Douluo Continent: We agreed on a simulation, but they've come to life?

Huang Jinxu's voice echoed throughout the entire stadium.

The next moment, the entire arena erupted in cheers, but it was chaotic and not like the previous competitions where they cheered for the final champion's name. Instead, the cheers were focused on one person's name.

"Lu Cheng!"

"Lu Cheng!"

"Lu Cheng!"

Cheers swept across the entire stadium like a tidal wave.

Everyone knows that this competition's champion belongs to "Shrek," to that mysterious young man.

The Sun and Moon team won by simply lying down.

In hundreds or thousands of years of competition, it would be difficult to find a prodigy who could single-handedly suppress all geniuses with his monstrous abilities. While others would only need one martial soul to stand at the top of the continent, he possessed three.

Even if the subsequent competitions are more exciting, it is unlikely that anyone can escape Lu Cheng's shadow. He is like a mountain of the times, blocking the way for all the geniuses.

Lu Cheng: I've met many geniuses, but they all call me a genius. (Shh)

Yan Shaozhe's face was ashen as he listened to Lu Cheng's deafening praise in the arena. Those who admired Lu Cheng were not just the "ignorant" commoners in the arena, but also many disciples from the participating academies. Lu Cheng's image would surely leave an indelible mark on their hearts. Today's events were far from over and would spread to the edges of the continent.

"Let's go!" He gritted his teeth and, without saying a word, led Wang Yan and Gongyang Mo toward the Shrek Academy Hotel.

Pack your things and head back to Shrek.

However, his steps felt particularly heavy at that moment.

Today may seem calm on the surface, but undercurrents are already surging. The aftershocks of this storm will gradually reveal their power in the future, and Shrek Academy will undoubtedly be the biggest victim of this incident...

I must return to the college immediately and report to my teacher.

Yan Shaozhe glanced with a complex and frustrated look at the young man 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 truly treated the young man with sincerity back then, and put aside his airs as the dean of the Martial Soul Department, would things have turned out differently...?

……

The match has ended.

The Sun and Moon Empire unexpectedly won the continental championship.

Lu Cheng's name also spread throughout the entire continent.

As the participants of this year's competition returned, countless disciples from various academies and sects heard about this almost godlike, monstrous young man from their senior brothers and sisters.

At thirteen or fourteen years old, he was at the Soul King level, and his martial soul was suspected to be three lifetimes. He had never lost a game in his entire competition career (the mainstream view is that Shrek Academy lost in the finals, but Lu Cheng did not). He was incredibly handsome, and he spoke out for justice, single-handedly exposing the hypocritical facade of Shrek Academy.

Where there are heroes, there are villains.

Even with Shrek Academy's millennia-long accumulation of resources, it couldn't withstand Yan Shaozhe's utterly incompetent performance this time. Irrefutable evidence of his various despicable acts was laid bare, and the higher-ups of the various academies tacitly condoned this without offering any explanation for Shrek. They were also furious that Shrek Academy was wantonly harming their disciples, and thus, within just a few months...

Lu Cheng was given the label of being bright and noble.

Shrek Academy, on the other hand, suffered a dramatic drop in reputation overnight and became a "villain" despised by everyone.

After all, judging from the incidents exposed on the field, Shrek Academy is riddled with problems from top to bottom, oozing rotten pus; it is truly rotten to the core.

Twin martial soul disciples were forced by outer court teachers to have a second martial soul ring added prematurely, just for the so-called teaching qualification. The truth behind the destruction of the family of Senior Sister Zhang Lexuan, the top disciple of the inner court, was actually done by Shrek Academy. And why is the casualty rate of Shrek's inspection team so high? Is it in collusion with evil soul masters?

This is no longer a matter of the many elders of the Sea God Pavilion being afraid of death and not daring to go themselves, but rather sending disciples to exterminate evil soul masters. The nature of the matter has changed to... Shrek Academy's higher-ups colluding with the Holy Spirit Cult, sending their own disciples to deliver food to the other side, and then Shrek's higher-ups accepting bribes from the Holy Spirit Cult.

