"Have you heard? A genius from the Douluo Three Kingdoms recently arrived. They say he's incredibly powerful. At such a young age, he possessed the strength of a Title Douluo despite only being a Soul Emperor. His reflexes and speed were also astonishingly fast. And supposedly, he was only fourteen years old, yet he had already reached level sixty-two as a Soul Emperor.
That's way too impressive. Anyway, I planned to see this genius for myself. If he really was that powerful, then we might have hope of defeating Shrek Academy. The Soul Master Tournament will be here soon.
Every Soul Master Tournament, we basically lost to Shrek Academy. Shrek Academy was like a massive mountain hanging over our heads, crushing us so thoroughly that we had no way to win the championship.
Honestly, if this genius joined us and could help us defeat Shrek Academy, that would be a good thing. It would prove that our Sun Moon Empire was absolutely stronger than the Douluo Three Kingdoms and Shrek Academy!"
The students of the Sun Moon Empire's Royal Soul Guidance Academy began discussing the matter. They had all heard news about Zhong Kui and learned some information about him, so they started talking amongst themselves.
"I heard about this too, and I hope it's true. If it is, then we'll be able to crush Shrek in the Soul Master Tournament. Every time, they defeated us because they were simply too powerful for us to beat. In this world where the strong took everything and the weak had nothing, Shrek was the mountain weighing down on us.
If we wanted to defeat Shrek Academy, we needed a powerful expert to help us. Back when the Sun Moon Empire went to war with the Douluo Three Kingdoms, we had clearly been about to win. Then Shrek Academy gathered nearly sixty Title Douluos from across the continent and defeated our Sun Moon Empire.
Honestly, I really wanted to complain about this. Did an academy really need to interfere in a war between nations? Besides, even if we defeated the Douluo Three Kingdoms, we wouldn't wipe them out. We just wanted to unify the land. What was wrong with that?"
After one student said this, everyone recalled the war between the Sun Moon Empire and the Douluo Three Kingdoms mentioned in their textbooks. At the time, the continent where the Sun Moon Empire was located had collided with the Douluo Continent, where the Douluo Three Kingdoms were located. Everyone had been shocked to discover that there was another continent overseas.
Afterward, the Sun Moon Empire had not immediately gone to war with the Douluo Three Kingdoms. They had first gathered information, then conflicts gradually arose, and eventually those conflicts developed into war.
"Honestly, the Douluo Three Kingdoms were quite backward. When they fought us back then, they used things like hidden weapons. Supposedly, they were the hidden weapons of Sea God Tang San. I've never seen any god, and I don't understand why they worshiped him so fervently. This Sea God Tang San was probably just an exceptionally powerful soul master who had been deified."
"Our Soul Tool technology had been developing for who knew how many years—over ten thousand years already. It was no worse than Sea God Tang San. The hidden weapons of Sea God Tang San that they worshiped were basically made with gunpowder, mechanisms, and similar things. They weren't that impressive at all."
"That's right. Our Soul Tools even included defensive types, flying types, and so on.
The Douluo Continent once had Soul Tool technology too, but what happened? They lost it. I really didn't understand how they could lose such important technology, only to instead praise hidden weapon techniques. It was honestly ridiculous.
No wonder they brought out such laughable weapons to fight us back then. We nearly lost to them."
"But to be honest, Shrek Academy really did have some ability. Over the years, we absorbed many geniuses from the Douluo Three Kingdoms. The Douluo Three Kingdoms practiced a noble system and weren't as advanced as our Sun Moon Empire. Many geniuses there were originally commoners and couldn't obtain enough resources to develop, so they had no choice but to come to the Sun Moon Empire."
"That's right, but even so, it was still difficult to defeat Shrek Academy. Like we just said, Shrek Academy was indeed very strong. I wonder whether this newly arrived genius could help us."
While everyone was discussing the matter, a pair of siblings suddenly came before them. They were Jing Hongchen's grandson and granddaughter—Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen.
"What are you all discussing?" Meng Hongchen asked the younger students with a smile.
"Senior, here's what happened. We were discussing a newly appeared genius who was supposedly very powerful and had come from the Douluo Three Kingdoms. Then, while talking, we somehow started discussing what happened during the era of the Douluo Three Kingdoms.
"Didn't the Douluo Three Kingdoms and the Sun Moon Empire go to war back then? Then we started talking about Shrek Academy, and after that, we returned to discussing that genius. We were all wondering whether he could help us."
After hearing what the younger students said, Meng Hongchen also became interested in this genius and wanted to see what kind of talent he was.
"Another genius from the Douluo Three Kingdoms. Honestly, I really hoped he could help us defeat Shrek Academy. The Douluo Three Kingdoms had always relied on Shrek Academy to maintain their strategic balance against our Sun Moon Empire. Without Shrek Academy, we might not have lost to the Douluo Three Kingdoms. Perhaps we would have defeated them long ago and unified the continent," Xiao Hongchen said.
Xiao Hongchen did not have much goodwill toward the Douluo Three Kingdoms either.
(Note: The Hongchen siblings' appearances will use their comic designs. I really don't like the anime's 3D models—they're not attractive at all.)
"Brother, in any case, I'm very curious whether this genius can help us defeat Shrek Academy. Soon, the Soul Master Tournament, also known as the Soul Fighting Tournament, will begin again. It'll probably be another round of contests between nations."
"That was indeed the case. Shrek Academy had basically dominated the Soul Master Tournament. For all these years, they had always won the championship. No participating team from any nation had ever claimed it.
Honestly, this might not sound pleasant, but Shrek was like an overlord standing above all nations. No one dared do anything to Shrek." Xiao Hongchen voiced the resentment in his heart.
He felt that Shrek was nothing like an academy. It was simply a superpower standing above all nations.
Shrek was nothing like an academy. Fortunately, Shrek Academy's influence existed only in the Douluo Three Kingdoms. Shrek had no influence at all within the Sun Moon Empire. Otherwise, many of the Sun Moon Empire's future actions would have to depend on Shrek's approval. Wouldn't that be ridiculous?
Before you continue