Douluo Continent: Starting with a Heavenly Fire Judgment

Chapter 482 Hidden Sects

The original leader of the Fire Phoenix Soul Mentorship Group was named Luan Feng, a level 94 Title Douluo whose title was Fire Phoenix. Unfortunately, her martial soul was not a fire phoenix, but a fire phoenix sword.

Fire Phoenix Douluo Luanfeng, this name was once a powerful figure in the Sun Moon Empire, and was as famous as Starry Sky Douluo Ye Yulin.

When Ju Zi first took over the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps, the Fire Phoenix Douluo was quite dismissive. How could he possibly be convinced by such a young girl? But she was the Empress, and Xu Tianran personally pleaded with her to stay in the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps with all her benefits unchanged and even increased. Apart from the title, she would continue to command the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps. Xu Tianran also told her that Ju Zi was just a figurehead, which finally calmed the Fire Phoenix Douluo down.

However, as time went by, Ju Zi led the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps to achieve numerous feats in this great war, and commanded the entire army with unparalleled skill, manipulating the Star Luo and Heavenly Soul Empires at will. Fire Phoenix Douluo gradually became convinced, from initially being perfunctory to now wholeheartedly assisting Ju Zi in controlling the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps. In addition to admiration, she felt even more affection for this young empress.

Orange usually calls her Grandma. For Fire Phoenix Douluo, who has never married, having such a granddaughter is a wonderful feeling. She imparts all her knowledge and understanding of soul tools to Orange. Therefore, the relationship between Orange and her is very complicated. Orange is her subordinate, her family member, and also her teacher.

Therefore, Ju Zi is practically the undisputed leader of the Fire Phoenix Soul Mentorship.

Although the situation of the Sun Moon Empire is not as good as it was at the beginning, that is because Death God Douluo failed to defend the Mingdou Mountains, and has nothing to do with Ju Zi's strategy and tactics.

Therefore, no one blamed Ju Zi for this defeat. Thanks to Ju Zi's battle plan, the Sun Moon Empire occupied two-thirds of the Heavenly Soul Empire's territory at almost the lowest cost. Ju Zi deserves a large part of the credit for such a brilliant achievement and territorial expansion.

In particular, her feigned attack on the Star Luo Empire at the beginning of the war, while actually focusing her attack on the Heavenly Soul Empire, and her series of information and intelligence blockades against the Star Luo Empire, achieved extremely significant results.

After this battle, Ju Zi is now hailed as a military genius that the Sun Moon Empire has not seen in a century. Even the Empress's halo is far less dazzling than her Marshal's halo.

Meanwhile, Ju Zi's power grew increasingly greater. Apart from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Corps, the other four Beast King-level Soul Master Corps were now directly under her control. Among them, the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps had already taken her surname. After all, the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps, composed entirely of female Soul Masters, was more likely to accept Ju Zi, the female marshal. With the full cooperation of Fire Phoenix Douluo Luan Feng, all the female Soul Masters of the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Corps quickly submitted to Ju Zi.

In the entire eastern expeditionary force of the Sun Moon Empire, Ju Zi was the commander-in-chief of the three armies. It can be said that Xu Tianran's trust in Ju Zi reached its peak, and he entrusted almost the entire army to Ju Zi.

Ju Zi did not disappoint Xu Tianran. After occupying a large amount of land in the Heavenly Soul Empire, the method of infiltrating with soul guidance technology once again received strong support from Xu Tianran. Xu Tianran himself admired Ju Zi. He asked himself, "I couldn't have come up with such a method." It wasn't that he wasn't smart, but that his personality and cognition were different. Ju Zi came from the lower class and knew better than him, who was born noble, how to win over and divide the lower class and the nobles.

This time, Orange led an army of 20,000 men to the northeast of the Heavenly Soul Empire, with the real purpose of exploring a mineral deposit in the north.

What are wars fought over? Resources and money.

Although the Sun Moon Empire had made preparations for many years and was well-prepared, the massive explosion in Mingdu damaged its foundation. In addition, since the start of the war, various resources have been continuously consumed, especially rare metals, which are now in short supply. Therefore, the Sun Moon Empire has been intensifying its exploration of mineral resources, especially those within the territory of the Heavenly Soul Empire. Once discovered, they will be mined as quickly as possible.

Orange received a report from the people on the Tianhun Empire's side that there was reliable information that there was a large mineral vein on the edge of the far north ice plains behind the Tianhun Empire, which produced more than a dozen kinds of rare metals.

Moreover, she had already sent people to investigate, and it was indeed true. This mineral vein was close to the northern border of the Douling Empire, located in the central area between the Tianhun Empire and the Douling Empire.

Before the Sun Moon Empire launched the war, the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Fighting Spirit Empire had just discovered the existence of this mineral vein, and before they could even begin mining it, the war had already begun.

Therefore, if they want to mine this vein, they will likely have to fight with the Douling Empire.

