Huo Yuhao froze, staring at the honest-looking chubby boy before him in disbelief.
Xu Lizhi was actually inviting him to see the real Shrek Academy?
But...
Huo Yuhao instinctively clenched the corner of his clothes, a trace of inferiority flashing through his eyes.
"Do... do I really qualify to attend an academy called Monster Academy?"
His voice was quiet, trembling slightly.
"My innate Soul Power is only Rank One, and my martial soul is ordinary too. It's just the Spirit Eye..."
In this world, where strength reigned supreme, innate Rank One Soul Power was practically a death sentence.
Even after encountering the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and gaining a million-year soul ring, the inferiority carved into his bones was not something he could erase overnight.
Xu Lizhi smiled when he heard that.
He took a bite of the bun in his hand. The fat on his face trembled, yet his eyes were exceptionally clear.
"Who told you that Shrek Academy only accepts people born as monsters?"
Huo Yuhao was stunned.
"Doesn't it?"
Xu Lizhi shook his head, swallowed his food, and spoke seriously for once.
"Although Shrek Academy is called Monster Academy, it does not only recruit monsters."
"What a Monster Academy should do is turn ordinary people into monsters in the eyes of others."
"This is the true meaning behind the existence of a Monster Academy."
Xu Lizhi's voice was not loud, but every word struck Huo Yuhao's heart like a hammer.
"If we only recruited those exceptionally gifted monsters, trained them casually for a few years, and then claimed that we had cultivated them ourselves..."
"What kind of skill would that be?"
Xu Lizhi spread his hands, as though it were only natural.
"They were already gifted like monsters. With or without your training, what great difference would it make?"
"Only when you turn 'ordinary people' like yourself into 'monsters' admired by the world can it truly be called Shrek."
Boom—
Turn ordinary people... into monsters?
Those words completely overturned Huo Yuhao's understanding of Soul Master Academies. They were more like a beam of light, illuminating his once-dim world.
He felt that Xu Lizhi was absolutely right. In fact... it made far too much sense!
But...
Could an academy with such grand ideals and such formidable strength truly be entered so easily?
Bei Bei and Tang Ya, standing nearby, were also stunned by those words.
The two looked at each other and saw the confusion in one another's eyes.
Was this their Shrek Academy?
Which Shrek Academy was this?
After all, the Shrek Academy they knew had an extremely brutal and straightforward school motto.
Only monsters were admitted. Ordinary people were not accepted.
If you were over twelve years old and your Soul Power had not reached Rank Fifteen, you could beg until your head bled and still never get in.
Furthermore, the academy's elimination system was extremely intense. One careless mistake, and you would be expelled.
They did not judge aptitude? They even accepted ordinary people?
And they wanted to cultivate ordinary people into monsters?
"This... this is completely different from our academy."
Bei Bei frowned deeply, his heart filled with absurdity.
The reason Shrek Academy was called the number one academy on the Douluo Continent was not merely because its students were powerful, but because of its incredibly high threshold.
Not only did one need extraordinary talent, one also needed a recommendation letter from a main city.
It was absolutely not a place one could enter simply by wanting to!
That was precisely why the examination-free admission slot held by the Tang Sect was so precious.
But the Shrek they were describing sounded more like a... charity hall?
Bei Bei took a deep breath. He did not choose to refute Shrek's philosophy, because what Xu Lizhi said did seem better than Shrek Academy's original philosophy. Instead, he pointed at Ye Xinglan beside them.
"That junior said just now that she does not even know Ancestor Tang San."
"What is going on with that?"
"Ancestor Tang San was the leader of the Shrek Seven Devils ten thousand years ago! He was the soul of Shrek Academy and the origin of the Sea God Pavilion's name!"
"As a Shrek student, isn't it wrong not to even recognize your own ancestor?"
Tang Ya nodded repeatedly from the side.
"Exactly! You don't even know the Tang Sect's ancestor, yet you dare claim to be from Shrek?"
Xu Lizhi blinked his small eyes, looking completely bewildered.
He looked at Ye Xinglan, then at Bei Bei, and scratched his head.
"I don't know who Tang San is either."
After saying that, he even asked in return, his tone utterly sincere.
"Is that Tang San... famous?"
"..."
The three of them were shocked.
Even Huo Yuhao was completely dumbfounded, his mouth hanging open.
Was he famous?
Huo Yuhao had grown up listening to stories from his mother. The protagonist had always been Tang San, the legend with the Blue Silver Grass martial soul.
He was the myth of the entire Douluo Continent!
Where... had these two come from?
Tang Ya trembled with rage, even the finger she pointed at Xu Lizhi shaking.
"You don't even know Tang San... you must be fake! You must be a fake Shrek Academy!"
"The real Shrek Academy has statues of the first-generation Shrek Seven Devils standing in its plaza!"
"You don't even know that, yet you dare speak so arrogantly here?!"
Faced with Tang Ya's questioning, Ye Xinglan, who had remained silent all this time, finally spoke.
