White Tiger Duke's lineage.

It seemed that the previous White Tiger Duke had served as commander-in-chief, while the current White Tiger Duke, Dai Hao, had been the vanguard general. Father and son had joined forces to give the Sun Moon Empire's army a brutal beating.

As a result, Ju Zi's father, who had served as a military cook, had died miserably, without even leaving a complete corpse behind.

And because her father, the pillar of the family, was gone, while her mother subsequently wasted away from grief, Ju Zi had been left to live a tragic life with her family destroyed.

So, she had placed all her hatred squarely upon the Star Luo Empire and the White Tiger Duke's lineage.

She had even sworn that one day, she would destroy them completely, and had worked tirelessly toward that goal.

Yet fate had played a joke on her. She had fallen for someone from the White Tiger Duke's lineage, and for certain reasons, she did not know his identity.

Well, in truth, Ju Zi simply did not want to dig too deeply into Huo Yuhao's past.

At least, that was how Xia Yu saw it. Beauty was in the eye of the beholder; with that filter in place, it would be stranger if Ju Zi actually investigated Huo Yuhao's background thoroughly.

"Should I find an opportunity to tell Ju Zi that Huo Yuhao comes from the White Tiger Duke's lineage?"

For some reason, a maliciously amusing idea suddenly arose in Xia Yu's mind: let Ju Zi learn Huo Yuhao's background ahead of time.

What would happen if Ju Zi learned that Huo Yuhao came from the White Tiger Duke's lineage?

He did not even need to think about it. It would definitely be quite interesting.

Of course, it would be interesting to Xia Yu, but for Huo Yuhao and Shrek Academy, it might become a disaster.

Xu Tianran had ill intentions toward this Radiant City Elite Soul Master Tournament. He wanted to catch all the participating soul masters in one sweep.

In the original story, if not for Ju Zi's secret assistance, it would undoubtedly have been very difficult for Huo Yuhao and the rest from Shrek Academy to escape safely.

Perhaps Xu Tianran would give Shrek some face and allow them to leave when the time came.

But who could say for certain? Xu Tianran was a deeply calculating schemer who could change his mind at any time over some unforeseen matter.

"Heh, this might actually work. I'll give it a try."

After considering it carefully, Xia Yu made his decision. This was worth attempting.

However, he needed to find the right opportunity, preferably one that would accomplish two things at once.

By then, not only could he let Ju Zi learn Huo Yuhao's background in advance, but he could also gain complete control over her.

It was impossible for Xia Yu to claim that he had no thoughts about Ju Zi.

He rather appreciated Ju Zi. With such powerful abilities, why should she let herself sink into the swamp of love?

So, he decided to give Ju Zi an opportunity, allowing her to fully display her abilities and shine for the Sun Moon Empire.

This was a duty he, as the strongest person in the Sun Moon Empire, ought to fulfill. He believed Ju Zi would gladly accept.

As for love and all that, if she insisted on experiencing it, Xia Yu had plenty of ways to handle that as well.

Hypnosis, brainwashing, coercion and temptation, or personally filling the role—he was highly practiced in all of them and could carry them out with ease.

"What is this? Why do I suddenly feel a bone-deep chill? Could someone be...?"

Just as Xia Yu was considering how to arrange Ju Zi's future, Ju Zi seemed to sense something as well. A terrifying chill that pierced straight to her heart abruptly enveloped her.

However, the sensation came and went quickly. By the time she tried to confirm it, it had already vanished without a trace.

She could only suppress her doubts and continue pushing Xu Tianran toward the lift leading to the viewing platform.

The most urgent matter now was still the Elite Soul Master Tournament. Everything else, no matter what it was, had to wait.

Soon, Ju Zi pushed Xu Tianran into the lift together with Jing Hongchen, Zhongli Wu, and the others, and they ascended to the viewing platform.

Actually, while they were heading toward the lift, Jing Hongchen had noticed Xia Yu and discreetly invited him to take the lift with them.

As a Rank-9 Soul Engineer, the personal disciple of Kong Deming—Elder Kong—and a member of the Sun Moon Empire's Consecration Hall, Xia Yu was certainly qualified to accompany the regent and regent princess onto the viewing platform.

But Xia Yu declined. There was no particular reason; he simply did not want to.

Jing Hongchen and the others showed no special reaction when Xia Yu refused the invitation.

It was merely an insignificant matter, nothing that needed to be blown out of proportion.

It was not just Xia Yu. If any of them did not wish to go, they could do as Xia Yu had done; whether they took the lift or not did not matter.

As long as they did not arrive at the viewing platform before Xu Tianran, the regent, that was enough.

At such a grand occasion, they still needed to give Xu Tianran, the regent, some face.

As for anything else, who would dare nitpick the actions of a Rank-9 Soul Engineer?

And this Rank-9 Soul Engineer was Xia Yu, the greatest genius of the Sun Moon Empire, so there was even less of an issue.

With strength and connections, was it wrong to be a little unconventional?