The Sun Moon Empire is extremely authoritative in rare metal detection. Before Orange arrived, she had already had experts in this field conduct a thorough investigation. The experts told her that the reserves inside this vein were enormous, and if they could be fully mined, it would be enough to support another war like the one before.

Only after receiving such accurate information did Ju Zi report it to Xu Tianran.

Rare metals have undoubtedly become the most important resource since Soul Masters stepped onto the stage of war. Xu Tianran would not feel at ease leaving such a resource in anyone else's hands. After discussing with Ju Zi, Xu Tianran decided to have Ju Zi lead the Fire Phoenix Soul Master Team to come and take charge of mining this vein.

In addition to the 20,000-strong army, a large mining team will soon arrive here. However, since the mining is being carried out in the far north, the weather will greatly affect the mining progress, and some time will be needed for preparation. Therefore, Orange will take the lead and occupy this part of the land first, and then proceed slowly.

Ju Zi looked at the battle report she had just received. The front-line army had encountered another attack from a reclusive sect on its way forward, and suffered considerable losses.

Orange rubbed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. The mere sight of the words "hidden sects" gave her a headache. While they did indeed occupy more than two-thirds of the Heavenly Soul Empire's territory, the Sun Moon Empire had also suffered considerable losses. The greatest losses, however, were not in the war itself, but in the fight against those hidden sects.

The Heavenly Soul Empire has a long history, dating back ten thousand years. At that time, the Heavenly Soul Empire was called the Heavenly Dou Empire, which was the sum of the two kingdoms of Heavenly Soul and Douling. Within the Heavenly Soul Empire, there were a large number of Soul Masters and quite a few hidden sects.

Although these reclusive sects usually prefer not to interact with the Heavenly Soul Empire, the Sun Moon Empire is, after all, an external enemy to them. When an external enemy invades, they share a common hatred. The actions of the reclusive sects are always very secretive. They prioritize their own safety and always launch some indirect attacks on the Sun Moon Empire, which annoys the Sun Moon Empire to no end. Although these people cannot play a decisive role, they can always reduce the number of people on the Sun Moon Empire's side.

Although it was a headache, Ju Zi didn't do anything more. She just told the army to be on high alert. With the high-altitude detection soul guide device, it wouldn't be so easy for the hidden sects to launch a sneak attack. The two sides went back and forth, and the Sun Moon Empire also left some elite disciples behind in the hidden sects.

The Sun Moon Empire's most pressing task is to defeat the three great empires and unify the continent. As for the hidden sects, they can only be dealt with after the continent is unified. Once the Sun Moon Empire has accomplished its great task, it will be time for these hidden sects to pay the price.

Leaving aside the troubled orange, Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu arrived at a heavily guarded courtyard. As soon as they entered, several pairs of eyes were cast upon them, but upon seeing that it was Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu, they withdrew their gazes.

Ignoring the hidden guards, the two stopped in front of a large metal door with a sign that read "Laboratory" in large characters.

Ji Lin took out a nameplate from his pocket, waved it in front of the door, and a green light flashed, causing the metal door to automatically open to both sides.

Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu walked directly into the laboratory. The laboratory was very large, filled with various soul tools and metal materials. Even the huge experimental table was over thirty square meters in size. The reflective silver-white metal tabletop was clean and tidy, giving people a very comfortable feeling.

Inside the laboratory, there was only a man who looked to be in his thirties, with a cold and hard expression, wearing a white lab coat. He was intently engraving something on a piece of metal. Even when Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu entered the laboratory, he didn't turn around to look at them. He probably didn't even know that anyone had come in, completely absorbed in his work.

Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu tacitly refrained from disturbing each other and stood still to wait.

The other party didn't keep Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu waiting for long. They quickly finished carving, put down the metal block in their hands, took off their white gloves, and turned to look at Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu.

"Sect Master, Your Highness, what brings you to me?"

The man in the white coat still had a cold and hard expression, and his tone was icy, showing no restraint whatsoever because of Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu's identities.

Ji Lin and Xu Jiujiu both smiled nonchalantly. They both knew each other's personalities; the other had always been like this. It wasn't that they disrespected them, and they didn't care about the other's attitude.

"Master Xuan, we just wanted to ask how the research in the underground research lab is progressing."

Ji Lin said with a smile.

That's right, this cold-faced man who looks to be in his thirties is Xuan Ziwen, the former level eight soul master who was tricked by Ji Lin from the Sun Moon Empire to work for him. He is now a level nine soul master and also the current head of the Soul Guidance Hall of the Free Gate.

He was also in charge of establishing the underground research lab and leading the trusted soul master sent by Jing Hongchen to study and reproduce the blueprints provided by Ji Lin.

Whether it was Ji Lin, Xu Jiujiu, or Xu Jiawei, they all eagerly awaited Xuan Ziwen's successful research and placed high hopes on him.

(End of this chapter)