Chapter 178 Shocked Fan Yu: Where Did This Information Come From?
Upon hearing Yan Shaozhe's instructions, the staff member didn't think much of it and quickly went to carry out his work.
Meanwhile, in the Heavenly Soul Imperial City, in the Imperial Study.
After several days of non-stop travel, Fan Yu finally stepped into the magnificent palace.
Due to the long journey, his eyes were filled with fine blood vessels, and his once neat Soul Master robes looked somewhat disheveled.
But he paid no heed to these things and, led by the eunuch, strode into the hall.
"Your subject, Fan Yu, pays respects to Your Majesty!" Fan Yu stood still and bowed to Emperor Tianhun, who was seated on the dragon throne.
Emperor Tianhun put down his vermilion brush, raised his head, and a meaningful smile appeared on his majestic face: "Viscount Fanyu, you have arrived earlier than I expected. You must have had a long journey."
Fan Yu disregarded formalities and eagerly inquired, "Your Majesty, I received a call from Lord Li at Shrek Academy, saying that the northern border defenses are in dire straits and the empire's survival is in danger. What is the current situation?"
"Although I am only a Soul Master, if needed, I am willing to do everything in my power to strengthen the city's defensive formations for the Empire."
A moment of silence fell over the Imperial Study.
Emperor Tianhun slowly rose from his dragon throne, walked around the large table, and stood in front of Fanyu.
He didn't rush to answer, but instead carefully observed this genius who was renowned at Shrek.
"Fan Yu, first of all, I must apologize to you." The emperor stopped in his tracks, his tone so calm that no emotion could be discerned.
"Actually, there was no collapse of the defense line in the Northern Frontier. The message I sent you was just to make you put aside your affairs at Shrek Academy and rush back to see me overnight."
Upon hearing this, Fan Yu froze on the spot.
His eyes widened, a hint of confusion flashing across them before being replaced by a deep anger and resentment at being deceived.
His breathing became heavier; if the person sitting in front of him had not been a monarch who held the power of life and death over a country, he probably would have already lost his temper on the spot.
"Your Majesty... are you playing with the safety of the empire and my feelings for my hometown?" Fan Yu suppressed the trembling in his voice, his hands clenched tightly inside his sleeves. "I still have extremely important research at Shrek Academy. This kind of deception is truly unbecoming of an emperor."
Faced with Fan Yu's questioning, Emperor Tianhun was not angry at all. Instead, he snorted coldly and exuded a powerful aura of authority.
"Deception? Fan Yu, you are a viscount appointed by me, with the blood of the Heavenly Soul Empire flowing in your veins, yet you have spent twenty years at Shrek Academy. In these twenty years, have you ever thought about where all your skills should have been used?"
The emperor stepped closer, his gaze piercing as he stared into Fan Yu's eyes: "You are clearly a Heavenly Soul person, and in terms of talent, you are indeed top-tier on the Douluo Continent. But look at the current empire. Its soul guidance technology has been left behind by the Sun Moon Empire, and it can barely defend itself. And what about you? You stay at Shrek Academy, cultivating talent for them and improving their defenses, but you have not been loyal to the land that nurtured you, and you have not contributed a single bit to the construction of the empire. Do you think this is right?"
Fan Yu was rendered speechless by the emperor's words.
The sense of national identity instilled in him from childhood clashed violently with the sense of belonging he developed at Shrek.
"Your Majesty, minister..."
"No need for explanation." The emperor waved his hand, interrupting him directly. His tone softened, carrying an irresistible allure. "Since I have summoned you back, it is because I hope you will return to the embrace of the empire. I promise you today that as long as you are willing to leave Shrek Academy and return to the capital to oversee the construction of the Soul Guidance Department, I will immediately promote you to First-Class Earl. Not only that, you can freely allocate all the rare materials stored in the royal warehouses, even those priceless deep-sea silver essences. Money, fiefdoms, resources—whatever you can ask for, I will give you."
Fan Yu took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down, and his eyes regained their firmness.
"Your Majesty, I am grateful for your kindness. But if you have summoned me only for this matter, then I can only apologize." Fan Yu straightened his back, his words respectful yet revealing a firm resolve.
"I not only have a teaching position at Shrek Academy, but also the kindness of being taught. Elder Mu has treated me well, and Dean Xian has placed high hopes on me. As a Soul Master, how can one stand without integrity and loyalty? Although I love my country, I am equally loyal to Shrek Academy. Please forgive me for not being able to comply."
Fan Yu spoke these words with righteous indignation, and even felt a sense of heroic determination to uphold morality.
The Heavenly Soul Emperor looked at him, and a confident smile suddenly appeared on his lips.
He clapped his hands and instructed the person behind the screen, "Since the Viscount is so kind and righteous, then bring up what that noble person prepared."
A palace attendant stepped forward with his head bowed, carrying a sandalwood box in his hands.
When the box was opened, there were only a few unremarkable pages of yellow handwritten paper inside.
"Fan Yu, don't be so quick to refuse. You are a top-tier Soul Master. In your eyes, those official titles and gold may indeed be inferior to your experimental platform. So, what about this?" The Emperor casually picked up a page of handwritten paper and handed it to Fan Yu.
Fan Yu wanted to refuse to look at these so-called "sugar-coated bullets," but his instinct as an eighth-level soul master made his pupils suddenly contract the moment his gaze swept over the paper.
That was something Liu Yuan had specially prepared—a highly secret supplementary logic within the core formation of the "Red Dust Protection." This kind of logic was an absolute wasteland of knowledge in the current Soul Guidance World of Douluo Three Kingdoms.
Fan Yu took the page with trembling hands. After reading only three lines, his expression changed from calm to extreme shock.
He seemed to be bewitched, completely forgetting that he was still in the palace, and squatted down to start rapidly tracing patterns on the blue bricks with his fingers.
"This... this node's cycle can actually guide soul power like this? This completely breaks the existing theory of array balance! My God, how did they manage to balance the difference in thermal expansion coefficients in the smelting ratio of this material?"
Fan Yu murmured to herself as she quickly flipped through the remaining pages.
The more he read, the more alarmed he became; his once upright posture now trembled uncontrollably. As a genius who had spent half his life in this field, he knew all too well the weight behind these words.
This is the absolute truth of level nine, or even the peak of level nine. This is forbidden knowledge that he could never access even after ten years of arduous training at Shrek Academy.
By the time he finished reading the last page, a fine layer of sweat had formed on his forehead.
He raised his head, staring at the Heavenly Soul Emperor with a look of horror, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Your Majesty, where...where did these documents come from?"
(End of chapter)