At the request of the major empires on the continent, Shrek Academy's outer court enrolled two to three hundred students each year, divided into eight or nine classes. Of course, these few hundred enrolled students could only be considered students of the outer court. They needed to pass countless assessments to enter the true inner court of Shrek Academy. It was said that the inner court was where the real monsters of Shrek Academy gathered.
After all, every student who graduated from Shrek's inner court was equivalent to having obtained proof of identity as a future peak expert on the continent.
On the surface, Shrek Academy did not interfere in the internal affairs of the three great empires, priding itself on being just an ordinary soul master academy. However, it acted as the world's policeman, even daring to bypass the official channels of the three great empires to deal with their officials.
However, this practice of Shrek Academy was long-standing. Not only was it like this now, but the future Shrek Academy would become even more aggressive.
On the future Douluo Continent, Shrek Academy was tacitly given a very fitting nickname by some insightful people: the Douluo Tumor!
How did Shrek's so-called power and prosperity come about? It was nothing more than creaming off the top from the most outstanding talents of the entire Douluo Federation each year. When times were tough, they even thought of going to other schools to trick people into enrolling, corralling them under their own banner and brainwashing them with "Shrek's Glory."
And these so-called heaven's chosen ones would consume heavenly treasures and suck dry the life core of the planet for their cultivation. But once they had the ability, the strength, and had become successful, they didn't think about how to build the Douluo Federation or the Douluo Star. Instead, their first thought was how to build up Shrek Academy. Some individuals even subconsciously regarded the Federation as an enemy.
What a shamelessly greedy and outrageous educational method this was! What a treacherous and ungrateful way of thinking! The esteemed number one academy of Douluo was actually teaching a group of ingrates, ungrateful beasts. It was the biggest joke under the heavens!
How many people were there in Shrek Academy? They had so many heavenly treasures that they were growing moldy. Ordinary students could casually squander an amount of money that would take an ordinary commoner a lifetime to earn!
Some might say that the Douluo Continent respects the strong, and one could even say they adhere to a theory of survival of the fittest. But a major taboo for Shrek was that it advertised its own fairness and neutrality!
It advertised itself as an ordinary academy that only educated students and would absolutely not participate in political affairs, yet it commanded the major empires to do this and that, treating several countries as if they were servants in its own house.
Then again, it wouldn't matter if Shrek Academy participated in politics. Then they should also solve the people's livelihood problems along with the Federation. Help the common people properly develop the Federation's industry, agriculture, service industry, compulsory education, and medical care. If they could do that, Shrek would not only be the great benefactor of Douluo, but it wouldn't matter even if they walked like Doflamingo.
All day long, they advertised their neutrality and fairness, but they never dealt with "trivial matters." The moment a fight was about to break out, they would rely on their secret intelligence network to command the actions of the major empires of Douluo with an amount of information and a perspective that surpassed mortals.
The Douluo Star originally had its own life core, which could be shared by humans and soul beasts, and even those lice and fleas. But under the dual plan of Shrek Academy and the great Tang God-King, it was possessed by Tang San's parents, who then adopted a stance of "This is a tree I planted, what right do you outsiders have to use it?"
The upper echelons of Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect sucked until they were bloated, while the ordinary students in the academy had to use their family's hard-earned money to exchange for a chance to absorb it. As for those who weren't from Shrek's inner court or the Tang Sect, they couldn't even dream of it. The Golden Ancient Tree was indeed planted by Shrek, but the tree's main body was rooted in the entire Douluo Star, and its nutrients were supplied by the entire planet. As a result, ninety percent of the life energy could only be enjoyed by the upper class of Shrek's inner court.
Even later, major powers like the Spirit Pagoda and the War God Hall had few people who could absorb the life aura of the Douluo Star. It's no wonder the Spirit Pagoda conspired with the Holy Ghost Cult to send two god-killing-grade fixed-guidance soul tool cannonballs at Shrek Academy. Weren't they just purely asking for it?
As for the soul beast race? In the future, the soul beasts were even blasted to another planet by the powerful Shrek Academy! Even when the Beast God Di Tian had a chance of success in undergoing his divine tribulation on the Douluo Star, he was still not allowed to return home to face it.
And after sucking the blood of the major empires and successfully developing, the Tang Sect later vigorously recruited the Federation's top talents and buried its head in developing powerful weapons that were many times more advanced than the outside world.
As a result, these weapons were neither promoted for the use of the common people nor contributed to the country. Instead, they were locked in the armory, waiting for an opportunity to fire a shot at the Federation during an internal conflict.
