As it happened, the wind was drifting. Just as Feng Piaoling arrived to participate in the assessment, he saw quite a few people being eliminated because their first soul rings were white.
What baffled Feng Piaoling was that while this might be expected of commoners, why were the first soul rings of some nobles also white? Had their families lost their minds?
There were ten senior students in charge of assessing the freshmen. Each senior had set up a table on the open ground outside the East Gate, and behind each table was a long, dragon-like queue.
Feng Piaoling chose a line with fewer people.
The senior in charge of this queue was a young man with a square face wearing a purple school uniform. He looked to be a fourth-year student, just like Jiang Nannan. He first checked Feng Piaoling's bone age, then looked over the recommendation letter Feng Piaoling had brought, speaking in a businesslike tone:
"Release your martial soul."
Three soul rings—yellow, purple, purple—rose from beneath his feet. Feng Piaoling raised his right hand, and as yellow light surged in his palm, a piece of talisman paper with a strange pattern appeared.
"A thousand-year second ring... a Soul Elder."
An exclamation erupted from the crowd. Everyone turned to look.
Jiang Nannan's companions, in particular, stared with eyes nearly popping out of their heads. Such a man was simply too perfect. No wonder Sister Nannan would reject Xu Sanshi's pursuit for him. If it were them, they would be willing too.
It took a long while for the square-faced youth to snap out of his shock. When he looked at Feng Piaoling again, his gaze held a touch of respect. "The recommendation letter is fine. Once you enter the academy, go to the white freshman teaching building to register and pay your tuition. Just hand this form and the recommendation letter to the teacher in charge of registration."
As he spoke, he swiftly scribbled Feng Piaoling's information onto a form and handed it over.
Feng Piaoling nodded.
Just as he was about to leave, a sudden cry of surprise came from another group. "Another thousand-year second ring!"
Feng Piaoling turned his head and saw a handsome youth with fair skin standing before an assessment table. His body hadn't undergone any visible change, but those two soul rings—one yellow and one purple—were exceptionally eye-catching.
As Feng Piaoling looked over, the youth happened to look back. Their eyes met, and the youth let out a soft snort before proudly turning his head away, as if to say: You aren't the only one with a thousand-year second ring.
"What is your martial soul?" the senior in charge of the first group's assessment asked the youth.
The youth's hair and eyes were very unique, being a pale pinkish-blue. His handsome features were not inferior to Feng Piaoling's in the slightest. However, one leaned toward feminine elegance while the other leaned toward masculine strength; they were two entirely different types of handsome.
The youth said with a hint of arrogance, "The Radiant Goddess Butterfly."
Is this the "daughter in three parts" of Tang the God-King?
Watching the youth's haughty demeanor, Feng Piaoling quickly drew his own conclusions.
With the form provided by the senior student, Feng Piaoling entered Shrek Academy through the South Gate without further hindrance.
In terms of environment alone, Shrek Academy was indeed beautiful, with rich and lush vegetation. Walking along the broad avenue made one feel quite relaxed. Unfortunately, that relaxation was completely ruined by ten statues in Shrek Plaza and a furious voice.
The ten statues required little explanation. They were Flender, Yu Xiaogang, and Liu Erlong, known ten thousand years ago as the Golden Triangle. Beside them were the original Shrek Seven Devils, who had similarly lived off the people while doing nothing for them: Dai Mubai, Oscar, Tang San, Ma Hongjun, Ning Rongrong, Xiao Wu, and Zhu Zhuqing.
Upon seeing those giant statues, Feng Piaoling felt an instinctive, physiological disgust.
Flender was a money-grubber and a fraud, a disgrace to the title of teacher. Before taking in the original Shrek Seven Devils, he had taught for twenty years; out of sixty-two exceptionally gifted students, only fourteen had graduated. The rest had either been ruined by his teaching or had died outright while hunting for soul rings.
Xuan Zi, hailed by many netizens as the Supreme Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult, likely inherited the tradition of harming outstanding Shrek students and sitting idly by as they died at the hands of soul beasts or evil soul masters directly from Flender.
Yu Xiaogang was a pure "coward to outsiders, tyrant at home"—a complete waste. His "Ten Core Competencies of Martial Souls," cobbled together from various sources, had plagued the world for ten thousand years, poisoning and harming countless people. Feng Piaoling himself was one of the victims. Because of this fellow's theories, the city lord of his hometown had managed to guess he had twin martial souls by pure blind luck, which brought a catastrophic disaster upon his family. This made Feng Piaoling hate the man even more than the God-King Tang himself.
As for Liu Erlong and Yu Xiaogang... they were cousins. Enough said.
The original Shrek Seven Devils were even worse. Dai Mubai was a long-time patron of brothels. Oscar and Ma Hongjun were useless things who ate the people's food but did no good. Especially Ma Hongjun—with that nonsense about "the phoenix became a god but lost his soul over a swift." If you were so capable, why didn't you just refuse to become a god? If you hadn't, couldn't you have grown old with Bai Chenxiang? Ultimately, he was just a piece of trash who couldn't even swallow the food that was fed to his mouth.
Ning Rongrong was an ingrate who watched the Sword and Bone Douluos perish while her entire mind was focused on her "Brother San." Who knows if she just couldn't let go of Tang San and was unwilling to have children with Oscar, or if she simply couldn't? She gave the sect that raised her nothing but the hollow glory of the "Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect," failing to leave even a single Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Tower inheritance for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect in the end.
Zhu Zhuqing and Xiao Wu were merely two accessories.
As for Tang the God-King...
Just as he was about to vent his internal frustrations, the furious voice rang out behind him. "You, surnamed Feng, stop right there!"
Feng Piaoling turned around to see the Young Master Xu of the Xuanming Sect, who specialized in the "Way of the Bully." A playful expression crossed his face. "Does Young Master Xu have business?"
"I didn't expect a brat like you to be a Soul Elder with a thousand-year second ring. I must admit, I underestimated you. Do you dare to fight me in the Spirit Dueling Arena tomorrow?"
By this time, many freshmen who had passed the assessment were walking toward them.
"Sure. One Mystic Water Pill plus one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins," Feng Piaoling said calmly.
Xu Sanshi froze for a moment. "Didn't you say you didn't want them?"
"Repaying a favor for someone else and a Spirit Duel are two different things. If there's no prize, why should I duel you?" Feng Piaoling replied.
Upon hearing this, Xu Sanshi felt it almost made sense... like hell it did! He wanted to earn a Mystic Water Pill and a hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins from a single duel? There was no such good deal in this world. Besides, he didn't have that much money on him.
But if he refused, wouldn't he be telling the world that Xu Sanshi was afraid of the other guy?
Caught between a rock and a hard place, Xu Sanshi could only say with a flushed face, "Fine! But if you lose, you must never pester Jiang Nannan again!"
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