Formation Arts, Cultivation, Gu Yue?!

Mu En raised an eyebrow, surprise flashing through his eyes. "Twin Martial Souls?"

"That's right. The Heavenly Eye and the Reignbow Arbiter." Huo Yuhao met his gaze without the slightest attempt to hide anything.

Mu En smiled and tapped the armrest of his wicker chair. "Ultimate Attributes?"

"Yes." Huo Yuhao nodded, neither humble nor arrogant.

"Interested in joining Shrek?"

A gentle, teasing smile touched Huo Yuhao's lips. "Surely you're joking, sir. Haven't I already passed the assessment and become a Shrek student?"

The smile remained in Mu En's eyes, but his tone grew more serious. "I mean truly joining Shrek."

Huo Yuhao fell silent.

Mu En's smile faded, and his eyes dimmed slightly. He seemed to have guessed what Huo Yuhao was thinking.

Huo Yuhao knew exactly where he stood. The moment he became Yang Jian's disciple, he became the sole fourth-generation disciple of Daoist Chanjiao.

To him, Shrek was a place to study and a stepping stone to resources, not a power he needed to pledge himself to.

Shrek Academy looked glorious, but it had played the "emperor behind the throne" for too long. The Three Kingdoms submitted on the surface while nursing their anger in secret, and other powers dared not voice their resentment. Shrek was practically a walking bundle of maxed-out hatred.

Shrek's glory weighed too heavily. For the academy in its current decay, that glory was both a shackle around its limbs and a chance to break free and be reborn. Success would extend its legacy another ten thousand years; failure would plunge it into ruin beyond redemption.

But resentment had already piled up into mountains. In the original story, the Holy Spirit Cult joined forces with the Spirit Pagoda and flattened Shrek with a Godslaying Fixed-Installation Soul-Guided Missile. That was proof enough.

So why had no one dared strike first?

Because Mu En was still there.

Even half-crippled, he was a Limit Douluo. With more than a dozen Titled Douluo in the Sea God Pavilion as solid backing, who would dare casually stroke the tiger's whiskers?

But none of that had anything to do with him, Huo Yuhao.

Having made up his mind, Huo Yuhao bowed. His tone remained gentle. "Thank you for your kindness, sir, but the Sea God Pavilion's inheritance isn't what I seek."

Mu En studied his eyes, then sighed softly and pressed him no further.

A genius had pride of his own. It could not be forced.

"I'll take my leave." Huo Yuhao said no more and turned to go.

Shrek City

Huo Yuhao looked at the deed to the courtyard in his hand, his mouth twitching. "Three hundred Gold Soul Coins? That's robbery!"

Fortunately, though the courtyard was small, it had everything it needed, including a separate training room. At least it wasn't a total loss.

After tidying the courtyard, Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged in the center of the training room and sent his spiritual sense into his sea of consciousness. Addressing the shadow of the divine hound, jet-black from head to tail with eyes as sharp as glazed crystal, he said, "Martial Uncle, I've cultivated the Nine-Turn Origin Art, but all three of my Martial Souls—the Perfected Lord of Clear Origin and Wonderful Dao, the Heavenly Eye, and the Reignbow Arbiter—have Ultimate Attributes. I'm cultivating as slowly as a crawling snail. How do I fix that?"

The Howling Celestial Dog, the Sun-Swallowing Divine Lord, considered for a moment. A keen light flashed in his crimson eyes. "Young master, do you know of Formations?"

Those words struck Huo Yuhao like a cleansing draught poured over his head. Everything became clear.

The Douluo Continent had artifact refining, if Soul Tools barely counted, and pill refining, if things like the Mystic Water Pill could even be called half-finished products. Yet it lacked Formations and talismans, two great pillars of the Mystic Sect. That was an enormous gap!

Of the Three Pure Ones of the Mystic Sect, Laozi excelled at pills, Yuanshi at artifacts, and Tongtian at Formations.

Formations encompassed a myriad of uses: gathering spiritual energy, trapping enemies, attacking, and defending. They could do practically anything. At his current stage, they were exactly the tool he needed to break through his predicament.

"The art of Formations takes a Formation Core as its heart and Formation Runes as its framework. Draw them together into a Formation Diagram, and you can transform the world and draw its spiritual energy to your own use." The Howling Celestial Dog's voice was steady and strong. "The Yuqing lineage isn't known for Formations, but over millions of years of travel, my master learned quite a few basic ones. Two suit you now: the Five-Element Rotation Formation and the Qi-Gathering Formation."

