Shrek.
This name had existed for a very long time. Its founder was Flender, the dean of Shrek Academy, who established it ten thousand years ago.
At the time, Flender gathered Zhao Wuji, a wanted criminal from Spirit Hall, Shao Xin, a Food System Soul Saint, and Lu Qibin and Li Yusong, two Control System and Power Attack System Soul Emperors. With a decent teaching staff, he founded Shrek Academy.
But having teachers wasn't enough; the academy also needed resources. Shrek had started out as nothing more than a school built in an impoverished village.
Half of it was basically the villagers' homes, and the other half belonged to Shrek Academy. The accommodations were poor, too. Even Notting Academy, a junior academy where ordinary students studied, was much better than Shrek.
Shrek's educational system was also terrible. The students were basically made to run for training, then sent to the Soul Fighting Arena to earn tuition by fighting. The food was awful, too.
There were all sorts of things to criticize.
The academy's facilities and admissions policy.
(1) An unaccredited academy with exorbitant fees: early Shrek was located on the outskirts of Suotuo City. Its facilities were so crude that it lacked even basic dormitories and a Mimicry Cultivation Environment, yet it charged a nonrefundable enrollment fee of 10 Gold Soul Coins—several months' living expenses for an ordinary family. People mocked it as an "idiot tax" and accused it of fleecing students like human traffickers.
(2) An abysmal graduation rate: in twenty years, it admitted forty-two students, but only fourteen graduated. Most of the rest either perished or were eliminated. The academy only took in ready-made geniuses, yet it couldn't even protect these many students with high Innate Soul Power. What was the point? It claimed to "only accept monsters," but couldn't provide the security or education they deserved. It was simply leading students astray.
Controversies over staff and management.
(3) A low ceiling for its teachers: Dean Flender and Zhao Wuji were only Soul Saints, with no Titled Douluo to support the academy. Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang was useless in actual combat. Yu Xiaogang, in particular, was only a Soul Grandmaster, leading people to question whether he deserved the title of "elite academy."
(4) Profiteering and passing the buck: Flender was criticized for being greedy. He often took students to the Soul Fighting Arena to make money by having them fight and betting on the matches. When students got into trouble hunting Soul Rings, the academy failed to supervise them. Once they became famous, the academy took credit for their success. He was mocked as a "businessman who could only profit and never lose."
Criticism of its motto and values.
(5) The "stir up trouble" motto: "A Soul Master who doesn't dare to cause trouble isn't a good Soul Master" was attacked for encouraging school bullying and picking on the weak while fearing the strong. They dared to provoke Canghui Academy but not Dugu Bo. The students they trained seemed more like members of a bandit den than a proper academy.
(6) Double standards and self-interest: the Shrek faction in the later years—especially Tang San—was accused of having a hypocritical sense of justice. They exterminated Spirit Hall while claiming to uphold justice. The academy was seen as an organization serving the interests of the protagonist group, rather than an institution devoted to education.
The students' character problems.
(7) Dai Mubai was a playboy who kept several women at his side. Even though he had a fiancée, he abandoned her and ran away. After arriving at Shrek Academy, he fooled around with twin sisters.
(8) Ma Hongjun used his Evil Fire as an excuse to constantly visit brothels. He even had his eye on underage female classmates. It might have been understandable if they were adults, but those girls weren't even of age.
Oscar also constantly made crude jokes, and was criticized for having outdated values.
(9) Tang San was extremely hypocritical. During competitions, he had no problem beating other people up, but if someone hurt Xiao Wu, he immediately decided they deserved to die. He even used Hidden Weapons to attack people.
The food, dormitories, and brainwashing education provided by the academy were all problematic.
(10) The food Shrek provided in its early days was even worse than the breakfast, lunch, and dinner served before it took over Blue Tyrant Academy. The meals were all terrible.
The usual breakfast was steamed buns, pickled vegetables, and plain rice porridge. At least everyone was guaranteed one egg a day.
And they thought that was worth ten Gold Soul Coins in tuition? What a joke. One Silver Soul Coin should have been enough.
(11) The buildings and room assignments were as follows.
The academy's buildings were crudely renovated old wooden houses in a village on the outskirts of Suotuo City.
There were two rows of two-story wooden buildings in the residential area, with men and women living on opposite sides. Since there were so few students, the academy let them choose any room they wanted, and they could even switch rooms every day.
The living conditions inside were as follows.
When you opened the dormitory door, you were usually greeted by the smell of old wood mixed with a faint mustiness.
The rooms were cramped, with only a few simple plank beds, a table missing a leg, and several rickety cabinets. There were even cracks in the walls.
