Douluo: The Holy Radiance of the Dragon King

Chapter 329 Dai Tianling: I do not wish to be a ruler of a fallen nation. My son may inherit the throne, and my daughter may go to the Federation.

"Even a thousand-mile journey must come to an end. From now on, we at the Spirit Pagoda will part ways amicably. There's no need for you to see us off."

'

At the largest seaport of the Star Luo Empire, a dozen or so ocean-going giant ships set sail at full speed. Feng Zaixing stood at the bow of the "Star Luo" ship, a warm smile on his face, waving his arms to signal to the crowd of people who were eagerly waiting in the harbor.

His smile was very bright. Behind him, the giant ship carried not only tens of thousands of local elites of the Spirit Pagoda, but also a large number of Spirit Pagoda dismantling machines.

All the components of the Ascension Platform have been disassembled. Souls older than a thousand years are directly transmitted back to headquarters via spatial technology, while souls younger than a thousand years are handed over on-site. Considering the Star Luo Empire's decision to acquire them all at once, a "friendship price" of 11% off is offered, as if it were a clearance sale.

Clearing out the massive inventory in the warehouse and returning to the Federation with huge amounts of resources, not to mention Feng Zaixing, even Han Tianyi's old face was beaming with joy, and he was in a very good mood.

When the two sides were three thousand meters apart, the Illusionary Brain Douluo snapped his fingers. His subordinates immediately understood and unfurled banners with messages such as "Thank you to our number one customer, Star Luo Empire" and "Boss Dai is rich and powerful, and generous. May all the princes be like dragons and may the nine princes vie for the throne."

Standing on the harbor, Dai Tianling's powerful Soul Master talent allowed him to clearly see the content of the banners displayed by the group. His fake smile instantly crumbled, and he nearly fainted from anger.

"These bastards who get the benefits and then act innocent are infuriating! They're utterly inhuman! Cough, cough—"

Dai Tianling practically ate nitroglycerin pills like they were beans today. Which heartless bastard at the Spirit Pagoda has such no business ethics? Robbing money and then trying to destroy his spirit?

Enci silently took another nitroglycerin pill and said calmly, "Your Majesty, it's no use thinking about things that haven't been settled yet. Now that these people are gone, we need to think about how to explain to the people the departure of a large number of people from the Spirit Pagoda."

"The Spirit Pagoda now is practically an empty shell."

Dai Tianling got angry just thinking about it, and said speechlessly, "What else can we do? Luckily, these lunatics didn't dismantle the Spirit Pagoda itself. They're just recruiting staff to stay here and maintain basic operations."

The Star Luo Spirit Pagoda branch is based in the Star Luo Empire, and a large portion of its staff are naturally from the Star Luo Continent. The proportion of these staff members who leave is not large.

Meanwhile, some people from the Douluo Continent headquarters settled down and started families in the Star Luo Continent, and under the influence of the underlying logic of love, stayed in the Star Luo Continent with their lovers.

Given the urgency of the situation, Feng Zaixing and Han Tianyi demanded that anyone under their command who wanted to leave do so voluntarily; those who wished to leave could board the ship, and those who wanted to stay could do so entirely on their own.

The Prime Minister said with a headache, "But Your Majesty, the soul spirit technology we have secretly learned over the years only covers a hundred-year-old soul spirit and a small number of thousand-year-old soul spirits. The Ascension Platform is the core secret of the Spirit Transmission Tower, and we have no way of accessing it."

"Now that the Spirit Pagoda has been removed, does this mean our people will only be able to rely on thousand-year-old souls in the future?"

As an ambitious empire, the Dai family ancestors throughout the ages have all wanted to put some of the technology of the two giants, Tang Sect and Spirit Pagoda, into their own pockets. Their efforts over the years have not been entirely fruitless, but at least the results have been minimal.

Dai Tianling sighed, "What can we do? Even the Spirit Transmission Tower headquarters hasn't mastered the technology to create ten-thousand-year-old souls. At most, we can only create thousand-year-old souls and then elevate them through the Spirit Ascension Platform."

