Shrek Academy fell silent.
"The power to control the undead!"
The people of Shrek looked at one another. One of the senior elders blurted out, "Isn't that just an Evil Soul Master?"
As the continent's foremost academy, Shrek Academy was decisive in both its attitude and its actions when dealing with Evil Soul Masters.
The Shrek Supervisory Team was a core organization under Shrek Academy.
It was supposedly tasked with monitoring and handling vicious incidents that the nations of the continent could not or would not regulate. In reality, it had been created specifically to target Evil Soul Masters.
Every Sea God Pavilion Master also served as the head of the Shrek Supervisory Team, which showed just how much importance Shrek Academy placed on it.
Moreover, they were generally biased against Soul Masters with unusual martial souls, believing them to be potential threats.
Even Mu En had been influenced by this way of thinking.
Scorpion Tiger Douluo, one of the Holy Spirit Cult's Twelve Worships, was the best example.
Mu En had once captured him, but the evil aura of his martial soul had not been strong at the time, and he had never harmed anyone. In the end, Mu En let him go.
That was what led him to join the Holy Spirit Cult, becoming a major threat to Shrek Academy.
This was one of the few foolish things Mu En had done.
Either he should have gone all the way and killed Scorpion Tiger Douluo, or he should not have provoked him in the first place.
Incidents like this were common within the Shrek Supervisory Team.
Mu En had been relatively restrained by comparison; at the very least, he had never killed innocents indiscriminately.
The same could not be said for everyone else, especially Xuan Zi, that utterly useless disaster of a man.
Even when Mu En explicitly forbade it, they still acted that way.
In truth, they could hardly be blamed.
Most members of the Shrek Supervisory Team were inner-court students, who had to complete at least thirty supervisory missions before they could graduate.
Every Evil Soul Master was formidable in battle, and their abilities were exceedingly strange.
As students, they could easily lose their lives. How could they possibly find the time to investigate whether an Evil Soul Master had been falsely accused, or whether there were extenuating circumstances?
In most cases, once they received a mission, the team members did not think twice about it.
When all was said and done, there were serious problems with the Shrek Supervisory Team's structure and internal oversight.
Mu En was well aware of this.
But with little time left, he was powerless to reform it.
Or rather, even at the height of his strength, reform would have been difficult.
Abolishing the Shrek Supervisory Team was even more out of the question.
The team had originally been founded with the noble purpose of "eliminating Evil Soul Masters and protecting the people."
But its nature had gradually changed. It still fought Evil Soul Masters, but protecting the people was no longer its sole purpose.
By eliminating Evil Soul Masters, the team maintained Shrek Academy's positive image across the continent and established its lofty position as an institution independent of the Three Great Empires. It even interfered in other nations' internal affairs to a degree.
However, as the continent's political landscape changed, Shrek Academy eventually announced the team's dissolution, claiming that it was "only an academy and could not interfere in the affairs of the continent."
Of course, that was how things unfolded in the Original Work. Now, they would only reach that point sooner.
Neither the Federation nor the Empire—no unified power would allow an unofficial organization like the Supervisory Team to exist.
"Power itself has no good or evil. What matters is the person who uses it."
Mu En looked around at those present and said gravely, "I think that child made a very good point."
"Elder Mu, but... Evil Martial Souls are still an unstable factor!"
After hesitating for a moment, Xian Lin'er spoke up.
"Do you all still think that way?"
In response to Mu En's question, the others said nothing, but their expressions clearly revealed their stance.
It was no exaggeration to say that not a single person stood on Mu En's side.
Mu En was hardly surprised.
"They are a group of people to be pitied. No one is born evil."
In the end, he let out a soft sigh. "With the right guidance, even someone with an Evil Martial Soul can still become a normal person."
"Teacher, forgive my bluntness, but the cost of doing that is simply too high, and the return does not justify it."
Hearing this, Yan Shaozhe objected without hesitation. "Besides, if the world found out that Shrek Academy was training Evil Soul Masters, our academy's reputation of ten thousand years would be ruined."
Shrek Academy only had so many resources to distribute each year. There was never enough for either the Martial Soul Department or the Soul Tool Department, so how could they let Evil Soul Masters take a share as well?
Of course, that was only a secondary reason. The main concern was that Shrek Academy's ten-thousand-year reputation might collapse as a result.
That was also why not a single member of the Sea God Pavilion supported Mu En's idea.
The scene on the Sky Curtain shifted.
The setting sun stained the horizon a dark red, like clotted blood. Pools of thick blood stretched across the scorched earth, reflecting broken spears and battle flags planted in heaps of corpses.
A beautiful young woman stood there.
It was Huo Yutong.
Behind her, Twelve Black Gates appeared.
When Huo Yutong opened the Black Rift, the entire battlefield was instantly shrouded in deathly energy, as if even the air had frozen.
The once-vibrant land quickly turned barren, and flowers, grasses, and trees withered in an instant.
The Twelve Black Gates slowly opened, and all kinds of Undead Creatures streamed out without end.
Among them were low- and mid-tier Undead Creatures such as skeletons, liches, and Headless Horror Knights, as well as powerful beings like the Skeleton King, Abomination King, Zombie King, Shadow King, and Bone Dragon King.
Beyond these, the most eye-catching Undead Creatures were the several Deities who had already become undead.
Opposite them stood one terrifying Deity after another.
Huo Yutong swept her hand forward, and the undead army charged without the slightest fear.
Even after undergoing special enhancement, these Undead Creatures were no match for the many Deities.
The low- and mid-tier Undead Creatures could only use their lives to hold the enemy back.
The real damage came from the high-tier and top-tier Undead Creatures.
Even so, it often took several thousand, or even more than ten thousand, high-tier Undead Creatures to take down a single Deity.
Only the top-tier Undead Creatures had the power to contend with these Deities.
But what did that matter?
The true terror of the Wrath of the Undead lay in its endless supply of troops, who knew neither fear nor pain.
It could also turn fallen powerhouses into fighters on its own side.
Even destroying the corpses could not completely prevent this from happening.
This trait allowed the undead army to grow like a snowball. As the battle went on, its numbers and strength only increased.
And that was not even counting the Undead Demiplane her teacher had given Huo Yutong to serve as reinforcements.
Before you continue