Then he poured cold water on Huo Yuhao's excitement. "But the Douluo Continent's Soul Power is impure and diffuse. What you actually have inside you is the Mystic Sect's spiritual power. Its quality is comparable to a Soul Elder's, but you're nowhere near the threshold for drawing a Five-Element Rotation Formation. Even for a Qi-Gathering Formation, you'll need my help."

Huo Yuhao's mouth twitched even harder. So his martial uncle would still have to bail him out.

"For now, study Formation Runes, Artifact Runes, and Pill Runes. They'll lay the groundwork for refining pills and artifacts and setting up Formations later. Your priority is raising your Spiritual Power." The Howling Celestial Dog yawned and stretched his paws. Before he had even finished speaking, a streak of black light shot out of Huo Yuhao's sea of consciousness and became the magnificent black hound.

He moved across the floor with one paw raised. Pale golden light glimmered at the tip of his claw, tracing one intricate, mysterious rune after another in an instant. The runes joined end to end, faintly forming a circular Magic Formation.

"Spiritual energy of heaven and earth, surging through the ages; righteous law of heaven and earth, gather!"

At the Howling Celestial Dog's low command, the Magic Formation flared to life. Spiritual energy of extraordinary purity washed over Huo Yuhao like a clear stream and filled the entire training room.

Every pore in Huo Yuhao's body relaxed. He felt so good he almost let out a moan.

"This..." He stared at the Magic Formation beneath his feet in shock. His Spiritual Power was circulating more than three times faster!

"This is a simplified Qi-Gathering Formation. It should relieve the immediate problem of your slow cultivation." The Howling Celestial Dog flicked his tail and returned to the sea of consciousness as a streak of black light. "Cultivate diligently. Don't disappoint my master."

Huo Yuhao took a deep breath. Without another moment's hesitation, he activated the Nine-Turn Origin Art, and the Spiritual Aura of heaven and earth surged into his body like a tide.

Three days later, Shrek Academy, Freshman Class Nine.

The classroom door opened, and a slender figure walked in.

The boy's snow-white school uniform made his skin look even fairer and clearer. His hair was black as ink, his eyes deep as pools, and his broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted build could not conceal the restrained strength within him.

The transformation brought about by cleansing his sinews and marrow drew the entire class's attention the moment he entered.

Huo Yuhao ignored them and grumbled inwardly, Looks really are everything.

His gaze swept the room, and he headed straight for the last row by the window.

The back row by the window—a king's rightful home!

This seat was made for slacking off!

The moment he sat down, he noticed several distinct gazes. One was sharp as a knife and clearly had an agenda. Another watched him with quiet curiosity. Most held envy, jealousy, or resentment, while some came from girls stealing shy glances.

Huo Yuhao raised an eyebrow and was about to close his eyes to rest when a crisp woman's voice sounded from the front of the classroom.

"Hello, everyone! Welcome to Shrek Academy." Mu Jin walked in wearing a white instructor's uniform. She stood straight and swept a confident gaze across the room, her tone stern. "Remember, arriving at Shrek doesn't make you one of us. Only those who pass the freshman assessment in three months will truly enter this Soul Master Temple."

"Do you understand?"

Her gaze settled precisely on Huo Yuhao, carrying a hint of scrutiny—

The boy's Soul Power had only just reached rank thirteen, yet he possessed Twin Ultimate Martial Souls and had made two Deans argue until they were red in the face. He was impossible to overlook.

Huo Yuhao felt her gaze and looked up with a faint smile, utterly unconcerned.

Shrek was using the same old sales-cult routine, always trying to fleece the geniuses.

As if a genius wouldn't be a genius anywhere. What they lacked was never an academy, only resources.

"Understood!" the whole class answered in a loud chorus.

"Good." Mu Jin nodded in satisfaction. "Gu Yue, you have the highest Soul Power in the class, so you'll be class president. Ning Tian, you'll be vice president."

Two crisp female voices answered at once. "Yes!"

Huo Yuhao's eyebrows shot up. He almost sprang out of his seat.

The girl beside him had waterfall-black hair, cool purple eyes, and a breathtakingly beautiful face. She was Gu Yue.

Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena! Wasn't she supposed to wake up ten thousand years from now? What was she doing here already?

The girl who stood up in the front row had long golden hair as bright as sunlight, gentle features, and a quiet, graceful manner. She was Ning Tian.

A storm surged through Huo Yuhao's mind. What the hell? Wasn't Ning Tian a tomboy in the original story? How did she turn into a gentle girl with long hair? This plot had gone further off course than Brother Sky Dream's wildest rants!

Time quietly turned back to the moment Huo Yuhao met Yang Jian...