And so, the goals of this trip to the Star Dou Great Forest were exceeded just like that.
Not only had he successfully roped in Tian Meng and Elder Yi, he had also tricked the Three-Eyed Golden Lion into giving him a third eye ahead of time, and even laid the groundwork for future cooperation with the Star Dou Great Forest. Lin Xi could not have been more satisfied.
The Three-Eyed Golden Lion did not seem to share that sentiment, though. When Lin Xi proposed leaving, he kept feeling that her gaze was filled with resentment.
She seemed to still hold a grudge over Lin Xi refusing to join the Star Dou Great Forest. Helpless about that himself, Lin Xi could only fob her off with a few casual remarks and hurry away with Huo Yutong.
At their final parting, Lin Xi felt as though he heard her swearing to make him pay.
Lin Xi could not help smiling wryly. It looked like he would be seeing her in the human world in the near future.
That was fine. At least he was mentally prepared. He would keep an eye out for any geniuses with the Golden Dragon Martial Soul appearing on the continent.
One thing worth mentioning was that, perhaps because years of accumulation had finally borne fruit, coupled with the awakening of the Eye of Destiny, Huo Yutong's Soul Power had shot up to rank 16, already meeting Shrek's minimum entry requirement.
All that remained was to sort out a city lord's recommendation letter, and she could enroll without any trouble.
Huo Yutong was visibly delighted about this.
It was clear that she had always been very anxious about how slowly her Soul Power increased. Now that it had risen so much all at once, she was smiling even in her sleep.
Lin Xi was not nearly as excited. In Huo Yutong's case, what mattered was not how fast her Soul Power increased, but her ability to fight above her level. To him, whether her Soul Power rose quickly or slowly in the early stages made no difference whatsoever.
Besides, even if she had not reached rank 15, he still had ways to get her into Shrek.
After leaving the Star Dou Great Forest, the two traveled at full speed and reached the outskirts of Shrek City in just a few days.
When she saw Shrek City, even Huo Yutong, whose horizons had already broadened considerably, could not help widening her eyes.
"It's so big! Is this really an academy?"
Before her stood an incredibly prosperous city.
With its endless streams of merchants and streets boiling with voices, Shrek City was undoubtedly a first-tier city even by the standards of the entire continent.
Lin Xi smiled and rested his hand on her head.
"Yes, this is Shrek. Does it seem magnificent? That's not a good thing."
"Huh?" Huo Yutong blinked in confusion. "Why?"
"Because it's overstepped its bounds," Lin Xi explained patiently. "Shrek's scale stopped being appropriate for an academy long ago. What it is now isn't an academy at all, but a sect wearing an academy's skin. If the three great empires weren't still counting on it to hold off the Sun Moon Empire at a critical moment, they would've already started taking action against it."
In fact, ten thousand years later, Shrek did taste the bitter fruit of its actions. The Sun Moon Federation joined forces with the Spirit Pagoda to feed it two class-12 Fixed Soul Cannon Shells. Without Tang Wulin, it would have been completely finished.
None of that had anything to do with Lin Xi, though. He had never had much fondness for Shrek in the first place. If a thug organization whose brainwashing rivaled a cult's was destroyed, so be it.
He patted Huo Yutong on the shoulder.
"Wait here for a bit. I'll go take care of your paperwork."
"Okay!"
Huo Yutong nodded, then light flickered in her eyes as she began practicing her newly acquired Soul Skill.
Over the past two days of travel, she had also seized every opportunity to cultivate diligently. It was clear that she really liked Spiritual Detection Sharing.
Lin Xi smiled fondly and walked into Shrek City.
Presenting the city lord's recommendation letter he had prepared long ago, Lin Xi entered Shrek Academy without any difficulty.
He had to admit that, whatever else Shrek might be, it was one of the few forces on the Douluo Continent still reasonably willing to engage with Soul Tools. At a glance, the Soul Tool Technology here was far more advanced than in any of the other places Lin Xi had visited.
After casually asking a fairly friendly-looking senior student for directions, he reached his destination without much effort: the Soul Tool Department's teaching building.
Perhaps because enrollment was underway, tall senior students and teachers were constantly coming and going. Among them, the twelve-year-old Lin Xi stood out conspicuously.
Ignoring the curious looks from others, he went straight to an office door and knocked.
"Come in."
Having received permission, Lin Xi pushed open the door and entered.
A burly man sat behind the desk reviewing documents. At the sight of him, the man could not help frowning.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"I'm Lin Xi, a new student." Lin Xi put on his usual smile for outsiders. "Teacher Fan Yu, I'd like to show you something."
That was right. The burly man before him was the third-in-command of Shrek's Soul Tool Department, the mentor who had first guided Huo Yuhao onto the path of Soul Tools in the original story-Fan Yu.
Originally, Lin Xi had thought any teacher from the Soul Tool Department would do. But after learning from the senior student just now that Fan Yu had been spending all his time in the office building these past few days, he had come straight over without a second thought.
Fan Yu was one of Shrek's few clear-sighted people. Despite Soul Guidance Technology being so underdeveloped in the continent's original three nations, he had still managed to reach class eight, and he had protected Huo Yuhao like a treasure from beginning to end. He was countless times better than that blind fool Xuan Zi.
Naturally, establishing a connection with him would be better than with anyone else.
Fan Yu's brow furrowed even more tightly, and he said impatiently:
"I don't want to see it. Leave."
He had already been agitated by the heavy workload these past few days, and the constant visits from fools like this, who had no idea how high the heavens were or how deep the earth was, only made his mood worse.
These idiots always thought that giving him a few nice things would make him give their young masters special treatment. It never occurred to them that he had no interest in those paltry benefits.
He was the third-in-command of Shrek Academy's Soul Tool Department. What hadn't he seen?
Then Fan Yu saw three black Soul Rings rise around Lin Xi.
Oh, fuck.
He really had never seen that.
Lin Xi winked smugly at the now-stupefied Fan Yu.
"Well? Teacher Fan Yu, do you still want me to leave?"
"..." Fan Yu came back to his senses and took two deep breaths, barely steadying his erratic breathing. He pushed the documents in his hands aside, sat up straight, and looked at Lin Xi. "What do you want?"
There was no denying that Lin Xi had him completely in the palm of his hand.
Three rings at twelve years old! And a combination of three black Soul Rings at that!
Either was something only a top-tier genius could possess, yet the boy before him had both.
Nothing else mattered anymore. No matter what, he had to keep this genius, a rarity in all the world, in the Soul Tool Department.
Even if he conceded ten thousand steps, he at least had to keep him in Shrek.
Otherwise, he would truly be a sinner against Shrek.
The corners of Lin Xi's mouth curled playfully.
"My request? It's actually very simple."
He knew someone was about to get anxious.