Compared to Nuoding City, where Chen Ming came from, Suotuo City was a larger main city. It was known as the "Granary of the Balak Kingdom."
In truth, the difference between the two cities was not that great. Purely in terms of grain output, Suotuo City's production might even be lower than Nuoding City's. However, thanks to the Balak Kingdom's own development policies, Suotuo City was indeed far more prosperous in commerce and other areas.
This time, Chen Ming did not ask Dugu Bo to follow him. He only brought Qian Renxue along.
Along the way, Chen Ming calmly walked along the official road. Nothing strange happened. No random nobody came to provoke him, and no bandits jumped out to rob him.
After all, Suotuo City was still a big city. Merchants traveled in and out of the area often. For a city like this, road safety was its lifeline. Even a fool would not block their own source of money.
After arriving in Suotuo City, Chen Ming casually ate something at a tavern. Then, with a few silver spirit coins in hand, he inquired from the waiter about various matters concerning Soto City. Finally, he asked offhandedly about news regarding Shrek.
Compared with proper advanced Spirit Master academies, Shrek was without a doubt a wild school with no bottom line.
But right now, Shrek was not really competing with advanced Spirit Master academies. It was closer to the level of an intermediate Spirit Master academy.
And among intermediate Spirit Master academies, where the teaching quality and teachers were all over the place, Shrek's environment was poor, but its teachers were actually very strong.
If someone wanted to graduate from Shrek and directly enter society, then Shrek would of course be a huge problem.
But if someone only used Shrek as a stepping stone, relying on its experts to obtain the best Spirit Rings they could handle at that stage, then moving on to an advanced academy, Shrek at least counted as passable.
In normal advanced Spirit Master academies, the leaders were usually around the Spirit King level.
For an intermediate Spirit Master academy, having a principal at the Spirit Grand Master or Spirit Elder level was already decent.
Otherwise, Principal Lu from Nuoding Primary Spirit Master Academy would never have been confident that he could raise his academy to intermediate level.
After all, his Spirit Ancestor-level cultivation was already quite high in this field.
To put it in a very strange way, even ten thousand years later, in the era of Soul Land II, among the geniuses who could become Spirit Kings before the age of twenty, many still had purple fifth Spirit Rings.
It was not because they could not endure the soul shock of a ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring.
It was because the experts in their advanced academies could not even bring them to hunt ten-thousand-year spirit beasts.
The Douluo Continent was a fantasy world, yes.
But it was not a world where people compared who was better.
It was a world where people compared who was worse.
Shrek Academy was strange and bad, but in truth, there were plenty of schools even worse than it.
To put it simply, compared with advanced academies, Shrek was a dog.
But among intermediate Spirit Master academies, Shrek was actually one of the better ones.
With some curiosity, Chen Ming followed the address given by the waiter and arrived at a village south of Suotuo City.
There, he saw the so-called Shrek Academy.
Shrek Academy had simply rented a patch of land in a small village, built a few shabby houses, made a fairly flat training ground, and then called itself a Spirit Master academy.
Since it had not yet reached the best time for enrollment, the experts of Shrek Academy were also very relaxed.
The Motionless Bright King, Zhao Wuji, was sitting under a big tree at the village entrance, crunching on a chicken leg. After a few bites, he took a few drinks of wine. He looked extremely comfortable.
This image made Chen Ming think of someone from Shrek ten thousand years later.
Although Zhao Wuji's image was a little similar to Xuan Zi's ten thousand years later, and although Zhao Wuji was far weaker than Xuan Zi, in terms of reliability, Zhao Wuji was much better.
"What are you here for? Are you here to enroll?"
"It's not time yet. Enrollment starts in a few days."
"If you want to enter, you'd better think carefully about whether your talent is good enough. If it isn't, don't waste your time here."
Zhao Wuji glanced at Chen Ming.
He felt that Chen Ming looked a little similar to someone in his memory. But because he was half-drunk, he could not remember who it was.
So he only waved his hand and reminded Chen Ming.
"I already have an academy. I just heard the name Shrek and got curious, so I came to take a look."
"You already have an academy? Ah, fine then. Look all you want. It's not like Shrek has anything shameful to hide."
Zhao Wuji spoke while still half-drunk.
But right after saying it, he suddenly felt something was not quite right.
Yes, Shrek was dirt poor.
Aside from a few houses, it basically had nothing. Things like mimicry training grounds were not even worth dreaming about. As for cultivation notes and experience, those had to be passed down by word of mouth. Treasures? There were none at all.
Even if outsiders looked around, Shrek would not lose anything.
But while Shrek had nothing shameful to show, the key problem was that he was shameful to show.
He, Zhao Wuji, the Motionless Bright King, was still a wanted criminal of Spirit Hall.
Back then, he had clashed with the Strength Clan and accidentally killed the younger brother of Tai Tan, the clan head.
At that time, the Clear Sky Sect and Spirit Hall were still in their honeymoon period, so Zhao Wuji was directly wanted by Spirit Hall and hunted down.
His title, "Motionless Bright King," had also come from that time, when he broke out of the encirclement of sixteen Spirit Hall bishops of the same level by himself.
But what made Zhao Wuji feel worst was not being wanted.
It was that only a few months after he became wanted, the Clear Sky Sect and Spirit Hall fell out. The Strength Clan also became Spirit Hall's enemy.
So he became the last person in Spirit Hall to be wanted because of ties to the Clear Sky Sect.
Just a few months.
Only a few months off, and he would not have been a wanted criminal.
Although the Strength Clan had now been wiped out by Spirit Hall, Zhao Wuji's wanted status still did not seem to have been removed. In theory, he still could not show himself in public.
Thinking of this, Zhao Wuji sobered up a little. He casually wiped his face with his hand, making it look shiny with oil. Then he staggered, step by step, into Shrek Academy.
Chen Ming shrugged when he saw this.
Then he prepared to enter the village and look around.
But before he had taken more than a couple steps, he saw a middle-aged man with a crafty face rushing toward him, eyes shining.
"May I ask, are you Elder Chen, the honorary elder of Spirit Hall?"
The middle-aged man cupped his fists to Chen Ming, his voice filled with excitement.
"That's right."
Chen Ming nodded, his expression a little strange.
"I didn't expect someone here to recognize me."
"To meet Senior here is truly my great fortune."
Although he was far older than Chen Ming, and his cultivation was much higher too, the crafty middle-aged man still called him "Senior" from the heart.
"I am Flender, known in the world as the Four-Eyed Owl. I am an agility-type Spirit Saint, and the dean of Shrek Academy."
"Senior coming to visit Shrek today is truly our honor."
"Come, come, Senior. Please follow me this way."
Flender wore a flattering smile and led Chen Ming into Shrek like a loyal lackey.
...
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