Chen Xinjie fell into silent contemplation upon hearing this. It was undoubtedly true that everything Tang Wulin had said made sense. In reality, Tang Wulin had made extensive preparations before coming here, so everything he had said was true with no fabricated information presented. It was indeed one of his missions to find the headquarters of the Holy Spirit Cult; he had merely omitted his and the Tang Sect's objective, which was to prevent this war from happening.

The fact that Chen Xinjie was pondering the situation indicated to Tang Wulin that he had been swayed. Next, it was up to Chen Xinjie to make a decision.

Chen Xinjie was currently thinking back to the call that he had made prior to returning to his office.

......

"What's going on, Brother? I wasn't expecting a call from you."

"Have you heard of someone by the codename of Blood Dragon? Is he from your legion?"

"Blood Dragon? Are you referring to the Blood Dragon Squad? How did you come into contact with them?" A surprised voice sounded from the other end of the line.

"Just tell me who he is," Chen Xinjie urged in a serious voice.

The man on the other end of the line was silent for a while before replying in an emotional voice, "He's an extremely outstanding young man. If it weren't for him, perhaps all of us would've already been killed during the last abyssal tide. At the very least, your nephew would be dead for sure. The specific circumstances surrounding him is top-secret information in our legion, so I can't disclose it to you. However, what I can tell you is that he's definitely trustworthy, and he's the most integral member of our Blood God Legion, so you have to protect him no matter what. You can't let any harm befall him, or the entire continent will suffer the consequences."

......

The words of his blood brother echoed within his mind, and this was the first time that Chen Xinjie had ever heard such glowing praise for anyone from that stubborn brother of his. Even the almighty Heartless Douluo Cao Dezhi, who was also his direct superior, had never been referred to by him in such a flattering light. This was sufficient testament to just how important this young man was in his heart,

"How much time do you need? You're trying to stall the commencement of this war, right?" Chen Xinjie was extremely cunning and immediately identified the gist of the issue.

Tang Wulin made no effort to disguise his objective. "That's right. At the very least, I want to find more Evil Soul Masters and destroy them first, rather than allow them to benefit from the vast amounts of death energy that is sure to arise during the course of the war. In reality, I've never seen this war as something that's entirely necessary. Invasion isn't the only option to allow the federation to make a resurgence. If we can destroy the abyssal plane and absorb all of the energy in the plane, then we can achieve the same objective they had for attempting to devour our plane. Of course, these are only my thoughts. I know that I can't change much on my own, but at the very least, the Holy Spirit Cult is a lifelong enemy of mine."

Chen Xinjie said, "I'll give you 10 days; that's all the time you have. If you can't find sufficient evidence to prove that the Holy Spirit Cult was behind the attack, then even I won't be able to prevent the early commencement of the war. I'm actually a supporter of this war, but I don't want this war to commence before we've made ample preparations. You're still young, so it'll be quite difficult for you to see the bigger picture. Wars are indeed extremely horrific, but for the sake of the advancement of the entire human race, some sacrifices are often unavoidable."

Tang Wulin looked into Chen Xinjie's unshakably determined eyes, and he didn't say anything further. He knew that there was no way he could convince Chen Xinjie to give up on this war.

"Alright, I'll be sure to give you a response within 10 days."

Light flashed from Chen Xinjie's hand, and a crystal with a layer of metal around it flew over to Tang Wulin.

"This is my Sea God Badge. Carry it with you, and you'll be able to go anywhere you like in Skysea City without encountering any opposition. The legion will place Skysea City into complete lockdown 10 days from now, so you'll have this 10-day period during which you can conduct your investigation, but I can only repress the social pressures for 10 days."

"Thank you, Commander." Tang Wulin heaved a sigh of relief before extending another military salute and departing from Chen Xinjie's office.

Prior to his arrival, he had already considered the worst-case scenario. Even if Chen Xinjie refused to listen to reason and was determined to detain him, he would still have a way to escape. Amorous Douluo Zang Xin had accompanied him during this visit in case things were to go awry, but thankfully, everything went according to plan, and he successfully managed to buy 10 days of time for himself and his friends.

Only after emerging from Chen Xinjie's office did Tang Wulin relax a little. Prior to coming here, he had already had an extensive discussion with Zhang Huanyun and Cao Dezhi before formulating a plan.

