First Encounter with Shrek Academy

Early in the morning, Duanyu Fan and the other three began making their way through Star Dou Forest.

Star Dou Forest had all kinds of soul beasts. It was the place on Douluo Continent where the most soul beasts gathered; whatever type of soul beast you wanted, you could find it here.

But accordingly, Star Dou Forest covered a vast area. Finding a soul beast suited to you would also take quite a bit of time. With good luck, it might take a day or two; with bad luck, ten days to half a month was possible.

"Play is play, messing around is messing around, but once we enter Star Dou Forest, stay completely alert and act carefully. There are all kinds of elusive soul beasts. If you get careless and ambushed, it could cost you your life." Xie Yue had already taken out his spirit, Moon Blade—two Moon Blade Spirits—and warned the three of them.

This was a tool-spirit soul master! Once summoned and held in the hand, it basically did not consume much Soul Power.

"Mm! The biggest thing is being targeted and followed by soul masters, then getting finished off when you're weak. So here, besides guarding against soul beasts, we also have to keep an eye out at all times for whether anyone is following us," Duanyu Fan added.

Hu Liena, Xie Yue, and Yan took positions in a triangular formation, with Duanyu Fan standing in the middle of the triangle.

Xie Yue was in front, Yan was on the left, and Hu Liena was on the right, each about five meters apart. Once their positions were arranged, they officially stepped into Star Dou Forest.

On this trip, Xie Yue, Yan, and Hu Liena were to obtain their Fourth Soul Rings. On the way here, they had already more or less locked onto the types of soul beasts they wanted.

Xie Yue planned to obtain a powerful single-target attack soul skill, so he had locked onto soul beasts with extremely strong attack power, such as Adamantine Wolves and the Saber-Toothed Tiger type.

As for Yan, he could only target fire-attribute soul beasts, preferably a rarer, powerful fire-attribute soul beast.

Hu Liena's attack methods still mainly revolved around charm, so her targets were soul beasts that enhanced mental strength or specialized in mental attacks. Soul beasts of this type were the rarest.

Because Bibi Dong's requirement for the three of them was that their targets could not be below the seven-thousand-year level, the group advanced rapidly, heading in a deeper direction.

Soul beasts all had territorial awareness. The deeper one went into Star Dou Forest, the older the soul beasts became. The outer area only had some ten-year or roughly hundred-year-level beasts, so naturally Duanyu Fan and the others had no need to linger on the outskirts.

After advancing for about an hour, the figures of soul beasts around them became fewer and fewer, but their ages grew higher.

"Stop! We're just about there. Let's slow down." Xie Yue led the way in front, observed the situation, and had Duanyu Fan and the other two slow down.

Although they had only been inside for an hour, the group had been running and advancing at high speed, so they had probably already covered more than ten kilometers.

"To the right. Movement. It seems to be people," Duanyu Fan warned.

Why was Duanyu Fan the one warning the three of them? Because Duanyu Fan had eaten the Immortal Herb Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, his mental strength was two realms higher than Xie Yue and the others'. Only Hu Liena's mental strength might be infinitely close to the Soul King level.

"Should we go take a look?" Hu Liena said.

"Better to avoid trouble when we can. There's no need. Let's keep looking for our own soul beasts," Yan disagreed.

"Uh! They're coming over." Duanyu Fan sensed four auras heading toward their side.

"Watch and wait. Move closer together," Xie Yue said, coming within one meter of Duanyu Fan. Yan and Hu Liena also quickly drew closer.

"It's them!" It turned out to be the strange group they had met once last night.

"What a coincidence! We meet again. Why don't I see your teachers? Did they just let a few of you come obtain your Third Soul Rings?" Fat Boy's dean, a bespectacled middle-aged man, had already brought the others and appeared before Duanyu Fan.

"Haha! It's you. The academy wanted us to train on our own, so no teacher came with us. I just happened to reach rank twenty, and the three older ones need to obtain their Third Soul Rings," Duanyu Fan said casually with a friendly smile.

"You do have talent. You should only be eight years old, right? As for those three, I'd say they're around thirteen. For children with such talent, how could they let only the few of you come to Star Dou Forest? The surrounding area is full of Thousand-Year Soul Beasts." Fat Boy's dean smiled faintly, clearly having an opinion about their teachers.

