Borrowing a Hen to Lay Eggs

After listening to Yan Shaozhe, Xu Xingyu could not help feeling a little surprised.

It was not because he had failed to anticipate that Yan Shaozhe would briefly set aside his prejudice against the Spirit Contract Pagoda and ask him to help suppress his disciple's Evil Fire,

but because he wondered whether solving such a minor problem as the Evil Fire was really worth three Soul Bones over ten thousand years old to the other party.

One of the three was even an External Soul Bone, separate from the six major Soul Bones!

Although none of them were Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones, many of the Soul Bones offered here came from Soul Beasts on the verge of extinction.

Moreover, the quality of each Soul Bone and the skills it provided were comparable to those of Soul Bones from Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts!

There has to be something wrong here! Why would Shrek offer so many priceless Soul Bones just to suppress some Evil Fire and compensate me for being beaten up?

Could they really be trying to back down and ease relations between Shrek Academy and the Spirit Contract Pagoda?

Or is this simply a bribe?

While Xu Xingyu was still pondering the strange situation before him, Yan Shaozhe spoke again, as though afraid Xu Xingyu would refuse.

"I know that because of some unpleasantness in the past, relations between our Shrek and your Spirit Contract Pagoda are strained right now, but that incident was partly caused by our own mistakes."

"So, as proof of our apology, Shrek Academy has begun discussing whether we can resume the discussion we once had with you."

Hearing this, Xu Xingyu frowned. "What are you referring to?"

"Didn't your Spirit Contract Pagoda once want to establish a branch in Shrek City? Although we at Shrek refused at the time, some recent events have led the upper ranks of our Sea God Pavilion to revisit the subject."

"Quite a few of our elders believe we could give your Spirit Contract Pagoda a plot of land and let you establish your Shrek City branch there."

At that moment, Xu Xingyu understood exactly what Yan Shaozhe was plotting. He wanted to imitate the methods Shrek had previously used to infiltrate the armies and upper ranks of the three original empires.

As mentioned before, when the Sun Moon Empire fought the three original empires a thousand years ago, it was Shrek's academy dean at the time who united the three empires, which had been constantly at odds, and ultimately drove the Sun Moon Empire back.

From this, it was clear that very few members of the upper ranks of the three original empires did not belong to Shrek. Otherwise, they could never have allowed a neutral power to bind the three nations together against Sun Moon.

Instead, they would have ignored the Sun Moon Empire, their external enemy, and first fought among themselves to choose the empire best suited to lead the allied forces of the three nations.

That was what would normally have happened.

Yan Shaozhe's plan now was that, once the Spirit Contract Pagoda branch had been established in Shrek City, Shrek could recommend the Spirit Contract Pagoda as a destination for its graduating students.

And because the Spirit Contract Pagoda had now established multiple branches in various countries, it needed a great many personnel.

Thus, when faced with Shrek's recommendations, the Spirit Contract Pagoda would have no apparent reason to refuse.

That way, Shrek could begin infiltrating through the Shrek branch, and after who knew how many years, it would have its own people throughout the Spirit Contract Pagoda's upper ranks.

Although there might not necessarily be many such people, Shrek Academy's standing in education meant their numbers would certainly not be low.

The greatest example was the Spirit Pagoda's deputy pagoda master ten thousand years later in the original story, Heavenly Phoenix Douluo Leng Yaozhu.

Though she was a member of the Spirit Pagoda's upper ranks, Shrek and Yun Ming were always on her lips, and she reacted most strongly when disaster befell Shrek.

It was true that the Spirit Pagoda at the time was no good, but Shrek was hardly any better!

To snatch someone as a wife, they blew up all of Mingdu, and for the sake of so-called peace, they stole a national asset under special protection and a Godslayer Fixed Soul Missile, among other offenses.

And what was the result? Everyone from Shrek believed these were choices they had been forced to make for peace on the continent!

Whether they had already left or remained at Shrek, they all undoubtedly thought that way!

It just went to show how deeply Shrek's glory could harm people!

Even so, Xu Xingyu did not much care about Yan Shaozhe's open scheme, because everyone who joined the Spirit Contract Pagoda had to sign a contract.

The contract had been separated from a divine artifact Xu Xingyu had used in his previous life, called Contract Eternity.

Anyone who violated a contract established with this divine artifact would be punished according to the severity of their offense.

For offenses such as leaking important Spirit Contract Pagoda intelligence or colluding with outside forces, all knowledge relating to the Spirit Contract Pagoda would be erased from the offender's mind, and their life would certainly be taken as well.

