Shao Zhuang Looted

"A legendary divine beast becomes a martial soul, and an Ultimate Martial Soul at that—just how terrifying would its potential and strength be?"

Originally planning to offer a ten-thousand-year soul bone as a meeting gift, Yan Shaozhe, after seeing from the Heavenly Curtain what Shao Zhuang's true martial soul was, decided to select a soul bone of higher age and one more suited to the Bi An Martial Soul.

A ten-thousand-year soul bone, even if only ten thousand years old, was naturally priceless.

After all, there were even unfortunate Titled Douluo in this world who went their entire lives without a single soul bone.

Yan Shaozhe offering a ten-thousand-year soul bone as a meeting gift before even meeting him was based on the Heavenly Curtain's prophecy from his teacher about Shao Zhuang's future achievements.

He thought it would be more than enough, but now it seemed it was still a bit inadequate.

Who could blame him when Shao Zhuang's martial soul was the legendary divine beast Bi An?

Among divine beasts, there were also hierarchies.

The legendary Bi An, as the Son of the Dragon God, was undoubtedly one of the top-tier divine beasts.

Take Shrek Academy's Xuan Zi, for example—his martial soul wasn't even the true Son of the Dragon God, Taotie, yet with just a partial bloodline, it was already one of the most top-tier beast martial souls in the world, allowing him to become a Level 98 Super Douluo.

And now, a soul master with the true Son of the Dragon God martial soul had appeared, so Yan Shaozhe naturally had to treat him with utmost solemnity.

Moreover, this child had ultimately become his teacher's Last Disciple, making him Yan Shaozhe's own Junior Disciple Brother.

Since they were all family now, what more was there to say?

'But why would he take a liking to soul tools? Shouldn't a soul master focus on cultivation instead of dabbling in those external paths? That's putting the cart before the horse.'

Yet when Yan Shaozhe saw Shao Zhuang learning soul tool crafting, and later even being snatched away by Xian Lin'er and the others, he couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

In his view, Shao Zhuang concentrating on martial soul cultivation was the proper path.

Anything like learning soul tool crafting or using soul tools was just wasting his talent.

In truth, Yan Shaozhe wasn't alone in this thinking; many of Shrek Academy's Elders shared the same view.

Within Shrek Academy, it wasn't unusual for the Soul Tool Department to be undervalued.

In the Soul Tool Department, those with true talent and a passion for soul tools were ultimately in the minority.

The vast majority dabbled in it on the side, rarely dedicating themselves fully to the path of soul tools;

or else, their talent as soul masters wasn't outstanding enough, so they chose soul tools to bolster themselves.

Some even joined the Soul Tool Department because they couldn't become Core Disciples of the Martial Soul Department, so they aimed for the Core Disciple status in the Soul Tool Department instead, securing decent cultivation resources that way.

This was also evident from the fact that the Soul Tool Department recruited students starting from the third grade of the Martial Soul Department and above.

If they truly valued the Soul Tool Department, they should recruit from the first grade onward;

instead, they let the Martial Soul Department pick most of the good seedlings first before the Soul Tool Department got its turn.

This was one of Shrek Academy's flaws.

Having thrived for ten thousand years under the banner of nurturing the continent's finest soul masters.

Over four thousand years ago, they even organized the forces of the Original Three Kingdoms of Douluo Continent to defeat the Sun Moon Empire.

Add to that the fact that soul masters were a profession where power resided within oneself, and the strength of top-tier soul masters could shift the entire course of battle.

So it was only natural that within Shrek Academy, the Soul Tool Department was undervalued.

In the eyes of some old fossils, focusing on cultivating one's martial soul was more than enough.

Learning soul tools was just a waste of time.

Blind adherence to ten thousand years of glory, confidence in the might of soul masters, and disdain for soul tools—this combination had created the current situation.

Mu En, as one of the few clear-headed individuals in Shrek Academy, later came to understand that developing Soul Tool Technology was an inevitable trend.

Thus, he began to support Xian Lin'er, Qian Duoduo, and their Soul Tool Department.

But the problem was that Shrek Academy was a ship too large to turn around easily.

Attitudes toward soul tools couldn't change overnight.

And most critically, Mu En's time was running out, leaving him unable to enact any forceful reforms.

