Shrek Academy

Early morning.

Outside an inn in Suotuo City, Zhao Xuan walked out and lazily stretched.

"That was such a comfortable sleep."

Behind him, Tang San, Xiao Wu, and Hermione emerged in turn. All of them looked refreshed, as though they had rested well the previous night.

The rising sun had just appeared, and a thin mist still shrouded the city. Yet the streets were already bustling with traffic and crowds. Countless early-rising vendors called out from both sides of the main road, making a living for their families.

Zhao Xuan's expression suddenly shifted, and he asked slyly, "Tang San, Xiao Wu, why didn't you stay at the Rose Hotel yesterday?"

Tang San and Xiao Wu froze, followed immediately by Sister Xiao Wu's embarrassed and angry voice. "Zhao Xuan! Are you looking to die? And you clearly knew it was... that kind of hotel, so why didn't you stop us?"

Zhao Xuan curled his lip and shamelessly said, "I thought you knew."

"Hehe." Seeing Zhao Xuan's shameless look, Hermione could not help secretly laughing beside him.

As a rabbit, no one's ears were sharper than Sister Xiao Wu's. Even though Hermione was several meters away, Sister Xiao Wu still caught her laughter. "And you, you knew too, didn't you, Hermione?"

Hermione lowered her eyes and glanced obediently at Sister Xiao Wu. "I thought you knew too."

"Fine, so you two really did know! Tell me, did you join forces just to laugh at Sister Xiao Wu?" Seeing that the two gave identical answers, Sister Xiao Wu knew something fishy was going on.

Sister Xiao Wu's little face was flushed red, though it was impossible to tell whether it was from embarrassment or anger.

"Alright, alright, stop messing around. Let's hurry and register." Tang San, the male lead, finally spoke. His face was faintly red as well, and he did not dare look directly at Zhao Xuan or Hermione.

"Those two definitely have something going on, right?" Zhao Xuan, walking ahead with Xiao Wu, rubbed his chin and said to Hermione beside him.

"Anyone could tell those two have something going on." Hermione idly curled her blonde hair around her finger, rolled her eyes at Zhao Xuan, and said with amusement.

An unnamed village outside Suotuo City.

"Xiao San, did you bring us to the wrong place?" The sun hung high in the sky, and everyone was drenched in sweat. Sister Xiao Wu could not help asking.

Tang San looked around uncertainly and hesitated before saying, "It should be here."

"But does this place look like it has an academy? I really don't understand why Grandmaster sent you here." Hermione fanned herself with one hand as she complained. Xiao Wu nodded repeatedly, clearly agreeing with Hermione.

The temperature was too high, and sweat kept streaming down their bodies, making the two clean-loving girls feel especially uncomfortable.

"Let's ask the villagers. If there's a Soul Master Academy nearby, there's no way they wouldn't know." Zhao Xuan pointed toward several people at the distant village entrance.

"Alright."

As they neared the village entrance, they immediately noticed something was wrong. A table had been placed there, and an old man in his sixties sat behind it. Before him, several youths about their age stood in an orderly line with their families.

Zhao Xuan raised a brow. "I suddenly have a bad feeling about this."

Hermione tugged at his sleeve. "Look there. Your feeling was right."

Following the direction of Hermione's finger, Zhao Xuan immediately felt terrible.

Above the old man was a wooden archway with a battered signboard hanging from it. Several large characters were carved into the signboard, along with the portrait of an unbelievably ugly humanoid monster.

Because the paint had almost entirely peeled away, they had not been able to see the words on the sign from afar. But now, they could see them clearly.

"Shrek... Academy?" Xiao Wu had to put in considerable effort to make out the words.

"Xiao San, isn't this the academy Grandmaster told us to attend?" Zhao Xuan's mouth twitched. He could not shake the feeling that Grandmaster had set them up.

"Are you kidding me? This academy isn't even as good as my academy."

Hermione stared wide-eyed with her brown eyes at the shabby Shrek Academy in disbelief. Come on, it was not even a third the size of Nuoding Academy.

Tang San and the others were not the only ones filled with doubts. Even the other youths who had already arrived wore bewildered expressions.

As time passed, more and more people arrived. The crowd gradually clogged up at the village entrance, chattering noisily like a marketplace.

The old man in charge of admissions lounged lazily in his chair. Dressed plainly, he looked like a weathered old farmer. He turned a deaf ear to the crowd's discussions, seemingly dozing off.

But at a certain moment, he opened his eyes, and a sharp gleam flashed through his cloudy gaze.

"Registration begins! The registration fee is ten Gold Soul Coins. Just put the coins in the box in front of you." He still looked lazy enough to make people worry that he would fall asleep the next second.

