"Yes, Royal Father! Xue Beng greets Teacher!"
'Bang! Bang! Bang!' Xue Beng did not hesitate to kowtow three times to Ning Fengzhi.
Ning Fengzhi was once the teacher of his enemy?
That didn't matter. With Xue Qinghe gone, the root of the conflict no longer existed. From now on, Ning Fengzhi would be the teacher Xue Beng respected the most!
In the past, he was merely a hedonistic prince, with many idle companions but not a single capable and loyal follower. The only one who firmly stood by his side was his uncle, Xue Xing.
Without external support, even if he ascended the throne later, how much imperial power he could actually wield was uncertain. There was no guarantee he wouldn't be made a puppet emperor by his ministers.
But by taking Ning Fengzhi as his teacher, with the support of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan, he no longer needed to worry about that.
And with Ning Fengzhi as the bridge, the former Crown Prince Xue Qinghe's faction could basically be brought under his command.
After all, the reason Xue Qinghe had so many followers before wasn't just his own abilities most importantly, it was because he had the support of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
Ning Fengzhi: "."
This Clan Master had just disembarked the ship, and now he's being dragged back on again?
After thinking for a moment, Ning Fengzhi didn't refuse and accepted Xue Beng as his new disciple.
Xue Beng needed the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan as a political ally to stabilize his imperial authority, and Ning Fengzhi likewise needed to reaffirm the alliance between the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan and the Heaven Dou Empire by taking in the future emperor as his disciple.
Truly, the lover is willing, the lady is interested, a perfect match.
Two days later, at noon, Mu Yang brought Shui Bing'er back to Blazing Academy.
Not for cultivation, of course after all, Blazing Academy didn't have an ice attribute simulation cultivation ground, so it wasn't suitable for Shui Bing'er's training.
This time, their return to Blazing was mainly because Mu Yang planned to give the two treasures in his pocket to his older cousins.
The dragon beast and Ten-Headed Blaze Sun Serpent inner cores he had obtained in the Hell Road of the Slaughter City while he could refine them himself, at most it would only boost his soul power and save him some cultivation time. They weren't of much use to him.
But if handed over to Huo Wushuang and Huo Wu for refinement, the situation might be completely different. The two of them might very well awaken Domain powers.
It was right around lunchtime. Arriving at the academy canteen, the two got themselves lunch and scanned the area. Spotting three people seated at a table chatting and eating with their backs to them, Mu Yang and Shui Bing'er walked over.
Coming up behind them, Mu Yang patted his older cousin Huo Wu on the shoulder.
"Huh? Xiao Yang, Bing'er, you're back?"
Hearing the familiar voice and turning her head, Huo Wu was pleasantly surprised to see Mu Yang and Shui Bing'er.
"Mm, came back to check on my lovely older cousin and respected older cousin brother."
Mu Yang nodded, then turned to the person sitting beside Huo Wu and teased, "Feng Xiaotian, are you treating our Blazing Academy as your own Divine Wind Academy now?"
Hearing that, Feng Xiaotian looked a little embarrassed.
But the embarrassment lasted only a moment. Feng Xiaotian immediately straightened his back and said firmly, "What kind of talk is that? The new academy is already under construction—what's the point of differentiating between Blazing and Divine Wind now? I, Feng Xiaotian, am not just a member of Divine Wind Academy, I'm also a member of Blazing Academy!"
"Tsk~"
Clicking his tongue, Mu Yang shook his head and sat down at the table with Shui Bing'er.
What a super simp. Since his goddess is at Blazing, this guy has just latched on and won't leave. Chances are he hasn't returned to Divine Wind Academy even once since their last meeting.
Huo Wu pulled Shui Bing'er aside to whisper, while Huo Wushuang curiously looked at Mu Yang and asked, "Xiao Yang, didn't you two say in your letter months ago that you were going out for training? Why are you back so soon?"
"Eh~, the training went surprisingly smoothly. If we hadn't gotten delayed later on, we would've been back three months ago."
