Chapter Forty-Eight: Xu Zhao's Ambition

There is another very interesting detail about Guan Yue's generation of Shrek Seven Monsters.
The four who attained the Limit Douluo realm—Yun Ming, Guan Yue, Cao Dezhi, and Zang Xin—all possessed weapon martial souls.
The Sky-Supporting Spear, the Crossing-Sky Spear, the Heartless Sword, and the Amorous Sword; these two pairs of spears and swords perfectly avoided the martial soul traps of the Dragon King era.
Among the remaining three:
Zhuo Shi and Feng Wuyu.
One possessed a Crimson Armor Dragon, and the other a Blazing Fire Dragon; both fell squarely into the martial soul traps of the Dragon King era.
Although Cai Yue'er possessed a Moon martial soul, she had offended Gu Yue.
Consequently, Zhuo Shi, Feng Wuyu, and Cai Yue'er all met their ends.
...
For this practical special training session hosted by the War God Temple, Guan Yue, serving as the Vice Temple Master, was merely the supreme supervisor and would not personally participate in the training.
The ones truly responsible for this special training were seven of the eighteen War Gods of the War God Temple:
The First War God: Vast Sun Douluo Ao Rui.
The Second War God: Emperor Sword Douluo Long Tianwu.
The Third War God: Dark Emperor Douluo Luo Yuhang.
The Fifth War God: Demonic Zither Douluo Mo Zihong.
The Eighth War God: Rampant Dragon Douluo Nangong Yi.
The Ninth War God: Lightning Flame Douluo Jiang Zhanheng.
The Thirteenth War God: Divine Sword Douluo Su Mengjun.
After Vice Temple Master Guan Yue finished introducing their identities, Xu Zhao mentally matched these seven individuals against the information in his memory, and could not help but think to himself.
Among the seven War Gods, there were two martial soul fusion techniques.
Was this not a direct counterpart to their Radiant Seven Stars?
Although Xu Zhao himself possessed a personal martial soul fusion technique, he kept it as a trump card and had only informed his family.
Therefore, the external information regarding the Radiant Seven Stars only featured two martial soul fusion techniques:
One was the Heavenly Tiger Summoning; the other was the Ice and Snow Goddess turning into the Snow Soul Immortal in the Moon.
This matched the quantity of two martial soul fusion techniques found among the seven War Gods:
One was the Heavenly Dance Mengjun Emperor Divine Sword; the other was the Vast Sun Heavenly Zither.
Seven against seven, two martial soul fusion techniques against two martial soul fusion techniques—was this not an overt hint for their Radiant Seven Stars to join the War God Temple?
Sure enough.
After introducing the seven War Gods in charge of the special training, Guan Yue brought up the fact that two martial soul fusion techniques existed among them.
"As it happens, martial soul fusion techniques, which are rarely seen on ordinary days, are present right here in the War God Temple in a total of four instances."
"Your esteemed academy's Radiant Seven Stars possess two, and coincidentally, these seven War Gods of our War God Temple also possess two."
"However, although there are four martial soul fusion techniques in total, purely in terms of martial soul compatibility, if the information provided by your esteemed academy is accurate, the Snow Soul Immortal in the Moon of these two female students can be described as leading by a generational gap."
"Among the remaining three martial soul fusion techniques, the martial soul compatibilities should be roughly on par with one another."
This final sentence was actually a polite understatement on Guan Yue's part.
The martial soul fusion technique shared by Long Tianwu and Su Mengjun—the Heavenly Dance Mengjun Emperor Divine Sword—was an existence capable of forcing even their Temple Master, Limitless Douluo Chen Xinjie, to temper his edge.
Although the martial soul compatibility of this married couple had not reached ninety percent, it was extremely close to that figure, standing as high as eighty-five percent.
Had Su Mengjun's soul power rank not dragged Long Tianwu down, the Heavenly Dance Mengjun Emperor Divine Sword would have been far more than just something requiring their Temple Master to temper his edge.
Facing this blatant hint from the War God Temple, Kong Yunhua did not feel any dissatisfaction.
