Sea God Pavilion Meeting

Sea God Island

Yan Shaozhe reined in the Soul Power he had been using to fly and gently set Xia Ming down from his arms.

It was as though he were not placing down a child, but an irreplaceable treasure too fragile to touch.

He bent slightly, his voice gentler than usual and carrying an almost consultative tone.

"Child, the academy needs to make careful plans for your future.

"I need to convene a meeting immediately to discuss this matter. Could you wait here for a moment?"

"Mm." Xia Ming met his gaze and nodded firmly.

His expression was calm and composed, without the slightest unease at arriving somewhere unfamiliar or the impatience expected of a child.

He even found a nearby reef polished smooth by the wind and quietly sat down.

He truly was not worried in the slightest.

On the contrary, a strange sense of security spread through his heart.

The more seriously they treated the matter, the more it proved that they fully recognized his value.

Xia Ming knew his own worth very well.

The Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff was a legendary top-tier soul beast, born with an Innate Domain and possessing strength far beyond the norm.

Innate Full Soul Power was one in ten thousand, signifying that he possessed the world's greatest cultivation talent.

The combination of the two would never produce something as simple as one plus one.

Shrek Academy had endured for ten thousand years, producing brilliant talents and gathering monsters in droves.

But Xia Ming had absolute confidence.

At least in terms of talent, he was one of a kind—an existence worthy of being recorded in history.

At a time when Shrek was suffering from a lack of successors and desperately needed fresh top-tier blood,

they would never, and dared not, let him slip away.

"Very good."

Seeing Xia Ming's composure, far beyond his age, the last trace of concern in Yan Shaozhe's eyes vanished.

He gave Xia Ming one more deep look, then said nothing further.

His figure flashed slightly and turned into a faint white streak, vanishing from the spot in an instant.

Very soon, following his notification,

every elder of the Sea God Pavilion, regardless of what they had been doing, set aside their affairs and gathered there at top speed.

Inside the Sea God Pavilion,

ten figures sat around an oval table, their auras either as deep as the sea or as sharp as swords.

Besides Yan Shaozhe and Cai Mei'er from the Martial Soul Department, and Xian Lin'er and Qian Duoduo from the Soul Guidance Department, the four vice presidents and presidents,

the remaining six were all white-haired elders with ancient, weathered features.

Merely sitting there, the obscure aura flowing around them seemed faintly connected to the life force of the entire Sea God Island.

The seat of honor at the innermost end of the table was somewhat unusual, for a simple reclining chair had been placed there.

At that moment, an elderly man with a slightly stooped frame, dressed in gray cloth robes, lay quietly upon it.

His eyes were half-closed, his face covered in wrinkles. He looked no different from an ordinary old man nearing the end of his life.

He was Shrek Academy's pillar of support: the Limit Douluo, Dragon God Douluo Mu En.

The elder seated at the foremost seat on the left had white hair and beard, yet a rosy complexion.

One hand held a huge, glistening chicken leg, while the other carried a wine gourd.

He was eating until his mouth shone with grease and drinking with great delight, utterly out of place amid the solemn atmosphere. He was Taotie Douluo Xuan Zi.

Once everyone had taken their seats, invisible gazes crossed in the silence.

Mu En, reclining in the seat of honor, did not open his eyes. His lips merely moved, and a gentle yet clear voice sounded equally beside everyone's ears.

"Now that everyone is here, let us begin. Shao Zhe, this matter began with you, so you will preside over it."

"Yes, Teacher."

Yan Shaozhe immediately rose and solemnly bowed toward the seat of honor, his attitude exceptionally respectful.

He then turned toward the elders on both sides of the table and offered them the same meticulous salute.

Once the formalities were complete, he did not sit down.

Instead, he stood directly before his seat, his gaze sweeping across every elder present.

He drew a deep breath. His voice was steady, yet carried barely suppressed excitement as he went straight to the point.

"Teacher, esteemed elders, Shao Zhe presumptuously requested this Sea God Pavilion meeting today

because, during today's martial soul awakening ceremony, I discovered an unparalleled genius capable of overturning everything we know."

"Oh? An unparalleled genius?"

Xian Lin'er, the president of the Soul Guidance Department, abruptly raised her brows, her sharp gaze shooting directly toward Yan Shaozhe.

She had always possessed a straightforward and fiery temperament, and she had long differed from Yan Shaozhe in both philosophy and past dealings.

Hearing such an exaggerated assessment now, she instinctively spoke with a trace of doubt.

"President Yan, a Sea God Pavilion meeting is no trifling matter.

"What kind of genius warrants your use of the words 'unparalleled genius'? And even requires the emergency gathering of all of us?

"You must know that even Lexuan in her day, or the predecessors before her who shook the continent with their names,

never caused the entire Sea God Pavilion to convene and discuss a training plan when they first entered the academy."

Her words voiced the thoughts of some of the elders.

Who among those present had not seen countless geniuses and prodigies?

What Shrek lacked least was talent.

Why did this warrant such a massive commotion?

Yan Shaozhe was not surprised by Xian Lin'er's doubts. He had come prepared and directly revealed the most shocking fact.

"This child's name is Xia Ming. His martial soul is the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff, and he possesses Innate Full Soul Power.

"That may still fall within the realm of top-tier talents that you can understand. But—"

He deliberately paused for a moment, then spoke clearly, one word at a time.

"I personally tested him. Before obtaining even a single Soul Ring,

relying only on his martial soul itself and the Innate Domain he awakened with,

his full-powered strike already rivaled that of a high-level assault-type Soul Elder, even touching upon the threshold of a Soul Ancestor!"

"What?!"

"That is impossible!"

"He has not added any Soul Rings, yet he has touched the threshold of a Soul Ancestor? Yan Shaozhe, do you know what you are saying?!"

Xian Lin'er sprang to her feet, her beautiful eyes wide with shock and disbelief.

It was not only her. The elders seated on both sides of the long table, each at least one or two generations older than her and long accustomed to storms,

were also visibly shaken, their faces revealing utter disbelief.

Soft exclamations and doubts instantly shattered the Sea God Pavilion's solemn silence.

Elder Xuan slammed the half-eaten chicken leg and wine gourd onto the table with a bang.

He casually wiped his greasy palm on his clothes. His formerly bleary, drunken eyes became incomparably sharp, and his voice turned low and stern.

"Shao Zhe! This is the Sea God Pavilion!

"A child who has only just awakened, without any enhancement from Soul Rings, possesses strength comparable to a Soul Ancestor? Do you know what that means?

"It means that the existing theories of soul masters have encountered a fundamental exception in him!

"Do you dare take responsibility for what you have just said?"

The astonishing claim brought fierce shock and doubt.

It was not that they distrusted Yan Shaozhe, but that the matter was simply too contrary to common sense, exceeding the boundaries of everything they had understood in their lives.

Just then—

"Silence."

The same gentle voice sounded again, yet it seemed to contain endless strength and wisdom.

It was not loud, yet it instantly soothed all unrest and doubt, returning the entire Sea God Pavilion to silence.

Everyone's eyes, including those of the agitated Xian Lin'er and the stern Xuan Zi, immediately turned toward the reclining chair at the seat of honor.