Ji Qi continued, "The federal parliament has always been split up into two major factions; the Eagle Faction, and the Dove Faction. There is also a neutral faction, but that faction has less than 30 members, so it doesn't have much speaking rights when decisions are being made in the parliament. In particular, following Shrek Academy's forced withdrawal from the neutral faction, there is no one to lead the faction, and it's become an even less influential force. Those of the Eagle Faction are very aggressive and overbearing with their proposed political policies, and are in favor of waging war against neighboring continents.

"Those of the Dove Faction are in direct contrast with them as they champion a more gentle and conservative approach, and are firmly against instigating wars with other continents. In fact, they're even against further research and development into military weaponry to a certain extent. The Dove Faction has always held the opinion that excessive research and development in soul weapons will quickly deplete the continent's resources, which would be detrimental to the overall development of the human race.

"However, the Dove Faction supports research and development into space exploration in order to search for other planets that are suitable for human habitation. The Eagle Faction is also in support of this, but they think that the federation should accrue more military power so that when alternate inhabitable planets are discovered, they can be made into colonies. Their thought process is that no one knows if other life forms exist in outer space and whether they're powerful or not, so who knows if we'll encounter resistance in our attempt to settle onto new planets? In any case, both sides have valid arguments, as well as their own groups of loyal supporters."

A contemplative look appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "Let me guess, the Spirit Pagoda supports the Eagle Faction, while our Shrek Academy and Tang Sect support the Dove Faction, right?"

Ji Qi nodded in response. "Indeed. In the past, our Tang Sect and Shrek Academy have always supported the Dove Faction. Even though the academy withdrew from the federal parliament later on, it has connections all over the entire continent, not just in the Dove Faction, but some of the core members of the Eagle Faction had also come from our academy. This is why our academy has always remained a neutral entity. Conversely, the most direct supporters of the Eagle Faction are the Spirit Pagoda and the Battle God Hall; it can be said that they are the main pillars of the Eagle Faction.

"The general public was normally more inclined toward supporting the Dove Faction as they didn't want to see wars and excessive resource depletion, so the Dove Faction held the upper hand in the federal parliament the vast majority of the time. However, the Shrek City bombing changed all that, and the Dove Faction is now struggling to keep the Eagle Faction in check. Not only did the terrorist attack destroy Shrek Academy, our Tang Sect has also been dealt an extremely heavy blow, and the Eagle Faction has seized the initiative to spread controversy and propaganda, using the general public's fear of the Holy Spirit Cult to catapult themselves into the lead.

"During this parliamentary reform, the Eagle Faction claimed over 110 seats, and even most of the members of the neutral faction have sided with them, thereby giving them an absolute advantage. As things are right now, it's already very difficult for the Dove Faction to sway the current political situation."

Tang Wulin's mind began to race rapidly after hearing Ji Qi's explanation. There were a lot of things that could be deduced from the current state of the federal parliament.

The power that had benefited the most from the disaster that had befallen Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect was undoubtedly the federation's Eagle Faction, and the main supporters of the Eagle Faction were the Spirit Pagoda and the Battle God Hall. There was no concrete proof cementing a connection between them and the Holy Spirit Cult, but it was an undeniable fact that they had benefited from this horrendous tragedy. Furthermore, even if they hadn't directly assisted the Holy Spirit Cult, was everyone really expected to believe that they didn't at least turn a blind eye to the situation?

One had to realize that the Spirit Pagoda headquarters was virtually within a stone's throw away from Shrek City, and compared to the Tang Sect, the Spirit Pagoda was an even more powerful organization.

So why hadn't the two Godslayer missiles targeted Shrek City and the Spirit Pagoda rather than Shrek City and the Tang Sect? If that had been the case, then an even heavier blow would've been dealt to the entire continent.

Just this factor alone made it impossible not to suspect the Spirit Pagoda of foul play. Tang Wulin's eyes narrowed slightly, and his aura had also changed.

Ji Qi handed a list over to Tang Wulin, and said, "This is a roster; blue represents the Dove Faction, red represents the Eagle Faction, and white represents the neutral faction."

From the colors on the list, it was quite apparent that the Eagle Faction held an absolute upper hand; just the Eagle Faction alone had close to 50% of all of the parliamentary seats.

Tang Wulin mused, "It doesn't seem like there's too much of a disparity. The Dove Faction also has over 80 seats, so if we can garner the support of the neutral faction..."

