Not only Le Zhengen, but the other elders who had come to see their children also warned them in various ways not to do anything unnecessary.
After all, those who could come to this hall had naturally received the Federation's permission. None of them wanted to go against the Federation.
Although Ye Xiaoyuan's tone was cold, was it not also a form of care for his younger relative?
After a long while, Ye Xinglan finally looked up.
"I understand, Uncle."
Ye Xinglan's voice became calm, so calm it was almost hollow. "The Federation has its laws. If Shrek truly did those things, it will face the consequences."
She paused, as if tasting the bitterness in those words.
"However, I want to know the causes, processes, and details of the matter." She looked directly at Ye Xiaoyuan. "I want to know why things developed to this point."
Ye Xiaoyuan looked at her. A flicker of complex emotion passed through his heart. He appreciated this niece's talent and obsession with the sword. Otherwise, he would not have come.
But this child had been too deeply influenced by Shrek.
Sigh. Sending this girl to Shrek at her most rebellious age had been his biggest mistake.
Ye Xiaoyuan took a deep breath and was about to speak when a beam of light shot out from the spirit soul ball in his side pocket.
"Let me handle the rest."
The beam of light coalesced, revealing a strange plant spirit soul. It was about half a meter tall, its main trunk like deep purple black crystal, hard and cold.
Seven clusters of silver white leaves were slender as blades, their edges shimmering with faint light, silently radiating a sharp aura. Most peculiar was its interior. A brilliant silver light vein, like a sealed river of stars, gave the entire sword bamboo a translucent, magnificent, and mysterious appearance.
Starlight Sword Bamboo. A 99,999 year Inherited Spirit Soul created by nine generations of the Ye family's Star God Sword martial arts soul possessors. Originally just an ordinary sword bamboo plant spirit soul, through generation after generation of inheritance, it had transformed into a powerful spirit soul containing star phase power. It was also the responsibility that Ye Xinglan had "rejected" in the past.
This generation, it should have been Ye Xinglan who brought this spirit soul ancestor to the hundred thousand year spirit soul level. But she had chosen to go to Shrek, abandoning that responsibility.
Just as Ye Xinglan saw this, her hollow eyes regained some vitality, looking somewhat at a loss, Starlight Sword Bamboo spoke in human tongue.
At its age, speaking human language was not difficult. Moreover, having spent so many years with humans, learning human language had become instinct.
"In the family, you were a dazzling new star. So you felt pressure, expectations, and various complicated thoughts. At Shrek, you were just one among many talented juniors. Naturally, you did not feel the undercurrent. And Shrek would not tell you."
Starlight Sword Bamboo said quietly. "The Eternal Heaven mentioned just now is only one of the things Shrek has done."
"Although I was just an ordinary plant type spirit beast in the Star Dou Great Forest ten thousand years ago, I still remember that period vividly."
"At that time, Shrek was an important support for the three Douluo kingdoms in resisting the Sun Moon Empire. However, after losing on the frontal battlefield to the Sun Moon Empire, in order to survive, they abandoned their continued support of the three Douluo kingdoms, withdrew from the battlefield, and began to watch from the sidelines."
Starlight Sword Bamboo looked at Ye Xinglan. "Is this different from the glorious Shrek Academy of your ideals? Shrek does not seem to teach this history. After all, it is damaging to their image. Have you ever heard it?"
Ye Xinglan was stunned.
She only knew about the relationship between Shrek and the other three kingdoms ten thousand years ago. The details were rather vague in Shrek's records.
"Although later the Sea God descended, giving Xingluo and the Douluo Empire time to react, and also making Shrek's position special again, do you think Shrek felt at ease?"
Starlight Sword Bamboo did not care about Ye Xinglan's expression. It answered its own question. "The answer is no. From some recently circulating information, I have learned that Shrek is still supporting the Xingluo Continent. I imagine this support began ten thousand years ago. After all, that was the most appropriate timing. Worried about being purged by the Sun Moon Empire, it is not strange that Shrek chose to leave itself a fallback for survival."
"But all these years, Shrek has been enjoying the resources and authority given by the Federation on one hand, while on the other hand, it has been supporting Xingluo with military weapons and spirit souls. You should understand what such behavior means."
"Betrayal." Ye Xinglan squeezed out these two words from her dry throat, her voice as light as a mosquito's whine.
Starlight Sword Bamboo's narration was different from her uncle's cold warnings, which carried family stance and practical considerations. There were no intense emotions, no deliberate persuasion. Only a logical deduction based on facts.
This narrative style instead produced stronger persuasion.
"Yes, betrayal."
Starlight Sword Bamboo's voice remained calm. "From the Federation's perspective, Shrek eats the Federation's food, uses the Federation's resources, trains soul masters who should ultimately serve the Federation, yet continuously delivers technology, powerful weapons, spirit souls, and trained talent to another continent. A continent with which the Federation has historical feuds and potential competitive relations."
