area51novel Chapter 246 Pre-Battle Counterattack
Chapter 246 Pre-Battle Counterattack
"I don't know if the Sun Moon Empire and the Holy Spirit Cult are intentionally trying to drain the attention and energy of the academy's higher-ups, but in a contest of high-level strength, the academy cannot afford to lose. We need to be more cautious and not let our opponents take advantage of us by saving what we still have plenty of resources."
"Yes, Elder Lin."
Just as this Elder Lin said, Shrek Academy is not at a disadvantage in terms of high-end combat power, so the best course of action is to be prudent in assessing the enemy's strength.
“Count me in as one of Teacher Ye’s people. Qian Duoduo can handle everything in the Soul Guidance Department all by herself.”
Seeing that the matter of finding clues to the new continent had been relegated to a less urgent position, Xian Lin'er directly offered to take over this potentially war-torn task. As a Super Douluo, Xian Lin'er's intervention essentially solved half of the support mission's combat power problem.
"If it's war, count me in. Shrek City has been unusually quiet lately, so it's no problem for me to leave for a while."
Well, another Super Douluo. These Sea God Pavilion elders of Shrek Academy were all incredibly active and talented individuals in their youth; fighting and sparring were practically their entertainment. Now that they're older, they're theoretically much more composed, but if there's a "fun activity" to be had, these geniuses wouldn't mind stretching their muscles.
According to the normal logic in the minds of these elders of the Sea God Pavilion, if it weren't for the fact that the people from the Sun Moon Empire were guiding them, they wouldn't have been passively protecting Zhang Lexuan and the others this time, but would have directly destroyed the ship.
Even under these circumstances, just looking at the constantly flickering eyes of the Shrek City Lord and Xianlin'er, it's clear that passively defending and slowly following the Sun Moon Empire without any direction of their own is unacceptable.
Subtle messages were exchanged around the Sea God Pavilion's hall. This was a rare and opportune moment to strike, and it was almost certain that several matches would follow. The Title Douluos, who had been idle in the Sea God Pavilion for quite some time, each had their own plans.
The silence lasted a little too long; it was unclear whether everyone was using techniques to force their voices into a clear line to communicate. In any case, the last person to speak was Elder Gong, the administrator of the Shrek Academy's Soul Beast Zone.
"Haha, everyone is busy, but I, as the manager of the Beast Fighting Zone, have been incredibly free lately due to the development of Soul Tool technology, so it's most appropriate for me to make a trip."
For a long time, Elder Gong had been busy taking care of the many spirit beasts kept at Shrek Academy. In fact, Elder Gong was quite an idealist. Like many enlightened spirit masters on the continent, he had already clearly defined his life's ambition at a relatively young age—to help human spirit masters and spirit beasts coexist peacefully.
Clearly, for a very long time, Elder Gong's ambition remained unfulfilled. However, the development of soul tool technology did make Elder Gong's daily work much easier, and the video Zhang Lexuan brought back earlier successfully made this old fire dragon, who had the world on his mind, relax with a smile.
Although the content shown in that video was insufficient to fundamentally resolve the issue between human soul masters and soul beasts, it was undoubtedly a fairly effective means of alleviating conflict. Considering that Zhang Lexuan had said at the time that it was only a preliminary attempt, and that the amazing young man was confident that the ritual would no longer require the intervention of raw materials, Elder Gong felt it was time for him to take a break.
Although his soul power level was relatively low at only level 91 because he devoted all his energy to soul beast breeding, considering that Elder Gong possessed the Fire Dragon Martial Soul, he was a newly initiated Title Douluo whose combat power was infinitely close to that of a Super Douluo.
“Very good,” Old Master Mu’s dry, hoarse voice echoed in the hall. “Everyone has learned to make quick decisions. I think I no longer need to worry about the exploration of another new continent. Shao Zhe, you will do a good job, right?”
"Of course, teacher."
"Meeting adjourned. Bring Xiaotao back safely."
