Volume 34, Chapter 461.3: Overt Plot of the Mysterious Marshal Seanboi's Thoughts

As he processed this, Huo Yuhao drifted up towards the room where the Soul Emperor was.

Very soon, he was outside the door. Given the number of people that were in this residence, he was absolutely confident of defeating all of them by himself. However, he didn’t want to alarm anyone, and remained quiet outside the window. His spiritual power was focused inside the room, and he silently listened and observed.

There was a fifty-year-old Soul Emperor reading some documents in the room and nodding occasionally. To only be a Soul Emperor at such an age meant that he had no future. Furthermore, Huo Yuhao also sensed the presence of soul tools in the room. Undoubtedly, he had to be a Class 6 soul engineer.

Someone arrived. Huo Yuhao felt something, and sensed a few more people had arrived outside the residence. From their dress, it seemed like they were all businessmen instead of military personnel. These people quickly entered the residence after sending word of their arrival before rushing into the room where this Soul Emperor was.

“Sir, people from the Sun Moon Chamber of Commerce are here,” a soldier respectfully reported from outside the room.

“Alright. Let them in,” the Soul Emperor said calmly.

The few businessmen were led into the room under the guidance of the soldier. At the same time, they bowed towards the Soul Emperor.

“How is it? How’s the plan going?” the Soul Emperor asked.

A lanky businessman replied, “We experienced some difficulty at the start. The nobility of the Heavenly Soul Empire discriminated against us. However, after you sent out instructions not to confiscate their land and wealth, they didn’t dare to openly express their hate towards us, even if they secretly do. They only resisted our efforts in the shadows. Over these few days, we’ve already demonstrated how magical soul tools can be, which I believe is slowly moving them. This is especially true for our thermal radiators, which I believe they are most interested in. Thermal radiators can greatly conserve costly coal. Every other week, they just need a soul engineer to pour in his soul power. It will be sufficient to power a thermal radiator to keep a plot of land not bigger than five hundred square meters warm. We can even avoid the smell of burning coal. They were all very surprised.”

The Soul Emperor nodded in satisfaction and responded, “Alright, continue to advertise. Give them everything. Don’t feel heart-ache over that. The marshal has mentioned that even though we’ll experience some temporary monetary losses, they’ll eventually be reliant on us once they adapt to a life of soul tools, and won’t be willing to return to their obsolete lives. After we win over the nobility and convince them to work for us, we’ll then turn our efforts to the citizens. In a few years, we’ll win the hearts of the entire city.”

“Yes,” the businessmen nodded respectfully. After this, they carried out a series of reports. They were talking about how to transport soul tools into the city for the noble families and teaching them how to use them. They were also talking about how to move the nobility, as well as the ones who had been moved, and who were were still very stubborn.

The entire report lasted roughly an hour before the businessmen left.

After sending them to the door, the mayor returned to his room and muttered in awe to himself, “Marshal, you are far-sighted! This method is much better than performing a massacre. The Sun Moon Empire can’t just rely on military power to rule the entire continent. This method to use soul tools to win the hearts of the people is indeed impressive. We’ve lessened the number of troops in the city, making them relax their guard. After that, we used soul tool technology to infiltrate their lives, although we’re the ones who control the core technologies. In the future, there’ll only be the Sun Moon Empire. The funny thing is that the Heavenly Soul Empire, Star Luo Empire and Dou Ling Empire are still trying to resist us. Perhaps they’ll discover in a few years that the citizens in the territories we’ve occupied are no longer loyal to them. Haha, brilliant. This is indeed brilliant. The Marshal is indeed the person I admire the most! Conquering hearts without using force. That’s the most advanced of all strategies.”

Huo Yuhao stood outside for two hours and listened to everything. After listening to this point, his expression had already turned slightly pale.

Impressive. This ‘Marshal’ that he’s talking about is too impressive.

Using soul tool technology as a means of infiltration. What kind of brilliant idea is that?

The air outside was extremely cold, but Huo Yuhao was dripping with perspiration. An overt plot, it was a true overt plot! Perhaps he could destroy everything in Dragon City with all his strength. However, if the Sun Moon Empire did the same throughout the entire Heavenly Soul Empire, there was no way he could stop them unless he could drive them out quickly.

Who exactly was this marshal? He actually had such a strategy. He was indeed a brilliant strategist!

Huo Yuhao had seen Xu Tianran before. He didn’t have a good impression of him. Without a doubt, Xu Tianran was an anti-hero. However, it was perhaps because of his disability that he seemed very sinister and vicious. Right now, the strategy that Huo Yuhao heard of was definitely something that an anti-hero couldn’t have thought up.

