Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Ji Qi continued to speak, “Meanwhile, the Federal Parliament is mainly divided into two sides, the Hawk Faction and the Dove Faction, and also a fixed Independent faction. However, the Independent Faction has a relatively lower headcount with just over twenty people, so it doesn’t have much say in many of the critical affairs. Then when Shrek Academy withdrew from it, the Independent Faction was without a leader and its influence became even weaker.”
“The so-called Hawk Faction’s style of governance is relatively radical and forceful. The faction advocates war as its foreign policy. On the other hand, the Dove Faction is the direct opposite. The Dove Faction’s governance style is conservative and gentle. The faction prioritizes peace overall and doesn’t advocate for war. It’s even maintained a rather resistant attitude toward some of the military’s research and development. The Dove Faction has always assumed that too much research into soul weapons will certainly result in accelerating the depletion of the continent’s resources and detrimental to mankind’s development. However, the Dove Faction advocates for research and development in space exploration to look for new environments suitable for our living condition in outer space. On this, the Hawk Faction is also supportive because they think that the Federation should possess even more powerful armed forces so they can colonize when they explore extraterrestrially. This is because no one knows if any other life forms exist in outer space. How can we protect ourselves without powerful abilities?”
“Both factions have their respective justifications. Thus, each of these factions has its batch of loyal supporters.”
Tang Wulin had an expression of deep thought. “Let me guess. The Spirit Pagoda is a strong supporter of the Hawk Faction? On the other hand, our Shrek Academy and Tang Sect are more supportive of the Dove Faction?”
Ji Qi nodded. “True enough. During the earlier periods, our Tang Sect and Shrek Academy had always been supporters of the Dove Faction. Even though the academy withdrew from the parliament, its students were still spread out all over the world, after all. It wasn’t just on the Dove Faction’s side, there were even some key players in the Hawk Faction that originated from our academy. This is also the reason why the academy remained neutral. On the Hawk Faction’s side, the most direct supporters are the Spirit Pagoda and the Battle God Hall. They are considered the main pillar of the Hawk Faction. Even so, most of the public leans toward the Dove Faction, fearing the continent’s resources would be depleted before the time due to war. Thus, the Dove Faction dominated the parliament most of the time, until this incident happened.”
“The great explosion of two Godkiller-rank fixed soul ammunitions has changed the status quo. The Dove Faction had been about to strengthen its position over the Hawk Faction. Then the attack caused the destruction of Shrek Academy, and our Tang Sect suffered severely as well. The Hawk Faction took the offensive and led public opinion with the great of the Holy Spirit Cult and managed to get the upper hand. After the reelection, the Hawk Faction occupied over one hundred and ten seats in the parliament. The Hawk Faction gained such absolute dominance that even the majority of the Independent Faction was on the Hawk Faction’s side. It’s become very difficult for the Dove Faction to have any influence over the political situation now.”
Tang Wulin’s mind was running at high speed after listening to Ji Qi’s explanation. One could infer a lot about the political situation in the Federal Parliament one could tell just by hearing his words.
Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect were struck with catastrophe, so it was the Federation’s Hawk Faction that made the most gains, without a doubt. Meanwhile, the Spirit Pagoda and the War God Hall were the supporters behind the Hawk Faction. Even though there was no solid evidence that could prove that they were related to the Holy Spirit Cult, the turn of events had genuinely been beneficial for them. Moreover, even if they were not involved, should their possible connivance be disregarded?
The Spirit Pagoda’s headquarters and Shrek City were located just a stone’s throw away. Relatively speaking, the Spirit Pagoda’s influence over the continent had even exceeded the Tang Sect’s. At the time, why were Shrek City and the Spirit Pagoda not the chosen as targets of the two Godkiller-ranked fixed soul ammunitions? Had that been the case, the resulting impact on the continent would have been even greater.
Thus, it was utterly impossible not to suspect the Spirit Pagoda. Tang Wulin squinted his eyes as the aura radiating from his entire body was undergoing a transformation.
“The name list is here. Those in blue represent the Dove Faction, red represents the Hawk Faction and white is the Independent Faction.” Ji Qi pushed a stack of name lists right in front of Tang Wulin’s face.
Just by judging at the colors on the surface, Tang Wulin could see that the Hawk Faction’s numbers were overwhelming. The Hawk Faction alone had over fifty percent of the seats.
“It seems like there’s not much difference? The Dove Faction has over eighty seats as well. If they manage to win over the Independent Faction…,” said Tang Wulin.
