Chapter Summaries

Ma Hongjun and the others renovated Shrek Academy while he and Oscar trained hard for a year, reaching level thirty. The academy was transformed, and both boys stood one Soul Ring away from becoming Soul Elders.

• Ma Hongjun and Zhao Wuji oversaw the training ground, dormitory, and classroom improvements as Shao Xin coordinated the cafeteria renovation with Foreman Zhou.
• The main construction work neared completion, and Ma Hongjun watched the sunset gild the new wall before returning to the dormitories.
• Ma Hongjun and Oscar followed a demanding daily training routine for a year, with Oscar answering Flender's questions about fatigue by saying he was still alive.
• Ma Hongjun advanced from level twenty-six to level thirty, while Oscar advanced from level twenty-seven to level thirty.
• Flender recognized that both boys had reached the threshold of Soul Elder and worried that cultivation would become much harder after level thirty.

Shrek Academy had been rebuilt and outfitted, but Flender continued to reject applicants who failed his standards. On admission day, Dai Mubai arrived with a powerful White Tiger Martial Soul and Level twenty-nine Soul Power, leaving Flender to assess him.

• Ma Hongjun and the others showed off the academy’s new facilities and uniforms as recruitment remained bleak.
• Flender refused to lower his admission standards despite having only Ma Hongjun and Oscar as students.
• Flender waited at the gate on admission day with Ma Hongjun and Oscar, hoping a qualified student would arrive.
• Dai Mubai arrived and said he wanted to enroll at Shrek Academy.
• Dai Mubai revealed his White Tiger Martial Soul and two yellow Soul Rings, and the Testing Crystal showed Level twenty-nine Soul Power.
• Flender asked the youth’s name, and he answered, “Dai Mubai.”

Dai Mubai arrived at Shrek Academy expecting a shabby school but found well-kept grounds, striking school flags, and impressive uniforms. After meeting Ma Hongjun and another boy, he registered with Flender and revealed that he was a prince of the Star Luo Empire.

• Dai Mubai entered Shrek Academy and found its gate, training grounds, and buildings far more imposing and well-kept than the rumors suggested.
• Dai Mubai admired the academy's flag and emblem, then spotted dark-blue uniforms that he thought were exceptionally stylish.
• Ma Hongjun and another boy approached Dai Mubai, and Ma Hongjun told him he could receive a uniform if he passed the test.
• Dai Mubai went to Flender's office to register and gave his name, age, Martial Soul, Soul Power Level, Soul Ring configuration, and family background.
• Dai Mubai identified himself as a member of the Star Luo imperial family, and he told Flender that Shrek Academy was not shabby.

Dai Mubai explained that he had fled the Star Luo Empire to escape his brother Dai Weisi’s efforts to eliminate him and grow strong enough to return. During Shrek’s practical test, Ma Hongjun’s aerial attacks exposed the weakness in Dai Mubai’s fighting style, but Dai Mubai refused to concede and prepared to continue.

• Dai Mubai told Flender that he had left the Star Luo Empire to survive and become strong enough to challenge Dai Weisi for the throne.
• Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar introduced themselves, and Dai Mubai learned that both students had reached level thirty at a young age.
• Flender paired Dai Mubai against Ma Hongjun for the practical combat test.
• Dai Mubai used his White Tiger skills, but Ma Hongjun flew above his attacks and struck him with Light Pierce, breaking through his defense and scorching his shoulder.
• Dai Mubai declared that he had not lost and raised his defenses as he prepared to attack Ma Hongjun again.

Ma Hongjun defeated Dai Mubai by exploiting the limits of his White Tiger Barrier and superior flight speed, and Dai Mubai accepted the loss before starting a match with Oscar. Oscar revealed a strength sausage and charged through Dai Mubai’s White Tiger Intense Light Wave, leaving the outcome of their fight unresolved.

• Ma Hongjun outmaneuvered Dai Mubai, struck his exposed side, and explained the weaknesses he had exploited.
• Dai Mubai conceded defeat, acknowledged Ma Hongjun’s strength, and agreed to face Oscar without taking a rest.
• Dai Mubai assumed his White Tiger form and prepared to end the fight quickly, but Oscar chanted his sausage activation phrase and ate a strength sausage.
• Oscar’s body grew stronger and more durable, and he charged at Dai Mubai despite being hit by the White Tiger Intense Light Wave.