Otherwise, Xuanzi's actions are truly inexplicable.

However, Shrek Academy, though weakened, is still a formidable force. Its high-level combat power is strong, and many factions dare not offend it completely. They are only withdrawing their disciples from Shrek Academy in small batches.

Shrek Academy.

Sea God Pavilion.

The top-floor conference room.

Many elders of the Sea God Pavilion gathered here. Even Xuanzi, who had been imprisoned, was thrown out by Mu En. He sat trembling in his seat, head drooping, looking dejected and pathetic, clearly aware that his "misdeeds had been exposed."

According to his script, Shrek Academy would suppress the matter, at most sending him to apologize to the sects of the injured disciples, and the outside world would not know the details of the matter. After all, he was the future head of the Sea God Pavilion and needed to cultivate his reputation. Such things could not be spread, so Wang Yan would have to take the blame.

But nowadays...

The competition was ruined by that little bastard Lu Cheng. His deeds in the Star Dou Great Forest ten years ago were also exposed. In addition to today's events, many Shrek Academy outer disciples now refer to him as the "Supreme Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult".

The deputy head of the inspection team ended up in a mess and had no prestige left.

How could he not care about his reputation?

How can it be!

But no matter how angry they were, there was nothing they could do, because there were more serious matters to be dealt with.

Lu Cheng... joined the Body Sect, and Zhang Lexuan's past was exposed.

This can be described as another heavy blow to Shrek Academy.

Even though Shrek Academy denies it to the death, the outside world doesn't care. You can't produce any evidence. Even your top senior sister from the inner courtyard has betrayed the sect, which shows how dark Shrek Academy is.

"Cough cough cough..."

Inside the spacious conference hall.

At a long, narrow wooden table, an elderly man in a wheelchair at the right end coughed softly and slowly said, "You all probably know what happened at the competition a few days ago."

Moon's voice was calm, revealing neither joy nor anger.

"This is my responsibility. I was too confident. Even though Zhang Lexuan, Lu Cheng, Ma Xiaotao, and others had shown enough abnormality, I didn't investigate further and instead let them leave the academy to participate in the competition..."

"Elder Mu, you..." Elder Zhuang, with a complicated expression, slowly spoke.

"No need. If you're wrong, you're wrong. Why be so submissive and try to shift the blame?" Mu En raised his hand to interrupt, then coughed lightly. His breathing was rapid and disordered, half of his hair was white, and he looked as if he had one foot in the grave. Clearly, the news that came a few days ago had a great impact on him.

Xuanzi lowered his head even further, cursing Lu Cheng under his breath, a hint of malice in his eyes. Just wait, you little beast, don't let me catch you again next time.

"Shao Zhe, read the data aloud." Mu En leaned back in the wooden chair and exhaled a breath of stale air.

"Yes, teacher." Yan Shaozhe was no longer as dignified and elegant as before, but his face was full of exhaustion. Holding a letter, he slowly said, "Within three months, the number of students who dropped out of Shrek Academy's outer academy has soared to more than 400. Among them, students in the second year and above accounted for 70%. And just last month, the statistics for the new batch of students were completed. There were no disciples above the Soul Venerable level, 27 disciples with the cultivation level of Great Soul Master, and 6023 disciples with the cultivation level of Soul Master."

"..."

The room fell silent upon hearing this.

All the elders had furrowed brows.

Nearly 300 students dropped out of school after the second year. What does this mean?

Unlike the first year, which is a mixed bag, students in the second year and above are already "selected" and are considered Shrek Academy's elite. They generally have a certain probability of entering the inner academy, while the dropout rate... accounts for almost one-seventh of the total number of outer academy students.

What's even more terrifying is this year's freshmen.

The quality plummeted dramatically; the worst batch of disciples in history.

They didn't even reach a thousand!

It's normal that there aren't any Soul Masters, but it's quite alarming that there are only a handful of disciples at the Great Soul Master level. In previous years, this number would have been at least over a hundred...

"Did everyone hear me clearly?" Mu En asked slowly.

