Looking at the dull-faced Gongyang Mo, Teacher Wang Yan felt full of unwillingness. He gritted his teeth and beat his chest, but he had no choice but to accept everything.
Beside him, Yan Shaozhe was equally like a walking corpse.
Lost.
Shrek Academy… lost.
That's right, he had managed to fight for the right to a rematch, but what was the result? The entire Shrek Academy team had almost followed Lu Cheng and slipped away, leaving behind only one powerless support system Soul King.
How could they fight against the Sun Moon Empire team in their prime state?
"Shrek Academy, do you still request a rematch?" Tiansha Douluo Huang Jinxu asked expressionlessly.
The eyes of the entire audience were gathered on Yan Shaozhe.
The latter clenched his fists and remained silent, seemingly wanting to stall for time, unwilling to wake up from this fact.
Tiansha Douluo Huang Jinxu sneered in his heart and ignored him. Previously, he had some good feelings and a slight wariness toward this hypocrite, but now… ever since Shrek Academy had been exposed and everyone had reconciled their accounts and realized that their own disciples had been harmed to death by that old animal Elder Xuan, that faint good feeling had vanished, replaced by disgust.
"Since Dean Yan defaults, then the final champion of this Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament is… the Sun Moon Empire team!!!
Let us congratulate them!"
Tiansha Douluo Huang Jinxu's voice spread throughout the entire arena.
In the next instant, the entire arena began to cheer, though it was chaotic. It wasn't like previous tournaments where they cheered the name of the final champion; instead, it gathered around one person's name.
"Lu Cheng!"
"Lu Cheng!"
"Lu Cheng!"
The cheers swept through the entire arena like a tidal wave.
Everyone knew that the real champion of this tournament was "Shrek," specifically that mysterious youth.
The Sun Moon team had simply won by lying down.
Looking back several hundred or thousand years, it was hard to find such a monster who could suppress all geniuses with his own power, with endless methods. Others would be satisfied with a martial soul that was enough to stand at the pinnacle of the continent, but he had three.
And even if the subsequent tournaments were exciting, it would be difficult for anyone to walk out of Lu Cheng's shadow. He was like a mountain of an era, blocking the path of all geniuses.
Lu Cheng: "I have seen many geniuses, but they all call me a genius."
Yan Shaozhe's face was livid as he listened to the deafening cheers for Lu Cheng in the arena. And those who revered Lu Cheng were far more than just the "ignorant" commoners below; there were also many disciples from the participating academies. Lu Cheng's figure would inevitably leave an indelible memory in their hearts. Today's matter was far from over; it would spread to the corners of the continent.
"Let's go!" He gritted his teeth and took Teacher Wang Yan and Gongyang Mo towards the Shrek Academy hotel without a word.
Pack up and return to Shrek.
Only now did his footsteps feel exceptionally heavy.
Today seemed calm, but in reality, undercurrents were surging. The aftermath of this storm would gradually reveal its power in the future, and Shrek Academy was undoubtedly the biggest victim of this incident…
He had to return to the academy immediately and report to his teacher.
Yan Shaozhe glanced with complex and annoyed eyes at the youth not far away, who was surrounded by many powerful figures from the Body Sect like stars around the moon. His lips moved slightly. If he had treated the youth with sincerity at that time and put down his status as the Dean of the Martial Soul Department, would it have been…
The tournament ended.
The Sun Moon Empire unexpectedly won the continental championship.
And the name of Lu Cheng spread throughout the entire continent.
Countless disciples of academies and sects heard of this monster youth, who was almost like a god, from their senior brothers and senior sisters as the participating team members returned.
Thirteen or fourteen years old, at the soul king realm, suspected to have twin spirits, no defeats in his entire competition career (mainstream opinion held that Shrek lost the final, but Lu Cheng didn't lose), incredibly handsome, and righteous, he had single-handedly torn off the veil of the hypocritical Shrek.
Where there are righteous people, there are villains.
Even with the ten thousand years of accumulation of Shrek Academy, it could not withstand Yan Shaozhe's poor performance this time. Various dirty deeds were placed on the table with ironclad evidence. Coupled with the acquiescence of the high-level officials of major academies and forces, who did not speak up to explain for Shrek because they were also angry that Shrek Academy had wantonly harmed their disciples in just a few short months.
Lu Cheng was labeled as bright and magnificent.
And Shrek Academy's reputation plummeted overnight, becoming a "villain" despised by everyone.
