Chapter 1438
On top of that, everyone knew that the Tang Sect had to be supporting Shrek Academy's rebuild, but no one could say anything about it. Furthermore, the federation couldn't forcibly take away the land of Shrek Academy as Shrek City had existed even before the federation!
This land had always belonged to Shrek Academy; if the federation were to take it by force, then that would be equivalent to an invasion.
Shrek Academy may have been destroyed, but its influence was still extremely strong on this continent. If the federation dared to go that far, then it most likely wouldn't be far away from dissolution.
As such, after the Holy Spirit Cult refused to destroy this new Shrek Academy, Qiangu Dongfeng discovered that he was rather powerless in this situation.
At the very least, Shrek Academy had the support of the Holy Spirit Douluo, the Heartless Douluo, and the Amorous Douluo, so he couldn't even oppress it by force.
This had made Qiangu Dongfeng quite irritable of late, and he became uncharacteristically angry upon hearing about the incident that had taken place in the Great Star Dou Forest.
"Investigate the situation right away!"
He was naturally aware of the existence of the Great Beasts, and the Spirit Pagoda had a truce agreement with the Great Beasts. The main reason behind the Spirit Pagoda's decision to make this concession was the existence of Beast God Di Tian; he was simply too powerful, and killing him would be an extremely difficult task.
According to the instructions left behind by the forefathers of the Spirit Pagoda, they were waiting for the arrival of Di Tian's final heavenly tribulation, which would present an opportunity to make Di Tian into a soul spirit for the Spirit Pagoda.
If they could do that, then the Spirit Pagoda would acquire a new powerful guardian. The Spirit Pagoda had already devised a method to allow soul spirits to live on permanently, and for this objective, several dozens of generations of Spirit Pagoda chairmen had communicated with Di Tian, but all of them were rejected.
Thankfully, during the past several millennia, Di Tian hadn't done anything out of line, either, so the truce continued. According to the information passed down by the forefathers of the Spirit Pagoda, Di Tian's next heavenly tribulation wasn't going to be far away, so the Spirit Pagoda could afford to wait. Once his heavenly tribulation arrived, Di Tian would have no choice but to become a soul spirit, and that would undoubtedly benefit the Spirit Pagoda immensely.
Once Di Tian became a soul spirit, it would be a lot easier to deal with the other Great Beasts.
After issuing an instruction to launch an investigation into the Great Star Dou Forest situation, Qiangu Dongfeng fell into a contemplative silence.
The current situation appeared to be quite peaceful, but Shrek Academy was in the midst of its rebuild. Even without Yun Ming, a new Shrek Academy would be extremely troublesome as it had far too many supporters.
Even now, the Dove Faction had been significantly bolstered by the news of the Shrek Academy rebuild, and some of the neutral faction was beginning to sway toward the Dove Faction. There were also some high-ranking military officials who had turned their backs on the Eagle Faction, and all of them were Shrek Academy alumni, so the academy had definitely contacted them during its reconstruction process.
Such a massively influential academy was truly worthy of its title as the number one academy on the continent.
He couldn't allow things to continue like this any longer. At the very least, he had to create some news to maintain the Spirit Pagoda's influence and erase all of the negative press that had arisen.
Right at this moment, the sound of door-knocking rang out.
"Come in," Qiangu Dongfeng said.
The door was opened, and a tall and handsome figure strode in. This was none other than one of the Spirit Pagoda's four spirit envoys, and Qiangu Dongfeng's most beloved grandson, Qiangu Zhangting.
"What brings you here, Zhangting?" Qiangu Zhangting had been cultivating in seclusion this entire time, so Qiangu Dongfeng was rather taken aback to see him.
"Grandfather, I heard that Shrek Academy is being rebuilt; is that true?" Qiangu Zhangting asked with furrowed brows.
Qiangu Dongfeng sighed, "It is. This is quite a concern for us as the rebuild is affecting the entire federal parliament in a way that's heavily against our favor. Shrek Academy has a massive number of supporters; if we can't stop its rebuild, then it'll only pick up more and more momentum, and before long, it could return to its former glory."