Mu Yang casually waved his hand, then suddenly remembered something and asked, "How's the construction of the new academy going?"
"Almost done. It'll be completely finished in about half a year. The notice has already gone out three academies will relocate to the new one before the start of the next academic year."
"So fast?"
Mu Yang raised an eyebrow, surprised.
After all, the site investigation for the new academy only started after the Soul Master Tournament ended. To go from investigation to full construction in just about a year and a half?
Sure enough, while the overall productivity of Douluo Continent might not compare to his previous life's modern society, in certain aspects, it definitely had some black tech.
"That's right! The troublesome part about building a Advanced soul master academy is the mimicry cultivation grounds, but the environment over there is quite suitable, so construction isn't too difficult.
Oh right, I heard from my mom that my dad's been digging holes at the new academy site lately!"
As he spoke, Huo Wushuang revealed a gloating smile.
If anyone was the most invested in the construction of the new academy, it was undoubtedly Huo Lie. After all, he was the first principal of the new academy.
That's right—Huo Lie, a Titled Douluo, had personally taken on the construction of the fire element lava mimicry cultivation ground and the wind element wind tunnel mimicry cultivation ground.
The former required opening a passage from the outside world to the dormant volcano beneath the academy site and hollowing out numerous training chambers above the internal lava. The latter involved digging a massive tunnel straight through a secondary peak in the mountain range where the academy was located.
Fortunately, Huo Lie was a dual-attribute Fire-Earth Titled Douluo. The Earth Dragon Golden Melon he had consumed in the past granted him a certain level of earth-controlling ability, making his digging efficiency far superior to other soul masters of the same level truly a perfect fit for the job.
Stroking his chin, Mu Yang said, "So Uncle-in-law isn't at the academy?"
"Why? Something up?"
Huo Wushuang couldn't help but be a little surprised.
"Yeah, it's something big."
Mu Yang nodded with a serious expression.
Qian Renxue's infiltration plan had failed, and the aftermath would surely have a huge impact. It wasn't simply a matter of many soul masters and soldiers from both Spirit Hall and Heaven Dou dying.
Spirit Hall had attempted to overthrow Heaven Dou. No matter how soft the Heaven Dou Empire was, it couldn't possibly pretend nothing had happened.
After all, Spirit Hall had tried to overthrow the Xue family's rule if they still backed down after that, they might as well hand the entire Heaven Dou Empire over.
One could say that from this point on, the relationship between the Heaven Dou Empire and Spirit Hall was bound to be one of mutual hostility only death would settle it.
By then, the Heaven Dou Empire would inevitably expel all the various Spirit Halls across its territory unless Spirit Hall responded with overwhelming military force.
In terms of soul master strength alone, Spirit Hall was naturally far superior to Heaven Dou. Destroying the empire wasn't impossible, but in its current state, Spirit Hall clearly didn't have such a large appetite.
If nothing unexpected happened, in the face of Heaven Dou's expulsion and Star Luo Empire's vigilance, Spirit Hall would likely shift its sights toward the kingdoms and duchies under the two empires.
In the original story, the shift in the continent's political landscape played out just like this. After Qian Renxue's usurpation plan failed, it wasn't long before Spirit Hall annexed all the kingdoms and duchies under the two great empires, establishing the Spirit Empire and turning the continent into a tripartite power structure: one superpower and two major forces.
Of course, Heaven Dou's response and Spirit Hall's ambitions didn't have much to do with Blazing Academy. What mattered most was that Mu Yang recalled the "Soul Hunting Operation" from the original.
With Blazing, Sky Water, and Divine Wind three academies merging, the newly formed Elemental Academy, in terms of expert numbers, definitely counted as a major force. It might very well become a target of Spirit Hall's "Soul Hunting Operation" alongside the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan.
After all, Bibi Dong had already gone mad. There was no ruling out the possibility of her pulling a suffocating move. It was definitely best for the academy to start preparing early.
For additional chapters
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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