"Junting, what are your views?"
The moment Yan Shaozhe asked the question, Chen Junting raised his head and queried, "Are the people of the Sea God Family not participating in the selection for the Alliance Leader?"
In an instant, everyone's attention was captivated.
Sea God Family?
Was this Sea God Family the same one they were thinking of?
Consequently, everyone's gazes immediately turned toward the Shrek delegation.
Clearly, they wanted them to provide a reasonable explanation.
Seeing this nearly synchronized reaction, Chen Junting also felt a trace of surprise in his heart.
Did... none of these people know?
Speculation was one thing, but confirmation was another. So, while his fingers rhythmically tapped the table—tap, tap, tap...—Chen Junting shifted his attention to Yan Shaozhe. "Dean Yan, didn't you inform them about the Sea God Family?"
"Because there was no need."
Before Yan Shaozhe could speak, Elder Song preempted him.
"I haven't ever met those Sea Soul Masters from the Sea God Douluo's family, but they all possess an indescribable arrogance. Although these fellows have come to seek cooperation, it's strictly limited to dealing with that Deep Sea Demon Whale Empress. As for the other Evil Soul Masters..."
She spoke half the sentence, and what followed was silence.
It wasn't until Elder Song let out a sigh, "Alas—"
"Perhaps the concept of Evil Soul Masters simply doesn't exist in their eyes."
"Well, we can't exactly put it that way."
The Body Sect elder crossed his arms over his chest and retorted.
He had more or less understood the implication behind Elder Song's last sentence. But in his view, this concept was flawed.
"The only reason they have no concept of Evil Soul Masters is that they've never been ravaged by them. Wait until these Evil Soul Masters wreak havoc on their Sea Soul Masters, then they'll see the difference."
"But then again..."
The Body Sect elder changed the topic, leaning his upper body forward.
"Is this Sea God Family you're talking about related to the Sea God Tang San that your Shrek Academy believes in?"
"Indeed it is."
Since the words were already out, Elder Song didn't plan to hide it. So, she briefly described the relationship between the Sea God Family, Sea God Island, and their Shrek Academy's first generation of the Seven Monsters' ancestor, Tang San, much like telling a story.
"...And precisely because the Sea God Family has lived overseas for ten thousand years, isolated from the mortal world, I didn't propose letting the Patriarch of the Sea God Family take this Alliance Leader position. Even if they took the seat, it would only concern that remnant. Furthermore..."
Elder Song's words seemed like a probe, yet also seemed perfectly ordinary.
"If he took this position, would you all feel at ease?"
At ease!?
How could they possibly be at ease.
They had no dealings whatsoever with the Sea God Family, so how could they choose a pure outsider as the Alliance Leader?
Unless he became a puppet after taking the position.
But obviously, that was impossible.
However, this wasn't what they cared about right now. Old Tianlong, for instance, was the first who couldn't hold back.
"Elder Song, since this Sea God Family shares the same lineage as the original Sea God Island, does the concept of Divine Trials exist?"
"Divine Trials?"
The Body Sect elder's eyes instantly lit up.
"What does that mean? Is it related to Gods?"
Even though the Body Sect only had a few remaining successors, their strength was still formidable, but when it came to historical heritage, they were far inferior to the Tianlong Sect. This was because the Tianlong Sect inherited from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Sect of ten thousand years ago, and had ancestors like Yu Xiaogang and Yu Tianheng who lived in the same era as Tang San, so they knew much more.
Even the Douling Empire was better informed than the Body Sect. Didn't they see how the eyes of the Douling Empire representative from the Xue family had lit up!
With a ten-thousand-year inheritance, who didn't have some records?
"Everyone, everyone..."
Seeing the situation in the hall was about to descend into chaos and the topic was going off-track again, Elder Song hurriedly spoke up to stop them and then pacified the crowd.
"Our business today is the alliance, not Divine Trials. Besides, the Sea God Family has been isolated for ten thousand years, even more so than ten thousand years ago; their closed-off situation is far beyond imagination. It would be extremely difficult for mainland Soul Masters to get in!"
This statement immediately caused many people to back down.
After all, her words made sense. Moreover, how could Divine Trials be so easy? There was a high chance that one might die there after participating.
Only a few individuals didn't give up. But with the big picture at stake right now, they could only suppress their thoughts.
After ruling out the Sea God Family, the topic of proposing the Alliance Leader was once again handed back to Chen Junting and the others.
"Junting, Xiao Tian, you propose one."
"Then we have no one else."
