Jing Hongchen's Invitation, a Trap for Shrek

After all, any so-called ancestral property was insignificant compared to returning to the peak.

It was not worth mentioning at all.

"Lin Yuan, regarding returning to the Sun Moon Empire, I'll gather the other members of the Blacksmith Association and see whether they are willing. I'll try to discuss it with you then."

After pondering for a moment, Xiao Zhen gave an uncertain answer.

Lin Yuan was not surprised by this. After all, there would always be some stubborn old holdouts unwilling to leave, and Xiao Zhen needed to tally their opinions.

Afterward, he looked at Xiao Zhen again and raised the serious matter.

"President Xiao, I think you should reconsider Nie'er withdrawing from Shrek Academy."

Xiao Zhen immediately fell silent.

His daughter loved Shrek Academy very much. She might even become one of the Shrek Reserve Seven Monsters in the future.

Her prospects were boundless. Yet asking her to withdraw from the academy was indeed forcing her hand.

That was the true reason for Xiao Zhen's hesitation.

He could not simply force his own daughter, could he?

Moreover, Lin Yuan's background in the Sun Moon Empire

was at odds with that.

After a brief silence, Xiao Zhen spoke softly in a hoarse voice.

"I'll try to talk to her."

"You really should think it through."

After emphasizing that once more, Lin Yuan turned and left.

As for Xiao Zhen's hesitation, Lin Yuan was not worried.

He had already investigated it. The Xiao family had managed to remain standing because of its other pillar industries.

The Blacksmith Association was purely Xiao Zhen's passion.

Most of the time, Chairman Xiao Zhen had to pour his own money into it just to keep this nearly disbanded Blacksmith Association afloat.

Under such circumstances, an opportunity to return to the peak—even if it came with some difficult choices—

would tempt Xiao Zhen, though persuading his daughter would take time.

If all else failed, he could just kidnap Xiao Xiao and bring her over.

Lin Yuan had already begun considering whether that was feasible.

Yet just as he returned to the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy,

Jing Hongchen stared straight at Lin Yuan and asked, "Xiao Yuan, can that person behind you make a move?"

"What's wrong?"

Lin Yuan looked at him in confusion.

Jing Hongchen did not beat around the bush. He directly revealed Shrek Academy's plan to come to the Sun Moon Empire for negotiations.

It left Lin Yuan dumbfounded for a moment.

Good grief, things had already escalated this far, and they still wanted to start an exchange student program?

But after thinking it over carefully, the proposal was still feasible. The Sun Moon Empire's path of Soul Engineers was already progressing smoothly, so naturally they wanted to strengthen their martial souls and even reach higher titles, perhaps even the realm of Super Douluo.

But with the two sides already at this point, could it still succeed?

The benefits clearly no longer outweighed the risks.

Could Jing Hongchen's brain have been clogged with rare metals?

As Lin Yuan looked toward Jing Hongchen, Jing Hongchen gave him a faintly amused glance.

"Hall Master, you aren't planning to keep them all here, are you?"

"No. More accurately, I'm worried about you."

Jing Hongchen sighed.

Lin Yuan then thought of his conflict with Shrek Academy.

If Mu En did not have long to live and insisted on coming to the Sun Moon Empire to trade his life for Lin Yuan's, unaware of the explosive power of Gu Yuena's Four-Word Battle Armor,

then... it really did seem like something Shrek might do.

After all, Shrek had claimed they wanted exchange students back then, but in reality, they had stolen most of the Sun Moon Empire's rare Soul Tool blueprints.

The benefits the Hongchen siblings had received at Shrek Academy were completely disproportionate to what Shrek had gained. Even without this conflict, Lin Yuan might have tried to dissuade them.

"There's no need to worry about my safety."

Lin Yuan did not directly answer how many times that person could act, merely smiling faintly.

Seeing this, Jing Hongchen raised a brow and could not help letting out a wicked chuckle as he softly said to Lin Yuan,

"Then should we consider keeping those people here?"

Lin Yuan stared at Jing Hongchen as if he had been stunned silly.

"Hall Master, you haven't been drinking fake liquor, have you?"

Jing Hongchen shook his head helplessly and sighed.

"You think I want to?"

"I originally thought they would never agree to that demand, but they insisted on accepting it."

"Old Kong is in seclusion now. What if Shrek Academy sends some top-tier expert to infiltrate this place?"

"There may be a thousand days for a thief, but never a thousand days to guard against one."

Jing Hongchen's words made Lin Yuan nod. He had originally wanted to wait until he became stronger.

But now that it was clear what they intended, it would be a pity not to use this opportunity to lay out a trap for them.

"Hall Master, since you've put it that way, it would be rather unreasonable if I didn't cooperate."

By the end, the corners of Lin Yuan's mouth had begun to rise despite himself.

Jing Hongchen also let out a sigh of relief.

There was no helping it. He could vaguely sense that Xuanzi could not be Shrek Academy's strongest expert.

Because judging from how Shrek Academy had behaved in the past,

such a reckless strongest expert could not possibly exist.

Moreover, the enmity between both sides had already been brought into the open and had to be resolved.

What truly gave Jing Hongchen a headache was that he had originally been able to contact the Holy Spirit Cult, but lately, they had stopped contacting him as well.

He could already guess that it might be related to Lin Yuan's actions back then, but it did not matter. He had no desire to cooperate with those disgusting people anyway.

As for the final location, it was set in the Mingdou Mountains.

At the border between the Sun Moon Empire and the Star Luo Empire.

Shrek certainly would not foolishly walk straight into the Sun Moon Empire. If they truly entered the other side's territory,

who knew how many ambushes would be waiting for them?

Thus, when the appointed day arrived, Jing Hongchen showed up as promised.

It was not that he did not want to contact other Level-Nine Soul Engineers. Although the enmity between the two sides was clear,

and Lin Yuan himself was a genius, he also had some imperial supporters elsewhere behind him.

Naturally, they would not casually take sides for a genius who had not made his stance clear.

Soon, Shrek's people arrived as well. Among them were Yan Shaozhe and a somewhat dispirited Xuanzi.

After the two sides met, Yan Shaozhe glanced at Jing Hongchen and spoke with some dissatisfaction.

"Didn't you say you wanted to apologize in person? Elder Xuan is already here."

"Hand over the items first."

Seeing Jing Hongchen directly extend his hand, Yan Shaozhe frowned slightly.

But in the end, he still tossed over a storage ring.

After Jing Hongchen caught the storage ring and swept it with his spiritual sense, he looked at the two men with a hint of sympathy in his eyes.

"The intelligence of your generation of Shrek Academy's upper management is truly touching."

"Is that so?"

As a hoarse voice slowly rang out, a spatial rift appeared, and an elderly man in a wheelchair gradually emerged. The instant Jing Hongchen saw him, he drew in a sharp breath.

He was definitely a Limit Douluo. As expected, Shrek Academy still had another trump card.

Yet unlike what they had anticipated, the other side did not seem particularly worried.

He merely snapped his fingers lightly.