Normally, with the God of Destruction keeping watch, Tang San during the Peerless Tang Sect era should have been lying low in the Divine Realm, steadily building up his strength.
Ye Qing had always fallen into that same trap of thinking. He had been in this world for almost ten years without ever facing Tang San's schemes directly, so he had assumed that Tang San really could not meddle all that much.
But a little careful thought was enough to show that this was pure bullshit.
Had Tang San's overt and covert interference with the Douluo Continent during the Peerless Tang Sect era really been so rare?
First, he had Dai Mubai pull Huo Yun'er's soul out of the Underworld and resurrect her. Later, he used Sea God Divine Power to make Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong'er, whose Martial Souls had nothing whatsoever to do with each other, develop a Martial Soul Fusion Skill with a hundred percent compatibility.
Then came the Auspicious Beast incident, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well incident, the Qiankun Asking Love Valley incident, the Tang Wutong stitching incident, the chastity-lock seal incident, and even the agreement he secretly reached with Ju Zi.
"I warned you never to reveal this secret." Tang San had explicitly said that to Ju Zi. That proved he had met with Ju Zi-and even threatened her-before Huo Yuhao learned that Xu Yunhan was his son.
All those cases had long since proven that Tang San had laid plenty of plans for the Douluo Continent right under the God of Destruction's nose.
One more little scheme involving Tang Ya was now the most natural thing in the world.
Those were only the schemes out in the open. As for the methods never written into the plot, probably no one but Tang San knew how many conspiracies had yet to surface. This was a real world, not the original novel that followed an unchanging script.
That bastard Tang San was a living, breathing old fuck. The moment he noticed anything amiss, he could change his plans at any time.
Once Ye Qing figured all that out, his expression darkened despite himself.
Great. The dungeon difficulty just went up again.
Still, it was comforting that Bei Bei was drawing the boss's aggro for him where Tang Ya was concerned. Once those two confirmed their relationship, that pitfall probably would no longer lie in Ye Qing's path.
"I'll take it one step at a time." That was all Ye Qing could do.
After glancing back at Bei Bei fussing over Tang Ya, Ye Qing twitched the corner of his mouth and hurriedly put plenty of distance between them. He went to the registration desk and placed his recommendation letter, bearing the Inner Court's little red Shrek emblem, before the senior handling registration.
As Shrek's Celestial Dragons, Ye Qing and Bei Bei naturally did not need to obtain any main-city recommendation letters to enter the Outer Court. Having the old men backing them write a Shrek Inner Court recommendation letter worked better than any main-city letter.
The poor senior registering student information to earn credits immediately straightened with respect when he saw that red Shrek emblem.
Before accepting this assignment, they had asked their respective teachers about the different forms of recommendation letters used across the major empires, to prevent anyone from slipping through with a forgery. After all, people had tried exploiting loopholes before.
Recommendation letters exclusive to the Inner Court were particularly important for them to memorize.
A red Shrek emblem on a recommendation letter meant that the applicant had either been recommended by a senior currently studying in the Inner Court or was a descendant of Shrek's senior leadership.
Either possibility was enough to inspire his respect.
After all, this was the Inner Court.
"Hello, junior. Your recommendation letter checks out. Here's your dormitory key. Class assignments will be posted in a week. You can check the bulletin board at Sea God Plaza then to see which class you're in," the senior in a purple uniform explained carefully, handing over a set of keys as he spoke.
A small tag hung from the keys, bearing the number 234.
That dormitory number was rather auspicious.
"Junior, this is one of the better dormitories on the second floor, both in location and facilities." Seeing Ye Qing studying the tag curiously, the purple-clad senior first stole a glance around, then lowered his voice to explain.
Ye Qing raised his eyebrows and gave a knowing smile. "I see. Thank you for your kindness, senior. My name is Ye Qing. It's a pleasure to meet you."
The purple-clad senior chuckled and shook the hand Ye Qing extended. "Haha, it's all the academy's arrangement! My name is Li Zhiyi. If you run into any trouble in the Outer Court, you can come to me!"
"Then I'll be counting on your help, Senior Li."
"We'll look out for each other, haha..."
"Pretty interesting." As he walked toward the dormitory building, Ye Qing recalled what Li Zhiyi had just said, and the corners of his mouth curved upward.
Just as he had suspected, after four thousand years of development, Shrek Academy's Outer Court had long since changed its flavor. It had essentially become a place for gilding one's credentials and making connections, much like that Moonlight Pavilion Tang Yuehua had established ten thousand years ago.
Even their underlying nature was much the same.
The Moonlight Pavilion only accepted noble children. Judging by the Outer Court's requirement for a main-city recommendation letter, commoners were practically unable to obtain one either.
Apart from those few good city lords who genuinely cared for the people and were willing to discover talented commoners and send them to Shrek for training, how many commoners could actually secure a main-city recommendation letter?
Oh, wait. Given the situation during the Peerless Tang Sect era, without Spirit Hall awakening Martial Souls for free across the continent, whether commoners could even awaken their Martial Souls was another question altogether.
So anyone who entered the Outer Court had at least some family backing. Rather than an academy, this place was more a platform for gilding credentials and networking. Shrek's senior leadership paid little attention to Outer Court affairs.
Unless a genius capable of truly startling them appeared there.
Mu En and Ye Feng had probably chosen to send Ye Qing to the Outer Court with that in mind as well. They were already grooming him to become Shrek's future leader, so naturally, he could not be too much of a loner.
He needed to assemble his own core supporters, form his own team, fight his way from the Outer Court into the Inner Court, and finally achieve sufficiently impressive results in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Tournament to build enough prestige.
Just like Zhang Lexuan.
Zhang Lexuan was over six years older than Ye Qing and Bei Bei. She was seventeen now, yet her Soul Power Level had already reached sixty-one, and she had earned admission to the Inner Court through her own strength.
For this year's All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament, Zhang Lexuan would lead the team to compete in the Dou Ling Empire as its captain.
Without Huo Yuhao stirring the shit, a Soul Emperor was already among the top heavyweights in the Soul Fighting Tournament. With six Soul King teammates as well, the Shrek Team could essentially sweep aside the other teams and claim the championship.
It was through accumulating these achievements bit by bit that Zhang Lexuan ultimately became the senior sister everyone in the Inner Court respected.
If Ye Qing wanted to build enough prestige, he, too, had to make a name for himself step by step, just as Zhang Lexuan had. The Outer Court would be the starting point of his rise to fame.
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