"Soul Masters Who Don't Cause Trouble Are Mediocrities"

[If I remembered correctly, when Tang San first came to register while carrying Xiao Wu on his back, this place had still been fairly lively. Back then, Shrek Academy had quite a few people...]

Soul Land I Ye Lingling: "Quite a few?"

Soul Land I Xue Ke: "???"

Soul Land III Dai Yuner: "???"

Soul Land II Xiao Xiao: "What did that mean?"

Soul Land II Meng Hongchen: "Jealous of your talent."

Soul Land II Xu Tianzhen: "What are you talking about?"

Soul Land II Xu Jiujiu: "Nothing. Go play somewhere else."

[One parent said that this was a Soul Master Academy recommended by Spirit Hall. It was said that as long as one graduated, one could become a viscount of the Heaven Dou Empire.]

[This promotional pitch was really something. It started right off by selling them a dream of joining the nobility.]

[Setting aside whether they could graduate or not, there was technically nothing wrong with that statement.]

[Shrek was a kind of monster, and the original meaning of Shrek Academy was Monster Academy. To put it plainly, they only recruited genius monsters and refused ordinary people.]

[They categorically refused Soul Masters over twelve years old or with Soul Power below Level 21.]

[In reality, this was also a huge trap. Shrek Academy would conduct further tests afterward. Only genius Soul Masters who were twelve years old and had a Soul Power Level no lower than 25 could successfully enroll.]

[If they truly accepted students according to the standards they advertised, then before Tang San and Xiao Wu arrived, such a huge Shrek Academy would not have been left with only Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar as enrolled students.]

[And whether one passed the test or not, the ten Gold Soul Coin registration fee was absolutely non-refundable~]

Soul Land II Meng Hongchen: "That sounded way too nasty, but then again, was Shrek Academy really like that?"

Soul Land II Xiao Xiao: "...It was all right, I guess. Other than our homeroom teacher constantly expelling students and being a little strict, Shrek was quite good."

Soul Land II Ning Tian: "Expelling students? Aside from your Class One, I don't think the teachers of the other classes have ever expelled anyone?"

Soul Land II Xiao Xiao: "..."

Soul Land I Xue Ke: "Good thing that academy isn't within the Heaven Dou Empire... Wait, Blue Tyrant Academy was renamed recently. Holy shit!"

Soul Land I Ning Rongrong: "Ahem, little sister Xue Ke, don't overthink it. Actually, Shrek Academy was still pretty good... right?"

Soul Land I Jiang Zhu: "..."

Jiang Zhu said nothing, merely remaining silent.

Inside the classroom, the girl sat alone by the window in the back row, her slender figure carrying a trace of loneliness.

Jiang Zhu looked at the bright sunlight outside. The sky had originally been clear and cloudless, but in the blink of an eye, wisps of dark clouds silently gathered, and the day suddenly turned dark...

Ever since the people from Shrek Academy had arrived, the students' lives had visibly worsened.

The Shrek teachers' educational philosophy was savage and extreme. One sentence—"Soul Masters who don't cause trouble are mediocrities"—had turned the academy's atmosphere restless and combative.

The person Jiang Zhu found most unbearable was that dead fatso, Ma Hongjun.

He loafed around all day with nothing to do, yet insisted on pestering her. That greasy, frivolous, lecherous gaze that kept staring at her chest and skirt with covetous intent was truly revolting!

Jiang Zhu was not the sort of girl who judged people by their appearance, but Ma Hongjun's looks, character, and behavior genuinely offended her!

But what could Jiang Zhu do? She was only a support-type Soul Master. Facing Ma Hongjun, who had connections, she could only make herself less noticeable...

What left her most helpless was the change in her beloved teacher, Liu Erlong.

Ever since that Master Yu Xiaogang had arrived, her teacher Liu Erlong's mind had completely ceased to be on the academy. She shut herself in her room and ignored everything beyond its doors.

Sometimes, Jiang Zhu even wondered whether her teacher had already forgotten her.

The disappointment in her heart accumulated day by day...

Perhaps once this All-Continent Spirit Master Elite Tournament ended, she would leave Blue Tyrant Academy...