Chen Junting clapped his palms lightly together, then crossed his ten fingers.
"Let my master do it."
"Your master?!"
"Your master!?"
"Elder Ye!!?"
"..."
Chen Junting's proposal plunged the hall into a brief silence. Many representatives looked at each other, clearly pondering the feasibility of this suggestion. Clearly, among the three great empires, the Xingluo Empire's representative nodded slightly, feeling this proposal was quite fair, and the Douling Empire's representative had no reason to object either. As for the Tianhun Empire's representative—that Body Sect elder—he opened his mouth to speak, but immediately closed it again, showing an attitude of full support.
As for the other factions, there was even less need to mention them. Ye Xuanji, as the Chief Supreme Elder of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and a Limit Douluo, was a top-tier existence in both strength and status. With him as the first Alliance Leader, no one objected.
"If it's Old Ye, then naturally there's no problem." Elder Song spoke, also expressing her agreement.
"However..."
The next second, she suddenly changed her tone.
"Is your Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect at ease with this? If the Evil Soul Masters choose to attack your Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, can you hold out?"
"You can rest assured on that, Elder." Seeing Chen Junting's confidence, Elder Song didn't dwell on the matter any further and finalized the arrangements with everyone.
Afterward, they discussed with the crowd how to monitor which locations the Evil Soul Masters attacked and how to react swiftly.
"If this issue cannot be resolved..." Old Tianlong hesitated slightly before being the first to speak, "Then the establishment of this alliance won't be of much use."
"That's a fact." Elder Song nodded slightly. "But we do have an idea."
As she spoke, she called out, "Lin'er."
The next moment, Xian Lin'er took out a pair of rings from her storage soul tool and handed them over to Elder Song.
"Everyone, please take a look."
When Elder Song opened her hands, a flash of sharp light flickered and vanished. Without Elder Song obstructing them in the slightest, this pair of soul tool rings fell into the hands of the Body Sect elder.
"This ring..." He looked it up and down a few times, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly. "Hiss—, why does it look so familiar?"
"This looks very much like the rings used by the Shrek Supervisory Group." As someone who had joined the Shrek Supervisory Group during his time at the academy, Chen Junting only needed a distant glance at the appearance and structure of the rings to know the answer in his heart.
"Elder Song."
Chen Junting ignored the others passing the rings around, and instead shifted his gaze while everyone listened.
"Are you planning to distribute this ring to the lord of every city, and then when they encounter Evil Soul Masters, they send a signal. Once the alliance receives it, they immediately dispatch manpower to rescue them. Is that right?"
"You guessed right."
Clearly, Chen Junting had guessed the gist of Shrek's idea. However, Elder Song didn't find it surprising; after all, the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had possessed similar technology for many years, and their Shrek Academy was pretty much the same, not to mention the great boost to their soul tool research capabilities after receiving the Sun Moon Empire's "gift."
"Lin'er, you explain it."
"Alright."
As an old-school powerhouse who primarily cultivated her martial soul, Elder Song's understanding of soul tools remained only on the surface, naturally inferior to Xian Lin'er, who was now a Class 9 Soul Engineer. Therefore, Xian Lin'er took over the rest of the topic.
Xian Lin'er took out a soul tool screen and placed it directly on the conference table. The next second, following a flash of blue soul power light, the image on the screen was presented to everyone.
This image was nothing else but a map. To be precise, a map of the Douluo Continent. Of course, it also included a portion of the Sun Moon Continent. After all, following the conclusion of that war, parts of the Sun Moon Continent's territory already belonged to the Tianhun Empire and the Xingluo Empire.
With the map displayed, Xian Lin'er began to speak eloquently. "...As long as every city lord wears this ring, then when they encounter Evil Soul Masters, the ring will highlight the corresponding city on the map. Like this..."
She picked up a ring and swiped her finger across it. The next second, the ring emitted a red light, and similarly, the map location of Shrek City on the screen also lit up with a red dot.
"As long as it does this, it indicates an Evil Soul Master attack."
"Of course." Xian Lin'er extinguished the red light on the ring. "What we've made is still quite rudimentary. If you have any suggestions for improvement, please feel free to speak your mind."
Since she had opened the floor so politely, the others gave her face. As soon as her voice fell, voices rang out one after another.
"...If it's only a red dot for communication, the message transmitted isn't accurate enough. Could it be that if two or three Soul Saint-level Evil Soul Masters appear, a Limit Douluo has to rush to the rescue? That would be exhausting. Or if a Limit Douluo Evil Soul Master appears, but three Soul Saints are sent to rescue, wouldn't those three Soul Saints just be going to their deaths?"
