Six Rings Against Three, the Advantage Is Mine

"Yes, Father. The Shrek Supervisory Team's missions really aren't easy to complete, especially when they involve Evil Soul Masters. So far, I've completed fewer than twenty."

Hearing his son's voice through the Soul Phone, the Soul Douluo responsible for protecting Bei Bei nodded.

"As the continent's foremost academy, Shrek does give its inner courtyard disciples some difficult supervisory missions. But you still have time. Take it slowly."

"By the way, do you have a mission right now? I've found someone suspected of being an Evil Soul Master. You can use him to clear one mission."

"An Evil Soul Master?"

"That's right. He was dressed like an ordinary commoner and looked only thirteen or fourteen. Yet he went alone into the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain his third spirit ring. Such a genius, yet he never came to study at Shrek Academy."

"Even after hunting a soul beast and taking its spirit ring, he greedily took away the soul beast's corpse, which should have been left in the Star Dou Great Forest. Yang Peng, you understand what I mean, don't you?"

"I understand, Father."

Yang Peng nodded. Thirteen or fourteen years old, dressed like a commoner yet already at level 30, not a Shrek student, and even took away a soul beast corpse that should have remained in the Star Dou Great Forest—he had precisely stepped on every one of Shrek's landmines.

He perfectly matched Shrek's actual criteria for judging Evil Soul Masters.

Shrek publicly claimed to oppose Evil Soul Masters, but the standards for what counted as an Evil Soul Master were set by Shrek itself.

Yet the rules they had established were bizarre. Someone who had never harmed another person could be labeled an Evil Soul Master merely for cultivating by absorbing soul beast blood, while Shrek's own people could slaughter huge numbers of soul beasts from a single species in a short time to create secret-method soul bones without any consequences.

Many readers who had read Douluo Continent considered this one of Tang Jia San Shao's double standards. But in truth, the essence of the matter was not really a double standard in Tang Jia San Shao's books.

Its essence was actually no different from wealthy people constantly calling on everyone to conserve water while never turning off their own taps and building vast numbers of golf courses that wasted water.

When Dragon God Douluo Mu En saw Zhang Peng, he immediately gave him a vicious beating, claiming that Zhang Peng was a half-Evil Soul Master who actually used soul beast blood as cultivation material. It was simply too evil.

Yet Mu En himself possessed three full hundred-thousand-year spirit rings and a complete set of soul bones, while Shrek Academy's cafeteria never once ran out of soul beast meat.

In terms of the number of soul beasts killed, Zhang Peng was utterly insignificant compared to Mu En's Shrek Academy. There was no comparison at all.

Mu En's behavior was like the deputy manager of a slaughterhouse accusing an ordinary person who killed many pigs of being inhumane and not understanding the preciousness of life.

This seemingly double-standard behavior was, in essence, one of the reasons Shrek had stood firm on the continent for tens of thousands of years.

No matter what slogans they shouted in public, Shrek's upper ranks knew very well what mattered most to Shrek.

Zhang Peng hunted soul beasts but did not persecute ordinary people. Under normal circumstances, that should not have been enough to label him an Evil Soul Master.

But first, he did not belong to Shrek and was a genius outside Shrek. That meant Shrek's myth of being invincible among those of the same rank could potentially be broken by Zhang Peng. If Shrek was not invincible at the same rank, how could people still believe it was the continent's foremost academy?

Second, he had killed too many soul beasts.

The number of soul beasts was ultimately limited. Every additional soul beast Zhang Peng killed meant one fewer Shrek could kill.

Shrek understood that whether it was soul beasts or anything else, the resources of this world were ultimately limited.

Zhang Peng, someone outside Shrek, had occupied a large number of soul beasts that Shrek regarded as potential Shrek resources. Following the logic that every extra bite you took might mean Shrek got one bite less, if Zhang Peng was not an Evil Soul Master, then who was?

Zhang Peng had simply never harmed anyone back then. If he had killed even one commoner, Shrek would have raised the banner of justice and executed him.

However, it was unknown whether Zhang Peng failed to understand Mu En's true intentions or simply did not want to work with Mu En after Mu En suddenly rushed over and beat him up. In any case, after taking that beating from Mu En, he did not join Shrek. Instead, he chose never to appear while Mu En was alive.

In truth, if Zhang Peng had merely said he was willing to join Shrek back then, Shrek would only have gained another Super Douluo elder named Zhang Peng.

As for Zhang Peng's previous cultivation using soul beast blood...

Soul beasts were not humans. Which soul master did not kill soul beasts? Was there a problem with Shrek elders killing a few more soul beasts to increase their strength for the stability of the soul master world?

And it was not just soul beasts. In Douluo Continent II, Ma Xiaotao and Tang Ya had killed no small number of people. In the end, did Ma Xiaotao not still become the Sea God Pavilion Master, and Tang Ya the Tang Sect Master?

Even if the people they killed while under control did not count, was Ma Xiaotao any better before she was controlled by Evil Soul Masters?

Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong had nearly died at Ma Xiaotao's hands from the very beginning. Considering that Ma Xiaotao later nearly killed Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong based on mere suspicion, it was likely not her first time indiscriminately killing innocents.

And in Douluo Three, Shrek recruited a chaotic demon king from outside and made him part of Shrek's upper ranks. Everything showed that Shrek was not being hypocritical; it simply had its own set of standards.

On Shrek's side, no matter what someone did, as long as they belonged to Shrek, they were not an Evil Soul Master.

As for those who did not belong to Shrek but occupied resources that Shrek considered its own...

If their martial soul had a dark attribute, it was perfectly normal to define it as an evil martial soul, right?

Your martial soul looked a little dark, so it was perfectly normal to suspect that you had a dark heart and were an Evil Soul Master, right?

You were so young and already so strong...

Ah, a soul master with powerful backing? Then never mind. There must have been some misunderstanding between us.

Using the criteria for judging Evil Soul Masters, Shrek could recruit or eliminate talented soul masters who were not part of Shrek and had no backing.

As long as no geniuses with suddenly mutated martial souls appeared, Shrek could keep proclaiming itself invincible among those of the same rank while monopolizing sufficient resources.

And Xiao Qiang at this moment fit Shrek's standards for judging Evil Soul Masters perfectly.

He was not from Shrek, possessed the respectable talent of becoming a Soul Elder at thirteen or fourteen, and came from an ordinary background without backing. Although Xiao Qiang's martial soul was still unknown, proving one's own innocence was difficult, while framing someone was easy.

"It's good that you understand what I mean. Go, and be careful."

"Don't worry, Father. I'm already level sixty-eight. A six-ring Soul Emperor against a three-ring Soul Elder—no matter how you calculate it, the advantage is mine."