The meeting held at Shrek Academy came to an end. The Soul Masters who possessed storage Soul Tools were particularly decisive and efficient when it came to leaving. After briefly returning to their respective posts, the five Title Douluos quickly concealed themselves and, piloting what appeared to be very old-fashioned flying Soul Tools, sped off towards the outer sea.
Detailed coordinates are not available at the moment. However, once the teachers remaining at the academy have established contact with the sea, the coordinates will be sent to the five of them at an appropriate time.
Far out at sea, Shrek's warship.
Wrapped up like a mummy, Ma Xiaotao has regained consciousness, but this clearly doesn't mean her condition is as worry-free as Zhang Lexuan's. In fact, Ma Xiaotao's current awakening is solely due to the fact that her physical injuries from the previous battle have been healed; her mental trauma is far more severe than the mere physical damage. The strongest evidence is that her martial soul consciousness—the Light and Dark Fire Phoenix—which only awakened in the last few months, has fallen into slumber, rendering her unable to even summon her martial soul.
Still wrapped in a green cloth formed from super-rich life force, and with the Soul Master's shackles binding her entire body, Ma Xiaotao gritted her teeth and drank a specially made refreshing beverage.
"Can I know how we messed up? We've simulated it countless times, and even tested it in real life. I don't believe that those evil soul masters can sense the Dark Phoenix as well as Dean Yan Shaozhe."
"That's right. According to our post-incident review, our exposure was caused by multiple factors. Your Dark Phoenix aura at most confirmed to the evil spirit masters on that warship that a stranger had intruded into the warship's safe zone."
As for how we were discovered, well, we don't know yet. The soul-guiding technology installed on that warship has surpassed both Le Xuan's and my understanding of soul-guiding devices, so I personally think it's very valuable to capture and dismantle it.
"That's right. We just received news from the academy that Elder Gong, Elder Shi, and Dean Xianlin'er are coming to support us. The lineup is a bit overwhelming, so it's highly likely that the academy is also planning the same thing, and the academy may not even have the intention of letting the Sun Moon Empire's warship complete its mission."
"Uh... this approach seems a bit too drastic, and it feels different from some of the academy's past decisions."
Teacher Ye, who has been dedicated to teaching for a long time and whose own strength is not yet at the highest level of Shrek Academy, is somewhat confused. He senses the changes in Shrek Academy, but he is still unsure whether his feelings are illusions or why the academy has undergone such changes.
"It's simple. The Sun Moon Empire has accelerated its actions. Ever since the Holy Spirit Cult was exposed, and the Sun Moon Empire confirmed that the academy had obtained a lot of information about the Holy Spirit Cult, the Sun Moon Empire's ambitions have become increasingly undisguised."
The academy may not care whether the continent is unified or not, but it cannot accept that the strongest backer of the force that unifies the continent is an organization of evil spirit masters.
"so?"
"Therefore, the academy believes it needs to flex its muscles and, incidentally, prevent the enemy from doing anything it wants, thereby securing sufficient influence in future wars."
Zhang Lexuan and Long You weren't just watching a show during their time at sea. Zhang Lexuan, who had the right to attend the Sea God Pavilion meetings, had already noticed changes in certain aspects of the academy's operations. Taking advantage of their time at sea, Zhang Lexuan and Long You discussed these issues and reached a fairly reliable conclusion.
“Alright, that’s not important anymore. The Sun Moon Empire is moving quickly; they’re already closing in on us. Should we move? I’m not sure if this Soul Guidance Warship’s stealth capabilities are reliable enough.”
"We need to move, but we can't make large-scale movements, as that would be actively revealing our location. What we need to do now is sink and rely on deep enough seawater to protect us—no, to hide the traces of our existence."
"Okay, that's not difficult. The AI can control the sinking speed."
Silence fell over the cabin. The Panlong (Shrek Academy AI) clone, which controlled the entire Soul Guidance Warship, was maneuvering the silent warship at the fastest speed possible to maintain quietness as it quietly descended into the deep sea.
The Sun Moon Empire's search lasted for nearly two hours, employing all available methods, including soul tools and evil soul masters. However, just as in Long You's previous life, the deep ocean became a significant obstacle preventing humanity from understanding that planet, the Shrek Academy warship, which began its descent at the perfect moment, successfully evaded the search.