"This data shows that Shrek Academy's reputation among the other forces is now extremely bad. I specifically looked through the list, and there are fewer than ten disciples from major families among them, and they are all just slightly outstanding in talent, far inferior to the previous year and the year before that."

Shrek Academy... is in grave danger.

"Teacher, why don't I personally visit the major powers? Shrek Academy's foundation is still intact. I refuse to believe that little beast can destroy our millennia-old heritage by himself, hmph." Yan Shaozhe said coldly and angrily.

“That’s a good idea. Let’s go with the other elders as well.” Mu En nodded slightly, his face revealing neither joy nor sorrow.

“But Elder Mu, I…” Xuanzi’s face twitched. His secrets had been almost completely exposed. If he were to shamelessly ask for a disciple again, wouldn’t that be like offering a cold face to a warm backside?

The other elders also showed slight changes in expression.

After all, they have been sitting high in the Sea God Pavilion, above all living beings, for a hundred years. In their eyes, it is enough for juniors like Yan Shaozhe to handle this matter. With their seniority, even the sect leaders would have to bow and scrape before them. Now, they have to do such a humiliating thing, which is really a bit too much for them to do.

"Since you're unwilling, then let's sit back and watch Shrek's glory crumble in our hands," Moon sighed softly.

"Elder Mu, why are you so worried?" Song Yunzhi frowned slightly and said, "That little beast, plus Zhang Lexuan's betrayal of the sect, why are you so worried? Shrek Academy is, after all, one of the top academies on the continent. With my status, they should kneel down to greet me. To lower themselves like this would be beneath them."

"Heh, even now, you still think this is just an ordinary crisis." Moon shook his head.

His expression grew increasingly vacant, and he seemed somewhat powerless.

A bunch of good-for-nothings, who do they think they are? Shrek Academy's current crisis is unprecedented. Any other power wouldn't be so worried, but Shrek will...

To put it bluntly, Shrek Academy has achieved its current prosperity by feeding on the entire original continent, meaning they don't have their own territory.

The Star Luo Empire is based on a vast empire with tens of millions of people and numerous sects of all sizes. Many of these people will flow into the royal family to become protectors or worshippers and serve the empire.

The same applies to Heavenly Souls and Fighting Spirits.

But Shrek Academy is different. Located in the Star Dou Great Forest, at the heart of the Three Kingdoms, Shrek Academy continuously attracts outstanding disciples from various empires based on its accumulated reputation. In essence, who among you is not from the three great empires?

The three great empires once dared not speak out against it, and even if they knew, they could only let Shrek exploit them.

But now it's different.

As the competition was exposed, it became clear that Shrek Academy was treating its own students so harshly, even abusively.

The major sects and factions within the empires will no longer send their best disciples!

The future development trend can only be that the power of the three kingdoms will rise to an unprecedented level, because Xu Jiawei and others are not fools. They will definitely seize the opportunity to ruthlessly rip Shrek out and recruit the geniuses in their own empire into the royal family, which means intercepting Shrek Academy's talent.

They completely divided up the once-exaggerated student body of Shrek.

High-quality students mean that Shrek Academy has the confidence to win the championship in the future, and become the number one in the continent. This number one will also attract the next batch of high-quality students to the academy, which is a positive cycle.

This year's student body is already shockingly poor, but what's even more frightening is that this is just the beginning. Over the next century, the quality of students will continue to decline, making it impossible for them to achieve rankings in major competitions...

Not being able to achieve a ranking means that the quality of students will continue to decline.

Even hundreds of years from now, Shrek Academy might become just an ordinary third-rate academy.

"A bunch of idiots!!!" Moon felt like his blood vessels were about to burst with rage. He forced himself to stand up and coldly surveyed everyone around him: "Anyone who doesn't go can get out of Shrek Academy and be expelled!"

Seeing that Elder Mu was angry, the elders reluctantly accepted this "shameful" task.

P.S.: The next chapter will be released at 1 AM.

Chapter 140 Divine Child, Tang Wutong

Sea God Pavilion.

Top floor.