"A thousand-year-old soul spirit is fine. I remember that most of the titled Douluo in Douluo Continent also have thousand-year-old soul spirits?"

Fortunately, I've bought some ten-thousand-year-old spirits over the years, so I'll use them for now.

"If I weren't inseparable from my soul, how could I have been extorted by those bandits Feng Zaixing and Han Tianyi? These Soul Masters with their physical body spirits are all wicked."

Even though he and Enci had secretly considered making a dignified exit, the experience of moving the Spirit Pagoda these past few days still made Dai Tianling dizzy. Damn, the locals of Douluo Continent are really too wicked!

"Hmph~"

A dissatisfied snort came from beside him, and Dai Tianling's face twitched. He knew that his troublesome daughter was up to her old tricks again.

Okay, I forgot she also has a physical martial soul! The Spirit Eye martial soul is also considered a inherited martial soul of our Dai family, but it's not stable.

The emperor turned around, glanced at Dai Yun'er who had grown into a beautiful young woman, and said with a complicated expression, "Back then, I wanted you to follow him in cultivation, but now it seems that was both a right and a wrong idea."

"Why don't you, Father, start making arrangements now so that all the Shrek Academy students who are interested in studying in Mingdu can experience this?"

Go to Mingdu?

Dai Yun'er imagined herself surrounded in a foreign land and couldn't help but whisper, "It should be safe there, right?"

Dai Tianling said expressionlessly, "For ordinary people, it should be safer than ever. After Feng Zaixing wiped out all the evil spirit masters on the continent, the Federal Bureau of Investigation was downgraded and the whole continent was cracking down on organized crime."

"It is said that over the years, he has handed over most of the funds he confiscated from those Soul Master families and sects to various federal departments. A large part of these funds were used for urban construction and infrastructure. In recent years, Mingdu has been expanded to four times its original size, surpassing Shrek City, which was once the number one city in the world."

"Because this guy shouted in Mingdu that he wanted to give everyone who wanted to work for the Federation a job opportunity, and that a qualified government should be responsible for a person's complete survival from cradle to grave, he enacted the Universal Welfare Guarantee Act and stipulated a whole bunch of things. Mingdu is now a vibrant place where everything is flourishing and construction and development are happening everywhere."

Even former small gangs are now clamoring to support the Federation's guidance. Our spies report that people don't pick up lost items on the road and don't lock their doors at night. Some spies have even been so moved that they've defected and become citizens of the Douluo Continent.

Dai Yueyan's eyes twitched violently as she listened, and she couldn't help but ask two questions: "Were those traitors reformed on the spot, or were they defeated by the Federation's despicable money offensive? And isn't Feng Zaixing in charge of military affairs? How could he be involved in legislation like this? Is that reasonable?"

Guan Yue, who had remained silent, glanced at the Crown Prince and said in a low voice, "We don't need to worry about which possibility the former is. The latter is probably not very reasonable, but no one in the Federation is better at fighting than him. The Lord of the War God Temple also automatically serves as the Vice Speaker of the Council. Theoretically, he can make a proposal to the Council, but the previous Lords of the War God Temple have never used this power."

"Although this person acts without any scruples, I must admit that his attitude on many issues is actually very much in line with people's livelihood. Before I left, they were planning and discussing issues such as federal minimum wage and working hours. He even seemed to want to introduce a 'Full Employment Act' that would provide jobs even for homeless people in slums."

After saying this, Guan Yue sighed sadly, her eyes dim, seemingly lost in thought.

Yun Ming listened silently for a long time until he heard the words "slums," at which point he perked up, somewhat dazed: "This is the kind of issue that hawks would bring up? This isn't normal, is it?"

He still remembers that his wife, Ya-li, came from a slum. Has Feng Zai-xing really gone mad? Does he want to wipe out the slums?

Guan Yue was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Actually, in terms of political stance, this person is more dovish than any dove I have ever met. He is extremely biased towards the people. He agrees with all the environmental protection and democracy-promoting policies advocated by doves and implements them with far greater force than doves. Even in war preparations, he is more cautious. So it is not a problem to call him a moderate among hawks."