"I think this point needs to be expanded upon."
"He's done, I also have an issue. If we solely use dots to transmit messages, what if this ring is exploited to lure our people into an encirclement instead? How do we solve that?"
"..."
Everyone chimed in one after another, pointing out quite a few flaws.
At this moment, Chen Junting, who was sitting to the side without speaking, leaned his head close to Ning Tian's ear and said in a voice only the two of them could hear: "Everyone here is no mediocre; they've all hit the nail on the head. You really have to trust the collective wisdom."
"Then do you think there's a way to solve this?"
"I really can't say for sure."
Chen Junting didn't hesitate, directly admitting his shortcomings. "You know I only focus on soul tool array patterns; I haven't participated much in how far soul tool technology can actually go. If Yuhao were here, he'd probably figure out the trick."
Ning Tian tilted her head upon hearing this.
"What if we add array patterns?"
"Then I still can't say for sure."
Chen Junting spread his hands, expressing his helplessness.
"Arrays aren't omnipotent."
"Actually, not necessarily."
Just as Chen Junting finished speaking, a sudden interjection came from behind. Unbeknownst to them, Gu Tianchen and Wu Feng had leaned in close and were eavesdropping with pricked ears.
"Oh?"
Withdrawing his spread hands, Chen Junting looked curious.
"Tell me, how should it be done?" He actually found it strange; who here understood arrays? But on second thought, maybe Old Gu would have a flash of inspiration.
"If you ask me, they're all going down the wrong path."
Gu Tianchen looked at Chen Junting and said, "Old Chen, do you remember researching the soul skill pattern of my 'Void Gate'?"
Chen Junting's eyes shifted slightly, instantly understanding.
"You mean the Teleportation Array."
"What Teleportation Array?"
It seemed the two hadn't deliberately lowered their voices, and their conversation was overheard by the others, immediately piquing everyone's curiosity.
Gu Tianchen spread his hands, signaling for Chen Junting to explain.
Therefore, Chen Junting truthfully recounted the matter. It turned out that after Gu Tianchen acquired the "Void Gate" soul skill, Chen Junting would study the pattern of this soul ring during his free time in order to specialize in the array method of the "Teleportation Array."
"...Although the Teleportation Array research was successful, it's not very perfected. Unless we can use materials capable of bearing the power of space, relying solely on ordinary inscription methods, even a Title Douluo would find it difficult to complete the teleportation, and the distance is also extremely limited."
"Uh—"
When the rest heard this, they immediately felt it was somewhat underwhelming.
However, at this moment, "I think it's useful."
Xu Jiujiu spoke up, "Many of the objections we just raised regarding Shrek Academy's proposal were actually based on the point of insufficient information transmission. If there is a means to transmit sufficient information, there would be no need to make alterations to the soul tool ring itself."
As soon as she said this, someone raised a doubt.
"But what if the Evil Soul Masters use this to transmit false messages..."
"There's no need to even say that."
Chen Junting waved his hand at this moment. "No matter what method we use, there will always be loopholes. Once they are discovered, they will definitely be exploited."
"All we can do is prevent and prevent again, striving to do our best. Moreover... this is the only way to do it."
"That's true."
Hearing this, everyone expressed their agreement.
So next, they discussed the matter based on this premise, until the meeting ended and the representatives of the major powers dispersed one by one.
"It wasn't easy."
"Indeed, it wasn't easy."
Elder Song walked up to Chen Junting. "Since Old Ye has become the first Alliance Leader, you tell him that we'll have to trouble him to put in the effort."
"Naturally."
Chen Junting agreed readily with a smile on his lips. The position of the first Alliance Leader came with many hidden benefits. If the other factions hadn't been unable to compete for it, they absolutely wouldn't have let it go.
So...
For the future of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect,
He could only wrong his master a little!
"Elder Song, then we'll take our leave as well."
Just as Chen Junting and the others were about to bid farewell, "Ah!"
Elder Song stopped him. "Wait a moment, I still have something to tell you. Of course, it's about the girl Dong'er."
"Dong'er?"
Upon hearing it was about Wang Dong'er, Chen Junting's eyes changed slightly. But this subtle, profound change went unnoticed by Elder Song. Instead, the reactions of Ning Tian and the other two were caught by Elder Song completely.
"You don't need to worry; come to think of it, it's not a bad thing."
"Actually, it's about the Divine Trials..."
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