Shrek Defeated at the Skysea Alliance Tournament!
The moment the match ended, news exploded across every major platform. The instant the result was sealed, soul communicators, the Federal News Network, and internal channels across every major faction erupted simultaneously.
Headlines screaming "Shrek's First Defeat" spread like wildfire, sweeping across the entire Skysea Alliance and beyond to every corner of the Federation.
The tournament had been launched to a whole new level of attention, drawing eyes from regions that had never given it a second glance.
In the grand scheme of things, it was just a team of outer-court students from Shrek, and they'd lost to a group of twenty-somethings at that. It shouldn't have warranted this kind of uproar.
But this was a first defeat, and behind the scenes, no small number of factions were quietly fanning the flames. There were even whispers of the Sun Moon Federation's involvement.
The Federal government, frankly, was overjoyed. They'd been scrambling for ways to undercut Shrek's prestige, and here the universe had handed them one on a silver platter.
The Skysea Alliance Tournament was a legitimate, officially sanctioned competition. A victory over Shrek carried real weight.
What a gift from the heavens.
"Pump it. Pump it hard!" Inside a high-rise office, someone burst into laughter. "Ah, I'm such a generous soul. I'll waive Shrek's publicity fee this time."
In the top-floor office of the Federal Propaganda Bureau, the Minister slammed his desk and roared with laughter. The soul-screen on his wall looped the "Shrek's First Defeat" headline feed, while backend data showed the topic's reach growing at a staggering pace.
He barked into his communicator at his subordinates: "Open every channel we've got! Front page of every newspaper, pop-up alerts on soul communicators, soul-screens on every street corner. Blast this thing everywhere. Hammer the angles: 'official sanctioned event,' 'Shrek's main roster,' 'utterly crushed.' Let the entire Federation know that Shrek is not invincible!"
"Wait, what?!"
"What do you mean their opponents from Skysea Academy were all in their twenties and still got dominated? Are you serious right now? I just watched the replay myself. There was a kid who took on seven people solo and won. Put the clip of him winning on loop. Cut everything before that."
"You're saying Shrek had already burned through most of their energy by the end, and the kid just swooped in to pick up the scraps?"
The Minister's face darkened. "Are you a Shrek fanboy or something? You're off this assignment. Get someone else."
"What did you just say? Am I a Shrek hater?"
"Don't bother coming in tomorrow. Clean out your desk."
After cycling through several more staff members and running himself half-ragged in the process, the Minister finally got the job done.
There were far too many Shrek sympathizers embedded in the department. It left him feeling utterly powerless. Truly, what could you do?
He turned to the Federal Representative standing beside him and let out a weary sigh. "You see that? They're in here questioning my motives, asking why I'm 'attacking' Shrek. Don't they realize it's exactly that kind of thinking that makes suppressing Shrek so necessary in the first place?"
"And more to the point, this isn't an attack. It's the truth."
The Representative nodded in agreement. "The fact that Shrek commands more public trust than the Federation itself is frankly absurd. I don't know what our predecessors were thinking, leaving us this kind of mess to deal with."
"And now there's Yun Ming. You can't beat him by force."
"But this time, heaven really is on our side. Ha. The top brass have issued standing orders to chip away at Shrek's credibility, and we were sitting here racking our brains trying to figure out how. Then Shrek goes and trips over their own feet. We just ride the wave. It's popular, it's justified, and it cracks the myth wide open."
The Propaganda Minister suddenly thought of something. "Right. After this, Shrek will almost certainly go after that kid. Should we step in? We can't afford to let anything happen to him."
"Relax, it's not our problem to worry about." The Representative shook his head. "I already looked into the boy's background."
"Oh? What did you find?"
"Nothing. I couldn't find anything."
"Understood."
Similar scenes were playing out across factions of every stripe.
Arthur's profile had landed on their desks almost immediately.
Su Wuyan's soul communicator was blowing up. He answered one call with undisguised irritation. "Spit it out."
A brief silence on the other end, then: "Su Qiu. Is he their child?"
It was Qiangu Dongfeng.
"Who else would he be? Doesn't he look like them?"
"The martial soul doesn't match."
Su Wuyan was stumped. He hadn't been able to work that part out either, even after digging through the family records.
Qiangu Dongfeng continued: "The boy is nine years old. Why didn't you tell me sooner? If not for this incident, I wouldn't have known their child had grown up to be this remarkable."
"Because I was scared," Su Wuyan said flatly, picking at his ear and flicking it aside, though the gesture was wasted on someone who couldn't see it.
"Scared he'd end up dying for no reason."
Silence fell on the other end.
When Qiangu Dongfeng spoke again, his voice carried a thread of anger. "Their deaths grieved me deeply as well."
"Those vile evil soul masters."
"You have my word: nothing will happen to this child. The Spirit Pagoda will protect him with everything it has."
"Maybe," Su Wuyan said, and ended the call. He gazed down at the tournament arena far below. He was hovering somewhere above the clouds over Skysea City, keeping a quiet, unseen watch over Arthur.
At the top floor of Spirit Pagoda Headquarters, Qiangu Dongfeng set down his communicator and squeezed his fist until his knuckles went white.
Sunlight poured through the glass, but the expression it illuminated was anything but warm, his eyes roiling with fury and grief.
"Su Wuye. Yue Zhenghuairou."
Arthur's parents.
When Su Wuye and his wife had been ambushed and killed by evil soul masters all those years ago, Qiangu Dongfeng had not been without fault. Information about their movements had reached the evil soul masters through a gap in his own security.
He had never intended for that carelessness to cost them their lives.
They were a couple capable of ascending to Limit Douluo. With Su Wuyan's connection, they would have naturally aligned with the Spirit Pagoda, and yet they would never have threatened the Qiangu family's standing within it.
Far from wanting them dead, Qiangu Dongfeng had been looking to bring them closer.
"No light-attribute martial soul." He watched the footage again. Arthur, effortlessly dismantling all seven members of Shrek.
He murmured under his breath: "Still, I can't afford to be careless."
"What a dangerous game this is."
Meanwhile, Arthur returned to the faithful company of Class Zero of Eastsea.
"Arthur, you were incredible!" A cute girl with blue twin-tails launched herself at him. "That was Shrek!"
A cold huff cut through the air. Na'er moved with uncanny speed, stepping in front of Arthur before Xu Xiaoyan could even make contact.
She shoved Xu Xiaoyan aside with an elbow.
"Be as excited as you want," she said coolly. "Just keep your hands to yourself."
Then she turned around and, in the exact same motion Xu Xiaoyan had just attempted, threw herself at Arthur. "Arthur, you were amazing!"
Xu Xiaoyan stumbled back a few steps, rubbing her arm with a pout. She didn't argue. Na'er's speed and strength were nothing to provoke. She could only watch enviously as Na'er clung to Arthur, then crept around to his side and threw a few petulant shadow punches at Na'er's back.
Then she turned to Arthur with shining eyes. "Arthur, Arthur, you were so cool out there. You took them all down in like one hit each!"