The Blood-Weeping Douluo's deterrent power was plain to see.
Apart from the personnel who remained aboard the three warships, the White Tiger, the Spirit Ice, and the Dragon Butterfly,
the delegation personally led by Sima Lanxiao moved into Skyfrost City, where Spirit Hall hosted them.
The Spirit Hall Main Hall in Skyfrost City was an enormous domed building, white throughout. The Spirit Hall emblem above its front entrance depicted a sword, a hammer, and a dragon.
Long Yue guessed that these represented the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Sword Douluo, the Clear Sky Sect's Clear Sky Douluo, and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's Titled Douluo.
When Sima Lanxiao offered to pay, Spirit Hall's Bishop He Mian declined.
"As the guardian of the Douluo Continent, Spirit Hall should welcome guests who have traveled from afar. The Angel God loves all humanity equally. May her divine glory shine upon the Spirit Ice Continent."
He Mian was a bishop with Soul Emperor cultivation who had served at Skyfrost City's Main Hall for over thirty years. He had a deft way with words.
With that, he not only established Spirit Hall's diplomatic image, subtly placing its status above the two great empires, but also extended goodwill to the Divine Realm Empire People.
This made the Divine Realm Empire People, Long Yue included, think even less of the Heaven Frost Grand Duke.
The Divine Realm Empire People weren't refusing to pay. Was it really so hard to simply provide an inn? Instead, you wouldn't even let us ashore and kept stalling.
Now Spirit Hall had received the Spirit Ice Continent's envoys first, taking this politically significant step.
"So... what does receiving us first actually mean?"
Qilin Douluo Tong Yu asked. He, too, had mingled with the delegation.
Unlike the Blood-Weeping Douluo, who was receiving Spirit Hall's flattery, this Super Douluo remained inconspicuous.
Long Yue had brought Tong Yu some local food and liquor. The two fellow disciples sat in a room in Skyfrost City's Spirit Hall Main Hall, drinking and chatting.
Long Yue poured a little liquor onto the table and traced a circle with his finger. "If we view the Douluo Continent as a single country sharing the same written and spoken language, then Spirit Hall and the two great empires are regional warlords."
"Mm." Qilin Douluo Tong Yu listened attentively. Throughout his years under house arrest, he had focused on meditation and cultivation, making little progress in his understanding of politics.
"Now a powerful nation with Titled Douluos has arrived from outside the Douluo Continent. Whoever receives it first gains a lead over the others in legitimacy and rightful authority.
"Think about it, senior brother.
"Establishing diplomatic relations between the Spirit Ice Continent and the Douluo Continent... is that something a regional warlord can negotiate? Of course only the Douluo Continent's central authority can do that.
"In other words, whoever first receives international recognition from the Divine Realm Empire gains another sliver of opportunity to establish the legitimacy and legal grounds for unifying the Douluo Continent."
Long Yue thought of the late Qing dynasty before his transmigration. Once the Southeast Mutual Protection agreement emerged, the Aisin-Gioro's rule was already doomed. What remained was merely history's garbage time.
After all, diplomatic authority belonged to the capital. Regional powers had no right to conduct diplomacy.
"Bishop He Mian really does have a keen nose for politics. He chose the best possible approach."
Long Yue made a boastful prediction to Tong Yu:
"The empire originally planned to go to Heaven Dou City. Now we'll probably be heading to Spirit City instead."
"Spirit City?" Qilin Douluo Tong Yu frowned. His secret mission was to stand guard at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, so, following the emperor's secret orders, the delegation had chosen Heaven Dou City as its first stop.
According to ancient records and the Tang Sect's intelligence, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well lay in Sunset Forest near Heaven Dou City.
But if they went to Spirit City first, once Tong Yu's strength as a Titled Douluo was exposed, everyone native to the Douluo Continent would keep their eyes on this Qilin Douluo.
If Tong Yu then went to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, that treasure land would be exposed as well.
"I can't go to Spirit City. I have to go to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. I won't stay with the delegation." Tong Yu stood, intending to leave for the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well immediately.
"Huh? Senior brother?" Those words sobered Long Yue up considerably. "You're going now? Just walking outside in those clothes will draw plenty of attention."
Although Tong Yu wore a black robe that covered his body, the styles and materials of clothing on the Spirit Ice Continent and the Douluo Continent were worlds apart-the former was twenty thousand years ahead.
Anyone on the Douluo Continent could tell at a glance that Tong Yu's clothing was exceptionally well made and its style was novel.
"Besides, surely you don't think Bishop He Mian hasn't recorded the members of the imperial delegation staying at Spirit Hall?" Long Yue said in surprise. "Descriptions of our appearances may already have been sent to the Supreme Pontiff."
"Huh?" Tong Yu's eyes widened, one blue and one red staring at Long Yue. His expression was utterly serious. "I really hadn't thought that far..."
"..." Long Yue was speechless.
Long Yue had assumed that Qilin Douluo Tong Yu would realize Spirit Hall's people would record their information, so he had said nothing when Tong Yu followed Sima Lanxiao into Spirit Hall's lodgings.
For one thing, Long Yue was a nobody whose words carried little weight. He had only been able to come to the Douluo Continent thanks to En Ci's standing, and had no right to question Tong Yu and Sima Lanxiao's decisions or arrangements.
For another, Tong Yu himself was a Super Douluo who had lived longer than Long Yue's two lifetimes combined. He should have had more worldly experience than Long Yue-who could have known that Tong Yu understood none of this?
Long Yue could not think of a good solution either.
Tong Yu could slip away in secret, but Bishop He Mian would certainly report it to Spirit Hall and question Sima Lanxiao.
If Sima Lanxiao could not explain it, that would be quite troublesome as well.
"Senior brother, the old man really did you harm back then." Long Yue sighed heavily. "You stayed cooped up at Monster Academy cultivating and forgot to venture out into the world. Then you spent nearly half your life under house arrest at the academy... ah!"
"Then what should I do?" Tong Yu asked anxiously. "Junior brother, you're clever. Hurry and help me salvage this."
"You've already called me your junior brother. What else can I say?"
Long Yue thumped his chest, his bold spirit soaring to the clouds.
"Leave it to me."
Sima Lanxiao, the Divine Realm Empire's foreign minister, was scrutinizing Spirit Hall in this era.
In history, Spirit Hall had been Tang San's enemy. The records it left behind were infamous, and its crimes were too numerous to record even on every bamboo slip.
With that preconceived impression, even after Spirit Hall's Bishop He Mian extended goodwill, Sima Lanxiao found it difficult to imagine Spirit Hall as a friendly organization of Soul Masters.
Could they be brewing something rotten? Were they planning to eliminate our delegation? Was Supreme Pontiff Bibi Dong, that inherently evil Rakshasa God, planning to exploit the empire?
Yet after observing it over the past few days, Sima Lanxiao felt that Spirit Hall was not as evil as the history books described.
Through Joander's inquiries and reports, Sima Lanxiao learned that when the Divine Realm Empire's warships appeared offshore that day, more people had sought refuge in Spirit Hall than trusted the Heaven Frost Grand Duke to protect them.
Clearly, the people living under the duchy's rule trusted Spirit Hall more.
Before you continue