Huo Yuhao traveled for three days before finally arriving at Xilu City, a city near the Star Dou Great Forest in the Heavenly Soul Empire.
This city has an extremely long history, being one of the first cities established when the Heavenly Dou Empire was founded.
It withstood the split of the Heavenly Dou Empire and the invasion of the Sun Moon Empire.
This was partly due to Xilu City's proximity to Shrek City.
In fact, there were many cities around the Star Dou Great Forest at the beginning.
These cities were all built to facilitate Soul Masters hunting for Soul Rings.
Countless Soul Masters and merchants flocked there, joining in the grand event.
This prosperity also boosted the economic development of the entire Heavenly Dou Plain, making Shrek City the absolute center of the continent.
However, more than two thousand years ago, the Body Sect emerged and hunted 100,000-year-old Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest.
This enraged Di Tian, triggering the first recorded super-large-scale beast tide!
Under the command of several ferocious beasts in the core circle, countless Soul Beasts indiscriminately attacked all human cities.
The Heavenly Dou Plain was the first to bear the brunt.
Countless cities near the Star Dou Great Forest perished under the onslaught of soul beasts.
Only the cities surrounding Shrek City survived.
After this catastrophe, the Heaven Dou Plain was completely pacified, its former prosperity vanished, and virtually no one dared to build cities around the Star Dou Great Forest anymore.
Currently, the urban layout of the Heaven Dou Plain is centered on Shrek City, with other cities forming a pincer movement around the Star Dou Great Forest on either side.
This ensures that if another beast tide breaks out in the future, Shrek City can prevent it from spreading beyond the Heaven Dou Plain.
It's only because Di Tian is so clueless that he can't see this is a Douluo Continent version of a blockade island chain deliberately created by a Sea God Pavilion Master.
Moreover, this blockade is constantly encroaching on the Star Dou Great Forest as Shrek City expands.
This layout also lays a solid foundation for the future construction of the Star Dou Fortress by the Spirit Pagoda.
Any spirit beast with even a modicum of intelligence would not allow this situation to occur.
They would have launched an unprecedented beast tide at all costs, not only to destroy Shrek Academy, but at least to carve a passage through the Heaven Dou Plain.
Otherwise, spirit beasts are like frogs in slowly boiling water, or withered bones in a grave.
Even if the Spirit Pagoda hadn't appeared, other organizations would have established Star Dou Fortresses in the future.
Perhaps it would be the Federation, perhaps it would be Shrek.
No one would give up the Star Dou Great Forest, this juicy piece of meat. The reason
humans are currently maintaining restraint and not showing their fangs is entirely because Di Tian is too strong, in a class of his own.
Unless the God Realm intervenes, no one can withstand Di Tian's Dragon God Claw.
Huo Yuhao entered Xilu City an hour before the city gates closed.
The gate guards here are similar to those in Xuanfeng City; they basically just glance at you a few times and let you through.
It's practically a formality.
Even the Shadow Cats weren't thoroughly checked to see if they were spirit beasts, despite Huo Yuhao's special attempt to disguise himself with his mental power.
Huo Yuhao had heard about this situation from a city gate guard at the medical clinic in Xuanfeng City. The main concern was the fear of provoking powerful Soul Masters.
These Soul Masters could kill them as easily as killing chickens.
These guards only earned five silver Soul Coins a month, which was considered high in Xuanfeng City; many places only offered one. Why risk their lives for such a small amount?
Just glancing around occasionally, doing the bare minimum, not slacking off, and firing a couple of arrows when attacked by Soul Beasts was enough to justify their empire-paid salary.
Getting them to work seriously was a different story.
Upon entering Xilu City, Huo Yuhao went straight to the bustling commercial district.
This kind of place was crowded and served as a hub for information exchange within the city.
A simple use of his spiritual power allowed him to roughly understand the city's power structure.
To Huo Yuhao's surprise, the class divide here was even greater than in Xuanfeng City!
There were three classes: commoners, Soul Masters, and nobles.
Commoners were the lowest class, while nobles and Soul Masters, although separate classes, overlapped.
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The number of nobles here was enormous, each more extravagantly dressed than the last, and each with a multitude of servants.
There weren't any truly powerful nobles to be seen; most were around the level of a Great Soul Master.
Instead, many nobles were accompanied by several slaves, forcing the surrounding commoners to bow their heads in fear.
It was as if the Celestial Dragons had come to life.
Huo Yuhao frowned. He remembered that the Heavenly Soul Empire had abolished slavery long ago.
How could it still exist here?
What was the city lord of Xilu City doing? The Heavenly Soul Empire's laws explicitly prohibited slavery.
It was supposed to be a feudal empire; how could it regress to history? It had reverted to slavery.
Huo Yuhao used his old trick again, finding the best restaurant in town, ordering several dishes, and using his mental power to gather information.
Those who could afford to eat here were either wealthy merchants, Soul Masters, or nobles.
A common characteristic of these people was that they possessed a vast amount of information.
Through their conversations, Huo Yuhao pieced together the truth about the city from their fragmented words.
Xilu City was close to Shrek City, essentially a vassal state of Shrek City.
Every year, they would offer a large number of rare treasures to Shrek City's Treasure Pavilion, including but not limited to soul bones, rare metals, rare medicinal herbs, and whale glue.
It was precisely because of this blatant flattery that Lin Huiqun, the head of the Treasure Pavilion among the Sea God Pavilion members of Shrek Academy, would visit Xilu City every year for inspection. She would also
casually inform some petty people that this place was under her protection.
Her presence allowed Xilu City to directly cling to the Sea God Pavilion's coattails.
In fact, the cities surrounding Shrek Academy all had some connection with Shrek's upper echelons.
Therefore, the Heavenly Soul Empire dared not touch these cities; in fact, the taxes from these cities went directly to Shrek City.
Because these cities nominally belonged to the Heavenly Soul Empire, a large number of Heavenly Soul Empire nobles gathered here to celebrate!
Here, these nobles could openly use slaves and run casinos, brothels, and bloody arenas.
Because the Heavenly Soul Empire dared not interfere, and Shrek, seeing their continued tribute, didn't bother to intervene,
making this a kind of lawless zone.
After gathering information and having eaten and drunk his fill, Huo Yuhao left the restaurant and searched for a place to stay on the street.
To be honest, compared to this place, Somalia was quite peaceful and prosperous. He had only
walked for a short while when he saw a group of heroes displaying their unique abilities.
First, Huo Yuhao encountered five pickpockets simultaneously. Before he could even use his telekinesis to deal with them, they started fighting amongst themselves.
Huo Yuhao couldn't resist and used his telekinesis to knock them all unconscious, then casually threw them into a ditch.
Then he saw a group of robbers using their martial souls, their faces covered with black cloth, robbing a jewelry store.
The store owner, a Soul Master, killed one of the robbers on the spot, and the rest fled, abandoning their loot.
The store owner chased them for several blocks. Next
, he saw a seemingly drunk man, his face flushed, catching stray cats and dogs on the street, then using his scissor martial soul to shave their heads bald.
The Shadow Cat was so frightened that it huddled on Huo Yuhao's shoulder, too afraid to move.
Huo Yuhao sighed helplessly, used his mental power to knock out the bald-headed genius, and casually tossed him into an alley.
Then, stroking the Shadow Cat's head, he said, "Don't be afraid, you're a hundred-year-old soul beast. An ordinary person doesn't even have soul power, what are you afraid of?"
Then, he muttered to himself, "Where did I get myself here?"
"They're like a hermit, a veritable army."
"Is this Gotham City?
(End of Chapter)
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