"This is equivalent to using one's own left hand to arm an enemy that might one day cut off one's right hand."
"Thus, Shrek's betrayal of the Federation has always existed. The Eternal Heaven is merely the most ruthless betrayal of the Federation by Shrek in all these years, and also the spark that detonates everything."
Starlight Sword Bamboo floated before Ye Xinglan. "I can tell you clearly that there are indeed doubts in the Eternal Heaven incident. It was done by the previous Sea God Pavilion Master, whose whereabouts have been unknown for a hundred years. Anyone can sense the doubts, but that no longer matters."
"Because quite a few Shrek graduates, upon learning that the Eternal Heaven had been stolen, did not choose to immediately notify the Federation. Instead, they chose to conceal it. And the mentality they harbored was exactly the same as yours just now."
"A blind, unreserved trust in Shrek."
Ye Xinglan felt as if struck by lightning. All the color drained from her face in an instant.
Starlight Sword Bamboo ancestor's last sentence turned into lightning, splitting the last trace of confusion and luck in Ye Xinglan's mind.
Duoqing Douluo's silence.
Teacher Shen Yi's euphemistic admonition.
Her uncle's anger at her lack of ambition.
Starlight Sword Bamboo ancestor's words.
At this moment, all the clues were thoroughly connected and illuminated by this ice cold sentence.
"A blind, unreserved trust."
It was not that she had not thought of it. It was that she had subconsciously not wanted to believe it.
Her trust in Shrek had made her turn a blind eye to Duoqing Douluo's silence, had made her twist Teacher Shen Yi's admonition into protection, had made her resistant to her uncle's words.
She had automatically put a filter over Shrek. Any unfavorable evidence was subconsciously filtered, distorted, and had excuses found for it by her brain.
Were those graduates who chose to conceal not exactly like that? They might have once been excellent soldiers and loyal officials. But before the symbol of "Shrek," they chose to trust Shrek, betraying their true duties.
Ye Xinglan felt a bone deep chill, because from this phenomenon, she thought of more, and also understood the unspoken words of Starlight Sword Bamboo.
According to the ancestor, so many long graduated seniors had made the same choice to protect as she had. What did this mean?
It meant that Shrek was perhaps "sick." The way Shrek cultivated people might have been problematic from the start.
Those seniors might have also been passionate youths, with ideals back then. But as time passed, Shrek told and brainwashed them to trust and protect Shrek.
Shrek did not directly tell everyone this idea. Instead, it packaged it with a sense of belonging and a certain word.
And that word, Ye Xinglan seemed to have already thought of it. It was the phrase she had occasionally uttered in recent years, yet was crushed underfoot by Huo Yuhao. "Shrek's glory."
When the academy's interests conflicted with the outside world, the sense of belonging cultivated in academy life made those not sober enough inclined to Shrek. And "protecting Shrek's glory" became the highest maxim for all actions, even beyond right and wrong and the law.
The Shrek she had admired taught her justice, courage, and protection.
But the real Shrek was using another method to tell its children, "Beyond us, there is no justice."
The disillusionment brought by this realization after waking was far more thorough than knowing Shrek had "done wrong."
Because what was wrong was no longer a particular person or a particular deed, but the twisting centripetal force it used to unite people's hearts. It made those who loved it, at critical moments, lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong.
Perhaps this was also one of the fundamental reasons the Federation could not tolerate Shrek.
The Shrek she had longed for perhaps never truly existed. It was only a phantom constructed on her ideals.
The real Shrek, perhaps from the very beginning, carried a heavy historical burden and distorted beliefs, and in the following time, fermented and solidified these negative factors, eventually alienated into a dangerous behemoth.
It seemed as if something shattered in Ye Xinglan's heart. Her hands and feet went cold.
Just then, bamboo leaves landed on her head and floated there, as if gently stroking her hair, bringing her a trace of strength.
"Shrek has never been as glamorous on the surface as it appears. It is just that from your perspective, you did not see it. Some among them knew that this twisted centripetal force was wrong, yet never tried to correct it."
Ye Xinglan instinctively wanted to look up at Starlight Sword Bamboo, but stopped herself.
Back then, she had abandoned her responsibility. She did not know how to speak with this elder.
But feeling that this was not right, Ye Xinglan finally spoke in a hoarse voice, "Ancestor, I am sorry for the past."
"Yes. Recognizing a mistake and correcting it is good."
Starlight Sword Bamboo's voice remained calm, but its flowing starlight warmed somewhat. It did not overly blame her for her past actions, as if that was merely a detour that a child necessarily experiences in the long years of finding themselves.
