A wry smile appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "I just returned from military training with my friends, and I haven't even returned to the academy yet before coming here, so I have no idea what happened!"

A grave expression appeared on Guo Xiaoxu's face as he said, "10 days ago, a terrorist attack took place in Heaven Dou City. Many people were killed and the government building was razed to the ground. The official reports state that over 1,000 casualties have been tallied, but in reality, more than 4,000 people have died and more than 10,000 people have been injured."

"What?" Tang Wulin's mouth immediately gaped open with shock.

Heaven Dou City? Wasn't that the city in which Mo Lan's father was an administration official?

It had to have been a terrorist attack of extremely massive proportions for so many people to have died!

"What about the administration official there?" Tang Wulin hurriedly asked.

Guo Xiao Xu sighed, "He also perished during the attack. It came too abruptly and without any premonition. 60 soul bombs of the fifth grade and above rained down on all parts of Heaven Dou City, causing a massive calamity. After that, an aircraft came out of nowhere and dropped a ninth-grade soul bomb onto the government building, and that bomb resulted in the most casualties. This incident has stunned the entire federation. The federation has declared a state of DEFCON one, and deployed a vast number of people to conduct an exhaustive investigation. Our Tang Sect's Battle Hall received an invitation from the federation's Battle God Hall to assist them in their investigation."

Tang Wulin drew a sharp breath upon hearing this. He couldn't believe that such a catastrophic disaster had taken place. He couldn't help but recall the conversation he'd overheard in the Northsea Legion base about the stolen soul bombs, and he hurriedly informed Guo Xiaoxu of what he'd heard.

Guo Xiaoxu's brows furrowed even tighter as he processed this information. The military had to have kept this information confidential for him to still be unaware of this. It was most likely the case that the Northsea Legion wasn't the only legion where soul bombs had been stolen from! If a large number of soul bombs were to spread into the outside world, then that was most definitely a recipe for disaster.

Tang Wulin asked, "Do we know which organization is responsible for this?"

Guo Xiaoxu replied. "We do. The Holy Spirit Cult have announced that they're responsible for this attack."

Tang Wulin clenched his fists tightly. "It's the Holy Spirit Cult again!"

This wasn't the first time that he'd come across this cult, and the last time he'd encountered its members, he and his friends had almost been killed. He didn't think that they'd be causing another catastrophe so soon, and a catastrophe of such major proportions, at that.

Guo Xiaoxu said, "During the past six months, the Holy Spirit Cult has been extremely active and orchestrated a large number of terrorist attacks, causing a massive amount of damage in the process. In the beginning, the federation had tried to keep this information confidential to the public, but there's no way that they can do that now. I didn't think that the federation would be corrupt to such an extent already."

His voice was filled with rage and discontent.

Tang Wulin asked, "Hall Master Guo, are you saying that this terrorist attack had something to do with the federation itself?"

Guo Xiaoxu chuckled coldly, "Of course! How many evil Soul Masters could the Holy Spirit Cult possibly have? Without the support of some people who are in power, how could they have developed and become so powerful so quickly? There must be corrupt officials in the federation working with them. I just don't know if they're part of the Holy Spirit Cult or have taken over control of the cult. In any case, the Holy Spirit Cult must have powerful backers, and if we don't weed out those backers soon, more and more panic will ensue. It's a good thing that you told me that. Otherwise, I'd still be oblivious to the fact that something's wrong in the military as well."

The process of upgrading from a white agent to a yellow agent was very simple; Tang Wulin simply had to display his suit of one-word battle armor, and with Guo Xiaoxu vouching for him, he was able to quickly complete the upgrade. After putting on a set of black robes and a yellow mask that were assigned to yellow agents, he was immediately feeling a lot more comfortable. At the very least, he wasn't going to be barred from entry to the Battle Hall again.

"Come with me, Wulin." Guo Xiaoxu and Tang Wulin returned to the Battle Hall.

