Chapter 134: Gloriously Join Shrek Academy!
"Grilled fish! Again? I swear I'm starting to grow gills!"
Xie Xie cursed in frustration. The Federation's provided rations consisted only of frozen fish—nothing else.
Eating the same thing every day was torture!
Despite leaving Qian Gu Zhangting behind, the rest of the group had found a safe area, set up a temporary camp, and begun preparing lunch.
At this point, everyone agreed—food first, problems later.
Hearing Xie Xie's whining, Xu Xiaoyan snapped, "Then don't eat! Some of us want it!"
Couldn't he see Tang Wulin devouring fish like a storm?
What was wrong with fish anyway? It was nutrient-dense, energizing, and packed with vitality drawn from deep-sea soul beasts—an extremely rare delicacy.
But no—he had to complain.
Didn't like it, yet still ate it!
"Who said I wasn't eating?"
"You've got issues! Why are you always targeting me?"
Xie Xie couldn't wrap his head around it. Why was this girl always picking fights with him?
"Wait—you're not secretly into me, are you?"
"Pah!" Xu Xiaoyan almost stabbed him with her skewer.
"Xie Xie, even if every ghost in the world disappeared, I'd never like you!"
"Great!"
Xie Xie sighed in relief. There was a difference between being argued with occasionally and being eternally cursed. He could live with the former.
"You—!"
"You all—!"
The first came from Xu Xiaoyan's grinding teeth.
The second came from Qian Gu Zhangting—returned, battered, and bloodstained.
The supposedly ordinary ten-thousand-year Flame Lion hadn't possessed any noble bloodline, yet Zhangting had struggled immensely to subdue it.
Just as he'd been about to deliver the finishing blow, Sima Jinchi appeared—out of nowhere—and told him he wasn't allowed to kill it.
Was this some kind of joke?
Where was he when Zhangting was getting scorched alive?!
So he'd fought at full strength, only to be told to stop after nearly dying?
If he backed off now, wouldn't that make him look weak?
But then he learned exactly what "difference in class" meant—what it meant to face someone from a higher generation of elites.
Sima Jinchi hadn't even activated his three-word battle armor.
One swing of the Dragon-Slaying Blade—
And Qian Gu Zhangting was practically wrecked.
The Panlong Staff, a martial soul with a legacy dating back thirty thousand years to the era of the Spirit Hall, had been refined through generations to contain purifying dragon-soul energy.
It was the foundation of the Qian Gu clan's rise—a divine inheritance producing three Ultimate Douluos in one family.
Yet against the Dragon-Slaying Blade—made to eradicate dragonkind—its might collapsed instantly.
The blade was the bane of dragons, a divine weapon forged for their destruction. In essence, an artifact of civil war.
With one effortless strike, Sima Jinchi had completely suppressed Zhangting's soul weapon.
The wounds he'd suffered from the Flame Lion were minor compared to what Sima Jinchi had inflicted. His armor was shattered, his clothes torn to rags, and he looked more beggar than heir.
"But what can I even do?" he muttered bitterly.
"Ask Grandfather for help? He'd hang me upside down if he heard I embarrassed our family like this!"
The thought sent a chill down his spine.
He sighed in defeat.
After all, Sima Jinchi's teacher was Di Tian—someone who had literally watched his forefathers and the entire Qian Gu line grow up.
Even if Zhangting wanted to become the next Tower Master, he couldn't fight that.
So, quietly, he retracted his Panlong Staff and rejoined the others, keeping his mouth shut.
Only to find that everyone else looked perfectly fine while he looked absolutely pitiful.
"And I'm supposed to be the strongest one…"
…
Meanwhile, at Douluo University, the campus had grown bustling with new departments and laboratories established by elite minds from all over the Federation.
Among them stood the Soul Device Research Division.
Though mecha manufacturing, design, and maintenance had replaced the single "soul engineer" classification, a few old-school researchers persisted, determined to preserve the craft's traditional roots.
One such prodigy led them—a young woman known throughout the Federation as a genius scientist.
Dressed in a pristine white research coat that outlined her alluring figure, Ling Zichen—an ordinary human with no soul power—had become one of the Federation's youngest and most brilliant minds.
She was the creator of a project that would one day become the cornerstone of humanity's cosmic era:
The Single-Core Source Energy Circulation Array.
Though not a soul master, she had reached a realm even soul masters could not—immortality through the fusion of spirit and machine.
She had turned herself into the ultimate soul-device construct.
A beautiful, terrifying genius.
Usually, she preferred being buried in her research. Coming to Douluo University to lecture students felt like a waste of her time.
But genius workers needed materials—and even a genius like her couldn't conjure rare resources out of thin air.
The Federation funded her research, yes, but some things couldn't be bought—not even with unlimited money.
Like Di Tian's scales.
She wanted one desperately—to study, to analyze, to uncover its mysteries. But she had no sample.
What was she supposed to do, go ask him directly? "Excuse me, mighty Dragon God, can I buy one of your scales?"
That would be a death wish.
And those were merely one of many unattainable ingredients that taunted her mind daily.
Her frustration boiled until—salvation appeared.
With Douluo University's founding came special benefits.
Not only had her research budget doubled, she'd gained access to ultra-rare materials—including a genuine Di Tian scale!
The catch? Those items required teacher credits instead of money.
And teacher credits could only be earned through faculty missions—mainly by instructing and mentoring outstanding students.
Exceptional pupils earned exceptional rewards.
"So basically," she sighed, sitting on her lab bench and swinging her silk-clad legs, "how long until those brats finish their military training?!"
"I can't wait any longer to have Di Tian—"
"…uh, I mean, to teach good students! Yes, that's it!"
Just then, a familiar figure appeared before her.
"Hello, I'm a teacher from Shrek Academy. Would you happen to be interested in joining us?"
The directness of the question made Ling Zichen freeze.
"Izichen? What the hell are you doing here?" Her eyes narrowed dangerously. "Aren't you stationed in Shrek Academy's Outer Court? You've come to Douluo University to recruit? Do you have a death wish?"
"Do you even realize where you are right now? And who you're speaking to?"
Yi Zichen only blinked, then relaxed with a calm smile.
"Zichen-senior, the Federation will never let your ideas reach their full potential."
"Only Shrek Academy can give you the absolute freedom to invent without limitation."
"And more importantly, the Academy has already agreed—once you join, you'll become the new Sect Master of Tang Sect."
"All of Tang Sect's thirty thousand years of soul device knowledge would be yours to command."
"Senior Ling Zichen!"
"Come—join Shrek Academy, with honor!"
(END CHAPTER)
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