I wouldn't go to a school like this for even one Copper Soul Coin.
(12) The education at Shrek Academy was brainwashing from beginning to end.
Shrek's interests came first. Take Qin Ming, one of Shrek's former students. Shrek gave him nothing, while Heaven Dou Royal Academy offered him plenty of shortcuts and excellent resources.
And what happened? In his heart, this guy still only cared about Shrek. He promptly left Heaven Dou Royal Academy and joined Flender and the others in running Shrek Academy.
Shrek was a school, not a place for training die-hard loyalists. It couldn't demand that its students "live as members of Shrek and die as ghosts of Shrek."
Ning Rongrong of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was one of the Shrek Seven Devils. She had been the sect's Little Demoness, and should have put her sect's interests first. But after she arrived at Shrek, she was brainwashed and came to put Shrek's interests above everything else.
To sum it up:
Shrek had always been this kind of academy. It should have disappeared a long time ago.
But then they met Tang San. After joining Shrek Academy, Tang San formed the Shrek Seven Devils with Ning Rongrong, Dai Mubai, and Xiao Wu.
They competed in the Soul Master Tournament and won. They then helped the Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire fight Spirit Hall and unite the continent. Tang San even became a god, turning Shrek Academy into a school that had produced a god.
An academy like this shouldn't have survived, but because it had produced Tang San, Shrek Academy was able to endure.
But Shrek had hardly helped Tang San and the others at all. The Shrek Seven Devils' prospects of becoming gods were mainly thanks to the Celestial Herbs Dugu Bo provided, the domain from the Capital of Slaughter, and the Sea God Trial on Sea God Island. These were what gave them the qualifications and resources to become gods.
Shrek was just the school they attended. It had nothing useful to offer.
The Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul theory Yu Xiaogang came up with was especially ridiculous. Most of it was either nonsense or common knowledge. Take that line, for example: "There are no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters."
But before he met Tang San, before Tang San gave him Celestial Herbs, Yu Xiaogang had been unable to break through level twenty-nine. He had been stuck at the Soul Grandmaster rank his entire life, unable to become a Soul Elder.
You could say Yu Xiaogang's own words came back to slap him in the face.
And Shrek Academy even promoted his theory. Wasn't that a joke? Shrek was an academy that had no business existing in the first place. It barely even deserved to be called a school.
The people of Shrek also claimed that Shrek was a kind of monster among Soul Beasts. But according to the records kept by Spirit Hall, Shrek wasn't very powerful. It was simply strange, and had gone extinct long ago because it was weak.
Even Xiao Wu, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, knew that some Soul Beasts weren't particularly powerful. Yet Shrek praised them as fearsome, all to take advantage of ordinary people's ignorance and trick them into joining.
After Shrek helped the Heaven Dou Empire and Star Luo Empire destroy Spirit Hall, no one was left to provide Soul Master subsidies to low-level Soul Masters or offer free Martial Soul awakenings. Shrek didn't take over these responsibilities from Spirit Hall, and the two empires certainly weren't going to help.
Civilization on Douluo Continent regressed to slavery in an instant. In the feudal era, with Spirit Hall's support, society had at least been a mix of feudalism and religious influence, and people had been able to scrape by.
But Shrek, the Upper Three Sects, and the two empires joined forces to destroy Spirit Hall. Overnight, ordinary people could no longer make ends meet.
Many Shrek students had come from ordinary families, too. Ma Hongjun and Oscar, two of the Shrek Seven Devils, had depended on the subsidies from Spirit Hall to get by. They were commoners who relied on the heavens for their food. And yet they helped Shrek destroy Spirit Hall.
They were even more ungrateful than a pack of snakes.
Shrek was riddled with flaws.
But because Tang San became a god and needed Shrek, he secretly preserved the academy, even making it the center of the continent and all that.
Later, the Sun Moon Continent, home to the Sun Moon Empire, drifted over to Douluo Continent as the tectonic plates shifted. The Heaven Dou Empire eventually split into the Dou Ling Empire and Heaven Dou Empire, while the ruling family of the Star Luo Empire was replaced.
The three empires were already at a disadvantage in their war against the Sun Moon Empire. They had no chance of defeating it, because it possessed advanced Soul Guidance Technology and a complete system.
The Sun Moon Empire was extremely powerful. It had no Super Douluo, but the existence of Ninth-level Soul Tools alone could turn the tide of battle.
The Douluo Three Kingdoms chose to promote Hidden Weapons because Tang San had become a god. So the Douluo allied forces, equipped with Tang Sect Hidden Weapons, fought the Sun Moon Empire together.