"That's why it's called training. If a teacher led us, how would it still count as training?" Duanyu Fan still replied casually.

"Good! You've got guts! Which academy are you from? Do you want to come to my academy? You barely count as meeting the admission requirements. Otherwise, with just the few of you, how could you hunt thousand-year-level soul beasts?" Fat Boy's dean actually opened his mouth to recruit Duanyu Fan and the others.

"We're from Canghui Academy. I wonder which academy you're from, uncle? With my rank-twenty Soul Power at eight years old, I only barely meet the admission requirements?" Duanyu Fan forced back his laughter when he heard Fat Boy's dean's words and asked curiously.

"Canghui Academy? I know it. It's not much. Our academy claims to only accept monster geniuses. It's called Shrek Academy, and I am this academy's dean, Flender. At present, we only have the two students you see, but our academy has two Soul Saints and three Soul Emperors. How about it? Compared with your Canghui Academy, our teaching strength is about the same, right?"

Fat Boy's dean was actually Shrek's dean. Duanyu Fan had still been wondering why he looked so familiar. Then the burly man behind him, who was not very tall, had to be Zhao Wuji. Could these two children be Oscar and Ma Hongjun?

"Shrek Academy? And only two students? Uh, Dean, forgive my ignorance, but I've never heard of it," Duanyu Fan said speechlessly.

"Hey, friend, our Shrek only accepts monsters, so that's why we only have two students. My name is Oscar. I'm nine this year, and I just obtained my second soul ring. I'm already a rank-twenty-one Soul Grandmaster," Oscar, with the curly hair behind them, called out.

"Pfft! Sorry, I couldn't hold it in." Hu Liena could not help laughing out loud. Seeing Duanyu Fan and her brother look over, she then stopped laughing again.

"Little brother is so amazing. A nine-year-old rank-twenty-one Soul Grandmaster," Hu Liena said to Oscar, her entire person becoming alluring.

"Ah! So beautiful, so pretty!" Oscar and Fat Boy cried out at the same time.

"Mm! What powerful charm arts," the burly man beside Oscar and Fat Boy said.

That was right. Hu Liena had revealed a small portion of her Charm Power.

"Wake up!" Seeing that Oscar and Fat Boy still had not snapped out of it and had even started drooling, the burly man Zhao Wuji could only wake the two of them.

After waking up, the two hid behind Zhao Wuji with lingering fear.

"How embarrassing!" Zhao Wuji could not help saying to the two behind him.

"Uncle, it looks like the two monsters you mentioned aren't much after all," Hu Liena said softly.

"Demon Fox! What are you saying? You're a few years older than the two of them, so it's normal for them to be a little worse than you. I'm sorry, Dean of Shrek. My junior schoolmate is a little mischievous." Xie Yue hurriedly took over and explained to Flender.

"Why do I feel like you're toying with me?" Flender's face darkened as he stared at Duanyu Fan and the other three.

At the same time, Soul Power surged from his body as he prepared to pressure the four of them with his aura. However, Flender's body paused slightly, and he withdrew his aura.

"Since you are unwilling to join my Shrek Academy, then we will take our leave first. Zhao Wuji, let's go." Flender called Zhao Wuji and the two students, then headed toward the outer area of Star Dou Forest.

"How strange, just like before," Hu Liena said, saying exactly the same thing again.

"Let's go too. Don't mind them. Finding your soul rings is what matters," Duanyu Fan said, and the four of them continued maintaining their formation as they ventured deeper into the forest.

"Boss Flender, why did you stop? They were clearly toying with us," Zhao Wuji asked Flender in confusion.

"When I was about to pressure those children, I was locked onto by an overwhelmingly powerful aura, at least above rank eighty-five Soul Douluo," Flender said gravely, speaking of the aura he had just sensed.

"No wonder. I knew it was impossible for a few children to be allowed into Star Dou Forest for no reason. Could it be Canghui Academy's dean?" Zhao Wuji suddenly understood.

"I don't know. Never mind. We've finished what we came to do, so let's return to the academy," Flender said, then walked straight toward the outer area.

If there are typos, or missing words, please point them out.

Thank you, everyone, for the tickets.