Ye Xinglan felt the slightly cool comfort on her head gradually disappeared, yet her heart strangely calmed down.
Ye Xiaoyuan watched this scene in a daze.
That was it? This snapped his niece, poisoned by Shrek, back to clarity?
As expected of the spirit soul ancestor their family had inherited for thousands of years, was it not?
Thinking this, Ye Xiaoyuan stepped forward. "Since you have already thought it through, do you still want to go to Shrek?"
Ye Xinglan pressed her lips together and finally shook her head.
"Then come with us." Ye Xiaoyuan breathed a sigh of relief.
"Uncle, Ancestor." Ye Xinglan finally turned her head, her gaze falling on Starlight Sword Bamboo's trunk, her complex eyes filled with guilt.
"Are you really still willing to give me a chance?"
She did not think the family would have waited so many years for her, an heir who had abandoned her responsibility.
Starlight Sword Bamboo smiled and did not answer the question. It only said gently, "Today, we have come to take you home. Xinglan, come home with us. Your home was never Shrek."
This sentence, more than any before, was more direct and also more gently struck the softest place in Ye Xinglan's heart.
The place she had once desperately wanted to stay, regarding as her destination, she had never seen clearly. And when the fantasy shattered and the sojourn eaves collapsed, she suddenly realized that she had always had another place to return to.
Ye Xinglan's eyes suddenly warmed. A sour feeling rose to the tip of her nose.
"Yes."
"It feels like a good ending."
Watching Ye Xinglan leave, Xie Xie, who had completely become a spectator, said.
Although the Shrek matter was quite big, what did it have to do with them?
They were not from Shrek.
And thinking of a certain old lady Douluo, he did not find it strange at all that Shrek had done such things. Some people at Shrek were indeed sick in the head.
Originally, Ye Xinglan had also fallen into the category of "sick" in his mind. Now, it seemed there was a possibility of a cure.
Tang Wulin witnessed Ye Xinglan's departure, raising an eyebrow slightly. "I feel she is going to become stronger."
"I understand this. Do not sword cultivators have a sword heart? Ye Xinglan's sword heart before was basically tied to Shrek's glory, which was completely shattered by Boss Yuhao. Now, she will probably reforging it."
In Xie Xie's view, the Ye family's Inherited Spirit Soul was really powerful, especially the sentence it quoted at the end. "The mentality they harbored was exactly the same as yours just now. A blind, unreserved trust in Shrek."
This was practically a finishing blow, hitting the nail on the head, directly waking Ye Xinglan, and also giving Xie Xie an Enlightening feeling.
He suddenly understood where the root of Shrek's problem lay.
"That should be it. But it seems she forgot her Little Sidekick."
Wang Jinxi looked at Xu Lizhi, who was also talking with his parents. He was staring blankly in the direction Ye Xinglan had left, dazed.
He and the other Shrek students probably had heard what that spirit soul said. He wondered what they were thinking.
"No problem. That little fatty just needs to eat something and he will forget everything. And his parents are here. It is not our place to interfere."
Xu Xiaoyan waved her hand. "Speaking of which, have Yuhao and the others not finished reporting yet?"
"Why do you not look behind you?"
Tang Wulin's gaze was strange.
"Uh."
Xu Xiaoyan turned back in surprise and saw Huo Yuhao and Gu Yuena already standing behind her, silently watching her.
"As a control system battle soul master skilled in spiritual power, having no vigilance at all, not being used to using spiritual power to probe your surroundings, zero points."
Gu Yuena shook her head.
This half disciple was ruined.
Oh well. At least there was another good prospect, Jia Lin. Xiaoyan could just be a mascot.
"Huh? What, was this a test? I do not have that strong spiritual power. How can I possibly constantly probe my surroundings?"
Xu Xiaoyan muttered in protest.
The others smiled but did not argue with her. Xie Xie walked over to Huo Yuhao.
"Boss, you did not see it. That Ye Xinglan actually Changed Her Nature. I thought she would not accept her elder's suggestion.I did not expect such a Sudden Turn."
Huo Yuhao guessed the course of events from their conversation and looked at Xie Xie with a strange expression. "You do not think that if she had refused the Ye family's suggestion, she would have been able to leave here today, do you?"
"Uh, would she not?" Xie Xie scratched his head.
"Since those students' elders were able to come, it means they received the Federation's permission. So naturally, they would not leave their own trouble for the Federation to handle. If she had truly refused, she would have been knocked unconscious and taken away."
Huo Yuhao shook his head.
"Moreover, the area around Shrek City has been sealed off by the Federation. How would she get there?"
In summary, for a student to go to Shrek was pure Wishful Thinking.
The corner of Xie Xie's mouth twitched.
Thinking about it this way, suddenly the scene before did not seem so Warm.
***
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