One must know, these resources were all siphoned from the Douluo Star by the two great vampires, the Tang Sect and Shrek Academy. If these resources were uniformly allocated by the Federation's society, how many talents could be cultivated?
Shrek's top graduates all stay at the academy, while the mid-to-low-tier ones enter the future Douluo Federation's workforce. Moreover, the Sea God Pavilion itself said that outer court students aren't even considered Shrek students; only the inner court counts.
If cultivating a few talents who would follow Shrek at the snap of a finger in a critical moment is called "great merit" and "a great favor," then the food Shrek eats, the clothes they wear, and the things they use are all produced by the Federation. Isn't the Federation's favor to Shrek a heavenly one?!
Yet, even with this monopoly giant poaching talent like this, the Federation in the fourth Douluo book could still fight against the Dragon-Horse Twin Stars on its own and even gain the upper hand at one point.
All these honors went to Shrek. The sacrifice of the Federation's millions of soldiers went unasked, while Shrek showboated to the end by stacking cheats and resources. The honor they received was deeply rooted in people's hearts.
Shrek Academy treats protecting its own as a virtue, double standards as a tradition, and monopoly as neutrality. This isn't just one generation; every generation is like this.
On the tournament stage, they blatantly and deliberately killed people from the Sun Moon Royal Academy and the Holy Ghost Cult. If someone from their own side was injured, the vice-master of the Sea God Pavilion would personally come forward to demand compensation.
The Sun Moon Empire had so many level-nine soul tool masters behind it, and the Holy Ghost Cult had two Limit Douluo behind it, yet neither of them went to Shrek to demand an explanation.
This is very ironic. The bad guys lose because the bad guys have a sense of shame. Shrek wins again and again because Shrek is shameless to the extreme!
This is the common understanding of the plot that all young readers who read the original work come to after their values have matured! The Huo Yuhao of this life was equally ashamed of Shrek's actions.
So much so that after the Rakshasa God Bibi Dong finished reading the subsequent Douluo plot through their shared memory, she was so disgusted by Shrek Academy that she threw up all over the spiritual sea.
Of course, one cannot look at problems with a one-sided view. Although Shrek Academy was full of evil, it didn't exclude the possibility that a very small number of individuals could still maintain their self-awareness after being brainwashed. What Huo Yuhao needed to do in the future was to recruit all these people for his own use. For example, the female teacher Mu Jin before him. She wasn't heavily promoted, yet she still had her own set of excellent teaching methods.
Of course, even if the current Huo Yuhao was disgusted with Shrek and the Tang Buddha behind it, he still had to act within his means if he wanted to overthrow them. If you can't beat them, join them. Most of the cheats of the Huo Yuhao from his previous life were obtained on the basis of having Shrek as a background.
Thinking of this, Huo Yuhao's prejudice against the scheming woman Mu Jin before him also lessened a lot. If she were guided well, she could also become a gold-medal professor at some academy in the future.
"The entrance examination is divided into two parts. The first is a comprehensive test of various physical abilities, and the second is a practical combat test. Teacher believes that you will definitely pass smoothly," Mu Jin glanced at Huo Yuhao beside her and explained.
"Okay, Teacher Mu. I believe in myself," Huo Yuhao said with a well-behaved smile.
Mu Jin nodded and led Huo Yuhao to the examination channel. There were already many people queuing up to wait for the assessment. It was clear that they all had a certain background and their soul power and age had met the admission standards.
Not being able to enter without an exam like the original is indeed a bit of a waste of time, Huo Yuhao sighed and got in at the end of the line.
In front of him was a girl with short, fiery red hair, tied into a playful ponytail. Her eyes were also a rare red. At first glance, she had a somewhat intimidating air, but if you looked closely, you would find that her facial features were extremely exquisite, and her skin was as fair as jade. It was just that her gaze was very cold.
The girl turned her head and looked at Huo Yuhao. Unlike the original novel, having come from the Holy Ghost Cult, his clothes were very eye-catching. He also had a melancholic temperament, and after being improved by various cheats, his appearance had also changed from being merely handsome to exceptionally dashing.
One must know, the person who usually styled him was the number one beauty of the Holy Ghost Cult's younger generation, Zhongli Yu. This made the red-haired girl unable to help but size him up a couple more times.
Seeing the girl sizing him up, Huo Yuhao also smiled faintly. "Hello, my name is Huo Yuhao. You can also call me Huo Gua (Huo the Cheat)."