But weapons like Tang Sect Hidden Weapons, made from metal and gunpowder, were no match for high-tech Soul Guidance Technology.
The Douluo Three Kingdoms were immediately beaten back step by step. Later, Shrek gathered more than sixty Titled Douluo from across Douluo Continent and took command of the army. Only then did they defeat the Sun Moon Empire.
After that, Shrek became even more arrogant and powerful, even taking charge of the continent's efforts to hunt down Evil Soul Masters.
That was the history of an unaccredited, third-rate academy that should have been eliminated long ago, yet somehow became the center of the continent.
The era ten thousand years later.
Shrek City.
This was the most famous city on Douluo Continent ten thousand years later, because it was home to the continent's top academy, Shrek Academy—the Fraud Academy.
It had been founded by Flender, the dean who established Monster Academy back in the day—a shameless scoundrel.
It had started as a small academy, but the rise of Tang San and the other Shrek Seven Devils had made it famous across the continent.
After ten thousand years of tradition, Shrek Academy had become the number one academy on Douluo Continent.
Shrek Academy now belonged to no country, yet held tremendous influence across the continent. Its dean could even stand as an equal to an emperor.
Even the emperor of the Sun Moon Empire had to show Shrek Academy a certain degree of respect. Otherwise, the consequences would be serious.
In this era, people on Douluo Continent had been brainwashed and didn't understand what kind of academy Shrek really was.
But there was one person who didn't want to come to Shrek. He had been forcibly brought there anyway and forced to do something. He couldn't even leave.
He was fifteen years old, but only at level three. By all rights, with talent like that, he had no chance of entering the Inner Court.
He shouldn't even have been able to enter the Outer Court. Many Shrek students couldn't understand why the Inner Court had allowed someone with only level three Soul Power to enroll. They simply couldn't make sense of it.
Inside a luxurious dormitory in the Inner Court, two figures clung tightly to each other. Flames of incredible intensity enveloped them both.
The woman looked around eighteen or nineteen. Her long red hair cascaded down to her waist, and her pale pink eyes were enough to make anyone's soul feel as if it had been hooked.
An embrace between a man and a woman should have been sweet, but this boy was different. He didn't want to be held at all. He was being forced into the embrace and bound to her with a Soul Tool.
At last, it was over.
"I finally managed to build up a little Soul Power, and you absorbed it all again!"
The boy said angrily as he looked at the beautiful red-haired woman before him. She was extraordinarily beautiful, but he didn't feel kindly toward her. He even wanted to kill her, to beat her to death.
"Your cultivation is over. You're useless to me now, so you can leave. You'll be paid in Gold Soul Coins later."
The woman spoke.
"Do you think I wanted to help you? If it weren't for you people, would I have ended up like this? I had level thirty Innate Soul Power! My Martial Soul is a Divine Beast! Someone like me should have had a bright future. I could have received excellent treatment in any country and become a genius. Whether I joined a top sect or went to work for a country, I would have received the best treatment. But what did you do?!"
The boy poured out his suffering in a furious voice.
"You chose this yourself. Remember that."
The young woman mocked him, making her meaning perfectly clear.
"I didn't choose this! You people dragged me to Shrek Academy against my will, dragged me to this filthy place, and forced me to help you deal with your Evil Fire!... Aah!"
A blast of Soul Power sent the boy flying into the wall.
"I'm warning you again. If you say that one more time, I'll break your legs and cripple you for good."
The young woman then left.
"Uncle, I miss you... I could have gone to the Sun Moon Empire with you, but Shrek's people forcibly took me away. They killed you, too, and crippled me for three whole years."
The boy spoke in pain. He couldn't accept that Shrek Academy had crippled him for three whole years.
Just then, an old man came in, eating a chicken leg and drinking wine. "Your task is complete. Here are a hundred Gold Soul Coins. Take them and leave Shrek Academy. I'm warning you: you'd better not tell anyone what happened. Otherwise, you know what will happen."
"My talent, my future... my talent and future are worth only a hundred Gold Soul Coins? Are you kidding me?!"
"Remember, you chose this yourself. If you dare say anything you shouldn't, you'll bear the consequences."
The hundred Gold Soul Coins were put into a storage Soul Tool. The boy could only endure it. He couldn't fight Shrek. He had already been crippled for three years.
Then he took the money and left the Inner Court, and soon after, he left Shrek City.
"That useless guy finally left. Looks like the people at Shrek Academy finally realized he was good for nothing and should just go."
"Exactly! Exactly!"
The boy heard their gossip but had nothing to say. He only hated Shrek and hated that he wasn't strong enough to take revenge on those people.
Soon, the boy reached the woods outside Shrek City.
