Shrek Academy and the Sun Moon Empire's Schools Compared

"I don't have any feelings toward the Douluo Three Kingdoms. It's just that if I join the Sun Moon Empire..."

(I still don't know whether Xu Tianran has partnered with those evil Soul Masters from the Holy Spirit Cult. If they already have, it'll be a huge headache later.)

Xiao Changge didn't dislike the Sun Moon Empire. He was simply worried about the trouble posed by evil Soul Masters.

But if he joined the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy...

In the original The Unrivaled Tang Clan, the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy—the one in Mingdu, overseen by Jing Hongchen—had two tiers of requirements for admission and continued enrollment: hard registration requirements plus an entrance examination, followed by advancement and elimination thresholds after enrollment. Huo Yuhao and He Caitou entered through Shrek's exchange student program, but ordinary applicants followed the rules below.

First, hard registration requirements—eligibility for the preliminary examination.

Age twelve or under. The Soul Tool at the entrance would scan bone age, and anyone over the limit would be eliminated immediately.

Soul Power had to be at least Rank 10, and the applicant had to have obtained their first Soul Ring.

No distinction was made based on background. Commoners and royalty were treated equally, and registration was free.

Second, the entrance examination—the retest.

Applicants only needed to excel in one of two areas; they didn't need to master everything.

Martial Soul and combat: Soul Power, Martial Soul quality, use of soul skills, actual combat ability, and physical strength were tested.

Soul Engineer track: basic Soul Tool theory, core formation inscription, forging, and making a basic Soul Tool on the spot with the provided materials.

In other words, Martial Soul geniuses who could fight were accepted, and technically gifted students who could make Soul Tools were accepted too. The Sun Moon system favored the latter more.

Third, advancement and elimination after enrollment—these were the real requirements.

Grades weren't determined by age, but by Soul Engineer rank.

A first-class Soul Engineer advanced to the second year.

Second-class meant third year, and so on.

Anyone who hadn't reached third-class Soul Engineer before turning eighteen was ordered to leave.

Reaching fifth-class before twenty-five qualified one to take the Mingde Hall examination, a path for advanced study at the highest level.

He was now fifteen years old, already over the age limit of twelve.

And the Sun Moon Empire specialized in learning about Soul Tools, but he truly wasn't very skilled with them. He was better at combat, though he also planned to learn some alchemy techniques.

Soul Tools... he really wasn't good at them...

Although the Sun Moon Empire was much better than Shrek, it still had some difficulties and requirements.

After all, Shrek charged ten Gold Soul Coins as a registration fee. If applicants failed to pass, the money wasn't refunded. It was no different from ten thousand years ago.

And applicants even had to have a city lord's letter of recommendation. Shrek clearly hadn't required that before, yet now it did. Shrek had become even more absurd—each generation more absurd than the last.

Still, during the era of The Unrivaled Tang Clan, the two each had their own strengths and weaknesses.

To compare them properly, one first had to separate "a holy land for Soul Masters" from "a good school." In terms of faith, Martial Soul cultivation heritage, and training combat strength among peers, Shrek surpassed the Sun Moon Empire.

But in terms of Soul Tool technical education, systematic knowledge, and industrialized talent cultivation, the Sun Moon Imperial academy was more like a "modern school."

1. As a holy land for Soul Masters: Shrek crushed it.

A ten-thousand-year reputation and neutral stance: it belonged to no empire, stood at the border of the three great empires, and had the Sea God Pavilion overseeing it. Limit Douluo like Mu En and Xuan Zi held the fort. Its recognition among Soul Masters was practically religious, and its policy of "only accepting monsters" had itself become a totem.

Martial Soul cultivation heritage: ten thousand years of accumulated experience in Soul Ring matching, Martial Soul analysis, and cultivation methods for ultimate Martial Souls were things the Sun Moon side couldn't understand. Shrek refused to use medicine to boost Soul Power, giving its students solid foundations. At the same rank, their combat ability could crush Sun Moon peers. Huo Yuhao effortlessly handling Ju Zi and three other Soul Kings while he was a Soul Elder was proof enough.

