Holy Spirit Cult: Hey, Hey, Hey, We're Back

Gangzi had arrived outside the gates of Shrek Academy.

Although Shrek Academy had been bombed once, more than a month had passed. Drawing on its powerful connections, resources, and the efforts of every teacher and student, Shrek had built another magnificent academy.

It was nowhere near as impressive as the old one, but to Gangzi, it looked like the Heavenly Palace. Beautiful. Far too beautiful.

After all, nothing made something look worse than a comparison. What kind of dump was their Shrek?

From now on, this place is mine.

Gangzi chuckled and headed straight for the academy gates.

Just then, the two guards at the entrance stopped him.

Shrek had only just survived a catastrophe, and with the threat of the Dragon God's Ten Trials looming, security was extremely strict.

When Gangzi saw that the two men dared to stop a great master like him, he flew into a rage.

"Do you know who I am?

You dare stop me?

You've already chosen the path to your own deaths."

"Looking for trouble?"

Seeing that Gangzi had come with hostile intentions, both guards immediately released their Martial Souls.

Neither had expected someone with only level 29 Soul Power to dare cause trouble here. They didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"You'd better leave. Don't make trouble at Shrek Academy."

"I am Yu Xiaogang, one of the founders of Shrek Academy twenty thousand years ago.

Now that the Dragon God's Ten Trials have descended, the Heavenly Screen has made it clear that more than one world is taking part.

It's perfectly normal for a master like me to come to your world.

Go report this to your superiors. Bring me Shrek Academy's current headmaster and vice headmaster. Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to destroy Shrek, whatever the cost."

Gangzi's words genuinely startled the two guards. They immediately reported the matter through their Soul Guidance Communicators.

Yun Ming, Ya Li, and the others were already on edge. Hearing such an absurd report left them at a loss.

But when they thought of how extraordinary the Dragon God's Ten Trials were, they decided to give it a chance and went to the academy gates.

The moment they saw Gangzi, they froze. He looked exactly like the image of Shrek Academy's original vice headmaster in the Sea God Pavilion.

Yun Ming did not know whether the claim was genuine, but he welcomed Gangzi into Shrek Academy anyway.

"How does Master intend to prove his identity?"

"My Martial Soul is proof."

Gangzi spoke confidently, then summoned Luo Sanpao. The moment his Martial Soul appeared, everyone was stunned.

"This is my Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao. I hear one of my descendants, Long Yeyue, is your vice headmaster.

Her Martial Soul is a variant passed down from my Luo Sanpao."

The Martial Soul did match, but Elder Long was already dead.

"So she's dead. There must still be a Family Genealogy.

Have someone fetch it. It's bound to contain a record."

Seeing that they still did not believe him, Gangzi spoke as though he had everything under control:

"Your Sea God Pavilion wasn't destroyed. There should be something there honoring me.

After receiving your incense offerings for so long, my Memorial Tablet must have gained a spirit of its own. It will surely resonate with me.

We'll know whether I'm telling the truth once we try."

Those were the protagonist's exact instructions. Afraid Gangzi was too stupid to even get into Shrek, he had handed him three sure ways in:

His Martial Soul, the Family Genealogy, and the Sea God Pavilion.

Shrek placed enormous importance on tradition.

After each Pavilion Master died, their ashes were always placed in the Sea God Pavilion.

The Sea God Pavilion had not been established until Soul Land II, but Tang San had seized the Golden Ancient Tree before he became a god.

The moment he ascended, Tang San had set his sights on taking over Douluo Continent. He found the Core of Life born from the continent and planted it at Shrek.

The beginnings of the Sea God Pavilion existed even then. It simply had not yet been carved into the Golden Ancient Tree.

The ashes of Flender, Yu Xiaogang, and the others had surely remained in the Sea God Pavilion, passed down through ten thousand years of tradition.

Surely I can make my own ashes resonate?

As soon as Gangzi entered the Sea God Pavilion, the plaque honoring him as one of Shrek's founders shone with golden light and resonated with him.

With all three pieces of evidence, Yun Ming, Ya Li, and the others had no choice but to believe him.

Given the time reversal brought about by the Dragon God's Ten Trials, Gangzi, their ancestor from twenty thousand years ago, naturally stayed at Shrek and was respectfully addressed as Master.

And since Long Yeyue was dead, the position of deputy Pavilion Master of the Sea God Pavilion was vacant. Gangzi shamelessly claimed it for himself, taking charge of tactical adjustments.

To Yun Ming, Gangzi's arrival was no bad thing. He now had a living embodiment of wisdom from twenty thousand years ago at his side.

Yun Ming's frayed nerves finally eased a little. Gangzi, meanwhile, was so elated he could barely think straight.

What had Shrek been twenty thousand years ago?

It had had nothing!

But now it was the continent's leading power. It still was, even after being bombed.

Doesn't that make me the second most important person in the world?

The headmaster really treats me well. He pointed me straight to the top and arranged everything for me.

But just as Gangzi was confirmed as the Sea God Pavilion's deputy Pavilion Master, another upheaval struck Shrek Academy.

Barely a month had passed since the last Godslayer Bomb strike, and the Holy Spirit Cult had come again.

This time, the One Empress, Two Emperors, and Four Heavenly Kings had turned out in full force. Their goal could not have been clearer: they wanted the lives of Shrek's top talents, those geniuses born with Innate Full Soul Power.

They intended to seize their Red-Level Nine Trials.

Now that the Divine Examinations had truly descended, anyone without one would fall a step behind. That was something these top-tier figures could not accept.

Why insist on the red level?

There was a way to advance, so they could gradually work their way up to the red level later.

But the starting rewards for the Red-Level Nine Trials put everyone else far behind.

No one wanted to start out at a disadvantage, least of all these supreme experts at the top of the Pyramid.

So the Demon Empress, the Nether Emperor, the Ghost Emperor, and the Four Heavenly Kings had their sights set on seven people with Innate Full Soul Power.

The Holy Spirit Cult was thousands of miles from Shrek Academy. Naturally, they could not have traveled there in the usual way.

Yet the Demon Empress, the Nether Emperor, the Ghost Emperor, and the Holy Spirit Cult's Four Heavenly Kings crossed those thousands of miles in an instant and appeared above Shrek Academy.

The key was the golden Baby Dragon statue at the center of the academy.

Shrek Academy had spread across all of Douluo Continent. With Shrek branches everywhere, the Baby Dragon statues linked them all together.

Anyone could challenge a member of Shrek and demand a fight to the death.

Once the Life-and-Death Arena opened, the victor would devour everything the loser possessed.

And Shrek Academy's students were not allowed to refuse.

To ensure absolute fairness, the Life-and-Death Arena would bring both combatants to the same age.

But if the age difference was simply too great, it would instead bring their cultivation to the same level.

The protagonist had set that rule specifically for Soul Beasts.

After all, if a Soul Beast's age were reduced to match a human's, one with a hundred years of cultivation might not even beat a Soul Elder.

Even the Demon Empress, a Soul Beast with nearly a million years of cultivation, would probably be easy prey.