Recaps

The Imperial Fighting Team beat Tang San after he admitted defeat, while the Shrek members failed to stand by him. Lin Kong refused to let Yu Xiaogang deflect blame and challenged him to face him directly.

• The Imperial Fighting Team attacked Tang San while Qin Ming and his escorts prevented Flender and the other Shrek teachers from intervening.
• Yu Tianheng and the others battered Tang San until Lin Kong signaled them to finish with a final coordinated kick.
• Xiao Wu rushed to Tang San, while the other Shrek members avoided helping him and Ning Rongrong stayed with Lin Kong’s group.
• Yu Xiaogang helped Tang San up, and Flender gathered the Shrek students before asking Lin Kong why he had returned.
• Lin Kong said he had come to vent his anger, then called Yu Xiaogang a coward and challenged him to face him himself.

After Shrek's defeat, Flender led the team away despite Yu Xiaogang's anger, while the Imperial Fighting Team discussed Shrek's talent and the possibility of recruiting its members to Heaven Dou Royal Academy. Lin Kong explained why Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and Xiao Wu were unlikely to leave Shrek, leaving the recruitment question unresolved.

• Yu Xiaogang berated Flender for accepting Shrek's public humiliation, but Flender led the students and teachers away without answering him.
• Ning Rongrong waved goodbye to Lin Kong and invited him to visit her academy, and Lin Kong left the possibility to their teachers.
• Qin Ming asked the Imperial Fighting Team to assess Shrek, and Yu Tianheng praised Dai Mubai and Tang San's fighting ability while Lin Kong revealed the Shrek students' young ages.
• Qin Ming raised the possibility of recruiting Shrek members to Heaven Dou Royal Academy, and Yu Feng jokingly urged Lin Kong to bring over the girls.
• Lin Kong explained that Ning Rongrong was unlikely to reverse her choice, Zhu Zhuqing was tied to Dai Mubai and Star Luo's politics, and Xiao Wu would probably follow Tang San.

Lin Kong told the Imperial Fighting Team that Yu Xiaogang had tried to kill him for his External Soul Bone and revealed Yu Xiaogang was Yu Tianheng’s uncle. At Shrek Academy, Flender gathered the teachers and explained that Qin Ming now led Heaven Dou Royal Academy’s Imperial Fighting Team and had met them that day.

• Lin Kong warned the Imperial Fighting Team that recruiting Shrek Academy would be difficult because its members were tied to their teachers and elders.
• Lin Kong said Yu Xiaogang had tried to kill him to take the Eight Spider Lances, provoking the team’s anger.
• Yu Tianheng revealed that Yu Xiaogang was his uncle and a member of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, while Lin Kong hinted that Tang San’s identity was even more complicated.
• Qin Ming realized the team’s hostility toward Yu Xiaogang could make a full merger between Shrek Academy and Heaven Dou Royal Academy unlikely.
• Flender met with Shrek’s teachers and told them Qin Ming was now a teacher at Heaven Dou Royal Academy and leader of the Imperial Fighting Team.

Yu Xiaogang erupted over Qin Ming’s students defeating the Shrek Seven Devils, but Flender revealed that Lin Kong had returned and that Qin Ming had proposed Shrek Academy join Heaven Dou Royal Academy. The teachers were left weighing the offer against their fading drive to preserve Shrek as it was.

• Zhao Wuji, Shao Xin, and Lu Qibin reminisced about Qin Ming, prompting Yu Xiaogang to angrily accuse him of humiliating Tang San and the Shrek Seven Devils.
• Flender tried to correct Yu Xiaogang, and Zhao Wuji silenced him with Soul Saint pressure when he continued shouting.
• Flender revealed that Lin Kong had returned and that his return had led to intense conflicts involving Tang San and Yu Xiaogang.
• Flender told the teachers that Qin Ming had privately proposed merging Shrek Academy, including its teachers and students, into Heaven Dou Royal Academy.
• Flender reflected that the teachers were growing old and losing their drive, leaving them to consider whether Qin Ming’s offer could make their later years easier.

Flender and the Shrek teachers leaned toward merging Shrek Academy with Heaven Dou Royal Academy while trying to preserve Shrek’s name and autonomy. The next day, Qin Ming brought Lin Kong and the Imperial Fighting Team to visit Shrek, whose poor facilities shocked the guests.

• Flender proposed keeping Shrek as a special branch or independent division of Heaven Dou Royal Academy, and most of the teachers supported negotiating the merger.
• Yu Xiaogang objected, but Flender said the seven gifted students would benefit from Heaven Dou’s resources and the chance to compete in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Competition.
• Flender announced that Qin Ming would bring members of the Imperial Fighting Team to visit Shrek Academy the next day.
• Qin Ming led Lin Kong, Yu Tianheng, Dugu Yan, Yu Feng, Osler, and the others along an increasingly remote road toward Shrek Academy.
• Lin Kong described Shrek’s cramped dorm rooms, bare walls, and uneven dirt floors, startling Yu Feng, Osler, Yu Tianheng, and Dugu Yan.
• Lin Kong told Dugu Yan that he had bought cheap flooring and wooden boards to improve the room where he had stayed.

