"Cough, cough... I... am unwilling to accept this..."
Xuan Zi coughed up a mouthful of blood and then drew his last breath. He had actually died. After all, he was already over two hundred years old. Once his cultivation was crippled, despair and fury had been enough to snuff out his life.
"Elder Xuan!"
"No!"
One after another, the Shrek elders cried out in grief. Some even collapsed straight to the ground. Xuan Zi had been crippled and killed right before their eyes, and that moment drained away the last of their courage!
Could it be that Shrek Academy, with its ten-thousand-year legacy, was about to be destroyed by a mere young man? But Xuan Zi, their strongest member and the one with the best chance of reaching Limit Douluo, had been crippled. How could the others possibly stand against Huo Yuhao?
"Huo Yuhao, we'll fight you to the death!"
A Sea God Pavilion Elder at rank ninety-five let out a desperate roar. Huo Yuhao merely glanced over with a faint smile. Golden eyes opened once more behind him.
"Stop!"
Just then, Yan Shaozhe roared, stopping the elder who was about to charge forward and fight to the death. All that remained on his face was humiliation and tragic resolve.
"Hm? It's too late to call for a stop. Old Phoenix, I know you have a trick that lets you escape by shedding your shell like a golden cicada. Are you trying to buy time? Go ahead and try. Let's see if it works in front of me."
Huo Yuhao merely gave the dignified-looking old man a cool glance, his eyes full of disdain and mockery, as if he saw through everything.
"Besides, even if you escape, you can't take all these people with you, or run off with all of Shrek Academy. At worst, I'll simply slaughter everyone and make Shrek Academy history today!"
Huo Yuhao tossed Xuan Zi's corpse aside and spoke lazily. Yet the killing intent in his voice sent chills through every Shrek elder!
"Alas!"
Yan Shaozhe let out a long sigh. In that moment, he seemed to have aged by decades.
"What will it take for you to spare Shrek Academy? If Shrek Academy really falls, it won't do your Body Sect any good, either. When the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold."
"I know our Shrek Academy took part in that siege back then. But your main enemies, in the end, are the Sun Moon Empire and the Holy Spirit Cult."
"If Shrek falls, the Sun Moon Empire will have even less standing in the way of unifying the continent, and the Holy Spirit Cult will grow even more brazen..."
Yan Shaozhe looked into Huo Yuhao's eyes and spoke in a deep voice.
"Oh? So what? I want to destroy you today. Tell me, what are you going to do about it?"
Huo Yuhao tilted his head and spoke in a mocking, sarcastic tone.
"You!"
Qian Duoduo's eyes widened, blazing with fury. But Yan Shaozhe stopped him again with an outstretched hand.
"Our Shrek Academy can hand over all the wealth we currently control to your Body Sect. That will be enough to let your sect rise again in a very short time. The hidden wealth of Shrek Academy is probably far greater than you can imagine."
Yan Shaozhe looked at Huo Yuhao and spoke slowly.
"And if you destroy us outright, that wealth network will collapse. At best, you'll be able to plunder a very limited amount from the ruins."
"What's more, Shrek Academy's connections span the entire continent. As the Holy Land of Soul Masters for ten thousand years, our influence is beyond your imagination. We can help you in many ways. If you insist on ending the ten-thousand-year legacy left behind by our ancestor, Sea God Tang San, then the Body Sect will have to bear the consequences as well."
At that moment, Yan Shaozhe was like a seasoned merchant. Expressionless, he rapidly laid out the pros and cons.
"Oh. But why should I trust you? Are you going to propose some sort of alliance again? Old scoundrel Yan, if you take me for a fool, the consequences will be quite serious..."
Huo Yuhao smiled grimly again, seeming ready to strike.
"No, that isn't what I mean. I mean that Shrek Academy will sign a contract beneath the Sea God statue, with the Clear Sky Sect, the Star Luo Empire, and the Sun Moon Empire as witnesses. From this day onward, we will become an affiliated academy of the Body Sect!"
Yan Shaozhe closed his eyes and spoke in near-unbearable anguish.
"What?"
"Impossible!"
"Dean, have you gone mad?"
Even Huo Yuhao was a little surprised to hear such terms.
"Oh?"
"What I've said is absolutely true. I won't deceive you in the slightest. My only request now is that Shrek Academy be allowed to survive, and that its legacy not end in this generation—in my hands."
Yan Shaozhe's voice had begun to tremble.
"As long as the academy's legacy can continue, no price is too great! Huo Yuhao, preserving Shrek Academy—that is my one and only bottom line. You can deal with every elder who took part in that battle, as long as they're still alive!"
"Haha... Hahahahahaha..."
After staring at Yan Shaozhe for a long while, Huo Yuhao suddenly burst into laughter.
"You think those terms are enough for me to spare you? That's far too easy. I want..."
A few days later, a shocking piece of news spread across the entire Douluo Continent.
Shrek Academy announced before all the major powers on the continent that from that day onward, it would be placed under the Body Sect and become an affiliated Soul Master Academy of the sect!
The academy's full name was also changed to "Shrek Academy, Affiliated with the Body Sect." The sign had already been replaced, and countless students and teachers shed tears of humiliation.
Since Shrek Academy had left that little village ten thousand years ago and moved to Heaven Dou City, it had never suffered such humiliation and hardship!
Who could have imagined that Shrek Academy, which still seemed so powerful, would actually kneel in submission like this, all because of a young man in his twenties!
Shrek Academy's surrender to the Body Sect wasn't the only thing that made people's blood run cold. Many of the details were just as shocking.
Everyone from Shrek Academy knelt and apologized to Huo Yuhao's teacher, the Body Sect Master Du Busi, and the former Body Sect Master Du Bisou.
A magnificent statue of the brothers Du Busi and Du Bisou was erected before the Golden Tree. Before the two of them was a kneeling statue of Dragon God Douluo Mu En, the former Sea God Pavilion Master.
From then on, Sea God Pavilion and Sea God Lake were both renamed Yuhao Pavilion and Undying Lake.
All the statues of the Grandmasters, Flender, Liu Erlong, and the Original Shrek Seven Devils in Shrek Academy were toppled. Huo Yuhao even pissed on the fallen Sea God statue.
More than one of the former Sea God Pavilion Elders was ultimately unable to endure it. They attacked Huo Yuhao in grief and outrage, but he ruthlessly crushed them, crippled their Soul Cores and Martial Souls, and hung them from the Golden Tree to humiliate them.