Having fully regained his senses, Tang Wulin noticed the divine decree Tang San had sent him. A bitter smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
"Eliminate the Tian Xing Federation as quickly as possible and seize all the soul-guided data Ye Wen left behind, huh?
Father has truly given me a daunting task."
At this moment, blinded by greed, Tang San failed to realize that the technology for Douluo Continent's four-character Battle Armor was something he himself had reverse-engineered. The more advanced technologies were even less likely to fall into the hands of ordinary members of the Tian Xing Federation. These secrets were most likely in the possession of Ye Wen's direct disciples.
To obtain these technologies meant Tang Wulin would have to go head-to-head with Huo Yu'er and the others.
Though the conflict between them had already reached a point of no return, Tang Wulin had little confidence in extracting such classified information from these heaven-blessed prodigies while keeping them alive. Killing might be his forte, but he wasn't an intelligence minister.
Moreover—
Tang Wulin glanced up at the sky. By now, there was a high probability that the entire God Realm had taken notice of this place.
Although Tang San hadn't informed Tang Wulin about how his ascension to godhood relied on covert operations orchestrated by others to secure his ultimate victory—
Tang Wulin was no longer the naive child who could be easily manipulated by Tang San.
Though Tang Wulin's plan to revive the Tang Sect had failed, the cutthroat scheming and machinations he experienced in the business world had matured his thinking significantly.
Though Tang Wulin still respected Tang San, he now understood that Tang San's past victories over the Asura God and Angel God were only possible because those Tier-1 gods lacked powerful backers and hadn't drawn widespread attention from the God Realm.
But now, with Ye Wen having escaped directly to the God Realm, it was bound to attract the attention of many gods toward the Douluo Continent. After all, this continent had now produced a genius capable of creating his own divine position, as well as a group of seven individuals inheriting the divine positions of a powerful Tier-1 godly group from the God Realm.
Tang Wulin had subtly sensed this before, but now it was clear—Tang San was no longer as carefree and commanding as he had been over a decade ago. Whether issuing orders or providing resources, he seemed increasingly constrained.
In summary, Tang Wulin now believed that Tang San was likely being restricted.
Without this once-mighty pillar of support, Tang Wulin instinctively began to feel uneasy. His bitterness deepened, and his smile turned even more sour.
When viewed this way, wasn't he just a clown relying on others?
Resentment swirled in his heart but quickly dissipated. Tang Wulin's gaze gradually hardened.
"Soul-guided knowledge can wait for now—I refuse to believe it.
I have eight gods on my side, each elevated to the upper ranks of Divine Officials through immense divine power and further empowered by their divine armors. Each of us is now seasoned Tier-2 gods.
On their side, even if they've ascended, there are only seven of them.
Ye Wen, just you wait. I'll prove it to you—I, Tang Wulin, am not a failure!"
After gathering his thoughts, Tang Wulin pulled himself up from the ground.
Ye Wen's parting blow had indeed been devastating. Though it hadn't placed Tang Wulin and the others at the explosion's epicenter, it had left all eight of them in a wretched state. Tang Wulin's once-majestic Sea God armor was now riddled with cracks of varying sizes, looking as though it might shatter at any moment.
Fortunately, like Tang San, Tang Wulin inherited the vast faith accumulated by the Sea God position. The divine armor rapidly repaired itself under the influence of divine power, the universal energy source.
After healing about eighty percent of his injuries, Tang Wulin began attending to the matter at hand—searching for his companions.
However, the fact that Tang Wulin didn't immediately prioritize rescuing his allies revealed their relatively low standing in his mind—even Da Ming and Er Ming, whom he had called "father" for decades, were no exception.
Under Tang Wulin's powerful divine awareness, the other seven were located one by one.
It was fortunate for everyone that those closest to the explosion were Tang Wulin, followed by Da Ming, Er Ming, and Xuan Zi.
Er Ming and Xuan Zi's martial souls were naturally tough, so there was no need to dwell on their resilience. Da Ming, having inherited the essence of the Eight-Forked Serpent, possessed hyper-regenerative abilities, allowing him to recover quickly.
The others, however, fared worse.
The Speed God and Butterfly God had the weakest defenses. When found, their bones had been shattered entirely. If not for their divine positions holding firm, they would have fallen from godhood, reverted to mortals, and died completely.
The Tiger God, whose martial soul was inherently strong, had only suffered significant damage to his divine armor and a few broken bones. With some divine power, he could recover without major issues.
Ma Xiaotao, having received Ma Hongjun's full teachings, awakened the strongest talent of the Phoenix God—rebirth. Her injuries were healing rapidly, and if Tang Wulin had been even slightly slower in finding her, she would have fully recovered.
Looking at his severely injured subordinates, Tang Wulin furrowed his brow.
Coming here full of confidence to eliminate Ye Wen, only to nearly be defeated themselves—it was enough to make anyone frustrated.
However, fortunately, there were no casualties. Tang Wulin decided to get to work.
Of course, he wasn't following Tang San's instructions to seize soul-guided knowledge. Instead, Tang Wulin planned to exploit the gap while Huo Yu'er and the others hadn't completed their divine trials to seize large swathes of territory on the Douluo Continent.
Why do this? Because running a household teaches one the value of every grain of rice!
As the final self-created divine position to emerge on the Douluo Continent, the Sea God position had a profound influence on the land, accumulating vast amounts of faith energy since ancient times.
This faith energy not only made the Sea God Trident a coveted super-artifact on par with Poseidon's arsenal but also allowed the wasteful Tang San to rely on this massive reservoir of faith to ascend to the God King realm using the Asura God position.
Yes, that's right—despite his brilliance, Tang San hadn't further developed the Sea God position. It remained a Tier-1 divine position.
After all, with the broad path offered by the Asura God position, why bother complicating things?
With these two voracious consumers of faith energy, despite the vast reserves accumulated by the Sea God position over the years, the amount passed down to Tang Wulin was disappointingly small.
And this meager amount had to be shared among his subordinates, leaving Tang Wulin deeply frustrated.
So, taking advantage of Huo Yu'er and the others' absence, Tang Wulin intended to replenish his resources.
While he was at it, he'd also exact revenge for Ye Wen's humiliation!
As Da Ming and the others began to recover, they listened to Tang Wulin's battle plans. Tang Wulin first assigned each of them specific regions to conquer, ensuring they could swiftly seize control of the Tian Xing Federation's territories.
Then, he outlined the factions they would target, planning to capture large numbers of hostages to use as bargaining chips against Huo Yu'er and her group.
This… was utterly despicable!
But Tang Wulin justified his actions using the Tang family's double standards of righteousness.
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