Dai Mubai fought Ma Hongjun and Oscar during Shrek Academy’s practical tests, then decided the academy was worth joining. After the teachers accepted him, Ma Hongjun welcomed him as their junior.

• Oscar used his Strength Sausage to overpower Dai Mubai with repeated punches, while Dai Mubai’s full-strength White Tiger Intense Light Wave only left Oscar with a superficial burn.
• Dai Mubai stopped fighting, admitted defeat, and said he had never felt so exhilarated by a loss.
• Dai Mubai told Flender he wanted to stay at Shrek Academy because it offered a path to becoming stronger, not because he had nowhere else to go.
• Flender accepted Dai Mubai into Shrek Academy after the teachers nodded their approval.
• Ma Hongjun congratulated Dai Mubai and offered his hand, and Dai Mubai shook it as his new junior.

Dai Mubai joined Shrek Academy and received his uniform, finding a rare sense of belonging and sleeping peacefully for the first time since leaving the Star Luo Empire. The next morning, Flender gave him Oscar’s replacement uniform and explained that Dai Mubai’s attack had destroyed the original.

• Ma Hongjun made Dai Mubai acknowledge him as a senior, while Oscar demanded the same and argued with Dai Mubai.
• Zhao Wuji gave Dai Mubai his school uniform, and Dai Mubai settled into a dormitory beside Ma Hongjun and Oscar.
• Dai Mubai tried on the uniform, reflected on his life in the Star Luo Empire, and went to sleep with a genuine smile.
• Ma Hongjun counted Dai Mubai as the third member of the Shrek Seven Devils and thought of the four others still to come.
• Flender woke Dai Mubai and gave him a new uniform, explaining that Dai Mubai’s White Tiger Intense Light Wave had ruined Oscar’s.

Flender arranged for Ma Hongjun and Oscar to wait until Dai Mubai reached Rank 30 before the three of them went to obtain their third Soul Rings together. Dai Mubai was given twenty days to break through, with Zhao Wuji taking charge of his training.

• Flender insisted that Oscar's old uniform be repaired and paid for by the academy, and Dai Mubai carried it out of the dormitory.
• Oscar showed off his new uniform to Ma Hongjun, then Dai Mubai ate a hearty breakfast with the others.
• Flender asked Dai Mubai when he expected to reach Rank 30, and Dai Mubai estimated within half a month, at most twenty days.
• Ma Hongjun and Oscar both agreed to wait for Dai Mubai before acquiring their third Soul Rings.
• Flender gave Dai Mubai twenty days to break through and assigned Zhao Wuji to lead his training; Zhao Wuji then asked whether Dai Mubai was a prince of the Star Luo Empire.

Dai Mubai endured Zhao Wuji’s brutal first day of training and resolved to break through within half a month. Later, Ma Hongjun explained to Oscar why his extensive studies mattered and revealed that he had created his own medicinal prescription.

• Zhao Wuji put Dai Mubai through weighted laps, calisthenics, and sparring, and Dai Mubai kept getting back up until training ended.
• Dai Mubai returned to the dormitory exhausted, looked at Oscar’s school uniform, and reminded himself that he had half a month to break through.
• Oscar helped Dai Mubai back to bed, then found Ma Hongjun studying books on herbs, pharmacology, and martial souls.
• Ma Hongjun explained to Oscar that understanding medicinal principles let him improve inherited formulas, then showed him a prescription he had made himself.
• Ma Hongjun told Oscar that reading preserved the accumulated knowledge of earlier generations and was worth the effort.

Ma Hongjun studied medicinal herbs and refined a stronger medicinal bath formula tailored to Shrek students and his Evil Fire Phoenix physique. After checking the final prescription, he went to find Flender the next morning.

• Oscar questioned why Ma Hongjun was developing a medicinal bath formula, and Ma Hongjun explained that ordinary formulas could not suit Shrek students' physiques and Martial Souls.
• Ma Hongjun stayed up revising his prescription while Flender and Zhao Wuji noticed his late-night reading, and Flender agreed that books held valuable knowledge.
• Ma Hongjun spent three days studying academy library books and testing increasingly bold versions of his medicinal bath formula.
• Ma Hongjun settled on a formula using Bone-Tempering Grass, Blood-Activating Vine, Spirit-Focusing Flower, Benzoin, and Millennium Hot Spring Water, then checked the herbs' properties in a reference book.
• The next morning, Ma Hongjun went to find Flender after training ended.