"It doesn't work like that," Ji Qi hurriedly interjected, "You can't just look at the number of parliamentary seats each faction possesses; the final result of the election depends on the level of support the factions receive from the general public, and the faction that receives the most support will be in power for the next five years. Only very rarely has there ever been such a huge disparity between the number of parliamentary seats owned by the two major factions, this essentially means that the Dove Faction won't be able to turn the tables for a very long time in the future.

"The Eagle Faction is very smart in the way it goes about spreading its agenda; the faction has always been in support of waging wars, but they're insisting that the wars will take place on foreign land, and at the same time, they've stated that they'll do everything in their power to ensure the safety of their soldiers. This, in addition to the devastating terrorist attacks from the Holy Spirit Cult during the past few years has raised the support for the Eagle Faction to over 65%, which is an all-time record high."

Tang Wulin nodded in response. "I see."

He inspected the list of names in his hand as he spoke, and the vast majority of names on the list were completely unfamiliar to him.

There was only the occasional familiar name, such as Yue Zhengyu's grandfather, who represented the Southern Legion. He was a member of the Eagle Faction, as well as a member of the presidium, but not a vice-president. There was no representation for the Blood God Legion in the federal parliament, and that was most likely due to the relatively independent nature of the legion.

None of the names in the Tang Sect that he was familiar with were included on the list, and it was as if they had been completely wiped out. This was a clear indication of just how far the federal parliament was going to oppress the Tang Sect.

"It seems like the parliament is targeting us quite heavily," Tang Wulin mused in a grave voice.

A wry smile appeared on Ji Qi's face. "This has always been the case. In reality, even as far back as when the Douluo Federation was first founded, our Tang Sect has always sided with the Star Luo Empire. If it weren't for us, the Star Luo Empire would've been destroyed long ago. At the time, the mighty figure Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao restricted the Sun Moon Empire, which was the previous form of the Douluo Federation, all on his own to save the Star Luo Empire. As such, our status is loftier over in the Star Luo Empire than that of the Spirit Pagoda. Of course, the Spirit Ice Douluo was the one who had founded the Spirit Pagoda in the first place, but the Spirit Pagoda is no longer the same organization that he had first created."

Tang Wulin nodded in response. He had been to the Star Luo Empire, so he was well aware of this; even Dragon King Long Yue belonged to the Tang Sect over there!

The Tang Sect was by far the most powerful organization in the Star Luo Empire, and this was quite fortunate as it meant that the Tang Sect still had ample resources and influence elsewhere.

"Back when Shrek Academy first decided to support our Tang Sect, the federal parliament had been very displeased, but they couldn't do anything about it. Those politicians of the federal parliament have been itching to adopt oppressive measures against us for a long time, but they were unable to as the academy was too powerful, and our headquarters were situated in Shrek City. However, they've taken advantage of the Holy Spirit Cult's terrorist attack to try to bring down our Tang Sect in its entirety. On this continent, our Tang Sect is almost being viewed as an illegal organization."

Tang Wulin chuckled coldly, "Are they trying to clear out all potential obstacles in their plan to wage war against the Star Luo Empire? They're afraid that we're going to alert the Star Luo Empire of their plans in advance, right?"

Ji Qi nodded in response. "That's a very plausible notion. Hence, our forces are being oppressed and ostracized to a very severe extent in the military, and many of them have already been falsely prosecuted based on slanderous claims. The situation is currently extremely bad."

Tang Wulin could imagine that the situation had to be extremely complex, but in any case, the Tang Sect was clearly only receiving such treatment as its ideology clashed with those who were in power.

Compared to the Spirit Pagoda, the Tang Sect had always been quite understated and kept a low profile. As such, the general public wasn't even aware of the fact that the sect was being oppressed by all sides.

Tang Wulin continued to read over the list of names as he listened to Ji Qi's analysis, and when he reached the Dove Faction section of the list, he suddenly saw a very familiar name.

"Hmm? Why is she on the list?" Tang Wulin pointed to a name that was highlighted in blue with a surprised look on his face.

Mo Lan!

This was a name that Tang Wulin was naturally extremely familiar with. She was a train conductor who had been willing to sacrifice herself for her passengers, and in the end, she had almost perished, but was thankfully saved by Holy Spirit Douluo Yali.

After that, Heaven Dou City was struck by a terrorist attack from the Holy Spirit Cult, and Tang Wulin was also dealing with issues on his own end. He had attempted to contact Mo Lan at the time, but was unable to connect to her original number. Who would've thought that this familiar name would be on this list? He couldn't help but wonder if this Mo Lan really was the Mo Lan that he knew.