Compared to Li Yun, Tang Wulin knew more about Hu Jie as the Amorous Douuo had given him a very detailed introduction of this man.

Hu Jie was a rank 98 Hyper Douluo, and his powers and cultivation rank were below only the Heartless Douluo and the Amorous Douluo in the entire Tang Sect. The most remarkable thing about him was his martial soul; he also possessed a body martial soul, and he was actually Body Sect Master Mu Ye's uncle-teacher.

There was quite a complicated story detailing how he had left the Body Sect and joined the Tang Sect. To summarize, he left due to the pain of an unrequited love.

In his younger days, Hu Jie had had a crush on Mu Ye's mother. At the time, he was the most exceptional disciple of the Body Sect, but due to his martial soul, he developed a physical appearance that made him very unpopular with the opposite sex. In the end, his crush failed to bear fruit, and Mu Ye's mother, who was the last Body Sect Master before Mu Ye, married Hu Jie's Junior Disciple Brother, a Body Sect disciple who was far less talented than him. Hu Jie's heart was broken, and he left the Body Sect in a fit of rage before joining the Tang Sect.

Due to this incident, the Body Sect and Tang Sect had engaged in a huge conflict. Hu Jie had expressed his feelings toward Mu Ye's mother in person, and stated that he wouldn't ever meet anyone from the Body Sect again, but nor would he see the Body Sect as his enemy.

After that, he voluntarily asked to be deployed to the Star Luo Empire. With his extraordinary aptitude and powers, he finally became the supervisor of the Tang Sect's Star Luo Continent branches. In the Tang Sect, he ranked above Li Yun, and below only the two Limit Douluos. Hence, Tang Wulin was being very respectful toward him.

On top of that, from the perspective of the Body Sect, Hu Jie was technically Tang Wulin's granduncle-teacher.

The Amorous Douluo's appraisal for this Smiling Douluo had been very simple: he had a cold heart behind his benevolent smiling face. Under his leadership, the Tang Sect's Star Luo Empire branches had further elevated its status, and the Spirit Pagoda had been crushed firmly beneath the Tang Sect here.

Hu Jie was also the deputy hall master of the Star Luo Empire's Holy Hall, which placed him below only En Ci, the principal of Monster Academy.

Hu Jie chuckled, "There's no need to be so polite and formal, Sect Master. Age doesn't necessarily determine one's achievements; the two palace masters chose you to inherit the role of Tang Sect Master, and I'm sure they had their reasons. Now that I'm meeting you in person, I think I understand their decision. Don't pay these two any heed; they don't know anything."

He pointed to Hua Lantang and Ye Zhi as he spoke.

Tang Wulin's heart stirred slightly upon hearing this. Just as Hu Jie had managed to glean his level of spiritual power, Tang Wulin had discovered that this Smiling Douluo was also at the Spirit Domain realm. However, he seemed to still be a sliver away from attaining a spiritual domain, which was the exact same situation that Tang Wulin had been in prior to embarking on this journey.

As someone with Spirit Domain realm spiritual power himself, Hu Jie was naturally able to sense Tang Wulin's spiritual power, which was of a higher level than his own.

"You're far too kind, Hall Master. Now then, shall we set off?"

Hu Jie smiled, and said, "Of course. Please follow me."

He turned and made his way toward a forest as he spoke.

At this point, Ye Zhi and Hua Lantang had already arrived in front of Tang Wulin and the others, and their eyes were still filled with shock and befuddlement.

Ye Zhi couldn't help but want to ask more questions, but the more steadfast Hua Lantang placed a hand on her shoulder and gently shook his head. Even Hall Master Hu had acknowledged Tang Wulin's status, which meant that he really was the Tang Sect Master. In that case, even though they had been making rapid improvements here in the Star Luo Empire, there was still an insurmountable gap between them and Tang Wulin.

In their recollection, Tang Wulin had disappeared for a very long time after Shrek’s Seven Monsters had come to the Star Luo Empire. After that, they didn't hear much more about him. Apparently, Long Yue had met him in Shrek Academy, but he had never disclosed exactly what had taken place there. Not long after that, they received news of the Shrek Academy bombing.

At the time, the entire Monster Academy had been in shock. Even though they had always been competing with Shrek Academy, they definitely didn't want to see the number one academy in the world be razed to the ground! The academy had been a sacred place for countless people generation after generation.

Now, they were meeting not just Tang Wulin, but the entirety of Shrek’s Seven Monsters, so there was no doubt that they had survived the attack. Furthermore, they had come here on behalf of the Tang Sect, and both Ye Zhi and Hua Lantang were reeling slightly from the information overload.

