Huo Yuhao watched quietly until the three emerged from their reverie, then smiled. "The Holy Spirit Cult hasn't been eliminated yet, and the Abyss threat remains—this isn't truly a golden age yet."
The revolution wasn't complete; comrades still needed to strive.
"The Holy Spirit Cult?" Ye Guyi frowned. "I didn't expect them to rise again. How strong are they now?"
"They have several Limit Douluo and a Killing God from the Divine Realm—" Huo Yuhao gave a general overview of the Holy Spirit Cult's strength and the Killing God's situation, also briefly explaining why deities had appeared on the Douluo Continent.
Though they were surprised that deities had descended after the Divine Realm's troubles, the three focused more on the Holy Spirit Cult and the Abyss.
"The Holy Spirit Cult has a deity?" Ye Guyi rubbed her chin, her expression grave. "What's your plan?"
"After the Tower convenes a meeting soon, the Spirit Transmission Tower's experts will accompany me to the Holy Spirit Cult's Douling Continent stronghold to eliminate the Cult's presence there."
Ye Guyi and the others exchanged speechless looks at Huo Yuhao.
From his initial description, they'd thought this was an enemy that would require a desperate struggle. Yet Huo Yuhao had already arranged the battle plan—hardly the attitude of someone facing a major threat.
Huo Yuhao smiled and shook his head. "Don't look at me like that. The Killing God is indeed dangerous—he has a divine seat, and in raw strength, I might not be his match."
"If you fight Teacher based solely on raw strength, you'll definitely lose," Su Tong rolled her eyes.
Ye Guyi also smiled helplessly. "So you're confident against the enemy deity. What about the rest of the Holy Spirit Cult's evil soul masters? Like the Limit Douluo and Title Douluo—can the Tower's current high-end combat power handle them?"
"Rest assured, there's no problem. The Tower currently has five experts who've touched the divine level, and over two dozen Limit Douluo."
The three: "..."
That was several times the enemy's high-end combat power!
This was classic Huo Yuhao style—either don't act, or prepare thoroughly. Never fight an uncertain battle.
"It seems dealing with the Holy Spirit Cult won't be a problem. But what's this Abyss you mentioned?" Ye Guyi had been curious about this unfamiliar term.
"The Abyss Plane is an alien plane that invaded the Douluo Plane over six thousand years ago—"
Huo Yuhao gave a brief overview of the Abyss's origins and strength, making Su Tong and the others look grave.
Over a hundred Super Douluo, over thirty Limit Douluo, a Divine Origin realm expert, and even a first-class deity-level Plane Lord—this was the Douluo Plane's true great enemy!
"Such strength is indeed a significant threat to the Douluo Plane."
Ye Guyi said gravely. "How does the Federation plan to respond?"
"Though the Abyss is strong, its goal is to devour the Douluo Plane. To do so, it must fight on the Douluo Plane—home turf advantage is on our side. We already have a plan," Huo Yuhao smiled and shared some of the strategy with them.
Seeing Huo Yuhao's confident expression and hearing his plan, the three exchanged glances, their tense expressions gradually relaxing.
Clearly, whether against the Holy Spirit Cult or the Abyss Plane, Huo Yuhao and the Federation had already developed strategies before their awakening. Though the enemies were strong, they weren't unbeatable.
Su Tong rubbed her still-red palms and muttered, "So it seems we might make it to the final battle against the Abyss, but your attack on the Douling Continent is coming soon, isn't it? We probably won't make that operation."
When she'd first been unsealed, she'd thought only her body and spirit power were sluggish, her muscle memory degraded.
But during her "catch-up" with Teacher, she'd discovered that her control over her spiritual power had also severely declined. Spiritual power that once coalesced at a thought now felt like it was behind a thick wall—slow to respond, painful with any exertion.
She even suspected her thinking had slowed down—otherwise, how could she have thought to "threaten" her Mistress?
In such a state, no matter how strong she was, a single moment of mental lapse could expose a fatal flaw on the battlefield.
Her body, spirit power, and spiritual power would take time to recover. Clearly, none of the three would make the upcoming Douling battle.
She wasn't afraid for herself—with Tower experts watching each other's backs, it wouldn't be a problem. The key was not wanting to embarrass herself in front of her juniors.
The dignified second Tower Master, Frost Douluo Su Tong, being slow to react on the battlefield, needing rescue, or even dragging others down—just imagining that scene was worse than being "caught up" by her teacher.
Huo Yuhao smiled. "I didn't awaken you for this battle. Focus on recovering."
