[Dou Er Era]
A deathly silence spread throughout Shrek Academy.
Cheating. Murder...
Those labels were like the most vicious brands, seared onto the faces of every student at Shrek Academy.
A reputation built over ten thousand years had been left in tatters in a matter of moments.
And yet, that was not the end.
Golden light flowed across the Sky Screen, erasing all the scenes of cheating.
In their place appeared the third and final reason he had made the list.
A line of cold, golden characters slowly emerged.
It was like the final verdict on Qiangu Wangyan.
[Lastly, the third reason he made the list:]
[Two-faced, with ambitions to bring it down]
Everyone's heart leapt into their throats.
Bring it down?
What was he trying to bring down? Shrek Academy?
Had he succeeded?
Above them, the Sky Screen.
Under the gaze of countless millions, a vision of the future far beyond anything anyone in either era could have imagined slowly unfolded.
[Ten thousand years later.]
The first thing to appear on the Sky Screen was a magnificent city where technology and Soul Power blended seamlessly.
Skyscrapers stood packed tightly together, piercing the clouds, while countless strange Soul Guidance vehicles zipped through the air, forming a picture of an entirely new world.
At the very center of this future metropolis stood an enormous white tower, too immense to describe, stabbing into the heavens like a sword.
[By this time, the continent's balance of power had long since changed.]
[Shrek Academy, once the continent's strongest force, had lost its former glory.]
[In its place stood the Spirit Pagoda!]
[An organization that controlled the lifeblood of every Soul Master on the continent, and was the true number one force!]
Those few lines struck everyone's hearts like a heavy hammer!
[Dou Er Era]
Inside Sea God Pavilion at Shrek Academy.
Yan Shaozhe and the others stared in shock, crying out, "Impossible!"
Shrek had actually been replaced?
For ten thousand years, no matter how the times changed—even during the Sun Moon Empire's most powerful era—Shrek had remained an unshakable sacred place in the hearts of Soul Masters!
But ten thousand years later, had they really fallen from their pedestal?
Inside Mingde Hall in the Sun Moon Empire.
The smile froze on Jing Hongchen's face.
He wasn't shocked that Shrek had been replaced. He was shocked that it hadn't been replaced by their Sun Moon Empire!
Just what kind of organization was this so-called Spirit Pagoda?
[Douluo I Era]
At Pope's Palace in Spirit City.
Bibi Dong gazed at the magnificent tower, her eyes filled with shock and unwillingness.
"Ten thousand years from now... the world of Soul Masters will have developed to such an extent..."
"What a pity. In the end, the one ruling the world won't be my Spirit Hall..."
Tang San, Yu Xiaogang, and the others were equally shaken.
"The Spirit Pagoda... Just how powerful is this organization?"
The scenes on the Sky Screen gave them the answer.
The view delved into the Spirit Pagoda, showing everyone just how powerful it was.
[The Spirit Pagoda had monopolized a technology called "Soul Spirits." It had completely replaced Soul Beasts and Soul Rings, controlling every Soul Master's path to advancement!]
[Whoever controlled the Spirit Pagoda controlled the future of every Soul Master in the world.]
[And the one who controlled this colossal organization was a family named—]
[Qiangu!]
[The Spirit Pagoda's supreme rulers were the Qiangu Family.]
The view slowly moved deeper into the tower.
It passed through countless heavily guarded corridors filled with futuristic technology, then arrived at a solemn, ancient shrine.
[This is the Spirit Pagoda's most restricted inner sanctum: the Qiangu Clan's ancestral shrine.]
At the center of the shrine, instead of an altar to a god, stood a tall white jade statue.
It depicted a refined young man wearing glasses, holding a Coiling Dragon Staff and gazing into the distance with deep eyes.
It was none other than Qiangu Wangyan!
Beneath the statue, several men and women in fine clothes, all with an air of distinction, bowed in reverence.
The middle-aged man at their head had a presence as steady as a mountain, clearly a person of great authority.
