In Douluo Continent, I am the mastermind behind the scenes.

Chapter 96. Can you really abandon your faith if you awaken your martial soul for free?

"Sister Xiaoya, the relationship between the Heavenly Soul Empire and Shrek Academy is a bit delicate right now. For the sake of the bigger picture, let's not cause trouble at this critical juncture. We'll need them to fight the Sun Moon Empire in the future."

Under Huo Yuhao's strong persuasion, Tang Ya decided to remember this grudge and settle accounts with Sun Ling when she conquered Mingdu!

As a big fan of Tang San, the Sea God, Tang Ya was very dissatisfied. She directly used the power of the Tang Sect Master to order Bei Bei to turn the car around and head to Soto City, the birthplace of Shrek Academy.

Seeing that they couldn't dissuade Tang Ya, everyone had no choice but to give in to her wishes. Huo Yuhao and Xu Sanshi were also somewhat curious. In their previous lives, they were used to hearing praise for Shrek Academy, the Sea God Pavilion, and the Sea God Tang San. In this life... they wanted to hear more about the Sea God Pavilion's reputation among the people, whether it was as bad as Sun Ling had said. If the Sea God Pavilion wasn't doing well enough, they could change it after they took over.

And so, driven by Bei Bei, the eight members of the Tang Clan rode a hand-operated tractor into the heart of the Heavenly Soul Empire. After two whole days, they finally saw the city walls of Soto City.

Instead of entering the city, the group arrived at the ruins of Shrek Academy outside Soto.

In the vast Shrek Academy (village), only one old man was sweeping the dust in the village with a broom.

Tang Ya stepped forward, snatched the broom from the old man's hand, and said with a smile, "Grandpa, Shrek Academy is so big, how long will it take you to clean it all by yourself? Come on, let us help you clean it."

As she spoke, Tang Ya gave a wink to the group of seven behind her. The group understood and quickly took out various cleaning tools to clean Shrek Academy (Village).

The village grounds are paved with high-quality stone, making cleaning easy. In less than half an hour, the entire village was transformed.

Tang Ya then returned to the old man's side and asked the question that had been bothering her. "Grandpa, why are you the only one cleaning? Where are the other village guards?"

After the Spirit Hall was destroyed, Shrek Academy moved into Spirit City. To highlight Shrek Academy's merits, Avalanche renovated the Shrek Academy ruins located in Soto City. The villagers who originally lived in this village were appointed as "village guardians" to maintain all the facilities of the Shrek Academy ruins. Every quarter, the Heaven Dou Empire would allocate a sum of money as funds for the maintenance of the Shrek Academy ruins.

At first, these village guardians lived very well. Although the funds were deducted at each level, it was an astronomical figure for these villagers who had never seen much of the world. With these funds, every household lived a prosperous life.

Later, due to excessive indulgence, Xue Beng died in his forties. After the successor took over, the funds were reduced again and again, and eventually stopped altogether. Instead, the Soto City Lord's Mansion gave the village guards one gold soul coin every month.

Seeing that they could no longer receive government stipends, these village residents had no choice but to pick up their hoes again and return to a self-sufficient life.

Later, the Heaven Dou Empire split up, and these village guardians no longer even received their monthly reward of one gold soul coin.

Of course, Tang Ya was unaware of this, only believing that the government had never stopped paying the wages of these village guards for a full ten thousand years.

The old man said calmly, "Her Highness the Princess has established a farmers' association, with a Soul Master from a commoner background serving as the village chief. In addition to managing the village's internal affairs, they also provide free martial soul awakening for eligible villagers."

"Our village is not within the coverage of the farmers' association. All of the 156 people in the village, except for me, have moved out."

Upon hearing this, Tang Ya took a deep breath and immediately burst into a tirade: "It is your good fortune to be able to become the guardians of the old Shrek Academy site. In order to awaken your martial souls for free, you actually chose to betray your faith. You are clearly a bunch of ungrateful wretches."

"Ungrateful wretch? Haha, hahaha..."

The old man said with a wry smile, "To tell you the truth, my grandson awakened a very powerful martial soul, it seems to be a body martial soul or something, and it has innate full soul power. He was directly taken back to the sect by the adults of the Body Sect. It is said that he has the potential to become a titled Douluo."

"My Liu family has been commoners for generations. In this generation, we have actually produced a Soul Master, and one who has the potential to become a Title Douluo in the future. This is truly an honor for our ancestors."

As he spoke, the elderly man with gray hair suddenly burst into tears, disregarding his image.

"With my grandson's talent, he was fully capable of bringing this old man to the Body Sect to enjoy a life of luxury, but I directly refused him... For ten thousand years, our village has guarded the old site of Shrek Academy for ten thousand years. I originally wanted to use the last few years of my lifespan to stand guard to the very end, but what I got in return was slander from you, the representatives of the Sea God!"

"What good is faith? Have Shrek Academy and the Sea God Pavilion ever given us a free chance to awaken our martial souls and provide my grandson with the opportunity to become a soul master?"

"With the behavior of you lot, Shrek Academy... is doomed sooner or later!"

"You... how dare you!" Tang Ya said through gritted teeth.

Sun Ling was one thing, after all, she was a Soul Master. For the sake of the bigger picture, she could tolerate being scolded a few times. But what kind of person was this old, rotten commoner?

Tang Ya couldn't hold back any longer, and five vines formed from Blue Silver Grass spread out, tearing the old man in front of her to shreds.

Seeing this scene, Mo Lian's eyes grew even deeper. In a foreign land, Tang Ya made no attempt to conceal the fact that she had murdered an old man who disliked the Sea God Pavilion and Shrek Academy. Is this... the way the Tang Sect behaves?

What does this have to do with ordinary people? Everyone's busy pursuing profit; if anyone's to blame, it's Vina for creating a farmers' association and plundering what rightfully belongs to the sea god…

wrong!

It's clearly Shrek Academy and the Sea God Pavilion that didn't do a good enough job. What did Vina do wrong? She just wanted her country to be stronger. Why don't you, Tang Ya, look for the reasons within yourself instead of blaming others for deviating from their faith?

Sigh! If she hadn't put in so much effort into the Tang Sect, she would have left it no matter what once she returned to Shrek City!

He was just an ordinary civilian; killing him was no big deal. The Tang Clan members didn't think that the Heavenly Soul authorities would hold them accountable for killing an old man.

After dragging the old man's body to the mass grave, the eight members of the Tang Clan left Soto City on a hand-operated tractor. Their next stop was Shenhun Village, the hometown of the Sea God Tang San.

Upon arriving at Shenhun Village, they found the villagers queuing up to awaken their martial souls, giving the Tang Sect's eight members a cold shoulder. After repeated setbacks, they abandoned their sightseeing and began searching for the treasure's location using the treasure map.

(End of this chapter)