This was a true overt plot. It was upright, but perhaps only effective in the long-term. However, if it worked, it would be extremely effective! If they succeeded, the Heavenly Soul Empire would find it extremely challenging to regain hold of the territories they had lost.

Given the current situation in all the empires, the foundation of every empire was the nobility. The nobility controlled almost all the resources in an empire. The most powerful of the nobility were naturally the imperial families of each empire. It was the foundation of a monarchy!

This was why the Sun Moon Empire had a very specific target. First, they chose to penetrate the hearts of the nobility of the Heavenly Soul Empire. Once the nobility slowly sided with the Sun Moon Empire and helped them promote soul tool technology in their own empire, they could only be subjected to manipulation, given that they didn’t possess any core technologies. They would forever be reliant on the Sun Moon Empire.

The longer they were under occupation, the more obvious this would become. This was too terrifying. The person who came up with this strategy left Huo Yuhao in awe.

There weren’t any massacres. It was through pure soul tool technology penetration that the Sun Moon Empire demonstrated their advantage to the fullest. Before today, Huo Yuhao would never have expected the Sun Moon Empire to use such a method of invasion.

How should he react to such a strategy?

Huo Yuhao silently left the residence and found a hotel to stay the night. He was sleepless the entire night.

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It was only when the sky had already brightened that Huo Yuhao retracted his thoughts. To him, it was fine that he couldn’t sleep the entire night. It was just that he couldn’t think of a proper way to deal with the Sun Moon Empire’s strategy, even though he had been thinking the entire night.

What an overt plot! It was an overt plot that one found difficult to counteract.

It wasn’t completely foolproof. The simplest way of dealing with it was to quickly reclaim all the lost territories. At the same time, the Sun Moon Empire had to be stopped. It was only this way that they could possibly hang on.

However, what about the long-term?

Within the Sun Moon Empire’s borders, the empire had already promoted soul tool technology to ordinary citizens. Furthermore, it was extremely difficult to reclaim the cities that they had taken from the Heavenly Soul Empire. In the area of soul tools, the Sun Moon Empire was simply leading by too much.

As time passed, the cities that had fallen to the Sun Moon Empire would likely yield to the Sun Moon Empire even if they didn’t attack, and only maintained the current situation. With more resources and support, the Sun Moon Empire’s soul tool technology would advance faster and faster. This would further the gap between them and the other empires of the original Douluo Continent.

The current peak of soul tool technology right now was the Death God. However, the Death God was undoubtedly an exception. It was a soul tool that everyone feared, and could only be operated after killing people. One Death God wasn’t considered too terrifying to Huo Yuhao. Its threat would cease to exist once the soldiers of the Sun Moon Empire couldn’t handle it anymore.

However, soul tool technology was continuously improving. As it continued to develop, there would be a day in the future where it could possibly threaten Titled Douluo, and even Ultimate Douluo. If that was the case, the Sun Moon Empire’s rule over the entire continent was bound to happen!

Huo Yuhao didn’t reject soul tool technology, as he was also a soul engineer. As soul tool technology kept on developing, it represented societal progress. It was an evolution of the entire Douluo Continent. However, he didn’t wish to see the Sun Moon Empire ruling over the entire Douluo Continent. It was something that he couldn’t accept.

However, there wasn’t any stopping them. Over the past few thousand years, the three empires of the original Douluo Continent had already told him the answer using the current situation that they were facing: closing their empires and refusing to accept development as a reality, as well as being unwilling to learn the qualities of others. The end result was that they were on the verge of becoming obsolete.

The three empires of the original Douluo Continent were too huge. All the authority lay in the hands of the nobility. Even if the imperial families wanted to promote soul tool development, it wasn’t something that was effective in the short-term. Most noble families were still discriminative towards soul tools.

Perhaps the only hope lay in the Academy.

Shrek was only a city, mainly led by Shrek Academy. Over the past ten years, ever since Elder Mu had recognized the importance of developing soul tools, and after Elder Xuan had taken the reins, Shrek Academy had been continuously developing its Soul Tool Department, and the Tang Sect was established to encourage the speedy development of Shrek City. Furthermore, there weren’t any noble families in Shrek City. Perhaps the future Shrek was the only hope left for the original Douluo Continent.

After thinking of all this, Huo Yuhao considered something. There was something extra in his head. However, he couldn’t tell what it was yet.

Just as he was clearing his thoughts, his spiritual sea moved slightly. Nan Qiuqiu was awake!

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Translated by: cthd
Edited by: GNE and RED

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