Benevolence Hall; it was a name that was ordinary as ordinary could be. The red cross symbol on the sign indicated that this was a medicine shop, and this was a medium-sized shop that wasn"t too small, nor particularly large.
Everything about the shop was completely mundane and unremarkable. Tang Wulin entered through the door, and there weren"t many customers inside. There were also only three or four staff members, and the rows of shelves were filled with all types of common medicines.
Tang Wulin walked through the aisles between the shelves and quickly chose a few types of medicine before making his way over to the counter.
The employee standing behind the counter glanced at the medicinal ingredients that had been placed before him, and his expression immediately changed slightly. He looked up at Tang Wulin in a slightly surprised manner, and said, "Sir, the medicines you"re purchasing aren"t concurrent with any condition! Are you sure this is what you want?"
Tang Wulin smiled, and said, "I"m not buying these medicines to treat any conditions; I"m just purchasing them for consumption."
The employee hurriedly said, "All medicines are poison to a certain extent; how can you treat them as food?"
Tang Wulin replied, "It"s alright, I have a good appet.i.te."
The employee nodded, and said, "Alright, please come with me; our on-site doctor will be able to provide you with better advice."
The conversation between the two of them seemed to be rather farcical, but it was actually a string of secret signals. The sequence had commenced as soon as Tang Wulin had carried those specific medicines to the counter.
Tang Wulin followed the employee through a door, and the employee remained completely silent as he led Tang Wulin to the second floor. There was an elevator on the second floor, and the elevator only had two b.u.t.tons, one for the second floor, and one for the third floor. However, the employee ignored the b.u.t.tons and began to tap against the metal wall on one side of the elevator. After several dozens of rhythmic taps, an option for the negative second floor appeared on the electronic screen.
The elevator descended before the door opened, and the employee made an inviting hand gesture toward Tang Wulin before walking out of the elevator first.
Even though they were currently situated two floors underground, the lighting here was still very bright, and after pa.s.sing through a pa.s.sageway, they arrived at a s.p.a.cious underground room.
There were many people busy at work in this room, and they seemed to be putting some things together. With Tang Wulin"s eyesight, he was immediately able to tell that the things they were putting together were all related to mecha parts. Furthermore, they were all parts for high-grade mechas, as well as some core equipment.
He didn"t ask any questions and continued to maintain his silence. He was led to another room by the employee, and there was a middle-aged man sitting in the room who was just as mundane-looking as Tang Wulin in his disguised form.
"The first generation of the Tang Sect had seven monsters; which monster are you?"
Tang Wulin smiled and pulled out an item before handing it over to the middle-aged man. "I am the third one."
The first generation of Shrek"s Seven Monsters had founded the Tang Sect, but the main founder wasn"t the eldest one among Shrek"s Seven Monsters at the time. Instead, it was the third-oldest monster, Tang San.
Prior to his departure from the Blood G.o.d Legion base, Heartless Douluo Cao Dezhi had given Tang Wulin some things, all of which could be used the Tang Sect"s secret bases that were littered throughout the continent. Each base had a different set of secret signals, and none of the bases knew of the existence of the other secret bases. Only the truly high-ranking members of the Tang Sect were aware of the locations of these secret bases.
The token that Tang Wulin was currently offering belonged to the Douluo Palace. It was a rhomboid badge that wasn"t very large, and the words "Tang San" were engraved on one side, while the words "Tang Sect" were engraved on the other side.
Tang Sect, Tang San!
For some reason, Tang Wulin was always struck by a peculiar feeling at the sight of this name, as if this name was somehow extremely closely connected to him.
The middle-aged man accepted the badge, and he only took a single glance at it before immediately rising to his feet with a surprised expression. He then hurriedly strode over to a device before inserting the badge into it.
A light screen quickly appeared, upon which the image of a longsword was being depicted. Engraved on the sword were the words "the heartless one denies his innermost feelings, but he was once a man who was filled with pa.s.sion".
The text on the longsword then flashed seven times in quick succession on the light screen.