"But—" Ye Guyi hesitated, as if wanting to say something.
She wanted to go out, eliminate evil, and level up by farming evil soul masters.
Reading her expression, Huo Yuhao shook his head. "No rush. Though the Douling Continent is one of the Cult's two strongholds, there aren't actually many evil soul masters there—most are Douling Empire experts. The main evil soul master forces are on the Xingluo Continent. You won't be able to join this one, but you should have a chance against the latter."
The Demon Emperor's intelligence showed that while Douling had some evil soul masters, they couldn't compare to Xingluo. Most of their experts were native to Douling. Among those the Demon Emperor had brought out last time, several had been Douling Title Douluo.
So in this battle against the Douling Empire, their main opponents would be the Empire's experts and armies. Douling's 400,000 standing troops couldn't be ignored.
Though due to troop distribution, they couldn't all arrive when the Cult stronghold was attacked, gathering tens of thousands was certainly possible—especially since the Cult branch they were attacking was in the Douling capital, which had a substantial garrison.
So this battle wasn't really suited for Ye Guyi, the bane of evil soul masters, to shine.
And at her level, killing ordinary evil soul masters was no longer useful.
To Ye Guyi, the most valuable target in the Holy Spirit Cult was the Ghost Emperor—a genuine quasi-divine evil soul master. If she could take him down, she'd likely level up significantly.
Hearing Huo Yuhao tell her to focus on the Ghost Emperor, Ye Guyi blinked and smiled thoughtfully.
"Since you think that's best, I'll follow your lead. Until then, I'll focus on recovering and improving."
As Huo Yuhao said, killing the Ghost Emperor would give her the greatest benefit.
But to take him down, her current strength was still somewhat lacking. Even with the Angel martial soul's advantage against evil soul masters, the Ghost Emperor's peak quasi-divine strength might require assistance, further advancement, or a powerful Four-Word Battle Armor to ensure success—otherwise, she risked failure.
So for now, she'd focus on improving her strength and studying Battle Armor, aiming to level up by taking out the Ghost Emperor herself.
Seeing Ye Guyi had taken his advice, Huo Yuhao nodded and turned to Ji Juechen, who was frowning in thought.
This battle maniac clearly wanted to participate, unconcerned with saving face—to him, any fight would do.
But in their current state, they truly weren't suited for battle—they needed time to recover.
Moreover, Huo Yuhao couldn't guarantee there weren't other side effects from ten thousand years of freezing. It was best to observe them for a while.
So, to prevent Ji Juechen from impulsively volunteering, Huo Yuhao spoke first: "Old Ji, there are plenty of experts on the Douluo Continent—no need to rush to Douling. Once we've dealt with the Holy Spirit Cult there, there'll be hard battles against Xingluo and the Abyss. Then you can pick whoever you want."
Ji Juechen glanced up at him and nodded without expression.
There were already more experts on the Douluo Continent than he could challenge—so he wasn't that desperate.
With the serious topics concluded, they moved to lighter conversation.
As if thinking of something, Su Tong chuckled. "Speaking of which, with so many experts in the Tower now, it's not like ten thousand years ago when there were more women than men, is it?"
After Huo Yuhao left, the Spirit Transmission Tower's human experts—excluding spirit beasts—had indeed shown a trend of being dominated by female experts.
This could be seen from the three of them alone.
After Huo Yuhao's departure, the strongest were her and Ye Guyi—both female human Limit Douluo. The strongest male was Ji Juechen, a Level 97 Super Douluo.
Even among Title Douluo, the proportion of women wasn't small.
It gave the impression that the Tower's human experts were female-dominated.
"More women than men?"
Huo Yuhao frowned, looked at Ye Guyi, Su Tong, and Ji Juechen, and immediately understood her meaning. He shook his head. "It's different now than ten thousand years ago."
In that era, there were indeed many exceptionally talented women.
Setting aside him—a late bloomer—the other three ultimate martial soul wielders among the younger generation, Ye Guyi, Su Tong, and Ma Xiaotao, were all female. (The Holy Angel martial soul was also classified as ultimate in Soul Land II.)
Among twin martial soul wielders, the younger generation included Xiao Xiao, Tang Wutong, Weina, and He Caitou—again, mostly female.
And the most easily recruited top talents were Ye Guyi and Su Tong, since they had little background and no ties to Shrek.
Talented males existed, but few were "wild." Most were either core heirs of major sects and powers or connected to Shrek Academy—hard to recruit.