He found a shady tree and sat down.
He felt despair toward this world.
"What am I supposed to do? Uncle, please tell me. If your spirit is still watching over me, tell me what I should do."
Xiao Changge! No matter what happens, you have to live well. You have to live a life more brilliant than anyone else's!
Those were the last words the boy remembered hearing from the uncle he spoke of.
"But I still don't know your name. You never told me what your name was before those people from Shrek killed you."
Just as the boy was overcome with despair, a voice suddenly rang out.
"Young man, do you need my help?"
"Who are you?"
The boy was startled when he heard the voice.
He couldn't figure out who was speaking to him.
"Young man, don't be like that. Actually, I've been watching you ever since you awakened your Martial Soul.
You want to become stronger, right? You should have been a genius with level thirty Innate Soul Power. In this world, ordinary people could only have up to level ten Innate Soul Power. Some people, like the descendants of gods in the legends, could have level twenty Innate Full Soul Power. You were stronger than all of them, with level thirty Innate Full Soul Power and a Divine Beast Martial Soul. That made you a genius among geniuses.
But those people at Shrek Academy crippled you and turned you into a good-for-nothing, all for the sake of that woman named Ma Xiaotao."
The boy grew furious when he heard the speaker say this. Ma Xiaotao was one of the Shrek Seven Devils of Shrek Academy ten thousand years later.
"Actually, you should have had a much better life. People in this world awakened their Martial Souls at six, but back then, only the nobles and their lackeys had the right to awaken their Martial Souls at that age.
You awakened your Martial Soul at twelve, which was far too late. You had no resources. The one who helped you awaken your Martial Soul was a Soul Engineer from the Sun Moon Empire. He kindly helped you and discovered that you had a top-tier Martial Soul. You should have gone with him to the Sun Moon Empire and lived a better life, but Shrek's people found you. For the sake of that woman named Ma Xiaotao, they killed the man from the Sun Moon Empire who had helped you awaken your Martial Soul.
They also forced you to help Ma Xiaotao stabilize her Evil Fire and contribute your Soul Power for her to absorb. They were absolutely shameless.
And they still called themselves the continent's holy land. What a joke. They were terrible people."
The boy was truly furious after hearing those words. Everything the speaker had said was part of the suffering he had endured. Everyone in this world was supposed to awaken their Martial Soul at twelve, but the Martial Soul system had already collapsed ten thousand years ago.
Neither of the two empires nor Shrek Academy had chosen to help commoner Soul Masters awaken their Martial Souls. So nowadays, ordinary people couldn't awaken their Martial Souls unless they had enough money.
Only the Sun Moon Empire, that continent across the sea, offered free Martial Soul awakenings to its citizens.
The boy was an orphan—or rather, he had been an orphan in this life. The first person he had seen when he was born was his mother, but she had abandoned him and left him in a village. That village was poor, too.
So there had been no money to help the boy awaken his Martial Soul. He hadn't been able to awaken it at all. At the age of six, he started working for a merchant to earn money, just so he could live a little better.
The boy had already fallen into despair, but then he met that Soul Engineer uncle from the Sun Moon Empire, who helped him awaken his Martial Soul.
So the boy was deeply grateful to the Soul Engineer uncle. He even treated him like family. But Shrek's people killed him.
All for the sake of that woman named Ma Xiaotao. And after using him, they gave him only a hundred Gold Soul Coins before kicking him out.
To the boy, this was unforgivable. But he had no power and no way to fight back. He could only let them toy with him however they wanted. That was one of the most disgusting things about Shrek.
"Become my disciple. I can help you. But... the way I look now might frighten you."
"Then show yourself."
As soon as the boy said this, the owner of the voice appeared. But the figure wasn't human. It was a spirit.
"With the sun and moon in my hands, I pluck the stars from the sky. None in this world can compare to me."
"You!" The boy was startled when he saw the figure.
"This is what I remember. My name is Electrolux. I used to be a remnant soul, nothing more than fragments of a spirit. But when you awakened your Martial Soul, I entered your mind. With your Martial Soul's help, my spirit has slowly begun to recover.
If you're willing to become my disciple, I'll teach you everything I can and help you take revenge."
"I..."
Just then, another voice entered the boy's mind.
[Congratulations, host, on awakening the system! The system has detected that you need help and will provide you with the template of the Flame Emperor, Xiao Yan, from the Battle Through the Heavens world to help you begin your revenge in this world.]
My time for revenge has come.
I, Xiao Changge, will have my revenge! Shrek! Ma Xiaotao! Just you wait!
Once I become powerful again, once I become a genius again, I'll make you pay!
Before you continue