Graduate network: its students were spread throughout every profession across the continent, and a single call could draw countless responses. Sun Moon graduates, meanwhile, were basically locked into the Sun Moon Empire's military industry system.

Second, as good schools: both had serious flaws, but the Sun Moon Empire was more like a modern school in terms of "productized teaching."

Shrek was highly controversial as a "school."

Its daily teaching consisted of weighted runs, soul battles, and life-or-death elimination. In essence, it was a top-tier resource platform and a genius filter, not universal education that turned ordinary people into talents. Ordinary prospects couldn't get in, and those who ranked at the bottom after entering would be eliminated.

The Inner Court had elders from the Sea God Pavilion engaging in politics, required recommendation letters, and had a strong factional atmosphere. Readers' complaints that it "trained dogs and kept only the obedient ones" weren't baseless.

During the era of The Unrivaled Tang Clan, Shrek's Soul Guidance Department was explicitly behind the Sun Moon Empire's. Even Fan Yu admitted that "the number one Soul Guidance Department is the Sun Moon Imperial academy."

The Sun Moon Imperial academy's strengths as a school lay in this:

It had a complete knowledge system for Soul Tools: blueprints, core formations, inscription procedures, and graded examinations—first-class corresponding to the second year, with third-class before eighteen as the red line. It was standardized, replicable, and technologically advanced quickly, like an engineering university.

Resources were tilted toward Soul Tools. Dormitories came with separate inscription rooms, research was encouraged, and students produced results efficiently.

Its weaknesses were equally fatal: Martial Soul cultivation was neglected, and Soul Power was piled up with medicine. Xiao Hongchen using medicine and getting stuck at a bottleneck was explicitly stated in the original work. They could fight those at the same rank, but their foundations were weak. The school's purpose was tied to the empire's war machine, and its students were humanoid military-industrial components.

So in summary, the Sun Moon Empire also had disadvantages, but those weren't major problems for Xiao Changge. The problem was that he had a grudge against Shrek. He couldn't choose to join it, nor could he return to Shrek, leaving the Sun Moon Empire as his only option.

Moreover, the two best schools on the Douluo Continent were Shrek Academy and the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy.

Of the remaining Douluo Three Kingdoms, the Dou Ling Empire was a weakling that nobody wanted to play with. After all, it didn't even develop Soul Tools, and its Soul Masters weren't particularly strong either. The Heaven Dou Empire had the Rank 98 Body Sect.

The Star Luo Empire developed both Soul Tools and Soul Masters, but it was still far inferior to Shrek and the Sun Moon Empire. So the best destination was still the Sun Moon Empire. The Sun Moon Empire was the best—it was far better than going to any of the Douluo Three Kingdoms.

However, the Sun Moon Empire had one major problem: it cooperated with evil Soul Masters, namely those evil Soul Masters from the Holy Spirit Cult. He worried that if he went to the Sun Moon Empire, he would come into conflict with evil Soul Masters.

If he clashed with evil Soul Masters, the trouble would be enormous. Xu Tianran still needed to use the Holy Spirit Cult's evil Soul Masters against the Douluo Three Kingdoms and Shrek, so he couldn't offend them no matter what.

But the problem was that if the evil Soul Masters provoked him, Xu Tianran might choose to sacrifice him for the greater good.

That was what worried him. If he joined the Sun Moon Empire, he had to gain the support of at least one or two big shots, such as Kong Deming and Jing Hongchen.

Therefore, if he joined the Sun Moon Empire's academy, it would be best if he could gain the support of those two powerful figures. That was the best choice.

That way, even if Xu Tianran wanted to move against him or sacrifice him, he would have to consider the weight those two carried and think of the bigger picture.

Of course, with Electrolux around, many of those evil souls' methods wouldn't work on him. But Electrolux was currently only a soul body, a remnant soul, so he still had to be careful no matter what.

[Ding, congratulations, Host. You are faced with a new choice.]

At this moment, the system came with another choice.