Shrek Academy was, in the end, not the home she knew.

Meanwhile, Qin Moyu walked back while padding out his diary...

[With Shrek's admission requirements, there were only a handful of young Soul Masters across the entire continent who could meet them.]

[Forget about going to your garbage-dump academy. If they went to any advanced academy, they would still steadily grow into talented individuals in the end.]

[I truly didn't know who on Douluo Continent was mindlessly praising Shrek. These people really loved licking Shrek's...]

Soul Land I Ning Rongrong: "..."

Soul Land I Liu Erlong: "..."

[For an academy, turning geniuses into geniuses was not impressive. Turning mediocrities into geniuses—that was true skill.]

[But clearly, Shrek Academy had no real skill. It did not even have mimicry cultivation grounds for Soul Masters, medicinal baths to heal bodily damage, or supplies of soul beast meat. Even the cafeteria's porridge and steamed buns were prepared by villagers...]

[Its teaching staff was even harder to describe. Every one of its teachers was some unorthodox Soul Master Flender had met while traveling the continent in his early years. They had not even figured out their own cultivation properly, yet they dared to stand before students and teach them.]

[Take Oscar's third Spirit Ring as an example. Back then, everyone from Shrek set out to hunt a Spirit Ring for him. Just then, a Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent... happened to be driven over by Meng Yiran and her grandmother, Chao Tianxiang.]

[Zhao Wuji recognized it as a Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent, yet did not know whether it suited Oscar. Tang San, on the other hand, confirmed from the shape of its feathered wings that it was a thousand-year soul beast, accurately judged its age from its body length alone, and understood the characteristics of absorbing the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent's Spirit Ring.]

[Tang San had followed "Master" Yu Xiaogang since childhood and studied in the library of the Notting City Junior Soul Master Academy for a long time, so naturally he could identify it with ease.]

[Yet this was merely basic knowledge taught at a junior academy, and it directly stunned the entire Shrek team. Oscar, that senior student, even exclaimed that Tang San was an "encyclopedia of the martial soul world."]

[Aside from Xiao Wu, who had already known, all the Shrek students, including teacher Zhao Wuji, gained a different understanding of Tang San.]

[The dignified seven-ringed Soul Sage Zhao Wuji asked himself honestly: in terms of basic Soul Master knowledge, he could not compare to Tang San. He even humbly asked Tang San afterward how they should capture the Phoenix-tail Crested Serpent...]

[Honestly, this was knowledge one could learn even at a junior Soul Master Academy. Yet Shrek Academy, as an advanced Soul Master Academy, had never taught it?]

[The three senior students Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar knew none of it, which was enough to prove that Shrek Academy's teachers had never taught them. Perhaps the teachers themselves did not even understand the basic common sense about soul beasts.]

[And as a Shrek teacher, Zhao Wuji, whose talent points had all been invested in his muscles, "naturally" did not know this common knowledge either...]

Soul Land I Dugu Yan: "Was Shrek Academy really this pathetic? I feel like I could go teach there myself. While I was at it, I could teach those students some extra knowledge about poisons..."

Soul Land I Ye Lingling: "...Not necessarily. Our former teacher, Qin Ming, seemed to have graduated from Shrek Academy too? Maybe Shrek Academy had strengths in other areas?"

Soul Land I Dugu Yan: "Teacher Qin Ming... He really was outstanding. Maybe I was being subjective. Shrek still had its strengths..."

Soul Land I Huo Wu: "Strengths? Were they there for the lack of a cultivation environment? The lack of cultivation resources? Or because they could not even get a proper filling meal?"

Soul Land I Shui Bing'er: "At present, we truly can't see any strengths, but perhaps there will be a reversal later?"

Soul Land I Liu Erlong: "Yes, yes, yes, a reversal! Shrek Academy definitely had other outstanding qualities. We just haven't seen them yet!"

Liu Erlong practically wanted to cry. Desperately clinging to the last shred of her dignity, she had finally found someone willing to say a fair word for her.

But before she could breathe a sigh of relief, Qin Moyu's diary once again exposed everything without leaving her even the slightest room to hide.