"The legendary Divine Beast had become a Martial Soul, and an Ultimate Martial Soul at that. Just how terrifying must that potential and strength be?"
Yan Shaozhe had originally planned to offer a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone as a meeting gift. But after seeing Shao Zhuang's true Martial Soul in the Heavenly Curtain, he decided to select a Soul Bone of even greater age, one better suited to the Bi An Martial Soul.
A Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, even one that was only ten thousand years old, was naturally priceless.
After all, there were no shortage of unlucky Titled Douluo in this world who went their entire lives without obtaining even a single Soul Bone.
Before he had even met him, Yan Shaozhe was already offering a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone as a gift, solely because of the teacher's prediction in the Heavenly Curtain regarding Shao Zhuang's future accomplishments.
He had thought that would be more than enough, but now it seemed somewhat inadequate.
After all, Shao Zhuang's Martial Soul was the legendary Divine Beast Bi An!
Even among Divine Beasts, there were ranks of superiority.
The Bi An Divine Beast, said to be a Son of the Dragon God, was undoubtedly one of the very finest among Divine Beasts.
Take Shrek Academy's Xuan Zi, for example. His Martial Soul was not even a true Son of the Dragon God, Taotie. Yet merely possessing a portion of its bloodline had made it one of the world's most powerful beast Martial Souls, allowing him to become a Level 98 Super Douluo.
And now, a Soul Master with the Martial Soul of a true Son of the Dragon God had appeared. Naturally, Yan Shaozhe had to treat him with the utmost solemnity.
What was more, that child would eventually become the teacher's Last Disciple, which meant he would be Yan Shaozhe's junior disciple brother.
They were family now, so what else was there to say?
But why did he have to like Soul Tools? Instead of properly cultivating as a Soul Master, he was tinkering with those side paths. Wasn't that putting the cart before the horse?
When Yan Shaozhe saw Shao Zhuang studying Soul Tool Crafting and later being forcibly roped in by Lin'er and the others, he could not help but feel a headache coming on.
In his view, Shao Zhuang's proper path was to focus on cultivating his Martial Soul.
Learning Soul Tool Crafting or Soul Tool operation was simply wasting that talent of his.
In truth, Yan Shaozhe was far from the only one who thought this way. Many Elders within Shrek Academy shared the same opinion.
Within Shrek Academy, it was hardly unusual for people not to value the Soul Tool Department.
In the Soul Tool Department, those who truly possessed talent and passion for Soul Tools were ultimately a minority.
The overwhelming majority merely trained in it on the side, and few devoted themselves entirely to the path of Soul Tools;
or they lacked exceptional talent as Soul Masters and thus chose Soul Tools to strengthen themselves.
Some even joined the Soul Tool Department because they could not become Core Disciples of the Martial Soul Department. They were after the status of Soul Tool Department Core Disciples, which also granted them excellent cultivation resources.
This could also be seen in how the Soul Tool Department only recruited students from the Martial Soul Department's third year and above.
If they truly valued the Soul Tool Department, they should have begun recruiting students from the first year onward;
rather than waiting until the Martial Soul Department had selected most of the promising seedlings before it was finally the Soul Tool Department's turn.
This was also one of Shrek Academy's flaws.
Under the banner of cultivating the continent's finest Martial Souls, it had prospered for a full ten thousand years.
More than four thousand years ago, it had even led the people of the Original Three Kingdoms of Douluo Continent to defeat the Sun Moon Empire.
Moreover, Soul Masters were inherently a profession where power belonged to the individual, and the strength of top-tier Soul Masters was enough to change the course of an entire battle.
Thus, it was perfectly normal for Shrek Academy to neglect the Soul Tool Department.
In the eyes of some old fossils, cultivating one's Martial Soul properly was enough.
Studying Soul Tools was simply a waste of time.
Blind faith in ten thousand years of glory, confidence in the overwhelming power of Soul Masters, and disdain for Soul Tools... these were what had created this situation.
As one of the few clear-minded people in Shrek Academy, Mu En naturally understood later on that the development of Soul Tool Technology was an inevitable trend.
That was why he began supporting Xian Lin'er, Qian Duoduo, and their Soul Tool Department.
But Shrek Academy was too large a ship. It was not easy to turn around.
Its attitude toward Soul Tools could never change overnight.