"Grandfather, there's something I'd like to remind you of," Qiangu Zhangting suddenly said.
"What is it?" Qiangu Dongfeng asked in a befuddled manner.
Qiangu Zhangting replied, "Do you still remember the time when Nana and I encountered a member of the Holy Spirit Cult in that train station? At the time, the person who was with that member of the Holy Spirit Cult was none other than the Tang Sect Master, Tang Wulin."
A hint of reminiscence appeared in Qiangu Dongfeng's eyes upon hearing this. "Go on."
A cold light flashed through Qiangu Zhangting's eyes. "At the time, it felt to me like Nana was looking at him in a way that was very abnormal, so I did some investigating. I'm sure you're aware of the Shrek Academy tradition known as the Sea God Fate Match-making Convention, right?"
Qiangu Dongfeng nodded in response. "I am."
Qiangu Zhangting continued in a cold voice, "Nana was a student of Shrek Academy, and she was in the same class as Tang Wulin. Back when they were both in the outer court, Tang Wulin was the class captain, while Nana was the vice-captain, and they were in the same team as well."
Qiangu Dongfeng's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this.
Qiangu Zhangting continued, "I bribed a Shrek Academy outer court disciple who was expelled from the academy, and he told me that Tang Wulin had once confessed to Nana during the Sea God Fate Match-making Convention, and Nana accepted his confession."
"What did you say?" Qiangu Dongfeng was astonished to hear this.
The Spirit Pagoda had constantly been spying on Shrek Academy, but with the large number of powerful beings in the academy, it was very difficult to gather much information.
Qiangu Zhangting harrumphed coldly, "If it weren't for the fact that Shrek Academy had been destroyed, it would've been very difficult for me to successfully bribe that former outer court disciple, but the information that he provided is definitely reliable. On top of that, he also told me that Tang Wulin is not just the Tang Sect Master, but also the captain of Shrek's Seven Monsters."
Qiangu Dongfeng's expression changed slightly upon hearing this. He had always known that Tang Wulin was the captain of Shrek’s Seven Monsters, and Shrek Academy had never intentionally hidden this fact, but now that he was being reminded of this by Qiangu Zhangting, he was finally starting to put everything together.
Qiangu Zhangting continued, "I was very envious upon learning this, and I wanted to ask Nana about this, but I held back because this information provides us with a very important opportunity."
Qiangu Dongfeng raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "You're saying we should use Tang Wulin's feelings for Gu Yuena against him?"
Qiangu Zhangting nodded in response. "According to that outer court disciple, they share a very strong bond, and it's most likely the case that Nana also reciprocates his feelings. Otherwise, she wouldn't have accepted his confession. However, Nana has chosen to come to our Spirit Pagoda, so she must be grappling with an internal conflict. She knows that our Spirit Pagoda is better for her development, but she still can't forget about Tang Wulin, and I think the destruction of Shrek Academy is the reason why she finally made up her mind to join us."
Qiangu Dongfeng asked, "What do you want to do?"
Qiangu Zhangting replied, "Shrek Academy is currently being rebuilt, right? So many powerful beings from their academy perished during the bombing, so Shrek’s Seven Monsters must be the current pillars of the academy. If we can eliminate them, particularly Tang Wulin, that would deal both Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect an extremely heavy blow, right?"
Qiangu Dongfeng nodded in response. "The problem is that Tang Wulin was at the Star Luo Empire not long ago, and we don't even know whether he's back yet; how are we supposed to strike at him?"
Qiangu Zhangting immediately replied, "You're allowing your own concerns to blind you, Grandfather. I'm certain that Tang Wulin has already returned, and the Tang Sect definitely has no intention of moving to the Star Luo Empire. Otherwise, Shrek Academy wouldn't be commencing its rebuild at a time like this. Their thought process is very simple; the Tang Sect has been declared as a treasonous organization, so it will only be able to operate in the shadows. As such, they have to rebuild Shrek Academy so they can still have an organization that exists out in the open. Based on all that, I can assure you that Tang Wulin has to have already returned, and it's very possible that he's in Shrek Academy right now."