Shrek was, at its core, still an academy, making it a peer, rival, and mortal enemy to his Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy.
The War God Temple was different, however. It belonged to the category of top-tier enterprises that students joined upon entering society after graduation, and it was even a state-owned enterprise.
The welfare was favorable, the compensation was high, it provided insurance, and its social status was lofty.
Furthermore, Xu Zhao had already firmly bound himself to their Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy; joining the War God Temple in the future and rising to its upper echelons would only bring advantages to their academy without a single drawback.
In Kong Yunhua's view, it would be best if Xu Zhao could eventually succeed Chen Xinjie as the Master of the War God Temple, completely leaning the War God Temple toward the side of their Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy.
In fact, Xu Zhao himself harbored plans to join the War God Temple and eventually succeed Chen Xinjie as the Temple Master.
Beyond that, he also had his sights set on the position of the Commander of the Central Legion currently held by Yu Guanzhi.
The headquarters of the War God Temple was located right within the military base of the Central Legion, making exchanges between the two factions convenient and future power grabs equally convenient.
Among the nine legions of the Federation:
The Blood God Legion was a legion established specifically to resist the invasion of the Abyss plane, operating independently from the Federation's conventional legion system and answering directly to the War God Temple.
The eight conventional legions comprised:
The Central Legion, the Northwest Legion, and the Western Legion, collectively known as the three major army legions.
The Sea God Legion, the East Sea Legion, and the North Sea Legion, collectively known as the three major naval fleets.
The remaining two legions:
The Northern Legion guarded the Extreme North; due to its remote geographical location and the absence of any targets requiring defense, its combat strength ranked at the bottom of the eight legions.
The Southern Legion was the only one among the eight legions directly subordinate to a clan, with the orders of the Angel Family superseding those of the Federation.
Consequently, the Federation provided minimal resource support to this legion, relying mostly on subsidies from the Angel Family, placing its combat strength second to last among the eight legions.
Therefore, the combat strength ranking of the eight legions stood as follows:
Central Legion > Sea God Legion > Western Legion > Northwest Legion > East Sea Legion > North Sea Legion > Southern Legion > Northern Legion.
Historically, every Master of the War God Temple would concurrently hold the position of Commander of one of the major legions, excluding the Southern Legion.
Just as Chen Xinjie served simultaneously as the Master of the War God Temple and the Commander of the Sea God Legion.
Books had also mentioned that the Commander of the Western Legion, Fierce Wolf Douluo Dong Zian, was hailed as Chen Xinjie's successor and would later enter the War God Temple to hold a concurrent position, succeeding Chen Xinjie as the Master of the War God Temple.
Although the position of War God Temple Master was ultimately assumed by Vice Temple Master Guan Yue, that was simply because Dong Zian possessed a beast martial soul and had no blood ties to Tang Wulin, the protagonist.
In common parlance, Dong Zian lacked nepotistic connections, so no lucrative opportunities ever fell his way.
The Master of the War God Temple not only governed the entire War God Temple but also inherently claimed the commandership of one of the seven major legions, and could even bypass the Federal Council to issue commands directly to the Blood God Legion.
Such immense power was precisely one of the primary reasons why Xu Zhao desired to eventually succeed Chen Xinjie and become the Master of the War God Temple.
As for the Federal Council, although it was nominally the highest authority in the Douluo Federation, Xu Zhao had never entertained any thoughts of joining it.
Even though Douluo Continent had been dubbed a "sewer" or "floor tile" in his past life, it was still a world possessing extraordinary powers and cultivation systems.
Residing in such a world, having a sufficiently hard fist was the ultimate truth.
Possessing formidable talent, yet failing to cultivate properly or develop one's influence, and instead engaging in the petty bureaucratic backstabbing characteristic of a mortal realm within a supernatural world—was that not sheer comedy?
Yet, the Federal Council was indeed the nominal highest authority, making it both important and not quite important enough to personally enter.
Therefore, he only needed to ensure that there were individuals within the Federal Council who stood on his side.
As for joining it himself, he would gladly pass!