"Oh, that mansion belongs to the Defense Clan."
Someone from the City Lord's Mansion explained, "Those men are masters at construction. They even renovated the City Lord's Mansion here in Longxing City."
"The Defense Clan? The Defense Hall?"
Sima Lanxiao and the others turned their heads almost simultaneously.
Among the upper echelons of the Spirit Ice Continent, who hadn't heard of the Defense Hall, one of the Tang Sect's Outer Three Halls?
The Tang Sect's organizational structure included the Xuan Shi Company, the Outer Three Halls, the Inner Three Halls, and Douluo Hall. The Defense Hall was primarily responsible for the sect's defenses and all manner of construction work.
According to legend, the Tang Sect's Defense Hall in Tang San's generation had been composed of disciples from the Defense Clan.
They had just encountered the Tang Sect's forebears.
Sima Lanxiao and the others all cast friendly looks toward the Defense Clan's mansion. The empire's foreign minister even intended to pay the clan a personal visit before long.
The Divine Realm Empire People had a very favorable impression of the Tang Sect.
Leaving Tang San's era aside for the moment.
Their ancestor, Spirit Ice Douluo, had been a disciple who revitalized the Tang Sect. Right up until the city crossed over, the Tang Sect had continued to provide the empire with a wealth of soul tool technology.
The affection the empire's people felt for the Tang Sect was hardly something Emperor Dai Tianling could diminish with three years of effort.
Even now, there was no telling how many people within the empire still harbored a so-called "Tang Sect attachment."
Those people might be peddlers or porters, or they might occupy lofty positions... they might not be formal Tang Sect disciples, nor have studied its cultivation methods or martial arts,
But if Tang San came knocking, they would not begrudge him their help, provided both sides stood to benefit.
After all, in every version of history, Tang San was a perfect, wise, and virtuous sage.
The Divine Realm Empire People: How could investing in Tang San ever go wrong? Surely Lord Sea God would repay kindness with kindness.
Dugu Bo: "You're right."
Bai Chenxiang: "No objections here."
Yu Xiaogang: "That's possible."
Imagining that scene, Long Yue couldn't help laughing.
He wondered whether those people would regret it when Tang San's habit of declaring others to have "courted death" came down on their own heads.
The mansion the City Lord's Mansion had prepared for the Divine Realm Empire's delegation looked plain and simple from outside, but its interior was magnificent.
Once the delegation had settled into the mansion, Sima Lanxiao took some of them to attend the banquet at the City Lord's Mansion.
Long Yue had no desire to enter that arena of fame and fortune, so he asked Qilin Douluo Tong Yu to go out shopping with him instead.
With Qilin Douluo looking the way he did, attending the banquet at the City Lord's Mansion would have been awkward anyway.
"I'll stay in."
"Senior brother, is this social anxiety?"
Long Yue dragged Qilin Douluo Tong Yu toward the door,
"Come on, senior brother. You spent more than half your life imprisoned at Monster Academy. Now that you finally have a little freedom, you should enjoy it all the more."
As stiff as a figurine, Tong Yu let Long Yue dress him in a black robe, covering his scale-covered arms and face until only his eyes, one blue and one red, remained exposed.
"Let's go, senior brother." Long Yue took off his own sunglasses and put them on Tong Yu's face.
The only drawback to those sunglasses was that they were far too fashionable, completely at odds with the style of the Douluo Continent.
Almost anyone with a little worldly knowledge would recognize Tong Yu as someone from the Divine Realm Empire at first glance.
Tong Yu sighed and let his junior brother pull him outside.
Longxing City was not large. As a border city, its marketplace possessed a rough, blunt character unlike the refinement of inland cities. People did not speak the elegant language of the capital's nobles and ministers, but coarse dialect and slang.
"Quite the fiery tempers."
Long Yue grumbled, then imitated the accent. "Oi, mate! Yer conscience is just like this apple ya sold me! Got a great big worm sittin' on it!"
