Shrek's Challenge?

Four years later.

Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy, Mimicry Cultivation Ground.

Shen Nanxun stood in the center of the arena. At fourteen, the youth had grown to over 1.8 meters tall, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and a lean, well-proportioned physique.

In these four years, his soul power had naturally reached level 49. In terms of his cultivation speed, this wasn't actually very fast. After breaking through level 40, he had spent a portion of his time stabilizing his bloodline.

With the full awakening of the other half of the Dragon Prince bloodline, the Dragon Prince bloodline within his body was now extremely complete. Yet, even as a Soul Spirit, this bloodline still needed to adapt to his physical form.

Although this had delayed his cultivation progress to a certain extent, the peerless combat power brought by the Dragon Prince bloodline could fully compensate for it.

To put it simply, if Shen Nanxun were to unleash his full power and drive his bloodline energy now, his combat strength could rival that of a Soul Douluo.

Exaggerated?

Not in the slightest.

If Lan Xuanyu, who possessed a hybrid Dragon God bloodline, could have such combat power, then Shen Nanxun, with his pure Dragon Prince bloodline, would only be stronger.

However, looking at it now, there were still drawbacks. He wasn't sure if it was because the Dragon Prince Soul Spirit had never truly awakened. If he were to push his bloodline to erupt with full force, he might have to lie in bed for a month to recover.

Moreover, the toll on his body was immense and detrimental to future cultivation, so unless it was a special situation, he would not push himself to that extent.

A familiar set of footsteps echoed from the edge of the arena—light, hurried, and carrying a rhythmic, bouncy quality. Shen Nanxun didn't need to turn around to know who it was; he had been listening to these footsteps for eight full years, from North Sea City all the way to Ming Capital.

"Shen Nanxun! I've finished the design for your Battle Armor!" Na'er waved the roll of blueprints in her hand, her ahoge swaying a beat faster than usual.

The fourteen-year-old girl had grown to just over 1.7 meters. Her silver-white hair cascaded to her waist, loosely tied with a pale blue ribbon. Her features had shed the childishness of her youth, leaving behind clear, fluid lines, though her silver eyes remained exactly as they had been eight years ago—bright and sparkling.

The design for his one-word Battle Armor had been roughly framed last year through the general concepts he and Qian Renxue had established. Afterward, the Shen Family had hired many famous Battle Armor designers from across the continent to help fill in the specific details.

Na'er's contribution didn't hold much technical value; it was mostly just descriptions of the appearance.

"Which version is this?"

"The seventeenth! There's definitely no problem this time!" Na'er slapped the blueprints into his arms and tilted her head up, looking righteous. "Treat me."

"But I haven't even looked at the blueprints yet."

"You have to treat me whether you look at them or not. Na'er spent three months on this; even if there's no credit, there's still hard work." Her ahoge swayed argumentatively. Shen Nanxun looked down at the seventeenth version of the Battle Armor design in his arms, her name signed in the bottom right corner, accompanied by a crookedly drawn ahoge as usual.

Three months—no wonder she had spent every night in the library for the past three months researching soul guidance circuit compatibility. He tucked the blueprints away and picked up his jacket from the weapon rack, draping it over his shoulders.

"Let's go. What do you want to eat?"

"Spicy rabbit heads." Na'er didn't hesitate, falling into step half a pace behind him. After walking two steps, she added, "Extra spicy. Your treat."

Shen Nanxun was a bit surprised. "I thought you might want something else."

"Can I really?" The girl's eyes lit up.

"...Don't push your luck!"

As the two walked side by side through the academy's central plaza, the gazes along the way naturally converged on them. After all, such a scene had played out almost every day for the past four years.

"That's Senior Shen Nanxun, the academy's number one student!"

"Who else could it be? The one next to him is his younger sister, Na'er, the Dragon Spear Goddess, the one who took on five people alone in last year's academy exchange tournament."

"I remember she was named the academy's top beauty last year, or maybe the year before? She looks ten thousand times better in person than in photos!"

"The Dragon Spear Goddess and the strongest male god are siblings? What kind of divine family is this?"

"They aren't blood-related; I heard she was adopted by the Shen family. But they are extremely close and are inseparable all day long."

Na'er walked by Shen Nanxun's side, turning a deaf ear to the surrounding discussions.

Since enrolling, she had heard titles like "Sun Moon's Top Beauty" and "Dragon Spear Goddess" so often that her ears were practically calloused. At first, her ahoge would bristle, but later she realized that the more it bristled, the more attention she drew, so she simply treated it as background noise.

However, her attention was clearly not on those gazes right now, nor did she care about the whispers of the underclassmen—hushed but unable to conceal their excitement. She was simply clutching the meal card with no spending limit in her hand, calculating how many rabbit heads she would order later.

