The Ice and Snow Empresses knew nothing of Ming Zhao's concerns and considerations. Thinking he had some other arrangement, they agreed at once without asking further.
Ming Zhao was on guard against the sisters, but both of them had genuinely submitted to him.
They also intended to do as he said: recover from their injuries first, then suppress their cultivation and wait for the "right time" Ming Zhao had spoken of.
Just in case, Ming Zhao also left a ghost in the Far North. If either of them proved unable to suppress her cultivation, he would know immediately.
By his estimate, though, as long as these two maggots didn't act recklessly, suppressing their cultivation for thirty to fifty years wouldn't be a problem. Ming Zhao wouldn't need nearly that long. In ten years at most, he could advance from level 94 to the peak of Level 99, with no room to progress any further.
Once that time came, Ming Zhao would have nothing left to fear and could let them break through as they pleased.
No matter how far they advanced, they wouldn't be able to match his strength or have any power to turn against him.
After making arrangements for them, Ming Zhao left the Far North at once.
He had arrived just in time, too. A few months later, and the Snow Empress might already have succeeded in taking human form.
Ming Zhao left the remaining Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow in Dragon City untouched. Maintaining a spatial seal at all times took effort, so he might as well leave it there. Besides, no one but a Limit Douluo or an Ultimate Ice Soul Master could get inside.
So now... what should he do?
"Of course I'll go cooperate with that lord I admire and give Shrek Academy a little something to enjoy!" Ming Zhao's smile was particularly sinister, his eyes brimming with bloodthirsty savagery.
Before his breakthrough, Shrek had chased him around like a dog. Now that he had broken through, wasn't it time for the wheel of fortune to turn and for him, Ming Zhao, to chase Shrek around like dogs?
As everyone knew, before long, the dear grand elder would deliver some results to the Death Messenger. And Ming Zhao, who called himself Death, intended to add another mark to the Death Messenger's record!
"How can Yao Haoxuan be the only one to die?"
Everyone... had to die!
Meanwhile.
At Shrek Academy.
Ming Zhao's theft of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had caused quite a few chain reactions, starting with Huo Yuhao.
Without the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, he had also lost his Second Martial Soul, along with Soul Skills such as Spiritual Detection that the silkworm had brought him. This changed Huo Yuhao's direction, turning him from a mostly support-oriented Soul Master in the early stages into a control-type Soul Master focused more on hard crowd control.
His first Soul Skill, Petrifying Gaze, came from Medusa. Aside from a handful of Soul Elders, every first-year could be controlled by it.
But because of this, he had strayed from the path of Soul Tools.
Whether he would study Soul Tools in the future remained unknown, but for now, Zhou Yi had not recommended him to study under Fan Yu.
His Martial Soul Fusion Skill with Wang Dong remained unchanged. After all, she was the cup God King Tang had specially molded for him; when they worked together, they fit without the slightest gap. Even without the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, he would still have the Martial Soul Fusion Skill he was supposed to have.
Then came an even greater butterfly effect.
Huo Yuhao had lost the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and his Second Martial Soul, and no longer possessed Ultimate Ice. He had not sparked a contest between the Martial Soul Department and the Soul Tool Department, nor prompted a Sea God Pavilion Meeting. This time, Shrek had not expanded its reserve team selection to include second-years!
In other words, Huo Yuhao had failed to qualify to accompany the team to this tournament.
Aside from Bei Bei, Xu Sanshi, Jiang Nannan, and He Caitou, the other three reserve team members were all students from the higher grades.
This was the biggest butterfly effect to depart from the original story; the rest were minor details by comparison.
Things like Ma Xiaotao failing to qualify for the tournament because Huo Yuhao had not suppressed her Evil Fire were inconsequential. When Ming Zhao led his hundred ghosts through Shrek's gates, Ma Xiaotao would still become an Evil Soul Master.
An Evil Soul Master under him, Ming Zhao.
For now, however, Ming Zhao himself remained unaware of this information.
He had already arrived in the Ming Dou Mountain Range and found the legendary Death Hand Bandit Group, where the strongest Soul King held sway. The Death Messenger was still sitting safe and sound on the chief's throne.
After observing the Death Messenger in secret for a while, Ming Zhao shook his head inwardly.
His strength was indeed impressive, but his bearing was somewhat lacking.
He had made his lair look like a mass grave, with blood and corpses everywhere. The pungent stench of rotting flesh filled the entire cave, and nearly everything in sight was contaminated with viruses and corpse poison.
It was certainly horrifying enough, but it was mostly the kind of horror that made people feel physically sick.
That kind of horror... was too low-class.
Ming Zhao had originally considered saving the fellow from Xuan Zi. After all, the title of strongest Soul King showed that the kid did have a few tricks up his sleeve.
But now he had abandoned the idea.
He didn't need a subordinate who lacked elegance. He might as well use him as a disposable resource.
After a little thought, Ming Zhao left two Soul Saint ghosts in the Death Messenger's lair, intending to use this Soul Saint ghost to help the Death Messenger improve his KDA.
One of the two ghosts was a Level 7 Soul Engineer from Dongyang City. He had almost no combat ability as a Soul Master and only had relatively high base stats, which was why Ming Zhao had kept him.
By now, Ming Zhao had begun to look down on ghosts of this level.
So he would simply use him as a bomb to boost the power of the Death Messenger's Corpse Explosion Technique. A Soul Saint-level ghost's self-destruction was far more powerful than the Death Messenger's Corpse Explosion Technique, and combining the two would increase their power immensely.
Wiping out the whole team in one go would be no trouble.
The other ghost was a Shrek-brand agility-type Soul Saint who excelled at concealment and speed.
His task was to bring back the premium ghosts from Shrek after both its reserve and main teams had been wiped out, raising the quality of Ming Zhao's hundred-ghost team.
"Jie jie jie, I truly am Shrek's lifelong nemesis!" After arranging everything, Ming Zhao let out a bizarre cackle.
How many of Shrek's disciples would die at his hands this time?
He could hardly wait!
He just wanted to see Shrek's disciples die one by one, until only those old geezers were left as commanders without an army!
The mere thought made Ming Zhao tremble all over with pleasure. When he returned to kill his way into Shrek with those Shrek disciples he had cultivated into Titled Douluo ghosts, the exhilaration in his heart would probably be stronger than when he was fucking.
"Enjoy my special treatment!"
"Hahaha..." Ming Zhao patted down his clothes, turned, and left, heading unhurriedly toward Star Luo City.
But for some reason, he felt a little bored.
The tournament hadn't started, and there wasn't much fun to be had right now. Ming Zhao suddenly felt he had nothing to do.
"Forget it. I'm idle anyway, so I'll find a town and slaughter it for fun..."