"Also?"
Zhu Zhuqing keenly noticed that word. She froze slightly, her face filled with confusion.
Gu Ling smiled and explained, "It's nothing. Two people I knew before went to Shrek Academy after graduating."
Zhu Zhuqing immediately thought of something and pressed, "You mean Tang San?"
"Yes." Gu Ling stood up, stretched lazily, then nodded naturally with a smile. "The person whose name I borrowed just now."
Upon hearing that, the corner of Zhu Zhuqing's mouth seemed to twitch almost imperceptibly. "Does he know you're using his name out here?"
"No."
Gu Ling answered with complete righteousness.
Zhu Zhuqing: "..."
After that, the two chatted idly for a while longer.
Zhu Zhuqing had nearly finished the rabbit meat in her hands. Perhaps because she had eaten something and rested for so long, the pallor on her face had noticeably faded.
She glanced at the bandage on her shoulder, then at Gu Ling sitting across from her. Suddenly, Zhu Zhuqing asked, "Where are you going next?"
"The Star Dou Great Forest." Gu Ling did not hide it. "My Soul Power has reached level thirty. I came out this time to hunt a suitable soul beast and obtain my Third Soul Ring."
"Level thirty?"
Zhu Zhuqing was stunned. She instinctively sized Gu Ling up again. When he had acted earlier, he had only released two Soul Rings, so she naturally knew he was a Soul Grandmaster.
But she had not expected Gu Ling to have already cultivated to level thirty! That meant that with just one Third Soul Ring, he would officially become a Soul Elder!
A Soul Master at level thirty, around twelve years old...
And that absurd Thousand-Year Second Soul Ring.
Zhu Zhuqing suddenly felt that this guy before her was even more extraordinary than she had imagined.
After a moment of silence, as if she had thought of something, Zhu Zhuqing suddenly asked, "What about after you obtain your Third Soul Ring?"
"I haven't decided yet." Gu Ling casually tossed a piece of firewood into the flames and said seriously, "I'll probably find an advanced Soul Master Academy to continue cultivating, but I haven't decided which one yet."
Zhu Zhuqing's eyes flickered slightly. She lowered her head in thought for a moment, then raised it again and looked at Gu Ling as she invited him, "Since you haven't decided yet... do you want to go to Shrek Academy with me?"
Hearing that, Gu Ling barely had to think before shaking his head directly.
"No."
Zhu Zhuqing froze slightly. She clearly had not expected Gu Ling to refuse so decisively.
"Why?"
"Didn't you say you hadn't decided which advanced Soul Master Academy to attend?"
Gu Ling added another piece of firewood to the campfire before him and said flatly, "I haven't decided which academy to go to, but I ruled out Shrek Academy long ago. In my view, that place is a scam academy."
"A scam academy?"
Zhu Zhuqing's brows immediately furrowed. Although she had asked around about Shrek Academy along the way, she clearly did not know very much about it.
Gu Ling glanced at her, looking speechless. "You didn't know?"
Zhu Zhuqing paused, then shook her head.
Seeing that, Gu Ling did not keep her in suspense and explained, "Then let me tell you."
"Shrek Academy's admission requirements are extremely strict. They only accept geniuses under twelve whose Soul Power Level has reached a certain standard. There's nothing wrong with that in itself."
"An academy is free to set whatever admissions standards it wants. The problem is that they don't clearly tell the applicants all of their requirements before enrollment."
"They make you pay the registration fee first, then conduct the test. If you turn out not to meet their requirements, they still won't refund the registration fee."
Zhu Zhuqing frowned lightly, somewhat surprised. "They don't refund it even if you fail?"
"That's right."
Gu Ling spread his hands helplessly, clearly annoyed. "If they clearly stated their requirements from the beginning—no one over twelve, no one below a certain Soul Power Level, no one with an unsuitable Martial Soul or insufficient talent—"
"Then people would naturally not make a wasted trip after seeing those conditions. But they insist on waiting until people have paid before slowly filtering them out. In the end, if you fail, your money is gone too."
At that point, Gu Ling could not help but laugh.
"Isn't that just scamming people out of registration fees?"
"There's nothing wrong with an academy charging registration fees. Admissions and testing both take time. But since you have so many hard requirements, you should make them clear in advance."
"They know full well that many people fail to meet the requirements from the start, yet they still take the money first, then tell them they're unqualified, without issuing refunds. What kind of logic is that?"
Zhu Zhuqing fell silent. That point alone did indeed sound far from honorable.
Gu Ling continued, "Of course, if Shrek Academy only had a problem with its registration process, I wouldn't have ruled it out outright. The real problem is that it simply doesn't deserve its own admissions standards."
"Geniuses who reach level twenty or even higher in Soul Power before the age of twelve."
"Out in the world, which one of those students wouldn't be fought over by every major advanced Soul Master Academy? Since their admissions requirements are so high, shouldn't the educational resources they provide also far surpass those of ordinary academies?"
Zhu Zhuqing nodded. That was perfectly reasonable. Geniuses chose an academy because it could provide them with better cultivation conditions.
"But Shrek Academy has nothing. No simulated cultivation environment, an academy that looks like some tiny village, and absolutely terrible food, clothing, housing, and transportation."
"Sometimes, students even have to participate in spirit battles to earn money for living expenses!"
"It's like a restaurant with no kitchen, no chefs, and barely enough tables and chairs, yet it hangs a sign outside claiming it only serves nobles and royalty."
"Then after the customers go inside, they still have to bring their own food."
By this point, Zhu Zhuqing's expression had visibly grown strange. That last comparison in particular left her unsure how to refute him for a moment.
But Gu Ling was not finished.
"The most ridiculous part isn't even that. It's that Shrek Academy likes to glorify itself to attract students."
"They claim publicly that Shrek Academy has trained many outstanding Soul Masters. The most impressive among them has even become Spirit Hall's youngest elder."
The moment those words came out.
Zhu Zhuqing's gaze sharpened slightly. Though she was young, she came from the Zhu Family of the Star Luo Empire. Naturally, she could not know nothing about a top continental power like Spirit Hall.
"What does being an elder of Spirit Hall mean?"
"That isn't a position just any Soul Ancestor or Soul King can hold. To enter Spirit Hall's Elder Hall, one must at least be a Titled Douluo-level powerhouse."
"In other words, according to Shrek Academy's own claims, that so-called graduate has already become a Titled Douluo."
"But Shrek Academy has only existed for around twenty years. Even if its earliest students enrolled at twelve, how old could they be now? Just over thirty, at most."
At that point, Gu Ling could not help but laugh aloud.
"As far as I know, the most widely known record for the youngest Titled Douluo on the continent belongs to Clear Sky Sect's Clear Sky Douluo, Tang Hao. He broke through level ninety and became a Titled Douluo at forty-four."
"Yet Shrek Academy supposedly had some random early graduate become a Titled Douluo in his thirties? Then why have I never heard that person's name?"
Zhu Zhuqing fell silent upon hearing this.
She came from the Zhu Family. If a Titled Douluo in their thirties had truly appeared on the continent and even become an elder of Spirit Hall, it would have been major news enough to alarm the upper ranks of the Star Luo Empire.
There was no way the Zhu Family would not have heard even the slightest news of it.
Thinking of that, the determination on Zhu Zhuqing's face finally began to waver. If everything Gu Ling said was true... then this so-called Shrek Academy did not seem like a genuine advanced Soul Master Academy at all.
Instead, it seemed more like a place... dedicated to swindling and deceiving people.
Before you continue