The three talked for a long time.
Only when dinnertime drew near did Long Xiaoyao pull Ye Zhaolu to her feet, intending to leave.
The two promised Li Chen that they would keep the God of Love's Divine Test a secret forever.
At the same time,
because he had awakened the wisdom of his previous life, Li Chen could sense that the two of them had yet to stabilize.
Long Xiaoyao in particular had awakened so many memories in such a short time that even his personality had changed somewhat.
Long Xiaoyao and Ye Zhaolu reached the entryway. Ye Zhaolu went out first, while Long Xiaoyao hesitated for a moment and gave Li Chen a long, searching look.
"I have something I want to ask you."
"What is it, Brother Long?"
"I wanted to ask: ten thousand years ago, were you the one who helped Xishui and me reincarnate?"
Li Chen hesitated.
Xishui? That way of addressing her, that tone...
Li Chen fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "It was me."
"I see. Thank you."
Long Xiaoyao bowed to Li Chen. When he straightened again, his body suddenly seemed lighter.
"Goodbye."
He smiled, waved, and closed the door.
Li Chen walked back to the living room in his slippers, inwardly startled.
The one who questioned me just now seemed to be Long Xiaoyao himself.
Was the Darkness Dragon Emperor's consciousness that powerful?
Someone who had already died could actually appear for a brief moment.
Still, Li Chen was not particularly worried.
Long Xiaoyao was already a past life. Presumably, perhaps because he had met Li Chen just before his death, an obsession had lingered in his heart.
Once Long Xiaoyao had absorbed and adjusted to his previous life's memories, that Darkness Dragon Emperor from ten thousand years ago would vanish from the world completely.
Not long after the two left,
his dad, Li Yuntian, came home.
Li Yuntian asked in puzzlement, "Why are you home alone? Where's Gu Yue? Have you eaten?"
"We have. Gu Yue went to rest. She said she wanted to take these two days to relax properly."
"Oh."
Li Chen poured his dad a glass of water. "How did it go, Dad?"
Li Yuntian smiled.
"It's all settled. Long Yeyue has been removed from her post. Chen Xinjie of the War God Temple has also been temporarily removed, with Yu Guanzhi serving as acting temple master.
"The Shrek Law Enforcement Team was wiped out, and there are no plans to rebuild it for now. Yun Ming voluntarily canceled its original budget allocation. Even some of Shrek City's policing authority has been temporarily ceded to the Federation military to quell public anger."
As Li Yuntian spoke, he looked weary, but he could not hide the excitement on his face.
After this incident, although Mingdu had been thrown into a chicken-flying, dog-jumping uproar, Shrek's reputation had suffered a heavy blow, and Chen Xinjie of the War God Temple had temporarily lost his position.
Though the foundations of these two most troublesome factions had not been shaken, they certainly would not dare make any moves in the short term.
Holding his glass, Li Yuntian had already formed a plan.
He would seize this opportunity
to make the Federation military's presence in Shrek City routine. Ideally, even the Sea God Pavilion would have to come under Federation oversight.
As for Chen Xinjie,
with him no longer covering the sky with one hand in the War God Temple, parliamentary affairs in the near future might not all go the Federation's way, but at least they would not favor Shrek and the Tang Sect.
Li Yuntian realized this was a good opportunity to get things done. He intended to use this window to push through some policies and bills as quickly as possible.
"Oh, right. Yun Ming asked me to give you something."
Li Yuntian took out a storage ring and handed it to Li Chen.
"What's this?"
Li Yuntian smiled. "What else could it be? Yun Ming said you deserved credit for providing evidence and thanked you on Shrek's behalf. I haven't opened it to look, but it should be some whale rubber, Federation coins, rare materials, things like that. At most, there might be a Soul Bone."
Li Chen nodded and poured in Soul Power to open it. A large pile of things appeared.
