The Pinnacle of Wits

Mu En: ???

What the hell? You're trying to borrow a chicken to lay eggs?

My Shrek Academy got its start borrowing chickens to lay eggs, and you think we'll let you borrow ours with that rotten idea?

Mu En seemed amiable on the surface, but he was no pushover either. He immediately taught Zhang Lexuan how to reply.

[Little Noble: That's true enough. But the problem is, not just anyone can get into Shrek Academy.]

[Little Noble: Not only do you need a letter of recommendation from a main city, you also have to break through to rank fifteen before the age of twelve.]

[Little Noble: I think the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy would be a better place for Huo Yuhao to develop.]

[Little Noble: After all, it's far from Tang God King's tentacles, which makes it Huo Yuhao's natural ally. I've heard its admissions requirements for Martial Soul talent aren't high. With Huo Yuhao's talent for making Soul Tools, he's sure to stand out.]

When Huo Yun'er heard that, she thought the Little Noble was right.

Shrek might be Sea God Tang San's lackey, but the Sun Moon Empire, which was by nature on the opposite side from the Douluo Continent, could never be Tang San's lackey!

[Soul Engineer: Eh~ That's not quite right. If he leaves Tang God King's sight, Tang God King might personally step onto the field!]

Huo Yun'er: The Soul Engineer is right!

[Little Noble: But Shrek's admissions rules are right there. We can't very well tell Shrek he's the Child of Luck, can we?]

Huo Yun'er: That's right. What if they don't believe him?

[Soul Engineer: Just keep moving forward. I reckon Tang God King will arrange the reasons and coincidences.]

Once the Soul Engineer called out Great Buddha Ancestor Tang, he ended the match on the spot.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

Shen Yichen lay on his bed, laughing until his belly hurt.

This was the entertainment he had been looking for.

The way he had written the diary, Huo Yuhao was practically a plague god now.

Did they want the Child of Luck? Yes!

But they might live long enough to take him in, only to lose their lives afterward.

Even so, Huo Yuhao couldn't be allowed to come to Shrek Academy!

It wasn't that Shen Yichen was afraid of the Child of Luck or Sea God Tang San. He was simply curious: if Huo Yuhao started on a different map, what would he grow into?

[Little Noble: I still think we shouldn't go along with Tang God King's wishes too readily. The more the enemy opposes something, the more it proves I'm doing the right thing. The Sun Moon Empire might be the real way out.]

After that bout of arguing, the backgrounds of the people involved were more or less clear.

A Soul Engineer from the Sun Moon Empire, a minor noble from the Douluo Three Kingdoms, or even Shrek, and Huo Yun'er.

The situation had changed so quickly that, in the blink of an eye, the one whose identity and background were best hidden was actually the most outspoken of them all, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven.

[Cloud: True. Following the path the Sea God laid out is like a bug caught in a spiderweb...]

Seeing Huo Yun'er begin to waver again, Jing Hongchen played his second trump card.

[Soul Engineer: Sigh, but the Sun Moon Empire and the Star Luo Empire are enemies. Someday, Huo Yuhao might have to fight the White Tiger Duke to the death on the battlefield, father and son turning on each other. Sigh...]

Once that card was played, even Mu En was out of options.

What could he do?

The man had brought up father and son turning on each other. If that "Cloud" was Huo Yun'er, there was no way she would take Huo Yuhao to the Sun Moon Empire!

An open scheme, an appeal to emotion. There was no counter.

Sure enough, Huo Yun'er's tone instantly became resolute.

[Cloud: True, we can't go to the Sun Moon Empire.]

Shen Yichen's little face went stern, and he clicked his tongue disdainfully.

This was why he felt nothing for Huo Yun'er. She should never have had the means to sit at the table in the first place; it was only the diary copy that had let her hitch a ride.

People like her were quick to switch sides and raise their own flag.

Still...

Shen Yichen smacked his lips. From the looks of it, Huo Yun'er didn't seem like a silly, sweet innocent either.