"Seven flashes indicates a presence equivalent to that of the palace master himself!"
After extricating the badge from the device, the middle-aged man"s expression had completely changed as he turned to Tang Wulin in a respectful manner. "Ji Qi, the manager of the Tang Sect"s Bright City branch, pays his respects to the esteemed envoy."
The badge that Cao Dezhi had given him was a Douluo Palace badge of the highest level, and with this badge, he had the right to draw upon all of the Tang Sect"s resources. Even this manager was only seeing a badge of this level for the first time.
Ever since the Tang Sect headquarters had been destroyed by that G.o.dslayer soul missile, the Tang Sect had always kept a low profile, all of its major branches had withdrawn significantly. Even so, they were still being severely oppressed from all sides.
As such, the arrival of Tang Wulin with the highest level Douluo Palace badge immediately struck this branch manager with a sense of elation.
Tang Wulin appraised the man standing before him to find that he was quite tall and broad with fair skin and a slightly chubby figure. He wore a bashful smile on his face and appeared to be completely harmless.
Tang Wulin accepted the badge, and asked, "There"s no need for such formalities; I"m just here to learn about the current situation in Bright City, especially after the parliamentary reform. Do you have a detailed list of names of all of the new parliamentary members?"
"I do, please give me a moment." Ji Qi did things very quickly, and soon, a list of names was being offered to Tang Wulin.
"The federal parliament makes decisions on all matters across the entire federation, and the president is the one who holds the highest level of political power in the federation, but even the president is restricted by the entire federal parliament. On the surface, this looks like a very fair system of power, but in reality, the federation is very corrupt, and many of the parliamentary seats are occupied by the various major powers. Ever since the continent was united around 10,000 years ago and was renamed to become the Douluo Federation, the federal parliament system was adopted, and in the beginning, it really did help the federation develop at a phenomenal rate.
"However, as time pa.s.sed and exchanges of benefits took place between all sides, all of the major powers began to infiltrate the parliament, and what was formerly a fair and open system gradually took a more sinister turn. As things currently stand, the referendum no longer holds any sway over the final decisions made by the federal parliament, and all decisions are made based on whichever power holds the most parliamentary seats. Following the Shrek City bombing, the federation was dealt an extremely heavy blow, and the parliament was temporarily abolished, while the president at the time abdicated himself. "This provided an opportunity for all of the major powers to completely transform the power balance within the parliament, and over two-thirds of the current parliamentary members were recently newly elected."
Tang Wulin interjected, "Brother Ji, I"m not particularly familiar with the structure of the federal parliament; can you provide me with a more detailed explanation, including the differences between the parliamentary factions?"
Ji Qi nodded, and continued, "There are a total of 231 seats in the federal parliament, which equates to 231 parliamentary members. This number was decided on after many alterations were made, and each and every one of the parliamentary members were elected by different areas. The larger cities naturally had more members, while the smaller cities received less representation. These 231 parliamentary members comprised the entire federal parliament, and 42 presidium members are chosen among them to make decisions on daily federal affairs. It can be said that these 42 presidium members comprise the standing committee. The presidium includes a president, as well as 15 vice-presidents and 26 members. This presidium holds the most power of any organization in the entire federation."
Tang Wulin was rather surprised to hear this. "There are that many vice-presidents?"
Ji Qi nodded in response. "The large number of vice-presidents is necessary in order to balance all of the major powers. Super organizations like the Spirit PaG.o.da and Battle G.o.d Hall each have a permanent vice-president berth, as do our Tang Sect and Shrek Academy. However, Shrek Academy relinquished this berth around 6,000 years ago and chose to continue to uphold absolute neutrality. As for our Tang Sect"s berth, it has been revoked during this parliamentary reform."
A slightly indignant expression appeared on Ji Qi"s face as he mentioned the unjust treatment directed toward the Tang Sect.
In summary, the 231 parliamentary members, which included 42 presidium members, comprised the core of the entire federation. Tang Wulin committed all of this information to memory.