It was much as his dad had said: some rare metals and materials, along with a note saying they were for him to forge One-Word Battle Armor in the future.
There was also a ten-thousand-year Soul Bone.
It was passable.
"Heh, then I'll thank Pavilion Master Yun Ming for his kindness."
Li Chen accepted them.
Father and son exchanged a look. Both understood that giving Li Chen things was merely a pretext; putting on a show for the world was the real purpose.
"Dad, you haven't eaten yet, have you? I made noodles."
Li Chen put the things away and brought over a bowl of noodles.
Li Yuntian sat down with a smile, picked up some noodles, and put them in his mouth.
"Li Chen, we owe a lot to you for this."
Li Chen sat to one side, scrolling through his communicator. "Cai Yue'er brought it on herself. If she hadn't courted death, how could bringing down a Sea God Pavilion Elder like her have been so easy?"
Li Yuntian nodded. "That's true. How are your studies with Teacher Leng going?"
"Pretty well. Aunt Leng is very lenient with me, not as strict as she is with Gu Yue."
"That's good. But you should put some effort into it too. If Aunt Leng corrects you on anything, you need to learn seriously."
"Yes~"
Li Chen put down his communicator and suddenly asked, "Dad, will you move against the Spirit Pagoda?"
Surprised, Li Yuntian took a sip of water. "Hm? Why bring that up all of a sudden?"
"Because the Spirit Pagoda is essentially no different from Shrek. It's only a matter of degree. Shrek controls an entire city and skims the cream of prospective Soul Masters from across the continent. The Spirit Pagoda isn't much better, controlling Soul Spirits across the entire continent. It just doesn't act as overbearingly as Shrek."
Li Yuntian froze for a moment. "I didn't expect you to care so much about the continent's situation, brat. But keep that between you and me. Don't mention it in front of Aunt Leng or anyone else."
Li Yuntian paused, then said seriously, "The Spirit Pagoda is indeed another superpower. The enormous profits they make from selling Soul Spirits are no less than Shrek's. But I can't move against them for now."
Although Li Yuntian wanted to do something for the people at the bottom across the continent, he understood deeply that things had to be done one step at a time.
His ability to do anything about Shrek now was inseparable from the support of Qiangu Dongfeng of the Spirit Pagoda.
Li Yuntian knew that if he moved against both the Spirit Pagoda and Shrek at once, he would be forced out of his position as speaker tomorrow.
In fact,
Li Yuntian had never hoped to resolve these problems completely within a single term.
The more he did, the less future speakers would have to do.
"Mm, I was just worried you might be too impatient, Dad. Take your time eating. I'm going to bed."
Li Chen got up and returned to his room.
He had only been probing to see whether his dad would pursue radical reforms.
It was good that he would not.
Back in his room, Li Chen soon fell asleep.
Early the next morning, Li Chen woke up, and his Tree of Sorrow Martial Soul's skill cooldown appeared on its own.
"Huh, what's going on? Reincarnation and Renewal of Fate originally had another month of cooldown left. Why is it suddenly ready?"
Li Chen rubbed his sleepy eyes and exclaimed in pleasant surprise.
Then,
something suddenly occurred to Li Chen.
"Wait, could Brother Long have taken Ye Zhaolu's first blood last night?"
A guess rose in Li Chen's mind.
All the Tree of Sorrow's rewards were tied to the progress of the reincarnated people's relationships.
What had originally been a month-long cooldown had now elapsed overnight.
There was only one possibility:
Long Xiaoyao and Ye Zhaolu had made further progress last night.
Thinking it over, that was perfectly normal.
For two people whose feelings had erupted, nothing could vent those intense emotions better than doing it.
"Heh, then I might as well use it right away. Use it early, start the cooldown early!"
Li Chen chuckled, made sure his door was locked tight, then immediately activated all three Soul Skills!
A spatial gate appeared,
and Li Chen struck twice, his spiritual consciousness entering the spatial gate once again.