Star Luo divided

After informing Xu Jiujiu that the Dai Family and Zhu Family were about to move against Dai Luoli and his mother, Huo Yuhao stayed no longer in the Star Luo Empire. The next day, he and Snow Girl set out for Sun Moon.

As for staying behind to toy with the Dai Family, "planning within the command tent and deciding victories a thousand miles away"? That would only land him in Tang San's hands ahead of time, turning him into Tang San's plaything.

Although his actions had slightly altered the Tang Family's original plans for the Douluo Continent, they were still defensible within the bounds of his role as the "Son of the Plane."

All that would happen next was that the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Fighting Tournament would be held somewhere else.

As for why Huo Yuhao's return journey happened to take him through the Mingdou Mountains? That was merely because Snow Girl, who was traveling with him, had assumed human form. If they passed through the Star Dou Great Forest, high-ranking soul beasts would sense her aura, while traveling through the former Heaven Dou Empire, with its many soul master sects and academies, might attract evil soul masters. That was all there was to their avoiding those two routes.

In truth, however, Huo Yuhao was worried that Dai Luoli, who was in Dai Hao's military camp, would be murdered before the Xu Family's rescuers arrived. That was why he happened to be "passing through."

He did not want the aunt who had taken such good care of him and his mother during his childhood to suffer the pain of losing her son.

As a God King who had lived two lives, he soon sensed a powerful aura of devouring power during his leisurely journey through the Mingdou Mountains.

The person leading the group was above rank 95-a Super Douluo! His aura immediately confirmed his identity to Huo Yuhao: Scorpion Tiger Douluo, Zhang Peng!

The Star Luo Empire's Western Army Group was hardly exemplary: military discipline was lax. Not far from the army's main camp, plenty of establishments like the Drunken Dream House supplied officers with beautiful women. In an army like this, making someone die in an accident would be child's play for Zhang Peng.

"No wonder Dean Yan Shaozhe told me in my previous life that Zhang Peng was an evil soul master. I always wondered why someone who clearly only cultivated by drinking animal blood would be branded evil in human society. Once the black glove gets too much blood on it, it's only natural for its master to draw a line between them."

From awakening his martial soul to becoming a Super Douluo, Zhang Peng had clearly required far more soul beast blood than someone without a noble or wealthy background could have obtained on his own. Over the years, he had accepted commissions from various parties, including but not limited to the Holy Spirit Cult, killing many targets his employers considered valuable. The immense wealth he earned was what allowed him to procure so much blood.

This day was no exception for Zhang Peng: he merely had to crush an illegitimate son who had become a discarded pawn. Dai Luoli, who had followed his father in the army since childhood, had no idea what was about to happen, either. All he saw that day was a black-clad man appearing before him-then a surge of purplish-black light came rushing toward him.

Barring any unforeseen intervention, the young Dai Luoli would lose his life that day.

But just then, a star suddenly fell from the sky, shattering the purplish-black pillar of light hurtling toward Dai Luoli.

"Zhang Peng, what is the meaning of this, coming to a strategic stronghold of our nation and running wild?" The one who had intervened was Heavenly Fiend Douluo Huang Jinxu, whom the Xu Family had recruited. He took a deep breath before posing the question.

Naturally, Zhang Peng offered Huang Jinxu no explanation. The two immediately began fighting.

Far away, Huo Yuhao's expression remained calm as he sensed the soul power fluctuations from the nearby battle. He continued toward Sun Moon.

The moment he sensed Huang Jinxu's arrival, his mind had been put at ease.

The Xu Family moved quite quickly. Dai Luoli should be safe now! Huo Yuhao sighed inwardly. He knew the curtain was about to rise on the first grand drama.

Upon returning to the Mingyue Hotel, Huo Yuhao found Ye Guyi, who was working as a waitress, looking troubled.

What surprised Huo Yuhao was that this girl trained as both a soul master and a soul engineer while working to support her studies, yet had still reached the Three-Ring Soul Elder level at such a young age.

Her soul power showed no signs of being unstable. Clearly, she had taken no shortcuts in her cultivation, building her foundation steadily and firmly instead.

"Miss Ye, it's only been a month or so, but your cultivation has advanced a thousand miles a day!" Huo Yuhao greeted her.

"Yuhao, you're not doing badly yourself! I can feel that your soul power fluctuations have grown much more solid." Ye Guyi rolled her eyes at him, then looked at Snow Girl beside him and asked gently, "Who is she?"