As for Yan Shaozhe's hope of Shrek infiltrating the Spirit Contract Pagoda's upper ranks, that was pure daydreaming.

Xu Xingyu only wanted to scoff that, once his future education plan succeeded, never mind whether Shrek Academy would still exist,

even if it did, there was no way it could retain its so-called title as the number one academy under heaven.

The moment Shrek was knocked off its pedestal, all sorts of talk about it would arise.

After that, as long as he continued to defeat Shrek in education, its reputation would also fall greatly, and it would gradually become a power that had once existed in the pages of history.

Of course, Xu Xingyu had long since formed an idea of exactly how to accomplish this.

Although Xu Xingyu had come to study at Shrek Academy in accordance with his old man's orders, aside from fulfilling the old man's lingering wish, he had come to sever the connection between Shrek Academy and Tang San.

Though a few years ago he had crippled Tang San's avatar, causing him to be discovered by the Divine Realm and ultimately subdued and sent to the Divine Realm's court for punishment,

the Divine Realm could not afford to lose Tang San at present, so unfortunately Xu Xingyu had not been able to get the Goddess of Life and the Destruction God King to destroy Tang San completely.

Tang San's strength had indeed diminished greatly because of this punishment, but unless Xu Xingyu uprooted every method and force Tang San had left in Douluo, or severed their connection to him, he would not be able to rest easy.

At this stage, Xu Xingyu had already brought the Clear Sky Sect to heel, making it a subordinate force and binding its members with contracts.

Thus, the only forces Tang San could still influence were Shrek Academy and the Sea God Island left behind by the previous Sea God.

As for the Tang Sect, which had long since fallen into decline, Xu Xingyu also had his own plans for dealing with it.

Therefore, after thinking carefully for a moment, Xu Xingyu said, "I'm willing to help Ma Xiaotao suppress her Evil Fire, but that's because the Ma Clan she belongs to is already part of our Spirit Contract Pagoda, so helping her is only right."

Yes, among the forces absorbed by the Spirit Contract Pagoda over the past few years was the Speed Clan, which had once belonged to the Tang Sect. Ten thousand years ago, Bai Chenxiang, the Speed Clan's young clan head, had married Ma Hongjun of the Shrek Seven Monsters.

As a result, the Speed Clan changed from the Bai Clan to the Ma Clan, and after Ma Hongjun became a god, his descendants continued to be passed down through the Ma Clan generation after generation.

Ma Hongjun himself had come from the Nine Heavens Sky Phoenix Sect, one of the three lower sects ten thousand years ago, but a Martial Soul Mutation had turned his Martial Soul into the Evil Fire Phoenix.

Thus, many of his descendants had also awakened the Nine Heavens Sky Phoenix or the Evil Fire Phoenix as their Martial Soul.

In the present era, Ma Xiaotao was this generation's Evil Fire Phoenix, while her younger brother Ma Zhengtian was the current Nine Heavens Sky Phoenix.

Because of the Evil Fire Phoenix's unreliability, the Ma Clan's current young clan head was Ma Zhengtian, while Ma Xiaotao was treated by the clan as a tool for a political marriage.

The reason Ma Xiaotao had defied her family's objections and remained at Shrek Academy was that she resented the clan's favoritism toward her younger brother and the fate that had been forced upon her.

Ma Zhengtian was one of Xu Xingyu's most capable subordinates in the Spirit Contract Pagoda. After hearing that Xu Xingyu was going to study at Shrek Academy, he asked him to help his older sister.

After all, he felt somewhat guilty toward his sister and believed that if he had not been born, perhaps Ma Xiaotao would have been the young clan head.

Then her treatment in the clan would not have been what it was now.

That was why Xu Xingyu was helping Ma Xiaotao suppress her Evil Fire now-not because of Yan Shaozhe's request, but for the sake of his capable subordinate.

Seeing this, Yan Shaozhe held Xu Xingyu in a little higher regard. After all, he had expected Xu Xingyu to agree at once when faced with such generous compensation, rather than state his position like this.

Seeing how things stood, Yan Shaozhe could only smile and say, "Whatever your reason for helping Xiaotao, as her teacher, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. As for what I mentioned earlier, I will certainly support your Spirit Contract Pagoda at the next Sea God Pavilion Meeting."

Xu Xingyu could only wave a hand and say, "I'll consult my teacher, Silver Dragon Douluo, about that. If Shrek is truly willing to cooperate with our Spirit Contract Pagoda, she'll come and visit in person."

"Then I look forward to the day our two sides can cooperate."