After all, looking at the things exposed on the field one by one, Shrek Academy was riddled with sores from top to bottom, exuding rotting and foul pus; it was truly rotten to the core.
A disciple with twin spirits was forced by an outer academy teacher to attach a second soul ring in advance, just for the sake of so-called teaching resources. The truth about the destruction of the family of the inner court's first disciple, Zhang Lexuan, was actually committed by Shrek Academy. And the casualty rate of the Shrek Supervisory Group disciples was so high; was it really colluding with evil soul masters?
This was no longer a question of whether the many elders of the Sea God Pavilion were greedy for life and afraid of death, not daring to go themselves but sending disciples to exterminate Evil Soul Masters. The nature had changed… It was that the high-level officials of Shrek Academy were colluding with the Holy Spirit Cult in secret, sending their own disciples to be slaughtered, and then the Shrek high-level officials collected bribes from the Holy Spirit Cult.
Otherwise, Elder Xuan's actions were truly inexplicable.
It was just that a skinny camel is bigger than a horse; Shrek Academy's high-level combat power was formidable, so many forces did not dare to offend them completely. They only withdrew their sect and family disciples from within Shrek Academy in small batches.
Shrek Academy.
Sea God Pavilion.
In the top-floor conference room.
Many Sea God Pavilion elders were gathered here. Even the imprisoned Elder Xuan was thrown out by Mu En. He sat in his seat trembling, hanging his head, looking wilted, obviously knowing that his "secret had been exposed."
According to his script, Shrek Academy would suppress this matter, at most sending him to apologize to the sects of the injured disciples, and the outside world would definitely not know the details of this matter. After all, he was the future Pavilion Master of the Sea Gods Pavilion and needed to build his reputation. This kind of thing could not be spread out, so that pot could only be carried by Teacher Wang Yan.
But now…
The tournament was messed up by that little bastard Lu Cheng. His affairs in the Star Dou Great Forest ten years ago were also exposed. Coupled with today's events, many Shrek Outer Academy disciples had already called him the "Grand Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult."
The Deputy Commander of the Supervisory Group had fallen into a mess and had no prestige left.
Could he not be angry?
How could that be?!
But even if he was angry, there was no way, because now there were more serious things in front of everyone.
Lu Cheng… joined the Body Sect, and the matter of Zhang Lexuan back then was also exposed.
This could be said to have added another heavy blow to Shrek Academy.
Now, even if Shrek denied it to the death, the outside world would not pay attention. If you couldn't produce evidence, and even your number one senior sister of the inner court had betrayed the sect, it showed how dark Shrek was.
"Cough, cough, cough…"
In the spacious conference hall.
At a long wooden table, an old man sitting in a wheelchair at the right end coughed softly and spoke slowly: "I believe you all know what happened at the tournament a few days ago."
Mu En's voice was calm, with no joy or anger.
"This matter is my responsibility. I was too confident. Even though Zhang Lexuan, Lu Cheng, Ma Xiaotao, and others had already shown enough anomalies, I did not continue to investigate deeply but instead let them leave the academy to participate in the tournament…"
"Elder Mu, you…" Elder Zhuang on the side had complex eyes and spoke slowly.
"No need; wrong is wrong. Why be timid and shirk responsibility?" Mu En raised his hand to interrupt and coughed softly again. His breath was rapid and messy, his hair was half white, and he seemed to have one foot in the coffin. Obviously, when the news came a few days ago, it had a huge impact on him.
Elder Xuan lowered his head even more, cursing Lu Cheng in his mouth, with a hint of viciousness in his eyes. Just wait, you little bastard, don't let me catch you next time.
"Shaozhe, read the data." Mu En leaned his head on the wooden chair and exhaled a turbid breath.
"Yes, Teacher." Yan Shaozhe no longer had his usual dignity and elegance but was full of exhaustion. He held a letter and said slowly: "Within three months, the number of dropouts from the Outer Academy of Shrek Academy has soared to more than four hundred. Among them, students in the second grade and above account for seventy percent. And just last month, the statistics for the new batch of students were completed. There are no disciples above the Soul Elder level, twenty-seven disciples at the Spirit Grandmaster cultivation level, and six hundred and twenty-three disciples at the Soul Master cultivation level."
As soon as these words came out, the whole room was silent.
All the Elders frowned.
"…"
The number of dropouts above the second grade was nearly three hundred. What did this mean?
