The Shrek Seven Devils reserve team.
Seven disciples were chosen from the Outer Court Core Disciple selection to receive priority training as reserves. Unless something unexpected happened, they would become the future Shrek Seven Devils after entering the Inner Court. But that brought back the question left over from the previous two chapters: why wait for Gu Qingnian?
Gu Qingnian was now held in exceptionally high regard by Sea God's Pavilion. The deans of the Outer Court and Inner Court, the deans and vice deans of both the Martial Soul Department and Soul Tool Department, every Senior Elder of Sea God's Pavilion, and even its master-all of Shrek Academy's core leadership were chosen from successive generations of the Shrek Seven Devils.
With Gu Qingnian's extraordinary talent, and all the painstaking effort and resources the academy had poured into him, its intention was to keep him. The best way to do that was to integrate him completely into the academy, make him one of its own, and have him trust it and become one of its innermost members.
The foundation of that inner circle was the Shrek Seven Devils, a symbol of status in its own right. Even if he never became a Sea God Pavilion Elder or another member of the academy's core leadership, he would still stand with the academy and come to its aid in a crisis.
The selection, which had been scheduled long ago, had been delayed for several days precisely for Gu Qingnian, so that he could take part. Otherwise, once he missed it, he would have no further chance.
There was another reason for holding the second match: to give Gu Qingnian a legitimate way to participate and provide the other Core Disciples with an explanation. He had already arrived late. If he were selected