"But it doesn't matter—I have plenty of ways to make my Junior Disciple Brother change his mind and devote himself wholeheartedly to martial soul cultivation."

Putting away the selected soul bone, Yan Shaozhe prepared to go meet his future Junior Disciple Brother.

Meanwhile, in the Soul Tool Department.

"Old Qian, come with me to the teacher's place."

Soul Tool Department Dean Xian Lin'er, watching the content on the Heavenly Curtain, had a glint in her eyes.

Since the teacher had agreed in the future to let the Junior Disciple Brother hold a concurrent position as a Core Disciple of the Soul Tool Department, they had to secure this in advance now.

The plan their Soul Tool Department wanted to execute required a truly top-tier soul master genius.

The students they picked from the Martial Soul Department every year were far from the cream of the crop and simply lacked the potential to participate in that plan.

Now that a glimmer of opportunity had appeared, the Soul Tool Department had to seize it firmly.

Especially since, from what the Heavenly Curtain had revealed, that child had actively taken the initiative to learn soul tools.

As long as that bastard Yan Shaozhe didn't interfere, the chances of success were still quite high!

That was why she didn't go directly to see Shao Zhuang, but instead went to her teacher first to get support.

"Wait for me, Lin'er." Watching the brisk and decisive Lin'er, Qian Duoduo quickly followed after her.

'My Last Disciple, huh.'

On the third floor of the Sea God Pavilion, Mu En watched the content on the Heavenly Curtain, always feeling a sense of novelty.

Seeing events one would personally experience in the future was still very interesting for the person involved—a unique kind of experience.

Knowing that the child Shao Zhuang would be taken in as his Last Disciple, and that he had even been taught 'Reign Over the World' in advance, Mu En's eyes held only relief.

Since he had been able to teach it ahead of time, even if Shao Zhuang couldn't succeed in one go, the mere fact of receiving early instruction was enough to prove his comprehension and talent.

Knowing that everything he had learned in his life would have a successor and would not be lost, Mu En was naturally very pleased.

For the appearance of such an unprecedented genius, while Shrek Academy was overjoyed, other forces were deeply troubled.

"Good, good~" From the information revealed by the Heavenly Curtain, Mu En was very satisfied with the Last Disciple he would take in the future.

It seemed he would inject new vitality into Shrek Academy.

Sun Moon Empire, Mingde Hall.

Jing Hongchen watched the exposure on the Heavenly Curtain and sighed:

"In terms of Soul Master development, our Sun Moon Empire is still far behind. Why do such geniuses rarely appear within our borders?"

Although the Sun Moon Empire revered Soul Tools and developed them very well, they were considerably weaker in the aspect of Soul Masters.

In the cultivation of Martial Souls, they were accustomed to consuming pills that damaged their foundations, overusing medicine to force growth, thereby harming their own potential.

Coupled with a lack of deeper research into the path of Soul Masters and Martial Souls, they were short on truly top-tier experts.

Wasn't it precisely because of their overwhelming number of top-tier experts that Shrek Academy had led the original Douluo Three Kingdoms to defeat the Sun Moon Empire back then?

Unfortunately, research and development into Martial Souls was not something that could be accomplished overnight, and the overall quantity and quality of Soul Masters in the Sun Moon Empire were far inferior.

"If our Sun Moon Empire could also cultivate a Limit Douluo of our own..." This fantasy had barely surfaced before Jing Hongchen cast it aside.

No other reason—the difficulty was far too great!!

Thus, this aspect inevitably became a fatal flaw of the Sun Moon Empire.

In a sense, the Sun Moon Empire and Shrek Academy were truly two extremes.

One focused on Soul Tools, neglecting and falling behind in Martial Soul cultivation;

The other focused on Martial Souls, looking down on Soul Tool technology.

But the difference was that Shrek had truly reached the pinnacle of Martial Soul development.

Aside from having the Limit Douluo Dragon God Mu En as their pillar, they also boasted a luxurious lineup of Titled Douluo.

The existence of these people was the foundation for some of Shrek Academy's old-timers to look down on Soul Tool technology.

After all, the Sun Moon Empire's level of Soul Tools was still unable to threaten true top-tier experts.