Students above the second grade were not like the mixed bag of the first grade; they were disciples who had already been "screened" once and could be considered the elite of Shrek. Basically, they all had a certain probability of entering the inner court, and this dropout rate… almost occupied one-seventh of the total number of Outer Academy disciples.
And what was even more terrifying was the freshman class this year.
The quality had plummeted like a cliff; it was the worst batch of disciples in history.
They didn't even manage to reach the number of one thousand!!!
It was normal not to have Soul Elders, but having only a few dozen disciples at the Spirit Grandmaster level was a bit terrifying. This data would at least break a hundred in previous years…
"Did you all hear clearly?" Mu En said leisurely.
"This data shows that Shrek Academy's reputation is already stinking among many other forces. I specifically checked the list, and there are fewer than ten disciples from big families, and they are all slightly outstanding in talent, far less than the previous batch and the one before that."
"Shrek Academy… is in danger."
"Teacher, why don't I go to visit the major forces myself? The Foundation of Shrek Academy is still there. I don't believe that bastard can destroy our ten-thousand-year heritage alone, hmph." Yan Shaozhe said coldly and angrily.
"That's a way. Let the other Elders go as well." Mu En nodded slightly, his face showing no joy or sorrow.
"But Elder Mu, I…" Elder Xuan's face twitched. His bottom line had almost been stripped bare. If he went to ask for disciples with a thick face, wouldn't it be like offering a cold face to a hot butt?
Some other Elders also had their faces change slightly.
After all, they had been sitting high in the Sea God Pavilion, above all living beings, for a hundred years. In their eyes, it was enough for juniors like Yan Shaozhe to deal with this matter. With their seniority, those Sect Masters would have to nod and bow when they saw them. Now, to do such a disgraceful thing was really hard to swallow.
"If you are unwilling, then just watch Shrek's glory collapse in our hands." Mu En sighed quietly.
"Elder Mu, why go this far?" Song Yunzhi frowned slightly and said, "Just that one little animal, plus Zhang Lexuan betraying the sect, why be so worried? My Shrek Academy is at least a top-tier academy on the continent. With our status and position, they should kneel and welcome us. To lower our status like this, wouldn't it be disgraceful?"
"Hehe, at this point, you still think this is just an ordinary crisis." Mu En shook his head.
His expression became more and more empty and powerless.
A bunch of useless people; do they really think they are something? The current crisis of Shrek Academy is unprecedented. If it were any other force, they would not be so worried, but Shrek would…
Because to put it bluntly, Shrek is just sucking blood from the entire Douluo Continent to achieve its current prosperity. That is to say, it has no territory of its own.
The Star Luo Empire has a huge empire as its foundation, with tens of millions of people, as well as large and small sects. Many of these personnel will flow into the royal family to become protectors or guests to serve the empire.
Heaven Soul Empire and Dou Ling Empire are the same.
But Shrek is different. Shrek is located in the Star Dou Great Forest, in the core of the three empires. Relying on the reputation accumulated in the past, it continuously absorbs excellent disciples from the major empires. In essence, who among those present does not come from the three major empires?
In the past, the three major empires dared to be angry but dared not speak. Even if they knew, they had to let Shrek suck their blood.
But now it's different.
With the exposure of the tournament, Shrek Academy treats its own disciples so harshly or even abuses them.
The Sect forces within the major empires will never send excellent disciples there again!!!
Then the future development trend can only be that the forces of the three countries will rise unprecedentedly, because people like Emperor Xu Jiawei are not fools. They will definitely seize the opportunity to fiercely cut a piece from Shrek and recruit the geniuses in their own empire into the royal family, which is to intercept Shrek Academy's resources.
Completely divide Shrek's once-exaggerated source of students.
High-quality students represent the future, which affects Shrek Academy's confidence to win the championship in the tournament, the number one in the continent. And this number one will also attract the next batch of high-quality students to the academy. This is a positive cycle.
And this batch of students is already shockingly poor, but what is more terrible is that this is just the beginning. Within the next hundred years, the source of students will continue to decline. In the future, they won't be able to win rankings in the tournament…
And if they can't win rankings, it means the source of students will get worse and worse.
It's not even impossible for Shrek to become an ordinary third-rate academy in a few hundred years.
"A bunch of idiots!!!" Mu En felt his blood vessels were about to explode. Supporting his remaining body, he coldly scanned everyone around him: "Whoever doesn't go, get out of Shrek Academy and be removed from the name!"
Seeing that Elder Mu was angry, the elders reluctantly accepted this "disgraceful" task.