After walking into the forest, Tang Wulin could sense that there were at least several dozens of people moving quickly in the forest, spreading outward in all directions. It was quite clear that the Smiling Douluo had been quite cautious, and far more people had come to meet them than just the trio that was out in the open.

A series of soul cars were parked on the other side of the forest. However, on this occasion, the vehicles were luxury sedans rather than buses, and there was an entire motorcade parked together. Each door of every car had a silver Tang Sect symbol on its surface, and Hu Jie led Tang Wulin to the second car in the motorcade; the first car was going to be the safety car.

Everyone else was led onto the other cars by designated workers, and everything was far more organized than it had been back in the Dou Spirit Empire.

Tang Wulin and Hu Jie sat down on the backseat. Thankfully, the back row of the car was very spacious. Otherwise, Tang Wulin would've been flattened against the side of the car by Hu Jie's enormous stomach.

Hu Jie patted his own huge stomach before taking a seat beside Tang Wulin in a slightly clumsy manner. "My apologies for showing you something so unsightly, Sect Master; unfortunately, this is something that I can't control."

Tang Wulin smiled, and said, "His Majesty, the Amorous Douluo, told me that the larger your stomach is, the more powerful you are."

Hu Jie chuckled, "The Amorous Douluo is far too kind."

Tang Wulin was naturally aware that the Amorous Douluo hadn't been exaggerating as the Smiling Douluo's martial soul was none other than his stomach. That's right, not only was Hu Jie a rank 98 Hyper Douluo, he also possessed twin martial souls. If he hadn't ever left the Body Sect, he would most likely be the current sect master. If he could've come into contact with more of the congenital secret method, perhaps he would already be a Limit Douluo by now.

Even though he was only at rank 98 in soul power, he was able to oppose the average Limit Douluo. Otherwise, the Tang Sect wouldn't have made him the supervisor of all of the Tang Sect branches on this continent.

Several decades ago, when Hu Jie had still been on the Douluo Continent, he had been known as the Golden Belly Silver Backside Smiling Tiger. Of course, there were also people who tried to bring him down by calling him Smiling Pig instead. His other martial soul was his huge backside, and it created a truly unique combination with his enormous stomach.

"You've come here earlier than anticipated, so we have a lot of time on our hands. I've already organized everything in advance; once we arrive at Star Luo City, we'll be traveling to the royal palace to meet with Emperor Dai Tianling in around two days. This information is currently strictly confidential. I've heard about the situation over at the Dou Spirit Empire; I didn't think that the Spirit Pagoda would actually be colluding with the Holy Spirit Cult. I've informed the imperial family of the Star Luo Empire of this situation, but they still haven't given me a definitive response."

Tang Wulin nodded in response. "I was too rash and hot-headed back in the Dou Spirit Empire, but what's done is done; we can only make the most of the current situation. At the very least, we're going to stir up controversy in order to attack the Spirit Pagoda on all three continents. I've already convinced the Dou Spirit Empire to oppress the Spirit Pagoda on all sides, and I've also notified His Majesty, the Amorous Douluo, of the situation. At the moment, it's unclear just how much trouble this controversy will cause for the Spirit Pagoda."

Hu Jie said in a grim voice, "This is an incident that has extremely severe and broad connotations, and the Spirit Pagoda won't be that easy to attack. They're at the height of their powers right now, so they're definitely going to retaliate. It'll most likely be very difficult to create a substantial enough controversy to truly affect the Spirit Pagoda in the Douluo Federation, but we can certainly give it a try here. Unfortunately, the evidence is very limited. After the incident in the Dou Spirit Empire, I'm sure the Spirit Pagoda will eradicate the rest of the evidence and leave us with no chances."

An apologetic look appeared on Tang Wulin's face. "That was an oversight on my part; I should've searched for more evidence on the Star Luo Continent and in the federation before making that announcement."

Hu Jie chuckled, "Hehe, you didn't do anything wrong, Sect Master. Without launching that attack, we would've never discovered any evidence in the first place, and we would still be completely in the dark. Regardless of whether you had made that announcement, the Spirit Pagoda would've quickly cut their ties with the Holy Spirit Cult in the short term to erase all evidence anyway. It's already fantastic news that you managed to use that announcement to take care of the Dou Spirit Empire in such a short time. Hence, I've always been of the opinion that you did the right thing, and I would've done the same thing in your position. It's much better to be decisive than hesitant in such a situation."