When the red sun overhead reached its zenith, the entire Douluo Continent began to grow hot.
Today was an ordinary day, but for the children of Soul Village, it was an important one: the day they would awaken their Martial Souls.
But unlike most villages,
the people helping them awaken their Martial Souls weren't from Spirit Hall. They were from Shrek Academy.
This was mainly because their village was so remote that most people didn't even know it existed. It was also tiny, with few residents, so Spirit Hall had no idea it was there and had never established a branch nearby.
As a result, for many years, the children in the village had no chance to awaken their Martial Souls. After all, for villagers in such a poor and backward place, awakening a Martial Soul meant traveling to a big city. But the city was simply too far away. On top of that, there were plenty of children in the village, and too much farm work to do. The villagers couldn't spare the time, so by the time they finally got around to awakening their children's Martial Souls, years had passed.
Awakening their Martial Souls so late meant they had completely missed the best time to train. Most of the children didn't awaken any Soul Power, either, so they could only return to the village and resume their work and daily lives, over and over again.
Fortunately, a few years ago, Shrek Academy's headmaster, Flender, passed through the area and learned about their situation. He made an arrangement with them: every year, on a set date, he would come by and help the village children awaken their Martial Souls.
The villagers and children were naturally deeply grateful to Shrek Academy.
They later learned that Shrek Academy was on break at that time of year, and that they weren't the only village it helped. But that didn't matter to them at all. As long as the children could awaken their Martial Souls, nothing else mattered.
The villagers had brought their children to wait at the village entrance early that morning, all of them filled with anticipation and gratitude toward everyone at Shrek Academy.
Liu Yuan, a transmigrator, was among them. It was his sixth year since arriving in Douluo Continent, and today he would finally awaken his Martial Soul.
However,
as a transmigrator, Liu Yuan knew the entire story and history of Douluo Continent inside and out. He knew exactly what kind of people the ones from Shrek Academy were, so he naturally had not the slightest bit of goodwill toward them.
In his opinion, the higher-ups at Shrek Academy were mostly opportunists and petty schemers.
Their discrimination against students based on talent had reached a whole new level.
They claimed that Shrek Academy's motto was to train only monsters.
Liu Yuan wanted to ask them: if they were already monsters, why would they need you to train them?
Give any teacher a group of geniuses with Innate Full Soul Power or innate Soul Power at level eight or nine, and they'd still succeed, wouldn't they?
The worst part was that the academy itself was nothing special.
If Shrek Academy had qualified teachers, good facilities, and excellent teaching conditions, then fine.
But the problem was, it had none of those things.
The two strongest people at Shrek Academy were Zhao Wuji and Flender, and at this stage, both of them were seven-ring Soul Saints.
Compared with the teachers at first-rate academies like Spirit Hall Academy or Heaven Dou Royal Academy, they were utterly pathetic.
The school environment and teaching conditions were even worse.
They didn't even own their school!
When it came to training their students, they just sent them to the Great Soul Arena and made them learn on their own. What was the point of having a school at all? They might as well join the Great Soul Arena directly.
So Liu Yuan truly didn't have the slightest bit of goodwill toward these people.
And that wasn't even the thing he disliked most.
As for the two genuine hypocrites, Tang San and Yu Xiaogang, Liu Yuan hated them so much that he wanted to skin them alive and tear them limb from limb.
Flender's famous line was even more outrageous: "Anyone who doesn't cause trouble is a mediocrity!"
When Liu Yuan first heard that, he nearly spat blood.
It was the first time he'd ever heard someone speak so righteously about throwing their weight around and bullying the weak.
Wasn't that exactly what had happened with Blue Sunshine Academy?
The other side hadn't provoked them at all. Shrek's people had run their mouths, then beaten them up.
And that was what he meant by "Anyone who doesn't cause trouble is a mediocrity"?
Liu Yuan wasn't some bleeding heart, but he still couldn't stand that kind of behavior.
So he would never feel even the slightest bit of goodwill toward anyone at Shrek Academy. And the idea of joining Shrek Academy was simply absurd. If its motto was "Anyone who doesn't cause trouble is a mediocrity," then Liu Yuan would rather not be a genius.
Besides, they weren't helping the villages out of the goodness of their hearts.
They helped so many villages for no other reason than to try their luck and see if they could find any exceptionally talented geniuses to recruit in advance.
After all, there weren't many fools on Douluo Continent. True geniuses would never choose to train in an environment like the one at Shrek Academy. If the academy could find a few talented students this way, it would be another opportunity for them.
At the thought of this, he frowned in displeasure.
He hadn't wanted to come and let the people from Shrek awaken his Martial Soul today.
But the village chief had pestered him until he gave in. Liu Yuan had grown up without a father or mother, and the village chief had always looked after him since he arrived. The chief had already put it to him so plainly, so Liu Yuan figured he owed him that much.
"Lord Flender, you're here!"
Just then, Flender of Shrek Academy arrived.
When the village chief and several villagers saw him, they greeted him respectfully. Then they looked at the man behind him and the group of young people, all unfamiliar faces.
"Who are they?"
Flender smiled and introduced them.
"This is my good friend, Yu Xiaogang."
"You may not recognize the name, but he's the foremost theorist on Douluo Continent."
"There's no theoretical knowledge he doesn't understand. In that field, even the Upper Three Sects, Spirit Hall, and the two great empires have no one who can rival him. You're lucky to have him here today!"
"As for these young people, they're all our students. Anyone who joins our academy and receives our guidance can become a success. Look, they're only in their teens, but under our guidance, even the ones with weaker Soul Power have already reached level twenty-something, while the stronger ones are already at level thirty. Only teachers from Shrek Academy could bring them this far. What other place could manage that?"
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