Tong Yu was uncomfortable being stared at by the people around them. After decades of confinement at Monster Academy, even if he hadn't started out socially anxious, that environment would have made him so.
Seeing that Long Yue had nearly come to blows with the locals after just a few words, he tried to pull him away.
"Leave it, leave it."
Tong Yu broke up the quarrel and led Long Yue away.
Long Yue angrily rolled up his sleeves, making as if to throw a punch:
"These local gangs have no manners at all."
Tong Yu was about to offer a few words about how harmony brought prosperity when his gaze suddenly shifted toward a corner. "Come out."
Long Yue poked his head out and saw a beautiful, alluring man in white appear in the corner. A peculiar fragrance wafted from him. The smell wasn't unpleasant, but...
"Why is my soul power being suppressed? What did you do, you little femboy?"
"...Huh?" Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan had no idea what to say for a moment.
People had called him a sissy or Chrysanthemum Guan more times than he could count, but this was the first time he had heard such a novel expression.
"Hmph!" Tong Yu snorted coldly. A burst of Five Elements Divine Fire burned away every trace of the fragrance drifting through the air. "Get lost!"
Chrysanthemum Douluo's cultivation was inferior to Qilin Douluo's. Tong Yu had seen through Yue Guan almost at a glance.
He was merely a rank-ninety-five Super Douluo, without so much as a soul core, battle armor, or soul spirit.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan still thought Tong Yu's cultivation was on par with his own. A teasing look touched his beautiful face. "Oh~ So you Divine Realm Empire People do have some ability."
The Divine Realm Empire People from the Spirit Ice Continent did indeed have more than one Titled Douluo. They had concealed their strength.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan had set out from Spirit City and traveled all the way to the Heaven Frost Principality, only to learn from Bishop He Mian that the Divine Realm Empire's delegation had already departed.
The sight of the three warships moored in the harbor had truly opened Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan's eyes. He finally understood what His Holiness the Pope had meant by an "opportunity."
Such powerful metal warships sat in the harbor, and there were three of them. That was ample proof of the Divine Realm Empire's high level of soul tool manufacturing.
Spirit Hall's only shortcoming was that it had too few Soul Master legions. But if its Soul Masters were all equipped with soul tools, wouldn't they be able to unleash even greater combat strength?
He had to make the Divine Realm Empire's delegation visit Spirit City first.
Ideally, His Holiness the Pope would represent Spirit Hall in signing an agreement with the Divine Realm Empire-an agreement granting it a monopoly over the soul tool trade.
With that thought in mind, Chrysanthemum Douluo had hurried from Skyfrost City to Longxing City, where he finally spotted Tong Yu in his sunglasses.
That strange, fashionable outfit marked him as Divine Realm Empire People at a glance.
He simply hadn't expected Qilin Douluo to detect him immediately.
"I am an elder of Spirit Hall. My title is Chrysanthemum." Believing Tong Yu to be a fellow Titled Douluo, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan introduced himself elegantly.
"So what?"
A measure of killing intent had already risen in Tong Yu's heart. This Spirit Hall elder had attacked Long Yue outright, behaving exactly like the evil Spirit Hall of legend.
And so Tong Yu's answer remained the same: "Get lost!"
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan was struggling to maintain his composure. As a Titled Douluo elder of Spirit Hall, he held great power and status. Wherever he went, people treated him with the utmost deference.
Yet all he got here was "get lost"?
"Arrogant!" Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan suppressed his anger. "Even if you and I are both Titled Douluos, aren't you being far too disrespectful?"
Long Yue's eyes darted as an idea struck him. Knowing Tong Yu was no good at verbal sparring, he spoke up. "Your Excellency, how about we talk outside the city?"
Outside the city?
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan shook his head. "There's no need. Take me to your special envoy. From this moment on, the Divine Realm Empire's delegation will go to Spirit Hall first to have an audience with His Holiness the Pope."
Before you continue