Tang San and Zhao Xuan exchanged a glance, both seeing the hint of surprise in the other's eyes.

"This old man doesn't seem simple," Tang San said steadily.

"That's right. At the very least, he's much stronger than Hermione's grandfather. He's at least a Soul King-level expert, perhaps even a Soul Emperor." Zhao Xuan was quite curious. If this old man truly was an expert, forget a Soul Emperor—even if he were merely a Soul King, this academy should not be so rundown!

"Him, stronger than my grandfather?" Hermione was unconvinced. Could this old man, who looked like a farmer, really be stronger than her grandfather, the dean of Nuoding Academy?

Zhao Xuan laughed. "Believe it or not, with your grandfather's Soul Ancestor cultivation, I could defeat him even without using this power of mine."

Hermione wanted to refute him, but after thinking about it, she seemed unable to find an argument. After glaring at Zhao Xuan, she became somewhat sullen.

Now that registration had begun, even if there was something wrong with this academy, they had already come all this way. They had to give it a try.

So, a parent led his child forward and tossed ten Gold Soul Coins into the box before the old man.

But unexpectedly, the old man merely squeezed the youth's arm before rejecting him. "You don't meet the age requirement. You can leave."

The youth seemed at a loss and instinctively looked at his father. Then his father began his performance.

At first, he pleaded in a humble voice. But after the old man rejected him mercilessly time and again, even clay figures had some temper.

The youth's father grew furious. "You're clearly scamming people out of money. Return our registration fee, or we won't leave. If we'd known this so-called Shrek Academy was this rundown, we never would have come."

The old man glanced at him and said indifferently, "Mubai, someone wants his registration fee back. Deal with it."

A figure abruptly shot up from the ground nearby. "You want your registration fee back? Fine. Beat me, and you'll get every coin back."

Dai Mubai did not waste words. He directly activated his Soul Power and released all three of his soul rings—two hundred-year rings and one thousand-year ring. His surging Soul Power created an invisible pressure in the air as cold light flashed repeatedly through his evil eyes, fixed on the father and son.

The father and son both turned pale. In this world, soul rings were the best way to speak.

The crowd had been too packed earlier, so no one knew when Dai Mubai had arrived. But judging from the situation now, Dai Mubai was probably part of Shrek Academy.

"No wonder he said we could spar another time. He must have guessed why we came to Suotuo City." Zhao Xuan was also surprised to see Dai Mubai. It seemed this guy was not so slow-witted after all.

"That scumbag." Hermione and Xiao Wu snorted at the same time, clearly having a poor impression of Dai Mubai.

The crowd behind them could not help stirring after this scene, and someone beside them began discussing it.

"What exactly is going on with this academy? Why does it feel more like a bandits' den?"

"Yeah, what kind of academy is this shabby? Did we come to the wrong place?"

The crowd surged and discussions broke out everywhere. Soon, people began leaving with their children, clearly having formed a terrible impression after what they had just witnessed.

Seeing the crowd thinning out, the old man finally seemed unable to endure it any longer. Shrek barely recruited anyone each year. If they could not pick out another couple of little monsters from this group, the academy might not be able to continue operating.

So he impatiently rose from behind the table and said to those still lined up for registration, "If you came to register at Shrek Academy, you should first understand the rules. Coming here without understanding them is nothing more than wasting your registration fee. It's not too late to regret it now. Do you know what Shrek means in the name Shrek Academy?"

Shrek? Zhao Xuan naturally did not know, but he did remember slimes. Those little jelly-like blobs had usually been cannon fodder in beginner villages when he played games back then.

The old man said coolly, "Shrek is a kind of monster, an extremely strange existence even among Spirit Beasts. The meaning of Shrek Academy is Monster Academy. In other words, we only accept monsters here, not ordinary people. If you're over thirteen years old, or if your Soul Power has not reached level twenty-one, don't waste your time here."

"Whoa!" Zhao Xuan let out a strange exclamation.

"Xiao San, I suddenly think this academy is pretty interesting. An academy that only accepts monsters?! Its reputation is clearly much more impressive than this entrance."

Zhao Xuan looked at the old man with great interest, suddenly becoming curious about the academy.

(PS1: Regarding updates, there are generally two chapters a day. When I'm feeling lazy, there may be one chapter or none.)

(PS2: For Hermione, I'm only borrowing her appearance, not her personality. The author's writing is poor, and I can't capture the feeling from the movies, so I'll let her develop naturally.)

(PS3: Damn, I forgot. I clearly still remembered when I wrote the first note.)