Regarding the Shen Family's Old Master's identity: in Chapter 1147 of the original novel, "So It Was Love Stirring," he was described as the Federation military's chief of general staff. His sphere of influence included the North Sea Legion and the Mingdu Guard, and he ranked alongside the Federation Commander-in-Chief and the minister of the General Equipment Department as one of the Federation military's three leading figures.
But in Chapter 1772, "Exchange," the Military Committee Chairman, Yu Guanzhi, commander of the Central Legion, and Chen Xinjie, commander of the Sea God Legion, were called the military's three leading figures. This Military Committee Chairman had the Western Legion and Northwest Legion directly under his command and maintained very close ties with the North Sea Legion.
Two different versions of the Federation's three leading figures.
Given that connection to the North Sea Legion...
And the North Sea Legion was practically the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy's backyard, with almost all its officers coming from the academy.
So I combined the identities of the Shen Family's Old Master and the Military Committee Chairman.
As for Chen Xinjie, let me make one thing clear: he definitely would not end up on the protagonist's side. One reason was Long Yeyue. Although past misunderstandings had currently turned Chen Xinjie and Long Yeyue against each other, and Qiangu Dongfeng had even bribed him in the original novel to lure Shrek down to the eighteenth level beneath the War God Temple and sabotage Shrek Academy, once the truth was explained, this guy became Long Yeyue's lapdog through and through. The second reason was that he came from Sea God Island and was a descendant of the First Generation Sea God. The original novel stated that his family even had a way to contact Tang San during the Peerless Tang Sect era. With that bloodline and faith running deep in his bones, he was unquestionably part of the Sea God Faction.
The story between those two was pretty melodramatic, too.
Chen Xinjie and Long Yeyue were originally a couple, each other's first love, and had successfully gotten together at the Sea God's Fate matchmaking event. Later, for certain reasons, Long Yeyue became pregnant with Chen Xinjie's child, but the baby did not survive and was stillborn. Then Long Yeyue found the previous master of Shrek's Sea God's Pavilion to pick up the pieces. This caused a misunderstanding between Chen Xinjie and Long Yeyue: he thought she had fallen for someone else, and the two went from lovers to enemies.
Why did this feel a little like those three, Qian Xunji, Bibi Dong, and Yu Xiaogang? Still, Qian Xunji was an utter beast. To keep his own student by his side, he actually forced himself on her! The previous master of the Sea God's Pavilion was simply the one left picking up the pieces.
However, Chen Xinjie definitely would not help Shrek Academy right from the start in this book. After all, at this point, the misunderstanding between him and Long Yeyue had not yet been cleared up, and he was fairly hostile toward Shrek Academy. Even Qiangu Dongfeng had been able to bribe him into sabotaging Shrek Academy by luring the Shrek Seven Devils down to the eighteenth level beneath the War God Temple. For the time being, he still belonged to the Federation camp. After all, the Sea God had also been gone for so many years.
Returning to the military's three leading figures, Chen Xinjie had once served as commander-in-chief of the Federation Fleet, so I added the Federation Commander-in-Chief position from the first version of the trio to his roles. Although Yu Guanzhi later became commander-in-chief on the Abyss Battlefield, Chen Xinjie had left his post at that time because he had lost Eternal Heaven, which effectively amounted to a demotion.
Yu Guanzhi, meanwhile, was given the additional role of minister of the General Equipment Department. The reasoning was a little forced, probably because the original novel mentioned that the Yu Family had quite a few divine artifacts passed down through the generations-three to five of them. Besides, there was only one position left among the three leading figures.
In short, I matched up the identities in the two versions of the trio.