More importantly, Mu En had very little time left and simply could not carry out any forceful reforms.
"But it's all right. I have plenty of ways to make my junior disciple brother change his mind and devote himself wholeheartedly to Martial Soul cultivation."
After putting away the Soul Bone he had selected, Yan Shaozhe prepared to meet his future junior disciple brother.
Meanwhile, in the Soul Tool Department.
"Old Qian, come with me to see the teacher."
Xian Lin'er, the dean of the Soul Tool Department, looked at the contents of the Heavenly Curtain, her eyes lighting up.
Since the teacher had agreed in the future to let her junior disciple brother serve concurrently as a Core Disciple of the Soul Tool Department, they had to secure him in advance.
The plan their Soul Tool Department wished to implement required a truly top-tier Soul Master genius.
The students selected from the Martial Soul Department each year could not be considered the very best. They simply did not have the potential to participate in that plan.
Now that a glimmer of opportunity had appeared, the Soul Tool Department had to seize it tightly.
Especially since the Heavenly Curtain revealed that the child had taken the initiative to study Soul Tools.
As long as Yan Shaozhe did not interfere, their chances of success were still quite high!
That was why she did not go directly to see Shao Zhuang. Instead, she first went to seek the teacher's support.
"Wait for me, Lin'er." Seeing how decisively Lin'er moved, Qian Duoduo hurried after her.
My Last Disciple?
On the third floor of Sea God Pavilion, Mu En watched the contents of the Heavenly Curtain with a constant sense of novelty.
Watching events he would personally experience in the future was very interesting for the person involved, a rather unique sort of experience.
Upon learning that he would take Shao Zhuang as his Last Disciple and even teach him Reign Over the World in advance, Mu En's eyes held nothing but gratification.
If he had been willing to teach it in advance, then even if Shao Zhuang could not master it in one go, the very fact that he was taught ahead of time was enough to prove his talent for comprehension.
Knowing that his life's learning would have a successor and would not be lost, Mu En was naturally delighted.
While Shrek Academy was overjoyed by the emergence of such an unprecedented genius, other factions were terribly troubled.
"Good, good indeed~" Based on the information revealed by the Heavenly Curtain, Mu En was extremely satisfied with the Last Disciple he would take in the future.
Presumably, he would also inject new vitality into Shrek Academy.
Sun Moon Empire, Mingde Hall.
Jing Hongchen watched the Heavenly Curtain's revelations and sighed.
"When it comes to the development of Soul Masters, our Sun Moon Empire is still far weaker. Why do such geniuses so rarely appear within our Sun Moon Empire?"
Although the Sun Moon Empire revered Soul Tools and had developed them exceptionally well, it was much weaker in terms of Soul Masters.
When it came to Martial Soul cultivation, they were even accustomed to consuming pills that damaged their foundations, excessively using medicine to force rapid growth and thus harming their own potential.
Furthermore, they had not conducted more refined research into the path of Soul Masters and Martial Souls, leaving them lacking in truly top-tier experts.
Wasn't that precisely why Shrek Academy had been able to lead the Original Three Kingdoms of Douluo Continent to defeat the Sun Moon Empire back then? They simply had too many top-tier experts.
Unfortunately, the research and development of Martial Souls was not something that could be achieved overnight. On top of that, the overall number and quality of the Sun Moon Empire's Soul Masters were considerably weaker.
If our Sun Moon Empire could also cultivate a Limit Douluo of our own... The instant this fantasy surfaced, Jing Hongchen cast it aside.
There was no other reason. The difficulty was simply far too great!
Thus, this inevitably became a fatal weakness of the Sun Moon Empire.
In a sense, the Sun Moon Empire and Shrek Academy were truly two extremes.
One specialized in Soul Tools, neglecting and falling behind in Martial Soul cultivation;
the other specialized in Martial Souls and looked down upon Soul Tool Technology.
The difference was that Shrek had truly reached the pinnacle of Martial Soul development.
Not only did it have the Limit Douluo Mu En, the Dragon God, holding the fort, it also possessed a lavish lineup of Titled Douluo.
The existence of these people was precisely what gave some of Shrek Academy's old fossils the confidence to look down on Soul Tool Technology.
After all, the Sun Moon Empire's Soul Tools had yet to reach a level where they could threaten truly top-tier experts.
Before you continue