Standing on an upper floor, Flender watched Li Ye down below, leading Tang San and the others in shouting as though they were selling vegetables.
He truly did not know what to say. All he knew was that Li Ye had played away the image Shrek had maintained for so many years.
Watching Li Ye down below praise how formidable he was as the dean of Shrek Academy, he felt the shame of having his pants pulled down and his backside slapped in public.
Yu Xiaogang, too, lowered his head in shame after seeing Li Ye's proposed enrollment method.
He had truly never heard of any academy recruiting students by standing in the street and shouting like vegetable sellers the way Li Ye did. Everyone else posted a notice on the city wall and quietly waited for students to come to their door. Who else cheapened themselves like this?
Still, he had to admit that Li Ye's recruitment method was novel enough. In just a few short hours, it had drawn no fewer than a thousand onlookers.
Mainly, many people had genuinely never seen such a peculiar recruitment method and wanted to see what it was all about.
Of course, Li Ye had fought in the Great Soul Arena for a year, so quite a few people recognized him. With these people spreading the word, the news that the Invincible War God, Feng Yeli, was a student at Shrek Academy spread throughout Suotuo City at once, and even slowly reached the surrounding cities.
Of course, that all came later. For now, although there were plenty of onlookers, very few actually came to register.
That was because Shrek Academy's enrollment requirements were rather harsh: under thirteen years old, Soul Power above rank twenty, and two hundred-year soul rings, or a Soul Master with one hundred-year soul ring who had not yet had time to hunt for another soul ring.
Anyone who met those conditions was a genius, a treasure of the major families. How could Suotuo City have so many of them?
Still, after three days of Li Ye's publicity, quite a few boys and girls who met the requirements came to him to register.
Li Ye turned away none of those who came to register. He even accepted some whose Soul Power exceeded rank twenty and whose ages qualified, but whose first soul ring was only a ten-year one.
Of course, Li Ye also accepted quite a few whose ages had just passed twelve and reached thirteen, with Soul Power above rank twenty.
He even admitted many with Soul Power at rank eighteen or nineteen who were twelve or younger.
After two months of recruitment, Li Ye had brought over two hundred students into Shrek Academy. More than a hundred did not meet Flender's standards, but they met the standards Li Ye had set.
Under Flender's original enrollment standards, these people had only passed the first test. They still had to pass three more before they could enter Shrek Academy.
But who was Li Ye? He could not be bothered with all that. These were junior schoolmates he had worked so hard to recruit. How could he possibly kick them out again?
In other words, they were all his family, his little fanboys and fangirls. However lacking their strength might be, they could still cheer him on.
"Brother Ye, the dean has always insisted on going without rather than accepting inferior students. You've recruited so many students that the academy doesn't even have room for them, never mind how you're going to explain this to the dean."
"Mubai, that's where you're wrong. What do I need to explain to my martial uncle? He couldn't recruit any students himself, and now he won't let me recruit them? If there isn't enough room, can't he spend some money building a few more wooden houses? Besides, isn't having more people good? It'll be so lively."
Seeing Li Ye acting like a dead pig unafraid of scalding water, Dai Mubai naturally did not dare say anything more. He could only leave Dean Flender to nurse that headache himself.
"Xiaogang, oh, Xiaogang, look at this disciple you've taught! He's ruined my entire Shrek Academy! He-he'll take absolutely any student!"
Watching Flender pace back and forth before him with a mournful face, Yu Xiaogang could only shake his head with a bitter smile.
Now that he had broken through rank thirty and obtained his third soul ring, he spoke with more confidence than before. But when it came to Li Ye, he still could not bear to rebuke him, and naturally would not allow anyone else to blame him either.
"All right, all right, Flender. I think Xiao Ye has a point. Shrek Academy's original purpose was to cultivate monstrous students. Xiao Ye counts as an ultimate monster, while Xiao Wu and Xiao San are big monsters. Mubai, Hongjun, and Oscar are ordinary monsters. But now that we have ordinary monsters, we ought to get some little monsters and tiny monsters to set them off, shouldn't we?"
"But-but that's over two hundred people! Do you know how many of them need to hunt for their second soul ring? We only have a handful of teachers and students strong enough to take them soul ring hunting. How are we supposed to manage all that?"
Hearing Flender's words, Yu Xiaogang thought about it and found that he did have a point. But Li Ye had already recruited them. Surely they could not say he had done a poor job.
"Martial Uncle, Shrek Academy recruited a total of 207 people this time. Seven have Soul Power above rank twenty-five, sixty are above rank twenty with two soul rings, and thirty-five are at rank twenty and need to hunt for soul rings. Another sixty-five have reached rank nineteen, and forty are at rank eighteen. When are we taking them soul ring hunting?" While Flender was complaining to Yu Xiaogang, Li Ye walked in with the enrollment register.
"Of those seven with Soul Power above rank twenty-five, only one is younger than thirteen, right?"
"That's right. But among those with only one soul ring, all their first soul rings are hundred-year ones. Not a single ten-year soul ring. There are a dozen or so above rank twenty whose first soul rings are a few decades old, but that's no problem. They're all under thirteen. Becoming Soul Emperors in the future will be no trouble."
Seeing how confidently Li Ye spoke, Flender and Yu Xiaogang both pressed their hands to their foreheads.
"Speaking of which, Xiao Ye, you haven't recruited every reasonably talented student in the surrounding area, have you?" After checking the students' information in the enrollment register, Yu Xiaogang suddenly discovered that most came from the surrounding cities. There were actually very few Suotuo City locals.
"Of course I did! To expand my publicity, I even paid the Spirit Hall deacons to help promote it. They really delivered. In just a few days, they spread my recruitment posters throughout the surrounding cities."
Hearing this, Flender's expression grew even uglier. With this move, Li Ye could be said to have offended every intermediate and advanced Soul Master Academy in the surrounding area.
He had recruited all the talented people in one sweep, leaving those academies to pick through his leftovers. A little investigation would tell them Shrek Academy was behind it. They would probably come demanding an explanation in a few days.
"What's wrong, Martial Uncle? Is something the matter?"
"Nothing's the matter. Make the arrangements and divide them into batches of around twenty at a time. You and Teacher Zhao Wuji will lead, with Xiao Wu, Tang San, and Mubai accompanying you, and help them hunt for soul rings. Oh, and take Teacher Shao Xin along too. With a Food System Soul Saint like him there, you won't have to worry about supplies."
"No problem. Leave it to me! Just watch me get everything sorted out perfectly!"
Li Ye gave Flender an OK gesture and walked out of his office. Before leaving, though, he asked Yu Xiaogang to plan out those students' soul rings for him, so he could simply kill the soul beasts listed in the enrollment register's plans when the time came.
"Ah, that child Xiao Ye really knows how to assign work to us old fellows."
"Haha, Xiaogang, weren't you talking tough just now? Why aren't you making a peep anymore? Hurry up and go check your references and make those plans!"
"Flender, don't get so cocky either. When teachers from the other academies come knocking in a few days, let's see how you handle them!"
"Tch, those people think they can threaten me?"
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