In fact, Huo Yuhao felt that it was a shame that they had snuffed him out just like that. After all, a Class 9 soul engineer was literally a walking treasure trove! That soul engineer probably had several valuable soul tools on him. However, he had fallen from the sky before Huo Yuhao and Tang Wutong could even rummage through his things.
Xu Sanshi sat on the throne as his mother, Xue Lingxun, stood by his side, while Huo Yuhao and the rest stood by the sides of the hall.
The generals and ministers could definitely see what had happened while they were away. Even now, the temperature within the hall was still fairly low. In fact, every general and minister could not help but shiver after stepping into the hall.
It was still not that bad for those ministers and generals who had a relatively high cultivation. On the other hand, those ministers and generals who were not soul masters had no choice but to shiver as they waited for the rest of the people to enter the hall.
Xue Kui and Xue Leng had been tied up by Huo Yuhao and thrown into the center of the floor before everyone. Both of their heads were lowered as they kept quiet. As for the other soul masters who had been transformed into ice sculptures, they were still frozen just as before. All of them were standing there in their original fighting stances before they had been frozen.
W-What happened here? This was the same question that was on everyone’s minds. Among them, there were still quite a few ministers and generals who could recognize Xue Kui and Xue Leng.
In fact, some of them did not seem to be very pleased with what they were seeing.
“Prince Regent, w-what has happened here? Why are Xue Kui and Xue Leng here? And what’s with all of these ice sculptures?” The Prime Minister stepped out and asked after planting one of his knees on the ground. He could no longer hold it anymore, and wanted to know what was going on. He did not go down on both of his knees because Xu Sanshi was still not the Emperor.
Xu Sanshi maintained his solemn expression as he asked, “Prime Minister, do you know who these two convicts are?”
The Prime Minister replied, “Yes, I do know them. This is Duke Xue Leng, the provincial governor of the Tian He Province, while the other person is Duke Xue Kui, the provincial governor of the Luo An Province. Why are they…”
Xu Sanshi spoke plainly, “Do you still not understand why they are tied up like this? Those thirty-odd ice sculptures were people they had brought in. Among them are five Titled Douluo. Do you see the burn mark on the floor here? It was left behind by one of Xue Kui’s people whom we killed earlier. If you were to get some of our guards to do a search outside the hall, you would probably find the dead body of a Class 9 soul engineer.”
After hearing Xu Sanshi’s explanation, everyone’s jaws dropped. They definitely knew what it meant when he explicitly pointed out the Class 9 soul engineer. Those ministers and generals who had revealed a displeased expression were even more shocked after hearing what Xu Sanshi had said.
It was a known fact that other than Shrek Academy, which had one or two Class 9 soul engineers, the rest of the Class 9 soul engineers on the continent were all from the Sun Moon Empire.
It was naturally impossible for Xue Kui and Xue Leng to get someone from Shrek Academy to take orders from them. This made the answer extremely obvious. After all, the entire Palace of the Dou Ling Empire had just been destroyed by the Sun Moon Empire. On top of that, the entire royal family had been murdered by them. The entire Dou Ling Empire definitely hated the Sun Moon Empire to the core.
“Rubbish! There is no Class 9 soul engineer. Even if there was one, he or she would have been on your side. If not, how would you be able to defeat us with so few people? We had so many Titled Douluo with us.” Xue Leng angrily repudiated Xu Sanshi’s claims. He knew that he would really lose all hope of surviving if he did not try to persuade the ministers to join his side.
Xu Sanshi stood up before walking down the steps. “Xue Leng, are you familiar with my background?”
Xue Leng turned his head and looked away from him.
Xu Sanshi said, “I am from Shrek Academy and was given the honor of being a member of this generation’s Shrek’s Seven Monsters. The Sun Moon Empire’s army was camped just outside Shrek City not too long ago. As for how we managed to destroy all of your minions, I would only have to reveal a single name to convince all of you that what I have said is true.”
As he spoke, he walked towards Huo Yuhao and explained, “This person is my junior brother. I believe many of you must have met him before. Since that’s the case, let me share his name with you. His name is Huo Yuhao. I believe all of you should know who he is, right?”
“Huo Yuhao?” The Prime Minister muttered to himself. But very quickly, he looked up again as a startled look formed on his face. “Your Highness, didn’t you mention to us that there was a person who had challenged the Sun Moon Empire to ten one-on-one battles, and won seven consecutive battles. That person eventually managed to force the War God Empress to admit defeat and retreat. Wasn’t that person the Eyes of the Asura, the Spirit Ice Douluo—Huo Yuhao?”
Xu Sanshi nodded and replied, “That’s right. He is Huo Yuhao. In addition, Yuhao has confirmed that the enemies who assaulted our Palace and almost exterminated everyone within the royal family were the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion and the Evil Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion—the two beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions of the Sun Moon Empire. Yuhao and Wutong went after the two legions together and managed to take down more than half of them. In fact, they even managed to kill the legion commander of the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion.”
“What a joke!” Xue Kui exclaimed. “Do you know how powerful the Sun Moon Empire’s beast lord-ranked soul engineer legions are? They are part of the Hand that Protects the Nation—the strongest force the Sun Moon Empire possesses. Do you really think the two of them can take down those two soul engineer legions who destroyed the entire Palace? Are the linked soul tools they carry around just for show? Xu Sanshi, I can’t believe you actually said something so absurd.” In his last sentence, he purposely emphasized Xu Sanshi’s surname.
