Chapter 275: Continental Turmoil

"Your Majesty, your reward is overly generous; I humbly thank you." Xun Yu accepted the gold and silver reward from the Tianshuang ruler.

This bit of face still had to be given to the other party.

"However, for me to accept it all, I truly feel unworthy. I only came here under the orders of the Second Princess and our Crown Prince. The greatest contributor is still the Second Princess. I only hope that Your Majesty and the Second Princess remain a loving couple, and my master, the Flying General, will surely be comforted."

Xun Yu always referred to himself as "I" (in the humble form), never as "your humble minister," making his stance very clear.

He had come as an envoy to help only under the orders of the Second Princess of their Gu Lei Kingdom; he belonged to the Gu Lei Kingdom, not the Tianshuang Principality.

If you want to bestow a heavy reward, the recipient should be their Second Princess, who is also your Queen.

This time, the Tianshuang ruler owed Nan Feilian a great favor. When his country suffered, it was thanks to his wife seeking help from her maiden family—providing money, grain, and men—that the natural disaster was quelled.

With such a great contribution, shouldn't there be a substantial reward worth mentioning?

But Nan Feilian was already the Queen; there was certainly no way to add any further titles to her, so this reward naturally should fall to her son.

The implication behind Xun Yu's words was very obvious.

The Tianshuang ruler sighed slightly; it seemed everything was completely fated, and even if he wanted to change it, he could not.

During this period, Xun Yu had been running about for the Tianshuang Principality, always under the banner of his wife, Nan Feilian.

Now, the subjects of the Tianshuang Principality all called Nan Feilian a virtuous queen of her generation.

Her prestige was so great that it was even gradually beginning to surpass him, the ruler.

If this were a normal situation, this would be a very dangerous signal; this is what is meant by "merit so great it overshadows the ruler."

But Xun Yu was not worried at all. Firstly, he himself had always been a person of the Gu Lei Kingdom; since the Tianshuang Principality was not his master, how could there be any talk of overshadowing a master?

As for Nan Feilian, the Tianshuang ruler would never move against her. For one, he truly liked her; she was beautiful, virtuous, and kind, neither fighting nor grabbing in the harem, and she managed things in perfect order. Who could not love such a woman?

Secondly, her background was too formidable.

The two Title Douluo of the Gu Lei Kingdom: the Poison Douluo is known as the best in group combat; once his deadly poison is released, so-called great armies are like a joke. His single-combat ability, which was once criticized, was now judged by everyone to be among the best in the world following his consecutive defeats of the two Douluo, Ju and Gui.

The Profound Ice Douluo is even the first person in the world to defeat the Haotian Douluo. It is rumored that in the Battle of the Valley, if not for the intervention of Ning Fengzhi and the Sword Douluo, Tang Hao would have already died by her hand.

Later, she even fought the Sword Douluo, under the amplification of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, to a near draw; the strength of her practical combat ability is truly admirable.

Not only that, she also has a younger brother, Nan Feihuang, who led the Gu Lei Royal Academy Team to break the Spirit Hall's winning streak, making the name of the Flying General world-renowned. As long as no accidents occur, he is a guaranteed future Title Douluo.

With a wife who has such a massive background, he, as the ruler, must also treat her with the utmost care.

In fact, the letter of recommendation that Nan Tianchen had asked Xun Yu to bring him originally contained similar words of warning, but at the time, the snow disaster in Tianshuang was becoming increasingly severe, and Xun Yu said he had a way to help them, so he could only treat a dead horse as if it were still alive.

Unexpectedly, this guy actually succeeded.

Since he had employed Xun Yu, it also meant he had accepted Nan Tianchen's hint.

Now, whether due to external forces or the will of the people, he could no longer afford to hesitate.

"Lian'er treats me with sincerity, and my heart is deeply comforted. Please, Master Xun, help me convey to my brother-in-law, the Flying General, that I will surely treat Lian'er well and not let her suffer any grievances," the Tianshuang ruler said calmly. "By the way, I heard that Master Xun intends to return to the Gu Lei Kingdom after resolving our country's affairs. I am truly reluctant to see you go. It just so happens that Lian'er's child will soon have his fifth birthday. I intend to confer upon him the title of Crown Prince of our country at the birthday banquet. I wonder if you would be willing to stay a few more days to celebrate my son's birthday before leaving?"

"It is exactly what I wished for, I would not dare to ask!" Xun Yu said with a smile and a bow.

This ruler was quite sensible. In this way, his purpose for coming to the Tianshuang Principality was completely achieved.

Leaving the Imperial Study, Xun Yu returned to where he was staying, and a beautiful silver-haired girl walked toward him. "A-Yu, did things go smoothly?"

Xun Yu nodded with a smile. "Of course, you still don't trust me when I handle things? By the way, Lingling, have you heard any interesting information about the continent that I asked you to look into during this time?"

While handling the mission for the Tianshuang Principality, Xun Yu had not relaxed his attention to the intelligence of the continent, striving to do his job as a strategist well.

He knew that the continent would definitely not be peaceful over these two years; after all, the events that had erupted during the Academy Tournament were simply too massive, and they had greatly led to changes in the continent's landscape.

Ye Lingling replied, "For over a year now, the continent has been strangely chaotic."

"On the Star Luo Empire side, the furious White Tiger Great Emperor, using Tang San's killing of Zhu Zhuyun as a pretext, launched a small-scale war against the Heaven Dou Empire in several border regions and ordered Heaven Dou to hand over the culprit, Tang San. But Tang San has been missing for over a year; how could Emperor Xue Ye possibly hand him over?"

"Having no other choice, he had to choose to hand over the main figures of Shrek Academy, Dean Flender and Vice Dean Zhao Wuji. After all, the Tang San of that time was competing on behalf of Shrek Academy; as deans, they naturally could not shirk the blame."

"Shrek Academy was sealed by the imperial family, and all other students and teachers were dispersed. After Flender and Zhao Wuji were captured by people sent by the Emperor, their cultivation was crippled and they were handed over to the Star Luo Empire, which counted as giving an explanation. Originally, Liu Erlong and the Grandmaster should also have been arrested, but the Thunder Douluo, Yu Yuanzhen, personally stepped forward to protect them."

"The White Tiger Great Emperor gave Yu Yuanzhen some face. By taking down Flender and Zhao Wuji, Shrek could be considered to have paid the price. He immediately sentenced the two to immediate execution. As for Tang San, he will continue to send people to hunt him down and will never let him remain at large."

I am afraid even Nan Feihuang did not expect that the once-mighty Shrek Academy from the original story would, by now, be scattered like clouds in the wind, completely disappearing into the torrent of history.

Even the dean, Flender, was treated as a discarded pawn of the Heaven Dou Empire.

"These were within my expectations. Lingling, is there anything else?" Xun Yu continued to ask. "Has anything more bizarre happened?"

Ye Lingling thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered something. "By the way, there are two things. First, half a year ago, a beast tide suddenly erupted in the Sunset Forest, raiding the border areas of Heaven Dou, Star Luo, and many kingdoms, causing tens of thousands of deaths and injuries."

"Fortunately, the Spirit Hall dispatched several Elders, plus the Bone Douluo of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, the Thunder Douluo of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family, and our Gu Lei Kingdom's Queen, the Profound Ice Douluo, all took action together to repel the Spirit Beast herd and resolve this disaster. Afterward, the Spirit Hall sent a Title Douluo deep into the forest to investigate. Although they did not obtain the exact truth, they did find some clues, which seem to be related to the mass hunting of Spirit Beasts."

(End of chapter)