"She's an old companion of mine," Huo Yuhao said with an awkward laugh. Snow Girl regarded Ye Guyi warily and added, "Back when we were in the sect, I was his neighbor. He came here to study soul tools, and I was worried about him, so I came along."

Watching Snow Girl stand with her hands in her pockets and solemnly spin some nonsense about a "Spirit Eyes Sect" in front of Ye Guyi, Huo Yuhao looked at her as though he had discovered a new continent. Only after he gave Snow Girl a look that said, "She can be trusted," did her wariness fade.

"So that's how it is. You two suffered at the hands of evil soul masters as well..." Ye Guyi murmured.

"Miss Ye, you don't look well. Has something happened recently?" Huo Yuhao asked.

At Huo Yuhao's question, Ye Guyi hesitated for a moment as though she had received an electric shock, then finally explained what had happened.

Ever since the Star Crown Martial Soul Xu Family's line had taken the Star Luo throne, the Angel Clan Headquarters had been located in the Star Luo Empire, in the southern part of the Douluo Continent.

After all, the Xu Family and the Angel Clan had been close even back in the days of the Spirit Hall.

But not long ago, Scorpion Tiger Douluo had gone to the Star Luo Empire's Western Army Group military camp to carry out an assassination, only to be captured. His confession exposed the employers behind the hit-the Evil-Eyed White Tiger Dai Family and the Zhu Family-and the situation in the Star Luo Empire instantly deteriorated.

News broke that the White Tiger Duke, who had passed his own doorstep three times without entering while defending the borders and the nation, had lost his army and disgraced his country: seventy thousand soldiers had died in a single day, while another two hundred and ten thousand had been captured, suffered irreversible injuries, or gone missing. The news that this supposedly upright White Tiger Duke also had an illegitimate son named Dai Luoli was exposed as well.

Even more explosive was the revelation that Zhang Peng's assassination target had been none other than Dai Luoli, the illegitimate son of the White Tiger Duke's Mansion.

What could the Xu Family do to the Dai Family and Zhu Family, those two Divine Descendant Families, with this information? Naturally, they could only pull their heads into their shells and pretend nothing had happened. But the Dai Family and Zhu Family could not allow this embarrassing situation to persist. They immediately launched a mutiny, attempting to reclaim the throne ahead of schedule and then bury the matter through a purge. After all, the Dai Family was flourishing at the time, while the Xu Family had declined.

Naturally, the Xu Family did not dare suppress the Dai Family's rebellion directly. Emperor Xu Jiawei chose to compromise. Since he was Dai Hao's "sworn brother," the Xu Family even agreed to let the Dai Family govern itself in the western Star Luo Empire on the principle that "brothers are like hands and feet." Of course, the Xu Family simultaneously gathered all its forces around itself to keep the Dai Family from becoming blinded by bloodlust: ever since the mutiny began, the Dai Family's army had burned, killed, and plundered along the way, committing every evil imaginable.

The two sides thus entered a standoff. The Star Luo Empire had now split into the Western Star Luo Empire, controlled by the Dai Family, and the Eastern Star Luo Empire, controlled by the Xu Family.

"So, Miss Ye, you're worried that something might happen to your clan amid all this turmoil?"

After listening to Ye Guyi's account, Huo Yuhao immediately understood what worried her.

After all, once the taboo subject of the "Restoration of the Evil Spirit Hall" was brought up on the Douluo Continent, her family would inevitably be the one put under the knife.

If they want to paint the Xu Family's claim to the throne as the same sort of thing as Qian Renxue's identity as Xue Qinghe, the Dai Family will have to deny the Abdication Edict issued back then, Huo Yuhao thought. And if they justify this mutiny by arguing that the Star Luo Empire was always the Dai Family's property-that without the Dai Family's army, it would have ceased to exist long ago-then the Spirit Hall actually has something to say about that. After all, without the Spirit Hall, the Heaven Dou Empire would have been destroyed by the Star Luo Empire long ago.

At that thought, Huo Yuhao saw Ye Guyi nod gloomily and said with a smile, "Miss Ye, don't worry just yet. Worrying won't help anyway. The ones who should be worrying now are Shrek Academy, the true center of power on the Douluo Continent."

"How to define these two Star Luo Empires is a headache for Shrek Academy."