The Imperial Fighting Team visited Shrek Academy, where Yu Tianheng and Dai Mubai began a formal spar. Lin Kong privately warned Xiao Wu that Shrek might be absorbed into Heaven Dou Royal Academy, exposing her to powerful experts, and left her afraid and uncertain about what he knew of her identity.

• The Imperial Fighting Team arrived at Shrek Academy and were surprised by its shabby village entrance.
• Flender and Qin Ming greeted each other, then agreed to let the students spar; Yu Tianheng and Dai Mubai began fighting.
• Lin Kong left his teammates and asked Xiao Wu to speak with him privately.
• Lin Kong warned Xiao Wu that Shrek Academy might be absorbed into Heaven Dou Royal Academy, where Soul Douluo and Titled Douluo experts could discover her identity.
• Xiao Wu asked whether Lin Kong knew something about her identity, but he slowly shook his head.

Lin Kong warned Xiao Wu to leave Shrek Academy because Heaven Dou Royal Academy could expose her identity, but she chose to go with the others. He then confronted Zhu Zhuqing about the Star Luo Imperial Family’s deadly succession rules and questioned why Zhu Zhuyun had let her escape safely, leaving Zhu Zhuqing stunned.

• Lin Kong warned Xiao Wu that powerful Soul Masters at Heaven Dou Royal Academy might discover her identity and urged her to leave, but Xiao Wu refused and chose to go with the group.
• Lin Kong returned with Xiao Wu, and Yu Tianheng and Dai Mubai’s sparring match ended in a draw before Ma Hongjun fought Yu Feng in a friendly match.
• Lin Kong called Zhu Zhuqing aside and said he knew about her and Dai Mubai’s predicament under the Star Luo Imperial Family’s succession rules.
• Zhu Zhuqing asked Lin Kong to save her, fearing that she and Dai Mubai would die if they lost their tournament showdown against Zhu Zhuyun and her partner.
• Lin Kong asked why Zhu Zhuyun had not tried to kill Zhu Zhuqing when she was vulnerable after fleeing the Star Luo Empire, leaving Zhu Zhuqing stunned.

Lin Kong challenged Zhu Zhuqing’s belief that losing the Star Luo succession contest meant certain death, revealing that she had never checked the rules herself. Zhu Zhuqing realized her fear might be baseless and, overwhelmed with relief and grief, leaned on Lin Kong and cried.

• Lin Kong questioned Zhu Zhuqing’s assumption that failure in the Star Luo succession contest automatically meant death.
• Zhu Zhuqing realized she knew the supposed rules only through what others had told her and had never learned the details herself.
• Lin Kong explained that the danger applied to those who entered and lost, and asked what would happen if she declined to compete.
• Lin Kong pointed out that Zhu Zhuyun would not have to kill every younger girl in the family, prompting Zhu Zhuqing to suspect she had been deceived by baseless fear.
• Lin Kong invited Zhu Zhuqing to cry, and she rested her forehead on his shoulder as tears soaked his clothes.

Dai Mubai mistook Zhu Zhuqing’s closeness to Lin Kong for betrayal and attacked Lin Kong in a jealous rage. Zhu Zhuqing knocked Dai Mubai down and ordered him to calm down.

• Dai Mubai saw Zhu Zhuqing leaning against Lin Kong and charged at Lin Kong, accusing him of touching his fiancée.
• Lin Kong blocked Dai Mubai’s strike, and Zhu Zhuqing kicked Dai Mubai in the abdomen to stop him.
• Dai Mubai threatened to kill them both and activated his Evil Eye White Tiger possession.
• Zhu Zhuqing used her Nether Civet possession and close-combat skills to knock Dai Mubai to the ground.
• Zhu Zhuqing stood over Dai Mubai and ordered him to calm down.

Lin Kong forced Dai Mubai and Zhu Zhuqing to confront the resentment and despair behind their engagement, then explained ways they could escape the throne contest. He left Dai Mubai facing the possibility that he had wished Zhu Zhuqing would be crippled to free himself from the burden.

• Lin Kong accused Dai Mubai of fleeing to Shrek Academy because he resented Zhu Zhuqing and wanted to abandon the throne contest, and Dai Mubai broke down while Zhu Zhuqing sobbed.
• Lin Kong argued that Dai Mubai's feelings for Zhu Zhuqing were resentment rather than love, and Zhu Zhuqing collapsed as she realized he might see her as a burden.
• Lin Kong comforted Zhu Zhuqing and told her and Dai Mubai that one of them could die to end their eligibility for the throne contest.
• Dai Mubai denied that Lin Kong intended to kill him, but Lin Kong asked whether he had ever considered killing Zhu Zhuqing.
• Lin Kong described other ways to forfeit eligibility, including crippling oneself or choosing a Soul Ring that damaged one's Martial Soul, then challenged Dai Mubai to admit whether he had ever wished to cripple Zhu Zhuqing.