Among the ten exchange students from the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, besides Ma Rulong and his group, the only others worth mentioning were the remaining three.
Among these three, the one Xu Tianhao paid the most attention to was Ji Juechen.
Yes, it was Ji Juechen.
The reason Ji Juechen participated in the exchange student program was, naturally, because of Xu Tianhao.
As early as two and a half years ago, Xu Tianhao had already made contact with Ji Juechen.
Relying on his own talent and strength, he and Ji Juechen quickly became good friends who shared a mutual respect for each other's abilities.
He was one of the few people outside of the Seven-Person Squad who had a close relationship with Xu Tianhao.
Xu Tianhao had always recognized Ji Juechen's talent and perseverance.
Now that there was an opportunity to go to Shrek, Xu Tianhao naturally wanted Ji Juechen to go to the Golden Tree and give it a try.
If Ji Juechen could gain some special enlightenment or harvest from the Golden Tree, it would definitely be a rare gain for him.
After all, Ji Juechen belonged to the category of people who could practically activate an 'enlightenment cheat'.
As for being poached or anything like that, Xu Tianhao wasn't too worried now.
Because Ji Juechen basically already belonged to his camp; Shrek couldn't poach him even if they wanted to.
Furthermore, to be safe, Xu Tianhao did not let Jing Ziyan go along.
The two were already in a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship. Unless Ji Juechen was truly an ungrateful wolf, he would definitely return.
This served as a form of insurance for Xu Tianhao.
As for the other two, they were Ju Zi and her good friend Ke Ke.
However, because of Xu Tianhao's deliberate intervention and planning in the early years, Ju Zi's life trajectory had long since completely deviated from the original plot.
From beginning to end, she never had the chance to come into contact with the eldest brother, Xu Tianran.
Nor did she, like in the original story, rely on her schemes and methods to climb the social ladder step by step and become Xu Tianran's right-hand woman.
The current Ju Zi was merely an ordinary student at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, cultivating and studying spirit tool knowledge step-by-step.
The plotlines from the original work that shook the world never happened to her, and they never could happen again.
Admittedly, Ju Zi and Ke Ke's Spirit talents could only be considered lower-middle or slightly mediocre in the talent-filled Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, without any particularly stunning performance.
But Ju Zi had always been a meticulous and extremely ambitious person. After learning about the exchange student program between the academy and Shrek,
She tried every possible way to fight for this rare opportunity, running around and working hard to prove herself, eventually successfully squeezing into the exchange student list.
Regarding Ju Zi's actions, Xu Tianhao always maintained an attitude of cold indifference, neither deliberately blocking her nor offering any support.
In his view, whether Ju Zi existed or not had no substantial impact on his overall layout or the future direction of the Sun Moon Empire.
As long as she behaved herself and didn't do anything detrimental to the Sun Moon Empire or disrupt his plans, he wouldn't bother to intervene.
In Xu Tianhao's eyes, Ju Zi had always been an optional, minor character, insignificant.
As for letting Ju Zi become his sister-in-law and marry into the core of the Imperial family as she did in the original work, such a thing was simply impossible under his watch.
In Xu Tianhao's eyes, Ju Zi was an ungrateful person with excessive ambition.
Not directly eliminating her to prevent future trouble was already an act of great mercy.
It was impossible to give her any chance to cling to imperial power or control authority.
As for Ju Zi's so-called war talent and strategic ability, Xu Tianhao snorted in disdain and dismissed them.
The Sun Moon Empire had a vast territory and a large population, with countless geniuses and heroes, and military talents who were both scholarly and martial were everywhere.
Could it be that they would lack someone who knew how to fight and strategize?
This world never lacked talented and capable people; many simply lacked a platform to display their talents.
If they wanted to train excellent generals, the Sun Moon Empire had plenty of candidates. There was no need to waste resources on an ungrateful and morally corrupt person like Ju Zi.
On the other hand, the ten exchange students sent by Shrek Academy to the Sun Moon Empire were basically the same in composition as in the original work.
They were all carefully selected from within Shrek's younger generation who had good talent for spirit tools.
However, because this exchange student program was a full five years earlier than the original timeline, the names of Huo Yuhao and He Caitou did not appear on this batch of Shrek exchange students.
At this time, Huo Yuhao was likely being severely humiliated in the White Tiger Dukes Mansion.
As for why He Caitou did not appear on the exchange student list, the reason was even more realistic.
Firstly, it was because his current Soul Engineer rank and strength were still too low to meet the standard for participating in a cross-border exchange.
Secondly, it was because of his extremely sensitive background; he would never be allowed to set foot in the territory of the Sun Moon Empire.
Whenever he thought of this, Xu Tianhao couldn't help but complain about the plot settings of the original work.
He really couldn't understand what kind of considerations the arrangements in the original work were based on.
He Caitou's real name was Xu He, and he was a descendant of the former Imperial family of the Sun Moon Empire, bearing a deep blood feud.
His identity held an irreconcilable hatred with the current Imperial family of the Empire. For someone with such a sensitive identity and opposing stance,
To actually dare to swagger into the core territory of the Sun Moon Empire.
The key was that he could still be safe and sound, without a scratch?
This was simply the height of absurdity.
What was the essential difference between this and Dai Mubai, the prince of the Star Luo Empire in Douluo Dalu I, rashly running to the core region of the Heaven Dou Empire yet remaining unharmed as if entering an uninhabited land?
One could only say that novels are novels after all, and many realistic logics can be ignored for the sake of plot progression.
But once placed in the real pattern of the continent, such a thing could never happen.
If the current He Caitou really dared to step into the Sun Moon Empire using his status as a Shrek exchange student,
With the Sun Moon Empire's current intelligence capabilities and iron-fisted methods,
There would be a hundred or a thousand ways to make him quietly disappear in the Bright Capital without leaving a single trace.
Now that Emperor Xu Jilong had carried out a bloody reshuffle of killing his brothers, father, and seizing power,
How could he tolerate a hidden danger with an imperial blood feud and extraordinary talent wandering freely under his nose?
If he didn't find out, that would be one thing, but once He Caitou's traces were detected, he would surely be uprooted to eliminate any future trouble, leaving no misfortune behind.
The reason Zhu Di spared Emperor Jianwen was only because Jianwen's heart was already dead, and he had entered the priesthood, no longer having any thoughts of fighting for the throne.
But He Caitou was completely different; not only was his talent amazing and his potential infinite, he was also a top-tier genius with twin spirits.
Once such a person grew up, he would definitely become a major threat to the Sun Moon Empire.
It was just that He Caitou went to Shrek, where a top-tier genius was trained as a genius, but his top-tier Spirit talent was distracted by playing with spirit tools, directly ruining his potential.
One could only say that Shrek was indeed Shrek, forcefully leading a top-tier genius with twin spirits onto the path of a Soul Engineer.
They let him get distracted by researching spirit tools, wasting his own top-tier Spirit talent, and ultimately he was completely ruined, becoming a neither-here-nor-there existence.
If Xu Tianhao were in He Caitou's position, he would definitely fight for everything to firmly grasp the top-tier talent of twin spirits and focus on Spirit Master cultivation, never wasting such a unique advantage.
Precisely because of this, Xu Tianhao had never paid much attention to this exchange student program, which was five years early and had a vastly different roster, nor did he take it to heart.
Therefore, for Xu Tianhao, there was nothing worth noting about this exchange student program.
Playing house with children was one thing, but if he had that time, he might as well practice hard.