Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy
"What?!" Xu De froze. No one had told him about this. He turned to Xu Tianxing, who looked just as dumbfounded.
The founding of Illustrious Virtue Hall had indeed been his suggestion. After all, although Soul Tools had become widespread throughout the Sun Moon Empire, their shortcomings were glaring: there was a shortage of high-tier Soul Tools.
The entire Sun Moon Empire had only ten ninth-tier Soul Tools, and they were of extremely poor quality. Take the Scarlet Sun Cannon: it was slow to charge, inaccurate, and could not be fired repeatedly. After three consecutive shots, its barrel had to cool down, or it risked exploding.
Their energy storage was inadequate too. Ordinary Soul Cannons could be charged in advance and fired on the battlefield, but eighth- and ninth-tier Soul Tools could not, because the storage arrays for the eighth tier and above had been lost.
This was also connected to the Moon Devouring Plan the Sun Moon Emperor had launched back then. As everyone knew, the Sun Moon Imperial Family had two inherited Martial Souls, the Sun and the Silver Moon. In fact, for several centuries before Xu Tianlin ascended the throne, the Silver Moon Martial Soul lineage had controlled the imperial family.
The Martial Souls of Xu Tianlin and his two brothers were all beneficial mutations of the Sun Martial Soul, and the turning point came at that time. The Silver Moon lineage ran into problems with its Titled Douluo inheritance and failed to produce a new Titled Douluo for more than thirty years. The Sun imperial lineage, meanwhile, produced a genius: the current imperial ancestor, Heaven Burning Douluo.
He had been a level 92 Titled Douluo back then and had now reached level 98. But although they had won that battle, it had left the Sun Moon Empire in its present predicament.
The Sun Martial Soul provided a tremendous boost to combat strength, but it was of little help to Soul Engineers. Although the Silver Moon Martial Soul was somewhat weaker in direct combat, its bearers had an outstanding grasp of space, making them highly skilled at developing and using Soul Tools. All three of the Sun Moon Empire's ninth-tier Soul Engineers had belonged to the Silver Moon lineage.
In that battle, every ninth-tier Soul Engineer of the Silver Moon lineage had died, and all twenty-odd ninth-tier Soul Tools in the Sun Moon Empire had been damaged. The ones they had now had been restored from the wreckage by a group of eighth-tier Soul Engineers.
"Ahem, there was no helping it, De'er. Sometimes people have to make sacrifices. The plan for Illustrious Virtue Hall was your idea, and a marriage alliance with the little princess of the Silver Moon lineage was Moon Valley's condition. After all, we still have to rely on them for Soul Tool research!"
The Sun Moon Emperor was a little embarrassed, but he had no better solution. The little princess's status was not low either, so a marriage alliance with her was not too bad a deal for Xu De.
Now Xu De understood. So he was the sacrifice. He had heard of Moon Valley's little princess too. Supposedly, her Silver Moon Martial Soul had undergone a special mutation, and she was incredibly ugly. Although Xu De held that everyone looked the same with the lights off, surely she couldn't be too bad.
"Your son obeys your decree!"
Although he was reluctant, he could not refuse. He wanted Moon Valley's support too; otherwise, he would be in danger if Moon Valley joined the Eastern Sun King's side.
Research into ninth-tier Soul Tools had to be carried out. When the time came, it would no longer be an era in which a Titled Douluo's personal strength made him invincible. Never mind Heaven Burning Douluo-even Tang Chen and Qian Daoliu probably couldn't withstand a succession of instant-fired ninth-tier Soul Cannons.
"Father Emperor, your son has another idea. Haven't they been sending spies over from the Douluo Continent lately?"
The Sun Moon Emperor nodded slightly. He knew about that. There were naturally clever people on the Douluo Continent who wanted to steal the methods for making Soul Tools, but none had succeeded. After all, the craft really was complicated. Unless someone had exceptionally outstanding spiritual power, they couldn't even get started in less than a year, let alone master it.
Xu De spoke again, presenting his idea. "We could establish several Soul Engineer academies. Until now, Soul Engineers everywhere have worked on their own, each seeking successors among the common people to pass on their knowledge. Why not bring the outstanding Soul Engineers into our ranks, then select exceptional students to study Soul Tools?"
"What's more, we could establish the Mingdu Soul Engineer Academy and invite two eighth-tier Soul Engineers to serve as deans. We could recruit students from across the entire continent, but set the entry requirements higher. For example, twelve-year-old Soul Grandmasters or people with special Martial Souls could enroll. That would greatly advance research in the field of Soul Tools while allowing us to recruit talent more efficiently."
The Sun Moon Emperor showed little reaction. He had actually made plans for this long ago and had only been waiting for matters with Moon Valley to be settled first. Xu Tianxing, however, frowned deeply, clearly puzzled.
"But if we recruit from the entire continent, won't Heaven Dou, the Star Luo Empire, and Spirit Hall all send people to steal our knowledge? With their resources, meeting those requirements shouldn't be very difficult!"
Hearing Xu Tianxing's question, Xu De had yet to speak when the Sun Moon Emperor's eyes lit up. That was right-how had he not thought of it?
"I understand! De'er, you mean to lure the talented students from Douluo to Mingdu, then win them over with knowledge of Soul Tools, so that they and even the families behind them join our Sun Moon Empire!"
Xu De had not expected the Sun Moon Emperor to see the deeper meaning so quickly. For a moment, he was shocked. He had underestimated the people of the world.
"That's right. That's exactly what I mean."
Xu De naturally had more in mind than that. The people he wanted to attract with Soul Tools were no ordinary geniuses, but Zhu Zhuqing, Ning Rongrong, and even Tang San and the others. They would never let this opportunity pass, especially Tang San.
The higher-ups of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect were no fools. If the Sun Moon Empire offered them enough benefits, it was not impossible for them to join. Moreover, he possessed the knowledge that Qian Renxue was disguised as Xue Qinghe. If Xue Ye learned of it, would he suspect the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect of joining forces with Spirit Hall to steal the Heaven Dou Empire?
When that happened, would the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect have any choice but to join the Sun Moon Empire? The main reason he wanted to lure Oscar and Ning Rongrong over was to stop them from meeting Tang San. After all, resurrection from the dead was truly disgusting. He couldn't let Tang San keep using such an unreasonable cheat.
Of course, Xu De had a little scheme of his own too. Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing were both great beauties. Although he didn't know what had changed with Tang San, what if the fellow seduced other beauties now that Xiao Wu was gone? Wouldn't that sully his harem?
Zhu Zhuqing wanted to change her fate, and Ning Rongrong wanted to experience a different life. Even Shui Bing'er, Huo Wu, Ye Lingling, and the others would most likely come once they learned about the Mingdu Soul Master Academy. Once they reached Mingdu, would he have to worry about failing to win them over?
Right, it was also time to release news of Gangzi and bring Liu Erlong and Flender rushing over. As long as Shrek Academy remained, it would always be a hidden danger.
As for Tang San, Xu De knew without thinking that he would definitely come. After all, Xu De had killed his father, and Xiao Wu was still with him. He just didn't know how Tang San would feel when he saw the Hidden Weapons he was so proud of being ground into the dirt by Soul Tools.