Ma Hongjun presented Flender with a medicinal bath formula intended to strengthen his bones, clear his meridians, and calm his mind. After Shao Xin approved the formula with reduced initial doses, Ma Hongjun tried the first bath and felt an ache in his bones.

• Ma Hongjun explained his proposed medicinal bath formula and asked Flender and Shao Xin to assess its safety and preparation.
• Flender consulted Shao Xin, who judged the formula sound but recommended beginning with half the proposed dosage and increasing it gradually.
• Shao Xin prepared the first bath using half doses of the herbs and well water as a substitute for Millennium Hot Spring Water.
• Ma Hongjun entered the bath after training, and the medicinal power caused a deep ache in his bones.
• Shao Xin told Ma Hongjun that aching was normal but that pain would mean the dosage was too strong.

Ma Hongjun tested and refined his medicinal bath formula with Shao Xin, who named the finished recipe the Hongjun Formula. Impressed by Ma Hongjun’s discipline and work, Dai Mubai asked for a version suited to his own body and left with a new respect for Hongjun’s achievement.

• Ma Hongjun described the soreness, warmth, and clarity he felt during his first medicinal bath, and Shao Xin adjusted the Spirit-Focusing Flower dosage based on his feedback.
• Over the next week, Shao Xin increased the Bone-Tempering Grass dosage until Ma Hongjun’s original formula was complete, then named it the Hongjun Formula.
• Dai Mubai watched Ma Hongjun take a medicinal bath, tasted the bitter soup, and realized that Hongjun endured it as part of becoming stronger.
• Dai Mubai asked Flender for permission to use the bath, and Flender directed him to Shao Xin with Ma Hongjun’s formula.
• Shao Xin examined Dai Mubai and made him a modified formula, reducing the Blood-Activating Vine, Spirit-Focusing Flower, and Benzoin.
• Dai Mubai learned that Ma Hongjun had developed the formula by himself and left after recognizing how much his younger classmate had accomplished.

Shao Xin refined the medicinal baths for Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar, helping Dai Mubai break through to Rank 30 on the twelfth day. The group rested and prepared to hunt Dai Mubai’s third Soul Ring the next morning.

• Shao Xin increased Dai Mubai’s medicinal bath dosages until Dai Mubai could endure the stronger prescription at the edge of his limits.
• Ma Hongjun and Oscar noticed their bodies growing stronger as the baths improved their bones and meridians.
• Dai Mubai reached Rank 30 after twelve days of training, and Flender credited his solid foundation, calmer state of mind, and the medicinal baths.
• Flender told the group to rest and prepare supplies before leaving to hunt Dai Mubai’s third Soul Ring the next morning.
• Ma Hongjun and Oscar tested stronger bath dosages, while Shao Xin postponed Dai Mubai’s bath until after his Soul Power stabilized.

Ma Hongjun proposed a Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow as Oscar’s third soul ring, aiming to give him ultimate speed and flight. The group approved the plan and continued toward the Star Dou Great Forest, with Dai Mubai’s third soul-ring choice still to be discussed.

• Flender led Ma Hongjun, Oscar, Dai Mubai, and the other Shrek teachers toward the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt their third soul rings.
• Ma Hongjun explained that he wanted a Light Element bird-type soul beast for his own third ring to help his martial soul evolve toward a Light Phoenix.
• Ma Hongjun recommended a roughly three-thousand-five-hundred-year Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow for Oscar, whose speed and flight would complement his existing soul skills.
• Flender agreed to the Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow, and Oscar eagerly anticipated gaining the ability to fly.

Ma Hongjun planned Oscar’s and Dai Mubai’s third Soul Rings before revealing that he hoped to find a rare Bright Holy Luan for his own. The group continued toward the Star Dou Great Forest, where they planned to begin their search the next morning.

• Ma Hongjun recommended a high-cultivation Vajra Bear for Dai Mubai’s third Soul Ring, and Dai Mubai agreed after Flender confirmed his body could endure it.
• Ma Hongjun said he needed a Light Element avian soul beast, while privately hoping to find a Holy Light Luan despite its rarity and excessive cultivation age.
• Dai Mubai recalled a royal library illustration of the Bright Holy Luan and described its high-quality Soul Rings and fierce resistance to hunters.
• Flender said the group would stay in a town near the Star Dou Great Forest and enter the woods the next morning.
• Ma Hongjun closed his eyes in the carriage and sensed his two Soul Rings as he anticipated gaining a stronger third ring.