Under these circumstances, the Tower's female-dominated trend wasn't surprising.
As long as it didn't go down the wrong path like the Spirit Hall did twenty thousand years ago. (Qian Renxue and Bibi Dong: Still targeting us, are you?)
"Is that so?" Su Tong nodded thoughtfully, then changed the subject, asking about Snow Empress's experiences over the ten thousand years.
Snow Empress paused, then smiled and recounted the events of the past millennia.
They talked for a long time—Snow Empress's guardianship of the Tower, the Tower's ups and downs over ten thousand years, Emperor Tian's battle against the Blazing Emperor six thousand years ago, the leap in soul tool technology, the evolution of human-spirit beast relations. They talked until the present day.
"There have been many events in recent years, but aside from those involving the Holy Spirit Cult and the Abyss, there are two things you should know."
Snow Empress paused, glancing at Huo Yuhao—seeing his expression unchanged—before continuing. "First, the Silver Dragon King has emerged."
"The Silver Dragon King?" Su Tong blinked. "Who is that? A spirit beast?"
"She is the creator of the Star Dou spirit beasts, the Dragon God's other half—a deity."
"So she's the actual leader of the Star Dou Great Forest?" Ji Juechen spoke up, unusually curious. "What about Emperor Tian's attitude?"
He still cared about the Spirit Transmission Tower.
Snow Empress glanced at Huo Yuhao again, who smiled helplessly and nodded, so she continued. "Rest assured, the Star Dou Great Forest's stance hasn't changed. The Silver Dragon King also supports the Tower and, like me, stands firmly with Yuhao."
Honestly, Snow Empress felt that bringing up Gu Yuena's relationship with Huo Yuhao at this time might cause some unnecessary trouble. But since Yuhao felt it was fine, she'd follow his lead.
After all, they'd find out eventually.
Hearing this, Su Tong's brow furrowed slightly. She watched Snow Empress and Huo Yuhao's small interaction, was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Is the Silver Dragon King male or female?"
"She's a woman. Her name is Gu Yuena." Huo Yuhao took over the conversation.
At this, Su Tong sensed something unusual. Her gaze swept back and forth between Huo Yuhao and Snow Empress, her expression doubtful.
A woman, specifically mentioned by her Mistress, and like her, firmly supporting Teacher—
These keywords together didn't sound like just "support."
Ye Guyi also sensed something off, but didn't ask immediately, planning to wait until Snow Empress finished the other matter.
As for Ji Juechen—if the Silver Dragon King had no intention of disrupting the Tower's internal harmony, it didn't concern him.
Seeing none of the three asked immediately, Snow Empress continued.
"The second thing—Shrek Academy has been destroyed."
This statement shook Ye Guyi and Su Tong profoundly. Even Ji Juechen showed slight surprise.
"That Shrek actually—"
Su Tong murmured, her face showing disbelief.
Even under the circumstances ten thousand years ago, Shrek Academy hadn't been destroyed. Now it was gone just like that?
"Right,the Divine Realm's gone, so Shrek lost its backing." Su Tong thought it over and understood.
One major reason Shrek hadn't been touched ten thousand years ago was its backing from the Sea God. Otherwise, even if Xu Tianran could tolerate Shrek's existence, later generations would have acted.
Now that the Divine Realm was gone, if Shrek did anything too outrageous, the Federation naturally wouldn't tolerate it.
Thinking this, Su Tong heard Huo Yuhao reveal some details of Shrek's destruction.
The reason was indeed as she'd expected—Shrek had done something extreme.
But even Su Tong hadn't expected it to be outright treason. She nearly lost her composure.
Yet upon reflection, Shrek doing such a thing didn't actually surprise her.
Beyond that, one other matter left her, Ye Guyi, and Ji Juechen with faces full of question marks.
That matter was, of course, Chen Xinjie's story.
"He betrayed the Federation for love?" Ye Guyi swallowed, looking at Huo Yuhao with admiration. "It seems the ancestral teachings you gave Su Tong were really useful. If someone like that had been in the Spirit Transmission Tower, the consequences would have been serious."
Huo Yuhao coughed, somewhat speechless.
"I know Chen Xinjie's story is attention-grabbing in Shrek's destruction, but what Snow Empress wants you to notice are the Sea God-related deities who appeared. They're our potential enemies."
"We understand."
The three stopped joking and nodded solemnly.
As this topic ended, Su Tong stood. "There's something I'd like to discuss privately with Teacher."
Ye Guyi also stood. "What a coincidence—me too."
***
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