With Yali's departure, the Sea God Pavilion meeting ended in discord.
Without Yali, the powerful members of the Sea God Pavilion had no idea how to negotiate with the Sun-Moon Federation.
After a long discussion, they still couldn't come up with a plan.
They simply couldn't bring themselves to lower their dignity and grovel before the Sun-Moon Federation like Yali had.
"No matter what, we must first contact Zang Xin," Yun Ming said, feeling overwhelmed. He knew that Zang Xin had disappeared after seeking trouble with Leng Yulai.
With no other options, Yun Ming secretly made his way to the Mingdu Phoenix Group, hoping to find any traces of Zang Xin in secret.
He extended his spiritual power over the entire Phoenix Group, even scanning its secret chambers—though he automatically ignored certain unsavory locations.
Yun Ming was certain that even if Zang Xin were dead, he wouldn't be hiding in such places!
From what Yun Ming knew, both Zang Xin and the Heartless Douluo, Cao Dezhi, had serious cases of mysophobia.
It was impossible for them to hide in such places.
As expected, Yun Ming searched every corner of the Phoenix Group but still couldn't find Zang Xin.
"Could it be that Zang Xin has been secretly captured by the Sun-Moon Federation?" Yun Ming speculated. After all, Zang Xin had disappeared in Mingdu, the capital of the Sun-Moon Federation, so it was highly possible that the Federation was involved.
With no other options, Yun Ming unleashed his Divine Origin Realm spiritual power for the first time and secretly investigated all the prisons where Zang Xin might be held. Yet, he still found nothing.
"Could Zang Xin have given up trying to fix this mess and gone into hiding?" Yun Ming couldn't figure it out.
Left with no other options, he returned to Shrek Academy and notified the Tang Sect elders, instructing them to gather as many Tang Sect disciples as possible at the Tang Sect headquarters in Shrek City.
At this point, all he could do was try to protect the Tang Sect disciples until Zang Xin returned.
Yun Ming was making a gamble!
He bet that even if the Sun-Moon Federation's five great military corps returned, they still wouldn't dare to take action against the Tang Sect headquarters in Shrek City.
Sure enough, for a period after that, the Sun-Moon Federation continued to denounce the Tang Sect but took no real action.
It wasn't until the Federation's five great military corps conquered the Star Luo Empire, handed it over to the Tianhu Domain, and then moved on to conquer the Dou Ling Empire—leaving behind a force to occupy Dou Ling—before finally returning to the Douluo Continent that they issued an arrest warrant for the Tang Sect.
But by then, a whole year had passed!
Yes, the Sun-Moon Federation had completely conquered the Star Luo Empire and Dou Ling Empire in just one year.
This one-year period even included the time taken for military movements.
It took the army over two months to march from the Star Luo Empire to the Dou Ling Empire, and another three months to return to the Douluo Continent.
In other words, the Sun-Moon Federation's five great military corps took roughly six months to conquer two empires.
A full year was more than enough time for the Tang Sect to prepare.
Most Tang Sect disciples had already returned to the Tang Sect headquarters in Shrek City.
Those who couldn't return for various reasons had disguised themselves and gone into hiding.
Even though the Sun-Moon Federation launched a coordinated effort between the military and police to arrest them, they only managed to capture a few scattered individuals.
Still, even this was enough to prompt Long Yeyue to call Chen Xinjie via soul communicator.
"Chen Xinjie, the Tang Sect sold weapons to the Star Luo Empire to maintain peace in the Douluo Plane. You're the real invaders here. The Tang Sect did nothing wrong. Don't say I didn't warn you—if you dare to take this too far, I won't hold back," Long Yeyue said angrily. She was furious that Chen Xinjie had been avoiding her, so she didn't bother showing him any kindness.
"Yueyue… I—!" Chen Xinjie's face darkened, wanting to explain but hesitating.
"What do you mean 'I'?" Long Yeyue asked coldly.
"Forget it, I won't argue with you. Regardless of the circumstances, the Tang Sect has already been found guilty of treason and collusion with enemy nations. Arresting Tang Sect disciples and launching an investigation was decided by the Federation's parliament—I can't change that. The best I can do is ensure that Federation military and police forces don't enter Shrek City to make arrests. As for Tang Sect disciples in other cities, if the Federation is already targeting them, there's nothing I can do," Chen Xinjie said helplessly, shaking his head.
"Hmph, you'd better stick to that!" Long Yeyue snorted coldly before cutting off the call.
"Sigh!" Chen Xinjie sighed in frustration.
He couldn't understand—he loved Long Yeyue so much, and she loved him too. So why couldn't she ever see things from his perspective?
"Report!"
Just as Chen Xinjie was feeling overwhelmed, one of his personal guards suddenly knocked on his office door.
"Enter!" Chen Xinjie rubbed his temples, already anticipating more bad news.
"General, the police just sent word that they've arrested over 4,000 Tang Sect disciples in Mingdu. They're requesting military assistance for the trials."
"How… how many?!" Chen Xinjie was so shocked that he nearly fell over.
"4,732!" the guard reported.
"4,732?!" Chen Xinjie gasped, barely able to believe it. He asked, "Didn't the Tang Sect recall most of its disciples to its headquarters in Shrek City? How could so many still be captured?"
"General, this morning, the police discovered a Tang Sect underground weapons factory in Mingdu, leading to over 3,000 arrests. In addition, they arrested over 200 Tang Sect spies within the Mingdu Spirit Pagoda, more than 300 in government institutions, over 100 in the Phoenix Group, and various others across different levels of society. The number includes both commoners and high-ranking officials. This was the report from ten minutes ago, and the number is likely still increasing. Here is the arrest report from the police," the guard said, visibly shaken and furious.
As Chen Xinjie's personal guard, he had participated in the campaign against the Star Luo Empire. He had originally thought the Tang Sect was merely guilty of treason. He never expected them to have so many spies embedded within various organizations.
What exactly was the Tang Sect planning?
Chen Xinjie took the arrest report and immediately noticed something odd. He quickly asked, "Why are all the arrests concentrated in the Royal Academy District?"
"I don't know! The police haven't given an explanation, but it seems all 4,000+ individuals were arrested in the Royal Academy District," the guard replied, frowning.
"Could it be her?" Chen Xinjie's expression grew serious.
The Sun-Moon Federation had only issued the arrest warrant for the Tang Sect a short while ago. Yet in such a short period, someone had managed to expose and eliminate all of the Tang Sect's hidden assets in an entire district.
That level of capability was enough to make Chen Xinjie tremble.
Even more frightening was the fact that this was just one district.
Mingdu had a total of 18 districts.
While not all of them were as important as the Royal Academy District, if every district had Tang Sect operatives…
My god!
How many people had the Tang Sect embedded in Mingdu?
And what about the other cities?
What exactly was the Tang Sect planning?
"Underground weapons factories might not exist in every district or city, but their spies certainly will."
Chen Xinjie wasn't the only one who received the police report—all of the Federation's high-ranking officials saw it too.
Upon reading it, they were all deeply shaken by the Tang Sect's reach.
What Chen Xinjie realized, they realized as well.
This matter was far too serious for the police to handle alone.
No wonder the police had immediately reported it to the military.
They needed military involvement in the trials.