["Qiangu Dieting brings his descendants to pay their respects to our ancestor, Qiangu Wangyan!"]
["May our ancestor's holy spirit bless the eternal glory of the Qiangu Clan and the Spirit Pagoda's rule over the world!"]
"Boom!!!"
Everyone's minds completely short-circuited!
The hypocrite they had cursed, scorned, and judged—the disgrace of Shrek Academy—
Ten thousand years later, he was being worshipped like a god, with a statue raised in his honor!
The shock of the continent had no effect on the Sky Screen.
It continued to show the scenes.
["Father, why do we come every year to pay our respects to this ancestor?"]
After they had bowed, a boy who looked no older than a teenager asked curiously.
The middle-aged man at their head turned around, his eyes filled with boundless reverence and pride.
["Dongfeng, you must remember this."]
["Our Qiangu family, and all our clansmen, owe everything we have today—all the way to our place at the top of the continent—to this ancestor!"]
["The history books only record that Ancestor Wangyan was one of the founders of the Spirit Pagoda."]
["But the secrets in our family records tell the true history."]
The middle-aged man's voice rang clearly through the Sky Screen, reaching everyone in both eras.
["Back then, Ancestor Wangyan endured humiliation and bided his time, going undercover at Shrek all on his own."]
["At Shrek Academy, he carried out the first stage of his plan. Not only did he successfully awaken the true spirit of the Martial Soul, the Heaven Awakening Holy Golden Dragon, he also rediscovered the method for awakening true spirits."]
["He also planted countless seeds within Shrek."]
["Later, in a chaotic age, he seized the opportunity created by the rise of Soul Spirit technology and joined the newly founded Spirit Pagoda as a 'Martial Soul Theory Grandmaster.'"]
["With his profound knowledge and unparalleled strategic mind, accumulated at Shrek, he quickly distinguished himself within the organization and rose to a high position!"]
["Then, the first thing he did was fulfill the vow he had made as a child."]
A proud smile appeared on the middle-aged man's face.
["Using his position and the Spirit Pagoda's intelligence network, he tracked down, one by one, all our Spirit Hall brethren hiding in the continent's darkest corners, scraping by like rats in the street!"]
["He gave them new identities and the finest resources, making them and their descendants members of the Spirit Pagoda."]
["Even a dog could become a Spirit Pagoda watchdog!"]
["He let all the descendants of Spirit Hall live in the light again, with their heads held high!"]
["Before long, our clansmen had spread through every department of the Spirit Pagoda!"]
["Then came the takeover."]
["Using the control methods he had learned from the Holy Spirit Cult, Ancestor Wangyan joined forces with our clansmen, advancing step by step, building alliances and gradually sidelining the Spirit Pagoda's old guard."]
["Finally, at the right moment, he struck like lightning and uprooted every opposing force!"]
["The Spirit Pagoda had completely become the Spirit Pagoda of our Qiangu clan!"]
["From that day on, our Qiangu Family became the new rulers of the continent!"]
["Our ancestor had fulfilled every promise he made!"]
["And Shrek..."]
["That hypocritical academy, once so high and mighty, that trampled us underfoot and slaughtered us at will, can now only cling to life under our suppression!"]
["We sabotage Shrek's recruitment, seize its rare resources, and support its enemies..."]
["The methods Shrek once used against us have been paid back to them a hundred, a thousand times over!"]
["Their geniuses have to beg us for Soul Spirits to advance!"]
["We have utterly crushed their pride!"]
["The glory of Spirit Hall has been inherited by our Qiangu Family, and once more we reign supreme!"]
["Our ancestor spent his whole life carrying out a grand plan for revenge!"]
["And he succeeded!"]
["With his own power, he brought down the era created by Tang San and Shrek!"]
The middle-aged man's voice rang out passionately. Pointing to the statue, he lectured his son and all their descendants:
["Remember our ancestor's words: 'A great force is never easily defeated by outside enemies. It only begins to rot from within.'"]
["You must all take this lesson to heart. Do you understand?"]
Before you continue