Even though there was no clear evidence, there was no doubt that the peace-loving Shrek Academy had always been an obstacle to the federation in its endeavor to instigate wars. As such, in a sense, the destruction of Shrek Academy was a good thing for those who belonged to the Eagle Faction. At the very least, there was less resistance against their cause.

Even though organizations like the Spirit Pagoda were also neutral, they weren't a peace-loving entity like Shrek Academy, and the Battle God Hall was under the direct control of the federation, so if war were to ever break out, they were going to be the federation's most powerful weapon.

Blood One turned to Tang Wulin. "What does this make you think of?"

"It makes me think of a war for resources!" Tang Wulin replied without any hesitation.

Blood One sighed, "That seems almost inevitable at this point."

Tang Wulin's brows furrowed tightly. "A war is going to kill so many innocent people and destroy so many homes!"

Blood One said in an indifferent voice, "Do you think the federal government has only been proposing going to war for the past few years? They began proposing this idea many years ago, and it never became a reality due to vehement opposition from the Dove Faction led by Shrek Academy. Now, it's really hard to say what's going to happen."

Tang Wulin sighed, "I just want to revive the academy so its ethos can continue to be passed down."

Blood One shook his head. "No, the scope of your responsibility is not limited to this. I originally also thought that this would be enough, but in reality, it's far from enough; do you know why?"

Tang Wulin shook his head.

Blood One continued, "Our Blood God Legion has been constantly guarding the abyssal passageway for over 6,000 years, not allowing the abyssal plane to invade our Douluo Continent. The greatest wish of one generation of Blood God Legion soldiers after another is to be able to completely eradicate the threat of the abyssal plane. However, no one in the past 6,000 years has been able to achieve this, and no one has even managed to propose a good course of action. All of that changed when you showed up. Your Golden Dragon Spear could well be a divine weapon for us when it comes to opposing the abyssal plane.

"If you can eradicate the threat of the abyssal plane, then you will be the true hero of the Blood God Legion and the entire federation, so you have to do more. No one can teach you exactly what to do, but as your senior, I can help you in every way that I'm capable of. You will need to control your own future, but I firmly believe that you'll accomplish greater things than anyone could ever imagine."

Eradicate the threat of the abyssal plane? Tang Wulin raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. He hadn't completely understood the meaning behind Blood One's words, but he still nodded in response.

The grand final finally arrived.

Following a series of emergency damage control, the general public's attention was finally drawn back to the grand final match that was about to commence.

This was the grand final of the Soul Master battles! It was a matchup between Golden Dragon King and Strength King, and it was undoubtedly going to be an extremely spectacular match.

Even though lethal incidents had taken place in both of the semifinal matches, no one could actually die in the Star Battle Net, after all. Furthermore, this was a grand final, and the federal government had guaranteed that no dangers would arise during the course of this match. Otherwise, the government was going to be offering large sums of money as compensation, so the spectator stands for this match were still completely packed. On top of that, the viewership for this match had also set a new record.

Tang Wulin was seated in his resting suite with his legs crossed, meditating to prime himself into the best possible condition. His Golden Dragon Spear rested across his knees, and his spirit, aura, and intent were very naturally elevated to the very peak.

Compared to his match against Sima Jinchi, he was actually a bit more relaxed for this grand final. Perhaps the fact that he was going to be facing his senior disciple brother has alleviated a lot of his nerves, and he was more so looking forward to facing the powers of the congenital secret method in order to verify his own body refinement method.

Tang Wulin's body refinement used his Golden Dragon King bloodline as a foundation before adopting the cultivation method of the Body Sect. At present, there weren't many people in this entire world who would dare to say that they possessed a more powerful physical constitution than him.

In particular, as his powers had increased and after he broke his 10th Golden Dragon King seal, his body had become even more powerful. Only the senior disciple brother of his, whom he was about to face, struck him with a sense of inferiority when it came to his physical constitution. However, this battle would allow him to ascertain the gap between himself and his senior disciple brother, and he was going to treat this as a learning experience.

As such, he was regarding this battle more so as a sparring match against his senior disciple brother, so the end result didn't matter as much to him. Through his communication with Blood One, he could sense that Blood One didn't really care much about his final placing in the competition, either; he simply wanted Tang Wulin to learn and grow as much as he could through the course of this competition.

The fact that he'd progressed to the grand final in both disciplines meant that he had already guaranteed himself participation in all of the matches that he could possibly compete in, and that was enough. As such, in this grand final, he wanted to enjoy the contest more than anything else.

Of course, that didn't mean that he wasn't going to do his best. On the contrary, he was going to display his full power to see just how far he could go.

After all, there were already fewer and fewer opponents against whom he could unleash his full power and still encounter ample resistance.

He had made another breakthrough in his soul power the night before, progressing to rank 66. This speed of progression was quite astonishing, even to himself. One had to realize that these rapid improvements were being made while he was also forging an extremely stable foundation!

"The match is about to begin, Golden Dragon King." A delightful and delicate voice rang out.

Tang Wulin slowly opened his eyes before striding out of the room with his Golden Dragon Spear in his hand.

The gate leading to the competition platform lay up ahead, and when Tang Wulin cast his gaze toward it, then looked down at the path beneath his feet, he was somehow suddenly struck by a hint of enlightenment.

This was a very abstract feeling that he couldn't seem to grab onto, but it was unspeakably profound.

He raised his Golden Dragon Spear slightly, and the light shining from the competition venue reflected off the spear as a golden hue. The direction that his spear was pointing in was the path that he had to advance toward.

He stepped forward and was immediately met with deafening cheers. Countless voices were chanting "Golden Dragon King" and "Strength King".

In the distance, the man-mountain that was A'Ruheng had also appeared on the other side of the competition venue. The two of them looked at one another from afar. Due to the system's concealment effect, neither of them could see one another's expressions, but A'Ruheng raised his arm and gave Tang Wulin a thumbs-up to express his feelings.

Tang Wulin also raised his Golden Dragon Spear as acknowledgment.

……

Mu Ye was standing silently in front of a soul screen. The screen was very close to him, so close that he could even hear the faint electric current fluctuations from the soul screen.

Divine Blacksmith Zhen Huan and Tang Wulin's other teacher, Saint Blacksmith Mu Chen were sitting not far behind him.

Compared to Mu Ye, they were clearly a lot more calm and collected.

Mu Chen picked up his teacup and took a sip before asking in a low voice, "Is he alright?"

Zhen Hua replied, "He's ok; he's just too excited. The Body Sect has been on a constant decline for the past several centuries, and that's naturally taken a great toll on him as the current sect master. The Star Battle Net Inter-federation Competition is a competition between the elite Soul Masters across the entire federation, yet the grand final is a match between his two disciples; you can only imagine his excitement right now."

Zhen Hua paused momentarily before yelling to Mu Ye, "Oi, you're not gonna cry, are you?"

"Piss off!" Mu Ye grumbled in reply.

However, Zhen Hua could clearly hear that his voice did suggest that he was about to burst into tears.

"They're both your disciples; who do you think is going to win?" Zhen Hua asked.

Mu Ye was silent for a long while before finally replying in a low voice, "It'll be very difficult for Wulin to win. It looks like he still hasn't reached the Soul Sage level yet; his bloodline is more powerful than that of Ruheng's, but the congenital secret method of our Body Sect is able to amend all bloodline imperfections, thereby enhancing one's body to a supramaximal degree. Ruheng has been cultivating arduously for many years; if he unleashes his congenital secret method to the height of its powers, even I won't be able to defeat him in a short time unless I use my battle armor."