Beyond the Forest Lies the Enemy

"What direction?" Chen Ming used the stars overhead to determine their position, pondered for a moment, then answered somewhat uncertainly.

"Beyond the forest lies the enemy."

Chen Ming's location was near the eastern side of the Star Dou Great Forest, while the direction Chen Li pointed toward was due west of the Star Dou Great Forest.

There stood an existence of extraordinary significance to the Dragon Elephant Sect: Shrek Academy, built upon the ruins that had once belonged to Spirit Hall. Like Spirit Hall, it had relied on the power of a god to pass down its legacy for ten thousand years, becoming an existence that stood above the Three Douluo Kingdoms.

Chen Ming knew Shrek Academy was there, but he did not understand why the Sect Master had brought it up. Nor could he figure out why Chen Li had seemed so conflicted and troubled during the day if he merely wanted to speak of their hatred toward Shrek.

"Yes, beyond the forest lies the enemy. Xiao Ming, do you know why our Dragon Elephant Sect is hostile toward Shrek, and when that hostility began?"

Though filled with doubts at the Sect Master's question, Chen Ming truthfully recounted what he knew.

"The sect's history says that our Dragon Elephant Sect is the rightful inheritor of Spirit Hall's ideals. Ever since the Angel God was framed and defeated by the evil Sea God ten thousand years ago, we have remained hostile toward Shrek Academy."

"Then, four thousand years ago, when the Sun Moon Continent collided with the Douluo Continent, our Dragon Elephant Sect believed that the Sun Moon Empire could bring new hope to the Douluo Continent, which was ruled by the Sea God and Shrek. So we joined the Sun Moon Empire and survived within its borders."

"Yes, the rightful inheritors of Spirit Hall's ideals—that is what the sect's history says..." Chen Li's gaze was complicated, and he seemed unsure how to continue. Only after Chen Ping jabbed him hard several times with his elbow did Chen Li finally force himself to calm down and continue slowly.

"Actually, the sect was not... not that righteous. We are not the true inheritors of Spirit Hall's ideals."

"Our first conflict with Shrek did occur ten thousand years ago, and there were constant frictions between us over the following thousands of years. But what truly caused our relationship with Shrek to develop into this life-or-death feud was an event four thousand years ago."

"When the Sun Moon Continent collided with the Douluo Continent?" Chen Ming asked.

"Yes, that time. But the cause of the conflict was not that our Dragon Elephant Sect defected to the Sun Moon Continent. On the contrary, the true source of the irreconcilable conflict was that our Dragon Elephant Sect had firmly stood with the Douluo Continent back then and fought against the Sun Moon Continent."

As Chen Li spoke, he heavily knocked his own head. Clearly, because of the Dragon Elephant Sect's long-standing narrative and inherited history, even Chen Li, as the current Sect Master, found it difficult to accept the true history of the past.

"Five thousand years ago, or perhaps even earlier, as the Sun Moon Continent drew closer, people from the Douluo Continent and the Sun Moon Continent had already begun interacting with one another. But because their lands did not border each other, the two sides got along fairly well. Until four thousand years ago, when the Sun Moon Continent and the Douluo Continent collided and unavoidable contact began, both sides bared their fangs."

"The Sun Moon Continent was roughly two-thirds the size of the Douluo Continent. Although its Martial Souls and Soul Beasts were of inferior quality, and the average cultivation of its Soul Masters was weaker, the Sun Moon Continent possessed a complete Soul Tool system and was internally unified. Its strength surpassed that of any one of the Three Douluo Kingdoms at the time."

"Under the Sun Moon Empire's assault, the two empires directly bordering it, Heaven Soul and Star Luo, lost vast tracts of land. Even the Dou Ling Empire, which had come to support them, was nearly crippled. Just as the Douluo Continent was on the verge of defeat, the various factions began gathering their strength for a counterattack."

"In the end, relying on the prestige it had accumulated over six thousand years, Shrek Academy, as the Alliance Leader, began summoning the powerful figures of the Douluo Continent, preparing to crush the Sun Moon Empire with the strength of Soul Masters."

"Our ancestor from that generation was among the first to answer Shrek's call."

"The remnants of Spirit Hall, who had always been excluded and persecuted by Shrek, were the first to answer Shrek's call. Doesn't that sound rather ironic? But that was the truth. The Sect Master at the time wanted to use this unprecedented upheaval to establish the Dragon Elephant Sect's name, erase the mark Spirit Hall had left upon the sect, and allow the Dragon Elephant Sect to once again appear openly on the Douluo Continent."

"At the time, the sect truly intended to abandon its past, forget Shrek's persecution and exclusion, and become an accepted part of the Douluo Continent. But... a tremendous problem arose."

"The Sect Master of that generation was the strongest in the history of our Dragon Elephant Sect. Xiao Ming, after reading the sect's records for two months, you should know about him as well—the Sect Master from four thousand years ago who possessed the Vajra Dragon Elephant Martial Soul."

"I know." Chen Ming nodded. That Sect Master from history had truly left a deep impression on him.

For no other reason than that his build was outrageously overpowered.

"The Vajra Dragon Elephant Martial Soul guaranteed Innate Full Soul Power. That Sect Master possessed a superior Martial Soul, the talent of Innate Full Soul Power, three Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones, and two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings. He was the most outstanding genius on the Douluo Continent at the time, reaching the cultivation of a Level 95 Super Douluo at the age of seventy."

"That generation's Sect Master was considered the person in our Dragon Elephant Sect's history most likely to become a Peerless Douluo. He only fell later because of Shrek's schemes and betrayal..."

"At least that part was true..." Chen Li smiled somewhat stiffly.

"That Sect Master was powerful in every respect. At the same time, because of his strength and the influence of his Martial Soul, he had an extremely forceful personality. Although Shrek took the lead at the time and gathered the continent's Titled Douluo, that generation's Sect Master wanted to compete with Shrek for the spotlight."

"The greatest problem was that he truly had the ability to compete with Shrek for control."

"The Sea God Pavilion Master of Shrek Academy at the time was merely an aged and frail Level 98 Titled Douluo. He had only one Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and no more than two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones, and he might not even have been a match for that generation's Sect Master. So, faced with that Sect Master, Shrek Academy resorted to underhanded schemes."

"They branded that generation's Sect Master a spy who had betrayed the Douluo Continent, lured him into Sea God Island within Shrek Academy, and ambushed him there. They killed that generation's Sect Master through a shameless group assault, then eliminated the powerful members of the sect who had gone with him. In the end, they even attempted to wipe out the Dragon Elephant Sect."