Ma Hongjun and the others prepared in a town near the Star Dou Great Forest for a hunt targeting three soul beasts, including one for Ma Hongjun’s third Soul Ring. That night, Ma Hongjun told Dai Mubai he was afraid his plan to evolve toward the Light Phoenix might fail, but would pursue it because he saw no other way forward; the hunt began the next day.

• Flender assigned the group a formation and planned to hunt a Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow and a Light Element bird in the east before traveling west for a Vajra Bear.
• Flender tasked Ma Hongjun with helping capture the Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow, while Zhao Wuji explained the Vajra Bear’s weak points to Dai Mubai.
• Unable to sleep, Ma Hongjun worried about whether Light Pierce could keep up with the swallow and whether Dai Mubai could break the bear’s defenses.
• Dai Mubai asked Ma Hongjun what he would do if he could not find a suitable Light Element soul beast for his third Soul Ring.
• Ma Hongjun admitted he was afraid but said he would keep pursuing the Light Phoenix path because he had found no other solution.
• Dai Mubai reflected that Ma Hongjun had built his own cultivation path through his efforts, then told him to sleep.

Ma Hongjun and the Shrek teachers entered the Star Dou Great Forest to find a Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow for Oscar. They spotted a fast-moving specimen estimated to be around three thousand five hundred years old, close to Oscar’s absorption limit.

• Ma Hongjun woke from a dream of a glowing golden bird, and Dai Mubai later told him he had repeated, “Don’t run,” in his sleep.
• Flender led the group from the inn into the Star Dou Great Forest, where Ma Hongjun watched for soul beasts and searched the sky for birds.
• Zhao Wuji sensed that there were no bears nearby, and the group continued east through the forest.
• Li Yusong spotted a bird flying southeast, leading the group to a clearing beneath the canopy.
• Ma Hongjun identified the circling bird as a Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow, and Li Yusong estimated its age at around three thousand five hundred years.

Flender and the others captured a Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow so Oscar could absorb its Soul Ring. Oscar successfully became a three-ring Soul Elder, gained a flying ability, and tested it by eating his new sausage.

• Flender used Wind Binding to restrain the Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow, and Ma Hongjun drove it into another vortex before seizing it with a fire claw.
• A purple Soul Ring of roughly three thousand six hundred years rose from the bird's corpse, and Oscar began absorbing it.
• Oscar endured the Soul Ring's power and emerged with three Soul Rings and Soul Power at level thirty-three.
• Oscar revealed his third soul skill, the Flying Sausage, and gray-blue Light Wings burst from his back after he ate it.

Oscar tested the speed, altitude, and control of his Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow Light Wings, while the group prepared to use his Flying Sausages to travel deeper into the forest. Ma Hongjun ate one and manifested a pair of gray-blue Light Wings of his own.

• Oscar flew to about three hundred and fifty meters, then dove and stopped just above the ground; Flender timed the test at thirty-five seconds.
• Flender asked whether Oscar's Light Wings could carry someone, but Oscar did not know.
• Dai Mubai admired the Sharp-Tailed Rain Swallow's speed while Ma Hongjun studied the soul beast's feathers and bones.
• Oscar made more than twenty Flying Sausages during the break, and Shao Xin stored them away.
• Flender proposed flying deeper into the eastern area to search for Ma Hongjun's Light Element soul beast, and Ma Hongjun ate a Flying Sausage.
• Ma Hongjun's gray-blue Light Wings appeared, and he felt their lifting force differed from his golden-red Wings of Light.

Ma Hongjun and the Shrek teachers and students flew through the forest using Oscar’s Flying Sausages as they searched for soul beasts. Flender arranged the group into three altitude levels to spot and intercept Light Element soul beasts.

• Ma Hongjun tested his Flying Sausage wings, then Dai Mubai ate one and experienced true flight for the first time.
• Flender and the others took flight, and Ma Hongjun led the group east through the morning sky.
• Dai Mubai struggled to keep his balance and resolved to train harder with more Flying Sausages.
• Flender told Ma Hongjun to descend so they could search near the forest canopy for Light Element soul beasts.
• Flender divided the group into three levels, with Ma Hongjun and Flender flying highest and Zhao Wuji closest to the canopy.