She lifted her eyelids slightly, her gaze still cold and sharp as a blade.
"If you are truly Shrek Academy students..."
"Why can't either of you defeat me?"
One sentence.
A killing blow.
Bei Bei and Tang Ya, who had been aggressively preparing to argue, fell silent at once.
That was right.
In this world, strength was the only truth.
You said you were orthodox. You said you had statues. You said you had history.
But... you lost.
A three-ring Soul Elder had lost to a two-ring Soul Grandmaster whose name he had never even heard before.
That was more convincing than any words.
Watching from the side, Huo Yuhao's heart churned violently.
That was right. Bei Bei was clearly a three-ring Soul Master, yet he could not even defeat Ye Xinglan, a two-ring Soul Master. If Shrek Academy was truly so powerful, then its students should be powerful as well, rather than losing despite having the advantage in cultivation.
Could it be... that Xu Lizhi and the others were telling the truth?
Seeing the awkward, stiff atmosphere, Xu Lizhi chuckled and stepped in to smooth things over.
"Ah, don't be so serious."
He looked at Bei Bei and Tang Ya and waved his hand.
"You don't need to keep pretending either. Although your strength is a little lacking, seeing how much you admire Shrek Academy..."
"How about I take you there for a look?"
After speaking, Xu Lizhi suddenly turned his head with a guilty look and gave Ye Xinglan an awkward smile.
"Sister Xinglan, is that okay?"
After all, this young lady was the one who held the final say.
Ye Xinglan glanced at the three of them, her expression indifferent.
"Whatever."
"However..."
Her tone shifted as her gaze stabbed mercilessly toward Bei Bei and Tang Ya.
"With the two of you wanting to join Shrek Academy, it is almost impossible."
"You!"
Tang Ya was about to flare up, but Bei Bei firmly pulled her back.
Bei Bei intended to see what kind of Shrek Academy could produce people like these two.
Seeing this, Xu Lizhi hurriedly tried to ease the situation.
"Ahem, Sister Xinglan is just blunt. Please don't take it to heart."
"So... do you actually want to go have a look?"
Bei Bei and Tang Ya exchanged glances.
Their eyes met in the air, and both understood the other's meaning.
Go!
They had to go!
Even if it was a dragon's lair or a tiger's den, they had to brave it!
"We're going."
Bei Bei spoke in a deep voice.
Xu Lizhi nodded, a happy smile appearing on his face.
"Then that makes things easy."
He looked at Ye Xinglan.
"Sister Xinglan, the car."
Ye Xinglan did not waste any words.
With a flick of her wrist, she took a silver-white metal capsule from her Storage Soul Tool.
The capsule was not large, only the size of a thumb, yet it shimmered under the sunlight with a distinctly technological gleam.
"What is that?"
Huo Yuhao looked curiously at the small capsule.
The next moment.
Ye Xinglan casually tossed the capsule into an open area.
Bang!
A cloud of white smoke rose up.
Immediately afterward, a colossal object appeared out of nowhere before everyone's eyes.
It was a sleek vehicle covered in a silver-gray metallic sheen.
Its four wheels were wrapped in some sort of special mechanism, giving off faint fluctuations of Soul Power.
"Wh-what kind of Soul Tool is this?!"
Bei Bei's eyes widened. He had seen quite a few things from Shrek Academy's Soul Guidance Department.
But...
He had never seen anything so exquisite, so aesthetically pleasing... a vehicle?
A vehicle that did not need horses to pull it?
"This thing... can move?"
Ye Xinglan did not explain. She walked straight to the vehicle, and its door automatically slid upward, revealing spacious and comfortable seats inside.
"Get in."
She coldly uttered two words before taking the driver's seat first.
Xu Lizhi beckoned to the three dumbfounded people.
"Come on up. It's very comfortable."
Feeling uneasy, Huo Yuhao carefully climbed inside.
The seats were unbelievably soft, and fresh air circulated through the cabin.
Bei Bei and Tang Ya got in as well, the two still looking around the vehicle's interior.
"Sit tight."
Ye Xinglan's voice came from the front row.
The next moment.
There was none of the jolting they had expected.
Everyone merely felt their bodies sink slightly.
The scenery outside the windows began to... descend?
No!
The scenery was not descending. They were rising!
Huo Yuhao suddenly pressed himself against the window and looked outside.
The trees on the ground grew smaller and smaller, while the little river became a silver ribbon.
"It... it flew?!"
Tang Ya screamed, clutching Bei Bei's arm tightly with both hands.
Bei Bei's pupils contracted.
A flying vehicle-type Soul Tool?!
It was simply unheard of!
Huo Yuhao watched the clouds rapidly retreating beyond the window, feeling this unprecedented speed.
He turned to look at the calm blonde girl in the driver's seat, then at Xu Lizhi beside her, who was grinning foolishly as he ate a bun.
What kind of place was this Shrek Academy they spoke of?
Before you continue