She had all but single-handedly stirred up the conflict between the Little Noble and the Soul Engineer.

Huo Yun'er had been completely in the dark about the world of Soul Masters and understood nothing, yet she had gotten the information she wanted from their clash.

She was indeed a maid capable of climbing into her master's bed...

People always said Huo Yuhao had talked about avenging his mother every day when he was down and out, only to change his name to Dai Yuhao and "return to his ancestral roots" after becoming a god, making him heartless.

But... what if you looked at it from another angle?

The corners of Shen Yichen's mouth curled up. When reading the book, it had been like looking at flowers through a mist. But in reality, if you took away the protagonist filter and applied a different template...

A domineering CEO, Dai Hao, had a marriage of business convenience with his wife. The live-in nanny seduced the CEO. Men, well, those who knew, knew.

The CEO couldn't keep his lower half in check. Given that social setting, it was no big deal; he tipped her a little and treated it as a night of passion.

But the nanny secretly got pregnant and gave birth to the child. She said it was for love, but whether it was love or not, who could sort that out?

One thing was certain, though: the illegitimate child was there for a share of the family fortune.

The wife couldn't do a thing about it, because in that social setting, even an illegitimate child could claim a share of the fortune as long as he had the right bloodline.

There isn't even enough of this fortune to divide between my own two sons, and now this illegitimate child wants to come and take a couple of bites too.

Who wouldn't feel resentful in her place?

What legitimate wife could see her husband's mistress and resist giving her a piece of her mind?

I've cursed you out so thoroughly, and you still cling on and refuse to leave. You say it's for love?

If the White Tiger Duke's Wife had wanted to imprison Huo Yun'er and Huo Yuhao, there was no way Huo Yuhao could have secretly slipped out of the White Tiger Duke's Mansion at ten years old!

That made it clear: I just want to drive you away, not kill you.

After all, in that setting, if a legitimate wife wanted to kill a mistress whose illegitimate child didn't have a White Tiger Martial Soul, she wouldn't face any punishment at all. Why would she have dragged it out for three or four years?

Whether it really was for love or because she had seen Dai Luoli's Mother made a Secondary Consort with her own eyes, the mistress had stubbornly clung on and refused to leave.

As a child, Huo Yuhao must have seen his mother through a filter that made her image infinitely beautiful.

Once he grew up, he gradually came to see many things in a different light. Especially after Huo Yuhao himself abandoned his son and Ju Zi. Well, now he could sympathize with his own father even more...

Besides, the duke's wife was dead, one of her two children had died and the other had been crippled, and his mother had even been brought back to life.

What kind of script was that? Look at it from another angle, and wasn't it the script of a petty villain getting his way? The mistress and the illegitimate child had won so hard.

If he didn't change his surname back to "Dai," how could he prove just how hard he had won?

So... Huo Yun'er was no pushover either. She was ruthless!

In a novel for female readers, she might even have been able to use her Qi Refining cultivation to drive a Mahayana-stage senior sister to her death.

Scary, scary.

After reflecting for a while, Shen Yichen prepared to join their conversation.

Let Huo Yuhao come to Shrek? No!

Huo Yuhao go to the Sun Moon Empire? Huo Yun'er wouldn't agree!

In that case, eh? I've got a plan!

[Great Sage Equal to Heaven: When I was reading in the library before, I came across a sect called the Body Sect.]

[Great Sage Equal to Heaven: The continent all but takes it for granted that the Body Sect is the greatest sect under heaven. It's fiercely protective of its own, only accepts disciples with Body Martial Souls, and regards Soul Masters with Body Martial Souls as one family.]

[Great Sage Equal to Heaven: If you ask me, the Body Sect is a better fit for Huo Yuhao than Shrek.]

Shrek and the Sun Moon Empire weren't the only two choices. If A wouldn't do and B wouldn't do, they could go to C instead~

Isn't that right, Body Sect?