Xu Sanshi burst into laughter that echoed within the entire hall.
“The ignorant should never be blamed. Do you know how powerful my junior brother is? Oh, that’s right. You didn’t even see how your minions—including the four Titled Douluo—were destroyed by my little junior brother with a single soul skill. Perhaps I need to let you know that my junior brother is an Ultimate Douluo. Do you understand what I have just said? An actual Ultimate Douluo who is only a little more than twenty years old.”
After hearing what Xu Sanshi had said, everyone in the hall was shocked. Gasps of surprise could be heard from everywhere. At that instant, everyone turned their heads to look at Huo Yuhao.
What was an Ultimate Douluo? Ultimate Douluo were so rare that they pretty much existed only in myths! The most powerful soul master in the entire Dou Ling Empire was the Heavenly Sun Douluo. Even then, he had not even reached Rank 98, and was definitely not an Ultimate Douluo.
But now Xu Sanshi was claiming that the young man before them who was only a little older than twenty had already attained the rank of an Ultimate Douluo. All of them simply could not believe what he had just said. In fact, even the Prime Minister seemed a bit doubtful about Xu Sanshi’s words. After all, how was that possible? In the entire history of the Douluo Continent, there was only a single instance when a twenty-year-old young man had attained the rank of an Ultimate Douluo.
In fact, they were not the only ones who were shocked. Even Huo Yuhao could not believe what Xu Sanshi had just said. He knew he was no Ultimate Douluo! After all, he had just become a Transcendent Douluo. What is third senior brother doing?
Xu Sanshi gave a light chuckle before continuing, “I know all of you cannot believe what I have just said. However, have you ever considered what the news from Shrek Academy was suggesting? My little junior brother won seven consecutive battles, and defeated evil soul masters and Class 9 soul engineers. Among them was Zhongli Wu—the Leader of the Holy Ghost Church. Even Zhongli Wu was defeated by my little junior brother. From that day onwards, my little junior brother received the title of Spirit Ice Douluo. Zhongli Wu was previously ascertained by the Academy to be a Rank 98 Transcendent Douluo. This definitely lends credibility to what I have just said. It is also common knowledge that evil soul masters are usually more powerful than soul masters at the same rank as them. Hence, the fact that he was defeated by my little junior brother simply means that he is a real Ultimate Douluo. There’s no other possible explanation. As for whether the Imperial Dragon Soul Engineer Legion and the Evil Tyrant Soul Engineer Legion were really attacked, and whether their legion commander was actually killed, all of you can go ahead and investigate the matter. It shouldn’t be too hard to find out the truth.”
As Xu Sanshi spoke, he became even more confident as he destroyed all of the arguments Xue Kui had put forth.
Everything Xu Sanshi had raised was substantiated with facts. Huo Yuhao’s feat before Shrek City was definitely true, and could never be faked. If Zhongli Wu was really defeated by Huo Yuhao, what else could it mean? Besides, there were also soul masters among the generals and ministers before Xu Sanshi. They naturally knew that battles consumed a lot of soul power. Prior to facing Zhongli Wu, Huo Yuhao had already taken on several Transcendent Douluos. Even though Ma Xiaotao had not attained the Transcendent Douluo rank, her Ultimate Fire martial soul gave her powers that were almost on par with that of a Transcendent Douluo.
Even then, Huo Yuhao was somehow able to secure consecutive victories without any significant rest between the battles. Under such circumstances, the only logical explanation was that Huo Yuhao was an Ultimate Douluo.
An Ultimate Douluo! An Ultimate Douluo was actually standing behind Xu Sanshi.
It was important to note that an Ultimate Douluo had been the most powerful force of destruction before the appearance of Class 9 soul engineers. Before the Sun Moon Empire’s recent rise, no other place—other than Shrek Academy—had had Ultimate Douluo.
How powerful was an Ultimate Douluo? It was rumored that an Ultimate Douluo could shift mountains and fill the ocean. He or she would be able to destroy an entire city in the blink of an eye. If an Ultimate Douluo were to support the rule of an Emperor, it would be the best deterrence against any people who harbored ill intentions against the empire.
Even though soul engineers were increasingly well regarded and had almost overtaken the status of soul masters in terms of prestige, everyone was starting to understand how a powerful soul engineer must first be a powerful soul master. This was a fact that Shrek Academy had disseminated to the rest of the continent.
This was exactly why the Sun Moon Empire was so anxious to start the war. In fact, they had no choice but to attempt to conquer the entire continent in the shortest amount of time.
Once the three empires’ technological development started to pick up speed, they would definitely be able to overtake the Sun Moon Empire with the huge number of soul masters they had. However, no one knew how long they would need before they successfully overtook the Sun Moon Empire.
Hence, they could only try to conquer the entire continent while they still had an absolute advantage over the other empires. It was only after they had conquered the empire that they could be freed from all of these worries. But when that happened, the Sun Moon Empire would also have no choice but to admit that Shrek Academy’s theory was right. They would have to merge the development of soul tools and soul masters.
Hence, Ultimate Douluo were still the most powerful existence in the entire world. In fact, only a Class 10 soul engineer could be compared to an Ultimate Douluo.
However, there was no record of a single Class 10 soul engineer in the history of soul engineers. Hence, Ultimate Douluo were definitely the strongest in the entire continent!
