"Cackle, cackle, cackle! What's so impressive about becoming a Titled Douluo before the age of forty? In my Holy Cult, which Titled Douluo didn't achieve that before turning forty?"
In a dark corner, the black-robed man gazed at the Sky Screen with greed and disdain in his eyes.
"Why not just come join my Holy Cult as the Holy Son? Who knows, by the time you're forty, you might even be able to challenge the rank of Limit Douluo! Then you could capture Yan Shaozhe, Mu En, and those other hypocrites, chop off their dog heads, and use them as chamber pots. Wouldn't that be satisfying? Cackle, cackle, cackle!"
The man let out a sinister, bizarre laugh, and the people around him all joined in, their eyes filled with disdain.
"Soul Tools have developed rapidly in recent years. But the true foundation of us Soul Masters still lies in ourselves. If you like Soul Tools, there's nothing wrong with trying them after you've reached the rank of Titled Douluo."
On the screen, Yan Shaozhe continued to drone on, speaking eloquently and at great length.
"But I hope you'll think this through carefully and not let this opportunity slip by. As long as you're willing to join our Martial Soul Department, the resources of the Martial Soul Department's inner courtyard will be directed toward you."
"Also, to make up for our earlier misjudgment, I can make you three more guarantees. First, Wang Dong, who can work with you to perform a Martial Soul Fusion Skill, and Xiao Xiao, another Twin Martial Souls Soul Master who has worked with you—I guarantee that both of them will become inner courtyard disciples of the Martial Soul Department in the future, just like you..."
At this point, countless onlookers watching the Sky Screen couldn't hold back any longer.
"Pah! Pah! How can there be someone so shameless in this world?"
"Good grief, you call that compensation? Why not just say that allowing him to breathe the air at Shrek Academy counts as a reward?"
"Did anyone ask you to guarantee that?"
Wang Dong had Twin Martial Souls, including the Clear Sky Hammer Martial Soul, and could perform such a powerful Martial Soul Fusion Skill.
Xiao Xiao also had Twin Martial Souls: the Three-Life Soul-Suppressing Cauldron and the Nine-Phoenix Flute. Her talent was top-notch.
Unless something unexpected happened, both of them would surely become Titled Douluos in the future, perhaps even Super Douluos. If people like them were to leave Shrek Academy, that would be Shrek's loss!
By rights, it wasn't Shrek granting them anything. The academy should have been making a sincere effort to recruit each of them as a key talent!
Yet from Yan Shaozhe's mouth, something so utterly obvious—and which could even be said to have nothing to do with Huo Yuhao himself—had somehow become Shrek's "kindness," and "compensation" for Huo Yuhao?
How shameless was that? How outrageously shameless!
"You should understand that core disciples and inner courtyard disciples are different. Not every core disciple is guaranteed entry into the inner courtyard. And becoming an inner courtyard disciple early means the academy will direct even more resources toward you..."
At this, the onlookers' eyes widened again, and their sense of absurdity grew even stronger. Good grief, this is different, that is different—was everything in your academy infinitely divisible or something?
"Second, in my capacity as the dean of Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Department, I guarantee that the academy will do everything in its power to equip you with a full set of Soul Bones. We'll ensure they're of the highest quality possible, so the Soul Bones you fuse with meet the highest standards. At least one of them will come from a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."
"Third, I guarantee that you'll be granted at least one Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring."
If they hadn't heard the earlier conversation and seen everything that had happened, the crowd might have believed Yan Shaozhe's claims.
But now...
So in the end, Shrek was nothing but an endless supply of empty promises and imaginary compensation, imaginary kindness?
They hadn't offered a single genuinely useful, tangible thing!
Watching the Sky Screen, Huo Yuhao couldn't help but sneer to himself. In the original story, Shrek Academy had never given Huo Yuhao a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring or Soul Bone. Meanwhile, Huo Yuhao had brought the academy who knew how many things.
The promises were all about making the checks look good. Not one of them ever turned into anything real!
"A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring? What's so impressive about that? Join our Holy Cult. We have all kinds of secret arts. Giving you three Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings wouldn't even be a problem!"
In the dark corner, the black-robed man sneered.
Du Busi, Jing Hongchen, Kong Deming, and the others all shook their heads. Even Xu Jiawei, the emperor of the Star Luo Empire, twitched at the corner of his mouth.
If the Star Luo Empire could recruit Huo Yuhao, they could get him a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, too.
For a peerless genius like this, wasn't it only natural to devote all their resources and effort to cultivating him?
Yet on the Sky Screen, faced with the grand promises spun by that old fox Yan Shaozhe, Huo Yuhao had been thoroughly taken in. Watching it made the crowd slap their thighs in frustration.
Tang Ya and Bei Bei both lowered their heads, feeling a little ashamed. This young brother was far too easy to fool!
Thinking about how, in the future that had originally been set to unfold, the two of them would fool Huo Yuhao like this, they couldn't help feeling a hard-to-bear sense of guilt.
And what could Huo Yuhao say? Having all this shown was practically a public execution.
Could he tell the entire continent, "I'm not the Huo Yuhao I used to be. All those outrageous things the old Huo Yuhao did have nothing to do with me"?
After that, led by the Level 98 Super Douluo Xuan Zi, the main and reserve teams of Shrek Academy set out for Star Luo City to compete in the upcoming Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament.
Shrek Academy's team was extravagantly strong, with an average strength of around five rings or higher. Huo Yuhao and the other juniors were only there to broaden their horizons. They weren't needed in the competition at all.
They would watch, gain experience, and then compete as the main team in the next Soul Master Tournament.
But when they reached the vicinity of a mountain range, Xuan Zi suddenly stopped and announced a mission.
"Ahem, children. Your first mission as members of the Shrek Inspection Team has arrived!"
"This bandit group calls itself the Death Messengers. Supposedly, their leader is a remarkably powerful Evil Soul Master..."
Xuan Zi told the children that there was an Evil Soul Master hideout near the border. Before the tournament began, they would wipe out the bandits' lair as a warm-up.
"Ugh, ugh—aaagh!"
Xuan Zi's seemingly grief-stricken howl rang out from the Sky Screen.
At that moment, everyone across the continent watching the Sky Screen shared a single feeling.
They were numb. Completely numb!
A five-ring Evil Soul Master—that so-called "Death Messenger"—had actually wiped out almost the entire group of Shrek's young geniuses with a single Corpse Explosion Technique, right in front of the Level 98 Super Douluo Xuan Zi!
At that moment, some people who knew Xuan Zi well couldn't help but look even more peculiar. Come to think of it, Xuan Zi's record was truly "glorious"!