"Hmm, this feeling isn't very pleasant."
Having entered the Shrek battleship at a depth sufficient to instill deep-sea fear in normal humans, Teacher Ye hurriedly shut down the external projection that he had just activated, and said with a double meaning.
“No, this feeling is excellent.” Zhang Lexuan said softly, her tone a full degree colder than usual. “Believe me, the vast majority of the high-end forces and all the core forces on that ship of the Sun Moon Empire have been exposed, and we have recorded their information. This information will be very useful to the elders and deans who are about to arrive.”
“That’s right,” Ma Xiaotao said resentfully after learning that the academy had sent three Super Douluo and two high-combat-power Title Douluo to support her, and knowing that she was going to be taken back to the academy. “Although Dean Yan and Dean Cai are here to take me back, I believe that the two deans will not mind doing something for me before they leave.”
Anyway, at this point, the Sun Moon Empire no longer has any effective means of communication, right?
"Uh...that makes perfect sense. The Sun Moon Empire's ship is really good. As long as the elders can find useful information from the passengers' minds, the ship can return to the academy, right?"
"But I have some bad news for you, would you like to hear it?"
Teacher Ye admitted that Ma Xiaotao's words made a lot of sense, and the various development prospects described by Ma Xiaotao were very tempting. However, Teacher Ye, who had just glanced at the signal receiver, had to bring up some bad news at this moment.
"No need to say anything, I saw it. The Sun Moon Empire successfully found the soul tool used to divert attention and locate it, which was expected. Xiao You told me before that if the positioning array could not be seamlessly attached to the core array or the auxiliary array of the soul tool, he would not have been confident that he could make the positioning array evade the Sun Moon Empire's detection."
However, what I understand is why the Sun Moon Empire would do this.
Zhang Lexuan waved her hand, causing Panlong Intelligence to display a detection screen in the air. The main screen showed a deserted sea, devoid of any human or animal creatures. This was footage taken by the positioning soul tool that Zhang Lexuan and the others had previously delivered to the Sun Moon Empire's soul-guided warship. According to the previous settings, once the positioning soul tool detected that there were no humanoid soul-powered creatures within a kilometer radius of itself, it would activate the soul-guided camera it was equipped with.
Now that Zhang Lexuan and the others have seen the footage captured by the positioning soul tool, it means that this positioning soul tool was taken away from the Sun Moon Empire warship and placed at a distance during the time when the Shrek Academy was forced to submerge to evade the search. Clearly, this is a misdirection; the Sun Moon Empire wants to interfere with Shrek Academy's tracking efforts.
This isn't right. Based on the current combat strength comparison, the Sun Moon Empire clearly has the advantage. Zhang Lexuan put herself in the position of the Sun Moon Empire's commander and realized that if she were commanding this soul-guided warship, she would never discard this positioning soul-guided device. After all, based on the known information, their side has the advantage. Since they haven't found any enemies during the search, they should leave bait to see if those slippery enemies will bite the hook again.
"Theoretically speaking, the Sun Moon Empire should not know that we have ultra-long-distance communication capabilities, and they probably don't either. So what are they guarding against? Is it just to get rid of the tracking and ensure that there are no problems in the exploration of the new continent, or did they anticipate that we would have support forces? Of course, there is also the worst-case scenario: the Sun Moon Empire can actually conduct ultra-long-distance communication, perhaps it is troublesome, but it is not impossible."
None of the three people on the boat were stupid. Zhang Lexuan said this mainly to organize her thoughts and see if her companions could come up with more possibilities.
"There are too many possibilities. We don't even know whether the commander of the opposing fleet is from Mingdetang or the Holy Spirit Church. There are many things we can't deduce."
However, one thing is clear: we need to relay the latest situation to the Academy. Regardless of the Academy's final decision—whether it's war or peace—the three of us, with our current strength, cannot make that decision.
Incidentally, I think we should sever the signal communication with the locating soul tool. The Sun Moon Empire's soul tool technology level is a mystery; we need to consider the possibility of counter-tracking under abnormal circumstances.