"The radical hawks really considered using a God-Slaying Shell to destroy Shrek City, and he was the one who strongly opposed it. He even threw one of the God-Slaying Shells into the Abyss Battlefield, completely extinguishing the idea of ​​some madmen."

"If his attitude towards Shrek Tang Sect were more moderate, from my own perspective, I really wouldn't want to be his enemy."

Yun Ming fell silent upon hearing this. He and Feng Zaixing had discussed this issue many years ago. Shrek City was incredibly prosperous because of the correct choices made by their ancestors at two major junctures on the continent. However, in Feng Zaixing's eyes, this prosperity was like a giant vampire that had drained the resources of the central part of the continent.

The vast central continent, once the territory of the Heaven Dou Empire, only had two first-tier cities, Shrek City and Heaven Dou City, far fewer than the weak Heavenly Sea Alliance in the east.

Therefore, Feng Zaixing's motives towards Shrek Academy, besides Cai Yue'er's personal grudge from years ago, also include a sense of "public hatred." Although he is occasionally tyrannical, he doesn't really hide his true thoughts.

Cao Dezhi, who had been paying attention to the Federation for many years, sneered upon hearing this and said, "What's the use of saying all this now? The western part of the Federation is the traditional territory of the Sun Moon Empire, and our influence there is not great. The ancient soul master families in the south were our long-term allies, but they produced a traitor, Feng Zaixing, who personally destroyed the southern families."

"In the central territory, after Shrek Academy and our Tang Sect left, Shrek City and Heaven Dou City were firmly held in the hands of the Federation, and their influence increased significantly."

"After the Shen family was destroyed, the voices against Mingdu in the northern part of the Federation almost disappeared, and the Tianhai Alliance in the east had long since submitted to that brat, as easily as using his own arm. There was no voice in the entire Sun and Moon Federation that could resist that brat."

"He integrated the strongest legions of the Blood God and the Central Federation, took control of the War God Temple and the Investigation Bureau, and secretly took control of the Spirit Pagoda. Oh no, now it's out in the open. After this battle, his reputation in the Spirit Pagoda will definitely surpass that of Leng Yaozhu."

Furthermore, he was a representative figure of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy and its academic faction, holding absolute control over military, disciplinary, and special forces. He effectively unified power within the Federation, possessing the power of an emperor without the title, though he rarely appeared in public.

Dai Tianling's ears perked up like a rabbit's, as if she wanted to say, "You overestimate the emperor. Our Dai family has never had such concentrated power in all these years."

Do you think I, the current emperor, don't know whether the emperor has that much power? There are many things we can't even touch. If I were to regain control, you would have to bow down and speak to me!

With such concentrated power, how easy is it for him to implement policies?

Dai Yueyan listened in a daze, muttering to himself, "Goodness, that sounds terrifying. No wonder he dared to push for something like the Full Employment Act, which sounds like it could get him shot. If I were one of his men, I'd probably be preparing to persuade him to take office."

As for the urging speech, it would probably be something like, "Congratulations, Your Majesty, you are now ready to become Emperor?"

With the Spirit Pagoda and the Temple of War Gods now under his control, the prestige of the Federation's three major navies has been shattered by the Holy Spirit Cult. With the combined strength of the Central Legion and the Blood God Legion, who in the Federation can still put on airs in front of him?

Dai Tianling and Enci exchanged a glance, confirming their understanding:

This ruthless person has transcended the realm of ordinary wise rulers and those of all ages; he is a power monster that appears only once in ten thousand years. The Star Luo Empire, riddled with internal contradictions, is no match for him. It would be best for him to prepare for a dignified exit.

Dai Tianling thought that at worst he would abdicate after a while and let Crown Prince Dai Yueyan take office ahead of time to avoid becoming a ruler who would bring about the downfall of the country. My son should share the burden of his father.

As the sea breeze blew, Dai Yueyan shivered inexplicably.