Of course, he didn't tell those two that he was going to prevent this war from happening; he had only told them that he didn't want this war to commence too quickly, and that he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to dig up more members of the Holy Spirit Cult.

Zhang Huanyun and Chen Xinjie were acquaintances, and extremely familiar ones, at that. They had both come from the Battle God Hall, and Chen Xinjie had been superior to Zhang Huanyun both in terms of powers and influence.

Zhang Huanyun eventually chose to join the Blood God Legion, while Chen Xinjie became the Battle God Hall Master.

Furthermore, Blood Two was Chen Xinjie's younger brother, and it was exactly because of these relationships that Zhang Huanyun allowed Tang Wulin to pay Chen Xinjie this visit.

As for the documents from the supervision department, that wasn't all that difficult for them to get their hands on.

At the very least, with Chen Xinjie's Sea God Badge, Tang Wulin and the Blood Dragon Squad wouldn't have to do everything in the shadows. The next 10 days were going to be extremely important to them, and they had to prevent the early commencement of this war no matter what.

After reuniting with his friends, Tang Wulin didn't disclose to them the exact details of his conversation with Chen Xinjie. He told them to go and rest first before discussing the matter with Zang Xin in private.

"Your Majesty, how much resources can our Tang Sect make use of in Skysea City? We only have 10 days, and Skysea City has been placed in complete lockdown, so those Evil Soul Masters most likely haven't managed to get away; they've merely hidden themselves very well. Where do you think we should start first in our search?" Tang Wulin already had some ideas, but he decided to ask for Zang Xin's input before he did anything.

Zang Xin replied, "10 days doesn't seem like a short time, but it's actually not a long time, either, so we can't afford to waste any of it. We currently have the support of the military, which will be very beneficial for our operation. We have many people whom we can call upon in Skysea City, but we can't mobilize too many of them. After all, you only took the Blood Dragon Squad with you to the united control center, so we won't rouse any suspicions if there are only around 20 of us, but if we have too many people on the case, the military will most likely begin to suspect our motives, which could expose our true objective. As for where we should begin, it's going to be extremely difficult to find these Evil Soul Masters in such a massive city. Hence, our best bet would be to lure them out!"

Tang Wulin's eyes immediately lit up upon hearing this. Great minds really did think alike! His thought process was concurrent with Zang Xin's. The forte of the Holy Spirit Cult's Evil Soul Masters lay in their ability to hide themselves, so searching for them aimlessly would be akin to searching for a needle in a haystack. As such, the best course of action was definitely to lure them out instead.

"If we want to lure them out, we'll need something to tempt them with. Do you have any ideas, Wulin?" Zang Xin asked.

Tang Wulin nodded in response. "Our greatest advantage lays in the fact that we've secured the support of the military, and the Holy Spirit Cult is also oblivious to our existence. Everyone is siding with the narrative that the Star Luo Empire was responsible for this attack, but the Boundless Ocean Douluo insists on launching an exhaustive investigation on the matter. I think that the first thing we have to do is to get the military to ease up on their internal investigation.

"I'm sure there are military personnel from the Eagle Faction cooperating with the perpetrators of this attack from the inside, and if the Boundless Ocean Douluo adopts a stance that suggests that he's turning a blind eye and allowing the incident to instigate the war earlier than it otherwise would, then the Holy Spirit Cult would be lured into a false sense of security. After that, if we can dangle some alluring bait in front of them, they'll be sure to reveal themselves, and all we have to do is strike and detain them."

Zang Xin nodded with a pleased smile. "Alright, you go ahead and do everything according to your plan, then. We'll support you with all of our power. I'll constantly be by your side during these 10 days."

He wasn't insisting on following Tang Wulin because he was worried that Tang Wulin would botch the investigation; he was merely concerned for Tang Wulin's safety. After all, Tang Wulin was absolutely irreplaceable, both to the Tang Sect and to Shrek Academy.

Unbeknownst to Tang Wulin, even though Light Dark Douluo Long Yeyue hadn't come on this trip, she had implored Zang Xin in private to keep Tang Wulin safe no matter what.

Five days had already passed since the attack on the military port in Skysea City, and the entire federation was itching for vengeance against the perpetrators, which all of the evidence suggested was the Star Luo Empire.

There were even claims that strong evidence had been discovered, indicating that the Star Luo Empire was plotting another follow-up attack, and all of the major media outlets were scrambling to fan the flames on the situation.