"Our Battle Hall has received many missions from the federation, all of which involve hunting for Holy Spirit Cult members based on the leads that we currently have. You've had experience battling the Holy Spirit Cult in the past, so I think you should participate in these missions; it'll be a good exercise for you as well. What do you say? Would you be willing to join one of our investigation teams?"

"Of course!" Tang Wulin replied without any hesitation.

He absolutely abhorred the Holy Spirit Cult, and they had just launched a terrorist attack that had killed so many people, so he certainly couldn't just stand by idly and watch.

Guo Xiaoxu quickly assigned Tang Wulin a mission and put him into a five-man investigation team. The team had four yellow agents in it, including him, and they were led by a purple agent.

According to the Battle Hall hierarchy, all purple agents were two-word battle armor masters. As for yellow agents, all of them had to be one-word battle armor masters, and there weren't many of them, but they were certainly a force to be reckoned with.

What came as a pleasant surprise to Tang Wulin was that due to the urgency of the situation, all of the missions targeting the Holy Spirit Cult were twice the points that would normally be given.

This was definitely a good thing. Through accumulating points, agents could exchange for all types of resources from the Battle Hall. Aside from the Tang Sect techniques, there were many other precious rewards to be reaped.

For example, normal Tang Sect disciples could exchange their contribution points for spirit items, but very rarely would spirit items over 10,000 years old be available to them. However, there were much more resources available in the Battle Hall to be exchanged for.

Of course, normal contribution points couldn't be used in exchange for these items; they could only be exchanged for agent points.

After all, the agents of the Battle Hall made up the true core of the Tang Sect.

Tang Wulin wasn't going to have much trouble breaking his ninth Golden Dragon King seal, but the resources required for him to break the subsequent seals would amount to an astronomical price. Not only were all of them at least 10,000-year-old spirit items, he required a vast quantity of them, so it wasn't like he could just make do with three or four.

Even though he was very close to becoming a Saint Blacksmith, he was still under a lot of financial pressure.

He still had to cultivate and couldn't spend all of his time and energy forging metals in exchange for money, so completing Battle Hall missions was undoubtedly a shortcut for him, especially when double points were being offered.

The mission that Tang Wulin's team had received was to search through an abandoned industrial area in the western suburbs of Heaven Dou City. The objective of their mission was to search for leads regarding the Holy Spirit Cult as information from reliable sources suggested that Holy Spirit Cult members had once been sighted there.

This abandoned industrial area had been used to produce uncommon metals in the past, and it was extremely large. Due to an explosion that took place, a vast amount of harmful substances were leaked, and the entire area was polluted, thereby leading to its abandonment. This type of pollution was extremely difficult to clean up, and the government still hadn't devised a feasible course of action, so it had been left vacated this entire time.

As such, after being assigned this mission, their team was also given protective clothing that would keep the harmful substances at bay. Of course, Soul Masters were far more resistant toward these lethal substances than normal people were anyway.

The purple agent that was leading their team stood before Tang Wulin and the other three yellow agents, and he said, "We'll be setting off shortly, so test out your communicators later to see if they’re working. During this mission, I will be Purple One, and you will be Yellow One, Yellow Two, Yellow Three, and Yellow Four."

He pointed at each of the agents before him as he spoke to assign them their numbers, and what was quite amusing to Tang Wulin was that he was assigned as number three once again. It appeared that he had a great affinity with this number; he had leveled up from White Three to Yellow Three.

"Let's familiarize ourselves with one another briefly. I'm an Assault System Battle Soul Master; what about you guys?" Purple One asked.

Yellow One replied, "I'm an Agility Attack System Battle Soul Master."

Yellow Two said, "I'm a Recovery System Battle Soul Master." Yellow Two's voice suggested that she was a very young woman, and the fact that she had become a one-word battle armor master as a recovery-type Soul Master at such a young age indicated that she was a very bright talent.

Tang Wulin said, "I'm an Assault and Control System Battle Soul Master."