As for Shen Nanxun walking beside her, he held a vastly different title among the Sun Moon students. No one called him a genius, because the word "genius" was too cheap at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Master Academy—so cheap that every student who entered with innate full soul power had been called that at some point.

They called him "the strongest student in Sun Moon history." This title had first come from the mouth of Dean Kong Jieming and was later publicly cited by the High-Level Department's Dean of Students, Zhang Hanlin, at an all-academy assembly. From then on, it became Shen Nanxun's unique label at Sun Moon.

He had entered at nine years old as a three-ringed soul master, and four years later, he was at the peak of level 49 as a Soul Ancestor. He had crushed the elites of the Shrek outer courtyard in a two-versus-seven battle at the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition, and he had won consecutive victories in the academy exchange tournaments. A few years ago, he had even led a team to defeat the six-man group led by Long Chen, who had originally been the academy's greatest hope.

Long Chen possessed the Radiant Sacred Dragon martial soul, with extremely strong individual combat power, and was paired with You Dingqi, who could both attack and defend. Weng Daimin and Xue Liushuang possessed a powerful martial soul fusion skill—the Ice and Snow Goddess. Kuang Zhantian and Jian Mochen also had a martial soul fusion skill—the Heavenly Tiger Summoning.

Six people, two martial soul fusion skills.

Such a terrifying lineup had been dismantled by him single-handedly.

"Shen Nanxun, do you ever feel like the way they look at you is getting more and more like they're looking at a rare soul beast?" Na'er leaned in and lowered her voice.

"You're no better, Dragon Spear Goddess." Shen Nanxun looked straight ahead. Na'er's ahoge swayed proudly.

The two crossed the plaza and stepped onto the tree-lined path leading to the school gate. The setting sun cast their shadows side by side behind them, one tall and one short, standing very close. It was no different from eight years ago.

At the academy gate, a blue-haired girl with twin tails and a cool, moon-like girl with black hair stood waiting.

The new four-person group had long been prepared to go out for dinner together.

In recent years, Ye Xi and Dong Yi'an had gradually devoted themselves to their studies. In terms of talent, they were still a bit lacking. Consequently, they spent less time together in their daily lives, but they would still occasionally make plans to go out and have fun.

Gu Yue and Na'er's strength went without saying, and Heroine Xu had visited the Tianding Starry Sky Soul Master Academy during an exchange activity the year before last. There, her martial soul had completed its awakening, and she was now an indispensable assault and control-type soul master in the team.

The title of "First Strongest Control under the Starry Sky" had also echoed throughout the entire Sun Moon.

The four of them arrived at a restaurant they frequented, and after ordering their meal, they naturally began to chat.

"Do you want to go out together during the break?" Xu Xiaoyan asked excitedly, clearly very interested in the upcoming vacation.

"I want to!" Ahoge King was the first to respond to her best friend, though her expression quickly slumped. "But I don't want to take the final exams."

"You're a level forty Soul Ancestor, what are you afraid of regarding final exams?" Shen Nanxun moved her tableware from her left side to her right with a blank expression, conveniently taking her chopsticks off the bowl and setting them down properly for her.

"It's not the exams I'm afraid of, it's the theory. I can't even grab a seat in the library." Na'er rested her chin on the tabletop, her ahoge drooping listlessly. Xu Xiaoyan nodded in deep agreement and rested her own chin on the table as well; two ahoges lay side-by-side on the same table.

Gu Yue sat across from Shen Nanxun, quietly flipping through the menu, neither participating in the complaints about final exams nor showing much interest in the vacation plans.

When she reached the dessert page, her fingertips paused ever so slightly, and then she pushed the menu toward Shen Nanxun without a change in expression.

She had been like this for the past few years; cold and aloof on the outside, yet she always saved the best things for Shen Nanxun.

Xu Xiaoyan suddenly sprang up from the table as if she had just remembered some earth-shattering gossip. "Right! Have you guys heard? Shrek Academy is holding their final exams recently, and they've already kicked their way through academies in several cities. The internet says they're almost at Ming Capital. Do you think they'll come to our Sun Moon?"

"Really?" Na'er lifted her head as well.

"The internet has been in an uproar for a long time." Gu Yue put down the menu, her tone flat. "Every batch of Shrek freshmen has to pull this stunt. To put it bluntly, they're just using other academies to pad their own battle records. They kick their way from the west of the Federation all the way to the east, and the names of the academies they've defeated are hung on their official website like medals. They've been doing this for over a hundred years, and all sectors of society have long been full of complaints, but Shrek doesn't care. They think this is the privilege of the 'Number One Academy on the Continent'."

Xu Xiaoyan slammed the table indignantly. "What gives them the right! If they dare to come to Sun Moon, we'll show them what a real top academy is!"

Heroine Xu was chivalrous and righteous, daring to oppose the powerful; she was the ultimate firebrand!