After sharing the joy of successfully promoting to a Rank 5 Soul Engineer, the excitement and elation on Xu Tianzhen's face slowly faded.
Her gaze fell softly on Xu Tianhao beside her, and her tone became serious as she spoke:
"Hao Hao, those exchange students from Shrek Academy sent a message through someone yesterday, proactively inviting us to an open Soul Duel. Do you think we should accept?"
Hearing Xu Tianzhen's words, Xu Tianhao was slightly taken aback at first, but then a playful, faint smile curled at the corners of his mouth.
Xu Tianhao's tone carried a hint of dismissive scoffing: "What? Can those Shrek people not fix their bad habits?"
"Every few months they have to jump out and test our strength. Are they here to study or to be spies?"
Hearing the word "spies," Xu Tianzhen helplessly stuck out her tongue, a look of being caught between laughter and tears appearing on her face, and continued:
"Who knows what they're thinking. Ever since they arrived in Bright Capital, they've challenged us more than once or twice, and every time they've returned in defeat, never winning a single match."
"I thought it was just a spar anyway, and we wouldn't need to use our full strength. We could just treat it as playing around with them to pass the time."
As soon as she finished speaking, Long Aotian's face darkened, and a cold, fierce aura faintly radiated from him: "Don't anyone try to stop me this time!"
His habitually arrogant eyes were full of disdain and rage toward Shrek, and he gave a heavy, cold snort:
"Those filthy scumbags from Shrek have provoked us time and again, pushing their luck. I've long reached the end of my patience. This time, I must personally cripple them to vent this pent-up anger!"
Everyone present, upon hearing Long Aotian's words, was not surprised; instead, they all showed looks of understanding.
After all, they were well aware of the blood feud between the Body Sect and Shrek Academy; the two sides were like fire and water, locked in a fight to the death.
As a core successor of the Body Sect, hostility and hatred toward Shrek were etched into Long Aotian's very bones.
Faced with repeated provocations from Shrek students, such a furious reaction was perfectly normal.
Any other disciple of the Body Sect would likely find it difficult to suppress the rage in their heart.
Even so, Xiao Hongchen, who was nearby, hurriedly stepped forward to dissuade him: "Aotian, you mustn't be impulsive!"
"If you really cripple the Shrek people in the Soul Duel arena, setting aside whether the academy will hold you accountable, Senior Ma and the others our academy sent to Shrek will have a truly miserable time!"
"When the time comes, on Shrek Academy's turf, they will surely be targeted and made things difficult for in every way; even their basic cultivation will be severely affected."
Hearing Xiao Hongchen's big-picture-oriented persuasion, the fierce aura and rage surrounding Long Aotian subsided slightly, and his clenched fists slowly relaxed.
In his heart, he certainly wished he could give those filthy scumbags from Shrek a severe lesson.
However, he was already a member of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. He had to consider not only the grievances of the Body Sect but also the overall layout of the academy and the situation of the ten exchange students studying far away at Shrek Academy.
If his momentary impulse caused his fellow seniors to fall into a predicament, it was definitely not what he wanted.
Thinking of this, Long Aotian sighed deeply, his tone full of frustration as he asked in a low voice, "Are we just going to keep enduring it like this, letting them provoke us again and again?"
Xu Tianhao looked at the various expressions of the group and smiled calmly. His tone was light and indifferent, as if he didn't care about Shrek's challenge at all. He spoke slowly:
"It's no big deal, and there's no need to get angry over it. We'll just refuse and not go. With our current cultivation progress and research plans, where would we find the spare time to play around with a group of ignorant children?"
Hearing Xu Tianhao's nonchalant words, everyone present smiled knowingly. Their eyes held undisguised contempt; they didn't take those exchange students from Shrek Academy seriously at all.
Although they were younger, in their eyes, even if those Shrek exchange students carried the title of the continent's number one academy, they were merely self-satisfied and arrogant people stuck in their ways.
Whether it was their achievements in soul tool technology or their own potential, they were left far behind by the group, completely unworthy of being their opponents.
A year ago, the exchange student program between Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy and Shrek Academy began.
At that time, after many rounds of consultation, the two academies finally finalized the personnel for the two-way exchange.
On the Sun Moon Empire's side, ten students were carefully selected to go to Shrek Academy for a significant period of advanced study.
Among these ten exchange students, the core strength was the seven-member team led by Ma Rulong. They were all designated by the Sun Moon Empire as the core for the next Continental Advanced Spirit Master Elite Tournament.
Whether it was their Spirit talent, combat literacy, or spirit tool control ability, they were all at the top level among their peers, the future pillars the academy was focusing on cultivating.
Sending them to Shrek Academy this time was, on one hand, to let them personally experience the cultivation atmosphere of Shrek Academy,
to draw lessons from the other party's Spirit Master cultivation system and see if they could achieve new breakthroughs and improvements in their own cultivation.
On the other hand, it was to gain a deep understanding of Shrek's teaching model and Spirit concepts, learn from their strengths, and bring them back to the Sun Moon Empire to further refine the country's Spirit Master and Soul Engineer cultivation systems.