Book 1: Skydream Iceworm
Chapter 6.1: The Number One Academy on the Douluo Continent
“Oh.” Huo Yuhao had originally planned to ponder the few capturing techniques that Bei Bei had taught him yesterday, but he immediately turned blank after hearing what Tang Ya had said.
The three continued their journey. While they were walking, Tang Ya explained the situation within Shrek Academy to Huo Yuhao.
Shrek Academy had been established ten thousand years ago, and the word ‘Shrek’ meant ‘monster’ in the ancient language. This also meant that, the people who’d founded Shrek Academy at the start had wanted to establish an academy of monsters.
Shrek Academy’s oldest motto was “To breed only monsters, not ordinary people.”, but the word ‘monster’ actually referred to geniuses.
Even the person who’d founded the Douluo Continent’s number one Tang Sect had graduated from Shrek Academy, and it was also that student who brought about the first glorious moment for Shrek Academy. At that time, Shrek Academy had only had their founding students, who were referred to as the Shrek’s Seven Monsters within the Shrek Academy’s history.
The story of Shrek’s Seven Monsters had already spread for a long time, and the most famous of them was still the husband and wife couple that included the sect master of the Tang Sect. Afterwards, although the Tang Sect declined, Shrek Academy still stood high. Furthermore, following the developments that came with the passage of time, it gradually became the number one academy on the Douluo Continent.
Nowadays, Shrek Academy held a position of power within the continent, the root of the cause of being the continental war that had occurred during the collision of the Douluo Continent and the Sun Moon Continent four thousand years ago.
When the war had only just started, the three empires of the Douluo Continent had been divided in their opinions, causing the Douluo Continent to be at a disadvantageous position during the start of the war, so much so that the army of the Sun Moon Continent had been able to make their way to the inner parts of the Douluo Continent.
At this crucial moment, Shrek Academy’s dean from that year had made a rallying cry. This had an unexpectedly large response, causing nearly sixty Titled Douluo super-experts to temporarily become the commanders of the three armies. After taking command of their armies, they swiftly destroyed the Sun Moon Empire’s army, obtaining the final victory in the war, and unifying the continents into one called the Douluo Continent. The Sun Moon Empire only managed to continue existing afterwards by giving up its lands, and by paying war reparations. However, their military strength had been weakened by an extremely large amount, which led to them being unable to contend with the three combined armies of the Douluo Continent anymore. Its military strength was equivalent to that of a single empire, at most.
The war also caused the reputation of Shrek’s Academy to soar. It wasn’t just because Shrek Academy had gathered sixty Titled Douluos, but was also because that year’s dean had become the commander of the three empires’ unified army. Under his rallying cry, the royal families from the three great empires discovered, to their great surprise, that practically all of the generals of the unified army had come from Shrek Academy. Under the unified allocation of resources by Shrek Academy’s dean, the combined army of the three great empires no longer had any discord between them. It was also because of this unification that they were able to achieve victory.
From then on, Shrek Academy no longer belonged to any single country; it had become a standalone existence.
Shrek Academy had successively raised extremely wise deans. Although the academy held a majestic position on the continent, they weren’t arrogant in the least. The academy’s attitude towards all countries was the same. Furthermore, they didn’t possess any private armies, and the number of teachers that they kept was even kept at a certain limit. Because of this, Shrek Academy didn’t cause any of the countries to feel a sense of danger. After all, Shrek Academy was an academy. Thus, not only did it continue to exist, but its lofty position within the continent was also one that couldn’t be easily shaken by any country.
Shrek Academy was located within the southeastern portion of the Tian Hun Empire, with the Great Star Dou Forest located directly southwest from it. The Dou Ling Empire was east of it, and the Star Luo Empire was located northwards. It could be said that Shrek Academy was located at the intersection point of the three empires.
Tang Ya told Huo Yuhao that Shrek Academy was currently divided into two parts: the inner courtyard and the outer courtyard. Every year, the number of new students they’d recruit was around a thousand or so, yet the total number of students within the academy had never surpassed five thousand. It would take twelve years for one to complete their studies and graduate after entering Shrek Academy. This also meant that Shrek Academy’s elimination rate was extremely high every year. If one wasn’t able to pass the academy’s assessments, he’d be mercilessly kicked out of the academy.
However, every single person that managed to successfully graduate from Shrek Academy was a once-in-a-generation genius.
It could be said that Shrek Academy was truly a cradle filled with experts, so much so that even political issues would occur between the Tian Hun Empire, Dou Ling Empire, and Star Luo Empire due to the number of students that Shrek Academy would admit each year. The fame of the number one academy in the world could clearly be seen from this.
The Sun Moon Empire, on the other hand—possibly due to their enmity with Shrek Academy—had never asked to send people to study at Shrek Academy. There were also a few high-level academies within the Sun Moon Empire that had already reached a fairly high standard after experiencing a few thousand years of development. Only, the Sun Moon Empire’s military strength had always been limited due to the pact they’d made after the war, which prevented them from expanding too much. Thus, the Sun Moon Empire was still keeping a low profile, at least on the surface.
“Yuhao, once you enter the academy, you’ll cultivate in the outer courtyard. The outer courtyard is split into many faculties, so you should temporarily cultivate inside the control faculty. At the same time, you should simultaneously study inside of the Soul Engineering Institution. How about it?” Tang Ya asked Huo Yuhao after giving him a simple introduction to the Shrek Academy’s internal situation.
“Teacher Xiao Ya, what’s this ‘Soul Engineering Institution’?” Huo Yuhao asked.
Tang Ya replied, “The so-called Soul Engineering Institution is a place created for the sake of studying soul weapons.” She unexpectedly clenched her teeth in anger as she said the words ‘soul weapons’.
“Soul weapons?” Huo Yuhao was still slightly puzzled. However, you couldn’t blame him. Shrek Academy was currently the number one academy on the continent, yet he’d grown up in a closed environment since he was young. Thus, he naturally had little knowledge and experience of such matters.
Seeing Tang Ya’s slightly unhappy expression, Bei Bei took her place explaining things to Huo Yuhao. “Soul tools actually have a very large relationship with our Tang Sect. In a sense, soul tools are weapons that we use soulforce to activate. Higher quality soul tools will possess greater might. This also means that, even if you’re only a tool soul master, you’d still be able to possess considerably high attack power if you had a strong soul tool. However, the development of soul tools was one of the main reasons for our Tang Sect’s decline.”
“Our Tang Sect was still flourishing four thousand years ago. However, the collision with the Sun Moon Continent was the root cause for our Tang Sect’s decline.” Tang Ya spoke with a hateful tone, “Our Tang Sect was famous for hidden weapons, and our main source of income was obtained by selling hidden weapons. In the past, almost every single country would purchase a certain amount of hidden weapons from us—even some sects would do the same.”
“Over four thousand years ago, war quickly broke out when the Sun Moon Continent collided with our Douluo Continent. The three empires’ armies, supported by the hidden weapons of our Tang Sect, collided with the army of the Sun Moon Empire. In the end, although the Sun Moon Empire wasn’t strong in the aspect of soul masters, they possessed unique insights in the aspects of soul tools. These soul tools were activated with soulforce, and surpassed our Tang Sect’s hidden weapons in strength as a whole, as well as in attack range. In the end, it caused the three empires of our Douluo Continent to suffer disastrous losses during the initial phase of the war.”