“That’s not the case.” Ji Qi hastily spoke, “We can’t judge the parliamentary seats on numbers alone. In reality, the final election for the Dove Faction and the Hawk Faction is still dependant on the public’s support in order to determine the leadership for the next five years. In the history of the parliament, such a huge disparity has rarely been seen. Besides the Hawk Faction being in power at present, it has also determined that Dove Faction will not make significant gains for a very long period of time. The Hawk Faction is very cunning. Even though they’ve always supported a war, they stand by the slogan of keeping the fighting outside of our territory. At the same time, they’ve also expressed their willingness to ensure the safety of our soldiers to the best of their abilities. Also, the Holy Spirit Cult’s few attempted attacks in recent years have resulted in high fatalities for our citizens. In reality, the Hawk Faction has an approval rating of sixty-five percent and this is unprecedented in our history.”
Tang Wulin nodded. “I see.” As he was speaking, he read the name list in his hand.
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Most of the names on the name list were unfamiliar to him. Occasionally, he would find some rather familiar names like Yue Zhengyu’s grandfather, the army’s big brother that represented the Southern Army Corps. Surprisingly, he was a member of the Hawk Faction. Moreover, he was a bureau member but not a deputy speaker. No one from the Blood God Army held a post in the parliament and this was perhaps due to the Blood God Army being relatively independent.
The names that Tang Wulin was familiar with from the Tang Sect did not appear even once on the members of the parliament name list. It was simply as if they were completely swept clean off the list. He could tell that the parliament’s prejudice toward the Tang Sect was severe.
“It seems like the parliament dislikes us very much, huh?” said Tang Wulin in a deep voice.
Ji Qi smiled bitterly and spoke, “This has been a long-standing issue that began as early as before the founding of the Douluo Federation. In reality, our Tang Sect is standing firmly on the Star Luo Empire’s side. If not for us, the Star Luo Empire would have long since been destroyed. At the time, the almighty without equal of his time, the Holy Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao, relied on his efforts to suppress the Federation’s predecessor, the Sun Moon Empire. Only through that did he manage to sustain the Star Luo Empire. As a result, relatively speaking, our status in Star Luo has far exceeded the Spirit Pagoda over there. Of course, the Spirit Pagoda was supposedly built single-handedly by Holy Ice Douluo as well. Only that the modern Spirit Pagoda has already turned away from its original intentions and is no longer what it was when the Holy Ice Douluo founded it all those years ago.”
Tang Wulin nodded. He had visited the Star Luo Empire before, so he had a deep impression of this issue, for even the Dragon King boy was a disciple of the Tang Sect!
The Tang Sect was considered to be something like a great ancestor that founded Star Luo Empire. For that reason, the Tang Sect could still maintain its strength over there.
“Back in the beginning, when Tang Sect still had Shrek Academy’s support, there was nothing the federal government could do even if they were very dissatisfied with us. Those government officers elected by the members of parliament have always wanted to demoralize us. It is only because of the firm foundation of the academy and our headquarters being located in Shrek City that there is nothing they can do to us. I didn’t expect that they would use the Holy Spirit Cult’s attack on us this time and they pulled off such a sinister trick. Our Tang Sect is going to become an illegal organization on the continent soon.”
Tang Wulin laughed coldly. “Are they trying to remove the obstacle to clear the path to war with the Star Luo Empire? Perhaps they’re afraid that we’ll be passing messages to the Star Luo Empire.”
Ji Qi nodded. “Highly possible. Thus, our original influence over the army is being pushed away and suppressed to such severity. There are even people being persecuted. The situation is not looking good at all.”
Tang Wulin could imagine that. The issues and relationships in this were certainly complicated. However, it was apparent that this case was the result of the Tang Sect’s existence interfering with the interests of the warmongers.
The Tang Sect had always had a low profile compared to the Spirit Pagoda, so the common people were not even aware of the persecution of the Tang Sect.
As he listened to Ji Qi’s analysis, Tang Wulin continued to read the name list. He suddenly saw a very familiar name when his gaze landed on the Dove Faction’s name list.
“Huh, why is she in here?” Tang Wulin pointed a finger at a blue name, his voice filled with astonishment.
It was Mo Lan!
The name could not be any more familiar to Tang Wulin. She was the conductor of the soul train Tang Wulin boarded long ago. She did not mind sacrificing herself to protect the passengers on the train. She narrowly escaped death and it was indeed the Holy Spirit Douluo Ya Li who saved her life.
Afterward, Heaven Dou City was struck by the Holy Spirit Cult’s attack while something happened on Tang Wulin’s side as well. He attempted to contact Mo Lan, but he never managed to get through to her original contact number. He truly did not expect to see this familiar name here.
Even so, was this Mo Lan truly that Mo Lan?