Chapter 20: Control

Heavenly Soul Royal Hotel.

Looking at the grand building in front of her, Tang Ya's expression grew increasingly tense.

"Anyone capable of setting the meeting here at this time must hold a significant position in the royal family, right?"

Due to the upcoming Soul Master Competition, all participating teams from various academies would be staying here, so the hotel had already cleared out unrelated guests several days in advance. Being able to arrange a room for a meeting at this time certainly indicated the importance they placed on it.

"Doesn't that just show that they value our things very much?"

Huo Yuhao tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Let's go. I'll be watching, just follow my lead and be a bit bolder."

After Tang Ya took a step forward, he fell half a step behind and followed her into the hotel.

As soon as they entered, a pretty maid, dressed rather lightly, approached them with a smile, inquiring about Tang Ya, who was walking ahead.

"Hello, may I ask what brings you here?"

"I have an appointment, room 207."

Whether it was Huo Yuhao's earlier words that had an effect or not, Tang Ya's demeanor changed after entering the hotel, as she gave a faint nod to the maid.

"Are you Miss Tang Ya? Please follow me."

The maid had evidently received prior notification, promptly bowing, and then led the two to room 207.

Knock, knock, knock—

"Come in."

A calm voice came from inside. The maid opened the door and gestured for them to enter.

Upon stepping inside, Huo Yuhao discovered that it was a suite. In the living room sat three people: a middle-aged man sitting alone on a couch, his arms crossed and eyes closed in meditation. His robust figure and the extremely restrained soul power fluctuations made Huo Yuhao's eyes flash. He guessed the man's identity and was somewhat surprised.

Currently, there were no ninth-level soul masters in the Douluo Three Kingdoms, including Shrek Academy. The man in front of him, already at the Title Douluo realm, was likely the only eighth-level half soul master of the Heavenly Soul Empire.

As for how Huo Yuhao could guess this, it was because the man resembled Qian Duoduo and Fan Yu in build.

To be honest, Huo Yuhao found this quite puzzling. This seemed to be a common trait among top soul masters who did not belong to the Sun Moon Empire. This kind of muscle mass was clearly beyond that of most soul masters who fought using their martial souls. Did these people lift their own crafted soul devices as a workout every day?

The remaining two in the room were both women. One appeared to be around thirty, an attractive matron, while next to her sat a cool-looking girl with a ponytail, who looked a bit younger than Tang Ya.

Huo Yuhao recognized her immediately; it was Mu Xue, with whom he had dealt a few times in his past life. As for the other princess, Weina, she was likely in the body sect by now.

"Let me introduce myself; I am Vileina. Please, both of you, have a seat."

The beautiful matron speaking was clearly the one in charge of this meeting. Given her surname, Vileina, she was probably one of the current emperor's sisters. She gestured to the empty couch opposite them, and after both of them sat down, she began the conversation.

"Miss Tang Ya, we have tested the samples you provided, and the results are indeed quite good."

From the way she addressed Tang Ya, it was clear that she did not look down on her because of her young age, showing the importance placed on this collaboration.

"One reason for inviting you here is that I personally admire your sect very much, but due to being overwhelmed with work, I haven't had the chance to engage in discussions."

Listening to Vileina's smooth talk, Tang Ya subconsciously tightened her grip, while Huo Yuhao felt a wave of speechlessness. This was the reason he didn't want to deal with royal family members; when you're of no use, they wouldn't even bother if you were exterminated. Yet, once they saw potential benefits, they began to act all formal.

After a long preamble, Vileina finally got down to business. Her beautiful eyes locked onto Tang Ya as she gently asked, "From what I know about your sect, your main business should be hidden weapons. May I ask where this soul device came from?"

"I never expected that Princess would be so interested in the origins of our soul device. If it were produced in the Sun Moon Empire, would the princess not consider collaborating?"

In response, Tang Ya didn't rush to answer but jokingly retorted.

Vileina smiled faintly, "That's not the case. Your soul devices are made exceptionally well. Our intention for collaboration is quite high. I'm just curious about its origins, hoping to befriend the creator. If it's inconvenient, then it's fine."

"Well, it's nothing much. During Tang Sect's decline, we did some research on soul devices, trying to make some changes. These soul devices were purchased from various channels back then. However, now we have reached a point where we must sell them, so we don't know much about the creator."

You're lying through your teeth.

Vileina almost couldn't keep the smile on her face. The signs of production were clearly brand new; did they really think they could hide the truth due to the age of the devices?

Moreover, why didn't they present these things earlier? Why wait until they were exterminated?

It should be noted that this matter had directly alarmed the strongest soul master in the empire just a few days ago. After examining the soul device, he concluded that the creator's level was definitely not low. Although they were all low-level soul devices, the techniques used were so intricate that even he couldn't comprehend them.

Unfortunately, the soul device had a self-destruct mechanism, and after being opened, it had already become unusable. The wreckage still lay in their royal academy's soul device research room.

Finding nothing useful, this strongest soul master in the empire simply sought her out, saying he wanted to participate in today's discussion.

Perhaps that creator would come along with Tang Ya?

Thinking of this, her gaze instinctively fell on Huo Yuhao, but the next second, she was amused by her own thoughts.

What am I thinking? How could a child possibly be the creator? Hahaha.

However, since Tang Ya had said so, she didn't expose the lie. From the other party's reaction, she could confirm that this device was not made by Tang Sect, which was enough.

After all, at this point, anyone still helping Tang Sect, besides a certain academy that had connections dating back a thousand years, could it be anyone else?

With this thought, her idea of controlling Tang Ya also vanished, as it was clear these two weren't the creators of the soul devices. If she really did something to them, it wouldn't only be ineffective, but it might also provoke the forces behind them.

Seeing the change in the other party's gaze, Huo Yuhao knew his objective had been achieved.

Just as he had told Tang Ya before entering the hotel, they only needed to tell one blatant lie, and the other party would start to imagine they had powerful backers.

As for whether they would cooperate?

If they didn't, what if the others found someone else?

The other side didn't know that similar discussions were probably taking place simultaneously in the meeting rooms of Xing Luo and Dou Ling. Not wanting to be outdone, they would definitely choose to purchase a batch and start looking for opportunities to dismantle and learn from the techniques.

Of course, whether they could learn anything from the self-destruct mechanisms designed by Huo Yuhao would depend on luck.

Moments later, Vileina's voice rang out again, just as Huo Yuhao had anticipated.

"Since that's the case, let's talk about the specifics of our collaboration."

(End of Chapter)